Class . 
 
 BookJA^^ 
 
 Gopyiiglit]^^_ 
 
 COFnUGHT DEPOSET. 
 
■5^' 
 
 / 
 
^'^^ 
 
 F R A N CO I S -X A V I E R MaRTIN 
 
THE 
 
 HISTORY OF LOUISIANA, 
 
 FROM THE EARLIEST PERIOD, 
 
 FRANCOIS-XAVIER MARTIN. 
 
 Hcec igitur formam crescendo mutat et oUm, 
 Iniinfiisi caput orhis erit sic dicere vates.^^ 
 
 —OVID METAM. XV„ 434 and 435. 
 
 MEMOIR OF THE AUTHOR, 
 
 By judge W. W. HOWE, 
 
 (new ORLEANS BAR.) 
 
 TO WHICH IS APFr.SDED 
 
 ANNALS OF LOUISIANA, 
 
 Prom the Close of Martin's History, 1815 ; to the Commencement 
 OF THE Civil War, 1861, 
 
 By JOHN F. CONDON. 
 
 NEW ORLEANS: ^^:5;^^;J^ashi^ 
 JAMES A GRESHAM, Publisher and Bookseller, 
 
 26 CAMP STREET. 
 
 1882. 
 
 3 w , 
 
Entered according to the Act of Congress in the year ldS-2, b;/ 
 
 JAMES A. GEESHAM, 
 
 In the office of the Librarian of Congress, at Wasliington. 
 
 T. H. TiiOMASOx, PiU.N'TEK, New Orleaua. 
 
MEMOIR OF 
 
 FRANOOIS-XAVIER MARTIN. 
 
 The history of Louisiana will always be an interesting chapter in the 
 history of the world. It does not concern merely the area which is now 
 included within the boundaries of the present State ; it embraces of 
 necessity the story of the repeated and persistent attempts of France to 
 found an empire in the new world, which should extend from the mouth 
 of the St. Lawrence across the great Lakes to the mouth of the 
 Mississippi. The Louisiana of the seventeenth century extended from 
 the Alleghanies to the Rocky Mountains, and from the Rio Grande and 
 the Gulf to the dim regions which now constitute British America ; while 
 Canada or New France stretched from the upper Mississippi to the 
 Atlantic Ocean.'^ There have been few plans of colonization more vast, 
 and whatever may be the judgment of the historian upon the policy or 
 the work of France in this bold scheme, there can be little difference of 
 opinion as to the qualities displayed by the Frenchmen who were leaders 
 in the movement. They were certainly cast in the heroic mould. Their 
 voyages and their marches, their gay contempt of danger, their patience 
 under suffering, their cheerful adaptation of means to end, place them 
 easily in the front rank of pioneers. Such men as De Gourges, 
 Champlain, Marquette, Frontenac and Lasalle, do honor to their race. 
 Nor should Iberville and Bienville be omitted from the list, for though 
 born in Canada, they may be credited to France, and it was for her good 
 and glory they lived their laborious days in Louisiana. 
 
 Indeed, it seems well for those of us who have been nurtured on the 
 •English literature of the last three centuries to make now and then some 
 careful study of the lives of the French explorers during the same period, 
 if only to keep our perceptions achromatic respecting the French 
 character. Of course, we do not really think that the French have at all 
 times been given over now to frivolity and now to ferocity. We are not 
 quite sure that their character is chiefly compounded of ape and tiger. 
 Such an opinion would have to be relegated, now-a-days, to the limbo of 
 superstitions. Yet, without doubt, there are many good people of Anglo- 
 Saxon descent who have a vague feeling that a Frenchman has always 
 
Viii MEMOIR OF 
 
 been, comparatively, a poor creature, a fop, a fribble, destitute of true 
 earnestness of character, and quite beyond the reach of saving grace, 
 whether of the political or the theological sort. For such an inadequate 
 estimate of a great nation there can be no better corrective than a study 
 of the story of Louisiana. When this story is diligently considered, it 
 will be seen that beneath the superficial errors and follies of France are 
 found and found abundantly those elemental virtues of courage, tenacity, 
 self-denial, and keen intelligence, which have made her great in the past, 
 and will make her great in the future. 
 
 Ten years ago it was said by many that France was ruined ; and for 
 some, there seemed to be a kind of satisfaction in the thought. Yet, in 
 July of the present year, the editor of the Fortnightly Review says of her, 
 in view of the adjournment of her legislature : 
 
 " The expiring parliament has remitted taxes amounting to over eleven 
 millions sterling, redeemed a milliard of debt, devoted £60,000,000 to 
 public works — spending over the latter £1,600,000 more per annum than 
 the Empire — and closes its accounts with a surplus of two millions 
 sterling. France has regained her place among the nations. Even the 
 deplorable Tunis expedition proved that she dare transgress with a high 
 hand. While absorbing Tunis, she has annexed Tahiti, and is extending 
 her influence in Eastern and Western Africa and the Further East. The 
 war against Clericalism, marked as it has been by many unfortunate 
 features, seems to have provoked no perceptible reaction, while it gratified 
 the odium anti-theologicum of the most energetic Republicans. Education 
 has been made free, compulsory, and secular. Steps have been taken to 
 shorten the period of military service. Order has been maintained 
 without the sacrifice of liberty, and the peasants have learned to identify 
 the Republic with prosperity and peace." 
 
 Such results seem surprising. They need surprise no one who is 
 familiar with the story of the French in America during the sixteenth, 
 seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. 
 
 11. 
 
 Judge Martin's History of Louisiana was originally published in the 
 year 1827. It has long been out of print, and for some time it has been 
 difficult to obtain even a single copy. In republishing the work, it has 
 been thought proper to preface it with some details of the life of its 
 author. 
 
 Fran^ois-Xavier Martin was born in Marseilles, in France, on the 17th 
 of March, 1762, and his boyhood was passed in that busy and cosmopolitan 
 seaport. His family seem to have been plain and quiet people, from 
 whom he derived, as his sole inheritance, a rugged physique, a keen 
 intelligence, and a robust will. So far as we may judge, he seems to have 
 
FRANgOIS-XAVIER MARTIN. IX 
 
 been in many respects such a solid and serious youth as was Jules Grevy, 
 now President of the French Republic. He must have received some 
 early education ; but it was too brief for much exactitude or finish ; for 
 at the age of eighteen years, he left Marseilles for the island of Martinique, 
 and never afterwards returned to the place of his birth, except for a brief 
 visit near the close of his life. At this time Martinique was a French colony, 
 famous, then as now, for producing considerable quantities of sugar, coffee 
 and logwood, and an inordinate amount of rum. Young Martin appears 
 to have gone thither to engage in some kind of mercantile business, and 
 was not very successful ; for in the last years of the American Revolution 
 he had come to this countr}', landing at Nevvbern, North Carolina. 
 
 It is said that he volunteered in the Continental Army, but his military 
 career was short. Tradition relates that being on outpost duty, 'one day, 
 he came rushing in with the report that the eneni}^ was at hand. His 
 regiment turned out to meet the foe and found instead of the fiery coats 
 of the British, a row of red flannel shirts hung out to dry. The fact was that 
 the young scout was painfully near-sighted, and his vision was so defective 
 that he was entirely unfit for military service. He must have returned 
 at once to Newbern, for at the close of the Revolution we find him there, 
 endeavoring to keep soul and. body together b}'^ teaching French. 
 
 Such limited employment could not long satisfy his active and 
 ambitious disposition. He proposed to himself to be a printer ; and 
 thereafter to be whatever a printer might become. He boldly applied for 
 emploj'^ment as a practical printer. " Can you set type ? " was of course 
 the first question addressed to the applicant, who had never set a type in 
 his life. " Without doubt, I can," replied Martin, believing, we must 
 presume, that a man of sense and determination need not be daunted by 
 merely mechanical difficulties, but ought to be guided by the rule that 
 " what man has done, man may do." He was immediately employed, 
 and such were his ingenuity and keenness of observation, that the foreman 
 of the establishment, though he may have scolded him now and then, for 
 an error, never discovered but that his journeyman had previously learned 
 the trade. In after life, the Chief Justice used to tell this story with the 
 same gusto as that which is sometimes displayed by a bishop in relating 
 his college pranks. 
 
 He soon after established a newspaper of his own, which he was not 
 ashamed to peddle, newsboy fashion, not only in Newbern, but in the 
 adjoining counties ; and at the same time he published almanacs, spelling- 
 books, and translations from the French. But he could not rest content 
 with work like this. He studied law, at leisure moments, and in the year 
 1789, being then twenty-seven years of age, he was admitted to the bar of 
 North Carolina. He soon took position — not as a brilliant advocate — for 
 he had neither the taste nor the qualities which make the brilliant 
 
X MEMOIR OF 
 
 advocate ; but as a student of laws and of jurisprudence who was destined 
 to become a jurist. 
 
 On the occasion of a visit of President Washington to North Carolina, 
 about this time, Mr. Martin was one of a committee appointed to receive 
 that distinguished man. Mr. Gayarre says that this was one of the events 
 of Martin's life of which he always loved to talk. 
 
 " When Washington, whom he had never seen before, showed himself 
 to his admiring eyes, in a coach and four, with that majestic bearing 
 which is attributed to kings, and which made that illustrious individual 
 look like the very incarnation of intensified aristocracy, the young French- 
 man, who had been dreaming of Cincinnatus with spade and plough, and 
 dirt-stained, hard-fisted hands, was rather disconcerted. The committee 
 conducted this Louis Fourteenth of republicanism to his apartments ; 
 but, before entering them, Washington said with a smile to those who 
 reverently surrounded him : ' Gentlemen, I am in the habit of attending 
 to the comfort of my horses before thinking of my own : please, therefore, 
 be so kind as to lead me to the stables.' And to the stables the founder 
 of an empire went with a measured and august step, not assumed, but 
 prescribed to him by nature. With placid dignity he patted his horses, 
 and gave the minutest directions to his groom, much to the edification of 
 the astonished committee." * 
 
 Martin was a man whose industry could not be appeased by any single 
 employment. Moreover, he Avas fond of money as well as of fame, as we 
 shall have occasion to notice more especially hereafter. While practicing 
 law he continued to carry on business as a printer, and began to busy 
 himself with the composition and publication of books. Among these 
 may be mentioned a collection of the Statutes of the Parliament of 
 England in force in the State of North Carolina, published according to a 
 resolve of the General Assembly, at Newborn, from the Editor's Press, 
 1792 ; a Treatise on the Powers and Duties of a Sheriff, according to the ■ 
 laws of North Carolina ; and a Treatise on Executors. 
 
 In 1802, he published a translation of Pothier on Obligations, a book 
 for w^hich he had a profound respect ; and at this time so complete was 
 his skill as translator and type setter, that in executing the work he used 
 no manuscript, but rendered the French directly into English type in the 
 composing stick. 
 
 In 1804, he published a revision of the Statutes of North Carolina, and 
 some three years after issued a second edition. The copy to be found in 
 the Law Library of New Orleans is a stout quarto, two volumes in one, 
 with an appendix, which brings the work down to 1807. It is printed by the 
 firm of Martin & Ogden, Newbern. Between the revision proper and the 
 
 * Pernando.de Lemos : p. 245. 
 
FRANgOIS-XAVIER MARTIN. xi 
 
 appendix is a page, which shows that the senior partner of the house 
 while on jurisprudence bent, yet had a frugal mind. This page is not 
 wasted by being left blank, but is discreetly filled with a list of " Books 
 printed and for Sale at this Office," and in which we find not only 
 Martin's Sheriff, and Martin on Executors, but a list of novels which, it 
 is to be hoped, amused and instructed the literary people of North 
 Carolina in that day, such as "Lord Rivers, " "The Female Foundling, " 
 " Delaval," and so on. There is even announced, " The Rural Philos- 
 opher, a Poem." Who the poet was is a mystery which remains unrevealed. 
 It is quite certain that it was not Martin himself. 
 
 Those who visit the Land of the Sky, and breathe the pleasant air of 
 Buncombe County, might l)e interested to know, that as appears by this 
 volume, the county was established in 1791, and included the larger part 
 of western North Carolina, extending from the head of "Swannanoe 
 Creek " to the Tennessee line on the west, and to South Carolina on the 
 south. It was a magnificent domain, for scenery at least, and the 
 member who insisted at every turn on sa3ang something "for Buncombe," 
 had a large and interesting subject. 
 
 In 1806, Mr. Martin was elected and served for one term as a member 
 of the Legislature. 
 
 His researches into the statutes of North Carolina suggested to him a 
 collection of materials for a history of that State, which he published some 
 years later, chiefly in the form of annals. 
 
 In this busy and useful method, he passed, in North Carolina, some 
 twenty-eight years of his life. The youth who had come to Newbern, a 
 forlorn and friendless foreigner, had grown to be a man of mature years 
 and assured position. He had wasted no time. He had become a proficient 
 in the common law and in the laws of the United States, and had not neg- 
 lected the j urisprudence of Rome and of his native country. He had learned 
 to express himself with force, if not with perfect purity of idiom. He 
 had acquired a wide knowledge of history. He had attained the age of 
 about forty-seven years, and had, with an economy like that of a French 
 peasant, laid up a modest competence. To some men it might have 
 seemed that the work of life was about completed, and that it was nearly 
 time for rest. For Martin, life had just begun. His work thus far had 
 been provisional and preparatory. He Avas to live and labor for nearly 
 forty years longer, and was to use his acquirements and talent in a very 
 different field. He had exhausted the possibilities of the little town 
 of Newbern, and the same spirit of intelligent enterprise which led him 
 from Marseilles to Martinique, and from Martinique to North Carolina, 
 prompted him to leave North Carolina for newer fields. 
 
XU MEMOIR OF 
 
 III. 
 
 James Madison had just been inaugurated President of the United 
 States, a judge was needed in the territory of Mississippi, and the new 
 President offered the place to Mr. Martin. He accepted the position and 
 filled it about one year, when he was transferred, on the 21st of March, 
 1810, to the bench of the Superior Court of the territory of Orleans, and 
 this brought him to the city of New Orleans. He found himself once 
 more in a strange city, a place most singular in its peculiarities of situation 
 and of histor}', but one for whose advantage he was peculiarly fitted to 
 work. 
 
 The territory of Orleans then embraced the present limits of the State 
 of Louisiana. * Its previous history had been such as to produce a remark- 
 able complexity in its population, its society and its laws. States, like 
 individuals, are largely a result of race tendencies and of the modifying 
 power of events and circumstances. In these respects few modern States 
 have been subjected to such peculiar and varied influences as Louisiana ; 
 and this fact should be borne in mind, even in any estimate of its present 
 condition, and any comparison with the other parts of our Union. Its 
 principal river was opened to the world in a peculiar way. For more than 
 a century the Spanish navigated the waters of the Gulf without seeming 
 aware that the largest river in the world was pouring into it. For nearly 
 two centuries after the discovery of Aixierica, the great stream was not 
 entered from its mouth for commercial purposes, and it was not until that 
 heroic pioneer, Lasalle, in the year 1682, picked out his perilous path from 
 Canada, by the way of Lake Michigan and the Illinois river, and 
 descended the Mississippi to the Gulf of Mexico, that the world began to 
 dimly conjecture the capacity of this vast natural highway, and the 
 possibilities of the valley through which it flows. 
 
 Lasalle was exploring under the patronage of Louis Fourteenth and 
 the Prince of Conti. He gave the name of Louisiana to the region he 
 passed through, while in after years the name of his other patron was 
 given to one of the streets of New Orleans. 
 
 The first important settlement resulting from these discoveries was 
 made at Biloxi, on the northern shore of the Gulf, and now in the State 
 of Mississippi. It was founded by Iberville in 1699, and was the chief 
 town until 1702, when Bienville moved the headquarters to the west bank 
 of the Mobile River. The soil of Biloxi is exceptionally sterile, and the 
 settlers seem to have depended mainly on supplies from France or St. 
 Domingo. The French government, so distant and necessarily sq 
 ignorant of the true interests of the colony seemed intent on the search 
 
 * This is understood to be the legal eflfect of the Act of Consress of March 26, 180 1 ; and it 
 is not deemed uecessary to discuss here the question of the " Florida Parishes." 
 
FRANgOIS-XAVIER MARTIN. XIU 
 
 for gold and pearls. " The wool of buffaloes," says Martin, "was pointed 
 out to the colonial officers as the future staple commodity of the country, 
 and they were directed to have a number of these animals penned and 
 tamed." To those who know Biloxi, there is something delicious in tl e 
 idea of building up a colonj-- there on pearls and " buffalo wool." 
 
 On the 26th September, 1712, the entire commerce of Louisiana, with a 
 considerable control in its government, was granted by charter to Anthony 
 Crozat, an eminent French merchant. The territory is described in this 
 charter as that " possessed by the crown, between Old and New Mexico 
 and Carolina and all the settlements, port, roads and rivers therein — 
 principally the port and road of Dauphine Island, formerly called 
 Massacre Island, the river St. Louis, previously .called the Mississippi, 
 from the sea to the Illinois, the river St. Philip, before called Missouri, 
 the river St. Jerome, before called the Wabash, with all the lands, lakes 
 and rivers mediately or immediately flowing into any part of the river St. 
 Louis or Mississippi." 
 
 The territory thus described " is to be and remain included under the 
 style of the government of Louisiana, and to be a dependence of the 
 government of New France, to which it is to be subordinate." * 
 
 By another provision of this charter " the laws, edicts and ordinances of 
 the realm and the custom of Paris were extended to Louisiana." f 
 
 The grant to Crozat, so magnificent on paper, proved of little use or 
 value to him, and of little benefit to the colony, and in 1718 he surrendered 
 the privilege. 
 
 In the same year, on the 6th September, the charter of the Western or 
 Mississippi Company was registered in the Parliament of Paris. The 
 history of this enormous scheme, with which John Law was so closely 
 connected, is well known. The exclusive commerce of Louisiana was 
 granted to it for twenty-five years, and a monopoly of the beaver trade of 
 Canada, together with other extraordinary privileges, and it entered at 
 once on its new domains. Bienville was re-appointed governor a second 
 time. He had become satisfied that the chief city of the colony should 
 
 * A young French engineer, Franquelin, hydrographer to the king at Quebec, made, in 
 1 684, an interesting map, which is still preserved in Paris in the DepOt des cartes of the Marine. 
 
 " It exhibits the political divisions of the continent, as the French then understood them ; 
 that is to say, all the regions drained by streams flowing into the St. Lawrence and the Mis- 
 sissippi are claimed as belonging to France, and this vast domain is separated into two grand 
 divisions. La Nouvelle France and La Louisiane. The boundary line of the former, New 
 France, is drawn from the Penobscot to the southern extremity of Lake Champlain, and 
 thence to the Mohawk, which it crosses a little above Schenectady in order to make French 
 subjects of the Mohawk Indians. Thence it passes by the sources of the Susquehanna and the 
 Alleghany along the southern shore of Lake Erie, across southern Michigan, whence it 
 sweeps northwestward to the sources of the Mississippi. Louisiana includes tlie entire valley 
 of the Mississippi and the Ohio, besides the whole of Texas. The Spanish province of Florida 
 comprises the peninsula and the country east of Mobile drained by streams flowing into the 
 Gulf; wliile Carolina, Virginia and the other English provinces form a narrow strip between 
 the Alleghanies and the Atlantic." — Parkraan: Discovery of the Great West, p. 411. 
 
 t Martin : Vol. I., Chap. viii. 
 
Xiv MEMOIR OF 
 
 be established on the Mississippi, and so, in 1718, New Orleans was 
 founded. Its location was plainly determined by the fact that it lies 
 between the river and Lake Pontchartrain, with the Bayou St. John 
 forming a natural connection which extends a large portion of the way 
 from the lake to the Mississippi. And even at this early day there was a 
 plan of constructing jetties at the mouth of the great river, and so making 
 New Orleans the deep water port of the Gulf. It was about this time 
 that the engineer, Pauger, reported a plan for removing the bar at the 
 mouth of one of the Passes, by a system substantial!)^ the same as that so 
 successfully executed recently, under the Act of Congress, by Captain 
 James B. Eads.* It was a mooted question for some time, however, 
 whether New Orleans, Manchac, or Natchez should be the colonial capital ; 
 but in 1722 Bienville had his way, and removed the seat of government 
 to New Orleans. 
 
 . In the same year, the place was visited by the Jesuit traveller, 
 Charlevoix, who speaks of it as " this famous town which has been named 
 New Orleans," having been so called in compliment to the Regent Duke 
 who was at the head of the French government during the minority of 
 Louis Fifteenth. It was famous, probably, at that time only, because the 
 speculators of the Western Company had puffed it into a premature 
 reputation. Charlevoix hin^self was grievousl}' disappointed with the 
 town, and says in a melancholy way : 
 
 " It consists really of one hundred cabins disposed with little regularity, 
 a large wooden warehouse, two or three dwellings that would be no 
 ornament to a French village, and the half of a sorry warehouse which 
 they were pleased to lend to the Lord," — for a church — " but of which he 
 had scarcely taken possession, when it was proposed to turn him out to 
 lodge under a tent." 
 
 He goes on, nevertheless, to make the prediction, that " this wild and 
 dreary place, still almost covered with woods and reeds, will one day be 
 an opulent city and the metropolis of a great and rich colony." 
 
 The Western Company possessed and controlled Louisiana some 
 fourteen years, when, finding the principality of little value, it surrendered 
 it in January, 1732. The system which thus came to an end was essen- 
 tiall}^ vicious, yet the supply of means to the colony was advantageous, 
 and " it cannot be denied," says Martin, " that while Louisiana was part 
 of the dominion of France, it never prospered but during the fourteen 
 years of the company's privilege." f 
 
 In 1732, Le Page Du Pratz describes Ncav Orleans in these words : 
 
 *' In the middle of the city is the Place d' Amies," — now Jackson 
 
 * Martin : Vol. I., CLap. ix. 
 t Martin : Vol. I., Chap. ix. 
 
FRAXgOIS-XAVIER MARTIN. XV 
 
 Square. " Midway of the rear of the square is the parish church dedicated 
 to Saint Louis, where the reverend fathers, the Capuchins, officiate. 
 Their residence is on the left of the church, on the right are the prison 
 and guard house. The two sides of the square are occupied by two sets 
 of barracks. It is entirely open on the side next the river. All the 
 streets are regularly laid out in length and width, cross each other at right 
 angles, and divide the city into sixty-six sc^uares, eleven in length along 
 the river, and six in depth." 
 
 In 1763, occurred an event which left a deep impression on the history 
 of Louisiana. On the third of November of that year, a secret treaty 
 was signed at Paris, by which France ceded to Spain all that portion of 
 Louisiana which lay west of the Mississippi, together with the city of 
 New Orleans, " and the island on which it stands." The war between 
 England, France and Spain was terminated by the treaty of Paris, in 
 February, 1764. By the terms of this treaty, the boundary between the 
 French and British possessions in North America was fixed by a line 
 drawn along the middle of the river Mississippi, from its source to the 
 river Iberville, and from thence by a line in the middle of that stream and 
 lakes Maurepas and Pontchartrain to the sea. France ceded to Great 
 Britain the river and port of Mobile and everything she had possessed on 
 the left bank of the Mississippi, except the +own of New Orleans and the 
 island on which it stood. As all that part of Louisiana not thus ceded to 
 Great Britain had been already transferred to Spain, it followed that 
 France had now parted with the last inch of soil she held on the 
 continent of North America. 
 
 The French inhabitants of the colony were astonished and shocked 
 when they found themselves transferred to Spanish domination. Some of 
 them were even so rash as to organize in resistance to the cession ; and 
 finall}'', in 1766, even went so far^as to oTder away the Spanish Governor, 
 Antonio de UUoa. But the power of Spain, though moving with proverbial 
 slowness, was roused at last, and in 1769, Alexander O'Reilly, the 
 commandant of a large Spanish force, arrived and reduced the province to 
 actual possession. The leaders in the movement against Ulloa, to the 
 number of five, were tried, convicted and shot. Another was killed in a 
 struggle with his guards. Six others were sentenced to imprisonment, 
 and from that time ''order reigned." 
 
 The colony grew slowly from this time until the administration of 
 Baron de Carondelet, but under his wise management, from 1792 to 1797, 
 marked improvements were made. The streets began to be lighted ; fire 
 companies were organized ; the Canal Carondelet, connecting the rear of 
 the city with the Bayou St. John and so with the Lake, was constructed ; 
 the defenses of the city were strengthened and a militia organized. In 
 1794, the first newspaper, the Moniteur, was established. 
 
XVI MEMOIR OF 
 
 On the 1st October, 1800, a treaty was concluded between France and 
 Spain by which the latter promised to restore to France the province of 
 Louisiana. France, however, did not receive formal possession until the 
 30th of November, 1803, when in the presence of the French and Spanish 
 officers, the Spanish flag was lowered, the tri-color hoisted, and a formal 
 delivery made to the French Commissioners. 
 
 ■ But France did not remain long in possession. The cession to her had 
 been procured by Napoleon, and he did not deem it politiic to retainvsuch 
 a province. While, therefore, it Avas being thus formally transferred, it 
 had alread}--, in April, 1803, been ceded to the United States, and on the 
 20th December, 1803, th'e United States took possession. 
 
 In 1804, the territory of Orleans was established by act of Congress. 
 The rest of the immense purchase was at first erected into the district of 
 Louisiana ; then, in 1805, into the territory of Louisiana, and then in 
 1812, into the territory of Missouri. So Missouri and Louisiana parted 
 company in the juridical way, the former to receive eventually the 
 common law as fundamental, the latter to continue its adherence to the 
 civil law in many important matters. 
 
 At the time of the transfer to the United States, the population of New 
 Orleans was about eight thousand. At the time of Judge Martin's 
 arrival it was over seventeen thousand. 
 
 IV. 
 
 It requires but a glance at the foregoing facts to reveal the singular 
 situation of this new American territory. It was not American in history 
 or even in name. It had been governed, both by French and Spanish, 
 with ideas and by methods which were ki many respects medieval. In 
 1754, a soldier who had been guilty of mutiny at Cat Island was " sawed 
 in two parts. He was placed alive in a kind of coffin , to the middle of 
 which two sergeants applied a whip saw." * In 1778, a royal schedule 
 was published in New Orleans, forbidding the reading of Robertson's 
 History of America, and ordering all copies which might be found to be 
 destroyed.-f In 1785, an attempt was made to introduce the Inquisition 
 into the province, and "a clergyman of New Orleans received a commission 
 of commissary of the Holy Office in Louisiana." Governor Miro did not 
 approve of the Inquisition, and so one night while the commissary " was 
 peacefully slumbering, he was disturbed by an officer heading eighteen 
 grenadiers, who lodged him on board of a vessel, which at break of day 
 
 * Martin : Vol. I., Chap. xiii. 
 t lb. Vol. I., Chap. iii. 
 
- FRANgOIS-XAVIER MARTIN. XVll 
 
 sailed with him for Spain." * In 1786, Miro issued a set of police regulations 
 in the form of a proclamation, giving minute directions as to demeanor 
 in church, dress, passports, late hours and similar subjects, f 
 
 Naturally, with such a state of affairs, came corruption of all kinds. In 
 a dispatch of May 24, 1803, Laussat, the French Colonial Prefect, declares 
 that justice was then administered "worse than in Turkey." In the same 
 year, Daniel Clark, then the Consul of the United States at New Orleans, 
 and whose name has since become so famous in the Gaines cases, wrote 
 to the Department of State at Washington, with bitter complaints of the 
 delays of justice and the venality of all officials. I . ^ 
 
 With the American domination came new ideas, new complications, 
 new elements, good and bad. The matter of law and the administration 
 of justice demanded immediate attention in what was to be one of the 
 United States. The early colonists had brought with them the Jurispru- 
 dence of France. The charter of Crozat, had, as we have seen, specially 
 extended to Louisiana the laws, edicts and ordinances of the realm and 
 the Custom of Paris. When the Spanish took possession, O'Reilly caused a 
 code of instructions to be published, in reference to practice, according to 
 the laws of Castile and the Indies, to which was annexed an abridgment 
 of the criminal laws, and some directions in regard to wills. " From that 
 period," says Judge Martin, " it is believed that the laws of Spain became 
 the sole guide of the tribunals in their decisions. As these laws and 
 those of France proceed from the same origin as the Roman code, and there 
 is great similarity in, their dispositions in regard to matrimonial rights, 
 testaments and successions, the transition was not perceived before it 
 became complete, and very little inconvenience resulted from it."§ 
 
 The acts of Congress in regard to the territory of Orleans provided for 
 trial by jury, for habeas corpus, and for the prohibition of cruel and 
 unusual punishments, thus pointing to the Common Law as the proper 
 basis of jurisprudence in criminal matters in every American State : 
 and the territorial legislature laid down this basis in a statute which is 
 still in force. \\ 
 
 In 1808, a civil code of law was for the first time adopted by a legislature 
 in Louisiana. It was based to a large extent on a draft of the Code 
 Napoleon ; was prepared by Messrs. Brown and Moreau Lislet ; and was 
 entitled, " A digest of the civil laws now in force in the territory of 
 Orleans, with alterations. and amendments adapted to the present form 
 of government." It did not repeal anterior laws, except so far as they 
 
 * Martin : Vol. II., Chap. v. 
 
 t Ibid. 
 
 t Ga.varre's Hist, of La.: Vol. I., p. 584. 
 
 § Martin : Vol. II., Chap. i. 
 
 II Revised Statutes of Louisiana, 1870, $976. 
 
XVlll MEMOIR OF 
 
 ■were in conflict with its provisions. In practice, then, it was used " as 
 an incomplete digest of existing statutes which still retained their empire, 
 and their exceptions and modifications were held to aflfect several clauses 
 by which former principles were absolutely stated. Thus the people 
 found a deco}', in what was held out as a beacon. The Fuero Viejo, 
 Fuero Juezgo, Partidas, Recopilationes, Leyes de las Indias, Autos 
 Accordados and Royal Schedules remained parts of the written law of 
 the territory, when not repealed expressly or by necessary implication. 
 Of these musty laws copies were extremely rare ; a complete collection 
 was in the hands of no one ; and of ver}^ many of them not a single copy 
 existed in the province. To explain them, Spanish commentators were 
 consulted, and the corpus juris civilis and its own commentators were 
 resorted to ; and to eke out any deficiency, the lawj^ers who came from 
 France or Hispaniola, read Pothier, d'Aguesseau, Dumoulin, etc. 
 
 " Courts of justice were furnished with interpreters of the French, 
 Spanish and English languages. These translated the evidence and the 
 charge of the court when necessary, but not the arguments of the counsel. 
 The case was often opened in the English language, and then the jurymen 
 who did not understand the counsel, were indulged with leave to withdraw 
 from the box into the gallery. The defense, being in French, they were 
 recalled, and the indulgence shown to them was enjoyed by their 
 companions who were strangers to that language. All went together into 
 the jury room, each contending the argument he had listened to was 
 conclusive ; and they finally agreed on a verdict in the best manner they 
 could." * 
 
 It is easy to perceive that Judge Martin coming in 1810 to be a member 
 of the Superior Court of the territory, had before him a formidable task. 
 There were conflicts of decision to be reconciled, anomalies to be reduced 
 to order, a jurisprudence, in fact, to be created. How well he performed 
 his part of the task, with what patience, clear sightedness and vigor, is 
 matter of history. He has been called the Mansfield of the southwest. 
 Such comparisons are little worth. They are always defective, and 
 sometimes very deceptive. In many respects, Mansfield and Martin were 
 entirely unlike. Yet, in some respects, their work was similar. In the 
 department of what may be called constructive jurisprudence, in the 
 skilful blending of the best principles of the English and the Roman 
 law, in the apt illustration of one by the other, a resemblance may be 
 traced. 
 
 Martin's companions on the territorial bench, at the time he was 
 appointed, were George Matthews, the presiding judge, and John Lewis. 
 
 * Martin : Vol. II., Chap. xiv. 
 
FRANgOIS-XAVIER MARTIN. XIX 
 
 V. 
 
 By act of Congress of 1811, the inhabitants of the territory were 
 authorized to form a constitution, with a view to the estaljlishment of a 
 8tate government. The debates in the national House of Representatives 
 on tliis bill were long and entertaining. Josiah Quincy, of Massachusetts, 
 opi^osed the measure with something like ferocity; denied the right to 
 admit the proposed new State, and declared that "if this bill passes, the 
 bonds of the Union are virtualh' dissolved ; that the States which compose 
 it are free from their moral obligations, and that, as it will be the right of 
 all, so it will be the duty of some, definitely to prepare for a separation, 
 amicably if they can, violently if they must." Mr. Quincy was here 
 interrupted and called to order by Mr. Poindexter, the delegate from 
 Mississippi ; but repeated his remarks, committed them to writing, and 
 handed the paper to the clerk of the House. * 
 
 That a Quincy, of Massachusetts, should maintain the right of secession 
 on the floor of Congress, and should be called to order by a Poindexter 
 of Mississippi, is certainly a fact which may be classed among the 
 curiosities of history and politics. 
 
 The bill having been passed, however, the Constitution of 1812 was 
 framed and adopted, and in April of that year, the Congress passed an act 
 for admission of the State to the Union, by the name of Louisiana. The 
 territorial courts ceased to exist, and Martin was no longer a judge. He 
 was, however, appointed Attorney-General of the new State, and so acted 
 during the exciting events of the war with England, and until February, 
 1815, when he was appointed a judge of the Supreme Court of the State. 
 At this time he was fifty-three years of age. He seemed to take a new 
 lease of life, for he sat upon that bench until 1846, a period of thirty-one 
 years. During this lengthy term, he was not content with a formal 
 discharge of his official duties. He did not permit himself to shrink and 
 Avither away into a clever clerk, attending to what was barely necessar}^ 
 and nothing more. On the contrary, while his duties as judge were' 
 performed with entire strictness, his labors in adjacent fields of intellectual 
 work were immense. 
 
 He prepared and published reports of the Supreme Court of the 
 territory of Orleans from 1809 to 1812, in two volumes. He began this 
 work while he was still on the bench of that Court. The title page 
 contains a characteristic quotation, which indicated his own views as to 
 the necessity of reports in a community where none had ever existed. It 
 is an extract from instructions given by the Empress of Russia to a 
 (■ommission created for the purpose of framing a code of law, and is as 
 follows : 
 
 • Gayarr6: Vol. III., p. 250. 
 
XX MEMOIR OF 
 
 " Ces tribunaux donnent des decisions ; elles doivent etre conservees, 
 elles doivent etre apprises, pour que Ton juge aujourd'hui comme on y a 
 juge hier, et que la propriete et la vie des citoyens y soient assurees et 
 fixes comme la constitution memes de I'etat." 
 
 The preface to the first volume is dated at New Orleans, October 30th, 
 1811, and expresses the views of the reporter with regard to the Court of 
 which he was a member, the duties of a judge, and the unusual condition 
 of jurisprudence in the territory. He says : 
 
 " No one could more earnestly deplore, for no one more distressingly felt, 
 the inconveniences of our present judicial system. From the smallness 
 of the number of the judges of the Superior Court, the remoteness of the 
 places where it sits and the multiplicity of business, it has become indis- 
 pensable to allow a quorum to consist of a single judge who often finds 
 himself compelled, alone and unaided, to determine the most intricate and 
 important questions, both of law and fact, in cases of greater magnitude 
 as to the object in dispute than are generally known in the State courts 
 — while from the jurisprudence of this newly acquired territory, possessed 
 at different periods by different nations, a number of foreign laws are to. 
 be examined and compared, and their compatibility with the general 
 constitution and laws ascertained — an arduous task anywhere, but rendered 
 extremely so here, from the scarcity of works of foreign jurists. Add to 
 this, that the distress naturally attending his delicate condition is not a 
 little increased by the dreadful reflection that if it should be his misfortune 
 to form an incorrect conclusion, there is no earthly tribunal in which the 
 consequences of his error may be redressed or lessened." 
 
 The case of Detournion vs. Dormenon, reported in this volume, is rather 
 a curious one. The Parish Judge of Louisiana has always been a subject 
 of more or less derision. Thus, a well known advocate in New Orleans 
 once said to the Supreme Court, "May it please your honors, it is a 
 settled rule that every man is presumed to know the law, except, perhaps, 
 a Parish Judge." The defendant Dormenon was Judge of the Parish of 
 Point Coupee. He seems to have been a peppery person, for in 1809, 
 Governor Claiborne was obliged to make a journey to that Parish to allay 
 a feud between Dormenon and the Abbe Lespinasse, the Parish priest, 
 which had set the whole community by the ears. * However this may 
 be, it appears that, according to the practice which then prevailed, 
 Dormenon was acting as an ex-officio Sheriff, and while he was engaged in 
 selling, at auction, property which he had seized upon an execution issued 
 by himself, conceived that Detournion had insulted him. He, thereupon, 
 issued an attachment and fined and imprisoned Detournion. The latter 
 paid the fine and costs, and brought this action to recover the money thus 
 
 Gayarr^ : Vol. III., p. 209. 
 
FRANgOIS-XAVIER MARTIX. XXI 
 
 paid and damages for the imprisonment. The court held that the alleged 
 insult ollered to the defendant while acting as a Sheriff could not be 
 considered as a contempt of his authority as a judge, and therefore gave 
 judgment for the plaintiff. 
 
 As a study in the genesis of anecdotes, it may be noted that in the New 
 Orleans Monthly Review for February, 1875, the facts of the foregoing 
 case ajjpear in the following form, as handed down doubtless by tradition, 
 and slightly embellished by some one who had a talent for epigram : 
 
 Under the old system the Parish Judge also acted as auctioneer, in 
 selling the property of successions. It fell out once, in a well known 
 sugar parish, that while the judge was knocking down some goods and 
 chattels of a deceased person, a neighbor in the crowd behaved with some 
 levity. The magisterial heart was fired. 
 
 " See, here, Sam Cooley, if you don't behave yourself, I will commit you 
 for contempt of court." 
 
 " But, Judge, you are not in court now. There is no such offense as 
 contempt of auction or an auctioneer." 
 
 ''AVhat, sir — what, sir? Why, I'll have you know, sir, that I'm an 
 object of contempt at all times and in all places ! " * 
 
 The territorial court having come to an end, Judge Martin continued 
 his work as reporter, by publishing the decisions of the Supreme Court of 
 the State, which make eighteen volumes, from the third of Martin, old 
 series, to the eighth of Martin, new series, inclusive, the last of these 
 volumes being issued in the year 1830. 
 
 In 1817, his fame had so far reached his native place, that he was 
 elected a member of the Academy of Marseilles. In 1841, he was made 
 Doctor of Laws, by Harvard College. 
 
 In 1827, he published the History of Louisiana, which is now reprinted, f 
 
 So, in addition to the usual work of a lawyer and judge, we find that he 
 prepared and published some thirty volumes of law and history. 
 
 * It is said that, some years before the late war, the Probate Judge in New Orleans 
 comnjitted a citizen for contempt under circumstances which displayed equally curious ideas 
 of law and personal rights. The officer in question was walking downChartres street clothed 
 in white linen, and happened to step on a loose brick in the pavement under which the water 
 had settled — a thing sometimes called a " dandy trap." The water squirted up and bespattered 
 his honor from head to foot. Rushing on to his court room, he took his seat, sent for the shop 
 keeper in front of whose house the accident had occurred, and punished him for contempt of 
 court. All parties were of Latin descent, and this extraordinary exercise of arbitrary power 
 does not seem to have had any sequel. 
 
 t It should be noted that the references in this sketch to Martin's History are necessarily 
 to the old edition, which appeared in two volumes. In the present republication the two 
 volumes are published in one. 
 
 ^l^\^0 Ck 
 
 'J 
 
XXU MEMOIR OF 
 
 VI. 
 
 The Code of 1808 was revised in 1825. In the same year a Code of 
 Practice was promulgated, which is a model of brevity and simplicity. 
 There is a theory afloat that the American system of code practice was 
 invented in New York, about the year 1848, but an examination of the 
 Louisiana Code of Practice, will satisfy the reader that the greater share 
 of credit, in this matter, belongs to its compilers, who were Edwar<l 
 Livingston, Pierre Derbigny and Moreau Lislet. 
 
 By an act of 1828, all the civil laws in force before the promulgation of 
 the Codes with a single exception, were declared abrogated. It was decided, 
 however, that the Roman, Spanish and French civil law, which the 
 legislature thus repealed, were the positive written or statute laws of those 
 nations and of Louisiana, and only such as Avere introductory of a new 
 rule, and not those which were merely declaratory ; and that the legislature 
 did not intend to abrogate those principles of law which had been 
 established or settled by the decisions of courts of justice. * 
 
 The result is that the Codes of Louisiana — which have been again 
 amended in 1870 for the purpose chiefly of omitting matters rendered 
 obsolete by the late war — are interpreted, when necessary, firstly, by 
 the decisions of her courts, and secondly, in the absence of such, by the 
 principles of the civil law, so far as they can be applied to the subject 
 matter and to modern life. 
 
 No code of commerce or of evidence has ever been adopted in 
 Louisiana, and it has been settled that in commercial matters we will 
 follow the law merchant of England, and of the other States of the Union ; f 
 and that in matters of evidence, we will be governed by English and 
 American decisions, so far as not modified by statute or code. J 
 
 When it is remembered that in the federal courts we have the admiralty 
 and chancery in full operation, it will be seen that the strata are numerous, 
 which have been from time to time deposited in the legal alluvion which 
 lies about the mouth of the Mississippi, and that a New Orleans lawyer 
 may be expected to profess an acquaintance with a good many different 
 things. 
 
 It will be noticed also, that during the lengthy period in which Martin' 
 sat on the bench, the questions Avhich came tip for decision were, for 
 these reasons, of unusual difficulty and importance. For not only were 
 the complications of colonial jurisprudence to be untangled, but in 
 addition to these came the problems of the territorial government, of the 
 Code of 1808, of the relations between the civil laAV and the American 
 
 * Reynolds vs. Swain : 13 Louisiana, 193. 
 
 t McDonogh vs. Millaudon : 5 Louisiana, 403. 
 
 i Drauguet vs. Prudliorauie : 3 Louifjiana, 86. 
 
FRAN(;OIS-XAVIER MARTIN. Xxiii 
 
 system, of the relations between the federal and State power, of the 
 Constitution of 1812, and of the Code of 1825. 
 
 The Supreme Court of Louisiana, from 1821 to 1833, w'as certainly one 
 of the ablest courts of last resort in the United States, and its decisions 
 have been cited with respect in other countries. During the period here 
 referred to, it was composed of George Matthews, Franyois-Xavier Martin, 
 and Alexander Porter. 
 
 Judge Matthews was born near Staunton, Virginia, in the year 1774, 
 while his father was absent on an expedition against the Indians, which 
 terminated in the battle of the Great Kanawaha. His father afterwards 
 served with credit in the war of the Revolution, and attained the rank of 
 Colonel. In 1785, Colonel Matthews removed with his family to Georgia, 
 and afterwards became Governor of that State. George was sent back to 
 Virginia to be educated, and after completing his academical course, 
 returned to Georgia, and studied law. In 1805, he w^as appointed by 
 President Jefferson a judge of the territory of Mississippi. In 1806, he 
 was appointed to a similar position in the territory of Orleans. On the 
 formation of the State of Louisiana, he was appointed by Governor 
 Claiborne, a judge of the Supreme Court, and in July, 1813, he became 
 presiding judge and so continued until his death, in 1836. He was a 
 man of excellent sense, of sweet temper, and of that broad ph3'^sique 
 which is such an important foundation for a judicial temperament. 
 Judge Watts, in a note to his memorial discourse on Matthew^s, printed 
 in the tenth of the Louisiana Reports, says : 
 
 " In his personal appearance, Judge Matthews was of the middle 
 stature and constitutionalh^ disposed to corpulence, which even much 
 exercise could not repress. His countenance was always placid, with a 
 lurking expression of humor, indicating playfulness of mind and a 
 disposition to repartee, and many excellent ones are told of him." 
 
 It is a matter of regret that Watts should not have reported some of 
 these excellent jokes, for this allusion, standing alone, is rather tantalizing. 
 But one story of the kind, so far as can now be ascertained, still survives, 
 which Mr. Christian Roselius used to tell wdth his well know^n hearty 
 laugh. It seems that Matthews was not only like Wolsey, a man of an 
 " unbounded stomach," but he was, what some stout men are not, a great 
 eater. A friend said to him one day : 
 
 " I am told, Judge, that you are the man who first complained that a 
 turkey Avas an inconvenient bird for human food, being too much for 
 one and not enough for two." 
 
 " Impossible," replied Matthews, " I could not have said that, for t 
 never thought a turkey too much for one." 
 
 Alexander Porter was born near Omagh, County Tyrone, Ireland, in the 
 year 1786. In 1801, he emigrated to the United States and settled iu 
 
 3* 
 
XXIV MEMOIR OF 
 
 Nashville, Tennessee, where he was admitted to the har, in 1807. In 
 1810, he removed to Louisiana, and settled on the Teche, where it appears 
 that he was not received with entire hospitality. The story goes, at least, 
 that at one plantation, where he stopped as a wayfarer, asking for a glass 
 of water, the proprietor set dogs on him and drove him off the place. 
 Porter had a fine, poetic revenge, however. In a short time, it was 
 discovered that he was the best lawyer in that region. In 1812, the 
 reports show that he was engaged as counsel in every important case in 
 the district. And, not long after, the same planter who had behaved 
 towards him in such a rufBanh^ style, Avas obliged to come to him with 
 questions that involved an estate. Porter caused him to make an abject 
 apology, and then, it is said, by way of further expiation, to pay a 
 royal fee. 
 
 It is related that on another occasion, when Porter represented a 
 plaintiff on the trial of a hotly contested suit, he felt it his duty, in 
 summing up the cause, to make a terrible onslaught on the defendant. 
 After the trial was over, the defendant, who Avas a rustic giant, met him 
 in the courthouse square and threatened to break his head. Porter 
 looked up at the angry person with the utmost serenity, and said : 
 
 "Did you ever see a man throw a stone at a dog?" 
 
 "Yes." 
 
 '* And did you ever see the dog bite at the stone? " 
 
 "Yes." 
 
 " And don't you think it would be better, in such a case, for the dog to 
 bite at the man that threw the stone?" 
 
 "Yes." 
 
 " Well, sir, you are the dog, and I am the stone. If you wish to bite 
 any one, go find the man' that threw the stone." 
 
 And, thereupon, the puzzled party defendant turned away and was 
 seen no more. 
 
 Judge Porter, was not only scholar and lawyer, but also an enthusiastic 
 planter and lover of fine stock. He imported several thoroughbred horses, 
 one of whom, Hark Forward, was a brother of Harkaway, a famous 
 winner of cups and plates. 
 
 Porter was appointed a member of the Supreme Court in 1821, and 
 resigned in 1833, having been elected to the Senate of the United States. 
 He died in 1844. During the time he sat upon the bench, the court was 
 thus composed of elements most curiousl}'', and, it would seem, most 
 fortunately combined. The presiding judge was a Virginia gentleman, 
 well-bred, amiable, full of that common sense, which is, unhappily, not so 
 common on the bench as its name might indicate. Next came Martin, 
 the Frenchman, with his immense industry, his unusual experience, his 
 varied knowledge of history and law. And to these, Porter added still 
 
FRANgOIS-XAVIER MARTIN. XXV 
 
 another element, the presence of an Irish scholar, learned, eloquent, full 
 of insight, gifts and graces. 
 
 From the death of Matthews, Martin was presiding judge. Judge 
 Bullard, who was one of his associates, says, that in this position, "in his 
 deportment towards the bar, he rarely, if ever, evinced anything like 
 petulance or censoriousness, while at the same time, on every proper 
 occasion, he uttered rather the censure of the law than of the Court upon 
 such persons, whether parties or advocates, as merited reproof." * 
 
 This is a high compliment. It too often happens that a judge, in a 
 spirit of impatience or vanity, treats with arrogance or even insolence the 
 counsel or the parties who appear before -him. It is said that Thurlow 
 ruined the business and broke the heart of a deserving solicitor by an 
 unjust attack upon him from the bench. Such conduct is most reprehen- 
 sible, not only because it may inflict a wanton injury, but because the 
 lawyer when thus attacked, is attacked with his hands tied, and cannot 
 well respond in kind. A judge might, at least, if he happen to feel 
 dyspeptic or truculent, remember the school boy rule to " take one of 
 your size," and not assail those whom the law, for reasons of public 
 policy merely, has placed, for the time being, in a defenseless position. 
 We may be sure that Martin never violated the rules of an intelligent 
 generosity in this regard. 
 
 Yet there are limits to human endurance, and on one occasion, as 
 tradition relates, the massive patience of Martin gave way. He was 
 growing old, and was in the habit sometimes of thinking aloud. A young 
 lawyer, fresh from the Emerald Isle, was making his maiden speech 
 before the court. It was a vile mass of rubbish and bombast. One of 
 the associates whispered to his chief: 
 
 " I don't know what this young man means by all this ranting?" 
 
 " He don't know himself," shouted Martin, " let him sit down — let the 
 other lawyer speak." 
 
 And so the ambitious youth sat down. 
 
 VII. 
 
 When Martin published his History of Louisiana, in 1827, he seems to 
 have considered himself an old man, because he was sixty-five. He 
 says of himself, in the preface, what he probably would not have wished 
 any one else to say : 
 
 "Age has crept on -him, and the decay of his constitution has 
 given more than one warning that if the sheets now committed to the 
 
 • 1 Ann, viii. 
 
XXVI MEMOIR OF 
 
 press were longer withhoklen, the work would probably be a posthumous 
 one." 
 
 Yet he Avas destined to labor for nineteen years longer. His imper- 
 fections of vision increased under his incessant and protracted Avork, and 
 in 1838, he became quite blind. For all practical purposes, this blindness 
 was total during the last eight years of his judicial life. Yet he continued 
 to sit on the bench and to discharge the duties of his office with a 
 regularity that was surprising. His last reported opinion was delivered 
 in February, 1846, in which it was held that an inspector of elections, 
 who has illegally and maliciously prevented one from voting, will be 
 responsible to such person in damages.* 
 
 In the 3^ear 1844, Judge Martin made a brief visit to France, in the 
 hope of obtaining some relief for his eyes — a hope which was entirely 
 fruitless. Before his departure, he was entertained with a dinner, given 
 to him by the New Orleans bar, at the City Hotel, at which a brief speech 
 composed by him, was read by Judge Morphy. 
 
 In March, 1846, in consequence of the adoption of a new State 
 Constitution, the Court of which he was a member, ceased to exist, and he 
 was thus retired from the bench. By reason of strength, his days had 
 become four score and four, and there was little left for him to do in this 
 world. For him, the pathetic question of the poet, " What can an old 
 man do, but die ? " was but a natural one. On the 10th of December, 
 1846, the end came. On the 12th, the usual proceedings were had in the 
 Supreme Court. The deceased was buried in the St. Louis Cemetery, 
 and a shaft of granite marks the grave. Its inscriptions were placed 
 upon it by some of his friends of French descent, and" briefly sum up 
 the chronology of his life, as follows : 
 
 FRAxgois-XAViER Martin : ne a Marseille, 17 Mars, 1762, mort a la 
 Nouvelle Orleans le 10 Decembre 1846. Membre de la chambre de I'etat 
 de la Caroline du Nord 1806. Juge de la Cour du Territoire du Missis- 
 sippi 1809. Juge de la Cour Superieure du Territoire d'Orleans 1810. 
 Juge de la Cour Supreme de I'etat de la Louisiane pendant 31 ans, du 
 1 Fevrier 1815 au 18 Mars 1846. Membre associe etranger de I'Academie 
 de Marseille 1817. Docteur de I'Academie de Harvard 1841, 
 
 VIII. 
 
 In personal appearance, Martin was rather below the medium height, 
 with a large head, a Roman nose, and a thick neck. The portrait which 
 accompanies this history, was taken when he was about sixty years old. 
 
 * Bridge vs. Oakey : 12 Rob. 638. 
 
FRAXgOIS-XAVIEIl MARTIN. XXVU 
 
 As he further advanced in years and began to lose his eyesight, he became 
 a somewhat uncouth, and to those who knew him, a pathetic figure. Mr. 
 Gayarre, writing from personal recollection, says of his appearance at this 
 time : 
 
 " He walked along the streets of New Orleans with his eyes closed, and 
 with tottering and hesitating steps, feeling his wa}'- like a blind man, 
 absorbed in thought, probably lost in utter darkness, or at best, guiding 
 himself only by the twilight of his imperfect vision, running one of his 
 hands abstractedly over the side walls of the houses, mechanically and 
 unconsciously twirling round with his index the iron catches intended 
 to hold fast the outside shutters of windows and doors, muttering to 
 himself half-formed sentences, and frequently ejaculating in a dolorous 
 undertone, ' poor me ! poor me ! ' He was always shabbily, and sometimes 
 even dirtily dressed, for he could not see, with his own eyes, what was the 
 condition of his clothes, which, after all, he had a profound aversion to 
 renew, being of an extremely penurious disposition. He had to trust to 
 his black housekeeper for information as to the necessities of his wardrobe, 
 and any one who knows the carelessness of that incorrigibly shiftless 
 race, can be at no loss to form for himself an idea of the peculiar physi- 
 ognomy of the Judge's apparel. His uncouth and odd figure used to 
 attract the attention of the juvenile blackguards of the city, w^ho loved to 
 serve him with tricks, which the old gentleman bore with philosophic 
 serenity, for he never permitted his displeasure to go beyond a slight 
 expression of disgust, manifested by something which partook of the 
 snort and the grunt. He never recognized any of his acquaintances or 
 friends, who passed by him in the streets in perfect incognito. Frequently, 
 on addressing him, they had to name themselves, when he did not know 
 them by the sound of their voice. Everywhere, and invariably. Judge 
 Martin kept his eyes closed, and very few, I believe, ever caught a glimpse 
 of their color. 
 
 "His conversation was argumentative, and he was fond, after the 
 Socratic method, of proceeding by questions, which he accompanied with 
 a grunt. Question after question, logically linked together, each one more 
 tehrewd and insidious than the other, and leading to some conclusion, to 
 which he vigorously drove the person interrogated, whilst he emitted 
 grunt after grunt, was the sum total of his colloquial powers. He was 
 not destitute of humor, and relished a joke. * * * On such 
 occasions, when pleased, he showed his satisfactiori by laughing after a 
 manner peculiar to himself. He threw his heavy and massive head 
 back, opened his mouth wide, without uttering a sound, and drew up to 
 his bushy eyebrows the deep wrinkles of his face. There m\is something 
 striking in that silent laugh. When he met with a knotty point of law 
 which perplexed him, his habit was to drop in, as it were, in a friendly 
 
XXViii MEMOIR OF 
 
 •way, at the offices of those lawyers for whom he had the most consider- 
 ation, and who were not interested in the case he had under advisement. 
 After a few minutes of desultory conversation, he would slyly approach 
 the subject which he had in mind. ' Well, counsellor,' he would say^^ 
 ' suppose such a point, what would be your views on it ? ' Whatever 
 opinion the counsellor might express, the judge would take the other 
 side, raise objection after objection, insinuate plausible doubts, puzzle the 
 counsellor, and after having pumped his antagonist dry, would leave his 
 office with his usual grunts and with ejaculations of ' poor me, poor me,' 
 as soon as he was again on the street and thought himself alone. Thus he 
 went round repeating the same scene, until he was satisfied with the result 
 of his investigations. When, after having duly weighed a case, he found 
 that the arguments for and against were equally balanced, it is said that 
 he wrote two judgments adverse to each other, which he would read to 
 his associates, and between which he desired them to decide, as he Avas 
 ready to adopt either of them as correct. It is related that, one day, he 
 had thus prepared two judgments, one for the plaintiff and the other for 
 the defendant. The decision for the defendant was adopted by the Court. 
 As chance would have it, the two judgments got mixed up, and Judge 
 jyiartin, to the dismay of the Court, delivered from the bench, the one 
 which was in favor of the plaintiff, and which had been rejected. The 
 defendant, either from his own impulse, or from a hint which he received, 
 made an application for a rehearing, which was granted, and the error 
 was rectified." * 
 
 Martin never married. Some said he could not afford such an extrava- 
 gance as a wife. Absorbed in the study of law and the practice of 
 parsimony, it does not appear that the thought of domestic happiness 
 ever entered his imagination, and much less his heart. 
 
 Lord Campbell relates the story of an English barrister, who, having 
 been married one morning, and finding the day to hang heavily on hie 
 hands, went to his office and began to study an intricate case. He became 
 so interested in his investigations that he studied all night, and not until 
 the next morning did he remember that he had a bride at home. It is 
 likely that Martin would have made a husband as little flattering and 
 attentive as the hero of this anecdote. He was an inveterate recluse, and 
 the presence of a wife would only have been annoying to him, and his 
 habits would surely have annoyed her. 
 
 It is matter of regret that his private life seems so cheerless, when 
 compared with that of other men who have been great in his profession. 
 It might be pleasant to record that, like Coke, he married in due time, 
 and reared up ten children in the ways of wisdom ; though, perhaps, the 
 
 * Fernando de Lemos : p. 247, 
 
FRAN^OIS-XAVIER MARTIN. XXIX 
 
 reader might also recall the additional fact that Coke tried matriraonr 
 a second time and had a termagant for his second spouse, who led 
 him a dreadful life. But yet, it would be agreeable if one could detail 
 some romance of his early life, like that of John Scott, afterwards Lord 
 Eldon, who, at the age of twenty, before he had begun to study law, and 
 while romance was possible, fell in love with the beautiful Bessy Surt6es, 
 eloped with her by the help of a real rope ladder, married her in Scotland, 
 and strange to say never repented of the rash act, but loved her as well 
 when she was sixty-three, and Countess of Eldon, as when she was Bessy, 
 the belle of Newcastle, 
 
 We do not find in his life any such incident as that which occurred to 
 Mansfield, when he cast the longing eye of youth upon a young lady, 
 whose father was not fond of young lawyers, but proceeded to marry her 
 off to a booby squire with broad acres and broad face. 
 
 Nothing of the sort glistens in Martin's life. He seems to have needed 
 no companion or consort. The truth is that he had the temperament 
 and the habits of a miser. His frugality was innate, and this instinctive 
 trait, developed by the struggles of his early poverty assumed pro- 
 portions which might have furnished a subject for the pen of Moliere, 
 or a supplemental scene for Les Cloches de Corneville. His painful 
 economy in North Carolina enabled him to bring to New Orleans 
 a considerable sum. From that time, he received an average salary of 
 about five thousand dollars a year, besides the proceeds of his reports 
 and other books. He lived, so to speak, on nothing, and heaped up his 
 savings with compound interest. For a long time his household in New 
 Orleans consisted of an old slave and his wife, and a body servant and 
 factotum, named Tom. "The judge had said to the cook and her 
 husband : ' I intend to be a generous master ; I will permit you a room, 
 but you must feed yourselves and supply my table with decent fare, 
 besides cleaning the house in which we all reside, and which is yours as 
 well as mine. This is all I require of you. The rest of the time is yours 
 and whatever money you may make and save after having nourished me 
 and kept my clothes in a good state of repair, is your absolute property.' 
 Such was the peculiar idiosyncrasy of the judge, that I am convinced he 
 thought himself very generous on that occasion. It may be easily 
 imagined what fare he had and what an infinite variety of stains and 
 patches adorned his garments, which really were a nondescript curiosity. 
 Fortunately he had the digestive powers of an ostrich. * * When he 
 dined out, he swallowed with indiscriminate voracity all that was piled 
 upon his plate. His apartment was never swept, his scanty furniture 
 never dusted, and the spider festooned his ceilings with its airy drapery, 
 serenely conscious, I presume, of reaching old age in undisturbed 
 repose. From this den the miser would come out, year after year, to 
 
XXX MEMOIR OF 
 
 ascend the, bench in the hall of justice, where he was transformed into an 
 impartial, high-minded and inflexible judge, shedding on the subject 
 before him the rays of his luminous, but cold intellect, and pouring the 
 treasures of his vast erudition with a profusion and appropriateness which 
 won the confidence and excited the admiration of an appreciative bar. 
 It was no longer Shylock but Daniel come to judgment. 
 
 " Tom, the body servant of Martin, was as much of a character in his 
 way, as the personage he waited upon, and was well known throughout 
 the State, for he never failed to accompany the judge on his annual 
 circuit. The slave looked upon his master as a sort of helpless grown-up 
 baby of whom he had to take care, and for whose safety and welfare 
 he was accountable to the State, of which that master, as he proudly 
 knew, was one of the highest dignitaries. Tom very naturally came to' 
 the conclusion that, notwithstanding the color of his skin, he was a man 
 of much importance, and even assumed authority over the great personage 
 whom he considered as his ward. For instance, when at home, where 
 Tom had full sway, the judge rose from his seat, Tom would sometimes 
 say : ' Where are you going, sir ? ' 
 
 " ' I am going to take a walk.' 
 
 *' ' What ! without consulting me? Don't you know it's raining? ' — or — 
 'Don't you know you've walked enough to day ? sit down, sir, sit down.' 
 
 *' And taking his master by the shoulder, Tom would gently force 
 him back to his seat. 
 
 " The judge was overheard once saying to his faithful companion in a 
 hotel where he had stopped : 
 
 " ' Tom, have I dined to-day ? " ' 
 
 "'What?' replied Tom in a scolding tone. 'What a question, sir. 
 Are you getting clear out of your mind ? Don't you recollect you ate a 
 whole duck ? ' 
 
 " ' Oh, very well then, all right.' 
 
 " One day, Tom said to him, ' I want a whip for our buggy? ' 
 
 " ' Well, Tom, if you want a whip, buy a whip, of course. I do not see 
 any objection to it.' 
 
 " After awhile, Tom came to him, whip in hand. 
 
 " ' Master,' he said, ' I want a dollar? ' 
 
 " ' A dollar from me. Monstrous. What for? On what tenable ground 
 do you establish your petition?' 
 
 " ' To pay for the whip.' 
 
 '" Why, Tom, I thought you were a man of sense. Did you not buy 
 the whip for your own accommodation? ' 
 
 " ' I bought it for your buggy, sir.' 
 
 "'My buggy! Our buggy, you mean. You called it our buggy, 
 
FRAXrOIS-XAVIER MARTIN. XXXI 
 
 yoiirpclf. Don't you ride in it? Tush ! Don't trouble me any more 
 about it.' 
 
 " Tom might have replied : Master, if we are in partnership you ought 
 at least to pay for one-lialf of the whip. He might have had other points 
 to urge, but did not think of them, and failed to argue his master into 
 recognizing the justice of his claim. Besides, opinionated and conceited 
 as he was, there Avas one subject on which he never hazarded a conflict, 
 which was — anything bordering on the law — anything concerning legal 
 rights or claims. ' I can rule the old man as my master,' Tom would 
 say, ' but as judge, it is no go. He's too mighty awful on the law. He 
 can't be beaten there b}^ anybody.' 
 
 " This eccentric black man possessed a good deal of sense and a good 
 deal of humor. Judge Martin, being once on a judicial tour through the 
 State, was occupying the same room with one of his associates on the 
 bench, who was an Irishman by birth, and a gentleman of fine abilities, 
 a scholar and a wit. * Tom, who was in attendance on them, now and 
 then had a word to put in with all the freedom of speech of a privileged 
 servant. 
 
 '" Tom, Tom,' said the judge, ' where did you get the expression you 
 have just used? Have you not been with me long enough to learn pure 
 English? Do 3'ou intend to disgrace me? ' 
 
 " ' I beg pardon, master,' replied Tom. ' Have the goodness to excuse 
 me. If I talk broken English, it is due to my having lately kept bad 
 company,' and he glanced with a mischievous smile on his thick lips at 
 the Irish gentleman, who relished the joke and gave it circulation by 
 repeating it. 
 
 '' Tom thought himself very learned in the law, although, as I have said, 
 
 it was the only subject on which he never ventured to enter into a conflict 
 
 with his master ; and was frequently heard expounding it with the most 
 
 comical gravity to his ebony friends, for whom his word had indisputable 
 
 authority. Poor Tom ! He died in a distant part of the State where he 
 
 had followed his master, who left him there when taken sick as, he could 
 
 not spare time to wait for his recovery. The tavern-keeper, at whose house 
 
 he had departed from this world, knowing the peculiar relations which 
 
 existed between Tom and the judge, had him decently buried, and sent 
 
 to the latter a bill for twenty dollars for the cost of the funeral. The 
 
 judge broke out into the fiercest grunts he had ever been heard to emit, 
 
 and refused to pay the bill, because the expenses had been unauthorized 
 
 and excessive ; and one dollar, which he tendered, was, he said, all 
 
 that could be required for the burying of a negro. The landlord sued the 
 
 judge in the parish were Tom had died ; but the judge excepted to the 
 4* 
 
 ' Porter. 
 
XXXll MEMOIR OF 
 
 jurisdiction of the court on the ground of his being domiciliated in the 
 parish of Orleans. The plea was sustained, and the plaintiff was thrown 
 out of court with costs. Pitiful human nature ! What shades and lights 
 there are in the character of a man ! And must they not be faithfully 
 though regretfuU}' reproduced, to give a correct knowledge of the indi- 
 vidual to be portrayed, and to adorn a tale, or point a moral? " * 
 
 It appears that in a solitary moment of weakness, Martin once loaned 
 a brother jurist the sum of one thousand dollars. It Avas not repaid 
 when promised, and the lender was in a dreadful state of anxiety about 
 the matter. Finally, a bright idea struck him. He would marry his 
 debtor to a lady of fortune. In due time, he found a person answering to 
 that description, in a way. She was a widow up on Red river. He 
 reported his " find " to his impecunious friend, as follows : 
 
 " My dear C , I have found you a wife. She is healthy and sober, 
 
 and she owns three thousand turkeys !" 
 
 Strange to relate, the borrower was not fascinated by the widow and 
 her numerous fowls, and the match never came off. Whether Martin 
 ever recovered his money does not appear. Probably not. 
 
 Some years before his death, the judge sent for a brother, Avho came 
 over from France and took up his abode in New Orleans. This brother, 
 Paul Barthelemy Martin, was somewhat younger, though between sixty 
 and seventy years of age. But he was a younger brother still to the 
 imagination of the judge, who always called him by the aflfectionate 
 diminutive of Mimi. Mimi was not so excessively frugal, and tried to 
 introduce a little comfort into the home of the chief justice, and even 
 went so far as to insist upon having some decent table claret to enliven 
 the dinner. It goes without saying that the judge groaned in spirit at 
 such Avild extravagance as wine at twenty-five dollars the cask, but Mimi 
 carried his point. 
 
 IX. 
 
 Judge Martin's will was written in 1844, in the olographic form, on a 
 sheet of coarse foolscap, in English, and with a certain common law 
 flavor, as if in his extreme old age, he was mentally recurring to the 
 studies of his earlier life. A fac-simile is to be annexed to this sketch, 
 but it maybe a convenience to the reader to have it presented in ordinary 
 type. It is as follows : 
 
 " I institute my brother, Paul Barthelemy Martin, heir to my whole 
 estate, real and personal, and my testamentary executor and detainor of my 
 estate. In case of his death, absence or disability, I name my friend and 
 
 * Fcruaudo de Lemos : p. 249. 
 
FKAXgOIS-XAVIER 5IARTIX. XXxiii 
 
 colleague, Edward Simon, my testamentary executor and detainor of my 
 estate. New Orleans, this twenty-first day of May, eighteen hundred and 
 forty-four. F.-X. Martin.'' 
 
 It would seem that a man who had been profoundly versed in law for 
 some sixty years, might make a will which no one would dispute ; and 
 that after having himself been advocate or judge in so many lawsuits, his 
 bones might rest undisturbed by any din of forensic warfare over his 
 grave. 
 
 If he had died in poverty, as many good lawyers and judges have done, 
 the result might have been different from what it proved to be ; but he 
 died rich. His estate was inventoried at $396,841.17, and it is likely that 
 its full value was about a half million. 
 
 The will above copied was proved and ordered to be executed, and Paul 
 B. Martin entered into possession of the estate. A few weeks after, the 
 State of Louisiana commenced its suit against him, alleging that he had 
 caused himself to be recognized as executor under a pretended olographic 
 will of Franyois-Xavier Martin, dated 21st May, 1844, and had taken 
 possession of his estate. That the said pretended olographic willwas void 
 and of no effect, for this, that when it was made, Frangois-Xavier Martin 
 was physically incapable, on account of blindness, of making an olographic 
 will. That the estate of the deceased (who on this theory died intestate) 
 fell to heirs domiciliated out of the United States, viz : in France, and 
 was, therefore, subject to a tax of ten per cent, by the Statute of 1842 ; 
 and the State, therefore, demanded that the executor, P. B. Martin, be 
 adjudged to pay up this tax amounting to the sum of $39,684.11. The 
 State by a supplemental petition further alleged, that for the illegal 
 purpose of depriving the State of this ten per cent., the deceased had 
 bequeathed all his property to his brother, P. B. Martin, a resident of 
 New Orleans, with a secret understanding and agreement that he, Paul, 
 was to hold it as a resident, and so evade the State tax on estates going 
 to non-residents, and yet, that eventually the property should go to these 
 non-resident relatives in France ; that this agreement, and the will made 
 in view of it, were illegal and contrary to public policy and order, and 
 therefore void. 
 
 In short, the State claimed two things : 
 
 1. That the will was void as a legal and physical impossibility. 
 
 2. If it was not void for these reasons, it was void as an attempted 
 fraud on the fiscal rights of the State. 
 
 The suit was defended and the court below gave judgment in favor of 
 the State, but the defendant appealed, and the questions, both of fiict 
 and law, came up before the Supreme Court at the June term, 1847, in the 
 tribunal where Judge Martin had presided so long. 
 
XXXIV MEMOIR OF 
 
 A great deal of testimony had been taken ; and among other witnesses, 
 Judge BuHard, who had been long associate on the bench with the 
 deceased, had been called. He stated that Judge Martin wrote an opinion 
 in 1834, at Baton Rouge, at which time his sight was quite dim, and he 
 wrote further than the paper and on the table, so that when the clerk 
 came to examine the opinion, a part was on paper and a part Avritten on 
 the table. That since 1836, he had never seen him write more than to 
 sign his name. That it was necessary in all cases where he had to sign 
 his name, to place a pen in his hand and direct him Avhere to sign. It 
 was not necessary to hold his hand. He sometimes signed his name 
 well. He could not tell if he had ink in his pen or not. He could not 
 read what he had written, nor had he read anything since 1836, or at 
 latest, since 1838. Being shown the will of Judge Martin, witness said 
 the testator could not have read it ; he was totally blind in 1844, when he 
 went to France on a visit; hut itis ivritten in his handwriting: believes the 
 testator could have Avritten the will by means of bars to confine the edges 
 of the paper, or other mechanical means, or by feeling the edges, but 
 thinks he required assistance to take his pen, and get the ink. ^yitness 
 was present when the will was Opened. It was folded in the form of a 
 letter. Thinks that the testator could have folded the will by feeling, but 
 does not know about the sealing. The testator told witness on one or 
 two occasions, when they had cases before them growing out of this ten 
 per cent, tax, that it might be easily evaded. Has no recollection of 
 Judge Martin's ever having revealed to him the manner in Avhich it might 
 be evaded, nor does he believe Judge Martin had the intention of evading 
 it himself. 
 
 The defendant, Paul Martin, was interrogated in regard to the alleged 
 fraudulent agreement, as to the eventual disposition of the property, and 
 in rather acidulated French, denied it flatly. Being asked if his intention 
 
 was not to give the property to the other heirs of Judge Martin, he replied : 
 " Je n'ai la dessus d'autre intention que celle de disposer de ma fortune 
 
 selon ma volonte. La dessus je dis que je ne me crois pas oblige de faire 
 
 dans ce moment un testament public. Je ferai mon testament comme je 
 
 I'entendrai." 
 
 The case was elaborately argued by Mr. Attorney General Elmore, 
 
 assisted by Mr. Musson and Mr. Pepin, for the State, and by Mr. Grima, 
 
 Mr. Mazureau, and Mr. Legardeur, for the defendant. 
 
 The use of French in court was common, even at that late day, and 
 
 Mr. Mazureau's brief, published in the report of the case, is written entirely 
 
 in this language. Its introduction is worth translating, though, of course, 
 
 a translation cannot present the vivacity of the original. He says : 
 "He who amasses a great fortune sows the seeds of a great lawsuit, 
 
 which serminate after his death. Tliis apothegm of an Indian Philos- 
 
FRAXgOIS-XAVIER MARTIX. XXXV 
 
 opher, if I am not deceived, has never prevented some men, in every 
 country of the civilized world, from piling up during all the days of their 
 life, riches, which they knew how to enjoy but in one way, in looking at 
 them. But experience has often proved that the saying is correct, and 
 the present action is an example of its truth." 
 
 " Frangois-Xavier Martin, the architect of his own fortune, arriving in 
 his youth in the United States, was one of those men not often met with 
 now-a-days, to whom study, obstinate toil, and the constant exercise of 
 the thinking faculty were prime necessities of life. Two passions appeared 
 to rule him : that of fame as a savant and jurist, and that of riches. His 
 external life was in some sort that of a philosopher dwelling apart from 
 all mundane vanities. And, in his interior life, almost always alone with 
 himself, he develoj^ed with peculiar wisdom the resources which his own 
 talent created for him, whether to enlarge his reputation as a lawyer and 
 a magistrate, or to augment the cash which he had laid up by his toil 
 and his economy. * * For thirty j^ears his ear was carressed by 
 the most flattering testimonials of a high consideration, both as a savant, 
 and as a judge of integrit}'- and purity. He has descended to the tomb, 
 escorted by a numerous procession composed of all that our city contains 
 of respectability. But in giving up his mortal part to the earth, our 
 common mother, he has left a will, by which he disposes, in favor of his 
 brother, of a fortune of nearly $400,000. And this judge, this president 
 of our Supreme Court, celebrated for his intellectual capacities, and his 
 distinguished judicial mind, who has been able for thirty years, during 
 nine or ten of w^hich he had lost his sight, to write out and to pronounce 
 decisions Avhich many considered as oragles, has not been able to escape 
 the severity of the sentence of the Hindoo philosopher. His death has 
 given life to a lawsuit ; and in this suit, brought in the name of the State, 
 he is represented as incapable of making an olographic testament, and 
 its annulment is demanded ! A supplemental petition is presented, in 
 which we recognize manifestly that this alleged incapacity springs only 
 from an imagination burning to obtain at least some scrap of this opulent 
 succession ; and, in which, wishing to arrive more surely at this goal, 
 they accuse him of having made by his will a trust prohibited by our 
 Code.'^' 
 
 Mr. Mazureau proceeds at great length to argue the questions presented, 
 and the counsel on both sides ransacked the history of the legal world, 
 from the time of tha Ten Tables down. There was some plausibility, at 
 first sight, in the theory that a blind man could not make an olographic 
 will. To be such a will, it must be dated, written, and signed, entirely by 
 the testator ; it was not necessary that it should be witnessed, and it was 
 not; and could it be said that a blind man, who could not read what he 
 had written, who could not tell whether he had ink in his pen or not, who 
 
XXXvi MEMOIR OF 
 
 could not be supposed to knoAv, of himself, whether his intentions had 
 been correctly expressed, be able to write a will of this sort, which would, 
 by itself, satisfy the requirements of a will ; that is, make proof that the 
 dispositions it contained, emanated from the testator, and embodied all 
 his intentions? 
 
 But the Supreme Court decided, firstly, that the will was valid, it being 
 clearly proved that it was dated, w'ritten and signed by the testator, that 
 if he made use of mechanical contrivances, to assist him, they could only 
 be considered as " helps to write," in the nature, for example, of spectacles ; 
 that such helps would not deceive him as an amanuensis might deceive a 
 blind man, and that the document must be presumed, in the absence of 
 clear proof to the contrary, to express the intentions of the testator. 
 
 Upon the second point, the Court found, as matter of fact, that the 
 venerable man had not been guilty of violating the laws he had so long 
 labored to expound and to perfect. They found that the relatives, in 
 whose favor he was accused of having made secret dispositions, were 
 persons with whom he was really unacquainted, and they enquired, 
 through their organ, Judge Rost, who delivered the opinion : 
 
 " Upon what principle of human action can it be explained that a man 
 of great intellect, occupying the highest judicial position of the State, 
 known to us all from our youth as having been a law unto himself and 
 who, whatever may have been his oddities and faults, justly prided 
 himself on the purity of his life, should have died perpetrating a vile 
 fraud for the benefit of relatives unknown to him?" 
 
 " There is another view," continues Judge Rost, " far more consistent 
 with his character. The love of independence was a passion with him, 
 and the things of this earth, by which independence is secured, had a 
 large share in his affections. His desire that his worldly goods should 
 be kept together after his death, exhibited by the pain he felt at the mere 
 suspicion that his brother would sell them and leave the country, far out- 
 weighed in his mind his attachment for those persons. We believe in 
 the sincerity of his anguish. The last looks of the man of wealth, dying 
 without posterity, are cast upon the property he has amassed ; his last 
 hope on earth is, that his estate may live and continue to represent him. 
 The defendant in this case, (the brother), was the instrument selected 
 to give life to that cherished fiction. We have no doubt of his being 
 really universal legatee, nor that the intentions of the testator were, as he 
 expressed them, that his brother should continue to be, in all respects, un 
 autre lui-meme. 
 
 " The representative of the State has faithfully discharged, what, under 
 the information he had received, he conceived to be an official duty. On 
 us devolves the more grateful task, to determine that he was misled by 
 
FRAN^OIS-XAVIER MARTIN. XXXVU 
 
 that information, and that the name of Fran5ois-Xavier Martin stands 
 unsullied by fraud. 
 
 "■ It is ordered, tliat the judgment rendered in this case, in favor of the 
 State, be reversed, and that there be judgment for the defendant." 
 
 And so terminated this singular suit. 
 
 It may be added, as a pleasant fact, that after the death of Paul 
 Barthelemy Martin, the bulk of the estate went to a niece, who is still, it 
 is believed, living in southern France, and by reason of her character, is 
 known as the Providence of the community where she resides. Such a 
 result may, perhaps, justify the painful economies of the venerable judge. 
 
 X. 
 
 Looking back at the life of Martin, it appears, that aside from the 
 eccentricities, which, in a certain sense made him all the more picturesque, 
 he was a man of exceptional robustness, who, in a profession which may 
 be easily perverted, found opportunity to do something of permanent 
 value to his adopted country and his race. 
 
 A distinguished orator of New England said of one of her most 
 eminent advocates, as the net result of his career, that " he was one who 
 made it safe to murder, and of whose health thieves enquired before they 
 began to steal." This epigram, like most epigrams of the kind, was 
 unjust in its special application, yet it contained a kernel of abstract 
 truth. 
 
 No matter how successful a mere advocate may be, his reputation after 
 all is little better than that of the actor who struts and frets his little 
 hour upon the stage, and then is heard no more ; or of the sweet singer, 
 like Malibran, whose voice could not be described even by those who had 
 heard it, and whose fame for those who never heard it rests in a tradition 
 vague as moonlight. And after the death of the great lawyer, when he 
 comes to be tried in the Egyptian fashion, to find what manner of man 
 he was, the question will be, not how many verdicts did he gain by 
 appeals to the passions of a jury ; not, how many times did he success- 
 fully wrench and twist the rules of law in such a way as suited his 
 client's case ; but, what was his influence in developing in fair and 
 fruitful forms the jurisprudence of his country ; what old abuse did he 
 destroy, what new and needed reform did he construct ; did he, like 
 Tribonian, convert the laws of an empire which had been a wilderness 
 into a garden ; did he, like Domat, trace the civil law in its natural order 
 as it flows from those two great commands of love to God and love to 
 man ; did he, like Lord Hardwicke, become the father of equity ; did he, 
 like Stowell, well nigh create for modern commercial nations the rules 
 
XXXVin MEMOIR OF FRAXgOIS-XAVIER MARTIN. 
 
 of belligerent rights ; did he, like John Marshall, expound the consti- 
 tution of a great and new country ; did he put the results of his 
 experience in a good book, for the benefit of his successors in the 
 profession? 
 
 If any of these questions can be answered in favor of the lawyer, fame 
 and honest fame, shall be decreed him. 
 
 But if he has lived merely for himself, a sharp attorney, an agile 
 advocate, he might almost as well have been an opera dancer, and over 
 his grave we could only think Avith Hamlet : 
 
 " Where be his quiddets now, his quillets, his cases, his tenures and his 
 tricks ? Why does he suffer this rude knave to knock him about the 
 sconce with a dirty shovel and will not tell him of his action of battery ? 
 Humph ! This fellow might be in's time a great buyer of land with his 
 statutes, his recognisances, his fines, his double vouchers, his recoveries. 
 Is this the fine of his fines and the recovery of his recoveries, to have his 
 fine pate full of fine dirt ? Will his vouchers vouch him no more of his pur- 
 chases * * than the length and breadth of a pair* of indentures ? The very 
 conveyances of his lands will hardly lie in this box, and must the inheritor 
 himself have no more ? " 
 
 We may be sure that over the tomb of Martin the grim jests of the 
 melancholy Dane could find no proper place. 
 
 A marble bust, which adorns the rooms of the Supreme Court of 
 Louisiana, represents the features of the venerable man, but it recalls no 
 such sarcasm. They are the features of one who was truly honest, who 
 was soundly learned, and who, above all, made his laborious life of lasting 
 value to the world. 
 
 William Wirt Howe. 
 
 New Orleans, December, 1881. 
 
(5S 
 
 ^ 
 
 \^ 
 
 
 <^ 
 
 <9- 
 
 ■^■^-^^e^^-^ 
 
 
 ^ 
 
 
 -:^<:^ 
 
 ^=^. 
 
 ^-^«=^ 
 
 ^^*e. 
 
 ^^'^^^^^ .^ 
 
 ^"^^ 
 
 
 D 
 
HISTORY 
 
 OF 
 
 LOUISIANA. 
 
 PRELIMINARY CHAPTER. 
 
 Topographical View of the State of Louisiana, 
 
 Louisiana, admitted into the Confederacy of the United States of 
 America, on the thirtieth of April, 1812, is the southwesternmost state. 
 
 It lies from about the twenty-ninth to the thirty-fourth degree of north 
 latitude and between the eighty-ninth and ninety-fifth degree and thirty 
 minutes west longitude from Greenwich. 
 
 Its limits are fixed in the preamble of its constitution, and an act of its 
 legislature of the twelfth of August, 1812, 
 
 The southern limit is the gulf of Mexico, from Pearl to Sabine river. 
 
 The western separates the state, and the United States, from the 
 Spanish province of Texas, It begins on the gulf, at the mouth of the 
 Sabine, and follows a line drawn along the middle of that stream, so as to 
 include all islands to the thirty-second degree of north latitude and thence 
 due north to the thirty-third degree. 
 
 The northern separates the state, on the western bank of the Mississippi 
 from the territory of Arkansas, and on the eastern from the state of 
 Mississij)pi. The line begins on the point at which the western limit 
 terminates, and runs along the northern part of the thirty-third degree, to 
 a point in that parallel, in the middle of the Mississippi river ; on the 
 western side, it begins at a point in the middle part of the river in the 
 northern part of the thirty-first degree, and runs on that parallel to the 
 eastern branch of Pearl river. 
 
 The eastern separates, in its whole length, the states of Louisiana and 
 Mississippi. It is a line drawn in the middle of the Mississippi river 
 between the two points, already mentioned, and another drawn from the 
 eastern termination of the north boundary on Pearl river, running along 
 the middle of that stream to its mouth in the estua,ry, which connects 
 lake Pontchartrain with the gulf. 
 
 The area, within these limits, is a superfice of about forty-eight thousand 
 square miles : Louisiana being, in extent, equal to North Carolina, and 
 superior to every other state in the union, except Virginia, Missouri, 
 Georgia and Illinois, 
 
I HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 
 
 The population to the square mile is three persons ; equal to that of 
 Alabama and Indiana, and inferior to that of every other state, except 
 Illinois and Missouri. 
 
 The aggregate population is of one hundred and forty-six thousand 
 persons ; inferior to those of every state, except Alabama, Rhode Island, 
 Delaware, Mississippi, Missouri and Illinois ; considerably below the one- 
 half of the averaged population of the states, which is about four hundred 
 thousand. 
 
 The free population is of eighty thousand one hundred and eighty-three 
 persons ; of which seventy thousand four hundred and seventy-three are 
 white, and nine thousand seven hundred and ten colored. 
 
 Agriculture employs fifty thousand one hundred and sixty-eight, and 
 manufactures five thousand seven hundred and ninety-seven. The 
 number of foreigners not naturalized is three thousand and sixty-two. 
 
 Although Louisiana lies between the twenty-eighth and thirty-fourth 
 degrees of north latitude, its temperature widely differs from that of the 
 countries lying between the same parallels in the old world : the Cape de 
 Verd islands and the southern parts of Algiers, Trij)oli, Tunis, Morocco, 
 Egypt, Arabia Felix, Persia, China and Japan. 
 
 We must ascend the Mediterranean, to reach a country in which the 
 degree of cold, which is felt in Louisiana, is experienced, and descend 
 about ten degrees towards the equator to find a country in which the 
 heat felt in Louisiana prevails. 
 
 Cold is seldom so intense in the city of Nice, or Savoy, nor heat greater 
 in Havana, than in New Orleans, which lies within the thirtieth degree 
 of northern latitude, and is consequently never approached by the sun, 
 in his zenith, nearer than six degrees and a half; for the variety of 
 temperature, observable as the result of other circumstances than the 
 relative propinquity to the equinoctial line, is nowhere more obvious than 
 in Louisiana. In New Orleans, during the months of June, July and 
 August, the thermometer rises to the ninety-eighth and even the hundredth 
 degree of Farenheit's scale ; which is the greatest degree heat of the 
 human body when in health. In winter it sometimes falls to seventeen ; 
 and Ulloa relates that he has seen the Mississippi frozen, before New 
 Orleans, for several yards from the shore. The variations in the ther- 
 mometer are frequent and sudden : it falls and rises, within a few hours, 
 from ten to twenty-four degrees. 
 
 Summer is the longest season ; it continues for five months, besides 
 many hot days in March and April, October and November. In June 
 and July heat is diminished by eastern breezes and abundant rains ; the 
 hottest days are in August. In this month, and the first part of 
 September, heat is less supportable than in the West Indies, from the 
 absence of the eastern breeze. 
 
 The principal causes of heat, in New Orleans and its vicinity, are the 
 equality of the soil, the great timber with which the neighboring country 
 is covered, and the feebleness of the wind, which does not allow it to 
 penetrate the inhabited parts of the country : add to this, the distance from 
 the sea, which prevents the wind, that reigns there, from reaching the city, 
 in which the air is commonly still during the hot months. If the wind 
 comes from the north, it reaches New Orleans, after passing over a vast 
 extent of plains and woods, loading itself with their hot vapor. 
 
 Heat, intense as it is, does not seem as in other countries, to concentrate 
 
HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 3 
 
 itself in the earth and warm it to a certain depth ; on the contrary, the 
 water of the INIississippi, taken from the surface is warm, and from below, 
 cold. This demonstrates that the heat, which prevails in the country, 
 does not i)enetrate below, and is accidental, generated by the absence of 
 wind, or the action of the sun on woods, marshes and swamps. 
 
 The efibct of great heats is felt in a manner not common elsewhere. In 
 walking, after the setting of the sun, one passes suddenly into a much 
 hotter atmosphere than tliat which preceded, and after twenty or thirty 
 steps, the cooler air is felt : as if the country was divided into bands or 
 zones of different temperatures. In the space of an hour, three or four of 
 these sudden transitions are perceptible. 
 
 This is not easily accounted for. It results probably from the burning 
 of the woods, which takes place after gathering the crop, and is one of the 
 ordinary causes of heat in the air, in the direction of the fire. The land 
 being equal in quality and form, it cannot be imagined that the rays of the 
 sun are more fixed in one spot than another. It is likely that some of the 
 columns of air, considered horizontally, remain unmoved since the setting 
 of the sun, and thus preserve the heat it communicated ; while others, set 
 in motion by a light or variable wind, lose theirs. These mutations are 
 perceived when there is no wind. 
 
 In the fall, which is the most pleasant season in Louisiana, and often 
 prolongs itself during the first winter months, the sky is remarkably 
 serene ; especially, Avhen the wind is northerly. In October, the ther- 
 mometer frequently rises to the seventy-eighth degree, which is the 
 greatest heat in Spain. 
 
 In a country, in Avhich the heat of summer is so great and so long, it 
 might not be presumed that the cold of winter should be, at times, so 
 severe as experience show^s. Sharp frosts have occurred as early as 
 November, but their duration, at this period, is extremely short. In the 
 latter part of December, in January and the first part of February, the 
 mercury has been known to fall many degrees below the freezing point. 
 But cold days are rare in Louisiana, even in winter. In this season, heat 
 succeeds to cold with such rapidity, that after three days of hard frost, as 
 many generally follow, in which the average heat of summer prevails. 
 
 Spring is an extremely short season. A Louisianian is hardly sensible 
 of its presence, when the suffocating air of summer is felt, for a while, and 
 then winter days return. 
 
 The winds are generally erratic and changeable, blowing within a short 
 space of time, from every point of the compass without regularity, and 
 seldom two successive days from any one. 
 
 In July, August and September, there are frequent squalls, with much 
 rain, thunder and lightning, and sometimes gales of wind from the south 
 and southwest. 
 
 From the middle of October to April, the northern wind prevails and 
 sometimes blows ver}?^ hard : when it changes to the eastward or southward, 
 it is commonly attended with close hazy or foggy weather. 
 
 In April, May and the first part of June, sea and land breezes prevail 
 and refresh the air. 
 
 The south and southwest winds bring rain in winter ; when they cease, 
 the northwest wind prevails, and cold weather begins. When it continues, 
 and its strength increases, it infallibly freezes. When the wind passes 
 from east to west, without stopping, cold is neither great nor lasting ; for 
 
4 HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 
 
 the wind passes promptly to the east and from thence to south and south- 
 west, and the rain begins. 
 
 The north and northwest -wdnds are those which l)rino- cold and hard 
 frost in winter, and a suffocating heat in summer. 
 
 The cause of the cold they bring is the same in Louisiana, as in all the 
 eastern parts of North America. The immense extent of country, covered 
 with snow over which they pass, prol)ably from the pole ; while, on the 
 opposite side of the Atlantic, the continents of Euro])e and Asia end in 
 the seventy-fifth degree of latitude, and are separated from the pole, by a 
 vast expanse of sea. But there cannot be any other cause of the heat 
 they bring than the large plains, thick woods and wide pieces of water, 
 which they cross ; the humidity of which, acted u})on l\v the ititense heat 
 of the sun, gives rise to ardent vapors, the heat of which being communi- 
 cated to the air, instead of cooling, renders it more suffocating than in 
 calm weather. 
 
 Ulloa noticed in Louisiana a particularity, which he says is not observed 
 elsewhere. At certain times, when rains are abundant, a yellow, thick 
 coat, resembling brimstone appears floating on puddles and the big vats or 
 butts, in which rain water is collected and preserved : it is gathered in 
 abundance along the brims of these receptacles. The atmosphere, he 
 observes, is loaded with sulphureous particles, as is evinced by frequent 
 tempests ; it being rare that rain should not be accompanied by violent 
 thunder. This, he concludes, experience demonstrates to proceed from 
 thick woods, filled with resinous trees, the subtle parts of which are 
 exhaled, and mixing with the sulphureous parts of the atmosphere, unite 
 with them, and are together precipitated with the clouds that bring down 
 the tempest. This sulphureous substance is so abundant and ordinary, 
 and at times so much more perceptible than at others, that this circum- 
 stance has given rise to the popular error that a rain of sulphur falls. 
 
 Before we proceed to take a view of the face of the country, the gulf on 
 which the state is situated, and the mighty stream which traverses it, 
 attract our attention. 
 
 The gulf of Mexico may be considered as a great whirlpool. The general 
 course of the waters, in the Atlantic ocean, as well as the current of the 
 air, within and near the middle zone, being from east to west, the force of 
 the sea comes upon the West India islands and their lengths are in that 
 direction. When the waters get into the great gulf, they are obstructed 
 everywhere, and as it were turned round by the land. The great velocity 
 of this body of water is towards the equator, and it must get out, where it 
 meets with the least resistance, that is on the side towards the pole, where 
 it forms the strong current, or passage, called the gulf stream. 
 
 The natural course of the waters therefore, on the northern part of the 
 gulf should be fi'om west to east : but it is partially changed, by frequent 
 currents which are very unequal, depending certainly on the winds, but 
 seldom on that which blows on the spot. 
 
 By the general law of the tides, there should be flood for six hours and 
 ebb during the six following. But here, an ebb will continue for eighteen 
 or twenty hours, and a flood during six or four only, and vice versa. 
 
 A southern wind alwaj'S raises and keeps the waters up in the bays, and 
 a northern almost entirely empties them. Yet, it must be allowed that 
 these ebbs and flows are not equable in their continuance. Upon an 
 accurate observation of them, we discover a tendency to two ebbs and flows 
 
HISTORY OK LOUISIANA. 5 
 
 in twenty-four liours. though they lie overpowered by the winds and 
 currents. 
 
 The entrance of the hays and rivers on the gulf is defended generally 
 hy a sliallow sand hank, forming a bar farther out towards the sea than is 
 usual elsewhere. The de])th on the l)ar is not at all proportioned to that 
 within. The mouths of the rivers are frequently divided into different 
 channels, l)y swamps covered with reeds, owing probably to the conflict 
 1 between the currents and the rise of the river, in certain seasons of the 
 year. 
 
 The water of the gulf is not much heavier than the common. An 
 aerometer, immersiljle in common water with a weight of two ounces and 
 twenty-two grains was found so in that of the gulf, with one or two ounces 
 and tifty-three grains, according to an experience of Father Laval, at the 
 distance of ninety leagues from the coast. Fifty leagues inside of the 
 Mediterranean, on the coast of Spain, near Almeria, the same instrument 
 floated on sea water with a weight, less than two ounces and sixty-six 
 grains. The reason of this difference, he concluded was, that larger rivers 
 flow into the gulf, especially the Mississippi, bringing into it a greater 
 ([uantity of fresh water than those which flow into the Mediterranean. 
 
 The Mississippi is remarkable by its great length, uncommon depth, 
 and the muddiness and salubrity of its waters, after its junction with the 
 Missouri. 
 
 The source of this mighty river is supposed to be about three thousand 
 miles from the gulf. 
 
 From the falls of St. Anthony, it glides with a pleasant and clear stream, 
 and becomes comparatively narrow before it reaches the Missouri, the 
 muddy waters of which discolor those of the Mississippi to the sea. 
 
 Its rapidity, breadth and other peculiarities, now give it the majestic 
 appearance of the Missouri, which affords a more extensive navigation, 
 and is a longer, broader and deeper river, which has been ascended near 
 three thousand miles, and preserves its width and depth to that distance. 
 
 From their junction to nearly opposite the Ohio, the western bank of the 
 Mississippi (with the exception of a few places) is the highest, thence to 
 bayou Manshac, it is the lowest, and has not the least discernible rise or 
 eminence for seven hundred and fifty miles. Thence to the sea, there is 
 not any eminence on either bank, but the eastern appears a little the 
 highest, as far as the English turn, from whence both gradually decline to 
 the gulf, where they are not more than two or three feet higher than the 
 common surface of the water. 
 
 The direction of the channel is so crooked, from the mouth of the Ohio 
 to New Orleans, that the distance is eight hundred and fifty-six miles by 
 water, and four hundred and fifty only by land. 
 
 The water of the Mississippi appears foul, turbid and unwholesome, but 
 in reality it is not so. It is so loaded with mud, that being put in a vase, 
 it yields a sediment ; and the sight of a quantity of earthy particles is 
 offensive. In the highest floods, it unroots and carries with it large trunks 
 of trees to a great distance : some covered with verdure, others dry and 
 rotten. This abundance of sound and decayed timber cannot fail to 
 impart some of their substance to the element on which it floats. Yet the 
 mixture is not perceptible, and experience has shown that the water is 
 wholesome. 
 
 The river, receives a number of other streams, the waters of some of 
 
6 HISTORY OJ^ LOUISIANA. 
 
 which are saltish and impregnated with metalhc particles : but the water 
 of the main river predominates so much over those of the tributary 
 branches, that it preserves its salubrity. 
 
 During the summer, while the Mississippi is low, the water is clear, but 
 not so good as at its flood. That of the sea then ascends to a great 
 distance and affects that of the river, without rendering it unwholesome. 
 The latter is then warm on the surface, but preserves its coolness below. 
 
 Although it is so loaded with dirt, yet it does not generate the stone. It 
 being supposed that, however clarified it may be, it still continues to 
 contains some earthy particles. In many families, a number of jars are 
 used, in order to give time to the water to yield its deposit, and the oldest 
 is used. After having thus remained for a long time, even for a year, if a 
 portion of the water be taken in a glass, not the least extraneous particle 
 can be discovered, but it appears as diaphanous as crystal; yet if it 
 remain one or two days, there will be seen at the bottom a subtle earth 
 resembling soap. A coat of this is seen floating in the large jars, in which 
 the water is put to settle. Common people, especially those who na^^gate 
 the Mississippi, use its water in the most turbid state : and although they 
 do so, while they are weary and sweating, there is no example of its 
 having proved hurtful. 
 
 The coolness of the water may be attributed to the northern clime, in 
 which the river has its source, and the great quantity of snow which it 
 receives, or in which it is said to originate, and the ice it brings down from 
 the vast plains west to north, as far as the forty-fifth degree. In this long 
 course, it carries away a prodigious quantity of earthy particles, which, 
 being kept constantly in motion, are so subtilized, that viewed in a glass, 
 they appear like a smoke, filling its capacity. This great subtility is 
 doubtless what communicates to the water, that wholesome quality, which 
 facilitates digestion, excites appetite and maintains health, without 
 producing any of the inconveniences, which other waters occasion. 
 
 The Mississippi rises at its flood higher than the neighboring land, and 
 inundates it, where it is not protected by an artificial bank or levee. 
 Although the river be deep and wide, its ravages, before it was confined 
 by such banks, on the contiguous fields Avas not very great, owing to tin.' 
 profundity of its bed, which occasions the great strength of its current to 
 be below, where the rapidity and weight of the water unite. 
 
 The water that escapes over the levees, or oozes through them, joined to 
 that which flows in places that are unprotected, as well as the rain water, 
 never returns into the river, but fills the vast cypress swamps beyond the 
 tillable land, and finally find their way into these lakes, on both sides of 
 the stream, in the vicinity of the sea. The declivity of the land on the 
 eastern side towards lakes Maurepas and Pontchartrain, shows that the 
 earth which the water of the Mississippi deposited, formed, in course of 
 time, the island on which the city of New Orleans stands. 
 
 It is clear that the bed of the river rises in the same proportion as its 
 banks. This is manifested by the constant necessity there is of raising 
 the levees. 
 
 At the mouth of the river, there is also some evidence that its bed rises. 
 About the year 1722, there were twenty-five feet of water on the bar : 
 Ulloa found twenty in 1767, at the highest flood, and now in 1826 there 
 are sixeeen ; while the depth within has ever remained the same. It is 
 possible that the bar, at the different mouths of the river, may have risen, 
 
HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. / 
 
 while the bottom of the bed witliin may have remained unaltered. But 
 the mass of water, whieh })asses through these mouths, being the same as 
 formerly, it follows that its force against the waves of the sea is not 
 altered,^ and no good reason can appear why the sea should retain the 
 sand to a higher level than before on the bank. It is much more natural 
 to conclude that the bed of the river has risen, whereby its mouths are 
 widened and it meets the waves of the sea with less force, than when it 
 came through deeper and narrower channels. 
 
 The strength and rapidity of the current are such in high water, that 
 liefore steam was used in propelling boats, it could not be stemmed 
 without much labor and waste of time ; although the sturdy navigators 
 were greatly aided by eddies or countercurrents, which everywhere run in 
 the bends, close to the shore. The current in high water descends at the 
 rate of five and even six miles an hour, and in low water at the rate of 
 two only. It is much more rapid in those places, where shoals, battures 
 or clusters of islands narrow the bed of the river : the circumference of 
 these shoals or battures is in some places of several miles : and they 
 render the voyage longer and more dangerous, at low water. 
 
 The many beaches and breakers which have risen out of the channel, 
 are convincing proofs that the land on both sides forming the high ground 
 near Baton Rouge is alluvial. The bars that cross most of the channels, 
 opened by the current, have been multiplied by the means of trees brought 
 down by the stream. One of them, stopped by its roots or branches, in a 
 shallow place, is sufficient to obstruct the passage of a thousand, and to 
 fix them near it. Such collections of trees are daily seen between the 
 Balize and Mississippi, which simply would supply a city with fuel for 
 several years. No human force being adequate to their removal, the mud 
 brought down by the water cements and binds them together, they are 
 gradually covered, and every inundation not only extends their lengths 
 and widths, but adds another layer to their heights. In less than ten 
 years, canes and shrubs grow on them and form points and islands, which 
 forcibly shift the bed of the river. 
 
 The 'Mississippi discharges itself into the gulf by several mouths or 
 passes of different lengths. The east pass, which is that principally used, 
 is the shortest, being twenty miles in length ; the south pass is twenty- 
 two, and the southwest twenty-five. 
 
 The bars that obstruct these passes are subject to change ; but, imme- 
 diately on entering the river there are from three to seven, eight and ten 
 fathoms, as far as the southwest pass, and thence twelve, fifteen, twenty 
 and thirty fathoms, which is the general depth to the mouth of the 
 Missouri. The depth of water over the bar of the first pass is sixteen feet ; 
 over those of the other two there are from eight to nine or ten feet. 
 
 The shoals about the mouth of the Mississippi, like those in its bed, 
 have been formed by the trees, mud leaves and other matters continually 
 l>rought down, which being forced onwards by the current, till repelled by 
 the tide, they subside and form what is called a bar. Their distance from 
 the entrance of the river, which is generally about two miles, depends 
 much on the winds being occasionally with or against the tides. When 
 these bars accumulate sufficiently to resist the tide and the current of the 
 river, they form numerous small islands, which constantly increasing, join 
 each other, and at last reach the continent. 
 
 All the maritime coast of Louisiana is low and marshy : that from the 
 
8 HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 
 
 mouth of Pearl river, where the southern boundary of the state l)egins, is' 
 Hke that from the Perdido to Pearl river, faced by low and sandy islands ; 
 the principal of which are those of Cliandeleur and a considerable number 
 of islets. Near the mouth of the Mississippi is Round l)ay, in which 
 vessels often fall, and where they wait, not without danger, and often for 
 a long time for a fair wind, to reach one of the passes of the Mississippi, 
 which it would be difficult to find, were it not for tlie houses at the old 
 and new Balizes, and the flag staff at the former, which are visible from 
 some distance at sea. The Avhite clayey color of the water, remaining 
 unmixed on the surface of the salt, is also an indication that the mighty, 
 stream is not far. It has the appearance of a shoal and alarms strangers : 
 but the soundings are much deeper off the Mississippi, than anywhere else 
 on the coast. 
 
 It is an observation founded on experience, that when the water of the 
 river incorporates itself with that of the sea, and is apparently lost in the 
 gulf, the current divides itself, and generally sets northeasterly and south- 
 westerly; but, off soundings, the currents are, in a great measure, 
 governed by the winds, and, if not attended to, will drive vessels south- 
 westward, beyond the Balize, into the bay of St. Bernard, wdiich is fall of 
 shoals, and consequently of a difficult, nay dangerous navigation. 
 
 The old Balize, a post erected by the French towards the year 1724, at 
 the mouth of the River, is now two miles above it. There was not then 
 the smallest appearance of the island, on which, forty-two years after, 
 Don Antonio de Ulloa caused barracks to be erected for the accommo- 
 dation of the pilots, which is now known as the new Balize. 
 
 The French had a considerable fort and garrison at the old Balize : but 
 the magazine and several other buildings, and a part of the fortifications, 
 gradually sunk into the soft ground. The Spaniards had a Ijattery with 
 three or four guns, and a subaltern's command on each island. Such is 
 the situation of these islands, that they neither defend the entrance of the 
 Mississip23i, nor the deepest channels. The small establishments on them 
 appear to have been made for the purpose of affording assistance to 
 vessels coming into the river, and forwarding intelligence and dispatches 
 to New Orleans. 
 
 In ascending the stream, there are natural prairies and a prospect of 
 the sea on both sides, for most of the distance to the bend of Plaquemines, 
 where a fort on each bank defends the passage, and is sufficient to stop 
 the progress of any vessel. The British in 1815 warmly bombarded, 
 during several days, the fort on the eastern bank. The distance from the 
 Balize to it is thirty-two miles. From thence to the beginning of the 
 settlements there are about twenty miles. The intermediate space is a 
 continued tract of low and marshy ground, generally overflowed. It i^ 
 covered with thick wood and palmetto bushes, which seem to render it 
 impervious to man or beast. The banks of the river above this are thickly 
 settled on each side for the space of thirty-five miles to the English turn, 
 where the circular direction of the river is so considerable, that vessels 
 cannot proceed with the wind that brought them up, and must either 
 wait for a more favorable one, or make fast to the bank and haul close, 
 there being a sufficient depth of water for any vessel entering the river. 
 
 At the bottom of the bend of the English turn, on the east side, is a 
 creek running in that direction into Lake Borgne, on the elevated banks 
 of which a number of Spanish families, brought by government from the 
 
HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 9 
 
 Canary islands in 17S3, fonnd an asylum. They were aided by the public 
 treasury, and ijrocured a scanty subsistence in raising vegetables for the 
 market of New Orleans. They were in time joined by several Acadian 
 families. A church was built for them at the king's expense : it was 
 dedicated to St. Bernard, in com})liment to Don Bernardo de Galvez, the 
 governor of the province, under Avhom the migration was made. In course 
 of time, several colonists removed thither, and it was then that the sugar 
 cane began to be cultivated, after the abortive eftbrts to naturalize it to 
 the climate of Louisiana, under the French government. This part of the 
 country was called Terre-aux-Boeufs, from its having been the last refuge 
 of the buffaloes or wild oxen. 
 
 B}^ a singularity, of which Louisiana offers perhaps the only instance, 
 the more elevated ground in it is found on the banks of its rivers, bayous 
 and lakes. This elevation of a soil generally good, rarely too strong, 
 often too weak, owing to a mixture of sand, varies considerably in its 
 depth, and reaches, in very few places indeed, the elevated land of another 
 stream or lake. Hence, the original grants of land were made of a certain 
 number of arpents (French acres) fronting the stream, focc cm fleuve, with 
 the eventual depth, which was afterwards tixed at forty arpents, and 
 ordinarily carries the grant to a considerable distance into the cypress 
 swamp. 
 
 These back swamps draining the arable ground, receive, during the high 
 water, that Avhich comes from the clouds, and that which filters through, 
 or overflows the levee — that which finds its way through the breaches of 
 these levees or crevasses, occasioned at times by the negligence of some 
 planter, and that which others draw from the river to irrigate their fields 
 or turn their mills. It may therefore be correctly said, in Louisiana, that 
 water does not run to the river. But, unfortunately the mass of stagnant 
 water, during several months of the year, to the north of the Mississippi, 
 between its left bank and the right of the Iberville, the lakes Maurepas, 
 Pontchartrain and Borgne and those of Round bay, and to the south from 
 the Atchafalaya, between its left bank and the right one of the bayous 
 and lakes, which discharge themselves in the wide estuary near the sea, 
 finds but a partial and insufficient issue at high water, and produces, 
 especially in uncovered spots, the deadly evaporation of the foetid 
 miasmata of the marshes and swamps it covers. Fortunately, on either 
 side of the Mississippi, is found the greatest depth of arable and open 
 ground, varying from the fraction of an arpent to thirty generally, rarely 
 to sixty, and in very few places indeed to one hundred. The banks of the 
 lakes, generally narrower, are much nearer to the swamps, which empty 
 their contents through a number of bayous ; the}^ are interspersed with 
 prairies and spots of high land, covered with oak and cypress. 
 
 This gives to this part of the state a disagreeable aspect, obstructs 
 communications and insulates planters. It gives it a dismal and 
 dangerous appearance, which must be well known before it may be 
 trodden with safety. Nature seems not to have intended it for the 
 habitation of man ; but rather to have prepared it for the retreat of 
 alligators, snakes, toads and frogs, who at dusk, by their united, though 
 discordant vociferations, upbraid man as an intruder, assert their exclusive 
 right, and lay their continual claim to the domain they inhabit. 
 
 It might be concluded from this picture, that Louisiana is an unhealthy 
 country ; but this would be to judge of the whole by the part. The city 
 
10 HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 
 
 of Xew Orleans has been visited (principally since the beginning of the 
 current century) with disastrous and almost annual epidemics, which, at 
 a first view, justify the conclusion, if they are not the effect of local 
 circumstances. But, it is universally admitted, that planters on the Mis- 
 sissippi, whom an imperious necessity compels to range themselves on 
 the banks of the stream, especially above the city, suffer nothing from the 
 influence of the climate or their position. 
 
 Agriculture, on both sides of the river, from the sea to the vicinity of 
 Baton Rouge, demands the protection against its inundations, of artificial 
 banks or levees. Public and private interest have made them the object 
 of the solicitude and attention of the legislature. Yet, as interest excites 
 not the vigilance of those to whom the execution of laws, in this respect, 
 is committed, the negligence of a planter occasions, at times, a breach or 
 crevasse on his levee, in some part of the river. If it be not immediately 
 discovered or prompt attention given, the impetuous waves force their 
 passage and widen the breach ; the crop of the heedless planter is soon 
 destroyed ; the rails of his fences float and his house is l)orne away. But 
 the alarming flood increases in extent, strength and rapidity ; the angry 
 stream seems to have found a new channel ; the back swamps are filled 
 to a considerable extent ; the water rises in them and overflowing for 
 numbers of miles, above and below the breach, inundates the cultivated 
 fields, reaches the levee and despoils a whole neighborhood of the fruit of 
 the sweat and labor of its inhabitants. The mischief does not end here. 
 The Mississippi does not, like the Nile, deposit a fattening slime on the 
 land it overflows. On the contrary, it leaves on it a large quantity of 
 sand, destructive of its fertility, or scatters the seeds of noxious weeds. 
 Immediately around New Orleans, the culture of sugar and even gardens 
 hath been abandoned, on account of the i^rodigious growth of nut grass, 
 the seeds of wdiich have been spread by the water of the Mississippi. 
 
 From the English turn to the city, the Mississippi is bordered on each 
 side by plantations, and the houses are as close to each other as in many 
 parts of the United States that are dignified by the appellation of town. 
 The planters are all wealthy, and almost exclusively engaged in the cul- 
 ture of the cane. There are a few who cultivate cotton. The distance is 
 eighteen miles. 
 
 The city of New Orleans rises on the bank of the Mississippi, in the 
 middle of a large bend. The circular direction of the stream here is so 
 great, that although the city stands on the eastern side the sun rises on 
 the opposite bank. The city proper is an oblong square of about twenty- 
 eight arpents in front, on the Mississippi, and fourteen in depth, which 
 under the French and Spanish governments, was surrounded and 
 defended by a line of fortifications and a ditch. It has in its middle, on 
 the river, a large square, or place dkirmes, surrounded by an iron pallisado, 
 and is adorned by three elegant public edifices, the cathedral, city hall, 
 and a building in which the courts of the state are accommodated with 
 halls and offices. These occupy one side of the square ; that towards the 
 river is open ; each of the two others is covered by a block of uniform 
 houses, with upper galleries. The city is intersected by seven streets 
 parallel, and twelve perpendicular, to the river. The direction of the 
 latter is northwest and southeast. With its suburbs. New Orleans 
 extends along the river about three miles, and in its utmost depth on the 
 outer line of the uppermost suburb, about one. We speak of the parts 
 
HISTORY OF LOUISIAXA. 11 
 
 covered by contiguous buildinirs : that witliin the cliartered limits is 
 much greater. 
 
 The middle steeple of the cathedral is in 29° o7' north latitude, and 92= 
 29' of west longitude from (Ireenwich. 
 
 The three first streets parallel to the river and most of the perpendicular 
 ones, as far as they are intersected by the former, have a considerable 
 number of elegant brick buildings, three stories high ; but the rest of the 
 city has nothing but small wooden houses, one story high ; some very 
 mean. The proportion of the latter is much greater than in any other 
 city of the United States. 
 
 Besides the public buildings on the square, there are the old and new 
 nunneries, a presbyterian and an episcopal church, the jail, customhouse, 
 courthouse of the United States, three theatres, an university, hospital 
 and market house. 
 
 The city has three banks, besides the office of discount and deposit of 
 that of the United States. 
 
 Two public institutions ofier an asylum to the orphan youth of both 
 sexes. 
 
 In the rear, towards the middle of the city, is a basin for small vessels, 
 which approach New Orleans through lake Borgne ; a canal about two 
 miles in length, leads from it to bayou St. John, a small stream which 
 empties in lake Pontchartrain ; another canal, in suburb Marigny, affords 
 also a communication with the lakes ; it begins within a few yards of the 
 Mississippi and falls into liayou St. John, at a short distance from the 
 place, where it receives the waters of the other canal. 
 
 In population. New Orleans is superior to every city in the union, except 
 New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore and Boston. It appears from official 
 documents, that it contained in 1769 three thousand one hundred and 
 ninety persons of all colors, sexes and ages : in 1788, five thousand three 
 hundred and thirty-one : in 1797, eight thousand and fifty-six : in 1810, 
 seventeen thousand, two hundred and forty-two, and according to the last 
 census, in 1820, twenty-seven thousand, one hundred and fifty-six. 
 
 The city is protected from the inundation of the river, by a levee or bank, 
 twenty feet in width, which affords a convenient walk. 
 
 Both sides of the Mississippi, from the cit}^ of New Orleans to the town 
 of Donaldsonville, a space of seventy-five miles, are occupied by the 
 ^vealthicst planters in the state, principally engaged in the culture of the 
 sugar cane. This part of the country has lieen denominated the German 
 and Acadian coasts, from its original settlers ; and the wealth of the present 
 has procured to it the appellation of the golden coast. There are five 
 parochial churches and a convent of nuns, between Ncav Orleans and 
 Donaldsonville. No water course runs into, or flows from, the Mississippi 
 in this distance, if w^e except a small canal, on the western side, near the 
 city, Avhich affords a communication with lake Barataria and others. 
 
 Donaldsonville stands on the western side of the river, at the angle it 
 forms with bayou Lafourche, or the fork of the Chetimachas. 
 
 This town, though destined to be the seat of government, by an act of 
 the legislature, is l)ut a small place. It has an elegant brick church, and 
 contains the court house and jail of the parish. The bank of Louisiana 
 has here an office of discount and deposit, and there is a printing oflice, 
 from which an hebdomadary sheet is issued. A large edifice is now 
 rearing for the accommodation of the legislature. 
 
12 HISTORY OF LOUISIAXA. 
 
 The bayou Lafourche is an outlet of the Mississippi river, Avhich has 
 probably beeu the first channel through which it discharged its water into 
 the gulf of Mexico, by the way of Big and Little caillou, the Terrebonne,* 
 Bayou du large, Bayou du cadre and Bayou black, l^esides several others. 
 
 For the soil, on the banks of all those streams, although of alluvial 
 origin, like the Mississippi bottoms, which they resemble in every respect, 
 appear of older formation ; at least it is more impregnated with oxide of 
 iron, its vegetable fossils more decayed, and the canes and timber which 
 it produces, are generally larger than those on the banks of the Mississippi. 
 Every one of these water courses is from one to four hundred feet in width, 
 and has an extensive body of sugar land, capable of making fine settle- 
 ments and producing the best sugar, as well as the olive tree, like in 
 Berwick's bay to the N. W. of this. The land would produce from two to 
 two thousand five hundred pounds of sugar to the acre. 
 
 The climate is mild and frost is seldom seen in this region, before the 
 last of December: the land is easily cleared for cultivation, which consists 
 simply in cutting the sticks, canes, and a few large magnolia, or sweet gum, 
 perhaps three or four per acre, to let the canes dry and set them on fire. 
 Nothing then remains except the bodies of the trees and stumps : the 
 fertility of the soil is inferior to none ; it produces everything susceptible 
 of growing in the climate. 
 
 The banks of most of these rivers, several feet above the high water 
 mark, require no levee, like those of the Mississippi : the land wants little 
 or no ditching, as it drains naturally : the water has traced with the hand 
 of time its own gullies. The whole country affords great facility to new 
 settlers, for providing fish, oysters, and game, all at hand ; even large 
 droves of buffaloes are often met with in the great cane brakes of that fine 
 country, which has remained so long unsettled, only on account of the 
 difficulty of penetrating through them. 
 
 However, it is probable a communication will soon be established : a 
 great portion of that country has been viewed within the last five years, 
 by the board of internal improvements ; roads have been laid out, and a 
 canal route traced all the way to New Orleans, fit for steamboat navigation, 
 and having not more than ten miles to cut ; six miles of which pass 
 through firm and floating prairies. The fact is that thirty-seven arpents 
 of canal in the firm prairie would join the waters of the Mississippi with 
 those of the Lafourche, which already communicates to bayou Terrebonne 
 by fields, lake and a canal of twelve feet in width, cut with saws through 
 about two miles of floating prairies, by a few inhabitants of that l)ayou : 
 but this passage is only fit for small" paddling Ijoats, as there are twelve 
 arpents of cypress swamp joining the Terrebonne, where the boats have to 
 paddle through the cypress knees, logs and brush. 
 
 The water of the lakes, which are very numerous between the Lafourche 
 and the Terrebonne, are five feet and a half above the level of the waters 
 of Terrebonne, which already communicates with Black river, on bayou 
 Cleannoir by the way of bayou Cane ; but a canal of twenty arpents would 
 join those two bayous six miles above that, and at the same time join the 
 Grand caillou by means of five locks ; the level of Black river is six feet 
 below the latter water, and Grand caillou six feet and a half, so that this 
 canal can be dug at little expense, above the actual level of the water, 
 before letting in that of the lakes. 
 
 The benefits resulting from these improvements are incalculable : the 
 
IIISTOIIY OF LOUISIANA. 13 
 
 immense forest of oak wood on the bayou Lafourche could be brou^jht to 
 New Orleans in a very few hours. The quantity of chun shells on the big 
 Catahoula and neighborhood, might be trans])orted to New Orleans, at a 
 moderate expense and make a tine pavement for the streets of that city. 
 At no great cost, the fish market would offer a new branch of trade. 
 
 Oysters could be l)rought to market for half the actual price. 
 
 The magnificent live oak of Grande isle and Cheniere Caminada, would 
 not only afford fine timber for building durable ships and steamboats, but 
 yet offer an hospital)le shade, under their ever green foliage to the inhabi- 
 tants of New Orleans, who would resort to those places, in preference to 
 any other, if they could get to them without difficulty ._ 
 
 Yet, those are"^ comparatively matters of little consideration, when we 
 reflect that this canal passes through the greatest body of land, fit for the 
 culture of the sugar cane, and in fact the only one in the U. S. fully adapted 
 to that culture, which affords the prosperous staple of this state ; and that 
 this canal will cause the whole of that country to settle, which, in a few 
 years, will double the quantity of sugar now made in the whole state, 
 notwithstanding the increase of trade, Avhich must naturally take place by 
 the facility afforded by such canal, for the intercourse between New Orleans 
 and the western coast of the gulf of Mexico. 
 
 About thirty miles higher up, the Mississippi has another outlet, through 
 bayou Plaquemines, the waters of which, united to those of Grand river, 
 flow into several lakes and lagoons on the sea coast. Bayou Plaquemines 
 is a rapid stream ; but is dry at the upper end, during winter. Its northern 
 bank is not inhabited, being a great part of the year under water ; and the 
 agricultural establishments, on the southern bank, protected by a small 
 levee, are scarce and insignificant. 
 
 Between these two outlets, the banks of the Mississippi are thickly 
 settled ; but the sugar plantations are few, and the planters not so wealthy 
 as below Donaldsonville. Under the Spanish government, it was 
 believed the sugar cane could not well succeed so high up, and there were 
 but two plantations on which it was cultivated; they Avere close to 
 Donaldsonville. But, since the cession, the industry of the purchasers of 
 Louisiana has proved that the cane succeeds well as high up as Pointe 
 Coupee. 
 
 The orange tree does not thrive well above bayou Plaquemines : the 
 sweet is no longer seen, though the sour is found as far as the northern 
 limit of the state, on the west of the Mississippi. 
 
 The only outlet, which the Mississippi has through its eastern bank, is 
 a few miles above bayou Plaquemines — it is called bayou Manshac. At 
 al^out ten miles from' the Mississippi, it receives the river Amite from its 
 right side, and takes the name of Iberville river. 
 
 From the Mississippi to the mouth of Iberville on lake Maurepas, the 
 distance along the stream is sixty miles ; the first ten of which do not 
 admit of navigation during more than four months of the year. There 
 are, at all times, from two to six feet of water for three miles farther, and 
 the depth, in the remaining part of the way to the lake, is from two to 
 four fathoms. 
 
 The river Amite falls into bayou Manshac on the north side, twenty 
 miles from the Mississippi : the'water of the Amite is clear, running on a 
 gravelly bottom. It may be ascended by vessels, drawing from five to six 
 feet of water, about twelve, and with batteaux one hundred, miles farther. 
 
14 HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 
 
 It forks about seventeen miles above its mouth : the eastern fork is the 
 Comite ; the western, which preserves its name, is the most considerable 
 and rises near Pearl river. Both run through a fertile, rolling country, 
 which as well as the low land, is covered with cane, oak, ash, mulberry. 
 hickory, poplar, cedar and cypress. 
 
 The united waters of bayou Manshac and the Amite form the Il^erville, 
 the length of which is thirty-nine miles. The land and timber on its 
 banks are similar to those on the Amite, with the difference that the banks 
 of the Iberville are in general lower, and the country less hilly, with a 
 greater proportion of rice land, and cypress and live oak of an excellent 
 quality for ship building. 
 
 Lake Maurepas is about ten miles long and seven wide, and from ten to 
 twelve feet deep. The country around it is low and covigred with cj'press, 
 live oak and myrtle. 
 
 The Tickfoa is the only river that falls into lake Maurepas. It rises in 
 the state of Mississippi and runs a middle course between Amite and 
 Pearl rivers, it has a sufficient depth for steam boat navigation to the 
 mouth of bayou Chapeaupilier, a distance of about fifty miles. 
 
 The pass of Manshac connects lake Maurepas and lake Pontchartrain. 
 It is seven miles in length, and about three hundred yards wide ; divided 
 by an island, Avhich runs from the former to within a mile from the latter ; 
 the south channel is the deepest and shortest. 
 
 The greatest length of lake Pontchartrain is about forty miles, and its 
 width about twenty-four, and the average depth ten fathoms. 
 
 It receives on the north side the rivers Tangipao, Tchefuncta and 
 Bonfouca, with the bayous Castin and Lacemel, and on the side of the 
 city, bayou St. John, and higher up bayou Tigouyou. 
 
 Tangipao has at its mouth a depth of water of four feet, Tchefuncta 
 seven, and Bonfouca, six. 
 
 Two passes connect lake Pontchartrain with an estuary called lake 
 Borgne, the Rigolets and the pass of Chef Menteur, both of which are 
 defended by a fort, surrounded by deep morasses. 
 
 The passes are about ten miles long, and from three to four hundred 
 yards wide. 
 
 By bayous that fall into lake Borgne, a number of fishermen, who dwell 
 on its banks, find their way to the market of New Orleans, which they 
 ■supply. Through one of these, bayou Bienvenu, the British army under 
 general Packenham, proceeded, with all its artillery to within a very few 
 miles of the city. 
 
 There are from sixteen to eighteen feet of water on the sides of lake 
 Borgne ; in the middle from ten to twelve fathoms ; but in its upper part, 
 from eleven to twelve feet. 
 
 Opposite to the entrance into lake Borgne, and at the end of the Rigolets, 
 on the north side near the gulf, is the mouth of Pearl river. 
 
 This stream rises in the northern part of the state of Mississippi, and 
 after traversing it centrally, sends its waters into the gulf by two main 
 branches. The eastern which, we have seen, divides the states of Louisiana 
 and Mississippi, falls into lake Borgne. The western, which leaves the 
 main branch in the latitude of thirty degrees, runs entirely through the 
 former state and falls into the Rigolets. 
 
 Above the fork, the navigation is good for steam boats, during six months 
 of the year ; some have already ascended to Monticello. 
 
HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 15 
 
 It is evid-ent from an insi)ection of this river, that at no very distant 
 period, its eastern branch was its only channel, meandering through an 
 extent of above one hundred miles to lake Borgne. During some inunda- 
 tion, the western branch l)roke from the main channel, through the swamps, 
 and found a nearer course, of sixty miles only, to the Rigolets. 
 
 Above Manshac, the land gradually rises on the eastern side of the river, 
 to Baton Rouge, a small town distant about one hundred and twenty 
 miles from Xew Orleans. The plantations are not all, as below, ranged 
 side by side on the immediate banks of the river ; but, many are scattered 
 in the intermediate space, l)etween the Mississippi, the rivers Amite, Comite 
 and others flowing into the lakes Maurepas and Pontchartrain. On one of 
 these the Spaniards made an abortive effort to establish a town, called 
 Galveztown. 
 
 Sugar plantations are now much fewer ; but those on which cotton is 
 cultivated are more numerous and extensive. The part of the state to the 
 east of the Mississippi and the lakes, having been occupied by the British 
 for nearly twenty years, the descendants of its original French inhabitants 
 are in very small number, indeed ; and a great many of the people who 
 have come to Louisiana from other states, since the cession, have settled 
 there : during the possession of the British, several colonists from the 
 Atlantic provinces, principally Virginia, the Carolinas and Georgia, flocked 
 thither. There was a considerable migration in 1764 and 1765 from the 
 "hanks of the Roanoke, in North Carolina; so that the population differs 
 very little from that of the Atlantic states. The mixture of French and 
 Spaniards being small indeed, except in the town of Baton Rouge. 
 
 This town is built on a high bluff", on the eastern side of the river. The 
 United States have extensive barracks near it. It contains the public 
 laiildings of the parish, and has two weekly gazettes and a branch of the 
 ])ank of Louisiana. 
 
 On the opposite side of the river from bayou Plaquemines, the arable 
 land is only a narrow slip between the bank and the cypress swamps, that 
 empty themselves in the Atchafalya. 
 
 At a distance of about thirty miles from Baton Rouge and on the same 
 side, on an elevated ridge parallel to and near the river, is the town of St. 
 Francisville. The land around, as far north as the boundary line, which 
 is only fifteen miles distant, and far to the east, is rolling, and tolerably 
 well adapted to the culture of the cotton, which engages the attention of 
 the settlers. St. Francisville has a house of worship, a weekly paper and 
 a l)ranch of the bank of Louisiana, and the public buildings of its parish. 
 
 Opposite to it, is the settlement of Pointe Coupee, the principal part of 
 which is a peninsula, formed by the old bed of the Mississippi, called 
 False river, the upper part of which is stopped up at present. The French 
 liad a fort there, the vestiges of which are discernible. This parish is 
 populous and wealthy : cotton is its principal staple, but it has few sugar 
 plantations. It has no town ; but the plantations throughout, principally 
 on both banks of False river, are much closer to each other than in any 
 other parish in the state. It is at high water insulated, by the Atchafalaya 
 and the Mississippi on the northeast and west, and by a dismal swamp 
 which separates it from the parish of West Baton Rouge, and which is 
 then inundated. 
 
 To the west, and at the distance of forty miles from St. Francisville, is 
 the small town of Jackson, and about sixty miles to the south of the latter, 
 
16 HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 
 
 that of Springfield, near the mouth of the Tangipao river, which falls into 
 lake Maiirepas. 
 
 On the eastern side of lake Pontchartrain, near the mouth of the Tchefuncta 
 is the town of Madisonville, and seven miles higher up, that of Covington. 
 The land in this neighborhood along the Avater courses is a rich alluvial 
 bottom, and terminates in pine barrens. 
 
 The country near Si3ringfield, Covington and Madisonville, especially 
 the two last, is sandy and sterile in general, and covered with pine trees ; 
 although there are, along most of the water courses, several spots well 
 adapted to the culture of cotton. The inhabitants apply their industry to 
 making tar and pitch, gathering turpentine, cutting timber, burning bricks 
 and lime ; the immense ridges of shell, on the margin of the gulf facilitating 
 greatly, the last operation. 
 
 A little above the northern extremity of the settlement of Pointe Coupee , 
 Red river pours its waters into the Mississippi. This stream has its 
 source in the vicinity of Santa Fe. The Mississippi, a little below, sends 
 part of its accumulated flood to the sea through a western branch, its first 
 outlet from its source called the Atchafalaya ; a word, which in the Indian 
 language means a long river. The form of the country and this name, not 
 at all applicable to the stream at present, have given rise to the opinion , 
 that, in former time, the northern extremity of the settlement of Pointe 
 Coupee prolonged itself to, and joined the bank of the Mississippi, above 
 the mouth of Red river, leaving a piece of ground between the two streams ; 
 so that the Red river did not pay the tribute of its waters to the Mississippi, 
 but carried them, and the name of Atchafalaya, which it then bore, and 
 was particularly applicable to it, to the sea ; the present stream, which has 
 retained its name, being only a continuation of it, and that in course ot 
 time the waves of the long and great rivers destroyed the ground that 
 separated them, and divided the former into two ; the upper one of which 
 has received the name of Red river from the Europeans, on account of the 
 color of its water, which is occasioned by the copper mines near it, the 
 impregnations of which prevent them from being potable. 
 
 The confluence of Red river and the Mississippi is remarkable as the 
 spot, on which the army of Charles I. of Spain, under De Soto, towards 
 the middle of the sixteenth century, committed the body of their chief to 
 the deep, in order to prevent its falling into the hands of the Indians. 
 
 On entering Red river, the water appears turbid, brackish and of a red 
 color. For the first sixty or seventy miles, its bed is so crooked, that the 
 distance through its meanderings is two-thirds greater than in a straight 
 line. The general course is nearly east to west ; the land for upwards of 
 thirty miles from its mouth is overflowed at high water, from ten to fifteen 
 feet. Below Black river, the northern bank is the highest. The growth 
 in the lower or southern part is willow and cotton wood ; in the higher, 
 oak, hickory and ash. 
 
 Six miles from the mouth of the river, on the south side, is bayou 
 Natchitoches, which communicates with lake Long, from whence another 
 bayou affords a passage to the river. At high water, boats pass through 
 these bayous and lake, and go to the river after a route of fifteen miles, 
 while the distance from one bayou to the other is forty-five. 
 
 Black river comes up from the north, about twenty-four miles from 
 bayou Natchitoches ; its water is clear and limpid, when contrasted with 
 that of Red river, and appears black. 
 
HISTOilY OF LOUISIANA. 17 
 
 Above the junction, Red river makes a regular turn to tlie south, 
 for about eighteen miles, forming a segment of about three-fourths of 
 a circle. Twenty miles above, the bayou from lake Long comes in, and 
 thirty-three miles still farther is the first landing of the Avoyelles : the 
 river all the while being so crooked that, at this place, the guns of 
 Fort Adams are distinctly heard ; although the distance by the river is 
 upwards of one hundred and fifty miles. The sound appears a little south 
 from east. 
 
 At this landing is the first arable soil immediately on the banks of 
 the river, which, in the whole space, are higher than the land behind. At 
 a short distance from this landing, to the south is the prairie des 
 Avoyelles, of an oval form and about forty miles in circumference. It is 
 very level, covered with high grass and has but very few clumps of 
 trees ; its soil is not ver}^ fertile ; that of the timber land around it, when 
 cleared, is far preferable. The lower end of the prairie has the richest 
 land. The timber around it is chiefly oak, which produces good mast. 
 The inhabitants raise cotton ; but the settlement is better for cattle and 
 hogs ; in high water it is insulated, and at others communicates with 
 those of Rapides, Opelousas and Pointe Coupee. 
 
 The upper landing is fifteen miles higher, and sixteen miles above, a 
 few years ago, was laid the foundation of the town of Cassandra, on the 
 north side, opposite to bayou L'amoureux, which connects Red river and 
 bayou Boeuf. The intermediate land on the northern bank is tolerably 
 good, moderately hilly, covered chiefly with oak, hickory and short 
 leaved pine. But at the distance of a few miles from the water, begins a 
 pine barren tract, that extends for upwards of thirty miles to the 
 settlements of Catahoula. On the south side, is a large body of rich low 
 ground, extending to the borders of the settlements of Opelousas, watered 
 and drained by bayou Robert and bayou Boeuf, two handsome streams of 
 clear water that rise in the high land between Red river and the Sabine. 
 
 Bayou Boeuf falls into bayou Crocodile, which empties itself into the 
 Atchafalaya to the south of the settlement of Avoyelles, at a short 
 distance from the large raft in the latter stream. In point of fertile soil, 
 growth of timber, and goodness of water, there is not perhaps an equal 
 quantity of good land, in the state, than on the banks of bayou Boeuf. 
 
 The town of Alexandria stands on the south side of Red river, fifteen 
 miles above that of Cassandra, and immediately below the rapids or falls, 
 which are occasioned by a sudden rise of the bed of the river, which is 
 here a soft rock, extending quite across. From July to November, there is a 
 sufficiency of water, over the falls, for the passage of boats. The rock 
 is extremly soft and does not extend up and down the river more than 
 a. few yards, and a passage could easily be cut across. 
 
 The town is regularly built. It has an elegant court house and college, 
 ])uilt of bricks, a strong jail and a neat market house. The bank of 
 Louisiana has here an office of discount, and there is a printing office, 
 from which a weekley paper is issued. 
 
 The settlement of Rapides is a valley of rich alluvial soil, surrounded by 
 pine hills, extending to the east towards the Washita, and in the opposite 
 direction to the Sabine. The pine hills come to the river, opposite to the 
 town. 
 
 Immediately above the town, the river receives from the same side 
 
18 HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 
 
 bayou Rapides, a semi-circular stream, about thirty miles in length, the 
 upper part of which I'eceives a portion of the water of Red river. 
 
 Bayou Robert, which is now almost stagnant, formerly ran out of bayou 
 Rapides, about a mile above its mouth and winding through a rich valley 
 united with bayou Boeuf. But, a dyke has been thrown up, at its former 
 mouth and the current confined to bayou Rapides. 
 
 Both these bayous pass through bodies of extremely fine land, of great 
 depth. 
 
 Twenty miles above Alexandria are two deserted villages of the Biloxi 
 Indians. 
 
 Near these, bayou Jean de Dieu or Coteille, falls into Red river, from the 
 right side. The stream of bayou Rapides, of which the channel is 
 continuous, was formerly a navigable branch of Red river, which returned 
 to the parent stream, below and at the foot of the rapids but the gradual 
 deepening of the bed and the widening of the stream have left it a small 
 bayou, Avhich is fed by springs and branches from the pine hills ; one-half 
 emptying at the former outlet above ; the other at the foot of the rapids, 
 below. The lower half is called bayou Rapides. The whole length is 
 about thirty miles. The land throughout is of the finest quality and 
 great depth, and now in the highest state of culture. These bayous are 
 not used for the purpose of navigation, but are capable of forming with little 
 expense, a fine natural canal. 
 
 Thirteen miles above bayou Jean de Dieu, is an island of seventy miles 
 in length and three in width, the northern channel of which is called the 
 Rigolet du bon Dieu and the other the river aux Cannes. 
 
 There is not much good land on the west side of the river ; the high 
 lands generally confine it on one side and the island thus formed is, on 
 the side of it bordering on the rigolet, subject to inundation. 
 
 On the east side of the river the valley is narrow but of inexhaustible 
 fertility ; the rest of the land between the river and the Washita, is oak 
 and pine land, of little value, except in spots on the water courses. 
 
 The principal settlements of Natchitoches are on the immediate banks 
 of the river, on each side. The land is red alluvion, of singular fertility, 
 but not cultivable to a great extent from the rivers. The swamps 
 commencing within a very few acres. 
 
 The town of Natchitoches is at the distance of one hundred and nine 
 miles from Alexandria and on the same side of Red river. It is the 
 westernmost town of the state, being two hundred and sixty-six miles 
 from the Mississippi, about four hundred from New Orleans and five 
 hundred from the gulf by water. 
 
 The old town stood on a hill, about half a mile behind the present, 
 which is immediately on the bank of the river. On the second street, is a 
 hill the area of which covers about two hundred acres of ground ; on it a 
 fort and barracks have been built, the site of which is thirty feet above 
 the bank of the river. The old town is an extensive common of several 
 hundred acres entirely tufted with clover and covered with sheep and 
 cattle. Nothing of it is discoverable except the forms of the gardens and 
 some ornamental trees. It began to be abandoned soon after the cession 
 of the province to Spain. Before, most of the settlers dwelt in town ; the 
 hill is of stiff" clay and the streets were miry ; the people found the place 
 inconvenient, on account of their stock and farms, and filed off" one after 
 the other, and settled on the river. The merchants found its banks 
 
HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 19 
 
 convenient for lading and unlading : the mechanics followed and the 
 church and jail were removed. The soil on the river, though much richer, 
 is of a loose sandy texture and the streets are not miry, nor much dusty. 
 The town is nearly twice as large as Alexandria. The well water is luirdly 
 l)otable, that of the river brackish, and the inhabitants, as in Alexandria, 
 have large cisterns for collecting rain water. The public buildings of the 
 parish are in this town and a weekly gazette is published. 
 
 There are two lakes near, within one and six miles. The larger has a 
 circumference of six miles, the other of thirty. They rise and fall with 
 the river : the stream that connects them with it, during high water, runs 
 into them with great velocity, and in like manner to the river, during the 
 rest of the year. The quantity of fish and fowls which are obtained on 
 these lakes appears incredible. It is not uncommon, in winter, for a man 
 to kill from two to' four hundred fowls in an evening. They fly between 
 sun down and dusk : the air is tilled with them. A man loads and fires, 
 as quickly as he can, without taking aim, and continues on the same spot, 
 till he thinks he has killed enough. Ducks and geese, brant and swan 
 are thus killed. In summer, fish abound equally. An Indian with a bow 
 and arrow, kills more than two horses can carry away, while he is thus 
 engaged. Some of the fish weigh from thirty to forty pounds. The lakes 
 afford also a plenty of shell for lime. At low water, their bottoms are 
 most luxuriant meadows, where the inhabitants fatten their horses. 
 
 Stone coal is found in abundance, in the neighborhood, with a quarry 
 of good building stone. 
 
 Similar lakes are found all along Red river for five or six hundred miles. 
 They are natural reservoirs, for the surplus quantity of water, beyond 
 what the banks of the river may contain ; otherwise, no part of the ground 
 could be inhabited, the low land, from hill to hill, would be inundated. 
 
 Twelve miles north of Natchitoches, on the opposite side of the river is 
 lake Noir, a large one ; the bayou of which comes into the Rigolet du bon 
 Dieu, opposite to the town ; near it are salt works, from which the town is 
 supplied. 
 
 Three miles up the stream, is the upper mouth of the Rigolet du bon 
 Dieu, where the settlement of the grand ecor, or great bluff begins. This 
 eminence stands on the south side, and is about one hundred feet high. 
 Towards the ri^^er, it is almost perpendicular, and of a soft white rock : the 
 top is a gravel loam of considerable extent, on which grow large oaks, 
 hickory, black cherry and grape vines There is a small bluff near, at the 
 foot of Avhich is a large quantity of stone coal, and several springs of the 
 best water in this part of the country. Near them is a lake of clear water, 
 with a gravelly margin. 
 
 The river makes a large bend above the bluffs, to the north, and a long 
 reach, nearly due east by it. About a mile above, from the south shore, a 
 large bayou comes in from the Spanish lake, which is about fifty miles in 
 circumference, and rises and falls with the river, from which the largest 
 boats may ascend to the lake, and through it up several bayous, particu- 
 larly bayou Dupin, up which, boats may go within one mile and a half 
 from the old French fort, at the Adayes. 
 
 Two miles above this place, the river forks ; the southwestern branch 
 running Avesterly for sixty miles, then forming and meeting the other. 
 
 The country, bounded to the east and north by this branch of the river, 
 is called the bayou Pierre settlement, from a stream that traverses it. 
 
20 HISTORY OF LOUISIANA, 
 
 Part of the land was granted hy the French government. The inhabitants 
 raised large herds of cattle and made some cheese. The settlement is 
 interspersed with prairies, and the land is equally rich, as the river 
 l3ottoms. The hills are of a good grey soil. The creek, called by the new 
 settlers. Stony creek, affords several good mill seats. Its Ijed and banks 
 furnish a goocl kind of building stone. The upland is high, gently rolling, 
 and produces good corn, cotton and tobacco. A few miles to the west is 
 an abundant saline. 
 
 Higher up on the river, on a hill, to the northeast is the Campti 
 settlement. The river land is here much broken by bayous and lagoons. 
 
 BetAveen lake Bistineau and tributary streams of the Washita is a new 
 and extensive settlement, which has grown up within a few years, called 
 Allen's settlement. The land is second rate upland, finely watered and 
 well adapted to raising stock. 
 
 The country to the west of Red river, extending to the Sabine, furnishes 
 but a small proportion of even second rate land. It is generally covered 
 with oak and pine. There are some choice spots of land ; but of small 
 extent. 
 
 Cantonment Jessup is situated half way between Red river and the 
 Sabine and on the highest ridge, which separates the streams flowing into 
 these rivers. 
 
 The land on the Sabine is unfit for cultivation to any extent. The part 
 of it, which is not subject to sudden overflow, is high land of no value but 
 for raising stock. 
 
 Above is the obstruction, commonly called the great raft, choking up 
 the channel for upwards of one hundred miles, by the course of the river. 
 It was examined, during the winter of 1826, by capt. Birch and lieutenant 
 Lee, with a detachment from cantonment Jessup, by order of the secretary 
 of war of the United States, with the view of ascertaining the practicability 
 of opening a passage for steam boats. 
 
 They found, within one hundred miles of the bed of the river, above one 
 hundred and eighty rafts or jams of timber, from a few to four hundred 
 yards in length. They thought that to break through, or remove them, so 
 as to admit the passage of a steam boat, would be a work of immense 
 labor and expense, and that, if done, the loose timber would probably 
 form other rafts below. 
 
 The bank of the river appeared to them very rich ; but so covered with 
 canes, briars and vines, as to render it impossible to advance, without 
 cutting a passage all the way, and they judged a man could cut but a few 
 yards in a day. 
 
 They crossed over an island hauling a light skiff" to bayou Pierre, from 
 which a canal of less than half a mile, through an alluvial soil, Avould 
 open a communication with lake Scioto. This lake is about one hundred 
 miles long and five or six wide ; a channel ten feet deep runs through it. 
 The high water mark is at least fifteen feet above the surface of the lake 
 in winter. The lake has an indented shore, parallel to the river, and a 
 communication with it about twenty-five miles above the raft, and another 
 might be easily opened many miles higher up. 
 
 In ascending bayou Pierre, which falls into the river six miles above the 
 town of Natchitoches, the principal obstruction consists of a number of 
 cypress stumps, that might be easily removed at low water. This once 
 effected and a canal cut into lake Scioto, there would be nothing, at high 
 
HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 21 
 
 water, to prevent steam lioats ascending Red river one thousand miles 
 above the town of Natchitoches, even into New Mexico, tlimugh a fertile 
 and salubrious country. It is believed, that the jtassage througli 1)ayou 
 Pierre is one hundred miles shorter than through the main branch of the 
 river. 
 
 Cotton is exclusively cultivated for sale in the settlement of Rapides, 
 and almost so in that of Natchitoches, in which tobacco is also raised ; it 
 is of a superior quality ; the planters do not put it up as elsewhere in 
 hogsheads, but bring it to market in carrots. 
 
 Black river, at its mouth, is about one hundred yards in width, and is 
 twenty feet deep. Its banks are covered with pea vine, and several kinds 
 of grasses, bearing a seed which geese and ducks eat greedily. Willows 
 are generally seen on one side or the other, with a small growth of black 
 oak, pecan, hickory, elm, etc. It takes its name at the distance of sixty-six 
 miles from Red river, where it branches out into the Catahoula, Washita 
 and Tensa. Its width here does not exceed eighty yards. The soil is a 
 black mould mixed with a moderate proportion of sand, resembling much 
 the soil of the Mississippi. Yet the forest trees are not like those on that 
 stream, but resemble those on Red river. The cane grows on several parts 
 of its right bank, and a few small willows are seen on either. In 
 advancing up the river, the timber becomes large, rising in some places to 
 the height of forty feet. The land is at times inundated, not by the waters 
 of the river, but from the intrusion of its powerful neighbor, the Mississippi. 
 The land declines rapidly from the banks, as in all alluvial countries, to 
 the cypress swamps, where more or less water stagnates, during the whole 
 year. Towards the upper end of Black river, the shore abounds with 
 muscles and perry wincles, the first of the kind called pearl muscles. 
 
 The land, at the mouth of the Catahoula is evidently alluvial. In 
 process of time, the river, shutting up its ancient passage, and elevating 
 the banks over which its waters pass no longer, communicates with the 
 same facility as formerly. The consequence is, that many large tracts, 
 before subject to inundation, are now exempt from that inconvenience. 
 
 There is an embankment running from the Catahoula to Black river 
 (enclosing about two hundred acres of rich land) at present about ten 
 feet high, and ten feet broad. This surrounds four large mounds of earth 
 at the distance of a bow shot from each other ; each of which may be 
 twenty feet high, one hundred feet broad, and three hundred feet long at 
 the top, besides a stupendous turret, situated on the badk j)art of the 
 whole, or farthest from the water ; the base covers about an acre of ground, 
 rising by two steps or stories, tapering in the ascent ; the whole surmounted 
 by a great cone with its top cut off. This tower of earth, on admeasure- 
 ment, was found to be eighty feet perpendicular. 
 
 The Tensa is a creek thirty-six miles long, the issue of a lake of the 
 same name, twenty-four miles in length and six in breadth, which lies 
 west from the mouth of the Catahoula, and communicates with Red river, 
 during the great annual inundations. 
 
 To the Avest and northwest angle of this lake, a stream called Little 
 river enters, and preserves its channel of running water during all the 
 year : meandering along the bed of the lake, the superfices of Avhich, in air 
 other parts, during the dry season from July to November, and frequently 
 later, is completely drained, covered with the most luxuriant herbage, and 
 becomes the retreat of immense herds of deer, of turkeys, geese and crane. 
 
22 HISTORY OF LOUISIANA, 
 
 The Tensa serves only to drain off a part of the waters of the inundation 
 from the Ioav hind of the Mississippi, Avhich communicates with Black 
 river during the season of high water. 
 
 Three miles up the Washita and on the right side conies a stream called 
 the Haha, one of the many passages through which the waters of the great 
 inundation penetrate and pervade all the low land ; annihilating, for a 
 time, the current of lesser streams in the neighborhood of the Mississippi. 
 
 Five miles above is the 'prairie Villemont, thus named from its having 
 been included in a grant from the French government to an officer of that 
 name. 
 
 In the beginning of the last century, the French projected, and began 
 here extensive settlements, but the massacre in 1730, and the subsequent 
 destruction of the Natchez Indians, broke up all their undertakings, and 
 they Avere not renewed by the French. 
 
 The timber, on both sides of the Washita to this prairie, is chiefly the 
 red, white and black oak, interspersed with a variety of other trees. 
 
 The plains of the Washita lie on its east side, and sloping from the 
 bank, are inundated in the rear by the Mississippi. In certain great 
 floods, the water has advanced so far, as to be ready to pour into the 
 Washita over its margin. J^.^ ,; , 
 
 On approaching towards bayou Lowes, which the Washita receives from 
 the right, a little below its first rapid there is a great deal of high land on 
 both sides of the river, producing the long leaved pine. 
 
 At the foot of the rapids, the navigation is obstructed, by beds of 
 gravelly sand ; above the first rapid is a high ridge of primitive eartli, 
 studded with abundance of fragments of rocks or stone, which appear to 
 have been thrown up to the surface in a very irregular manner. The stone 
 is of a very friable nature, some of it having the appearance of indurated 
 clay ; the rest is blackish, from exposure to the air ; within, it is of a. 
 greyish white. It is said that the strata in the hill are regular and might 
 afibrd good grindstones. 
 
 The other rapid is formed by a ledge of rocks crossing the entire bed 
 of the river : above it, the water appears as in a mill pond and is about 
 one hundred yards wide. 
 
 Twelve miles higher, a little above a rocky hill, conies in the bayou Aux 
 Boeufs. The river is here, at low water, about two fathoms and a half 
 deep, on a bottom of mud and sand. The banks of the river appear to 
 retain very little alluvial soil : the high land earth which is a sandy loam 
 of a grey color, has streaks of red sand and clay. The soil is not rich ; it 
 bears pines, interspersed with red oak, hickory and dogwood. 
 
 A third rapid created by a transverse ledge of rock, narrows the river to 
 about thirty yards. 
 
 Similar rapids occur as far as the settlement. It is a plain or prairie, 
 which appears alluvial from the regular slope of the land from the bank 
 of the river, the bed of which is now sufficiently deep to preserve it from, 
 inundation. Yet, in the rear, the waters of the Mississippi approach, and 
 sometimes leave dry but a narrow strip of land along the bank of the 
 Washita. The soil is here very good, but not equal to the Mississippi 
 bottoms ; it may be estimated second rate. At a small distance to the 
 east, are extensive cypress swamps, over which the waters of the inundation 
 always stand, to the depth of from fifteen to twenty-five feet. On the 
 west, after passing once the valley of the river, the breadth of which ie 
 
HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. ' 23 
 
 from one-quarter to two miles, tlie land assumes an elevation from one 
 liundred to three hundred feet, and extends to the settlements of Red 
 river. It is there poor and what is ealled pine barrens. 
 
 On this part of the river, lies a considerable tract of land, granted in 
 1795 by the Baron de C'arondelet to the Marquis of Maison Rouge, a French 
 emigrant, who proposed to l)ring into Louisiana, thirty families from his 
 country, who were to descend the Ohio for the purpose of forming an 
 establishment, on the banks of the Washita, designed principally for the 
 culture of wheat, and the manufacture of flour. This tract was two 
 leagues in width, and twelve in length, traversed by the river. 
 
 The town of Monroe stands on the side of the Washita, and at high 
 water is approached by large steamboats ; but the navigation is interrupted 
 during a great part of the year by many shoals and rapids. The general 
 width of the river to the town is from eighty to one hundred yards. Its 
 ))anks present very little appearance of alluvial soil, but furnish an infinite 
 number of beautiful landscapes. 
 
 A substance is found along the river side, nearly resembling mineral 
 coal ; its appearance is that of the carbonated wood, described by Kirwan. 
 It does not easily burn, but being applied to the flame of a candle, it 
 sensibly increases it, and yields a faint smell, resembling that of gum lac, 
 or common sealing wax. 
 
 Soft frial)le stone is common, and great quantities of gravel and sand 
 are upon the beach ; on several parts of the shore a reddish clay appears 
 in the strata of the banks, much indurated and blackened by exposure to 
 light and air. 
 
 The land above the town is not very inviting, the soil being poor and 
 covered with pine wood. 
 
 About thirty-six miles higher up is bayou Barthelemy, on the right. 
 Here begins Baron de Bastrop's grant of land, by the Baron de Carondelet 
 in 1795, obtained nearly on the same terms as that of the Marquis de 
 Maison Rouge. It is a square of four leagues on each side, containing 
 about one million of acres. 
 
 The bank of the river continues about thirty feet in height, of which 
 eighteen from the water are clayey loam of a pale color, on which the 
 water has deposited twelve feet of light sandy soil, apparently fertile, and 
 of a dark brown color. This description of land is of a small breadth, not 
 exceeding one-half of a mile on each side of the river ; and may be called 
 the valley of the Washita, between which there is high land covered with 
 pine. 
 
 The soil continues with a growth of small timber to the bayou des butes, 
 which has its name from a number of Indian mounds along its course. 
 
 The margin of the river l)egins now to be covered with such timber as 
 grows on inundated land, particularly a species of white oak, vulgarly 
 called the overcup oak, the wood of which is remarkably hard, solid, 
 ponderous and durable. It produces a large acorn, in great abundance, 
 on which bears feed, and which is very fattening for hogs. 
 
 A few miles higher up is a long and narrow island. Here the face of 
 the country begins to change. The banks of the river are low and steep, 
 its bed deeper and more contracted, being from twenty-five to thirty feet 
 in depth. The soil, near the water, is a very sandy loam, covered with 
 such vegetation, as is found on the inundated land of the Mississippi. 
 The tract presents the appearance of a new soil, very different from what 
 
24 HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 
 
 is below. This alluvial spot may be supposed the old site of a great lake, 
 drained by a natural channel, by the abrasion of the water — since which 
 period, the annual inundations have deposited the superior soil. Eighteen 
 or twenty feet are wanting to render it habitaljle for man. It appears now 
 well stocked with the beasts of the forest. 
 
 Mallet's island is above. Its upper point has been ascertained to be 
 within o'2^ seconds to the northern line of the state. The bed of the river 
 along this alluvial soil is generally covered with water, and its navigation, 
 uninterrupted. Near it is marais des Sdbincs, on the right. A stratum of 
 dirty white clay, under the alluvial tract, shows the end of the sunken and 
 the approach of the high land. The salt lake marsh does not derive its 
 name from any brackishness in its water ; but from its contiguity to some 
 of the lakes, generally found, on a clayey soil, compact enough for potters' 
 ware. 
 
 Opposite to this place is a point of land, forming a promontory, 
 advancing within a mile of the river, and to which the boats resort, when 
 the low lands are covered with water. 
 
 Great salt lick creek, a stream of considerable length, and navigable for 
 small boats, comes in above. The hunters ascend it three hundred miles, 
 and affirm that none of the springs that feed it are salt. It has obtained 
 its name from the many buffalo salt licks discovered in its vicinity. 
 
 Although many of these licks, by digging, furnish water, holding 
 marine salt in solution, there exists no reason for believing that any of 
 them would produce nitre. 
 
 Notwithstanding this low, alluvial tract appears in all respects well 
 adapted to the growth of the long moss, or Spanish beard, (tilansia) none 
 is obtained in the thirty-third degree of latitude. 
 
 The long leaf pine, frequently the growth of rich and even inundated 
 land, is here in great abundance. The short leaf pitch pine, on the 
 contrary, is generally found upon arid land and frequently in sandy and 
 lofty situations. 
 
 Some sand beaches and rapids are higher up ; there are cane brakes on 
 both sides of the river. The canes are small, but demonstrate that the 
 water does not surmount the bank more than a few feet. 
 
 The river here begins to widen. Its banks show the high land soil, 
 with a stratum of three or four feet of alluvion deposited l)y the river upon 
 it. Their superstratum is greyish and very sandy, with a small adndxture 
 of loam, indicative of the poverty of the U])land and mountains in which 
 the river rises. 
 
 At the distance of a few miles is the confluence of the little Atipovise, on 
 the left hand. The navigation of the Washita is much impeded by 
 numerous rai)ids and shoals. 
 
 Coal mines are to be found on the northwest side of the river, at the 
 distance of one mile and a half from its banks, and a saline was discovered 
 by Dr. Hunter, in 1804. 
 
 It is situated at the bot,tom of the bed of a deep gully. The surrounding 
 land is rich and well timbered, but subject to inundation ; except an 
 Indian mound, having a base of eighteen or one hundred feet in diameter 
 and twenty feet high. After digging about three feet through the clay, he 
 came to quicksand, from which the water flowed in abundance. Its taste 
 was salt and bitter, resembling that of sea water. In a second hole, it 
 required him to dig six feet before he reached the quicksand : in doing 
 
HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 25 
 
 which lie struck several pieces of Indian ])ottery. The l)rine yielded a 
 solid muss, by evaporation, of ten ({uarts or half a pound in weight, when 
 dry. It is, therefore, of the same strength as the water of the ocean on 
 our coast, and twice that of the famous lick in Kentucky, called Bullet's 
 lick, and Mank's lick, from which so much salt is nuule. 
 
 The part of the state lying north of Red river is interspersed with 
 numerous lakes and water courses, and presents every variety of the soil, 
 from the low inundated land to the highest hills in Louisiana. As in the 
 lower region of the Mississippi, the margin of the rivers is (with the 
 exception of a few tracts of high cane brake land) higher than that in the 
 rear, taking a southern direction with that noble stream. The shores of 
 lake Providence, the first high land that presents itself, are about three 
 miles west from the river. That lake is evidently an ancient bed of the 
 Mississippi ; about thirty-six miles due south, lake St. Joseph presents 
 the same appearance. On Bruine's bayou, twelve miles south, part of the 
 l)anks are suthciently high for cultivation. Lake St. John is not far from 
 Concordia. The shores of both these lakes are partly cultivated ; their 
 features indicate also that they formerly Avere beds of the Mississippi. 
 From Concordia to the mouth of Red river, the land descends suddenly 
 from the banks into what makes a part of the ]\[ississippi swamp. The 
 first water course of any importance running west of and in a nearly 
 parallel course wdth the Mississippi is the river Tensa, which uniting with 
 the bayou Mason runs into the Washita. The Tensa and Mason might 
 easily be made navigable far steamboats, Avhich have already ascended the 
 Tensa upAvards of thirty miles. In the upper part of those riA'ers, the land 
 is high in many places, chiefly on the Mason ; the land is rolling, far 
 al:)Ove high Avater mark, but not sufficiently elevated to merit the 
 appellation of hills. Beautiful specimens of calcareous spath have been 
 l^rought from that part of the country, found in ploughing. In the lower 
 part of those streams the land is Ioav and unfit for cultivation. BetAveen 
 the Mississi})pi and the Tensa, bayous intersect the SAvamp, ahvaj's 
 running Avest or soutliAA'estAvardly ; lakes, joined the one to the other by 
 those bayous, are scattered over it. The greatest part of those lakes 
 becomes dry at Ioav Avater, and in a dry autumn, except those Avhich AA'ere 
 formerly beds of the Mississippi. These retain iiiA^ariably a considerable 
 quantity of Avater. The same observation applies to the country betAveen 
 the Mississippi and Black river, Avhich empties into Red river thirty miles 
 above its mouth. When the Mississij^pi rolls on its full tide, those bayous, 
 receiA^ng an immense addition from its waters, run with the rapidity of 
 torrents ; chiefiy at their issue from the Mississippi into the Tensa and. 
 river Aux BcBufs, mixing their Avaters Avith the Washita and Black river, 
 and carrying back into its bosom by Red riv^er, Avhat it had yielded to 
 them above. 
 
 The head Avaters of the Tensa are at or near lake ProAddence ; the Mason 
 heads higher up and Avesterly. 
 
 The next riA'cr Avest of these is the Aux Boeufs, thus called by the first 
 hunters (French) on account of the innumerable herds of buffaloes Avhich 
 then roamed in the large prairies bordering its banks. That river has its 
 rise not far north of the thirty-third degree of latitude, in the territory of 
 Arkansas. The middle })art of its course presents high rich land ; it gets 
 lower towards its mouth, near Avhich it is overfloAved to the Washita river. 
 
26 HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 
 
 Between river Aux Ba?iifs and the Mason the land is low, with here and 
 there a tract of high rich soil. 
 
 West of river Aux Boeufs, Barthelemy river, (often called baj^ou) is a 
 consideral)le stream ; it heads in the territory of Arkansas, and empties 
 into the "Washita, tliirty miles by Avater above the town of Monroe, the 
 only re-union of houses or hamlets in the parish of Washita. The land 
 on that bayou is high on both sides ; its water ])ure, and its current brisk, 
 even at the lowest stage of water. It is navigable for Ijarges or batteaux, 
 and could ))e rendered fit for steam boat navigation at a small expense. 
 Among the numerous water courses, which either are or could easily be 
 made a medium of water communication, from the ]Mississippi to the 
 northwestern part of the state, it will ultimately be this river, which will 
 be found to afford the best, the easiest and the most important. 
 
 Among the numerous creeks and bayous which carry their tribute to 
 the Washita river, bayou Louis ought not to be forgotten ; it is not on 
 account of the extent of its course, but on account of the land on its 
 borders or adjacent thereto. It comes out of a lake of the same name, 
 the western and northwestern banks of which are inhabited, being high 
 and fertile. That lake and bayou, the Washita, river Aux Boeufs and 
 Turkey creek surround the high land, called Sicily Island. In it are 
 found high hills, generally much broken, containing sand stones and 
 some silex in pebbles ; that spot is the most remarkable for being the only 
 one covered with slight hills between the Mississippi and Washita, and 
 also, because it appears to have been among the first inhabited by the 
 French, who settled in Louisiana, who probaljly abandoned it at the epoch 
 of the massacre by the Natchez Indians. It is about thirty miles from 
 Concordia, in a west by north direction. French axes have been found 
 there, canon balls, even mill stones and iron tools much disfigured by 
 rust, but evidently of French manufacture. 
 
 The next stream, to which all those mentioned above are tributary, is 
 the Washita ; that river has its source in the territory of Arkansas, in the 
 Rocky mountains. In the vicinity of its head waters are found the 
 celebrated warm springs. It runs almost parallel with the Mississippi. 
 At the mouth of the Tensa, Little river or Catahoula river, arrives from 
 the west. The Washita, running between the two, takes their additional 
 supply at the same place, in its course, but there loses its name : from 
 this place to its junction with Red river, during a meandering course of 
 about sixty miles, it assumes the name of Black river, an appellation 
 probably derived from the color of the soil through which it runs ; the 
 fertility of which often induced emigrants to settle on its banks ; but they 
 are too low ; very few years elapse without seeing them inundated ; they are 
 now deserted. Many bayous empty their waters into Black river, all rising 
 in the Mississippi SAvamp, and at high water communicating with that 
 noble stream. The largest is bayou Crocodile, which comes out of lake 
 Concordia; when its current is considerable, the largest kind of canoes 
 have navigated it to Black river. 
 
 The Washita is navigable for steam boats of any liurthen during six or 
 eight months in the year, as far as the town of Monroe, a distance of 
 about two hundred and forty miles from its mouth, or as it is there called 
 the mouth of Black river. Steam boats of upwards of one hundred and 
 fifty tons have ascended it more than two hundred miles above Monroe. 
 From its mouth to the Mississippi, the banks of Red river are low, and 
 
HISTORY OF LOUISIAXA. 27 
 
 during high water offer nothing to tlie eye l)ut an immense sea covered 
 Avith forests. 
 
 The features of the country, west of ^^'asl^ta river, are very different 
 from those of the eastern side : between Washita and Red river, extensive 
 pine hills, some of which are several hundred feet high, cover the surface 
 of the earth, nearly as far south as the mouth of Little river, with the 
 exception of the bottoms of creeks ; some of which ai-e fertile and above 
 inundations — others, chiefiy near their mouth, covered with water at every 
 great swelling of the stream. On that side, the Mississippi has no effect ; 
 no power, there ceases its dominion, except occasionally when at the 
 highest stage, it recedes on Red river, and Black river, and consequently 
 such of their tributary streams, the entrance of which are situated low 
 enough to be affected by this retrograde motion. Such is Little river, 
 which runs through a lake called Catahoula, almost dry at low water, and 
 which could be navigated by crafts of heav}^ burthen, when the adjacent 
 low land is inundated. That river has its head waters about thirty miles 
 south of the 83d degree of N. latitude ; its northernmost branch originates 
 at 32 degrees and 35 seconds ; it then takes the name of Dogdemene and 
 forms the boundary between Washita and Natchitoches parishes. It 
 retains that name to its junction with the bayou or rather creek Castor, 
 thence it is called Little river. In the same manner as the Tensa, Washita 
 and Little river, uniting at one point, form Black river. 
 
 The country, through which Little river (sometimes called Catahoula 
 river) runs, wears not a uniform aspect, sometimes reaching between hills, 
 bluffs and banks, then strongly dragging its waters through lands inundated 
 from one and a half to three miles on each side ; in some instances, it flows 
 through rich bottoms, not subject to inundation. Its navigation could be 
 easily improved, and no doubt will be so, when its banks are more thickly 
 settled. 
 
 Several large creeks flow between Washita and Little river, formed by 
 innumerable branches, a great proportion of which are never failing 
 springs ; they only swell by rains ; the water running with rapidity from 
 the hills, subsides a few hours after the rain ceases. But few countries 
 can boast of being better supplied with good water than the tract bounded 
 north by the 33d degree of latitude, west by the Dogdemene, south by 
 Catahoula lake and Little river, and east by the Washita river. That 
 country is covered with hills, some of which are very good land, especially 
 about the head waters of bayou D'Arbonne a large creek, which empties 
 into the Washita about seven miles above Monroe. Between its mouth 
 and that place, the bayou Siard, has its entrance into the river. It may 
 not be amiss to observe here in order to find the true meaning of the words 
 bayous and creeks, in the state of Louisiana; the early French 
 settlers in Louisiana called bayous, small bays ; any water course, 
 which at its mouth and even higher up did appear like stagnating 
 water, was called bayou, a diminutive of bay. The appellation would be 
 correctly given to all water courses, having hardly any current, or the 
 current of which would run some times to, and some times from, the 
 river ; as it is the case with a great many in this section of the state. 
 When the river is lower than the low lands, those bayous run into the 
 river; when those lands are dry and the river rising, they run from it with 
 equal velocity. Those low lands are like reservoirs ; did they no't exist, 
 lower Louisiana could not be inhabited ; it would yet be part of the 
 
28 HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 
 
 dominion of the sea ; they retain an immense quantity of water, which 
 could be calcuhited, had Ave an accurate map of the state, showing minutely 
 all the land overflowed and to what dei)tli. The name of creek could be 
 given (although its true signification is nearly the same as the one 
 expressed by bayou before) to all water courses running with some 
 velocity and always in the same direction. Thus with any further 
 explanation and by the bare inspection of a map, it would be understood, 
 what sort of stream is delineated and even the elevation of the land it 
 runs through. Thus we would say bayou Siard, Barthelcmy creek or river, 
 creek D'Arbonne until it meets the overfloAv, thence bayou D'Arbonne, etc. 
 
 The bayou Siard has two entrances, one into Barthelemy, about six 
 miles east from its mouth, the other into Washita river, mentioned before. 
 It runs to and from that river, according to the stage of waters in either 
 stream ; it is navigable for barges some distance from the river and could 
 be easily made so for steam boats; on the hills between "\^'ashita and 
 Dogdem'ene, are occasionally very sandy stones, strongly inpregnated with 
 oxide of iron, siliceous probably. Plaster of Paris is found at a distance 
 of about ninety miles below Monroe, and near the ^^\ashita, a few lime 
 stones are scattered on the hills adjacent to those containing plaster of 
 Paris. In the same vicinity and in the deep curbs formed by the swift 
 running branches, have been found petrified shells of several kinds of 
 bivalves, also of belemita and cornua ammonis. 
 
 The land between Catahoula lake, Little river. Black river and the lower 
 part of Red river is almost an uninterrupted overflow, not quite as low as 
 the Mississippi swamps, which is in many instances more than twenty 
 feet below high water mark ; some lakes or ponds are scattered over that 
 country. Those ponds are nothing more than overflowed land, without 
 any timber. Several inundated (at high water) prairies more elevated 
 than these ponds, are met with in this section of the state, always near 
 the rivers, and often on their banks, particularly in the lower parts of 
 Washita and Boeuf rivers. Prairies never covered with water and l^ordering 
 the banks of Washita higher up, existed formerly, such as prairie de Lait, 
 (yet considerable) prairie du Manoir, de Brin d'amour, des Chicots, des 
 Canots, where Monroe is built (names all nearly forgotten) prairie 
 Chatellerault, prairie Bonde, on Barthelemy river. These are now cultivated, 
 or covered with timber ; a circumstance which never fails taking place 
 as soon as the borders of the prairies are settled. Those named jMerrouge, 
 Galleer,- Jefferson, alias 4th Prairie, are situated far from the river, about 
 east north east, thirty miles from Monroe. Pligher up, on the bayou 
 Barthelemy, are several prairies of high l)ut not first rate land ; they are 
 not yet inhabited. In the parish of Catahoula, the prairie of that name 
 about fifteen miles south west from Catahoula courthouse, called also 
 Harrisonburg, is some time inundated. It seems to have been formerly 
 part of the lake of the same name. Prairie des Bois, south south east 
 from Monroe, nine miles distant, is also subject to inundation. Another 
 kind of prairie not so necessary, are those found on the summit of the 
 hills— prairie des Cotes is one of that description. It lies almost due south, 
 rather westerly, from Monroe, distant thirty-six miles in a straight course; 
 the land there is poor, l)ut, like these mentioned above aflbrd very good 
 pasturage for cattle. The direction of the hills between Washita and 
 Dogdemene is rather from north to south, as far as bayou Castor; they 
 afterwards generally run from east to west. The valleys, which separate 
 
HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 29 
 
 them, arc evidently the work of the water courses, the directions of -which 
 are always from about north to south, the liills appearing to follow that 
 course, are at the lowest end but very short, and at a Inrd's eye view, have 
 the appearance of having been thrown together in that manner by the 
 waves of the sea, which probably, at some remote period, rolled over this 
 whole tract of country. 
 
 The settlements of Opelousas are separated from those of Red river, by 
 ;i ridge of i)iny and sterile hills. These are succeeded by extensive prairies, 
 which continue without any important interruption, as far as the sea. 
 They are almost entirely destitute of trees, except along the Avater courses : 
 so much so, that when a cluster of trees is accidentally met with, it is 
 called an island. The facility these prairies offer in raising cattle, had 
 induced the original settlers of Opelousas and Attakapas to prefer the 
 pastoral to the agricultural life. Those who followed them, were invited 
 ))y rich spots of land on the Avater courses, to the cultivation of indigo and 
 afterwards cotton, besides corn, rice and other provisions. 
 
 The town, near the parochial church of Opelousas, dedicated to St 
 Landry, has not the advantage of standing upon navigable water ; and this 
 circumstance has contributed to check its growth. It has a branch of the 
 Louisiana bank. 
 
 At a few miles below it, is a convent of nuns, the inmates of which 
 devote themselves to the education of young persons of their sex. This 
 establishment is a new one, and entirely due to the piety of a lady of the 
 neighborhood. 
 
 The upper part of the settlements of Attakapas, Avhich lie between 
 Opelousas and the sea, differ very little from the former. Emigrants from 
 the other states, having settled on the land near the sea, have given 
 themselves to the culture of the sugar cane, and meet with great 
 success. 
 
 There are two towns in the Attakapas — St. Martinsville and Franklin, 
 on the river Teche, which rises in the Opelousas. The first, though not 
 considerable, has a weekly gazette, and a branch of the state -bank, a 
 church and the other public buildings of the parish. The other is as yet 
 an embryo. 
 
 The Spaniards made an abortive attempt to establish a town, called 
 Xew Iberia, about sixteen miles below St. Martinsville. 
 
 The prairies in this part of the state are not natural ones : they owe 
 their origin to the Indian practice of setting fire to dry grass during the 
 fall and Avinter, in order that the tender herbage, in the spring, may 
 attract game ; this destroys young trees, and the prairie annually gains 
 on the Avoodland, as long as the practice prevails. When it ceases, the 
 Avoodland gains on the prairie. 
 
 To the Avest is a collection of houses on Vermilion river, near the public 
 buildings of the parish of Lafayette. 
 
 ToAvards the sea, near the base of the delta formed by bayou Lafourche 
 and the Mississippi, are a number of lakes, the principal of Avhich are 
 Barataria and Salvador. Of the streams that fall into the gulf, Avest of 
 the mouth of the Mississippi, the most important are Lafourche, 
 Atchafalaya, Teche, Mentao, Calcasu and Sabine. 
 
 All the space betAveen these streams, near the gulf, is interspersed with 
 trembling prairies, lagoons and numerous bayous. There are, however, 
 
30 HISTORY OF LOUISIAXA. 
 
 many spots of high ground ; but the difficulty of access and distance from 
 inhabited tracts have prevented migration to them. 
 
 The Teche has its source in the prairies, in the upper part of the 
 settlements of Opelousas, and during the season of high water, flows 
 partially into the Courtableau. As it enters the settlements of Attakapas, 
 it receives from the right side bayou Fusilier, which bayou Bourbeux 
 connects with Vermilion river. A little more than twenty miles farther, 
 it passes before the town of St. Martinsville and reaches, fifteen miles 
 after, the spot on which the Spaniards, soon after the cession, made a vain 
 attempt to establish a city, to which the name of New Iberia was destined ; 
 twenty miles, from the mouth of the Teche, is the town of Franklin. 
 
 Above St. Martinsville, cotton is universally cultivated on the banks of 
 the Teche : below it, are a number of sugar plantations, which succeed 
 remarkably well. The low price of cotton has of late induced many of 
 the planters to attempt the culture of the cane, above St. Martinsville, even 
 as high as bayou Boeuf. 
 
 On the east of the Teche, and between that stream and the Atchafalaya, 
 is Prairie Grand Chevreuil, occupying the ground beyond the reach of 
 inundation. On the opposite side, and to the east of Vermilion river is 
 the Attakapas prairie ; the land of which, especially on the banks of the 
 latter stream, is of good quality and well adapted to the culture of sugar, 
 cotton, indigo, tobacco and corn. 
 
 The Vermilion river has its source in the upper part of the Opelousas 
 settlements : between it and the Mentao is the Opelousas prairie, which is 
 more extensive than the two just mentioned ; being about seventy-five 
 miles in length and twenty-five in breadth. Its direction is S. W. to N. 
 E. It affords an extensive range for cattle. 
 
 The Mentao and Calcasu rise near the sandy ridge separating the 
 settlements of Red river from those of Opelousas. These streams are 
 nearly parallel to the Vermilion and Sabine. The land on their banks is 
 of less fertility than near the Mississippi. Agricultural establishments 
 are rare, and the few settlers confine their attention to raising cattle. 
 
 At the mouth of Sabine river, where the western boundary of the state 
 begins, the country exhibits a wild state of desolation. A line of shell 
 banks extends along the shores of the lake, into which the river expands, 
 at the distance of twenty miles from its mouth ; they are covered -with 
 trees of a stunted growth. The country around is a morass to the distance 
 of twenty miles above the lake. 
 
 The whole coast from the Mississippi to the Sabine, as from the former 
 stream to Pearl river, is low and swampy, and except in a very few places 
 indeed, can only be approached through the water courses. 
 
CHAPTER I. 
 
 Charles the eighth, the seventh moiiareh of the house of Valois, wielded 
 the sceptre of France, and Henry the seventh that of Enghmd, in 1492, 
 ■when Colinnhus, under the auspices of Ferdinand of Aragon and Isabella 
 of Castile, discovered the western hemisphere. 
 
 Charles, during a reign of nineteen years, sought military glory, and an 
 extension of territory, in the invasion of Italy. Success, for a while 
 attended his arms, and with the aid of the Pope, he caused himself to 
 he crowned Emperor of Constantinople and King of Naples ; but, he was 
 soon driven back, and died in 1496, the fiftieth year of his age, without 
 having ever sought to avail himself of the advantages the discovery of the 
 new world offered. Less ambitious of warlike fame, Henr}' made an early 
 effort to share them. He fitted out a small fleet, the command of which 
 he gave to Cabot, a Venetian adventurer, settled in Bristol, whom he sent 
 on a voyage of discovery. No historical record informs us of the success 
 of this expedition ; but in 1496, this navigator sailed in a ship furnished 
 by the crown, and four barques, supplied by the merchants of Bristol. 
 He discovered a large island, to which he gave the name of Prima vi.sta, 
 now known by that of Newfoundland, and soon after the continent. He 
 sailed southwardly along the coast, as far as the bay of Chesapeake. It is 
 not known that he effected or even attempted a landing, and the ocular 
 possession he took of the country is the origin and basis of the claim 
 of the English nation to all the land in North America, from the Atlantic 
 to the Pacific Ocean. 
 
 Charles the eighth, having left no issue, was succeeded by Louis the 
 twelfth, a distant kinsman ; their common ancestor being Charles the 
 seventh, the grandfather of the deceased monarch. Louis continued the 
 war in Italy with the same spirit, and Avith as little success as his 
 predecessor ; and viewed the progress of the Spaniards in America with 
 equal unconcern. His subjects, however, extended their industry and 
 their commerce to the new world. In 1504, the Biscayans, the Bretons 
 and the Normans, visited Newfoundland, in quest of fish. Two years 
 after, Denys entered, and made a map of the Gulf of St. Lawrence ; and in 
 1508, Aubert carried over the first American Indians who trod the soil of 
 France. The crown of England in the following year, passed, on the 
 death of Henry the seventh, in his fifty-second, to his son Henry the 
 eighth. 
 
 The southernmost part of the continent of North America, was first 
 discovered by a Spanish adventurer in 1513. Not impelled by avarice or 
 ambition, but led by credulity and chance. Ponce de Leon, believing that 
 the island Binimi, in the archipelago of Bahama, possessed a fountain, the 
 waters of which had the virtue of repairing the ravages of time on the 
 human frame, sailed from the island of Porto Rico, in search of this 
 renovating stream. A violent storm disappointed his hopes, and threw 
 him on the cape, opposite to the northern side of the island of Cuba. He 
 called the country thus discovered Florida, either from its flowery appear- 
 ance, or from the circumstance of his having discovered it on Palm 
 Sunday, PanqiKi, de Flares. Erecting a large cross on the beach, he took 
 formal possession in the name of his sovereign, Charles the first of Spain, 
 
32 HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 
 
 the grandson of Isabella, the late Queen of Castile. He returned in the 
 following year and landed on the same spot, with a number of his country- 
 men ; but the natives fell on the intruders and killed them all but six, who 
 were grievously wounded. The chief was among the latter. He sailed 
 for the island of Cuba, where he and his five surviving companions died 
 of their wounds. 
 
 Louis the twelfth died on the first of January, 1515, the fifty third year 
 of his age, without issue. His successor was Francis the first ; their 
 common ancestor was the Duke of Orleans, a brother of Charles the sixth. 
 
 The first attempt of the French to plant a colony in America, was made 
 in the second year of Francis' reign. A few adventurers of that nation, 
 were led by the Baron de Levy to the small island, in the forty-fourth 
 degree of northern latitude, now known as Sable Island, part of the 
 province of Nova Scotia. The spot was most unfiivorable ; at a great 
 distance from the continent, or am' other island ; the soil is rocky and 
 sterile. These men were unable to derive their subsistence from it. They 
 suffered much from the cold ; many sickened and died. The Baron carried 
 back the survivors to France, leaving some cattle and hogs on the island. 
 
 In 1520, Vasquez de Aillon sailed from Hispaniola for the northern 
 continent, with views not quite so unexceptionable as those of Ponce de 
 Leon. His object was to seize some of the Indians, transj^ort them to 
 Hispaniola ancl sell them to his countrymen, who could not obtain from 
 Africa a suflicient number of negroes to work the mines. He made land 
 on the coast of the present state of South Carolina, near the mouth of a 
 river to which he gave the name of Jourdain, after a man on board of one 
 of his ships, who first descried it ; it now bears that of Santee. He Avas 
 received with hospitality : after staying awhile, and supplying himself 
 with provisions, he invited a number of the natives to a banquet on board 
 of his ship, made them dance at the sound of his trumpets, plying them 
 with abundant doses of ardent spirits. "When exercise and ebriet}' had 
 lulled their senses, he hoisted his sails and brought off" his unwary guests. 
 Heaven did not allow him to reap the fruits of his treachery. One of the 
 ships perished in a storm. The sturdy captives in the other, for a long 
 while, refused to take any food ; the voyage was long, and disease made a 
 great havoc among the Spaniards and the Indians. 
 
 Velasquez made another voyage to Florida in 1552, with two ships ; he 
 was quite unsuccessful. He lost one of the ships, and the Indians killed 
 a great part of his people. 
 
 Veranzany, a Florentine, employed b}^ Francis the first, apj^ears to have 
 been the first navigator, wlio visited America at the expense of the crown 
 of France. He reached it in the month of ]March, 1524, a little below Cape 
 Hatteras, near the spot on which sixty years after, the first attempt towards 
 English colonization in America was made, under the auspices and at the 
 cost of Sir Walter Raleigh. He sailed up the coast, as far as the fiftieth 
 degree of northern latitude, entered a few of the rivers, had some little 
 intercourse with the aborigines, by whom he was every where friendly 
 received, and returned to France, without any attempt towards a settlement. 
 
 He made other voyages, in the two following years, and it is supposed 
 perished in the last. 
 
 The misfortunes of Francis, made a prisoner at Pavie, his long captivity 
 in Spain, and his distresses till the peace of Cambray, prevented the 
 
HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 33 
 
 execution of the plan he had formed of planting a French colony in the 
 new world. 
 
 Paniphilo dc Narvaez, having obtained from Charles the first of Spain, 
 the government of all the countries he could discover from Rio de Palma, 
 to the undefined limits of Florida, sailed from the island of Cuba, with 
 four ships and a barque in March, 1528, with four hundred foot and 
 eighty horse. He landed near tlie bay del Spiritu Santo, called, in modern 
 times, the bay of Tampa. The Indians cheerfully sujiplied him with corn 
 and other provisions. He landed a part of his force and took solemn 
 possession of the country, in the name of his imperial master. Noticing, 
 at this ceremony, a cymbal of gold, in the hands of an Indian, his hope 
 of securing a large quantity of this metal Avas greatly excited. He was 
 told that the Apalachians, a nation not far distant, had much of it. Under 
 the influence of the excitement which the information created, he put the 
 shipping under the orders of Cabeca de Vacca, with directions to sail 
 along the coast ; he landed the rest of his force, and marched up the 
 country the last day of May. On the next, he crossed a river, on the banks 
 of which was a town, where the Indians supplied him with provisions. 
 He ranged the country for several days, without meeting a human being ; 
 at last he overtook a chief preceded by men blowing flutes, and followed 
 ))y a large party. He gave them to understand, he was going towards the 
 Apalachians ; the chief told him these Indians were at war with his nation : 
 Narvaez travelled with him to his village, in which he was hospitably 
 entertained. Proceeding, he reached on the 25th the first village of the 
 Apalachians, which consisted of about forty cabins. He took possession 
 of it without opposition, and found corn, venison and skins ; but no metal. 
 He sojourned near this village for several days, making occasional excursions 
 into the country; during which, he hacl frequent skirmishes with the 
 natives, who darted their arrows at his people and hid themselves in the 
 swamps. At last, destitute of provisions, seeing nothing but a sterile 
 country and unpassable roads, he determined on marching towards the 
 sea, and reached Ante, an Indian town, not far distant from the spot on 
 which the Spaniards afterwards erected the fort of St. Mark of the 
 Apalaches. The Indians followed on the flanks of their invaders, harrassing 
 them at times by clouds of arrows. Their countrymen at Aute, strongly 
 defended themselves and killed a number of Spaniards. Cabeca de Vacca 
 approached the coast, and Narvaez and his men took shipping ; but the 
 greatest part perished through fatigue, hunger, disease and shipwreck. 
 Those who escaped these complicated disasters, reached Rio de Palma. 
 Narvaez was not among them ; his vessel foundered in a storm and he 
 never was heard of. 
 
 Francis, having married his rival's sister, and released his sons, detained 
 as hostages in Spain, availed himself of the tranquillity that followed the 
 peace of Cambray, to resume his plan of adding a part of America to his 
 dominions. 
 
 For this purpose, he directed two barques of sixty tons, with one hundred 
 and fifty men, to be fitted out at St. Maloes, and gave the command of 
 them to Cartier, who sailed on the 30th of April, 1534. He reached 
 Bonavista in the island of Newfoundland in twenty days, crossed the gulf 
 and entered a bay, which from the extreme heat at the time, he called 
 Chaleur bay ; it is a little to the south of the mouth of the river St. Lawrence. 
 Two sailors (the wretched remnant of the crew of a Spanish ship, which 
 
34 HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 
 
 had been wrecked there) were wandering on the beach, when Cartier's 
 boat approached. The French inquired what country they were in ; one 
 of the Spaniards, who, being pressed by hunger, imagined he was asked \ 
 whether there was any thing to eat, rephed, Aca nada ; "there is nothing \ 
 here." The French in the boat, on returning to Cartier, told him the J 
 Spaniard said the country was called Canada. Cartier visited several 
 parts of the gulf, and took possession of the country for the crown of 
 France. 
 
 The king, on the return of Cartier, ordered a new expedition, consisting 
 of three ships ; the largest, commanded by Cartier, was of one hundred and 
 twenty tons ; they sailed on the 19th of May, 1535. On reaching the 
 continent, Cartier was obliged by stress of weather, to put into a port which 
 he called St. Nicholas. He gave the name of St. Lawrence to the gulf and 
 the river ; leaving the two small vessels at the mouth of the stream, he 
 proceeded to an Indian town called Hochelaga, near the spot on which 
 the city of Montreal now stands. The friendly reception the Indians 
 gave him, induced him to send for the vessels he had left, and to build a 
 number of cabins, which he surrounded with a strong palisado, that might 
 enable him to resist a sudden attack ; and he made other preparations to 
 winter there. The season proved extremely severe, and the scurvy broke 
 out among his men ; he was himself attacked by it. Twenty-five of his 
 people had already perished, and two alone escaped the disease, when a 
 specific remedy was pointed out by the Indians, in a decoction of the bark 
 of the Abies Canadensis, (the Canadian fir.) Eight days after it had been 
 resorted to, Cartier found all his men perfectly recovered. Some who had 
 been afflicted with another disease, and had been but partially cured, were 
 perfectly restored to health by the use of this specific. In the spring, 
 Cartier brought back such of his men as the fell disorder had spared ; 
 but nothing more was done in Francis' reign, towards the settlement of a 
 French colony in America. 
 
 Two years after, Charles the first of Spain gave the government of St. 
 Yago de Cuba to Hernandez de Soto, with permission to prosecute the 
 discovery of, and subjugate, Florida ; and on the twelfth of May of the 
 following year, he sailed from the Havana with an army of nine hundred 
 foot and three hundred and fifty horse. The fleet was equipped, and the 
 naval and land forces raised and supported at Soto's expense. He had 
 amassed considerable wealth in Peru, in the conquest of which he had 
 accompanied Pizarro. The fleet was delayed by contrary winds, and at 
 last reached the bay in which Narvaez had landed eleven years before. 
 Three hundred men, having landed and marched a short distance, were 
 repelled with great loss. Soto now disemlxirked his horse and foot, and 
 sent back the large vessels. He proceeded northerly, his march being 
 retarded by frequent interruptions from the natives, who hung on his 
 flanks ; and he halted at Herriga, the first town he came to, at the distance 
 of six miles from the shore. He spent some days there, to give time to 
 the baggage to come up and afford some rest to his men, and began his 
 march for the country of the Apalachians, which was at the distance of 
 about four hundred miles. The country was divided into small districts, 
 each governed by a cacique ; the chief, the district and its principal town, 
 generally bearing the same name. The town was a collection of from 
 fifty to two hundred houses ; surrounded by a strong palisado. Garcilasso 
 de la Vega, in his history of this expedition, has recorded the names of the 
 
HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 35 
 
 towns through whicli Soto passed, from the bay del Spiritu Santo to tlie 
 Apalachians. They are many, but it is beheved the name of none of them 
 corresponds with that of any of the present divisions of the country. Two 
 of the principal districts, or provinces, were governed by a female ('aci(iue. 
 After advancing into the country, Soto's progress ceased to be ol)structed, 
 and at several towns he was hospitably received, and obtained abundant 
 supplies of corn and venison. One of the female caciques added to this 
 needed succor, presents of pearls. If we credit Garcilasso, these presents 
 in the (quantity and value of the pearls, were immense ; they were often as 
 large as hazel nuts and were dealt out by the bushel, except those of the 
 smallest kind, called seed of pearU^ which were weighed. But this writer 
 speaks of lions in the forests of Florida, and of a number of caciques, 
 who commanded several thousands of warriors. It is believed those who 
 furnished this Indian author with the memoirs on which he wrote, were 
 less fond of truth than of the marvellous. 
 
 Several caciques opposed the passage of the Spaniards through the 
 country, but none could resist, with bows and arrows, an army with 
 musketry and artillery. By courtesy, threats and violence, Soto made his 
 way to the country of the Apalachians. There, after taking some rest, a 
 part of his army was sent in strong detachments to reconnoitre the ground ; 
 while the rest proceeding southwesterly, reached Ante, a town near the 
 sea shore, which Narvaez had visited. There, this party dividing itself in 
 two detachments, one of them marched westerly to Anchusi, another large 
 town, on the spot on which, about a century and a half after, was built 
 the town of Pensacola ; while the latter, proceeding at first easterly, then 
 southerly, reached the bay in which the army had landed, from Avhich one 
 of the small vessels was sent to Cuba, with an account of Soto's progress, 
 and to obtain supplies. 
 
 The two detachments uniting again at Aute, joined the main body at 
 the Apalachians, where Soto had determined on wintering. 
 
 The army resumed its march early in the spring ; its direction was at 
 first northwesterly ; passing through the back parts of the present state of 
 Georgia, it marched for some time northerly, then northwesterly through 
 the country of the Cherokees, then a large and warlike nation, crossing 
 the present state of Tennessee and proceeding to that of Kentucky, as 
 high up as the thirty-seventh degree of northern latitude. It marched 
 thence southwesterly to the bay of Mobile. Of the Indians thus visited 
 by Soto, the Tuscaloosas, Mobilians and Alabamans, are the only ones 
 who, at this day retain their names. The Mobilians made a furious 
 resistance, but were at last overpowered. Garcilasso reckons they lost in 
 several skirmishes, a pitched battle and the defence of their principal 
 town, upwards of eleven thousand men, and that more than one thousand 
 women were burnt in a single house. Soto, having subdued the Mobilians, 
 gave one month's rest to his army ; then continued his march to the 
 Chickasaws, among whom he wintered. 
 
 A party of these Indians attacked him at night, in the latter part of 
 January following, by torch light. The torches were formed of a grass, 
 which made into a rope, takes and retains fire like a match. The 
 Chickasaws darted arrows, armed with this grass thus lighted, on the huts 
 of their invaders, principally those used as stables, thus setting the 
 provender on fire ; several horses were burnt at their mangers, to which 
 they were made fast with small chains. The Indians, hovering round 
 
36 HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 
 
 their enemy, became visible only when they ngitated their torches. The 
 musketry, artillery and cavalry, however, soon compelled them to disperse ; 
 the Spaniards had forty men and fifty horses killed in this attack. Soto 
 removed his camp to what he conceived a more defensible spot, al)Out three 
 miles to the west. But notwithstanding his utmost vigilance and the 
 alertness of his men, the army, while it remained in the country of the 
 Chickasaws was incessantly harrassed by hovering parties, and every 
 individual who straggled to any distance from the camp, was almost 
 instantly made a prisoner or killed. 
 
 , Early in April, Soto marched northwesterly through the country of the 
 Choctaws, and the western parts of the present states of Mississi})pi and 
 Tennessee. He reached the mighty stream then called by the Indians, 
 Cicuaga, and now Mississippi, a little below the lowest Chickasaw bluff. 
 Having employed some time in building fiats, he overcame without much 
 difficulty the opposition made liy the Indians to his crossing it. On the 
 western bank, he proceeded as high up as White river, and then doAvnwards 
 in a circuitous route, to avoid the swampy shore, through the present 
 territory of the Arkansas, to his winter quarters. On the left side of the 
 Mississippi, the Spaniards met with the same reception from the Indians, 
 as on the opposite. At times the natives were confident and friendly, at 
 others reserved, often cruel and treacherous ; rarely, though some times, 
 approaching in hostile array. 
 
 In the spring, the army proceeded southerly by slow marches ; but in 
 the beginning of the summer, fatigue, dearth of provisions, the intense 
 heat and the impure air of the swamps, greatly injured the health of the 
 Spaniards ; many sickened and died. At last, after long and frequent 
 halts, the army reached the mouth of Red river. Here the chief was 
 seized with a fever, the mortal character of which became manifest in a 
 few days. It was not long before he became conscious of his situation, 
 and he contemplated approaching dissolution with composure. He 
 appointed Luis Muscoso de Alvarado his successor, calmly conversed 
 Avith his officers on the most proper movements of the army, had almost 
 all the individuals in it brought to his bedside, received their oaths of 
 fidelity to the future chief, recommended to the men obedience to him, 
 and affection to each other, discipline, unanimity and perseverance. 
 Then, giving his remaining moments to the rites of the church of Rome, 
 expired about the 30th of June. 
 
 He was in his forty-second year. Ambitious to have his name as 
 conqueror of Florida, in the page of history, between those of Cortez and 
 Pizarro, the conquerors of Mexico and Peru, he spent in this scheme an 
 immense fortune, acquired in the conquest of the latter kingdom, and was 
 the indiscreet cause of the death of the greatest portion of his followers, 
 without any advantage to his country or himself. In republics, as wealth 
 is seldom acquired with great rapidity and ease, and is more generally 
 divided, it is seldom so profusely lavished, and it rarely enables the 
 possessor to command the sacrifice of the lives of men to his ambitious 
 views. 
 
 His remains were inclosed in a strong coffin, which was filled with 
 bullets and sunk in the Mississippi, opposite to the mouth of Red river, 
 to prevent them from falling into the hands of the Indians. 
 
 In the meanwhile, the plan of settling a colony in Canada, though 
 abandoned by the monarch, had been resumed by individuals, in France. 
 
HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 37 
 
 Francis dc la Eoqiic, Lord of R()])crtval, a man of considerable influence 
 in the province of Picardy, had solicited Francis the first to permit him to 
 prosecute the discoveries of Carticr. He had been, by letters patent of 
 the fifteenth of January, 1540, created "Lord of Norimbegue, Viceroy and 
 Lieutenant-General ol' Canada, Hochelaga, vSaguenay, Newfoundland, 
 Belisle, Cari)en, the great l)ay and Baccaloes." 
 
 The Viceroy, in the following year, sailed with five ships, having taken 
 Cartier as his first pilot. The voyage was prosperous. He built a fort 
 (some say on the river St. Lawrence, others on the island of St. John) of 
 which he gave the command to Cartier. Leaving a good garrison in it, 
 and a barque for the prosecution of Cartier's discoveries, he sailed for 
 France, in search of farther aid for his colony. 
 
 Incessantly annoyed by the natives, assailed by disease, and unable to 
 withstand the severity of the weather, the colonists prevailed on their 
 chief, in the following year, to carry them back to France. Near the 
 island of Newfoundland, they met Robertval, who, by solicitations and 
 threats, induced them to return. Having restored order among them, he 
 proceeded up the rivers St. Lawrence and Saguenay to explore their 
 shores. He sent one of his pilots in quest of a northwest passage to 
 China, and went back to France. 
 
 Musr-oso, the successor of Soto in the command of the Spaniards on the 
 Mississippi, conducted the remainder of the army up Red river, through 
 that part of the country now called Natchitoches and Nagodoches, to a 
 nation of Indians, whom from the number of wild cattle he found among 
 them, he called los vaqueros; probably, in that part of the country iiow 
 known as the province of Texas. Proceeding about one hundred miles 
 further, the army reached the foot of a mountainous country. Muscoso 
 had been induced to march this way in the hope of getting to Mexico by 
 land. He now determined, on account of the distance which he received 
 from the Indians, to retrograde, and float down the Mississippi to the sea. 
 The army accordingly marched into winter quarters, at the mouth of Red 
 river. 
 
 During the month of January, Muscoso employed his carpenters in the 
 construction of vessels, to convey his men to Mexico. The neighboring 
 caciques, apprehensive that his views, in going thither, were to apprise his 
 countrymen of the fertility of the land on the Mississippi, and to solicit 
 aid to return and sul)jugate the Indians, leagued themselves for the purpose 
 of raising a sufficient force to destroy the Spaniards, or at least to set fire 
 to the vessels they were building. Garcilasso relates the league was so 
 general, that the caciques, who entered in it, agreed to raise forty thousand 
 men. The plot, however, became known to some Indian women, who 
 attended the Spanish officers, and was disclosed to Muscoso. The measures 
 he took to defeat it, induced most of the caciques to withdraw from the 
 league. Those who dwelt immediately on the river and their nearest 
 neighljors, persevered in their intention, and collected a considerable number 
 of canoes and pirogues and made rafts, with the view of pursuing the 
 Spaniards down the stream. 
 
 On the twenty-fourth of June, the vessels were launched, and soon after 
 the army went on board ; hides having been placed around the bows, as a 
 protection against the arrows of the Indians. Out of the twelve hundred 
 and fifty men who were landed at the bay del Spiritu Santo, there remained 
 now but three hundred and fifty, and the three hundred and fifty horses 
 
38 HISTORY OF LOUISIAXA. 
 
 were reduced to thirty. On the second day after their departure, the 
 Indian tleet hove in sight towards noon ; Garcilasso says, it consisted of 
 one thousand pirogues, canoes or rafts of various sizes ; the largest 
 containing eighty nien and the least having four oars on each side. Each 
 pirogue was neatly painted in and outside, with blue, red, yellow or white. 
 The oars and feathers, bows and arroAvs of the warriors in each pirogue, 
 was of the same color with it. The oars were plied in measure and 
 cadence, the rowers singing to mark the time. The fleet advanced in five 
 divisions, each pouring a volley of arrows, as it passed the Spaniards ; the 
 pursuit was continued during ten days, when it was given up. Almost 
 every Spaniard was wounded, and of the thirty horses that were embarked, 
 twenty-two were killed. The Spaniards had been unable to defend 
 themselves, having no longer any powder. 
 
 Muscoso perceiving a village"^ near the shore, and concluding he was 
 approaching the sea, deemed it prudent to land one hundred of his men in 
 quest of provisions. As they advanced toward the village, the Indians 
 left it, flying in all directions. The Spaniards found in it abundance of 
 corn, venison and dried fruit. But a part of the Indian fleet, having 
 landed above, a junction was formed between it and the Indians of the 
 village, and they marched down against the Spaniards, who were compelled 
 to return in great haste to their shipping ; leaving their horses behind, 
 which the Indians destroyed with their arrows. 
 
 Four days after, the Spaniards reached the sea, and sailing slowly along 
 the coast, arrived at Panuco, a port distant about sixty leagues from the 
 city of Mexico. 
 
 Garcilasso de la Vega, who has written the best account that has 
 reached us of this expedition, entitles his work the history of the conquest 
 of Florida. With as much propriety, an English writer might entitle his 
 memoirs of Sir Edward Packenham's expeditions in 1814, the history of 
 the conquest of Louisiana. Perhaps Garcilasso wrote more as a lawyer 
 than a soldier, and imagining that this burthensome perambulation of the 
 country had acquired a title to the crown of Spain, considered Florida as 
 thereby acquired, and called the act an acquisition or conquest. So might 
 the sailing of Cabot in 1498, in a vessel fitted out by Henry the seventh of 
 England, be called the acquisition or conquest of the northern continent of 
 America. Although the name was not given, the effect was claimed ; and 
 General Hill, in 1711, demanded the surrender of the fortress of Quebec, 
 on the incontestible title, acquired to the crown of England to all North 
 America, by the discovery, or ocular occupation, of the country, by Cabot. 
 
 The sceptre of England, on the twenty-eighth day of January, 1547, 
 passed from the hands of Henry the eighth, in the fifty-seventh year of his 
 age, into those of his infant son, Edward the sixth ; and that of France, 
 on the thirty-first of March following, from those of Francis the first, in 
 his fifty-third year, into those of his son, Henry the second. Francis had 
 entirely lost sight of the new world, during the war with England, in the 
 latter part of his reign. 
 
 History has not recorded any attempt of Henry the eighth, to extend his 
 dominions to the western hemisphere. English vessels, however, were 
 employed during his reign, in the fisheries of Newfoundland ; and in the 
 reign of his youthful successor, was passed the first English statute, which 
 relates to America. Its object was to repress the extortions of the officers 
 
HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 39 
 
 of the Admiralty, who demanded a duty, or part of the profits made on 
 every voyage to Irehind, Icehmd or Newfoundhmd. — 2 Ed. vi. 6. 
 
 Edward died in 1553, at the age of sixteen, and was succeeded hy Mary, 
 his sister. 
 
 America does not appear to have attracted the attention of this princess, 
 nor that of Henry the second of France, who prosecuted the war his father 
 had begun with England. At the conclusion of it, he entered into a 
 league with the elector of Saxony and the Margrave of Brandenburg, 
 against Charles the tirst ; but when his antagonist had reconciled himself 
 to his German adversaries, Henry was left to maintain the war alone. 
 Philip the second of Spain, on the abdication of his father in 1556, 
 prosecuted it with great vigor, aided by the English, whose queen he had 
 married. 
 
 Mary, who ended her life, on the seventh of November, 1558, at the age 
 of forty-one, without issue, had for her successor Elizabeth, her sister ; and 
 c)n the 10th of July of the following year, Henry the second died, at the 
 same age, in consequence of a wound he had accidentally received in a 
 tournament. The wars that desolated France during almost the whole 
 reign of this prince, were probably the cause that the French made no 
 progress in the new world. 
 
 His son and successor, Francis the second, the husband of the unfortunate 
 Mary Stuart of Scotland, reigned but seventeen months, and was succeeded 
 by Charles the ninth, Henry's second son. 
 
 ' In the beginning of Charles's disturbed reign. Admiral Coligny sought 
 in Florida, an asylum for his protestant adherents. He equipped two 
 ships at Dieppe, under the direction of Jean Ribaud, whom he put at the 
 head of a small military force, and a considerable number of colonists. 
 Ribaud weighed anchor on the eighteenth of February, 1562, and made 
 land in the thirtieth degree of northern latitude, near a cape, to which he 
 gave the name of Cap Francais : it is one of the promontories of the estuary 
 on which the town of St. Augustine now stands. He landed on the banks 
 of the river St. Mary, which now. separates Georgia from Florida. He 
 called it the river of May, from the circumstance of his entering on the first 
 day of that month. The Indians received him with much hospitality. He 
 erected a column on the banks of the stream, and affixed to it an escutcheon 
 of the armorial of France, in token of his having taken solemn possession 
 of the country. After a short stay, he proceeded northerly to an island, 
 at the mouth of Edisto river, in the present state of South Carolina. He 
 called this stream the great river, a fort which he erected on the island 
 Charles's Fort, or Arx Carolina, and the place, before which he anchored, 
 Port Royal ; an appellation, which it retains at this day. Having settled 
 his colony around it, he placed Albert at the head of the colonists, and 
 returned to France. Although he had been very friendly received by the 
 natives, he in vain endeavored to prevail on some of them to accompany 
 him. 
 
 Albert visited the Indian tribes near the fort, and found them all disposed 
 to live on the most friendly terms with the whites. These were more anxious 
 to ramble over the country, in search of mines of the precious metals, 
 than to till the earth ; and the stock of provisions left by Ribaud, although 
 considerable, was at last exhausted. This chief, on his arrival in France, 
 had found his countrymen distracted by a civil war, and his patron out 
 of favor at court, so that he was unable to procure for the colony the 
 
40 HISTORY OF LOUISI^VNA. 
 
 needed supplies he had come after. For awhile, Albert procured relief 
 from the natives ; corn and peas were obtained in tolerable abundance : 
 but fire consumed the building in which the succor had been stored. The 
 Indians became unable or unwilling to minister to the increasing wants 
 of the colonists. The distress, attending the penury that followed, 
 heightened the discontents which the ill conduct or misguided severity 
 of Albert had excited, and the colonists rose against and slew their chief. 
 
 Nicholas Baree was called by the insurgents to the supreme command. 
 They had ascertained that there was no gold mine near them, and thought 
 it preferable to return to the old world, than to seek a scanty and precarious 
 subsistence by lal^or, in the new. Unanimity strengthened their efforts ; 
 a vessel was built and corked with Spanish beard ; ropes were made of 
 grass, and sails, with the tents, bags and linen cloth that remained ; but 
 as famine drove them from the land, the stock of provisions they carried 
 to sea, was not abundant ; calms retarded their progress ; they were reduced 
 to a scanty ration of eighteen grains of corn a day to each man ; and the 
 moment came when there was not a single grain to deal out. Lots were 
 cast, and the wretch pointed out by chance, tamely submitted his neck to 
 the isutcher's knife, to appease the hunger of his companions. Soon after 
 this, they were met by an English ship, which enabled them to reach 
 France. 
 
 Coligny had been restored to favor, and he did not solicit in vain his 
 sovereign's aid, for the prosecution of his plan to settle a colony in 
 Florida. Three ships were fitted out at Havre de Grace ; and Laudon- 
 niere, to whom the command of them was given, sailed on the twenty- 
 second of April, 1564, and landed on the shores of the river St. Mary, near 
 the monument erected two years before by Ribaud, as an evidence of his 
 having taken possession of the country around it, in the name of Charles 
 the ninth. 
 
 The Indians manifested great joy at the arrival of the French, and led 
 Laudonniere to the column. He directed a fort to be built, on the 
 southern bank of the stream, and called the country Caroline, in honor 
 of his king. Parties of his men w'ent in different directions, to explore 
 the country. The Indians, discovering that the precious metals were the 
 main object of the pursuit of the whites, played on their credulity, amused 
 them with fanciful stories, and pointed to the w^estward as the part of 
 their country in which mines of gold could be found. No success 
 attended a search for metals ; but a ship arrived from France, laden with 
 provisions. 
 
 Laudonniere's administration did not please the colonists. A mutiny 
 ensued, but its consequences were not so fatal to the chief, as the former 
 had been to his predecessor. Some of the mutineers possessed themselves 
 of two barques, which Laudonniere had caused to be constructed, and 
 sailed on a piratical cruize down the canal of Bahama, towards the 
 Havana. 
 
 On the third of August, in the following year, Sir John Haw'kins, 
 a renowned English navigator, visited Caroline, with four vessels. 
 Laudonniere obtained one of them, and made preparations to sail in her 
 for France. He was near his departure, when, on the twenty-fifth, a small 
 fleet was descried approaching the coast. It consisted of seven sail, and 
 was commanded by Ribaud. Complaints against Laudonniere had been 
 made to the King ; he was represented as oppressing the men under him, 
 
HISTORY OF LOUISIAXA. 41 
 
 and it had been strenuously urged that unless he was recalled, there was 
 much ground to apprehend that the garrison would redress their own 
 wrongs, in the same manner as the former colonists had redressed theirs. 
 Riband was accordingly appointed governor of Caroline, and instructed to 
 send his predecessor home. Contrary winds compelled the fleet to seek 
 shelter successively in the ports of Havre de Grace and Portsmouth ; it 
 had sailed from the latter towards the middle of June, and the passage 
 had been tedious. Riband had hardly delivered the minister's dispatches 
 to Laudonniere, when a Spanish fleet hove in sight. 
 
 Philip the second, apprised of the progress of the French in Caroline, 
 had ordered a fleet to be equipped at Cadiz, under the orders of Don 
 Pedro Menendez, for the purpose of destroying their colony. Don Pedro 
 had sailed on the twenty-ninth of June. At the departure of Riband from 
 France, notice of the preparations making at Cadiz had reached Paris, 
 and although the object of them was not known, an attack on Caroline 
 was suspected. He was, therefore, instructed, whilst he was charged to 
 attempt nothing against the rights of the Spanish King, to resist any 
 encroachment on those of his own sovereign. 
 
 Don Pedro landed near the mouth of a stream, which the French had 
 called the river of the dolphins, to which he gave the name of St. 
 Augustine, who, on the day of his arrival was honored in the Romish 
 Church ; it is now known by that of St. John. He took formal possession 
 of the country in Philip's name, and gave orders for the immediate 
 erection of a fort. Ribaud thought it best to set sail, and attack the 
 Spanish fleet before the land forces could be put ashore, and invest the 
 French fort. Leaving, therefore, a few men with Laudonniere, he took in 
 all the rest, and hoisted sail. A violent storm overtook and dispersed his 
 vessels, and drove several of them on shore. In the meanwhile, the 
 Spanish chief had landed his troops and marched towards the fort. He 
 reached it on the nineteenth of September, before sunrise. The weather 
 was foggy, and the Spaniards were in the fort, while several of the French 
 were still in bed. An immediate slaughter began. But Laudonniere, 
 with a few of his men, effected his escape on board of a vessel, in which 
 they sailed for France. 
 
 Don Pedro now went in quest of Ribaud ; he found him at anchor ; 
 after a parley of twenty-four hours, the French chief surrendered his 
 vessels and the men under his orders. Two hundred soldiers or sailors, 
 having refused to yield themselves prisoners, escaped during ,the night, 
 and marched through the woods southerly. Notwithstanding his 
 pledged faith, Don Pedro caused all such of his prisoners as were protestants 
 to be hung or slaughtered. The Catholics, who Avere in a small number 
 indeed, were spared. The bodies of those who were hung were left on 
 the trees along the shore ; and an inscription was set up announcing they 
 were hung " not as French, but as heretics." 
 
 Laudonniere's fort was repaired and garrisoned, and it, as well as the 
 river on which it stood, was called San Matheo, after the saint, the festival 
 of which was celebrated in Spain, on the day on which Don Pedro entered 
 the stream. 
 
 A strong party Avas sent after the men Avho parted from Ribaud, the 
 night preceding his surrender ; they were overtaken at a place, afterwards 
 called by the Spaniards, Punta de Canaveral, in the 28th degree of latitude, 
 and made prisoners. 
 
42 HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 
 
 Six hundred French are reckoned to have fallen victims to the cruelty 
 of the Spaniards, whose force, at the end of this tragedy, is said to have 
 been reduced to four hundred, who were divided between the forts of San 
 Matheo and St. Augustine. 
 
 This is the first act of hostility between European nations in the new 
 world. 
 
 Charles the ninth, took no measure to avenge the murder of his 
 protestant sul)jects. The apathy of the monarch, of the court and the 
 nation, excited the valiant spirit of Dominique de Gourgues, of Pont- 
 Marsan, in the province of Gascony. Having sold his patrimony, aided 
 by two of his friends, he equipped three vessels in the port of Bordeaux, 
 engaged two hundred men to accompany him, and left the Garonne on 
 the second of August, 1567. As he approached the river of San Matheo, 
 the Spaniards mistaking his vessels for some of their nation, tired a 
 salute. De Gourgues, unwilling to undeceive them, returned the com- 
 pliment, and passed on. He landed at the mouth of the river then called 
 the Seine, now Alatamaha. With the neighboring Indians, who ran to 
 the shore on the approach of the vessels, came some of Laudonniere's men, 
 who had found a refuge in their towns. By their assistance, De Gourgues 
 was enabled to converse with the natives, who greatly dissatisfied with 
 their new neighbors, offered to join him if he would dislodge the Spaniards. 
 De Gourgues told them his voyage had riot been undertaken with any 
 hostile intention ; but, if the Indians desired it, he was read}^ to assist 
 Jbhem in getting rid of their unwelcome neighbors. He was informed that 
 besides the fort at St. Matheo and St. Augustine, the Spaniards had a 
 third, which they called St. Helen, at a small distance to the south of the 
 second ; and their effective force, in the three, was about four hundred 
 men. 
 
 A number of warriors, from the more distant tribes, came and joined 
 those from the sea shore who had put themselves under De Gourgues. 
 
 The coml)ined army was soon in the neighborhood of the northernmost 
 fort. De Gourgues sent some of his allies to form a cordon around it, into 
 the woods ; he went after them, accompanied by a considerable part of 
 his men, whom he placed as near the edge of the woods as could be, 
 without l)eing seen by the enemy ; while the rest of his force, in a small 
 body, approached slowly in front, and halted out of the reach of the 
 artillery of the fort. On their being perceived by the Spaniards, a strong 
 detachment sallied out to attack them. De Gourgues then came forth, 
 placing the detachment between him and the party they expected to 
 attack. They were completely routed. He now turned against the fort, 
 and the Indians contracting the circle they had formed around it, rushed 
 forward, giving the war whoop. The garrison, intimidated by this unex- 
 pected manoeuvre, became an easy prey. A great carnage ensued. A few 
 Spaniards flew to the woods, where they were pursued and dispatched by 
 the Indians. De Gourgues had the survivors hung on trees along the 
 shore, with an inscription announcing they were thus treated " not as 
 Spaniards, but as murderers." 
 
 De Gourges next marched against St Augustine, and the other fort ; 
 there were but fifty men in each ; they surrendered, and were not ill 
 treated. The buildings were burnt and the forts dismantled. 
 
 The French being too few in number to hold possession of the country, 
 De Gourgues brought them back to France. He was obliged to conceal 
 
HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 43 
 
 himself to avoid falling a victim to the resentment of Pliilip II., who 
 offered a large price for his head, and whose Amhassador, at Paris, 
 demanded that he should be punished, for having waged war against a 
 prince in amity with his own sovereign. Thus are often the most lieroic, 
 useful and disinterested services that an individual renders to his country, 
 not only unrewarded, but the source of chagrin, distress and misery. 
 Sic rox, nan vobis. 
 
 During the remainder of the reign of Charles the ninth, the kingdom 
 was distracted by the struggles of the Condes, the Guises and the Colign3's ; 
 so that the re-establishment of the French colony in Florida, was not 
 attempted. Charles died on the thirtieth of May, 1574, at the age of 
 twenty-four, and was succeeded by his brother, Henry the third. 
 
 Elizabeth of England, Avho, during her long reign, saw the crown of 
 France on the heads of live kings, does not appear to have thought of the 
 new world till 1578. On the eleventh of June of that year, she authorized 
 Sir Humphrv Gilbert, by letters patent, to discover and take possession 
 of such remote, heathen and barbarous countries, as were not possessed 
 by any christian prince or people.. 
 
 Sir Humphry was not successful in his attempt. He made no 
 settlement, and his country gained no advantage, but the formal 
 possession which he took of the island of Newfoundland. In his pursuit 
 of farther advantages, he lost his fortune and his life. 
 
 Henry the third does not appear to have turned his attention towards 
 the western hemisphere till the ninth year of his reign ; when he granted 
 to the Marquis de la Roche, the powers which the Marquis de Robertval 
 had enjoyed under Francis the first, and which Henry the second had 
 granted to the former, who had been prevented by the distresses of the 
 times to avail himself of them. The grant is of the twelfth of January, 
 1583. It states that the king, in compliance with the wishes of his 
 predecessor, appoints the Marquis, his Lieutenant-General in Canada, 
 Hochelaga, Newfoundland, Labrador, the river of the great baj'', (St. 
 Lawrence) Norembegue and the adjacent country. 
 
 The condition of the grant is, that the grantee shall have in particular 
 view, the extension of the catholic faith. His authority is declared to 
 extend over persons in the land and sea service. He is to appoint the 
 captains and officers of the ships, and they are to obey him ; he is 
 authorized to press ships and to raise troops, declare war, erect fortifi- 
 cations and towns, baronies, earldoms and fiefs of less dignity, to enact 
 laws and punish those who break them. The exclusive commerce of the 
 country is granted him, and he is empowered, in case of death, or sickness, 
 to appoint, by will or otherwise, one or more lieutenants, in his stead. 
 
 The success of the grantee did not correspond to the extent of his 
 powers. Desirous of visiting the country, over which they were to be 
 exercised, he fitted out a ship. The island of Sable, on which the Baron 
 de Levy had stopped in 1508, was the first land he saw. He left on it 
 forty wretches, whom he had taken out of the prisons of Paris. A Spanish 
 ship had lately been cast on it ; the timber, these men took from the 
 wreck, enabled them to build huts. The cattle and shee]) left by the 
 baron had greatly multiplied, and afforded them meat. The Marquis 
 from thence proceeded to the continent, and explored the shores of the 
 countrv which was after called Acadie, and noAV Nova Scotia. He 
 
44 HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 
 
 returned to France and died, without having been able to advance his 
 interest or that of his country, by his grants. 
 
 Sir Humyjhry Gilbert had a half brother, who makes a most conspicuous 
 figure in the liistory of the new world, and of England — Sir Walter 
 Raleigh, who had taken an interest in the expedition that followed the 
 grant. To him, the Queen granted a new one, on the twenty-sixth of 
 March, 1584. Within a month from that day, the grantee equipped two 
 vessels, which reached the northern continent of America, on the coast of 
 the present state of North Carolina. They entered Pamplico sound, b}'' 
 Occacock inlet, and proceeded to Roanoke island. A short time was 
 spent in exploring the country, and trafficking with the natives. 
 
 On the return of the adventurers, their rej^ort greatly excited the hopes 
 of their patron. The new discovered country was called Virginia, in 
 honor of the maiden queen, and Sir Richard Grenville was dispatched to 
 convey thither a small colony, which Sir Walter abundantly supplied 
 Avith provisions, arms and ammunition. 
 
 Sir Richard landed one hundred and eight colonists, whom he left 
 under the orders of Ralph Lane, after having visited the barren shores of 
 All:)emarle and Pamplico sounds. 
 
 The English, like the French in Caroline, instead of employing their 
 time in the tillage of the soil, wasted it in the search after ores. The 
 stock of provisions brought over, not being renewed by agriculture, was 
 exhausted ; and the colonists scattered themselves along the shore, in 
 small parties, with the hope of finding a precarious subsistence in fishing 
 and hunting. Sir Francis Drake, returning in the following year from a 
 successful expedition against the Spaniards, (the first act of hostility of 
 England against Spain, in the new world) visited Virginia; and at first 
 determined on adding one hundred men to those under Ralph Lane, and 
 leaving one of his vessels with them ; but, at last, at their request, he 
 took him and his men on board of his' fleet and carried them back to 
 England. 
 
 Sir Richard arrived some time after, with three vessels. Finding the 
 country deserted, and desirous of keeping possession of it, he left as many 
 of his men as he could spare, fifty in number, on Roanoke island. Some 
 time after his departure, these men were massacred by the natives. 
 
 The ill success of Sir Walter Raleigh's attempt, did not discourage him. 
 He fitted out three ships, in which a number of colonists embarked ; some 
 women accompanied them ; an ample supply of provisions was provided, 
 and John White was placed at the head of the colony, with twelve assistants, 
 who were to act as his council. On reaching the island of Roanoke, in 
 the latter part of July, 1587, they erected cabins for their accommodation 
 during the winter, and made preparations for a crop in the spring, and in 
 the following year, their chief crossed the Atlantic to solicit further aid 
 from the knight. 
 
 On his reaching England, he found the nation in great alarm, at the 
 formidable preparations of the King of Spain for the invasion of the country, 
 and Sir Walter Raleigh and Sir Richard Grenville, too much engaged, in 
 providing the means of defending their country, to attend to the aifairs of 
 Virginia. Sir Walter, at last, assigned his patent to a company of merchants, 
 at the head of whom was John Smith. 
 
 On the first of August, 1589, Henry the third of France fell, in his 
 thirty-ninth year, under the knife of Jacques Clement, a fanatic priest. 
 
HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 45 
 
 Ninety-six years had rolled away since the discovery of America, at the 
 death of Henry, the last INIonarch of the house of Valois. The French, 
 the Spaniards and the English had made a number of attempts at 
 colonization, on the northern continent ; yet, besides a few soldiers, whom 
 the Spaniards had sent to garrison fort St. Augustine, the few colonists 
 left ])y John White on Roanoke island, and the forty, l)y the Marcjuis de 
 la Roche, on Sable island, there was not an European, living under his 
 national tiag in North America, the northern part of which was now known 
 to Europe under the appellation of Canada, the middle by that of Virginia, 
 and the southern bv that of Florida. 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 At the death of Henry the third, the house of Valois became extinct. 
 Its princes had occupied the French throne, for two hundred and sixty-one 
 years ; the first king of that branch, having been Philip VI., who succeeded 
 "to Charles V. Henry of Bourbon, was the nearest, though a very distant 
 kinsman of the deceased monarch ; their common ancestor being Louis 
 IX., more commonly called St. Louis, who died in 1226. 
 
 The assignees of Sir Walter Raleigh's patent, in March, 1590, fitted out 
 three ships, in which White embarked for Virginia. So much time was 
 lost in a fruitless cruise against the Spaniards, that these vessels did not 
 reach their destination till the month of August. The colonists, Avhom 
 White had left on Roanoke island, three years before, were no longer there, 
 and every effort to discover them was fruitless. No other attempt was 
 made to find them, and the period and manner of their perishing was 
 never known. 
 
 A French vessel came to Sable Island for the forty wretches, whom de 
 la Roche had left there. Twenty-eight had perished ; the survivors were 
 taken back to France. 
 
 Henry the fourth, the first king of France of the house of Bourbon, did 
 not obtain at once the peaceable possession of the throne. He had been 
 1 )red a protestant, and the catholics suspected the sincerity of his attachment 
 to their faith, which he had embraced. He confirmed his power by the 
 victories of Arque and Ivr}^ and to silence all opposition, pronounced his 
 al)juration, and his adherence to the catholic faith, in St. Denys, before his 
 coronation, and in the following year, the fifth since his predecessor's 
 demise, the city of Paris opened its gates to him. 
 
 On the thirteenth of September, 1593, the crown of Spain, by the death 
 of Phili}) the second, in the seventh-second year of his age, passed to his 
 son, Philip the third. The revolution, which severed the Spanish provinces 
 in the low countries, from the dominions of Spain, began in the latter part 
 of the reign of the deceased monarch ; and the war, which ended in the 
 l)eginning of the next, left the house of Nassau in possession of these 
 provinces. The loss of territory, thus sustained, was followed in the latter 
 part of the life of Philip III., by a considerable diminution of population, 
 through the ill advised expulsion of the Moors. 
 
 The attention of Henry the fourth, nor that of his subjects, does not 
 appear to have been drawn to America, till many years after his accession. 
 
46 HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 
 
 Pontgrave, an experienced navigator of St. Maloes, Avho had for several 
 years traded to Tadoussac, on the northern shore of the river St. Lawrence, 
 at a short distance below the spot on which the city of Quebec has since been 
 built, and Chauvin, a captain of the king's ships, who had obtained a patent, 
 nearly similar to that of the Marquis de la Roche, made a voyage to 
 Canada, in 1G02. They proceeded up the river St. Lawrence, as f;ir as the 
 place, on which the city of Trois Rivieres now stands, where Pontgrave 
 wished to begin a settlement; but Chauvin, more anxious of promoting 
 his interest, 1^}^ traffic with the Indians, than that of his country, by 
 planting a colony, refused his consent. A few men, however, were left at 
 Tadoussac, who would have perished, if the Indians had not relieved them. 
 
 The English now kept pace with the French, in their endeavors to make 
 a settlement in the new world. Bartholomew Gosnold, a bold navigator, 
 departed from Falmouth, with thirty-two men in a barque, and sailing as 
 nearly Avest as possible, made the continent on the eleventh of May of the 
 same year, towards the forty-third degree of northern latitude. He gave 
 the names, which they still bear, to Cape Cod, Martha's Vineyard and 
 Elizabeth Island, in the present state of Massachusetts ; but no account 
 has reached us of his leaving any person behind. Indeed, the small 
 number of men he took out, precludes any idea of it. 
 
 On the third of May, 1603, Queen Elizabeth died in the seventieth year 
 of her age, without issue, and was succeeded by James VI., of Scotland, 
 the son of the unfortunate Mary Stuart. 
 
 At the accession of the House of Stuart to the throne of England, there 
 was not a single individual of the English or French nation in North 
 America, living under the protection of his national flag. 
 
 The Commander de la Chatte, who had acquired the rights of Chauvin, 
 formed a company, chiefly composed of merchants of Rouen, to whom 
 were joined several persons of distinction. It prepared an expedition, the 
 command of which was given to Pontgrave, to whom Henry the fourth 
 had granted letters patent, authorising him to make discoveries and 
 settlements on the shores of the river St. Lawrence. Samuel de Champlain, 
 an experienced seaman, who makes a conspicuous figure in the history of 
 the new world, accompanied him. They sailed in 1603. 
 
 After a short stay at Tadoussac, they left the shipping there ; and 
 proceeded, in a light boat, with five sailors to the rapids of St. Louis, or 
 the Indian town of Hochelaga, which Cartier had visited sixty-eight years 
 before. They carried on some traffic vdih the natives, and joining the 
 shipping, returned to France. 
 
 Their patron, the Commander de la Chatte, had died during their 
 absence, and his powers had been vested by the king, in Pierre de Guard. 
 Sieur clu Monts, to whom had also been granted the exclusive trade, in 
 furs and peltries, from the 40th to the 50th degree of north latitude, with 
 the authority of granting land, as far as the 46th. He was also created 
 Vice Admiral, and Lieutenant-General over that extent of countiy. He 
 was allowed the free exercise of his religion (the Calvinist) in America, 
 for himself and his people. He covenanted to settle the country, and 
 establish the Roman Catholic religion among the Indians. 
 
 The grantee fitted out four vessels, one of which was intended for the 
 fur trade, at Tadoussac. Pontgrave was directed to proceed with another 
 to Canceaux, to sail through the canal between Royal Island and that of 
 
HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 47 
 
 St. John, and to drive interlopers away. Duniontz intended to go to 
 Acadie with the other two. 
 
 The expedition left Havre de Graee, the seventh of INIay, 1604. In the 
 following month, Duniontz entered a port of Aeadie, in which he found a 
 vessel trading, in violation of his exclusive privilege; he confiscated it, 
 and gave the name of Rossignol (that of his master) to the port. He 
 })roceeded to an(:)ther place, to which he gave the name of Port jNIouton, 
 from the circumstance of a sheep being drowned there. He landed his 
 men here, and stayed one month, while C'hamplain was exploring the 
 coast. They afterwards proceeded to an island, to which the name of St. 
 Croix was given. They there committed some wheat to the ground, 
 which succeeded amazingly. 
 
 During the winter the French suffered for want of water. The difficulty 
 they found in procuring a supply from the continent, induced them to 
 use melted snow. This brought on the scurvy, which made great havoc 
 among them. As soon as the weather grew moderate, Dumontz went in 
 search of a more favorable spot. He sailed along the coast, and up the 
 rivers Penobscot and Pentagoct. Unable to find a suitable place, he 
 returned to the island, where he was soon met by Pontgrave. Despairing 
 of success there, he moved his men to Port Royal. Pontgrave was so 
 dehghted with the place, that he solicited and obtained from Dumontz a 
 grant of it, which was afterwards confirmed by the king. 
 
 More attentive to acquire wealth by a trade in furs and peltries, than a 
 subsistence l>y the culture of the soil, Pontgrave derived but little 
 advantage from his grant. 
 
 In the autumn Dumontz returned to France. The complaints of the 
 merchants of Dieppe and St. Maloes, who represented his privilege as 
 destructive of the fisheries, from which these cities derived great advan- 
 tages, induced the king to revoke it. Undismayed by this untoward 
 event, he prevailed on Poutrincourt to fit out a ship for the relief of the 
 colonists at Port Royal. 
 
 Acadie had, in the meanwhile, attracted the attention of the English. 
 The earls of Southampton and Arundel fitted out a ship, the command of 
 which the}' gave to '\^"e3anouth. He sailed from the Downs on the 
 thirtieth of March, 1605, and after a passage of forty-four days, reached 
 the continent V)eLween the forty-first and forty-second degrees of north 
 latitude ; coasting it northerly, he entered the river Penobscot, and 
 ascended it upwards of sixty miles. The plans of his employers were not 
 agricultural ; the discovery of mines of the precious metals, and the 
 purchase of furs and peltries, were the objects they had in view. After 
 trafficking for awhile with the Indians, and setting up crosses (in token 
 of his having taken possession of the country) in different parts of the 
 1 )anks of the river, he returned to England, carrying thither a Sagamore 
 and five other chiefs. 
 
 The ship, which Dumontz had induced Poutrincourt to fit out for 
 Acadie, left La Rochelle on the twelfth of May, 1606 ; her passage was 
 tedious. Left so long without assistance, the colonists began to despair. 
 Pontgrave had used in vain his best efforts to inspire them with 
 confidence and patience. At last, unable to withstand their clamors any 
 longer, he embarked with them for France ; leaving behind two men only, 
 who willingly remained in the fort, to preserve the property, which the 
 smallness of the only vessel he could procure prevented him from 
 
48 HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 
 
 carrying away. He had not left sight of French bay when he met a 
 barque, by which he was informed of the arrival of Poutrincourt at 
 Canceaux." This induced him to retrograde, and on re-entering Port 
 Royal, he found there Poutrincourt, who had passed between the 
 continent and the island of Cape Breton. 
 
 Abundance being thus restored to the colony, the chiefs gave their 
 undivided attention to its security. Fortifications were erected, and land 
 inclosed and cultivated. Employment checked idleness and its conse- 
 quence, disease ; the friendship of the natives Avas secured, and the 
 colony began to thrive. Dumontz' affairs in France had not been equally 
 prosperous. He was unable to recover his privilege, and received a very 
 trifling indemnification. He was at last permitted to exercise it during 
 one year; at the expiration of which, it was to be enjoyed by the Marchi- 
 oness of Guercheville, a lady of great distinction at the court of France ; 
 but this favor was burdened with the obligation of making a settlement 
 on the banks of the St. Lawrence. His former friends had not abandoned 
 him ; but their object was not colonization, but traffic with the Indians. 
 They fitted out two ships, which they placed under the orders of Cham- 
 plain and Pontgrave, who were sent to trade at Tadoussac. 
 
 In the meanwhile, a plan had been adopted in England, under the 
 auspices of James the first, which was the origin of the extension of his 
 dominions to the western hemisphere. Letters patent had been issued on 
 the tenth of May, 1606, granting to Sir Thomas Gates and his associates, 
 the territories in America, lying on the coast, between the thirty-fourth 
 and forty-fifth degrees, either belonging to the king, or not possessed by 
 any christian prince or people. The grantees were divided into two 
 companies. 
 
 The southern was required to settle between the 34th and 41st, and the 
 northern between the 38th and 45th. But neither was to settle within one 
 hundred miles from any establishment made by the other. 
 
 The northern company fitted out a vessel the same year ; but she Avas 
 taken by the Spaniards, who claimed the exclusive right of navigating the 
 American seas. During the next, they sent two vessels, in' which were 
 embarked about two hundred colonists, who were landed near Sagadehoc, 
 in the fall. They erected a small fortification, to which they gave the 
 name of Fort George. The winter was extremely severe. The leader, and 
 some of the principal colonists, fell victims to the diseases, which the great 
 cold produced. The rest, hearing of the death of their most influential 
 patron, by the vessel that brought them provisions in the spring, returned 
 to England quite dispirited. 
 
 The southern company was more fortunate. Its first expedition consisted 
 of a vessel of one hundred and twenty tons, and two barques, which 
 besides their crews, carried one liundred and fifty colonists. The command 
 of it was given to Newport. It sailed from the Thames, on the nineteenth 
 of December, 1606, and did not enter the bay of Chesapeake, till the 
 seventeenth of April following. It proceeded up the river, then called 
 Powhatan, but to which Newport gave the name of James river, on the 
 shores of which was laid the foundation of the oldest town of English 
 origin, now existing in the new world ; it was called James Town. St. 
 Augustine in Florida, and Port Royal in Acadie, noAv Annapolis of Nova 
 Scotia, are the only towns on the northern continent, which, in point of 
 antiquity, rightly claim the precedence of it. 
 
HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 49 
 
 About fifteen months after, on the third of July, 1608, Champlain laid, 
 on the northern shore of the St. Lawrence, the foundation of the city of 
 Quebec, at the distance of three hundred and sixty miles from the sea. 
 
 The place was called by the Indians Quebecio, a word indicating a 
 narrowed place ; the width of the stream there diminishing from three to 
 one mile, Avhile about thirty miles below, it exparuis to twelve and fifteen. 
 
 Champlain was joined here, in the spring, by Pontgrave. Parties of 
 the Hurons, Algonquins and Montagues, were preparing for an expedition 
 against the Iroquois, and he was induced to accompany them. He 
 imagined, that aided by these three nations who were numerous, and had 
 a strong interest to unite with him, he would be able successively to 
 subdue all others ; but he was ignorant that the Iroquois, who kept in 
 awe every Indian within a circle of three hundred miles, were about to be 
 supported by an European nation, jealous of the progress of his own in 
 Canada. 
 
 This year Henry Hudson, an English seaman, in the service of the 
 Dutch East India Company, sent to seek a northwest passage to China, 
 discovered the river which still bears his name, though sometimes called 
 the North river, and now separates the states of New York and New Jersey. 
 
 Champlain, ascending the St. Lawrence, entered the river to which the 
 name of Sorel was afterwards given, in the company of his red allies. 
 They went up this stream, as far as its rapids, near the place now called 
 Chambly. Here, finding it impossible to proceed farther in their boats, 
 they marched along the shore : the Indians bearing on their shoulders 
 their bark canoes, which alone could now be of any use. 
 
 A few days after, towards sunset, they perceived the camp of the 
 Iroquois. The allied army, having taken some slight precaution, went to 
 rest. Before dawn, Champlain placed two Frenchmen in the woods, that 
 they might, as soon as light beamed, fall on the flank of the enemy. The 
 Algonquins and Hurons were divided into two bands. All were armed as 
 the foe, with bows and arrows ; but great reliance was placed in the fire- 
 arms of the French, to whom it was recommended to take good aim at 
 three Iroquois chiefs, whom high feathers, decorating their heads, rendered 
 conspicuous. 
 
 The Algonquins and Hurons advanced side by side, till within one 
 hundred and fifty yards from the Iroquois ; they then opened, and the 
 French, rushing betweeen, poured in their fire. Two of the obnoxious 
 leaders of the enemy, who had been designated to the French, fell ; the 
 third was wounded. The Algonquins and Hurons yelled and discharged 
 vollies of arrows, while the French gave a second fire. This put the 
 enemy to flight ; he was pursued ; several of his men were killed, and a 
 greater number made prisoners. The victors lost none of their men; 
 about fifteen were wounded, but not one dangerously. A large supply of 
 provisions was found in the enemy's camp, of which the pursuers were in 
 much need. 
 
 Champlain returned, with his allies, to Quebec, where Pontgrave soon 
 after arrived. They sailed together for France, leaving the command of 
 the colony to Pierre Chauvin. 
 
 Henry the fourth was much pleased with the account Champlain gave 
 him of the settlement on the St. Lawrence, and gave to his American 
 dominions the name of New France. Dumontz was then at court, using 
 his best efforts, especially with the Marchioness of Guercheville, to 
 
50 HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 
 
 recover his privilege ; but without success. His associates, the principal 
 of whom were le Gendre and Collier, did not forsake him. They fitted 
 out two ships, the command of which they gave to Champlain and 
 Pontgrave. The views of these men were quite different. Champlain had 
 most at heart the success of the colony ; Pontgrave thought of nothing 
 but the acquisition of wfealth, by traffic with the Indians. 
 
 The first reached Tadoussac on the twenty-sixth of April, 1610, and 
 proceeded to Quebec without delay. He found the colony in a prosperous 
 condition. Wheat and rye had been sown the preceding year, and 
 succeeded well ; vines had been planted, but the event had disappointed 
 the hope of the farmer. The people were healthy, and the Indians much 
 pleased with their new neighbors, among whom they found a supply of 
 provisions, when the precarious resource of the chase rendered it necessary ; 
 but they valued the whites most, on account of the protection they 
 afforded against the irruptions of the Iroquois. The Hurons, the 
 Algonquins and the Montagues were the most immediate neighbors of the 
 French. The first dwelt above Quebec, and the two other below, towards 
 Tadoussac. 
 
 These Indians pressed Champlain to accompany them, on a second 
 expedition against the Iroquois ; their warriors being already assembled 
 at the mouth of the river Sorel. On his arrival there, he found the 
 number of these much smaller than it had been represented. A party, of 
 about one hundred of the enemy, was hovering in the neighborhood ; he 
 was told he might surprise them if, leaving his boat, he went up in a light 
 canoe of the Indians. He did so, with four of his countrymen, who had 
 accompanied him, and he had hardly proceeded three miles up, when his 
 Indians, without saying one word, jumped out of the canoe, and without 
 leaving a guide with the whites, ran along the shore as fast as they could. 
 
 The country was SAvampy, and the musquitoes and other insects 
 extremely troublesome. Champlain was advancing slowly, in uncertainty 
 and doubt, when an Algonquin chief came to hurry him, saying the 
 battle was begun. He hastened, and soon heard the yells of the 
 combatants. The Iroquois had been found, and attacked in a small 
 entrenchment, and had repelled the assailants. These, taking courage on 
 the approach of their white allies, returned to the charge. The conflict 
 was obstinate ; Champlain was wounded in the neck, and one of his men 
 in the arm. This did not prevent a galling fire from being at first poured 
 in ; but at last, the ammunition was exhausted ; the enemy, greatly 
 distressed by the musketry, was elated on its silence. The French, placing 
 themselves at the head of their allies, marched to the attack and were 
 repelled ; but others, whom Champlain had left behind, coming up, the 
 charge was rencAved, and the Iroquois were mostly killed or wounded, and 
 those who attempted to escape were drowned in the stream. 
 
 On the fourteenth of May, Henry the fourth fell under the dagger of 
 Ravaillac, in the fifty-seventh year of his age, and was succeeded by his 
 son, Louis the thirteenth. 
 
 The Marchioness of Guercheville was now in the enjoyment of the 
 
 Erivilege, which had been granted to Dumontz ; who, after its revocation, 
 ad been permitted to resume it for one year. Her avowed object was the 
 conversion of the Indians, and the promotion of the Catholic religion in 
 Acadie. For this purpose, she sent thither, in the following year, two 
 
HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 51 
 
 Jesuits, fathers Briart and Masse, as missionaries to Port Royal. This is 
 the first spiritual succor sent to this part of the continent from France. 
 
 Champlain discovered the lake to which he gave, and which still hears, 
 his name. 
 
 The Dutch began, in 1613, their first establishment on the northern 
 continent, in the island of Manhattan. They called it Nova Bclgica, and 
 its principal town (now the city of New York) New Amsterdam. 
 
 The Marchioness of Guercheville fitted out two ships at Honfleur, for 
 Acadie. She gave the command of them to De la Saussaie, whom she 
 intended placing at the head of her affairs there. He sailed on the twelfth 
 of March, 1613, and cast anchor in the port de la Halve, on the sixth of 
 May. He erected there a pillar, with the armorial escutcheon of the 
 Marchioness. From thence he went to Port Royal, where he found only 
 an apothecary, who commanded, two Jesuits and three other persons 
 — Becancourt, whom she had entrusted with her affairs there, being gone 
 with the rest of the colonists, into the country in quest of provisions. 
 Having taken the Jesuits on board, De la Saussaie proceeded to the river 
 Penobscot, on the northern shore of which, he erected a small fort with 
 the aid of his crew, and of twenty-five colonists, whom he had brought 
 from France, and a few cabins for their accommodation. He called the 
 place St. Sauveur. 
 
 He was hardly settled there, when Samuel Argal, an Englishman from 
 Virginia, with eleven men of his nation, came into the neighborhood, and 
 hearing of the French settlement, determined on destroying it ; viewing it 
 as an encroachment on the rights of the northern company, within whose 
 o;rant he conceived it to be. The French, being unprovided with artillery 
 (and the English having four pieces of cannon) made but a feeble resistance. 
 They had several men killed. After their surrender, the settlement was 
 abandoned to pillage and destruction ; the vanquished were permitted to 
 return to France ; some of them, however, voluntarily followed Argal to 
 Virginia. The escutcheon of the King of England was substituted for 
 that of the Marchioness. Argal, before he sailed, sent some of his men to 
 St. Croix and Port Royal, where, as at St. Sauveur, the houses of the 
 French were consumed by fire. 
 
 The death of Henry the fourth had left Dumontz without support; 
 Champlain had found a patron in the Earl of Soissons, whom the queen 
 regent had placed at the head of the affairs of New France; but this 
 nobleman died soon after, and was succeeded by the Prince of Conde. 
 Under the auspices of the latter, Champlain sailed with Pontgrave, w^ho 
 had lately returned from Acadie. Landing at Quebec, on the seventh of 
 May, 1613, and finding every thing in good order, he proceeded up the 
 river, and laid the foundation of the city of Montreal. He visited the 
 Ouatamais, and joining Pontgrave, whom he had left trading below, 
 returned with him to St. Maloes. He formed there an association with 
 merchants of that city, of Rouen and of la Rochelle, and by the aid of 
 the Prince of Conde, obtained a charter for it. 
 
 The English northern company, deterred by the ill success of the colony 
 they had sent to Sagadehoc five years before, had in the meanwhile 
 limited their enterprise to a few voyages, undertaken for the sole purposes 
 of fishing and trading for furs and peltries with the natives. In one of 
 these, John Smith made in 1614, an accurate map from Cape Cod to 
 Penobscot river. He laid it before the Prince of Wales, who gave the 
 
52 HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 
 
 country the appellation of New England, under which the territory between 
 the Dutch colony of Nova Belgica, and the French of Canada became 
 known to Europe. 
 
 The company, lately formed by Champlain, at St. Maloes, fitted out 
 their first expedition for New France, in the following year. He carried 
 thither four recollet friars, Avhom he landed at Quebec, on the twenty-fifth 
 of March, 1615. He next proceeded to Montreal, where he found a large 
 party of the Hurons, who proposed a third expedition against the Iroquois. 
 
 He assented to it, provided they would wait till his return from Quebec, 
 where his presence was absolutely necessary ; this was agreed to, and he 
 set off". 
 
 The Indians, however, grew soon tired of waiting for him, and proceeded 
 with a few Frenchmen he had left in Montreal and father Joseph le Caron, 
 one of the recollet friars lately arrived. Champlain reached Montreal, a 
 few days after their departure, and was much vexed at their conduct. He 
 would have desisted from following them, had he not feared the friar, who 
 was with them, might be ill treated. He embarked with two Frenchmen 
 and ten Indians, and joined the Hurons in the village. Placing himself 
 at their head, he led them towards the Iroquois, who were found in an 
 entrenchment, the approaches to which were in every direction, obstructed 
 by trunks of large trees, still armed with all their branches. The assailants, 
 repulsed on their first approach, attempted to set fire to the trees ; but the 
 besiegers had provided themselves, against this mode of offence, with a 
 large supply of water. Champlain now erected a high scaffold, on which 
 he placed his countrymen, whose galling fire greatly annoyed the enemy 
 and would have insured victory, if the Hurons had not become untractable 
 and unmindful of the orders of their leader. He was at last wounded in 
 the leg, an accident, which drove his allies from presumption to despair ; 
 and he found himself compelled to order a retreat. It was made in a 
 better order than he had expected ; for, notwithstanding the pursuit, he 
 did not lose one man. 
 
 Champlain wintered in the neighborhood, unable to procure a guide for 
 his return to Quebec. He visited the villages near him, as far as Lake 
 Nipissing. In the spring, he induced a few Indians, who had become 
 attached to him, to pilot father Joseph and himself to Quebec, where they 
 landed on the eleventh of July. He soon after went over to France. 
 
 During his absence, two Frenchmen, on a trading excursion, were killed 
 by the Hurons. On his return, he was planning an expedition against his 
 former allies, in order to avenge his countrymen's death ; but the former, 
 apprehensive of the conseqences, if the}^ gave him time to make his 
 preparations, determined on striking the first blow, and destroying every 
 white man in Canada. With this object in view, they assembled about 
 eight hundred warriors, near Trois Rivieres. Brother Pacific, a lay recollet 
 friar, who had been stationed as a school master in the settlement, having 
 received early information of their design, successfully exerted himself to 
 dissuade them from it, holding out the hope that, if they abandoned it, 
 and give up the assassins, Champlain would be prevailed on to forbear 
 taking the just revenge he meditated. Accordingly, at their request, he 
 went down to Quebec. Champlain demanded two Indians, who had been 
 designated, as the perpetrators of the murder. One of them was sent and 
 with him a large quantity of furs and peltries, in order, aocording to the 
 
HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 53 
 
 Indian custom, to cover the dead or atone for the crime. Prudential 
 considerations induced Champlain to appear satisfied with this. 
 
 The troubles that distracted France during the minority of Louis the 
 thirteenth, prevented the regency from attending to the possessions of the 
 crown in America. Champlain continued to make frequent, but unsuc- 
 cessful voyages to France, in search of aid ; and his associates, satisfied 
 with advancing their own interests by traffic, did not think of promoting 
 the settlement or agriculture of the colony. 
 
 The prince of Conde sold, in 1620, his vice royalty to his brother-in-law, 
 the Marshal of Montmorency. This nobleman, appointed Champlain his 
 lieutenant, who, encouraged by the promises of his new patron, took his 
 family over. On his landing at Tadoussac, he found three traders of la 
 Rochelle, who, in contempt of the king's orders, and in violation of the 
 company's rights, were trafficking with the Indians, and so far forgot 
 themselves as to supply them with fire arms and ammunition ; a measure 
 which, until then, had been cautiously avoided. 
 
 On the twentieth of December, a ship from England landed one hundred 
 and twenty men near Cape Cod, who laid the foundation of a colony, 
 which, in course of time, became greatly conspicuous in the annals of the 
 northern continent. They called their first town New Plymouth. 
 
 Philip the third, on the twenty-first of March of the following year, the 
 forty-third of his age, transmitted the crown of Spain to his son, Philip 
 the fourth. 
 
 This year, James the first of England, granted to Sir William Alexander, 
 all the territory taken by Argal from the French in America, giving it the 
 appellation of Nova Scotia, instead of that of Acadie, under which it was 
 then known. The grantee divided it into two provinces : the first, which 
 included the peninsula, retained the name in the royal grant ; the second, 
 including the rest of the territory, was called Nova Alexander. The king 
 proposed to create fifty baronets, from among the associates of Sir William, 
 who would contribute most liberally to the settlement of the territory 
 granted. 
 
 The Iroquois, apprehending, that if the French were suffered to gain 
 ground in Canada, the Hurons and Algonquins would acquire with their 
 help, a preponderance over their nation, determined openly to attack the 
 whites. Accordingly they fell on a small party of the latter, near the falls 
 of St. Louis ; but timely information of the approach of the Indians, 
 enabled the French to repel them. On their return, they led away father 
 William Poulain, a recollet monk ; but the French had taken an Iroquois 
 chief of considerable note, and the holy man, as they were tying him to 
 the stake, received his freedom and his life, on the proposal of his 
 countrymen to give the warrior in exchange for him. 
 
 Another party, in thirt}^ canoes, came to Quebec and surrounded the 
 convent of the recollets, on St. Charles river. The pious monks had 
 fortified their, till then, peaceful monastery. The Iroquois hovered for 
 several days around it, and retreated after having captured a small party 
 of Hurons, who had come to the relief of their godly fathers. After 
 destroying their huts and burning some of their prisoners, near the holy 
 place, the Iroquois withdrew. Champlain found the force he could 
 command too weak to venture on a pursuit. At the solicitation of the 
 principal inhabitants, he sent father George le Baillif to France, to lay the 
 
54 HISTORY OF LOUISIANA, 
 
 distressed situation of the colony before the sovereign, and implore the 
 needed relief. 
 
 Quebec in 1622, fourteen years after its settlement, had only fifty 
 inhabitants, men, women and children. A brisk trade was carried on. 
 with the natives at Tadoussac below, and at Montreal and Trois Rivieres 
 above the city. 
 
 The charter, which the Prince of Conde had procured to the company, 
 of merchants of St. Maloes, Rouen and la Rochelle, which Champlain had 
 formed, was now revoked and its privilege granted to William de Caen 
 and Edmund de Caen, his nephews. 
 
 The uncle came to Quebec, and although a protestant, was cordially 
 received. He gave the direction of his affairs in Canada to Pontgrave* 
 who was, by the ill state of his health, obliged to follow his principal to 
 France, in the following year. 
 
 Champlain, having received intelligence that the Hurons, his former 
 allies, meditated an union with the Iroquois against the French, sent 
 among them three recollet monks — Fathers Joseph le Caron and Nicholas 
 Viel and brother Nicholas Saghart. The timely exertion of the influence 
 of these pious men, had the effect of averting the impending calamity. 
 He now laid the foundation of the fortress of Quebec, and went to France 
 with his family. 
 
 Henry de Levy, Duke of Ventadour, had succeeded his uncle the 
 Marshal of Montmorency, in the vice-royalty of New France. All the 
 relief, which the solicitations of Champlain could obtain from the new 
 viceroy, who had lately withdrawn from court, and received holy orders, 
 was of the spiritual kind. Father Lallemand, who had accompanied de 
 la Saussaie in Acadie, father Masse, of whom mention has already been 
 made, and father Jean de Brebeuf, all three of the order of the Jesuits, 
 were sent as missionaries to Canada, and were accompanied by two of 
 their lay brethren, and father Daillon, a recollet. They all landed at 
 Quebec, in 1625. 
 
 On the twenty-ninth of April of the same year, on the demise of James 
 the first, in the fifty-ninth year of his age, his son, Charles the first, 
 ascended the thrones of England and Scotland. This year is remarkable 
 as the one in which the French and English made their first settlements 
 in the West India islands. They both landed, on the same day, in 
 different parts of the island of St. Christopher. 
 
 Charles the first, in some degree, pursued the intentions of his father, 
 by granting patents of knight baronets to the promoters of the settlement 
 of Nova Scotia. The original scheme was, however, defeated, and Sir. 
 William Alexander sold his property in that country to the French. He; 
 was Charles' secretary of state for Scotland, and was created Lord 
 Stirling. The person who had inherited his title in 1776, took part with 
 the Americans, and served the United States with distinction, as a general 
 officer during the war which terminated by the recognition of their 
 independence, by their former sovereign. 
 
 Fathers Daillon and Brebeuf, some time after their arrival at Quebec, 
 set off for Trois Rivieres, where they met with a party of the Hurons, who 
 offered to escort them. As their object was to go and preach the gospel 
 to the Indians, they accepted the offer, and were about starting, when the 
 news of the death of father Viel induced them to remain. This ftither, 
 having spent some time with the Hurons, left them on a visit to Quebec 
 
HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 55 
 
 in a canoe, with two of their young men. Instead of the usual pass, they 
 took the branch of the river which runs between the islands of iSIontreal 
 and Jesus, commonly called the river of the meadows, in which there is a 
 fall, and neglecting to make a small portage, they attempted passing over 
 the fall. In doing so, the canoe upset, and the 'father with an Indian boy 
 who waited on him, were drowned. The fall was, from this circumstance, 
 called le fiault dv rccoUet. The Indians made their escape. As they carried 
 away the father's baggage, and did not appear well disposed before, they 
 were strongly suspected of premeditated murder. 
 
 Three Jesuits, father Philibert, Nouet and Anne de Noue and a brother, 
 came to Quebec in 1626, in a vessel chartered by their order. This 
 spiritual was accompanied by worldly aid. A number of useful mechanics 
 came also. They added much to the appearance of the place, which now 
 liegan to take that of a town, having had before that of a plantation only. 
 The Indians were often troublesome ; at times, killing such of the whites 
 as straggled to any distance. Animosities arose between the inhabitants 
 and the agents of the de Caens, who were protestants. They paid but 
 little attention to the culture of the ground, being solicitous only of 
 collecting furs and peltries. Such was the situation of the colony when 
 Champlain returned, in 1627. 
 
 Gustavus Adolphus, king of Sweden, having patronized the plan of 
 Gulielm Usselin, for establishing a colony near that of the Dutch on 
 Hudson river, a number of Swedes and Fins came over this year, and 
 landed on Cape Henlopen, which they called Paradise point ; they 
 purchased from the natives all the land from the Cape to the falls of the 
 Delaware, and began their settlement. 
 
 In the month of May, Louis the thirteenth, at his camp before la 
 Rochelle, issued an edict by which a number of individuals, which was 
 to be carried to one hundred, were incorporated under the style of " the 
 company of New France." The privilege of the de Caens was expressly 
 revoked. New France and Caroline or French Florida, were transferred 
 to the company ; the sovereign reserving only the faith and homage of 
 its members and the inhabitants of the country, with a golden crown, on 
 the accession of every king, the right of commissioning .the officers of the 
 highest tribunal of justice, presented to him, by the company, the power 
 of casting cannons, erecting forts and doing whatever might be needed for 
 the defence of the country. The company was invested with the power of 
 granting land, erecting dukedoms, marquisates, earldoms, baronies, etc. 
 An exclusive trade in furs and peltries was granted forever ; and in 
 everything else, during fifteen years. The right was, however, reserved 
 to the king's subjects in the country, to purchase furs, peltries and hides 
 from the Indians ; under the obligation of selling beaver skins to the 
 factors of the company at a fixed price. 
 
 The company covenanted to transport in the course of the first year, 
 two or three hundred mechanics of different trades to Canada ; to increase 
 the number of its inhabitants, within fifteen years, to sixteen thousand ; 
 to lodge, feed and maintain the people they should send thither, during 
 three years, and afterwards to grant them cleared land, sufficient for their 
 support, and supply them with grain for seed. It was stipulated that all 
 the colonists should be native French and Roman catholics, and no alien 
 or heretic was to be received ; it was provided that in every settlement 
 
56 HISTORY OP LOUISIANA. 
 
 there should be at least three priests supported by the company : cleared 
 land was to be allotted for their support. 
 
 The company was composed of several noblemen, wealthy merchants 
 and other influential characters, at whose head was the Cardinal of 
 Richelieu. The Duke of Ventadour surrendered his office of viceroy to 
 the king. 
 
 The first efforts of the company were unsuccessful. Its vessels were 
 taken by the English, although there was no war between them and the 
 French ; but the cabinet of St. James had taken umbrage at the siege of 
 la Rochelle. 
 
 David Kertz, a native of Dieppe, but a refugee in the service of Charles 
 the first, instigated, as was supposed, by William de Caen, who was 
 exasperated at the loss of his privilege, cast anchor Avith a small fleet 
 before Tadoussac, early in the spring of the following year, and sent one 
 of his ships to destroy the houses and seize the cattle at Cape Tousmente ; 
 and another to summon Champlain to surrender Quebec. The French 
 chief was in the utmost distress for provisions and ammunition. He, 
 however, returned a bold answer. Kertz having, in the meanwhile, 
 received intelligence of the approach of a number of vessels, sent by the 
 company to carry men and provisions to Canada, thought it more 
 advisable to go and meet them than to attempt a siege. 
 
 Roquemont, who commanded the company's ships, cast anchor at 
 Gaspe, from Avhence he dispatched a light vessel to Quebec, in order ta 
 apprise Champlain of his approach, and deliver him a commission, by 
 which he was appointed governor and lieutenant general of New France. 
 Miscalculating the relative forces of the French and English fleets, 
 Roquemont went in search of Kertz, and fought him ; but his ships, being, 
 overladen and encumbered, were all captured. 
 
 The joy, which Roquemont's messenger had excited in Quebec, was not 
 of long duration. It was soon followed by the melancholy tidings of the 
 capture of the vessels loaded with the needed supplies. This misfortune 
 was attended by another. The crops failed throughout the country. The 
 Indians for a while yielded some relief from the produce of their chase ; 
 but this precarious aid did not, nor could it, last long. The colonists had 
 still some hope from another quarter. Father Nouet, superior of the 
 Jesuits, and father Lallemand, were gone to solicit succor in France. 
 They found, in the generosity of their friends, the means of chartering a 
 vessel and loading her with provisions, and took passage in her with 
 father Alexander Vieuxpont and a lay brother. A storm cast her ashore 
 on the coast of Acadie. The superior and lay brother were drowned. 
 ' Father Vieuxpont joined father Vimont in the island of Cape Breton. 
 Father Lallemand sailed for France, but experienced a second shipwreck 
 near San Sebastian, from which he however escaped. 
 
 Famine was not the only calamity that afflicted Canada. The Indians 
 had grown turbulent and intractable, on the approach of the English. 
 The ill will which a difference of religious opinions often creates, was 
 greatly excited, and the Huguenots, whom the de Caens had introduced, 
 refused obedience to the constituted authorities. Champlain had need of 
 all his firmness and energy to suppress the disorder. lu this state of 
 affairs, he thought the best measure he could adopt was to march against 
 the Iroquois, who of late had given him great cause of complaint, attack 
 them and seek subsistence for his men in their country. But he was 
 
HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 57 
 
 ■without ammunition and could not reasonably expect any for many 
 months. Brule, his brother-in-law, whom he had sent to France to lay the 
 distressed situation of the colony before the king, had sailed but a few 
 M'eeks before. 
 
 Towards the middle of July, he was informed that a number of English 
 vessels were behind Pointe Levy. This intelligence, which at any other 
 time would have been very unpleasant, received a different character from 
 circumstances. He viewed the English less as enemies than as liberators 
 who came to put an end to the horrors of famine. A few hours after, a 
 boat, with a white flag advanced and stopped in the middle of the port, as 
 if waiting for leave to ai3proach. A similar flag was hoisted in town, in 
 order to intimate a wish that it might come to shore. An ofhcer landed, 
 and brought to Champlain a letter from Louis and Thomas Kertz, brothers 
 to David, the Commodore. One of them was destined to the command of 
 Quebec, the other had that of the fleet, which was at Tadoussac. The 
 vessel that carried Brule, had fiillen into their hands, and the distressed 
 situation of the colony had become known to them, from the report of 
 some of her sailors. Champlain was offered to dictate the terms of the 
 capitulation ; the place was yielded. 
 
 On the twentieth, the English cast anchor before it. They had but three 
 ships ; the largest was of one hundred tons, and had ten guns ; the other 
 two were of fifty tons, and had six guns each. 
 
 The conquest of Canada added but little to the wealth or power of 
 England. Quebec, the only part of it which could be said to be settled, 
 was a rock on which one hundred individuals were starving. It contained 
 but a few miserable huts. All the wealth of the place consisted in a few 
 hides and some peltries of inconsiderable value. 
 
 Thus, one hundred and twenty years after the French first visited the 
 northern continent of America, notwithstanding a great waste of men and 
 money, they were without one foot of territor}^ on it. 
 
 The English colonies were in a more prosperous condition. The sturdy 
 pilgrims who had landed but a few years before, in the north, had already 
 wrested from the metropolis the government of their colony ; and spreading 
 their population along the sea shore, had laid the foundation of the towns 
 of Plymouth, Salem and Boston. 
 
 The settlements in Virginia were extended to a considerable distance 
 along the banks of James and York rivers to the Rapahanoc, and even the 
 Potomac. They had subdued the neighboring tribes of Indians, who had 
 attempted a general massacre of the whites. They enjoyed already the 
 privilege of making their own laws. Regular courts of justice were 
 established among them, and they had victoriously stood a contest, which 
 terminated in the dissolution of the company, at whose cost the country 
 had been settled ; too spirited to submit to the arbitrary sway of Sir John 
 Harvey, whom the king had sent to govern them, they had seized and 
 shipped him to England. 
 
 On the thirtieth of October, Charles the first granted to Sir Robert 
 Heath, his attorney-general, all the territory between the thirty-first and 
 thirty-sixth degrees of northern latitude, not yet cultivated or planted, 
 from the Atlantic to the Pacific ocean, with the islands of Viaries and 
 Bahama. This immense tract, including all the country now covered by 
 the states of North and South Carolina, Georgia, Tennessee and Mississippi 
 with parts of that of Louisiana, the territory of Arkansas, with a con- 
 
58 HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 
 
 siderable portion of New Mexico — was erected into an English province 
 by the name of Carolana. This is the largest grant of a king of England 
 to an individual. Sir Robert does not appear to have made an attempt to 
 occupy any part of it. In 1637, he transferred his tittle to Lord 
 Maltravers, who some time after on the death of his father, became Earl 
 of Arundel and Surry, and Earl Marshal of England. This nobleman is 
 said to have been at considerable expense in an attempt to transplant a 
 colony there, but the civil Avar which began to rage soon after, prevented 
 his success. The province afterwards became the property of Dr. Coxe of 
 New Jersey, whose right, as late as the 21st of November, 1699, was 
 recognized by the attorney-general of king William, and reported by the 
 lords commissioners of trade and plantations as a valid one. The Virginia 
 company loudly complained of the grant to Sir Robert as an encroachment 
 on their charter. 
 
 While a new government was thus sought to be establishedi n the south, 
 b}' the king's authority, new establishments were formed by the northern 
 company in the neighborhood of the French : Sir Ferdinando Gorges 
 and John Mason, two members of that corporation, built a house at the 
 mouth of Piscataqua river, and afterwards others erected cabins along the 
 coast from Merrimack eastwardly to Sagadehoc, for the purpose of fishing. 
 In 1631, Sir Ferdinando and Mason sent a party, under one Williams, 
 who laid the foundation of the town of Portsmouth in the present state of 
 New Hampshire. 
 
 By the treaty of St. Germain, which put an end to the war between 
 France and England, on the twenty-ninth of March, 1632, the latter 
 restored to the former, Canada and Acadie, without any description of 
 limits ; Quebec, Port Royal and the island of Cape Breton were so by 
 name. 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 Emery de Caen was dispatched with a copy of the treaty to Quebec. 
 His principal object in bringing it was the recovery of the property he 
 had left in Canada, for the restoration of which provision had been made 
 by an article of the treaty. With the view of yielding to him some 
 indemnification for the loss of his privilege, Louis the thirteenth had 
 granted him the exclusive commerce of New France, in furs and peltries, 
 for one year. 
 
 Kertz surrendered the country to de Caen. 
 
 Charles the first, on the twenty-eighth of June, granted to Cecilius, Lord 
 Baltimore, a large tract of country, between the settlements of Virginia 
 and the river and bay of Delaware. It was called Maryland, in honor of 
 Henrietta Maria, sister to Louis the thirteenth of France. Lord Baltimore, 
 soon after sent thither two hundred colonists. They were all Roman 
 catholics, and chiefly from Ireland. 
 
 The company of New France resumed its rights in 1633, and Champlain, 
 who, on its nomination, had been appointed governor of Canada, returned 
 to Quebec, bringing with him a few Jesuits. 
 
 Acadie was granted to the commander of Razilly, one of the principal 
 members of the company. He bound himself to settle it, and began a 
 
FIISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 59 
 
 small establishment at la Halve. A party of his people attacked a 
 trading house of the colony of New England on Penobscot river. In the 
 following year, he erected a small military post there. It was attacked b}'' 
 an English ship and barque, under Captain Girling ; but it successfully 
 defended itself. 
 
 The Plymouth company, dividing its territory among its members, the 
 land between Merrimack and Piscataqua rivers was granted to Mason. 
 It now constitutes the state of New Hampshire. That to the northeast, 
 as far as Kennebeck river, was allotted to Sir Ferdinando Gorges, another 
 member. It is now the state of Maine. 
 
 Roger Williams, a popular preacher, and a Mrs Hutchinson, being 
 banished from Massachusetts, purchased each a tract of land from the 
 Naraganset Indians, on which they settled, with a few of their adherents, 
 and laid the foundations of Providence and Rhode Island. Nearly about 
 the same time, Hooker, a favorite minister in Boston, with leave of the 
 government, led a small colon}^ farther southerly, and laid in the towns of 
 Hartford, Windsor and Wetherfield, the foundation of the present state 
 of Connecticut. 
 
 In December 1635, a college was established by royal authority at Quebec, 
 and in the following year, Champlain died, and was succeeded by the 
 Chevalier de Montmagny. 
 
 The piety of the Dutchess d'Aiguillon procured to the colony two useful 
 establishments — that of the Sisters of the Congregation, who came from 
 Dieppe in 1637 ; and that of the Ursuline Nuns from Tours, in 1638, to 
 devote themselves to the relief of suffering humanity in the hospital, and 
 the education of young persons of their sex. 
 
 With the view of checking the irruptions of the Iroquois, who greatly 
 distressed the upper settlers, and came down the river that falls into the 
 St. Lawrence on its right side, at a small distance from the town of 
 Montreal, Montmagny had a fort erected on its banks ; it was called Fort 
 Richelieu, in honor of the Cardinal, then prime minister, and afterwards 
 communicated its name to the stream. 
 
 Justice had hitherto been rendered to the colonists, by the governor 
 and commandants ; in 1640, provision was made for its more regular 
 administration, by the appointment of judges at Quebec, Montreal and 
 Trois Rivieres, and a grand seneschal of New France. The former had 
 original, and the latter appellate jurisdiction. 
 
 Louis the thirteenth, on the fourteenth of May, 1648, the forty-second 
 year of his age, transmitted his sceptre to his son, Louis the fourteenth. 
 
 The English settlements, near the French, suffering as much from the 
 Indians as Canada, the colonies of New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode 
 Island and Connecticut, sought protection in the union of their efforts. 
 They entered into a league of alliance, offensive and defensive, and gave 
 to five commissioners, chosen by each colony, the power of regulating the 
 affairs of the confederacy. Accordingly the governor of Massachusetts, 
 in behalf of the united colonies, in the following year, concluded a treaty 
 of peace and commerce, with Monsieur d'Antouy, governor of Acadie ; it 
 was laid before, and ratified by, the commissioners. 
 
 In 1646, d'Aillebout succeeded Montmagny in the government of New 
 France. 
 
 The Indians continuing to distress the back settlers of New England, 
 the commissioners of the united colonies sent a deputy to Quebec ; who, 
 
60 HISTORY OF LOUISIAXA. 
 
 in their behalf, proposed to d'Aillebout, that the French and New England 
 colonies should enter into a perpetual alliance, independent from any 
 rupture between the parent countries. D'Aillebout, approving the measure, 
 sent father Dreuilletes, a Jesuit, to meet the commissioners in Boston. 
 The envoy, it appears, was instructed not to agree to any treaty, unless 
 the aid of New England was afforded to New France against the Iroquois. 
 Time has destroyed every trace of the final result of this mission. 
 
 Democracy now prevailed in England, over the monarch and its nobles. 
 The House of Lords was abolished, and Charles the first lost his head on 
 the scaffold, on the 30th of January, 1648, in the forty-eighth year of his 
 age. Oliver Cromwell, under the title of protector, assumed the reins of 
 government. During the struggle that preceded the king's fall, the 
 northern colonies spiritedly adhered to the popular party; Virginia 
 remained attached to the royal cause, which did not cease to prevail there 
 till the arrival of a fleet, with the protector's governor. Some resistance 
 was even made to his landing. 
 
 The commissioners of New England resumed their negotiations to 
 induce the governor of New France to enter into an alliance with them. 
 The English and French colonies were now much distressed by irruptions 
 of the Indians. The French had sent among the latter, a considerable 
 number of missionaries, who proceeded, in their efforts to propagate the 
 gospel, much in the same manner as methodists now do in new and 
 thinly inhabited countries. Besides travelling missionaries, who performed 
 regular tours of duty, among the more distant tribes, they had stationed 
 ones in the nearer. The stationed missionary was generally attended by 
 a lay brother, who instructed young Indians in their Catechism. The 
 father had often around him a number of his countrymen, who came to 
 sell goods and collect peltries. His dwelling was the ordinary resort of 
 the white men whom necessity, cupidity or any other cause, led into the 
 forests. A number of Indians gathered near the mission, to minister to 
 the wants of the holy man, and his inmates or visitors. His functions 
 gave him a great ascendency over his flock, amused and increased by the 
 pageantry of the rites of his religion. His authority often extended over 
 the whole tribe, and he commanded and directed the use of its forces. 
 As he was supported by, and did support, the government of the colony, 
 he soon l^ecame a powerful auxiliary in the hands of its military chief. 
 The union which existed among the travelling and stationed missionaries, 
 all appointed and sent or stationed, and directed by their superior in the 
 convent of Quebec, had connected the tribes who had received a missionary, 
 into a kind of alliance and confederacy, the forces of which government 
 commanded, and at times exerted against the more distant tribes. In 
 return, it afforded the confederates protection against their enemies. The 
 Iroquois, Fries and other nations, not in this alliance, considered the 
 members of it as their foes, made frequent irruptions in their villages, and 
 at times captured or killed the missionary and the white men around 
 him. The parties engaged in these expeditions did not always confine 
 the violence they thus exercised to Indian villages ; they often attacked 
 the frontier settlements of the whites, and at times approached their 
 towns. These circumstances rendered it desirable to New France, to 
 secure the aid of New England against the Indians. Accordingly, in 
 June, 1651, d'Aillebout, calling to his council the head of the clergy and 
 some of the most notable planters, who recommended that Godefroy, one 
 
HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 61 
 
 of the latter, and father Dreuillettes, should proceed to Boston, and 
 conclude the alliance, which the commissioners of the New England 
 colonies had proposed. Charlevoix has i^reserved the resolutions of the 
 notables, the letter they wrote to the commissioners, and the passport or 
 letter of credence which the governor gave to the envoys ; but he was not 
 able to transmit us the result of the mission. 
 
 New France received a new governor, in the person of Lauson, in 1652. 
 
 A large party of the Iroquois, advancing towards Montreal, Duplessis 
 Brocard. who commanded there, putting himself at the head of the 
 inhabitants, marched out. He lost his life in an encounter, and his 
 followers were routed. This accident, although it inspired the Indians 
 with much confidence, did not embolden them to attack the town. 
 
 On the failure of an expedition, which Cromwell had directed to be 
 prepared in Boston, under the command of Sedwick, for the attack of the 
 Dutch in Nova Belgica, this officer took upon himself to dislodge the 
 French from Acadie. 
 
 The French and English were not the only European nations annoyed 
 by the Indians. The Swedes, who, at this time, had several settlements 
 over the territory, which is now covered by the states of New Jersey, 
 Pennsylvania and Delaware, finding themselves in too small a number to 
 stand their ground with the natives, abandoned New Sweden ; and John 
 Rising, their governor, in 1655 by order of his sovereign, transferred to 
 Peter Stuyvesant, governor of Nova Belgica, all the rights of the Swedish 
 crown in this quarter, for the use of the states-general. 
 
 In 1659, New France received new civil and ecclesiastical chiefs. The 
 Viscount of Argenson succeeded Lauson, and Francis de Laval, Bishop 
 of Petrea, appointed by the holy see, its apostolic vicar, arrived with a 
 number of ecclesiastics. The island of Montreal was erected into a seignory, 
 and the priests of St. Sulpice in Paris, were made lords of it. A seminary 
 was established in the city of Montreal ; it being the intention of government, 
 to substitute a secular clergy to the Jesuits and recollets, who till now had 
 ministered to the spiritual wants of the colonists. A similar establishment 
 had been begun in Quebec. Regulations were made for the collection of 
 tithes. Societies of religious ladies in France sent some of their members 
 to Montreal, for the relief of the sick and the education of young persons 
 of their sex. 
 
 While Canada was advancing in its internal improvements, the Virginians 
 extended their discoveries over the mountains. Daniel Coxe, in his 
 description of Carolana, published in 1722, relates that Col. Woods of 
 Virginia, dwelling near the falls of James river, about one hundred miles 
 from the bay of Chesapeake, between the years 1654 and 1664, discovered 
 at different times, several branches of the Ohio and Mississippi. He adds, 
 he had in his possession, the journal of a Capt. Needham, who was employed 
 by the Colonel. 
 
 In 1660, the people of Virginia, at the death of Mathews, the protector's 
 governor, called on Sir William Berkely, the former governor under the 
 king, to resume the reins of government, and proclaimed Charles the second 
 as their legitimate sovereign, before they had any intelligence of Cromwell's 
 death. Charles' restoration was soon after effected in England, and his 
 authority recognized in all his American colonies. 
 
 This year was a disastrous one in Canada : large parties of the Iroquois 
 incessantly rambled over the country, in every direction, killing or making 
 
62 HISTORY OF LOUISIANA, 
 
 prisoners of the whites, who strayed to any distance from their phmtations. 
 The culture of the earth was much impeded by the terror they inspired. 
 Even in Quebec, the people were alarmed. The Ursuline and hospital 
 nuns were frequently compelled to seek shelter out of their uKmasteries, 
 at night. In the following year, an epidemic disease made great havoc. 
 It was a kind of Avhooping cough, terminating in pleurisy. Many of the 
 whites, and the domesticated Indians fell victims to it. Its greatest 
 ravages were among the children. It was imagined to be occasioned by 
 enchantment, and many of the faculty, did, or affected to, believe it. 
 Others were terrified into credulity, and the strangest reports were circulated 
 and credited. Time and the progress of knowledge have dispelled the 
 opinion (which at this period prevailed in Europe, and the colonists had 
 brought over) that at times, malignant spirits enabled some, individuals 
 to exercise supernatural powers over the health and lives of others. It was 
 said, a fiery crown had been observed in the air at Montreal ; lamentable 
 cries were heard at Trois Rivieres, in places in which there was not 
 any person ; that at Quebec, a canoe all in fire had been seen on the 
 river, with a man armed cap-a-pie, surrounded by a circle of the same 
 element; and in the island of Orleans, a Avoman had heard the cries of 
 her fruit in her womb. A comet made its appearance ; a phenomenon 
 seldom looked upon as of no importance, especially in calamitous times. 
 
 The alarm at last subsided. The parties of Iroquois, who desolated the 
 country, became less numerous and less frequent ; these Indians finally 
 sued for peace. The governor did not appear at first very anxious to 
 listen to their proposals ; but prudence commanded the acceptance of 
 them. 
 
 The Baron d'Avaugour relieved the Viscount d'Argenson in 1662. 
 
 Serious discontents now arose between the civil and ecclesiatical chiefs. 
 Much distress resulted from the inobservance of the regulations, made to 
 prevent the sale of spirituous liquors to the Indians. A woman, who was 
 found guilty of a breach of them was sent to prison, and at the solicitation, 
 of her friends, the superior of the Jesuits waited on the Baron to solicit 
 her release. He received the holy man with rudeness ; observing that, 
 since the sale of spirituous liquors to the Indians was no offence in this 
 woman, it should not, for the future, be one in anybody. Obstinacy 
 induced him afterwards to regulate his conduct according to this rash 
 declaration; the shopkeepers (thinking themselves safe) suffered cupidity 
 to direct theirs, and the regulations were entirely disregarded. The 
 clergy exerted all their influence to suppress the growing evil, and withheld 
 absolution from those who refused to promise obedience to the regulations. 
 The Bishop resorted to the use of the censures of the church against the 
 obstinate ; this created much ill will against him and his clergy, and he 
 crossed the sea, to solicit the king's strict orders for the suppression of 
 this disorder. 
 
 A dreadful earthquake was felt in Canada on the fifth of February, 
 1663. The first shock is said by Charlevoix, to have lasted half an hour ; 
 after the first quarter of an hour, its violence gradually abated. At eight 
 o'clock in the evening, a like shock was felt ; some of the inhabitants said 
 they had counted as many as thirty-two shocks during the night. In the 
 intervals between the shocks, the surface of the ground undulated as the 
 sea, and the people felt in their houses, the sensations which are 
 experienced in a vessel at anchor. On the sixth, at three o'clock in the 
 
HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 63 
 
 morning, another most violent shock was felt. It is related that at 
 Tadoussac, there was a rain of ashes for six hours. During this strange 
 commotion of nature, the bells of the churches were kept constantly- 
 ringing by the motion of the steeples ; the houses were so terribly shaken 
 that the "eaves on each side, alternately touched the ground. Several 
 mountains altered their positions ; others were precipitated into the river, 
 and lakes were afterwards found in the places on which they stood l^efore. 
 The connnotion wns felt for nine hundred miles from east to west, and five 
 hundred from north to south. 
 
 This extraordinary phenomenon was considered as the effect of the ^ 
 vengeance of God, irritated at the obstinacy of those, who, neglecting the 
 admonitions of His ministers, and contemning the censures of His church, 
 continued to sell brandy to the Indians. The reverend writer, who has 
 been cited, relates it was said, ignited appearances had been observed in 
 the air for several days before ; globes of fire being seen over the cities of 
 Quebec and Montreal, attended with a noise like that of the simultaneous 
 discharge of several pieces of heavy artillery ; that the superior of the 
 nuns, informed her confessor some time before, that being at her devotions 
 she believed " she saw the Lord, irritated against Canada, and she invol- 
 untarily demanded justice from him for all the crimes committed in the 
 country ; praying the souls might not perish with the bodies : a moment 
 after she felt conscious the divine justice was going to strike; the 
 contempt of the church exciting God's wrath. She perceived almost 
 instantaneously four devils at the corners of Quebec, shaking the earth 
 with extreme violence, and a person of majestic mien alternately slackening 
 and drawing back a bridle, by which he held them." A female Indian, 
 who had been baptised was said to have received intelligence of the 
 impending chastisement of heaven. The reverend writer concludes his 
 narration by exultingly observing, " none perished, all were converted." 
 
 The bishop was favorably heard at court, and returned with de Mesy, 
 who, at his recommendation, was sent to relieve the Baron d'Avaugour. 
 
 The company of New France, drawing but little advantage from its 
 charter, had surrendered it; and Gaudais, the king's commissioner to 
 take possession of the country, arrived with the governor and bishop. 
 One hundred families came over with him. A number of civil and 
 military officers, and some troops were also sent. 
 
 After having executed the object of his mission, received the oaths of 
 fidelit}^ of the former and new colonists, and made several ordinances for 
 the reguhition of the police and administration of justice, the commissioner 
 returned to France. 
 
 The governors had hitherto claimed cognizance of all suits which the 
 plaintiff brought before them, and disposed of them, in a summary way, 
 and without appeal. They, however, seldom proceeded to judgment 
 without having previously tried in vain to induce the parties to submit 
 their differences to the arbitration of their friends ; and the final decisions 
 of the governors, when the attenipt failed, had generally given satisfaction. 
 We have seen, however, that in 1640, a grand seneschal of NeAV France 
 and inferior judges at Quebec, Montreal and Trois Rivieres, had been 
 appointed. By an edict of the king, of the month of March, 1664, a 
 sovereign council was created in New France. It was composed of the 
 governor, the apostolic vicar, the intendant, and four counsellors, (chosen 
 among the most notable inhabitants, by, and removeable at the pleasure 
 
64 HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 
 
 of these three officers) an attorney general and a clerk. This tribunal 
 was directed to take the ordinances of the king, and the custom of Paris, 
 as the rules of its decisions. The military and ecclesiastical chief had 
 precedence over the intendant in council, though the latter exercised the 
 functions of president. A majority of the judges was a quorum in civil, 
 but the presence of five of them was required in criminal cases. 
 
 Inferior tribunals were established at Quebec, Montreal and Trois 
 Rivieres. 
 
 The occupation, by the Dutch and Swedes, of the territory ])etween 
 New England and Maryland, had never been viewed in England as the 
 exercise of a legitimate right, but rather as an encroachment on that of 
 the crown, the country having been discovered by one of its subjects, 
 Henry Hudson. The circumstance of his being, at the time, in the 
 service of the states general, was not deemed to affect the claim of his 
 natural sovereign. Charles the second, accordingly made a grant to his 
 brother, the Duke of York, and Lord Berkeley, of all the territory between 
 New England and the river Delaware, and a force was sent to take 
 possession of it in 1664. 
 
 Governor Stuy vesant, who commanded at New Amsterdam, would have 
 resisted the English forces, but the inhabitants were unwilling to support 
 him. He was therefore compelled to yield. The town of New Amsterdam 
 received the name of New York, which was also given to the province, 
 and fort Orange that of Albany. 
 
 The territory between the Hudson and the Delaware, the North and 
 South river, was erected into a distinct province, and called New Jersey. 
 In New France, de Mesy did not live on better terms with the bishop and 
 clergy, than his predecessor. Great discontents prevailed also between 
 him and the members of the council. They rose to such a height that he 
 ordered Villere, a notable inhabitant, who had been called to a seat in the 
 council, and Bourdon, the attorney general, to be arrested, and, after a 
 detention of a few days, he shipped them to France. The stern wisdom 
 and unshaken integrity of the prisoners were universally acknowledged. 
 Their complaints were favorably heard at court. The answer of the 
 governor to the charges exhibited against him, appeared unsatisfactory, 
 and de Courcelles was sent to relieve him. 
 
 Louis the fourteenth had, in the preceding year, appointed the 
 Marquis de Tracy, his viceroy and lieutenant general in America. _ This 
 officer was directed to \asit the French islands in the West Indies, to 
 proceed to Quebec and stay as long as might be necessary, to settle the 
 disturbed government of the colony, and provide for its protection against, 
 the irruptions of the Iroquois. 
 
 In June, 1665, the viceroy landed at Quebec, with four companies of 
 the regiment of Carignan Salieres. He dispatched a part of this small 
 force, with some militia, under the orders of captain de Repentigny, who 
 met several parties of the Iroquois, whom he reduced to order. The rest 
 of the regiment arrived soon after, with de Salieres its colonel, and a 
 considerable number of new settlers and tradesmen, and a stock of 
 horses, oxen and sheep. The horses were the first seen in Canada. The 
 addition to the population of the colony, which then arrived, much 
 exceeded its former numbers. 
 
 The viceroy proceeded with a part of the troops to the river Richelieu, 
 where he employed them in erecting three forts. The first, was on the 
 
HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 65 
 
 spot on which had stood fort Richelieu, built by Montmagny in 1638, and 
 which was gone to ruins. The new one was built by an officer of the 
 name of Sorel, who was afterwards left in command there. It received his 
 name, and communicated it to the river. The second fort was erected at 
 the falls. It was at first called Fort Louis ; but Chambly, the officer who 
 built and commanded it, having acquired the land around, it took his 
 name. The third was nine miles higher up, and was called St. Theresa, 
 from the circumstance of its having been completed on the day on which 
 the catholics worship that saint. These fortifications were intended as a 
 protection against the Iroquois, who generally came down that river to 
 invade the colony. They were greatly emboldened by the expectation of 
 aid from the English, at Albany. The new forts effectually guarded 
 against their approach by the stream ; but the Indians soon found other 
 parts of the countrv afibrding them as easy a passage. They became so 
 troublesome, that the viceroy and governor were, for a considerable time, 
 compelled to keep the field with the regular forces, and as many of the 
 inhabitants as could be spared from the labors of agriculture. They had 
 several encounters with large parties of Indians, whom they defeated. 
 The latter found it of no avail to continue their irruptions, while the colony 
 was thus on its guard. 
 
 The tranquillity, which the retreat of the foe and the vigilance of the 
 chiefs gave to the colony, was, however, soon disturbed by events over 
 which human foresight can have no control. Several shocks of an earth- 
 quake, attended with the appearance of the meteors that had accompanied 
 that of 1663, now excited great alarm. A deadly epidemic disease added 
 its horrors to those which the commotions of nature had produced. 
 
 Charles the second, unmindful of his father's charter to Sir Robert 
 Heath, about a third of a century before, had in 1663 granted to Lord 
 Clarendon and others, the territory from the river San Matheo, or St. John, 
 in Florida, to the thirty-sixth degree of northern latitude. There was as 
 yet but an insignificant settlement in this vast extent of country. It was 
 on the north side of Albermarle Sound, and had been formed by stragglers 
 from the colony of Virginia, who, traveling southerly, had stopped at a 
 small distance beyond its southern limit, and had been joined by 
 emigrants chiefly of the Quaker profession, driven by the intolerant spirit 
 of the people of New England. The new proprietors having discovered 
 valuable tracts of land, not included in their charter, obtained in June, 
 1665, a second and more extensive one. It covers all the territory from 
 the twenty-ninth degree to Wynock, in 30 degrees, 30 minutes of northern 
 latitude. They effected, shortly after, a small settlement on Cape Fear 
 river, which was afterwards removed farther south, and became the nucleus 
 of the state of South Carolina, as that on Albermarle Sound, extending 
 southerly and westerly, became that of North Carolina. 
 
 On the seventeenth of September, 1665, Philip the fourth of Spain died 
 in his sixtieth year, and was succeeded by his son, Charles the second. 
 
 The French king had, in 1662, transferred to the West India Company 
 all the privileges which that of New France had enjoyed ; the former, not 
 being in a situation to avail itself immediately of the royal favor, requested 
 that the colonial government might for a while be administered by the 
 king's officer. In the spring of 1667, the Marquis de Tracy, according to 
 the king's order, put the company in formal possession of the country, 
 and soon after sailed for France. Neither the colony nor the company 
 
66 HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 
 
 appear to have derived any great advantage from this arrangement; and 
 in the following year, the freedom of commerce in New France was 
 proclaimed. """^ 
 
 By the treaty of Breda in 1667, Acadie was restored to the French. 
 
 The ecclesiastical government of New France had been hitherto confided 
 to an apostolic vicar, a bishop in pnrtibus injideiiioi), that of Petrea. The 
 pope now erected the city of Quebec, into a bishop's see, and St. Vallier 
 was appointed its first incumbent. This gentleman, however, did not 
 receive the canonical institution till four years after. 
 
 The lords of manors in New France did not enjoy any ecclesiastical 
 patronage ; and the bishop who, receiving all the tithes collected in 
 the diocese, was burdened with the support of the curates, had the 
 uncontrolled appointment of them. 
 
 It does not appear that with the exception of the seminary of St. 
 Sulpice, any lord in New France, ever claimed the administration of justice 
 by his own judges. This corporation was in the exercise of this right as 
 lords of the island of Montreal ; but they surrendered it to the king 
 in 1692. 
 
 The Chevalier de Grandfontaine and Sir John Temple, plenipotentiaries 
 of the French and British crowns, signed in Boston, on the seventh of 
 July, 1670, a declaration by which the right of France to all the country 
 from the river of Pentagoet, to the island of Cape Breton (both inclusive) 
 was recognized. The chevalier was appointed governor of Acadie. 
 
 Count de Frontenac succeeded Courcelles in the government of New 
 France, in the following year. He found it desolated by repeated 
 irruptions of the Iroquois, who came down along the eastern shore of lake 
 Ontario and descended the St. Lawrence. With the view of checking their 
 approach this way, he built a fort at Catarocoui on the lake, near the place 
 where its waters form the river. 
 
 The western company by an edict of February, 1670, had been 
 authorized to send to the islands, small coins expressly struck for cir- 
 culation there to the amount of one hundred thousand livres, (about 
 $20,000) and the edict especially provided they should not circulate 
 elsewhere. In November, 1672, however, their circulation was authorized 
 in the king's dominions in North America, and their value was increased 
 one-third ; pieces of fifteen sous being raised to twenty, and others in the 
 same proportion. At the same time, the practice that had prevailed in the 
 islands and in New France, of substituting the contract of exchange to 
 that of sale was forbidden. The king ordered that in future, all accounts, 
 notes, bills, purchases and payments should be made in money, and not 
 by exchange or computation of sugar, or other produce, under pain of 
 nullity. Former contracts, notes, bills, obligations, leases, etc., in which a 
 quantity of sugar, or other produce, was stipulated to be delivered, were 
 resolved by the royal power into obligations to pay money. This 
 interference in the concerns of individuals created confusion, and the 
 great demand it occasioned for coin, increased its value and occasioned a 
 consequent decrease of land and other property, which had a most 
 mischievous effect. 
 
 The Canadians had learnt from the Indians that there was a large 
 stream to the west, the course of which was unknown ; but they had 
 ascertained it did not flow northerly nor easterly ; and great hopes were 
 entertained that it might afford a passage to China, or at least to the Gulf 
 
HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 67 
 
 of Mexico. Talon, the first intendant of New France, was about returning 
 home and determined on discovering before he sailed the course of this 
 great river. 
 
 He engaged for this purpose father Marquette, a recollet monk, who had 
 been for a long time employed in distant missions, and Joliet, a trader of 
 Quebec, and a man of considerable information and experience in Indian 
 affairs. The two adventurers proceeded to the bay of lake Michigan and 
 entered a river, called by the Indians Outagamis, and by the French dcs 
 renards. Ascending almost to its source, notwithstanding its falls, they 
 made a small portage to the Ouisconsing. Descending this stream, which 
 flows westerly, they got into that they were in quest of on the seventh of 
 .July, 1673. History has not recorded any account of its having been 
 floated on l)y any white man since Muscoso, Avith the remainder of his 
 army, descended it from Red river to its mouth, about one hundred and 
 thirty years before. 
 
 Committing themselves to the current, the holy man and his companion 
 soon reached a village of the Illinois, near the mouth of the Missouri. 
 These Indians gladly received their visitors. Their nation was in alliance 
 with the French, and traders from Canada came frequently among them ; 
 a circumstance which had rendered them obnoxious to the Iroquois, whom 
 they found too numerous to be successfully resisted, without the aid of their 
 white friends. The guests were hospitably entertained, and their influence, 
 with the governor and ecclesiastical superior, was solicited, that some aid 
 might be afforded them, and that a missionary might come and reside 
 among them. 
 
 After a short stay, the current, which now began to be strong, brought 
 the travellers in a few daj'^s to a village of the Arkansas. Believing now 
 they had fully ascertained that the course of the river was towards the Gulf 
 of Mexico, their stock of provisions being nearly exhausted, they deemed 
 it useless and unsafe to proceed farther, among unknown tribes, on whose 
 disposition prudence forbade to rely. They therefore hastened back to 
 the river of the Illinois, ascended it and proceeded to Chicagou, on lake 
 Michigan. Here they parted ; the father returning to his mission, among 
 the Indians on the northern shore of the lake, and the trader going down 
 to Quebec, to impart to their employer the success of their labors. Count 
 de Frontenac gave to the river they had explored the name of Colbert, in 
 compliment to the then minister of the marine. 
 
 Joliet's services in this circumstance, were remunerated by a grant of 
 the large island of Anticosti, near the mouth of the river St. Lawrence. 
 
 This important discovery filled all Canada with joy, and the inhabitants 
 of the capital followed the constituted authorities of the colony to the 
 cathedral church, where the bishop, surrounded by his clergy, sung a 
 solemn Te Deum. Little did they suspect that the event, for which they 
 were rendering thanks to heaven, was marked, in the book of fate, as a 
 principal one among those, which were to lead to the expulsion of the 
 French nation from North America, that Providence had not destined the 
 shores of the mighty stream for the abode of the vassals of any European 
 prince ; but had decreed that it should be for a while the boundary, and 
 for ever after roll its waves in the midst of those free and prosperous 
 communities that now form the confederacy of the United States. 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 
 The people of New England saw, with a jealous eye, the French in 
 possession of Acadie. On the tenth of August, 1674, Chambly, who 
 commanded there, was surprised in the fort of Pentagoet, by an English 
 adventurer, who had lurked in his garrison for several days. This man 
 had procured the aid of the crew of a Flemish privateer, about one 
 hundred in number. The French being but thirty in the fort, were soon 
 subdued. The victor marched afterwards with a part of his force to the 
 fort on the river St. John. Manson, who commanded there, was found still 
 less prepared for defence than his chief. By the capture of these two forts, 
 the only ones which the French had in Acadie, the whole country fell into 
 the power of the invaders. Charles the second disavowed this act of 
 hostility, committed in a period of profound peace. It had been planned, 
 and the means of its execution had been procured in Boston. 
 
 The absence of causes of external disturbance, gave rise to internal, in 
 Canada. The colonists complained that, through the ill-timed exertion 
 of the influence of Count de Frontenac, the seats in the superior council, 
 which were destined for notable inhabitants, were exclusively filled by 
 men entirely devoted to him — that more suits had been commenced in 
 the last six months, than during the six preceding years. An act of 
 arbitrary power had greatly excited the clergy against him. He had 
 imprisoned the abbe de Fenelon, then a priest of the seminary of St. 
 Sulpice at Montreal, who afterwards became Archbishop of Cambray, and 
 acquired great reputation in the literary world, as the author of 
 Telemachus, on the alleged charge of having preached against him, and 
 of having been officiously industrious in procuring attestations from the 
 inhabitants, in favor of Perrot, whom the count had put under arrest. 
 They also complained that he had, of his own authority, exiled two 
 members of the council, and openly quarrelled with the intendant. 
 
 Much ill will was created betAveen him and the bishop, clergy and 
 missionaries, by the sale of spirituous liquors to the Indians, which they 
 had hitherto successfully opposed, and the count now countenanced. 
 The priests complained it destroyed the whole fruits of their labor among 
 the converted Indians, and the bishop had declared the breach of the 
 law, in this respect, a sin, the absolution of which was reserved to him 
 alone, in his diocese. 
 
 These dissensions were made known to the king, who, with the view of 
 putting a stop to them, directed that an assembly of the most notable 
 inhabitants of the colony, should be convened and express its opinion on 
 the propriety of disallowing the traffic, and that their determination 
 should be laid before the archbishop of Paris and father de la Chaise, an 
 eminent Jesuit confessor of the king. It was urged in France that a 
 discontinuance of the sale Avould deprive the colonial government of the 
 attachment of the natives, who would be induced to carry their furs and 
 peltries to Albany and New York. The two high dignitaries of the 
 church, to whom the sovereign had committed the examination of this 
 question, having conferred with St. Vallier, the Bishop of Quebec, (who 
 had been induced by his zeal in the cause of humanity, to go over and 
 solicit the King's interference) decided that the sale should not be 
 
HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 69 
 
 allowed. This report became the basis of an ordinance, the strictest 
 observance of which was enjoined on the count, and the prelate pledged 
 liimself to confine his interference to cases of the most flagrant violation 
 of the ordinance. 
 
 Father Marquette had died ; and the great joy which the discovery of 
 the Mississippi had excited, had subsided. Joliet was, perhap^^, too much 
 engaged by his own private concerns to prosecute the plans of further 
 discoveries, and the utmost apathy on this subject prevailed in the 
 colonial government. To the enterprise of a then obscure individual, 
 France owed her success in colonization on the Mississippi. 
 
 Robert Cavelier de Lasalle, a native of Rouen, who had spent several 
 years in the order of the Jesuits, and whom this circumstance had prevented 
 from receiving any part of the succession of his parents, who had ended 
 their lives, while he was thus civilly dead, came to Canada, in search of 
 some enterprise that might give him wealth or fame. Such appeared to 
 have been the prosecution of Marquette and Joliet's discoveries. He did 
 not douljt that the mighty stream poured its waters into the Gulf of Mexico ; 
 but he fostered the idea, that by ascending it, a way might be found to 
 some other river running westerly and affording a passage to Japan and 
 China. 
 
 He communicated his views to count de Frontenac, to whom he suggested 
 the propriety of enlarging the fort at Catarocoui, increasing its force, and 
 thus by holding out protection, induce settlers to improve the surrounding 
 country, which would afford a strong barrier to the rest of the colony in 
 case the Iroquois renewed their irruption. He jiresented, as a farther 
 advantage, the facility, which this would give for the building of barques 
 for the extension of trade, along the shores of the lakes, and of the limits 
 of the colonies and the dominions of the king over distant tribes of Indians. 
 The count entered into Lasalle's views ; but, as the execution of the 
 proposed plan required considerable disbursements, which he did not choose 
 to order without the minister's directions, he ordered the projector to go 
 over, to present and explain his plans. 
 
 Lasalle, on his arrival, was fortunate enough to procure an introduction 
 to, and gain the notice of the Prince de Conti, whose patronage secured him 
 the most ample success at court. The king granted him letters of nobility, 
 and an extensive territory around the fort at Catarocoui, now called fort 
 Frontenac, on condition of his rebuilding it with stone, and invested him 
 with ample power for prosecuting the projected discoveries, and carrying 
 on the trade with the natives. The prince desired Lasalle to take with 
 him the chevalier de Tonti, an Italian officer, who had served in Sicily, 
 where he had lost a hand. He had substituted to it, one made of copper, 
 of which habit enabled him occasionally to make a powerful use. He was 
 the son of the projector of a plan of placing money at interest (not unknown 
 now in the United States) called a tontine ; in which the principal, paid in 
 by those who die, is lost to their estates, and enures to the benefit of the 
 survivors. 
 
 Daniel Coxe mentions, in his description of the English province of 
 Carolana, that this year, 1678, a considerable number of persons went from 
 New England, on a journey of discovery, and proceeded as far as New 
 Mexico, four hundred and fifty miles beyond the Mississippi, and on their 
 return rendered an account of their discoveries to the government of Boston, 
 as is attested among many others by Colonel Dudley, then one of the 
 
70 HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 
 
 magistrates, and aftenvards Governor of New England, and since Deputy 
 Governor of the Isle of Wight, under Lord Cutts. 
 
 Lasalle, accompanied by the prince's protege and thirty colonists, among 
 whom were useful mechanics, landed at Quebec on the loth of September, 
 1678, and proceeded without tarrying, to the entrance of lake Ontario, then 
 called Frontenac. He immediately employed his men, in rebuilding the 
 fort, and put a barque of forty tons on the stocks. The expedition with 
 which the fort and vessel were completed, gave to the colonial government 
 a high idea of his activity. He was a man of genius, enterprise and 
 perserverance, firm and undaunted. Power rendered him harsh, capricious 
 and haughty. He was ambitious of fame ; but this did not render him 
 inattentive to pecuniary advantages. 
 
 The barque being launched, Lasalle thought of nothing but trade and 
 discoveries, and left the fort on the 18th of November. After a tedious 
 and dangerous passage, he reached a village called Onontarien, Avhere he 
 purchased provisions, and proceeded to one of the Iroquois, near the falls 
 of Niagara. He stayed but one night there : next morning he went nine 
 miles higher up, where selecting a convenient spot, he traced the lines of 
 a fort, and set his men to work : but observing this gave umbrage to the 
 Indians, he desisted ; to preserve however what was already done, he 
 surrounded it with a palisade. 
 
 The season being now far advanced and the cold very severe, he deemed 
 it best to place his men in winter quarters, and sent a party to reconnoitre 
 the way to the Illinois ; leaving the rest at Niagara, with the Chevalier de 
 Tonti, he returned to fort Frontenac. In the spring he came back with a 
 considerable stock of merchandise, provisions and ammunition : but his 
 vessel was wrecked on approaching the shore ; most of the lading was 
 however saved, and put on board of another barque, which his men had 
 constructed during the -winter. 
 
 He now dispatched the chevalier with a few men to explore the shores 
 and country on the northeast side of lake Erie, then called Conti. The 
 chevalier, after performing this service, passed to lake Huron, and landed 
 on the northern shore. He there heard of the party who had gone 
 towards the Illinois ; they had passed higher up. After viewing the 
 country he returned to Niagara. Lasalle had sold all his goods, and was 
 gone for a new supply ; on his return he brought, besides merchandise, a 
 large stock of provisions and three recollet monks to minister to the 
 spiritual wants of his people. The whole party now crossed lake Erie 
 without accident, but were detained for a long time by tempestuous 
 weather at Michillimackinac. Lasalle took a view of the isthmus, traded 
 with the Indians, and laid the foundation of a fort. The chevalier 
 proceeded northeasterly, in search of some men who had deserted, and to 
 obtain a better knowledge of the land in those parts. He went ashort? 
 near a strait called St. Mary, and following the coast, reached a river 
 which runs from the lake, and after a circuit of two hundred miles falls 
 into the St. Lawrence. After a ramble of eight days he returned to his 
 boat, and reaching the point of the lake, took the southern pass, and 
 landed near a plantation of the Jesuits, where he found the men he was 
 in quest of, and prevailed on them to go back to the party. 
 
 In the meanwhile, Lasalle had in the latter part of September, crossed 
 the lakes Huron and Michigan, then called Tracy and Orleans, and landed 
 in the bay of the Puants on the 8th of October. From thence he had 
 
HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 71 
 
 sent back the barque to Niagara loaded with furs and skins. Equally 
 attentive to the improvement of his fortune by commerce, and the 
 acquisition of fame by prosecuting his discoveries he proceeded in canoes 
 with seventeen men to the Little Miami, which he reached on the first of 
 November. He there carried on some trade with the natives whom he 
 induced to put themselves under the protection of his sovereign, and with 
 their consent took formal possession of their country for the crown of 
 France — erecting a fort near the mouth of the stream. 
 
 The chevalier though impatient of joining his leader had been compelled 
 by contrary weather and want of provisions to put ashore. His men were 
 fatigued and refused to proceed till they had taken some rest. The}' 
 gathered acorns and killed deer. The chevalier, taking the boat, 
 committed himself to the waves, promising shortly to return for them; 
 after being tossed during six daj^s by a tempest, he reached the fort 
 Lasalle was building on the Little Miami. 
 
 In expressing his pleasure at the return of the chevalier the chief 
 observed it would have been much greater if he had seen also the men, 
 who were left behind. This kind of reproof induced the former, as soon 
 as he had rested a while, to return for these men. He had hardly left land 
 when a storm arose and cast him ashore ; dragging his boat along he 
 reached the spot from whence he had started. Calm being restored on 
 the lake, the whole party re-embarked and soon joined Lasalle who was 
 much pleased at this addition to his force, viewing it as essential to the 
 completion of his plan. Little did he think these men would prove a 
 source of vexation and distress and a great obstruction to his views. 
 
 He had been successful in his trade, and the fort he had just completed 
 enabled him to keep the Indians in awe, and command the entrance of the 
 lake; he now determined on prosecuting his journey three hundred miles 
 further into the country of the Illinois. Leaving ten men in the new 
 fort he proceeded up the river with the rest, and after a passage of four 
 days reached the stream that now bears the name of that tribe, and 
 to which he gave that of Seignelay. 
 
 Lasalle had now forty men besides the three friars and the chevalier. 
 Advancing by small journeys and making frequent excursions to view the 
 country, he came about Christmas to a village of nearly five hundred 
 cabins. It was entirely deserted : the cabins were open and at the mercy 
 of the traveller. Each was divided into two apartments generally and 
 coarsely built ; the outside covered with mud and the inside wdth mats. 
 Under each was a cellar full of corn ; an article which the French greatly 
 needed, and of which they did not neglect the opportunity of supplying 
 themselves. Pursuing their wa}' ninety miles further they came to a lake 
 about twenty miles in circumference in which they found a great deal of 
 fish. Crossing it they found themselves again in the current of the river 
 and came to two Indian camps. On perceiving the l^arty, the natives sent 
 their women and children into the woods, and ranged themselves in battle 
 array, on each side of the stream. Lasalle having put his men in a 
 posture of defence, one of the Indian chiefs advanced, and asked who they 
 were and what was their object in thus coming among them. Lasalle 
 directed his interpreter to answer the party were French, their object was 
 tf) make the God of heaven known to the natives, and offer them the 
 protection of the king of France, and to trade with them. The Illinois 
 tendered their pipes to their visitors and received them with great 
 
72 HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 
 
 cordiality. The French gave them brandy and some tools of husbandry, 
 in return for the provisions taken in their village. Pleased at this token 
 of good faith, the Indians desired Lasalle to tarrv and allow them to 
 entertain him and his men. The women and children came forward, and 
 venison and dried buffalo meat with roots and fruit were presented, an<l 
 three days were spent in convivial mirth. 
 
 With the view of impressing his hosts with awe, Lasalle made his 
 people fire two volleys of musketry. The wonder excited by this 
 unexpected thunder had the desired effect. It was improved by the? 
 erection of a fort near the river. Uneasy at his being without intelligence 
 of the barque he had sent to Niagara, richly laden with furs and peltries, 
 and at an appearance of discontent which forebode mutiny among his 
 men, he gave the fort the name of Creve Coeur, Heart Break. 
 
 Till now his journey had been fortunate : he had carried his discoveries 
 to the distance of fifteen hundred miles. Forts had been erected at 
 reasonable distances to mark and preserve the possession he had taken of 
 the country. The Indian nations had all willingly or otherwise yielded 
 to his views : the most refractory had suffered him to pass. But his men 
 appeared now tired down, from the length of a journey, the issue of which 
 appeared uncertain, and displeased to spend their time in deserts among 
 wild men ; always Avlthout guides, often without food. They broke out in 
 murmurs against the projector and leader of a fatiguing and perilous 
 ramble. His quick penetration did not allow anything to escape him. 
 He soon discovered their discontent and the mischievous designs of some 
 of them, and exerted himself to avert the impending storm. Assurance 
 of good treatment, the hope of glory, and the successful example of the 
 Spaniards were laid before his men to calm their minds. Some of the 
 discontented who had gained an ascendency over part of the rest, 
 represented to them how idle it was to continue the slaves of the caprice 
 and the dupes of the visions and imaginary hopes of a leader who 
 considered the distresses they had borne, as binding them to bear others. 
 They asked whether they could expect any other reward, for protracted 
 slavery, than misery and indigence, and what could be expected at the 
 end of a journey, almost to the confines of the earth, and inaccessible 
 seas, but the necessity of returning poorer and more miserable than when 
 they began it. They advised, in order to avert the impending calamit}^ 
 to return while they had sufficient strength ; to part from a man who 
 sought his own and their ruin ; and abandon him to his useless and 
 painful discoveries. They adverted to the difficulty of a return while 
 their leader by his intelligence and his intrigues, had insured, at the 
 expense of their labors and fatigues, the means of overtaking and 
 punishing them as deserters. They asked whither they could go, without 
 provisions or resources of any kind. The idea Avas suggested of cutting 
 the tree by the root, ending their misery by the death of the author of it, 
 and thus availing themselves of the fruits of their labors and fatigues. 
 The individuals who were ready to give their assent to this proposal, were 
 not in sufficient number. It was, however, determined to endeavor to 
 induce the Indians to rise against Lasalle, in the hope of reaping the 
 advantage of the murder, without appearing to have participated in it. 
 
 The heads of the mutineers approached the natives with apparent 
 concern and confidence, told them that, grateful for their hospitality, they 
 were alarmed at the danger which threatened them ; that Lasalle had 
 
HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 73 
 
 entered into strong engagements with the Iroquois, their greatest enemies ; 
 that he had advaneed into their eoiintry to aseertain their strength, build 
 a fort to keep them in subjection, and his meditated return to Fort 
 Frontenac had no other object than to convey to the Iroquois the 
 information he had gained, and invite them to an irruption, while his 
 force among the Illinois was ready to co-operate with them. 
 
 Too readv an ear was given to these allegations ; Lasalle discovered 
 instantly a change in the conduct of the Indians, but not at first its cause. 
 He was successful in his endeavors to obtain a disclosure of it. He 
 communicated to the Indians the grounds he had of suspecting the perfidy 
 of some of his men. He asked how impossible it was that he could 
 connect himself with the Iroquois. He said he considered that nation as 
 a perfidious one, and there could be neither credit nor safety in an 
 alliance with these savages, thirsting for human blood, without faith, law or 
 humanity, and instigated only b}' their brutality and interest. He added, 
 he had declared himself the friend of the Illinois, and opened his views to 
 them on his arrival among them. 
 
 The smallness of his force precluded the belief of an intention in him 
 to subdue any Indian tribe, and the ingenuous calmness with which he 
 spoke, gained him credit ; so that the impression made by some of his 
 men on the Indians, appeared totally effaced. 
 
 This success was, however, of small duration. An Indian of the 
 Mascoutans, (a neighboring tribe) called Mansolia, an artful fellow, was 
 engaged by the Iroquois, to induce the Illinois to cut off the French. He 
 loitered till night came on, in the neighborhood of the camp ; then 
 entering it, stopping at different fires, and having made jDresents to, and 
 collected the big men, he opened the subject of his mission. He began by 
 observing that the common interest of all the Indian tribes, but the 
 particular one of his and the Illinois, had induced his countrymen to 
 depute him to the latter, to consult on the means of averting an impending 
 calamity ; that the French made rapid strides in their attempt to 
 subjugate every nation from the lakes to the sea; employing not only 
 their own men, but the Indians themselves ; that their alliance with the 
 Iroquois was well known, and the fort they had erected among the 
 Illinois was only a prelude to further encroachments, as soon as they were 
 joined by their confederates ; and if they were suffered to remain unmo- 
 lested, it would soon be too late to resist, and the evil prove without a 
 remedy ; but while they were so small in number and that of the Illinois 
 was so superior, they might be easily destroyed and the blow they 
 meditated warded off. 
 
 This fellow's suggestions, derivi;ng strength from their coincidence with 
 those of Lasalle's men, had the desired effect. The suspicions which 
 Lasalle's address and candor had allied, were awakened, and the head 
 men spent the night in deliberation. 
 
 In the morning, all the desultory hopes he had built on the apparent 
 return of confidence, vanished on his noticing the cold reserve of some of 
 the chiefs, and the unconcealed distrust and indignation of others. He 
 vainly sought to discover the immediate cause of the change. He kneAV 
 not whether it would not- be better to entrench himself in the fort. 
 Alarmed and surprised, but unable to remain in suspense, he boldly 
 advanced into the midst of the Indians, collected in small groups, and 
 speaking their language sufficiently to be understood, he asked whether 
 11 
 
74 HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 
 
 he would ever have to begin and ever see diffidence and distrust on their 
 brows. He observed he had parted with them the preceding eve in peace 
 and friendship, and he now found them armed and some of them ready to 
 fall on him : he was naked and unarmed in the midst of them, their 
 ready- and willing victim, if he could be convicted of any machination 
 against them. 
 
 Moved at his open and undaunted demeanor, the Indians pointed to the 
 deputy of the Mascoutans, sent to apprise them of his scheme and connection 
 with their enemies. Rushing boldly towards him, Lasalle, in an imperious 
 tone, demanded what token, what proof existed of this alleged connection. 
 Mansolia, thus pressed, replied, that in circumstances, in which the safety 
 of a nation was concerned, full evidence was not always required to convict 
 suspicious characters ; the smallest appearances often sufficed to justify 
 precautions ; and as the address of the turbulent and seditious consisted 
 in the dissimulation of their schemes, that of the chiefs of a nation did in 
 the prevention of their success ; in the present circumstances, his past 
 negotiations with the Iroquois, his intended return to Fort Frontenac, and 
 the fort he had just built, were sufficient presumptions to induce the Illinois 
 to apprehend danger, and take the steps necessary to prevent their fall into 
 the snare he seemed to prepare. 
 
 Lasalle replied, it behooved the Illinois to prepare means of defence ; but 
 not against the French, Avho had come among them to protect and unite 
 them in an alliance with the other tribes, under the patronage of the king 
 of France ; that the Iroquois had already subjugated the Miamis, Quichapoos 
 and the Mascoutans, they now sought to add the Illinois to these nations ; 
 but they durst not make the attempt while they were connected with the 
 French, and with the view of depriving them of the advantage, they 
 derived from their union, they had made use of an individual of a conquered 
 tribe as an emissary, greatly apprehending little credit would be given to 
 one of their own ; that all the intercourse he had with the Iroquois, was 
 the purchase of a few skins ; that he had built Fort Frontenac and another 
 on the Miami to arrest their progress (a circumstance that excited their 
 jealousy) and Fort Crevecoeur was erected to protect the Illinois, and 
 such of his men as remained with them. 
 
 His uniform candor, since he came among the Illinois, gained him 
 credit with them ; and Mansolia at last confessed the Iroquois had caused 
 the rumor of his connection with them to be spread, in order to excite 
 distrust against him among the Illinois. 
 
 A good understanding being now restored, Lasalle finding himself on a 
 stream that led to the Mississippi, divided his men into two parties ; one 
 of which was to ascend the great river, reconnoitre the country near its 
 shores, visit the tribes below, as far as the sea, and enter into alliances 
 with them. The other party was to remain in the fort. 
 
 Some of his men, seeing him making preparations for his departure, and 
 finding it impossible to counteract his views, determined on destroying 
 him. Accordingly, on Christmas day, they threw poison into the kettle, 
 in which his dinner was preparing, expecting, that if they could get rid of 
 him and his principal officers, they could obtain all the goods and other 
 property in the fort. The scheme was very near being successful. A few 
 minutes after the officers rose from the table, they were attacked with 
 convulsions and cold sweats. Suspecting what had happened, they took 
 theriack instantly, and this attention prevented the consequences of the 
 
HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 75 
 
 dire attempt. These Avretches, perceiving their conduct could not pass 
 unnoticed, Hed into the woods, and escaped the pursuit of tlieir commander. 
 
 Dacan was selected for the command of the party, which was intended 
 for the expedition to the Mississippi. Father Louis Hennepin, attended 
 it as chaplain ; it left Fort Crevec«ur on the twenty-eighth of February, 
 1680. Descending the river of the Illinois to the Mississippi, Dacan 
 ascended the latter stream to the forty-sixth degree of northern latitude, 
 where his progress was stopped by a fall, to which he gave the name of St. 
 Anthony, which it still retains. There the party was attacked and 
 defeated by a body of the Sioux, and led into captivity. They did not 
 experience much ill treatment, and were at last enabled to effect their 
 escape, by the aid of some French traders from Canada. On regaining 
 their liberty, they floated down the river to the sea, according to some 
 accounts, and according to others to the river of Arkansas, and returned 
 to Fort Crevecoeur. 
 
 The year 1680 is remarkable for the grant of Charles the second, to 
 William Penn of the territory that now constitutes the states of Pennsylvania 
 and Delaware. The grantee, who was one of the people called Quakers, 
 imitating the example of Gulielm Usseling and Roger Williams, disowned 
 a right to any part of the country included within his charter, till the 
 natives voluntarily yielded it on receiving a fair consideration. There 
 exists not any other example of so liberal a conduct towards the Indians 
 of North America, on the erection of a new colony. The date of Penn's 
 charter is the twentieth of February. 
 
 Lasalle had remained in Fort Crevecoeur after the departure of his men 
 under Dacan, until the fall, and having given the command of its small 
 garrison to the Chevalier de Tonti, left it for Fort Frontenac early in 
 November. On the third day of his march he reached the first village of 
 the Illinois. Noticing a beautiful situation in the neighborhood of several 
 tribes, the Miamis, Outagerais, the Kickapoos, the Ainous and Mas- 
 coutans, he determined on building a fort on a;n eminence which 
 commanded the country, as a means of keeping the Indians in awe, and a 
 stopping place or retreat for his countrymen. While he was there, two 
 men whom he had sent in the fall to Michillimachinac, in order to 
 procure intelligence of a barque which he had ordered to be built there, 
 joined him. They reported that they had not been able to obtain any 
 information. In fact, the_y had set fire to her, after having sold her lading 
 to the Iroquois ; a circumstance which Lasalle strongly suspected. He 
 sent them to the chevalier with a plan of the intended fort, and directions 
 to come and execute it. He now proceeded on his way towards Fort 
 Frontenac. 
 
 The chevalier had hardly arrived and began the fort before the officer 
 he had left at the head of the garrison of Fort Crevecoeur, sent to apprise 
 him that the two men, lately come from Michillimachinac, having found 
 associates among the soldiers and pillaged the fort and fled into the 
 woods ; leaving only seven or eight men who had refused to join them, 
 This induced the chevalier to return. He found Fort Crevecoeur entirely 
 destitute, and took measures to conceal this misfortune from the Indians 
 and to make it known to Lasalle. 
 
 A large party of the Iroquois fell on the Illinois, a circumstance which 
 induced some of the latter to apprehend that there might be some truth 
 in the report of an alliance between their enemy and the French. The 
 
76 HISTORY OF LOUISIAXA. 
 
 chevalier having no force to assist the Illinois, successfully aiForded them 
 his good otfices as a mediator with the aids of fathers Gabriel and 
 Zenobe, who had remained with him. It was believed in Canada that the 
 Iroc^uois had been excited by the English at Albany and the enemies of 
 Lasalle. 
 
 Charles the second having disowned the invasion of Acadie in 1674, and 
 it having been accordingly restored to the French with the Fort of 
 Pentagoet, and that of the river St. John, a small settlement had been 
 formed at Port Royal. The English had built a fort Ijetween the rivers 
 Kennebeck and Pentagoet, which they had called Penkuit. The 
 Abenaquis claimed the country on which it stood and complained of its 
 erection. The English induced the Iroquois to fall on these Indians, who 
 being unable at once to withstand these white and red enemies reconciled 
 themselves to the former. The English being so far successful invaded 
 Acadie and took the forts at Pentagoet and the river St. John. Valliere, 
 who commanded at Port Royal, could not prevent the inhabitants from 
 surrendering that place. Thus were the French once more driven from 
 the country. 
 
 Lasalle, in the meanwhile, arrived at Fort Crevecoeur and placed a 
 garrison of fifteen men there, under a trusty officer, and proceeded up with 
 workmen to finish the other which he called Fort St. Louis. Leaving the 
 workmen in it, he hastened to meet the chevalier at Michillimachinac, 
 which he reached on the fifteenth of August. After having refreshed 
 himself and his men for a few days, he set ofi" with the chevalier and 
 father Zenobe for Fort Frontenac. After a day's sail he reached a village 
 of the Iroquois where he traded for peltries, and leaving his two 
 companions there he proceeded to the fort from whence he sent a barque 
 loaded with merchandise, provisions and ammunition and a number of 
 recruits. The chevalier and the father went in her to the neighborhood of 
 the falls of Niagara, where taking her lading over land to lake Erie, after 
 a short navigation they landed on the shores of the Miami. Here the 
 chevalier exchanged some goods for corn, and the party increased their 
 provision of meat by the chase ; and were joined by a few Frenchmen, 
 and a number of Indians of the Abenaquis, Loop and Quickapoos. 
 
 They here tarried till the latter part of November, when Lassalle having 
 joined them, they ascended the river to the mouth of the Chicagou, and 
 went up to a portage of a mile that led them to the river of the Illinois. 
 They spent the night near a large fire, the cold being extremely intense. 
 In the morning, the water courses being all frozen, the}' proceeded to an 
 Indian village in which they staid for several days. After visiting Fort 
 St. Louis and Fort Crevecoeur, the weather softening, they floated down 
 the river of the Illinois to the Mississippi, which they entered on the 
 second of February. 
 
 The party stopped a while at the mouth of the Missouri, and on the 
 following day reached a village of the Tamoas, the inhabitants of which 
 had left their houses to spend the winter in the woods. They made a 
 short stay at the mouth of the Ohio, floating down to the Chickasaw 
 bluff's, one of the party going into the w^ods, lost his way. This obliged 
 Lasalle to stop. He visited the Indians in the neighborhood, and built a 
 fort as a resting place for his countrymen navigating the river. At the 
 solicitation of the Chickasaw chiefs, he went to their principal village, 
 attended by several of his men. The}'' were entertained with much 
 
HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 77 
 
 cordiality, and the Indians approved of his leaving a garrison in the fort 
 he was hiiiMing. The Chiekasaws were a numerous nation, able to bring 
 two thousand men into the field. Presents were reciprocally made, and 
 the French and Indians parted in great friendship. Lasalle, on reaching 
 his fort, was much gratified to find the man who was missing. He left 
 him to linish the fort, and to command its small garrison. His name was 
 Prudhomme ; it was given to the fort — and the bluff, on which the white 
 banner was then raised, to this da}^ is called by the French ecor a 
 Prudhomme. This is the first act of formal possession taken by the 
 French nation of any part of the shores of the Mississippi. The spot was, 
 however, included within the limits of the territory granted by Charles the 
 first to Sir Robert Heath, and by Charles the second to Lord Clarendon 
 and his associates. 
 
 Lasalle continued his route in the latter part of February, and did not 
 land during the three first days. On the fourth he reached a village of 
 the Cappas. As he advanced towards the landing, he heard the beating 
 of drums. This induced him to seek the opposite shore, and to throw up 
 a small work of defence ; soon after a few Indians came across ; Lasalle 
 sent one of his men to meet them with a calumet, which was readily 
 accepted. They offered to conduct the party to their village, promising 
 them safety and a good supply of provisions. The invitation was 
 accepted, and two Indians went forward to announce the approach of the 
 French. A number of the chiefs came to the shore to meet the guests, 
 and lead them to the village ; where they were lodged in a large cabin, 
 and supplied with bear skins to lie on. The object of Lasalle's expedition 
 being inquired into, he told his hosts he and his men were subjects of 
 the king of France, who had sent them to reconnoitre the country, and 
 offer to the Indians his friendship, alliance and protection. Corn and 
 smoked buffalo meat were brought in, and the French made presents of 
 suitable goods. When Lasalle took leave, two young men were given him 
 as guides to the Arkansas. 
 
 This tribe dwelt about twenty-five miles lower. They had three villages ; 
 the second was at the distance of twenty-five miles from the first. They 
 gave the French a friendly reception. In the last village many Indians 
 being assembled, Lasalle, with their assent, took possession of the country 
 for his sovereign, fixing the arms of France on a lofty tree, and causing 
 them to be saluted by a discharge of musketry. The awe which this 
 unexpected explosion excited, increased the respect of the natives for 
 their visitors, whom they earnestly pressed to tarry. 
 
 On the day after their departure, the French saw, for the first time, 
 alligators, some of which w^ere of an enormous size. 
 
 The next nation towards the sea Avas the Taensas, who dwelt at the 
 distance of about one hundred and eighty miles from the Arkansas. On 
 approaching their first village, Lasalle dispatched the Chevalier de Tonti 
 towards it. It stood on a lake, at some distance from the river. The 
 chief received the chevalier kindly, and came with him to meet Lasalle. 
 The healths of the king of France and of the chief of the Taensas were 
 drank in this interview, under a volley of musketry. A supply of 
 provisions was obtained ; some presents were made to the natives, and 
 the French departed and floated down the river. 
 
 On the second day, a pirogue approached from the shore, apparently to 
 reconnoitre the party. The chevalier was sent to chase her, and as he 
 
78 HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 
 
 came near, about one hundred Indians appeared on the shore with bent 
 bows. Lasalle, on seeing them, recalled the chevalier ; and the French 
 went and camped on the opposite shore, presenting their muskets. The 
 Indians now laid their bows on the ground, and the chevalier went over 
 with a calumet. Lasalle seeing it accepted, came over, and was led by the 
 Indians to their village. The chief expressed much joy at the sight of 
 the French, and detained them a few days. At their departure, he made 
 his people carry dried fruit, corn and venison to their boats. Lasalle gave 
 him a sword, an axe, a kettle and a few knives. After firing a salute, the 
 French proceeded to a village of the Coroas, twenty-five miles further. 
 
 On the tAventy-seventh of March, they encamped at the mouth of Red 
 River. 
 
 Further down, they fell in with a party of the Quinipissas Avho were 
 fishing, and who on perceiving them went ashore, where a drum was 
 beaten and a number of men made their appearance armed with bows. 
 Lasalle directed some of his men to advance, but they Avere briskly 
 repulsed. Four Indians, whom he had taken as guides at the last village, 
 advanced with as little success, and no further attempt to land was made. 
 
 Two days after, the French came to a village of the Tangipaos. It was 
 entirely deserted and despoiled of everything. Several dead bodies lay in 
 heaps. The scene was too disgusting to allow the party to stop. 
 
 After descending the river several days, Lasalle took notice that the 
 water of the Mississippi became brackish, and shortly after the sea Avas 
 discovered. This Avas on the seventh of April. 
 
 Lasalle sailed along the coast for awhile, and returning to the mouth of 
 the river, caused a Te Deum to be sung. The boats Avere hauled aground, 
 recaulked, and a few temporary huts erected. A cross was placed on a 
 high tree, with the escutcheon of France, in token of the solemn possession 
 taken for the king. Lasalle called the river St. Louis and the country 
 Louisiana. 
 
 Parties of the Tangipaos and Quinipissas came on the next day to hunt 
 buffaloes, which were in abundance in the neighboring cane brakes. The 
 Indians were successful in their chase, and presented the French Avith 
 three of these animals. 
 
 After resting a few days, the party set off. It noAv consisted of sixty 
 persons, white and red. They were soon tired of stemming the current Avhich 
 Avas now A^ery strong, and proceeded along the shore to the Quinipissas.. 
 As these Indians had manifested no hospitable disposition, Lasalle deemed 
 it prudent to take some precautions. Accordingly, four Indians Avere sent 
 forAvard ; they returned in the evening with as many Quinipissas Avomen, 
 who Avere sent back in the morning with presents, and desired to inform 
 their countrymen, the French requested nothing but a supply of proAdsions 
 and their friendship ; and were willing liberally to pay for Avhat they might 
 obtain. A fcAV hours after, four chiefs came Avith provisions, and requested 
 Lasalle to stop Avith his men in their village. On their arrival there, Avater 
 foAA'ls find fruit Avere given them, and at might they encamped IjetAveen the 
 village and the river. In the morning, their treacherous hosts attacked 
 them, but they did not find them asleep. Lasalle had constantly a sentry, 
 and warmly repelled the assailants. Fi\'e of them Avere killed, and the rest 
 fled. After this bloAV, Lasalle preceeded on Avithout stopping, till he 
 reached the Natchez, Avho Avere much pleased at seeing the scalps of the 
 Quinipissas in the hands of the Indians accompanying him. 
 
 
HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 79 
 
 The French, being invited to an entertainment, noticed with surprise 
 that not a woman of their hosts was among them. A moment after, a 
 number of armed men appeared. Lasalle immediately arose and ordered 
 his men to take their arms. The head man requested him not to be alarmed, 
 and directed the armed ones of his nation to halt ; informing his guests 
 they were a party, who had been skirmishing with the Iroquois, and 
 assured them that no individual of his nation harbored any other sentiment 
 towards the French, but that of esteem and friendship. Notwithstanding 
 this assurance, the French set off in the belief that Lasalle's quick motion 
 had averted a blow. 
 
 The Taensas and Arkansas received the party, Avith as much cordiality 
 as when they went down. The French left the latter tribe on the twelfth 
 of May, and stopped at Fort Prudhomme. Lasalle found himself too unwell 
 to proceed : he therefore sent the Chevalier de Tonti forward, with twenty 
 men, French and Indians. His indisposition detained him among the 
 Chickasaws for nearly two months, and he joined the chevalier at Michill- 
 imachinac, in the latter part of Septeniber. They spent a few days 
 together there, and the latter went to take the command of Fort St. Louis 
 of the Illinois, and the former continued his route to Quebec. 
 
 The Count de Frontenac had sailed for France some time before Lasalle's 
 arrival. The relation the latter gave of his expedition, excited great joy 
 in Canada. He was impatient to announce his success to his sovereign, 
 and took shipping for France in October. 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 Le Fevre de la Barre, the successor of Count de Frontenac in the 
 government of New France, and de Meules, the new intendant, landed at 
 Quebec in the spring of 1683. 
 
 Lasalle was received at court with all the attention due to a man who 
 had planned and carried into execution an enterprise so useful to the 
 nation ; and the Marquis de Seignelay, who had succeeded Colbert, his 
 father, in the ministry of the Marine, gave directions some time after for 
 the preparation of an expedition, at la Rochelle, in order to enable Lasalle 
 to plant a French colony on the banks of the Mississippi. 
 
 The vessels destined for this service were the king's ship the Joli, the 
 frigate the Aimable, the brig la Belle, and the ketch St. Francis. The 
 command of them was given to Beaujeau, 
 
 Twelve young gentlemen accompanied Lasalle as volunteers ; a company 
 of fifty soldiers was given him, and the king granted a free passage, and 
 made a liberal advance in money, provisions and implements of husbandry 
 to twelve families who consented to emigrate. A number of useful 
 mechanics were also embarked, with some other individuals. In order to 
 provide for the spiritual wants of these people, five clergymen, one of 
 whom was Lasalle's brother, were sent. Thus, besides the officers and 
 crews, about two hundred and fifty persons accompanied Lasalle. 
 
 Beaujeau did not, however, weigh anchor till the fourth of July, 1684. 
 He shaped his course for Hispaniola ; but before he reached it, a storm 
 scattered his small fleet. The Aimable and the Belle reached together Petit 
 Goave, where the Joli had arrived before them. The St. Francis, being 
 
80 HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 
 
 a dull sailer, was overtaken and captured by two Spanish privateers. A 
 severe indisposition detained Lasalle on shore for several days ; during 
 which, many of the people, yielding to the incitement of a warm climate, 
 favored by the Avant of occupation, became the victims of intemperance 
 and consequent disease ; and several died. 
 
 The fleet set sail on the twenty-fifth of November, and was for many 
 days becalmed ; on the ninth of Decemlier it was before the Cape de los 
 corricntes in the island of Cuba, and on the twenty-seventh, their 
 observation showed them to be in the twenty-eighth degree of northern 
 latitude. Their reckoning announced the api)roach of land, and towards 
 sun down they found bottom in thirty-two fathoms. Lasalle and Beaujeu 
 determined on sailing W. N. W., till ithe water shoaled to six fathoms, and 
 on the twenty-ninth they saw land at the apparent distance of six 
 leagues. 
 
 There was no person in the fleet acquainted with the coast. Lasalle 
 noticing a strong current easterly thought himself near the Apalaches. 
 The vessels continued sailing in the same direction, and on new year's 
 day tlite anchor was cast in six fathoms, the land appearing distant about 
 four leagues. Two boats were ordered ashore. Lasalle went in one of 
 them. He had hardly landed when the wind growing fresher and fresher 
 he was compelled to return ; the other boat was behind and followed him 
 back. The land was flat and woody. He took an observation and found 
 himself in twenty-nine, ten. 
 
 The weather was hazy, and the wind continued high. The coast 
 appeared lined with battures and breakers. Sailing again W. N. W., as 
 soon as the wind abated they vainly sought for several days the mouth of 
 the Mississippi. On the thirteenth they sent ashore for water ; a number 
 of Indians came along the beach ; the wind was from the sea. The fleet 
 cast anchor within half a league from the shore. The natives seemed by 
 gestures to seek to induce the French to land. They showed their bows, 
 then laid them on the ground, and walked composedly along with arms 
 akimbo. A white handkerchief was waved at the end of a musket, as an 
 invitation to approach. Throwing a log into the water they swam aboard 
 each keeping one arm on the log. 
 
 Lasalle attempted in vain to make himself understood. The natives 
 pointed to hogs, fowls and the hide of a cow, apparently desirous to 
 convey the idea of their having such animals. Small presents were made 
 which seemed to gratify them much. When they went back, the 
 shallowness of the water prevented the close approach of the boats, the 
 Indians swam away. The French thought the natives gave them to 
 understand there was a great river near, which occasioned the battures. 
 
 Lasalle now began seriously to apprehend he had passed the Mississippi, 
 and proposed to Beaujeu to sail back. The naval commander was of a 
 diflerent opinion and nothing was determined on for several days. At 
 last, Lasalle selecting half a dozen of men, undertook to seek the mighty 
 stream by a march along the shore. The weather was extremely hazy, 
 the land low, flat and sandy, destitute of grass, and fresh water was only 
 to be found in stagnant pools. He noticed numerous tracks of deer, and 
 saw a great number of Avater fowls ; having wandered from daybreak till 
 three o'clock, Lasalle began to despair, and brought his men back ; he 
 spent several days in vain attempts to induce Beaujeu to come to some 
 determination. 
 
HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 81 
 
 He next landed one hundred and twenty men, with the view of sending 
 them along the shore, while the Belle sailed in the same direction, till 
 they reached the river he was in quest of. He gave the command of them 
 to Joutel, who marched at their head on the fourth of February, and on 
 the eighth came to a wide stream, on the banks of which he halted for the 
 Belle. Tired of waiting, Joutel had ordered a raft to be built to cross the 
 stream, when the Joli and the Belle hove in sight, and Lasalle came soon 
 after Avith the Aimable. Beaujeu now ordered out the boats of the three 
 vessels to sound on the bar and in the channel, which he directed to be 
 staked. Finding there was a sufficiency of water, it was thought best to 
 bring the shipping over the bar. The Joli and the Belle accordingly came 
 in and anchored in safety, but the Aimable struck on the bar, and soon 
 after went ashore. It was believed that design, not accident, had occa- 
 sioned this misfortune ; Aigran, who commanded her, having refused to 
 receive on board a pilot of the Belle, sent by Lasalle, to follow the stakes 
 or permit an anchor to be cast, when the vessel struck. During the night 
 the wind rose and the waves became violent ; she went to pieces with a 
 boat of the Joli, which had been used in saving part of her lading, and 
 had been left fastened to the wreck. Lasalle had to lament, with the loss 
 of this vessel, that of a quantity of provisions, ammunition, and imple- 
 ments of husbandry. He saved a few barrels of flour, wine and brandy, 
 and some powder. 
 
 A party of Indians came to the camp ; he made them some trifling 
 presents, with which they appeared much pleased. At their request, he 
 visited their village, consisting of about fifty cabins, at a small distance 
 from the shore. Other parties on the following day hovered around the 
 camp, without venturing to attack it. They captured and carried ofi" 
 two white men who had straggled to a distance. A party went in pursuit 
 of them, and compelled the surrender of the prisoners. The Indians 
 returned a few nights afterwards in great numbers, and, just at the dawn 
 of day, the camp was assailed by a volley of arrows, which killed two and 
 wounded several men in the camp. An instant and rapid flight enabled 
 the Indians to avoid pursuit. 
 
 On the sixth of February, 1685, on the demise of Charles the second of 
 England, at the age of fifty-five, without issue, his brother, James the 
 second, succeeded him. 
 
 With the view of increasing the commerce of New France, and affording 
 to the nobility of Canada the means of extending their fortunes, Louis the 
 fourteenth, by an edict of the month of March of the same year, permitted 
 them to engage in trade, by land and sea, without thereby committing 
 any act of derogation. 
 
 This wise measure at home was followed by one of a different character 
 in the colony. Canada was greatly distressed by the scarcity of a circu- 
 lating medium, universally felt in all new settlements, and Champigny 
 de Norroy, who succeeded de Meules in the intendancy, sought relief in 
 an emission of card money, which was put into circulation, under an 
 ordinance of the governor and intendant. 
 
 Each card bore the stamp of the king's arms, and its value was signed 
 by the colonial treasurer, and had the coats of arms of the governor and 
 intendant impressed on wax. 
 
 Beaujeu sailed for France on the fifteenth of March, in the Joli, taking 
 with him the captain and most of the crew of the Aimable. He refused 
 
 12 
 
I 
 
 82 HISTORY OF LOUISIA>^A. 
 
 to land a numl)er of cannon balls, which he had brought for the colony, 
 on the pretence that they were in the bottom of his ship, and he could not 
 unload her without risk. He left twelve pieces of cannon, but not a single 
 ball. 
 
 After his departure, Lasalle occupied himself in building a fort at the 
 western extremity of the bay, which now bears the name of St. Bernard, 
 and garrisoned it with one hundred men. Leaving Morangies, his 
 nephew, in command there, he set off with a party of fifty men, accom- 
 panied by the abbe de Lasalle, his brother, and two recollet friars, father 
 Zenobe, who had descended the Mississippi with him a few years before, 
 and father Maxime. His object was to seek for the mouth of the 
 Mississippi river, at the bottom of the bay. The captain of the Belle was 
 directed to sound this estuary in his boats, and to bring the vessel as far 
 as he could ; he followed the coast to a point which was called Point 
 Hurler, after an officer who was left there with a few men to throw up a 
 small work. The party now proceeded to the eastern extremity of the 
 bay, and to a considerable distance beyond, and returned Avithout finding 
 the Mississippi. 
 
 In the middle of April, Lasalle established a new post sixteen miles up 
 a river, which from the number of cows he found on its bank he called 
 Cow river; it is believed to be the one called by the Spaniards Rio 
 Colorado de Texas. A party of Indians came to attack him ; but they were 
 repulsed. 
 
 Towards the latter part of the month, Lasalle returned to the fort in 
 which he had left Morangies. On Easter Sunday, divine service was 
 performed with great solemnity, every one receiving the sacrament. 
 
 This fort and the small work thrown up by Hurler were now abandoned 
 and demolished ; all the colonists removing to the new settlement, with 
 all their effects. The ground was prepared for cultivation, and a number 
 of houses were erected for common and private use. A fort was built, in 
 which twelve pieces of cannon were mounted, and a large subterraneous 
 magazine made. The fort was called Fort St. Louis. 
 
 In the meanwhile, the Chevalier de Tonti having received intelligence 
 from Canada of the departure of a fleet from France, in which Lasalle 
 was bringing colonists to the Mississippi, left the fort at the Illinois, in 
 order to meet his former chief. The Indians everywhere greeted the 
 chevalier, who reached the mouth of the river without being able to 
 receive any information of his countrymen. He staid there several weeks, 
 and the boats which he sent towards the east and west in search of 
 Lasalle, returned without any account of him. Despairing of being more 
 successful if he staid longer, he reluctantly reascended the stream. The 
 tree, on which Lasalle had two years before placed the escutcheon of 
 France, had been uprooted in a storm, and the chevalier raised another 
 token of the possession taken for the king, on the banks of the river, 
 about twenty miles from the sea. Mortified and chagrined, he progressed 
 slowly, stopping in the villages on the way, endeavoring to obtain some 
 account of the French colonists. All his attempts proved fruitless, and 
 he reached his fort, among the Illinois, in the month of May. 
 
 During the fall, most of the colonists on Rio Colorado sickened and many 
 died. 
 
 The Indians frequently came near the fort, and at times killed such of 
 the French who strayed into the woods. Lasalle marched against them, 
 
HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 83 
 
 with a party whom he had i)rovidecl with a kind of wooden jackets, that 
 protected them against arrows. He killed several Indians, and made some 
 prisoners. A little girl ahout four years of age, who was then taken, was 
 the first of the natives who received baptism in the colony. 
 
 Disease and the fatigues of this kind of warfare, interrupted so much 
 the labors of agriculture, that but a scanty crop was made. The seed grain 
 having been brought shelled was a circumstance that had its effect, in 
 disappointing the hopes of the sower; wheat seldom coming well in 
 virgin ground, when the seed has not been kept in the ear. 
 
 The captain of the Belle, having gone a hunting with half a dozen of 
 his men, was surprised by a party of Indians, who slew them all. After 
 paying the last duty to their bodies, Lasalle and his brother attended by 
 twenty men, left the fort with the view of resuming the search of the 
 Mississippi. 
 
 The l)ay he was on received a number of rivers, none of which was of 
 such a depth or width, as allowed it to be considered as a branch of the 
 mighty one. Lasalle visited them all. He was impeded in his progress 
 by the difficulty of crossing them, by almost incessant rains, and the 
 necessity, at every stage, to provide against a sudden attack. On the 
 thirteenth of February, 1686, he came to so wide and deep a stream, that 
 he suspected it to be that he was looking for. He threw up a light work 
 on its banks, in which he placed nine men. Proceeding higher up, he 
 came to a large village of Indians, where he was cordially received. From 
 the information he received, he was convinced his conjecture was erroneous ; 
 after a further progress, he retrograded, took back his nine men, and 
 returned to the settlement which he reached on the last day of May. 
 
 The Iroquois encouraged and aided by governor Dongan of New York, 
 continued their irruptions on the frontier settlements of Canada, and Louis 
 the fourteenth was induced, at the pressing solicitations of the colonists, 
 to send a body of troops to their succor. Labarre being old and infirm, 
 the Marquis de Denonville was sent to relieve him. In his first communi- 
 cation to the minister, which is of the eighth of May, 1686, this officer 
 recommended the erection of a fort, with a garrison of four or five hundred 
 men at Niagara, to shut out the English from the lakes ; secure exclusively 
 the fur trade to Canada, afford an asylum to the allied Indians, and 
 deprive deserters from the king's troops of the facilit}^ of joining the English 
 at Albany ; who employed them as guides in military and commercial 
 excursions among the tribes in alliance with the French. 
 
 The Marquis increased the garrison of Fort Frontenac, and furnished it 
 abundantly with provisions and ammunition. This gave umbrage to 
 governor Dongan, who wrote him the Iroquois considered this reinforcement 
 as the prelude to the invasion of their country ; that these Indians were 
 the allies, nay the subjects of the English crown, and an act of hostility 
 against them could only be viewed as an infraction of the peace which 
 existed between France and England ; that he was informed a fort was 
 about to be erected at Niagara ; a circumstance which surprised him the 
 more, as the Marquis, though but lately arrived in America, could not well 
 be supposed ignorant of that part of the country being within the province 
 of New York. 
 
 The Marc[uis answered, that the consciousness of the Iroquois, that 
 they deserved chastisement, could alone excite their apprehensions : 
 however, the supplies sent to Fort Frontenac ought not to have alarmed 
 
i 
 
 84 HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 
 
 these Indians, as there had always been a large garrison at that post, and 
 the difficulty of supplying it rendered it necessary to improve every 
 opportunity ; that the governor was under an error as to the right of his 
 sovereign to the country of the Iroquois ; he ought to have known that the 
 French had taken possession of it, long before any Englishman came to 
 New York ; that, however, as the kings of England and France were now 
 at peace, it did not behoove their officers in Ariierica to enter into any 
 altercation about their rights. 
 
 Louis the fourteenth having approved the emission of card money made 
 in Canada during the preceding year, another emission was now prepared 
 in Paris in which pasteboard was used instead of cards. An impression 
 was made on each piece of the coin of the kingdom of the corresponding 
 value. 
 
 Pasteboard proving inconvenient cards were again resorted to. Each 
 had the flourish which the intendant usually added to his signature. He 
 signed all those of the value of four livres and upwards, and those of six 
 livres and above were also signed by the governor. 
 
 Once a year, at a fixed period, the cards were required to be brought to 
 the colonial treasury, and exchanged for bills on the treasury-general of 
 the marine, or his deputy at Rochefort. Those which appeared too ragged 
 for circulation were burnt, and the rest again paid out of the treasury. 
 
 For awhile the cards were thus punctually exchanged once a year ; but 
 in course of time, bills ceased to be given for them. Their value which 
 till then had been equal to gold, now began to diminish ; the price of all 
 commodities rose proportionally, and the colonial government was 
 compelled, in order to meet the increased demands on its treasury, to 
 resort to new and repeated emissions ; and the people found a new source 
 of distress in the means adopted for their relief. 
 
 The English colonies in America in the letter part of the seventeenth 
 and the first of the eighteenth century, had also recourse to emissions of 
 paper currency. They everywhere yielded at first a momentary relief. 
 The currency borrowed its value from confidence ; moderation might have 
 preserved, but profusion almost universally destroyed it, and the 
 depreciated paper proved a greater evil than that it was intended to 
 remedy. 
 
 The earliest emissions in these colonies, date in those of New England 
 of 1696, in New York of 1709, in New Jersey of 1720, in Pennsylvania of 
 1722, in Delaware of 1730, in North Carolina and Barbadoes of 1705, and 
 in South Carolina of 1703. If the colonies of Maryland and Virginia, 
 during the period of their dependence on the crown, had no paper 
 currency (a circumstance which has not been ascertained) it was probably 
 owing to their finding in tobacco, their staple commodity, the means of 
 substituting the contract of exchange to that of sale. Merchants there 
 kept their accounts in pounds of tobacco, and the fees of the colonial 
 officers were by law fixed and made payable in that article. 
 
 A few days after the return of Lasalle to the fort, the Belle was cast 
 ashore in a hurricane and bilged. The officer who commanded her, the 
 chaplain and four of her crew, alone escaped. With her thirty-six barrels 
 of flour, some wine and a quantity of merchandise were lost. She was 
 the only vessel remaining in the colony, and would have been of vast 
 service to Lasalle ; he expected to have sailed in her to Hispaniola, in 
 search of succor. On the loss of this last vessel he determined to 
 
HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 85 
 
 proceed to Fort St. Louis of the Illinois, in order to apprise government 
 of his miscarriage and solicit farther aid. 
 
 Accompanied by his ln*other and nephew, by father Athanase, fifteen 
 other Frenchmen and two trusty Indians, Avho had followed him from 
 Canada, on the twenty-second of May, mass having been said to implore 
 the benediction of heaven on his journey, he set ofi and travelled north- 
 easterly, taking with him two canoes and two sleighs. 
 
 He crossed several streams, and saw large herds of buffaloes, among 
 which were a few horses, so wild that they could not be caught without 
 great address and much difficulty. Every night he took the precaution 
 of surrounding his camp with poles, to guard against surprise. On the 
 twenty-fifth, towards noon, he met with four Indians on horseback, of a 
 tribe called the Quoaquis ; their dress was chiefly of leather ; they had 
 l)Oots, saddles and a kind of shield of the same material, and wooden 
 stirrups ; the bits of their bridles were of wolf or bear's teeth. They 
 inquired who the party were, and being informed, invited them to their 
 village. 
 
 Two days after, Lasalle crossed a river which he called Riber, from one 
 of the party who Avas drowned in crossing it. Here he halted for six 
 days ; his men killed a buffalo, and salted and smoked the meat. Three 
 days after he crossed another stream, which he called Hiens, after one of 
 the party who sank into the mud and was drawn out with great difficulty. 
 
 Lasalle now altered his course, travelling due east. After a march of 
 several days, he came to a tribe called the Biscatonges, where he obtained 
 dressed buffalo skins, of which his men made moccasins, a kind of 
 covering for the foot, much used by the Indians, and resembling a mitten 
 or a glove without ffiigers. These Indians also supplied Lasalle with 
 canoes ; the two he had brought from the fort being already so crazy as 
 to be of but little use. 
 
 On the following day, as the French approached a village, one of them 
 shot a deer; this so terrified the Indians that they all fled. Lasalle 
 ordered his men under arms as they entered the village. It consisted of 
 about three hundred cabins ; the wife of one of the chiefs was still in hers, 
 being so old that she could not move. She was given to understand she 
 had nothing to fear. Three of her sons, who had remained at a small 
 distance, noticing the peaceable demeanor of the strangers, called back 
 her countrymen, who immediately returned. They offered the calumet 
 to, and entertained the French with much cordiality. 
 
 Unwilling to put too much confidence in these friendly appearances, 
 Lasalle encamped at night, on the opposite side of a cane brake that 
 encircled the village, and surrounded himself with poles as usual. These 
 precautions proved timely; for during the night, a party of Indians, 
 armed with arrows, approached. The rustling of the canes warning 
 Lasalle, he gave them to understand, without quitting his entrenchment, 
 that if they did not retire, he would order his men to fire. The night 
 passed without any further disturbance, and in the morning the hosts and 
 the guests parted with apparent marks of friendship. 
 
 Eight miles further, they came to a village of the Chinonoas. These 
 Indians dwelt in the neighborhood of the Spaniards, who often came 
 among and vexed them. They immediately recognized the French as 
 being of another nation, by their language and mien ; and their hate of 
 the Spaniards, inspired them with the opposite sentiment for their present 
 
86 HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 
 
 visitors, who were not long without letting their hosts know, they were at 
 war with the Spaniards. The Indians pressed Lasalle to tarry, and accom- 
 pany them on an expedition they were projecting against their troublesome 
 neighbors. He excused himself on the smallness of his party, who were 
 ill provided with arms. Ho was supplied with provisions, and took leave. 
 
 On the next day, Rica, the Indian servant of Lasalle, stopped suddenly, 
 exclaiming he was a dead man ; he immediately fell, and in a few minutes, 
 swelled to an astonishing degree. He had been bitten by a rattlesnake. 
 After the scarification of the wound, and the application of such herbs as 
 his countrymen quickly pointed out, he was relieved. This accident 
 detained the party during two days. 
 
 They next came to a wide river, which rendered it necessary to make a 
 raft with canes and branches covered with hides. Lasalle, his nephew and 
 two servants, ventured on it first. When they reached the middle of the 
 stream, the violence of the current carried them out of sight of their 
 companions. After floating thus for a couple of miles, the raft rested on 
 a large tree which had fallen into the river, almost torn out by the roots. 
 By pulling on its branches, they found the means of reaching the opposite 
 shore. The rest of the party remained all the night and the following day 
 in distressing uncertainty, They proceeded along the river, loudly calling 
 their leader, and night came on without their being relieved ; but in the 
 morning, the calls being resumed, were soon answered by Lasalle from the 
 opposite shore. A stronger raft was made, and the rest of the party 
 crossed. 
 
 They now reached a village of the Cenis, having overtaken an Indian on 
 horseback, who w^as returning to it. His wife sat behind him, and other 
 horses followed, with the produce of his chase. He gave part of it to 
 Lasalle, and preceded the party into the village, leaving them. Some of 
 the chiefs came out to meet the French, who staid several days, and traded 
 with their hosts for some horses. This Avas the largest settlement Lasalle 
 had come to. It extended for upwards of twenty miles, interspersed witli 
 hamlets of ten or twelve cabins. These were large, often exceeding forty 
 feet in length. Dollars Avere seen among the people, and many articles of 
 furniture, as spoons, forks, plates, etc., which manifested they traded with 
 the Spaniards. Horses were in great plenty, and the Indians very willing 
 to part with a serviceable one, for an axe. Lasalle saw, in one of the 
 cabins, a printed copy of one of the Pope's Bulls, exempting Mexicans 
 from fast during the summer. The natives made a very good map of their 
 country on pieces of bark, and showed they were Avithin six days' march 
 from the Spanish settlements. 
 
 After staying five or six days, Lasalle proceeded to the Nassonites, AA^here 
 he Avas receiA'ed with much courtesy. It AA'as perceivable that the Indians 
 of this tribe, had much intercourse AAdth the Spaniards ; for AA'hen they saAV 
 father Athanase, they made the sign of the cross and kneeled, to giA^e him 
 to understand, they Avere acquainted Avith the ceremonies of the mass. 
 Here, four men of the party deserted, attracted, as was believed, by the 
 charms of some of the Cenis AA^omen. 
 
 Lasalle and his nephcAA^ fell dangerously ill. Taa'o months elapsed 
 before they felt themseh^es in a situation to traA^el. His ammunition now 
 was exhausted, and he was at the distance of four hundred and fifty miles 
 in a straight line from his fort. The party unanimously agreed to return. 
 On their march back, one of them attempting to SAvim across a river Avas 
 
HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 87 
 
 devoured by an alligator. They reached the fort on the seventeenth of 
 October. 
 
 There was a considerable tract of land cleared, and under cultivation. 
 Comfortable houses had been built, and gardens were to be seen near most 
 of them ; the settlement was in a flourishing condition, and the Indians 
 in the iimnediate neighborhood were friendly. 
 
 After a stay of two months with the colonists, Lasalle determined on 
 returning by the way of Canada to France, in order to solicit a rein- 
 forcement of husbandmen and mechanics. He set off in the beginning of 
 the new year, accompanied by his brother and nephew, father Athanase 
 and seventeen men. He took the same route as before. There were in 
 the party, when they left the settlement, two brothers of the name of 
 Lancelot. The younger, being weak and infirm, was unable to keep up, 
 and was sent back on the second day ; the elder was desirous to return 
 also ; but Lasalle, thinking the party too weak, refused his consent. The 
 voung man was met near the settlement by a party of Indians, who killed 
 "him. . Intelligence of this misfortune reaching the party, the surviving 
 brother, casting the blame on Lasalle, did not conceal his resentment ; 
 but vented it in threats. At length, it seemed to have subsided. After a 
 march of about two months, provisions failing, this man with Liotot, the 
 surgeon, Hiens and Duhault, were sent to kill buffaloes, and salt and 
 smoke the meat. These persons, displeased with Lasalle and his nephew, 
 who commanded this small detachment, plotted their destruction. In 
 the evening of the seventeenth of March, Liotot dispatched Lasalle's 
 nephew, his servant and an Indian, with an axe. His companions 
 standing by, ready to defend him with their arms, had any resistance 
 been made. Lasalle, missing his nephew, left the party with father 
 Athanase, and retrograded. Meeting Lancelot, he inquired whither his 
 nephew was ; the wretch pointed to a spot over which a number of 
 buzzards were hovering ; as Lasalle advanced, he met with another of the 
 accomplices, to whom he put the same question ; but Duhault, who lay 
 concealed in high grass, fired ; the ball lodged in Lasalle's head ; he fell 
 and survived an hour only. This was on the nineteenth of March, 1687, 
 near the western branch of Trinity river. 
 
 The murderers, joined by other malcontents, taking possession of the 
 provisions, ammunition and everything that belonged to the deceased, 
 compelled the rest of the party to continue with them. In a quarrel 
 among themselves, two of them were killed, and the rest sought an asylum 
 among the Indians. 
 
 Lasalle's brother, father Athanase and five others continued their route 
 towards the Illinois. A few days after, de Monte, one of them, bathing in 
 a river, was drowned. In the latter part of July, this small party reached 
 the country of the Arkansas. They noticed a large cross fixed in the 
 ground, near a house built like those of the French in Canada. Here 
 they found two of their countrymen, Couture and Delaunay, natives of 
 Rouen, who had come thither from the fort at the Illinois. Here the 
 l)arty learned that the Chevalier de Tonti, on his way to the mouth of 
 the Mississippi, to meet Lasalle, had left six Frenchmen at the Arkansas ; 
 four of whom had returned to the Illinois. After staying some time with 
 Couture and Delaunay, the travellers disposed of their horses and 
 procured canoes, in which they ascended the Mississippi and the river of 
 tlie Illinois to Fort St. Louis, which they reached on the fourth of 
 
HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 
 
 
 September. The Chevalier de Tonti was absent, and Bellefontaine, his 
 lieutenant, commanded. The travellers thought it prudent to conceal the 
 death of Lasalle ; they staid but a few days in the fort, and proceeded, by 
 the way of Michillimachinac to Canada, and landed at Quebec on the 
 ninth of October, and soon after took shipping for France. 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 During the fall of 1687, a party of the Iroquois fell on some of the 
 Indians in alliance with the French, near Michillimachinac. Father 
 Lamberville, the missionary at that post, was informed that this attack 
 had been determined on at a meeting of deputies of several tribes, the 
 chiefs of which had been lately convened at Albany, by the governor of 
 New York, who had assured them the Marquis de Denonville meant to 
 wage war against them : the governor advised them to begin it themselves 
 by falling on the French or their allies, whenever they met them, as, not 
 suspecting any attack, they would be found an easy prey. He promised 
 that whatever might be the consequences, he never would forsake his red 
 allies. 
 
 While the government of New York was provoking its Indians to 
 hostilities against Canada, James the second was apparently pursuing 
 quite a different line of conduct. The Marquis received a letter from the 
 Minister, informing him that the cabinet of St. James had proposed to 
 the Ambassador of France, a treaty of neutrality, between the subjects of 
 the two crowns in North America ; and its offers having been accepted, 
 one had been concluded in the preceding fall. The Marquis was 
 accordingly directed to have the treaty published throughout the colony 
 and registered in the superior council, and to see it faithfully executed by 
 the king's subjects in Canada. 
 
 By the fourteenth and fifteenth articles, it was agreed that the two 
 sovereigns should send orders to their respective governors and other 
 officers, to cause to be arrested and prosecuted as pirates, the captains and 
 crews of all vessels, sailing without a commission, and any of the subjects 
 of either king, sailing under one from a prince or state at war with him. 
 
 It does not appear that the English had any other view, than to lull the 
 French into security ; for they fell on Fort St. Anne, in Hudson's Bay ; 
 but Iberville, who commanded there, repelled the assailants, took one of 
 their ships and burnt a house which they had erected on the sea-shore. 
 
 Louis the fourteenth, with the view of increasing the crews of his 
 galleys, and avenging the ill treatment of his subjects who fell into the 
 hands of the Iroquois, had directed the Marquis' predecessor to send over 
 all those Indians taken in war, to be employed on board of the galleys at 
 Marseilles. The Marquis, under this order, had the imprudence of 
 decoying, through various pretences, a number of Iroquois chiefs, into 
 Fort Frontenac, where he had them put in irons and afterwards sent over. 
 This unfortunate step was disowned at court, but the Indians were not 
 ordered back. The disavowal had the effect of emboldening the Iroquoin 
 who attributed this act of justice and humanity to the king's apprehension 
 of exciting the resentment of their nation. It attached them the more to 
 the Enghsh. 
 
HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 89 
 
 In the summer, these Indians becoming more and more troublesome, it 
 was deemed necessary to march against them. The Chevalier de 
 \'audreuil, who had been sent to command the troops took the field. Ho 
 encamped on the island of St. Helen, opposite that of Montreal, with 
 eight hundred regulars and one thousand militia. Chanipigny de Norro}', 
 the intendant, preceded the army to Fort Frontenac ; the Marquis followed 
 it. At the fort, he received a letter from the governor of New York, 
 complaining bitterly of the French making war against the allies of his 
 sovereign. At the same time a piece of information was received, showing 
 that but little reliance was to be placed on the writer's apparently 
 l)eacea1)le disposition. A party of sixty white men from Albany, attended 
 by a number of Indians, and guided JDy a French deserter, were surprised 
 carrying goods and ammunition to Michillimachinac. The officer 
 commanding there, seized the goods and ammunition, made the English 
 prisoners, and sent the deserter to the Marquis, who had him shot. 
 
 The army now moved to the river chs Sdhles, and marched into the country 
 of the enemy. After having safely passed through two defiles, it was 
 attacked by a party of about eight hundred Iroc][Uois, who, pouring a 
 destructive fire on its van, ran to attack its rear, while another party 
 repeated the charge in front. This threw the army in some confusion ; 
 but the allied Indians, better used to fight in the woods, stood together, 
 till the French rallied to them. The regulars, to Avhom this kind of 
 warfare w^as quite novel, were not so useful in this instance as the militia. 
 The army, now collected, dispersed the Indians. The French had only 
 six men killed : the Iroquois forty-five killed and sixty wounded. The 
 Marquis now marched to and encamped in one of the largest villages of 
 the enemy, which was found cjuite deserted, and every house in it was 
 burnt. After ramljling for ten days, and laying waste every settlement 
 and destroying every plantation, the Marquis, finding his regulars and 
 militia much weakened by fatigue and disease, and his Indians imj^atient 
 of returning, gave up the pursuit and returned to Niagara, where he 
 employed his men in building a fort. 
 
 In the fall an epidemic disease ravaged the colony. Fort Chambly and 
 Fort Frontenac were attacked in November ; although the Indians w^ere 
 repelled in both places, they committed great ravages on the plantations 
 of the neighborhood, and burnt several houses. 
 
 They made proposals of peace, in 1688, the following year, on condition 
 that their chiefs in Marseilles should be brought back. The Marquis 
 willingly accepted these offers. The frojitier settlers had been prevented, 
 l)y the dread of new irruptions, from cultivating their fields. Dearth 
 prevailed all over the colony, and the enemy was the more to be feared, 
 that he had a powerful aid in the English at New York. 
 
 According to a census of this j^ear, Canada had a population of eleven 
 thousand two hundred and forty-nine persons. 
 
 James, attempting to establish popery, had become obnoxious to the 
 jieople ; he was cruel and oppressive, and his subjects, who, half a century 
 before, had led his father to the scaftbld, offered his crown to the prince 
 of Orange, the husband of his eldest daughter. 
 
 William landed in England, on the fourth of November, 1688. James, 
 terrified, abdicated his crown and fled to France. The Irish for awhile 
 supported his cause ; but William and Mary were soon after recognised as 
 sovereigns of the three kingdoms. 
 
 13 
 
90 HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 
 
 The people left In- Lasalle in Fort St. Louis, not receiving any succor 
 from France, and their stock of ammunition being exhausted, were unable 
 to defend themselves against the neighboring Indians. Disease made 
 great havoc among them ; in the meanwhile, the Viceroy of Mexico, in 
 compliance with a standing article of his instructions, by Philip the 
 second, enjoining the extermination of all foreigners who might penetrate 
 into the Gulf of Mexico, directed an expedition to be formed at Cohaguilla, 
 unders the orders of Don Alonzo de Leon, to scour the country and hunt 
 out the French colonists, if any were still remaining. This officer, with a 
 small force, arrived on the tAventy-second of April, 1689, at Fort St. Louis, 
 and on the twenty-fourth, at the entrance of the bay, Avhere he found the 
 hull of the French vessel that had been wrecked. He saw no white man 
 at either place. Having heard, on his march, that some of Lasalle's 
 companions were still wandering about the country, or had taken refuge 
 among the Indians, he shaped his course towards the Assinais, but found 
 no trace of those he was in quest of. It is said that Don Alonzo was 
 courteously received by the Assinais, and gave these Indians the appellation 
 of Texas or friends. A few years after, the Spaniards sent missionaries 
 into this part of the country, and afterwards established military posts or 
 presidios among these Indians. These missions or posts were the beginning 
 of the Spanish settlements in the province of Texas. 
 
 The Count de Frontenac was now appointed governor general of New 
 France. In his instructions, which bear date of the seventh of June, 1689, 
 it is stated that the reciprocal and repeated attacks of the French ancl 
 English in Acadie and Hudson's Bay, had induced the appointment of 
 commissioners, on the part of the two crowns, to report on their respective 
 pretensions ; but, as the facts alleged by either party were not admitted 
 by the other, the conferences had been suspended till they could be 
 verified. In the meanwhile, the late revolution in England had put, at 
 least for the present, an end to these negotiations. The count was, 
 therefore, instructed to aid the company trading to these places, and drive 
 the English from the ground they had usurped. He Avas informed that, 
 with regard to Acadie, the English commissioners had recognized the 
 rights of France on the territory, as far as Pentagoet ; and the attack of 
 the forts on that river by the people of Boston, had been disavowed ; and 
 he was instructed to take, in concert with Monneval, governor of Acadie, 
 the measures necessary to prevent the repetition of a like outrage. It 
 was announced that the king, informed that the English of New York 
 continued their intrigues with the Iroquois, inducing them to Avage war 
 against his Canadian subjects and his Indian allies, Avhom the}' supplied 
 with arms and ammunition, had determined on carrying into execution, 
 a plan i)rojected by Callieres, the governor of Montreal, for taking 
 possession of the city and province of Ncav York, and had directed La 
 Caffiniere to proceed with a naval force to Acadie and follow the count's 
 directions. 
 
 On his arrival in Acadie, with this naval commander, while the 
 governor general was concerting with him the plans of simultaneous 
 attacks by the navy on the city of Ncav York, and the land forces on 
 Albany, the intelligence he received from Canada was such as to induce 
 him to forego every plan of offensive operation against the English. 
 
 Fifteen hundred Iroquois made an irruption in the island of Montreal, 
 on the twenty-fifth of August. This overi30Avering force struck every one 
 
HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 91 
 
 on the island with consternation ; no resistance was made. The Indians 
 laid the' plantations waste, burnt the houses and massacred the male 
 inhabitants that fell into their hands. The females were made prisoners ; 
 but even all their lives were not spared. The bellies of pregnant women 
 were ripped open, and the fruit torn out of the womb. Small cliildren 
 were put on the spit, and the mother compelled to turn it. Two hundred 
 persons were killed in the small settlement of La Chine, the first they 
 attacked. As they advanced towards the town of Montreal, destruction, 
 fire and smoke marked their way. They made themselves masters of 
 the fort, notwithstanding the vigorous and resolute resistance of Robeyre, 
 Avho commanded there. Thus they were in possession of the whole island ; 
 they kept it till October. 
 
 On the arrival of the Count de Frontenac at Quebec, the Iroquois 
 retreated for awhile, in order to provide the means of returning soon, in a 
 situation to pursue their irruptions as far as the capital, where they 
 intended to co-operate with an English fleet, which they expected to meet 
 before it. They boasted that before the spring, there should not be one 
 Frenchman alive in Canada. 
 
 In the meanwhile, war had been declared in France against England, on 
 the twenty-fifth of June. The winter was spent in Canada, in making 
 arrangements for the campaign of the following year. The chiefs lost not 
 in their attention to the measures which the defense of the colony 
 demanded, the view of the oflfensive ones, recommended by the king 
 against New York and Albany — considering the reduction of the English 
 colony, as the only means of protecting that committed to their care : but 
 the spring vessels brought the king's orders to abandon the projected 
 attack on the cit}" of New York by sea, the immense armaments, which 
 circumstances required in Europe, disabling the minister of the navy from 
 sparing any ships for that purpose. 
 
 Three large detachments of the army advanced in the spring on the 
 northern frontier of New York, and had considerable success. They took 
 Corlaer, Sermantel and Kaskebe. 
 
 Afterwards, a party of the Iroquois came to the mouth of the river 
 Sorel, and carried off" a number of lads who were pasturing cattle. The 
 Iroquois Avere pursued and the lads brought back, except one, Avhom they 
 had killed, because he could not keep up with them. 
 
 Another party, who came to the island of Orleans, was attacked by a 
 farmer, of the name of Columbet, who collected twenty-five of "his 
 neighbors. He was killed with a few of his followers ; but the Iroquois 
 were repelled and left twenty-five of their men on the field of battle. 
 
 A third made about thirty prisoners, men, Avomen and children : they 
 were followed, but the pursuit proved a fatal one to them, as the Indians, 
 unal)le to escape with their captives, massacred them all. 
 
 The French had no naval force in North America. The English 
 colonies supplied the mother country with one ; and Sir William Phipps, 
 sailing from Boston with a small fleet, on the twenty-second of May, took 
 Port Royal, in Acadie, and soon after the other ports of that colony. 
 Thence he proceeded to the island of New Foundland, where he pillaged 
 the port of Plaisance. 
 
 On the sixteenth of June, his fleet, now consisting of thirty-four sail, 
 cast anchor below Quebec, and he summoned the Count de Frontenac to 
 surrender. On receiving a resolute answer, Sir William approached the 
 
92 HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 
 
 city, and the fort began a fierce cannonade : the flag-staff of his ship was 
 brolvcn by a sliot, and a Canadian boldly committed himself to the waves 
 to take it : he succeeded, notwithstanding the brisk fire of the musketry, 
 and the flag was triumphantly carried to the cathedral, wliere it was 
 deposited as a trophy. On the eighteenth, fifteen hundred men landed, 
 and were repulsed with the loss of three hundred. On the next day, the 
 shipping drew near and cannonaded the lower town ; ])ut the fire from the 
 castle soon compelled them to retire in some confusion. On the twentieth 
 a larger body was landed than before, at some distance below the city ; 
 the}'' boldly advanced towards it; but the count sallied forth, with all his 
 force, and repulsed them. They retreated to the place of their landing, 
 Avhere the vicinity of the shipping prevented him from following them. 
 During the night, five pieces of artillery were landed, and in the morning 
 the enemy advanced with these ; but the count coming out, with a larger 
 force than the preceding day, the English retreated at first in tolerably 
 good order ; but the galling fire of the French on the rear, and of their 
 Indians on the land side, soon threw them in great confusion : those who 
 reached the boats, embarking and pushing off in much haste, left their 
 companions and cannon behind ; many of those were killed and the rest 
 taken. 
 
 The fleet now weighed anchor and drifted down. Thev stopped out of 
 the reach of the guns of the French, till an exchange of prisoners was 
 made — Sir "William having several on board of his fleet, taken in Acadie, 
 New Foundland, and along the St. Lawrence as he ascended it. 
 
 He had expected that while he was attacking Quebec,- a number of 
 Iroquois, swelled and directed by some of his countrymen from Albany, 
 would enter the island of Montreal and fall on the town : thus creating a 
 necessity for the division of the forces of the colony, which would ensure 
 the fall of Quebec, and finally enable him to make himself master of the 
 whole province. But the English did not find among the Iroquois all the 
 warriors they expected to join. The garrison of the upper fort had been 
 reinforced and well supplied Avith arms and ammunition, and an attack 
 being expected above, rather than below, the militia were able to disperse 
 the parties of the Iroquois who approached. 
 
 Louis the fourteenth caused a medal to be struck in commemoration of 
 this negative victory ; which is believed to be the first event, in the history 
 of America, of which there is a numismatic record. The inscription on 
 the medal is, Fmncia in novo orbe vidrix. 
 
 In the fall, the scarcity of provisions was extreme. The alarm, in which 
 the country had been the spring and the beginning of the summer, had 
 drawn most of the people from their farms during seed time ; and although 
 a small fleet of merchant vessels, which entered the river while the English 
 Avere attacking Quebec, found a shelter, till after their departure, up the 
 Saguenay, the supply they brought in afforded but a temporary relief and 
 was soon exhausted. The famine Avas most severely felt in the capital : 
 the troops Avere sent in small detachments in every parish, and the men 
 scattered among such farmers, as could best afford them subsistence. 
 They Avere all very cheerfully received. 
 
 The Iroquois came down in great numbers the following spring. A body 
 of upAvards of one thousand encamjicd near the island of Montreal : a 
 detachment of one hundred and tAventy Avas sent northerly, and one of two 
 hundred southerly. The first fell on the settlements of the Pointe aux trembles^ 
 
HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 93 
 
 where they hurnt upwards of thirty houses and made several prisoners, 
 whom they treated with extreme crueky. The other, among whom were 
 alx)Ut twenty EngHshmen, went towards Chaml)ly, where they hiid all the 
 plantations waste, capturing men, women and children. Several other 
 parties went in various directions : all carrying desolation before them. 
 The colonists could not keep any large force tc)gether, owing to the 
 improbability of finding subsistence. Small bodies, however, kept the 
 field, and scoured the country with so much success, that the foe was 
 compelled to retreat. 
 
 A victualling convoy, which arrived during the summer, enaljled the 
 Canadians to wait for the season of reaping. 
 
 The Chevalier de Villebon, api)ointed governor of Acadie, arrived at 
 Port Royal in November : finding no English force there, he called the 
 inhabitants together and hoisting the white flag, took quiet and formal 
 possession of the country. 
 
 Canada was greatly disturbed in the following year by the Iroquois ; 
 the French had several skirmishes with large parties of these Indians ; 
 but no decisive action took place. 
 
 In the latter part, a French fleet under the orders of Du Palais, came 
 on the Canadian sea. The English attacked Plaisance, in the island of 
 New Foundland without success : and the government of Massachusetts 
 was equally unfortunate in an attempt against Villebon in Acadie. 
 
 In 1693, king William determined to indulge the people of New 
 England and New York, with a second effort to reduce Quebec — the 
 frontier settlements of these provinces being incessantly harrassed b}' 
 irruptions of the Indians allied with France, often directed by the white 
 people ; but an attack on Martinique was the previous object of the naval 
 and land forces destined against Canada. A contagious fever broke out 
 in the fleet, while it was in the West Indies, and by the time the ships 
 reached North America, had swept away upwards of three thousand 
 soldiers and sailors. This disaster prevented any hostility against Canada 
 or Acadie. Fort St. Anne, in the bay of Hudson, was taken by the 
 English. 
 
 Iber\'ille was, in the following year, sent thither with two ships, and a 
 ymall land force. The English had a garrison of fifty men only in Fort 
 Nelson. There was no militar}' officer commanding there ; but, they were 
 under the orders of a factor of the company ; he made no resistance. On 
 its being reduced, its name was changed to Fort Bourbon ; Iberville 
 wintered there. The scurvy made a great havoc among his people. In 
 the summer he left the command to Lasaut, to whom he gave Marigny, as 
 his lieutenant, with a garrison of sixty Canadians and some Indians. He 
 l^rought away a very considerable quantity of furs and peltries, collected 
 from the natives. 
 
 In Canada, the Cc)unt de Frontenac, contrary to the representations of 
 the intendant, the advice of his military officers, and the directions of the 
 Minister, took upon himself to rebuild the fort at Catarocoui. He went 
 up with seven hundred men for this purpose. It was in vain objected to 
 him, that this force, and the funds that were thus to be employed, might 
 be more usefully used in an offensive expedition against the Iroquois, who 
 continued to annoy the distant settlements. He left in it a garrison of 
 fifty-eight men. 
 
 In the fall, the count and the intendant recommended to the minister 
 
94 HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 
 
 to send ten or twelve ships of the Hne against an English fleet that was 
 expected in the Canadian sea, and to attempt the reduction of Boston. 
 They represented that town as carrj^ing on a considerable trade, and 
 assured him its falling into the hands of the French would insure the 
 fisheries exclusively to them. The king's council, however, determined 
 on confining the operations of the next campaign in America, to driving 
 the English from the places they occupied in New Foundland, and the 
 fort of Penkuit, from which they continued to harrass the settlements in 
 Acadie, and which, being in the immediate neighborhood of the 
 Abenaquis, gave the people of New England, a great opportunity of 
 subduing these Indians, or at least of seducing them from their alliance 
 with and dependence on the French crown. 
 
 Accordingly, in the next summer, Iberville arrived with two ships on 
 the coast of Acadie, and on the third of July, met with three ships of 
 war of the enemy ; one of which, the Newport, of sixty guns, he captured : 
 a heavy fog that rose during the engagement, favored the escape of the 
 other two. Having taken fifty Indians on board at Beaubassin, he 
 proceeded to Pentagoet, where the Baron of St. Castin had marched with 
 twenty-five soldiers and two hundred and fifty Indians. On the fifteenth, 
 the Baron, having raised two batteries, sent a summons to the Com- 
 mandant, representing the land and naval forces ready to co-operate 
 against him, as too large to admit of a successful resistance. The 
 Englishman replied, that if the sea was covered with French ships, and 
 the country around with French soldiers, he would not think of 
 surrendering the fort as long as he had a gun to fire. On tliis, a cannonade 
 began from the batteries and shipping. Iberville landed during the night 
 and erected a bonib battery. On the next day, fire bombs, thrown into 
 the fort, appeared to create confusion : the baron now sent word that if 
 the besieged waited for the assault, they would have his Indians to deal 
 with, whom it might possibly be out of his power to control. This threat 
 had its efiect, and the fort capitulated. 
 
 Iberville, after this, sailed for New Foundland. An English fleet still 
 hovered on the coast of Acadie : its commander, having landed four or 
 five hundred men at Beaubassin, was shown by the inhabitants an 
 instrument of writing, left with them by Sir William Phipps, declaring 
 that as they had submitted to the forces of William and Mary, he had 
 taken them under his sovereign's protection. They were answered they 
 should in no manner be injured. Orders were accordingly given to the 
 soldiers, who were prohibited from taking anything, excej^t such cattle as 
 might be needed for the fleet ; for which, payment was promised. The 
 commodore walked with the inhabitants who had waited on him, to the 
 house of one Bourgeois, where he and his officers were entertained, and 
 where the most respectable inhabitants came to visit him. The soldiers, 
 however, Avent about pillaging, and treating the Acadians as a conquered 
 people, and when complaints were made to the chief, he did not restrain them. 
 Walking out accidentally towards the church, he noticed a paper stuck on 
 the door, subscribed by Count de Frontenac. It contained regulations 
 respecting the traffic with the Indians. Pretending to be much irritated 
 at this discovery, he charged the inhabitants with a breach of their sworn 
 neutrality, ordered the church to be set on fire, and authorized his soldiers 
 to continue the pillage. The plantations were laid waste, and most of 
 
HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 95 
 
 the houses Inirnt. The forces being re-embarked, the fleet went to the 
 river St. John, where an unsuccessful attack was made on the fort. 
 
 In the meanwhile, Il^erville went to New Foundland, where he had 
 consideral)le success, and took the Fort of St. John. He was preparing to 
 drive the English from the two only places which they held in that island, 
 Avhen he received orders to sail for the bay of Hudson with four ships 
 which arrived fi'om France. The English had captured Fort Bourbon, in 
 that bay. He lost one of his ships in the ice, and a storm separated two 
 of the others from him. The ship he was in was drove ashore in another 
 gale : but the two who had disappeared, joining the one he had left, he 
 gave battle to some English ships which he found in the bay. He sunk 
 one of them and took another ; the third escaped — and towards the 
 middle of September he recaptured Fort Bourbon. 
 
 The peace of Riswick, in the meanwhile, put an end to hostilities. On 
 the twentieth of September, Louis the fourteenth acknowledged ^yilliam 
 the third, king of England, and the two monarchs agreed mutually to 
 restore to each other all conquests made during the war, and to appoint 
 commissioners to examine and determine the rights and pretensions of 
 each to the places situated in Hudson's Bay. 
 
 Jn the following year, Count de Frontenac died, and was succeeded, in 
 the government-general of New France, by the Chevalier de Callieres. 
 
 At this period, the population of New France did not exceed sixteen 
 thousand ; that of Canada being thirteen, and that of Acadie three thousand. 
 
 We have seen that, before the accession of the Bourbons and the Stuarts, 
 in the early part of the seventeenth century, all the efforts of France and 
 England, towards colonization in the western hemisphere had proved 
 abortive. The progress of these nations, under the princes of those houses, 
 were simultaneous, but unequal, both in the means employed and the 
 result. Vast were those of France : exiguous those of England. Yet the 
 population of the colonies of the latter was sixteen times that of those of 
 the former : it exceeded two hundred and sixty thousand. 
 
 Judge Marshal has shown, in his history of the colonies planted by the 
 English in North America, how immense and rapid are the advances of a 
 community, allowed to manage its own concerns, unaided, and even 
 checked at times, by a distant administration. Sequar, sed hand passihus 
 equis. Mine shall be the humble task to show how small and tardy are 
 those advances in a colony, absolutely guided by the mother country, 
 notwithstanding the great assistance the latter may afford to the former. 
 
 About three-fourths of a century, after Henry the fourth laid the 
 foundation of Quel^ec, William Penn, an individual of the English nation, 
 cut down the first tree, on the spot which Philadelphia now covers, and in 
 about twelve years after, the quaker, by his unaided exertions, had collected 
 twenty thousand persons around his city ; one-fourth more than the efforts 
 of three successive monarchs of France, commanding the resources of that 
 mighty kingdom, and employing several ships of the royal navy in the 
 transportation of the soldiers and colonists, had been able to unite in 
 New France. 
 
CHAPTER VII. 
 
 Loris the fourteenth seemed to have lost sight of Louisiana, in tlie 
 prosecution of the war which the treaty of Riswick terminated. We have 
 seen that Lasalle had lost his life in the attempt to plant a French 
 colony on the Mississippi. 
 
 Iberville, on his return from Hudson's Bay, flattering himself with the 
 hope of better success, offered to prosecute Lasalle's plan, and was 
 patronized by the Count de Pontchartrain, the jNIinister of the Marine, who 
 ordered an expedition to be piepared at la Rochelle. 
 
 Two frigates of thirty guns each, and two smaller vessels were employed 
 in this service. The command of one of the frigates and of the armament 
 was given to Iberville, and that of the other to the Count de Sugeres. A 
 company of marines and about two hundred settlers, including a few 
 women and children, embarked. Most of the men were Canadians, who 
 had enlisted in the troops sent over from France during the war, and were 
 disbanded at the ])eace. 
 
 This small fleet sailed on the twenty-fourth of September, 1698, for 
 cape Francois, in the island of St. Domingo, where it arrived after a 
 passage of seventy-two days. Here it was joined by a fifty gun ship 
 commanded by Chateaumorant. Leaving the cape on new year's day, the 
 ships cast anchor on the twenty-fifth of January before the island which 
 now bears the name of St. Rose. 
 
 Iberville sent a boat to the main, where Don Andres de la Riolle had a 
 short time before led three hundred Spaniards, on the spot on which, in 
 the time of Soto, lay the Indian town of Anchusi, and now stands the 
 town of Pensacola. Two ships of his nation were at anchor under the 
 protection of a batter}' that had just been erected. 
 
 Don Andres received the officer in the boat with civility ; but as his 
 naval force was much inferior to that of the French, declined permitting 
 Iberville to bring in his ships. They proceeded northerly to another 
 island, not very distant, to which, from a heap of human bones near the 
 beach, the name of Massacre Island was given. It is now known as 
 Dauphine Island. 
 
 Sailing afterwards farther on, they entered a pass between two islands, 
 which received the names of Horn and Ship Islands; but being stopped 
 l)y the shallowness of the water, they came out, and shaping their course 
 soutliAvesterly, reached two other islands, now known as those of the 
 Chandeleur, either from the circumstance of their having been first 
 approached on the second of February, Candlemas day, or from their 
 being covered with the myrtle shrub, from the wax of the berries of which 
 the first colonists made their candles. The anchor was cast here, and the 
 pass between Ship Island, and another called Cat Island, (from a number 
 of these animals found on it) was sounded, and the smaller vessels entered 
 through it. The fifty gun ship now returned to St. Domingo; and the 
 two frigates remained before one of the Chandeleur islands. 
 
 Iberville went with most of his pe(^ple to Ship Island, where they began 
 to erect huts. He sent two boats to the main. They entered the bay of 
 Pascagoula, where they discovered a number of Indians who lied at their 
 approach, and were pursued in vain. On the next day a boat was again 
 sent on shore. On the landing of the French, the natives ran away at? 
 
HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 99 
 
 harbor. They erected a platform, on which they placed sixteen guns, and 
 dignified it with the name of Fort St. Andrews. 
 
 The Indians continued friendly ; the colony was visited liy small vessels 
 from Jamaica and St. Domingo. It was several times harrassed by 
 irruptions of Spaniards from the neighboring colonies, whom they always 
 successfully repelled. In the spring, however, the cabinet of Madrid made 
 loud complaints of this invasion of the territory of Spain, and William, 
 being averse to a rupture with that nation, immediately after the conclusion 
 of the war, disowned the Scotch colony, and the governors of Jamaica, 
 Barbadoes, New York and Massachusetts issued proclamations, command- 
 ing the king's subjects, in their respective governments, to forbear holding 
 any correspondence with, or giving any aid to the Scotch colony. William 
 was deaf to the representations of the company, and the colonists, unable 
 to repel the Spaniards, and to sustain themselves without aid from home, 
 dispersed soon after. 
 
 Sauvolle, after the departure of the two frigates, dispatched one of his 
 two vessels to St. Domingo for provisions. Nothing now appeared to him 
 of greater importance than to secure a good understanding with the Indian 
 tribes near the fort. For this purpose, in the beginning of June, he sent 
 his young brother with a few Canadians, and a Bayagoula chief as a guide, 
 towards the Colapissas, who dwelt on the northern bank of lake Pontchar- 
 train. This tribe had three hundred warriors. On seeing Bienville 
 approach, the Colapissas ranged themselves in battle array. He stopped 
 and sent his guide to inquire into the cause of this hostile appearance. 
 The Colapissas replied, that three days before, two white men, whom they 
 took to be English from Carolina, came at the head of two hundred 
 Chickasaws, attacked their village and carried away some of their people 
 into captivity, and they had at first considered Bien\dlle and his white 
 companions as Englishmen. The Bayagoula chief undeceived them, and 
 told them, that those who came to visit them were French, and enemies 
 of the English — that their object, in coming to the village, was to solicit 
 the friendship and alliance of its inhabitants. The Colapissas laid down 
 their arms and received and entertained the French with great cordiality. 
 Bienville made them a few presents, and exchanged with them promises 
 of reciprocal friendship, alliance and support. 
 
 On his return to the fort he spent there but a few days, and set off 
 easterly on a like errand ; he ascended the Pascagoula river, on the banks 
 of which the nation who gave it its name, the Biloxis and the Moetobies 
 had villages — and he proceeded as far as the Mobilians. Having been as 
 successful with these tribes as with the Colapissas, and equally anxious to 
 live on good terms with his white as his red neighbors, he paid a visit to 
 Don Andres at Pensacola. 
 
 Ever since the discovery of the Mississippi by Lasalle, Canadian 
 huntsmen, or coureurs de bois, strayed at times to the banks of that river, 
 and missionaries from that colony had been led by their zeal to locate 
 themselves among the Indians on the W^abash, the Illinois and other 
 streams that pay the tribute of their waters to the Mississippi, and of late 
 among several tribes on the very banks of that river ; anti on the first of 
 July, Sauvolle had the pleasure, which he little expected, of receiving the 
 visits of two of these missionaries, who resided with the Tensas and 
 Yazou Indians. 
 
 The holy men, coming to preach among the Oumas, had heard of a 
 
100 HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 
 
 French settlement on the sea shore ; they floated down the Mississippi to 
 visit it, and reached the fort through the lakes. Their names were 
 Monteguy and Davion ; the latter resided on an eminence, on the east 
 side of the Mississii)pi, between the present towns of St. Francisville and 
 Natchez, which the French called after him La Roche a Davion. While 
 the English held this part of the country, the spot was called Loftus' 
 heights. From a fort, built under the presidency of John Adams, it bears 
 now the name of Fort Adams. These clergymen spent a few days with 
 their countrymen, and returned to their respective missions. 
 
 Parties from the Mobile and Thome Indians visited their French 
 neighbors in the month of August, and the vessel dispatched to St. 
 Domingo on the departure of Iberville, returned with an ample supply of 
 provisions, which began to be much needed. 
 
 Iberville, on ascending the Mississippi, had noticed three outlets ; one 
 on the eastern side, and two on the western, now called the fork of the 
 Chetimachas, and bayou Plaquemines. He had descended through the 
 first, and had instructed Sauvolle to have the two others explored. 
 Perfect tranquillity reigning in the settlement, Bienville was sent, with ten 
 Canadians in two pirogues, on this service. 
 
 They crossed lakes Pontchartrain and Maurepas, and ascending through 
 bayou Manchac, reached the Mississippi and floated down to the fork. 
 Taking always the western prong, whenever the stream forked, Bienville 
 fell into a bayou in which the water failed ; visiting several villages of 
 Indians on the way, he returned to the Mississippi, which he descended, 
 and on the sixteenth of September, met an English ship of sixteen guns. 
 Captain Bar, who commanded her, informed Bienville he had left below 
 another ship of his nation of the same force ; these ships were sent by Daniel 
 Coxe of New Jersey, who then was the proprietor of the immense grant 
 of land from Charles I. of England to Sir Robert Heath, in 1627. The 
 object of captain Bar and his companion was to sound the passes of the 
 Mississippi. They were afterwards to return and convoy four smaller 
 vessels, bringing several families, intended as the beginning of an English 
 colony, on the banks of the river. Capt. Bar was uncertain whether the 
 stream he was exploring was the Mississippi or not. 
 
 Bienville told him it was further west, that the country they were in 
 was a dependence of the French colony of Canada, and the French had a 
 strong fort and some settlements higher up, which induced Bar to retrograde. 
 The part of the river, in which Bienville met him, was the beginning of a 
 large bend, where the ship was detained ; the wind which brought her up 
 ceasing, from the very great turn of the river, to be favorable. From this 
 circumstance, the place was called the English Turn ; an appellation which 
 it still retains. 
 
 While Bienville was on board, a French engineer, named Secon, handed 
 him a memorial to be forwarded to the court of France. It stated, that 
 the memorialist, and four hundred protestant families who had emigrated 
 from France to Carolina, in consequence of the revocation of the edict of 
 Nantz, in 1684, were anxious to come and live under the French government 
 in Louisiana, provided liberty of conscience was promised them. This 
 paper was accordingly forwarded ; but the Count de Pontchartrain answered, 
 that his sovereign had not driven these protestants from his kingdom to 
 make a republic of them in America. Religious intolerance had greatly 
 thinned the population of France, and was now to check that of her 
 
HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 101 
 
 colonies. Its dire evils were not confined to Catholic countries nor to the 
 old world — they have been felt even in "the land of the free." About 
 sixty yerars before, the general court of Massachusetts excluded from the 
 enjoyment of political rights, those who had not been received into the 
 church as members ; and even at this day, the constitution of North 
 Carolina withholds some of them from those who deny the truth of the 
 protestant religion. 
 
 Bienville, after the departure of the English ships, descended the river 
 to the sea, and sounded its western pass ; he found eleven feet of water on 
 its bar. 
 
 Returning, he reached the village of the Bayagoulas on the first of 
 October. These Indians were in the greatest consternation ; having been 
 lately surprised by the Oumas, who made several of their people 
 prisoners. The war that had broke out between these two tribes was 
 occasioned by a dispute about their limits. Bienville, on leaving them, 
 promised to the Bayagoulas, that he would soon return with some of his 
 men, and compel the Oumas to make peace with them. 
 
 On his way down, he was guided to a portage or crossing place ; his 
 pirogues were carried over to bayou Tigouyou, through which he reached 
 lake Pontchartrain, and in four days arrived at the fort of Biloxi. 
 
 Several guns tired at sea, attracted the attention of the colonists 
 on the seventh of December. Sauvolle sent out a light boat, which soon 
 came back with the pleasing intelligence of the approach of a French fleet. 
 
 It consisted of a fifty and a forty gun ship, commanded by Iberville and 
 the Count de Sugeres ; Sauvolle had been appointed governor, Bienville 
 lieutenant-governor of Louisiana; and Boisbriant major of the fort. This 
 officer, with two others, St. Denys and Maton, came in the ships with 
 sixty Canadians ; they were accompanied by Lesueur, a geologist, who was 
 sent to examine a greenish earth or ochre, which some of the men, who 
 had accompanied Dacan up the Mississippi, had noticed on its banks. 
 
 Iberville, finding from Bienville's report that the English meditated 
 an establishment on the Mississippi, determined on efiecting one 
 immediately. He departed for that purpose in the smallest vessel, with 
 fifty Canadians, on the seventeenth of January, having sent Bienville by 
 the lakes to the Bayagoulas to procure guides to some spot in the lower 
 part of the river, secure from the inundation. They led him to an elevated 
 one, at the distance of fifty-four miles from the sea, where Iberville met 
 them soon after, and the building of a fort was immediately begun. 
 
 Towards the middle of February, they were met by the Chevalier de 
 Tonti from the Illinois with seven men ; he had left others, who had 
 accompanied him, at the Bayagoulas. The object of his journey was to 
 ascertain the truth of a report which had reached him of the establish- 
 ment of a French colony. 
 
 Three days after, Iberville and Bienville set off with the chevalier and 
 a small party for the upper part of the Mississippi. They stopped at the 
 Bayagoulas, with whom they remained till the first of March, and 
 proceeded to the Oumas, with the view of inducing or compelling them to 
 release the prisoners they had taken from the Bayagoulas. On approaching 
 the village of the Oumas, Iberville went forward with a few Bayagoula 
 chiefs ; as he ap}>roached their village, the Oumas met and received him 
 with much respect. He was successful in his endeavors ; peace was made 
 between the two tribes, and the Bayagoula prisoners were liberated. 
 
102 HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 
 
 From the Oumas, the French proceeded to the Natchez ; this nation 
 had been lately reduced by wars to twelve hundred warriors. A missionary 
 named St. Come had arrived some time before from Canada, and fixed hig 
 residence among them. The king, or Great Sun of the nation, on hearing 
 of the approach of the French, came forward on the shoulders of some of 
 his people, attended by a large retinue, and welcomed Iberville ; those 
 Indians appeared much more civilized than the others. They preserved 
 in a temple a perpetual fire, kept up by a priest, and offered to it the 
 first fruits of the chase. 
 
 The Tensas, a neighboring nation, were in alliance with the Natchez, 
 and much resembled them in their manners and religion. 
 
 While Iberville remained there, one of the temples was struck and set 
 on fire by lightning. The keeper of the fane solicited the squaAvs to throw 
 their little ones into the fire, to appease the divinity; four infants were 
 thus sacrificed before the French could prevail on the women to desist. 
 
 On the twenty-second of March, Iberville returned to the fort near the 
 mouth of the Mississippi, and from thence to that at the Biloxi. He was 
 much pleased with the country of the Natchez, and considered it as the 
 most suitable part of the province for its principal establishment; he 
 selected a high spot which he laid out for a town, and called it Rosalie, 
 in honor of the Countess of Pontchartrain, who had received that name at 
 the baptismal fount. 
 
 On the day that Iberville left the Natchez, Bienville and St. Denys, 
 attended by a few Canadians and a number of Indians, set off" for the 
 country of the Yatassees, in the western part of Louisiana. 
 
 Iberville, on his arrival at the fort of Biloxi, was informed that the 
 governor of Pensacola had come to Ship Island with a thirty gun ship, 
 and one hundred and forty men, with the view of driving the French 
 away. He found there a superior force, and contented himself with a 
 solemn protest against what he called the usurpation of a country which 
 he considered as part of the government of Mexico. He furnished the 
 Count de Sugeres with a copy of this instrument, which the latter, sailing 
 for France a few days afterwards, carried thither. 
 
 Lesueur, with a detachment of twenty men, set off" for the country of 
 the Sioux, in the latter part of April. 
 
 In the meanwhile, Bienville and St. Denys returned to Biloxi ; they 
 had found the country through which they intendetl to pass, entirely 
 covered with water, and had proceeded to the village of the Washitas, in 
 which they found but five huts ; the Indians having mostly removed to 
 the Natchitoches. They crossed Red river, and met six of the latter 
 Indians who were carrying salt to the Coroas, a tribe who dwelt in the 
 vicinity of the Yazou river. On the seventh of April they reached the 
 village of the Ouitchouis, in which were about fifty warriors ; here they 
 were supplied with provisions, and one of the Indians accompanied them 
 as a guide to the Yatassees, whose village was very large, as they had 
 two hundred warriors. The information the travellers obtained of the 
 country to the west was imperfect. They did not hear of any Spanish 
 settlement in the vicinity. 
 
 On their way down the Mississippi, they stopped at the Bayagoulas, 
 whose village was almost entirely destroyed by the Mongoulachas, a tribe 
 who dwelt near them. 
 
 Iberville returned to France towards the last of Mav. He left Bien\Tille 
 
HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 103 
 
 in command, in the fort on the Mississippi, and sent St. Denys, with 
 twelve Canadians and a number of Indians, to prosecute the discoveries 
 he had begun on Red river. 
 
 Ahhough the French had now been upwards of two years in Louisiana, 
 they do not appear to have resorted to the culture of the earth for 
 subsistence ; they depended entirely on supplies from France or St. 
 Domingo. Fishing and hunting aiforded the colony fresh meat, and 
 the people carried on a small trade with the Indian tribes on the sea 
 coast. Government, instead of concentrating the population, seemed 
 more intent on making new discoveries where other settlements might be 
 made, and to seek in the bowels of the earth for metals and ochres. The 
 attention of the colonial officers had been directed to a search for pearls. 
 The wool of buffaloes was pointed out to them as the future staple 
 commodity of the country, and they were directed to have a number of 
 these animals penned and tamed. Nay, thoughts were entertained of 
 shipping some of the young to France, in order to propagate the species 
 there. 
 
 Charles the second, the fifth and last monarch of Spain of the house of 
 Austria, died on the tenth of November, 1700, in the thirty-ninth year of 
 his age, and without issue. His will called to the throne he was leaving 
 Philip, Duke of Anjou, a grandson of Louis the fourteenth. Although the 
 new king was received with acclamations in Madrid, his elevation was 
 powerfully opposed by the Archduke Charles, who was supported by his 
 father, and by England, Holland, Savoy, Prussia and Portugal. Thus, the 
 flames of war began to rage in Europe in that contest, which is called the 
 war of the Spanish succession. 
 
 St. Denys returned in the fall, after a very tiresome journey of upwards 
 of six months, without any material information respecting the Indians 
 in the upper part of Red river. 
 
 Lesueur had ascended the Mississippi, as high as the falls, to which 
 Dacan and Hennepin had given the name of St. Anthony, proceeded up 
 St. Peters' river upwards of one hundred and twenty miles, and entered a 
 stream, which he called Green river, from the hue imparted to its water, by 
 a greenish ochre, which covered the land around a copper mine, and was 
 intermixed with the ore on the surface. The ice prevented his advance 
 more than three miles, although it was now the latter part of September. 
 He employed his detachment in building a small fort, in which they 
 wintered. It was called Fort Thuillier, in compliment to a farmer-general 
 of that name, one of Lesueur's patrons. In the spring, the party proceeded 
 to the mine, at the foot of a mountain, which the Indians said was thirty 
 miles in length. It was very near the bank of the river : thirteen thousand 
 weight of a mixture of ochre and ore were gathered, brought to Biloxi, and 
 shipped to France. From the circumstance of the mine having been 
 abandoned, it is concluded that no value was attached to the shipment. 
 Lesueur had left the greatest part of his men in the fort, to keep possession 
 of the country. 
 
 A frigate arrived from France on the thirtieth of May, under the orders 
 of Delaronde. Government, always under the impression that wealth was 
 to be sought in the bowels of the earth, in Louisiana, rather than gathered 
 from its surface, by the dull and steady process of tillage, and listening 
 with unabated credulity to the tales of every impostor, who came from 
 America, a Canadian, of the name of Mathew Sagan, who had furnished 
 
104 HISTORY OF LOUISIAXA. 
 
 the Count de Pontchartrain with feigned memoirs, in which he pretended 
 to have ascended the Missouri and discovered mines of gold, arrived in 
 this vessel. The minister, yielding to the illusion which Sagan's memoirs 
 produced, had ordered his services to be secured at a great expense, and 
 instructed Sauvolle to have twenty-four pirogues built and one hundred 
 Canadians placed with them, under the orders of his man, to enable him 
 to proceed to the Missouri and work the mines. He was well known to 
 most of the Canadians in Louisiana, who were conscious he never had 
 been on the Missouri. Sauvolle, informed of the character of the man, 
 did not hurry the intended expedition, although, in obedience to his. 
 instructions, he gave orders for the building of the pirogues. The frigate 
 staid but a few days in Louisiana. 
 
 Sauvolle dying, on the twenty-second of July, Bienville succeeded him, 
 in the chief command and removed from the Mississippi to Biloxi. Parties 
 of the Choctaws and Mobile Indians came a few days after his arrival, to 
 visit him. Their object was to solicit the aid of the French against the, 
 Chickasaws, who harrassed them by frequent irruptions in their villages. 
 The French chief, considering that his colony was too weak to be embroiled 
 in the quarrels of the Indian tribes near it, declined giving his visitors 
 any offensive aid, but sent an officer, accompanied by a few Canadians, to 
 afford the Choctaws his good offices as mediator. 
 
 A party of the Alibamons visited the fort, about the same time. 
 
 The utter neglect of agriculture, and the failure of the supplies which 
 had been relied on from France, St. Domingo and Vera Cruz, reduced the 
 colony to great distress during the summer ; the people having nothing 
 to subsist on, but a few baskets of corn, occasionally brought in by the 
 natives, and what could be obtained by the chase or drawn from the water, 
 by the net or line. In the fall, disease added its horrors to those of famine. 
 Most of the colonists sickened and many died ; their number was reduced 
 to one hundred and fifty. They were not relieved till late in December. 
 
 Iberville now arrived with two ships of the line and a brig, bringing a 
 reinforcement of troops. 
 
 In pursuance of the king's instructions, Bienville left twenty men 
 under the orders of Boisbriant, at the fort of Biloxi, and moved his head- 
 quarters to the western bank of the river Mobile. 
 
 The officer who had accompanied the Choctaws and Mobilians now 
 returned. He had been successful in his mediation, and a peace had been 
 concluded between these Indians and the ChickasaAvs. 
 
 A supply of provisions from Vera Cruz, where Bienville had sent a light 
 vessel, added to a large one by the fleet, restored abundance in the colony, 
 and enabled him to afford relief to the garrison of Pensacola, which was 
 reduced to great distress. 
 
 Besides the new settlement on Mobile river, another was now begun on 
 Massacre Island, the ominous name of which was changed to Dauphine 
 Island. Its fine port affording a much more convenient place to land 
 goods than Ship Island, the coast of Biloxi or Mobile river. Barracks and 
 stores were built, with a number of houses, and a fort was erected to 
 afford them protection, 
 
 Iberville returned to France in the fleet. 
 
 William the third of England died on the sixteenth of March, in 
 consequence of a fall from his horse, in the fifty-third year of his age. 
 
HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 105 
 
 Mary, his queen, had died in 1694. Neither left issue. Anne, her sister, 
 succeeded him. 
 
 The new queen declared war against France and Spain on the second 
 of Ma3\ 
 
 There were other causes of irritation between England and France than 
 the late increase of power and influence France had acquired in conse- i 
 quence of the occupation of the throne of Spain by a grandson of Louis •■ 
 the fourteenth. The late treaty of peace in 1696 had left the boundary 
 line between the dominions of France and England unascertained. The 
 queen claimed the Avhole country to the west of the river of St. Croix, as 
 part of the province of Massachusetts ; while the king sought to exclude 
 her subjects from the fisheries on the coast, and from all the country east 
 of the Kennebec river. De Callieres, Governor of Canada, proposed to 
 Governor Dudley, of Massachusetts, that the colonies should forbear 
 taking part in the war between the mother countries ; but the offer was 
 not acceded to, and hostilities began immediately, by irruptions of the 
 French of Canada and their Indian allies, on the frontier settlements of 
 Massachusetts and New Hampshire. Governor Moore, of South Carolina, 
 on the first rumor of the declaration of war, proposed to the Legislature to 
 furnish him the means of making an excursion into Florida. A war with 
 Spain was already a popular measure in all the English American 
 provinces. The colonists considered it as the readiest means they had 
 of acquiring specie, of which there was generally a great scarcity among 
 them. The application of Moore was successful, and he soon proceeded 
 to the attack of St. Augustine. 
 
 This alarmed the Spaniards at Pensacola, and they solicited Bienville's 
 aid. At the same time, an officer from the garrison of St. Augustine 
 reached Mobile on a like errand. The French chief afforded to the 
 governor of Pensacola arms and ammunition, and sent one hundred men, 
 Canadians, Europeans and Indians, to St. Augustine. At the same time 
 he dispatched a light vessel to Vera Cruz, to convey information to the 
 viceroy, of the danger of the possessions of his sovereign, in the neighbor- 
 hood of Louisiana and Carolina. 
 
 In the meanwhile, the English of Carolina had induced the Chickasaws 
 to send emissaries among the Indians, in the vicinity of the settlements of 
 the French on the gulf, to induce them to take part in the war ; and in 
 the fall, father Davion and father Limoges, who dwelt among the. Natchez, 
 came to Mobile and informed Bienville, the Coroas had killed Foucault 
 their colleague, and three other Frenchmen. The commandant of the 
 fort at Albany had also prevailed on the Iroquois to attack the frontier 
 settlers in Canada. The Indians fell also on detached plantations, which 
 the French had, to the south of the lakes, as far as the Wabash. Juchereau, 
 a relation of St. Denys, had led thither a number of Canadians, who 
 successfully employed themselves in collecting furs and peltries. Driven 
 from this place, he had led his party westerly ; and a pirogue with some 
 of his men reached Mobile on the third of February. Their object was to 
 solicit the assistance of the government of Louisiana : Bienville had been 
 instructed to afford it. But the relief he had latel}^ yielded to the 
 Spaniards, the length of time he had been without succor from France, 
 and the wants of his colony, limited the aid he gave Juchereau, to one 
 barrel of powder. 
 
 In the summer, information reached Mobile of the death of the Chevalier 
 
106 HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 
 
 de Callieres, governor-general of New France, of which government 
 Louisiana made a part. He was succeeded by the Marquis de Vaudreuil. 
 
 The men sent by Bienville to the relief of St. Augustine, found, on their 
 arrival there, a naval force from the island of Cuba, on the approach of 
 which, the troops of Carolina and their red allies had retreated. Becancourt 
 who had gone to Vera Cruz to give information of the danger to St. 
 Augustine, returned with a letter from the Duke of Albuquerque, viceroy 
 of Mexico, in which that nobleman communicated to Bienville, the orders 
 he had from his sovereign, to admit vessels from Louisiana in the ports of 
 his government, and to allow them to export provisions. 
 
 The men, whom Lesueur had left at Fort Thuillier among the Sioux, for 
 awhile thought that the Mississippi was a sufficient barrier between them 
 and the Indians, under the influence of the English ; but they now found 
 themselves so vigorously attacked, that they could no longer retain their 
 position. They descended the Mississippi, and reached Mobile on the- 
 third of March, nOJ. 
 
 The government of South Carolina, after the forced retreat of its troops, 
 from St. Augustine, had employed a part of them against the Indians, in 
 its neighborhood, under the protection of Spain. Large parties of the 
 Cherokees, Cohuntas, Talapooses and Alibamons, swelled by a number of 
 negroes and headed by Englishmen, invaded the country of the Apalaches. 
 An officer of the garrison of St. Marks, came to Mobile to inform Bienville 
 that the Apalache Indians had applied to the commandant of that fort, for 
 a supply of arms and ammunition, which it had not been thought prudent 
 to grant. In consequence of this, two thousand of these Indians had been 
 compelled to remove towards Carolina. Two of their villages, the inhabitants 
 of which were catholics, had remained faithful to the Spaniards ; their 
 warriors had fought bravely, and two hundred of them had been killed. 
 The enemy had committed much waste in the neighborhood, principally 
 in the removal or destruction of cattle. Bienville was solicited to send a 
 few soldiers to St. Marks ; but he thought his garrison too weak to be 
 divided, and supplied the Spaniards with military stores only. 
 
 At the same time, a number of Englishmen came among the Alibamons 
 with the view of inducing them to fall on the French. These Indians 
 resisted their solicitations, and sent w^ord to Bienville to be on his guard, 
 offering to furnish him wdth corn, of which, they said, they had great 
 abundance. The garrison being ill supplied with this article, Dubreuil 
 was sent with a few soldiers to effect a purchase. One of these returned 
 soon after, with a broken arm. He related that the party had been 
 met by twelve of these Indians, at the distance of two days' journey from 
 their village, with the calumet of peace ; but, at night, the Indians 
 treacherously rose on them, and murdered his companions. He succeeded 
 in making his escape by throwing himself into the river, after having 
 received the stroke of an axe on his arm. The Indians fired several 
 times at him while he was swimming. 
 
 A small fleet, composed of a French frigate, under the orders of Lefevre 
 de la Barre, a son of the late governor of New France, and four Spanish 
 sloops, made this year an unsuccessful attack on Charleston, in South 
 Carolina. Sir Nathaniel Johnson, governor of that province, having had 
 timely information of the approach of the enemy, made a powerful and 
 successful resistance. 
 
 Louisiana now suffered greatly from the scarcity of provisions. But 
 
HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 107 
 
 the governor of Pensacola, returning from a visit to Mexico, brought a very 
 ample supply for his garrison, and cheerfully relieved his neighbors. 
 They had been obliged to separate in small parties, along the coast, in 
 order to seek a precarious subsistence out of the water. Shortly 
 afterwards, the return of Becancourt, who had been sent to Yeni Cruz, 
 restored abundance. Bienville received by him the thanks of the viceroy, 
 for the aid aftorded to the garrisons of St. Marks and Pensacola, with 
 assurance of his readiness to supply the French at Louisiana with 
 anything they might need. 
 
 The arrival, soon after, of a ship from France (under Chateaugue, a 
 brother of Bienville) loaded with provisions and military stores, removed 
 for awhile the apprehension of famine. Seventeen new colonists came in 
 her, and bi'ought implements of husbandry. 
 
 The satisfaction which the restoration of plenty created was marred by 
 the arrival of a party of Chickasaws, who reported that five Frenchmen 
 had been killed by the Tagouiaco Indians, who dwelt on one of the 
 streams which flow into the Wabash. These Indians had been excited to 
 this aggression by some English traders who had lately arrived among 
 them from Virginia. 
 
 These repeated and unprovoked outrages from the Indians induced 
 Bienville to march against the Alibamons, Avhose treacherous conduct 
 towards the men he had sent, on their invitation, to purchase corn in their 
 village, remained unpunished. He left the fort about Christmas, with 
 forty chosen men, attended by a few Chickasaws. He did not meet any 
 of the enemy until after a march of several days, towards night, and was 
 advised by his officers to delay the attack till daylight. The Alibamons 
 occupied an eminence of difficult access, which the French approached. 
 The night was dark and the ground covered with rushes, and the noise, 
 necessarily made by the French in their progress, enabled the foe to pour 
 in a destructive fire. Two men were killed, and one was dangerously 
 wounded. The Indians now dispersed, and Bienville was compelled to 
 return without inflicting any other injury than the capture of five 
 pirogues laden with provisions. The Chickasaws pursued the Alibamons, 
 and afterwards returned to the fort with five scalps, for which they were 
 liberally rewarded. 
 
 The garrison received during the summer an addition of seventy-five 
 soldiers, who arrived in a fifty gun shj^, commanded by Decoudray. Two 
 Grey Sisters came in the same ship to attend the hospital, and also five 
 priests of the foreign missions (sent by the bishop of Quebec, of whose 
 diocese Louisiana made a part.) Besides the military and spiritual 
 supplies, an ample stock of provisions was brought. Neither were other 
 wants of the colonists forgotten : twent3^-three poor girls now landed, and 
 immediately found as many husbands. 
 
 A vessel, in which Becancourt had been sent to Vera Cruz to obtain 
 provisions, returned early in the fall ; but he had died on the return 
 voyage. 
 
 Ample as the stock of provisions in the colony was now, compared with 
 that of former years, an accident happened in Pensacola, which rendered 
 an early attention to future supplies necessary. The fort was consumed 
 by fire, and the garrison lost its winter stock of provisions. They did not 
 seek relief among their neighbors in vain. 
 
 A party of Choctaws brought to Mobile the scalps of five Alibamons. 
 
108 HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 
 
 From them and a party of Chickasaws, Bienville learned that a number of 
 Englishmen were busily employed in their villages, in their endeavors to 
 estrange these Indians from their alliance with the French. 
 
 Disease made this year considerable havoc in the colony, and small as 
 its population was, it counted thirty-five deaths in the fall. 
 
 Father Davion, one of the missionaries who had lately descended the 
 Mississippi, was still in the fort, and it had been thought hazardous to 
 permit him to return. His flock greatly lamented the protracted absence 
 of their pastor. In November, two Tunica chiefs came to escort him back. 
 Bienville told them he could not consent to the return of the priest among 
 them till they had avenged the death of father Foucault, his colleague, 
 murdered by the Coroas, at the instigation of the English, and he expected 
 they would seize the traders of that nation among them, and bring them 
 prisoners to Mobile, with their goods ; he offered to supply them with 
 ammunition ; his proposition was accepted, and St. Denys proposed to go 
 with them, accompanied by twelve Canadians. The party was to be 
 supported by another Canadian of the name of Lambert, who was 
 returning to the Wabash with forty of his neighbors. The Tunica chiefs 
 set off, having promised to meet St. Denys at the Natchez. Bienville gave 
 orders for building pirogues ; but before they were finished, accounts 
 reached Mobile of the total destruction of the French settlements on the 
 Wabash, by the Indian allies of the British. Lambert gave up his 
 intended journey, and it being thought dangerous for St. Denys and his 
 party to proceed without the escort which had been anticipated, the project 
 was abandoned. Juchereau sent down to Mobile fifteen thousand hides, 
 which he and his companions had collected on the Wabash. 
 s/ The Indians near the French were not always in peace among 
 \ themselves. In the spring, the Chickasaws made an irruption into the 
 \ country of the Choctaws, captured a number of their people, carried them 
 I to South Carolina, and sold them as slaves. There were about forty of 
 ' the former, men, women and children, around the fort of Mobile. These 
 people solicited an escort from Bienville, as the}'' could not return home 
 Avithout crossing the country of the latter. He detached St. Denys with 
 twenty Canadians on this service. As they approached the first Choctaw 
 village, he went in alone to beseech the chiefs to allow the Indians he 
 escorted to pass. In granting this request, the chiefs stipulated that their 
 head man, should be allowed to reproach the Chickasaws, in the presence 
 of the French, for the treachery of their people. They were brought into 
 an open field for this purpose, with their guns cocked and their knives in 
 their hands. The Choctaw chiefs were surrounded by three hundred 
 Avarriors. Their head man, holding a calumet, began by upbraiding the 
 Chickasaws, with the perfidy of their nation. He assured them that, if 
 the French took any interest in their safety, it was from a want of 
 knowledge of their baseness, and it Avas just that they should expiate by 
 their deaths the crimes of their people. He lowered the plumage of the 
 calumet, and at this preconcerted signal, the ChoctaAvs taking a correct 
 aim, fired. The ChickasaAV Avomen and children alone escaped. This was 
 not, however, effected without the destruction of some of the ChoctaAvs. St. 
 Denys, attempting to interfere, Avas himself Avounded. The Choctaw chiefs 
 brought him back to the fort and a great number of their warriors followed 
 in mournful procession. 
 
 During the next month, a number of Chickasaw chiefs went to the 
 
HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 109 
 
 Tunicas, and embarking, at their village, descended the Mississippi and 
 bayou Manchac. They crossed the lakes and came to Mobile, to solicit 
 Bienville's mediation, in effecting a reconciliation -with the Choctaws. Six 
 other chiefs came, in another direction, on the same errand. He sent an 
 officer, attended by three Canadians and a number of Thome Indians, to 
 request some of the Choctaw chiefs to pay him a visit. They came 
 accordingly, and peace was concluded between the Choctaws and 
 Chickasaws, and the Thome and Mobile tribes. 
 
 The Choctaw chiefs had scarcely returned home, when their country 
 was invaded by two thousand Cherokees, commanded by an English 
 officer from Carolina. Several of their villages were destroyed and three 
 hundred of their women and children were led away into slavery. 
 
 At the time the intelligence of this irruption reached Mobile, father 
 Gratiot, a Jesuit missionary at the Illinois, reached the fort and reported 
 that a party of white men from Virginia had come among these Indians, 
 and instigated them to rise against the French, a number of whom had 
 been killed. The holy man had with much difficulty effected his escape, 
 but not without receiving a wound, which was still deemed dangerous. 
 
 A party of Choctaws brought the scalps of nine Alibamons to Bienville. 
 These indians were incessantly committing hostilities against the French 
 and their allies. Boisbriant was sent with twelve Canadians and the 
 Choctaws, to chastise them; but this expedition had but little success. 
 Two scalps of the Alibamons were brought by the Choctaws. 
 
 The peace, which through the mediation of Bienville, the Choctaws and 
 Chickasaws had concluded, in the fort of Mobile, was but of short duration. 
 Towards the end of March, the latter made an unprovoked invasion of the 
 of the country of the former, and brought away one hundred and fifty 
 persons. The French chief could not forget that the Choctaws had yielded 
 to his representations in burying the hatchet ; and he thought it his duty 
 to assist them against the violators of the treaty. He sent them a 
 considerable supply of powder and lead. 
 
 Hostilities among the Indian nations were not confined to the neighbor- 
 hood of Mobile and Carolina ; but extended across the country to the banks 
 of the Mississippi. The Tensas, compelled by the Yazous to abandon 
 their villages near the Natchez, had come down to the Bayagoulas, who 
 received them with great cordiality. The treacherous guests, regardless 
 of the laws of hospitality, rose, in the night, on their unsuspecting hosts 
 and slaughtered the greater part of them. Fearful afterwards that the 
 Oumas and Colapissas, the allies of the Bayagoulas, might be induced, by 
 those who escaped, to avenge the death of their countrymen, the Tunicas 
 sent four warriors of the Chetimachas and Yachimichas, to join them. 
 The houses and fields of the Bayagoulas were destroyed and ravaged. The 
 Tensas now turned their arms against their allies, made several prisoners 
 and carried them into slavery. 
 
 The misfortune of the Bayagoulas excited no sympathy among the 
 French. It was considered as a just retaliation for their treachery in 
 destroying their former friends and neighbors, the Mongoulachas. 
 
 In the fall, a party of the Hurons, from Detroit, came down against the 
 Arkansas ; who being accidentally apprised of their approach, went forward, 
 met, and destroyed most of them. A few of the invaders were made 
 prisoners and brought to the village of the victors, where they were put to 
 death with excruciating tortures. 
 
110 HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 
 
 The colonists learned, with much regret, in the fall of the year, the 
 death of Iberville. He had sailed from France, with a large fleet, for the 
 attack of Jamaica : but, learning that the English, conscious of their 
 danger, had made such preparations as would probably prevent his success, 
 he proceeded to the islands of St. Kitts and Nevis, on which he raised 
 large contributions. He then proceeded to St. Domingo, where he intended 
 taking one thousand troops for an expedition against Charleston. The 
 yellow fever made a great havoc in his fleet. He fell a victim to the dire 
 disease ; and the expedition was abandoned. 
 
 An Englishman, trading among the Tunicas, Avas despoiled of his goods : 
 he returned to Carolina and prevailed on some of the Chickasaws, 
 Alibamons and other tribes in alliance with his nation, to accompany and 
 assist him in taking revenge. The Tunicas, finding themselves too weak 
 to resist this invasion, sought refuge among the Oumas ; and, like the 
 Tensas, rewarded the hospitality they received, by rising in the 
 unsuspecting hour of rest on this party, and murdering or making prisoners 
 of most of them. Some of the Oumas, who escaped, removed to a stream, 
 now known as the bayou St. John, not very distant from the spot on 
 which the city of New Orleans was afterwards built. 
 
 On new year's day, Bourgoing, appointed by the bishop of Quebec 
 his vicar-general in Louisiana, arrived at Mobile by the way of the 
 Mississippi. He brought accounts of the death of St. Cosme, a missionary 
 and three other Frenchmen, by the Chetimachas. Bienville sent presents 
 to his allies on the Mississippi, to induce them to declare war against 
 these Indians. He was not able to raise more than eighty warriors. St. 
 Denys joined them with seven Canadians, and led this little band into the 
 country of the Chetimachas, destroyed their villages, ravaged their fields 
 and dispersed the inhabitants. 
 
 During the summer an unsuccessful attempt was made on Acadie, from 
 New England. 
 
 Two hundred Indians, headed by a few Englishmen, came to Pensacola, 
 set fire to the houses near the fort, killed ten Spaniards and a Frenchman, 
 and made twelve Apalache or Choctaw Indians prisoners. 
 
 A party of Touachas came to Mobile with two scalps and a slave of the 
 Abikas in the beginning of November ; they reported the Alibamons Avere 
 in daily expectation of English troops from Charleston, with whom they 
 were preparing to march to a second attack on Pensacola. Accordingly, 
 in the latter part of the month, Bienville was informed that the place was 
 actually besieged. At the head of one hundred and twenty Canadians 
 and as many Indians, he marched to its relief. He reached it on the 
 eighth of December ; the besiegers had withdrawn on hearing of the 
 approach of the French. Their force consisted only of three hundred and 
 fifty Indians, and thirteen white men, commanded by one Cheney, com- 
 missioned by Sir Nathaniel Johnson, governor of South Carolina. The 
 French, after staying three days in Pensacola, were ordered, on account 
 of the scarcity of provisions, to return. 
 
 A vessel from Havana, laden with provisions, brandy and tobacco, 
 came early in January to trade with the colony. This was the first 
 instance, ten years after the arrival of the French in Louisiana, of a vessel 
 coming to trade with them. 
 
 The Marquis de Vaudreuil, governor of Canada, had planned a 
 considerable expedition against New England. His allied Indians kept- 
 
HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. Ill 
 
 the frontier settlers of that eountry in constant alarm. He was, however, 
 disappointed in his expectation of raising the force he had contem])lated. 
 A strong party of C'anadians and Indians, nevertheless, entered the 
 province of Massachusetts, and destroyed a part of the town of Haverhill, 
 killed one hundred of its inhabitants, and carried off seventy prisoners. 
 In the pursuit, however, a number of the prisoners were retaken, and a 
 few of the French killed. 
 
 In the following year, the British cabinet determined on vigorous and 
 simultaneous attacks on Montreal and Quebec. 
 
 The first was to be conducted by General Nicholson, successively 
 lieutenant-governor of New York and Virginia ; he was to proceed through 
 the Champlain. He led his force to Wood creek, where he was to wait 
 the arrival of a British fleet at Boston, at which place it was to receive the 
 troops destined to act against Quebec. The New England provinces, and 
 that of New York had very cheerfully raised the men required for this 
 service. The expectations which this armament had excited in the 
 British T)rovinces were disappointed, in consequence of the fieet, which 
 was to proceed to Boston, being ordered on another service in Portugal. 
 
 The success of the settlement attempted in Louisiana not having 
 answered the hopes of the court of France, it was determined to make a 
 considerable change in the government of the colony. With this view, de 
 Muys, an officer who had served with distinction in Canada during the 
 preceding and present war, was appointed governor-general of Louisiana : 
 the great distance from that colony to Quebec, the seat of the governor- 
 general of New France, of which it was a dependence, had induced the 
 belief that the former ought to be independent of the latter. Diron 
 d'Artaguette was sent as commissary ordonnateur, with instructions to 
 inquire into the conduct of the former administrators of the colony, 
 against whom complaints had been made, to which the ill success of the 
 establishment seemed to give consequence. The frigate in which these 
 gentlemen had embarked, arrived at Ship Island in the beginning of the 
 new year. The governor-general had died during the passage. 
 
 D'Artaguette found Louisiana in comparative tranquillity. Vessels 
 from St. Domingo, Martinique and la Rochelle now came to trade with 
 the colonists. 
 
 Early in September, a privateer from Jamaica landed his men on 
 Dauphine Island, where they committed considerable depredations. This 
 is the first instance of hostility of white people against the colony. 
 
 On the twenty-fourth. General Nicholson, with a corps of marines, and 
 four regiments of infantry, arrived from Boston, before Port Royal in 
 Acadie. He immediately invested the town, which soon after surren- 
 dered. Its name, in compliment to the British queen, was changed to 
 that of Annapolis. Colonel Vetche was left there in command. 
 
 The settlement near the fort at Mobile suffered much in the spring from 
 the overflowing of the river ; in consequence of which, at the recommen- 
 dation of D'Artaguette, the spot was abandoned, and a new fort built 
 higher up. It was the one which, till very lately, stood immediately below 
 the present city of Mobile. 
 
 The government of South Carolina prevailed again on the Chickasaws 
 to attack the Choctaws, who were always the steadfast allies of the French. 
 When intelligence of this reached Mobile, there were about thirty 
 Chickasaw chiefs around the fort. Bienville, at their request, sent 
 
112 HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 
 
 Chateaugue with thirty men to escort them home. This service was 
 successfully performed, notwithstanding the Choctaws made great efforts 
 to intercept these Indians. 
 
 The government of France from this period ceased furnishing supplies 
 to Louisiana, and trusted to the industry of private adventurers, to whom, 
 however, it afforded some aid. A frigate arrived in the month of 
 September, laden with provisions by individuals ; the king furnished the 
 ship only. D'Artaguette returned in her, much regretted by the colonists ; 
 observations, during his stay in Louisiana, perfectly convinced him thjlt 
 its slow progress could not be accelerated by Bienville, with the feeble 
 means of which he had the command. 
 
 In the summer, General Hill, at the head of six thousand five hundred 
 European and Provincial troops, sailed from Boston for the attack of 
 Quebec. On the twenty-third of August, a violent storm cast eight of his 
 transports on shore near Egg Island. One thousand of his men perished, 
 the ships were greatly injured, and this disaster induced him to return. 
 In the meanwhile. General Nicholson had led four thousand men, destined 
 to the siege of Montreal, to Albany. The return of the fleet having 
 enabled the Marquis de Vaudreuil to support Montreal with all his force, 
 Nicholson retrograded. 
 
 A ship of twenty-six guns, under the orders of Laville Voisin, came to 
 Ship Island in the beginning of the next year. This gentleman had 
 made a fruitless attempt to sell her cargo to the Spaniards at Touspe. 
 He had brought to the viceroy letters, which he supposed would have 
 insured his admission into the ports of Mexico; but through some 
 mismanagement his scheme failed ; not, however, without his selling his 
 cargo to some Spanish merchants, who engaged to receive it at Ship 
 Island. He grew impatient of waiting for them, and went on a short 
 cruise towards St. Antonio. The merchants arrived with their cash, 
 waited awhile, and went away without seeing him. 
 
 On the arrival of d'Artaguette in France, and the report he made of the 
 state of the colony, the king's council despairing of realizing the advantages 
 which had been anticipated from it, as long as it remained on its former 
 footing, and determined to grant the exclusive commerce of Louisiana, 
 with great privileges, to Antony Crozat, an eminent merchant. 
 
 The war was terminated by the treaty of Utrecht on the thirtieth of 
 March, of the following year : by its twelfth article, France ceded to Great 
 Britain, " Nova Scotia or Acadie, with its ancient boundaries, as also the 
 city of Port Royal, now called Annapolis, and all other things, in the said 
 parts, which depends on these lands." 
 
 There were at this period in Louisiana two companies of infantry of 
 fifty men each, and seventy-five Canadian volunteers in the king's pay. 
 The rest of the population consisted of twenty-eight families ; one half of 
 whom were engaged, not in agriculture, but in horticulture : the heads of 
 the others were shop and tavern keepers, or employed in mechanical 
 occupations. A number of individuals derived their support by ministering 
 to the wants of the troops. There were but twenty negroes in the colony : 
 adding to these the king's officers and clergy, the aggregate amount of the 
 population was three hundred and eighty persons. A few female Indians 
 and children were domesticated in the houses of the white people, and 
 groups of the males were incessantly sauntering, or encamped around 
 them. 
 
HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 113 
 
 The collection of all these individuals, on one compact spot, could have 
 claimed no higher appellation than that of a handet ; yet they were 
 dispersed through a vast extent of country, the parts of which were 
 separated by the sea, by lakes and wide rivers. Five forts, or large 
 batteries, had been erected for their protection at Mobile, Biloxi, on the 
 Mississippi, and at Ship and Dauphine Islands. 
 
 Lumber, hides and peltries, constituted the objects of exportation, which 
 the colony presented to commerce. A number of woodsmen, or coureurs de 
 hois from Canada, had followed the missionaries who had been sent among 
 the nations of Indians, between that province and Louisiana. These men 
 plied within a circle, of a radius of several hundred miles, of which the 
 father's chapel was the centre, in search of furs, peltries and hides. When 
 they deemed they had gathered a sufficient quantity of these articles, they 
 floated down the Mississippi, and brought them to Mobile where they 
 exchanged them for European goods, with which they returned. The 
 natives nearer to the fort, carried on the same trade. Lumber was easily 
 obtained around the settlement : of late, vessels from St. Domingo and 
 Martinique brought sugar, molasses and rum to Louisiana, and took its 
 peltries, hides and lumber in exchange. The colonists procured some 
 specie from the garrison of Pensacola, whom they supplied with vegetables 
 and fowls. Those Avho followed this sort of trade, by furnishing also the 
 officers and troops, obtained flour and salt provisions from the king's 
 stores, which were abundantly supplied from France and Vera Cruz. 
 Trifling, but successful essays had shown, that indigo, tobacco and cotton 
 could be cultivated to great advantage : but hands were wanting. Experi- 
 ence had shown, that the frequent and heavy mists and fogs were 
 unfavorable to the culture of wheat, by causing it to rust. 
 
 The French had been unfoi'tunate in the selection of the places they 
 had occupied. The sandy coast of Biloxi is as sterile as the deserts of 
 Arabia. The stunted shrubs of Ship and Dauphine Islands announce the 
 poverty of the soil by which the}^ are nurtured. In the contracted spot, 
 on which Sauvolle had located his brother on the Mississippi, the few 
 soldiers under him, insulated during part of the j^ear, had the mighty 
 stream to combat. The buz and sting of the musquitoes, the hissing of 
 the snakes, the croakings of the frogs, and the cries of the alligators, 
 incessantly asserted that the lease the God of nature had given these 
 reptiles of this part of the country, had still a few centuries to run. In the 
 . barrens around the new fort of Mobile, the continual sugh of the needle- 
 leaved tree seemed to warn d'Artaguette his people must recede farther 
 from the sea, before they came to good land. 
 
 It is true, during the last ten years, war had in some degree checked the 
 prosperity of the colony, although during the whole of its continuance, 
 except the descent of the crew of a privateer from Jamaica, no act of hostility 
 was committed by an enemy within the colony ; but the incessant irruptions 
 on the land of the Indians, under the protection of Louisiana, by those in 
 alliance with Carolina, prevented the extension of the commerce and 
 settlements of the French towards the north. Yet all these difficulties 
 would have been promptly overcome, if agriculture had been attended to. 
 The coast of the sea abounded with shell and other fish ; the lagoons near 
 Mobile river were covered with water fowls ; the forests teemed with deer ; 
 the prairies with buffaloes, and the air with wild turkeys. By cutting 
 down the lofty pine trees around the fort, the colonists would have 
 
114 HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 
 
 uncovered a soil abundantly producing corn and peas. By abandoning 
 the posts on the Mississippi, Ship and Dauphine Islands, and at the 
 Biloxi, the necessary military duties would have left a considerable 
 number of individuals to the labors of tillage ; especially if prudence had 
 spared frequent divisions of them to travel for thousands of miles in quest 
 of ochres and minerals, or in the discovery of distant land, while that 
 which was occupied, was suffered to remain unproductive. Thus, in the 
 concerns of connnunities, as in those of individuals, immediate, real and 
 secure advantages are foregone for distant, dubious and often visionary 
 ones. 
 
 According to a return made by the Marquis de Vaudreuil to the 
 minister, there were, at this period in New France, including Acadie, four 
 thousand four hundred and eighty persons capable of bearing arms, which 
 supposes a population of about twenty-five thousand. 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 Crozat's charter bears date the twenty-sixth of September, 1712. 
 . Its preamble states, that the attention the king has always given to the 
 interests and commerce of his subjects, induced him, notwithstanding the 
 almost continual wars he was obliged to sustain, since the beginning of 
 his reign, to seek every opportunity of increasing and extending the trade 
 of his colonies in America ; that accordingly, he had in 1683, given orders 
 for exploring the territory on the northern continent, between New France 
 and New Mexico ; and Lasalle, who had been employed in this service, 
 had succeeded so ftir, as to leave no doubt of the facility of opening a 
 communication between Canada and the Gulf of Mexico, through the large 
 rivers that flow in the intermediate space ; which had induced the king, 
 immediately after the peace of Riswick, to send thither a colony and 
 maintain a garrison, to keep up the possession taken in 1683, of the 
 territory on the gulf, between Carolina on the east, and old and new Mexico 
 on the west. But, war having broke out soon after in Europe, he had not 
 been able to draw from this colony the advantages he had anticipated, 
 because the merchants of the kingdom engaged in maritime commerce, 
 had relations and concerns in the other French colonies, which they could 
 not relinquish. 
 
 The king declares that, on the report made to him of the situation of 
 the territory, now known as the province of Louisiana, he has determined 
 to establish there a commerce, which will be very beneficial to France ; it 
 being now necessary to seek in foreign countries many articles of commerce, 
 which may be obtained there, for merchandise of the growth or manufacture 
 of the kingdom. 
 
 He accordingly grants to Crozatthe exclusive commerce of all the territory 
 possessed by the crown, between old and new Mexico, and Carolina, 
 and all the settlements, ports, roads and rivers therein — principally the 
 port and road of Dauphine Island, before called Massacre Island, the river 
 St. Louis, previously called the Mississippi, from the sea to the Illinois, 
 the river St. Philip," before called Missouri, the river St. Jerome, before 
 called the Wabash, with all the land, lakes and rivers mediately or 
 immediately flowing into, any part of the river St. Louis or Mississippi. 
 
HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 115 
 
 The territory, thus described, is to be and remain inchided, under the 
 style of the government of Louisiana, and to be a dependence of the 
 government of New France, to which it is to be subordinate. The king's 
 territory, beyond the Ilhnois, is to be and (continue part of the goverment 
 of New France, to which it is annexed ; and he reserves to himself the 
 facult}' of enlarging that of Louisiana. 
 
 The right is given to the grantee, to export from France into Louisiana 
 all kinds of goods, wares and merchandise, during fifteen years, and to carry 
 on there such a commerce as he may think fit. All persons, natural or 
 corporate, are inhibited from trading there, under pain of the confiscation 
 of their goods, wares, merchandise and vessels': and the officers of the 
 king are commanded to assist the grantee, his agents and factors, in seizing 
 them. 
 
 Permission is given to open and work mines, and to export the ore to 
 France during fifteen years. The property of all the mines he may 
 discover and work, is given him : yielding to the king the fourth part of 
 the gold and silver, to be delivered in France, at the cost of the grantee, 
 but at the risk of the king, and the tenth part of all other metals. He may 
 search for precious stones and pearls, yielding to the king one-fifth of them, 
 in the same manner as gold and silver. Provision is made for the re-union 
 of the king's domain of such mines as may cease during three years to be 
 worked. 
 
 Liberty is given to the grantee, to sell to the French and Indians of 
 Louisiana, such goods, wares and merchandise as he may import, to the 
 exclusion of all others, without his express and written order. He is 
 allowed to purchase and export to France, hides, skins and peltries. But, 
 to favor the trade of Canada, he is forbidden to purchase beaver skins, or 
 to export them to France or elsewhere. 
 
 The absolute property, in fee simple, is vested in him of all the 
 establishments and manufactures he may make in silk, indigo, wool and 
 leather, and all the land he may cultivate, with all buildings, etc. ; he taking 
 from the governor and intendant grants, which are to become void, on the 
 land ceasing to be improved. 
 
 The laws, edicts and ordinances of the realm, and the custom of Paris 
 are extended to Louisiana. 
 
 The obligation is imposed on the grantee to send yearly two vessels from 
 France to Louisiana, in each of which he is to transport two boys or girls, 
 and the king may ship free from freight twenty-five tons of provisions, 
 ammunition, etc., for the use of the colony, and more, paying freight ; and 
 passage is to be afforded to the king's officers and soldiers for a fixed 
 compensation. 
 
 One hundred quintals of poM-der are to be furnished annually to the 
 grantee, out of the king's stores, at cost. 
 
 An exemption from duties on the grantee's goods, wares and merchandise, 
 imported to, or exported from Louisiana, is allowed. 
 
 The king promises to permit, if he thinks it proper, the importation of 
 foreign goods to Louisiana, on the application of the grantee, and the 
 production of his invoices, etc. 
 
 The use is given him of the boats, pirogues and canoes, belonging to the 
 king, for loading and unloading : he keeping and returning them, in good 
 order, at the expiration of his grant. 
 
116 HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 
 
 The faculty is allowed him to send annually a vessel to Guinea, for 
 negroes, whom he may sell in Louisiana, to the exclusion of all others. 
 
 After the expiration of nine years, the grantee is to pay the field officers 
 and garrison kept in Louisiana, and on the occurrence of vacancies, 
 commissions are to be granted to officers presented by the grantee, if 
 approved. 
 
 A fifty gun ship, commanded by the Marquis de la Jonquere, landed at 
 Dauphine Island, on the seventeenth of May, 1713, the officers who were to 
 administer the government of the colony under the new system. 
 
 The principal of these were, Lamotte Cadillac, an officer who had served 
 with distinction in Canada, during the preceding war, who was appointed 
 governor ; Duclos, commissar}^ ordonnateur ; Lebas, comptroller ; Dirigoin, 
 the principal director of Crozat's concerns in Louisiana, and Laloire des 
 Ursins, who was to attend to them on the Mississippi. 
 
 The ship brought a very large stock of provisions and goods. 
 
 The governor and commissary ordonnateur, by an edict of the eighteenth 
 of December, of the preceding year, had been constituted a superior 
 council, vested with the same powers as the councils of St. Domingo and 
 Martinico ; but the existence of this tribunal was limited to three years 
 from the day of its meeting. 
 
 The expenses of the king for the salaries of his officers in Louisiana, were 
 fixed at an annual sum of ten thousand dollars. It was to be paid to 
 Crozat in France, and the drafts of the commissary ordonnateur, were to 
 be paid in Crozat's stores, in cash, or in goods, with an advance of fift}^ 
 per cent. Sales in all other cases were to be made, in these stores, at an 
 advance of one hundred per cent. 
 
 Commerce was Crozat's principal object, and he contemplated carrying 
 it on chiefly with the Spaniards. His plan was to have large warehouses 
 on Dauphine Island, and to keep small vessels plying with goods to 
 Pensacola, Tampico, Touspe, Campeachy and Vera Cruz. His designs 
 were however frustrated ; the Spaniards, after the peace, refusing admit- 
 tance to French vessels in those ports, on the solicitation of the British, to 
 whom the king had granted privilege by the treaty of the Assiento. 
 
 He had recommended to Lamotte Cadillac, to whom he had given an 
 interest in his concerns in Louisiana, to send a strong detachment to the 
 Illinois, and towards the Spanish settlements in the west, to be employed 
 in the search of mines and the protection of his commerce. 
 
 The benefits, which the French government had anticipated from a 
 change of administrators in Louisiana, were not realized. An unfortunate 
 misunderstanding took place between the new governor and Bienville — 
 the former being jealous of the affection which the soldiers and Indians 
 manifested to the latter. 
 
 La Louisiane, a ship belonging to Crozat, arrived in the summer with a 
 large supply of provisions and goods, and brought a considerable number 
 of passengers. 
 
 In the course of the winter, deputations from most of the neighboring 
 nations of Indians came to visit and solicit the protection of the new 
 chief of the colony. 
 
 Canada was so overwhelmed by repeated emissions of card money, and 
 the consequent ruin and distress was so great that the planters and 
 merchants united in a petition to the king, for the redemption of the cards 
 at one half of their nominal value, offering to lose the other. 
 
HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 117 
 
 The British of Carolina, after the peace of Utrecht, gave a great 
 extension to their commerce with the Indians near the l)ack settlements 
 of the province. Their traders had erected storehouses among tlie tribes 
 in alliance with the French, as far as the Natchez and the Yazous. The 
 Choctaws were so attached to the French, that they had heretofore refused 
 to allow the British to trade among them. In the spring, however, a 
 party of the British, heading two thousand Indians of the Alibamons. 
 Talapouchcs and Chickasaws, came among the Choctaws ; they were 
 received in thirty of the villages : two only refusing to admit them. 
 Violence being threatened against the minority, the Choctaws of these 
 two villages built a fort, in which they collected, bidding defiance to their 
 countrymen, the British and their allies. They held out for a consid- 
 erable time : at last, on the eve of being overwhelmed, they escaped 
 during the night, and made their -way to the French fort at Mobile, where 
 they were cordially greeted. 
 
 While the bulk of the Choctaws were thus diverted to the British, the 
 Alibamons testified their attachment to the French by aiding them to 
 build a fortress on their river. It was called Fort Toulouse. 
 
 Lamotte Cadillac being disappointed in his hope of trading with the 
 Spanish ports on the gulf, made in the summer an attempt to find a vent 
 for Crozat's goods, in the interior parts of Mexico. His object also was to 
 check the progress of the Spaniards, whom he understood, were preparing 
 to advance their settlements in the province of Texas, to the neighborhood 
 of Natchitoches. St. Denys was therefore sent with a large quantity of 
 goods, attended by thirty Canadians and some Indians, on this service. 
 
 In the month of August, Queen Anne, of Great Britain, died at the age 
 of fifty, without issue, although she had given birth to nineteen children. 
 She was the sixth and last sovereign of the house of Stuart. The crown, 
 according to a statute for the exclusion of the children of James the 
 second, passed to George, elector of Hannover, a grandson of princess 
 Sophia, granddaughter of James the first. 
 
 The discovery of mines of the precious metals was a darling object with 
 Lamotte Cadillac, and in the latter part of the winter his credulity was 
 powerfully acted upon. A man named Dutigne, came from Canada, 
 bringing from the Illinois two pieces of ore, which he asserted had been 
 dug up in the neighborhood of the Kaskaskias. The governor had them 
 assayed, and they were found to contain a great proportion of silver. 
 Elated at the discovery, and eager to secure what he considered as a rich 
 mine, he setoff for the Illinois without disclosing the cause of his sudden 
 departure, and had the mortification to learn on his arrival, that the 
 pieces of ore which Dutigne had brought down came from Mexico, and 
 had been left as curiosities, by a Spaniard, with a gentleman at the 
 Illinois, from whom Dutigne had received them. Disappointed in his 
 hope of the silver mine, he visited mines of lead on the western side of 
 the Mississippi, and returned to Mobile without boasting of the object of 
 his errand. 
 
 The British in the meanwhile, were progressing fast in their plan of 
 establishing truckhouses among the Choctaws, Natchez, Yazous and 
 other nations on the Mississippi. Bienville had sent for the principal 
 chiefs of the Choctaws ; he upbraided them for their treachery ; urging 
 that the French were the only people, from whom they could conveniently 
 get the goods they wanted, as the British were at a comparative great 
 
118 HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 
 
 distance from their villages. He prevailed on them to draw off all 
 communication with them and the Indians in their alliance. The 
 Choctaws kept their word, and on their return drove off every British 
 trader from their villages. 
 
 An officer of the name of Young, a native of South Carolina, who was 
 then with the Choctaws, made his way to the Natchez, and descended the 
 Mississippi with the view of inducing the Oumas, Pascagoulas, Chouaehas 
 and Colapissas, to enter into an alliance with his nation. Laloire des 
 Ursins, Crozat's principal agent on the river, went up in a pirogue to meet 
 the intruder. He found him near bayou Manchac^ arrested and sent him 
 a prisoner to Mobile. Bienville allowed him to proceed to Pensacola, 
 whence he attempted to reach Carolina by land, but was killed by some of 
 the Thome Indians. 
 
 While Bienville was thus successful in preserving the attachment of the 
 Choctaws and the natives on the Mississippi, he had the pleasure of 
 learning that the Indians bordering on Carolina, imitating the Choctaws, 
 had turned against the British, and invaded the frontier settlements of 
 that province. The Yamassees, the Creeks and Apalachians spread 
 desolation and slaughter in the south ; while the Cherokees, Congarees 
 and Catawbas, ravaged the northern part. It was computed the enemy 
 were between seven and eight thousand strong. Indeed, every tribe from 
 Florida to Cape Fear, had engaged in the war. The security of Charleston , 
 was doubted. It had not more than twelve hundred men fit to bear arms ; 
 but there were several forts near it, which offered places of refuge. Governor 
 Craven marched with his small force against the enemy, who had 
 advanced as far as Stono, where they burnt the church, as they did every 
 house on their way. The governor advanced slowly and with caution, and 
 as he proceeded, the straggling parties fled before him, till he reached the 
 Saltketchers, where the Indians had pitched their great camp. Here a 
 sharp battle ensued. The Indians were repulsed and the governor 
 pursued them over the Savannah river. It is said the province lost, in 
 in this war, upwards of eight hundred men, women and children. The 
 Yamassees were driven from the land they had heretofore occupied, 
 behind Port Royal Island, on the northeast side of the Savannah river. 
 They settled in the neighborhood of the Spaniards, by whom the British 
 alleged they had been instigated. 
 
 An officer of the garrison of Mobile, called St. Helen, who happened to 
 be in a village of the Chickasaws, in whicli were fifteen British traders, 
 was protected by a Choctaw chief, while these men were killed, l)ut. being 
 mistaken for one of them, by a young Indian who entered the cabin he 
 was in, while he stooped to light a cigar, he was slain. 
 
 Bienville forwarded presents to the Indians, who had seceded from the 
 British alliance, and directed his messengers to induce them to send to 
 Mobile some of their head men, with whom a treaty might be made. 
 
 The Indians of the two villages of the Choctaws, who had remained 
 steadfast in their friendship for the French, were still in the very neigh- 
 borhood of Mobile. Bienville sent word to the chiefs of the other villages, 
 he would not confide in them as friends, but cease to have any communi- 
 cation with them, if they persisted in refusing to receive their countrymen. 
 He recpiired them to send him the head of Ousachouti (the brother of 
 the principal chief) who had been most active in introducing the British 
 
HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 119 
 
 traders, and fomenting: tlie civil war. The Choc-taws, after some debate, 
 slew the obnoxious chief, and sent for their countrymen of the two villages. 
 
 In the summer, the garrison was reinforced by two companies of 
 infantry, oonnnanded by Marigny de Mandeville and Bagot. With them 
 came Rouzeau, sent to succeed Dirigoin, as principal director of Crozat's 
 concerns in Louisiana. 
 
 At the same time, Bienville received the commission of commander- 
 general of all the establishments on the Mississippi, and the rivers flowing 
 into it. 
 
 A ship from la Rochelle itnd another from Martinico, came to Dauphine 
 Island to trade. They were not permitted to land any goods as this 
 would have been a violation of Crozat's privilege. 
 
 Louis the fourteenth died on the first of September, in his seventy- 
 seventh year, and was succeeded by his grandson, Louis the fifteenth. 
 The new monarch being in his sixth year only, his uncle, the Duke of 
 Orleans, governed the kingdom during the minority. 
 
 The Cherokees fell in the beginning of the next year on the French 
 settlements on the AVabash, and killed two men, named Ramsay and 
 Longeuil. The father of the latter who was the king's lieutenant at 
 Montreal, induced the Iroquois to declare war against the Cherokees. It 
 was prosecuted with much vigor for a considerable time, and ended in 
 the rout of the latter. 
 
 In execution of the king's order, Bienville assumed the command of 
 the establishments on the Mississippi. A few French stragglers had 
 settled among the Tunicas, Natchez, Yazous and Bayagoulas, and we have 
 seen that clergymen from Canada visited, at times, these tribes as 
 missionaries, and some of them had located themselves among these 
 Indians : but there was as yet but one small fort on the mighty stream, 
 not far from the sea. He was instructed to erect two others — one among 
 the Natchez and the other on the Wabash. The connection of Louisiana 
 with Canada was a favorite object at court, and it had been very strongly 
 recommended to both the colonial governments. There was already a 
 considerable population on that river, with whom the Canadians kept a 
 regular intercourse by their huntsmen or coureurs de bois ; this rising 
 settlement afforded also a commodious resting place to emigrants from 
 Canada to Louisiana. 
 
 Laloire des Ursins, who lived in the fort on the Mississippi, as director 
 of Crozat's concerns on the river, had built six large pirogues for the 
 intended expedition, and Bienville having reached the fort with a 
 detachment, ordered his men to proceed to the landing of the Tunicas. 
 These Indians had lately removed to the banks of a lake, which empties 
 in the Mississippi through a bayou to which the}"" gave their name which 
 it still retains. 
 
 Bienville spent a few days with Laloire des Ursins, in order to have a 
 conference with the head men of the Chouachas, a tribe who lived a little 
 below the spot on which the city of New Orleans is built ; on reaching his 
 detachment he was infcn-med the Natchez had lately killed two Frenchmen, 
 and stopped and robbed nine Canadians who were descending the river. 
 They had sent a messenger to solicit their aid in resisting the French. He 
 sent an interpreter to the Natchez, directing him to conceal from them 
 Bienville's knowledge of the murder — and to request them to meet him 
 on friendly terms at their landing. In the hope that a show of confidence^ 
 
120 HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 
 
 might induce him to overlook what had happened when he was informed; 
 of it, nineteen of these Indians attended with the nine Canadians. Among 
 the former were five suns and seven village chiefs. 
 
 Bienville had pitched his tent on the bank of the Mississippi, and the 
 Indians, as they approached, were told they could not be received as 
 friends till the death of his countrymen was expiated. The head of the 
 deputation, turning towards the sun, addressed that luminary in an invo- 
 cation which he seemed to think would appease Bienville, to whom he 
 tendered the calumet of peace. He was told no reconciliation could be 
 expected till the head of the chief, at whose instigation the French had 
 been killed, was brought to the camp. He replied that chief was a great 
 warrior and a sun. On this, Bienville had him and some of his com- 
 panions arrested and put under guard and in irons. 
 
 On the next day, the captives sent a messenger to the village for the 
 desired head. He returned with that of an Indian who had consented to 
 die for his chief: but Bienville, having been apprised of the deception, 
 refused the proffered head. With as little success, the same imposition 
 was attempted the following day. 
 
 The Canadians having informed Bienville that six pirogues were on 
 their way from the Illinois, and would probably be stopped by the 
 Indians if timely precautions were not taken, a canoe was dispatched at 
 night, and the people on the pirogues, being thus apprised of the 
 impending danger, were enabled to avoid it. 
 
 A number of the Natchez came to Bienville's camp and surrendered 
 themselves, desirous to lose their lives, that they might in the next world 
 wait on their captive chiefs, if their lives were not spared. He told them 
 he had no doubt that Longbeard, one of his prisoners, had been concerned 
 in the murder, and was one of those who had favored the admission of 
 the British traders among the Natchez ; but, as he had come into the 
 camp of the French as a messenger of peace, his life would not be taken 
 till the determination of the nation to refuse the head that had been 
 demanded, was known. The Indians in the camp, however, expressed 
 their wish that as he was a turbulent fellow, and had often disturbed their 
 tranquillity, he might be sacrificed. Bienville declined doing so until he 
 had the consent of the nation. The Indian was however secretly 
 dispatched by his countrymen without the participation of any of the 
 white people. 
 
 After this, Bienville and the French accompanied the Indians to their 
 village. The property of the Canadians was restored, and with the 
 consent of the Natchez a fort was begun on the spot which Iberville had 
 chosen for a town. It was called Fort Rosalie, and a small garrison wat* 
 left in it, under the order of Pailloux, in the latter part of June. 
 
 One of Crozat's ships arrived at Mobile in the following month, with a 
 large supply of goods and provisions ; she landed twenty passengers. 
 
 After a journey of upwards of two years, St. Denys reached Mobile, in 
 the month of August. We have seen that he was sent in 1714 into the 
 internal provinces of Spain, for the double purpose of finding a vent for 
 Crozat's goods, and checking the advances of the Spaniards, who were 
 preparing to form settlements, in the neighborhood of Natchitoches. He 
 had reached this place, with his Canadians and Indians, without accident. 
 He employed them in erecting a few huts for some of the Canadians 
 he was to leave there, and having engaged some individuals of the 
 
HI&TORY OF LOUISIANA. 1-21 
 
 jieighboring tribe? to join the Natchitoehes, he siippHed them with a few 
 implements of liusbandrv, and useful seeds. Then, taking twelve ehosen 
 Canadians and a small number of Indians, he left Red river and mareiied 
 westerly. After journeying for twenty days he came to a village of the 
 Assinais, not far from the spot where Lasalle was murdered, about thirty 
 years before. There he obtained guides, who led him one hundred and 
 fifty leagues farther, to the easternmost settlement of the Spaniards on Rio 
 Bravo; it was called St. John the Baptist, or Presidio del Xorte. Don Pedro 
 de Villescas, who commanded there, received the French with much hospi- 
 tality. St. Denys informed his host he was sent by Lamotte Cadillac, to 
 make arrangements for a commerce that might Ix' equally beneficial to the 
 Spanish and French colonists. Don Pedro said he could not do an^'thing, 
 without consulting the governor of Caouis, under whose immediate orders 
 he was. This officer resided at a distance of about one hundred and 
 eighty miles, and on receiving a communication from Don Pedro, dis- 
 patched tw^enty-five horsemen to bring St. Denys to him. He detained 
 him until the beginning of 1715, when he informed him that he considered 
 it his duty to send him to the viceroy. St. Denys being about to depart, 
 wrote to his companions, whom he had left at the Presidio del Norte, to 
 return to Natchitoches. 
 
 Caouis is distant from Mexico about seven hundred and fifty miles, and 
 St. Denys was conducted by an officer, attended by twenty horsemen. On 
 his arrival in the capital, the viceroy sent him to prison. He was enlarged, 
 after a confinement of three months, at the solicitation of several French 
 officers in the service of Spain. The viceroy now treated him with kind- 
 ness, and made every effort in his power to induce him to enter the service 
 of the Catholic king. Finding his endeavors useless, he made a present 
 to St. Denys of a fine horse from his stable, supplied him with money and 
 sent him back to Caouis, from whence he proceeded to the Presidio del 
 Norte. Don Pedro was much affected at the removal of the Indians of 
 five neighboring villages, who fatigued at the vexations they experienced 
 from the officers and soldiers of the garrison of the Presidio, had determined 
 to seek an asylum among a distant tribe of Indians. St. Denys offered to 
 Don Pedro to go and bring them back ; he soon overtook them, as their 
 children and baggage much retarded their march. Placing a white hand- 
 kerchief on the muzzle of his musket, as soon as he perceived them, he 
 waved it as a token of his friendly intentions ; they waited his approach. 
 Pie placed before them the danger they ran, in removing among Indians 
 who were utter strangers to them, and told them he w\as charged by Don 
 Pedro to assure them, that, if they would re-occupy their villages, neither 
 officers or soldiers of the Presidio, would be suffered to enter any of them, 
 without their consent. They agreed to return with him, and Don Pedro, 
 who feared that the departure of these Indians from the neighborhood of 
 the Presidio should be attributed to his ill conduct or neglect, was gratified 
 by the service St. Denys had rendered him. 
 
 During the short interval he had passed before, under Don Pedro's roof, 
 the charms of the Spaniard's daughter had made a lively impression on 
 St. Denys, and she had appeared to reciprocate his affection. He now 
 pressed his suit, and obtained her hand. He staid six months with her, 
 after their nuptials, and left her pregnant, returning to Mobile, accompained 
 by Don Juan de Tilleseas, her uncle. 
 
 Lamotte Cadillac was now convinced that a commerce with the Spaniards 
 
 17 
 
122 HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 
 
 was as impossible by land as by water; and'he apprised Crozat of the 
 inutility of any further attempt either way. 
 
 The period, for which the Superior Council of Louisiana had been 
 established, being about to expire, the king, in the month of September, 
 re-established it by a perpetual and irrevocable edict. It was however, 
 new modelled, and to be composed of the governor-general and intendant 
 of New France, the governor of Louisiana, a senior councillor, the king's • 
 lieutenant, two puisne councillors and an attorney-general and clerk. The 
 edict gives to the council all the powers, exercised by the superior councils 
 of other colonies : principally that of determining all cases, civil and 
 criminal, in the last resort, and without costs. Its sessions are directed 
 to be monthly, and a quorum is to consist, in civil cases of three judges, 
 and in criminal of five. When necessary, in the absence and lawful excuse 
 of the members, notables may be called to vacant seats. The intendant 
 of New France, and, in his absence, the senior councillor, is to act as 
 president, even, in presence of the governor-general of New France, or the 
 governor of Louisiana. In provisional matters, fixing of seals, making 
 inventories, etc., the senior councillor is authorized to act as a judge of 
 first instance. 
 
 This edict was followed on the sixteenth of November, by an ordinance 
 relating to redemptioners and muskets ; it was not confined to Louisiana. 
 Vessels, leaving the kingdom for any of the king's American colonies, 
 were directed to carry thither, if under sixty tons four, and if above, six 
 redemptioners, whose period of service was fixed at three years. The)' 
 were required to be able bodied, between the ages of seventeen and forty, 
 and in size not under four feet. It was provided that the redemptioners, 
 whom the captain might not sell, should be given by the governor to some 
 of the planters who had not any, and who were to pay their passage. 
 
 Crozat having recommended that notwithstanding the ill success of 
 St. Denys, in his attempt to open a trade with the Spanish provinces 
 bordering on Louisiana, the project should not be abandoned ; three 
 Canadians, named Delery, Lafreniere and Beaulieu, were supplied with 
 goods out of his stores, in the month of October, and proceeded by the 
 way of Red river to the province of New Leon ; and to prevent the 
 Spaniards from occupying the country of the Natchitoches, among whom 
 St. Denys had left a few of his countrymen, a detachment was placed 
 under the orders of Dutisne, who was directed to build and garrison a 
 fort, among these Indians. 
 
 Three of Crozat's ships arrived from France on the ninth of March. 
 They brought I'Epinai, who had been appointed governor, and Hubert 
 commissary ordonnateur. Duclos, whom he succeeded, went in that 
 capacity to St. Domingo. Three companies of infantry, under the orders 
 of De Rome and Gouis, and fifty new colonists, accompanied them, among 
 whom were Trefontaine, Guenot, Dubreuil and Mossy. 
 
 L'Epinai brought the cross of St. Louis to Bienville. 
 
 The Peacock, one of these ships, went into the bay of Ship Island, on 
 the entrance of which they found twenty-seven feet of water ; and two days 
 after, she w^as unable to come out, without being unladen — the pass being 
 entirely stopped up. After being lightened, she came out through the 
 channel of the Island of Grand Grozier ; where she found ten feet of water. 
 This was more surprising, as since the arrival of Iberville, nineteen years 
 before, no alteration had been noticed. 
 
HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 123 
 
 Another of the ships was sent to Havana for cattle ; she went in under 
 the pretence of distress, and was allowed three days to refit and pnxure 
 provisions. She took in sixty cows ; this excited surprise, and it being 
 tound they were intended for Louisiana, the captain-general insisted on 
 forty-five of them being re-landed. 
 
 Although the services of Bienville had been rewarded l>y knighthotxl. 
 the arrival of I'Epinai, as governor, gave him great mortification. The 
 officers of the garrison were attached to him, and observed their new chief 
 with a jealous eye. This was the source of an unfortunate schism in the 
 colony, which for a while checked its progress. Hubert, who was a man 
 of business, sided with I'Epinai, and his animosity against Bienville went 
 so far as to charge him with being a pensioner of Spain, bribed to check 
 the progress of the settlement. 
 
 Crozat's agents, finding but little vent for his goods in the colony, put a 
 considerable quantity of them on board of one of his ships, which they 
 sent to Vera Cruz, under the impression that they might be permitted to 
 land them : but the viceroy was found inflexible. Her cargo was worth 
 two hundred thousand dollars, at the costs in France, and the goods had 
 mostly been selected with the view of being sold to the Spaniards at 
 Mexico, and Crozat had made the attempt, in the hope of providing by 
 the sale of these goods the means of discharging large sums that were due 
 to the troops and workmen. On the return of the ship, they were 
 compelled to offer to these people, in discharge of their claims, articles of 
 luxury better suited for a great city, than for a rising colony. This excited 
 great murmurs ; Crozat's exclusive privilege had grown very unpopular 
 in Louisiana. The colonial officers, who, heretofore had carried on an 
 interlope trade with Vera Cruz, Havana and Pensacola, viewed with 
 jealousy his agents and the new administrators, whom he had strongly 
 attached to his interest, by a share in the privilege. 
 
 In the month of August, Crozat disappointed in the expectations he 
 had entertained, surrendered his grant to the king. He complained that 
 the weakness of the colony rendered it contemptible to the Indians, whom 
 it could not prevent from incessantly waging war among themselves, 
 whereby no trade could safely be carried on with them ; that, the British 
 drew nigher and nigher, and confined the French to their small settlements 
 at Mol)ile, Biloxi and Dauphine Island — that the land on the island, and 
 near the other two settlements, was sandy and sertile, while the rich land 
 on the Mississippi was open to the British, whom nothing prevented from 
 occupying it. The surrender was accepted on the twenty-third — about 
 five years from the date of the charter. 
 
 During this period, neither the commerce nor agriculture of the colony 
 was increased. The troops sent by the king and the colonists who came 
 from France, did not swell its population to more than seven hundred 
 persons of all ages, sexes or color. Two new forts were erected and 
 garrisoned ; Fort Toulouse among the Alibamons, and Fort Rosalie among 
 the Natchez. 
 
 Arrangements having been made with three individuals of the names 
 of Aubert, Renet and Gayon, for the commerce of Canada, which were to 
 expire with the current year, government determined on creating a 
 compan}', capable of carrying on the commerce of Canada and Louisiana, 
 and improving the advantages which the cultivation of the soil, in these 
 colonies presented. This was effected a few days after the surrender of 
 Crozat's privilege was accepted. 
 
CHAPTER IX. 
 
 The cliarter <^f the new corporation was registered in the Parliament of 
 Paris on the sixth of September, 1717. 
 
 It is to be distinguished by the style of the Western Company, and all 
 the king's subjects, as well as corporate bodies and aliens, are allowed to 
 take shares in it. 
 
 The exclusive commerce of Louisiana is granted to it for twenty-five 
 years ; with the right, also exclusive, of j^urchasing beaver skins from the 
 inhabitants of Canada, from the first of January, 1718, until the last day 
 of the year 1742 ; and, the monarch reserves to himself the faculty of 
 settling on information to ])e obtained from Canada, the number of skins 
 the company shall he bound annually to receive from the inhabitants, and 
 the price to be paid therefor. 
 
 All the other subjects of the king are prohibited from trading to 
 Louisiana, under the penalty of the confiscation of their merchandise 
 and vessels : but this is not intended to prevent the inhabitants from 
 trading among themselves or with the Indians. It is likewise prohibited 
 to any but the comi^ny, to purchase during the same period, beaver skins 
 in Canada for exportation under the penalty of the forfeiture of the skins, 
 and the vessels in which they may be shipped : but, the trade in these 
 skins in the interior is to continue as heretofore. 
 
 The land, coasts, harbors and islands in Louisiana are granted to the 
 company, as they were to Crozat, it doing faith and homage to the king, 
 and furnishing a crown of gold of the weight of thirty marks, at each 
 mutation of the sovereignty. 
 
 It is authorized to make treaties with the Indians, and to declare and 
 prosecute war against them in case of insult. 
 
 The property of all mines it may open and work, is granted to it, 
 without the payment of any duty whatsoever. 
 
 The faculty is given it to grant land, even allodially, to erect forts, levy 
 troops and recruits even in the kingdom, procuring the king's permission 
 for this purpose. 
 
 It is authorized to nominate governors and the officers commanding the 
 troops, who are to be presented by the directors and commissioned by the 
 king and removable by the company. Provisional commissions may, in 
 case of necessity be granted to be valid during six months, or until the 
 royal commission arrive. 
 
 The directors and all officers are to take an oath of fidelity to the king. 
 
 Military officers in Louisiana are permitted to enter into the service of 
 the company, and others to go there with the king's license to serve it. 
 All while in its service are to preserve their respective ranks and grades 
 in the royal land and naval forces ; and the king promises to acknowledge 
 as rendered to himself all services they may render to the company. 
 
 Power is given to fit out shijis of war and cast cannon, and to appoint 
 and remove judges and officers of justice ; but the judges of the superior 
 council are to be nominated and commissioned by the king. 
 
 All civil suits to which the company may be a party, are to be determined 
 by the consular jurisdiction of the city of Paris, the sentences of which 
 under a fixed sum are to be in the last resort : those above are to be 
 provisorily executed notwithstanding, but without prejudice of the appeal, 
 
HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 125 
 
 which is to be brought l)efore the Parliament of Paris. Criminal 
 jurisdiction is not to draw with it that of the civil matter. 
 
 The king promises not to grant any letter of dispensation or respite to 
 any debtor of the company ; and he assures it of the protection of his 
 luime, against any foreign nation, injuring the company. 
 
 French vessels and crews alone, are to be employed by it, and it is to 
 bring the produce of Louisiana into the ports of the kingfloni. All goods, 
 in its vessels are to be presumed its property, unless it be shown they 
 were shipped with its license. 
 
 The subjects of the king, removing to Louisiana, are to preserve their 
 national character, and their children (and those of European parents, 
 j)rofessing the Roman Catholic religion) born there, are to be considered 
 as natural born subjects. 
 
 During the continuance of the charter, the inhabitants of Louisiana 
 are exempted from any tax or imposition, and the company's goods from 
 duty. 
 
 With the view of encouraging it to build vessels in Louisiana, a gratifi- 
 cation is to be paid on the arrival of each of them in France. 
 
 Four hundred quintals of powder are to be delivered annually to the 
 company, out of the royal magazines, at cost. 
 
 The stock is divided into shares of five hundred livres each, (about one 
 hundred dollars.) Their number is not limited; but the company is 
 authorized to close the subscription at discretion. The shares of aliens 
 are exempted from the droit dhmhaine and confiscation in case of war. 
 
 Holders are to have a vote for every fifty shares. The affairs of the 
 company are, during the two first years, to be managed by directors 
 appointed by the king, and afterwards by others, appointed triennially by 
 the stockholders. 
 
 The king gives to the company all the forts, ma,gazines, guns, ammuni- 
 tions, vessels, boats, provisions, etc., in Louisiana, with all the merchandise 
 surrendered by Crozat. 
 
 It is to build churches and provide clergymen ; Louisiana is to remain 
 part of the diocese of Quebec, it engages to bring in during its privilege, 
 six thousand white persons and three thousand negroes ; but it is stipu- 
 lated, it shall not bring any person from another colony without the 
 license of the governor. 
 
 Although the king had consented to redeem the card money that 
 inundated Canada according to the petition of the planters and merchants 
 of that colony, in 1713, he was tardy in the performance of his engage- 
 ment, and it was not till this year, that the circulation of it was stopped. 
 At the same time the value of coin there was reduced to the standard of 
 the realm ; dearly bought experience having shown that the rise of its 
 legal value had not a tendency to retain specie in the colony, and that 
 the only mean of preventing the exportation of it, was the payment of 
 whatever was imported, in the produce of the country. 
 
 On the ninth of February, 1718, three of the company's ships arrived, 
 with as many companies of infantry and sixty-nine colonists. Boisbriant, 
 who came in this fleet, and who was appointed king's lieutenant in the 
 colony, was the bearer of Bienville's commission as governor of the province ; 
 PEpinai being recalled. Hubert had been made director-general of the 
 concerns of the company in Louisiana. The troops and the inhabitants 
 generally saw with great pleasure the chief command restored to Bienville. 
 
126 HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 
 
 He had spent twenty years in the colony and was well acquainted with 
 its wants and resources. 
 
 The three Canadians, who had gone on a trading expedition to the 
 province of New Leon, in 1716, returned to Mobile. They had been joined 
 by St. Denys, and having supplied themselves with horses and mules at 
 Natchitoches, they journeyed to a small village of the Adayes, which had 
 but thirty warriors. Fording the river here, they came so')n after to a 
 group of about ten cabins of the Adeyches ; near which the Spaniards had 
 a mission composed of two friars, three soldiers and a woman. 
 
 Their next stage was at Nagogdoches, where they found the same 
 number of friars, a lay brother and a woman. The first village of the 
 Assinais was thirty miles farther. Here they met two friars and a woman. 
 St. Denys now parted from his companions and went ahead with part of 
 the goods. His companions, after journeying for twenty-five miles, 
 reached the first presidio, garrisoned by a captain, lieutenant and twenty- 
 five soldiers ; they journeyed along, cros.sing two streams, alxjut thirty 
 miles to the last village of the Assinais, near which was a mission 
 composed of two friars and a few^ soldiers. They halted seventy miles; 
 farther on the bank of the river Trinity. At nearly the same distance 
 they crossed a river near which Avere immense herds of buffaloes. It had 
 two branches, on the farthest of which was an Indian village of fifty huts. 
 The travellers found Rio Colorado at the distance of about fifty miles. 
 This is the stream near the mouth of which Lasalle built Fort Louis, 
 which the Spaniards destroyed in 1696. Soon after crossing it, the party 
 was attacked by about sixty Spaniards, on horseback, covered with hides, 
 who, intimidated by its spirited conduct, fled ; but, shortly after, came 
 upon the rear of the French, and carried away a mulatto woman and 
 three mules, one of which was loaded with a quantity of goods. The 
 French reached, on the next day, the camp of a wandering tribe of 
 Indians, who had erected about thirty huts and who gave them a friendly 
 reception. After a stay of two days to rest, the party crossed on the 
 second day the river St. Mark, and on the evening of the following, 
 that of Guadeloupe. Fording aftersvards that of St. Anthony, they 
 stopped at the presidio of St. John the Baptist, on the Avestern side of Rio 
 Bravo or Del Norte, at the distance of about six miles from the stream. 
 
 The garrison of this post consisted of a captain, lieutenant and thirty- 
 six soldiers. The settlement was confined to a square, surrounded witli 
 mud houses. Within this command were the missions of St. -Joseph and 
 St. Bernard. 
 
 The Fr^ch were informed here that the goods brought l)y St. Deny>? 
 had been seized, and he was gone to Mexico to solicit their release. To 
 avoid a similar misfortune, they placed theirs in the hands of the friars, 
 and afterwards disposed of them to merchants from Bocca de Leon. Tliey 
 were tarrying to receive their payment when accounts reached the 
 presidio that St. Denys had been imprisoned. This induced them to 
 depart abruptly, and make the best of their way to Mobile. 
 
 On their return they found a new mission had been established at the 
 Adayes, under the name of San Miguel de Linarez. 
 
 The report of these people convinced the colonial government that it 
 would be in vain to make any further attempt towards establishing a 
 trade with the neighboring provinces of Spain. 
 
 Bienville, according to the last instructions he had received, dispatched 
 
HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 127 
 
 (-hateaugue, with fifty men, to take possession of the hay of St. Joseph, 
 between Pensacohi and St. Marks. Chateaugue marked out the Hnes of a 
 fort, and left Goiisy to huild and command it. 
 
 In the meanwhile, Bienville visited the banks of the Mississippi, in 
 order to select a spot for the principal settlement of the i)rovince. He 
 chose that on w'hich the city of New Orleans now stands, and left there 
 fifty men to clear the ground and erect barracks. 
 
 The company had been taught by the failure of all the plans of Crozat, 
 that nothing was to be expected from a trade with the Spaniards, or the 
 search after mines of the precious metals, in Louisiana ; and, that no 
 considerable advantage could attend an exclusive trade with an extensive 
 province, thinly peopled, unless agriculture enabled the planters to 
 ])urchase, and furnish returns for, the merchandise that might be sent 
 thither. It was imagined the culture of the soil would be best promoted 
 by large grants (many of several miles front on the rivers) to powerful 
 and wealthy individuals in the kingdom. 
 
 Accordingly, one was made on the Arkansas river, of twelve miles 
 square to Law, a Scotchman, who had acquired great credit at court, by 
 several plans of finance, which he had proposed. Others of inferior, 
 though still very large, extent, were made — particularly one on the river 
 of the Yazous, to a company composed of Leblanc, secretary of state, 
 Count de Belleville, the Marquis of Assleck and Leblond, who afterwards 
 came to Louisiana, as a general officer of the engineers : others at the 
 Natchez, to Hubert, and a company of merchants of St. Maloes ; at the 
 C'adodaquious, above the Natchitoches, up Red river, to Benard de la 
 Harpe ; at the Tunicas, to St. Reine ; at Point Coupee, to de Meuse ; at the 
 place on which now stands the towai of Baton Rouge, to Diron d'Arta- 
 guette ; on the right side of the Mississippi, opposite to Bayou Manchac, 
 to Paris Duvernay ; at the Tchoupitoulas, to de Muys ; at the Oumas, to 
 the Marquis d'Ancouis ; at the Cannes Brulees, to the Marquis d'Artagnac ; 
 opposite to these on the right side of the river, to de Guiche, de la Houssaie 
 and de la Houpe ; at the bay of St. Louis, to Madame de Mezieres ; and at 
 the Pascagoulas, to Madame de Chaumont. 
 
 It has been stipulated with Law, that he should bring fifteen hundred 
 persons from Germany or Provence, to settle the land granted him, on 
 the Arkansas, and he was to maintain a small body of horse and foot for 
 their protection. Each of the other grantees was bound to transport a 
 number of settlers, proportioned to the extent of his grant. The company 
 expected by these means, to fulfil the obligation imposed by the charter, 
 to introduce six thousand w'hite persons into the colony. Experience, 
 however, showed that although these large grants facilitated the transpor- 
 tation of settlers, little was obtained from the labors of men, brought over 
 from a distant clime, to cultivate land, the proprietors of which staid 
 l)ehind. 
 
 The first accession of population, which Louisiana received in this 
 manner, consisted of sixty men, led by Dubuisson, to occupy the land 
 granted to Paris Duvernay. They arrived in the month of April. 
 
 In June, three of the company's ships arrived ; Richbourg, a knight of 
 St. Louis, and Grandval, lately appointed major of the fort at Mobile, with 
 a number of subaltern officers, came in these vessels. They were accom- 
 panied by Legas, an under-director, who brought thirty young men, to be 
 employed as clerks, in the offices of the company : seventy settlers of the 
 
128 HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 
 
 grant of de la Houssaie, and sixty of that of de la Houpe, with twelve 
 companies of fifteen settlers, each of lesser grants ; a number of soldiers 
 and convicts, came also at the same time. The addition to the population 
 of the colony by these vessels amounted to upwards of eight hundred 
 persons. 
 
 The Spaniards complained grievously of the occupation of the bay of 
 St. Joseph, as a military post. They had induced one-half of the garrison 
 to desert ; Chateaugue w^as sent to bring back the remainder. The fort, 
 being thus abandoned by the French, w\as immediately after occupied by 
 the Spaniards. 
 
 The former spread themselves widely over Louisiana in the fall. 
 Benard de la Harpe, with sixty settlers, Avent to take possession of his 
 grant, at the Cadodacpiious, up Red river. Bizart was sent with a small 
 detachment to the river Yazous, Avhere he built fort St. Peter, and 
 Boisbriant Avent to take the command at the Illinois. Thus the settlements 
 of the French in Louisiana, acquired the utmost extension from east to 
 west, they ever had, i. e., from fort Toulouse on the Alibamons, to a point 
 on Red river, beyond the present limits of the State. This circumstance 
 w^eakened much" the colony, and was certainly unpropitious to its progress 
 in agriculture. Its commerce was supposed to be favored by pushing the 
 settlements among distant tribes of Indians, and facilitating the collections 
 of furs and peltries. 
 
 A number of soldiers of the garrison of Mobile deserted this winter, and 
 found their way by land, to the settlements of the British in South 
 Carolina. 
 
 A large party of Spaniards from the neighboring provinces came to the 
 Missouri with the view of descending and attacking theFrench at the Illinois. 
 They fell on two towns of the Missouri Indians and routed the inhabitants. 
 Butj those at the mouth of the river, having timely notice of the approach 
 of the foe, collected in vast numbers, attacked and defeated it. They 
 made a great slaughter and tortured to death all the prisoners they took, 
 except two friars. One of these died soon after : the other remained 
 awhile in captivity. He had a fine horse and was very skilful in the 
 management of it : one day as he was amusing the Indians with feats of 
 horsemanship, he applied his spurs to the sides of the animal and effected 
 his escape. 
 
 In the spring, TArchambault, lately appointed director-general of tiie 
 company's concerns, arrived at Mobile wdth upwards of one hundred 
 passengers. 
 
 St. Denys now returned from Mexico. He had left the presidio of St. 
 John the Baptist, with the view of procuring the release of his goods. On 
 his arrival, the Marquis de Valero, who had succeded the Duke of Linarez 
 in the viceroyalty, had flattered him with hopes of success. But Don 
 Martin de Ala'corne, governor of the province of Texas, having heard of 
 the passage of St. Denys through his government, without having seen 
 him, had wTitten to the Marquis, representing St. Denys as a suspicious 
 character, who Avas claiming property that was not his own. Too ready 
 an ear was given to the misrepresentation of Don Martin, and St. Denys 
 was arrested and imprisoned. One month after he obtained from the 
 royal audience a decree for the release of his person and the restitution of 
 his goods. He disposed of them to much advantage; but the person 
 whom he employed for the collection of the proceeds, wasted them. 
 
HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 129 
 
 Exasperated by his misfortune, he vented his rage in abuses of the 
 Spaniards, and in vaunting his influence with the Indians. This 
 indiscretion occasioned an order for his arrest; but some of his wife's 
 rehitions gave him notice of it, and furnished means of escape. 
 
 The only advantage the company derived from his excursion, was the 
 evidence of his fidelity, and some information relating to the Spanish 
 settlements. 
 
 The province of New Leon was thinly peopled, but rich in the gifts of 
 nature. It had large meadows covered with cattle and vast fields highly 
 cultivated, abounding in all kinds of grain and fruit ; Monterey was its 
 capital. Caldereto, Labradores, St. Antonio de Llanos, Linarez and 
 Tesalve, were small open towns. The province had no mine ; but the 
 industry of its inhabitants made them sharers in the profits of their 
 neighbors. '^ 
 
 The Spaniards were seeking to avail themselves of the facility, which 
 the union of the monarchies of France and Spain under princes of the same 
 family, offered of penetrating into the western part of Louisiana. They 
 remembered the bay of St. Bernard and the fort built there by Lasalle : 
 the}^ erected another on its ruins, in which they displayed the flag of 
 Spain. They had called near it some wandering tribes of Indians, who, 
 soon after, attacked by others less pacific, removed their village seventy 
 miles farther westerly. 
 
 The Spaniards next brought over from the Canary Islands, a number of 
 families, who, finding the soil, immediately on the margin of the sea, 
 quite sterile, ascended the river San Antonio, one of those that fall into 
 the bay of St. Bernard, and which, by the help of dykes, is made to cover 
 and fertilize its banks. At the distance of about two hundred miles from 
 the sea, on the border and near the source of this stream, they established 
 the town of San Fernandez. 
 
 Another body, amounting to five hundred of these Islanders, came soon 
 after and proceeded to the northwest. They settled among the Assinais 
 and Abenaquis ; tribes remarkable for the friendly reception they had 
 given to Lasalle. Two friars and a few soldiers had detached themselves 
 from this little colony, to catechise the Adayes, within twenty miles from 
 the Natchitoches, among whom several French were domiciliated. 
 
 The Spaniards called the country they thus usurped from their neighbors, 
 New Phillipine, in honor to the monarch of Spain, and in hope, too, that 
 a name, dear to the French, might lessen the irritation, which the 
 encroachment was calculated to excite. 
 
 Two company ships arrived from France, on the twenty -ninth of April. 
 Serigny and thirty other passengers came in them. This officer was 
 charged with the survey of the coast of Louisiana. He brought the account 
 of the declaration of war by France against Spain, on the ninth of January, 
 in consequence of Philip's refusal to comply with some of the stipulations 
 of the triple alliance. 
 
 In a council of war composed of Bienville, Hubert, L'Archambault, 
 Legas and Serigny, the attack of Pensacola was determined on. 
 
 Bienville, with as many soldiers of the garrison as could be spared, a 
 number of Canadians and four hundred Indians, gathered around the fort, 
 marched by land, while Serigny, with the shipping approached the place 
 by water. Mattamore, the Spanish governor, having but a few soldiers, 
 surrendered it without resistance, asking as an only condition, an 
 
 18 
 
130 HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 
 
 exemption from pillage for the inhabitants, and a passage to the Havana. 
 Two of the company's ships went to Cuba on this service, and Chateaugue, 
 was left in command. 
 
 Experience had shown the great fertility of the land in Louisiana, 
 especially on the banks of the Mississippi, and its aptitude to the culture 
 of tobacco, indigo, cotton and rice ; but the laborers were very few, and 
 many of the new comers had fallen victims to the climate. The survivors 
 found it imi)Ossible to work in the field during the great heats of summer, 
 protracted through a part of the autumn. The necessity of obtaining 
 cultivators from Africa, was apparent ; the company yielding thereto, 
 sent two of its ships to the coast of Africa, from whence they brought five 
 hundred negroes, who were landed at Pensacola. They brought thirty 
 recruits to the garrison. 
 
 A number of soldiers having deserted this year, and it being supposed 
 they had gone to South Carolina, Vauchez de la Tondiere was sent to 
 Charleston to claim them. Governor Johnstone, far from listening to the 
 request of Bienville, sent his messenger to England ; an injustice, which 
 the indiscreet confidence of Bienville by no means justified. 
 
 In violation of the laws of war, the captain-general of the island of Cuba, 
 seized the company's ships, which had entered the port of Havana to land 
 the garrison of Pensacola, pursuant to one of the stipulations of the 
 capitulation. Having manned them with sailors of his nation, and put a 
 small land force on board, he sent them back to retake the place. They 
 appeared before it on the fifth of August. 
 
 L'Archambault was still there ; Chateaugue and he determined on a 
 vigorous defense, in the hope of being soon succored by Bienville and 
 Serigny : but the confusion, which the unexpected approach of the enemy 
 created, and the mutiny of some soldiers, excited by a few Spanish 
 subaltern officers, who had been incautiously suffered to remain, compelled 
 Chateaugue to surrender the next day. 
 
 Serigny, having learnt the arrival of the vSpaniards, was advancing, 
 when he heard of their success. Aware that they would not long remain 
 idle, he hastened to Dauphine Island, and had hardly anchored, when the 
 enemy hove in sight. Don Antonio de la Mandella, the commodore, sent 
 a boat to summon the officer commanding the ship, in which Serigny had 
 advanced, to an immediate surrender ; threatening in case of delay, or 
 injury to the ship, to give no quarters, and even to extend his rigor to 
 Chateaugue and the other French prisoners, taken at Pensacola. Diouis, 
 who commanded the shipping, sent the messenger on shore to Serigny, 
 who received him surrounded by two hundred soldiers, and a greater 
 numljer of Indians ; the latter manifested anxiety and impatience to be 
 permitted to present Serigny with the Spaniard's scalp. He w^as directed 
 to make known to Don Antonio, the determined resolution of the French 
 to defend the shipping and island. Fifty men were sent on board of the 
 shipping to enable them to resist the landing. 
 
 Towards the evening, one of the enemy's ships entered Mobile river, and 
 took a boat with five men and a quantity of provisions ; and on the next 
 day, another boat laden also with provisions, going from Dauphine Island 
 to the fort at Mobile, was captured. 
 
 In the meanwhile, Bienville reached Dauphine Island, with a large body 
 of Indians, and the Spaniards were repulsed in their attempt to land. 
 Nineteen of their men were killed or drowned. Eighteen French deserters 
 
HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 181 
 
 were taken by the Indians : seventeen of them were shot at Mobile, and 
 the other hung on the iskind. 
 
 It appearing impracticable to prevent the enemy from entering Mobile 
 river, it was determined no longer to attempt sending provisions to the 
 fort. Every effort was directed to the protection of the island. The 
 Spaniards did not attempt anything till the eighteenth, when two shii)s 
 Avere discovered coming from Pensacola. They hovered around the island 
 the two following days, and Serigny en:iployed this time in erecting 
 batteries near the places in which a landing was most to be apprehended. 
 On the twenty-first, the enemy approached the western end of the island, 
 and exchanged a few shots with a French ship, supported Ijy a battery. 
 They next moved to Point Guidery, at the eastern end of the settlement. 
 Serigny ordered Trudeau, a Canadian officer, to take as many Indians as 
 he could, and oppose the landing. About one hundred Spaniards came 
 on shore ; but Trudeau, approaching with twelve Indians only, they were 
 so alarmed at the yells and shrieks of those allies of the French, that they 
 retreated in much confusion. Ten of their men were killed or drowned. 
 
 On the next day, the enemy succeeded in effecting a second landing at 
 the same place, but the only advantage it procured was a supply of water, 
 obtained before the force sent by Serigny to drive them back arrived. On 
 the same day the garrison was reinforced by sixty Indians from Mobile ; 
 at night the barracks were consumed by an accidental fire. 
 
 Shots were again exchanged the next morning by a Spanish and a 
 French ship under a battery. The former sailed off on the following day 
 after firing a few broadsides at the houses. The rest of the fleet, 
 departing one after the other, were all out of sight on the twenty-eighth. 
 
 Three ships of the line under the orders of the Count de Cham23meslin, 
 escorting two company ships, hove in sight on the first of September. 
 The garrison were greatly alarmed, mistaking them for a fleet from Vera 
 Cruz, which it had been reported, was coming to prosecute the success of 
 the Spanish arms, and reduce the whole province of Louisiana. 
 
 Villardo, a new director, with two hundred passengers, arrived with 
 Chanipmeslin. 
 
 A council of war was held on board of the Count's ship, in which it was 
 determined to attack Pensacola. Two hundred soldiers were accordingly 
 taken on board of the fleet, and the anchors were weighed on the fifteenth. 
 Bienville set off at the same time from Mobile, by land, with the same 
 number of soldiers and about one hundred Indians ; those on Dauphine 
 Island having gone to the fleet. Having invested the fort, he hoisted a 
 white flag, a signal preconcerted with Chanipmeslin, who immediately 
 brought the naval force into the harbor. The main fort did not fire a 
 single gun ; the small one was defended for a couple of hours. The 
 shipping made a brisk but unsuccessful resistance. The Indians were 
 allowed to pillage the main fort ; but were prevented from scalping any one. 
 
 When the Spanish commodore presented his sword to Chanipmeslin, 
 the latter immediately girt it on him, saying he deserved to wear it. The 
 commander of the land forces was treated in a different manner ; Chanip- 
 meslin ordered a common sailor to receive his sword, and reprimanded 
 the Spaniard for his want of courage ; saying he did not deserve to serve 
 his king. 
 
 The Spaniards lost many men, the French six only. The number of 
 prisoners made was eighteen hundred. 
 
132 HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 
 
 The hope had been entertained that a large supply of provisions and 
 ammunition would have been found in the forts ; but it turned out they 
 had provisions for a fortnight only. The discovery induced Champmeslin 
 to hasten the departure of his prisoners. The officer who carried them 
 to Havana was directed to bring back all the French prisoners there, and 
 in order to insure their return, the field officers lately taken were detained 
 as hostages. 
 
 A brig laden with corn, flour and brandy, sent from Havana to supply 
 the fleet, which was expected from Vera Cruz, entered the harbor of 
 Pensacola on the twenty-eighth, having mistaken the shipping in it for that 
 of her nation. Her captain reported that when he sailed, it was 
 confidently l)elieved in the island of Cuba, that the Spanish flag was flying 
 in every fort of Louisiana. 
 
 Early in Octolier, a brig from Vera Cruz arrived with six hundred sacks of 
 flour, and afterwards a smaller vessel from the same port. They were both 
 deceived by the Spanish flag, which was kept flying over the forts for this 
 purpose. 
 
 The French fleet sailed on the twenty -third ; Delisle, a lieutenant of the 
 king's ships, was left in command at Pensacola. Of forty deserters who 
 were found with the Spaniards, twelve were hung on board of the ships ; 
 the others were condemned to hard labor for the benefit of the company. 
 
 The directors in France having drawn the attention of the king, to the 
 alterations which the new order of things required in the organization of 
 the superior council of Louisiana, this tribunal had been new modelled ; 
 and by an edict of the month of September, it had been ordered that it 
 should be composed of such directors of the company, as might be in the 
 province, the commandant-general, a senior councillor, the king's two 
 lieutenants, three other councillors, an attorney-general and a clerk. 
 
 The quorion was fixed at three members in civil, and five in criminal 
 cases. Those present were authorized to call in some of the most notable 
 inhabitants to form a quorum, in case of the absence or legitimate excuse 
 of the others. Judgments, in original, as in appellate cases, were to be in 
 the last resort and without costs. The sessions w^ere to be monthly. 
 
 Hitherto the council had been the sole tribunal in the colony. The 
 suitors had no other to which they could resort. The increasing extension 
 of the population demanded that judges should be dispersed in the several 
 parts of the province. The directors of the company or its agents in the 
 distant i)arts, with two of the most notable inhabitants of the neighborhood, 
 in civil, and four in criminal cases, were constituted inferior tribunals. 
 Their judgments, though subject to an appeal to the superior council, 
 were carried into immediate but provisional execution, notwithstanding, 
 but without prejudice to the appeal. 
 
 The gentlemen who composed the first superior council under this edict, 
 were Bienville, as commandant-general, Hubert, as senior councillor, 
 Boisbriant and Chateaugue, as the king's lieutenants, L'Archambault, 
 Villardo and Legas, as puisne councillors ; Cartier de Baune was the 
 attorney-general and Couture the clerk. 
 
 Although the commandant-general occupied the first seat in the council 
 the senior councillor performed the functions of president of that tribunal. 
 He collected the votes and pronounced the judgments ; and in provisory 
 instances, as the affixing of seals, inventories and the like, the duties of a 
 judge of the first instance were discharged by him. 
 
HISTORY OF LOUISIAXA. 133 
 
 The hope of acquiring riches, by the discovery of mines, had not yielded 
 to the experience of upwards of twenty years ; and the people of the Illinois 
 thought their country possessed valuable ores, and their time Avas more 
 engrossed by search after them than the tillage of the earth. On their 
 application, an engineer, who was supposed to be skilled in mineralogy, was 
 sent late in the fall to that distant part of the colony. 
 
 The desire of Bienville to remove the seat of government, and the head 
 quarters of the troops, to the spot he had selected on the Mississippi for a 
 city, was opposed by the other military officers, by Hubert and the director.s 
 of the company's concerns. An extraordinary rise of the Mississippi 
 this year seemed to present an insuperable obstacle to his project ; as the 
 colony did not possess the means of raising at once the dykes or levees 
 necessary to protect the place from the inundation of the stream, the idea 
 was for the present abandoned. Hubert thought the chief establishment 
 of the province should be in the country of the Natchez; but, as he had 
 obtained a large grant of land there, his predilection for this part of the 
 country was attributed to private motives, and he found no adherent. 
 L'Archambault, Villardo and Legas, whose views were more commercial 
 than agricultural, joined in the opinion to remove the seat of government 
 to a spot on the sea shore, on the east side of the bay of Biloxi. This 
 opinion prevailed ; and Valdelure led there a detachment to be employed 
 in erecting houses and barracks. The place was afterwards known as the 
 New Biloxi. 
 
 Dutisne, who had been sent to explore the country of the Missouris, 
 Osages and Panoussas, now returned, and made a report to Bienville. 
 
 He had ascended the Mississippi as far as the bayou des Salines, which 
 is six miles from the Kaskaskias, and ninety from the Missouri. He 
 afterwards traveled through stony hills well timbered, crossing several 
 streams which flow into the Missouri. He reckoned there were three 
 hundred and fifty miles from the salines to the principal village of the 
 Osages, which stood on a hill, at the distance of five miles from the river 
 of this name. It contained about one hundred cabins, and nearly double 
 that number of warriors. These Indians spent but a small part of the 
 year in their villages, hunting to a great distance through the woods, 
 during the other part. About one hundi'ed and twenty miles from the 
 Osages, in a prairie country, abounding with buffaloes, he found the first 
 village of the Panionkes, which had one hundred and thirty cabins, and 
 he estimated the number of their warriors at two hundred and fifty. They 
 had another village, nearly .of the same size, about fiur miles further. 
 There were near these two villages above three hundred horses, which 
 these Indians appeared to j^rize much. The Pawonees were at the distance 
 of four hundred and fifty miles. There was a saline of rock salt at about 
 fifty miles from the Panoussas. 
 
 He had noticed mines of lead and ores of other metals, near the villages 
 of the Osages. The villages of the Missouris were at the distance of three 
 hundred and fifty yards from the mouth of the river, which bears their 
 name, and those of the Osages, about ninety miles farther. 
 
 He formally took possession of the countries of these Indians, in the 
 name of the king, and erected posts with arms, in testimonial of it. 
 
 Delochon, a gentleman who had been recommended by the directors 
 for his skill in mineralogy, had been sent to the Marameg, a river that 
 falls into the Mississippi, a little above the Missouri, and on the same side. 
 
134 HISTORY OF LOL'ISIAXA. 
 
 He obtained some ore, at a place pointed out by the Indians, and 
 asserted, that a pound of it had produced two pennyweights of silver. 
 
 On his return to Mobile, he had been sent back with a number of 
 workmen ; and the process being repeated on a very large scale, a few 
 thousand pounds of very inferior lead were obtained^ It was believed he 
 had been guilty of a gross imposition. 
 
 Accounts were received from Europe that the western and the eastern 
 .companies had been united : the aggregate body preserving the name of 
 the former. The new directors sent positive orders to Bienville to remove 
 the headquarters of the colony to Biloxi : an unfortunate step, as the land 
 there is a barren soil, absolutely incapable of culture ; the anchorage 
 unsafe, and the coast of difficult access. 
 
 The directors sent for publication in the province, a proclamation of 
 theirs, notifying the prices, at which goods were to be obtained in the 
 company's stores at Mobile, Dauphine Island and Pensacola. To these 
 prices an advance of five per cent, was to be added on goods delivered at 
 New Orleans, ten at the Natchez, thirteen at the Yazous, twenty at 
 Natchitoches, and fifty at the Illinois and on the Missouri. 
 
 The produce of the country was to be received in the company's ware- 
 houses in New Orleans, Biloxi, Ship Island and Mobile at the following 
 rates : Silk, according to quality, from one dollar and fifty cents to two 
 dollars the pound ; tobacco of the best kind, five dollars the hundred, rice, 
 four, superfine flour, three, wheat, two dollars ; barley and oats, ninety cents 
 the hundred weight ; deer skins, from fifteen to twenty-five ; dressed, 
 without head or tail, thirty ; hides, eight cents the pound. 
 
 In the beginning of the year, de la Harpe arrived from Red river. He 
 had established a post at the Cadodaquious, and explored the country 
 around. 
 
 Having ascended the Red river, as far as the Natchitoches, with fifty 
 men, in two boats and three pirogues, he found Blondel in command at 
 the fort. Father Manual, a friar of the Spanish mission of the Adayes, had 
 come on a visit. On an island near the fort, were about two hundred 
 individuals of the Natchitoches, Dulcinoes and Yatassee tribes. 
 
 Don Martin de Alacorne, governor of the province of Texas, had lately 
 gone to Rio del Norte, after having established several missions, and built 
 a fort on a bay, which he called del Spiritu Santo, near the rivers C4uade- 
 loupe and St. Mark ; and was expected to return and establish a mission 
 at the Cadodaquious. Laharpe, anxious to pre-occupy the ground, left the 
 fort of Nachitoches and ascended Red river to the Nassonites, who dAvelt 
 at the distance of four hundred and fifty miles. The Indians, in these 
 parts, the Cadodaquious and Yatassees. apprised of his approach, had 
 prepared an entertainment, to which they invited him and his officers. 
 Large quantities of smoked beef and fish had been provided. A profound 
 silence prevailed ; the Indians deeming it uncivil to address their guests' 
 till they are perfectly at rest or begin the conversation ; Laharpe waited 
 till his hosts had satisfied their appetites, and then informed them through 
 his interpreter, that the great chief of the French on the Mississippi, of 
 whose mind he was the bearer, apprised of the war the Chickasaws waged 
 against them, had sent him and some other warriors to dwell in their 
 country and protect them against their enemies. 
 
 An old Cadodaquiou now rose and observed the time Avas now come for 
 them to change their mournful mood for scenes of joy ; several of his 
 
HISTORY OF I.OUISIAXA. 135 
 
 countrymen had been killed and others made prisoners, so that his nation 
 was greatly redueed ; but the arrival of the French was abi)ut to prevent 
 its utter destruction. He concluded they should return thanks to the 
 great spirit, whose wrath was no doubt a})peased, and yield every possible 
 assistance to the French, as his nation well knew that the Naoudishes and 
 other wandering tribes had given them peace since the arrival of some of 
 the French, under Lasalle. 
 
 Laharpe, desiring information as to the nearest Spanish settlements, and ' 
 the neighboring tribes of Indians, was apprised that southerly, at the 
 distance of thir'ty miles were the Assinais, and one hundred and twenty 
 miles from these the Nadocoes. The Spaniards had lately sent friars and 
 soldiers among these two tribes, whose villages could not be approached 
 by land, except in the lowest waters ; as a river was to be crossed, which 
 in the wet season, inundated the country to a large extent. At the distance 
 of one hundred and eighty miles, on the left side of the river, were wandering 
 tribes of Indians, who were at war with the Cadays, in the neighborhood 
 of whom the Spaniards had a mission. 
 
 Laharpe purchased the cabin of one of the chiefs, near the river and on 
 the left side of it. The country was flat ; but at the distance of one or two 
 miles from the river, were bluffs, and behind these wide prairies. The 
 soil was black, though sandy, and along the stream very suitable to the 
 cultivation of tobacco, indigo, cotton, corn and other grains. The Indians 
 said they sowed corn in April and gathered it in July. The most common 
 trees were the copalm, willow, elm, red and white oak, laurel and plum. 
 The woods abounded in vines, and the prairies were full of strawberries, 
 cranberries and wild purslain. 
 
 Laharpe employed his men at first in erecting a large and strong 
 blockhouse, in which he was assisted by the Indians. By repeated 
 observations, he found it in latitude 33. 35. and he reckoned it was distant, 
 in a straight way from the fort of Natchitoches, two hundred and fifty 
 miles. 
 
 Don Martin de Alacorne having in the meanwhile returned to the 
 neighborhood, Laharpe dispatched a corporal of his garrison, who spoke 
 the language of several tribes of Indians, with a letter, soliciting Don 
 Martin's friendship and correspondence, and tendering any service in his 
 power ; informing him he had it in charge to seek every opportunity 
 of opening a trade with the Spaniards. Laharpe at the same time addressed 
 Father Marsello, the superior of the missionaries in the province of Texas, 
 begging his friendship, and offering a correspondence, advantageous to 
 the mission — observing, the conversion of the Indians ought to engage 
 the attention of all good christians ; and as some assistance might be 
 useful, in enabling his reverence successfully to preach the gospel in these 
 parts, and enlist the Indians under the banner of the cross, he suggested 
 the father should write to his friends in Mexi<;o and Bocca de Leon, that 
 they would find at Natchitoches and the Nassonites, any kind of European 
 goods they might have occasion for, on very good terms. He concluded 
 by assuring the holy man he would be allowed a handsome commission 
 on any sale effected through his aid. 
 
 By the return of the corporal, Don Martin reciprocated Laharpe's offers 
 of service ; but expressed his surprise at the occupation by the French, 
 of a territory, which he observed made a part of the viceroyalty of Mexico. 
 
136 HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 
 
 He requested Laharpe to make it known to his chief that the necessity of 
 using force to remove the detachment might be averted. 
 
 The father's reply was of a different cast. He wrote that, as the 
 proposed correspondence was tendered on i)rinciples of religion, charity 
 and esteem, he cheerfully accepted it, he would apprise his friends of 
 Laharpe's arrival and views. He added, that, as it did not become the 
 clergy to be concerned in trade, he had to request that the correspondence 
 might be kept secret ; especially as he was not on very good terms with 
 Don Martin, who, he intimated, would probably be soon removed. 
 
 Laharpe expressed to the latter, he Avas astonished at the assertion, that 
 the post, just occupied by the French, was within the government of 
 Mexico, as he and his countrymen had always considered the whole 
 country which the Spaniards called the province of Texas, as part of 
 Louisiana, of which Lasalle had taken possession thirty-six years before. 
 He added, he had never understood till now, that the pretensions of Spain 
 had ever been extended to the east of Rio Bravo ; all the rivers flowing 
 into the Mississippi being the property of France, with all th2 country 
 they watered. 
 
 Inhere was at the distance of thirty miles to the northwest of the spot 
 occupied by the French, a salt spring, from which they obtained four 
 hundred weight of salt. 
 
 A Dulcino Indian, coming from Natchitoches, informed the Nassonitcf* 
 the French were at war with the Spaniards, and the Natchitoches were 
 desirous to be joined by the Nassonites, to assist the French. These 
 Indians replied they would not join in any act of hostility ; bnt they 
 would defend the French if they were attacked. 
 
 Moulet and Durivage, two officers of Laharpe's detachment, having 
 gone on a journey of discovery, met, at the distance of one hundred and 
 eighty miles from" the Nassonites, on Red river, parts of several wandering 
 tribes, by whom they were well received. These Indians had lately 
 destroyed part of the Cansey nation, who had eleven villages on the head 
 of that river, near which the Spaniards had a settlement and worked 
 mines. In high water, the villages were accessible by the river. Presents 
 were made by the two Frenchmen to these Indians, whom they endeavored 
 to induce to remove to the neighborhood of the Nassonites, to settle in 
 villages and plant corn. They were about two thousand — had no 
 permanent residence ; but went out in large parties, erecting huts, in the 
 shape of a dome, and covered with hides. 
 
 On the return of these officers, Laharpe, finding his post had nothing 
 to apprehend, made with two others, half a dozen soldiers and a few 
 Indians, an excursion to the northeast. He loaded eleven horses with 
 goods and provisions, and journeyed to the M^ashitas and Arkansas. He 
 met with a friendly reception from these Indians, and entered into alliance 
 Avith them. He took possession of their country in the name of his 
 sovereign, and in token of it erected posts with the escutcheon of France. 
 Having disposed of his goods on very advantageous terms, he floated 
 down the Arkansas river to the Mississippi, and reached Biloxi through 
 bayou Manchac and the lakes. 
 
 The Chickasaws, excited by the British in South Carolina, began a war 
 against the French colonists. ' The first act of hostililty was the murder 
 of Sorvidal, an officer whom Bien\dlle had sent among these Indians. 
 This circumstance rendered an increase of population quite welcome. A 
 
HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 137 
 
 fleet, commanded by commodore Saugeon, in the month of February, 
 brought live hundred and eight^^-two passengers, among whom were a 
 number of females from the hospital-general of Paris. 
 
 The settlement of the Illinois began to thrive, many families having 
 come thither from Canada ; and Boisbriant, who commanded there, 
 removed its principal establishment to the bank of the Mississippi, 
 twenty-five miles below the Kaskaskia village. 
 
 The company having represented to the king that the planters of 
 Louisiana had been enabled by the introduction of a great number of 
 negroes, to clear and cultivate large tracts of land, and that there had 
 been a great migration of his subjects and foreigners, who had been 
 employed in the tillage of the ground; so that the planters found it no 
 longer their interest to employ vagabonds or convicts ; as these people 
 were idle and dissolute, and less disposed to labor than to corrupt the 
 poorer white inhabitants, the negroes and Indians, the transportation of 
 vagabonds and convicts to Louisiana was forbidden by an arrest of the 
 king's council, of the ninth of May. 
 
 Two line of battle ships came in the latter part of June, from Toulon. 
 They were in great distress ; Caffaro, the commodore, and most of their 
 crews had fallen victims to the plague, which some sailors in these ships 
 who had come from Marseilles, had communicated to the others : that 
 city being ravaged by pestilence, brought there by a ship from Seyde, in 
 the Levant. Father Laval, a Jesuit, royal professor of hydrography in 
 the college of Toulon, had by the king's order, taken passage on board 
 of this fleet, with directions to make astronomical observations in 
 Louisiana. The chaplains of the ships having died, the father, considering 
 science an object of minor consideration to a minister of the altar, thought 
 it his duty to bestow all his time in administering spiritual relief to the 
 sick, who for a long time, were very numerous, and he sailed back with 
 the ships. 
 
 The settlement of Natchitoches was now in a prosperous situation, 
 though Aveakened by the migration of some of the settlers who had gone 
 northerly in the hope of enriching themselves by a trade with the 
 Spaniards. This chimerical hope prevented attention to the culture of 
 the land. Bienville now received the king's order to send St. Denys to 
 command there, and Chateaugue, who had gone to France from Havana, 
 came in these ships with the appointment of king's lieutenant in 
 Louisiana, and succeeded St. Denys in command of the fort at Mobile. 
 He had, on his way back, touched at the Havana from whence he brought 
 the French prisoners taken at Pensncola. - 
 
 One of the company's ships arrived from the coast of Africa, and landed 
 five hundred negroes. 
 
 The ill success which had attended every attempt to work the mines 
 that had been discovered in Louisiana, was attributed to the want of skill 
 in those who had been employed, rather than to the poverty of the ore, 
 and the colonial government received orders to engage Don Antonio, a 
 Spaniard, who had been taken at Pensacola, and said he had worked in 
 the mines of Mexico. The hope of obtaining gold from Louisiana could 
 not be easily abandoned in France ; the Spaniard was sent up at a great 
 expense, but did not succeed better than Lochon. 
 
 In the meanwhile, Bienville exerted himself to induce his red allies to 
 attack the Chickasaws. He met with considerable difficulty. Part of the 
 
138 HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 
 
 Choctaws had been gained by the British : the Alibamons complained 
 that the French allowed them less for their skins than their rivals at 
 Charleston, and sold their goods much dearer. He at last succeeded with 
 the Choctaws, and obtained a promise of neutrality from the Alibamons, 
 and a passage for his men through their country. Pailloux was instructed 
 to secure the aid of the Natchez and Yazous. 
 
 The colony received a very large increase of population during the 
 summer and fall. A company ship brought sixty settlers of the grant of 
 St. Catherine, under the order of Beaumanoir, into the country of the 
 Natchez. They were followed by two hundred and fifty others under the 
 orders of Bouteux. Delonne, Avho had lately been appointed director 
 general, landed at Mobile with a company of infantry, sixty settlers of the 
 grant of Guiche, and one hundred and fifty of that of St. Reine. In 
 another ship, Latour, a brigadier general of engineers and a knight of St. 
 Louis, accompanied by Pauge, led fifty workmen, and Boispinel and 
 Chaville, two officers of the same corps, arrived soon after with two 
 hundred and fifty settlers of the grant of Leblanc and his associates. 
 
 The plan of settling the bay of St. Bernard, on the west of the Mississippi, 
 was still a favorite object in France, and Bienville received by these vessels 
 the instructions of the directors of the company, to begin an establishment 
 there immediately, they expressed their apprehension that his delay might 
 defeat their plans, and the bay be occupied b}^ the Spaniards ; and, lest 
 their injunction might be overlooked, they had procured the king's special 
 order to Bienville for that purpose. This project was viewed in a different 
 light in Louisiana ; the great distance from the other settlements, which 
 were already too spare ; the shallowness of water near the coast, which 
 prevented large vessels from approaching, the barrenness of the country, 
 the difficulty of protecting and even communicating with it, the small 
 means of defense the colonial government had at command, and the thin 
 population of the province, appeared to forbid the extension of settlements 
 to the west of the Mississippi. None of the colonial officers entertained a 
 different opinion. 
 
 The same unanimity did not prevail on a more important question. It 
 was proposed, in a council of war to which the officers of engineers, lately 
 arrived from France, assisted in the month of November, to remove the 
 headquarters to the New Biloxi ; a measure which was adopted, notwith- 
 standing the opposition of Bienville and Hubert. These two administrators 
 did not agree as to the place of removal. 
 
 Bienville objected to an immediate removal. He thought it would 
 occasion considerable damage to the individuals, who had built at the 
 present place, without any prospect of public or private advantage. 
 
 He thought, however, that if a removal was determined upon, New 
 Orleans was the most proper place. 
 
 Hubert disapproved also of a removal. His opinion was, that New 
 Orleans would answer only as a place of deposit ; that the spot on which 
 the city of Natchez now stands, was the most proper site for the capital of 
 the province, and would ere long become its centre. 
 
 He felt so confident, in his hope of being able to induce the directors to 
 adopt his plan, that a few days after, he sailed for France for this purpose ; 
 but he died shortly after his landing. He had obtained the grant of an 
 immense tract on St. Catherine's Creek, on which he had made a large 
 plantation with considerable improvements. This circumstance was some 
 
HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 139 
 
 evidence, that lie considered this part of the province as that which 
 presented the greatest advantage ; but his opponents in the council 
 grounded on it a suggestion that his vote was influenced by private 
 interests. 
 
 Time has shown that Bienville's view of the subject was tlie best. The 
 sand}" coast of Biloxi, distant from fertile land, difficult of approach for 
 vessels of burden, and without a safe anchorage, offered so many disadvan- 
 tages, that it is difficult to surmise, on what ground it became the choice 
 of the majority. It presents nothing to the view, Ijut interminable heaps 
 of sand, interspersed with lagoons, and a growth of scattered stunted shrubs. 
 The city of Natchez, after more than a century^ has not as yet risen bej'ond 
 the rank of a smart village. It wdll in time become the centre of trade, in 
 a circle of a considerable radius ; but distant from the sea four hundred 
 miles, and, if time be the measure of distance, situated in those days 
 further from the Balize than Bourdeaux by water, it could have afforded 
 but little protection to the intermediate places between the sea and the 
 settlements at Biloxi or Mobile. 
 
 Hubert's views were premature by several centuries. Had the French 
 remained in possession of the whole province of Louisiana, with the extent 
 it then had, no doubt, in the course of time, the spot on which the city of 
 Natchez stands might have become the centre of the population of the 
 colony. 
 
 The majority was probably influenced by the commercial agents of the 
 company, who viewed New Biloxi as the spot from which their storekeepers 
 at Biloxi, Pensacola, Ship Island and the old Biloxi might be more 
 conveniently watched . 
 
 Bienville complained that these gentlemen thwarted his views and 
 prevented the comiDany from reaping the benefit from his exertions, which 
 they were calculated to produce. 
 
 A compan}^ ship arrived on the third of January, 1721, wdth three 
 hundred settlers of the grant of Madame Chaumont, on Pascagoula river, 
 and another landed in the following month eighty girls from the 
 Saltpetriere, a house of correction in Paris, with one hundred other 
 passengers. It seems the late order of council, prohibiting the transport- 
 ation of vagabonds and convicts, was not considered as extending to 
 females. 
 
 In their dispatches to Bienville by these ships, the directors expressed 
 their grief at the division which existed between him and their principal 
 agents in Louisiana, by which the affairs of the company had been brought 
 to such a situation, that it would be preferable that the establishment had 
 now to be begun. The report of the unfortunate condition of their 
 concerns had excited great murmurs in France, and the direction was 
 daily reproached for the immense expenses it had incurred : it was 
 charged with having appointed chiefs too careless of the affairs of the 
 company and too careful of their own. That the regent, who was informed 
 of the discredit in which the stock of the company had fallen, so far from 
 keeping the promise he had made of promoting him to the rank of a 
 brigadier and sending him the broad ribbon of the order of St. Louis, 
 would have proceeded against him with severity, if he had not been 
 informed that the company's agents in the colony had thwarted his views ; 
 that the directors flattered themselves, that by sending out new agents, 
 and the new arrangements that were about to be made, the state of things 
 
140 HISTORY OF LOUISIAXA. 
 
 would be changed, and the regent become sensible of his merit ; that his 
 royal highness told them, the king's graces were bestowed on effective 
 services only, and as it was suggested that he (Bienville) might now merit 
 them, it was proper to wait till he might prove himself worthy of them. 
 
 The directors, while they assured Bienville they would foster the regent's 
 good dispositions towards him, did not conceal their disapprobation of the 
 promotion he had made of some non-commissioned officers. They 
 instructed him for the future to exercise the right of suspension only, and 
 leave to them that of removal and appointment. They recommended to 
 him to correspond with the Marquis de Vaudreuil, governor-general of 
 New France, and to exert himself to induce his Indian allies to declare 
 themselves against the Sioux, whom the Foxes had engaged in their 
 interest. 
 
 The fort at Kaskaskias was ordered by the company to be called Fort 
 Chartres ; that of Mobile, Fort Conde, and that of Biloxi, Fort St. Louis. 
 
 Orders were given to Pauger, to make a survey of the bay of Mobile and 
 the entrance of the Mississippi. 
 
 Two hundred German settlers of Law's grant were landed in the month 
 of March at Biloxi, out of twelve hundred who had been recruited. The 
 rest had died before they embarked, or on the passage. They were 
 followed by five hundred negroes from the coast of Africa. This increase 
 of population was rendered less welcome by the great dearth of provisions 
 under which the colony labored. 
 
 Bienville dispatched a vessel to St. Domingo for a supply. He 
 employed for this service, Beranger, who had lately arrived from Havana, 
 where he had conveyed the Spanish hostages. 
 
 There came among the German new comers a female adventurer. She 
 had been attached to the wardrobe of the wife of the Czarowitz Alexius 
 Petrowitz, the only son of Peter the Great. She imposed on the credulity 
 of many persons, but particularly on that of an officer of the garrison of 
 Mobile, (called by Bossu, the Chevalier d'Aubant, and by the king of 
 Prussia, Maldeck) who having seen the princess at St. Petersburg imagined 
 he recognized her features in those of her former servant, and gave credit 
 to the report which prevailed that she was the duke of Wolfenbuttle's 
 daughter, whom the Czarowitz had married, and who, finding herself 
 treated with great cruelty by her husband, caused it to be circulated that 
 she had died while she fled to a distant seat, driven b)^ the blows he had 
 inflicted on her — that the Czarowitz had given orders for her private burial, 
 and she had travelled incog, into France, and had taken passage at 
 L'Orient in one of the company's ships among the German settlers. 
 
 Her story gained credit and the officer married her. After a long 
 residence in Louisiana, she followed him to Paris and the island of 
 Bourbon, where he had a commission of major. Having become a widow 
 in 1754, she returned to Paris with a daughter, and went thence to 
 Brunswick, when her imposture was discovered ; charity was bestowed on 
 her, but she was ordered to leave the country. She died in 1771, at Paris, 
 in great poverty. 
 
 A similar imposition was practiced for a while with considerable success 
 in the southern British provinces a few years before the declaration of their 
 independence. A female, driven for her misconduct from the service of a 
 maid of honor of princess Matilda, sister to George III., was convicted at 
 the Old Bailey and transported to Maryland. She effected her escape 
 
HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 141 
 
 before the expiration of her time, and travelled through Virginia and both 
 the Carolinas, personating the princess and levying contril)ution^; on the 
 credulity of planters and merchants ; and even some of the king's officers. 
 She was at last arrested in Charleston, prosecuted and whipped. 
 
 A company ship had sailed for Louisiana in 1718, with troops and one 
 hundred convicts, and had never been heard of. It was now discovered 
 that, like the fleet of Lasalle, she had missed the Mississipi)i and had been 
 driven to the west. Her commander had mistaken the island of Cuba for 
 that of St. Domingo, and had been compelled to pass through tlie old 
 channel to get into the gulf. He made a large bay, in the twenty-ninth 
 degree of latitude, and discovering he had lost his way wandered for 
 several days. His misfortune was increased by a contagious disease 
 J)reaking out among the convicts. Five of his officers, Bellisle, Allard, 
 Delisle, Legendre and Corlat, thought it less dangerous to land, with 
 l)rovisions for eight days and their arms, than to continue on board. 
 They hoped to meet some Indian who might guide them to the settlements 
 of the French ; they -were disappointed. All, except Bellisle, fell victims 
 to hunger and fatigue : after burying the last of his companions, he 
 wandered for several weeks on the shore, living on shell fish and roots. 
 At last he fell in wdth three Indians who stripped him and led him 
 a prisoner to their village, in which he was detained for eighteen months ; 
 he suffered much from hunger, fatigue and the cruelty of his captors. At 
 last, one of the latter stole a small tin box, in which Bellisle kept his 
 commission and some other papers. It was purchased by an Indian of 
 the Assinais tribe, and accidentally shown to St. Denys, "who prevailed on 
 some of them to go and contract for Bellisle's ransom. He was thus 
 released and found his way to Natchitoches, where after staying a while 
 to recover his strength, he was furnished the means of reaching Biloxi. 
 
 Pauger, having completed the survey of the passes of the Mississippi, 
 returned and made his report to Bienville. He found the bar a deposit 
 of mud, about three hundred feet wide, and about twice that in length. It 
 appeared to him it was occasioned by the current of the river and the 
 flux of the sea which, greatly obstructing the current, caused the river to 
 overflow. He took notice that the stream, being very mudd}^ left on its 
 shores and islands, heaps of timber, covered by annual layers of mud ; the 
 smaller timber filling up the interstices. In this manner, islands and 
 new land along the shore were incessantly formed ; and after a few years, 
 canes and willows began to rise on the crust formed by several layers. 
 He expressed his opinion, that with little trouble, by giving a proper 
 direction to the floating timber, dykes might be formed along one of the 
 channels, and by sinking old vessels, so as to stop the others, the velocity 
 of the water might be increased in the former, and a very great depth 
 obtained in time ; an operation "which he said was now forming in some 
 parts of the passes — one of which he had noticed the preceding year, 
 when he found on it but ten or eleven feet of water, and eight months 
 after, from thirteen to fourteen ; while a bar had extended to the island 
 of the Balize, which was one hundred and eighteen feet in width,. and 
 double that in length with an eminence in the middle, before which gliips 
 might ride in eighteen feet of water. 
 
 In the spring, a Guineaman landed two hundred and ninety negroes, 
 and reported that another had caught fire at the distance of sixty leagues 
 
142 HISTORY OF LOnSIANA. 
 
 from the shore ; part of the crew had saved themselves in the long boat ; 
 the rest perished. 
 
 Accounts were received from the Illinois that a party of three hundred 
 Spaniards had marched from Santa Fe to the upper part of the province, 
 Avhile they expected a fleet would attack it on the shore. Seventy of them 
 only had persevered in the attempt, guided by Padouca Indians, who 
 directed them so northerly that they reached the river of the Canseys, 
 near the Missouri, where they fell among Indians, allies of the French, 
 Avho destroyed them all, except their chief, the swiftness of Avhose horse 
 secured his safety. 
 
 On the fourth of June, two hundred and fifty passengers, chiefly 
 Germans, came in a company ship. Marigny de Mandeville, who had 
 gone to France, where he had obtained the cross of St. Louis and the 
 command of Fort Conde, returned in her, accompanied by d'Arensbourg, 
 a Swedish officer, and three others. 
 
 By this vessel the colonists learnt the failure and sudden departure 
 from France of the celebrated Law. This gave room to the apprehension 
 that the settlement of the province might be abandoned or prosecuted 
 with less vigor. 
 
 Another (.xuineaman landed three hundred negroes a few days after. 
 
 John Law, of Lauriston, in North Britain, was a celebrated financier, 
 who having gained the confidence of the Duke of Orleans, regent of 
 France, settled at Paris ; where, under the auspices of government, he 
 established a bank, with a capital of twelve hundred thousand dollars. 
 Soon after, government became largely interested in it, and it assumed the 
 name of the Royal Bank. The original projector continued at the head 
 of its affairs and, availing himself of the thirst for speculation which its 
 success excited, formed the scheme of a large commercial company to 
 which it was intended to transfer all the privileges, possessions and effects 
 of the foreign trading companies that had been incorporated in France. 
 The royal bank was to be attached to it. The regent gave it letters patent, 
 under the style of the Western Company. From the mighty stream that 
 traverses Louisiana, Law's undertaking was called the Mississippi scheme. 
 The exclusive trade to China and all the East Indies was afterwards 
 granted to the company now called the India Company. Chancellor 
 d'Aguessau opposed the plan with so much earnestness, that the regent 
 took the seals from him and exiled him to his estate. 
 
 The stockholders flattered themselves that the vast quantity of land, 
 and the valuable property the company possessed, would enable it to 
 make profits far exceeding those of the most successful adventurers. 
 Accordingly, the directors declared a dividend of two hundred per cent. 
 The delusion was so complete that the stock rose to sixty times its original 
 cost. The notes of the bank took the place of the paper securities 
 government had issued, and so great was the demand for them, that all 
 the metallic medium was paid into the bank. 
 
CHAPTER X. 
 
 On the fifteentli of July, Duvergier, who had hitely been appointed 
 Director, Ordonnateur, Commandant of the Marine and President of the 
 Council, landed at Pensacola. He brought crosses of St. Louis for 
 Boisbriant, Chateaugue and St. Denys. 
 
 The company more intent on extending than improving its possessions 
 in Louisiana, had determined, notwithstanding the unanimous represen- 
 tations of Bienville and all the colonial officers, to have an establishment 
 on the gulf to the west of the Mississippi. For this purpose Bernard de 
 la Harpe came over with Duvergier, having been appointed commandant 
 and inspector of commerce at the bay of St. Bernard. Masilliere, 
 administrator of the grant of the Marquis de Mezieres, Desmarches, 
 Dudemaine and Duplesne, his associates, accompanied him. 
 
 The arrival of Duvergier with such ample powers gave much uneasiness 
 to Bienville, who while he remained in command, could not brook to be 
 excluded from the presidency of the council. Chateaugue, who had the 
 rank of a captain in the royal navy, thought himself injured by the 
 command of the navy being given to another, and Delorme imagined his 
 pretensions to the office of ordonnateur had been overlooked. 
 
 Three hundred negroes arrived from Africa on the 15th of August. 
 
 The occupation of the bay of St. Bernard, notwithstanding the positive 
 orders of Avhich Laharpe was the bearer, was still viewed in Louisiana as 
 a premature operation attended with a considerable and useless expense, 
 requiring a number of men who could not well be spared, and promising, 
 if any, none but very precarious and distant advantages. The difficulty 
 of protecting and supplying so distant a post, the extreme barrenness of 
 the soil to the extent that had been explored, the ferocity of the Indians 
 in the neighborhood, some of whom were said to be anthropophagi, 
 appeared to present insurmountable obstacles while no probable advantage 
 could be contemplated, but the preservation of the possession, which 
 Lasalle had taken of that part of the country, thirt3^-six years before, in 
 which his life and that of the greatest part of his followers had been 
 sacrificed. Laharpe was now arrived with a commission of which he was 
 impatient to avail himself, and Bienville gave his reluctant assent to the 
 measure. 
 
 Beranger was directed to carry the new commandant and thirty men to 
 the bay; fifteen barrels of flour and as many of meat were spared for 
 their use. 
 
 The weakness of the detachment and the smallness of the supply (both, 
 in the opinion of Laharpe, inadequate) furnished him irrefragable proof 
 that he was starting on an expedition in which the best wishes of Bienville 
 did not attend him. He weighed anchor on the twenty-sixth of August. 
 
 His instructions from the company were to take formal possession of 
 the country, and to set up a post with the arms of France on some 
 conspicuous part of the shore — to build a fort and secure by treaties the 
 amity and good will of as many of the Indian tribes as he could. If he 
 met any Spanish force in the country, he was directed to represent to 
 the commandant that it belonged to the crown of France, by virtue of the 
 possession taken by Lasalle in 1685, and in case he, or any other stranger, 
 insisted on the right of staying, to remove him by force. 
 
144 HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 
 
 The order of the council for the removal of headquarters to Biloxi was 
 now executed, and Bienville, with his staff removed thither, leaving 
 Marignv in command at Fort Conde. 
 
 Since"^the departure of Law from France, the affairs of the company there 
 had fallen into great confusion and disorder, and very little attention was 
 given to the supplies that were needed in Louisiana. None being procured 
 by agriculture, provisions became extremely scarce. To provide against 
 the distress of impending famine, such of the troops as could be spared 
 from the service of the posts, were sent, in small detachments, to Pearl 
 river. Pascagoula and among the Indians, to procure their sul)sistence by 
 fishina; and hunting. Their unskilfulness in this mode of seeking sustenance 
 made h necessary to have recourse to impressment. This measure caused 
 great murmurs among the planters ; but the scarcity of provisions was 
 productive of more dreadful consequences among the soldiers. Twenty-six 
 men, who were in garrison at Fort Toulouse, on the river of the Alibamons, 
 exasperated by hunger and distress, mutinied, and rising against Marchand, 
 their commander, ""marched off with their arms and baggage, in the 
 expectation of finding their way to the back settlements of Carolina. 
 Villemont, the lieutenant, immediately rode to the village and prevailed 
 on the Indians to go and waylay the deserters ; they were overpowered 
 by the savage assailants, but not without great carnage. Sixteen were 
 killed, and two only escaped. The other eight being made prisoners were 
 brought to Fort Louis and soon after executed. 
 
 In'the latter part of September, the colony was, in some measure, relieved 
 by the arrival of a ship from France, with provisions. She brought 
 accounts that the regent had placed the affairs of the company under the 
 direction of three commissioners. They were Ferrand, Faget and Machinet. 
 Laharpe, returned from the bay of St. Bernard on the third of October. 
 He reported he had proceeded three hundred miles westerly from the 
 Mississippi. On the 27th of August he had entered in a bay in latitude 
 29.5. which he took for the one he was sent to. He found, on the bar, at 
 its entrance, eleven feet of water, and having crossed it he sailed westerly ; 
 the sounding gave all along from fifteen to twenty feet. There was a small 
 island at the entrance of the bay. Bellisle, Laharpe's lieutenant, having 
 gone on shore on the 29th, met a party of Indians, about forty in number^ 
 many of whom offered to come on board. He suffered six of them to enter 
 his boat ; others followed in four canoes. They were entertained on board 
 of the vessel, and among other presents a dog, a cock and a few hens- 
 were given them ; they seemed greatly pleased with them. 
 
 On the next day, Bellisle having again landed with a few soldiers, was 
 met by some of these Indians, Avho led him to their village. The French 
 were hospitably received, and made a few presents to their hosts ; and the 
 soldiers, with a view of showing them the effects of gunpowder, made a 
 discharge of their pieces. 
 
 Bellisle visited the Indians again on the next day. He told them the 
 intention of the French, in coming to the bay, Avas to settle and live in 
 friendship with the natives, and afford them protection against their 
 enemies. They replied they Avould communicate this to, and consult their 
 countrymen. 
 
 On the second of September, the Indians continuing to evince great 
 reserve the vessel proceeded farther westerly. Laharpe and Bellisle went 
 several' times ashore, attended by a few soldiers, to view the country, 
 
HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 145 
 
 Mdthout seeing any Indians. Sailing N. W. and N. N. ^^^ for Iayo leagues, 
 they came to an island, at the distance of a musket shot from the main. 
 Here a number of Indians came on board, Avhile man}' others a})pear(.Ml on 
 the shore on horseback, ranged in battle array. This induced Laharpe to 
 forbear landing. The vessel proceeded to another island near the main, 
 and sailing farther on they found a river flowing through a wide prairie. 
 The river was wide, its water excellent and the current slow. 
 
 Sailing along the coast several miles farther, they cast anchor at night 
 l)efore a cluster of cabins. Laharpe and Bellisle going ashore on the next 
 day, were coldly received. The squaws began to yell, striking their sides 
 and screaming horridly. The men asked Laharpe for some goods ; he 
 answered all the goods the French had brought were still on board of their 
 vessel and the men in the boat had come with no other intention than to 
 see the country and pay the inhabitants a friendly visit : they were 
 answered one should not come empty handed among strangers. A 
 vehement debate ensued, which induced the French to apprehend that 
 they w-ould be massacred. The party who were for moderate measures, at 
 last prevailed and the French were presented with some dried meat and 
 roots. 
 
 Laharpe having repeated his intention of settling on the coast, the 
 Indians expressed their absolute disapprobation of it ; urging that they 
 were afraid of the French, notwithstanding he represented to them their 
 opposition would bring down against them the Assinais and other tribes, 
 allies of his nation. They persisted in asserting their fixed determination 
 not to allow him to settle, and their wish that the vessel would depart. 
 
 According to the observation Laharpe made, the shore of the bay 
 extended to the south in a series of hills and prairies, interspersed with 
 well timbered land. In the bottom of the bay he saw a river, the mouth 
 of which appeared to be about one hundred yards wide. 
 
 On the fifth, a number of Indians came on board unarmed. Laharpe 
 was unable to prevail on them to consent to his making a settlement in 
 their country. 
 
 Finding that the number of Indians on the bay was considerable, and 
 that but little dependence could be placed in his soldiers, he united with 
 his lieutenant in the opinion that it would be imprudent to attempt to 
 force himself upon the natives ; but he took the ill judged resolution to carry 
 off a few of them by stratagem, in the hope that the manner in which they 
 would be received at Fort St. Louis and the view^ of the establishment 
 of the French there, might operate on their minds, so as to conquer their 
 obstinacy, and dispose their countrymen to forbear any further opposition 
 to the settlement of the French among them. 
 
 Accordingly, he detained twelve of his visitors, as hostages for some of 
 his men who were sent ashore for water, dismissing the other Indians with 
 presents. He learned from his captives that their nation was at war with 
 the Assinais and the Adayes, and that a number of Spaniards had lately 
 passed through their country with large droves of cattle. 
 
 The Avater being brought, the anchor was weighed and the vessel went 
 into deep water. At night the Indians manifested their uneasiness, and 
 wished to be sent ashore, but were told to wait till the morning. 
 
 At sunrise Laharpe sent nine of them into the cabin and made a few 
 soldiers stand by with fixed bayonets, to prevent any of them to come out. 
 This precaution excited great alarm- among them, and they manifested 
 
146 HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 
 
 their apprehension that their destruction was intended. They were told 
 not to fear anything for themselves or their companions — that they would 
 be carried to the chief of the French, in order that he might learn from 
 them the motives of their people in preventing his warriors from settling 
 among them, after receiving the presents he had sent them — that they 
 would be treated kindly and allowed soon to return. 
 
 The Indians on deck were now furnished with a canoe to reach the 
 shore. Laharpe made them a few presents, and recommended to them 
 not to allow the Spaniards to settle in their country. Immediately on 
 their leaving the vessel, the guard was removed, the Indians in the cabin 
 allowed to come on deck, and a boat was sent on shore to set up a post on 
 a point of land, with a leaden plate on which the arms of France were 
 engraven. 
 
 The Indians on board still imagined they were to be landed ; but on the 
 return of the boat, they discovered their error, and endeavored by various 
 means to induce Laharpe to change his determination ; sometimes telling 
 him. if he kept in, he would run on the shoals ; at other times offering to 
 conduct him to places where good oysters were to be had, or to point out 
 spots in which treasures were hidden. 
 
 According to the information of the Indians, and the judgment of 
 Laharpe, the bay he came from was the one Don Martin de Alacorne 
 discovered in 1718, which he placed in twenty-nine degrees, five minutes, 
 and Avhich he called del Spirit u Santo. 
 
 Bienville highh^ disapproved the conduct of Laharpe in decoying these 
 Indians, and gave orders to carry them back immediately ; but while 
 preparations were making, they escaped and sought their home by land. 
 
 No further attempt to settle the bay of St. Bernard appears ever to have 
 been made by the French. Laharpe was greatly mortified at the aban- 
 donment of the plan. He thought considerable advantages might have 
 been derived from it, as the situation of the bay afforded safe harbors and 
 a great facility to commerce with the Spaniards, and its navigable rivers 
 invited population. The scarcity of provisions, arms and ammunition in 
 the colony, the smallness of its military force, in relation to the many 
 posts to be protected, were considered by the colonial administration as 
 insuperable obstacles. 
 
 On the day after Laharpe's return, Bienville learnt by dispatches from 
 the commissioners, that he was restored in the presidency of the council, 
 and they had resolved that the principal establishment of the colony 
 should be removed to New Orleans. They also directed him to order a 
 survey of the river of the Arkansas, with the view of ascertaining how far 
 it was navigable. It seems the council of the company in France still 
 thought it their interest to extend its possessions in Louisiana, rather 
 than to avail themselves of the advantages the part now occupied 
 presented. They flattered themselves that by pursuing their discoveries 
 to the west, mines of the precious metals might be reached, or a trade 
 with the Spaniards insured. The latter, however, were not inattentive to 
 the views of the French. 
 
 St. Denys, who commanded at the fort of Natchitoches, was apprised 
 by a trader from the Adayes, that the Marquis de Gallo, lately appointed 
 governor of the province of Texas, had come among these Indians, with 
 four hundred horsemen, and about fifty thousand dollars worth of goods ; 
 he had also a large number of wagons loaded with provisions and effects. 
 
HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 147 
 
 He had begun to burn bricks for a fort which he intended to build 
 immediately. The unpleasant information was received at the same time 
 that the Chickasaws had murdered two Canadians. 
 
 In pursuance of the orders of the commissioners, Delorme removed to 
 New Orleans on the first of November. 
 
 Laharpe, finding himself unemployed by the determination of the 
 colonial administrators to suspend the execution of the plan of settling 
 the bay of St. Bernard, offered his services to Bienville for the execution 
 of the orders of the commissioners in regard to the river of the Arkansas. 
 
 Notwithstanding this measure was positively ordered by the commis- 
 sioners, the company's agent opposed it strenuously. Bienville however, 
 considered it as one of vital importance. He was anxious to establish a post 
 in that part of the province, to protect the commerce with the Illinois, 
 and facilitate the introduction of cattle from the Spanish provinces. 
 
 Laharpe was detached with sixteen men for this service. He was 
 directed after having rested his men, at the mouth of the river, to ascend 
 its main branch as high as he could, to take notice of every island and 
 creek, to look for mines, and in case he discovered any to bring some 
 of the ore. In case of any attempt on the part of the Spaniards to effect a 
 settlement on any of these streams, the same instructions were given him, 
 as when he went to the bay of St. Bernard, to insist on the possession, 
 taken by Lasalle in 1678, when he descended the Mississippi. 
 
 In December father Charlevoix reached Louisiana from Canada, by the 
 way of the Illinois. He stopped at the fort of the Yazous, spent the 
 Christmas holidays at the Natchez, and floated down to New Orleans, 
 which he reached on the sixth of January. 
 
 He gave out that he had the king's order to seek a northwest passage to 
 China, and to inquire into the state of the southern province ; but as he 
 produced no official letter, not much credit was given to his assertion. He 
 was however treated, wherever he went, with considerable attention. 
 
 New Orleans, according to his account, consisted at that time of one 
 hundred cabins, placed without much order, a large wooden warehouse, 
 two or three dwelling houses, that would not have adorned a village, and 
 a miserable storehouse, which had been at first occupied as a chapel ; a 
 shed being now used for this purpose. Its population did not exceed two 
 hundred persons. 
 
 The father stopped at the island of the Balize, which had just been 
 formed. He chaunted a high mass on and blessed it, according to the 
 ritual of his church. He gave it the name of Toulouse island, which it 
 does not appear to have long retained. 
 
 The only settlements then begun below the Natchez were those of St. 
 Reine and Madam de Mezieres, a little below Pointe Coupee — that of Diron 
 d'Artaguette, at Baton Rouge — that of Paris near bayou Manchac — that 
 of the Marquis d'Anconis, below Lafourche — that of the Marquis d'Ar- 
 tagnac, at Cannes Brulecs — that of de Meuse a little below, and a plantation 
 of three brothers of the name of Chauvin, lately come from Canada, at the 
 Tchapitoulas. 
 
 Charlevoix reached Fort St. Louis of the Biloxi on the thirty-first of 
 January, and left it on the twenty-fourth of March for Hispaniola. 
 
 Duvergier returned to France in the same month. 
 
 Loubois, a knight of St. Louis, arrived soon after and took the command 
 of Fort St. Louis, and Latour received the commission of lieutenant- 
 
14S HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 
 
 general of tlic })rovince, much to the mortification of Bienville and 
 Chateaugue. 
 
 The Commissioners forwarded for publication a set of rules they had 
 adopted for the management of the company's concerns in Louisiana. 
 They provided that negroes should be sold at six hundred and seventy 
 livres, or one hundred and seventy-six dollars, payable in three annual 
 instalments, in rice or tobacco. 
 
 Rice was received at twelve livres or three dollars the barrel, and tobacco 
 at twenty-six livres or six dollars and fifty cents. 
 
 Wine was sold at twenty-six livres or six dollars and fifty cents the 
 barrel, and l^randy at one hundred and twenty livres or thirty dollars the 
 quarter cask. 
 
 A copper coinage had lately been struck for the use of the king's 
 colonies in America, and ordered to be used in the payment of the troops. 
 It was declared a lawful tender in the company stores. 
 
 The province for civil and military purposes was now divided into nine 
 districts. Alibamons, Mobile, Biloxi, New Orleans, Natchez, the Yazous, 
 the Illinois and Wabash, Arkansas and Natchitoches. A commandant 
 and judge was directed to be appointed in each. 
 
 For religious purposes there were three principal divisions. The first 
 was under the care of the capuchins, and extended from the mouth of the 
 Mississippi to the Illinois. The barefooted carmelites attended to the 
 second, which included the civil districts of Biloxi, Mobile and Alibamons. 
 The Wabash and Illinois formed the last, confided to the Jesuits. 
 Churches and chapels were directed to be built at convenient distances. 
 Before this time in many places large wooden crosses were raised at 
 convenient places, and the people assembled around them, sheltered by 
 trees, to unite in prayer. 
 
 The Chickasaws continued their hostilities : they attacked a Canadian 
 pirogue, descending the Mississippi, near Fort Prudhomme and killed two 
 of the men. 
 
 In the month of May, Fouquet brought to Biloxi the portion of the late 
 copper coinage for the province. 
 
 La Renaudiere, an officer, who had been sent at the head of a brigade 
 of miners by the directors, now led them up the Missouri. Their labor 
 had no other effect than to show how much the company was imposed on 
 and the facility with which the principal agents themselves were induced 
 to employ men without capacity and send them to such a distance and at 
 an enormous expense. 
 
 Since the failure of Law and his departure from France, his grant at the 
 Arkansas had been entirely neglected, and the greatest part of the settlers 
 whom he had transported thither from Germany, finding themselves 
 abandoned and disappointed, came down to New Orleans with the hope 
 of obtaining a passage to some port of France, from which they might be 
 enal)led to return home. The colonial government being unable or 
 unwilling to grant it, small allotments of land were made to them twenty 
 miles above New Orleans, on both sides of the river, on which they settled 
 in 'cottage farms. The Chevalier d'Arensbourg, a Swedish officer, lately 
 arrived, was appointed commandant of the new post. This was the 
 beginning of the settlement known as the German coast, or the parishes 
 of St. Charles and St. John the Baptist. These laborious men supplied 
 the troops and the inhabitants of New Orleans with garden stuff. Loading 
 
HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 149 
 
 their pirogues with the produce of their week's Avork, on Saturday evening, 
 they fioated down the river and were ready to spread at sunrise on the 
 first market that was held on the hanks of the Mississip})i, their supplies 
 of vegetahles, fowls and butter. Returning, at the close of the market, 
 they reached their homes early in the night, and were ready to resume 
 their work at sunrise ; having brought the groceries and other articles 
 needed in the course of the week. 
 
 The island which father Charlevoix had lately blessed and to which he 
 had given the name of Toulouse, having been examined under the orders 
 of Bienville, by Pauger, appeared to be a convenient place for the 
 residence of pilots. To afford the entrance of the river some protection, 
 a ])attery was now raised on it, with barracks, a magazine and chapel, and 
 a small garrison was sent there. 
 
 Laharpe returned from his expedition to the river of the Arkansas, on 
 the 20th of May ; he had reached the Natchez on the seventeenth of 
 January and found Fort Rosalie a heap of rotten timber; Manneval, Avho 
 commanded it, had only eighteen soldiers. He staid but one day with 
 him and met, at the mouth of the river of the Yazous, two Canadian 
 pirogues, loaded with 50,000 lb. weight of salt meat. They had killed 
 eighteen bears about the head point of Point Coupee. 
 
 Laharpe reached, nine miles up Yazou river, a settlement called Fort 
 St. Peter, commanded by de Grave. There were not more than thirty 
 acres of arable land near the fort ; the rest was nothing but stony hills. 
 On digging turf and clay, it was found the water was bad and the place 
 sickly. 
 
 A little above the fort were villages of the Coroas, Offogoulas and Oatsees, 
 Their huts were scattered on small hillocks artificially made in the valley. 
 Their whole population did not exceed two hundred and fifty heads. 
 About one hundred miles to the northeast, were the Chouactas, about 
 forty in number, and still higher the Chachoumas, who numbered about 
 one hundred and fifty. In high water, these villages were inaccessible by 
 land. Nine miles higher were the Outaypes, a very small tribe, and fifteen 
 miles farther the Tapouchas, near the Choctaws. 
 
 Laharpe left the Yazou river, on the fifteenth day of February, and 
 ascending the Mississippi one hundred and sixty-four miles, came to the 
 lower branch of the river of the Arkansas. He found its current extremely 
 rapid, and stopped a little above its mouth, near that of a stream coming 
 from the northwest from the Osages. The large quantity of rock in its 
 bed prevented its navigation. 
 
 The first village was reached on the first of March. It consisted of forty- 
 one cabins and three hundred and twenty persons. Laharpe found here 
 Duboulay, who was there since the month of September ; having been 
 sent thither from the fort of the Yazous, to protect these Indians, and the 
 ))oats from the Illinois, which commonly stopped at this place, to procure 
 provisions. 
 
 The Arkansas were not pleased at the arrival of the French among them 
 nor disposed to afford to their leader any informationof the topography of 
 their country. They saw with pain his preparations to visit and form 
 alliances with the tribes in the west, and exerted themselves to dissuade 
 him from it ; telling him that his party was in great danger of being 
 murdered by the Osages. They refused to accommodate him with a 
 pirogue, although there were upwards of twenty, fastened before the 
 
150 HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 
 
 village, and he found also great difficulty in procuring provisions. He 
 next proceeded to Law's grant ; it lay N. N. W. from the village, on the 
 right side of the river, at the distance of about seven miles. The buildings 
 had been erected about a mile from the water. There remained but 
 forty persons of all ages and sexes ; they had a small clearing sown with 
 wheat. 
 
 On the third he sent to the upper village for provisions. The Indians 
 of it came from the Caenzas a nation who dwelt on the Missouri. This 
 settlement was insulated, and had a population of about four hundred 
 persons. Having obtained what he wanted, he sent five of his men for- 
 ward, directing them to halt on the second day and wait for him. He set 
 off on the next, with the rest, in all twenty-two men, including Prudhomme 
 and four others, whom he had taken at the fort of the Yazous. 
 
 Proceeding the distance of two hundred and thirty miles, he came to a 
 remarkable rock on the left bank of the river, mixed with jaspered marble, 
 forming three steep hillocks, one hundred and sixty-nine feet high. Near 
 it is a quarry of slate, and at its foot a beautiful cascade and basin. The 
 water of the river for the first ninety miles is reddish ; it afterwards becomes 
 so clear as to be potable. 
 
 The party proceeded seventy miles farther; but the current growing 
 extremely rapid and disease prevailing among the soldiers, Laharpe 
 determined to return, much against his inclination ; as, according to his 
 reckoning, he was within three hundred miles of a nation, whom he visited 
 in 1717, while he was stationed at the Cadodaqueous. He saw red and 
 white morillos in abundance. 
 
 After making a chart of the river, for three hundred and fifty miles from 
 the first village, he landed and visited several nations on the west side of 
 the river, and spent some time in exploring the country on the opposite 
 shore. He then descended the river to Law's grant, where a boat had just 
 arrived from New Orleans with provisions. They were so needed that 
 the Germans were making preparations to abandon the settlement. 
 
 In floating down the Mississippi, Laharpe was near being surprised by 
 a party of the Chickasaws. 
 
 Peace had in the meantime been made between France and Spain, and 
 on the thirty-first of May, a Spanish vessel from Vera Cruz landed Don 
 Alexander Wauchop, a captain of the ro^-al navy of Spain, at the Biloxi. 
 He was bearer of dispatches to Bienville from the Marquis de Valero, 
 viceroy of Mexico, enclosing an official copy of the late treaty, which 
 contained a clause for the restoration of Pensacola, of which Don Alex- 
 ander was sent to take possession. 
 
 Father Charlevoix returned on the fourth of June ; the vessel in which 
 he had sailed for St. Domingo having been wrecked on the Martyr islands, 
 on the fourteenth of April. He sailed soon after for the place of hip 
 destination. 
 
 A large party of the Chickasaws attacked, in the month of July, the 
 Indians on Yazou river, near Fort St. Peter, robbed them of their 
 provisions and scalped a sergeant of the garrison and his wife in their 
 own cabin, within a musket shot of the fort. In apprising Bienville of this 
 irruption, de Grave, the commandant of Fort St. Peter, added there were 
 several parties of the hostile Indians hovering in the woods, with a view of 
 surprising the Coroas, Offogoulas and Yazous. These had sent their 
 women and children into the fort. 
 
HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 
 
 The beginning of August, Bienville removed his headquarters to r 
 Orleans. In the latter part of the month he was visited by a depubdion 
 of the Itomapas, a tribe on the western side of the Mississippi, who had 
 stopped in the village of Colapissas, whose chief falling sick during their 
 visit, his countrymen attributed his malady to a spell cast on him by their 
 guests. They followed them to New Orleans, and solicited Bienville's 
 interference, in order to obtain the removal of the spell. 
 
 The company, at home, were still less intent to promote agriculture in 
 the parts of Louisiana occupied by the French, than on the discovery of 
 mines of the precious metals, and the extension of trade with the most 
 remote nations of Indians. Yielding to the representations of Boismont, 
 an officer heretofore attached to the garrison of Fort Chartres of the 
 Illinois, who had made several expeditions up the Missouri, and having 
 gone over had been made a knight of St. Louis, they sent him to New 
 Orleans and directed Bienville to furnish him a detachment, pirogues, 
 arms, ammunition and provision, that he might build a fort and begin a 
 settlement on the banks of that river. He landed early in September, 
 bringing to the colonists, as a spiritual relief, three father capuchins and 
 one lay brother. 
 
 In their dispatches, the commissioners announced to Bienville that the 
 company expected he should consider himself, not only as the commandant 
 general of its forces in Louisiana, but also, principal director of its concerns, 
 and as responsible for their success — that if they prospered, he should 
 have all the credit of it, but, in case of their miscarriage the loss of the 
 regent's favor. 
 
 They inclosed to him a printed copy of a royal proclamation, published 
 on the twenty-first of May, announcing the failure of the bank established 
 by Law. On the following day its notes became absolutely worthless. 
 By its failure an immense number of individuals were ruined, and many 
 rich families reduced to abject poverty. To soothe the general interest, 
 d'Aguesseau was recalled from exile, and the seals were returned to him, 
 About the same time the British nation was gulled, nearly in the same 
 manner, but not to the same extent, by what was called the south sea 
 bubble. 
 
 A number of pirogues having been built, Boismont led his detachment 
 to the Missouri. 
 
 A most destructive hurricane desolated the province on the eleventh of 
 September. The church, hospital, and thirty houses were levelled to the 
 ground in New Orleans ; three vessels that lay before it were driven on 
 shore. The crops above and below were totally destroyed, and many 
 houses of the planters blown down. It prevailed with great violence at the 
 Natchez and Biloxi. Three vessels that were at anchor before the last 
 place, were driven high up on the shore. Famine threatened the colony 
 with its horrors, and the chief dispatched vessels in seach of provisions to 
 Vera Cruz, Havana and St. Domingo. 
 
 Hitherto, apprehension in regard to Indian hostility, had been confined 
 to one quarter, and the Chickasaws alone excited the alarm of the French. 
 Dutisne an officer of the garrison of Fort Rosalie, came to New Orleans in 
 the latter part of the month, with distressing accounts from that quarter. 
 
 A sergeant having quarrelled with an Indian, an affray ensued. The 
 guard at the fort turned out to quell it. They were attacked by a numerous 
 body of Indians, on whom they at last fired, killing one of them and 
 
152 HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 
 
 wounding another. A few days after, Guenot, the director of the gi'ant of St. 
 Catharine, was fired on in the road and wounded ; and on the next, the 
 Indians attacked, and attempted to carry away, a cart loaded with 
 provisions, and guarded by a few soldiers. Hiding themselves under high 
 grass, they fired and killed a negro, and wounded another. A party of 
 eighty of them, a few days after, attacked the settlement ; but were repulsed 
 with the loss of seven men. They had taken two planters, whose heads 
 they had cut off; they also carried away a considerable number of horses, 
 cattle and hogs. 
 
 Two sons of the Natchez were on a visit to Bienville, when Dutisne 
 reached New Orleans. Instead of sending at once a strong force to chastise 
 the offending Indians, presents were made to these chiefs, who promised 
 to go and put a stop to the disorder. 
 
 Disease added, in the fall, its horrors to those of impending dearth ; but 
 the colonists were in some degree relieved by the appearance of an unex- 
 pected crop of rice. The grain scattered by the hurricane had taken root, 
 and promised a comparative abundance. 
 
 The directors who had remained at the Biloxi, now joined Delorme at 
 New Orleans. 
 
 The scarcity of provisions created such distress, that several of the 
 inhabitants seriously thought of abandoning the colony ; and a company 
 of infantry, who had staid behind at the Biloxi being ordered to New 
 Orleans were embarked on board of a schooner ; but, as soon as she sailed, 
 the captain and officers forced her master to sail for Charleston — where 
 they landed with their arms and baggage. 
 
 Renaud, one of the directors of the company's concerns, had gone to 
 the neighborhood of the Missouri, whither he was industriously engaged 
 in a search after mines. In the belief that several existed on the shores 
 of the Mississippi, Missouri, Marameg and the river of the Illinois, he 
 procured from Boisbriant six grants of land on these streams, each three 
 miles in front on the water, with a depth of eighteen. 
 
 The land in Louisiana had appeared very favorable to the culture of 
 indigo ; and measures were taken by the company, at the solicitation of 
 the planters to supply them with seed. 
 
 Laharpe on his return from Pensacola, where he had been to bring back 
 the troops and effects of the company, on the Spaniards taking possession 
 of the place, reported that Wauchop, who remained there in command, 
 had begun a settlement on the island of St. Rose, where his force Avas to 
 stay till he was reinforced by a sufficient number to allow a removal to 
 the main : the island being more easily defensible, the post at the bay of 
 St. Joseph had been abandoned. 
 
 The Spaniards being badly supplied with provisions, Wauchop made 
 application to the French for flour ; intimating that, if he could be 
 accommodated, he would send for it to New Orleans, and probably 
 improve the op])ortunity of paying his respects to Bienville there, as he 
 was authorized by the viceroy to receive the arms taken at Pensacola ; for 
 the restoration of which a clause had been inserted in the late treaty. 
 The council advised Bienville to decline the honor of the intended visit : 
 it being thought imprudent to allow the governor of Pensacola to 
 reconnoitre the passes of the Mississippi, while they were unguarded by 
 any fort, or to become acquainted with the state of the forces of the 
 
HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 153 
 
 colony. The flour was accordingly sent to Mobile where Wauchop was 
 requested to send and receive it. 
 
 While the Spaniards were thus resuming possession of Pensacola in the 
 east, they were reinforcing their garrisons of the west, in the scattered 
 posts of the province of Texas. St. Denys, in a letter from Natchitoches 
 of the sixteenth of January, informed Bienville the Marquis de Gallo 
 had lately received five hundred soldiers. 
 
 On the other hand, accounts were received that the Chickasaws had 
 lately been defeated in a pitched battle by the Choctaws, in which the 
 former had sustained a loss of four hundred men. 
 
 The distresses that had followed in France the failure of Law's scheme, 
 were now most heavily felt. Louisiana deeply participated in them, and 
 the French cabinet thought of no better plan of affording relief to the 
 colonists than an alteration of the value of money. 
 
 The first attempt was by a rise at the rate of eighty-seven and a half 
 per cent. The dollar of Mexico was the only silver coin in circulation in 
 the province ; its value was accordingly raised from four livres, at which 
 it was then received in payment to seven and a half; so that the creditor 
 of a sum of four thousand livres, or one thousand dollars before the edict 
 which bears date the twelth of January, 1723, was compelled to accept in 
 discharge five hundred and thirty dollars and a third. 
 
 Matters remained thus during one year. Experience showed the 
 measure adopted was not the right one. As a rise had proved disastrous, 
 it was thought a fall or reduction would have the contrary effect. But, 
 as in the natural body, disease comes on rapidly, and the cure i)roceeds 
 slowly, it was thought best that the healing of the political should be 
 gradually effected. Accordingly, by an edict of the twenty-sixth of 
 February, in the following year, a reduction of six and two-thirds per 
 cent, was ordered, and the value of the dollar was brought down from 
 seven and a half to seven livres. Thus, the creditor of a sum of four 
 thousand livres before the rise, who had not been tendered after it, five 
 hundred and thirty-three dollars and a third, was now permitted to 
 demand five hundred and sixty-two dollars and eighty-seven cents and a 
 half. 
 
 But, this small and tardy relief was paid for by those who had 
 contracted between the publications of the two edicts. He who, on the 
 twenty-fifth of February, had made a note for seven thousand five hundred 
 livres, which could be discharged by the payment of one thousand dollars, 
 was, after the publication of the last edict, compelled to pay an advance 
 of seventy dollars and upwards. 
 
 What was intended for, and was called a healing process, was the 
 administration of poison in lieu of a remedy ; the doses were not strong, 
 but came in rapid succession. Within sixty days, on the second of May, 
 a new edict proclaimed a further reduction of twenty per cent. ; the value 
 of the dollar being lowered to five livres and twelve sous. 
 
 Within six months, a farther reduction of twenty per cent, was operated ; 
 and the value of the dollar was reduced by an edict of the thirtieth of 
 October, to four livres and a half. Thus, within less than ten months, 
 was the money raised in its value eighty-seven and a half per cent, and 
 gradually reduced to its original rate. 
 
 Public and private distresses are curable by the same remedies only : 
 
 121 
 
154 HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 
 
 for the former is only the accumulation of the latter. A violent medicine 
 often injures the natural, so do violent measures the political body. 
 
 Indolence, improvidence and extravagance, at times, occasion private 
 distress, and this the public. Industry, economy and order alone can 
 relieve the first ; and if the latter be curable by the same means only, it is 
 vain to resort to alterations in the value of money, a paper currency, or 
 tender laws — indeed to any such artificial remedies. Loans are palliatives 
 only, and frequently injurious ones. They may, for a moment, mitigate 
 the' effect of the disease ; Init they foment the cause, which should be 
 removed, if a radical cure be intended. If the extravagant, the improvident 
 and the idle be indulged, there can be but little hope of their becoming 
 economical, jjrovident and laborious. 
 
 The compan}'', with the view of providing for the spiritual wants of the 
 upper i^art of the province, in which clergymen were most wanted, entered 
 into arrangements with the order of the Jesuits, by which curates and 
 missionaries were obtained. Persons professing any other religion than 
 the catholic, were not treated with equal charity, and the spirit of intol- 
 erance dictated an edict, in the month of March, by which the exercise of 
 any other religion was prohibited in Louisiana, and Jews were directed to 
 be expelled from it, as enemies of the Christian name. A black code for 
 the government of the slaves was given to the colony this year. 
 
 Gross infidelities having been committed in the transmission of letters 
 and packets in Louisiana, the king, by an edict of this summer, denounced 
 against persons, intercepting letters and packets in the colony, or opening 
 them and disclosing their contents, a fine of five hundred livres, and the 
 offender, if holding the king's commission was to be cashiered, otherwise 
 put in the pillory. 
 
 The colonists considered the preservation of horses and cattle as an 
 object of primary importance; and the superior council had framed 
 regulations for this purpose, as well as for the propagation of these animals. 
 The}'^ had proved ineffectual : the interposition of the royal authority had 
 been solicited, and by an edict of the twenty-second of May, the punish- 
 ment of death was denounced against any person killing or wounding 
 another's horses and cattle. The killing of one's own cow or ewe, or the 
 female young of these animals, was punished by a fine of three hundred 
 livres. 
 
 This was a most flagrant instance of the abuse of the punishment of 
 death. It is inflicted for the wounding of an animal ; neither does the 
 legislator stop to distinguish between the most deadly stroke and the 
 slightest solution of contiguity. 
 
 In no period, in the annals of Louisiana, does the province appear to 
 have engrossed so much legislative attention. Louis the fifteenth had 
 some time in the preceding year, reached his thirteenth, declared himself 
 of age, and assumed the government of his dominions. Happy the 
 country when legislation is never confided to a boy ; happier that, in 
 which it is only trusted to representatives chosen by the people, and for a 
 very limited period. 
 
 Lachaise and Perrault, lately appointed commissioners to examine and 
 make a report concerning the agents and clerks of the company in 
 Louisiana, reached New Orleans in the fall, with two capuchins. Lachaise 
 was a nephew of father Francois de la Chaise, an eminent Jesuit, who, 
 being confessor to Louis the fourteenth, had the firmness to withhold 
 
HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 155 
 
 absolution from his royal penitent till he abandoned or married the 
 celebrated madame de Maintenon. 
 
 Philip the fifth of Spain gave to the world the rare spectacle of a 
 monarch relinquishing and reassuming a crown within one year. A prey 
 to superstition, melancholy and suspicion, he imitated Charles the first ; 
 abdicated the throne in favor of Louis, his eldest son, and retired into a 
 cloister. The new king dying a few months after, from the small pox, the 
 royal monk threw ofi'the cowl, with the same facility as he had the diadem, 
 and leaving in the convent his superstition, suspicions and melancholy, 
 with renovated vigor, successfully directed the destinies of Spain during a 
 second reign. 
 
 The superior council now held its sessions in New Orleans, presided over 
 by Lachaise, who had succeeded Duvergier as ordonnateur. Brusle, Perry, 
 Fazende and Fleuriau had lately been called to seats in that tribunal. 
 Fleuriau had succeeded Cartier de la Beaune in the office of attorney 
 general, and Rossart Avas clerk of that tribunal. 
 
 With the view of providing for a speedy determination of small suits, 
 an edict of the month of December, 1725, directed that independently of the 
 monthly sessions of the council, particular ones should be holden, once 
 or twice a week, by two of its members, chosen and removable by it, to 
 try causes in which the value of the matter in dispute did not exceed one 
 hundred livres, or about twenty-two dollars. 
 
 The provision lately made for clergymen having proven insufficient for 
 the wants of the colony, and the bishop of Quebec, within whose diocese 
 it was, finding it inconvenient to send the necessary number of curates 
 and missionaries to the upper district, the company entered into a new 
 treaty with the Jesuits, on the twentieth of February, 1726. 
 
 By this, that of 1724 was annulled. Father Beaubois, the superior of 
 the missionaries, who had come over in that year, was allowed eighteen 
 hundred livres for his services, and a gratification of three thousand livres 
 was divided between his associates for their past services. 
 
 The Jesuits engaged to keep constantly, at least fourteen priests of their 
 order in the colony, viz : a curate and missionary at Kaskaskias ; a 
 missionary in the village of the Brochigomas ; a chaplain and missionary 
 at the fort on the Wabash ; a missionary at the Arkansas ; a chaplain and 
 missionary at fort St. Peter, among the Yazous ; another missionary there, 
 whose duty it was to endeavor to penetrate into the country of the 
 Chickasaws, to propagate the Catholic religion, and promote union between 
 these Indians and the French ; two missionaries at the Alibamons, one of 
 whom was to preach the gospel to the Choctaws. These locations were 
 not to be altered without the governor's consent. 
 
 Father Petit, the superior of the Jesuits in the province, was permitted 
 to reside in New Orleans, but not to perform any ecclesiastical functions 
 there, without the license of the superior of the Capuchins. The company 
 engaged to furnish him with a chapel, vestry room, and a house and lot 
 for his accommodalion, that of a missionary, and the temporary use of 
 such priests of his order as might arrive in New Orleans. 
 
 The order was to have a grant of land of ten arpents in front on the 
 Mississippi, with the ordinary depth, and negroes, on the same terms as the 
 planters. 
 
 The Jesuits were to be conveyed to Louisiana at the expense of the 
 company, and a yearly salary of six hundred livres, one hundred and 
 
156 HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 
 
 thirty-tliree dollars and thirty-three cents, was to be paid to each, with an 
 addition of two hundred livres, forty-four dollars and forty-four cents, 
 during each of the first five years ; every missionary was to have an outfit 
 of four hundred and fifty livres, or one hundred dollars and a chapel. 
 
 ]Money or goods were furnished at each mission for building a church 
 and presbytery. 
 
 Jesuit lay brothers were to receive their passage, and a gratification of 
 one hundred and fifty livres, thirty-three dollars and thirty-three cents, 
 but no salary. 
 
 The churches and presbyteries, built at Kaskaskias and the village of 
 the Michigourras, were given to the order. 
 
 The treaty received the king's approbation on the seventeenth of August. 
 
 Similar arrangements were made with the Capuchins, those with the 
 Carmelites having been annulled. 
 
 All the lower part of the province was put under the ecclesiastical care 
 of the Capuchins. Father Bruno, their superior in Louisiana, received the 
 appointment of vicar-general of the bishop of Quebec. A convent was built 
 for them in New Orleans, on the square, immediately below the church. 
 The superior, aided by two monks as his vicars, acted as curate of the 
 parish ; a third was chaplain to the military force in New Orleans, and 
 another at the Balize. Curates were stationed at Mobile and Biloxi, the 
 German coast and Natchitoches. 
 
 For the purpose of providing for the education of young girls and the 
 care of the hospital, the company entered into an agreement with sisters 
 Marie Francoise Tranchepain St. Augustine and Mary Ann Le Boulanger, 
 St. Angelique, Ursuline nuns of the convent of Rouen, on the thirteenth 
 of September, by which these ladies, assisted by mother Catherine 
 Bruscoli of St. Amand, undertook to pass over to Louisiana with several 
 other nuns of their order. The company engaged to provide for the 
 wants of the hospital, and the subsistence and maintenance of the nuns. 
 The king gave his assent to this arrangement on the eighteenth of August. 
 
 During the fall, Perrier, a lieutenant of the king's ships, having been 
 appointed commandant general of Louisiana, reached New Orleans, and 
 shortly after Bienville sailed for France. We have seen that in 1698 he 
 came over at the age of eighteen, with Iberville, his brother ; he was then 
 a midshipman ; and four years after he succeeded Sauvolle, another 
 brother, in the chief command of the province, which with little 
 interruption he exercised till this period. 
 
 George the first, of great Britain, died on the eleventh of June, 1727, in 
 his sixty-seventh year, and was succeeded by George the second, his 
 eldest son. 
 
 The Jesuits and Ursuline nuns arrived this summer in a company ship. 
 The fathers were placed on a tract of land immediately above the city, 
 which is now the lowest part of the suburb St. Mary. A house and chapel 
 were erected on it for their use. They improved the front of their land 
 by a plantation of the myrtle wax-shrub. The nuns were for the present 
 lodged in town, in a house on the northern corner of Chartres and 
 Bienville streets, but the company soon after laid the foundation of a" very 
 large edifice for a nunnery, in the lowest square on the levee. The ladies 
 removed to it in the latter part of 1730, and occupied it until 1824. It 
 was till the construction of the new convent the largest house in 
 Louisiana. A military hospital was built near it. 
 
HISTOKY OF LOUISIANA. 167 
 
 A gos'crnment house was erected immediately below the })lantati()n of 
 the Jesuits, and two very long warehouses were built in the two s(iuares 
 below the chui-ch, on the levee ; one of them was nearly consumed l)y fire 
 in 1818, the other is now occupied by the United States. This building 
 and the old convent are probably the two oldest edifices in the state. 
 
 Barracks were built on each side of the j^lace cVanncs, the square fronting 
 the cathedral. A house for the sessions of the superior council and a jail, 
 were built on the square immediately above the church. 
 
 The land on which the city stands, till protected by a levee, was subject 
 to annual inundations, and a perfect quagmire. The waters of the 
 Mississippi and those of the lakes met, at a high ridge formed by them, 
 midway between the bayou St. John and New Orleans, called the highland 
 of the lepers. To drain the city a wide ditch was dug in Bourbon street, 
 the third from and parallel to the river ; each lot -Q^as surrounded by a 
 small one, which was in course of time filled up, except the part fronting 
 the street, so that every square instead of every lot, was ditched in. In 
 thisjA'ay a conv-enient space was drained. 
 
 In the beginning of the winter, a company ship brought a number of 
 poor girls shipped by the company. They had not been taken, as those 
 whom it had transported before, in the houses of correction of Paris. It 
 had supplied each of them with a small box, cassette, containing a few 
 articles of clothing. From this circumstance, and to distinguish them 
 from those who had preceded them, they were called the girls cle la cassette. 
 Till they could be disposed of in marriage, they remained under the care 
 of the nuns. 
 
 To the culture of rice and tobacco, that of indigo was now added ; the 
 fig tree had been introduced from Provence, and the orange from 
 Hispaniola. A considerable number of negroes had been introduced, and 
 land, which hitherta had been considered as of but little value, began 
 to be regarded as of great relative importance. Much attention had not 
 been paid to securing titles ; much less to a compliance with the terms on 
 which they had been granted. This began to create confusion, and 
 confusion litigation : for the purpose of stopping this evil, in its beginning, 
 the king's council published an edict on the tenth of August JJ28, 
 
 All orders of the directors of the company in France, issued to those in 
 Louisiana, before the last of December, 1723, not presented to the latter 
 and followed by possession and the required improvement, were annulled. 
 
 Landholders were required to exhibit their titles, and to make a 
 declaration of the quantity of land claimed and improved by them, to the 
 senior member of the superior council, within a limited time, under the 
 penalty of a fine of two hundred dollars, and in case of continued neglect, 
 to comply with these requisites, the land was to be resumed and granted 
 to others. 
 
 Grants of more than twenty arpents in front, on either side of the 
 Mississippi, below bayou Manshac, were to be reduced to that front, except 
 in cases, in which the Avhole front had been improved ; it was thought 
 necessary to have a denser population above and below the city, for its 
 better protection and security. 
 
 Lands, therefore granted, were required to be improved, by one-third of 
 the quantity in front being put in a state to be ploughed and cultivated ; 
 but the two chief officers of the colony were authorized, on application, to 
 
158 HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 
 
 make exceptions in favor of such landholders who having large herds of 
 cattle, kept their land in pasture. 
 
 The depth of every grant was fixed at between twenty and one hundred 
 arpcnts, according to its situation. 
 
 The company, as lords of all the land in the province, were authorized to 
 levy a quit rent of a sou (a cent) on every arpent, cultivated or not, and 
 five livres on every negro, to enable it to build churches, glebes and 
 hospitals. 
 
 Grantees were restrained from aliening their land until they had made 
 the requisite improvements. 
 
 Hunting and fishing were permitted ; provided no damage was done to 
 plantations and enclosures, and no exclusive right thereto was to be 
 granted. 
 
 The company were empowered to grant the right of patronage, to 
 persons binding themselves to build and endow ohurches. 
 
 At the departure of Bienville, the colony had made very rapid strides, 
 and reached, in comparison to preceding years, a very high degree of 
 relative prosperity. During the short space of eleven years, since it passed 
 under the care of the company, agriculture had engaged the attention of 
 European capitalists ; eighteen hundred negroes had been introduced from 
 Africa, and twenty-five hundred redemptioners brought over ; the military 
 force was increased to upwards of eight hundred men. But the moment 
 was approaching when Louisiana was to receive a very severe check, 
 which was to cause her to retrograde, as fast as she had advanced. In the 
 concerns of communities, as in those of individuals, the tide of prosperity 
 does not always floAV uninterruptedly ; adversity often causes it to ebb, 
 and a change of fortune is often experienced, at the moment a reverse 
 appears less to be dreaded. 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 The Chickasaws instigated, as French writers urge, by the English of 
 Carolina, now meditated the total ruin of Louisiana, and the destruction 
 of every white individual in it. They had carefully concealed their design 
 from the Illinois, the Arkansas and the Tunicas, whose attachment to the 
 French they knew to be unshakeable. All the other tribes had been 
 engaged in the plot. Each was to fall on the settlement of the French 
 designated to it, and the attacks were to be simultaneous. Even the 
 Choctaws, the most numerous nation in the neighborhood and that on 
 whom the French placed the greatest reliance, had been gained though 
 partially only. 
 
 Their villages were divided into two distinct tJettlements. The eastern 
 or the great, and western or the little nation. The former had refused 
 to join in the conspiracy ; but they kept it secret, till it would have been 
 too late to have Avurded off the blow, if it had been struck at the time. 
 
 Perrier was informed that these Indians had some misunderstanding 
 with Diron d'Artaguette (the son of the former commissary ordonnateur) 
 successor, in the command of Fort Conde of Marigny de Mandeville, who 
 had died during the preceding year, after having received the appointment 
 
HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 159 
 
 of Major General of the troops. He therefore desired the attendance of the 
 head men of every viUage of both nations, at New Orleans. 
 
 In this interview, he succeeded in removing all grounds of complaint. 
 The head men of the western villages left him determined to break the 
 promise they had given to the Chickasaws to fall on the settlement of 
 Mobile, but equally so to deceive him and have the part, that had l)een 
 cast off to them in the dire tragedy, performed by the Natchez, in the hope 
 of reaping a double advantage from the French, for their assistance ; in 
 the pillage made on, and the prisoners taken from the Natchez, whose 
 discomfiture they considered as certain. 
 
 Perrier had been sensible, from his arrival in the colony, of the necessity 
 ot strengthening distant posts. The province had indeed many forts ; but 
 none of any importance, except that of Mobile. The others were heaps of 
 rotten timber, and hardly one of them was garrisoned by more than twenty 
 men. He had frequently represented his dangerous situation to the 
 company and solicited a reinforcement of two or three hundred men. His 
 fears had been considered as chimerical. It was thought he desired only 
 to increase his command, or sought to embroil the colony in war, in order 
 to display his skill in terminating it. 
 
 In the meanwhile, the execution of the plan of the Chickasaws had 
 been abandoned or delayed. Perhaps they had discovered symptoms of 
 defection, in the behavior of the Choctaws. The indiscretion and ill 
 conduct of Chepar, who commanded at Fort Rosalie in the country of the 
 Natchez, induced these Indians to become principals, instead of auxiliaries 
 in the havoc. 
 
 This officer, coveting a tract of land in the possession of one of the chiefs, 
 had used menaces to induce him to surrender it, and unable to intimidate 
 the sturdy Indian, had resorted to violence. The nation to whom the 
 commandant's conduct had rendered him obnoxious, took part with its 
 injured member — and revenge was determined on. The suns sat in council 
 to devise means of annoyance, and determined not to confine chastisement 
 to the offender ; but having secured the co-operation of all the tribes hostile 
 to the French, to effect the total overthrow of the settlement, murder all 
 white men in it, and reduce the women and children to slavery. Messengers 
 were accordingly sent to all the villages of the Natchez and the tribes in 
 their alliance, to induce them to get themselves ready and come on a given 
 day to begin the slaughter. For this purpose, bundles of an equal number 
 of sticks were prepared and sent to every village with directions to take 
 out a stick every day, after that of the new moon, and the attack was to 
 be on that, on which the last stick was taken out. 
 
 This matter was kept a profound secret among the chiefs and the Indians 
 employed by them, and particular care was taken to conceal it from the 
 women. One of the female suns, however, soon discovered that a 
 momentous measure, of which she was not informed, was on foot. Leading 
 one of her sons to a distant and retired spot, in the woods, she upbraided 
 him with his want of confidence in his mother, and artfully drew from 
 him the details of the intended attack. The bundle of sticks for her village 
 had been deposited in the temple, and to the keeper of it, the care had 
 been entrusted of taking out a stick daily. Having from her rank access 
 to the fane at all times, she secretly, and at difiFerent moments, detached 
 one or two sticks and then threw them into the sacred fire. Unsatisfied 
 with this, she gave notice of the impending danger to an officer of the 
 
160 HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 
 
 garrison, in whom she placed confidence. But the information was either 
 disbelieved or disregarded. 
 
 An accidental circumstance concurred to destroy the intended concert, 
 by hastening the attack without preventing its success. In the latter part 
 of November, 1729, several boats reached the landing from New Orleans, 
 loaded with a considerable quantity of goods, provisions and ammunition . 
 Deceived by the artifice of the female sun, or tempted by the arrival of the 
 boat, the Natchez in the neighborhood determined on a sudden attack, 
 before the day that had been designated. 
 
 For this purpose, a number of them equal to that of the French in the 
 fort and on the two grants, went into these places, while another party 
 pretending th:^y were preparing for a great hunting expedition, asked the 
 loan of a few pieces and offered to pay for some powder and shot. They 
 bartered, in this way, a quantity of corn and fowls. A supply being thus 
 obtained, the attack was begun at nine o'clock, each Indian among the 
 French falling on his man. Before noon, upwards of two hundred of the 
 latter were massacred, ninety-two women and one hundred and fifty-five 
 children were made prisoners. 
 
 The principal persons who then fell were Chepar, the commandant, 
 Laloire, the principal agent of the company in the post, Kollys father and 
 son, who having purchased Hubert's grant, on St. Catharine Creek, had 
 just arrived to take possession of it, Bailly, Cordere, Desnoyers, Longpre, 
 and father Poisson, the Jesuit, missionary of the Yazous, who was 
 accidentally there. Two white men only were spared ; a carpenter and a 
 tailor — the Indians imagining they might be useful. No injury was done 
 to any negro. 
 
 During the massacre, the great sun with apparent unconcern, smoked 
 his pipe, in the company's warehouse. His men bringing the heads of the 
 officers, placed that of Chepar near him, and those of the rest around it. 
 Their bodies and those of the other Frenchmen were left, the prey of 
 vermin and buzzards. 
 
 The savage foe ripped open the bellies of pregnant women, and killed 
 those who had young children, whose cries importuned them. 
 
 As soon as the Great Sun was informed there did not remain a white 
 man alive, except the carpenter and tailor, he ordered the pillage to begin. 
 The warehouse, fort, dwelling houses and the boats were ransacked ; the 
 negroes being employed in bringing out the plunder. It was immediately 
 divided, except the arms and ammunitions which were kept for public use. 
 
 As long as the liquor lasted, the nights were spent in gambols and 
 carousing, and the days in barbarous and indecent insults on the mangled 
 bodies of the victims. 
 
 Two soldiers who were accidentally in the woods during the tragedy, 
 heard of it on their way back, and set ofF by land to carry the sad tidings 
 of it to New Orleans. Perishing Avith hunger, fatigue and cold, they 
 approached late at night, during a heavy rain, a cabin, from which their 
 ears were saluted Avith the yells of Indians; they determined on entering 
 it, rather than to remain exposed during the rest of the night to the 
 pelting tempest, and were agreeably surprised to find themselves with a 
 party of Yazous, returning from a friendly visit to the Oumas. 
 
 They Avere supplied Avith a pirogue, blankets and provisions and 
 requested to assure Perrier the Yazous Avould ever remain steadfast in their 
 
HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. IGl 
 
 friendship for the French, that they woiikl proceed up the river and warn 
 every white man they should meet of the impending danger. 
 
 This humane disposition, however, vanished when on their reaching 
 the Natchez, presents were made them of a part of the spoil. They 
 sufiered themselves to he prevailed on to imitate the latter. 
 
 Father Soulet, the missionary of the Natchez, was returning from an 
 excursion in the woods, when he was shot near his cabin. His negro 
 attempted to prevent the pillage of his goods ; but the Indians immediately 
 dispatched him. 
 
 They proceeded, on the next day, to Fort St. Peter, of the Yazous. 
 There were but fourteen men in it under the orders of the Chevalier des 
 Roches. They were massacred with their chief. Two women and five 
 children were carried into slavery. 
 
 Some of the Indians had put on the chaplain's clothes and even ♦he 
 sacerdotal vestments. These headed their countrymen back to the village 
 of the Natchez, who soon discovered from the fiintastic dress and gestures 
 of the Yazous, that they had imitated their example and destroyed ever}- 
 white man among them. 
 
 Father Doutrelau, the missionary of the Arkansas, availing himself of 
 the leisure of the hunting season, to make a trip to New Orleans, was 
 descending the river having left his mission on new year's day. He 
 intended to stop and say mass at father Soulet's, of whose death he was 
 ignorant ; ^but being unable to arrive in time, he had stopped at the mouth 
 of the little river of the Yazous, and begun his arrangements for the 
 celebrating of the holy mysteries. He was dressing his altar when a 
 pirogue full of Indians approached. On being hailed they answered they 
 were Yazous and friends of the French. They came ashore and shook 
 hands with the hol,y man and his companions. A flock of ducks passing 
 over, the father's fellow travellers fired at them without taking the 
 precaution of reloading their pieces ; this imprudence did not escape the 
 attention of the Indians, who placed themselves behind them, as if 
 intending to join in their devotions. The first psalm was hardly finished 
 before a discharge of the pieces of the Indians wounded the father in the 
 arm, and killed one of the men who were waiting on him. The other 
 Frenchmen, seeing their companion dead and the father wounded, imagined 
 he had met the same fate, fled to their pirogue; but, his wound being a 
 flesh one only, he soon rose' and running to the river with the sacerdotal 
 vestments on, got on board. The Indians fired again ; one of the men 
 had his thigh broke and the father received another small injury. 
 
 The pirogue Avas drifting; the Indians, running along the shore, 
 continued their fire, but without doing any more mischief. The French 
 stopped, as soon as they were out of the reach of a ball, to wash the 
 wounds of their men, and then pushed for the settlement of the Natchez. 
 
 On their arrival, seeing the houses burnt or thrown down, they did not 
 suffer themselves to be prevailed on to land, by the invitation of the 
 Indians who hailed them, and soon substituted the fire of their arms to 
 the calls of friendship and hospitahty. They determined on avoiding 
 either shore, till they reached New Orleans, and began to apprehend that 
 on their arrival there they would find it necessary to drift to the Balize. 
 On the event of the dire catastrophe, which began at the Yazous, having 
 continued down to the lower settlement on the river, they hoped to find, 
 on board of the shipping, some person escaped from the general massacre. 
 
 22 
 
162 HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 
 
 As the}^ approached bayou Tunica, they rowed close to the opposite 
 shore, but were discovered, and a pirogue left the landing to reconnoitre 
 them. They pulled faster, but it gained on them : on hearing French 
 spoken on board, joy succeeded to alarm. Crossing the stream with their 
 countrymen, they soon found themselves in the middle of a small force 
 gathered from Pointe Coupee, Baton Rouge and Manshac. They were 
 friendly received : surgeons attended their wounds, and all Avere accom- 
 modated with room, in a large and commodious boat that was going to 
 New Orleans for provisions. 
 
 As soon as information of the massacre reached the city, Perrier 
 dispatched one of the company ships that were in the colony, to France, 
 for troops and succor. He sent couriers to the Illinois, by Red river and 
 to Mobile, the ChoctaAvs and the country Avatered by the Tennessee and 
 Kentucky rivers, on the other side. Emissaries Avent also to the Indian 
 trilics in alliance AA'ith the French. Every house in the city, and the 
 plantations near it, Avas supplied Avith arms and ammunition out of the 
 company's magazine, and the two remaining ships were directed to 
 proceed as far as bayou Tunica, for the reception and safety of Avomen and 
 children in the last extremity. The city Avas surrounded by a Avide ditch, 
 and guards Avere put at each corner. There Avere then small forts at the 
 Tchapitoulas, Cannes Brulees, the German Coast, Manshac and Pointe 
 Coupee. 
 
 Perrier had collected about three hundred soldiers ; having sent for 
 those at Fort St. Louis and Fort Conde. Three hundred men of the 
 militia had joined this force, and he Avas preparing to march at their head 
 AAdien it AA-as discovered that the negroes on the plantations e\'inced 
 symptoms of an intention of joining the Indians against their masters, in 
 tiie hope of obtaining their liberty, as some had done at the Natchez. 
 There AA-ere then nearly two thousand blacks in the colony, a number equal 
 to one-half of the French, but the most of them AA'ere in or at a short 
 distance above the city, AA^here their numbers perhaps preponderated over 
 that of the French. The company had a gang of tAvo hundred and sixty 
 on their plantation, and there Avere less, but yet verA' considerable gangs 
 on some of the principal grants. A fcAV parties of vagrant Indians 
 Avere hovering around the city, and greatly excited the alarms of its 
 inhabitants. Perrier, therefore, ga\^e the command of this small army to 
 the chevalier de Loubois, and sent onAvards an officer of the name of 
 Mispleix, to procure information of the strength and motions of the 
 enemy. 
 
 Lessuer, AA'ho had gone to the ChoctaAvs, collected seven hundred Avarriors 
 of that nation and led them across the country. 
 
 Mispleix landed at the Natchez on the twenty-fourth of January, Avith 
 fiA^e men. The Indians had noticed the approach of this small party ; they 
 fired on it and killed three men and made Mispleix and the other tAvo 
 prisoners. 
 
 Loubois was advancing ; his force had been sAvelled at bayou Tunica by 
 the militia of Manshac, Baton Rouge and Pointe Coupee and a fcAv Indians. 
 The Natchez, apprised of this by their runners, dispatched some of their 
 chiefs to meet, and offer peace to Loubois. 
 
 Their pretensions Avere high ; they required that Broutin, Avho had 
 before been in command at Fort Rosalie, and the principal chief of the 
 Tunica Indians should be sent as hostages. TheA'^ demanded for the 
 
HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. IQi] 
 
 ransom of the women and children in their possession, two hundred barrels 
 of poAvder, two thousand flints, four thousand weight of halls, two hundred 
 knives and as many axes, hoes, shirts, coats, pieces of linen and ginghams, 
 twenty coats laced on every seam, and as many laced hats vvdth plumes, 
 twenty barrels of brandy, and as many of wine. Their intention was to 
 have murdered the men, coming up with these goods. 
 
 On the day after the departure of these chiefs, they burnt Mispleix and 
 his two companions. 
 
 Lesueur, with his Choctaw force, which on the way had been increased 
 to twelve hundred, arrived on the twenty-eighth, in the evening. Runners, 
 whom he had sent ahead, met him with the information, that the Natchez 
 were not at all aware of his approach, quite out of their guard, and 
 spending their time in dancing and carousing. The intelligence soon 
 si^reading in Loubois' camp, he was absolutely unable to retain his Indians, 
 as he was ordered to do, until he was joined by Loubois, with the armv 
 from New Orleans. 
 
 At daybreak on the twenty-ninth, the Choctaws, in spite of their leader's 
 entreaties, fell on the Natchez, and after a conflict of about three hours, 
 brought away sixty scalps and eighteen prisoners — they liberated the 
 carpenter and tailor, with fifty-one women and children, and one hundred 
 and six negroes. They hatl only two men killed and eight wounded. 
 After the battle they encamped on St. Catharine's Creek. 
 
 The issue of this attack inspired the Natchez with terror. They 
 upbraided the Choctaws for their perfidy and treachery ; attesting their 
 solemn promise to join in the conspiracy and afford their aid, in the total 
 destruction of the French. 
 
 Loubois came up on the eighth of February. The six hundred men of 
 the regular force and militia, he had taken at New Orleans, had been 
 joined on the way to bayou Tunica by one hundred others, and had found 
 there two hundred French ; and three hundred Indians of the Oumas, 
 Chetimachas and Tunicas had joined the army on its march to the 
 Natchez, so that it consisted of upwards of fourteen hundred men mostly 
 white. 
 
 The impatience and indocility of the friendly Indians, the now great 
 relative number of the red people, the fatigue of the march, the scarcity of 
 ammunition, which the Indians either wasted or purloined, the strong 
 resistance of the Natchez, who had entrenched themselves and fought like 
 desperadoes, induced Loubois, on the seventh day after the opening of the 
 trenches, to listen to the proposals of the besieged, who threatened, if he 
 persisted, to burn the white women and children still in their possession, 
 and offered to surrender them, if the eleven field pieces he had were 
 withdrawn. There were not in the whole army one man that could 
 manage them, and the only hope entertained of them was, that they might 
 scare the Indians. 
 
 On the twenty-fifth, the terms were accepted ; and all the prisoners being 
 sent to Lou1)ois' camp, the army moved to the bluff and erected a small 
 fort to keep the Indians in awe, and protect the navigation of the river. 
 
 Loubois deemed it necessary, before the departure of the army, to make 
 an example of three of the negroes, who had been the most active and 
 forward in inducing the rest to join the Natchez. They were accordingly 
 delivered to the Choctaws, who burnt them with a cruelty that inspired 
 
164 HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 
 
 the others with the greatest horror for the Indians, and the resort to which 
 certainly found an apology in the circumstances of the case. 
 
 The inhabitants of New Orleans received with open arms, in the bosom 
 of their families, the widows and children of their friends, who had fiillen 
 under the tomahawk of the Natchez. Benevolence relieved their wants, 
 and tenderness ministered those succors, which protracted captivity and 
 suflferings called for. The nuns opened their cloister to the orphans of 
 their sex ; those of the other were divided into the families of the easy and 
 affluent, and many a matron listened to solicitations to put an early end 
 to her widowhood. 
 
 The Chickasaws had offered an asylum in their nation to the Natchez ; 
 it had been accepted by a number of them. Having thus aided the enemies 
 of the French, they sought to increase their number, and sent emissaries 
 to the Illinois to induce them to join in the common cause. These 
 Indians rei)lied they would assist their white friends on the Mississippi 
 with all their might, and they sent a depvitation to Perrier to assure him 
 of the dependence he could put in their nation, of their sorrow at the 
 catastrophe at the Natchez, and their readiness to lose their lives in the 
 defense of his countrymen. 
 
 They returned in the latter part of June to join the Arkansas, in order 
 to fall on the Yazous and Coroas. A party of the latter, going to the 
 Chickasaws, Avere met by one of the Tchaoumas and Choctaws, who 
 killed eighteen of them, and released some French women and children 
 they were carrying away. A few days after, a number of Arkansas fell on 
 a party of Yazous, scalped four men, and took four women, whom they 
 led into captivity. Returning homewards they met several Canadian 
 families going to New Orleans ; they bewailed with them the disaster of 
 their countrymen, and particularly the death of father Poisson, who had 
 been their missionary before he moved to the Yazous ; they vowed that, as 
 long as an Arkansas lived, the Natchez would have an enemy. 
 
 While the northernmost tribes remained thus attached to the French, 
 the smallest ones near the sea, received emissaries from the Chickasaws, 
 and suffered themselves to be deluded, so far as to admit among themselves 
 parties of wandering Indians, who much distressed the planters and greatly 
 alarmed the inhabitants of the city. 
 
 The Chouachas, a very small tribe, who originally occupied the margin 
 of lake Barataria, had removed to that of the Mississippi, a little below the 
 city, near the English turn, and had proved themselves useful to the 
 French when they began to occupy the ground on which New Orleans now 
 stands. They were suspected of being under the influence of the 
 Chickasaws, and had become obnoxious to the colonists. Their 
 annihilation was judged indispensable to the tranc^uillity of the country and 
 was determined on. The slaves of the neighboring plantations were 
 incautiously employed in this service, under the idea that the warfare 
 would sow between them and the Indians, the seeds of such mutual hatred 
 as would ever prevent a coalition between the red and the black people. 
 The negroes acquitted themselves with great fury, indiscriminately 
 massacreing the young and the old, the male and the tenderer sex. 
 
 On the tenth of August, the people of New Orleans received the pleasant 
 intelligence of the arrival at the Balize a few days before, of a company's 
 ship with troops and succor, under the orders of Perrier de Salvert, a 
 brother of the commandant general. Much of their joy however was 
 
HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 165 
 
 abated when it became known that there were but three companies of 
 marines on board, each of sixty men. 
 
 The company kept in the province six hundred and fifty men of French 
 troops, and two hundred of the Swiss. With this reinforcement, the total 
 barely exceeded one thousand men — a relatively powerful body, if there 
 liad l)cen but one settlement to protect ; but a very insufficient one, while 
 the establishments were sprinkled over a wide extended territory. 
 
 Chagrined at this disappointment, the commandant general made an 
 excursion to Mobile to seek aid among the friendly tribes near Fort Conde. 
 
 On his return, he issued a proclamation conjuring every able bodied 
 man, not already under arms, to buckle a knapsack on his back, put a 
 musket on his shoulder and join the army. But little could be expected 
 from this appeal ; the whole militia from the Alibamons to the Cadodaquious 
 and from the Balize to the Wabash, not exceeding eight hundred men. 
 
 Most of the Natchez Indians, who had not gone over to the Chickasaws, 
 had crossed the Mississippi, and marched through the country of the 
 Washitastothe neighborhood of the Natchitoches, and on Black river. 
 
 The departure of the army Avas delayed by a most distressing event. 
 The negroes who had been employed in destroying the Chouaches, in 
 returning to their labors, began to feel more sensibly the weight of their 
 chain, and the success of the ferocity they had exercised against the Indians 
 gave a hope that liberty might be the result of a similar attempt upon the 
 French. But, their views were discovered, and the arrest and execution 
 of their leaders warded for a while the impending blow. 
 
 The Arkansas had promised to come down and join Perrier's force. He 
 now sent a Canadian of the name of Coulangue to meet them, and directed 
 Beaulieu to proceed to Red river and obtain information of the spot to 
 which the enemy had retired, his force and intended movements. 
 
 Perrier de Salvert with the vanguard of the army, embarked on the 
 thirteenth of November. It consisted of the three companies of the 
 marines, a few volunteers and Indians ; in all about tAvo hundred and fifty. 
 The commandant general set off two days after with the main body, not 
 larger than the van, composed of regulars and volunteers. Benac, who 
 commanded the militia, led the rear, which did not exceed one hundred 
 and fifty. The late alarm rendered it necessary that the forts should 
 continue to be well garrisoned to insure tranquillity and awe the slaves. 
 
 The army stopped on the right side of the Mississippi, opposite to 
 Bayou Manshac, where a Colapissa chief led forty warriors. It now 
 consisted of about seven hundred men. 
 
 Lesueur was sent forward and ordered to ascend Red river. On his way 
 he received the painful intelligence of the Natchez having surprised 
 Coulange and Beaulieu, killed the former and wounded the latter. Of 
 the twenty-five men who accompanied them, sixteen had been killed or 
 wounded. The Arkansas had come down, according to their promise ; 
 but not hearing of the army, grew impatient and returned. He 
 immediately communicated the intelligence to his chief. 
 
 Perrier, having ordered the army to proceed to the mouth of Red river, 
 stopped at Bayou Tunica, to join the Indians who had ])een directed to 
 rendezvous there ; one hundred and fifty warriors only met him. He 
 joined the army with these on the fourth of January. 
 
 His whole force now consisted of about one thousand men. He 
 ascended Red and Black rivers, and on the twentieth came in sight of 
 

 f9^.0p^ 
 
 166 HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 
 
 one of the enemy"s forts, on tlie Ixinks of tlie Litter.)^ The trenches were 
 inimediately opened and the artillery landed on tl/e 'following day. On 
 the next, the enemy made a sally, wounded an officer, and killed a soldier 
 and a negro. On the twenty-fifth, a white flag was hoisted on the fort and 
 a smaller one displayed on the trenches ; soon after an Indian came out 
 with a calumet, suing for peace and offering to surrender every negro in 
 the fort. Perrier told him he would receive the negroes, and if the Indians 
 wished for peace they should send the chiefs to speak with him. The 
 messenger replied the chiefs would not come out ; but if Perrier would 
 come forth to the head of the trenches, the chiefs would meet him there. 
 He vf as directed to go and fetch the negroes, and an answer would be given 
 on his return. 
 
 Half an hour after, he brought eighteen negro men and one woman, and 
 said the chiefs would not come out — that peace was wanted, and if the 
 army would return, hostilities would cease. Perrier replied no proposal 
 would be listened to until the chiefs came to speak with him, and if they 
 did not, the attack would be resumed, and quarters given to no one. 
 
 The messenger went hack and returning soon after, said the warriors 
 insisted on the chiefs not coming out, and except on this head were ready 
 to accede to any proposition. Perrier told him the cannon was ready, and 
 he still insisted on the chiefs coming out — that if they compelled him to 
 fire, he would not stop till the fort was blown to atoms, and no one would 
 be spared. 
 
 On the man's return, a Natchez Indian, of the name of St. Come, a son 
 to the head female sun, and as such heir to the sunship, Avho had always 
 been on a friendly footing with the French, came to Perrier's camp : he 
 told him that now as peace was made, the French army should return, 
 that he grieved much at the conduct of his nation, but everything ought 
 to be forgotten ; especially, as the prime mover of all the mischief had 
 fallen inthe attack of the Choctaws. Perrier told him he was glad to see 
 him, but he desired to see the great sun also, but would not be played 
 with, and he hoped no Natchez Indian would approach him accept in the 
 company of the latter, as he would order any one to be fired on, who would 
 come with any other proposal. 
 
 St. Come took leave, and half an hour after returned with the head 
 sun, and another chief, called the chief of the flour, who was the prime 
 mover of all the mischief; St. Come having sought to screen him. 
 
 The Great Sun assured Perrier he had no hand in the massacre of the 
 French, and was very much pleased at the opportunity of treating with 
 him ; St. Come exculpated him. The chief of the flour said he was sorry 
 for what had happened. As they were exposed to the rain, wdiich was 
 now increasing, Perrier, pointing to a cabin near them, bid them to 
 take shelter in it ; on their doing so, he ordered four men to guard the 
 door, and directed Lesueur and two officers attentively to watch them. 
 
 Lesueur, speaking their language, went in, and attempted to get into a 
 conversation with them ; but they kept a stubborn silence and lay down 
 to sleep. The other two officers did the same on their rising, Lesueur 
 went to rest toAvards midnight. About three hours after, he was 
 awakened, by a sudden noise, and saw the Great Sun and St. Come, 
 endeavoring to escape from the sentry — the officers and the two other 
 soldiers had gone in jjursuit of the chief of the flour, who, having eluded 
 
HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 167 
 
 their vigilance, had fled ; Lcsueiir pointing liis ])istol at tlio two captives, 
 they refrained from any fnrther attenii)t to escape. 
 
 At daybreak, an Indian came from tlie fort to visit the Great Sun : 
 l)eing conducted to the cabin, he told him the chief of the tiour having 
 reached the fort had calk'd a})art ten warriors, and assured them Perrier 
 was determined on burning them all ; that for his part he liad made up 
 his mind no longer to remain exposed to fall into his hands, and advised 
 them to look for their own safety with him. Accordingly they had 
 followed him, with their women and children, while the rest lost in 
 deliberation the favorable moments, and at daybreak found their flight 
 was no longer possible. The Great Bun observed this chief was an 
 usurper. 
 
 Perrier bid his i)risoner, towards the evening, to send word to his 
 l)eople to come out with their women and children, and he would spare 
 their lives, and prevent his Indians from hurting them. This was done 
 by the messenger of the morning ; but compliance was refused. 
 
 In the morning, the Great Sun's wife and some other members of his 
 fandly visited him. Perrier received them well, because they had afforded 
 jirotection to the French prisoners. Sixty-live men and about two 
 hundred women came in towards noon. 
 
 Word was sent to those in the fort that if they did not leave it, the 
 cannon would be fired and no one spared. The Indians replied the fire 
 might begin, and they did not fear death. They were restrained by the 
 fear of falling into the hands of Perrier's Indians if they went out in 
 small parties, or of being discovered by the French if they went out 
 together. 
 
 The cannonade now began : a heavy rain was falling, and it blew very 
 hard. The besieged flattered themselves with the idea the inclemency 
 of the weather would prevent the passes being strictly guarded ; they 
 were not deceived. At dusk the cannon was stopped : towards eight at 
 night, an officer reported that the enemy was flying ; the cannonade was 
 now resumed, luit it was too late — a part of the army went after the foe 
 and brought in upwards of one hundred ; Perrier vainly tried to induce 
 his Indians to give the chase ; they answ^ered those should do so who 
 had suffered the Natchez to escape. The fort was now entered and no 
 one found in it but a decrepit old man, and a woman who had just lain in. 
 
 There remaining now no enemy to fight, the prisoners to the number of 
 four hundred and twenty-seven, were secured and embarked. The army 
 set off on the twenty-seventh and reached New Orleans on the fifth of 
 February. 
 
 The Great Sun, and the other prisoners, were sent immediately to 
 Hispanolia, where they were sold as slaves. 
 
 The war was not, however, at an end, Lesueur had ascertained that the 
 Natchez were not all in the fort Perrier had besieged. They had yet 
 upwards of two hundred warriors, including the Yazous and Coroas, and 
 an equal number of young lads capable of bearing arms. A chief had 
 lately gone to the Ghickasaws with forty warriors and many women : 
 another was with seventy warriors, and upward of a hundred women and 
 many children on lake Catahoulou, to the westward of Black river. There 
 were twenty warriors, ten women and six children on the Washita : the 
 strength of the party who had gone towards the Natchitoches was not 
 known. 
 
168 HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 
 
 In the meanwhile, the company finding themselves much disappointed 
 in the hope they had entertained of the profits of their commerce, and the 
 advantages they had imagined would result from their charter ; alarmed 
 at the great loss they had sustained at the Natchez, and the great expense 
 necessary to be incurred in the protection and defense of the province, if 
 they retained the possession of it, solicited on the twenty-second of January, 
 1732, the king's leave to surrender the country and their charter. By an 
 arrest of the council of the following day, and letters patent, which issued 
 thereon, on the tenth of April, the retrocession made by the company of 
 the property, lordship and jurisdiction of the province of Louisiana and 
 its dependencies, together Avith the country of the Illinois, and the 
 exclusive commerce to those places, was accepted. 
 
 The arrest declares the commerce of the retroceded countries free, for 
 the future, to all the king's subjects. 
 
 This ended the government of the western company. It lasted during 
 about fourteen years — nearly one-half of the time elapsed since Iberville 
 had laid the foundation of a French colony on the gulf of Mexico. 
 
 When the company received its charter, the settlements in the wide 
 extended country ceded to it, were confined to a very narrow space at the 
 Biloxi, Mobile river. Ship and Dauphine islands. Two very small fortifi- 
 cations had been erected on the Mississippi — the one near the sea, the 
 other at the Natchez, and one at the Natchitoches on Red river. 
 
 Agriculture had hardlv reared its head, though rice was sowed in the 
 swamps. Horticulture supplied the tables of a few with vegetables, and 
 enabled some of the rest to procure a little money by supplying the 
 Spaniards at Pensacola. 
 
 Now all the original settlements had considerably extended their limits, 
 a new one had been formed at the Alibamons. On the Mississippi, the 
 foundation of New Orleans was laid : although there was no plantation 
 below it, a considerable one with a gang of upwards of one hundred slaves 
 had been formed opposite the city, and there were many smaller but still 
 considerable ones at Tchapitoulas and Cannes Brulees. A vast number of 
 handsome cottages, lined both sides of the river at the German Coast ; 
 grantees of wide tracts had transported a white population, and sent 
 negroes to Manshac, Baton Rouge and Point Coupee, and we have seen a 
 smart settlement had risen at Natchez, the rival of New Orleans. Higher 
 up, small colonies had gone to the Yazous and Arkansas ; while others 
 had descended from Canada to the Wabash and the Illinois. 
 
 To the culture of rice, that of indigo and tobacco had been added ; the 
 forests yielded timber for various uses and exportation : wheat and flour 
 came already down from the Illinois ; a smart trade was carried on with 
 the Indians at Natchitoches, Mobile, Alibamons and the Cadadoquious, far 
 beyond the westernmost limits of the present state. Provision had been 
 made for the regular administration of justice; churches and chapels had 
 been built at convenient distances, and without perhaps any exception, 
 every settlement had its clergvman, under the superintendence of a vicar- 
 general of the bishop of Quebec, of whose diocese Louisiana made a part. 
 A convent had been built, the nuns of which attended to the relief of the 
 sick of the garrison, and to the education of the young persons of their 
 sex. The Jesuits had a house in New Orleans ; a kind of entrepot of their 
 order, from which their priests were located among the neighboring tribes 
 
HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 169 
 
 of Indians, or sent, as occasional emissaries, to the most distant ; and those 
 men attended to the education of youth. 
 
 The monopoly which the company and Crozat had enjoyed and strictly 
 enforced, had checked, and it ma}^ be said destroN^ed, the incipient trade 
 the colony had before the peace of Utrecht; but the produce of the tilled 
 land and the f n-ests, the hides, skins, furs and peltries, which were obtained 
 from the Indians, for goods, which were easily procured in the company's 
 warehouses at the Biloxi, New Orleans, the Natchez and the Illinois, and 
 Avhich were disposed of at an enormous advance, enabled the company to 
 dispose of considerable quantities of merchandise. 
 
 The sums, spent by the company in the colony sufficed to furnish the 
 inhabitants with a circulating medium. It had a commandant general, 
 two king's lieutenants, a commissary ordonnateur, six hundred and fifty 
 men of French, and two hundred of Swiss troops *in its pay. Besides a 
 number of directors, agents and clerks, it supported upwards of thirty 
 clergymen. 
 
 According to the system of all commercial companies, the supreme 
 authority in the province resided in the directors and agents of the 
 corporation ; and the military, incessantly controlled by men whose 
 pursuit was wealth, not glory, lost their activity and zeal. A conflict of 
 powers necessarily created dissensions and animosities, fatal to the interest 
 of the company and the province. 
 
 It cannot, however, be denied, that while Louisiana was part of the 
 dominions of France, it never prospered but during the fourteen years of 
 the company's privilege. 
 
 The white population was raised from seven hundred to upwards of five 
 thousand, and the black from twenty to two thousand. 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 Salmon, who on the death of Lachaise, had succeeded him in the office of 
 Commissary Ordonnateur, having been appointed the king's commissioner, 
 received possession of Louisiana in his name, from the company. 
 
 The crown had purchased all the property of the corporation in the 
 province. It was not considerable, and the appraised inventory of it, 
 amounted only to two hundred and sixty-three thousand livres ; not equal 
 in value to sixty thousand dollars. It consisted of some goods in the 
 warehouses, a plantation opposite the city, which Avas partly improved as 
 a brick yard, on which were two hundred and sixty negroes, fourteen 
 horses and eight thousand barrels of rice. 
 
 The negroes were valued at an average of seven hundred livres or one 
 hundred and sixty-three dollars and a third; the horses at fifty-seven 
 livres or twelve and a half dollars, and the rice three livres or sixty cents 
 and a third, the hundred weight. At these prices, nineteen hundred 
 weight of rice were given for a horse ; at the present value of rice, four 
 cents a pound, the animal was worth seventy-six dollars, and the negro 
 nearly one thousand. 
 
 The company had contracted a considerable debt with the planters, and 
 obtained on the fourteenth of February, an arrest of the king's council, 
 inhibiting creditors in Louisiana from suing in France. Brusle and Bru, 
 
170 HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 
 
 two members of the superior council, were appointed commissioners to 
 receive claims against it, in the province. 
 
 In order to facilitate the commerce of the colony, the king, by an 
 ordinance of the fourth of August, dispensed the vessels of his subjects 
 trading thither, with the obligation of transporting redemptioners and 
 muskets, which was imposed on those trading to his other American 
 colonies. 
 
 The late change in the government of the province requiring one in the 
 organization of the superior council, this was effected by the king's letter 
 patent of the seventh of May. The members of this tribunal were 
 declared to be the Governor General of New France, of which Louisiana 
 continued to constitute a part, the Governor and the Commissary of 
 Louisiana, the king's lieutenants and the town major of New Orleans, six 
 councillors, an attorney general and clerk. 
 
 The members of the council, at this time, were Perrier, Commandant 
 General ; Salmon, Commissary Ordonnateur ; Loubois and d'Artaguette, 
 the king's two lieutenants ; Benac, town major of New Orleans ; Fazende, 
 Brusle, Bru, Lafreniere, Prat and Raguet, Councillors ; Fleuriau, Attorney 
 General, and Rossart, clerk. 
 
 The Natchez Indians continued to wage war with the western parts of 
 the province. The chief of the flour, who had effected his escape from 
 Perrier's camp, on Black river, and who had afterwards left the fort with 
 some warriors, their women and children, had been joined by those 
 whom he had left there, and had not fallen into the hands of the French. 
 After wandering awhile among the Washitas, this party, increased by 
 other individuals of their nation, proceeded to the Nachitoches. St. Denj'-s, 
 who commanded there, having early information of the approach of the 
 Natchez, and finding his garrison weak, dispatched messengers to New 
 Orleans, the Cadodaquious and Assinais, to solicit succor. Accordingly 
 Loubois left New Orleans with sixty men of the garrison ; but as he 
 entered Red river, accompanied by one hundred Indians, whom he had 
 taken at the Tunicas, he was met a little below Black river, early in 
 November by Fontaine, who was sent by St. Denys to Perrier. From liim 
 Loubois learned the Natchez had attacked the fort, being about two 
 hundred ; but they had been repulsed. 
 
 The Natchitoches had made a show of resistance ; but having but forty 
 warriors, they had been compelled to desist, after having lost four men. 
 The Natchez took possession of their village ; St. Denys had been 
 reinforced by his allies, on Red river and the Opelousas. With his 
 garrison, a few Spaniards and these Indians, he sallied out, forced an 
 intrenchment the Natchez had made around their camp, and killed 
 ninety-two of them, among whom were all their chiefs. The rest fled into 
 the woods, and St. Denys' Indians were in pursuit of them when Fontaine 
 left the fort. 
 
 With far less means than the commandant general on Black river, St. 
 Denvs had effected in much less time a more brilliant and useful 
 exploit. It put an end to the war of the Natchez. The survivors of the 
 nation sought an asylum among the Chickasaws, Avith whom they became 
 incorporated. These Indians had hitherto jn-ctended to remain neutral; 
 but now excited by a number of English traders, who had settled among 
 them, avowed themselves the open enemies of the French. 
 
 There were at the Natchez, on the plantations of the French, a 
 
HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 171 
 
 considerable number of negroes ; nearly all of whom had joined the 
 murderers of their masters in order to gain their freedom, and had 
 followed their new friends among the Chickasaws. This circumstance, 
 and their consequent emancipation, was known to their former companions 
 who had been recaptured or surrendered, and presented to them the 
 evidence of the possibility of their own release from bondage ; they 
 became restless, indocile, and fit subjects to be wrought upon, by 
 ])ersuasion. In the hope of exciting, through them, the other slaves in 
 the colony, to finish the work begun at the Natchez, several of the most 
 artful negroes, among the Chickasaws, were sent to Mobile, New Orleans 
 and along the coast, to sow the seeds of rebellion among the people of 
 their color in those places. These emissaries, being unable to show 
 themselves openly, had no success on the plantations, where the gangs 
 being small, the slaves were fearful. It was in vain urged upon them, 
 the moment was arrived to rid themselves of their masters, and secure 
 their own freedom by removing to the Chickasaws or the English, in 
 Carolina. 
 
 On the plantation opposite the city, lately the property of the company, 
 but now of the king, there were upwards of two hundred and fifty hands. 
 Several of these were seduced, and the contagion spread with considerable 
 rapidity up the coast, where, in the vicinity of the city, there were some 
 estates with gangs of from thirty to forty slaves. 
 
 Meetings were held without the notice of the French; the blacks 
 improving the opportunity, unsuspectingly furnished them by their 
 owners, to assemble in nightly parties for dancing and recreation. 
 
 At last, a night was fixed on, in which, on pretexts like these, the 
 blacks of the upper plantations were to collect on those near the city, at 
 one time, but on various points, and entering it from all sides, they were 
 to destroy all white men, and securing and confining the women and 
 children in the church, expecting to possess themselves of the king's 
 arms and magazine, and thus have the means of resisting the planters 
 when they came down, and carrying on conflagration and slaughter on 
 the coast. They hoped to induce or compel, by a show of strength, the 
 timorous of their color, who had resisted the temptation to swell their 
 number, and with them join parties of the Chickasaws, who they were 
 assured would advance to receive and protect them. Fortunately, the 
 motions of an incautious fellow were noticed by a negro woman, belonging 
 to a Dr. Brasset ; she gave such information ^ her master as led to the 
 discovery of the plot. Four men and a womam, who were the principal 
 agents in it, were detected and seized. The men were broken on the 
 wheel and their heads stuck on posts, at the upper and lower end of the 
 city, the Tchapitoulas and the king's plantation : the woman was hung. 
 This timely severity prevented the mischief. 
 
 The king extended further encouragement to the trade of the province, 
 by an arrest of his council of the thirteenth of September, exempting 
 from all duties of exportation, all merchandise shipped by his subjects 
 to Louisiana, and all duties of importation the merchandise of its growth, 
 produce or commerce. 
 
 Shortly after, provision was made for its protection and defense, and 
 an arrest of the thirtieth of November ordered a military force to be kept 
 there, consisting of eight hundred men ; six hundred and fifty of whom 
 were to be detached from the regiment of Karrer. 
 
172 HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 
 
 The year 1732 is remarkable as the period of the settlement of the last 
 of the British provinces in America, which now constitute the United 
 States. Charity devised the plan and furnished the means for its 
 execution. A society, formed in London, selected a large unoccupied tract 
 of land between the rivers Savannah and Alatamaha, a kind of neutral 
 ground, which separated the provinces of South Carolina and Florida, 
 as a spot on which the suffering poor might find an easy and quiet 
 existence. 
 
 The abolition of the company's exclusive right to the trade of 
 Louisiana, and the encouragement lately given to its commerce excited 
 the industry of the merchants in several of the seaports of France and 
 her colonies ; and several vessels from St. Maloes, Bordeaux, Marseilles 
 and Cape Francois, came to New Orleans in the course of the following 
 year. 
 
 The death of Augustus, king of Poland, in 1733, for awhile disturbed 
 the tranquillity of Europe. Louis XV. supported the claim to the crown 
 of Stanislaus, whose daughter he had married in 1725, and was assisted 
 by Spain, but was opposed by the emperor, who upheld the pretensions 
 of the elector of Saxony. 
 
 Bienville was this year re-appointed governor of Louisiana. He did 
 not, however, reach the province until the following year. The colonists 
 hailed the return of their former chief, who had devoted the prime of his 
 life to the service of their country. Perrier, on his arrival, returned to 
 France. 
 
 A frigate brought troops to complete the peace establishment of the 
 province, according to the arrest of the king's council of the month of 
 November. 
 
 For the double purpose of promoting the king's service, and the 
 extension of agriculture in Louisiana, it was provided by an arrest of the 
 king's council of the month of August, 1734, that there should be annually 
 granted to two soldiers, in each of the companies of French troops 
 serving there, a furlough and a tract of land, subject to a yearly quit rent 
 of a sou for every four acres. It was stipulated that the grantees should, 
 within three 3'ears, clear such a part of the land as the governor should 
 designate, and during that period, their pay and rations were continued 
 to them. 
 
 The Swiss soldiers were likewise entitled to such a grant, at the 
 expiration of the time for which they had been enlisted. 
 
 We have seen the king kept six hundred and fifty soldiers in the 
 province. They were divided into thirteen companies of fifty men 
 each, which gave annually twenty-six new farmers. The Swiss companies 
 gave four in the same period. 
 
 In the French troops, the selection was made by the governor, from the 
 soldiers, who conducted themselves the best. This proved a valuable 
 measure, promoting good order among the men, and extending agriculture. 
 Those, who thus quitted the sword for the plough, became in time the 
 heads of orderly families, and many of their remote descendants are now 
 persons of wealth and respectability. 
 
 The French and Spanish arms had this year great success in Italy ; 
 Don Carlos, the youngest son of Philip the fifth, who afterwards was 
 Charles the third of Spain, entered the kingdom of Naples, at the head of 
 thirty thousand men, and made himself master of it. 
 
HISTORY OF LOUISIAXA. 173 
 
 Although large quantities of coin were annually sent over for the pay and 
 maintenance of the troops, and the expenses of the colonial government, 
 the means of remittance which agriculture supplied being comparatively 
 few and small, the merchants hoarded up for exportation all the coin they 
 received. The province found itself drained of its circulating medium, to 
 the great injury to its agriculture and internal trade. 
 
 By an edict of the king, which bears date the nineteenth of September, 
 1735, an emission of card money to the amount of two hundred thousand 
 livres, a little more than forty thousand dollars, was ordered to be struck, 
 and declared receivable in the king's warehouses for ammunition or 
 anything sold there, or in exchange, annually, for drafts on the treasury 
 of the marine in France. 
 
 This measure had been solicited by the colonists ; cards were accordingly 
 struck of the value of twenty, fifteen, ten and five livres ; fifty, twenty-five, 
 twelve and a half, and six and a quarter sous — answering to the emissions 
 of the British provinces of four, three, two and one dollar, halves, quarters 
 and eighths of a dollar. 
 
 They bore the king's arms, and were all signed by the comptroller of 
 the marine, at New Orleans. Those of fifty sous and more were also 
 signed by the governor and ordonnateur — the others had the j^cira-phe or 
 flourish of these two officers only. 
 
 The cards were declared a tender in all payments whatever. 
 
 The Natchez and Yazous,who had found refuge among the Chickasaws, 
 now resumed their predatory war on the distant settlements of the colony, 
 and greatly obstructed its communication by the Mississippi to the 
 Illinois, the Wabash and Canada. A number of Chickasaws generally 
 accompanied these marauding parties. As the province could enjoy no 
 tranquillity while such outrages were not suppressed, Bienville sent an 
 officer to the principal village of the Chickasaws to insist on the surrender 
 of the Natchez. He was informed these Indians could not be given up, 
 as they had been received by, and incorporated with the Chickasaw 
 nation. He determined to go and take them, and ordered immediate 
 preparations for an expedition. 
 
 For this purpose, he directed the Chevalier d'Artaguette, who was now 
 in command at Fort Chartres of the Illinois, to collect as many French 
 and Indians as he could, and march them down to the country of the 
 Chickasaws, in order to join the troops from New Orleans and Mobile, 
 about the tenth of May. 
 
 Leblane, who was the bearer of these orders to the chevalier, was sent 
 up with five boats laden with provisions and ammunition for Fort 
 Chartres. He successfully resisted the attack of a party of the enemy 
 near the Yazou river. He reached that of the Arkansas, where he 
 landed part of the loading of his boats, which had been too heavily laden. 
 On his reaching Fort Chartres, one of the boats was sent for the provisions 
 left at the Arkansas ; but the Indians, who had attacked him on his way 
 up, fell on this boat and killed every man on board, except a lieutenant 
 called Dutisne, who commanded the party, and a half breed of the name 
 of Rosaly. 
 
 In the meanwhile, another officer had gone among the Choctaws, for 
 the purpose of inducing some of the chiefs, in the several villages of that 
 nation, to meet Bienville at Fort Conde. 
 
 At this meeting the French chief purchased the aid of his red allies, 
 
174 HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 
 
 for a quantity of goods, a part of which he brought from New Orleans 
 and now delivered to them. The Choctaw chiefs engaged to collect the 
 warriors of their nation and bring them to the standard of the French ; 
 and Bienville returned to New Orleans to hasten the march of the force 
 he had directed to be assembled. 
 
 A sufhcient number of the militia was left in the forts, and two 
 companies marched with the regulars and some negroes, whom it was not 
 thought imprudent to trust with arms. This force was embarked on the 
 bayou St. John in thirty boats, and as many large pirogues. Bienville 
 reached Fort Conde Avith it on the tenth of March. 
 
 He had before sent a strong detachment, under the order of Lusser, to 
 throw up a small work on the bank of the river, at the distance of two 
 hundred and fifty miles above Fort Conde, and on the same side of the 
 stream, in order to have a safe place of deposit for the provisions, arms 
 and ammunition that had been sent up for the use of the Choctaws. 
 Here some of Lusser's men, instigated by a sergeant of the name of 
 Montfort, formed the design of availing themselves of the facility 
 presented by their great distance from the settlements of the French, to 
 release themselves from subjection, by murdering their officers and 
 seeking refuge among the Chickasaws, whom they were sent to combat, 
 or among the English, in Carolina, through the desert. The plot was 
 luckily discovered, at the moment on which it was to have been executed. 
 The sergeant and five men were arrested, but Lusser postponed their trial 
 till the arrival of his chief. 
 
 The army had left Fort Conde on the fourth of April, and reached 
 Tombeckbee on the twentieth ; a court martial immediately set on the 
 prisoners, and they were shot. A few days after, the Choctaws, who had 
 been engaged as auxiliaries, joined Bienville, and he delivered to them the 
 balance of the goods he had promised. 
 
 Incessant rains and inclement weather prevented the army from leaving 
 Tombeckbee before the fourth of May, and three weeks elapsed before it 
 reached the spot on which it was intended to land. Some time was now 
 spent in erecting a shed for the reception and protection of a part of the 
 provisions and warlike stores, and a few huts for the accommodation of 
 the sick. Here another party of the Choctaws joined the army ; the 
 number of these auxiliaries was now twelve hundred. 
 
 The nearest village of the Chickasaws was at the distance of twenty- 
 seven miles to the northeast. A sufficient force being left to protect the 
 sick and stores, the army marched in two colunms on the twenty-fifth : 
 the Choctaws were on the flanks. A halt was made for the night at the 
 distance of seventeen miles ; at daybreak, the troops started in perfect 
 order and silence, and came in sight of the village towards noon : a strong 
 fort had been erected before it. The Choctaws yelling ran forward, in the 
 hope of surprising some of the Chickasaws, but without success. 
 
 Bienville, at half past one, formed his army into a regular square ; af> 
 it approached the fort in this order, he ordered it to halt, and directed the 
 major part of the regulars and militia to form strong detachments and 
 march to the attack. The British flag was flying over the fort, and a few 
 individuals of the nation Avere perceived in it. Fire had been set to a few 
 cabins near the fort, from which the French might be annoyed ; they 
 advanced ten deep, shouting rive Ic roi, but were much distressed by the 
 smoke from the cabins which the wind blew in their faces. The fort now 
 
HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 175 
 
 began a galling fire; a lieutenant, a sergeant and two men were killed, 
 and Renaud d'Auterivo, an officer of the militia, was severely wounded. 
 The Cliiekasaws were in a strong fort, surrounded with a thick palissado 
 full of loop holes from which they poured forth an incessant shower of 
 halls; strong and thick planks covered with earth, formed over the 
 palissado, a covering impenetrable to the grenade. The French were 
 unprotected and fell back. They soon advanced again ; but the fire from 
 the fort made a great havoc, while they fired in vain against the palissado. 
 At five o'clock, Bienville seeing Noyant, Lusser, Jussau and Girondel, 
 four of his best officers, and many others disabled, and the ammunition 
 of his men nearly exhausted without the hope of success, ordered a 
 retreat, and sent a strong detachment to support it. It was made in good 
 order. The loss was thirty-two killed and sixty-one wounded. The force 
 employed joined the rest without being able to bring away the bodies of 
 their dead. 
 
 The evening was employed in throwing up a small entrenchment around 
 the camp. In the morning the French saw the bodies of their countrymen, 
 who fell in the battle, cut into quarters and stuck up on the pickets of the 
 ])alissado around the fort. 
 
 During this day, the Choctaws had several skirmishes with the 
 Chickasaws. 
 
 On the twenty-ninth, the army began to retrograde, and encamped within 
 three miles only of the field of battle, and on the next day, within the 
 same distance from their place of landing, which they reached on the 
 third day. Bienville distributing the remainder of his goods among the 
 Choctaws, dismissed them satisfied. Taking in the suite of the army the 
 invalids he had left on the river, he floated clown to Fort Conde, where he 
 left a reinforcement in the garrison, and landed the rest of his men on the 
 banks of the bayou St. John, in the latter part of June. 
 
 A sergeant of the garrison of the Illinois, who had been made a 
 prisoner by the Chickasaws, succeeded so far in securing the good will of 
 the Indian to whose lot he had fallen, as to obtain his liberty and a 
 sufficiency of provisions to enable him to reach the settlements of the 
 French. He came to New Orleans on the first day of July. Bienville 
 learned from him the unfortunate fate of the Chevalier d'Artaguette. 
 
 This officer was the youngest son of the commissary ordonnateur of 
 that name. He had served with distinction during the Avar of the 
 Natchez, and had been left by Perrier to command the fort which this 
 chief had directed to be built near the site of the present city of Natchez. 
 In compliance with the orders which Leblanc had brought him from 
 Bienville, he had left his command at Fort Chartres, with t^velve hundred 
 men, chiefiy Indians. Warned by the fate of Lesueur, who having 
 brought a body of Choctaws near the fort of the Natchez, had been 
 unable to contain them, till the arrival of the Chevalier de Loubois ; 
 d'Artaguette, by occasionally slacking his march had arrived at the 
 l)lacc of rendezvous mentioned in his orders, on the ninth of May ; the 
 eve of the very day he was directed to arrive, five days after Bienville had 
 left the small fort at Tombeckbee. He had encamped in sight of the 
 enemy till the twentieth, in anxious expectation of the arrival of 
 Bienville, who did not land until four days after; when his Indians, like 
 the Choctaws at the Natchez, grew impatient and unmanageable, and 
 absolutely insisted on being allowed to fight or to withdraw. Incapable 
 
176 HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 
 
 of restraining his turbulent allies, he had accepted the first alternative, 
 and successfully attacked the fort before which he had encamped. He 
 drove the Chickasaws from it and the village it protected. In the 
 pursuit, the valorous youth had driven them to and out of the next fort, 
 and was chasing them to a third, and perhaps their last entrenchment, 
 when he received a wound — then another, which threw him on the 
 ground weltering in his blood. His Indians, on the fall of their leader, 
 retreated in all directions. Forty-eight soldiers, the whole of the garrison 
 of Fort Chartres, which d'Artaguette had been able to bring, and father 
 Senac, its chaplain, stood by, and for awhile defended their prostrated 
 leader. But, what could the deserted few do? They were overpowered, 
 and the Indians led their prisoners to the fort on which, had fate spared 
 d'Artaguette but a few minutes, he would have planted the white banner. 
 His companions washed and dressed his wounds, and his recovery was 
 speedy. For awhile, the Chickasaws treated their captives well : they 
 kncAV Bienville was advancing with a strong force, and promised 
 themselves great advantages from the possession of the French, and at 
 least a large ransom. But the reports of the arrival and retrograde of 
 the French army were simultaneous, and the foe, elated by success and 
 security, dragged out his unlucky victims to a neighboring field, bound 
 the chevalier and the father to the same stake, and tying his courageous 
 adherents, four by four around their Avordly and spiritual leaders, 
 extending protection to the sergeant only, consumed their victims by a 
 slow and often interrupted fire. 
 
 Vessels from France, St. Domingo and Martinico frequently came to 
 New Orleans ; and early in the next year the king extended a further 
 encouragement to the commerce of the province, by permitting the 
 exportation of any article of its produce to the West India Islands, and 
 the importation of that of these islands, to Louisiana, during ten years. 
 The royal edict is of February, 1737. 
 
 The Spaniards at this time began to make great depredations on the 
 commerce of Great Britain in the West India seas. Their guarda costas 
 seized a 'liumber of vessels of that nation, which they carried into the 
 ports of the main, the island of Cuba and Hispaniola, for condemnation 
 under the pretense that they were engaged in a contraband trade with 
 the colonies of Spain. 
 
 Bienville, on his return from the unsuccessful expedition against the 
 Chickasaws, planned a new one, in Avhich he proposed to reach their 
 country by the Mississippi. He communicated his views to the minister, 
 who submitted them to the chevalier de Beauharnois (the father of the 
 first husband of the Empress Josephine) then Governor General of New 
 France. 
 
 Louis XV. was not successful, in the war he had undertaken, to place 
 his father-in-law on the throne of Poland. Tranquillity was momentarily 
 restored to Europe by the peace of 1738, which left the Elector of Saxony 
 in possession of the crown, and Don Carlos, king of Naples. Stanislaus, 
 however, was permitted to retain the title of king, and became Grand 
 Duke of Lorrain and Bar. While the Avar that had been waged between 
 the emperor and the kings of France and Spain, Avas thus brought to a 
 close, the latter sovereign began preparations for hostilities against Great 
 Britain, and the garrison of St. Augustine receiA^ed a very considerable 
 reinforcement, Avith the vieAv of an attack on the contiguous neAV British 
 
HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 177 
 
 province of Georgia, which Philip V. considered as an encroachment on 
 tlio dominions of his croAvn, while Cleorge II. sent six hundred men there, 
 under the orders of General Oglethorpe. 
 
 As soon as Bienville was informed that the minister approved his plan 
 of an attack on the Chickasaws, with a force, which was to ascend the 
 Mississippi from New Orleans, and come down from Canada and the 
 Illinois, he began .his preparations. It is not easy to discover on what 
 ground better success was promised, in this wa}", than by an approach of 
 the enemy's country up the river Mobile ; the greatest fort of the country'- 
 of the Indians, Avas to the west of that river — and an army landed on the 
 bank of the Mississippi would have to cross the country of the Choctaws, 
 in its whole width. It is true, the latter were friendly Indians — but 
 though this added much to the security of the forces, it increased equally 
 the trouble, fatigue and expense. By the Mobile, the French landed at 
 once in the centre of the enemy's country. : 
 
 In the execution of his plans, Bienville ordered a very stroh^ detachment 
 to the river St. Francis, in the present territory of Arkansas, to be 
 immediately employed in building sheds for the reception of the troops, 
 their provisions, arms and ammunition, and a fort for their protection; 
 this spot appearing the most convenient as a place of deposit, and a 
 rendezvous for the forces that might come down from Canada and the 
 Illinois. 
 
 In the month of May, of the following year, three of the king's ships, 
 under the command of the chevalier de Kerlerec, landed at New Orleans 
 a few companies of the marines who were commanded by the chevalier 
 de Noailles. 
 
 Everything having been previously arranged, the chevalier de Noyant, 
 set off with the vanguard a few clays after the arrival of the reinforcements. 
 The main body successively followed in large detachments, and Bienville 
 brought up the rear. The army reached the river St. Francis, on the last 
 of June, and without the loss of much time, crossed the stream to the 
 river Margot, on the opposite side, near the spot on which the present 
 town of Memphis, in the state of Tennessee, stands. 
 
 The army was first employed in providing the means of conve3''ance for 
 the^ provisions, arms, ammunition and baggage, and in building a fort, 
 which being completed on the fifteenth of August, the day on which the 
 Catholic church celebrates the festival of the Assumption of the Virgin, 
 was called the fort of the Assumption. 
 
 Labuissonierewhohad succeeded the unfortunate chevalier d'Artaguette 
 in the command of Fort Chartres, arrived a few days after with his 
 garrison, a part of the militia of the Illinois and about two hundred 
 Indians. He was followed the next week by Celeron and St. Laurent, his 
 lieutenants, who commanded a company of Cadets, from Quebec and 
 Montreal, and a number of Canada Indians. 
 
 The force from New Orleans consisted of the Louisiana regulars and 
 militia, the companies of marines, lately landed from France, and 
 upwards of sixteen hundred Indians. So that Bienville found himself at 
 the head of upwards of twelve hundred white and double that number of 
 Indian and black troops. 
 
 This comparatively very large army, unaccountably spent six months 
 in making preparations for its march. In the meanwhile, the troops 
 lately arrived from France became unhealthy and many died — the climate 
 
 25 
 
178 HISTORY OF LOUISIAXA. 
 
 had an almost equally deleterious influence on those from Canada. The 
 provisions were now exhausted, and such was the dearth of them, that 
 horses Avere slaughtered for food. Early the next year, the regulars and 
 militia of Canada and Louisiana, who had escaped the autumnal disease 
 were prostrated by famine and fatigue, and the chief was compelled to 
 confine his call for service, to his red and black men. They were his only 
 effectual force. 
 
 On the fifteenth of March, Celeron marched the remainder of his 
 Canadian Cadets to whom about a hundred other white soldiers were 
 added. This small body, with the negroes and Indians, began the march 
 towards the village of the Chickasaws, and Celeron was instructed to 
 promise peace to these Indians if it was asked. 
 
 The ' enemy had been apprised of the arrival of Bienville, with a very 
 large army ; and when they perceived the colors of Celeron's company, a 
 few white men and an immense body of Indians, on each flank, they had 
 no doubt that the whole force of Bienville was there. In the terror which 
 this delusion excited, most of the warriors came out of the fort, and 
 approaching Celeron in an humble posture, begged him to give them 
 peace and vouchsafe to be their intercessor with Bienville ; assuring him 
 they would be the inseparable friends of the French ; swearing they had 
 been excited to hostilities by the English from Carolina, who had come to 
 their villages ; and protesting they had entirely renounced any future 
 connection with them. They said they had lately made two individuals 
 of that nation prisoners and detainecl them in the fort ; they pressed 
 Celeron to send one of his offlcers to the fort that he might be satisfied of 
 the truth of what they told him; St. Laurent was accordingly sent. 
 
 As he entered, the squaws began to yell and scream loudly, and 
 demanded his head. On this he was seized and confined in a hut, while 
 the men were deliberating on the demand of the women ; at last, the 
 party who deemed it dangerous to grant it, prevailed, and St. Laurent 
 was taken out, and shown the white prisoners. Pleased at the happy 
 turn the afl"airs had taken, he promised peace to the Indians in the name 
 of Celeron. They all followed him to the camp, where the captain ratified 
 his lieutenant's promise. 
 
 A deputation of the Chickasaws, joining the French on their retrograde 
 march, Celeron led back his force to the Mississippi, where the calumet 
 was presented, by the Chickasaws, to Bienville. They renewed to him 
 the protestation of their devotion, to the interests of the French, and 
 presented him the two Englishmen. The calumet was accepted, and the 
 de})uties were permitted to return. 
 
 The fort of the Assumption was raised and Labuissonniere and Celeron 
 ascended the river with those of their men, whom disease and famine 
 had spared. The force from New Orleans stopped at the river St. Francis 
 to dismantle the fort, and then floated down to the city. 
 
 Thus ended the Chickasaw war, undertaken by Bienville to compel 
 these Indians to surrender the Natchez, who had found an asylum among 
 the former. Peace was made on the promise of the Indians of one of the 
 villages of the enemy, to be in future the devoted friends of the French — 
 purchased at the price of many valuable lives, at a vast expense besides, 
 and with great distreh?s and toil. The French chief acquired no military 
 glory from the war. 
 
 While tranci[uillity appeared thus restored to Louisiana, that of Europe 
 
HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 179 
 
 was disturbed, at the death of the Emperor Charles the sixth, on the 
 twentieth of September, 1740, without nuile issue. According to the 
 pragmatic sanction, l)y which in 1718 it had been provided, that his 
 ehlest daughter shoukl succeed him, Maria Theresa ascended the throne. 
 Louis the tifteenth united with Prussia and Poland, in support of the 
 pretensions of the Duke of Bavaria, to the imperial sceptre, and the dogs 
 of war were let loose. 
 
 The chevalier de Beauharnois, Governor-General of New France, was 
 succeeded by the count de la Gallissoniere. 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 The Marquis de Vaudreuil, a son of the late Governor-General of New 
 France, was in 1741, appointed Governor of Louisiana, and Bienville sailed 
 back to France, much regretted by the colonists. The latter was the 
 youngest son of Lemyone de Bienville, a gentleman of Quebec, who had 
 seven sons in the service of his sovereign. Bienville, the eldest, fell in 
 battle in Canada. Iberville, Serigny, Sauvolle, Chateaugue and St. Helene, 
 have all been mentioned in this work. The youngest, to whom the 
 name of the eldest had been given, came, as we have said, to Louisiana, 
 with Iberville, in 1698. He was then 1:wenty-two years of age, and a 
 midshipman in the royal navy. He remained in the province continually, 
 except during the Administration of Perrier, and was the chief in 
 command, during most of the time. He was called the father of the 
 country, and deserved the appellation. 
 
 The commerce of Louisiana, released from the restraints of the exclusive 
 privilege of the company, now began to thrive. Indigo was cultivated to 
 a considerable extent, and with much success, and with rice and tobacco, 
 afforded easy means of remittance to Europe, Avhile lumber found a market 
 in the West India islands. The Chickasaws were less turbulent; a 
 circumstance attributed to the employment which Avar gave to the people 
 of South Carolina and Georgia. 
 
 The increase of trade caused litigation, and it was deemed necessary to 
 create new officers in the superior council. Accordingly, the governor 
 and the commissary ordonnateur were, by the king's letters patent of the 
 month of August, 1742, directed to appoint four assessors, to serve for a 
 period of four years in that tribunal. They were to sit in rank after the 
 councillors ; but their votes were received only, in cases in which the 
 record was referred to them to report on, when they were called upon to 
 complete a quroum, or in case of an equality of votes. The choice of the 
 two administrators, for the first time, fell on Delachaise, a son of the late 
 commissary ordonnateur, Delalande d'Aspremont, Amelot and Massy. 
 
 The Spaniards this year made an unsuccessful attempt on the province 
 of Georgia. 
 
 With a view of having Nova Scotia (which had been restored to 
 Great Britain at the peace of Utrecht) occupied by national subjects, 
 the former French inhabitants had been mostly driven away ; three 
 thousand families were brought over, at a great expense defrayed by 
 government, and three regiments were stationed there to protect these 
 people against the French of Canada and the Indians. 
 
180 IIISTOKV OP' LOUISIANA. 
 
 George the second having taken arms in support of the claim of Maria 
 Theresa to the throne of her father, and having in person gained the 
 famous battle of Dettingen against the allied forces, war was kindled 
 between France and Great Britain. 
 
 Hostilities began in America, by frequent irrui)tions of the French 
 from Canada into Nova Scotia. A small land and naval force from the 
 island of Cape Breton, afterwards possessed itself of the town of Canceaux, 
 and made its garrison and some of the inhabitants prisoners. A less 
 successful attack was made on Annapolis — the French being driven back 
 by the garrison, which had been reinforced b}' a strong detachment from 
 Massachusetts. The conquest of Nova Scotia being a favorite object with 
 the people of Canada, Duvivier was sent to France to soli(,'it the minister 
 to send out a sufficient force for this purpose. 
 
 Louisiana suffered a great deal from the want of a circulating medium. 
 Card money had caused the disappearance of the gold and silver circu- 
 lating in the colony before its emission, and its subsec^uent depreciation 
 had induced the commissary ordonnateur to have recourse to an issue of 
 ordonances, a kind of bills of credit, which although not a legal tender, 
 from the want of a metallic currency, soon became an object of commerce. 
 They were followed by treasury notes, Avhich being receivable in the 
 discharge of all claims of the treasury, soon got into circulation. This 
 cumulation of public securities in the market within a short time threw 
 them all into discredit, and gave rise to an agiotage, highly injurious to 
 commerce and agriculture. 
 
 While Duvivier was gone to France to induce the minister to furnish 
 means for the recapture of Nova Scotia, Governor Shirle}', of Massachusetts, 
 had dispatched captain Ryall, an officer of the garrison captured at 
 Canceaux, to represent the danger in which the province of Nova Scotia 
 stood, to the lords of the admiralty, and press them for some naval 
 assistance. The captain was also charged to present a plan, Avhich 
 Governor Shirley had formed, for the surprise and capture of the island 
 of Cape Breton, the possession of which, in the neighborhood of New 
 Foundland, enabled the French to annoy the fisheries and commerce of 
 Great Britain. Although nearly eight millions of dollars had been spent 
 by France on the fortifications of that island, the smallness of the garrison, 
 and the vicinity of the British provinces, induced Shirley to conclude it 
 might be easily taken by surprise : the idea had not originated with him, 
 Init had been suggested by Vaughan, a merchant of New Hampshire. 
 
 Ryall's mission had no other effect than a direction to the commander 
 of the squadron in the West Indies, to proceed to the north in the spring 
 to afford protection to the commerce and fisheries of the New England 
 provinces, and distress those of the French ; and the governors were 
 instructed to aid him with transports, men and provisions. 
 
 In the meanwhile, Vaughan's plan had been submitted to the legislature 
 of the i)rovinces, and those of New Hampshire, Massachusetts and 
 Connecticut, had raised about four thousand men, and the governors of 
 the two first colonies, had taken upon themselves, on tliis occasion to 
 disregard their instructions, and to give their assent to bills for the emission 
 of paper money. 
 
 The colonial forces assembled at Canceaux, towards the middle of April, 
 and were put under the order of Vaughan, and soon after the \yest India 
 fleet arrived. 
 
HISTORY OF LOL'ISIAXA. 181 
 
 A landing on the island was efFectod a few days after, and while the fleet 
 was cruising off Louisliourg, it fell in with a sixty-four gun ship from 
 France, with five hundred and sixty men, destined for the garrison and an 
 ample supply of provisions and military stores ; she was captured, and the 
 land forces soon after compelled the garrison to surrender. 
 
 In the meanwhile, the succor that Duvivier had been sent to solicit, 
 had Iicen obtained ; seven ships of war. with a considerable land force, 
 sailed from France, in the month of July. They were ordered to stop at 
 Louisbourg, where they were to be joined by a number of volunteers from 
 Canada, for the attack of Nova Scotia, information reached the fleet, 
 soon after its departure, of the fidl of Louisbourg, and of a British fleet 
 cruising in its vicinity ; the plan was abandoned and the fleet returned 
 into port. 
 
 Great preparations were made by l:)oth nations in the following year. 
 The British determined on simultaneous attacks on Canada, from sea and 
 the lakes, and a very considerable force was collected for this purpose. 
 The French equippe'd a large fleet under the Duke D'Anville for the 
 re-capture of the Island of Cape Breton and Nova Scotia ; but like the 
 Spanish armada, this fleet was, if not destroyed, dispersed by the wiiids 
 and the waves ; most of the ships were disabled. The apprehension which 
 its approach excited, induced the British to turn towards the protection 
 of their own territories the forces they had assembled for the reduction of 
 ('anada. 
 
 Philip the fifth of Spain ended his second reign and his life, in the sixty- 
 third year of his age, on the ninth of July, and was succeeded by his 
 second son, Ferdinand the sixth, having himself been succeeded by, and 
 succeeded, his first. 
 
 Louisiana was this year visited by a destructive hurricane, which laid 
 the plantations waste, and totally destroyed the rice crop. This article was 
 used in most families, as a substitute for bread. The consequent distress 
 was greatly increased by the capture of several vessels that had sailed 
 from France, with provisions. The province was, however, relieved by 
 large supplies of flour from the district of the Illinois, amounting it is said, 
 to four thousand sacks. This part of the province was already, at this 
 period, of considerable importance. In a letter to the minister, Vaudreuil 
 wrote, " we receive from the Illinois, flour, corn, bacon, hams, both of bear 
 and hog, corned pork and wild beef, mj^rtle and beeswax, cotton, tallow, 
 leather, tobacco, lead, copper, buffalo, wool, venison, poultry, bear's grease, 
 oil, skins, fowls and hides. Their boats come down annually, in the latter 
 part of December, and return in February." 
 
 War drew oft' the attention of the people of South Carolina and Georgia ; 
 and the Indians, left to themselves, did not annoy the distant settlements 
 of the French, and that in the neighborhood of Fort Chartres was in a 
 very flourishing condition. 
 
 The extension of agriculture and commerce drew the attention of the 
 government to the roads in the colony, and regulations were made for their 
 construction and repairs. The office of overseer of the highways _ was 
 created and given to Olivier Duvezin, who was also appointed the king's 
 survevor general in the province. His commission bears date the month 
 of October, 1747. 
 
 The incapacity of many of the persons who had been appointed, 
 principally in the distant posts, to make inventories of estates of the 
 
182 HISTORY OF LOI'ISIANA. 
 
 deceased and similar acts, joined to the imi^ossibility often of finding any 
 person to be appointed, had caused in many instances, the omission of 
 the formalities re({uired by law; great inconvenience had resulted from 
 the necessity imposed on the superior council, of declaring some of these 
 acts absolutely null. On the representations of the colonists, a remedy 
 for this evil was sought, and a declaration of the king's council, df 
 the thirteenth of March, 174S, i)rovided that any inventor}^ or other 
 instrument, made in any of the posts of the province, in which there was 
 no public officer, and even in those in which there was such an officer, as 
 in New Orleans, Mol^ile and the Illinois, where the legal formalities were 
 omitted, should be valid, provided there Avas no fraud ; and such inventory 
 or other public instrument should, within the year after the publication 
 of the declaration, be presented to the superior council, and on the motion 
 of the attorney-general, recorded, in order to prevent litigation, and 
 promote the peace of families. 
 
 New Orleans, Mobile and the Illinois being the only places in the 
 province, where public officers resided, it was directed that elsewhere, 
 inventories and other public acts might in future be made by two notable 
 inhal)itants, attended by an equal number of witnesses, and within the 
 year transmitted for registry to the superior council in New Orleans, or 
 the inferior tribunals in Mobile, or the Illinois. 
 
 The winter was this year so severe, that all the orange trees Avere 
 destroyed — a misfortune of which this is the first instance on record. 
 
 The peace of Aix la Chapelle, on the eighteenth day of Octol^er, settled 
 the dissensions of Europe and put an end to the warfare between Canada 
 and New England. Maria Theresa was recognized as Empress, and Don 
 Carlos, the third son of Philip, retained the croAvn of the two Sicilies. 
 Louis XV. and George II. agreed that all conquests made during the war 
 should be restored, and the French re-possessed the island of Cape Breton. 
 
 The provision made by the treat}'- of Utrecht for defining the boundary 
 between Canada and Acadia, had not been carried into effect. The cabinet 
 of Versailles urged that by the cession of Acadia, nothing had been yielded, 
 but the peninsula formed by the bay of Fundy, the Atlantic and the gulf 
 of St. Lawrence — that of St. James claimed all the land to the south of 
 the river St. Lawrence. Unfortunately, measures Avere not taken, at the 
 pacification of Aix la Chapelle, to remoA^e this source of controversy. 
 
 On the t'wenty-fifth of November, the king prolonged for six years, th(.^ 
 exemption he had granted to A^essels trading to Louisiana, from carrying 
 thither the numljer of redemptioners and muskets, Avhich Avere required to 
 be taken to his other American colonies. 
 
 Larouvilliere, succededed Salmon as Commissar}^ Ordonnateur, in the 
 latter part of the following year. 
 
 Several individuals in England and Virginia had associated themselA'cs- 
 under the style of the Ohio com]iany for the purpose of carrying on the 
 Indian trade, and efi'ecting a settlement on the land ■ bordering on that 
 stream. They obtained from the croAvn a grant of six hundred thousand 
 ac^res of land on the Avestern side of the Alleghany mountains. Their 
 surveyors and traders soon crossed the ridge, and erected block houses and 
 stores among the Indians. The Marquis de la Jonquiere, Avho had 
 succeeded the Count de .la Gallissoniere in the goA'ernment of New 
 France, considering the country thus occupied as part of the dominions 
 of his sovereign, complained to governor Colden, of Ncav York, and 
 
HISTORY OF LonSIAXA. 183 
 
 governor Hamilton, of Pennsylvania, of what he viewed as an encroach- 
 ment, and assured them that, if this notice was disregarded, he should 
 deem it his indispensa1)le duty to arrest the surveyors and traders, and to 
 seize the goods of the latter. 
 
 The French had then a large force at Presquisle on lake Erie, and 
 small detachments on French creek and the Alleghany river, and were 
 making preparations for building a considerable fort, at the confluence of 
 the latter stream and the Monongahela, the spot on which now stands the 
 town of Pittsburg. This fort, with those on lake Ontario, at Niagara, the 
 Illinois, the Chickasaw bluffs, the Yazous, Natchez, Pointe Coupee and 
 New C)rleans, Avas intended to form a connecting line, between the gulfs 
 of 8t. Lawrence and Mexico. 
 
 The quota of troops for the service of the province, on the peace estab- 
 lishment, was fixed by an arrest of the king's council dated the 30th of 
 September, 1750, at eight hundred and fifty men, divided into seventeen 
 companies. 
 
 The agriculture of the province was favored by an arrangement with 
 the farmers general of the kingdom, who agreed to purchase all the tobacco 
 raised in Louisiana at thirty livres the hundred, equal to six dollars and 
 two-thirds. 
 
 The renlonstrances of the Marquis de la Jonquiere to the governors of 
 New York and Pennsylvania having been disregarded, he put his threats 
 into execution by the seizure of the persons and goods of several British 
 traders among the Twigtwees. 
 
 The king had favored in 1731, the commerce of his subjects to 
 Louisiana, by exempting all merchandise sent to, or brought from the 
 province, from duty during a period of ten years, and the exemption had 
 in 1741, been extended for a like period. It was by an arrest of the king's 
 council, dated the last of September, farther prolonged during a third 
 period of the same duration : but with regard to foreign merchandise sent 
 there, it was restricted to salt beef, butter, tallow and spices. 
 
 Two hundred recruits arrived from France on the seventeenth of April, 
 for the completion of the quota of troops allotted to the province. The 
 king's ships in which they were embarked, touched at the cape, in the 
 island of Hispaniola, where, with a vie^v of trying with what success the 
 sugar cane could be cultivated on the banks of the Mississippi, the Jesuits 
 of that Island were jjermitted to ship to their brethren in Louisiana a 
 quantity of it. A number of negroes acquainted with the culture and 
 manufacture of sugar, came in the fleet. The canes were planted on the 
 land of the fathers immediately above the city, in the lower part of the 
 spot now known as the suburb St. Mary. Before this time the front of 
 the plantation had been improved in the raising of the myrtle wax shrub ; 
 the rest was sown with indigo. 
 
 The myrtle w-ax shrub is very common in Louisiana, Florida, Georgia, 
 the Carolinas and Virginia, and not rare in the more northern states on 
 the Atlantic. It bears grapes of very diminutive bluish berries, the seeds 
 of W'hich are included in a hard, oblong nucleus, covered by an unctuous 
 and farinaceous substance, easily reducible into wax. In November and 
 December, the berries being perfectly ripe, are boiled in water, and the 
 wax detaches itself and floats on the surface. It is then skimmed off and 
 suffered to cool. It becomes hard and its color a dirty green ; after a 
 second boiling, the color becomes clearer. The candles made of this wax 
 
184 HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 
 
 exhale, in burning, a very pleasant odor. Unsuccessful attempts have 
 been made to bleach it. It is apt to crack, and is rendered tenacious, by 
 being mixed with tallow or soft wax. 
 
 The shi|)S landed also sixty poor girls, who were brought over at tiic 
 king's expense. They were the last succor of this kind, which the mother 
 country supplied. They were given in marriage to such soldiers whose 
 good conduct entitled them to a discharge. Land was allotted to each 
 couple with a cow and calf, a cock and five hens, a gun, axe and hoe. 
 Durino; the three first 3'ears, rations were allowed them, with a small 
 cjuantity of powder, shot, and grain for seed. 
 
 Maca'rty, on the twentieth of August, went with a small detachment to 
 take command of Fort Chartres of the Illinois, left vacant by the death of 
 the unfortunate chevalier drArtaguette. This district had, at this period, 
 six villages ; Kaskaskias, Fort Chartres, Caokias, Prairie des roehers, St. 
 Philip and St. Genevieve. 
 
 Tranquillity being now restored to the British province, traders from 
 the southernmost, poured in their goods, and erected stores and block 
 houses, in the villages of the Indians, on their back settlements ; and those 
 of the French on Mobile and Alibamon rivers began to be distressed by 
 the renewed irruptions of the Chickasaws. In consequence thereof, the 
 Marquis de Vaudreuil marched into the country at the head of a body of 
 seven hundred men of the regular forces and militia, and a large number 
 of Indians. He was not very successful ; the enemy had been taught by 
 the British to fortify their villages. Each had a strong block house, 
 surrounded b.y a wide and deep ditch. The colony was badly supplied 
 with field artillery and soldiers skilled in the management of the pieces. 
 The Marquis lost little time in laying sieges, but wandered through the 
 country, laying the plantations waste. He enlarged the fort of Tombeckbec, 
 left a strong garrison in it, and returned to New Orleans. 
 
 The settlements along the Mississippi, above the city and below, as far 
 as the English turn, were now in high cultivation. The Marquis, in a 
 letter to the minister of this year, observed it was almost an impossibility 
 to have plantations near the river, on account of the immense expense 
 attending the levees, necessary to protect the fields from the inundation 
 of sea and land floods. He recommended that the idea of settling the 
 part of the country below the English turn should be abandoned, till the 
 land Avas raised by the accession of the soil. He observed there had been 
 an increase of three feet in height during the last fifteen years. 
 
 A detachment from the troops in Canada had been sent under the 
 orders of Legardeur de St. Pierre, a knight of St. Louis, to erect a fort on 
 the western branch of French creek, which falls into the Ohio. This 
 officer, on the twelfth of December, 1753, received by the hands of major 
 Washington, of Virginia (a man whose name will long attract the admi- 
 ration of the world and forever that of his country) a letter from governor 
 Dinwiddle, summoning him to withdraw, with the men under his 
 command, from the dominions of the British king. He wrote to the 
 governor, he had been sent to take possession of the country by his superior 
 officer, then in Canada, to whom he would transmit the message, and whose 
 order he would implicitly obey. 
 
 In a Cjuarrel between a Choctaw and a Colapissa, the former told the 
 latter, his countr3'men were the dogs of the French — meaning their slaves. 
 The Colapissa, having a loaded musket in his hands, discharged its 
 
HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 185 
 
 contents at the Choctaw, and fled to Xew Orleans. The relations of the 
 deceased came to the Marquis de Vaudreuil to demand his surrender ; he 
 had in the meanwhile gone to the German coast. The Martinis having 
 vainly tried to appease them, sent orders to Renaud, the eonnnandant of 
 that post, to have the murderer arrested ; but he eluded the pursuit. His 
 father Avent to the Choctaws and offered himself a willing victim : the 
 relations of the deceased persisted in their refusal to accept any compen- 
 sation in presents. They at last consented to allow the old man to atone 
 by the loss of his own life, for the crime of his son. He stretched himself 
 on the trunk of an old tree and a Choctaw severed his head from the liody 
 at the first stroke. This instance of paternal affection was made the 
 subject of a tragedy, by Leblanc de Villeneuve, an officer of the troops 
 lately arrived from France. This performance is the only dramatic work, 
 which the republic of letters owes to Louisiana. 
 
 The Marquis de Vaudreuil was this year promoted, and succeeded 
 Duciuesne, in the government of New France, and was succeeded, in that 
 of Louisiana by Kerlerec. a captain in the royal navy — and Auberville was 
 on the death of La Rouvilliere, appointed commisary ordonnateur. 
 
 On the return of major Washington, the legislature of Virginia directed 
 a regiment to be raised, of which he was appointed Lieutenant-Colonel. 
 He Avas then in his twenty-second 3'ear. 
 
 Washington advanced with two companies of his regiment in the middle 
 of April, 1754, and surprised a party of the French, under the orders of 
 Jumonville, a few miles west of a place then called the Great meadows, in 
 the present county of Fayette, in the state of Pennsylvania, and on the 
 first fire this gentleman fell. He was the only man killed, but the Avhole 
 party surrendered. The rest of the regiment came up soon after. Colonel 
 Fry, its commander, having died on the way, Washington found himself 
 at the head of it, and was soon after reinforced by detachments from New 
 York and South Carolina. 
 
 There was then at Fort Chartres of the Illinois, an officer named Villiers, 
 brother of Jumonville, who hearing of his death, solicited from Macarty, 
 who had succeeded La Buissonniere, in the command of Fort Chartres, to 
 be allowed to go and avengs his brother's death, with the few soldiers that 
 could be spared and a large number of Indians. Villiers descended the 
 Mississippi and ascended the Ohio. AVashington, having erected a small 
 fort as a place of deposit to which he gave the name of Fort Necessity, the 
 traces of which are still visible near Union, the chief toAvn of the county of 
 Fayette, was marching towards the confluence of the Monongahela and the 
 Alleghany, where the French were building the fort to Avhich they gave 
 the name of Duquesne. He heard of the approach of Villiers, from the 
 Indians, who said that his folloAvers Avere as numerous as the pigeons in 
 the AA^oods, and Avas advised by his officers to march back to Fort Necessity, 
 Avhich Avas at the distance of thirteen miles ; he yielded to their suggestion. 
 The party had hardly entered the fort Avhen Villiers approached it, and 
 immediately began a brisk fire, and an engagement noAV commenced 
 Avhich lasted from ten o'clock till dark, when the assailants offered terms 
 of capitulation, AA'hich Avere rejected ; during the night, hoAvever, articleB 
 Avere agreed upon. By these Washington having obtained that his men 
 should be allowed to return home with their arms and baggage, surrendered 
 the fort. This AA'as on the noAv most A'enerated day in the American 
 calendar, the fourth of July. 
 
186 HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 
 
 During the summer, some soldiers of the garrison of Cat IsLind rose 
 upon and killed Roux, who commanded there. They were exasperated at 
 his avarice and cruelty. He employed them in liurning coal, of which he 
 made a traffic, and for trifling delinquencies had exposed several of them, 
 naked and tied to trees in a swamp, during whole nights, to the stings of 
 musquitoes. Joining some English traders in the neighborhood of 
 Mol.ile, they started in the hope of reaching Georgia, through the Indian 
 country. A party of the Choctaws, then about the fort, was sent after 
 and overtook them. One destroyed himself; the rest were brought to 
 Xew Orleans, where two were broken on the wheel ; the other, belonging 
 to the Swiss regiment of Karrer, was, according to the law of his nation, 
 followed ])_v the officers of the Swiss troops in the service of France, sawed 
 in two parts. He was placed alive in a kind of coffin, to the middle of 
 which two sergeants applied a whip saw. It was not thought prudent to 
 make any allowance for the provocation these men had received. The 
 Indians seldom losing the opportunity of claiming remuneration, the 
 Alibamons made a demand from Kerlerec for the pollution of their land 
 by the self-destruction of a soldier, who had avoided in this manner, 
 the dire fate that awaited him. He accordingly made them a present. 
 
 In the latter part of the year, Favrot was sent to the Illinois Avith four 
 companies of fifty men each, and a large supply of provisions and 
 ammunition. 
 
 The Marquis de Vaudreuil, on his arrival at Quebec, had received 
 instructions to occupy and establish forts in the country to the south of 
 the river St. Lawrence. 
 
 In the spring, as he was preparing to carry these instructions into 
 effect, the British regular forces in Boston, with two provincial regiments, 
 joined the garrison kept in Nova Scotia; and landing on the main, 
 marched against Beausejour, which was surrendered on the fifth day ; 
 and in the summer possession was taken of all the posts of the French in 
 the disputed territory, and every part of Nova Scotia, as claimed by Great 
 Britain, was conquered. 
 
 In the cession of Acadia, Louis the fourteenth had stipulated that his 
 subjects there should be allowed to retain their land on swearing alle- 
 giance to Queen Anne. They had declined doing so unqualifiedly, and 
 insisted on such a modification of the formula presented to them, as would 
 dispense them from the obligation of turning their arms against their 
 countrymen in the defense of the rights of Great Britain to the countr}'. 
 No oath had been imposed on them. Although this indulgence had been 
 complained of in England, no order had been sent either to require an 
 absolute oath of allegiance or to expel those who had refused to take it : 
 so the Acadians considered themselves as neutrals. 
 
 The vicinity of a country, with the inhabitants of which, these people 
 were so intimately connected by the ties of nature, allegiance and national 
 character, who spoke the same language and professed the same religion, 
 prevented them from considering themselves as of a different country, or 
 as subjects of a different crown. They saw in the neighboring Canadians 
 a band of brothers, on whose assistance, in an emergency, they might 
 rely, and considered themselves equally bound to yield theirs in return. 
 They had, on every occasion, enlisted their feelings, their passions and 
 their forces, with these- neighbors, and in the late attack against 
 
HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 187 
 
 Beausejoiir, a considerable number of them were found arrayed against 
 the conquerors, under the banner of France. 
 
 Nova Scotia is a rocky, barren country. The winter hists seven months 
 and is of di*eadful severity ; it keeps the people in almost as lifeless and 
 torpid state as their vegetables. The summer comes sudenly (for there is 
 no spring) and the heat is greater than is ever felt in England. Perpetual 
 fogs render the country equally unwholesome and unpleasant. It presented 
 so few advantages to new comers that the removal to it of such a number 
 of British subjects, as would give them a preponderance over its former 
 inhabitants, could not soon be effected. The transportation and main- 
 tenance of such a body of regular troops, as might keep the latter in awe, 
 was a measure that must necessarily be attended with an expense totally 
 unproportioned to the benefits, which Great Britain could expect from the 
 possession of the country. 
 
 It appeared equally dangerous to permit them to depart or stay. For 
 it seemed certain that, if they were left at liberty to choose the place of 
 their removal, they would set down, as nearly as they could, to the country 
 they should leave, that they could be ready to follow any troops the 
 government of Canada might send to retake it. 
 
 In this dilemma, it was deemed the safest expedient to remove these 
 people in such a manner as to lessen or destroy, by their division, the 
 danger that might be apprehended from them. They were accordingly, 
 at different periods, shipped off in small numbers to the British provinces 
 to the south of New Jersey. This act of severity, which the circumstances 
 were thought to justify, was not the only one that was exercised against 
 them ; their land and goods were taken from them and they were 
 permitted to carry nothing away, but their household furniture and 
 money ; of the last article few, very few indeed, had any. It was 
 determined to take from them all means of travelling back ; and to 
 deprive them, even of the least hope, as respects this, their fields were 
 laid w^aste and their dwellings and fences consumed by fire. 
 
 Thus beggared, these people were, in small numbers and at different 
 periods, cast on the sandy shores of the southern provinces, among a 
 jieople of whose language they were ignorant and who knew not theirs, 
 whose manners and education were different from their own, whose religion 
 they abhorred and who were rendered odious to them, as the friends and 
 countrymen of those Avho had so cruelly treated them, and whom they 
 considered as a less savage foe, than he who wields the tomahawk and 
 the scalping knife. 
 
 It is due to the descendants of the British colonists, to say that their 
 sires received with humanity, kindness and hospitality those who so 
 severely smarted under the calamities of war. In every province, the 
 humane example of the legislature of Pennsylvania, was followed, and 
 the colonial treasury was opened to relieve the sufferers ; and private 
 charity was not outdone by the public. Yet, but a few accepted the 
 proffered relief and sat down on the land that was offered them. 
 
 The others fled westerly from what appeared to them a hostile shore — 
 wandering till the}'^ found themselves out of sight of any who spoke the 
 English language. They crossed the mighty spine and wintered among 
 the Indians. The scattered parties, thrown off on the coast of every 
 colony from Pennsylvania to Georgia, united, and trusting themselves to 
 
188 HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 
 
 the western waters sought the land on which the spotless banner waved 
 and the waves of the Mississippi brought them to New Orleans. 
 
 The levee and square of the city presented, on their arrival, a spectacle 
 not unlike that they offered, about a quarter of a century before on the 
 landing of the women and children snatched from the hands of the 
 Xatchez. Like these, the Acadians Avere greeted with tenderness and 
 hospitality ; every house in the city afforded a shelter to some of these 
 unfortunate people. Charity burst open the door of the cloister and the 
 nuns ministered with profusion and cheerfulness to the wants of the 
 unprotected of their sex. 
 
 Kerlerec and Auberville allotted a tract of land to each family : they 
 were supplied with farming utensils at the king's expense, and during the 
 first year the same rations were distributed to them out of the king's 
 stores, as to the troops. They settled above the German coast, on both 
 sides of the Mississippi, and in course of time their plantations connected 
 the latter settlement with that of Baton Rouge and Pointe Coupee. It is, 
 at this day, l*nown by the appellation of the Acadian coast. 
 
 In the meanwhile, the British under general Braddock, made on fort 
 Duquesne an unsuccessful attack, in which the commander lost his life. 
 Governor Shirley of Massachusetts failed also in an attack against the fort 
 of the French at Niagara, and in his advance to lake Ontario. Colonel 
 Johnson of New York made likewise a vain attempt against Crown point 
 on lake Champlain. 
 
 Although there had been no actual declaration of w^ar betw^een France and 
 Great Britain, both governments had granted letters of marque, and sent 
 considerable forces to North America. 
 
 The Baron de Dieskau, at the head of a small force marched against 
 the British post at Oswego, but was overpowered and defeated. 
 
 At last, on the seventeenth of May, George the first published his 
 declaration of war. 
 
 This document sets forth that the injurious proceedings of the French 
 in the West Indies and North America since the peace of Aix la Chapelle, 
 and their usurpations and encroachments in the Western hemisphere, had 
 been so frequent and notorious, that they manifested a settled design, and 
 undeviating resolution of invariably prosecuting the most efficacious 
 measures for the advancement of their ambitious views, without any 
 regard for the most solemn engagements and treaties. 
 
 The King urges that his frequent and serious representations to the 
 cabinet of Versailles, on these reiterated acts of violence, and his 
 endeavors to obtain satisfaction and reparation for the injuries sustained 
 by his subjects, and to guard against the recurrence of similar causes 
 of complaint have produced nothing but assurances that everything 
 should be settled according to existing treaties, and particularly that the 
 evacuation of the four neutral islands should be effected, as had been 
 expressly promised to the British Ambassador. Yet the execution of 
 this promise and the clause of the treaty on which it was grounded had 
 been eluded, on the most frivolous pretences, and the illicit practices of 
 the French governments and its officers had been carried to such a degree 
 that in Ajiril, 1754, they broke out into open hostilities ; and in a moment 
 of profound i)eace without any previous remonstrance, a body of French 
 troops openly attacked and captured a British fort on one of the branches 
 of the Ohio. 
 
HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 189 
 
 Hostilities on the Ohio, as we have seen, had ))een commenced by the 
 attack of major ^^'ashington on the party commanded l)y Jumonville, in 
 which the latter fell, and the march of Villiers against Fort Necessity was 
 only a matter of retaliation. 
 
 It is said in the manifesto, that notwithstanding this act of hostility, 
 which could only be considered as a signal for war, so sincere was the 
 desire of the king to remain at j^eace, and so sanguine his hope that the 
 French monarch would disown this act of violence and injustice, that he 
 contented himself with sending over to America such forces only as were 
 necessary to the immediate defense of his subjects and their protection 
 against new insults or attacks. But in the meanwhile, a great naval 
 armament was made in France, and a considerable number of troops were 
 sent to Canada ; and although the ambassador of France gave the most 
 specious promises of the speedy arrangement of all existing differences, 
 the real design of his court was to gain time, in order that such reinforce- 
 ments might reach the armies of France in the new world, as would insure 
 superiority, and enable their prince to execute his unjust and ambitious 
 projects. The king complains that the measures which were required 
 from him by the necessity of preventing the landing of the French troops 
 in America, were followed by the departure of the French ambassador, the 
 fortifying of Dunkirk, and the gathering of a considerable number of 
 armed men on the coast of France, threatening his subjects with an 
 invasion. i 
 
 He declares that in order to avert the impending calamity, and provide 
 for the safety of his kingdom, he was compelled to give orders for the 
 seizure of French vessels. Yet, unwilling to forego the hope, or to throw 
 difficulty in the way, of an amicable adjustment, he had expressly 
 commanded that the cargoes of these vessels should remain in a state of 
 sequestration. But, the actual invasion of the island of Minorca evinced 
 the determination of the French cabinet not to lend its ear to any amicable 
 proposition, but to prosecute the war it had begun, with the utmost 
 Wolence, and compel him to al)andon the system of moderation in which 
 he had so long persisted. 
 
 Vast preparations were made under the directions of the Earl of 
 Loudon, who had succeeded General Abercrombie in the chief command 
 of the king's forces in North America. A considerable number of troops 
 were raised in the New England provinces, and in those of New York and 
 Pennsylvania, and lesser bodies were procured in the southern provinces 
 for the campaign of the next year. 
 
 In the meanwhile, the Marquis de Montcalm had arrived in Canada 
 and taken the command of the forces of France. 
 
 The earl, notwithstanding his great preparations, did not strike any 
 blow — the marquis with far less means was more successful. In the month 
 of August, he made himself master of Fort Oswego : this post, situated 
 at the mouth of Onondago river, commanded a commodious harbor on 
 lake Ontario. It had been erected by Governor Shirley, with a view to 
 the protection of the country of the five nations, the security of the fur 
 trade, the obstruction of the communication between the French estab- 
 lishments, and to open a way for the British forces to Niagara and Fort 
 Frontenac. Montcalm's military means not allowing him to keep it, he 
 ordered the British fort to be raised, and told the Indians his views were 
 not hostile to them — became into the country for their protection: he 
 
190 HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 
 
 wished no strong house to keep them in awe : his nation desired only to 
 live in peace, trade with them and protect them against their enemies, who 
 were those of the French. 
 
 The Marquis met with an equal success in the attack of Fort William 
 Henry on lake Champlain, which surrendered in the beginning of 
 August. 
 
 This 5"ear Auberville died, and was succeeded in the office of commis- 
 sary ordonnateur of Louisiana by Bobe Descloseaux. 
 
 The tide of events turned against France in the following year. The 
 British took the islands of Cape Breton and St. John, and raised Fort 
 Frontenac on lake Ontario, during the summer. In the fall general 
 Forbes marched against Fort Duquesne ; the French commander, finding 
 himself unable to defend it, embarked his artillery and ammunition, set 
 fire to the buildings and evacuated it. In the latter part of November, 
 the garrison floated down the Ohio and Mississippi to New Orleans. 
 
 In their way, they stopped and built a fort on the right bank of the 
 former stream, not far from the place at which it falls into the latter. It 
 was called Fort Massic, after the officer, who was left to attend to its 
 erection and to command it. 
 
 On the arrival of the forces from Fort Duquesne at New Orleans, new 
 buildings were required for the accommodation of the troops, and Kerlerec 
 began the barracks in the lower part of the city. 
 
 Although the essay, which the Jesuits had made in 1751, to naturalize 
 the sugar cane in Louisiana, had been successful, the culture of it, on a 
 large scale, was not attempted till this year, when Dubreuil erected a mill 
 for the manufacture of sugar, on his plantation, immediately adjoining 
 the lower part of New Orleans — the spot now covered by the suburb 
 Marigny. 
 
 Kerlerec, having been directed to have the part of the province, around 
 lake Barataria and along the sea shore, west of the Mississippi, explored, 
 Marigny de Mandeville, a son of the late commandant of Fort Conde of 
 Mobile, made an accurate map of the southwestern part of the province. 
 
 Overtures towards negotiation were made by the cabinet of Versailles, 
 to that of St. James, through the channel of the Dandish ambassador 
 in London. 
 
 Rochemore, who had been appointed commissary ordonnateur, arrived 
 early in the following year. Soon after his landing, an unfortunate 
 misunderstanding between him and Kerlerec, disturbed greatly the 
 tranquillity of the colony. It was then the practice of the government to 
 send large quantities of goods for the Indian trade : they were entrusted 
 to the officers sent in command to the distant posts, to Avhom they 
 furnished the means of considerably increasing their fortunes. The 
 ordonnateur, who had the disposal of these, found in it an opportunity of 
 attaching those officers to his party, which the governor complained, he 
 did not neglect. Each of these chiefs imagined he had grounds of 
 recrimination against the other ; a considerable degree of irritation was 
 excited, and a circumstance of no great moment brought matters to a 
 crisis. 
 
 Diaz Anna, a Jew from Jamaica, came to New Orleans on a trading 
 voyage. We have seen that by an edict of the month of March, 1724, that 
 of Louis the thirteenth, of the 13th of April, 1615, had been extended to 
 Louisiana. The latter edict declared that Jews as enemies of the christian 
 
IIISTOKY OF LOUISIANA. 191 
 
 name, should not bo allowed to reside in Louisiana ; and if they staid in 
 spite of the edict, their l)odies and goods should he confiscated: lioche- 
 more had the vessel of the Isracdite and her cargo S(nzed. Kerlerec sent 
 soldiers to drive away the guard put on ])oard the vessel, and had her 
 restored to the Jew. Imagining he had gone too far to sto]) there, he 
 liad Belot, Rochemore's secretary, and Marigny de Mandeville, de 
 Lahoupe, Bossu and some other officers, whom he suspected to have 
 joined the ordonnateur's party, arrested, and a few days after shipped 
 them for France. He entrusted Grandmaison, an officer who having 
 obtained a furlough had taken his passage in the vessel, on board of 
 which these persons were placed, with his dispatches for the minister, 
 containing the reasons which, in his opinion, justified this violent 
 measure. 
 
 As the vessel approached the coast of France, she was driven by a 
 storm on that of Spain and entered the port of St. Sebastian. Grand- 
 maison, according to Kerlerec's instructions, went to deposit the dispatches 
 in the hands of the consul of France. Belot and his companions in 
 misfortune accompanied the messenger to the consulate. The dispatches 
 being delivered were placed on a table, from which it is supposed they 
 were purloined by one of the consul's visitors, while he was attending on 
 the others, Avhose attention had been drawn to some fine engravings on the 
 walls of the apartment. 
 
 On their arrival in Paris, Belot and his associates filled the court with 
 their complaints of Kerlerec's arbitrary proceedings. He was universally 
 blamed. 
 
 During the summer, the most rapid success attended the British forces 
 in Canada. They possessed themselves of Ticonderoga on the 22d of July, 
 of Crown point, in the beginning of August, of Niagara on the 24th, and 
 of Quebec on the eighteenth of September. 
 
 In the following year, they found themselves masters of all Canada, by 
 the reduction of Montreal. 
 
 On the eleventh of August, Ferdinand the sixth of Spain died, in the 
 fifty-sixth year of his age, without issue. He was succeeded by Charles 
 the third, his brother, then king of Naples, the third son of Philip the 
 fifth, wdio Avielded the Spanish sceptre. 
 
 •-^ George the second of Great Britain ended his life, at the advanced age 
 of seventy-seven years, on the twenty-fifth of October ; he was succeeded 
 by George the third, his grandson. ,' 
 
 On the fall of Canada, a number of the colonists, unwilling to live under 
 their conquerors, sought the warm clime over which the spotless banner 
 still waved ; most of them settled in the neighborhood of the Acadians. 
 Others of a more roving disposition crossed the lakes that separate the 
 right bank of the Mississippi from the western prairies and began the 
 settlements of Attakapas, Opelousas and Avoyelles. 
 
 The province at this time was inundated by a flood of paper money. 
 The administration, for several years past, had paid in due bills all the 
 supplies they had obtained, and they had been suflered to accumulate to 
 an immense amount. A consequent depression had left them almost 
 without any value. This had been occasioned, in a great degree, by a 
 belief that the officers who had put these securities afloat, had at times, 
 attended more to their own, than to the public interests, and that the 
 French government, on the discovery of this, would not perhaps be. found 
 
192 HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 
 
 ready to indemnify the holders against the misconduct of its agents. With 
 a view, however, to prepare the way for the redemption of the paper, the 
 colonial treasurer was directed to receive all that might be presented, and 
 to give in its stead, certificates, in order that the extent of the evil, being 
 known the remedy might be applied. 
 
 The disastrous situation of the marine of France precluding the hope 
 of recovering any part of her lost territory in America, the Duke of 
 Choiseuil, who without the title, exercised the functions of prime 
 minister, made an attempt at negotiation with Great Britain. The 
 conferences began on the twenty-eighth of March, but were closed soon 
 after without success. Disappointed in this quarter, he formed the plan 
 of joining the marine of Spain to that of France, and this was the end 
 of the family compact, which was signed at Paris, on the fifteenth of 
 August. 
 
 The avowed object of this arrangement was to give permanence and 
 inviolability to the obligations resulting from the friendship and consan- 
 guinity of the sovereigns of France and Spain, and to rear up a solemn 
 monument of the reciprocal interest which was the object of their wishes 
 and insure the continuance of the prosperity of their royal family. 
 
 They agree to consider in future any power at war with either of them, 
 as a common enemy ; they reciprocally guarantee to each other his 
 respective dominions in every part of the world ; but, it is expressly 
 stated that this guarantee is to have no other object than the respective 
 dominions of each crown, as they may exist at the first period of peace 
 with the other powers. 
 
 A like guarantee is to be extended to the King of the two Sicilies and 
 the Duke of Parma, on their respective accession to the compact. 
 
 Although the mutual guarantee is to be supported with all the forces of 
 the parties, they stipulate that the first succor to be furnished is to 
 consist of a given number of ships, horse and foot. 
 
 The wars which the French king may be engaged in, in consequence of 
 his engagements at the treaty of Westphalia, or his alliances with 
 German princes, are exempted from the compact, unless a maritime power 
 takes part in them, or his dominions are attacked. 
 
 The stipulated succor is to be considered as the minimum of what the 
 required party is bound to do ; and it is the understanding of the parties 
 that on a declaration of war against either, it is to be considered as 
 common to the other. They shall jointly exert all their means : and 
 arrangements will be made, relative to a common plan, and the respective 
 efforts of the parties, according to circumstances. 
 
 No proposition of peace from the common enemy shall be listened to, 
 without the joint consent of each party, who in peace and in war, shall 
 consider the interest of the other as his own : all losses and advantages 
 are to be compensated and the two parties are to act as if they formed 
 but one. 
 
 The king of Spain stipulates for that of the two Sicilies and engages to 
 procure his accession to the compact. 
 
 The droit dkiubaine is abolished in favor of the subjects of the parties, 
 and they are to enjoy the advantages and immunities of national subjects. 
 
 The powers with whom either party may make a treaty, shall be 
 informed that these advantages and immunities are not to be extended to 
 others. 
 
HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 193 
 
 At the close of the 3'ear Rochmore went over to France. His conduct 
 was approved by the minister, and orders were sent to Kerlerec, on the 
 following year, to return and give an account of his : Foucault was sent to 
 succeed Rochmore. 
 
 Early the next year, the sovereigns of Great Britain and Spain pu])lishe(l 
 formal declarations of war against each other. The success of the British 
 arms, in the \\'est Indies, Avere as rapid and brilliant as they had been in 
 Canada, in 1759. Martinico, Grenada, St. Lucia and all the other Caribee 
 islands were conquered from France, and the city of Havana from Spain. 
 
 On the third of November, a secret treaty was signed at Paris, between 
 the French and Spanish king, by which the former ceded to the latttT the 
 part of the province of Louisiana, which lies on the western side of the 
 Mississippi, with the city of New Orleans and the island on which it stands. 
 
 The Avar between Great Britain, France and Spain, was terminated by 
 the treaty of Paris, on the sixteenth of February of the following year. 
 
 CHAPTERXIV. 
 
 By the treaty of Paris, the king of France renounced his pretensions to 
 Nova Scotia or Acadie, and guaranteed the whole of it, with its depend- 
 encies, to the king of Great Britain ; to whom he ceded and guaranteed in 
 full right Canada, with all its dependencies, as well as the island of Cape 
 Breton and all the other islands and coasts, in the river and gulf of St. 
 Lawrence. 
 
 The limits between the French and British possessions in North America, 
 are fixed irrevocably by a line drawn along the middle of the river 
 Mississippi,' from its source to the river Iberville ; and from thence by a 
 line in the middle of that stream and lake Maurepas and Pontchartrain to 
 the sea. 
 
 The king of France cedes to that of Great Britain the river and purt of 
 Mobile, and everything possessed by him on the left side of the river 
 Mississippi, except the town of New Orleans and the island on which it 
 stands. 
 
 The navigation of the Mississippi is declared free to the subjects of either 
 sovereign, in its whole breadth and length, from its source to the sea : and 
 it is expressly stipulated that vessels belonging to subjects of either shall 
 not be stopped, visited, or subject to any duty. 
 
 The British king promises to allow the inhabitants of Canada, the free 
 exercise of the Roman Catholic religion, and to give the most preci^^e and 
 effective orders that his new Roman Catholic subjects may exercise their 
 religion, according to its rites, in as much as it is permitted by the laws 
 of Great Britain. 
 
 Eighteen months are allowed to the inhabitants to sell their property to 
 British subjects, and withdraw wherever they please. 
 
 The same rights are granted to the inhabitants of the ceded part of 
 Louisiana. 
 
 The king of Spain cedes to that of Great Britain the province of Florida 
 with the fort of St. Augustine and the bay of Pensacola, as well as all the 
 country he possesses on the continent of North America, to the east and 
 southeast of the river Mississippi. 
 
 27 
 
194 HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 
 
 We have seen that all the part of Louisiana not ceded to Great Britain, 
 had alread}' been yielded to Spain ; so that France did not retain one inch 
 of ground in Xorth America. 
 
 The conquered islands were restored to France and Spain. 
 
 The island of Grenada and its dependencies were ceded by the king of 
 France to that of Great Britain. 
 
 The islands called neutrals were divided, but not equally ; those of St. 
 Vincent, Dominica and Tobago, being yielded to Great Britain, and that 
 of St. Lucia to France. 
 
 Clement the thirteenth having expelled the Jesuits from the dominions 
 of the kings of France, Spain and Naples, these monks were now driven 
 from Louisiana, and in the month of July their property, near New 
 Orleans, was taken into the king's hands and sold, under a decree of the 
 superior council. It produced about one hundred and eighty thousand 
 dollars. 
 
 On the seventh of October, 1763, the king of Great Britain divided his 
 acquisitions in North America into three distinct governments, those of 
 Quebec, and East and West Florida. 
 
 All the coast from the river St. John to Hudson's straits, with the 
 islands of Anticosti and Madeleine, and all other small islands on that 
 coast, were put under the care and inspection of the government of New 
 Foundland. 
 
 The islands of St. John, Cape Breton, with the lesser ones adjacent 
 thereto, were annexed to the province of Nova Scotia. 
 
 The land between the rivers St. Mary and Altamaha was annexed to the 
 province of Georgia. 
 
 The part of the territory acquired from Spain, adjoining Louisiana, was 
 erected into a separate province, called West Florida ; it was bounded on 
 the south by the gulf of Mexico, including all islands within six leagues 
 of the sea coast from the river Apalachicola to lake Pontchartrain — on the 
 west b}^ that lake, lake Maurepas and the river Mississippi — on the north, 
 by a line drawn due east from a point in the middle of that river, in the 
 thirty-first degree of northern latitude to the river Apalachicola or 
 Catahouche, and to the east by that river. 
 
 In the meanwhile, George Johnston, a caj^tain in the royal navy, 
 appointed governor of the province of West Florida, arrived at Pensacola 
 with major Loftus, who was to command at the Illinois. They were 
 accompanied by a considerable number of highlanders from New York 
 and Charleston. Detachments of these were sent to take possession of 
 Fort Conde, Fort Toulouse, Baton Rouge and the Natchez. 
 
 Fort Conde was now called Fort Charlotte, in compliment to the young 
 queen of Great Britain. 
 
 Most of the Indians, in alliance with the French, followed the white 
 banner to New Orleans, on its being lowered in the forts of the ceded 
 territory ; lands were allotted to them on the western side of the 
 Mississippi. 
 
 In the fall, Kerlerec was recalled ; and the chief magistracy of the 
 province vested in d'Abadie, under the title of director general. The 
 military force was reduced three hundred men, divided into six companies 
 under the orders of Aubry, as senior captain. 
 
 Kerlerec's conduct was highly disapproved of in France ; he was 
 
HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 195 
 
 confined for some time in the Bastile, and died of grief shortly after his 
 release. 
 
 Major Loftus, who connnanded the twenty-second regiment, came from 
 Pensacohi to New Orleans on his way to the Illinois, earl}- in 1764. He 
 proceeded up the river on the 27th of February, with a detachment of the 
 thirty-fourth, who had been employed in reconnoitring the river Iberville. 
 His whole force consisting of about four hundred men, was embarketl in 
 ten batteaux of from sixteen to twent}^ oars each and two canoes. Thev 
 reached the heights now called Fort Adams then La roche a Davion, iii 
 three weeks. 
 
 In the morning of the twentieth of March, the two canoes being a little 
 ahead of the major's batteau and close to the right bank, which was 
 covered with brush, a volley was fired on them and three privates were 
 killed and one wounded in the first canoe and one sergeant and two 
 privates wounded and two privates killed in the second. The boats going 
 back with the stream and there being no possibility of landing on that 
 side, the river having overflowed its banks, the major ordered his small 
 fleet on the opposite shore, and as he approached received a second vollev. 
 Both sides of the river appearing strongly guarded by the Indians and the 
 stream narrow, he determined on descending the river and taking post for 
 the present at bayou Manshac. The mount, near which the party was fired 
 on, was afterwards called Loftus' heights. 
 
 Having disembarked at bayou Manshac and reconnoitred the ground, 
 major Loftus thought it better to return to New Orleans, where finding a 
 brig ready to sail for Pensacola, he took passage in her ; his men floated 
 down in their batteaux, to the Balize, except a captain and twenty men 
 of the twenty-second regiment, whom he ordered to proceed by the lakes 
 to Mobile. 
 
 As they were ready to start, d'Abadie received information that sixt}'- 
 Indians of the Colapissa tribe from the western side of lake Ponchartrain 
 were preparing to intercept the batteaux in the rigolets. 
 
 The captain represented to the French chief that major Loftus had 
 departed fully suspecting that the French had prevailed on the Indians 
 to prevent his ascent of the river to the Illinois, and an attack of the 
 Indians, who were known to be in the interest of the French, would not 
 fail to increase the suspicion. D'Al)adie proposed to send an officer, with 
 a detachment to escort the British. This was declined, and an interpreter, 
 acquainted with the kn'king places of the Indians, was sent forward to 
 assure them the British wished to live in peace and friendship with them ; 
 and would treat them as brethren. The Captain and his men reached 
 Mobile safely, on the fifth of April. 
 
 The Indians, who fired on the British force up the river, were parties 
 of the Tunicas, Oumas, Chetimachas and Yazous. 
 
 On the twenty-third of March, the lords commissioners of trade and 
 })lantations, in Great Britain, represented to the king that it appeared 
 from observations and surveys made since the province of West Florida 
 was in his possession, that there were considerable settlements on the 
 left bank of the Mississippi, above the thirty-first degree of northern 
 latitude, and recommended that the northern boundary of the province 
 of West Florida should be a line drawn from the mouth of the river of 
 the Yazous, running due ;west to the river /Apalachicola.', Accordingly, 
 
196 HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 
 
 on the tenth of June, a new commission was issued to governor Johnston, 
 extending thus the limits of his government. 
 
 During tlie svimmer, a large detachment occupied Fort Rosalie of 
 Natchez. 
 
 In the meanwhile, British vessels Ijegan to visit the lower banks of the 
 Mississippi — after passing New Orleans, they cast anchor, made fast to a 
 tree above it, opposite the present suburb Lafayette, where the people of 
 the city and neighboring plantations came to trade with them. The spot, 
 at which they stopped on their way up the river, under the pretense of 
 going to bayou INIanshac and Baton Rouge, received the appellation of 
 Little Manshac. The wants of the colony induced its chief to overlook 
 and tolerate the illegal traffic — extremely advantageous to the colonists, 
 whose honesty and good faith rendered it equally so to their visitors. 
 
 The colonists began now to be distressed by rumors from France of 
 their ai^proaching passage under the yoke of Spain. These fears were 
 realized early in October, when official intelligence of the cession was 
 received by d'Al)adie, in a letter of his sovereign, bearing date the first of 
 April preceding. 
 
 In this document, the king, after announcing the cession to the director 
 general (copies of the treaty and its acceptance being inclosed) manifests 
 his intention, that, on the receipt of the letter and its inclosures, whether 
 it be delivered him by any Spanish officer, or brought by any French 
 vessel, immediate possession should be delivered to the governor, or any 
 other officer of the Catholic king, of the city of New Orleans and the rest 
 of the ceded territory ; It being the object of the cession that the country 
 should in the future belong to the latter sovereign, and be ruled and 
 administered b}^ his governor or chief officer, as being his, in full property 
 and without reserve. 
 
 D'Abadie is accordingly instructed, on the arrival of the Spanish 
 officers and troops, after having yielded possession, to withdraw with all 
 the officers, soldiers and other persons in the service of France, who may 
 not be desirous of remaining, and affi)rd them a passage to some of the 
 king's dominions in Europe or the West Indies. 
 
 He is directed, immediately after the evacuation, to collect all papers, 
 relative to the finances, and the administration of the province, and to 
 return and give an account of his proceedings ; delivering however, to 
 governor or other officer of the Spanish king, such papers, as may 
 especially relate to the affairs of the colony, in regard to the land, the 
 different jjosts and Indian affairs ; taking receipts for his discharge. It 
 is recommended to him to afford such information, relative to the concerns 
 of the colony, as may enable the officers of Spain to administer its affairs 
 to the satisfaction of both nations. 
 
 Duplicate inventories are ordered to be made by the director general, 
 and a Spanish commissary, of all the artillery, goods, magazines, hospitals 
 and vessels of the province ; so that, after delivery, an appraisement may 
 be made of such articles as may be kept by the Spanish king. 
 
 The hope is expressed and the king declares he expects it from the 
 friendship of the monarch of Spain, that, for the advantage and tranquillity 
 of the inhal)itants, orders Avill be given to the governor and other officers, 
 employed in Louisiana, that the regular and secular clergy, acting as 
 curates or missionaries, may be allowed to continue the exercise of their 
 functions and enjoy the rights, privileges and exemptions, granted to them 
 
HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 197 
 
 by the royal charters, and that the inferior judges, as well as those of the 
 superior council, may he allowed tt) continue to administer justice, 
 according to the present laws, forms, and usages of the colony, that the 
 inhahitants may he confirmed in their estates according to the grants of 
 the former governors and commissaries ordonnateurs, and that such 
 grants may be confirmed by the Catholic king, even whe-n they were not 
 so by him. Finally, the king hopes the new sovereign will give to his 
 subjects in Louisiana such marks of his protection and favor, as they 
 have heretofore experienced from the former, of which nothing but the 
 disasters of the Avar could have prevented them from enjoying the 
 full effect. 
 
 The director general is enjoined to cause the royal letter to be transcribed 
 on the minutes of the superior council, that every one in the province 
 may become acquainted with its contents, and recur thereto, in case 
 of need. 
 
 This intelligence plunged the inhabitants in great consternation. They 
 l)ewailed before their estrangement from their kindred and friends in the 
 eastern part of the province ; that they were now themselves transferred 
 to a foreign potentate, filled their minds Avith the utmost sorroAV. 
 
 The fond hope Avas however indulged that their united solicitations 
 might avert the impending calamity. Every parish Avas accordingly 
 iuA'ited to send its most notable planters, to a general meeting, in the city 
 of NeAV Orleans in the beginning of the folloAving year. 
 
 The council, according to its new organization, on the dismemberment 
 of the province, was composed of d'Abadie, the director general, Foucault, 
 the commissary ordonnateur, Aubry, the commandant of the troops, 
 Delalande, Kernion,'Delaunay, Lachaise, Lesassier, Laplace, councillors, 
 Lafreniere, attorney general, and Garic, clerk. 
 
 The general meeting Avas attended by avast number of the most respec- 
 table planters from every part of the province, and almost every person 
 of note in Ncav Orleans. The most prominent characters Avere Lafreniere, 
 the attorney general, Doucet, a laAvyer AAdio had lately come from France, 
 St. Lette, Pin, Villere, the chevalier d'Arensbourg, Jean Milhet, the 
 AA'ealthiest merchant of Ncav Orleans, Joseph Milhet, his brother, St. 
 Maxent, Lachaise, Marquis, Garic, Mazent, Mazange, Poupet, Boisblanc, 
 Grandmaison, Lalande, Lesassier, Brand, the king's printer, Kernion, 
 Carrere and Dersalles. 
 
 Lafreniere addressed the meeting in an animated speech, AA'hich he 
 concluded by a proposition that the sovereign should be entreated to make 
 such arrangements AAdth his catholic majesty as might prevent Louisiana 
 being scA'ered from the parent stock, and that a person should be imme- 
 diately sent to France to lay the petition of the inhabitants of the 
 proAnnce at the foot of the throne. Without a dissenting vote the 
 proposition Avas assented to, and with the like unanimity, Jean Milhet 
 Avas selected for the important mission. 
 
 At this period a number of families emigrated to Louisiana from the 
 British provinces, princi])ally from the l)anks of Roanoke river, in North 
 Carolina, and settled aboA^e Baton Rouge ; this Avas the beginning of the 
 settlement Avhich Avas afterAvards called the district of Feliciana. 
 
 Till noAV the post of the Illinois remained in the possession of the 
 French, and St. Ange, the commandant, continued to exercise his 
 authority over it. A proclamation of General Gage, the commander-in- 
 
198 HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 
 
 chief of the forces of the king of Great Britain in North America, issued 
 at New York the thirteenth of December, was brought to the post early in 
 the new year by captain SterUng, who was instructed to receive the oath 
 of allegiance and fidelity of the inhabitants to their new sovereign. 
 
 By this proclamation they were informed that the taking possession of 
 their country by the king's forces, although delayed had been determined 
 on ; and the sovereign had given the most pi'ccise and effective orders, 
 that his new Roman ^Catholic subjects of the Illinois should be allowed 
 the exercise of religious worship, according to the rites of their church in 
 the same manner as the Canadians — that he had agreed that the French 
 inhabitants and others, who had been suljjects of the most christian king 
 might retire in full safety and proceed where they pleased ; even to New 
 Orleans or other parts of Louisiana, although the Spaniards might take 
 possession of it ; that they might sell their estates to the king's subjects 
 and transport themselves and their effects without an}- other restraint, but 
 that which might result from civil or criminal process. The rights and 
 immunities of British subjects were promised to those who might chose 
 to stay, but they were required to take an oath of allegiance and fidelity. 
 
 The commander-in-chief recommended to the people to demean 
 themselves as loyal and faithful subjects, by a prudent conduct to avoid 
 all causes of complaint, and to act in concert with the royal forces on their 
 arrival, so that possession might be taken of every settlement, and good 
 order preserved in the country. 
 
 Civil government, being established, under the authority of C4reat 
 Britain a few months after in the post, St. Ange, the French commandant 
 there, crossed the Mississippi with a number of his countrymen, who were 
 desirous to follow the white flag, and laid the foundation of the town of 
 St. Louis, which with that of St. Genevieve, was the first settlement of 
 the country now known as the state of Missouri. 
 
 The province labored under great difficulties on account of a flood of 
 depreciated paper, which, inundating it, annihilated its industry, commerce 
 and agriculture. So sanguine were the inhabitants of their appeal to the 
 throne, that they instructed their emissary, after having accomplished the 
 principal object of his mission, to solicit relief in this respect. 
 
 Destrehan, the king's treasurer, and a number of other planters had 
 been induced by the success of Dubreuil, in manufacturing sugar, to erect 
 mills, most of these establishments were below New Orleans and on the 
 same side of the river. Hitherto, the sugar made in Louisiana had been 
 all consumed in the province. This year, a ship was laden for France 
 with this article. It had been so inartificially manufactured, that it leaked 
 out of the hogsheads, and the ship was so lightened l>v this accident tlnit 
 she was very near upsetting. 
 
 Milhet saw, at Paris, Bienville, who having spent the most and best 
 years of his life in Louisiana, and having long presided over its concerns, 
 still felt much interest in its prosperity. He had bewailed its dismem- 
 berment, and grieved to see the last remnant of it transferred to Spain; 
 he was then in his eighty-seventh year, having first landed in Louisiana 
 in his twentieth. He attended Milhet to the Duke de Choiseuil. This 
 nobleman received the representative of the people of Louisiana with 
 marked civility ; but, having been the prime mover of the measures whi(;h 
 terminated in the cession, he felt more inclination to thwart, than to 
 
HISTORY OF I.onSTAXA. 199 
 
 promote hi? views ; ho artfully preventL-d Millu't's access to the kiw^, and 
 tlic mission entirely failed. 
 
 The British this year established a post at bayou Manshac, the south- 
 westernmost point of their possessions in North An:!erica. A number of 
 traders had opened stores in the neighborhood, from which the planters 
 on the right bank of the Mississippi obtained their supplies, and where 
 they found a sure sale for everything they could raise. A part of the 
 thirty-ft)urth regiment was sent to garrison the post ; but, in the summer, 
 the api'carance of the weather, ir.ducing the apprehension it might fall a 
 victim to disease, it was removed beyond Natchez. 
 
 - . AVhile the people of Louisiana were thus distressed by the thought of 
 ])eing severed from the dominions of France, those dissensions prevailed 
 in the British provinces on the Atlantic, which about ten years after, 
 broke asunder the ])olitical ties which united them to their mother country. 
 On the twenty-fifth of October, commissioners from the assemblies of 
 Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, 
 Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland and South Carolina, met in the city 
 of New York. They published a declaration of the rights and grievances 
 of the colonists — asserted their exclusive right to tax themselves, and to 
 the trial by jury, unequivocally expressing the attachment of the colonists 
 to the mother country. They recommended to the several colonies to 
 appoint special agents, Avith instructions to unite their utmost endeavors, 
 in soliciting a redress of grievances. 
 
 The fall was extremely sickly. D'Abadie died, and the supreme 
 command of the province devolved to Aubry, the senior military ofhcer. 
 
 The AVest India seas were at this time greatly infested by pirates ; and 
 on the eleventh of March, 1766, the sensibility of the inhabitants of New 
 Orleans was much excited on the arrival of the sloop Fortune, of that 
 port, which on her return picked up, near the island of Cuba, a small boat, 
 in which madam Desnoyers, a lady of St. Domingo, had been committed 
 to the mercy of the waves, Avith a child, a sucking babe, and a negro 
 woman, by a pirate, who had captured a vessel (in Avhich she AA-as going 
 from the Spanish to the French part of St. Domingo) and had murdered 
 her husband. They had been seven da3's in the boat AA'hen they Avere 
 taken up. She Avas receiA^ed, Avith great cordiality and after she had spent 
 a few months in New Orleans, the means Avere furnished her of returning 
 to her friends. 
 
 Although Jean ]\Iilhet had informed his countrymen of the ill success 
 of his mission, they still flattered themseh'es Avith the delusiAT hope that 
 the cession might be rescinded. UpAvards of tAvo years had noAv elapsed, 
 since the king had directed d'Abadie to surrender the proAdnce to any 
 officer who should come to take possession of it for the king of Spain, and 
 that monarch did not appear to have taken any measure to olitain it. 
 These fond hopes vanished, in the summer, by intelligence from Havana, 
 that Don Antonio de Ulloa, the officer appointed by Charles the third to the 
 government of Louisiana, had arrived in that city ; from whence, on the 
 tenth of July, he addressed a letter to the superior council of the proA'ince, 
 apprising them, that having been honored with the king's command to 
 receive possession of the colony, he Avould soon be Avith them for this 
 ])urpose, and expressing his hope that his mission might afford him a 
 favorable opportunity of rendering them and the other inhabitants any 
 service they might require. 
 
200 HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 
 
 Don Antonio was known in the republic of letters, as an able mathema- 
 tician, who had accompanied LaCondamine, Bonrguet and Godin, for the 
 purpose of determining the figure of the earth, under the equator. 
 
 He landed at New Orleans, in the fall, with two companies of infantry, 
 under the orders of Piernas. He was received with dumb respect and 
 declined exhibiting his powers, intimating he wished to delay receiving 
 possession of the country, until such numberof the Spanish forces arrived, 
 as would authorize the departure of those of France. 
 
 In December, the British re-occupied the post at bayou Manshac. A 
 small stockade fort was built by a party of the tAventy-first regi^nent ; it 
 was called Fort Bute. The trade, carried on in this neighborhood, at 
 Baton Rouge and Natchez, increased considerably ; the French supplied 
 themselves with goods at those places, and British vessels were almost 
 continually anchored, or fastened to the trees, a little above New Orleans. 
 Guinea negroes were now introduced by these vessels, or brought from 
 Pensacola through lake Pontchartrain to bayou Manshac and Baton 
 Rouge. The facility, thus afforded to French planters to supply themselves 
 with slaves, was the origin of the fortunes of many of them. 
 
 Ulloa visited the several posts of the province and spent a considerable 
 time in Natchitoches. 
 
 According to a census of the inhabitants of the province which was 
 taken this year, it appears it had one thousand eight hundred and ninety- 
 three men fit to bear arms ; one thousand and forty-four marriageable 
 women ; one thousand three hundred and seventy-five bo3^s, and one 
 thousand two hundred and forty-four girls ; in all, five thousand five 
 hundred and fifty-six white individuals. The blacks were nearly as 
 numerous. 
 
 This year, the province was visited by a disease, not dissimilar to that 
 now known as the yellow fever. It was severely felt in West Florida, where 
 a number of emigrants had lately arrived. Sixteen families of French 
 protestants, transported at the expense of the British government on the 
 river Escambia, consisting of sixty-four persons, were almost entirely 
 swept away by the deleterious sickness. 
 
 Ulloa, in the following year, went to the Balize to await the arrival of 
 a Peruvian lady, the marchioness of Abrado, who landed and whom he 
 married, soon after. He was then in the fifty-first year of his age. 
 
 Soon after his return to New Orleans, he received a considerable 
 reinforcement of troops from the Havana, and although again pressed to 
 publish his commission and take formal possession of the country, he 
 persisted in delaying this. 
 
 He sent two companies to build a fort on the left bank of the Mississippi, 
 below bayou Manshac, within four hundred yards of Fort Bute ; two other 
 companies were sent on the same service, on the opposite side, a little 
 below Natchez, and two others on the left side of Red river, on an 
 eminence between Black river and the Mississippi. A stronger detach- 
 ment was sent to the Illinois : but its commanding officer was instructed 
 not to interfere with the civil concerns of the inhabitants, who continued 
 under the orders of St. Ange, the British conmiandant haAdng died. 
 
 General Phineas Lyman, contemplating a large establishment on the 
 Ohio, applied to parliament, for an extensive grant of land. He enforced 
 the propriety of the measure by the argument that there could be but 
 little danger of the colonies becoming independent, if confined to 
 
HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 201 
 
 agricultural pursuits, and the inhabitants dispersed over the country. 
 "A period," said he, " will no doubt arrive, when North America will no 
 longer acknowledge a dependence on any part of Europe ; but it seems to 
 be so remote, as not to be at present an object of rational policy or human 
 prevention, and it will be made still more so, by opening new schemes of 
 agriculture, and widening the space which the colonists must first occupy. 
 
 Jean Milhet now returned from France ; his protracted absence had 
 kept the hopes of his countrymen alive, and when his presence among 
 them put an end to every expectation from his mission, they became 
 exasperated, and began to manifest their ill disposition towards Ulloa, who, 
 although he continued to decline an official recognition, had gained a 
 powerful influence over Aubry, which was exercised to the injury of some 
 of the colonists. 
 
 On the seventeenth and eighteenth of January, 1768, the most intense 
 cold, of which there is any remembrance, was felt in Louisiana. The 
 river was frozen before New Orleans for several yards, on both sides. The 
 orange trees were destroyed throughout the province. 
 
 Partial meetings were had in the city and at the German coast. In the 
 latter place, a perfect unanimit}^ prevailed. Father Barnabe, a capuchin 
 missionary, who was curate of that parish, took an active part with the 
 most influential of his flock. At last, the people of the province were 
 invited to a general meeting at New Orleans, to which every parish sent 
 its wealthiest planters. Lafreniere was again the principal speaker, and 
 was supported by Jean Milhet, Joseph Milhet, his brother, and Doucet, a 
 lawyer, lately arrived from France. The proceedings terminated by the 
 subscription of a petition to the superior council to order Ulloa and the 
 principal officers of the Spanish troops away. It was circulated through 
 the province, and received five hundred and fifty respectable signatures. 
 The printing of it was authorized by the ordonnateur, and it was circulated 
 in every parish. 
 
 The French, as well as the few Spaniards who had come to the province, 
 blamed the obsequiousness of Aubry towards Ulloa. They believed that 
 the former's instructions might be, occasionally to consult the latter, but 
 they thought that nothing could authorize the subserviency of the French 
 chief to a Spanish officer, who refused to avow the authority with which 
 he was clothed. 
 
 Lafreniere having introduced the petition of the inhabitants to the 
 council, this tribunal which was greatly under the influence of Foucault, 
 the ordonnateur, threatened Ulloa with a prosecution as a disturber of the 
 peace of the province. He alleged that Aubry had given him privately 
 possession of the country at the Balize. As none believed that a 
 clandestine act, even if it took j^lace, could authorize any assumption of 
 powers, his declaration was considered as a gross artifice. Aubry, who 
 corroborated Ulloa's assertion, was also disbelieved. He fell into contempt, 
 and Ulloa's opposers were emboldened. 
 
 The colonists mistaking their wishes for their belief, indulged the hope 
 that as the taking possession by the officers of Spain was thus protracted, 
 the catholic king must have renounced the acquisition of the province. 
 Others viewed the cessions as a measure feigned for state purposes. 
 Yielding to these delusions they viewed Ulloa with a jealous eye, as a 
 personage who abused the reasons of state, which they supposed to be the 
 
 28 
 
202 HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 
 
 cause of his coming among them. Conjectures drawn from the British 
 prints and from conversations with individuals of that nation, who had 
 come to New Orleans on their way to Manshac, Baton Rouge and Natchez, 
 strengthened their belief. The public agitation for awhile subsided, but 
 was at last roused by a rumor that a Spanish armament, destined for 
 Louisiana, had arrived at the Havana. 
 
 Frantic and distracted by these alternate impressions of hope and fear 
 some of the popular leaders flattered themselves with the possibility of 
 resistance, and dispatched a messenger to Governor Elliott, who had 
 succeeded Johnston at Pensacola, to ascertain whether the support of the 
 government of West Florida could be obtained. The governor declared 
 himself unwilling to aid his neighbors in an opposition to a king in amity 
 with his own. It was said he transmitted the message he had received to 
 Aubry, who delivered it to Ulloa, and that the latter carried it to Madrid. 
 
 Disappointed at this attempt, the leaders pressed the consideration of 
 the petition of the inhabitants, which the council had delayed to act upon. 
 
 It had been subscribed by five hundred and sixty of the most 
 respectable inhabitants. Lafreniere supported it by an eloquent speech, 
 in which he adverted to the successful opposition of the British American 
 provinces to the stamp act, and drew the attention of the council to the 
 noble conduct of the people of Burgundy in 1526, when summoned by 
 Launoy, the viceroy of Naples, to recognize as their sovereign the emperor 
 Charles the fifth, to whom Francis the second had ceded that province by 
 the treaty of Madrid. The states and courts of justice being convened to 
 deliberate on the emperor's message, unanimously answered that the 
 province was a part of the French monarchy and the king had not the 
 power of alienating it. The nobles resolutely declared that if the king 
 abandoned them they would resort to arms, and the last drop of their 
 blood would be spilt in defense of their country. 
 
 At last, on the 29th of October, it was taken up and after some debate 
 the council (notwithstanding the opposition and protest of Aubry) ordered 
 Ulloa to produce his powers from the king of Spain, if he had any, that 
 they might be recorded on its minutes, and published through the province 
 or depart therefrom, within one month. To give weight to the requisition 
 of the council about six hundred of the inhabitants of the city and 
 German coast embodied themselves. 
 
 Ulloa took the last of the alternatives proposed to him, and was soon 
 ready to depart ; a vessel of the king of Spain that had lately arrived 
 afl'orded him an opportunity which he imiDroved. 
 
 On the evening of one of the first days of November, he went on board 
 of the king's vessel, intending to sail early in the morning. The torch 
 of hymen had been lighted in the house of a wealthy merchant in the 
 city ; the dance was protracted till the morning ; a number of the planters 
 who had come to the city, had joined the festive banquet. Wine had been 
 sent to others, whose admission the great number of the guests in the 
 house had prevented from attending. At dawn, all parties united, and 
 elated by the nightly orgie, marched to the levee, hallooing and singing. 
 Boats were procured ; no apprehension being entertained on board, the 
 vessel was approached, and her cables cut asunder. It does not appear 
 any attempt was made to punish the insult. The vessel was at the 
 moment of departure and floated away. 
 
HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 203 
 
 A few days after, a general meeting of depnties from every parish, was 
 convened at New Orleans, in which it was determined to make a second 
 application, to avert, if possihle, the execution of the treaty of cession. 
 This service was confided to St. Lette, a merchant of Natchitoches, and 
 Lesassier, a member of the superior council. 
 
 Ulloa proceeded to Havana, where he immediately embarked for Cadiz, 
 and landed after a passage or forty days. 
 
 The chevalier Dessales, who sailed with him from New Orleans, saw at 
 Havana, Urissa, the former consul of Spain at Bordeaux, who having 
 been appointed Intendant of Louisiana, was on his wa}^ with eight 
 hundred soldiers. He had stopped at Havana, to take in one million of 
 dollars for the king's service in his new acquisition ; hearing of Ulloa's ill 
 success, he returned to Europe. 
 
 In December the British evacuated and demolished Fort Bute. 
 
 The passage of the deputies of the people of Louisiana was not so 
 expeditious as that of Ulloa. They were three months on the water. The 
 complaint of the king of Spain had reached the court, long before their 
 arrival at Paris. Bienville, on whose aid and services they much relied, 
 was now dead, and the Duke of Choiseuil still in power. St. Lette had 
 been a schoolmate of his. The Duke received his former play fellow with 
 open arms, but frowned on the deputy and his colleague. He told them 
 their application was too tardy, as the king of Spain had directed such a 
 force to be sent to New Orleans, as would put down any opposition that 
 could be made. He gave St. Lette a very lucrative office in the East 
 Indies, and Lesassier returned home. 
 
 The deputies had been instructed to renew the representation, which 
 Milhet had made in regard to the depreciated paper currency, which 
 inundated the province. They obtained an arrest of the king's council 
 of the twenty-third of March, which is believed to be the last act of the 
 French government concerning Louisiana. 
 
 It provided that the bills, emitted by the colonial government, or the 
 receipts for so much of them, as according to a former order had been 
 left with the treasurer, should be reduced to three-fifths of their nominal 
 value. 
 
 The holders of these bills or receipts were directed to bring them, 
 before the first of September following, to Marignier, who was authorized 
 to give therefor, (after a deduction of two-fifths) a certificate bearing 
 interest at five per cent. 
 
 Provision was made for cases, in Avhich there had been a judicial 
 deposit. 
 
 Shortly after the return of Lesassier, the distress, which the accounts 
 he brought excited, M^as relieved by letters from Bordeaux, intimating 
 that the province was to continue a colony of France. 
 
 But on the twenty-third of July, intelligence reached New Orleans of 
 the arrival at the Balize of a Spanish frigate, with twenty-eight transports, 
 having four thousand five hundred soldiers on board, and a large supply 
 of arms and ammunition. This threw the town into great consternation : 
 resistance was spoken of, and messengers were dispatched up the coast. 
 
 On the next day, an express, with a message to Aubry, from Don 
 Alexander O'Reilly, the commander of the Spanish forces, landed on 
 the levee. 
 
204 HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 
 
 The inhabitants of the city, on the invitation of Aubry, met him in the 
 church, and he read to them tlie message. They thus learned that the 
 general was sent by his sovereign to take possession of the colony ; but 
 not to distress the inhabitants ; that, as soon as he had obtained possession, 
 he would publish the remaining part of the orders of his royal master; 
 but, should any attempt be made to oppose his landing, he was determined 
 not to depart, till he had put his majesty's commands in complete 
 execution. 
 
 The inhabitants immediately came to a resolution to choose three 
 gentlemen, to wait in their behalf on the general, and inform him that the 
 people of Louisiana were determined to abandon the colony, and had no 
 other favor to ask from him, but that he would allow them two years, to 
 remove themselves and their effects. 
 
 The choice of the meeting fell on Grandmaison, the town major, 
 Lafreniere, the attorney -general, and Mazent, formerly a captain in the 
 colonial troops, now a planter of considerable wealth. 
 
 O'Reilly received them with great politeness, and assured them he 
 would cheerfull)^ comply with any reasonable request of the colonists ; 
 that he had their interest much at heart, and nothing on his part should 
 be wanting to promote it. He added all past transactions would be 
 buried in oblivion, and all who had offended should be forgiven, and said 
 everything, which he imagined would flatter the minds of the people. 
 
 In the meanwhile, the planters of the German, and some of the Acadian 
 coast had taken arms, and a considerable number of them, headed by 
 Villere, marched down to the city. 
 
 The deputation reached New Orleans on the first of August, and made 
 public the kind reception O'Reilly had given them, and fne fair promises 
 he had made. This considerably quieted the minds of the inhabitants, 
 and many, who had determined on an immediate removal from the 
 province, now resolved to return and gather their crops. 
 
 A fortnight had elapsed before the armament reached the city. It cast 
 anchor before it, on the sixteenth ; the inhabitants flocked to the levee on 
 the following day, but the landing did not take place till the eighteenth. 
 '^. At three o'clock, in the afternoon of that day, the Spaniards disembarked, 
 and O'Reilly led his men to the public square, before the church, in the 
 middle of the city, where Aubry, at the head of the troops of France 
 received him ; the white banner flying at the top of a high mast, in the 
 middle of the square. It was now slowly lowered, while that of Spain 
 was hoisted, and as they met at half-mast, they were saluted by a feu-de- 
 joic from the troops of both nations. The French flag being lowered and 
 the Spanish flying on the top of the mast, O'Reilly, attended by Aubry, 
 and followed Ijy the officers of both nations, Avho were not under arms, 
 perambulated the square, in token of his being in possession of the colony. 
 His suite then followed him to the church, where a solemn Te Deum was 
 chaunted, and the benediction of the host given. . 
 
 Thus ended, about seventy-one years after the arrival of Iberville, the 
 government of France in Louisiana : and thus was that nation, about one 
 hundred and sixty years after Champlain laid the foundation of Quebec, 
 the oldest town of French origin in North America, left without an inch 
 of ground in that part of the continent. 
 
HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 205 
 
 The exports of the province during the last year of its subjection to 
 France, were as follows : 
 
 In Indigo $100,000 
 
 " Deer Skins, 80,000 
 
 " Lumber, . . . . ' . . 50,000 
 
 " Naval Stores, 12,000 
 
 " Rice, Peas and Beans, .... 4,000 
 
 " Tallow, 4,000 
 
 $250,000 
 An interlope trade with the Spanish colonies, took awav 
 
 goods worth . . . . _ . ' 60,000 
 
 The colonial treasur}" gave bills on government in France, 
 
 for 360,000 
 
 So that the province afforded means of remittance for . $670,000 
 
 Few merchant vessels came from France ; but the island of HisjDaniola 
 carried on a brisk trade with New Orleans, and some vessels came from 
 Martinico. King's vessels brought whatever was necessary for the troops, 
 and goods for the Indian trade. 
 
 The indigo of Louisiana was greatly inferior to that of Hispaniola ; the 
 planters being quite unskillful and inattentive in the manufacture of it ; 
 that of sugar had been abandoned, but some planters near New Orleans 
 raised a few canes for the market. 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 Don Alexander O'Reilly, a lieutenant-general of the armies of Spain, 
 had, by a commission bearing date Aranjuez, April 16th, 1769, been 
 appointed governor and captain-general of the province of Louisiana, 
 with " special power to establish in this new part of the king's dominions 
 with regard to the military force, police, administration of justice, and 
 finances, such a form of government as might most effectually secure its 
 dependence and subordination, and promote the king's service and the 
 happiness of his subjects." 
 
 The intendant of the province w^as Don Francisco de Loyola. 
 
 Don Manuel Joseph de Uristia and Don Felix de Rey, accompanied the 
 captain-general as his assessors or legal advisers in the judicial functions 
 of his office, and his authorit}^ was supported by a military force equal to 
 three times the number of persons capable of bearing arms in the colony. 
 We have seen that he took possession of it with as little opposition or 
 difficulty as if he had been a French governor coming to supercede a 
 former one. 
 
 He was Avaited upon by every class of inhabitants with respectful 
 submission. A canopied seat was placed in the largest hall of the house 
 he occupied, where he held a numerous leve, at which the ladies were not 
 unfrequent attendants. An undisturbed tranquillity seemed to prevail. 
 Surprise and afterwards anxiety, were excited by his delay to comply with 
 
206 
 
 HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 
 
 the promise in his message from the Balize to publish, after he had taken 
 possession of the province the ultimate intentions of his sovereign. 
 
 One of the first acts of his administration was an order for a census of 
 the inhabitants of New Orleans. It was executed with great accuracy. 
 It appeared that the aggregate population amounted to three thousand 
 one hundred and ninety persons, of every age, sex and the color. The 
 number of free persons was nineteen hundred and two ; thirty-one of 
 Avhom were black, and sixty-eight of mixed blood. There were twelve 
 hundred and twenty-five slaves, and sixty domesticated Indians. The 
 number of houses was four hundred and sixty-eight : the greatest part of 
 them were in the third and fourth streets from the water, and principally 
 in the latter. 
 
 No census was taken in the rest of the province ; but from a reference 
 to the preceding and succeeding years, the following statement is believed 
 to be correct : 
 
 In the city of . New Orleans, as before, 
 
 8,190 
 
 From the Balize to the 
 
 city, 
 
 570 
 
 Bayou St. John and Gentilly, .... 
 Tchoupitoulas, ..... 
 St. Charles, . . . . 
 
 307 
 
 . 4,192 
 
 639 
 
 St. John the Baptist, 
 Lafourche, 
 
 
 544 
 267 
 
 Iberville, 
 
 
 < 376 
 
 Pointe Coupee, . 
 Attakapas, 
 Avoyelles, 
 Natchitoches, 
 
 . 
 
 783 
 409 
 314 
 811 
 
 Rapides, . • . 
 
 , , , , , 
 
 47 
 
 Washita, 
 
 
 110 
 
 Arkansas, 
 
 
 88 
 
 St. Louis, (Illinois,) 
 
 • 
 
 891 
 
 13,538 
 
 Towards the last day of August, the people were alarmed b}' the arrest 
 of Foucault, the commissary-general and ordonnateur, De Noj^ant and 
 Boisblanc, two members of the superior council; La Freniere, the 
 attorney-general, and Brand, the king's printer. These gentlemen were 
 attending O'Reilly's leve, when he requested them to step into an adjacent 
 apartment, where they found themselves immediately surrounded by a 
 body of grenadiers, with fixed bayonets, the commanding officer of whom 
 informed them they were the king's prisoners. The two first were 
 conveyed to their respective houses, and a guard was left there ; the 
 others were imprisoned in the barracks. 
 
 It had been determined to make an example of twelve individuals ; two 
 from the army, and an equal number from the bar ; four planters, and as 
 many merchants. Accordingly, Marquis and De Noyant, officers of the 
 troop; La Freniere, the attorney-general, and Doucet, (lawyers,) Villere, 
 Boisblanc, Mazent and Petit, (planters,) and John Milhet, Joseph Milhet, 
 Caresse and Poupet, (merchants,) had been selected. 
 
 Within a few days, Marquis, Doucet, Petit, Mazant, the two Milhets, 
 Caresse and Poupet, were arrested and confined. 
 
HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 207 
 
 Villerc, who was on his plantation at the German Coast, had been 
 marked as one of the intended victims; but his absence from the city 
 rendering his arrest less easy, it had been determined to release one of 
 the prisoners on his being secured. He had been apprised of the 
 impending danger, and it had been recommended to him to provide for 
 his safety l)y seeking the protection of the British flag waving at Manshac. 
 When he was deliberating on the step it became him to take, he received 
 a letter from Aubrv, the commandant of the French troops, assuring him 
 he had nothing to apprehend, and advising him to return to the city. 
 Averse to flight, as it would imply a consciousness of guilt, he yielded to 
 Aubry's recommendation and returned to New Orleans ; but as he passed 
 the gate, the officer commanding the guard arrested him. He was imme- 
 diately conveyed on board of a frigate that lay at the levee. On hearing 
 of this, his lady, a granddaughter of La Chaise, the former commissary- 
 general and ordonnateur, hastened to the city. As her boat approached 
 the frigate, it was hailed and ordered away. She made herself known, 
 and solicited admission to her husband, but was answered she could not 
 see him, as the captain was on shore, and had left orders that no commu- 
 nication should be allowed with the prisoner. Villere recognized his 
 wife's voice, and insisted on being permitted to see her. On this being 
 refused, a struggle ensued, in which he fell, pierced by the bayonets of 
 his guards. His bloody shirt thrown into the boat, announced to the 
 lady that she had ceased to be a wife ; and a sailor cut the rope that 
 fastened the boat to the frigate. 
 
 O'Reilly's assessors heard and recorded the testimony against the 
 prisoners, and called on them for their pleas. 
 
 The prosecution was grounded on a statute of Alfonso the eleventh, 
 which is the first law of the seventh title of the first partida, and 
 denounces the punishment of death and confiscation of property against 
 those who excite any insurrection against the king or state, or take up 
 arms under pretense of extending their liberty or rights, and against 
 those who give them any assistance. 
 
 Foucault pleaded he had done nothing, except in his character of 
 commissary-general and ordonnateur of the king of France in the 
 province, and to him alone he was accountable for the motives that had 
 directed his official conduct. The plea was sustained ; he was not, 
 however, released ; and a few days afterwards, he was transj^orted to 
 France. 
 
 Brand offered a similar plea, urging he was the king of France's printer 
 of Louisiana. The only accusation against him, was that he had printed 
 the petition of the planters and merchants to the superior council, 
 soliciting that body to require Ulloa to exhibit his powers, or depart. He 
 concluded that he was bound, by his office, to print whatever the ordon- 
 nateur sent to his press ; and he produced that officer's order to print the 
 petition. His plea was sustained, and he was discharged. 
 
 The other prisoners declined also the jurisdiction of the tribunal before 
 which they were arraigned : their j^lea was overruled. They now denied 
 the facts with which they were charged, contended that if they did take 
 place, they did so while the flag of France was still waving over the 
 province, and the laws of that kingdom retained their empire in it, and 
 thus the facts did not constitute an offense against the laws of Spain ; 
 that the people of Louisiana could not liear the yokes of two sovereigns ; 
 
208 HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 
 
 that O'Reilly could not command the obedience, nor even the respect of 
 the colonists, until he made known to them his character and powers ; 
 and that the Catholic king could not count on their allegiance, till he 
 extended to them his protection. 
 
 It had been determined at first, to proceed with the utmost rigor of the 
 law against six of the prisoners ; but, on the death of Villere, it was 
 judged sufficient to do so against five only. The jurisprudence of Spain 
 authorizing the infliction of a less severe punishment than that denounced 
 by the statute, when the charge is not proved by two witnesses to the 
 same act, but by one with corroborating circumstances. Accordingly, two 
 witnesses Avere produced against DeNoyant, La Freniere, Marquis, Joseph 
 Milhet and Caresse. They were convicted ; and O'Reilly, by the advice 
 of his assessor, condemned them to be hanged, and pronounced the 
 confiscation of their estates. 
 
 The most earnest and pathetic entreaties were employed by persons in 
 every rank of society, to prevail on O'Reilly to remit or suspend the 
 execution of his sentence till the royal clemency could be implored. He 
 was inexorable; and the only indulgence that could be obtained, was, 
 that death should be inflicted by shooting, instead of hanging. With this 
 modification, the sentence was carried into execution on the twenty-eighth 
 of September. 
 
 On the morning of that day, the guards, at every gate and post of the 
 city, were doubled, and orders were given not to allow anybody to enter it. 
 All the troops were under arms, and paraded the streets or were placed 
 in battle array along the levee and on the public square. Most of the 
 inhabitants fled into the country. At three o'clock of the afternoon, the 
 victims were led, under a strong guard, to the small square in front of the 
 barracks, tied to stakes, and an explosion of musketry soon announced 
 'to the few inhabitants who remained in the city, that their friends were 
 no more. 
 
 Posterity, the judge of men in power, will doom this act to public 
 execration. No necessity demanded, no policy justified it. tJlloa's 
 conduct had provoked the measures to which the inhabitants had resorted. 
 During nearly two years, he had haunted the province as a phantom of 
 dubious authority. The efforts of the colonists, to prevent the transfer of 
 their natal soil to a foreign prince, originated in their attachment to their 
 own, and the Catholic king ought to have beheld in their conduct a 
 pledge of their future devotion to himself. They had but lately seen their 
 country severed, and a part of it added to the dominion of Great Britain ; 
 they had bewailed their separation from their friends and kindred ; and 
 were afterwards to be alienated, without their consent, and subjected to a 
 foreign yoke. If the indiscretion of a few of them needed an apology, the 
 common misfortune afforded it. 
 
 A few weeks afterwards, the proceedings against the six remaining 
 prisoners were brought to a close. One witness only deposing against any 
 of them, and circumstances corroborating the testimony, Boisblanc was 
 condemned to imprisonment for life ; Doucet, Mazent, John Milhet, 
 Petit and Poupet were condemned to imprisonment for various terms of 
 years. All were transported to Havana, and cast into the dungeons of 
 the Moro Castle. 
 
 Conquered countries are generally allowed, at least during a few years, 
 to retain their former laws and usages. Louis the fifteenth, in his letter 
 
HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 209 
 
 to tVAljadie, had expressed his hope, and declared he expected it from the 
 friendship of the king of Spain, that, for the advantage and tranquilHty 
 of the inhabitants of Louisiana, orders 'would be given to the governors 
 and other officers sent to the province, that the inferior judges, as well as 
 those of the superior council should be allowed to administer justice 
 according to the laws, forms and usages of the colony. It is oppressive, 
 in tlie highest degree, to require that a communit}'' should instantaneously 
 sul)mit to a total change in the laws that hitherto governed it, and be 
 compelled to regulate its conduct b}^ rules of which it is totally ignorant. 
 
 Such was, however, the lot of the people of Louisiana. A proclamation 
 of O'Reilly, on the twenty-first of November, announced to them that the 
 evidence received during the late trials, having furnished full proof of 
 'the part the superior council had in the revolt during the two preceding 
 years, and of the influence it had exerted in encouraging the leaders, 
 instead of using its best endeavors to keep the people in the fidelity and 
 subordination they owed to the sovereign, it had become necessary to 
 abolish that tribunal, and to establish, in Louisiana, that form of govern- 
 ment and mode of administering justice prescribed by the laws of Spain, 
 which had long maintained the Catholic king's American colonies in 
 perfect trancpiillity, content, and subordination. 
 
 The premises might be true, but the conclusion was certainly illogical. 
 The indiscreet conduct of a few of the members of the council, the violent 
 measures adopted by some of the inhabitants, could not certainly be 
 attril)uted to the organization of that tribunal, nor to the laws, customs 
 and usages that had hitherto prevailed in the province. Aubry was about 
 to depart ; and were he to stay, the presidency of the council would not 
 belong to him, but to the Spanish chief Foucault had been transported ; 
 La Freniere and De Noyant shot ; and Boisblanc was in the dungeons of 
 the Moro Castle. Nothing compelled the new sovereign to retain any of 
 the old members as judges. 
 
 The proclamation mentioned, that to the superior council a cabildo would 
 be substituted, and be composed of six perpetual regidors, two ordinary 
 alcades, an attorney-general-syndic, and a clerk; over which the governor 
 would preside in person. 
 
 The offices of perpetual regidor and clerk were to be acquired by 
 purchase, and for the first time, at auction. The purchaser had the 
 faculty of transferring his office, by resignation, to a known and capable 
 person, paying one-half of its appraised value on the first, and one-third 
 on every other mutation. 
 
 Among the regidors were to be distributed the offices of Alferez real, or 
 royal staiidard-bearer ; principal provincial alcade ; Alguazil mayor, or 
 high sheriff; depositary-general, and receiver of fines. 
 
 The ordinary alcades and attorney-general-syndic, were to be chosen on 
 the first day of every year by the cabildo, ancl were always re-eligible by 
 its unanimous vote, out not by the majority, unless after the expiration of 
 two years. At such elections, the votes were openly given and recorded. 
 
 The ordinary alcades were individually judges within the city in civil 
 and criminal cases, where the defendant did not enjoy and claim the 
 privilege of being tried by a military or ecclesiastical judge, fucro militar, 
 fiiero ecdesiastico. They heard and decided in their chambers, summarily, 
 and without any written proceeding, all complaints in which the value of 
 the object in dispute did not exceed twenty dollars. In other cases, 
 
 S9 
 
210 HISTORY OF LOUISIAXA. 
 
 proceedings before them were recorded by a notary ; and in an apartment 
 set apart for this purpose, and where the value of the object in dispute 
 exceeded ninety thousand maravedis, or three hundred and thirty dolhirs 
 and eighty-eight cents, an appeal lay from their decision to the cabildo. 
 
 This body did not examine itself the judgment appealed from, but chose 
 two regidors, who, with the alcade who had rendered it, reviewed the 
 proceedings ; and if he and either of the regidors approved the decision, 
 it was affirmed. 
 
 The cabildo sat every Friday, but the governor had the i:)Ower of 
 convening it at any time. When he did not attend it one of the ordinary 
 alcades presided, and immediately on the adjournment, two regidors went 
 to his house and informed him of what had been done. 
 
 The ordinary alcades had the first seats in the cabildo, immediatel}'' after 
 the governor ; and below them the other members sat, in the following 
 order : The alferez real, principal provincial alcade, alguazil mayor, 
 depositary-general, receiver of fines, attorne3'-general-syndic and clerk. 
 
 The office of alferez real was merely honorary, no other function being 
 assigned to the incumbent but the bearing of the royal standard in a few 
 public ceremonies. The principal provincial alcade had cognizance of 
 offenses committed without the city ; the alguazil mayor executed 
 personally or b}^ his deputies all processes from the different tribunals. 
 The depositary-general took charge of all moneys and effects placed in the 
 custody of the law. The functions of the receiver-general are pointed out 
 by his official denomination. The attorney-general-syndic was not, as 
 might be suposed from his title, the prosecuting officer of the crown. His 
 duty was to propose to the cabildo such measures as the interest of the 
 people required, and defend their rights. 
 
 The regidors received fifty dollars each, annually, from the treasury. 
 The principal provincial alcade, alguazil inayor, depositary general, 
 receiver of fines, and ordinary alcades were entitled, as such, to fees of 
 office. 
 
 The king had directed a regiment to be raised in the province under the 
 style of the regiment of Louisiana, and had made choice of Don J. 
 Estecheria as its colonel. This officer not having as yet arrived, Unzaga 
 regulated its organization and assumed the provisional command. A 
 number of commissions for officers in this regiment were sent by 
 O'Reilly. They had been filled with the names of such inhabitants as 
 Ulloa had recommended. These commissions were cheerfully accepted ; 
 the pay and emoluments in the colonial regiment of Spain being much 
 more considerable than in the French. The ranks of the regiment were 
 soon filled, soldiers in the service of France and in the regiments brought 
 by O'Reili}^ being permitted to enlist in it. 
 
 The supplies which the Spanish government had destined to its military 
 force in Louisiana were unaccountably delayed. The dearth of provisions 
 in New Orleans became excessive, owing to an increase of population, 
 much larger than that of the city before the arrival of the Spaniards. 
 Flour rose to twenty dollars the barrel. A momentary relief was obtained 
 by the arrival of Oliver Pollock in a brig from BaltinK)re, with a cargo of 
 that article, who offered the load to O'Reilly on his own terms. He 
 declined accepting it thus, and finally purchased it at fifteen dollars the 
 barrel O'Reilly was so well pleased with the bargain that he told Pollock 
 
HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 211 
 
 he should have a free trade to Louisiana as long as lie lived, and a report 
 of his conduct on this occasion would be made to the king. 
 
 The cabildo held its first session on the first of December, under the 
 presidency of O'Reilly. The regidors' offices had been purchased by Don 
 Francisco"^ ]\Iaria Reggio, Don Pedro Francisco Olivier de Vezin, Don 
 Carlos Juan Bautista Fleurian, Don Antonio Bienvenu, Don Jose Ducros, 
 and Don Dvonisio Brand. Don Juan Bautista Garic, Avho had held the 
 office of clerk of the superior council, had acquired the same office in the 
 calnldo. 
 
 Reggio was alfercz real; de Vezin, principal provincial alcade ; Fleurian, 
 aJguazil mayor; Ducros, depository general; and Bienvenu, receiver of 
 fines. 
 
 Don Louis de Unzaga, colonel of the regiment of Havana, one of those 
 who had come with O'Reilly, had the king's commission as governor of 
 the province, but was not authorized to enter upon the duties of that office, 
 until the departure of O'Reilly, or the declaration of his will. Immedi- 
 ately after the installation of the cabildo, he made this declaration, and 
 yielded the chair of that tribunal to Unzaga. 
 
 O'Reilly never came to the cabildo afterwards. Unzaga exercised the 
 functions of governor ; but the former, as captain-general, continued to 
 make regulations. 
 
 He caused a set of instructions, which Don Jose de Uristia and Don 
 Felix de Rey had prepared by his order, to be published. They related 
 to the institution of, and proceedings in, civil and criminal actions, 
 according to the law^s of Castillo and the Indies, and for the government 
 of judges, officers and parties, till b}^ the introduction of the Spanish 
 language in the province, they might have the means of acquiring a better 
 knowledge of those laws. To them was annexed a compendious abridg- 
 ment of the criminal laws, and a few directions in regard to last wills and 
 testaments. 
 
 From this period, it is believed the laws of Spain became the sole guide 
 of the tribunals in their decisions. As these laws, and those of France, 
 proceed from the same origin, the Roman code, and there is a great 
 similarity in their dispositions in regard to matrimonial rights, testaments 
 and successions, the transition was not perceived before it became 
 complete, and veiy little inconvenience resulted from it. 
 
 The provincial officers of Louisiana were, besides the captain-general, a 
 governor, vested with civil and military powers ; an intendant, charged 
 with the administration of the revenue and admiralty matters, the same 
 person acting often in the double capacity of governor and intendant ; an 
 auditor of war and assessor of government, whose duty it was to furnish 
 legal advice to the governor, the first in military, the second in civil 
 affairs ; an assessor of the intendancy, who rendered a like service to the 
 intendant. Professional characters being very few in Louisiana, the same 
 individual often acted as auditor of war and assessor of the government 
 and intendancy, and he also assisted the cabildo, principal, provincial, 
 and ordinary alcades ; a secretary of the government and one of the 
 intendant ; a treasurer and a contador or comptroller ; a storekeeper and a 
 purveyor ; a surveyor general ; a harbor master ; an interpreter of the 
 French and English languages, and an Indian interpreter ; three notaries 
 public ; a collector and comptroller of the customs ; a cashier ; guarda 
 major, searcher, and notary to the custom house. 
 
212 HISTORY OF LOUISIANA, 
 
 Every officer who received a salary of more than three hundred dollars 
 a year was appointed by the crown ; others were so by the governor or 
 intendants in their respective departments. 
 
 The governor exercised judicial powers in civil and criminal matters 
 throughout the province, as did the intendant in fiscal and admiralty, 
 and the vicar-general in ecclesiastical. These officers w^ere sole judges in 
 their respective courts. The two former were assisted by an auditor 
 or assessor, whose opinion they might, on their own responsibility, 
 disregard. 
 
 In every parish, an officer of the army or militia, of no higher grade than 
 a captain, was stationed as civil and militar}' connnandant. His duty 
 Avas to attend to the police of the parish and preserve its peace. He wa."? 
 instructed to examine the passports of all travellers, and sufier no one to 
 settle, within his jurisdiction, without the license of the governor. He 
 had jurisdiction of all civil cases in which the value of the object in 
 dispute did not exceed twenty dollars. In more important cases he received 
 the petition and answer, took down the testimony, ami transmitted the whole 
 to the governor, by whom the record was sent to the proper tribunal. He 
 had the power to punish slaves, and arrest and imprison free persons 
 charged with offenses, and was bound to transmit immediate information 
 of the arrest, with a transcript of the evidence, to the governor, by whose 
 order the accused was either discharged or sent to the city. They acted 
 also as notaries public, and made inventories and sales of the estates of 
 the deceased, and attended to the execution of judgments rendered in the 
 city against defendants who resided in the parish. 
 
 AMien the commandant was taken from the army, he continued to receive 
 the pay and emoluments of bis rank. When he was not, and had not any 
 pensioii from the king, an annual sum of one hundred dollars was paid 
 him from the treasury, for stationery and other small expenses. All were 
 entitled to fees in the exercise of judicial and notarial functions. _ 
 
 The Spanish language was ordered to be employed by all public officers 
 in their minutes ; but the use of the French was tolerated in the judicial 
 and notarial acts of commandants. 
 
 Towards the middle of December, O'Reilly left the city to visit the 
 settlements of the German and Acadian coasts, Iberville and Pointe 
 Coupee. 
 
 On the first of January, the cabildo made choice of Lachaise, a grand- 
 son of the former commissary -general and ordonnateur, and St. Denis, as 
 . ordinary alcades for the year 1770. 
 
 Don Cecilio Odoardo arrived with a commission of auditor of war and 
 assessor of the government ; and Don Joseph de Uristia and Don Felix de 
 Rey sailed for Havana. 
 
 Meetings of the most notable planters Avere convened, on the arrival of 
 O'Reilly, in each parish, on his way up the river, Altliough his coiiduct 
 at New" Orleans was ill calculated to attach the people to the sovereign he 
 represented, he was everyu'herc received with dumb s^lfmission ; but they 
 did not a])|)car very anxious to improve the op})orfunity, which his visit 
 was intended to oflfev, or make him any communication or remonstrance. 
 A number of French soldiers enlisted in the 8])anish service, ]\Iany 
 were discharged and received grants of land. Those who did not choose 
 to remain under the authority of the Catliolic king, were offered the 
 altcrnajtive of a passage to France or Hispaniola. Aubry sailed with those 
 
HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 213 
 
 who preferred returning liome. The artillery was put on board of a vessel 
 which carried those who were destined for St. Domingo. She was never 
 after heard of. 
 
 Bobe Descloseaiix, who had acted during a short time, as commissary- 
 general and ordonnateur, on the death of Larouvilliere in 1759, remained 
 in New Orleans by order of the French, and with the consent of the 
 Spanish king, to attend to the redemption of the paper securities, 
 emitted by the former colonial administrations; a very considerable 
 quantity of which was still in circulation. 
 
 Peter Chester, on the death of governor Elliott, of West Florida, 
 succeeded him in the latter part of January. 
 
 On his return, O'Reilly published on the 8th of February, a: number of 
 regulations, in regard to the grants of vacant land. 
 
 To every family coming to settle in the province, a tract was to be 
 granted of six or eight arpents in front, on the Mississippi, with a depth 
 of forty ; on condition that the grantee should within three years, 
 construct a levee and linish a highway of forty feet at least in width, with 
 parallel ditches towards the levee, and on the opposite side with bridges 
 at regular distances, and enclo'se and clear the whole front of the grant to 
 the depth of two arpents at least. 
 
 The arable land on the points formed by the river, having but little 
 depth, it was provided that grants might be made there of twelve arpents 
 in front, or the land was granted to the owners of the adjacent tracts, in 
 order to secure an uninterrupted continuation of the levee and highway. 
 
 In order to secure an early compliance with the conditions of the 
 grants, the grantee was declared incapable of alienating the land until 
 the stipulated improvements were made. 
 
 Grants of a square league were authorized in the districts of Attakapas, 
 Opelousas and Natchitoches, where the inhabitants paid more attention 
 to raising cattle than to the culture of the soil. Where the land was less 
 than a league in depth, the grant was of two leagues in front with a depth 
 of half a league. But no grant of forty-two arpents in front and depth 
 was authorized to he made to any person who was not the owner of one 
 hundred head of tame horned cattle, a few horses and sheej) and two 
 slaves. 
 
 All cattle were required to be branded by the owner before the age 
 of eighteen months ; and all older unbrandecl cattle were declared 
 unclaimablc. 
 
 Nothing Ijeing thought more injurious to the people than strayed 
 cattle, without the destruction of which the tame ones cannot increase, 
 time was given till the first day of June, 1771, to collect the strays ; after 
 which period it is declared they may be considered as wild, and killed by 
 any one : none may oppose it, or claim property in such cattle. 
 
 All grants are to be made in the king's name by the governor of the 
 province, who is, at the same time, to appoint a surveyor to fix the 
 ijoundaries both in front and depth, in presence of the ordinary judge of 
 the district, and in that of the two adjoining settlers, who are to be present 
 at the survey, and are to subscribe the process verbal which is to be made. 
 The surveyor is directed to make three copies of it, one of which is to be 
 deposited in the office of the clerk of the cal)ildo, another in that of the 
 governor, and the third delivered to the grantee. 
 
 In a proclamation of the twenty-second of February, the captain-general 
 
 > 
 
214 HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 
 
 assigned a revenue to the cit}' of New Orleans. It was to consist of an 
 annual tax of forty dollars on every tavern, billiard table, and coffee house ; 
 another of twenty dollars on every boarding house ; an imposition of one 
 dollar on every barrel of brandy brought to the city ; and a tax of three 
 hundred and seventy dollars, to which the butchers voluntarily submitted, 
 under an express declaration that they thereb}' meant to authorize no 
 alteration now or thereafter in the price of meat, which the)' said ought 
 not ever to take place without necessity. 
 
 To enable the city to defray the expenses necessary to keep up the 
 levee, an anchorage duty was granted to it, of six dollars upon every 
 vessel of two hundred tons and upwards, and half that sum on smaller 
 ones. 
 
 O'Reilly further granted to the city, in the king's name, the ground on 
 both sides of the public square, or place d'armes, from Levee to Chartres 
 and Conti streets, having a front of three hundred and thirty-six feet on 
 the square, and eighty-four feet in depth. The ground was soon 
 afterwards sold on a perpetual yearly rent. Don Andre Almoster became 
 the purchaser of it. 
 
 By a special proclamation, the black code, given by Louis the fifteenth 
 to the province, was re-enacted. 
 
 With the view of putting an end, in some degree, to the practice of the 
 Indians of dooming prisoners of war to death, with cruel and protracted 
 torments, the colonial government allowed the colonists to purchase and 
 hold them as slaves, and there was a considerable number of them in the 
 possession of planters. O'Reilly, by a special proclamation, declared that 
 the practice of reducing Indians to slavery, was contrary to the wise and 
 pious laws of Spain ; but that until the pleasure of the sovereign was 
 manifested, the owners of such slaves might retain them. 
 
 With the view of guarding against the introduction of foreigners into 
 the province, all persons were prohibited to receive or entertain any 
 foreigner not provided with a passport from the governor, or to furnish 
 him -with any horse, or land or water carriage. 
 
 It was also expressly prohihited to purchase anything from persons 
 navigating the Mississippi, or lakes, without a passport : it was, however, 
 permitted to sell fowls and other provisions to boats or vessels, provided 
 the fowls or provisions were delivered on the bank of the river, and 
 payment received in money. 
 
 A fine of one hundred dollars, and the confiscation of the articles 
 purchased, was denounced against the delinquent, one-third of the whole 
 being the reward of the informer. 
 
 A number of police regulations were made. 
 
 No change took place in the ecclesiastical government of the province. 
 Father Dagobert, the superior of the capuchins, was permitted to continue 
 in the exercise of his pastoral functions, as curate of New Orleans, and in 
 the administration of the southern part of the diocese of Quebec, of which 
 the bishop had constituted him vicar-general. The other capuchins were 
 maintained in the curacies of their respective parishes. 
 
 The attendance of the Ursuline nuns, in the hospital, according to a 
 bull they had obtained from the pope, was dispensed with ; the services 
 of these ladies had become merely nominal, being confined to the daily 
 attendance of two nuns, during the visit of the king's physician. Having 
 noted his prescriptions, they withdrew, contenting themselves with sending 
 
HISTORY OF LOriSIAXA. 215 
 
 from the dispensary, which was kept in the convent, the medicines he had 
 ordered. The Cathohc king had directed that two nuns should be 
 maintained at his expense; for each of whom, sixteen doHars were to be 
 paid, monthly, to the convent out of his treasury. 
 
 Don Francisco de Lo3^ola died, and was succeeded in the intendancy, 
 ]>er interim, by Gayarre, the contador. 
 
 By a vessel from Bordeaux, the colonists were informed, in the latter 
 part of the spring, of the fate of their late chiefs. The conduct of Foucault 
 had been disapproved bv his sovereign, and he had been lodged in the 
 Bastille, where he was still contined. The vessel, in which Aubry sailed, 
 foundered in the Garonne, near the tower of Cordovan. Every one on 
 l)oard perished, except the captain, doctor, a sergeant, and two sailors. 
 The king evinced his sense of Aubry's services, by jiensions to his brother 
 and sister. He had served in Canada and Illinois before he came to 
 Louisiana, and was at Fort Duquesne, when it was attacked l)y the British 
 under General Forbes, 
 
 O'Reilly took passage in the summer, with all the troops he had 
 brought, except twelve hundred men, who were left for the service of the 
 province, leaving behind no favoral)le impression of the government l)y 
 whom he was sent. Most of the merchants and mechanics of New 
 Orleans had withdrawn to Cape Frangois, in the island of Hispaniola. 
 Many of the easiest planters (for there were no wealthy ones) had followed 
 theni ; and the emigration was so great, that O'Reilly, a few days before 
 his departure, determined to check it, by w^ithholding passports from 
 applicants. This measure excited great uneasiness, and a general 
 dissatisfaction pervaded every class of society. The motto on his coat of 
 arms was Fortitvdliic et Prudevtia. He does not appear to have attended 
 to the admonition it contained. It is in the combined practice of both 
 these virtues, that those who rule others find their greatest glory ; because 
 it best promotes the felicity of the people. The chief, who attends alone 
 to the display of the former, may obtain a momentary glare, but will 
 sooner or later find himself disappointed, and the people will be the 
 victims of his error. 
 
 The year of 1770 is remarkalile in the annals of North America, by the 
 first effusion of blood, in the dissensions between Great Britain and her 
 colonies, which originated in the passage of the stamp act, soon after the 
 peace of Paris, ancl terminated in the independence of the latter. The 
 inhabitants of Boston viewed with displeasure two British regiments 
 quartered there. Frequent quarrels had arisen between them and the 
 soldiers. On the fourth of March, an affray took place, near the barracks, 
 which brought out a part of the main guard, lietween whom and the 
 townsmen l)lows ensued. The soldiers fired ; three of the inhabitants 
 were killed, and five dangerously wounded. The alarm bells were 
 immediately rung, the drums beat to arms, and an immense nndtitude 
 assembled. Inflamed with rage at the view of the dead bodies, they were 
 with difficulty prevented, by their most influential friends, from rushing 
 on the troops. The officer of the guard and»the soldiers who fired were 
 apprehended. He and six of the men were acquitted : two were found 
 guiltv of manslaughter. 
 
CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 O'Reilly's commission having a particular object, which was now 
 accomplished, Don Antonio Maria Buccarelly, captain-general of tho 
 island of Cuba, succeeded him as captain-general of the province of 
 Louisiana. 
 
 An appeal lay in certain cases from the tribunals of the province to the 
 captain-general ; from him to the royal audience in St. Domingo, in the 
 island of Hispaniola ; and from thence to the council of the Indies in 
 Madrid. 
 
 Charles the third disapproved of O'Reilly's conduct, and he received, on 
 his landing at Cadiz, an order prohibiting his appearance at court. 
 
 The ordinary alcades for the year 1771, were Chabert and Forstall. 
 
 The colonists now heard with pleasure that Foucault had been released 
 from his confinement in the Bastille, in which he had remained eighteen 
 months ; that the eldest son of Mazent, who was in the Moro Castle, under 
 O'Reilly's sentence of imprisonment, had gone to Madrid, thrown himself 
 at the feet of the king, and solicited his father's pardon, offering, if another 
 victim was indispensable, to take his place. His application was seconded 
 by the court of France, and all those who had been sent from Louisiana 
 to the Moro Castle received a pardon. 
 
 Foucault had gone to the island of Bourbon, in the capacity of commis- 
 sary-general and ordonnateur. 
 
 None of the other prisoners, now liberated, returned to Louisiana. Most 
 of them settled in Cape Francois. 
 
 The commerce of the province suifered greatlv from the restrictive 
 system of Spanish regulations. By a royal schedule, Avhich Ulloa had 
 published in New Orleans, on the sixth of September, 1766, the trade of 
 Louisiana had been confined to six ports of the peninsula. These were 
 Seville, Alicant, Carthagena, Malaga, Barcelona, and Coruna ; and no 
 trade was to be carried on in any other than Spanish built vessels, owned 
 and commanded by the king's subjects. Vessels sailing to or from 
 Louisiana, were prohibited from entering any other port in the Spanish 
 dominions in America, except in case of distress, and they were then 
 subjected to strict examination and heavy charges. 
 
 By a royal schedule of the twenty-third of March, 1768, however, the 
 commerce of Louisiana had been favored by an exemption from duty, on 
 any foreign or Spanish merchandise, both in the exportation from any of 
 the ports of the peninsula, to which the commerce of the province was 
 permitted, and on the importation into New Orleans ; but the exportation 
 of specie or produce was burdened with a duty of four per cent. 
 
 Permission had lately been granted for the admission of two vessels 
 from France every year. 
 
 The merchants of New Orleans complained of this restrictive system, 
 as very oppressive. They could not advantageously procure, in any of 
 the six ports of the peninsula, named in the schedule of 1766, the 
 merchandise they wanted, nor find there a vent for the produce of the 
 province. The indigo of Louisiana was in no great demand in an}' port 
 of Spain, where that article might be procured of a much better quality 
 from Cnatiraala, Caraccas, and other provinces on the main. Furs and 
 
HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 217 
 
 peltries were with difficulty sold or preserved in so warm a climate, and 
 •timber and lumber could nftt well bear the expense of transportation to 
 such distant countries. They also complained that the British engrossed 
 all the trade of the Mississippi. 
 
 Vessels of that nation were incessantly plying on that stream. Under 
 the pretense of trading to those ports, on the left bank, over which their 
 flag was displayed, they supplied the people in the city and on the 
 plantations, above and below, with goods and slaves. They took in 
 exchange whatever their customers had to spare, and extended to them a 
 most liberal credit, which the good faith of the jDurchasers amply justified. 
 Besides very large warehouses near the ports at Manshac, Baton Rouge 
 and Natchez, and a number of vessels constantly moored a short distance 
 above New Orleans, opposite to the spot now known as the faubourg La 
 Fayette, the British had two large ones, or floating warehouses, the cabins 
 of which were fitted up with shelves and counters, as a store. These 
 •.constantly plied along the shore, and at the call of any planter, stopped 
 before his door. 
 
 About one hundred and sixty thousand dollars were brought annually 
 from Vera Cruz, since the arrival of O'Reilly, for defraying the expenses 
 of the colonial government : the indigo crops were worth about one 
 hundred and eighty thousand ; furs and peltries were exported to the 
 amount of two hundred thousand ; one hundred thousand were received 
 for timber, lumber and provisions. All this formed an aggregate of seven 
 hundred thousand dollars to pay for imported goods, which was entirely 
 enjoyed by British traders, except only the cargoes of two French vessels, 
 and about fifteen thousand dollars, the value of boards shipped to Havana 
 for sugar boxes. 
 
 Batteaux left New Orleans for Pointe Coupee, Natchitoches, the 
 Arkansas and St. Louis ; but most of their cargoes were taken on their 
 way, from the British floating warehouse, or the stores at Manshac, Baton 
 Rouge, or Natchez. 
 
 British adventurers found also in Louisiana, the means of forming 
 agricultural establishments, on the left bank of the Mississippi, above 
 Manshac, where land was obtained with much facility. An individual 
 chartered a vessel of about one hundred and fifty tons in Jamaica, for 
 five hundred dollars. He put on board goods and about twenty or thirty 
 slaves, which he obtained on credit. Entering the Mississippi with these 
 he disposed of the goods and three-fourths of the slaves, and received in 
 exchange produce sufiicient to pay for the whole and the hire of his vessel. 
 AVith five or six slaves, he began a plantation, obtaining credit in a store 
 near it, for his farming utensils, and the means of procuring some cattle 
 and his subsistence till he made a crop. After a few years he was a farmer 
 in easy circumstances. 
 
 The British OAved to this trade with the former subjects of France many, 
 if not all, of their establishments on the left banks of the Mississippi, 
 besides the great advantages they derived from its navigation. A French 
 trader durst not show the flag of his nation, and was compelled to charter 
 a British bottom, and load her with goods ; but the British merchant who 
 sold them, and was certain to be paid, realized much greater profits. 
 
 Unzaga winked at this irifraction of the commercial and revenue laws 
 of Spain, and disregarded the clamors of the merchants of New Orleans, 
 
 30 
 
218 HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 
 
 "who suspected that the indulgence shown ,to British traders was not 
 gratuitous. 
 
 The ordinary alcadcs, chosen by the cabildo, for the year 1772, were 
 Arnelot and the Chevalier de Villiers. 
 
 On the promotion of Buccarelly to the viceroyalty of Mexico, the 
 Marquis de la Torre succeeded him as captain-general of the island of 
 Culja and the province of Louisiana. 
 
 Col. Estacheria arrived and assumed the command of the regiment of 
 Louisiana. 
 
 Most of the forces which O'Reilly had left in New Orleans sailed for 
 Havana. 
 
 The country was desolated in the summer of this year by a hurricane, 
 of which Roman has preserved the details. It began on the last day of 
 August and continued until the third of September. It was not, however, 
 felt in New Orleans, where the weather continued fine, though the wind 
 blew very high from the east. In lake Ponchartrain and the passes of the 
 Rigolets and Chef Menteur, the water rose to a prodigious height, and the 
 islands in the neighborhood were several feet under water. The vessels 
 at the Balize were all driven into the marshes, and a Spanish ship 
 foundered and every person on board perished. Along the coast from lake 
 Borgne to Pensacola, the wind ranged from south southeast and east ; but 
 farther west it blew with greatest violence, from north northeast and east. 
 A schooner belonging to the British government, having a detachment of 
 the sixteenth regiment on board, was driven westerly as far as Cat island, 
 under the western part of which she cast anchor ; but the water rose so 
 high that she parted her cable and floated over the island. The wind 
 entirely destroyed the woods for about thirty miles from the sea shore. 
 At Mobile, the effects of it were terrible. Vessels, boats, and logs were 
 drawn up the streets to a great distance. The gulleys and hollows as well 
 as the lower grounds of the town were so filled with logs, that the 
 inhabitants easily provided themselves with their winter supply of fuel. 
 The salt spray was carried by the wind four or five miles from the sea 
 shore, and then descended in showers. 
 
 For thirty miles up a branch of the Pascagoula, which, from the 
 number of cedar trees on its bank, is called Cedar creek, there was 
 scarcely a tree left standing ; the pines were thrown down or broken ; and 
 those trees which did not entirely yield to the violence of the wind, were 
 twisted like ropes. 
 
 But the most singular effect of this hurricane, was the production of a 
 second growth of leaves and fruit on the mulberry trees. This hardy tree 
 budded, foliated, blossomed and bore fruit within four weeks after the 
 storm. 
 
 With the view of promoting the instruction of the rising generation in 
 the Spanish tongue, a priest was brought over from Spain, at the king's 
 expense, who, with two assistants, taught the elements of that language. 
 Four young women were also sent from Havana, who took the veil in the 
 convent of the Ursuline nuns of New Orleans, and were employed in 
 teaching Spanish to young persons of their sex. This was the only encour- 
 agement given to learning during the whole period of the Spanish 
 government. 
 
 The winter was so severe this year that the orange trees perished. 
 
 The breach which the stamp act had occasioned between the British 
 
HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 219 
 
 North American provinces and their mother country, was daily widening; 
 and this year, on the suggestion of the province of Massachusetts l)ay, 
 committees were appointed within the others, for tlie purpose of corres- 
 pondence and the organization of a system of resistance to the measures 
 adopted by parliament. 
 
 Duplessis and Doriocourt were the ordinary alcades chosen on the first 
 of January, 1773. 
 
 It being deemed improper that a Spanish province should continue to 
 form a part of a French bishopric, Louisiana was now separated from 
 that of Quebec, and annexed to that of Cuba, and Don Santiago Joseph 
 de Echevaria, the incumbent of the latter see, appointed Father Dagobert 
 his vicar-general in the province. 
 
 Bobe Deseloseaux, who had remained in New Orleans to attend to the 
 redemption of the bills of credit emitted by the French government, 
 having previously obtained the consent of his sovereign, now sailed for 
 Cape Fran9ois. Amelot, an engineer, and Garderat, a major of infantry, 
 took passage in the same ship, wdth the widow of Carlier, the former 
 comptroller of the marine, her two daughters, and a few other French 
 ofhcers, who had been detained by their private concerns. Neither the 
 ship nor any of the passengers were ever heard of, after she left the Balize. 
 Time, and Unzaga's mild administration, began to reconcile the 
 colonists to their fate. The resources which they found in a clandestine 
 trade with the British, and the sums brought from Vera Cruz to meet the 
 expenses of government, circulating in the country, had enabled many 
 planters to extend their establishments. But many had employed for 
 this purpose the proceeds of their crops, which justice required to be 
 reserved for the discharge of their debts. To the difficulties which indis- 
 cretion had created, were superadded those that were occasioned by the 
 ravages of the late hurricane. The disappointed creditors became 
 clamorous, and some began to attempt coercing payment by legal 
 measures. Over these, the influence of a governor of a Spanish colony was 
 very great. Unzaga exerted his, in allaying the clamors of injured 
 creditors, without distressing honest debtors, by employing coercion 
 against those only who were able, but unwilling to discharge their debts. 
 He gave evidence of his impartiality in this respect, by compelling St. 
 Maxent, a wealthy planter, whose daughter he had married and who / 
 sought to avail himself of this circumstance to bid defiance to his creditors. 
 In this manner, he obtained indulgence for those debtors who really 
 required it. 
 
 Daniel Boone, with his family and four others, and about forty-five men 
 from Powell's Valley, began this year the first settlement on Kentucky 
 river. 
 
 The British East India company having made large shipments of tea 
 to Boston, New York, Philadelphia and Charleston, the people in these 
 cities opposed its landing. In the first, they went much farther. On 
 hearing of the arrival of the company's ships there, it was voted by accla- 
 mation, in a numerous meeting of the inhabitants, that the tea should 
 not be landed, nor the duties on it paid ; but that it should be sent back 
 in the same vessels in which it had been brought. On the adjournment 
 of the meeting, an immense crowd repaired to the quay, and a number of 
 the most resolute, disguised as Mohawk Indians, boarded the ships ; and, 
 
220 HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 
 
 in about two hours, broke open three hundred and forty boxes of tea, and 
 discharged the contents into the sea. 
 
 The cabildo made choice of Forstall and Chabert, as ordinary alcades 
 for the year 1774 ; and early in January, Fagot de la Gariniere took his 
 seat in that body, as a perpetual regidor and receiver of fines ; having 
 purchased these offices from Bienvenu for fourteen hundred dollars. 
 
 On the tenth of May, Louis the fifteenth, the last monarch of France 
 who reigned over Louisiana, died, in the sixty-fifth year of his age, and 
 was succeeded by his grandson, the Duke of Berry, the unfortunate Louis 
 the sixteenth. 
 
 By a royal schedule of the fourth of August, the power of granting 
 vacant lands, in the province, -was vested in the governor, according to 
 the regulations made by O'Reilly, on the eighth of January, 1770. 
 
 The Creeks and Chickasaws this year, sent a number of their chiefs to 
 Charleston, in South Carolina, where they made a cession to the British 
 of several millions of acres of valuable land, in payment of their debts to 
 traders of that nation. 
 
 Early in September, delegates from twelve of the British North American 
 provinces met in congress in the city of Philadelphia. They prepared a 
 petition to the king and an address to the people of Great Britain on the 
 subject of their grievances. 
 
 The resentment of parliament, on hearing of the destruction of the tea 
 at Boston, was manifested by the occlusion of that port, until reparation 
 should be made to the East India company ; and the king declared himself 
 convinced that good order -would soon be restored in the town. Another 
 statute was passed annulling the charter of the province of Massachusetts 
 bay, and authorizing the transportation from any of the provinces, for 
 trial in another province or in England, of any person indicted for murder, 
 or any other capital offense. A statute was also passed, for quartering 
 soldiers on the inhabitants. The boundaries of the province of Quebec 
 were extended, so as to include the territory between the lakes, the Ohio 
 and the Mississippi, and its government was vested in a legislative council, 
 to be appointed by the crown. At the request of the Canadians, the 
 French laws were restored to them in civil matters. Two years after, in 
 the declaration of independence, these last measures were urged as grounds 
 of complaint, by the American congress, against George the third, that 
 " he had abolished the free system of English laws in a neighboring 
 province, establishing therein an arbitrary government, and extending its 
 boundaries, so as to render it at once an example and instrument for 
 introducing the same absolute rule in the other colonies." 
 
 In the meanw^hile. General Gage fortified Bostonack, and had the 
 ammunition and stores in the provincial arsenal at Cambridge, and the 
 powder in the magazine at Charleston, brought to Boston. 
 
 Dufossat and Duplessis were the ordinary alcades for the year 1775. 
 
 Unzaga w^as now promoted to the rank of a brigadier-general, and the 
 office of intendant was united to that of governor, in his person. 
 
 There were a considerable number of runaway negroes, committing 
 great depredations on the plantations. Unzaga, to remedy or lessen this 
 evil, issued a proclamation offering an amnesty, or free pardon, to such 
 as voluntarily returned to their masters, and absolutely forbidding the 
 latter to punish them. This measure had the intended effect ; although 
 
HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 221 
 
 the slaves could not absolutely be protected from the resentment of their 
 masters, Avho might easily have found a pretense for disregarding Unzaga's 
 injunction. 
 
 We have seen, in a preceding ])ortion of tliis work, that general 
 Lyman, of Connecticut, had contemplated, in 17G3, an extensive settle- 
 ment on the Ohio, and had applied to government for a grant of land. 
 This officer had served with distinction during the preceding war. He 
 had been appointed major-general and commander-in-chief of the forces 
 of his native province in 1755 ; and, in 1762, he was at Havana, in command 
 of all the American troops. On the return of peace, a company had by 
 his exertions been formed, under the style of the Military Adventurers, 
 composed chiefly of officers and soldiers who had lately served in America. 
 Their object was to obtain a considerable extent of territory, on which 
 they might settle, with as large a number of their countrymen as could 
 be induced to join them. General Lyman went to England as the agent 
 of the company, entertaining no doubt of the success of his application. 
 On his arrival, he found that the friends in the ministry, on whom he 
 depended, had been removed, and those who had succeeded them had 
 other persons to provide for, and found it convenient to forget his services 
 and those of his associates. Insurmountable obstacles seemed to embarrass 
 him. At last, after a stay of several years, he obtained grants on the 
 Mississippi and Yazoo rivers, and returned. Many of his former 
 companions had died ; several had removed to a distance ; many had 
 grown old ; and all had passed that period of life, when men are willing 
 to encounter the dangers and hardships attending the settlement of a 
 wilderness, under a different climate, and at the distance of a thousand 
 miles from their homes. After a short stay in Connecticut, he departed, 
 with his eldest son and a few friends, with whom he soon formed a 
 settlement, near Fort Panmure, in the district of Natchez. 
 
 Open hostilities broke out, this year, in the contest which terminated 
 by the severance of thirteen British provinces from the mother country. 
 On the 20th of April, the militia of Massachusetts routed a body of 
 regulars at Lexington. In the month of May, the Americans possessed 
 themselves, by surprise, of Ticonderoga ; and the fortress of Crown point 
 surrendered to them soon after. On the first of June, congress appointed 
 George Washington commander-in-chief of all the forces of the united 
 colonies ; and he proceeded immediately to the vicinity of Boston, where 
 the regular army and the militia of New England kept the royal forces in 
 check, and obtained a decisive advantage on the seventeenth of June, at 
 Breed's HilL 
 
 In the meanwhile, the provincial congresses had organized their militia, 
 and raised a few bodies of regular troops. 
 
 Part of the force of New York, and the adjacent provinces, under 
 generals Wooster and Montgomery, marched into Canada, and took 
 possession of Chambly, St. Johns, and Montreal, during the months of 
 October and November. General Arnold, with some troops from Connec- 
 ticut, crossed the wilderness and formed a junction with Wooster and 
 Montgomery, on the right bank of the river St. Lawrence, op])()site to 
 Quebec ; and croslBing the stream, they made an unsuccessful attack upon 
 the town, in which Montgomery fell, on the thirty-first day of December. 
 
 The ordinary alcades, for the year 1776, were djErnonville and 
 Livaudais. 
 
222 HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 
 
 . Olivier de Vezin took his seat, in the cabildo, as perpetual regidor and 
 principal provincial alcade ; Lebarre de la Cestiere, as a perpetual regidor 
 and alguazil mayor ; the Chevalier de Clapion, as a perpetual regidor and 
 receiver of fines ; and Forstall, as perpetual regidor. 
 
 Don Bernardo de Galvez succeeded Estacheria in the command of the 
 regiment of Louisiana. 
 
 There were, at this period, a number of merchants from Boston, New 
 York and Philadelphia, in New Orleans : they were all well disposed 
 towards the American cause. Oliver Pollock was the most conspicuous. 
 They had procured a good supply of arms and ammunition for the 
 settlers of the western part of Pennsylvania, which was delivered to 
 colonel Gibson, who came to Pittsburg for it. This had been done with 
 the knowledge of the colonial government, who gave some assistance to 
 the colonel. 
 
 Unzaga received the appointment of captain-general of Caraccas. He 
 was much regretted in Louisiana. His mild administration had endeared 
 him to the colonists. He had overlooked the breach of the commercial 
 and fiscal laws of Spain by the British, who had entirely engrossed the, 
 commerce of the province. They had introduced a considerable number 
 of slaves, and by the great aid they afforded to planters, had enabled most 
 of them to extend their establishments to a degree hi1:herto unknown in 
 the province, and others to forms new ones. By the timely exercise of 
 coercion against the dishonest and indolent, he had checked the profligacy 
 of those who misused the facilities which British traders afforded, and 
 compelled them to reduce or surrender establishments which they were 
 unable to sustain. His conduct, in this respect, though not absolutely 
 approved by the king's ministers, did not deprive him of the confidence 
 of his sovereign. His promotion fully proved this. Without this illicit 
 trade Louisiana must have remained an insignificant province. 
 
 The British army evacuated Boston on the seventeenth of March, and 
 Washington led his to New York. The united colonies proclaimed their 
 independence on the fourth of July. The royal land and naval forces 
 reached Staten Island, near New York, eight days after. The army landed 
 on Long Island on the twenty-second, and five days after repulsed the 
 Americans at Brooklyn. General Washington abandoned the city of New 
 York in September, leading his force up North river, which he crossed on 
 the thirteenth of November, and had some success in Trenton. 
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 By a royal schedule, of the tenth of July, 1776, Unzaga had been 
 directed to surrender, provisionally, the government and intendancy of 
 Louisiana, on his departure for the province of Caraccas, to Don Bernard 
 de Galvez, colonel of the regiment of Louisiana. This gentleman had 
 powerful friends. His uncle, Don Joseph de Galvez,'was president of the 
 council of the Indies ; and his father, Don Mathias de Galvez, viceroy of 
 New Spain. He entered on the duties of his office on the first of January, 
 1777. 
 
 The ordinary alcades, for this year, were Forstall and the Chevalier de 
 Vilhers. 
 
HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 223 
 
 Don Diego Joseph Navarro succeeded the Marquis de hi Torre, as captain- 
 general of the ishmd of Cuba and province of Louisiana. 
 
 By a royal schedule of the month of March, the duty of four per cent, 
 on the expcjrtation of colonial produce from Louisiana, was reduced to 
 two. 
 
 The commerce of the province was encouraged by the permission given 
 to vessels from the French AVest India Islands to come in ballast to the 
 Mississippi, and take, at New Orleans or on the plantations, the produce 
 of the country, paying therefor in specie, bills of exchange, or Guinea 
 negroes. The introduction of negroes born, or who had remained some 
 time in the islands, was already considered as dangerous, and had been 
 prohibited. Vessels from Louisiana were also permitted to bring from 
 the islands of Cuba, or Campeach}^, produce or European goods. Agri- 
 culture was also encouraged by an order to the colonial government to 
 purchase, for the king's account, all the tobacco raised in the colony. 
 
 This year, several large canoes came from Fort Pitt to New Orleans, for 
 the purpose of taking the munitions of war which had been collected 
 for the use of the United States, by Oliver Pollock, probably v/ith the aid, 
 l)ut certainly with the knowledge of Gaivez. Captain Willing, of Phila- 
 delphia, who came in one of these boats, visited the British settlements on 
 the Mississippi, and some of his companions crossed the lakes to Mobile, 
 with the view to induce the inhabitants to raise the striped banner, and 
 join their countrymen in the struggle for freedom. The people of both 
 the Floridas, however, remained steadfast in their attachment to the 
 royal cause. Perhaps those on the Mississippi and in Mobile were 
 deterred by the late tragedy in New Orleans. The thin and sparse 
 population of both the Floridas, their distance from the provinces engaged 
 in the war, and the consequent difficulty of receiving any assistance from 
 them, influenced the conduct of the inhabitants. 
 
 The militia of the western part of the state of Virginia made several 
 very successful incursions into the country to the west of the Ohio, and on 
 the banks of the Mississippi. They possessed themselves of Kaskaskia, 
 and some other posts on that stream. By an act of the legislature these 
 wei'e afterwards erected into a county called Illinois. A regiment of 
 infantry and a troop of horse were raised for its protection, and placed 
 under the command of Col. Clark. 
 
 The limits of the former province of Carolina to the west, were fixed in 
 the charter of Charles the second on the Pacific ocean. By the treaty 
 between Great Britain and France, the Mississippi was given to North 
 Carolina, as its western limit. By the proclamation of 1763, George the 
 third had forbidden any settlement of white people to the west of the 
 mountains. Nevertheless, a considerable number of emigrants from North 
 Carolina had removed to the banks of the Watauga, one of the branches 
 of the Holston. They had increased to such a degree that in 1776, their 
 claim to representation in the convention that formed the constitution 
 was admitted. This year they were formed into a county which had the 
 Mississippi for its western boundary. 
 
 The erection of that county by the state of North Carolina, and that 
 of the county of Illinois by the state of Virginia, are the first instances 
 of measures taken to extend the execution of the laws of the American 
 states to the banks of Mississippi. 
 
 Washington was successful in an attack near Princeton, on the twelfth 
 
224 HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 
 
 of Januar_v. The British army landed on the banks of Elk river, and 
 repulsed the Americans at Brandywine on the eleventh of September, and 
 soon after entered Philadelphia. The Americans were again unsuccessful 
 at Germantown on the fourth of October ; but these misfortunes were in 
 some degree compensated by their success in the north, and the surrender 
 of the British army under Burgoyne, at Saratoga, on the twentieth. 
 The ordinary alcades for the year 1778, were Navarro and Dufossat. _ 
 During the month of January, captain Willing made a second visit to 
 New Orleans. Oliver Pollock now acted openly as the agent of the 
 Americans with the countenance of Galvez, who now and at subsequent 
 
 /periods, afforded them an aid of upwards of seventy thousand dollars out 
 of the royal treasury. By this means the posts occupied by the militia 
 of Virginia on the Mississippi, and the frontier inhabitants of the state 
 of Pennsylvania were supplied with arms and ammunition. New hands 
 were engaged to row up the boats ; and Willing with most of the men 
 who had come down about fifty in number, engaged in a predatory 
 excursion against the British planters on the Mississippi. They proceeded 
 to bayou Manshac, where they captured a small vessel which they found 
 at anchor. They went in her to Baton Rouge, stopping on their way at 
 several plantations where they set fire to the houses and carried off the 
 slaves. 
 
 On hearing of their approach the British planters on the left bank of 
 the Mississippi, crossed the stream with their slaves and most valuable 
 effects. The inhabitants were so few and so scattered, that they were 
 unable to make any effectual resistance to the invaders, who proceeded as 
 far as Natchez, laying waste the plantations, destroying the stock, burning 
 the houses and taking off such slaves as remained. 
 
 Although the government and people of Louisiana were well disposed 
 towards the United States, this cruel, wanton and unprovoked conduct 
 towards a helpless community, was viewed with great indignation and 
 horror, much increased by the circumstance of Willing ha^dng been 
 hospitably received and entertained, the preceding year, in several houses 
 which he now committed to the flames. 
 
 The province now received a considerable accession of population, by 
 the arrival of a number of families, brought over at the king's expense, 
 from the Canary islands. A part of them formed a new settlement at the 
 Terre-aux-Boeufs, below New Orleans, under the order of Marignyde 
 Mandeville ; a part was located on the banks of the river Amite, behind 
 Baton Rouge, under the order of St. Maxent, and formed the settlement 
 of Galveztown : the rest formed that of Valenzuela, on bayou Lafourche. 
 
 A house was built for each family, and a church in each settlement. 
 They were supplied with cattle, fowls and farming utensils ; rations were 
 furnished them for a period of four years out of the king's stores, and 
 considerable pecuniary assistance Avas also afforded to them. 
 
 By a royal schedule of the fourth of May, the indemnity to be paid to 
 owners of slaves condemned to death, perpetual labor, or transportation, 
 or killed in the attempt to arrest them, when runaway, was fixed at two 
 hundred dollars a head ; but in the latter case, the indemnity was due 
 only to those who had previously consented to pay a proportion of the 
 price of slaves thus killed. 
 
 On the twentieth of April, Galvez issued a proclamation, by which, 
 owing to the distresses of the times, and the difficulty of disposing of the 
 
HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. -225 
 
 produce of the province, he permitted its exportation to any of the ports 
 of France ; and by another prochimation, on the seventeenth, the 
 permission was extended to any port of tlie United States. 
 
 The king made, on the eighteenth of October, ncAV regulations for the 
 commerce of his American dominions, and particuhuiy for that of 
 Louisiana. Considering it necessary to his service to encourage the trade 
 of that province, and to increase its prosperity, he directed that vessels 
 from Xew Orleans should no longer be restricted to sail for one of the six 
 ports to which they had been restricted, but might sail to any of the other 
 ports of the peninsula, to which the commerce of the Indies was permitted. 
 The exportation of furs and peltries from Louisiana was at the same time 
 encouraged, by an exemption from duty during a period of ten years ; but 
 in the re-exportation from Spain the ordinarv duty was to be paid. 
 
 Two royal schedules were this year published in Louisiana. B}" the 
 first, the introduction or reading of a book written by Mercier, entitled 
 L\in Deux Mille Quatre Cent Quaranfe, was prohibited; and the governor 
 was ordered to cause every copy of it found in the province to be seized 
 and destroyed. The other schedule was to the same effect, in regard to 
 Robertson's history of America. Mercier's book had been condemned by 
 the Incjuisition, and the king said he had just reason to prohibit 
 Robertson's being read in his American dominions. 
 
 There were, at this period, a considerable number of individuals from 
 the United States and West and East Florida and Nova Scotia, in New 
 Orleans. They were all required to take an oath of fidelity to the king 
 of Spain during their residence in his dominions, or depart. It appears 
 the oath was taken by eight5^-three individuals. 
 
 Colonel Hamilton, who commanded at the British post at Detroit, came 
 this year to Vincennes, on the Wabash, with about six hundred men, 
 chiefl}' Indians, with a view to an expedition against Kaskaskia, and up 
 the Ohio as far as Fort Pitt, and the back settlements of Virginia. Colonel 
 Clark heard, from a trader, who came down from Vincennes to Kaskaskia, 
 that Hamilton, not intending to take the field until spring, had sent most 
 of his force to block up the Ohio, or to harrass the frontier settlers, 
 keeping at Vincennes sixt}^ soldiers only, with three pieces of cannon and 
 some swivels. The resolution w^as immediately taken to improve the 
 favorable opportunity for averting the impending danger ; and Clark 
 accordingly dispatched a small galley, mounting two four pounders and 
 four swivels, on board of which he put a company of soldiers, with orders 
 to pursue her way ujd the Wabash, and anchor a fcAV miles below Vincennes, 
 suffering nothing to pass her. He now set off with one hundred and 
 twenty men, the whole force he could command, and marched towards 
 Vincennes. They were five days in crossing the low lands of the Wabash, 
 in the neighborhood of Vincennes, after having spent sixty in crossing 
 the wilderness, wading for several nights up to their breasts in water. 
 Appearing suddenly before the town, they surprised and took it. 
 Hamilton for a while defended the fort, but was at last compelled to 
 surrender. 
 
 The prospects of the United States had been much brightened, on the 
 recognition of their independence by France, and the conclusion of a 
 treaty of alliance and commerce with that power, on the sixth of February. 
 
 In the summer, the British evacuated Philadelphia, and marched 
 through the state of Jersey to New York, A large detachment of it 
 
 31 
 
226 HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 
 
 invaded the coasts of the state of Georgia, and took possession of 
 Savannah. 
 
 The cabildo made choice of Piernas and Duverger as ordinary alcades, 
 on the first of Januar}', 1779. 
 
 Toutant de Beauregard took his seat in that body as a perpetual regidor 
 and principal provincial alcade ; and Mazange succeeded Garic as clerk. 
 
 Don Juan Dorotheo del Portege succeeded Odoardo in the otfice of 
 auditor of war and assessor of government. 
 
 According to the order made the last year, eighty-seven individuals 
 from the United States, or British provinces, took a temporary oath of 
 fidelity to the Catholic king. 
 
 The province, this year, received another accession of population, by 
 the arrival of a number of families brought over, at the king's expense, 
 from Malaga. They were treated as favorably as those who came, in the 
 preceding year, from the Canary islands. It appears, from documents 
 extant, that some heads of families received, besides a grant of land, in 
 cattle, rations, pecuniary and other aid, between three and four thousand 
 dollars. They were sent to form a settlement on bayou Teche, in the 
 district of the Attakapas, under the order of Bouligny. The place was 
 called New Iberia. The industry of the new comers was at first directed 
 to the culture of flax and hemp ; but without success. 
 
 At the same time, the king sent a spiritual relief to the province, 
 consisting of six capuchin friars ; one of whom, at this day, remains in 
 the exercise of his pastoral functions, as curate of the parish of St. Louis, 
 in the city of New Orleans. 
 
 The small pox made great havoc in New Orleans and on the plantations, 
 above and below. 
 
 Great Britain had considered the recognition of the independence of the 
 United States by France, the treaty of alliance and commerce which she 
 had concluded with them, and the succor which she had afforded them, 
 as equivalent to a declaration of war ; and hostilities had actually 
 begun, when Spain offered her mediation, and proposed a general peace 
 for a term of years, with a meeting of the ministers of the belligerent 
 powers at Madrid, to which those of the United States were to be admitted 
 and treated as the representatives of an independent people. Although 
 it was not insisted that the king of Great Britain should formal^ recognize 
 his former subjects as independent, it was understood that the}' should 
 be so de facto, and absolutely separated from the empire of Great Britain. 
 On the declaration by the cabinet of St. James, that no negotiation would 
 be entered into with the United States, even under the modifications 
 proposed, the Catholic king determined on taking a part in the war, and 
 ordered his embassador at London to deliver a rescript, in which, after 
 reciting several grounds of complaint, he declared his sovereign's deter- 
 mination to use every means in his power to obtain justice. The 
 ambassador left London without taking leave ; and letters of marque and 
 reprisals against the ships and subjects of Spain were immediately issued. 
 
 On the eighth of May, war was declared by Spain ; and on the eighth 
 of July, a roj'al schedule was issued, authorizing the king's subjects in the 
 Indies to take part in it, the latter document reciting that the king of 
 Great Britain had sought to indemnify himself, for the loss of his 
 American provinces, by the seizure of those of Spain, having, by various 
 artifices, endeavored to raise up new enemies against her, among the 
 
HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 227 
 
 Indian nations in Florida, whom he had induced to conspire against the 
 king's innocent vassals in Louisiana. 
 
 With the oliicial account of the rupture, Galvez, who had hitherto 
 exercised the functions of governor pro tempore, received the king's 
 commission of governor and intendant. He innnediately thought of the 
 attack of the British possessions in the neighborhood, and convened a 
 council of war to deliberate on it. The proposition was rejected, and the 
 council recommended that, until a reinforcement could be obtained from 
 Havana, defensive measures should be alone resorted to. 
 
 ImiDatient of the state of inaction to which the determination of the 
 council condemned him, the chief endeavored to collect a body of men 
 sufficient to justify him in taking on himself the responsibility of acting 
 in opposition to the opinion of his legal advisers. There were a number 
 of men from the United States in and near New Orleans, who offered 
 their ser\4ces. The militia volunteered theirs. In this manner, with the 
 regular force and many of the people of color, an army of about fourteen 
 hundred men was collected. The fatigue of a forced march and the 
 diseases incident to the climate towards the end of the summer consid- 
 erably reduced this force before they reached Fort Bute, on bayou 
 Manshac, which was taken b}^ assault on the seventh day of September, 
 within less than sixty days from the date of the royal schedule, authorizing 
 the king's American subjects to take part in the war. 
 
 The army marched, without loss of time, to Baton Rouge. Colonel 
 Dickson had there a garrison of little more than four hundred British 
 soldiers and one hundred militia. He was well supplied with arms, 
 ammunition and provisions ; but the fort was in ruins, and his men sickly. 
 He was not, however, to be surprised by a coup de main. Galvez 
 immediately invested the fort, and began with the erection of batteries, 
 on which he mounted his heavy ordnance. In two hours and a half after 
 the cannonade began, on the twenty-first of September, Dickson proposed 
 a cf^"tn.lation, which was soon after agreed to. The honors of war were 
 accorded to the garrison, and they were made prisoners. The surrender 
 of fort Panmure, at Natchez, and two small posts, one on Amite river and 
 the other on Thompson creek, were included in the capitulation. Don 
 Carlos de Grandpre was left in command at Baton Rouge, with two 
 officers under him at fort Bute and fort Panmure, and the army marched 
 back to NeAV Orleans. 
 
 Julien Poydras, (a gentleman who afterwards became conspicuous by 
 his great wealth and his services in congress, and the territorial and state 
 legislatures) celebrated the achievement of Galvez in a small poem, in 
 the French language, which was printed and circulated at the king's 
 expense. 
 
 The elements were not so favorable to Louisiana, as the god of war. A 
 hurricane desolated it in the fall, and the small-pox, the ravages of which 
 were not yet lessened by innoculation or vaccination, made much havoc 
 in the city and its neighborhood. 
 
 The arms of the United States were not as successful on the shores of 
 the Atlantic, as those of Spain were on the banks of the Mississippi. 
 During the summer, the Americans made an irruption, under general 
 Howe, into the province of East Florida, and the diseases incident to the 
 climate at that season of the year, proved fatal to a considerable part of 
 
228 HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 
 
 the forces. An unsuccessful attempt was also made, during this winter, 
 to dislodge the English from Savannah. 
 
 Congress, availing themselves of the rupture l)et\veen Spain and Great 
 Britain, sent a minister to Madrid to negotiate a treaty. He was 
 particularly instructed to insist on their right to the navigation of the 
 Mississippi, as far as the sea. 
 
 The claim was opposed by Spain, and discountenanced b}' France. 
 The minister of France, at Philadelphia, had urged that his sovereign 
 was anxious to see the independence of the United States acknowledged 
 by Spain, and a treaty of alliance and commerce entered into by these 
 powers ; and he had recommended to the consideration of congress 
 several matters which the Catholic king viewed as highly important. 
 These were the rights of Spain to the exclusive navigation of the 
 Mississippi, and to the possession of both the Floridas, and all the 
 territory from the left l^ank of the stream to the back settlements of the 
 former British provinces, according to the proclamation of 1763. It was 
 contended that no part of the territory, thus claimed, was included within 
 the limits of any of the United States, and the whole of it, with the 
 Floridas, was a possession of the British crown, and consequently a 
 legitimate object against which the Catholic king might direct his arms, 
 with a view to its permanent acquisition. It was suggested that it was 
 expected by the cabinet of Madrid, that congress would prohibit the 
 inhaljitants of the southern states from making any attempt towards 
 settling or conquering this portion of territory. The minister concluded 
 that the United States possessing no territory beyond the mountains, 
 except the posts of Kaskaskia and a few others, from which they had 
 momentarily driven the British, would view the navigation of the 
 Mississippi as an unimportant object, in comparison with the recognition 
 of their independence by, and an alliance with Spain. The late declara- 
 tion of war by Spain, and the hostilities commenced by Galvez, an 
 account of which was received at Philadelphia while congres>i-iwas 
 deliberating on the communication of the French minister, haa, it is 
 believed, considerable influence in the subsequent determination of that 
 body to insist on the claim. 
 
 This year a number of French hunters (coureurs de bois,) who had 
 strayed to the banks of the Cumberland river, built a few cabins on a spot 
 soon after called the Bluff, and since known as the one on which the town 
 of Xashville stands. It is situated within the limits then claimed by the 
 state of North Carolina, in her constitution, and within the territory 
 afterwards ceded by that state to the United States. The surrounding 
 country was inhabited by Indians only ; and the nearest settlement of 
 whites was on the banks of the Watauga, one of the branches of the 
 Tennessee river, at the distance of several hundred miles. 
 
 Panis and Duvcrgcr were the ordinary alcades for the year 1780. 
 
 Galvez' success at Manshac and Baton Rouge was now rewarded by a 
 commission of Ijrigadier-general. 
 
 Having received some reinforcement from Havana, he left New Orleans 
 early in January, with a larger force than that which he had led to Baton 
 Rouge during the preceding year. His object was the reduction of Fort 
 Charlotte on the Mobile river. He was overtaken on the gulf l^y a storm 
 by which one of his armed vessels was stranded. His troops were 
 exjDosed to great danger and a part of his provisions and ammunition 
 
HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 229 
 
 v.'as either totally spoiled or rendered unfit for use for some time. He 
 succeeded at last in landing his arm}-, artillery, njihtary stores, and 
 ])ro visions on the eastern point of Mo])ile river. 
 
 Had general Campbell, who was at Pensacola with a considerable force, 
 sallied out and attacked the invaders their defeat would have l)een 
 inevitable. Galvez was so conscious of his perilous situation, that he made 
 some preparations for a march by land to New Orleans, leaving his 
 l)aggage and artillery behind. He, however, determined on proceeding to 
 the fort, and was indebted for his success, to the supineness of the enemy. 
 
 On his arrival he erected six batteries, which soon effected a breach in 
 the walls of the fort, the commandant of which capitulated on the 
 fourteenth of March. 
 
 General Campbell arrived a few days after, with a force that would have 
 been sufHcient to have prevented the capture of the fort, but which, now 
 that it was in the possession of the Spaniards, became useless. 
 
 Galvez, on his return to New Orleans, determined on the attack of 
 Pensacola ; l.nit the force he could command was insufficient, and he sent 
 an officer to the captain-general to solicit a reinforcement. His messenger 
 returned with the promise of one. Impatient of the delay, he sailed for 
 Havana in order to hasten the intended succor. Having obtained 
 troops, artillery and ammunition, he sailed on the sixteenth of October ; 
 but, on the succeeding day, some of his transports foundered in a storm, 
 and the rest were dispersed. He collected and brought them back to 
 Havana, on the sixteenth of November. 
 
 In the fall, the British commanding officer at Michilimackinac, with 
 about one hundred and forty men from his garrison, and near fourteen 
 hundred Indians, attacked the Spanish post at St. Louis ; but colonel 
 Clark, who was still at Kakaskia, came to its relief. The Indians who 
 came from Michilimackinac, having no idea of fighting any but Spaniards, 
 refused to act against Americans, and complained of having been deceived. 
 Clark released about fifty prisoners that had been made, and the enemy 
 made the l:)est of their way home. 
 
 The minister of the United States at Madrid failed in his negotiation, 
 and their independence was not acknowledged by Spain. 
 
 The British army was this year successful in South Carolina. Charleston 
 surrendered on the twelfth of May. Tarleton routed, soon after, a party 
 of Americans under Bviford, near the southern boundary of North Carolina. 
 Gates was defeated at Camden on the sixteenth of August, and Sumpter, 
 on the Catawba, on the eighteenth. After this, Lord Cornwallis invaded 
 the state of North Carolina. 
 
 Don Juan Manuel de Cagigal succeeded, during the year 1781, Navarro, 
 as captain-general of the island of Cuba and the province of Louisiana. 
 
 Galvez was promoted to the rank of mariscal de camp. The attention 
 he had to give to military concerns, leaving him no time to be bestowed 
 on the fiscal, Don Martin Nevarro, the contador, was appointed intendant 
 and Don Manuel Serano, assessor of the intendancy. Don Antonio Lopez 
 de Armesto received the appointment of secretary of government, which 
 he held until the cession. 
 
 Galvez left Havana for Pensacola on the twenty-eighth of February, 
 with a mnn of war, two frigates, and several transports, on l)oard of which 
 were fourteen hundred and fifteen soldiers, a competent train of artillery, 
 
230 HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 
 
 and alnindance of ammunition. The fleet was commanded by Don Joseph 
 Calji'O de Irazabal. 
 
 On the ninth of March, he landed his troops, ordnance and military 
 stores, on the island of St. Rosa, and on the next day erected a battery to 
 support the fleet on its passage over the bar. The attempt to cross it was 
 made on the eleventh ; but the commodore's ship having got aground, it 
 was abandoned. On the next day, Galvez wrote to Irazabal, expressing 
 his uneasiness at the risk which the fleet and convoy must run by 
 remaining long exposed to a storm on a dangerous coast, and requested 
 him to call the captains of the armed vessels on board of his ship and 
 take their opinions as to the best means of getting the fleet and transports 
 over the bar. This was done, and Irazabal reported that these officers 
 had declared they were unable to form an opinion on the probable 
 success of a second attempt, as they were without a correct chart of the 
 coast. 
 
 They complained that the pilots on board of the fleet were incapable of 
 affording any aid ; every account which they had given of the soundings 
 having proved erroneous ; adding that their ships had nearly all lost 
 their rudders on the eleventh, and expressing their belief that if they had 
 proceeded any farther they should have found prompt and effectual 
 manoeuvres impossible. They observe also that the}^ had all along 
 feared that the artillery of the fort could reach the channel ; but they had 
 now the melancholy certainty that it commanded, not only the channel 
 over the bar, but even the island of St. Rosa. There being in the fort 
 twentj^-four j)ounders, the balls of which would rake, fore and aft, any 
 vessel that should attempt to cross the bar, and the direction of the 
 channel was such that they were obliged to present their sides, poop and 
 prow to the enemy's guns ; that the channel was, besides, so narrow that 
 the first ship that got aground would obstruct the passage, and the 
 rapidity of the current preventing any quick manoeuvre, the ships would 
 run foul of each other before they could turn, even if that were possible. 
 They came to the conclusion that as the general deemed the crossing of 
 the bar an object of vast importance to the king's service, the commodore 
 should send one or two officers, attended by three or four pilots, to sound 
 the channel as far as Point Siguenza, during the night ; a fire being made 
 on that point in order to ascertain the direction in which a vessel might be 
 most easily managed ; after which a second trial might be made. 
 
 Irazabal expressed his individual opinion that any attempt to attack the 
 British by water would be fruitless, and recommended that the land force 
 should be immediately employed in the reduction of the fort. 
 
 Galvez thought he discovered in the commodore and the captains of the 
 armed ships, a reluctance to co-operate with him in an}^ measure, of which 
 they imagined he would exclusively reap the glory in case of success, and 
 that they were disposed to impede rather than to aid his plans. He 
 replied to Irazabal, that the loss of a ship or two, from which all on board 
 could easily be saved, was not to be put in comparison with that of the 
 whole fleet and the transports, to which they were exposed in case of a 
 storm, and which would entirely prevent the success of their undertaking. 
 After having requested that the captains should again be called together 
 to reconsider their former report, he determined to attempt with the naval 
 means of Avhich he had the immediate command, what he could not obtain 
 from the commodore. 
 
HISTORY 01-^ LOUISIANA. 281 
 
 Accordingly, the brig Galvezton, commanded Ijy Rousseau, whicii had 
 lately arrived Avith ordnance from New Orleans, cast anchor near the bar ; 
 and the captain ha\dng sounded the channel as far as Point Siguenza, 
 during the night between the fifteenth and sixteenth, he next morning 
 reported there was water enough in the shallowest part of the channel for 
 the largest ship in tlie fleet, with her full loiid. 
 
 The captains of .the armed ships met on board of the commodore's 
 ship, and having reconsidered their report of the fourteenth, declared they 
 could not do anything but refer the general to it. 
 
 Don Joseph de Espeleta had arrived on the sixteenth with the force 
 from Mobile and the militia from the neighborhood, and on the 
 seventeenth, Don Estevan Miro came from New Orleans with the 
 Louisiana forces. They all landed on the western side of Rio Perdido. 
 
 Convinced, now, there was no means of inducing Irazabal to make a 
 second attempt to bring the fleet and convoy over the bar, Galvez, from 
 the experience he had on his way to Mobile in the spring, and from 
 Havana in the fall of the preceding year, of the danger he incurred by 
 remaining longer exposed to a storm, directed the brig Galvezton, a 
 schooner just arrived from New Orleans, under the order of Riano, and 
 two gun boats, which constituted all the naval force under his immediate 
 command, to prepare for crossing the bar ; in the hope that their success 
 might induce the officers of the royal navy to follow them. Towards 
 noon, Rousseau, with his brig, the schooner, and gun boats, cast anchor 
 near the bar, and at half-past two, Galvez went on board of the brig, 
 directed a pendant to be displayed on her main mast, a salute to be fired, 
 and sail to be set. The fort immediately began a brisk cannonade, 
 principally directed upon the brig, on board of which it was apparent the 
 general was embarked. Neither the brig, schooner, nor gun boats received 
 any injury, except in their sails and rigging ; and Galvez landed at the 
 bottom of the bay, on the island of St. Rosa, under a salute, and amid the 
 acclamations of his men. 
 
 His success determined Irazabal to send the fleet and convoy over the 
 bar, except his own ship, which, in the meanwhile, had been reladen for 
 her return to Havana. This was effected on the next day. The frigates 
 led the way, and the convoy followed. The fort kept a brisk fire for 
 upwards of an hour, until the hindmost vessel was out of its reach. The 
 shipping received some injury, but no individual was hurt. Galvez had 
 advanced in a boat, and remained in the midst of the convoy until the 
 last vessel anchored. 
 
 At four o'clock, he made an effort, with two of his aids, to cross the 
 Ixir, in order to go and confer with Espeleta and Miro, and devise with 
 them a plan of attack ; but the violence of the wind compelled him to 
 desist, and he reached the camp at midnight. 
 
 In the morning of the twentieth, he sent one of his aids to general 
 Campbell with a message, in which he informed him that when the 
 British came to Havana in 1762, their commander intimated to the 
 captain-general of the Catholic king, that if any of the king's edifices, 
 ships, or other property were destroyed, the Spaniards would be treated 
 with all the rigor and severity of the laws of war ; that the intimation 
 was now made to the general and whoever it might concern, and under 
 the same terms. 
 
 At night, the British set fire to a guard house on the beach ; and 
 
232 HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 
 
 Galvez sent Riano's schooner, with the launch of the brig Galvezton, 
 which, for awhile, kept up a brisk fire of grape shot on the beach. 
 
 A British officer came to the camp, early on the following clay, with a 
 message from Campbell, stating that an enemy's threats could only be 
 considered as a stratagem of war, and expressing his hope that, in the 
 defense of Pensacola, he should resort to no measure not justified by the 
 usages of war. He made his acknowledgment for the frank intimation he 
 had received, and gave assurance that his conduct would be regulated by 
 that of the Spanish commander, with regard to certain propositions he 
 had to make, in conjunction with the governor of West Florida. 
 
 At noon, an aid of Campbell, accompanied by lieutenant-colonel 
 Dickson, who had been taken the preceding year at Baton Rouge, and 
 liberated on his parol, came in a boat bearing a flag of truce, and 
 delivered to Galvez letters from Campbell and governor Chester. 
 
 The first expressed his conviction that humanit}^ required, as much as 
 possible, the exemption of innocent individuals from the disasters 
 necessarily incident to war ; and added, that the garrison at Pensacola 
 was unable to resist the force brought against it, without the total 
 destruction of the town, and the consequent ruin of its inhabitants ; and 
 he expressed his desire that the town and garrison should be preserved for 
 the victor — a desire, he said, w^hich arose from the hope he entertained that 
 the efforts of the troops he commanded would be crowned with success. 
 He concluded by proposing that the town should be preserved, Avithout 
 recei\dng any unnecessar}^ injury from either party, during the siege of 
 the redoubt of the marine and Fort George, within which he meant to 
 contend for the preservation of the province for the British crown, under 
 the stipulation that the town of Pensacola should not be used, by either 
 army, for the purpose either of protecting itself or annoying its adversary ; 
 but remain the safe asylum of Avomen, children, the aged and infirm. He 
 added, that in case his proposition was rejected, and the Spaniards 
 sought a shelter in Pensacola, it would become his duty to immediately 
 destroy it. 
 
 The governor proposed that some Spanish prisoners in his possession 
 should be liberated on their parol, on the assurance of Galvez, that they 
 should not be employed in the military or civil ser^Tice of the Catholic 
 king, during the war, unless they were sooner exchanged. 
 
 Galvez gave orders that his men should be drawn out under arms, in 
 order that the messengers of Campbell and Chester might report Avhat 
 kind and number of troops were under his command. These gentlemen 
 were afterwards dismissed with a verbal message, importing that Galvez 
 was prevented by indisposition from preparing a written answer, and that 
 one would be sent on the next day. 
 
 During the night, the British set fire to a fcAV houses near Fort St. 
 George. 
 
 In his reply, on the twenty-second, Galvez stated that what he had 
 seen, since the departure of Campbell's aid and lieutenant-colonel 
 Dickson, convinced him that those who sent them had no other object 
 but procrastination, and he was ashamed of his own credulity and their 
 attempt to deceive him ; that" he Avould listen to no proposition but that 
 of a surrender ; and the conflagration of Pensacola, so long as it Avas not 
 attributable to any fault of his, would be contemplated Avith as much 
 indifference as the burning of its incendiaries ! 
 
HISTORY OF LOUISIANA.. 233 
 
 Cami^bell rejoined, that the haughty style assumed l)y the Spanish 
 chief, far from its intended ett'ect, would have that of exciting the utmost 
 opposition to the ambitious views of Spain; that the officer commanding 
 at Fort George had done nothing but his duty, in destroying a few 
 houses near it, which afforded protection to the enemy ; and that if the 
 invaders sought to avail themselves of Pensacola, by seeking an asylum 
 there, it would be immediately destroyed. 
 
 Campbell now retreated into the fort with all the force under his orders, 
 and the Spaniards lost no time in opening a land communication between 
 the bay and the town, and erecting their works on both sides of the 
 British fortifications. They were provided with a good train of artillery. 
 
 The attack was not, however, commenced until the beginning of April. 
 From the fleet in front, and the batteries on either side, the British were 
 exposed to a tremendous fire, and their men often driven from their guns. 
 But, they having for a long time anticipated a siege, the fortifications 
 were in excellent repair, and the supply of ammunition and provisions 
 abundant ; so that the Spaniards made but little impression. A lower 
 battery, which the British hastily erected, and on which they jjut heavy 
 cannon, soon enabled them to drive the ships on the opposite side of the 
 bay. Galvez was unable to annoy his enemy by the side batteries, and for 
 a while reduced to comparative inaction. At last, a lucky accident, in 
 the beginning of May, favored his enterprise. The magazine, in one of 
 the advanced redoubts took fire from a shell and blew up. The works 
 were completely destroyed by the explosion, and a free passage opened. 
 Galvez immediately sent Espeleta, with a strong detachment, to occupy 
 the middle ground, in which they were protected by the ruins of the 
 redoubt ; and soon after, he sent four field pieces, with which a brisk fire 
 was begun. At this moment a white flag was hoisted in Fort George, and 
 an officer came out to propose a capitulation. 
 
 The terms of it were soon agreed on, and it was signed on the ninth of May. 
 The whole province of West Florida was surrendered to Spain, with the 
 garrison, which consisted of ujjwards of eight hundred men. They were 
 allowed the honors of war, and to retain their baggage and private prop- 
 erty, and were transported to their sovereign's dominions, under a 
 stipulation that they should not serve against Spain or her allies, until 
 duly exchanged. 
 
 Don Arthur O'Neil, an Irish officer in the service of Spain, was left in 
 command at Pensacola, 
 
 CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 An incident occurred during the siege of Pensacola, which was very 
 near involving some of the British near Natchez in serious difliculties. 
 General Lyman, who, we have seen, had, Avith some of his adherents in 
 Connecticut, obtained grants of land in the neighborhood of fort Panmure, 
 and formed agricultural establishments in 1775, was now dead, and his 
 followers had seen, with considerable regret, the British force that 
 protected them, driven from the fort, and replaced by Spanish soldiers. 
 During the siege, on the rumor of the approach of a fleet, which had been 
 mistaken for a British one, they considered the success of their sovereign's 
 
 32 
 
234 HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 
 
 cause in West Florida so certain, that the}^ determined on giving him an 
 evidence of their loyalty by dislodging the Spaniards from the fort. 
 Having engaged most of the other inhabitants of the district in their 
 plan, and secured the co-operation of a number of the neighboring Indians, 
 they raised, on the twenty-second of April, the British standard in view, 
 but beyond the reach of the guns of the fort. During the night they 
 approached the fort, brought some artillery to bear upon it, but a heavy 
 fire from the guns of the fort soon compelled them to retire. 
 
 On the twenty-fourth, the Spaniards fired on, and destroyed a house at 
 small distance, behind which the insurgents had taken shelter : but the 
 latter having procured a field piece, approached and fired on the fort, 
 wounding a corporal, who died on the next day. During the night, the 
 firing was continued with some intervals. 
 
 The commandant of the fort sent, on the twenty-eighth, one of his 
 officers to the insurgents, to represent to them the danger to which they 
 exposed themselves, bv a rebellion against their lawful sovereign — recom- 
 mending to them to deliver up their leaders and disperse ; and promising 
 that if they did so, the royal clemency should be extended to them. They 
 promised to send an answer the next day. Accordingly, in the morning, 
 a planter came to the fort with a letter from Mcintosh, one of the most 
 respectable inhabitants of the district, informing him that what the 
 messenger would say could be relied on. This man on being questioned, 
 said the fort was undermined, and would be blown up the following day. 
 There was a deep valley, at a very short distance from the fort, at which 
 the Spaniards had noticed a considerable number of persons, during the 
 preceding days, a circumstance which gave some credit to the story. 
 
 On the twenty-ninth, the men, according to the report of the comman- 
 dant, being exhausted with fatigue and watching, and the ammunition 
 and provisions nearly consumed, he surrendered the fort, on being 
 permitted to march with his garrison to Baton Rouge. 
 
 The evacuation of fort Panmure, by the Spaniards, was soon followed 
 by the report that the rumor that the approach of a British fleet was 
 unfounded, and afterwards by that of Galvez' success at Pensacola. 
 
 Those who had taken an active part in this short revolution, among whom 
 were most of the settlers from Connecticut, fearful of meeting the fate of 
 O'Reilly's victims at New Orleans determined on making the best of their 
 Avay to' Savannah in Georgia, now the nearest post occupied by the 
 British — although they had to cross an immense wilderness inhabited by 
 hostile Indians. 
 
 The contest between Great Britain, (the subjects of which they were) 
 and the American States, rendering a direct course dangerous, they were 
 obliged to enter North Carolina, descend below the Alatamaha, and cross 
 again the state of Georgia to Savannah, on its northern limit. In the 
 performance of their circuitous journey, they were employed one hundred 
 and thirty-one days. 
 
 The caravan was numerous and included women and children, some of 
 the latter at the breast. All were mounted on horseback ; but the 
 ruggedness of the ground induced such as were able to walk, to travel 
 most of the way on foot. The country is intersected by numerous, and 
 often broad and deep water courses ; steep and lofty mountains obstructed 
 their course ; and impervious marshes often required them to make long 
 and tedious circuits. The Choctaws through whose country and along 
 
HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 235 
 
 whose border there journey lay to a great extent, having espoused the 
 cause of the Spaniards, were their enemies : and from an Indian foe, no 
 stratagem, no speed, no distance can insure safety. Famine also 
 threatened them in their best circumstances ; often they suffered intensely 
 from thirst ; and disease, at times, compelled those who were well to halt 
 for the recovery of the sick. 
 
 They separated into two companies, on reaching the state of Georgia : 
 one was taken by the Americans ; the other crossed the Alatamaha, and 
 journeyed to its mouth where they constructed a raft, on which they crossed 
 with their horses, and finally reached the town of Savannah in the latter 
 part of October. 
 
 On the twenty-fourth of August, Louisiana was desolated by a hurricane. 
 This year the Mississippi rose to a greater height than was remembered 
 by the oldest inhabitants. In the Attakapas and Opelousas, the inun- 
 dation was extreme. The few spots which the water did not reach, were 
 covered with deer. 
 
 The affairs of the United States had a very gloomy aspect at the 
 commencement of this year, and a brilliant one towards its conclusion. 
 The new year found the British in possession of the states of Georgia and 
 and South Carolina ; and Lord Cornwallis, who had invaded that of North 
 Carolina, and driven general Green into Virginia, gained a considerable 
 advantage over the latter on his return into North Carolina at the battle 
 of Guilford. The American arni}^ was now reduced to a deplorable 
 weakness ; and the remnant of it which still existed, was unpaid, 
 unclothed and often unfed. Under the pressure of these complicated 
 sufferings, a considerable portion of the soldiers had been in open revolt ; 
 and it was not easy to say with confidence, how long the patriotism of the 
 residue would support them under such trying circumstances. 
 
 The enemies of America exulted, and her friends desponded. In this 
 inauspicious state of her affairs, congress relaxed, for an instant, the 
 firmness which had uniformly characterized that body, and manifested a 
 disposition to sacrifice remote interests, though of great future magnitude 
 for immediate advantages, and instructed their minister at Madrid to 
 relinquish, should it be absolutely necessary, the claim of the United 
 States to the navigation of the Mississippi, below the thirty-first degree 
 of north latitude and a free port' on its banks. The minister, finding 
 himself obliged to comply with the instructions, had the firmness to add, 
 the offer to renounce the claim was made with a view of procuring, at 
 once, the recognition of the independence of the United States, and a 
 treaty of alliance and commerce ; and if these objects were not imme- 
 diately attained, congress would consider themselves at liberty to insist 
 on their claim thereafter. The cabinet of Madrid did not, however, think 
 proper to negotiate at this period, and the United States afterwards 
 availed themselves of the prudent and spirited conduct of their minister. 
 
 Lord Cornwallis had marched from Guilford courthouse to Wilmington, 
 where he staid until the twenty-fifth of April, when he marched to 
 Yorktown, in Virginia. He was afterwards invested by the allied forces 
 of the United States and France, supported by a French fleet commanded 
 by the Count de Grasse, to whom he surrendered on the nineteenth of 
 October. 
 
 Galvez' success at Pensacola was rewarded by a commission of lieutenant- 
 general of the king's armies, the cross of a knight pensioner of the royal 
 
236 HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 
 
 and distinguished order of Charles the third, and he was appointed captain- 
 general of the provinces of Louisiana and Florida. 
 
 Father Cyrillo, of Barcelona, was made a bishop " in partihus infidclmm^'^ 
 and received the canonical institution of the see of Tricaly, a town in 
 Greece. He was given as coadjutor to Don Santiago Joseph de Estaveria, 
 who still occupied the see of Cuba, and was directed to exercise his 
 episcopal functions in Louisiana. 
 
 The Spanish cabinet had directed Galvez to attempt, after the surrender 
 of Pensacola, the capture of the Bahama islands; but a simultaneous 
 attack on the island of Jamaica, by the ccnnbinecl forces of Spain and 
 France, being contemplated, Don Juan Manuel de Cagigal was employed 
 in the former service, and Galvez sailed for Hispaniola, where the 
 combined forces were to assemble, with the view of taking the command 
 of those of Spain. 
 
 On the departure of the captain-general, the government of the province 
 was provisionally vested in Don Estevan Miro, colonel of the royal 
 armies. 
 
 Cagigal sailed from Havana, in the spring, with three regiments and a 
 large train of artillery ; and on the twenty-eighth of May, 1782, the 
 captain-general of the Bahama islands (John Maxwell) signed a capitu-- 
 lation, by which they were surrendered to the arms of the Catholic king. 
 
 The war, and the capture of the British forts on the Mississippi, had 
 deprived the planters of Louisiana of the great advantages they derived 
 from the illicit trade carried on by British traders. On the representation 
 of Galvez. considerable privileges were granted to the commerce of the 
 province, on the twenty-second of January, by a schedule which was 
 published in New Orleans in the spring. 
 
 In the preamble of this document, the king . states that his royal 
 solicitude and wishes have always been to secure to his vassals the 
 utmost felicity, and to enable them to enjoy the advantages of a free 
 trade ; that he had never lost sight of so important an object in the regu- 
 lations he had made for the commerce of his vast dominions in the 
 Indies — firmly persuaded that the protection of trade and industry has a 
 great influence on the wealth and prosperity of a nation. His majesty 
 then adds, that the province of Louisiana has particularly merited his 
 royal attention, since its annexation to his dominions. His paternal love 
 for its inhabitants had induced him to give them repeated proofs that a 
 change of government had not diminished their happiness. But, notwith- 
 standing the favors and exemptions he had been pleased to grant to 
 them, on several occasions, particularly by the regulations of the commerce 
 of the Indies, made on the twenty-eighth day of October, 1778, experience 
 had shown that the advantages he had contemplated were not realized ; 
 and the trade in peltries, of that province, with the numerous nations of 
 Indians who surround it, and the articles of exportation to Europe, which 
 the country produces, demanded new regulations. Accordingly, and with 
 the view of rewarding the zeal and fidelity of the colonists, during the 
 late campaigns for tbe recovery of the territories lately possessed by 
 Great Britain, on the Mississippi and the Gulf of Mexico, the following 
 favors and privileges are granted to the province of Louisiana : 
 
 1. Permission is given, during a period of ten years, to be computed 
 from the day on which peace ma}^ be proclaimecl, to all vessels of the 
 king's subjects in the province of Louisiana, bound to New Orleans or 
 
HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 237 
 
 Pensacola, to sail directly with their cargoes from any of the ports of 
 Franco, in which a Spanish consul resides, and to return thereto with 
 l)eltries or the produce of Louisiana or West Florida, (except specie, the 
 exportation of which, in this way, is absolutely forbidden) under the 
 express condition that a detailed invoice of all the merchandise on 
 ))oard, signed b}' the consul, shall be delivered by him, in a sealed cover, 
 to the captain, to be presented by the latter at the customhouse of the 
 l)lace of destination. 
 
 2. In case of urgent necessity in the colony, the existence of which 
 necessity is to be certified bj'' the governor and intendant, permission is 
 given to the colonists to resort to any port in the French West India 
 islands. 
 
 3. To encourage the commerce of the province to the ports of the 
 peninsula to which it is allowed, permission is given to export, from New 
 Orleans and Pensacola, any species of merchandise directly imported 
 there from Spain, to be landed in any port within the king's American 
 dominions, to which trade is allowed, paying only the duty with which 
 s.uch merchandise would have been charged on its exportation from^the 
 peninsula, according to the regulation of the twelfth of October, 1778 ; but 
 the exportation of foreign merchandise imported into Louisiana, is 
 forljidden. 
 
 4. An exemption from duty is granted, during the same period, on 
 negroes imported into Louisiana or West Florida; and permission is 
 given to procure them in the colonies of neutral or allied powers, in 
 exchange for produce or specie ; paying only for such produce and specie, 
 the duties mentioned in the seventh article. 
 
 5. In order that the colonists may fully enjoy the favors and privileges 
 now granted, they are permitted during the term of two years, to be 
 computed from the proclamation of peace in New Orleans, to purchase 
 foreign vessels free from duty, and such vessels are to be considered as 
 Spanish bottoms. 
 
 6. The exportation of pipe and barrel staves from Louisiana to Spain, 
 is permitted, free from duty. 
 
 7. It being just that commerce should contribute to the charges of the 
 the colony, and the expenses it occasions, a duty of six per cent, is 
 laid on all merchandise exported and imported by the king's subjects 
 in the peninsula, Louisiana, and West Florida, according to a moderate 
 assessment. 
 
 8. Customhouses are to be established in New Orleans and Pensacola. 
 The preliminary articles of peace between the United States and Great 
 
 Britain were signed at Paris, on the thirteenth of November. 
 
 Le Breton and Morales were the ordinary alcades for the year 1783, and 
 the following one. 
 
 Rodriguez succeeded Mazange in the clerkship of the cabildo. 
 
 The king having directed Galvez to select a brigadier-general of his 
 armies, to act as captain-general of the province of Louisiana dnring 
 Galvez' absence on the intended expedition against Jamaica, he made 
 choice of Don Joseph de Espeleta. 
 
 The preliminary articles of peace between Great Britain, France, and 
 Spain, were signed at Paris, on the twentieth of January. 
 
 The definitive treaties between Great Britain, the United States, and 
 Spain, were signed at Paris, on the third day of September. 
 
238 HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 
 
 By the first, the king of Great Britain acknowledged the independence 
 of the United States, and recognized, as their southern boundary, a hne 
 to be drawn due east from a point in the river Mississippi, in the latitude 
 of thirty-one degrees, north of the equator, to the middle of the riyer 
 Apalaciiicola or Cataouche ; thence along the middle thereof to its junc- 
 tion with Flint river ; thence straight to the head of St. Mary's river ; and 
 thence down along the middle of St. Mary's river to the Atlantic ocean. 
 
 The description of this line is important, as it became the dividing one 
 between the possessions of Spain and the United States. 
 
 By the eighth article, it was expressly provided that the navigation of 
 the Mississippi, from its source to the gulf, should forever remain free and 
 open to the subjects of Great Britain and the citizens of the United States. 
 
 By fhe second. Great Britain warranted the province of West Florida, 
 and ceded that of East Florida to Spain. Eighteen months were given to 
 British subjects, settled in these provinces, from the date of the ratifica- 
 tion of the treaty, to sell their property, receive their dues, and transport 
 their persons and effects, Avithout molestation on account of religion, or 
 under any other pretext whatever, excepting that of debt or crime. 
 
 The claims of Spain and the United States, under this treaty, were not 
 easy to be reconciled, and soon opened a source of contention, which lasted 
 for a series of years. The Catholic king, under an actual possession, and 
 the guarantee of Great Britain, laid claim to all the territory as far as the 
 mouth of the river Yazoo. We have seen, in a preceding chapter of 
 this work, that immediately after the peace of 1762, on possession 
 being taken by Great Britain, the northern boundary of West Florida was 
 fixed at the thirty-first degree of north latitude ; but was afterwards 
 extended to a line drawn due east from the mouth of Yazoo river, in 
 latitude 32. 28. with the view of comprehending, within the limits of the 
 province, some important settlements — Spain contending that the limits 
 being then fixed in the commission of the British governor, had continued 
 the same until the signature of the treaty. 
 
 The claim of the United States to the navigation of the Mississippi 
 below their southern boundary was also resisted. The Catholic king, as 
 owner of both banks of the stream, claimed the exclusive ownership of 
 it, and the consequent right of preventing other nations from navigating it. 
 
 The United States contended they had the right of going as far as the 
 southern boundary assigned to them by their title — it being a natural 
 one ; because the definitive treaties between Great Britain and Spain and 
 them, bearing the same date, that of the preliminary articles ought to be 
 resorted to in order to ascertain the priority of right ; and Spain could 
 not urge a warranty stipulated in her preliminary articles against the 
 United States, who had a previous title from her warrantor. 
 
 In support of their claim to the navigation of the Mississippi to the 
 gulf, the United States contended that Spain derived every right which 
 she had to the river and its navigation from France, under a treaty 
 posterior to the one by which the latter power had ceded to Great Britain 
 the right of navigating the stream to the gulf; that the United States 
 having succeeded to the rights of Great Britain to the left bank above 
 the bayou Manshac, had equally done so to that of its navigation ; which 
 right, moreover, had been expressly ceded by Great Britain in the latter 
 treaty. 
 
 The first proposition was not, perhaps, absolutely correct, Great Britain 
 not having ceded her right, but merely a participation in it. 
 
CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 The ordinary alcades on the first of January, 1785, were Forstall and 
 Kernion. 
 
 Early in this year, Galvez received a commission of captain-general of 
 the island of Cuba, and of the provinces of Louisiana and East and 
 West Florida, which superseded Espeleta's. In the summer, on the death 
 of his father, he was promoted to the viceroyalty of Mexico, but retained 
 the captain-generalship of Louisiana and the Floridas. 
 
 There being a number of persons in the province affected with leprosy, 
 the cabildo erected an hospital for their reception in the rear of the city, 
 on a ridge of high land between it and bayou St. John, which is probably 
 the ridge anciently separating the waters of the Mississippi from those of 
 lake Pontchartrain. 
 
 Miro now received and executed a commission of judge of residence 
 of Unzaga. 
 
 Residence is a term, which, in the jurisprudence of Spain, is used to 
 designate an inquiry which takes place into the official conduct of any 
 public functionary, whenever by death, removal, or any other cause, he 
 has ceased to execute the duties of his office. The decision of a judge 
 of residence is reviewed on appeal by the council of the Indies. The 
 inquiry is made at the principal place of the district in which the late 
 officer exercised his functions. One would suppose that the fear which 
 the investigation of every act, public or private, of an officer whom any 
 one may accuse, and who is given up, in some measure to every species 
 of reproach and vexation, even from envy and malice, would insure the 
 zealous and upright discharge of his duties ; that those who are governed 
 by an officer surrounded by a vigilance which a thousand motives may 
 call into activity, would find in the residence, the most effectual safeguard 
 against his passions, his avarice, and his partiality. And yet, there is no 
 part of the world where abuses of authority are of more frequent 
 occurrence than in the Spanish provinces ; and the rapidity with which 
 officers amass large fortunes, is an evidence that there is no obstacle which 
 the love of gain ^\ill not surmount, and that the same want of principle 
 w^hich prompts the commission of dishonest acts, will also suggest the 
 means of avoiding their consequences. If any officer thinks of the 
 residence, it is to intimidate those whom he might fear, or to purchase 
 their silence. There is a league between all persons in places subjected 
 to a censure, which has always caused it to degenerate into a mere 
 formality. 
 
 An accurate census of the inhabitants of Louisiana and West Florida 
 was taken this year, by order of Galvez, which produced the following 
 results : 
 
 Within the city of New Orleans, . . . 4,980 
 
 From the Balize to the city, .... 2,100 
 
 At the Terre-aux-Boeufs, .... 576 
 
 On the bayous St. John and Gentilly, . . 678 
 
 Tchoupitoulas, ..... 7,046 
 
 Parish of St. Charles, 1,903 
 
 CARRIED OVER, . . . 17,283 
 
240 
 
 HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 
 
 BROUGHT OVER, 
 
 . 17,283 
 
 
 St. John the Baptist, 
 
 1,300 
 
 
 St. James . . . . 
 
 . 1,332 
 
 
 Lafourche, .... 
 
 646 
 
 
 Lafourche, interior, 
 
 352 
 
 
 Iberville, .... 
 
 673 
 
 
 Pointe Coupee, . . . . 
 
 . 1,521 
 
 
 Opelousas, .... 
 
 1,211 
 
 
 Attakapas, . . , . 
 
 . 1,070 
 
 
 New Iberia, . 
 
 125 
 
 
 Washita . . . . • 
 
 207 
 
 
 Rapides, .... 
 
 88 
 
 
 Avoyelles, 
 
 287 
 
 
 Natchitoches, 
 
 756 
 
 
 Arkansas, . . . . 
 
 196 
 
 
 In Lower Louisiana, 
 
 
 27,046 
 
 St. Genevieve, . . . . 
 
 ' . ' . 694 
 
 
 St. Louis, . . , . 
 
 897 
 
 
 In Upper Louisiana, 
 
 
 1,591 
 
 Manshac, . 1 '"• * ^ 
 
 . ' . ' 77 
 
 
 Galveston -^ i<i'^-^ 
 
 242 
 
 
 Baton Rouge, 
 
 270 
 
 
 Natchez, . . . . 
 
 . 1,550 
 
 
 Mobile, .... 
 
 746 
 
 
 Pensacola, . . . . 
 
 592 
 
 
 In West Florida 
 
 • 
 
 3,477 
 
 Grand Total . . , ' • . 32,114 
 
 Deducting, from the grand total, 3,477 persons, the population of West 
 Florida, and 1,053, the number of those brought, at the king's expense, 
 from the Canary islands and Malaga, there remains a balance of 27,584 
 souls ; which show that the population, at theamval of O'Reilly, in 1769, 
 was more than doubled in sixteen years by ordinary means. 
 
 The number of white persons was 14,217 ; that of colored free ones, 
 1,203 ; that of slaves, 16,594. 
 
 A statement was madeby theintendant, by order of the captain-general, 
 of the expenses of the province for this year, and is as follows : 
 
 Etat Major. 
 The governor and captain-general's salary, 
 Assessor of government 
 Secretary of government . 
 First clerk in the secretary's office 
 Town Major 
 Aid Major, 
 
 Adjutant .... 
 English interpreter. 
 Surveyor-general, . 
 Boat's patroon and seamen, . 
 
 CARRIED OVER, .... $18,420 
 
 $10,000 
 
 2,000 
 
 1,000 
 
 . . 600 
 
 1,200 
 
 740 
 
 600 
 
 480 
 
 420 
 
 1,380 
 
HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 241 
 
 BROUGHT OVER, ..... $18,420 
 
 Officers attached to no particular corps, . 
 
 Colonel, M'ith lieutenant-coloneFs pay, . . . 1,752 
 
 Lieutenant-colonel, . . . . . 1,752 
 
 Two lieutenant-colonels with rank, but pay of $372 only, . 744 
 
 Four captains, . , . . . . 1,584 
 
 One captain, . . . . . ■ . . 240 
 
 Twelve lieutenants, ..... 4,320 
 
 Four sub-lieutenants, ...... 1,152 
 
 Artillery. 
 
 A company complete, ..... 18,417 
 
 A storekeeper . . . . . . . 540 
 
 An assistant storekeeper, . . . . . 300 
 
 A master armorer, ...... 220 
 
 Infantry. 
 
 A regiment of infantry, . . . . . 300,838 
 
 Dragoons. 
 
 A company complete, . . . . . . 11,230 
 
 A house for their barracks, .... 350 
 
 Carabiniers. 
 
 An adjutant, ....... 330 
 
 Militia. 
 
 An adjutant major, ..... 728 
 
 A second do. . . . . . . . 240 
 
 Seven Serjeants and four corporals, . . . 1,878 
 
 A major commandant of free people of color, . . 240 
 
 Fortifications. 
 
 A director, storekeeper, surveyor of the works, and two servants, 1,620 
 
 Revenue Department. 
 
 Intendancy. 
 
 An intendant, ...... 4,000 
 
 Assessor, . . . . ... 1,500 
 
 Secretary and two clerks, .... 1,100 
 
 Office expenses, ...... 200 
 
 Notary of the marine, ..... 500 
 
 A boat and crew, . . . . . . 1,380 
 
 Comptroller's Office. 
 
 A comptroller, (contador) . . . . 1,600 
 
 Four clerks, . . . . . . . 1,950 
 
 Ofl&ce expenses, ...... 100 
 
 Treasury. 
 
 A treasurer, ....... 1,200 
 
 Two clerks, ...... 700 
 
 Office rent and expenses, ..... 800 
 
 Customhouse. 
 
 A collector, ...... 1,200 
 
 Comptroller, . ... . . . . 1000 
 
 CARRIED OVER, .... $384,125 
 
 33 
 
242 
 
 HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 
 
 BROUGHT OVER, . 
 
 Cashier, . . . • 
 
 Four clerks, ...... 
 
 A searcher. 
 
 Guard major, ...... 
 
 Twelve guards. 
 Boat and crew, 
 
 Royal Hospital. 
 
 A comptroller, .$600 ; commissary, $300, , . 
 
 Steward, $480 ; physician, $600, 
 
 Chaplain, $480 ; first surgeon, $600, 
 
 Assistant surgeon ; $360, mate, $192, 
 
 Two minor surgeons ; $360, apothecary, $480, . 
 
 Apothecary's servant, attendants and cook, 
 
 Provisions and medicines, 
 
 Schools. 
 A director, ...... 
 
 Two masters, . . . 
 
 Church Establishment. 
 
 New Orleans, a curate, $480 ; four assistants, $1,260, 
 Terre-aux-Boeufs, a curate, 
 
 St. Charles, a curate ; St. John the Baptist, a curate, 
 St. James, a curate ; Ascension, a curate, 
 Iberville, a curate : Pointe Coupee, a curate, 
 Attakapas, a curate ; Opelousas, a curate, 
 Natchitoches, a curate ; Natchez, a curate, . 
 St. Louis, a curate ; St. Genevieve, a curate, 
 Galvezton, a curate and Sacristan, $540, expenses, $50, 
 Allowance for wax lights to country parishes. 
 Boarding of six nuns, at the king's expense. 
 Boarding of twelve orphan girls, 
 
 Cabildo. 
 Six regidors, 
 
 Posts. 
 
 Balize — a pilot, $200 ; two patroons, $240, 
 
 Sixteen seamen, each $72, .... 
 
 Head pilot, ...... 
 
 Allowance for seamen and troops, purchase of boat, etc., 
 Natchez, a garrison and sixty men, 
 Adjutant, . . . . . 
 
 St. Louis. 
 An adjutant, $510 ; two storekeepers, $738, 
 A surgeon,. $360 ; Indian presents, $214, • . 
 
 Civil Commandants. 
 Two who do not belong to the army, . . 
 
 A keeper of boats in town, .... 
 Extra expenses, ...... 
 
 $384,125 
 
 800 
 
 1,550 
 
 700 
 
 600 
 
 2,400 
 
 1,104 
 
 900 
 
 1,080 
 
 1,080 
 
 552 
 
 840 
 
 964 
 
 18,000 
 
 700 
 1,050 
 
 1,740 
 240 
 480 
 480 
 480 
 480" 
 480 
 480 
 590 
 300 
 720 
 360 
 
 300 
 
 440 
 1,152 
 
 360 
 4,500 
 6,000 
 
 480 
 
 1,248 
 574 
 
 200 
 
 180 
 
 10,000 
 
 Total expenses in Louisiana, 
 
 $449,389 
 
HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 243 
 
 BROUGHT OVER, .... $449,389 
 
 Mobile. 
 
 A governor, $2,000 ; chaplain $360, . . . 2,360 
 
 Sacristan, $180; chapel expenses, $50, . . . 230 
 
 English interpreter, $180 ; storekeeper, $600, . . 780 
 
 Adjutant, $300; guard, $180, ..... 480 
 
 Adjutant of artillery, $300; armorer, $360, . , 660 
 
 Surgeon, mate, and nurses, . ... . 1 140 
 
 Patroon and hands of city launches, ... 1 296 
 
 Dauphine Island. 
 
 A pilot and four sailors, . . . . , 696 
 
 Cattle Plantation. . 
 
 A herdsman, an assistant, and a laborer, . . 900 
 
 Extra expenses, . ... . .5 000 
 
 Pensacola. 
 
 A governor, $3000 ; town-major, $900, . . . 3 900 
 
 Adjutant, $720; his aid, $600, . ^ . . 1^320 
 
 Storekeeper,$ 600 ; engineer, $1,180, . . . 1780 
 
 Armorer, $360 ; adjutant of artillery, $420, . . 780 
 
 Blacksmith, $350 ; keeper of the works, $240, . . 800 
 
 Military storekeeper and assistants, ... 1 200 
 
 Comptroller, $1,200; two clerks, $780; office expenses, $50, 2,'o30 
 
 Treasurer, $1,200; clerk, $360; office expenses, $50, . 1,610 
 
 Hospital director, $780 ; steward, $360, . . . l',140 
 
 Surgeon, $780 ; mate, 440; two aids, $600, . . . 1,820 
 
 Apothecary, $600 ; an assistant, $300. . . . '900 
 
 Four nurses and a cook, . . . , .1 O8O 
 
 A curate, $440 ; assistant, $360, .... 800 
 
 Sacristan, $180 ; chapel expenses, $50, . . . 230 
 
 Pilot, $330 ; patroon, $144 ; twelve sailors, $1,440, . 1,884 
 
 A carpenter, cooper and caulker, $360 each, . . . 1 080 
 
 Extra expenses, ...... 12,000 
 
 New settlers and Indian affairs, .... 
 
 A contador, $600 ; two clerks, $960, . . . 2,560 
 
 House rent, $180 ; office expenses, $50, . . . 230 
 
 Storekeeper, $360; commissioner, $360, . . 720 
 
 Interpreter, $540 ; assistant, $300, .... 840 
 
 A surgeon at Terre-aux-Boeufs, .... 360 
 
 A commandant, $300 ; surgeon, $360, Galvezton, . . 660 
 
 A surgeon, $360 ; commissary, $180, Valenzuela, . ' 540 
 
 A pensioner, . . . . , . . . 320 
 
 An armorer at New Orleans, . . . . 300 
 
 Indian interpreters at Natchez, Natchitoches, and Pointe Coupee 372 
 
 Interpreter and armorer at Arkansas, . . . 276 
 
 Interi^reter and armorer at St. Louis, . . . 340 
 
 Commissary and armorer at Mobile, . . . 1,080 
 
 A storekeeper and two interpreters at Pensacola . . 1,620 
 
 Presents and extra expenses, .... 29,782 
 
 $537,285 
 
244 
 
 HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 
 
 Let us contrast these expenses with those 
 
 of 
 
 a republican state, that of 
 
 North Carolina, in the preceding year : 
 
 
 
 
 The governor, .... 
 
 . 
 
 . 
 
 . $ 2,000 
 
 Private secretary, . . . . 
 
 
 
 400 
 
 Council of state, 
 
 
 
 200 
 
 Secretary of state, 
 
 
 
 350 
 
 Comptroller, .... 
 
 
 
 1,600 
 
 His five clerks, . . . . 
 
 
 
 1,100 
 
 Stationery, 
 
 
 
 200 
 
 Three judges of the supreme court, 
 
 
 
 5,200 
 
 Attorney-general, 
 
 
 
 1,320 
 
 Three delegates in congress, 
 
 
 
 6,720 
 
 Treasurer, .... 
 
 
 
 1,400 
 
 Clerks and stationery. 
 
 
 
 1,400 
 
 Ten boards of auditors. 
 
 
 
 4,800 
 
 Commissioners of account. 
 
 
 
 240 
 
 The legislature. 
 
 
 
 . 30,000 
 
 Public printer, .... 
 
 
 
 1,000 
 
 $56,930 
 
 The population of North Carolina was, at this period, 377,721 persons ; 
 so that her expenses were that year a little more than fifteen cents per 
 head — while those of Louisiana were sixteen dollars and fifty-five cents. 
 Those expenditures, in the first case, were paid by the inhabitants ; in the 
 latter, by the sovereign. 
 
 An attempt was made to introduce the Inquisition into the province. 
 A clergyman of New Orleans received a commission of commissary of 
 the holy office in Louisiana. Miro had it particularly in charge not to 
 allow the exercise of any inquisitorial functions, within the colony 
 committed to his care. He gave early information of this to the commis- 
 sary, who thought himself bound to attend to the orders of his spiritual, 
 rather than those of his temporal, superiors : and one night, whilst he was 
 peaceably slumbering, he was disturbed by an officer heading eighteen 
 grenadiers, who lodged him on board of a vessel, which, at break of day, 
 sailed with him to Spain. 
 
 According to an arrangement between the courts of France and Spain, 
 the province received this year a very considerable accession of population, 
 by the arrival of a number of Acadian families, Avho were supported by 
 the French king, and came over to join their friends who had migrated to 
 Louisiana, as we have already mentioned, in 1755. They settled mostly on 
 both sides of the Mississippi river, near Plaquemines ; but a number of the 
 families went to increase the settlement on Terre-aux-Boeufs, on the bayou 
 Lafourche, and in the districts of Attakapas and Opelousas. 
 
 The period of eighteen months, which had been granted to British 
 settlers to sell their property, collect their debts, and remove their persons 
 and effects from East and West Florida, by the late treaty between Spain 
 and Great Britain, being expired, Miro, Avith the approbation of Galvez, 
 extended tlie time, to settlers in West Florida, till the pleasure of the king 
 was known. 
 
 The royal schedule of^782, had revived the trade of New Orleans ; and 
 a number of commercial houses from France had established themselves 
 
HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 245 
 
 there. The planters, however, regretted the time when British vessels 
 plied on the Mississippi, stopping before every house, furnishing the 
 farmer with whatever he wanted, accepting in payment whatever the 
 latter had to spare, and extending a credit almost unlimited in extent and 
 duration. A numljer of agents had arrived from Jamaica to collect debts \ / 
 due to merchants of that island, the recovery of which had been impeded '^ 
 during the war. As the trade these creditors had carried on could not 
 now be continued, they pressed for settlement and payment. In some 
 cases legal coercion was resorted to ; but Miro with as much prudence as 
 Unzaga on a similar occasion, exerted his influence to procure some 
 respite for those who were really unable to comply with their engagements, 
 and allowed a resort to the last extremity against those only, whose bad 
 faith appeared to require it. Instances are related, in which, unable to 
 obtain a creditor's indulgence for an honest debtor, he satisfied the former 
 out of his own purse. 
 
 The cabildo made choice of Orue and Dufossat for ordinary alcades, 
 on the first of January, 1786. 
 
 By a royal order, issued at the Pardo on the fifth of April, the king 
 approved the conduct of Miro in the indulgence granted last year to the 
 British subjects at Baton Rouge and Natchez, and declared his will that 
 permission might be granted to such individuals, residing in Louisiana 
 and Florida, to remain where they were on taking an oath of allegiance 
 and fidelity, provided they should not move out of their respective districts 
 without the permission of the governor. Those who neglected to take 
 the oath, were to depart by sea for some of the colonies of North America ; 
 and if they were unable to defray the expenses of the voyage, it was to 
 be paid by the king, who was to be reimbursed, as far as possible, by the 
 sale of their property. 
 
 The king further ordered that at Natchez and other places, where it 
 might be done conveniently, parishes might be formed and put under the 
 direction of Irish clergymen, in order to bring over the inhabitants and 
 their families to the Catholic faith, by the mildness and persuasion it 
 recommends. For this purpose the king wrote to the bishop of 
 Salamanca, to choose four priests, natives of Ireland, of approvecf zeal, 
 ^'irtue and learning from among those of his university to be sent to 
 Louisiana at the king's expense. 
 
 Miro, on whom the provisional government had devolved on the 
 departure of Galvez, now received a commission of governor, ci"vdl and 
 military, of Louisiana and West Florida, and issued his hando de buen 
 gobicrno on the second of June. 
 
 A bando de buen gobicrno, is a proclamation which the governor of a 
 Spanish colony generally issues on assuming its government to make 
 known the principles b}^ which he intends to direct his conduct, and to 
 introduce necessary alterations into the ordinances of police. 
 
 In this document Miro begins by stating that religion being the object 
 of the wise laws of Spain, and a reverend demeanor in church a 
 consequence of it, the bishop having lately published an edict with regard 
 to the respect and devotion with which the faithful are to attend the 
 celebration of the holy mysteries, the proceedings of the \dcar-general 
 against delinquents will receive every necessary aid from government. 
 Working on the Sabbath and other holy festivals is prohibited, except in 
 cases of necessity, without the license of the vicar. He forbids the doors 
 
246 HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 
 
 of shops or stores being kept open during the hours of divine ser\'ice, 
 and the dances of slaves on the public square, on those days, before the 
 close of the evening service. 
 
 He declares his intention to proceed with severity against all persons 
 living in concubinage. He observes, that the idleness of free negro, 
 mulatto, and quarteroon women, resulting from their dependence for a 
 livelihood on incontinence and libertinage, will not be tolerated. He 
 recommends them to renounce their mode of living, and to betake 
 themselves to honest labor; and declares his determination to have those 
 who neglect his recommendation, sent out of the province — warning them 
 that he will consider their excessive attention to dress, as an evidence of " 
 their misconduct. 
 
 He complains that the distinction which had been established in the 
 head dress of females of color, is disregarded, and urges that it is useful to 
 enforce it ; forbids them to wear thereon any plumes or jewelry, and 
 directs them to wear their hair bound in a handkerchief. 
 
 He announces that the laws against gambling and duelling, and against 
 those who cany about their persons, dirks, pistols and other arms, shall 
 be rigorously enforced. 
 
 The nightly assemblages of people of color are prohibited. 
 
 The inhabitants of the city are forbidden to leave it, either by land or 
 water, without a passport ; and those who leave the proAi'ince are to give 
 security for the payment of their debts. 
 
 Persons coming in, by land or water, are to present themselves at the 
 government house. 
 
 Those who harbor convicts, or deserters, from the land or naval service, 
 are to be punished. 
 
 Any large concourse of people, without the knowledge of government, 
 is inhibited. 
 
 None are to walk out at night without urgent necessity, and not then 
 without a light. 
 ,-No house or apartment to be rented to a slave. 
 
 Tavern keepers are to shut their houses at regular hours, and not to sell 
 spirituous liquors to Indians, soldiers or slaves. 
 
 Purchases from soldiers, Indians, convicts, or slaves are prohibited. 
 
 Regulations are made to prevent forestalling, hogs running at large in 
 the streets, to restrain the keeping too great a number of dogs, and the 
 removal of dead animals. 
 
 Measures are taken to guard against conflagrations, for draining the 
 streets, and keeping the landing on the levee unobstructed. 
 
 Verbal sales of slaves are forbidden. 
 
 Don Pedro Piernas succeeded Miro as colonel of the regiment of 
 Louisiana. 
 
 At the close of the war, there had been considerable migrations to the 
 banks of the Ohio and the western part of Virginia. A district had here 
 been formed called Kentucky, the population of which exceeded twelve 
 thousand souls. There was also a large number of settlers in the state of 
 North Carolina, on the western side of the mountains, and many had sat 
 down on the banks of Cumberland river. These found the incon- 
 venience of their situation, from the immense distance of the seat of 
 government, near the shore of the Atlantic, so grievous, that in the 
 
HISTORY OP LOUISIANA. 247 
 
 preceding year they had made an attempt to erect themselves into a 
 separate government under the style of the state of Franklin. 
 
 The peo^^le of Kentucky had the same wish, and those of V'irginia were 
 not averse to its gratification. They enjoyed no part of the attention of 
 general government. Their communication with the Atlantic was obstructed 
 by an immense wilderness and lofty mountains ; and where these obstacles »UL. 
 were surmounted, the distance to a sea port was still immense. The climate/^jL. 
 was favorable to agriculture ; and although their land produced much 
 more than they could consume, they could find no market for the surplus. 
 Attempts had been made to seek one on the Mississippi, but their boats 
 had been met and seized by Spanish officers ascending the stream with 
 supplies for St. Louis. A convention of the people met at Danville to 
 deliberate on the propriety of an application to congress, soliciting admis- 
 sion into the Union as an independent state; but the majority of that 
 body concluded that the population of the district was too small and 
 sparse to support the expenses of a separate government. Congress 
 seemed unwilling to take any measure to procure them a free navigation 
 of the Mississippi. 
 
 Chabert and Reggio were the ordinary alcades for the year 1787. 
 
 The population of the district of Opelousas and Attakapas was hereto- 
 fore supposed to be so inconsiderable, that it had been thought one 
 commandant was sufficient for both. Don Nicholas Forstall, a regidor, 
 was now appointed commandant of the former, alid the Chevalier de 
 Clouet, who before presided over both, was left in charge of the latter. 
 On his departure, Forstall claimed the right, as he was leaving the cabildo 
 on the king's service, to appoint a lieutenant, in proxy, to represent him 
 in it ; but that body refused to recognize such a right. 
 
 The four Irish priests from the seminary of Salamanca, chosen by the 
 bishop, according to the request of the king, reached New Orleans, and 
 were sent to Baton Rouge, Natchez, and other parts of the territory 
 conquered from Great Britain, during the last war. 
 
 Although no treaty had been entered into between the United States and 
 the Catholic king, the latter had sent a minister to the former. This 
 gentleman, Don Diego de Guardoqui, now formed a plan for encouraging 
 migration from the district of Kentucky and the western part of North 
 Carolina, to the right bank of the Mississippi, between the settlements 
 near the river Arkansas and those near the Missouri. George Morgan, of 
 Pennsylvania, who offered himself as the leader of the emigraiits, received 
 the grant of a large tract of land, on which he laid the foundation of a 
 city, which he dignified with the name of New Madrid. A company of 
 infantr}'', under the orders of Pierre Foucher, was sent from New Orleans 
 to build and garrison a fort near the intended site of the city. ^ 
 
 At the same time, Don Diego admitted the proposition of the Baron de * " ^ 
 Steuben, a general officer, who, having served the United States with """ - 
 distinction during the late war, had, together with other 
 and a number of respectable citizens of the United States 
 extensive tract of country on the same bank of the Missi 
 purpose of establishing a military colony, chiefly compose 
 persons as were lately in the army, and were left without employment, on 
 its disbandment. The cabinet of" Madrid, however, did not think proper 
 to encourage the formation of a colony, composed of such materials, in the 
 Spanish dominions. 
 
 
248 HISTORY OF LOUISIA^•A. 
 
 Morgan's plan had but a partial execution. 
 
 The foundation was now laid of a commercial intercourse, through the 
 Mississippi, between the United States and New Orleans, whick has been 
 continued, with but little interruption, to this day, and has increased to 
 an immense degree ; and, to the future extent of which the imagination 
 can hardly contemplate any limit. Hitherto, the boats of the western 
 people, venturing on the Mississippi, were arrested by the first Spanish 
 officer who met them ; and confiscation ensued, in every case; all com- 
 munication between the citizens of the United States and the Spaniards, 
 being strictly prohibited. Now and then, an emigrant, desirous of settling 
 in the district of Natchez, by personal entreaty and the solicitations of his 
 friends, obtained a tract of land, with permission to settle on it with his 
 family, slaves, farming utensils, and furniture. He was not allowed to 
 bring anything to sell without paying an enormous duty. An unexpected 
 incident changed the face of affairs, in this respect. 
 
 The idea of a regular trade was first conceived by general Wilkinson, 
 who had served with distinction as an officer in the late war, and whose 
 name is as conspicuous in the annals of the west, as any other. He had 
 connected with it a scheme for the settlement of several thousand 
 American families in that part of the present state of Louisiana, now 
 known as the parishes of East and West Feliciana, and that of Washita, 
 and on White river and other streams of the present territory of Arkansas. 
 For those services to the Spanish government, he expected to obtain the 
 privilege of introducing, yearly, a considerable quantity of tobacco into 
 the Mexican market. 
 
 With a view to the execution of his plan, Wilkinson descended the 
 Mississippi, with an adventure of tobacco, flour, butter and bacon. He 
 stopped at Natchez while his boat was floating down the stream to New 
 Orleans, the commandant at the former place having been induced to 
 forbear seizing it, from an apprehension that such a step would be disap- 
 proved by Miro, who might be desirous of showing some indulgence to a 
 general officer of a nation with whom his was at peace — especially as the, 
 boat and its owner were proceeding to New Orleans, where he could act' 
 towards them as he saw fit. 
 
 Wilkinson, having stopped at a plantation on the river, the boat reached, 
 the city before him. On its approaching the levee, a guard was immedi- 
 ately sent on board, and the revenue officers were about taking measures 
 for its seizure, when a merchant, who was acquainted with Wilkinson and 
 had some influence with Miro, represented to him that the step Navarro 
 was about to take might be attended with unpleasant consequences ; that 
 the people of Kentucky were already much exasperated at the conduct of 
 the Spaniards in seizing all the property of those who navigated the 
 Mississippi, and if this system was pursued, they would probably, in spite, 
 of congress, take means themselves to open the navigation of tlie river by 
 force. Hints were, at the same time, thrown out, that the general was a 
 very popular character among those who were capable of inflaming the 
 whole of the western people, and that probably, his sending a boat before 
 him, that it might be seized, was a scheme laid by the government of the 
 United States, that he might on his return, influence the minds of his 
 countrymen ; and, having brought them to the point he wished, induce 
 them to choose him for their leader, and, spreading over the country, 
 carry fire and desolation from one part of Louisiana to the other. 
 
HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 249 
 
 On this, Miro expressed his wish to Navarro that the guard might he 
 removed. This was done ; and Wilkinson's friend was permitted to take 
 charge of the boat, and sell the cargo, without paying an}^ duty. 
 
 On hig first interview with Miro, Wilkinson, that he might not derogate 
 from the character his friend had given him, by appearing concerned in 
 so trifling an adventure as a boatload of tobacco, flour, etc., observed that 
 the cargo belonged to sevei'al of his fellow citizens in Kentucky who 
 wished to avail themselves of his visit to New Orleans to make a trial of 
 the temper of the colonial government. On his return he could then 
 inform the United States government of the steps taken under his eye ; 
 so that in future proper measures might be adopted. He acknowledged 
 with gratitude the attention and respect manifested towards himself, and 
 the favor shown to the merchant who had been permitted to take care of 
 the boat ; adding, he did not wish that the intendant should expose 
 himself to the anger of the court, by forbearing to seize the boat and cargo, 
 if such were his instructions, and he had no authority to depart from 
 them when circumstances might require it. 
 
 Miro supposed, from this conversation, that Wilkinson's object was to 
 produce a rupture rather than to avoid one. He became more and more 
 alarmed. For two or three years before, particularly since the commis- 
 sioners of the state of Georgia came to Natchez to claim the country, he 
 had been fearful of an invasion at every rise of the water ; and the rumor 
 of a few boats having been seen together on the Ohio was sufhcient to 
 excite his apprehensions. At his next interview with Wilkinson, having 
 procured further information of the character, number, and disposition of 
 the western people, and having resolved, in his mind, what measures he 
 could take, consistently with his instructions, he concluded that he could 
 do no better than to hold out a hope to Wilkinson, in order to secure his 
 influence in restraining his countrymen from an invasion of Louisiana, 
 till further instructions could be received from Madrid. The general 
 sailed in September for Philadelphia. 
 
 A lucrative trade had begun to be carried on between New Orleans and 
 that citj'', at which the colonial government appeared to wink. Guardoqui, 
 however, finding that he did not participate in the profits of this new 
 branch of commerce, his friends not obtaining the consignment of the 
 vessels engaged in it, notwithstanding various hints and threats thrown 
 out to the captains and supercargoes, procured a list of the names of the 
 vessels, captains and owners in New Orleans, real or pretended, and 
 forwarded it to Navarro, with a severe reprimand ; adding, that he had 
 informed the court of the disregard of the laws in Louisiana. He so 
 worked upon the fears of the intendant, that, apprehensive of losing his 
 place if he did not recur to severe measures, the latter prosecuted, with 
 apparent impartiality and unrelenting rigor, all those against whom 
 information was lodged, seizing vessels on their arrival, confiscating their 
 cargoes, and imprisoning the owners, captains and crews. These Avere 
 all condemned to the mines for various terms of years. 
 
 The spirit of the government and the venalit}^ of its officers was, 
 however, apparent. The fiivorites of those with whom the officers had 
 connexions in business escaped by bringing proofs that were thought 
 sufficient to destroy those sent by Guardoqui, by receiving timely notice 
 of their danger, by orders forwarded to the commandant at the Balize to 
 favor them, by not suffering them to enter, and allowing those who had 
 
 34 
 
250 HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 
 
 entered, but not reached New Orleans, to return and put back to sea, with 
 such part of their cargoes as the}^ could not conveniently land on the 
 plantations along the banks of the river — the owners having ordered those 
 vessels to foreign ports, pretended they were lost during their voyage, and 
 they were ignorant of any thing concerning them since they left New 
 Orleans. 
 
 It was the practice in Spanish colonies to condemn all contraband 
 traders to the mines ; but in such cases the law was rarely carried into 
 execution when there had been no violent resistance or blood shed. The 
 offender was, however, imprisoned, and after a short time, suffered to 
 escape — the jailor reporting him as runaway or dead. Some of the 
 persons who were thus condemned and imprisoned in New Orleans, were 
 soon after liberated. A few were permitted to command other vessels, 
 after having made some change or alteration in their names. One of them 
 who had been imprisoned and returned as dead, by the gaoler, went to 
 Madrid where he obtained the review and reversal of the sentence against 
 him, and came back to New Orleans. 
 
 The congress of the United States this year erected the territor}^ to the 
 northwest of the Ohio into a distinct government, at the head of which 
 they placed Arthur St. Clair, an officer of the late revolution, and once 
 their president. 
 
 CHAPTER XX. 
 
 The ordinary alcades, for the year 1788, were Foucher and Argotte, 
 Pedesclaux now succeeded Rodriguez in the office of clerk of the cabildo, 
 which he held during the remainder of the Spanish government in 
 Louisiana. 
 
 On the twenty-first of March, (Good Friday) the chapel of a Spaniard, 
 in Chartres street, New Orleans, took fire alx)ut three o'clock in the 
 afternoon ; and, the wind being very high at the time, a conflagration 
 ensued, which, in a few hours consumed nine hundred houses, and other 
 property of immense value. 
 
 In order to relieve the inhabitants in some degree, from the distress into 
 which this event had plunged them, the colonial government made a large 
 contract for flour, to be purchased within the United States, on which it 
 made great advances in money ; and in order to induce contractors to 
 deliver it on the best terms, the privilege was allowed them of introducing 
 an unlimited quantity of merchandise on paying the usual duty. 
 Guardoqui, finding that the information he had given made him enemies 
 in the United States, that the colonial government had seized the oppor- 
 tunity presented by the late conflagration, to release all the individuals 
 imprisoned in consequence of the prosecutions he had instigated during 
 the preceding year, and to restore the property confiscated, (a measure 
 approved by the king, to whom a representation had been made by his 
 officers in Louisiana), and that no benefit could result to him from 
 continuing his interference, desisted from any further attempt to obstruct 
 the commercial intercourse between Philadelphia and New Orleans ; and 
 his agents induced by motives of prudence, and perhaps by a share in the 
 profits, did every thing in their power to augment it. 
 
HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 
 
 251 
 
 Miro now received and executed a commission of judge of residence of 
 Galvez. 
 
 On the eighth of August, Wilkinson's agent in New Orleans procured 
 from the colonial government, permission to send to the city one or more 
 launches loaded with tobacco from Kentucky. 
 
 Several individuals from the Wabash, Kentucky and Cumberland rivers, 
 came to Louisiana to ascertain whether their migration to the province 
 would be allowed, and to view the country. They were informed that they 
 would be permitted to introduce their property ; such as was for sale, 
 paying a duty of twenty-five per cent ; that their slaves, stock, 
 provisions for two years, and farming implements, would be free from 
 duty ; that land would be granted and protection afforded them, as long 
 as they demeaned themselves well. 
 
 A census, which was taken this year, presents the following results : 
 
 Within the city of New Orleans, . 
 
 5,338 
 
 From the Balize to the city 
 
 . 2,378 
 
 At the Terre-aux-Bceufs, 
 
 661 
 
 On the bayous St. John and Gentill 
 
 y, . . 772 
 
 Barataria, . . . . 
 
 40 
 
 Tchoupitoulas . . . 
 
 . 7,589 
 
 Parish of St. Charles, 
 
 2,381 
 
 St. John the Baptist, 
 
 . 1,368 
 
 St. James, .... 
 
 \ 1,559 
 
 Lafourche, . . . 
 
 . 1,164 
 
 Lafourche, interior, 
 
 1,500 
 
 Iberville, 
 
 944 
 
 Pointe Coupee, 
 
 2,004 
 
 Opelousas, 
 
 . 1,985 
 
 Attakapas, .... 
 
 2,541 
 
 New Iberia, 
 
 190 
 
 Washita, .... 
 
 232 
 
 Rapides, 
 
 147 
 
 Avoyelles, .... 
 
 209 
 
 Natchitoches 
 
 . 1,021 
 
 Arkansas, .... 
 
 119 
 
 In Lower Louisiana, 
 
 
 St. Genevieve, 
 
 ' . " . ' 896 
 
 St. Louis, 
 
 . 1,197 
 
 In Upper Louisiana, 
 
 
 Manshac, 
 
 . ' . ' . 284 
 
 Galvezton, . . 
 
 268 
 
 Baton Rouge, 
 
 682 
 
 Feliciana, . . 
 
 730 
 
 Natchez, 
 
 . 2,679 
 
 Mobile, . . . . 
 
 1,368 
 
 Pensacola, 
 
 265 
 
 Total, 
 
 34,142 
 
 2,093 
 
 6,376 
 42,611 
 
 The increase between the census of 1785, which gave a grand total of 
 32,114, is 10,497, in three years ; which is about thirty-one and a half per 
 cent. This is, perhaps, accounted for, by the accession of population 
 
252 HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 
 
 brought by the Acadians smce the first census. The increase in Iberville, 
 Manshac, Lafourche, Opelousas and Attakapas, the parts of the province 
 in which these people settled, presents an increase of fifty-one per cent. 
 The number of Acadian emiairants may in this way be reckoned at about 
 3,500. 
 
 The number of white jDcrsons was 19,445 ; that of free persons of color, 
 1,701 ; that of slaves, 21,465. 
 
 Don Martin Navarro, the intendant, now left the province for Spain ; and 
 the two offices of intendant and governor were united in the person of 
 Miro. Navarro's last communication to the king, was a memorial which 
 he had prepared, by order of the minister, on the danger to be appre- 
 hended by Spain, in her American colonies, from the emancipation of the 
 late British provinces on the Atlantic. In this document, he dwells much 
 on the ambition of the United States, and their thirst for conquest ; whose 
 views he states to be an extension of territory to the shores of the Pacific 
 ocean; and suggests the dismemberment of the western country, by means 
 of pensions and the grant of commercial privileges, as the most proper 
 means, in the power of Spain, to arrest the impending danger. To effect 
 this, was not, in his opinion very difficult. The attempt was therefore 
 strongly recommended, as success would greatly augment the power of 
 Sj^ain, and forever arrest the progress of the United States to the west. 
 
 The suggestion was well received at Madrid, and became the ground 
 work of the policy which thereafter actuated the court of Spain. 
 
 It would not have been difficult for the king of Spain, at this period, to 
 have found, in Kentucky, citizens of the United States ready to come 
 into his views. The people of that district met this year, in a second 
 convention, and agreed on a petition to congress for the redress of their 
 grievances : the principal of which was, the occlusion of the Mississippi. 
 IJnder the apprehension that the interference of congress could not be 
 obtained, or might be fruitless, several expedients were talked of, no one 
 of which was generally approved ; the people being divided into no less 
 than five parties, all of which had different, if not opposite, views. 
 
 The first was for independence of the United States, and the formation 
 of a new republic, unconnected with them, who was to enter into a treaty 
 with Spain. 
 
 Another party was willing that the country should become a part of the 
 province of Louisiana, and submit to the admission of the laws of Spain. 
 
 A third desired a war with Spain, and the seizure of New Orleans. 
 
 A fourth plan was to prevail on congress, by a show of preparation for 
 war, to extort from the cabinet of Madrid, what it persisted in refusing. 
 
 The last, as unnatural as the second, was to solicit France to procure a 
 retrocession of Louisiana, and extend her protection to Kentucky. 
 
 It was in the western part of the United States, that the inefficacy of 
 the power vested in congress was most complained of. With a view of 
 remedying this evil, a convention of deputies from all the states, except 
 that of Rhode Island, met at Philadelphia ; and, on the seventeenth of 
 September, submitted to their fellow-citizens a plan of government for 
 their adoption, calculated to effect a more perfect union, establish justice, 
 insure domestic tranquillity, provide for the common defense, promote the 
 general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to them and their 
 posterity. 
 
HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 253 
 
 The choice of the cabildo, for ordinary alcades, for the years 1789 and 
 1790, fell on Ortega and Ahnonaster. 
 
 Don Andrew Almonaster succeeded Regnio as perpetual regidor and 
 alferez real. 
 
 According to the king's order obtained by Forstall, Don Carlos de la 
 Chaise took his seat in the cabildo, as lieutenant in the former. 
 
 Charles the third had died on the 14th of December last, in the seventy- 
 second 3^ear of his age, and was succeeded by his son, Charles the fourth. 
 Funeral rites were performed, in honor of the departed monarch, on the 
 seventh of May, with as much pomp and solemnity as the smallness of 
 the chapel of the hospital could admit of. This chapel, and that of the 
 nuns, were the only places of worship which the conflagration had spared. 
 On the next day, the new sovereign was proclaimed, under repeated 
 discharges of artillery from the forts and shipping, and the acclamations 
 of the colonists. At night, the city was brilliantly illuminated, and 
 theati'ical exhibitions were presented to the people. 
 
 Wilkinson visited New Orleans for the second time. Miro informed 
 him he was instructed to permit the migration of settlers from the western 
 country ; but he was wdthout information of his sovereign's will as to the 
 grant of land for colonization, on the large scale proposed, or the intro- 
 duction of tobacco into the viceroyalty of Mexico. 
 
 Accordingly, the colonial government granted several tracts of land to 
 such settlers from the western part of the United States as presented 
 themselves. They were favored with an exemption from duty, as to all 
 the property they brought, invested in the produce of their country. 
 Under the denomination of settlers, all those who had an acquaintance 
 with any person of influence in New Orleans, obtained passports, and 
 made shipments, which were admitted free from duty. Pretending to 
 return in order to bring their families, they repeated the speculation several 
 times. Others came with slaves and stock, and returned. A few only 
 remained, and they were those who availed themselves the least of the 
 immunities offered by the Spanish government. They had a few slaves 
 and cattle, and but little of other property. They settled chiefly in the 
 districts of Natchez and Feliciana, where they increased the culture of 
 tobacco, which was the only article of exportation raised in this part of 
 the pro"\dnce. The encouragement thus given to migration and speculation 
 opened a market for the produce of Ohio. Flour was brought down from 
 Pittsburgh ; and the farmers, finding a vent for everything they could 
 raise, their land rose in value, and industry was encouraged. Flour was 
 then to be had on the Monongahela, at from eighteen to twenty shillings 
 the barrel, ($2.40 to $2.66.) Its quality was so inferior, that it was used in 
 times of scarcity only, or in making biscuit. 
 
 A number of Irish families were desirous of removing to Louisiana or 
 the Floridas, in the hope that the king of Spain would afford them the 
 same aid as had been extended to emigrants from the Canary islands and 
 Malaga a few years before ; but on their application, the captain-general 
 "was informed from Madrid, that no settlers could be admitted in either 
 of those provinces, whose passage out, or whose maintenance for a limited 
 time, would have to be paid out of the royal treasury ; and those foreigners, 
 only, could be received, who of their o^vn free will, should present 
 themselves and swear allegiance to the king. To such, land might be 
 granted, and surveyed gratuitously, in proportion to the number of 
 
254 HISTORY OF LOUISIANA, 
 
 persons in the family ; they were not to be molested on account of their 
 religion, but no other mode of pubHc worship was to be allowed than the 
 Catholic ; they were not to be required to bear arms, but in the defense of 
 the province, should an enemy invade it. No other aid or assistance was 
 to be given them, but land, protection and good treatment. They might 
 bring with them property of any kind ; but, in case of exporting it, they 
 were to pa}^ a duty of six per cent. 
 
 Few or no settlers emigrated from Ireland. 
 
 Don Louis de las Casas, a brigadier-general of the royal armies, was 
 appointed captain-general of the Island of Cuba, and of the provinces of 
 East and West Florida. 
 
 The bishopric of Cuba, of which the provinces of Louisiana, East and 
 West Florida made a part, was divided. The southern part of the island 
 was erected into the archbishopric of Cuba, and the northern into the 
 bishopric of Havana, of which these provinces now made a part. Don 
 Santiago Joseph de Tres Palacios was the first incumbent of the 
 bishopric. 
 
 The people of the several states having adopted the constitution proposed 
 by the late convention, the new government went into operation on the 
 fourth of March of this year, under the auspices of general Washington, 
 the first president of the United States. 
 
 The high ground taken by the British government on the attack of the 
 settlements at Nootka Sound, and the vigor Avith which it armed to 
 support its pretensions, furnished strong ground for the belief that a war 
 would soon be commenced. In the United States, the juncture was 
 considered as a favorable one, for urging their claim to the navigation 
 of the Mississippi ; and their charge des aff'aires at Madrid was instructed 
 not only to press this point with earnestness, but to secure the unmolested 
 use of that river in future, by obtaining a cession of the island on which 
 New Orleans stands, and the Floridas. 
 
 The federal government was not yet ready to purchase this cession, for 
 several millions of dollars, as it did afterwards. They expected that in 
 the security of the friendship of the United States, and the security which 
 would be given to the dominions of Spain on the west of the Mississippi, 
 she would find a fair equivalent for the cession ; as not only the United 
 States would have no object in crossing the stream, but their real interest 
 would require that Spain should retain the immense possession she 
 claimed to the west. 
 
 Carmichael, the charge des affaires of the United States at Madrid, was 
 further directed to draw the attention of the Catholic king's ministers to 
 the peculiar situation of these states, to one-half of which the use of the 
 Mississippi was so necessary, that no effort could prevent them from 
 acquiring it. He was instructed to urge, that their doing so, by acting 
 separately, or in conjunction with Great Britain, was one of those events 
 which human wisdom would in vain attempt to prevent. To the serious 
 consideration of the Spanish government, were submitted the consequences 
 that would result to all the Spanish possessions in America, from 
 hostilities with Great Britain, or the seizure of New Orleans by the United 
 States. 
 
 The opinion that in the event of a war between Great Britain and Spain, 
 Louisiana would be invaded from Canada, was not a mere suggestion for 
 aiding the negotiations at Madrid ; it was seriously contemplated by the 
 
HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 255 
 
 American government ; and the attention of the executive was turned to 
 the measures which would be proper to pursue, should application be 
 made for permission to march a bod}"" of troops through the unsettled 
 territory of the United States, into the dominions of Spain, or if such an 
 attempt should be made without permission. 
 
 The western people continued loudly and justly to complain of the 
 inattention of congress to the hostile temper of the Indians, to which an 
 unusual degree of importance was given by the apprehension that it was 
 fomented by the intrigues both of Great Britain and Spain. From Canada 
 the northern Indians were understood to be supplied with the means of 
 prosecuting a war, which they had been stimulated to continue ; and to 
 the influence of the governor of East Florida, and perhaps to that of 
 Louisiana, had been partly attributed the late failure of a negotiation with 
 the Creeks. 
 
 To conciliate the latter Indians, colonel Willet, a distinguished officer 
 of the late revolution, was sent among them. He acquitted himself so 
 well of the duties assigned to him, that the chiefs of that nation, with 
 M'Gillivrey at their head, repaired to New York, where negotiations were 
 immediately begun, and terminated by a treaty of peace on the seventh 
 of August. 
 
 On the first information, at St. Augustine, that M'Gillivrey was about 
 to proceed to New York, the intelligence was immediately conveyed to 
 Las Casas, the captain-general at Havana, and the secretary of the i/ ' |^ 
 government of East Floridas was sent at the same time with a large sum y \J^ 
 of money as it was said to purchase flour ; but his real object was believed ;LimJ 
 to be, to embarrass the negotiations with the Creeks. He was closely - •'^^ 
 watched, and measures were taken to render any attempt he might make /-jQi 
 
 abortive. ^^y 
 
 The overtures the American government made to the Indians on the 
 Wabash and the Miamis, were not so successful. The western frontiers 
 of the middle states were still exposed to the destructive invasion of the 
 savages, and there was reason to believe that the inhabitants could only 
 be released from the terrors of the tomahawk and scalping knife, by the 
 ^^gorous exertion of military force ; and general Hammer was directed 
 by the president of the United States to march against the Indians, bring - 
 them, if possible, to an engagement, but in any event to destroy their 
 settlements on the Wabash and Scioto. 
 
 With three hundred and fifty regulars and a body of militia of eleven 
 hundred men from the state of Virginia and the district of Kentucky, he 
 received a check early in October ; but finally succeeded in reducing to 
 ashes the villages of the enemy on the Scioto, and destroying their winter 
 provisions. He retreated without effecting anything on the Wabash, and 
 the Indians were again successful in a second attack. The supineness of 
 congress, who neglected, notwithstanding the recommendation of the 
 president, to raise a force sufficient to the protection of the western people 
 increased their discontents. 
 
 Congress this year accepted a cession made to the United States by 
 North Carolina of all her lands on the western side of the mountain ; and -/ 
 
 a distinct government was established for the people who dwelt to the 
 southwest of the Ohio. It was called the Southwestern Territory, and 
 William Blount was governor of it, until the erection of the state of 
 Tennessee. 
 
256 HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 
 
 Morales and Marigny de Mandeville were chosen ordinary alcades for 
 the year 1791. 
 
 Don Nicholas Maria Vidal succeeded Postego, as auditor of war and 
 assessor of government. 
 
 Congress now added a new regiment to the military establishment, and 
 authorized the president to raise a body of two thousand men for six 
 months. The president placed this force under major-general St. Clair, 
 governor of the Northwestern Territory, who had served with distinction 
 in the army of the revolution, and had filled the chair of congress. 
 
 In the summer and fall, two expeditions were conducted against the 
 \dllages on the Wabash, in which, with a very small loss, a few of the 
 Indian warriors were killed, some of their old men, women and children 
 made prisoners, and several of their towns with extensive fields were 
 destroyed. The first was led by general Scott in May, and the second by 
 general Wilkinson in September. 
 
 The major-general was more unfortunate. His small army consisting 
 of about fourteen hundred effective rank and file, was routed by the 
 Indians on the third of November. His defeat was complete. Six 
 hundred and thirty-one were killed or missing, and two hundred and 
 sixty-seven wounded. Among the killed was the brave and much 
 lamented general Butler. This happened about fifty miles from the Miami 
 villages. 
 
 The people of Kentucky complained that congress were too sparing in 
 furnishing means for their protection. They were clamorously calling for 
 admission into the Union as a state. Although Miro favored them with 
 an intercourse with Louisiana, in which they found a vent for their 
 produce, they were dissatisfied with the terms under which they were 
 permitted to enjoy the navigation of the Mississippi. 
 
 In the night of the twenty-third of August, a preconcerted insurrection 
 took place throughout the French part of the island of Hispaniola, and an 
 immense portion of its white inhabitants were massacred. Those who 
 were so fortunate as to make their escape, sought a refuge in the islands of 
 Cuba and Jamaica, or the United States, and a few came to Louisiana. 
 Among these, was a company of comedians from Cape Francois ; and the 
 city of New Orleans now enjoyed, for the first time, the advantage of 
 regular dramatic exhibitions. Some of the other refugees, availing 
 themselves of the wants of the province, opened academies for the instruc- 
 tion of youth. Hitherto, the only means of education were confined to a 
 school in which a Spanish priest, aided by two ushers, taught the elements 
 of the Spanish language, and the convent of the Ursuline nuns. 
 
 Miro sailed for the peninsula, where he was employed in the army, and 
 obtained the rank of mariscal cle camp. He carried with him the good 
 wishes and the regrets of the colonists. Although not a man of superior 
 talents, he governed the province in a manner that accorded with the 
 views of his sovereign and of the colonists. He showed every possible 
 indulgence to a commerce with the United States. Since the conflagration, 
 vessels came freely from Philadelphia, and some other ports of the Union : 
 and the people of Tennessee afterwards manifested their gratitude towards 
 him, by giving his name to one of their judicial districts. 
 
 On the fourth of March, the state of Vermont was admitted into the 
 confederacy of the United States, as its fourteenth member. 
 
CHAPTER XXI. 
 
 Don Francisco Louis Hector, Baron de Carondelet, colonel of the royal 
 armies, was promoted from the government of San Salvador, in the 
 province of Guatimala, to the rank of governor and intendant of the 
 provinces of Louisiana and West Florida, and entered on the duties of 
 these offices on the first of January, 1792. 
 
 The ordinary alcades, for this year, were Marigny de Mandeville and de 
 la Pena. 
 
 Don Nicholas Maria Vidal, the auditor of war, received a commission 
 of lieutenant-governor. 
 
 The Baron's bando de buen gobierno was puljlished on the twenty-second 
 of January. Among the new regulations it introduced, it provided for 
 the division of the city of New Orleans into four wards, in each of which, an 
 alcade de barrio, or commissary of police, was to be appointed. In order 
 to procure to government a knowledge of all the inhabitants, and every 
 stranger among them or in the city, it was made the dut}' of all persons 
 renting houses or apartments, to give the names of their new tenants to the 
 alcade of the district, on the first day of their occupation, or, at farthest, 
 on the succeeding one. The alcades de barrio were directed to take 
 charge of fire engines and their implements, and to command the fire and 
 axe men companies, in case of conflagration. They were also empowered 
 to preserve the peace, and to take cognizance of small debts. 
 
 In one of his first communications to the cabildo, the Baron recom- 
 mended to them to make proyision for lighting the city and employing 
 watchmen. The revenue of the corporation did not amount, at this 
 period, to seven thousand dollars. To meet the charges for the purchase 
 of lamps and oil, and the wages of watchmen, a tax of one dollar and 
 twelve and a half cents was laid on every chimney. 
 
 In a letter to the minister, the Baron, this year," mentioned that the 
 population of New Orleans was under six thousand. 
 
 Having received instructions from the king to attend to the humane 
 treatment of slaves in the province, he issued his proclamation on the 
 eleventh of July, establishing the following regulations : 
 
 1. That each slave should receive monthly, for his food, one barrel of 
 corn, at least. 
 
 2. That every Sunday should be exclusively his own, Avithout his 
 being comjielled to work for his master, except in urgent cases, when he 
 must be paid or indemnified. 
 
 3. That, on other days, they should not begin to work before day- 
 break, nor to continue after dark. One-half hour to be allowed at 
 breakfast, and two hours at dinner. 
 
 4. Two brown shirts, a woolen coat and pantaloons, and a pair of linen 
 pantaloons, and two handkerchiefs, to be allowed, yearly, to each male 
 slave, and suitable dresses to female. 
 
 5. None to be punished with more than thirty lashes, within twenty- 
 four hours. 
 
 (). Delinquents to be fined in the sum of one hundred dollars, and in 
 grave cases, the slave may be ordered to be sold to another. 
 
 At the solicitation of the cabildo, the Baron issued a proclamation 
 prohibiting the introduction of negroes from the French and British 
 
 35 
 
258 HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 
 
 islands, the province being, by such importation, drained of its specie, 
 and apprehension being entertained of an insurrection. 
 
 In the month of June, the people of Kentucky were admitted into the 
 Union, as a state. 
 
 A settlement of the difficulties relating to Nootka Sound having taken 
 place, without a rupture between Great Britain and Spain, the latter 
 power had expressed a wish for an adjustment of the matters in contro- 
 versy between it and the United States, by a negotiation to be carried on 
 at Madrid. Carmichael and Short were chosen by the president as 
 commissioners for that purpose. In the meanwhile, the officers of that 
 monarchy persisted in measures calculated to embroil the United States 
 in a war with the southern Indians. By their intrigues, they succeeded 
 in preventing the ratification of the treaty entered into, in 1790, with 
 M'Gillivrey ; and the line agreed on as the boundary, was not permitted 
 to be run. The indefinite claim to territory, set up by Spain, was said to 
 constitute a sufficient objection to any line of demarcation, until it was 
 settled ; and the previous treaties and relations of Spain with the Creeks 
 were declared to be violated by the acknowledgement of their being under 
 the protection of the United States. 
 
 General St. Clair having resigned the command of the western army, it 
 was committed to general Wayne, and the greatest exertions were made 
 to complete its ranks ; but so small were the inducements to enter into 
 the service, that the highest grades below the first, were tendered in vain 
 the money. The recruiting service went on so slowly, that no hope was 
 entertained of any decisive expedition this year ; and "it was thought 
 expedient to negotiate a peace. This attempt proved very unfortunate, 
 at least for those who were engaged in it. Colonel Hardin and major 
 Trueman, having been dispatched severally with propositions of peace, 
 Avere both murdered by the Indians. 
 
 Serano and Daunov Avere the ordinary alcades for the years 1793 
 and 1794. 
 
 The king expressed to the Baron his approbation of the prohibition of 
 the importation of slaves from the British and French West India islands, 
 but declared his wish to have their importation from Guinea, by his 
 subjects, encouraged and promoted; and, for this purpose, he issued a 
 royal schedule on the first of January. 
 
 After stating that Spain was one of the first nations, the ships of which 
 visited Africa in search of negroes, and his belief that great advantages 
 would result to his subjects if they were to resume that trade, the king 
 declares that every Spaniard may send vessels to the coast of Africa for 
 negroes from any part of his dominions in Europe or the Indies, provided 
 the master and one-half of the crew be Spaniards ; and all merchandise 
 purchased for that trade shall be exempted from duty, as well as every 
 foreign vessel expressly purchased for the purpose of being employed 
 therein. 
 
 Vessels continued to trade between Philadelphia and New Orleans since 
 the conflagration of 1788. Miro, in the latter years of his administration, 
 and the Baron, from the commencement of his, connived at this violation 
 of the positive instructions of the minister of finance in Europe ; but on 
 the representation of the governors of the utility of the measure, it was 
 a])proved Ijy the king. From this period, a number of merchants in 
 Philadelphia estaldished commercial houses at New Orleans. 
 
HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 259 
 
 All trade is absolutely forbidden in the colonies of Spain, by the letter 
 of the commercial law, to any but natural subjects or naturalized persons 
 residing there. The extreme rigor of this j^rovision had, hoAvever, in 
 some degree, defeated it, as the very existence of several colonies depended 
 upon its relaxation, which in New Orleans, began to take place in the 
 latter part of the administration of Miro, after the conflagration, and was 
 continued by the Baron, who extended it in favor of foreign merchants 
 residing in the province, although not naturalized. After this, the officers 
 of the customhouse contented themselves with the simple declaration of 
 an individual, generally the consignee, that he was owner of the vessel. 
 No oath was administered ; the production of no document was required. 
 The declaration was even accepted from an individual who did not reside 
 in the province, on his asserting that he meant to do so, or on his 
 producing a license to import goods. No one was thereby deceived, but 
 the customhouse officers were furnished with a pretext for registering a 
 vessel as a Spanish bottom, and thus to preserve an appearance of a 
 compliance with the law. So little attention was paid to this, that at times 
 the governor and intendant certified that a vessel was American property 
 while she appeared on the customhouse books as a Spanish vessel. 
 
 Louis the sixteenth died on the scaffold, on the 21st of January, 1793, 
 and the popular party being now predominant in France, the Catholic 
 king declared war against the new republic. 
 
 The sympathies and partiality of the people of Louisiana now began to 
 manifest themselves strongly in favor of the French patriots, principally 
 in New Orleans. The situation of the Baron was rendered extremely 
 delicate, by the circumstance of his being a native of France, and obliged 
 b}'' the duties of his station, if not urged by inclination, to restrain excesses 
 against a monarchical government. He prepared, and promoted the 
 subscription of a paper, in which the colonists gave assurances of their 
 loyalty to, and affection for the Catholic king, and bound themselves to 
 support his government in Louisiana. He put a stop to a practice, which 
 had of late been introduced, of entertaining the audience at the theatre with 
 the exhibition of certain martial dances to revolutionary airs. He caused 
 six individuals, who had manifested their approbation of the new French 
 principles, and evinced a desire to see them acted upon in Louisiana, to 
 be arrested and confined in the fort. At the intercession of several 
 respectable inhabitants of New Orleans, he promised to liberate them, but 
 believing afterwards that he had discovered new causes of alarm, which 
 rendered a decisive step necessaiy, he shipped them for Havana, where 
 they were detained during a twelve-month. 
 
 The fortifications, with which the French had surrounded the citj'' being 
 a heap of ruins, he caused new ones to be erected. A fort was built imme- 
 diately above, and another immediately below the city, upon the river, 
 and a strong redoubt on the back part towards the middle of the city, and 
 one other at each of the angles. They were connected by deep ditches. 
 There was a l)attery in the middle of each flank of the city, which were 
 also surrounded by strong palisades. 
 
 The two batteries built l)y the French at the English Turn were aban- 
 doned, and the fort of St. Philip erected on Plaquemines, with a small (Hie 
 on the opposite bank of the river. 
 
 He had the militia trained, and enforced the laws relative to it. 
 
 According to a statement which he sent to Madrid this year, it appeared 
 
260 HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 
 
 there ■were between five and six thousand men enrolled, and he was of 
 opinion that the colonial government could, at any time, bring three 
 thousand men, within thi'ee weeks, to an}' given point in the province. 
 
 There were four companies, of one hundred men each, between the Balize 
 and the city. 
 
 In New Orleans there were five companies of volunteers, one of artillery 
 and two of riflemen ; each of one hundred men. 
 
 The legion of the Mississippi, consisting of the militia of Baton Rouge, 
 Galvezton, Pointe Coupee, Feliciana, Attakapas and Opelousas, had two 
 companies of grenadiers, ten of fusiliers, and four of dragoons. 
 
 At Avoyelles a company of infantry, at Washita one of cavalry ; at the 
 Illinois, two of each. 
 
 A regiment of the German and Acadian coasts, of one thousand men. 
 
 At Mobile, a company of infantry and one of cavalry. 
 
 The attention of the colonists was, however, drawn to matters more 
 immediately interesting to them, by the publication of a royal schedule 
 of the month of February, extending great commercial advantages 
 to them. 
 
 In the preamble of this document, the king declares his impression of 
 the impossibility of the merchants of New Orleans continuing their 
 expeditions to the ports of France designated in the schedule of the 
 twenty-second of January, 1782, and the consequent necessity of some 
 provision for the exportation of the produce of the provinces of Louisiana, 
 East and West Florida, and for enabling the inhabitants to import the 
 merchandise they stood in need of With the view of encouraging the 
 national commerce, and that of these provinces, the period of ten years, 
 mentioned in said schedule, is provisionally prolonged, until regulations 
 suitable to these provinces and the general system of commerce in the 
 other colonies of Spanish America may be made. 
 
 Permission is given to the inhabitants of these colonies to carry on 
 commerce freely, in Europe and America, wdth all the nations, with 
 which Spain had treaties of commerce, from the ports of New Orleans, 
 Pensacola, and St. Augustine, to any ports of said nations, (the vessels 
 of which may there be also received) under the condition of stopping, in 
 going and returning, in the port of Concurbion, in Galicia, or that of 
 Alicante, to take a passport. 
 
 2. The merchandise, produce and effects, transported, in this foreign 
 commerce, shall be charged with a duty of importation of fifteen per 
 cent, and one of exportation of six ; but the exportation of slaves was to 
 continue exempt from duty. The exportation of specie for any purpose 
 whatever, to continue prohibited. 
 
 3. The commerce between the peninsula and these provinces is 
 likewise to be free ; and the king declares he will view with particular 
 benevolence, those who may in any manner encourage it. 
 
 4. Spanish subjects are permitted to trade to the provinces, from an.y 
 port of the peninsula, to which the commerce of the Indies is permitted, 
 in vessels exclusiveh' Spanish, providing themselves with regular 
 documents. 
 
 5. Permission is given to import into the ports of the peninsula, all 
 kinds of foreign goods, wares, and merchandise destined for any of these 
 provinces, although their introduction be prohibited for all other 
 purposes. Likewise tobacco, or any other article of produce of these 
 
HISTORY OF LOUISIAXA. 261 
 
 provinces, and the importation of which is forbidden to individuals mav 
 ])e brought in, provided it be afterwards exported to a foreign port. 
 
 6. Such prohibited produce, the importation of which is only allowed 
 to facilitate returns from these provinces, shall be dei)osited on landing 
 in the warehouses of the customhouse, from which it shall be drawn only 
 to be carried on board of the vessels in which the importation is to be 
 made. 
 
 7. The importation of rice from foreign countries into Spain is 
 prohibited ; and the king declares he will likewise prohil)it that of any 
 other article of produce, which these provinces may supply, in sufficient 
 quantity for consumption. 
 
 8. Goods exported from any of the allowed ports of the peninsula, for 
 the commerce of the provinces, to be exempt from duty and that which 
 may have been paid on their exportation shall be returned. 
 
 9. Foreign merchandise coming from any of the allowed ports of the 
 peninsula on its importation in any of these provinces in foreign bottoms, 
 shall pay a duty of three per cent. ; but that imported in national vessels 
 shall not pay any. 
 
 10. Merchandise or specie, exported from these provinces to any of the 
 allowed ports of the peninsula, shall be free from duty. 
 
 ' 11. The exportation to foreign ports of the j^roduce of these provinces, 
 brought to any of the allowed ports of the peninsula, shall be free from 
 duty. 
 
 12. The exemptions from duty then granted include that of all local or 
 municipal ones, which, by custom or otherwise, may be claimed. 
 
 13. In order to enjoy the exemptions hereby granted, every vessel must 
 be provided with a manifest of her cargo, distinguishing national from 
 foreign goods, certified at the customhouse of the place of her departure, 
 and give bond with security to present it at the place of destination, and 
 bring a certificate of the landing of the goods ; and every vessel, on her 
 return, shall be provided with a manifest and certificate that the whole of 
 her cargo is of the produce of the country. 
 
 14. Spanish vessels bound from the peninsula to Louisiana or either of 
 the Florid as, which may desire to return with the produce of the country, 
 directl}'-, to any port of Europe, may do so on paying a duty of three per 
 cent, on the produce thus exported. 
 
 15. But this advantage is not to be enjoyed by vessels engaged in a 
 direct trade between a foreign port and these provinces. 
 
 16. Vessels of the king's subjects, sailing from New Orleans. Pensacola 
 or St. Augustine, are to have a manifest of their cargo, to be presented to 
 his consul, and on their return they are to bring another, subscribed by 
 him, to be presented at the customhouse ; and those proceeding directly 
 from Spain to these provinces, are to bring, on their return, besides the 
 manifest of the inward cargo, a certificate of the landing of the outward, 
 in order to have their bonds cancelled. 
 
 17. The ports of Bilbao and San Sebastian, which, being in exempt 
 provinces, are reputed foreign, may, as such, trade to these colonies, 
 according to the faculty herein granted, paying the duties imposed thereon ; 
 l)ut, in consideration of the importance of enlarging and extending the 
 maritime relations between the mother country and these colonies, vessels 
 from these two ports shall enjoy the favors of exemptions granted to the 
 allowed ports of the peninsula, with the sole difference that the vessels 
 
262 HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 
 
 from Bilbao and San Sebastian shall be bound to touch at San Ander to 
 take a passport, before they proceed on their voyages. 
 
 18. Vessels from the allowed ports, and from "Bilbao and San Sebastia^n, 
 trading to New Orleans, Pensacola, or St. Augustine, are prohibited from 
 entering any other port of the king's dominions in America. 
 
 19. Exportations from New Orleans, Pensacola, or St. Augustine, for 
 any other port of these dominions, are prohibited, except in cases of the 
 most urgent necessity, to be certified by the governor, who will give 
 licenses therefor. Bui then nothing can be exported except articles of 
 the produce of the provinces. 
 
 20. The king remits to his subjects all duties heretofore payable on 
 vessels expressly purchased for this trade. 
 
 21. The governor and intendant are directed to make a new tariff, to 
 be submitted to the king. 
 
 On the representation of the Baron the office of intendant was separated 
 from that of governor, and Don Francisco de Rendon, who had been 
 employed as secretary of legation from Spain in the United States, having 
 been invested with the former, came to New Orleans in the beginning of 
 the year 1794. 
 
 The pope divided the bishopric of Havana; and the provinces of 
 Louisiana, East and West Florida, were erected into a distinct one. Doh 
 Louis de Penalvert, provisor and vicar-general of the bishop of Havana, 
 was called to the new see, and established his cathedral in New Orleans. 
 
 Two canons were added to the clergy of the province. 
 
 Genet, the minister of the French republic in Philadelphia, had planned 
 two expeditions from the western part of the United States, against the 
 dominions of Spain on the Mississippi and the Gulf of Mexico. Several 
 citizens of the United States had accepted commissions from him. Many 
 of these had been seduced by him in Charleston, where he had landed, in 
 Philadelphia, and in the states of North Carolina, Virginia and Maryland. 
 Others (and their number was not small) had yielded their aid to his 
 agents in Kentucky and Tennessee, under the belief that the interests of 
 the western people would be promoted by the success of the enterprise ; 
 imagining that the French once in possession of New Orleans, the 
 American government would find it easy to obtain free navigation of the 
 Mississippi. The idea of a separation of the western people from their 
 brothers on the Atlantic, and an alliance or union with the French of 
 Louisiana, was still fostered by many. With these views, soldiers were 
 secretly recruited for the enterprise. Auguste de la Chaise, a creole of 
 Louisiana, (grandson of the former commissary ordonnateur) had been 
 sent to Kentucky to superintend the recruiting service there, and was to 
 be one of the leaders of the expedition against the Spanish territory onthe 
 Mississippi. Another individual, of the name of Clarke, was on a similar 
 errand in the back counties of Georgia, from which state and the 
 neighboring one, another expedition was to be directed against East Florida. 
 The aid of a considerable body of Indians, raised among the Creeks and 
 Cherokees, had been obtained. 
 
 The Baron had early information of the danger that threatened the 
 province under his care, from the Spanish minister at Philadelphia, and 
 took early measures to avert it. He completed the fortifications of New 
 Orleans, and visited most of the parishes to animate the people, and put 
 the militia in a situation of being useful. His care did not stop here. 
 
HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 263 
 
 He dispatched Thomas Power, an intelligent Englishman, to Kentucky, 
 who, under the pretense of being engaged in collecting materials for a 
 natural history of the western part of the United States, was to prepare 
 the way for the execution of the plan proposed by Navarro, seven years 
 before, by conversing with the most influential individuals, among those 
 who were disposed to promote a separation from the Atlantic states, and 
 an alliance or connection with Spain, and giving them assurances of the 
 cheerful concurrence of the colonial government of Louisiana, and its 
 readiness to supply them with arms, ammunition and money. 
 
 This year, Le Momtenr de la Louisiane, the only periodical paper 
 published in the province during its subjection to Spain, made its first 
 appearance. 
 
 The Baron did not suffer the care he took for the protection of the province 
 to direct his attention from the improvement of the city. On the ninth of 
 May, he gave notice of his intention to dig a canal, which, carrying off the 
 water of the city and its environs into one of the branches of the bayou St. 
 John, would rid New Orleans of the stagnating ponds, which rendered it 
 sickly, and the multitude of mosquitoes, which harrassed the inhabitants. 
 
 He mentioned that the expenses of the war allowing no hope of obtaining 
 the assistance of the king for digging a considerable canal of navigation, 
 he had asked from his majesty only the labor of the negro convicts, which, 
 with that of a few hands that might be furnished by able and zealous 
 individuals, might afford a canal for conveying off the water, and in 
 successive years it might be deepened, so as to become a convenient canal, 
 navigable for schooners, facilitating the intercourse between the opposite 
 side of the lakes, Mobile and Pensacola, with New Orleans. 
 
 In announcing the king's assent to this proposition, the Baron declared 
 his intention of requesting from the inhabitants of the city, in the month 
 of June following, such a number of negroes as they might spare, to clear 
 the ground through which thcvcanal was to pass, and expressed his belief 
 that, this being done, the convicts might complete the work. 
 
 A passage, eight feet in breadth, was to be left on each side, for 
 horses drawing flatboats, and in time, schooners. A wide levee, for foot 
 travelers, was to afford an agreeable promenade, under a double row of 
 trees. 
 
 About sixty negroes were sent, and the canal was begun with a depth 
 of six feet only. It turned around the large trees which obstructed its 
 way. 
 
 Indigo had hitherto been the principal object of the attention of 
 planters on the banks of the Mississippi ; but during several years, its 
 success had sadly disappointed their hopes. At first, the failure of the 
 crops had resulted from the vicissitudes of the seasons ; of late, an insect 
 attacked the plant and destroyed its leaves. In the years 1793 and 1794, 
 its ravages were so great that almost every plant perished, and the fields 
 presented nothing to the eye but naked stems. 
 
 Since the year 1766, the manufacture of sugar had been entirely 
 abandoned in Louisiana. A few individuals had, however, contrived to 
 ])lant a few canes in the neighborhood of the city : thc}'^ found a vent for 
 them in the market. Two Spaniards, Mendez and Solis, had lately made 
 larger plantations. One of them boiled the juice of the cane into syrup, 
 and the other had set up a distillery, in which he made indifferent taffia. 
 
 Eticnne Bore, a native of the Illinois, who resided about six miles 
 
264 HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 
 
 above the city, finding his fortune considerably reduced by the faikire of 
 the indigo crops for several successive years, conceived the idea of 
 retrieving his losses by the manufacture of sugar. The attempt was 
 considered by all as a visionary one. His wife, (a daughter of Destrehan, 
 the colonial treasurer under the government of France, who had been one 
 of the iirst to attempt, and one of the last to abandon, the manufacture of 
 sugar) remembering her father's ill success, warned him of the risk he 
 ran of adding to, instead of repairing his losses, and his relations and 
 friends joined their remonstrances to hers. He, however, persisted ; and, 
 having procured a quantity of canes from Mendez and Solis, began to 
 plant. 
 
 This year, Don Andre Almonaster, a perpetual regidor and alferez real, 
 completed at his own expense the erection of a cathedral church in New 
 Orleans, having laid the foundation of it in 1792. He had before built 
 and endowed a hospital. 
 
 A conflagration reduced a considerable part of the city to ashes, and in 
 the month of August the province was desolated by a hurricane. 
 
 The ordinary alcades for the year 1795, were de Lovio and Pontalba. 
 
 The cabildo made a representation to the king, and prayed that six 
 more offices of regidor might be created ; the increase of population 
 rendering, in their opinion, this measure necessary. 
 
 They also prayed that the zealous services of the Baron might be 
 rewarded b}' the appointment of captain-general. 
 
 It seems that the progress of the French revolutionary principles was 
 great in the province, and that the hope that Lachaise would succeed in 
 gathering such a force in Kentucky as might enable him, in the language 
 of the day, to " give freedom to the country of his birth," inflamed the 
 minds of man}^ ; for, on the first of June, the Baron issued a proclamation 
 for establishing several regulations of police ; in the preamble of which he 
 complains of " the success with which evil minded, turbulent, and enthu- 
 siastic individuals, who certainly had nothing to lose, had spread false 
 rumors, calculated to give rise to the most complete mistrust between 
 government and the people, whereb}^ the j)rovince is threatened with all 
 the disasters to which the French colonies have fallen a prey." 
 
 After this the proclamation announces that to restore order and public 
 tranquillity, syndics, chosen among the most notable planters, are to be 
 appointed, residing within about nine miles from each other, to be subor- 
 dinate to the commandant, to whom they are to give weekly accounts of 
 every important occurrence. 
 
 It is made the duty of every One having the knowledge, even by 
 hearsay, of any offense or seditious expressions, tending to excite alarm 
 or disturb public tranquillity to give immediate notice to the syndic, 
 commandant or governor. 
 
 Every assemblage, of more than eight persons, to consult on public 
 matters, is absolutely forljidden. 
 
 Every individual is bound to denounce to the commandant, any syndic, 
 guilty of an offense in making use of any seditious expressions. 
 
 Every traveller found without a passport is immediately to be arrested, 
 carried before the syndic, who is to examine and send him to the 
 commandant. 
 
 Every traveller, possessed of any important event, is first to give notice 
 of it to the syndic, who is to take a note of it and register his name, and 
 
HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 265 
 
 afterwards, according to circumstances, permit or forbid the communication 
 of the event, giving information of it to the commandant. 
 
 Syndics are to direct patrols from time to time. 
 
 The vigilance of the executive of the United States was such that 
 Lachaise's efforts proved abortive, and the legislature of South Carolina 
 took measures which ended in the arrest of Genet's agents in the south, 
 and the expedition against East Florida failed. 
 
 The Bftron thought the strictest vigilance was required in the city, and 
 he availed himself of the circumstance of some nocturnal depredations, 
 to issue a proclamation enforcing a severe police, and directing , the 
 shutting of the gates at an early hour. 
 
 The canal behind the city was widened to fifteen feet. About one 
 hundred and fifty negroes were sent by the inhabitants of the city and 
 its neighborhood, and all the convict slaves were employed on it. In the 
 month of October, the Baron, by a publication in the Moniteur, brought 
 to view the future grandeur of New Orleans, its increasing commerce, the 
 necessity of opening a communication between the city and the sea, 
 through the lakes, and announced that six da^^s more of the labor of the 
 slaves in the city, and within fifteen miles above and below, would enable 
 the colonial government to complete the canal. 
 
 Another publication, on the twenty-third of November, draws the 
 attention of the inhabitants to the facilities they have found in procuring 
 wood through the canal, the marked diminution of mortality during the 
 preceding three months, and asks, as the last assistance which he Avould 
 require, the labor of the slaves for eight days more. 
 
 A number of French royalists had come to New Orleans, and proposed 
 plans for the removal of a number of their countrymen to Louisiana, 
 from the United States, where they had sought an asylum, and the colonial 
 government was induced to make several very extensive grants of land. 
 
 The principal was to the Marquis de Maison Rouge, a knight of St. Louis. 
 He offered to bring down thirty families, who were waiting on the banks 
 of the Ohio, and were anxious to form an establishment on those of the 
 Washita, to raise wheat and manufacture it into flour. 
 
 The encouragement given by the colonial government was not confined 
 to a grant of land. It covenanted to pay two hundred dollars to every 
 family, composed of at least two white persons, fit for agriculture or the 
 arts necessary in the settlement, as carpenters, blacksmiths, etc. Four 
 hundred dollars to those having four laborers, and the same proportion 
 to those having only an artisan or laborer. They were to be assisted with 
 guides and provisions from New Madrid to Washita. Their baggage and 
 implements of agriculture were to be transported from New Madrid at the 
 king's expense. Each famil}^, consisting of at least two Avhite persons fit 
 for agriculture, was entitled to fourhundi-ed acres of land, with a propor- 
 tionate increase to larger ones. Settlers were permitted to bring white 
 European servants, to be bound to them for six or more years, who, at 
 the expiration of their time, were to receive grants of land in the same 
 proportion. 
 
 This agreement was, a few months after, approved by the king. 
 
 The Baron, in these plans for colonizing the banks of the Washita, had 
 not lost sight of his favorite one for the separation of the western people 
 from the Union, the idea of which was still entertained by several influ- 
 ential individuals in Kentuck}^, whom Power had visited, and Avho had 
 
 36 
 
266 HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 
 
 recommended that an officer of rank should l)e sent by the colonial 
 government, to meet part of them at the mouth of the Ohio. He made 
 choice, for this purpose, of Don Manuel Gayoso de Lemos, who commanded 
 at Natchez, and Avho set off early in the sunnner. The ostensible object 
 of this officer's journey was to lead a number of soldiers, who were to erect 
 and garrison a fort at the Chickasaw bluffs. Having set these men at 
 work, Gayoso proceeded to New Madrid, from whence, according to a 
 previous arrangement, he dispatched Power to Red Banks, for th^ purpose 
 of bringing down Sebastian, Innis, Murray and Nicholas, who had been 
 chosen to hold a conference with the officer to be sent by the Baron at the 
 mouth of the Oliio. Power found Sebastian at the Red Banks, who informed 
 him that some family concerns prevented Innis from leaving home ; that, 
 as the courts were now in session, the absence of Nicholas, a lawyer in 
 great practice, would excite suspicion, and that Murray had, for some 
 time past, got into such a state of habitual intoxication, that he was 
 absolutely incapable of attending to any kind of business. He added, he 
 was authorized l)y Innis and Nicholas, to treat with Gayoso in their names, 
 and accordingly proceeded, in Power's boat, to the Mississippi, where they 
 found Gayoso. He had employed his people in building a small stockade 
 fort, on the right bank of the river, opposite the mouth of the Ohio, with 
 the .view of having it believed that this fortification was the object of his 
 journey. He proposed to Sebastian to come down to New Orleans and 
 confer with the Baron. This was agreed to ; and, after a short stay, they 
 proceeded down, Gayoso and Sebastian in the former's galley ; Power and 
 a Mr. Vander Rogers in a king's barge. They proceeded to Natchez, where 
 they stopped. 
 
 Whilst a part of the white population evinced their anxiety to imitate 
 the French in a struggle for freedom, it is not extraordinary that the 
 slaves should have been seduced into an attempt to rise by the reports of 
 the success of the blacks in Hispaniola. An insurrection was planned in 
 the parish of Pointe Coupee, an insulated one, in which the number of 
 slaves was considerable. The conspiracy was formed on the plantation 
 of Julien Poydras, a wealthy planter, who was then absent on a journey 
 to the United States ; from thence its progress had been extended to all 
 parts of the parish. The indiscriminate slaughter of every white man 
 was intended. A disagreement as to the day the massacre was to take 
 place, gave rise to a quarrel among the principal leaders, which led to a 
 discovery of the plot. The militia was instantly put under arms ; and 
 the Baron on the first information, sent a part of the regular force. The 
 slaves attempted a resistance and twenty-five of them were killed before 
 those that had been selected for trial were arrested and confined. Serano, 
 the assessor of the intendancy, went up to assist Dupart, the civil 
 commandant at the trials. Fifty were found guilty ; others were severely 
 flogged. Sixteen of the first were hung in different ])arts of the parish ; 
 the nine remaining were put on board of a galley, which floated down to 
 New Orleans. On her way one of them was landed near the church of 
 each parish along the river, and left lianging on a tree. This timely 
 exercise of severity quieted for awhile the apprehensions of the inhabi- 
 tants who had been considerably alarmed. 
 
 In the meanwhile, Wayne had concluded a treaty of peace with the 
 hostile Indians, on the northwest of the Ohio, on the twentieth of August, 
 and the plenipotentiaries of the United States and Spain had signed a 
 treaty at San Lorenzo, on the twenty-seventh of October. 
 
CHAPTER XXII. 
 
 By the Spanish treaty, the southern boundary of the United States, as 
 given by their treaty of peace with Great Britain, was recognized ; and 
 their western, as far as related to the boundary of the territory of Si)ain, 
 was declared to be a line, beginning at a point in the middle of the 
 channel or bed of the Mississippi, on their northern boundary, running 
 along the middle of said channel, to the thirty-first degree of north 
 latitude. 
 
 The king agrees that the navigation of the Mississippi, in its whole 
 breadth, from its source to the gulf, shall be free only to his subjects and 
 the colonies of the United States, unless by special convention, he extends 
 the privilege to the subjects of other powers. 
 
 The parties promise to maintain, by all the means in their power, peace 
 and harmony among the several nations of Indians inhabiting the country 
 adjacent to the southern boundary of the United States; and the better 
 to attain this object, both parties bind themselves, expressly, to restrain, 
 by force, all hostilities on the part of Indian nations living within their 
 territories, and to make no treaty, except a treaty of peace, with any 
 Indian nation living within the territor}^ of the other. 
 
 Pro^dsion is made for the protection of vessels, for cases of embargo 
 and seizure for debt or crime, stress of weather, vessels captured by 
 pirates, the estates of the deceased, passports, contraband trade, access to 
 courts of justice, etc. 
 
 The principle that free ships make free goods, is recognized. 
 
 It is provided that the subjects or colonies of either party shall not 
 make war against those of the other. 
 
 Arrangements are made for running the southern boundary line of the 
 United States. 
 
 The king promises to permit citizens of the United States, during a 
 period often years, from the ratification of the treaty, to deposit their 
 merchandise and effects in the port of New Orleans, and export them free 
 from duty, except a fair charge for the use of stores ; and he engages to 
 extend the permission, if it does not, during that period, appear preju- 
 dicial to his interests ; and if he does not continue to permit the deposit 
 there, he will assign to them an equivalent establishment on some other 
 spot of the banks of the Mississippi. 
 
 Perez and Lachaise were the ordinar}'' alcades for the year 1796. 
 
 Early in January, Gayoso, Sebastian, and Power came to New Orleans ; 
 and early in the spring the two latter sailed for Philadelphia. 
 
 The Count de Santa-Clara succeeded Las Casas as captain-general of 
 the island of Cuba, the provinces of Louisiana and East and West 
 Florida. 
 
 The alarm into which the late attempt of the blacks at Pointe Coupee 
 threw the colonists, induced the cabildo, on the 29th of February, to 
 request the Baron to transmit to the king their prayer that the introduction 
 of slaves from any part of the world might be prohibited, and they desired 
 the Baron to issue his proclamation, provisorily, to forbid their import- 
 ation. He complied with their wishes. 
 
 Bore's success, in his first attempt to manufacture sugar, was very 
 
2G8 HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 
 
 great, unci he sold his crop for twelve thousand dollars. His example 
 induced a number of other planters to plant cane. 
 
 By a royal order, given at Aranjuez, on the 20th of June, Don Carlos de 
 Jaen, a licentiate of Havana, was appointed judge of residence of Miro. 
 He did not, however, come over for several years. 
 
 Don Francisco de Rendon, having Ijeen appointed intendant and 
 corrigidor of the province of Zacatecas, sailed from New Orleans, and the 
 functions of the intendant devolved on Don Juan Benaventura Morales, 
 the contador. 
 
 This year the canal behind the city was completed, and a number of 
 schooners went through it to a basin that had ])een dug near the ramparts. 
 The cabildo, as a mark of their gratitude for the administrator, to whose 
 care this important improvement was due, directed that it should be called 
 " the Canal Carondelet."^ 
 
 The project of inducing French loyalists to migrate to Louisiana, 
 continued to l)e a favorite one with the Baron ; and, with a view of 
 promoting it, very extensive grants of land were made. 
 
 The most considerable one was that made to the Baron de Bastrop. It 
 was of twelve square leagues, on the banks of the Washita. The emigrants 
 were intended to be employed in the culture of wheat and the manufacture 
 of flour. The colonial government took upon itself the charge of bringing 
 them down from New Madrid, and of providing for their subsistence 
 during six months. It promised not to molest them on account of their 
 religion ; but declared that the Roman Catholic was the only one the rites 
 of which would be allowed to be performed. 
 
 Another grant was to James Ceran Delassus de St. Vrain, an officer of 
 the late royal navy of France, who had lost his fortune in the late 
 revolution in his own country, and who, having been compelled to remove 
 to the United States, had rendered himself useful to Spain, in assisting 
 the emissaries of the Baron in defeating the plans of Genet against the 
 king's dominions on the Mississippi and the gulf. This grant was of ten 
 thousand square arpents. The grantee proposed to exert his industry in 
 discovering and working lead mines. The privilege was given him of 
 locating his grant in several mines, salines, millseats, and other places, as 
 might best suit his interests, without any obligation, on his part, of 
 making any settlement thereon, as the execution of his plan would require 
 large disbursements, and could be realized only in places remote from the 
 white population and among the Indians. 
 
 Julien Dubuc had made a settlement on the frontiers of the jDrovince 
 on land purchased from the Indians in the midst of whom it was effected, 
 and opened and worked several lead mines, which he called " the mines 
 of Spain." The Baron now granted him all the land from the coast above 
 the little river Maquequito to the banks of the Mosquebemanque, forming 
 about six leagues on the west bank of the Mississippi river, by a depth 
 of three leagues. 
 
 The Marquis de Maison Rouge having completed his establishment on 
 the Washita, the Baron, on the twentieth of June, appropriated 
 conclusively thirty thousand superficial acres of land for the Marquis' 
 establishment ; it being understood that no American settler was to be 
 admitted within the grant. 
 
 The expenses of lighting the city of New Orleans and the wages of 
 thirteen watchmen, had originally been provided for by a tax on chimneys. 
 
HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 269 
 
 The destruction of a considerable number of houses })y the late confla- 
 gration, now rendered this provision insufficient, and the Baron proposed 
 to the cabildo that three hundred toises in depth of the land of the city 
 l)eyond the fortifications in its rear, should be parcelled out into small 
 tracts, to be leased out for gardens, from which the market could be 
 sup])lied with vegetables ; and he expressed his belief that by the draining 
 of the land, the city would be relieved from the noxious exhalation of 
 w'iuch an extent of ground, covered with water during the greatest part of 
 the year. This proposition was not, however, adopted ; and a tax was 
 laid on wheat bread and meat. It was thought the tax on bread would 
 fall on the rich only ; the poorer class of people using corn and rice ; and 
 that a part of both would be borne by travellers and sojourners. The 
 Btiron urged the necessity of continuing to light the city, and retaining 
 the watchmen, on the ground of the city being full of French people, the 
 nocturnal assemblages of whom, as well as that of the slaves, it was 
 })ru<lent to prevent. 
 
 The king's officers in New Orleans appeared impressed with the idea 
 that the late treaty between Spain and the United States, would never be 
 carried into effect. They thought that, at the time it was entered into, the 
 affairs of Europe rendered the neutrality of the United States of great 
 importance to Spain ; and, according to them, the object of Great Britain 
 in her late treaty with those States, was to draw them over to her interests, 
 and render them in some measure dependent on her. They believed that 
 their sovereign had ratified the treaty for the purpose of counteracting the 
 views of Great Britain, and concluded that as that power had failed in her 
 object, Spain on her part, would be no longer interested in fulfilling the 
 stipulations of the treaty. 
 
 Accordingly, the Baron had sent Power to Kentucky, in the beginning 
 of the year, to keep alive the hopes of those who still favored the plan of a 
 secession of the western people from the Atlantic states. The messenger 
 delivered the Baron's packets to Wilkinson, at Greenville, in the latter 
 part of May, and was dispatched by him to New Madrid, to take charge 
 of a sum of money (about $10,000) deposited by the Baron in the hands 
 of Don Thomas Portell, the commandant. After overcoming some 
 difficulty, resulting from his having no written order from AVilkinson, the 
 money was delivered to him. He concealed it in barrels of sugar and 
 coffee, and brought it up in safety. On his return to New Orleans, he 
 reported to his employer that whatever might heretofore have been the 
 disposition of the people of Kentucky, they were now perfectly satisfied 
 with the federal government, and their leading men (with very few 
 exceptions) manifested an utter aversion to the hazardous experiments 
 heretofore thought of — especially as their own government had now 
 obtained from them, by the late treaty, the principal object which they 
 expected to attain by a separation from the Union. 
 
 The Baron's attention was now momentarily drawn from his favorite 
 plan by the necessity of protecting the province under his care from 
 impending danger. The governor of Canada had assembled a considerable 
 number of troops on the southern border of that province ; a circumstance 
 which induced the belief that an expedition was contemplated from 
 thence, through the western territory of the United States, against the 
 dominions of Spain on the Mississippi. The minister of the catholic king 
 at Philadelphia, communicated to the department of state the information 
 
270 HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 
 
 he had received on this head, and demanded that, according: to a stipu- 
 lation in the late treaty, the United States should oppose, in the most 
 effectual manner, the intended violation of their territory. 
 
 Spain had concluded a treaty of peace Avith the French republic, and 
 on the 7th of October had declared war against Great Britain. The 
 Catholic king, in the declaration of Avar, mentions the late treaty between 
 Great Britain and the United States, as one of the motives that had 
 influenced his conduct in this respect. 
 
 Serano and Argotte Avere the ordinary alcades for the years 1797 and 
 1798. 
 
 By a royal order of the fourteenth of May, the royal audience of Santo 
 Domingo was removed to Puerto del Principe, a tOAvn in the island of 
 Cuba. 
 
 The king haAdng acceded to the proposition of the cabildo, in regard to 
 an additional number of regidors, Francisco de Riano, Louis d'Arby 
 d'Anicant, Jayme Jordan, John Leblanc, Gilbert Andry and Francisco 
 Castanedo, took their seats in that body as such. 
 V It had been stipulated, in the late treaty betAveen the United States and 
 Spain, that commissioners of both nations should meet at Natchez, Avithin 
 six months from the ratification. Accordingly, AndreAV Ellicot had been 
 appointed commissioner on the part of the United States, and Don 
 Manuel Gayoso de Lemos on that of the Catholic king. 
 
 Gayoso, according to the instructions of the Baron, as soon as he heard 
 of Ellicot's approach with a small body of infantry under the orders of 
 Lieut. M'Leary, sent an officer to meet him, with a request that he Avould 
 not attempt to come to Natchez as yet, but stoj) at bayou Pierre, as the 
 fort was not ready to be surrendered, and some disorder might result 
 from the approximation of the troops of the two nations. 
 
 Ellicot disregarded this message, and reached Natchez with his men in 
 the month of February, and displayed the flag of his country near the 
 fort. 
 
 The Baron, Avishing to gain time, urged, as his reason for delaying a 
 compliance Avith the stipulations of treaty, that they Avere not sufficiently 
 explicit, and doubts had arisen in his mind as to the manner in AA^hich 
 the posts Avere to be deliA^ered. It appeared to him questionable whether 
 they were to be so, with all the forts and edifices standing, as the United 
 States seemed to understand, or evacuated, razed and abandoned, as he 
 conceiA'ed, in order that Spain might avoid iuA^ohdng herself into 
 difficulties Avith the Indian nations, who, by formal treaties, had ceded to 
 her the land at the ChickasaAV bluffs. Walnut Hill, and Tombecbee, on the 
 express conditions that she should erect fortifications there, to prevent 
 their country from being invaded. He therefore declared his determi- 
 nation to await the orders of his soA^ereign, or those of his minister at 
 Philadelphia, retain the posts on the Mississippi, and defend upper 
 Louisiana, until congress, acting upon the representation of the latter, 
 should take measures to restrain any expedition against those Indians, 
 according to the stipulations of the treaty. 
 
 For the purpose of recei\'ing possession of the posts to be surrendered, 
 a larger detachment, under the orders of Lieutenant Pope soon followed 
 the former. The instructions of that officer render it probable that the 
 government of the United States apprehended some difficulty from that 
 of Spain. The lieutenant Avas directed, in the first instance, to proceed to 
 
HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 271 
 
 Fort Massac on the Ohio, and there to await the return of an officer 
 previously sent to New Madrid for official information in regard to the 
 delivery of the posts ; and. on the certainty or probability of such an 
 event, he was to proceed to Natchez, and on his arrival there, to keep up 
 the most perfect discipline among the troops, so as to prevent every kind 
 of disorder, and promote harmony and friendly interchange of good 
 offices with the subjects of the Catholic king, and to treat the Spanish flag 
 with respect. 
 
 The commandant at New Madrid, being without instructions, was 
 unable to give any information respecting the views of the colonial 
 government, and lieutenant Pope, concluding that possession would 
 probably be given, descended the Mississippi, and had proceeded as far as 
 New Madrid, where he was met by a messenger from the Baron, warning 
 him to proceed no farther. The lieutenant thought it best, however, to go 
 on, and, at the Walnut Hills, found a letter from Gayoso, requesting him 
 to stop there. He tarried awhile, but on receiving a letter from Ellicot, 
 advising him to come to Natchez, he departed, and joined Ellicot soon after, 
 and immediately increased his force by enlistment, and apprehended 
 several deserters from the army of the United States, who had taken 
 refuge under the protection of the Spanish flag. 
 
 The most considerable part of the population of the district of Natchez V- 
 had removed from the United States, or were descendants of emigrants 
 from the British provinces, after the peace of 1762. They were anxious 
 for a change of government, and appeared to disregard the authority of 
 the officers of Spain. Gayoso issued a proclamation on the twentieth of 
 March, calculated to bring them back to their duty. 
 
 The Baron had resolved that his determination, in regard to the delivery 
 of the posts of the United States, should be regulated by the success or 
 failure of a last attempt to detach the western country from the Union, 
 and had accordingly sent Power thither on this errand. 
 
 The avowed object of his mission was the delivery of a letter to Wilkinson, 
 who, on the death of Wayne, had succeeded to the command of the 
 American forces, to induce him not to insist on the immediate evacuation 
 of the posts of Spain ; the real object of the journey, however, and 
 (concerning which the Baron, in order to avoid all danger of detection, had 
 given only verbal instructions) was to sound the disposition of the western 
 people, whose militia, the Baron had heard, had received orders to be ready 
 to march at the first call. In the event of this proving true. Power was 
 directed to send immediate information of it to the commandant at New 
 Madrid. 
 
 He was instructed adroitly to give it out among those with whom he 
 might have an oi)portunity of conversing in the course of his travels, that 
 the surrender, to the forces of the United States, of the posts occupied by 
 those of Si)ain, on the Mississippi, was in direct opposition to the interests 
 of the western people, who, as they must one day be separated from the 
 Atlantic states, Avould find themselves without any communication with 
 the sea, excepting through Louisiana, from whence they might expect 
 powerful succors in artillery, arms, ammunition and money, openly or 
 secretly, as soon as they determined on a secession, which must secure to 
 them independence and prosperity. 
 
 The wish was expressed that it might be suggested that, for this reason. 
 Congress' was determined on hastening the taking possession of these 
 
272 HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 
 
 posts, and the -western people would forge fetters for themselves, if they 
 consented to furnish their militia, and other means, which the United 
 States could find among them only. 
 
 It was urged that these hints, if diffused through the papers, might 
 make a strong impression on the people, and dispose them to throw off 
 the yoke of the Atlantic states ; and if they could be dissuaded from aiding 
 congress, it could not give law to the Spaniards. 
 
 Assurances were given that, if one hundred thousand dollars, properly 
 distributed in Kentucky, could induce the people to resist, that sum would 
 be readily furnished. The messenger was authorized to promise this, 
 and an equal sum to procure arms, in case of necessity, with 20 pieces of 
 artillerj'. 
 
 The packet for Wilkinson, securing to the bearer the best opportunity 
 of viewing the army and ascertaining its force, discipline and disposition, 
 he was directed to improve it, and transmit to his employer without 
 delay, the most correct and minute information he could obtain. A doubt 
 was expressed whether a person of "Wilkinson's character would prefer 
 the command of the army of the United States, to the glory of being the 
 founder, the liberator, indeed the Washington of the western states. His 
 part was said to be brilliant and easy ; all eyes were fixed on him ; he 
 possessed the confidence of his fellow-citizens, and principally of the 
 Kentucky volunteers ; at the slightest movement, the people would hail 
 him the general of the new republic. His reputation would raise him an 
 army, and France and Spain enable him to pay it. 
 
 Pursuing his prophetic strain, the Baron added that, on Wilkinson's 
 taking Fort Massac, he would instantly send him small arms and artillery 
 from New Orleans ; and Spain, limiting herself to the posts at Natchez 
 and Walnut Hills, would cede all the left bank of the Mississippi as high 
 as the Ohio, which would form an extensive republic, connected, by its 
 situation and interests, with Spain, who in conjunction with it, would 
 force the Indians to seek its alliance and confound themselves, in time, 
 Avith its citizens. 
 
 The Baron added that the western peoj^le were dissatisfied with the tax 
 on whisky, and Spain and France were enraged at the connexion of the 
 United States with Great Britain ; the army was weak and devoted to 
 Wilkinson, and the threat of congress authorized him (the Baron) to 
 succor the western people immediately and openly ; money Avould not be 
 wanting ; and he was about dispatching a vessel to Vera Cruz for a supply 
 of it, and ammunition ; so that nothing was required but an instant of 
 firmness and resolution to render the western people free and happy. 
 But, if they suffered the opportunity to pass unimproved, and the 
 Spaniards were compelled to surrender the posts, Kentucky and Tennessee 
 would forever remain under the oppressive yoke of the Atlantic states. 
 
 These instructions concluded with an assurance to Power, that if, by 
 forcibly' urging these arguments, he succeeded in bringing over Wilkinson, 
 Lacasagne, Sebastian, Brackenridge, and the other principal men, and if, 
 by dint of promises, which he (the Baron) pledged himself should be 
 faith full V redeemed, and by the general diffusion of these notions among 
 them, the public generally could be engaged to second their efforts, the 
 object of his expedition would l)e accomplished, and he would acquire 
 imperishable renown, and a claim to the most brilliant rewards ; whilst, 
 on the other hand, should he unfortunately fail, his employer would be 
 
HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 273 
 
 able to procure him an appointment, which -would place him beyond the 
 reach of the envy or hatred of his enemies. 
 
 In the meanwhile, other agents were sent among the nations of Indians 
 M-ithin the territory of the United States, with speeches calculated to 
 induce them to witlidraw from the protection of congress, and take up 
 the hatchet against the citizens of the United States. 
 
 The Baron, at the same time, reinforced the garrison of Fort Panmure, 
 and that of the Walnut Hills ; a measure which he said was resorted to, 
 as one of precaution against the descent which the British meditated from 
 Canada. The people of the district of Natchez viewed it as a prelude to 
 the arrest of those among them who had manifested a partialit}^ to the 
 government of the United States. Their alarm was such as to drive a 
 few of them to some violent steps. The subsequent commotion in the 
 neighborhood was so great as to induce Gayoso with his family, to seek 
 an asylum in the fort, on the seventh of June. 
 
 Four days after, he issued an elaborate proclamation, warning the 
 people of the consequences of their illegal proceedings, requiring them to 
 return to their duty and allegiance to their sovereign, submission to his 
 laws and obedience to his officers ; commanding those who had embodied 
 themselves, to dis^^erse and return to their usual and lawful occupations, 
 as the only means of obtaining an amnesty for the past and security for 
 the future, 
 
 A general meeting of the people to deliberate on the state of the district, 
 was proposed and was generally approved of, but an apprehension was 
 entertained that Gayoso would break up their assembly, by arresting 
 those who might attend. Lieutenant Pope assured the inhabitants he i 
 would protect them at all hazards. He recommended that they should 
 come forward and assert their rights in the most solemn manner, and join 
 the forces of the United States in case the Baron sent more soldiers there 
 from New Orleans. The lieutenant's conduct was countenanced by 
 Ellicot. 
 
 The meeting took place on the twentieth of June. They rememl^ered 
 the conduct of O'Reilly in 1769, and felt apprehensive of the consequences 
 of any step the}' might take ; they feared that Gayoso's proclamation might 
 only be intended as a snare, and were anxious to fix the terms of their 
 surrender so as to avoid every ambiguity of expression. At last they 
 assented to Ellicot's proposition for the appointment of a committee of 
 safety, of which lieutenant Pope was a member. 
 
 This committee called on Gayoso, and proposed that he should recognize 
 their existence as a body — that none of the people should be injured or 
 prosecuted on account of the part they had taken against government — 
 that they should be exempted from serving in the militia, under the 
 Spanish authorities, except to suppress riots or repress the insults of 
 Indians — that they should be considered as in a state of neutrality, 
 although governed by Spanish laws, and none of them should be sent out 
 of the country under any pretense whatsoever. 
 
 Gayoso gave his ready assent to these propositions, and the Baron 
 ratified what he had done, with a single and unimportant exception. 
 
 _ The fall of this year was very sickly in New Orleans, and the city was 
 visited by the yellow fever. 
 
 The Baron was now appointed president of the royal audience of the 
 province of Quito, and left Louisiana. 
 
 37 
 
 .V 
 
274 HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 
 
 This 5^ear, the people of the southwestern Territoiy of the United States 
 were admitted into the Union, as the state of Tennessee, and formed the 
 sixteenth member of the confederacy. 
 
 John Adams succeeded general Washington in the presidency of the 
 United States. 
 
 CHAPTER XXIII. 
 
 Don Manuel Gayoso de Lemos, a brigadier-general of the royal armies, 
 who commanded at Natchez, succeeded the Baron de Carondelet, in the 
 government of the provinces of Louisiana and West Florida, and was 
 V^ succeeded in his former command by Don Carlos de Grandpre. The 
 latter officer, being obnoxious to the people of the district of Natchez, 
 declined going there, and major Minor, a native of New Jersey, who came 
 to Louisiana in the year 1778, and had accepted of a commission in the 
 Catholic king's service, acted as commandant, until the establishment of 
 the government under the authority of the United States. 
 
 Power now returned from the western country, and in his report to 
 Gayoso, Avhich bears date on the fifth of December, stated that he met 
 Sebastian at Louisville, and communicated to him the real and ostensible 
 objects of his mission, v.dien, after conferring together, they were of 
 opinion it was indispensable to add four propositions to those the Baron 
 had authorized Power to make. Without the first, neither Sebastian, nor 
 anv other person concerned or interested in the important undertaking, 
 would take any step for its success. These propositions were, that : 
 
 1. If any person should lose his office, on account of promoting the 
 Baron's views, he should be indemnified by the king of Spain. 
 
 2. The northern boundary of the king's dominion should be a line 
 drawn from the mouth of the river Yazoo to the river Tombeckbee ; and 
 the northernmost Spanish fort should be six miles below that line. 
 
 3. But the king should retain the fort of San Fernando de Barancas 
 (Chickasaw bluffs") with the land around it, ceded to him by the Indians 
 by their treaty with Gayoso. 
 
 ' 4. The king should not interfere, directly or indirectly, with the form 
 of government or laws, which the western people should adopt. 
 
 Sebastian undertook to communicate the Baron's propositions, with 
 the above amendments, to Innis and Nicholas. To conceal the real object 
 of Power's journey, and avoid the resentment of the people of Louisville, 
 who wer« enraged at his frequent visits and threatened to tar and feather 
 him, it was agreed that, after having seen Wilkinson at Detroit, he should 
 return by Greenville, Cincinnati, Newport, Georgetown, and Frankfort, 
 to meet Innis and Nicholas, and be informed of the success of their efforts ; 
 and that Sebastian, and another person, should accompany him to New 
 Orleans. Notwithstanding he (Sebastian) was of opinion that, for the 
 present, all the means and eftbrts used to stimulate the western people to 
 secede from the union, would be of no avail, he promised that nothing 
 should be wanting, on his part, to obtain what was so much desired. 
 
 Power arrived in the neighborhood of Detroit on the sixteenth of 
 August, and finding that Wilkinson was then at Michilimackinac, he did 
 not enter the fort. The general, immediately after his return, hearing of 
 
HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 275 
 
 Power's arrival, had him arrested and brought to the fort, and thus got 
 the Baron's dispatches. He gave a cold reception to the bearer, and 
 informed him that the governor of the northwestern territory had orders 
 to arrest and send him to Philadelphia, which could be prevented in no 
 other manner than by sending him, under a strong guard, to New Madrid, 
 without delay. He added, the Baron's project was a chimerical one, 
 impossible to be executed, as the western peo])le, having obtained, l\v the 
 late treaty, all that they wanted, have no need of any connexion or alliance 
 with Spain, nor any motive for a separation from the Atlantic states, even 
 if France and Spain should make them the most advantageous offers — 
 that the ferment which existed four years ago, had now subsided, and the 
 vexations and depredations which the American commerce had suffered 
 from the privateers of France, created an implacable hatred for that 
 nation. He added that the people of Kentucky had proposed to him to 
 raise an army of ten thousand men, to take New Orleans, in case of a 
 rupture with Spain, and the governor of Louisiana had no other measure 
 to pursue, under the present circumstances, than fully to comply with 
 the treaty. He complained that all his plans were overturned, and all 
 his labors for ten years past lost. He added that he had destroyed all 
 his cyphers and burnt his correspondence with the governors of Louisiana, 
 and duty and honor did not permit him to continue it. The Baron, 
 however, need not apprehend his confidence should be abused — that if 
 Spain surrendered the district of Natchez to the United States, they would 
 probably make him governor, and he should not then lack the opportunity 
 of promoting his political projects. He complained that his connection 
 with the colonial government had been divulged — that Don Zenon 
 Trudeau, the commandant at St. Louis, had sent emissaries among the 
 Indian nations within the territory of the United States, inviting them to 
 come and settle within that of Spain, as the Spanish king was at war 
 with the British, and would soon be with the French. 
 
 On the sixth, Wilkinson delivered his answer for the Baron, to Power, 
 and immediately compelled the latter to depart for New Madrid, by the 
 way of the Wabash, under a guard commanded by captain Shaumburg. 
 On passing through Vincennes, Power sent an express to Louisville, in 
 order to apprise Sebastian of what happened. 
 
 Power concluded his report, b}" stating that, with regard to the people 
 of Kentucky, Sebastian's opinion differed from Wilkinson's. The former 
 had told him that should war be declared between Spain and the United 
 States, Louisiana would have nothing to fear from the people of Kentucky ; 
 and insinuated it would more likely be the circumstance which should 
 stimulate them against the United States. The reporter's own opinion 
 was, that a great proportion of the most influential characters in 
 Kentuck}' and Tennessee, had been the instigators of the expeditions set 
 on foot, under Lachaise and Clark, against the dominions of Spain, by 
 Genet. The rest were unambitious of conquest from Spain, and desired 
 only to preserve the boundary secured to them by the treaties. 
 
 During this winter, general Collet, who had travelled through the states 
 of Kentucky and Tennessee by order of the French government, passed 
 through New Orleans. It was supposed Adet, the French minister at 
 Philadelphia, sent him on an errand similar to that on which Lachaise 
 had been employed by Genet. 
 
276 HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 
 
 Gayoso is^sued his hnndode buengobier)w, in the month of January, 1798. 
 It does not contain any important new regulation. 
 
 On the following day, he published a set of instructions to commandants, 
 in regard to the grant of land, as follows : 
 
 1. They are forbidden to grant land to a new settler, coming from 
 another post, where he has obtained a grant. Such a one must l)uy land, 
 or obtain a grant from the governor. 
 
 2. If a settler be a foreigner, unmarried, and without either slaves, 
 money, or other property, no grant is to be made to him until he shall 
 have remained four years in the post, demeaning himself well in some 
 honest and useful occupation. 
 
 3. Mechanics are to be protected, but no land is to be granted to them 
 until they shall have acquired some property, and a residence of three 
 years in the exercise of their trade. 
 
 4. No grant of land is to be made to any unmarried emigrant who has 
 neither trade nor property, until after a residence of four years, during 
 which time he must have been employed in the culture of the ground. 
 
 5. But if, after a residence of two years, such a person should marry 
 the daughter of an honest farmer, with his consent and be by him recom- 
 mended, a grant of land may be made to him. 
 
 6. Liberty of conscience is not to be extended beyond the first gener- 
 ation : the children of the emigrant must be Catholic ; and emigrants not 
 agreeing to this must not be admitted, but removed, even when they bring 
 property with them. This is to be explained to settlers who do not profess 
 the Catholic religion. 
 
 7. In Upper Louisiana, no settler is to be admitted who is not a farmer 
 or a mechanic. 
 
 8. It is expressly recommended to commandants to watch that no 
 preacher of any religion but the Catholic comes into the province. 
 
 9. To every married emigrant of the above description, two hundred 
 arpents may be granted, with the addition of fifty for every child he 
 brings. 
 
 10. If he brings negroes, twenty additional arpents are to be granted 
 him for each : but in no case are more than eight hundred arpents to be • 
 granted to an emigrant. 
 
 11. No land is to be granted to a trader. 
 
 12. Immediately on the arrival of a settler, the oath of allegiance is to 
 be administered to him. If he has a wife, proof is to be demanded of 
 their marriage ; and, if they bring any propert}^, they are to be required 
 to declare what part belongs to either of them ; and they are to be 
 informed that the discovery of any wilful falsehood in this declaration, 
 will incur the forfeiture of the land granted them, and the iinprovements 
 made thereon. 
 
 13. Without proof of a lawful marriage, or of absolute ownership of 
 negroes, no grant is to be made for any wife or negro. 
 
 14. The grant is to be forfeited, if a settlement be not made within the 
 year, or one-tenth part of the land put in cultivation within two. 
 
 15. No grantee is to be allowed to sell his land until he has produced 
 three crops on a tenth part of it ; but in case of death it may pass to an 
 heir in the province, but not to one without, unless he come and settle it. 
 
 16. If the grantee owes debts in the province the proceeds of the first 
 four crops are to be applied to their discharge, in preference to that of 
 
HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 277 
 
 debts due abroad. If, before the third crop be made,it])ecomes necessary 
 to evict the grantee on account of his bad conduct, the kind shall l)e given 
 to the young man and young woman, residing within one mile of it, 
 whose g'ood conduct may show them to be the best deserving of it ; and 
 the decision is to be made by an assembly of notable planters, presided 
 by the commandant. 
 
 17. Emigrants are to settle contiguous to old establishments, without 
 leaving any vacant land — that the people may more easily protect each 
 other, in case of any invasion by the Indians ; and that the adminis- 
 tration of justice, and a compliance with police regulations, may be 
 facilitated. 
 
 Early in this 3'ear, the dukes of Orleans and Montausier, and the count 
 of Beaujolais, came to New Orleans from the western states. These 
 grandchildren of the duke of Orleans, who was regent of France during 
 the minority of Louis XV. and descendants of Louis XIII. were seen 
 with great interest by the inhabitants. After a stay of a few weeks, they 
 de])arted for Europe by the way of Havana. 
 
 Don Denys de la Ronde and Don Pedro de la Roche took their seats in 
 the cabildo ; the former as successor of Almonaster, and the latter as 
 principal provincial alcade. 
 
 Captain Guion, an officer of the revolutionary war, came this winter to 
 Natchez, with a strong reinforcement, and took the command of the forces 
 brought by lieutenants M'Nary and Pope. On the 23d of March, the fort 
 at the Walnut Hills, and on the twenty-ninth. Fort Panmure, were 
 evacuated by the troops of Spain, and immediate possession taken by 
 those of the United States. Shortly after, Gayoso gave orders to Williams- 
 Dunbar, (who had succeeded him in the office of commissioner, on the 
 part of Spain, for running the line of demarcation) to make arrangements 
 with Ellicot, in order that the operations might be immediately begun. 
 Major Trueman was the surveyor on the part of the United States, and 
 Power, the Baron's late agent, that on the part of Spain. 
 
 Congress on the seventh of April, erected the country bounded on the 
 north by a line drawn due east from the mouth of the river Yazoo to the 
 Catahouche river ; on the east by that stream ; on the south by the 
 thirty-first degree of north latitude, and on the west by the Mississippi — 
 into a separate government, to be called the Mississippi territory ; and a 
 form of government was established therein, similar to that provided for 
 the northwestern territory, by the ordinance of 1787, with the exception 
 of the clause prohibiting slavery. 
 
 The state of Georgia laid claim to the land included within the new 
 government, or the greatest part of it ; and congress declared that the 
 establishment of the territorial body should not, in any respect, impair 
 the rights to any land west of that state, of any person or persons, either 
 to the jurisdiction or soil of the said territory. The president of the 
 United States was authorized to appoint, commissioners to ascertain, 
 conjointly with others appointed on the part of the state, her right to any 
 land vrest of the river Catahouche, north of the thirty-first degree of north 
 latitude, and south of the land ceded by the state of North Carolina to 
 the United States ; and to receive proposals for the relinquishment or 
 cession of the whole or any part of the other territory claimed by the 
 state of Georgia and out of her ordinary jurisdiction. 
 
 Winthroj) Sergeant was aj^pointed governor of the new territory ; and, 
 
 /" 
 
2/8 HISTORY OF LOnSIAXA. 
 
 on his arrival soon after, with the secretary and judges, its government 
 went into operation. 
 
 The Northern Indians continuing to manifest pacific dispositions, it 
 was thought proper to transfer the headquarters of the army of the United 
 States to the Mississippi ; and, accordingly, Wilkinson came to Natchez 
 with a considerable part of the forces. Here was fixed, at this time, the 
 southernmost post. He removed, with all his men, to the spot called b}' 
 the French In Roche a Davion, and by the English "Loftus' Heights," 
 which Avas the most southerly tenable point within the United States, and 
 immediately began the fortification which was afterwards called Fort 
 Adams. 
 
 By a royal schedule of the twenty-first of October, the intendancy of 
 the provinces of Louisiana and West Florida Avas put in possession, to 
 the exclusion of all other authority, of the privilege of dividing and 
 granting all kinds of land belonging to the crown — a privilege which, 
 under the ro3\'il order of the twenty-fourth of August, 1770, belonged to 
 the civil and military government. 
 
 Riano and Fonvergne were the ordinary alcades for the year 1799. 
 --- On the 30th of April, Don Joseph Vidal, the commandant of the post 
 of Concordia, opposite to Natchez, entered, by order of Gayoso, into an 
 arrangement with the governor of the Mississippi territory, for the 
 reciprocal surrender of runaway slaves. 
 
 Morales, considering that three years had elapsed since the ratification 
 of the treaty between his sovereign and the United States, did not think 
 himself authorized to allow any longer the citizens of the latter a place 
 of deposit in the city of New Orleans ; and he issued an order accordingly. 
 A measure which excited great commotion in the provinces and the 
 United States, particularly in Kentucky and Tennessee. 
 
 Gayoso and Wilkinson, on the first of March, entered into a provisional 
 convention for the mutual surrender of deserters from the armies of Spain 
 and the United States, seeking an asylum Avithin the limits of their 
 respectiA'e adjacent territories. 
 
 In the latter part of the month, the running of the line of demarcation 
 Avas completed, except a small portion of it on the borders of East Florida, 
 which AA'as deferred on account of the hostile appearance of the Indians. 
 
 On the scA^enteenth of July, Morales issued a set of regulations in regard 
 to the grant of land, bottomed on the provisions of the late schedule, as 
 follows : 
 
 1. To each newly arrived family, a cheque famille nov.reUe, Avho are 
 possessed of the necessary qualifications to be admitted among the 
 number of cultivators of these proA'inces, and Avho haA'e obtained the 
 permission of the government to establish themseh^es on a place AA'hich 
 they have chosen, there shall be granted, for once, if it is on the bank of 
 the Mississippi, four, six or eight arpents in front on the river, by the 
 ordinary depth of forty arjDcnts ; and if it is at any other place, the 
 quantity which they shall be judged capable to cultivate, and which shall bo 
 deemed necessary for pasture for their beasts, in proportion and according 
 to the number of Avhich the family is composed ; understanding that the 
 concession is never to exceed eight hundred arpents in superfices. 
 
 2. To obtain the said concessions, if they are asked for in this city, 
 the permission which has been obtained to establish themselves in the 
 place from the governor, ought to accompany the petition ; and if, in any 
 
HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 279 
 
 of the posts, the comman Jant at the same time will state that the lands 
 asked for are vacant, and belong to the domain, and that the })etitioner 
 has obtained permission of the government to establish himself; and 
 referring to the date of the letter or advice they have received. 
 
 3. Those who obtain concessions on the bank of the river, ought to 
 make, in the first year of their possession, levees sufficient to prevent the 
 inundation of the waters, and canals sufficient to drain off the water when 
 the river is high ; they shall be held, in addition, to make, and keep in 
 good order, a public highway, which ought to be at least thirty feet wide, 
 and have bridges of fifteen feet over the canals or ditches which the road 
 crosses ; which regulations ought to be observed, according to the usages 
 of the respective districts, by all persons to whom lands are granted, in 
 whatever part they are obtained. 
 
 4. The new settlers who have obtained lands shall be equally obliged 
 to clear and put into cultivation, in the precise time of three years, all the 
 front of their concessions, for the depth of at least two arpents, under the 
 penalty of having the lands granted reunited to the domain, if this 
 condition is not complied with. The commandants and syndics will 
 watch that what is enjoined in this and the preceding article be strictly 
 observed ; and occasionally inform the intendant of what they have 
 remarked, well understanding that in case of default they will be 
 responsible to his majesty. 
 
 5. If a tract of land, belonging to minors, remain without being cleared, 
 or as much of it as the regulations require ; and that the bank, the road, 
 the ditches, and the bridges, are not made, the commandant or syndic of 
 the district will certify from whom the fault has arisen ; if it is in the 
 guardian, he will urge him to put it in order ; and, if he fails, he shall 
 give an account of it ; but, if the fault arises from want of means of the 
 minor to defray the expense, the commandant or syndic shall address a 
 statement of it to the intendancy, to the end that sale of it may be ordered 
 for the benefit of the minor, to whom alone this privilege is allowed ; if, in 
 the space of six months, any purchaser presents himself; if not, it shall 
 be granted gratis to any person asking for it, or sold for the benefit of the 
 
 -treasury. 
 
 6. During the said term of three years, no person shall sell or dispose 
 of the land which has been grantecl to him, nor shall he ever after the 
 term, if he has failed to comply with the conditions contained in the 
 preceding article; and to avoid abuses and surprise in this respect, we 
 declare that all sales made without the consent of the intendancy, in 
 writing, shall be null and of no effect ; which consent shall not be granted 
 until they have examined, with scrupulous attention, if the conditions 
 have or have not been fulfilled. 
 
 7. To avoid for the future, the litigations and confusion of which we 
 have examples every day, we have also judged it very necessary that the 
 notaries uf this city, and the commandants of posts, shall not take any 
 acknowledgment of conveyances of land obtained by concession ; unless 
 the seller (grantor) presents and delivers to the buyer the title which he 
 has obtained, and in addition, being careful to insert in the deed the metes 
 and liounds, and other descriptions, which result from the title and the 
 ■proces verbal of the survey which ought to accompany it. 
 
 8. In case that the small depth which the points, upon which the land 
 on the river is generally formed, prevent the granting of forty arpents, 
 
280 HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 
 
 according to usage, there shall be given a greater quantity in front to 
 compensate it; or, if no other person asks the concession, or to purchase 
 it, it shall be divided equally between the persons nearest to it, who may- 
 repair the banks, roads, and bridges, in the manner before prescribed. 
 
 9. Although the king renounces the possession of the lands sold, 
 distributed, or conceded in his name, those to whom they are granted or 
 sold ought to be apprised that his majesty reserves the right of taking 
 from the forests known here under the name of cypress woods, all the 
 wood which may be necessary for his use, and more especially which he 
 may want for the navy, in the same manner and with the same liberty 
 that the undertakers have enjoyed to this time; but this, notwithstanding 
 they are not to suppose themselves authorized to take more than is 
 necessary, nor to make use of or split those which are cut down and found 
 unsuitable. 
 
 10. In the posts of Opelousas and Attakapas, the greatest quantity of 
 land that can be conceded, shall be one league front by the same quantity 
 in depth ; and when forty arpents cannot be obtained in depth, a half 
 league may be granted ; and, for a general rule, it is established, that, to 
 obtain, in said posts, a half league in front by the same quantity in depth, 
 the petitioner must be owner of one hundred head of cattle, some horses 
 and sheep, and two slaves, and also in proportion for a larger tract, 
 without the power, however, of exceeding the quantity before mentioned. 
 
 11. As much as it is possible, and the local situation will permit, no 
 interval shall be left between concessions ; because it is very advantageous 
 that the establishments touch, as much for the inhabitants, who can lend 
 each other mutual support, as for the more easy administration of justice, 
 and the observance of rules of police, indispensable in all places, but more 
 especially in new establishments. 
 
 12. If, notwithstanding what is before written, marshy lands, or other 
 causes, shall make it necessary to leave some vacant lands, the com- 
 mandants and syndics will take care that the inhabitants of the district 
 alone ma}" take wood enough for their use only, well understanding they 
 shall not take more ; or, if any individual of any other post, shall attempt 
 to get wood, or cut fire-wood, without having obtained the permission of 
 this intendancy, besides the indemnity which he shall be held to pay the 
 treasury for the damage sustained, he shall be comdemned, for the first 
 time, to the payment of a fine of twenty-five dollars ; twice that sum for 
 the second offense ; and, for the third offense, shall be put in prison, 
 according as the offense ma}^ be more or less aggravated ; the said fines 
 shall be divided between the treasury, the judge and the informer. 
 
 13. The new settler, to whom land has been granted in one settlement, 
 cannot obtain another concession without having previously proven that 
 he had possessed the first during three years, and fulfilled all the conditions 
 prescribed. 
 
 14. The changes occasioned by the current of the river, are often the 
 cause of one part of a concession becoming useless, so that we have 
 examples of proprietors pretending to abandon and re-unite to the domain 
 a part of the most expensive, for keeping up the banks, the roads, the 
 ditches, etc., and willing to reserve only that which is good ; and seeing 
 that unless some remedy is provided for this abuse, the greatest mischief 
 must result to the neighbors, we declare that the treasury will not admit 
 of an abandonment or re-union to the domain of any part of the land the 
 
HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 281 
 
 owner wishes to got rid of, unless the abandonment comprehends the 
 whole limits included in the concession or act in virtue of which he owns 
 the land he wishes to abandon. 
 
 15. All concessions shall be given in. tlie name of the king, by tlie 
 general intendant of this province, who shall order the survcA'or-gcneral, 
 or one j^articularly named by him, to make the survey and mark the 
 land by fixing bounds, not only in front, but also in the rear ; this (survey) 
 ought to be done in the presence of the commandant or syndic of the 
 district and of two of the neighbors ; and these four shall sign the })rorc!< 
 verbal which shall be drawn up hx the surveyor. 
 
 16. The said proces verbal, with a certified copy of the same shall be 
 sent by the surve^-or to the intendant, to the end that, on the original, 
 there be delivered, by the consent of the king's attorney, the necessary title 
 paper ; to this will be annexed the certified copy forwarded by the surveyor. 
 The original shall be deposited in the office of the secretary of the treasury, 
 and care shall be taken to make annually a book of all which have been 
 sent, with an alphabetical list, to be the more useful when it is necessary 
 to have recourse to it, and for greater security, to the end that, at all times 
 and against all accidents, the documents which shall be wanted, can be 
 found. The surveyor shall also have another book, numbered, in which 
 the proces verbal of the survey he makes shall be recorded ; and, as well on 
 the original, which ought to be deposited on record as on the copy 
 intended to be annexed to the tith, he shall note the folio of the book in 
 which he has enregistered the figurative plat of survey. 
 
 17. In the office of the finances there shall also be a book, numbered, 
 where the titles of concessions shall be recorded ; in which, beside the 
 ordinary clauses, mention shall be made of the folio of the book in 
 which they are transcribed. There must also be a note taken in the 
 contadoria (or chamber of accounts) of the army and finances, and that 
 under the penalty of being void. The chamber of accounts shall also 
 have a like book ; and, at the time of taking the note, shall cite the folio 
 of the book where it is recorded. 
 
 18. Experience proves that a great number of those who have asked 
 for land think themselves the legal owners of it ; those who have obtained 
 the first decree, by which the surveyor is ordered to measure it, and to 
 put them in possession ; others, after the survey has been made, have 
 neglected to ask the title for the property ; and, as like abuses, continuing 
 for a longer time, will augment the confusion and disorder which will 
 necessarily result, we declare that no one of those who have oljtained the 
 said decrees, notwithstanding, in virtue of them, the survey has taken 
 place, and that they have been put in possession, can be regarded as 
 owners of land until their real titles are delivered, completed with all the 
 formalities before recited. 
 
 . 19. All those who possess lands in virtue of formal titles given by 
 their excellencies the governors of this province, since the epoch when it 
 came under the i:)Ower of the Spanish ; and those who possessed them in 
 the time when it belonged to France, so far from being interrupted, sliall, 
 on the contrary, be protected and maintained in their possessions. 
 
 20. Those who, without the title or possession mentioned in the 
 IDreceding article, are found occupying lands, shall be driven therefrom, 
 as from property belonging to the crown; but, if they have occupied the 
 same more than ten years, a compromise will be admitted to those who 
 
 38 
 
282 HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 
 
 are considered as owners, that is to say, they shall not be deprived of 
 their lands. Always that, after information, and sunimar}' procedure, 
 and with the intervention of the procureur of the king, at the board of 
 the treasury, they shall be obliged to pay a just and moderate retribution, 
 calculated according to the extent of the lands, their situation, and other 
 circumstances, and the price of estimation for once paid into the royal 
 treasury. The titles to property will be delivered, on referring to that 
 which has resulted from the proceedings. 
 
 21. Those who are found in a situation expressed in the 18th article, if 
 they have not cleared nor done any work upon the land they consider 
 themselves proprietors of, by virtue of the first decree of the government, 
 not being of the number of those who have been admitted in the class of 
 new comers, in being deprived or admitted to compromise, in the manner 
 explained in the preceding article ; if they are of that class, they shall 
 observe Avhat is ordered in the article following. 
 
 22. In the precise and peremptory term of six months, counting from 
 the day when this regulation shall be published in each post, all those 
 who occupy lands without titles from the governor, and those who, in 
 having obtained a certain number of arpents, have seized a greater 
 quantity, ought to make it known, either to have their titles made out, 
 if there are any, or to be admitted to a compromise, or to declare that the 
 said lands belong to the domain, if they have not been occupied more 
 than ten years ; understanding, if it passes the said term, if they are 
 instructed by other ways, they will not obtain either title or compromise. 
 
 28. Those who give information of lands occupied, after the expiration 
 of the term fixed in the preceding article, shall have for their reward the 
 one-fourth part of the price for which they are sold, or obtained by way 
 of compromise ; and, if desirable, he shall have the preference, either by 
 compromise, at the price of appraisement, and there shall be made a 
 deduction of one-fourth, as informer. 
 
 24. As it is impossible, considering all the local circumstances, that 
 all the vacant lands belonging to the domain should be sold l)v auction, 
 as it isr ordained by the law 15th, title 12th, book 4th, of the collection of 
 the laws of these kingdoms, the sale shall be made according as it shall 
 be demanded, with the intervention of the king's attorney for the board 
 of finances, for the price they shall be taxed, to those who wish to 
 purchase ; understanding, if the purchasers have not ready money to pay 
 it shall be lawful for them to purchase the said lands at redeemable 
 quit-rent, during which they shall pay the five per cent, yearly. 
 
 25. Besides the moderate price which the land ought to be taxed, the 
 purchasers shall be held to pay down the right of medio, annata, or half 
 year's, to be remitted to Spain, which, according to the custom of Havana, 
 founded on law, is reduced to two and a half per cent, on the price of 
 estimation, and made 18 per cent, on the sum, by the said two and a half 
 per cent. ; they shall also be obliged to pay down the fees of the surveyor 
 and notary. 
 
 2G. The sales of land shall be made subject to the same condition, and 
 charges of banks, roads, ditches and bridges, contained in the preceding 
 article. But the purchasers are not subject to lose their lands, if, in the 
 three first years, they do not fulfil the said conditions. Commandants 
 and syndics shall oblige them to put themselves within the rule, begin to 
 
HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 283 
 
 perform the conditions in a reasonable term, and if they do not do it, the 
 said work shall be done at the cost of the purchasers. 
 
 27. Care shall be taken to observe in the said sales, that which is 
 recommended in the 11th article, seeing the advantages and utility wliich 
 result from consolidating the establishments always when it is practicaljle. 
 
 28. The titles to the i)roperty of lands which are sold, or granted by 
 way of compromise, shall be issued by the general intendant, who, after 
 the price of estimation is fixed, and of the media aniiata (half year's) rent 
 or quit-rent, the said price of estimation shall have been paid into the 
 treasury, shall put it in writing according to the result of the proceeding 
 which has taken place with the intervention of the king's attorne^y. 
 
 29. The said procedure shall be deposited in the office of the finance, 
 and the title be transcribed in another book, intended for the recording of 
 deeds and grants of land, in the same manner as is ordered by the 17th 
 article, concerning grutuitous concessions. The principal chamber of 
 accounts shall also have a separate book, to take a note of the titles issued 
 for sales and grants under compromise. 
 
 30. The fees of the surveyor in every case comprehended in the 
 present regulation, shall be proportionate to the labor and that which it 
 has been customarv until this time to pay. Those of the secretary of 
 finances, unless there has been extraordinary labor, and where the new 
 settlers are not poor (for in this case he is not to exact anything of them) 
 shall be five dollars ; and this shall include the recording and other 
 formalities prescribed, and those of the appraisers, and of the interpreter, 
 if, on any occasion, there is reason to employ him to translate papers, 
 take declarations or other acts, shall be regulated by the provincial tariff. 
 
 31. Indians who possess lands within the limits of the government, 
 shall not, in any manner, be disturbed ; on the contrarj'-, they shall be 
 protected and supported ; and to this, the commandants, syndics and 
 surveyors, ought to pay the greatest attention, to conduct themselves in 
 consequence. 
 
 32. The granting or selling of any lands shall not be proceeded in 
 without formal information having been previously received that they 
 are vacant ; and, to avoid injurious mistakes, we premise that, beside the 
 signature of the commandant or syndic of the district, this information 
 ought to be joined by that of the surveyor, and of two of the neighbors, 
 well understanding. If, notwithstanding this necessary precaution, it 
 shall be found that the land has another owner besides the claimant, and 
 that there is sufficient reason to restore it to him, the commandant or 
 syndic, the surveyor, and the neighbors who have signed the information, 
 shall indemnify him for the losses he has suffered. 
 
 33. As far as it may be practicable, the inhabitants must endeavor that 
 the petitions presented by them, to ask for lands, be written in the Spanish 
 language ; on which ought, also, to be written the advice or information 
 which the commandants are to give. In the posts where this is not 
 practicable, the ancient usage shall be followed. 
 
 34. All the lots or seats belonging to the domain, which are found 
 vacant, either in this city, or boroughs, or villages, already established, or 
 which may be established, shall be sold for ready money, with all the 
 formalities prescribed in article the twenty-fourth, and others, which 
 concern the sale of lands. 
 
 35. The owners of lots or places, which have been divided, as well as 
 
284 HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 
 
 those in front, as towards the N. E. and S. W. extremities, N. E. and S. 
 W. shall -witliin three months, present to the intendancy the titles which 
 they have obtained ; to the end that, in examining the same, if any 
 essential thing is found wanting, it may be supplied, and they assured of 
 their property in a legal Avay. 
 
 36. The same thing must be done before the sub-delegates of Mobile 
 and Pensacola, for those who have obtained grants for lots in these 
 respective establishments ; to the end that this intendancy, being 
 instructed thereon, may order what it shall judge most convenient to 
 indemnify the royal treasury, without doing wrong to the owner. 
 
 37. In the office of comptroller, contadoria of the army, or chambers 
 of accounts of this province, and other boards under the jurisdiction of 
 this intendancy, an account shall be kept of the amount of sales or grants 
 of lands, to instruct his majesty ever}^ year what this branch of the royal 
 revenue produces, according, as it is ordered in the thirteenth article of 
 the ordinance of the king, of the 15th of Octol^er, 1754. 
 
 3S. The commandants, or syndics, in their respective districts, are 
 charged with the collection of the amount of the taxes or* rents laid on 
 lands ; for this purpose the papers and necessary documents are to be 
 sent to them ; and they ought to forward annually, to the general treasury, 
 the sums they have collected, to the end that acquittances, clothed with 
 the usual formalities of law, may be delivered to them. 
 
 Gayoso now received and executed a commission of judge of residence 
 of his predecessor. One act of the Baron's administration was deemed 
 reprehensible. He had been deluded, by an excess of zeal for what he 
 conceived to be the public good, to take upon himself the responsibility 
 of condemning to death a slave, who had killed his overseer. The fact was 
 proven, that Vidal, the assessor of government, conceived that the circum- 
 stances, which attended it, did not bring the case under any law authorizing 
 a sentence of death and had recommended a milder one. At the solici- 
 tation of a number of respectable planters, and of the owner of the slave. 
 Marigny de Mandeville, a knight of St. Louis and colonel of the militia, who 
 represented to the Baron that an example was absolutely necessary, espe- 
 cialh' so soon after the late insurrection, he disregarded the opinion of his 
 legal adviser and ordered the execution of the slave. It was thought the life 
 of a human being, although a slave, ought not to depend on the opinion of a 
 man, in any case where his sacrifice was not expressly ordered bylaw. A 
 fine of five hundred dollars was paid by the Baron. 
 
 Don Francisco de Bouligny, who had succeeded Piernas in the command 
 of the regiment of Lousiana, died and Avas succeeded by colonel HoAvard. 
 
 The Marquis de Someruelos, succeeded the Count de Santa Clara, as 
 captain-general of the island of Cuba, and the provinces of Louisiana 
 and East and West Florida. The Marquis retained this ofHce until the 
 cession. 
 
 The increase of the commerce of the United States with New Orleans, 
 induced the appointment of a consul there, and the President commissioned 
 Evan Jones as such. 
 
 The post of New Madrid was this year annexed t(i Upper Louisiana. 
 
 (Tayoso died on the ISth July, in his forty-eighth year. Don Maria 
 Vidal, the lieutenant-governor, now acted as civil governor of the two 
 provinces, and the captain-general, on hearing of Gayoso's death, sent 
 over the Marquis de Casa-Calvo, to act as military governor. 
 
HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 
 
 285 
 
 Don Ramon de Lopez y Angullo, a knight pensioner of the royal and 
 distingnished order of Charles III., who had been ap})ointed intendant of 
 the provinces of Louisiana and West Florida, arrived at New Orleans in 
 the latter part of the year. 
 
 A report made by Don Carlos Dehanlt Delassus, commandant-general 
 of L"fpper Louisiana, presents the following result on the last day of 
 this year : 
 
 CENSUS, 
 
 925 
 
 Carondelet, .... 
 
 . 184 
 
 St. Charles, 
 
 875 
 
 St. Fernando, 
 
 . 276 
 
 Marais des Liards, 
 
 376 
 
 Maramec, .... 
 
 . 115 
 
 St. Andrew, 
 
 393 
 
 St. Genevieve, 
 
 . 949 
 
 New Bourbon, 
 
 560 
 
 Cape Girardeau, . . 
 
 . 521 
 
 New iNLadrid, 
 
 782 
 
 Little Meadows, 
 
 49 
 
 6,005 
 
 The white population was 4,948 souls ; the free colored, 197 ; that of 
 slaves, 883. 
 
 During this year there were 34 marriages, 191 births, and 52 deaths. 
 There were in the different settlements, 7,980 head of horned cattle, and 
 1,763 horses. 
 
 The crops amounted to 88,349 minots of wheat, 84,534 of Indian corn, 
 and 28,627 pounds of tobacco. 
 
 The exports to New Orleans, consisted of: 
 
 1754 I:»undles of deerskins, at 40, . . . $70,160 
 
 8 bundles of bearskins, at 32, . . . 256 
 
 18 bundles of buffalo robes, at 30, . . 540 
 
 360 quintals of lead, at 6, ... 2,160 
 
 20 quintals of flour, at 3, ... 60 
 
 $73,176 
 
 1340 quintals of lead were exported to the United States, by the Ohio, 
 Cum))erland and Tennessee rivers. 
 
 One thousand bushels of salt were made yearly. 
 
 The United States had been induced, by the conduct of France and 
 Spain, to make warlike preparations ; both of those powers having 
 committed spoliations on their trade, and the latter (in violation of her 
 treat}^, as the United States considered it) having ceased to allow their 
 citizens a place of deposit in New Orleans. General Washington had 
 accepted the chief command of the armies of his country, but had 
 stipulated that he should not be called on to take the field until his 
 presence became absolutely necessary ; and in the meanwhile, the superin- 
 tendancc of the forces had been committed to generals Hamilton and 
 Pinkney. The agenc}^ of the former had been extended to all the western 
 army, except that part which might be within the states of Kentucky and 
 
286 HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 
 
 Tennessee ; and it was deemed that Wilkinson's presence at his 
 headquarters was indispensable to a full and satisfactory discussion of 
 matters relating to a section of country, with many of the most important 
 transactions of which he had been, in someway or other, concerned. He 
 accordingly descended the Mississippi, and took shipping for New York. 
 
 Government had determined on a mode of redress, of which the 
 conception was as bold as its execution was difficult. This was nothing 
 less than the acquisition of New Orleans, which appeared calculated to 
 indemnify the United States for their losses, and appease the fears of the 
 western people. The success of the enterprise depended almost entirely 
 on its being conducted in such a way as not to awake the suspicions of 
 Spain. The differences with France offered a cover for the real design. 
 Twelve regiments were this year added to the army, to serve during the 
 continuance of the differences. Three of these regiments were ordered 
 to the mouth of the Ohio, and to keep their boats in constant readiness. 
 The assent of congress was to be asked at their next meeting. 
 
 General Washington died on the fourteenth of December. 
 
 The ordinary alcades for the year 1800, were Perez and Poyfiirre. 
 
 Application having been made to Don Henry Peyroux, the commandant 
 at New Madrid, for the purchase of several very large tracts of land, 
 particularly one of one hundred thousand acres, he consulted Lopez, the 
 new intendant, who refused his assent, being of opinion that it never was 
 the intention of the king to dispose of the vacant lands in quantities so 
 large. He admitted the new regulations were made with a view to the 
 sale of lands ; but they were to be disposed of in compliance with the 
 previous formalities, and a reference to the abilities and forces of the parties 
 desirous of purchasing ; because it would not be just that for a small 
 consideration, one or more speculators should engross a vast extent of 
 land, to the prejudice of others who came to settle, who would conse- 
 quently find themselves driven to purchase those lands which they might 
 have gratuitously, or at an}^ rate at a low price. 
 
 The culture of the cane requiring an additional number of hands, the 
 colonial government, in the beginning of November, at the solicitation of 
 the cabildo, issued a proclamation, suspending, until the pleasure of the 
 king should be known, the existing prohibition of the introduction of 
 African negroes. 
 
 On the seventh of May, the northwestern territory of the United States 
 was divided : the western part of it was erected into a distinct govern- 
 ment, under a form similar to that established by the ordinance of 1787. 
 It was called the Indian territory. 
 
 The marked determination of the people of the United States not to 
 re-elect the president, induced him to abandon the jDlan he had formed 
 for the seizure of New Orleans. 
 
 By the third article of a treaty concluded at St. Ildefonso on the 
 first of October of this year, between the Catholic king and the first consul 
 of the French republic, the former promised and engaged on his part, to 
 cede to the French republic, six months after the full and entire execution 
 of the conditions therein stipulated, in relation to the duke of Parma, the 
 colony and province of Louisiana, with the same extent that it then 
 had in the hands of Spain, and that it had when France possessed it, and 
 such as it should be after the treaties subsequently entered into between 
 Spain and other powers. 
 
HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. " 287 
 
 « 
 
 Forstrtll and Caisergues were the ordinary alcades for the years ISOl and 
 1802. 
 
 Don Dominique Bouligny took his seat in the cabiklo as a perpetual 
 regidor. 
 
 The king haying disapproyed of the suppression of the right of deposit 
 in Xe^v Orleans, allowed to citizens of the United States, right was now 
 restored to them. 
 
 The suspension of the prohibition of the introduction of Guinea negroes, 
 met with the king's approbation, and he decreed it to continue until he 
 aaye order to the contrary. 
 --y^ On the twenty-first of March, the cession of Louisiana to France was 
 ' eftected. Buonaparte took immediate measures to possess himself of his 
 acquisition. An immense body of troops was destined to this seryice. A 
 form of goyernment was adopted for the proyince. Victor was appointed 
 captain-general, Laussat colonial prefet, and Ayme chief justice. 
 
 By a royal schedule of the tenth of May, the king gave his assent to 
 the proposition of the Baron de Caronclelet, that three hundred toises of 
 the commons behind the cit}' and near the fortifications, which in their 
 then situation produced nothing, being coyered with water during one- 
 half of the year, should be divided into lots of seventy toises in front, and 
 one hundred and forty in depth, and let out for a moderate rent to such 
 inhabitants of the city as might wish to occupy them as gardens, and 
 the money thus raised applied to the lighting of the city, so that in the 
 course of a few years the whole ground could by tillage be raised above 
 the level of the water, and the occupier of these lots draining them by 
 trenches into the canal Caronclelet, would put an end to the putrid fevers 
 occasioned by the stagnation of water in ponds near the city, which was 
 the cause of much mortality. 
 
 Thomas Jefferson succeeded John Adams in the presidency of the 
 United States, on the fourth of March. 
 
 The differences that had prevailed between the United States and the 
 French republic, were terminated by a treaty entered into at Paris, and 
 ratified on the first day of June. 
 
 CHAPTER XXIV. 
 
 Don Juan Manuel de Salcedo, a brigadier-general of the royal armies, 
 arrived towards the middle of June, with a commission of governor of the 
 provinces of Louisiana and West Florida, and the Marquis de Casa-Calvo 
 sailed for Havana. 
 
 Daniel Clark, a citizen of the United States, residing in New Orleans, 
 was appointed consul of these states in said city. 
 
 Lopez sailed for Spain, and the duties of his office were provisionally 
 performed by Morales, the contador. 
 
 The Mississippi territory was separated from the United States, by 
 lands belonging to Indians, through which travelling was often difficult ; 
 a remedy was now applied to this evil. 
 
 On the twenty-fourth of October, a treaty was concluded on the 
 Chickasaw Bluffs, between the United States and the Chickasaw nation 
 of Indians, by which the latter permitted the former to lay out, open, and 
 
288 HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 
 
 make a convenient wagon road through the Indian land, Ijctween the 
 settlements of the Miro district, in the state of Tennessee, and those of 
 Natchez in the Mississippi territory ; and it was provided that the neces- 
 ,'<ary ferries over the water courses crossed by the road, should be deemed 
 the property of the Indians. 
 
 On the seventeenth day of December, another treaty was concluded at 
 Fort Adams, on the Mississippi, between the United States and the 
 Choctaw nation of Indians, by which the latter gave their consent that a 
 convenient and duraljle wagon road might be explored, marked, opened, 
 and made through their land, to commence at the northwestern extremity 
 of the Mississippi territory, and extend to the land of the Chickasaws. 
 The Choctaws agreed that the old boundary line, heretofore estal)lished by 
 the officers of the king of Great Britain and the Choctaw nation, which 
 runs in a parallel direction with the Mississippi river eastward, should be- 
 retraced and plainl}'' marked, and be held ever after as the boundary 
 between the settlements of the Mississippi territory and the Choctaw 
 nation. The Choctaws relinquished to the United States all their rights 
 to the land between this line and the Mississippi, bounded on the south 
 by the thirty-first degree of north latitude, and on the north b_v the river 
 Yazoo, where the line shall strike the stream. The United States engaged 
 that all persons who might settle beyond this line, should be removed 
 within it, on the side towards the Mississippi, together with their slaves, 
 household furniture, tools, stock, and materials, and their cabins or houses 
 demolished. 
 
 On the twenty-fifth of March, 1802, a definite treat}^ of peace, between 
 Spain, France and Great Britain was signed at Amiens. 
 
 Don Carlos de Jaen came over with and executed a commission of judge 
 of residence of Miro. 
 
 By a royal schedule of the eleventh of June, the contribution to be paid 
 on legacies, devises, and successions ah intestato, in favor of relatives and 
 relations of deceased persons or strangers, was reduced to and fixed at four 
 per cent. That on legacies or devises to a husband or wife, at one-half of 
 one per cent. This charge, however, Avas not to extend to estates of less 
 than two thousand dollars, nor to bequests for the benefit of the soul of 
 the deceased. 
 
 The Baron de Bastrop having ceded to Moorhouse, a citizen of the 
 United States, a part of the grant he had obtained from the Baron de 
 Carondelet, in 1769, on the Washita, the king disapproved of this arrange- 
 ment, and by a royal schedule of the eighteenth of July, forbade the grant 
 of any land in Louisiana to a citizen of the United States. • 
 
 Serano, the assessor of the intendancy, died on the first of December. 
 Morales, in consequence of this event, and of the absence of a legal 
 character to supply his place, closed the tribunal of affairs and causes 
 relating to grants and compositions of royal lands, the ordinance for the 
 intendants of New Spain, providing that for conducting the affairs of 
 that tribunal and sustaining its acts, there should be the concurrence of 
 such a character. 
 
 During the last quarter of this year, citizens of the United States were 
 not allowed the right of a deposit, in or near New Orleans, and the impor- 
 tation of goods in American bottoms was not permitted. 
 
 Lopez having lost the office of intendant by the cession of Louisiana 
 
HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 289 
 
 to France, was appointed consul-general of Spain at New Orleans, and 
 embarked on board of a vessel for that city, but died on the passage. 
 
 On the twenty-ninth of November, the people of the E. division of the 
 N. W. territory of the United States, became a state under the name of 
 the state of Ohio, being the seventeenth. 
 
 Forstall and Lanusse were the ordinary alcades during the year 1803. 
 
 Towards the latter part of January, Morales issued a proclamation, 
 allowing the importation of flour and provisions from the United States 
 on payment of a duty of six per cent, subject to exportation in Spanish 
 bottoms only. 
 
 On the first of March, the king disapproved of the order of Morales, 
 prohibiting the introduction and deposit of goods, wares and merchandise 
 from the United States, in the port of New Orleans : and ordered that the 
 United States should continue to enjoy their right of deposit in New 
 Orleans, without prejudice of his to substitute some other spot on the 
 banks of the Mississippi. 
 
 By an act of congress of the ninth of February, provision was made 
 for granting licenses at the customhouse at Fort Adams, to vessels owned 
 by citizens of the United States, lying on the Mississippi, below the 
 thirty-first degree of northern latitude. 
 
 >t:General Victor had been appointed, by the first consul, commissioner 
 for receiving possession of the province of Louisiana, and his arrival being 
 daily expected, the cabildo, on the twenty-third of March, 1803,'Caused 
 the supply of meat for the French troops accompanying him, to be put 
 at auction to the lowest bidder, with the exclusive right of supplying the 
 inhabitants of the city. The contractor was required to keep constantly 
 a stock of at least one thousand head of cattle in or near the city of New 
 Orleans. 
 
 A vessel arriving from Havre-de-Grace, on thie following day, brought 
 the baggage of Laussat, the colonial prefect,*who was preceding the 
 captain-general, with a special mission, for the purpose of providing 
 whatever might be necessary on the arrival of the troops, and making 
 arrangements for the establishment of the government of the republic. 
 
 By this vessel the people of Louisiana were informed of the form of 
 government provided for the province by its new master. 
 
 Its principal officers were a captain-general, a colonial prefect, and a 
 commissary of justice. 
 
 The captain-general was commander-in-chief of the land and naval 
 forces, and had the care of the exterior and the interior defense of the 
 colony. He provisoril}^ filled the vacancies in military offices, according 
 to the order of advancement, as far as the grade of chief of division or 
 squadron, and proposed to the minister proper persons to fill higher grades. 
 He delivered passports, regulated the bearing of arms, and corresponded 
 with the governors of other colonies, whether belonging to allies, neutrals, 
 or enemies. With the colonial prefect, he regulated the works to be done 
 on the fortifications, and the new roads to be opened ; and finally 
 exercised all powers formally granted to governors-general. He was 
 forbidden to interfere with the attributions of the colonial prefect or 
 commissary of justice ; but was authorized to require from either of them 
 information on any matter relative to the service. Power was given him 
 to suspend provisorily the execution of laws, in whole or in part, on his 
 
 39 
 
290 HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 
 
 resiMiiisibility, after having consulted the colonial prefect, or the commis- 
 sary of justice, according to the nature of the case. 
 
 Copies of every deliberation were to be sent yearly to the minister. 
 
 Vacant lands were to be granted by the captain-general and colonial 
 prefect ; but in case of disagreement the opinion of the former was to 
 prevail. 
 
 Vacancies in the departments of the colonial prefect and commissary 
 of justice, were to be filled by the captain-general on their nomination; 
 but no appointment was final until confirmed by the first consul. 
 
 In case of the absence of the captain-general, he was to be represented 
 b}' the colonial prefect, or by the highest military officer. 
 
 The colonial prefect's powers extended to the administration of the 
 finances, the general accountability and destination of all officers of 
 administration. He was exclusively charged with the police of the 
 colony, including all that related to taxes, receipts and expenditures, the 
 customhouse, the pay of the troops, the public stores, agriculture, navi- 
 gation, commerce, the census, the suppression of contraband trade, the 
 police of slaves, highways, levees, public instruction and worship, the 
 press, and generally all the powers formerly exercised by intendants, 
 commissaries-general, and ordonnateurs. In the assessment of taxes he 
 was to consult three merchants and three planters. In case of absence, 
 he was to be represented by the officer of administration next in rank. 
 
 The commissary of justice had the superintendence of all courts of 
 justice and their ministerial officers ; he was to have an eye to the 
 regular administration of justice, the safety and salubrity of gaols, as 
 well as the conduct of officers and clerks. He might preside and vote in 
 any court of justice. He was to require monthly statements from the 
 president and clerk of each court, of every case tried, and communicate it 
 to the captain-general. He was authorized to make rules for the adminis- 
 tration of justice, and, with the consent of the captain-general, order them 
 to be observed. Agents of government were not suable for any matter 
 relating to their officers, nor any citizen in the public service arrested 
 without his fiat, and he was to give an account of his proceedings in this 
 respect to the minister. He was to prepare a civil and criminal code, 
 and submit it to the captain-general and colonial prefect for their exami- 
 nation, and transmit it, with the proces verbal of their deliberations 
 thereon, to the minister. He had the police of vagrants. 
 
 In the latter part of the month, notice reached New Orleans, of the 
 arrival, at the Balize, of a French national brig, having on board Laussat, 
 the colonial prefect. Salcedo immediately dispatched a captain and a 
 lieutenant of infantry in the government barge,»and Morales, an officer of 
 administration, in that of the customhouse, to meet and congratulate the 
 representative of the French republic. Laussat came up in the government 
 barge, landed at the levee on the twenty-sixth, and was immediately 
 conducted to the government house, where Salcedo and Morales, 
 surrounded by the staff of the garrison and army, the officers of the 
 militia, and the head of the clergy, were assembled for his reception. 
 
 In this interview Laussat announced the fixed determination of the 
 French government to promote the prosperity of the colony, to cause order 
 to prevail in it, to maintain its laws, to respect the treaties with Indian 
 nations, and protect the exercise of public worship without any change 
 therein. He added that the captain-general and troops, who had left 
 
HISTORY OF LOUISIAXA. 291 
 
 Holland, as he believed, in the latter end of Januaiy, 'woiikl prol.iably 
 arrive here towards the middle of April. 
 
 A few days afterwards, he issued a proclamation in the name of the 
 French republic. 
 
 This document begins by stating that the separation of Louisiana from 
 France marked in the annals of the latter one of the most shameful eras 
 under a weak and corrupt government, after an ignominious war and 
 dishonorable peace. With this unnatural abandonment by the niuther 
 country, the love, loyalty and heroic courage of the people of Louisiana 
 formed a noble contrast, with which every heart in France was now 
 moved, and would long preserve the remembrance of. The French still 
 remembered that a portion of the inhabitants of Louisiana were their 
 descendants, with the same blood running in their veins. As soon as 
 France, by a prodigious succession of triumphs, in the late revolution, 
 had recovered her own freedom and glory, she turned her eyes towards 
 Louisiana, the retrocession of Avhich signalized her first peace. But the 
 period was not yet arrived — it was necessary that a man, who is a stranger 
 to nothing that is national, great, magnanimous or just; who, to the 
 most distinguished talent for conquering, adds the rare one of obtaining 
 for his conquests the happiest results, and by the ascendancy of his 
 character, at once strikes terror to his enemies, and inspires his allies 
 with confidence — whose expansive mind discovered at once the true 
 interests of his country, and was bent on restoring to France her pristine 
 grandeur and her lost possessions — should accomplish this important 
 work. 
 
 This man, said the prefect, presides over the destinies of France and 
 Louisiana, to insure their felicity. In the latter nothing more wasneces- 
 sar}^ than to improve the bounties of which nature had been so prodigal 
 towards her. 
 
 He observed it was the intention of government to do this — to live in 
 peace and amity with the neighboring Indians, and protect the commerce 
 of the colony ; encourage its agriculture, people its deserts, promote labor 
 and industry, respect property, opinions, and habits, protect public 
 worship, preserve the empire of the laws, amend them slowly and with 
 the light of experience onh', maintain a regular police, introduce perma- 
 nent order and economy in every branch of administration, tighten the 
 bonds which a common origin and a similarity of manners had already 
 estal)lisbed between the colony and the mother country, was the honorable 
 object of the mission of the captain-general, colonial prefect, and commis- 
 sary of justice, sent by the first consul. 
 
 After a short eulogy of the two high magistrates Avith whom he was 
 associated, and of the officers who had hitherto governed the colony under 
 the authority of Spain, whom he said the former Avould endeavor to 
 imitate, he concluded Avith an assurance that the devotion of the people 
 of Louisiana to the French republic, their gratitude to those by whom 
 they were reunited to it, and the spectacle of their prospcrit}'-, Avere the 
 rewards Avhich he aspired to and should endeavor to deserve by a zeal 
 AA'hich Avould knoAV no limits but the fulfilment of its duties. 
 
 In an address, Avhich Avas presented to him a fcAv days afterwards, 
 subscribed by a considerable number of the most respectable planters and 
 merchants, assurance was gi\'en him that France had done justice to the 
 sentiments of the people of Louisiana, in giving them credit for the 
 
292 HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 
 
 attachment they had preserved for her. Thirty-four years of foreign 
 domination had not extinguished or even diminished in their hearts the 
 sacred love of their country ; and their joy on returning under her banner, 
 could only be equalled by the grief which they had felt on seeing it 
 lowered in the midst of them. They were happy in having lived long 
 enough to witness the reunion of the colony to France — an event which 
 thev had never ceased to desire, and which now gratified their utmost 
 wishes. 
 
 They added that in an age so fruitful in astonishing events, greater, 
 more important and memorable had occurred, but none in its history 
 could present a more affecting and interesting spectacle than that of 
 victorious and triumphant France holding out a protecting hand to 
 children heretof')re cast out from her bosom, by a weak and vacillating 
 government, and calling them to a share in the fruits of a glorious peace, 
 terminating in the most brilliant manner a bloody and terrible revolution. 
 
 They observed that the prefect had signalized the return of the French 
 government, by bearing an authentic testimony of its beneficent views. 
 His proclamation had filled the people with gratitude for its parental 
 care, and they had already felt the happiness of their union with the 
 French Republic. The happy selection of some of her most virtuous 
 citizens to govern them, and her choicest troops to protect them, were sure 
 pledges of their future happiness and prosperity. They offered in return 
 their love and obedience, and swore to endeavor to prove themselves 
 worthy of the title of French citizens. 
 
 The' answer concludes by expressing the belief that France would attach 
 less value to the assurance the people of Louisiana gave of their loyalty 
 and fidelity, if they did not, at the same time, manifest some regret at 
 the dissolution of their allegiance to a sovereign who had heaped on them 
 his choicest favors, during the time they had lived under him. They 
 protested that their hearts entertained no such guilty indifference; their 
 grief, on separating from him, was mingled with joy on recovering their 
 country ; and they would prove the^elves worthy members of the French 
 republic, in preserving during th^ lives the remembrance of his paternal 
 care. ^) 
 
 The Marquis de Casa-Calvo, ^»ho had 'acted as military governor after 
 the death of Gayoso, arrived fA^ the Havana on the tenth of April, 
 having been joined to ^Icedo Mi a coinmission for the delivery of 
 possession of the provii^^eAo the coj'nmissioners of France. On the 
 eighteenth of May, S£ii^edo*?wid he issyred a proclamation, announcing the 
 intention of their sovereign I to) suri^nder the province to the French 
 republic, and that his nmjesty, retaining the same affection as ever for the 
 inhabitants of the province, and desiring to continue to them the same 
 protection which he had Aithertc/extended to them, had determined : 
 "\;' 1. That the cession of the cum)ny and island of New Orleans should be 
 on the same terms as that of '^is Most Christian to his Catholic majesty ; 
 and consequently, the limits on both sides of the river St. Louis, or 
 Mississippi, should continue as they remained by the fifth article of the 
 definitive treaty of peace concluded at Paris on the tenth of December, 1763 ; 
 and accordingly, the settlements from the bayou Manshac, as far as the 
 line which separated the doniinions of Spain and those of the United 
 States, should remain a i)art of the monarchy of Spain and be annexed 
 to the province of West Florida. 
 
HISTORY OF LOUISIANA, 293 
 
 2. Every individual, employed in any branch of the king's service, 
 and wishing to remain under his government, might proceed to Havana 
 or any other part of his dominions, unless he preferred entering into the 
 service of the French repul)lic, "which he might do : but if any just reason 
 prevented his immediate departure, he might urge it in proper time. 
 
 8. The king's generosity induced him to continue to widows and others 
 their respective provisions, and he would make known, in due time, in 
 what manner he wished they should avail themselves of this favor. 
 
 4. He declared his expectation, from the sincere friendship and 
 alliance which existed between him and the French republic, that orders 
 would be given to the governors and other officers employed by France 
 in Louisiana, that the clergy and religious institutions should be 
 permitted to remain in the discharge of their offices, within their respective 
 curacies and missions, and enjoy their former emoluments, privileges and 
 exemptions ; that the tribunals established for the administration of 
 justice, and ordinary judges, should be allowed to continue to administer 
 it according to the former laws and usages of the province ; the inhab- 
 itants maintained in the peaceable possession of their property, and all 
 grants made to them by the former governors confirmed, even when not 
 finalh^ ratified by the king; and finally, that the French government 
 should continue to the people of Louisiana the favor and protection they 
 had enjoyed under Spain. 
 
 Everything seemed now ready, and the arrival of Victor, the commis- / | 
 sioner of France for receiving possession, was hourly expected ; every one " 
 had his tri-colored cockade ready to be stuck in his hat as soon as the 
 Spanish flag was lowered and the French hoisted, when a vessel from 
 Bordeaux brought accounts of the sale of the province by Bonaparte to 
 the United States. 
 
 By a treaty concluded at Paris on the thirtieth of April, the first consul 
 had ceded, in the name of the republic, to the United States, forever and 
 in full sovereignty, the province of Louisiana, with all its rights and 
 appurtenances in full, and in the same manner as they had been acquired 
 by the republic from the Catholic king. 
 
 2. In the cession are included the islands adjacent to Louisiana, all 
 public lots and squares, vacant lands, and all public buildings, fortifi- 
 cations, barracks, and other edifices, which are not private property. The 
 archives, papers and documents, relative to the domains and sovereignty 
 of the province, are to be left in the possession of the commissioners of 
 the United States, and copies given afterwards in due form to magistrates 
 and principal officers, of such papers, and documents as maybe necessary 
 to them. 
 
 3. It is provided that the inhabitants of the ceded territory shall be 
 incorporated into the union of the United States, and admitted as soon 
 as possible, according to the principles of the federal constitution, to the 
 enjoyment of all the advantages and immunities of citizens of the United 
 States ; and in the meantime he unrestrained and protected in the free 
 enjoyment of their liberty, property and the religion which they possess. 
 
 4. The government of France is to send a commissioner to Louisiana, 
 to the end that he may do all acts necessary to receive possession of the 
 country and its dependencies, from the officers of Spain, in the name of 
 the French republic, and deliver it over to the commissioners or agents 
 of the United States. 
 
 i 
 
294 HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 
 
 5. Immediately after the ratification of the treaty, by the president of 
 the United States, in case that of the first consul shall have been obtained 
 the commissioner of the French republic shall surrender all military 
 posts in New Orleans, and in the rest of the ceded territor}-, to the 
 commissioners of the United States, and the troops of France are to be 
 withdrawn. 
 
 6. The United States promise to execute all treaties entered into by 
 Spain with the Indians. 
 
 7. French vessels coming directly from France or her colonies, loaded 
 only with the produce or manufactures of France or her colonies ; and 
 those of Spain, coming directly from the peninsula or her colonies, 
 loaded only with the produce or manufactures of Spain or her colonies, 
 are to be admitted, during twelve years, into the ports of the ceded terri- 
 tory, in the same manner as vessels of the United States coming directly 
 from France. Spain, or any of their colonies, without paying any higher 
 duty on tonnage or merchandise than citizens of the United States. 
 During these twelve years no other nation shall enjoy the same advantages. 
 
 8. Afterwards and forever, French vessels are to be treated upon the 
 footing of the most favored nations in these ports. 
 
 By two separate conventions of the same date, the United States 
 engaged to pay sixty millions of francs to France, and discharge certain 
 claims of their citizens on that power. A stock of eleven millions, two 
 hundred and fifty thousand dollars, was created, bearing interest at six 
 per cent, payable in London, Amsterdam, or Paris ; the principal to be 
 reimbursed at their treasury in annual instalments of not less than three 
 millions, the first of which was to be paid fifteen years after the exchange 
 of the ratifications. The French government promised, if disposed to 
 sell the stock to do so to the United States, on the best terms. The value 
 of the dollar of the United States was fixed at five livres eight sous. 
 
 The Catholic king made a solemn protest, on being informed of the 
 sale of Louisiana by the first consul ; and his minister at Washington 
 city sent to the department of state a representation on the defects which 
 in the opinion of the cabinet of Madrid, impaired the alienation ; detailing 
 the motives which had induced his sovereign to protest against it — the 
 principal of which was, that France had promised never to alienate the 
 ceded territory. After this representation, an opinion prevailed, both in 
 Europe and America, that the king had given or would give, orders to 
 prevent the delivery of the province to the French. The minister of the 
 United States at Madrid, was therefore, instructed to ascertain whether 
 there was any ground for the rumor. 
 
 In the month of June, the Spanish nuns in the convent of the 
 Ursulines, unwalling to live under the government of the French republic, 
 sailed for Havana, where the government gave them a house, and they 
 established a convent of their order. 
 
 Congress, on the last day of October, authorized the President of the 
 United States to take possession of the ceded territory ; and in order to 
 maintain therein the authority of the L^nited States, to employ such a 
 part of the navy and army of the union, and of the militia of the 
 neighboring states and territory, as he might deem necessary. In the 
 meanwhile, all the military, civil and judicial powers exercised by the 
 existing government, were to be vested in such person or i)ersons, and to 
 be exercised in such a manner, as the President of the United States 
 
HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 295 
 
 should direct, for the maintenance and protection of the inhabitants 
 of Louisiana, in their liberty, property, and the religion which they 
 professed. 
 
 The President of the United States appointed, accordingly, governor 
 Claiborne, of the Mississippi territory, and general Wilkinson, commis- 
 sioners for receiving; possession of the ceded territory from the commis- 
 sioner of France ; and he gave to the former a commission, authorizing 
 him provisorily to exercise, within the ceded territory, all the powers with 
 which the Spanish governor-general and intendant were clothed, except 
 that of granting lands. 
 
 v^In the meanwhile, the first consul had, on the sixth of June, appointed 
 
 "Tjaussat commissioner on the part of France, to receive possession of the 
 
 })rovince from those of Spain, and deliver it to those of the United States. 
 
 On Wednesday, the thirtieth of November, the Spanish colors were 
 displayed from a lofty flag staff, in the centre of the public square. At 
 noon, the Spanish regiment of Louisiana was drawn out, with a company 
 of Mexican dragoons on the right, and the militia of the city on the left. 
 The commissioners of Spain proceeded to the city hall, where the 
 commissioner of France came soon after. He produced to them an order 
 from the king of Spain for the delivery of the province, and the powers 
 of the first consul to receive it ; whereupon Salcedo immediately handed 
 him the ke3"s of New Orleans, and the Marquis de Casa-Calvo declared 
 that such of his majestj^'s subjects in Louisiana as made it their election 
 to live under the authority of the French republic, were absolved from 
 their oath of fidelity and allegiance to the crown of Spain. A record was 
 made of these proceedings, and the three commissioners walked to the 
 main balcony, when the Spanish flag was saluted by a discharge of 
 artillery on its descent, and that of the French republic greeted in the 
 same manner, on its ascent. 
 
 Thus ended the government of Spain in Louisiana, after the lapse of 
 thirty-four years and a few months. 
 
 In a proclamation which Laussat issued immediately afterwards, he 
 informed the inhabitants that the mission which brought him among 
 them, and on which he had built many fond hopes, and entertained many 
 honorable expectations for their welfare and happiness, was changed ; and 
 that of which he was now charged, though less gratif3dng to him, was 
 equally flattering, as it afforded him the consolation that it was more 
 advantageous to them. , The flag of the republic now displaj^ed, and the 
 sound of her cannon, announced the return of French domination ; but 
 it was for an instant only, as he Avas on the eve of delivering possession 
 of the colony to the commissioners of the United States. 
 
 He observed that the commencement of a war under the most sanguinary 
 auspices, carrying terror into all parts of the world, had induced the 
 French government to turn its views towards Louisiana ; considerations 
 of prudence and humanity, connected with vast and permanent objects, 
 worthy of the genius who balanced the grand destinies of nations, having 
 given a new direction to the Ijenevolent intentions of France towards the 
 colony, it was ceded to the United States, and its inhabitants became the 
 surest pledge of the increasing friendship between the two republics. 
 
 He drew their attention to that part of the treaty of cession, by which 
 their incorporation into the union was secured ; and congratulated them 
 
296 HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 
 
 on becoming part of a nation already numerous and powerful — a people 
 renowned for their industry, patriotism and enlightened understanding. 
 
 He remarked that, however pure and benevolent the intentions of the 
 mother country might be, the people of a distant colony were ever exposed 
 to the cupidity"^ and malversations of those who were sent to govern them. 
 Distance affording the means of concealment, operated as a temptation, 
 and often corrupted the most virtuous — while the nature of the govern- 
 ment under which they were about to pass, rendered rulers dependent on 
 the will of the people, and connected their political existence with public 
 suffrage. 
 
 He reminded them that the period was not distant when they would - 
 adopt a form of government for themselves, adapted to the maxims of the 
 federal constitution, and suited to their manners, usages and localities. 
 They would feel and appreciate as a singular attribute of a free consti- 
 tution, the invaluable advantage of an upright, impartial and incorruptible 
 administration of justice, in which the public and invariable forms of 
 proceeding would combine with the moral and national character of 
 judges and jurors, to ensure to the citizens security for person and 
 property. 
 
 Monopoly, he added, more or less exclusive, is peculiar to, and invariably 
 attendant on, colonial government ; but from the United States the people 
 of Louisiana ought to expect, at the same time, protection from such 
 abuses, by the faculty of exporting, free from duty, every article of their 
 produce. The ports of the Mississippi ought to be expected to become 
 vast places of deposit, as this Nile of America, flowing not through parched 
 deserts, but across fertile plains, would be navigated by vessels of all 
 nations. 
 
 He expressed a hope that, among different flags, the people of Louisiana, 
 would ever view that of France with complacency ; as, in securing to his 
 countrymen certain advantages during a limited time, in their intercourse 
 with the ceded country, the first consul had a view to the renewal, 
 strengthening, and perpetuating the ancient bonds between the French of 
 Europe and those of Louisiana — so that Louisianians and Frenchmen 
 would never hereafter meet in any part of the world, without mutually 
 feeling a tender emotion, and exchanging the affectionate appellation of 
 brothers — alike expressive of their lasting friendship and dependence on 
 reciprocal kind offices. 
 
 On the same day, the colonial prefect issued a number of other procla- 
 mations in regard to the government of the province ; the principal of 
 which was for the substitution of a municipality to the cabildo. A mayor, 
 two adjoints, and ten members, constituting the new body. The mayor- 
 alty was given to Bore : Destr^an and Sauve were associated with him. 
 The members were Livaudais, Petit Cavelier, Villere, Jones, Fortier, 
 Donaldson, Faurie, Allard, Tureaud, and Watkins. Derbigny was secretary, 
 and Labatut treasurer. 
 
 By a special proclamation, the black code, given by Louis the fifteenth 
 to the province, excepting such parts of it as were inconsistent with the 
 constitution and laws of the United States, was declared to be in force. 
 
 The citizens of the United States in New Orleans, about one hundred 
 and twenty in number, formed themselves into a company of infantry, 
 under Daniel Clark, the consul, and offered their services to the colonial 
 prefect for the preservation of order and tranquillity ; and, at his request, 
 
HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 297 
 
 performed regular duty until the commissioners of the United States 
 received possession of the province. 
 
 From the disposition manifested a few years before, by the colonial 
 government, to retain possession of the posts above the thirty-first degree, 
 and the protest of the Catholic king, apprehensions Avere entertained by 
 the government of the United States that difficulties might arise. The 
 president ordered a part of the militia of the states of Ohio, Kentucky, 
 and Tennessee, to be held in readiness to march at a moment's warning. 
 The military force in the west had been assembled at Fort Adams, and 
 five hundred men of the militia of Tennessee came as far as Natchez, 
 under the orders of colonel Doghert3^ 
 
 Claiborne had given orders to the volunteer company of horse of the 
 Mississippi territory, to prepare to accompany him, on the tenth of 
 December. 
 
 Wilkinson who, since his return from the Atlantic states, had been 
 employed as a commissioner in the treaties, lately entered into with the 
 Choctaws, Chickasaws, and Creeks, was, at the time of his appointment as 
 joint commissioner with Claiborne, engaged in running the line between 
 the lands of the western states and those of the latter Indians. He 
 reached New Orleans on the day after Laussat had received possession, 
 and did not hear of his appointment till then. Crossing the lake, he met 
 his colleague at Fort Adams. On the seventeenth of December, the two 
 commissioners, the troops of the United States, and the Mississippi 
 volunteers camped within two miles of New Orleans. On the following 
 day Claiborne and Wilkinson paid a visit to Laussat, who came to their 
 camp on the next, accompanied by the municipality, and a number of 
 militia oflScers. 
 — i- On Monday, the twentieth, the tri-colored flag was displayed at the top 
 jof the staff in the middle of the public square, at sunrise. At eleven, 
 the militia paraded near it, and precisely at noon, the commissioners of 
 the United States, at the head of their forces, entered the city. The 
 American troops occupied the side of the square opposed to that on which 
 the militia stood. The colonial prefect, attended by his secretary and a 
 number of his countrymen, left his house under a discharge of cannon, 
 and proceeded to the city hall, where the municipality and a large 
 concourse of the most respectable inhabitants attended. 
 
 The commissioners of the United States now came, and the prefect gave 
 them formal possession of the province by the delivery of the keys of the 
 city. He then declared such of the inhabitants as chose to pass under 
 the government of the United States, absolved and released from their 
 allegiance to the French republic. 
 
 Claiborne now rose, and offered to the people of Louisiana his congratu- 
 lations on the event which placed them beyond the reach of chance. 
 He assured them the United States received them as brothers, and would 
 hasten to extend to them a participation in the invaluable rights forming 
 the basis of their unexampled prosperity, and in the meanwhile, the 
 people would be protected in the enjoyment of their libertv, property, and 
 religion — their commerce favored, and their agriculture encouraged. He 
 recommended to them to promote political information in the province, 
 and guide the rising generation in the paths of republican economy and 
 virtue. 
 
 40 
 
298 HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 
 
 The tri-colored made room for the striped banner, under repeated peals 
 of artillery and musketry. 
 
 A group of citizens of the United States, who stood on a corner of the 
 square, waved their hats, in token of respect for their country's flag, and 
 a few of them greeted it with their voices. No emotion was manifested 
 by any other part of the crowd. The colonists did not appear conscious 
 that they were reaching the Latium sedes ubifata quietas ostendunt. 
 
 CHAPTER XXV. 
 
 When the French enjoyed the undisturbed possession of Louisiana, its 
 extent in their opinion, had scarcely any bounds to the northwest; and 
 its limits were ill defined anywhere, except on the sea coast. As its 
 sovereign claimed all the neighboring country which was totally without 
 inhabitants, or occupied by savage enemies, a demarcation of its limits 
 was impossible, even if it had been desirable. During the Spanish 
 government, a dispute with Great Britain, respecting Nootka Sound and 
 her discoveries in that quarter, was terminated by a recognition of her 
 right to New Albion, the boundary of which to the south being agreed on 
 became the northern one of California, which, prolonged eastwardly to a 
 certain point, was to mark the extent of New Albion in that direction. 
 Where New Albion ended, Louisiana was said to begin. 
 
 On the bayou des Lauriers (Laurel creek) six miles S. W. by S. from the 
 town of Natchitoches, on Red river, and fifteen miles from the Adayes, 
 where the road to Nacogdoches crosses the bayou, the French had placed 
 leaden plates on a tree on each side of the road, with an inscription expressing 
 that the spot was the boundary between the French and Spanish 
 dominions, without indicating the continuation of the line on either side. 
 Similar plates were also fixed at Yatassees, a village of the Nadoca Indians, 
 fifty leagues N. W. of Natchitoches. 
 
 The boundary line, from bayou des Lauriers to the sea, was never run, 
 and each party claimed much more than the other was willing to allow. 
 The Spaniards contended that the line was to be run due south, in which 
 case it would strike the sea near the river Carcassou. 
 
 The eastern boundary of Louisiana, as far as the thirty-first degree, and 
 the northern on the eastern side of the Mississippi, which separated the 
 territories of Spain and the United States, were fixed by a treaty — the 
 first in the middle of the stream, and the latter at the thirty-first degree of 
 northern latitude. But the province of Louisiana did not extend far 
 beyond the Mississippi below Iberville, and was separated from West 
 Florida by a line drawn through the middle of that stream, and lakes 
 Maurepas and Pontchartrain, to the sea. 
 
 Before the peace of 1763, the French recognized no other boundary of 
 Louisiana, to the north, than the southern line of Canada. 
 
 To the east, the rio Perdldo was recognized as affording the beginning 
 of the boundary line, but the direction in which it ran, from the mouth 
 or source of the stream, never engaged the attention of France or Spain. 
 
 The province of Louisiana and that of West Florida, were laid off into 
 the following divisions : Pensacola, Mobile, the land between the Balize 
 and New Orleans, the city, and the land on both sides of lake Pontchar- 
 
HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 299 
 
 train, the first and second German coasts, Cabahanosse, La Fourche, 
 Venezuela, Iberville, GalveztoAvn, Baton Rouge, Pointe Coupee, Atakapas 
 Opelousas, Avoyelles, Rapides, Natchitoches, Arkansas and the Illinois, 
 in each of which there was a commandant. 
 
 In the Illinois, there was a commandant-general at St. Louis, to whom 
 were subordinate those of New Madrid, St. Genevieve, New Bourbon, St. 
 Charles and St. Andrew. 
 
 Baton Rouge had been made a government, in favor of Don Carlos de 
 Grandpre, who had been appointed governor of Natchez, on Gayoso being 
 promoted to that of the two provinces. The districts of Manshac, 
 Thompson Creek and the Feliciana, Baj^ou-Sara, made part of it. 
 
 Chapitoula and Terre-aux-Boeufs had once separate commandants, but 
 of late, they made part of the district of the city. 
 
 All the lands, on both sides of the Mississippi, from fifty miles below 
 the city to Baton Rouge, had been granted, to the depth of forty arpents, 
 or one mile and a half, which is the depth of all original grants. Some 
 had double, and others treble grants, that is to say, a depth of eighty or 
 one hundred and twenty arpents. A few grants extended as far as the 
 sea, or lake behind them. In the other parts of the country, the people 
 being generally settled on the banks of a river or creek, had a front of 
 from six to forty arpents, and the grant generally expressed a depth of 
 forty arpents. 
 
 The ungranted lands on the island of Orleans, and on the opposite bank 
 of the river, were supposed to be unfit for cultivation ; but a considerable 
 portion might be drained. There are, in this part of the country, valuable 
 cypress swamps belonging to the public. 
 
 " It was supposed that all the land free from inundation, from the Balize to 
 Manshac, as far back as the swamps, were fit for the cultivation of the cane. 
 Above Manshac, it was supposed the cane would be affected by the cold, 
 and its produce uncertain. The culture of the cane was not attended 
 to elsewhere. 
 
 The buildings, fortifications and fixed property of the public, were 
 chiefly in New Orleans. They consisted of : 
 
 Two very extensive brick stores, one being one hundred and sixty, the 
 other one hundred and twenty feet in length ; each about thirty feet in 
 width, one story high, with a large loft, and covered with shingles. 
 
 A government house, outhouses and gardens, on a lot of about two 
 hundred and twenty feet in front, with a depth of three hundred and 
 thirty-six. 
 
 A military hospital. 
 
 A powder magazine, on the opposite bank of the Mississippi. 
 
 An ill-constructed customhouse of wood, almost in ruins. 
 
 Extensive barracks, calculated to accommodate nearly fifteen hundred 
 men. 
 
 Five ill-constructed redoubts, with a covered way, pallisade, and ditch. 
 
 A large lot, adjoining the king's stores, used as a park of artillery, in 
 which were a few sheds. 
 
 A town house, market house, assembly room and prison. 
 
 A cathedral and presbytery, to which a square of ground, well built on, 
 was attached. 
 
 A charity hospital, with a few houses, yielding to it a revenue of about 
 fifteen hundred dollars a year. 
 
300 
 
 HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 
 
 No authentic census of the inhabitants of the province, since that of 
 1788, is extant ; but one made for the department of state, by the consul 
 of the United States at New Orleans, from the best documents he could 
 procure, in 1803, j)resents the following result : 
 
 In the city of New Orleans, 
 
 8,056 
 
 From the Balize to the city, 
 
 2.388 
 
 At Terre-aux-Ba?ufs, 
 
 661 
 
 Bayou St. John and Gentilly, 
 
 489 
 
 Barataria, .... 
 
 101 
 
 Tchoupitoulas, 
 
 . 7,444 
 
 Parish of St. Charles, . 
 
 2,421 
 
 Parish of St. John the Baptist, 
 
 1,950 
 
 Parish of St. James, 
 
 2,200 
 
 Lafourche, .... 
 
 1,094 
 
 Lafourche, Interior, 
 
 2,064 
 
 Valenzuela, .... 
 
 . 1,057 
 
 Iberville, .... 
 
 1,300 
 
 Galveztown, 
 
 247 
 
 Baton Rouge, .... 
 
 1,513 
 
 Pointe Coupee, 
 
 . 2,150 
 
 Attakapas, .... 
 
 1,447 
 
 Opelousas, .... 
 
 . 2,454 
 
 Washita, .... 
 
 361 
 
 Avoyelles, .... 
 
 432 
 
 Rapides, .... 
 
 753 
 
 Natchitoches, 
 
 1,631 
 
 Arkansas, .... 
 
 368 
 
 Illinois, St. Louis, etc., 
 
 6,028 
 
 Mobile, ..... 
 
 810 
 
 Pensacola, .... 
 
 404 
 
 Total, 
 
 49,473 
 
 On the left bank of the Mississippi, about seventy-five miles above New 
 Orleans, were the remains of the Oumas, (Red men) not exceeding sixty 
 persons. There were no other Indians settled on this side of the river, in 
 Louisiana or West Florida; although wandering parties of the Choctaw s 
 and Creeks were often rambling over the country. 
 
 On the right side of the Mississippi, above the settlement of Pointe 
 Coupee, were the remains of the Tunica nation, not exceeding fifty or 
 sixty persons. 
 
 On the left side of bayou Plaquemine, about twelve miles from the 
 Mississippi, were two villages of the Chilimaekas, consisting of about 
 twenty cabins ; each village had about sixty persons. 
 
 In the lower part of bayou Teche, at the distance of thirty-six miles 
 from the sea, was another village of the Chetimachas, in which were about 
 one hundred persons. 
 
 The nation of the Attakapas (Man-eaters) was nearly extinct. They 
 had a village on bayou Vermillion, in which were about one hundred and 
 twenty persons. Wandering fiimilies were scattered through the district, 
 and a number of females were domiciliated among the planters. 
 
HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 301 
 
 The Choctaws, Biloxis, and Pascagoulas, had villages on bayou 
 Crocodile and bayou Boeuf, in the parish of Rapides. 
 
 The Alibamons had a village of about one hundred persons, on the 
 bayou Courtablcau in the district of Opelousas. 
 
 Several small villages of the Cunhates were dispersed on the banks of 
 the Meritao and Carcasu rivers. There were in them about three hundred 
 and fifty of these Indians. 
 
 At the Avoyelles, there was a village of the Choctaws, or red men, at the 
 distance of about sixty miles from the Mississippi, and another on the 
 lake of the Avoyelles. These two villages had not more than one hundred 
 persons. 
 
 At the Rapides, twenty miles higher up, was a village of the Chactas, 
 which had about one hundred persons ; and six miles farther, was a 
 village of the Biloxis of the same size. 
 
 At the river aux Cannes was another village of the same nation, of about 
 fifty persons. 
 
 The males of all these villages were frequently employed as boatmen. 
 
 About two hundred and fifty miles from the town of Natchitoches, on 
 Red river, was the nation of the Cadodaquious, called, by abbreviation, 
 Cados. They could raise five hundred warriors. 
 
 Four or five hundred families of the Choctaws were dispersed in the 
 district of Washita, and the whole nation would have moved to the west 
 side of the Mississippi, had they not been prevented by the Spaniards, and 
 the Indians in their alliance there, who had suffered much from the 
 aggressions of the Choctaws. 
 
 Between Red river and that of the Arkansas, were a few Indian families, 
 the remains of tribes almost extinct. The nation that gave its name to 
 the last river, was reduced to about two hundred and fifty warriors. They 
 had three large villages on the river ; the first was at the distance of forty 
 miles from the Mississippi ; the others at the distance of nine and 
 eighteen miles from the stream. 
 
 On the river St. Francis, and on the right bank of the Mississippi, near 
 New Madrid and Cape Girardeau, were wandering families, who had 
 emigrated from the Delaware, Shawanees, Miamis, Cherokees, and Chick- 
 asaws — in all about five hundred families. They were at times troublesome 
 to the boats descending the Mississippi, plundering them, and even 
 committing murders. They had been attracted to this part of the country 
 several years before the cession, when the views of the government of 
 Louisiana were hostile to the United States. 
 
 The scarcity of game to the east of the Mississippi, had lately induced 
 a number of Cherokees, Chickasaws, and Choctaws, to frequent the country 
 to the west, where game was still abundant. Some of them had contracted 
 marriages with Arkansas women, and many others were inclined to incor- 
 porate themselves in that nation. Their number was unknown, but 
 supposed to be considerable. 
 
 On the river des Moines, which falls into the Mississippi from the west, 
 were the Ayoas, a nation that formerly dwelt on the Missouri. They had 
 tvvo hundred Avarriors. Its number had lately been much reduced by the 
 small-pox. 
 
 Higher up, and about nine hundred miles above St. Louis, on the banks 
 of the Mississippi, were the Sacs and Renards, who together had about 
 
302 HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 
 
 five hundred warriors. They traded with St. Louis and Michilimackinac, 
 who had always been peaceable and friendly. 
 
 The nations on the Missouri were cruel, treacherous and insolent. 
 
 The officers of the province were : 
 
 A governor, invested with civil and military authority. 
 
 An intendant, charged with the revenue, granting of land, and admiralty 
 matters. 
 
 An auditor of war. 
 
 An assessor of the intendancy. 
 
 (The same individual often acted in both these capacities.) 
 
 A secretary of the government, and one of the intendant. 
 
 A treasurer and a comptroller. 
 
 A surveyor-general. 
 
 A storekeeper. 
 
 A purveyor, who made purchases for the king. 
 
 Three notaries, who acted as auctioneers, and whose offices were the 
 repositories for law proceedings and deeds. 
 
 An interpreter of the French and English languages, and one for the 
 Indians. 
 
 A harbor master. 
 
 A marine officer. 
 
 A physician to the military hospital — surgeon, and apothecary. 
 
 Another to the charity hospital — surgeon and apothecary. 
 
 A collector, treasurer, guarda mayor, notary, two head clerks, and 
 about twenty inferior officers, in the customhouse. 
 
 Besides these, there was a cabildo in New Orleans, composed of two 
 ordinary alcades, twelve regidors, an attorney-general, syndic and clerk ; 
 four alcades de barrio, and a number of syndics, or officers of police. 
 
 In the countr}'', there was a commandant in each parish, who had a 
 number of syndics under him. 
 
 In a communication to the department of state, in 1803, the consul of 
 the United States at New Orleans, says : '' the auditors of war, and 
 assessors of government and intendancy, have always been corrupt ; and 
 to them only may be attributed the mal-administration of justice, as the' 
 governor and other judges, who are unacquainted with law, seldom dare 
 to act contrary to the opinions they give. Hence, when the auditor, or 
 assessor was bribed, suitors had to complain of delays and infamous 
 decisions. All the officers plunder when the opportunity offers ; they are 
 all venal. A bargain can be made with the governor, intendant, judge, 
 or collector, down to the constable ; and if ever an officer be displeased at 
 an offer of money, it is not at the offer or offerer, but because imperious 
 circumstances compel him to refuse ; and the offerer acquires a degree of 
 favor which encourages him to make a second offer, when a better 
 opportunity is presented." 
 
 The duties at the customhouse, in the year preceding the cession, 
 amounted to $117,515. 
 
 The imposts paid in Louisiana, were : 
 
 1. A duty of six per cent, on the transfer of shipping. It w^as exacted 
 on the sum the parties declared, which seldom exceeded one-half the real, 
 as no oath was required. 
 
 2. A duty on legacies or inheritances of collateral relatives, when 
 
HISTORY QF LOUISIANA. 303 
 
 exceeding the value of two thousand dollars, and of four per cent, when 
 the legatee or heir was not a relation of the deceased. 
 
 3. A tax on all civil employments, the salary of which exceeded three 
 hundred dollars a year, called media annata, amounting to one-half of the 
 first year's salary, payable, in some cases, in two yearly instalments, and 
 in others in four. The first incumbent of a newly created office was 
 exempt from this tax. 
 
 4. Seven dollars, deducted from twenty, paid for pilotage by every 
 vessel entering or leaving the Mississippi : but the treasury provided boats, 
 and paid the wages of pilots and sailors employed at the Balize. The 
 remainder of the twenty dollars was distributed as follows : four dollars 
 to the head pilot, four to the pilot who boarded the vessel, and five to the 
 crew of the boat who brought him. 
 
 5. A tax of forty dollars on licenses to sell spirituous liquors. 
 
 6. A tax on saleable offices, as those of regidors, clerk of the cabildo, 
 and notaries. 
 
 Exclusive of paper money, emissions of which were made in the earl\' 
 part of the Spanish government, there existed, at all times, a debt due by 
 the government, for expenses incurred, for supplies furnished to the troops, 
 and the king's stores and salaries of officers and workmen, for which 
 liberanzas, or certificates, were regularly issued, of which there was afloat, 
 at the cession, a sum of from four hundred and fifty to five hundred 
 thousand dollars. They bore no interest, and were commonly to be 
 bought at a discount of from 25 to 50 per cent. At the change or govern- 
 ment, the discount was thirty. This depreciation was not the result of a 
 want of confidence, or any apprehension that the certificates would not be 
 paid, but from the value of money and the scarcity of it in the market. 
 
 With the view of removing from circulation a part of those liheranzas 
 which inundated the market, the intendant, on the fifteenth of July, 1802, 
 announced that he would furnish bills, or cartas depaga, on the treasury 
 of the army, or that of the marine, at Havana, and receive one-half of the 
 amount in liberanzas issued in New Orleans, and the other in cash ; under 
 the condition that, in regard to the cartas de paga on the treasurer of the 
 army, should there not be, at their presentation, funds appropriated to the 
 province of Louisiana, the holder should wait until the arrival of such 
 funds. By this measure, a considerable part of the liheranzas were with- 
 drawn from circulation. 
 
 The church of Louisiana was under the direction of a bishop and two 
 canons. New Orleans having been erected into a bishopric in 1792, the 
 first incumbent of which. Don Luis de Penalvert, was promoted in 1801 
 to the archbishopric of Guatimala. A successor had been appointed to 
 him, but he never came to the province. The reverend Thomas Haslett, 
 one of the canons, died a short time before the cession, and had not been 
 replaced. 
 
 The province, for ecclesiastical purposes, was divided into twenty-one 
 parishes ; four of which were without a church, and as many more without 
 a priest, so that the whole clergy did not consist of more than nineteen 
 individuals. There was a chaplain to the convent, one to the troops, and 
 one in each of the hospitals ; and the curate of New Orleans had three 
 assistants. 
 
 The bishop had a salary of four thousand dollars, charged on some 
 bishoprics in Mexico and Havana. The canons received a salary of six 
 
304 
 
 HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 
 
 hundred dollars ; and those of the curates and chaplains were from three 
 hundred and sixty to seven hundred and twenty dollars, paid out of the 
 treasury. They besides received fees for masses, marriages, and burials. 
 
 The king, besides, paid a salary of one hundred and eighty dollars a 
 year to each of the sacristans of most of the parishes, and a sum of one 
 hundred dollars a year to the cathedral, and twenty-four dollars to each 
 parish, for bread, wine, and wax lights. 
 
 The cathedral church owned a square in the city, the rent of the houses 
 of which, and the hire of the pews, with the sum paid by the king, consti- 
 tuted its revenue. The other churches derived one from the hire of pews. 
 
 Besides the cathedral, there were two chapels in New Orleans, in which 
 divine service wes regularly performed — that of the convent, and that of 
 the charity hospital. 
 
 There were but eleven nuns in the convent. They attended to the 
 education of young persons of their sex ; receiving pay from the wealthy, 
 and educating a few poor girls gratuitously. 
 
 The catholic religion was the only one of which the rites were allowed 
 to be publicly performed. None were compelled to attend its service. 
 In public, respect was expected for the ceremonies of that church ; but 
 every one was permitted, at home, to worship his maker as he deemed 
 proper. 
 
 RECEIPTS AND EXPENDITURES OF THE PROVINCE, 
 DURING THE YEAR 1802. 
 
 RECEIPTS. 
 
 Common Branches. 
 Balance of last year, .... 
 Invalids, ..... 
 Sale of effects from the artillery store, 
 Dues received from ships entering the Balize, 
 Payments to the treasury of debts due it, 
 Sale of effects from the king's store, 
 Sums received from the customhouse, 
 Rent of the tenements belonging to the king, 
 Rations, deducted from the soldier's pay, . 
 Hospital fees, likewise deducted. 
 Loans to the treasury, 
 Sale of waste lands, 
 Duty of media annata on said lands, 
 Cash received from Vera Cruz, 
 Returns for supplies to the navy. 
 Cash received for drafts on other treasuries, 
 Returns of overcharge to the treasury. 
 
 Private Funds. 
 
 Balance of the year before. 
 Balance of accounts, . 
 Media annata of officers, 
 Donation, 
 
 
 $ 51,932 27 
 
 
 5,959 13 
 
 
 630 38 
 
 
 3,240 50 
 
 
 16,024 75 
 
 
 2,005 62 
 
 
 130,724 88 
 
 
 336 00 
 
 
 31,998 75 
 
 
 5,177 88 
 
 
 14,106 00 
 
 
 188 50 
 
 
 5 50 
 
 
 402,258 00 
 
 
 20,000 00 
 
 
 49,512 88 
 
 
 3 75 
 
 
 30,880 51 
 
 
 217 63 
 
 
 1,226 26 
 
 
 121 00 
 
HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 
 
 305 
 
 88 
 13 
 62 
 
 Funds not the Kln(fs Property. 
 
 Balance of the year before, . . . . $ 53,775 62 
 
 Monte Pio oi siw^eons, .... 167 00 
 
 Tl/o/iie P<o of military officers, .... 1,61925 
 
 Deposits, .^ . . . . . 19,364 50 
 
 il/o7t^e Pio of officers of civil employments, . . 341 13 
 
 Monte Pio of offices, ..... 1,209 76 
 
 $843,043 37 
 
 EXPENDITURES. 
 
 Common Branches. 
 
 Expenses of people condemned to public works, . 6,971 63 
 
 Ordinary expenses of the city, .... 3,614 50 
 
 Expenses of fortifications, .... 4,210 25 
 
 Returns of loans made to the treasury, . . 42,015 63 
 
 Buildings, ...... 6,152 88 
 
 Extraordinar}'- expenses, . . ' . . 6,679 50 
 
 Maintenance of prisoners of war, . . . • 824 37 
 
 Maintenance of poor, confined for their rations, . 519 75 
 
 Supplies to the navy, .... 8,844 
 
 Supplies to other treasuries, .... 10,316 
 
 Pay to the people employed in the galleys, . . 21,922 
 
 Expenses for the chapel service, .... 526 25 
 
 Hospital expenses, ..... 27,716 02 
 
 Indian expenses, ...... 25,418 26 
 
 Salaries of officers and people employed in the different 
 
 offices of the revenue, .... 46,307 00 
 
 Expenses of the general store, etc., . . . 108,620 75 
 
 Expenses for the galleys, ..... 4,004 38 
 
 Return of duties, ..... 1,542 63 
 
 Allowances for table to officers, .... 5,367 88 
 
 Rations, ...... 1,446 63 
 
 Civil and military salaries, .... 9,293 26 
 
 General expenses of revenue department, . . 19,523 00 
 
 Remittances to other treasuries, .... 74,000 00 
 
 Salaries to Indians, ..... 4,851 00 
 
 Salaries to invalids, ..... 540 50 
 
 Pay of the regular troops, .... 186,387 14 
 
 Allowances to professional corps, . . . 158 26 
 
 Pay of the militia, ..... 12,704 13 
 
 Office expenses, ...... 1,138 50 
 
 Department of artillery and workmen, . . 5,241 37 
 
 Half pay to officers retired, .... 300 00 
 
 Employed in the customhouse, . . . 7,386 26 
 
 Pensions, ....... 2,328 00 
 
 House rent, ...... 1,068 00 
 
 Salaries of persons employed in forming settlements, . 1,320 00 
 
 Salaries of officers and sergeants in half pay, . 2,902 00 
 
 Salaries of French emigrant officers, . . , 744 00 
 
 Premiums to soldiers for services, . . . 4,811 26 
 
 41 
 
306 HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 
 
 Conveyances of dispatches, . . . . $ 230 37 
 
 Purchase of naval stores for Vera Cruz, . . 9,453 63 
 
 Passage money of soldiers and criminals, . . 166 00 
 
 Expenses of demarcation of limits, . . . 7,540 00 
 
 Returns of sundries from the treasury, . . . 2,400 00 
 
 Secret expenses, . . . . . 2,000 00 
 
 Secret expenses, military, . . . . 25 00 
 
 Sums charged to the treasurer, not received, . 4,184 01 
 
 Private Funds. 
 
 Balance of accounts, . . . . . 49 75 
 
 Expenses of justice, ..... 10 00 
 
 Funds not King''s Property. 
 
 Deposits, 6,682 76 
 
 MonU Pio of officers, 399 89 
 
 Monte Pio of military, ..... 4,553 88 
 
 Monte Pio of offices, ..... 957 39 
 
 Balance in the treasury, ..... 136,674 13 
 
 $843,048 38 
 
 The foregoing statement shows that the expenses actually paid in cash 
 in all the year 1802, including those of the ramos agenos, etc., or funds not 
 royal proi3erty, amounted to seven hundred and six thousand three 
 hundred and seventy-four dollars and fourteen cents, to which if we add 
 the salaries and pay due to many officers of the revenue department, and 
 crew of the squadron of galleys, the extraordinary expenses caused by the 
 different expeditions, particularly those which are renewed to the post of 
 Apalaches, for its defense against the attacks of the adventurer, Bowles, 
 and his party among the Creeks ; the amount of bills drawn on the royal 
 chests by the king's storekeeper of Illinois, New Madrid, Baton Rouge, 
 Plaquemines, Apalaches, Mobile, and other posts, which not being yet 
 present are unpaid, it will appear that the quota (or situado) of this 
 province, reduced to five hundred and thirty-seven thousand, eight 
 hundred and sixty-nine dollars and fifty-six cents, is exceeded, by extra- 
 ordinary expenses, upwards of three hundred thousand dollars, notwith- 
 standing there are 820 men wanting to complete the regiment on the war 
 footing, and independent of the sums received for duties at the custom- 
 house, and many considerable savings in the establishment, which have 
 taken place since it was formed in 1785, and the causes of said expenses, 
 and considerable debt incurred by this treasury, are those mentioned in 
 the foregoing statement. 
 
 It is Hkewise remarked that the royal chests owe 255,518 dollars to the 
 fund of deposits, 48,372 dollars and 31 cents to that of tobacco, 60,000 
 dollars to the fixed regiment and other corps, 12,000 dollars to the public 
 deposit, 1000 dollars to the pious fund of the cabins of female orphans, 
 and 337,760 dollars and 37 cents in certificates of credit, which, for want 
 of cash, have been issued in payment to the public, without compre- 
 hending Avhat may be owing in Pensacola, as this office has no knowledge 
 of its means and resources. 
 
 New Orleans, 2Sd March, 1S03. 
 
 (Signed) Giberto Leonard. 
 
 [Translation.] Manuel Almirez. 
 
HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 307 
 
 This fund of deposit is cash deposited for a particular purpose, such as 
 the fortifications of Pensacola, etc., to which it has not been applied. 
 
 The ramos particulares, or private funds are those of individuals under the 
 royal protection, for the payment of pensions, etc., to officers' widows, etc. 
 
 The ramos ageiios are funds which do not belong to the king, but are 
 destined for the purposes mentioned, being generally discounts from 
 salaries, to pay invalids, etc. 
 
 The deposits constituting a part of this fund, proceed from propert}' in 
 dispute to which the king has a claim, and the amount is deposited until 
 the claim is decided. 
 
 The sum due to the fund of tobacco, is a balance which remained of 
 that particular fund, after the purchases for the king's account were 
 completed. 
 
 That due to the public deposit is the amount of certain property for 
 which suits are depending between individuals. 
 
 That the regiment of Louisiana is taken from the military chest of that 
 regiment, which has considerable funds of its own in cash. 
 
 The amount of certificates is the sum then due to the public, for 
 supplies, salaries, and wages, which have not been paid for want of cash. 
 
 SALARIES AND EXPENSES, 
 Not comprehended in the Provincial Regulation. 
 
 ANNUAL. 
 
 Governor, late of Natchez, now Baton Rouge, . . $ 2,500 
 
 Secretary to governor, ..... 840 
 
 A colonel of artillery, ..... 2,000 
 
 Two captains of said companies, .... 1,680 
 
 One lieutenant of said companies, . . . 528 
 
 Two engineers, ...... 2,000 
 
 Allowances for table expenses (when employed, $25 per 
 
 month,) cannot be specified,. 
 Officers of the army, additional, who have been put on pay 
 
 viz., 2 captains, 1 lieutenant, and 3 sub-lieutenants, . 3,096 
 Officers added to the etat-major de place : 5 captains, 2 lieu- 
 tenants, and 1 on half pay, .... 2,476 
 
 Augmentation of pay to the public interpreter, . . 264 
 
 An interventor or comptroller of public stores, . 800 
 
 / Two officers for revision of accounts, . . . 1,140 
 
 One officer added to the secretary's office of the intendancy, 360 
 
 Auditor of war, ...... 2,000 
 
 Storekeeper, interpreter, and baker of New Madrid ; inter- 
 preter and baker of Illinois, .... 1,200 
 
 An additional clerk to the public stores, . . 360 
 
 Storekeeper at Baton Rouge, .... 360 
 
 Storekeeper, surgeon, inter jjreter, and baker, at Apalaches, 1,300 
 Commandants of the posts of St. John the Baptist, of the 
 German parish, Opelousas, New Bourbon, Cape Bour- 
 bon, Cape Girardeau, St. Andrew, and St. Fernando of 
 
 Illinois, ...... 600 
 
 A French engineer, ...... 1,200 
 
308 HISTORY OF LOUISIAXA. 
 
 An emigrant captain of the same nation, . . $ 744 
 
 Expenses of artillery department, .... 10,000 
 
 Provincial hospitals in various places, . . . 5,000 
 
 Indian presents and expenses, in addition to the sum men- 
 tioned in the provincial regulation, . . . 30,000 
 Allowances to couriers yearly, . . . . 1,000 
 
 Supply of provisions, medicines, etc., to the garrison of 
 
 Pensacola, . . . . . . 20,000 
 
 Secret expenses of government — cannot he precisely fixed, 
 Pay of 9 dragoons, at .$25 per month and rations, on condi- 
 tion of finding their own horses, at Pensacola, 3,500 
 ' Four corporals of militia, employed in various posts of the 
 province under the orders of the commandants, at $10 
 per month, ...... 480 
 
 Pay of the harljor master, .... 2,000 
 
 Assistant to the harbor master, .... 360 
 
 Salary of the two canons, .... 1,200 
 
 An assistant to the curate, ..... 720 
 
 A ranger of the forest at Concordia, opposite Natchez, 240 
 
 One ranger in Ouachita, ..... 240 
 
 Fifteen sergeants on half pay, .... 2,025 
 
 Pensions to four officers of the royal hacienda, who have 
 
 retired, ....... 1,550 
 
 Seven sacristans appointed since the establishment of the 
 regulation for St. Bernard, Baton Rouge, New Feliciana, 
 or Thompson's creek, Rapides, Natchitoches, Arkansas, 
 and New Madrid, at $15 per month each, . . 1,260 
 
 House rent in various places, viz : 
 Commandant at Baton Rouge, .... 360 
 
 Curate of Baton Rouge, ..... 180 
 
 Curate of Feliciana, ...... 180 
 
 Commandant of Natchitoches, .... 300 
 
 Commandant of Concord, . . . . . 240 
 
 Commandant of New Madrid, .... 240 
 
 Six seamen at the Balize, at $6 per month and rations, . 837 
 
 Four seamen for the boat of the revenue officer employed 
 
 there, ....... 480 
 
 Two seamen at Mobile, to look after the king's launch at $10 
 
 each, jDer month, and rations, . . 
 
 Allowance to the commandant of the encampment at Espe- 
 
 ranza, opposite the Chickasaw Bluffs, . . 72 
 
 Storekeeper, surgeon, apothecary, and assistant to the hos- 
 pital at Plaquemines, ..... 984 
 
 $109,271 
 
 EXTRAORDINARY. 
 
 Brigade of presidarlos, or people condemned to the public 
 
 works; their maintenance, clothing, etc., . . 25,000 
 
 Pay of the officers and people employed in the galleys and 
 
 gun-boats, etc., ...... 60,000 
 
 Rations for officers and repairs of vessels, . . 40,000 
 
HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 
 
 309 
 
 Expenses of fortifications and repairs, in the capital and 
 other posts, ...... 
 
 Transportation of troops and presidarios, 
 
 Maintenance of criminals, ..... 
 
 Expenses of running the line of demarcation with the U. S. 
 from the beginning of 1797, not brought into account 
 until the whole was completed ; exceeding, 
 
 Premiums to soldiers of good character, who have served 
 beyond a certain period, ..... 
 
 Grand total, annual and extraordinary expenses. 
 
 $ 20,000 
 1,000 
 1,500 
 
 150,000 
 
 4,500 
 
 $302,000 
 
 $411,271 
 
 Expenses u-hich, for icant of cash^ icere paid in Certificates, in the year 1802. 
 
 Salaries of the revenue department, 
 General expenses of revenue department, 
 General expenses of the king's store, for supplies, . 
 General expenses of extraordinaries, 
 General expenses for chapel service, 
 General expenses of the military hospital. 
 General expenses of criminals condemned to public 
 works, ...... 
 
 General expenses for the city guards, 
 House rent, .... 
 
 Maintenance of persons confined, 
 
 Purchase of stores for Vera Cruz, 
 
 Passage of troops discharged, 
 
 Pay of soldiers, 
 
 Pay of militia, 
 
 Pay of half pay officers and servants, 
 
 Department of artillery and workmen. 
 
 Pay of the crew of the galleys. 
 
 Repairs of the galleys. 
 
 Repairs of fortifications, etc., . , 
 
 Allowance for table expenses to officers on service, 
 
 Salaries to the Indian department. 
 
 General expenses of the Indian department. 
 
 Rations to officers on service. 
 
 $ 5,735 38 
 
 3,665 37 
 
 28,990 87 
 
 713 50 
 
 197 88 
 
 1,132 37 
 
 42 62 
 
 684 74 
 
 1,365 00 
 
 280 12 
 
 1,194 37 
 
 28 00 
 
 15 00 
 
 3,166 62 
 
 45 00 
 
 1,088 37 
 
 44,444 56 
 
 960 94 
 
 3,319 31 
 
 1,197 00 
 
 2,021 75 
 
 15,983 31 
 
 80 00 
 
 $116,352 87 
 
 Annual Revenues of the City of New Orleans. 
 
 Hire of the stalls in the beef market, ... $ 2,350 
 Tax of seven-eighths of a dollar on every carcass of beef 
 
 exposed to sale, calculated at . . . , 3,325 
 
 Hire of the green and fish markets, etc., . . 1,383 
 Tax of one quarter of a dollar on every carcass of veal, 
 
 mutton, or pork, exposed to sale, (sujiposcd) . . 1,200 
 
310 HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 
 
 Tax of half a dollar per barrel on flour, baked in the city, 
 
 for which the bakers do not render a just account, $ 2,800 
 
 Tax of $40 on taverns, $20 on lodging houses, and $40 on 
 
 billiard tables, estimated at ... 3,500 
 
 Tax of $3 on all ships for anchorage, destined for the 
 
 repairs of the levee of the city ; this tax not being paid 
 
 by the American shipping, . ; . . 500 
 
 Tax of $2 per pipe on taffia imported, . . . 800 
 
 Ground rents on the great square, . . . . 132 
 
 Rent of the old market house, now turned into a gaming 
 
 house and ball-room, .... 1,800 
 
 Ground rents, arising from the sale of the square opposite 
 
 the hospital, ...... 693 
 
 Movable shops and stalls, .... 360 
 
 Tax of a dollar on all vessels entering the bayou St. John, 470 
 
 $19,278 
 
 Mem. — Some of the above items are casual, and depend on the hiring 
 of stalls, and greater or less consumption of the city. 
 
 Expenses of the City. 
 
 A commission of five per cent, to the treasurer for all sums 
 
 he may receive. . " . 
 To the six regidors or members of the cabildo or town council 
 
 first created, . . . . . . $ 350 
 
 The notary who serves as clerk to the council, . . 200 
 
 To the two porters of the council, who are likewise employed 
 by the treasurer in collecting the hire of the stalls, 
 etc., at $35 per month, ..... 420 
 
 To the sergeant employed to look after the city carters, who. 
 are obliged to bring weekly two loads of earth for 
 repairing the streets which are unpaid: at $12 per 
 month, ....... 144 
 
 To the corporal who looks after the persons condemned to 
 
 the public works ; at $12 per month, . . . 144 
 
 To the city cryer, $12 per month, .... 144 
 
 To the executioner, $15 per month, .... 180 
 
 For lighting the lamps of the city, about 1800 gallons of oil 
 annually, ....... 
 
 Repairing lamps, ladders, candlewick, .... 400 
 
 To 14 watchmen, Avho serve likewise as lamplighters, . 2,580 
 
 To the guard appointed to attend at the Bayou bridge, . 62 
 
 Repairs of the Bayou bridge, (casual) 
 
 Repairs of the city levee, or dyke, now in a dangerous state, 
 being partly carried away this spring by the under- 
 mining of the river, and which will be very expensive 
 to repair, . . . . 
 
 Repairs of the streets, gutters and city drains, uncertain, . 
 
 There are besides the above, many casual and extraordinary expenses, 
 which cannot be particularly enumerated. 
 
HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 
 
 311 
 
 Imports at New Orleans, in 1802. 
 
 Fans assorted, dozens, 
 
 468 
 
 Fan for cleaning rice, 
 
 1 
 
 Steel, lbs., .... 
 
 34,834 
 
 Olive oil in bottles, doz., . ... 
 
 1,648 
 
 Olive oil, common, in flasks, doz., 
 
 420 
 
 Olive oil in jars, .... 
 
 50 
 
 Oil, essentials, phials, doz., , 
 
 6 
 
 Oil, linseed, galls., 
 
 1,132 
 
 Oil, fish, galls.. 
 
 3,931 
 
 Oil, turpentine, lbs.. 
 
 215 
 
 Olives, in flasks, doz.. 
 
 236 
 
 Brandy of Provence, galls., 
 
 1,960 
 
 Brandy of Bordeaux, galls., . 
 
 5,178 
 
 Brandy, bottled, doz., 
 
 194 
 
 Brandv of peaches, galls.. 
 
 30 
 
 Taffia,'hhds., .... 
 
 67 
 
 Whiskey, galls., . . - . 
 
 300 
 
 Scented waters, bottles, 
 
 485 
 
 Hungary and other waters, bottles, . 
 
 103 
 
 Capers, in flasks, doz., 
 
 264 
 
 Copperas, lbs., 
 
 800 
 
 Carpets, ■wool, .... 
 
 6 
 
 Cotton, lbs., . . ■ . 
 
 39,808 
 
 Red lead, lbs., .... 
 
 1,120 
 
 Almonds, in shell, lbs.. 
 
 3,917 
 
 Almonds, shelled, lbs., . . . 
 
 400 
 
 Starch, lbs., .... 
 
 130 
 
 Tar, (brought in vessels originally bound 
 
 to other ports) 
 
 bbls., 
 
 325 
 
 Bitters, bottles. 
 
 288 
 
 Broadcloths, ells, . . 
 
 600 
 
 Anchovies, bottles. 
 
 283 
 
 Eels, salted, flasks, 
 
 30 
 
 Anniseed, in baskets, 
 
 662 
 
 Telescopes, .... 
 
 26 
 
 Indigo, lbs., .... 
 
 1,597 
 
 Ploughs, ..... 
 
 4 
 
 Herrings and Pilchards, lbs., 
 
 21,400 
 
 Press of mahogany. 
 
 1 
 
 Harness with brass mountings, 
 
 6 
 
 Glass bottles, cases, 
 
 3 
 
 Filberts, lbs., .... 
 
 500 
 
 Quicksilver, lbs., .... 
 
 24,210 
 
 Sugar, white, lbs., . ... 
 
 704 
 
 Sugar, brown, lbs., 
 
 23,992 
 
 Sulphur, lbs., .... 
 
 4,650 
 
 Codfish, dried, quintals, . 
 
 348 
 
 Baftas, pieces of 10 ells, 
 
 507 
 
 Scales, pairs, .... 
 
 2 
 
 Balls for muskets, 
 
 , . . 300 
 
312 
 
 HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 
 
 Buckets, doz., 
 
 Varnish, common, galls., 
 
 Varnish, fine, bottles, 
 
 Dresses for women, in pieces 
 
 Cambricks, in 6 ell pieces, 
 
 Trunks, empty. 
 
 Baize, ells, 
 
 Beaufort, unbleached, ells, 
 
 Calf skins, doz., 
 
 Bath coatings, ells. 
 
 Book-cases, mahogany. 
 
 Bidets, . 
 
 Screens, (paper) . 
 
 Biscuit, quintals, 
 
 Blondes, silk, etc., ells 
 
 Purses, silk, doz., 
 
 Fire engines, 
 
 Puffs, swansdown, doz 
 
 Boots, pairs, 
 
 Bootlegs, pairs. 
 
 Half-boots, pairs, . 
 
 Half-bootlegs, pairs, 
 
 Empty bottles, 
 
 Bramantes or Flanders, ells. 
 
 Butter, bbls., 
 
 Britanias, pieces, 
 
 Brin of all breadths, ells, 
 
 Buffets, mahogany. 
 
 Busts of plaster, 
 
 Cables, lbs., 
 
 Cacao, lbs., 
 
 Coffee, lbs.. 
 
 Coffee pots of iron, tinned, 
 
 Callimancoes, ells, 
 
 Copper kettles for sugar boilers, 
 
 Chaises, 
 
 Chairs, . . . 
 
 Breeches patterns, cotton web, 
 
 Breeches and pantaloons made. 
 
 Bedsteads, mahogany. 
 
 Sheets, linen, doz., _ . 
 
 Sheets, check and ticking, doz., 
 
 Canapces or sofas, 
 
 Canvass, ells, . 
 
 Cinnamon, lbs., 
 
 Cotton bagging, ells, 
 
 Hemp, lbs.. 
 
 Quills for writing, 
 
 Carabines, 
 
 Sea coal, hhds.. 
 
 Cotton cards, pairs, 
 
 Verdigris, lbs., 
 
 159 
 
 5,889 
 
 24 
 
 110 
 
 132 
 
 40 
 
 4,250 
 
 1,488 
 
 123 
 
 4,290 
 
 2 
 
 48 
 
 10 
 
 153 
 
 901 
 
 50 
 
 2 
 
 21 
 
 98 
 
 425 
 
 269 
 
 617 
 
 100,140 
 
 14,451 
 
 38 
 
 15,472 
 
 30,144 
 
 6 
 
 74 
 
 59,487 
 
 1,024 
 
 189,910 
 
 42 
 
 9,049 
 
 4 
 
 2 
 
 15 
 
 110 
 
 1,482 
 
 1 
 
 46 
 
 925 
 
 21 
 
 4,350 
 
 200 
 
 38 
 
 65,822 
 
 57,000 
 
 10 
 
 100 
 
 1,524 
 
 21 
 
HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 
 
 313 
 
 Pork, salted, bbls.. 
 
 Beef, salted, bbls.. 
 
 Bacon, lbs., 
 
 Venison, smoked, lbs., 
 
 Carts and drays, . 
 
 Carts with their harness, 
 
 Feathers, cartons. 
 
 Flowers, artificial, cartons, 
 
 Check jackets. 
 
 Caps, leather, doz., 
 
 German rolls, ells, 
 
 Casimirs, ells, 
 
 Onions, quintals, . 
 
 Sieves, wire, etc., doz.. 
 
 Lace, ells, . 
 
 Sashes for women, 
 
 Wax, manufactured, lbs., 
 
 Beer, hhds.. 
 
 Beer, bottled, doz.. 
 
 Shoe blacking balls, lbs., 
 
 Waiscoats of various materials, 
 
 Jackets of various materials, doz 
 
 Vermillion, lbs., 
 
 Girt webb, ells. 
 
 Ribbons, silk, pieces, 
 
 Ribbons, velvet, pieces. 
 
 Ribbons for the hair, 60 ell pieces, 
 
 Tape, dozen pieces. 
 
 Binding, worsted, pieces, 
 
 Satin ribbon, pieces, 
 
 Cotton tape, gross of pieces. 
 
 Prunes, lbs., 
 
 Nails, assorted, lbs.. 
 
 Cloves, lbs.. 
 
 Copper, manufactured, lbs., 
 
 Copper in sheets, lbs., 
 
 Head dresses for women. 
 
 Iron chests. 
 
 Glue, lbs., . 
 
 Counterpanes, quilted, 
 
 Oznaburg, white, ells, 
 
 Oznaburg, brown, ells, 
 
 Sweetmeats, dried, lbs.. 
 
 Sweetmeats in syrup, lbs., 
 
 Coral, boxes. 
 
 Neck handkerchiefs, boxes. 
 
 Fishing lines. 
 
 Leather dressed, dozen skins, 
 
 Cider, galls., 
 
 Cider, bottled, doz.. 
 
 Saddles, 
 
 Windsor chairs, doz., 
 
 42 
 
 2,537 
 
 237 
 
 68,556 
 
 100 
 
 3 
 
 6 
 
 24 
 
 60 
 
 10 
 
 29 
 
 10,125 
 
 919 
 
 127 
 
 887 
 
 4,069 
 
 82 
 
 1550 
 
 92 
 
 807 
 
 200 
 
 875 
 
 191 
 
 530 
 
 485 
 
 9,443 
 
 677 
 
 329 
 
 3,176 
 
 2,430 
 
 204 
 
 3 
 
 6,308 
 
 133,738 
 
 280 
 
 400 
 
 180 
 
 58 
 
 3 
 
 205 
 
 330 
 
 6,371 
 
 53,945 
 
 417 
 
 87 
 
 26 
 
 23 
 
 5,444 
 
 17 
 
 1,050 
 
 374 
 
 208 
 
 179 
 
314 HISTORY OF LOUISIANA 
 
 Riding chairs, 
 Mahogany arm chairs, 
 Seersuckers, pieces of 12 ells 
 Hats, doz.. 
 Sole leather, lbs., . 
 Cork soles, pieces, 
 Suspenders, elastic, pairs, 
 Kentucky tobacco, lbs., 
 Kentucky twist, lbs., 
 Rapee snuff, bottles, . 
 Corl^s, 
 
 Corks for demijohns, 
 Tea,;bs., . 
 Ticken, ells, 
 Tiles, 
 
 Whiting, casks. 
 Ink, bottles, 
 Inkstands, doz.. 
 Toilette glasses, 
 Molasses casks, broke up. 
 Turpentine, lbs., . 
 Velvets, cotton, 
 Glass for doors and windows. 
 Watch glasses. 
 White wine vinegar, galls., 
 Red wdne vinegar, galls.. 
 Composition vinegar, bottles, 
 Catalonian wine, galls., 
 Andalusian wine, galls., . 
 Andalusian wine, bottled, doz., 
 Corsican wine, pipes. 
 Claret, hhds., . 
 Claret, bottled, doz.. 
 White wine, Bordeaux, casks, 
 " White wine, Bordeaux, bottled, doz., 
 Provence wine, hhds., 
 Provence wine, bottled, doz., 
 Canary wine, galls., . 
 Madeira wine, galls., 
 Madeira wine,, bottled, doz 
 Frontignac, galls., 
 Chamjiagne, galls., 
 Alicant, galls., . . 
 Violins, 
 Soap, lbs., . 
 Soap balls, lbs., 
 Cordage, lbs., 
 Cages, . 
 Syringes, . 
 Syringes, small, 
 Shoes, men's and women's, of every description, pairs. 
 
 1 
 
 8 
 24 
 
 1,357 
 
 500 
 
 50 
 
 162 
 
 241,846 
 
 948 
 
 363 
 
 778,000 
 
 8,000 
 
 5,567 
 
 14,241 
 
 27,000 
 
 67 
 
 349 
 
 50 
 
 12 
 
 130 
 
 1,786 
 
 1,182 
 
 2,980 
 
 504 
 
 5,145 
 
 105 
 
 75 
 
 6,972 
 
 3,171 
 
 40 
 
 5 
 
 3,575 
 
 4,062 
 
 144 
 
 1,371 
 
 234 
 
 334 
 
 1,620 
 
 150 
 
 20 
 
 271 
 
 35 
 
 16 
 
 36 
 
 156,752 
 
 146 
 
 323,645 
 
 40 
 
 1,119 
 
 97 
 
 9,758 
 
HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 
 
 315 
 
 Exports for 1802. 
 
 
 Garlic, ropes, , . . ■ . 
 
 500 
 
 Cotton, clean, lbs., 
 
 . 2,161,498 
 
 Tar, barrels, . . . . ■ . 
 
 1,846 
 
 Anchors, ...... 
 
 1 
 
 Indigo, (produce of former years, long in store) 
 
 336,199 
 
 Rice, quintals, ..... 
 
 46 
 
 Masts, . . . 
 
 127 
 
 White sugar, lbs., . . . . 
 
 100 
 
 Brown sugar, lbs., . 
 
 2,493,274 
 
 Pitch, bbls., . . .... 
 
 258 
 
 Cables, . . 
 
 1 
 
 Cane, reed, ... 
 
 9,000 
 
 Beef, bbls., . 
 
 217 
 
 Pork, bbls., . ... 
 
 636 
 
 Tables of common wood, . . 
 
 18 
 
 Black lead, lbs., . . . . . 
 
 118 
 
 Corn mills, . . . 
 
 122 
 
 Fire dogs gilt, pairs, . . 
 
 40 
 
 Mustard, doz. bottles, 
 
 132 
 
 Muslins, different kinds, ells. 
 
 . 15,793 
 
 Muslinets, different kinds, ells, 
 
 3,236 
 
 Petticoats made, . . 
 
 12 
 
 Nanquinets, ells, . . 
 
 3,158 
 
 Cards, grosses of packs, . . 
 
 375 
 
 Walnut plank, feet, .... 
 
 1,000 
 
 Nutmegs, lbs., . . • " . 
 
 71 
 
 Hand organs, . . . 
 
 4 
 
 Guayac wood, quintals, .... 
 
 280 
 
 Cloths, ells, ..... 
 
 14,950 
 
 Strouds, 16 ell pieces, .... 
 
 673 
 
 Handkerchiefs, all descriptions, doz., 
 
 9,583 
 
 Potatoes, quintals, .... 
 
 410 
 
 Letter paper, reams, . . . . 
 
 516 
 
 Common writing paper, reams, 
 
 6,144 
 
 Paper hangings, pieces. 
 
 6,342 
 
 Wrapping paper, reams. 
 
 1,360 
 
 Writing desks, mahogany, 
 
 2 
 
 Parasols, ...... 
 
 3,462 
 
 Raisins, lbs., ..... 
 
 34,617 
 
 Chocolate, lbs., ..... 
 
 1,880 
 
 Pickled turkeys and geese, bbls., 
 
 3 
 
 Satin cloaks, ..... 
 
 12 
 
 Pewter, quintals, . . 
 
 20 
 
 Wigs for men and women, 
 
 111 
 
 Pears, bbls., ..... 
 
 86 
 
 Shot, lbs., ...... 
 
 10,059 
 
 Flints, ...... 
 
 349,000 
 
 Grindstones, . . . • . ' . 
 
 1,116 
 
 Mill stones, pr. .... 
 
 140 
 
 Whetstones, doz., ..... 
 
 8 
 
 Dripstones, . 
 
 38 
 
816 
 
 HISTOEY OF LOUISIANA 
 
 Beaver, lbs., 
 
 Fox and raccoon, 
 
 Otter, lbs., 
 
 Bearskins, 
 
 Deerskins in hair, lbs., 
 
 Deerskins shaved, lbs., 
 
 Pepper, lbs.. 
 
 Paints, common, lbs., 
 
 Paints, fine, lbs., . 
 
 Pipes, clay, gross, 
 
 Pistols, pairs. 
 
 Slates, . 
 
 Slates for schools, doz.. 
 
 Coined money, marks, 
 
 Platillas, white, pieces, 
 
 Platillas, brown, pieces. 
 
 Lead in sheets, lbs., 
 
 Powder, lbs., . 
 
 Hair powder, lbs.. 
 
 Pomatum, pots and sticks, doz 
 
 Cheese, lbs., 
 
 Hardware, packages, 
 
 Gold Avatches, 
 
 Clocks for staircases, . 
 
 Clocks for chimney pieces, 
 
 Posin, quintals. 
 
 Ploughshares, 
 
 Eum, gallons, 
 
 Russia sheetings, pieces. 
 
 Sheets ready made, pairs. 
 
 Salt, bbls., . . . 
 
 Bologna sausages, lbs., 
 
 Salmon, lbs.. 
 
 Sardines, lbs., 
 
 Serges, woolen, ells, 
 
 Frying pans, . 
 
 Tallow, lbs., 
 
 Tallow, manufactured, lbs. 
 
 Secretaries, mahogany, 
 
 Se-ndng silk, lbs. 
 
 Silk of other descriptions, lbs 
 
 Garden seeds, lbs.. 
 
 Boot stockings, doz.. 
 
 Bacon, lbs.. 
 
 Wax, lbs., . 
 
 Peas and beans, bbls., 
 
 Nails, lbs., . 
 
 Sugar, boxes, . 
 
 Beef, hides, 
 
 Calf skins, 
 
 Staves, 
 
 Flour, bbls., . 
 
 36 
 
 22 
 272 
 26 
 93 
 1,900 
 2,070 
 10,563 
 230 
 577 
 31 
 165,000 
 6 
 184 
 2,670 
 244 
 3,800 
 6,420 
 10,090 
 262 
 38,579 
 416 
 10 
 1 
 12 
 40 
 30 
 13,798 
 1,970 
 3 
 4,727 
 100 
 2,880 
 3,180 
 736 
 2,985 
 610 
 26,065 
 2 
 278 
 1,000 
 100 
 18 
 8,068 
 120 
 123 
 200 
 2,050 
 2,409 
 144 
 24,000 
 5,575 
 
HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 
 
 317 
 
 Hams, lbs., 
 
 Wool, lbs.. 
 
 Earthenware, crates. 
 
 Hogs' lard, 
 
 Molasses, casks, 
 
 Logwood, tons, 
 
 Beaver skins, lbs.. 
 
 Otter skins, 
 
 Raccoon and fox skins, lbs.. 
 
 Deer, in hair, lbs., 
 
 Deer, shaved, lbs.. 
 
 Bearskins, 
 
 Buffalo robes. 
 
 Pimento, lbs., . 
 
 Lead, in pigs, lbs.. 
 
 Ash oars, 
 
 Snuff, bottles, 
 
 Tobacco, Kentucky, lbs., 
 
 Tobacco, in carrots, lbs., 
 
 Boards, of 10 to 12 feet. 
 
 Shingles, . 
 
 Vanilla, per M. pods, 
 
 2,998 
 
 462 
 
 2 
 
 11,889 
 
 312 
 
 433 
 
 179 
 
 6 
 
 138 
 
 103,897 
 
 121,608 
 
 982 
 
 32 
 
 7,281 
 
 167,192 
 
 200 
 
 54 
 
 87,622 
 
 7,768 
 
 690 
 
 30,000 
 
 92 
 
 The annual produce of the province was supposed to consist of: 
 3,000 lbs. of indigo, rapidly declining. 
 20,000 bales of cotton of 300 lbs. each. 
 5,000 hhds. of sugar of 1000 lbs. each. 
 5,000 casks of molasses, of 50 gallons each. 
 There were but few domestic manufactures. The Acadians wrought 
 some cotton into quilts and homespun, and in the more remote parts of 
 the province, the poorer kind of people spun and wove wool mixed with 
 cotton, into coarse cloth. There was a machine for spinning cotton 
 in the parish of Iberville, and another in Opelousas ; but neither was 
 much employed. In New Orleans, there was a considerable manufacture 
 of cordage, and a few small ones of hair powder, vermicelli and shot. 
 There were near the city, about a dozen of distilleries, in which about 
 four thousand casks of taffia, of fifty gallons each, were made, and a 
 sugar refinery which produced about 200,000 lbs. of loaf sugar. 
 
 In the year 1802, two hundred and fifty-six vessels of all kinds entered 
 the Mississippi : eighteen of which were public armed vessels : the others, 
 merchantmen, as follows : 
 
 
 American. 
 
 Spanish. 
 
 French 
 
 Ships, 
 
 
 48 
 
 14 
 
 
 
 Brigs, 
 
 
 63 
 
 17 
 
 1 
 
 Polacres, 
 
 
 
 
 4t 
 
 
 
 Schooners, 
 
 
 50 
 
 61 
 
 
 
 Sloops, 
 
 
 9 
 
 1 
 
 
 
 170 
 
 97 
 
 Of the American vessels, twenty-three ships, twenty-five brigs, nineteen 
 schooners and five sloops came in ballast. 
 
318 
 
 HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 
 
 Five Spanish ships and seven schooners came also in ballast. 
 The tonnage of the merchantmen, that entered the Mississippi, was 
 twentv-three thousand seven hundred and twenty-five registered tons. 
 In the same year, there sailed from the Mississippi : 
 
 158 American vessels, . . . 21,383 Tons. 
 
 104 Spanish vessels, .... 9,753 Tons. 
 
 3 French vessels, . . . 105 Tons. 
 
 Total, 265 31,241 
 
 The tonnage of the vessels that went in ballast, not that of public 
 armed ones, is not included. The latter took off masts, yards, spars and 
 naval stores. 
 
 There was a considerable coasting trade from Pensacola, Mobile and 
 the rivers and creeks falling into lakes Pontchartrain and Maurepas and 
 the neighboring coast. From it, principally. New Orleans was supplied 
 with ship timber, lime, charcoal and naval stores ; cattle was also brought 
 from these places. Schooners and sloops of from eight to fifty tons, some 
 of them but half decked, were employed in that trade. Reckoning their 
 repeated trips, five hundred of them entered the bayou St. John in 1802, 
 with thirteen galleys and four boats. 
 
 There was also some coasting trade between New Orleans and the 
 districts of Attakapas and Opelousas by the Balize. 
 
 Estimate of the produce shipped from New Orleans, in the year 1802, 
 including that of the settlements on the Mississippi, Ohio, etc. : 
 
 Flour, 50,000 barrels, . 
 
 Salt beef and pork, 3,000 barrels, 
 
 Tobacco, 2,000 hogsheads. 
 
 Cotton, 34,000 bales. 
 
 Sugar, 4,000 hogsheads. 
 
 Molasses, 800 hogsheads, . 
 
 Peltries, 
 
 Naval stores. 
 
 Lumber, ciiiefly sugar boxes, . 
 
 TONS. 
 
 5,000 
 
 500 
 
 1,400 
 
 . 17,000 
 
 3,000 
 
 500 
 
 450 
 
 500 
 
 5,000 
 
 Potash, Indian corn, meal, lead, cherry and walnut planks, 
 hemp, masts, spars, hams, butter, lard, peas, beans, 
 biscuit, ginseng, garlic, cordage, hides, staves, tobacco, 
 in carrots. ...... 
 
 33,350 
 
 6,650 
 40,000 
 
 CHAPTER XXVI, 
 
 The first act of Claiborne, on his entering on the functions of governor- 
 general and intendant of the province of Louisiana, was a proclamation 
 of the twentieth December, 1803, by which he declared that the govern- 
 ment heretofore exercised over the province, as well under the authority 
 
HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 319 
 
 of Spain as under that of the French republic, had ceased, and that of the 
 United States was established over it ; that the inhabitants would be 
 incorporated in the Union, and admitted, as soon as possible, according 
 to the principles of the federal constitution, to the enjoyment of all the 
 rights, advantages and immunities of citizens of the United States, and 
 in the meantime maintained and protected in the free enjoyment of their 
 liberty, property and religion, that the laws and municipal regulations in 
 force, at the cessation of the late government, still remained in vigor. 
 He made known the powers, with which he was invested, that the officers 
 charged with the execution of the laws (except those whose powers were 
 vested in himself, or in the person charged with the collection of the 
 revenue) were continued in the exercise of their respective functions. He 
 exhorted the people to be faithful and true in their allegiance to the 
 United States, and obedient to the laws, under the assurance, that their 
 rights would be under the guardianship of the United States, and their 
 persons and property protected against force or violence, from without 
 and within. 
 
 Trist, the collector of the United States, at Fort Adams, had been 
 appointed sui3erintendent of the revenue in the province. 
 
 By the substitution of a municipal body to the cabildo, Laussat had 
 abolished the offices of principal, provisional and ordinary alcades ; so 
 that there remained in New Orleans, no tribunal or officer, vested with 
 judicial powers, but Claiborne and the alcades de barrio : to remedy this 
 evil, he established, on the thirtieth of December, a court of pleas, 
 composed of seven justices. Its civil jurisdiction was limited to cases, 
 which did not exceed in value three thousand dollars, with an appeal to 
 the governor, in cases where it exceeded five hundred. Its criminal 
 jurisdiction extended to all cases, in which the punishment did not 
 exceed a fine of two hundred dollars and imprisonment during sixty days. 
 
 The justices had individually summary jurisdiction of debts, under 
 the sum of one hundred dollars ; but from all their judgments an appeal 
 lay to the court of pleas. 
 
 Early in the new year, the Marquis de Casa Irujo, Spanish minister at 
 Washington City, gave assurance to the department of state that his 
 sovereign had given no order whatever for opposing the delivery of 
 Louisiana to the French, and that the report current in the United States, 
 and elsewhere, of the existence of such an order, was wholly without 
 foundation ; since there was no connection whatever between the pretended 
 opposition and the representation made last year, by the Spanish minister 
 to the government of the United States, on the defects which impaired 
 the sale of Louisiana, by France, to these states, in which he had 
 manifested the just motives of the Spanish government, in protesting 
 against that alienation. The Marquis added, that he was commanded to 
 make it known, that his majesty had since thought it proper to renounce 
 his protest, notwithstanding the solid grounds on which it was founded ; 
 affording, in this way, a new proof of his benevolence and friendship for 
 the United States. 
 
 The President ratified a convention between the United States and 
 Spain on the 11th of August, 1802, which he had laid before the Senate, 
 during the last session, and which had not been definitively acted on, 
 when that Ijody adjourned. 
 
 By an act of congress, of the twenty-sixth of March, the province of 
 
320 HISTORY OF LOnSIANA. 
 
 Louisiana was divided. That part of it, south of the Mississippi territory,, 
 and an east and west line, beginning on the river Mississippi, on the 
 thirty-third degree of northern latitude, was erected into a distinct 
 government, denominated the territory of Orleans : and the other was 
 annexed, under the name of the district of Louisiana, to the Indiana 
 territory. 
 
 The executive powers of government, in the territory, were vested in a 
 governor, appointed for three years, unless sooner removed, by the 
 president of the United States. He was commander-in-chief of the 
 militia, and had power to grant pardon for offenses against the territory, 
 and reprieve, as to those against the United States, till the pleasure of 
 the president was known ; he had the appointment of all civil and military 
 officers, except those for Avhom other provisions Avere made by the act. 
 
 A secretary of the territory was to be appointed, for four years, unless 
 sooner removed, by the president. His duty was, under the direction of 
 the governor, to record and preserve all the papers and proceedings of 
 the executive, and the acts of the legislature, and transmit authentic 
 copies of the whole, every six months, to the president. In case of the 
 vacancy of the office of governor, his duties devolved on the secretary. 
 
 The legislative power was vested in the governor, and a legislative 
 council, composed of thirteen freeholders of the territory, having resided 
 one year therein, and holding no other appointment under the territory 
 or the United States. The territorial legislature was restricted from 
 passing laws, repugnant to the constitution of the United States, laying 
 any restraint, burden or disability, on account of religious opinion, 
 profession or worship, preventing any one from maintaining his own, or 
 burdening him with that of others : for the primary disposal of the soil, 
 or taxing the lands of the United States. The governor was charged 
 with the publication of the laws and the transmission of copies of them 
 to the president, for the information of congress ; on whose disappro- 
 bation they were to be void. The governor had power to convene and 
 prorogue the council. 
 
 He was to procure and transmit to the president, information of the 
 customs, habits and dispositions of the people. 
 
 The judicial powers were vested in a superior court, and such inferior 
 court and justices of the peace, as the legislature might establish ; the 
 judges and justices of the peace holding their offices during four years. 
 The superior court consisted of three judges, one of whom constituted a 
 court. It had jurisdiction of all criminal cases, and exclusively of 
 capital ones, and original and appellate jurisdiction of all civil cases of 
 the value of one hundred dollars and upwards : its sessions were 
 monthly. In capital cases, the trial was to be by jury : in all others, 
 civil or criminal, either party might require it to be so. 
 
 Provision was made for the writ of habeas corpus, admission to bail in 
 cases not capital and against cruel or unusual punishments. 
 
 The judges, district attorney, marshal, and general officers of the militia, 
 were to be appointed by the president, with the advice and consent of 
 the senate, 
 
 The compensation of the governor was fixed at five thousand dollars, 
 that of the secretary and judges, at two thousand each, and that of the 
 members of the legislative council at four dollars a day. 
 
 The importation of slaves from foreign countries was forbidden, and 
 
HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 321 
 
 that of those brought from the United States was allowed only to citizens, 
 bona fide owners, removing to the territory. 
 
 Ali grants for land within the ceded territories, the title whereof was at 
 the date of the treaty of San Ildefonso, in the crown, government or 
 nation of Sjjain, and every act and proceeding subsequent thereto, 
 towards the obtaining any grant, title or claim to such lands, were 
 declared to be null and void. There was a proviso, excepting the titles of 
 actual settlers, acquired before the twentieth of December, 1803. The 
 obvious ii^tention of this clause was to act on all grants made by Spain, 
 after her retrocession to France, and without deciding on the extent of 
 that retrocession, to put the titles thus acquired under the control of the 
 American government.' 
 
 The President of the United States was authorized to appoint registers 
 and recorders of land titles, who were to receive and record titles acquired 
 under the Spanish and French governments, and commissioners who 
 should receive all claims to lands, and hear and determine, in a summary 
 way, all matters respecting such claims. Their proceedings were to be 
 reported to the secretary of the treasury, and laid before congress for their 
 final decision. 
 
 By two subsequent acts, congress made provision for extending the 
 collection and navigation laws of the union to the territory. 
 
 Every vessel possessed of, or sailing under, a Spanish or French register 
 and belonging wholly, on the twentieth of December last, to a citizen of 
 the United States, then residing within the ceded territory, or to any 
 person being, on the thirtieth of April preceding, a resident thereof, and 
 continuing to reside therein, and of which the master was such a citizen 
 or resident, was declared capable of being enrolled, registered or licensed, 
 according to law, and afterwards to be denominated and deemed a vessel 
 of the United States, Such inhabitants were, however, required before 
 they availed themselves of these provisions, to take an oath of allegiance 
 to the United States, and to abjure their former one to the king of Spain 
 or the French republic. 
 
 The inhabitants, thus taking the oath, were entitled to all the benefits 
 and advantages of holding vessels of the United States, as resident 
 citizens. 
 
 The ceded territory and all the navigable waters, rivers, creeks, bays, 
 and inlets, within the United States, emptying themselves into the gulf 
 of Mexico, east of the river Mississippi, were annexed to the former 
 Mississippi district. 
 
 The city of New Orleans was made a port of entry and delivery, and the 
 town of Bayou St. John a port of delivery. 
 
 The district of Natchez was established, of which the city of that name 
 was the sole port of entry and delivery. 
 
 Foreign vessels were permitted to unload in the port of New Orleans 
 only, and the same restraint was imposed on vessels of the United States 
 coming from France or any of her colonies. 
 
 Vessels from the cape of Good Hope, or any place beyond it, were 
 admitted to an entry, in the port of New Orleans, only. 
 
 The President of the United States was authorized, whenever he should 
 deem it expedient, to erect the shores, waters and inlets, of the bay of 
 Mobile, and the other rivers, bays and creeks emptying themselves into 
 the gulf of Mexico, east of the river Mobile and west of the river Pasca- 
 
 43 
 
4 
 
 322 HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 
 
 goula, into a separate district, and designate within it a port of entry and 
 delivery. The territory was erected into a judicial district of the 
 United States, and a district court, with circuit court powers, was estab- 
 lished therein. 
 
 It having been represented to the President of the United States, that 
 many persons, formerly engaged in the military service of the United 
 States, and having deserted from it, had become inhabitants of the ceded 
 territory, chiefly in that part of it immediately below the line of demar- 
 cation, on the left bank of the Mississippi, where they had establishments 
 of property and families, and were in such habits of industry and good 
 conduct as gave reasons to believe they had become orderly and useful 
 members of society, he granted to every such deserter, as an inhabitant of 
 the ceded territory, on the twentieth of December, 1803, a free and full 
 pardon for his desertion, and a relinquishment of the term during which 
 he was bound to serve. 
 
 In the latter part of that month, Laussat sailed to the island of Marti- 
 nico. He concluded his last communication to the minister from New 
 Orleans, with the following observations : " The Americans have given 
 fifteen millions of dollars for Louisiana ; they would have given sixty 
 rather than not possess it. They will receive onejuillion of dollars for 
 duties, at the customhouse in New Orleans, during the present year, a 
 sum exceeding the interest of their money, without taking into consid- 
 eration the value of the very great quantity of vacant lands. As to the 
 twelve years, during which our vessels are to be received on the footing 
 of national ones, they present but an illusive prospect, considering the war 
 and the impossibility of our being able to enter into competition with 
 their merchantmen. Besides, all will in a short time turn to the advantage 
 of English manufactures, by the great means, this place will exclusively 
 enjoy, from its situation, to supply the Spanish colonies, as far as the 
 equator. In a few years, the country, as far as the Rio Bravo, will be in a 
 state of cultivation. New Orleans will then have a population of from 
 thirty to fifty thousand souls ; and the new territory will produce sugar 
 enough for the supply of North America and a part of Europe ; let us not 
 dissimulate ; in a few years the existing prejudices will be worn ofi", the 
 inhabitants will gradually become Americans, by the introduction of 
 native Americans and Englishmen ; a system already begun. Many of 
 the present inhabitants will leave the country in disgust ; those who have 
 large fortunes will retire to the mother country ; a great proportion will 
 remove into the Spanish settlements ; and the remaining few will be lost 
 amidst the new comers. Should no fortunate amelioration of political 
 events intervene, what a magnificent Nouvelle France have we lost. The 
 Creoles and French established here unite in favor of France, and cannot 
 be persuaded that the convention for the cession of Louisiana is anything 
 but a political trick : they think that it will return under the dominion 
 of France. " 
 
 Wilkinson sailed to New York, about the same time, leaving the 
 command of the few companies of the regular troops in the district to 
 Major Porter ; a company had been detached to Natchitoches, under 
 Captain Turner ; there was a smaller command at Pointe Coupee ; the rest 
 were at New Orleans and Fort Adams. 
 
 The people of Louisiana, especially in New Orleans, were greatly dissat- 
 isfied at the new order of things. They complained that the person 
 
HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 323 
 
 whom Congress had sent to preside over them, was an utter stranger to 
 their laws, manners and hmguage, and had no personal interest in the 
 prosperity of the country — that he was incessantly surrounded by new 
 comers from the United States, to whom he gave a decided preference 
 over the Creoles and European French, in the distribution of offices — that 
 in the new court of pleas, most of the judges of which were ignorant of 
 the laws and language of the country, proceedings were carried on in the 
 English language, which Claiborne had lately attempted to introduce in 
 the proceedings of the municipal body, and the suitors were in an equally 
 disadvantageous situation, in the court of the last resort, in which he sat, 
 as sole judge, not attended, as the Spanish governors were, by a legal 
 adviser ; that the errors into which he could not help falling, were without 
 redress. They urged that, under the former government, an appeal lay 
 from the governor's decision to the captain-general of the island of Cuba, 
 from thence to the Royal Audience in that island, and in many cases from 
 them to the council of the Indies at Madrid. 
 
 To these, a new cause of complaint was superadded by the late act of 
 Congress, establishing the new form of government. The people murmured 
 at the division of the province, which put off, to an almost indefinite 
 period, their admission into the Union, as an independent state. They 
 saw with displeasure that their rights continued, in the new supreme court, 
 at the discretion of one individual, and that the introduction of slaves, 
 from foreign countries, was absolutely prohibited, and that from the 
 United States allowed only to new comers. 
 
 Considerable distress was felt from the great scarcity of a circulating 
 medium. Silver was no longer brought from Vera Cruz by government, 
 and the Spaniards were not very anxious to redeem a large quantity of 
 liberanzas, or certificates, which they had left afloat in the province, and 
 which were greatly depreciated. Claiborne sought a remedy for this evil 
 in the establishment of the Louisiana Bank, the extension of the capital 
 of Avhich, was allowed to two millions of dollars ; but the people being 
 absolutely unacquainted with institutions of this kind, and having 
 suffered a great deal by the depreciation of paper securities, heretofore 
 emitted in the province, were tardy in according their confidence to the 
 bank. 
 
 The former militia was completely disorganized. Most of the indi- 
 viduals, who had lately arrived from the United States, had enrolled 
 themselves in independent companies of volunteers, rangers, riflemen, 
 artillery and cavalry, which Claiborne had formed and patronized. These 
 military associations, in which very few of the natives entered, gave a 
 more marked character to the new government, and more distinctly drew 
 the line between the two populations. 
 
 The exploring of the region between the Pacific Ocean and the 
 Mississippi was an object, in which the then President of the United 
 States, had felt an early and lively interest. While he was at the court 
 of France, about twenty years before, he had employed a countryman of 
 his, Ledyard, the famous traveller, to proceed to Kamschatka, take 
 passage in some of the Russian ships, bound to Nootka Sound, and, 
 landing in the middle states of the Union, to seek his way to them by 
 land. Passports had been obtained from the Empress of Russia, and 
 Ledyard took his winter quarters, within twenty miles from Kamschatka. 
 In the spring, he was about to proceed, when he was arrested by an officer, 
 
324 HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 
 
 sent after him by the Empress, -whose disposition had changed. He was 
 shut up in a close carriage, and driven with great rapidity and without 
 interruption, till he was left on the frontiers of Poland to follow the route 
 his inclination pointed out. He took that of Egypt, with the view of 
 reaching the sources of the Nile, and died at Cairo, on the loth of 
 November, 1788. 
 
 In the year 1792, Jefferson proposed to the American Philosophical 
 Society, a" subscription for attaining the same object, in the opposite 
 direction ; funds were raised and the services of Michaux, a botanist, sent 
 by the French government to the United States, were engaged. This 
 man left Philadelphia, with a single companion, to avoid existing suspicion 
 among the Indians ; but he had scarcely reached Kentucky, when he was 
 overtaken by an order of the French Minister at Philadelphia, to desist 
 from his undertaking and pursue his botanical inquiries in the 
 western states. 
 
 In 1803, the act of congress for establishing trading houses with the 
 Indians, being about to expire, some modifications of it were recom- 
 mended by a confidential message of the President, on the 8th of January, 
 with an extension of its views to the tribes on the Missouri. In order to 
 pave the way for that purpose, the message proposed to send an exploring 
 party to trace that stream to its source across the highlands, and seek a 
 water communication to the Pacific Ocean. Congress entered into the 
 views of the President, and an appropriation was accordingly made. 
 
 The command of the expedition was given to Merriwether Lewis, a 
 captain of the army of the United States, who had for some time acted 
 as private secretary to the President and, who being desired to select the 
 officer next in command, made choice of William Clark, a brother of 
 colonel Clark, who, we have seen, distinguished himself as a partisan 
 officer, on the banks of the Mississippi and the Wabash, during the 
 revolutionary war. Fourteen soldiers, some young men from Kentucky, 
 two French boatmen, a hunter, and a negro man belonging to captain 
 Lewis, with the two commanders, composed the party. 
 
 Passports were obtained from the Spanish, French and British 
 ministers at Washington City. 
 
 ^ 
 
 passport 
 permit an armed force to cross his dominions, in that part of America. 
 The party, therefore, wintered on the left side of the Mississippi, and did 
 not set off till the fourteenth of May, possession of upper Louisiana having 
 then been taken by the United States. 
 
 In the meantime, the dissatisfaction of the inhabitants of New Orleans, 
 rose to such a degree, that a determination was taken, by a few individ- 
 uals, to induce their countrymen to solicit relief from congress at its next 
 session. For this purpose a meeting of the most influential merchants in 
 the city, and planters in the neighborhood was called for the first of June, 
 when it was almost unanimously determined to make application to 
 congress for the repeal of so much of their late act, as related to the 
 division of the ceded territory and the restrictions on the importation of 
 slaves, and to require the immediate admission of Louisiana into the 
 Union. Jones, Livingston, Pitot and Petit were appointed a committee, 
 
HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 325 
 
 charged with preparing and suhmitting to the next meeting the draft of 
 a memorial to congress. 
 
 They made their report to a much more numerous meeting towards the 
 beginning of July, by whom it was approved, and who made choice, from 
 among themselves, of a committee of twelve, who were charged with 
 circulating copies of the memorial in the parishes, and procuring the 
 signatures of the most notable inhabitants, and to collect voluntary 
 contributions for defraying the expenses of a deputation to be sent to 
 Washington City with the memorial. They were further instructed to lay 
 before a future meeting the names of six individuals, out of whom there 
 were to be chosen the deputation. 
 
 . At this last meeting, on the eighteenth, Derbigny, Destrehan and Sauve 
 were chosen, and they set out in the fall. 
 
 We have seen, in a preceding chapter of this work, that on Great 
 Britain having obtained possession of the left bank of the Mississippi, in 
 the former century, there had been a great migration thither, from her 
 colonies. It had since increased at various periods, and the Spanish 
 government, in Louisiana, had favored it. Few French and Spanish 
 families had come to settle in a neighborhood in which the English 
 language alone was spoken. An annexation to the United States was as 
 much desired by the inhabitants of Thompson's Creek, Bayou Sara and 
 Baton Rouge, as a continuation of the government of the French republic, 
 below Manshac, or on the right bank of the Mississippi. The people, 
 immediately below the line of demarcation, were disappointed at the 
 omission of the commissioners of the United States to insist on receiving 
 possession of the country, as far as Rio Perdido. The late acts of congress, 
 for extending the collection and navigation laws of the United States, 
 having made provision for the establishment of a port of entry and 
 delivery at Mobile, and ports of delivery in its vicinity, had satisfied 
 them that the federal government considered the country they inhabited, 
 as part of the territory it had lately acquired. A considerable number of 
 them assembled and determined on an attempt to drive the Spanish 
 garrison from the fort at Baton Rouge. The standard of revolt was raised, 
 and a number of men armed themselves and rode through the country, 
 in various directions, to induce others to join them. Their efforts were 
 not at first absolutely unsuccessful, and about two hundred men were 
 collected ; but some misunderstanding having taken place among the 
 principal leaders, the project miscarried, and the latter crossed the line, to 
 seek a refuge in the Mississippi territory. 
 
 . The government lately provided for the territory of Orleans, went into 
 operation on the first of October. 
 
 Claiborne had been appointed governor, and Brown, secretary. 
 
 Bellechasse,' Bore, Cantrelle, Clark, Debuys, Dow, Jones, Kenner, 
 Molf^an^'Poydras-,' Roman, Watkins, and Wikofi^, had been selected as 
 meml)ers of the legislative council. 
 
 Duponceau, Kirby and Prevost, were appointed judges of the superior 
 court. 
 
 Hall was the district judge of the United States ; Mahlon Dickenson, 
 district attorney, and Le Breton d'Orgeney, marshal. 
 
 Prevost opened the first territorial court, alone, on the ninth of 
 November, Duponceau having declined his appointment, Kirby having 
 died. 
 
326 HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 
 
 Bore, Bellechasse, Jones and Clark, having taken an active part in the 
 meetings of the inhabitants, deemed it inconsistent to give their aid to a 
 form of government, against which they had remonstrated, and declined 
 accepting their seats. An ineffectual attempt to procure a quorum was 
 made in the latter part of November ; many of the other members refusing, 
 or being tard}^ in giving, their attendance; so that the formation of the 
 legislative council must have been protracted to a very distant period, 
 had not Claiborne availed himself of an accidental circumstance. The 
 christian names of the persons selected by the president not being known 
 at the department of state, blank commissions had been transmitted to 
 Claiborne. He filled those for the four gentlemen who had declined, with 
 the names of Dorciere, Flood, Mather and Pollock, and a mere quorum 
 was obtained on the fourth of December. 
 
 The territory was divided into twelve counties, in each of which an 
 inferior court was established, composed of one judge. Acts were passed, 
 to regulate the practice of the superior and inferior or county courts. 
 Suits were to be instituted by a petition, in the form of a bill in chancery. 
 The definition of crimes and mode of prosecution in criminal cases, 
 according to the common law of England, were adopted. Provision was 
 made for the inspection of flour, pork and beef. Charters of incorporation 
 were given to the city of New Orleans, and to library, navigation and 
 insurance companies. An university was established, which was charged 
 with locating schools in each county ; but as no appropriation was made, 
 nor funds provided for these seminaries, the views of the legislature were 
 not successfully carried into execution, and the plan, in a few years, 
 absolutely failed. 
 
 The council adjourned in February, after having appointed a committee 
 to prepare a civil and a criminal code, with the assistance of two 
 professional men, for whose remuneration five thousand dollars were 
 appropriated. 
 
 The bank of the United States, having procured an amendment to their 
 charter, to authorize them to establish offices of discount and deposit in 
 the territories, established one in New Orleans. 
 
 This winter, William Dunbar and Doctor Hunter, with a party, employed 
 Ijy the United States, explored the country, traversed by the river Washita, 
 as high up as the hot springs, in the vicinity of that stream. 
 
 Another party, by a Mr. Freeman, ascended Red river, to a considerable 
 distance above Natchitoches ; but, being met by a detachment of Spanish 
 troops, were compelled to retrograde. 
 
 Previous to the acquisition of Louisiana, the ministers of the United 
 States had been instructed to endeavor to obtain the Floridas from Spain. 
 After that acquisition, this object was still pursued, and the friendly aid 
 of the French government towards this attainment was requested. On 
 the suggestion of Talleyrand, that the time was unfavorable, the design 
 was suspended. The government of the United States, however, soon 
 resumed its purpose ; the settlement of the boundaries of Louisiana was 
 blended with the purchase of Florida, and the adjustment of heavy claims 
 made by the United States, for American property, condemned in the 
 ports of Spain, during the war which terminated by the treaty of Amiens. 
 
 On his way to Madrid, Monroe, who was empowered in conjunction 
 with Pinckney, the American minister at the court of his Catholic majesty, 
 to conduct the negotiation, passed through Paris, and addressed a letter 
 
HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 327 
 
 to the minister of external relations, in which he declared the o])ject of 
 his mission, and his views respecting the boundaries of Louisiana. In his 
 answer to this letter, dated the twenty-first of December, 1804, Talleyrand 
 declared in distinct terms, that the treaty of San Ildefonso, Spain retro- 
 ceded to France no part of the territory east of Iberville, which had been 
 held and known as West Florida, and that, in all the negotiations between 
 the two powers, Spain had constantly refused to cede any part of the two 
 Floridas, even from the Mississippi to the Mobile. He added, that he 
 was authorized by his imperial majesty to say, that in the beginning of 
 the year 1802, Bournonville had been charged to open a negotiation, for 
 the acquisition of the Floridas ; but this project had not been followed 
 by a treaty. Soon after Monroe's arrival at his place of destination, the 
 negotiation commenced at Aranjuez. Every word in that article of the 
 treaty of San Ildefonso, which retroceded Louisiana to France, was scanned 
 by the ministers on both sides, with all the critical acumen which talents 
 and zeal could bring into their service. Every argument drawn from 
 collateral circumstances, connected with the subject, which could be 
 supposed to elucidate it, was exhausted. No advance towards an arrange- 
 ment was made, and the negotiation was terminated, leaving each party 
 firm in its original opinion and purpose ; each persevered in maintaining 
 the construction with which he had commenced. - ' ■ '-^ 
 
 Don Dio Premiro, Bishop of Montelrey, in the province of New l^eon, 
 whose diocese included, besides that province, those of San Andero, 
 Coaguilla, and Texas, being on a pastoral visit to Nacogdoches, came to the 
 town of Natchitoches, where he spent a week. He was treated with great 
 respect by the inhabitants. 
 
 The deputation from the territory of Orleans was not successful in their 
 application to congress ; that body passed a law, on the second of March, 
 authorizing the President of the United States to establish within that 
 territory a government similar to that of the Mississippi territory, in 
 conformity with the ordinance of the old congress, in 1787, except so far 
 as relates to the descent and distribution of the estates of persons dying 
 intestate and the prohibition of slavery. Provision was made for the 
 admission of the inhabitants into the Union, on the same footing as other 
 states, as soon as the population of the territory amounted to sixty 
 thousand souls. 
 
 The bill became an act, in the shape in which it was introduced, 
 notwithstanding the strenuous efforts of the deputation for the intro- 
 duction of three amendments, to which they attached great importance. ^ 
 The first was, that the governor should be chosen by the President of the '■ 
 United States, out of two individuals, selected by the people ; the 
 second, that an equity jurisdiction should be given to the superior court : 
 the last, a clause allowing the inhabitants permission to purchase slaves 
 in the United States, 
 
 An act was also passed for the confirmation of inchoate titles to land, 
 and for grants to occupants of tracts, cultivated before the 20th of 
 December, 1803, with the permission of the local authorities. 
 
 The legislative council held its sessions in New Orleans, on the twentieth 
 of June. Annual sessions of the superior court were directed to be 
 holden in each countv, except Concordia and Washita. Provision was 
 made for the relief of insolvent debtors, and the improvement of the 
 
328 HISTOEY OF LOUISIANA. 
 
 inland navigation. A court of probates was established. The council 
 adjourned early in July. 
 
 Towards the middle of the following month, lieutenant Pike, set out 
 from St. Louis, on an exploring party to the sources of the Mississippi, 
 in a large keel boat. He had Avith him a sergeant, two corporals and 
 seventeen privates. 
 
 Burr, the late Vice President of the United States, this year made an 
 excursion in the western states. 
 
 The expedition, under the orders of captain Lewis, reached the extreme 
 navigable point on the Missouri, on the seventeenth of August, in hititude 
 43. 20. at the distance, according to his computation, of two thousand five 
 hundred and seventy-five miles from the Mississippi. On the twenty-sixth 
 they began their march, and reached Flat river, a stream flowing into the 
 Columbia river, at the distance of three hundred and forty miles from the 
 spot on which they had landed on the Missouri. The gap of the Rocky 
 Mountains, which they crossed, was at the distance of sixty-eight miles 
 from the Missouri, their route was for one hundred and forty niiles, 
 over high mountains, nearly half of which were covered with snow, eight 
 or ten feet deep ; in the latter part of the way, the route was very fine. 
 
 At the distance of four hundred and sixty-two miles from the place 
 where they embarked, the tide became sensible, and one hundred and 
 seventv-eight miles farther, they reached the ocean, on the seventh of 
 November, in latitude 46. 15. and longitude 124. 57. from Greenock, and 
 at the distance according to their computation, of three thousand five 
 hundred and fifty-four miles from the Mississippi. 
 
 The width of Columbia river was, at its mouth, one hundred and fifty 
 yards ; its utmost five hundred, and its least eighteen. 
 
 The officers of Spain had protracted their stay, in New Orleans, for 
 several months, beyond the time limited by the treaty, until the American 
 government, distrustful of such an unreasonable dela}^, had actually 
 forced their departure ; the Marquis de Casa-Calvo, did iiot depart till 
 the sunnner, when he made an excursion through the provinces of Spain, 
 in the neighborhood of the United States, as far as Chihuahua. After 
 their departure, the Spanish troops which had remained in New Orleans, 
 left it for Pensacola. 
 
 By a pope's bull of the first of September, the spiritual administration 
 of the diocese of Louisiana, was committed to bishop Carrol of Baltimore. 
 
 The few Spaniards, that remained in the territory and many of the 
 Creoles, were unwilling to believe the country was really lost to its former 
 master, and the opinion was cherished among them', that the United 
 States held Louisiana, in trust, during the war. On the east and the west, 
 the Spaniards were still in great relative force. Many parties were hover- 
 ing on the frontiers, provoking vexatious contests about limits, occasionally 
 violating, with armed force, and even Avith outrage, the unequivocal and 
 undisturbed territories of the Union. 
 
 In the night of the twenty-third of September, a party of armed men 
 from Baton Rouge came to Pinckneyville, in the Mississippi territory, 
 and forcibly seized three brothers of the name of Kemper, who, having 
 taken an active part in the insurrection at Bayou Sara, in the ]>receding 
 year, had sought refuge beyond the line of demarcation. The party 
 returned with their prisoners, as far as Bayou Tunica, where, after much 
 ill treatment, they were put on board of a boat for Baton Rouge. As they 
 
HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 329 
 
 came to a part of the river where it makes a hirge bend, they were 
 discovered by a negro man, who crossing a narrow neck, reached Pointe 
 Coupee, where he gave information to lieutenant Wilson of the artilkny, 
 who without loss of time manned a boat, and soon after met the one, in 
 which the Kempers were ; he made himself master of and brought her to 
 Pointe Coupee, where they were liberated, and their captors lodged in 
 prison. 
 
 On the Mobile, the American trade was incessantly harrassed with 
 searches and obstructions, and at times, subjected to heavy exactions. 
 
 From Nacogdoches, the American settlements, near the Sabine and on 
 Red River, were occasionally menaced and disturbed. From the Sabine 
 to New Orleans, the country was absolutely open to an invader. There 
 was but one place of strength, besides New Orleans : Baton Rouge in a 
 settlement, still occupied by the Spaniards, although within the territory 
 claimed by the United States. 
 
 By a treaty concluded at Tellico, on the seventh of October, the 
 Cherokee Indians agreed that, as the mail of the United States was ordered 
 to be carried from Knoxville to New Orleans through the Cherokee, 
 Choctaw and Creek countries, the citizens of the United States should 
 have, as far as it goes through their country, the free and unmolested use 
 of a road leading from Tellico to Tombigbee. 
 
 By a convention between the United States and the Creeks, at \Vash- 
 ington City, on the fourteenth of November, these Indians agreed that the 
 United States should forever thereafter have a right to a horse path 
 through the Creek country, from the Ocmulgee to the Mobile river, and 
 their citizens should, at all times, have a right to pass peaceably on said 
 path. The Indians promised to have boats kept at the several creeks for 
 the transportation of travellers, their horses and baggage, and houses of 
 entertainment, at suitable places along said path, for the entertainment 
 of travellers. 
 
 CHAPTER XXVII. 
 
 The new form of government, provided by the late act of congress fjr 
 the territory of Orleans, differed principally from the former, in the election 
 of the house of representatives immediately, and a legislative council 
 mediately, by the people. 
 
 The governor, secretary and judges of the superior courts were to be 
 appointed by the President of the United States, with the advice and 
 consent of the senate ; the first of these officers for three, and the second 
 for four years, unless sooner removed by the President of the United States, 
 The judges held their offices during good behavior. 
 
 The legislative council was composed of five, and the house of represen- 
 tatives of twenty-five members. 
 
 The members of the legislative council were chosen by the President, 
 with the advice and consent of the senate, out of ten individuals, selected 
 by the house of representatives of the territory. Their period of service 
 was five years, unless sooner removed by the President of the United 
 States. The only qualification required from them was a freehold estate, 
 in five hundred acres of land. 
 
 44 
 
330 HISTOKY OF LOUISIANA. 
 
 The members of the house of representatives were elected for two years. 
 Citizenship of one of the United States for three years, and a residence in 
 the territory, or three years residence in the territory, were required from 
 the elected, and, in either case, a fee simple estate in two hundred acres of 
 land. The qualifications of the electors, were citizenship of the United 
 States, and a residence in the territory, or two years residence in the 
 territor3\ 
 
 The salaries of the officers above mentioned were the same as under the 
 preceding form of government. 
 
 All other olHcers were to be appointed by the governor. 
 
 The act of congress had a bill of rights. 
 
 The people of Louisiana complained, that in this form, as in the 
 preceding, their lives and property were, in some degree, at the disposal 
 of a single individual, from whose decision there was no appeal ; the 
 law declaring any one of the judges of the superior court a quorum. 
 
 Claiborne had been appointed governor, Graham, secretary, and Prevost, 
 Sprig and Mathews, judges of the superior court. 
 
 The house of representatives met on the fourth of November, for the 
 purpose of nominating to the President of the United States ten 
 individuals, out of whom he Avas to choose a legislative council. Their 
 choice fell on Bellechasse, Bouligny, the chevalier d'Ennemours, Derbigny, 
 Destrehan, Gurley, Jones, Macarty, Sauve, and Villere. 
 
 The bishop of Baltimore made choice on the twenty-ninth of December, 
 of Olivier, the chaplain of the nunnery in New Orleans, for his vicar- 
 general in the territory. 
 
 The marquis de Casa-Calvo reached Natchitoches, on his return from 
 the neighboring Spanish provinces, on the first day of the new year. He 
 was visited by major Porter, who commanded the small garrison at that 
 post, and by his officers ; but he was not permitted to enter the fort. He 
 tarried but three days and proceeded to Pensacola, by the way of Baton 
 Rouge. 
 
 A short time afterwards, a small detachment from the garrison of 
 Nacogdoches came to establish a new post, at the Adayes, on the road 
 from Nacogdoches to Natchitoches, within fourteen miles from the latter 
 place ; and accounts were received, that don Antonio Cordero, governor 
 of the province of Texas, had marched from San Antonio, with a body 
 of six hundred regulars, some militia, a few Indians and a considerable 
 number of horses, mules and cattle. He had stopped on the banks of 
 the river Trinity, where he had been joined by don Simon Herrera, the 
 commandant of Montelrey, in the province of New Leon, who had been 
 sent with a reinforcement by don Nemesio Salcedo, the captain-general 
 of the internal provinces. 
 
 Porter received on the twenty-fourth of January, orders from the 
 department of war, to require from the commanding officer at Nacog- 
 doches, assurance that thei'e should be no further inroads, nor acts of 
 violence committed ])y the forces of Spain, on the eastern side of the 
 river Sabine, and in case the assurance was refused or disregarded, to be 
 on the alert for the protection of the citizens of the United States, 
 pursuing their lawful concerns, westward of the Mississii)pi. He was 
 instructed to send patrols through the country, eastward of the Sabine, 
 which was considered as part of the territory of the United States, 
 especially when armed men, not under the authority of the United States, 
 
HISTORY OF LOUISIAXA. ool 
 
 attempted to cross that stream ; to repel invasion by pursuing and 
 arresting invaders ; avoiding, however, tlie spilling of blood, when this 
 could be done without it. He was directed to deliver any Spanish subject, 
 thus arrested, to the commanding officer, at Nacogdoches, if he would give 
 assurances to have them punished, but otherwise, to deal with them as 
 Claiborne would advise. It was recommended to him in patrolling the 
 country around the settlement of Bayou Pierre, which was within the 
 territory of the United States, but of which no possession had yet been 
 taken, not to disturb the inhabitants, unless an aggression made it 
 necessary to take possession of the settlement and send the garrison to 
 Nacogdoches. In case the commandant of the latter post gave the 
 assurance required from him, any peaceable intercourse between it and the 
 settlement on Bayou Pierre was not to be objected to ; but if the assurance 
 was refused, all intercourse between the two ])laces was to be prohibited. 
 
 Porter, accordingly, sent lieutenant Piatt, with a corresponding message 
 to Nacogdoches. Don Sebastian Rodriguez, to whom it was delivered, 
 answered that no encroachment had been intended, nor any violence 
 offered, by an}' part of his garrison, except so far as was necessary to 
 prevent a contraband trade and the exportation of horses. He added, 
 duty forbade him to give the assurance required, and he had ordered his 
 parties to patrol as far as Arrojo Hondo. 
 
 On Piatt's return. Porter sent captain Turner, with sixty men, to remove 
 the Spanish force from the post they had lately occupied at the Adayes, 
 near Natchitoches. This was effected without difficulty on the fifth of 
 Februar}', and Turner went to patrol the country as far as the Sabine. 
 
 In the meanwhile, Don Sebastian had sent an officer of his garrison 
 to the settlement of Bayou Pierre, to remind the inhabitants of the 
 allegiance the}' owed to the Catholic king, and the obligation they were 
 under to join his standard, whenever called upon by any of his officers. 
 He gave them assurances, that Red river would soon be the boundary 
 between the territory of Spain and that of the United States. 
 
 Cordero had sent a large reinforcement to Nacogdoches ; Porter had not 
 two hundred men, under his orders, on Red river. In a letter to the 
 secretary of w^ar, of the fifteenth of February, he stated the great disaf- 
 fection of the people around him ; nineteen of whom, out of twenty, 
 i:)referred the government of Spain to that of the United States. He 
 attributed this disposition to the intrigues of the marquis de Casa-Calvo, 
 who had assured the inhabitants, on his way, that the period was not very 
 distant when his sovereign would resume possession of the country. 
 
 The first territorial legislature, under the new form of government met 
 in New Orleans, on the twent^'-fifth of January ; the members of the legis- 
 lative council, appointed by the President of the United States, were 
 Bellechasse, Destrehan, Macarty, Sauve and Jones. 
 
 The session lasted for upwards of five months. Among the most 
 important acts, is a black code, or statute regulating the police of slaves. 
 Provision w'as made for establishing schools in the several counties, for 
 regulating the rights and duties of masters, apprentices and indented 
 servants, and for the improvement of the navigation of the canal of 
 Lafourche and the Bayou Plaquemines. 
 
 The attempt of the former legislative council to procure a civil and 
 criminal code for the territory, having failed, two professional gentlemen 
 
332 HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 
 
 were employed to prepare a civil code, and directed to take the former 
 laws of the country as the basis of their work. 
 
 The assemblage of several bodies of Spanish troops, on the eastern 
 boundary of the province of Texas, rendering the reinforcement of the 
 military posts, in the lower part of the Mississippi necessary, orders had 
 been transmitted from the department of war, as early as the fourth of 
 March, to Wilkinson, who was then at St. Louis, to make the necessary 
 arrangements for the removal of all the troops in his neighborhood, 
 (except one company) to Fort Adams; and four days after he was 
 directed to order colonel Gushing, with three companies and four field 
 pieces, to proceed to Natchitoches, without stopping at Fort Adams, and 
 to send the rest of the forces down the river, under the orders of lieutenant- 
 colonel Kingsbury. On the sixth of May, Wilkinson received orders to 
 repair to the territory of Orleans, or its vicinity, take the command of the 
 regular forces in that quarter, and of such volunteer bodies and militia as 
 might turn out for the defense of the country, and, by all means in his 
 power, to repel any invasion of the territory of the United States. 
 
 The secretary of war recommended, that the earliest opportunities 
 should be taken to give to the governors of the provinces of Texas and 
 West Florida, a clear view of the principles on which the government of 
 the United States was acting, viz : that, while negotiations were pending, 
 the military posts of neither party should be advanced ; that whatever 
 opinion might be entertained with regard to the boundaries of Louisiana, 
 no military measures should be pursued on either side ; and it might be 
 depended upon, that none would be resorted to, on the part of the United 
 vStates, unless the officers of the Catholic king should attempt a change in 
 the existing order of things : that the actual quiet possession by the 
 United States of the country, east of the Sabine, should be insisted upon, 
 (with the trifling exception of the settlement of Bayou Pierre) : and any 
 attempt on the part of Spain to occupy any new post east of the Sabine, 
 would be viewed by the United States, as an invasion of their territorial 
 rights, and resisted as such. 
 
 Measures were, at the same time, taken by the department of war for 
 erecting fortifications, at New Orleans and near it. Nine gunboats were 
 sent to the Mississippi, and a considerable number of recruits were sent 
 down the Ohio, and by sea, to fill the companies in that quarter. 
 
 Gushing reached Natchitoches on the first of June. 
 
 The attention of government was not, however, engrossed by these 
 military preparations. Lieutenant Pike was sent, towards the middle of 
 July, up the Missouri, with lieutenant Wilkinson, a son of the general, a 
 ' surgeon, a sergeant, two corporals, sixteen privates and an interpreter. 
 The object of this expedition was to escort several chiefs of the Osage and 
 Pawnee nations, who, with a number of women and children, were 
 returning from a visit to the President of the United States, with their 
 presents and baggage. These Indians, fifty-one in number, had been 
 redeemed from captivity among the Potomatomies, and were to be restored 
 to their friends at the Osage towns. 
 
 Although the escorting of these Indians was the first object to which 
 Pike's attention was directed, it was not the principal one : it was next to 
 be turned to the accomplishment of a permanent peace between the 
 Osages and Kanses : a third object was his effecting an interview with 
 
HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 333 
 
 the Yanetons, Tetans and Comanches, in order to establish a good 
 understanding among these tribes. 
 
 It being an object of much interest with the President of the United 
 States to ascertain the direction, extension and navigation of the Arkansas 
 and Red rivers, Pike was instructed to go to the head of these streams, 
 and to detach a party, with a few Indians, to descend the first stream, to 
 take the courses and distances, observe the soil, tribes, etc., and note the 
 creeks or bayous falling into the river ; this party was, on reaching the 
 Mississippi, to make the best of its way to Fort Adams and wait for 
 further orders. 
 
 Pike was next to proceed with the rest of the party to the head of Red 
 river, making particular remarks on the geographical structure, natural 
 history and population of the country : he was furnished with instruments 
 to ascertain the variation of the magnetic needle and the latitude of every 
 remarkable point; to observe the eclipses of Jupiter's satellites,- and the 
 periods of immersions and emersions, in order that, afterwards, by a resort 
 to particular tables, the longitude of the places of observation might be 
 ascertained. He was directed to descend Red river to Natchitoches. 
 
 On the rise of the legislature, Claiborne had ordered parts of the 
 militia of the counties of Opelousas and Rapides, to Natchitoches. On 
 his arrival at the latter place, towards the end of August, he found that the 
 Spanish force, on the eastern boundary of the province of Texas, was 
 divided into two main bodies : Cordero was at Nacogdoches, with the one ; 
 the other Avas encamped on the western bank of the Sabine, under Herrera. 
 He was informed that an armed Spanish party had lately gone to the 
 Caddo village, within the territor}'- of the United States, in which that flag 
 was displayed, and had cut down its staff, menacing the peace and tran- 
 quillity of these Indians, in case they persisted in acknowledging any 
 dependence on the government of the United States, or in keeping up an 
 intercourse with their citizens : that three of the latter, Shaw, Irwin and 
 Brewster, had been apprehended by a Spanish patrol, within twelve miles 
 of Natchitoches, and forcibly carried to Nacogdoches ; and that several 
 slaves, the property of citizens of the United States, had escaped from 
 the service of their masters to the latter place, where they had found an 
 asylum. 
 
 On the twenty-sixth, he dispatched Hopkins, the adjutant-general of 
 the territory of Orleans, to Herrera, to make representations to that 
 officer, of the insults offered to the government of the United States last 
 winter, by a Spanish patrol, who had compelled the exploring party under 
 Freeman, who was ascending Red river, to retrograde, and, also, in 
 relation to the recent outrages. Herrera informed Claiborne that he had 
 transmitted his communication to Salcedo, the captain-general ; that the 
 exploring party had ascended Red river far above the limits of the United 
 States, and the officer who commanded the patrol that met him, had 
 discharged his duty in insisting on the party's descending the river, till 
 they reached the boundary line ; that the Caddo village was within the 
 acknowledged territory of Spain, and these Indians had been notified 
 that if they chose to live under the protection of the United States, they 
 should remove to some part of the territory of their new friends, and, if 
 they cliose to continue to dwell in their village, they should take down 
 the flag of the United States ; that having chosen the last alternative, 
 and being more tardy in lowering the flag than appeared reasonable, it 
 
334 HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 
 
 had been done by the Spaniards ; that Shaw apd his companions were 
 found twice, on different days, observing the position and movements of 
 the troops under Herrera, and did not agree in the motives assigned by 
 them for encroaching on the king's dominions, and finally avowed their 
 intention of settling in the province ; whereupon they had been sent under 
 an escort to San Antonio ; finally, that the detention of a number of 
 slaves from Louisiana, at Nacogdoches, was a matter now under the 
 consideration of the captain-general. 
 
 Wilkinson reached Natchez on the sixth of September. At this place, 
 he made arrangements with the executor of the Mississippi territory, for 
 holding its militia in readiness. He sent an order to New Orleans for 
 stationing four galleys on lake Pontchartain and the rigolets, and for 
 reinforcing the detachment at Pointe Coupee to seventy-five men ; a 
 number which he deemed sufficient, Avith some militia, to take Grandpre, 
 and his garrison, at Baton Rouge, on this first order ; and he instructed 
 the commanding officer on the'Tombigbee to prepare with his garrison, 
 and two hundred militia, to invest Mobile, while another body of militia 
 should be sent to make a feint on Pensacola, in order to prevent succor 
 being sent from thence to Mobile. 
 
 Claiborne had been desirous of making an immediate attack on Herrera's 
 camp ; but the force he could command was insufficient, and the officer 
 who commanded the garrison, had orders to avoid a resort to offensive 
 measures till the arrival of the general. The two chiefs met at Alex- 
 andria ; Claiborne returned to New Orleans, in order to take measures 
 for holding the militia of the territory in readiness, and Wilkinson 
 proceeded to Natchitoches. 
 
 On the twenty-fourth, he, dispatching Cushing to Nacogdoches with a 
 comnjunication to Cordero, couched in the style recommended^ by the 
 secretary of war, and demanded the immediate removal of the Spanish 
 troops to the west of the Sabine. Cordero replied he would transmit the 
 communication to the captain-general, without whose orders he could not 
 act. On this, Wilkinson informed him the troops of the United States 
 would march to the Sabine — that the sole object of this movement was to 
 settle the boundary, claimed by his government, and that it was without 
 any hostile intention against the troops of Spain, or her territory ; this 
 march being rendered essential by some of Herrera's late movements, and 
 the position newly taken by some of the troops, immediatelv under 
 Cordero's orders, close on the western bank of the Sabine, within sixty 
 miles from Natchitoches. 
 
 In the meanwhile, the President of the United States had received 
 information, that designs were in agitation in the western states, unlawful 
 and unfriendly to the peace of the union ; and that the prime mover of 
 them was Burr, the late Vice President of the United States. The grounds 
 of that information being inconclusive, the object uncertain, and the 
 fidelity of the western states known to be firm, no immediate step was 
 taken. A rumor was gaining ground, that a numerous and powerful 
 association, extending from New York, through the western states, to the 
 gulf of Mexico had been formed — that eight or ten thousand men wereto 
 rendezvous in New Orleans, at no distant period, and from thence, with 
 the co-operation of a naval force, follow Burr to Vera Cruz— that agents 
 from Mexico had come to Philadelphia, during the summer, and had 
 given assurances that the landing of the expedition would be followed by 
 
HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 
 
 335 
 
 such an immediate and general insurrection, as would ensure the 
 subversion of the existing government, and silence all opposition within 
 a verv few weeks — that a part of the association would descend the 
 Alleghany river, and the first general rendezvous would be at the rapids 
 of the Ohio towards the twentieth of October, ;and from thence the aggre- 
 gate force was to proceed, in light boats, with the utmost velocity, to New 
 Orleans, under an expectation of being joined on the route hymen raised 
 in the state of Tennessee, and other quarters. 
 
 It was said that the maritime co-operation relied on, was from a British 
 squadron in the West Indies ; that active and influential characters had 
 been engaged in making preparations for six or eight months past, which 
 were in" such a state of readiness, that it was expected the van would 
 reach New Orleans in December, when it was expected the necessary 
 organization and equipment would be completed with such promptitude, 
 that the expedition would leave the Mississippi towards the first of 
 February ; it was also added, that the revolt of the slaves, along the riyer 
 was depended upon as an auxiliary measure, and that the seizure of the 
 money in the vaults of the banks in New Orleans, was relied on to supply 
 the funds necessary to carry on the enterprise. 
 
 Giving full credit to these reports, Wilkinson determkied on making 
 the best'arrangement he could with the Spaniards, in order that he might 
 descend to New Orleans, with the greatest part of his force. Accordingly, 
 on the twenty-ninth of October, being on his march to the Sabine, he sent 
 Burling, one of his aids-de-camp, to Cordero, with a written message, 
 proposing that, without yielding a pretension, ceding a right, or interfering 
 with disc-iissions which belonged to their superiors, the state of things, at 
 the delivery and possession of the province to the United States, should 
 be restored by the withdrawal of the troops of both governments, from 
 the advanced posts they occupied, to those of Nacogdoches and Natchi- 
 toches, respectively. He proposed that Cordero's accession to this proposal 
 should be conclusive, and promised to begin his retrograde march on the 
 day the Spanish camp, on the right bank of the Sabine, should be broken 
 up, under a stipulation that the troops of the United States should not 
 cross Arrojo Hondo, as long as those of Spain should not cross the Sabine, 
 or until further orders were given by their respective governments. 
 
 Cordero assured Burling that Wilkinson's proposition entirely met his 
 views ; but he added, his hands were tied by the captain-general's orders, 
 whom he was bound to consult. Burling had been furnished with a copy 
 of the message to Cordero, which he had on his way left with Herrera, 
 who on his return informed him, that the officer next in command would, 
 on the next day, visit Wilkinson, and everything should be arranged. It 
 appears that Herrera was less punctilious than Cordero ; for on the 
 following day, the officer brought to Wilkinson, Herrera's assent to his 
 proposition. 
 
 On the fifth of November, Wilkinson, having received information that 
 the Spanish camp on the Sabine, would be broken up on that day, began 
 his march towards Natchitoches. Immediately on his arrival there, he 
 directed Porter to proceed to New Orleans, with the utmost expedition, 
 and to repair, mount and equip for service every piece of ordnance in the 
 city, to employ all hands in preparing shells, grape, canister and musket 
 cartridges with buck shot, to have every field piece ready, with hose, 
 harness and drag ropes, and to mount six or eight battering cannons on 
 
336 HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 
 
 fort St. Charles and Fort St. Louis, below and above the city, and along 
 its front, flanks and rear. 
 
 In the meanwhile, the President of the United States began to perceive 
 the object of the conspiracy; but his information was so blended and 
 involved in mystery, that nothing certain could be sought out for pursuit. 
 In this state of uncertainty he thought it best to order to the field of 
 action, a person in whose integrity, reliance and confidence could be 
 placed, with instructions to investigate the plot going on, to enter into 
 conferences (for which he was furnished with sufficient credentials) with 
 the civil and military officers of the western states, and with their aid to 
 call on the spot, whatever should become necessary to discover the 
 designs of the conspirators, arrest their means, bring their persons to 
 punishment, and call out the force of the country to suppress any enter- 
 prise in which they were found to be engaged. His choice fell on Graham, 
 the secretary of the territory of Orleans. 
 
 It being known, at this time, that many boats were in preparation, 
 stores and provisions collected, and an unusual number of suspicious 
 characters in motion on the Ohio and its tributary streams, orders were 
 given to the governors of the Mississippi and Orleans territories, and to 
 the commander ef the land and naval forces there, to be on their guard 
 against surprise, and in constant readiness to resist any enterprise that 
 might be attempted : and on the eighth of November, instructions had 
 been sent to AVilkinson to hasten an accommodation with the Spanish 
 commander on the Sabine, and fall back with his principal force on the 
 hither bank of the Mississippi ; a measure, which we have seen, he had 
 already anticipated. 
 
 The report was, that Burr had in contemplation three distinct objects, 
 which might be carried on jointly or separately, and either first, as 
 circumstances might require. One of these was the separation from the 
 union of the portion of country west of the Alleghany mountains — another 
 an attack on Mexico — the last was pro^dded as merely ostensible : it was 
 the settlement of a vast tract of land, heretofore granted to' the Baron 
 de Bastrop, on the banks of the Washita river. This was to serve as the 
 pretext of all the preparations of Burr, an allurement for such as really 
 wished for a settlement on that stream, and a cover under which to 
 retreat on the event of a final discomfiture. 
 
 Such was the state of information at Washington City, in the latter 
 part of November, when specific measures were openly adopted by 
 government. On the twenty-seventh, the President of the United States 
 issued a proclamation, announcing the existence of a conspiracy, and 
 warning such citizens as might have been led, without due knowledge or 
 consideration, td participate therein, to withdraw and desist therefrom, 
 and calling on all officers, civil and military, to be vigilant and active in 
 suppressing it. 
 
 Orders were sent to every important point on the Ohio and Mississippi, 
 from Pittsburg to the Balize, for the employment of such part of the civil 
 authority, as might enable them to seize all boats and stores, provided for 
 the enterprise and arrest all persons concerned. A short time before 
 these orders were received in the state of Ohio, Graham, the President's 
 confidential agent, had been diligently employed in tracing the conspiracy 
 and had acquired sufficient information to apply for the immediate exer- 
 tion of the authority of that state to crush the combination. Governor 
 
HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 337 
 
 Tiffin and the legislature, with ^feal and energy, effected the seizure of all 
 the boats, provisions and other things provided, within their reach. 
 
 Thus, was the first blow given, materially disabling the enterprise in 
 the onset. 
 
 In Kentucky, a premature attempt to bring Burr to justice, without 
 sufficient evidence to convict him, had procured a momentary impression 
 in his favor ; which gave him the opportunity of hastening his equip- 
 ments. The arrival of the President's proclamation and orders and the 
 application of Graham, at last awakened the authorities of the state to 
 the truth, and produced the energy and promptitude of which the 
 neighboring state had given the example. Under an order of _ the 
 legislature, the militia was instantly ordered to different important points, 
 and measures were taken for effecting whatever could be done ; but a 
 small number of men, in a few boats, had, in the meanwhile, passed the 
 falls of the Ohio, to rendezvous at the mouth of Cumberland river, with 
 others coming down that stream. 
 
 Porter had left Natchitoches for New Orleans, with all the artificers and 
 a company of one hundred men, and had been followed by Gushing with 
 the rest of the forces, leaving only one company behind. Wilkinson, on 
 his way to New Orleans, stopped at Natchez, and made application to the 
 executive of the Mississippi territory, for a detachment of five hundred 
 men of its militia, to proceed to New Orleans, but declining to commu- 
 nicate his motives in making this requisition, was refused. ' From this \ 
 place, on the fifteenth of November, he dispatched Burling, one of his 
 aids, to Mexico, for the ostensible purpose of apprising the viceroy of the 
 danger, with which his sovereign's dominions were menaced; but, as the 
 general mentions in his memoirs, "on grounds of public duty and profes- 
 sional enterprise to attempt to penetrate the veil which concealed the 
 topographical route to the city of Mexico, and the military defences 
 which intervened, feeling that the equivocal relation of the two countries 
 justified the ruseJ^ 
 
 Wilkinson reached New Orleans, towards the end of November, and in 
 his first communication to the President of the United States, after his 
 arrival, mentioned, that among his countrymen, he had discoA^ered char- 
 acters, who had hitherto, been distinguished for integrity and_ patriotism, 
 men of talents, honored by the confidence of government and distinguished 
 by marks of its regard, who, if not connected with the flagitious plan by 
 active co-operation, approved it, and withheld timely and important 
 information. 
 
 Accounts of the requisition made for a detachment of the_ neighboring 
 territory, and of the refusal of its executive, were soon received in New 
 Orleans, and excited much surprise. The inhabitants wondered that, 
 after the amicable adjustment of all difficulties with the Spaniards, the 
 territory of Orleans, with a reasonable force of regular troops, and an 
 efficient militia well armed and disciplined, should require any aid from 
 the Mississippi territory. , As yet, Burr's plans were but partially spoken 
 of and disbelieved ; the people*^ had heard of an apprehended insurrection 
 in some of the western states ; but the merchants who had frequent 
 accounts from above, understood that things were perfectly tranquil there. 
 Surprise was further excited at the appearance of an uncommon number 
 of men at work on the old fortifications, and on the hearing of a contract 
 for a sufficient number of pickets to enclose the whole city. This and 
 
 45 
 
66o HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 
 
 other contracts, entered into since the arrival of Wilkinson, instead of 
 being offered, as Avas usual, to any who would engage in them on the 
 lowest terms, were entered into secretly and as if intended to be kept from 
 the public eye. 
 
 On the seventh of December, Wilkinson dispatched lieutenant Swann, 
 of the army, to Jamaica, with a letter to the officer commanding the naval 
 force on that station, informing him of Burr's plans, and that a report 
 was afloat that the aid of a British naval armament had been either 
 promised or applied for, and warning him and all British military and 
 naval officers, that their interference or any co-operation on their part, 
 would be considered as highly injurious to the United States, and 
 atfecting the present amicable relations between the two nations. The 
 communication concluded with the expression of a hope that the British 
 government would refrain from any interference or co-operation, and 
 prevent any individual from affording aid ; and the assurance that the 
 writer would, with all the force under his command, resist any effort of a 
 foreign power to favor Burr's projects. ^ 
 
 On the ninth of December, a meeting of the merchants and some of the 
 principal inhalutants was called at the government house, where 
 Claiborne and ^^"ilkinson attended to apprise them of the danger to which 
 the country was exposed. The first said that the object of the prepa- 
 rations of the latter was to defend New Orleans, against a numerous and 
 powerful party, headed by one of the first characters in the union. 
 AMlkinson spoke of the co-operation of the British navy with Burr, and 
 the ultimate destination of the expedition for Mexico, after they had 
 plundered the banks, seized on the shipping, and helped themselves 
 Avith everything, which an army of seven thousand men might want. 
 
 It was then proposed to the meeting, that the shipping in the river 
 should be detained and the crews discharged, that they might be 
 employed on board of the vessels of the United States. This was imme- 
 diately agreed to, and a subscription was opened for extra bounty and 
 clothing for such sailors, as would enter the public service, and within a 
 short space of time a considerable sum was raised. 
 
 In a letter to the President of the United States, Wilkinson stated he 
 had offered to Hall, the district judge of the United States, and Mathews, 
 one of the territorial judges, on the twelfth *and thirteenth, all the 
 testimony he possessed against Burr and Bollman, to the end that the 
 former might be proclaimed for apprehension throughout the United 
 States, and the latter committed to close confinement to secure his 
 testimony, and prevent his correspondence and machinations in aid of 
 Burr's plans. The first proposition Avas rejected, as " it would be too late, 
 as Burr might be on his way ;" the second was rejected, as BoUman's 
 offense Avas bailable and a writ of habeas corpus would set him at large ; 
 that after some reflections judge Hall said : " I believe it will be the best 
 for the general to exercise his discretion ;" MathcAVs did not say anything, 
 and as they left Wilkinson, he told them he hoped they Avould not hang 
 him for Avhat he Avould do, and they both answered in the negative. 
 
 On Sunday, the fourteenth. Dr. Erick Bollman, Avas arrested by order 
 of Wilkinson and hurried to a secret place of confinement, and on the 
 eA'ening of the following day application Avas made on his behalf, for a 
 Avrit of habeas corpus, to Sprigg, one of the territorial judges, who 
 declined acting till he could consult MatheAvs, who could not then be 
 
HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 66\) 
 
 found. On the sixteenth, the Avrit was obtained from the superior court ; 
 but Bollman was, in the meanwhile, put on board of a vessel and sent 
 down the river. On the same da^^, application was made to Workman, 
 the judge of the county of Orleans, for a writ of habeas corpus, in favor 
 of Ogden and Swartwout, who had been arrested a few days before, by 
 order of Wilkinson, at Fort Adams, and were on board of a bomb ketch 
 of the United States, lying before the city. Workman immediately 
 granted the writ, and called on Claiborne to inquire whether he had 
 assented to Wilkinson's proceedings ; Claiborne replied he had consented 
 to the arrest of Bollman, and his mind was not made up as to the 
 propriety of that of Ogden and Swartwout. Workman then expatiated 
 on the illegality and evil tendency of such measures, beseeching 
 Claiborne not to permit them, but to use his own authority, as the 
 constitutional guardian of his fellow-citizens, to protect them ; but he was 
 answered that the executive had no authority to liberate those persons, 
 and it was for the judiciary to do it, if they thought fit. Workman added, 
 that he had heard that Wilkinson intended to ship off his prisoners, and 
 if this was permitted, writs of habeas corpus would prove nugatory. 
 
 From the alarm and terror prevalent in the city, the deputy sheriff 
 could procure no boat to take him on board of the ketch, on the day the 
 writ issued. This circumstance was made known early on the next 
 morning to Workman, who, thereupon, directed the deputy sheriff to 
 procure a boat by the offer of a considerable sum of money, for the 
 payment of which he undertook the county would be responsible. The 
 writ was served soon afterwards, and returned at five in the evening by 
 commodore Shaw and the commanding officer of the ketch, lieutenant 
 Jones ; Swartwout had been taken froin the ketch before the service of the 
 writ. Ogden was produced and discharged, as his detention was justified 
 on the order of Wilkinson only. 
 
 On the eighteenth of December, Wilkinson returned the writ of habeas 
 corpus into the superior court, stating that, as commander-in-chief of the 
 army of the United States, he took on himself all responsibility for the 
 arrest of Erick Bollman, charged with misprison of treason against the 
 government of the United States, and he had adopted measures for his 
 safe delivery to the government of the United States : that it was after 
 several conversations with the governor and one of the judges of the 
 territory, that he had hazarded this step for the national safety, menaced 
 to its basis by a lawless band of traitors, associated under Aaron Burr, 
 whose accomplices were extended from New York to New Orleans ; that 
 no man held in higher reverence the civil authorities of his country, and 
 it was to maintain and perpetuate the holy attributes of the constitution, 
 against the uplifted arm of violence, that he had interposed the force of 
 arms in a moment of the utmost peril, to seize upon Bollman, as he should 
 upon all others, without regard to standing or station, against whom any 
 proof might arise of a participation in the lawless combination. 
 
 This return was, afterwards, amended by an averment that, at the time 
 of the service of the writ, Bollman was not in the possession or power of 
 the person to whom it was addressed. 
 
 On the following day Ogden was arrested a second time by the 
 commanding officer of a troop of cavalr}^ of the militia of the territory, 
 in the service of the United States, by' whom Alexander was also taken 
 
340 HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 
 
 in custody ; on the application of Livingston, Workman issued writs of 
 habeas corpus for botli prisoners. 
 
 Instead of a return, Wilkinson sent a written message to Workman, 
 begging him to accept his return to the superior court, as applicable 
 to the two traitors, who were the subjects of his writs. On this, 
 Livingston procured from the court, a rule that Wilkinson make a further 
 and more explicit return to the writs, or show cause why an attachment 
 should not issue against him. 
 
 Workman now called again on Claiborne, and repeated his observations 
 and recommended, that Wilkinson should be opposed by force of arms. 
 He stated, that the violent measures of that officer had produced great 
 discontent, alarm and agitation in the public mind ; and, unless such 
 proceeding were effectual!}^ opposed, all confidence in government would 
 be at an end. He urged Claiborne to revoke the order, by which he had 
 placed the Orleans volunteers under Wilkinson's command, and to call 
 out and arm the rest of the militia force, as soon as possible. He stated 
 it as his opinion, that the army would not oppose the civil power, when 
 constitutionally brought forth, or that, if they did, the governor might 
 soon have men enough to render the opposition ineffectual. He added, 
 that, from the laudable conduct of commodore Shaw and lieutenant 
 Jones, respecting Ogden, he not only did not apprehend any resistance 
 to the civil authority from the navy, but thought they might be relied on. 
 Similar representations were made to Claiborne by Hall and Mathews ; 
 but they were unavailing. 
 
 On the twenty-sixth, Wilkinson made a second return to the writ of 
 habeas corpus, stating that the body of neither of the prisoners was in his 
 possession or control. On this, Livingston moved for process of 
 attachment. 
 
 Workman now made an official communication to Claiborne. He 
 began by observing that the late extraordinary events, which had taken 
 place within the territory, had led to a circumstance, which authorized 
 the renewal, in a formal manner, of the request he had so frequently 
 urged in conversation, that the executive would make use of the consti- 
 tutional force placed under his command, to maintain the laws, and 
 protect his fellow citizens against the unexampled tyranny exercised 
 over them. 
 
 He added, it was notorious that the commander-in-chief of the military 
 forces had, by his own authority, arrested several citizens for civil offenses, 
 and had avowed on record, that he had adopted measures to send them 
 out of the territory, openly declaring his determination to usurp the 
 functions of the judiciary, by making himself the only judge of the guilt of 
 the persons he suspected, and asserting in the same manner, and as yet 
 without contradiction, that his measures were taken after several consult- 
 ations with the governor. 
 
 He proceeded to state, mat writs of habeas cor})us had been issued from 
 the court of county of New Orleans : on one of them, Ogden had been 
 brought up and discharged, but he had been, however, again arrested, by 
 order of the general, together with an officer of the court, who had aided 
 professionally in procuring his release. The general had, in his return to 
 a subsequent writ, issued on his behalf, referred the court to a return 
 made by him to a former writ of the superior court, and in the further return 
 which he had been ordered to make, he had declared that neither of the 
 
HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 341 
 
 prisoners was in his power, possession or custody ; but he had not averred 
 what was requisite, in order to exempt him from the penalty of a contempt 
 of court, that these persons were not in his power, possession or custody, 
 at the time when the writs were served, and, in consequence of the defi- 
 ciency, the court had been moved for an attachment. 
 
 The judge remarked, that although a common case would not require 
 the step he was taking, yet, he deemed it his duty, before any decisive 
 measure was pursued against a man, who had all the regular force, and 
 in pursuance of the governor's public orders, a great part of that of the 
 territory at his disposal, to ask whether the executive had the ability to 
 enforce the decrees of the court of the county, and if he had, whether he 
 would deem it expedient to do it, in the present instance, or whether the 
 allegation by which he supported these violent measures, was well founded? 
 
 Not only the conduct and power of Wilkinson, said the judge, but 
 various other circumstances, peculiar to our present situation, the alarm 
 excited in the public mind, the description and character of a large part 
 of the population of the country, might render it dangerous, in the highest 
 degree, to adopt the measure usual in ordinary cases, of calling to the aid 
 of the sheriff, the posse comitatus, unless it were done with the assurance 
 of being supported by the governor in an efficient manner. 
 
 The letter concluded by requesting a precise and speedy answer to the 
 preceding inquiries, and an assurance that, if certain of the governor's 
 support, the judge should forthwith punish, as the law directs the 
 contempt offered to his court ; on the other hand, should the governor not 
 think it practicable or proper to afford his aid, the court and its officers 
 would no longer remain exposed to the contempt or insults of a man, 
 whom they were unable to punish or resist. 
 
 The legislature met on the twelfth of January. Two days after, general 
 Adair arrived in the city, from Tennessee, and reported he had left Burr 
 at Nashville, on the twenty-second of December, with two flatboats, 
 destined for New Orleans. In the afternoon of the day of Adair's arrival, 
 the hotel at which he had stopped was invested by one hundred and 
 twenty men, under lieutenant-colonel Kingsbury, accompanied by one 
 of Wilkinson's aids. Adair was dragged from the dining table and 
 conducted to headquarters, where he was put in confinement. They beat 
 to arms through the streets, the battalion of the volunteers of Orleans, and 
 a part of the regular troops, paraded through the city, and Workman, 
 Kerr and Bradford were arrested and confined. Wilkinson ordered the 
 latter to be released, and the two former were liberated on the following 
 day, on a writ of habeas corpus, issued by the district judge of the 
 United States. Adair was secreted until an opportunity offered to ship 
 him away. 
 
 Accounts arrived a few days after, that Burr was at Bayou Pierre, a 
 little above the city of Natchez, with fourteen boats. He had been joined, 
 at the mouth of Cumberland river, by a dozen boats, that had descended 
 the Ohio ; there were from eighty to one hundred men with him, and he 
 had about forty stands of arms. 
 
 Claiborne made an ineffectual attempt to induce the legislature to pass 
 an act for the suspension of the writ of habeas corpus. The ^draft of a 
 memorial to be presented to congress by the territorial legislature, was 
 introduced in its lower house-; the object of it was to place the conduct 
 of Wilkinson in its true light before the national council. After an 
 
342 HISTORY OF LOUISIAXA. 
 
 animated debate, which lasted during several days, the memorial was 
 rejected by a majority of seven out of twenty-one members. 
 
 On the twenty-eighth, advices were received from Natchez, that on the 
 fifteenth, Claiborne, colonel of the militia of the Mississippi territory, had 
 marched at the head of a large detachment towards the part of the river at 
 which Burr had stopped ; that Burr had written to the secretary of the 
 territory, who exercised the functions of governor, that he was ready to 
 surrender himself to the civil authority ; that the secretary had met him, 
 and they had rode together to Natchez, where Burr gave bond for his appear- 
 ance before the territorial court at its next term. He, however, left the 
 territory, and the governor issued a proclamation, oflfering a reward 
 of two thousand dollars for his apprehension. 
 
 In the latter part of that month. Burling, who had been sent by 
 Wilkinson to Mexico, had returned. The viceroy had not been the dupe 
 of Wilkinson's ruse, and gave a very cold reception to his messenger, who 
 was strictly watched, and permitted to stay but a short time in the 
 country. 
 
 Lieutenant Swann, who had been sent to Jamaica, came back about the 
 same time. Admiral Drake observed to Wilkinson, that from the style 
 and manner in which the communication he had received was written, he 
 was at a loss how to ansAver it ; but he begged him to be assured that 
 British ships of war would never be emplo5'ed in any improper service, 
 and that he should ever be ready most cheerfully to obey the orders of 
 his sovereign. Sir Eyre Coote trusted and sincerely believed that the 
 representation made to Wilkinson was totally groundless, as his letter 
 contained the only intelligence received on the subject. 
 
 Workman resigned his office, finding that Claiborne paid no attention 
 to his communications. 
 
 Towards the middle of March, Burr was arrested near Fort Stoddart, 
 and placed under a strong guard, by whom he was conveyed to Richmond, 
 in Virginia, where he was admitted to bail. 
 
 Lieutenant Wilkinson, who had accompanied Pike up the Missouri, 
 now reached New Orleans. In his report, dated the sixth of April, he 
 stated that the Osage Indians had been left in their village, about the 
 fifteenth of August ; after which. Pike's party traced the Osage river to 
 its source, and reached the towns of the Pawnees, on the twenty-fifth of 
 September. These Indians had lately been visited by a body of armed 
 Spaniards, from Santa Fe. The flag of Spain was waving over their 
 council room. Pike induced them to substitute that of the United States 
 for it. Proceeding thence, westward, the party came to the Arkansas river, 
 on the fifteenth of October. After a short halt, the lieutenant was detached, 
 with five men, down the stream, to explore the country, and float down 
 to the Mississippi. Pike and the rest of the party, set out for the source of 
 Red river. 
 
 The legislature adjourned towards the end of April, after having passed 
 several very important acts. The country courts were abolished ; a court 
 was established in each parish, the judge of which was ex-ofticio judge of 
 probates, and acted as clerk, sheriff and notary. It having been found, 
 that annual sessions of the superior court, out of New Orleans, were 
 inconvenient, semi-annual ones were directed to be holden at Lafourche, 
 Pointc Coupee, Alexandria, Opelousas and Attakapas. The number of 
 members of the house of representatives was fixed at twenty-five : six of 
 
HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 343 
 
 these were to represent the county of Orleans ; the counties of German 
 Coast, Acadie, Lafourche, Iberville, Pointe Coupee, Rapides, Opelousas 
 and Attakapas, were to send two members each ; and one was to come 
 from each of those of Concordia, Washita and Natchitoches. The territory- 
 was divided into nineteen parishes. 
 
 Wilkinson sailed to Virginia, towards the middle of May, for the purpose 
 of attending Burr's trial, in Richmond. 
 
 On the first of Jul}^, Pike reached Natchitoches, We have seen that he 
 had sent a small detachment from his party down the Arkansas river in 
 October. From thence he had travelled westwardly, and rambled 
 throughout the Rocky mountains, till the beginning of the new year, 
 when he reached a branch of the Rio del Norte, which he mistook for one 
 of those of Red river. He was overtaken by two Spanish officers and one 
 hundred men, sent by don Joachim Allencaster, who commanded at Santa 
 Fe. The officers, at the head of the Spanish party, were sent to escort 
 Pike and his party to that city, from whence, he was informed they would 
 be conducted, by the most direct route to the navigable waters of Red river 
 which they would descend to Natchitoches. Although dubious of the 
 sincerity of this invitation, and believing he was in a situation to defend 
 himself, as long as his provisions lasted, or till an opportunity offered of 
 escaping by night; yet, mindful of the pacific disposition of the 
 government of the United States, and of his instructions in case he 
 reconnoitered a party of Spanish troops, he determined on complying 
 with don Joachim's request. 
 
 On his arrival at Santa Fe, he was informed that don Nemesio de 
 Salcedo, the captain-general of the interior provinces had given orders 
 that he should be sent with his men to the city of Chihuahua, in the 
 province of Biscay, the residence of the captain-general. He, accordingly, 
 left Santa Fe, on the second day after his arrival, and reached Chihauhua 
 on the twentieth of April. 
 
 Here, he was compelled to open his trunk, in presence of don Nemesio 
 and an Irishman, in the service of Spain. All his official papers, his 
 correspondence with Wilkinson, his diary, the notes he had taken on the 
 geology, topography and climate of the country, and the Indian tribes he 
 had visited, were seized and detained. He was supplied with money, 
 guides and an escort, and set off for Natchitoches, three days after his 
 arrival at Chihuahua. 
 
 In a letter, which Salcedo gave him for Wilkinson, he observed that 
 the latter could not be ignorant of the repeated representations made by 
 the Spanish minister at Philadelphia, and by the marquis de Casa-Calvo, 
 while he was in Louisiana, warning the government of the United States, 
 from extending its expeditions into territories unequivocally belonging to 
 the Catholic king. He added that the papers taken from Pike, afforded 
 evident and incontestible proof of his being guilty of a direct violation of 
 the territorial rights of the crown of Spain, which would have justified 
 his detention, and that of every individual accompanying him, as 
 prisoners ; but a desire to give the utmost latitude to the system of 
 harmony and good understanding, subsisting between the two govern- 
 ments, and a hope that such measures would be taken by the officers of 
 the United States, as would prevent any ill consequences resulting from 
 the moderation of those of Spain, had induced him to detain, in the 
 archives of the captainship-general, all the papers Pike had presented, 
 and permit him and his party to return home. 
 
CHAPTER XXVIII. 
 
 A MOTION being made on the twenty-fifth of December, 1>>07, in the 
 house of representatives of the United States, that the President be 
 requested to institute an inquiry into the conduct of Wilkinson, who was 
 suspected of being a pensioner of Spain, he, on the second of January, 
 made application for a court of inquiry, and one was accordingly ordered 
 to assemble. 
 
 A short time after, Clark, the delegate of the territory of Orleans, deliv- 
 ered to the house, under the sanction of his oath, a statement of several 
 transactions, which had come to his knowledge, within the i)receding 
 twenty years, strongly implicating Wilkinson's conduct, as a pensioner of 
 Spain and an accomplice of Burr. 
 
 The second territorial legislature began its second session, on the eighth 
 of January. The professional gentlerhen, who had been appointed in 
 1805, to prepare a civil and criminal code, Moreau Lislet and Brown, 
 reported " a digest of the civil laws now in force in the territory of Orleans, 
 with alterations and amendments adapted to the present form of govern- 
 ment." Although the Napoleon code was promulgated in 1804, no copy 
 of it had as yet reached New Orleans : and the gentlemen availed them- 
 selves of the project of that work, the arrangement of which they adopted, 
 and mutatis mutandis, literally transcribed a considerable portion of it. 
 Their conduct was certainly praiseworthy ; for, although the project is 
 ne(3essarily much more imperfect than the code, it was far superior to 
 anything, that any two individuals could have produced, early enough, to 
 answer the expectation of those who employed them. Their labor would 
 have been much more beneficial to the people, than it has proved, if the 
 legislature to whom it was submitted, had given it their sanction as a 
 S3'stem, intended to stand by itself, and be construed by its own context, 
 by repealing all former laws on matters acted upon in this digest. 
 
 "Anterior laws were repealed, so far only, as they were contrary to, or 
 irreconcilable with any of the provisions of the new. This would have 
 been the case, if it had not been expressed. 
 
 In practice, the work was used, as an incomplete digest of existing 
 statutes, which still retained their empire ; and their exceptions and 
 modifications were held to affect severalclausesby which former principles 
 were absolutely stated. Thus, the people found a decoy, in what was held 
 out as a beacon. 
 
 The Fuero Viejo, Fuero Juezgo, Partidas, Recopilationes, Leyes de las 
 Indias, Autos Accordados and Royal schedules remained parts of the 
 written law of the territory, when not repealed expressly or by a necessary 
 implication. 
 
 Of these musty laws the copies were extremely rare ; a complete collec- 
 tion of them was in the hands of no one, and of very many of them, not a 
 single copy existed in the province. 
 
 To explain them, Spanish commentators were consulted and the corpus 
 
 juris cirilis and its own commentators were resorted to ; and to eke out 
 
 any deficiency, the lawyers who came from France or Hispaniola read 
 
 Pothier, d'Agucsseau, Dumoulin, etc. 
 
 / Courts of justice were furnished with interpreters, of the French, Spanish 
 
 / and English languages ; these translated the evidence and tlie charge 
 
HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 345 
 
 of the court, when necessary, but not the arguments of the counsel. The 
 case was often opened in the English language, and then the jurymen, 
 who did not understand the counsel, were indulged with leave to withdraw 
 from the box into the galler}'. The defense, being in French, they were 
 recalled and the indulgence shown to them was enjoyed by their 
 companions, who were strangers to that language. All went together into 
 the jury room; each contending the argument he had listened to was 
 conclusive, and they finally agreed on a verdict, in the best manner they 
 could. 
 
 Among the most useful acts that were passed, at this session, was one 
 for the establishment of a school in each parish. 
 
 The court of inquiry on Wilkinson's conduct did not terminate its 
 investigation, till the month of June ; its report was in favor of the general, 
 and was approved of by the President of the United States. 
 
 In the fall, the foreign relations of the union assumed an aspect which 
 produced a general impression that a rupture with Great Britain was 
 neither improbable nor distant, and the executive received information 
 that the disposable force at Halifax, was held in readiness to serve in the 
 West Indies, or take possession of New Orleans, (should the forces of the 
 United States move northerly) and keep that city as an equivalent for 
 what might be lost in Canada. 
 
 Accordingh', on the second of November, the secretary of war directed 
 Wilkinson to take measures, without delay, for assembling at New 
 Orleans and its vicinity, as large a portion of the regular troops as circum- 
 stances -would allow. The third, fifth and seventh regiments, with a 
 battalion, composed of four companies of the sixth and the companies of 
 light dragoons, light artillery and riflemen, raised in the states south of 
 New Jersey, were destined to the service, and the general was instructed 
 to make arrangements for reaching New Orleans in order to take the 
 command of the forces in that department, as soon as possible, and to 
 make such a disposition of them as would most effectually enable him to 
 defend the country against an invading foe. He was authorized, in case 
 of necessity, to call on the executives of the territories of Orleans and 
 Mississippi, for such parts of their militia as might be wanted. 
 
 He embarked at Baltimore on the twent^^-fourth of January, 1809, and 
 touched at Annapolis, Norfolk and Charleston to accelerate the motions 
 of the troops in those places, and sailed to Havana, on a special mission 
 to the captain-general of the island of Cuba. 
 
 On the ninth of February, congress passed an act authorizing the 
 President of the United States to cause the canal Carondelet to be 
 extended to the Mississippi and deepened throughout, so as to admit of 
 an early and safe passage to gunboats from the river to the lake, if, on a 
 survey, he should be convinced that this was practicable and would 
 conduce to the defense of New Orleans, and an appropriation of twenty- 
 five thousand dollars was made therefor. 
 
 On the fourth of March, James Madison succeeded Jefferson in the 
 presidency of the United States. 
 
 Wilkinson, on his return from Havana, stopped at Pensacola, and 
 reached New Orleans on the nineteenth of April. 
 
 The force which he found in that city was a little less than two thousand 
 men, and one third of it was on the sick list. He spent some time in 
 reconnoitring the countr}^ around, in search of a spot from which the 
 
 46 
 
346 HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 
 
 troops might readily be brought into action, in case of an attack, and in 
 which they might, in the meanwhile, enjoy as much health and comfort 
 as the climate would allow ; his choice fell on an elevated piece of ground 
 on the left bank of the Mississippi, about eight miles below the city, near 
 the point at which the road leading to the settlements of Terre-aux-Boeufs 
 leaves that which runs along the river. 
 
 Between the nineteenth of May and the eighteenth of July of this year, 
 thirty-four vessels from the island of Cuba, with 5,797 individuals, of 
 whom 1,828 were Avhite, 1,978 free blacks or colored perons, and 1,991 
 slaves. These people had sought a refuge in that island, on the insur- 
 rection of the blacks in Hispaniola. 
 
 A large detachment was sent to Terre-aux-Boeufs to make the necessary 
 preparations and the rest of the troops gradually followed; on the 
 thirteenth, seven hundred non-commissioned officers and privates had 
 assembled. 
 
 They had hardly been three weeks encamped, when the most peremptory 
 order from the department of war, of the twenty-fourth of October, was 
 received by Wilkinson, directing him immediately to embark his whole 
 force, leaving only sufficient garrisons of old troops at New Orleans and 
 Fort St. Philip, and proceed to the high grounds on the rear of Fort Adams 
 and Natchez, and by an equal division of his men form an encampment 
 at each place. 
 
 A difficulty in procuring boats, and other circumstances, did not allow 
 the troops to begin ascending the river, before the fifteenth of September ; 
 their progress lasted forty-seven days ; during which, out of nine hundred 
 and thirty-five men, who embarked, six hundred and thirty-eight were 
 sick, and two hundred and forty died. 
 
 Although the report of the court of inquiry, in the preceding year, had 
 been favorable to Wilkinson, the general impression, that he had received 
 large sums of money from the Spanish government in Louisiana to favor 
 its views in detaching the western people from the Atlantic states, was 
 not absolutely effaced. Clark had published a statement of different 
 transactions, " in which Wilkinson had been concerned, during the 
 preceding years, and had annexed to it copies of a number of authentic 
 documents, from which he concluded the proof was irresistible, that the 
 general had been a pensioner of Spain and an accomplice of Burr, whom 
 he had betrayed, when he found his plans could not succeed. Clark's 
 publication excited suspicion in many and caused conviction in some. 
 The disasters, attending the forces sent to the Mississippi, were attributed 
 by Wilkinson's enemies to his misconduct and the clamor against him 
 became so general, that it was thought proper to call him to the seat of 
 government. Wade Hampton, who was sent to supersede him, assumed 
 the command of the troops on the nineteenth of December. 
 
 The total number of non-commissioned officers and privates, during the 
 last ten months of this year, never exceeded nineteen hundred and fifty- 
 three. Out of it, seven hundred and sixty-four died and one hundred and 
 sixty-six deserted. So that the total loss was nine hundred and thirty, 
 almost one half of the whole. The greatest sickness was in the month of 
 August, when five hundred and sixty-three men were on the sick list. 
 
 The third territorial legislature held its first session on the ninth of 
 February, and adjourned late in March, without having passed any 
 
HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 
 
 347 
 
 very important public act. By one of its resolutions, however, twenty 
 thousand dollars were appropriated to the establishment of a college. 
 
 Early in May, Claiborne having obtained leave of absence, left the 
 territory on a visit to the eastern states — and the executive functions 
 devolved on the secretary, Thomas B. Robertson. 
 
 In the summer, a number of citizens of the United States, who had 
 removed to the neighborhood of Bayou Sara, joined by others from the 
 Mississippi territory, took up arms, embodied themselves and marched to 
 the fort of Baton Rouge. Delassus, who commanded it, having but a 
 handful of men, Avas unable to prevent their taking it. The people of the 
 district sent delegates to a convention, that met at St. Francisville, declared 
 their independence and framed a constitution. Fulwar Skipwith was 
 appointed governor of the new state. 
 
 By a census taken this year, by the marshal of the United States, under 
 an act of congress, it appears that the population of the territory was as 
 follows : 
 
 City and suburbs of New Orleans, 
 
 Precinct of New Orleans, 
 
 Plaquemines, 
 
 St. Bernard, 
 
 St. Charles, ._ 
 
 St. John Baptist, 
 
 St. James, 
 
 Ascension, 
 
 Assumption, . 
 
 Lafourche, . 
 
 Iberville, 
 
 Baton Rouge, 
 
 Pointe Coupee, 
 
 Concordia, . , 
 
 Ouachita, 
 
 Rapides, . 
 
 Catahoula, 
 
 Avoyelles, 
 
 Natchitoches, 
 
 Opelousas, . 
 
 Attakapas, 
 
 17,242) 
 7,310f 
 
 24,552 
 
 1,549 
 1,020 
 3,291 
 2,990 
 3,955 
 2,219 
 2,472 
 1,995 
 2,679 
 1,463 
 4,539 
 2,895 
 1,077 
 2,200 
 1,164 
 1,209 
 2,870 
 5,048 
 7,369 
 
 76,556 
 
 On receiving information that the garrison of the fort at Baton Rouge 
 had been driven out, the President of the United States issued a procla- 
 mation, on the 16th of October, setting forth that the territory south of 
 the 31st degree of northern latitude, east on the Mississippi, as far as Rio 
 Perdido, of which possession had not yet been delivered to the United 
 States, had ever been considered and claimed by them as part of the 
 country thej'' had acquired by the treaty of the 30th April, 1803, and their 
 acquiescence in its temporary continuation under the authorities of 
 Spain, was not the result of any distrust of their title, as had been 
 particularly evinced by the general tenor of their laws, but was occasioned 
 by their conciliatory views, a confidence in the justice of their cause, and 
 the result of candid discussion and amicable negotiations with a friendly 
 
34S HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 
 
 power ; that a satisfactory adjustment of existing differences, too long 
 delayed, without the fault of the United States, had been for some time, 
 entirely susjjended, by events over which they had no control ; and a crisis 
 was now arrived, subversive of the order of things under the authority of 
 Spain, whereby a failure of on the part of the United States, to take the 
 eountiy into their possession, might lead to events ultimately contravening 
 the views of both parties ; while in the meantime the security and tran- 
 quillity of their adjoining territories ■were endangered, and new facilities 
 given to the violation of their revenue and commercial laws, and of those 
 for the prohiljition of the importation of slaves ; the failure might farther 
 be considered as a dereliction of their title, and an insensibility to the 
 importance of the stake. 
 
 It was urged, that the acts of congress, although comtemplating a 
 present possession by a foreign prince, had also had in view an eventual 
 one by the United States, and had accordingly been so framed, as in that 
 case to extend their operations thereto. 
 
 The President concluded by announcing that under these weighty and 
 urgent considerations, he had deemed it right and requisite, that possession 
 should be immediatel}' taken of the said territory, in the name and behalf 
 of the United States. The governor of the territory of New Orleans was 
 accordingly directed to carry the views of the United States into complete 
 execution, and to exercise over that part of the territory the authority and 
 functions, legally appertaining to his office ; the people were charged to 
 pay due regard to him in his official character, to be obedient to the laws, 
 to cherish harmony and demean themselves as peaceful citizens, under 
 assurance of protection in the enjoyment of liberty, property and the 
 religion they profess. 
 
 Claiborne, on his return from the United States, stopped at Natchez, 
 where governor Holmes furnished him with a detachment of the militia of 
 the Mississippi territory, which was joined by a volunteer troop of 
 horse, from the neighborhood. They marched to St. Francisville, the 
 first town below the line of demarcation, where, on the 7th of December, 
 without any opposition, he hoisted the flag of the United States, in token 
 of his having taken possession of the country, in their name and behalf, 
 the inhabitants cheerfully submitting to his authority. He announced 
 this event by a proclamation, and by subsequent ones established, in this 
 new part of" the territory of Orleans, the parishes of Feliciana, East 
 Baton Rouge, St. Helena, St. Tammany, Biloxi and Pascagoula. 
 
 No attempt was made to occupy the town of Mobile, nor any part of the 
 country around it, and the Spanish garrison of Fort Charlotte was left 
 undisturbed ; Claiborne having been especially instructed not to take 
 possession, by force, of any post in which the Spaniards had a garrison, 
 however small it might be, 
 
 We have seen that in the latter part of the preceding year, Wilkinson 
 had been ordered to the seat of government : he reached it towards the 
 middle of April. There were then two committees of the house of repre- 
 sentatives, charged with encpiiries on matters that concerned him, viz : 
 the cause of the great mortality among the troops on the Mississippi, 
 during the preceding year ; his ])ublic life, conduct and character : and 
 while the attention of the house was thus arrested on the general, the 
 executive deemed it proper to suspend any proceeding in regard to hira. 
 Congress adjourned, without either of the committees making a reiDort. 
 
HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 349 
 
 Soon after the meeting of congress, in the winter, the first committee 
 made a report, which did not implicate Wilkinson's conduct ; the other, 
 without an expression of their opinion, submitted to the house the whole 
 evidence before them : without acting on it, the house directed it to be 
 laid before the President of the United States. 
 
 Claiborne came to New Orleans early in January, to meet the third 
 territorial legislature, at its second session ; but an uncontrollable event 
 induced him to prorogue it till the fourth Monday of that month. 
 
 The slaves of a plantation, in the parish of St. John the Baptist, on the 
 left bank of the Mississippi, about thirty-six miles above New Orleans, 
 revolted and were immediately joined by those of several neighboring 
 plantations. They marched along the river, towards the city, divided 
 into companies, each under an officer, with beat of drums and flags 
 displayed, compelling the blacks they met to fall in their rear ; and before 
 they could be checked, set fire to the houses of four or five plantations. 
 Their exact number was never ascertained, but asserted to be about five 
 hundred. The militia of the parish and those above and below, were soon 
 under arms ; major Milton came down from Baton Rouge, with the regular 
 force under his orders, and general Hampton, who was then in the city, 
 headed those in Fort St. Charles and the barracks. The blacks were soon 
 surrounded and routed ; sixty-six of them were either killed during the 
 action, or hung on the spot, immediately after. Sixteen were sent to the 
 city for trial, and a number fled to the swamps, where they could not be 
 pursued : several of these had been dangerously wounded, and the corpses 
 of others were afterwards discovered. The blacks sent to New Orleans, 
 "svere convicted and executed. Their heads were placed on high poles, 
 above and below the city, and along the river as far as the plantation on 
 which the revolt began, and on those on which they had committed 
 devastation. To insure tranquillity and quiet alarm, a part of the 
 regular forces and the militia remained on duty, in the neighborhood, 
 during a considerable time. 
 
 The general assembly made provision for the representation of the 
 inhabitants of the new part of the territory in the legislature. They 
 erected two new judicial districts, viz : those of Feliciana and Catahoula; 
 the town of Vidalia, in the parish of Concordia, opposite to the city of 
 Natchez, was established ; a charter of incorporation was granted to a 
 number of individuals, who had formed themselves into companies, for 
 establishing two banks, the Planter's bank and the bank of Orleans ; these 
 institutions appeared to be called for by the expiration of the charter of 
 the bank of the United States. The first had a capital of six hundred 
 thousand dollars, and the duration of its charter was fifteen years ; the 
 capital of the other was five hundred thousand dollars, and its charter 
 had the same duration. 
 
 An act was passed, granting to Livingston and Fulton, the sole and 
 exclusive right and privilege to build, construct, make use, employ and 
 navigate boats, vessels and water crafts, urged or propelled through the 
 water by fire or steam, in all the creeks, rivers, bays and Avaters what- 
 soever, within the jurisdiction of the territory, during eighteen years from 
 the first of January, 1812. 
 
 Before the adjournment of the legislature, official information was 
 received, that congress had, on the eleventh of February, passed an act. 
 
350 HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 
 
 to enable the people of the territory to form a constitution and state 
 government, and the admission of such state in the union. 
 
 Congress had not, as yet, determined that the part of the ceded territory, 
 of which possession had been taken a few months, should be part of the 
 new state, and its inhabitants were not authorized to appoint members 
 of the convention, for framing the constitution. 
 
 The qualifications of the electors were citizenship of the United States, 
 one year's residence in the territory and having paid a territorial, county, 
 district or parish tax ; persons having, in other respects, the legal qualifi- 
 cations for voting for representatives of the general assembly of the 
 territory, were also authorized to vote. 
 
 The act was silent as to any qualifications, with regard to the members 
 of the convention ; their number was not to exceed sixty ; the third 
 Monday of September was named for their election, and they were directed 
 to meet on the first Monday in November. The members who were to 
 compose it were to be apportioned among the counties, districts and 
 parishes by the legislature. 
 
 The election was to be held at the same place and conducted in the 
 same manner, as that for members of the house of representatives. 
 
 The convention was to assemble in the city of New Orleans. 
 
 That body was first to determine, by the majority of the whole number 
 elected, whether it be expedient or not, at that time, to form a constitution 
 or state government, for the people of the territory, and if it was 
 determined to be expedient, was to declare, in the same manner, in behalf 
 of the people, that it adopted the constitution of the United States. 
 
 Congress required that the constitution to be formed, should be 
 republican ; consistent with the constitution of the United States ; contain 
 the fundamental principles of civil and religious liberty ; secure to the 
 citizens the right of trial by jury in criminal cases, and that of the writ 
 of habeas corpus, conformably to the provisions of the constitution of the 
 United States ; and that after the admission of the new state into the 
 union, the laws which suit a state may pass and be promulgated, and its 
 records of every description, be preserved, and its legislative and judicial 
 written proceedings be conducted in the language in which the laws, the 
 legislative and judicial written proceedings were then published and 
 conducted. 
 
 The convention was further required to provide, by an ordinance irrevo- 
 cable, without the consent of the United States, that the people of the 
 territory do agree and declare that the}' do forever disclaim all right or 
 title to the Avaste or unappropriated lands, lying within the territory, and 
 that the same shall be and remain at the sole and absolute disposition of 
 the United States ; and, moreover, that each and every tract of land sold 
 by congress, shall remain exempt from any tax laid by the order, or under 
 the authority of the state, county, township, parish, or any other purpose 
 whatever, for the term of four years from the respective days of the sale 
 thereof: further, that the lands of citizens of the United States, residing 
 without the state, shall never be taxed higher than the lands belonging to 
 persons residing therein ; and no tax shall ever be imposed on lands 
 belonging to the United States. 
 
 Congress agreed that five per cent, on the net proceeds of the sales of 
 the public lands of the United States, should be applied to laying out 
 
HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 351 
 
 and constructing public roads and levees, in the state, as the legislature 
 may direct. 
 
 The act finally provided that if the constitution or form of government 
 to be made, was not disapproved by congress, at their next session after 
 they received it, the new state should be admitted into the union, upon 
 the same footing with the original states. 
 
 The legislature apportioned the number of members of the convention 
 among the parishes, and made provision for the expenses attending it, and 
 adjourned in the latter part of April. 
 
 In the summer, a court martial was ordered for the trial of Wilkinson, 
 to meet at Frederickstown, and, on the 11th of July, he was furnished 
 with a copy of the charges against him. He was accused of having 
 corruptly combined with the government of Spain, in Louisiana, for the 
 separation of the western people from the Atlantic states ; of having 
 corruptly received large sums of money from Spain ; of having connived 
 at the designs of Burr ; of having been an accomplice in them ; of waste 
 of public money ; and finally, of disobedience to orders. 
 
 In the month of November, the convention assembled at New Orleans. 
 The constitution of the United States was adopted ; a constitution was 
 formed, and received the signatures of all the members of the convention 
 on the 22d of January. 
 
 The preamble of this document, describes the limits of the new state, 
 and declares the erection of the territory into a state, by the name of 
 Louisiana. 
 
 The powers of government are divided into three distinct branches, 
 each of which is confided to a separate body of magistracy, the legislative, 
 executive and judiciary; and it is declared that no person or number of 
 persons, of any of the magistracies, shall exercise any power confided to 
 any of the others. 
 
 The legislative powers are vested in a general assembly, composed of a 
 senate and house of representatives. 
 
 The election is to take place on the first Monday of July, in every other 
 year. 
 
 The qualifications of electors are the same, in regard to the senate and 
 house of representatives. 
 
 Every free white male citizen of the United States, having attained the 
 age of twenty-one years, and resided one j^ear in the country, and having 
 within the last six months paid a state tax, or being a purchaser of lands 
 of the United States, is entitled to a vote. 
 
 Free white male citizens of the United States, having attained the age 
 of twenty-one years, resided in the state during the two preceding 
 years, and during the last in the county or district, and holding landed 
 property therein to the value of five hundred dollars, are eligible as 
 members of the house of representatives. 
 
 The number of representatives is to be ascertained and regulated by the 
 number of qualified electors ; a census thereof is to be taken in every 
 foi'irth vear. 
 
 The state is divided into fourteen senatorial districts, which are 
 forever to remain indi\dsible, and each of which elects a senator. 
 
 Each senator must be a citizen of the United States, have attained the 
 age of thirty years, and have double the time of residence, and value of 
 property, required of a member of the house of representatives. 
 
352 HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 
 
 Senators are elected for six years, one-third of them going out every 
 second year. 
 
 In either house, a majority of its members constitutes a quorum, but a 
 less number may adjourn and compel attendance. 
 
 Each is judge of the qualifications and elections of its own members ; 
 appoints it's officers ; determines the rules of its proceedings ; may punish 
 and, with the concurrence of two-thirds, expel a member, but not a second 
 time for the same offence ; keeps and publishes a weekly journal of its 
 proceedings ; and enters, thereon, the yeas and nays, at the desire of two 
 members. 
 
 Neither, during the session, can without the consent of the other, 
 adjourn for more than three days, nor to any place, than that in which 
 they respectively sit. 
 
 T^he members of each house receive a compensation for their services, 
 from the treasury. Except in cases of treason, felony and breach of the 
 peace, they are privileged from arrest, while sitting in, going to, or returning 
 from the house, and for any speech therein, cannot be questioned else- 
 where. The}^ are, during the period of their service and the following 
 year, ineligil3le to any office created, or the emoluments of which were 
 increased during the period for which they were elected, unless the office 
 be filled by the suffrages of the people. 
 
 Clergymen, priests or teachers of an}'' religious persuasion and collectors 
 of public taxes, not duly discharged, are ineligible as members of the 
 general assembly. 
 
 Every bill is to be read three times, in each of the houses. 
 
 Bills for raising a revenue originate in the house of representatives ; 
 but the senate may propose amendments. 
 
 The executive power is vested in the governor. 
 
 He must be, at least, thirty-five years of age, have resided six years in 
 the state, immediately before the election, and hold in his own right, a 
 landed estate of the value of five thousand dollars, according to the tax 
 list. 
 
 Members of congress, persons holding any office under the United 
 States, and ministers of any religious society, are ineligible as governor. 
 
 Every fourth year the electors of members of the legislature vote for a 
 governor, at the' time and place at which they vote for the legislature : and, 
 on the second day after the meeting of that body, the members of both 
 houses meet in the house of representatives, choose a governor out of the 
 two individuals having received the greatest number of votes from the 
 people : but, if more than two have such a number, the members vote for 
 them in the same manner : but if more than one individual have an equal 
 number of votes, next to the one who had the highest, they vote for one 
 of the former, to be voted for with the latter. 
 
 In this, as in all other elections, the votes are taken by ballot. 
 
 The governor is commander-in-chief of the army and navy, and the 
 militia, except when the latter is in the service of the United States ; but 
 does not act personally in the field, unless so advised by the legislatul-e. 
 He nominates and appoints, with the advice and consent of the senate, 
 judges, sheriffs and all other officers, created by the constitution, whose 
 appointment it does not vest in other persons ; he fills, provisionally, all 
 vacancies happening during the recess of the legislature; he has power to 
 remit fines and forfeitures ; except in cases of impeachment, he grants 
 
HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 353 
 
 reprieves, and, with the approbation of the senate, pardons ; in case of 
 treason, he grants reprieves till the meeting of the general assembly, who 
 alone may pardon. 
 
 He may require information, in writing, from any officer in the execu- 
 tive department, on any matter relating to their respective offices. 
 
 He gives, from time to time, to the general assembly, information 
 respecting the situation of the state, and recommends measures to their 
 consideration, and takes care that the laws be executed. 
 
 On extraordinary occasions, he convenes the general assembly, at the 
 seat of government, or elsewhere in cases of danger. If the houses disagree, 
 at the time of their adjournment, he adjourns them to any day within 
 four months. 
 ■ He visits the several counties, at least, once in every two years. 
 
 Every bill, after having passed both houses, is sent to the governor, who 
 signs it, if he approves of it; otherwise he returns it to the house from 
 whence it came, with his objections, where, after they are entered on the 
 journal, the bill is reconsidered, and if two-thirds of the members elected, 
 vote for it, it is sent, with the objections, to the other house, and becomes 
 a law, if voted for there, by two-thirds of the members elected. 
 
 Resolutions, to which both houses made assent, are sent to the governor 
 in the same manner as bills. 
 
 If the governor does not return a bill or resolution within ten days after 
 receiving it, his approbation is presumed, unless the house, in which it 
 originated, prevents its return by an adjournment. 
 
 A secretary of state is appointed for the same period as the governor ; 
 he attests the latter's official acts, and is- the keeper of the archives. 
 
 The governor's compensation cannot be increased or diminished during 
 the incumbent's period of service. 
 
 The judicial power is vested in a supreme and inferior courts. The first 
 is composed of not less than three nor more than five judges. It sits at 
 New Orleans during the months of January, February, March, April, 
 May, June, July, November and December, for the eastern district ; and 
 at Opelousas during the rest of the year, for the western. The legislature 
 may change the place of sitting, in the western circuit, every fifth year. 
 Its jurisdiction is appellate only, and extends to civil cases, in which the 
 value of the matter in dispute exceeds three hundred dollars. 
 
 Inferior courts are established by law. 
 
 The judges are conservators of the peace throughout the state; they 
 hold their offices during their good behavior. They are removable on 
 impeachment, and, for any reasonable cause, not sufficient for impeach- 
 ment, they may be removed by the governor, on the address of three-fourths 
 of each house of the general assembly. 
 
 The power of impeachment is vested in the house of representatives 
 alone. The senate is the sole judge, and conviction cannot take place 
 without the concurrence of two-thircls of the senators present. 
 
 The governor and all civil officers are liable to impeachment for any 
 misdemeanor in office. The judgment extends only to removal and 
 disqualification, but is subject to prosecution in other courts. 
 
 In case of the governor's impeachment, death, resignation or removal, 
 his functions devolve on the president of the senate. 
 
 Provision was made for the freedom of the press ; the writ of habeas 
 corpus; the trial by jury, and the due administration of justice in criminal 
 
354 HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 
 
 cases ; admission to bail, and the exclusion of cruel and unusual 
 punishment. 
 
 The clauses recommended by congress were inserted. 
 
 A mode for revising the constitution was provided. 
 
 Arrangements were made, in a schedule, for the march of the state 
 government, at the ex})iration of the territorial, by continuing the officers 
 of the former, until superseded by law. 
 
 Those who prepared the first form of a constitution, submitted to the 
 convention, took the constitution of Kentucky for a model ; they macie 
 several alterations, and others were introduced liy the convention. 
 
 One of the i)rincipal was a provision for the salary of the judges of the 
 supreme court, which was fixed at five thousand dollars; another was the 
 obligation imposed on the judges of all courts, as often as it may be 
 possible, in every definitive judgment, to refer to the particular law, in virtue 
 of which, the judgment is rendered, and, in all cases, to adduce the 
 reasons on which it is founded. 
 
 CHAPTER XXIX. 
 
 On the tenth of Januarv, 1812, the inhabitants of New Orleans witnessed 
 the approach of the first vessel, propelled by steam, which floated on the 
 Mississippi, the New Orleans, from Pittsburg. The captain stated, he 
 had been but two hundred and fifty-nine hours, actually, on the way. 
 
 We have seen that soon after the cession, the Pope had placed the 
 ecclesiastical concerns of the success of Louisiana, under the care of 
 bishop Carrol, of Baltimore ; he now confided them to the abbe Dubourg, 
 a French clergyman, who had resided for several years in Baltimore, and 
 who came to New Orleans with the appointment of Apostolic Adminis- 
 trator. 
 
 The President of the United States approved, on the 14th of February, 
 1812, the sentence pronounced by the court martial, on the 23d of 
 December preceding, acquittipg Wilkinson of all the charges exhibited 
 against him. 
 
 Early in the month of April, congress passed an act for the admission 
 of the territory of Orleans, as a state, into the Union ; but the act was not 
 to be in force till the 30th of the month, the ninth anniversary of the 
 treaty of cession. It was declared to be a condition of the admission of 
 the new member, that the river Mississippi, and the navigable waters 
 leading into it, and into thegulf of Mexico, should be common highways, 
 and forever free, as well to the inhabitants of that state as to those of the 
 other states and territories of the United States, without any tax, duty, 
 impost or toll therefor, imposed Ijy the state, and that this condition and 
 all others, stated in the act of the preceding session, for enabling the 
 inhabitants of the territory to form a constitution, etc., should be 
 considered as the fundamental terms and conditions of the admission of 
 the state into the union. 
 
 A few days after, another act was passed, for extending the limits of 
 the state, by annexing thereto, the country south of the Mississippi 
 territory, and east of the Mississippi river and the lakes, as far as Pearl 
 river. 
 
HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 355 
 
 The legislature was required, in case it assented to this accession of 
 territory, to make provision, at its next session, for the representation of 
 the inhabitants, in the legislature, according to the principles of the 
 constitution, and for securing to them equal rights with those enjoyed by 
 the people of the other parts of the state ; the law passed for this purpose 
 being liable to revision, modification and amendments by congress, and, 
 also, in the mode, provided for amendments to the constitution, but not 
 liable to change and amendment by the legislature of the state. 
 
 On the 12th of the same month, Wilkinson was directed, by the secretary 
 of war, to-return to New Orleans and resume his command. 
 
 Authentic copies of the late acts of congress having reached New 
 Orleans in the beginning of June, Poydras, the president of the late 
 convention, in compliance with a provision of the schedule, annexed to 
 the constitution, issued his proclamation for the election of a governor 
 and members to the legislature. 
 
 General Wilkinson reached New Orleans on the 8th of June. — 
 ^ Congress declared war against Great Britain on the 18th, 
 
 The senate and house of representatives, according to the constitution, 
 dissembled on the 27th, and on the following day proceeded to the election 
 of a governor ; Claiborne and Villere, the son of the gentleman who, we 
 have seen, fell under the bayonets of a Spanish guard, in 1769, were the 
 individuals who had received the highest number of votes from the people ; 
 the former, who had a larger number than the latter, was chosen. 
 
 The first act of the legislature, was that by which the proposed extent 
 of territory was assented to; and the next was that providing for the 
 representation of the new citizens of the state, in its legislature, and the 
 extension to them of all the rights enjoyed by the inhabitants of the 
 other parts of the state. They were allowed three senators and six 
 members of the house of representatives. 
 
 It was thought best to postpone the establishment of the judiciary 
 department, till the new members of the legislature could be elected and 
 take their seats ; and after attending to such matters as required imme- 
 diate attention, the legislature adjourned early in September, to the 23d 
 of November. 
 
 On the nineteenth of August, the county suffered a great deal from a 
 hurricane, the ravages of which exceeded those hitherto known by any of 
 the inhabitants. Several buildings were blown down in New Orleans, 
 particularh^ a very large and elegant market house. 
 
 At their second session, a supreme, district and parish courts were 
 organized ; the first was to be composed of three judges, and Hall, 
 Mathews and Derbigny were, accordingly, appointed. The state was 
 divided into seven districts, in which a court was to be holden, in each 
 parish, except the first, by a district judge, who had the same jurisdiction 
 as the late territorial superior court. In the first district the court was to 
 be holden in New Orleans only. 
 
 The parish courts were continued on the same footing, except that of 
 New Orleans, to which the jurisdiction of a district court was given. 
 
 The arms of the United States were unsuccessful on the northern 
 frontier, during the year 1812 ; general Hall surrendered, his army to the 
 enemy, who possessed themselves of the whole Michigan territory. General 
 Van Ranselaer was more fortunate, at the battle of Queenstown, where he 
 
356 HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 
 
 drove off the assailants, with a considerable loss, particularly that of their 
 leader, general Brock. 
 
 The navy acquired much eclat : the British frigates Guerriere, Mace- 
 donian and Java, were taken by captains Hull, Decatur and Bainbridge ; 
 the sloop of war Alert, by captain Porter, and the brigs of war Detroit 
 and Caledonia, by lieutenant Jones. 
 
 The United States lost the brigs Nautilus and Vixen and the sloop of 
 war, the Wasp. 
 
 On the 12th of February, 1813, congress authorized the President of the 
 United States, to occupy and hold that part of West Florida, lying west 
 of the river Perdido, not then in the possession of the United States. 
 Orders for this purpose were sent to Wilkinson, who immediately took 
 measures with commodore Shaw, and the necessary equipments being 
 made, the forces employed in this service reached the vicinity of Fort 
 Charlotte, in the night between the 7th and 8th of April, having on their 
 way dispossessed a Spanish guard, on Dauphin island, and intercepted a 
 Spanish transport, having on board detachments of artillery, with 
 provisions and munitions of war, Don Gayetano Perez, who commanded 
 in Fort Charlotte, received the first information of Wilkinson's approach 
 from his drums. The place was strong and well supplied with artillery, | 
 but the garrison consisted of one hundred and fifty effective men only, \ 
 and was destitute of provisions, as the troops depended upon the town 
 for daily subsistence. Don Gayetano capitulated on the thirteenth. The 
 garrison was sent to Pensacola, but the artillery of the fort was retained, ^ 
 to be accounted for by the United States ; with part of it, Wilkinson / 
 established a small fortification on Mobile point, which commanded the^ 
 entrance of the bay ; he left colonel Constant in command at Fort^ 
 Charlotte, and returned to New Orleans, which he left a few days after, 
 being ordered to join the army on the frontiers of Canada. 
 
 General Flournoy, of Georgia, was sent to command the forces on the 
 Mississippi. 
 
 The British had sent emissaries from Canada, among the southern 
 Indians, with a view to induce them to take up the hatchet against the 
 frontier inhabitants of Georgia and the Mississippi territory. Those men 
 were successful among the Creeks, who, on the 20th of June, manifested 
 their hostile temper by the massacre of several individuals of their own 
 tribes, who were friendly to the United States. This event was not, 
 however, followed by any positive act of hostility against the United 
 States, till the 13th of September, when they committed a sudden, 
 unprovoked, and daring outrage against them. 
 
 Major Beasley had been sent to command a small garrison, which it had 
 been deemed proper to put in Fort Mimms, in the Tensau settlement of 
 the Mississippi territory ; a Creek Indian came and informed him, in an 
 apparently friendly manner, that he was to be attacked within two days ; 
 having made his communication, he departed and was hardly out of sight 
 when twenty or thii'ty of his countrymen came in view, and forcibly 
 entered the fort. In the attempt to shut the gate, Beasley was killed ; 
 the garrison revenged his death by that of all the assailants. This first 
 party was, however, soon followed by a body of about eight hundred : 
 the garrison was overpowered, the fort taken and every man, Avoman and 
 child in it slaughtered, with the exception of four privates, who, though 
 severely wounded, effected their escape and reached Fort Stoddard. 
 
HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. .357 
 
 This misfortune was considerably heightened by the circumstance of 
 a number of the settlers near the fort having sent their families there for 
 protection : the number of white persons who thus perished amounted to 
 three hundred and fifty. The garrison made a most obstinate defense ; 
 two hundred and fifty Indians were killed and the number of the wounded 
 could not be known. 
 
 This event broke up the settlement : its inhabitants sought the 
 protection of the white people, at Mobile and Forts Stoddard and St. 
 Stevens. 
 
 A forty-fourth regiment of infantry had been ordered to be raised, and 
 exclusively employed in the state of Louisiana and West" Florida. 
 Colonel G. T. Ross, to whom the command of it had been given, entered 
 on the recruiting service early in the month of October. 
 
 On the first account of the disaster at Fort Mimms, very large parties 
 of the militia of the states of Tennessee and Georgia, volunteered their 
 services, and took the field under generals Jackson and Floyd, to avenge 
 their countrymen. The first blow was struck on the third of November, 
 at the Tallusatche towns, where one hundred and eighty-six warriors were 
 killed, and eighty-four women and children made prisoners : the militia 
 had five men killed and forty-one wounded. A week after, Jackson, with 
 about two thousand Tennessee volunteers, fell on the Indians at Talledoga 
 and defeated them, killing three hundred warriors : he had only six men 
 killed and eighty wounded. 
 
 On the eighteenth, a division of the Tennessee volunteer militia, under 
 general WhiLe, destroyed the towns of Little Oakfulkee, Genalga and 
 Hillsbee ; in an action in which he had not a man killed or wounded, 
 and he killed sixty Indians and made two hundred and fifty-six prisoners. 
 
 General Floyd, with nine hundred and sixty men, of the Georgia militia, 
 and three hundred and fifty friendly Indians, attacked fifteen hundred 
 hostile Creeks, at Antossee and Tallassee. He burnt upwards of four 
 hundred houses, and killed two hundred warriors, including the kings of 
 the two towns. His loss was seven killed and fifty-four wounded. 
 
 Congress, on the seventeenth of December, laid a general embargo. 
 
 In the latter part of that month, Flournoy, by order of the United 
 States, made a requisition of one thousand men of the militia of the state, 
 to be employed in the service of the United States, during six months, 
 unless sooner discharged. Claiborne complied with the requisition 
 immediately. 
 
 The arms of the United States were more successful on the northern 
 frontier during this year, than in the preceding, yet but little advantage 
 was obtained. The enemy made considerable havoc on the Chesapeake, 
 in the towns of Hampton, Havre de Grace, Georgetown and Frederickton. 
 
 The navy acquired much glory : the British ships Detroit and Queen 
 Charlotte, brig Hunter, schooners Lady Prevost and Chippewa, and sloop 
 Little Belt, were taken by commodore Perry. The brigs Peacock and 
 Boxer by captain Law^rence and lieutenant Brown, the schooners 
 Dominica and Highflyer by a privateer, and captain Rodgers. The 
 United States lost the frigate Chesapeake, and schooners Viper, Asp, 
 Julia and Growler, and brig Argus. 
 
 The legislature began its third session on the third of January, 1814, 
 but did not pass any very important act. 
 
 General Claiborne, at the head of a detachment of the Mississippi 
 
/ 
 
 35S HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 
 
 territory, on the twenty-third of January, burned the town of Etchenachaca, 
 (holy ground) and routed the Indians. Two days after, general Floyd 
 was attacked, on his encampment, forty-eight miles Avest of Catahouchee, 
 but the enemy retreated after a severe conflict. The loss of the general 
 was twenty-two killed and twenty-seven wounded. 
 
 A decisive blow was at last struck on the twenty-seventh of March, 
 when general Jackson attacked the enem^^'s entrenchments, and, after' an 
 action of five hours, completely defeated them, killing seven hundred and 
 fifty warriors, and taking two hundred and fifty women and children; 
 His loss was twenty-five killed, and one hundred and five wounded. 
 
 Congress, on the fourteenth of April, repealed the embargo and new 
 importation laws. 
 
 In the course of that month the banks in New Orleans ceased to pay 
 specie for their notes. "^ — , ' > 
 
 Lieutenant-colonel Pearson, with, two hundred and fift}^ ofiheNorth 
 Carolina militia, and seventy friendly Indians, having scourea thi5^)anks 
 of the Alabama, made six hundred and twenty-two men, women and 
 children prisoners. 
 
 Official accounts were received at Washington City, of the fiill of 
 Bonaparte ; the restoration of Louis XVIII. , and the consequent general 
 pacification in Europe. These events leaving to Great Britain a large 
 , disposable force, and offering her the means of giving to the war in 
 ! America a character of new and increased activity and extent ; although 
 the government of the United States did not know that such would be its 
 application, nor what particular point or points would become objects of 
 a.ttack, the President deemed it advisable to strengthen the line of the 
 Atlantic and the gulf of Mexico. His directions were accordingly com- 
 municated by the secretary of war to Claiborne, to organize and hold in 
 readiness a corps of one thousand militia infantry, the quota of Louisiana, 
 also a requisition made on the executive of the several states for ninety- 
 three thousand five hundred men. Claiborne lost no time in carrying the 
 views of the general government into execution. 
 
 The Creek Indians having sued for peace, power was given to Jackson 
 to conclude it. This was done at Fort Jackson, on the ninth of August. 
 
 This treaty strongly marks the temper of the L^nited States' agent. It 
 begins by stating that an unprovoked, inhuman and sanguinary war, 
 waged by the hostile Creek Indians, against the United States, has been 
 repelled, prosecuted and determined successfully on the part of the latter, 
 in conformity with the principles of national justice and honorable 
 warfare, and consideration is due*to the rectitude of the proceeding, 
 dictated by instructions relating to the re-establishment of peace ; that 
 prior to the conquest of that part of the Creek nation, hostile to the United 
 States, numberless aggravations had been committed against the peace, 
 the property and the lives of the citizens of the United States and those 
 of the Creek nation in amity with them, at the mouth of Duck river. Fort 
 Mimms and elsewhere, contrary to national faith, and an existing treaty ; 
 that the United States, previously to the perpetration of such outrages, 
 endeavored to secure future amity and concord between the Creek nation 
 and their citizens, in conformity with the stipulations of former treaties, 
 fulfilled with punctuality, and good faith, their engagements to the Creek 
 nation, and more than two-thirds of the whole number of chiefs and 
 warriors, disregarding the genuine spirit of existing treaties, suffered 
 
HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 359 
 
 themselves to be instigated to violations of their national honor, the 
 respect due to the part of the nation faithful to the United States and the 
 principles of humanity, by impostors, denominating themselves prophets, 
 and by the duplicity and misrepresentations of foreign emissaries, whose 
 governments are at war, open or understood, with the United States — 
 wherefore : 
 
 The United States demand an equivalent for all expenses, incurred 
 in prosecuting the war to its termination, by a cession of all the territory 
 belonging to the Creek nation, within certain limits, expressed in the 
 treaty. 
 
 The United States guaranty to the Creek nation the integrity of the 
 rest of their territory. 
 
 They demand that the Creek nation abandon all communication and 
 cease to hold any intercourse with any British or Spanish post, garrison 
 or town, and that they shall not admit among them any agent or trader, 
 who shall not have authority, to hold commercial or other intercourse with 
 them, from the United States. 
 
 The United States demand an acknowledgment of the rights of estab- 
 lishing military posts and trading houses, and to open roads within the 
 territory, guaranteed to the Creek nation, and a right to the free navigation 
 of all its waters. 
 
 The United States demand the immediate surrender of all the 
 persons and property of their citizens and their friendly Indians, and 
 promise to restore the prisoners they made in the nation, and the 
 property of any of its members. 
 
 The United States demand the capture and surrender of all the 
 prophets and instigators of the war, whether foreigners or natives, who 
 have not submitted to the arms of the United States, or become parties 
 to the treaty, if ever they shall be found within the territory, guaranteed 
 by the United States to the nation by the treaty. 
 
 . The Creek nation being reduced to extreme want and not having, at 
 present, the means of subsistence, the United States, from motives of 
 humanity, will continue to furnish gratuitously, the necessaries of life, 
 until crops of corn be considered competent to yield the nation a supply, 
 and will establish trading houses among them to enable the nation, by 
 industry and economy, to purchase clothing. 
 
 The Creek nation acceding to these demands, it is declared, that a 
 permanent peace shall ensue, from the date of the treaty forever, between 
 the Creek nation and the United States, and the Creek nation and the 
 Cherokee, Chickasaw and Choctaw nations. 
 
 Early in the month of August, xhe British brig Orpheus, brought 
 several officers of that nation to the bay of Apalachicola, with several 
 pieces of artillery. There object was to enter into arrangements with the 
 chiefs of the Creek nation of Indians for obtaining a number of their 
 warriors to join the British force, which was soon expected, and intended 
 for the attack of the fortification which Wilkinson, after he had taken 
 Fort Charlotte, had established at Mobile point, and the possession of 
 which was considered an an object of great importance towards the 
 execution of ulterior operations, which were meditated against Louisiana. 
 These officers easily succeeded in rallying a number of Indians around 
 the British standard. Individuals from almost all the tribes who dwelt 
 
360 HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 
 
 to the eastward of the Choctaws, joined the Creeks ; they were supplied 
 with arms and drilled. 
 
 Soon after, colonel Nichols arrived at Pensacola. He had sailed from 
 Bermudas with a few companies of infantry, and touched at the Havana, in 
 expectation of obtaining from the captain-general of the island of Cuba, a 
 few gunboats and small vessels, with permission to land his men and 
 some artillery at Pensacola. He obtained no aid : but it is imagined the 
 captain-general did not seriously object to his efiecting a landing at 
 Pensacola, as he did so without any effort made by the Spanish officers 
 there, to maintain the neutrality of the place. He was soon joined by the 
 officers of his nation, who had preceded him in West Florida, accom- 
 panied by a very considerable number of Indians. He established his 
 headquarters in the town, from which he issued, on the twenty-ninth of 
 August, his proclamation to the people of Louisiana. 
 
 He announced, that on them the first call was then made to assist in 
 the liberation of their natal soil, from a faithless and weak government. 
 To Spaniards, Frenchmen, Italians and Englishmen, whether residents or 
 sojourners in Louisiana, application was made for assistance. The colonel 
 said he had brought a fine train of artillery and everything requisite, Avas 
 heading a large body of Indians, commanded by British officers, and 
 was seconded by numerous British and Spanish fleets. His object was to 
 put an end to the usurpation of the United States, and restore the country 
 to its lawful owners. 
 
 He gave assurances that the inhabitants had no need to be alarmed at 
 his approach, as the good faith and disinterestedness, which Britons had 
 manifested in Europe, would distinguish them in America. The people 
 would be relieved from taxes imposed on them to support an unnatural 
 war : their property, their laws, their religion, the peace and tranquillity 
 of their country, would be guaranteed by men, who suffered no infringe- 
 ment of their own. 
 
 The Indians, he added, had pledged themselves in the most solemn 
 manner, to refrain from offering the slightest injury to any but the enemies 
 of their Spanish or British fathers. A French, Spanish or British flag, 
 hoisted over any house, would be a sure protection, and no Indian would 
 dare to cross the threshold of such a dwelling. 
 
 Addressing himself to the people of Kentucky, he observed, they had 
 too long borne with grievous impositions ; the whole brunt of the war had 
 fallen on their brave sons. He advised them to be imposed on no longer, 
 but either to revenge themselves under the standard of their forefathers, 
 or observe the strictest neutrality : assuring them, that, if they complied 
 with his offers, whatever provisions they might send down would be paid 
 in dollars, and the safety of the persons accompanying them, as well as 
 the free navigation of the Mississippi would be guaranteed to them. 
 
 He called to their view, and he trusted to their abhorrence, the conduct 
 of those factions which had hurried them into a civil, unjust and unnatural 
 war, at a time when Great Britain was straining every nerve in the 
 defense of her own and the liberties of the world ; when the bravest of 
 her sons were fighting and bleeding in so sacred a cause ; when she 
 was spending millions of her treasure, in endeavoring to put down one of 
 the most formidable and dangerous tyrants that ever disgraced the form 
 of man ; when groaning Europe was almost in her last gasp ; when Britain 
 alone showed an undaunted front ; Avhen her assassins endeavored to stab 
 
HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 361 
 
 her ; from the war, she had turned on them, renovated from the bloody, 
 but successful struggle ; Europe was now happy and free, and she now 
 hastened justly to avenge the insult. He besought them to show they 
 were not collectively unjust, and leave the contemptible few to shift for 
 themselves ; to let the slaves of the tyrants send an embassy to the island 
 of Elba, to implore his aid, and let every honest American spurn them 
 with united contempt. 
 
 He asked, whether the Kentuckians, after the experience of twenty-one 
 years, could longer support those brawlers for liberty, who called it 
 freedom, when themselves were free. He advised them not to be duped 
 any longer and accept of his offers, assuring them what he had promised 
 he guaranteed to them on the sound honor of a British officer. 
 
 In an order of the day for the first colonial battalion of the royal corps 
 of marines, colonel Nichols informed them they were called upon to 
 perform a duty of the utmost danger, and to begin a long and tedious 
 march through wildernesses and swamps, and their enemy, being enured 
 to the climate, had a great advantage over them ; but he conjured them 
 to remember the twenty-one years of glory and toil of their country, and 
 to resolve to follow the example of their noble companions, who had 
 fought and shed their blood in her service ; to be equally faithful and 
 trust in their moral discipline, and the least and most perfidious of their 
 enemies would not long maintain himself before them. 
 
 He added, that a cause, so sacred as that which had led them to draw 
 their swords in Europe, would make them unsheath them in America, and 
 use them with equal credit and advantage. In Europe their arms had 
 not been employed for the good of their country only, but for that of those 
 who groaned in the chains of oppression, and in America they were to 
 have the same discretion, and the people they were now to aid and assist, 
 groaned under robberies and murders, committed on them by the 
 Americans. ' 
 
 He said, the noble Spanish nation had grieved to see her territories 
 insulted, having been robbed and despoiled of a portion of them, while 
 overwhelmed with distress and held down by chains a tyrant had loaded 
 her with, while gloriously struggling for the greatest of all possible 
 blessings, true liberty ; the treacherous Americans, who call themselves 
 free, had attacked her, like assassins, Avhile she was fallen ; but the day 
 of retribution was fast approaching ; these atrocities would excite horror 
 in the hearts of British soldiers, and would stimulate them to avenge the 
 oppressed. 
 
 He recommended to his men to exhibit to the Indians the most exact 
 discipline, and be a pattern to those children of nature ; to teach and 
 instruct them, with the utmost patience, and correct them when they 
 deserve it ; to respect their, affections and antipathies and never give them 
 a just cause of offense. 
 
 He concluded by reminding them, that sobriety above all things, should 
 be their greatest care ; a single instance of drunkenness might be their 
 ruin, and he declared, in the most solemn manner, that no consideration 
 whatever should ever induce him to forgive a drunkard. 
 
 Emissaries were sent, with copies of this proclamation over the country, 
 between Mobile river and the Mississippi. 
 
 On the capture of the island of Guadaloupe, by the British, most of the 
 privateers, commissioned by the colonial government, unable to find a 
 
 48 
 
362 HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 
 
 shelter in the West India islands, resorted to lake Barataria, to the west 
 of the city of New Orleans, for supplies of water and provisions, recruiting 
 the health of their crews and disposing of their prizes, which they were 
 unable to do elscAvhere. At the expiration of the period, during which 
 their commissions, from the governor of (iuadaloupe, authorized them to 
 cruise, these people went to Carthagena, where they procured commissions, 
 authorizing the ca})ture of Hpanisli vessels ; the neutrality of tiie United 
 States, preventing vessels thus captured from being l)rought to their ports, 
 they were brought to Barataria. Under that denomination was included 
 all the coast on the gulf of Mexico, between the western mouth of the 
 Mississippi and that of the river or bayou Lafourche. Near the sea between 
 those streams, are the small, large and larger lakes of Barataria, commu- 
 nicating with one another by bayous, the numerous branches of which 
 Interlock each other. A secure harbor afforded a shelter to the vessels 
 of those people, who had established near it a small village, in which they 
 met individuals from the settlements of Attakapas and Lafourche, and 
 the right bank of the Mississippi, and even New Orleans, who, having but 
 few competitors, purchased merchandise on advantageous terms, and 
 obtained good prices for the provisions they brought. Besides privateers- 
 men, the village was resorted to by interlope and negro traders from 
 foreign i)orts ; and it was reported, that some of the Barataria people were 
 addicted to piratical j^ursuits. The violation of the laws of neutrality, 
 the fiscal regulations and those against the importation of slaves, by the 
 men of Barataria, though persisted in for a number of years, had not, till 
 very lately, attracted the notice of the general or state government. 
 Commodore Patterson had just received orders, from the secretary of the 
 navy, to disperse those marauders, the schooner Carolina had been ordered 
 to New Orleans, for that purpose, and colonel Ross, of the forty-fourth 
 regiment, had been directed to co-operate in this measure. These officers 
 were now making preparations for this purpose. 
 
 On the thirty-first of August, colonel Nichols, addressed a letter to 
 Lafitte, the most influential individual at Barataria, informing him of his 
 arrival at Pensacola, for the purpose of annoying the only enemy Great 
 Britain had in the world, and called on him and his brave followers to 
 enter into the service of Great Britain, in which he should have the rank 
 of a captain, and lands would be allowed to them all, according to their 
 respective ranks, on a j^eace taking place. 
 
 An officer of the marine corps was dispatched with this letter, and the 
 commander of the king's ships at Pensacola wrote also to Lafitte, referring 
 him to captain Lockyer, of the Sophia, who was sent to convey Nichols' 
 emissary. On the third day of September, these letters were delivered to 
 a brother of Lafitte, who was absent. He amused his visitors and encour- 
 aged them to hope he would come into their views, but asked the delay 
 of a fortnight before he made his final determination known. He instantly 
 sent to a merchant in New Orleans, the letter he had received and Nichols' 
 proclamation, with directions to communicate them to Claiborne, and 
 deliver him a letter, in which Lafitte offered his services, and those of his 
 people, to defend the part of the state he occupied, or be otherwise 
 employed against the enemy, asking only that a stop might be put to the 
 proscription of his brother, himself and their adherents, by an act of 
 oblivion. He concluded, with the assurance that, if his request was not 
 
HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 363 
 
 granted, he would forthwith leave the state, to avoid the imputation of 
 having co-operated in an invasion of Barataria. 
 
 Claiborne called together the principal officers of the army, militia and 
 navy, and laid before them Lafitte's letter, and the papers he had received ; 
 they recommended that he should not have any intercourse, or enter into 
 correspondence with any of those people. Major-general Villere and 
 Claiborne were the only persons, at this meeting, who disapproved of the 
 recommendation. 
 
 At the expiration of the delay, captain Lockyer came to the place 
 indicated, to receive Lafitte's final answer, but being met by no one, he 
 returned. 
 
 Early in this month, the quota of the militia in the state, which had 
 been ordered to be held in readiness, in consequence of a requisition of 
 Jackson, who had succeeded Flournoy, in command of the seventh military 
 district, was directed by Claiborne to rendezvous in New Orleans, to be 
 organized and taken into the service of the United States. 
 
 Fort Boyer, the fortification which Wilkinson, after the Spanish 
 garrison was driven out of Fort Charlotte, at Mobile, had erected, on a 
 point of land which commands the entrance of Mobile bay, was found a 
 great obstacle to the operations of the British in Louisiana, and an effort 
 was made, in the middle of September, to take possession of it. 
 „ Commodore Perry, with a flotilla of four vessels of war, in which he 
 had brought Nichols and his troops to Pensacola, took on board thirteen 
 hundred men, six hundred of whom were Indians ; his ships had ninety- 
 two pieces of heavy artillery. Major Lawrence, who commanded the fort, 
 had a garrison of one hundred and thirty men and twenty pieces of 
 cannon. Perry landed a part of his soldiers, who erected a battery, the 
 guns of which and those of the ships, began at once a tremendous fire : 
 but the fort was so gallantly defended and his own ship was so injured 
 that he was obliged to set fire to her : the other three were so absolutely 
 disabled, that the commodore took the men he had landed, on board, and 
 sailed away, having had one hundred and sixty-two men killed and as 
 many wounded. 
 
 On the eighteenth of September, the expedition that had been prepared, 
 in New Orleans, by commodore Patterson and colonel Ross, reached the 
 settlement of Barataria men ; those people had abandoned it, as soon as 
 they perceived the vessels, leaving a quantity of goods, that were saved ; 
 the houses were all destroyed. 
 
 On the return of the British flotilla, which had been repulsed before 
 -Fort Boyer, the British were permitted to garrison the forts at Pensacola. 
 ^Jackson, who was then at Mobile, determined on taking possession of that 
 town, in order to deprive the enemy of a place of shelter and refuge. He 
 accordingly assembled at Fort Montgomery, on the Alabama river, a body 
 of about four thousand men, composed of regulars and militia from the j 
 state of Tennessee and Mississippi territory, and, soon after, led them ' 
 towards Pensacola, and halted within two miles of the town, on the sixth 
 of November. 
 
 Major Peire, an aid of Jackson, was now dispatched with a communi- 
 cation to the Spanish governor, announcing to him, that the army of the 
 United States did not approach with any hostile views to Spain, and had 
 no object but to deprive the British, with whom they were at war, of a 
 place of refuge, in which they prepared the means of annoying the 
 
364 HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 
 
 inhabitants of the adjoining territory of the United States. He therefore 
 required, that the governor should admit a garrison out of the army of 
 the United States in Fort St. Michael and that of the Barrancas, till a 
 sufficient Spanish force, to enable the colonial government of Pensaeola, 
 to support the neutralit}' of the Catholic king's territory, should arrive. 
 The major was tired on, although he approached alone, and bore a 
 conspicuous white flag ; he reconnoitred the fort and distinctly saw it 
 occupied by British troops; the Spanish flag was displayed over it; but 
 information was received that, on the preceding day, both the Spanish 
 and British flags had been simultaneously hoisted. 
 
 Jackson, on the return of Peire, sent a letter to the governor, by a 
 prisoner, demanding an explanation. A Spanish officer soon after arrived 
 with a letter from the governor, containing assurances of his having had 
 no participation in the transaction complained of, and that if the commu- 
 nication was renewed the messenger would be received with due respect. 
 Peire went in accordingly, at midnight, and on Jackson's proposition 
 being rejected, declared that recourse would be had to arms. 
 
 Accordingly on his return, on the seventh, three thousand men Avere 
 marched in three columns, along the beach, in order to avoid the fire of 
 Fort St. Michael ; but when in sight of the town, the artillery proving too 
 heavy for the sand, the middle column was ordered to charge, and as 
 soon as the head of it appeared in the principal street, a Spanish battery 
 of two pieces of cannon, was opened on it: it was immediately carried at 
 the point of the bayonet, with the loss of eleven men killed or wounded ; 
 the Spaniards had one man killed and six wounded. 
 
 The governor now made his appearance, with a white flag in his hand 
 and being met by some officers, at the head of the troops, declared his 
 intention to accept the proposition made to him. Jackson, on being 
 informed of this, hastened to the house of the intendant, who assured 
 him the town, arsenals, forts and munitions of war would be surrendered. 
 On this, Jackson ordered hostilities to cease, and his troops to march out 
 of town. 
 
 Notwithstanding the strong assurances of the governor and intendant, 
 the forts were not surrendered. Jackson was making preparations to storm 
 Fort St. Michael, when the officer commanding it, lowered his flag and 
 yielded the fortress, before a single blow was struck. 
 
 The troops were marching towards Fort St. Charles, of the Barrancas, 
 when the British blew it up, and retreated to their shipping, w^ith some of 
 their Indians. Those of the latter, who did not go on board, fled across 
 the country ; the others were landed on the Apalachicola, and, immedi- 
 ately after, the vessel sailed away. 
 
 The American army, shortly after, returned to Mobile. 
 
 CHAPTER XXX. 
 
 The second state legislature had began its first session on the tenth of 
 November, 1814. The following extract from Claiborne's speech shows 
 how little foundation there was in the rumor, that circulated, of the disaf- 
 fection of the inhabitants of Louisiana : " In the patriotic ardor, which 
 pervades the state, I behold a pledge of its fidelity and devotion to the 
 
HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 365 
 
 American union. This ardor, this American spirit, has been tested by 
 the facility with which the late requisition, for an auxiliary force of militia 
 infantry, has been carried into effect, by the laudable zeal with which the 
 volunteer cavalry and riflemen have pressed forward in their country's 
 cause. In meeting the requisition, I am satisfied with the conduct of 
 every officer, whose duty it was to co-operate ; and I have noticed, with 
 pleasure, the promptitude with which most of the regiments furnished 
 their contingent. But, for the valuable services of the cavalry and riflemen, 
 we are particularly indebted to the distinguished patriotism of the citizens 
 of Feliciana and Attakapas. You cannot, gentlemen, too highly appre- 
 ciate the patriotic, the martial spirit which at present exists." 
 
 General Jackson reached New Orleans on the second of December, and, 
 on the next day, descended the river to view Fort St. Charles, at Plaque- 
 mines, and other works which were projecting on the opposite bank. A 
 committee of the legislature waited on him, with the copy of a resolution 
 of that body, testifying to the great and important services lately rendered 
 by him and the gallant army under his command, entitled them to the 
 thanks and gratitude of the general assembly. 
 
 Ac(M^unts Avere now received from Pensacola, that a very large naval 
 force of the enemy was off that port, and it was generally understood New 
 Orleans was the object of the attack ; eighty vessels were in sight, and 
 more than double that number were momentarily looked for. There 
 were vessels of all descriptions and a large body of troops. Admiral 
 Cochrane commanded the fleet, and his ship the Tonnant, was off the port. 
 
 Lieutenant Jones, who commanded on lake Borgne, a flotilla consisting 
 of five gunboats and a schooner, was ordered to reconnoitre and ascertain 
 the disposition and force of the enemy, and in case they should attempt, 
 through this route, to effect a disembarkation, to retire to the Rigolets, 
 the principal pass between lakes Borgne and Pontchartrain, and there, 
 with his flotilla, make an obstinate resistance and contend to the last. 
 He remained off Ship Island till the twelfth, when the enemy's force 
 being much increased, he retired to a position near the Malheureux 
 island, from whence, on his being attacked, he had a better opportunity 
 of making his retreat to the Rigolets, where alone he was instructed to 
 make opposition. This pass and that of Chef Menteur, unite at the 
 entrance of the lakes, and form a narrow channel, on reaching which the 
 gunboats would be enabled to present as formidable an opposition, as 
 could be made to all the force that could be brought against them, and 
 put at defiance any effort that could be made against the city through 
 that route. 
 
 On the thirteenth, Jones perceived the enemy's barges approaching him, 
 and immediately weighed his anchors, with the design of reaching the 
 Rigolets : but found this absolutely impracticable. A strong wind having 
 blown for some days to the east, from the lake to the gulf, had so reduced 
 the depth of water, that the best and deepest channels were insufficient to 
 float his little squadron ; the oars were resorted to, but in vain. Every- 
 thing that could be spared was thrown overboard ; but this was also 
 ineffectual. At last, a sudden tide brought a momentary relief, lifted the 
 boat from the shoals, and Jones directed his course to the Rigolets, and 
 came to an anchor at one o'clock on the next morning, in the west 
 -passage of the Malheureux island, and at daybreak saw the pursuit had 
 been abandoned. 
 
366 HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 
 
 There was, at the bay of St. Louis, some public stores, which he had 
 sent the schooner Sea Horse, to bring off. The British barges made two 
 vain attempts to capture this vessel. Her commander deeming it 
 impossible to execute Jones' orders, destroj'ed the stores : and seeing the 
 enemv returning in great force, blew up the schooner and retreated bv 
 land.^ 
 
 On the morning of the fourteenth, the enemy's barges were seen 
 approaching the gunboats ; a retreat became impossible, the wind was 
 entirely lulled, a perfect calm prevailed, and a strong current setting to 
 the gulf, rendered every effort, to reach the Rigolets unavailing, the 
 resolution was taken to fight as long as there remained the hope of the 
 least success. The line was formed, with springs on the cables;. Forty- 
 three barges, mounting as many cannon, with twelve hundred fine men, 
 were advancing in an extended line, and came soon in reach ; at half after 
 eleven o'clock they commenced to fire, and the action immediately became 
 general. Owing to a strong current setting out to the east, two t)f the 
 boats were unable to keep their anchorage, and flioated about one hundred 
 yards in advance of the line. The enemy advanced in three divisions ; 
 the centre one bore down on the centre boat, commanded by the senior 
 officer, and twice attempting to board, was twice repulsed, with an immense 
 destruction of officers and men and the loss of two boats, which were sunk. 
 Jones being too severely wounded to maintain the deck, the command 
 devolved on Parker, who no less valiantly defended his flag, till his 
 wounds compelled him to retreat, and the boat was soon after carried ; 
 another boat, though gallantly defended, w\as soon after taken and the 
 guns of both turned on the others, which were compelled to surrender. 
 The loss on board of the gunboats was ten men killed and thirty-five 
 wounded ; that of the British not less than three hundred. The Americans 
 had five boats, one hundred and eighty-two men, and twenty-three guns. 
 The force of the assailants has already been stated. 
 
 The loss of the gunboats left the enemv complete master of the lakes 
 to the east of the island on which the city of New Orleans stands, and 
 gave him the facility of reaching it by any of the waters running easterly 
 to any of these lake s. 
 
 The crisis appeared really alarming. The force in New Orleans consisted 
 only of seven hundred men of the seventh and forty-fourth regiments of 
 the United States, and one thousand state militia, Ijesides one hundred 
 and fifty sailors and marines. Three thousand men of the militia of 
 Tennessee, under general Carrol, and a body of twelve hundred and fifty 
 riflemen of the same state, under general Cofiee, were looked for ; and it was 
 reported, a body of twenty-five hundred men from Kentucky, under general 
 Thomas, were on their march ; and it was deemed, that after leaving a suffi- 
 cient part of the militia of the state in the different parishes to keep the slaves 
 in awe, three thousand men might be brought to the defense of the city — 
 making, with some aid from the Mississippi territorv, a general total of 
 about twelve thousand : but the enemy was much nearer to the city than 
 three-fourths of this force. 
 
 Although the population of New Orleans was composed of individuals 
 of different nations, it was as patriotic as that of any city in the union. 
 The Creoles were sincerely attached to liberty and the general goverment; 
 they had given a strong evidence of this, on their admission into Uu: union, 
 by the election of the governor, judges, and almost every other officer 
 
HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 367 
 
 sent to them by the President of the United States. The Spaniards were 
 very small in number, and a few of them might have been elated to see 
 the'flag of their nation raised in the country, but they had no sympathetic 
 feeling for the British ; the individuals of that nation who were not natu- 
 ralized had retired into the interior. There were a few from almost every 
 other European nation, but nothing was apprehended from them. 
 
 Claiborne was sincerely attached to the government of his country, and 
 the legislature was prepared to call forth and place at Jackson's disposal 
 all the resources of the state. 
 
 The disappointment of some, who had unsuccessfully struggled for 
 ascendency, had united them in opposition to Claiborne's measures. 
 There were a few citizens of the United States of considerable talents and 
 influence among them, many of whom had seats in the legislature ; and 
 hitherto when no immediate danger seemed to threaten, had thrown some 
 difficulty in the way of Claiborne on his attempt to bring a part of the 
 militia iiito the service of the United States. The governor, who in 1806, 
 had joined Wilkinson in the cry of spies and traitors, was disposed to 
 "consider his opponents as of that character. 
 
 Hall, the district judge of the United States, had become obnoxious to 
 a few individuals ; he had been from the beginning very strict in enforcing 
 the laws of congress, and persons brought before him for breaches of the 
 revenue, embargo or non-importation laws, had conceived the idea that he 
 was extremely severe. Among the papers of Lafitte, which had been 
 lately taken at Barataria, had been found letters of several merchants, 
 who "had hitherto sustained a good character, aflbrding evidence of their 
 being accomplices of that man, and prosecutions had been instituted 
 against some of them. The stern impartiality of the judge had induced 
 a belief they had much to apprehend ; the counsel, whom they had 
 employed, were generally the opponents of Claiborne. 
 
 The want of an able military chief was sensibly felt, and notwith- 
 standing any division of sentiment on any other subject, the inclination 
 was universal to support Jackson, and he had been hailed on his arrival 
 by all. There were some, indeed, who conceived that the crisis demanded 
 a general of some experience in ordinary warfare ; that one whose military 
 career had begun with the current year, and who had never met with any 
 but an Indian force, was ill calculated to meet the warlike enemy who 
 threatened ; but all were willing to make a virtue of necessity, and to 
 take their wishes for their opinions, and manifested an unbounded confi- 
 dence in him. All united in demonstrations of respect and reliance, and 
 every one was ready to give him his support. His immediate and 
 incessant attention to the defense of the country, the care he took to visit 
 every vulnerable point, his unremitted vigilance and the strict discipline 
 enforced, soon convinced all that he was the man the occasion demanded. 
 
 Unfortunately he had been surrounded, from the moment of his 
 arrival, by persons from the ranks of the opposition to Claiborne, Hall 
 and the state government, and it was soon discovered that he had become 
 impressed with the idea, that a great part of the population of Louisiana 
 was disaffected and the city full of traitors and spies. It appears such 
 were his sentiments as early as the eighth of September ; for in a letter 
 of Claiborne, which he since published, the governor joins in the opinion 
 and writes to him, " I think with you that our country is full of spies and 
 traitors." The governor was not unwilling to increase his own merit, by 
 
368 HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 
 
 magnifying the obstacles he had to surmount : he therefore stated in his 
 corresponclence with Jackson every opposition he met with, and did not 
 fail to represent every one, who did not think as he did, as inimical to the 
 country. Those who immediately surrounded Jackson on his arrival, 
 with a view to enhance his reliance on them, availed themselves of every 
 opportunity to increase his sense of danger. 
 
 Time, which is the true test of the soundness of opinions, has shown 
 that the people of Louisiana deserved well of their country during the 
 invasion, and that not one shadow of treason or disaffection appeared in 
 them. 
 
 An instance of what is called the machinations of foreigners, has been 
 recorded. Colonel Coliel, a Spanish officer of the garrison of Pensacola, 
 had an only daughter married to Lacroix, a wealthy planter, and 
 was on a visit at his farm, a few miles below the city : in Avriting thence 
 to one of his friends in Pensacola, he stated the weakness of the force the 
 British would have to encounter in Louisiana, and expressed his belief of 
 their success. This letter was intercepted and sent to Claiborne, who 
 submitted it to the attorney-general. The latter thought there was no 
 room for his interference, but gave it as his opinion, that in time of war, 
 when an invasion was apprehended, the governor might send away any 
 foreigner whom he suspected of any concert with the enemy. On this, 
 the colonel was ordered away, and obeyed. The communication between 
 New Orleans and Pensacola was opened ; there was no British force in the 
 latter place, and the information conveyed was such as might have been 
 had from any traveller. The colonel acted perhaps indiscreetly, but it is 
 far from being clear he had any hostile view. 
 
 Jackson had Claiborne's assurance that the latter would receive and 
 obey his orders, and support all his measures for the common defense. 
 
 The legislature was in session, since the beginning of the preceding 
 month. We have seen that Claiborne, at the opening of the session, had 
 offered them his congratulations on the alacrity with which the call of the 
 United States for a body of militia had been met, which, with the detail 
 of the proceedings of that body, is the best refutation of the charges which 
 have been urged against them. It will show, that in attachment to the 
 Union, in zeal for the defense of the country, in liberality in furnishing 
 the means of it, and in ministering to the wants of their brave fellow- 
 citizens who came down to assist them in repelling the foe, the general 
 assembly of Louisiana does not suffer by a comparison of its conduct with 
 that of any legislative body in the United States. The assertion, that any 
 member of it entertained the silly opinion, that a capitulation, if any 
 became necessar}'^, was to be brought about or effected by the agency of 
 the houses, any more than by that of a court of justice, or the city council 
 of New Orleans, is absolutely groundless. 
 
 As early as the twenty-second of November, Louaillier, one of the 
 members of the house of representatives for the county of Opelousas, 
 whose name will be frequently mentioned in the sequel of the work, in a 
 report, which he made as chairman of the committee of ways and means, 
 had drawn the attention of the legislature to the necessity of their making 
 suitable provision for the defense of the country. "Who," it is said in 
 this document, "has not admired the patriotic ardor which was displayed 
 in the execution of the works deemed, by the principal cities of the union 
 and our sister states, necessary for the protection of such as could be 
 
HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 369 
 
 assailed by the enemy? The magistrates, the citizens, the officers of the 
 general government, manifested the utmost zeal to obtain the desired 
 object — their safety and the ignominious retreat of the enemy were the 
 glorious result of their efforts. How does it happen that such a noble 
 example has not been followed in this part of the union? Are we so 
 situated as to have no dangers to dread? Is our population of such a 
 description as to secure our tranquillity? Shall we always confine ourselves 
 to addresses and proclamations? Are we always to witness the several 
 departments entrusted with our defense, languishing in a state of inactivity 
 hardly to be excused, even in the most peaceable times? No other 
 evidence of patriotism is to be found than a disposition to avoid every 
 expense, every fatigue — nothing as yet has been performed ; it is the duty 
 of the legislature to give the necessary impulse, but it is only by adopting 
 a course entirely opposite to that which hitherto has been pursued, that we 
 can hope for success — if the legislature adds its own indolence to that which 
 generally prevails, we can easily foresee that ere long, a capitulation, 
 similar to that obtained by the city of Alexandria, will be the consequence 
 of a conduct so highly culpable. 
 
 " A considerable force is now assembled under the orders of general 
 Jackson, which will speedily receive large reinforcements from the militia 
 of the western states, but it is nevertheless true that the principal avenues 
 to our capital are not in a situation to insure its preservation ; and that 
 unless we are determined to provide for its safety ourselves, unless we act 
 with a promptness and energy equal to the torpor which seems to have 
 invaded the principal branches of our government, that force will only be 
 employed in retaking this territory, which must fall an easy prey to the 
 first efforts of an invading foe ; the legislature has been convened for the 
 purpose of raising a fund adequate to the expenses necessary to ward off 
 the dangers by which we are threatened — this is the object which must be 
 accomplished — little does it matter whether this or that expenditure 
 ought to be supplied by the general or by the state government, let us not 
 hesitate in making such as safety may require ; when this shall have been 
 secured, then our claims to a reimbursement will be listened to." 
 
 On the same day, Roffignac, the chairman of the committee of defense, 
 presented a plan, which was directed to be communicated to Claiborne, 
 for the information of Jackson. 
 
 Commodore Patterson having, on the seventh of December, suggested 
 a plan of defense against any attempt of the enemy to ascend the 
 Mississippi, the legislature, after having ordered it to be laid before 
 Jackson, directed the committee of defense to ascertain what number of 
 men, and the quantity of ordnance and other arms, the commanding 
 officers of the land and naval forces would require, that it might be known 
 what was to be supplied by the state. 
 
 On the thirteenth, the sum of seventeen thousand dollars, the remaining 
 part of twenty thousand, which Claiborne had borrowed during the recess 
 of the legislature, for the defense of the country, on account of the state, 
 was directed to be applied, under the orders of Jackson, in procuring 
 materials and workmen for the completion of such batteries and other 
 fortifications as he had directed, and a further sum of eleven thousand 
 dollars was appropriated to the same object. 
 
 Claiborne was at the same time requested to recommend it to the 
 planters of the parish of Orleans and the neighboring ones, to place 
 
370 HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 
 
 immediately as many of their working hands as they could spare at the 
 disposal of Jackson, to be employed on these fortifications — a requisition 
 which was complied with so generally, that more hands were sent than 
 could be employed. 
 
 At the suggestion of Patterson and .Jackson, Claiborne proposed to the 
 legislature, on the following day, the suspension of the writ of habeas 
 corpus, in order to enable the connnodore immediately to press hands for 
 the service of the United States and the general, in case the enemy landed, 
 to apprehend and secure disaffected persons. 
 
 Great doubts were entertained by the legislature, whether any person 
 arrested by the commanding officers of the land and naval forces of the 
 United States could be relieved on writs of habeas corpus, issued by a 
 state court or judge, and they knew from the firmness and inflexibility 
 Avhich Hall, the district judge of the United States, had manifested in 
 1806, that he would not consider himself relieved from the obligation of 
 affording relief to the meanest individual, in whose favor a writ of habeas 
 corpms was applied for, till congress itself decreed a suspension of it. 
 AVilkinson had disregarded the writs of territorial judges, but had not 
 dared to disobey those of Hall, who he knew would not suffer it to be done 
 with impunity. 
 
 Coming from every part of the state, the representatives had witnessed 
 the universal alacrity with which Jackson's requisitions for a quota of the 
 militia of the state had been complied with ; they knew their constituents 
 could be depended on ; they knew that Jackson, Claiborne, and many of 
 the military, were incessantly talking of sedition, disaffection and 
 treason ; but better acquainted with the people of Louisiana than those 
 who were vociferating against it, they were conscious that no state was 
 more free from sedition, disaffection and treason, than their own ; they 
 thought the state should not outlaw her citizens when they were rushing 
 to repel the enemy. They dreaded the return of those days, when 
 Wilkinson filled New Orleans with terror and dismay, arresting and 
 transporting whom he pleased. They recollected that in 1806 Jefferson 
 had made application to congress for a suspension of the writ of habeas 
 corpus, but that the recommendation of the President was not deemed 
 sufficient to induce the legislature of the union to suspend it : that of 
 Claiborne, as far as it concerned Jackson, was not therefore acted on. 
 The members had determined not to adjourn during the invasion, and 
 thought they would suspend the writ, when they deemed the times 
 required it, but not till then. 
 
 Louaillier, in his report as chairman of the committee to whom was 
 referred the consideration of suspending the writ, in order to enable 
 Patterson to impress seamen, considered the measure as inexpedient. 
 The committee thought the country would be ill defended by men forced 
 into her service ; that it was better to induce sailors, by the offer of 
 ample bounties, to repair on board of the ships of the United States, than 
 forcibly to drag them on board. A sum of six thousand dollars was 
 therefore placed at the disposal of the commodore, to be expended in 
 bounties ; and to remove the opportunity of seamen being tempted to 
 decline entering the service of the United States, by the hope of 
 employment on board of merchant vessels, an embargo law was passed. 
 
 On the requisition of Jackson, Claiborne issued a proclamation _ for 
 calling out the militia of the state en masse into the service of the United 
 
HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 371 
 
 States. His call was obe^'ed everywhere with promptness and alacrit}^ : 
 they were ordered to hold themselves in readiness to march at a moment's 
 warning. 
 
 On the sixteenth of December, Claiborne sent a message to the legis- 
 lature, stating that the time was certainly inauspicious for that cool and 
 mature deliberation necessary to the formation of good laws ; that the 
 enemy menaced the capital, and how soon he would effect his landing 
 was uncertain ; every hand should be raised to repel him, and every 
 moment occupied in arranging and completing means of defense : he 
 therefore suggested the expediency of the houses adjourning for twenty 
 or twenty-five days. 
 
 The house of representatives concurred with the report of their com- 
 mitter, who considered an adjournment at the present crisis as inexpedient. 
 The}^ thought that it might be highly dangerous; accidents might happen, 
 unforeseen cases might occur, in which the interference of the legislature 
 might be necessary. Should this happen after the adjournment, and the 
 state be thereby endangered, the members should incur the just reproaches 
 of their constituents. Should the houses adjourn for the proposed period, 
 few members would have time to leave the city, and if they did, their 
 mileages would exceed their expenses, if they continued their sitting. 
 The committe therefore recommended, that the members stay at their post, 
 ready, on any emergency, to contribute, as far as in them lay, to the 
 defense of the country. 
 
 The suspension of the writ of habeas corpus, and adjournment of the 
 houses, were measures which Jackson anxiously desired. There was a 
 great inclination in the members of both houses to gratify him, in every 
 instance in which they could do it with safety ; in these two only, they 
 were of opinion it would be unsafe to adopt his Wews. 
 
 He now issued a general order, putting the citj'- of New Orleans and its 
 environs under strict martial law, and directed that 
 
 1. Every individual entering the city, should report himself to the 
 adjutant-general's office, and on failure, be arrested and held for exam- 
 ination. 
 
 2. None should be permitted to leave the city or bayou St. John, without 
 a passport from the general or some of his staff. 
 
 3. No vessel, boat or craft, should leave the city or bayou St. John, 
 without such a passport, or that of the commodore. 
 
 4. The lamps of the city to be extinguished at nine o'clock, after which, 
 every person found in the streets or out of his usual place of residence, 
 without a pass or the countersign, to be apprehended as a spy and held 
 for examination. 
 
 The proclamation of martial law was understood in Louisiana, as it is 
 believed to be in other states, a solemn warning that the martial law of 
 the United States would be strictly enforced. Martial law was known to 
 be that system of legitimate rules by which the martial affairs of the 
 nation are regulated. It was not imagined that the President of the 
 United States himself, as commander-in-chief of the forces of the union, 
 could add aught to or change these legitimate rules ; that he could make 
 martial law, anj' more thsm fiscal, commercial, or criminal law. 
 
 The collection of the rules by which the conduct of the citizens of a 
 nation in time of peace towards all belligerent nations is regulated, are 
 called the laws of neutrality. 
 
872 HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 
 
 When Washington found that the sympathies of his fellow-citizens with 
 the French nation, might tempt some of them to violate the laws of 
 neutrality, to the injury of the British nation, with which his was at 
 peace, he issued a proclamation, reminding them of their obligations and 
 warning them of the consequences those should expose themselves to, who 
 would violate the laws of neutrality. This was not an useless ceremony. 
 It no doubt had the effect of preventing breaches of those laws. In 1806, 
 when a spirit of enterprise seemed likely to delude some of the citizens of 
 the United States into measures that might involve this country in a war 
 with Spain, Jefferson, actuated by the same motives of Washington, issued 
 a proclamation of the laws of neutrality. It was not considered that a 
 proclamation of martial law could add anything to that law, any more 
 than the proclamation of the laws of neutrality by Washington and 
 Jefferson, add to these laws. To enact and to proclaim, or impose a law, 
 were thought distinct acts, the first the province of the legislature, the 
 other the exclusive right of the executive power. 
 
 That necessity justifies whatever it commands, was admitted as a 
 principle to which every law must bend. That whatever measure became 
 necessary to the defense of the country, might be legitimately enforced, was 
 admitted, and we have seen that the attorney-general had given out as his 
 opinion to Claiborne, that the governor of a place, in time of war, might 
 send out of the country a person attempting anything which might afford 
 aid to the enemy. This principle was known to result from martial law, 
 which justifies whatever circumstances require for the defense of the 
 country or to annoy the foe. It was known to be independent of the 
 2rrocIamation of martial law, which was thought to add nothing to the 
 authority of the officer who made it — to render anything Avhatever lawful 
 or unlawful, that was otherwise before. 
 
 Such were the ideas entertained by the general government of martial 
 law. " In the United States," said the secretary of war (Dallas) in a 
 communication to Jackson, of the first of July, 1815, " there exists no 
 authority to declare or impose martial law, beyond the positive sanction 
 of the act of congress. To maintain the discipline and insure the safety 
 of his camp, an American commander possesses indeed highly important 
 powers : but all these are compatible with the rights of the citizen, and 
 the independence of the judicial authority." 
 
 A number of individuals who had heretofore joined, or been concerned 
 with privateers lately resorting to Barataria, were deterred from entering 
 into the service of the United States, by the apprehension of prosecutions. 
 With the view of quieting their fears, the legislature, on the seventeenth, 
 entered into resolutions requesting Jackson to endeavor to procure an 
 amnesty in favor of such of them as should enlist themselves to serve 
 during the war, and earnestly recommended it to the President of the 
 United States, to grant them a full pardon. The governor was at the 
 same time desired to endeavor to prevail on the attorney of the United 
 States, with the leave of the court, to enter nolle prosequis on all prosecu- 
 tions against such persons then under confinement, on the above condition. 
 This measure was adopted, because it was represented to the houses that 
 Jackson was anxious for it. A number of members had strong objections 
 to it, deeming it improper to accept the services of persons of this 
 description. Claiborne having issued a proclamation, to make the 
 
HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 373 
 
 intention of the legislature in this respect known, a considerable 
 number of these people came in and were enrolled. 
 
 The crisis obliging every one to take up arms, to quit their homes and 
 abandon their private affairs, in a manner that exposed many to great 
 inconvenience, the legislature passed an act forbidding the protest of any 
 bill or note till the expiration of four months, and forbade during the 
 same period the institution or any suit. 
 
 On the nineteenth, general Carrol, with a brigade of the militia of the 
 i^tate of Tennessee, consisting of twenty-five hundred men, arrived, and 
 on the following day he was joined by general Coffee and twelve hundred 
 riflemen from the same state. 
 
 The legislature, on the motion of Louaillier, appointed a committee, at 
 whose disposal they placed a sum of two thousand dollars, for the relief of 
 the militia of the state, seafaring men and persons of color, in the service 
 of the United States. The committee were instructed to invite their 
 fellow-citizens to make donations of woollen clothes, blankets, and such 
 other articles, as, in case of an attack, might be useful to the sick. 
 
 At this period the forces at New Orleans amounted to between six and 
 seven thousand men. Every individual exempted from militia duty, on 
 account of age, had joined one of the companies of veterans, which had 
 been formed for the preservation of order. Every class of society was 
 animated with the most ardent zeal ; the young, the old, women, children, 
 all breathed defiance to the enemy, firmly disposed to oppose to the 
 utmost the threatened invasion. There were in the city a very great 
 number of French subjects, who from their national character could not 
 have been compelled to perform military duty ; these men, however, with 
 hardly any exception, volunteered their services. The chevalier de Tousac, 
 the consul of France, who had distinguished himself and had lost an arm 
 in the service of the United States, during the revolutionary war, lamenting 
 that the neutrality of his nation did not allow him to lead his countrymen 
 in New Orleans to the field, encouraged them to flock to Jackson's standard. 
 The people were preparing for battle as cheerfully as if for a party of 
 pleasure ; the streets resounded with martial airs ; the several corps of 
 militia were constantly exercising, from morning to night ; every bosom 
 glowed with the feelings of national honor ; everything showed nothing 
 was to be apprehended from disaffection, disloyalty or treason. 
 
 On the twenty-first, major Villere, by order of major-general Villere, his 
 father, sent a detachment of the third regiment of the militia, consisting 
 of eight men and a sergeant, attended by two mulattoes and a negro, to a 
 village of Spanish fishermen, on the left bank of bayou Bienvenu, at the 
 distance of a mile and a half from its mouth on lake Borgne. The village 
 in which from thirty to forty fishermen dwelt, was found deserted by 
 them, with the exception of a sick man. The sergeant sent out a few of 
 his men in a boat, to ascertain whether there was any of the enemy's 
 shipping near ; on the next day, at daybreak, another party was sent out 
 for the same purpose, and other parties were frequently out during the 
 day, without discovering any vessel or craft approaching. Towards 
 evening, three men arrived from Chef Menteur, having traversed the lake 
 without seeing any enemy. 
 
 A little after midnight, the sentinel below the village gave the alarm ; 
 by the last gleams of the setting moon, five barges full of men, with some 
 artillery, were discovered ascending the bayou. The sergeant judging, 
 
374 HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 
 
 from the smallness of his party, it would be imprudent to fire, ordered 
 them to conceal themselves behind one of the cabins. They were 
 however, discovered and taken, except a man, who attempting to escape 
 through the prairies, lost his way, and reached Chef Menteur, alter a 
 ramble of three days. 
 
 The first division of the British army, composed of about three tliousand 
 men, under general Kean, proceeded up the bayou and the canal of 
 Villere's plantation ; they surrounded the house, in which was a company 
 of militia, whom they made prisoners, and surprised major Villere, 
 who, notwithstanding several pistols fired at him, effected his escape, and 
 running to some distance below, crossed the river and reached the city. 
 
 Jackson received the first intelligence of the enemy's landing at two 
 o'clock, and in half an hour a detachment of artillery, with two field 
 pieces and a body of marines, were sent in advance. Generals Carrol 
 and Coffee, who were encamped with the force of Tennessee four miles 
 above the city, soon reached it, and at four o'clock the Tennessee riflemen, 
 Mississippi dragoons and Orleans riflemen took their stations two miles 
 below the city. The battalion of men of color, the forty-fourth regiment, 
 and a battalion of the city militia, soon followed ; and commodore 
 Patterson, on board of the United States schooner Carolina, floated down 
 towards the enemy. 
 
 Claiborne, with two regiments of the state militia, and a company of 
 horse, took a position in the rear of the city, on the Gentilly road, to 
 oppose any force that might come from Chef Menteur. 
 
 A negro Avas apprehended on the levee, a few miles from the city, with 
 a number of copies of a proclamation by Admiral Cochrane and general 
 Keane, inviting the Louisianians to remain quiet in their houses, and 
 assuring them, that their property would be protected, the invaders being 
 at war with the Americans only. As the army proceeded, several copies 
 of this proclamation were seen stuck up along the road. 
 
 At seven o'clock, the Carolina came to anchor on the bank of Villere's 
 batture, opposite to the centre of the enemy's encampment, within musket 
 shot. Such was their security that taking this vessel for a conmion craft 
 plying on the river, a number of them came to the levee to examine her 
 more closely. She now began so dreadful a fire, that one hundred of 
 them were killed before the consternation which her salute created 
 subsided. An unsuccessful attempt was made to annoy her with a fire of 
 musketry : Congreve rockets were resorted to with as little success, and 
 in less than half an hour, the schooner drove the enemy from his camp. 
 
 At this moment colonel Piatt drove in one of the enemy's outposts from 
 the main road, opposite to Lacoste's plantation. 
 
 In the meanwhile the seventh regiment advanced by heads of companies 
 to the distance of one hundred and fifty yards, where it formed in 
 battalion before the enemy, with whom it instantly engaged, with a very 
 brisk and close fire. The forty-fourth now came up, and forming on the 
 left of the seventh, commenced firing. Two pieces of artillery were put 
 in battery on the road, and the marines drawn up on the right, on the 
 bank of the river. The engagement now became general on both sides. 
 The front of the British line greatly outflanking our line on the left, and 
 the enem}' seeing he could not make our troops give way, caused some of 
 his to file off on the old levee, by a gate three hundred yards from the 
 river, with the intent to turn our right flank. The forty-fourth had 
 
HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 375 
 
 already been obliged to oblique on the left, in order to avoid being flanked, 
 when two battalions of the state militia and a few Indians advanced. 
 The enemy's column silently approached in the dark to turn the troops 
 of the line, fell suddenly almost within pistol shot of the extremity of 
 one of the battalions of militia, and instantly commenced a brisk fire, 
 One of these battalions forming the centre, advanced in a close column 
 and displayed under the enemy's fire, which was then kept up by his whole 
 front. Already had the enemy been forced to give way, and our troops 
 continued to advance, keeping up a brisk fire, when he began to retreat, 
 favored by darkness now increased by a fog and by the smoke, which a 
 light breeze blew in the faces of our men. 
 
 In the meantime, Coffee's division had advanced, in order to fall on 
 the enemy's rear, followed by a company of riflemen of the state militia : 
 this company, after having penetrated into the very camp of the enemy 
 and made several prisoners, pushed forward to the right, following the 
 movements of Coff'ee, but unfortunately part of them, through a mistake 
 occasioned by the darkness, fell among a corps of one hundred and fifty 
 British, who were moving on rapidly towards the camp, mistaking them 
 for part of Coffee's division, and were made prisoners. Coffee soon took 
 a position in front of the old levee, where he continued a destructive fire. 
 
 At half-past nine, the enemy fell back to his camp, where all the troops 
 passed the night under arms and without fire. 
 
 Jackson, finding that darkness rendered it useless to continue the 
 pursuit, led back his troops to his former position. 
 
 At about half after eleven, a firing of musketry was heard in the 
 direction of Jumonville's plantation, that contiguous to and below 
 Villere's. 
 
 A detachment of three hundred and fifty men, of the state drafted 
 militia, had been stationed at the English Turn, under general Morgan. 
 On the first intelligence of the landing of the enemy, these men insisted 
 on being instantly led to oppose him. Morgan, being without orders 
 from Jackson, on this head declined gratifying them. But when the fire 
 from the Carolina, and the subsequent discharges of artillery and 
 musketry on shore announced that the conflict was commenced, the 
 entreaties of the officers and men of this detachment became so pressing 
 that Morgan could no longer resist them. He had reached, at the head 
 of them, the spot at which the road that leads to Terre-aux-Boeufs leaves 
 that which runs along the levee, during the hottest part of the action, and 
 continued to advance, preceded by two pickets, the one on the high road, 
 the other in the fields, near the woods. The former, as it approached the 
 bridge of Jumonville's plantation, exchanged a fire with some of the 
 enemy's troops, who instantly fell back behind the canal. Darkness 
 preventing Morgan to ascertain the force of the enemy near him, or the 
 relative situation of the two armies, he took a position in a neighboring 
 field, to avoid an ambush. In a council, to which he called all his 
 oflicers, it was deemed inexpedient to remain, and the detachment moved 
 back a little before daylight. 
 
 The enemy, who had received a reinforcement during the action, had a 
 force of very near five thousand men : that which opposed him was not 
 much above two thousand. His loss exceeded four hundred : Jackson 
 had twenty-four men killed, one hundred and fifteen wounded, and 
 seventy-five made prisoners. 
 
376 HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 
 
 During the night, whilst anxiety kept the mind of the inhabitants of 
 New Orleans, who had remained in the city, in painful suspense on their 
 impending fate, an unfortunate occurrence excited much alarm among 
 them. A report was spread that Jackson, before his departure, had taken 
 measures and given positive orders for blowing up the magazine and 
 setting fire to various parts of the city, in case the British succeeded in 
 forcing his ranks. His conduct, in this respect, was considered by some, 
 as an evidence of his deeming his defeat a probable event. The old 
 inhabitants, who had great confidence in the natural obstacles which the 
 situation of the capital presents to an invading foe, and which they 
 thought insurmountable if proper attention was bestowed, concluded that 
 it had been neglected : they lamented that the protection of the city had 
 been confided to an utter stranger to the topography of its environs, and 
 while frequent explosions of musketry and artillery reminded them that 
 their sons were facing warlike soldiers, they grieved that an officer, who, 
 in the beginning of the year had hardly ever met any but an Indian 
 enemy, and Avhose inexperience appeared demonstrated by the rash step 
 attributed to him. The truth or falsity of the report was sought to be 
 ascertained by an application to the officer left in command at the city, 
 who declined to admit or deny that the steps had been taken, or the order 
 given. 
 
 A circumstance tended to present the conflagration of New Orleans as 
 a more distressing event than that of Moscow. The burning of the 
 houses of several planters, above the city, in 1811, was remembered, and 
 apprehension had been entertained that British emissaries would be 
 ready, a short time before the main attack, to induce the slaves towards 
 Baton Rouge or Donaldsonville, to begin the conflagration of their 
 owners' houses, and march towards the city, spreading terror, dismay, 
 fire and slaughter ; and a dread prevailed that Jackson's firing of the 
 city would be taken by them for the signal at which they were to begin 
 the havoc — even in case the apprehensions from British emissaries were 
 groundless. The idea of thus finding themselves, with their wives, 
 children and old men, driven by the flames of their houses towards a 
 black enemy, bringing down devastation, harrowed up the minds of the 
 inhabitants. 
 
 Persons, however, who hourly came up from the field of battle, brought 
 from time to time, such information as gradually dispelled these alarms, 
 and in the morning a present sense of safety inspired quite difterent 
 sensations, and the accounts which were received of Jackson's cold, 
 intrepid and soldierlike behavior, excited universal confidence. 
 
 CHAPTER XXXI. ^ ^ , ,, 
 
 At four o'clock, on the morning of the twenty-fourth^Jackson ordered 
 his small army to encamp on the left bank of Rodriguez's canal, about 
 two miles below the field of battle, leaving the Mississippi mounted rifle- 
 men and Feliciana dragoons near it, to watch the motions of the enemy. 
 The canal was deepened and widened, and a strong wall formed in front 
 of it, with the earth which had been originally thrown out. The levee was 
 broken, about one hundred yards below, and a broad stream of water 
 
HISTORY OP LOUISIANA. 377 
 
 passed rapidly over the plain, to the depth of about thirty inches, which 
 prevented the approach of troops on foot. 
 
 Embrasures were formed in the wall, and two pieces of artillery placed 
 so as to rake the road which runs along the levee. 
 
 Morgan was now directed to send a strong detachment from the English 
 Turn, who advanced as near as they could towards the enemy's camp and 
 destroyed the levee, so as to let in the water of the Mississippi, whereby 
 the British army was completely insulated, and the march above and 
 below obstructed. 
 
 On the twenty-sixth, Jackson, fearing for the situation of Morgan, who, 
 as the British occupied the intermediate space, was entirely detached from 
 his camp, ordered him to abandon his position, carry off such of the 
 cannon as he conveniently could, and throw the remainder into the river, 
 from whence they might be recovered when the water subsided ; to cross 
 the stream, and take and fortif}'- a position opposite to the American 
 lines. 
 
 The height of the Mississippi and the discharge of water through the 
 openings made in the levee, had given an increased depth to the canal 
 through which the enemy had come ; this enabled them to advance their 
 boats much nearer to their encampment, and to bring up a new supply of 
 artillery, bombs and ammunition. 
 
 Early on the twenty-seventh, a battery was discovered on the bank of 
 the Mississippi, which had been erected during the previous night, from 
 which a fire was now opened on the Carolina, which was lying near the 
 opposite shore. The repeated discharges of bombs and red hot shot from 
 this battery were spiritedly answered, but without effect, there being on 
 board but one long twelve-pounder that could reach. A red hot shot was 
 lodged under her cables, from which it could not be removed, and soon 
 set her in a blaze. Another discharge extended the ravages of the 
 devouring element, and flames began to burst from numberless places. 
 Orders were now given to abandon her ; one of the crew was killed and 
 six wounded ; the rest reached the shore in safety, and soon after the fire 
 reached the magazine and the vessel was blown up. 
 
 The battery's fire was now directed against the sloop of war Louisiana, 
 which lay at some distance higher up, the preservation of which was the 
 more important, as she was the only public vessel remaining on the 
 river. She was accordingly towed up, out of the reach of the enemy's 
 guns. 
 
 In the afternoon the British moved forward, and obliged Jackson's 
 advanced guard to fall back, and during the night they began to erect 
 several batteries on the river. 
 
 By break of day, the enemy displayed in several columns and drove in 
 the advanced guards. He now advanced, preceded by several pieces of 
 artillery, part of which played on the Louisiana, and the rest on Jackson's 
 line. 
 
 The Louisiana now opened a tremendous and well directed fire on the 
 assailants, which was at first briskly answered, but her guns and those of 
 the line soon silenced the enemy's, broke his columns and forced him to 
 disperse and fall back into the fields, where he took a position, beyond 
 the reach of the Louisiana and Jackson's artillery. His loss was estimated 
 at from two to three hundred men ; seven were killed and ten wounded 
 
 50 
 
878 HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 
 
 on the American line, and one man slightly wounded, by the bursting of 
 a shell on board of the Louisiana. 
 
 The legislature had ceased to sit, on the first intelligence of the arrival 
 of part of the British army on Villere's plantation. Several of the 
 members held commissions in the militia, and had joined their respective 
 corps; the younger had volunteered their services, and the aged joined the 
 several companies of veterans, which had been organized for the mainte- 
 nance of order in the city and its suburbs. Several were attending a 
 military conmiittee, and others, appointed by the legislature to super- 
 intend the supply of the wants of indigent families, whose heads were on 
 the line, and to provide succor for those who daily reached the city to 
 assist in its defense. The apprehension from the black population which 
 had been excited by the rumor of Jackson's intention to fire the city, had 
 induced a few respectable individuals from the country, who possessed 
 influence in their respective parishes, and whose age and habits disqual- 
 ified them from active military service, to visit those neighborhoods, in 
 order to contribute by their presence, to the general maintenance of 
 order. The city council were active in providing means for the support 
 of the needy, and Girod, the mayor, was incessantly engaged in collecting 
 arms and in driving stragglers to the field. Never was an army more 
 abundantly supplied with provisions — the calls of Jackson for negroes to 
 Avork on his line, for tools and munition, were instantly attended to. 
 
 Every day, towards noon, three or four of the members of each house, 
 who served"among the veterans or on the committees, attended in their 
 respective halls to effect an adjournment, in order that, if any circumstance 
 rendered the aid of the legislature necessary, it might be instantly 
 afforded. On going for this purpose to the government house, Skipwith, 
 the speaker of the senate, and two of its members, found a sentinel on the 
 staircase, who, presenting his bayonet, forbade them to enter the senate 
 chamber. They quietly retired and proceeded to the hall of the sessions 
 of the city council, where an adjournment took place. The members of 
 the other house, who attended for the same purpose, were likewise 
 prevented from entering its hall, and acted like those of the senate. 
 
 An unsuccessful attempt, notwithstanding great exertions were used, 
 was made on the thirtieth to obtain a quorum, and the next day it failed 
 in both houses. The crisis had so scattered the members, that those who 
 assembled found themselves obliged to send the sergeant-at-arms and 
 other messengers to require the attendance of the absent members. With 
 great difficulty, a quorum was obtained in each house, late in the evening, 
 and a joint committee was appointed, to Avait on Jackson and inquire 
 into the reasons that had occasioned the violent measures resorted to 
 against the legislature. 
 
 This committee, having performed this service, received from the 
 general a written statement, in the following words : 
 
 Camp at M'Carty's, 4 miles below New Orleans. 
 
 Headquarters, December 31, 18 14. 
 The Major-General commanding has the honor to acknowledge the 
 receipt of the joint resolution of both houses of the honorable the legislature 
 of the state of Louisiana, now in session, dated the 30th inst. and commu- 
 nicated to him by a joint committee of both houses, to which the general 
 gives the following answer : 
 
HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 379 
 
 That just after the engagement between the British and American 
 armies had commenced on the 28th inst., when the enemy was advancing, 
 and it was every instant expected they would storm our lines ; as the 
 general was riding rapidly from right to left of his line — he was accosted 
 by Mr. Duncan, one of his volunteer aids, who had just returned from 
 New Orleans ; observing him to be apparently agitated, the general 
 stopped, supposing him the bearer of some information of the enemy's 
 movements, asked what was the matter. He replied that he was the bearer 
 of a message from governor Claiborne, that the assembly were about to 
 give up the country to the enemy. Being asked if he had any letter from 
 the governor, he answered in the negative. He was theti interrogated as 
 to the person from whom he received the intelligence ; he said it was from 
 a militia colonel ; the general inquired where the colonel was, that he 
 ought to be apprehended, and if the information was not true, he ought 
 to be shot, but that the general did not believe it. To this Mr. Duncan 
 replied, that the colonel had returned to New Orleans, and had requested 
 him, Mr. Duncan, to deliver the above message. 
 
 The general was in the act of pushing forward the line, when Mr. 
 Duncan called after him and said, "the governor expects orders what to 
 do." The general replied that he did not believe the intelligence ; but to 
 desire the governor to make strict inquiry into the subject ; and if true to 
 blow them up. The general pursued his way, and Mr. Duncan returned 
 to the city. After the action, Mr. Duncan returned, and on the general's 
 stating to him the impropriety of delivering such a message publicly in 
 the presence of the troops, as well as the improbability of the fact, he 
 excused himself by the great importance of the intelligence, and then, for 
 the first time, the general heard the name of colonel Declouet, as Mr. 
 Duncan's author. 
 
 The above statement, the general gives as a substantial one, of the 
 matter referred to in the resolutions of the senate and house of represen- 
 tatives ; and to this he adds, that he gave no order to the governor to 
 interfere with the legislature, except as above stated. 
 
 ANDREW JACKSON, 
 
 Maj, Gen. Commanding. 
 
 This statement clearly shows, that Jackson did not believe that the 
 general assembly had the least thought of offering terms to the enemy — 
 and that the violence exercised against them was the effect of a real or 
 pretended misunderstanding of what he had said. 
 
 Duncan, on his examination before a committee of the houses, stated 
 that soon after the beginning of the attack, he met colonel Declouet, who 
 was hastening from the city, apparently in great perturbation, who 
 requested him to inform the general of the existence of a plot, among 
 several members of the legislature, to surrender the country to the enemy, 
 and that he had heard, that Jackson was carrying on a Russian war, and 
 it Avas better to capitulate and save the city : that he had been invited to 
 join in the plot. Duncan added, that Declouet did not say he was sent by 
 Claiborne, and that as far as he recollected, Jackson's order was to tell 
 Claiborne to inquire into the matter, and in case they (the legislature) 
 made any such attempt, to blow them up; and afterwards, he (Duncan) 
 meeting one of Claiborne's aids, directed him to inform the governor, the 
 general wished him to prevent the legislature from assembling. 
 
380 HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 
 
 Decloiiet stated, that on the niglit between the twenty-seventh and 
 twenty-eighth, he slept at his brother's, below the city, and noticed the 
 consternation of several of the inhabitants, and conversed Avith several 
 members of the legislature, who apprehended direful consequences from 
 the war. Hence, he feared a proposition would he made by the legislature 
 to capitulate, which would occasion a disastrous division in the country. 
 In the morning, he set off with the view of communicating his appre- 
 hensions to Jackson, but as he did not rcacli the line till after the 
 beginning of the attack, he requested Duncan to make his communication 
 to^he general. He added, no member of the legislature had manifested 
 to him an intentjon of doing anything positive. The step he took, wa^ 
 grounded on the apprehensions he entertained — apprehensions which he 
 never would have had, if he had been acquainted with the good intentions 
 and beneficent views of the legislature. 
 
 Jackson's biographers have seized on this event, a most erroneous 
 account of which they have given, to blazon his character, to the injury 
 of the state of Louisiana. 
 
 Eaton, who cannot be supposed to have wanted the best means of infor- 
 mation, assures his readers that Jackson was apprehensive of a design in 
 the general assembly to propose a capitulation to the enemy, and intended 
 to have had them confined in the government house. By j^lacing the 
 statement of Jackson side by side with Eaton's, the reader will be 
 conscious of the gross error under which Eaton must have labored. 
 
 ''Jackson's object," says Eaton, "was not to restrain the legislature in 
 the discharge of their official duties ; for although he thought, that such 
 a moment when the sound of the cannon Avas constantly pealing in their 
 ears, was inauspicious to wholesome legislation, and that it would have 
 better comported with the state of the times for them to abandon their 
 civil duties and appear in the field, yet it was a matter indelicate to be 
 proposed ; and it was hence preferred that they should adopt whatever 
 course might be suggested by their own notions of propriety. This 
 sentiment would have been still adhered to ; but when, through the 
 communication of Mr. Duncan, they Avere represented as entertaining 
 opinions and schemes, adverse to the general interest and safety of the 
 country, the necessity of a new and different course of conduct was at 
 once obvious. But he did not order governor Claiborne to interfere Avith, 
 or prevent them from proceeding Avith their duties ; on the contrary, he 
 was instructed, so soon as anything hostile to the general cause should be 
 ascertained, to place a guard at the door, and keep the members to their 
 post and to their clut^y. My object in this, remarkecithe general, Avas that 
 then they would be able to proceed with their business Avithout producing 
 the slightest injury ; Avhatever schemes they might entertain AA^ould have 
 remained with themseh^es, Avithout the poAver of circulating them to the 
 prejudice of any other interest than their own. I had intended to have 
 had them Avell treated and kindly dealt by ; and thus abstracted from 
 everything passing Avithout doors, a better opportunity Avould have been 
 afforded them to enact good and wholesome laAvs ; l)ut goA^ernor Claiborne 
 mistook niA^ order, and instead of shutting them indoors, contrary to my 
 wishes and expectation, turned them out." 
 
 The other Avriters, Avho have preserved details of the events of these 
 days, have all fallen into great mistakes, and Jackson himself appears to 
 haA^e been egregiously deceived. One of his letters to the postmaster- 
 
HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 381 
 
 general, of the 22d of March, 1824, which found its way into the public 
 prints, contains the following paragraph : 
 
 " When I left the city, and marched against the enemy on the night 
 of the 23d of December, 1814, I was obliged to leave one of my aids in 
 command, having no other confidential officer that could be spared from 
 command. A few days after, Mr. Skipwith, in person, applied to my aid 
 to be informed what would be my conduct, if driven from my lines of 
 defense and compelled to retreat through New Orleans — whether I would 
 leave the supplies for the enemy or destroy them? As reported by my 
 aid to me, he wanted this information for the assembly, that in case my 
 intention was to destroy them, they might make terms with the enemy. 
 Obtaining no satisfaction from my aid, a committee of three waited on 
 me for satisfaction on this subject. To them I replied, ' If I thought the 
 hair of my head knew my thoughts, I would cut it off or burn it ' — to 
 return to their honorable body, and to say to them from me, that if I was 
 to be so unfortunate as to be driven from the lines I then occupied, and 
 compelled to retreat through New Orleans, they would have a warm 
 session of it." 
 
 These charges were noticed by Skipwith, in a letter to Jackson of the 
 thirteenth of May, 1827, which appeared in the Richmond Enquirer, in 
 the following manner : 
 
 " It was on one of the nights, about the time alluded to by major 
 Butler, that, returning from patrol duty from the grand round of the 
 
 city, in passing and seeing lights in the house of Mrs. F , an old and 
 
 much respected acquaintance of mine, and a great admirer of yours, I 
 called in to pay her my respects, and found with her another very 
 
 interesting lady, Mrs. E , who in the course of her conversation 
 
 mentioned a report, as circulated in the city, and I think she said, by 
 some Kentuckians just from your lines of defense, that, if forced, you 
 would destroy, rather than see the city fall into the hands of the enemy. 
 A day or two after, at the request of the military council of the city 
 guards, of which I was a member, I waited on major Butler concerning a 
 citizen under arrest, and not directly, nor indirectly, charged with 
 anything concerning that report ; and being asked by him, ' If there was 
 anything new in the city,' I remember replying, that such was the 
 report ' among women.' Conscious, general, of having through life 
 treated the names and characters of married ladies with the most 
 scrupulous caution and respect, I cannot believe that I mentioned the 
 names of the two ladies, between w^hom I heard the report : and never 
 having, at any time attached to it, myself, either belief or importance, I 
 could not have made it a subject of serious communication to the senate, 
 to the military council, or to any member, individually, of them. I am 
 willing, therefore, to rest the truth of my assertions, in repelling this 
 most slanderous and bolstered charge of yours, and consequently its 
 utter falsehood, as far as it criminates my conduct and views, on the 
 testimony not only of the remaining individuals, Avho composed the 
 senate and the military council, but on the testimony of any two, or 
 three remaining individuals in society, who were eye witnesses of my 
 conduct at the invasion of New Orleans, and whose oaths would be 
 respected by a well composed jury of their vicinity. 
 
 " I may well, then, sir, pronounce this last charge of j^ours to be false, 
 utterly false ! as appljang to me individually, or to the senate over which 
 
382 HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 
 
 I presided, or to the military council of which I was a member, or, that 
 the must distant hint, or wish, was ever expressed in any of their delib- 
 erations, or in private, by any one of their members, with my knowledge 
 or within my hearing, " to make terms with the enemy." And more false, 
 if possible, is it still, that 'the legislature should, with my consent or 
 connivance, depute a committee to wait on you on that subject,' or on 
 any other, during the invasion, in which I had any agency, that was not 
 founded, in my humble estimation at least, on principles of patriotism 
 and honor. I may, therefore, hope to find indulgence in every honest 
 breast, for having expressed in some degree, the profound contempt which 
 this charge so justly merits, and which it is impossible for me with life, 
 to cease to feel." 
 
 Thibodaux, then a member of the senate, who afterwards exercised, as 
 president of that body, the functions of chief magistrate of the state, on 
 the resignation of governor Robertson, expressed his indignation on the 
 subject, in a letter to Skipwith, on the 10th of September, 1827. 
 
 "The notorious," said he, " ungenerous and unmerited accusation, 
 which has been cast upon the whole legislature of Louisiana, and parti- 
 cularly upon the senate, by general Jackson, in his published letter to the 
 postmaster-general, in order to defeat your pretensions as a candidate in 
 opposition with his favorite, Mr. Crogan, is, in my humble opinion, such 
 as ought to be taken up and repelled with the indignation it really 
 deserves. This charge was not laid upon you alone, but it embraces the 
 ■whole senate. Could you not, sir, as being then the president of that 
 honorable body, could you not, wdth propriety, call upon the members 
 who were sitting with you, and prevail upon them to join in clearing, 
 through the same medium that was made use of, those shameful stains 
 with which that body has been stigmatized? And would it not be but fair, 
 if this infamous calumny was recoiled toAvards its source and against its 
 very author? A supine silence appears to operate on the part of the 
 members of the general assembly, as a conviction of the truth of the 
 accusation : and this opinion, as you may know yourself, is circulating in 
 the public, by the exertions of the general's friends. 
 
 " I beg leave to be excused for attempting to suggest the right course 
 you have to follow ; these are the dictates of a heart indignantly offended 
 at the rash attack of the general, and although it does not fall upon me 
 directly, (for you will recollect I was on active military service,) it 
 rebounds upon me very heavily, and wounds me to the very heart's core." 
 
 The journal of neither of the houses makes any mention of the motion 
 for, nor of the appointment of, the committee of which Jackson speaks. 
 The members of the house of representatives have universally expressed 
 their indignation at the unfounded charge, and their astonishment at 
 the egregious imposition, under which Jackson must have been, when he 
 made it. 
 
 Major-General Villere, of the state militia, reached the camp on the 
 twenty-ninth, with six hundred men of the militia of his division, and 
 was directed by Jackson to take the command of a second line, which was 
 now formed l)etween the first and the city. 
 
 On new year's day, a thick fog concealed the movements of the enemy, 
 till towards eight o'cclock. He now opened a brisk fire from three 
 batteries he had just completed. The left, on the road, had two twelve- 
 pounders ; the centre eight eighteen and twenty-four-pounders, and some 
 
HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 383 
 
 carroiiades ; the right, close to the woods, mounted eight pieces of cannon 
 and cari'onades of different calibres. A flash of congreve rockets accom- 
 panied the balls, and for a quarter of an hour the fire was kept up with 
 unexampled celerity, and answered in so brisk, steady and well directed 
 a manner, that it now slackened in a perceptible degree. The cannonade 
 was, however, kept up on both sides, but with varied intervals, for an 
 hour, during which seven of the enemy's guns were dismounted, and 
 when the fire ceased, the greater part of his artillery was unfit for service. 
 At one o'clock he abandoned his battery near the woods ; the centre one 
 and that near the road continued to throw a few balls and rockets till 
 three, when they were silenced. 
 
 Soon after, major-general Thomas, of the second division of state militia, 
 arrived with five hundred men, who encamped behind the main line on 
 Dupre's plantation, and three days after, a detachment of the militia of 
 the state of Kentucky, amounting to two thousand two hundred and fifty 
 men, under major-general Thomas and brigadier-general Adair, arrived 
 and encamped below the city, on Prevost's plantation. Afterwards, a 
 part of this force, under general Adair, advanced and took a position, a 
 little in the rear of Jackson's line. 
 
 The deplorable condition of a great part of the militia of the states of 
 Kentucky and Tennessee, who were in want of warm clothing, and from 
 the nature of the service, occasionally exposed in the open air, the winter 
 being extremely severe, excited the sensibility of the legislature of 
 Louisiana, and on the motion of Louaillier, an appropriation was made 
 of six thousand dollars. This sum was placed in the hands of a committee, 
 of which the mover was an efficient member. An equal sum was added, 
 by subscription in the city ; the planters of the German Coast sent thirty- 
 six hundred dollars, and those of Attakapas transmitted five hundred. 
 By these means, with other aid, a sum of sixteen thousand dollars was 
 obtained, as an addition to that appropriated by the legislature, and the 
 whole was expended in the purchase of blankets and woollen cloths, 
 which were distributed among the ladies of New Orleans, to be made 
 into wearing apparel : and within one week twelve hundred blanket coats, 
 two hundred and twenty-five waistcoasts, eleven hundred and twenty-seven 
 pairs of pantaloons, and eight hundred shirts, were completed and distrib- 
 uted. Specific donations of several boxes of hats and shoes, and a 
 considerable number of mattresses, were made by merchants and shop- 
 keepers. 
 
 A number of debtors, who had taken the benefit of the acts establishing 
 the prison bounds, were anxious to join in the defense of the city, but 
 were apprehensive of exposing their sureties. On this being represented 
 to the legislature, an act was passed, extending the prison bounds, until 
 the first of May following, so as to include Jackson's line. 
 
 From deserters, desultory accounts were received, of a considerable 
 reinforcement having arrived, under the orders of lieutenant-general 
 Packenham and major-general Lambert; it was reported, that the British 
 army now consisted of fourteen thousand men. Jackson had information 
 that for several days, the communication between the army and fleet had 
 been unusually active, and that a general attack was preparing — that the 
 enemy was deepening Villere's canal and extending it, in order to bring' 
 his boats to the Mississippi. tTAvr. 
 
 Early on the morning of the eighth, signals, to produce concert in the 
 
384 HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 
 
 enemy's movements, were noticed, A rocket ascended on the left, near 
 the swamp, and soon after, another on the right, near the river; and a 
 few minutes after, the charge was began Avith such rapidit}' that our 
 soldiers at the outposts, Avith difficulty fled in. 
 
 The enemy's batteries, which had been demolished on new year's day, 
 had been repaired during the night, and furnished with several pieces of 
 heavy artillery. These now opened, and showers of balls and bombs 
 were poured on our line, and the air was lighted with congreve rockets. 
 The two divisions under generals Keane and Gibbs were led by Packenham : 
 both pressed forward, the one against the centre, the other against 
 the redoubt on the levee. A thick fog enabled them to approach within a 
 short distance, before they were discovered. They advanced, with a firm, 
 quick and steady pace, in solid columns, with a front of sixty or seventy 
 deep. On perceiving them, Jackson, who had been for some time waiting 
 their appearance, gave a signal, on which our men, who were in readiness, 
 gave three cheers, and instantly the whole line Avas lighted with the blaze 
 of their fire. A burst of artillery and small arms, pouring with destructive 
 aim upon the British, mowed their front and arrested their advance. In 
 the musketry, there Avas not a moment of intermission, as one party 
 discharged their pieces, another succeeded : alternately loading and fii'ing, 
 no pause could be perceived — it Avas one continued A'olley. Notwith- 
 standing the severity of the fire, some British soldiers pressed forAvard, and 
 succeeded in gaining the ditch in front of the line. At this moment, 
 Packenham fell, in front of his men, mortally Avounded, and soon after, 
 Gibbs and Keane were borne from the field, dangerously Avounded. 
 Lambert, Avho Avas advancing, at a small distance in the rear Avith the 
 reserve, met the columns precipitately retreating and in great confusion. 
 His efforts to rally them Avere unavailing — they reached a ditch, at the 
 distance of four hundred yards from our line, Avhere, finding a momentary 
 safety, they Avere rallied and halted. 
 
 They shortly after returned to the charge ; but Jackson's batteries had 
 not ceased their fire — their constant discharge of grape and cannister, and 
 A'olleys of musketry, cut doAvn the enemy's columns as fast as they could 
 be formed ; they noAv abandoned the contest and the field in disorder, 
 leaA'ing it entirely covered Avith the dead and the Avounded. 
 
 A strong detachment Avhich formed the left of Keane's command, Avas 
 sent under colonel Rennie, against our redoubt, on the right. This work 
 Avas in an unfinished state. Rennie, urging forAvard Avith stern bravery 
 reached the ditch. His advance Avas greatly annoyed by Patterson's 
 battery, on the right bank, and the cannon mounted on the redoubt; but 
 he passed the ditch, and leaping, SAVord in hand, on the Avail, called to his 
 men to folloAV him, Avhen the fatal aim of a rifleman brought him doAvn. 
 Pressed by the impetuosity of superior numbers, Avho Avere mounting the 
 Avail and entering at the embrasures, the men in the redoubt had retired 
 to the rear of the line, Avhcn the city riflemen, cool and self-possessed^ 
 opened on the assailants, and at every discharge brought the object to the 
 ground. The followers of Rennie abandoned the attempt, in Avhich he 
 had fallen; they retired, galled by such part of the guns in the line as 
 could be brought upon them ; they sought a shelter behind the levee, but 
 the fire of Patterson's battery, on the right bank of the river, scA'erely 
 annoyed them on their retreat. 
 
 The efi'orts of the enemy to carry Jackson's line of defense, were 
 
HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 385 
 
 seconded by an attack, which was intended to have been simultaneous, 
 on the opposite bank. Col. Thornton, before daybreak, had crossed the 
 Mississippi with eight hundred men : but he hardly effected his landing, 
 when the day broke, and he hastened forward against Morgan's 
 entrenchment. 
 
 Jackson had foreseen an attack on that side of the river, and during the 
 previous night, he had sent two hundred of the militia of the state to 
 asssist in opposing it. This detachment had advanced a mile down the 
 river, and Arnaud, who commanded it, supposing that the general was 
 mistaken, or deeming that the spirits of his men would be resuscitated by 
 repose had directed them to lie down and sleep. Hearing the rattling 
 noise made by the British, who were approaching, Arnaud aroused his 
 sleeping companions, and before they could be formed, the foe was so near 
 that the}- became confused, and moved off in the direction in which they 
 had come. A body of Kentuckians, who had reached Morgan's camp at 
 five in the morning had been sent on to support Arnaud: they had 
 proceeded about three-fourths of a mile when they met his men hastily 
 retreating up the road. 
 
 These two detachments ran along together, and formed behind a saw- 
 mill race, skirted with a quantity of plank and scantling, which afforded 
 them a tolerable shelter. The enemy now appeared ; his approach was 
 resisted, and a warm and spirited opposition made for awhile. A momen- 
 tary check was given him. He retired, returned and again received a 
 heavy fire. One of Morgan's aids now arrived, and orclered a retreat. 
 Confusion ensued — order could not be restored, and the whole precip- 
 itately fled to Morgan's entrenchment, when they were instantly formed, 
 and ordered to extend themselves in line to the swamp, to prevent the 
 entrenchment being turned. 
 
 Thornton halted, at the distance of about seven hundred yards, and 
 soon after advanced to the attack, in two divisions, against the extreme 
 right and centre of the line, now defended by about five hundred men. 
 A well directed discharge of the artillery, which had been mounted on the 
 works, caused his right division to oblique and unite with the left, and 
 press forward to the point occupied by the Kentucky troops. These men 
 finding themselves thus exposed, and not having yet recovered from the 
 disorder of their hasty retreat, now gave way, and soon after abandoned 
 their position. The Louisiana militia gave a few fires and followed the 
 example. The officers succeeded in obtaining a momentar}^ halt ; but a 
 burst of congreve rockets happening to set fire to a field of sugar cane 
 and to other combustible materials, their fears w^ere again excited — they 
 hastily moved away, and could not be rallied, till, at the distance of two 
 miles they reached a small race and were formed and placed in an attitude 
 of defense. 
 
 The loss of the British in the main attack, on the left bank, is supposed 
 to have been between twenty-five hundred and three-thousand killed — the 
 number of wounded was much greater. The loss of the Americans in 
 killed and wounded was but thirteen. 
 
 General Lambert, on whom the command of the British army devolved 
 on the fall of Packenham, Gibbs and Keane, now solicited permission to 
 send an unarmed detachment to bury the dead and bring off the wounded, 
 lying near Jackson's line. This was allowed, and a suspension of hostil- 
 ities agreed on for twenty-four hours. 
 
 51 
 
386 HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 
 
 A considerable naval force of the enemy had been destined to co-operate in 
 the late attack by ascending the Mississij^pi. They succeeded in passing 
 the Balize, and made prisoners of a small detachment that had been 
 stationed there, but were unable to pass Fort St. Phillip, at Plaquemines. 
 The squadron, which consisted of two bomb vessels, a brig, schooner 
 and sloop, approached the fort, on the ninth, at ten o'clock in the morning-, 
 within striking distance, and soon after commenced to discharge an 
 immense quantity of l)ombs and balls against the fort. A severe and well 
 directed fire from its water battery compelled the shipping to retreat to 
 the distance of two miles, where they could reach the fort with the shells 
 from their largest mortars, while they stood beyond the reach of its 
 artillery. The bombardment, with various intervals, was continued till 
 the seventeenth, when a heavy mortar having been mounted and turned 
 against them, they retreated on the morning of the eighteenth. 
 
 At midnight, between the eighteenth and nineteenth, the enemy precip- 
 itately abandoned his encampment on the left bank of the Mississippi, to 
 return to his shipping, leaving under medical attendance, eighteen 
 wounded, including two officers, fourteen pieces of artillery and a consid- 
 erable quantity of shot. Such was the situation of the ground they 
 abandoned, and that through which they retreated, protected by swamps, 
 canals, redoubts and intrenchments, that Jackson could not, without 
 encountering a risk, which policy neither required or authorized, annoy 
 him much on his retreat. He took eight prisoners only. 
 
 One of the medical men, left to take care of the wounded, handed to 
 Jackson a letter from Lambert, imploring protection for the men thus 
 remaining behind, and announcing that he had relinquished, "for the 
 present, all further operations against New Orleans." 
 
 "Whether," says Jackson's communication to the Secretary of War, of 
 the nineteenth, " it be the purpose of the enemy to abandon the expedition 
 altogether, or to renew his efforts at some other point, I shall not pretend 
 to decide with positiveness. In my own mind, there is but little doubt 
 that his last exertions have been made in this quarter ; at any rate for the 
 present season, and by the next, if he shall choose to revisit us, I hope we 
 shall be fully prepared for him. In this belief, I am strengthened by the 
 prodigious loss he sustained, on the position he had just quitted and by 
 the failure of his fleet to pass Fort St. Phillip. His loss since the debark- 
 ation of his troops, as stated by all the prisoners and deserters, and as 
 confirmed by many additional circumstances, exceeds, in the whole, four 
 thousand men. 
 
 Jackson now determined to withdraw his troops from the position they 
 had occupied and place them near the city, whence they might easily 
 be advanced Avhenever it might be necessary. The seventh regiment 
 of infantry was left to protect the point he was leaving, and further in 
 advance on Villere's canal, where the enemy landed, he posted a detach- 
 ment of Louisiana and Kentucky militia. 
 
 Having made these arrangements, he brought the rest of his army to 
 the city, on the twentieth. 
 
 On the twenty-third, a solemn service of thanksgiving was performed in 
 the Cathedral— exactly one month after the first landing of the enemy at 
 Villere's plantation. 
 
 If the vigilance, the activity, and the intrepidity of the general had been 
 conspicuous during the whole period of the invasion, his prudence, 
 
HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 387 
 
 moderation and self-denial, on the departure of the enemy, deserves no 
 less commendation and admiration. An opportunity was then presented 
 to him of acquiring laurels by a pursuit, which few, elated as he must 
 have been by success, could have resisted. But, he nobly reflected that 
 those who fled from him were mercenaries — those who surrounded his 
 standard, his fellow-citizens, almost universally fathers of families : — sound 
 policy, to use his own expressions, neither required or authorized him to 
 expose the lives of his companions in arms, in a useless conflict. He 
 thought the lives of ten British soldiers would not requite the loss of one 
 of his men. He had not saved New Orleans to sacrifice its inhabitants. 
 With tears of gratitude they greeted him on his return, in the strains 
 which Arisoto addresses to his patron : 
 
 Fu il vincer sempre mai laudabil cosa, 
 Vincasi e per fortuna o per ingegno : 
 Gli e ver, che la vittoria sanguinosa 
 Spesso far suole il capitan men degno ; 
 E quella eternamente e gloriosa, 
 E clei divini onori arriva al segno, 
 Quando, servando i suoi senz'alciiu danno, 
 Si fa che gl'inimici in rotta vanno. 
 
 La vostra, signor mio, fu degna loda, 
 Quando al leone, in mar tanto feroce, 
 Ch' avea occupata I'una e I'altra prodo, 
 Del Po, da Francolin sin alia foce, 
 Faceste si, che ancor che ruggir I'oda, 
 S' io vedro voi, non temero la voce. 
 Come vincer si de' ne dimostrate ; 
 Ch' uccideste i nemici, e noi saivaste. 
 
 Orlando Furioso, xiv. 
 
 Thus paraphrased : 
 
 Great honor every victor must obtain, 
 Let fortune give success or conduct gain : 
 Yet oft a battle, won with blood, will yield 
 Less praise to him who boasts the conquered field. 
 But ever glorious is that chieftain's name — 
 And pure and sacred is his martial fame, 
 Who, while the forces of his foes o'erthrown 
 Proclaim his might, from loss preserves his own. 
 Such was the war by thee, brave Jackson, wag'd, 
 When Britain on the waves had fiercely rag'd — 
 "^ Had seiz'd each shore that to the Gulph descends, 
 And to our Lakes from Pensacola bends : 
 Tho' yet afar, her lion's roar seem'd near, 
 But present thou, what beast could harbor fear. 
 Nobly thou taught's us victory to gain — 
 By thee our friends were sav'd, our foes were slain. 
 
CHAPTER XXXII. 
 
 The legislature made an appropriation of two thousand dollars for the 
 benefit of the Charity Hospital, the resources of which had been 
 diminished by the liberal succor it had yielded to the sick of the states 
 of Kentucky and Tennessee. Provision was also made for the immediate 
 relief of the wounded and the families of those who had been killed. 
 
 Danger had now evidently subsided. The levy en masse of the militia 
 had been arriving in regiments and companies. " Everything," says 
 Latour, '' Avas in readiness to repel the enemy on whatever point he might 
 make an attack. All the damaged arms had been repaired, and a barge 
 had arrived from Pittsburg, with muskets, cannon and balls. Louisiana 
 had been defended and saved with means much inferior to those of the 
 enemy, and towards the end of January she was in a condition to defy 
 double the number that had at first attacked her. Time had shown how 
 groundless Avere the apprehensions which were pretended to be enter- 
 tained from the disaffection of the people, and had evinced the wisdom 
 of the legislature in rejecting the propositions which had been made to 
 suspend the writ of habeas corpus. They adjourned on the sixth of 
 February. 
 
 On the twelfth, the British possessed themselves of Fort Boyer, at the 
 entrance of Mobile Bay. 
 
 By a communication of the following day, from admiral Cochrane, 
 Jackson was informed that the admiral had just received a bulletin from 
 Jamaica, (a copy of which was inclosed) proclaiming that a treaty of 
 peace had been signed by the respective plenipotentiaries of Great 
 Britain and the United States, at Ghent, on the twenty-fourth of 
 December. The dispatch did not arrive till the twenty-first, by the way 
 of the Balize, but the intelligence had been brought to the city on the 
 preceding day by one of Jackson's aids, who had returned from the 
 British fleet with a flag of truce. 
 
 In announcing this event, by an address to the army and the people of 
 Louisiana, the general forewarned them from being thrown into security 
 by hopes that might be delusive ; observing it was by holding out such, 
 that an artful and insidious foe too often seeks to accomplish objects, the 
 utmost exertion of his strength will not enable him to effect. He added 
 that to place them off their guard, and attack them by surprise, was the 
 natural expedient of one, who, having experienced the superiority of their 
 arms, hoped to overcome them by stratagem. 
 
 On the twenty-second, the gladsome tidings were confirmed, and a 
 gazette of Charleston was received, announcing the ratification of the 
 treaty by the Prince Regent. 
 
 "We have seen that on the first account of the arrival of part of the 
 British army on Villere's plantation, the French subjects who resided in 
 New Orleans and its environs, animated by Tousard, their consul, had 
 flocked round Jackson's standard, '' determined to leave it with the 
 necessity that called them to it, and not till then." As long as the foe 
 remained in the state, they patiently submitted to toil, privation and 
 danger, with exemplary fortitude and ])atience ; they had left their 
 families in penury and distress, but the liberality of the city council had 
 ministered to their wants ; tliat body had distributed among the needy 
 
HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 389 
 
 inhabitants thirty-four thousand rations of bread, and thirteen thousand 
 of meat. But, whether the means of the corporation were exhausted, or 
 the absence of danger rendered its officers less attentive, these supplies 
 did not flow as abundantly as at first, and, pressed by the anxiety of 
 coming to the help of their families, and no longer elated by the hope of 
 gaining laurels, being useful to the country they lived in, or excited by 
 their antipathy to the invaders, they grew tired of a service which they 
 now thought perfectly useless. A few solicited their discharge from the 
 officers under whom they were immediately placed ; Jackson was 
 consulted, and insisted on their being retained. On this, a number of 
 them demanded from Tousard certificates of their national character, 
 which they presented to the general, by whom they were countersigned, 
 and the bearers permitted to return home. The example was followed 
 by so many, that Jackson was induced to believe that Tousard too easily 
 gratified the applicants with certificates, and considering his compliance 
 with his duty, as evidence of his adhesion to the enemy, ordered him out 
 of the city. 
 
 Yielding to the advice of many around him, who were constantly filling 
 his ears with their clamors about the disloyalty, disaffection and 
 treason of the people of Louisiana, and particularly the state officers and 
 the people of French origin, Jackson, on the last day of February, issued 
 a general order, commanding all French subjects, possessed of a certificate 
 of their national character, subscribed by the consul of France, and 
 countersigned by the commanding-general, to retire into the interior, to a 
 distance above Baton Rouge ; a measure, which was stated to have been 
 rendered indispensable by the frequent applications for discharges. The 
 names were directed to be taken of all persons of this description remaining 
 in the city after the expiration of three days. 
 
 Time has shown this to have been a most unfortunate step, and those 
 by whose suggestions it was taken, soon found themselves unable to avert 
 from the general the consequences to which it exposed him. The people 
 against whom it was directed were loyal ; many of them had bled, all had 
 toiled and suffered in the defense of the state. Need, in many instances, 
 improvidence in several, had induced the families of these people to part 
 with the furniture of their houses to supply those immediate wants which 
 the absence of the head of the family occasioned. No exception, no 
 distinction was made. The sympathetic feeling of every class of inhab- 
 itants were enlisted in favor of these men ; they lacked the means of 
 sustaining themselves on the way, and must have been compelled, on 
 their arrival at Baton Rouge, then a very insignificant village, to throw 
 themselves on the charity of the inhabitants. Another consideration 
 rendered the departure of these men, an evil to be dreaded. The appre- 
 hension of the return of the enemy was represented, as having had much 
 weight with Jackson in issuing his order. Their past conduct was a sure 
 pledge, that, in case of need, their services would again be re-oflfered ; there 
 were among them a number of experienced artillerymen; a description 
 of soldiers, which was not easily to be found among the brave who had 
 come down from Kentucky, or Tennessee, or even in the army of the 
 United States. These considerations induced several respectable citizens 
 to wait on Jackson, for the purpose of endeavoring to induce him to 
 reconsider a determination, which was viewed as productive of flagrant 
 injustice and injury to those against whom it was directed, without any 
 
390 HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 
 
 possible advantage, and probably very detrimental, to those for whose 
 benefit it was intended. 
 
 Eaton has informed his readers that " Promptitude and decision 
 constitutes one of the leading traits of Jackson's character." Those who 
 called on the general, were soon convinced, that, hasty determinations 
 are seldom patiently re-examined, or willingly changed ; they found him 
 inexorable. The recommendation was therefore given to the French 
 exiles, to forbear the manifestation of any positive resistance, but to 
 remain quietly at home, in the hope, that official accounts from the seat 
 of government, changing the state of affairs, should soon enable Jackson 
 to withdraw his late orders, Avithout admitting they were too precipitately 
 issued. They were assured that the laws of the country would protect 
 them, and punish, even in a successful general, a violation of the rights 
 of, or a wanton injury to, the meanest individual, citizen or alien. They 
 were referred to the case of Wilkinson, against whom an independent jury 
 of the Mississippi territory had given a verdict in favor of Adair, who had 
 been illegally arrested and transported during the winter of 1806. 
 
 The mail now brought northern gazettes, announcing the arrival of the 
 treaty at Washington, on the 14th. The hope, that had been entertained, 
 that Jackson would now allow those unfortunate people to stay with their 
 families, was disappointed ; a circumstance which induced several of 
 their countrymen, who had become citizens of the United States, to 
 imagine, that antipathy to the French population influenced the general's 
 determination. It has justly been allowed, that those who are ignorant 
 of each other's language, often lack the liberality of giving the best 
 construction to each others acts ; and the inhabitants of New Orleans had 
 often complained, that the government of the United States had not had 
 the indulgence, which the king of Spain had always extended to them, 
 of sending superior officers to preside over them, who spoke their 
 language. Jackson had uniformly kept aloof from the French part of the 
 population, and did not appear to treat the officers of the state govern- 
 ment, with the attention which was believed to be due them :_and those 
 who were considered, as his most confidential friends, were believed to be 
 in opposition to the officers of the state. 
 
 Louallier, the member of the house of representatives for the county 
 of Opelousas, a native of France, had been an efficient member of the 
 legislature, and had been remarked for his constant and steady efforts, in 
 bringing forth the energies of the state for its defense, and in providing 
 and distributing assistance for its needy defenders. He had been hitherto 
 extremely useful in the regulation of the finances — we have seen he was 
 one of those, who thought the legislature should remain in session, while 
 danger hovered over the state. He had thought it better to open the 
 treasury, and induce sailors to go on board of public vessels, by ample 
 bounties, than to empower the commodore to send out press gangs — he 
 thought that the state should not outlaw its defenders, by suspending the 
 habras corpvs — he did not believe in the cry of Jackson and Claiborne, 
 of disaffection, sedition and treason. He thought every citizen owed to 
 the state the exertion of his utmost faculties, during the pending crisis ; 
 he accordingly enrolled himself in one of the companies of veterans, 
 patroled the city during the night, and sat, during the day, in a military 
 council, and a committee of succors. Of the latter, he had been the most 
 efficient member. In distributing relief to the indigent, he had frequently 
 
HISTOKY OF LOUISIANA. 391 
 
 visited in person the mansions of those, who had abandoned their families, 
 buckled a knapsack on their backs, placed a musket on their shoulders, 
 and followed Jackson ; and he had witnessed the distresses of their 
 families. He had given credit to the admiral's communication ; being 
 unable or unwilling to* believe, that officer entertained so unfavorable an 
 opinion of those who opposed him, as to conceive the idea, that they could 
 be imposed upon, by so flimsy a means, as a forged newspaper. He had 
 approved the caution of Jackson ; but the confirmation of the signature 
 of the treaty, in a Charleston gazette, had sanctioned the belief that the 
 admiral's information was correct. The frequent and uncontradicted 
 repetition of the intelligence in letters and newspapers, placed it beyond 
 all doubt. When he heard, that the treaty was before the senate, he 
 entertained very little doubt of its instant ratification. 
 
 A report, which now was afloat, that those who surrounded Jackson 
 were laboring to induce him to arrest some individuals, alluded to in the 
 general orders of the 28th of February, roused his indignation, to which 
 (perhaps more honestly than prudently) he gave vent in a publication, 
 of which the following is a translation, in the Courier de la Louisiane of 
 the 3d of March : 
 
 COMMUNICATION. 
 
 " Mr. Editor : — To remain silent on the last general orders, directing 
 all the Frenchmen, who now reside in New Orleans, to leave it within 
 three days, and to keep at a distance of 120 miles from it, would be an act 
 of cowardice, which ought not to be expected from a citizen of a free 
 country ; and when every one laments such an abuse of authority, the 
 press ought to denounce it to the people." 
 
 " In order to encourage a communication between both countries, the 
 7th and 8th articles of the treaty of cession secure, to the French who shall 
 come to Louisiana, certain commercial advantages, which they are to 
 enjoy, during a term of twelve years, which are not yet expired. At the 
 expiration of that time, they shall be treated in the same manner as the 
 most favored nation. A peace which nothing is likely to disturb, uniting 
 both nations, the French have until this moment been treated in the 
 United States with that regard which a great people deserves and requires, 
 even in its reverses, and with that good will, which so eminently distin- 
 guishes the American Government in its relations with foreign nations. 
 In such circumstances, what can be the motives which have induced the 
 commander-in-chief of the 7th district to issue general orders of so 
 vexatious a nature ? When the foreigners of every nation — when the 
 Spaniards, and even the English, are permitted to remain unmolested 
 among us, shall the French alone be condemned to ostracism ; because 
 they rendered too great services? Had they remained idle spectators of 
 the last events, could their sentiments towards us be doubted, then we 
 might merely be surprised at the course now followed with regard to them. 
 But now, are we to restrain our indignation, when we remember that these 
 very Frenchmen, who are now exiled, have so powerfully contributed to 
 the preservation of Louisiana? Without speaking of the corps who so 
 eminently distinguished themselves, and in which we see a number of 
 Frenchmen rank either as officers or privates ; how can we forget, that 
 they were French artillerists, who directed and served a part of those 
 pieces of cannon, which so greatly annoyed the British forces? Can any 
 
392 HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 
 
 flatter himself that such important' services could have so soon been 
 forgotten? No, they are engraved in everlasting characters on the hearts 
 of all the inhabitants of Louisiana, and they shall form a brilliant part 
 in the history of their country ; and when those bravo men ask no other 
 reward, but being permitted peaceably to enjoy -among us the rights 
 secured to them by treaties and the laws of America, far from sharing in 
 the sentiments which have dictated the general order, we avail ourselves 
 of this opportunity to give them a public testimony of our gratitude. 
 
 " Far from us be the idea, that there is a single Frenchman so pu^^illan- 
 imous as to forsake his country merely to please the military commander 
 of this district, and in order to avoid the proscription to v/hich he has 
 chosen to condemn them ; we may, therefore, expect to see them repair to 
 the consul of their nation, there to renew the act which binds them to 
 their country — but supposing that, yielding to a sentiment of fear, they 
 should consent to cease to be French citizens, would they, by such an 
 abjuration, become American citizens? No, certainly they would not ; 
 the man who would be powerful enough to denationalize them, would 
 not be powerful enough to give them a country. It is better, therefore, 
 for a man to remain a faithful Frenchman, than to suffer himself to be 
 scared even by the martial law, a law useless, when the presence of the foe 
 and honor call us to arms, but which becomes degrading, when their 
 shameful flight suffers us to enjoy a glorious rest, which fear and terror 
 ought not to disturb. 
 
 " But could it be possible, that the constitution and laws of our country 
 should have left it in the power of the several commanders of military 
 districts, to dissolve all at once, the ties of friendship, which unite America 
 to the nations of Europe? Would it be possible, that peace or war could 
 depend upon their caprice, and the friendship or enmity they might 
 entertain for any nation? We do not hesitate in declaring, that nothing 
 of the kind exists. The President alone has, by law, the right to adopt 
 against alien enemies such measures as a state of war may render necessary, 
 and for that purpose he must issue a proclamation ; but this is a power 
 he cannot delegate. It is by virtue of that law, and a proclamation, that 
 the subjects of Great Britain were removed from our seaports and 
 seashores. We do not know any law, authorizing general Jackson to 
 apply to alien friends a measure which the President of the United States, 
 himself, has only the right to adopt against alien enemies. 
 
 " Our laws protect strangers, who come to settle or reside among us. 
 To the sovereign alone belongs the right of depriving them of that 
 protection ; and all those who know how to appreciate the title of an 
 American citizen, and who are acquainted with their prerogatives, will 
 easily understand, that, by the sovereign, I do, by no means, intend to 
 designate a Major-General, or any other military commander, to whom 
 I willingly grant the power of issuing general orders like the one in 
 question, but to whom I deny that of having them executed. 
 
 "If the last general order has no object but tb inspire us with a salutary 
 fear ; if it is only destined to be read ; if it is not to be followed by any 
 act of violence; if it is only to be obeyed by those who may choose to 
 leave the city, in order to enjoy the pure air of the country, we shall 
 forget that extraordinary order ; but should anything else happen, we are 
 of opinion that the tribunals will, sooner or later, do justice to the victims 
 of that illegal order. 
 
HISTORY OF LOUISIANA, 393 
 
 " Every alien friend, who shall continue to respect the laws which, rule 
 our country, shall continue to be entitled to their protection. Could that 
 general order be applied to us, we should calmly wait until we were forced 
 by violence to execute it, well convinced of the firmness of the magistrates, 
 who are the organs of the laws in this part of the union, and the guardians 
 of public order. 
 
 "Let us conclude by saying, that it is high time the laws should resume 
 their empire; that the citizens of this state should return to the full 
 enjoyment of their rights ; that in acknowledging, that we are indebted 
 to general Jackson for the preservation of our city, and the defeat of the 
 British, we do not feel much inclined, through gratitude, to sacrifice any 
 of our privileges, and less than any other, that of expressing our opinion 
 about the acts of his administration ; that it is time the citizens accused 
 of any crime should be rendered to their natural judges, and cease to be 
 dealt with before special or military tribunals, a kind of institution held 
 in abhorrence even in absolute governments ; and that having done 
 enough for glory, the moment of moderation has arrived ; and finally, 
 that the acts of authority which the invasion of our country, and our 
 safety may have rendered necessary, are, since the evacuation of it by the 
 enemy, no longer compatible with our dignity and our oath of making 
 the constitution respected." 
 
 Man bears nothing with more impatience, than the exposure of his 
 errors, and the contempt of his authority. Those Avho had provoked 
 Jackson's violent measure against the French subjects, availed themselves 
 of the paroxysms of the ire which the publication excited ; they threw 
 fuel into the fire, and blew it into a flame. They persuaded him Louallier 
 had been guilty of an offense, punishable with death, and he should have 
 him tried by court martial, as a spy. Yielding to ^is suggestion, and 
 preparatory to such a trial, he ordered the publication of the second 
 section of the rules and articles of war, which denounces the f)unishment 
 of death against spies, and directed Louallier to be arrested and confined. 
 Eaton is mistaken when he asserts that the section had been published 
 before. The adjutant's letter to Leclerc, the printer of the Ami des Lois, 
 requesting him to publish it, bears date of the fourth of March, the day 
 after Louallier's publication made its appearance. The section was 
 followed by a notice that " the city of New Orleans and its environs, being 
 under martial law, and several encampments and fortifications within its 
 limits, it was deemed necessary to give publicity to the section, for the 
 information of all concemecV 
 
 Great, indeed, must have been Jackson's excitement, when he suffered 
 himself to be persuaded, that Louallier could successfully be prosecuted 
 as a spy. Eaton informs us Louallier was prosecuted as one owing 
 allegiance to the United States. The very circumstance of his owing that 
 allegiance, prevented his being liable to a prosecution as a spy. He 
 was a citizen of the United States : his being a member of the legislature 
 was evidence of this. If he, therefore, committed any act, which would 
 constitute an alien a sj)y, he was guilty of high treason, and ought to have 
 been delivered to the legitimate magistrate, to be prosecuted as a traitor. 
 
 The second section of the act of congress, for establishing rules and 
 articles of war, is in the following words : 
 
 " Sec. 2. In time of war, all persons, 7iot citizens of, or owing allegiance 
 to the United States, who shall be found, lurking as spies, in or about the 
 
394 HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 
 
 fortifications or encampments of the armies of the United States, or any 
 of them, shall suflFer death, according to the laws and usages of nations, 
 by sentence of a general court martial." 
 
 It is certain the article applies only to aliens ; persons who are not 
 citizens of the United States, nor owing temporal allegiance to them. A 
 spy gives did to the enemy: and he, who owing allegiance (perpetual or 
 temporal) to the United States, adheres to their enemies ; giving them aid 
 or comfort, is not a spy, but a traitor. 
 
 This distinction has been recognized by the department of war of the 
 United States. In the beginning of the last war, a natural born citizen 
 of the United States, who before the declaration of war had removed his 
 domicil into Canada, was found lurking about as a spy, near a fortification 
 of the United States, arrested, tried and convicted by a general court 
 martial, and condemned to death, as a spy. The President disapproved 
 of the sentence, on the ground that as the culprit was a citizen of the 
 United States, and owed allegiance to them, he could not be a spy ; he 
 was accordingly^ by order of the secretary of war, surrendered to the 
 legitimate magistrate, to be dealt with according to law. 
 
 Louallier was arrested on Sunday, the fifth day of March, at noon, near 
 the Exchange Coffeehouse. He immediately desired Morel, a gentleman 
 of the bar, who was near him, to adopt legal means for his relief. 
 
 Application was made to one of the members of the supreme court, 
 Martin, who was being prevented by the imperfection of his sight to be 
 otherwise useful, had enrolled himself in one of the companies of veterans, 
 organized for the maintenance of order in the city. That court had 
 determined in the preceding year, in the case of a British subject, arrested 
 by the marshal for the purpose of being sent into the interior, that its 
 jurisdiction being appellate only, it could not issue the writ of habeas 
 corpus. Morel was, therefore, informed that the judge did not conceive he 
 could interfere ; especially, as it was alleged the prisoner was arrested 
 and confined for trial, before a court martial, under the authority of the 
 United States. 
 
 Morel, having consulted other gentlemen of the profession, applied to 
 Hall, the district judge of the United States, for a writ of prohibition, to 
 stay proceedings against his client, in the court martial. Hall expressed 
 a doubt of his authority to order such a writ at chambers, and said he 
 would take some time to deliberate. Morel withdrew, but soon after 
 returned with a petition for a writ of habeas corpus, on which the judge 
 gave his,^ai, after having received Morel's promise, that he would inform 
 the general of his application for the writ, and the order made for 
 issuing it. 
 
 On receiving Morel's communication, the ebullition of Jackson's anger 
 was such that reason appeared to have lost its control. Those who had 
 suggested the harsh measures against the French citizens, and the still 
 more harsh one against Louallier, imagined the moment was come when 
 their enmity towards Hall might be gratified. We have seen that a 
 number of individuals, who had hitherto sustained a fair character, were 
 now known as accomplices of the Barataria pirates. Prosecutions had 
 been commenced against some of them, and Hall manifested that stern 
 severity of character, which appals guilt. The counsel of these men ha<l 
 conceived the idea that he did not view their efforts to screen their 
 clients, with the liberality and indulgence they deserved. The oppor- 
 
HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 395 
 
 tunity now offered of humbling this worthy magistrate, was not suffered 
 to remain unimproved ; and Jackson was assured that Hall, like Louallier, 
 was guilty of an offense punishable with death. 
 
 The general's attention was drawn to the seventh section of the rules 
 and articles of war, which denounces the last punishment against persons 
 aiding or abetting mutiny; and he was pressed to prosecute the judge 
 before a court martial. As a preparatory step, with that promptitude of 
 decision, which Eaton says is a leading trait in his character, he signed 
 an instrument at once, the warrant for the arrest, and the mittimus for the 
 imprisonment of Hall. He wrote to colonel Arbuckle, who commanded 
 at the barracks, that having received proof that Dominic A. Hall had been 
 aiding, abetting, and exciting mutiny in his camp, he desired that a detach- 
 ment might be ordered forwith, to arrest and confine him, and that a report 
 might be made as soon as he was arrested. " You will," as it is said in 
 the conclusion of this paper, " be vigilant ; as the agents of our enemy 
 are more numerous than we expected. You will be guarded against 
 escapes." 
 
 The prosecution of the judge was intended to be grounded on the 
 seventh section of the articles of war, which is in these words : " Any 
 officer or soldier, who shall begin, cause, excite or join in, any mutiny or 
 sedition, in any troop or company, in the service of the tJnited States, or 
 in any post, detachment or guard, shall suffer death, or any other 
 punishment, as by a court martial shall be inflicted." 
 
 Hall was not an officer, in the sense of the act of congress — he was not 
 a soldier, in the ordinary meaning of that word ; but, according to the 
 jurisprudence of headquarters, the proclamation of martial law had 
 transformed every inhabitant of New Orleans into a soldier, and rendered 
 him punishable under the articles of war. 
 
 The judge was accordingly arrested in his own house, at nine o'clock, 
 and confined in the same apartment with Louallier, in the barracks. 
 
 As soon as this was reported at headquarters, major Chotard was 
 dispatched to demand from Claiborne, the clerk of the district court of 
 the United States, the surrender of Louallier's petition, on the back of 
 which Hall had written the order for issuing the writ of habeas corpus. It 
 has been seen that there was not any officer of the state government, nor 
 of the United States, out of the army, who imagined that a proclamation 
 of martial law gave the general any right, nor imposed on others any 
 obligation, which did not exist before. The clerk accordingly answered 
 that there was a rule of court, which forbade him to part with any original 
 paper lodged in his office ; and he was ignorant of any right, in the 
 commander of the army, to interfere with the records of the court. He, 
 however, was after much solicitation, prevailed on to take the document 
 in his pocket, and accompany Chotard to headquarters. 
 
 In the meanwhile, an express from the department of war had arrived, 
 with the intelligence that the President of the United States had ratified 
 the treaty, and an exchange of the ratifications had taken place at 
 Washington, on the 17th of February, the preceding month. By an 
 accident, which was not accounted for, a packet had been put into the 
 hands of the messenger, instead of the one containing the official infor- 
 mation of the exchange of the ratifications. But the man was bearer of 
 an open order of the Postmaster, to all his deputies on the road, to 
 expedite him with the utmost celerity, as he carried information of the 
 
396 HISTORY OF LOUISIAXA. 
 
 recent peace. He declared he had handed an official notice of this event 
 to the governor of the state of Tennessee. 
 
 On the arrival of the clerk at headquarters, Jackson asked him whether 
 it was his intention to issue the writ ; he replied it was his bounden duty 
 to do so. and he most assuredly would. He was threatened with an arrest, 
 but persisted in his asseveration that he would obey the judge's order. 
 He had handed Louallier's petition to Jackson, and, before he retired, 
 demanded the return of it; this was i)eremptorily refused, and the paper 
 was withheld. It appears the date of the Jifth of March had been origi- 
 nally on this document, and that being Sunday, Hall had changed it to 
 that' of the following day, the sixth. The idea had been cherished, that 
 this alteration might support an additional article, in the charges against 
 Hall. It is not extraordinary, that those who imagined that, as Louallier 
 might be tried for a libel, in a"^ court martial, Hall might iov forgery. Thus 
 one inconsistency almost universally leads to another. 
 
 Duplessis, the marshal of the United States, had volunteered his services 
 as an aid to Jackson ; a little after midnight he visited headquarters. The 
 imprisonment of Hall, and the accounts from Washington, had brought a 
 great concourse of people near the general ; who, elated by the success of 
 the evening, met the marshal at the door, and announced to him, he had 
 shopped thc^ judge. Perceiving that Duplessis did not show his exultation, 
 he inquired whether he would serve Hall's writ. The marshal replied, he 
 had ever done his duty, which obliged him to execute all Avrits directed 
 to him by the court, whose ministerial officer he was, and, looking sternly 
 at the person who addressed him, added, he would execute the court's writ, 
 on. any man. A copy of the proclamation of martial law, that lay on the 
 table, was pointed to him, and Jackson said, he also would do his duty. 
 
 A large concourse of people had been drawn to the Exchange Coffee- 
 house, during the night, by the passing events, which were not there, as 
 at headquarters, a subject of exultation and gratulation. The circumstances 
 were not unlike those of the year 1806, which Livingston describes as " so 
 new in the history of our country, that they will not easily gain belief, at 
 a distance, and can scarcely be realized by those who beheld them. A 
 dictatorial power, assumed by the commander of the American army — the 
 military arrest of citizens, charged with a civil offense — the violation of 
 the sanctuary of justice. An attempt to overawe by denunciations, those 
 who dared,' professionally, to assert the authority of the laws — the 
 unblushing avowal of the emplojanent of military force, to punish a civil 
 offense, and the hardy menance of persevering in the same course, were 
 circumstances that must command attention, and excite the corresponding 
 sentiments of grief, indignation and contempt." 
 
 There were some who recommended, that application should be made 
 to Claiborne, to put himself at the head of the militia of the state, and 
 to Duplessis, to call out the posse comitatus of the district, to support the 
 authority of the judiciary; but the sentiment of those prevailed, who 
 harangued the people in the strains of Livingston's address to his fellow- 
 citizens, about eight years before. " We must suffer the evils to which we 
 are exposed. Let us, however, do it with fortitude, and never be tempted 
 to any act, which may enlist us, on the side of those, who trample on our 
 constitution, sport with our liberties, and violate our laws. Let us 
 remember, that the day of retri])ution will arrive, and is not far distant, 
 when a strict account will be taken, as well of the wanton abuses, as of 
 
HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 397 
 
 the shameful dereliction which permits them. But, let us strive by our 
 zeal in the support of our country, by our submission to lawful authority, 
 by our opposition to every foreign or domestic foe, that there is no pretext 
 for the dictatorial power that is assumed over us." 
 
 " I have said that we must suffer. Never were two words more appli- 
 cable to our situation : it is one the most dreadful to an independent 
 mind, of any that can be imagined — subject to the uncontrolled will of 
 a single man, to whom the hearsay tales of slander are proofs ; and who, 
 on his own evidence, arraigns, condemns and punishes, the accused ; 
 dooms him to imprisonment, by whom the tribunals are insulted. What 
 state of things can be worse? No caution can protect ! no consciousness 
 of innocence secure. The evidence is taken in private ; malicious, 
 cowardly informers, skulk around the proconsul's office. Their tales give 
 food to pre-existing enmity, and avenge their own quarrels by secret 
 denunciations of guilt. The objects of official suspicion are confined." 
 
 Repose having restored calmness to Jackson's mind, and the intelligence 
 of peace depriving his measures of the only ground on which they could 
 be justified— necessity — he acted on the suggestions of his own reflections, 
 and considering the British as no longer the enemies of his country, he 
 determined on an attempt to anticipate, as much as him lay, the blessings 
 of returning peace. With this object in view, one of his first acts on the 
 sixth, was a communication to Lambert, which Latour has preserved. It 
 is in the following words : 
 
 " I have just received intelligence from Washington, which leaves little 
 doubt, in my mind, that the treaty, signed at Ghent, between the United 
 States and Great Britain, has been ratified by the president of the senate 
 of the United States. But, by some unaccountable accident, a dispatch, 
 on another subject, has been substituted for the one intended to give me 
 official notice of this event. The one I have received is accompanied by 
 an order from the postmaster general, desiring his deputies to forward the 
 express, carrying intelligence of the recent peace. Of this order I enclose 
 a copy. From other circumstances, to which I give credit, I learn that 
 the same express brought official notice of the ratification of the treaty, 
 to the governor of Tennessee. I have deemed it my duty, to commu- 
 nicate the exact state of these circumstances, without loss of time, that 
 you might determine whether they would not justify you, in agreeing to a 
 cessation of hostilities, to anticipate the happy return of peace between our 
 two nations, which the first direct intelligence must bring to us, in anr 
 official form." 
 
 Jackson now paused to deliberate whether these circumstances did not 
 require him, by a cessation of all measures of violence, to' allow his 
 fellow-citizens in New Orleans, to anticipate this happy return of peace, 
 the account of which the first direct intelligence was to bring to him, in 
 an official form — the untoward arrival of an orderly sergeant, with a 
 message from Arbuckle, to whom the custody of Hall had been committed, 
 prevented Jackson coming to that conclusion which his unprejudiced 
 judgment would have suggested. The prisoner had requested that a 
 magistrate might be permitted to have access to him, to receive an 
 affidavit which he wished to make, in order to resort to legal measures 
 for his release. Arbuckle desired to know the general's pleasure on this 
 application. Naturally impatient of anything like control or restraint, 
 the idea of a superior power to be employed against his decisions, threw 
 
398 HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 
 
 Jackson into emotions of rage. Before they had sufficiently subsided to 
 allow him to act on the message, some of his ordinary advisers came in, 
 to recommend the arrest of Hollander, a merchant of some note. What 
 was the offense of this man has never been known ; but Jackson's temper 
 of mind was favorable to the views of his visitors. He ordered the arrest 
 of the merchant and forbade the access of the magistrate to Hall ; the 
 idea of allowing his fellow-citizens to anticipate the happy return of 
 peace, was abandoned, and measures were directed to be taken for the 
 trial of Louallier. 
 
 Seven distinct charges were exhibited against the prisoner : 
 
 1. Mutiny. The specification on this head was that he did write, and 
 cause to be published, the piece in the Courier de la Louisiane, of the 3d 
 of March, 1815. 
 
 2. Exciting mutiny. The specification was the same as the preceding. 
 
 3. General misconduct. The specification was as before. 
 
 4. Being a spy. The specification was that the prisoner was found 
 lurking about the fortifications and encampment of the United States, in 
 New Orleans, being much disaffected, and writing, and causing to be 
 published, as before. 
 
 5. Illegal and improper conduct, and disobedience to orders. 
 Specification 1st. Violating the fifty-sixth article of the rules and 
 
 articles of war, viz : " Whoever shall relieve the enemy with money, 
 victuals, or ammunition, or shall knowingly harbor or protect an enemy, 
 shall suffer death, or such other punishment as shall be ordered b)-^ the 
 sentence of a court martial." This specification concluded with an 
 averment that the prisoner did write and cause to be published, etc., as 
 before. 
 
 Specification 2d. Violating the 57th article, viz : " Whosoever shall be 
 convicted of corresponding with, or giving intelligence to the enemy, 
 either directly or indirectly, shall suffer death, or such other punishment 
 as shall be ordered by the sentence of the court martial." The averment 
 on this specification was the same as the preceding. 
 
 6. Writing a wilful and corrupt libel. 
 
 7. Unsoldierlike conduct, and contrary to the proclamation of martial 
 law. The specification was that the prisoner did write, and cause to be 
 published, the piece, etc. 
 
 The supreme court of the state being in session, application was made 
 to it for a writ of habeas corpus in favor of Hollander. The two judges 
 present, Derbigny and Martin, severally declared they should not think 
 themselves justified in rejecting the application, on account of any 
 proclamation of martial law, if they were convinced they had authority to 
 issue the writ ; and expressed their readiness to hear an argument, if any 
 gentleman of the bar had a doubt of the former decision of the tribunal, 
 in the case of Laverty, the British subject arrested by the marshal during 
 the preceding summer. This man claimed the citizenship of the United 
 States, and wished to test his pretension by a writ of habeas corpus; but 
 the court declined interfering, being of opinion, theirs was an appellate 
 jurisdiction only confined to civil cases, and they could not inquire into 
 the legality of an arrest, on criminal or political grounds. They permitted 
 the case to be argued ; but, before the argument was concluded infor- 
 mation was received that Hollander had been discharged by Jackson. 
 
 Dick, the attorney of the United States, made application to Lewis, one 
 
HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 399 
 
 of the district judges of the state, who was serving as a subaltern officer, 
 in the Orleans rifle company, and whose conduct during the invasion had 
 received Jackson's particular commendation. Believing that his duty as 
 a military man, did not diminish his obligation, as a judge, to protect his 
 fellow-citizens from illegal arrest, Lewis, without hesitation, on the first 
 call of Dick, laid down his rifle, and allowed the writ. 
 
 Information of this having been carried to headquarters, Jackson 
 immediately ordered the arrest of Lewis and Dick. 
 
 Arbuckle, to whom Lewis' writ, in favor of Hall, was directed, refused to 
 surrender his prisoner, on the ground he was committed by Jackson, under 
 the authority of the United States. 
 
 The orders for the arrest of Lewis and Dick were countermanded. 
 
 The court martial for the trial of Louallier, of which major-genaral 
 Gaines was president, met on the 7th. 
 
 The prisoner's counsel confined his defense to a plea, to the jurisdiction 
 of court ; contending that he was, as a member of the legislature, exempt 
 from militia service ; that the rules and articles of war, were expressly 
 established for the government of the army of the United States, and 
 extended to the militia of the state ; when in the service of the United 
 States ; that their client was neither of the army or militia, although, 
 during the invasion, he had performed military duty in one of the 
 volunteer companies, embodied for the maintenance of order in the city ; 
 that the proclamation of martial law, made no one a soldier, who was not 
 so before ; that it vested no right in the general, nor imposed on any one, 
 any obligation, which did not exist before. 
 
 The irritation of the public mind manifested itself, in the evening, by 
 the destruction of a transparent painting, in honor of Jackson, which the 
 proprietor of the Exchange Coffeehouse displayed in the largest hall. 
 
 A general order on the 8th, announced that, although the commanding 
 general had not yet received official information, that the state of war 
 had ceased, by the ratification of the treaty, he had persuasive evidence 
 of the fact, and credited it, at the risk of being misled by his wishes, and 
 under this impression, his first duty was to discharge from actual service, 
 the body of the militia of the state, which had taken the field, under the 
 order for the levy en masse. 
 
 The French subjects had remained perfectly quiet at home, regardless 
 of the order of the 28th of February. Louallier's publication had opened 
 the eyes of the community, whose sympathy was enlisted in favor of these 
 defenders of the country, and under the present excitement of the public 
 mind, the execution of a sentence of exile against them, would have been 
 dangerous. The governor, who, in Wilkinson's time, had been charged 
 with a co-operation in his illegal measures, or at least with a dereliction 
 of duty, appeared now disposed to act, in such a manner, as to give room 
 for a similar imputation ; and Eaton tells us, " he had been heard to 
 declare, in Words of mysterious import, that serious difficulties would be 
 shortly witnessed in New Orleans." It was deemed most prudent, at 
 headquarters, to make a virtue of necessity. With a view of enabling 
 Jackson to do so, with a good grace, an address was procured from the 
 officers and men of the principal volunteer corps of the militia of the city, 
 soliciting the suspension of the order of the 28th of February, and pledging 
 themselves for the future good conduct of the French subjects. On 
 receiving this address, a general order was issued, stating that, time 
 
400 HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 
 
 having been given to the people, to consider whether they would avail 
 themselves of their degrading exenij^tion, at a distance from the camp, or 
 enrol themselves among them who defended the state ; and the delay 
 being expired, the order would have been strictly enforced, had it not 
 been for the application and guarantee of the officers and men of the 
 volunteer companies. The execution of the order was therefore suspended, 
 till the general's pleasure was further signified. 
 
 There is a manifest incoysistency between these two orders. Had the 
 latter been penned by a friend of Jackson's, the order of the 28th of 
 February would have been rescinded, on the reason assigned in the first, 
 viz: the persuasive evidence, which had reached headquarters, that the 
 state of war had ceased. There would have been much more dignity, in 
 this admission than in the boast that the subjects of a friendly nation, 
 entitled by treaty to peculiar privileges in Louisiana, could be exiled from 
 New Orleans and compelled to march to the distance of one hundred and 
 twenty miles, in time of peace, on the mere signification of any man's 
 pleasure. 
 
 A number of officers had compelled the proprietor of the Exchange 
 Coffeehouse, to exhibit a new transparent painting, and to illuminate the 
 hall in a more than usual manner. They attended in the evening, and 
 stood near the painting, with the apparent intention of indicating a deter- 
 mination, to resist the attempt of taking doAvn the painting. It was 
 reported a number of soldiers were in the neighborhood, ready to march 
 to the coffeehouse, at the first call. This was not calculated to allay the 
 excitement of the public mind. The prostration of the legitimate 
 government; the imprisonment of the district judge of the United States, 
 the only magistrate, whose interference could be successfully invoked, on 
 an illegal arrest, under color of the authority of the United States, the 
 ascendancy assumed by the military, appeared to have dissolved all the 
 bands of social order in New Orleans. 
 
 It is not easy to say, to what extremity matters would have been carried 
 if the good sense of the most influential characters in the city, had not 
 induced them to interfere. They represented, to those who were disposed 
 to run all hazards, that a few days, perhaps a few hours, would bring the 
 official account of the exchange of the ratifications of the treaty ; that 
 Jackson's da}^ of reckoning would then arrive ; that Hall, with the 
 authority (though now without the power) of checking the encroachments 
 of the military, possessed the authority, and would soon have the power 
 to punish the violators of the law — presenting the idea without using the 
 eloquent language of Workman, in 1807 : '' the law is not dead, but 
 sleepeth ; the constitution is eclipsed indeed, but the dark bodies of 
 hideous and ill-omened form, which have intercepted its light, and deprived 
 us of its genial influence, will soon pass away, and we shall again behold 
 the glorious luminary, shining forth in all its original splendor." 
 
 On the 9th, the court martial sustained Louallier's plea to their juris- 
 diction, as to all the charges except the fourth ; that of being a spy — 
 manifesting, that all judicial institutions possess, in the United States, an 
 essential purity and energy. They thought the rules and articles of war, 
 were expressly established by the congress, for the government of the 
 army, and were not binding on an}^ individual out of it ; that neither the 
 President, or any commander, can, by a proclamation of martial law, vest 
 
HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 401 
 
 in himself right, or impose on others any obligation that did not exist 
 before ; nor render anything lawful or unlawful, that was otherwise before. 
 
 They acquitted Louallier of the fourth charge. There was no evidence 
 before them, that he was found lurking about any fortification or 
 encampment of the army of the United States ; none of his disaffection ; 
 and his conduct, in the legislature, had evinced that, in zeal and 
 patriotism, he did not yield even to Jackson. If he had published a libel, 
 it was the duty of the attorney-general of the state to indict him, and the 
 province of the grand jury to j)resent him, if that officer neglected his- 
 duty. He was placed before them as a person owing allegiance to, they 
 knew he was a citizen of the United States, and that government had in 
 the beginning of the war, declared that a spy must essentially be an alien. 
 
 Jackson was greatly disappointed at the conclusion to which the court 
 martial had arrived ; he, however, did not release either of his prisoners, 
 and on the tenth issued the following general order : 
 
 "The commanding general disapproves of the sentence of the court 
 martial, of which major-general Gaines is president, on the several charges 
 and specifications exhibited against Mr. Louallier ; and is induced by the 
 novelty and inportance of the matters, submitted to the decision of that 
 court, to assign the reasons of this disapproval. 
 
 " The charges against the prisoner were mutiny, exciting mutiny, general 
 misconduct, for being a spy, illegal and improper conduct, and 
 disobedience of orders, writing a wilful and corrupt libel against the 
 commanding general, unsoldierly conduct, and conduct in violation of a 
 general order ; all of which charges are, on the face of them, proper to be 
 inquired into by a court martial. The defendant pleaded to the 
 jurisdiction of the court, and founded his exceptions on matters of fact, 
 which exceptions, as to all the charges and specifications but one, the 
 court sustained, without inquiring into the truth of the facts (which not 
 otherwise could have appeared to them), upon which those exceptions 
 were bottomed. 
 
 "The commanding general is not disposed, however, to rest his objections 
 upon any informality in the mode of proceeding adopted by the court, 
 but presuming that the court really believed the truth of the facts set 
 forth in the exceptions, deems it his duty to meet the doubts as he 
 supposes them to have existed. The character of the prisoner (a citizen 
 not enrolled in any corps, and a member of the state legislature, though 
 that legislature was not in session) probably, in the opinion of the court, 
 placed him without their reach, upon the several charges on which they 
 declined acting. 
 
 " The enemy having invaded the country, and threatening an attack on 
 New Orleans, many considerations, growing out of this emergency, and 
 connected with the defense of the city, rendered the adoption of the most 
 energetic and decisive measures necessary. Martial law, as the most 
 comprehensive and effectual, was therefore proclaimed by the commanding 
 general — a state of things which made it the duty of every inhabitant, 
 indiscriminately, to contribute to the defense of his country — a duty, in 
 the opinion of the commanding general, more positive and more urgent 
 than any resulting from the common and usual transactions of private, 
 or even public life. The occasion that calls it forth, involves at once, the 
 very existence of the government, and the liberty, property and lives of 
 the citizens. 
 
402 HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 
 
 " Martial law being established, applies, as the commanding general 
 believes, to all persons who remain within the sphere of its operation ; 
 and claims exclusive jurisdiction of all offenses, which aim at the disor- 
 ganization and ruin of the army over which it extends. To a certain 
 extent, it is believed to make every man a soldier, to defend the spot 
 where chance or choice has placed him, and to make him liable for any 
 misconduct calculated to weaken its defense. 
 
 "If martial law, when necessity shall have justified a resort to it, does 
 not operate to this extent, it is not easy to perceive the reason or the 
 utility of it. If a man, who shall, from choice, remain within the limits 
 of its operation, and whose house is without these limits, and there labor 
 by means in his power to stir up sedition and mutiny among the soldiery, 
 inspire them with distrust towards the commanding officer, and commu- 
 nicate to the enemy intelligence of the disaffection and discontent, which 
 he himself has created, he may safely avail himself of what he may please 
 to call his constitutional rights and continue his dangerous machi- 
 nations with impunity ; the commanding general believes he cannot 
 easily conceive, how a man thus influenced and thus acting, might render 
 the enemy more important services, and do his country more injury, than 
 he possibly could, by entering the ranks of the enemy, and aiding him in 
 open battle. Why is martial law ever declared? Is it to make the 
 enlisted or drafted soldier subject to it? He was subject to it before. It 
 is, that the whole resources of a country, or of that district over which it 
 is proclaimed, may be successfully applied for its preservation. Every 
 man, therefore, within the limits to which it extends, is subject to its 
 influence. If it has not this operation, it is surely a perfect nullity. Apply 
 this view of the subject to the case before the court — and how is it? After 
 the adjournment of the legislature, of which the defendant claims to be a 
 member, he remained within the camp of the American army, and within 
 the limits, which are declared to be embraced by martial law. How does 
 he there deport himself? Instead of contributing to the defense of his 
 country ; instead of seeking to promote that unanimity, which a love of 
 country, and the important trust which had been reposed in him, might 
 have led us to expect, we behold him endeavoring to stir up discord, 
 sedition, mutiny — laboring to disorganize and destroy an army which 
 had so lately defended his country, and might so soon again be necessary 
 for its defense. Not only inviting the enemy to renew his attempt, but 
 contributing his utmost to enable him to succeed, if he should obey the 
 invitation. Is there no power to restrain the efforts, or to punish the 
 wickedness of such a man? If he aids and comforts the enemy, by 
 communicating to him information of the mutinous and seditious spirit, 
 of the distraction and confusion which he himself has created — why this 
 is treason, and he cannot be punished by a court martial. If he excites 
 mutiny, disobedience to orders, and rebellion among the soldiery, he is 
 not attached to the army, and cannot be restrained ! Why, is he not 
 attached to the army? Why, at such a moment, when he remains within 
 it, is he not subject to its rules and regulations? If the enemy comes, 
 may he fold his arms and walk unconcernedly along the lines, or remain 
 inactive in his room? Can he not be called upon for his exertions? May 
 he not only refuse to render any assistance himself, but without fear or 
 reproach, do all in his power to render ineffectual the exertions of others ; 
 of that army which, in the most threatening crisis, is fighting for the liberty 
 
HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 403 
 
 and safety of that country, whose liberty and safety he professes to have 
 so mnch at heart? May he, at such a moment, proclaim to the enemy, 
 that we are dissatisfied with our general, tired of the war, determined no 
 longer to bear the restrictions which it imposes ; in a word, disaffected 
 and disunited, and ready to yield to him on his first approach. May this 
 man, a foreigner, retaining the predilections for the countr}^ which gave 
 him birth, and boasting of those predilections ; may such a man, under 
 such circumstances, excite sedition and mutiny, division and disorgani- 
 zation in our army ; and when he is called before the court martial to 
 answer for his crimes, say — gentlemen, 3^ou have no right to take cogni- 
 zance of the offences of which I am charged? Decide with the accused, 
 no army can be safe, no general can command ; disaffection and disobe- 
 dience, anarchy and confusion must take place of order and subordination, 
 defeat and shame, of victory and triumph. But the commanding general 
 is persuaded, that this is a state of things which the government of no 
 country can or does tolerate. The constitution of the United States 
 secures to the citizen the most valuable privileges ; yet, the same consti- 
 tution contemplates the necessity of suspending the exercise of the same, 
 in order to secure the continuance of all. If it authorizes the suspension 
 of the writ of habeas corpus in certain cases ; it, thereby, implicitly admits 
 the operation of martial law, when in the event of rebellion or invasion 
 public safety may require it. To whom does the declaration of this law 
 belong? To the guardian of the public safet}^ ; to him who is to conduct 
 the operations against the enemy, whose vigilance is to descry danger, 
 and whose arms are to repel it? He is the only authority present to 
 witness and determine the emergency which makes such a resort necessary 
 and possessed of the means to make suitable provisions for it. For the 
 correctness of his conduct, under the circumstances which influenced him, 
 he stands responsible to his government." 
 
 The court martial consoled themselves by the reflection, that their 
 sentence, though disapproved by Jackson, was in perfect conformity with 
 decisions of the President of the United States, and of the supreme court 
 of the state of New York, in similar cases. 
 
 In August, 1812, Elijah Clark was condemned to be hung as a spy, at 
 Buffalo, in the state of New York, by sentence of a court martial. " It 
 appeared that he was born in the state of New Jersey, and that he 
 continued to reside in the United States, as a citizen thereof, until within 
 about eight months, when he removed to Canada, and there married ; 
 that his wife and property are yet in Canada, and within the dominion 
 and allegiance of the king of the united kingdom of Great Britain and 
 Ireland. For these reasons, the court was of opinion, that (although the 
 said Elijah Clark was a native born citizen of the United States, and was 
 yet holden under the allegiance, which, as such citizen, he owed to the 
 United States) he was nevertheless liable to be tried and convicted, as a 
 spy in the United States, for his acts of a spy, committed during the 
 continuance of such temporary allegiance to the king of the united 
 kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, with whom the United States were 
 at war." 
 
 General Hull suspended the execution till the pleasure of the President 
 of the United States was known. 
 
 On the second of October, the secretary of war wrote to the general, 
 that Clark, " being considered a citizen of the United States, and not 
 
404 HISTOKY OF LOUISIANA. 
 
 liable to be tried by a court martial as a spy, the President directed that 
 unless he should be arraigned by the civil court for treason, or a minor 
 crime, under the laws of the state of New York, he must be discharged." 
 
 One Smith, a naturalized citizen of the United States, and a Scotchman 
 by birth, was arrested during the last war, and imprisoned in the barracks 
 at Sackett's Harbor, on the charge, among others, of his being a spy. On 
 the restoration of peace, he brought his action of false imprisonment 
 against the commanding officer of the garrison. The case was brought 
 before the supreme court, where it was argued, on the part of the 
 defendant, that, on the principle of natural or perpetual allegiance, he 
 remained a British subject, he was a spy, and could be treated as such; 
 and at all events, the officer Avho detained him was justifiable in doing 
 so, until l)y due investigation in a court martial, it could be ascertained 
 whether he was a citizen or an alien. For the plaintiff, it was insisted 
 that a naturalized citizen enjoys all the rights and privileges of a native 
 born, who is entitled, in every possible case, to protection from military 
 power. The authority of Sir Matthew Hale was quoted, that even in 
 England, martial law is no law, but something indulged as a law ; and 
 the opinion of Lord Loughborough was relied on, that martial law, even 
 as described by Sir Matthew Hale, does not exist at all. The court said, 
 " the defendant's conduct does not appear harsh or offensive; but it is 
 the principle invoked that renders the result so important. None of the 
 offenses, charged against the plaintiff, were cognizable before a court 
 martial, except that which relates to his being a spy : and, if he w^as an 
 American citizen, he could not be chargeable with such an offense. He 
 might be amenable to the civil authority for treason ; but could not be 
 prosecuted, under martial law, as a spy." One of the judges dissented, 
 on the ground that the officer was justifiable in detaining the plaintiff, 
 till it was ascertained whether he was a citizen; but the judge expressly 
 admitted, that if he was a citizen, he was not liable to be tried as a spy. 
 
 It is evident, that by the expression, martial law, in the last part of the 
 opinion of the court, reference is made to the second section of the act of 
 congress, for establishing rules and articles of war, for the government 
 of the armies of the United States, in which the punishment of death is 
 denounced against spies. 
 
 The independent stand, taken by the court martial, had left no glimpse 
 of hope, at headquarters, that the prosecution of Hall, on the charge of 
 mutiny, on which he had been imprisoned, could be attempted with any 
 prospect of success — the futility of any further proceedings against 
 Louallier was evident — Jackson, therefore, put an end to Hall's imprison- 
 ment on Saturday, the 11th of March. The Avord imprisonment is used, 
 because Eaton assures his readers, that ^^ Judge Hall was not imprisoned; 
 it was merely an arrest." Hall had been taken from his bedchamber, on 
 the preceding Sunday, at 9 o'clock in the evening, by a detachment of 
 about one hundred men, dragged through the streets, and confined in the 
 same apartment with Louallier, in the barracks. Three days after it had 
 been officially announced to the inhabitants of New Orleans, that Jackson 
 was in possession of persuasive evidence, that a state of peace existed, and 
 the militia had been discharged, the door of Hall's prison was thrown 
 open, but not for his release. He was put under a guard, who led him 
 several miles beyond the limits of the city, where they left him, with a 
 
HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 405 
 
 prohibition to return, " till the ratification of the treaty was regularly 
 announced, or the British shall have left the southern coast." 
 
 This last, and useless display of usurped power, astonished the 
 inhabitants. They thought, that, if the general feared the return of the 
 British, the safety of New Orleans would be better insured, by his recall 
 of the militia, than by the banishment of the legitimate magistrate. It 
 was the last expansion of light, and momentary effulgence, that precedes 
 the extinguishment of a taper. 
 
 At the dawn of light, on Monday, the 13th, an express reached 
 headquarters, with the dispatch which had accidentally been misplaced, 
 in the office of the secretar}'^ of war, three weeks before. The cannon soon 
 announced the arrival of this important document, and Louallier was 
 indebted for his liberation, to the precaution, which Eaton says, the 
 President of the United States had taken to direct Jackson to issue a 
 proclamation for the pardon of all military offenses. 
 
 CHAPTER XXXIII. 
 
 Hall's return to the city was greeted by the acclamations of the inhab- 
 itants. He was the first judge of the United States they had received, 
 and they had admired in him the distinguishing characteristics of an 
 American magistrate — a pure heart, clean hands, and a mind susceptible 
 of no fear, but that of God. His firmness had, eight years before, arrested 
 Wilkinson in his despotic measures. He was now looked upon to show, 
 that if he had been unable to stop Jackson's arbitrary steps, he would 
 prevent him from exulting in the impunity of his trespass., 
 
 Dick was anxious to lose no time, in calling the attention of the district 
 court of the United States, to the violent proceedings, during the week 
 that had followed the arrival of the first messenger of peace ; but Hall 
 insisted on a few days being exclusively given to the manifestation of the 
 joyous feelings, which the termination of the war excited. He did not 
 yield to Dick's wishes till the 21st. The affidavits of the clerk of the 
 district court, of the marshal of the United States, of the attorney of 
 Louallier and of the commander at the barracks, were then laid before the 
 court. 
 
 The case they presented, was this — that Jackson, desirous to punish the 
 author of a publication, which he called a false and corrupt libel, upwards 
 of six weeks after the departure of the British, had yielded to the advice 
 of those who recommended that the publisher should be prosecuted, before 
 a court martial, as a spy, and had him arrested. The prisoner sought 
 legal advice, and was informed, that in case of conviction, sentence of 
 death would inevitably be passed on him — and that the court martial by 
 whom he was to be tried, was without jurisdiction. He implored the 
 interference of the tribunal, especially charged with preventing a military 
 court from stepping out of the bounds of its legitimate jurisdiction. The 
 judge took the proper step, to have the complaint legally inquired into. 
 With the view of obstructing the course of justice, and depriving his 
 victim of the protection he had sought, Jackson had the judge arrested 
 and imprisoned, till the trial was over. The clerk of the court was 
 compelled to bring a record of the court, to headquarters, where it was 
 
406 HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 
 
 taken and withheld from him. He and the marshal were threatened! 
 Some of these transactions happened after accounts of the cessation of 
 the state of war was received. The proceedings did not appear to have 
 the least semblance of necessity, or even utility. 
 
 On the motion of the attorney of the United States, a rule to show 
 cause, why process of attachment should not issue against Jackson, was 
 granted. 
 
 On the return day, Reid, one of the general's aids, accompanied him to 
 the court house, and presented to the court a paper, sworn to by Jackson, 
 as his answer to the rule. 
 
 In the preamble of this document, a solemn protest was made against 
 the unconstitutionality and illegality of the prosecution — the authority 
 of the attorney of the United States to institute it, was denied, as well as 
 that of any court of the United States, to punish for a contempt. It 
 averred that no criminal prosecution could be carried on, in any of these 
 courts, except upon a presentment or indictment, or for an offense not 
 created by a statute — it insisted on a trial by jury ; it urged that the 
 contempt had not been committed in presence of the court, that the writ 
 of habeas corpus was not returnable into court ; and that the authority of 
 the judge, who issued it, was confined to the case of a prisoner under, or 
 by color of the authority of the United States. 
 
 In the conclusion, the proclamation of martial law was justified, on the 
 report which the general had received of the disaffection and seditious 
 disposition of the French part of the population of Louisiana, and various 
 extracts were given from letters of the governor, on the difficulties he had 
 to encounter, the opposition he met with from the legislature, and the 
 little dependence there was for success, except on a regular force, to be 
 sent by the United States. The interference with the records in the clerk's 
 office, was justified on the belief the defendant entertained, that it was 
 within his authority. The proclamation of martial law was held to have 
 made the publisher of the libel a soldier, and his offense cognizable by a 
 court martial ; and the imprisonment of the judge was said to have been 
 a measure of necessity- 
 
 The attorney of the United States, opposed the reading of this paper. 
 He said that, in no case, the defendant was permitted to make evidence 
 for himself, and justify himself, by swearing he was innocent; although, 
 on a process of attachment, the defendant's answers to interrogatories, 
 put by the officer who .conducted the prosecution, were conclusive evidence. 
 
 In the present stage of the cause, the inquiry was confined to the 
 sufficiency of the facts sworn to — whether they did not constitute an 
 offense, and one which did support a prosecution, by process of attachment. 
 "When the hearing would be on the merits, the defendant might avail 
 himself of his answers to interrogatories to show that the facts, in the 
 affidavits, on which the rule was obtained, were not true. The judge took 
 time to deliberate. 
 
 On the next day, he said " The court has taken time to consider 
 the propriety of admitting the answer, offered yesterday. It was proper 
 to do so ; because it is the first proceeding, of any importance, 
 instituted in a matter like the present, since the establishment of the 
 court; and because, by the constitution of the court, it is composed of 
 one judge only; and it so happens, that one of the charges of contempt, 
 is his imprisonment, andv the consequent obstruction of the course of 
 
HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 407 
 
 justice. This is no reason why the proceedings should not have been 
 instituted, and be persevered in ; but it is a good one for much delibera- 
 tion. No personal consideration ought, for a moment, to allow the 
 abandonment of the defense of the laws, the support of the dignity of the 
 tribunal, and of the rights of the citizen. 
 
 " I have considered the case, and I think I see a clear course. 
 
 " On a rule to show cause, the party called on may take all legal grounds, 
 to show that the attachment ought not to issue. He may take exceptions 
 to the mode of proceedings, and prove, from the affidavits on which the 
 rule was obtained, that the facts do not amount to a contempt. 
 
 " If the court be convinced that the attachment may legally issue, it 
 goes to bring the party into court — the interrogatories are propounded — 
 he may object to any of them, as improper, or deny the facts charged, and 
 purge himself of the contempt, on oath. His single testimony counteracts 
 all other that may have been adduced. 
 
 " I will hear any of the exceptions taken in the answer, or any question 
 of law that ma}^ be urged." 
 
 Reid now expatiated on the unconstitutionality and illegality of a mode 
 of proceeding, which deprived the defendant of the benefit of a trial by 
 a jury, and on the protestations, and exceptions in the preamble of 
 Jackson's answer. He dwelt on the necessity there was for the 
 proclamation of martial law, and attempted the justification of the facts, 
 stated in the affidavit, which were the basis of the prosecutions, by 
 martial law. 
 
 The attorney of the United States stated his conviction, that it was now 
 too late to speak of the unconstitutionality of the process of attachment — 
 a construction and interpretation of the constitution, contemporaneous 
 with that instrument, and coeval with the present government, had 
 received the sanction of the judiciary, and the house of representatives : — 
 that no jury was called in, because the facts, if contested, were to be 
 settled by the oath of the defendant, in his answers to interrogatories 
 propounded to him, in behalf of the United States ; it being the duty of 
 their attorney, to draw forth, by these interrogatories, as by cross- 
 examination, in the audition of witnesses, the facts, which the defendant 
 had an interest to conceal. After his conscience was thus probed, the 
 evidence resulting from his answers, counteracted all the testimony 
 adduced against him. 
 
 The attorney urged, that he was willing to admit that the arrest of 
 Louallier was not made under any authority derived from the United 
 States, but it was his duty to say, it took place, under color of such an 
 authority ; and in either case, it was the duty of the magistracy of the 
 United States, to inquire into the legality of the arrest. He added, that 
 with regard to such writs, which the judges were authorized to issue, at their 
 chambers, it had never been doubted, that obedience to them was to be 
 enforced, and contempt of them punished, in the same manner as if the 
 writ had been issued by the clerk. 
 
 He added that, when the case should be before the court on the merits, 
 the defendant would have every benefit that could be derived from martial 
 law. 
 
 The rule was made absolute. 
 
 Jackson's advisers now found he could not be defended on the merits, 
 w ith the slightest hope of success, as the attorney of the United States 
 
408 HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 
 
 would probably draw from him by interrogations, the admission, that 
 both Loiiallier and the judge were kept in prison, long after persuasive 
 evidence had been received at headquarters, of the cessation of the state 
 of war. They therefore recommended to him not to answer the interrog- 
 atories, which would authorize the insinuation that he had been condemned 
 unheard. 
 
 It appears that some of his party, at this period, entertained the hope 
 that Hall could be intimidated, and prevented from proceeding further. 
 A report was accordingly circulated that a mob would assemble in and 
 about the courthouse — that the pirates of Barataria, to Avhom the judge 
 had rendered himself obnoxious before the war, by his zeal and strictness, 
 in the prosecution that had been instituted against several of their 
 ringleaders, would improve this opportunity of humbling him. Accord- 
 ingly, groups of them took their stands, in different parts of the hall, and 
 gave a shout when Jackson entered. It is due to him to state, that, it did 
 not appear that he had the least intimation that a disturbance was 
 intended, and his influence was honestly exercised to prevent disorder. 
 
 On his being called, he addressed a few words to the court, expressive 
 of his intention not to avail himself of the faculty he had to answer 
 interrogatories ; a determination, which he said was grounded on the 
 court's refusal to allow his answer to the rule being read. 
 
 The court informed him, every indulgence had been extended to him, 
 which the law authorized. 
 
 The attorney of the United States now rose, and said that his task was 
 much simplified by the course the defendant had taken. The defendant 
 stood charged with having obstructed the course of justice and prevented 
 the interference of the court, in order that an illegal prosecution, for a 
 capital offense, might be carried on, before a military tribunal, against a 
 citizen absolutely unconnected with the army or militia. His protestations 
 and exceptions had already been disposed of. The greatest part of the 
 paper, which he had produced on his first coming into court, was filled 
 with extracts of letters, and arguments, by which his issuing a proclamation 
 of martial law, was intended to be justified. No one had ever seen any 
 degree of guilt in this act. It was very proper, in the beginning of an 
 invasion, for the commander of the army raised to oppose it, to warn, by 
 a solemn appeal, his men and all his fellow-citizens around him, that 
 circumstances required the exertion of the faculties of all, to repel the 
 enemy ; and that the martial law of the United States, i. e., the system of 
 rules established by the acts of congress and the laws and usages of 
 nations, with regard to martial matters, would be strictly enforced. 
 
 The words of Judge Bay, of the supreme court of South Carolina, in 
 LamVs case, were quoted : "If by martial law is to be understood that 
 dreadful system, the law of arms, which in former times was exercised by 
 the King of England and his lieutenants, when his word ivas the law, and 
 his will the power, by which it was exercised, I have no hesitation in saying 
 that such a monster could not exist in this land of liberty and freedom. 
 The political atmosphere of America would destroy it in embryo. It was 
 against such a tyrannical monster that wa^riumphed in our revolutionary 
 conflict. Our fathers sealed the conquest by their blood, and their 
 posterity will never permit it to tarnish our soil by its unhallowed feet, 
 or harrow up the feelings of our gallant sons, by its ghastly appearance. 
 All our civil institutions forbid it ; and the manly hearts of our country- 
 
HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 409 
 
 men are steeled against it. But, if by this military code arc to be understood 
 the rules and regulations for the government of our men in arms, when 
 marshalled in defense of our country's rights and honor, then I am bound 
 to say, there is nothing unconstitutional in such a system." 
 
 The attorney of the United States candidly admitted, that, although 
 the acts of the defendant could not by any means, be justified by his 
 proclamation ; they could certainly be so, b}'^ necessit}'^, which justifies 
 any act it commands — and the defendant was entitled to every benefit 
 under the plea of necessity ; and on the part of the United States, success 
 in the prosecution was neither expected nor wished, if that necessity 
 could be shown. 
 
 To show that no necessity existed to authorize the acts of violence 
 complained of, the attorney stated, that the defendant had admitted 
 that "most of the acts mentioned in the rule took place, after the 
 enemy had retired, from the place he had at first assumed — after they 
 had met with a signal defeat — and, after an unofficial account had been 
 received of the signature of the treaty." This had been verified by the 
 affidavit of the defendant, that the material facts contained in his answer 
 he believed to be true — but the general had not sworn that his answer 
 contained the whole truth, and the counsel by whom the document was 
 prepared, had carefully suppressed some most material circumstances. 
 The charges, which were the basis of the illegal proceedings, which it was 
 the bounden dut}^ of the court to arrest, were exhibited, after several 
 confirmations of the account of the signature of the treaty were received 
 — after the ratification of that treaty by the Prince Regent had been 
 announced — after it was known that the treaty had arrived at Washington, 
 and the senate had advised its ratification — after the President had ratified 
 it, and the mutual exchange of the ratifications. It was admitted that the 
 official annunciation of all these circumstances had not been received by 
 the defendant, but to use his own words, in an official document, he had 
 persuasive evidence of these facts, and he credited them. The untoward 
 accident, which had prevented his receiving the dispatch of the secretary 
 of war containing the official intelligence, was known to him. He even 
 confessed the state of war no longer existed — that his duty forbad him 
 to persist in measures, which the return of peace rendered unnecessary 
 and illegal. Under this impression, he proposed a suspension of 
 hostilities to Lambert — he discharged the militia of the state, and 
 consented that the French subjects, residing in New Orleans, should no 
 longer be required to return to his camp. 
 
 In the conclusion of his argument, Dick observed, that credulity itself 
 could not admit the proposition, that persuasive evidence that the war had 
 ceased, and belief that necessity required that violent measures should be 
 persisted in to prevent the exercise of the judicial power of the legitimate 
 tribunal, could exist at the same time, in the defendant's mind. 
 
 The general made a last effort to avert the judgment of the court against 
 him, by an asservation, he had imprisoned Dominick A. Hall, and not the 
 judge : his attention was drawn to the affidavit of the marshal, in which 
 he swore Jackson told him " I have shopped the judged 
 
 The court, desirous of manifesting moderation, in the punishment of 
 the defendant for the want of it, said that, in consideration of the services 
 the general had rendered to his country, imprisonment should make no 
 
 64 
 
410 HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 
 
 ]>art of the sentence, and condemned him to pay a fine of one thousand 
 dollars and costs, only. 
 
 A check was immediately filled by Duncan, signed by Jackson, and 
 handed to the marshal, who accepted it in discharge of the fine and costs. 
 
 On Jackson's coming out of the courthouse, his friends procured a hack, 
 in which he entered, and they dragged it to the Exchange Coffeehouse, 
 where he made a speech, in the conclusion of which he observed that, 
 " during the invasion, he had exerted every faculty in support of the 
 constitution and laws — on that day, he had been called on to submit to 
 their operation, under circumstances, which many persons might have 
 deemed sufficient to justify resistance. Considering obedience to the laws, 
 even when we think them unjustly applied, as the first duty of a citizen, 
 he did not hesitate to comply with the sentence they had heard 
 pronounced ;" and he entreated the people, to remember the example he 
 had given them, of respectful submission to the administration of justice. 
 
 A few days after he published in the Ami des Lois, the answer he had 
 offered to the district court, preceded by an exordium, in which he 
 complained that the court had refused to hear it. He added, that the 
 judge " had indulged himself, on his route to Bayou Sara, in manifesting 
 apprehensions as to the fate of the country, equally disgraceful to himself, 
 and injurious to the interest and safety of the state," and concluded : 
 " should judge Hall deny this statement, the general is prepared to prove 
 it, full}' and satisfactorily. 
 
 The gauntlet did not long remain on the ground, and the following 
 piece appeared in the Louisiana Courier: 
 
 " It is stated in the introductory remarks of general Jackson, that ' on 
 the judge's route to Bayou Sara, he manifested apprehensions as to the 
 safety of the country, disgraceful to himself, and injurious to the state.' 
 Judge Hall knows full well, how easy it is for one, with the influence and 
 patronage of general Jackson, to procure certificates and affidavits. He 
 knows that men, usurping authority, have their delators and spies; and 
 that, in the sunshine of imperial or dictatorial power, swarms of miserable 
 creatures are easily generated, from the surrounding corruption, and 
 rapidly changed into the shape of buzzing informers. Notwithstanding 
 which^ judge Hall declares, that on his route to Bayou Sara, he uttered no 
 sentiment disgraceful to himself, or injurious to the state. He calls upon 
 general Jackson, to furnish that full and satisfactory evidence of his 
 assertion, which he says he is enabled to do." 
 
 The pledge was never redeemed. The general's silence showed, that 
 those, on whose reports he had ventured to charge Hall, could not enable 
 him to administer proof of what they had advanced. The accusation 
 appeared as destitute of foundation, as the charge brought against the 
 legislature, of having entertained the idea of proposing a capitulation. 
 Never was a virtuous community, more gratuitously charged ^yith 
 disaffection, sedition and treason, than the population of Louisiana. Time 
 has shown, that, in patriotism, zeal and courage, it did not yield to that 
 of any state in the confederacy. Before danger was impending, they 
 canvassed every measure that was proposed to them ; they investigated 
 every claim ontheir services. But, as soon as it was necessary to act, 
 they did so, promptly and effectually. All the resources of the state, were 
 put at the disposal of Jackson — every branch of government, with all its 
 
HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 411 
 
 might seconded him — the people submitted to every privation, every duty, 
 which circumstances imposed. 
 
 It is true, the general assembly did not join Jackson in the belief, that 
 the suspension of the writ of habeas corpus, was a proper measure. They 
 knew, better than he, the population of their country — they did not err, 
 when they concluded it could be trusted. They remembered the time 
 of Wilkinson, and experience that his violent measures and those of 
 Jackson, after danger had ceased to exist, were absolutely ill timed — 
 productive of disorder and confusion, and unattended by any advantage ; 
 and the people, as soon as danger was over, manifested their determination 
 not to submit to oppression or unnecessary hardships. The French 
 subjects had shown, they were not afraid of the enemy ; they showed they 
 did not fear the general. Nothing but the certainty, that the day of 
 retribution was at hand, and that the insult, offered to the court of the 
 United States, was about to be avenged, prevented those serious difficulties, 
 which Claiborne, as Eaton informs us, believed would soon be witnessed 
 in New Orleans. 
 
 The national council rendered to Louisiana, that justice, which she 
 ought to have received at the headquarters of the seventh military district. 
 
 Congress passed a resolution, expressive of the high sense they enter- 
 tained, of the patriotism, zeal, fidelity and courage, with which the people 
 of Louisiana had promptly and unanimously stepped forward, under 
 circumstances of imminent danger, from a powerful invading enemy, in 
 defense of all the individual, social and political rights held dear to man. 
 A like sense was also expressed of the generosity, benevolence and 
 humanity displayed by the inhabitants of New Orleans, in voluntarily 
 affording the best accommodations in their power, and giving their best 
 attentions, to the wounded, not only of the army of the United States, 
 but also to the wounded prisoners of a vanquished foe. 
 
 In receiving this testimonial of the approbation of the legislature of the 
 Union, well might the people of Louisiana exclaim, laus laudari a te. It 
 was calculated to induce them to disregard, as it effectually counteracted 
 the assertions and insinuations of Jackson's advisers and panegyrists. 
 
 If, on the arrival of O'Reilly, at New Orleans, in 1769, he had attended 
 to the ma^xim, in the motto of his coat of arms, Fortitudinc et prudentia, 
 the lives of five individuals, in whose attachment to their former sovereign, 
 he should have seen a pledge of their future devotion to his own, would 
 have been spared. If Jackson had been as prudent after the invasion, as 
 he had been b7-ave during its continuance, he would have spared to himself 
 and others, very disagreeable consequences. May his conduct during one 
 period, be a pattern, and, during the other, a warning to future 
 commanders ! 
 
 It is the duty of history to record the virtues and errors of conspicuous 
 individuals. In free governments, dangerous precedents are to be dreaded 
 from good and popular characters only. Men of a different cast can never 
 obtain sufficient sanction for their measures, to make their acts an example 
 for others. Hence, the necessity of exposing the false grounds of the 
 actions of the former, and pointing out the evil consequences to which 
 they lead. 
 
 The history of every age, and every country, shows that, the higher 
 man is placed in authority, the greater the necessity of his bridling his 
 passions, lest others should believe anger and resentment have prompted 
 
412 HISTORY OF LOUISIANA. 
 
 measures, Avhieh should have had no other motive but public utility — and 
 that a temper, which can bear no contradiction, and a will spurning all 
 control, are the characteristics of a man in power. It teaches us how 
 important it is, he should not select for his advisers, men who have 
 enlisted themselves in the ranks of those who oppose the measures of 
 government — men having private interests to subserve, private enmities to 
 gratify, and private injuries to avenge — that he should abstain from acting 
 personally, in cases, which present great latitude for the improper 
 indulgence of his feelings ; and leave to dispassionate tribunals, the 
 punishment of those who have wounded his pride, by setting his authority 
 at defiance : refraining to become the prosecutor and arbiter of his own 
 grievances, and to place himself in situation, in which, reason having l)Ut 
 little control, he may do great injustice : and suspicion alwaN's, and 
 censure often, attach to his determination. 
 
 Mav the citizens of these states ever find in the annals of their country, 
 reasons to cherish and venerate, that branch of government, without the 
 protection of which it is in vain that the invader is repelled — the benign 
 influence of which, man feels before he enters the portals of life — which 
 guards the rights of the unborn child — throws its broad shield over 
 helpless infancy — the solicitude of which, watches over man's interests, 
 whenever disease or absence, prevents his attention to them — to which the 
 woodsman confidently commits his humble roof and its inmates, in the 
 morning, when shouldering his axe, he whistles his way to the forest, 
 assured it will guard them from injury, and secure to him the produce of 
 his labor — from Avhich the poor and the rich are sure of equal justice — 
 which neither the ardor civium, prava juhentitim, nor the vuUv.s in.'<tantis 
 tyranni, will prevent from coming to th§ relief of the oppressed — which 
 secures the enjoyment of every domestic, social and political right, and 
 does not abandon man after he has passed the gates of death — leaving him 
 in the grave, the consoling hope that the judiciary power of his country, 
 will cause him to hover a while, like a beneficent shade over the family 
 he reared — directing the disposition of the funds his care accumulated for 
 their support, and thus, by a sort of magic, allow him to continue to have a 
 will, after he has ceased to have an existence. 
 
^ 
 
 t^r- 
 
 
 
 ^ 
 
 i; c^'^r^-^c 
 
 .'f 
 
 ?. 
 
 ^.^- -i 
 
 -^' 
 
 ^i^l;— -s- 
 
 1 
 
 '^. 
 
 (L-- 
 
 ^ 
 
 ^ 
 
 .:^__i! 
 
 .^^ 
 
 7%: 
 
 •i2r--i ^yoTfAS^ — 'm 
 
 If ' ^'^ft'^ 
 
 r 7 r ^ f--! n n 
 
 2f 
 
 ^^ 
 
 
 
 •1 
 
 I 
 
 I '2 
 
 
 > ioesas. 
 
 
 if/ 
 
 f^ 
 
 'Ml 
 
 .■^ 
 
 ^^ 
 
 REFERENCES. 
 
 A Parish Church. 
 B Fort St. Charles. 
 C Fort St. John. 
 D Fort St Ferdinand 
 £ Fort Burgundy. 
 F Fort St Louis. 
 G Royal Magazines. 
 H Royaf Hospital. 
 I Barracks. 
 L- Government Building 
 M Charity Hospital. 
 
 //. Wehrmann, ^ ;7f 7/ Chartres St H.G. 
 
^ ^ ^e^ CYPBtSS SV««MP "^ » / (V 
 
 ■*. 4. '^- iT^^ :^ ^ -^ 
 
 ^r^ OfTHECrTYO 
 
 THE ADJACENT PLANTATIONS. 
 
 Compiled iti accordance with an Ordinance of 
 
 (he Illustrious Ministry and Royal Charter, 
 
 24 Decennber 1798. 
 
 S.gn.d: CARLOS TRUDEfU. 
 J^mesyf Gresh^m Publisher 26 Camp Sf. NO. 
 
 J,,tf !l CairtriiSme 
 
AXNALS OF LOUISIANA. 
 
 FROM THE CLOSE OF MARTIN'S HISTORY, 
 
 A. D. 1815. 
 
 TO THE COMMENCEMENT OF THE CIVIL WAR, 
 
 A. D. 1861. 
 
 " * * * the abstracts and brief chronicles of the tinier 
 
 1816. An era of commercial and agricultural activity, resulting in 
 general prosperity, ensued upon the close of the war. Specially to be 
 noted was a marked increase in the area of sugar production, the amount 
 of capital invested in this industry, at the time, being estimated at forty 
 million dollars. Many planters from other Southern States, who had come 
 hither with their slaves, engaged in the cultivation of the cane. The 
 commerce of New Orleans speedily developed and extended ; the " town, 
 the number of her warehouses rapidly increasing, her port crowded with 
 ships and steamboats, and her building lots rising to an enormous value. 
 The old town was no longer large enough, * * and its extension 
 became necessary." [Bunner.] 
 
 The long term of service of the State's first governor closed with this 
 year. Claiborne, who had occupied the executive chair, territorial and 
 State, for thirteen years, was succeeded in December by General James 
 Villere, a citizen standing high, deservedly, in the opinion of all classes. 
 The election was by the General Assembly, and so continued to be for 
 years. 
 
 1817. In January, ex-Governor Claiborne was elected United States 
 Senator, but did not live to wear his senatorial honors long, as he died in 
 November following. Henry Johnson, who was subsequently governor, 
 was his successor in the senate. 
 
 Judging from the number of penal laws enacted, these were wild as 
 well as " flush " times in the more thickly settled portions of the State. 
 Without concerning ourselves with the several " black codes " enacted in 
 this and succeeding years — having for us, now-a-days, but a curious 
 interest — we may note a few points in other directions. 
 
 Insolvent dobtors were not liable to imprisonment if the}'' surrendered 
 their property to their creditors, but if the debtor were guilty of fraud, he 
 was thereby ineligible to any office of honor or profit in the State. 
 
 Simple theft was punishable with hard labor. 
 
 55 
 
414 ANNALS OF LOUISIANA. 
 
 Death was tlie punishment decreed to any rol)l)er arrested with arms on 
 his person, and to any one killing anotlier in a duel. 
 
 And, any one seeking to corrupt a judge; or, who should ol)struct a 
 public highway, or keep a house of ill-fame, or become accessory after the 
 fact to any of these offenses, might be punished with fine and impris- 
 onment, at the discretion of the court. 
 
 A branch of the Bank of the United States was established in New 
 Orleans this 3^ear. 
 
 1S18. If prosperity continued to increase, there was still a dark 
 and darkening side to tlie picture. M'ild times were these in Louisiana. 
 owing in great measure to the large element of laAvless character 
 in the immigration, which at this })eriod caused — according to Governor 
 Villere — so prodigious an increase in the population. The governor made 
 the matter the subject of a special message, in March of this year, calling 
 the legislature's attention to '' the disorders and crimes of which, during 
 nearly all last month, this city has been the theatre ; " and strongly inti- 
 mating, if not nakedly asserting, that this lawless element was composed 
 in the main " of those men who, lately, under the false pretext of serving 
 the cause of the Spanish patriots, scoured the Gulf of Mexico, making 
 its waves groan under the direful weight of their vessels fraught with 
 depredations, * * * r^xx^ of foreigners, whom the calamities, the 
 revolutions, and the peace of Europe compel or induce to emigrate." 
 
 Within the month an act was passed and approved, estaljlishing the 
 " Criminal Court of the City of New Orleans." 
 
 The " Louisiana State Bank," the first established since Louisiana had 
 become a State, was incorporated this year, capital two million dollars. 
 The State took stock to the amount of five hundred thousand dollars, and 
 received a bonus of one hundred thousand. There were to be five branches 
 at interior points. 
 
 In this 3"ear was also organized the " First Presbyterian Church, and 
 Congregation of the City and Parish of New Orleans." Not a few of the 
 names among the forty odd incorporators have become prominently 
 associated with the city's annals. 
 
 "The Medical Society of New Orleans" organized. 
 
 Frank's Island, near the Northeast Pass, mouth of the Mississippi, 
 was ceded to the United States for the site of a lighthouse. 
 
 New Orleans was extended by pushing the upper boundary to the 
 lower limits of the Miss Macarty Plantation. The annexed portion was 
 made the eighth ward. 
 
 The law relating to " vagabonds and suspicious persons," arriving in 
 the State fi'om foreign countries, was made still more stringent, while at 
 the same time veiT humane and provident legislation was enacted for " the 
 relief and protection of persons l)rought into this State as redemptioners," 
 immigrants under contract to service, or labor, for the payment of their 
 passage money. 
 
 Further stringent enactments were added to the Penal Code this year. 
 The crime of murder in the second degree was expunged from the criminal 
 law, and that of manslaughter substituted. 
 
 Richard Claiborne, its inventor, was granted the exclusive right, for 
 fourteen years, of navigating or propelling boats on the waters of the 
 State by means of the " hinge, or duck-foot paddle." 
 
ANNALS OF LOUISIANA. 415 
 
 1819. "' The city is now in the enjoyment of the most perfect security," 
 says Gov. Villere in liis annual message, 6th of January. The Criminal 
 Court has fully realized the ends for which it was instituted : " violators 
 of the laws, malefactors of every description, had suffered or were under- 
 going, the punishment due to their crimes" ; and while society could thus 
 congratulate itself on the supremacy of law, all the pursuits of industry 
 continued to iiourish. Somewhat of financial embarrassment there was, 
 owing to a spirit of hazardous commercial speculation. But these were 
 features common throughout the country at the time. Prosperity, broad, 
 substantial and growing, still marked undeniably the progress of 
 Louisiana. Indeed, these were halcyon days for the State, according even 
 to executive testimony. [See Gayarre, Vol. IV., p. 636]. In addition to the 
 expanding and development of her rich and varied resources, and growing 
 trade and commerce, to disorders and violence had succeeded (as above 
 noted) the reign of law, while even "party spirit," says his excellency, 
 " had almost entirely disappeared, and hardly did any remembrance 
 remain of those dangerous distinctions which had been created by idle 
 prejudice betweens citizens of foreign birth." 
 
 In the legislation of this year, Ave note : all regular lodges constituted 
 by tlie Grand Lodge of the State declared bodies corporate. 
 
 The Medical Society of New Orleans authorized to raise the sum of 
 $15,000, by lottery, for the purchase of a library, philosophical appa- 
 ratus, etc. 
 
 Such parts of the Partidas as were held to have the force of law in the 
 State, were ordered to be translated and published. 
 
 The Louisiana Bank authorized to liquidate its affairs within two years, 
 from March 12, 1820. 
 
 An annual appropriation of $600 was voted each parish (except 
 Orleans) for the support of public schools, and $3,000, annually, to the 
 College of New Orleans. The Regents of the latter were empowered to 
 raise, by lottery, the sum of $25,000, in aid of the institution. 
 
 Stabbing or shootiug, with intent to commit murder, by persons 13'^ing 
 in wait, or in the perpetration of arson, rape or burglary, was made pun- 
 ishable with death. 
 
 The Board of Health was abolished, and the governor authorized to 
 make proclamation of quarantine, prescribe regulations thereof, etc. 
 
 The " Louisiana State Insurance Company," capital five hundred 
 thousand dollars, incorporated. 
 
 Benj. N. B. Latrobe and associates, who had a contract with the city, 
 were made a bod}' corporate, under the name and style of the " New 
 Orleans Water Company " — to continue only during the existence of its 
 contract. 
 
 The most important work projected this year, Avhich may be classed 
 under the head of internal improvements, was that designed by the 
 "Orleans Company," of which Bernard Marigny, P. Delaronde, and L. B. 
 Macarty, were leading spirits. It was proposed to dig a "basin which 
 shall be situated on the spot of the Marigny's Canal, and shall communi- 
 cate with the river Mississippi, by dams or any other means, deemed the 
 best for that purpose." * * For the site of "the basin ground was to be 
 purchased of Marigny, " on the spot of" his canal ; but at what jjoint the 
 proposed canal from this basin Avas to strike the river, is not stated in 
 their charter. Conjecture derives but little aid from the bare statements 
 
416 AXXALS OF LOUISIANA. 
 
 that " a solid and sufficient bridge " was to be erected where the canal and 
 river met, so that traffic along the highway by the levee should not be 
 interru])ted. A " l^ridge was also to span the canal " in front of Moreau 
 street, and another one in front of Greatnien street. Of course, tolls were to 
 be imposed ; and the corporation was to have perpetual succession. But 
 their projects 
 
 " melted into air, into thin air," 
 leaving " not a rack behind." 
 
 The city had its usual yellow fever infliction during the summer of this 
 year ; and referring to this annual scourge, Mr. Gayarre makes a naive 
 declaration in behalf of the population of the ancien regime. After saying 
 that a great portion of her inhabitants had become reconciled to its rav- 
 ages, from the frequency of its returns, he adds : " There were even some 
 who felt friendly to the scourge, as, in their opinion, it checked that tide 
 of immigration "which, otherwise, would have speedily rolled its waves 
 over the old population, and swept away all those landmarks in 
 legislation, customs, language and social habits to which they were fondly 
 attached. 
 
 "A flattering unction " from a grim source, surely ! 
 
 1820. These were still days of pleasantness and peace, of increasing 
 commerce and richly renumerative husbandry. The financial system of 
 the country having emerged from its embarrassments, the sinews of general 
 industry and trade were again in full and active play. Gov. Villere, in 
 his January message, says the population of the State had trebled. The 
 inhabitants now numbered 153,407, of whom 53,041 were engaged in agri- 
 culture, 6,251 in commerce, 6,041 in manufactures. The number of slaves 
 amounted to 69,060. Bunner, who is our authority for these figures, says 
 the population had more than doubled in ten years. 
 
 Under the law for the organization of the militia, passed this year, the 
 /- Louisiana Legion was projected. 
 / Alexander Milne and others were empowered to open a turnpike road 
 
 from Lake Pontchartrain to the Mississippi, the first section to run in_ as 
 direct a line as practicable from the margin of the lake to the Gentilly 
 Road, and the second section thence by the most practicable route to the 
 river. The franchises to continue twenty-five years. 
 
 The late war of invasion had impressed the public mind with the 
 necessity of enlarged and improved military and maritime defense. Gov. 
 Villere was instructed by the legislature to correspond with the President 
 of the United States on the subject, and to urge the expediency of 
 completing the fortifications already commenced in this quarter of the 
 Union. His Excellency w^as also requested to correspond Avith the 
 President on the sul:iject of running off" and making the western and 
 northern boundary line of the State, "to-wit: the line beginning on the 
 Sabine river, at the thirty-second degree of north latitude, thence running 
 north to the northernmost part of the thirty-third degree of latitude, 
 thence along the same parallel of latitude to the Mississippi river." 
 
 Up to this period, the General Assembly met annually on the first 
 Monday of January. At this year's session the time of assembling was 
 changed to the third Monday of November of each year, commencing with 
 the present, and the day for' the convening of both Houses in joint session 
 for the choosing of Electors of President and Vice President of the United 
 
ANNALS OF LOUISIANA. 417 
 
 States, from the first Monday of November [year of Presidental election] 
 to the first Monday following the meeting of the General Assembly. The 
 expense and trouble of a special assembling for the choosing of Electors 
 were thus obviated. On the second day of the regular session, the General 
 Assembly proceeds to the election of governor. The election of a chief 
 magistrate, federal or State, was not in those days submitted directly to 
 the people. Salutary conservative checks upon universal suffrage 
 prevailed unquestioned. As yet, the demagogue's vox populi vox Dei, was 
 but a far off" murmur. 
 
 Trials by jury were granted to the parish courts of St. Helena and Wash- 
 ington, this year. 
 
 Clergymen were exempted from jury duty and working on public roads. 
 
 It was enacted that no petition for divorce be received by the legislature 
 unless a separation of bed and board be previously obtained, and that no 
 one obtaining a divorce be allowed to marry again till the expiration of 
 a year. 
 
 The town of Franklin made the seat of justice, St. Mary parish. 
 
 The governor authorized to receive plans and estimates for the erection 
 of a penitentiary. 
 
 Sickness would appear to have prevailed to a considerable extent, at 
 this period, among those engaged in the commerce of the river, the chief 
 sufferers being the unacclimatized from the west. It was proposed to 
 establish hospitals for the relief of such persons, one to be situated at 
 Baton Rouge, one at Covington, and one at some point on Red river, and 
 to the carrying out of the design, the governor was instructed to enter 
 into correspondence with the Executives of the Western States and Terri- 
 tories, inviting their co-operation in the establishing and support of such 
 institutions. 
 
 Monroe, Ouachita parish, incorporated. 
 
 Persons duly qualified, could be admitted to practice by the Medical 
 Board of the Eastern District. Hitherto, the strange ceremony of an 
 examination before the Mayor and two aldermen of the City of New 
 Orleans, was required by law of the State. 
 
 Parish judges empowered to celebrate marriages. 
 
 The Physico-Medical Society, of New Orleans, incorporated. Object — 
 the discussion of subjects relating to medicine and natural philosophy. 
 Among the founders was Dr. W. N. Mercer. 
 
 One W. H. Robertson obtained at this time the exclusive privilege of 
 supplying New Orleans with live fish. They were brought to market in 
 " smacks, smackers and carrs," and the monopolist was bound to have 
 never less than sixty tons of such craft in the business. 
 
 A separate retreat for the insane was ordered erected in connection with 
 the new buildings for the Charity Hospital. 
 
 The law empowering the Mayor and City Council of New Orleans to 
 fix the wages for day laborers, repealed. 
 
 P. Derbigny and associates establish a steam ferry between New Orleans 
 and the opposite bank. 
 
 From this time forward, all proceedings in Courts of Probate, and the 
 records thereof, were to be kept in the English language. 
 
 A New Orleans recorder, was required to possess real estate in the city 
 to the amount of $3,000. 
 
 Property qualifications were also required of the Mayor and aldermen. 
 
418 ANNALS OF LOUISIANA. 
 
 Thomas B. Robortpoii was elected sucoessor of Governor Villere, at the 
 November session of the legislature. He had been for several years a 
 representative in Congress. The new executive, in his first message, 
 congratulated the State upon its condition and prospects, Imt complained 
 of the General Government's failure to open up the public domain to 
 settlement, as had been done in " other frontier States of the Union." 
 Another question, much agitated at the time, was coast defense. This, 
 as well as the admission of Missouri, and the slavery agitation, in 
 connection therewith, were also dwelt upon in the inaugural. 
 
 1821. The commerce of New Orleans, continuing to grow, it became 
 necessary to deline clearly the lin\its of the port. It was declared to 
 extend along the left bank, or city front, from the lower limit of Bourg 
 Declouet, to the lower limit of Rousseau's plantation, and on the right 
 liank, from the upper limit of John McDonogh's plantation, to the lower 
 limit of the Duverje plantation. 
 
 About this time, also, further evidence of the aspiring character of the 
 city were shown in prohibiting the reconstruction of wooden buildings 
 within certain limits. 
 
 In connection, it is of interest to note that the city government was 
 empowered to sell its landed property, [/. c, land within its corporate 
 limits] on the terms of perpetual ground rent. Redemption of the rent, 
 by payment of the capital, was expressly prohibited. 
 
 Law-breakers, and evil-doers generally, in city and suburbs, having 
 been made to feel that society would protect itself by strict and swift 
 enforcement of its laws, the business of the Criminal Court no longer 
 required the services of three judges. The number Avas reduced to one ; 
 and this tribunal was made the Criminal Court of the First District, 
 
 A " Code of Public Health" Avas enacted this year. It provided for ii 
 Board of Health, and defined at much length the duties of such body as 
 to quarantine, hospitals, indigent sick, [particularly strangers,] and the 
 sanitary condition of the metropolis and suburbs generally. The enact- 
 ment is length}' and elaborate, divided into five chapters, embracing 
 fifty-eight articles. Nominees of the governor and five aldermen, consti- 
 tuted the Board, No salary. 
 
 Subsec^uently, the City Council was empoAvered to baA'e the indigent 
 sick, found in boarding-houses, or aboard any water craft, conveyed to the 
 Charity Hospital. 
 
 The law of libel Avas materialh' amended. 
 
 Hitherto, the ruling was, " the greater the truth, the greater the libel." 
 It Avas now enacted, that in any ci\dl suit for slander, etc., the defendant 
 might plead the truth of defamatory AA'ords or publication. 
 
 Further efforts to extend and improve the public school system Averc 
 made this A"ear, The parish schools Avere Avithdrawn from tlie superin- 
 tendance of the police juries, and placed in control of five trustees in each 
 parish, to be ap})ointed annually by said juries, and the annual appro- 
 priation for each parish Avas raised from six to eight hundred dollars. In 
 addition to this sum, the police juries might, in their discretion, levy a 
 tax on land and slaves to the amount of one thousand dollars, for public 
 school purposes. Parishes in Avhich there Avas no public school building 
 and Avhich had receiAX'd no ajipropriation for such object, Avere entitled 
 each to eight hundred dollars from the State, for the erection of public 
 
ANNALS OF LOUISIANA. • 419 
 
 schoolhouscs. An additional sura of one thousand dollars was voted to 
 the University of Orleans, making the annual appropriation five thousand 
 dollars. The Regents of the University were replaced hy a Board of 
 Administrators, appointed by the governor. Here is a provision worth 
 resurrecting : " the trustees shall admit in the school, or schools, of their 
 respective parishes, eight day scholars, taken from those families who are 
 indigent, which day scholars shall be apportioned in the different schools 
 !)y the said trustees, and shall receive instruction gratis, and be, moreover, 
 furnished with classical books, quills and paper, at the cost of said school 
 or schools." It is evident the general assembly had no " Committee on 
 Style," nor as yet entertained the idea of " Pubhc Free Schools." Then, 
 too, this quaint phraseology of "classical books," taken in such question- 
 able connection is worth noting, while ''quills" seem the echo of sound 
 from out the' remote past. 
 
 A census of the electors of the State, to be taken by the assessors of 
 each parish, was ordered taken this year. 
 
 How to deal with gambling has always been a vexed problem with the 
 authorities of New Orleans. Licensing and total suppression have_ each 
 in turn been tried, but with results in either case equally disheartening to 
 the moralist. The legislatures of those years resorted to both repressive 
 and tolerant enactments, but still, gambling, like the " problem of the 
 existence of evil," continued to mock solution. The law of 1811, which 
 forbade gambling throughout the State, under severe penalties, was so far 
 amended in 1814, as to permit the licensing of gaming houses in New Orleans 
 and with the inevitable results. So rank and widespread became the 
 demoralization, notwithstanding municipal regulations, that the prohib- 
 itory statute, with all its pains and penalties, was re-enacted this year for 
 the benefit of the city. Municipal control, regulations, inspection, not 
 merely failed to repress the evil, " but on the contrary," says the preamble 
 of the act, " have encouraged this most alarming vice under the sanction 
 of law." 
 
 The first Methodist Episcopal Church, and the Mechanic Society, of 
 New Orleans, were organized and incorporated. Several old familiar 
 names figure in the list of incorporators of both bodies. 
 
 Opelousas, St. Landry Parish, incorporated, and Franklin made the 
 seat of justice for Washington Parish. 
 
 The penal code of this period dealt vigorously with certain crimes and 
 misdemeanors. Wanton or malicious killing of a horse, mule, cow, etc., 
 or even of a dog, was punishable by a fine within the amount of two 
 hundred dollars, or by imprisonment, not to exceed six months, with 
 damages to the amount of the value of the animal and costs of court. 
 Mere cruelty to such animals was punished proportionately. 
 
 Embezzling, or any other unlawful diverting of the funds of a bank 
 by the president, or other officer of such institution, was punishable by 
 imprisonment at hard labor for a term of one to seven years. 
 
 Provision was made at this session of the General Assembly for a 
 codification "of criminal laws in both the French and English language? " 
 
 1822. The State continued on her prosperous career, blessed also with 
 "domestic tranquillity," wherever throughout her borders there was 
 organized society. The lawless element had been put down, and, as we 
 have seen in the reorganization of the Criminal Court of New Orleans, 
 
420 ANNALS OF LOUISIANA. 
 
 stern justice could reduce her forces and enjoy a comparative degree of 
 repose. The distribution of the pubHc lands within the State, and her 
 maritime defense, were the main public questions. 
 
 As to the public lands, it was complained tliat the Federal government 
 had not done as liberally by Louisiana as by the Western States ; and in 
 regard to maritime defense, the governor in his annual message declared his 
 inability "to perceive the wisdom of that policy which had sent our naval 
 force to Africa, whilst our own coasts, particularly those of the Gulf of 
 Mexico, had been permitted for years to exhibit scenes of blood and 
 rapine, unequaled in atrocity in the annals of the world." 
 
 The " great national road" from Nashville, Tenn., to Madisonville, La., 
 undertaken by the general government, was, so far as it extended Avithin 
 her territory, the object of much care on the part of the State. This 
 highwa}^ ran through St. Tammany and Washington parishes, and was 
 required to be kept in repair by the inhabitants living within five miles of 
 each side of the road. * 
 
 Meantime, the senators and representatives in congress were formally 
 invited by the legislature to urge upon the general government the practi- 
 cability and expediency of a new and shorter mail route between New 
 Orleans and Washington City than was then traversed. The committee 
 of the legislature to whom the subject was referred, sketched a route by 
 which it was thought the time between the two cities could be reduced to 
 twelve days ! How marvellous is our progress in annihilating time and 
 space ! Do we appreciate ? 
 
 A revision of the civil code was ordered, together with a complete 
 system of commercial laws. Edward Livingston's report on a code of 
 criminal law was accepted by the legislature, and the great jurisconsult 
 was authorized to proceed with the plan of codification outlined in his 
 report. 
 
 The authorized translation of the Partidas, or rather of such portions 
 as had the force of law in the State, appeared this year. 
 
 By act of the General Assembly, the State was divided into three con- 
 gressional districts. The first comprised " the counties of Orleans, 
 German Coast, Acadie, and Lafourche ; the second, the counties of 
 Iberville, Pointe Coupee, and Feliciana ; the counties of Attakapas, 
 Opelousas, Rapides, Natchitoches, Ouachita, and Concordia," composed 
 the third congressional district. 
 
 Members of the legislature acting as Presidential electors were prohib- 
 ited from receiving any compensation. 
 
 The Eighth Judicial District, composed of the Parishes of Washington, 
 St. Helena, and St. Tammany, established. 
 
 Appropriations to the amount of $7,000 were made for the improvement 
 of navigation in the Pearl and Red rivers. And in connection, it should 
 be noted, that charters were all but annually granted to companies or 
 individuals for the improvement of the interior water-courses. 
 
 New Orleans was authorized by legislative act to create a public fund 
 or stock to the amount of $300,000. 
 
 The sum to be raised was to be expended exclusively in " paAdng and 
 watering the city." 
 
 *Bunner erroneously supposes — so asserts, indeed — that this great national road 'wae 
 constructed in part, at least, bj the State. She simply provided for keeping it iu repair 
 YTithin her borders. 
 
ANNALS OF LOUISIANA. 421 
 
 The " Louisiana Bank " was further allowed to March, 1823, to complete 
 its liquidation. 
 
 An appropriation of $1000 was made for the purchase and distribu- 
 tion of genuine vaccine matter throughout the State. 
 
 By act of the legislature, a residence of one year on the part of a 
 bankrupt was no longer required to entitle him to the benefit of the 
 insolvent laws of the State. 
 
 The volunteer companies of New Orleans were formed into one corps, 
 under the title of the Louisiana Legion, and made the first brigade of the 
 State militia. It was composed of infantry, cavalr}^, artillery and riflemen, 
 and admitted to be one of the finest bodies of volunteer soldiery of the 
 country. 
 
 It is noteworthy that fines incurred by the militia were collectible by 
 the Sheriff of each parish. Militiaing in those days seems to have been 
 something more than mere pla3dng at soldier. 
 
 The apportionment of this year gave to the House of Representatives 
 forty-six members. The " county of Orleans " elected nine, and the 
 county of Feliciana, ten. 
 
 The parish of Terrebonne created out of the county of Lafourche. 
 
 A large number of the leading ladies of New Orleans — American and 
 French — united in establishing the "Female Charity Society," [chartered] 
 for the purpose of relieving the sick and destitute of the city. 
 
 The raising of money by a lottery was a popular expedient in those 
 days. The legislature was noniggsird in granting the privilege to its own 
 constituents, but required lottery agencies from other States to pay an 
 annual license tax of $50,000. 
 
 A lottery was authorized to raise funds for the improvement of Bayou 
 Lafourche ; and the First Presbyterian Church of New Orleans had 
 recourse to the same expedient to relieve itself of a debt of $30,000. 
 
 This year, the parish of Orleans was incorporated. In the language of the 
 legislative act : " That the free white inhabitants of the parish of St. 
 Louis, of Orleans, be, and are hereby formed and constituted a body, civil 
 and politic, styled, ' The inhabitants of the parish of Orleans.' " 
 
 1823, This year is memorable for the extraordinary cold weather which 
 set in about the middle of February. 
 
 To unusuall}^ Avarm weather, there succeeded on February 16, a frost of 
 such severity, that, " the river at New Orleans, was partially frozen over, and 
 people skated on the marshes." * * " Several watermen perished with 
 cold in their boats, also negroes in their cabins, and animals were found 
 dead in the woods." All the orange trees are said to have perished. 
 
 The disposal of the government lands was again a prominent topic in 
 Gov. Robertson's message. 
 
 It being understood that the garrison of regulars at Baton Rouge 
 were to be removed from the State, the General Assembly requested the 
 congressional delegation " to be unceasingly urgent with the Executive 
 of the United States, in remonstrating and protesting against " the meas- 
 ure. The governor, too, in official correspondence with the President, 
 pressec) the need for the presence of troops within the State. The great 
 importance of the coast defense was likewise urged both by the legislature 
 and governor. 
 
 The old problem of the gambling evil came again before the legislature, 
 
 66 
 
422 ANNALS OF LOUISIANA. 
 
 and once more there was a change of front. Six gaming houses were 
 allowed to be licensed in New Orleans and suburbs, on payment, each, of 
 a »State tax of $5,000. Tlie Charity Hospital and College of New Orleans 
 were to be the beneficiaries. 
 
 The parish of Lafayette formed from the county of Attakapas. 
 
 " The New Orleans Steam Ferry Company " was relieved of the 
 obligation of using steam, and were permitted instead to employ horse- 
 power. Tedious, and rather hazardous navigation, and which, now-a- 
 days, would attract an immense throng of spectators. 
 
 The town of Donaldson [laid off by Wm. Donaldson] was incor- 
 porated. 
 
 The charter of the Bank of Orleans, which would expire in 1826, was 
 extended to 1847, the bank paying the State a bonus of $25,000. 
 
 Commissions for the survey of rivers and ba3'ous, for established or 
 projected roads and canals, were appointed by the legislature. 
 
 182Ji.. Perhaps the most noticeable event of this year, was the creation 
 of the Bank of Louisiana, with a capital of $4,000,000, the State being 
 shareholder to the extent of one-half. Agriculture, commerce and trade 
 generally, yielded rich returns, and further stimulated a questionable 
 spirit of commercial adventure. Capital was in demand, and the Bank 
 of Louisiana was ready to discount. 
 
 Sound, conservative financiering could not sanction the creation of such 
 an institution, at least under the circumstances of the day ; much less 
 decree its chartered existence to the year 1870. 
 
 The continued failure of the general government to pursue the same 
 policy with regard to the public lands of Louisiana, as it had done and 
 was now doing in other States, was once more brought to the attention of 
 the legislature, by the governor in his annual message. 
 
 The Revised Civil Code, and the new Code of Practice, in connection 
 therewith, were promulgated this year. An act of the legislature appro- 
 priates compensation to "three jurisconsults," for their services in 
 preparing these Codes, and the Criminal Code. But history recognizes 
 Edward Livingston's as the master mind in this work of codification. 
 
 '' Louisiana," says Bunner, " is also indebted for her Penal Code to the 
 learning and persevering industry of this gentleman. After having nearly 
 completed this arduous work, it Avas destroyed by fire, but the next day 
 he was seen again at his labors, and by untiring application he completed 
 his task in an incredibly short space of time." The legislature extended 
 the time to January, 1826.* 
 
 The Alexandria Library Society incorporated. 
 
 County of Feliciana formed into the parishes of East and West 
 Feliciana. 
 
 About the usual number of lotteries were sanctioned this year. 
 
 The Hibernian Society, of New Orleans, incorporated — its revenues to 
 
 * Bunner makes the impression that the "Penal (or Criminal) Code," projected by 
 Livingston, was finally adopted. Neither the ComnK^rcial Code nor the Criminal were ever 
 enacted. The latter encountered increasing oppositioii, and with its adjunct, the .Code of 
 Criminal Procedure and Prison Discipline, it was laid to rest. Notable among the means 
 of defeat were Judge Seth Lewis' masterly expositions, vindicating the prevailing common law 
 system, and showing the evils of change. The first argument, sixty-five pages, was published 
 in 1825; and the second, one hundred and forty-two pages, on a renewal of the codifying 
 attempt, in 1831. 
 
ANNALS OF LOUISIANA. 423 
 
 be applied exclusively to charitable purposes. Among the incorporators 
 were G. W. White, N. J. Dick, T. Mellon, H. K. Gordon, J. Dumoulin, etc. 
 
 A Free Library Society was formed in New Orleans, under the auspices 
 of Ex-Governor Robertson, J. A. Maybin, Alfred Hennen, Beverly Chew, 
 Theo. Clapp,etc., " for the purpose of extending knowledge and promoting 
 virtue among the inhabitants of that city." As it was understood that 
 the philanthropic Judah Touro would provide a suitable building, in the 
 act of incorporation, the name of it was changed to the " Touro Free 
 Library of New Orleans." 
 
 Yermillionville, Lafayette parish, laid off b}^ Jean Mouton, Sr. 
 
 Governor Robertson did not remain in ofhce to the close of his term. 
 Having been tendered, by President Monroe, the position of Judge of the 
 U. S. District Court, for the District of Louisiana, he resigned a few 
 weeks before its expiration ; and President Thibodaux, of the senate, 
 became acting governor. Henry Johnson, the new governor, was inaug- 
 urated in December. He had been LTnited States Senator for a number 
 of years. " In his inaugural address," says Gayarre, " he recommended 
 to the heterogeneous population of Louisiana, the observance of a spirit 
 of concord and good will, which could hardly be supposed to prevail, 
 without interruption, among the discordant elements which composed it." 
 
 1825. The illustrious Lafa3^ette honored New Orleans with a visit 
 early in this year, to the delight, as was apparent, of all classes of its 
 " heterogeneous population." He landed on the battle-tield of Chalmette, 
 and, as witnesses testify, was conducted in triumph to the city. The State 
 voted the handsome sum of $15,000, to give to its distinguished guest such 
 a reception as would "be worthy of the patriotic warrior whom the 
 American people delight to honor." 
 
 A law was enacted prohibiting aliens from holding any ofhce^ civil or 
 military, within the State. 
 
 The bridging of Red river at Alexandria authorized. 
 
 The " City Court of New Orleans " organized, composed of one presiding 
 and four associate judges. It absorbed the offices of Justices of Peace, but 
 in the act creating the court, the Mayor, Recorder and Aldermen, were 
 authorized to exercise such functions. 
 
 The opening of a public road from Vidalia to Harrisonburgh ordered. 
 
 The " College of Louisiana," a State institution, to be established at 
 Jackson, East Feliciana, was authorized by acts approved Februar}' 18, this 
 year. It was to be supported b}^ the public school funds of East and West 
 Feliciana, and by the annual appropriation of $5,000, heretofore voted the 
 College of Orleans. The latter was left to depend upon a certain 
 proportion of the tax derived from the gambling houses of New Orleans. 
 
 A company was incorporated for the opening of a turnpike road, 
 " beginning at Canal street, in the City of New Orleans, below the line of 
 Rampart street, and proceeding in a direct line, as near as practicable, 
 across the head waters of the Bayou St. John, until it strikes the Missis- 
 sippi, above the city." The franchises were to be held through fifty years 
 from the opening of the road. John Hagan, Richard Clague, David 
 Urquhart and Stephen Henderson, were among the incorporators. 
 
 The act of 1S21, with its elaborate Code of Public Health, was repealed 
 this year, and the rights and duties of a Board of Health conferred upon 
 the City Council of New Orleans. Quarantine and gambling appeared 
 to be insoluble problems with the General Assembly. 
 
424 ANNALS OF LOUISIANA. 
 
 The Louisiana State Bank authorized to discontinue its branches, 
 excepting that at St. Martinsville. 
 
 A memorial to Congress was adopted by the legislature, urging the 
 construction of a canal direct from Lake Pontchartain to the Mississippi 
 river. 
 
 The " Mississippi Marine and Fire Insurance Company," capital 
 $300,000, established in New Orleans. Bank of Louisiana was authorized 
 to hold stock to the amount of $50,000. 
 
 A law of this year declared every individual convicted of bribery, 
 perjury, forgery or other high crimes, ineligible to office of trust and 
 profit, and incapable of exercising the rights of suffrage. 
 
 Parish of Jefterson formed from parish of Orleans. 
 
 The General Assembly, by resolution, requested of the general govern- 
 ment the cession of a lot of ground in New Orleans, within the area 
 bounded by Common, Canal, Tchoupitoulas and Magazine streets, as the 
 site of a banking house and exchange for the Bank of Louisiana, on 
 condition that a portion of the building be appropriated to the Post 
 Office. 
 
 President Monroe's term of office, now nearing its close, the same body 
 adopted joint resolutions, expressing in earnest language Louisiana's 
 Avarm appreciation of his official and personal character, as well as 
 grateful recollection of his services in securing the State to the Union. 
 
 By act approved February of this year, the seat of government was to 
 be transferred from New Orleans to Donaldsonville, from and after the 
 first of December, 1825. 
 
 1826. The slavery agitation was a growing and irritant issue. 
 Governor Johnson devotes a portion of his January message to this 
 subject, in laying before the legislature officially communicated decla- 
 rations of this character. 
 
 Disorders and depredations on the frontier, along the Sabine, owing 
 in part to " our proximity to the province of Texas, and the peculiar 
 situation of that countr}^," were also dwelt upon, and earnestly pressed 
 upon the attention of legislators. 
 
 The legislature politely non-concurred in the Ohio resolution regarding 
 emancipation of slaves ; but concurred in the amendment to the consti- 
 tution of the United States, proposed by Georgia, respecting the impor- 
 tation of slaves. The amendment provided : " That no part of the 
 constitution of the United States ought to be construed, or shall be 
 construed, to authorize the importation, or ingress, of any person of color 
 into any one of the United States, contrary to the laws of such State." 
 
 At the same session, an act was passed prohibiting, after the first day 
 of June, of this year, the bringing of any slave into the State merely for 
 the purpose of sale. Immigrants and bona fide citizens might introduce 
 slaves for their own service, but could not sell or exchange them within 
 two years after their introduction. According to the apportionment of 
 this year, under the fourth constitutional census, the House of Represen- 
 tatives consisted of — members .The county of Orleans was entitled to ten 
 representatives, of which the parish and city of Orleans had seven, and 
 the parishes of Plaquemines, St. Bernard and Jefferson, one each. The 
 county of the German Coast, comprising the parishes of St. Charles and 
 St. John Baptist, had two ; and the county of Feliciana, embracing the 
 
ANNALS OF LOUISIANA. 425 
 
 parishes of East and West Feliciana, East Baton Rouge, Washington, St. 
 Helena and St. Tammany, sent ten members, thus ranking Avith the 
 county of Orleans in the matter of representation. 
 
 The closing of Bayou Manchac was authorized, and a Board of Internal 
 Improvements created, consisting of five unsalaried members — elected 
 annually — with the governor as ex-officio president. 
 
 Gentlemen of the long robe, or rather the unworthy among them, were 
 the objects of decidedly minatory attention on the part of the legislature 
 this session. It was enacted that an attorney neglecting or refusing — 
 without any legal ground — to pay to his client money collected on the 
 latter's account, should, upon conviction, have his license cancelled, and 
 his name stricken from the roll ; and that no lawyer be entitled to relief 
 under the insolvent debtor laws for any sum collected in the capacity 
 aforesaid. 
 
 The New Orleans Steam Tow-Boat, and the Balize Steamboat 
 Companies, were organized. The latter was also a tow-boat enterprise, 
 running on the Mississippi. 
 
 The board of trustees of the College of Louisiana, at Jackson, were 
 invested with police authority over the town in the interest of the 
 scholastic discipline and good morals. 
 
 Two primary schools and one central were established in New Orleans, 
 and the College of Orleans discontinued. The State support of the latter 
 was now voted to the schools ; and an unlimited issue of gambling licenses 
 by the State Treasurer was decreed in order to raise a fund for the 
 support [in part] of the Charity Hospital, Orphan Asylums, the College 
 of Louisiana and these newly founded city schools. The latter were under 
 the management of a Board of Regents, who organized the plan of educa- 
 tion and system of administration, or delegated the necessary authority 
 to a director elected by them. Reading, writing and arithmetic, with the 
 elements of French and English grammar, were taught in the primary 
 schools. The Central was entrusted to Professors of French, English and 
 Latin languages, mathematics, literature, etc. 
 
 It was provided that at least fifty children of the poorer classes should 
 be admitted " in each of those schools " free of charge, but would not be 
 received if under seven or over fourteen years of age. 
 
 Another source of revenue for the schools was the tax on the two 
 theatres of the city, which amounted to $3,000 — fifteen hundred dollars 
 for each license. Mr. Caldwell, the pioneer of theatrical entertainments 
 in the American quarter, was the proprietor of the theatre in fauxbourg 
 St. Mar}^ — as this quarter was then officially known — the building being 
 the recently demolished Armory Hall. The other was the old Orleans 
 Theatre, then under the management of Mr. Davis. In the imposition of 
 the license tax, the law-makers solemnly declare that the object is not 
 alone an increase of the school fund, but " at the same time to encourage 
 two public establishments, alike useful and ornamental, in this city." 
 
 Few Louisianians need to be told what coco or nut grass is. Many and 
 many a broad field have our planters been forced to abandon to the 
 indestructible pest. One Francisco Mow represented to the legislature 
 that he "had discovered an effectual means of destroying the plant known 
 by the name of grass nut," [coco Amer.] and asked that an act be passed 
 authorizing him to charge certain sums for the use of his method of 
 destruction. The legislature appointed a commission to report upon the 
 
426 ANNALS OF LOUISIANA. 
 
 alleged '' effectual means," as well as Mow's claims as the discoverer. 
 Two years were allowed the commissioners within which to report. 
 AVhether they reported or not, we are unable to say, but ban grc, vud gre 
 Mow, coco flourishes. 
 
 Even before this early period, mechanical invention had done much to 
 advance the interests of the cotton producer. Whitney had given him the 
 gin, but a good press was as yet a desideratum. L. A. Verniville was the 
 inventor of the " Lafayette Cotton Press," of those days, which would 
 seem to have possessed some good points, for the legislature protected 
 him in its exclusive manufacture and sales for the period of ten years. 
 
 An urgent and very important move in the effort to preserve valuable 
 archives of the State was undertaken this year, under otiicial auspices. 
 A great number of ancient titles to land, running from the year 1702 to 
 the year 1771, and other documents affecting the rights of })ropcrty in 
 Louisiana, were " kept barely in files in the office of Philip Pedesclaux, 
 notary for New Orleans, exposed to decay," and much in need of intelli- 
 gent arrangement and classification. Felix Percy was authorized, by act 
 of the legislature, to undertake the needed measures. The documents 
 were to be arranged chronologically and alphabetically, numbered and 
 placed on a general index, and then put away in cedar boxes. 
 
 The Parish Judge of East Baton Rouge was required to do the same by 
 any similar documents that might be found in his office. 
 
 The remuneration of this labor was at the munificent rate of one cent 
 for each page arranged, numbered and put in the index. 
 
 1827. Louisiana w%is becoming restive under the continued indifference 
 of the general government to her oft repeated demand for an impartial 
 adjustment of the public lands question. She asked simply that the 
 government make such disposition of them in this State as had been had 
 in the older States. Until such disposal of the government lands was had, 
 Louisiana could make but slow advances in the development of those 
 rich and varied resources with which nature had so bounteously endowed 
 her. The grievance was once again brought to the legislature's attention 
 by the governor. A memorial was adopted and forwarded to the Louisi- 
 ana representatives and senators for presentation in both houses of 
 Congress. 
 
 An act, in which members could be equally unanimous — and infinitely 
 more pleasing in its character — was the grateful and gracefully expressed 
 tribute to the memory of President Jefferson. The official record is before 
 us, but we adopt Mr. Gayarre's clear and concise statement : 
 
 The legislature, being officially informed by the governor of the death 
 of Thomas Jefferson, and of his having left to his family no other inher- 
 itance than that of his illustrious name, voted the sum of ten thousand 
 dollars to his heirs, which was delicately tendered as "a tribute of gratitude" 
 from the State, to the representatives of the man by whom " she had been 
 acquired to the union," and to whom she was indebted for the " blessings 
 of civil and political liberty." 
 
 A significant amelioration in the Penal dule was made at this session ; 
 white persons were no more to be bcntenced to the pilhuy. The act 
 refers only to the pillory ; nor is there, in the enactments of this session, 
 any mention made of the whipping post. Maintaining [or supposing] 
 the abolition of both punishments at the same time, Bunner, writing 
 
ANNALS OF LOUISIANA. 427 
 
 more than forty years back, observes : " It had, indeed, been a matter of 
 wonder, that in such a state of society, where part of the population was 
 free and part in a state of slavery, a punishment of this kind, common to 
 both, should ever have been in force." This is pertinent, perhaps. But, 
 Louisiana corrected the vicious anomaly over half a century ago, while 
 the whipping-post and pillory abide to this day in some parts of the 
 country, where, if slavery no longer prevails, caste asserts itself, ex 
 ■necessitate rei. 
 
 Facile dissolution of the marriage tie was regarded with but little favor 
 by society, however complaisant may have been the action of the General 
 Assembly in some instances. But, even with this admission, legislation 
 on this question, had, on the whole, been conservative ; the total number 
 of divorces granted from the session of the tirst State legislature to the 
 present, not being quite two score; not, indeed, three for each year. Yet, 
 at this session, divorces were made more difficult of attainment. It was 
 enacted that divorce should not be allowed, except for infidelity in either 
 husband or wife, ill-treatment, condemnation to ignominious punishment, 
 or desertion for a period of five years. In case of divorce for adultery, 
 the guilty party could not marry his [or her] partner in guilt, under 
 penalty of being prosecuted for bigamy. Alimony was allowed the wife 
 obtaining a divorce. District Courts throughout the State, and the 
 Parish Courts of New Orleans, were invested with exclusive original juris- 
 diction in divorce cases, parties being allowed right of appeal. 
 
 The Civil Code abolished certain impediments to marriage, on account 
 of affinity, which existed under the Spanish law. To remove all doubt 
 and prevent litigation, the legislature declared valid all marriages between 
 brothers-in-law and sisters-in-law, contracted previous to the promulgation 
 of the Code. 
 
 Slaves, under thirty years, might be emancipated in certain cases. 
 
 The " New Orleans Steam Ferry," between the city and opposite bank, 
 organized. 
 
 The Grand Lodge was authorized to raise by lottery the sum of $35,000, 
 for the erection of a Masonic hall in New Orleans. 
 
 A lottery was also permitted for internal improvements in lower portion 
 [left bank] of Iberville parish. 
 
 The legislature invited the hero of New Orleans to participate in the 
 celebration of the Eighth of January, the ensuing year. 
 
 A survey and map of Red river raft, ordered by the general government, 
 and just completed, copies were presented to the State by the officers 
 engaged thereon. Captain Burch and Lieutenant Lee. 
 
 Cotton and raw sugar, of home production, were exempted from auction 
 duties when so disposed of. 
 
 The Barataria and Lafourche Canal Company, formed for the purpose 
 of building a canal from the Mississippi to Bayou Lafourche. 
 
 Ten weighers of cotton and two of hay, for New Orleans, authorized to 
 be appointed by the governor. A Registrar of Conveyances was also 
 appointed. 
 
 The public school system was further amended. The annual appro- 
 priation for each parish [Orleans excepted] was at the rate of two dollars 
 and five-eighths for every voter, no parish to receive a greater sum than 
 $1,350, nor less than $800. Parish administrators were to be appointed 
 by the several police juries, school ward trustees by the administrators, 
 
428 AXNALS OF LOUISIANA. 
 
 and duly qualified teachers by the latter, after examination. Pay of the 
 teacher was made dependent upon voucher of the trustees, that he had 
 complied with the conditions imposed for the management of his school ; 
 among these, that he had not refused admittance to the prescribed 
 number of indigent children. Any one declining — unless duly excused 
 — to serve as administrator, was liable to a fine of from twenty-five to 
 fifty dollars. But administrators and treasurers of their boards were 
 exempt from jury duty, and from militia duty in time of peace. 
 
 The old expedient of a lottery is again resorted to. The College of 
 Louisiana was allowed to raise $40,000, for buildings, library, etc., and 
 the Regents of the New Orleans schools a like sum for the erection of a 
 central and primary schoolhouses. The number of pupils to be received 
 gratis in each of these city schools was limited to one hundred. These 
 are the more important points in the laws of this year. 
 
 Some important legislation passed this year respecting the State's 
 interests in the Bank of Louisiana. Our limits forbid more than a 
 reference. See Act and Resolution, approved March 4, 1827. 
 
 The boldest — and most questionable — financing scheme yet devised 
 w^as legislated into existence at this session. As it was remarked — the 
 merchants had their banks, and the planters thought they ought to have 
 one also. So a charter was obtained incorporating, " The President, 
 Directors & Co. of the Consolidated Association of the Planters of 
 Louisiana," capital $2,000,000, [eventually $2,500,000] and exempt from 
 all taxes. The Association was authorized to deal in all kinds of movable 
 and immovable property, take mortgages, discount, etc., to the extent of 
 double its capital, while this itself was based on stock secured by 
 mortgage on real estate to the extent of each holder's subscription. A 
 loan of two million dollars was permitted on the issue of bonds, and the 
 borrowers and lenders of the Association, with sincere reciprocal felici- 
 tations, went swimmingly down a "bright and shining river "to . 
 
 Well, let us not anticipate. Such alluring, but delusive, banking wrought 
 the ruin of not a few fine estates ; and the end is not yet. A grim spectre 
 of the "Association " now haunts our courts and legislative halls. 
 
 The pay of the recorder of New Orleans was raised to $1000 this year, 
 being double that previously paid. 
 
 New Orleans at this time consisted, as to municipal divisions, of eight 
 wards. " The first, beginning at the levee, where it is intersected by the 
 piece of ground reserved for the prolongation of the Canal Carondelet, 
 thence running along the intended canal until it intersects the lower line 
 of the commons of the city ; thence along the lower limits of said 
 commons until it shall intersect the middle of St. Louis street, thence up 
 the middle of St. Louis street to the levee; thence along the levee to the 
 place of beginning." So much for the local antiquarian reader. The 
 eighth ward was circumscribed [in part] by the upper boundary of the 
 city, which was advanced in 1818 to the lower limits of the Macarty 
 Plantation. The land thus annexed was constituted the eighth. The 
 first and sixth wards elected two aldermen each, the others but one each. 
 
 The now well known malady, dengue, or as it was written in those 
 days, dcnguet, made its appearance. It was understood to have been 
 introduced in New Orleans by refugees from Mexico, at the period of her 
 revolt. 
 
ANNALS OF LOUISIANA. 429 
 
 1828. The most interesting event of this year was the visit of General 
 Jackson, in compliance with the request of the legislature, to be present 
 at the celebration of the anniversary of the victor}'- of January 8, 1815. 
 Liberal provision had been made for his reception and entertainment, 
 and both were such as must have deeply stirred the heart of the old 
 soldier, while they were no less worthy of the fervid and generous people 
 whom he had signally served. 
 
 Free persons of color from the North and from abroad were not desir- 
 able accessions to the population. The wisdom of excluding such being 
 evident, the legislature passed a bill " more effectually to prohibit free 
 negroes and persons of color from entering into this State," but Gov. 
 Johnson vetoed it on the ground of its being opposed to certain provisions 
 of the federal constitution. The presence of free persons of color among 
 the crews of foreign commercial marine in Southern ports had been and 
 continued to be a troublous question in State and federal, and federal 
 international reliations. 
 
 In his last annual message the governor again brings up the question 
 of the public lands ; and the legislature, by unanimous resolve, declared 
 the policy of the government to have "retarded and repressed" the 
 progress of the State. Her senators and representatives were urged to 
 press upon the general government the justice and necessity of an early 
 adjustment. 
 
 They were also requested again to bring before the government the 
 scheme of a canal from Lake Pontchartrain to the Mississippi. 
 ' Administrators of parish schools were now required to make reports to 
 the grand juries. 
 
 The prohibition upon the introduction of slaves for sale was removed. 
 A decision of the Supreme Court still recognizing the old doctrine, and 
 the new Civil Code not having expressly abrogated it, the legislature 
 declared widows, and unmarried women of age, competent to bind them- 
 selves as sureties and endorsers — just as men might enjoy the same 
 seldom envied privilege. 
 
 Pensions granted by the State to persons wounded in her defense were 
 made payable five years longer. 
 
 A digest of the laws of the State was authorized, and Moreau Lislet 
 commissioned to undertake the same. 
 
 The capital of the Planters' Consolidated Association was increased to 
 two million five hundred thousand dollars, the guarantee subscriptions 
 to three millions, and the faith of the State pledged for the payment of 
 the borrowed capital as well as the interest thereon. Duration of the 
 charter was extended to 1843. In return, the State received [nominally] 
 stock to the amount of one million dollars, but could, at no time, be 
 allowed a credit exceeding $250,000, and upon this interest had to be 
 paid. And planters and speculators went on rearing chateaux enEspagne. 
 Among other enactments, arson was made punishable with death, and 
 attempted arson with imprisonment from ten to fifteen years. Pickpockets 
 were incarcerated for terms running from two months to two years, as 
 well as made liable to a fine of five hundred dollars. 
 
 A Real Estate Association, with a capital of $300,000, was formed in 
 New Orleans, for the erection of buildings and making other improvements. 
 There were likewise organized, the Mariner's Church Society, Law Society, 
 
 67 
 
430 ANNALS OF LOUISIANA, 
 
 Society of Israelites, the Company of Architects, and the New Orleans 
 Jockey Club. 
 
 With the close of the year, Pierre Derbigny succeeded Governor Johnson 
 in office. We quote from Gayarre : 
 
 " Governor Derbigny had previously occupied conspicuous positions in 
 the State, such as Judge of the Supreme Court, and he had also been 
 Secretary of State. His administration was short, for he was killed on 
 the 7th of October, 1829, by being thrown out of his carriage. The consti- 
 tution devolved the office on the President of the Senate until a governor 
 should be elected by the people and duly qualified. A. Beauvais and J. 
 Dupre, successfully officiated in that capacity, from the governor's death 
 until the 31st of January, 1831, when A. B. Roman was sworn into 
 office." 
 
 1829. A census of the voters was ordered. 
 
 Land ! Land ! the acquisition of, and title to, seem to have been among 
 the most absorbing questions of the day. While the State, through her 
 legislature, executive and congressional delegation, was insisting upon an 
 equitable disposal of the public lands within her limits, the governor 
 himself was in correspondence with the authorities of Cuba, "in order to 
 obtain the delivery of the titles and other papers relative to lands and 
 other property in Louisiana, which may be deposited in the Havana." 
 
 District Courts were empowered to emancipate minors above the age 
 of nineteen, upon certain prescribed conditions. 
 
 The great legist, Edward Livingston, was elected United States Senator. 
 
 It is noteworthy, that even in this early period in the political career 
 of the United States, Louisiana had pointed out the vice in our scheme 
 of a federal executive, and proposed the only remedy suggested even 
 to this day. The General Assembly adopted a resolution — inviting 
 concurrence of the other States — that the constitution be so amended as 
 to make the term of the President and Vice President six years, and that 
 the President be ineligible afterwards. 
 
 Also deserving of attention is the legislation regarding the introduction 
 of slaves. Its main aim was the exclusion of slaves of a worthless or 
 vicious character, brought hither for sale or hire, from the other Southern 
 State's. It was made unlawful to introduce a slave child of ten years, or 
 under, separate from its mother ; and any one selling such child [separate 
 from its mother] was liable to a fine of one to two thousand dollars, with 
 imprisonment from six months to one year, and forfeiture of the slave 
 so sold. 
 
 As to the slave marts and the public sale of slaves, the City Council of 
 New Orleans was required to make such regulations as were meet and 
 proper, being expressly enjoined from permitting the exposition of slaves 
 in the public and most frequented quarters. Copies of the act were trans- 
 mitted, by resolution of the General Assembly, to the governors of 
 Mississippi and Alabama, and publication made in the newspapers of 
 Maryland, Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee and Missouri. 
 
 A law was enacted providing for a complete levee system throughout 
 the State, and the maintenance of the same. It is elaborate in its 
 provisions, amounting to no fewer than fifty-six sections. In connection, 
 "mention may be made of the resolutions of the legislature calling upon 
 the general government to undertake the improvement of the Louisiana 
 
ANNALS OF LOUISIANA. 431 
 
 reach of the Mississippi, its tributaries, outlets and passes, and the bayou 
 St. John, with the suggestion that General Bernard be detailed to make a 
 sketch of a general system of improvements. 
 
 Covington made the seat of justice of St. Tammany parish. 
 
 Malicious destruction of the public works of a corporation, carrying of 
 concealed weapons, infliction of a wound, with intent to kill, or the pro- 
 curing of the escape of a criminal condemned for a capital crime, were 
 punishable with imprisonment at hard labor of from one to ten years. 
 
 Owners were required to make oath that the lists of their taxable prop- 
 erty given to the assessors were " full and true." The attorney-general 
 and district attorneys were charged with enforcing the requirement, 
 and bringing it to the attention of the grand juries. Here is a lesson 
 of the past for these days of fraudulent assessments. 
 
 The New Orleans Gas Light Company was incorporated — charter to run 
 twenty-five years. 
 
 1830. Donaldsonville was now the seat of government, and the second 
 session of the tenth legislature was " begun and held " on Monday, 
 January 4. Among its first acts — if not the first — was the incorporation 
 of our now venerable Pontchartrain Railroad Company. The enterprise 
 was, we believe, the fifth of the kind in the United States. The list of 
 incorporators included names then, or subsequently, prominent in the 
 city's progress— Ex-Gov. Claiborne, Saml, J. Peters, Edmund Forstall, 
 George Eustis, John L. Lewis, and others. All, save one, are but mem- 
 ories. General Lewis still moves among us, a fine type of the old-time 
 Louisiana gentleman^ — his 
 
 " * * Age as a lusty winter, 
 Frosty, but kindly." 
 
 About this period, says Bunner, several persons were detected travelling 
 about the country and endeavoring to excite the blacks to insurrection ; 
 and the populace would have punished them ver}'^ summarily had they 
 been permitted. The legislature, thereupon, passed a law, making it 
 death for any one to excite the slaves against the whites, either by writings, 
 sermons, speeches made at the bar or in the theatre, or to bring into the 
 State an,y pamphlets having that tendency and for that object. Teaching 
 slaves to read was also forbidden. 
 
 Any slave, selling liquor without permission of his master, was punished 
 by whipping, and any white man buying liquor of a slave was liable to 
 a fine. 
 
 Provision was made for running the line marking the boundary between 
 Louisiana and the Territory of Arkansas,^ agreeable to Act of Congress, 
 approved May 19, 1828. 
 
 An act of the legislature provided that a governor should be voted for 
 in the general election of July, and that one of the persons so voted for, 
 be afterwards chosen as governor, for the constitutional term of four years. 
 
 The great rafts, which forbid navigation of the Atchafalaya up to this 
 time, were now being brought to the attention of the general government. 
 
 Two thousand dollars were appropriated for opening bayou des Glaises 
 to navigation. 
 
 The agent engaged to distribute vaccine matter throughout the State, 
 was voted an annual compensation of five hundred dollars. 
 
 Another step towards the abolition of imprisonment for debt; an 
 
432 ANNALS OF LOUISIANA. 
 
 insolvent debtor might, after serving his term of imprisonment, take the 
 benefit of the insolvent laws as to a fine and costs, for which he had been 
 sentenced and committed, until they were paid. 
 
 The famous Louisiana Legion was voted twenty-five hundred dollars 
 from the State Treasury, to provide uniforms, etc., for such members as 
 could but ill-afford the expense. 
 
 Stringent laws were enacted, excluding free persons of color from the 
 State, requiring even the departure, within sixty days, of free negroes 
 and mulattoes, who had arrived since the year 1825. Those who had 
 settled in the State between the years 1812 and 1825 were required to 
 register their names with the parish judges, and such free persons of color 
 amenable to this law as were property owners, were allowed one year for 
 the disposal of their estates. ( 
 
 Every provision of the law makes it evident that it was a time for 
 vigilance. Fine and imprisonment were decreed for any white person — 
 for any free person of color, severe measures of incarceration and fine, 
 with banishment to follow — who by writing, printing or speaking, disturb 
 the public peace or security " in relation to the slaves of the people of this 
 State, or [tend] to diminish that respect which is commanded to the free 
 people of color for the whites, * * * or to destroy that line of 
 distinction which the law has established between the several classes of 
 this communitjr." All which was a necessity of the situation. The 
 dominant race in a mixed community is now and then forced to assert, 
 with more or less emphasis, its supremacy. Especially is a sharp lesson 
 salutary for the aspiring mongrel. 
 
 A company was formed in New Orleans for the refining of sugar, under 
 the \V. A. Archbald patent rights ; also were incorporated the first German 
 Protestant Church, the " Mississippi Fire Company," and the "Volunteer 
 Fire Engine Company, No. 1," same city. 
 
 Franklin, St. Mary parish, and Thibodauxville, Lafourche Interior, 
 declared incorporated towns. 
 
 Louisiana was not in accord with other Southern States on the tariff of 
 1828. Declining to concur in the resolutions of Mississippi, the legislature 
 declared it did not perceive the unconstitutionality or impolicy of the 
 measure, or that the State had suffered any injury therefrom. In this 
 great tariff issue Louisiana ranged herself on the side of Vermont. 
 Tempora mutantur, etc. 
 
 The severity of the winter, which set in early in December, and lasted 
 through February, destroyed the orange trees. 
 
 The population of Louisiana now amounted to 215,275, having increased 
 two-fifths in the last ten years. 
 
 1831. New Orleans was again made the seat of government. The first 
 session of the tenth legislature was begun in Donaldsonville on Monday, 
 January 3, was adjourned, and resumed in the city on the 8th of January. 
 On the 31st, A. B. Roman was inaugurated as governor. The new executive 
 had much experience in public affairs, having been Speaker of the House 
 of Representatives, and previously a District Judge. 
 
 The law of 1829, respecting the introduction of slaves, was relieved of 
 some of its restrictive features. The prohibition, however, was made 
 absolute as to slaves from Alabama, Mississippi, Florida and Arkansas. 
 
 The edict of last year, with regard to free persons of color and residence, 
 
ANNALS OF LOUISIANA. 433 
 
 was also deprived of its harshest feature. Expulsion was reserved only 
 for the worthless element. 
 
 Maunsel White, Joseph Lallande, Persifer Smith and others, this year 
 organized the Orleans Fire Company. 
 
 Natural fathers, or mothers, were empowered to legitimate their natural 
 children, provided the parents could have lawfully contracted marriage, 
 and that there did not exist on the legitimating parent side, '' ascendants 
 or legitimate descendants." The act revived law seventh, title fifteenth, 
 of the fourth Partidas, repealed in the Civil Code. 
 
 Monroe, Ouachita parish, ceased to be an incorporated town. 
 
 Pierre Abadie was another discoverer of " an efficient method of 
 destroying the plant known by the name of nut grass, [coco Amer.] " 
 
 He, too, sought the intervention of the legislature for the protection of 
 his property rights in his " discovery," and as in the case of Miro, had his 
 legislative commission to examine and report. So far as reports may be 
 looked for, both these discoveries would appear to have fallen stillborn. 
 It may be, though, that pigeon-holing was not unknown even in this early 
 period. 
 
 Gambling houses were prohibited outside of New Orleans. 
 • Six hundred copies of Mr. Gayarre's " Historical Essay on Louisiana," 
 were purchased by the State for distribution to the several parishes, under 
 the supervision and in the discretion of their respective Boards of School 
 Administrators. 
 
 An annual appropriation of five thousand dollars each, for four years, 
 was voted to Franklin College, St. Landry parish, Jefferson College, St. 
 James, and College of Louisiana, East Feliciana. Other State support of 
 the latter was not affected by this appropriation. 
 
 The sum of twenty thousand dollars was allowed for the arming and 
 equipping of the volunteer military. 
 
 Charters were granted to the New Orleans Canal and Banking Company, 
 capital, four million dollars; the City Bank, capital, two millions; 
 the College of Jefferson, the West Feliciana Railroad Company, and the 
 New Orleans Hotel Company, 
 
 Mr. Livingston having resigned, Geo. A. Waggaman was elected United 
 States Senator. 
 
 A tremendous storm setting in from the east, afterward shifting to the 
 south, and continuing from the 16th to the 17th of August, drove back 
 the waters of the Gulf into the lakes and bayous, so as to flood New 
 Orleans and the whole country bordering the sea. The water, indeed, 
 was so high that many vessels were driven on to the levee. The damage 
 to the town exceeded a hundred thousand dollars, and the loss of the 
 planters was till more severe. [Bunner,] 
 
 The condition of the passes of the Mississippi was now a subject of 
 grave consideration. The legislature affirmed that the difficulties in the 
 way of entrance were daily increasing, and demanded the immediate 
 interposition of the general government for their removal. 
 
 1832. The subject was again brought up in the legislature this year, 
 and the plan of Mr. Buisson for the Fort St. Philip Ship Canal, was 
 warmly approved. He submitted a chart of the mouths of the river with 
 the adjacent coast, and proposed to dig a canal, six miles and a half 
 long, commencing a few miles below the fort, and entering the sea about 
 
434 AXNALS OF LOUISIANA, 
 
 four miles south of Breton Island. Government undertook the work a 
 few years later, but the scheme " was found to beimpracticoble, as it [the 
 canal] filled with fresh accumulations of sand nearly as fast as it was 
 dug out, and was accordingly abandoned." 
 
 In connection Avith the scheme just noticed should be chronicled the 
 " Lake Borgne Navigation Company," as it was corporately styled. 
 Commissioners were appointed to procure surveys, plans and estimates for 
 a canal six feet deep, from Bayou Mazart, which debouches from [or 
 embouches into] Lake Borgne, to some part of New Orleans, or its 
 suburbs. As soon as these preliminary steps had been satisfactorily 
 taken, the commissioners — who were really the soul and body of the 
 movement — were to commence the work. There were to be buying of 
 lands, with or without consent of owners ; much digging and bridging 
 and basining, buoys and beacons at the bar, and a lighthouse at the 
 entrance to Bayou Mazart. And, it all went out in darkness. 
 
 Another large banking establishment, with, of course, the credit of the 
 State pledged for its borrowed millions ! " The Union Bank of Louisiana," 
 capital eight million dollars. The State gave its bonds, and the 
 subscribers to the bank stock gave mortgages on real estate, improved or 
 unimproved, and slaves. How recklessly they borrowed and endorsed in 
 those years. 
 
 Other incorporated enterprises this year were the Amite Navigation' 
 Company, Levee Steam Cotton Press, and the Western Marine and Fire 
 Insurance Company. 
 
 Jackson, East Feliciana, and Covington, St. Tammany, were incor" 
 porated. 
 
 Office of State Civil Engineer created. ; 
 
 The old Charity Hospital was purchased from the city for a statehouse. 
 It was situated in the square bounded by Canal, Phillipa, Common and* 
 Carondelet streets. 
 
 Extensive powers were given the municipal council for the laying out 
 of new streets, improvements of public places, etc., in New Orleans, its 
 suburbs and banlieues. 
 
 Parishes of Carroll and Livingston established. 
 
 Fifty thousand dollars were appropriated for the erection of a peniten-. 
 tiary at Baton Rouge. 
 
 More legislative dealing in gambling. Any one could now open a. 
 gambling hell in New Orleans, who could pay the annual tax of seven 
 thousand five hundred dollars. This revenue and the tax on the two 
 theatres, [now raised to four thousand dollars each] were devoted to 
 asylums. Charity Hospital and schools of New Orleans. 
 
 This year the Asiatic cholera, after extending its ravages over Asia and 
 a part of Europe, made its appearance in Canada, whither it was supposed 
 to have been brought by an English vessel. Passing through the States 
 to the north and west, says Bunner, it at length reached Louisiana ; and 
 in New Orleans alone, not less than five thousand persons fell victims. 
 The yellow fever was raging at the time. Many unfortunates were 
 supposed to have been buried alive ; while others, thus suffering under quite 
 different illnesses, were treated for cholera, and killed by the violence of 
 the remedies. The blacks had been spared by the yellow fever, but the 
 cholera almost exterminated them. There were plantations in the 
 environs of New Orleans which lost from seventy to eighty slaves in two 
 
ANNALS OF LOUISIANA. 4oO 
 
 or three days. And, adds our chronicler, the disease appeared again the 
 following year, but with greatly diminished violence. 
 
 1833. A census of the voters was taken, and a State Agricultural 
 Society established. The latter was another of those speculative, financing 
 concerns, in which Louisiana has been so fecund. 
 
 Nor was the year without its usual fungus growth of banks. Now came 
 into being the Citizens Bank, with a capital of twelve million dollars, 
 the Commercial, which was to expend $100,000 annually in the 
 construction of water works, and the Mechanics and Traders, with a 
 capital of two million dollars. The acts incorporating these banking 
 institutions are among the most suggestive readings that have ever fallen 
 in the way of this writer. The performances have sadly fallen short of 
 the hope inspiring programmes. 
 
 J. H. Caldwell obtained an "exclusive privilege [25 years] for intro- 
 ducing and vending gas lights in New Orleans and its faubourgs, and 
 particularly the faubourgs of St. Mary and Marigny." 
 
 The College of Jefferson was voted twenty thousand dollars, annual 
 instalments of five thousand. 
 
 Old St. Patrick's and the first Congregational Church w^ere incorporated, 
 also the Orleans Cotton Press, the Lyceum, the New Orleans Steam Ferry 
 Co., Bayou Boeuf and Red River Navigation Co., the Louisiana Sugar 
 Refining Co., the Louisiana Steam Tow-boat Co., and the New Orleans 
 Commercial Library. 
 
 Lafayette, now the favorite Garden District of New Orleans, was raised 
 to the dignity and responsibilities of a town. 
 
 . A Board of Public Works was created, with a fund for improvement of 
 navigable waters and highways. 
 
 The Secretary of State had shouldered upon him the office of Superin- 
 tendent of Public Schools, wdth an allowance for "only reasonable 
 expenses," and provision was made for a State Library. 
 
 Charters was granted to the New Orleans and Carrollton Railroad, the 
 Clinton and Port Hudson, for two in Rapides parish, and the governor 
 was instructed to take one hundred shares in the West Feliciana. But 
 this year lotteries w^ere abolished. 
 
 This is one of the most interesting years in our annals, and a few more 
 words are needed to complete the annalist's sketch. 
 
 The exports of New Orleans were estimated at this time to be about 
 thirty-seven million dollars, twenty millions of which were the produce 
 of Louisiana alone. Sugar was a large element in the productive industry 
 of the State, and the continued prosperity of this industry depended in 
 no small measure upon the tariff policy of the general government. In 
 regard to this subject, we quote the following: "The first blow to the 
 agricultural industry of Louisiana was from the new tariff, providing for 
 a gradual reduction of duties on foreign goods to 20 per cent., taking off 
 every two years one-tenth of all there was above that, as fixed by the 
 former tariff. The minimum was to be reached on the first of July, 1842. 
 The effect of this change would be to diminish the price of foreign sugars, 
 and, consequently, that of the domestic article. The first few years but 
 little alteration took place, and the sugar trade was in a highly flourishing 
 condition. On the strength of the tariff of 1816, fixing the duty on 
 imported sugars at three cents, the culture had been, greatly extended. 
 
436 ANNALS OF LOUISIANA. 
 
 and the crop had increased since 1828 from fifteen thousand to forty-five 
 thousand hogsheads. At that time there were more than three hundred 
 sugar plantations, with a capital of thirty-four million dollars, twenty-one 
 thousand men, twelve thousand head of working cattle, and steam 
 engines equal to sixteen hundred and fifty horse power, being employed 
 in this branch of industry; and from this time to 1830, nearly four 
 hundred new establishments were formed, with a capital of six millions, 
 making the whole number of sugar plantations no less than seven hundred, 
 with a capital of forty millions. Louisiana already furnished half the 
 sugar consumed in the country, and bade fair to supply the rest. The 
 sugar planters were at this time looked upon as the most prosperous class 
 in society. They had two banks, which liberally supplied them with 
 funds; and a third, called the Citizens' Bank, with a capital of twelve 
 million dollars, was now started. The plan of this institution was to 
 advance to any planter, on a mortgage of his lands, slaves and cattle, one- 
 half of their estimated value in specie, at six per cent, for twenty years, 
 he being obliged to pay back each year one-twentieth of the sum lent. 
 
 The abundance of paper money gave rise also to other speculating 
 companies, and among them four new railroad companies. In short, 
 there were chartered this year corporate institutions with an aggregate 
 capital amounting to the enormous sum of eighteen million nine hundred 
 and eighty-four thousand dollars. Never had the legislative assembly 
 been so extravagantly liberal. In this stock-jobbing system, real estate 
 was inflated to an exorbitant nominal value. During the past year a 
 banking corporation had paid half a million dollars for a piece of land 
 which might have been bought for fifty or sixty thousand but a short time 
 before. Towns were laid out in the environs of New Orleans ; and the 
 purchasers of lots no sooner began to realize large profits by their sale, 
 
 than they rose to twice, ten times, nay, a hundred times their actual value. 
 * ******* 
 
 Money difficulties came on apace at this time, and 15, 18, and 24 per 
 cent, was demanded on good paper. Bankruptcies * * began to take 
 place, * * and to remedy, or rather increase the evil, there was a loud 
 call for more banks. * * [Bunner.] 
 
 18S4. After the reckless chartering of the late years, it is somewhat 
 reassuring to know that the aggregate capital of the institutions incor- 
 porated this year amounted to but one million six hundred and twenty 
 thousand dollars. Among these institutions were the following : 
 
 The Company of Architects of the 8th District of New Orleans ; a build- 
 ing association for the district named, among whose directors were Pierre 
 Soule and Th. Pilie ; the Pontchartrain Steamboat Company, a leading 
 spirit of which was Wm. Bagley; the Commercial Insurance Company; 
 the Atlantic Marine & Fire Insurance Company ; the St. Bernard Rail- 
 road Company, which was to construct a road from the Mississippi to 
 some point on Bayou Terre-Aux-Boeufs in St. Bernard Parish ; the 
 Planters' Sugar Refining Company, an association of sugar planters of 
 the parishes of St. James, Ascension, Assumption, and Lafourche Interior, 
 for the purpose set forth in corporate title ; and the New Orleans Improve- 
 ment Company, whose efforts were restricted to the section bounded by 
 Levee, Canal, Rampart and Esplanade streets. 
 
 The port limits of the city were again extended to the lower line of 
 
ANNALS OF LOUISIANA. 437 
 
 the parish of Jefferson, and three miles down the left bank, " from the 
 centre of the square of the city." 
 
 A Chamber of Commerce was organized, and the " Presbyterian Church 
 and Congregation for the city and parish of New Orleans " incorporated ; 
 among the incorporators being Saml. H. Harper, Chas. Gardiner, Alfred 
 Hennen, J. S. Walton, and J. A. Maybin. 
 
 Audubon received from his native State the paltry recognition of the 
 purchase of one copy of his great work, "The Birds of America." 
 
 Jurisdiction over the island of Petites Coquilles, opposite western 
 branch of Pearl river; over Gordon's Island, near South Paas of the 
 Mississippi ; and over Wagner's Island, Southwest Pass, was ceded to the 
 United States, as sites for the erection and maintenance of lighthouses ; 
 and over Grand-Terre for the erection of a fort. In the act ceding juris- 
 diction over these sites, Louisiana asserts her sovereignty and right of 
 eminent domain by the usual proviso of reversion, execution of State 
 process, etc. If no better than a county, or at best a province, how could 
 she thus vaunt herself? and the "national government" accepted without 
 protest ! 
 
 The most important legislation of the year was the " Act relative to 
 Steamboats." Explosions, collisions and sinkings had been so frequent, 
 and had resulted in such appalling loss of life and great destruction of 
 property, that public opinion demanded legislative interference in the run- 
 ning and general management of river steam craft, provided inspection 
 as to condition, etc. The Louisiana law required all captains and own- 
 ers of steamboats to have their boilers examined by an engineer appointed 
 by the State, under penalty of fine and imprisonment, besides being 
 responsible for all losses or damage to the goods aboard, and in case of the 
 loss of life, to the punishment provided for manslaughter. The engineer 
 was punishable for giving a false certificate ; the amount and storage of 
 gunpowder as freight had prominent attention, and rules were jDrescribed 
 to be observed by boats when passing each other on rivers and streams. 
 Copies of the law, in French and English, were required to be posted in 
 conspicuous places on board every boat. It is on record that from 1816 
 to 1838, two hundred and thirty steamboats were lost, of which one 
 hundred and thirty-seven were destroyed by explosions, occasioning a 
 loss of nearly seventeen hundred lives. In the explosion of the Ben 
 Sherrod, one hundred and thirty persons were blown up ; and in that of 
 the Monmouth, three hundred. Both occurred on the Mississippi in 1837. 
 
 This year, says our chronicler, Bunner, was marked by a horrible 
 discovery. One of those interpositions of Providence, which often brings 
 to light crimes perpetrated in darkness, disclosed the dreadful atrocities 
 committed by a woman who had hitherto been admitted to the first 
 society of New Orleans. Her name Avas Lalaurie. The house taking fire, 
 while efforts were making to extinguish it, a rumor was spread that some 
 slaves were confined in an outhouse which was locked up. Mr. Canonge, 
 judge of the Criminal Court, applied to her for the key, which she refused. 
 He, with some other gentlemen broke into the building, and discovered 
 in different parts of it, seven slaves chained in various ways, and all 
 bearing'marks of the most horrible treatment. One of them declared 
 that he had been confined for five months, with no other sustenance than 
 a handful of meal a day. 
 
 * * * As soon as she found that her barbarity was on the 
 
 68 
 
438 ANXAI.S OF LOUISIANA. 
 
 point of being discovered, she contrived to make her escape, and, strange 
 to tell, by the aid of some of her own slaves, who conveyed her to a 
 carriage, while the crowd was occupied at the other end of the house. 
 Had she remained, her life proljably would have been taken, for the 
 fury of the people knew no bounds ; they broke into the house, destroyed 
 every article of furniture, and would have even torn down the house itself 
 had they not been restrained bv the authorities. * * Further 
 evidences of her cruelty Averc discovered the next day, when more than 
 one body was dug up in the yard. The guilty woman reached a northern 
 port in safety, and embarked for France under an assumed name, the 
 husband and youngest child had joined her, and some suspicion being 
 excited among the passengers, they questioned the child, and ascertained 
 who she Avas. No one spoke to her during the rest of the voyage. Arriving 
 in France, she was soon discovered and universally shunned ; on one 
 occasion being driven out of the theatre. If she is still living, speculates 
 the chronicler, she has probably been obliged to seek a deeper retirement 
 to conceal her guilt, 
 
 1835. E. D. White, who had served several years in Congress, succeeded 
 Governor Roman. The new executive, in his inaugural, touched upon 
 the tariff compromise measures, so far as they affected the State's agricul- 
 tural interest, and the still unsettled land question. 
 
 The twelfth legislature proved itself equal to the seemingly required 
 standard of prodigality, in the chartering of banks, etc., and pledging the 
 credit of the State. Among the earliest of its measures was the incorpo- 
 rating of the New Orleans and Nashville Railroad Company, whose 
 proposed enterprise is yet to be accomplished. The city had also charters 
 for two Insurance Companies, the Medical Society, the Firemen's Chari- 
 table Association, the Louisiana Cotton Seed Oil Factory, for the building 
 of the Exchange, and for a grand speculating concern, called " The New 
 Orleans Draining Company" — with a capital of one million dollars — 
 which was to drain, clear and open out for settlement all the swamps 
 between the city, its suburbs and Old Ponchartrain ; the State and 
 municipality both to be shareholders. 
 
 The legislature likewise generously voted to make the State a stock- 
 holder in the Barataria & Lafourche Canal Company, to the extent of 
 five hundred shares, and commendably granted appropriations for 
 improving several rivers. 
 
 Springfield, Livingston parish, was made the seat of justice, and 
 ^yashington, St. Landry, incorporated. 
 
 The banks chartered were : the New Orleans Gaslight and Banking 
 Company, capital $6,000,000; Exchange Bank, capital $2,000,000; 
 Carrollton Railroad I3ank, capital $3,000,000, and the Atchafalaya 
 Railroad, capital $2,000,000. 
 
 While the banker Avas thus being made a "chartered libertine," 
 gambling of the non-respectable kind Avas receiA'ing its coup de grace. A 
 law Avas enacted at this same session imposing a fine of from fiA^e to ten 
 thousand dollars, Avith imprisonment for not less than one nor more than 
 five years, upon the keepers of gambling hells. Still the fraternity throve ; 
 they only hid their heads. 
 
 1836. So far as their external relations Avero concerned, Louisianians 
 were moved mainly by the struggles of the Texans for independence. 
 
ANNALS OF LOUISIANA. 439 
 
 Their sympathies were so ardent as to call from the governor a procla- 
 mation of neutrality. Next in interest, was the war against the Seminoles 
 in Florida. The general government having made its requisition on the 
 State for troops, " her quota," says Mr. Gayarre, " was furnished with 
 great alacrity in ten days." Seventy-five thousand dollars was appro- 
 priated by the State for the equipment, etc., of its military contingent. 
 
 At its session this year the general assembly chartered the Merchants 
 Bank, capital one million dollars ; conferred banking privileges on the 
 New Orleans Improvement Company, capital two millions ; the same 
 upon the Pontchartrain Railroad Company, and allowing an addition of 
 one million to its capital, and pledged the credit of the State in favor of 
 the Citizens' Bank, " an overgrown institution, * * which paid its 
 cashier ten thousand dollars a yeav, and attempted to negotiate a loan of 
 twelve million dollars in Europe, in which it failed for want of security," 
 and the St. Charles Hotel Company, born of the Exchange and Banking 
 Company. 
 
 Six railroad companies were incorporated, viz : the Springfield & 
 Liberty, the Livingston, Lake Providence & Red River, Baton Rouge & 
 Clinton, Iberville, and the Orleans & Plaquemine, the latter to construct a 
 road through the prairie between the city and the English Turn. 
 
 Mr. Caldwell got a charter for his " St. Charles Theatre, Arcade & 
 Arcade Bath Company ; " Mr. T. J. Davis his for the " Orleans Theatre 
 Company," and the New Orleans Floating Dry Dock Company was 
 launched. 
 
 Cheneyville, Rapides parish, and Vermillionville, Lafayette parish, 
 incorporated. 
 
 Robert Carter Nicholas, was chosen United States Senator. 
 
 By act of the legislature New Orleans was " divided into three separate 
 sections, each with distinct municipal powers," the Mayor exercising the 
 same powers in each municipality, and ruling as chief magistrate of the 
 whole city. 
 
 The aggregate capital of the institutions chartered by this twelfth 
 general assembly, amounted to $39,345,000. " The mania of speculation 
 had now seized on all minds and turned all heads, and the effervescence 
 of the people of Paris, excited by the Mississippi lands in the time of 
 Law, had never been more violent. * * * ^ state of affairs now 
 existed in Louisiana of the most extraordinary character. An enormous 
 value was placed upon lands covered with water ; towns were laid out in 
 the midst of cypress swamps ; prairies were set on fire, and speculators 
 were ready to snatch at every islet. Some few, shrewder than the rest, or 
 favored by fortune, succeeded in amassing riches, but a far greater number 
 Avere irretrievably ruined." To make the existing state of things in the 
 end still worse, the banks were profuse in their discounts, and did not 
 scruple to issue i3aper to five times the amount of the available capital." 
 
 1837. At length, continues our authority, on the 13th of May, the 
 disaster which had been so long preparing for Louisiana, fell upon her. 
 Fourteen of the banks of New Orleans suspended specie payments. In 
 this emergency, and to afford the community a temporary and partial 
 relief, the three municipalities each issued bills from the value of one 
 shilling to four dollars, and in a short time companies and even individ- 
 uals claimed the same privilege, so that the State Avas inundated with rag 
 
440 AXXALS OF LOUISIANA. 
 
 money. Another cause of the existhig distress was the new tariff, which 
 had depreciated the value of American sugar in proportion as the duty 
 had been reduced on the foreign article. At a former period the culture 
 of cotton had been abandoned for that of sugar. The contrary was now 
 the case ; cane was destroyed and cotton planted in its place. One 
 hundred and sixty-six sugar plantations were given ujd ; and cotton alone 
 was destined to restore prosperity to Louisiana. The crop of this article 
 in 1834 had been 150,000 bales — equivalent to sixty-two million pounds — 
 and this year it increased to 225,000 bales, or ninety-four million pounds. 
 The large profits that had been realized increased the rashness of specu- 
 lators, and their eagerness to purchase raised the price to 18 and 20 cents. 
 These prices were wholly unwarranted l)y the state of the markets in 
 Euroi^e, and the losses were immense. Numerous bankruptcies followed, 
 some for great amounts. Lands could no longer be sold; plans of towns 
 were of no value but to be gazed on as pictures, and the fortunes based 
 on them fell even more suddenly than they had risen. Usurers were 
 now the only class that prospered, and they reaped a rich harvest from 
 the calamities of others. 
 
 Still associations went on forming for this or that more or less legiti- 
 mate venture, and were duly incorporated by the legislature. Among 
 these were the New Orleans & Texas Navigation, and Mexican Gulf Railway 
 Companies ; the Madison & Covington, Natchitoches & Sabine, Vidalia, 
 Harrisonburg & Alexandi-ia, and the Louisiana and Mississippi railroad 
 projects ; and the Lake Borgne Navigation Company, which proposed to 
 dig a canal from a point in the lower portion of New Orleans to Bayou 
 Bienvenu. 
 
 A loan to the amount of five hundred thousand dollars in State bonds 
 was made to the New Orleans & Nashville Railroad, and its nominal 
 stock increased by three million dollars. 
 
 The State accepted her allotted portion under the act of Congress 
 making distribution of the surplus revenue of the general government. 
 
 Resolutions approving the views of the governor, as set forth in his 
 message, respecting abolition societies, concurring in the declarations of 
 Kentucky and South Carolina on the same crusading organizations, and 
 recommending a convention, were adopted by the general assembly ; and 
 Hon. Alex. Mouton was chosen United States Senator, vice Hon. Alex. 
 Porter, resigned, 
 
 1838. The great financial crash could not be retrieved in a day. 
 Property of all kind was more or less depreciated in value, and industry 
 was all but paralyzed. Doctors of finance, or financial quacks, were on 
 hand with their nostrums, and many Avere looking for an extra session of 
 the legislature, expecting relief from that quarter. There was no extra 
 session. 
 
 A bill passed the senate, at the regular session of the general assembly, 
 appointing a commission to examine into and report upon the conditions 
 of the banks, imposing certain restrictions upon the privileges of these 
 institutions, but allowing them to issue post-notes payable in 1840. But 
 the house and senate were not in accord, and the measure fell through. 
 It embodied the suggestions of Mr. Albert Hoa. 
 
 Subsequently, the banks determined U])on the issue of post-notes, the 
 expedient to be confined to the period of suspension of specie payments. 
 
ANNALS OF LOUISIANA. 441 
 
 The Red River, Baton Rouge & Clinton, and the Mexican Gulf Raih-oad 
 Companies, were recipients of State aid, in bonds to the amount of 
 $275,000, and the " Bath Railroad Company," a charter. " Bath " is now 
 but a little known name of some indefinite spot on the shore of Lake 
 Ponchartrain, parish of Jefferson. 
 
 Caldwell, Caddo and Madison parishes were erected, and Port Hudson, 
 Springfield and Thibodeaux, incorporated. 
 
 Preliminary steps toward the education of the deaf and dumb — which 
 culminated in the State asylum — were authorized at this session. 
 
 The agitation of the slavery question was spreading and growing. The 
 lower house of Congress was becoming the scene of unseemly debate. 
 Eastern and Western members vituperatively inveighed ; Southern 
 members vainly appealed to the guarantees of the federal constitution, or 
 parliamentary rules, or, when some negrophilist's speech exceeded all 
 license, left the house. The general assembly of Louisiana, at the present 
 session, declared in emphatic language, its approval of the course pursued 
 b}' the Southern members of Congress, " in manifesting their determin- 
 ation, manfully and with energy, to resist by all constitutional means, 
 any attempt which may be made to abolish slavery in any portion of 
 the Union by the action of Congress." 
 
 1839. The banks had resumed specie payments, and the general 
 assembly, recognizing that the suspension was " the result of a general 
 derangement of the monetary system of the country," [as the act 
 expressed it,] reinstated them in their chartered rights, privileges, etc. The 
 general assembly also passed resolutions in endorsement of the United 
 States Bank, declaring that a national bank, properly constituted, an 
 important auxiliary in carrying into effect the power of Congress to 
 create and regulate a currency of equal value, credit and use, wherever 
 it may circulate, and to facilitate the fiscal operations of the government. 
 
 The Citizens' Bank was required to establish seven branches, with an 
 aggregate capital of $3,000,000, and State bonds to the amount of $1,400,000, 
 were emitted to the three municipalities of New Orleans. 
 
 '' To promote direct intercourse between New Orleans and Europe," the 
 State took two hundred thousand dollars of the capital stock of the 
 '* Steam Trans- Atlantic Company of Louisiana," and to " expedite the 
 construction of Clinton and Port Hudson Railroad," issued bonds to the 
 amount of five hundred thousand dollars. The Attakapas Canal [through 
 Lake Vsrret] Company received twenty-five thousand dollars of State 
 funds. 
 
 Union parish was created, and the towns of Iberia and Shreveport 
 incorporated. The Milne Asvlums for Orphans, the Roman Catholic 
 Church of St. Vincent de Paul, and the Methodist Episcopal Church in 
 New Orleans, were incorporated. Among the trustees of the latter were 
 Ed. McGhee and T. K. Price. 
 
 The number of justices of the Supreme Court was raised to five, the 
 Commercial Court of New Orleans created, and a law against betting on 
 elections enacted. The latter forbade any person to stake or hazard upon 
 elections, popular or in legislature, under penalty of a fine equal to the 
 amount hazarded. 
 
 The office of auditor on auction sales in New Orleans was created. 
 
 Emissaries of New England's intermeddling philanthrophy had become 
 
442 ANNALS OF LOUISIANA. 
 
 objects of legislative attention, and an act was passed respecting the 
 carrying away of slaves, making the captain or owner of any vessel, on 
 l)oard which a slave should be found, without the consent of his owner, 
 responsible to the latter for any loss he might sustain, also liable to a fine 
 of five hundred dollars for every such slave. 
 
 On the 12th of February, the New Orleans Exchange, a splendid 
 edifice, was destro3'ed by fire. The loss is set down by one authority at 
 the very high figure of six hundred thousand dollars. 
 
 February 4, A. B. Roman succeeded Governor White, being a second 
 time elected governor. In his inaugural he referred in emphatic language 
 to the anti-slavery agitation, and the invasion of the State by a body of 
 armed men from the Republic of Texas. 
 
 The State was now divided into thirty-eight parishes and ten judicial 
 districts. 
 
 ISIfO. The fourteenth legislature signalized itself at the second session 
 by abolishing imprisonment for debt. It also made approiDriations for 
 the improvement of several bayous, the cutting of a channel through the 
 falls at Alexandria, and for the removal of Red River raft ; created the 
 parishes of Union and Calcasieu ; incorporated the town of Mandeville, 
 and the old Jefferson & Lake Ponchartrain Railroad, and gave registrars 
 of mortgages to Natchitoches and Jefferson parishes. 
 
 The year is memorable for an extraordinary rise of the Mississippi. 
 " Never had the river worn so terrific an aspect since 1782, when the 
 Attakapas and Opelousas were partly covered l)y its waters. It was now 
 swollen to within a few inches of the highest levees, and in several places 
 flowed over them, and inundated the country. The crevasses were 
 numerous, and some of them of great width. The lands of Lafourche 
 and Concordia were completely under water. The Red River, driven 
 back by the increased volume of the Mississippi, inundated its fine cotton 
 lands. But at last the flood subsided, and compensated by the rich 
 deposit it left for the mischief it had done. New fertility was given to 
 the soil, and never was the crop more abundant." [Bunner.] 
 
 The number of sugar plantations at this time amounted to 525, 
 employing 40,000 laborers, and a mechanical power equal to ten thousand 
 horse. The population of the State amounted to 350,000 ; at the time of 
 its cession, the number of inhabitants of the Territory was but 60,000. 
 Her progress was as undoubted, as were her resources for great and 
 enduring prosperity. But the banks, unable to stem the tide of general 
 financial embarrassment, again suspended specie payments. 
 
 ISJfl. Their condition was, however, daily growing better, and their 
 reputation for solvency widening. Their notes were but little below par, 
 and circulated extensively through the Southwest. 
 
 The State was their debtor at this period to the amount of $850,000, 
 " and it was generally believed at the time," says Ga3'arre, " on the auth- 
 ority of persons Avho had made the calculation, that the members of the 
 legislature, in their private capacity, owed to these institutions about one 
 million dollars." Such relations render sound, not to say honest banking, 
 impossi1)le. Little wonder legislators pledged the credit of the State so 
 Avantonly. 
 
 The Clinton & Port Hudson Railroad was ordered forfeited to the 
 State, the company being unable to meet the interest on the bonds 
 
ANNALS OF LOUISIANA. 443 
 
 [$389,000] authorized by the legislature to expedite the construction of 
 the road. 
 
 The work of opening the mouth of the Atchafalaya at the Mississippi, 
 and that of Grand River at its junction with Bayou Plaquemines, M'as 
 undertaken by the Board of Public Works ; the cutting off of points on 
 Red River, by the removal of Avhich its navigation might be improved, 
 was ordered, and appropriations continued for the cleaning out of several 
 navigable bayous. 
 
 Lotteries were again "generally abolished." 
 
 The long unheeded claim of the State to her share of the public lands 
 within her domain had been at length acceded to. But many thousand 
 acres of the grant were of little or no value. 
 
 A bill Avas passed at this session [first of the fifteenth legislature] sub- 
 mitting to popular vote the question of calling a convention to amend the 
 constitution. 
 
 184^. The closing session of this legislature was marked by earnest 
 work ; the chief matter for consideration being what we may term the 
 financial situation. Some remedial measures were urgently demanded. 
 Banking privileges had been so inconsiderately accorded and so reck- 
 lessly used, there had been so much borrowing, discounting, and of 
 speculative venture based on unlimited credit, that only the law-making 
 power could interpose with the needed corrective and restrictive legisla- 
 tion. A law was enacted prohibiting banks from further violation of 
 their charters, providing for the liquidation of such as were insolvent, 
 and creating a '' Board of Currency " to see that they rigidly complied 
 with their charters and by-laws. Two were paying specie ; during the 
 year seven of them went by the board, leaving nine in sound financial 
 condition, with a reserve of $4,565,925 against the comparatively trivial 
 circulation of $1,261,514. But so severe had been the lesson, that even 
 with this strength the banks would not venture to afford the usual aid 
 to even legitimate commercial and industrial enterprise. 
 
 A law was also passed retrenching the expenses of the State govern- 
 ment. Its expenditures had for years been extravagant and in excess of 
 revenue. A direct tax upon real estate in the several parishes, as well as 
 other levies in the way of taxation, made, to increase the resources of the 
 government. 
 
 According to the apportionment of this year, the house of representa- 
 tives consisted of fifty-nine members, the parish of Orleans sending ten. 
 
 A much more efficient organization of the militia — in detail, and as a 
 whote — was ordered this year. 
 
 In the general financial scheme of retrenchment and reform, the public 
 school system also received attention. The parishes [Orleans excepted] 
 were now to provide each a school fund of from two hundred to four 
 hundred dollars, receiving from the State double the amount it raised ; 
 Orleans received $7,500, the parish being required to tax itself for the 
 balance necessary to meet the authorized expenditure ; the sums of ten 
 thousand dollars to the Louisiana College, five thousand to the College 
 of Franklin, annually to each, and ten thousand a year to the College of 
 Jefferson, were voted. The cutting of a channel through the falls at 
 Alexandria was abandoned, and State appropriations for several other 
 purposes were withdrawn. 
 
444 ANNALS OF LOUISIANA. 
 
 The legislature was in a penitent mood. Asylums, however, and the 
 Charity Hosjiital, were not neglected : to do so would not be like 
 Louisiana in any period of her history. That truly philanthropic body, 
 the Howard Association of New Orleans, organized this year, and the 
 First Presbyterian Church of the City of Lafayette — now Fourth District 
 of New Orleans. 
 
 The Civil Code was so amended that it was no longer required a 
 minister of religion should be a resident of the parish when he performed 
 the marriage ceremon3^ 
 
 A disastrous fire having occurred in Baton Rouge, the legislature voted 
 the sum of two thousand dollars for the relief of the destitute sufferers : 
 also incorporated the towns of Bayou Sara, Farmerville and St. Charles, 
 of Grand Coteau. 
 
 Further legislation was had respecting the immigration of free persons 
 of color into the State, and resolutions were adopted as to the action of 
 New York in her inter-State obligations under the fugitive slave law. 
 
 184S. Governor Roman was succeeded by Alexander Mouton in Janu- 
 ary. The new executive was an experienced politician, having been 
 United States Senator for several j^ears, and previousl}^ speaker of the 
 general assembly. His outgivings show him to be a Democrat of pro- 
 nounced Jeffersonian type. This he evidenced in his inaugural, wherein 
 he also clwelt upon the old question of the public lands, and spoke with , 
 unreserve of the lamentable condition of the finances of the State. Her 
 liabilities — loans and faith pledged — amounted to some millions, while 
 the ordinary expenses of the government exceeded the income by about 
 one hundred thousand dollars. The old banking system was at fault, 
 and it was necessary to render its revival impossible. Acts were passed 
 to facilitate the liquidation of insolvent banks — a special enactment for 
 the property banks — and the insolvent laws were revived. 
 
 Under the new congressional apportionment, the State was entitled to 
 four members in the lower house, and accordingly there was a re-dis- 
 tricting of the State. 
 
 Louisianians were not growing unmindful of the great services rendered 
 them by " Old Hickory." Resolutions were adopted by the legislature 
 this year, pledging the State to refund to General Jackson, the fine (with 
 interest) imposed upon him by Judge Hall, of the United States District 
 Court at New Orleans, in the event congress should fail to do so. 
 
 Five new parishes were created, viz : Bossier, DeSoto, Franklin, Sabine, 
 and Tensas. Marksville and St. Martinsville incorporated. 
 
 A court of errors and appeals in criminal cases was organized. 
 
 The opening of a road around the raft in Red River was authorized. 
 The Metropolis had, besides other attention from the legislature, incor- 
 poration of the Medico-Chirurgical Society; the Medical College .of 
 Louisiana ; Medical College of Orleans ; the French Society, and the 
 Association of Veterans. 
 
 A Glass Manufacturing Company, parish of Jefferson, received a 
 charter ; and in this year the New Orleans & Carrollton Railroad was 
 allowed to use locomotives in the running of cars to and from the corner 
 of Baronne and Poj'dras streets. 
 
 18Jf4- The project of a State Convention to revise the constitution 
 having been carried, an election for members was held in July, and on 
 
ANNALS OF LOUISIANA. 445 
 
 August 5th, those chosen convened at Jackson, East Feliciana. Subse- 
 quently the convention adjourned to New Orleans. 
 
 Hon. Henry Johnson was elected United States Senator. 
 
 A movement towards the erection in New Orleans of a " National 
 Monument of 1814-15," was inaugurated by the legislature. 
 
 The office of State Librarian was created ; also the parishes of More- 
 house and Vermillion ; and the Agricultural & Mechanics' Association ; 
 St. Charles Hotel Company ; and the Odd Fellows' Grand Lodge incor- 
 porated. 
 
 An act was passed providing for the liquidation of the debts proper of 
 the State, but the Bank of Louisiana and others, declining to go into the 
 arrangement, nothing came of the effort till the succeeding session. 
 Governor Mouton was able, however, to congratulate the legislature upon 
 the reviving prosperity of the State and a greatly improved financial 
 condition. 
 
 1845. The new constitution which was adopted in convention, May 
 14, was ratified by the popular vote. It did away with many of the 
 conservative features of the existing regime, while it imposed wise and 
 marked restrictions upon the legislative power to confer charters, and 
 absolutely prohibited the State from partnership in any bank or other 
 corporations. No monopoly was to be created, nor divorces granted by 
 the legislature, and lotteries were forbidden. Suffrage was extended, the 
 term of judicial office reduced; a public school s^^stem ordained, with a 
 State University at New Orleans ; the office of lieutenant-governor created, 
 and a new apportionment made. Under it, the general assembly consisted 
 of 91 representatives and 32 senators ; the parish of Orleans having 
 twenty members of the house and four of the senate. An election was to 
 follow for a new general assembly, governor, etc. 
 
 Next in interest was the final disposal of the relations between the State 
 and the banks. Under the act for the adjustment and liquidation of the 
 debts proper of the State, [which was revived at this session, with amend- 
 ments acceptable to the banks] there was an adjustment of mutual 
 obligations, a renunciation by the State of all interference in bank 
 management ; and she was relieved of about three million dollars of debt. 
 Louisiana was steadily emerging from her financial embarrassments. 
 The banks, too, were extinguishing their bonded debts ; the city of New 
 Orleans had retired her depreciated " promises to pa}'^ ; " public credit 
 was restored ; a sound currency in circulation, and the State treasury in 
 a most prosperous condition, thanks to the wonderful resources of the 
 State, the commercial advantages of the metropolis, the recuperative 
 powers of the people, and the able, eminently prudent, watchful and 
 courageous administration of Governor Mouton. 
 
 Can it be believed that Louisiana was opposed to the annexation of 
 Texas? We learn from Mr. Gayarre, that it was with difficulty a resolution 
 favoring such measure went through the General Assembly, even "with a 
 proviso tacked to it, which was not free from objections." The veteran 
 historian was himself the chief champion in the house, of this declaration 
 of the undoubted wishes of Louisianians. 
 
 The law against the introduction of free persons of color, drew remon- 
 strances from some of the eastern States as well as from Great Britain. 
 It was a measure common to the southern States — certainly to the seaboard 
 
 B9 
 
446 ANNALS OF LOUISIANA. 
 
 States — Avas enacted in the interest of domestic tranquillity, and held to 
 lie clearly within the scope of the legislative powers, to say nothing of 
 their inalienable sovereignt3% Foreign powers might, so far as the 
 enforcement of the law affected their maritime interests, enter diplomatic 
 l^rotest with the general government, but the Southern States rightly 
 rejected interference from any quarter. Massachusetts, in her anti- 
 slavery zealotry, sent an agent to Louisiana to enquire as to the reported 
 imprisonment of such of these free persons of color as were citizens of 
 that commonwealth, with the view of making up a case which might 
 ultimately be brought before the United States Supreme Court. Hubbard's 
 [agent's name] presence in New Orleans, evoked a deep but suppressed 
 feeling of resentment ; there was no violence shown him nor even insult, 
 and his stay was short. He, himself, has left on record the hopeless and 
 irritating character of his mission, and the intense excitement his arrival 
 cieated, in the same connection bearing handsome testimony to "the 
 courteous, bland and humane manner in which " these facts had been 
 conveyed to him. 
 
 The legislature passed suitable resolutions upon this attempted inter- 
 position of Massachusetts in the police regulations of Louisiana. 
 
 This year a Board of Commissioners for the better organization of the 
 public schools was created ; and the appropriation to those in New 
 Orleans doubled ; the City of Carrollton was incorporated, likewise 
 the Polytechnic School, [now no more] ; the " College of Louisiana," 
 which had received many thousands from the State treasury, ordered 
 sold ; an appropriation for the encouragement of silk culture in the State ; 
 the First Baptist Church, of New Orleans, incorporated ; the parish of 
 Jackson created, and the charter of the Mexican Gulf Railway Company 
 renewed. 
 
 18Jf6. At the election in January, held under the new constitution, 
 Hon. Isaac Johnson was elected governor, and Trasimon Landry, 
 lieutenant-governor. 
 
 The new general assembly convened on the 9th February, and the 
 inauguration took place on the 12th. 
 
 For months the relations between Mexico and the United States had 
 been severely strained, and the attitude of their respective military forces on 
 the Rio Grande was threateningly hostile. Early in the year hostilities 
 broke out, and General Taylor, who held the American lines, was in 
 imminent danger of being crushed by a greatly superior Mexican force. 
 News of his critical position reaching New Orleans, the enthusiasm of 
 patriotic men fired all classes. The legislature voted $100,000 for raising, 
 equipping, and transporting four regiments of volunteers to the army of 
 General Taylor. " In an incredible short space of time," says Governor 
 Johnson, " several thousand brave and devoted men were forwarded to 
 the seat of war, where they happily arrived in time to enable General 
 Taylor more confidently to assume an offensive attitude against the 
 enemy, and to crown the brilliant victories of the 8th and 9th, [of May] 
 already achieved, with the conquest of Matamoras." 
 
 The legislature passed resolutions tendering the thanks of the State to 
 General Taylor and his army, for the additional lustre they had shed 
 upon American arms during the short but brilliant campaign, and voted 
 a sword to the General himself. 
 
ANNALS OF LOUISIANA. 447 
 
 General Gaines, too, was voted resolutions of thanks, but in language 
 that would make the typical sophomore burst with envy. 
 
 Jurisdiction over the sites of Forts Jackson, St. Philip, Wood and Pik3, 
 the sites of Battery Bienvenu and Tower Dupre, and the site for a 
 fortification at or near Proctor's Landing, on Lake Borgne, was granted 
 or ceded to the United States for military purposes, June 1st. 
 
 The State was divided into seventeen judicial districts ; and the Court 
 of Errors and Appeals in Criminal matters, abolished, its jurisdiction 
 being transferred to the Supreme Court. 
 
 The new constitution having decreed that the seat of government 
 should be moved from New Orleans, Baton Rouge was selected by th3 
 legislature as the new capital. But no change was to take place till after 
 September, 1849. 
 
 The general assembly, at this session, fixed the salaries of the executiv^e 
 and other State officers, as follows : Governor, $6,000 ; Secretary of State, 
 $2,000 ; Treasurer, $4,000 ; Auditor, $3,000. The new constitution fixed 
 the pay of the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court at $6,000, and each of 
 the three Associate Justices at $5,000. 
 
 Unionville and Donaldsonville were merged and incorporated as the 
 toAvn of Donaldsonville, Lafayette was made the seat of justice of 
 Jefferson parish, and a stretch of territory, reaching from that city to 
 Bloomingdale, in same parish, and fronting the river, was incorporated as 
 the Borough of Freeport. 
 
 The seat of justice of Plaquemine parish, was fixed at Point-a-la-Hache, 
 and the town of Plaquemine, Iberville, incorporated. 
 
 1847. The war with Mexico continuing, another regiment of volunteers 
 was raised, and presented by the State with a stand of colors costing 
 three hundred dollars. 
 
 Liberal appropriations had been made through several years, for the 
 improvement of interior navigation, but the results were neither commen- 
 surate with the expenditure nor encouraging. Money was, however, still 
 voted for this purpose, as well as for the closing of the crevasses at New 
 Carthage and Grand Levee ; the erection of a breakwater opposite Bayou 
 Lafourche, the Raccourci Cut-off, etc., and work continued under the 
 superintendence of the State engineer. 
 
 One hundred and fifty thousand dollars was appropriated for the 
 erection of the new State House at Baton Rouge ; $37,000 for the 
 completion of the Penitentiary Cotton Factory, and the purchase of new 
 machinery for the same. The penitentiary was now leased out, whereby 
 the State was relieved of the annual expenditure of several thousand 
 dollars required for its support. 
 
 A State University, with the title of University of Louisiana, to be 
 located in New Orleans, and to be composed of four faculties, viz : law, 
 medicine, natural science and letters, with an academical department, was 
 called into existence this year. The Medical College of Louisiana was 
 merged in it, and an appropriation of $25,000 made for the erection of the 
 central of that group of white, oblong buildings, fronting on Common 
 street, between Baronne and Dryades [then Phillippa] streets, and known 
 as the University buildings. The site was a donation from the State. 
 After many and chequered years, the University of Louisiana, seems now, 
 [1882] to have awakened to a new and vigorous life. 
 
448 AXXALS OF LOUISIANA. 
 
 Hitherto, judicial advertisements were published in English and 
 French, in compliance with the laws. But the American population was 
 becoming larger year by year, opening extensive areas, creating and 
 giving names to new parishes, and irresistibly asserting itself. In recog- 
 nition of the situation — as the phrase now is — the legislature declared the 
 publication in French not necessary, in twenty [specified] parishes, 
 mostly northern, in which the American population was largely in the 
 ascendant. 
 
 This year also witnessed the establishment of the State Insane Asylum 
 at Jackson, East Feliciana. 
 
 A census of the population of the State, with varied statistical returns, 
 was made. 
 
 Bankrupt banks and shattered corporations, that never ought to have 
 been created, were still liquidating. To facilitate their disappearance, the 
 State appointed a liquidator for each of the following, viz : Exchange and 
 Banking Company, Atchafalya Railroad and Banking Company, 
 Merchants' Bank, Bank of Orleans, Clinton & Port Hudson Railroad 
 Company, Mexican Gulf Railway Company, and the Nashville Railroad 
 Company. There were in liquidation besides, the New Orleans Companj'- 
 of Architects, and the New Orleans Improvement and Banking Company, 
 which latter was to drain the swamp regions between the city and Lake 
 Pontchartrain, and make it blossom like the rose. They built the St. 
 Louis hotel, exchange and ball room, and some stores, in a single 
 structure, which, under corrupt, carpet-bag rule, was bought for a State 
 House. 
 
 There was created at this time, a Treasury Department in the State 
 Government, a union of the offices of auditor and State treasurer, with 
 these officials as heads of the Department. Those curious in the matter, 
 are referred to Act 18, second session ; approved January 26th, 1847. 
 
 Another Act of the same session, provided for the disposal of the 
 " Improvement lands " granted by Congress. 
 
 Disposal of the public school lands was a more difficult matter. These 
 grants of the general government were too often located on irreclaimable 
 sea marsh, and other lands of no value, and the laws of congress imposed 
 such restrictions on their sale, as made the donation all but barren. An 
 ordinance of the new constitution required the establishment of a system 
 of free public schools, to be supported mainly by the proceeds from the 
 sale of these school lands ; and a memorial to congress was adopted by 
 the legislature, praying that other than sea marsh, etc., be appropriated, 
 and for such amendments in the act as were evidently necessary to make 
 the system of free public schools something more than a mere scheme. 
 At this session, also, an Act was passed in accordance with the require- 
 ments of the constitution in this matter of public education, and a school 
 fund created, based upon the proceeds of the sale of public lands. 
 Additional legislation was, however, required before any practical results 
 could be had. 
 
 The parish oi Orleans was extended to Felicity road, which was then 
 within the City of Lafayette, parish of Jefferson, and three municipalities 
 of New Orleans, were authorized to fund their debts in thirty-year bonds, 
 bearing seven per cent, interest. 
 
 Houses of refuge, for vagrants and juvenile delinquents, were established 
 in the city. 
 
ANNALS OF LOUISIANA. 449 
 
 Mansfield, De Soto parish, was incorporated. 
 
 Resolutions of respect, for the memory of Ex-Governor White, were 
 adopted by the legislature. 
 
 The storming and capture of Monterey also elicited from that body 
 eulogistic " resolutions of thanks," to General Taylor and the Louisiana 
 officers and soldiers engaged in that brilliant achievement. General 
 AVorth was voted a sword, in recognition of his services in the same 
 engagement. General Scott received a similar testimonial for his capture 
 of Vera Cruz and victory of Cerro Gordo, and General Taylor a gold 
 medal, in recognition of his victory of Buena Vista. 
 
 Hon. Pierre Soule was elected United States Senator. 
 
 1848-9, The general assembly consisted at this time of thirty-three 
 senators and ninety-seven representatives, on an apportionment of 375 
 electors for each representative. In his message to the legislature at the 
 opening of the session, Governor Johnson took decided ground against 
 the adoption of the " Wilmot proviso " — a virtual declaration of exclusion 
 of the South from all territory acquired from Mexico — which had been 
 introduced in the Federal House of Representatives by Mr. Wilmot, of 
 Pennsylvania. 
 
 Internal improvements were pushed with much vigor. 
 
 We spoke above of how little had been accomplished, in proportion to 
 the expenditures, in the way of internal improvements. Much reforma- 
 tion had been had in this direction. But the abuses must have been 
 great when the governor could sarcastically observe [January message] 
 that the State engineer's " report would announce the startling and 
 unprecedented fact that he had performed all the duties imposed on him 
 by the last legislature." ^ 
 
 A " road and levee fund " and an " internal improvement fund " were 
 created, and large sums voted for public works. Thirty-five thousand 
 dollars in the erection of buildings, purchase of apparatus, books, etc., for 
 the University of Louisiana. A Bureau of Statistics was created in con- 
 nection with the office of Secretary of State, and measures taken for the 
 classification and preservation of the archives of the State. The records, 
 surveys, etc., of Francis Gonsoulin, made under the Spanish domination, 
 were ordered purchased. We may note in connection herewith that a 
 large quantity of printed State documents — including even the decisions 
 of the Supreme Court — were this year bestowed upon the Louisiana 
 Historical Society. The volumes were deposited with the society " for 
 reference and preservation," says the act authorizing the donation. But 
 this society is long since defunct. 
 
 An act of the legislature placed absentees and non-residents on the 
 same footing with residents, in relation to the law of prescription. 
 
 The law was so amended that married persons might reciprocally claim 
 divorce, when their marital relations were such as rendered their living 
 together insupportable. 
 
 Bienville parish was created, and the towns of Houma, Vienna and 
 Providence incorporated. 
 
 General Persifer F. Smith was voted a sword by the legislature, and Pope 
 Pius IX., who had signalized his assumption of the tiara with the decla- 
 ration of a decidedly liberal policy and the inauguration of many reforms, 
 was warmly eulogized in resolutions adopted by the same body. 
 
450 ANNALS OF LOUISIANA. 
 
 Hiram Powers, the sculptor, received a commission for a full length 
 statue of Washington. This — one of the finest of Powers' efforts — stood 
 for years in the Capitol at Baton Rouge, till all-appropriating General 
 Butler arrested it as the counterfeit presentment of a rebel, and as rebel 
 property confiscated and shipped it North. 
 
 An extra session* of the legislature, was begun December 4th, in 
 compliance with the proclamation of the governor. The main object of 
 the session was to complete and set in action the system of free public 
 schools, though considerable other legislation of interest was also enacted. 
 
 The sum of five hundred and fifty thousand dollars was appropriated 
 for the organization and support of schools. Liberal sums were voted 
 from the improvement fund, among others, $10,000 for the completion of 
 the Barataria & Lafourche Canal, the State undertaking the work, and 
 securing itself by a lien on the property of the company. 
 
 A revision of the Statutes and Codes was ordered, and twelve thousand 
 dollars voted for the purpose. 
 
 Mr Caldwell was granted the exclusive privilege of lighting the City of 
 Lafayette with gas, for the term of twenty years. 
 
 A measure looking towards the establishment of a " State Seminary of 
 Learning," was also adopted by the legislature. 
 
 1850-2. The legislature convened in the new State House at Baton 
 Rouge — now the capital — on the 21st January. On the 28th, Hon, 
 Joseph Walker, who had been elected successor of Gov. Johnson, was 
 inaugurated. The session was a busy one, no fewer than 355 acts and reso- 
 lutions being the outcome. Among those most deserving of note was the 
 grant of the right of way through lands belonging to the State, to the 
 New Orleans & Jacksypn Railroad Company. 
 
 The Mechanics' & Traders' Bank and the City Bank were authorized 
 to go into liquidation. 
 
 Very liberal appropriations were made for the opening up of new roads, 
 the construction of levees, and the improvement of interior navigation ; 
 twenty thousand dollars being granted for the completion of the Bara- 
 taria & Lafourche Canal. 
 
 The towns of Abbeville, Bayou Sara, Homer, Minden, Shreveport, 
 Trinity and Vernon were incorporated. The latter was also made the 
 seat of justice of Jackson parish. This year Jefferson City, too, came 
 into corporate existence. 
 
 The limits of the parish of Orleans Avas extended " to that portion of 
 Felicity road, * * falling within the northern and middle lines thereof, 
 extending parallel from Levee street to the rear of the city." A new 
 charter was adopted for the city of New Orleans, under which the three 
 municipalities were re-united. An act providing for the liquidation of 
 their debts was also passed, and a Board of Health created. The New 
 Orleans Navigation Company's charter was declared forfeited and the 
 governor authorized to lease out the Bayou St. John and Canal Caron- 
 delet. The Mechanics' Society of New Orleans received from the State a 
 grant of the lot upon which was erected the Mechanics' Institute. Some 
 two million acres of the swamp and overflowed lands within her limits 
 
 "Under the new constitution tbe seseione were trienniaL 
 
ANNALS OF LOUISIANA. 451 
 
 iiad been granted to the State by Congress, on condition of their reclama- 
 tion, etc. The grant, with its conditions, was accepted. 
 
 Gen. Philemon Thomas, a soldier of the revolution and of the war of 
 1814-15, the leader in the capture of Baton Rouge from the Spaniards in 
 1810, and who had served for many years in the legislature and Congress, 
 having passed away, appropriate resolutions were adopted by the 
 legislature. 
 
 The constitution of 1845 did not give unqualified satisfaction. What 
 form of government does ? It was not Democratic enough — not up with 
 the spirit of " progressive Democracy." There was at this period much 
 bosh in the air about the infallibillity and omnipotence of the ballot. 
 Divine right of monarchy had given place to divine right of manhood 
 suffrage, and in keeping therewith, every functionary was to owe his office 
 to popular vote. This radicalism which had its birth in the Eastern and 
 Western States, invaded the slave-holding, conservative South, and 
 Louisiana, by popular vote, called another convention to revise her con- 
 stitution in accordance with the " spirit of the age." This body met at 
 the capital early in July ; gave to the people as radical a charter of the 
 organic law as could well be carried out at the time. All offices were 
 made elective — the judiciary even becoming the foot-ball of popular 
 caprice, and sessions of the legislature again made annual. 
 
 In the matter of State aid to enterprises, more or less legitimate, incor- 
 porating of banks, etc., the State was once more free " to foster and 
 promote " progress backwards. 
 
 A re-districting for congressional representation was made. The parish 
 of Orleans [left bank] constituted the first, the other parishes making up 
 the three remaining districts. 
 
 The Bureau of Statistics was abolished, and may be it was out of the 
 saving thereof, that $138,000 was given for school expenses. The City of 
 Lafayette — now Fourth District — was annexed to New Orleans, and the 
 Lafayette & Lake Pontchartrain Railroad Company given the right of 
 way through streets and public squares. New Orleans took her muni- 
 cipalities together again and constituted herself one city. 
 
 A pension of $6 per month, to be paid semi-annually, in advance, was 
 granted the veterans (or widows) of 1813-15. Any person making a cut- 
 off, from the Mississippi river, without authority of law, was made liable 
 to a fine of from one hundred to one thousand dollars, with imprisonment 
 not less than one week, nor more than one year. 
 
 The towns of Alexandria, Bastrop, Clinton, Farmerville, Madisonville, 
 Mansfield, Port Hudson, Sparta, Trenton, Trinity and Vernon were 
 incorporated. 
 
 Another chimerical project of connecting the Mississippi with Lake 
 Borgne, by way of Bayou Bienvenu, was authorized by the legislature. 
 A State institute for the deaf, dumb and blind was founded by the State, 
 this year, at Baton Rouge. 
 
 Chairs constructed from the platform of a battery in the Castle of San 
 Jua de Ulloa, harbor of Vera Cruz, were presented by Gen. Persifer F. 
 Smith for the presiding officers of the legislature. The thanks of this 
 body are on record, but what has become of the chairs ? Ten thousand 
 dollars were appropriated towards the erection of the equestrian statue of 
 Jackson, in Jackson Square ; five hundred dollars for a block for the 
 Washington monument, and measures taken for securing a site whereon 
 
452 ANNALS OF LOUISIANA. 
 
 to erect the monument in commemoration of the victory of January 8th, 
 1815. 
 
 1853. Paul 0. Hebert, who had been chosen governor, in the election 
 held under the new constitution, was inaugurated early in January. W. 
 W. Farmer was elected lieutenant-governor. 
 
 The year is memorable in our annals, from the prevalence of the most 
 appalling epidemic of yellow fever that had ever ravaged Louisiana. It 
 raged during summer and autumn, extended in various directions into 
 the interior, and subsided only after its victims could be counted by the 
 thousands. " Notwithstanding the heavy blow," says Mr. Gayarre, "she 
 [the State] was otherwise prosperous, and energetically engaged in the 
 construction of railroads, and in carrying on the works of internal 
 improvement." 
 
 The State at this time was divided into four congressional and eighteen 
 judicial districts. 
 
 A general system of free banking received the sanction of the legislature, 
 but the issue or circulation of any note less than the denomination of five 
 dollars was prohibited. 
 
 There was had a reorganization of the public school system, and ample 
 provision was made for its support ; the reclamation of the swamp and 
 overflowed lands granted by congress was begun ; the New Orleans, 
 Jackson and Great Northern, the New Orleans, Opelousas and Great 
 Western, the Vicksburg, Shreveport and Texas, and the New Orleans and 
 Baton Rouge Railroad Companies, were incorporated, with State aid for 
 the three first. 
 
 Parishes and municipalities were forbidden to contract any debt 
 without at the same time making provision to meet the principal and 
 interest, and the homestead law was repealed. The State Seminary of 
 Learning, at Alexandria, was this year practically projected. 
 
 The suffix Interior was henceforward to be discarded, and the parish to 
 be designated simply Lafourche. The town of Mount Lebanon, Bienville 
 parish, and that noble charity, St. Anna's Asylum, New Orleans, were 
 incorporated. 
 
 These were the days of filibustering expeditions, and New Orleans was 
 the headquarters and point d^appui of the filibusters. Cuba was, in the 
 language of our late war correspondents, the objective point. It was 
 hoped, with the aid of the disaffected on the island, to start an uprising 
 that would blaze into successful revolution, culminating not only in the 
 overthrow of Spanish rule, but in the annexation of Cuba to the United 
 States. The tragic ending of the Lopez expedition, and others equally 
 disastrous, must still be fresh in the memory of the American people. 
 
 The news of the fate of Lopez, young Crittenden and others, reaching 
 New Orleans, riotous demonstrations took place at the Spanish Consulate, 
 President Fillmore had, in accordance with international obligations, 
 issued his proclamation denouncing these filibustering expeditions. It 
 was as ineffective as the mythical Papal bull against the comet. 
 
 1854. This was another yellow fever year, but the epidemic did not 
 rage with the virulence that marked the scourge of 1853. 
 
 The apportionment of this year gave to the general assembly thirty-two 
 senators and eighty representatives ; the latter on a representative number 
 of eeven thousand. 
 
ANNALS OF LOUISIANA. 453 
 
 The opinion was prevalent that Spain intended abolishing slavery in 
 Cuba. The South, at least, was apprehensive of such a measure, \and 
 Louisiana but gave expression to the views of her sister slave-holding 
 States, in the resolution adopted by her general assembly. It was claimed 
 that the consummation of the policy of abolition in Cuba, would have a 
 most pernicious effect on the institutions and interests of the United 
 States, and that the situation called for energetic action on the part of the 
 Federal Government. 
 
 The notable Ostend Conference, in which figured three United States 
 Ministers to the European courts, Messrs. Soule, Buchanan and Mason, 
 was the response of the Federal Government to the demand of the South 
 for " the most decisive and energetic measures." 
 
 Up to this date no practical system of free public schools had been 
 established. Acts, original and mandatory, had passed the general 
 assembly year after year, but they sketched no broad and practical scheme, 
 nor could any amount of legislation evoke the genius of organization. 
 This year was created the " Free School Accumulating Fund." 
 
 The City of New Orleans was empowered, by legislative act, to take 
 stock of the New Orleans, Opelousas & Great Western, New Orleans & 
 Jackson, and the Pontchartrain Railroad Companies, in the aggregate 
 amount of five million dollars. 
 
 Besides the sum of $50,000, for the reclamation of the swamp and 
 overflowed lands, appropriations on an unusually liberal scale were made 
 for internal improvements of various character, and fifteen thousand 
 dollars placed to the credit of the pension fund for the veterans of 
 1814-15. 
 
 It was decreed that in the parish of Orleans, death sentences should be 
 carried out within the precincts of the parish prison, in presence of the 
 sheriff and at least four witnesses, residents therein, who should duly 
 attest, under oath, the fact of the execution to the court which rendered 
 the sentence. 
 
 A revision of the Statutes of a general character was authorized. 
 
 A " local option law," passed the legislature this year. It is doubtful 
 whether such an enactment could be procured in this, the year of grace, 
 1882. 
 
 That '* blessing in disguise " for the real estate owners of New Orleans, 
 the drainage tax, was now for the first time imposed. All the swamp 
 lands within the corporate limits were to be drained, and — still are to be. 
 " Man never is, but always to be, blest." 
 
 The employees in the United States Mint at New Orleans were exempted 
 from jury duty. Abbeville was made the seat of justice of Vermillion 
 parish, and the Grand Conclave of the S. W. M. was incorporated. 
 
 John Mitchell, the sterling Irish patriot and brilliant writer, was invited 
 by the legislature to visit the seat of government. 
 
 1855. Mr. Gayarre notes this year as being marked by the demolition 
 of the " Know-Nothing " Party in Louisiana. As a sop to "nativeism," 
 no doubt, the act prohibiting aliens from holding office of honor or profit 
 was re-enacted, and a very proper enactment it was. 
 
 The legislature was prodigal in its appropriations this year, voting the 
 sum of $50,000 to establish quarantine ; $30,000 to the State Seminary of 
 Learning ; $13,000 for the completion of the University buildings in New 
 
 60 
 
454 AXNALS OF LOUISIANA. 
 
 Orleans ; $10,000 to Centenary College ; $15,000 for merel}' setting up in 
 the capitol Powers' statue of Washington, and upwards of $20,000 for 
 improving the grounds around the State House. Another act, establishing 
 a system of free banking, was passed, a requisition of births and deaths 
 made obligatory, and the State Insane Asylum established. 
 
 New Orleans was empowered to establish public schools ; there was 
 another re-organization of the State system of free public education, and 
 once more the permanent fund was established. Cemeteries were 
 exempted from taxation, seizure for debt, and declared non-susceptible 
 of being mortgaged. Judges of the District Courts were authorized to 
 celebrate marriages, married women enabled to contract debts, a Recorder 
 of Mortgages and Registrar of Conveyances for the parish of Orleans 
 appointed ; Arcadia and Ringgold, Bienville parish ; Monroe, Claiborne 
 parish ; Winfield, Winn parish ; the Southern Pacific Railroad ; the 
 Louisiana College, St. .James parish, and that noble benefiiction, the Town 
 Aims-House, were incorporated. Let us also make note, that this year 
 ■witnessed the incorporation of the New Orleans Savings' Institution, 
 which a few years ago made so disastrous a wreck. 
 
 1856. Governor Hebert, in his January message to the legislature, 
 deplores, and in nervous terms condemns, the mockeries of the freedom 
 of the ballot. In the same paper — in which was his final message — he 
 testifies to the solid and advancing prosperity of the State, and takes a 
 decidedly advanced Southern position on the anti-slavery agitation. 
 
 Hon. Robert C. Wickliffe, who succeeded Governor Hebert in the 
 executive office, gave expression, in his inaugural, to sentiments even more 
 strongly pro-southern on this issue, and though not wishing to speak 
 highly of the Union, did not shrink from calculating the value of the bond 
 to the South. 
 
 There is but little deserving of note in the legislation of this year. 
 Registration of voters in the parish of Orleans was provided, and assess- 
 ment and collection of taxes authorized for public improvements in 
 Algiers, which was then coming prominently into notice. The usual lib- 
 eral appropriations were made, including $50,000 for the State Seminary 
 of Learning at Alexandria. Bellevue, Bossier parish, Flo^'d, Carroll parish, 
 and Natchitoches, were incorporated. Charters were granted the Louisiana 
 Central Stem of the Pacific, and the Vicksburg, Shreveport & Texas 
 Railroads; and a site for the Marine Hospital, in New Orleans, ceded to 
 the general government. The Kane Arctic Expedition was the object of 
 generous recognition in joint resolutions of the general assembl3^ 
 
 This year is made sadly memorable in our annals by that appalling 
 calamity, the Last Island storm. This island is the last of a chain 
 extending westward from the mouth of the Mississippi — hence the name. 
 It is some twenty-five miles long by three-fourths to one mile in width, 
 and distant about five to six miles from the nearest shore. It was 
 the summer resort of planters and their families from the Lafourche and 
 Attakapas regions ; and on Saturday, August 9, 1856 — the eve of the 
 frightful visitation — there were gathered thereon some three hundred 
 souls. On the night of that day, a strong N. E. wind set in, and continued 
 to grow in violence up to 10 a. m., Sunday, when it swelled into a terrific 
 hurricane, accompanied with rain that beat like hail. Every building 
 was prostrated, and everything afloat wrecked. But the worst was yet to 
 come. About 4 p. m. — the storm still ra^ino; — the waters of the Gulf and 
 
ANNALS OF LOUISIANA. 455 
 
 bay met, rose, and rolled their whelming waves over the whole island, 
 sweeping over one hundred human beings into eternity, and leaving but 
 a waste of waters, where, but yesterday, was the pleasant and healthful 
 retreat of happy summer idlers. Those who were not swallowed up in 
 the rush of the devouring waves, found refuge aboard a wrecked steamboat, 
 or escaped by clinging to floating spars, timbers of the demolished 
 houses, etc. ; many were carried into the neighboring marshes, and some 
 found precarious refuge in trees. When news of this dire catastrophe 
 reached the mainland, measures looking to the rescue of the survivors 
 were promptly set afoot. Some days, however, elapsed before the several 
 places of refuge of many of the unfortunates were discovered, and, in the 
 meantime, not a few perished from exhaustion or exposure. The number 
 who were filially rescued bore but a small proportion to the number of 
 victims. The latter were estimated to have amounted to nearly two 
 hundred. They yielded up the spirit in lone and scarce accessible spots, 
 whither the surging waves had carried them, or with loosened grasp of 
 spar — or other straw of hope — sunk into the remorseless deep ; manj'- 
 were buried beneath the whirling sand and debris of the island, but, by 
 far, the greater were suddenly entombed in the Gulf. 
 
 1857. Governor WicklifFe, in his January message, bears this strong 
 official testimony : "It is a well known fact that at the two last general 
 elections, many of the streets and approaches to the polls were completely 
 in the hands of organized ruffians, who committed acts of violence on 
 multitudes of naturalized fellow-citizens who dared to venture to exercise 
 the right of suffrage. Thus, nearly one-third of the registered voters of 
 New Orleans have been deterred from exercising their highest and most 
 sacred prerogatives." Such an election he denounced as an open fraud 
 on the popular will, and called upon the legislature to adopt the needed 
 repressive measures. 
 
 No less a sum than one hundred and thirt}^ thousand dollars was 
 taken from the State treasury this year for the penitentiary. It would be 
 an interesting calculation to ascertain how many hundreds of thousands 
 of dollars this institution has cost the taxpayers of Louisiana. And, 
 apropos, let it be noted down, that only $50,000 were given this year to 
 charitable institutions. 
 
 There were incorporated, the American Hook and Ladder Company, No. 
 2 ; Mechanics' & Dealers' Exchange ; Phoenix Fire Compan}^, No. 8 ; St. 
 Mary's Orphan Bo3^s' Asylum : the Carondelet Canal & Navigation Com- 
 pany; and the Washington Monument Association, all of New Orleans. 
 The latter body died, and gave no sign. 
 
 The Towns of Campte, Natchitoches, and Winnsborough, Franklin 
 parish, received incorporation. 
 
 1858. For this year, political antagonism, for a few days, threatened 
 New Orleans with fearful disaster. 
 
 On the night of the fourth of June, an armed body of men, about five 
 hundred, claiming to act under the orders of a Vigilant Committee, took 
 possession of the courthouse and State arsenal at Jackson Square, fortified 
 themselves by barricading the streets, and were the next da}'- joined by 
 about one thousand more men, under the same authority, and also armed 
 for deadly strife. 
 
 The Native American, or Know-Nothing Party, took possession of 
 
456 ANXALS OF LOUISIANA. 
 
 Lafayette Square, planted cannon there, and arming themselves, prepared 
 for the expected conflict. 
 
 Wiser counsels, however, prevailed, and the city election was held on 
 the seventh of the same month, and was concluded in the most quiet and 
 orderly manner, not even the slightest disturbance occurring, Gerard 
 Stith, the Native An)cricari candidate, being elected mayor. Colonel G. 
 T. Beauregard being the candidate of the Vigilant Committee party. 
 
 The "financial crisis " of 1857 [common to the United States] had been 
 completely tided over by the opening of the year 1858. But the State 
 treasury was not in a healthy condition, the expenditures for some years 
 past exceeding the revenues. And yet the old extravagant rate of appro- 
 priation went on for expenses of general assembly, internal improvements, 
 education, etc., while the returns were, indeed, beggarly. Many of the 
 beneficiaries of the public funds had no legitimate claim upon State 
 support. Here, for instance, we find Mount Lebanon University getting 
 $10,000; the New Orleans School of Medicine a like sum; and State 
 bonds to the amount of $40,000 were issued to the Baton Rouge, Gross 
 Tete & Opelousas Railroad. Let us not omit to note, however, that $1500 
 was ap})ropriated for the instruction of the deaf and dumb of the State 
 Asylum in the art of printing. 
 
 Within this period were incorporated the towns of Shiloh and Spearsville, 
 Union parish ; Ville Platte, St. Landry ; Breaux Bridge, St. Martin ; 
 Vernon, Jackson, Waterproof, Tensas, Creola, [name subsequently 
 changed to Montgomery] Winn; and that pleasant suburb of New 
 Orleans — the City of Carrollton. 
 
 The breed of dogs in Louisiana in those days must have been of far 
 more worth than that of which she can now boast, for an act of the legis- 
 lature declared them personal property. 
 
 lSo9. " Quaint and curious " reading, in the light of these after-years, 
 is the act of the legislature of 1859, permitting " free persons of African 
 descent to choose their own masters and become slaves for life." 
 
 Judah P. Benjamin Avas elected Lhiited States Senator the same year. 
 
 The apportioyjment of 1859 gave to the general assembly thirty-two 
 senators and ninety-eight representatives — the latter •' at a representative 
 number of six thousand nine hundred and twenty." 
 
 1860. This year, which opened on a prosperous and contented common- 
 wealth, closed in gloom and apprehension. The returns of agricultural 
 industry were unusually large ; money was abundant ; city and country 
 alike basked in the smiles of good fortune; and the metropolis was 
 blessed with a summer of exceptional healthiness, and with exemption 
 from the yellow fever. 
 
 The presidential canvass of that year was heated, notably so in 
 Louisiana, where fear, and dread of the future, were beginning to take 
 possession of the public mind. But this high-toned, gallant and chival- 
 rous people, conscious of being a republic, and able to govern themselves, 
 canvassed with dignity ; voted with entire freedom and order; and the 
 voice of the commonwealth met no dissent or murmur. Breckinridge 
 received 22,681 votes; Bell, 20,204; and Douglas, 7,625. The electoral 
 vote was cast for the first. 
 
 The vote of the country at large is thus given: Lincoln, 1,857,610; 
 Douglas, 1,365,976 ; Breckinridge, 847,953 ; Bell, 500,631. 
 
ANNALS OF LOUISIANA. 457 
 
 It could but be seen that the dividing and conquering of the conserva- 
 tive strength of the country, must, as it did, result from the split in the 
 Charleston convention ; but, in spite of that, Louisiana, as we shall see, 
 not only exhibited high republican character in the election, but she 
 afterwards proceeded with due deliberation and dignity, in accordance 
 with her political nature, to exercise (perhaps with impolicy) that self- 
 defense which the Creator, in making her a society of people, had charged 
 her with. 
 
 At the election referred to, the choice for a governor to succeed Robert 
 C. Wicklifife, fell upon Thomas Overton Moore, a wealthy planter of 
 Rapides parish, with conservative views, and some legislative experience. 
 He called an extra session of the legislature, which met December 10th, 
 and within a few days, passed an act for an election on January 7, 1861, 
 for delegates to a State convention. It also appropriated $500,000 for the 
 arming and equipping of volunteers ; the purchase of military stores, etc. 
 A military commission was also provided for and appointed. 
 
 On the 12th, Hon. Wirt Adams, commissioner for Mississippi, addressed 
 the legislature in joint session, announcing the course of action determined 
 on by his State, and urging the co-operation of Louisiana. 
 
 Meanwhile, the long continued anxiety and fear of the masses, together 
 with gloom}'- " thought for the morrow," resulting from anti-slavery agi- 
 tations and aggressions, were giving rise to a popular conviction that the 
 " domestic tranquillity " and " the blessings of liberty " the federal system 
 was devised to secure, could not be enjoyed in the Union. The public 
 mind became much excited, especially in New Orleans, where, on the 21st 
 of December, an immense popular meeting was held; one hundred guns 
 were fired ; the pelican flag was unfurled ; and various other enthusiastic 
 demonstrations were made, upon the news of the secession of South 
 Carolina. 
 
 1861. The result of the election of .January 7th, to the State Convention, 
 showed 20,448 for the professedly "southern rights" candidates against 
 17,296 for opponents favoring various policies, the leading one of them 
 being a co-operation of the Southern States within the "'^J^nion. This was 
 futile then, because South Carolina and other States had already seceded, 
 which seemed to make it necessary for all the South to do likewise, and 
 stand or fall together ! 
 
 The Convention met at the capital January 23, and with little delay, 
 organized itself by the election of the venerable and universall}' respected 
 Ex-Governor Alexander Mouton as president. 
 
 On the fourth day, or January 26th, an ordinance of secession Avas 
 adopted, by a vote of 113 yeas against 17 nays, the president voting with 
 the majority. Upon the proposition to submit the ordinance to the 
 popular vote, the yeas were 45, nays 84. One hundred and twenty-one 
 delegates signed the Ordinance of Secession, only seven refusing. 
 
 When the vote was declared, the president said : '" In virtue of the 
 vote just announced, I now declare the connection between the vState of 
 Louisiana and the Federal Union dissolved, and that she is a free, 
 sovereign and independent power." * 
 
 Immeiiataly after the adoption of this Ordinance, the following reso- 
 lution passed unanimously : Resolved, That we, the people of the State 
 
 * The Ordinance of Secession and the names of the signers will be found in the Appendix. 
 
458 ANNALS OF LOUISIANA. 
 
 of Louisiana, recognize the right of the free navigation of the Mississippi 
 river and its tributaries by all friendly States bordering thereon. And 
 we also recognize the right of egress and ingress of the mouth of the 
 Mississii)pi by all friendly States and Powers, and we do hereby declare 
 our willingness to enter into any stipulations to guarantee the exercise of 
 said rights. 
 
 On the same day the Convention adjourned, to re-assemble in New 
 Orleans, January 29th. 
 
 The legislature met in regular session, January 21st. The Governor, in 
 his message, gave a succinct history of the decisive measures which he 
 deemed the situation called upon him to adopt. " Respecting the manifest 
 will of the people," " and convinced, moreover, that prompt action was 
 the more necessary in order to prevent a collision betAveen the federal 
 troops and the people," he had taken possession of the military posts 
 and munitions of war within the State, " without opposition or difficulty." 
 
 In order that the deliberations of the Convention should not be over- 
 awed by the presence of a federal garrison, the barracks and arsenal at 
 Baton Rouge were the first occupied. These were quietly surrendered to 
 the State troops, January 11, the federal forces — far too feeble for resistance 
 — departing on the 13th. About the same time. Forts Jackson, St. Philip, 
 Pike and other posts,were occupied. A resolution, approving the Governor's 
 course, was adopted by the legislature ; and later, acts were passed trans- 
 ferring the State forces and munitions of war to the Confederate 
 Government. 
 
 The Convention re-assembled January 29th, in New Orleans, and the. 
 following day elected delegates to the Convention called to meet in 
 Montgomery, for the formation of a Southern Confederacy. March 22d, 
 it ratified the Constitution adopted by that body. 
 
 Louisiana, at this period, was enjoying remarkable prosperity. Her 
 banks were among the soundest in the Union, and her finances were in a 
 most satisfactory condition, there being a surplus in the State Treasury. 
 Her chief city exhibited a great increase of commercial activity, attracting 
 capital, mercantile enterprise, and desirable immigrants from other 
 sections, and from foreign parts. Her population notably increased, the 
 census of 1860 showing 666,431. 
 
 Moreover, her character was high, her credit good, and her faith untar- 
 nished. She had a fair proportion of religious and educational institutions. 
 Her lawyers, doctors, preachers and great men were at least up to the 
 average, while the charitable institutions of her principal city were, in 
 number, character and beneficence, unequalled. The Charity Hospital, 
 the Howard Association and the Free Market, to say nothing of many 
 others, would have added glor}' even to the greatest of cities. Nay, more, 
 she had, for two generations, shown full competency for self-government, 
 not only at home, but by sending a quota to the federal agency that would 
 have done credit to any of her sisters. 
 
 This annalist here gladly concludes his task, because the annals of war 
 and reconstruction, and the changes wrought thereby, have no attractions 
 for his pen. If " history is philosophy teaching by example," it can be 
 properly written only by him who can do it with judicial temper and 
 fairness. 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 TREATY AND CONVENTIONS BETWEEN THE UNITED STATES 
 AND THE FRENCH REPUBLIC. 
 
 Treaty between the French Republic and the United States, concerning the 
 Cession of Louisiana, signed at Paris the 30th of April, 1803. 
 
 The President of the United States of America, and the first consul of 
 the French republic, in the name of the French people, desiring to remove 
 all source of misunderstanding relative to objects of discussion, mentioned 
 in the second and fifth articles of the convention of the 8th Vendemiaire, 
 an 9, (30th of September, 1800) relative to the rights claimed by the 
 United States, in virtue of the treaty concluded at Madrid, the 27th of 
 October, 1795, between his Catholic Majesty and the said United States, 
 and willing to strengthen the union and friendship which at the time of 
 the said convention was happily re-established between the two nations, 
 have respectively named their plenipotentiaries, to-wit : the President of 
 the United States of America, by and with the advice and consent of the 
 senate of the said States, Robert R. Livingston, minister plenipotentiary 
 of the United States, and James Monroe, minister plenipotentiary and 
 envoy extraordinary of the said States, nearthegovernmentof the French 
 republic ; and the first consul, in the name of the French people, the 
 French citizen, Barbe Marbois, minister of the public treasury, who, after 
 having respectively exchanged their full powers, have agreed to the 
 following articles : 
 
 Article 1. Whereas, by the article the third of the treaty concluded 
 at St. Ildephonso, the 9th Vendemiaire, an 9, (1st October 1800) between 
 the first consul of the French republic and His Catholic Majesty, it was 
 agreed as follows : " His Catholic Majesty promises and engages, on his 
 part, to retrocede to the French republic, six months after the full and 
 entire execution of the conditions and stipulations herein relative to his 
 Royal Highness the Duke of Parma, the colony or province of Louisiana, 
 with the same extent that it now has in the hands of Spain, and that it 
 had when France possessed it ; and such as it should be after the treaties 
 subsequently entered into between Spain and other States." And, 
 whereas, in pursuance of the treaty, and particularly of the third article, 
 the French republic has an incontestable title to the domain, and to the 
 possession of the said territory. The first consul of the French republic, 
 desiring to give to the United States a strong proof of his friendship, doth 
 hereby cede to the said United States, in the name of the French republic, 
 forever and in full sovereignty, the said territory, with all its rights and 
 appurtenances, as fully and in the same manner as they had been 
 acquired by the French republic, in virtue of the above-mentioned treaty 
 concluded with His Catholic Majesty. 
 
460 APPEXDIX. 
 
 Art. 2. In the cession made by the preceding article are included the 
 adjacent islands belonging to Louisiana, all public lots and squares, vacant 
 lands, and all public buildings, fortifications, barracks, and other edifices, 
 Avhich are not private property. The archives, papers, and documents, 
 relative to the domain and sovereignty of Louisiana and its dependencies, 
 will be left in the possession of the commissaries of the United States, 
 and copies will be afterwards given in due form to the magistrates and 
 municipal officers of such of the said papers and documents as may 
 be necessary to them. 
 
 Art. 3. The inhabitants of the ceded territory shall be incorporated 
 in the Union of the United States, and admitted as soon as possible, 
 according to the principles of the federal constitution, to the enjoyment 
 of all the rights, advantages, and immunities of citizens of the United 
 States ; and in the meantime they shall be maintained and protected in 
 the free enjoyment of their liberty, property, and the religion which they 
 profess. 
 
 Art. 4. There shall be sent by the government of France a commis- 
 sary to Louisiana, to the end that he do every act necessary, as well to 
 receive from the officers of His Catholic Majesty, the said country and its 
 dependencies, in the name of the French republic, if it has not been 
 already done, as to transmit it in the name of the French republic to the 
 commissary or agent of the United States. 
 
 Art. 5. Immediately after the ratification of the present treaty by 
 the President of the United States, and in case that of the first consul 
 shall have been previously obtained, the commissary of the French 
 republic shall remit all the military posts of New Orleans, and other 
 parts of the ceded territory, to the commissar}^ or commissaries named 
 by the President to take possession ; the troops, whether of France or 
 Spain, who may be there, shall cease to occupy any military post from 
 the time of taking possession, and shall be embarked as soon as possible, 
 in the course of three months after the ratification of this treaty. 
 
 Art, 6. The United States promise to execute such treaties and 
 articles as may have been agreed between Spain and the tribes and nations 
 of Indians, until, by mutual consent of the United States and the said 
 tribes or nations, other suitable articles shall have been agreed upon. 
 
 Art. 7. As it is reciprocalh' advantageous to the commerce of France 
 and the United States to encourage the communication of both nations 
 for a limited time in the country ceded by the present treaty, until 
 general arrangements relative to the commerce of both nations may 
 be agreed on, it has been agreed between the contracting parties, that the 
 French ships coming directly from France or any of her colonies, loaded 
 only with the produce or manufactures of France or her said colonies ; 
 and the ships of Spain, coming directly from Spain or any of her colonies, 
 loaded only with the produce or manufactures of Spain or her colonies, 
 shall be admitted, during the space of twelve years, in the ports of New 
 Orleans, and in all other legal ports of entry within the ceded territory, 
 in the same manner as the ships of the United States coming directly 
 from France or Spain, or any of their colonies, without being subject to 
 any other or greater duty on merchandise, or other or greater tonnage 
 than those paid by the citizens of the United States. 
 
 During the space of time above mentioned, no other nation shall have a 
 right to the same privileges in the ports of the ceded territory ; the twelve 
 
APPENDIX. 461 
 
 years shall commence three months after the exchange of ratifications, if 
 it shall take place in France, or three months after it shall have been 
 notified at Paris to the French government, if it shall take place in the 
 United States ; it is, however, well understood, that the object of the 
 above article is to favor the manufactures, commerce, freight and naviga- 
 tion of France and of Spain, so far as relates to the importations that the 
 French and Spanish shall make into the said ports of the United States, 
 without in any sort affecting the regulations that the United States may 
 make concerning the exportation of the produce and merchandise of the 
 United States, or any right they may have to make any such regulations. 
 
 Art. 8. In future, and forever after the expiration of the twelve years, 
 the ships of France shall be treated upon the footing of the most favored 
 nations in the ports above mentioned. 
 
 Art. 9. The particular convention, signed this day by the respective 
 ministers, having for its object to provide for the payment of debts due to 
 the citizens of the United States by the French republic, prior to the 30th 
 of September, 1800, (8th Vendemiaire, an 9) is approved, and to have its 
 execution in the same manner as if it had been inserted in the present 
 treaty, and it shall be ratified in the same form, and in the same time, so 
 that the one shall not be ratified distinct from the other. 
 
 Another particular convention, signed at the same date as the present 
 treaty, relative to the definitive rule between the contracting parties, is in 
 the like manner approved, and will be ratified in the same form, and in 
 the same time, and jointly. 
 
 Art. 10. The present treaty shall be ratified in good and due form, 
 and the ratifications shall be exchanged in the space of six months after 
 the date of the signature by the ministers plenipotentiary, or sooner, if 
 possible. 
 
 In faith whereof, the respective plenipotentiaries have signed these 
 articles in the French and English languages ; declaring, nevertheless, 
 that the present treaty was originally agreed to in the French language ; 
 and have thereunto put their seals. 
 
 Done at Paris, the tenth day of Floreal, in the eleventh year of the 
 French republic, and the 30th of April, 1803. 
 
 Robert R. Livingston, 
 James Monroe, 
 Barbe Marbois. 
 
 Convention between the United States of America and the French 
 Republic, of the same date with the preceding Treaty. 
 
 The President of the United States of America, and the first consul of 
 the French republic, in the name of the French people, in consequence of 
 the treaty of cession of Louisiana, which has been signed this day, wishing 
 to regulate, definitively, everything which has relation to the said cession, 
 have authorized to this effect the plenipotentiaries, that is to say : the 
 President of the United States has, by and with the advice and consent 
 of the senate of the said States, nominated for their plenipotentiaries, 
 Robert R. Livingston, minister plenipotentiary of the United States, and 
 James Monroe, minister plenipotentiary and envoy extraordinary of the 
 said United States, near the government of the French republic ; and the 
 
462 APPEXDIX, 
 
 first consul of the French republic, in the name of the French people, has 
 named as plenipotentiary of the said republic, the French citizen, Barbe 
 Marbois, who, in virtue of their full powers, which have been exchanged 
 this day, have agreed to the following articles : 
 
 Article 1. The government of the United States engages to pay to the 
 French government, in the manner specified in the following articles, the 
 sum of sixty millions of francs, independent of the sum which shall be 
 fixed by another convention for the payment of debts due by Franco to 
 citizens of the United States. 
 
 Art. 2. For the payment of the sum of sixty millions of francs, 
 mentioned in the preceding article, the United States shall create a stock 
 of eleven millions two hundred and fifty thousand dollars, bearing an 
 interest of six per cent, per annum, paj^able half yearly in London, 
 Amsterdam, or Paris, amounting by the half 3'ear to three hundred and 
 thirty-seven thousand five hundred dollars, according to the proportions 
 which shall be determined by the French government, to be paid at either 
 place ; the principal of the said stock to be reimbursed at the treasury of 
 the United States, in annual payment of not less than three millions of 
 dollars each ; of which the first payment shall commence fifteen years 
 after the date of the exchange of ratifications ; this stock shall be trans- 
 ferred to the government of France, or to such person or persons as shall 
 be authorized to receive it, in three months at most after the exchange of 
 the ratifications of this treaty, and after Louisiana shall be taken posses- 
 sion of in the name of the government of the United States. 
 
 It is farther agreed, that if the French government should be desirous 
 of disposing of the said stock to receive the capital in Europe, at shorter 
 terms, that its measures for that purpose shall be taken so as to favor, in 
 the greatest degree possible, the credit of the United States, and to raise 
 to the highest price the said stock. 
 
 Art. 3. It is agreed that the dollar of the United States, specified in 
 the present convention, shall be fixed at five francs i^^^^oi or five livres 
 eight sous tournois. The present convention shall be ratified in good and 
 due form, and the ratifications shall be exchanged in the space of six 
 months, to date from this day, or sooner if possible. 
 
 In faith of which, the respective plenipotentiaries have signed the above 
 articles both in the French and English languages ; declaring nevertheless, 
 that the present treaty has been originally agreed on and written in the 
 French language ; to which they have hereunto affixed their seals. 
 
 Done at Paris, the tenth of Floreal, eleventh year of the French republic, 
 (30th April, 1803.) 
 
 [l. s.] Robert. R. Livingston, 
 
 [l. s.] James Monroe, 
 
 [l. s.] Barbe Marbois. 
 
 Convention between the United States of America and the French 
 Republic, also of the same date with the Louisiana Treaty. 
 
 The President of the United States of America, and the first consul of 
 the French republic, in the name of the French people, having by a treaty 
 of this date terminated all difficulties relative to Louisiana, and estab- 
 lished on a solid foundation the friendship which unites the two nations, 
 
APPENDIX. 463 
 
 and being desirous, in compliance with the second and fifth articles of 
 the convention of the 8th Vendemiaire, ninth year of the French republic, 
 (30th September, 1800) to secure the payment of the sum due by France 
 to the citizens of the United States, have respectively nominated as pleni- 
 potentiaries, that is to say : the President of the United States of America, 
 by, and with the advice and consent of the senate, Robert R. Livingston, 
 minister plenipotentiary, and James Monroe, minister plenipotentiary and 
 envoy extraordinary of the said States, near the government of the French 
 republic, and the first consul, in the name of the French people, the 
 French citizen Barbe Marbois, minister of the public treasury ; who, 
 after having exchanged their full powers, have agreed to the following 
 articles : 
 
 Article 1. The debts due by France to the citizens of the United States , 
 contracted before the 8th Vendemiaire, ninth year of the French republic, 
 (30th September, 1800) shall be paid according to the following regu- 
 lations, with interest at six per cent., to commence from the period when 
 the accounts and vouchers were presented to the French government. 
 
 Art. 2. The debts provided for by the preceding article are those whose 
 result is comprised in the conjectural note annexed to the present conven- 
 tion, and which, with the interest, cannot exceed the sum of twenty 
 millions of francs. The claims comprised in the said note, which fall 
 within the exceptions of the following articles, shall not be admitted to 
 the benefit of this provision. 
 
 Art. 3. The principal and interest of the said debts shall be discharged 
 by the United States, by orders drawn by their minister plenipotentiary, 
 on their treasury ; these orders shall be payable sixty days after the 
 exchange of the ratifications of the treaty and the conventions signed this 
 day, and after possession shall be given of; Louisiana bj^ the commis- 
 sioners of France to those of the United States. 
 
 Art. 4. It is expressly agreed, that the preceding articles shall compre- 
 hend no debts but such as are due to citizens of the United States, who 
 have been and are 3^et creditors of France, for supplies, embargoes, and 
 for prizes made at sea, in which the appeal has been properly lodged 
 within the time mentioned in the said convention of the 8th Vendemiaire, 
 ninth year, (30th September, 1800.) 
 
 Art. 5. The preceding articles shall apply only : 1st, to captures of 
 which the council of prizes shall have ordered restitution ; it being well 
 understood that the claimant cannot have recourse to the United States 
 otherwise than he might have had to the government of the French 
 republic, and only in case of the insufficiency of the captors ; 2d, the 
 debts mentioned in the said fifth article of the convention, contracted 
 before the 8th Vendemiaire, an 9, (30th September, 1800) the payment of 
 which has been heretofore claimed of the actual government of France, 
 and for which the creditors have a right to the protection of the United 
 States ; the said fifth article does not comprehend prizes whose condem- 
 nation has been or shall be confirmed ; it is the express intention of the 
 contracting parties not to extend the benefit of the present convention to 
 reclamations of American citizens, who shall have established houses of 
 commerce in France, England, or other countries than the United States, 
 in partnership with foreigners, and who by that reason and the nature of 
 their commerce, ought to be regarded as domiciliated in the places where 
 such houses exist. All agreements and bargains concerning merchandise, 
 
464 APPENDIX. 
 
 ■which shall not be the property of American citizens, are equally excepted 
 from the benefit of the said convention, saving, however, to such persons 
 their claims in like manner as if this treaty had not been made. 
 
 Art. 6. And that the different questions which may arise under the 
 pi'eceding article may be fairly investigated, the ministers plenipoten- 
 tiary of the United States shall name three persons, who shall act from 
 the present and provisionally, and who shall have full povrer to examine, 
 Avithout removing the documents, all the accounts of the different claims 
 already liquidated by the bureau established for this purpose by the 
 French republic ; and to ascertain whether they belong to the classes 
 designated by the pi'esent convention and the principles established in it, 
 or if they are not in one of its exceptions, and on their certificate, declaring 
 that the debt is due to an American citizen or his representative, and that 
 it existed before the 8th Vendemiaire, ninth year, (30th September, *1800) 
 the creditor shall be entitled to an order on the tveasury of the United 
 States in the manner prescribed by the third article. 
 
 Art. 7. The same agents shall likewise have power, without removing 
 the documents, to examine the claims which are prepared for verification, 
 and to certify those Avhich ought to be admitted by uniting the necessary 
 qualifications, and not being comprised in the exceptions contained in the 
 present convention. 
 
 Art. 8. The same agents shall likewise examine the claims Ayhich are 
 not prepared for liquidation, and certify in writing those which in their 
 judgments ought to be admitted to liquidation. 
 
 Art. 9. In proportion as the debts mentioned in these articles shall 
 be admitted, they shall be discharged Avith interest at six per cent, by 
 the treasury of the United States. 
 
 Art. 10. And that no debt Avhich shall not have the qualifications 
 above mentioned, and that no unjust or exorbitant demand may be 
 admitted, the commercial agent of the United States at Paris, or such 
 other agent as the minister plenipotentiary of the United States shall 
 think proper to nominate, shall assist at the operations of the bureau, 
 and co-operate in the examination of the claims ; and if this agent shall 
 be of opinion that any debt is not completely proved, or if he shall judge 
 that it is not comprised in the principles of the fifth article above 
 mentioned ; and if, notAA'ithstanding his opinion, the bureau established 
 by the French gOA-ernment should think that it ought to be liquidated, 
 he shall transmit his observations to the board established by the United 
 States, Avho, Avithout removing the documents, shall make a complete 
 examination of the debt and vouchers Avhich support it, and report the 
 result to the minister of the United States. The minister of the United 
 States shall transmit his observations, in all such cases, to the minister 
 of the treasury of the French republic, on Avhose report the French 
 government shall decide definitiA^ely in every case. 
 
 The rejection of any claim shall have no other effect than to exempt 
 the United States from the payment of it, the French goA'ernment 
 reserAdng to itself the right to decide definitively on such claim so far as it 
 concerns itself. 
 
 Art. 11. E\'ery necessary decision shall be made in the course of a 
 year, to commence from the exchange of ratifications, and no reclamation 
 shall be admitted afterwards. 
 
APPENDIX. 465 
 
 Art. 12. In case of claims for debts contracted by the government of 
 France with citizens of the United States, since the 8th Vendemiaire, 
 ninth year, (30th September, 1800) not being comprised in this convention, 
 they may be pursued, and the payment demanded in the same manner 
 as if it had not been made. 
 
 Art. 13. The present convention shall be ratified in good and due 
 form, and the ratifications shall be exchanged in six months from the 
 date of the signature of the ministers plenipotentiary, or sooner, if 
 possible. 
 
 In faith of which, the respective ministers plenipotentiary have signed 
 the above articles, both in the French and English languages, declaring, 
 nevertheless, that the present treaty has been originally agreed on and 
 written in the French language ; to which they have hereunto affixed 
 their seals. 
 
 Done at Paris, the tenth day of Floreal, eleventh year of the French 
 republic, (30th April, 1803.) 
 
 [l. s.] Robert R. Livingston, 
 
 [l. s.j James Monroe, 
 
 [l. s.] Barbe Marbois. 
 
 ''ORDINANCE OF SECESSION." 
 The State of Louisiana. 
 
 An Ordinance to dissolve the Union between the State of Louisiana and other 
 States united ivith her, under the compact entitled : 
 
 " The Constitution of the United States of America." 
 
 We, the people of the State of Louisiana, in Convention assembled, do 
 declare and ordain, and it is hereby declared and ordained, that the 
 Ordinance passed by us in Convention on the 22d day of November, in 
 the year. Eighteen Hundred and Eleven, whereby the Constitution of the 
 United States of America, and the amendments of the said Constitution, 
 were adopted ; and all laws and ordinances b}^ which the State of 
 Louisiana became a member of the Federal Union, be and the same are 
 hereby repealed and abrogated ; and that the Union now subsisting 
 between Louisiana and other States, under the name of " The United 
 States of America," is hereby dissolved. 
 
 We do further declare and ordain, That the State of Louisiana hereby 
 resumes all rights and powers heretofore delegated to the Government of 
 the United States of America ; that her citizens are absolved from all 
 allegiance to said government; and that she is in full possession and 
 exercise of all those rights of sovereignty which appertains to a free and 
 independent State. 
 
 We do further declare and ordain, That all rights acquired and vested 
 under the Constitution of the United States, or any acts of Congress, or 
 treaty, or under any law of this State, and not incompatible with this 
 Ordinance, shall remain in force and have the same effect as if this Ordi- 
 nance had not been passed. 
 
4G6 APPENDIX. 
 
 The LegisLiture met at Baton Rouge on the 21st of January, 1861, and 
 on the 18th of February, the following Joint Resolution was signed by 
 the Governor : 
 
 1st. Be it resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the State 
 of Louisiana, in Gcnrral Assemhh/ convened, That the right of a sovereign 
 State to secede or withdraw from the Government of the Federal Union 
 and resume her original sovereignty when in her judgment such act 
 becomes necessar}^ is not prohibited by the Federal Constitution, but is 
 reserved thereby to the several States, or people thereof, to be exercised, 
 each for itself, without molestation. 
 
 2d. Be it further resolved, ete., That any attempt to coerce or force a 
 sovereign State to remain within the Federal Union, come from what 
 quarter and under w^hatever pretense it may, will be viewed by the people 
 of Louisiana, as well on her own account as of her sister Southern States, 
 as a hostile invasion, and resisted to the utmost extent. 
 
 C. H. Morrison, 
 
 Speaker of the House of Representatives. 
 
 B. W. Pearce, 
 President pro tern, of the Senate. 
 Approved, February 18th, 1861. 
 
 Thos. 0. MoORE, 
 Governor of the State of Louisiana. 
 A true copy : 
 
 Pliny D. Hardy, 
 
 Secretary of State. 
 
 A Joint Resolution was also passed approving the action of the 
 Governor in taking possession of the Forts and Arsenals wdthin the 
 limits of the State. 
 
 An act was passed authorizing the Governor to transfer and cause to be 
 mustered into the service of the Provisional Government of the Confed- 
 erate States of America, the regular military force of this State, organized 
 under an ordinance of the Convention of the people of Louisiana, passed 
 on the 5th of February, 1861. 
 
 Two hundred and seventy-three acts in all were passed, but few of 
 which Avere of general interest or worthy of mention here. 
 
 CONVENTION OF 1861. 
 
 On the 23d day of January, 1861, in pursuance of an Act of the Legis- 
 lature, passed at its Special Session of 1860, the Convention of thepeo])le 
 of the State of Louisiana, met at Baton Rouge ; one hundred and twenty- 
 eight of the one hundred and thirty delegates answering roll call at tlie 
 opening Session. 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 467 
 
 List of Delegates. 
 
 Adams, W. R Orleans. 
 
 Anderson, W. D Tensas. 
 
 Avegno, B Orleans. 
 
 Barbin, Ad Avoyelles. 
 
 Barrow, \V. R West Feliciana. 
 
 Bermiidez, E Orleans. 
 
 liienvenu, C St. Bernard, 
 
 Plaquemines, Orleans, Right 
 
 Bank, and JeflFerson. 
 
 Bonford, P. R Orleans. 
 
 Bonner, A Franklin. 
 
 Briscoe, C. C Madison. 
 
 Burton, W St. Landry. 
 
 Bush, L . . . Lafourche, 
 
 --- St. Charles. 
 
 Butler, E. G. W Iberville. 
 
 Caldwell, T. J Bossier. 
 
 Cannon, F. . Avoyelles. 
 
 Carr, W. C... Union. 
 
 Clark, George Orleans. 
 
 Cook, T. A St. Lo.ndry. 
 
 Connelly, G. F Terrebonne. 
 
 Conner, L. P Concordia, 
 
 Tensas and Madison. 
 
 Conner, S. S St. Tammany. 
 
 Cottman, T Ascension. 
 
 Davidson, W. A Livingston. 
 
 Davison, E. C Sabine. 
 
 Declouet, A St. Martin, 
 
 Vermillion. 
 
 DeBlanc, A St. Martin, 
 
 Dorsey, S. W Tensas. 
 
 Duffel, E Ascension. 
 
 Dupre, L.J St. Landry, 
 
 Calcasieu and Lafayette. 
 
 Elam, J. B DeSoto. 
 
 Elgee, J. K Rapides. 
 
 Estlin, W. R Orleans. 
 
 Fusilier, G. L St. Mary. 
 
 Fuqua, J. East Feliciana, 
 
 East and West Baton Rouge. 
 
 Gladden, A. H Orleans. 
 
 Gardere, F Plaquemines, 
 
 St. Bernard and Orleans, Right 
 
 Bank. 
 
 Garrett, J Ouachita. 
 
 Gaudet, J. K St. James. 
 
 Graves, Y. W DeSoto. 
 
 Gray, A. M Avoyelles, Pointe 
 
 Coupee and West Feliciana. 
 
 Gill, W. E Calcasieu. 
 
 Girard, M. E Lafayette. 
 
 Griihn, S. H Union. 
 
 Hernandez, J Orleans. 
 
 Herron, A. S . . . East Baton Rouge, 
 
 East Feliciana and West Baton 
 
 Rouge. 
 Hough, W. H Caldwell, 
 
 Catahoula and Winn. 
 Hodge, B. L Caddo, Natch- 
 itoches, Sabine and DeSoto. 
 
 Hodges, R Bienville, Bossier. 
 
 Hollingsworth, S . . St. John Baptist. 
 
 Johnston, F Iberville. 
 
 Kennedy, T. H Orleans. 
 
 Kidd, W. M Jackson, Union. 
 
 Labutut, F Orleans. 
 
 Lawrence, E Plaquemines.' 
 
 Lagroue, C. T Jefferson. 
 
 LeBlanc, CO Orleans. 
 
 LeBourgeois, L. S St. James. 
 
 Lewis, F Bienville. 
 
 Lewds, J. L Claiborne. 
 
 Lewis, G. W . . Orleans, Right Bank. 
 
 Manning, T. C Rapides. 
 
 Marshall, H DeSoto, Caddo, 
 
 Scibine and Natchitoches. 
 
 Marrero, A St. Bernard. 
 
 Marks, L. D Caddo. 
 
 Marks, I. N . Orleans. 
 
 Martin, N. C Assumption, 
 
 Ascension and Terrebonne. 
 
 Martin, J. H Carroll. 
 
 Magee, N Washington. 
 
 Melanc^on, 0. E Assumption. 
 
 Meredith, C. C Caldwell. 
 
 Miles, W. R Orleans. 
 
 Michel, J. J Orleans. 
 
 Miller, J. E Concordia. 
 
 Moore, J St. Martin. 
 
 Mouton, A Lafayette, 
 
 St. Landry and Calcasieu. 
 
 McCloskey, J.' Orleans. 
 
 McCollam, A Terrebonne. 
 
 McFarland, H Bossier. 
 
 McNeelv, S. W Pointe Coupe'e. 
 
 Norton,'M. 0. H . Orleans. 
 
 Olivier, J. G St. Mary. 
 
 O'Brien, D Vermillion. 
 
 Patterson, W East Feliciana. 
 
468 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 List of Delegates. — Continued. 
 
 Perkins, J. S Lafourche. 
 
 Perkins, J., Jr Madison, 
 
 Tensas and Concordia. 
 
 Perkins, W. M Orleans. 
 
 Peck, W. R Madison. 
 
 Pemberton, J Orleans. 
 
 Pierson, A. H Natchitoches. 
 
 Pierson, D "Winn. 
 
 Pike, W. S East Baton Rouge. 
 
 Polk, H. M . . . Morehouse, Ouachita. 
 Pope, N. W .... West Baton Rouge. 
 
 Provosty, A Point Coupee. 
 
 Pugh, W Assumption. 
 
 Richardson, H Washington, 
 
 St. Helena, Livingston and St. 
 
 Tammany, 
 Roman, A. B St. James, 
 
 St. John Baptist. 
 
 Roselius, C Jefferson. 
 
 Rozier, J. Ad Orleans. 
 
 Slawson, J. B Orleans. 
 
 Smart, W. W Rapides. 
 
 Swayze, E. L St. Landry. 
 
 Semmes, T. J Orleans. 
 
 Stewart, CD Point Coupee. 
 
 Scott, T. W East Feliciana. 
 
 Avoj'elles and West Feliciana. 
 
 Of the above, Manning, of Rapides, and Gladden, of Orleans, were the 
 only delegates absent at the opening of the Convention. Alexander 
 Mouton, of Lafayette, was elected President on the first ballot. J. T. 
 Wheat, of Orleans, Avas elected Secretary. 
 
 Sparrow, E Carroll. 
 
 Sompayrac,J Natchitoches. 
 
 Scott, N. G Claiborne. 
 
 Stocker, W. T Orleans. 
 
 Smith, W.M.M St. Mary. 
 
 Tappan, B. S Orleans. 
 
 Talbot, A Iberville. 
 
 Taliaferro, J. G Catahoula. 
 
 Tavlor, R St. Charles. 
 
 Taylor, J. A St. Landry. 
 
 Texada, L Rapides. 
 
 Thomasson, J. S Claiborne. 
 
 Todd, R. B Morehouse. 
 
 Towles, J. T West Feliciana. 
 
 Tucker, C. J Lafourche. 
 
 Valentine, M Carroll, Franklin. 
 
 Verret, A Terrebonne, 
 
 Ascension and AssumjDtion. 
 
 Warren, W. B. Jackson. 
 
 Walker, A Orleans. 
 
 Williams, L A. .East Baton Rouge. 
 
 Williams, J. A St. Helena. 
 
 Williamson, G Caddo. 
 
 Wilkinson, J. B., Jr. .Plaquemines. 
 
 Wiltz, P. S Orleans. 
 
 York, Z Concordia. 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 Roster of Louisiana Troops in the Confederate Service. 
 
 469 
 
 No. 
 
 COMJIA^'D 
 
 1st 
 1st 
 
 1st 
 
 Kegiment 
 
 { Reg't I 
 
 EnUsted 
 
 Men. 
 
 1st 
 
 Kegiment 
 
 2d 
 
 " 
 
 3d 
 
 " 
 
 4tli 
 
 " 
 
 5th 
 
 " 
 
 eth 
 
 " 
 
 7tli 
 
 " 
 
 8th 
 9th 
 
 " 
 
 10th 
 
 " 
 
 11th 
 l-2th 
 13th 
 
 u 
 
 14th 
 
 " 
 
 15th 
 
 " 
 
 16th 
 
 " 
 
 17th 
 
 " 
 
 18th 
 
 " 
 
 lS)th 
 
 " 
 
 20th 
 
 " 
 
 21st 
 
 " 
 
 2-:2d 
 
 .' 
 
 23d 
 24th 
 a5th 
 
 ,, 
 
 26th 
 
 " 
 
 27th 
 28ih 
 29th 
 30th 
 31sr, 
 32d 
 
 ." 
 
 2d 
 
 " 
 
 1st 
 1st 
 1st 
 2d 
 3d 
 4th 
 5th 
 6th 
 
 Battalion. 
 
 Arm 
 
 OF 
 
 Service. 
 
 CaTalry. 
 Aitilleiy 
 
 Infantry 
 
 Cavalry. 
 
 Aitillery 
 Infantry 
 Zouaves. 
 Infantry 
 
 Commander. 
 
 Col. John S Scott. 
 Col. C. A. Fuller. . 
 
 Col. M.J. Smith... 
 
 Col. Jas. Strawbiidge. . 
 Col. Dan'l VV. Adams. 
 
 CCol. 
 ) Col. 
 ^Col. 
 ^Col. 
 
 Col. 
 (Col. 
 i Col. 
 CCol. 
 iCol. 
 CCol. 
 ^Col. 
 (Col. 
 icol. 
 
 Col. 
 
 Col. 
 i^Col. 
 i Col. 
 
 Col. 
 
 Col. 
 
 Col. 
 CCol. 
 ^Col. 
 
 Col. 
 CCol. 
 ^Col. 
 CCol. 
 iCol. 
 CCol 
 ) Col. 
 CCol. 
 )Col. 
 cCol. 
 )Col. 
 (Col. 
 <Col. 
 <Col. 
 (Col. 
 i Col. 
 
 W. E. Shivers 
 
 A. a. Harrison 
 
 J. M. Williams 
 
 W. M. Levy 
 
 J. B. Gilmore 
 
 A. C. Hunter 
 
 K. J Barrow 
 
 Henry f orno 
 
 T.G.Hunt 
 
 \Vm. Monagham 
 
 I. (Jr. Seymour 
 
 Davidson B. Penn... 
 
 Harry T. Hays 
 
 H. B. KeUy.' 
 
 Leroy A. Stafford. . 
 Eugene Waggaman. 
 
 M. Marigiiy 
 
 S. F. Marks 
 
 Thos. M. Scott 
 
 li. L. Gibson 
 
 Z.Tork 
 
 K. W. Jones 
 
 Edmund Pendleton. 
 
 Dan'l Gober 
 
 P. Houd 
 
 Kobt. Eichardson . . . 
 
 S. S.Heard 
 
 L. L. Armant 
 
 A. Mouton 
 
 W. P. Winans 
 
 B. L. Hodge 
 
 Leon Von Zincken . . 
 
 Aug. Eeichard 
 
 Isaac W. Patton 
 
 M. L. Smith... 
 
 Edward Higgins 
 
 Charles H. Herrick. 
 PaulE. Theard 
 
 Col. J. C. Lewis 
 
 : Col. Winchester HaU . . . 
 
 Col. Alex'r Declouet 
 
 Col. Leon D. Marks 
 
 Col. Henry Gray 
 
 Col. Allen Thomas 
 
 Col. G. A. Breaux 
 
 Col. Chas. H. Morrison. 
 Col. J. C. Denis 
 
 Col. W. G. Vincent 
 
 Lt Col. J n. Walton... 
 
 Lt. Col. Eightor 
 
 Lt. Col. Coppens 
 
 Major Wheat 
 
 Lt. CoL J. McEnery 
 
 Lt. Col. Kennedy 
 
 Lt. Col. C. H. Morrison. 
 
 Date 
 OF Eank. 
 
 May 4, 1861. 
 Aug. 14, 1861, 
 
 May 31, 1862 
 
 Feb. 16, 1863. 
 
 June 16, 1862. 
 June 6, l'8'62. 
 
 .Vov. 5, 1862. 
 Mch. 29, 18G3. 
 
 July 31, 1862. 
 Nov. 7, 1862. 
 
 July 20, 1862, 
 
 June 10, 1861, 
 Apr. 24, 1862. 
 Oct. 1, 1862 
 
 Aug. 
 Aug, 
 Sept. 
 Aug. 
 
 9, 1861. 
 
 9, 18H1. 
 16, 1861. 
 15, 1862. 
 
 Oct. 
 May 
 
 14, 1862. 
 8. 1862. 
 
 May 
 
 Sept. 
 July 
 
 23, 1862. 
 26,' 186'2. 
 
 July 
 May 
 
 17, 1862 
 "7, I862' 
 15," 1862. 
 
 May 26, 1862 
 
 Dec. 31, 1862. 
 Nov. 25, 1862. 
 
 Apr. 19, 1862. 
 May 1, 1862. 
 May 3, 1862. 
 
 June 16, 1862. 
 
 Sept. 1, 1862. 
 
 Eemarks. 
 
 Promoted Brigadier-General. 
 
 Promoted Major-General. 
 Promoted Brigadier-General. 
 
 Promoted Brigadier-General. 
 Promoted Brigadier-General. 
 Promoted Brigadier-General. 
 
 Promoted Brigadier-General. 
 
 Dele gate to Provisional Congress at 
 Montgomery. 
 
 Promoted Brigadier-General. 
 
 Afterwards changed to 15th regim't 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 Memoir of Franjois-Xavier Martin vii 
 
 PRELIMINARY CHAPTER. 
 
 A topographical view of the State of Louisiana 1 
 
 CHAPTER L 
 
 Discovery of America. Charles VIII. Henr}^ VII. Ferdinand and 
 Isabella. Cabot. Prima Vista. Lewis XII. Denys. Aubert. 
 Gulf of St. Lawrence. Indians carried to France. Henry VIII. 
 Francis I, Ponce de Leon. Florida. The Baron de Lev3% 
 Sable Island. Vasques de Aillon. Velasquez. Veranzany. 
 Narvaez. Apalachians. The peace of Cambray. Cartier. River 
 of St. Lawrence. Hernandez de Soto. Chickasaws. Alabamas. 
 Mobilians. Choctaws. The Mississippi. Red river. Robert- 
 val. Canada. Luis de Muscoso. Los Vaqueros. Edward VI. 
 Henry II. Mary. Philip II. Elizabeth. Charles IX. Coligny. 
 Ribaud. Caroline. Albert. Barre. Laudoniere. Sir John 
 Hawkins. Pedro de Menendez. St. Augustisne. Destruction of 
 the French Colony. De Gourgues. Henry^IH. Sir Humphrey 
 Gilbert. Sir Walter Raleigh. Ocracock. Virginia. Sir Richard 
 Grenville. De la Roche. Acadie 31 
 
 CHAPTER IL 
 
 The Bourbons. Henry IV. Philip III. Pontgrave and Chauvin. 
 Trois rivieres. Gosnold. Cape Cod. James I. Commandeur 
 de la Chatte. Champlain. Hochelaga. Dumontz. Acadie. 
 Port Rossignol. Port Mouton. Penobscot. Pentagoet. Port 
 Royal. Poutrincourt. Earls of Southampton and Arundel. 
 Captain Weymouth. Ill success of a colony sent to Acadie. 
 Pontgrave sails with the colonists for France; he is met by 
 Poutrincourt and returns. The Marchioness of Guercheville. 
 James' patents to the northern and southern companies. Abor- 
 tive effort of the northern. First attempt of the southern. . 
 James Town. Quebec. Expedition against the Iroquois. Henry 
 Hudson. Chauvin. New France. Prosperous state of the 
 colony. Second expedition against the Iroquois. Louis XIII. 
 
H CONTENTS. 
 
 PAOF. 
 
 Jesuits sent to Acadie. Lake Champlain. Nova Belgica. New 
 Amsterdam. Lasausaie. Acadie. La Heve. Port Royal. 
 Becancoiirt. St. Sauveur. Argal drives the French from Acadie. 
 The Earl of Soissons. Prince of Conde. Montreal. Company 
 of St. Maloes. New England. Third expedition against the 
 Iroquois. They murder three Frenchmen and plot the destruction 
 of the colony. Brother Pacific. Marshal of Montmorency. New 
 Plymouth. Philip IV. Sir William Alexander. First irruption 
 of the Iroquois. William and Edward de Caen. Fort of Quebec. 
 Jesuits sent to Canada. Charles I. Swedish colony. Company 
 of New France. Kertz. Captureof a French fleet. Famine and 
 dissensions. The capture of Quebec. Sir Robert Heath. Caro- 
 lana. New Hampshire. Peace of St. Germain. Canada and 
 Acadie restored 45 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 Emery de Caen. Maryland. Acadie. Commandeur de Razilly. 
 New Hampshire. Maine. Rhode Island and Providence plan- 
 tations. Connecticut. College of Quebec. Montmagny. The 
 Duchess of Aiguillon. Ursuline Nuns. Sisters of the Congre- 
 gation. Fort Richelieu. Louis XIV. Unionof the New England 
 colonies. Their treaty with Acadie. D'Aillebout. Offer of a 
 treaty to Canada. Oliver Cromwell. Commissioners of New 
 England. Indians. Missionaries among them. Godefroy and 
 Dreuillettes sent to Boston. De Lauson. Irruption of the 
 Iroquois. Swedish colony abandoned. D'Argenson. Bishop of 
 Petra. Vicar General. Seminary of Montreal. The English 
 from Virginia discover the Ohio. Charles 11. proclaimed in 
 Virginia. Irruptions of the Iroquois near Quebec. Epidemic. 
 Meteors. D'Avaugour. Dissensions among the chiefs. Sale of 
 ardent spirits to the Indians. Earthquake. Vision of a nun. 
 The charter of the company of New France surrendered. De 
 Gaudais. Superior and inferior courts of justice. Grant to the 
 Duke of York. The Dutch driven from New Belgica. New Y6rk. 
 Albany. New Jersey. Fresh dissensions among the chiefs. De 
 Courcelles. De Tracy. Viceroy of New France. Regiment of 
 Carignan Salieres. New colonists. Horses, oxen and sheep 
 brought from France to Canada. Fort Sorel. Fort St. Theresa. 
 Expedition against the Iroquois. Another earthquake. Carolina. 
 Charles II. of Spain. West India Company. Quebec erected 
 into a Bishop's See. French and English Plenipotentiaries in 
 Boston. Frontenac. Fort at Catarocoui. Salem. Father Mar- 
 quette. Joliet. Lake Michigan. Outagami river. Ouisconsing. 
 
CONTENTS. iii 
 
 Mississippi. Illinois. Missouris. Arkansas. Great rejoicings 
 
 in Quebec on the discovery of the Mississippi 58 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 The French are driven from Acadie. Complaints of the Canadians 
 against their Governor. The Abbe de Fenelon. Sale of spirit- 
 uous liquors to the Indians. Representations of the Clergy. The 
 Archbishop of Paris and Father de la Chaise. Lasalle proposes 
 to explore the course of the Mississippi. He goes to France. The 
 Prince of Conti. The Chevalier de Tonti. Lasalle returns. Fort 
 Frontenac. Adventurers from New England cross the Mississippi 
 and visit New Mexico. Lakes Ontario, Erie, Huron and Michigan. 
 Little Miami river. Illinois. Lasalle's men endeavor to indis- 
 pose the Illinois against him. He defeats their plan. The 
 intrigue of a Mascoutan Indian. Attempt to poison Lasalle. 
 Arkansas. Dacan. Hennepin. Mississippi. Falls of St. 
 Anthony. Sioux. Pennsylvania. Miamis. Outagamis. Ainous. 
 Mascoutans. Fort Crevecoeur. Irruptions of the Iroquois into 
 the country of the Illinois. Acadie restored to the French. Fort 
 Penkuit. Chicagou. Illinois. Mississippi river. The Miami. 
 Chickasaws. Fort Prudhonime. Cappas. Arkansas. Alligators. 
 Taensas. Red river. Quinipissas. Tangipaos. Gulf of Mexico. 
 Lasalle takes possession of the country at the mouth of the 
 Mississippi. He calls the river St. Louis and the country Louis- 
 iana. He is visited by Indians from several tribes. He returns. 
 His part}'- is attacked by the Quinipissas, who are routed. The 
 Natchez. Taensas. Arkansas. Chickasaw Bluffs. Lasalle is 
 detained there by sickness. The Chevalier de Tonti proceeds 
 with part of the men. They meet at Michillimackinac. The 
 Chevalier goes to Fort St. Louis, and Lasalle to Quebec. Count 
 de Frontenac. Lasalle sails for France 68 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 Le Febvre de la Barre. De Meules. Lasalle arrives in France. The 
 Marquis of Seignelai. Expedition for the Mississippi. Volun- 
 teers, . soldiers, colonists, mechanics and priests. The fleet 
 weighs anchor. Beaujeu, Hispaniola. Cuba. Beaujeu misses 
 the mouth of the Mississippi, and is driven westwardly. Bay of 
 St. Bernard, Lasalle attempts to find the Mississippi by land. 
 Indians. One of the vessels is cast ashore, James II. Com- 
 merce of Canada. Champigny de Norroy. Card money. 
 Beaujeu sails for France. A fort built at the western extremity of 
 the bay of St. Bernard. Another attempt to find the Mississippi. 
 
IV CONTENTS. 
 
 PAGB 
 
 Point Hurler. An establishment commenced on the banks of 
 Rio Colorado, or riviere aux vaches. The fortifications on the 
 gulf are demolished, and all the colonists remove to Colorado, 
 where they build a new fort. The Chevalier de Tonti descends 
 the Mississippi in search of the colonists. They are distressed 
 by disease, Indian hostilities and famine. Last attempt to find 
 the Mississippi. Irruptions of the Iroquois in Canada. The 
 Marquis de Denonville. His correspondence with the Governor 
 of New York. Pasteboard money. Lasalle loses his last vessel, 
 and sets off for the Illinois. Buffaloes. Biscatonge Indians. 
 Chinonoas. Rattle Snake. Cenis. Nassonitcs. Sickness and 
 return of Lasalle. State of the colony. Lasalle determines to 
 return to France by the way of Canada. One of his party falls 
 sick, is sent back, and killed by the Indians. Resentment of his 
 lirother. The party stops to kill buffaloes, and cure the meat. 
 Mutiny. Lasalle and his nephew are murdered. Division of the 
 party. The murderers quarrel and some of them are killed, the 
 others seek refuge among the Indians. Lasalle's brother. Father 
 Athanase and five others reach the Arkansas. Couture and 
 Delaunay. Lasalle's brother and his companions go to the 
 Illinois, and from theiice to Quebec, and embark for France .... 79 
 
 CHAPTER VL 
 
 The English excite the Iroquois against the Indian allies of the 
 French. Proposals of James II. to Louis XIV. for the neutrality 
 of their American dominions. Instructions to Denonville. The 
 English attack Iberville, in Hudson's Bay, and he repels them. 
 Iroquois Chiefs decoyed, made prisoners and sent to the gallies 
 at Marseilles. Vaudreuil leads the Canadian forces against the 
 Iroquois. Correspondence between Denonville and the Governor 
 of New York. The French are attacked in a defile. Good con- 
 duct of their red allies and the militia. The Iroquois are routed, 
 one of their villages is burnt and their plantations laid waste. 
 Denonville marches back to Niagara and builds a fort. Epidemic 
 disease. The Iroquois ravage the plantations near Fort Fron- 
 tenac. They sue for, and obtain peace. Population of Canada. 
 Abdication of James II. William and Mary. Distress of the 
 colony on the Gulf of Mexico. Alonzo de Leon scours the 
 country. Province of Texas. Frontenac returns to New France. 
 Commissioners for settling the boundaries of the French and 
 English Colonies in North America. Frontenac's instructions. 
 De Calliere. La Cafiiniere. Projected attack of New York. 
 Irruptions of the Iroquois. Declaration of "War between France 
 
CONTENTS. V 
 
 PACE 
 
 and England. Corlaer, Sermentel and Kaskebe. Medal. Fam- 
 ine. Vaudreuil takes possession of Arcadie. Du Palais. The 
 English possess themselves of Hudson's Bay. Iberville retakes 
 it and winters there. Scurvy. Iberville reduces the Fort of 
 Pentagoet. The English land in Acadie and distress the planters. 
 Iberville's success in New Foundland. The Fort in Hudson's 
 Bay taken b}^ the English, and retaken by Iberville. Peace of 
 Riswick. De Calliere 88 
 
 CHAPTER VIL 
 
 Iberville's offers to plant a French colony in Louisiana are accepted. 
 An expedition is prepared, sails from La Rochelle, and touches 
 at Hispaniola. Andres de la Riolle. Pensacola. Massacre, 
 Horn, Ship, Chandeleur and Cat islands. A settlement begun 
 on Ship island. Bay of Pascagoula. Biloxi and Bayagoula 
 Indians. Iberville and Bienville enter and ascend the Missis- 
 sippi. Fork of Chetimachas. Washas. Plaquemines. Bayou 
 Manshac. Oumas. Point Coupee. Portage de la Croix. Lakes 
 Maurepas and Pontchartrain. Bay of St. Louis. A fort built on 
 the Bay of Biloxi. Iberville leaves Sauvolle in command and 
 sails for France. Scotch colony at Darien. Sauvolle sends a 
 small vessel to Hispaniola for provisions. Colapissas, Chicka- 
 saws. Missionaries among the Yazous and Tunicas. Mobile 
 and Thome Indians visit Sauvolle. English Turn. French 
 Protestants. Return of Iberville. Boisbriant. St. Denys. 
 Malton. A fort built on the Mississippi. The Chevalier de 
 Tonti. The Natchez and Taensas. St. Come. Rosalie. Yatas- 
 sees. Protest of the Governor of Pensacola. Washitas. Red 
 river. Iberville sails for France, Philip VT ' "AVar of the 
 Spanish succession. St. Peter and Green rivers. Fort Thuillier. 
 Sagan. Sauvolle dies, Choctaws, Chicasaws and Alibamons. 
 Return of Iberville. Headquarters removed to Mobile. Dauphine 
 island. Iberville departs for France. Queen Anne. Declara- 
 tion of War, Irruption from Canada into Massachusetts and 
 New Hampshire. Attack of St. Augustine. Wabash. Apalach- 
 ian Indians. Bienville chastises the Alibamons. Recruits. 
 Grey Sisters. Fire at Biloxi. Disease. Destruction of the 
 French settlement on the Wabash. Chickasaws and Choctaws. 
 Cherokees. Illinois. Father Gratiot. Bayagoulas. Hurons. 
 Arkansas. Iberville's death. Tunicas. Taensas. Attack on 
 Pensacola. Touaches. Abikas. Alibamons. Another attack 
 on Pensacola. Irruption from Canada into Massachusetts. 
 (Jeneral Nicholson. De Muys and Diron D'Artaguctte. The 
 
Vi CONTENTS. 
 
 rvGK 
 
 English take Port Royal in Acadie. The settlement on Mobile 
 river removed higher up. The Chickasaws attack the Choctaws. 
 Failure of the English in an attempt against Quebec and Mont- 
 real. La Ville Voisin. Anthony Crozat. Peace of Utrecht. .. . 06 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 Charter. Lamotte Cadillac, Duclos, Lebas, Dirigoin, Laloire des 
 Ursins. Superior Council. Arrangements with Crozat. His 
 plans. Misunderstanding between the new governor and Bien- 
 ville. Indians. Card money of Canada. Part of the Choctaws 
 drawn to the British. Fort Toulouse. St. Denys. George I. 
 Lamotte Cadillac goes to the Illinois in search of a silver mine, 
 and is disappointed. The Choctaws are prevailed on to drive 
 the British traders from their villages. Massacre of the Indians 
 in South Carolina. Bienville reconciles the Choctaws. Arrival 
 of two companies of infantry. Marigny de Mandeville. Begot. 
 Rouzant. Bienville commandant general on the Mississippi. 
 Ships from La Rochelle and Martinico not allowed to trade. 
 Louis XV. The Duke of Orleans. The Cherokees attack the 
 French on the Wabash. Bienville goes to the Mississippi. Has 
 a conference with the Chaouachas. Reaches Natchez. Is 
 informed of the murder of two Frenchmen, and demands the 
 head of a sun. An Indian consents to die in his room and his 
 head is brought to Bienville, who refuses to receive it. The 
 same deception is attempted with as little success on the next 
 day. Six pirogues from the Illinois are prevented from falling 
 into the hands of the Indians. The Natchez kill one of their 
 chiefs who participated in the murder. Bienville goes to their 
 village. He builds Fort Rosalie, and leaves a garrison in it. One 
 of Crozat's ships arrives at Mobile. St. Denys returns from 
 Mexico. Re-establishment and new modelling of the Supreme 
 Council. Ordinances relating to redemptioners and muskets. 
 Delery, Lafreniere, and Beaulieu go on a trading journey to the 
 Spanish provinces. Dutisne goes Avith a detachment to build a 
 fort at Natchez. L'Epinai and Hubert and three companies of 
 infantry arrive. New colonists. Trefontaine, Gimel, Dubreuil 
 and Mossy. The bay of Ship island is stopped up. Misunder- 
 standing between Bienville and L'Epinai and Hubert. Crozat's 
 agents make a last but unsuccessful attempt to trade with Vera 
 Cruz. He surrenders his privilege 114 
 
CONTENTS. Vll 
 
 PAGE 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 Charter of the Western Company. Card money of Canada. Bienville, 
 Hubert and Boisbriant. New Leon. Bay of St. Joseph. New- 
 Orleans. Large grants of land. New settlers. Richbourg. 
 Grandval. Accession of population. Laharpe. Bizart. Deser- 
 tion. Spaniards defeated on the Missouri. L'Archambault. St. 
 Denys. Bay of St. Bernard. San Fernandes, New Philipines. 
 War between France and England. Pensacola taken and retaken. 
 Dauphine island. Champmeslin. Pensacola taken again. Supe- 
 rior Council and inferior Tribunals. A Mineralogist sent to the 
 Illinois. New Biloxi. Dutisne. Delochon. Mine. Union of 
 the Western and Eastern Companies. Proclamation fixing the 
 price of goods and produce. Laharpe. Chickasaw hostilities. 
 Illinois, Repeal of the edict respecting the transportation of 
 convicts to Louisiana. Plague. Father Laval. Natchitoches. 
 Negroes. Mines. Choctaws and Alibamons. Accession of 
 population. Beaumonoir. Bouteux. Laloire. Boispinel. Bay 
 of St. Bernard. Headquarters removed to New Biloxi. Girls 
 from the Salpetriere. Deserters. German settlers. Bellisle. 
 Survey of the passes of the Mississippi. Guineaman. Irruptions 
 of the Spaniards from Santa Fe. Marigny de Mandeville. 
 D'Arensbourg. German passengers. Failure of Law. Another 
 Guineaman. 124 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 Duvergier. Bernard de Laharpe. Bay of St. Bernard. De Marsil- 
 liere, Dudemaine and Duplesne. A Guineaman. Principal 
 establishment ordered to be removed to New Orleans. Survey of 
 the riyer of the Arkansas. The Marquis de Gallo. Chickasaw 
 hostilities. Father Charlevoix. Toulouse island. Loubois, 
 Latour. Price of negroes, tobacco and rice fixed. Copper coinage. 
 Military, civil and religious divisions of the province. Larenau- 
 diere. German coast. Peace with Spain. Pensacola restored. 
 Chickasaw hostilities among the Yazous. Fort on the Missouri. 
 Capuchins. A hurricane. Hostilities committed by the Natchez. 
 An unexpected crop of rice. The Directors remove to New 
 Orleans. A Swiss company deserts to Charleston. Large grants 
 of land. Indigo. St. Joseph abandoned. Spanish force in the 
 province of Texas. The Choctaws defeat the Chickasaws. Alter- 
 ations in the value of coin. Jesuits. The Catholic the only 
 religion tolerated. Expulsion of the Jews. Black Code. Edict 
 relating to correspondence. Edict relating to horses and cattle. 
 De la Chaise and Perrault. Phillip V. abdicates the throne. 
 
ym CONTENTS. 
 
 I'AGE 
 
 Louis ascends it and dies. Philip resumes the crown. Superior 
 Council. Treaties Avith the Jesuits, Capuchins and Ursuline 
 Nuns. Perrier. George II. Girls de la Cassette. Improvement 
 in New Orleans. Land regulations 143 
 
 CHAPTER XL 
 
 The Chickasaws meditate the overthrow of the colony. They engage 
 other nations in the plot. The Choctaws discover it. Perrier 
 sends for some of the chiefs. They deceive him. He represents 
 the helpless condition of the province. His representations are 
 disregarded. The Chickasaws abandon or delay their plan. Ill 
 conduct of Chepar at the Natchez. They determine on the 
 slaughter of the French, and engage the neighboring tribes in 
 the plot. A female discovers and discloses it. Boats arrive 
 from New Orleans. Massacre at Fort Rosalie and Fort St. Peter. 
 Father Doutresleau. Perrier sends a vessel to France and 
 two up the Mississippi. He dispatches couriers to the Illi- 
 nois and his Indian allies. He fortifies New Orleans and collects 
 a small force. Apprehension from the negroes, Loubois. Mis- 
 pleix. The Natchez make propositions of peace. Their high 
 pretensions. Lesueur arrives with the Choctaws. They cannot 
 be restrained, and make a bold charge with some success. The 
 army arrives ; the trenches are opened. Loubois is compelled to 
 accept the propositions of the Natchez. He builds a fort and 
 returns. The Chickasaws afford an asylum to the Natchez and 
 endeavor to gain the Illinois. Fidelity of the latter. The Chou- 
 achas, influenced by the Chickasaws, attempt to rise against the 
 French. The negroes are employed to destroy them. Succor 
 from France. Perrier goes to Mobile. His call on the wiilitia. 
 Some of the Natchez cross the Mississippi. Symptoms of insur- 
 rection among the negroes. Perrier goes with a small army to 
 Black river. He reaches an Indian fort. Opening of the 
 trenches. A parley. The Great Sun and two other chiefs come 
 and are detained. One of them escapes. Part of the Indians 
 leave the fort. The wife of the Great Sun comes to the camp. 
 Part of the remaining Indians surrender; the rest leave the 
 fort. They are pursued and some prisoners taken. The army 
 returns to New Orleans. Four .hundred prisoners shipped to 
 Hispaniola. Surrender of the Company's charter. State of the 
 province 158 
 
CONTENTS. ix 
 
 PAGE 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 Salmon takes possession of the province for the king. Property of 
 the company purchased. Redemptioners and muskets. Supe- 
 rior council reorganized. The Natchez are repulsed at Natchi- 
 toches. Negro plot. Exemption from duties. Military peace 
 establishment. Georgia settled. War in Europe. Bienville 
 re-appointed governor. Troops. Furloughs and grants of land. 
 Scarcity of provisions. Card money. Irruption of the Natchez. 
 Bienville prepares to march against them. Conspiracy among 
 the soldiers at Tombeckbe. Bienville's unsuccessful attack on a 
 fort of the Chickasaws. The Chevalier d'Artaguette. Spanish 
 hostilities againit the British in the West Indies. The French 
 cabinet approves the plan of a new expedition against the Chick- 
 asaws. Peace in Europe. The garrison of St. Augustine rein- 
 forced. Bienville at the head of the colonial force ascends the 
 ' Mississippi. Detachments from Canada and the Illinois. Inju- 
 dicious delay. Disease. Famine. Celeron marches against the 
 westernmost fort of the Chickasaws. They sue for peace. Bien- 
 ville destroys his forts and the army returns. Death of Charles 
 VI. Maria Theresa. War in Europe 169 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 The Marquis de Vaudreuil. Superior Council. Georgia.. Nova 
 Scotia. War. Irruption from Canada. Paper securities. The 
 Island of Cape Breton taken. D'Anville's fleet. Ferdinand VI. 
 Hurricane. Dearth. Relief from the Illinois. Overseer of the 
 highways. Surveyor General. Olivier Duvezin. Civil Regula- 
 tions. Peace of Aix-la-Chapelle. Redemptioners and muskets. 
 Larouvilliere. Ohio Company. Complaint of the Governor 
 General of New France. Quota of troops in Louisiana. The 
 culture of tobacco encouraged. British traders" ahiong the Twig- 
 twees arrested. Exemptions of duty. Recruits from France. 
 Sugar Cane. Myrtle Wax. Irruption of the ChickasaAvs. 
 Vaudreuil marches into their country. A fort built on French 
 creek. Governor Dinwiddle. Major Washington. Kerlerec. 
 Descloseaux. Jumonville. Villiers. Fort Necessity. Murder 
 of the Commandant on Cat Island. Beausejour. The Acadian 
 Coast. General Braddock. Fort Duquesne. Crown Point and 
 Niagara. Declaration of War. Tte Earl of Loudoun. The 
 Marquis de Montcalm. Forts Oswego and William Henry taken 
 by the French, and the Islands of Cape Breton and St. John taken 
 by the British, Fort Frontenac, General Forbes, Fort 
 
X CONTENTS. 
 
 TAGK 
 
 Diiquesne, Fort Massac. Barracks in New Orleans. Roche- 
 more. Diaz Anna. Belot. Marigny de Mandeville. Lahoupe. 
 Ticonderoga. Crown Point, Niagara and Quebec taken. Charles 
 III. George III. Attakapas, Opelousas and Avoyelles. Depre- 
 ciated paper. Unsuccessful negotiation between Great Britain 
 and France. The family compact. iMartinico, St. Lucie, Grenada 
 and Havana taken. Treaty between France and Spain. Peace 
 of Paris 179 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 Treaty of Paris. East and West Florida. Governor -Johnson. Pen- 
 sacola. Mobile and Fort Toulouse. Indian allies of the French. 
 D'Abadie. Major Loftus. Baton Rouge. Natchez. Feliciana. 
 Manshac. Petit Manshac. The king's letter. Consternation of 
 the colonists. General meeting. Pviblic securities. Jean 
 Milhet. Sugar planters. Dissensions in the British pro^^nces. 
 Aubr3^ Pirates in the West India seas. Madame Desnoyers. 
 Ulloa. Introduction of African negroes. Census. Fort Bute. 
 A Peruvian lady. Spanish troops. New forts. Great cold. 
 General meeting. Petition to the council. Thoughts of resis- 
 tance. Aid asked from Governor Elliot. Decree of the council. 
 Ulloa embarks. The cables of the ship he was in cut. General 
 meeting. A deputation to France. Spanish troops destined for 
 Louisiana arrive at the Havana. Urissa. Ill success of the 
 deputation. Edict relating to paper securities. Alternate hopes 
 and fears. A Spanish fleet arrives at the Balize. O'Reilly's 
 message. Town meeting. A deputation is sent. The fears of 
 the inhabitants subside. The Spanish fleet reaches New Orleans. 
 O'Reilly lands and takes possession 193 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 Commission and powers of O'Reilly. His assessors. Census of 
 New Orleans. Arrest of Foucault and others. Death of Villere. 
 Proceedings against the prisoners ; their pleas, sentence and 
 execution. The superior council abolished. A cabildo established. 
 The Spanish laws substituted to the French. Regidors. Alcades. 
 Attorney-general syndic and clerk. Alferez Real. Principal pro- 
 vincial Alcade. Alguazil mayor. Depository General. Receiver of 
 fines. Regiment of Louisiana. Dearth of provisions. Oliver Pol- 
 lock. Don Louis de LTnzaga. Governor. Commandants. O'Reilly 
 visits the German and Acadian coasts. Iberville and Pointe 
 Coupee. Bobe Descloseaux. French paper money. Ordinances 
 for the grant of land and police regulations. Slavery of Indians. 
 
CONTENTS. xi 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Black Code. Don Cecilio Odoartlo. Ecclesiastical arrangement. 
 Hospital. Nuns. Eevenue of New Orleans. Departure of 
 O'Reilly. Massacre in Boston 205 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 Buccarell3^ Doucet and his companions released. Commerce of 
 New Orleans. Royal Schedule. Marquis de la Torre. Hurricane. 
 Spanish language. Bishopric of Cuba. Bobe Descloseaux. 
 Daniel Boone. Tea destroyed in Boston. Fagot de la Gariniere. 
 'Grant of lands. Creeks and Chickasaws. First Congress in 
 Philadelphia. Parliamentary proceedings. General Gage. 
 General Lyman. Battles of Lexington and Bunker Hill. Inva- 
 sion of Canada. Olivier de Vezin. La Barre de la Cestiere. 
 Don Bernard de Galvez. Unzaga promoted. The British land 
 on Long Island. Battle of Brooklyn. Washington evacuates 
 New York and crosses the Hudson. Attack at Trenton 216 
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 Don Bernard de Galvez. Don Diego J. Navarro. Commercial regula- 
 tions. Captain Willing. Counties of Illinois and W^ashington. 
 Battles of Princeton and Brandywine. Philadelphia taken. 
 Battle of Germantown. Surrender of Burgoyne. Migrations from 
 the Canary islands. Royal Schedule. Vincennes taken. French 
 treaty. Philadelphia evacuated. Savannah taken. Don Diego 
 D. del Postigo. Migration from Malaga. War between 
 Great Britain, -France and Spain. Galvez's success at Manshac. 
 Baton Rouge and Natchez. Hurricane. First settlement on 
 Cumberland river. Mobile taken. Attack on St. Louis. Charles- 
 ton taken. Don Juan M. de Cagiga. Siege of Pensacola 222 
 
 CHAPTER XVIIL 
 
 The garrison driven out of Fort Panmure. Distress of the inhabit- 
 ants. Hurricane. Excessive flood. Battle of Guilford. Sur- 
 render of the British army at York. Galvez's promotion. 
 Father Cyrillo. Don Estevan Miro. Commercial regulations. 
 Preliminary articles. Don Joseph de Espeleta. Treaty of peace. 233 
 
 CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 Galvez's promotion. Lepers. Unzaga's r3sidence. Census. Colo- 
 nial expenditures. A commissary of the holy office. Acadians. 
 Commerce. Bando de buen gobierno. Don Pedro Piernas. 
 Kentucky. Irish priests. Don Diego de Guardoqui. Trade with 
 the western part of the Laiited States. General Wilkinson, 
 Trade with Philadelphia. Northwestern territory of the United 
 States 239 
 
XU CONTENTS. 
 
 PAOB 
 
 CHAPTER XX. 
 
 Conflagration. Permission given to Wilkinson to trade. Emi- 
 grants. Census. Navarro's departure. His ideas in regard to the 
 people of Kentucky. Their plans. Charles IV. Wilkinson. 
 Encouragement to migration. Irish emigrants. Federal consti- 
 tution of the United States. Washington. Nootka Sound. 
 Negotiations at Madrid. Southwestern territory. Don Francisco 
 de Bouligny. Don Nicholas Maria Vidal. Indian affairs. Insur- 
 rection in Hispaniola. State of Vermont , 250 
 
 CHAPTER XXL 
 
 The Baron de Carondelet. Banclo de buen gohierno. Regulations as 
 to slaves. Gen. Wayne. Guinea trade. Louis XVI. War 
 against France. Fortifications. Militia. New commercial 
 regulations. Don Francisco de Rendon. Bishopric of Louisiana. 
 Don Louis de Penalvert. Genet's meditated expedition against 
 Louisiana. The Floridas. Moniteur de la Louisiane. Canal 
 Carondelet. Manufiicture of sugar resumed. Conflagration. 
 Negro plot at Pointe Coupee. Police regulations. Extensive 
 grants. The Marquis de Maisonrouge. Gayoso sent to confer 
 Avith Kentucky patriots. Treaty of San Lorenzo 257 
 
 CHAPTER XXII. 
 
 Treaty between Spain and the United States. The Count de Santa 
 Clara. The Baron de Bastrop. Lighting of the city. Power's 
 mission to Kentucky. Clark and Lachaise's expeditions. Royal 
 audience at Puerto del Principe. New Regidors. Ellicot. Lieu- 
 tenant M'Leary. The Baron seeks to delay the evacuation of 
 the Spanish posts. Lieutenant Pope. Power's second mission. 
 His instructions. The Baron reinforces the garrisons of Fort 
 Panmure and Walnut Hill. Commotion at Natchez. Gayoso 
 retires into the fort. His proclamation. General meeting of the 
 people. Committee of safety. Their propositions are approved 
 by Gayoso. The Baron accedes to them. His departure. State 
 of Tennessee. John Adams 267 
 
 CHAPTER XXIII. ^^ 
 
 Don Manuel Gayoso de Lemos. Don Carlos de Grandpre. Power's 
 report. General Collet. Instructions to commandants. The 
 'French princess. Captain Guion brings a reinforcement to 
 Natchez. Line of demarcation. ^Mississippi territor}'. Georgia 
 claim. Schedule for the disposal of vacant land. Deposit sus- 
 pended. Arrangement as to deposit. Land regulations. Death 
 of Gayoso. The Marquis de Casa Calvo. Upper Louisiana. 
 
CONTENTS. xni 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Don Ramon de Lopez. Warlike measures of the United States. ^ 
 Vacant land. Division of the northwestern territory. Deposit 
 restored. Louisiana ceded to Spain. Grant of land to the city. 
 Thomas Jefferson. Treaty between the United States and 
 France 274 
 
 CHAPTER XXIV. 
 
 Don Juan M. de Salcedo. Treaties with the Chickasaws and Choc- 
 taws. Don Carlos de Jaen. Royal schedule. The land office 
 shut. The deposit disallowed. The State of Ohio. The deposit 
 partially restored. Form of government. Laussat. His proc- 
 lamation. Address of the inhabitants. The Marquis de Casa 
 Calvo. Commissioners' proclamation. Cession of Louisiana to 
 the United States. Possession delivered to the commissioner of 
 France. His proclamation. Municipal body. Claiborne and 
 Wilkinson receive possession for the United States 287 
 
 CHAPTER XXV. 
 
 A view of the province at the cession. Boundaries. Civil division. 
 Land. Population. Indians. Officers. Clergy. Paper securities. 
 Taxes. Duties. Expenditures. Imports. Exports. Shipping. 298 
 
 CHAPTER XXVL 
 
 Claiborne's first proclamation. Superintendent of the revenue. 
 Court of Pleas. Communication from the Spanish minister. 
 Spanish convention. First territorial form of government. Col- 
 lection and navigation laws. Proclamation of pardon to deserters. 
 Departure of Laussat and Wilkinson. Dissatisfaction of the 
 inhabitants. General meeting. Memorial to Congress. A 
 deputation chosen to carry it. Bank of Louisiana. Military 
 associations. Expedition to the Pacific Ocean. Insurrection at 
 Bayou Sara. The new government put into operation. First 
 session of the legislative council. Exploring parties to the 
 Washita and Red rivers. Bishop of Montelrey. Second form of 
 territorial government. Amendments proposed by the deputation. 
 Land laws. Office of discount and deposit of the Bank of the 
 United States. Second session of the legislative council. Ex- 
 ploring party to the sources of the Mississippi. Captain Lewis 
 reaches the Pacific Ocean. The Marquis de Casa Calvo and the 
 remaining Spanish troops leave New Orleans. Pope's bull. The 
 Kempers seized at Pinckneyville and liberated near Point Coupee. 318 
 
Xiv CONTENTS. 
 
 I'Ar.K 
 
 CHAPTER XXVII. 
 
 New form of government. Officers. Meeting of the house of repre- 
 sentatives. Bishop of Baltimore. Vicar General. Return of the 
 Marquis of Casa Calvo. Encroachment of the Spaniards in the 
 west. Major Porter. Don Simon de Cordero. Don Antonio de 
 Herrera. First territorial legislature under the new government. 
 Secretary of war's orders to Wilkinson. Pike's expedition up the 
 Missouri. Claiborne goes to Natchitoches. His communication 
 to Herrera. Gushing sent to Natchitoches. Wilkinson arrives 
 there. His communication to Cordero. First rumors of Burr's 
 movements. Wilkinson marches towards the Sabine. The 
 President sends a confidential agent to the western states. Proc- 
 lamation. Wilkinson enters into arrangement with Cordero and 
 Herrera, and sends the troops to New Orleans. He proceeds to 
 Natchez. Burling sent to Mexico. Wilkinson goes down to New 
 Orleans, He fortifies that city. Sends an officer to Jamaica. 
 Meeting of the merchants. Arrest of Bolman, Swartwout and 
 Ogden. AVrits of habeas corpus. The prisoners shipped to the 
 United States. Judge Workman. Second session of the legis- 
 lature. Arrest of Adair, Workman, Kerr and Bradford. Burr 
 arrested at Natchez, is bound over, escapes, and is retaken. 
 BurHng returns from Mexico, and Swann from Jamaica 329 
 
 CHAPTER XXVIII. 
 
 Court of inquiry on Wilkinson's conduct. Clark's statement. Legis- 
 lature. Civil Code. Hostile appearances. Troops ordered to 
 New Orleans. Wilkinson sent to command them. Canal Garon- 
 delet. James Madison. Great migration from Cuba. Gamp at 
 Terre-Aux-Boeufs. Sickness among the troops. Their removal 
 to the Mississippi territory. Terrible mortality. Clark's pamphlet. 
 Wilkinson ordered to Washington City. Hampton takes the 
 command. Legislature. Claiborne's departure. Robertson, 
 The Spanish garrison driven from Baton Rouge. Skipwith. 
 Proclamation of the President of the United States. Claiborne's 
 return. He takes possession of St. Francisville and Baton 
 Rouge. Parishes of Feliciana, East Baton Rouge, St. Helena 
 and St. Tammany. Insurrection among the negroes. Legislature. 
 The inhabitants of the territory authorized to form a State 
 
 Constitution 344 
 
 CHAPTER XXIX. 
 
 First steamboat on the Mississippi. Apostolic administrator. 
 Wilkinson's acquittal. Louisiana admitted into the Union. 
 Conditions. Extension of limits. Proclamation of the presi- 
 
CONTENTS. XV 
 
 I'AGE 
 
 dent of the convention, ordering elections, under the authority of 
 the State. War declared against Great Britain. Wilkinson 
 assumes the command of the Seventh Military District. First 
 session of the first State legislature. Governor Claiborne. The 
 extension of limits assented to. Hurricane. Second session of 
 the legislature. Judicial system. Congress directs possession 
 to be taken of the territory west of the Rio Perdido. Wilkinson 
 drives the Spanish garrison from Fort Charlotte, at Mobile. He 
 is ordered to the northern frontier of the United States, and is 
 succeeded by General Flournoy. Attack of Fort Mimms. The 
 Creeks chastised at Tallusatche and other places. Embargo. 
 One thousand militia of Louisiana called into the service of the 
 United States. Third sesssion of the legislature. The Indians 
 further chastised. A further requisition of the Militia. Peace 
 with the Creeks. Brig Orpheus. Colonel Nichols. His procla- 
 mation. He attempts to secure the assistance of the Barataria 
 people. Attack on Fort Bowyer. The Barataria people dispersed. 
 Committee of defense in New Orleans. Jackson marches to 
 Pensacola, and compels the Governor to receive garrisons of his 
 army in the forts 354 
 
 CHAPTER XXX. 
 
 First session of the second legislature. Jackson arrives at New 
 Orleans. British fleet off Pensocola. Capture of the flotilla on 
 Lake Borgne. Barataria men join the army. Proceedings of the 
 legislature. Generals Coffee and Carroll. Major Hinds. 
 Embargo. Affair of the twenty-third of December 364 
 
 CHAPTER XXXL 
 
 Jackson establishes a line of defense. Morgan crosses the river with 
 his detachment. Destruction of the Carolina. Action of the 28th 
 of December. The legislature prevented sitting. Affair of New 
 Year's day. Both armies reinforced. Battle of the 8th of January. 
 British operations on the right bank of the Mississippi. Suspen- 
 sion of hostilities. Armistice. Bombardment of Fort St. Phillip. 
 Retreat of the British army 376 
 
 CHAPTER XXXIL 
 
 The legislature adjourns. Fort Bowyer taken. First intelligence of 
 peace. Jackson's proclamation. Confirmation of the intelligence. 
 French subjects demand their discharge from military service. 
 Apply to the consul, and are discharged on his certificate. The 
 consul and them ordered into the interior. They remain at 
 home. Louaillier's publication. His arrest. Writ of habeas 
 
XVI CONTENTS. 
 
 corpus issued by Hall, who is also arrested. The clerk of the 
 court brought to headquarters. A record taken and Avithheld 
 from him. He avows his intention to issue the writ and is 
 threatened. The marshal avows his intention to execute it, and 
 is threatened. Intelligence of the treaty being ratified. State 
 Militia discharged. Proceedings against Hall and Louaillier. 
 Order against the French subjects suspended. Lewis and Dick 
 ordered to be arrested. Orders against Lewis and Dick counter- 
 manded. Supreme Court. Hollander discharged. Louaillier 
 acquitted. The sentence disajjproved. Hall sent out of the city. 
 Peace proclaimed 388 
 
 CHAPTER XXXIII. 
 A rule to show cause why an attachment for contempt issued against 
 Jackson. He shows cause. The rule is made absolute. He 
 declines answering interrogatories, and is fined 405 
 
 Annals of Louisiana 413 
 
 Appendix 459 
 
 / 
 
 LB N 05 
 
/ 
 
V, 
 
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 
 
 II 11 il 1 1 III 11 ll III 
 
 014 544 608 9 #