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lilENVII-LE (After Margrv) 
 
COLONIAL MOBILE 
 
 AN HISTORICAL STUDY 
 
 Laro-ely from Original Sources, of the Alabama- 
 
 ToliBiGBEE Basin and the Old South West 
 
 from the Discovery of the Spiritu Santo 
 
 in 15 19 until the Demolition of 
 
 Fort Charlotte in 1821 
 
 BY 
 
 PETER J. HAMILTON, A. M. 
 
 LATB FHLLOW OF PRINCETON; AUTHOR OF "RAMBLES IN HISTORIC LANDS," 
 "colonization of the south," "the RECONSTRUCTION BRA," ETC. 
 
 ILLUSTRATED 
 
 REVISED AND ENLARGED EDITION 
 
 BOSTON AND NEW YORK 
 
 HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY 
 
 Cbe KiterfiiUe ^xtm, CamfariUffe 
 
 1910 
 
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 3'>^ 
 
 ^■ 
 
 ,1^ 
 
 rOPYRIGIlT, 1S97 AND I910, BY PETER J. HAMILTON 
 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED 
 
 s 
 { 
 
 (0;ClA26in90 
 
TO 
 THE MEMORY OF 
 
 MY FATHER 
 
 PETER HAMILTON 
 
 LAWYER, STUDENT, AND STATESMAN 
 
 IN EVERY RELATION OF LIFE, WHETHER PUBLIC OR PRIVATE 
 
 HE WAS ALL THAT A MAN SHOULD BE 
 
 {QO^ 
 
 (\T°l^ 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 In preparing a new edition of this book opportunity has been 
 taken to emphasize its broader features and at the same time 
 add much new material. The history of a colony must hinge 
 upon the history of its capital, and so the story has a local and 
 also a general side. In this case the local features were almost 
 original with "Colonial Mobile." Some matter was inserted 
 which I have in revision been able to place in the Appendix and 
 Notes, and thus gain space for a fuller presentation of the broader 
 features of the narrative, the colonial history of the old South 
 West east of the Mississippi. Plates, like facts, are stubborn 
 things, but I hope I have in the main accomplished my purpose 
 of working up the more general features while retaining in 
 accessible form the strictly local material. 
 
 Few errors have been discovered in the first edition, but some 
 chapters are rewritten to give a fuller statement of facts, and 
 several new ones inserted to cover new material. Of these I may 
 mention On the Trail of De Soto, A Century of Obscurity, The 
 Great Change of Base, Faits Accomplis, The Charleston Indian 
 Trade, The Chevalier Montaut de Monberaut, The Indian Bound- 
 ary Line, The Bigbee District, The State of West Florida, 
 Alabama: A Study in Territorial Government, and The Coming 
 of the Steamboat, besides occasional corrections or additions in 
 the text itself. In Faits Acco7}iplis, I may add, will be found 
 a sketch of the famous law book, the Coutume de Faris, too 
 little known in America, as well as a summary of French colo- 
 nial institutions, literature, and life. Perhaps each of these 
 new chapters may be an addition to our history. I have tried to 
 picture the life, customs, law, religion, clothing, food, and the 
 dwellings of the Latins in their day and those of the Saxons in 
 
VI PREFACE. 
 
 theirs. The story of the Creole Gallery is to my mind an 
 epitome of the book, whose theme is the history of the border- 
 land between two civilizations, — the original Louisiana, which 
 has become Alabama. First came, as sliown more fully in the 
 Introduction, the planting of Latin institutions on the Gulf 
 coast, the conflict with advancing British civilization, and the 
 final combination into the Southwestern type of American, — 
 all studied from the centre of the field of action, and not from 
 one edge or the other as heretofore. 
 
 It is gratifying to feel that this book has won a place in 
 American historical literature. Its reception was uniformly 
 warm from reviewers of all sections. John Fiske wrote kindly 
 of it, and lately it has been made almost the basis of the earlier 
 parts of two notable works, — Ogg's "Opening of the Missis- 
 sippi " and the " Kolonisation des Mississippitales " by the Ger- 
 man historian Franz. I trust the new edition will be found of 
 even greater value. 
 
 If I have succeeded I have added some facts not generally 
 known, and established a new angle or point of view for an im- 
 portant section of American history. If I have imparted a tithe 
 of my own interest, the reader will not feel his time wasted. 
 The general public will even yet have to do some judicious skip- 
 ping in the source details, but it is believed that there is nothing 
 which will not be of value to students of the periods involved. 
 As such chapters of less general interest I might mention Life 
 at the Old Fort, Next-Door Neighbors, Some Old Families, From 
 the Cure's Window, In the Archive Office, and Church of the 
 Immaculate Conception ; yet I am sure even these are of his- 
 torical importance. 
 
 It may not be amiss to repeat from my earlier Preface that 
 if the spelling, especially of proper names, seems inconsistent, 
 it is because in each case I wished to reproduce the manuscript 
 or other source used. It is probable that the Frenchman was 
 D'Artaguiette, the Englishman, Farmar, the American, Dins- 
 moor. May their shades visit only the plates ! 
 
 The new illustrations of this edition will be found of special 
 
PREFACE. vii 
 
 interest. Many of these Lave never before been published, 
 and maps from Spanish, French, and British archives make clear 
 much which has heretofore been dim in the history of the South 
 West. Particular reference may be made to those of Mobile in 
 1702, Pensacola, 1763, the land grants at Mobile, the Indian 
 cessions in the South West, and to the views of places. 
 
 It was necessary to place in notes at the end of the volume a 
 good deal of new matter which the plates did not permit insert- 
 ing in the body of the book. These notes, therefore, are of equal 
 importance with the text itself. Rare information, documentary 
 and biographical, is incorporated in the Appendix. For in- 
 stance, the Pardo narratives of exploration from the Atlantic 
 are now rendered easily accessible, several personal histories 
 have been worked out, the Pensacola Treaty given in extenso 
 for possibly the first time, British legislative Acts shown by 
 titles, and American Indian treaties tabulated for convenient 
 reference. 
 
 It would be impracticable to acknowledge all sources of in- 
 debtedness. Many are mentioned in the notes. Of printed 
 material, I have freely used the publications of the American, 
 Alabama, Louisiana, and Mississippi Historical Societies, the 
 " Gulf States Historical Magazine," and also the Charleston 
 " Year Books." In manuscript sources I had the assistance in 
 Spain of Pedro Torres Lanzas, Chief of Archives at Seville, in 
 Paris of the indefatigable archivist Leon Bogaert, and of Stevens 
 and Brown and others at London, and as a result I have accu- 
 mulated a considerable body of material. Alcee Fortier, the 
 historian, kindly placed at my disposal the Magne and Tantet 
 collections of the Louisiana Historical Society, of which he is 
 president, and William Beer has given much aid through the 
 Howard Memorial Library of New Orleans. To him I am in- 
 debted for copies of the plans from the rare Collot Atlas and 
 for a copy of the Gabriel MS. of 1806. The transcripts of 
 British records, made (under my supervision) for the Alabama 
 Department of Archives and History, the Blue Manuscripts, as 
 well as the other papers collected by Superintendent Thomas M. 
 
viii PREFACE. 
 
 Owen, have proved helpful. The notes show my indebted- 
 ness to my friend Henry S. Halbert in all matters relating to 
 the Choctaw Indians. 
 
 It cannot be amiss to thank my stenographers for their inter- 
 est, for it has passed beyond that of copyists. It is gratifying 
 that one of these, Mary Hamilton Smith, is the daughter of my 
 sister Charlotte, to whom, next to our father, I owe my love for 
 historical studies. These have high value in themselves as well 
 as being a relief from professional cares. It is much to be able 
 to live with men of the past, to be able to understand them even 
 better than their contemporaries did, now that Providence has 
 fulfilled their work. The restoration of the past is a prerequi- 
 site to understanding the present. It is inspiring to reflect 
 that we, too, even if our part be small, like that of the coral, are 
 helping to build up a future. 
 
 It would not be wrong to say that for years my chief inspira- 
 tion in these researches has been the sympathy and help of the 
 Iberville Historical Society, of which I have the honor to be 
 president. Our meetings have always been pleasant and inform- 
 ing. Much of the new material herein has been read to the 
 members at different times, and I have had the advantage of 
 their criticism. One of them, Erwin Craighead, as editor of 
 the " Mobile Register," has been able to give publicity to the 
 work of the Society, and has proved himself an authority of no 
 mean rank. 
 
 Saddening it is to turn from these friends and look over the 
 roll of those whom I thanked in the first edition. Many have 
 passed to their reward, and newer helpers cannot quite take 
 their places. I can, however, as truly now as before close my 
 preface by saying that most of all I thank that patient listener 
 and judicious critic, Rachel Burgett Hamilton, my wife. 
 
 PETER J. HAMILTON. 
 
 Mobile, Februarj/, 1910. 
 
PREFACE TO FIRST EDITION. 
 
 I HAVE endeavored in this book to paint the exploration, 
 settlement, and early development of the section of our country 
 which is tributary to the Alabama-Tombigbee river basin. 
 The vast region draining to Mobile Bay shows much diversity 
 of soil, elevation, and climate, and is not less rich historically 
 than in natural features. For here Indians, Spaniards, French, 
 and English have lived and ruled before the American republic 
 was born. 
 
 And yet it is an unexhausted, in part an almost untrodden, 
 literary field. Spain, France, and England lost the territory 
 so long ago as to have lost likewise interest in its history. It 
 has, too, so long been severed from the Mississippi valley, 
 which was colonized from its shores, that the historians of 
 modern Louisiana have known personally but little of this the 
 original seat of that great empire, and have devoted their 
 attention mainly to the later growth which centred on the 
 lower Mississippi. And, on the other hand, the Americans, 
 who made the basin and port of Mobile their own, approached 
 from the north, where traces of earlier influence were slightest, 
 and have now all but completely obliterated, even about Mobile, 
 the Latin elements. An old-time local chronicler excused the 
 meagreness of his earlier work with the remark that the French 
 and Spanish times were hardly worthy of record, and that 
 their land titles had only served to complicate and retard 
 American enterprise. 
 
 Some day the archaeologist will go yet farther back, and 
 throw light on the southern mounds and canals and shell banks 
 
X PREFACE TO FIRST EDITION. 
 
 which, near Mobile as elsewhere, far antedate the white man, 
 and make European epochs inappropriate, if not indeed too 
 recent, to mark the divisions of American history. But the 
 Mobile basin, from the Tennessee watershed to the Gulf, was 
 the seat of an important history from the early part of the 
 sixteenth century of even our era. Within these three centu- 
 ries taken for our present theme came the discovery by the 
 Spanish, exploration by the French, and the growth which we 
 shall find under the French, English, Spanish, and Americans 
 alike. 
 
 And during much of that time, too, this was not done in a 
 corner. The Mobile basin and port were explored by Pineda, 
 Bazares, De Soto, and other Spaniards, both before and after 
 the greater Mississippi was discovered, and the whole was 
 repeatedly mapped and claimed for Charles V. and his suc- 
 cessors. 
 
 When the curtain lifts, over a century later, Iberville of 
 France is taking up the plans of murdered La Salle, and from 
 the capitals on Mobile River the Le Moyne brothers direct the 
 settlement of the Mississippi as well as of the Alabama-Tom- 
 bigbee basin, and oversee the intercourse with the natives and 
 commerce with Europe. Iberville, Bienville, Chateaugue, 
 Penicaut, Davion, St. Denis, John Law, De Lusser, Grondel, 
 and other famous men become familiar to us about Fort Louis, 
 afterwards Fort Conde, and the outposts up the Tombigbee 
 and Alabama rivers are not less centres of Indian trade than 
 of French influence against the growing English colonies on 
 the Atlantic coast. 
 
 This remained true even after Mobile sank from her proud 
 preeminence as capital to be but the head of the eastern depart- 
 ment, but at last those English became masters of half of 
 Louisiana. And yet Mobile then, severed from her old coun- 
 try and associations, under Haldimand, Farmer, Durnford, 
 and other Englishmen, largely recovered her touch with that 
 eastern half of the Mississippi valley by communication through 
 Bayou Manchac (or Iberville), until excesses of the soldiers 
 
PREFACE TO FIRST EDITION. xi 
 
 brought the place Into unnecessary discredit on the score of 
 health. 
 
 Galvez drove out the English, and for some years Spain 
 seemed about to reestablish her vast American empire. But 
 the rapid development of the United States was to make this 
 period one of transition; and Panton, Espejo, Eslava, Price, 
 Favre, and others are as memorable for the great land grants 
 which were to become valuable under another government as 
 for themselves and their own history. 
 
 Still, in one way Wilkinson's capture of Mobile, the Creek 
 War, the defense of Fort Bowyer, the development of the city 
 which led to destruction of its old Latin fort, are even more 
 attractive. For Sam Dale, Jerry Austill, Sam Mims, and 
 George S. Gaines are every way closer to us than Bienville, 
 Farmer, or even Forbes. They open the American period, and 
 are akin to us as well as interesting historically. But, because 
 they do introduce a modern period, they close the colonial 
 epoch of Mobile and its river system. They bring us to a 
 time, within the memory of men now living, when this district 
 lost its individuality by merger into the greater sisterhood of 
 American States. 
 
 Others have partly studied the Latin past. The works of 
 Monette and Pickett and Meek of Mississippi and Alabama 
 before the Civil War were as valuable as those of Martin and 
 Gayarre of Louisiana, and it is a public loss that the rich learn- 
 ing of W. T. Walthall, W. S. Wyman, and others has not 
 thus far been put in a form accessible to historical students. 
 To them I yield their full meed of praise, and this book on 
 many pages refers to their work and adoj)ts it. 
 
 But geographical research shows the full Spanish exploration 
 of Mobile Bay under other names, and the Mobile church 
 records from 1704, perhaps by myself first thoroughly studied, 
 not less than the invaluable publications of Margry in France, 
 make the French period almost a new thing. The papers of 
 General Haldimand, only lately become accessible through 
 Canadian enterprise, and the search made on my behalf by 
 
xii PREFACE TO FIRST EDITION. 
 
 experts in the British colonial offices, throw undreamed-of light 
 on the English times, and reveal that obscure epoch to us in a 
 surprising manner. The land and court records, too, which 
 survive at Mobile, enable us to restore Spanish Mobile as of 
 yesterday : strange it is that they have so long escaped atten- 
 tion. The American State Papers, too, are valuable. Per- 
 haps only men of my own, the legal profession, can appreciate 
 the value of some of this material ; and they will find valuable 
 the summary of city land titles in the Appendix, even if much 
 of it is not new to them. The American occupation is now 
 first told from department reports, and the recently recovered 
 corporation minutes of the town give us a picture of the change 
 of Latin to Teutonic Mobile never yet in print. I have, at the 
 apparent sacrifice of consistency and style, thought it best, in 
 order to secure greater lifelikeness, to preserve the spelling of 
 proper names as found in the authorities for the time under 
 contribution. Family traditions have been used where prob- 
 able, the old files of the "Register" examined, particularly the 
 Reminiscences therein of George S. Gaines, and in fact aid has 
 been levied from every source. 
 
 Among the illustrations are Biloxi Bay, Dauphine Island, 
 and Mobile in 1711, which have been kindly furnished by the 
 French Minister of the Marine, the map of 1760 unearthed 
 at Washington, and Ellicott's stone photographed by myself. 
 Neither these nor the pictures of old autographs and documents 
 have been in print before. The other illustrations are rare, 
 two being from Dr. Winsor's "Mississippi Basin," and of the 
 map of 1824 now reproduced but three copies are known to 
 exist. 
 
 It will not be the least reward of my years of labor if I show, 
 
 what has been all forgotten, the important part played by my 
 
 loved native place in the early histoiy of the Gulf coast, if 
 
 I can restore her statue to its rightful pedestal, and perhaps 
 
 even write my own name in some hiunble spot upon its base. 
 
 PETER J. HAMILTON. 
 MoBUB, Ala., November 2, 1897. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTBB FAGB 
 
 Introduction xix 
 
 PART I. EXPLORATION. (1519-1670.) 
 
 I. The Country and the Natives 3 
 
 II. The Spiritu Santo 9 
 
 III. On the Trail of De Soto 14 
 
 IV. A Century of Obscurity ....... 30 
 
 PART II. THE FRENCH CAPITAL. (1670, 1699-1722.) 
 
 V. From La Salle to Iberville ....... 39 
 
 VI. Founding Fort Louis 50 
 
 VII. Bienville 62 
 
 VIII. After Iberville's Death 70 
 
 IX. Life at the Old Fort 76 
 
 X. The Great Change of Base 83 
 
 XI. Crozat and Cadillac 93 
 
 XII. In the Time of Law's Company 99 
 
 ^III, Next-Door Neighbors 106 
 
 PART III. THE DEPARTMENT OF MOBILE. (1722-1763.) 
 
 XIV. Through the Chickasaw War 121 
 
 XV. The Provincl^l Town 131 
 
 XVI. Some Old Families 136 
 
 XVII. From the Cure's Window 142 
 
 XVIII. The City Map of 1760 150 
 
 XIX. In the Archive Office . 155 
 
 XX. Dauphine Island and the Coast 165 
 
XIV CONTENTS. 
 
 XXI. Faits Accomplis 174 
 
 XXII. Fort Toulouse and Fort Tombecbb 188 
 
 XXIII. The Charleston Indlan Trade 201 
 
 XXIV. The Seven Years' War 211 
 
 PART IV. BRITISH WEST FLORIDA. (1765-1780.) 
 
 XXV. A New Province 221 
 
 XXVI. The Chevalier Montaut de Monberaut .... 227 
 
 XXVII. The Indlan Boundary Line 239 
 
 XXVIII. Major Robert Farmer 251 
 
 XXIX. In the Time of Haldimand 258 
 
 XXX. Sickness 264 
 
 XXXI. The Tombigbee River in 1771 275 
 
 XXXII. The Seventies 288 
 
 XXXIII. What Bartram saw 297 
 
 XXXIV. Politics 304 
 
 XXXV. Galvbz at Mobile 310 
 
 PART V. SPANISH WEST FLORIDA. (1780-1813.) 
 
 XXXVI. Settling down again 321 
 
 XXXVII. Under Folch and Lanzos (1787, 1791) 333 
 
 XXXVIII. Judicial Proceedings 340 
 
 XXXIX. The Demarcation Line and the Louisiana Cession . . 351 
 XL. Church of the Immaculate Conception .... 364 
 
 XLI, The Indian Trade 372 
 
 XLII. Mississippi Territory 379 
 
 XLIII. The Bigbee District 386 
 
 XLIV. The State of West Florida 395 
 
 XLV. In the Balance 403 
 
 XL VI. The Capture of Mobile 409 
 
 PART VI. AMERICANIZATION. (1813-1821.) 
 
 XLVII. The Creek War 419 
 
 XLVIII. Andreav Jackson on the Alabama River .... 426 
 XLIX. The Defense of Fort Bowyer 430 
 
CONTENTS. XV 
 
 L. A Tale of Thkee Ports 438 
 
 LI. Alabajia : a Study in Territorial Government . . . 451 
 
 LII. The Coming of the Steamboat 468 
 
 LIU. The End of Fort Charlotte 476 
 
 APPENDIX 
 
 (A) The Induction of De La Vente. (1704.) .... 487 
 
 (B) Description de la Ville, et du Fort Louis. (1711.) • . 487 
 
 (C) The Ordinance of 1667 489 
 
 (D) The Spanish City Grants 490 
 
 (E) Spanish Streets and People 501 
 
 (F) In the Creole Country 509 
 
 (G) Pardo Narratives of Florida Explorations. (1766-67.) . 520 
 (H) The Pelican Girls, 1704, etc 527 
 
 (I) Pierre Le Sueur 527 
 
 (J) The Mandevilles 528 
 
 (K) Census of 1708 528 
 
 (L) Bienville's Memoir of 1711 529 
 
 (M) Crozat 530 
 
 (N) Grondel 530 
 
 (O) Rochemorb 631 
 
 (P) Chabert's Orders on the Tombecbe Magazin . . . 532 
 
 (Q) Elias Durnford 534 
 
 (R) Greek Treaty at Pensacola. (1765.) 536 
 
 (S) Haldimand and Bouquet 539 
 
 (T) Acts of the Assembly of British West Florida. (1767-1778.) 542 
 
 (U) Leclerc Milfort 547 
 
 (V) William A. Bowles 548 
 
 (W) United States Treaties •with the Indians . . . 548 
 
 (X) Historic Land Offices 551 
 
 (Y) Silas Dinsmoor . . . . 552 
 
 (Z) Description in the Margin of De la Puente's Map of 1765 553 
 (Zl) Marriages since the American Capture .... 556 
 
 NOTES 561 
 
 INDEX 577 
 
ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Bienville, afteb Maegry (Winsor's " The Mississippi Basin ") Frontispiece 
 The Moundville Vase (C. B. Moore's Report, 1905, to the Philadelphia 
 
 Academy of Arts and Sciences) x 
 
 The Gulf Countky afteb De Soto (the Kohl Collection at Washington) 30 
 
 Pensacola Bay, 1698 (Spanish Archives at Seville) 44 
 
 BiLOXY Bay (D^pot des Colonies Frangaises at Paris) 46 
 
 Pensacola Fort, 1699 (Spanish Archives at Seville) . 48 
 
 Fort Louis de la Mobille, 1702 (D^pot des Colonies) 52 
 
 The Country of the Southern Indians (based upon the Maps of the 
 
 18th Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology) 60 
 
 Monument at Old Fort Louis (erected at the Bicentennial Celebration in 
 
 1902) 62 
 
 Induction of La Vente (Mobile Church Records) 68 
 
 Iberville (after Margry) .70 
 
 Fort Louis de la Mobille, 1706 ? (D^pot des Colonies) 84 
 
 New Fort Louis, 1711 (D^pot des Colonies) 86 
 
 Fort at New Biloxi 100 
 
 French Cannon found in the Bay of Biloxi 102 
 
 Fort ToMBECBi; 122 
 
 Site of Fort Tombecb^ (from a recent photograph) 126 
 
 Battle of Aekea (D^pot des Colonies) 128 
 
 A. — Village A^k^a ou fort quon a attaqu^. B. — Fort Tchouka Falaya. 
 
 C — Fort Apeony ou les Anglois ont un Magazin. D. — Cabannes Rondez 
 
 fortiffi^s. E. — Cabannes quarr^s fortiffi^s. F. — Antichon (?) ou 
 
 Cabannes plant^es par quatre Potteaux. 
 Chickasaw Villages, February 28, 1740 (D^pot des Colonies) .... 130 
 
 A. — Villages attaqu^s le 22 F^vrier. B. — Cabannes que Ion brula. 
 
 (Below in a ravine is where peace was discussed. This plan was made by 
 
 Chaussegros de Lery, fils, in the Canadian camp on the spot, 32 leagues 
 
 from Fort L'Assomption.) 
 
 Mobile in 1760 (Despot des Colonies) 150 
 
 Cadillac's Fish River Grant (Mobile Archives) 156 
 
 Mobile Bay and Coast, about 1732 (Danville) 166 
 
 Veue de l'Isle Dauphine (D^pot des Colonies) 168 
 
 The River Basin, about 1732 (Danville) 188 
 
 The Alibamons and their Neighbors, 1733 (map of De Crenay, D^pot 
 
 des Colonies) 190 
 
 Breechblock from Fort Toulouse (from the original in the Alabama 
 
 Department of Archives and History) 192 
 
 Cannon from Fort Toulouse (from original in Alabama Department of 
 
 Archives and History) 192 
 
xviii ILL USTRA TIONS. 
 
 CouNTRT OF THE Choctaws, 1733 (map of De Crenay, D(?pot des Colonies) 196 
 Okdeks on the Tombecb^ Maoazin, 1759 {from original in possession of 
 
 P. J. Hamilton) 204 
 
 Spanish Official Map of the Gulf Coast (the Spanish Hydrographic 
 
 Office ; given in Ruidiaz' Florida) 210 
 
 Entrance to Mobile Bay (British Colonial Record Office) 22S 
 
 Mobile about 17i»5 (Roberts' Florida) 230 
 
 gENSACOLA . Bat, 17(56 (The British Colonial Record Office) 234 
 
 The Indian Nations in British Times (Bowen) 240 
 
 Seal of British West Florida, with French Sou at the sides (Wailes' 
 
 Geology of Mississippi) 246 
 
 Mobile Bay and River, British 250 
 
 Pensacola, 1765 (Durnford's Map, British Colonial Record Office) . . . 258 
 
 British Admiralty Chart, 1771 (U. S. War Department) 260 
 
 Fort Charlotte (British Colonial Record Office) 266 
 
 Ellas Durnford and Wife (from Miniatures in possession of P. J. 
 
 Hamilton) 270 
 
 British Land Patent in West Florida (from original in possession of 
 
 P. J. Hamilton) 290 
 
 Proposed British Town at Manchac (The Gentleman's Magazine of 
 
 February, 1772) 302 
 
 Letter of Ellas Durnford (from original in possession of P. J. Hamilton) 314 
 
 Spanish Autographs (Mobile Archives) 322 
 
 Three Cannon from Fort Charlotte (originals at Mobile) 328 
 
 Mobile Bay under the Spanish (U. S. War Department) 332 
 
 The Ellicott Stone (from recent photograph) 355 
 
 Mobile in 1802 (original in possession of family of Lewis Troost of Mobile) 368 
 
 Natchez under the Spanish (Collot's Atlas) 380 
 
 Where Aaron Burr was captured (from a photograph) 384 
 
 Lorenzo and Peggy Dow (Dow's Work) 392 
 
 Baton Rouge under the Spanish (Collot's Atlas) 398 
 
 Grave of Pushmataha, Congressional Cemetery at Washington . 424 
 Mobile in 1815 (map in possession of Thos. Gaillard, deceased) .... 4.34 
 Cahawba in 1819 (from original in Alabama Department of Archives and 
 
 History) 466 
 
 First Steamboat Advertisements (Mobile Register, 1821) 472 
 
 The Sword of Perez (from original in possession of G. P- Thruston of 
 
 Nashville) 474 
 
 Mobile in 1823 (from Goodwin & Haire Map) 474 
 
 Fort Charlotte about 1820 (Dinsmore's Map, made for sale of the 
 
 property) 478 
 
 Creole Type of House at Mobile 480 
 
 American Type of House at Mobile 482 
 
 Goodwin & Haire Map of Mobile 484 
 
 Spanish Grants at Mobile (Drawn by J. R. Peavy, Jr.) 490 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 One's earliest historical reading is connected with the struggle 
 of the East and the West, of mass represented by Persia, with 
 energy represented by Greece, and then with organization rep- 
 resented by Rome ; later we are absorbed in the long battle of 
 South and North, of Roman and Teuton, from the Caesars and 
 Arminius down to Napoleon and Wellington. It has been 
 fought over again in our day at Santiago and Manila, and much 
 of American growth has been but stages of the contest ; for a 
 Kingsley could write of the Latin and Saxon in America almost 
 as well as of the Roman and Teuton in Europe. 
 
 Phases of the Latin story at the North have been pictured by 
 Parkman so skillfully as to unite the accuracy of the historian 
 with the fascination of the novelist, but except in histories of 
 parts of the old Louisianian or Carolinian colonies little has 
 been written as to the long racial struggle at the South. This 
 interaction of the Teutonic and Latin civilizations at the forma- 
 tive period of American history is, therefore, almost a new study. 
 
 It must have some territorial basis, but need not be local. 
 In a mountainous country one may obtain a broad view through 
 his own window. And it so happens that the country between 
 east Georgia and the Mississippi River was the scene of the 
 earliest Spanish exploration, the first permanent French coloni- 
 zation, and an alternation of Latin and Saxon institutions which 
 has built up in the South West American commonwealths dif- 
 ferent from their sister States. 
 
 Sir Gilbert Parker in his " Old Quebec " has illustrated how 
 the story of a Latin colony is wrapped up in that of its capital, 
 and Gayarre and Fortier are right in finding the story of later 
 Louisiana culminating in New Orleans. But the Alabama- 
 Tombigbee basin had an earlier Latin history than the lower 
 Mississippi, and its later story as a march or borderland between 
 the Latin and Saxon is unique. 
 
 There is but this one portion of America which can boast of 
 
XX INTRODUCTION. 
 
 having flourished under five successive flags. Not taking into 
 account the Indians, the district which we call the Alabama- 
 Tombigbee basin has lived under the pillared arms of Spain, 
 the lilies of France, the crosses of Great Britain, the American 
 stars and stripes, and, for four years, the Confederate stars and 
 bars. Indeed, it has seen the Spanish and American flags for 
 two periods each, and, if the American claim under the Louisi- 
 ana Purchase is justified, it belonged twice to France also. No 
 wonder, then, that Edward A. Freeman declared the territory 
 about the Bay of Mobile the greatest historical puzzle of which 
 he knew. Modern Louisiana was never under the English flag, 
 and Florida was not under the French, except in part as the 
 temporary fruit of war, while the Mobile country saw and hon- 
 ored all five standards,^ 
 
 The Alabama-Tombigbee basin has physical peculiarities all 
 its own. Historically it has often been associated with the Mis- 
 sissippi Valley, but this was one of the accidents, not one of the 
 necessities of history. The Mississippi, widespread as is its basin, 
 presents the remarkable featui-e of having no large eastern af- 
 fluent below the Ohio River. The Apalachian mountain system 
 comes to an end in what is now Alabama, and this has the effect 
 of diverting to the south streams which would naturally have 
 flowed westwardly. Thus it is that the Alabama-Tombigbee 
 waters, which would otherwise, like the Ohio, have given a 
 branch to the Mississippi, are thrown southward and form an 
 independent basin. By nature it is separate from the Missis- 
 sippi Valley, and man tried in vain to join together what God 
 had put asunder. The development of its separate interests 
 makes a progressive evolution. 
 
 It is a diversified country, of many resources and varying cli- 
 mate. About the coast is a sandy soil, the home of the ])ine. 
 Further north is a fertile limestone zone, called the Black Belt, 
 where the change from granite to softer rock gives the rivers 
 their falls and rapids before they seek the sea. Then over the 
 mountain country, its mineral wealth long unknown, is the smil- 
 ing Tennessee Valley, communicating by its river with the wild 
 West in one direction and with the back country of Carolina 
 
 ^ It is true that Texas may make a similar claim if one counts her lone 
 star flag ; but this was hardly more than a dream until that star took its 
 place in the American blue field. 
 
INTRODUCTION. xxi 
 
 and Virginia in the other. Cutting through these first three 
 zones from north to south are the Alabama and Tombisrbee 
 rivers, navigable up to the fall line, and ready to bear the products 
 of the field, forest, and mountain to the broad pear-shaped port 
 where the streams meet the Gulf and unite in commercial bonds 
 the several zones. Even the Tennessee Valley is different from 
 the Tennessee River bed elsewhere, and by passes is so con- 
 nected with the south-bound streams as to have much in common 
 with them. 
 
 Such is the country which we shall study. It is not alto- 
 gether clear which of its races came first. All of the aborigines 
 lived on mounds or river bluffs, for safety from overflow and 
 from attack, and the idea of a separate race of Mound Builders 
 has long since been abandoned. The natives whom we know 
 historically may not have been the original builders in all dis- 
 tricts occupied, but at least other tribes of the same culture 
 threw up these mounds.^ There seems to be a difference be- 
 tween the remains on the middle Mississippi and those on the 
 Gulf coast. Pottery and stone work show a higher degree of 
 civilization in the interior;^ but the one shades off imperceptibly 
 into the other. Methods of interment also differ, but little liarht 
 has been thrown on the cause. ^ 
 
 The Indian was to do more than act as a foil for the white 
 man. He was a formative influence ; for some branch of the red 
 man was always hostile. He was to be more than a stone on 
 which to whet the European's talent. He outlasted several 
 white colonizations, and his forcible refusal to give way elevel- 
 oped in the colonists a type of manhood different from the origi- 
 nal European. 
 
 The first Europeans to break into the American Stone Age 
 were the Spaniards, but they were discoverers rather than colo- 
 
 ^ Thomas, Cherokees in Pre-Columbian Times, p. 38. So, also, J. W. Powell. 
 
 2 Holmes' Pottery, Twentieth Report Bureau of Ethnology, p. 1. 
 
 ^ In our own district one striking example of culture may be mentioned. 
 At what is now Moundville on the Black Warrior River are a group of 
 mounds indicating a large and highly civilized settlement. Besides super- 
 ficial finds of pottery, excavation has brought to light pipes, figures, and fine 
 ware indicating an unusual degree of civilization. A veteran explorer has 
 characterized a stone vase with a bird handle as the " Portland Vase " of 
 American archfeology (C. B. Moore, 13 Transactions Philadelphia Academy 
 of Sciences, p. 126). 
 
xxii INTRODUCTION. 
 
 nizers. They were well acquainted with the coast, and there is 
 an interesting question as to the Bay of Spiritu Santo, which is 
 so prominent in their early maps. Gradually what they supposed 
 to be the Island of Florida came out of the geographic haze as 
 the mainland, and the first explorer who reached the interior of 
 the South was De Soto. Of him, a closer study is demanded 
 than of the others, for new light can now be thrown upon his 
 route, and he opened up the country to a Spanish occupation 
 more extensive than is generally known. 
 
 It was the French, however, who reduced the interior of 
 America, and that by various experiments which deserve care- 
 ful stud3\ First came Louis XIV. acting through a great min- 
 ister, and when the wars in Europe absorbed royal attention the 
 enterprise was taken up by one of the great line of modern mer- 
 chants. A greater than all appeared in the person of John Law 
 in the time of the brilliant Regency, and his momentous epoch 
 has lately been engaging the attention of French students to a 
 degree never known before. 
 
 The centre of growth, it is true, may now be found to be 
 changed from the Alabama-Tombigbee basin to the greater 
 Valley of the Mississippi, but nevertheless the Mobile waters 
 have from this time on a new value and potency as the basis of 
 the coming struggle between the Latins of the South West and 
 the Anglo-Saxons of the Atlantic, and the trade rivalry of Mo- 
 bile and Charleston was to be the first phase of that contest. 
 
 The war which followed between the two races was not lost 
 in the South, but the South was part of the fruits of the British 
 victory, and there are many features of the English domination 
 of the new province of West Florida which have only lately been 
 revealed. Settlements began on the Mississippi which might in- 
 terfere with separate development of the smaller basin, but dur- 
 ing this period came epoch-making Indian Treaties and the 
 beginnings of Anglo-Saxon institutions in the South West. 
 
 Then by one of the anachronisms of history the Spanish 
 conquered the English on the Gulf, but after all the British 
 civilization lived beneath the Spanish crust, and the crux will be 
 found in that gradual growth of the American Anglo-Saxons at 
 the expense of the American Spaniards, a movement which has 
 gone on in increasing ratio down to the present time. The run- 
 ning of the line of 31° between the new republic and the old 
 
IN TR OD UCTION. ixiii 
 
 monarchy and the purchase of Louisiana from Napoleon are 
 turning points in the history of the American Union. 
 
 The immense immigration to the Southwestern wilds, which 
 developed an American Territory north of the line at the very 
 time that European wars were draining away Spanish strength, 
 brings a dramatic situation, heightened by the little known rev- 
 olutionary State, West Florida, — an American Poland. 
 
 The stolid Indians had tasted the fruits of the South West, 
 but seemed incapable as a race of rising when they met a higher 
 civilization. The Latin in the course of history was given two 
 trials, but the French had, except on the coast, mingled with 
 the natives rather than settled the country, and the Spaniards 
 had held rather than developed it. The Anglo-Saxon was al- 
 lowed two attempts. The first under the British was too short 
 for much result. There was need of numbers and quality, of 
 assimilative power as to the whites, expulsive power as to the 
 darker races. Would that other Anglo-Saxon, the American, 
 succeed where the others had failed ? 
 
 To use Bryce's illustration, British institutions have, like the 
 Old World fauna and flora, been changed by the New World 
 environment in the direction of adaptation. Instead of an over- 
 sea colonization, fitful or systematic, by countries which sought 
 foreign products and only incidentally built up new provinces, 
 here we have transplantation, a continental expansion, rather 
 than subjection of a country to a far-away power. A new word 
 was coined to meet the new conditions ; for an American Terri- 
 tory meant a different thing from a European Colony.^ 
 
 The frontier of a growing nation, whether it be called colony 
 or territory, is a zone of assimilation,^ for in it natives and in- 
 vaders will mingle even if they do not amalgamate. The ad- 
 vancing race will gradually extend up valleys and appropriate 
 desirable localities. A racial map of the American frontier will 
 show these advances like fingers, lengthening, thickening, always 
 crawling forward ; like the hand, closing only to possess some 
 Indian or Latin territory, — and then the fingers steal on again. 
 In the Alabama-Tombigbee basin these ragged fringes were 
 promptly divided into new counties, but, from the peculiarity 
 
 1 The new word was chosen from dislike of the old policy. See Farrand's 
 District or Territory, 6 American Historical Review, p. 676. 
 
 2 Katzel, Anthropogeographie, 
 
xxiv INTRODUCTION. 
 
 that the advance was mainly through hostile tribes, the chart 
 has the appearance of a progress from the sea instead of an ad- 
 vance of the frontier of Georgia and Tennessee, as in a sense it 
 was. One would suppose that it was Mobile stretching upward, 
 as under the French, albeit with a firmer grasp, when in point 
 of fact it was the American stream of immigration, like the lost 
 river in Mammoth Cave, disappearing at the eastern boundary 
 of the Creek and Cherokee Nations to reappear at the western, 
 civilize the Alabama and Tombigbee valleys from above, and 
 revolutionize the Latin seacoast itself. 
 
 There was, however, no such barrier on the north. The Ten- 
 nessee Valley was really an extension of the Nashville country, 
 and its population was largely that of Tennessee moving south- 
 wardly into land ceded by the Chickasaws, instead of westwardly 
 as elsewhere ; for Tennesseeans were barred from the Mississippi 
 by the Chickasaw country. There were practicable portages 
 from the valley over the watershed to the sources of the Tom- 
 bigbee and Warrior, and many pressed on to that country, with 
 which in law and interests they were to be connected. 
 
 The element added from the north was not merely of Tennes- 
 seeans. Their State was not only made up of people from North 
 Carolina, of which it had been a nominal part, but from Vir- 
 ginia, from which it had originally been peopled. Emigrants 
 from Tennessee, therefore, meant Carolinians and Virginians, 
 changed by trans-Apalachian conditions. The Alabama-Tom- 
 bigbee people would be composite, made up of all the Southern 
 Saxon stocks, and themselves now to be modified by the old 
 Latin influences native to the soil. 
 
 This was part of the gi'eat westward movement which was 
 transforming America. The old portage from the Tennessee 
 River to the upper Tombigbee served not merely for a trade 
 route, as under the French, but for immigration and to make 
 the Gulf country part of the Great West, where the American 
 was evolved as distinguished from the Briton, where states 
 grew up with different institutions from those of the Atlantic 
 commonwealths. 
 
 Under the American system of colonization the immigrants 
 were early given some of the rights of self-government. The 
 territorial system, providing for this temporary condition of col- 
 onists on the way to statehood, was itself an evolution. Indeed 
 
INTRODUCTION. xxv 
 
 the Constitution of the United States, written though it be, was 
 to be the basis of new evolutions through judicial construction 
 of the instrument to meet new conditions. It is one of the 
 anomalies of history that Thomas Jefferson, who was such an 
 advocate of state rights, should have conceived of new States as 
 carved by the Union on artificial lines out of the common terri- 
 tory. In a map showing his plan there seem to be few natural 
 boundaries and nothing to give the inhabitants of a State any 
 centre of growth. But the so-called Territories are States in 
 the making, and the system was only in process of growth in 
 his day. In creating Territories Congress did not follow so 
 radical a plan, and the Territories, and hence the new States 
 which succeeded, generally had natural boundaries, if not a 
 centre of common interest. 
 
 American State-making has a history of itself. By 1792 
 Kentucky had been admitted as the first State west of the AUe- 
 ghanies, and it was only after Mississippi Territory was organ- 
 ized that Tennessee joined the Federal Union. The race was 
 then between the Territory northwest of the Ohio and that to the 
 southwest, organized later, and the first prize fell to the older 
 contestant in 1802, when Ohio became a member of the Union. 
 
 The admission of Louisiana in 1812 only slightly retarded the 
 advance of the old districts, but the war with Great Britain pre- 
 vented growth until Indiana was admitted in 1816. Then came 
 two States upon the great river, — Mississippi in 1817, followed 
 the next year by Illinois in the north; whereupon, common- 
 wealths faced the east side of the river from near its source down 
 to the Gulf. The space between Illinois and Ohio had already 
 been filled by Indiana, and now to round the tale was left only 
 the gap between Mississippi and Georgia. The old thirteen 
 States had faced the ocean ; the new, the great rivers. Ala- 
 bama was a river basin, facing the Gulf of Mexico, and it 
 and New York were to be the only States formed of independ- 
 ent river systems. The one was Latin, the other Dutch in origin, 
 both Continental and now absorbed by the Anglo-Saxon. 
 
 History almost repeats the Roman conflict with the Greek 
 in this later contact of the Saxon with the Neo-Latin. The 
 quicker mind, the finer taste, was with the Greek in his day 
 and is with the Latin in these later days. The Frenchman had 
 the pervasive influence of the Greek; the Anglo-Saxon, the 
 
xxvi INTRODUCTION. 
 
 organizing power of the Roman. The Roman prevailed over the 
 Greek by his greater numbers and better organization, and this 
 was the case as between the Saxon and the Latin in America ; 
 but the Saxon, like the Roman, learned much and adopted much 
 from his old enemy. There was an endosmosis of cultures in- 
 herited from remote ancestors. 
 
 Evolution, the method by which Providence works out its 
 plans, has thrown as much light on history as on other sciences. 
 The prehistoric steps by which races grow are obscure. Lewis 
 H. Morgan has pointed out that society develops Customs and 
 Institutions before writing, which is the beginning of history. 
 His divisions of culture growth may not stand the test of criti- 
 cism, but they are at least suggestive. Kant has shown the 
 necessity of Time and Place as the frames for every event. In 
 the historic field Buckle has emphasized the importance of Place, 
 that is to say, environment, and on the other hand Comte and 
 the Germans have shown the importance of Time in the shape 
 of epochs, where the Zeitgeist seems to push a nation forward 
 to its destiny. As a plague or epidemic will take possession of 
 people for their destruction, the spirit of the age takes posses- 
 sion of a race, sometimes of several races, and urges them on in 
 progress. History is such a story of race development or nation 
 building. 
 
 In the South West we have the Indian in the background, 
 and see Spanish, French, and British culture developing amid 
 new conditions, inspired by a European Zeitgeist, which in dif- 
 ferent periods brings the one or the other to the front. But then 
 comes something different, something perhaps better. The Saxon 
 from over the eastern mountains becomes himself a colonist. 
 His inspiration, according to De Tocqueville, was Democracy, 
 but Bryce points out that this is not all, and it is itself a 
 result. The new conditions were creating a new type, continen- 
 tal aspirations were transforming the colonist. The European 
 was becoming an American. Democracy found a striking ex- 
 position in France, but by the time the American expanded to 
 the South West he had modified the French form for himself. 
 He more than the British was alive to new influences, capable 
 of absorbing new ideals, and even new races. 
 
 There came a special type first for the West and then for the 
 South West. The New Englander proved one of the best ele- 
 
INTRODUCTION. xxvii 
 
 ments of population, but like the others became something dif- 
 ferent, — a Southerner, a Southerner of a new type. And now 
 this new American came in contact with the old Latin colonists 
 and, absorbing them, was to be modified in the process. In 
 some respects his character became more like the French than 
 like the English. 
 
 Our study will concern itself with great events, but, even more, 
 must take in such institutions as the Family, Church, and State, 
 and those varied forms in which the Industries of mankind ex- 
 press themselves, all as varied by the genius of Latin and Teu- 
 tonic races. It is of colonization by Europeans, and we must 
 take a long past for granted ; but it is not of a succession of 
 disconnected settlers, even if on one site. It is local only in 
 having a firm base. There was not here, as at Troy, a town built 
 on the ruins of another. There was a conflict, but afterwards 
 the newcomers mingled with the earlier residents in the old set- 
 tlements, intermarriage brought harmony, and each race added 
 traits, customs, or institutions to those which the others had fur- 
 nished. It was in one sense a contest of civilizations, and in 
 another a fusing of cultures into something new and yet old. 
 In changes the story is almost Oriental ; in results, purely Ameri- 
 can. Remembering the great historians from Thucydides to 
 Green, I cannot venture to call the book a history ; but such an 
 investigation is fairly an historical study. 
 
 In studying the growth of the country we shall see something 
 of the evolution of industry. The Indian, although held back 
 by lack of draft animals, was an agriculturist as well as a 
 hunter, but he did not until too late rise to his opportunities. 
 It is in the European that we find adaptation to new conditions. 
 The Spaniard, however, endeavored to create a New Spain, and 
 officially the Frenchman aimed at establishing a New France, 
 but the coureurs de hois were wiser than Louis XIV. In a new 
 world the hunter must come first, but it was the Briton who 
 was most successful in taking the second step ; he became a 
 trader. The third stage, which the settler brought, was best 
 reached under the American, — that Englishman who tore him- 
 self from his new home and crossed the mountains to a newer 
 one on rivers flowing westward. For the Latin and even British 
 colonization was governmental and enforced, while the American 
 was individual and spontaneous. The Frenchman spread him- 
 
xxviii INTRODUCTION. 
 
 self over too much territory, while the American, unfriendly to 
 the Indian, was forced to closer settlements and intenser indus- 
 tries. Even among the Americans greater population and wealth 
 were to accompany the more compact kinds of industry. 
 
 The successive forms of settled life relate to stock, agricul- 
 ture, and manufactures, — the ranch, field, and factory. The 
 Latin and Briton had experimented, and the American entered 
 into the results, but in the colonial era manufactures never 
 come. The raw materials were the main products of the South 
 West, and special conditions were to prolong this semi-colonial 
 state for many years after the date closing this book. Nor is this 
 necessarily a mark of inferiority. To this day while manufac- 
 tures are served by railroads and extractive industries by water 
 routes, four-fifths of the freight of America are made up of agri- 
 cultural and other raw materials.^ It was the advent of steam 
 that ended the colonial period, and, while railroads were as yet 
 undreamed of, our story brings us to the wonderful Age of 
 Steamboats. At the same time there were developing new insti- 
 tutions in government. The American was a new type of man 
 in political as well as in industrial respects. 
 
 The Spanish opened up the continent, but made few settle- 
 ments. The most significant, because the most lasting, colonial 
 period was that of the French, and the most brilliant part of 
 their rule was the decade of Law's Compan}^ It is instructive 
 to contrast the outlook of that day with the outlook with which 
 we close. Crozat surrendered his rights, because so extensive 
 a scheme was not for private hands, and thereupon Louis XV. 
 calls into existence the Company of the West, because, as the 
 Royal Council declare in 1717, it is not becoming for the King 
 to enter into commercial details. The financial system of Law 
 was for Paris, but the colonial plan, which outlived him, con- 
 cerned America. It aimed to preserve the balance of power in 
 Europe by interposing Louisiana between the English and 
 Mexico, and thus not only acquire for France mines and raw 
 materials, and afford an outlet for her manufactures, but to 
 protect Canada and prevent the English from conquering the 
 whole of North America and becoming the manufacturing centre 
 of the world. After a balancing between the Spaniard and 
 
 ^ Much that is suggestive may be found in Semple's American History 
 and its Geographic Conditions, pp. 158, 189, etc. 
 
INTRODUCTION. xxix 
 
 the Saxon, we find self-governing Saxons, without aid of King 
 or Company, absorbing step by step the Mississippi Valley, the 
 mouth of the Mississippi, the Gulf coast, Florida, and scheming 
 for the northern provinces of Mexico. But this was not for 
 England's sake. A new nation, Saxon with Latin infusion, had 
 come into being to inherit the American destiny which Crozat 
 had prophesied.^ 
 
 The making of America is a story of perennial interest, for 
 it means a great deal to the woi'ld, even if not all that enthusi- 
 asts claim for it. To some the process relates to assimilation 
 of the foreign material brought by immigration from Europe,^ 
 and there is no question of the present importance of this view. 
 But the formation of the American who was to assimilate such 
 diverse elements and in turn react upon the world is an older 
 and even more absorbing topic. The part played by the South 
 in the building of the nation cannot be understood without know- 
 ing her genesis. As the North West, with its mingling of 
 races, was to develop a different kind of man from its New 
 England stock, so the evolution of the South West was to make 
 a different kind from the Southerner of the Atlantic coast. 
 The very laud laws which north of the Ohio produced small 
 farmers failed on the Gulf of Mexico and its rivers to change 
 the old plantation system of Latin times. The difference in 
 environment was intensified by the different racial elements. 
 For it was in the South West that the Latin and the Saxon 
 met. There were different phases of the process in Louisiana, 
 in Texas, on the Pacific coast, and in the Old South West, — 
 sometimes called the Lower South.^ Of these the earliest Latin 
 settlement and the earliest Saxon-Latin mingling was in the Old 
 South West, and its centre was the Alabama-Tombigbee basin. 
 
 Let us take our stand in this district, and best, perhaps, at the 
 centre which has not changed its name from De Soto to Andrew 
 Jackson, and view this process of the suns not as a panorama 
 but a growth, — as the evolution of the Old South West in colo- 
 nial days. 
 
 ^ Depot des Fortifications des Colonies, Plans et Memoires relatifs a la 
 Louisiane, Carton No. 1. 
 
 '^ Riis, Making of an American) see, also, address of Joaquim Nabuco, 15 
 American Historical Revieiu, p. 54. 
 
 ' W. G. Brown, The Lower South in American History. 
 
PART I. 
 EXPLORATION. 
 
 1519-1670. 
 
COLONIAL MOBILE. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 THE COUNTRY AND THE NATIVES. 
 
 A TRAVELER, sailing along the north coast of the Gulf of 
 Mexico in the sixteenth century, would then as now observe 
 but two main features. The green shore is much indented by- 
 bays, some the estuaries of large rivers, while to the seaward 
 it is protected from the main by a series of sand islands, form- 
 ing from Mobile west to an outlet of the Mississippi a protect- 
 ing chain. These low islands are thinly clad with pine and 
 other growth; and the mainland beyond the Sound, sometimes 
 swampy, and never rising into elevations exceeding a few feet, 
 is itself sandy, but from near the beach inwards thickly cov- 
 ered with pines, oaks, and magnolias, often of splendid propor- 
 tions, and loaded with majestic hanging-moss. 
 
 Of all the inlets from the Gulf none would attract more 
 attention, if indeed as much, as that then as now called Mobile 
 Bay. Its mouth is deep and narrow, easily defended, formed 
 by a long poiijt on the east side and an island on the other, 
 while its sides extend in graceful curves from headland to head- 
 land far into the interior. To the right as you enter is a cove, 
 a wider sweep of water, and the deep anchorage of the lower 
 harbor invites the commerce of the world. The bay averages 
 perhaps ten miles wide by thirty long, and from each side 
 receives dark but pure streams, even rivers, which have their 
 origin in pine-shaded springs of the inland hills. The eastern 
 shore offers steep bluffs, sometimes bare and red, but often 
 covered with oaks and pines. At the head of the bay come in 
 between marsh islands what would seem to be a half dozen large 
 rivers, but on exploration these resolve themselves into two main 
 
4 COLONIAL MOBILE. 
 
 streams, the Tensaw on the east and the Mobile on the west, 
 and their connections, — themselves, indeed, all one river forty 
 miles above. The intervening delta is intersected by bayous, 
 and may be considered one large island, as it was mapped by 
 the British, or a series of islands in one bay or estuary, as by 
 the French. The southern third of the delta is so subject to 
 overflow as to be of little value, but much of the rest, especially 
 on Mobile River, is covered only by very high water. Much of 
 the western bank is also subject to overflow, but bluffs twenty- 
 one miles, twenty-seven miles, and at other frequent intervals 
 above the mouth, offer a safe residence. About fifty miles from 
 the bay, this one river Mobile is found to be the union of two 
 that flow in, the one from the northeast and the other from 
 the northwest, the Alabama and Tombigbee of our day, both 
 subject to the tide over a hundred miles up from the bay. 
 With their large tributaries, these wide, tawny rivers drain the 
 greater part of our Alabama, besides much of the present 
 Georgia and Mississippi. Fringed with willows and reflecting 
 the Cottonwood, oak, and beech of the higher banks, which 
 hide the upland forests of pines and oaks, they are navigable for 
 hundreds of miles above the bay, and play a great part in the 
 country's history, even before the white man developed the rich 
 lands adjacent. The low land extends up the rivers for many 
 miles beyond the fork, but bluffs are frequent along the upper 
 half of the streams, while the Coosa and Tallapoosa run, often 
 in falls and rapids, through romantic mountain scenery, before 
 uniting to form the Alabama and Mobile. 
 
 The Bay, often brackish in its northern half, once abounded 
 all over in oysters, as it still does in the lower parts, and also 
 in clams and crabs, while trout, mackerel, sheephead, and other 
 sea-fish raced its waters. Sharks and porpoises prowled almost 
 up to the fresh-water tributaries, in which sported the sluggish 
 alligator among trout, bream, catfish, perch, and their like, and 
 on land the deer, bear, wolf, and small game roved the coast 
 at will, while sea-fowl and land birds lived about the shore. 
 
 In this river basin and bay, indeed, consists the historical 
 importance of what is now Alabama and mucli of Georgia and 
 Mississippi. The great Apalachian range, that continental 
 ridge thrown up parallel with the Atlantic Ocean in remote 
 geologic times, extends under different names from New Eng- 
 
THE COUNTRY AND THE NATIVES. 5 
 
 land southwestwardly to near the GuK. It determined tlie 
 location of the Atlantic colonies by limiting them on the west, 
 even where, as in New York, a river partially pierced the moun- 
 tains. To the west was the great Mississippi basin, almost un- 
 approachable over the mountains, except by the passes to the 
 headwaters of the Ohio, Tennessee, and Cumberland rivers. It 
 was readily accessible from the east only by the St. Lawrence 
 and Great Lakes on the north, or by turning the flank of the 
 Apalachian range far to the south in these foothills where the 
 waters flowing to Mobile take their origin. 
 
 This Alabama basin, therefore, had a double importance, — 
 for its own sake, on account of its soil, products, and races, and 
 then again as being a gateway from the east to the greater 
 valley of the Mississippi. Other streams, it is true, seek the 
 Gulf to the east and west ; but they are not so large and do 
 not drain so great a territory as the Alabama and Tombigbee, 
 which unite to form the Mobile. Hence the importance, geo- 
 graphically speaking, of a city near that river and harbor, 
 particularly before the modern invention of railroads could 
 pierce mountains, and capital could divert trade into channels 
 which have no necessary relation to natural advantages. 
 
 On the waters tributary to Mobile Bay were in the sixteenth 
 century many inhabitants of the industrious Mobilian race, 
 whose empire extended from the GuK up through tlie rich lands 
 which we now call the Cotton Belt, with capital at Maubila. 
 This was probably somewhere between the Tombigbee and Ala- 
 bama rivers. 
 
 This extensive race was a well-formed one, the men brave, 
 the women often beautiful. Agriculture flourished, and peas, 
 beans, squash, pumpkins, and corn grew profusely. ^ If the 
 plates and descriptions of Jacob le Moyne, of 1567 (reproduced 
 by Pickett), apply to our own natives as well as to those of 
 eastern Florida, the Indians had attained considerable civili- 
 zation. They lived In wooden houses at the foot of artificial 
 mounds, on which were the dwellings of the chiefs. In the 
 delta above Stockton there Is still a large mound, fifty feet 
 high, necessarily made of earth brought in canoes from the 
 mainland, and near Blakeley has been found a burned clay 
 head of much artistic merit. 
 
 1 Pickett's Alabama, p. 68. 
 
6 COLONIAL MOBILE. 
 
 Arrowheads, pipes, stones for grinding, and other Indian 
 relics occur lower than Mobile, but there have been discovered 
 few evidences of permanent settlements on the Gulf itself, unless 
 we except the shell banks near Portersville and elsewhere, con- 
 taining human remains and utensils. Near the seashore in In- 
 dian times, therefore, the mockingbird's charm was unheeded, 
 and the glories of sunrise and sunset lighted up the surface 
 of the lower bay in vain ; for Indian canoes were unsuited to 
 rough water, and the savages have never been famous sailors. 
 Hunting and fishing are more easily pursued in the interior 
 than by the sea, and so the natives have ever readily yielded 
 the coast, and fought only for the forests and the rivers. To 
 the early white explorers, on the other hand, the sea was to be 
 of the first importance. From harbors like Dauphine Island, 
 they could carry on commerce with the natives and still keep in 
 touch with their European homes. In the interior of Alabama, 
 ditches about Indian wooden forts are not infrequent, and also 
 the small mounds in which at certain intervals they collected 
 the bones of the dead gathered from their temples. In aU ages 
 and among all races, graves, reverently guarded by the living, 
 have been the most imperishable memorials of the past. Of 
 these mounds few have survived lower than the latitude of 
 Mobile, although they are frequent in modern Greene County, 
 Alabama, and elsewhere in the interior of that State and Mis- 
 sissippi. Perhaps there are more east of what we now call the 
 Tensaw River than on the western shore of the Mobile delta. 
 It may be that the mounds and shell banks about Stockton and 
 the neighboring waters mark the villages which Spanish explor- 
 ers were to notice, although we know that in later times Mobile 
 River and its upper tributaries were the main seat of Indian 
 life. 
 
 The rough country between the Tennessee and the main 
 streams of the Warrior, Coosa, and Tallapoosa, which now 
 supplies the great mineral wealth of Alabama, was but sparsely 
 inhabited by the aborigines, and was indeed to remain of second- 
 ary importance until the last third of our own century, while 
 the beautiful valley of the Tennessee was not important in colo- 
 nial times, and will not figure much in our story. Its western 
 portion was within the range of the warlike Chickasaws, but 
 most of this region was the seat of the Cherokees, who extended 
 
THE COUNTRY AND THE NATIVES. 7 
 
 into Tennessee and Georgia as well as Alabama; while east, 
 over the Carolina mountains from them, were the brave Cataw- 
 bas. Creeks and Choetaws will concern us more, for they 
 lived on or near the rivers that empty into Mobile Bay. 
 
 Patient linguistic research, applied to our aboriginal tongues, 
 has produced as interesting and unexpected results as in the 
 older field of the Indo-European races. While language is not 
 infallible, for conquered or even conquering nations may adopt 
 that of their opponents, it is in general an accurate test, and 
 often reveals kinship and alienage not otherwise suspected. 
 
 Scholars like Grote in Greek and Gatschet in Indian investi- 
 gation find it necessary to respell and recoin names according 
 to their true sounds; but suffice it for us to reproduce their 
 results in more familiar terms. For Cha'hta let us still have 
 Choctaw, for Maskoki, Muscogee. 
 
 It seems that the Muscogee race, extending from the Missis- 
 sippi to the Atlantic, from the Apalachian range to the Gulf, 
 living in what we may call the Alabama Basin, broke an- 
 ciently into an eastern and western branch, and each of these 
 then separated into tribes. Of the eastern branch the Creeks 
 were the most prominent, of the western the Choetaws, from 
 whom in their turn the warlike Chickasaws seceded, and inter- 
 mediate between the two branches came the Alibamons on their 
 river. In the eastern group we find the Creeks and Seminoles, 
 the Creeks being on the upper sources of the Alabama River 
 and on the Chattahoochee, and in the western, close akin to 
 the Choetaws, were the Biloxi, Ouma or Huma, Pascagoula, 
 and other familiar tribes. ^ Despite the kinship, the Choetaws, 
 themselves in Upper and Lower divisions, were almost always 
 at war with the Creeks. Their disputed boundary was between 
 our Alabama and Tombigbee rivers, near the Choctaw Corner 
 of later days. 
 
 In customs they show a unity in their very diversity. All 
 used the colors red and white, as indicative the one of war, the 
 other of peace ; they all had some kind of family distinction by 
 totems ; aU used the ilex cassine for a black drink prior to war ; 
 all worshiped the sun in some form ; and all deified the Mas- 
 ter of Life. Flattening the heads of children and gathering 
 the bones of the dead for reinterment were more characteristic 
 ^ Gatschet's Creek Migration Legend, p. 52. 
 
8 COLONIAL MOBILE. 
 
 of the Choctaw branch, public squares and the green corn dance 
 {jmskitci) of the Creeks; but in both the descent of children 
 followed the mother, both had the chunkey game, and, like all 
 Indians, they scalped the fallen foe.^ 
 
 The Mobilian language was understood by all, but no certain 
 explanation of the word Mobile is given, unless Halbert's 
 suggestion be right, that it is from the Choctaw word which 
 means "paddling." The site of Mobile was Choctaw, as, 
 strange to say, was that of the tribes on the Chickasawhay, 
 near which dwelled Choctaws incredibly said to be, with those 
 of Yoani, the only ones who could swim. The Choctaws were 
 tillers rather than hunters, and, while the northern division 
 were warlike, the southern were dirty, indolent, and sometimes 
 cowardly. The mythical origin of the Choctaws was from Nani 
 Waya, a mound fifty feet high near the head of Pearl River, 
 which lasted down to our own days.^ The Alibamons had a 
 somewhat similar legend about springing from the ground be- 
 tween the Cahaba and Alabama rivers ; and indeed the Creeks 
 also believed that they originated in caves on the Red River, 
 and that they wandered eastwardly in ceaseless conflict with the 
 Alibamons, whom they were to absorb. 
 
 ^ Gatschet's Creek Migration Legend, pp. 51, 91, 102, 153. 
 » Ibid., pp. 95, 102-105, 109. 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 
 THE SPIRITU SANTO. 
 
 The union of Castile and Aragon, the fortunate marriages ' 
 of the royal house, and the discovery of America combined to 
 make Spain in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries the fore- 
 most country of the civilized world. 
 
 The great age of Charles V. was as momentous in America 
 as in Europe. It saw the Old World rent in twain by the wars 
 of the Reformation. It beheld the greater part of both conti- 
 nents of the New World made provinces of Spain. The West 
 Indies, the first fruits of Columbus's discoveries, barred off 
 the inquisitive English, who from Cabot's time were thus 
 driven further northward, and this made the Gulf of Mexico a 
 Spanish lake. From it, according to the protection notions of 
 that day, all other nations should be excluded. 
 
 Columbus himself always supposed that he had reached the 
 Asiatic islands, and he never touched our North American 
 continent, although he explored the shores of Brazil. The 
 oxhide map of his follower Coza, in 1500, and that of Cantino, 
 two years later, show Cuba and the West Indies in some detail ; 
 but even the Ruysch map of 1508, while exhibiting the islands 
 and South America as Mundus Novus, has no northern conti- 
 nent between Europe and Asia.^ 
 
 Hayti and then Cuba were at first the great objects of Span- 
 ish interest, but as their explorations progressed they found 
 the mainland of North America, and it gradually develops on 
 the rare old maps which time has spared. In 1513, Ponce de 
 Leon, in a vain search for the fountain of youth, led the way 
 from Cuba to the Spanish colonization of the Florida he named, 
 and six years later, Cortez from the same island conquered the 
 rich Aztec kingdom, Mexico, the seat, it may be, of the Mound- 
 
 ' Maps in Scaife's America. For the Admiral's map, thought to be one 
 of Columbus, see 2 Winsor's Narrative and Critical History, p. 112. 
 
10 COLONIAL MOBILE. 
 
 builders once in the Mississippi valley. This fired others to 
 seek, on the shores of our Gulf, dominions which would enrich 
 themselves and at the same time spread further the sway of 
 His Catholic Majesty. The Mexican gulf and its islands be- 
 came Spanish, well explored by their navigators, but unfortu- 
 nately little is even yet known of their voyages. Their reports 
 and papers may some day be unearthed from peninsular con- 
 vents and libraries to enrich history, but for the present we 
 have only meagre outlines and few maps. From them we learn 
 at least, however, that Mexico (including also our Texas and 
 the Northwest) was called New Spain, and that all east to 
 the Atlantic was also claimed for Spain under the name of 
 Florida. 
 
 Indeed, a Spanish governor of Jamaica named Garay sent 
 out, in 1519, an exploring expedition to find a passage west of 
 Florida, — still supposed to be an island. The commander, 
 Pineda, coasted along the northern shore of the Gulf from east 
 to west. He explored westwardly until he came to Mexico, 
 and there can be no doubt that he visited Mobile Bay. He 
 could not well have missed it, and next year Garay sent home 
 a map embracing his discoveries, and this shows it plainly. 
 Pineda or Garay probably can claim to have given to Mobile 
 Bay and River the name of the Holy Spirit, although the 
 Admiral's map of 1513 may be thought to show it also as Rio 
 de la Palma. This is supposed to have been based on a map 
 of Columbus.^ 
 
 On this expedition, Pineda reports that he discovered a river 
 of great volume, and on it a considerable town. He remained 
 there forty days trading with the natives and careening his 
 vessels. He also ascended the river, and found its banks so 
 thickly inhabited that in six leagues he counted forty Indian 
 hamlets. The Mississippi has claimed this exploration, but it 
 cannot be. The lower Mississippi^ was always marshy and un- 
 inhabitable, and the conditions all point to a site on Mobile 
 Bay or the tributary rivers. From 1520, the time of Garay's 
 report of his discoveries, the Bay and River of Spirito Sancto 
 (or Espiritu Santo) is on most maps. Indeed, the indentations 
 
 ' See maps accompanying Scaife's America, and the many shown in 
 2 Winsor's Narrative and Critical History, particularly on pp. 112, 218-221, 
 etc. Cf. also, 2 Narrative and Critical History, pp. 113, 237. 
 
THE SPIRITU SANTO. 11 
 
 of the coast and the eastern offset that mark Mobile Bay made 
 up henceforth the most prominent landmark on the northern, 
 as R. de Panuco (Tampico) does of the western Gulf coast. 
 This seems to show it as well known and often visited. 
 
 The plans in Winsor's "Narrative and Critical History" 
 (Spanish Explorations) are unmistakable from about 1520 for- 
 ward. The pear-shaped bay within the coast line, the long 
 eastern offset at the mouth, which we call Mobile Point, are 
 plain. No other harbor corresponds, least of all the Missis- 
 sippi, with its projecting passes. A recent laborious investiga- 
 tor was attracted by the discrepancy between the early maps and 
 the modern histories which say the Mississippi was called by the 
 Spaniards Rio del Espiritu Santo, River of the Holy Spirit, 
 and Scaife's careful examination seems to leave no doubt that 
 this was really the Mobile River. Dr. Winsor's maps seem to 
 disprove Dr. Winsor's text, and in a later work he in part 
 admits the Mobile claim. ^ The Mississippi is the greatest 
 river on this continent, and very possibly the Spaniards would 
 have named it for the Holy Spirit, if they had discovered it 
 first; but they did not, unless the unnamed three mouths on 
 the Admiral's map alone be it. It is not easily found from the 
 sea. A century and a half later, La Salle, who had explored 
 it thoroughly from above, missed the mouth while seeking it 
 from the Gulf. On the other hand, Mobile Bay is easily seen 
 from without. 
 
 There can be hardly any doubt, then, that the Bay of the 
 Holy Spirit was Mobile Bay, the only one named on many 
 maps. Its shape and location bear no other reasonable ex- 
 planation. It might be that if the great Mississippi was 
 known, it might have been erroneously supposed to empty into 
 the great harbor we call Mobile Bay, and so marked, as was, in 
 fact, later done on Franquelin's map of 1681. ^ But where is 
 the evidence that the Mississippi was known in 1520? Who 
 was its discoverer before De Soto? Mobile Bay has a large 
 river flowing into it, — two, in fact, and it is not only begging 
 the question, but making a very improbable assumption, to 
 
 1 W. B. Scaife's America, its Geographical History, 1892 ; Winsor's Mis- 
 sissippi Basin, p. 76. Erwin Craighead, of Mobile, by independent investi- 
 gation, reached the same conclusion, but his essay has not been published. 
 
 2 Parkman's Discovery of the Great West, p. 410. 
 
12 COLONIAL MOBILE. 
 
 suppose that the river of the Holy Spirit was thought to be 
 other than the Mobile River which does empty into the bay. 
 
 After they discovered the greater stream, the Spaniards 
 really called the Mississi^jpi "Rio Grande," a translation of its 
 meaning; but they did not discover it until De Soto crossed in 
 1541, nor did they probably see its mouth until Moscoso and 
 his three hundred survivors of that ill-fated expedition drifted 
 down, in 1543, trying to find Mexico. Meantime a dozen maps 
 had already outlined the familiar shape of Mobile Bay, and 
 called it and the river for the Holy Spirit. 
 
 The first with the name seems to be that of 1520, sent to 
 Spain by Garay, probably embodying, as we have seen, the 
 results of Pineda's expedition of the preceding year.^ The 
 Ferdinand Columbus map of 1527 gives the bay as if with a 
 double head, but, as copied by Winsor, has no names. 
 
 Preserved at Weimar, perhaps brought there by Charles V., 
 is a large map of the world as then known. It was by the 
 Spanish Ribero, in 1527, and is one of the cartographical 
 treasures of Europe. The coast of North America is shown 
 up to New England, of South America past Brazil, in incorrect 
 relations, perhaps, while the Gulf of Mexico appears in great 
 detail, — evidently the part of the Mundus Novus then best 
 known. No name is given the continents or the Gulf, but 
 Mexico is called Nova Spana, Yucatan, Cuba, and Florida all 
 have their modern titles, and probably a hundred points bear 
 names about their coasts. 
 
 On it "by far the most prominent body of water emptying 
 into the Gulf of Mexico" is a double bay called "Mar Pe- 
 quena," Little Sea, which indicates that the water is salt. Flow- 
 ing into this bay is the Rio del Spirito (our Mobile River),^ 
 and the bay is correctly represented as receiving its water 
 through several streams. The Ribero map of 1529 is in effect 
 the same, giving the name as R. d Espiritu Santo. '^ 
 
 Meantime, in 1528, Panfilo de Narvaez had made his adven- 
 turous exploration of the Gulf coast. Foiled in his attempt to 
 oust Cortez from Mexico, he undertook, with the royal sanction, 
 an expedition to Florida. Where he landed is uncertain, but 
 
 1 2 Winsor's Narrative and Critical History, p. 218, etc. ; p. 43. 
 
 * Scaife's America, pp. 154, 159. 
 
 ^ 2 Winsor's Narrative and Critical History, p. 221. 
 
THE SPIRITU SANTO. 13 
 
 at all events, he found a poor country. After many hardships 
 he reached the sea again among the Apalaches of St. Mark's 
 Bay, and built rude boats to take his little army to Mexico. 
 Coasting along to the west, it is thought he landed in Mobile 
 Bay for water, ^ — possibly at the Belief ontaine which was to 
 be so well known in French times. A tradition afterwards 
 among the French was to be that the bones of his men were 
 those found bleaching on Massacre (our Dauphine) Island. 
 Narvaez's own boat was driven out to sea by the current of 
 a large river, but some of his followers lived to make, under 
 Cabeza de Vaca, that famous expedition which first revealed the 
 country near the Rocky Mountains.^ 
 
 The next visitor to Mobile Bay, of whom we have an account, 
 was De Soto's admiral, Maldonado. Him we pass for the 
 present, but to Spaniards generally the place was apparently 
 well known. Although they kept their discoveries to them- 
 selves, as did each exploring nation, even the English Cabot, 
 in 1544, had a map of the world that shows our bay with the 
 river emptying into it, while the greater Mississippi was not 
 known to him, and French maps of about that time, giving 
 both the Mobile rivers, mark the western for St. Esprit. What 
 appears to be a Spanish map, preserved in the Bodleian Library, 
 similarly marks the western branch R. del Spirit. Santo, while 
 Homem, in 1558, shows the name as applying more especially 
 to the river from the junction to the bay. In 1570 came 
 Ortelius's map, and on this Mobile Bay is Baia de Culata, 
 Gunstock Bay, — a term well describing its shape.^ 
 
 Reasonably certain it is, therefore, that the river and bay of 
 the Holy Spirit were those otherwise called Mobile, and that 
 when Maldonado sought westwardly for a harbor for De Soto, 
 his charts would point him to our bay as the one receiving a 
 large river named Holy Spirit, coming from that vast interior 
 into which we must now follow his daring master. 
 
 ^ Gatschet, Creek Migration Legend, p. 190. 
 
 2 As to Narvaez, see, also, 2 Winsor's Narrative and Critical History^ 
 p. 242. His Journal is in Barnes' " Trail Makers " Series. 
 
 3 See map in Scaife's America ; 2 Winsor's Narrative and Critical History, 
 pp. 224, 225, 227, 229, 292. 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 
 ON THE TRAIL OF DE SOTO. 
 
 The most famous of the explorers of the South was Hernando 
 De Soto. He was neither an adventurer nor a tyro. He had 
 been with Pedrarias in the subjection of Peru, and on his re- 
 turn to Spain rich had married Pedrarias's daughter, the Donna 
 Isabella de Bobadilla. The king thought well of him and made 
 him governor of Cuba and adelantado of the shadowy realm of 
 Florida. 
 
 He sailed for Cuba early in 1539, and after setting things in or- 
 der there made preparations to possess his other and less known 
 province. He set off from Havana in May, and as to what hap- 
 pened between that time and the arrival of his surviving followers 
 in Mexico in the summer of 1543 great uncertainty prevails. We 
 have several accounts, but they are of varying value, often con- 
 tradictory, and at best indefinite in their statements. Attempts 
 have been made to reconstruct his joui-ney but with results dif- 
 fering in almost every detail. The usually accepted route is that 
 proposed by A. B. Meek in the " Southron" of 1889, and in general 
 this is probably correct, but leaves much to be desired. Meek, 
 followed by Pickett, made him enter the Alabama-Tombigbee 
 basin at what is now Home in Georgia, while a later student, 
 James Mooney,^ makes De Soto strike Alabama soil at Chehaw 
 about the middle reach of the Chattahoochee River a hundred 
 miles to the south, and T. H. Lewis in 1907 assigns him to the 
 river Tennessee almost as far to the north. Everything depends 
 •upon the beginning, because everything counts from there; so 
 that it is worth while to make a short re-study of the subject. 
 
 To the three old accounts of Biedma, Gentleman of Elvas, and 
 Garcilaso, long known and often cited, must be added that of 
 ^ 19th Annual Report Bureau Ethnology, pp. 26, 191. 
 
ON THE TRAIL OF DE SOTO. 15 
 
 Eanjel,^ one of the conquistadores, a private secretary to De 
 Soto himself. This is almost in the nature of a journal. Ran- 
 jel gives often the day of the week as well as the day of the 
 month, and on checking over his dates and days there are found 
 only immaterial errors. The account of Garcilaso has long since 
 been discounted as exaggerated, but the relations of Biedma 
 and the Gentleman of Elvas are more reliable. Used to round 
 out the skeleton supplied by Ranjel, they are of great value. Of 
 course the polished addresses by the Indians recorded by the 
 Elvas writer are to be taken in a Thucydidean sense. 
 
 No one had up to this expedition entered the interior of the 
 continent, and, beyond a plat of the coast made by Chaves, De 
 Soto had nothing to guide him, — if indeed he had that with him. 
 When he crossed a river he did not know where it emptied and 
 could form no intelligent notion of the country. The result is 
 a bewildering succession of rivers, swamps, and villages. It 
 would probably have been as hard for Ranjel to construct a map 
 of the journey as it is for us.^ 
 
 ^ The earliest is The True Relation by a Portuguese member of the De 
 Soto expedition, who came from the town of Elvas. It was first published in 
 Portugal in 1557, and translated into English by Hakluyt in 1609. The 
 Florida, by Garcilaso, of mixed Spanish and Peruvian blood, was published 
 at Lisbon in 1605, and at Madrid seventeen years later. Of this a translation 
 is found in Shipp's History of Florida, and it is used by Theodore Irving 
 and by Grace King. The next in time was the Relation of Biedma, the king's 
 factor, which was compiled in 1544, but not published until 1841 in a French 
 translation by Ternaux-Compans. An English translation is in French's His- 
 torical Collections of Louisiana, and there is also a better one by Bucking- 
 ham Smith which is followed by all subsequent editors. Probably the best 
 account is that by De Soto's Secretary, Ranjel, which was incorporated in 
 Oviedo's Historia General y Natural de las Indias. Excellent translations of 
 the Elvas, Biedma, and Ranjel accounts are to be found in the De Soto nar- 
 ratives edited by E. G. Bourne and published at New York in 1904 as a part 
 of Barnes' " Trail Makers " Series. There is also a late edition of the Elvas 
 writer in the Narratives of Early Spanish Explorers, with notes by Lewis, 
 published under the auspices of the American Historical Society. All the 
 chroniclerfl except Garcilaso were members of De Soto's army. 
 
 ^ The difficulty is well shown in Lowery's Spanish Settlements, where that 
 careful student adopts the Georgia route in the text and the Alabama route 
 in his notes (p. 231 and map). An old map has been published by Harrisse 
 and reprinted in the " Spanish Explorers" series as showing the views of a 
 De Soto follower. This puts Chiaha, Talli, and also Quizquiz and Guachoya 
 on the same river, — which the narratives do not, — and makes this, the Espir- 
 
16 COLONIAL MOBILE. 
 
 Indeed, we have some advantages. In the first place, the names 
 of a great many places have remained substantially unchanged ; 
 and one has only to look at a map of the United States to realize 
 how persistent an old Indian name is. The tribes did not often 
 migrate, although villages and towns were moved about accord- 
 ing to local convenience. Even these changes were within nar- 
 row limits, for the Indians had no domestic stock, and selected 
 for residence bluffs above inundation. The rivers always supplied 
 fish, and the tribes did not live close enough together for the easy 
 exhaustion of game. Agriculture, at least as to maize and beans 
 in the river bottoms, played a comparatively great part, but new 
 fields could easily be burned in the canebrakes adjacent to those 
 already in use. The flora and fauna mentioned in the narratives 
 are of little assistance, because these do not vary greatly through- 
 out the whole Gulf country. Grapes, persimmons, chestnuts are 
 everywhere. Indian corn proved the main food of all colonists 
 as of the Indians before them ; and it was found all over America.^ 
 Even the perplexing " little dogs that did not bark " which the 
 Indians gave the Spaniards to eat seem to recur throughout the 
 expedition ; and it may well be that these are represented by the 
 opossums which have in the South afforded good eating ever since. 
 The best aid — after that of the Indian names — is found in the 
 trails, which the Spaniards necessarily used, and which, indeed, 
 are mentioned time and again throughout the narratives. One 
 of the first thoughts of De Soto on reaching a place was to compel 
 the natives to give him guides and porters (taynemes). This was 
 almost a necessity, as there were no domestic animals in America 
 except the dog, and outside of the regions of snow the dog could 
 not serve as a beast of burden.^ Not far north of Apalache 
 they were in great trouble when the trails through the pine forests 
 ran out to nothing, and there it was that one guide went mad, — •_ 
 or became possessed of a devil, as the priest explained it. We 
 have no map of the Indian trails of that day, to be sure, but trails 
 have always run along ridges between river basins or across a 
 mountain region to connect different river systems. There is no 
 
 itu Santo, empty into a large bay of the same name and described as salt, — 
 mar pequeha, little sea. As the Gentleman of Elvas tells us they found the 
 Mississippi had two mouths, this was not that river. 
 
 1 Shaler's United States, p, 26. ' Ibid., p. 34. 
 
ON THE TRAIL OF DE SOTO. 17 
 
 reason to doubt that the same Indian routes were used in De 
 Soto's time that prevailed later under the French. Ranjel gives 
 us a diary, and the rate of speed is supplied by a much humbler 
 companion of the conquistadores. 
 
 It would have been practically impossible to haul cannon 
 through the Gulf vine-tied forests, and the American currency 
 does more than justice to De Soto in picturing him with artillery. 
 Armor the Spaniards had, although they gradually discarded it 
 for thick quilted cotton clothing, but there is no mention of can- 
 non from the beginning to the end of the expedition. 
 
 It was geese that saved Rome on a memorable occasion, and, lit- 
 tle as he would relish the indebtedness, it is De Soto's hogs which 
 will tend to preserve his route from oblivion. For he not only 
 brought horses to ride on, but thirteen hogs from Cuba to live on, 
 and they multiplied to thousands, and lasted during all of his 
 long trip. Some were lost in the forest, others swept away by 
 the rivers ; but many kept with him the whole time. Several 
 hundred were sold among his effects at his death. ^ And even 
 De Soto's hogs could not well be driven more than five or six 
 miles a day on the average, despite the claim in the narratives 
 of as many leagues. He was in the Alabama-Tombigbee basin 
 something over six months and was on the march about half the 
 time, making say five or six hundred miles. In a straight line 
 the distance to Clarke County on the south is half this, but allow- 
 ances must be made for turns and detours. 
 
 With De Soto's experiences in peninsular Florida we are not 
 much concerned. He landed somewhere near Tampa in May, 
 1539, with 570 soldiers, 223 horses and the hogs, and marched 
 northwestwardly until about October he was at Apalache, where 
 he saw the forges and horses' bones left by Narvaez when he 
 sailed away years before. From there in November he sent 
 westward his brigantines under Maldonado, a cavalryman trans- 
 formed into a sailor, in order to find a good harbor for a rendez- 
 vous. Maldonado discovered an excellent one in the province of 
 Achuse. This discovery was to lead to questions of its own ; 
 but Biedma lays stress upon its river, which he calls the Espiritu 
 Santo, " having a good entrance and harbor," with an Indian 
 town.2 Maldonado in February sailed for Havana with instruc- 
 ^ Gentleman of Elvas, chap. xxx. ^ Biedma, p. 8. 
 
18 COLONIAL MOBILE. 
 
 tion to meet De Soto six months later at the port which he had 
 found. 
 
 After wintering near Apalache, De Soto struck northeast- 
 wardly and crossed rivers flowing towards the Atlantic. He 
 made a memorable stay of a fortnight at Cofitachequi, supposed 
 to be Silver Bluff on the Savannah River. There he found rel- 
 ics of Ayllon's expedition. After robbing graves and temples of 
 pearls of the fresh water mussel (tmio) he changed his route 
 towards the north or northwest. Two days brought him to the 
 territory of the Clialaques. These are supposed to be Cherokees, 
 for they spell their names Tsalaki ; but if so, they then extended 
 much farther to the south than in historic times. On May 26 
 the Spaniards crossed a stream which Ranjel calls the Rio del 
 Spiritu Santo, and Oviedo conjectures it to be that on which they 
 were later to launch their brigan tines and from its mouth in 31° 
 escape to Mexico,^ This, however, is a guess, unless the stream 
 was some branch of the Tennessee River, as on the Harrisse map, 
 which is unlikely. It might have been the Chattahoochee not 
 far from Atlanta, here running to the southwest, as if it were 
 a source of the Alabama. 
 
 The country pleased them very much, and from now on we 
 reach somewhat familiar names. On the last day of May they 
 came to an oak wood along a river and the next day crossed by 
 Canasoga, — and Connesauga was the name of several Cherokee 
 streams. On June 5 they entered Chiaha, situated on an island 
 in a walnut country. There they were well received and tarried 
 for over three weeks. Biedma tells us that it was in a river which 
 has islands all the way up to its source ; and this points strongly 
 toward the Coosa, which is full of islands and runs through 
 a hilly country like that described in the narratives. Chahah 
 was a Creek town in Adair's time, and Chiaha is in Coxe's 
 " Carolana " the name for the Tallapoosa River. There is still 
 a Chiaha Creek in Talladega County, Alabama; but stress need 
 not be laid upon the exact locality, as this Muscogee word (mean- 
 ing potato) cannot have been very uncommon. With Chiaha, 
 at all events, they entered a new country, and here for the first 
 time they find palisades around the villages,^ a custom prevalent 
 with the Muscogees. Higher than Talladega County they would 
 ^ Ranjel's Relation, chap. vi. ^ Ibid. 
 
ON THE TRAIL OF DE SOTO. 19 
 
 have been in the Cherokee country. Biedma, it may be noted, 
 considered this river to be the Espiritu Santo.^ 
 
 They go on down stream and are sometimes on one side and 
 sometimes on the other, fording at intervals ; for the number of 
 rivers mentioned can probably be reduced to one or two, crossed 
 and recrossed. They passed Coste, also on an island, having the 
 open square usual among the Muscogees, and from there sent 
 two soldiers to examine the province of Chisca, reputed rich and 
 certainly mountainous. At Coste they saw in the stream the 
 same kind of pearl which they had stolen at Cofitachequi. In 
 the first part of July they were at Tali, and then Tasqui, and in 
 the middle of the month reached the town of Co9a, apparently 
 following the same river downwards.^ 
 
 This is one of the famous names of aboriginal times and as 
 Coosa survives in the name of the river. There is every reason 
 to suppose that the town was then where it was later, on the east 
 bank of the Coosa River between two creeks in Talladega County. 
 The chief, wearing white mantles of furs, came in a litter and re- 
 ceived De Soto cordially. They found fine plums, apples, grapes 
 and other supplies. On leaving in the latter part of August they 
 passed through Talimachusy, Itaba, Ulibahali, Tuasi and Talisi. 
 Many of these names with slightly different spelling we shall find 
 in later times about the Coosa, Tallapoosa, and upper Alabama 
 rivers. 
 
 During the stay of a week at Talisi they released the chief of 
 Co^a, and we may infer from De Soto's usual practice that they 
 had reached the limits of that chief's territory. Biedma says 
 that they were now in a province different from Co^a. The 
 names from Chiaha down to this point are Muscogee, but from 
 now on this is not clear. They went successively to Casiste, Caxa, 
 Huniati and Uxapita, and, as each of these was reached by a day's 
 march, the country must have been quite populous.^ 
 
 ^ Biedma's Relation, p. 15. 
 
 2 The narratives give no intimation of a change near Gadsden from the 
 Tennessee to the Coosa basin as indicated on the Harrisse map. 
 
 8 The recent claim that the route was down the Chattahoochee rests largely 
 on the existence of Chehaw on that stream and Cusseta (Casiste) not far 
 off. Chehaw by itself would mean little, as seen above, and Casiste is given 
 in all the narratives as on the river below Coosa and separated by a whole 
 provinceful of towns from Chiaha. Comparison of maps and accounts from 
 
20 
 
 COLONIAL MOBILE. 
 
 One cannot but think they were now in the country where the 
 French later found the Alibamons.^ The name occurs here on 
 an old Spanish map, although it has been conjectured that this 
 tribe were the Alimamu, later found by De Soto near the Mis- 
 sissippi. Ranjel describes as new only one of the villages, which 
 were on both sides of the river. The instances are infrequent 
 of a tribe's leaving a fertile district, and even more so of a 
 
 De Soto to Hawkins shows much the same towns to have been all the time in 
 this Coosa country, and it is impossible to resist the conclusion that the Coosa 
 River district was that traversed by De Soto. Casiste in his time was small, 
 while the Chattahoochee theory rests on its being large and influential. It 
 is possible tliat the people were on the Coosa, and like others afterwards moved 
 to the Lower Creek country. Bartrani mentions Usseta on the Chattahoochee, 
 but we know several tribes changed location when the French left. 
 
 There might be a question why the narratives do not mention the Cahoui- 
 tas (Cowetas) and Abecas, which were afterward so prominent. Caxa may 
 represent the former, but this was a poor village and rather low down for the 
 Cahouitas. The natural explanation is (1) either that as De Soto was not ex- 
 ploring the upper rivers, but seeking Coga, he entered the district below the 
 Cahouitas and Abecas and so did not see them, and had no occasion to men- 
 tion them. If so, this shows Chiaha was not high up. Or (2) that the Cow- 
 etas were then, as they were by Bartram's time, on a diflPerent river from 
 Coosa, that is, already on the Chattahoochee and therefore not encountered. 
 
 1 COOSA-TALLAPOOSA TOWNS 
 
 AT DIFFERENT EPOCHS. 
 
 
 
 FRENCH MAP 
 
 BARTBAM 
 
 
 
 1540 
 
 BANJEL 
 
 1746 
 
 1776 
 
 HAWKINS 
 
 OATSCHET 
 
 June 5-28 
 
 Chiaha 
 
 (Villages) 
 
 
 
 
 Chiaha 
 
 July 2-9 
 
 Coste 
 Tali 
 
 
 
 
 
 July 14 
 
 Tasqui 
 
 Tascage 
 
 
 Tuskegee 
 
 Taskiki 
 
 " 16- Aug. 20 
 
 Co9a 
 
 Cosa 
 
 
 Coosan 
 
 Kusa 
 
 Aug. 21 
 
 Talimaehusy 
 
 
 Mucclase 
 
 Mooklausau 
 
 Muklasa 
 
 " 22 
 
 Itaba (Ytaua) 
 
 Atasi 
 
 Otasse 
 
 Autossee 
 
 Atasse 
 
 " 31-Sept.l2 
 
 Ulibahali 
 
 
 
 Hillaubee 
 
 Hillabe 
 
 Sept, 6-1.3 
 
 Tuasi 
 
 
 
 Toowassau 
 
 
 " 15-16 
 
 (Stockade, etc.) 
 
 
 
 
 
 " 18 
 
 Talisi 
 
 Talise 
 
 Tallase 
 
 Talesee 
 
 
 Oct. 5 
 
 Casiste 
 
 
 
 
 Kasihte 
 
 " 6 
 
 Caxa 
 
 
 
 
 
 .. 7 
 
 Humati 
 
 
 Coosauda 
 
 Coosaudee 
 
 Kantchati 
 
 " 8 
 
 Uxapita 
 
 
 
 Ocheaupofau 
 
 Luchepoga 
 
 *' 10-12 
 
 Atahachi 
 
 
 
 
 
 " 13-16 
 
 Piachi 
 
 (Vill.ages) 
 
 
 
 
 
 Oct. 18-Nov. 14 
 
 Mabila 
 
 
 
 
 
ON THE TRAIL OF DE SOTO. 21 
 
 tribe's coming to inhabit one previously abandoned. So that 
 the inference would be that this district was already Alibamon, 
 as that higher up the river was Muscogee, but the tribes were 
 separate and perhaps had not attained the unity to be inferred 
 from a tribal name. This is confirmed by Humati, which is 
 probably the Alibamon Conchati. Grimm's law easily allows for 
 the change of form. 
 
 With the entrance, October 10, into Atahachi, the village of 
 Tuskaloosa, indicated as a recent settlement,^ we seem to reach 
 a new territory again. TuscaluQa, seated on a balcony or piazza, 
 on a mound at one side of the public square, received De Soto 
 in a good deal of state. He wore a coif about his head, a mantle 
 of feathers reached to his feet, and his special emblem of au- 
 thority seemed to be an umbrella bearing a white cross on a 
 black field, — suggesting to Ranjel the cross of the Order of 
 St. John of Rhodes. He did not deign to rise for De Soto, but 
 afterwards entertained him with food and with the spectacle of 
 rustic dancing. De Soto, with the arrogance and lack of tact 
 which marked him all through the expedition, put this chief also 
 under arrest and took him along to Piachi, " a village high above 
 the gorge of a mountain stream." ^ They learned that Teodoro 
 and a negro from Narvaez's expedition had been killed there, 
 and De Soto almost had the same experience before he crossed 
 on rafts. Ranjel does not say this was a large river, but the 
 other narratives do. Biedma says the Spaniards considered it 
 " that which empties into the Bay of Chuse." ^ It was in all 
 probability what we know as the Alabama River. 
 
 Where were Atahachi and Piachi ? On the answer to this 
 depends the understanding of De Soto's subsequent route ; but 
 an answer cannot be definitely given. Hatchee was Choctaw for 
 river., and they would seem to be now in Choctaw territory. In 
 historic times the eastern Choctaw boundary was between the 
 Alabama and Tombigbee, but it would seem that at this time 
 the boundary was further east, perhaps at Cahaba, which is a 
 Choctaw word. Just as it seems possible that the Muscogee 
 confederacy had not yet fully developed, so it Is probable that 
 the Choctaw influence was greater now than in later days. De 
 
 ^ Ranjel's Relation^ chap, vii., p. 120. ^ Biedma, p. 17. 
 
 8 Ibid., p. 122. 
 
22 COLONIAL MOBILE. 
 
 Soto may have contributed to the change. The prevalence of 
 the Mobilian trade jargon, predominantly Choctaw, far to the 
 east even in later times, points to an early period of Choctaw 
 hegemony in the South. As to Piachi, it might have been 
 almost anywhere in the present Monroe or Wilcox County. 
 There are many mounds and stone weapons and other remains 
 near the river pointing to a larger population than is known 
 since the advent of firearms. The account of the Atahachi visit 
 contains one of the few notices by the Spanish explorers of the 
 Indian mounds, and may therefore indicate that the one in ques- 
 tion was unusually large. They are numerous near the middle 
 Alabama, and it may be impossible to identify this one. The 
 mention of high land might point to some great bluff, but, as 
 pines are not mentioned, hardly to any further south than Clai- 
 borne. This was ever a settlement and on a trail across to the 
 shoals of the Tombigbee about St. Stephens. We must remem- 
 ber that up to this time De Soto was working seawards to meet 
 Maldonado. 
 
 After crossing the river they marched three days by several 
 villages and arrived at Maubila, — spelled Mahila by Ranjel, 
 and Mavila by Biedma. It was situated in a country where 
 chestnuts were plentiful, not far enough south to be in the pine 
 country, and yet where there were abundant palmettos. De 
 Soto had sent spies to the town and already received their 
 report, but nevertheless acted carelessly. Although the Span- 
 iards were received with dancing, they soon saw the Indians 
 secreting warriors and hiding bows and arrows among palm 
 leaves in the cabins. De Soto hastily put on his helmet and 
 sent a warning to his soldiers outside. 
 
 Then began the celebrated Battle of Maubila. It is described 
 by Ranjel in a manner on which one cannot well improve. 
 
 " The chief," says he, " went into a cabin and refused to come 
 out of it. Then they began to shoot arrows at the Governor. Bal- 
 tasar de Gallegos went in for the chief, he not being willing to 
 come out. He disabled the arm of a principal Indian with the 
 slash of a knife. Luis de Moscoso waited at the door, so as not 
 to leave him alone, and he was fighting like a knight and did all 
 that was possible until, not being able to endure any more, he 
 cried : ' Senor Baltasar de Gallegos, come out, or I will leave 
 
ON THE TRAIL OF DE SOTO. 23 
 
 you, for I cannot wait any longer for you.' During this, Solis, 
 a resident of Triana of Seville, had ridden up, and Rodrigo 
 Ranjel, who were the first, and for his sins Solis was immedi- 
 ately stricken down dead ; but Rodrigo Ranjel got to the gate 
 of the town at the time when the Governor went out, and two 
 soldiers of his guard with him, and after him came more than 
 seventy Indians who were held back for fear of Rodrigo Ran- 
 jel's horse, and the Governor, desiring to charge them, a negro 
 brought him up his horse; and he told Rodrigo Ranjel to give 
 aid to the Captain of the Guard, who was left behind, for he had 
 come out quite used up, and a soldier of the Guard with him ; 
 and he with a horse faced the enemy until he got out of danger, 
 and Rodrigo Ranjel returned to the Governor and had him 
 draw out more than twenty arrows which he bore fastened in 
 his armor, which was a loose coat quilted with coarse cotton. 
 
 " And he ordered Ranjel to watch for Solis, to rescue him 
 from the enemy that they should not carry him inside. And 
 the Governor went to collect the soldiers. There was great valour 
 and shame that day among all those that found themselves in 
 this first attack and beginning of this unhappy day ; for they 
 fought to admiration and each Christian did his duty as a most 
 valiant soldier. Luis de Moscoso and Baltasar de Gallegos 
 came out with the rest of the soldiers by another gate. 
 
 " As a result, the Indians were left with the village and all 
 the property of the Christians, and with the horses that were 
 left tied inside, which they killed immediately. The Gov- 
 ernor collected all of the forty horse that were there and ad- 
 vanced to a large open place before the principal gate of Mabila. 
 There the Indians rushed out without venturing very far from 
 the stockade, and to draw them on the horsemen made a feint 
 of taking flight at a gallop, withdrawing far from the walls. 
 And the Indians believing it to be real, came away from the 
 village and the stockade in pursuit, greedy to make use of their 
 arrows. And when it was time the horsemen wheeled about on 
 the enemy, and before they could recover themselves, killed 
 many with their lances. Don Carlos wanted to go with his 
 horse as far as the gate, and they gave the horse an arrow shot 
 in the breast. And not being able to turn, he dismounted to 
 draw out the arrow, and then another came which hit him in 
 
24 COLONIAL MOBILE. 
 
 the neck above the shoulder, at which, seeking confession, he 
 fell dead. The Indians no longer dared to withdraw from the 
 stockade. Then the Commander invested them on every side 
 until the whole force had come up ; and they went up on three 
 sides to set fire to it, first cutting the stockade with axes. And the 
 fire in its course burned the two hundred odd pounds of pearls 
 that they had, and all their clothes and ornaments, and the sac- 
 ramental cups, and the moulds for making the wafers, and the 
 wine for saying the mass ; and they were left like Arabs, com- 
 pletely stripped, after all their hard toil. They had left in a 
 cabin the Christian women, which were some slaves belonging to 
 the Governor ; and some pages, a friar, a priest, a cook, and 
 some soldiers defended themselves very well against the Indi- 
 ans, who were not able to force an entrance before the Christians 
 came with the fire and rescued them. And all the Spaniards 
 fought like men of great courage, and twenty-two died, and one 
 hundred and forty -eight others received six hundred and eighty- 
 eight arrow wounds, and seven horses were killed and twenty- 
 nine others wounded. Women and even boys of four years of 
 age fought with the Christians ; and Indian boys hanged them- 
 selves not to fall into their hands, and others jumped into the 
 fire of their own accord. See with what good will those carriers 
 acted. The arrow shots were tremendous, and sent with such a 
 will and force that the lance of one gentleman named Nuno de 
 Tovar, made of two pieces of ash and very good, was pierced by 
 an arrow in the middle, as by an auger, without being split, and 
 the arrow made a cross with the lance." ^ 
 
 What became of the chief is not known. The Indians tried 
 to get him to withdraw in safety ; but the son was found thrust 
 through with a lance, and three thousand other natives were 
 killed. The loss to the Spaniards from their entrance into 
 Florida up to this time was one hundred and two men besides 
 many horses, ever the terror and target of the Indians. 
 
 The location of Maubila is uncertain.^ The absence of pines 
 
 ^ Ranjel's Relation, chap. vii. 
 
 ^ H. S. Halbert places Maubila in the southern part of Greene County, 
 Alabama. His itinerary for De Soto seems unnecessarily far north, as 
 the permanence of the word Mobile in South Alabama in name of Indians 
 and waters cannot be explained on any ground except that the Mobilians 
 
ON THE TRAIL OF DE SOTO. 25 
 
 from all the narratives is an indication, although not conclusive, 
 that the Spaniards were not traveling through those endless 
 forests near the Gulf, and yet the Indians' use of palmetto leaves 
 to conceal their arms shows Maubila to be where that plant is com- 
 mon in the interior. This would not be true far in the limestone 
 Black Belt away from the rivers and swamps, nor was the limestone 
 country at a distance from the water ever chosen by the Indians 
 for a large town. Near the north line of Clarke County, there- 
 fore, would well suit all conditions. That distance from the sea 
 would also explain why almost all the narrators, writing later, 
 supposed that the Spiritu Santo River, along which they had so 
 long traveled, flowed into the Rio Grande by which they es- 
 caped. Not knowing the mouth of the Mobile, they thought the 
 Alabama emptied into the Mississippi; and it is a remarkable 
 geologic fact that it does not.^ Maubila was not on a bluff of the 
 Alabama, as often stated, but between the Alabama and Tom- 
 bigbee. It required three days' march from the east to reach 
 the town, and now on leaving the place, November 14, it took 
 about four days more to reach the other river. The Gentleman 
 of Elvas says De Soto heard of Maldonado's being on the coast, 
 but, as he had lost the fruits of the expedition, concealed the 
 news, and after about four weeks of recuperation plunged into the 
 interior.^ The Spaniards seem to have gone up the western stream 
 through swamps and reached the village of Talicpacana. Nearby 
 was another called Mo^ulixa, where, after constructing a barge 
 ov piragua, they crossed the river on November 29. Then came 
 villages and rivers, one stream being called the Apafalaya, — a 
 good Choctaw word, as are some of the other names. After 
 five days' travel from this, through bad passages, swamps, and up 
 rivers, they reached the Chica9a River, which they crossed in the 
 face of hostile Indians. 
 
 lived there. Halbert is a most careful student and knows the country so 
 well that his opinion is always entitled to respect. He begins with Cosa as 
 a fixed point in Talladega, and then gives in sequence Tabisi or Tawasa, Ta- 
 lisi or Old Town Creek, and the Alabama crossing as near Selma, Atahachi 
 he finds in Hale County, the Black Warrior crossing at Melton's Bluff and 
 Mauvilla as above. De Soto, he thinks, then followed the Sipsey, crossed 
 at Cabusto in Pickens County, recrossed the Bigbee, and thence went to Cot- 
 ton Gin Port and Red Lands. 
 
 ^ See Introduction. 2 ggg chap. xix. 
 
26 COLONIAL MOBILE. 
 
 The experiences of these Spaniards may be judged from a 
 story told by Ranjel, who says he saw " Don Antonio Osorio, 
 brother of the Lord Marquis of Astorga, wearing a short gar- 
 ment of the blankets of that country, torn on the sides, his flesh 
 showing, no hat, bare-headed, bare-footed, without hose or shoes, 
 a buckler on his back, a sword without a shield, amidst heavy 
 frosts and cold. And the stuff of which he was made and his 
 illustrious lineage made him endure his toil without laments 
 such as many others made, for there was no one who could help 
 him, although he was the man he was, and had in Spain two 
 thousand ducats of income through the Church. And the day 
 that this gentleman saw him he did not believe that he had 
 eaten a mouthful, and he had to dig for it with his nails to get 
 something to eat." ^ 
 
 They seem to have crossed in the barge, because the river was 
 at that time out of its banks ; but the trail would naturally lead 
 them to the ford near modern Cotton Gin Port in the Chicka- 
 saw country. 
 
 They camped in Chicacja and spent the winter there. From 
 works which remain and from all the probabilities of the narra- 
 tives this place was near the present Pontotoc, in Mississippi.^ 
 
 An incident of the winter's stay was the war made by De 
 Soto in alliance with the Chica^as on the Sacchumas, — the 
 tribe of Indians we shall later know as the Chocchumas, d well- 
 ins: on the Yazoo River between the Choctaws and Chickasaws. 
 But the stay was marked even more by two savage attacks of 
 the Chicac^as on the Spaniards, the first of which was nearly 
 successful and caused damage possibly equal to that at Maubila. 
 Indeed, it required a long rest to make new saddles, lances, 
 and other weapons from the ash trees of that country. The 
 Spaniards set up a forge, with bellows of bearskin, and retem- 
 pered their arms. 
 
 On April 26, 1541, De Soto and his men set out from 
 Chica^a, proceeding toward the west, and on May 8, they 
 reached Quizqui, whose district was on the " Rio Grande," — 
 now known to us as the Mississippi. The discovery of this 
 river has been celebrated by painters, but is recorded by the De 
 
 ^ Ranjel's Relation, chap, vii., p. 130. 
 
 ^ 6 Mississippi Historical Society PubL, pp. 449-467. 
 
ON THE TRAIL OF BE SOTO. 27 
 
 Soto narratives in a very matter-of-fact way. The Spaniards, 
 in fact, did not know the greatness of their discovery. What 
 impressed them most was the obstacle the river and the Indians 
 afforded to their progress. They had to build four barges, and 
 finally on Saturday, June 18, crossed the Great River, thanking 
 God " because in his good pleasure nothing more difficult could 
 confront them." ^ 
 
 Their adventures from this time do not directly concern us, 
 and are even more difficult to locate. They seem in a general 
 way to have followed the isothermal line (12°) to which they 
 were accustomed in Spain.^ The Spaniards advanced consid- 
 erably to the west, as well as to the south, sometimes crossing 
 their own paths, but never found the gold or treasure of which 
 they were in search. Ranjel's narrative comes to an end mid- 
 way, but others tell us how De Soto on May 21, 1542, died of 
 vexation and fever, and was buried, first near his habitation, 
 and then, in order to protect his body against the Indians, was 
 disinterred and sunk at midnight in the Great River which he 
 had discovered. 
 
 The survivors built brigantines, killed their stock for food, and 
 went down the river pursued by Indians. They finally reached 
 the sea and coasted around to Panuco in Mexico, where the three 
 hundred and eleven men landed. 
 
 This disastrous expedition at least added information about 
 the native tribes of America. It was learned that they wore 
 mantles of leather or feathers, besides other clothing of linen 
 made from the inner bark of the mulberry. Their houses were 
 on bluffs or artificial mounds, their food mainly maize, beans 
 and melons, dried and preserved in cribs called barbacoes, — 
 the origin of a familiar modern word. The government was by 
 chiefs and wise men, distorted by the invaders into kings and 
 noblemen. Descent was counted through the mother, but the 
 divisions below the tribes were not recorded. 
 
 The culture of the Indians was not only backward, but they 
 had been so long in the Stone Age that it was a serious question 
 whether they could advance out of it. Their nature, as well as 
 habits, was petrified. They lacked two, at least, of the great 
 
 ^ Banjel's Relation, chap, viii., p. 138. 
 
 ^ See map in 1 Shaler's United States, p. 11. 
 
28 COLONIAL MOBILE. 
 
 natura. formative influences wliich induced the progress of Eu- 
 rope, and strikingly that of the Spaniards, who now confronted 
 them. In the first place, they had no animals w'hich could be 
 domesticated, and man by his own hands can produce no sur- 
 plus of food or other products which he can exchange and thus 
 create commerce, — the greatest of all civilizing agents. Then 
 America offered no districts fertile and yet cut off from inva- 
 sion, — like the three Mediterranean peninsulas, — which would 
 give internal peace and encourage growth. The river basin of 
 the Mississippi was too large for unity. Possibly the smaller 
 basin which De Soto had traversed from Chiaha to the Chica- 
 (;as might serve if control by some one race proved feasible ; 
 and this will be the theme of our study. Whether the contact 
 of the Americans and the Europeans would prove a spark to 
 kindle the torch of civilization, so that the races would combine 
 or grow up together, as had happened often in the Orient, or 
 would light a fire in which the backward race would be con- 
 sumed, the future must show.^ 
 
 Meantime a lasting result of the Spanish invasion was the 
 fear and distrust implanted in the natives. It was due to the 
 cruelty generated in the wars of the Spaniards and the Moors 
 and heightened in the Spanish subjection of the less warlike 
 races of Central and South America ; but practiced in the Gulf 
 country of North America it produced only hatred. The histo- 
 rian quite casually observes that De Soto was much given to the 
 sport of slaying Indians.^ Towns were burned, crops destroyed, 
 people enslaved, and a hatred engendered which would be diffi- 
 cult to eradicate, and constituted an element to be reckoned 
 with in colonization by any white race afterwards. 
 
 ^ The explorations of De Soto and others after him led at some later 
 period to gold mining in the Apalaehian range. Ledener in the next century- 
 reports Spanish mines in North Carolina, and extensive remains have been 
 found in north Georgia. De Soto himself, however, realized nothing from 
 mines. lie laid great stress on pearls, and Jones in chapter xxi. of his book on 
 the Southern Indians shows how widespread was their native use. But, as the 
 Spaniards were not miners at home, neither were they acquainted with the 
 pearl industry. The pearls found in North America were not the pearls of 
 commerce. They were derived principally from the shells of the fresh-water 
 mussel, the xmio, and soon drop out of notice. 
 
 2 Ranjel's Relation, chap. iii. 
 
ON THE TRAIL OF DE SOTO. 29 
 
 At all events, a beginning had been made of exploring the 
 interior of the American continent tributary to the Gulf of 
 Mexico at the very time that Coronado was opening up the 
 further South West. The Mississippi River had been crossed, 
 and the Alabama-Tombigbee basin had been traversed from 
 end to end. Would colonists follow the discoverers? 
 
CHAPTER rV. 
 
 A CENTURY OF OBSCURITY. 
 
 The fate of Narvaez and De Soto seems to have deterred 
 Spaniards from exploring the interior. For it was clear that 
 there were no precious metals easily accessible, and Mexico, 
 the West Indies, and South America received such colonists 
 as Spain could spare. Peninsular Florida was partly settled, 
 but the Mobile basin was left to the aborigines. The bay, 
 however, was well known to the Spaniards. 
 
 By the year 1558, New Spain, Mexico, had become as thor- 
 oughly Spanish as it was ever to be. Cortez, it is true, was 
 dead, but the succeeding viceroys were even better rulers. 
 One of the best, Velasco, like Garay of Jamaica, sent out an 
 explorer towards the north, this time to examine for purposes 
 of colonization, and thus in that year Guido de las Bazares 
 sailed on this mission. Pineda had explored from the east, 
 and now Bazares explored the Gulf coast from the west towards 
 peninsular Florida. 
 
 Bazares accordingly, on September 3, 1558, left San Juan 
 de Lua (Vera Cruz) with sixty seamen and soldiers in a large 
 bark, a galley, and a shallop. In 29|° north latitude, he dis- 
 covered an island, perhaps four leagues from the mainland. 
 He passed within it and the mainland and other islands, and, 
 as he explored all the coast, he observed that it was bordered 
 by marshy ground and not in favorable position to begin a 
 colony ; nevertheless, he took possession, and gave it the name 
 of Bas Fonde. 
 
 Now offhand, without prepossessions, this reminds one of 
 Pascagoula Bay, with its low coast and several protecting 
 islands. 
 
 Ten leagues further east, he passed an island and discovered 
 a bay which he named Filipina, — for King Philip II. , no 
 doubt, it being the largest and most commodious bay on the 
 
1 
 
A CENTURY OF OBSCURITY. 31 
 
 coast. The bottom was mud, and the bay four or five fathoms 
 deep, the channel three or four. There he found fish and 
 oysters. On the shore were pine forests, oak, cypress, ash, 
 pahnetto, laurel, cedar, etc., and there appeared to be the 
 mouth of a great river. In an eastwardly direction were high 
 red hills. Game abounded, and he found a large number of 
 canoes and huts, also maize, beans, and pumpkins. Bazares 
 afterwards renamed this bay Velasco. He was compelled to 
 stop his explorations here, and hence returned to Mexico. ^ 
 
 It is not certain whether Filipina Bay is that of Mobile or 
 Pensacola. The depth within Mobile Bay and other character- 
 istics suit Mobile at least as well, however, and the only diffi- 
 culty is the entrance channel, given as three to four fathoms, 
 while Iberville in 1699, a century and a half later, was to 
 report that he found the bar only thirteen feet deep, although 
 within, the bay had eight fathoms. ^ 
 
 The fact seems to be that there are two channels into Mobile 
 Bay, an eastern and western. This led President Monroe, on 
 the report of the United States Engineer Dejjartment in 1822, 
 to recommend the fortifying of Dauphine Island as well as 
 Mobile Point. ^ At that time the water on the outer bar, from 
 which both led inward to the bay, was eighteen feet. The 
 western channel along the north bank of Pelican and Sand 
 islands (which are but parts of one breakwater) was from eight 
 to eighteen feet deep and a half mile wide, against twenty to 
 forty-two feet depth in the eastern channel, which was about 
 a mile wide by Mobile Point. The two passages were and are 
 separated by a shallow space called Middle Ground, but beyond 
 the west channel and in the angle between Dauphine and Peli- 
 can islands was an anchorage eighteen to twenty-two feet deep. 
 
 The west channel in French and earlier times, however, 
 seems to have passed between these two islands from the Gulf 
 into this Pelican Bay, and thence on into Mobile Bay, and did 
 not come over the Sand Island bar at all. We shall see this 
 Pelican Bay closed by a storm in 1717, and only since that 
 time do we find the main entrance to be over to the east near 
 
 1 7 French's Historical Collection, pp. 237, 238 ; H, Ternaux-Compans, 
 Recueil sur la Floride, p. 145. 
 
 2 6 French's Historical Collection, p. 20. See 4 Margry, Decouvertes, p. 232. 
 8 Message and Documents, March 26, 1822. 
 
32 COLONIAL MOBILE. 
 
 Mobile Point. In 1558, the Pelican channel may well have 
 had four fathoms. In fact, it must have been deep, for the 
 same volume of water had to discharge from Mobile Bay as 
 now. If it sought the west channel, it must have scoured that 
 out as it now does the eastern. 
 
 All the other features agree with Mobile, — the island passed 
 as he came from the west, red cliffs, fish, oysters, game, and 
 the forest, while the mouth of a great river not only is true of 
 Mobile, but is distinctly not true of Pensacola. So, too, of the 
 distance from the last bay, ten leagues. This is about the dis- 
 tance of Mobile from Pascagoula Bay, while that of Pensacola 
 from Mobile Bay, if this is to be Bas Fonde, is almost double 
 ten leagiies. Besides, Iberville was to report Mobile Bay "very 
 beautiful for habitation," while Bazares says his Bas Fonde 
 was not favorable for colonization. It would seem, therefore, 
 probable that Filipina or Velasco was Mobile Bay. 
 
 The expedition of Bazares had the definite object of selecting 
 the site for a colony, and was thus very different from the ex- 
 ploration of Pineda thirty-nine years before. A settlement 
 was actually made in the summer of 1559 by Tristan de Luna y 
 Arellano on the Bay of Ichuse, with 1500 settlers and soldiers. 
 Where this was is as uncertain as much else in Spanish colonial 
 enterprises. The report of Velasco to the king in one place 
 identifies Fort "Ychuse" with the bay of Filipina de Santa 
 Maria, and in another place says the port of " Ychuse" is twenty 
 leagues from this bay, and that soldiers and horses were landed 
 at the bay and marched across. Wherever it was, the colonists 
 suffered from a hurricane and loss of supplies. They undertook 
 expeditions into the interior to Nanipacna, a large river town, 
 and again to Cosa, where they were aided by the natives.^ 
 
 The aid was mutual, for the Spaniai-ds assisted their hosts 
 against the Napoches, who were chased across the adjacent 
 river of Spiritu Santo. This stream was fordable in places, 
 and was probably the Coosa. 
 
 Here, then, we find thePacanas further east than in De Soto's 
 day, probably on the Alabama River, and the Napoches may well 
 have been the nation subsequently known to the French as the 
 
 ^ Gatschet's Creek Migration Legend, p. 120 ; H. Ternaux-Compans, Re- 
 cueil sur la Floride, pp. 157, 158, 161 ; Barcia's Ensayo Cronologico, pp. 32- 
 41, taken from Davilla Padilla's Historia. See Notes. 
 
A CENTURY OF OBSCURITY. 33 
 
 Talapouches, and from whom the Chiaha River was renamed 
 Tallapoosa, Pity the nai'ratives give so few landmarks ! 
 
 This flash of light on the interior, uncertain at best, was but 
 momentary. Tristan tried to maintain himself at Ichuse, but 
 his men had suffered so severely that they all but mutinied, 
 and in 1561 so many left on the vessels of Villafane, which 
 called at the port, that the settlement was practically abandoned. 
 
 Meantime, in order to protect the galleons from Peru and 
 Mexico the Spaniards had strengthened their hold on peninsular 
 Florida, to which now shifts the centre of interest. The Hugue- 
 nots were exterminated from the St. Johns in 1564. St. Augus- 
 tine was founded next year, and posts, some to prove permanent, 
 were established alon"^ the Atlantic from the Bahama Passage to 
 Chesapeake Bay. All east of Mexico was called Florida. The 
 New World was becoming Spanish in fact as well as theory. 
 
 A great name of this epoch, one which evokes admiration in 
 Spain and detestation in France, is that of Pedro Menendez 
 de Aviles. His ability and energy are not less clear than his 
 ruthlessness. The same zeal which exterminated the heretic 
 Huguenots led him to found Santa Elena, near present Beau- 
 fort, South Carolina, and other posts, and this was but part of 
 his plan. De Soto had established Spain's right to the country 
 draining to the Gulf of Mexico, and Menendez wished to put 
 the capstone on the work by opening a way through this vast 
 realm of Florida from the Atlantic to Mexico. 
 
 It was not to be a conquest of unwilling natives, but an ex- 
 ploration, securing the allegiance and conversion of the Indians, 
 and the establishment of forts at strategic points. For this 
 important work he selected Juan Pardo, and dispatched him on 
 two expeditions, and from Pardo's own hand and from two others 
 we have written reports (relaciones) of his entrada y conquista 
 in the interior of Florida.^ 
 
 After Menendez had reviewed the one hundred and twenty- 
 five men, Pardo marched from Santa Elena northwest on the 
 day of St. Andres, in 1565. He soon reached a rapid river 
 and the important place of Canos, elsewhere said to be Cofe- 
 
 ' In the appendices to 2 Ruidiaz, Florida, pp. 465-473. The admiration 
 of the author for Menendez has fortunately led him to print in this second 
 volume every letter to and from Menendez and every document relating to 
 his hero which he could find. 
 
34 COLONIAL MOBILE. 
 
 tasque and probably De Soto's Cofitachequi. There they held 
 the usual talk (^parlamento) ^ resulting in the many Indians 
 and caciques submitting to serve God and his Majesty. Thence 
 they visited place after place, meeting with no opposition, and 
 in identical formula receiving the submission of the natives, and 
 also making notes of the nature of the country. Juada was 
 probably the principal point, and there Pardo built a fort and 
 left his sarjento Boyano with a garrison and supplies. This is 
 called Juara in another account, but there is little to indicate 
 its location. Pardo did not advance much further than Guatari 
 and Tagaya Chiquito before news about the French caused his 
 return to Santa Elena. 
 
 On his second expedition, begun September 1, 1566, Pardo 
 penetrated further. He found that Boyano was absent on an 
 expedition, and pressed on through a mountain country and 
 over rivers to Cauchi. This would seem to be the Spanish ver- 
 sion of Chattahoochee. There he found a large river (wn rlo 
 princijKtl^, and from the many Indians seen he must have 
 been in the midst of a populous country. 
 
 The next stage was of three days and through a wilderness, 
 with no stream. This probably lay between the Chattahoochee 
 and the Tallapoosa, the next river to the westward. Then they 
 reached Tanasqui (which may well be a mistake for Talisi), on 
 a swift river. This was an important town, surrounded by an 
 elaborate wall, and there Pardo thought he found evidences of 
 gold and silver. 
 
 It was but a day from Tanasqui to Lameco or Chihaque, on 
 another page spelled Chiaha. There they were joined by sar- 
 jento Boyano and his soldiers. Pardo remained ten or twelve 
 days at Chiaha, held the accustomed talk, and many natives 
 submitted to the Spanish dominion. We are told little about 
 the place, and Pardo seems not to know of De Soto's visit to 
 this Tallapoosa country, or of the more recent exploration of 
 Tristan to Cosa. 
 
 We have also an account of this expedition from Joan de la 
 Vandera,^ one of Pardo's men, who gives some additional par- 
 ticulars. He records that the district was populous, fertile, in- 
 tersected by many rivers, and even declares it the country of 
 the angels, of league-long blessings. He did not himself get 
 1 In 2 Ruidiaz, Florida, pp. 481-486. 
 
A CENTURY OF OBSCURITY. 35 
 
 to Cossa, but learned from Indians and a soldier who had been 
 there that it was five or six days' journey from Satapo. The 
 first stage, of two days, would reach Tasqui, over good lands 
 and three rivers, and a little further was Tasquiqui ; another day 
 would reach Olitifar, a destroyed town, and the rest of the way 
 was through a wilderness (despojjlado). Cossa was a pueblo 
 larger than Santa Elena, having one hundred and fifty peoj^le, 
 and situated in low, rich ground, in a break (^falda) of the 
 mountains, and surrounded by many other large places. 
 
 From Cossa, says Vandera, it was reported to be six days* 
 journey to Trascaluza, — eljiii de lo pohlado de la Florida, — 
 marching southwest through a wilderness containing only two or 
 three villages. From Trascaluza it was said to be about nine 
 days' journey to New Spain, a huge wilderness, with only a vil- 
 lage of four or five houses in the midst of it. 
 
 Friendly Indians declared that there were six or seven thou- 
 sand Carrosa, Cliisca, Costehe and Coza warriors awaiting them 
 in a pass. Pardo, like the other wise men, turned aside, and 
 went to the country of the Zacatecas and mines of San Martin, 
 The next day from there he reached Satajjo. He had no diffi- 
 culty exacting fealty except from the inhabitants of Satapo, who 
 seem to have sent the Spaniards a hatchet and allied themselves 
 with the Indians of Chisca, Carrosa, Costehe and Coza. The 
 result was Pardo called a council of war, which determined that 
 the Spaniards were too far from their base of supplies to advance 
 further. 
 
 One would naturally attribute this hostility to memories of 
 De Soto a quarter century ago but for the fact that Tristan's 
 detachment had been well received only seven years before 
 Pardo's time. The main cause possibly lay with Boyano, of 
 whose actions we have an account from a follower named Fran- 
 cisco Martinez.^ 
 
 Boyano had made war on Chisca, mentioned in the De Soto 
 narratives, and which the not unusual transposition of two letters 
 miglit reveal as the Chickasaws. Then he was ordered to leave 
 ten men in the fort and explore as far as he could. Boyano ac- 
 cordingly marched and captured a native fort, made of wood, 
 and killed fifteen hundred Indians, and then advanced four days 
 
 1 Found also in the valuable collection of Menendez documents in 2 Rui- 
 diaz, Florida, pp. 477-480. 
 
86 COLONIAL MOBILE. 
 
 to Chiaha. This was between two rapid rivers, was equally well 
 fortified, and held three thousand warriors. The Spaniards were 
 well treated and then marched away to build a fort called St. 
 Helena, two days off. There was held a kind of congress, the 
 captain being carried in a chair, and presented with supplies of 
 maize, venison, chickens, fish, wheat, and vegetables. 
 
 The effect of this side expedition of Boyano may well have 
 been to cause the distrust which met his superior Pardo. At all 
 events, after a council of war Pardo left Satapo, and four days 
 later reached Chiaha, where he spent fifteen days building a 
 fort. He garrisoned it with thirty men as a base for future 
 advance if his Majesty should wish it, and retired to Cauchi. 
 There he spent eight days on another fort and left twelve men. 
 On this return trip Pardo was not content with confirming the 
 Indians of each place in their allegiance to Su Santldad y Su 
 Majestad, but took actual possession by leaving a number of 
 forts and garrisons. From Cauchi to Tocae it was two days, 
 thence to Juada four days, and there they left a garrison of 
 thirty instead of those who had gone. At Guatari Pardo erected 
 another fort with a garrison of seventeen men, and thence 
 reached Santa Elena. There he wrote up his report for sub- 
 mission to the Adelantado Pero Menendez.^ 
 
 These papers show that while Menendez failed to open a road 
 from the Atlantic coast to Mexico, the country was explored 
 as far as Chiaha. From the Atlantic to that district America 
 was fully reduced, and Spain could fairly map the whole terri- 
 tory into Spanish provinces. 
 
 After the Spanish Armada of 1588, however, the naval su- 
 premacy of Spain was in question, and her world power declined. 
 The English early in the next century settled New England, 
 Virginia, and Carolina, while the French colonized the banks of 
 the St. Lawrence, and either race was ready to dispute with the 
 Spaniards the Gulf coast. The Spanish claim was real enough 
 on the Atlantic, where there were forts and spheres of influence ; 
 but while the ports of the Gulf of Mexico were on charts and 
 visited by Spanish ships, there were no further settlements and 
 the interior remained with the aborigines. Would Spain rouse 
 herself, or, if not, would it be France or England that would 
 first attempt to colonize the north coast of the Mexican Gulf ? 
 
 • So much of the Pardo and Vandera reports as concerns our district will 
 be found in the appendix to this volume. 
 
PART II. 
 THE FRENCH CAPITAL. 
 
 1670, 1699-1722. 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 
 FROM LA SALLE TO IBERVILLE. 
 
 The history of the Gulf in the latter part of the seventeenth 
 century becomes closely connected with that of Canada. It 
 was from that French possession that the Mississippi River 
 was explored to the sea, and it was from Mobile that Cana- 
 dians under royal commission colonized the great valley and 
 built forts reaching up to portages to the Great Lakes. For 
 explorers and colonists we are indebted to that dominion, and 
 particularly to Montreal. 
 
 The seventeenth century was the epoch of French and Eng- 
 lish colonization in North America, as the sixteenth had been 
 that of the Spanish in Central and South America. Virginia, 
 in 1607, preceded Canada by but one year, and the Mayflower 
 brought her famous cargo while French explorers and mission- 
 aries were pushing up the Great Lakes and the country behind 
 was becoming the seat of French civilization. Quebec was 
 much like a town in France, and Montreal, though near the 
 frontier, was as Ville Marie becoming a settled place under 
 the priests of St. Sulpice. 
 
 The discovery by De Soto had been forgotten even in Spain, 
 and no maps pointed out the Mississippi River, although 
 Mobile Bay remained well known. And yet, as the French 
 explored the lakes and came in contact with the Sioux and 
 other Indians near the sources of the Mississippi, they could 
 not but learn rumors of the great river. Possibly the earliest 
 to report it was Claude Allouez, first missionary to that tribe, ^ 
 and from time to time others added information. Where it 
 emptied no one knew, — possibly into the Atlantic, near Vir- 
 ginia, possibly into the Gulf of Mexico, or perhaps even into 
 the Pacific about California. 
 
 ^ Scaife's America, p. 156. For life of La Salle, see Parkman's Discovery 
 of the Great West. 
 
40 COLONIAL MOBILE. 
 
 One thing was certain, — the way was long and dangerous. 
 Even hardy wood rangers like Duluth were not ambitious to 
 make the exploration. The journey might be made by canoe, 
 for the interlocking of the sources of western rivers with those 
 emptying into the Great Lakes had not escaped the quick eyes 
 of the French. This knowledge was to develop into a well- 
 ascertained system of portages, by which canoes were carried 
 with little trouble over the few miles of divide between the 
 sources of rivers and launched on other streams. But the hos- 
 tility of savages and difficulty of long subsistence in a wild 
 country were serious obstacles. 
 
 Robert Cavelier, of Rouen, more commonly known as La 
 Salle, passed over a portage from the lakes into the upper 
 Ohio about 1670, and descended at least to the site of Louis- 
 ville. He seems then to have gone no further. The same 
 adventurous spirit nerved the trader, Louis Joliet, but the 
 higher inspiration of religious enthusiasm impelled the Jesuit, 
 Pere Marquette, in their voyage of 1673. Going down the 
 Illinois, they found the mighty Mississippi and rowed on it to 
 the Arkansas Indians, not without dangers from man and 
 nature both. Marquette, from his adoration of Mary, named 
 the stream for the Immaculate Conception. 
 
 But these efforts were tentative. La Salle was to be the 
 true explorer. He inspired the French court not less than the 
 new governor, Frontenac, and in Henry de Tonty, a French 
 soldier whom he brought to America on the recommendation 
 of his patron. Prince de Conti, he had an assistant who was to 
 do more for him than court and governor together. La Salle 
 spent years in preparation ; for he was to take a force along 
 to awe the natives, and money and merchandise to trade with 
 them. He built Fort Frontenac on Lake Ontario, constructed 
 a boat on Lake Erie, crossed the portage from Lake Michigan 
 to the Kankakee, and, after losses and discouragement, founded 
 in 1680 his Fort Crevecoeur on the Illinois River, not far from 
 the modern Peoria. 
 
 The brilliant pages of Parkman tell not only of the over- 
 whelming misfortunes of La SaUe, but also of a silent deter- 
 mination which overcame them all. In the early spring of 
 1682, the voyagers were floating on the Mississippi, which he 
 renamed for Colbert, the great French minister, and they 
 
FROM LA SALLE TO IBERVILLE. 41 
 
 gradually descended to its mouths. The Mexican Gulf at last 
 spread before them. La Salle had made his name immortal. 
 With fitting ceremonies, April 2, 1682, on a dry place near 
 the sea, he took possession of the valley of the Mississippi and 
 its tributaries and named it Louisiana for Louis XIV., king of 
 France and Navarre. A notary recorded the facts, and among 
 the witnesses we find Tonty and Nicolas de la Salle, the ex- 
 plorer's nephew. 
 
 La Salle proposed to make French possession sure by a col- 
 ony on the sea and one or more forts on the river, but had to 
 defer this until he could obtain aid and authority from France. 
 So they laboriously reascended the river. 
 
 La Salle left Tonty as his deputy in America, and returned 
 to France. He was the hero of the day, and secured all that 
 he asked, for his Gulf colony would not merely give the French 
 a foothold, but gradually make this great river as much an 
 artery of New France as was the Canadian St. Lawrence. All 
 France, from court to peasantry, followed the movements of 
 this resolute man. 
 
 Beaujeu commanded the little fleet upon which La Salle and 
 his colonists, in 1685, sailed for the Gulf. They missed the 
 mouths of the Mississippi, and landed near Matagorda Bay in 
 the present Texas. There Beaujeu abandoned him, and appar- 
 ently sailed back to discover and himself map the Mississippi 
 passes. This is a serious charge, but Parkman seems borne out 
 by the facts, and the whole history of the French in America 
 is unfortunately marred by such quarrels of leaders. We see 
 it in Canada ; we shall find it on the Gulf. 
 
 The colony was rendered helpless by loss of vessels and 
 stores, and La Salle saw nothing to do but go overland to 
 Canada. Could he even reach Tonty in his Fort St. Louis, on 
 Starved Rock, among the Illinois, all might be well. But 
 some of his followers were desperate characters, and he died 
 near Trinity River by the assassin's bullet. His brother and 
 Joutel finally escaped to Tonty, and it is at least a satisfaction 
 to record that his murderers perished. 
 
 His colony perished, too, and his plans died with him. 
 Tonty had descended the river to meet him, and left a letter 
 with some Indians, but, learning of La Salle's death, Tonty 
 confined himself to the Illinois region. There, in 1690, he 
 
42 COLONIAL MOBILE. 
 
 was by the government granted an interest in that rock fort, 
 and he engaged in trade with the upper Mississippi. De Soto, 
 Moscoso, La Salle himself, had suft'ered in exploring the river. 
 It seemed as if the legends that evil spirits guarded the stream 
 were true. 
 
 Times changed also. While the settlements in Mexico and 
 east Florida, on which haughty Spain relied to prove her claim 
 to all the Gulf, were more vulnerable because the mother coun- 
 try had sunk from her proud preeminence, the English colo- 
 nies on the Atlantic coast were growing fast. Englishmen 
 were to be heard of on the Mississippi, and even the fiction of 
 an English discovery was broached.^ It was still the great 
 age of Louis XIV., who recognized no rights which hindered 
 the grandeur of France; but it was the age, too, of William 
 III. of England. France could not in Europe undo the work 
 of the English Revolution of 1688, and in America did not go 
 forward, excepting only the annexation of San Domingo. 
 
 We followed La Salle from Canada, and at the time of that 
 explorer's death in Texas several of the Montreal family of 
 Lemoyne, who should carry on his work, were winning laurels 
 from the English in Hudson's Bay. Charles Lemoyne had 
 emigrated from Dieppe in 1641, and in Canada gradually 
 climbed the ladder of fame and fortune. He was soldier, in- 
 terpreter, garde 7nagasin, jjrocuretir general, and, as proprietor 
 of that estate, died Sieur de Longueuil.^ Of fourteen chil- 
 dren, three sons died in the wars with England and all became 
 well known. The oldest, Charles, succeeded to the title, and 
 was as a father to the twelfth, Jean Baptiste, to be Sieur de 
 Bienville. Of the others, Iberville, Chateau guay (also spelled 
 Chasteaugue and Chateaugue), Serigny, and St. Helene will 
 often meet us, and the sister who married Noyan, or Noyant, 
 became mother of men whom we will know. 
 
 Iberville was perhaps the most noted of these sailor brothers, 
 and, besides his conquest of Newfoundland, is famous for a 
 combat near Fort Nelson, where his vessel, the Pelican, con- 
 tended with three English ones. The result was that Iberville 
 captured one and put the other two to flight. In this battle 
 
 * Adair (American Indians, p. 308) says Wood discovered it in 1G54, fol- 
 lowed by Bolton in 1670, and that Cox's two ships entered the month in 1698. 
 ' 4 Margry, Decouvertes, p. xxii ; Longueuil, pp. 82, 114. 
 
FROM LA SALLE TO IBERVILLE. 43 
 
 Bienville commanded a battery. Such exploits marked Iber- 
 ville out for great enterprises, and, after the Peace of Ryswick 
 of 1697, he was to be selected by the minister of the marine 
 for service in another part of the world. 
 
 A map of 1699, dedicated to William III. of Great Britain, 
 was made by the Recollect Hennepin, a missionary, and shows 
 the knowledge of the day. The Great River, Meschasypy, is 
 there first depicted, and east, entirely distinct from that stream, 
 is the large harbor of Spirito Sancto, with Chicagua as the name 
 of the Mobile River. ^ Virginia, New Netherlands, and New 
 England fill up the coast until we reach New France or Canada, 
 while in the other direction we find on the Gulf of Mexico the 
 province of New Spain. No tribes are shown near the Chicagua 
 River, except Cosa far to the northeast near some mountains, 
 while many are placed on the Mississippi, — lyingly, as Bien- 
 ville had later to declare on trying to find them.^ The father 
 clearly had not explored the interior near the bay of the Holy 
 Spirit. 
 
 But the curiosity of the French was now thoroughly directed 
 to the Mississippi region. Remonville visited America, and 
 in 1697 wrote a full memorial, urging colonization of the 
 region about the Great River, despite La Salle's failure. The 
 idea grew that the Mississippi valley was to be a part of New 
 France, which as Canada should front the Atlantic on the 
 north, as Louisiana front the Gulf of Mexico on the south, 
 and constitute an empire worthy even of the Grand Monarque.^ 
 French forts along the great lakes and rivers would protect the 
 trading-posts, serve as strategic and diplomatic centres for 
 French influence among the Indian tribes, and thus hem in the 
 English colonies between the mountains and the sea. May- 
 hap these would be driven into the ocean whence they came, 
 and the Latin races of France and Spain under their family 
 compact catholicize and dominate the whole northern continent. 
 For the French, like the Spaniards, wished to convert, as well 
 as rule, the natives. Besides Jesuits among the northern In- 
 dians, those missionaries of the Seminary of Quebec, Father 
 Montigny at the Natchez and Antoine Davion on his bluff 
 
 * Scaife's America, map 9. 
 
 ' King's Bienville, p. 60. 
 
 ' See recitals in Crozat's charter of 1712, 1 Martin's Louisiana, p. 178. 
 
44 COLONIAL MOBILE. 
 
 lower among the Tonicas, were the advance guard in the great 
 valley for the lilies and the cross. 
 
 The minister of the marine and colonies had been Louis de 
 Phelypeaux, Comte de Pontchartrain. In 1699, he was suc- 
 ceeded by his son Jerome, at first called Maurepas, but also 
 known as Pontchartrain, who had for some years been co- 
 minister with the father. His zeal for Louisiana was quick- 
 ened by learning that the renegade Recollect, Father Hennepin, 
 had interested William in the Mississippi, and that an English 
 company was organizing under the patronage of that king. 
 France must take possession first. 
 
 The minister selected Iberville to carry on the work dropped 
 by La Salle. After the necessary preparations, the frigates 
 Badine under that commander, and Marin under the Comte de 
 Surgeres, sailed from Brest October 24, 1698, to discover the 
 mouth of the Mississippi and colonize the country. ^ There 
 were also two transports, originally Norman fishing-boats, and 
 at San Domingo they were joined by the corvette Francois 
 under Chateaumorant, nephew of the great Tourville. Bien- 
 ville was midshipman under his brother. 
 
 Sighting land off the coast of Florida, in the last days of 
 January, 1699, they found Pensacola just occupied by the 
 Spaniards, and proceeded westward, exploring as they went. 
 They cast anchor January 31 off Mobile Point, and carefully 
 examined what was later to be the chief seat of their colony. 
 
 One of the transports stranded in bad weather while sound- 
 ing, but came off with the tide. Iberville soon determined to 
 explore for himself, and was rowed with Bienville to the point. 
 Despite a storm that night, next day they sounded the channel, 
 but then had to run before the wind and make the long western 
 island. This they named Massacre, from the heap of skulls 
 and bones found with Indian utensils at the southwestern ex- 
 tremity. There they were weather-bound for three days, and 
 hunted bustards (putardes). 
 
 Iberville made his way over to the mainland, and noted the 
 flowers, and the oak, pine, walnut, chestnut, and other un- 
 known trees of the forest. From a white oak top. four leagues 
 up the bay, he took in the outline of the shore of the bay, and 
 even noticed yellow water from the rivers. He saw signs of 
 
 1 4 Margry's Decouvertes, pp. liii, 98, 213, 232. 
 
FROM LA SALLE TO IBERVILLE. 45 
 
 recent Indians, and fired his gun and cut on a tree a sign of his 
 peaceful visit. 
 
 Such was the French discovery and exploration of Mobile 
 Point, Dauphine Island, and the land of Mon Louis Island. 
 But their present objective was further west. The sounding of 
 the channel was completed in good weather, a good harbor found 
 off Massacre Island by Surgeres, and, after taking on wood and 
 grass for the livestock, the fleet sailed on to find the Missis- 
 sippi.^ 
 
 On the way they visited and named the islands of the sound, 
 and had friendly intercourse with the Indians of Biloxi. The 
 mouth of the great river they found on March 2, after much 
 trouble and no little danger, for it was hidden in sandbanks, 
 reeds, and logs like a palisade. Unfortunate La Salle could 
 not see jt from the sea, but Iberville was as fortunate here as 
 in everything else he undertook. 
 
 The details of the subsequent exploration are not germane 
 here. Suffice it, Iberville went upstream in boats as far as 
 the Oumas, and returned to his ships by Bayou Manchac, to 
 be named for himself. Bienville returned by the main stream, 
 and, promising a hatchet, induced Indians to produce the letter 
 which Toiity had written fourteen years before. This left no 
 doubt that the river was the Mississippi, and further explora- 
 tions were to convince them that Hennepin had never been on 
 it below the Ohio. 
 
 The result of the exploration was that, while Bienville was 
 to maintain a fort at a comparatively dry place some leagues 
 above the mouth, Iberville decided that the swift, tortuous 
 stream did not admit of sail navigation nor its marshy banks 
 of habitation. A site for his colonial enterprise must be found 
 on the seashore further east. 
 
 Mr. Green begins his great history of the English people by 
 a study of their condition in the forests of Germany before the 
 migration to Great Britain. Somewhat similarly can Fort de 
 Maurepas, now built by Iberville on the Back Bay of Biloxi, 
 be claimed as original Mobile. On that bluff behind the Louis- 
 ville and Nashville railroad bridge Mr. Portevant, under his 
 beautiful oaks, commanding so peaceful a prospect over the 
 water, still digs up hatchets, cannon-balls, and even iron shoes 
 
 1 King's Bienville, p. 21 ; 4 Margry, Decouvertes, pp. 98, 99. 
 
46 COLONIAL MOBILE. 
 
 of tent or flag poles. There, beyond doubt, seems to have been 
 Fort de Maurepas, and the little glade to the south, in whose 
 shelter grow so many kinds of trees, was once commanded by 
 French cannon. Iberville slept on the spot which he selected, 
 and supervised the erection of his fort. Like the later Fort 
 Louis, it had four bastions, of which two were of stockade and 
 two of logs. It was guarded by twelve cannon, and seems to 
 have been surrounded by a palisade besides. There was no 
 town laid out, however, and in fact this was intended only as 
 a temporary settlement. There the Pascagoulas, Capinans, 
 Chicachas, Passacolas, and Biloxi came to smoke the calumet 
 with Iberville.^ 
 
 The map drawn by F. Joussette for this occasion, still pre- 
 served in the Archives of the Marine at Paris, shows a channel 
 of seven feet out past Deer Island (Isle an Chevreuil), on 
 which were Indian cabins. From there on, the water rap- 
 idly deepened to twenty feet at Ship Island (Isle Franpoise 
 then), where on the north side was the anchorage for vessels. 
 On this island were large ponds where they watered. This 
 interesting chart also shows the coast from "Pascaboula" 
 River on the east, facing Horn Island (Isle au Aigle), out be- 
 yond Isle Ronde, and extends as far west as opposite curiously 
 shaped Isle Bourbon, now Cat Island. Between Ship and Cat 
 islands, but nearer the former, was the Pass Jordy, having 
 twenty -three feet depth. 
 
 At the entrance of Biloxi Bay, perhaps not far from the 
 present railroad cut, it was proposed to build a battery to 
 defend the entrance, but only in case tlie court fixed the colony 
 at Biloxi. It is doubtful, therefore, whether this fortification 
 was erected. 
 
 The first commandant at Biloxi was Sauvole, hardly a bro- 
 ther of Iberville as claimed by Gayarr^, the major was Levas- 
 seur Russouelle, and the garrison consisted of eighty men.^ 
 Bienville on the Mississippi devoted much time to exploring 
 that river and its tributaries, as did Sauvole to examination and 
 soundins: of the coast. The latter thus discovered a harbor at 
 the east end of Dauphine Island, and from the Mobile Indians 
 learned the fertility of their river country. 
 
 * Penicaiit in .5 Margry, Decouvertes, p. 378. 
 ' 4 Margry, Decouvertes, pp. xxxii, xxxiii. 
 

 
 
 Carte PARTiCW: 
 
 r^ 
 '••' -i'^ 
 
 ■. I 
 
FROM LA SALLE TO IBERVILLE. 47 
 
 Iberville had gone back to France in May, 1699, after build- 
 ing Fort Maurepas, but he returned in August, bringing cou' 
 reurs de bois, the Jesuit Du Rhu, Le Sueur, St. Denis, Bois- 
 briant, and Chateauguay, besides supplies. There had already 
 come on the Badine from La Rochelle a young man anxious to 
 see the world. He was a ship-carpenter, Penicaut by name, 
 born at Rochelle in 1680, and to him we owe the pious and 
 interesting "Annals of Louisiana from 1698 to 1722." He 
 will be our chief authority for many years. On account of his 
 trade and his facility for languages, our first Mobile writer was 
 a member of all exploring parties. His and the other names 
 will become very familiar, and make us feel well launched in 
 Mobile history. 
 
 Iberville came and went more than once while Fort de Mau- 
 repas lasted, and was heartily welcomed by the colonists. For 
 they were not agriculturists, and but for supplies from France 
 and Spanish ports, would have starved. The health of the 
 garrison was not good, and finally even Sauvole died, and 
 Bienville as lieutenant of the king had to come from the Mis- 
 sissippi fort and take command. 
 
 The French improved their acquaintance with the Indians, 
 and here, as elsewhere, proved themselves good diplomats. 
 They came unheralded and unknown, and yet soon Fort de 
 Maurepas received delegations from many southern tribes and 
 the commandant was arbiter in Indian disputes. Amongst 
 others, Mobilians came there, and Bienville once sent a boat 
 to the Tohome country to buy corn. English influence hence 
 on was not supreme. 
 
 More interesting to the French, however, were the visits of 
 their own countrymen. Davion and Montigny, missionaries to 
 the Tonicas and Natchez, priests of the Seminary of Quebec, 
 came from their posts on the Mississippi to see them. Faith- 
 ful Tonty, too, left his rock in the Illinois to visit Bienville on 
 the Mississippi, bringing peltries from the Arkansas, and later 
 we find him at Biloxi with chiefs of the Choctaw and Chicka- 
 saw nations. Gravier also, the Jesuit at Kaskaskia, passed 
 through, and coureurs de bois from the upper Mississippi came 
 to sell peltries and help consume the scanty supplies. 
 
 Less welcome were Spaniards from Pensacola. Spain still 
 claimed as Florida everything north of Mexico, and her gov- 
 
48 COLONIAL MOBILE. 
 
 ernor came early from Pensacola to protest against the new 
 settlement. Bienville received them courteously and enter- 
 tained them well, but declined to acknowledge any right on 
 the part of Spain. It so happened that these Spaniards came 
 to grief. They were wrecked on their return voyage, and had 
 to make their way back to Biloxi to ask aid of the French. 
 This, of course, was promptly given. 
 
 Hennepin never saw Biloxi, and it was as well for him that 
 he did not, nor did Lahontan, who was so soon to print at the 
 Hague his much translated book, which for a time deceived 
 even Delisle, "the real founder of modern geographical sci- 
 ence," into placing on his maps the fictitious "Riviere Longue," 
 flowing southwest and having unpronounceable tribes adjacent.^ 
 But the veriest Munchausen of them all, Mathieu Sagean, took 
 Pontehartrain in with his King Hageren, and was sent over 
 to Biloxi to pursue his explorations. Gold was more plentiful 
 in his Acaniba country than in Peru, — and so were wives, 
 for the king had a new one every day. But Bienville soon 
 unmasked this pretended companion of La Salle, and did not 
 carry out the royal order to aid in exploring his Eldorado. 
 
 Interest in America was at its height in France. Iber- 
 ville's discoveries were important, and plans to complete the 
 reduction of the Mississippi valley were pushed forward. His 
 reports aroused the interest of science, the zeal of commerce, 
 and encouraged the government to greater exertions. The 
 Mississippi was surely rediscovered, the great valley open to 
 French enterprise. Iberville recommended the acquisition of 
 Pensacola from Spain, and the court tried to obtain it. But, 
 despite the fact that a grandson of Louis XIV. had mounted 
 that throne and the two peoples were struggling against Europe 
 for the right of the peninsula to choose its own sovereign, the 
 Spanish Junta declined to cede the port. There might indeed 
 be no longer any Pyrenees, but there was still a Mexican Gulf, 
 the sacred gift of Popes to Spain. 
 
 It was anent this negotiation that we first appreciate the 
 statesmanlike grasp of Iberville. The Canadian sailor was in 
 these southern seas and lands beyond local ties and interests. 
 His memorial furnished the material of Pontehartrain 's diplo- 
 
 ^ Winsor's Basin of the Mississippi, pp. 63, 80 ; Parkman's Great West, 
 p. 416. 
 

FROM LA SALLE TO IBERVILLE. 49 
 
 macy, and in it he read the future as an unsealed book. The 
 claim of Spain to monopoly, he showed, was without basis, 
 and, worse than that, would soon be disputed by that Protes- 
 tant country whose rulers recognized no papal gifts, whose pio- 
 neers on the American seaboard were increasing at a rate that 
 would soon take them across the mountains to contend for the 
 valleys of the Mississippi and its tributaries. In less than a 
 hundred years, ^ said this prophet, the English, unless opposed 
 by growth and persistence like their own, would occupy the 
 whole of America. And so they did. One hundred and one 
 years later, this people, as a new nation, were actually to buy 
 from France that Louisiana which Iberville was now founding! 
 
 1 4 Maxgry, Decouvertes, p. xli. 
 
CHAPTER VI. 
 
 FOUNDING FORT LOUIS. 
 
 On one or more of his exploring expeditions from Biloxi, 
 Iberville traversed the Mobile country, and seems to have 
 selected it as the seat of his colony. Penicaut accompanied 
 him, and to him we are indebted for perhaps the first de- 
 tailed description of the bay and river that has come down 
 to us.^ 
 
 Our Bayou La Batre they named Riviere D'Erbane for a 
 Frenchman lost there ; Cedar Point, Pointe aux Huistres from 
 the great abundance of oysters. Penicaut's dates may not 
 always be correct, although he says he made his entries at the 
 time of the events, but he is a good measurer. The mainland, 
 he says, was two leagues from Massacre Island, and then it 
 was nine leagues to the river. Two leagues below this Mobile 
 River, which name he here uses, is Dog River, and two further, 
 Fowl River. He gives no reason for any of the names. Dogs 
 and deer they might have seen, but the only Indians known to 
 have had domestic fowls were the Arkansas, for there La Salle 
 found chickens and geese in 1682, and the Bayogoulas, whose 
 stock came from a shipwreck. ^ Could Maldonado or other 
 Spaniards have introduced fowls on the shores of Mobile Bay, 
 or was not this river, and its Isle aux Oies, named from the 
 wild-fowl even not yet extinct? 
 
 The bay was five leagues wide, and a league above the mouth 
 of the river they found a confluent which they named St. Mar- 
 tin. It must be the later Bayou Marmotte, or the one after- 
 wards renamed for Chateauguay, — One and Three Mile creeks 
 respectively. A league further was the Riviere a Boutin, and 
 this was probably our Chickasabogue. 
 
 On the upper bay and river they discovered a fine country. 
 
 ^ Penicaut in 5 Marjjry, Decouvertes, pp. 383, 422, 
 
 ^ Parkman's Great West, p. 275 ; 1 Martin's Louisiana, p. 143. 
 
FOUNDING FORT LOUIS. 51 
 
 The woods contained all the timber needed for the French 
 navy, and Iberville had a dim vision of sawmills and of a 
 great timber port. Twelve leagues up, on both sides of the 
 river, they found the Mobile Indians (probably about Mt. 
 Vernon Landing), already known to them at Biloxi. All the 
 many Indians were friendly, and the Mobilian dialect was an 
 important one, as it was the inter-tribal language of the Gulf 
 races, the trade jargon from the Mississippi to the ocean. 
 
 Some point near the mouth of this river would serve Iber- 
 ville's purpose very well, even better than the Natchez site 
 first thought of by him. It would be near enough Pensacola 
 to keep an eye on the Spaniards, near enough the Mississippi 
 to be the port for the valley trade, which could come through 
 Bayou Manchac, the lakes, and the sound, behind sheltering 
 islands, to Mobile Bay, and with a fort on the Mississij^pi 
 delta could guard the great river. Then also, with its easy 
 communication by the Tombigbee Eiver to the northwest and 
 the Alabama to the northeast, it gave means of influence among 
 the strong Choctaw, Chickasaw, and Alibamon Indians, and 
 even access over the mountains, in case of war, to the English 
 colonies of Carolina and Virginia. 
 
 It appears that Iberville selected the new site before return- 
 ing to Europe, and when he sailed back towards the end of 
 1701, his plans were all made and ready for execution. They 
 were sanctioned by Pontchartrain, but the selection of the site 
 was Iberville's own work. 
 
 In the fall of 1701, Pontchartrain sent Iberville out in the 
 Kenommee, with the Palmier and traversier, for the express 
 purpose of settling the Mobile region. ^ The daring fighter 
 was transformed into a practical colonizer. We find him insist- 
 ing on Spanish sheep for the colony instead of French, which 
 he deemed inferior, a stallion to improve the American breed 
 (which, if native, must have been of Spanish extraction, for 
 the Indians originally had no horses), and taking only such 
 things and people as were essential to the development of the 
 country. No one realized better than he the sturdiness neces- 
 sary for pioneers, and that the strength of the English colonies 
 was in the kind of men sent out. He wanted no dependents, 
 
 1 4 Margry, Decouvertes, pp. lix, 501-504, 512, 530. See 1 Martin's 
 Louisiana, p. 152. 
 
62 COLONIAL MOBILE. 
 
 for the weakness of French colonies, he said, lay in sending 
 out the poor and giving them no start. ^ 
 
 He called at San Domingo, and there refitted his vessels, 
 and took on horses, cattle, and swine for the new colony. Ig- 
 norant of Sauvole's death, he sent word to him to remove to 
 Mobile River. When he reported, November 24, to Pontchar- 
 train from Pensacola, Iberville seems still not to know Sau- 
 vole's fate. There the governor was himself to be seriously ill 
 with an abscess in the side, but finally, on December 17, 1701, 
 despite the protest of the Spanish, he gave orders to abandon 
 Biloxi and move everything to Massacre Island for greater 
 convenience in making the new settlement. 
 
 During the days of transition to the new year, Biloxi and 
 Massacre Island were scenes of activity. On January 3, Iber- 
 ville sent a lanche or feloiique, loaned him by the Spanish 
 governor, Martinez, from Pensacola to the island with Serigny 
 and Chasteaugue to join their brother Bienville, who, with 
 forty men, arrived two days later in the traversier from Biloxi. 
 Nicholas de la Salle (whom we have seen with his greater kins- 
 man in 1682) came from Pensacola with his family in the caiche 
 chartered by Iberville with the lanche to carry eighty workmen 
 and the king's stores. On January 10, Bienville, Serigny, and 
 Le Vasseur in the lanche and two felouqnes left Massacre Island 
 by order of Iberville to occupy Mobile, " sixteen leagues off, at 
 the second bluff." 
 
 We can be sure that the unfinished magazines on Dauphlne 
 Island, left for completion in charge of Chasteaugue and La 
 Salle, were at the eastern end, where it is widest and accessible 
 from both bay and gulf, for there was the harbor of twenty-one 
 feet depth shown Iberville by a Spanish pilot. But where was 
 this fort on the river, the original site of Mobile? 
 
 The direction and the journal of Iberville, the account of 
 Penicaut, tradition, and physical remains all unite to fix the 
 location. Sixteen leagues from Massacre Island at the second 
 bluff is at Twenty-seven Mile Bluff. Near there Creoles still 
 fondly point out the site of "Vieux Fort," and there French 
 maps, as early as 1744, place a "vieux fort, detruit." A well 
 under a hickory-tree still marks the spot, and bullets, canister, 
 crockery, large-headed spike, and a brass ornament were picked 
 * 4 Margry, Decouvertes, pp. 686, 604, 626. 
 
'"'^' 
 
 
 
 FORT LOUIS 
 
< 
 
 'f • 
 
 MOBILLE, 1702 
 
FOUNDING FORT LOUIS. 53 
 
 up by the present writer near the river edge of the level bluff 
 as late as the summer of 1897. 
 
 There, then, on a wooded spot, twenty feet above the river, 
 hardly deserving the name of bluff, safe above ordinary high 
 water, was Fort Louis de la Louisiane, commanding the wide, 
 turbid river. It was not one of the many Forts ;S'^. Louis. 
 Like Louisiana, it was named from Louis XIV. rather than 
 for the sainted Louis IX. 
 
 Nowadays, when we lay a corner-stone, we have imposing 
 ceremonies to commemorate the occasion, but when and how 
 the first spadeful of Mobile earth was dug and post driven we 
 do not know. Pontchartrain had, in the preceding smnmer, 
 already ordered the occupation of the post, and Penicaut puts 
 the beginning of work in 1701, and says Boisbriant arrived 
 before Bienville ; but the carpenter must be wrong. The jour- 
 nal must be correct. We can hardly suppose that ground was 
 broken much before the middle of January, 1702. We can 
 see the young Bienville — he was but twenty-two — carefully 
 select the spot and superintend felling the virgin forest for 
 room and material for Fort Louis. The woods found were 
 white and red oak, bay, sassafras, cottonwood (hois blanc)^ 
 walnut, and especially tall pines. ^ 
 
 The fort was of logs, "piece upon piece," sixty toises or 
 fathoms square, with four bastions thirty feet long, having 
 six guns at each corner advanced in semicircle. Within were 
 four buildings, — chapel, gouvernem,ent and officers' quarters, 
 magasins and guard (corps de garde), and in the centre a 
 parade of forty-five toises square. The barracks, however, for 
 the privates and Canadians were outside, one hundred and fifty 
 paces to the left, upstream, on the bank of the river. Such 
 is the description of Iberville and of Penicaut. La Salle adds 
 that there was by the river a powder magazine twenty-four feet 
 square by ten deep. This, we learn, got filled for a time by 
 the heavy rains. ^ 
 
 1 See 4 Margry, Decouvertes, pp. Ix, 503, 512, 514, 531. For Penlcaiit's 
 account, 5 Ibid., p. 423. The error of Pickett and others in placing the 
 settlement on Dog River could not be made now with the contemporary 
 maps and documents before us. At best it rests on a misreading of Bar- 
 tram. There was a magasin at the mouth of Dog River, but nothing more. 
 
 2 4 Margry, Decouvertes, pp. lix, 512, 515, 530 ; 5 Ihid., pp. 423, 424. 
 
54 COLONIAL MOBILE. 
 
 Iberville found difficulty getting his traversier even into the 
 port at Dauphine Island during a northwest wind, and so di- 
 rected Bienville to build a lighter or ferry-boat (with flat bot- 
 tom, but pointed at the ends) to carry fifty -five tons and draw 
 four and a half feet only. 
 
 Iberville never forgot that Mobile was to be the centre of 
 French influence; the only place which, as he expressed it, 
 could protect America against the English. While still sick 
 at Pensacola, he sent two Canadians to Mobile (for Iberville 
 gives the place this name from the start), with directions for 
 Bienville to let Tonty have ten picked men to go to the Choc- 
 taws and Chickasaws. Tonty was to make peace between them, 
 and by presents bring them to the new establishment to con- 
 clude treaties with the French.^ 
 
 By the middle of February, Iberville had so far recovered 
 as to sail on his ship Palmier for Massacre Island, but it was 
 not until the 18th that the unfavorable northwest wind permit- 
 ted him to enter over the bar, which was an eighth of a league 
 from land, and had twenty-one feet. The harbor itself, be- 
 tween Massacre and a little (Pelican) island, showed thirty feet 
 of water. It pleased him much by its easy defense and its pro- 
 tection from the wind on the north, northwest, and southwest, 
 due to these islands, and on the northeast and east by the "east 
 point of Mobile " two leagues away. He could not but fear, 
 however, that a south gale might change the bar, — a fear 
 which we shall have occasion to remember. 
 
 In this port he found Marigny, his trai^erner beached by a 
 south wind as she was discharging what she had brought from 
 Havana and Biloxi. Digging away sand and tying on empty 
 casks did no good, and she lay there until a high tide on 
 the 23d took her off. Meantime Iberville had to charter Fil- 
 let's caiche for five hundred livres to take provisions to the 
 Mississippi fort. On it returned thither Gravier, superior of 
 the Jesuit missions of the Illinois, and some voyageitrs, come 
 to discuss religion and trade. The beaver (castor) question was 
 a troublesome one on account of Canadian jealousy, but Iber- 
 ville promised provisions next year, and present transportation 
 of their skins to France. The English were trying to attract 
 them to trade with Carolina over the Ohio River (Ouabache). 
 * 4 Margry, De'couvertex, pp. 507, 581. 
 
FOUNDING FORT LOUIS. 65 
 
 Another important question was faced by Iberville at Massa- 
 cre Island. Even during the brief Biloxi experiment, the secre- 
 tary (escrivain), who had charge of the stores, claimed to have 
 the right to direct everything. Iberville writes laconically that 
 this man (Crasse) is going back to France. La Salle was 
 acting as commissary {faisant fonction de commissaire) and 
 applies to the minister of the marine for full appointment as 
 such. His zeal had already led him to meddle, and Iberville 
 thought best to establish a garde magasin, or keeper of the 
 royal stores, in the person of Girard. He was to deliver goods, 
 e. g., as presents to the savages, upon the order of La Salle, 
 but La Salle was simply to carry out the instructions of the 
 commandant. 1 
 
 Iberville had been detained at the island by contrary winds, 
 and on February 29 he sailed for Mobile, apparently with 
 the two pinasses and a chaloitpe, leaving one chaloupe, how- 
 ever, for La Salle to come on with his family. The governor 
 kept his eyes open as he proceeded, and describes the lands 
 very fully. He slept at a little river, elsewhere called Dog 
 River, which had four or five feet at the mouth, and was bor- 
 dered by high land, growing oak, pine, bay, beech, and elm. 
 The next day he made three leagues, seeing mainly the swampy 
 islands, for the river (Mobile) was high. March 2 he made 
 six leagues, noting the fine cypress and some good land, and 
 next day at a league and a half he found the establishment 
 (etabllssement). His figures add up about twenty-eight miles 
 from the river mouth. The lands above the fort he pronounces 
 "perfectly beautiful," and he was especially struck with the 
 fine pines. One he had cut to supply a mast lost by the 
 Palmier in a West Indian storm, and in three days it was 
 ready, and sent to Massacre Island. 
 
 He seemed satisfied with the progress made on fort and boat, 
 and sent Bienville to explore the country. Bienville found on 
 the banks and many adjacent islands places abandoned by the 
 savages on account of war with Conchaques and Alibamons. 
 An important discovery was that of five clay figures worshiped 
 by the Mobilians. They were of a man, woman, child, bear, 
 and owl, — the work, Iberville thought, of some follower of De 
 Soto. They were shown Bienville by an Indian only when he 
 * 4 Margry, Decouvertes, pp. 510, 529. 
 
66 COLONIAL MOBILE. 
 
 bribed him with the present of a gun, and were in the canes 
 on a little hill near an ancient, destroyed village. The savage 
 would not approach the heaven -descended gods nearer than ten 
 paces, and then only backwards. When they were carried off, 
 the Indians could not understand why the gods to whom the 
 Mobilians sacrificed did not strike dead the impious white men. 
 
 The most natural location for this sanctuary would be that 
 great mound to the northeast on what is now Bottle Creek, if 
 "petit costeau" can be applied to a hill about fifty feet high; 
 but any of the many shell banks will fairly suit the description. 
 From about Twenty-one Mile Bluff upwards, the west shores 
 of the river are habitable, and above as well as even lower 
 down the opposite islands between the Mobile and Tensaw can 
 and have been used. The figures were ultimately taken to 
 France by the governor. 
 
 On February 6, Iberville himself began exploring by try- 
 ing to find on these islands a waterfall for a sawmill and for 
 a tannery. He was unsuccessful, but shortly afterwards took 
 a felouque. to visit the upper Indians. Three leagues up, he 
 noted the end of the delta, and found the river a mile and a 
 half wide, with a depth of five or six fathoms. On both banks 
 he saw deserted habitations, but also on banks and islands, 
 from four to a dozen cabins together, the two tribes of Mobil- 
 ians and Tohomes who will become so well known to us. The 
 Mobilians were six leagues above the fort, and therefore about 
 the present Mt. Vernon (or Fort Stoddert) landing. The 
 Tohomes, he says, were eight leagues above the establishment, 
 which would be about Nanna Hubba Bluff. Their true seat was 
 higher, at Mcintosh's Bluff, but, as Iberville does not mention 
 the Naniabes, he may have considered them all Tohomes. He 
 must have had his sextant along, for he locates the main 
 Tohome village of eight or ten cabins at 31° 22', which an- 
 swers very fairly for Mcintosh's. The villages of both nations 
 were near the river, connected by good horse-paths. He found 
 the inhabitants industrious agriculturists. Their language was 
 the same as the Bayogoula. 
 
 Iberville returned to the fort in a few days, but sent back 
 to buy corn (bled (f Inde\ of which he got three chalovpes 
 full. He had to supply Pensacola with provisions also, — fifty 
 barrels of flour already, to grow to a hundred quintals. 
 
FOUNDING FORT LOUIS. 57 
 
 He now set about laying out his city, despite the incessant 
 rain, and spent March 20-23 in aligning the streets and lo- 
 cating the inhabitants. This we may suppose was along the 
 lower slope north of the fort, to secure easier access to the 
 river. Besides the officials, he had four families of colonists. 
 He had brought from San Domingo for his colony a horse, 
 three mares, twenty cows, besides numerous pigs. He says 
 the people called the place Mobile, — "que nous nommons 
 la Mobile," although we know the official name was Fort 
 Louis. The plan has survived, although without any street 
 names, but there is every reason to believe that Royal, 
 Conti, and Dauphin were known there as well as at the later 
 settlement. 
 
 One of the settlers, a master tanner, was lost in the woods, and 
 went twelve days without food. He was preparing for death 
 when found by some hunters under a tree on a hill, by a grave 
 which he had dug. At its foot he had planted a cross, bearing 
 an account of his mishap. 
 
 On Sunday, March 25, Tonty returned with seven chiefs 
 and principal men of the Chickasaws (Chicachas) and four 
 Choctaw chiefs. Iberville made them presents of considerable 
 powder, ball, and lead, twelve guns, besides hatchets, knives, 
 kettles (chaudieres), beads, gun flints, and other small things 
 (cUnqicaillerie). Next day he addressed them in due form, 
 Bienville acting as interpreter, exhorting the two nations to 
 conclude peace and abandon the English, who only aimed at 
 making slaves of them. He cited the death of over eighteen 
 hundred Choctaws, and capture of over five hundred prisoners 
 sold away, and the loss of over eight hundred Chickasaws dur- 
 ing this war of eight or ten years. If they would drive out the 
 English, he would make the Illinois cease war upon them, and 
 would establish a trading station, where they could obtain all 
 kinds of goods in exchange for skins of beef, deer, and bear. 
 
 The talk was satisfactory, and general peace was arranged. 
 Word was sent to the Illinois, to "Davyon" among the Toni- 
 cas, Foucaut among the Akansas, St. Cosme at the Nadeches 
 (Natchez), and the governor wrote also to the grand vicar of 
 Quebec, at the Tamaroas, to send missionaries among the 
 Chickasaws and Choctaws as soon as possible. With the 
 returning Chickasaws was sent back a little St. Michel child to 
 
58 COLONIAL MOBILE. 
 
 learn the language. Iberville heard much that he would find 
 useful as to numbers and location of the several tribes. The 
 promised trading-post was to be established on the upper 
 Mobile River between the two tribes, three or four leagues 
 from the Chaquechoumas and twelve or fifteen from the Chick- 
 asaws. 
 
 Having founded his colony, Iberville, leaving six months' 
 stores, set out on his return to the Palmier at Massacre Island. 
 In the river, on his way, he took soundings, and found at least 
 five and one half to six feet of water. He slept at Dog Kiver, 
 where he had established a magasin^ which Chasteaugue in 
 the traversler and Grandville in the chalovpe had been busy 
 filling. Becancourt, who had been quite useful, was taken 
 from the Renommee, of which he was enseigne, and put in 
 charge of the travei'sier. 
 
 On March 31, the Renommde, towing the Palmier, went over 
 the bar in twenty-one to twenty -two feet of water, and made for 
 Pensacola. There they took on beaver-skins and minor peltries, 
 brought by the caiche from the Mississippi, and sailed for 
 Havana and France.^ 
 
 Thus Fort Louis, the first Mobile, was founded. It was to 
 guard the Mississippi entrance, be the capital of vast Louisi- 
 ana, the meeting-place for the Indian tribes south of the Great 
 Lakes, and the point from which English influence, not only 
 in the Alabama regions, but in all the Mississippi and Ohio 
 valleys, was to be overthrown. Iberville had personally, and 
 through priests and traders, mastered the Indian problem, and 
 he proposed to win the savage to the French side, and keep the 
 English to the Atlantic seaboard. His plans we learn in full 
 from a memorial of his. 
 
 The Indians were to be attracted to the French by means 
 of river trade. The English could bring their wares only 
 by painful overland journeys, crossing the AUeghanies, while 
 the Frencli would command the Gulf rivers, in particular the 
 Mississip])i, with its many tributaries. He would have about 
 four grand posts on the Mississippi River, besides the ca])ital 
 at Mobile, and would distribute them judiciously. One he 
 founded low on the Mississippi, another should be among the 
 Arkansas Indians, a third on the Ouabache (our Ohio), and 
 ^ Iberville's journal in 4 Margry, Decouvertes, pp. 503-523. 
 
FOUNDING FORT LOUIS. 59 
 
 the fourth on the Missouri. Perhaps we may say that he thus 
 foresaw the necessity for New Orleans, Memphis, Louisville, 
 and St. Louis, if he did not select their sites. A lake city like 
 Chicago would, in his division of territory, belong to the St. 
 Lawrence rather than the Mississippi basin, and therefore not 
 enter his plans. Mobile was the key, without which, however, 
 the other posts were worthless. From Mobile there could be 
 communication by horse with even the furthest in fifteen days. 
 At each should be a sergeant and corporal with at least ten 
 soldiers as a nucleus for a French colony, and the principal 
 industry would be tanning buffalo hides and deerskins for ship- 
 ment to France via Mobile.^ 
 
 His plans contemplated resettlement of some Lidian tribes, 
 so as to put them nearer this river commerce and influence. 
 We shall see smaller changes made, but none such as this 
 daring mind conceived. The total Indian population that 
 should be tributary to the French was, as he figured it, 23,850 
 families. Of these the most populous were the Sioux of four 
 thousand, the Panis (Pawnees) of two thousand, the Chactas of 
 four thousand, the Chicachas of two thousand, and the Con- 
 chaques (Apalachicolas) of two thousand families. The well- 
 known Mobilians and Tohomes he put at only three hundred 
 and fifty families, the Tonicas and neighbors at three hundred. 
 The Illinois and Tamaroua he estimates at eight hundred, the 
 Missouri at fifteen hundred, the Quicapou and Maskouten at 
 four hundred and fifty, and the Miamis at five hundred fami- 
 lies. Except the Malia and Causes (Kansas), the other tribes 
 named are small and now less recognizable. 
 
 The first tribal change he contemi^lated was inducing the 
 Indians in the mountains west of Maryland, Carolina, and Vir- 
 ginia to settle nearer Mobile, doubtless on the waters we now 
 call the Tennessee and Coosa, so as to substitute French for 
 English influence. Next was to make the Ouabache (Ohio) of 
 use to France. More than one hundred and twenty leagues 
 long, it had not an Indian on its banks. There he would settle 
 the Illinois, and have them bring to this river highway the 
 buffalo-skins of their chase. With the Illinois, the French 
 would have one thousand armed men in case of need, and their 
 old grounds would then be occupied by the more distant Mas- 
 i 4 Margry, Decouvertes, pp. 594, 601-603. 
 
60 COLONIAL MOBILE. 
 
 koutens and Kikapous, who were heretofore given to beaver 
 hunting. These would be four hundred and fifty friendly- 
 warriors more. There were as many Miamis, who sold bea- 
 vers at Chieagou. In their giving up that trade for buffalo and 
 deer hunting about the Illinois, there would be saved, too, the 
 expense of a fort among them. Iberville knew of the Miamis 
 from Gravier, superior of their missions. He admits that it 
 will injure the beaver trade of Canada, but this will only be in 
 order to give it an easier outlet down the Mississippi to Mobile.^ 
 
 The Sioux, also devoted to beavers, were useless where they 
 were, as were the Mahas and other populous tribes between 
 the Missouri and the Mississippi. He knew of them through 
 Le Sueur, who understood them perfectly. They should be 
 placed on the Monigona (Des Moines) River. The Akansas 
 Indians were then extinct, and their place on their river he 
 would fill with the Kanses, Missouris, and Crevas. Like the 
 Mahas, they did not use firearms, nor had they heretofore 
 traded with Europeans. Up that river were the Manton, and 
 among them he would settle the Panis. All these hunted the 
 buffalo, and were often at war with the Spaniards of New 
 Mexico and their Indian allies. 
 
 Le Sueur was returning to France, and Iberville recom- 
 mended him as suitable to superintend this readjustment of 
 nationalities so as to make them more useful to the king. The 
 expense, says Iberville, would not exceed twelve thousand livres 
 for moving all these twelve tliousand Indians. Part could even 
 be met with knickknacks. In four or five years there could be 
 built up a trade of sixty to eighty thousand buffalo hides and 
 more than one hundred and fifty thousand deer and other skins, 
 which would bring in France more than 2,500,000 livres per 
 annum. Each skin would yield four or five pounds of good wool, 
 he says, which brings twenty sous, and two pounds of hair at 
 ten sous. Besides this, one would get each year more than two 
 hundred thousand livres of other peltry, such as bears, wolves, 
 wildcats, foxes, martins, etc., whose customs duties would 
 bring the king annually more than two hundred and fifty thou- 
 sand livres. There would also be the products of numerous 
 lead mines, while silver could be found near New Mexico, and 
 copper mines were abundant, too.^ 
 
 1 5 Margry, Decouvertes, pp. 587, 595-597. ^ Ibid., pp. 587, 600, 601. 
 
THE COUNTRY OF 1 
 
UTHERN INDIANS 
 
FOUNDING FORT LOUIS. 61 
 
 But no doubt Iberville dwelt even more fondly on another 
 result of these proposed changes. Not to mention tribes fur- 
 ther west, he could count on twelve thousand good warriors to 
 invade Maryland, Virginia, and Carolina as a part of his plan 
 to check, if not annihilate, the English colonies. In this way 
 there would be no need of many French soldiers except as 
 officers. 
 
 The Canadian company and officials of course looked with 
 jealousy on the new colony, and at first claimed control over 
 it. That beaver-skins shoidd be taken down the Mississippi 
 instead of the St. Lawrence injured their trade and infringed 
 what they deemed their rights. Iberville, however, justly re- 
 plied that all territory watered by branches of the Mississippi 
 River belonged to Louisiana as a part of his commercial terri- 
 tory. ^ A century later, this doctrine was in other hands and 
 another tongue to be stated as the right of the West to control 
 the mouths of its rivers. Instead of Louisiana's controlling 
 the West by its rivers, the West was ultimately, in order to 
 secure their navigation, to annex Louisiana. But in the period 
 now under review his claim was right, and it received the sanc- 
 tion of the king. Governor Callieres of Canada was, in 1701, 
 curtly notified that the new province could be better governed 
 directly from France than by way of Quebec, and Iberville was 
 made its commander-in-chief.^ 
 
 ^ 4 Margry, Decouvertes, pp. 591, 606. 
 2 Ibid., pp. 585, 622. 
 
CHAPTER VII. 
 
 BIENVILLE. 
 
 Lonely enough those Frenchmen must have felt in their 
 river fort, far from the sea, and thousands of miles from 
 France. Their only neighbors were treacherous savages, their 
 hope of subsistence in supplies from home. For these were 
 no hardy pioneers, such as the English settling the Atlantic 
 coast. Brave enough they were, but many were here for pay 
 or adventure, and even those Canadians who thought of Amer- 
 ica as their country were rangers {coureurs de bois), and more 
 at home in the forest than in the fort. Gentlemen were there, 
 but few artisans in the little town overlooking the turbid 
 Mobile. 
 
 Yet Bienville, the governor, began his administration under 
 not unfavorable circumstances, for he could rely upon Iber- 
 ville's influence in France. But the problems before him were 
 serious. The Indians immediately tributary to Mobile waters 
 must in some way be detached from British as well as Spanish 
 interests, the vast Mississippi region explored and gradually 
 colonized, and all by means of the rather heterogeneous popu- 
 lation under his command. 
 
 Of his lieutenants, St. Denis, Boisbriant, and others we 
 have met at Biloxi, and Henri de Tonty we have seen at Iber- 
 ville's Indian conference. 
 
 The last, the best and most active of French pioneers, was 
 of Italian extraction. His father, for political reasons, had 
 moved to France, and there had invented the Tontine system, 
 now so familiar in life insurance. The son, Henri, had lost 
 a hand in the Sicilian wars of France by the explosion of a 
 grenade, but the iron substitute was found perhaps equally 
 useful after he came to America with La Salle and gained him 
 among the savages the name of the Iron Hand. We have seen 
 him at the discovery of the Mississippi, and cannot but admire 
 

 ..itfi 
 
 IHMHP^' 
 
 MONUMENT AT OLD FORT LOUIS 
 
BIENVILLE. 63 
 
 his faithfulness during the long years at Fort St. Louis, the 
 rock of the Illinois. We know his descents of the great river, 
 his letter, his entertainment of Cavelier and Joutel, — always 
 waiting and watching for the La Salle who was dead in a 
 Texan forest. When granted an interest in Fort St. Louis 
 and the fur trade, he still watched the river he had helped 
 discover, and as soon as he heard of Iberville's expedition, 
 descended to meet La Salle's successor. He visited BienviUe 
 at the fort near the Mississippi mouth, came also to Biloxi to 
 see Iberville, as we have seen, induced Indian chiefs to go to 
 the first congress held by that Frenchman at Mobile, and now, 
 on the abolishment of the Illinois post, he moved to Mobile 
 himself. He had hoped to find Iberville again, but, missing 
 him, took up his abode at the new fort in order to aid the 
 younger brother.^ 
 
 And there was need of colonists of high and low degree, 
 although the proposition of the freebooters of Carthagena to 
 move their headquarters to Mobile was declined. The total 
 population, probably including even slaves and soldiers, was 
 about one hundred and thirty persons,^ and, if Penicaut's date 
 is correct, this year inaugurated warfare with the Indians. 
 Those immediately near were friendly, but the Alibamons, 
 high up on the river named for them, had to be conquered into 
 friendship. Boisbriant went up the river with forty men in five 
 canoes against the Alibamons. He succeeded in killing some 
 warriors, and brought back to the fort women and children as 
 slaves. The French, however, were generous enough to give 
 the captives to the Mobilian Indians, who begged for them.^ 
 
 In this same year, 1702, and possibly while "petit St. 
 Michel " was learning Chickasaw, occurred, according to Shea, 
 the murder of the aged Seminary priest Foucaut, as he was 
 descending the Mississippi to Mobile from his station on the 
 Arkansas. His Coroa guides saw his valuables, and killed him 
 and his two companions as they slept on the river bank. 
 Davion found and buried their bodies. Penicaut puts it three 
 years later, and has it that Foucaut was descending from 
 Canada to visit Davion at the Yazoos.^ The French may not 
 
 » 5 Mar^rry, Decnuvertes, p. 427. ^ 4 /jj-^.^ p. 535. 3 5 ju^,^ p. 432. 
 * 5 Margry, Decouvertes, p. 458 ; Shea's Catholic Church in the Colonies, 
 p. 545. 
 
64 COLONIAL MOBILE. 
 
 have been well settled enough in 1702 to avenge his death, and 
 we hear nothing of any attempt to do so. But a similar assas- 
 sination at the beginning of the next year, which Shea does 
 not mention, although Penicaut does, was promptly punished. 
 It was necessary, in order to keep open the river route. 
 
 St. Cosme, a missionary from Canada, was descending the 
 river with three companions to visit St. Denis, then in com- 
 mand of the fort near the mouth. He reached the Natchez 
 safely, but unfortunately spent the night ashore lower down, 
 where had been a village of the Bayogoulas. These Indians 
 were then at war with the Chetiraachas, a tribe dwelling on 
 what is now called Bayou la Fourche. These Chetimachas, 
 happening to come, were so enraged at missing their foe that 
 they massacred the priest and all his company, except a little 
 slave. 
 
 St. Denis reported the crime, and Bienville authorized an 
 expedition to punish it. This, composed of ten French and 
 two hundred savages, Oumas, Ouachas, and Bayogoulas alike, 
 St. Denis successfully led up their river. He killed fifteen 
 Chetimachas and wounded and captured more, and among the 
 prisoners was one of the murderers of St. Cosme. When they 
 arrived at Mobile, Bienville had the murderer attached to a 
 wooden horse and his head broken (casser la teste)^ after which 
 his scalp was taken, and his body thrown into the river. Not 
 content with this, Bienville offered ten escus per scalp or 
 prisoner of Chetimacha or Alibamon race brought to hun.^ 
 To this war and its results, we probably owe the Chetimacha 
 slaves which abound in the church records a year or so later. 
 
 The main reliance of the settlement for soldiers was at first 
 the Canadian wood rangers, who were so hateful to the clergy. 
 And yet Iberville had no great love for the Canadian coureurs 
 de hois. Their peltries were bought at Mobile and shipped 
 from there, but no one realized better than he the inconstancy 
 of such men. 2 They spoke French, but they were half savages, 
 and had almost as lief trade with the English as with their 
 countrymen. Lawless and irreligious, they counteracted the 
 efforts of the missionaries among the Indians, and often by 
 intrigue and crime injured the French name. His plan, ho w- 
 
 ^ Penicaut in 5 Margry, Decouvertes, pp. 433, 460, etc. 
 * 4 Margry, Decouvertes, p. 586. 
 
BIENVILLE. 66 
 
 ever, was to anchor even them by bringing over French wives 
 to take the place of Indian mistresses. 
 
 There was a "Polastron company" of soldiers at the Mis- 
 sissippi fort in 1702, and Iberville was early solicitous to raise 
 in France at least two companies of regulars for Mobile to 
 take the place of the adventurous Canadians. We learn that 
 in 1703 Volezard and Chasteaugue were each recruiting a com- 
 pany in France under royal sanction for this purpose. These 
 companies in the baptismal registers are named for their cap- 
 tains. Blondel was to be enseigne of the latter.^ In August, 
 Chasteaugue actually arrived in the Loire, with seventeen 
 passengers, sixty thousand livres, and goods and provisions. 
 This was the first of those relief ships which Iberville's influ- 
 ence sent, and right welcome she was. Iberville did not come 
 himself until next year. 
 
 The supplies ran low after a while, however, and in 1704, 
 the flour gave out. Bienville sent his boat (traversier) under 
 Becancourt to Havana for more, and permitted fifty of his 
 men to hunt for a living in the territory of friendly Indians, 
 while he sought to obtain provisions for the rest by purchase. 
 When he sent five of his men with some Indians to buy provi- 
 sions from the Alibamons, they were all ambushed and killed 
 except one, a Canadian, who, although wounded, swam the 
 river, and succeeded in bringing the news to the fort. This 
 attack, of course, must be punished. 
 
 Bienville at once organized an expedition to seek revenge. 
 Mobilians, Tohomes, and Choctaws came to a grand campfire 
 at the fort. The French feasted them there by the river, and 
 they devoted several days to medicine, to the black drink from 
 the youpon leaves, which Indians always took before war. 
 They then started in pirogues, Boisbriant and St. Denis shar- 
 ing the command with Bienville. But the new allies were 
 treacherous. The Mobilians delayed, even notified their old 
 enemies, the Alibamons, and finally deserted in a body with 
 the Choctaws. 2 Bienville then played the ruse of returning, 
 and quietly setting out again with white men only. He found 
 the Alibamon village up the river and destroyed it. Although 
 all but four of the hostile warriors escaped unhurt, the blow 
 
 1 4 Margry, Decomertes, pp. 586, 616, 620, 624. 
 ' King's Bienville, p. 132. 
 
66 COLONIAL MOBILE. 
 
 served its purpose, and afterwards Bienville paid for other 
 scalps. 
 
 Such was the opening of Bienville's troubled government. 
 We have seen him in a naval battle on the waters of Hudson's 
 Bay, then sounding Mobile channel and exploring the Missis- 
 sippi, and later as commandant at the fort near the Mississippi 
 mouth, and succeeding Sauvole at Biloxi. He was always 
 active and clear-sighted, and this younger Lemoyne looks out 
 of the portrait in Margry with a kinder face than the intrepid 
 Iberville. And yet the brothers were much alike, and during 
 his long life in Louisiana we do not find Bienville lacking in 
 any quality necessary to a pioneer governor. He was patient 
 even amid faction, and, if foiled in one plan, immediately pre- 
 pared another. Successful always he could not be, but the 
 best tribute to him is to compare Louisiana as he found it and 
 as he left it, and consider not less the inadequate help given 
 him in France than the love he inspired in his followers and 
 the respect and fear he created in the savages who knew him. 
 
 He was a Canadian, early on the seas, and like many other 
 Canadians, devoted to the Jesuits and expert in handling sav- 
 ages. He cajoled the Indians with presents, but punished with 
 barbarity equal to their own when occasion required. One of 
 his most politic acts was at this time, receiving and settling 
 on Mobile River a band of fugitive Apalaches, who were driven 
 from their Florida home by the neighboring English colonists, 
 and he was to have occasion later so to colonize other Indians. 
 
 Iberville was to have come by the Pelican, but the vessel 
 was delayed until midsummer, 1704, and then came without 
 him, for he was sick.^ But this second and famous relief 
 ship brought out what he had provided. Livestock, food, and 
 merchandise there were, beside a cure, missionaries, artisans, 
 seventy-five soldiers, and, best of all, twenty-three virtuous 
 maidens under charge of two gray nuns. The girls were all 
 well married within a month, except one unusually "coy and 
 hard to please," who would take no man in the colony. It is 
 said that later all of them rebelled at corn, and perhaps com 
 bread, and that for a while the Petticoat Insurrection taxed 
 Bienville's patience and ingenuity. 
 
 In July of the preceding year, St. Vallier, Bishop of Quebec, 
 1 King's Bienville, p. 137. 
 
BIENVILLE. 67 
 
 had recognized Louisiana as a settled colony and made Fort 
 Louis a separate parish in his vast diocese, and now the Pelican 
 brought over the first cure, La Vente. Before that there had 
 been no regular pastor, although Douge and Davion were there. 
 
 Davion's history is interesting. The bishop, through the 
 Seminary at Quebec, had established St. Cosme at the Ta- 
 marois, near modern St. Louis, Montigny among the Natchez, 
 and Davion among the Tunicas on the lower Mississippi. 
 Davion kept his sacred relics in the trunk of a tree, and the 
 chapel which he built long remained there at the foot of a cross 
 on a rock. He was influential among the Indians, and is said 
 to have once fearlessly destroyed the idols of the Yasous, when 
 his life was saved only by the exertions of the grand chief. In 
 1700, the Jesuit Gravier found Davion dangerously ill at his 
 post, and St. Cosme came to nurse him. Davion we know 
 visited Biloxi, and by 1704 was ministering regularly at Mobile. 
 He lived amicably with the Jesuit Douge in an unfinished 
 house on the river, built with Douge 's means, and when La 
 Vente arrived, a church was building also. 
 
 Davion was a typical missionary, and was much beloved at 
 Fort Louis. We can imagine him, like Father Felician in 
 "Evangeline," going on his sacred errands, reverently welcomed 
 everywhere. It was fit that he should induct the first regular 
 pastor, but better still, as it proved, would it have been for 
 him to have occupied that position himself. 
 
 La Vente was duly put in office in September, 1704, with 
 ceremonies set out in the interesting entry on the first page of 
 the venerable baptismal register still preserved at Mobile.^ It 
 is attested by Davion, Bienville, and De la Salle, and reads 
 as follows : — 
 
 I, the undersigned priest and missionary apostolic, declare 
 to all whom it may concern, that, the 28th of September in the 
 year of Salvation 1704, in virtue of letters of provision and col- 
 lation granted and sealed July 20 of last year, by which Mon- 
 seigneur, the most illustrious and reverend bishop of Quebec, 
 erects a parochial church in the place called Fort Louis of 
 Louisiane, and of which he gives the cure and care to M. Henri 
 RouUeaux De la Vente, missionary apostolic of the diocese of 
 ^ For original French text, see Appendix. 
 
68 COLONIAL MOBILE. 
 
 Bayeux, I have placed the said priest in actual and corporal 
 possession of the said parochial church and of all the rights 
 belonging to it, after having observed the usual and requisite 
 ceremonies, to wit, by entrance into the church, sprinkling of 
 holy water, kissing the high altar, touching the mass book, 
 visiting the most sacred sacrament of the altar, and ringing 
 the bells, which possession I certify that no one has opposed. 
 
 Given in the church of Fort Louis the day of month and 
 year above, in the presence of Jean Baptiste de Bienville, lieu- 
 tenant of the king and commandant at the said fort, Pierre du Q. 
 de Boisbriant, major, Nicolas de la Salle, clerk and perform- 
 ing function of commissary of the marine. 
 
 (Signed) Davion, Bienville, Boisbriant, De la Salle. 
 
 Everything now again looked bright, and the census of this 
 year was promising. There were one hundred and eighty men 
 capable of bearing arms, twenty-seven French families with three 
 little girls and seven boys, and eleven young Indian slaves, — for 
 slavery had also taken root, copied from the Indians themselves.^ 
 The first Creole, that is native French, was Jean Fran(;ois, bap- 
 tized by Huve on the day of his birth, October 4, 1704. His 
 father was Jean Le Can (elsewhere spelled Le Camp),^ who was 
 a locksmith of the settlement, and his mother was Magdelaine 
 Robert, — for a wife is always, as here, called by her maiden 
 name. Later in the same month was born a son of Francois 
 Le May, but he died and was buried on the day of his birth. 
 The next recorded Creole is Jacque, in August of next year, son 
 of Jean Roy, master cannoneer (viaitre canonier'), and Rende 
 Guilbert his wife. The sponsors (^parain and maraine) were 
 Le Conte, master carpenter, and Gabrielle Savary, wife of 
 Saucie. Thence on such births, although not numerous, are 
 not uncommon. 
 
 The allotments of land had borne fruit. There were eighty 
 one-story thatched houses, and in this 1704 census are fourteen 
 cows, four bulls, five calves, and, while no horses appear, nine 
 oxen performed some of their duties. There were also one 
 hundred hogs, three kids, and four hundred chickens, according 
 to Bienville, carefully preserved " pour multiplication." ^ One 
 
 1 See Magne, MS. Notes, p. 1. 
 
 ' Thus in the Recensement, — Magne, MS. Notes, p. 103. 
 
 * Magne, MS. Notes, p. 104. 
 
INDUCTION OF LA VENTE 
 
BIENVILLE. 69 
 
 can somewhat understand that the merchandise sent out was to 
 be sold for royal account, but it seems odd to read that five of 
 the oxen and one bull belonged to the king. The baptismal 
 register credits him with a slave, too. Was he in the stock 
 business, or was some of the land that was cultivated near the 
 fort his private domain? Or perhaps this is the first instance 
 on our soil of advances, — Louis XIV. being the merchant ! 
 
 But the Pelican had touched at St. Domingo and brought 
 also yellow fever. What a visitation that for the little colony ! 
 Half the crew of the Pelican, thirty of the newly arrived sol- 
 diers. Father Douge, Le Vasseur, and, worst loss of all, Henri 
 de Tonty, died in that September of 1704. The site of the 
 cemetery has been lost, but we may imagine it in the woods 
 behind the little town. There in an unknown grave near the 
 Mobile River they laid the remains of Tonty, one of America's 
 great men, with sobbing pines to keep his vigil. The first 
 epidemic, — perhaps in proportion the most fatal. 
 
 An Indian war between Choctaws and Chickasaws now 
 began, but, fortunately, the enfeebled French were only anxious 
 spectators. Boisbriant and twenty Canadians were sent to 
 take through the Choctaw nation seventy odd Chickasaws who 
 happened to be at the fort. He shielded them as best he could, 
 but in one town, by a stratagem, the male Chickasaws were 
 murdered and the females enslaved. Boisbriant was himself 
 wounded accidentally, but was brought back to the fort by an 
 escort of three hundred Choctaws, "in mournful procession." 
 He recovered, however, and lived to do much service, for he 
 was a dashing cavalier. Not much later, a Lady Superior fell 
 in love with him, and became angry with Bienville because he 
 broke up their intended marriage. 
 
 There came now a concentration of the colonists. The fort 
 near the Mississippi mouth, which St. Denis had commanded 
 since Bienville was promoted on Sauvole's death, was finally 
 abandoned. Lack of supplies and the non-healthfulness of the 
 spot may have caused this, and, at all events, the troops were 
 withdrawn to Fort Louis. St. Denis, however, soon tired of 
 post life and withdrew to Biloxi, where he settled, — to stay 
 until other adventures, which we shall recount, called him to 
 new fields and pastures green. 
 
 Colonial life now fully centred at Fort Louis. 
 
CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 AFTER IBERVILLE'S DEATH. 
 
 Fort Louis had now been founded, influence obtained 
 among the Indians, the Mississippi valley guarded and in part 
 explored, and the future of Louisiana seemed assured, despite 
 temporary disasters like famine and fever. Wise perseverance 
 was all that was necessary. 
 
 And yet much depended upon the one man who was as influ- 
 ential at Versailles as on the Mobile. Affairs were always in 
 better condition when IberviUe was by young Bienville's side. 
 
 It was at this time that he came upon the Loire with the 
 ever needed supplies and oversaw for a while the affairs of his 
 colony. But it was as when one sets his house in order. His 
 health had been bad for some years, for the southern climate 
 had enfeebled his Canadian constitution. After his departure, 
 Bienville and all Louisiana received a rude shock in his death 
 at Havana, in 1706, of yellow fever. 
 
 With him died not so much his plans as the power to carry 
 them out. Bienville succeeded, but he stayed in America, and 
 did not, like IberviUe, visit Pontchartrain at Versailles and 
 give and take the enthusiasm that carried all before it. Bien- 
 ville had his brother's name and his own energy behind him. 
 The last was to be neutralized by dissension in the colony, the 
 other by time; but the greatest hindrance was the long war 
 of the Spanish Succession, when the generals of Louis unsuc- 
 cessfully contended with Eugene. and Marlborough in command 
 of allied Europe. France suffered many defeats, and her trea- 
 sury was too exhausted to take care of her colony. 
 
 On the removal of the man in whom all had confidence, the 
 colonists, too, became restless and factious, while the court 
 itself was indifferent if not suspicious. The great policy of 
 Iberville for wholesale rearrangement of Indians dropped out 
 of view, and what was actually accomplished was to maintain 
 
IBERVILLE 
 
AFTER IBERVILLE'S DEATH. 71 
 
 Mobile as a point of observation and influence, the port for a 
 large but ill-organized trade among the Gulf and Mississippi 
 River savages. A few interior trading-posts there were, but 
 for the present no other colonies, and the agricultural resources 
 of the country were almost entirely neglected. 
 
 The plan of royal colonial government provided that a com- 
 missary of marine, or commissaire ordonnateur, as he was some- 
 times called, had control of public property, and with the gov- 
 ernor attested public acts, such as grants. In 1704, Nicolas 
 de la Salle, whom we met at Massacre Island, is called secre- 
 tary (ecrivain\ performing the function of commissary of 
 marine. He was certainly active, but got on ill with Bien- 
 ville. From 1706, he constantly complains to the ministry at 
 home of the governor and those he deemed a clique of Cana- 
 dians. He said the governor was undignified, withheld sala- 
 ries, speculated in royal property, appropriated public funds, 
 and, in fact, was a grand rascal generally. 
 
 The cure La Vente joined this opposition, and it is possible 
 to understand his feeling without altogether sharing it. He 
 justly disapproved the profligacy of the men and the sale of 
 liquor to the savages.^ But violent opposition was not the way 
 to win them back or advance his cause. Bienville in his turn 
 accused the cure of keeping shop like a Jew, and of stirring up 
 the commissary against him. 
 
 It is impossible to doubt that part of the trouble arose from 
 Bienville's partiality for Jesuits. His father had been in their 
 employ, and the boy had been brought up with love for them. 
 He thought they made more sacrifices than the other clergy, 
 and, in 1706, had a mind to put in La Vente 's place Gravier, 
 the Jesuit who had been driven away wounded from the Illinois 
 flock.2 Gravier went to Paris to have the Illinois arrowhead 
 extracted from his arm, and on the way took occasion, in a 
 letter to France, by accident, as it were, to praise the location 
 of the colony, its management, and its governor.^ 
 
 Bienville was, perhaps, on more friendly terms with his 
 Spanish neighbors at Pensacola than with his commissary and 
 cure. But he frequently had to lend them provisions, some- 
 
 ^ Shea's Catholic Church in the Colonies, p. 551. 
 
 2 Ihid., p. 552. See Magne, MS. Notes, pp. 10, 112. 
 
 * King's Bienville, p. 156. 
 
72 COLONIAL MOBILE. 
 
 times when his own colony had little enough to spare. Peni- 
 caut tells us that on January 7, 1706, JSenor Guzman, governor 
 of Pensacola, came to spend four days at Mobile,^ and we 
 know that he was there also in 1709, for he attests the register 
 of a baptism then in a bold hand as "Dom Joseph de Guz- 
 man." On one of these occasions, if in fact they are not the 
 same (for Penicaut's dates are not always accurate), our chroni- 
 cler tells us that the Spaniard was received with salutes and 
 entertained in great state. He was godfather at a christening, 
 and at another time distributed Spanish money as largess with 
 no sparing hand. In his honor prisoners were released, and 
 at his departure powder was again lavishly used. 
 
 Bienville complains that his salary of twelve hundred livres 
 had to pay for such entertainments. There was always at 
 least a diplomatic quarrel, however, as to the boundaries of 
 the two colonies, even when Spain finally acknowledged the 
 de facto existence of the French at Mobile. The Spaniards 
 claimed to the east bank of the Mobile River, the French to 
 the Perdido, and this last prevailed. But probably to the 
 dispute we owe the naming of one branch of the Mobile (our 
 Tensaw), even on French maps, as Spanish River. 
 
 In 1706 there was again great dearth of provisions at Mo- 
 bile, and Penicaut tells us they lived by hunting, until in Feb- 
 ruary, 1707, the Eagle arrived under command of Bienville's 
 uncle, M. de Noyant, with supplies and dispatches. The vice 
 of the whole system was in not making the colony agricultural, 
 at least in part. On or near rich lands, the colonists yet had 
 periodic famines. The government retained Iberville's plan 
 of making the settlement commercial, but gave vip the Indian 
 diplomacy which would have made it pay, and did not encour- 
 age agricultural pursuits which would at least make the colony 
 self-sustaining. There were no regular grants of land, except 
 possibly the little town-lots, and of the eight oxen the king 
 owned half. No wonder the Canadians preferred the woods. 
 The annalist notes that there were too few horses for successful 
 farming. 
 
 Indeed, the census of next year shows none of these essen- 
 tial animals. As given by La Salle, there were one hun- 
 dred and twenty men in garrison, including the priests, and 
 ^ 6 French's Historical Collections, p. 98. 
 
AFTER IBERVILLE'S DEATH. 73 
 
 one hundred and fifty-seven colonists, besides sixty unattached 
 Canadians. The colonists consisted of twenty-four men, 
 twenty-eight women, twenty-five children, and eighty Indian 
 slaves. Of domestic animals there were fifty cows, four bulls, 
 fourteen hundred hogs, and two thousand chickens, forty calves 
 and eight oxen. There were two priests besides the cur^.^ 
 
 In this year, 1708, came an Indian war, which all but had 
 disastrous consequences. The Alibamons during these early 
 years, as we have seen, were frequently in arms against the 
 French, despite MiKort's legend that the French protected 
 them, and reconciled them with the Creeks after centuries of 
 war and wandering. The Cheraquis, Abecas, and Cadapouces 
 (Catawbas) from the northeast formed an alliance with the 
 Alibamons and descended the river four thousand warriors 
 strong. But two Mobilians who had married among them gave 
 warning, and the French were on their guard. Their courage 
 failed the invaders for some reason, too, and the army, which 
 could easily have driven the French into the sea, contented 
 themselves with burning cabanes of the Mobilian Indians six 
 leagues above Fox-t Louis, and then retired without attacking 
 the f ort.2 
 
 This was a formidable alliance, and Included nations away 
 east on the borders of the English colonies, Virginia and Caro- 
 lina. The Alibamons were the tribe of the Muscogee confed- 
 eracy furthest down the river, and thus most in contact with 
 Fort Louis, while the Abecas were the Creeks furthest up the 
 Coosa River, showing that the whole confederacy was aroused, 
 possibly by English influence.^ The Catawbas, also, are well 
 known. They inhabited the AUeghanies on what is now the 
 line between North and South Carolina, and were at this time 
 a powerful people. They were in constant hostilities with the 
 Iroquois, the Shenandoah Valley being the seat of the counter 
 raids ; but they and the Cherokees west of them were uniformly 
 allies of the English. There was early a trading-path from 
 Petersburg to the Catawbas and Cherokees, and we know 
 that the Tennessee River was a regular route of English traders 
 to the nations beyond. 
 
 1 King's Bienville, p. 176 ; Magne, MS. Notes, p. 11. 
 ' Penicaut, 5 Margry, Decouvertes, pp. 477, 478. 
 ^ Gatschet's Creek Migration Legend, p. 124. 
 
74 COLONIAL MOBILE. 
 
 This great army had melted away as those of the savages 
 always did after a short while, but the French did not let the 
 matter drop. Penicaut tells us that Chateaugu^, in an expe- 
 dition to the neighborhood of Pensacola, killed a number of 
 Alibamons, and captured nine warriors and brought them to 
 the fort. There their heads were broken {Von fit casser la teste), 
 a mode of execution employed by the French no less than by 
 the savages.^ 
 
 Diplomat and master as he was in Indian affairs, Bienville 
 was to suffer in France after Iberville's death. The accusations 
 of La Salle bore fruit at court, and on February 10, 1708, the 
 Renommee arrived at Massacre Island with royal orders for a 
 change in the administration. The new governor, De Muy, 
 had died at Havana on the way out, however, and so Bienville 
 was not, in fact, superseded. Diron D'Artaguette came as 
 the new commissary in La Salle's place, with instructions to 
 make full investigation and report, as well as change the 
 name of the place to something more stable than "Mobile." 
 For on the map of Delisle, in 1707, the old native name for 
 the waters had even been adopted officially.^ D'Artaguette, 
 in jest or earnest, actually suggested a change to Immohile, 
 but Pontchartrain to the contrary notwithstanding. Mobile it 
 has ever remained. D'Artaguette's (or Bienville's) change of 
 name of Massacre to Dauphine Island, however, was more 
 permanent,^ and, in order to secure better communication with 
 that port, D'Artaguette built, in 1709, a boat of sixty tons to 
 carry merchandise,^ perhaps due in part to the arrival there of 
 a vessel from Havana, which, the first Spanish boat ever on 
 that mission, came to bring provisions, brandy, and tobacco for 
 trade. 
 
 This year was also marked by a change of base of some 
 Choctaws. We are told that Choctaw refugees came to the 
 fort and Bienville settled them on Mobile Bay. They may 
 have fled from the Spaniards, as Penicaut says, for the Choc- 
 taws claimed territory as far east as the Escambia River, and 
 
 1 5 Margry, Decouvertes, pp. 478, 479 ; Gatschet, Creek Migration Legend^ 
 pp. 87, 225. 
 
 2 Scaife's America, p. 163. 
 
 ' King's Bienville, p. 184 ; 6 French's Historical Collection, p. 77. 
 * 5 Margry, Decouvertes, p. 481 ; 1 Martin's Louisiana, p. 169. 
 
AFTER IBERVILLE'S DEATH. 75 
 
 Bienville never lost an opportunity of ingratiating himself with 
 the savages. This immigration may have had some connection 
 with an expedition led by Bienville to aid Pensacola against an 
 attack by Alibamons and English. ^ An interesting feature of 
 this migration is that he put them below his fort, and on the 
 site of the present Mobile. It may be conjectured, however, 
 that it was near our Frascati, for it was on the bay, and the 
 marshy cape near there between river and bay has from French 
 times borne the name of Choctaw Point. 
 
 The irregularity of supplies after Iberville's death had ham- 
 pered attempts at a colonial forward movement, and yet some- 
 thing had been done. The Alibamons were at least kept at bay, 
 the many Choctaws were friendly, and the nations immediately 
 near the fort devoted to the French. The abortive expedition 
 from the east showed that the French name was already known 
 and feared as far as the mountains of Carolina. The Missis- 
 sippi, too, was secure for French traders, and knowledge of 
 the valley was growing. Slaves at the fort were from tribes 
 on and even beyond the great river, and thus indicate distant 
 expeditions; and in 1708 there was even talk among the officers 
 of exploring that great tributary which we call the Missouri. 
 The trade in skins and furs was already a growing one. Prob- 
 ably every ship that came to Dauphine Island took away 
 peltries, and that port itself was of value. It was soon to be 
 important enough to need both church and fort of its own. 
 Louisiana was not a failure. 
 ^ Gatschet, Creek Migration Legend, p. 76 ; 1 Martin's Louisiana, p. 169. 
 
CHAPTER IX. 
 
 LIFE AT THE OLD FORT. 
 
 Unknown to almost all but their immediate custodians, 
 there lie, in the residence of the Catholic bishop of Mobile, 
 some old books covered with cloth and marked, "Baptisma." 
 OiJening the first, 1704 to 1778, one sees that it is made of a 
 number of thin volumes, like ledger indices, bound together. 
 The entries are in French and brief, giving little more than 
 baptisms, and are in different handwritings. Some of the 
 hands are very indifferent, too, the spelling archaic and often 
 incorrect, the paper poor and blotted. It is just such a book 
 as one would think fit for the fire. 
 
 Looked at with the eye of an historian, however, what a 
 treasure do we find ! Here are the church records of the first 
 permanent settlement of the Gulf coast, the French Louisiana, 
 with signatures of many of its leaders, and side lights on their 
 lives. 
 
 Here, for instance, is the signature of Pdre Davion, the 
 gentle but heroic missionary to the Tunicas, who had joined 
 Bienville at Biloxi. As missionah^e apostolique he officiated 
 at the settlement on Mobile River, as we have seen, until 1704. 
 
 Davion baptized after that, too, but as before he only signs, 
 never writing the entry in full. His signature is in back hand, 
 not unlike that of Treasurer Spinner of our own times. La 
 Vente has an illegible monogram or series of flourishes about 
 the initial " R " of his name. He alternates with Alexandre 
 Huve as cure in the entries until 1710, when La Vente's 
 name occurs no more. Nothing indicative of dissension be- 
 tween cure and governor is found in this register. Huve (or 
 "Huue " as he has it) all but prints his letters, and his entries, 
 which are found as late as 1721, are easy to read. His first 
 name is always distinct, but he runs together the letters of the 
 second. 
 
LIFE AT THE OLD FORT. 77 
 
 Let us investigate the credentials of these clergymen. 
 
 Until 1722 Mobile's ecclesiastical history is connected with 
 that of Canada, for Louisiana was part of the diocese of J. B. 
 de la Croix, commonly called St. Vallier, the second bishop 
 of Quebec. He ruled from 1688 to 1727, and to his strict dis- 
 cipline, requiring registers, etc., we no doubt owe our Mobile 
 chronicle. 
 
 Gravier succeeded his fellow Jesuit, AUouez, when that mis- 
 sionary to the Illinois died in 1689, and St. Vallier at first 
 constituted the superiors of that order his vicars-general in 
 those parts. But afterwards, despite Jesuit protests, he made 
 the superior of the Seminary of Quebec his vicar-general for 
 the banks of the Mississippi. 
 
 The first priest, a missionary of this seminary, was, as we 
 have seen, Henri Roulleaux de la Vente, of Bayeux, with a 
 salary of one thousand livres, and his curate was Alexandre 
 Huve, whose salary was six hundred. Gravier was in Mobile 
 in 1706 and 1708, but has no entries. F. Le Maire signs an 
 entry there on January 30, 1708, as priest and apostolic mis- 
 sionary, and his small, close hand occurs at intervals for sev- 
 eral years. He had resigned a parish charge in France and 
 come out at the instigation of Gervaise, a wealthy young priest, 
 who piously wished to found a chapel. Gervaise, indeed, sent 
 out three years' provisions and workmen to build a house and 
 chapel; but when on the point of sailing himself with Le 
 Maire, was restrained of his liberty through the influence of an 
 uncle. Doubtless to Gervaise, then, was due the most com- 
 modious residence for the priests, built in 1707 on an eminence 
 to the left of old Fort Louis. Le Maire was friendly to 
 Bienville. Huve, who had come over in the Pelican in 1704, 
 was not really the Mobile pastor. He was missionary to the 
 Apalaches, and chaplain at the Dauphine Island church, where 
 he ahnost lost his life in the English attack. He, too, was 
 to go to the Mississippi when that began to be settled, but, 
 shocked with the levity of his countrymen, went to preach 
 to the Indians. He finally returned to France, almost blind, 
 in 1727. 
 
 There is a delightful absence of the restraints of orthogra- 
 phy, rules of capitalizing, and everything else in these pages, 
 and the side lights on people and place when Mobile was capi- 
 
78 COLONIAL MOBILE. 
 
 tal of half a continent are full of interest. It is a relief, a 
 positive pleasure, to turn from the quarrels of leaders, which 
 will much engage our attention, to study the private life of 
 the settlement. On this we have a good deal of information 
 from this church baptismal register. The marriage and death 
 records begin later, but the register preserved often gives rank 
 and occupation of parents and sponsors. 
 
 An interesting feature about this old Mobile register is that 
 frequently the baptism is lay (ondoyer), perhaps by the mid- 
 wife, in case of danger, although the priest afterwards supplies 
 the usual church ceremonies, if time permits. Indians, too, are 
 often baptized conditionally (sous condition). 
 
 The first thing that attracts notice, after baptism by Davion 
 of the little Apalache before La Vente's arrival, is the preva- 
 lence of Indian slavery. On the 18th of September, and thus 
 before his induction, La Vente baptized a little savage slave of 
 ten to twelve years, living at the house of Poudrie. The child 
 was extremely ill, and, in fact, died and was buried on the 
 same day. Huve the next day baptized one of thirteen or 
 fourteen who had been living in the colony for a year and 
 belonged to La Vigne. On the first of October were baptized 
 two other slave children, belonging the one to M. de Cha- 
 teauguay, the other to Minet, and towards the end of the month 
 another of Chateauguay that died three days later. And thus 
 it runs through the whole period. Many colonists, from Bien- 
 ville and Manteville and the missionaries down, had Indian 
 slaves, of whom not a few were only from one to three years 
 old. Of course, to these, removed from their homes, death 
 came often. Boutin had one of two months from the Tensas 
 in 1708. Why they should have been taken so young it is 
 difiicult to understand, unless with the view of training them 
 in the French interest. The king owned such slaves also, but 
 his were adults. Sometimes they were given names, — witness 
 Hypolite in 1707, slave of M. Poudrie. The nationality is not 
 often mentioned, except Schittimacha from 1708 and 1709, 
 and from the latter year an occasional Alibamon and Tensa. 
 In 1710 was baptized Alexandre, a Padoka (Comanche) slave 
 of the priests of Fort Louis. A Natchitoche and a Chicacha 
 are also mentioned. 
 
 The Indians themselves held slaves. The chief of the Apa- 
 
LIFE AT THE OLD FORT. 79 
 
 laches in 1710 had his Paniouacha slave of three years baptized 
 as Marie Susanne. The Apalaehes we know were Christians, 
 and their names occur often in the records. 
 
 Negroes were not numerous at old Fort Louis, but there 
 were some. The first mentioned was a little seven-year-old 
 slave of Bienville in 1707, named Jean Baptiste, but where he 
 came from is not stated. Bienville had another of three years, 
 baptized the same year as Joseph. Chateauguay had a negro 
 named Francois Jacemin, who the same year was declared to 
 be the father of Anthoine, born October 26, of Bienville's 
 negro woman Marie. This is the first recorded birth of a 
 negro on the GuK coast, although these other children may 
 have been born here. Marie stood godmother later for Marie, 
 a Sitimacha slave of Bienville. The names are sometimes odd. 
 Once a man is Bon Tems, and another is Vin d'Espagne. 
 
 Generally it is not stated whether a slave is Indian or negro, 
 but, as the records are often precise as to degree of negro 
 blood, it is to be supposed the slave is Indian unless otherwise 
 given. The importation of negroes in quantity began some 
 years later. 
 
 We find named only one mulatto child, Marie Anne, belong- 
 ing to Sieur La Tour. As she was eleven in 1710, she was 
 not born at Fort Louis, however. Of mixed Indian and white 
 blood (mestifs in the later registers), there were hardly more. 
 Sieur Charli, merchant, admits he had a child in 1709 by an 
 Indian slave. Huv^ mentions one, Jean Baptiste, with bated 
 breath, July 26, 1710. It was a child of an Indian female of 
 Sieur D'Arbanne and the cure adds, "Cujus filius non tantum 
 rumore publico habetur, sed et ratione spontanea matris." The 
 church did not sanction marriages with Indians, but we shall 
 see such unions in later years, and find them even in the church 
 records called mariages iiaturels. 
 
 Of the occupations recorded, the military would naturally 
 rank first in importance. Chateauguay is early spoken of as 
 captain, Blondel as ensign in his company, Valentin Bareau as 
 surgeon major, and besides Roy we have, in 1707, Jean Louis 
 Minuit, and in 1711, Jean Louis, as master cannoneers. Simon 
 de la Salle was a cadet of the company Vaulesar in 1708, and 
 Bernard Diron of Chateauguay 's company the next year. Jean 
 Colon was the sergeant of Chateauguay 's company, and La 
 
80 COLONIAL MOBILE. 
 
 Violette is later mentioned as also a sergeant. Michel Danti 
 is named as a private soldier. 
 
 Rene Doyer and Jean Bon are maitres arquebusiers, gun- 
 smiths, — an important trade and semi-military. Doyer could 
 not write. Plardly less important was the occupation of master 
 pilot, which was Simon Coussot's business, and that of tool 
 sharpener (maUre taillandier), which was Pierre Alein's and 
 also Philippe La Briere's somewhat later. Jean Le Can we 
 find in 1709 spelled Jean Le Camp as a locksmith, and in the 
 same year Sieur Boie as armorer. 
 
 In a semi-official capacity we see from 1707 M. Poirier 
 named as keeper of the royal stores (garde magasin), an im- 
 portant position in a colony which depended on the home coun- 
 try for almost everything. Jean Claude Poirier was a mer- 
 chant in 1716. We find early mentions of Les Soeurs and 
 their house, and March 29, 1710, they are named as Soeurs 
 Grissot and Linand. Elsewhere we find mention of Marie 
 Linant, certainly the same, but it seems improbable that Soeur 
 Grissot should be the Marie Grisot, midwife, named in 1708. 
 It may be conjectured that they are the two "Soeurs Crises" 
 (gray nuns) who chaperoned across the ocean the marriageable 
 girls who came on the Pelican. Was it one of these two that 
 wanted to marry Boisbriant? 
 
 Among the purely civil avocations, tradesmen {marchands) 
 easily lead in number. The first named as such is Jacques 
 L'Allemand in 1707, although Gabriel Savary, wife of J. B. 
 Saucie, is mentioned in 1705, and we learn in 1708 that he 
 was also merchant. In the same year Gme. Boutin is de- 
 scribed by Le Maire as marchand a la Mobile. The wives of 
 merchants are also named. Boutin's wife, for instance, was 
 Louise Marguerite Housseau. It was at the baptism of their 
 child that the Pensacola governor Guzman signed his name 
 with so many flourishes. J. B. La Loire is a rtiaTchand., and 
 his wife's name is also given, — Marie Nadaut. Francois 
 Trudaut is often named, and his wife also, Jeanne Burelle. 
 
 La Tour is a Sieur, but is marchand., too, in 1710, as also 
 Claude Trepanier, whose wife was Genevieve Burelle. Mr. 
 Joseph de Lery was another in that same year; his wife, 
 Hippolite Mercier. 
 
 There were, however, other trades. The constant complaint 
 
LIFE AT THE OLD FORT. 81 
 
 was of lack of meclianics, but we find at least several carpen- 
 ters. Le Conte was a maitre charpentier in 1705, and in 1707 
 we find Jean Prot another, a man of family, although he could 
 not write. It was not by any means every person who could 
 in those days. Next year we find as carpenters FrauQois 
 Trudault, a married man, and Andre Penegault also. This 
 last name sounds like Penicaut, our literary friend, but the 
 master carpenter was a married man, while the author probably 
 was not at that time, from the adventures he described. This 
 lady was Marie Prevot. It might be added, too, that if Andre 
 had written a book as badly as he did his name, it never could 
 have been decijjhered. 
 
 Cabinet maker (maitre menuisier) is the only other trade 
 named, and there is but one in that business, Jean Alexandre. 
 Of course the fact that it is not given in these defective regis- 
 ters is no certain evidence a business did not exist; but this 
 fact probably shows at least that the man was not of family 
 and not popular. 
 
 Many residents Qiahitants) are mentioned, but they would 
 be mere names to us. The Le Sueurs, however, may be spoken 
 of. Mile. Marie Le Sueur and her mother Le Messier, the 
 widow Le Sueur, are often sponsors. Marie could not write. 
 The widow had also a son, Jean Paul, whom we shall know. 
 All of course owned slaves, — who did not, indeed, that had 
 the means? 
 
 Signatures of well-known men are there as witnesses to bap- 
 tisms, for father signs, and godfather and godmother, as well 
 as the priest. The induction of La Vente in 1704 is attested 
 by the clear hand and flourish of Bienville, lieutenant of the 
 king, the cramped signature of Major Boisbriant, and "De la 
 Sail." Poor Nicolas de la Salle! He was removed from 
 office in 1708, and in March of that year an infant of his was 
 baptized, and another on August 24, 1709; but the record 
 notes the burial of the latter in the parish cemetery six days 
 later. On May 18 is the striking signature of Philippe Blon- 
 del, later commandant at Natchitoches. He stood godfather 
 for the child of a cannoneer. The free hand and bold flour- 
 ish of Chateaugue, — spelled by the priests Chateauguay, like 
 the domain in Canada, — occurs several times. 
 
 Naval stores are not named, but existing tar kilns, over- 
 
82 COLONIAL MOBILE. 
 
 grown with large trees, testify to this industry near there dur- 
 ing French times. Whether the sawmill and tannery planned 
 by Iberville were established, we do not know, but Sawmill 
 Creek not many miles away had that name at least long before 
 the American period. Hunters are not named, for probably 
 all hunted, and of the French names of places given, at least 
 one indicating a hunt has survived. Just behind Twenty-one 
 Mile Bluff is a corner or low ground still bearing the name 
 of "Fondlou," — Creole for Fond de I'Ours, Bear Ground. 
 Somewhat lower, Bayou Conner is a corruption of Bayou 
 Canon, named, it is said, from cannon thrown overboard in 
 some expedition, on account of low water or otherwise, while 
 across the river Bayou Registe commemorates some forgotten 
 Frenchman. 
 
 Such were some of the people and their occupations at the 
 " vieux fort " on Mobile River. Where pass steamboats loaded 
 the one way with provisions and for the return trip with hun- 
 dreds of cotton bales from the upper rivers, then sailed Iber- 
 ville and his compeers, pioneers and gentlemen of France. 
 From those now neglected shores looked out men and women 
 like ourselves, founding indeed an empire for Louis XIV., but 
 often amid hunger and danger, sometimes yearning for beau- 
 tiful France and straining the eye to catch the first glimpse of 
 the boats from Dauphine Island, coming from the Loire, or 
 other vessel expected from the old home. There, on the land 
 where now grow pines, and where the silence is unbroken except 
 by the distant locomotive or passing steamer, was the town 
 clustering about Fort Louis, in streets and lots, where civil 
 life began with its joys and sorrows, lights and shadows, private 
 loves and public enmities, almost two hundred years ago, never 
 to cease forever, despite change of site, of flag, and of race. 
 
CHAPTER X. 
 
 THE GREAT CHANGE OF BASE. 
 
 The beginnings of a town are always full of interest. In 
 many cases they go back even to mythology. There is one thing 
 common to all, old or new, — the need of a special industry, 
 varying with natural advantages or other reasons, to be the 
 cause or mainstay of the settlement. It generally consists iii 
 the handling of agricultural, mineral, or manufacturing products, 
 and thus the usual site of a town is either where a river enters 
 the ocean, on the divide or portage between two river basins, or, 
 later, where highways cross. It is in any case the place where 
 goods are assembled for exchange or distribution. There will 
 also be a district of the homes, and in modern times there is an 
 intermediate division between the productive and residence sec- 
 tions in shape of stores, banks, and other incidents of trade. In 
 establishing Mobile at Twenty-seven Mile Bluff the French aimed 
 at a place of exchange of European manufactures for native raw 
 material, such as furs, hides, and the like, as well as at forming a 
 seat of government for the vast empire which they were seeking 
 to establish. Just as where nerves crossing make a ganglion, 
 there comes in cities a new life, more intense, with features all 
 its own. A town is different from a village in qualities even 
 more than in size. 
 
 Mobile had some especial features of its own. The first mod- 
 ern American city was built on the Mobile at Twenty-seven Mile 
 Bluff. Modern, because it was not surrounded with a wall like 
 the towns of Europe, or like Quebec and Charleston in America. 
 The new town was not upon an island, as were the French 
 Charlesfort and Montreal, the British Jamestown, or the Dutch 
 New Amsterdam. It marked a new epoch in town-making. It 
 was founded on such friendship with the natives that it was not 
 necessary to buy the land, as had been done at Philadelphia and 
 was to be done by another philanthropist at Savannah. There 
 
84 COLONIAL MOBILE. 
 
 was a Fort Louis, but it was only for protection against Euro- 
 peans. The town was not like those of Europe, which sprang 
 from fairs held at portages between river systems and attracted 
 population for trade, but was something like the Venetian fac- 
 tories in barbarous lands. Those of the French and British in 
 civilized India were hardly similar. Mobile was a commercial 
 centre like early Quebec. It was ever the seat of Indian trade 
 and policy. 
 
 The buildings were not imposing. They were almost all of wood 
 or of wooden frames filled in with plaster made from the native 
 shell lime. There was a brick yard, and some structures may 
 have been brick, but this material was principally used for foun- 
 dations. The doors as well as the shutters were of wood, and a 
 peculiarity of the house architecture was that the roof sloped to 
 the front and to the rear, with a sheltering eave projecting which 
 developed into what the Creoles have called the gallery. The 
 roof at first was made of straw, or leaves called latanier, although 
 in course of time tiles came to be more generally used, and the 
 brick or clay chimneys were at the gable ends. The streets were 
 laid out regularly, parallel and perpendicular with the river, on 
 the slope north of the fort, and there came to be an important 
 settlement. 
 
 Several hundred arpents about the town were cleared and cul- 
 tivated, but the French were in a new land, and did not under- 
 stand at first the soil or climate. They tried plants which were 
 not suited to the country, making, for instance, special efforts to 
 raise wheat. Indian corn or maize they found it easier to pur- 
 chase from the natives than raise themselves, but ultimately they 
 settled down to the cultivation of corn and native vegetables. 
 
 The city was meant to be a French capital and to control the 
 Indians, and its harbor was the unfortified Port Dauphin, at the 
 east end of Dauphine Island. Bienville often urged that this 
 post be fortified, but the French government had all it could at- 
 tend to at home. As the war progressed the English came into 
 control of the ocean, and often months, sometimes years, passed 
 without supplies from France. Bienville had to borrow food and 
 even powder from the ungracious Spaniards of Pensacola, Vera 
 Cruz, and Havana. 
 
 In 1710 Bienville disposed his unmarried colonists among the 
 savages. Lieutenant Blondel went with thirty soldiers to live 
 

 
 
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THE GREAT CHANGE OF BASE. 85 
 
 among the Choctaws, and Sieur de Valligny (or Walligny) with 
 his twenty-five French, recently arrived on the Renomm^e, and 
 eight Apalaches departed to Fish River across the bay, — the 
 first mention of the stream. This was not a quartering of soldiers 
 on the natives, for Penicaut's account shows that the Indians, es- 
 pecially the young women, enjoyed it as much as the French. It 
 was really a stroke of policy.^ 
 
 Two events occurred that materially affected the fate of the 
 colony. The one was the descent of English freebooters from 
 Jamaica, who attacked and burned the settlement on Dauphine 
 Island, reducing the people to absolute poverty. This fulfilled 
 Bienville's prophecy. The French in the fort on the river knew 
 nothing of this event for four days, and in the mean time the free- 
 booters escaped, apparently without damage. As if this was not 
 enough, there came in the early spring an almost unprecedented 
 river flood, lasting a month, which drowned out not only the In- 
 dian crops but the French town. Something of this sort had 
 occurred four years before, and of course it might happen again. 
 The habitants asked for a change of site. 
 
 Bienville therefore selected, doubtless with the assent of 
 D'Artaguette, who was friendly to him, the land which he had 
 given the fugitive Choctaws, and he determined to build there 
 his new Fort Louis. This is the site of the present Mobile. The 
 Choctaws he removed to Dog River, and directed Aide-Major 
 Pailloux and other officers to mark out a place for the new fort 
 and barracks, and land for each family. The city lots should be 
 twelve and a half by twenty-five toises, say seventy-five by one 
 hundred and fifty feet each, and the priests were given a square 
 to the left, facing the " sea," for the church. Such is the ac- 
 count of Penicaut,who was on the spot.^ Effects and merchan- 
 dise were brought down in canoes, the cannon and munitions by 
 floats. The inhabitants we're all moved, and the old fort and the 
 cimetiere where Tonty lay abandoned entirely.^ This was followed 
 by migration of their old Indian neighbors, too, and the new city 
 was to have surroundings of the old. A new feature, however, 
 was in having two batteries outside the fort, of twelve cannon 
 
 1 King's Bienville, pp. 179, 205 ; 5 Margry, Decouvertes, p. 485. Cf. p. 
 443, etc. 
 
 2 5 Margry, Decouvertes, pp. 481, 482. 
 
 3 Ibid., pp. 484, 485. 
 
86 COLONIAL MOBILE. 
 
 each. As these commanded the sea, we may imagine that, unless 
 they were just without the fort, — as is probable from Dumont's 
 later mention of half moons, — one perhaps was at Choctaw 
 Point and the other on the higher land at Royal and St. Louis 
 Streets, — afterwards called Round Top. 
 
 The original Mobile had been founded under the direct aus- 
 pices of Louis XIV. It is the only city in America which can 
 claim so distinguished an origin. The new city was the old on 
 a new site, but had the additional feature of being built by the 
 Franco- Americans, in order to meet new conditions, and not un- 
 der directions from France. This was done at a time of so much 
 distress that one might suppose it marked a step backward ; but 
 in point of fact it proved an advance in all respects. It preserved 
 the plan of Louis XIV. ; it was done on the initiative of Bien- 
 ville. The form, houses, streets, and inhabitants of this second 
 Mobile will well repay study. It was not only a great capital in 
 its day, but it became the nucleus of a lasting American city. 
 
 Excepting St. Augustine it was the oldest Latin town to the 
 eastward of New Spain (Mexico), and indeed the transitory 
 settlement by Tristan de Luna across Mobile Bay even ante- 
 dated St. Augustine. It was not unlike the first Fort Louis, of 
 which it was a continuation. It was the old fort and city put on 
 boats and moved to the mouth of the river, keeping the same in- 
 habitants, streets, and surroundings. 
 
 The plan of the town was drawn by Sieur Cheuillot,^ and the 
 script at the side gives a full description of the settlement. It 
 is only necessary to remember that the toise is a measure of six 
 French feet, and that a French foot contains 12.78933 English 
 inches.2 The " description of the city and of Fort Louis " is as 
 follows : — 
 
 " A. Fort Louis, fortified with an exterior length from one point of 
 bastion to another of 90 toises, and with this length they have given to 
 the faces of the bastion 23| toises, to flanks 12^, to gorges 5 toises, and 
 to the curtains 40 toises. 
 
 " The fort is constructed of cedar stakes 13 ft. high, of which 2^ 
 
 1 Photographed by the courtesy of the French Minister of Marine in 1895. 
 Up to that time the plat had never been published, and in fact, until the 
 author's researches, had been forgotten. 
 
 * Public Lands (1838), p. 715. For French text, see Appendix. 
 
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 M OBILE 
 
THE GREAT CHANGE OF BASE. 87 
 
 are in the ground, and 14 inches square de paisseur, planted joined 
 the one to the other. These stakes end on top in points like palisades. 
 On the inside along the stakes runs a kind of banquette in good slope, 
 two feet high and one and a half wide. 
 
 " There is in the fort only the governor's house, the magasin where 
 are the king's effects, and a guard-house. The officers, soldiers, and 
 residents have their abode outside the fort, as is indicated, being placed 
 in such manner that the streets are six toises wide and all parallel. 
 The blocks are 50 toises square except those opposite the fort, which 
 are 60 toises wide and 50 deep, and those nearest the river, which are 
 50 toises wide and 60 deep. 
 
 " The houses are constructed of cedar and pine upon a foundation 
 of wooden stakes which project out of the ground one foot and might 
 be called piling, because this soil is inundated, as you see marked on 
 the plan, in certain localities, in times of rain. Some people use to 
 support their houses stone which is a kind of turf {tufle), very soft, 
 and would be admirable for fine buildings. This stone is found 18 
 leagues above the new establishment along the bank of the Mobile 
 river. The houses are 18, 20 to 25 feet high or more, some lower, 
 constructed of a kind of plaster (mortie) made of earth and lime. 
 
 " Note : — This lime is made of oyster shell found at the mouth of 
 the river on little islands which bear that name. 
 
 " They give to all who wish to settle in this place land 12|^ toises 
 wide, facing a street, by 25 deep. 
 
 " The stone used to support the houses is scarce and not common 
 for lack of the means of water transportation, such as flat-boats, which 
 do not exist, nor are there persons who wish to go to the expense [of 
 buUding them]. This would be a great aid, for those whose houses 
 rest only on wooden stakes are obliged to renew them every three or 
 four years, because they decay in the ground." 
 
 The lettering connected with the fort is thus given in the 
 margin of the map : — 
 
 " B. House of the governor, C. Warehouse {magasin) of the king, 
 D. Poudriere or powder magazine, E. Guard-house {Corp de Garde), 
 F. Prison, G. Bastion where they place the flag, H. Bastion in which 
 is a bell {cloche), there being no chapelle in the fort." 
 
 At the top of the plan is the heading, "Names of Officers 
 and Principal Inhabitants who Occupy the Sites {emplacements) 
 of this New Establishment Indicated by Letters of the Alpha- 
 bet," and with that guide the plan is very interesting. 
 
 We read: "I. Church and parish (L''eglise et paroisse)^'^ but 
 
88 COLONIAL MOBILE. 
 
 there is no "I" on the plan. There are a number of unlet- 
 tered lots, and a building, unmarked, to the north of the fort, 
 not to mention twenty-eight squares projected, quite in modern 
 American style, through the piney woods {Pinierre). We 
 know that in 1713 Remonville was to find it expedient to build 
 a church for the colony,^ it may be on the lot of the Seminary 
 priests. So that any building in 1711 must have been only 
 temporary. It would seem probable that, even if temporary, 
 the unmarked building by the fort is the parish church, for it 
 is in a central place, convenient to garrison and inhabitants, 
 as near the bell as the swampy ground admitted, and separated 
 from the residence of the Seminary priests (V) only by that 
 of M. de Grandville (z), and from the cemetery (R) only by 
 that of M. de Bois Brillant (&). It seems to have been 
 Bienville's policy in this arrangement to have the prominent 
 officers live around the fort. He himself had a whole square 
 (X) next south, — probably that afterwards occupied by the 
 Eslavas on Eoyal, extending from our Theatre to Monroe 
 streets, and as far west as St. Emanuel. Near the northeast 
 corner of this square is (Q) " a little moat made to carry off 
 water," emptying into the river, and itself with a bridge. 
 
 On the two blocks west of the fort we find, beginning at the 
 south, (h) M. de Clos, ordonnateur, (q) one of the several 
 places marked as occupied by inhabitants and voyageurs, (m) 
 Jean Louis, mattre cainonier, and on a corner (e) the cele- 
 brated M. de St. Denis. As we shall see, streets have been 
 much changed since then, but this paladin must have lived 
 near the west side of St. Emanuel, about the middle of the 
 block running south from our Church Street. Next north of 
 St. Denis, separated by a street, was (c) M. de Valligny, then 
 (z) M. de Grandville's second and smaller lot, — for he had a 
 larger one, where he more probably lived. 
 
 Next north of GrandviUe's smaller lot, and, like all others 
 about the fort, facing on what seems to be a double row of 
 oaks around the esplanade, comes (cS;) our friend M. de Bois- 
 brillant (or Boisbriant), occupying the whole southwest corner 
 of the streets as then platted, — now more likely the site of 
 Christ Church. Back of him on our Conception was (R) the 
 cemetery, and the rest of that block was occupied by (S) sol- 
 1 King's Bienville, p. 195. 
 
THE GREAT CHANGE OF BASE. 89 
 
 diers, — as were the whole of the two cleared westernmost 
 squares of the city, where they were perhaps thought of as a 
 protection on that side. 
 
 On the corner across the street from Boisbriant was (g) M. 
 des Laurier, chirurgien major, and at the north end of his 
 block, near our southwest St. Emanuel and Conti, are (p) 
 people in the pay of the king, and then going north a block of 
 (S) soldiers again, and back of them about our Conception and 
 Dauphin (L) the hospital, near where it will be found in 
 Spanish times. 
 
 The Seminary priests, then, were about Royal and Conti, 
 and across what corresponded to Conti we find (y) M. de Cha- 
 teaugue, Bienville's brother, and one of the most active and 
 famous Mobilians. Next north of him came (1) Sieur Poirrier, 
 "Garde magasin du Roy." Near the north end of town, — 
 which was about our St. Louis Street, — was (f) M. de St. 
 Helesne, Bienville's younger brother, but rather a scapegrace. 
 However, he may have been put near the north end of town 
 to protect it. Not far off, about the northeast corner of Bien- 
 ville Square, was (b) M. Blondel. This completes the list of 
 notabilities north of the fort. The others are called employees 
 or inhabitants, without names. 
 
 South were fewer people, although eight squares are laid off 
 there, as in the other direction. About our Madison, between 
 Royal and St. Emanuel was (a) M. de Mandeville, and next 
 east of him, facing on Royal, was (T) the "logement des 
 prestres." These must have been the Jesuits Bienville favored, 
 placed here with Bienville, Grandville, and the whole fort be- 
 tween them and the Seminary priests. Across the street north 
 was (d) M. de Paillou, the accomplished engineer who laid off 
 Mobile, and was to design other cities, too. This plan, how- 
 ever, is marked as "Levez & Dessignez par le Sr. Cheuillot," 
 — otherwise unknown, but for this valuable document worthy 
 of being held in lasting honor. 
 
 No explanation is given for lot (r). The other lots so far as 
 marked belong mostly to (p), who as we have seen are royal 
 employees of different kinds, or (q) inhabitants and voyageiirs. 
 There is one curious exception. South of the fort, across west 
 from Bienville, next to Dr. des Laurier, in the midst of the 
 soldiers at the intersection of our Dauphin and St, Emanuel, 
 
90 COLONIAL MOBILE. 
 
 and, in particular, over the rear third of the square occupied 
 in front by Grandville and the Seminary priests, occur lots 
 with the letter (n). On the explanation we have only, "Em- 
 placement occupees par plusieurs femmes." 
 
 Other signs are on the chart. The river bank south of the 
 fort is noted as (M) "marshy land, which occurs sometimes," 
 and (P) is a wooden bridge serving as a wharf {embarquadere\ 
 extending obliquely across the marshy land at the northeast 
 corner of the fort, say between Government and Church 
 streets, to deep water. East of the river are noted (o) banks 
 of sand, while on what is now Pinto's Island two pine-trees are 
 represented. 
 
 Among the curious features of this map is the location of 
 the fort. It extends much further east than the residences, 
 and on all sides is surrounded by marshy land. Even if the 
 interior was filled and raised, the surroundings would make the 
 place unhealthful. This seems strange, when we reflect that 
 the move from the older site was on account of overflows of the 
 river. But it is to be remembered that there was a town as 
 well as a fort, and that the garrison lived outside in houses, 
 only the guard on duty having actual quarters inside. 
 
 Another odd thing is that no names are annexed even to the 
 twelve dedicated streets, and such is the case with later maps, 
 also. There can be no doubt, however, that this was the time 
 when the streets were named. At this period were distin- 
 guished the family of Conti, who were of royal blood, being 
 descendants of a brother of the great general Conde, who died 
 universally lamented in 1686. Says Voltaire, "The first 
 Prince de Conti, Armand, was brother of the great Conde. 
 He played a part in the war of the Fronde, and died in 1666. 
 He left by Anne Martinozzi, niece of Cardinal Mazarin, Louis, 
 died in 1685, without issue by his wife Marie Anne, daughter 
 of Louis XIV. and the Duchess de la Valliere, and left also 
 Francois Louis, Prince de la Roche-sur-Yon, then Prince de 
 Conti, who was elected king of Poland in 1697 ; a prince whose 
 memory has long been dear to France, resembling as he did 
 the great Conde in brightness (esprif) and courage, and always 
 animated with the desire to please, a quality lacking sometimes 
 in the great Conde. He died in 1709." i 
 
 » Voltaire, Louis XIV., p. 476, Firmin-Didot ed., 1891. 
 
THE GREAT CHANGE OF BASE. 91 
 
 For this prince, doubtless, patron of La Salle and of Tonty, 
 was Conti Street named, important avenue as it then was. 
 In 1711, this Conti, it is true, was dead, but he had a son, 
 born in 1695, then alive, who outlived Louis XIV. 
 
 Parallel to Conti was Dauphin Street. The son of the king, 
 the heir apparent, was called "dauphin," his wife "dauphine." 
 The street and the island were probably named in 1711. 
 Who were the pair at that time? 
 
 Louis XIV. lived with a number of women at one time or 
 other, notably the Duchess de la Valliere, Mme. de Monte- 
 span, and Mme. de Maintenon whom he married late in life; 
 but his only queen was Marie Therdse of Austria, born 1638, 
 married 1660, died 1683. Louis and she had but one child, 
 the dauphin Louis, born 1661, died April 14, 1711. Of him, 
 called Monseigneur, it was said, — " Son of a king, father of 
 a king, king himself never." Not knowing exactly when the 
 names were given, for they might well have been brought 
 with the settlement from up the river, we cannot say the name 
 of our shopping street was not for this prince, distinguished 
 only for scandal. But remembering that it would take some 
 time to settle down, it seems more probable the name is for 
 the eldest son of Monseigneur and his wife, Marie Anne Chris- 
 tine Victoire of Bavaria. 
 
 This Louis, called Dul^e of Burgundy, was born in 1682, and 
 his wife, the dauphine after April 14, 1711, was Marie Ade- 
 laide of Savoy, daughter of the first king of Sardinia. This 
 dauphine, according to Voltaire, was well educated, just, peace- 
 able, enemy of vainglory, a worthy pupil of Beauvilliers and 
 the celebrated Fenelon.^ For them, then, were our street and 
 island named. 
 
 The closing years of Louis XIV. were marked by private 
 grief as well as public disaster, and 1712 brought home losses 
 which humbled even the great king in the dust. Nemesis it 
 may be, but one cannot help pitying the man. In that year 
 died Louis, the seven-year old child of this dauphin, then Feb- 
 ruary 12 the loved dauphine, and six days later, of smallpox, 
 the amiable dauphin himself, to the sorrow of France and of 
 all Europe. And the loss was even greater than it seemed. 
 A man who v/ould have been a good king was gone, and the 
 1 Voltaire, Louis XIV., p. 473. 
 
92 COLONIAL MOBILE. 
 
 new dauphin was the two-year-old child who was to be the 
 dissolute Louis XV., in whose minority came the regency of 
 Philip of Orleans, the friend of John Law. 
 
 Remembering the pitch reached by royalty under Louis 
 XIV., it is natural that the principal street, the one fronting 
 the river, should be Royal Street. St. Louis was run many 
 years later through swampy land, but its name shows its French 
 origin, and, whether then built up or merely important as the 
 north boundary street, it too must date back to Bienville's 
 time. But unless St. Francis be another, only the four streets 
 above given seem to retain now their French names. The 
 present streets south of Government are certainly American, 
 and St. Emanuel, Conception, (St.) Joachim, and St. Michael 
 were almost as certainly renamed by the Spaniards, and their 
 French names are not now known. 
 
 Our plan does not show the two-story house Chateaugue 
 built on his lot, and we do not see the name of Commissary 
 La Salle nor of Cure La Vente. Indeed, these last two never 
 exercised authority on the soil of present Mobile. La Salle 
 died in 1710, probably up the river, and La Vente in October 
 of that year returned to France in a dying condition.^ 
 
 Le Maire, the new cure, was friendly to Bienville and often 
 enjoyed his hospitality, and in D'Artaguette the governor had 
 also a friend. D'Artaguette showed Bienville the charges 
 against him, and this induced him to write a spirited remon- 
 strance to Pontchartrain, which D'Artaguette took with him 
 to France in this year, 1711, when he returned home on the 
 Renommee to exculpate the governor. 
 
 * Shea's Catholic Church in the Colonies, p. 652. 
 
CHAPTER XI. 
 
 CROZAT AND CADILLAC. 
 
 When Bienville moved his colony to its final seat, the bril- 
 liant reign of Louis XIV. was drawing to its dark close. The 
 vaulting ambition of the French monarch had overleaped itseK. 
 Although he outlived his great opponent, William of Orange, 
 and still annexed provinces on the Meuse and Rhine, Marl- 
 borough and Eugene had filled the place of the Dutch-English 
 commander, while the French Cond^ and Turenne were dead. 
 An honorable peace was finally patched up at Utrecht, but 
 the rest which followed was the sleep of exhaustion. Money 
 was gone, men were gone, — all gone, save honor. The king 
 could not carry out his old American dreams. 
 
 On March 17, 1713, the frigate Baron de la Fosse, com- 
 manded by De la Jonquin, arrived at Dauphine Island, firing 
 salutes. She brought the news of this Peace of Utrecht, but 
 news, too, much less acceptable to the colonists. There was to 
 be a complete change of system. 
 
 The aid which had come in the Renommee two years before 
 had been the private enterprise of Remonville, always a friend 
 of the colonists, and the government had now improved on 
 that experiment, and farmed out the whole colony. Antoine 
 Crozat, a rich merchant, — Marquis de Chatel he was then, — 
 had leased the country for fifteen years from the king, and 
 intended through mining and commerce with Mexico to make 
 his venture pay. The total population was four hundred, 
 including twenty negroes, ^ and he was obligated to bring over 
 colonists, and also introduce slaves from Africa. He was to 
 be represented by a governor and directors, while the king on 
 his side was to maintain a sufficient military force. 
 
 Bienville was not satisfactory to the new proprietor. He 
 believed in agriculture, not commerce, and had taken D'Arta- 
 guette to the Mississippi to urge an establishment there. So 
 ^ FeDicaut, 6 French's Historical Collection, p. 113. 
 
94 COLONIAL MOBILE. 
 
 Crozat sent over a new governor on this frigate in the person 
 of I)e hi Mothe Cadillac, who had already served with distinc- 
 tion in Canada. With him came his wife, sons, and daughters, 
 as well as twenty-five young girls from Brittany. Cadillac 
 was interested in Crozat' s venture as in some sort a partner. 
 
 The transfer of the government could not have been either 
 lengthy or formal, and no doubt occurred in the fort at Mobile. 
 The new governor lived outside, however. For, as Chateau- 
 gue's house was the best in the town, Cadillac proceeded to take 
 possession of it for his large family. Chateaugue comi^lained 
 to the government at Paris, but apparently without effect. 
 
 History has not dealt kindly with La Mothe Cadillac, and 
 yet he had his merits. In August, 1701, he had founded 
 Detroit from Three Rivers, and for some years was an impor- 
 tant character in Canada. For his Detroit stockade, named 
 Fort Pontchartrain, held for France the passage between the 
 upper lakes, whose fur trade was controlled from Michilli- 
 mackinac by the Jesuits, and the lower lakes, whose trade at 
 La Salle's Fort Frontenac and British Fort Oswego was dis- 
 puted between the French and English. He had been ham- 
 pered there by Pacaud's Compagnie du Canada, which held 
 a monopoly of the trade at Detroit and Frontenac, and Detroit 
 was destined not to be able to compete with Mackinac in trade. 
 This company was practically abolished after a few years, but 
 not before its monopoly had helped Louisiana by driving down 
 to the Gulf the coureurs de hois and their peltries. ^ 
 
 So that when Cadillac was put in charge of the interests 
 of Crozat, he knew something of his business. The northern 
 end of the Mississippi, even the Illinois country where the Ohio 
 empties, was not in Crozat's charter. It was in a measure in- 
 dependent, and in fact always oscillated between Canada and 
 Louisiana. Exploration had by this time opened up much of 
 the interior, and the designs of Cadillac covered trade with the 
 Spaniards, as well as with the Indians of the Mississippi and 
 Alabama valleys, and the working of mines wherever found. 
 
 Among his first endeavors from Mobile was to open an over- 
 land trade with Mexico. For it he selected Jucherau de St. 
 Denis and sent him with ten thousand livres of Crozat's goods. 
 The adventures of St. Denis as detailed by Penicaut were 
 ^ Winsor's Basin of the Mississippi, pp. 72, 116. 
 
CROZAT AND CADILLAC. 95 
 
 less important for commerce than geography. He pene- 
 trated almost alone up the Ked River region, where he had 
 once explored with Bienville, and made his way to the Spanish 
 post of Presidio del Porto. He was sent forward to Mexico 
 and well treated, but obtained little satisfaction in the way of 
 trade. The same result followed St. Denis's second and larger 
 trading expedition through the Natchitoches country, this time 
 on his own account. But he at least won a Spanish wife, if he 
 did have to stay in jail for some time.^ The same repulse fol- 
 lowed the mission of Durigouin by sea to Vera Cruz. Cadillac 
 had to give up the idea of Spanish trade, but the French at 
 least gained a foothold among the Indian neighbors of Mexico. 
 
 Indian relations were generally happy. On the Mississippi, 
 in one of those Indian wars of extermination that devastated so 
 much of our country from time to time, the Tensas were, in 
 1714, driven away from their homes near Bayou Manchac. 
 They were then persuaded to move to Mobile, and were settled 
 two leagues north from the fort, where the Chaouanons and 
 Taouatchas had been.^ 
 
 On the Mississippi the French were aU but supreme. In 
 1714, they found an English officer exploring that river, and 
 they captured him and brought him to Mobile. Some give his 
 name as Hutchey, some Young, and Penicaut calls him M. 
 You.^ He was released at Mobile, but was not wise enough 
 to leave for the Atlantic coast. The Tohome Indians recap- 
 tured him and "broke his head." 
 
 The enterprising English were taking advantage of the Peace 
 of Utrecht and penetrating everywhere. Long before this the 
 Tennessee River had been the route for Carolina traders to 
 the interior tribes, and the English were now even among the 
 Natchez. The Catawbas and Cherokees were always friendly 
 with the Atlantic colonies, and it was a great security to these 
 to have peace, particularly with the latter. For the Cherokees 
 dominated all the eastern tribes south of the Iroquois. But 
 the relations with the Yamassees and Tuscaroras were not so 
 satisfactory, and from 1711 there was war with the English. 
 
 1 Penicaut, 6 French's Historical Collection, p. 133 ; 5 Margry, Decouvertes, 
 pp. 495, 527 ; 1 Martin's Louisiana, p. 204. 
 
 2 Penicaut, 6 French's Historical Collection, p. 126. 
 
 ' 5 Margry, Decouvertes, p. 509 ; 1 Martin's Louisiana, p. 185. 
 
96 COLONIAL MOBILE. 
 
 Colonel Moore finally drove the Tuscaroras northwardly to 
 become the sixth nation of the great Iroquois confederacy, and 
 by 1713 all was quiet. ^ But all was not friendly, and this 
 hostility seems to have driven the neighboring Creeks and Ali- 
 bamons into the arms of the French. The French were ever 
 the better diplomats. 
 
 We are told that in the year 1714 the "emperor " of the In- 
 dians near Carolina and the principal chief of the Alibamons 
 came to Mobile and proposed to Cadillac that he erect a fort 
 among them. This commercial and political chance was not to 
 be lost, and he sent Captain de la Tour with a hundred men 
 and built Fort Toulouse, near where the Coosa and the Talla- 
 poosa join. Other accounts make Bienville the builder of this 
 first extension of Mobile's influence. The fort, by whomever 
 erected, was of logs, and had four bastions, with two iron 
 cannon in each. It is said the name was at first Alabama (in 
 some more French spelling, no doubt), but that it was by Bien- 
 ville changed to Toulouse in honor of the Comte de Toulouse, 
 an admiral of France, and at this time director of the colonies. 
 The usual name of post and district in the church records, 
 however, we shall find to be "Aux Alibamons." The first 
 garrison was of thii'ty soldiers, commanded by Marigny de 
 Mandeville ; but the fort, not less judiciously than beautifully 
 located, had an importance far beyond the actual number of 
 soldiers within its ramparts. 
 
 From both a commercial and military point of view it con- 
 trolled the warlike Creeks, and covered the approach around 
 the southern flank of the mountains from the Atlantic not only 
 to Mobile, but also to the Mississippi. From this time it is 
 that Coxe in his contemporary work on "Carolana" dates the 
 decline of English influence among the "Allibamons, Chicazas 
 and Chattas," although he mentions Fort Louis itself rather 
 than its outpost. In fact, a general Indian war with the Eng- 
 lish followed, extending even to the Chickasaws, where Bien- 
 ville's kinsman St. Helene was killed. Characteristically 
 enough, it was as he stooped to light a cigar.^ 
 
 On the Mississippi the French already had a post among the 
 Natchez. It was a warehouse or factory, and may have been 
 1 Winsor's Basin of the Mitsissippi, 20, 133, 168. 
 ^ 1 Martin's Louisiana, p. 186. 
 
CROZAT AND CADILLAC. 97 
 
 due to fear of M. You and the English traders Penicaut found, 
 in 1714, among those Indians. The station at first met with 
 misfortune, for the Indians murdered Frenchmen on the river 
 and plundered the warehouse. But Bienville went there in 
 1716 for redress. He seized the chiefs by stratagem, and 
 compelled the execution of the offending warriors. A site for 
 a fort was also conceded, and Paillou, who had built Fort 
 Louis, now superintended the erection of Fort Rosalie there 
 on the Mississippi. Such was the origin of Natchez. 
 
 The French long cherished De Soto's dream of mines in the 
 interior, and to this was due much of the misfortune of the 
 colony. Lands lay rich about them, but they did not attempt 
 agriculture. Commerce with the Spaniards had not succeeded, 
 and that with the Indians, on which Iberville had so counted, 
 was not sufficient. It was one of Crozat's original plans to 
 develop the mineral wealth of the country. 
 
 Le Sueur, years before, had built his short-lived Fort 
 D'Huillier on Green River, high among the sources of the 
 Mississippi (where Penicaut had wintered with him), and 
 thence taken to France his green earth. In 1702, M. D'Eraque 
 had been driven from the fort by Mascoutins and Foxes. Now 
 Cadillac was to investigate the silver ore which was brought 
 him from mines in the Illinois. ^ He was deceived, of course, 
 for it had been brought from Mexico. But he staid in the 
 upper country almost a year, and had, on his return in 1715, 
 very little to say about his discoveries. 
 
 He said enough about everything else. His reports from 
 the beginning were blue. The colonists were irreligious, the 
 country unproductive, mines a myth, and commerce with the 
 Spaniards not permitted by them. On the other hand, the 
 commissary Duclos praised everything, Bienville in particular. 
 Relations were always strained between Cadillac and Bien- 
 ville, and one half suspects that Bienville put some of his 
 friends among the wood rangers up to palming off that ore on 
 the governor in order to take him away for a while. 
 
 And yet Bienville, in a letter to his brother, the Baron de 
 Longueuil, as early as 1713, had mentioned Cadillac's "grown 
 daughter, who had a great deal of merit," and whom he 
 
 1 Winsor's Basin of the Mississippi, p. 99 ; 5 Margry, Decouvertes, p. 416 ; 
 1 Martin's Louisiana, p. 184. 
 
98 COLONIAL MOBILE. 
 
 thought of marrying, although he disliked her snarling father.^ 
 This marriage was never consummated ; but no authority has 
 been discovered for the old story that she fell in love with 
 Bienville, and, when Cadillac offered him the hand of the 
 daughter, he declined it.^ It would be more likely that the 
 jealousy between the two men drove the romantic attachment 
 out of Bienville's heart. 
 
 Cadillac's complaints to France finally bore fruit, — but only 
 in his own recall. Crozat wrote him that the disorders he 
 complained of were due to his own maladministration, and 
 selected L'Epinay to succeed him. Meantime Bienville was to 
 act as governor ad interim. Cadillac then complained that 
 he was treated discourteously at Mobile. We may hope it 
 consisted, for one thing, in being forced to give Chateaugue 
 back his house. At all events, on March 9, 1717, the Duclos, 
 Paon, and Paix, Crozat's vessels, arrived at Dauphine Island, 
 bringing the new governor and Hubert, the new commissary. 
 Bienville received the cross of the order of St. Louis and grant 
 of Horn Island as his property, but was disappointed at not 
 becoming governor himseK.^ 
 
 The whole colony had but seven hundred inhabitants, accord- 
 ing to Du Pratz, and the change of governor was to make little 
 difference. One important change, however, was made in the 
 fort which caused it to survive until this century. It was 
 reconstructed of brick, traditionally said to have been made in 
 the forest not far from Dr. Ketchum's residence on Govern- 
 ment Street, and carried to the fort by Indian squaws. A 
 stone bearing the date 1717 is said to have lasted until Ameri- 
 can times, but this valuable relic has disappeared. The dimen- 
 sions show that the new fort was smaller, for the ditches hardly 
 reached to where the first stockade had run. 
 
 This show of activity was almost the last. Crozat soon 
 found that the new fort and the new governor made little im- 
 provement in the returns. The disappointed old man at last, 
 in this same year, prayed the regent to accept a surrender of 
 the colony, and he consented. 
 
 1 King's Bienville, pp. 190, 200 ; Longueuil, p. 122. 
 
 3 Pickett's A labama, p. 225. 
 
 ^ Penicaut, 6 French's Historical Collection, p. 134 ; King's Bienville, p. 228. 
 
CHAPTER XII. 
 
 IN THE TIME OF LAW'S COMPANY. 
 
 On February 9, 1718, the Dauphine, Vigilant, and Neptune 
 arrived at Dauphine Island, bringing Boisbriant as royal lieu- 
 tenant, commanding Mobile and Dauphine Island, and a com- 
 mission for Bienville as governor, aU dated September 20, 
 1717. This, says Penicaut, "gave general satisfaction, as no 
 one better knew the wants and resources of the colony." ^ 
 
 But there was one who thought he knew them better, — John 
 Law, the first great "promoter" of modern times. Scotch 
 gambler, outlaw from England, introducer of the game of faro, 
 French banker, intimate of the notorious regent, the Duke of 
 Orleans, head of the Mississippi bubble, outlaw again, then a 
 wanderer on the face of the earth until his death, — the life of 
 this brilliant man reads like a romance. Whoever has read 
 Gayarre's picture of Law in his glory, with princes kicking 
 their shins in his anteroom when the Mississippi project was 
 at its height, can never forget it. 
 
 Law was undoubtedly a master of finance, but he raised a 
 spirit of speculation which he could not lay. From banking 
 he went to "booming" Louisiana. His Western Company of 
 August 17, 1717, obtained a charter for twenty-five years, and 
 was designed to develop the agriculture of the country. Pro- 
 spectuses, however, painted too brightly the fertile soil, balmy 
 air, and golden sands. The company tried to develop in a few 
 years what needed a century. 
 
 Bienville believed in the scheme, and did all he could to 
 further it. He had always favored a settlement on the Mis- 
 sissippi, and now determined to make it. Hubert opposed 
 him, and was to succeed in forcing a compromise on New Bi- 
 loxi for a time. But Bienville believed he was right, and he 
 
 1 Penicaut, 6 French's Historical Collection, pp. 138, 139 ; 2 White's New 
 Recopilacion, p. 436, etc., which gives the commissions in full. 
 
100 COLONIAL MOBILE. 
 
 was yet to succeed. It was in this expansive spirit that in the 
 year of his appointment he examined the Mississippi and picked 
 out the site of New Orleans, shown on the Company's map 
 of this time as only a portage. He sent the brave Blondel as 
 commandant to a post now established at Natchitoches, and 
 Boisbriant, who had been knighted, as governor to the Illinois 
 region, where in 1718-20 he built Fort Chartres, on the Mis- 
 sissippi above the Ohio, to become the chief seat of French 
 influence in that region. At Mobile itself, however, we read of 
 desertions, in 1719, of soldiers who made their way overland to 
 Carolina.^ 
 
 The Company was anxious to induce immigrants of every 
 class, and to this we owe some maps. One, beautifully drawn 
 and dating from the beginning of Law's enterprise, gives a 
 clear idea of Mobile Bay, which still, as with Delisle, is not 
 named as such. It shows the Old Fort (Vieux Fort) about 
 opposite where R. Espagnole leaves the Mobile River, and 
 near Isle Dauphine it notes, " jadis Massacre." It is based on 
 Delisle, and has the same names that he has and the same gen- 
 eral arrangement, but lacks his bay soundings. ^ 
 
 An early map gives "Chacteau Bienville " on the bay above 
 Dog River. It was no doubt the place mentioned by Peni- 
 caut as built in 1719 by the governor on the bank of the sea a 
 league from the fort. This would locate the chateau in Gar- 
 row's Bend, but its exact site is now unknown. Tradition is 
 silent, too, but somewhere on the present Shell Road, Bienville 
 had this " fort belle maison avec un jardin." According to 
 French's version, he lived there all the year round for his 
 health, and had orange-trees in his orchard. Margry's text, 
 however, says nothing of oranges, which are thought to date 
 from a later regime.^ 
 
 Bienville was to ask for a fief on Pearl River to bear his 
 name, and get Horn Island instead in socage tenure.^ The 
 desire to perpetuate his name was not unnatural, but he was 
 as unsuccessful as his older brother. For Iberville had asked 
 
 ' Penicaut, 6 French's Historical Collection, pp. 138-141 ; 1 Martin's 
 Louisiana, p. 207. 
 
 2 Winsor's Basin of the Mississippi, p. 423. 
 
 ' 5 Margry, Decouvertes, p. 487 ; 6 French's Historical Collection, p. 106. 
 
 * King's Bienville, p. 228. 
 
til' 
 
 ■3~ rs 
 
 .HKIi^ t 
 
IN THE TIME OF LA W'S COMPANY. 101 
 
 that the country on upper Mobile Bay, from Dog Kiver around 
 to below the great bluffs of the eastern shore, be granted to 
 him as the Comte de d' Iberville, two leagues deep at all points. 
 He said he would undertake to settle it.^ Had this been done, 
 how different might have been local history ! 
 
 These particular grants were not made, but land was liber- 
 ally divided out among concessionaires ^ who should as a condi- 
 tion of the grants settle colonists on them. In March, 1719, 
 the warship Comte de Toulouse arrived at Dauphine Island 
 with one hundred passengers, and a month later other vessels 
 under Serigny with more, as well as soldiers and workmen, 
 and also "two hundred and fifty negroes, who were sent to 
 Dauphine Island and distributed among the concessions." ^ 
 This was the first large importation. 
 
 Serigny brought also news of war with Spain. Bienville 
 and Chateaugue accordingly got together an army of eight 
 hundred French and Indians at Mobile and marched overland, 
 while Serigny sailed for Pensacola with four vessels. Invested 
 May 14, it soon succumbed, and Chateaugue was left there 
 with a garrison of three hundred. The Spaniards in Cuba 
 received the news from vessels that carried the garrison as 
 agi*eed, and, seizing these ships, speedily recovered Pensacola. 
 They even captured Chateaugue and took him to Havana. 
 
 This was not all. A powerful Spanish armament sailed for 
 Mobile. It was twelve days before Dauphine Island, where 
 St. Denis commanded, but his forts, two hundred troops and 
 Indians, drove them off. A Spanish gunboat did enter the bay 
 and land men, who plundered a place called Miragouin ; but on 
 their repeating this attack, Mobile Indians were on the watch 
 and killed thirty and captured seventeen. These captives 
 fared badly. The Indians took them up to Mobile, clubbed 
 them to death, and threw their bodies into the bay. As many 
 captured deserters were shot at Mobile.^ 
 
 Miragouin we can identify. Maringouin, probably the same, 
 we are told by Penicaut in another place, is the name of a 
 small biting insect, — which we recognize at once as the mos- 
 
 * 4 Margry, Decouvertes, p. 616. 
 
 ' Penicaut, 6 French's Historical Collection, pp. 145, 146. 
 ' Penicaut, 6 French's Historical Collection, p. 148 ; 1 Martin's Louisiana, 
 pp. 212-215. 
 
102 COLONIAL MOBILE. 
 
 quito. It was the name that we see on old French maps for 
 a place on the bay front of our Monlouis Island. 
 
 Bienville and St. Denis by land and Champmeslin by sea 
 now reinvested and captured Pensacola. There they found 
 forty deserters, of whom they hung twelve on board, but 
 l)eace came in 1720, and after two years the old flag of Spain 
 at last regained its place, to remain there for generations. 
 Chateaugue and his companions were released, the Spaniards 
 borrowed provisions as usual, and old ties were renewed as if 
 that port had never been a French capture. 
 
 Ships continued to bring colonists in great numbers to Mobile 
 Bay for the different concessions, and the population required 
 creation of courts beneath the Superior Council in the persons 
 of directors or agents with local assistants. No vessels except 
 the Company's could come or go. The Company fixed the 
 price at which the colonists should buy and sell, and either 
 transaction could be only with the Company. On the price at 
 Mobile and Dauphine Island, five per cent, was added for goods 
 delivered at New Orleans, ten at Natchez, thirteen at the 
 Yazoos, twenty at Natchitoches, and fifty at the Illinois and on 
 the Missouri. The Company in turn bought colonial produce 
 at its warehouses in Mobile, Ship Island, New Orleans, and 
 Biloxi.i 
 
 For Biloxi (on the new site) was again important. At the 
 close of 1720, the headquarters of the company were removed 
 there, 2 as nearer the Mississippi, whose fertile shores were 
 l)eing peopled. Mobile was for a time to continue to be the 
 largest city, but ceased to be the capital. 
 
 For a while it kept on as usual under the old inertia. The 
 fort was renamed Fort Conde by an order of the Company of 
 October, 1720,^ that arrived on the Mutine. Early the next 
 year, M. De Pauger set out from Biloxi to make a plan of 
 Mobile and a survey of Mobile River to the white bluffs thirty 
 leagues from Mobile and six from the Chicachas River.* La 
 
 ^ 1 Martin's Louisiana, p. 218. 
 
 2 Pickett's Alabama, p. 257. 
 
 3 La Harpe, Historical Journal, pp. 82-84 (3 French's Historical Collec- 
 tion). 
 
 ♦ La Harpe, Historical Journal, pp. 84, 85 (3 French's Historical Collec- 
 tion') ; 1 Martin's Louisiana, p. 256. 
 
7.V THE TIME OF LAW'S COMPANY. 103 
 
 Harpe goes on to say tliat they are similar to those of St. Luke 
 at Paris, and are two huiulrod feet high, being a continuation 
 of iut<.'rit)r mountains. From this it woukl seem the Tomhigbee 
 was called for the Chiekasaws and the Alabama the Mobile, as 
 indeed is shown by some mai)s, for the reference must be to 
 the bluffs at Claiborne. As late as 1723, when the Spaniards 
 were assisted with provisions, it was from Mobile, 
 
 In Jaiuiary, 1721, came three hundred colonists for the 
 grant of Mme. Chaumont at Pascagoula, and then another 
 with twenty-five prostitutes from the Salpetriere, a house of 
 correction at Paris, sent as wives for the colonists. In March 
 arrived one hundred and twenty negroes from Guinea in the 
 Africaine, a warship, and also three hundred and thirty-eight 
 in the Maire, and one hundred and thirty-eight more in the 
 Neride. The mortality on these slave-ships was great, but 
 none other had the story of the Neride to tell. Three hundred 
 and fifty negroes had sailed in the frigate Charles from Angola. 
 This vessel was burned at sea, .many of the crew and human 
 cargo perishing. The escaping seamen finally, almost crazed 
 with hunger, killed negroes one after another for food.^ 
 
 On June 4, the Portefaix arrived with three hundred and 
 thirty German colonists, and also the commandant for the now 
 provincial Fort Conde at Mobile. It was no other than Man- 
 deville, become a chevalier of the military order of St. Louis. 
 
 But other familiar names now leave us. About this time 
 Bienville was informed of the death, at Natchitoches, of Blon- 
 del, and on October 6 of this year, 1721, our chronicler, Jean 
 Penicaut, was himself to leave the colony and sail back to 
 France for treatment of his eyes.^ It is with sincere regret 
 that one closes the lifelike pages of this first literary Mobilian, 
 and we cannot but hope Mr. French is wrong in his supposi- 
 tion that Penicaut soon died imder operation in France. Two 
 years later, although desiring a pension, Penicaut wished to go 
 back to Louisiana, despite his eye trouble. lie had left wife 
 and slaves there, and, as owner of a concession near Natchez, 
 describes himself as Sieur.^ Serigny, too, in 1720, returned 
 to France, where he became captain of a vessel and afterwards 
 
 ' Pickett's Alabama, pp. 2o7-2o9. 
 
 ' Penicaut, G French's Historical Collection, p. 161. 
 
 3 5 Margry, De'couvertes, pp. 553, 584, 585, 689, 690. 
 
104 COLONIAL MOBILE. 
 
 governor of Kochefort. He died in 1734, and was the only 
 one of the Lemoynes to found a family. His descendants have 
 long been distinguished in French history.^ 
 
 La Harpe, too, becomes less garrulous now, and soon goes to 
 Europe. But it is from him we learn that the Portefaix on this 
 June 4, 1721, had brought news of the flight of John Law 
 from Paris, and of the collapse of his bank and of the Missis- 
 sippi bubble. The universal panic and distress which ensued 
 in France were to find their echo in Louisiana. 
 
 The currency was, with the colonists, a serious question after 
 Law's failure. The Company went on, lasted ten years longer, 
 but the paper money lost credit with the public. To restore 
 confidence, the old notes were nominally redeemed and a new 
 issue made. So Michel was set to work, in 1722, at Mobile to 
 engrave the new obligations. These were called cards, and in 
 due time the Mobilian turned them over to the Company, which 
 hit upon the ingenious device (since copied by Chancery courts) 
 of not redeeming the old claims after a published date. As 
 the circulation was extensive, all of course were not presented 
 in time, and the plan succeeded for a while. The next year 
 Spanish pistoles and dollars were legalized, and thus the silver 
 set in circulation that was for over a century to be the general 
 medium of exchange. There was about this time struck a cop- 
 per coinage also for the colonies. The portion for Louisiana 
 was brought by Fouquet to Biloxi. It was current in Mobile.^ 
 
 In this year, 1722, it is said, was the excitement of a military 
 execution at the fort. The province was as deficient in food as 
 in good money, and at Fort Toulouse up the river, as we shall 
 see, most of the garrison mutinied. Commandant Marchand 
 was murdered and the mutineers escaped. Villemont, how- 
 ever, second in command, pursued them, and, with the aid of 
 friendly Indians, captured those whom he did not kill. Down 
 
 ' White's New Recopilacion, pp. 655, 656. 
 
 2 1 Martin's Louisiana, pp. 247, 256 ; 1 Gayarrd, Louisiana, pp. 282, 357 ; 
 Yickett's Alabama, p. 267. A thin sol or sou dated 1721 has been dug up on 
 Franklin Street, south of Church, by Mr. G. Pulliam, who still possesses it. I 
 myself have one identical in all but the mint mark, Pulliam's having H, for 
 Rochelle. On the obverse is a crown, and under it two capital L's, facing 
 in opposite directions and crossing each other. Around is the legend " Sit 
 [Nomen Domini] benedictum." On the reverse is the inscription, " Colonic 
 FranQoise, 1721." 
 
IN THE TIME OF LA TV'S COMPANY. 105 
 
 to Mobile in canoes he sent them under charge of an Indian 
 guard commanded by Ensign Paque, and there they were duly 
 executed. 1 Meek says^ one of the eight was even placed in a 
 coffin and sawn asunder according to the rules of the Swiss 
 company to which he belonged. The death penalty was prob- 
 ably enforced in the parade north of the fort, say on Royal 
 between our Church and Government streets. 
 
 In years to come, one D'Aubant was to command at that 
 Fort Toulouse and take thither the lady, once of WoKenbiittel, 
 who had only the year before this time arrived in Mobile and 
 married him. She claimed to have been the wife of Alexis 
 Petrovitch, the son of Peter the Great, but to have pretended 
 death on account of his brutality and escaped to America. At 
 aU events, she met a lover and new husband in D'Aubant, an 
 officer in the Mobile garrison.^ Whether princess or impostor, 
 her story reads like a romance. 
 
 In whatever vine-clad cottage they lived, under the pines 
 or oaks of Mobile, with the little daughter born to them, they 
 must have suffered like every one else in the years just suceed- 
 ing Law's failure. And yet, speculative and careless of means 
 as it was, Law's Company gave Mobile and all Louisiana a for- 
 ward impulse. Slaves had been introduced by the hundred, 
 the orange and fig successfully planted, never to die out, and, 
 even if our princess is not quite above historic question, and 
 many a Manon and much of the refuse of France were landed 
 on Dauphine Island, there were not a few valuable citizens, 
 too; and from John Law's time the colony developed as it 
 never had before. 
 
 ^ Pickett's Alabama, p. 266. 
 
 ^ Romance of Southwestern History, p. 30 ; compare Bossu as to the Beau-^ 
 drot execution. Travels, p. 325. 
 
 ^ Gayarr^ claims her for New Orleans (History of Louisiana,-p. 270), hut 
 New Orleans was hardly habitahle for a princess in 1721. Pickett relies on 
 material found at Paris, and fixes the place as Mobile (History of A labama, 
 p. 259, etc.). Unfortunately, neither cites authorities, although it is said 
 Gayarr^ relied on Voltaire. The probabilities favor Mobile. D'Aubant 
 was in that garrison, and it was from here they would naturally leave to go 
 to Fort Toulouse, which was an outpost of Mobile. Martin does not say, 
 but places D'Aubant at Mobile. He says D'Aubant is called such by Bossu, 
 but Maldeck by the king of Prussia. 1 Martin's Louisiana, p. 231. See, 
 also, Meek's highly-colored account in his Southwest, p. 30. 
 
CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 NEXT-DOOR NEIGHBORS. 
 
 Relations of peace or war with the Choctaws, Alibamons, 
 and other large Indian nations will occupy much of our atten- 
 tion, indeed make up the principal part of our story, but as 
 interesting, if less important, is the history of those nearer, 
 smaller tribes who came to Fort Louis for protection, and from 
 place to place followed the fortunes of the French. Among 
 these the Mobilians, Apalaches, and Tensaws attained consid- 
 erable civilization. 
 
 The most distant of these Mobile races were the Tohomes or 
 Thomez, — "Little Chiefs." Their location has not been per- 
 petuated by any surviving name of bluff or stream, and the 
 French maps are so general as not to give much assistance. 
 These early maps have a waving line for coasts and river bends, 
 and creeks are liberally distributed where they will look best, 
 but accurate topographical details are not given. The Thomez 
 were eight leagues above the fort,^ and we may fairly place this 
 tribe about Mcintosh's Bluff on the Tombigbee. We know 
 their coimtry was fertile and had good roads. Almost the first 
 mention of them is in 1701, when Bienville sent from Biloxi 
 to them to buy corn meal.^ 
 
 The Tohomes were closely associated with the Mobilians, 
 who lived two leagues below them. In his enimieration of 
 Indians in 1702, Iberville classes them together. After the 
 removal of Fort Louis to the present site of Mobile we hear no 
 more of them, and it may be conjectured that they became 
 absorbed into the Mobilians. They were not numerous. 
 Pickett allows them forty huts; IberviUe for his time but eight 
 or ten.^ 
 
 Next south came the Naniabes, or Naniabas, "Fish-eaters," 
 
 ^ 4 Margry, Decouvertes, p. 514. 
 
 9 Ibid., p. 504. 
 
 ^ Pickett's Alabama, p. 128 ; 4 Margry, Decouvertes, p. 514. 
 
NEXT-DOOR NEIGHBORS. 107 
 
 who lived and gave the name to the high bluff and district on 
 the Tombigbee still preserved as Nanna Hubba, just above the 
 junction with the Alabama River. Not a great deal is known 
 of these. Like all the other native Indians west of the lower 
 Alabama, they were branches of the Choctaw stock, but the 
 Naniabas kept up an independent tribal organization, until 
 finally they, too, were absorbed in the Mobilians. Their 
 mounds are still seen in the woods, and bones are found about 
 the Seaboard wharf. Arrowheads abounded back of Beau- 
 fort's Landing on the line between Mobile and Washington 
 counties, and a little bronze pot has been picked up not far 
 away. 
 
 The Mobilians are better known. They, too, were Choctaws 
 by race, but are supposed to be the remains of the people who, 
 under Tuskaloosa, a century and a half before, had been driven 
 from their homes in Maubila up on our Alabama, by the stern 
 De Soto. Their misfortunes had not ended then. The French 
 found all over the Mobile delta evidences of a former large and 
 peaceful population, with roads and fields, and heard of recent 
 devastation by the Conchaques (Apalachicolas) from the north- 
 east. Iberville estimated them in his day as even with the 
 Tohomes amounting only to three hundred and fifty families, 
 and we do not hear of their having then more than one large 
 settlement, although many of them lived scattered among the 
 islands as well as on the mainland. 
 
 This settlement was six leagues above Fort Louis, ^ and there- 
 fore not far from the junction of the Alabama and Tombigbee 
 rivers. Some maps show them above, about Mt. Vernon 
 Landing, but some later ones, also, below near Seymour's 
 Bluff. Five leagues above the fort the observing Penicaut saw 
 one of their religious festivals. The Naniabas, Tohomes, and 
 Mobilians united in this ceremony, in which they invoked their 
 deity in a cabin by jongler? At their September feast they 
 had a custom which reminded our Frenchman of his classic 
 studies. Like the Spartans, he says, they whipped their chil- 
 dren until the blood came, to make them callous to what their 
 enemies might do to them. If the child was sick, this treat- 
 ment was visited on the mother. 
 
 They had clay gods, too, as we know from the figures of 
 ^ 4 Margry, Decouvertes, p. 422. 2 5 /Jid., p, 427. 
 
108 COLONIAL MOBILE. 
 
 man, woman, child, owl, and bear found by Bienville on some 
 island, possibly on the great mound about Bottle Creek. 
 Thither they resorted at certain seasons to offer sacrifices, on 
 a hill in the cane-brake. Strange to say, we do not read that 
 Iberville's taking the figures away to France alienated the 
 Mobilians at all, and this perhaps lends color to his theory 
 that they were really foreign, of Spanish workmanship. ^ This 
 moimd of fifty feet is a marvel of industry, as the dirt must 
 have been brought in canoes for miles. 
 
 The Mobilians occur several times in the church resfisters. 
 Victorin we shall meet as cure of them and the Apalaches, and 
 there are baptisms when no cure is mentioned for them. In 
 1715, Huve bajjtized Jean Louis, by nation "Mauvila, com- 
 monly called Mobilian," with Jean Vallade, called Drapeau, 
 a soldier, and his wife as sponsors, and in the same year Le 
 Maire baptized Jean, son of Jean, a Mobilian, and Marie Mag- 
 deleine, his Sitimacha (Chetimacha) wife. The sponsors were 
 also French. Next after the long interval of twenty years Vic- 
 torin baptizes two Mobilians. Then, in 1758, comes a little 
 slave belonging to the chief of the Mobilians, and in 1759 
 Therese, the little daughter of Antoine Abbe and Marie 
 Jeanne, Mobilian Indians, with Durand and Mme. De Rous- 
 seve as sponsors. As late as March 21, 1761, was baptized 
 Jean Baptiste, a Mobilian. 
 
 Of the Ajjalaches, also, we know considerable. The com- 
 mon account is that they fled from attacks of the Alabamas 
 (Alibamons) in central Florida and were given shelter by the 
 French at the first Fort Louis. ^ Shea says that they had been 
 living peaceably with the Spaniards, and had become Catholic 
 converts there, when Governor Moore, of South Carolina, made 
 a raid, cruelly harried the country, and broke up their settle- 
 ment, massacring Indians, priests and all.^ 
 
 * 4 Margry, Decouvertes, p. 513. The shell banks about Mobile, particu- 
 larly those on Bon Secours Bay, Dauphine Island, and at Portersville, con- 
 tain ducks and animals and human heads, moulded in clay and burned, often 
 of artistic value. These banks are in layers, showing periodic, not contin- 
 uous, use, and contain human bones and simple crockery. They may possibly 
 point to an earlier race than the red Indians. 
 
 2 Gatschet, Creek Migration Legend, p. 76. 
 
 8 Shea's Catholic Church in the Colonies, p. 461 ; 5 Margry, Decouvertes, 
 p. 461 ; WiUiams'3 East Florida, p. 212. 
 
NEXT-DOOR NEIGHBORS. 109 
 
 At all events, they were settled near the French by 1704, 
 and the very first entry in the parish register is the baptism of 
 a little Apalaehe boy on September 6 of that year, by Pere 
 Davion. Nor did this stand by itseK, for the entries during 
 many years contain Apalaehe baptisms. Indeed, this tribe had 
 a missionary and chapel of their own.^ Huve came over in 
 the Pelican in 1704, and was to be their pastor. He is said 
 to have been no linguist, and how he got along with them until 
 1721 is hard to imagine. 
 
 For their village, which Bienville had placed near the Mobil- 
 ians, was broken up again by their old enemies, the Alibamons, 
 and they sought shelter with new Fort Louis. BienviUe this 
 time assigned them lands on the River St. Martin, a league 
 above the fort. This would be at our Three Mile Creek, prob- 
 ably extending to Chickasabogue, the St. Louis. Delisle's 
 map seems to bear out this location. There they had a church, 
 font, and cemetery with a cross.^ The cellar of the priest's 
 house still exists behind a sawmill near Magazine Point. The 
 Apalaches were the only Catholic tribe. 
 
 Their great feast day was that sacred to St. Louis, for whom 
 their parish was named, when all dressed in mask and danced 
 the rest of the day after service, with French or Indians, fur- 
 nishing their guests refreshment also. The women wore their 
 black hair in one or two plaits down the back, like the Spanish 
 women, and dressed in cloaks and skirts, and the men in coats, 
 quite in civilized style. They chanted the psalms in Latin at 
 service, and had mass every Sunday and feast day. Penicaut 
 says that they were devout, and except their mixed language 
 (of Spanish and Alibamon) there was nothing savage about 
 them.^ They were excellent Catholics. 
 
 The Apalaches are often mentioned in the church registers, 
 and sometimes Christian Mobilians, Chattos, and Tensaws, too. 
 Such entries are irregular, however. 
 
 The first mention after Davion's baptism is in the next year, 
 when Huve baptized, in the ordinary forms of the church, a 
 little Apalaehe girl born in lawful wedlock, named Fran^oise 
 by the second chief of that nation. Then comes a three years' 
 
 ^ Shea, Catholic Church in the Colonies, pp. 546, 552. 
 
 2 Ibid., p. 554. 
 
 ® Penicaut, 5 Margry, Decouvertes, pp. 461, 486, 487. 
 
110 COLONIAL MOBILE. 
 
 blank, until Salome, wife of the chief of the Apalaches, stands 
 godmother for Alexander, a Schitimacha slave of fifteen be- 
 longing to the missionaries of Fort Louis, and in the same 
 year Joseph, an Apalache, was godfather for a little Chatto 
 girl, both before Huve. The Spanish antecedents of the tribe 
 appear more clearly in 1710, when Salome, daughter of Cha- 
 risto and Thereise his wife, was baptized. The sponsors were 
 Lasso and Salome again, and Huve records that they were all 
 "Ajipalaches." Towards the end of the year, their chief and 
 his wife have baptized a little slave of theirs, a Paniouacha by 
 nation, — for, as we have seen, the Indians held slaves, too. 
 They named this one Marie Susanne. 
 
 The next year, and thus probably after their second change 
 of site, we have several other Apalache names. In January, 
 there is Jean, son of Trigours and Minita his wife, with Mia 
 and Oussima as sponsors, and later in the same month Pierre 
 Michel, son of Piro and Oussima herseK, with Michel and 
 Soussia as godfather and mother. In November, Le Maire 
 baptizes also Laurent, son of Charles and his wife Therese, 
 with Lazo and Salome as parain and maraine, and later in 
 that month Jeanne, daughter of Jean and Luce. Le Maire, 
 in naming her sponsors, translates Ouan (no doubt the Spanish 
 Juan) into Jean, and Ouanne into Jeanne. In December 
 comes Joseph, son of Sanchez and Ouanne his wife. The god- 
 mother was Mariane. In a preceding entry we see Laurence 
 and Laurentia, too. 
 
 In 1713, Varlet mentions Joseph de la Eivi^re as interpreter 
 of the Apalaches, and next year Huve baptizes Marie Joseph, 
 daughter of Ouan and Francisqua, his wife. The sponsors 
 were Piro and Maria lousipa. Later in that year he also bap- 
 tizes Caterine. In 1716, we meet perhaps the last-named 
 sponsors bringing their own child Michelle to the font, — 
 "Piero autrement Pierre," and "Ousipa ou Josephe." The 
 sponsors are Rene Salot, a soldier, and Anhile, an Apalache. 
 In the middle of the same year is a son of Josef and Fran- 
 cisque, with French sponsors in Francis Carriere and the wife 
 of Claude Parent, prominent people. 
 
 In 1717, we find four large Apalache children baptized by 
 Le Maire with the names Emmanuel, Marie Therese, Alex- 
 andre Joseph, and Henriette Marie Salome. The second is 
 
NEXT-DOOR NEIGHBORS. Ill 
 
 worthy of note as the son of an Englishman and an Apalache, 
 and as having Huve for godfather. The sponsors of the last 
 were Jean Baptiste Ouachita, a domestic of the missionaries, 
 and Marie Therese, an Apalache. This was before the reign 
 of the celebrated Austrian queen Maria Theresa, so that the 
 name is not in honor of her. Later in the year, Huve was to 
 baptize four small Apalache boys, all of whose names are not 
 decipherable. 
 
 From that time on, the register contains fewer Apalache bap- 
 tisms, although some occur. In April, 1721, however, we 
 have several entries by Father Charles, Barefoot Carmelite 
 and "Cure des Apalaches," a title never used by Huve. He 
 probably kept a separate book for his Indian flock, for no 
 Apalaches seem to be mentioned in the Mobile register when 
 he acts in the absence of the regular cure, Mathieu. 
 
 This suggests the idea that probably at this time, when 
 Law's Company was forcing the growth of the colony at an 
 extravagant pace, came the third change of location of this 
 friendly tribe. Their St. Louis tract we shall find granted 
 others in 1733. We know that at some time they moved over 
 across the bay from the city, where the eastern mouth of the 
 Tensaw River still preserves their name. They seem to have 
 lived in part on an island there, for in Spanish times it is men- 
 tioned as only recently abandoned. The first indication of 
 this change on the valuable maps so profusely given by Justin 
 Winsor is on Kitchen's of 1747, but it is also on a French coast 
 map dated three years earlier. Their main seat was at and 
 above what we now know as Blakely. Bayou Solimd probably 
 commemorates Salome, so often named in the baptisms. 
 
 On November 12, 1721, Mathieu baptizes Michel, whose 
 godparents were Pierre and Michel, all Apalaches, but there 
 are no more then for several years. In 1726, the daughter of 
 Christian "Appanaches" is mentioned, and next year is the 
 baptism of Therese, a Catholic Apalache, with Indian sponsors. 
 The following year we read of the baptism of Frangoise, a 
 Hiamase (Yamassee?) refugee among the Apalaches of St. 
 Louis, a dependent of that parish. In 1734, we hear of Vic- 
 torin, missionary apostolic of the Apalaches and Mobilians, 
 who acts at Mobile in the absence of Father Mathias, and in 
 1737, Pierre Lorandini, sergeant, was to stand godfather for 
 
112 COLONIAL MOBILE. 
 
 an Apalache boy. In 1741-42, we know Jean Francois was 
 "cure des Apalaches," and two years later, ""f. Prosper pretre 
 missionaire " to them. So they seem quite continuously to have 
 had a missionary of their own. In 1751 was baptized an Apa- 
 lache saiivagesse, born in lawful wedlock to Marc and Mi- 
 chelle, but this is the last mention of the race in the Mobile 
 register. If there was an Apalache register, it has disappeared. 
 
 Their place we find named, in 1741, as "aux Apalaches," 
 doubtless that across the bay from the city. The entry recites 
 that one De Sorges was buried there, and two months later in 
 the same locality his wife was found drowned. A sad family 
 scene these entries indicate, — it may be a tragedy. Twenty- 
 one years before was the baptism of Jeanne Marguerite, child 
 of Pierre Desorges and Marguerite Celesar his wife. Now she 
 loses both parents as she herself reaches maturity. 
 
 The death of Nicola Chatelin in the river of the Apalaches 
 is mentioned by Ferdinand in 1762, and earlier in the same 
 year is the loss also of Joseph Cook in the trip (traversie) from 
 the Apalaches to Mobile. 
 
 While we thus know more of the Apalaches on account of 
 their church records, traces survive also of other tribes near 
 Mobile. 
 
 The Touachas were also refugees from Spanish Florida to 
 avoid Alibamon inroads, although Gatschet derives them from 
 Tawasa, a village on the Alabama River. Bienville, in 1705, 
 established them a league and a half below the first fort, and 
 on the change of base they were placed a league above the 
 Apalaches. They seem to have been useful at least as hunters.^ 
 The only mention of them noticed in the church registers is 
 where, in 1716, Huve baptized Marguerite, daughter of a sav- 
 age, slave of Commissary Duclos, and a free Taouacha woman. 
 The gocbnother was Marguerite Le Sueur. What became of 
 them we do not certainly know, but it would seem probable 
 that as early as 1713 they had made some change of residence. 
 The creek Toucha, emptying into Bayou Sara some distance 
 east of Cleveland's Station on the M. & B. R. R., or, according 
 to some, into Mobile River at Twelve Mile Island, would seem 
 even yet to perpetuate this location, which corresponds nearly 
 
 ^ 5 Margry, Decouvertes, pp. 457, 486 ; Gatschet, Creek Migration Legend, 
 p. 89 ; 1 Martin's Louisiana, p. 167. 
 
NEXT-DOOR NEIGHBORS. 113 
 
 with Dellsle's map, and one of 1744. As Touacha, it occurs 
 a number of times in Spanish documents. 
 
 In some manner, as we have seen, a tribe of Choctaws had 
 once separated from the nation west of the Tombigbee, and 
 settled among the Spaniards of Florida. But they, too, became 
 refugees, — expelled, according to Penicaut, by the Spaniards 
 themselves.^ This seems to have been about 1704. Bienville 
 welcomed this, as every other opportunity, of ingratiating him- 
 self with the Indians, and gave them lands on the bay coast in 
 a large cove a league in circuit, — "I'Anse des Chactas," — 
 extending from our Choctaw Point west around Garrow's 
 Bend. They occupied the site of the present city of Mobile, 
 and were its first inhabitants. Pickett gives them forty wig- 
 wams. ^ When Bienville selected this very ground for new 
 Mobile, he had to recompense these Choctaws with land on 
 Dog River. Maps of 1717 and later show them on the south 
 side of that stream, sometimes near the bay, sometimes several 
 miles up. Few mounds or other remains have survived, but 
 their memory has survived, however, near the city; for from 
 them doubtless came the name Choctaw Point, in use under 
 the French, and the adjacent Choctaw Swamp. The church 
 register mentions the drowning, in 1743, of the Indian Joseph, 
 slave of Joseph Laprade, "vers la pointe des Chacteaux." 
 Their bend below Frascati, however, was to become L'Anse 
 Mandeville. A map of 1744 shows below them, at the mouth 
 of Deer River, a settlement of Yamane, probably Yamassees 
 from Carolina, of whom nothing is known except that, in 
 1715, that tribe had revolted against the English and been 
 driven west. 
 
 Several "Chatto" baptisms are recorded. It is not certain 
 the Indians of Dog River are meant, but this is probable, as 
 these were the nearest and most closely allied to the French of 
 all the Choctaws. That race at large is in the French papers 
 spelled "Chactas," not "Chatto." 
 
 In 1708-9, and consequently while they were still living 
 on the present site of Mobile, five Chatto children were bap- 
 tized by Huve. The first was named Ouan for his father, the 
 godfather being Serate. The second was Pharesco, son of 
 
 1 5 Margry, Decouvertes, p. 479 ; Magne, MS. Notes, p. 108. 
 
 ^ Pickett's Alabama, p. 128 ; Gatschet, Creek Migration Legend, p. 64. 
 
lU COLONIAL MOBILE. 
 
 Domingiio and Lucia (the godfather being Gaspar), and also 
 an older daughter of the same parents, named Maria. The 
 fourth was Theresia, daughter of Gaspar and Magdeleine. 
 And then came Andrieh, or Andre, son of Pierre and Marie, 
 having as godparents Ouan, chief of the Chattos, and Iliacinta, 
 widow of the deceased chief (Felician) of the same nation. In 
 1713, three more were baptized by Varlet, — Pierre, whose 
 father had the same name, Paul, whose parents had no Chris- 
 tian names, and Anne, daughter of Francisco. The godfather 
 was the Apalache interpreter Joseph. Next year were two, 
 spelled "Chakteaux," — Hiacinte, daughter of Thomas and 
 Marie, with Pierre Graviche, called Lionnois, as godfather, and 
 also Marie, daughter of the little chief Augustin and of Marie. 
 All this was in the Choctaw chapel, — "Le Tout," adds Var- 
 let, "dans Loratoire du dit village des Chakteaux." No doubt 
 at the same place shortly after was baptized Marie Claude, 
 daughter of a negro of M. de Bienville living with the Chak- 
 teaux. 
 
 In 1715, Huve baptized Jacques, a free "Chactat" Indian, 
 who had well-known colonists for sponsors, thus showing, as 
 often before, the kindly relations between the French and their 
 Indian friends. Next year he performed the same service for 
 five little ones at "the village of the Chattaux," indicating that 
 it was at the well-known place on the south side of Dog River. 
 The names, however, have ceased to be Spanish. Thomas, 
 Fran^oise, Catherine, Louise, and Jeanne are thorougldy 
 French. At the same time was baptized Marie, a four -year- 
 old Schitimacha, belonging to the chief of the nation, the 
 fruit, we may believe, of that war which brought so many 
 Chetimacha slaves from the Mississippi to Mobile. The god- 
 father of all was Lionnois again, stated to be resident of the 
 village. Some years later there is a casual mention, too, of a 
 M. Dubriel as among the " Chaquetaux. " 
 
 These Indians are mentioned seldom after that. In 1720 
 is mentioned Marie, of a mariage naturel of a slave with a 
 Chatta named Capinan. The church did not recognize these 
 irregular unions, and it may be that it was with some satisfaction 
 that Huv^ added the note that Capinan had quit her to take 
 some one else. In 1729, the record closes with the baptism of 
 a "Chactau," whose mother was Christian. 
 
NEXT-DOOR NEIGHBORS. 115 
 
 There is, strange to say, no record of the burial of a Choc- 
 taw, nor indeed of more than half a dozen Indians altogether. 
 But this is the less remarkable when we remember that the 
 death register, even of the French, is very defective. Greater 
 attention was paid to the more frequent births than to the 
 deaths. 
 
 In many respects, more interesting than the Choctaws were 
 the Tensaws, who also lived near the Mobile colony. They 
 came originally from the Mississippi River. The Tensaws 
 have been called a connection of the Natchez, and like them 
 were sun-worshipers and kept burning a perpetual fire, but 
 the two languages fail to show kinship. ^ At the destruc- 
 tion by lightning of their temple on the Mississippi, they threw 
 their children into the fire to appease the offended deity. 
 Seventeen were killed before Iberville, who happened to be 
 present, could stop them.^ Montigny was missionary, but an 
 unsuccessful one, among their villages just about the Bayou 
 Manchac. The aborigines nearer the future site of New 
 Orleans, the Oumas, waged relentless war against these 
 "Tinsas," — so much so that Bienville in sympathy brought 
 them, in 1713, to Mobile, and placed them where the Chaoua- 
 chas (Taouachas?) had been.^ Delisle gives both tribes at once 
 on his map. 
 
 Before the nation was removed to Mobile, we find "Taensa " 
 slaves there. In 1708, Le Maire baptized an infant of two 
 months, belonging to the tradesman (inarchand) Boutin. The 
 age of this child, who was named Vincent, seems to show that 
 he was captured in a raid against the tribe while hostile. Two 
 years later, Huvd baptized a female Tan9a of nineteen, belong- 
 ing to Jean de Can, whom we have met before. Next year 
 the church registers show us also Jeanne, child of a Tensa 
 female of Mr. Charli, baptized by Davion and Le Maire, too. 
 In 1712 comes Marie, daughter of Sieur Rochon's Tensa slave, 
 and on February 12 of next year is one of the few entries 
 recognizing marriage between Frenchman and Indian. It 
 relates the baptism of Claude, legitimate son of Rene Le Bceuf 
 and Marguerite, a Ten^a, his wife. The sponsors were Claude 
 Parent and the wife of Jean Louis. 
 
 1 Pickett's Alabama, p. 128 ; Gatschet, Creek Migration Legend, p. 32. 
 
 3 5 Margry, Decouvertes, p. 397. » Ibid., pp. 508, 509. 
 
116 COLONIAL MOBILE. 
 
 In 1714, we find Marie, daughter of a Chitimacha slave of 
 Sieur de Chateaugue and a Tan(;a slave of Sieur de Boisbriant, 
 baptized by Iluve. By this time the tribe had been removed 
 to Mobile, but, except Pistolet, in 1761, son of a "Thinsa," 
 the priests of Mobile seem never to have baptized any of the 
 nation unless as slaves, — when the Indians could not help 
 themselves. They were joined to their idols. Indeed, in that 
 long interval there is no mention of the tribe, except that, in 
 1760, there was baptized a negro belonging to St. Michel, 
 "habitant des Thinsa." 
 
 They had also by that time settled across the Mobile delta 
 and given the name to the great river corresponding on the 
 east to the Mobile River on the west. Exactly when this was 
 we do not know, but they are shown over there, on the west 
 bank of the Tensaw, on a French coast chart of 1744. They 
 numbered a hundred wigwams, and dwelt then more especially 
 on a bluff, for a long time afterwards called for them, above 
 the Apalaches, and not far from our Stockton. ^ The Tensaw 
 River had before that been called Branche Espagnole, but 
 Spanish River has since been limited to a branch extending 
 from near the Tensaw mouth to the Mobile. The eastern arm 
 of the Tensaw at its mouth is still called the Apalache, as we 
 have seen. 
 
 In 1766, and consequently in British times, the register was 
 to mention the death of Ph. Klimpetre on his habitation at 
 the Tensaws {des Thinsa), where he was also buried, and the 
 same mention was to be made later of FranQois Colin. 
 
 Such were the near neighbors of the French at Mobile. It 
 is a tribute not less to the justice of the colonists than to the 
 amiability of the Indians that no trouble occurred between the 
 white and red men. Peaceably they lived side by side for 
 many years, and in fact, when the fortunes of war brought a 
 change of flag, these Indians went west with their protectors. 
 Even as late as the early part of the nineteenth century. Ten- 
 saws, for example, were still to be found in Louisiana. 
 
 The others, however, have lost their identity and cannot be 
 
 traced. The exact site of their Mobile domiciles, indeed, is 
 
 now difficult to fix. All changed their locations from time to 
 
 time as they exhausted the hunting-grounds, soil, or pasture, to 
 
 1 Pickett's Alabama, p. 128. 
 
NEXT-DOOR NEIGHBORS. 117 
 
 which the "old fields" and "old towns" common in their 
 names and country still bear witness, and the evidences of the 
 Choctaws, who lived less in towns than the Creeks, are often 
 scanty. Experience taught them to keep near bluffs in order 
 to avoid the freshets of the rivers, but they did not always live 
 on these exposed places, and certainly preferred to cultivate 
 lower lands. 
 
 Beyond mounds, which mark the Choctaw rather than the 
 Creek races, Indians leave few permanent memorials. As with 
 their tracks through the forest, which the last warrior conceals, 
 the next coming civilization obliterates the traces of the red 
 man. Where they fished and hunted are still the same waters, 
 trees, and landscape, but the natives have gone, and only an 
 occasional name survives to recall the first occupants. 
 
PART III. 
 THE DEPARTMENT OF MOBILE. 
 
 1722-1763. 
 
CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 THROUGH THE CHICKASAW WAR. 
 
 With the removal of the capital from Mobile, that city lost 
 many inhabitants as well as much prestige. She was no longer 
 the point from which the Mississippi valley was explored and 
 settled. She sank to a place second to New Orleans, although 
 Dauphine Island for a while still remained perhaps the favorite 
 port for immigration. 
 
 But Mobile continued to be the centre of Indian influence 
 and diplomacy. There the annual congress was held, and on 
 account of the dependent posts up its rivers, it was the point 
 from which the English Atlantic colonies dreaded French 
 inroads.^ The geography of the country favored it. It must 
 be remembered that south of the east and west Ohio valley 
 there was a north and south one, whose largest rivers, draining 
 from the Alleghanies on the east to near the Mississippi River 
 itself on the west, emptied into the Bay of Mobile. Smaller 
 than the disputed basin of the Mississippi, or even that of the 
 Ohio, what we have called the Alabama basin was as fertile as 
 either, and in the Chickasaws, Choctaws, and Creeks had In- 
 dian tribes larger and braver than any south of the Great 
 Lakes and west of the mountains. By 1721, between Carolina 
 and the Mississippi were about nine thousand warriors, of 
 whom over a third had been weaned from English influence by 
 the French. Mobile could not fail to be an important place. 
 Bossu mentions its trade in tar and furs, the last monopolized 
 by the officers in his days, and says that quite a trade in provi- 
 sions was carried on with the Spanish in Pensacola. The in- 
 habitants, he says, were industrious. He mentions in connec- 
 tion with the Indians, maize, millet, beans, potatoes, melons, 
 and gourds, also. The watermelons he pronounces delicious.^ 
 
 ^ Winsor's Basin of the Mississippi, p. 170. 
 
 2 Penicaut, in 5 Margry, Decouvertes, p. 579 ; Bossu's Travels, pp. 221, 
 224, 230. 
 
122 COLONIAL MOBILE. 
 
 But Mobile, when Charlevoix wrote in 1722, was abeady 
 suffering from the emigration to the Mississippi. He describes 
 the River Maubile as narrow and winding but rapid, although 
 but a small boat (pettiaugre) could ascend when its waters 
 were low. 
 
 "We have on this river," he says, "a fort which has been 
 a long time the principal post of the colony ; yet the lands are 
 not good, but its situation near the Spaniards makes it con- 
 venient for trading with them, and this was all they sought for 
 at that time." He goes on to speak of the reported discovery 
 of a quarry, which might prevent its entire desertion. The 
 inhabitants were unwilling to cultivate a soil which did not 
 answer their pains. "Nevertheless," he says, "I do not believe 
 that they will easily resolve to evacuate the fort of Maubile, 
 though it should serve only to keep in our alliance the Tchactas, 
 a numerous people, who make us a necessary barrier against 
 the Chicachas, and against the savages bordering on Carolina. 
 Garcelasso de la Vega In his history of Florida speaks of a 
 village called Mauvilla, which no doubt gave its name to the 
 river, and to the nation that was settled on its borders. These 
 Mauvilllans were then very powerful; at present there are 
 hardly any traces left of them." ^ 
 
 Mobile was one of the nine districts into which Louisiana 
 was. In 1721, divided by the Company, the others being New 
 Orleans, Biloxi, Alibamons, Natchez, Yazoo, Natchitoches, 
 Arkansas, and Illinois. In each of these was one or more 
 forts or trading stations. At Mobile and the first three places 
 named, goods were sold at fifty per cent advance on prices in 
 France, but at the others higher. Toulouse was in this favored 
 class because of Carolina competition. Leaf tobacco and rice 
 were bought for the company at the warehouses In Mobile, 
 New Orleans, and Biloxi.^ 
 
 At the annual Indian congress, Bienville met and feasted 
 the friendly tribes and distributed presents. As a matter of 
 policy he did not permit them to come to the new settlements 
 at Biloxi and New Orleans, and Mobile was thus always the 
 great rendezvous for the savages.^ Choctaws they generally 
 
 1 Charlevoix's Journal, p. 190 (3 French's Historical Collection). 
 
 2 Gayarr^'s History of Louisiana, p. 273. 
 ^ Bossu's Travels, p. 221. 
 
THROUGH THE CHICKASAW WAR. 123 
 
 were, but the Alibamons also often came and exchanged talks 
 and smoked the decorated calumet of peace with the French. 
 Penicaut says Mobile was retained from its connection with 
 Fort Toulouse and the Indians.^ 
 
 The failure of Law had embarrassed the Company, and the 
 forcing process with all its monopoly was not remunerative. 
 The directors were dissatisfied, and Bienville knew it. But he 
 certainly did the best with the materials sent him, and, despite 
 the character of many of the colonists, Louisiana as a whole 
 was improving. 
 
 By the twenties, the culture of indigo had been added to that 
 of rice and tobacco, while the fig-tree had been introduced from 
 Provence, and the orange from Hispaniola. Slavery was of 
 much aid in developing the country. The Company had at 
 least succeeded in giving Louisiana a good start. ^ One evi- 
 dence was the need for legislation. Bienville issued in March, 
 1724, a short code to cover almost all their relations, and it 
 has gone into history as the Black Code. 
 
 It had intolerant features, of course. It banished Jews, and 
 established Catholicism alone, while an ordinance of the same 
 year severely punished maiming stock. But the name of the 
 Code really relates to its main subject, the negroes. It forbade 
 marriage between the whites and blacks, and regulated slavery. 
 It was in effect a copy of Louis XIV. 's code for St. Domingo,^ 
 a French conquest of the preceding century. 
 
 But this was the last act of the governor. Bienville was 
 recalled. He and Chateaugue came over to Mobile, and thence 
 to Dauphine Island, to sail for France on the Bellona. Their 
 baggage was ready, and on that Easter Monday, as the little 
 boats that were to take them aboard reached the shore, the ship 
 fired signals of distress. She suddenly began to sink before 
 their eyes. Down she went in fair weather, with many of the 
 crew, without a warning, and there she doubtless now lies in 
 the shifting sands southeast of the island.* 
 
 The two brothers returned to New Orleans. They soon 
 found other shipping, and finally arrived safe in France. 
 There Bienville was to remain for several years, and of Cha- 
 
 1 5 Margry, Decouvertes, p. 579. ^ 1 Martin's Louisiana, p. 265. 
 
 3 King's Bienville, p. 273. * Ibid., p. 274. 
 
124 COLONIAL MOBILE. 
 
 teau^id we only know that he was afterwards governor of 
 Cayenne. 
 
 Boisbriant was called from the Illinois, where he had been 
 since 1722,^ to command Louisiana ad interim; but soon 
 Perier was appointed governor, and, in 1726, he came out. All 
 of Bienville's friends, Chateaugue and Boisbriant included, 
 were removed from office. There was a new deal, a new 
 political slate. If the charges against Bienville were true, 
 improvement should immediately foUow. 
 
 With Perier's administration, which consisted largely in 
 severity towards the Natchez, we have little to do, except so 
 far as that misguided policy aroused the Chickasaws, and even 
 after a while a faction of the Choctaws, too, and was to make 
 life in the Mobile district unsafe. It brought on, in 1729, the 
 massacre of the garrison at Fort Kosalie on the Mississippi. 
 Of this he notified Mobile by courier. A war of extermina- 
 tion by the French was to follow. 
 
 In February, 1728, the Company sent over, for marriage, 
 some girls who were of virtuous raising. They were each pro- 
 vided with a little trunk (cassette) of clothing, from which they 
 received the nickname of cassette girls. Descent from these 
 was in after days to be held a mark of good family. ^ Not 
 many of them could have come to Mobile, for the population 
 there was diminishing. It held at this time but sixty families, 
 besides the thirty of the Apalaches near by, while New Orleans 
 had increased to six hundred families.^ 
 
 In 1722, Mandeville was commandant at Mobile, and on his 
 death, about 1727, Diron D'Artaguette, son of the old ordonna- 
 teur^ succeeded. We find Beauchamps in command in 1731. 
 We know that the return of Bienville as governor the next 
 year was hailed with delight, for he was ever a favorite with 
 the colonists. He came as a royal governor, too, for, in 1731, 
 the Company, as Crozat before them, had surrendered Louisi- 
 ana to the crown. The venture looked more like war than 
 money-making, and they were glad to let the regent take 
 charge again. The administration was to be through governor 
 and a reorganized Superior Council of thirteen members. Be- 
 
 1 2 White's New Recopilacion, pp. 439, 655. 
 
 ' Pickett's Alabama, p. 273 ; 1 Martin's Louisiana, p. 264. 
 
 ' Shea's Catholic Church in the Colonies, p. 567. 
 
THROUGH THE CHICKASAW WAR. 125 
 
 sides officials, the Council was made up of six councillors, an 
 attorney-general, and a clerk. To aid the colony, the king 
 in 1731 exempted imports and exports from duty for ten 
 years, to be prolonged to thirty. ^ 
 
 While Bienville was taking up the cares of office, he found 
 his old home, Mobile, in great distress. In 1733, D'Artaguette 
 writes from there that the smallpox is virulent, and that, too, 
 right after a disastrous hurricane had swept over the place and 
 destroyed crops and provisions. ^ D'Artaguette was commis- 
 sary then, but commandant next year. It was in 1733 that he 
 received a grant of the extensive St. Louis Tract between our 
 Three Mile Creek and Chickasabogue, but we do not learn 
 what use he made of it. 
 
 D'Artaguette had returned from France with Bienville, but 
 was not to prove of much assistance. Not but that he was 
 brave enough: Bienville could hardly keep him from march- 
 ing with one hundred French and numerous Choctaw allies 
 against the threatening Chickasaws. This would have been 
 the kind of adventure his daring Swiss lieutenant Grondel, 
 famous for duels, would have delighted in. Could he have 
 suggested it? 
 
 The governor came over himself and held a heated Choctaw 
 congress at Mobile. He found British influence had in his 
 absence invaded even his old allies, and in Adair we learn how 
 this was accomplished. Adair was an Indian trader from 
 Charleston in 1735 and for many years afterwards, and takes 
 all the credit for securing the Choctaw chief Ked Shoe. Adair 
 was then among the Chickasaws, whom he supplied with Eng- 
 lish arms and goods from Carolina by a route north of Forts 
 Toulouse and Tombecbe. He was also commissioned to open 
 a trade with the Choctaws, and was enabled to do so on 
 account of the resentment of the chieftain of Quansheto, 
 Shulashummashtabe or Red Shoe, at discovering a Frenchman 
 from Tombecb^ in adultery with his favorite wife. Red Shoe 
 visited Adair by invitation, and became convinced of the 
 advantages of an English alliance. A long Choctaw civil war 
 was to be the result. 
 
 ^ Gayarr^'s History of Louisiana, pp. 279 ; Pickett's Alabama, pp. 263, 330 ; 
 1 Martin's Louisiana, pp. 269, 292, 320. 
 ^ Gayarrd's History of Louisiana, pp. 457, 461. 
 
126 COLONIAL MOBILE. 
 
 The Choctaws were thus partly alienated, and D'Artaguette 
 represented matters worse than they were. People became 
 uneasy, then alarmed. They went to mass with guns in hand, 
 and finally even prepared, in 1735, to abandon the jjlace and 
 retire to New Orleans. But Bienville knew the value of 
 Mobile. He forbade this, and reprimanded D'Artaguette for 
 thus terrorizing the people. 
 
 On July 16 of this year, a smuggling vessel from Jamaica 
 entered the bay. De Velles was sent against her with thirty 
 men, but, in the battle on the water twelve miles from the 
 fort, was worsted. Seventeen French were killed, and the Brit- 
 ish vessel escaped. This only increased the breach between 
 D'Artaguette and the governor. ^ 
 
 Bienville took up his residence in Mobile this smnmer, and 
 there again met the Choctaw chiefs in grand council. He 
 became satisfied finally of their cooperation, and busied himself 
 in preparations to attack the Chickasaws from Mobile. Pro- 
 visions were to be supplied from New Orleans, artillery from 
 France, and troops from several forts. Everything was well 
 planned. 
 
 But much miscarried during that fall. The means of trans- 
 portation were not promptly furnished, half a cargo of rice 
 was lost overboard, and the cannon were never shipped. At 
 Mobile there was a delay, too, until bread could be made by 
 the bakers. 
 
 At last all was ready (except the cannon), and the expedi- 
 tion embarked. Five hundred soldiers were there from the 
 garrisons of Natchitoches, Natchez, and Mobile, including, too, 
 a company of volunteers from New Orleans and another of 
 unmarried colonists, besides forty-five negroes under Simon, 
 the brave free black.^ They embarked in front of Fort Conde 
 in thirty large pirogues and as many flatboats. Mobile 
 River had never seen so stirring a sight as the expedition that 
 gayly rowed ofp on the morning of that first day of April, 1736. 
 The glint of the lilied flags on the boats bearing Bienville and 
 his staff was answered by the waving banner of Fort Conde, 
 and the salute of the cannon awoke the echoes of the islands in 
 front. But gradually the flotilla got out of sight, the seabirds 
 
 1 Pickett's Alabama, p. 333 ; Adair's American Indians, p. 314. 
 ' King's Bienville, pp. 294-296. 
 
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THROUGH THE CHICKASAW WAR. 127 
 
 settled back to their haunts, and the people dispersed to their 
 occupations. For two months they dreamed of victories. 
 
 We have somewhat lost the thread of the development of the 
 Mississippi valley since Mobile ceased to be the capital, but 
 in this Chickasaw war we see something of what had been 
 accomplished in the mean while. For Bienville was not relying 
 upon his own force alone. He had arranged that D'Artaguette, 
 brother of the commissary, should co(5perate with three hundred 
 men from his post in the Illinois. They were to meet him in 
 the enemy's country. 
 
 Bienville selected as his base of supplies what is now Jones's 
 Bluff, where the A. G. S. Kailroad crosses the Tombigbee, in 
 Sumter County, Alabama, above the confluence of the Black 
 Warrior, Thither he had dispatched De Lusser to build a 
 fort, the one so long useful as Fort Tombecbe. It was in the 
 Choctaw country, near the Itomba-igabee Creek, which gave 
 its name to the river, and but a few days' march from the Chick- 
 asaws. There bread was to be baked for the expedition, but 
 little was done until Bienville arrived and built three ovens in 
 addition to the one there. 
 
 On the arrival of Bienville's army at the unfinished fort, 
 after a trip of twenty-three days from Mobile, there was a 
 final conference. May 1, with the Choctaw chiefs, — the faith- 
 ful Alabama Mingo and the English -favoring Red Shoe among 
 them. D'Artaguette was not heard of, although Bienville 
 had sent him word of the change of date, and therefore the 
 governor thought D'Artaguette must have had a battle with 
 the savages and returned to Fort Chartres. 
 
 By arrangement at the conference, the chiefs were to meet 
 the French in force higher up the stream. This part of the 
 river journey was accomplished by May 22, and, after building 
 there a small fort called Oltibia, the united army of French 
 and Choctaws struck through the woods in rainy weather to 
 attack the Chickasaws. 
 
 No good feeling prevailed between the French and Choctaws, 
 for the English had sown dissension even among these Indians. 
 They were more intent on injuring the Chickasaws than aiding 
 the French, and precipitated an action against Bienville's judg- 
 ment at Schiouafalay, the first of the fortified villages which 
 they reached. 
 
128 COLONIAL MOBILE. 
 
 This, the battle of Ackia, was a disaster from the first. The 
 Chickasaws were always brave, and now the English flag 
 floated over one of their villages, and Englishmen actively 
 aided the savages in the conflict. The men led by Chevalier 
 De Noyan were routed, and left that gallant leader alone. De 
 Lusser was killed, and Grondel, of the Karer grenadiers, all 
 but dead, was rescued only after several of his followers had 
 been slain trying to recover his senseless body. The Choc- 
 taws, for their part, did more howling than fighting. The 
 repulse of the French was complete. 
 
 Now it was that the absence of artillery was most felt. It 
 was sacrificing men to send them to attack the palisaded vil- 
 lages protected by loopholes, and Bienville had no cannon to 
 batter the defenses. 
 
 He finally determined to retreat, and did so with difficulty, 
 but fortunately was not followed. The water was so low at 
 Oltibia that they could hardly descend the stream to Fort 
 Tombecbe. 
 
 Thence Bienville went on to Mobile, learning on the way of 
 D'Artacuette's fate. This soldier set out with one hundred 
 and forty whites and about three hundred Iroquois, Arkansas, 
 Miami, and Illinois Indians. They duly arrived at the Chicka- 
 saw Bluffs (near Memphis), and then learned of the change 
 of date. In order to retain his allies, D'Artaguette marched 
 into the enemy's country. He was outnumbered, and when 
 most of his Indians took to flight, the wounded D'Artaguette, 
 the Jesuit Senat, and a few others were captured. Their 
 fate was horrible. All were burned alive, but died without 
 flinching.^ 
 
 The loss of these men was bad enough, but even worse was 
 the capture of D'Artaguette's papers, revealing Bienville's 
 plans, and thus enabling the Chickasaws and English traders 
 among them the more easily to defeat at Ackia the expedition 
 from Mobile. 
 
 D'Artaguette, the brother left behind, was ahnost crazed 
 with grief, and Bienville had to face there many whose homes 
 were darkened by the losses of this first Chickasaw war. 
 For others, too, in Mobile had to mourn the loss of friend or 
 kin. The Swiss De Lucer, or De Lusser, who had been sent 
 * Bossu's Travels, p. 311. 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 \ 
 
 
 
THROUGH THE CHICKASAW WAR. 129 
 
 forward to build this Fort Tombecbe at Jones's Bluff, ^ did not 
 come back, nor did De Juzan and many others. The daring 
 Grondel (later to command the Swiss of the Halwill regiment 
 in Fort Conde) had been thought dead, too, but although 
 it was long before his desperate wounds were healed, he lived, 
 destined for the cross of St. Louis, and was to be at Mobile 
 for over twenty years. Indeed, he was to be in the Bastile in 
 1765, and to outlive the terrors of the French Revolution. ^ 
 
 The Translated Records, in 1736, speak of Jean Belzaguy, 
 deceased, the widow Yerneuil, and apparently of a dead ser- 
 geant, Beauvais. These may be other reminders of the fatal 
 day of Ackia. Terrepuy sold Girard, for two hundred livres, 
 the lot he had acquired at auction of the Beauvais property. 
 If this included a house, as seems intended, pilot Girard's pur- 
 chase would show that the defeat had much depressed real estate 
 at Mobile. Beyond its rear, fronting the woods, we have no 
 means of identifying this or the few other city places which we 
 know of. The grant, in 1737 and 1738, to Mme. De Lusser 
 of the island in Tensaw River, which had been abandoned by 
 the Tensaws, and that on the mainland are more easily located, 
 but could hardly have been then of much use or value. Were 
 they intended as a pension to the soldier's widow? 
 
 Bienville realized better than any one else the disastrous 
 result of the Chickasaw campaign. It was undertaken because 
 the Chickasaws had sheltered the fugitive Natchez ; it must be 
 retrieved because they had defeated the French. For this 
 meant not only the emboldening of the Chickasaws, but that 
 the English would through them secure a foothold on the banks 
 of the Mississippi. The defeat would also encourage the 
 growth of the English faction of the Choctaws, Creeks, and 
 other friendly tribes, and thus possibly cause great danger to 
 the whole French colony. 
 
 Bienville therefore determined on another expedition, and 
 spent several years in preparation. As it was by way of the 
 Mississippi, however, it is somewhat outside the scope of our 
 story, and we can only note that it was made in 1740. Al- 
 though, from a soldier's point of view, it was not brilliant and 
 
 * Pickett's Alabama, p. 334. 
 
 ^ Gayarr^'s History of Louisiana, pp. 475, 489, etc. ; Bossu's Travels, 
 p. 312. 
 
130 COLONIAL MOBILE. 
 
 even hardly creditable, it impressed the Chickasaws. It at 
 least resvdtcd in their pacification and the safety of the colony. 
 It was, however, disappointing to Bienville, and he did not 
 conceal the fact. He wrote to the minister that in some way 
 his plans of late years all miscarried, and that he would like 
 to retire. His request was granted, and Louisiana was soon 
 to lose in him her governor and father, too. Although they 
 did not know it, the Chickasaws really drove Bienville into 
 private life, for, unlike his two involuntary retirements in the 
 years before, his resignation this time was final. 
 
^ 
 
CHAPTER XV. 
 
 THE PROVINCIAL TOWN. 
 
 Although Mobile, after it ceased to be the capital, was 
 at first cut oif from the active competition with the English 
 colonies which we find in the Mississippi valley, yet this also 
 at last reached the Alabama basin. As the English were 
 pushing over the mountains into the Ohio valley and giving 
 the French uneasiness in the lake region, so in the south 
 their influence increased. The Georgia colony, under the sea- 
 to-sea charter of 1732, was a distinct advance in this direction. 
 Under that we find Oglethorpe, on January 20 of next year, 
 on the site of Savannah and making treaties with the Creeks, 
 Cherokees, Chickasaws, and even Choctaws. On the 11th ^ of 
 August, 1739, he even held an Indian conference at Coweta 
 among the Creeks of Alabama. The English were thus push- 
 ing around the south end of the Apalachian ridge towards the 
 French on the Gulf of Mexico. This was an easier route than 
 the old one over the Carolina mountains, and it was thus more 
 efficacious. To this was due the division even among the 
 Choctaws. 
 
 This success of the English was the easier that th6 expe- 
 rienced hand of Bienville was about to be removed. Although 
 not a great general, there is little doubt that, as a negotiator 
 among the Indians, he was unequaled in his day. 
 
 While he was quietly preparing to leave, and making mat- 
 ters as smooth as possible for his successor, Vaudreuil, torna- 
 does devastated the Gulf coast. It was as if nature was angry 
 at Bienville's recall. 
 
 September, 1740, is one of the blackest months in the his- 
 tory of Mobile, for then the place was visited by two destruc- 
 tive cyclones. Crops, warehouses, and shipping alike felt their 
 force, and the distress from the lack of food and shelter was 
 
 * 1 Jones's Georgia, p. 316. 
 
132 COLONIAL MOBILE. 
 
 heart-rending.^ The storm on September 11, from east south- 
 east, lasted for twelve hours. It blew down houses, among 
 them Bizoton's store and sailors' refuge (which we may con- 
 jecture was near the wharf), and floated off flour and other 
 provisions. The port at Dauphine Island was also much 
 damaged. Half the island was washed away by the storm, and 
 three hundred head of cattle were destroyed. A cannon was 
 blown eighteen feet. 
 
 It was about this time that a traveler describes Mobile. In 
 a survey of the posts in Louisiana, Dumont says that Fort 
 Mobile, as he calls it, is "built of brick and fortified by four 
 bastions, on Vauban's system, with half-moons, a good ditch, 
 a covered way, and glacis. It contains a storehouse, barracks 
 for the numerous garrison always kept up here, and a pavilion 
 for the commandant, who was, in 1735, the Sieur D'Arta- 
 guette, royal lieutenant of the province." 
 
 Dumont goes on to say that he does not understand the 
 utility of the post. All supplies are brought from the capital, 
 New Orleans, as this place produces only firs and pines and a 
 few vegetables, not of the best. The climate, however, is mild 
 and healthy, and there is facility for trading with the Span- 
 iards. Game is abundant in winter, but in summer the heat 
 is excessive, and- the inhabitants have to live on fish.^ 
 
 There is no doubt that the removal of the capital and the 
 Indian troubles had injuriously affected the place. In 1745, 
 the population, outside the garrison, had decreased so that the 
 white males were but one hundred and fifty, and negroes of 
 both sexes two hundred.^ But this seems to be an increase on 
 the sixty families of some years before, and the garrison was 
 large, and the place, as ever, the seat of the great Indian con- 
 gresses. 
 
 The new governor, Vaudreuil, on March 22 of this year,, 
 met twelve hundred Choctaw chiefs in council here, and by 
 presents cemented the alliance with the French. Red Shoe 
 was still an English partisan, and was to divide even the Choc- 
 taws into hostile camps. His following was not large, but they 
 did much damage, and great was to be the relief felt in Mobile 
 
 ^ 1 Gayarr^'s History of Louisiana, p. 515. 
 
 2 Dumont's Memoirs, p. 40 (French's Historical Collection). 
 
 ^ 2 Grayarre's History of Louisiana, p. 28. 
 
THE PROVINCIAL TOWN. 133 
 
 when, in 1748, the death of this active Indian was announced. 
 He was shot by a Choctaw for a reward said to have been 
 offered by the French. ^ Vaudreuil's negotiations ended the 
 revolt, which Bossu says he managed by cutting off supplies of 
 ammunition from the friendly Choctaws until they forced the 
 hostiles to peace. 
 
 It was in Ked Shoe's time that Vaudreuil found it necessary 
 to palisade Mobile. It had never been done before, so far 
 as we know. But 1747 had witnessed a hostile expedition 
 down the Mississippi of Chickasaws and Muscogees, and even 
 the Choctaws were not all loyal now. For a while the French 
 even thought of abandoning Fort Tombecbe. The Indians 
 were bolder, the colonists more timid. For Bienville was gone. 
 
 Despite Indian troubles and palisading, it was from this time, 
 the year of Red Shoe's death, that we have the first expansion 
 of the town beyond its original limits in the grant of a tract 
 two arpens and four toises wide by twenty-five arpens deep on 
 the west to Mme. De Lusser. This land probably fronted the 
 river at first south of the inhabited town, say about the foot 
 of our Eslava Street, and we know extended west even across 
 Broad Street south of Dauphin. Its course is perplexing to 
 us, cutting diagonally across our existing streets, but it is easily 
 explained. It was merely continued straight in the line even 
 Eslava Street would take, if projected according to its course at 
 the river. The fact is, that the modern city developed best 
 north of the fort, and the streets there were run out first ; so 
 that when the southern part built up west of Conception Street, 
 its streets had to change their course to conform to the river 
 bend above. This De Lusser tract, the one surviving French 
 city grant, shows how the streets would have run if the town 
 south of the fort had developed first. 
 
 In fact, the De Lusser marked a decadence, for it was an 
 abandonment of the old plan of 1711, which ran out streets 
 and squares far to the west. This grant was a recognition 
 that, while land a few hundred feet south of the fort might do 
 for farming, it would not now be needed for city purposes. In 
 fact, Mme. De Lusser cleared . only such as she needed for her 
 slaves, and built cabins in which she lodged them. 
 
 ^ 2 Gayarrd's History of Louisiana, pp. 30, 41 ; Bossu's Travels, p. 316. 
 See Adair's American Indians, pp. 320, 328. 
 
134 COLONIAL MOBILE. 
 
 For some years little of interest is recorded. So much so 
 that early history even was not always remembered. Dumont 
 may have never been in Mobile, and, indeed, from his descrip- 
 tion, this seems to have been the case. But passing strange 
 it is that, in his introductory sketch purporting to give the 
 history of Louisiana, he seldom if ever mentions Mobile, and 
 speaks of Dauphine Island as the first seat of the colony. 
 While this leads one to distrust his book, it seems also to show 
 that the place had much declined for an inquisitive stranger 
 not to learn of its famous history. And yet its fort was still 
 the finest in Louisiana. Li 1751, we read that the troops 
 there numbered four hundred French and seventy-five Swiss. ^ 
 Vaudreuil was not content merely with fortifying Mobile 
 against the Choctaws, but he also undertook, in 1752, an expe- 
 dition from there up the Tombigbee against the Chickasaws. 
 
 His fleet of boats followed Bienville's route up the river to 
 Fort Tombecbe, where he remained some days, and then up to 
 where Bienville had disembarked at Cotton Gin Port. From 
 that point he, too, marched across the country, and with French 
 and Choctaws attacked the Chickasaws. He destroyed cabins 
 and crops, but met defeat like his predecessor, and made a 
 similar retreat. Bienville had had no artillery, while Vau- 
 dreuil probably had, but he seems now to have abandoned his 
 cannon in the river on account of low water. 
 
 The French halted at Fort Tombecbe, which they enlarged 
 and strengthened, and then returned to Mobile.^ The early 
 expedition of Bienville and this of Vaudreuil sixteen years 
 later were almost perfect counterparts in design, route, and 
 method, except that Vaudreuil had greater resources and know- 
 ledge of the country ; but the result was the same in each case. 
 
 Let us turn to more peaceful occupations, and see what can 
 be learned of lands and people during this troubled time. 
 
 We shall in another place study in detail such deeds as have 
 survived, but from the fact that one of this time refers to a 
 street by name, it is of interest here. 
 
 In 1749, Alexis Cartier and wife sold to Louis Flandrin a 
 lot of the usual twelve and a half by twenty-five toises, and the 
 latter, seven years later, deeded it to J. B. Boisdore. In this 
 
 ^ 2 Gayarre's Hvitory of Louisiana, p. 56. 
 
 2 Monette's Valley of the Mississippi, p. 300 ; Pickett's J ZaJama, p. 358. 
 
THE PROVINCIAL TOWN. 135 
 
 second conveyance the land, with its house of wood covered 
 with bark, apparently adjoins on the one side royal property, 
 and on the other that of the widow Barthelemy, "making the 
 corner of Rue Conty," or Coucy. It is interesting but difficult 
 to study out its location. In the later papers we learn that it 
 was "at the corner of the square opposite the commissary's 
 office," and also that it faced the river. It must therefore be 
 one of the corners made by Conti with the west side of Royal. 
 As the block was opposite the commissariat, it would seem to 
 be the southwest corner, but the fact that this would be in the 
 barracks square makes it difficult to understand how it could 
 on one side be bounded by private property. The price, in 
 1759, was fifteen hundred livres. 
 
 The land records go on all through this period; indeed, are 
 more voluminous now than earlier. Not a great many have 
 survived the ravages of war and time, and no government 
 grants of city lots are found. But there are private sales and 
 exchanges between the inhabitants before Dubourdieu or other 
 royal notary, often signed by cross. The notary in 1749 was 
 Dupuisier, 1756 Marcellin, 1759 Duparquirien. The land is 
 described with ref ei-ence to other lands and owners, and to street 
 by name only the one time just named, although "streets" are 
 often spoken of. How tantalizing this to the antiquary seek- 
 ing to trace the origin of street names! Former owners are 
 given, sometimes back to the first settler, and it would seem 
 that the original deeds were deposited in the register's office, 
 and a copy given to the owner. 
 
CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 SOME OLD FAMILIES. 
 
 By the middle of the century, the Mobile country had been 
 well explored and settled, both about the sound and bay, and 
 far up the rivers, too. Indian disturbances would play their 
 part, but names would remain even when some of the planta- 
 tions were abandoned. 
 
 Ahnost all the names about Mobile, particularly of the 
 watercourses, were given by the French, and are found on 
 their maps and in their private and public documents. Strange 
 to say, the Tombecbe is not on many French maps. It is 
 almost always called Mobile River, — so on Homann about 
 1720, Dumont, Du Pratz 1757, and others. Sometimes it is 
 named for the Chickasaws among whom it rose, and by the 
 English Coxe for the Choctaws, but only occasionally it re- 
 ceived the name Tombecbe, which became usual under the 
 British. The Alabama, however, ahnost uniformly was called 
 R. des Alibamons, except by Coxe 1722, who names it Coza, 
 or Coussa. 
 
 Delisle is the real founder of modern geographical science, 
 and his maps of Louisiana, for instance 1703, are valuable. 
 Danville's map of Louisiana, 1732-52, is for Mobile points 
 the best of all.^ It calls for Baye de la Mobile, has Pte. de la 
 Mobile, and the now familiar Baye Minet, Ecor Rouge, R. 
 aux Poissons (low down on which some maps give a waterfall). 
 Isle Dauphine, with Islets aux Grands Goziers out towards 
 the channel entrance, and our Little Dauphine Island is Isle a 
 Guillori, with I. aux Herons nearer Pte. aux Iluistres. There 
 is also Pte. aux Pins, and R. a Derbane is not yet changed 
 to La Batterie. Les Jones (grass islands) show the break- 
 waters of Portersville Bay, but Isle aux Herbes (Coffee Island) 
 is not given, nor the Passe a Barreau to the east. The bay at 
 * See it in Winsor's Basin of the Mississippi, p. 59 ; as to Delisle, pp. 63, 74. 
 
SOME OLD FAMILIES. 13*J 
 
 Choctaw Point is marked two fathoms, and all below is three, 
 — an imjjrovement on Delisle's two and a half. Miragouane 
 seems nearer Grosse Pte., but Belief ontaiue between Rivieres 
 aux Poules and Chevreuil and R. aux Chiens are the same. 
 Chacteau Bienville in our Garrow's Bend we have seen, but 
 Chacteau Sauvage with two village marks, one on each side of 
 Dog Riyer, at different places, would seem to point to the 
 Choctaws, whom Bienville had transplanted there. 
 
 Of the people, we of course know more of the residents of 
 Mobile town, but, besides Boissy near our Toulminville, the 
 Baudins on Miragouane or Mon Louis Island, and the Car- 
 rieres over near Bay Minette, we find traces of some of the 
 many settlers up Mobile River still mentioned even after the 
 change of flag. 
 
 Most of their names are lost to us, but, as a southern Aca- 
 dian race, they tiUed the river banks, and the smoke from 
 homes of thrifty settlers rose amid the figs and vines from 
 Mobile up beyond the fork of the rivers. Gayety was not lack- 
 ing, and pirogues carrying pleasure parties would pass the 
 farmer or the hunter taking his products to town, or hail the 
 solemn Indian in the bayous. 
 
 We should naturally expect to meet them mostly about the 
 bluffs, not on the swamp lands predominant below Twenty- 
 one Mile Bluff, and so it was. This, the first highland, was 
 occupied by Beauchamps, who sold to Grondel, for whom the 
 plantation was called St. Philippe, and a little promontory 
 almost making up a part of it is even yet sometimes called for 
 La Prade. Lizard Creeks across in the delta were long named 
 for Beauchamps, and Bayou Registe a little above we have 
 noticed as at least certainly French. Creole Dubrocas, includ- 
 ing the Brus, have long lived near Twenty-one Mile Bluff, 
 although the French grant places B. Dubroca south of Bayou 
 Sara. 
 
 About the site of the old fort we do not find settlers, but 
 the well-known La Tours seem to have been near the river 
 bend a mile above. Bayou Mathieu across in the delta may 
 commemorate the cure of this name, and Krebs Lake perpetu- 
 ates some one of that family. 
 
 The De Lussers, at the close of the French period, certainly 
 lived at the north end of the delta. Where the Tensaw leaves 
 
138 COLONIAL MOBILE. 
 
 the Mobiliaiis and Apalaches, one plan shows the Parents, and 
 not far away was Favre. 
 
 Eleven leagues from Mobile, and therefore near what is now 
 called Chastang's, the Le Sueurs at one time had a plantation 
 at a bluff on the west side of the river. It was afterwards 
 the property of Narbonne. The description, owing to court 
 proceedings, has survived in some detail. In 1756 the house 
 was new, thirty feet long by twenty wide, a filled-in frame of 
 posts, and roofed with bark. It had six windows and two 
 doors and a clay chimney, with a gallery at one gable ; there 
 was also a lean-to (ajypentif^ kitchen with chimney. To one 
 side was a chicken house, and to the right of the yard (cour) 
 a large structure sixty by thirteen feet, surrounded by posts 
 and piling, covered with bark, used as a lodging for slaves. 
 On the other side was a barn, twenty-five by eighteen feet, 
 with lean-to and chimney. The whole was inclosed by piling 
 (^pieux), making a yard twenty-five toises square. The place 
 faced on the river fifteen arpens by two deep, and across the 
 river there was another field (desert) ten arpens front by two 
 deep. 
 
 To this time we must assign the adjacent Chastang settle- 
 ment near Chastang's Bluff, still represented by the large and 
 interesting colored Creole colony who live in the vicinity. 
 They claim descent from Dr. John Chastang of Spanish times, 
 but really go back to the French period, of which their patois 
 is an interesting reminder. 
 
 The church registers give the history of some families quite 
 in detail, and of these it will be interesting to select for fuller 
 notice the Le Sueurs and De Lussers, whose out-of-town homes 
 we have just noted. 
 
 In the fascinating pages of Penicaut we learn of one Le 
 Sueur who, in 1700, went from Biloxi in charge of an expedition 
 up the Mississippi to the Falls of St. Anthony and to the Sioux 
 west of our Lake Michigan, in order to find a copper mine on 
 Green River, of which he had known in previous j'-ears. He 
 had had a post on the upper Mississippi in 1695, and discov- 
 ered the Minnesota, which he named St. Peter River. Tliese 
 former expeditions must of course have been by way of Can- 
 ada. He had come to Louisiana on the voyage of 1699, but 
 had spent several years among the Sioux, and it was on account 
 
SOME OLD FAMILIES. 139 
 
 of his knowledge thus acquired of the Indians that Iberville so 
 highly recommended him as suited to induce the vast resettle- 
 ment of nations which this leader planned. The Canadians 
 slyly intimate that the partiality was due mainly to their con- 
 nection by marriage, Le Sueur having married the other's 
 cousin-german. 1 
 
 We do not know much more of Le Sueur, except that he 
 spent the winter at the north in his Fort D'Huillier, where his 
 name is perpetuated by a county in Minnesota, and in 1701 
 came back with thirteen hundred pounds of green earth, which 
 he took to France. The result of the assay Penicaut does not 
 know. 2 
 
 The church registers throw light upon the subsequent fam- 
 ily history, for it must be his widow, Bienville's cousin-ger- 
 man, whom we find in 1708 as the mother of Jean and Mar- 
 guerite, who act as sponsors for a Barraud child. Next year 
 the son's name is given as Jean Paul, and a sister Marie is 
 mentioned, who, bv the way, cannot write her name. Mar- 
 guerite we find still mademoiselle in 1722, but Marie was two 
 years before wife of Sieur La Tour, captain of a company, 
 probably the commandant of Fort Toulouse. La Tours were 
 later to have their residence on a plantation up in the Mobile 
 delta, although this one is mentioned, in 1727, as then majorat 
 New Orleans. 
 
 Six years before this, we find a Mr. Pierre Le Sueur named 
 as officer of the garrison at Mobile, and then, years later, men- 
 tion of a Captain Le Sxxeur whose full name is not given, and 
 J. P. Le Sueur seems to have been, perhaps casually, at Fort 
 Toulouse in 1736, when Pechon died. Whether the com- 
 mandant at Tombecb^ was Jean Paul or Pierre must therefore 
 remr)in uncertain, but the dates well admit of Jean Paul's 
 commanding in the twenties at Dauphine Island, and in the 
 thirties and bt^r up the Tombigbee. We know that before 
 his dia^th at Mobilo. in 1751, he was major as well as chevalier 
 of tlv^ order of St. Louis. He must, therefore, have been a 
 man of experienop, in the service. 
 
 Another family worthy of study is that of the De Lussers. 
 
 1 H Marjrrv, Derouvertes, pp. 400, 401 ; 4 Ibid., p. 607 ; Winsor's Basin of 
 the M!^'<'9.f!r)7n, t)t>. 3^, 51, 52 ; 1 Martin's Louisiana, p. 155. 
 * 5 Margry, Decouvertes, pp. 419, 423, 426. 
 
140 COLONIAL MOBILE. 
 
 It has been the romantic dream of antiquaries that the land- 
 owning Mme. De Lusser was the widow of the galhint victim 
 of Ackia, and that town-lots and, later, more extensive lands 
 were grants in the nature of a pension by a grateful sovereign. 
 But the recitals of his heirs seem to point to the husband as 
 surviving the wife, and enjoying what he (like others of a more 
 commercial epoch) put in his wife's name. 
 
 And yet there is good reason to believe that the romantic 
 story is true, and the family tradition wrong. 
 
 We have seen that Captain Joseph Christophe De Lusser 
 was killed at Ackia in 1736, and there is nothing to point to 
 any other De Lusser in Mobile except his wife and children, 
 unless a Captain Joseph in the baptismal records be other 
 than his son. His wife, and widow, was Marguerite Bouras. 
 They had three children. Of these, Marguerite Constance was 
 born and baptized September 10, 1720; Marie Joseph was 
 another child, but her baptism has not been noticed in the 
 church records. She, like her sister, was old enough in 1734 
 to attest the baptism of a son of engineer De Vin. On June 
 4, 1724, was born the third child, Jean Baptiste. He was 
 ondoye by Father Claude at the time of his birth, but for 
 some reason the baptismal ceremonies were not supi)lied until 
 February 4, 1735. Then they had a great time of it. Gov- 
 ernor Bienville was godfather to the boy, who bore his name 
 of Jean Ba]itiste. Dame Barbe Bonnille was godmother, and 
 among the dozen witnesses were Le Sueur and Beauchamps. 
 
 Captain De Lusser was a large slave-owner, and every now 
 and then the register shows he had one baptized. After his 
 untimely death, his widow continues to acquire slaves, and as 
 Mme. De Lusser has them baptized. Sometimes her daugh- 
 ters act as godmothers or witness the ceremony, — as October 
 1, 1736, where Constance signs as godmother, and March 7 of 
 next year, Marie, who always writes her pet name, Manon. 
 By 1737 we find J. B. Lusser, officer, witnessing a baptism; 
 in 1742 again as enseigne (V infanterie. 
 
 Constance became the wife of Captain Pierre Nicolas Anni- 
 bal Chevalier, Sieur De Velle, and April 17, 1740, we find 
 young Lusser, his mother, and several others witnessing the 
 baptism of the first De Velle child. Marie soon afterwards 
 married Lieutenant Francis Marie Joseph Hazeur, and their 
 
SOME OLD FAMILIES. 141 
 
 first child was baptized in 1742. Both lived to raise large 
 families, and ultimately moved to New Orleans. 
 
 We find no mention of children of Jean Baptiste, and the 
 children of his sisters Constance and Manon were to claim his 
 property on the ground that he left no direct heirs. But it 
 would seem that the property he was to leave was acquired 
 of his mother, Marguerite Bouras, for the land was given to the 
 owner of the slaves, and the owner of the slaves was the Ackia 
 widow, mother of Constance, Manon, and Jean Baptiste. How 
 he inherited from their mother we do not know, but may well 
 have bought out his sisters' interests when they moved away. 
 
 Suffice it, however, that the Mme. De Lusser, from whom 
 came the De Lusser Tract and other lands, was probably the 
 mother, not the wife, of J. B. De Lusser. 
 
 Another prominent family was that of Francois Cesar Ber- 
 noudy, long garde magasin and royal attorney (^iwocureur) at 
 Mobile. His wife was Louise Marguerite Belzagui. He was 
 dead by 1757, when she signs as Veuve Bernoudy, but they 
 seem to have had a large family. A daughter called for her 
 was wife of Captain J. B. Aubert, Francois is named as cadet 
 Suisse, and at the same time Mile. Marguerite and Mile. 
 Fran^oise Bernoudy also appear in the church records. 
 
 "Endless genealogies " could be made of many city families, 
 some noble, some bourgeois, but these will suffice. Of fam- 
 ilies that will later meet us, however, may be named Charles 
 Rochon and his son Pierre, Landry, Delalande, Jean and 
 Simon Favre, Durand, Duret, Jusan and H. E. Krebs. Col- 
 ored offshoots of the Bernoudy and Favre families were to 
 perpetuate those names in land grants. The Pechons, Beau- 
 champs, Mandevilles, and others of rank were to disappear 
 with the French flag. 
 
CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 FROM THE cure's WESTDOW. 
 
 We have already examined somewhat in detail the history 
 of the church at the first Fort Louis, and it will be not without 
 interest to see who officiated at the new settlement and learn 
 what they did. They have left full records, and we can realize 
 their surroundings. 
 
 Le Maire was the cure first after the change of base to the 
 present site of Mobile, although from 1712 we find Huve gen- 
 erally acting, and good Davion's name also occurs in 1712, in 
 1713, and, in fact, as late as 1720, when he signs as the vicar 
 of "Kebec." But evidently he was at Mobile only on visits, 
 for the regular priest is Huve. 
 
 In 1713 we find Varlet, and after that his name as apostolic 
 missionary and then vicar-general occurs. Dominique Mary 
 Varlet of the Seminary of Quebec was vicar-general of St. 
 Vallier, and became afterwards the Bishop of Babylon. His 
 views, however, were unorthodox, and later, when setting out 
 for the east, he was discovered to hold Jansenist doctrines and 
 was recalled. He did not recant, and was a prominent schis- 
 matic in Holland.^ His full, good-natured face is preserved 
 in Shea. He looks like a man who saw the bright side of 
 things, — even of heresy. 
 
 It would be interesting to have a portrait of Alexandre 
 Huve (called Huet by Penicaut), who so long went in and out 
 at this Gulf city. He baptized and buried French, Indians, 
 slave and free, and negroes, too, and often married the French, 
 and it is much to his credit that with so long an incumbency 
 and under so many rulers we hear no complaint of him. In 
 1715, he speaks of himself as priest performing for the present 
 the function of cure at Fort Louis, and sometimes as mission- 
 ary apostolic in the church of Fort Louis. To officials and the 
 1 Shea's Catholic Church in the Colonies, p. 556. 
 
FROM THE CURE'S WINDOW. 143 
 
 public, officers and soldiers, freemen and slaves, he ministered 
 for several years, and we can imagine his task, particularly 
 after Law began to send his colonists, no easy one. He knew 
 every one and every one's business and relations, and was often 
 in their homes. 
 
 His last entry at Mobile was his baptism, January 13, 1721, 
 of a negro child. We are told that he went to the Mississippi 
 and afterwards had a mission among Indians, but his lack of 
 power to acquire language, and his increasing blindness, im- 
 pelled him, in 1727, finally to return to France. ^ 
 
 As Louisiana could not well be governed in civil affairs from 
 Canada on account of the distance, so the same difficulty had 
 to be met in religious matters. Bishop St. Vallier could not 
 from Quebec directly supervise the great Southwest, and in 
 course of time various expedients were devised to meet the 
 case. 
 
 First, the Capuchin Louis Francis Duplessis De Mornay, of 
 Meudon, was made coadjvitor of Quebec. He never came to 
 America, and so personally did not solve the question, although 
 he succeeded Bishop St. Vallier in 1727. He naturally 
 turned to his own order for missionaries, and from 1721 we 
 find at Mobile, instead of Huve, the Capuchin Brother Jean 
 Mathieu. Huve was the last of the missionaries of the semi- 
 nary, and from now on we have the regular orders only, gen- 
 erally Capuchins. 
 
 Mathieu signs as "prestre religieux missionaire apostolique." 
 At the beginning it is as performing the function of cure, but 
 afterwards as cure of Mobile. In 1722, the Western Company, 
 whose charter of 1717 pledged it to build churches and care 
 for the religious instruction of the people, free and slave, by 
 agreement with De Mornay divided the province into three 
 districts. The Illinois (including afterwards to the Natchez) 
 went to the Jesuits, New Orleans and west of the Mississi])pi 
 to the Capuchins, and the Mobile district, extending from the 
 Mississippi to the Perdido, from the Ohio to the Gulf, to the 
 Barefoot Carmelites. Except Charles, who in the preceding 
 year was among the Apalaches, no Carmelites came to this 
 district, and it is said that therefore Mobile, also, was then 
 by St. Vallier given to the Capuchins. ^ 
 
 * Shea's Catholic Church in the Colonies, p. 553. ^ Ibid., p. 564. 
 
144 COLONIAL MOBILE. 
 
 Dividing into districts was but a partial relief, and the great 
 question still remained, should the country be a vicariate apos- 
 tolic, dependent only on Kome, or a vicariate of Quebec? 
 Mathieu, in 1722-23, signs himself as vicar apostolic, and he 
 seems to have applied to Rome for the province, containing, as 
 he said, fifteen missions. This, if granted, was but temporary. 
 Indeed, when St. Vallier created a regular line of vicars-gen- 
 eral, he seldom selected Capuchins, and so, too, under Bishop 
 Pontbriand the position of vicar -general was usually held by 
 Jesuits, despite the outcry and opposition of the Capuchins. 
 For on February 20, 1726, the Company made a treaty with 
 the Jesuits for their services in the Mississippi valley, includ- 
 ing also the Chickasaws, Alibamons, and Choctaws.^ 
 
 Beaubois was the earliest vicar -general, perhaps, — a man 
 to be famous as the founder not only of the Jesuit mission 
 in Louisiana, but also in 1727 of the useful and long-lived 
 Ursuline convent at New Orleans. Mathias, it is true, was 
 vicar-general afterwards, but from 1739 it was Pierre Vitry, and 
 from 1757 Michael Baudouin, both Jesuits again. Baudouin 
 had previously labored eighteen years on the Choctaw mission. 
 
 After the removal of the capital to New Orleans, the more 
 rapid growth was transferred from Mobile, but its cure had to 
 make visitations over considerable territory. There was gen- 
 erally a missionary to the Christian Apalaches, but outside of 
 that the parish of Mobile was a large one. We find the Mobile 
 cure often at Dauphine Island, and sometimes at Pascagoula 
 and among the Choctaws. In 1728, even the Apalaches of St. 
 Louis are mentioned with Pascagoula and Dauphine Island as 
 dependent on the Mobile parish. 
 
 On January 20, 1720, the directors-general of the Com- 
 pany of the Indies supplied a book of forty-eight pages for a 
 register. Up to page twelve was to be for baptisms, then to 
 twenty-six for marriages, and the remainder for deaths. This 
 division, however, was not observed. Baptisms and deaths are 
 in separate books, while there is no regular record of marriages, 
 although many are found in the baptismal register. 
 
 The earlier church registers had been kept without special 
 rules by the parish priests. There was a long ordinance of 
 
 ' Shea's Catholic Church in the Colonies, p. 582 ; 1 Martin's Louisiana, p. 
 261. 
 
FROM THE CURE'S WINDOW. 145 
 
 1667 bearing on the subject, but it does not seem to have been 
 at first regarded in Louisiana. On January 21, 1726, Fleu- 
 riau at New Orleans delivered to Mathias a blank register 
 for baptisms, marriages, and burials, containing ninety pages, 
 numbered and initialed, and prefixed is an extract from that 
 ordinance. Fleuriau signs as Royal Councillor and Attorney- 
 General to the Superior Council of the province.^ 
 
 The ordinance directs that two registers be issued each year, 
 paged and initialed (cotte et paraphe) by the royal judge of 
 the place, the one to serve as a minute-book to be preserved by 
 the cure or vicar, the other to be delivered when filled to the 
 greffier juge royal as an engrossed record. The church shall 
 pay for both. 
 
 In baptismal entries shall be mentioned the day of birth and 
 names of child, father and mother, and sponsors {parain et 
 maraine). In those of marriages there shall be given the 
 name, age, quality, and residence of each of the bridal couple, 
 if of family, and four witnesses, who shall declare whether they 
 are relatives, and if so on what side and of what degree. In 
 burials shall be mentioned the day of death, and there shall 
 sign two of the nearest relatives or friends who assist in the 
 procession (convoy). If any one cannot write, he shall so 
 declare. The priest shall ask this question and make mention 
 of the fact. All entries shall be in one register according to 
 date, without blanks. 
 
 Six weeks after the end of the year, the priest must take or 
 send both books, signed and certified as correct (veritable), to 
 the royal clerk and judge who issued them, who must receive 
 them, noting the date. He shall give a receipt after compar- 
 ing the minute or blotter and the engrossed copy. The clerk 
 shall cross out all blanks in both, without charge. The minute- 
 book is to remain with the cure or vicar, and the copy shall be 
 preserved by the clerk for reference. 
 
 This entry is signed by Fleuriau, and also what seems to be 
 Delarivi^re Flamont. 
 
 How far the regulation as to original and copy was carried 
 out we do not know, but it is certain the minute-book was left 
 with the parish priest. The books ever since in the custody 
 
 ^ 1 Martin's Louisiana, p. 293, gives the name as Fleuriau, but he writes 
 it more like Fleuviau. 
 
146 COLONIAL MOBILE. 
 
 of the church at Mobile are evidently originals. But it is also 
 certain the books were not annually issued, for each one of the 
 volumes covers several years. 
 
 It is in the time of Mathieu that we find the first records 
 of abjuration of heresy. We learn only that on November 
 14, 1722, he received the abjuration of heresy of Magdelaine 
 Moyennant, native of the vicinity of Geneva. The lady could 
 not write, but five witnesses attest her mark. On the 23d of 
 the next month. Monsieur Jean Baptiste de Roy likewise 
 acknowledged the error of his way, and seven witnesses seal 
 his abjuration. Among them are Carriere, De Beauchamps, 
 and Durand, so that it was evidently a matter of uncommon 
 importance. 
 
 During a short period succeeding 1723, we find several 
 priests named at Mobile. In that year it is Brother Claude, 
 also Capuchin, and in March, 1725, Reverend Father Beau- 
 bois, Jesuit, superior of the Illinois, officiates, possibly during 
 some temporary absence of Claude. In February, 1726, we 
 find an entry by Brother Raphael de Luxembourg, as vicar- 
 general of Monseigneur of Quebec. This was probably a visi- 
 tation from New Orleans, for a few days later we see the 
 Capuchin Mathias de Fidau (Sedan?) signing as cure. He was 
 to retain the position for some time. 
 
 Mathias was, in virtue of powers from the Bishop of Quebec, 
 to receive an abjuration on September 8, 1727. Edward 
 Hurcksall of the English province of Quainte (Kent?) made 
 profession of faith in the religion of the Catholic Apostolic 
 Roman Church and publicly abandoned his former Protestant 
 heresy, with the prescribed ceremonies, in the presence, amongst 
 others, of the Jesuit Petit and of Monsieur Diron, chevalier 
 of the order of St. Louis, colonel of infantry, and commandant 
 of Fort Cond^. Diron is called reforme, which means, not that 
 he was a Huguenot, but that in those piping times of peace he 
 was reduced, and was on perhaps half pay. There were no 
 Protestants in Louisiana. 
 
 We find that the term " first Creole " had already become a 
 mark of honor, for the man bearing it was not Le Camp, who 
 we know was the first native. It is in the first mention of a church- 
 warden (m«rgr?/e//er). Robert Talon, master cabinet-maker, was 
 then " the first Creole of the colony," as we learn at his death in 
 
FROM THE CURE'S WINDOW. 147 
 
 1745. The office was to be mentioned at intervals from that 
 time down to the present. In 1737, for instance, it was M. 
 Prevot, and three years later Charles Marie Delalande, the well- 
 known garde magasin. By 1755 there were several, as Autoine 
 Colon is then noted as first marguillier. 
 
 Mathias, like all the cures, was to be absent occasionally 
 ' on different missions, and others then took his place. Thus 
 we find Brother Victorin Dupui, a Recollect, in 1730, and at 
 other times, Pierre Vitry, the Jesuit, in 1732, and on another 
 occasion the Jesuit Petit. Victorin was at that time mission- 
 ary to the Apalaches near Mobile, and easily accessible for such 
 calls. 
 
 In 1732 we begin another book, prepared by paging and 
 initialing for the use of the cure. This one was of fifty-eight 
 pages, and to be limited to baptisms, contrary to the ordinance 
 above quoted. The official who had thus cotte et 'para'pTie^ 
 was De Cremont, ordinary commissary of the marine, second 
 councillor of the Superior Council of Louisiana, and first judge 
 of Fort Conde of Mobile. 
 
 Two years later, we have record of Mathieu's supplying the 
 ceremonies of baptism to a daughter of Sieur Noel de Prououd 
 of Mobile River. She had only been ondoyee by Victorin, on 
 account of lack of sacred oil. 
 
 It is in 1734 that Mathias signs himself as vicar-general 
 of Monseigneur of Quebec, a position which this Capuchin 
 held for five years. It occurs first during a visitation of the 
 coasts of the Bay of Mobile. He continued to perform the 
 functions of cure at Mobile, however, through April 5, 1734, 
 when, after a break of about a month and a haK, the Capuchin 
 Jean Francois begins his ministry. 
 
 In November, during some absence of Ciire Jean Francois, 
 we find an entry by Brother Guillaume Morand, Jesuit, as 
 apostolic missionary. We shall see him again at Fort Toulouse 
 as his regular post. A year later, Mathias as vicar-general 
 acts again, and then Prosper and Felix sign each as cure at 
 Fort Conde within ten days of each other. From December, 
 1737, to the middle of the next March, Felix acted as cure, 
 and in April comes Brother Agnan, with a curious hand. 
 From August begins Brother Amand, a Capuchin, regularly. 
 Is this fluctuation of pastors a reflection on the religious side 
 
148 COLONIAL MOBILE. 
 
 of the uncertainty on the civil due to the fatal Chickasaw 
 expedition ? 
 
 Auiand was cure until 1742, and it was during his adminis- 
 tration the entries are made in 1741 that the church, never 
 having- been dedicated and being completely rebuilt (toute a 
 neuve), received the benediction the day of the nativity of the 
 Holy Virgin. On that account he dedicated it to the Holy 
 Virgin by special commission sent him by Reverend Father 
 Pierre, Capuchin, then vicar-general of Monseigneur of Que- 
 bec, who ordained that the anniversary should be celebrated 
 every year. From that time the church is known as Notre 
 Dame de la Mobile. 
 
 Jean Fran(;ois was cure of the Apalaches, and occasionally 
 acted for Amand, and on December 23, 1743, he succeeds 
 Amand as cur^. Occasionally we have entries by Prosper, 
 missionary of the Apalaches, and Seraphim, who even signs as 
 cure quite frequently in 1744, but Jean FranQois acts oftenest. 
 
 In 1744 begins another register, this time of forty-four pages 
 and for baptisms alone, of the parish of Notre Dame de la 
 Mobile. It is numbered, and each page initialed, with many 
 flourishes, by Bobe Descloseaux, commissary ^ and controller 
 of the marine, exercising the function of judge at Mobile. 
 This book was to outlast the French regime. The companion 
 death register was issued by Descloseaux in 1754, and its forty- 
 eight pages were to suffice even through 1803. 
 
 During the time 1748-52 we have Brother Pierre as cure, 
 but Jean Fran(;'ois as missionary acts almost as often. It is 
 difficult to say which was the real cure. From then on for 
 two years we find Hilaire, Barnab^, and Sebastien alternating. 
 In 1754-55, we have Maximin and sometimes Barnabe, but 
 usually Jean Francois acts as cure, until, in 1756, the Capuchin 
 Ferdinand begins. The indifferent but characteristic hand- 
 writing of this cur^ outlasts the French period, becoming grad- 
 ually more uncertain and feeble. Occasionally Jean Fran(;'ois 
 comes, as at the baptism of negroes of the mission in 1760, 
 and the Capuchin Valentin, missionary apostolic, two years 
 later; but Ferdinand is the parish priest. He holds the posi- 
 tion perhaps longer than any of his predecessors, acting even 
 
 ^ 1 Martin's Louisiana, p. 333, seems only to know of him as commutsaire 
 ordonateur from Auberville's death in 1758. 
 
FROM THE CURE'S WINDOW. 149 
 
 under the English, and to his entries we owe much of our 
 knowledge of his times. 
 
 The church was southwest of the fort, near our St. Emanuel 
 and Theatre streets. There these priests said mass, baptized 
 children and slaves, married the living, and buried the dead 
 with the imposing ritual of their church, forgetting their 
 French home and earthly ambition in ministry to the people of 
 this far-away American parish. 
 
CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 THE CITY MAP OF 1760. 
 
 In 1760, one Phelypeaux made a plan of Mobile which has 
 outlasted the several flags that have floated over its resting- 
 place. It gives a clear idea of what the town had been for 
 years before, — for we know it did not grow much after Vau- 
 dreuil succeeded BienviUe in 1748, nor after Vaudreuil was, in 
 1753, promoted to be governor of Canada, and Kerlerec, captain 
 in the royal navy,^ succeeded him in Louisiana. Of Phely- 
 peaux we know nothing except that this was the family name 
 of the Pontchartrains. 
 
 The plan is headed, "Veritable plan de la Mobille; Tous 
 les Batimens; Marque de rouge appartienne au Koy; ou les 
 occupe; fait a la Mobille le 20 8bre 1760 — Phelypeaux." 
 
 The general identity with the plan of 1711 is evident, but 
 the fort, marked as "Fort Conde de la Mobille," is drawn back 
 more from the river and has a wharf in front to deep water. 
 Around it is an open "Esplanade." There are, in two rows, 
 six blocks south of it instead of eight, the two west of the fort 
 are split through in an irregular way to provide for a red cross, 
 evidently the chui-ch, and "Terrein conserve Pour leglise;" 
 while the blocks north have grown from two rows of four each 
 to three rows of six blocks each, there being now a third row 
 pretty much in continuation of the one furthest west behind 
 the fort. In front of all runs a "Quay," bordering a marshy 
 shore. The land to the south is marked as high, that to the 
 north as low. Before, the streets bore no names, and there is 
 but one exception now. Our Conti west of St. Emanuel is 
 "Rue de Tournee." 
 
 The hospital square we find at the extreme north end of the 
 town, the buildings at about the northwest corner of our St. 
 Louis and Royal, perhaps the site of the old English house 
 ^ 1 Martin's Louisiana, p. 324. 
 
Tows les r 
 de rotfCt 
 OH les out 
 

 .Enci««fc A J'al(.«3"<»« 
 
 
 
THE CITY MAP OF 1760. 151 
 
 formerly on a high lot next to the Electric Lighting Company. 
 This ridge ran along the west side of Royal Street, and no 
 doubt determined the location of the city. On this, overlook- 
 ing the mud flats of the river, the houses were built. In 
 the same square with the "hopital" we find "Mr. Grondel," 
 but no line of demarcation for individual ownership from the 
 red buildings, which indicate the king's. Under the Brit- 
 ish regime we shall find that Mme. Grondel was the acknow- 
 ledged owner of the hospital house and grounds. This tends 
 to show that it was not the daring cavalier's wife, as they lived 
 abroad from 1758. The half block next south is indicated by 
 a red dotted line as the king's, and in red there is a long build- 
 ing on St. Louis and a thicker one on Royal (besides three 
 small outbuildings), marked as "Magasin du Roy." West of 
 them is "Mde. Socier" (Madame Socier, rather than M. de 
 Socier, as Monsieur is abbreviated "Mr."), and under the next 
 government we shall see she claimed to own the site. This 
 was a magazine for provisions, and was built in part of brick, 
 covered without by planks, and shingled. At one end was a 
 mill for "the shelling of rice," with necessary appurtenances. 
 
 The three blocks from St. Francis Street south to the fort 
 moat corners are inclosed by a yellow dotted line, marked 
 "Enceinte de pallisade," running through the centre of St. 
 Francis, St. Joseph, and Royal streets. There, then, was 
 Vaudreuil's palisade of 1748, inclosing principally royal prop- 
 erty, — the " Gouvernement " (civil officials) on the north side 
 of Dauphin, extending from Royal to St. Joseph; the "commis- 
 sariat," seemingly without buildings, on the north side of 
 Conti, extending west from Royal Street; and what are clearly 
 barracks, occupying almost all the square from Conti to Gov- 
 ernment streets, and from Royal to St. Emanuel. This com- 
 missariat was, like the hospital grounds, laid off in walks and 
 probably trees. The map gives no indication of the ownership 
 by the De Lussers of the street corner of the commissariat 
 under the recent grant. The palisade seems to have several 
 gates, one on Royal Street at St. Francis, two at the intersec- 
 tion of Dauphin with St. Joseph and Royal, respectively, and 
 one on the Quay, at what is now Royal and Government. The 
 hospital and warehouse were too far off to be inclosed. 
 
 In each of the three palisaded squares were some private 
 
152 COLONIAL MOBILE. 
 
 houses, — the southwest quarter of the barracks block, for in- 
 stance, being marked "Mr. Pechon." Of him we know little, 
 and indeed in the record history of this interesting lot at the 
 northeast corner of Government and St. Emanuel we do not 
 find his name. It had been granted by the French govern- 
 ment to Grondel April 19, 1757, the year before he left, and 
 after the English occupation it was the residence of Major 
 Farmer.^ Behind Pechon 's two houses, with its end on St. 
 Emanuel, is a royal building facing the south side of Conti. 
 A fair conjecture is that it was the bakery of the king, which 
 existed somewhere in this square. Indeed, there were two, 
 4)f brick with shingled roof, one having two ovens, and another, 
 new, with four. This corner we knew was the site of the 
 "Bakehouse" of Spanish times. The barracks of this square 
 were in a quadrangle open to the south. They were glazed 
 and for officers. 
 
 Possibly the most curious thing about the map is the Rue de 
 Tournee (our Conti), which is very irregular, and, just west of 
 what we call St. Emanuel, widens and then as suddenly is 
 contracted by a house in red, which with a smaller one is 
 marked "haugard," "sovager." The words "gard " and "tour- 
 nee " may have some connection with circuit of the watch, or 
 a guard-house, but it cannot be doubted that "sovager" has 
 some reference to the place in which were held the Indian con- 
 gresses. Here in British times was the "Indian House," and 
 we shall see that there was nothing new then built. So that 
 it may be supposed in this house and open place was held that 
 congress, for example, in December, six years before Phely- 
 peaux's map, when the pleased savages voted Kerlerec "Father 
 of the Choctaws."^ 
 
 There is no indication of the recent grant to Mme. De Lus- 
 ser of the lots on Royal and Conti, nor of the De Lusser 
 Tract, which ran west from south of the fort. Taking the 
 town as a whole, we count one hundred and thirty-one houses 
 outside the fort, of which twenty -three pertain in one way or 
 another to the government. Some, no doubt, are shops, and 
 others so small that one conjectures them to be some kind of 
 
 1 3 American State Papers, p. 398 ; Hallett v. Eslava, 3 St. & P. (Ala.) 
 pp. 105, 108. 
 
 ^ 2 Gayarr^'s History of Louisiana, p. 78. 
 
THE CITY MAP OF 1760. 153 
 
 outbuildings. But even then there would be perhaps seventy- 
 five dwellings. If the family should average four persons, that 
 would mean a population, in 1760, of three hundred, outside the 
 fort. Most were to the north, there being but thirty-five 
 houses south of the fort, and these all in the eastern tier of 
 blocks. 
 
 The town had thus already built up north of the fort to the 
 neglect of the lower land below it, a tendency still seen in the 
 fact that the business part of the city, the handsome buildings 
 of old times, all lie north of Church Street. The slight curve 
 to the southwest now shown in all north and south streets at 
 some point from Church to Canal is seen on this map, and 
 must have been true in 1711, although not on that plan. For 
 it is due to a bend in the I'iver in front of the fort. 
 
 The square fort — Fort Conde de la Mobile — is shown on 
 this plan in full Vauban splendor, as detailed by Dumont.^ 
 From tip to tip of the bastions is fifty toises, three hundred 
 feet, while it will be remembered the original palisade fort of 
 1711 was ninety toises, five hundred and forty feet square. 
 The brick fort of 1717 thus contained less than one third the 
 superficial area of the wooden one; indeed, from point to point 
 of the glacis was ninety toises, and so the whole new works, 
 glacis and all, were within the lines of the palisade Fort Louis. 
 
 No explanation is attached, but a soldier has no difficulty in 
 determining the use of the structures given. There was access 
 slantwise the glacis on each side to the brick-faced covered 
 way, on the east it being from the wharf and on the north 
 from the palisaded inclosure ; but entrance into the fort proper 
 was only from the north. This would be to the west of the 
 rear of the present court-house, for the still existing founda- 
 tions mark the location of the fort. Its interior was pretty 
 much within the lines of the block bounded by Church, Royal, 
 Theatre, and St. Emanuel, although the east bastions extended 
 across Royal, and the west ones across Church and Theatre just 
 east of St. Emanuel. 
 
 Crossing the moat (about the rear of the modern jail on 
 Church Street), one entered through the brick scarp wall. 
 This wall was about sixteen feet from the bottom to the cor- 
 don, above which rose a thin brick parapet four and a half 
 ^ Dumont's Memoires, p. 40 (5 French's Historical Collections). 
 
154 COLONIAL MOBILE. 
 
 feet high. In the curtains of three fronts at least were brick 
 casemates for cannon. Passing between two buildings, one 
 of which was the officers' quarters and one the station of the 
 guard, the visitor came to an open square, probably with staff 
 in the centre floating the lilies of France, — the yard uow 
 of the city street department. On the east and west of this 
 parade were two long one-story barracks for about two hundred 
 and sixteen men, but the warehouse of Dumont's time was 
 now up town. On the south side of the parade were two 
 wells. Walking by the bristling cannon standing upon wooden 
 platforms, one would notice at the northwestern and southeast- 
 ern corners entrances to two subterranean rooms in these bas- 
 tions. The first was a brick bakehouse and the other the 
 powder magazine, while at the northeast corner was some out- 
 house on Royal Street, near the present Armory. From the 
 eastern parapet one would look out on the single wharf of the 
 city, narrow in part across the miry bank of the river, but 
 wider towards the eastern end. Where it reached the river 
 (near the present Water Street) were boats at anchor, a hun- 
 dred yards from the fort but under its guns. From the ram- 
 parts on the other sides lay in full view the bark or tiled houses 
 of Mobile. 1 
 
 Such was Fort Conde in 1760, such the city it guarded. 
 
 * The description of the public buildings has been drawn in part from a 
 report on their condition made up shortly after the British occupation in 
 1763. Everything was then in want of repair, but the arrangement under 
 the French had not been changed. This report is in the Haldimand Papers. 
 
 The plan was made in 1760. and in one corner Carlos Trudeau, the Span- 
 ish surveyor, has written, " Piano que je ha hallado en la tomada de la 
 Mobila, 4 Mayo, 1780," — plan found at the capture of Mobile, May 4, 
 1780. What next became of it no one knows, except that it is now in the 
 Department of the Interior, bearing the signature of United States Sur- 
 Teyor-General Freeman, and that in 1842 it was referred to in the case of 
 WatJdns V. Holman, 16 Peters Rep. pp. 30, 52 ; but no copy was actually 
 made a part of that record. On the first organization of Mobile under the 
 Americans, attempts were made by the local authorities to find the plan 
 of the city. Money was sent to New Orleans on the report that a notary 
 had it there, and then to Pensacola, but in vain. This map was afterwards 
 found in New Orleans, and apparently purchased by the United States 
 autborities for $500, in order to lay off the fort property for sale. 
 
CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 IN THE ARCHIVE OFFICE. 
 
 Few grants and deeds have come down to us, and of these 
 the earliest preserved in full was a grant by Cadillac, in 1715, 
 on the Eastern Shore, but, though the actual grant has per- 
 ished, we have a pretty full history of an earlier concession, 
 possibly made at the first Fort Louis. This was of what we 
 know as Mon Louis Island, practically the mainland opposite 
 Dauphine Island. There is then a gap until 1733, when come 
 for some years a number of grants and town-lot deeds. At 
 the end of the French regime we have papers which are rather 
 certificates of long occupancy and ratification of claims than 
 original grants themselves. 
 
 Major Farmer of the British army was to claim that he had 
 difficulty in preventing the removal of the records by the 
 French, and from the few French ones now in the Mobile 
 Probate Court it would seem that other custodians have been 
 even less successful. In point of fact, some few have been 
 found in the Haldimand Papers, and so were removed by the 
 British themselves. 
 
 The books of Translated Records at Mobile are the more 
 accessible, but the original papers in the cypress boxes in the 
 same Probate Court are the more interesting. Neatly packed 
 away by dates, with wide margins made by creases, bearing 
 the signatures of applicants and the French officials, and seals 
 of state, these bundles of original documents have survived 
 war and fire and revolutions of empire even until now. 
 
 Mon Louis Island comes first in date. Nicholas Baudin, 
 the Sieur de Miragouine, we know lived at Grosse Pointe, 
 near the centre of the east coast, and from this the whole 
 island was at first called. The grant is the earliest we have, 
 and bears date November 12, 1710, at Fort Louis. 
 
 Bienville as the king's lieutenant and D'Artaguette as com- 
 
156 COLONIAL MOBILE. 
 
 luissary of the marine made the cession, but, for some reason, 
 it was thought proper to obtain Cadillac's ratification Septem- 
 ber 15, 1713. The papers were duly deposited later in the 
 archives of the Superior Council, and were to survive at least 
 until 1783. 
 
 This property was of more importance when Dauphine Island 
 was the port of Mobile than after that harbor was practically 
 abandoned. It may be that to this fact it is due that the Bau- 
 dins never alienated the property. It was to remain theirs 
 under the English and Spanish regimes, and be finally con- 
 firmed by the United States to the descendants of the Sieur de 
 Miragouine in 1829.^ 
 
 The concession of land on Fish Kiver to Joseph Simon de la 
 Pointe, whose name occurs often in the church registers as 
 father of Madame Krebs, was made November 12, 1715, 
 by Antoine de la Motte Cadillac, governor of the province of 
 Louisiana, and Jean Baptiste Duclos, royal councilor and 
 marine commissary. They certify that they are vested by his 
 Majesty the king, their lord, with the power to grant lands. 
 It recites La Pointe's application, and was executed on Dau- 
 phine Island, and registered, as ordered, the same day by 
 grejfier en chef Raguet in the office of the Supreme Council 
 of Louisiana, — which would indicate that this office was at 
 the time also on Dauphine Island. The description possibly 
 admits of modern identification. The line seems to run north 
 and south a league, the land bounded south on Fish River, and 
 has a west front of a league on the sea, facing the Grand Bay 
 (faisantface a la grande Bmje^. This concession is one of the 
 many instances of the good judgment of the French in select- 
 ing lands ; for Grand Bay is the beautiful sheet of water known 
 as Weekes' Bay, and Fish River country is a pleasure resort as 
 well as colonization centre. 
 
 The instrument is also valuable as throwing early light on 
 land tenure in the young colony. It is quite unlike the French 
 seigneuries and almost amounts to franc aleu. 
 
 The grant was for the purpose of enabling La Pointe to 
 
 raise cattle, and was careful to except a cedar grove said to be 
 
 near Fish River. The title was to be absolute, provided he 
 
 cultivated the land for two successive years, but was subject 
 
 1 6 American State Papers, p. 130 ; 4 U. S. Statutes at Large, p. 358. 
 
^n-c >^e.^ (A^U^ 
 
 Tie -"^ 
 
 
 CADILLAC-.^ FiSH RIVER GRANT 
 
IN THE ARCHIVE OFFICE. 157 
 
 not only to possible royal dues, but also to furnish timber for 
 forts, repair of ships, and other public works, and the land 
 could be taken for erecting fortifications. These conditions 
 were common in all the grants, and but a proper instance of 
 the right of eminent domain. 
 
 Quite different the private deeds. These were not papers 
 signed by one party and delivered to the other, as with the 
 Spaniards later and now too with us. The procedure was for 
 both parties to go before a notary, and hs certifies their appear- 
 ance, and that the one declares the sale to the other for so 
 many livres, paid before him, of a certain described piece of 
 land, and that the other party declares his acceptance of the 
 property. All sign, perhaps with witnesses, in the notary's 
 office, and he annexes his signature, but all without seal. If 
 necessary, the notary, according to ordinance, explains the 
 transaction and the party makes a cross for his mark. The 
 original deed is then deposited with the register, the parties 
 receiving copies. 
 
 It was two years before Bienville's fatal Chickasaw expedi- 
 tion that James Philip Emard, May 23, 1734, exchanged his 
 house and lot in the city for that of Thomas Asseline Fleury, 
 and agreed to pay ten livres additional to Pierre Regnault on 
 account of his vendor's claim. Fleury paid Regnault, two 
 weeks later, one hundred and forty livres, the remainder of the 
 purchase-money Emard had owed Regnault. Both transactions 
 were before E. Dubourdieu, the roj^al notary at Fort Conde, 
 — a frequent unofficial witness in the church records, as we 
 remember. 
 
 These two houses cannot be identified, for, provokingly 
 enough, the deeds never name the streets, but give other pri- 
 vate places as boundaries. For instance, Emard 's house thus 
 sold to Fleury was opposite that sold by Verneuil to Robert, 
 the master tailor, and adjoining De Terrepuy's house and 
 Margaret Belzaguy's vacant lot; but where were these? And 
 the house Fleury sells is no better described, for it is merely 
 said to be the one which he purchased of Jean Sarry. 
 
 Sixteen months later, after the Chickasaw expedition, we 
 find Fleury selling this place for two hundred and fifty livres 
 to Jean Girard de St. Jean and his wife Margaret Benoit be- 
 fore the notary De Flandre. The description gives the lot as 
 
168 COLONIAL MOBILE. 
 
 twelve and a half toises wide by twenty-five deep, bounded 
 on one side by a lot of grantor, and on the other by one of 
 Jean Belzagny, deceased, and fronting the house of the widow 
 Verneuil, while to the rear are the woods. 
 
 De Terrepuy's lot next to this of De Fleury's had been 
 acquired by him at the auction of the property of Sergeant 
 Beauvais, and we find him selling it at two hundred livres 
 on July 6, before the same notary, to Girard, pilot of the 
 Alibamons, — • no doubt the same man who bought from De 
 Fleury. The description is equally vague, and we learn only 
 that the lot was between the houses of Hamond and De Fleury. 
 In what part of the town was this activity in real estate we do 
 not know. 
 
 There were many grants in French times, of course, which 
 cannot now be traced. Some were abandoned, but many, espe- 
 cially in the city, continued in uninterrupted possession of 
 descendants or sub -grantees whose preserved deeds were not to 
 antedate the Spanish domination. In the American State 
 Papers we find Kerlerec's grant to Pechon of five thousand 
 arpens on Mobile River, that of Bienville and Salmon, in 1737, 
 of the five thousand and forty arpen island in Tensaw River to 
 Margaret De Lusser, which had been abandoned by the Tensaw 
 Indians. Corresponding is a tract on the mainland, to be 
 certified by De Velle as property of Mme. De Lusser, granted 
 her May 27, 1738, by Governor Bienville and Commissaire 
 Ordonnateur Salmon. This had one league front on Tensaw 
 River by sixty arpens depth, bounded north and south by 
 creeks, about a league and a half above the Apalache Indians. 
 
 Many others were to be disapproved for one reason or other 
 by the United States authorities, but among those which were 
 to stand the test of time was the St. Louis Tract near Mobile. 
 This is probably where the Apalaches had been located, and is 
 that extensive and important region between Three Mile Creek 
 and Chickasabogue. The last stream was called, under the 
 French, the St. Louis River, possibly in connection with the 
 Apalache parish of that name. It embraced about 22,500 
 arpens, and was granted to M. Diron November 7, 1733, by 
 Bienville and Salmon. ^ After Diron left, we find it, before 
 1746, in possession of Charles Maria de Lalande, for Lalande 
 ^ 5 American State Papers, p. 130. 
 
IN THE ARCHIVE OFFICE. 159 
 
 and wife in that year conveyed it to Joseph Barbeau de Bois- 
 dore, whose heirs, in 1759, sold it to De Bonville (Bonnille?). 
 One of D'Abbadie's certificates of 1763 recognizes the own- 
 ership of this, under the name of St. Louis plantation, by 
 Bonville. From Bonville it was to pass to the De Lussers, in 
 1807 to J. B. Laurendine, and then in the same year to Joseph 
 Chastang, in whose representatives it was confirmed finally by 
 the United States. It was, in Laurendine 's deed, described as 
 being one hundred and fifty arpens square. 
 
 To Bienville's grant to D'Artaguette, then, in his third 
 administration, do we owe the origin of that great tract extend- 
 ing from Bayou Chateaugue to Boguehoma and Chickasabogue, 
 from west of Whistler and Toulminville to Mobile River, now 
 the seat of so many railroads, mills, and industries. 
 
 De Velle was later to certify to another important grant to 
 Mme. De Lusser, — who turns out to be his mother-in-law. 
 This was what is now called the De Lusser Tract, the earliest 
 of the extensive concessions outside old Latin Mobile which 
 were to figure so much in the present larger city. 
 
 This tract now extends from about the northeast corner of 
 our St. Emanuel and Eslava out to a little across Broad Street 
 just south of Dauphin Street. At the time of the concession, 
 only the front, two arpens and four toises wide, was of any 
 consequence. The town did not stretch further west than Con- 
 ception Street, and it is doubtful if any one knew or cared 
 where the twenty-five arpens depth would come out. It faced, 
 on the east, other lands of Mme. De Lusser and De Bonnille, 
 touching on the one side (north) property of De Morzier, and 
 boxmded on the other (south) by the pine forest. This land 
 (terrain) Mme. De Lusser cleared in 1748, and when De Velle 
 wrote, in 1763, it was serving to lodge her slaves, for whom 
 she had built cabins. She could not have cleared much except 
 the front of this eighty acre tract. 
 
 Of Morzier's land we know nothing, and his title cuts no 
 figure afterwards. The lot opposite, however, had in later 
 years quite an eventful history. We next find both De Lusser 
 pieces in possession of Captain Jean Baptiste De Lusser, and 
 how it gets from her to him is one of the puzzles of the record 
 office. 
 
 Town-lots are recited to have been granted her by Governor 
 
160 COLONIAL MOBILE. 
 
 Kerlerec in 1757, also. They were two in number, making 
 up a tract twenty-five toises square at the northwest corner of 
 Koyal and Conti, and consequently part of the commissariat 
 proj^erty we find on Phelyjaeaux's jilau of 17G0. 
 
 Among the Haldimand Papers in the British Museum are 
 preserved several deeds which passed to that British governor 
 at Mobile in 1768. These give us the story of another piece 
 of property from 1749 down. 
 
 We thus learn that Alexis Cartier was once the owner of 
 a lot twelve and a half by twenty -five toises, and sold it, March 
 29, 1749, to Louis Flandrin. He in his turn, on May 15, 
 1756, sold it to Joseph Barbaud de Boisdore. Flandrin's 
 wife was Marie Louise Diuant, and all the parties were resi- 
 dents. The lot had on it a house built of posts {potteaux) and 
 earth, roofed with bark. The place was contiguous on the one 
 side to royal land occupied by M. Aubert, aide major, making 
 the corner of "la Rue Coucy " (Conty?), and at the back (swr 
 le dernier) adjoining the property of Widow Barthelemy. The 
 consideration was not money, but fifteen cows and calves, one 
 pair of oxen of three years, and a bull (^toreati) of two years 
 and a half, the whole to be delivered in two installments at the 
 purchaser's St. Louis residence, — for, as we saw above, Bois- 
 dor^ then owned the St. Louis Tract. All the purchaser's 
 property is, as usual, mortgaged as security. Flandrin signs, 
 with Joseph Chastang and Jean Boccard as witnesses, but 
 Boisdord could not write. 
 
 March 31, 1759, Boisdore sold to Alen La Vergne, who 
 likewise could not write, what is apparently the same property, 
 situated at the corner of the square opposite to the commis- 
 sary's office, for fifteen hundred livres, in the presence of J. B. 
 Royot (Rovijeot?) and Pierre Rochon. November 25, 1763, De 
 Velle, former royal lieutenant, certifies to La Vergne 's owner- 
 ship of the house at the corner of the block (isle) vis-a-vis the 
 old commissariat. Subsequent British deeds, as we shall see, 
 make the property face the river, but do not otherwise help 
 locate it. 
 
 The most reasonable interpretation of all this is that the lot 
 was the southwest corner of Royal and Conti, and that, as the 
 government had sold part of the commissariat to the De Lus- 
 sers, it had also made the northeast part of the barracks square 
 
IN THE ARCHIVE OFFICE. 161 
 
 private property. Whether Cartier and Barthelemy were the 
 original grantees or not, we do not know. 
 
 Ihree pai:)e]-s of this time connected with the estate of Bar- 
 thelemy Monclin, deceased, have survived at Mobile in copies 
 authenticated by their later Spanish custodians, and throw a 
 good deal of interesting light on French procedure. 
 
 We learn that Monclin had been jjartner of Louis Flandrin, 
 and that they owned the place once inhabited by Le Sueur up 
 the river. The proceedings consist in an application, July 
 22, 1756, by Guillaume Marcellin as substitute of the general 
 administrator (^jrocwrewr a?/£o hiens vacants), for the sale of the 
 interest of the deceased. This was addressed to Bob<3 Desclo- 
 seaux, "Councillor of the King, Commissary of the Marine, 
 Judge of the royal jurisdiction of Mobile." The petition was 
 granted. The notice (affiche) is headed " De Par le Roy, Vente 
 Judiciaire d' habitation," and says that the sale will be on 
 three successive Sundays at the church door on the close of the 
 mass service Qi Vissue de la messe). This notice is signed by 
 Descloseaux and by Marcellin as clerk (greffier), and says that 
 the purchaser must pay cash, even if a creditor, and cannot 
 receive possession until January, on account of the crop 
 (recolte). 
 
 We are not told where the notices were posted, but the sale 
 duly took place at the church door on the three successive 
 Sundays. Descloseaux, accompanied by Francois Cesar Ber- 
 noudy, substitute of the royal attorney -general, and the clerk 
 Marcellin, had Ceringe the crier (Jiuissier) proclaim the sale 
 in a loud voice, guaranteeing the title. A number of people 
 assembled, and Olivier made the only bid, eight hundred livres, 
 when the sale was adjourned. On the second Sunday, the sale 
 starting with the eight hundred livres, Aubert bid nine hun- 
 dred, and, there being no further bids, it went over. On the 
 third Sunday the bidding was quite spirited and went up to 
 2520 livres, at which price the property was adjudged to Flan- 
 drin. Flnndrin afterwards sold a half interest to Francois and 
 Bernard Bernoudy, and, after Flandrin's death, one of them, 
 in 1764, sells the half interest to Narbonne, who had married 
 Flandrin's widow. This last sale was for four hundred piastres 
 in hard Spanish money. "Robert Farmar" was one of the 
 witnesses to this deed. 
 
162 COLONIAL MOBILE. 
 
 The uext regular deed we find is a conveyance October 16, 
 1759, to soldier J. C. Mortall by J. B. Le Fleau as guardian 
 of Francis and Ren^, minor children of the late Marie Anne 
 D'Agneau, and executor of his father-in-law, our friend Jean 
 Girard de St. Jean, formerly royal boatman. The property is 
 probably not that heretofore described, although Marie Anne 
 D'Agneau had herself bought it originally from Terrepuy and 
 Fleury. The land in our deed of 1759 seems to be bounded 
 north by a street, — the second mention of a street, but, alas, 
 unnamed, — and on the south by a lot of Lacage, while on the 
 other side is the lot of Mme. Poupart. The price is eight 
 hundred livres, payable within three years, drawing ten per 
 cent interest, due every six months, all in current money of 
 this colony. Right of reentry is reserved in the deed on 
 default of payment. A receij^t and release by Le Fleau fol- 
 lows, executed May 23, 1763, before the same notary Roujeot, 
 acknowledging payment in all of 2340 livres in full satisfac- 
 tion. There is some mistake in the figures, however, for how 
 the purchase-money even at ten per cent for about three and 
 a half years could nearly treble itself is not easy to see. De- 
 cember 16, 1763, De Velle, ex-lieutenant at Mobile, and 
 Director-General D' Abbadie, at New Orleans, were to certify to 
 Mortalle's title to the property. 
 
 Among grants dating from French times may also be men- 
 tioned that of fifteen thousand arpens on Mobile River above 
 Chickasabogue, granted in July, 1760, which under the Ameri- 
 cans was to be confirmed to the extent of 5760 acres to Samuel 
 Acre, who claimed it under Benjamin Dubroca. The original 
 grantee of the tract is not known. The papers were much 
 mutilated. 1 This grant extends from Chickasabogue north 
 to Bayou Sara, and from a little east of the M. & B. Rail- 
 road to Mobile River. 
 
 The next document recorded is a copy of a translation of 
 a petition by the Chevalier Montaut de Monl^erault, January 3, 
 1763, for confirmation of his possession of a tract of land one 
 league and a half up Fowl River in the cul-de-sac or turn 
 called Lisloy (Goose Island), where he lived. The dimensions 
 are not given, and indeed the description is confusing, as it is 
 next said to take "its boundaries towards the sea from the 
 1 5 American State Papers, p. 594. 
 
IN THE ARCHIVE OFFICE. 163 
 
 River Barreau sometimes called by the name of River Laba- 
 terie, and on the other side ascending the river until the said 
 boundary reaches its spring or source." This is all quite un- 
 certain, but would seem to point to a place between the head- 
 waters of Bayou Labaterie and Fowl River. The northwest 
 confluent of Fowl River is still sometimes called " Isle aux Oies 
 River," and Lisloy is Bull Island. The land, he says, is 
 swampy and uninhabitable on account of the great number of 
 marshy rivulets called Bois Bleux. This must be a mistake, 
 as hois bleu is the titi-tree, which prefers low lands. Monbe- 
 rault wanted it for his business of cattle-breeding. He had pur- 
 chased it from Mr. Petit, who got it from Mr. Dauriscourt, and 
 he in turn from a man named Lalime, the first settler, but 
 none of them had a title from the government. Wherefore, 
 says Monberault, "your petitioner finds himself in the same 
 situation with the greater part of the inhabitants of this part 
 of the country, who, in fact, have no other titles to the lands 
 which they occupy than the very incomplete and insufficient 
 right which arises from possession." 
 
 The governor, Louis de Kerlerec, chevalier of the royal 
 and military order of St. Louis, captain of the king's ships, 
 and Denis Nicholas Foucault, acting as commissaire ordonna- 
 teur of the province, considered this memorial, and on March 
 11, 1763, at New Orleans, granted the tract to Monberault in 
 fee simple, subject to the usual conditions, the same as set out 
 in Cadillac's grant to La Pointe forty-eight years before. 
 
 It cost nothing to enter public land in those days. There 
 was, in fact, in the troubled days of the Seven Years' war, 
 more land than colonists, and, as noted in several documents, 
 it was the king's will that all his subjects should settle in the 
 department of Mobile wherever they thought most convenient 
 and proper. But the will of the weak and dissolute Louis 
 XV. was on the wane in Louisiana, and in the latter part of 
 1763 his representatives were busy giving certificates to take 
 the place of grants which they could, after the Treaty of Paris, 
 no longer make. 
 
 Thus, on the fourth day of December, Pierre Annibal De 
 Velle, chevalier of the royal and military order of St. Louis, 
 ex-lieutenant of the king at Mobile, certifies that one Sanregret 
 Baptiste has held for many years an improved lot in Mobile 
 
164 COLONIAL MOBILE. 
 
 of twelve ami a half toises front by twenty-five deep, adjoining 
 that of Du Font, who had lost his house by fire. Baptiste got 
 the place from his wife, and she by inheritance from Joseph 
 Sabatier, who acquired it originally by grant from Commissaire 
 Ordonuateur De Cremont. D'Abbadie as royal director-gen- 
 eral at New Orleans, thereupon, on the same day, certifies that 
 the lot is the property of Baptiste, causes his seal at arms to be 
 affixed, and the paper to be countersigned by his secretary at 
 Mobile, Duverg^. This was the usual course, and, as De 
 Velle's certificate at Mobile and that of D'Abbadie at New 
 Orleans always bear the same date, it would seem that it was 
 all done at Mobile at one time. Secretary Duverg6 may have 
 had this seal by him there which he attests as "By Monseigneur's 
 command." 
 
CHAPTER XX. 
 
 DAUPHINE ISLAND AND THE COAST. 
 
 Massacre Island we have seen explored by Iberville on 
 his first voyage. Later Sauvole made some examination, and 
 it was on his report that Iberville, in 1701, sounded to the east 
 and found a good harbor, made by the intersection of Pelican 
 Island. It was large enough for thirty vessels. Commissary 
 La Salle describes it as having twenty to twenty -one feet of 
 water at its entrance. He said it was better than Pensacola, 
 and one of the best ports on the coast. La Salle thought it 
 should have a fort, and Iberville, during the removal from 
 Biloxi, did build magazines for merchandise and barracks for 
 soldiers there, ^ which were probably more than temporary 
 structures. 
 
 The port was always in use. There, and not in Mobile Bay 
 proper, did the French vessels come, and, instead of directly 
 sailing up to the river, ships all unloaded at the island, and 
 cargoes were transferred to boats of smaller draught, like a 
 traversier or a lighter, and taken up to town. It was indeed 
 a dark time for Mobile, when, as sometimes happened, there 
 was no regular communication with the island. On one such 
 occasion, when the government finances were low, the officers 
 of the garrison managed to buy a stray brigantine, which was 
 put up for sale at Mobile, and thus reestablished intercourse 
 with their port. Du Pratz rather poetically calls Mobile the 
 birthplace of the colony and Dauphine Island its cradle, but 
 he was strictly correct in declaring that the two really made up 
 but one place. ^ 
 
 By 1707, several families had moved there from Mobile, and 
 we learn from the devout Penicaut that in this year Chateaugue 
 
 ^ 5 Margry, Decouvertes, pp. 421, 425 ; 4 Margry, Decouvertes, pp. 530j 
 533. 
 
 2 Le Page du Pratz, History of Louisiana, pp. 17, 49. 
 
166 COLONIAL MOBILE. 
 
 rescued the survivors of St. Maurice's ship St. Antoine, whose 
 impious sailors had thrown a figure of that patron saint over- 
 board into the sea. 
 
 It was in 1709 that La Vigne Voisin, a captain from St. 
 Malo, who some years later was to try to trade with the Span- 
 iards, obtained permission to improve the place, and to him, 
 says Penicaut, was due its fort to defend the harbor and the very 
 beautiful church {fort helle eglise) facing the water, which 
 attracted people even from near Mobile. This fort seems to 
 have fallen into decay, or been ill located. At all events, 
 L'Epinay was in 1717 to build another at half a gunshot from 
 the sea.^ 
 
 By 1710, all free persons from the ships settled on the island, 
 and by two years later Cadillac found it necessary to build 
 houses for the increasing population. ^ About this time it was 
 that, during the long war between England and France, a 
 pirate ship from British Jamaica, in 1711, raided Dauphine 
 Island and the crew ruthlessly destroyed everything possible. 
 The loss was estimated at fifty thousand livres.^ Huve was 
 acting as priest at the time, and was himself all but killed.* 
 
 This, however, was the only English attack, and the island 
 soon recovered. The port of Mobile was there, in the harbor 
 formed by Pelican Island and the east end of Dauphine, and 
 the many ships made the place prosperous. Colonists dissat- 
 isfied with the interior also drifted there, and the port now 
 saw its palmiest days. When Cadillac was recalled, the chiefs 
 of twenty -four Indian tribes went to Dauphine Island to wel- 
 come his successor, L'Epinay. Among them, according to 
 Penicaut, were the Chactas, Touachas, Apalaches, Tinssas, 
 Mobiliens, Tomes, gens des Fourches (Naniabas?), Capinans, 
 Colapissas, Bayogoulas, Oumas, Tonicas, Chaouachas, Natchez, 
 Chicachas, Nassitoches, Yataces, Alibamons, and Canapouces. 
 The calumet-smoking lasted two months, as they could not 
 arrange to come all at one time. The governor received them 
 well, and sent them away with presents.^ 
 
 1 5 Margry, Decouvertes, pp. 482, 547 ; 1 Martin's Louisiana, p. 172. 
 ' 5 Margry, Decouvertes, pp. 485, 505. 
 
 2 3 French's Historical Collection, p. 37 ; Pickett's A labama, p. 208. 
 
 * 1 Shea's Catholic Church in the Colonies, p. 553 ; 6 French's Historical Col- 
 lection, p. 104. 
 
 * 5 Margry, Decouvertes, p. 547. 
 
DAUPHINE ISLAND AND THE COAST. 167 
 
 The first church mention, for the Mobile priest visited it, 
 seems to be the baptism on condition, in 1709, of a son of Jean 
 Croix and Angelique Brouin his wife, inhabitants of Massacre. 
 The second is when Le Maire next year at the island baptizes 
 a nxunber of people, when we learn that Bodin was a trader 
 (marchand) there and that Roy was master cannoneer. Other 
 names are mentioned also, besides slaves. Arnauld, Poudrier, 
 L'AUemand, also a trader, and Grimauld seem to be among 
 the inhabitants of Massacre, and D'Artaguette, commissary 
 of the marine, at least had a slave who lived there. In 1710, 
 before the piratical attack La Vente says there were twenty 
 houses at Port Dauphin. 
 
 There comes in the church notices an interval of several 
 years following the pirate attack from Jamaica, broken only by 
 the baptism, in 1717, of Marie Marguerite, daughter of Jean 
 Colon and Marguerite Prau his wife, inhabitants of "Lisle 
 Daufine." This was the fatal year in which the Peacock en- 
 tered in twenty-seven feet of water and was barred in, having 
 to unload and go out by the Grand Goziers in ten feet.^ Then 
 again is a skip until 1721, when a daughter is baptized of the 
 well-known soldier Pierre Danty and Marie Chatelier his wife, 
 of Massacre, with the Alexandres as godparents. For Mathieu 
 returns to the old name despite the change, in 1711, to Dau- 
 phine, and like the others seldom uses the word "island," 
 
 In 1719 came the Pensacola war, and it was in that year 
 that occurred the Spanish counter-attack on Dauphine Island 
 so vigorously resisted by Bienville and St. Denis with soldiers, 
 savages, and concessionaires. The investment lasted twelve 
 days, but the French were successful.^ 
 
 Possibly no more interesting paper has come down to us 
 from French times than a "Veue de I'lsle Dauphine" shortly 
 subsequent to 1717. 
 
 In a clearing on the south side of the island rises from the 
 beach the settlement, in two divisions. To the west, facing 
 the open sea, high on the shores we see the bastioned, pali- 
 saded fort, in whose barracks lodge the troops. About it are 
 sundry one-story houses, of which one within a fence is the 
 powder-house, and behind a little embankment by the water's 
 edge are cannon to defend the outer harbor. 
 
 ^ 1 Martin's Louisiana, p. 195. ^ 5 Margry, Decouvertes, p. 669. 
 
168 COLONIAL MOBILE. 
 
 Further east, beyond the fatal bar which in 1717 closed up 
 the entrance and joined Spanish (Pelican) island to Isle Dau- 
 phine, is the town (hourg). This is on a little cove and over- 
 looks the inner harbor, where ride, with full sail, the two- 
 masted Paon and the Paix, under the mouths of cannon 
 mounted on the strand. This settlement is a straight line of 
 some eighteen houses, almost all one-story, and generally in 
 square, picketed lots. The commandant's house is there, 
 facing the cove, and has a sentry-box in front. Two long 
 houses are magasins of the company, and adjoining is the guard- 
 house (corps de garde), while near the inner end of the line is 
 the ynagasm of the king. There is also a second but shorter 
 row of buildings behind, among which is the house which serves 
 for a church, — one of the few with two doors shown on this 
 plan. It may be the gift of La Vigne Voisin. 
 
 Across the island at the Shell Banks on the bay are still 
 found shell cement walls, not unlike those of the Spaniards 
 about St. Augustine, which some think the work of the French 
 after storms had injured the other settlement. It may be there 
 was a fort there once, but these particular walls are said by 
 old residents to be part of the kilns of De Vauxbercy in early 
 American times. This high spot commands a fine view over 
 the bay and Sound, and the Banks, crowned by cedars, must 
 always have been prominent in the landscape and a favorite 
 place of resort. The Shell Banks antedate the French, and 
 from them are still dug Indian skeletons, ornaments, and uten- 
 sils.^ 
 
 The closing of the port on the southern side of Dauphine by 
 the shifting bar changed the history of the island, and of 
 Mobile, too, but it had been anticipated by Iberville long 
 before. 2 In 1721 we read that several families left for New 
 Biloxi, and the Neptune was loaded with stores and families 
 for the Mississippi settlement.^ Officers, soldiers, and maga- 
 zines went, too, and the impression has prevailed that the 
 French completely abandoned the island. This is not true. 
 Danville's map, dating not earlier than 1732, shows the town, 
 and it was there that Bienville and Chateaugue came, in 1724, 
 to take passage on the Bellona for France, when the ship sud- 
 
 ^ So John Ladinier, now the oldest man on the island. 
 
 * 4 Margry, Decouvertes, p. 509. ' 5 Margry, Decouvertes, pp. 571, 572. 
 
>U /.•7<-.//' /•/,<'■..//--'.. 
 
 

 
 
 !;&£. 
 
 ^^^ 
 
 
 
 
DAUPHINE ISLAND AND THE COAST. 169 
 
 denly sank before their eyes. The church records also show 
 the port in use. 
 
 An entry, in 1722, by Mathieu shows Paul Le Sueur still 
 commandant for the king in Dauphine Island, "ditte Massa- 
 cre." This was made during a visitation of that place. In 
 fact, a number of inhabitants and their slaves, too, are men- 
 tioned from time to time. In 1727, for instance, we find Jean 
 Arnauld, next year Mr. Renauld. Renauld is mentioned, 
 curiously enough, as of Massacre in the Isle Dauphine, as if 
 Massacre was the name of the town on the island. Arnauld 
 occurs again in 1736 and 1742. We have the marriage of J. 
 B. Baudrau, a Creole of the island, besides mention of Nicolas 
 Rousseau and wife, and the baptism by Mathias, vicar -general 
 of Monseigneur de Quebec, of the daughter of Jacque Duj^re, 
 a Canadian inhabiting the "Baye de la Mobile." This proba- 
 bly means the island, as the sponsor is J. B. Alexandre, Creole 
 of the place, and there were Alexandres on Massacre. Later 
 we find Pierre Paques, inhabitant "deLabbaye." In 1740, we 
 again have Massacre named in the baptism of a son of Robert 
 OUivier, another resident. Both in 1728 and 1742 the island 
 is mentioned as dependent on the Mobile parish. 
 
 No soldiers are given for a long time, but it would seem 
 there was often or always a garrison. In 1742, there was, for 
 we learn that according to report of officers and soldiers of 
 Massacre one J. B. Lozier, a private, was drowned in the 
 lagoon. He did not, however, give his name to this cove, 
 possibly that on which lay the settlement, as Derbane had long 
 before to the river (now Bayou La Batre) where he perished. 
 Even as late as 1762 we find mention of the garrison of Mas- 
 sacre in the baptism of a child of Nicolas Bouvie, a soldier of 
 that post. 
 
 What we now call Little Dauphine Island we find on French 
 maps of 1732 as Isle a Guillori, and it was probably so called 
 for a resident, for in 1740 we have the baptism of the daughter 
 of Gregoire Guillory, described as both a native and inhabitant 
 of Massacre. His wife was Jeanne La Casse, inhabitant of 
 the same parish. Guillory was nine years later to lose a 
 daughter Louise, a younger child, and at this last date he is 
 mentioned as living at Fish River. But with the mention of 
 Bouvie, in 1762, the record closes as to Massacre or Dauphine 
 
170 COLONIAL MOBILE. 
 
 Island, although Point Chugae (Chateaiigue ?), Graveline Bay, 
 Pont Vendigarde, and other existing names, indicate that there 
 was more French history than we now know. Bon Secours 
 Bay, beyond Mobile Point, was no doubt named on account of 
 its security in time of storm. 
 
 Across Mississippi Sound on what we now call Mon Louis 
 Island, granted to him in 1710 as Grosse Pointe, long lived 
 Nicolas Bodin. It was practically a part of the mainland. 
 Miragouin, we learn from Penicaut, was established the year 
 before.^ He bore this surname of Miragouin, — spelled differ- 
 ently at different times. It was regarded as his barony, so to 
 speak, for Sieur de Miragouin is his common title and signa- 
 ture, too. The word seems to mean mosquito, and is not a 
 strange origin for knighthood, — if sound plays any part. 
 
 It was this settlement which was attacked by the Spaniards, 
 in 1719, to pillage the goods of concessionaires stored there, 
 but on their second landing the invaders were beaten off by 
 the Mobilians, Indians always friendly to the French. They 
 killed thirty Spaniards and captured seventeen more, whom 
 they took to Mobile. There they broke their heads and threw 
 the bodies over into the river. ^ It was the usual method of 
 savage warfare, and Penicaut does not say that the French 
 interfered to prevent this massacre of the prisoners. 
 
 Our mosquito knight lived for more peaceful times, and we 
 find him more than once in the Mobile church register. Pos- 
 sibly the first time was in 1729, when the Chevalier Jean Bap- 
 tiste de BulbuUi, Marquis de Pisa, in a very shaky hand, signs 
 as sponsor of two slaves of Miraguin. The name occurs on 
 the map of the Western Company, and the word is shown on 
 Danville's map of about 1732 near Grosse Pointe. Two years 
 after that Bodin and his wife Fran9oise Pailliet are mentioned 
 as "habitants" of the colony, and the same year is baptized a 
 son, and later a daughter, of J. B. Alexandre, whose wife is 
 Frauijoise Hyppolite Bodin. Both are Creoles, and the god- 
 mother is Mme. Miragoine. We have the exact date of his 
 death in the register as February 6, 1746, when he is described 
 as a native of Mont Louis in the archbishopric of Tours, and a 
 captain of militia of this coast. Hence no doubt his name 
 Monlouis. Two slaves of his "succession" are mentioned the 
 next year. 
 
 ^ 5 Margry, Decouvertes, p. 484. ^ Ibid., p. 569 
 
DAUPHINE ISLAND AND THE COAST. 171 
 
 The name continued in his descendants, for as late as 1762 
 there was baptized a son of "Louis Alexandre Bodin, dit 
 Miragoine, " and a slave of Monlouis is mentioned the next 
 year. It may be that its belonging to one family prevented 
 thick settlement of the country. Their home place was the 
 well-known Miragoine on the bay, rather towards the northern 
 part of the island, according to maps. This was at the Del- 
 champs residence, if we may rely on tradition, and old pecans 
 still mark the spot, while near have been found remains of 
 houses made of frame and mortar. A little below is Point 
 Juliet, named for a Creole who married an Indian woman, and 
 maps seem to mark this out as the Grosse Pointe for which the 
 island was first named, although the cape in the sound at Pass 
 a Barreau would better fit the name. 
 
 Above Mon Louis on the Bay Bellefontaine marks the spring 
 known to the French no less than to the Spaniards, and on the 
 island, above the Narrows, is the site of the traditional French 
 Vineyard. Lower is Bayou Diable, called, it is said, for the 
 exclamation of a man caught in that cul-de-sac, as he was 
 trying to steal a boat and take it through the Narrows, and 
 coming in from the west is Bayou Coulangue, named, it may be, 
 for some forgotten resident. A Coulange we read of as active 
 in Perrier's Indian wars.^ 
 
 About the sound end of Mon Louis Island are a number of 
 places indicating French ownership at one time, such as Pass 
 aux Herons, Pass aux Huitres by Cedar Point, Heron Bayou, 
 Pass a Barreau, and perhaps Maupers Island, but not neces- 
 sarily showing settlements. 
 
 To the west on the mainland of the sound. Bayou Coden is 
 but a barbarous form of "Coq d'Inde" (turkey), and Pointe 
 aux Pins (pines) is yet preserved. Near that point Isle aux 
 Dames is found on official maps, and Coffee Island has the 
 alternate name of Isle aux Herbes. The occasion of giving 
 most of these names has been forgotten, but Bayou La Batre 
 we have seen called River Labaterie, and was probably named 
 from a French battery on the west bank.^ A mournful sound 
 
 ^ 1 Martin's Louisiana, p. 282. 
 
 2 John Ladinier used to point out to J. J. Delchamps the site where he 
 had seen such a colonial battery, and by the Tait place is still a mound 
 which may be a part of a fortification. 
 
172 COLONIAL MOBILE. 
 
 heard from the waters of this coast is attributed by tradition to 
 the suicide of its native races by pkmging into Portersville 
 Bay, — a story something like that of Paseagoula. 
 
 Pascagoula, too, was early settled by the French. On the 
 1732 map of Danville, Sr. La Pointe's place is shown about 
 the fine oaks above the present railroad bridge, although of 
 course the plan is not in sufficient detail to identify the exact 
 spot. Across the river and bay, somewhat higher up, is 
 marked the village of the Pascagoulas (Bread-eaters), and near 
 the great bend, where now is busy Moss Point, we find the 
 famous Chaumont concession. But the French settlement is 
 also shown prominently on the earlier map of the Western 
 Company, and may even have existed before then. 
 
 Tradition goes even back of the French, and Gayarre tells 
 the weird legend of a Spanish priest who came there after De 
 Soto's battle at Mauvilla and established a mission among the 
 mild Indians of that day. The cross, the bell, the mysterious 
 box gradually weaned them from their worship of a mermaid, 
 until once at midnight the sea and river rose in tidal waves 
 under the light of the full moon, and on their crest appeared 
 the maid pleading with irresistible music for her deluded 
 children to come back to her. And come back they did, 
 plunging one after the other into the water, leaving the dis- 
 tracted priest alone upon the shore. Laughing then, she disap- 
 peared, and the waters with her. 
 
 The father declared a crucifix, dropped in the river at full 
 moon, would break the spell, but that the priest who did it 
 would also die, and no one has ever dared to verify the predic- 
 tion. But her music may still be heard, even in these prosaic 
 days, coming up from under boats of fishermen. For the 
 charm has never been broken. 
 
 The first entry in the Mobile records, curiously enough in 
 view of the legend, is the certificate of burial, in 1726, of sev- 
 eral people foimd drowned in Fish River at Pascagoula, for 
 this settlement, too, was long dependent on the Mobile parish. 
 Then comes the baptism of the child of Francois Rilieu, of 
 Pascagoula, and, in 1734, we notice the marriage there of Bau- 
 drau, of Dauphine Island, at the house of La Pointe. This is 
 written on a loose slip of paper and announces that one ban 
 only was published after Sunday mass, the other two being 
 
DAUPHINE ISLAND AND THE COAST. 173 
 
 dispensed with. The reason of this doubtless was that Mathieu 
 visited the place so infrequently. 
 
 Not until 1758 do we hear of Pascagoula again, except a 
 casual mention of Eilieu and wife and child as resident there. 
 There was once the baptism of the daughter of a Pascagoula 
 Indian woman, but this was possibly at Mobile. In the year 
 1758 was baptized Joseph, son of Maturin Christian Cadner, 
 an inhabitant of Pascagoula ; but this seems to be the last church 
 record of the place. 
 
 There is, in the registers, a mention or so of the death of 
 sailors for the great company or the king, but the navigation 
 between Dauphine Island and Mobile, and between the city 
 and the river forts, was not managed by these matelots. In 
 1728 is mentioned the widow of Branquinier, late captain of 
 traversier, and the next year we find Boudignon with the 
 usual title for captain of small boats, — patron. He acted as 
 late as 1746, when his wife is named as Anne Poirie. In 1731, 
 Sr. Francois Harmon was master pilot, and next year " Theo- 
 dore Robin dit Lanois " patron for the king. 
 
 A few years later the death of J. L. Vinant is mentioned, 
 captain of a boat in the service of the king. In 1737, we first 
 notice Francis Girard as patron, and three years later Jean 
 Girard, his father, who was to act as such for so long a time. 
 His print signature is very frequent in the registers. His 
 wife was Marie Anne Daniau, Creole of Mobile, whose death 
 was to be subsequently noted. In the year 1737 we have the 
 first name of a local boat, — La Marguerite, — whose " second 
 captain " was Louis Pierre Sevet, and later is named Mr. 
 JEllon as captain of the boat (bateaii), but her name is not 
 given. In 1758 was buried in the hospital cemetery Andre 
 Miot, patron for the king, and in the same year died Jean 
 Girard also, while a few years afterwards is mentioned a new 
 patron, — J. B. Nicaise, called Vade Bon Coeur ; the last of 
 the French boat captains. 
 
CHAPTER XXL 
 
 FAITS ACCOMPLIS. 
 
 In studying a Latin community, with its centralized institu- 
 tions, much attention must be given to the capital. Neverthe- 
 less, in the case of Mobile the capital was a point of departure 
 for securing the interior. This in the early years meant the 
 whole Mississippi Valley, and after the time of Law's Company 
 it was especially true of the Alabama-Tombigbee basin ; but if 
 the port yielded to the upper rivers, even this was as a means 
 to a greater end, for the upper rivers were to be the base of the 
 coming contest with the English colonies on the Atlantic. Be- 
 fore looking at the French policy up the Tombigbee and in the 
 Alibamon country and beyond, let us take stock of what had 
 been accomplished nearer the coast. 
 
 The first colonists of Louisiana came in the most glorious 
 days of Louis XIV., the time when he had extended the bounds 
 of the country, was honored abroad, and had unified the govern- 
 ment of France. The Huguenots had been driven out, carrying 
 thrift and manufactures to Germany and England, and even to 
 South Carolina ; but in the mind of the king this was compen- 
 sated by the unity of belief secured among his subjects. It is 
 true the navy had not recovered from the neglect into which 
 Mazarin had allowed it to fall, and the French fleet was sur- 
 passed by the Spanish, British, and especially by the Dutch. ^ 
 Nevertheless there were great French men-of-war afloat and 
 intrepid French seamen on the ocean like Tourville, Suffren, 
 and Du Quesne, while a younger set were distinguishing them- 
 selves in Hudson's Bay and other American waters. Among 
 the principal ports of the country were still La Rochelle and 
 Rochefort, besides the new one near by of Port Louis. Roche- 
 fort had its intendant of the marine and special treasurer, who 
 were in charge of American affairs. It would seem as if colo- 
 ^ Mahan's Injluence of Sea Power, passim. 
 
FAITS ACCOMPLIS. 175 
 
 nization by such a mighty king would be as successful as his 
 policy in Eurojie. Let us see how it worked out. 
 
 The first coluuial epoch had its centre and capital in the Ala- 
 bama- Tombigbee basin ; for Iberville reported the Mississippi 
 unsuitable for colonization, while the Mobile was and gave the 
 French access to the great Indian tribes and to the English. 
 From there went forth all efforts, whether on the Gulf or in the 
 interior, whether of development, Indian policy, or war, which 
 marked the first two decades of Louisiana's history. And this 
 first period covers the most original and interesting part of the 
 story ; for all things were new, the eyes of the inquisitive French 
 fell upon an opening world, whose wonders lost nothing in the 
 telling, from Lahontan to Bossu. 
 
 Iberville's instructions were to study everything about the 
 country, — mines, wool, hides, silk, and the governors were 
 urged to encourage agriculture.^ Doubtless he would have 
 settled the colonists on the country lands instead of keeping 
 them in whitewashed adobe houses on the narrow streets ; but 
 Iberville died, the reverses in Europe cut off supplies, and it 
 was probably well that the colonists remained together. There 
 were periods corresponding to Virginia's Starving Time, for 
 the people lived on cornbread, and were dispersed from time 
 to time in order to live, and not in order to develop the rich 
 lands. One difficulty was the absence of slaves, who could work 
 in the malarial, low country, and in the open during the long 
 summer, when the white men could not. There was a plan to 
 exchange two Indians for one negro in San Domingo; but this 
 could not be carried out.^ Nowhere had they learned better 
 than on that island that the aborigines could not or would 
 not do slave work. Until acclimated the French suffered greatly 
 every summer from malarial fever, and sometimes from yellow 
 fever. Such complaints were common for perhaps a decade. 
 For reasons of health and food supply many moved at first to 
 Dauphine Island, where the fishing was good ; and for a while 
 the port seemed destined to outstrip the main settlement, if in- 
 deed that fort was not to be washed away by the annual spring 
 freshets. 
 
 The reverses in Europe were reflected in distress on the Mo- 
 
 ^ Richard's Archive Report, p. 342, etc. 
 2 Magne, MS. Notes, p. 11. 
 
176 COLONIAL MOBILE. 
 
 bile, and floods there, and the piratical attack on Dauphine 
 Island rendered it expedient to move in 1711 to the river mouth. 
 This was an improvement so far as concerns location, but the 
 nature of the settlement was hardly changed. The town was 
 less a capital than the colony itself. Immigrants did not come, 
 and there was no parceling out of the vast interior. Manufac- 
 tures had not yet assumed a large economic place in France, 
 and of course this could not be expected in the colony. The 
 settlement on the river remained as heretofore official, so to 
 speak, — the place whence French influence permeated the in- 
 terior, and to which came aid from the home country, — rather 
 than a self-sustaining community. We have an instance of the 
 narrow colonial policy of the day when the minister hears of 
 the discovery of saltpetre mines in 1712; he directs, despite the 
 fact that all munitions must be brought from France, that the 
 manufacture of gunpowder in Louisiana be discontinued. And 
 this could be paralleled over and over in the British colonies, 
 not only as to manufactures, such as iron works, but even as to 
 the cultivation of tobacco. 
 
 The darkest time is just before dawn, and the distress of the 
 king was the opportunity for subjects. All colonies were thought 
 of, down to the time of Lord Durham, as something to be 
 exploited, first for royal, then for private benefit. Crozat's ex- 
 periment was unfortunate for him, but it led the way to one of 
 the most remarkable colonization schemes of history. 
 
 The private character of the Regent, the Due d' Orleans, has 
 blinded us to his real love of country and endeavors to promote 
 her interests ; and probably none of his efforts was actuated by 
 a higher motive than that which called John Law to the head 
 of colonial affairs. 
 
 Law acquainted himself with the extent of the Mississippi 
 Valley and the variety of its products, and built upon this a 
 great scheme of development. He recognized that colonists were 
 essential, and he sent them over by thousands. He was not 
 blind to the necessity of their being of good character, but his 
 agents found it much easier to take the scum of Paris and the 
 provinces and to empty the prisons than to induce good citizens 
 to leave their beloved France. 
 
 Nevertheless Law's administration marks the second period of 
 Louisiana's history. It was during the three years of Law's 
 
FAITS ACCOMPLIS. 177 
 
 personal regime that the province saw its greatest expansion. 
 On the east, St. Joseph's Bay was occupied for a while, on the 
 west that of St. Bernard was explored, while Fort Chartres was 
 built among the Illinois, formidable in structure and influence.^ 
 The Ohio and the tributaries from the south were explored, 
 Vincennes founded on the Ouabache, the Missouri followed for 
 hundreds of miles, and Natchitoches on Red River built on the 
 road to Texas. There were no longer merely grants of town 
 lots at the capital. Concessions of country lands, twenty arpens 
 front or more, faced the waters in all fertile spots, whether about 
 Mobile, Pascagoula, the new town building on the Mississippi and 
 named for the Regent, or in the country. The lower Mississippi 
 was lined with concessions, and soon they extended up the Arkan- 
 sas and the Yasous rivers. From being a small colony on Mobile 
 waters, Louisiana became a province embracing half a conti- 
 nent. 
 
 No one knew better than Law the Scotchman that some pro- 
 ductive industry must be the foundation of a community. If 
 there were mines, they were to be developed, and successful at- 
 tempts were made in lead and copper, and explorations under- 
 taken for silver and gold. Trade with the Indians was not 
 overlooked, and furs and hides were shipped abroad. After all, 
 the production principally desired was agriculture, and in agricul- 
 ture was in the long run to be the wealth of the country. Figs, 
 oranges, and other fruits were introduced from Europe, but the 
 main reliance was on indigo and tobacco, which Charlevoix 
 praises in his day. Stress was laid also upon rice, although it 
 did not come up to expectations, and curious it is that cotton, 
 which was to prove the chief product of the country, was hardly 
 cultivated at all. The truth is that at this epoch linen and wool 
 clothed Europe, and cotton was little used. It was known in 
 Mexico, but there must be a revolution in machinery to make its 
 exportation to Europe profitable. 
 
 Captain John Smith had found the Virginia forest a sub- 
 ject of terror,^ but put his settlers at work to subdue it. Bien- 
 yille in Louisiana, on the other hand, was in a country where 
 his colonists had only to burn off the cane adjacent to the rivers 
 
 ^ See Mason's Chapters in Illinois History, pp. 228, 235, for description of 
 Fort Chartres. 
 
 2 Works of Captain John Smith. 
 
178 COLONIAL MOBILE. 
 
 to find fields for cultivation, without cutting down the woods. 
 The different methods of settlement should also be taken into 
 account. The exclusive English were generally on bad terms 
 with the Indians, and from choice and necessity had to settle 
 within a compact district. In New England this was to lead to 
 a unique form of town civilization, and in Virginia and Caro- 
 lina to plantation life. The French of Louisiana, however, were 
 generally friendly with the natives. Many lived among the In- 
 dian tribes as hunters and traders, and the lure and profit of such 
 life weakened the attraction to agriculture, especially in the 
 earlier decades. Much time and energy were expended before it 
 was found out what plants suited the climate. Even from 
 Vieux Fort experiments in wheat were made on Lake Pontchar- 
 train. When the settlers had lands, these were granted upon 
 the waters, and many farmers, social by race, perhaps spent al- 
 most as much time in town as they did on their places. Indeed, 
 these were less farms than gardens, for the maize and vege- 
 tables raised were not so much for market as for home use. It 
 required the efforts of Law's exploitation company to systema- 
 tize settlements. 
 
 One must remember that agriculture was not a strong element 
 in French life under Louis XIV. and Louis XV.^ It is true 
 that the king had broken down the political power of the no- 
 bility and had established taxes payable directly to the crown. 
 Nevertheless the old feudal nobles retained much social power, 
 and the peasants had little ambition. The tendency already 
 was for people of energy to drift to the towns, and particularly 
 to Paris, whose growth Louis XIV. unavailingly tried to repress.^ 
 The royal roads (chaussees) were public in one sense of the 
 word and yet not under a real public supervision ; so that as a 
 result they were bad, and produce when raised had not only to 
 pay heavy taille but could with difficulty be hauled to market. 
 Those who were doing well in France did not care to emigrate, 
 and there was too little heart left in those who were doing ill to 
 make them improve in Louisiana. There was to some extent a 
 spirit of adventure, but, except in the north of France, little 
 spirit of colonization. 
 
 To this must be added the stagnant condition of everything 
 
 1 2 D'Argenson, Memoirs, pp. 203, 288, etc. 
 3 Lacroix, France in 18th Century, passim. 
 
. FAITS ACCOMPLIS. 179 
 
 French for years after the War of Spanish Succession. True 
 there had been no hostilities in the northwestern provinces, 
 from which immigration was drawn, but there was the exhaus- 
 tion due to heavy taxes and imposts which had supported the 
 war in the east. The country not only was subject to taille and 
 the twentieth, but the peasants had to perform forced work 
 (cor-yee) both for king and seigneur. D'Argenson says that this 
 consumed a quarter of the country's labor.^ France might 
 later show a great upspring, but Louisiana was little benefited 
 after Law. It did not have the taxes of France (of which the 
 cost of collection was half), but it reflected the same social con- 
 ditions. 
 
 We saw that at the Vieux Fort among the habitants there 
 were tradesmen, carpenters, locksmiths, midwives, pilot, inter- 
 preter, and the like, but that the principal occupations were mili- 
 tary. The same continued also at Nouveau Fort Louis until 
 Law's time. Even then the principal change was at first only 
 the decrease in industrial occupations and the increase in titles, 
 although these were, like escuier, notaire, chirurgien, perhaps 
 more largely civil than theretofore. With October, 1720, be- 
 gins the title bourgeois, which becomes not unusual, and ne^tt 
 year a maitre tailleur (tailor) joins the two menuisiers (cabinet- 
 makers) and shows that taste, if not luxury, is gaining ground. 
 The colonists would seem to be of a higher social grade, or the 
 cur^ to be more exact in his entries, for noble homme or noble per- 
 sonne often occurs and seigneur becomes less unusual. Later 
 such titles are even more numerous, but the type was not dif- 
 ferent. 
 
 These were rather marks of honor than of rank or status. 
 There were no seigneuries about Mobile, if anywhere, the no- 
 bility was limited to an occasional scion from France, and a 
 bourgeois had no part in the government of the city. Even the 
 maitre in any trade was such as distinguished from a journey- 
 man ; for there were no guilds. 
 
 Louis XV. silenced the Port Royal schism within the church ; ^ 
 so that in the colonies we have absolute uniformity of belief and 
 practice, except so far as the personal element entered in the 
 disputes of Jesuits and Quebec missionaries. The connection 
 
 ^ 2 D'Argenson, Memoirs, pp. 81, 144. 
 ^ See D'Argenson, and St. Simon, passim. 
 
180 COLONIAL MOBILE. 
 
 of Church and State was seen on its favorable side. The priests 
 were faithful, and the forms and often the spirit of religion 
 prevailed. The records of baptisms, burials, and marriages 
 furnish the fullest and truest evidence of social conditions. 
 
 Among the Indians the missionaries did much good. It is 
 probable the aboriginal mind admitted rather the ritual than 
 the faith of the new religion, but much was done for the moral 
 and physical betterment of the natives. The church resolutely 
 set itself against the immorality of the coui'eurs and traders, 
 and their introduction of liquor, which was to prove such a 
 curse. To this is due not a little of the friction of the priests 
 and governors. On the whole, the church did its duty in 
 Louisiana. 
 
 The Indians we have known and white men of Latin extrac- 
 tion we have studied; but Law's Company of the West intro- 
 duced a new human factor in America. D'Artaguette had urged 
 importing two hundred negroes from Cuba on account of the in- 
 efficiency of Indian labor, and some Africans had been brought 
 at various times, but it was one of the duties of the Company to 
 supply Louisiana with negroes direct from the coast of Guinea. 
 So diligently did it perform its part that the population of the 
 colony rose from under one thousand in 1717 to over four 
 thousand in 1720, and of this total one quarter were slaves. 
 Thus there were white, red, and black men on the scene. Their 
 activities and relations make up the internal history of Louis- 
 iana. 
 
 The foreign relations of the colony throughout are full of 
 interest. Those with the Spaniards were at first the more 
 important, for the French had settled within the Spanish claims, 
 and the court of Madrid merely tolerated the encroachment. 
 There is an element of comedy in the early visit of the Pensa- 
 cola commandant to Biloxi to order the French to leave and his 
 return a few days later after shipwreck to beg for assistance, 
 and not less in the claim of Guzman, made to Bienville in the 
 middle of the Spanish Succession War, of the whole country 
 around to Vera Cruz. He showed his instructions to drive out the 
 French. This was at a time when the two countries were allies 
 against united Europe and the colonists mutually borrowing 
 supplies, — the French often dispersed among the Indians, the 
 Spaniards on the seashore so as to get at least oysters to live on. 
 
FAITS ACCOMPLIS. 181 
 
 The French could trade with the natives, but the Spaniards 
 reaped the fruit of their cruelty, begun with De Soto, results 
 which even the church could hardly mitigate. 
 
 It became a tragedy after the war when Spain resumed her 
 old policy of non-intercourse even with her former ally, and 
 Crozat found his plans for a commercial colony ruined. There 
 was always smuggling, especially between Mobile and Pensa- 
 cola, but no reciprocity. Even supplies were grudgingly given 
 in Spanish ports. Perhaps no distinct paper ever regulated the 
 boundary, but the French claim east to Perdido River became 
 2ifait accompli. 
 
 English relations were never friendly, and British traders 
 were gradually driven back as the French won the Choctaws. 
 At old Fort Louis we hear of attacks by Alibamons and other 
 distant allies of Carolina, and even of British cannon brought 
 to the Alibamon country for river use against the French. But 
 this period of hostility was soon ended. The building of Fort 
 Toulouse made the upper rivers French territory, — the basis, 
 as we shall see, of opei'ations against Carolina. 
 
 After Law's Company was liquidated the crown resumed the 
 government of the colony, and this marks the third period of its 
 history. On account of the quasi-court held by Vaudreuil and 
 his successors, the time of these later governors was always re- 
 garded by the people with admiration ; but except in mode of gov- 
 ernment there came little change. It was Law who really estab- 
 lished Louisiana on the Mississippi. The eastern district received 
 less attention and perhaps looks back more lovingly to Bienville ; 
 for its growth was continuous from Bienville's day, and to Law 
 it owes rather expansion of influence up the Alabama River than 
 internal development. 
 
 During none of the three periods of Louisiana's history was 
 there any self-government. It was not even desired. At a time 
 when Atlantic colonial assemblies were restless, there was not in 
 Louisiana such a thing as a legislature. Everything was directed 
 from France, and often officers who carried out the royal direc- 
 tions were intent rather upon enriching themselves by contraband 
 trade than upon seeing that the king's will was obeyed. Quarrels 
 there were in abundance ; but they were personal, and related 
 more to who should control than to the public good. For affairs 
 fell almost from the first into the dual system which marks all 
 
182 COLONIAL MOBILE. 
 
 French colonial rule. In France tlie intendant, sent out from 
 Paris, looked after the king's finances and justice in the provinces, 
 while the lieutenant^ of old local noble blood, performed execu- 
 tive functions ; but the thirty intendants, according to Law, gov- 
 erned France.^ In the colonies the same duplicate system was 
 pursued, — a Biumvirat, a contemporary called it. 
 
 If there arose in Louisiana no democratic spirit, if politics 
 in the republican sense of the word did not exist, nevertheless 
 it would be a mistake to think the colony discontented. The 
 people wished no other government, and the jurisprudence under 
 which they lived was perhaps of a higher grade than the much 
 vaunted Common Law prevailing on the Atlantic. 
 
 There had been growing up in France also a real common law, 
 for many of the provinces and districts had developed customs 
 (^coutumes^ which had been reduced to writing, and, with the 
 decisions of courts and opinions of jurisconsults, constituted a 
 true body of law, a corpus juris as complete within its narrower 
 limits as any which a Napoleon could frame. 
 
 This code covered all the ordinary relations of life, whether 
 of contract, tort, property, status, or crime, and in the way to 
 which the colonists were accustomed. In Louisiana there was not 
 the trouble found in Canada, where the Coutume de Paris ^ was 
 unfamiliar to people who had mainly come from Normandy. 
 For most of the Louisiana colonists had come from Paris or 
 adjacent districts influenced by the capital. At the beginning 
 of its colonization Louis XIV. had decreed that the Coutume de 
 Paris should prevail, and this provision had been retained in 
 the grants to Crozat and to the company of Law and in the 
 provisions for the royal colony afterwards. The Coutume was 
 modified, it is true, by decrees of the king, as in the Black Code, 
 but it remained substantially unchanged throughout the French 
 regime. Indeed, it was to become so ingrained that it would 
 prove difficult to enforce any other kind of law among the 
 habitants. 
 
 In a new colony the gentlemen of the sword are apt to con- 
 trol. At first it was the navy who had the most to say, — Iber- 
 
 ^ D'Argenson's Memoirs, Introduction, p. 11. 
 
 2 The edition used by me is TronQon's fourth edition, Paris, 1664. A 
 valuable introduction to the Coutumes is found in Pothier's Coutume d'Or- 
 leans. W. B. Munro has a short thesis on the Coutume de Paris in Canada. 
 
FAITS ACCOMPLIS. 183 
 
 ville was a seaman, and so was Bienville. Even the military was 
 subject to the navy. The quartermaster, who had charge of sup- 
 plies for garrison and Indians alike, was called the commissaire 
 de la marine, and the change of title to commissaire ordonnateur 
 marked an extension rather than a change of functions. Under 
 the later royal government there was an intendant such as La 
 Harpe had yearned for under Law's Company. 
 
 But whatever the titles, the military and the civil representa- 
 tives were almost always at loggerheads. We find it in Canada, 
 where disputes of governor and intendant often make up the 
 internal history of the province, and we find it from the begin- 
 ning in Louisiana also. 
 
 The commissaire and intendant were concerned not only with 
 finance, but with the king's justice. D'Artaguette had probate 
 jurisdiction, and in 1711 sealed up the effects of La Salle and 
 afterwards sold them at public sale. A touch of human kind- 
 ness comes out in his asking the minister at Versailles to help 
 the five children left helpless, — as La Salle indeed had asked 
 in his lifetime. Such sales in order to secure publicity were 
 often held on Sunday after mass, and notice was given at the 
 church. Early royal edicts required a number of laws to be read 
 at sermons. 
 
 From 1712 there was a superior council, sometimes called 
 a sovereign body, made up of the military and civil authorities, 
 including greffier (clerk) and procureur (royal attorney). De- 
 crees provided for judges in the several districts. As late as 
 1756 Bob^ Descloseaux was both commissaire de la marine and 
 judge at Mobile. Law's Company did not so much change as 
 strengthen the judicial system. 
 
 We find evidence of a regular militia organization in the milice^ 
 somewhat as in the French West Indies, and in general there 
 is every indication that the colony after its years of struggle at 
 last settled down into a contented if not prosperous condition, 
 unaffected by the disputes of the officials. Customs and insti- 
 tutions suited to the new conditions gradually developed. 
 
 Land tenure has much to do with the progress of a commu- 
 nity, for the simpler it is, the greater the sense and pride of 
 ownership. It was complicated enough in France, as shown by the 
 Coutumes, as that of Paris, being there a system of seigneuries 
 of different sizes, degrees, and privileges. In Louisiana there was 
 
184 COLONIAL MOBILE. 
 
 not much system of any kind, but despite the Coutume there 
 were in practice no taxes and few restrictions, — which speaks 
 well for the foresight of Pontchartrain. On October 12, 1716, 
 all unimproved concessions were "reunited" to the crown,^ — 
 using for farms in Louisiana the term employed for Louis 
 XIV. 's appropriation of principalities along the Rhine. The 
 form of grant was prescribed, allowing two to four arpents front 
 by forty to sixty depth, and requiring that the land be cleared 
 within two years. There was the reservation of public uses, and 
 the possibility of dues should seigneuries ever be established.^ 
 Some were created on the Mississippi by Law's Company, but 
 probably none on Mobile waters. Land was held by permission 
 rather than grant, but the title was practically franc aleu^ or 
 allodial. 
 
 The French coming from the northwestern districts of France 
 met a warmer climate than that to which they had been accus- 
 tomed, and in costumes as well as customs adapted themselves 
 to the new conditions. The country could not be said to be 
 tropical, and yet the heavy foods of northern climates were in- 
 appropriate. The hunters lived on the flesh of bear and deer, 
 but in the larger settlements fish, fowl, and birds were usual. 
 The absence of ice, due to the short winters, prevented keeping 
 flesh for any length of time, except in the shape of jerked meat 
 or houcane. The breadstuffs were chiefly native Indian corn and 
 wheat from the Illinois. Not bearing fashion's hallmark, but 
 coming into poj^ular use, were Indian dishes like succotash and 
 gumbo file., and Creoles were beginning to cook their highly 
 seasoned food. The soup which was the old national dish of 
 f'rance ever retained its place in the colony. 
 
 Clothing, except among the military and in the semi-court 
 held by the officials, was somewhat influenced by the picturesque 
 costumes of the Indians, although cloth was superseding leather 
 even among the natives. At old Fort Louis we find coat, shirt, 
 shoes and stockings and blankets scarce sometimes, but this was 
 temporary. Madame Vaudreuil brought over one of the glass 
 coaches which the contemporary Voltaire declared the test of 
 
 ^ See the Reglement du Conseil d'Etat, 4 Publications Louisiana Historical 
 Society, p. 31. This volume contains many valuable colonial papers. 
 
 2 For study of the seigneury, particularly in Canada, see W. B. Munro's 
 Seigniorial System in Canada. 
 
FAITS ACCOMPLIS. 185 
 
 civilization, and her dress and that of Madame de Kerlerec 
 showed evidence of Paris fashions, although the enormous head- 
 gear of that day did not reach the Gulf coast. There were visit- 
 ing, dining, dancing, and also drinking, and yet conviviality 
 could hardly be said to be excessive. Coffee and cafes became 
 common in France under the Regency and found their way to 
 Louisiana, where the mild drink had the advantage also of prov- 
 ing a preventive of malaria. The first colonists found the climate 
 trying, but their successors gradually became acclimated, and 
 many of the common people came to love the country as their 
 own. The officials, on the other hand, were never fully satisfied, 
 and always wanted to go back to France. 
 
 We learn from Monberaut, so influential among the Aliba- 
 mons, how well-to-do people lived at Mobile during the later 
 years of French rule. He had a pleasant country place, — Isle- 
 aux-Oies or Lisloy, — near the source of Fowl River, southwest 
 of Mobile. He was a widower with children, one, a boy named 
 after himself, growing into promising manhood. They lived 
 well, although with no attempt to dress in the fashions. First 
 and last he had twenty-six slaves, a steward or oecotiome, a good 
 cook, a hatterie de cuisine, and a large vacherie. Monberaut 
 cultivated a good garden, and was quite a sportsman ; for game 
 abounded, both on land and water. He also had a voiture, but 
 this, unlike Madame Vaudreuil's, was for water use, a boat rowed 
 by slaves. Monberaut did not own a town house, but is able to 
 tell us that living was very costly in La Mobille. A turkey cost 
 two piastres, a chicken half a piastre, eggs half a piastre the 
 dozen, a sheep five, a pot of milk one, and vegetables were so 
 dear that later an incoming British official insulted a retired 
 French captain over the price of his garden produce. Clothing 
 cost three quarters more in town. Houses were rented without 
 furniture. 
 
 As to the arts and intellectual progress, we have little evi- 
 dence, for a colony must be a frontier. Of music, fq;r instance, 
 there was little except the folk songs, the slave chants, — like 
 that about D' Artaguette, — and of course military pieces. The 
 Henri Quatre music was in use, and the famous " Malhrook s'en 
 va-t-en guerre ^^ was in vogue, — ancestor of our "Won't go 
 Home till Morning." Even in France D'Argenson complains 
 that Lulli's divine music was passing out of favor. 
 
186 COLONIAL MOBILE. 
 
 Of authors we have several. Penicaut^ was perhaps the first 
 writer on our soil, and his accounts are racy, interesting, and 
 valuable, for he had the true gift of story-telling. He went 
 back to France with the beginning of Law's Compan}', and no 
 author afterwards lived here for any length of time. The most 
 famous of all colonial visitors was Charlevoix, but there is no 
 reason to suppose that he came higher than Dauphine Island. 
 His letters and history attracted much attention and are full of 
 observation of people, land, and products. In later times Bossu 
 was, like Caesar, a good writer as well as a good fighter, and the 
 short stories for which the modern French are famous have 
 predecessors in his letters. This art of letter-writing has been 
 lost in modern times. When people were going to unknown 
 countries and writing back to friends who could hear only at 
 irregular intervals, and by posts which might be captured by 
 the enemy, — then letters were worth writing, and consequently 
 were worth reading. 
 
 The mental atmosphere of our district was limited and hardly 
 extended beyond the dwellings of the commandant and the no- 
 taire on the one side, and the parsonage on the other. The great 
 French Encyclopedia appeared in 1751 but never reached 
 Louisiana. It was still the age when the church was, next to 
 the king, the greatest of institutions, and dominated intellectual 
 life. A polished Jesuit like Charlevoix could laugh at gram- 
 matical slips in the new country, but a philosopher would be in- 
 terested to observe how the human organism adapted itself to 
 the new environment, even in language. The long summer called 
 for a shady open pavilion facing the breezy south, and this 
 proved a social centre in the cool evenings. The Carolinian 
 had to import the Italian piazza to meet the new conditions, but 
 the Louisiana hahitant put a new content into the old French 
 word galerie, to last until now in the front gallery of our day. 
 New plants and animals called for other adaptations, like Coq 
 d'Inde for turkey, — for which the settlement Coden is named. 
 The Choctaw word hoh for creek became the more euphonious 
 bayou, or bogue, as in Chicasabogue, and we find the softening 
 
 ^ Penicaut is Englished in French's Historical Collections, but the original in 
 5 Margry is preferable. Bossu has been published in English as well as in 
 French. The Charlevoix used is the first edition, 1744, in six small volumes, 
 with maps of places and plates of native plants. 
 
FAITS ACCOMPLIS. 187 
 
 French touch in many other words. The very name Creole 
 originated in the western hemisphere, although not peculiar to 
 Louisiana. It was applied to all native born, and so embraced 
 both white and black, but socially the two races were pole- 
 wide apart. The Africans of course had no literature, although 
 in later years some colored Creoles were free and educated. 
 The African patois had many variations, for it, too, was a 
 natural growth, an adaptation of French to African mouths. 
 Its expression survived best in proverbs,^ — the wisdom of 
 many, the wit of one. Slaves also had their folk songs, as that 
 about the unfortunate D'Artaguette who was killed in the 
 Chickasaw expedition.^ 
 
 The Frenchman from Law's time on became the Louisianian, 
 and, as new generations arose, the habitant who came from Eu- 
 rope or Canada was succeeded by the Creole, native to the soil, 
 having his own dress, customs, and dialect, even speaking a 
 purer French than the Canadian because immigration was more 
 general in the South.^ Louisiana grew to be less a colony than 
 one of the provinces of France. 
 
 * See Lafcadio Hearn's Gombo Zhebes. 
 
 2 Mason's Chapters of Illinois History, p. 223. The most lasting colored 
 Creole community about Mobile was that at Chastang's Bluff, with its iuter- 
 esting patois. 
 
 ' Fortier, Louisiana Studies, p. 5. 
 
CHAPTER XXII. 
 
 FORT TOULOUSE AND FORT TOMBECBE. 
 
 As Massacre Island was the initial point of settlement and 
 Pascagoula the furthest westward of the Mobile district, so up 
 the rivers Fort Toulouse, four miles below where Wetumpka 
 now stands, near the junction of the Coosa and Tallapoosa 
 rivers, was the furthest inland the French reached in perma- 
 nent occupation towards the English colonies on the Atlantic 
 coast. It was built by Bienville in 1714, and was the cause 
 of great anxiety to the English all through the French regime. 
 Its first commandant was Mandeville, who had eight cannon 
 and thirty men.^ There were two cannon in each of the four 
 bastions. 
 
 This was in the Creek country, in the immediate territory 
 of the Alibamons. It was a depot for exchange of French 
 articles for skins and other products, brought by the Indians 
 from their hunting-grounds, and thence floated down the Ala- 
 bama River by the patrons to the sea at Mobile. Its impor- 
 tance, strategically speaking, has been already noticed, and 
 Adair habitually speaks of it as the "dangerous Alebahma." 
 It was at the head of navigation of the Coosa and Tallapoosa 
 rivers, and a bar to the invasion of the French possessions by 
 turning the southern flank of the Alleghany Mountains. After 
 Georgia was settled, those English colonists realized that it 
 was conversely a menace to their own safety, and about 1735 
 they built a corresponding fort on the Tallapoosa at Okfuskee, 
 forty miles away. This they maintained for several years. ^ 
 At one time the Creeks much resented French interference in 
 their matters, according to Adair, while Bossu says they 
 brooked no English influences.^ Bossu gives an account of 
 
 1 1 Pickett's Alabama, p. 223. 2 /j;^.^ p_ 316. 
 
 2 Adair's American Indians, pp. 321, 338 ; Bossu's Travels, pp. 255, 270, 
 274. 
 
jf*^!^ K.<i'»Talapwj 
 
 The River Basin, 
 
 ABOUT 1732. 
 
FORT TOULOUSE AND FORT TOMBECBE. 189 
 
 the visit of the Coweta "emperor" in his day, when the tutor 
 or regent of the young eastern monarch disposed of the knife 
 and fork difficulty by taking up his part of the turkey and 
 declaring that the Master of Life made fingers first. 
 
 The name of the fort so established upon the Coosa River 
 was Toulouse, but the church registers, as Bossu, too, almost 
 invariably call it by that of the Indian district, — " Aux 
 Alibamons." However, the first mention was in 1721, and 
 the priests had then begun to use the Indian name Mobile, too, 
 instead of Fort Conde. Besides, there is reason to suppose 
 that the French called all of the Upper Creeks by the name 
 Alibamons because that tribe of the confederacy was lowest on 
 the river, and thus earliest and closest in contact with the post 
 at Mobile, although strictly speaking not Creeks at all. 
 
 The Indian legend was that the Alibamons and Creeks were 
 not akin, but on the contrary enemies, the latter pursuing the 
 former all during the long flight from Mexico, imtil they were 
 finally reconciled by the French at Mobile. But this last we 
 know is untrue. Almost the first war of the French was that 
 of Boisbriant, in 1702, against the Alibamons, and we remem- 
 ber also the great expedition of Alibamons, Cheraquis, Cataw- 
 bas, and Creeks against the French in 1708. The French at 
 first were their foes, not friends. 
 
 The Creeks or Muscogees were, in some respects, the most 
 interesting of the southern tribes. Like the Chickasaws, they 
 were expert deer hunters, and were brave fighters. Their 
 Tustenuggee, or "emperor," sent around a red club as a 
 signal for war, although using red and white for war and peace 
 and taking the black drink before battle was common to the 
 Choctaws also. Each warrior carried in war a bag of parched 
 corn meal, of which an ounce would make a pint of broth. 
 Captured warriors are said to have been burned by the squaws 
 in the public square, although modern Creeks deny this fact. 
 These squares distinguished the towns from the villages, and 
 there, too, was celebrated in July or August the busk, or feast 
 of first-fruits. The square had about it the great house, coun- 
 cil house, and the appurtenant playground for the games. 
 Their ball play from descriptions might be termed a combina- 
 tion of tennis and football. 
 
 The Creeks had picture-writing and beads, and apparently 
 
190 COLONIAL MOBILE. 
 
 a female language different from that spoken by the men. 
 There was no sex to their nouns. Case was denoted by suffixes 
 more distinctly than with the Choctaws, although the Choctaws 
 had a more delicate phonetic ear. As with those kinsmen, de- 
 scent was counted through the mother. 
 
 In the Creek country Tookabatcha had in French times 
 superseded the Cosa of De Soto's day as capital, but Coosa 
 was still revered. If Coosa was a city of refuge, at Tooka- 
 batcha were kept those mysterious brass plates which Adair 
 thought pointed to Hebrew origin. The French generally had 
 one of their best men in charge of Fort Toulouse on account of 
 its importance. Among these was the Chevalier Montaut de 
 Monberaut, of ancient and noble family, akin, indeed, to royalty. 
 He had been in Louisiana since 1739, and was the guiding 
 spirit at Toulouse from 1755-59. The commandant held no sine- 
 cure, for the British were active, and, if they had no head 
 like the French, they were scattered everywhere, and all the 
 more intent on trade. 
 
 French influence was long preponderant in this "Alibamon" 
 district. The Creek word for soldier, "sulitawa," is a monu- 
 ment of this fact, for it is taken from the French. The French 
 must have been just, for we learn that, in 1740, the commandant 
 had one of his soldiers shot for killing an Indian, as D'Erne- 
 ville similarly insisted on the death of an Indian for killing a 
 Frenclunan. It was to Fort Toulouse that the sagacious 
 Priber, after five years' supremacy among the Cherokees, was 
 going, in 1741, on his way to Mobile, when he was captured by 
 the English and carried to Frederica, Georgia. There he died 
 in confinement. The Cherokees do not often concern us, but 
 the English suffered from them for eight years in South Caro- 
 lina, and lay the blame on French and Jesuit influence in that 
 quarter. It was at Fort Alabama that Adair was imprisoned 
 a fortnight for activity among the Indians. He managed to 
 escape an hour before the king's boat left, which was to carry 
 him down to Mobile to be hanged. And it was from there 
 that Montberaut captured among the Indians those mutineers 
 who had killed Duroux of Cat Island in 1758, and sent them 
 dowTi to Mobile under De Beaudin to be executed with Beau- 
 drot.i 
 
 1 Detailed references would be too numerous ; but much of the above is 
 
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FORT TOULOUSE AND FORT TOMBECBE. 191 
 
 The earliest church entry (1721) naming the French post is 
 in the baptism by Mathieu of a daughter of Michel Mandre 
 at Mobile, and mentions the grandmother as Mme. Catherine 
 (elsewhere Genevieve) Raymond, wife of "Ecuyer Seigneur de 
 Pechon, Major des Alibamons." The major signs the minute 
 himself, and so was in Mobile at the time. Two years later 
 Ecuier Crepin de Pechon and wife, mentioned as noble persons, 
 themselves have a child baptized, Chateaugue, then lieutenant 
 for the whole of Louisiana, and the wife of commandant Ma- 
 rigny de Mandeville acting as sponsors. 
 
 It is difficult to make the history of the Marchand mutiny, as 
 generally given, fit into these entries, which clearly imply that 
 Pechon was, during these years, a major and ranking officer of 
 the post. 
 
 As told by Pickett, Marchand was captain there in com- 
 mand, in 1722.^ Indeed, it is implied that he had been there 
 several years, for he was by a natural marriage with the Indian 
 princess Sehoy already father of a little girl, herself to be 
 famous as Sehoy, mother of the celebrated chief McGillivray. 
 La Tour, we know from Penicaut, commanded from 1717,^ so 
 that in any event Marchand must begin after him. In 1722, 
 however, according to the story, supplies were scarce, and the 
 garrison, part of whom were Swiss, rose in mutiny, and killed 
 Marchand. They sacked the storeroom, burned the buildings, 
 and made off with all they could carry towards Carolina. 
 
 The unnamed priest was absent, and only returned in time 
 to mourn the ruin and bury Marchand. When Villemont, the 
 second in command, came in, he called on friendly Creeks and 
 pursued and fought the deserters. Many were killed, and 
 eight prisoners captured. These were sent to Mobile by boat, 
 and there promptly executed. 
 
 But the church registers make a change of date necessary, 
 unless we are to suppose that two Marchands commanded the 
 post. For Marchand de Courtel is mentioned after this as a 
 captain at Mobile, and not as commanding at the Alibamons 
 until 1727. A lieutenant and two sergeants of his company 
 
 abbreviated from Pickett's Alabama and Gatschet's Creek Migration Legend. 
 See, also, Adair's American Indians (London, 1775), pp. 159, 242, 295, 343, 
 348, and Bossu's Travels, pp. 226, 250, 324. 
 
 ^ 1 Pickett's Alabama, p. 266. ' 5 Margry, Decouvertes, p. 550. 
 
192 COLONIAL MOBILE. 
 
 are named at this same time, 1726-27, necessarily before the 
 company were all shot or sawed to pieces. 
 
 Keturning to Pechon, he, in 1725, was still major at the 
 Alibamon fort, whose name Toulouse is mentioned. This 
 occurs in the baptism by Father Claude of Marie Louise, 
 daughter of this same Pechon Le Conte, — for the worthy 
 major has his name different in the different entries. At the 
 baptism of a daughter, in 1730, he is named as infantry cap- 
 tain and ^^ formerly major at Fort Toulouse. His son Joseph 
 Crepin de Pechon was baptized two years afterwards. 
 
 From a later act we learn something of Pechon 's death. 
 This instrument by Jean Fran9ois was made on the request of 
 his son Antoine de Conte, Seigneur de Pechon, and certifies, 
 on the testimony of M. Gondreau, J. J. Beauehamps, and J. 
 P. Le Sueur, that Pechon died at Fort Toulouse on February 
 19, 1736. The family were prominent, and seem, in 1760, to 
 have owned the place northeast of our Government and St. 
 Emanuel streets. 
 
 The office of garde magasin was an important one at such 
 a trading-post, and we have the names of several who occupied 
 the position. In 1737, it was Michael "Gondeau," who the year 
 before was surgeon-major as well, and at some time mystified 
 the Indians by pouring out a little quicksilver, which they 
 had never before seen. In 1751, Jean Charles Trouillet, who 
 had married Marguerite Rochon, and, in 1755, if not earlier, 
 Sieur Alexandre du Parquet held the place. Trouillet had 
 died before that while descending the river, and was buried 
 by the royal patron, St. Jean. The river patron, as La Rose 
 earlier, is sometimes called patron of the Alibamons. It is to 
 be hoped that the trip up did not usually consume fifty days, 
 as with Bossu.i The land route was also in use, and we learn, 
 in 1749, of the death and burial of one Fr. Melisan on the 
 road {chemln') of the Alibamons. In 1759, Aubert, who was 
 sick, came on horseback. 
 
 Of other officials we know Fr. Saucier as sub-engineer in 
 1751, and Laubene (Lavnoue ?) as interpreter later. Mission- 
 aries they seldom had. Such lack of minister is recorded in 
 1732, and the number of baptisms at Mobile of children born 
 at Fort Toulouse proves it for other years. 
 
 1 Bossu's Travels, pp. 226, 269. 
 
FORT TOULOUSE AND FORT TOMBECBE. 193 
 
 We learn that about 1726 the Jesuit De Guyenne went, 
 necessarily, by way of Fort Toulouse, on a mission to the 
 Creeks, and built a cabin at Cusseta, as well as another at 
 Coweta on the Chattahoochee. But the English, about the time 
 they built their Okfuskee fort, induced the Indians to burn these 
 and drive the priest back to Toulouse. After the Natchez 
 massacre he labored among the Arkansas.^ In 1740, the Jesuit 
 Morand performed function of cure at the fort, and thence 
 certified to the death there of Sieur Joseph Poupart of Mobile. 
 Morand also went on a mission occasionally to Coosada, lower 
 down, but, when the English under Oglethorpe were, in the 
 thirties, founding Georgia and pushing actively into the interior 
 even of the Alabama basin, this father was recalled to take 
 charge of the hospital and nuns at New Orleans. ^ His full 
 name was William Francis Morand. He was born 1701, and 
 entered the society at nineteen in Lyons. He arrived in Can- 
 ada in 1735, and died in Louisiana, 1761. 
 
 It was another father (Le Roi) whom commandant Montbe- 
 raut drove away for complaining of him to the governor and 
 then denying that he wrote the letter. Montberaut, in conse- 
 quence, had to baptize when the rite was required. 
 
 The church version of this difficulty, however, is that the 
 priest opposed the sale of liquor to the Indians. Whatever 
 the cause, Bossu describes Montberaut as an avowed enemy of 
 these missionaries.^ Max. Le Roi was born 1716, entered the 
 society at seventeen, in what is now Belgium, and came to 
 Canada in 1750, In 1763, he went to Mexico. 
 
 From 1754, until the expulsion of Jesuits from Louisiana 
 by decree of the Superior Council, June 9, 1763, Father Jean 
 Jacques Le Predour was on this mission, but he was the last. 
 
 The presence of Jesuits at Fort Toulouse, and, as we shall 
 see, at Fort Tombecbe seems at first glance remarkable when 
 we remember that they were excluded from Mobile, which 
 belonged to the Capuchins. But in the division of 1722, they 
 were allowed to keep a resident at New Orleans, and the flexi- 
 ble district of the Illinois was assigned them, and by the treaty 
 
 ^ Pickett's Alabama, p. 317 ; Shea's Catholic Church in the Colonies, pp. 
 572, 575. 
 
 2 Pickett's Alabama, p. 317. 
 
 ^ Shea's Catholic Church in the Colonies, p. 584 ; Bossu's Travels, p. 228. 
 
194 COLONIAL MOBILE. 
 
 with the Company, of 1726, the Alibamons and Choctaws were 
 definitely assigned the Jesuits. The Jesuits on the Missis- 
 sippi also occupied down to the Natchez, and apparently by the 
 bishop's consent.^ 
 
 According to Pickett, also, D'Aubant succeeded Montberaut 
 in 1759, and his Russian princess wife and their daughter 
 joined him there. But the church records seem to contradict 
 this. Monbereau, as they spell it, was succeeded, in 1758, by 
 J. B. Aubert, and his wife was Louise Marguerite of the 
 prominent Bernoudy family. She died in 1759, and was bur- 
 ied in the church at Mobile. It seems a pity the story may 
 not be true, for it is romantic and interesting, but the church 
 records can hardly be gainsaid. Aubert might do for Aubant 
 (and Bossu says Aubert succeeded in 1759, although adjutant 
 at Mobile), but Louise Marguerite Bernoudy can hardly 2)ose 
 for a Russian princess. Grand Maison is named after Aubert,^ 
 and Lavnoue was the last commandant. 
 
 The site of Fort Toulouse was to be perpetuated by the fact 
 that Andrew Jackson in our century adopted it, and, repairing 
 the fort, used it in his war with the Indians. The relentless 
 plough has left little of it. It stood on a bold bluff of -.the 
 Coosa, but only one half-ploughed-up bastion, facing towards 
 the not distant Tallapoosa, now remains. 
 
 No trace is there of the landing-place or of the road leading 
 to it, but here it was that the French shipped peltries and 
 received supplies, in this fort traded with the Alibamons and 
 Creeks, and broke the English influence from the Carolinas. 
 Near by are many fragments of Indian pottery, some glazed, 
 some not, and other evidences that savages lived there imder 
 the guns of the fort. The French cannon have long since dis- 
 appeared, and all that is left is a little brass mortar, with 
 handles, on which some modern has cut the name "De Soto" 
 and "No. 12." Probably a Frenchman did it, for the piece 
 was only lately dug up, and acquired by W. P. Gaddis, of We- 
 tumpka, but the piece itself may date back to Spanish times. 
 
 Further down the river is a large Indian mound about 
 twenty feet high and possibly two hundred In its irregular 
 circumference. It is abrupt on the side facing the Coosa, but 
 
 ^ Shea's Catholic Church, in the Colonies, p. 567 ; 1 Martin's Louisiana, p. 261. 
 3 Bossu's Travels, pp. 241 n., 250, 269. 
 
FORT TOULOUSE AND FORT TOMBECBE. 195 
 
 slopes off on the opposite face. Some one once sunk a shaft 
 in the top, and it is said bones, beads, and pottery have been 
 found there. Certain it is, small pieces of pottery can still be 
 seen all over the mound, generally rude and unglazed, but 
 sometimes ornamented with lines. Stone hatchets are also 
 there, and bits of flint chips abound. Trees and vines have 
 covered the mound; but it remains a prominent object in the 
 landscape, and remarkable as the only place in the neighbor- 
 hood not submerged in recent floods. 
 
 Far to the west on the Tombigbee was another French out- 
 post, — Fort Tombecbe. We saw it built originally by Bien- 
 ville's order, as a base in his Chickasaw expedition, but it was 
 not finished until later. From it went back to Mobile the 
 defeated French, but it was essential to maintain the post per- 
 manently in order to watch the Indians and keep them in 
 check. This wooden fort was a lonesome and dangerous place, 
 and only brave men were fit to be its garrison, and supervise 
 the trade and politics of the Choctaws.^ 
 
 The site was above the confluence of the Bigbee and War- 
 rior, near the present Epes Station on A. G. S. Railroad, and 
 can still be traced. On White Rock Bluff, a part of Jones' 
 Bluff, in present Sumter County, Alabama, eighty feet above 
 low water, are visible remains of the embankment, about four 
 feet high, with ditches almost as deep. The fort was in the 
 angle between the river and a "branch" or brook emptying 
 into it about one hundred yards above where the railroad 
 crosses the Bigbee River. It inclosed, perhaps, one acre, 
 now covered with a thick growth of cedars, two to three feet in 
 diameter. 2 
 
 The fort at its greatest extent faced the river 173 feet, the 
 branch gully on the south 304, and on the north 231 and west 
 278 feet, with curtains about ten feet high. There were three 
 gates, and a stockade on all sides. Inside the fort were oven, 
 storehouses, interpreter's apartment, men's barracks, guard- 
 house, granary, and officers' building. Two of the houses there 
 are given as 30 X 13 feet and 19 X 12 feet. There was also a 
 house out of the fort intended for the savages. These were 
 
 ^ Pickett's Alabama, p. 335 ; Adair's American Indians, pp. 267, 285. 
 * Information derived from J. J. Hilman, of Epes, Alabama ; report of 
 Ford in British Colonial Records, Loudon. 
 
196 COLONIAL MOBILE. 
 
 Choctaws, and had a large town within a musket-shot of the 
 fort. 
 
 The place was selected because of the river and the neighbor- 
 hood of the Choctaws, being just below their boundary with 
 the Chickasaws. They were the best friends the French had 
 among the larger southern tribes, but we have seen that Eng- 
 lish traders finaUy succeeded in stirring up a long Choctaw 
 civil war, in which the eastern division (Oypat-oocooloo, or 
 small nation) contended with the western ones, called Oocooloo- 
 falaya, Oocooloo-hanale, and Chickasawhays. They were less 
 cleanly than the Creeks, their inveterate foes, and less aggres- 
 sive in war; but in defensive hostilities their courage could not 
 be questioned. They, too, had chunkey and the ball play, but 
 they were unlike the Creeks in living less in towns. They 
 were often called Flatheads from their compressing the heads 
 of male infants. In hunting, they followed particularly the 
 bear, wildcat, and panther. From pity they strangled their 
 own incurable sick, and they did not torture their captives, but 
 killed them outright and burned their remains. They slept 
 around a war fire in a circle, while the Creeks slept in a row.^ 
 
 In the time of the trader Adair, their principal town was 
 Yowanne, apparently high up on Pearl River, although he also 
 mentions seven towns as close together and towards New Or- 
 leans. He speaks of three trading-paths to Mobile. The 
 westernmost was a horse-path from the Chickasaws and passed 
 through these towns, the middle one by the " Chakchooma old 
 fields," which with the one nearest the Bigbee was exposed 
 then to Muscogee inroads. ^ The Yowanne path branched off 
 from the Buckatunna a short distance west of Mobile. Ro- 
 mans places "Yoani" in his day (1771) on the Pascagoula 
 River. He visited the place, and seems to be the author of 
 the rather incredible statement that no other Choctaws can 
 swim except those of Yowanne and Chickasawhay, — a pecul- 
 iarity shown by the horses, too ! 
 
 1 This summary, like that as to the Creeks, is largely abbreviated from 
 Pickett and Gatschet. See, also, Gatschet, Creek Migration Legend, p. 212 ; 
 Adair's American Indians, p. 318, etc. ; Romans' Florida, pp. 66, 73. In- 
 formation as to Morand, Le Roy, and Le Fevre, was furnished from Jesuit 
 archives by D. P. Lawton, of Spring Hill College, Alabama. 
 
 3 Adair's American Indians, p. 298, etc. ; Romans' Florida, p. 86, 
 
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FORT TOULOUSE AND FORT TOMBECBE. 197 
 
 One curious survival of French influence is that the Choc- 
 taws adopted from their " Soulier" the word "shulush" for 
 shoe. Red Shoe's Indian name of " Shoolashummashtabe " 
 seems to incorporate the word. He, by the way, was a swift 
 runner, and could overtake the active Spanish barbs which the 
 Chickasaws and Choctaws rode. 
 
 Fort Tombecbe was important in the control of this race, 
 whom the French managed by presents of arms and goods 
 brought from Mobile. 
 
 Of one of these long river trips we have an account, for in 
 1759 Bossu went up the river with three boats to convey pro- 
 visions and ammunition to the fort from Mobile. In a week he 
 reached the Forks, near Mcintosh's Bluff, where an alligator 
 dragged him almost into the river. It was due to his sleeping 
 on the bluff with a barbel wrapped up at his feet in his tent. 
 
 After going up about fifty leagues he struck very low water, 
 and had to unload his goods, and even pull the boats along with 
 lines. At some point on the trip they suffered for want of pro- 
 visions, and he considered the relief providential. It was due 
 to Indians cutting down a tree holding the nest of a royal 
 eagle, and in this they found swans, rabbits, turkeys, grouse, 
 partridges, and pigeons, which the parent birds had provided 
 for the little eaglets. The Indians not only robbed the nest of 
 the provisions, but killed the fighting eagles, and took the young 
 ones. At Taskaloussas or White Mountain, probably near the 
 mouth of the Black Warrior River, Mingo Howmas and some 
 revolted Choctaws threatened them, but finally they pacified 
 the savages and smoked the calumet of peace. Bossu much 
 surprised French and Indians alike by lighting the pipe with 
 phosphorus. 
 
 The rest of the trip was more pleasant on account of a rise 
 in the river and assistance sent under De Cabaret from Fort 
 Tombecbe. During the whole journey the travelers had to 
 spend the nights on the banks, tormented by maringoins (mos- 
 quitoes), except so far as they could keep them off by sleeping 
 under a linen cloth spread on bent reeds. They were certainly 
 rejoiced to arrive at the fort, where Chabbert commanded. It 
 had taken from August 20 to September 25 to accomplish the 
 hundred leagues. ^ 
 
 1 Bossu's Travels, pp. 279, 285, 317. 
 
198 COLONIAf. MOBILE. 
 
 The first entry in the church registers at Mobile relating to 
 Fort Tombecbe was in 1739, and was what might be expected 
 after Bienville's unfortunate expedition. Le Sueur was in 
 command, and, in default of a priest or chaplain (aumonier) 
 there, the record is made at Mobile by Amand of the killing 
 of a soldier by the Indians. It seems that this man, a Swiss 
 named Aubergeron, was fishing in the river above the fort 
 when he was assassinated in his j)irogue. The first intimation 
 of it to the garrison was when the current brought the corpse 
 down to Tombecbe, where Le Sueur gave it proper burial and 
 notified the commandant at Mobile. 
 
 We learn nothing more for several years. Then, in 1743, 
 it is recorded that according to the report of officers of that 
 post St. Hermand Fouke, soldier of the convoye, was drowned 
 in the river of Tombecbe, and later in that year we are told 
 that Mme. Pierre Mozel was buried at her home on the same 
 river. Of them., however, we know only the names. 
 
 Adair says that to French influence at this post were due the 
 Choctaw invasions of Carolina in the middle of the century, 
 although the more immediate aim of Vaudreuil was to use the 
 fort to keep the Choctaws in the French interest and hostile to 
 the English-loving Chickasaws.^ Except Le Sueur, we know 
 little of any of the comimandants, but the first and De Berthel, 
 whom Bienville left there with a garrison of thirty French 
 and twenty Swiss, and De Grand-pre in or before 1751. He 
 it was that successfully carried out Vaudreuil's negotiations, 
 which resulted in the pacification of the Choctaws after Ked 
 Shoe's revolt. De la Gauterais was in command at some time, 
 and performed a remarkable feat. He built a raft of cedar 
 which drew twelve feet and contained five hundred tons of 
 timber, and took advantage of a freshet to float it to Mobile. 
 In fact, it was not stopped until it reached modern Montrose. 
 De la Gauterais came down on it himself, bringing four other 
 men. 2 
 
 Then we find Pierre Chabert, whom Bossu met, the last 
 commandant under the French. Gardes magasin are oftener 
 named. In the year 1743, in records of baptisms of Indian 
 slaves, we learn that Cartier is garde magasin and Sieui 
 
 1 Winsor's Basin of the Mississippi, pp. 264, 268. See Bossu, supra. 
 * Romans' Horida, p. 211. 
 
FORT TOULOUSE AND FORT TOMBECBE. 199 
 
 Trouillet, called Argent, surgeon there. Three years later, 
 Fran9ois Lierle (?) is storekeeper, but in 1748 Trouillet occu- 
 pies that position. 
 
 This office of garde magasin at Tombecbe seems to have 
 changed hands often. In 1758 we learn from the entry of 
 baptism of his daughter, Marguerite Felicite, that the incum- 
 bent was Alexandre Claude Du Parquier. The next year 
 Valentin Dubroca was garde magasin, and we find him such 
 through 1761, and he was there until the French abandoned 
 the fort. His wife was Martha Fievre, and during this time 
 the Mobile register records the baptism of two of their chil- 
 dren, — Marie Marthe, and Valentin. 
 
 But no record remains of the other officials, except that 
 during Bossu's visit the chaplain was the Jesuit Le Fevre. 
 This was Nicolas Le Fevre of present Belgium, who was born 
 1705, entered the order at eighteen, and came to Canada 1743. 
 The year of his death is uncertain, but probably it was before 
 1764. 
 
 In 1726, when Guyenne went on the Alibamon mission, the 
 Jesuit Maturin Le Petit went among the Choctaws. After 
 Beaubois, the Jesuit superior, had been recalled, Le Petit 
 succeeded him at New Orleans. The Canadian Michael Bau- 
 douin also came to Louisiana in 1726, the year of Jesuit activ- 
 ity, and we find him by 1739 on the Choctaw mission, where 
 he was to be for eighteen years, assisted part of the time by 
 the above Father Le Fevre. He has been accused of immorality 
 among his charge, but this seems unlikely, for he was, in 1747, 
 promoted to be vicar-general of the bishop of Quebec, over the 
 protest of the Capuchins. 
 
 But where was the seat of this Choctaw mission ? Hardly 
 at Fort Tombecbe, despite Shea's guess,^ for we often find it 
 without religious services, and, moreover, the Jesuits always 
 lived among their flocks. It is more likely that it was on the 
 site where Bernard Romans, in 1771, was to find a lightwood 
 cross and the site of a destroyed chapel. This was at Chick- 
 asawhay, probably the Choctaw station shown even on early 
 American maps as in east Mississippi upon the Chickasawhay 
 River, some miles north of Youane (Hiowanni). Romans 
 says the priest could not convert the Indians, and this seems 
 1 Shea's Catholic Church in the Colonies, pp. 572, 683, 585. 
 
200 COLONIAL MOBILE. 
 
 probable from their conduct. He relates that when the Eng- 
 lish came, the Indians would mimic the motions of the Jesuits 
 and the sacred ceremonies of the church.^ 
 
 ^ Romans' Florida, p. 78. 
 
CHAPTER XXIII. 
 
 THE CHARLESTON INDIAN TRADE. 
 
 One of the earliest names which the Spanish explorers found 
 was Apalache. It became attached to a bay, a river, and later 
 to that continental mountain system, extending from the Gulf to 
 Canada, which divides the Atlantic rivers from those of the Mis- 
 sissippi Valley. It separates also, as we have seen, the Tennessee 
 and other streams flowing into the Ohio from the sources of the 
 Alabama-Tombigbee basin, and its southwestern mountain coun- 
 try was the home of those aborigines who played the greatest 
 part in the Anglo-French contest for the South. Where the 
 foot-hills run out near the sources of the Tombigbee were the 
 Chickasaws. Where the hill country is intersected by the Coosa 
 and Tallapoosa were the Alibamons and Creeks. In the high- 
 lands, since called the Land of the Sky, where rise the Caro- 
 linian streams on the east and the sources of the Tennessee 
 penetrate on the west, were the Cherokees, the most susceptible 
 to civilization of all the Indian tribes. Thus it was that the 
 Apalachian Range not only separated the civilizations of France 
 and England, but was the habitation of the red Americans of 
 greatest importance to the rival white colonies. 
 
 The Spaniards did more than name the mountains and dis- 
 cover Indian towns. After De Soto came Pardo, exploring west- 
 wardly from Santa Elena, that Spanish stronghold on what was 
 afterward the Carolina coast. He went as far west as Chiaha, 
 and soon Spanish mining had a foothold in the Cherokee moun- 
 tains and the good padres taught the natives religion. 
 
 There came afterwards the foundation by the English of 
 Charles Town, — our Charleston, — and the rivalry of traders 
 from that port and of those from French Mobile was the turn- 
 ing point in the history of the South West. We must piece 
 together isolated bits of evidence in order to formulate the story. 
 
 We have to go to the French to hear of the English traders and 
 
202 COLONIAL MOBILE. 
 
 to the English to hear of French emissaries. The reason, no 
 doubt, is that they were adventurers on each side, without official 
 standing, — as even now in Africa and Asia. 
 
 It is to be noted that in French times there was not any large 
 river population in present Monroe and Wilcox counties, the 
 Mobilian centre of De Soto's day, and still marked by numerous 
 home and burial mounds. French maps show no names on the 
 lower Alabama. The country was a border, a debatable land 
 from which the weakened Choctaw Mobilians had been retiring, 
 and into which the Muscogee Confederacy was soon to advance. 
 
 By the eighteenth century not only had Coosa faded into 
 hardly more than a name, but Tookabatcha, unmentioned by De 
 Soto, was the principal town in the northeast, and the Muscogee 
 Confederacy was becoming definitely organized. While hostile 
 to the French, they received the fleeing Natchez into their con- 
 federacy, and gave them a town and a district of their own. 
 
 We saw Tristan de Luna in the Coosa region, and the Spaniards 
 later divided all the Gulf and lower Atlantic Coast into prov- 
 inces, — really spheres of influence for the coast settlements ; 
 but these gradually lapsed into claims, for the posts were small 
 and not maintained in the interior. 
 
 By Bienville's time we hear most of the Alibamons. This was 
 probably because, lining the main river from the junction of the 
 Coosa and Tallapoosa down to the Mobile Indians, they came 
 first in contact with the French, and, from their enmity to the 
 Mobilians, who were Choctaws, this contact was hostile and 
 marked. The English were reported to be among them. 
 
 The Conchaques or Coosadas are often mentioned in the 
 early accounts as connected with the Alibamons, who by the 
 middle of the century were to the French less a tribe than 
 representatives of the whole district. The tribes most frequently 
 named besides the Alibamons were the Abekas high on the 
 Coosa (and to Coxe theirs was an alternative name for Coussa), 
 the Cahouitas, and the Tallapouches east on their river.^ If 
 the Cahouitas were the Cowetas on the Chattahoochee with 
 
 ^ One of Bienville's earliest expeditions took him within two days of the 
 point (between the two rivers flowing to Mobile) where the Alibamon vil- 
 lages were, already visited by the English. Behind them were the Concha, 
 Abica, and Tjchiatchia. The last are probably the Tallapoosas, under the 
 name spelled Chiaha by Coxe. 
 
THE CHARLESTON INDIAN TRADE. 203 
 
 whom Oglethorpe made his treaty, we see them in transit ; 
 for the French knew them on the Coosa River. The Muscogees 
 certainly had spread to the Chattahoochee and beyond by Brit- 
 ish times. The Upper Creeks held the original seats, whence 
 the Lower Creeks migrated, as the Seminoles in their turn left 
 to live in Florida. 
 
 Bienville we saw taking advantage of hostilities between the 
 Indians and the British to build Fort Toulouse near the old 
 Tuskegee (Taskiki), and during the time of Law's Company 
 systematic steps were taken to conciliate the Indians to the 
 northeast. Pi-esents were regularly given, but when war inter- 
 fered the English stood ready to take advantage. Dubreuil 
 and Trefantaiue were authorized to trade, and by 1718 French 
 traders, with the assistance of the commandant of Fort Toulouse, 
 had forced out the English.^ The fort and trade were carefully 
 watched, and from that time many and anxious were the deliber- 
 ations of the Conseil de Commerce, sitting at Dauphine Island 
 or Mobile, as to how to preserve French ascendency. 
 
 The French Indian diplomacy was more widespread than is 
 generally realized. In 1714, the year of the foundation of 
 Toulouse, one Charleville built a store on one of the hills now 
 making up Nashville, and in course of time carried on a large 
 trade with the Shawnees, then masters of that country. There 
 were transitory settlements about this time also at Fort Assump- 
 tion near modern Memphis, another near Paducah, and one 
 somewhat later at Vincennes. There can be little doubt that the 
 coureurs and traders explored up the Tennessee and Cumber- 
 land rivers to the Cherokees ; the Tennessee River was known 
 to them as the Cheraqui, and the Overhill tribes were generally 
 friendly to the French. By the middle of the century the French 
 had trading houses at Cotton Gin Port high up on the Tombig- 
 bee and also at Mussel Shoals in the Tennessee, where the 
 goods from Mobile were exchanged for peltries brought from 
 the hunting grounds by trail or water. 
 
 The foundation of the French Indian trade was laid by Iber- 
 ville. He was used to the Canadian tribes, and introduced on the 
 Gulf wares which had been attractive there. His earliest cargoes 
 of presents for the savages embraced knives, hatchets, swords, 
 
 ^ See vol. v., pp. 55-57, 120, 123, etc., of Louisiana Correspondance Gene- 
 rale, in the Colonial Ministry at Paris. 
 
204 COLONIAL MOBILE. 
 
 pipes, kettles, looking-glasses, needles, scissors, beads, vermil- 
 ion, blue paint, red caps, white blankets, Limbourg and Alaigne 
 cloths, trade shirts and stockings. Guns were not then given 
 in any quantity, but later became the principal objects of In- 
 dian desire, and were furnished by the French to arm their allies 
 against the English.^ It is strange to find tobacco at first 
 brought from France for the Indians. The supplies continued 
 for the future to be of the same general nature, although 
 more firmly established under Law. Many items we see from 
 goods furnished by Chabert at Tombecb^ as late as 1759.^ 
 There were powder, ball, flints, guns, and linen for flags, and we 
 find vermilion also regularly kept in stock. Peaceable articles 
 abound also, such as shirts, breeches (hraguettes), belts, linen, 
 and blankets. Frequently we find tobacco, salt, and, alas ! cork- 
 screws, taffia, and whiskey. The cloths most used are those 
 called Limbourg and Mazamet, besides some silk and ribbons. 
 It was before the age of machinery, but many of the industries 
 encouraged by Colbert still survived in France, although the 
 governors complained that the goods were often ill-selected and 
 worse packed. These Tombecbd orders give evidence of the 
 dependence, almost domestication of the Indians in the issue to 
 them of deerskin for shoes. It is noticeable that tomahawks of 
 iron (cassetetes a pique) were regularly supplied them by the 
 garde magasin instead of the stone hatchets which they dis- 
 carded, and left for future generations to pick up as curiosities. 
 On the other side, Adair tells us of much the same articles, 
 strouds from Gloucestershire being perhaps the usual cloth 
 goods furnished by the British.^ 
 
 The principal Muscogee towns according to Adair were Ok- 
 whuske, Occhai, Tukkebatche, Tallase, Kowhetah, and Chahah. 
 The "broken nations" incorporated in the Muscogee were 
 Tametah, Taekeoge, Okchai, Pakkana, and Weetamka, besides 
 one town of Shawano, one of Nakchee, and two of Kooasahte. 
 Lower towns on the level were inhabited by Oosecha, Okone, 
 and Sawakola. The confederacy from 1764 built several towns 
 on the Chattahoochee.* This agrees very well with the French 
 accounts, allowing for the fact that the English were better 
 
 * Tantet's Manuscripts for Louisiana Historical Society, pp. 276, 277. 
 
 ' See copies in Appendix of these lately found papers. 
 
 ' American Indians, p. 238. * Ibid., pp. 256-258. 
 
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 i 
 
 vr*^- 
 
THE CHARLESTON INDIAN TRADE. 205 
 
 posted as to the settlements on the river which they called Ok- 
 whuske, or Okfuske (by the French called Tallapoosa), and the 
 French were better posted as to those on the Coosa and Alabama. 
 
 Adair tells us that the British traders had their principal store- 
 houses on the east side of this Okwhuske River, opposite the great 
 Okwhuske town, one of the principal settlements, where as usual 
 the traders' houses towered above the Indian. The English trader 
 was himself a walking arsenal. In his belt he wore pistols and 
 a tomahawk, besides punk in his shot pouch. He always carried 
 a gun ; and almost as necessary seems to have been a supply of 
 rum. Even his bed was hung around with firearms, and he must 
 be ready for attack at any time.^ They traveled in caravans, 
 with bells on their horses, both for company and protection. 
 
 Adair often traveled back and forth, and on more than one 
 occasion had difficulty in obtaining release of traders in the 
 Muscogee towns. At a somewhat later day he was imprisoned 
 at Fort Toulouse, and effected his escape but an hour before the 
 boat left which was to convey him to Mobile. He naturally 
 never did like Mobile, and no words are too strong to apply to 
 the rival of Charleston. Such men had no little to do with sur- 
 rounding Toulouse with English forts and factories. 
 
 The British influence was not lasting there. Even during 
 the darkest times of war the French made every sacrifice to 
 maintain their hold on the Alibamons. The council of war of 
 1760 at Mobile was not the only one on the subject.^ Mon- 
 beraut, their representative at Toulouse, was active and influ- 
 ential. He made it difficult for the British traders to cross 
 westward through the mountain country to the Chickasaws. 
 
 An early Carolina governor under the Proprietors forbade in- 
 land trade with the Indians so as to monopolize it himself, but 
 this led to a virtual rebellion. As early as 1707 another gover- 
 nor wrote home that " Charles Town trades near 1000 miles 
 into the continent," and a large part of what was called the Vir- 
 ginia fleet to London was laden with rice, skins, pitch, and tar 
 from Carolina.^ 
 
 In 1708 we have considerable light thrown upon the progress 
 of the Indian trade when Governor Johnson was called upon to 
 
 ^ American Indians, pp. 326, 337, 357. 
 
 ^ Demieres Annees Louisiane, p. 110. 
 
 ' 2 Carroll's Historical Collections, South Carolina, p. 97. 
 
206 COLONIAL MOBILE. 
 
 give information upon this and other interests of the province. 
 The exports were rice, pitch, tar, skins, — dressed and undressed, 
 — and furs ; all raw material, for there were no manufactures. 
 On the Caocta-Kuchy (Chattahoochee) was a town ever service- 
 able in the Indian trade, midway between the Ochasee and the 
 settlements of " the Tallabousies and Attalbanees." In these 
 we recognize at once the Tallapoosas and Alibaraons. They had 
 many towns and consisted of at least 1300 warriors, who traded 
 with the English for great quantities of goods. 
 
 The Cherokees were much nearer, being about 250 miles north- 
 west in the mountains, but, although living iu 60 towns and hav- 
 ing at least 500 men, Johnson describes them as very lazy and 
 their trade inconsiderable. He had more to say of " the Chicky- 
 saws " who were 200 miles west of the Tallabousies and num- 
 bered 600 men. They were warlike, but divided in interest 
 between the English and the French. There were, however, 
 few furs or skins obtained from the Chickasaws, since the dis- 
 tance hardly paid for the carriage; but so warlike were those 
 Indians that the English procured in exchange for goods many 
 slaves which the Chickasaws captured from other tribes. 
 
 All told, there were shipped to England from year to year at 
 least 50,000 skins, at a cost of say 3000 pounds sterling, paid 
 not in money but in English cottons, broadcloth of several colors, 
 duffels blue and red, beads, axes, hoes, falchions, small fusee 
 guns and ammunition.^ Between English and French compe- 
 tition the natives were discarding their bows and arrows for fire- 
 arms, their deerskin robes for clothing. On the French side 
 the missionary came first, on the English the trader : but on both 
 rum was an early pioneer. The English carried it with other 
 goods from Charles Town, the French from the " factory," — 
 Mobile, — which Johnson notes as " about four days down the 
 river whereon the Tallabousies live." 
 
 The first fortunes in the colony were made in the Indian 
 trade. Guns, ammunition, beads, blankets, and rum were ex- 
 changed with the Indians for skins and furs, which were second 
 only to rice in the colonial trade as late as 1747.^ One of the 
 
 * Rivers' Historical Sketches, South Carolina, p. 231 ; 1 McCrady's South 
 Carolina, pp. 480, 481. These give Governor Johnson's Report. Other con- 
 temporary evidence can be found in the invaluable Charleston Year Books. 
 
 ^ 2 Carroll's Historical Collections, South Carolina, pp. 234-237. 
 
THE CHARLESTON INDIAN TRADE. 207 
 
 Indian traders, a member of the Provincial Council, had been 
 himself six hundred miles up into the country, and proposed 
 to find the mouth and latitude of the Mississippi River. The 
 Board of Trade, however, were not disposed to pursue this haz- 
 ardous exploration. 
 
 The Cherokees occupied the mountainous country now divided 
 between Tennessee and North Carolina, and including also the 
 rough country at the sources of the Savannah River and its 
 tributaries, now in Georgia and South Carolina. In this way 
 the southern divisions came early in contact with the British 
 traders. In 1721 Governor Nicholson of South Carolina re- 
 solved to counteract the growing French influence, and made a 
 treaty in the Cherokee country, but by 1730 it was necessary 
 to send Sir Alexander Cumming to make another treaty with 
 them at Nequassee. 
 
 The Europeans always had difficulty in understanding the na- 
 tive political organization, so unlike their own highly centralized 
 governments. The Spaniards speak of kings where none ex- 
 isted, Bienville crowned an emperor of the Alibamons, and now 
 Cumming crowned Moytoy King of the Cherokees. Perhaps 
 more to the point was it that after drawing a treaty he took 
 chiefs with him to England. Nor was Georgia far behind 
 Carolina, for two years later Oglethorpe took Creeks over to 
 London. 
 
 Nevertheless, the influence of the French up the Tennessee 
 continued to grow among the Overhill Cherokees, and Fort 
 Toulouse was ever a thorn in the side of the British. A memo- 
 rial of the legislature of South Carolina in 1734, signed by the 
 governor, represented that the French had established a consid- 
 erable town "near Fort Toulouse on Mobile River," which they 
 seem to speak of as a separate place from " Fort Alabama." 
 As a consequence they urged that presents be given the Indians 
 and forts built among them so as to reduce Fort Alabama and 
 thus secure the Cherokees, who had lately become very insolent 
 to the British traders. Fort Toulouse not only controlled the 
 Creeks, but influenced the Cherokees. 
 
 The hold of the French was so great that much later when 
 war went against them in Canada they built Fort Massac on 
 the Ohio and obtained all the stronger hold on the Cherokees, 
 despite the Carolinian Fort Prince George on the Keowee or 
 
208 COLONIAL MOBILE. 
 
 upper Savannah, and even Fort Loudon over the mountains. 
 At the same time the Okchai chief Red Mortar carried to the 
 southern Cherokees ammunition from Toulouse. The English 
 soldier and the English trader had their hands full opposing 
 the French. 
 
 The trade roads did not vary greatly from the old Indian 
 hunting and war trails. The most important crossed the Savan- 
 nah from Charleston not far above the Silver Bluff, known in 
 De Soto's day, and shortly afterwards divided in two, — one 
 path going to the Cherokees and the other to the Muscogees. 
 At an early date the Carolinians built Fort Moore at this point, 
 and this and its successor, Augusta, on the Georgia side of the 
 river, ever remained the great centre of Indian trade. Near it 
 George Galphin settled about 1739 and had extensive ware- 
 houses. From there he soon exercised an enormous influence. 
 
 About this same time there went to live among the Indians a 
 Scotchman who was to all intents and purposes to represent 
 the British in the Indian trade. James Adair must ever remain 
 the chief authority on the British side. He was not only a 
 good trader and fine diplomat, in which he did not stand alone, 
 but was a man of education. He wrote a book on the Ameri- 
 can Indians, published in London in 1775, the standard work on 
 the subject. He has fanciful notions as to their origin, identi- 
 fying their customs with those of the lost tribes of Israel ; but 
 the facts he relates seem indisputable, and we can only wish 
 that other traders had wielded so ready a pen. He was first 
 among the Cherokees, and then in 1744 went among the Chick- 
 asaws. The path from the one to the other led near the Mus- 
 cogees, and so it happened that Adair, who lived through the 
 whole rivalry with the French, is our main reliance for British 
 trade relations with all three nations. 
 
 He bears witness to the Indian love of liquor, and relates 
 how a Cherokee by mistake drank three gills of turpentine, and 
 another drank red pepper. He saw the life and influence of the 
 celebrated Briber among the Cherokees. This French Jesuit went 
 there in 1736 and soon organized them into a state, with him- 
 self as chief secretary .^ He compiled a Cherokee dictionary 
 also. The details given by Adair seem colored, but Briber was 
 not to be the only French emissary. The fact that the nation 
 * American Indians, p. 240. 
 
THE CHARLESTON INDIAN TRADE. 209 
 
 fell subject to small-pox, derived from a Gulneaman which called 
 at Charleston, tended to help French influence, even despite the 
 British seizure of Priber, who ended his life in a Charleston 
 prison. 
 
 Typical of the Cherokee march or border between the French 
 and English is the tale of Herbert Spring, named for a Caro- 
 linian commissioner of Indian Aifairs, and to which Adair gives 
 quite a literary finish. " From the head of the southern branch 
 of the Savannah River," he says, " it does not exceed half a mile 
 to a head-spring of the Mississippi-water, that runs through the 
 middle and upper parts of the Cherake nation, about a north- 
 west course, — and joining other rivers, they empty themselves 
 into the great Mississippi. The above fountain is called Her- 
 bert's spring, and it was natural for strangers to drink thereof, 
 to quench thirst, gratify their curiosity, and have it to say that 
 they had drank of the French waters." ^ In the same way on leav- 
 ing Carolina's Broad River, travelers called one they soon found 
 flowing west the French Broad. 
 
 Adair was transferred to the Chickasaws in 1744, where he 
 had a freer hand and lived for many years. Trading caravans 
 would come from Augusta, cross the Coosa at a ford a few miles 
 above the sacred town of Coosa, and reach the Chickasaws by a 
 ford a few miles above the fort which the French erected at 
 Tombecb^. Supplies would be taken by the traders to the In- 
 dians in the spring and fall and their bales of peltries brought 
 back to Charleston in the spring. The chief trade would natu- 
 rally have been with the Muscogees and the Cherokees, but it 
 would seem that French influence, particularly after the build- 
 ing of Fort Toulouse, so interfered that the chief hold of the 
 English after all was upon the Chickasaws, twelve hundred miles 
 from Charleston, by a route shaped " like a reverted G," a three 
 months' trip from Augusta.^ Perhaps the personality of Adair 
 had something to do with this success, but if so it was strange 
 that the authorities did not employ him among the Muscogees. 
 
 Adair was not among the Chickasaws as early as Bienville's 
 expedition, but had constant trouble keeping off French advances 
 or attacks from Fort Tombecb^. One time the French Indians 
 attacked the Chickasaw traders, and at another he headed the 
 Chickasaws in an attempt to apprehend Peter Shartee, a French- 
 ^ American Indians, p. 231. ' Ibid., pp. 323, 340. 
 
210 COLONIAL MOBILE. 
 
 man who was active among the Shawano. Was this the Charli who 
 had a factory on the site of Nashville ? Small-pox was to break 
 out among the Chickasaws as it had among the Cherokees, but 
 was not to prove so fatal. Adair had almost absolute control 
 of the Chickasaws, whom the French had alienated in the Nat- 
 chez war, and in 1746 he was even to provoke a civil struggle 
 among the Choctaws. This defection gave great uneasiness to 
 the Gulf coast colonies.^ 
 
 De Soto had been turned aside by the mountain country of 
 the Cherokees, and that nation remained unaffected by white 
 colonization until a late date, while the river and broken coun- 
 try further to the west had a different fate. Much of our story 
 has been taken up with the relation of the French to the Chicka- 
 saws to the northwest, and the Muscogees to the northeast. It 
 is a striking fact that the French colonies reached up the river 
 from Mobile and the British colonies on the Atlantic coast for- 
 ward into the interior, not to touch, to be sure, because sepa- 
 rated by the Cherokees and Muscogees, but to meet in trade 
 rivalry among these very tribes of red men. At last the Apa- 
 lachiau Mountains no longer furnished a barrier between the 
 two systems of European colonization. The English were first 
 in the ascendant, but the building of Forts Toulouse and Tom- 
 becbe checked them and gave the French hopes of driving out 
 the British traders entirely. To the last the southwest terminus 
 of the Apalachian Mountain system was the centre of interest. 
 The English through their agents kept a hold upon the Chick- 
 asaws, and were also strong among the southern Cherokees, so 
 close to Georgia and Carolina ; but in the Muscogee or Aliba- 
 mon country at the sources of the Alabama River the French 
 were predominant, and all but cut in two the British sphere of 
 influence among the Chickasaws and Cherokees. Nevertheless 
 the British hold was strong. From small beginnings they built 
 up a great influence. 
 
 1 The British were less tactful than the French, their motives were less 
 trusted by the Indians, but they sold ammunition and whiskey at a lower 
 price, despite the long haul across rivers and mountains, and the rivalry finally 
 rose to such a pitch that war was necessary to settle it. 
 
SPANISH OFFICIAL 
 
Tt/a. 
 
 F THE GULF COAST 
 
CHAPTER XXIV. 
 
 THE SEVEN YEAES' WAR. 
 
 When Dauphine Island harbor was closed by a bar, and 
 New Orleans later became the capital of the province, Mobile 
 not only ceased to direct the development of the Mississippi 
 Valley, but she largely lost touch with it. If Ichabod could 
 not be written on the portal of Fort Conde, at least its glory 
 was limited to the Alabama basin. As Matthew Arnold wrote 
 of denominations differing from that to which he nominally 
 belonged. Mobile was out of the current of national life. But, 
 remembering the extent of its actual territory, it can hardly be 
 said that her annals were merely hole -in -corner history, as the 
 satirical advocate of sweetness and light said of the dissenters. 
 Our story has now reached the point where we are directly 
 concerned with the result of the struggle between the English 
 and French colonies. 
 
 The two systems of colonization had gone on side by side. 
 The English progressed more slowly, but with sure reduction 
 and settlement of the land, while the daring French penetrated 
 everywhere, but brought over few colonists, and cultivated 
 little. Yet by Bossu's time, indigo, cotton, and tobacco were 
 extensively produced. The standing argument of the French 
 with the Indians was that the English wished to exterminate 
 them and occupy their lands. True as this has proved, and 
 powerfully as it generally acted on the savage mind, the Eng- 
 lish, nevertheless, attracted them by being cheaper traders, and 
 even on Lake Ontario two beaver skins bought as good a brace- 
 let from the English at Oswego as ten did from the French at 
 Niagara. 1 The Indians sided with the French, but where pos- 
 sible bought their goods of the English. 
 
 The two nations had always been jealous, and their colonists 
 shared the spirit. At first, when the English colonies hugged 
 the seaboard and French emissaries penetrated everywhere, an 
 
 * Winsor's Basin of the Mississippi, p. 287 ; Bossu's Travels, p. 375, etc. 
 
212 COLONIAL MOBILE. 
 
 Iberville might indeed, with Indian help, have driven the Anglo- 
 Americans into the sea. But by the middle of the eighteenth 
 century the English had increased in numbers and occupied 
 well back to the mountain passes. Germans had settled the 
 interior of Pennsylvania, and Lord Fairfax was not the only 
 landowner in the valley of the Shenandoah who gave work to 
 young surveyors like George Washington. The thirteen colo- 
 nies were divided, and indisposed to help in a war which 
 Franklin felt was really for the benefit of English merchants.^ 
 But bolder counsels were finally to prevail, a union to be felt, 
 if not actually organized, which was the precursor of the Con- 
 federation, twenty years later, against the English crown itself. 
 When it is recollected that the English in America probably 
 equaled a million and a half, while the French were less than 
 ninety thousand, and that of these the inhabitants of Louisiana 
 were too far away from the seat of war to be effective, there 
 could be no doubt as to the result. ^ 
 
 The Peace of Utrecht determined, for a long time, the rela- 
 tions of France and England, for the French possessions in 
 America were so vast that the loss of Acadia and Newfound- 
 land was after a while almost forgotten. It is true that in the 
 war of the Austrian Succession, beginning in 1740, the two 
 nations were again opposed, and that English colonists helped 
 in the capture of Louisburg and Cape Breton, but the Peace 
 of Aix-la-Chapelle, in 1748, provided for a mutual restitution 
 of conquests. And yet there was an hereditary antipathy, 
 surviving, perhaps, from Roman and Teuton. It was felt that 
 there could not co-exist two such colonizing nations. The world 
 was not big enough, and a struggle for India and America must 
 come at last. 
 
 France was weaker than in the time of Louis XIV. ; Eng- 
 land was stronger, particularly at sea. Pitt was the embodi- 
 ment of the will of his nation, bent on the hmniliation as much 
 as the defeat of France; and while Louis XV., who had taken 
 the reins of power in 1723, was exemplary at first, from 1737 
 he became bent only on his pleasures and mistresses. The 
 final struggle in America came in the Seven Years' War, from 
 1757-63. Instead of a vast New France hemming in the Eng- 
 lish colonies between the mountains and the ocean, as had been 
 
 1 Winsor's Basin of the Mississippi, p. 350. ^ lUd., p. 347. 
 
THE SEVEN YEARS' WAR. 213 
 
 dreamed by Iberville, who was dead, and Bienville, who was 
 still living, a private Parisian, the French were now to contend 
 for their very existence in America. In Europe the war was 
 fought for England by her Prussian ally, Frederick the Great, 
 but in Asia and America she struggled hand to hand with her 
 hereditary foe. 
 
 Clear-headed colonists realized well enough that Canada 
 could not be permitted to grow up alongside them as a French 
 dependency and thus involve the American colonies in every 
 war between the mother countries. It was equally clear to 
 such men as Franklin that the same was true of the Ohio Val- 
 ley, in 1749 formally occupied by Celoron, and would ulti- 
 mately become not less true of the whole Mississippi basin. 
 The two portals to this basin were at Fort Duquesne, now 
 Pittsburg, and down on the Tennessee River. The southern 
 flank of the great mountain barrier could, we have seen, be 
 turned through Georgia, as the northern was to be by Lake 
 George and the St. Lawrence Valley. 
 
 In the first years of the war the French had the advantage, 
 particularly shown in Braddock's defeat at Fort Duquesne. 
 But mass gradually prevailed even over organization, and the 
 St. Lawrence expedition under Wolfe finally settled the fate 
 of the French in America. There was but desultory warfare 
 south of Pennsylvania, for the southern colonies of neither 
 side were strong enough to undertake offensive movements 
 over the intervening wilderness. At the north the foes were 
 closer together, and it was, moreover, instinctively felt that 
 Quebec was the true key to all French America. 
 
 Little aid could come from Louisiana, although Mobile offi- 
 cers advocated invading Georgia and Carolina with Choctaws,^ 
 but all in that province watched the conflict with absorbing 
 interest. News came only infrequently to Mobile, but we can 
 imagine Grondel poring over such dispatches as arrived and 
 the garrison of Fort Conde, from commandant down, eagerly 
 discussing the war. Quebec fell September 12, 1759, and 
 anxious must have been the little city on the southern guK, 
 when came the news that the capital, from which some had 
 come, and to which all looked as the American Paris, was in 
 the hands of the hated English, that Vaudreuil, so lately pro- 
 1 Bossu's Travels, p. 292. 
 
214 COLONIAL MOBILE. 
 
 moted from among them, was a fugitive. Added to fears for 
 the future, the southern colonists suffered much from financial 
 mismanagement. As the war prevented bringing money from 
 France, the governor-general was authorized to issue bills, 
 caUed hons^ in amounts from ten sols to one hundred livres, 
 drawn on the royal treasury. Kerlerec negotiated some through 
 Jamaica and other English colonies, but in October, 1759, the 
 king by an edict suspended payment of them, to the amount 
 of seven million livres. This paper made up all the colonial 
 currency, and widespread ruin was the result, the more bitter 
 as contrasted with the prosperity then prevailing and due to 
 openly favoring importation of negroes. 
 
 Quarrels, of course, were not lacking between governor and 
 intendant, as of old, and there was almost civil war when, in 
 1759, Rochemore seized two English smuggling vessels under 
 the Jew Diaz Anna at New Orleans, and Kerlerec released 
 them and permitted sale of their cargoes because the colonists 
 stood so much in need of the goods they brought. Kerlerec 
 arrested Marigny de Mandeville, Bossu, and other partisans of 
 the intendant and shipped them to France. His conduct was 
 disapproved at court, and this was ultimately to lead to his 
 own recall and imprisonment in the Bastille.^ He died of grief 
 shortly after his release. 
 
 The end of the war came September 8, 1760, when Vaudreuil 
 at Montreal surrendered Canada. Father Ferdinand, when he 
 thought of his bishop a prisoner, could but pray that the storm 
 reach not Mobile. And, in fact, it did not. While Louisiana 
 was to be affected by the result, there was no fighting near its 
 Gulf coast. 
 
 If the great commoner was to be influenced in his views of 
 American aggrandizement by a book dedicated to him at the 
 time, he would have not spent much blood or money to acquire 
 Mobile. 
 
 The geographer of this era of English expansion was Thomas 
 Jeffreys. In 1760, no doubt to show what American conquests 
 might mean, he published at London the "Natural and Civil 
 History of the French Dominions in North and South Amer- 
 ica," with maps of many places. Mobile has no plan, and 
 
 * Pittman's Mississippi Settlements, pp. 14, 15, 59, 67; 1 Martin's Louisiana, 
 pp. 334, 343. 
 
THE SEVEN YEARS' WAR. 215 
 
 indeed little is said of it, and that little unfavorable. Du 
 Pratz is his principal guide. 
 
 Approaching from the sea, we learn from him of Isle Dau- 
 phine that it enjoys a burning heat, the soil is barren, and 
 the island is little more than sand so white as to injure the eye- 
 sight. It has one advantage in that one can find plenty of the 
 finest fresh water by digging in this sand a very small distance 
 from the shore, and again the seas are alive with excellent fish. 
 Pines and firs abound, and there is a plant bearing pommes de 
 raquette (prickly pear), which is a sovereign remedy for dysen- 
 tery. 
 
 In his section on the products of Louisiana he describes the 
 "Spanish Beard" (hanging-moss), acacia, wax -tree, cedar, 
 canes, and many other trees and plants, as well as animals, 
 but his reports of Mobile are so black that one is not certain 
 he can mean that these advantages exist about here. The soil 
 near this river is said to be extremely barren, but the interior 
 is tolerably fertile. Fort Conde is barely named, and Fort 
 Tombecbe, about one hundred and forty leagues higher, is im- 
 portant only for fine cedars and potter's earth. About Fort 
 Toulouse, the "canton is said to be one of the finest countries 
 in the whole world." 
 
 The soil on the coast is of sand as white as snow, with pines, 
 cedars, and some green oaks. The river Mobile has a bed of 
 sand, and is far from equal to the Mississippi in plenty of fish. 
 The Mobile's banks are of gravel and earth and from its source 
 equally barren, but the lands are somewhat better about the 
 river of Alibamons. Like river, like people. "The lands and 
 water of the Mobile are extremely unfertile, not only in plants 
 and fishes, but, as the quality of both these contributes much 
 to the decrease of animals, the same effect happens with respect 
 to the inhabitants, many of the women having become barren 
 on their settling in these parts; as, on the contrary, they have 
 recovered on removing to the banks of the Mississippi. The 
 interior parts of this country must be exempted from this 
 quality common to many parts near the sea."^ 
 
 Verily a doubting Thomas, aiming at truth, perhaps, — but 
 at very long range ! It would look as if he wished the con- 
 quests to take in the Mississippi, and was afraid the govern- 
 ment might stop with Florida and Mobile. 
 
 * Jeffrey's French Dominion, etc., pp. 152-154. 
 
216 COLONIAL MOBILE. 
 
 At all events, this was exactly what happened. George III. 
 had in this very year, 1760, ascended the British throne, and 
 he wished to rule in fact as well as name. Pitt was in his 
 way, and when this minister wanted war with Spain and re- 
 jected overtures from France for peace, and thus alienated his 
 colleague Newcastle, the king widened the breach, and Pitt 
 resigned in 1761. The complaisant Bute was made premier, 
 but war with Spain came anyway, resulting in the capture of 
 Havana and Cuba by the British fleet. The king abandoned 
 Frederick, and in September, 1762, concluded peace. Nego- 
 tiations continued for some time as to how much England was 
 willing to leave to her rival, but the Treaty of Paris was finally 
 made February 10, 1763. 
 
 By it Canada was confirmed to Great Britain, Florida ceded 
 to her in consideration of the retrocession of Cuba and the 
 Philippines, and Louisiana east of the Mississippi and north 
 of the Iberville rivers also fell to Great Britain, despite pro- 
 tests and propositions of France for a buffer Indian country 
 between. By a secret treaty the king of France ceded New 
 Orleans and all west of the Mississippi to his cousin of Spain. 
 Thus old Louisiana was dismembered, and the Mobile district 
 was to go to England. Both Rochemore and Kerlerec returned 
 to France, and D'Abbadie as director-general had, until the 
 Spaniards should come, the powers of both intendant and gov- 
 ernor. 
 
 Cession to the foreigner was bitterly regretted. We can well 
 imagine how the hearts of his old colonists were to go out to 
 Bienville again when, at the age of eighty-six, he appeared with 
 their deputy Jean Milhet before the French minister De Choi- 
 seul to implore that Louisiana be not cut off from France. 
 But they did not even reach the throne.^ And it would have 
 done no good. 
 
 The exemplary prince and promising king had become cor- 
 rupted by his own court, and was now the greatest debauchee 
 of them all. The vices of Louis XIV., not his virtues, had 
 repeated themselves in his great-grandson. And all France 
 was in ferment. Now it was intellectual; it might become 
 political. Could he but make the royal structure outlast his 
 time, never mind the deluge afterwards. As to America, that 
 1 King's Bienville, p. 323. 
 
THE SEVEN YEARS' WAR. 217 
 
 was far away, — and the Pompadour so near! What cared 
 Louis XV. for Louisiana? He had obtained peace, at all 
 events, — never mind the cost ! A pare aux cerfs was worth 
 a dozen Mobiles and New Orleans. The cession was final. 
 
 It was to take some time, however, to make the world-wide 
 transfers. New Orleans long did not know of the secret ces- 
 sion to Spain, and remained under French rule until 1766, but 
 Mobile was surrendered October 20, 1763. As the lilies of 
 France descended, a regiment of Highlanders from Pensacola 
 entered, it is said, under Colonel Robertson, to the music of 
 bagpipes, and a royal salute greeted the British flag as it was 
 flung to the breeze.^ The proces verbal of the transfer was 
 signed by De Velle and Fazende for France, and Robert Farmar 
 (or Farmer) for England, and was followed by Farmer's pro- 
 clamation. The historic name of Fort Conde was changed to 
 Fort Charlotte, for the queen of the young king of England. 
 
 The French troops with the ordnance and many of the peo- 
 ple sadly withdrew to New Orleans. But the bulk of the inhab- 
 itants remained, for they loved the old home even better than the 
 old flag. 
 
 * 2 French's Historical Collection^ p. 62. 
 
PART IV. 
 BRITISH WEST FLORIDA. 
 
 1763-1780. 
 
CHAPTER XXV. 
 
 A NEW PROVINCE. 
 
 When by the Treaty of Paris, February 10, 1763, Mobile be- 
 came a part of the British possessions in America, it was not as 
 a dependency of any of the thirteen colonies which would soon 
 become famous. Georgia had, like others, claimed a charter 
 from sea to sea, but the Treaty of Paris recognized the middle 
 of the Mississippi as the west line of the British possessions. 
 And the king curtailed the colonies yet further. By proclama- 
 tion of October 7, 1763, he made crown lands of all from the 
 Mississippi to the AUeghanies, and established south of the 
 line of 31° two new colonies. East Florida was the peninsula, 
 with St. Augustine as capital; West Florida was the country 
 west of this to the Mississippi and Iberville rivers, with Pen- 
 sacola as capital, and including Mobile in what was to be known 
 as Charlotte County. The northern boundary of West Florida 
 was next year shifted northwardly to the line running east and 
 west through the mouth of the Yazoo River. These proclama- 
 tions were probably, like one named by Adair, published by 
 posting on the gate of Fort Charlotte.^ 
 
 The crown lands extending to Canada were not erected into 
 a province, but were reserved nominally for the use of the 
 Indians until the further order of the king. This practically 
 adopted the French proposition of an Indian buffer country, 
 but under English control. 
 
 The first governor of West Florida was George Johnstone, 
 who, according to Adair, was much respected by the savages. 
 Its military, however, were subject to the orders of the com- 
 mander-in-chief at New York, General Thomas Gage, who in 
 1763 succeeded Amherst in command of all America, — an 
 
 1 Winsor's Basin of the Mississippi, pp. 428, 430 ; Adair's American In- 
 dians, p. 369. Much information in this Part IV. has been derived from 
 the Haldimand Papers at Ottawa, and from an examination made in the 
 British Colonial Records at London. 
 
222 ' COLONIAL MOBILE. 
 
 arduous position even in time of peace. He Lad been governor 
 of Montreal in 1760. 
 
 The military of West Florida was commanded until the 
 spring of 1767 by Colonel Taylor, and the post at Mobile con- 
 sisted at first of the 22d and 34th regiments, which occupied 
 the place October 20, 1763. 
 
 Fort Toulouse, up the Alabama River, had been maintained 
 by the French as much as a check on the British of the Atlan- 
 tic as for trade, and was now, when everything had become 
 British, of less importance. Farmer could not spare the men 
 to garrison it, but sent James Germany there to keep possession. 
 As late as August, 1764, we know from the Haldimand Papers 
 that flags were made for the Creeks, and in the next February 
 Germany was interpreter to them still. The British could 
 have found little of value in the fort, as Lavnoue spiked his 
 cannon, broke their trunnions, dismantled the work, and threw 
 all the property into the river before withdrawing to Mobile in 
 1763. The cannon remained, however, for many years. ^ 
 
 Fort Tombecbe, called by Farmer Fort York, was of more 
 value from its nearness to the warlike Chickasaws, and was 
 maintained, as Gage later frankly expressed it, for the purpose 
 of encouraging the Choctaws and assisting in Indian quarrels. 
 
 Thirty British soldiers under Lieutenant Thomas Ford had 
 taken possession November 22, 1763, and Ford reports that he 
 found it a strong post, but in need of repairs. We learn from 
 the major's contingent account among the Haldimand Papers 
 that Farmer paid Captain Chabbert for the French stores left 
 there X40 10s. 8d. There was immediately a draft on all the 
 fort supplies, for there was a Choctaw town within musket-shot, 
 and the Indians must be placated with presents. This was fol- 
 lowing the French policy, and also the order of Lieutenant-Colo- 
 nel James Robertson. The bill of X235 Is. 5d. was ultimately 
 paid by Farmer. In March of next year there was a fleet of 
 "battoes" (bateaux) sent up there from Mobile, and for pilot- 
 ing them Anthony Narbonne was paid X3 14s. 8d. H. M. 
 S. Stagg had just arrived with supplies for Fort Charlotte, 
 and probably some were sent up the river. There was a good 
 garden at Tombecbe. 
 
 1 See 1 Pickett's Alabama, p. 221, for their migration to Montgomery, 
 Wetumpka, etc. 
 
A NEW PROVINCE. 223 
 
 Under the French, Mobile, after it ceased to be the capital, 
 was still important as controlling the Alabama basin. This 
 remained true under the British, and it now acquired also a 
 new importance. New Orleans remained French (or Spanish), 
 and Mobile now became, especially at first, a base of supplies 
 and operations for the British control of the east half of the 
 Mississippi valley. 
 
 Several English publications were devoted to the new acqui- 
 sitions, but none of them grasped the importance of Mobile 
 better than Roberts, — if he does prefix a Cockney "H " to the 
 name of the main river. He says : — 
 
 " The Bay of Mobile forms a most noble and spacious harbor, 
 running thirty miles north, and six miles broad, to the several 
 mouths of the Halabama and Chickasaw rivers. It affords very 
 good anchorage and is capable of containing the whole British 
 navy. 
 
 "The French, perceiving the importance of this place, and 
 the advantages that must naturally arise therefrom, erected, 
 on the west side of this bay, a strong fort called after the bay. 
 This place is now become to us of the utmost consequence, since 
 all the country to the eastward of the Mississippi is ceded to us 
 by the late treaty of peace. 
 
 " The advantageous situation of this harbor, to the very heart 
 of the richest part of the country, is as it were a back door to 
 New Orleans, and will ever remain an unmovable check, by 
 inevitably cutting off all communication between the river Mis- 
 sissippi and Europe, and the French western islands. Yet this 
 depends upon the seasonable measures taken by the govern- 
 ment to put this country and harbor into a better posture of 
 defense, by erecting a fort at its entrance, and sending colonies 
 
 over 
 
 "1 
 
 Almost on a line to the west of Fort Tombecbe, the British, 
 in order to watch the French across the Mississippi River, had 
 built at the Natchez Fort Panmure. Lower down, the Iber- 
 ville separated West Florida from Spanish Louisiana; and 
 making the Iberville navigable, so as to give continuous com- 
 munication with the Mississippi, was the constant aim of the 
 British. In January, 1765, Farmer paid Lieutenant James 
 Campbell, of the 34th regiment, X326 13s. 13d. "towards de- 
 1 Roberts' Florida, p. 952. 
 
224 COLONIAL MOBILE. 
 
 fraying the expenses of clearing the river Iberville," and the 
 very next month no less than .£863 6s. 8d. was paid Delille 
 Dupard for the same purpose. Lieutenant Pittman, later to be 
 connected with the great survey of Mobile Bay, on April 8 of 
 this year we find mentioned in connection with surveying the 
 Iberville. On that day Rochon was paid twenty-two and a half 
 pounds for repairing a boat for Pittman " to survey the lakes 
 with." Pittman was stationed there, and his verdict was that 
 the river had got in worse condition than ever, because the drift 
 logs had been cut up only near the Mississippi, and high water 
 had blocked up the lower part with this material.^ 
 
 This lake route was of value not only for watching the 
 French and Spanish. Through this, or through the lower 
 Mississippi, must pass all communication with the upper val- 
 ley, and particularly the fertile Illinois region, which had been, 
 under the French, the granary of Louisiana, and in part of 
 Canada. Johnstone, therefore, had the Scots Fusiliers build, 
 on the site of the workmen's camp, a fort to protect the pas- 
 sage. This was the origin of Fort Bute. 
 
 The French had always been powerful in the upper Missis- 
 sippi valley, the Illinois, opened by their missionaries, and later 
 its trade was contended for by the rival governments of Canada 
 and Louisiana. Fort Chartres, founded 1718 among the 
 Kaskaskias on the Mississippi above the Ohio junction, had 
 become the principal post of a district containing 1100 whites, 
 besides three hundred negro slaves. Altogether there were 
 over two thousand French in the upper valley. ^ 
 
 The Treaty of Paris surrendered all east of the river to the 
 English, but the reluctance of the French inhabitants and the 
 hostility of the Indians under Pontiac and others made the ces- 
 sion at first nominal. Major Loftus, with 400 troops of the 22d 
 regiment from Mobile, attempted in 1764 to ascend the Mis- 
 sissippi to take possession ; but on March 20 these were driven 
 back by Tunica Indians at Davion's Bluff before they had well 
 started, with the loss of five killed and four wounded.^ Part 
 of the command then returned by the lake route to Mobile. 
 Even the Indian pacification at Mobile was limited to the 
 
 ^ Pittman's Mississippi Settlements, pp. 31, 32. 
 
 ^ Winsor's Basin of the Mississippi, p. 268, chap. xxi. 
 
 ' Ibid., chap, xxiii. ; Pittman's Mississippi Settlements, p. 35. 
 
A NEW PROVINCE. 225 
 
 southern savages, and taking possession of the Illinois was still 
 in the future. An expedition to feel the way was necessary, 
 and we read of an unsuccessful one by Lieutenant Fraser from 
 Fort Pitt. 
 
 At this time there seems to have been at New Orleans the 
 firm of Logan, Terry & Co. They were of assistance when 
 English vessels, instead of taking the lake route, ascended from 
 the mouth of the Mississippi, as they had a right to do under 
 the treaty. This firm figures largely in the Farmer accounts. 
 
 The first item is a payment on August 22, 1764, to Pousset 
 of 16s. 4d. for bunting and making of flags for the Illi- 
 nois and Creek Indians. In November we find Hugh Craw- 
 ford and Ludow^ Huckle mentioned as having a contract to 
 conduct an officer to the Illinois; and Captain John Lind, of 
 the schooner Charlotte, as bringing the king's bateaux from 
 the Balize to New Orleans. About the same time Logan, 
 Terry & Co. collected a large quantity of Indian goods for a 
 new expedition to be imdertaken by Lieutenant Ross, their 
 bill being no less than £3247 5s. 4|d. 
 
 Unless we are to suppose that Lieutenant John Ross's party 
 was a different one, it would seem that the expedition did not 
 leave for the Illinois until early spring, — and it would be 
 strange to undertake a northern journey before that season. 
 Then in March comes the payment to Messrs. Monsarts & Co. 
 of X1405 18s. 8d. more for boats; and to Logan, Terry & Co., 
 next month, one fifth as much again on account of "battoes" 
 for the Illinois expedition. This seems extraordinary, unless 
 the first set had been destroyed in some way. The Monsarts 
 had already been paid in part by skins, as we learn in the curi- 
 ous entry of a draft on General Gage for repayment of the 
 duty of almost 200 pounds sterling placed by the governor and 
 coimcil on these skins when imported into the colony. It is 
 possible even yet to imagine the explosion when Gage heard of 
 this tax! And on April 1 was paid X397 more in drafts from 
 Monsart, met by Farmer through the Mobile house of George 
 Ancrum. 
 
 Logan, Terry & Co. had supplied Ross with a sixteen-pound 
 outfit himself, besides two horses for X12, and every now and 
 then on his progress he draws on Farmer for some expense. 
 Up among the Chickasaws he draws for £103 16s. in favor of 
 
226 COLONIAL MOBILE. 
 
 the trader John Brown, who seems to have supplied guides from 
 there to the Illinois, and this was in addition to the compensa- 
 tion of Francis Underwood, who acted as guide and interpreter 
 too. Daniel Clark makes presents of forty wampums (costing 
 over X57) on the way ; and Logan, Terry & Co. supply <£350 
 of goods to pay the rowers of the bateaux employed by Captain 
 Lagauterais for the public presents to the Illinois. These 
 goods would seem to have been well protected, for we learn also 
 that a barrel of tar from Mobile was used in making tarpaulins. 
 
 The result of this expensive expedition we do not know. But 
 it must have been exceedingly satisfactory to the Indians at 
 least, and have kept Major Farmer busy paying out British 
 gold from his strong-box. 
 
 The final occupation of the Illinois was in the fall of 1765, 
 and effected by the operations of Captain Stirling with High- 
 landers, who penetrated the Ohio valley from Fort Pitt; while 
 Major Farmer shortly afterwards, in December, led the 34th 
 regiment up the Mississippi to join him. The French com- 
 mandant, St. Ange, then retired across the river to the village 
 of St. Louis, and the English entered Fort Chartres.^ 
 
 With this the British occupation of the Mississippi basin was 
 completed. 
 
 ^ Winsor's Basin of the Mississippi, p. 457. 
 
CHAPTER XXVI. 
 
 THE CHEVALIER MONTAUT DE MONBERAUT.^ 
 
 The change from French to British domination in 1764 was 
 not easily made. Not only were there many public affairs to be 
 adjusted, but the lives and property of three races were involved. 
 Many Frenchmen remained in the Mobile country, but many 
 British immigrants came, while up the river basins the Choctaws 
 and Chickasaws on the Tombecbe River, and the Alibamons and 
 allied tribes on the Alabama to the east, not only looked on 
 askance, but were disposed to oppose the change of flag. It was 
 a delicate situation and called for more diplomacy than the Brit- 
 ish usually exhibited. 
 
 The English authorities sent out George Johnstone of the 
 navy as governor, and he was met in the new colony by John 
 Stuart, who had for some time been Superintendent of Indian 
 Affairs in the southern Atlantic colonies. Johnstone, however, 
 knew nothing of Indians, while Stuart's knowledge was con- 
 fined to the Cherokees. He had suffered at Fort Loudon from 
 this nation when inflamed by the French, and was now to meet 
 at Mobile the Chevalier de Monberaut, who had, directly or in- 
 directly, a good deal to do with the Indian outbreak which had 
 resulted in that massacre. 
 
 The Chevalier had a place near Mobile, and also one at New 
 Orleans with mill and other fixtures, and for some time he hesi- 
 tated whether to remain at Mobile or go over to the Mississippi, 
 obtain an office under the British or one under the Spaniards. 
 Colonel Robertson made his acquaintance when the British oc- 
 cupied Fort Cond^ in November, and put him in correspondence 
 with General Thomas Gage, the British Commander-in-Chief at 
 Boston, with a view to his entering the British service. It turned 
 
 ^ The memoires which tell the story of the Chevalier remain in manuscript 
 in the Paris archives. 
 
228 COLONIAL MOBILE. 
 
 out, however, that the English laws against Catholics stood in 
 the way ; but Monberaut would not change his faith. 
 
 When Johnstone and Stuart reached West Florida they came 
 to Mobile on December 1, and negotiated with Monberaut with 
 a view of securing his influence with the Indians. To that 
 end they proposed making him Deputy Superintendent of In- 
 dian Affairs. This being no regular office, but merely that of 
 assistant to Stuart, it seemed that an oath of fidelity during the 
 term of his employment would suffice, and no subscription of 
 the Thirty-nine Articles would be necessary. After some verbal 
 negotiation Monberaut suggested that the proposition be put in 
 writing, and this was done on December 8, 1764. It amounted 
 to an offer with the salary of two hundred and ten pounds ster- 
 ling a year, besides fifty pounds for rent of a house, provision 
 for extraordinary expenses, and promise of recommendation for 
 a pension. 
 
 Monberaut's response was favorable, except he pointed out 
 that the allowance was inadequate for the increase in expenses 
 made necessary by removal to town and by the ojjen table which 
 one would have to keep for the Indians. He desired an increase, 
 because, quoting "Ezope," the eye of the master fattens the 
 horse, and he would have to leave his country place in the hands 
 of servants. Referring to Johnstone's statement that he would 
 be recommended for a pension, he suggests that this be put at 
 one half of the amount of his appointments. Turning to the mat- 
 ter of his. commission, he warns the Governor that the French 
 treated the Indians affectionately, and that it would be neces- 
 sary for the English to follow their example in order to secure 
 the savages. This would involve much entertainment and the 
 giving of many presents. 
 
 Governor Johnstone was afterwards to claim that in the origi- 
 nal letter Monberaut had had a good deal to say about his ancestry 
 and the like, and the governor had insisted on these and similar 
 vanities being cut out of the communication. There is no trace 
 of annoyance, however, in the acceptance signed by Johnstone 
 and Stuart on December 15, apparently as soon as the letter was 
 received. They " agree entirely to the terms," and even allow 
 one hundred pounds sterling for the rent of a house. 
 
 Monberaut immediately set about his duties. These involved 
 bringing the Choctaws into an alliance by a treaty to be held at 
 
THE CHEVALIER HON TAUT DE MONBERAUT. 229 
 
 Mobile, and also, a matter of more difficulty, effecting the same 
 result with the group of nations whom the English called the 
 Creeks, from the numerous watercourses met on approaching 
 from the Carolina side, and whom the French knew under the 
 name of Alibamons, Abekas, Talapouches, and Kaouitas. The 
 most influential warrior, the one whom the French entitled Chef 
 de Guerre^ was called by the English " the Mortar," and by the 
 French, whose cause he had always espoused, Le Lovj). His 
 native name was Yaha Tasky Stonake, but Adair spells it 
 Yahyah Tustenage.^ 
 
 It so happened that a Creek warrior named Toupalga was on 
 a hunting trip between Mobile and Pensacola, and Monberaut 
 immediately employed him to find the Mortar, who was reported 
 to be hunting among the Cherokees. It took some time to make 
 arrangements, but finally by February Monberaut sent his son, 
 Louis Augustin, together with two attendants, fortified with a 
 memoire instructif as to his conduct among the upper nations 
 and particularly in regard to the Mortar. Young Monberaut 
 bore a letter to be delivered to the Mortar in the presence of the 
 assembled chiefs. Instructions and letter had been sent over to 
 Superintendent Stuart at Pensacola and duly approved. Indeed, 
 the letter of Monberaut to the Mortar was translated into Eng- 
 lish by Stuart himself, and is extant in French and English 
 parallel columns. The purport of it was that the French and 
 Spanish had yielded the land to the British, and that those who 
 had been Frenchmen and Spaniards had now become English. 
 The Indians, said Monberaut, were ignorant, and had become 
 dependent upon the white people for supplies, and now the 
 English were the only ones with whom they would be able 
 to trade. Monberaut, whom these nations recognized as their 
 " Father," had himself become English, and urged them to a 
 pacification with the new neighbors. The translation was the 
 one actually used, for, while Monberaut spoke Choctaw, it 
 seems he did not write Creek, and the present Creek interpre- 
 ters were Englishmen. 
 
 Monberaut first secured the attendance of the Choctaws, 
 
 although the " Great Division " and " Six Towns " had come 
 
 and gone before the " Eastern District," who had been more 
 
 closely allied with the French, could be induced to visit Mobile. 
 
 ^ American Indians, p. 254. 
 
230 COLONIAL MOBILE. 
 
 In arranging for the Choctaws, Superintendent Stuart con- 
 tracted with Collector Blackwell to furnish beef cattle at twenty 
 piastres a head. The congress was to meet on February 15, and 
 a number of the Indians then appeared, but there were not 
 enough to begin proceedings until the first of March. Blackwell 
 interested in the contract Muler, a nephew of Major Farmer, 
 but could not supply enough cattle. As a consequence Stuart 
 went down to Lisloy and stated his embarrassment to Monbe- 
 raut. They soon came to terms, Monberaut practically taking 
 the contract and even agreeing to supply " vaux,^^ so that the 
 Superintendent's table would be more attractive. It required 
 some energy to get up the stock in this winter season ; for the 
 cattle were scattered through the woods, leagues and leagues 
 away, since the only pasture to be found was cane and the like 
 in the swamps. After a pleasant visit Stuart went back by sea in 
 Monberaut's voiture, rowed by the Chevalier's negroes. These 
 returned in a day or two with a letter from Stuart to the effect 
 that Blackwell had thirty head of cattle in town, but a short 
 time later came a second letter by John McGillivray saying that 
 these were too poor for use and Blackwell had let them go back 
 into the woods. A good deal depended upon prompt action, 
 as a number of Conchates had come, with Tomatle Mingo 
 and Tibuet at their head, not to mention Colonel Wedderburn 
 and two braves gargons, captains of the 34th Regiment. The 
 Choctaws had killed two Talapouches, and the Talapouches had 
 killed one Choctaw. Voila / 
 
 Monberaut moved up to Mobile and Stuart became his guest. 
 The Governor had been lodging at the house of the merchant 
 Telfair, on the understanding that he was to surrender the place 
 as soon as Telfair returned from buying goods in Carolina. 
 Stuart was staying at Mr. Creek's, a merchant, but the quarters 
 were so limited that the Superintendent had to sleep in the 
 magazin. Monberaut secured Captain Campbell's little house 
 and agreed to let Stuart live with him. The Superintendent 
 seems to have been more used to wigwams than to houses, and 
 managed to set the chimney on fire. The Chevalier complained 
 that the only reimbursement given was advice to have the chim- 
 ney fixed. Monberaut thought himself sure of his position, and 
 in December obtained one of the best houses in Mobile, Major 
 Farmer's, at seven hundred piastres gourdes. Stuart, in the 
 
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THE CHEVALIER MONTAUT DE MONBERAUT. 231 
 
 mean time, after the Governor left, had been at TeKair's on the 
 same precarious tenure, and was glad to accept Monberaut's 
 invitation to stay with him in his new place. 
 
 When the congress finally assembled Monberaut's house was 
 the centre of attraction. Daily table was set for twenty-five 
 to thirty covers, sometimes more than once a day. Governor 
 Johnstone often dined there at Stuart's invitation and saw the 
 sumptuous service, which was greatly praised by every one in 
 Mobile who had any standing. It contributed greatly to the 
 success of the congress. 
 
 Stuart, although Superintendent of Indian Affairs for five 
 provinces, could not entertain on anything like the same scale. 
 His outfit consisted of twelve silver spoons, two dozen knives 
 with deer - horn handles, two dozen iron forks with similar 
 handles, three or four table cloths so small that two would 
 hardly cover an ordinary table, four caraphes of cristal, two 
 pots de cuir houilly doubles of silver for beer, and two dozen 
 glasses. Monberaut is unkind enough to tell us that Mr. Stuart 
 was well acquainted with the use of the glasses, and often drank 
 all night. Drinking had an unusual effect upon the Superintend- 
 ent. Usually he could hardly walk for gout, but when the 
 " bacchic enthusiasm " prevailed he would dance long and vio- 
 lently to the music of instruments, and resembled a man bitten 
 by a tarantula. 
 
 An harangue to the Choctaws and Chickasaws was made by 
 Monberaut in the presence of the Governor, Superintendent, 
 and those whom he calls the Notables of the Province of West 
 Florida. He reminded the Indians of the existence of a Great 
 Spirit, who ruled both the red man and the white man, and that 
 the French, Spanish, and English had ceased their warfare, and 
 the only nation with which the Indians could now deal would be 
 the English. It behooved them, therefore, to forget the past 
 and become friendly with their new neighbors, who in exchange 
 for enough land to farm would furnish the arms, clothing, and 
 other necessary supplies which the Indians were not them- 
 selves able to manufacture. 
 
 This first congress lasted from March 1 to April 26, and re- 
 sulted in a large cession of land by the Choctaws on the coast and 
 the Tombigbee River, the action of the western districts being 
 confirmed by that of the eastern two weeks afterwards. As a 
 
232 COLONIAL MOBILE. 
 
 part of the ceremony the captains, small and great medal chiefs, 
 surrendered their French medals, gorgets, and commissions, first 
 presenting them to Monberaut and afterwards laying them be- 
 fore Stuart, whom they accepted as their new father. Such was 
 the American form of fealty, by which they became the men 
 of King George.^ 
 
 Meantime what of Louis Augustin Montaut up the Alabama 
 River? 
 
 He had not been idle, and made a report which was gratifying 
 at the time (although afterwards the Governor was to charac- 
 terize it as boastful), showing that the Mortar, who had re- 
 fused all advances of the English, listened seriously to the 
 harangue of the Chevalier Monberaut, accepted the presents 
 offered, and agreed to attend a congress at Pensacola. But 
 in the interval a white man had been killed by the Tala- 
 pouches, and the Mortar was afraid that vengeance would be 
 exacted. For this reason he insisted upon meeting Monberaut 
 before attending the congress. 
 
 Accompanied, therefore, by Lieutenant Colonel Wedderburn, 
 Monberaut went to meet the Mortar at a brook, some branch of 
 the Escambia, where the Indians were encamped outside Pensa- 
 cola. Using their figures, he told them that since his letter had 
 been sent up the river the paths had become rough and red with 
 the blood of the slain white man, for the chiefs and even the 
 War Chief exercised no sufficient authority over young warriors. 
 The man slain had been a Frenchman, but by the treaty be- 
 tween France and England he had become an Englishman ; for 
 there were no more Frenchmen in what had become the Prov- 
 ince of West Florida. 
 
 He went on to remind his auditors that they had become used 
 to guns, powder, ball, gun flint, ramrods, hatchet, mattock, knife, 
 shirts, blankets, cloth, and the like ; from whom could they 
 now obtain these things ? The French were gone, the Spanish 
 
 * These medals were nothing new. Both French and English had intro- 
 duced the custom of conferring them as a mark of honor upon those chiefs 
 who were favorable to them. It was somewhat remarkable to meet in the 
 wilds of America an Indian bearing a medal with the head of Louis XIV., 
 or of George III., wearing it quite as proudly as a veteran of the Rhine 
 might wear his at Versailles or London. Indeed, this policy was to be con- 
 tinued, and Spaniard and American alike were to supply these decorations 
 to the savages. 
 
THE CHEVALIER MONTAUT DE MONBERAUT. 233 
 
 were on the other side of the Mississippi River, and there was 
 no one with whom to trade except the English. He knew the 
 Indians were restless because the English wished lands ; but was 
 it not a necessity on the one hand for the Indians to trade with 
 the English, and, on the other, for the English to have enough 
 lands to raise crops and other supplies ? Some of the Indians 
 used to tell him that they were well treated at Charleston ; and 
 this was due to the fact that the English there had ample lands 
 to cultivate. So little did the white people need extensive ter- 
 ritories that the Spaniards had brought in Apalaches and Ya- 
 masses and given them lands, and the French had done the 
 same with the Tinsas. The English did not desire lands for 
 forts, but for cow pens and plantations. He pointed out that 
 the French fort among the Alibamons had not been occupied 
 by the English, and that on the Tombecbe had been abandoned, 
 much to the regret of the Choctaws. 
 
 This harangue the day before the proposed congress was suc- 
 cessful, and Monberaut and Wedderburn entered Pensacola 
 at the head of the savages, who came as suppliants in the matter 
 of the death of the white man and prepared to arrange the land 
 question. 
 
 Monberaut himself unfortunately fell sick and was not able 
 to attend many of the meetings. It may have been due in part 
 to this fact that the cession by the Creeks was not nearly so gen- 
 erous as that by the Choctaws. It was afterwards explained by 
 the Indians that, while they could grant more land, they wished 
 to test the English for a few years, and see if they were good. 
 
 In some way, unaccountable to Monberaut, Johnstone and 
 Stuart did not insist upon the signature of the treaty at Pensa- 
 cola. The Mortar and his warriors retired to the woods, and it 
 was necessary for Johnstone and Stuart to follow them. The 
 Indians deliberated at some length, and finally announced that 
 they would not carry out the treaty unless there was added a 
 provision that goods should be sold them on their rivers at as 
 low a rate as the traders furnished the Cherokees. 
 
 Johnstone and Stuart were greatly exercised over the demand, 
 and undertook to explain to the Mortar that the colonies were 
 more or less independent, and this applied to the Indian trade, 
 even though John Stuart was Superintendent of Indian Affairs 
 for Carolina as well as for West Florida, and divided his time 
 
234 COLONIAL MOBILE. 
 
 between Charleston and Pensacola. Monberaut, hearing of the 
 difficulty, left his room, sick as he was, and hastened to the scene. 
 When the Governor saw him coming, he told the Indians to ask 
 Monberaut, in whom they had confidence, if it was not true that 
 Johnstone could not control the trade prices of another province. 
 
 Monberaut took up the talk and assured the Indians that this 
 was true, but that these great English chiefs, the Governor and 
 Superintendent, would write to King George with a view of sat- 
 isfying their wishes. 
 
 The Mortar was at last convinced and accepted the situation. 
 The treaty was concluded and all parties returned to their homes. 
 
 Throughout the papers Monberaut declares that the worst in- 
 jury that could be done him was a blow struck at his honor. 
 Even if we make some allowance for a bias in his own favor, 
 there seems to be good ground for believing that he was of great 
 assistance to Stuart. 
 
 We know a good deal of Governor Johnstone from other 
 sources. He seems to have been touchy, insistent upon his own 
 rights, real or fancied, and constantly embroiled, first with the 
 military of the province, and then with all others who got in his 
 way. It is very likely that Monberaut had somewhat of the 
 Gascon in his composition, was vain of his descent and services, 
 and lavish in his expenditures. In the economical time upon 
 which they had fallen — when, as Johnstone says, the first " real 
 honest man " had come to the head of the treasury — it may well 
 be that the Governor could desire some check upon this French 
 Deputy Superintendent of Indian Affairs. 
 
 At all events, after the negotiations had been satisfactorily 
 concluded with the Choctaws at Mobile and with the Creeks at 
 Pensacola, there was less occasion for the services of Monberaut. 
 His son, returning from Pensacola, happened to spend the night 
 at the house of Forneret, an interpreter, and learned that John 
 McGillivray, clerk of Superintendent Stuart, had been there 
 lately and said that Stuart was about to discharge the Deputy 
 Superintendent. This the young man told his father, and on 
 the 20th of June Monberaut wrote a letter to Johnstone and 
 Stuart, reciting his own services, stating that he had noticed 
 lately some froideur, and intimating that he supposed he was 
 about to be dropped because circumstances had changed and he 
 was no longer needed. 
 
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 PENSACOLA BAY, 1766 
 
THE CHEVALIER MONTAUT DE MONBERAUT. 235 
 
 This was ill-judged and provoked a scathing reply, bearing 
 date a week later. The Governor immediately surmised that the 
 matter would be taken to the home government at London and 
 sent a pronunciamento by Robert Lindsey, Lieutenant in the 
 22d, who delivered it on the 6th of July. By its terms Monbe- 
 raut was discharged from office and required either to take up 
 his abode at Pensacola in order to finish up his affairs, or to 
 sail from Mobile for New Orleans within three days. Johnstone 
 compared Monberaut's conduct to the Yahoos, described by 
 Dean Swift, and said that Monberaut would never have made 
 the claim he did had he not known that Stuart, who could con- 
 tradict it, had already sailed for Europe. He says he would 
 rather have all the distinguished Monberaut family his open en- 
 emies than one as a false friend. " You did show us a parcel 
 of papers, all calculated to promote your own consequence ; how 
 a maid of honour, who was no maid, was to get you the rank of 
 colonel in Spain ; how a secretary to an under-secretary, who 
 was no secretary, was to get you a Croix de St. Louis ; and 
 also a long branch of your descent from Adam. I told you then, 
 as I tell you now, that a man could not have lived three weeks 
 in the world not to have seen through all that froth, which had 
 nothing to do with our negotiation. That your speaking Choc- 
 taw and your having lived at Alibamont, were much greater 
 recommendation to me than any of those papers, which had all 
 the appearance of being wrote on the occasion." He takes oc- 
 casion to abuse Forneret, and even McGillivray, but believes 
 Stuart "as honest and sincere a man as exists in the universe." 
 He said that the Chevalier had made money out of his official 
 dealings with the Indians, that Monberaut's family had sold 
 public bread through the streets of Mobile, and he had entered 
 pepper and salt in his accounts at the rate of $8 per day. John- 
 stone declares that he had never heard of anything like it since 
 the Canterbury innkeeper, who had charged up his guest the 
 French Ambassador with all the damage which had been suf- 
 fered during the war between France and England. He de- 
 clared that he had had no admiration for Monberaut from the 
 beginning, who had no credit among the Choctaws, and had 
 endeavored to keep up distinctions of party among the Indians 
 only in order to show his own importance by allaying them. 
 
 The Governor claims to have told Monberaut that his pro- 
 
236 COLONIAL MOBILE. 
 
 posed harangue to the Creeks was entirely improper, — although 
 the changes he recommended were insignificant, — and sarcas- 
 tically testifies that in the congress, when difficulties arose with 
 the Creeks, they always yielded to Monberaut, — because Mon- 
 beraut was both the author and remover of the disturbances. 
 He seems to have a more kindly feeling for young Monberaut, 
 who had to obey the father, but claims that the Mortar said it 
 was Mr. Struthers who persuaded him to come down to the 
 congress, and the Governor adds that he had had trouble in sav- 
 ing the young man from prosecution for horse stealing. 
 
 Pretty much the only merit Johnstone was willing to concede 
 Monberaut was that of knowing where the warrior was through 
 whom negotiations with the Mortar had started. According to 
 his account Monberaut had acted as Deputy Superintendent 
 only nine days, and now demanded a pension greater than "full 
 pay of the King of France." Monberaut, he says, has slippery 
 hands, and Johnstone could only exclaim with Ajax, " Good 
 Gods! let me but engage in the open daylight." He would 
 have liked to wait until he had heard from the ministry at 
 home in answer to his recommendations in favor of Monberaut 
 and his son, for there is a decency in separating which he should 
 have been glad to preserve; but the enormity of Monberaut's 
 offense seemed to override all other considerations, and he de- 
 clares that Monberaut's retirement, either to Pensacola or New 
 Orleans, within the time specified, was his final resolution. He 
 would answer no more memorials. 
 
 Monberaut did not care to go to Pensacola and trust himself 
 to the tender mercies of the enraged Governor, particularly as 
 his friends the Indians might take sides with him and bring him 
 into greater trouble, and he therefore promptly left for New 
 Orleans. On the 10th, before leaving, he wrote an appeal to the 
 Chef de la justice and Procureur du Boy, at Pensacola, against 
 what he called the imposture, calumnies, and perfidy of the Gov- 
 ernor. All, however, it would seem, to no effect. 
 
 From New Orleans he wrote in September to General Gage, 
 reciting his services and again appealing for justice. Gage, of 
 course, could do nothing with the civil governor, and Monberaut 
 then set to work on a memoire justificatif, which occupied him 
 the greater part of the next year. It bears date at New Orleans, 
 November 17, 1766, and accompanies his appeal to the King of 
 
THE CHEVALIER MONTAUT DE MONBERAUT. 237 
 
 England. He annexes as exhibits the correspondence with John- 
 stone, Gage, and others, and although, as he truly says, the 
 three hundred and forty-four folio document is d'une longueur 
 enmtt/ante, it has the merit of preserving the facts of the case from 
 both points of view. Sometimes one has to choose between the 
 statements of the two men, but it is to be remembered that the 
 Governor could know little at first hand, particularly as to Indian 
 affairs, and sometimes, as in the length of service of Monberaut, 
 Johnstone is contradicted by documents he had himself signed. 
 There may, too, have been a woman in the case. Johnstone had 
 mentioned that the interpreter Forneret had married a very 
 pretty woman, and Monberaut says in his memoire that Forne- 
 ret's offense was that he wanted to keep his wife to himself. Mon- 
 beraut admits that he was little versed in the art of literature, 
 but his appeal to Truth is not without merit. " I hope," he says, 
 " that this immaculate virgin, though naked and unarmed, will 
 triumph over her enemies, imposture, calumny, and perfidy, which, 
 although armed at all points, and covered with the aegis of au- 
 thority, will undoubtedly succumb, for this cannot fail to result 
 in the reign of a prince so just and famous as the one who now 
 sits upon the throne of England." But he over-rated her power. 
 
 Young Montaut had troubles of his own. He remained at 
 Mobile to aid his father's agent, Mr. Irving, in closing up sales 
 and other business, when he accidentally learned that Charles 
 Stuart was busy securing depositions from the Indians, who were 
 influenced by government "rhom," that Montaut was at their 
 Grand Lodge at nights stirring them up against the English. 
 Then it happened that Louis Augustin went out at one door as 
 the cherif C2ixne. in at the other to arrest him, and it was a further 
 coincidence that he kept on his way until he joined his father in 
 New Orleans. In consequence we have a memoire justijicatif 
 from Montaut, Jr., also, but it is short compared with that of the 
 Chevalier. 
 
 We know little of Monberaut afterwards. He passed through 
 the revolution at New Orleans, unswayed by the popular emo- 
 tion, possibly received his Cross of St. Louis, and later he is 
 called Comte de Monberaut. Certain it is he received no repa- 
 ration from the English. His memoir probably never reached 
 George III. or even his ministers, for it is found at Paris and 
 not at London. 
 
238 COLONIAL MOBILE. 
 
 Ah, Montaut de Monberaut ! Were you villain or saint ? Are 
 you to be in provincial annals, like Mary, Queen of Scots on a 
 larger stage, one of the puzzles of history ? One cannot help but 
 feel a sympathy for your misfortunes and wish to believe well of 
 you. Possibly it may be some satisfaction to your shade that to 
 posterity Governor eTohnstone seems to have overshot the mark. 
 Whatever the cause of your disgrace, whether your corruption, 
 as he contended, or his envy of your success, as you assert, there 
 remains the fact that the conquering British were compelled to 
 resort to your influence among the Indians, and that you had a 
 large share in bringing about those settlements with the Choc- 
 taws and the Creeks which have changed the face of the South 
 West. Requiescas in pace! 
 
CHAPTER XXVII. 
 
 THE INDIAN BOUNDARY LINE. 
 
 From the beginning of the settlement of America the British 
 had sought to acquire land from the Indians ; for their theory 
 was different from that of the French. The British, unlike 
 their rivals, did not regard the Indians as native subjects of 
 the British king, but as dependent peoples, quasi-nations, who 
 were in one way or another to be driven back into the interior, 
 while the Britons should occupy the coast and its harbors. 
 This grew out of a characteristic which probably can be traced 
 to that insularity of the English so often noted. The position 
 of their little island was such as not only to give them an inde- 
 pendent course of development, and favor the growth of popular 
 institutions, but to make them ignorant and suspicious of other 
 countries. They had come to consider that they were the lead- 
 ing race on the earth, and they felt an aversion towards mingling 
 with different stocks. Closer acquaintance with the French and 
 other white nations was to modify this, but it seems ingrained, 
 and has never, even in their American descendants, lost its 
 hold so far as relates to people of darker skin and different 
 physiognomy. It was only occasionally that the British had a 
 diplomatist in Indian matters, but Sir William Johnson was 
 one in the Iroquois country. There was no Sir William Johnson 
 at the South, for he stands alone among English negotiators ; 
 but there was one who ranks second to him. 
 
 Captain John Stuart (or Stewart) was one of the soldiers in 
 ill-fated Fort Loudon, the fort which the British had built 
 among the Cherokees on the upper Tennessee. He owed his 
 escape to the friendship of AttakullakuUa, Little Carpenter, 
 one of the Cherokee chiefs. In 1762, Stuart was appointed 
 first Indian Superintendent for the southern provinces.^ 
 
 * An account of Stuart by James Mooney will be found in the 19th Annual 
 Report of the Bureau of Ethnology, p. 203. 
 
240 COLONIAL MOBILE. 
 
 He endeavored to carry out in the South the policy which 
 had been pursued elsewhere and obtain cessions of land ade- 
 quate to the needs of the advancing settlers. In pursuance of 
 this, he held his first congress at Augusta, Georgia, in 1763, at- 
 tended by Chickasaws, Creeks, Cherokees, and even by Red 
 Shoes and other Choctaws. Governor Wright gives the Creeks 
 as having 3400 gun men, the Choctaws 2200, the Chickasaws 
 400, and the Cherokees 2000, — say 8000 warriors for the most 
 important of the southern tribes. Omitting Choctaws, these 
 were therefore represented by over ten per cent of their num- 
 ber. Augusta had long been the trading station with the In- 
 dians, looking rather to Charleston than to Savannah as its 
 commercial emporium, for it was on the trade route from Caro- 
 lina to the Cherokees and beyond. It was not far from the 
 Silver Bluff where once had stood Cofitachequi of De Soto's 
 time, and where George Galphin, the Scotch Indian trader, 
 had now long resided. Galphin was engaged in driving stock 
 to Pensacola, and his friend Lachlan McGillivray acted as in- 
 terpreter between the Indians and the English. 
 
 There were present at this congress of November 5, 1763, 
 Governors James Wright of Georgia, Thomas Boone of South 
 Carolina, Arthur Dobbs of North Carolina, Lieutenant-Gov- 
 ernor Francis Fauquier of Virginia, and of course Stuart him- 
 self. The treaty defined the Indian boundary and provided 
 that all traders must be licensed by the royal government.^ 
 
 This treaty was the model upon which the later ones were 
 drawn, and it will be well to notice the terms in which it cedes 
 lands to the king. Article IV. reads as follows : " Article 
 IV. Whereas doubts and disputes have frequently happened 
 on account of encroachments, or supposed encroachments com- 
 mitted by the English inhabitants of Georgia on the lands or 
 hunting grounds reserved and claimed by the Creek Indians 
 for their own use : Wherefore, to prevent any mistakes, doubts, 
 or disputes for the future, and in consideration of the great 
 marks of clemency and friendship extended to us the said Creek 
 Indians, we, the Kings, Head-men, and Warriors of the several 
 nations and towns of both Upper and Lower Creeks, by virtue 
 and in pursuance of the full right and power which we now have 
 and are possessed of, have consented and agreed that, for the 
 * 2 Jones' Georgia, pp. 42, 43. 
 
THE INDIAN BOUNDARY LINE. 241 
 
 future, the boundary between the English settlements and our 
 lands and hunting grounds shall be known and settled by a line 
 extending up Savannah river to Little river and back to the fork 
 of Little river, and from the fork of Little river to the ends of 
 the south branch of Briar Creek, and down that branch to the 
 lower Creek path, and along the lower Creek path to the main 
 stream of Ogeechie river, and down the main stream of that 
 river just below the path leading from Mount Pleasant, and 
 from thence in a straight line cross to Sancta Sevilla on the 
 Alatamaha river, and from thence to the southward as far as 
 Georgia extends, or may be extended, to remain to be regulated 
 agreeable to former treaties and his Majesty's royal instruction, 
 a copy of which was lately sent to you." Then follows an agree- 
 ment by the Catawbas that they are limited to fifteen miles 
 square. 
 
 It will be observed that nothing was ceded on the seacoast or 
 interior west of the Alatamaha. 
 
 In pursuance of the same policy arrangements were made 
 for Indian congresses in West Florida. We have seen how 
 they were got together at Mobile and Pensacola, and it is now 
 time to study the results. Whether it was due to Monberaut or 
 to Stuart, the Mobile treaty of 1765 was made with the Choc- 
 taws only, for many of the smaller tribes of the district, like 
 the Tensaws and a part of the Alibamons, were so attached to 
 the French as to have followed them west of the Mississippi. 
 Two hundred Tensaws from Mobile were established on Bayou 
 Lafourche, and Alibamons will be found on the Mississippi. 
 Of the Mobilians, Tohomes, and Apalaches near Mobile we 
 hear no more, and they no doubt retired among the Choc- 
 taws. Chickasaws, Creeks, and Choctaws remained, and the 
 Koosahta (Coosadas) moved nearer Mobile, settling on the 
 east side of the river twenty-five leagues above the city.^ 
 
 Monberaut was not the only Frenchman concerned in the 
 Mobile Congress, for Louis Forneret acted as interpreter for 196 
 days, at 4 shillings 8 pence per day, as we learn from Farmer's 
 accounts. There we find also for this year three entries of beef 
 for use of the Indians, aggregating .£107, besides some wine, in- 
 crease in Farmer's own table expenses, and £1554 of presents 
 paid to Dugald Campbell, the commissary. Farmer complained 
 
 ^ 2 French's /TtsfortcaZ Collection, p. 47; Adair's American Indians, p. 298. 
 
242 COLONIAL MOBILE. 
 
 that he had to entertain five hundred himself at one time. 
 Stuart afterwards expended .£1200 a year on them at Mobile. 
 
 The congress at Mobile (March 26-April 3) was attended by 
 Governor Johnstone, Superintendent Stuart, and twenty-nine 
 Choctaw Chiefs. The Indians often numbered 2000 men, but 
 no damage was committed. Rev. Mr. Hart read prayers, but 
 next year there was no church or parson at Mobile. The 
 British must have credit in this treaty for the first great extinc- 
 tion of Indian title in these parts, the beginning of that gradual 
 process which was to make West Florida available for settlement, 
 give all the South West to the whites, and sixty years afterwards 
 culminate in removing all Indians west of the Mississippi. 
 
 Article V. of this treaty runs as follows : ^ — 
 
 " Article V. And to prevent all disputes on account of en- 
 croachments, or supposed encroachments, committed by the Eng- 
 lish inhabitants of this or any of his Majesty's provinces, on 
 the lands or hunting grounds reserved and claimed by the Chicka- 
 saw and Choctaw Indians, and that no mistakes, doubts or dis- 
 putes, may for the future arise thereupon, in consideration of the 
 great marks of friendship, benevolence, and clemency extended 
 to us, the said Chickasaw and Choctaw Indians, by his Majesty, 
 King George the Third, we, the chiefs and head warriors, dis- 
 tinguished by great and small medals, and gorgets, and bearing 
 his Majesty's commissions as chiefs and leaders of our respec- 
 tive nations, by virtue and in pursuance of the full right and 
 power which we now have, and are possessed of, have agreed, 
 and we do hereby agree, that, for the future, the boundary be 
 settled by a line extended from Grosse Point, in the Island of 
 Mount Louis, by the course of the western coast of Mobile Bay, to 
 the mouth of the eastern branch of Tombecbee River, and north 
 by the course of said river, to the confluence of Alibamont and 
 Tombecbee rivers, and afterwards along the western bank of Ali- 
 bamont River to the mouth of Chickianoce River, and from the 
 confluence of Chickianoce and Alibamont Rivers, a straight line 
 to the confluence of Bance and Tombecbee Rivers ; from thence 
 by a line along the western bank of Bance River, till its conflu- 
 ence with the Tallatukpe River ; from thence, by a straight line 
 to Tombecbee River, opposite to Atchalikpe ; and from Atchal- 
 likpe, by a straight line, to the most northerly part of Bucka- 
 ^ Haldimand Papers, Ottawa. 
 
THE INDIAN BOUNDARY LINE. 243 
 
 tanne River, and down the course of Buckatanne River to its 
 confluence with the river Pascagoula, and down by the course of 
 the Pascagoula, within twelve leagues of the seacoast ; and thence, 
 by a due west line, as far as the Choctaw Nation have a right to 
 grant. 
 
 " And the said chiefs, for themselves and their nations, give 
 and confirm the property of all the lands contained between the 
 above-described lines and the sea, to his Majesty the King of 
 Great Britain, and his successors, reserving to themselves full 
 right and property in all the lands to the northward of said lines 
 now possessed by them ; and none of his Majesty's white sub- 
 jects shall be permitted to settle on Tombecbee River to the 
 northward of the rivulet called Centebonck." 
 
 These boundaries can be identified, with perhaps one excep- 
 tion, although most of the names have been changed. The grant 
 begins on Mobile Bay at Mon Louis Island, extends along the 
 coast to what is now Apalache River, and up this, the Tensaw, 
 Mobile, and Alabama rivers to some stream then named Chicki- 
 anoce. 
 
 The official map of the Tombigbee and Mobile rivers does 
 not take in much of the Alabama, but shows the name " Chike- 
 anoce " at the first bluff above the low lands about the Cut-Off. 
 It is true that it does not give us a river of that name, but there 
 is little doubt that the stream given in the treaty emptied into 
 the Alabama at this point. The bluff is almost due east of what 
 is marked " Salt Springs " on the Tombigbee, and will corre- 
 spond to what is now called Choctaw Bluff. 
 
 The Chickianoce, therefore, was a creek emptying into the 
 Alabama at this point, probably from the west, although the 
 most prominent stream in the vicinity is Little River, coming 
 from the east. The Chickianoce may be Big Reedy Creek or 
 Drummer's. The hunting grounds of Nanna Hubba ceded by 
 the Choctaws were never settled by the British ; for the island 
 was also claimed by the Creeks and was not ceded by them. 
 
 From the Chickianoce the line runs to the junction of Jackson's 
 Creek, called the Bance, and the Bigbee, and up Jackson's 
 Creek to its forks, whence it goes across country and over the 
 Bigbee at Atchalickpe (Hatchatigbee) to the source of the 
 Buckatunna, down which it runs to a point thirty-six miles 
 from the sea, and thence west through the Choctaw country. 
 
244 COLONIAL MOBILE. 
 
 This embraces all of the river and coast which has figured in 
 this story except Fort Toulouse, and by forbidding white settle- 
 ment north of the "Centebonck" (now Santabogue or Cinte- 
 bogue, in lower Choctaw County) the treaty practically made 
 that stream the northern boundary of the British possessions, 
 with Fort Tombecbd as an isolated outpost, soon to be aban- 
 doned. 
 
 The presence of Chickasaws at this congress is somewhat 
 surprising, but doubtless the object was to include them in the 
 trade regulations as well as to make sure of title to any territory 
 in dispute between them and the Choctaws. In point of fact, 
 no Chickasaw land was ceded, and the Choctaws kept enough of 
 their own Tombigbee territory to communicate across the river 
 with their hunting grounds in the Bassett's Creek country. 
 
 It was in the year of the congress, possibly at that time, that 
 tradition says Hooma, or Red Captain, with forty Choctaw war- 
 riors, charged three hundred Creeks and drove them headlong 
 through Mobile into the river. Hooma alone killed thirteen, 
 even when fighting on his knees, but was slain himself by one 
 of the retreating foe. On the river bank, according to tradition 
 at the foot of St. Francis Street, the pursuit ceased ; for these 
 Choctaws could not swim, while in this the Creeks were expert.^ 
 This was in the beginning of the six years' war between these 
 tribes. 
 
 The later congress at Pensacola was confined to the Creeks. 
 The terms of the treaty are little known, but the original docu- 
 ment, as transmitted by Governor Johnstone's and Mr. Stuart's 
 joint letter of June 12, 1765, is still preserved. The land ceded 
 is described in Article V. as follows : " And to prevent all 
 Disputes on Account of encroachments or Supposed Encroach- 
 ments committed by the English Inhabitants of this or any other, 
 of His Majesties Provinces on the lands or hunting Grounds, 
 reserved and Claimed by the Upper & Lower Creek Nations 
 of Indians & that no mistakes, Doubts or Disputes may for 
 the future arise thereupon, in consideration of the Great Marks 
 of Friendship, Benevolence, & Clemency extended to us the said 
 
 ^ See Scenes and Settlers of Alabama, p. 20, where the flying Indians are 
 called Senoinoles. Romans' Florida dates this " not above six years ago," 
 but he may have written some time before the 1776 imprint of his book. 
 Hooma, however, seems to have been alive later. 
 
THE INDIAN BOUNDARY LINE. 246 
 
 Indians of the Upper & Lower Creek Nations by His Majesty 
 King George the third, We the said Chiefs & head Warriors 
 Leaders of our Respective Nations by Virtue & in pursuance 
 of the full Right & power we have and are possessed of, Have 
 agreed and we do hereby agree that for the future the Bound- 
 ary be at the dividing paths going to the Nation and Mobille 
 where is a Creek, that it shall run along the Side of that Creek 
 untill its Confluence with the River which falls into the Bay, 
 then to run round the Bay & take in all the Plantations which 
 formerly belonged to the Yammasee Indians, that no Notice is 
 to be taken of such Cattle or Horses as shall pass the Line ; 
 that from the said Dividing paths towards the West the Bound- 
 ary is run along the path leading to Mobille to the Creek called 
 Cassabae, & from thence still in a straight Line, to another 
 Creek or great Branch within forty Miles of the ferry and so to 
 go up to the Head of that Creek and from thence turn round 
 towards the River, so as to include all the old french Settlements 
 at Tassa ; the Eastern Line to be determined by the flowing of 
 the Sea in the Bays as was settled at Augusta, and we do here- 
 by Grant & confirm, unto His Majesty His Heirs and Successors 
 all the Land contained between the said Lines & the Sea Coast." 
 These boundaries are difficult to identify. In the first place 
 the dividing paths going to the Nation and Mobile have long 
 since been obliterated. The branch to Mobile was probably that 
 leading to the Village on Mobile Bay, and the creek mentioned 
 was some branch of the Escambia north of Pensacola. It is not 
 certain which bay is referred to, but it was probably Pensacola 
 Bay. The boundary was to run around the bay, including in 
 British territory the settlements formerly belonging to the Yam- 
 masee Indians. Towards the west the line followed the path to 
 Mobile across one unknown creek to the Perdido ; for that was 
 the only stream large enough to have the ferry mentioned. It 
 then ascended that river, or creek as it was at that point, to its 
 source, and thence ran west to Tensaw River so as to include the 
 French settlements at Tensaw. This expression is not quite clear, 
 as there were the Tensaw Old Fields, at modern Stockton, and 
 the Tensaw village at modern Blakely. We may be reasonably 
 sure, however, that the British territory extended to the Tensaw 
 Old Fields, for Major Farmer was to have his plantation there 
 for many years. 
 
246 COLONIAL MOBILE. 
 
 This grant, therefore, extended from the Escambia River near 
 its mouth to the Tensaw River, and, strictly speaking, the eastern 
 boundary was that running around Pensacola Bay. The treaty 
 seems to indicate that the line was on the eastern side of Pen- 
 sacola Bay to be defined by high-water mark, and reference is 
 made to what was settled at Augusta ; but this must have been 
 settled outside of the formal treaty at Augusta.^ 
 
 The Choctaws took kindly to their new allies, but the Creeks 
 were never thoroughly in accord with the newcomers. Fort 
 Toulouse among them was given up, and there were not the same 
 personal contact and influence as there had been in the French 
 times. Fort Tombecb^ was abandoned in 1766, and Adair 
 deplores the precipitate act, and says the Indian agent who re- 
 mained was totally unfit to compete with Red Captain and the 
 other Choctaws.^ Some one was at least left in charge, however, 
 while at Toulouse the post was completely abandoned. 
 
 According to Adair, the policy of fixing a low scale of prices 
 and of general licensing and bonding traders was to ruin legiti- 
 mate trade and introduce so much liquor as to injure the Indians. 
 He claims to have lost much himself by the new plan of opera- 
 tions. But it looked plausible, and probably failed because of in- 
 sufficient supervision. Locally it would seem to have benefited 
 Mobile, as the superintendent aimed at supplying traders even 
 for the Chickasaws through Mobile, whose navigation Adair — 
 who has never a good word for the town — deemed inferior to 
 Charleston's. The general tariff was seventy per cent below 
 that of the French up the Mississippi.^ 
 
 Affairs now settled down to a peace basis, and it seemed that 
 the province might look forward to an indefinite period of pros- 
 perity. Accordingly that fall, probably to some extent in con- 
 sequence of the Indian pacification. Governor Johnstone, in order 
 to carry out the aims of the home government, issued a glowing 
 description of West Florida, with the view of attracting settlers.* 
 
 ^ The text of this treaty will be found in the Appendix. It has been prac- 
 tically inaccessible, and as a result the Indian boundary in the South West has 
 never been understood. See Farrand's article on the subject in 10 American 
 Historical Review, p. 786. Yamasee Point was that jutting into Pensacola 
 Bay from the north. 
 
 2 Adair's American Indians, pp. 292-310. 
 
 3 Ibid., pp. 367, 370, 414. 
 
 * Haldimand Papers, Ottawa. 
 
SEAL OF BRITISH W. FLORIDA 
 (French Sou at the sides) 
 
THE INDIAN BOUNDARY LINE. 247 
 
 Agriculture, timber, and trade with Central America were dwelt 
 on, and analogies found to Tyre, Sidon, Carthage, Colchos, 
 Palmyra, Amsterdam, Venice, and Genoa. " On the whole," we 
 learn, " whether we regard the situation or the climate, West 
 Florida bids fair to be the emporium as well as the most pleas- 
 ant part of the New World." This attracted attention to the 
 new province. 
 
 We are able to trace a few steps in the considerable immi- 
 gration which ensued. When the English took possession in 
 1763 the country above the Cut-Off (in present Clarke County) 
 was still a wilderness. Hewitt and Brown were traders among 
 the Choctaws, and Ben James, George Dow, and a commissary 
 were also there. Dow had made several trips up and down the 
 Tombigbee. Captain Romans explored the river nine years later 
 and mentions twenty white habitations even then. He remarks 
 that stout sloops and schooners could come up to what we call 
 McGrew's Shoals, and that, therefore, he judged some consid- 
 erable settlement would be made there. Above Three Rivers he 
 met Thomas Baskett's party, who seem to have been hunters, 
 not settlers. But we know that it was under the British that 
 settlement took place. Mcintosh Bluff may have been the first, 
 where an army officer came to live and to become the ancestor 
 of George M. Troup, of Georgia fame but Tombigbee birth. The 
 great bend not far above was named for the Englishman Sun- 
 flower, just as far below the creek at Chastang's landing was 
 called Grog Hall, from some countryman or an English tavern. 
 Romans mentions Campbell, Stewart, and McGillivray, and other 
 places, but these were below Mount Vernon. We know that 
 Strahan was at the mouth of the Tombigbee, and that Major 
 Robert Farmer held land near St. Stephens. 
 
 The Washington County records show that in 1777 a planta- 
 tion of 500 acres was granted to Charles Walker at Black Rock 
 on the Tombigbee, 112 miles from Mobile. Next year a plan- 
 tation a mile higher up was granted Abraham Little, but the 
 same Walker soon purchased it. This was a little above the 
 present town of Jackson, but on the west side of the river. 
 Higher up, on the east bank (opposite future St. Stephens) 
 about this time John McGrew acquired his famous grant, ex- 
 tending along the river from the Indian path above the shoals 
 to " Baunsee or Jackson Creek," which was the treaty boundary. 
 
248 COLONIAL MOBILE. 
 
 The grant was confirmed in 1799, and shows that this stream 
 was named for some English pioneer and not for Andrew Jack- 
 son of later fame. The cession was not from the British govern- 
 ment, but from the Choctaw chiefs, Piamingo Hometah, chief of 
 Hobuckentoopa (St. Stephens), and Pooshama Stubbee, princi- 
 pal Choctaw chief of the Okah Coppasa towns on the Tombig- 
 bee. Piamingo's territory seems to have extended up to Fouket 
 Chepoonta or Turkeytown, just above Coffeeville. This grant 
 of 1500 acres was confirmed in the Choctaw treaty of 1805 with 
 the United States.^ 
 
 There was later no change in the eastern boundary fixed at 
 Pensacola, and practically it was confined to the bay shore. We 
 can study the Indians up the Alabama River, but it is not as 
 near neighbors of the English at Pensacola. The British boumd- 
 ary had nothing to do with the winding line between the Choc- 
 taws and Creeks running northwardly from the Cut-Off on the 
 watershed between the Alabama and Tombigbee rivers. We 
 cannot be sure when this was adopted as there are Choctaw 
 names further to the east, and there is no reason to think the 
 cession at Pensacola extended from the Gulf as far north as 
 the Alabama. The Creeks later claimed the Tensaw to be the 
 British boundary. Even the Choctaws had reserved most of their 
 territory between the rivers, ceding little more than Nanna 
 Hubba and the east bank of the Bigbee below St. Stephens. 
 Within a short time, if not at this time, we find some of the 
 Alibamons within the very lands ceded by the Choctaws. Ro- 
 mans speaks of the Coosadas and Occhays as having camped in 
 several places on the lower Bigbee, and Bartram finds Aliba- 
 mons on the Mississippi. They moved westward to be with the 
 French, whom they had learned to love instead of the British, 
 with whom Bienville had originally found them allied. Bar- 
 tram says nothing of any towns on the Alabama River, but on 
 the Tallapoosa names eighteen settlements.^ One was that of 
 
 ^ 7 U. S. Statutes at Large, p. 99. 
 
 '^ Towns on the Tallapoose or Oakfnske River : Oakfuske, upper and 
 lower, Ufale, upper and lower, Sokaspoge, Tallase, great, Coolome, Ghua- 
 clahatche, Otasse, Cluale, Fusahatche, Tuccabatche and Cunhutke, speak- 
 ing the Muscogulge tongue ; Mucclasse, speaking Stincard ; Alabama, Sa- 
 vannuca, speaking Uche ; Whittumke and Coosauda, speaking Stincard. 
 (Bartram's Travels, p. 461.) 
 
THE INDIAN BOUNDARY LINE. 249 
 
 the Coosaudas, who had moved back to their old seats.^ Next 
 in importance would come the Apalachucla or ChataUche River 
 country with its fifteen towns.^ Eastward the course of empire 
 took its way, for the Coosau River, as Bartrara spells it, was 
 no longer the seat of power. On it and its tributaries together 
 he names but eight towns.^ Of these the most interestinsr is 
 Pocontallahasse. Tallahasse means old town and is descriptive, 
 but the first syllables seem to point to the Pacana,* several of 
 whose villages were about Fort Toulouse, and whom Adair even 
 earlier names among the "broken nations'* connected with the 
 Creek Confederacy. 
 
 The hegemony had by British times passed from the Aliba- 
 mons and Abecas to the Tallapoosa towns, for the lower towns 
 were weakened by emigration ; but the new leaders claimed the 
 
 ^ Adair's American Indians, p. 267. 
 
 ^ Apalachucla, Tucpauska, Chockeclucca, Chata Uche, Checluccaninne, 
 Hothletega, Coweta, and Usseta, speaking Muscogulge ; Uche, speaking 
 Savannuca ; Hooseche, speaking Muscogulge ; Chehaw, Echeta, Occonue, 
 Swaglaw, great and little, speaking Stincard. (Bartram's Travels, p. 462.) 
 
 * Towns on the Coosau : Abacooche, speaking Chicasaw ; Pocontalla- 
 hasse, and Hiccory ground, speaking Muscogulge ; Natche, speaking Mus- 
 cogulge and Chicasaw. Towns on the branches of Coosau River : Wicca- 
 kaw; Fish Pond, Hillaba and Kiolege, speaking Muscogulge. (Bartram's 
 Travels, p. 461.) 
 
 * The name points backward as well. De Soto's secretary Ranjel speaks 
 of Talicpacana as reached after leaving Maubila, while Tristan de Luna two 
 decades later found Nanipacna on a river when he marched from the Gulf 
 toward the Coosa region. "Tali" is " town," and so the name is Pacana 
 town, merely reversing the order in Bartram. This people, therefore, seem 
 to be the most migratory of our natives, and we may perhaps consider them 
 as once the westernmost of the Alibamon race. 
 
 It may, in order to show the permanency of these names, be well to notice 
 that in Hawkins' time most of these towns still existed, and some, we know, 
 were there in De Soto's day. Hawkins gives amongst others on the Coo- 
 sau the towns Talesee, Tookaubatche, Autossee, Coolome, Ecunhutkee, Sau- 
 vanogee, Mooklausau, Coosaudee, Hookchoie, Tuskegee, Wewocau, Puccun- 
 tallauhassee, Coosau, Aubecoochee, Nauchee, Eufaulau ; on the Tallapoosa 
 River, Hillaubee, Ocfuskee in several villages, and Kialijee. By that time 
 the Coosaudees, whom he considers to be the Alibamons, had increased, and 
 were in their old seats on the Alabama below the junction of the Coosa and 
 Tallapoosa. He mentions Ecunchate, Toowassau, Pauwocte, and Attaugee 
 as Alabama villages, but all small. While the main stock of the Alibamons, 
 therefore, followed the French and took the old name with them, enough 
 Coosadas and other remnants remained to found lasting communities. 
 
I 250 COLONIAL MOBILE. 
 
 same extent of territory down the rivers that they had in early 
 days, when the Alibamons kept the Spaniards confined to the 
 palisades of Pensacola.^ The wording of the Pensacola treaty of 
 1765 was not entirely clear. Certain it is that the Council of 
 West Florida made grants even on the lower Alabama, probably 
 about modern Tensaw, and that the Indians opposed aU such 
 settlements. 
 
 The Choctaw treaty at Mobile was confirmed by a subse- 
 quent congress in 1772, and within its broad limits there were 
 soon many settlers ; while, on the other hand, the Creek treaty 
 at Pensacola led to little immigration. They were both impor- 
 tant, however, in creating friendly relations between the incom- 
 ing British and Indians who had so long been the allies of the 
 French. There were to be Indian wars, but they were to be 
 between the Indian tribes, and never in British times between 
 the Indians and the whites. 
 
 The Teutons had established a Koman Peace. 
 
 * As Bienville reported to Pontchartrain in 1709. 
 
MOBILE B»V *SD RCVtil BRITISH 
 
CHAPTER XXVIII. 
 
 MAJOR ROBERT FARMER. 
 
 Colonel William Taylor was the commanding officer of 
 the province, stationed at Pensacola. He seems to have drawn 
 some of his supplies from Mobile. William Irving was con- 
 tractor at Mobile, and frequently forwarded him fowl and other 
 things, and at one time we find him soliciting a continuance in 
 his agency. One D. Clark (deputy collector of customs in 1765) 
 writes the general from there concerning his wood contract ; and 
 later we find Elias Durnford furnishing bark for barracks, and 
 sending over cattle from Mobile. Favre was interpreter to the 
 Indians. In fact Mobile, on account largely of its rivers and 
 bay, was, until its healthfulness became questioned, of much 
 service to the army, especially during the uncertainty of the 
 long war which now began between the Creeks and Choctaws. 
 
 Major Farmer was in command at Mobile for a number of 
 years. At first he was much embarrassed for money, for the 
 merchants were so unused to the change of flag that they would 
 not take his bills on New York. He was compelled to accom- 
 modate himself, most unwillingly, to the French-Indian policy 
 and keep open house for twenty or thirty every day, — a vile 
 custom, he declares. 
 
 As to the inhabitants, he construed the treaty strictly, and 
 recognized only formal grants of land, and not the possessory 
 right so common. He gave but three months' shrift to those 
 inhabitants who preferred emigration to taking the oath of al- 
 legiance to King George. 1 This led to a petition by them to 
 the home government, with favorable result. Farmer found 
 ninety-eight French families, and of these about forty re- 
 mained, withdrawing largely to their river and bay homes, and 
 there raising cattle. Lieutenant McLellan was sent to New 
 Orleans to induce the French to move to Mobile and Pensacola, 
 but in this he was unsuccessful. Pierre Rochon, who was to 
 * 2 Gayarre's Louisiana, pp. 100, 101. 
 
252 COLONIAL MOBILE. 
 
 be the contractor that did most of the fort repairs, was of the 
 Mobile French who remained. 
 
 For a careful examination was made by the new owners of 
 Fort Charlotte (Conde), and a report dated November 30, 1763, 
 showed many repairs to be necessary. All woodwork was old, 
 glasses gone, the brickwork overgrown with grass, bake-houses 
 and hospital in need of attention. The embarkation of French 
 cannon and disembarkation of the English effectually ruined 
 the old wharf. Evidently the French had for several years 
 taken little care of what they did not expect to keep. The 
 British claimed the French cannon, but D'Abbadie at New 
 Orleans curtly refused to surrender them, as they were not fix- 
 tures.^ 
 
 The British set resolutely to work, and shortly there was great 
 improvement. New platforms were laid for the cannon; an- 
 other flagstaff erected ; the brick casemates repaired ; the bar- 
 racks, both within and without the fort, put in order; the ovens 
 of the bake-house made serviceable ; and the palisades, which 
 seem then to have surrounded the officers' square (Government 
 to Conti) and connected it with the fort, were renewed, lathed, 
 and spiked. In the next July thirty-seven loads of scaffold 
 poles were brought for the bake-house repairs. Adair speaks 
 of the garrison prison as a "black-hole," even after these im- 
 provements in the fort, and mentions the imprisonment there 
 of a local trader whom a "Choktah" accused of selling him a 
 cracked brass kettle.^ This instance of British justice may be 
 supplemented by the official record of a white found guilty of 
 the murder of an Indian in 1765. Next year there was still no 
 secure "gaol," but later we find an allowance for a negro to 
 keep one. Chimneys and five wells were also repaired, the 
 officers' guard-room in the fort floored, and, like their bar- 
 racks, whitewashed, besides repairs to roofs and sashes. An 
 addition of six rooms to these quarters was in course of con- 
 struction, besides partition, "two cupboards and skirtin boards 
 put around some of the officers' rooms." "The late Com* 
 house " had four new floors and one repaired, beside hearths, 
 windows, and doors put in order. The smith shop, too, had a 
 new roof and the bellows mended ; and the hospital had repairs 
 to gallery, roof, hearths, and well. 
 
 ^ 2 Gayarrd's Louisiana, p. 97. 
 
 ^ Adair's American Indians, p. 287. 
 
MAJOR ROBERT FARMER. 253 
 
 The receipt of Pierre Roehon of April 9, for payment for all 
 this labor, has also come down in the Haldimand Papers. It 
 states that he did the work by order of Major Farmer, of the 
 34th regiment, and Farmer's account shows that Roehon re- 
 ceived in all X2232. A certificate dated April 13, of officers 
 of the 34th and 22d regiments, shows that the work was satis- 
 factory. 
 
 The major complains that the French claimed everything 
 outside the fort to be private property, the commandant's house 
 included. The new-comers were bound to respect private pro- 
 perty, and so we find Farmer renting from Mme. Grondel the 
 hospital. On September 10, 1764, he bought it for <£186 13s. 
 4d. The deed was at first taken to Farmer individually, but 
 this was afterwards corrected. We learn later that firewood 
 for the hospital cost four dollars per cord. 
 
 In May he had already purchased of J. B. Rousseve for use 
 of the Indian interpreter another house and two lots, for which 
 he paid <£93 6s. 8d., or "four hundred dollars." The place 
 Farmer bought in January of next year, as a lodging for arti- 
 ficers brought out from New York for government work, was a 
 house of wood and clay covered with bark. J. C. Montal had 
 sold it to Mr. Maloney, an English resident, for 430 "hard 
 dollars," part on time. It may be on this account that Mr. 
 James Hendrie, deputy vendue master, on July 25, 1764, cer- 
 tified that he had sold the place at public vendue, by order of 
 the commandant, to Mr. Hugh Kennedy, for $266. In the next 
 January, Hugh Kennedy Hoy, presumably the same man, sold 
 it to Major Farmer for the use of his Majesty. The descrip- 
 tion of this lot of 12|^ by 25 toises, fronting the river, bounds 
 it on the one side by the house of Mr. George Ancrum, mer- 
 chant, "on the other side making the corner of a street," prob- 
 ably Conti. The artificers did much work, for we know that 
 Farmer paid them £537, if not more. 
 
 Major Farmer was, at the time of the surrender of Mobile, 
 forty -five years of age. He was an interesting character. He 
 had occasion to correspond ofiicially with Aubry, the French 
 governor, who had succeeded in 1765 on the death of D'Abba- 
 die at New Orleans, and we have Aubry's impression of him in 
 a dispatch to the home government : — 
 
 "This governor of Mobile is an extraordinary man. As he 
 
254 COLONIAL MOBILE. 
 
 knows that I speak English, he occasionally writes to me in 
 verse. He speaks to me of Francis I. and Charles V. He 
 compares Pontiak, an Indian chief, to Mithridates ; he says 
 that he goes to bed with Montesquieu. When there occur 
 some petty difficulties between the inhabitants of New Orleans 
 and Mobile, he quotes to me from the Magna Charta and the 
 laws of Great Britain. It is said that the English ministry 
 sent him to Mobile to get rid of him, because he was one of 
 the hottest in the opposition. He pays me handsome compli- 
 ments, which I duly return to him, and, upon the whole, he is 
 a man of parts, but a dangerous neighbor, against whom it is 
 well to be on one's guard." ^ 
 
 The major acquired from the Indians a piece of land facing 
 the bay and extending over towards Pensacola, and from the 
 government, at some time. Farmer's Island and his residence 
 at what is the northeast corner of Government and St. Eman- 
 uel. This was his home until he moved over to the Tensaw 
 River at modern Stockton. 
 
 In the fall of 1766 two traders, Goodwin and Davis, were 
 murdered in the Choctaw country. The Nation disclaimed the 
 acts, and tried to arrest the offenders. In fact, they sometimes 
 put too mvich confidence in Indian traders ; and it was in this 
 year that the distinguished Choctaw "Minggo Humma Echeto " 
 was with a number of warriors cut to pieces by the Creeks whom 
 Englishmen had put on their guard.^ But there was general 
 uneasiness in exposed places, and, on the eastern shore of Mo- 
 bile Bay, some apprehension also from the Creeks. We find 
 F. Pousset in 1766 suggesting a fort over there, and the gov- 
 ernor and council requested Colonel Taylor that it be large 
 enough for thirty men and two officers. We do not know 
 whether this was the flag-maker of two years before, but he. 
 probably was the Pousset who was later member of the colonial 
 supreme court. 
 
 Pousset says he has consulted the inhabitants, and they agree 
 "that a small post, somewhere above the Red Cliff near to Mr. 
 Genty's, would be of great advantage to them, that whenever 
 apprehensive of an Indian war they will leave their present 
 habitation and settle themselves for the time being (with per- 
 
 * 2 Gayarr^'s Louisiana, p. 124. 
 ' Adair's American Indians, p. 312. 
 
MAJOR ROBERT FARMER. 255 
 
 mission of the governor and council) as near as possible to- 
 gether on the lands from Ge[nty's] to Fish River, which with 
 the Bay of Mobile forms a point of [land] of about ten leagues 
 in length and four in breadth. This would afford sufficient 
 pasture for all their cattle for a considerable [time], which they 
 would drive there together and protect them. They would pro- 
 pose to go out alternately in small parties and leave their wives, 
 children and slaves under the protection of the fort. Thus 
 they think they could cover themselves safely during a Creek 
 war, and be commodiously situated for providing Pensacola with 
 provisions. According to the information I have received, 
 there are from the highest to the lowest, on the east side of the 
 Bay of Mobile, seventeen plantations, thirty-nine white men 
 who can bear arms, thirty-two negroes of which twenty-nine 
 are men grown, twenty-one negro women and children. In 
 all, 124 souls and 2280 head of cattle. I hear they do not 
 want arms."i This project was not to be carried out, how- 
 ever, for several years. 
 
 It may be that Gage's disapproval of more posts, as ex- 
 pressed in his letter of August 11 to Taylor, had something to 
 do with this ; perhaps also sickness among the Mobile garrison, 
 which led that summer to an encampment on Dauphine Island. 
 
 Gage's opposition to distant posts was such that he not only 
 wished to abandon the Mississippi forts, but even Mobile itself, 
 and draw the force in West Florida to Pensacola. He evi- 
 dently had doubts about all the province. "The whole of the 
 trade in those parts," he says, "consists of skins only; the furs 
 come from above. You will know if the skin trade is of much 
 value. Many people at home think not, and that it does not 
 pay the expenses of Mobile and Pensacola." 
 
 This letter is also noticeable for the vigorous denunciation of 
 Governor Johnstone's idea that he was supreme over the mili- 
 tary as well as the civil departments. The commander-in-chief 
 instructs Taylor to recognize no such claim. The opinion of 
 Attorney-General Arthur Gordon that control of his Majesty's 
 land was vested in the governor would hardly be contested, 
 except as a precedent later for a claim to own the very forts. 
 The dispute even affected the distribution of surgeons when, 
 in the faU of 1766, Mobile was unhealthful. 
 * Haldimand Papers, Ottawa. 
 
256 COLONIAL MOBILE. 
 
 The dissension dated back a year at least, when nineteen 
 officers at Mobile signed a memorial against the governor, 
 which Gage forwarded to Halifax at court. Farmer had thor- 
 oughly supported Gage, and thus incurred Johnstone's enmity 
 and was now to feel it. Charges were made against the major 
 of embezzlement, and a court martial was called for. Gage 
 took up the matter, and on September 29, 1766, ordered a trial, 
 sending the articles of accusation to Taylor, with direction to 
 give a copy to Johnstone. 
 
 The articles read as follows and are serious enough : — 
 
 "Articles of accusation against Major Farmer of His Ma- 
 jesty's 34th regiment on which he is hereby ordered to be tryed 
 at Pensacola or Mobile, as shall be found most convenient, as 
 soon as a General Court Martial can be assembled for that 
 purpose. 
 
 "For sending flour belonging to the King to New Orleans, 
 and selling or attempting to sell it there, by means of one Pal- 
 lachio, a Jew. 
 
 "For selling the Fort of Tombeckbee to Mr. Terry, a mer- 
 chant. 
 
 "For misapplication of ten thousand pounds said to be 
 expended on Indian presents, and on the Fortifications. 
 
 "For making a job of the Publick service, in the operation 
 of the Iberville. 
 
 "For turning in a different channel the monies, which should 
 have been expended on the Barracks, so that the officers and 
 soldiers lived in a miserable condition. 
 
 "For insisting to charge five bitts p. barrel for lime, which 
 could be made for three bitts and dividing the profits with the 
 Engineer. 
 
 "For desiring the Engineer to bear a man extraordinary 
 upon the works at three shillings, P. Diem ; and to charge a 
 laboring negro belonging to him the Major at three shillings 
 more, both which was done. 
 
 "For employing the King's boat to his own emolument, and 
 dividing the profits with the sailors." 
 
 In this may be some reference to the major's boat the Lit- 
 tle Bob, in which during 1765 he sent beef and flour to New 
 Orleans for the Illinois expedition. She brought back five 
 barrels of claret at night and put them on the schooner Char- 
 lotte. For this she was seized by Collector Clark. 
 
MAJOR ROBERT FARMER. 257 
 
 We find the names of Terry and of Pallachio in Farmer's 
 accounts, and also items relative to large quantities of wood 
 for lime-kilns (probably up the river), but nothing criminat- 
 ing. He handled in the two years in question something over 
 £15,000. The trial lasted several years, and the dispute be- 
 tween civil and military departments meantime fills volimies of 
 British records with complaints and counter-charges. 
 
 By a coincidence, the year of the Farmer articles was that 
 marking the birth of the girl who was to become Mrs. HoUin- 
 ger and live a long and honored life in Mobile. The inscrip- 
 tion on her tomb in the " Old Graveyard " dates from 1836, and 
 recites the changes of flag and the growth of her native city 
 from her birth seventy years before. 
 
CHAPTER XXIX. 
 
 IN THE TIME OF HALDIMAND. 
 
 The brave and chivalrous Bouquet, famous for his energy in 
 the subjection of the Indians of western Pennsylvania in Pon- 
 tiac's war, succeeded Taylor in command of West Florida, 
 but he died shortly after his arrival at Pensacola. The story 
 goes that while he was absent on duty his fiancee, Miss Wil- 
 ling, of Philadelphia, married another man, and that the sol- 
 dier grieved himself to death. His brick tomb was on the 
 shore of Pensacola Bay, but has now disappeared, washed away 
 by the waves. ^ Frederick Haldimand succeeded Bouquet. 
 
 Colonel William Taylor did not leave for his new post at St. 
 Augustine until after Haldimand 's arrival, but this general 
 found everything in confusion. He set manfully about bring- 
 ing order out of the chaos. ^ 
 
 His report to General Gage of April 31, 1767, says he was 
 thinking of building a new road to Mobile. At Pensacola the 
 water was bad, and he was issuing rum to the men at the doc- 
 tor's suggestion, — a plan of which Gage disapproved. In- 
 stead of rum, spruce beer was to be manufactured. 
 
 Haldimand found the laws of the province an extraordinary 
 compound ; but this was the fault of his government in substi- 
 tuting English for the civil law where most of the people were 
 French or Spanish. Gage was regretting that cattle were 
 allowed to be taken from the country west of Mobile to Louisi- 
 
 ^ Campbell's Colonial Florida, p. 71. 
 
 2 Frederick Haldimand was a Swiss, an officer of note in the British ser- 
 vice. He was a methodical man and kept almost everything, leaving his 
 collection at his death to a nephew. On the death of this gentleman in 
 1858 these papers were bequeathed to the British Museum, where they still 
 remain. Haldimand after his service in the South was governor of Canada, 
 and for this reason the Canadian government has, through the energy of 
 Mr. Douglas Brymner, their archivist, had the whole collection copied, and 
 thus made accessible in America. 
 
IN THE TIME OF HALDIMAND. 259 
 
 ana, an act soon made unlawful, while Haldimand was scheming 
 to get the French to come over the Mississippi and Iberville 
 rivers into the Mobile country. The cession to Spain had at 
 last been made public, and the Spanish governor, Don UUoa, 
 had arrived at New Orleans March 5, 1766. Discontent pre- 
 vailed and was to culminate in revolution. ^ 
 
 Meanwhile Haldimand reports that the advantages of Florida 
 had been exaggerated, and that he did not hope much from 
 Spanish commerce; in fact, he did not see how all the past 
 and future expenses could be made up to the nation. He 
 rather favored the withdrawal of the troops, although this would 
 be opposed from personal interests. Lieutenant - Governor 
 Browne, in his reports, declares the trade to be large, including 
 150 hogsheads of peltry annually from Mobile alone, besides 
 much else. Haldimand says the trade was small, and chiefly 
 confined to the military and persons employed by the govern- 
 ment. ^ 
 
 One important factor in commerce was the pilot. The first 
 one was Samuel Carr, who lived on Dauphine Island. It seems 
 the island had been in whole or part granted him, but he cut 
 down the timber and killed the cattle to such an extent that the 
 governor and council moved him over to Mobile Point. That 
 was to be his headquarters, and a house was ordered built 
 there. He was succeeded in 1768 by Captain Richard Harley, 
 whose salary was X50. 
 
 The fort at Tombecbe was abandoned in January, 1768, In 
 one of the severest winters on record, and the garrison brought 
 to Mobile. Lieutenant Ritchie was left to settle the accounts 
 of the post. Haldimand liked Johnstone as little as did the 
 other military men, and writes Gage he thinks the governor 
 and his friends wanted posts maintained for their own benefit. 
 The grants of land, too, were extraordinary. The general 
 retained three square miles around the forts, for otherwise the 
 council would have made grants up to the very glacis. But 
 
 * 2 Gayarrd's Louisiana, pp. 147, 205. 
 
 2 It at least needed the annual visit of a vessel of 200 tons, filled with 
 British manufactures and carrying back skins to London. The custom- 
 house fees, however, were heavy, being sometimes half the freight of ordi- 
 nary boats, and, while ships drawing thirteen feet could cross the bar, sev- 
 eral feet less was the depth at the town 
 
260 COLONIAL MOBILE. 
 
 this can hardly refer to Mobile, where the fort always had been 
 in the midst of a town. The grants by the governor to a field 
 officer might be 5000 acres, and so on down, until a private 
 man could get sixty acres. ^ 
 
 Johnstone left that spring, but was succeeded ad interim by 
 the lievitenant-governor, Montford Browne, equally a persona 
 non grata. It was infectious, — Taylor had the same trouble 
 with Governor Grant in East Florida. And meantime Major 
 Farmer's court martial was progressing as far as the evidence 
 was procurable, but witnesses on both sides were scattered. 
 Farmer made charges, too, against Lieutenant Pittman. 
 
 Pittman had already in February surveyed Mobile River by 
 Haldimand's order; and shortly afterwards the general gives 
 direction to Elias Durnford, the provincial engineer, to make 
 a survey of the bay to join on to and continue Pittman's work. 
 This survey is the most important act of the British occupa- 
 tion which has come down to us, and we owe it to Haldimand. 
 It seems that Gould had done some of the work, but Durnford 
 was to do the most. 
 
 On March 10 Durnford writes Haldimand from Mobile 
 that he had since his arrival been making plans for officers' and 
 soldiers' barracks in the square (which needed bedsteads for 
 one thing), but that when the weather became settled he would 
 begin the survey on the east side of this bay, so as to meet those 
 of Pittman and Gould. Durnford had a plantation on the east- 
 ern shore near Montrose, and, while surveying about five miles 
 below there, he was painfully wounded in the left thigh by the 
 accidental discharge of a gun loaded with duck-shot, which tem- 
 porarily laid him up. 
 
 Haldimand in a letter of the 18th said that he would not 
 do anything more in the way of repairs to the barracks, and 
 directed Durnford instead to lay out some healthy place at Red 
 Cliff which would accommodate about two hundred men of the 
 Mobile garrison, should the summer be unhealthy. This, it 
 will be recollected, was near where Pousset some years be- 
 fore had wished to have a fort. Remembering the propensity 
 of the governors for granting lands, Haldimand directs Durn- 
 ford to reserve enough ground around the new post to supply 
 springs and firewood. Haldimand adds that he has ordered 
 
 1 See Report of Senate Committee on Private Land Claims, June 13, 1840. 
 
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 Eritisl 1 Admiralty ( liarfc. 
 
 A. D. 1771. 
 
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 Sf if f-' \. 
 
 9r 
 
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 'is \-i\ X *i s s t ^ 
 
 " , ♦, ., Bar •yf7<TohlU£ay "^ 
 
 7777777 7 7 yi rt 
 
 *i ^i .r' ' ' 
 
 4> <S 
 
 *^ * «i Si s 3 3 $ $ > ^ 
 
IN THE TIME OF HALDIMAND. 261 
 
 Aikman, the Mobile commandant, to furnish such men as 
 Durnford would need in this work, which was to include also 
 cutting and hauling logs for the larger buildings. The trees 
 were to be barked, as much, no doubt, to use the bark for the 
 huts as anything else. In this work one Frenchman could 
 direct twetity soldiers. Unless he has Rochon in mind in 
 particular, it would seem therefore that Haldimand has a high 
 opinion of the French in general. As soon as Durnford has 
 finished at Red Cliff he is to go on with the survey of the bay, 
 keeping at it as long as his presence was not needed in Pensa- 
 cola "to represent the office of Chief Justice with Messrs. Hodge 
 and Pousset." From which it would seem that Durnford was 
 of varied accomplishments, and the first of the line of distin- 
 guished lawyers resident near Montrose. 
 
 Durnford, on the 21st of March at Mobile, acknowledged this 
 letter, received by the hands of Mr. Waugh, probably the 
 commissary. This correspondence, conducted in French by 
 the general, in English by the surveyor, throws side lights on 
 affairs, Haldimand orders fifteen barrels of Indian corn (Jble 
 d' Inde) and "chappons and canards" (capons and ducks). 
 Durnford sends twenty-four barrels of Indian corn by Mr. 
 Jones' sloop, besides twelve previously sent. Fowls or duck 
 were not to be had right then, but would be sent if found in the 
 course of the survey. Aikman had some to be sent "to you, 
 Sir, by this opportunity." Haldimand we find returning his 
 compliments to Rochon with thanks for the trees and oranges 
 which he had had the goodness to send. 
 
 While the important survey was progressing here, however, 
 General Gage at New York was preparing to withdraw all but 
 three companies of the two regiments heretofore kept in West 
 Florida. By letter of June 27 this determination was com- 
 municated to the acting governor, Browne, and it threw the 
 province into consternation. The troops were to be taken to 
 St. Augustine. Already, indeed, George Bryn had in March 
 brought the garrison on the Iberville down to New Orleans and 
 thence across to Mobile, getting also some of the deserters who 
 every now and then escaped to New Orleans. 
 
 In July there was promise of moderation in the factional 
 disputes of the province in consequence of the arrival in Pensa- 
 cola of ex-Chief Justice Clifton, Attorney-General Wegg, and 
 
262 COLONIAL MOBILE. 
 
 others. They seem to have brought the news of the appoint- 
 ment of Elliott as the new governor. The arrangements for 
 moving the troops went on all summer, and shopkeepers and 
 others at Pensacola held indignation meetings, and drew an 
 address of the king praying for protection to this "Emporium 
 of the West." Mobile had even more reason for alarm, since 
 only the preceding spring a Choctaw conspiracy to massacre 
 the inhabitants had been frustrated. 
 
 About this time the founder of Mobile died at Paris. He 
 was buried in Montmartre. Mobile, as the baptismal record 
 shows, was still essentially French, but so quiet had Bienville 
 lately lived that it is doubtful if they even heard there of his 
 death. 
 
 In November, Lieutenant Nugent with a detachment of the 
 31st relieved Farmer of the 21st, who marched to Pensacola, 
 and next month the bulk of the stores and field artillery were 
 taken away. Haldimand himself came to Mobile to make the 
 final arrangements. 
 
 It may also be that he was here to keep a weather-eye on the 
 French revolution oyer in Louisiana. The Spanish governor 
 had not brought many troops, relying upon the French soldiers 
 under Aubry, who were still retained but were paid by Spain. 
 The amiable UUoa had never been popular, nor had his beauti- 
 ful but distant lady; and on October 29, 1768, the superior 
 council at New Orleans had taken upon itself to expel him and 
 hoist the French flag. The Spanish officials took refuge on 
 their fri^-ate and shortly afterwards sailed away, to the delight 
 of the Louisianians, who now sought again the rule of Louis 
 the Well Beloved. 
 
 While the many French at Mobile no doubt shared this love 
 for old France, no effort was made at revolution. They realized 
 that the English were very different masters. 
 
 In August, 1768, the court martial on Major Farmer had at 
 last been concluded and the papers submitted to the king. The 
 general-in -chief, in notifying Farmer, remarked that he could 
 say nothing until the result was known ; but in October the news 
 came that his Majesty approved of the court martial acquitting 
 the major. We can readily imagine the joy of the whole 
 southern detachment at this victory over Governor Johnstone. 
 
 The major seems at the time of this trial to have withdrawn 
 
IN THE TIME OF HALDIMAND. 263 
 
 from the active service, but we find him in 1769 recommended 
 by the French to succeed Governor Browne. His family con- 
 sisted of his wife Mary and five children, of whom Elisabeth 
 Mary will meet us later. Through her marriage with Louis 
 Alexandre de Vauxbercy, the Farmer blood has survived until 
 the present day. 
 
 Even after his retirement. Major Farmer was in frequent 
 demand for mformation as to Mobile matters. In January, 
 1769, for instance, Haldimand corresponded with him as to the 
 house of Mr. Soci^, taken possession of in 1763 as government 
 property, probably up by the warehouse, and therefore supposed 
 to belong to it. Farmer believed the private claim now set up 
 to be fraudulent, but finally, in February, the house was surren- 
 dered by Nugent to Mme. de Socie on Haldimand's order. Hal- 
 dimand did not give the order until the lieutenant-governor had 
 made application, and the attorney -general had advised that it 
 was private property. 
 
 When on the point of leaving Pensacola for St. Augustine 
 in March, Haldimand wrote a letter to the expected governor, 
 regretting not meeting him. But it is uncertain that Governor 
 Elliott arrived alive. He had been reluctant to come at all, 
 and seems to have committed suicide at sea, or shortly after his 
 arrival, for reasons unknown, and Durnford, writing from Pen- 
 sacola to Haldimand on May 16, tells of the funeral. 
 
CHAPTER XXX. 
 
 SICKNESS. 
 
 A PECULIAR feature of the British tenure of Mobile was the 
 recurring mortality every summer among the troops. The first 
 of it was something like a plague among officers at a general 
 court martial in the fall of 1764. All were taken and three 
 died, and even shipmasters also suffered. 
 
 Next summer the 21st regiment relieved the 22d at Mobile 
 and suffered much from fever. Their surgeon (Dr. Lorimer) 
 attributed it to bringing unacclimated troops at so unseasonable 
 a time, which was done despite his protest. It amounted to an 
 epidemic. 
 
 The British foreign office thought the situation better in 
 1766, but if so it was because so many of the 21st were absent, 
 and we know there was an encampment on Dauphine Island. 
 A memorial from the inhabitants showed that three officers 
 were dead and eleven absent, besides the deputy commissary of 
 stores, the fort adjutant and barrack master, the chaplain, sur- 
 geon, minister, and schoolmaster, who were also absent from 
 Mobile. The minister was Mr. Hart still, but early next year 
 he resigned. He gave as reasons that he had no church build- 
 ing, parsonage, nor hope of promotion to chaplainship of the 
 fort, and found it impossible to support his family on so incon- 
 siderable a salary in a country where the expense of living was 
 so extravagant.^ 
 
 In 1767, Haldimand's report of April 31 dwells on the 
 unhealthy condition of Mobile, where fevers were already pre- 
 
 * In 1768-69 there is an allowance in the British civil list of £100 for 
 minister's salary, and £25 for that of a schoolmaster at Mobile. We learn 
 from Von Eelking (^Deutsche Hulfsiruppen in nordamerikanischen Befrei- 
 ungskriege, p. 139) that there was a minister also in 1779, the only one in the 
 province. This was William Gordon, who acted from 1770 (at latest) all 
 through the British period. He celebrated service also at Pensacola some- 
 times. 
 
SICKNESS. 265 
 
 valent. The next year there were fifteen deaths in June, leav- 
 ing but two officers fit for service. 
 
 This continued unhealthfulness was remarkable, for the 
 French had had no such trouble. Haldimand gets at the root 
 of the matter when he says the country is as healthy as any 
 southern Colony, and that temperate men have nothing to fear. 
 Added to imprudence was the lack of medicine for the sick and 
 the want of proper hospital accommodation. Surgeon Gray in 
 August wrote, that, despite the increasing sickness and danger 
 of "putrid fever," he had not the money to buy medicine. On 
 the 21st of August, 1768, directions were sent Captain Stewart, 
 commanding at Mobile, to order on board the Ledia upon her 
 arrival all baggage, the sick, some officers and men ; and Cap- 
 tain Brass of that sloop and Chambers of the Jenny were sent 
 to Mobile to receive them. This consumed some time, but by 
 the middle of September the soldiers — or rather this hospital, 
 as Haldimand expresses it — were taken by sea to Pensacola. 
 Four died even on the passage. Twenty-five men with officers, 
 under Lieutenant Farmer, were all that were left as a garrison. 
 Those who did not go by sea marched over by land. Fort 
 Charlotte held fewer men than at any time since it was built. 
 
 Next year Haldimand detailed Lorimer to study the disorders 
 at Mobile. He was to keep a journal and report precautions 
 to be observed by troops and new settlers, "Mobile river being 
 the most fertile and promising from its advantageous situation 
 to be early settled." He desired Lorimer to impart to the new 
 settlers any discoveries tending to preserve health, "by which 
 means the credit of that place may in short time be restored 
 from the bad report it hath lately lain under." ^ 
 
 Lorimer was duly assigned quarters in the garrison and spent 
 the next six months studying the subject, being facilitated 
 by Captain Crofton of the 31st regiment, whom Haldimand in 
 February had put in command at Mobile. 
 
 In 1769, the garrison remained in the fort and connected 
 square, and even by May the fevers had already set in. Dr. 
 J. Lorimer, in a letter to Haldimand on the 30th, hinted that 
 he would like Dr. Brown, of Pensacola, to exchange with him. 
 He had given up his own room to the sick, but comj)lains it 
 
 1 Romans' Florida, p. 244, mentions " locked jaw " as also frequent at 
 MobQe. 
 
266 COLONIAL MOBILE. 
 
 will all be in vain if money is not allowed for what is necessary 
 for their recovery. By July the detachment was very sickly, 
 and this continued all summer. 
 
 Lorimer's report in December is as follows : — 
 
 "There were scarce any sick until the month of Jime. The 
 bilious, remitting and intermitting fevers then set in, and con- 
 tinued by repeated relapses throughout the months of July, 
 August, and September. In the beginning of this last month 
 there were out of the small party stationed at Mobile twenty- 
 two men sick, that is about two thirds of the whole. At the 
 approach of the cold weather, the fevers abated, and they then 
 fell into fluxes, dropsias, and cachexies. . . . 
 
 "By the journal which I kept of the heat at Mobile it does 
 not appear materially to differ [from that] at Pensacola, the 
 thermometer rose [during] the month of April to the 28th of 
 June when it was at eighty-eight degrees of farenheit scale, 
 and I do not find that it has been above ninety this year, which 
 may be reckoned moderate; though till about the latter end 
 of September the heat continued the same as in July and 
 August. . . . 
 
 "At Mobile the acid in the air is not more abundant than at 
 Pensacola; iron and steel is therefore alike liable to rust at 
 either of these places, but the moisture and damp at Mobile are 
 very considerable, as I have found by several experiments. 
 Nay this is evident from viewing the sun in the evenings, which 
 about five o'clock begins to be a deeper hue and before he sets is 
 nearly of the color of claret. If one leaves off his shoes for one 
 day they are quite mouldy, and in the garrison or square the 
 hardest and best polished wood will gather mouldiness in a short 
 time. From the wells at Mobile they can only draw what we 
 call hard water, except it is after a considerable rain ; and the 
 river contains innumerable impurities. . . . 
 
 "As to the situation of Mobile you very well know, that from 
 the east to the north of it, is entirely swamps and marshes, for 
 as far or even farther than the eye can reach. From the north 
 point round by the west and to the south it is inclosed with 
 pine trees and thickets, and from the south to the east is the 
 bay; though even in that direction some small islands and 
 marshy points are interposed before the town. The ground 
 upon which the town stands is as low or even lower than any 
 
M () B 1 1.1 
 
 
 ^<*;' 
 
 
 FORT CHARLOTTE (British) 
 
SICKNESS. 267 
 
 thereabout, and the fort is situated on the very lowest spot in 
 the town. . . . There are too many obstacles now in the way, 
 to think of removing it, though there might be several amend- 
 ments made in the present situation, such as cutting down the 
 woods, particularly towards the Choctaw point, so that from the 
 ramparts of the fort the whole bay might be seen from side to 
 side. The summer sun would then dry up the marshes about 
 that point. The low houses in the fort should be converted 
 into stores, and a second story raised upon them would overlook 
 the walls and serve for barracks. 
 
 "The whole parade might be covered with green sod and the 
 ramparts with the same. The outside of the glacis should be 
 cleared, so as to prevent the water from stagnating there, and 
 the earth taken from thence may be laid upon the broken parts 
 of the glacis ; thus the soldiers would live in a more cool, airy 
 and healthy situation, at least than [that] of the people in town; 
 but at present either in the fort or in the officers square it is as 
 close and suffocating as if they were put into a great oven. 
 If the wood is cut and cleared away a kind of bank will be 
 found to rmi all along from the south side of the fort, almost to 
 Mr. Stuarts house on the Choctaw plantation. The people 
 then should be encouraged to take up lots of that ground about 
 one acre each, under the condition of keeping the lower parts 
 well drained, and the higher lands clear of trees or brushwood. 
 They should build their houses in one row along the top of this 
 bank, leaving a street of at least one hundred feet broad to be 
 crossed by a small lane between every two lots. If the three 
 mile creek was then made to run through the town according 
 to a plan which was long ago proposed and for a moderate sum 
 would have been executed, we might expect to see Mobile a 
 very comfortable place to live in all the year round. . . . 
 
 "Much has been said concerning a post on the east side of 
 the bay; and for that purpose the Cliffs are generally fixed 
 upon. They are high and some runs of good water are near 
 them; but such a situation would be extremely inconvenient on 
 many accounts. As their situation is in the bite of the bay, 
 they are entirely deprived of the southern breeze by the point 
 below Mr. Wigg's plantation. There is however a bluff be- 
 tween Mr. Durnford's and the French village where the land is 
 sufficiently high, and there are just by it on both sides some 
 
268 COLONIAL MOBILE. 
 
 springs and small rivulets of the finest water I have seen in the 
 country; and by a little cutting and clearing this point might 
 be rendered more open to the breezes than any on the bay ; and 
 the building a blockhouse and establishing a village there 
 would afford the best retreat for those that were attacked with 
 the country diseases at Mobile. But to return ; the close and 
 marshy situation of Mobile at present is evidently the cause of 
 these fevers, and the want of some little comfort and conven- 
 iences which are indispensably necessary to the recovery of the 
 sick, is the occasion of their frequent relapses. I well know 
 that this is the most disagreeable part of my subject, my duty 
 obliges me to bear witness against the mode prescribed by you 
 in that behalf. For though the commanding officers both at 
 Pensacola and Mobile have always shown the utmost readiness 
 to use any means in their power by which the sick could be 
 benefited; yet while nothing besides the poor remaining pit- 
 tance of the soldiers' subsistence is allowed, it will never do." 
 The inhabitants, he says, suffer less because less confined and 
 they have better food. 
 
 "Another very considerable cause of sickness, though little 
 expected, arises from the small niimber of men in that garri- 
 son ; for when there are only ten or twelve men fit to do duty, 
 if any one misses the ague for three or four days, he is very 
 naturally put on guard, and this is the occasion of a certain 
 relapse. 
 
 "The small number of troops is likewise productive of an- 
 other inconvenience, viz., that when fresh meat is allowed, they 
 cannot consume a whole bullock in one day, and in the summer 
 it will not keep till the next." ^ 
 
 There is nothing to indicate that any of these suggested im- 
 provements were carried out. The sickness in the garrison for 
 several years had given the place a bad name. Adair in 1775 
 calls it "that graveyard for Britons," and a "black trifle." 
 Romans states next year that the epidemic of 1765 entirely 
 ruined the place; and the preface to Pittman's book says the 
 swamps, dead fish in the marsh opposite the town, and the 
 absence of wholesome water within a mile and a half, caused 
 almost as much suffering in that year to the unacclimated 
 21st regiment at Mobile as the 31st experienced at Pensacola. 
 ^ Haldimand Papers, B., vol. xv. p. 78. , 
 
SICKNESS. 269 
 
 A number of people left from time to time, and few new set- 
 tlers came, despite the rivers and soil praised by Pittman.^ 
 
 New Orleans was troubled, but in a different way. Spain 
 moved slowly perhaps, but deliberately. Her royal advisers 
 debated what should be done with revolted Louisiana, and de- 
 termined not to permit such a precedent to stand. Alexander 
 O'Reilly, an Irishman in Spanish service, was sent out with an 
 overwhelming force, and on August 18, 1769, landed at New 
 Orleans. No resistance was offered; in fact O'Reilly was well 
 received. He took firm possession, reorganized the govern- 
 ment, and then had the chief revolutionists tried. On October 
 25 the talented Lafreniere, Pierre Marquis, Joseph Milhet, 
 J. B. Noyan, and Pierre Caresse were shot by a platoon of 
 grenadiers, Jeannot, the negro hangman, having struck off his 
 own arm to avoid acting.^ 
 
 The revolutionists had once planned a republic under the 
 protection of Great Britain, but the British officials in West 
 Florida did not encourage it. Now the British government be- 
 came uneasy at the O'Reilly expedition, and determined to send 
 the troops back to the old posts in West Florida to be ready 
 for any emergency. Haldimand's opinion was, that the best 
 defense of West Florida was by the fleet; and he thought the 
 approach to the Mississippi through the Iberville River, which 
 was dry in summer, not practicable. But plans now were all 
 changed. Gage in February, 1770, directs him to return to 
 Pensacola to meet the 16th regiment, and distribute them 
 between that place and Mobile. 
 
 By the middle of March the troops had reached Pensacola, 
 and Haldimand arrived about a month later. The whole pro- 
 vince rejoiced over the return of the military. 
 
 They had been gone for a year, and much had taken place. 
 The disorders following Governor Elliott's death had been tem- 
 porary, and the only effect of the Spanish severity at New Or- 
 leans was to make it likely that many French would leave there 
 for Mobile. Governor Browne usually resided at Mobile, and 
 was constantly urging on the home government to intercept 
 some of the Mississippi River Indian trade by building a road 
 
 1 American Indians, pp. 310, 456 ; Romans' Florida, p. 10 ; Pittman's 
 Mississippi Settlements, p. vii. 
 
 * 2 Gayarrd's Louisiana, pp. 295, 342. 
 
270 COLONIAL MOBILE. 
 
 from Natchez to Mobile. He was probably more successful in 
 his recommendation that Acadians from the Atlantic, who had 
 been attracted by the Spaniards, be brought to Mobile. Pere 
 Ferdinand had been an Acadian, and was influential amongst 
 them. He recommended that the government pay Ferdinand 
 a salary of fifty guineas, but this was refused. Browne finally 
 left the province after a duel with one man and calling out two 
 others, who apologized. He had intended challenging others, 
 but was bound over to keep the peace. This spring of 1770, 
 Elias Durnford, thanks to Haldimand's influence, was acting 
 governor. 
 
 Governor Durnford recommended to the home government 
 that a substitute for Mobile be built at the Cliffs, between his 
 land on the one side and Mr. Wegg's on the other. He urged 
 the healthfulness of the site and the depth of water in front. 
 But all that was done was the establishment of a summer re- 
 sort for the troops. Captain Crofton built the long-talked-of 
 resort at the Red Cliffs, and there such of the 31st as were 
 not needed at Fort Charlotte were taken. Certainly a more 
 healthful spot than those piny woods bluffs below Montrose 
 could not be found, and, if it was near where the cliff near Rock 
 Creek towers sheer a hundred feet above the bay, the wide 
 view over the blue water would charm those in health as much 
 as it would the invalids. Nothing remains of the camp and 
 tradition has lost the site, but, on account of water for drink- 
 ing, there near the creek it must have been. 
 
 By August the troops in Fort Charlotte were in miserable 
 condition, and both Brown and Lorimer were employed either 
 at Mobile or the new encampment, Croftown, where the sick 
 were taken from Mobile as they could be moved. Haldimand 
 approved the captain's acts, and sent him tools. Crofton in 
 this month asks for molasses to make spruce beer, and reports 
 the men recovering. We do not know whether he used local 
 pottery, but Romans says the finest potter's clay he ever saw 
 was at the village not far away on Mobile Bay, where the 
 inhabitants, like the Indians before and the Americans after 
 them, made domestic vessels. ^ 
 
 The civil and military authorities seem on this occasion to 
 have agreed for once. It was as to establishing a ferry over 
 ^ Romans' Florida, p. 33. 
 
SICKNESS. 271 
 
 the Perdido and cutting the road from Mobile to Pensacola, 
 long before designed by Durnford while engineer. It also em- 
 braced the canoe ferry once recommended by Farmer to be 
 established between Mobile and Apalache Old Town. The 
 authorities took care of the bridges, and also the Perdido ferry, 
 but the Mobile merchants maintained the express to Pensacola 
 to communicate with British packets. 
 
 We meet a little touch of modern times in November in the 
 complaint of the widow Lemarque to Haldimand that certain 
 officers had left without paying their board, — a shabby act, 
 certainly. What the general did for her is not known. It is 
 to be hoped he did not turn over to her the provision stores just 
 reported to him by Strother as spoiled. 
 
 Before sending the troops to Mobile, Haldimand had a sur- 
 vey and report on the condition of Fort Charlotte from T. 
 Sower, commanding engineer. He found that there was not a 
 single building belonging to his Majesty but needed some re- 
 pairs. All the picketing whatever was entirely decayed about 
 the fort. So of the hospital in town, and "the Indian House, 
 one hundred feet long and forty broad, wants its roof repaired." 
 This was the "Savage House " of earlier times. 
 
 Of the fort he says : " The fort is a square with four bastions ; 
 has embrasures for thirty -eight guns. . . . The fort is built 
 of brick; has four bastions; the curtains are casemated. Two 
 bastions are likewise casemated. In the southeast bastion is 
 a powder magazine, and in the west-northwest one is a bake- 
 house; both of these bastions are bomb-proof. The parapet, 
 ramparts, and bankets are all of brick. The barracks are com- 
 posed of upright posts put into the ground, with some framing 
 to the windows and doors; the vacancies of which are filled 
 up with clay and Spanish Beard, and whitewashed over; these 
 two piles consist of nine rooms each." 
 
 The officers' square was then arranged as follows. On the 
 left, as one entered, was the guard-room ; on the right, the pro- 
 vision store. Near were the men's barracks, and on the north 
 side of the square the officers' barracks, with adjacent kitchen. 
 Opposite were two wells, shingled over, and behind the officers' 
 barracks was a small building of four rooms, also meant for 
 officers. All buildings in this square were of brick. The new 
 bakehouse, of which we learned in 1763, had now gone entirely 
 to decay for want of covering. 
 
272 COLONIAL MOBILE. 
 
 "As all the barracks in Fort Charlotte," he continues, "were 
 found so much decayed as not to be worth repairing, and in 
 order to save expense, it was judged necessary to repair the 
 officers' square of barracks, formerly called so by the Span- 
 iards, which is within one hundred yards of the fort, for the 
 accommodation of his Majesty's troops, as all the buildings in 
 the above mentioned square was good, being built with bricks." 
 This had been Farmer's work, and he had begun a brick bas- 
 tion over by the bakehouse. 
 
 "This square is fitted up for the reception of two companies 
 with their complement of officers, which are now well lodged, 
 and, by adding four small stockaded bastions to the corners of 
 the square, could defend themselves against Indians. But as 
 this square is not quite so convenient, nor large enough to pro- 
 tect the inhabitants which are now remaining at Mobile in case 
 of an Indian war, I would recommend that the old communi- 
 cation between Fort Charlotte and the square be stockaded as 
 it formerly was, which would save the inhabitants to retire to, 
 with their effects, in case of any rupture with the Indians in 
 that part of the country." 
 
 This shows that Lorimer's report had had the effect of the 
 abandonment of the fort for residence of the troops. In March, 
 1771, the repairs were under full way, the contractor at Mobile, 
 and at Croftown too, being the energetic Pierre Rochon. A 
 great deal was done at Red Cliffs more particularly, and on 
 April 1 Croftown was finished. It embraced a palisaded bat- 
 tery, with powder magazine and blockhouse in the rear. There 
 Haldimand proposed to move some of the ordnance and stores 
 from Fort Charlotte. Rochon was hard at work in Mobile, 
 too, on the barracks and stockade, and on boats to be sent to 
 Haldimand at Pensacola. It was all none too soon. There 
 were Indian outrages reported. May 8 the inhabitants sent a 
 petition, which was laid before Governor Chester, asking pro- 
 tection, and on the same day Captain Connor reported to Gen- 
 eral Haldimand that the Choctaws had become so hardy as even 
 to strike the sentry of Fort Charlotte. Chester promptly called 
 the attention of the general to the matter. Somewhat later, too, 
 Choctaws destroyed cattle on Dugald Campbell's plantation. 
 Another party robbed a trader within twenty miles of Mobile, 
 and Creeks forced the abandonment of three plantations on the 
 
SICKNESS. 273 
 
 bay, near the pass of Dauphine Island. Other Indians, prob- 
 ably Creeks, attacked the house of Tryon on the Alabama fifty 
 miles above Mobile, and also compelled Hamton, Fleming, and 
 others to abandon neighboring places, claiming that the whites 
 did not belong north of Apalache Old Fields. 
 
 It is pleasant to turn to the side lights in the correspondence 
 between Rochon and the general. The contractor was com- 
 pelled by his wife's illness in April to remain at Mobile, and 
 from there he sends a few dozen fowls as a compliment. He 
 was building boats, one a schooner for the government, but had 
 to wait until the middle of May for a sailmaker from New Or- 
 leans. His own schooner was taken for carrying guns, but he 
 has the policy to express himself as satisfied about it. He asks 
 that his white workmen have rations at the royal tariff, which 
 he will repay if not allowed. To Pensacola he sends over 
 diables, — despite the name, the peaceful articles we call log 
 carts, — and also two pairs of oxen. Once Rochon expresses 
 the intention of coming to Pensacola after finishing his work at 
 Mobile, which would be by the 20th of June. He was anxious 
 to obtain further employment, in order to refit his house, 
 spoiled by the bad conduct of his children ; but he does not let 
 us into the particulars of this domestic affair. This home may 
 have been at Dog River, whence later letters are to be dated. 
 
 Pierre Rochon was also a slaveholder, and his clear, bold 
 signature to the negro baptismal entries contrasts strangely with 
 the cramped hand of Pere Ferdinand, the Acadian. This good 
 father continues his ministrations during the English times. 
 The same forms, the same words, all in French as before, con- 
 tinue in this record, in the same thin book that had been paged 
 and issued to him in 1757 by the French commandant. For- 
 neret, R. Roi (the Indian interpreter), Montelimart, Lusser, 
 Trouillet, Girard, A. Rochon as well as Pierre, Chastang, 
 Demouy, Grelot, Carriere, Badon, Monlouis, and others, bring 
 their children or slaves to him for baptism as in the old days, 
 or attest his entries, as they chat with the father of French 
 times and friends. The inhabitants were not able to support 
 him, however, and about 1771 he retired to New Orleans. 
 Twenty-six of them earnestly petitioned next year for his re- 
 call, and Governor Chester warmly recommended it, and that 
 a salary be allowed him. We find him back at Mobile again. 
 
274 COLONIAL MOBILE. 
 
 although Lord Hillsborough refused the salary, and we can 
 imagine the good father's welcome home. 
 
 But they would soon come to notice, as we do even now, the 
 trembling hand and almost illegible writing, at last the abbre- 
 viated entries, often unsigned, of the cure, seldom filled out 
 now with the titles "capuchin priest, apostolic missionary," as 
 he had once loved to write himseK. Some time, it may be not 
 long after that last signature under the marginal date 1773, the 
 old citizens closed his eyes, and, in or near the church he had 
 served so long, laid to rest with tears the beloved form which 
 had connected for them this half -deserted British outpost with 
 the Mobile of Grondel and Bienville. The church is gone, its 
 very site uncertain, the grave and its contents now unknown ; 
 but somewhere near our St. Emanuel and Theatre, it may be in 
 street, it may be by some home, lies the dust of Ferdinand, the 
 last French cure of Mobile. 
 
CHAPTER XXXI. 
 
 THE TOMBIGBEE RIVER IN 1771. 
 
 The acquisition of Florida by the English caused the pro- 
 duction of a number of books relating to the Indians, geo- 
 graphy, plants and animals as well. Jeffreys, Pittman, and 
 Roberts we have already noticed, and have now to follow the 
 travels of Bernard Romans, who was an army captain ; and later 
 we shall study those of William Bartram, a botanist. The 
 first went over the Tombigbee district in 1771-72 for Superin- 
 tendent Stuart, and the other over the Alabama and Mobile 
 country some five years later. Both show the interest taken 
 in the new possessions, and the study to find out what could be 
 made of them for commercial purposes. 
 
 Romans says that after making arrangements with Superin- 
 tendent Stuart, he left Mobile at four P. M. on Saturday, Sep- 
 tember 20, 1771, with a party of Choctaws. He spent his first 
 night "in pine land near a spring to the north of the path and 
 at the foot of a hill six miles from town, the west a little by 
 south." It is difficult to fix many of his locations, but there 
 can be no reasonable doubt that this first stop was at or near 
 Spring Hill. Thence on for some days they were crossing or 
 heading Dog River and other streams, and then arrived on the 
 banks of the Pascagoula River. Near there they found an 
 Indian "hieroglyphick," or picture-writing, of which he gives 
 an illustration, as he does also of one found a few days later. 
 The first was a Choctaw memorial of having killed and scalped 
 nine Creeks, and the second a Creek one showing that warriors 
 of the Stag family had at Hoopah Ullah scalped two men and 
 two women and rowed off in triumph. 
 
 Rain deterred them somewhat, but on the 27th they crossed 
 Bogue Hooma (Red Creek), the boundary between the English 
 and Choctaws, and three days later reached the Bogue-aithee- 
 Tanne (our Buckatunna), and at Hoopah Ullah, or Noisy Owl, 
 
276 COLONIAL MOBILE. 
 
 found the second "hieroglyphiek." The country was alter- 
 nately pine and oak, savannah, swamp, and hill; and they often 
 passed through hurricane lands, and frequently saw such marks 
 of Indians as paths, fields, and old camps, with occasionally a 
 head on a pole to remind them of the Creek-Choctaw war. 
 One day they saw three graves, — the first of a Tombecbe 
 soldier ; one of a savage, after whom it was named Rum-drink- 
 er's Hill; and the other of a trader named Brown, who had done 
 considerable business in the "Chactaw " and Chickasaw nations. 
 Near the Choctaw town of Coosa they found peaches, "plumbs," 
 and grapes. 
 
 November 4, they were aided by Indians in crossing the 
 Sookahanatcha (Sucarnochee), and at East Abeeka found 
 Choctaws exulting over a victory. There the travelers put up 
 at the house of Hewitt, a resident trader. This place had a 
 stockade fort, and like Abeetap-Oocoola was a frontier town 
 against the Creeks, George Dow now became their guide. 
 Amongst many Choctaw towns chronicled, Moka Lassa is a 
 familiar and important name ; and Romans passed near the site 
 of East Congeata, destroyed in the Choctaw civil war. On 
 the 23d they reached Chickasawhay, and stayed at the house 
 of Ben James. 
 
 Romans made quite a circuit of the Choctaw territory, going 
 even to Yoani, and returning to trader Hewitt's house at 
 Abeeka. Thence he went to the Chickasaw nation, crossing 
 Nashooba (Noxubee) and Okatebbeehaw (Oktibbeha) rivers on 
 the way. The Indian commissary treated him very cavalierly, 
 and awakened the captain's ire by taking away his horse. 
 
 He reached the Tombigbee at last, apparently near where 
 Bienville disembarked to attack the Chickasaws. On December 
 13 he, his servant, and Mr. Dow embarked on Town Creek, 
 after catching beavers. Perhaps its name of White Man's 
 Trouble (Nahoola-Inalchubba) refers to Bienville's defeat. On 
 the first day they passed the site of an old French fortified trad- 
 ing-house on a bluff. His voyage took him by bluffs and low- 
 lands, sand-bars, gravel islands, and pine banks; sometimes 
 running rapids, sometimes detained by logs, or cutting his 
 way through cypress-trees in the river. Romans was so un- 
 fortunate, after killing some ducks and teals, as to have his gun 
 torn from his hands by a snag, and see it sink beyond recovery 
 in deep and rapid water. This was near Aberdeen. 
 
THE TOMBIGBEE RIVER IN 1771. 277 
 
 The weather was wretched, being cold, snowing, or rainy, 
 often detaining them for days in camp. They passed the last 
 branch of the Tombigbee (probably the Buttahatchie), then the 
 stony Sonac Tocale,^ and a number of creeks, none recogniz- 
 able by his Indian names except "Old Town Creek," Oka- 
 tibbehaw (Fighting Water, from being the Choctaw-Chicka- 
 saw boundary), and Eleven Mile Creek (Luxa-pali-lah, or 
 Floating Turtle). He had an eye for the romantic, too, and 
 described at some length a remarkable crescent bluff [Barton's], 
 rising fifty feet above the water, and extending almost a mile and 
 a haK along the river. This was near the modern Columbus. 
 
 Before the 28th of December they had traveled fifty -eight 
 miles and three quarters, having lately passed few creeks. 
 On that day they began to see more rapids and high land than 
 before, and had their first evidence of human life. Thence on, 
 his journal will be given almost entire. 
 
 "An hour and a half after leaving camp," he says, "we saw 
 a bark log, just landed on the west side, and evident marks 
 of people having just landed; this was in a long reach, and we 
 had seen a smoak, but when we came near the bark log the 
 smoak vanished all at once. We soon found these people to 
 be a war party of Creeks, who, perceiving our boat, had put 
 out their fire, which on these occasions they make of hickory 
 bark and other oily matters that yield little smoak. We 
 therefore put on our hats, which we had not on before, it being 
 a fine agreeable day and rather warm, and, laying on the pad- 
 dles, did all we could to show that we were white people. It 
 was fortunate for me that I had not brought a savage guide 
 with me, which would have exposed us to a volley from these 
 warriors : we did not see them, but we knew by the suppression 
 of the smoak, that they had discovered us; they were un- 
 doubtedly on the top of a pretty high bank, in ambush, so we 
 let the boat flow past them. N. B. We have discovered many 
 of those bark logs, made of cones, both above and below this 
 place, upon which the war party ferry over. Half a mile 
 
 ^ This means Hanging Kettle. For the more difficult identifications 
 given I am much indebted to the learned Dr. W. S. Wyman, Captain Frank 
 Stone, and to Messrs. Williams and Jackson, pilots of the river. In 
 meanings of words these notes reflect the views of Dr. Wyman. The edi- 
 tion of Romans used is that of New York, 1776, pp. 303-334, etc. 
 
278 COLONIAL MOBILE. 
 
 lower down we saw the mouth of a middling large creek, on 
 the east side. . . . The river is here above two hundred feet 
 wide. Having come twenty-three miles, we encamped at four 
 o'clock on a gravel bar. We saw many places that appeared 
 like old fields, as having been formerly cultivated. 
 
 "29th. At nine o'clock proceeded. . . . We saw again some 
 spots bearing marks of former cultivation, and more of drowned 
 land; the river in general this day rapid, with many islands 
 [perhaps Ten Mile Shoals]: at half an hour past three P. M., 
 having traveled thirty-five miles, we encamped on the east 
 side in a lagoon, on a high bank, where for the first time we 
 saw the rich gi-ound clear of large canes ; this being timbered 
 chiefly with the shagbark hickory, iron wood, and Spanish oak. 
 
 " 30th. This morning we had our boat loaded, but it began 
 to rain, and thus were obliged to unload again. Here we found 
 a canoe, which was well made, but had been by the savages, on 
 account of the war, scuttled, and rendered unfit for use ; how- 
 ever we found that, if we could make her anyways tight, she 
 would be more safe than the one that we had, and this we ef- 
 fected by the help of wedges, clay, and leather. Our provisions 
 beginning to grow scant, and having lost the only gun I had 
 taken with me, I began to be uneasy, especially as we found 
 the beavers become less plenty. The weather was uncommonly 
 bad till the evening of the third of January, 1772, when it 
 cleared up, and next morning, 
 
 "4th January, 1772, at a quarter before eleven o'clock 
 A. M., we proceeded in our new craft. . . . The canoe proves 
 very leaky, and on unloading we find a great deal of our 
 bread spoiled. This day came twenty-two miles and an half; 
 the canes and timber are very exceeding large. 
 
 "5th. At a quarter past ten embarked: high banks on 
 both sides. At haK an hour after eleven past the mouth 
 of a river from the east : this is called by the savages Nashe- 
 baw [probably Sipsey ^ River, in Alabama]. The land here 
 is exceeding rich, the canes very large ; and we saw a species of 
 phaseolus, in great abundance, along the bank. About a mile 
 and a quarter below the creek, we met four savages from 
 Abeka, in the Choctaw nation, to whom Mr. Dow was known. 
 The river has risen considerably since yesterday; the current 
 ^ Meaning Poplar Tree. The Choctaw Nashoba means Wolf. 
 
THE TOMBIGBEE RIVER IN 1771. 279 
 
 Las been for these two days almost uniformly at the rate of 
 three miles per hour. It is remarkable, that though the velo- 
 city of our way was not much above two miles per hour inde- 
 pendent of the current, yet we had several instances of having 
 evidently outrun the flood at night, in so much that it would 
 scarce reach us again before morning. We came to camp 
 near the savages above mentioned, having come seven miles and 
 a half; they had a good canoe which I intended to purchase. 
 The weather was very cold to-day. Lost a silver spoon at our 
 last camp, which Mr. Dow proposed to go and fetch; but he 
 found it impracticable to cross the Nasbehaw River. I agreed 
 with the savages that they should hunt for us to procure pro- 
 visions. At night it rained ; our camp was on the east side, 
 in a very rich spot. We have not yet seen any sand or gravel, 
 except on the bars and islands in the river, the soil in general 
 being clay, or loam, with a dry black mould. 
 
 "6th. After a great deal of persuasion, I bought the canoe 
 from the savages ; and they brought me in two deer and a tur- 
 key, for all which I gave them five yards of blue strouds, two 
 powder horns, knife and some small shot. I described our last 
 camp to them, and desired them to look for the above men- 
 tioned spoon, directing them to leave it in their own country 
 with Mr. Dow's partner, who lived just by their homes, and 
 gave them a note to him, desiring him to pay them for their 
 trouble; but when they understood it to be the white stone 
 (i. e.) silver, they declined going purposely for it; but pro- 
 mised, if chance led them to the place, to carry it as directed, 
 for, they not being able to work it, in case the trader refused 
 to pay them they would lose their labor; but had it been the 
 fat of the earth^ (i. e.) lead or pewter, in that case they might 
 make bullets or ear-rings of it, and then they would not take 
 pains in vain : towards evening they left us, and during night 
 we barbecued our venison to preserve it. 
 
 " 7th. At half an hour past seven o'clock A. M. embarked 
 in our new craft; all day we passed between high banks, some 
 steep, some sloping; several as high as eighty feet above the 
 surface of the water ; one of these has an extensive savannah 
 on the top. At the end of nineteen miles and a half, on the 
 west side, we saw the mouth of the river Noxshubby [Noxu- 
 1 The Choctaw for these is Talla-hatta and Yakne-em-belah. 
 
280 COLONIAL MOBILE. 
 
 bee], or Hatchaoose ; ^ its banks are high on both sides ; here 
 seems to be the true theatre of the war, for the bark logs are 
 very numerous. The river is widened now from two hundred 
 to two hundred and fifty feet. A mile and a half below the 
 mouth of Noxshubby is the first bluff of arid ochre, like earth, 
 very high and steep [Gainesville], and about eight miles lower 
 a white one, being a kind of stone almost as soft as chalk. . . . 
 At four o'clock p. m. we came to camp on a low spot, on the east 
 side, having gone down the river forty -two miles and a half ; all 
 day dull weather, and at night rain. 
 
 "8th. Proceeded half an hour after 8 A. m. and having 
 gone a little more than a mile, we reached the mouth of the 
 creek called Ectomboguebe (^. e. Crooked Creek), on the west 
 side; from this creek's name the French derive their Tom- 
 bechbe, the name of the fort which stood here, and which has 
 again given that name to the whole river [probably Tom's 
 Creek]. 2 We went about half a mile further down, under a 
 high and steep bank of chalky stone, and arrived at the ruins 
 of the fort by means of which the French kept all the savages 
 in awe. I went ashore in the old fields, and drew a view of 
 the ruins; this is about forty miles east from the town of 
 Abeeka. The river is not sixty feet wide here. About a mile 
 and a half below these ruins is a pretty high but sloping slaty 
 bluff : having come about nine miles, we arrived at a hunting 
 camp of Choctaws, on the west side, who invited us on shore, 
 treated us very kindly, and spared us some venison, bear's 
 meat and oil. The afternoon being stormy, with hail and rain, 
 we encamped at a small distance from them : the canes were not 
 very plenty here, but the land rich : a great deal of the plant 
 called Indian Hemp grows in this place, but the season de- 
 prived me of the satisfaction of knowing what genus it is of. 
 
 "9th. At half an hour past eleven proceeded, and in an 
 hour and a quarter we passed by Chickianoee,^ a white bluff 
 [Bluff port] with a savannah on its top, on the west side ; it is 
 upwards of seventy feet high above the water's level: we passed 
 
 ^ Oka-nak-shobe is Choctaw for " Water which has a foul smell," while 
 Hatcka-Use means Pumpkin Creek. 
 
 * Wyman thinks the creek's name, Ish-iam-bok (Crooked Creek), was dif- 
 ferent from Ectomba-ikbee, Coffin-maker, the name of the river. 
 
 ' Chiki-anowah would mean Chickasaw Walk. 
 
THE TOMBIGBEE RIVER IN 1771. 281 
 
 several high bluffs, among which one is yellow like Ochre. 
 . . . Having travelled twenty-four miles, came to camp at 
 four o'clock P. M. on the east side, at the beginning of a steep 
 slaty bluff. 
 
 "10th. At a haK an hour past nine, A. m. proceeded; we 
 went between high bluffs, and in two hours came to the mouth 
 of Tuscaloosa River [Black Warrior] from the east; and a 
 little below it is the steep, white, chalky bluff on whose top is a 
 vast plain [Demopolis], and some remains of huts in it; the 
 bluff is called the Chickasaw Gallery, because from here the 
 savages used to annoy the French boats going up to the fort, or 
 down from it. The river is hereabouts full of rapids and bad 
 passes: we came past a number of high bluffs, most of them 
 chalky. At half an hour past three we passed the mouth of 
 Sookhanatcha [Sucarnochee] ^ from the west, and three miles 
 below it came to camp, at four o'clock p. M., at the foot of the 
 hill where formerly the Coosadas^ were settled: this place 
 is called Suktaloosa (i. e. Black Bluff), from its being a kind 
 of coal : it is a great thorough-fare for warring savages ; there- 
 fore we took the usual precaution of large fires, and hanging 
 our hats on stakes, which we had reason to think not in vain; 
 for in the night we heard the report of smaU arms. This day 
 we came thirty-six miles. It is worthy of remark, that al- 
 though we have come near seventy miles from the ruins of 
 Tombechbe, yet by land the distance is not above twenty -four 
 or twenty-five miles. The land here is very fine, and Mr. 
 Dow told me that he had lived here with the Coosadas, and 
 that the common yield of corn was from sixty to eighty bushels 
 per acre; that they increased horses and hogs to any degree 
 they pleased ; and that venison, turkies, and fish were uncom- 
 monly plenty. 
 
 "11th. Last night and this morning being rainy, we could 
 not proceed till eleven o'clock. All this day we passed through 
 the remains of the Coosada and Occhoy settlements,^ being all 
 
 ^ Shukha-nachaba, Choctaw for Hog's Backbone. 
 
 * Some of the Coosadas, who were of Alibamon, not Creek stock, moved 
 west when the French abandoned Fort Toulouse. In 1766, they were at war 
 with the Choctaws and seem to have been worsted. 
 
 ^ The Okchays had been in the Coosa region. They were apparently of 
 Choctaw stock and accompanied the Coosadas in their migration. There is 
 a bluff in the northeast corner of Choctaw County still called West Okchai. 
 
282 COLONIAL MOBILE. 
 
 a fine tract of ground, of which much had been cleared ; but it 
 is now again overgrown with reeds; the grand, or public plan- 
 tation in particular is an excellent tract. At four o'clock p. M. 
 we encamped on a little plain, under a bluff, where was a large 
 hunting camp, to appearance about two years old; here we saw 
 some stones, having been deeply marked by the savages with 
 some uncouth marks, but most of them being straight lines and 
 crossed. I have since been led to conjecture, whether they were 
 not occasioned by these people grinding their awls on these 
 stones ; yet they do not iU resemble inscriptions : this place is 
 a pretty situation, and is nearly two miles below the deserted 
 Occhoy town, which stood likewise near a black coaly bluff; 
 the distance we made this day is twenty -one miles; we had fine 
 weather during the day, but the night was showery. 
 
 " 12th. At half an hour past 8 a. m. proceeded. All this 
 day we saw marks of great fertility of soil, and much tolerably 
 high land : at half an hour past ten we were at a creek called 
 Abeshai; at a quarter past eleven, at the last Occhoy field, by 
 a creek called Bashailawaw ; ^ at eleven a. M., at the hills of 
 Nana Falaya,^ on the east side, which rise steep out of the 
 water about fifteen or twenty feet, then slope up into very 
 high short pine hills. Some parts of the rock are red, others 
 grey. Here we were overtaken by very bad weather, from 
 which took shelter; at haK an hour past one p. m. we en- 
 camped about three quarters of a mile below the hill, on the 
 slope of a pretty high bank, where we found the remains of a 
 camp that had been occupied lately by white people ; we came 
 about eleven miles and a half this day ; the rain continued till 
 two o'clock A. M. next day, when the wind shifting to W. N. 
 W. it grew excessively cold. 
 
 "13th. At haK an hour past ten A. M. proceeded; at one 
 o'clock we came to a hill on the east side, with an old field on 
 its summit ; this hill is called Batcha-Chooka [Tuscahoma] ; here 
 we found a notorious gang of thieves, belonging to the town of 
 Oka Loosa (Black Water), a town in the Chactaw nation. 
 
 ^ This seems to mean " boundary," but unlike Bashai Creek, in Clarke 
 County, was on no boundary now known. 
 
 2 This means Long Bluff, nunnik, accented on the second syllable, de- 
 noting bluff. In a previous note Romans says that by pine he always means 
 Pinus Abies Virginiana, conis parvis subrotundis, the Balm of Gilead Pine. 
 
THE TOMBIGBEE RIVER IN 1771. 283 
 
 When we saw their raft, we took them to be a Creek war party ; 
 therefore, being hailed by them, and not choosing to be shot 
 at, we went near the shore; but on discovering who they were, 
 I refused to land ; they still insisted we must, but my obstinate 
 persisting to the contrary disappointed their sanguine hopes of 
 plunder, and after some altercation I proceeded. This day the 
 marks of fertility of soil are not so uninterrupted as on the 
 former days. Our weather was clear, and a strong northerly 
 wind prevailed; we came nineteen miles since morning, and 
 encamped on the west side, in a low spot of ground. 
 
 "14th. Last night the frost was severe; at a quarter past 
 nine a. m. proceeded; in haK an hour's time we saw very high 
 hills, at a mile, or better, from the river, seemingly covered 
 with pine timber; these hills the savages call Nanna Chahaws.^ 
 Here is a steep place above forty feet perpendicular out of the 
 water, and another steep above it ; the last is a grey slaty rock ; 
 this place is called Teeakhaily Ekutapa, and the people from 
 Chicasahay had a settlement here before the war. [Macarty's 
 Ferry.] About a mile and a quarter from hence is a remark- 
 able white sand hill on the east side; four miles lower, we came 
 to Yagna-hoolah ^ (i. e. the Beloved Ground), which lies on the 
 east side and is very high, continuing above two miles along 
 the river bank ; its lower part is steep and of a whitish grey, 
 and at the end above two hundred feet high, reckoning perpen- 
 dicularly [Witch Creek Hill]. A mile below this is a white sand 
 hill on the west side; we saw the pine hills all this day, at 
 various distances from the river, sometimes close to it, and the 
 canes begin to diminish, and pine trees mix among the timber. 
 The current for these two last days is very considerably 
 slackened, and the river widened to above five hundred feet. 
 We came about thirty miles and a half this day, and encamped 
 at four o'clock p. m. on the side of a kind of bluff, about six miles 
 below a branch called Isawaya ; ^ all day cold, the latter part 
 dull and hazy; at a quarter past nine proceeded. Eight miles 
 
 * Just below Wood's Bluff. This buhrstone formation makes up the 
 most picturesque spot on the river. The meaning is High Hills, and the 
 hills do not cease until at Oven Bluff, near Mcintosh's. 
 
 '^ Yakne-hulo, Holy Ground. 
 
 ' The Crouching Deer, far more romantic than the senseless Sea Warrior 
 into which the Americans have converted the word. 
 
284 COLONIAL MOBILE. 
 
 below our camp we were at the mouth of Senti Bogue ^ {i. e. 
 Snake Creek), having an island in its mouth, and coming from 
 the westward. Two miles and a quarter lower is Atchatickpe 
 [Hatchetigbee],^ a large bay or lagoon on the same side; at 
 this place is the beginning of our boundary with the Chactaws, 
 running from the west till it strikes Senti-Bogue, and then 
 follows 'the course of said creek up to a certain sugar-loaf hill, 
 and so over to Bogue Hooma and Bakkatane.^ A mile below 
 this, at the bending of the river, is a bluff, but not very high, 
 of a dark grey stone : above this it rises gradually, sloping into 
 a very high hill, variegated into small ridges. We saw many 
 spots of pines, and some white sand hills; but in general the 
 soil has a better appearance than yesterday. About an hour 
 before we encamped, we came to the last rapids [McGrew's 
 Shoals], or the first from below; here is a remarkable spot of 
 yellow rock in the western bank, beginning with a high, per- 
 pendicular, white rock with some grass spots [near St. Ste- 
 phens] ; it is above fifty feet above the present surface of the 
 water; its top is level and shrubby; in the middle projects a 
 remarkable lump, which in coming down looks exactly like a 
 buttress against a wall. At four o'clock, p. m. we encamjDed 
 on the east side in the low ground, above a mile below the 
 rocks, having come thirty-one miles. The weather has been 
 clear and cold all this day. Stout sloops and schooners may 
 come up to this rapid ; therefore I judge that here some consid- 
 erable settlement will take place. 
 
 "16th. Proceeded at half an hour past eight A. M. Hav- 
 ing come about fifteen miles, we saw the remains of the old 
 Weetumpkee settlement : about seven miles below this, on the 
 east side, is an odd rocky bluff, appearing to be sandy, and is 
 covered with cedar trees [Carney's Bluff]. The river here is 
 very crooked ; and about six miles below, on the west side, we 
 saw a spacious old field, and a smoak in one edge of it; but 
 nobody near it; and two miles lower down, hearing a rustling 
 
 ^ Sinte-bok. 
 
 2 This seems to mean Neck of Bottle Stream, possibly from expansion of 
 the river into the lagoon, now long since filled and cultivated. Old pilots 
 remember the lagoon. 
 
 2 Bogue Homa, or Red Creek, is a branch of the Buckatunna, which means 
 " Creek on the other side." 
 
THE TOMBIGBEE RIVER IN 1771. 285 
 
 in the canes, we looked that way, and saw a savage in a war 
 dress, lying flat ; finding himself perceived, he got up and beck- 
 oned to us ; but although we were within ten feet of him, we 
 seemed not to have remarked him, upon which he lay down 
 again : it is to be imagined that he was not alone, and that this 
 was a wal^ party, who had been at the smoak in the old field, 
 and having perceived us had come to this place, knowing that 
 here we must come near the bank ; but seeing that we were not 
 Chactaws, and thinking themselves undiscovered, kept close. 
 At a quarter past four o'clock p. M. we came to a camp on the 
 west side, which we supposed by the boats, etc., to be occupied 
 by white people, in which opinion we were soon confirmed. 
 When they invited us on shore, we found they were one Thomas 
 Baskett, with two white hunters and some Chactaws; we were 
 here well regaled with excellent meat and very good bread, 
 which, being prepared in an excellent manner, was a noble feast 
 to us. I purchased some bear, bacon, and venison hams of 
 them, and staid all night at their camp; the distance we came 
 this day was thirty -one miles. 
 
 "17th. Embarked at haK an hour past nine A. M. and 
 proceeded, accompanied by two canoes with savages : we soon 
 passed by some high pine hills on the east side ; and at their 
 end, having come about two miles, we were at the little creek 
 called Ape - Bogue - oose [Choctaw for "little salt creek"], 
 which is a spring so intensely salt that, the savages told us, 
 three kettles of its water yield one of salt. Having then 
 proceeded four hours through low land on each side, we arrived 
 at the place called by the French The Forks, being a lagoon 
 divided into three branches [Three Rivers], whereof the first 
 is called Ape Tonsa, the second Beelosa, and the third Caanta- 
 calamoo : here the savages left us ; we still proceeded for half 
 an hour more through low land, and then came to a large bay, 
 at the end whereof begins the Tomeehettee bluff [Mcintosh's], 
 where formerly a tribe of that nation resided ; this is the first 
 time we have the real pine barren butting on the river; it is 
 very level. ^ About five miles below this place, we came to the 
 first islands that are of note [Bilbo's Island]; the land con- 
 
 ^ Romaus does not mention this as the residence of James Mcintosh, 
 Indian interpreter under the British ; but it was so at this or some other 
 time. 
 
286 COLONIAL MOBILE. 
 
 tinues low and pretty rich : here we see the first summer canes.^ 
 At six o'clock p. M. we came to the Coosadas bluff, having 
 had the Naniabe (i. e. Fish Killer's Island) [Nana Hubba] 
 above an hour on our west side; this place was the last settle- 
 ment of the Coosadas after they left Suktaloosa; and in little 
 more than haK an hour we were at the mouth of the great Ali- 
 bamo River. We passed the Nita Abe, or Bear Killer's Bluff, 
 on the left, and at nine o'clock p. m. we came to the north end 
 of the island, which divides the branch called Dog River [the 
 Ten saw] from the west branch of the river. Here we stayed 
 all night at the plantation of the Chevalier de Lucere, but found 
 only three or four old slaves and children, the whole of the able 
 hands and the overseer being gone to make tar -kilns, so that 
 we had but indifferent fare. We came this day forty-two miles 
 and a half. N. B. These islands are very fertile, and have a 
 great many plantations on them, on the branches which lay out 
 of our way, particularly on the Taensa and Dog rivers. 
 
 "18th. At a quarter past nine a. m. proceeded; passed 
 several plantations, as well on the islands as on the main, 
 particularly Campbell's, Stuart's, Ardry's, and M'Gillivray's: 
 at half an hour past eleven a. m. arrived at Mr. Favre's house, 
 where I stayed in order to get some refreshment; this being 
 the first Christian habitation I had been at since the 20th 
 September last year. Mr. Favre treated us in a most friendly, 
 genteel and hospitable manner. At one o'clock some boats 
 went up the river, which I heard were Mr. Stuart's people, 
 with a provincial deputy surveyor, going up to ascertain the 
 boundary between us and the Chactaws. At two o'clock some 
 gentlemen, among whom was Major Dixon, of the sixteenth 
 regiment, and Charles Stuart, deputy superintendent of Indian 
 affairs (to whom I described Atchatikpe and Senti-Bogue, where 
 they were to begin), followed them : they proceeded up to Mr. 
 Stuart's plantation, about three miles higher up the river. We 
 had come seven miles and a quarter this day. In the afternoon 
 it began to rain, and all night was a prodigious storm of wind 
 and rain, which I had the pleasure of weathering out under 
 
 ^ Komans presented Superintendent Stuart with part of a cane cut on 
 this trip which measured 47 feet from the third joint up. The joints were 
 20 inches long and above 5 in circumference. He says it was not an ex- 
 traordinary instance. 
 
THE TOMBIGBEE RIVER IN 1771. 287 
 
 a good roof ; here we f oxmd several families of Chactaw sav- 
 ages. 
 
 "19th. At a quarter past nine a. m. we proceeded; went 
 past Chastang's, Strother's, and Narbonne's plantations, hav- 
 ing chiefly pine land on the main, and the rich islands on 
 our left all this day. Having gone five miles and three quar- 
 ters, we passed by the ruins of Fort Conde, or old Mobile 
 [27 Mile Bluff], and near six miles lower down we passed by 
 the ruins of a tine plantation, formerly belonging to the French 
 Intendant at Mobile, now to Mr. Lizard at the same place [21 
 Mile Bluff ^] : four miles and three quarters lower down, we met 
 with the first marsh; the river being very full, we could not 
 learn how far the salt water had its effect, the bay itself being 
 fresh and good at this time; but Mr. Dow, who had been sev- 
 eral times up and down this river, and had lived with the 
 Coosadas for some years, assured me that the tide was very 
 visible at the old Wetumpkee settlements, and in extraordinary 
 tides even as far as Sukta Loosa, where, during his residence 
 on the spot, he has frequently seen it ebb and flow about an 
 inch. We came this day thirty -five miles and a half, and at 
 nine o'clock p. m. we arrived at Mobile." 
 
 ^ This Mr. Lizard has given his name to the bayous east of this place at 
 21 Mile Bluff and obscured the earlier history. The French intendant, or 
 more properly commandant, alluded to as the first owner, as Dubroca testi- 
 fies in an existing Spanish inquest, was Beauchamps, for whom the bayou 
 was named. Beauchamps sold to Grondel, in whose honor the plantation 
 was called St. Philippe, which apparently has led to the idea of first Fort 
 Louis' having that name. Grondel sold to Populus and he then to Pechon. 
 On the coming of the English it was bought by Lizard & Co., who erected 
 a mill there. After Romans' trip we learn that Lizard was murdered, and 
 at an auction the place became the property of John McGillivray, the well- 
 known British merchant at Mobile. 
 
CHAPTER XXXII. 
 
 THE SEVENTIES. 
 
 Succeeding years brought little change to Mobile. The 
 fort and barracks were repaired and two companies were sta- 
 tioned there, but little advance was effected beyond trade with 
 the Indians. Haldimand, in June, 1771, took twelve twelve- 
 pounders from Fort Charlotte to Pensacola, substituting, as he 
 wrote Gage, "small pieces to satisfy the inhabitants, who, to 
 obtain more troops, pretend to be afraid." 
 
 We do not read of so much sickness in the garrison this 
 summer, although there was some; but in November we find 
 Haldimand corresponding with Pierre Kochon the younger at 
 Pensacola, who speaks of the death of his father. The mantle 
 had descended on worthy shoulders, and the young man an- 
 nounces that he will carry out his father's agreements and 
 intentions. Missing planks, for instance, will be supplied. 
 The last letter preserved from the father was dated July 11, 
 from Mobile. Haldimand no doubt missed his old friend 
 when on November 28 he was in Mobile to attend a Congress 
 of Chickasaws. 
 
 In January, 1772, Lord Hillsborough, for the British cabinet, 
 wrote to General Gage from Whitehall to set at rest the old 
 question as to control of the forts ; for the popular Peter Ches- 
 ter, governor since 1770, had reopened it. It was decided in 
 favor of the governor, and the general was to exercise authority 
 only over the troops. This no doubt settled the question also 
 as to the house which Chester maintained in the fort at Pensa- 
 cola, always submitted to reluctantly by the military. 
 
 Haldimand writes Gage in February of another difference 
 with the governor. Durnford had finished his surveys, — in 
 fact the well-known admiralty chart dates from 1771, — and 
 the general had sent the bill for expenses to Chester. These 
 the governor insisted should be paid by the general, who re- 
 
THE SEVENTIES. 289 
 
 tortecl that the survey was for the good of the whole province, 
 which received a sufficient subsidy. He had just visited the 
 country. West of Mobile Bay he found it barren and liable 
 to floods. There was only one settler on the river. 
 
 This was not to remain true long, for Chester's congress at the 
 end of December, 1771, showed the Choctaws friendly. Almost 
 two thousand were present, and, besides British officials, Robert 
 Farmer, William Struthers, Alexander Mcintosh, and Daniel 
 Ward were there among the principal Mobilians. One matter 
 of complaint by the savages would seem to have been the grant- 
 ing of lands to whites up the Alabama, this being beyond the 
 Tensaw River, which they deemed the natural boundary. 
 
 Shortly after this the plan was seriously discussed of de- 
 molishing Fort Charlotte, and taking the brick to Pensacola for 
 building some batteries contemplated there. Engineer Sowers 
 estimated that there would be 16,000 brick thus available. 
 Haldimand finally decided against such removal, although he 
 favored putting bastions to the square; while about the same 
 time. May, Governor Chester determined to destroy Fort Char- 
 lotte. The design was not carried out, but may be Chester 
 would have had his way at last, — if, a few years later, Galvez 
 had not had his. 
 
 A good deal of interest was taken in settling the banks of the 
 Mississippi. Durnford was sent there to explore the Iberville 
 River, but Gage declared it useless. The English, he said, 
 must possess New Orleans in order to utilize the river, and he 
 and Haldimand discussed from time to time plans for invasion 
 of Louisiana in case of war with Spain. The Indians, too, 
 were under constant surveillance. Charles Stuart or John 
 Stuart made frequent expeditions to conciliate different south- 
 ern tribes or to mediate their quarrels and wars, and often one 
 or the other reports on the subject from Mobile. The Indian 
 question was a very live one then, and the sale of rum to the 
 savages was as now a great cause of trouble. Trade by canoe 
 or pack-horse was important, and many savages, especially 
 Choctaws, were on the streets of Mobile even at other times 
 than during their congresses. 
 
 The exports at this time were principally derived from them, 
 and if not large in volume were certainly varied in nature. 
 Indigo and hides probably led the list, but we find also timber 
 
290 COLONIAL MOBILE. 
 
 and lumber, staves, peltry, cattle, corn, tallow, bear's oil, tar 
 and pitch, rice, tobacco, myrtle wax, salted wild beef, salted 
 fish, pecans, sassafras, and oranges. Romans says vegetables, 
 although not common at Pensacola, were raised in great abun- 
 dance at Mobile, and that the only reason meat and fish were 
 rare at both places was the indolence of the inhabitants, who 
 let one or two butchers and three or four industrious Spanish 
 hunters and fishermen fix their own prices. Bees came from 
 the Atlantic colonies to "West Florida only in 1772. This 
 spring and fall of 1772 we see Rochon from Dog River 
 {Riviere aux Chiens) sending loads of plank and of hay to 
 Haldimand at Pensacola, and drawing for fifty dollars and 
 other simas, — once for the total amount then due, in order to 
 satisfy an execution; for, under the common law of imprison- 
 ment for debt, a civil execution was almost as bad as a military 
 one. 
 
 Cotton has been noticed under the French, and now Romans 
 speaks prophetically of its future.^ 
 
 "Cotton," he says, "being so very useful a commodity that 
 scarce any other exceeds it, and an article of which we can never 
 raise too much (for, like all other things, the more it is multi- 
 plied the more its consumption increases), it therefore behooves 
 me to mention it as second in rank. We, by following the 
 example of the industrious Acadians, will do well to manufac- 
 ture all our necessary clothing in Florida of this staple ; and 
 although it has not yet been raised in a sufficient extent to 
 export a considerable quantity thereof, yet when we consider 
 the number of manufactures in Lancashire, Derbyshire, and 
 Cheshire that consume this beneficial commodity, either alone 
 or in mixture with silk, wool, flax, etc., and that England 
 imports all the rough materials from abroad (chiefly from 
 the Levant) to so great an amount as near X400, 000 sterling 
 value, we may perhaps find it worthy of a more universal pro- 
 pagation. . . . 
 
 "Cotton will grow in any soil, even the most meagre and 
 barren sand we can find. 
 
 "The sort we must cultivate here is the Gossypium Anni- 
 versarium, or Xylon Herhaceum ; also known by the name of 
 green seed cotton, which grows about four or five feet in 
 ^ Romans's Florida, p. 139. See also pp. 115, 141, 171. 
 
THE SEVENTIES. 291 
 
 height. Give this plant a dry soil, and further it will cost you 
 little trouble or attention; it must be planted in rows at regu- 
 lar distances about six feet apart: plant the seed in rainy 
 weather, and in about five months' time the fibres will be com- 
 pletely formed and the parts fit together, which will be known 
 by their being completely expanded ; it must now be carried to 
 the mill, of which take the following description. 
 
 "It is a strong frame of four stubs, each about four feet high, 
 and joined above and below by strong transverse pieces; across 
 this are placed two round well-polished iron spindles, having 
 a small groove through their whole length, and by means of 
 treadles are by the workman's foot put in directly opposite 
 motions to each other : the workman sits before the frame, hav- 
 ing a thin board, of seven or eight inches wide, and in length 
 of the frame, before him; this board is so fijced to the frame 
 that it may be moved over again and near the spindle ; he has 
 the cotton in a basket near him, and with his left hand spreads 
 it on this board along the spindles, which by their turning draw 
 the cotton through them, being wide enough to admit the cot- 
 ton, but too near to permit the seed to go through, which, being 
 thus forced to leave the cotton in which it was contained, and 
 by its rough coat entangled, falls on the ground between the 
 workman's legs, while the cotton drawn through falls on the 
 other side into an open bag suspended for that purpose under 
 the spindles. 
 
 "The French in Florida have much improved this machine 
 by a large wheel which turns two of these mills at once, and 
 with so much velocity as, by means of a boy who turns it, to 
 employ two negroes at hard labor to shovel the seed from under 
 the mill. One of these machines I saw at Mr. Krebs' at Pasca 
 Oocooloo, but as it was partly taken down, he claiming the 
 invention was very cautious in answering my questions, I can- 
 not pretend to describe it accurately ; I am informed that one 
 of those improving mills will deliver seventy or eighty pounds 
 of clean cotton per diem. 
 
 "The packing is done in large canvas bags, which must be 
 wetted as the cotton is put in, that it may not hang to the cloth 
 and may slide better down ; the bag is suspended between two 
 trees, posts, or beams, and a negro with his feet stamps it down; 
 these bags are made to contain from three hundred and fifty to 
 
292 COLONIAL MOBILE. 
 
 four hundred weight; with about twenty slaves moderately 
 working, a very large piece of poor ground might be finely 
 improved so as to yield to its owner a fine annual income by 
 means of a staple which is much in demand in England, and 
 here is raised by no means inferior in whiteness and fineness, as 
 well as length of fibres, to that of the Levant." 
 
 The summer of 1772 was again a sickly one for the garrison. 
 On August 15, Haldimand writes Gage that the whole of the 
 garrison would soon be in hospital. He had already sent a 
 third doctor, and wovild forward a schooner to relieve the troops. 
 
 But the schooner was not to arrive very soon, for it encoun- 
 tered the great September storm, which lasted from August 30 
 through September 3 on all the Gulf coast. This was prob- 
 ably the schooner which was driven westerly as far as Cat 
 Island, where she anchored until the water rose so high that 
 she parted her cable and floated over the island. This relief 
 detachment of the 16th regiment was compelled to remain on 
 a desolate island for six weeks until themselves relieved by a 
 smack. The Mobile garrison improved before they arrived, 
 but the storm injured the wharf, fort, and town severely. The 
 hurricane drove vessels, boats, and logs out of the bay up into 
 the river, and through the very streets of the town. There 
 was such an accumulation of logs on the lower lands of the 
 place that the inhabitants needed no other fuel during the 
 ensuing winter. Spray was carried far inland,^ and salt water 
 was forced over the gardens, destroying the vegetables. All the 
 houses were filled several feet deep with water, and one in^ 
 habited by a joiner was run through by a brig which had broken 
 from the moorings. ^ The greatest severity of the storm, how- 
 ever, was felt by Krebs and the Germans near Pascagoula 
 River. 
 
 We can readily imagine that Rochon was now in great 
 demand, and by November we find the patriotic British at 
 Pensacola up in arms about this Frenchman's taking their 
 business away. John Canibel files with Haldimand a writ- 
 ten protest against the preference given to Rochon and other 
 Frenchmen when reasonable offers were received from others 
 who could better supply the articles. This entailed, he said, 
 
 ^ 3 Gayarr^'s Louisiana, p. 48 ; KomaDs' Florida, p. 4. 
 3 2 Pickett's Alabama, p. 11. 
 
THE SEVENTIES. 293 
 
 discharge of local carpenters and injury of shingle men. 
 Haldimand was a foreigner himself and had the good sense to 
 refer the matter to General Gage, who promptly decided in 
 favor of Rochon as the cheaper.^ Lieutenant Cambel rather 
 sided with the civil authorities in the disputes with the military, 
 and receives sharp reprimands from both Gage and Haldimand. 
 He appears finally to have claimed a court martial, and to have 
 been sent to New York. 
 
 Charles Stuart, the deputy superintendent, writes from 
 Mobile on May 1 about the doings of the Chickasaws on the 
 Illinois, and in July communicates from Mobile the result of 
 his investigation into the murder of whites by Indians in the 
 interior, where three had been kUled. The Upper Creeks and 
 Choctaws had been at war as usual, but negotiations were then 
 in progress looking to running a new line. Some murders of 
 Georgians and the defeat by Creeks of Georgia militia, however, 
 rendered affairs critical for a year or so, the more so as reports 
 came of a general alliance of the southern tribes. The assembly 
 of Georgia in March, 1774, petitioned for imperial aid; but 
 Superintendent John Stuart at Charleston found a way by No- 
 vember to settle disputes with the Creeks, the real disturbers 
 of the peace. Mobile was in little danger, as the Creeks were 
 far away, although on the Alabama River, and the Choctaws 
 remained friendly. Indeed, they were ready and willing to fight 
 their inveterate foes the Creeks in order to aid their British 
 allies. They complained through John Mcintosh, an Indian 
 agent at Mobile, of the traders' bringing in rum, a wrong 
 spoken of also by Charles Stuart in July in connection with 
 the Chickasaws, who had on the whole remained friendly. 
 Stuart had been lately among both tribes. As return visits to 
 him meant not only talks but presents, we can readily under- 
 stand his remarking on the expense of so many Indians coming 
 to the Mobile station. 
 
 But here the valuable Haldimand Papers fail us. General 
 Gage had to go to England in 1773 for some purpose, and 
 Haldimand was promoted to take his place at New York. 
 Thence he superintended his old department, but only as he 
 did the rest of North America, and local information is rare. 
 Chester interested himself in the purchase of Haldimand's 
 ^ Campbell's Colonial Florida^ p. 104. 
 
294 COLONIAL MOBILE. 
 
 house in Pensacola; but from those papers we learn nothing of 
 Mobile beyond the implication in the statement of 1773 that 
 settlers were coming into West Florida. 
 
 Gage returned to America in 1775, and when the Boston 
 Tea Party and other troubles came he was in command. It 
 was thought inexpedient that a foreigner like Haldimand should 
 be prominent in dealing with the colonists, and so he was sent 
 to the West Indies for a while. He was never again in Mobile 
 or Pensacola. He was governor of Canada for the ten years 
 following 1778, and to Canadian interest in that fact we owe 
 the existence of his papers in America. 
 
 Few documents survive in the Mobile archives of this period, 
 and the one deed in the Translated Records is so indefinite in 
 description as not to be of much aid. But its form of "grant, 
 bargain, sell," and the rest of it, with the "To Have and To 
 Hold," is at least an agreeable reminder of English procedure. 
 
 One paper is dated February 2, 1775, and by it, for -f 100, 
 Augustin Rochon buys three lots, with a house all falling to 
 pieces. The sellers are Margaret Belluque, Francis Fieurs 
 (Fievre?), Martonne (Martha?) Dubroca, and Louisa Rochon. 
 The property is a double lot, that is, extending east and west 
 from street to street, bounded south by Henry Driscol. North 
 it is bounded in part by the vacant lot also conveyed and the 
 lot of J. B. Lefleaux, the vacant lot in turn being bounded 
 north and west by unnamed streets. 
 
 This property was the subject of litigation in American times 
 between the omnivorous Kennedys and the heirs of Rochon, 
 and in this way we learn its location to have been at the south- 
 east corner of Conception and Government. It would seem that 
 the original grantee was B. F. Fievre, probably the ancestor 
 of the parties selling to Rochon. Rochon married Louisa 
 Fievre, and she as his widow resided there, with her yard, 
 fruit trees, and park overlooking the common, at least until 
 1780. Whether she was there later or not was the point in 
 the suit, which depended on whether U. S. Commissioner 
 Crawford reported in 1814 that she had lived there "thirty- 
 six years " or "thirty-six years ago."^ Marie Jeanne Simon 
 Lapointe, mother of the wife of Orbanne Demouy, must have 
 been the first wife of Rochon. ^ 
 
 ^ Kennedy v. Rochon, 26 Alabama Reports, 390, 391. 
 2 Will of Maria Rochon, 1 Mobile Will Book, p. 14. 
 
THE SEVENTIES. 295 
 
 There has been also preserved at Mobile a contract of sale 
 by one Walter Hood, but the land is bounded by unnamed 
 "streets" and cannot well be identified. It shows in an 
 indorsement the signature of the firm of McGillivray & Stru- 
 thers. There is also an English deed of a lot in 1770 by 
 John Favre to Joseph Bouzage, bounded north and east by 
 unnamed streets, west by widow Parisien, and south by Juzan 
 and Livoy. 
 
 A much longer document, dated August 10, 1777, has also 
 survived among the Mobile records of these times, which 
 throws much light on other things besides titles. It is an 
 original sealed deed-poll, on genuine parchment, by Arthur 
 Strother, one of the masters in chancery of West Florida, con- 
 veying to Daniel Ward, Esq. , the plantation of Lis Loy, also 
 translated "Goose Island." The present instrument takes up 
 the history of it as held by Monberault, and carries it almost 
 through the British domination. 
 
 The Chevalier de Montaut de Monberault obtained his grant 
 from Governor Kerlerec March 11, 1763, and with one Fon- 
 tenot, who was also interested in the property, sold it on July 
 9, 1765, to Samuel Israel, Alexander Solomons, and Joseph 
 Depalacios, merchants and copartners at Mobile. These mer- 
 chants seem from their names and Farmer's articles to have 
 been Jews. They were indebted to a merchant of Pensacola, 
 John Thompson by name, and so for £1,157 18s. Id. they in 
 October of this same year mortgaged to him Lis Loy, with its 
 dwelling, outhouses, and barn. The debt was not paid, and 
 Thompson next February filed his bill for foreclosure and sale 
 in the West Florida Court of Chancery. Where this sat is not 
 stated, but a final decree was rendered August 11, 1767, Hon. 
 Montfort Browne being then chancellor. The sale took place 
 at Mobile in the spring of the next year before Elias Legardere, 
 a master in chancery, and Daniel Ward, of Fish River, was 
 at $107 the highest and best bidder. He paid the money and 
 turned the title papers over to Thomas Hardy, attorney at law, 
 in order to have his deed drawn. But Hardy died, and the 
 papers could not be found. 
 
 "By great good luck," the executor ran across these and 
 other old papers in 1776 in an old rice-barrel, and Ward filed a 
 petition in the same "High and Honorable Court of Chancery " 
 
296 COLONIAL MOBILE. 
 
 to have a master directed to make him a deed. This was 
 granted by Peter Chester, Esq., chancellor, and Arthur 
 Strother ordered to make the deed, which he accordingly did, 
 reciting the facts as above related. 
 
 Deeds nowadays often contain unnecessary words, but do 
 not call for as many appurtenances as this one; for Strother 
 sells the "Plantation or Tract of Land, generally called Lis 
 Loy, aforesaid, Situated about a League and a half up the River 
 called Pool \Poule\ River aforesaid at the Cul de sac or turn 
 called Lis Loy or Goose Island, Together with all Houses, 
 Out Houses, Buildings, Orchards, Gardens, Lands, Meadows, 
 Commons, Pastures, Feedings, Trees, Woods, Underwoods, 
 Ways, Paths, Waters, Water-courses, Easements, Profits, 
 Commodities, Advantages, Emoluments, Hereditaments, Lib- 
 erties, Priviledges and Appendages." The contents run some- 
 what over one large page, but by an ingenious device the 
 master so affixes with tape an additional piece of parchment 
 that he can still sign and seal the instrument on the main page. 
 
 Such is a report of the first known chancery foreclosure 
 within the limits of the present Mobile County, — the cause of 
 John Thompson, complainant, v. Samuel Israel et al., defend- 
 ants, with ancillary proceedings on the petition of John Ward 
 for a deed, all before the governor of West Florida sit- 
 ting as chancellor. It is almost the only instance surviving 
 of British procedure ; for, although we have also the indictment 
 of Richard Painter in 1765 for stealing clothing from the 
 warehouse of the merchant John McGillivray, this is all that 
 is known of the case ; and of the Court of Requests we learn 
 only that in 1768 its clerk received a salary of <£20. 
 
CHAPTER XXXIII. 
 
 WHAT BAKTKAM SAW. 
 
 Before the American Revolution, a Dr. Fothergill, of 
 London, commissioned one William Bartram, son of the dis- 
 tinguished botanist John Bartram, to search the Floridas and 
 the west parts of Carolina and Georgia "for the discovery of 
 rare and useful productions of nature, chiefly in the vegetable 
 kingdom." He certainly selected the right man, and the travels 
 of the observing and enthusiastic botanist contain a mine of 
 information. He embarked in AjDril, 1773, for Charleston, and 
 after arrival, spent until January, 1778, exploring the southern 
 country. In 1777, he was much in and about Mobile. 
 
 He came from Georgia by way of Talase on the Tallapoosa, 
 the northeast great branch of the Alabama or Mobile River, ^ 
 and crossed the Schambe (Escambia), which carried waters to 
 Pensacola,^ draining a dark and bloody border-ground between 
 the Indians. After a while he "arrived at Taensa, a pretty high 
 bluff on the eastern channel of the great Mobile River, about 
 thirty miles above Fort Conde, or City of Mobile, at the head 
 of the bay." Below Taensa he found low, flat, and rich islands 
 for twenty miles, "well cultivated, having on them extensive 
 farms and some good habitations, chiefly the property of French 
 gentlemen who reside in the city, as being more pleasant and 
 healthy." For the last ten or twelve miles were grassy islands, 
 too low and wet for cultivation.^ 
 
 Then he arrived at the city, which impressed him very favor- 
 ably. "The City of Mobile is situated on the easy ascent of a 
 rising bank, extending near half a mile back on the level plain 
 above ; it has been near a mile in length, though now chiefly in 
 ruins, many houses vacant and mouldering to earth ; yet there 
 are a few good buildings inhabited by French gentlemen, Eng- 
 lish, Scotch, and Irish, and emigrants from the Northern Brit- 
 
 1 Bartram's Travels, p. 394. ^ jjj-^.^ p. 400. 
 
 « Ihid., pp. 401, 402. 
 
298 COLONIAL MOBILE. 
 
 ish colonies. Messrs. Swanson & McGillivray, who have the 
 manaerement of the Indian trade carried on with the Chicka- 
 saws, Choctaws, Upper and Lower Creeks, etc., have made 
 here very extraordinary improvements in buiklings. 
 
 "The Fort Conde, which stands very near the bay, towards 
 the lower end of the town, is a large regular fortress of brick. 
 
 "The principal French buildings are constructed of brick, 
 and are of one story, but on an extensive scale, four square, 
 encompassing on three sides a large area or court-yard; the 
 principal apartment is on the side fronting the street; they 
 seem in some degree to have copied after the Creek [Greek?] 
 habitation in the general plan: those of the poorer class are 
 constructed of a strong frame of cypress, filled in with brick, 
 plastered, and white-washed inside and out."^ 
 
 He was in Mobile on July 31, when he records the thermom- 
 eter as at 87°, with excessive thunder and heavy showers of 
 rain all day. 
 
 On August 5, he went in a trading-boat to Taensa Bluff 
 to visit Major Farmer. That worthy gentleman had invited 
 him to spend some days in his family, and may be he saw the 
 diamond buckles and heavy gold ring treasured by his de- 
 scendants, and doubtless met Mary Elizabeth, who as wife of 
 Vobiscey (or Vauxbercy), of Orleanist connection, was to be the 
 mother of Mrs. Curtis Lewis of American times. "The settle- 
 ment of Taensa," he observes, "is on the site of an ancient 
 town of Indians of that name, which is apparent from many 
 artificial mounds of earth and other ruins." Farmer had many 
 French tenants, and he enjoyed a spacious prospect over his 
 extensive plantations on the opposite shore. Bartram observed 
 there many curious vegetable productions, particularly a spe- 
 cies of Myr'ica inodora., the odorless wax myrtle (for our botan- 
 ist is always exact), which the French inhabitants call the wax- 
 tree. It was grown nine to ten feet high in wet, sandy ground 
 about the edges of swamps. Its berries are nearly the size of 
 bird cherries, and are covered with a scale of white wax, which 
 is harder than beeswax and more lasting in burning. Above 
 in the fields he found a rich, yellow bloom, a new species of 
 (Enothera^ our evening primrose, "perhaps the most pompous 
 and brilliant herbaceous plant yet known to exist." It is seven 
 * Bartram 's Travels, p. 402. 
 
WHAT BARTRAM SAW. 299 
 
 or eight feet higli, with a daily succession of petals over five 
 inches in diameter, of which there are several hundred in all on 
 a plant. 
 
 Making an excursion in a boat, he found farther up the 
 river ruins of ancient habitations, with loaded peach and fig 
 trees, the figs a dark-blue purple and the size of pears. The 
 canes and cypress also were of astonishing magnitude.^ 
 
 On this trip he would land from time to time as anything 
 attracted his attention, and on one occasion goes into ecstasies 
 over the prospect. Nowhere in literature is there a more naive 
 description. 
 
 "What a sylvan scene is here! The pompous Magnolia 
 reigns sovereign of the forests ; how sweet the aromatic Illicium 
 [star anise] groves ! how gaily flutter the radiated wings of the 
 Magnolia auriculata [cucumber-tree], each branch support- 
 ing an expanded umbrella, superbly crested with a silver 
 plume, fragrant blossom, or crimson-studded strobile and fruits ! 
 I recline on the verdant bank, and view the beauties of the 
 groves, ^sculus pavia, [red-blooming buckeye], Prunus Nemo- 
 ralis [wild plum], floribus racemosis, foliis sempervirentibus, 
 nitidis, yEsculus alba [spiked buckeye], Hydrangia quercifolia 
 [seven barks], Cassine [youpon]. Magnolia pyramidata, foliis 
 ovatis, oblongis, acuminatis, basi auriculatis, strobilo oblongo 
 ovato, Myrica, Rhamnus frangula [yellow wood], Halesea [sil- 
 ver bells,] Bignonia, Azalea, Lonicera [woodbine], Sideroxylon 
 [gum elastic], with many more."^ 
 
 Near the confluence of the Tombigbee or Chickasaw River 
 with the Alabama or Coosau he beheld alligators, and just 
 within the capes of the former "fine river" he found a lagoon 
 containing a green, wavy plain of water-lilies, some being seven 
 or eight inches wide and of a lemon yellow. The seed of this 
 NymiiJima nelumbo (sweet-scented-water lily, water chinque- 
 pin) are eaten as a laxative. Up the river, at a steep red clay 
 bluff, he saw an old field, with a young forest growth on the 
 plantations, still preserving the corn and potato ridges, — zea 
 and hatata, in Bartram's vocabulary. He supposed "this to 
 be the site of an ancient fortified post of the French, as there 
 appear vestiges of a rampart and other traces of a fortress, 
 perhaps Fort Louis de la Mobile ; but in all probability it will 
 1 Bartram's Travels, pp. 403, 405. « Ihid., p. 406. 
 
300 COLONIAL MOBILE. 
 
 not remain long visible, the stream of the river making daily 
 encroachments on it by carrying away the land on which it 
 stood." 1 
 
 This is the more worthy of quotation because some have cited 
 Bartram as locating Fort Louis on Dog River, below the pre- 
 sent city.^ The fact is that he does no such thing. He locates 
 the fort — and does not make the modern error of callinsr it 
 
 o 
 
 St. Louis — near Nannahubba. This is too far up, but at least 
 shows that tradition in his time correctly placed the fort north 
 and not south of the present Mobile. 
 
 Opposite this Tombigbee fort was a swamp, enthusiastically 
 described as the richest perhaps anywhere to be seen. As- 
 cending the river, he saw on bluffs, as he went along, deserted 
 plantations, houses burnt, and ancient Indian villages. 
 
 He returned to Major Farmer's, and had a touch of fever, 
 broken by tartar emetic. The major then furnished the bota- 
 nist with a negro and horses to go in search of a medical plant, 
 which he learned was thirty miles up. He found it, too, and 
 says that it was a species of colllnsonia (citronella tea), diu- 
 retic, carminative, and a powerful febrifuge. An infusion of 
 its tops was ordinarily drunk at breakfast, and exceeding plea- 
 sant in taste and flavor. 
 
 After some time he left Taensa and descended to the city in 
 company with Dr. Grant, a physician of the garrison. From 
 him he learned that there were few or no bees west of the isth- 
 mus of Florida. There was but one hive in Mobile, and that 
 lately brought from Europe, the English not finding any there. 
 Which was indeed curious, as Bartram says they were then 
 numerous on the whole Atlantic coast, even in wild forests.^ 
 
 Bartram then arranged to sail from Mobile to Manchac. 
 He had to wait for a boat, and seized the opportunity of a 
 vessel to Pensacola to explore the coast. He sailed early one 
 morning, and, having a brisk leading breeze, came to in the 
 evening just within Mobile Point. They smoked away the 
 mosquitoes with fire from driftwood, and rested well that sum- 
 mer night on the clean, sandy beach. 
 
 At Pensacola he met Dr. Lorlmer of the council. Secretary 
 
 1 Bartram's Travels, pp. 407, 408. 
 ^ Pickett's Alabama, p. 191, n. 
 8 Bartram's Travels, p. 411. 
 
WHAT BARTRAM SAW. 301 
 
 Livingston, and "soon after the governor's chariot passed by, 
 his Excellency returning from a morning visit to his farm a few 
 miles " off. He was introduced to Chester, who commended his 
 pursuits, "nobly offering to bear my expenses." ^ 
 
 Returning to Mobile, he caught his boat, that of a French- 
 man, the general interpreter for the Choctaw nation. This 
 gentleman was going to his plantations on Pearl River, and had 
 three negroes along to row in case of necessity. Six miles be- 
 low (and therefore near Dog River), they spent the night with 
 a Frenchman, and, setting sail next morning, made extraordi- 
 nary headway. "About noon they came up abreast of a high 
 steep bluff, or perpendicular cliff of high land, touching on the 
 bay of the west coast, where we went on shore to give liberty to 
 the slaves to rest and refresh themselves. In the mean time I 
 accompanied the captain on an excursion into the spacious level 
 forests, which spread abroad from the shore to a great distance 
 back; observed vestiges of an ancient fortress and settlement, 
 and the^e yet remain a few pieces of iron cannon ; but what 
 principally attracted my notice was three vast iron pots or 
 kettles, each of many hundred gallons contents : upon inquiry, 
 my associate informed me they were for the purpose of boiling 
 tar to pitch, there being vast forests of pine-trees in the vicinity 
 of this place. "^ Bartram goes on to observe that in Carolina 
 they make the tar in pits. 
 
 Continuing southwardly, they passed later between the west 
 point or cape of the bay and entered the channel Oleron. 
 Bartram had left Mobile sick. He was to learn that beautiful 
 swamps and sylvan scenes and piroguing the lower rivers in 
 August is not very prudent. When he sailed, he had a pain in 
 his head, and his eyes were running. He finally could not see, 
 and at his request was taken to Rumsey's, on Pearl Island, 
 where cantharides (fly blister), applied between his shoulders, 
 gave him a new experience. When he awoke, after a twenty- 
 four hours' sleep, he was weak, but had no pain and was in a 
 heavenly frame of mind.^ At Rumsey's he met ex-Governor 
 Montfort Browne, and was much more pleased with him than 
 Haldimand had been. 
 
 Farther we cannot follow him so closely, as he is getting 
 
 1 Bartram's Travels, p. 413. 2 /j^-^.^ p. 417, 
 
 3 Ibid., pp. 418, 419. 
 
302 COLONIAL MOBILE. 
 
 beyond our jurisdiction, although his visit to Manchac is full 
 of interest. There he found a large establishment of Swanson 
 & Co., Indian traders and merchants. The Iberville had a 
 wooden bridge over to the Spanish possessions, but the stream 
 was then dry and its bed twelve to fifteen feet above the Mis- 
 sissippi. Two miles above, he saw Alabama, a village of the 
 remnant of that Indian nation " which inhabited the east arm 
 of the great Mobile River which bears their name to this day." 
 They came from about Fort Toulouse. ^ 
 
 Bartram's eyes still troubled him, and he determined to re- 
 turn home. Sailing back to Mobile, his boat ran aground on 
 sunken oyster-banks between Dauphine Island shoals and the 
 West Cape of Mobile Bay; but the next day a south wind 
 raised the sea and they got off, and finally reached Mobile. 
 As his route would be overland through the Creek nation into 
 Georgia, he shipped his botanical treasures by sea from Mobile. 
 He says : " I made up my collections of growing roots, seeds, 
 and curious specimens and left them to the care of Messrs. 
 Swanson & McGillivray, to be forwarded to Dr. Fothergill, of 
 London." He says nothing of the Revolutionary War in these 
 parts, — for there was none, — but is a little uneasy at hearing 
 of the murder at Apalache, by the Seminoles or Lower Creeks, 
 of emigrants for Mobile. He therefore joined a caravan des- 
 tined for the nation. Before leaving, he observed in a garden 
 two large trees of Juglans iiecan, and also the Dioscorea hul- 
 hifera., which bears fruit in the leaves two to three feet from 
 the ground and tastes like the yam.^ 
 
 His servant or companion was a Mustee Indian, who had been 
 in the Choctaw nation and learned their songs and dances, but, 
 not conforming to their customs, he had been chased by them to 
 Mobile, whence he was going to the Creeks. Bartram's horse 
 gave out, and, to keep up with his companions, he had to buy a 
 new one from some traders whom they met. It cost him ten 
 pounds. The custom of traders is to let their horses graze at 
 night, he says, and they do not get ready to start in the morn- 
 ing until the sun is high. Then they decamp, the loaded beasts 
 falling into single file, urged on with whip and whoop. 
 
 At this lively pace he continued his journey for several 
 
 * Bartram's Travels, p. 427 ; Pittman's Mississippi Settlements, p. 24. 
 2 Bartram's Travels, p. 437. 
 
WHAT BARTRAM SAW. 303 
 
 days, but, when lie passed the line of 33° on Mobile River, 
 where the lUicium groves cease to perspire oleaginous sweat, 
 we leave him, although our interest follows until he arrives, 
 via sea voyage, at his father's on the SchuylkiU in January, 
 
 1778.1 
 
 ^ The expedition of Bartram to the South is one of the important events 
 in botanical history, and his book among the classics of that science. The 
 edition quoted is the Dublin one of 1793, but it was published in 1791 at 
 Philadelphia, where his father had established the earliest botanical garden 
 in the United States, one which has recently been purchased by the public 
 authorities on account of its beauty and value. William Bartram died there 
 in 1823. 
 
 All of his plants have not been certainly identified, but the vernacular 
 equivalents given above are those of that accurate and learned botanist, 
 Dr. Charles Mohr, of Mobile. He it was that rediscovered Bartram's Myrica 
 inodora ; and for him it was that the Halesea was renamed Mohrodendron, 
 when the other name was found to have been already appropriated by a 
 West Indian plant. He says that Bartram's Magnolia auriculata has dis- 
 appeared from the Mobile forests. 
 
CHAPTER XXXIV. 
 
 POLITICS. 
 
 Interest during the next few years has so centred in the 
 Boston rebels, the Continental Congress of 1775 at Philadel- 
 phia, Bunker's Hill the same year, the Declaration of Independ- 
 ence in the next one. Valley Forge in 1777, and the French 
 alliance the year after, that we are apt to forget there was any 
 America outside of the United States. Most of the other 
 southern colonies expelled their royal governors in 1775, but 
 Governor Chester was in no danger, and presided over the 
 council the same as ever. 
 
 Mobilians were in the council. Terry is mentioned in 1766, 
 and one of them in 1772 was Jacob Blackwell, also collector 
 of customs of the port. He left for London in that year on 
 account of his health, and never returned. He died in 1775, 
 and Chester appointed his own private secretary, Philip Liv- 
 ingston, Jr., to the vacant position. In this year we find 
 Charles Stuart a member of the council, although also deputy 
 superintendent of Indian affairs at Mobile. Dr. Lorimer and 
 Elias Durnford are also mentioned as members later. The 
 functions of the council were in part executive. The minutes 
 show grants of land, consideration of the Indian question in 
 all its phases, regulations as to commerce, roads and pilots, 
 elections and military posts. When there was an assembly, 
 the two bodies sometimes united in a "representation" to 
 the home Board of Trade and Plantations on public matters. 
 The principal use of an assembly seems to have been to vote 
 supplies. 
 
 There has been an impression that there were no assemblies 
 before Chester's time, but this is an error, as we learn from 
 Komans, and otherwise. We know that there was one in 1766, 
 and that the next assembly, on January 2, 1767, passed an act 
 to erect Mobile into a county, and to establish a court of 
 common pleas therein ; but five years later this was disallowed 
 
POLITICS. 305 
 
 by the Privy Council at London. At a meeting of the council 
 in 1767, an election was ordered for another assembly, to be 
 held at Mobile on August 11, at Pensacola on the 19th, and 
 at Campbell Town on the 25th, returnable on October 11. In 
 1766, Pensacola and Mobile returned six members each, and 
 Campbell Town two, although no law existed before 1778 
 governing the matter. This apportionment continued until 
 1771, when the writ was withheld from Campbell Town, be- 
 cause it was almost deserted. An act of 1771 with Chester's 
 approval made an appropriation for bridges and ferries on the 
 road from Pensacola to Mobile, via Perdido River and the 
 Village. But then began the political trouble. 
 
 The orio-in of it is not altogether clear. Governor Chester 
 later explained it by reporting to Lord Germain that the gen- 
 tlemen of influence at Mobile did not want an assembly, for 
 fear that it would pass an act regulating the Indian trade, in 
 which they were all interested. Such an act would restrain 
 their traders from taking profuse quantities of rum into the 
 Indian nations, as had been customary, or at least give these 
 traders and their sureties in Mobile much trouble by prose- 
 cutions at Pensacola. He says the Mobile members seldom 
 attended when there was an assembly. 
 
 On the other hand, the facts seem rather to show popular 
 dissatisfaction over the apportionment of representatives and 
 certainly with the term of the legislature. 
 
 A writ of election was given to the deputy provost marshal, 
 Alexander McCullough, in 1772, and, after due publication by 
 him at Mobile February 29, by majority vote of the freeholders 
 of Mobile and Charlotte County, William Struthers, John 
 McGillivray, Alexander Mcintosh, Robert Farmar, Henry 
 Lizard, Daniel Ward, Edmund Rush Wegg, and Benjamin 
 Ward were elected representatives. But the freeholders would 
 not execute the required indenture, except with a provision 
 limiting the assembly to one year, and a special return of the 
 writ had to be made to the council. Four of the six Pensacola 
 representatives sympathized to such extent that they would not 
 meet without those from Mobile. The governor prorogued the 
 assembly twice in vain hopes the Mobile members would attend, 
 and then, on the advice of the council, dissolved it April 23, 
 on account of such usurpation of the royal prerogative by 
 
306 COLONIAL MOBILE. 
 
 Mobile. His action was approved by the Earl of Dartmouth 
 in the name of the king, and Chester was instructed to omit 
 Mobile from the next election writ. 
 
 Chester got along without an assembly for some years, mean- 
 time, in 1777, inserting Robert Farmar, John McGillivray, and 
 Michael Grant in the commission of the peace for the town of 
 Mobile. Next year an assembly was needed to pass militia 
 and Indian bills. The apportionment by the government then 
 was of four representatives to the districts of Natchez, Manchac, 
 Mobile, and Pensacola, each, besides four more to the town of 
 Pensacola, because it was the capital; but the town of Mobile 
 and Campbell Town were omitted. It was to no avail, for the 
 "cantankerous " assembly, as Chester called it, protracted their 
 session to thirty-four days without passing the bills, and 
 obstructed all business in order to force the governor to reen- 
 franchise the two places. They even presented, on November 
 25, 1778, a memorial to the "King's Majesty in Council," 
 begging that Mobile be reenfranchised, declaring that it is "by 
 far the most important of any in the province, for its antiquity, 
 commerce and revenue to the Crown, it paying upwards of 
 £4,000 annually in the custom house of London alone." The 
 representatives of the district at that time were Daniel Ward 
 and Peter Swanson, "elected in the room of Robert Farmar, 
 deceased," E. R. Wegg, and the speaker, Adam Chrystie. 
 The conduct of the assembly was thoroughly approved at Mo- 
 bile, as was shown by a letter a few days earlier from the prin- 
 cipal inhabitants to "the Speaker and Members of the House 
 of Assembly," thanking them for their action in the matter. 
 The signers of this paper were Peter Swanson, Buckner Pitt- 
 man, George Troup, Daniel Mortimer, Thomas Strother, Jean 
 Louis Maroteau, James McGillivray, L. Maroteau, James 
 Dallas, Lavall, Charles Roberts, Francis Roberts, William 
 Gordon, L. Carriere, William Struthers, Pierre Guilliory, 
 John A. Austin, Francois Fieury, Thre Benoist, Jean Favre, 
 Jean Bapt® Lusser, John Mcintosh, Louis Lusser, Walter 
 Hood, Barthelemy Grelot, James Colburt, David McCleish, 
 Thomas Baskett, Bertrand Nicolas, William Cocke EUis, 
 George Dow, Gilbert Hay, John Mcintosh, Jr., Cornelius 
 McCurtin. 
 
 The dispute led ultimately to a memorial in May of next 
 
POLITICS. 307 
 
 year to the king against Governor Chester's administration, 
 and among the signatures of inhabitants are a number of those 
 Mobilians. 
 
 The colonial administration was controlled by the home 
 government through the Privy Council, sitting at St. James'. 
 This body was what was left of the feudal royal council after 
 courts and parliament had developed into separate institutions, 
 and its powers were limited to commerce and the colonies. 
 But its committee, the Board of Trade, which made commercial 
 regulations, about this time went to pieces in consequence of 
 an attack by Edmund Burke in 1780, and its Mobile acts were 
 among the last. 
 
 In 1766 was one requiring the inhabitants to keep their lots 
 and half of the street opposite clear of weeds and nuisances, 
 under a penalty of forty shillings fine and the hire of a laborer, 
 and also authorizing the Quarter Session to compel them to 
 clear off the surrounding woods not exceeding half a mile from 
 the town. Three years later, another act of the Board of Trade 
 provided for the election by the freeholders and householders 
 of Pensacola and Mobile, at their respective churches, of two 
 church wardens, two sidesmen, two overseers of the poor, two 
 way wardens, and two appraisers. These made up the vestry, 
 and chose parish clerk and sexton, and could make a poor-rate 
 not exceeding XIO for Mobile and .£30 for Pensacola; but people 
 of a different religion providing for their own poor were exempt. 
 Power was also given to use the negroes of citizens three days 
 in the year to clear and drain the swamps around Mobile, under 
 a fine of four "ryals " per day. In the same year was another 
 act to prevent the burning of herbage at improper seasons, to 
 keep hunters from leaving carcasses of deer near plantations, 
 and extending to Mobile a colonial act to prevent danger from 
 fire and accidents in the streets of Pensacola. This last seems 
 to have forbidden the carrying of fire in the streets unless cov- 
 ered and secured, under penalty of a dollar fine or three hours 
 in the stocks, or twelve lashes, if a negro. There was also a 
 fine of two dollars for firing arms in the streets, or riding or 
 driving cattle through the streets at more than a walk. The 
 substance of some of these police regulations still survives. 
 
 This section was positively benefited by the eastern revolt. 
 Tories driven from Georgia and South Carolina were the first 
 
308 COLONIAL MOBILE. 
 
 white settlers of what are now Washington, Clarke, and Bald- 
 win counties, the ancestors of the half-breed Mcintosh, Manac, 
 McQueen, McGirk, and other families to be of note. The 
 minutes of council in 1777 show a number of grants on Mobile 
 waters to people who were probably fugitive Tories. On the 
 "Tombeekby," lands were granted to William Jackson, John 
 Mathews, Robert Abrams, Jesse Wall, William Wall, and 
 John Low, mainly near "Basket's Creek." Charles Roberts, 
 of Pennsylvania, received a grant on the same river higher up, 
 and Alexander Cameron, of South Carolina, one at or beneath 
 Black Rock on the west side of Mobile River. Moses Kirkland 
 petitioned the council for several tracts, which were granted, 
 amongst other lands on the west side of Tombeekby River, about 
 six or eight miles below the Indian line at the mouth of Tallow 
 Creek. We learn from the minutes that he was late a colonel 
 of militia and justice of the peace in Ninety-six District of 
 South Carolina, and embodied four thousand volunteers to serve 
 the king on the outbreak of the rebellion. He escaped to 
 Charles Town, but was afterwards taken and imprisoned by the 
 rebels. He finally made his escape to Earl Dunmore's fleet, and 
 brought General Howe's dispatches to East and West Florida. 
 
 Before 1776, Alexander, the son of the rich Scotch trader 
 Lachlan McGillivray and Sehoy Marchand, was already a 
 power among the Creeks. This Lachlan "McGilivray" and 
 George Galphin had had greater influence there than any other 
 men. Through Alexander the Creeks now opposed the revolted 
 colonists of Georgia, who, after Lachlan sailed to Scotland with 
 the British on the evacuation of Savannah, confiscated his 
 property. John and Farquhar McGillivray (no doubt connec- 
 tions of Lachlan) had commercial interests in the loyal colony 
 of West Florida. At Mobile, Swanson & McGillivray (after- 
 wards Swanson & Strothers) were the great Indian traders, and 
 had posts at sundry places even to the Mississippi. Adair 
 tells us, however, that the grant of indiscriminate licenses for 
 trade cheapened goods too much, and made the Indians inde- 
 pendent and insolent, while it ruined profits ; quite unlike it was 
 in the good, monopolistic times before the cession. ^ 
 
 Charles Stuart held a satisfactory congress with the Indians 
 in May, 1777, although they complained very much of the pro- 
 * Adair's American Indians, p. 366. 
 
POLITICS. 309 
 
 fuse introduction of rum. The Indian trade was now confined 
 to West Florida on account of the revolt of the eastern colonies. 
 The council, as early as 1776, had fears that those rebels had 
 designs upon Mobile. Nothing in the way of repairs to the 
 fort had been done since Mr. Sowers' adverse report some time 
 before, but Durnford, as engineer, was now directed to put it 
 in at least provisional repair. His estimate called for -1930 of 
 material, especially for gun platforms. The council recom- 
 mended the governor to undertake this and also reinforce the 
 post on account of its importance. The defence works were 
 accordingly carried out and munitions sent over. As the 60th 
 regiment was made up of raw troops, then sickly, too, no men 
 could be spared, but the proposition of John McGillivray was 
 accepted to raise companies at Mobile. This was done, but on 
 a smaller scale than anticipated (being six captains, but only 
 sixty-seven privates), despite Chester's offer of the same pay 
 as Colonel Stuart's rangers and the same quantity of land 
 at the termination of the rebellion as was promised the provin- 
 cial troops serving under Sir William Howe. This pay seems 
 to have been, for privates, rations and £2 per month, out of 
 which they provided their own clothing. McGillivray was to 
 "embody " all whites at Mobile and in the Indian country that 
 he could find, and accept savages, too, and then march to assist 
 the people at the Natchez. 
 
 In 1778, the leading inhabitants of Mobile energetically peti- 
 tioned Dickson, then in command there, to secure reinforce- 
 ments, and the council thereupon asked the governor to do 
 everything possible. Next year we find General Campbell noti- 
 fying Lord George Germain, of the home government, that he 
 had on account of the commanding and "centrical" situation 
 of Mobile ordered such repairs to the fort and barracks as were 
 absolutely necessary. The expense was about £4000, while a 
 thorough rehabilitation would have cost over £50,000. The 
 council resolved that the inhabitants of Mobile and Pensacola 
 take the oath of allegiance before their respective magistrates. 
 These as well as those of the Tensaw, however, are noted by 
 the governor as showing great readiness in forming volunteer 
 companies. But all may not have been so loyal, and even 
 earlier we read of deserters from Pensacola who assaulted and 
 robbed John Murray, the ferryman at the Perdido. 
 
CHAPTER XXXV. 
 
 GALVEZ AT MOBILE. 
 
 Another visitor was preparing to come to West Florida and 
 to take in Mobile, but his errand was less peaceful than Bar- 
 tram's. It was Don Bernardo de Galvez. 
 
 The successor of O'Reilly in Louisiana had been in 1770 
 Don Luis Unzaga, who in 1776, much to the regret of his for- 
 mer subjects, was promoted to be Captain-General of Caraccas. 
 On the 1st of February, next year, Galvez, the young colonel, 
 entered on the duties of his office. He was but twenty-one 
 years old, highly connected, and full of energy. Haldimand 
 and Gage had been discussing the best method of invading 
 Louisiana, and in the first year of his governorship Galvez in 
 turn is contemplating the conquest of their West Florida. He 
 sends home to Spain in July, 1777, minute statements of the 
 fortifications of Mobile and Pensacola; but, although their 
 relations were sometimes strained, no war was declared between 
 England and Spain until 1779. There was no aUiance with 
 the revolted colonies, but the Spanish agent Miralles got word 
 to Washington of the contemplated invasion of West Florida. 
 The Spaniards wished the British conquerors of the southern col- 
 onies to be checked by the Americans, and Washington hoped 
 the invasion would make Georgia and the Carolinas untenable 
 for the English, whom Lincoln was instructed to keep busy.^ 
 
 From the time Galvez became governor, Oliver Pollock had 
 regularly supplied the Americans from New Orleans. The 
 Natchez district of West Florida, like the rest of it, remained 
 loyal, and the American captain James WiUing in 1778 made 
 little progress, and indeed had a battle with the inhabitants from 
 the river, but was driven off. He then sailed to the Tensaw 
 settlements, and we can imagine the reception he would get 
 from Major Farmer and his tenants. 
 
 ^ 3 Gayarr^'s Louisiana, p. Ill ; 6 Washington's Works, pp. 475, 542. 
 
GALVEZ AT MOBILE. 311 
 
 It IS said that Pollock came with Willing to Mobile, and 
 brought the Declaration of Independence for distribution. This 
 famous document was then contraband of war, and Willing 
 soon found himself a prisoner in Fort Charlotte. He remained 
 in irons there until exchanged in 1779 for Colonel Hamilton, 
 of Detroit. 1 
 
 The governor was Peter Chester still, and the general in 
 command of the province Campbell, with headquarters at 
 Pensacola. A brave man he certainly was, but not of the best 
 judgment. The Campbell papers — if they exist — would show 
 no such careful supervision of Florida from the Mississippi 
 to the ocean, no exploration of routes or sounding of bays, as 
 with Haldimand. Campbell in peace was careless, if in war 
 a fighter. 
 
 He had no very high opinion of his troops. He wrote Sir 
 Henry Clinton that his 16th regiment was composed of seven 
 companies of veterans almost worn out in the service, and of 
 German recruits, and that the eight companies of the 60th were 
 "chiefly Germans, condemned criminals, and other species of 
 gaol-birds." He said none were to be depended on except the 
 veterans, and desertions were numerous. The provincial troops 
 he thought even more unfit, being composed mostly of Irish 
 vagabonds, deserters from the rebels. Some, if not all, of these 
 Germans came from the principality of Waldeck, whose prince 
 rented them to the King of England to subdue the rebellious 
 Americans. 
 
 Max Von Eelking published at Hanover in 1863 a history 
 of the experiences of the Waldeckers, taken, largely from the 
 journal of the chaplain, Steuernagel. They were sent south 
 by Clinton to serve in the expected war with Spain, and we 
 learn that they arrived in January, 1779, at Pensacola, of which 
 town of two hundred houses he gives an unflattering account. 
 The whole province he found little more than a wilderness, 
 inhabited principally by Indians, whose scalping propensities 
 excited the horror of the Germans. One of the chiefs was 
 Brandenstein, a Waldecker himself. 
 
 On the Mississippi, Lieutenant Dickson had 500 men, and so 
 pressed Campbell for reinforcements that the Waldecker gren- 
 adiers and a number of foot were forwarded thither. At the 
 1 2 Pickett's Alabama, p. 36 ; Meek's Southwest, p. 90. 
 
312 COLONIAL MOBILE. 
 
 same time, on August 19, the Spanish authorities in New Or- 
 leans recognized American independence and began hostilities 
 with about two thousand men, of which fact the English in 
 Pensacola had no suspicion. 
 
 In September, 1779, Galvez, immediately after having amid 
 great enthusiasm taken the oath of office as Spanish governor 
 before the council (cabildo), made a secret dash from New 
 Orleans at the Mississippi forts, and captured them succes- 
 sively before reinforcements could arrive. After five days. Fort 
 Bute at the Iberville was carried by storm. Dickson had with- 
 di'awn his main force nearer Baton Rouge. At this post he 
 was attacked, but repulsed attempts at storming. After Gal- 
 vez undertook a deliberate siege, Dickson surrendered, giving 
 up Baton Rouge and Fort Panmure at the Natchez; but his 
 bravery secured full honors of war. 
 
 The news of this traveled slowly, but we can imagine the 
 consternation at Mobile in October when the tidings came. A 
 courier was sent on to Campbell at Pensacola, but he would 
 not believe the report, calling it a Spanish ruse to draw him out 
 of Pensacola. On the 23d, another courier arrived there, but 
 Campbell for a while still took the same view. He gave orders 
 to sail, then countermanded them, and hesitated what to do. 
 He finally strengthened Pensacola, but left Mobile to its fate. 
 Fortunately, Galvez was content for that season with his Mis- 
 sissippi captures, and returned to New Orleans to spend the 
 winter in further preparations.^ 
 
 A report shows that the garrison of Mobile, all told, con- 
 sisted of 279 men, besides Mr. Gordon, the minister, who was 
 quite active, Commissary Thomas Strother, and the surgeon's 
 mate, probably Dr. Grant. There were seventeen negroes as 
 officers' servants, and thirty-five more used in one way or 
 another, whose owners afterwards claimed compensation from 
 the crown. There were represented the engineers, artillery, 
 4th battalion of the 60th foot, sixteen of the "United Pro- 
 vincial Corps of Pennsylvania and Maryland Loyalists," fifty- 
 two volunteers from the inhabitants (of whom fifteen de- 
 serted), and twenty-one artificers. Among the volunteers are 
 included Captain Walker's provincial dragoons and Captain 
 
 1 2 Von Eelking, Diedeutschen Hulfstruppen in N. ^.,pp. 140-143; 2 Pick- 
 ett's Alabama, p. 40 ; 3 Gayarr^'s Louisiana, p. 126. 
 
GALVEZ AT MOBILE. 313 
 
 Rees' militia in three canoes, who arrived at a critical 
 time. 
 
 On February 5, 1780, Galvez sailed from the Balize for 
 Mobile with two thousand men, made up of regulars, militia, 
 and a few companies of free negroes. He had to encounter a 
 hurricane, and some of his eleven vessels were stranded and 
 his provisions and ammunition were damaged. But, as with 
 the Mississippi expedition, he did not let the elements deter 
 him. Despite imminent shijDwreck, he persevered, and on the 
 9th captured the victualer Brownhall, of sixteen guns, carry- 
 ing to Mobile the presents brought by the ordnance ship Earl 
 of Bathurst for Suj)erintendent Cameron's proposed Indian con- 
 gress. Galvez finally succeeded in landing in the Bay of Mobile 
 just below Choctaw Point, probably near our Frascati. It was 
 in such disorder, however, that even Galvez at first felt in- 
 clined to retreat by land and leave his baggage and artillery. 
 But he soon learned that Campbell was not expecting him, and 
 acted accordingly.^ 
 
 Meantime there was even greater confusion in Mobile, and 
 the citizens hurried into the fort. Galvez erected six batteries 
 north and west of the fort and began a brisk cannonade. The 
 intervening houses were burned, one of them being the late 
 home of Major Farmer, with valuable papers, and possibly the 
 church also. We know that the home of the widow of Augus- 
 tin Roehon (southeast Government and Conception) was burned 
 at this time by the English, no doubt to enable the fort the 
 better to command the neighborhood.^ 
 
 Galvez was aware of his having superior forces, and from 
 Chakto Point, on March 1, sent a polite request, in French, to 
 Durnford to surrender, saying that after a battle he might not 
 be able to grant so favorable terms. 
 
 Durnford's manly reply was as follows: — 
 
 "I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of your Excel- 
 
 1 3 Gayarrd's Louisiana, pp. 135, 136 ; 2 Martin's Louisiana, p. 52. 
 
 2 Kennedy v. Roehon, 26 Ala. 390. The house of Rev. William Gordon, 
 too, was burned by Durnford to prevent shelter to the enemy while erect- 
 ing batteries. It was in the heart of town, near the fort, and worth $2,000. 
 As Mr. Gordon was loyal and active, besides being a widower with four 
 children, it is to be hoped that the claim for reimbursement, which Durn- 
 ford indorsed for him in London next year, was favorably considered by 
 Lord George Germain, of his majesty's government. 
 
314 COLONIAL MOBILE. 
 
 lency's Summons to surrender immediately the Fort to your 
 Excellency's Superior Forces. 
 
 "The difference of numbers I am convinced are greatly in 
 your favor, Sir, but mine are much beyond your Excellency's 
 conception, and was I to give up this Fort on your demand, I 
 should be regarded as a traitor to my king and country. My 
 love for both and my own honor direct my heart to refuse sur- 
 rendering this Fort until I am under conviction that resistance 
 is in vain. 
 
 "The generosity of your Excellency's mind is well known to 
 my brother officers and soldiers, and should it be my misfor- 
 tune to be added to their number, a heart full of generosity and 
 valor will ever consider brave men fighting for their country as 
 objects of esteem and not revenge." 
 
 In his account of it to Campbell next day he says : — 
 
 "Soon after I sent Land Express, a flag was perceived in 
 the wood, and I sent an officer to receive it at some distance. 
 
 "This, as I expected, was a summons to surrender to Don 
 Bernardo de Galvez's Superior Forces, a copy of which you 
 have inclosed, with my answer thereto. The Flag was brought 
 in Person by an old acquaintance. Colonel Bolyny, who sent me 
 a polite card wishing for the pleasure of an interview if pos- 
 sible, and Profession of Friendship, although we were National 
 enemies, on which I sent Mr. Barde to conduct him into the 
 Fort with the customary ceremony, where he dined and contin- 
 ued until near five o'clock, drinking a cheerful glass to the 
 healths of our King and Friends. 
 
 "During our conversation I found that the Report of the 
 Shipwreck was true ; he acknowledged that they had undergone 
 great hardships, but would not allow to have lost any men, and 
 informed me that they were about 2500 men, but by trusty 
 Indians who were sent by me into the camp in the morning I 
 learned that a great number were negroes and mulattoes, and 
 that they had landed no cannon. 
 
 "Bolyny confirmed that we had cut the cable and just hit 
 the Row Galley, but we are certain that three nine pounders 
 shot hit her, and as she is gone off I suspect she is well mauled, 
 for yesterday morning she was seen opposite the Chactaws on 
 a heal, and I suppose is gone to Dog River to repair the damage 
 received from our shot. 
 

 
 
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GALVEZ AT MOBILE. 315 
 
 "As soon as Colonel Bolyny left me I drew up my Garrison 
 in the square, read to them Don Galvez's summons, and then 
 told them that if any man among them was afraid to stand by 
 me that I should open the gate and he should freely pass. 
 This had the desired effect, and not a man moved. I then read 
 to them my answer to the summons, in which they all joined in 
 three cheers and then went to our necessary work like good 
 men. 
 
 "I really believe their (the enemy's) force is greatly magni- 
 fied." 
 
 Later he wrote : — 
 
 "Your great good news hath just arrived. I thank you, dear 
 Sir, for the consolation it affords me. I need not say I wiU 
 defend Fort to the last extremity. The vessels I can see from 
 this are in the mouth of the East Pass, about two miles distant 
 from the Fort. And the Galvez Brig is one, and Pickler's 
 Florida the other. Near to the Dog River are five ships or 
 Pollaccas, and I am informed that three or four are in Dog 
 River besides the Row Galley." 
 
 Campbell on March 5 sent the 60th regiment, and on the 
 next day the remainder of the Waldeck regiment, from Pensa- 
 cola, to relieve Mobile. This was probably Durnford's "great 
 good news." He followed himself with Pennsylvanians and 
 artillery. He had 522 men in all. It was a march of 72 
 English miles through a wilderness without a single human 
 dwelling. He arrived at Tensa on the 10th, but spent too 
 much time building rafts; for after several days a breach had 
 been made in the walls of the fort, and in the morning, March 
 14, the garrison capitulated upon the same terms which Dick- 
 son had obtained at Baton Rouge. Captain Durnford marched 
 out his small command with flags and drums, and they grounded 
 arms outside the fort, the officers retaining their swords. 
 Hunger and lack of reinforcement from Campbell had had as 
 much to do with the surrender as the cannonade, for only 
 one man was killed outright, and eleven were wounded, of 
 whom two died of their wounds. Durnford wrote, "No man in 
 the garrison stained the luster of the British arms." When 
 Galvez saw how small a garrison had so long resisted him, he 
 was greatly mortified. But he kept his agreement to take them 
 
316 COLONIAL MOBILE. 
 
 to a British port and land them, upon their promise not to 
 serve against Spain or her allies for eighteen months.^ 
 
 Campbell's return march is described as a terrible journey. 
 It rained almost continuously, and the troops had to wade 
 through mud ankle-deep or through ponds. They could pass 
 swollen streams only in single file over fallen trees, and who- 
 ever slipped was lost. At night they were surrounded by wild 
 animals, the wolves howling frightfully.^ 
 
 Mobile remained in Spanish hands, and was now, as in Bien- 
 ville's time, to become a base of operations against Pensacola. 
 But Galvez was too cautious to attack the capital at once. He 
 spent a whole year in preparation, obtaining troops and vessels 
 from Cuba. Campbell could muster but 800 men, and the 
 Creeks, Choctaws, and Chickasaws, who remained loyal and 
 steadfastly refused Spanish overtures, were sometimes more of 
 a trouble and menace than a help. The two hundred Choctaws 
 and Chickasaws were useful just after the fall of Mobile, in driv- 
 ing back the Spaniards who had crossed the Perdido and over- 
 powered the British advance posts in order to drive off horses. 
 
 In January, 1781, General Campbell showed some activity at 
 last. On the 3d, he sent Captain Von Hanxleden with 100 in- 
 fantrymen of the 60th, eleven militia cavalry, 300 Indians, and 
 sixty Waldeckers to drive the Spaniards out of their intrench- 
 ments at the French village. This was on the coast, below 
 where the Apalache or Tensaw empties into Mobile Bay.^ 
 
 Von Hanxleden arrived on the morning of January 7, and 
 several times attempted to storm the intrenchments at the point 
 of the bayonet, but in vain. The Spaniards resisted manfully, 
 while the Indians were of little use. The English did not give 
 it up, however, until Captain Von Hanxleden and Lieutenant 
 Stirlin of the Germans and the English lieutenant Gordon 
 were dead on the field, and two other officers wounded. The 
 Spaniards also had suffered severely and lost a magazine by 
 fire. The expedition then retreated to Pensacola, but not be- 
 
 ^ Campbell's Colonial Florida, p. 119. The correspondence is preserved 
 in the British Record Office, and has been published in part by William 
 Beer, of the Howard Memorial Library, New Orleans. See also Campbell's 
 report to the home government. 
 
 2 2 Von Eelking, Deutsche Hiilfstruppen, pp. 144, 145. 
 
 8 2 Von Eelking, p. 147, places it on the Mississippi, but the dates and con- 
 text show this is a slip of the pen for the Mobile waters. 
 
GALVEZ AT MOBILE. 317 
 
 fore doing honor to the dead. "The body of the captain," says 
 Von Eelking, "was in silence laid to rest. The grave mound, 
 which was made in the wilderness under a great tree, is said 
 later to have been surrounded with a fence by the gallant Span- 
 iards, who duly honored the bravery of the fallen." 
 
 In March of this year 1781 came the unequal struggle at 
 Pensacola. At first the Spanish admiral from Havana refused 
 to cross the bar and insisted on Galvez' proceeding by land; 
 but the general shamed him into cooperation by leading the 
 way in a little Louisianian schooner, exposing himself to the 
 fuU British fire. The British fleet, too, was not inactive. A 
 sloop captured near Mobile and brought in to Pensacola as its 
 prize a Spanish vessel whose contents showed careful war pre- 
 parations. It had Galvez' baggage and necessaries, among 
 them twenty thousand dollars in silver, silver plate, excellent 
 wine, and all the utensils for a good kitchen. ^ But after a 
 long siege, Campbell surrendered in May. Galvez granted him 
 the same terms that he had to Dickson and Durnford, and the 
 general. Governor Chester, and the troops found themselves 
 prisoners of war aboard Spanish vessels bound for New York.^ 
 The capitulation was displeasing to the Americans because it 
 permitted the conquered British to serve against them in the 
 critical times about the Yorktown campaign ; but Washington 
 afterwards expressed himself as satisfied with Galvez' acts, 
 believing him a true friend of the cause. ^ 
 
 At all events, the war was over on the Gulf. West Florida 
 had become a Spanish province. 
 
 ^ 2 Von Eelking, Deutsche Hulfstruppen, p. 149. 
 
 ^ Campbell's Colonial Florida, pp. 135, 140 ; 8 Washington's Works, p. 176. 
 
 ^ Campbell's Colonial Florida, p. 137 ; 8 Washington's Works, p. 176. 
 
PART V. 
 SPANISH WEST FLORIDA. 
 
 1780-1813. 
 
CHAPTER XXXVI. 
 
 SETTLING DOWN AGAIN. 
 (Commandants, — Grimarest, 1781 ; Favrot, 1785.) 
 
 The first Spanish commandant of Fort Charlotte seems to 
 have been Jos^ de Espeleta, who with the local forces assisted 
 against Pensacola. But he was in command during the war 
 only, and, when the Spaniards had secured undisputed occu- 
 pancy of all West Florida, affairs settled down generally to a 
 peace footing. From 1783, we know Espeleta was acting 
 captain -general in the absence of Galvez.^ 
 
 It would be interesting to know more details than have been 
 preserved of the new government of the place. On the Pacific 
 coast and in New Mexico the Spanish settlers were either 
 grouped about a jyresidio or fort, and so under military rule, or 
 in an organized puehlo or municipality, with council (ayunta- 
 mientd) and civil judges (^alcaldes). In the latter part of 
 1781, after Pensacola had been captured and the British troops 
 withdrawn from the province, the title of Grimarest changes 
 from "governor ad interim''^ to "Political (or Civil) and Mili- 
 tary Governor of the Town of Mobile and its District," so to 
 remain with all his successors. This would seem to show Mo- 
 bile as partly a presidio but mainly a pueblo^ and indeed in 
 later years (under Salazar) the commandant was to sign himself 
 as "captain of the pueblo infantry regiment." To the east of 
 our Blakeley River on a Spanish map are found two or more 
 settlements marked "pueblo," and the word occurs in the ar- 
 chives at Mobile. But this was evidently in a popular rather 
 than a political sense. The usual name, even in official docu- 
 ments, was "Plaza de la Movila," although notary Saussaye 
 used often the word ciudad, city. 
 
 Spanish rule was the same everywhere, for the paternal gov- 
 ernment from the time of Ferdinand saved its colonists respon- 
 ^ 2 Martin's Louisiana, pp. 56, 71. 
 
322 COLONIAL MOBILE. 
 
 sibility by defining all offices and prescribing the duties of every 
 one. The fatherly love of the king is often officially mentioned 
 in the archives. In old Louisiana the change was only gradually 
 made, although formally Spanish law prevailed from O'Reilly's 
 time.^ French law and customs were too deeply rooted to be 
 easily eradicated, and it is a fact now too often forgotten that 
 Spanish rule was mild and the inhabitants well satisfied. 
 
 The commandant in each district, such as Mobile, was su- 
 preme in military and political matters, governing the soldiers, 
 appointing inferior judges called alcaldes, or syndics, and him- 
 self supreme judge, notary, and custodian of deeds and records. 
 There were no taxes except customs duties, but repairs of 
 roads could be compelled. The governor and record-keeper 
 received fees, — fifty cents per signature and half as much 
 again per flourish, — which tends to account for the number of 
 notices, decrees, certificates, etc., in the records. 
 
 With Henrique Grimarest's incumbency begin the regular 
 series of grants and deeds still preserved, with the judicial pro- 
 ceedings, in heavy cypress boxes in the Mobile Probate Court. 
 The deeds, but not the proceedings, have been rendered acces- 
 sible to the public by two manuscript volumes of Translated 
 Records, completed in 1840 by Joseph E. Caro, under com- 
 mission from Governor Bagby of Alabama. The act of the 
 Legislature was passed January 9, 1833. ^ 
 
 The earliest documents relate to Pass Christian, Cat Island, 
 Biloxi, and other places in old West Florida, and were there- 
 fore regulated from Mobile. The procedure was by petition to 
 
 ^ 2 Martin's Louisiana, p. 14. See Blackmar's Spanish Institutions iti 
 the Southwest. 
 
 2 The records at New Orleans were sadly abused and many destroyed or 
 taken away by Federal troops in the American civil war. A fire at Pensa- 
 cola on October 24, 1811, destroyed much that was there, and pirates more. 
 The sub-delegate. Colonel Don Jos^ Masot, was instructed on closing the 
 intendancy there to remove the archives to Havana, but he failed to do so. 
 When Jackson captured Pensacola in May, 1818, it was agreed that the 
 archives should be taken to Havana, and Masot duly embarked with them 
 on the United States schooner Peggy. Corsairs overpowered the Peggy and 
 threw the papers overboard, except one box which they kept. So it seems 
 nothing ever reached Cuba from Pensacola except some inventories brought 
 the preceding year by Don Francisco Gutierrez de Arroyo, the only part of 
 the removal order which Masot had permitted him to carry out. Pintado in 
 2 White's New Recopilacion, pp. 340, 341, 370. 
 

 SPANISH AUTOGRAPHS 
 
SETTLING DOWN AGAIN. 323 
 
 the governor -general (Galvez until 1786), who either granted 
 directly, and instructed Charles Laveau Trudeau, surveyor- 
 general of the province, or Grimarest, the governor of Mobile, 
 to put the applicant in possession, or perhaps he commissioned 
 the governor to do so if on investigation it seemed the land was 
 vacant. Trudeau had Vincente Sebastian Pintado as deputy 
 from 1796, and was succeeded by him in 1805.^ 
 
 The first grant near the city was December 18, 1781, to 
 Pierre Juzan, his Majesty's commissary for the Indians in the 
 Town of Mobile, upon his petition for a tract one league in 
 extent on both sides of the river, formerly possessed in British 
 times by Henry Lizard and Thomas McGillivray. It is said 
 to be bounded on one side by Bayou Cannon and on the other 
 by Laprade's Bluff, and thus easily recognized as our Twenty- 
 one Mile Bluff. Juzan says that he has no land, and in conse- 
 quence of severe losses he desires to go to stock-raising on his 
 river tract. 
 
 This is the first instance in these records of re-granting what 
 had been British property. The Versailles treaty of peace of 
 September 3, 1783, was to allow eighteen months for British 
 subjects to sell and leave, and the time was extended six months 
 longer ; but this treaty was not yet concluded. While West 
 Florida was Spanish in fact, the war continued elsewhere until 
 that treaty recognized the independence of the United States, 
 and at the same time confirmed East and West Florida to 
 Spain. 
 
 The most prominent re-grant was that by Governor Grima- 
 rest of Dauphine Island to Joseph Moro, the origin, in fact, of 
 the existing title to that historic spot. Moro's petition of July 
 31, 1781, is dated at New Orleans, and says that he is an in- 
 habitant of that city. Galvez the next day directs Grimarest 
 to investigate the matter, and if the land is vacant to put Moro 
 into possession and return the proceedings made out "in con- 
 tinuation " with the commission, — a substitute for the indorse- 
 ments on original papers by officials in our practice. Septem- 
 ber 21 of the same year there was a report by Charles Parent, 
 Orbano Demouy, Dubroca, and Louis Carriere, who had been 
 called on for evidence. 
 
 For some reason the matter was held up over two years, until 
 1 2 White's New Recopilacion, p. 338. 
 
324 COLONIAL MOBILE. 
 
 after peace was declared; for Grimarest's concession to Moro 
 bears date December 5, 1783, after J. B. Lamy had made a 
 settlement in the centre of the island. In 1785 we find the 
 king maintaining there a pilot and four sailors at an expense 
 of $696.00.1 
 
 There seem to be no grants or deeds of town lots while 
 Grimarest was in command at Mobile, but several times its old 
 inhabitants were thus called on in determining what was royal 
 domain and what not. In October, 1782, Messrs. Lusser, 
 Duret, and Dubroca certify that the small island known as 
 Chucfe and "Camp of the Grand Bay," distant a league from 
 the town, had never been owned, and they are granted provi- 
 sionally to Joseph Colomb. So in December, 1783, Chastang 
 senior, Dubroca, and Duret similarly certify that Round Island 
 has been possessed by no one except Mme. Maurau, who was in 
 possession in 1752 without title. This leads to the absolute 
 grant to Francis Krebs, whose memorial sets up that Bienville 
 had permitted Mme. Maurau, mother-in-law of Krebs, to oc- 
 cupy the island in 1745, and that Galvez had once stopped 
 there on returning from Mobile and Pensacola and promised 
 Mme. Krebs a grant. 
 
 December 3, 1782, Louis Francis Baudin, called Monluis, 
 was granted thirty arpens east of grand Bayou Mathew, 
 bounded north by a small bayou called Haron, it "being owned 
 by the English and consequently by legal right . . . the pro- 
 perty of the Royal Domain." This grant, like others, was 
 provisional, until some general regulation concerning land 
 claims should be established. He had to withdraw slaves from 
 his old place, he says, because of the danger from Talapoosy 
 Indians, that being too far ofP from Mobile. It is not named 
 as occupied after his death in 1787, however. The successful 
 petition of Jacques de la Saussaye about a fortnight earlier for 
 a tongue of land shows that this vicinity (opposite Twenty-seven 
 Mile BlufP) had until recently been inhabited by the Indians. 
 The neighborhood was much sought after, for we find Grima- 
 rest on April 29, 1783, granting to Daniel Ward thirty-five 
 arpens on the west of Bayou Mathew, opposite the field of Mon- 
 louis, near Narbonne' s. It would therefore seem as if others 
 than Saussaye thought the Indians would keep their promise 
 of solemn peace. 
 
 * 2 Martin's Louisiana, p. 81. 
 
SETTLING DOWN AGAIN. 326 
 
 We find Saussaye acting as notary to the first private deed, 
 March 30, 1786, when Favrot, as attorney in fact for Grimarest, 
 sold Daniel Ward for $240 a plantation of four arpens front on 
 Fowl River, six leagues from Mobile. Grimarest had bought 
 the place a year and a half before, and we may imagine lived 
 there in the summer, but he had been succeeded (ad interim 
 at first) before August of 1785 by our second Spanish gov- 
 ernor, Pedro Favrot. This was possibly the beautiful place now 
 known as Parker's, whose oak seventeen feet in circumference 
 has a spread of over one hundred feet. There still exists an 
 irregular inclosure, possibly for cattle or a bull-fight, sur- 
 rounded by an earthen wall, and pieces of a cement floor are 
 dug up near the fine bluff. 
 
 Favrot was a captain in the army, and, if he was the French 
 captain who had been wounded in 1736 at Bienville's disas- 
 trous battle of Ackia, he must have been now an old man. 
 Just before the change of flag, Louis XV. had conferred on 
 him the cross of St. Louis, but he would seem to have re- 
 mained at New Orleans and entered the Spanish service.* 
 With him the title "Civil and Military Commandant " takes the 
 place of "Governor of the Town of Mobile." 
 
 When the eighteen months allowed the British by treaty to 
 change their religion and allegiance, or sell out and leave, had 
 expired, the regulation of lands was confided to the governor- 
 general at New Orleans. Galvez had been promoted in 1784 
 to his father's position of viceroy of Mexico ; and Stephen Miro, 
 colonel of the royal armies, was civil and military governor of 
 the provinces of Louisiana, Mobile, and Pensacola. The first 
 act recorded of his was confirming to Antonio Bassot of Mobile, 
 a volunteer in the infantry regiment De Soria, a lot of land in 
 that town on or near Galvez Street, with a front of one hun- 
 dred and forty steps by two hundred deep, each step being two 
 and a half feet. The lot had been granted him by Galvez on 
 the conquest of the place, and he had built a house on it. In 
 the same year, 1786, Bassot sold it to one Fargg. This seems 
 to be the southwest corner of our Dauphin and Conception 
 streets, the former street being probably called during a short 
 time for the conqueror, who in this year died in Mexico of 
 chagrin. He had built a place at Chapultepec, which excited 
 ^ 2 Grayarr^'s Louisiana, p. 109. 
 
326 COLONIAL MOBILE. 
 
 suspicion that he contemplated a revolution, and his direct 
 method of doing everything was inexplicable to the bureaucracy 
 of Spain. 
 
 By deed of October 19, 1786, F. Fontanilla (who some years 
 later describes himself as laborer or peon in the commissa- 
 riat) conveys to J. Colomb a house and lot on Royal Street, 
 doubtless on the east side, "cornering on Dauphin Street," and 
 bounded by the river. This is the first Spanish mention of 
 those streets. The lot has ten toises front by twenty-six toises 
 (156 feet) deep, inclosed with pickets, and there are other 
 buildings besides the house. The price is $200, of course in 
 Spanish silver dollars. The transaction would seem to be 
 connected in some way with the sale on the same day by Co- 
 lomb to Fontanilla of another house and lot on Royal Street. 
 This last deed may be found interesting as giving the usual form 
 of private conveyance. It reads thus : — 
 
 "Know all men by these presents, that I, Joseph Colomb, 
 an inhabitant of this city, do hereby covenant that I sell really 
 and truly to Francis Fontanilla a house of my own, lying 
 and being in the city on Royal Street, opposite the house of 
 Augustin Rochon, erected on a lot of ground bounded on the 
 river, containing fifteen toises in front by twenty-six toises in 
 depth, and having in said house a billiard table with all the 
 apparatus appertaining to the same; and it is the same house, 
 lot of ground and billiard table, together with all the buildings 
 thereon, that I sell the said Francis Fontanilla for and in 
 consideration of the sum of one hundred and fifty. dollars cash 
 to me in hand paid, by a note payable in three months from 
 the date of these presents, the receipt of which note is hereby 
 acknowledged, renouncing the benefit of the law non numerata 
 pecunia, and of all others thereto relative : In virtue of which, 
 I relinquish and divest myself of the right of property, pos- 
 session, useful dominion and ownership which I had and held 
 liQ and over the premises above conveyed and described, and 
 Cede, renounce and transfer the whole unto the purchaser, 
 or his lawful representatives, in order that he may as true 
 owner thereof enjoy, possess, sell, alienate, or dispose of the 
 same at his will and pleasure. In virtue whereof I make this 
 deed in his favor in token of real delivery, whereby it is 
 shown that he has acquired possession thereof, without the 
 
SETTLING DOWN AGAIN. 327 
 
 necessity of any further proof, of which I relieve him ; and I 
 bind myself to the eviction, security, and warranty of this sale 
 in all the form of law, with my property present and to come, 
 granting hereby as inserted the clause of guarantee, renoim- 
 cing the laws in my favor with the general [provision] in form 
 prohibiting the same. And I, the said Francis Fontanilla, 
 being present at the execution of this deed, do accept it in my 
 favor, receiving therefrom as purchased the said house, billiard 
 and lot of land, for the sum and as sold to me, acknowledging 
 the same to be placed at my disposal, and grant a formal re- 
 ceipt. In testimony whereof, the present is done at the Town 
 of Mobile on the nineteenth day of October in the year of our 
 Lord 1786. 
 
 "Francis Fontanilla. (Seal) Joseph Colomb. (Seal) 
 Witness, Chastang, Jr. Witness, Dubroca. 
 
 Before me, Santiago de la Saussate, (Seal) 
 
 Notary Public. 
 
 "Approved, Pedro Favrot." (Seal) 
 
 A weU-known name in the southern part of the present county 
 of Mobile is Bosage. The original settler of that ilk was Joseph 
 Baussage in 1786 (for the name is variously spelled); and the 
 petition and grant in his case, while fairly illustrating the pro- 
 cedure as to country lands, certainly rank among the curiosities 
 of official correspondence. In full they are as foUows : — 
 
 "To his Excellency, Stephen Miro, Colonel of the Royal 
 Armies of his Catholic Majesty, and Governor-General of 
 the Province of Louisiana, etc. 
 
 "Joseph Bousage, an inhabitant of the jurisdiction of Mobile, 
 has the honor to represent to your Excellency, that he has 
 been compelled in consequence of the state of his misery to 
 retire with his wife and children on a piece of land situated 
 on Bayou Battree, bounded on the east by Lisloy and on the 
 west by Pine Point, which makes a distance of one league in 
 front, for the purpose of fishing and planting some corn for the 
 support and maintenance of his family; he further represents, 
 that the said land has never been claimed by any person, except 
 some prisoners who were living on it without title, possession, 
 or right, and who have abandoned it a short time afterwards, 
 and by Barthelemy Grelot better than eighteen months ago, 
 who then moved to Bay St. Louis : wherefore your petitioner 
 
328 COLONIAL MOBILE. 
 
 dares to hope that his unfortunate situation will appeal to your 
 Excellency's feelings, and you will be pleased to grant him the 
 said tract of land, in order that he may live thereon undis- 
 turbed, and conceal from the eyes of the world his poverty and 
 misery; taking also into consideration that he is a poor father 
 of a family of seven children, who is in trouble and his wife 
 sickly; and lastly, this desolated family stretch their arms 
 towards your Excellency and humbly entreat your Excellency 
 to grant them your Honor's protection. In acknowledgment 
 of which they will not cease in offering the most passionate 
 prayers to God our Lord for the preservation of your Excel- 
 lency's health and prolongation of your days, and of all those 
 who are dear to your Excellency. 
 
 "I remain with profound respect and entire submission. 
 Excellent Sir, your most obedient and humble servant. Mobile 
 this sixth day of October, 1786, 
 
 "Joseph Bouzage." 
 
 Favrot approved these facts, and Miro, on Novemher 7, directs 
 that "the commandant of Mobile, Pedro Favrot, shall permit 
 the petitioner to establish himself on the tract of land which 
 he solicits situated on River Batteree, bounded on the east by 
 Ocas Island and on the west by Pine Point." 
 
 Bosage duly went into possession of his Bayou la Batre pro- 
 perty and made improvements. He considered his forty arpens 
 depth as beginning, not at the marshy seashore, but at the line 
 of tillable land, and acted accordingly. This was saving up 
 more "misery" for his family. Ten years later, after he had 
 died, his widow, Louisa Budro, was threatened with the loss 
 of the back part of the tract in the application of some one else 
 for a grant of it. She petitioned the governor-general, and, 
 being backed up by the commandant, the Bosage grant was 
 corrected so as to begin with the dry land as occupied. 
 
 Most of the new settlers wanted country lands, not in order, 
 like Bosage, to hide themselves and their misery from the 
 world, but to raise stock, or corn, or tobacco. And it was a 
 fine opportunity. The British had largely abandoned the coun- 
 try, leaving their well-cleared farms on the Tensaw or "Tom- 
 bagbe " to become Spanish royal domain, and thus liable to be 
 granted to the first comer, in substantially this form : — 
 
 "The Surveyor-General of this Province, Charles Laveau 
 
THREE CANNON FROM FORT CHARLOTTE 
 
SETTLING DOWN AGAIN 329 
 
 Trudeaii, will put the petitioner in possession of the tract of 
 land for which he prays a grant, containing twenty arpens in 
 front with the usual depth of forty, at the place designated in 
 the preceding memorial : provided that the same is vacant and 
 without causing injury to a third person; under the express 
 conditions, that he will make the customary road and clear 
 sufficient ground thereon within the term of one year, and fur- 
 ther that this grant shall be void unless the said tract of land 
 shall be actually occupied and cultivated within the exact period 
 of three years, during which time the petitioner shall not sell 
 or in any other way alienate the said land. In consequence 
 thereof, let the proceedings of the survey of the said tract of 
 land be made out in continuation herewith, and, when com- 
 pleted, let them be transmitted to me, in order to provide the 
 petitioner with a competent title in due form." 
 
 In this way on August 16, 1787, Cornelius McCurtin, who 
 married Euphrosyna, one of Bosage's children, acquired Major 
 Farmer's place on the Tensaw River, having a front of eighty 
 arpens on each side of the river, bounded north by Mme. Mi- 
 Ion and south by Chastang. The only consideration named in 
 the petition is that McCurtin had already gone into possession 
 and at considerable expense built a house, which would seem to 
 show that the hospitable roof which sheltered Bartram had been 
 burned, or otherwise destroyed. Farmer, he says, had "aban- 
 doned " the place, and, as the major died before the Spaniards 
 came, this was true enough. A petition of James Fraser for 
 lands of Farmer on the "Tombagbe" shows that he knew of 
 this fact, for he ascribes the abandonment of these lands to 
 Farmer's widow. An even clearer case of abandonment, per- 
 haps, was that of Walker, whose lands on the Mobile River 
 were granted about the same time to John Joyce. Favrot sol- 
 emnly certifies that Walker did "abandon" the place, and the 
 petition to which he refers leaves no doubt of it. It recites 
 that Walker was killed by his Majesty's troops at the time of 
 the siege of Mobile. 
 
 In this way Simon Landry, a mulatto from Baton Rouge, 
 gets river lands of "McGilleveray," probably at Seymour's 
 Bluff. "Seymour's" is the nearest the unromantic Americans 
 could get to pronouncing Simon's French name. Here it is 
 that the river makes that remarkable goose-neck or double horse- 
 
330 COLONIAL MOBILE. 
 
 shoe curve, coming back after several miles to a few hundred 
 yards from its starting point, and from the height one has a 
 beautiful view up and down the stream. This has long been 
 the home of the Andrys, and near there many live, intermixed 
 with Chastangs, but in their French patois claiming descent 
 from the Creole Simon Andry (or L'Andry). 
 
 Peter Juzan thus acquired lands of Dugald Campbell north 
 of Bayou Cedrera, Peter Trouillet those of Strahan at the mouth 
 of the "Tombacbe," and John Turnbull those of Formand on 
 the same river. George Walton under the next commandant 
 gets Mcintosh's Bluff of twenty arpens front on the Tombagbe. 
 Next south had lived a Mr. Sunflower, and his land also went 
 to some one desiring, probably, to put in corn and tobacco. 
 
 Only one instance is on record where the petitioner did not 
 get what he wanted, and that was when Dominique Dolive asked 
 for forty or fifty arpens of Michael Grant's for cattle-raising 
 on the east side of the bay, between the widow Rochon on the 
 north and the widow Dupont on the south. The refusal was 
 not from any consideration for Dr. Grant, but because Dolive 
 wanted too much. The general rule was now laid down by 
 Miro on July 2, 1787, that grants would not be made, except 
 for some very satisfactory reason, of more than twenty arpens 
 front by the usual depth of forty. Dolive, like a wise man, 
 then filed a new petition for twenty arpens front, and obtained 
 the nucleus of the Dolive possessions at the mouth of the Apa- 
 lache River. 
 
 Somewhat higher up was the De Lusser Tract on Tensaw 
 River. This Louis Duret bought later of the heirs for forty 
 dollars on time. Outlying property was sometimes undesir- 
 able because of fear of Indian outbreak. 
 
 And yet as a rule the Spanish succeeded to the friendship 
 which the savages had generally entertained for the French. 
 In the winter of 1781-82 there was a visit of Creeks to Mobile. 
 LeClerc Milfort was a Frenchman who at that time lived among 
 them, and was later to return to France and publish a book on 
 his experiences. Among the Indians he was chief and in 
 France a general, so that his book has a unique value. He 
 tells of the traditional origin of the Muscogees in caves on the 
 Red River, and of this expedition which he now led to visit the 
 aboriginal seat of the race. His followers consisted of two 
 
SETTLING DOWN AGAIN. 331 
 
 hundred braves from Little Talassee. After a time they went 
 on west, hunting by the way, and returned home next spring 
 by way of the Ohio River. ^ On June 22, 1784, a vast con- 
 gress of Indians was held at Mobile, presided over by Miro. 
 Here were represented almost all of the tribes which had been 
 previously identified with our history. Among them were 
 prominent even the Chickasaws, as well as the Choctaws and 
 Alabamas, and treaties of alliance were made with all.^ The 
 Indian trade rapidly became important. 
 
 But foreign commerce was all but dead. Spain's policy al- 
 ways was to forbid her colonies to trade with any other coun- 
 try, and at the same time she prohibited every industry, like 
 raising tobacco, olives, or grapes, which would compete with 
 the mother country.^ This system was a severe one for Mobile 
 and old Louisiana generally, and in fact the regulations were 
 more or less evaded, even by the provincial authorities. In 
 1782 changes were made in the matter in favor of New Or- 
 leans and Pensacola, where were custom-houses, while no men- 
 tion seems to be made of Mobile. But a better time was 
 coming. July 24, 1784, a trade concession was granted in 
 favor of James Mather, of New Orleans, he contracting with 
 the government to employ two vessels under the Spanish flag 
 and supply all that was needed for the Indian trade at Mobile 
 and Pensacola. We soon find Mather confining himseK to 
 Mobile and William Panton operating at Pensacola, where he 
 lived, after being driven by the American Revolution from 
 Carolina and Georgia. Their vessels loaded at London, for 
 the Indians had learned to prefer English goods, and they took 
 the place in business left open by McGillivray's flight. The 
 local trade, too, must have been something, as in 1785 Mobile's 
 population was 746.^ The next year the home government, 
 against the protest of Mather and Panton, much curtailed com- 
 mercial privileges. And yet it was rather as to source of 
 supplies than from any niggardliness ; for we find the crown 
 supplying annually for the Mobile Indian trade, doubtless for 
 presents and other subsidies, |10,000. The local expenses of 
 
 * Gatsehet, Creek Migration Legend, p. 230. 
 
 ^ 3 Gayarr^'s Louisiana, p. 160 ; Winsor's Westward Movement, p. 330. 
 ^ Blackmar's Spanish Institutions in the Southtoest, p. 297. 
 
 * 3 Gayarr^'s Louisiana, pp. 153-156 ; 2 Martin's Louisiana, p. 77. 
 
332 COLONIAL MOBILE. 
 
 the king in 1785 were about $11,000, as follows: governor, 
 $2,000; chaplain, $360; sacristan, $180; chapel, $50; English 
 interpreter, $180; storekeeper, $600; adjutant, $300; guard, 
 $180; adjutant of artillery, $300; armorer, $360; surgeon, mate, 
 and nurses, $1,140; patron and hands, $1,296; besides $1,080 
 also mentioned for commissary and armorer.^ 
 
 The Choctaw and Chickasaw trade amounted to $60,000. 
 It was part of a large system extending even to the Illinois, 
 organized by Miro, and carried on at a profit of twenty-five per 
 cent.2 
 
 On the whole, therefore, the change to Spanish rule and in- 
 stitutions was accomplished in the first five or six years. The 
 government land system and Indian trade had been reorganized. 
 English names and customs almost disappeared from Mobile, 
 although they survived upon the rivers ; but, after all, the social 
 substratum remained French, as it always had been. Practi- 
 cally the Spaniards were little more than the governing class of 
 a French community. 
 
 1 2 Martin's Louisiana^ pp. 81, 83. 
 
 2 Winsor's Westward Movement, p. 346. 
 

CHAPTER XXXVn. 
 
 UNDER FOLCH AND LANZOS (1787, 1791). 
 
 In three years since the last census the population of Mobile 
 doubled, for in 1788 it is given as 1,468, against only 265 at 
 Pensacola, which had fallen off one half. This should indicate 
 prosperity, but at all events land was not dear even in town. 
 Ruiz, a free negro, in 1788 sells John Joyce a house and lot 
 on the corner of St. Charles (St. Joseph) and St. Francis (St. 
 Michael), opposite Mr. Orbanne's, for 1100. Joyce in the 
 same month of April buys a lot ten toises front on Royal, and 
 extending twenty-six toises to the river, for $25 cash, and has 
 a house thrown in. This was situated second north of our 
 St. Michael, opposite Narbonne's lot, and south (north?) of 
 Dubuisson's. 
 
 Next year the heirs of Jean Baptiste de Lusser, deceased, 
 — viz., Cabaret de Trepy and Hazeur de Lorme, of New Or- 
 leans, — seem to have sold all the De Lusser land south of the 
 fort.i 
 
 The names of all the De Lusser heirs are not given. De 
 Trepy and De Lorme seem to represent them under a "letter of 
 attorney." Pierre Marie Cabaret de Trepy was a chevalier of 
 the order of St. Louis, and is in the title as husband of Mar- 
 guerite Chevalier De Velle, probably daughter of Constance 
 De Velle. Louis Francis Xavier Hazeur de Lorme, on the 
 other hand, is grandson of Captain (Joseph Christophe) De 
 Lusser, and also his executor. De Lorme must be a son, there- 
 fore, of Manon Hazeur. On May 14 they made a private deed 
 to Louis Duret, of course before Folch, wherein, for a note of 
 forty dollars due at one year, they sell a lot of the usual dimen- 
 sions, bounded north by land purchased by Miguel Eslava at 
 public auction, and on the south by Duret. This lot would 
 ^ Mobile Translated Records, p. 96 ; 2 Martin's Louisiana, p. 99. 
 
334 COLONIAL MOBILE. 
 
 therefore seem to be in the square west of our Royal and south 
 of our Eslava Street. Duret was a lieutenant of militia, and 
 died in 1790. Folch, at the request of the same De Trepy and 
 De Lorme, five days after the private deed, decrees the sale of 
 the other lots of J. B. Lusser, and they were accordingly sold 
 at auction, all being east and across the "street" from Es- 
 lava's. The purchasers, beginning from Duret's on the south 
 and coming north to the esplanade, were as follows, each 
 extending from the street eastwardly to the river : ^ — 
 
 (1) Fifty feet front, bought by Alby, the fort carpenter, 
 for 145 ; (2) Forty feet front, by the negress Mary Josephine, 
 for $30; (3) Fifty-four feet front, by John B. Ham, for $54; 
 (4) Sixty -two feet front, by the negro Joseph the blacksmith, 
 for $40; (5) Sixty-two feet front, by the mulatto Honore 
 La Pointe, for $40 ; (6) Seventy-six feet front, by the mulatto 
 Petit Jean, for $30. Four years later Honore, who had 
 moved away, sold his lot, with a house on it, to William 
 Mitchell, for $120. The average price, therefore, for the 
 river front at this point, — the site now of the Wilson power- 
 house and of many buildings, — was considerably under a dollar 
 a foot. 
 
 Eslava lived to be not only an important official but a large 
 landowner in this part of the country. Family tradition de- 
 scribes him as a tall, soldierly man, without beard, and says 
 that he came originally from San Sebastian in Spain to the 
 City of Mexico, where he was manager of the mint, and thence 
 went to Natchez. In a later petition he says that he was public 
 storekeeper (commissary) for the king of Spain at Natchez, 
 1782-84 ; and we learn from this and other papers of his that 
 he occupied the same position {Guarda Almacen General) at 
 Mobile from 1784 through all the Spanish rule. In addition 
 he was also at some period collector of customs, and in 1793 
 '''' Ministro Principal de la Real Hacienda,'" or treasurer, at 
 Mobile. 2 He had to be present officially, according to the ar- 
 chives, at aU public acts affecting royal property and contracts. 
 Such presence is spoken of as his "intervention." He was 
 also superintendent of the hospital. 
 
 There is something perplexing about his early purchases, 
 
 ' Mobile Translated Records, p. 97. 
 2 See 3 American State Papers, p. 560. 
 
UNDER FOLCH AND LANZOS. 335 
 
 which were mainly at auction. Although in 1789 he had a 
 house, said to have been brought from Spain, two years later 
 we find him petitioning for land between the De Lussers and 
 public lands, in order to build and thus escape the "exorbitant 
 rent " which he was paying. The lot granted on this occasion 
 was but sixty feet front by one hundred and twenty feet deep ; 
 while the tract on which his house was built had over seven 
 times as large a frontage, being no doubt the auction purchase. 
 It extended from our Royal to St. Emanuel, and from our 
 Monroe to Eslava. The description of his place, the site now 
 of homes of all degrees, in a deed of 1794 is picturesque, and 
 reads thus : — 
 
 "A high house erected on a certain lot of land containing 
 four hundred and sixty-two feet in front, on the side of the 
 river, by three hundred and twenty-six feet in depth, fronting 
 on the woods, bounded on the north by the fort of this town, 
 and on the southwest by house of the deceased Duret. The 
 land is enclosed by new cypress pickets, with all the fruit trees, 
 gardens, kitchen and all other buildings thereon."^ 
 
 Rations originally were distributed by him, as general store- 
 keeper, to the troops and government employees, from a house 
 on St. Charles Street. But when it became old, Eslava with 
 the permission of the commandant abandoned it, and erected 
 one south of the fort, near his own residence. This was a good 
 move, and nearer the warehouse of 1793. On July 16, next 
 year, we find the original lot granted to Mary Aygue. 
 
 There was a mysterious transaction, probably connected 
 with an official valuation of 1798 still preserved, by which 
 Eslava sells his own place to Leonard Marbury. The con- 
 sideration was 14,060, of which |2,560 was cash, and the 
 balance was to be paid on the arrival of his schooner from the 
 north, which was to be about the end of the year. And Mar- 
 bury 's ship came home, for next year he sold the place for 
 ten dollars less to John Joyce. But in some way Eslava re- 
 purchased it. 
 
 Eslava was to have considerable trouble with his titles in 
 American times. The De Lusser purchase, even where he 
 lived, was unfavorably regarded, and required a special act of 
 
 1 Mobile Translated Records, p. 150. For map see Deed Book 27, N. S., 
 p. 527. 
 
336 COLONIAL MOBILE. 
 
 the Congress of the United States, May 21, 1824,^ for Its vali- 
 dation in the hands of his heirs. 
 
 We now first meet William Fisher also, who was in later 
 years to become, like Eslava, a great landowner. In May, 
 1790, he buys for $500 cash from John Arnot, who got it from 
 P. Jusan, a lot on the south (west?) side of St. Charles, at the 
 corner of St. Francis, having one hundred and thirty feet front 
 by seventy -one deep. 
 
 Captain Manuel de Lanzos seems to act as commandant at 
 Mobile from 1790, and in 1792 Baron Francis de Carondelet 
 was governor-general. Lanzos was, during his two or more 
 terms, to become thoroughly identified with the place. He is 
 said to have come from Valencia in Spain to Peru, and thence 
 to Mobile. After his incumbency he lived in New Orleans. 
 
 As a witness to a deed of June 12, 1792, we now first see 
 John Forbes, to be, not many years later, so important a factor 
 in Indian trade. His house, Panton, Leslie & Co., may even 
 before this date have operated in Mobile, but apparently they 
 had not yet become landowners. It is not until 1795 that 
 we find him mentioned as a landowner, having on St. Charles 
 some small cabins at the corner of a street which we take to be 
 St. Francis. 
 
 In August, 1793, was an auction sale in Mobile of the lands 
 of another non-resident named La Fargg, at the instance of 
 his attorney in fact, Francis Durel. 
 
 " In the town aforesaid, on the fifth of the month of August, 
 1792," according to the Translated Records,^ "Francis Durel 
 having requested the sale and transfer of the lot of land and 
 cabin conveyed by Antonio Bassot in favor of the above named 
 La Fargg, and desiring to make sale thereof; Therefore I, the 
 Commandant, attended by two official witnesses, went on this 
 day at ten o'clock a. m. on the lot above recited, and on order- 
 ing the sound of the drum the said Durel prayed by saying : 
 Is there any one who wishes to purchase a lot of ground with a 
 small house thereon, the said lot measuring one hundred and 
 twelve feet in front, be it more or less, by the corresponding 
 depth, as the property of Mr. La Fargg? In consequence of 
 which, James Nadeau offered most for the said premises, and 
 the same was thereupon struck off to him for the sum of $150 
 ^ &U. S. Statutes at Large, p. 311. « Mobile Translated Records, p. 132. 
 
UNDER FOLCH AND LANZOS. 337 
 
 cash as specified above. In faith whereof, the said James Na- 
 deau, the two official witnesses, and I the said Commandant, 
 have signed the present act of sale," etc. 
 
 Thereupon Durel made a deed to Nadeau, but Pierre Juzan 
 afterwards bought from Nadeau at a trifle less. 
 
 Miro had granted Pierre Trouillet, of Mobile, a lot of ground 
 on Royal Street, "fronting the Government House," which 
 later maps show to have been at the southeast corner of Royal 
 and Government streets. Lanzos interfered and refused to 
 put him in possession, because it was too near the fort, — which 
 TrouiDet admits is the case. But the lieutenant bought a forty- 
 foot lot adjoining from Nadeau, and then obtained a grant of 
 twenty feet of the lot before refused him.^ This Trouillet pro- 
 perty thus seems to be an encroachment on the esplanade of the 
 fort, — the first of record. Although, as to country lands, from 
 this time the duty of putting in possession again devolves on 
 Trudeau or his deputy, the commandant still acts in regard to 
 city lots. But a few months later, Lanzos, under commission 
 from Carondelet, puts F. Baudin in possession of a lot sixty 
 feet front on Royal, between Trouillet and the fort. And yet 
 the fort might be important again. 
 
 What has been called the Spanish Conspiracy has excited 
 much interest, particularly in Kentucky, where it blasted sev- 
 eral characters. For James Wilkinson, the United States 
 general, was its head, and John Brown, representative in Con- 
 gress, Judge Sebastian of the Court of Appeals, Hary Innes, 
 and other prominent men, were deeply implicated. 
 
 In its beginnings it might be called a patriotic movement, if 
 patriotism consists of love of home and country, and not in the 
 worship of a flag which then represented seaboard and not 
 Kentucky interests. The colonies had just achieved their inde- 
 pendence, and the pioneers who had won a home in the wilds 
 felt that the government across the toilsome mountains was, 
 in courting the aid of Spain, willing to leave the Mississippi 
 closed and Kentucky shut off from her only commerce. Even 
 Virginia, they thought, was reluctant to have them become 
 independent of her, and the movement begun in 1785 for 
 Kentucky's admission to the Union was finally realized only in 
 1792, after nine conventions. 
 
 * Mobile Translated Records, p. 138. 
 
338 COLONIAL MOBILE. 
 
 Spain encouraged the movement for independence, and en- 
 deavored by pensions, promises, and concessions to win the 
 leaders, with the object of having the district become either a 
 part of her Gulf provinces or an independent country \mder 
 a Spanish protectorate. Spain had made no treaty recog- 
 nizing the United States, but had an agent, Gardoqui, in the 
 east. 
 
 The plan was originally suggested by Navarro when intend- 
 ant, adopted at Madrid, and carefully engineered by Governor 
 Miro, who after Navarro's departure in 1788 made himself 
 intendant, too. Miro was very popular with the Americans and 
 Spanish subjects alike. ^ 
 
 The pensioners went on receiving money, but, from the time 
 when the new American government under the Constitution of 
 1787 felt itself firmly in power and a national sentiment 
 developed, the conspirators gradually lost their hold. Some, 
 like Wilkinson, were able to turn coat and sail with the new 
 wind; others went on blindly to their own destruction. The 
 danger in Carondelet's time was of an invasion of Louisiana 
 by the Americans, not of the Spanish annexation of Kentucky 
 planned by Miro. 
 
 From 1793 the Mobile deeds, and among them one of Pierre 
 Trouillet, contain militia titles, — lieutenant, captain, etc. It 
 was at this time that Governor Carondelet regularly organized 
 the local military over Louisiana and West Florida, and Lanzos 
 had masons at work on Fort Charlotte. An inspection of 
 "Fuerte Carlota " was made in August, 1793, by Nicolas Man- 
 goula, Josef Barriales, and Juan Beson, while Miguel Eslava 
 was present with others. This seems to have been in addition 
 to a general overhauling by John Joyce as contractor early in 
 the year, which, after formal examination by Juan Alvi and 
 Antonio Espejo as carpenters, Nicolas Mangoula and Charles 
 Lalande as masons, and Bertrand Nicolas and the free negro 
 Josef Lusser as smiths, had been duly accepted by Lanzos for 
 the crown. We find Orbanne Demouy now contracting to 
 supply troops and hospital with meat at 3|^ silver "sueldos " per 
 pound ; and oath of allegiance was exacted from foreigners, like 
 Nadeau and Langevin of Mobile, and J. B. Martin of Fish 
 
 ^ 2 Martin's Louisiana, p. 100 ; 2 Gayarr^'s Louisiana^ p. 192 ; Green's 
 Spanish Conspiracy, passim. 
 
UNDER FOLCH AND LAN Z OS. 339 
 
 River {Riviera de Pescado). A new wharf and warehouse 
 were built. Everything was military. 
 
 The events of this year were momentous. France a re- 
 public ; her king imprisoned and then guillotined ; and all the 
 other countries looking on aghast, or combining to crush the 
 revolution. The Spanish king declares war against France at 
 Aranjuez in March, and the cedula was published at Mobile in 
 August. This and other proclamations call on the people to 
 contribute themselves and their means to oppose the disorder 
 and impiety of that country. A royal proclamation, published 
 at Mobile as elsewhere, invited back deserters from the army 
 and navy; and we find the woods near the town cleared, no 
 doubt for military as well as for the sanitary reasons named 
 by Lanzos. The people of the United States were in sym- 
 pathy with the new republic, and the French ambassador 
 Genet carried things with a high hand over in the States. He 
 was even planning to raise an American army and reconquer 
 Louisiana for France. 
 
 It was to meet this that Carondelet was active, fortifying 
 forts and raising troops. At Mobile two companies were 
 thus mobilized, — one of infantry and one of cavalry. All 
 classes seemed loyal to the Spanish cause ; but perhaps the old 
 French remembered O'Reilly at New Orleans. 
 
 Carondelet attached much importance to the post at Mobile. 
 April 11, 1794, he writes to its commandant, who was ill, to 
 come to New Orleans with his wife for a fortnight, leaving 
 Ant. Maxent in charge of the work of finishing the fort. Troops 
 from Havana were expected, who should increase the garrison 
 to one hundred and thirty men. Carondelet then speaks of 
 sending Osorno over, but if he came it was only ad interim. 
 Two years later, in reply to a complaint of Osorno, Carondelet 
 writes him that he had placed Olivier in command, because 
 Olivier had been commissary among the Talapuces. In view 
 of the hostility excited among the Chickasaws against that tribe, 
 it was for Spanish interest to have a commandant at Mobile who 
 understood the conditions, forces, and resources of these Creeks, 
 whom they must support.^ 
 
 There was, therefore, unwonted activity in the province of 
 West Florida. 
 
 ^ These letters are in the possession of Mr. Cusachs of New Orleans. 
 
CHAPTER XXXVIIL 
 
 JUDICIAL PROCEEDINGS. 
 
 The many official proceedings by the commandants which 
 have survived would, if given in detail, furnish material for sev- 
 eral volumes ; but even a selection will show much of the public 
 customs of the time and the private life of the people. 
 
 For the first few years transactions are in French, or in French 
 and Spanish too ; but, as the hold of Spain grew stronger, hers 
 became the sole official language. The Trouillet division of 
 1786, before Favrot, was in French, but the partition of Louis 
 Duret's estate in 1795, for instance, was altogether in Spanish. 
 
 We find the commandant exercising jurisdiction, often a very 
 summary one, over almost every kind of dispute, including 
 contract, attachment, and damages, and are enabled to follow 
 up the procedure on account of the convenient practice of writ- 
 ing out even the original papers "in continuation" on consecu- 
 tive sheets. Where a petition requires notice, the command- 
 ant's order, therefore, comes next after the petition; then the 
 notary, or later two official witnesses, gives notice and certifies 
 that fact. At the trial the testimony is taken down in writing 
 under oath, and the decrees and subsequent proceedings follow 
 in order, — all these papers being stitched together and pre- 
 served as archives. 
 
 We are told that the court {tribunal) was informal, but quite 
 the reverse was true in Mobile, at least under the early com- 
 mandants. We do not find lawyers in the American sense, but 
 clerks or notaries aided the parties in their petitions where the 
 cases were not viva voce. Criminal causes were tried before 
 the same courts as civil, perhaps with official defending coun- 
 sel. On giving secvirity for costs, appeal lay to the supreme 
 tribunal at New Orleans, thence to St. Jago de Cuba, and 
 thence to Spain. In criminal cases the appeal was only in 
 capital offences, and, from the expense, practically did not 
 
JUDICIAL PROCEEDINGS. 341 
 
 exist. Punisliment was mild, generally a fine or stocks, and 
 serious crimes were rare. The alcalde, like our justice of the 
 peace, heard civil and criminal causes summarily and without 
 written proceedings. His jurisdiction was limited to com- 
 plaints in which the matter in dispute did not exceed twenty 
 dollars.^ 
 
 On March 15, 1786, we find Pierre Trouillet petitioning for 
 dissolution of the partnership with his brother Jean and for 
 division of the property, Pierre wishing to leave for New- 
 Orleans. 
 
 The business in which they were engaged would seem to be 
 naval stores, at least in part, for one of their assets was a claim 
 of 10,779 piastres against the king for "brais et godrons." 
 Their account has also survived for such supplies to a number 
 of vessels during the years 1782-85, all as furnished under a 
 contract with Commandant Favrot. The slaves were valued 
 at an average of 500 piastres, horses at sixteen piastres, cattle 
 at twelve each. There were a number of accounts due them, a 
 note of Mr. Miguel Eslava for 381 piastres for one, and they 
 owed considerable also. They owned a house, a frame filled in 
 between the posts and covered with bark. It was five feet 
 above ground, with cellar below, which had a brick wall. The 
 building was ceiled and composed of two rooms, hall, two clos- 
 ets, a double chimney, and had a gallery all around. Outside 
 were kitchen and garden. The whole was within a picket 
 fence, and on the corner of the street. This place was valued 
 at 450 piastres, and went to Jean in the division. 
 
 The proceedings began with a petition to Favrot, the ap- 
 pointment of Genier and Dubroca as commissioners on the 
 nomination of Pierre and Jean respectively, all in the presence 
 of Santiago de la Saussaye, the notary public. Then was 
 made out a list of debts due to and those due by the firm, 
 signed by parties, commissioners, commandant, and notary ; and 
 next one of some twenty-eight slaves, with values varying ac- 
 cording to age, and also including house and animals. It was 
 thus found that each should receive 8,985 piastres 6f escalins, 
 and the equivalent was allotted them respectively. Both 
 brothers on March 24, 1786, signed at the end in token of full 
 satisfaction. 
 
 1 2 White's New Recopilacion, pp. 693, 697. 
 
342 COLONIAL MOBILE. 
 
 In the course of the proceedings it is noted that there was a 
 difference of forty per cent, between hard money and the paper 
 current in the colony ; but where necessary the paper values are 
 reduced to coin, and the settlement is made on that basis. 
 
 Commandants sometimes exercised very summary powers in 
 the coDection of debts. In this same year, for instance, we 
 find Favrot enforcing a claim against William Loyson, then a 
 trader in the " Tinsa " country , although in British times he 
 had been a silversmith at Mobile. 
 
 Loyson had mortgaged some negroes to De Lande Dapremond, 
 of New Orleans, and did not pay the debt. John Linder, Jr. , 
 of the Tensaw district, became his surety for speedy payment, 
 taking a hypothecation of the negroes, according to which on 
 forfeiture the negroes should be sold at the gate of the fort. It 
 appears that he made default, and in consequence Favrot sent 
 the notary Saussaye and three soldiers over by canoe to Ten- 
 saw to imprison Loyson and seize his property. This was done 
 in the presence of John Linder, lieutenant of police, and all 
 of his property inventoried and brought to Mobile, where it 
 was appraised and sold. He had deerskins, money, bear oil, 
 draft of Charles Hall on John Joyce, etc., valued in all at 266 
 piastres, 4 reals, hard money, which then varied fifty per cent, 
 from paper. Of this there were in gold two "portugaises," a 
 coin worth apparently something over 12|^ piastres. The 
 expenses of this five-day trip were thirty aud a half piastres, 
 of which Genier, who owned the canoe, received three, and the 
 three rowers three piastres each. The notary charged thirty 
 reals a day. 
 
 After all, the slaves were not sold, for the two Linders were 
 in Loyson 's debt for merchandise, and he was permitted to 
 retvirn home until the younger Linder came back from New 
 Orleans. When that happened, the affair was settled and the 
 slaves returned. Loyson 's attachment became a matter only 
 of record, — signed by himself, the Linders, and Favrot. 
 
 The proceedings in the matter of Fran9ois Robert in 1786 
 further illustrate the extensive powers of the commandant. 
 Thomas Durnford, of New Orleans, on June 29 petitioned 
 Pedro Favrot, alleging that he had delivered to Robert goods 
 to be sold on Durnford 's account to the value of 438 piastres 
 and two escalins, besides advancing him 296 piastres and three 
 
JUDICIAL PROCEEDINGS. 343 
 
 escalins ; but had been informed by John Linder that Robert 
 had abandoned his boat, the St. Fran^oise, and had with one 
 Simon left the country to go among the Indian nations. An- 
 nexed is an invoice of the goods delivered, including tafia, 
 sugar, mahy (maize ?) in grain, pieces of Marly (gauze), tobacco, 
 colored linen, pepper, plates, and wine. The advances were in 
 part through a draft on Messrs. Mather & Strothers for 190 
 piastres. 
 
 Favrot lost no time in the matter, and in fact seems to have 
 acted upon earlier and independent information. He knew 
 Fran9ois Robert from having granted him a passport to trade 
 in the country of the "Tinsas," and was notified June 27 of his 
 decamping by the same John Linder, civil lieutenant of that 
 district. Linder's note is in English. The commandant be- 
 took himself to the boat with Saussaye, the notary, and seized 
 it and its remaining contents. The cargo was inventoried, and 
 deposition of the mate, rran9ois Olivier, taken to the fact of 
 flight and fraudulent bankruptcy. Favrot found that one 
 Lafond, who had come from the Ohio (Belle jRiviere) under 
 Miro's pass (for passes were necessary for travelers), and 
 Simon, of the Tensaw district, had disappeared at the same 
 time, the three men carrying off a canoe of Mr. Linder and 
 five of Simon's own slaves. They had apparently taken the 
 Tombigbee route to reach "Fort Comber land." 
 
 Claims to the amount of 768 piastres were filed with the 
 commandant, who sold the cargo for 546 piastres, and the boat, 
 including sails, tackle, and anchors, to Durnford for 200 more. 
 The fees paid were as follows : To the commandant as judge, 
 for four sittings, including writings and signatures, twelve 
 piastres ; to the notary for four sessions and writings, nine and 
 a half piastres, besides six and a half more for copies. A 
 transcript and the receipts are annexed, and the whole file, with 
 inch margins, makes up a respectable booklet of rough-edged 
 paper, whicb is preserved entire. 
 
 Pretty much the same proceedings were taken against Fran- 
 9ois Simon, the depositions being in English before "John 
 Linder, J. P." Among the claims is that of TurnbuU & 
 Joyce, merchants, for 42 piastres for goods, such as soap, blan- 
 kets, fishing-line, powder and tobacco. The goods were bought 
 in 1785 and 1786 of Mather & Strothers, but TurnbuU & Joyce 
 
344 COLONIAL MOBILE. 
 
 receipt, apparently as their successors, for the forty-two dollars 
 and a "picaillon" (picayune), or haK rial, in paper. 
 
 The commandant paid the debts out of the proceeds of pro- 
 perty of Sieur Simon found by Saussaye and witnesses at his 
 place, "Bonne Eau," four leagues from Fish River. The goods 
 seized were clothing, furniture, cows, etc., but the house (ca- 
 banne) was worthless, and the bread in the furnace was spoiled 
 by the rain. At the appraisement and sale Jean Chastang 
 was present, having been appointed to represent Simon, and 
 acting under oath as "Deffenseur." Notices were publicly 
 posted, and the sale opened with the drum at the usual place. 
 Old pantaloons, coats, socks, cups, boiler, mill, vinegar, salt, 
 cows, seine, and the other articles went to various bidders, real- 
 izing a total of 404 piastres seven escalins, which was twenty- 
 nine dollars six escalins more than the debts. This balance 
 was held subject to the order, not of Simon, but of Governor- 
 General Miro. 
 
 Simon was captured by Ben James among the Choctaws, 
 near the mouth of the "Black Warrior " River, and imprisoned 
 at Mobile, where Saussaye induced him to acknowledge the 
 claims paid as substantially correct; but the file closes without 
 indication of his fate. The other two whites escaped safely to 
 the Chickasaws. Mr. Bely Chaney (also called Baley Chene, 
 Bailey China, etc.) figures considerably in the Tombigbee 
 land titles, but he previously lived in the Tensaw district and 
 was involved in several controversies now difficult to under- 
 stand. On one occasion he accused Haisel McWilliams of 
 stealing a negro, and McWilliams in reply had Josiah Fletcher 
 in 1787 make before John Linder, J. P., an affidavit in 
 English which shows up his accuser in a remarkable light. 
 The paper reads as follows : — 
 
 "Mr. Josiah Fletcher Declares and Says that M. Bailey 
 China took a Negro Girl and headed her up in a hogshead to 
 keep her concealed at St. John's Bluff on board of a Vessel in 
 East Florida about four years past, where her Master, Mr. 
 Summerling, found her in his possession, and further the Depo- 
 nent declares and says that after said Negro was found in the 
 possession of Said China he the Said Deponent saw a place 
 where [which] the said China had made underground in his 
 house where he might hide himself in case of necessity and had 
 
JUDICIAL PROCEEDINGS. 345 
 
 undermined a passage to make Lis Escape, and had two guns 
 placed at the inside with springs so as to do Execution in case 
 any one entered at the door, while he escaped at said passage 
 underground." 
 
 Some of the transactions in which Chaney was concerned at 
 least illustrate the uncertainties of border life. He once had 
 some controversy with George Phillips about the title to a negro 
 boy named Ben, "swapped" for another in Savannah before 
 his coming to Mobile, as testified to by Gerald Byrnes. At 
 another time he got back a stolen slave. One James Danley 
 met a trader named Balay in the Talapuche (Creek) nation and 
 exchanged negroes with him, but on reaching Mobile found 
 himself sued by Bely Chaney for the newly acquired slave. 
 Cheney proved to Favrot's satisfaction that he had previously 
 bought this Moses from William Tibbs at St. Augustine, East 
 Florida, for 200 piastres. The Creek trader Balay had ex- 
 changed stolen property for good, and the commandant com- 
 pelled Danley to give up the negro to Chaney. The trader, 
 however, had some thirty or forty head of cattle in the Tensaw 
 district under the charge of Charles Hall, and on Danley's 
 petition the commandant directed John Linder to sequestrate 
 the cattle until Balay returned Danley 's negress or her value. 
 
 The names of a number of Americans are given in these 
 papers as bad men who steal horses, guns, and the like, and 
 make off among the Choctaws to hide. Many papers relate 
 to the sale of negroes, and others show them stolen and taken 
 to the Indian nations, where it was difficult to recover them. 
 Some proceedings also indicate that the commandant received 
 negro testimony even against white. It was in this manner that 
 the widow of William Lanham recovered some of the property 
 which Thomas Bates had received from her husband, and was 
 trying to retain on the pretext of having lost the things by 
 theft. 
 
 It would seem that Lanham had gone to "America," — the 
 common Spanish name for the United States, — had been 
 killed there by soldiers, and that Bates had brought his pro- 
 perty from East Florida over to Mobile. The inventory em- 
 braces slaves, wearing-apparel, and apparently goods of a dry- 
 goods stand. In the list we find, of course, pantaloons, coats, 
 shirts, socks, etc., and also silk gauze and dresses, white linen. 
 
346 COLONIAL MOBILE. 
 
 muslin handkerchiefs, table-cloths, napkins, skeins of silk, 
 thread, gloves, besides teacups and plates of Delft ware {fay- 
 ence), knives and forks, tin spoons and plates, a writing-desk, 
 spurs, scales and weights, all closing with two suits of silk, 
 ^^couleur de Jiose.^' The widow had come from South Carolina 
 to reclaim her husband's things, but, in consideration of the 
 surrender of the slave Moses, she gives up all interest in these 
 articles. Even if Lanham's store had been elsewhere, this list 
 shows what was handled at some Gulf town in Spanish times, 
 and could not have varied much from goods then sold in Mobile. 
 
 The commandant had some duties much pleasanter to read 
 of, and it is to be hoped pleasanter to perform, than taking 
 possession of other people's property. An instance is found in 
 the matter of contract for marriage between Monsieur Pierre 
 Trouillet and Demoiselle Isabelle Narbonne, May 18, 1786. 
 
 It recites the groom's father and mother as Charles Trouillet 
 and Marguerite Rochon, the bride's as Antoine Narbonne and 
 Marie Joseph Krebs. Friends participated in the arrange- 
 ment, such as Jean Chastang and Narcisse Brontin, Valentine 
 Dubroca and Louis Dubroca, besides the bride's parents, she 
 being a minor. The instrument provides for a Catholic mar- 
 riage, to occur as soon as either requests it ; that neither is liable 
 for the ante-nuptial debts of the other, but they shall hold in 
 common all property, movable and immovable, according to 
 the custom of Spain, all other customs being renounced. The 
 estate of the bride consisted of a ten -year-old negress named 
 Julie, worth three hundred hard dollars (piastres gourdes, mon- 
 noye sonnante) ; while Trouillet brought into the community 
 8,000 piastres in money, slaves, etc., of which he gave as dower 
 750 piastres, hard money. In case of death of either without 
 children, the survivor should receive the whole property. All 
 execute before Commandant Favrot. 
 
 A contract signed before the notary in 1786 has survived, 
 whereby Francois David is to work as carpenter for John Joyce 
 at twenty-five piastres a month for three months, and Joyce 
 is also to provide food and washing. The same year we have 
 an apprenticeship of Josuee Faicher to Sieur Thomas Beauvais, 
 a tailor, for six years, approved ("V° B° ") by the command- 
 ant, as everything must be. Beauvais promises to teach Josuee 
 that trade, support him, care for him in sickness, and treat him 
 
JUDICIAL PROCEEDINGS. 347 
 
 as he did himself ; while Josuee swears to conduct himself like 
 a good boy and work out his term. In 1787 is an agreement 
 by which Charles Lucas is advanced by Turnbull & Joyce, 
 merchants, 800 piastres gourdes of merchandise, on a credit of 
 ninety days, to use in his business of trade in the "Nation 
 Chis." 
 
 Upon the death of any citizen, the commandant and notary 
 sealed up his effects for proper administration. But this pro- 
 cedure has rather a gruesome aspect when we find them on May 
 7, 1787, hurrying to Jacob Schneider's house for that purpose 
 immediately upon his death that day at five p. m. They made 
 the inventory while the body was lying before them on a bench. 
 There was nothing to seal up, but they opened his trunk and 
 found clothing, razors, and accounts of no value. There were 
 also planes, measures, hatchets, and in fact apparently a fair set 
 of carpenter's tools, besides a cock, two hens, and seven chick- 
 ens. The poultry three days later were appraised at two 
 piastres, and everything else at sixteen, but Fontanilla paid 
 twenty -three for the whole. This was exactly balanced by the 
 debts and expenses, which included five piastres for a coffin, 
 one to the sacristan for the grave, and four each to judge and 
 notary for sessions (vacations') and writings. 
 
 One of the most interesting documents which has survived is 
 that giving the proceedings, 1786-87, on the death of Don Juan 
 Pedro Eon, cure and abbe, as Favrot calls him, of the district of 
 Mobile. On hearing the news the commandant, notary, and 
 witnesses went to the house, swore the attendants to there hav- 
 ing been nothing disturbed, and then viewed the body on the 
 bed in another room. His trunks and cabinets were sealed 
 with paper strips, to which the commandant affixed his own seal 
 in lack of a royal one, and all was put in charge of Fontanilla. 
 After the funeral the seals were broken, the property inven- 
 toried and appraised, and in due course sold to pay debts, as in 
 other cases, although he left sufficient money and paper. The 
 debts were few, one being to his washerwoman. The product 
 of the auction was 153 piastres two escalins. The debts were 
 74 piastres two escalins, including two piastres to the auction- 
 eer, one to the drummer, and the fees of judge and notary. 
 His coffin cost four piastres and was furnished by Mongoulas, 
 who figures on other such occasions. His net estate was 549 
 
348- COLONIAL MOBILE. 
 
 piastres 2|^ escallns, which was sent to Governor Miro to re- 
 main in the hands of the attorney of unclaimed goods {procu- 
 reur des biens vacants) until heirs appeared. With the money 
 were also sent a roll of manuscrijjt sermons and eighty-one 
 books. These last included seventeen volumes of "Confer- 
 ences Ecclesiastiques," five breviaries, five volumes of "Bour- 
 daloue's Sermons," sixteen of "Theologie Morale," two of 
 "Code Ecclesiastique," two of "Prelections Logiques," and 
 thirty-four books of prayers. This priest was a man of learn- 
 ing, and other effects show him to have been of some refine- 
 ment also. He had wine, oil, besides emjjty bottles and 
 "damejeannes," six knives, three spoons, four forks, six plates 
 of Rouen ware, four glass goblets, handkerchiefs, besides a 
 good deal in the way of clothing and bedding. He left tobacco 
 articles also. He must have been a man of some prominence, 
 for there were a good many letters from bishops, particularly 
 from Antoine Joseph des Laurents, bishop of St. Malo. From 
 orders among his assets, we learn that he was appointed by the 
 intendant and received a salary of thirty piastres a month, 
 besides fifty piastres a year for lights, bread and wine for the 
 church. 
 
 The articles belonging to this "chapelle" were carefully 
 separated, but everything else was auctioned off on December 
 30 and subsequent days. The officials worked as usual until 
 noon and from two to five o'clock p. m., but no longer, so that 
 the proceedings before and at the sale consumed several days. 
 The priest's clothes and things were bought by a number of 
 different parishioners. Saussaye bought some of his shirts, 
 Cassiano several suits; his socks went to Langevin, shoes to 
 Arnot (at a piastre and a half), razors to Dubroca ; and Saus- 
 saye paid three piastres for his "parasol." One could hardly 
 walk the streets for some time without seeing some souvenir of 
 the late pastor. 
 
 Settlement of estates was not necessarily any more prompt 
 under the Spanish than under the American dispensation. 
 Upon the death of Sieur Claude Dupont, one Augustin Moreau, 
 called Belleisle, resident on Pascagoula River, became admin- 
 istrator. There were several distributees, to wit, Marie Anne 
 Dupont, wife of Mathias Leflaux; Louison Dupont, wife of 
 Joseph Krebs; Jean Baptiste and Catherine Dupont; and 
 
JUDICIAL PROCEEDINGS. 349 
 
 Marie Jeanne Guillory, widow of Dupont, but then wife of 
 Moreau. This married widow petitioned and obtained from 
 Grimarest an arbitration in 1783, Chastang, Sr., Duret, and 
 Dubroca being selected. In some way they overlooked the 
 debts, and Moreau next year had the governor set aside their 
 award. The same arbitrators were continued, however, and, 
 deducting debts, they ascertained the balance to be 2,347 pias- 
 tres. Of this, half went to the widow, the rest to the four 
 heirs, all of whom in 1786 sign in satisfaction, renouncing all 
 right of appeal. In connection with this settlement we find 
 Favrot's grant (homologation^ of Jean Baptiste's request for 
 emancipation, and that Raphael Krebs be made his guardian 
 (suhroge tuteur), Jean Baptiste being only twenty-one years 
 old. 
 
 Favrot also exercised the right to emancipate slaves on the 
 owner's being paid the price fixed by arbitration. Pierre 
 Trouillet, for some reason (apparently the very good one of 
 paternity), wished Alexis, a young mulatto belonging to the 
 widow Rochon, to be freed, and demanded arbitrators. He 
 appointed one, she another, and the commandant a third. These 
 diJSered, and Favrot decided between them on 450 piastres. 
 Trouillet paid this to the widow, and the commandant issued 
 the emancipation papers at the fort. 
 
 We find Lanzos in November, 1793, taking depositions to 
 return to Pensacola in the matter of a runaway slave, copies 
 being: retained at Mobile. The statements were so taken under 
 oath on the petition of Josef Balenzategui, from whose schooner 
 at Mobile a negress valued at |350 had escaped as he was 
 about to take her to Pensacola to deliver Panton for "Tomas 
 Cornis," her owner. The facts brought out by examination of 
 Forbes and Fontanilla, all by question and answer, were that 
 in the preceding spring a trader named Francis, of Little River, 
 {Pequena JRivera) had for |100 Q)esos) ransomed the woman 
 from the savages, who were about to kill her, as they had her 
 runaway companion (marrori) for the murder of an Indian. 
 Francis seems to have turned the woman and the matter of her 
 salvage over to Forbes and he to the commandant, who asked 
 Fontanilla to take charge of her; but, as Fontanilla had no 
 accommodation, she was finally lodged in a calaboose (calavoso') 
 of the fort until a boat sailed. It happened to be Balenza- 
 
360 COLONIAL MOBILE. 
 
 tegui's, and he received her from a corporal, giving a receipt, 
 at first in pencil, but afterwards in ink and due form. That 
 night Balenzategui and the priest, McKenna, took supper at 
 Forbes' house, and the negress came in the room and asked 
 Forbes to buy her. Apparently she did not want to go back 
 to her master. But Forbes declined and told her to leave. 
 She did so, — to good effect, for when Balenzategui after supper 
 went down to the kitchen for her, she had disappeared. 
 
CHAPTER XXXIX. 
 
 THE DEMARCATION LINE AND THE LOUISIANA CESSION. 
 
 (Commandants, — 1795, Olivier ; 1798, Lanzos ; 1800, Perez ; 1801, 
 Osorno ; 1805, St. Maxent ; 1808, Salazar ; 1809, Perez.) 
 
 It would serve no good purpose to divide our subject into 
 periods corresponding with the rule of the later commandants. 
 They succeeded each other with too great frequency to leave 
 much individual impress on events, and, except Perez and 
 Osorno, none of them are much remembered. 
 
 The time from 1795, when Olivier succeeded Lanzos, to 1809, 
 does not present many notable features. Land grants were 
 less numerous, and, when the coxmtry had hardened into Span- 
 ish formality, there was little change, except that the Indian 
 trade improved considerably. 
 
 We have seen how Panton divided with Mather the com- 
 merce of West Florida, and now, as his firm comes to Mobile, 
 Mather and Strother disappear, and John Joyce, their suc- 
 cessor, turns contractor. As merchants of Mobile, Panton, 
 Leslie & Co. petitioned for a vacant lot on Royal Street running 
 back to the river, bounded north by land of Miguel Eslava, 
 south by vacant land. As granted September 16, 1795, the 
 lot had sixty feet front, and according to Olivier was eligibly 
 situated for commercial purposes. It was the northeast corner 
 of Royal and Government, extending eastwardly to the river. 
 
 Panton, Leslie & Co. had not been long in possession be- 
 fore they determined on a great improvement. Royal Street 
 was the front street up to that time, but this was only one of a 
 number of lots extending from the east side of Royal down 
 towards the river. It seems that a shell bank ran along in the 
 river the whole length of the Spanish city, near the shore, and 
 created a shallow lagoon about a hundred feet wide on the land 
 side, which in summer became stagnant and offensive. It also 
 interfered with ready access to water of loading depth. The 
 
352 COLONIAL MOBILE. 
 
 firm determined to fill up the marsh out to the shell reef, and 
 therefore filed a petition in due form. It was warmly indorsed 
 by Olivier, and on April 25, 1798, granted by Gayoso. 
 
 Such filling was quite necessary. Osorno in 1803 made a 
 grant to Gertrude Loysel on the same conditions. The lot 
 she desired was marshy, containing fifty -six feet front by one 
 hundred and thirteen deep, bounded south by the wharf, north 
 by lands of John Forbes (probably meaning the land just men- 
 tioned of Panton & Co.), east by the bay, and on the west by 
 the small cabin which served as a dwelling for the sailors of 
 this post. The reason given for the grant was, that filling up 
 the stagnant place would remove one of the principal causes of 
 fever every summer. Osorno recites that Intendant-general 
 Ramon Lopez de Angulo had previously granted like land to 
 Don Benito Caro to fill for similar reasons, but that grant has 
 not been preserved. In 1804 Espejo also received seventy by 
 one hundred and forty feet south of the wharf for the double 
 purpose of building a house for the manufacture of bread and 
 biscuit, to carry out his contract to supply garrison and public, 
 and to fill the lot and raise grain. He also promised to raise 
 the levee leading to high land. A similar concession is made 
 next to Espejo, extending his lot near Trenier, in the rear of 
 St. Joaquin Street, on condition he fills it; and another to 
 Mary Aygue, at the end of St. Francis Street (near the present 
 Methodist church), bounded north and west by the woods, — 
 both, although away from the river, liable to inundation from 
 the great quantity of water which ran from the woods, and stag- 
 nated and injured the public health.^ 
 
 The firm of Panton, Leslie & Co., which began this reclama- 
 tion, was destined, under that and the later name of John 
 Forbes & Co., to attain to great importance at Mobile and 
 Pensacola. It was composed at first of John Forbes, William 
 Panton, and John Leslie. 
 
 Panton was born in Aberdeenshire, Scotland, and, moving to 
 America, he acquired property in South Carolina and Georgia. 
 The American war, however, made him a refugee, and by 
 
 * Mobile Translated Records, pp. 305, 306, 308. Ramon de Lopez y 
 Angullo became intendant In 1799 ; 2 Martin's Louisiana, p. 172. Many 
 interesting facts have also been gathered from Espejo's papers in the posses- 
 sion of his granddaughter, Mrs. Henry Barnewall, of Mobile. 
 
THE LOUISIANA CESSION. 353 
 
 1785, if not before (Pickett says 1781), he was in business at 
 Pensacola.^ He made a specialty of the Indian trade, in which 
 the firm was aided by the celebrated chief, Alexander McGilli- 
 vray, who is said to have been a silent partner. By 1789 
 Panton, Leslie & Co. are said to have carried at their chief 
 store a stock of |50,000, for they had extensive skin-houses 
 and employed fifteen clerks. Their fleet at one time consisted 
 of fifteen schooners, and they had branch stores at St. John's, 
 St. Mark's, St. Augustine, Mobile, and a trading establish- 
 ment at Chickasaw Bluff (near modern Memphis) on the Mis- 
 sissippi River. John Forbes was once in their house at New 
 Providence, but in 1793, when he was twenty-four years old, 
 we find him with a home in Mobile, and testifying that he was 
 a member of the firm. In this proceeding he is spoken of as 
 an Englishman of Tensaw {Ingles de Tinza). In 1799 Elli- 
 cott found him residing in Mobile. On the withdrawal of the 
 interests of Panton and Leslie, John Innerarity and James 
 Innerarity took their places. All were related by blood or 
 marriage. The change of name was in 1804, on the death of 
 Panton, who lived at Pensacola.^ Forbes was the son of James 
 Forbes and Sarah Gordon, of Scotland, and at least two sisters 
 outlived him in the old country. In the latter part of his life 
 John Forbes was to live at Matanzas, Cuba. He never mar- 
 ried, but left two daughters.^ 
 
 There had been constant friction, more especially on the 
 Mississippi, between the western settlers and the Spanish offi- 
 cials. The mouths of the western and southern rivers were all 
 held by Spain, who would let no goods go up or down without 
 heavy duties. 
 
 The new American constitution substituted a strong govern- 
 ment for the old rope of sand, while on the other hand the 
 French Revolution and Napoleonic wars weakened Spain. 
 These two facts changed the history of America. Instead of 
 Spain's annexing portions of the United States, this country 
 took advantage of Spain's weakness, and, carrying out the 
 plans of John Jay, — who, as envoy in Revolutionary days, 
 
 1 2 Pickett's Alabama, pp. 61, 97; Pintado in 2 White's New Recopila- 
 cion, p. 361 ; EUicott's Journal, p. 211. 
 
 2 Meek's Southwest, p. 93. 
 
 3 Forbes' Will, 1 Mobile Will Book, p. 153. 
 
354 COLONIAL MOBILE. 
 
 had asked Spanish recognition only if navigation of the Missis- 
 sippi was conceded, — forced the Pinckney treaty of 1795. This 
 assented to the boundary of 31° named by Great Britain in 
 1783, and, in opening the Mississippi, conceded also the right 
 of deposit or warehousing of merchandise at the mouth of the 
 river. 
 
 The Spanish officials still hammered at the old plan of sepa- 
 ration, now become treasonable because unnecessary. Wilkin- 
 son, at Detroit, was the American commanding general and 
 pronounced the scheme chimerical ; but there is every reason to 
 believe that he did not refuse money still. 
 
 The Spaniards put off delimiting the boundary of 31° as 
 long as they could, but, when Gayoso was in 1798 almost be- 
 sieged in his fort by indignant American settlers, he yielded. 
 This boundary became the south line of the Mississippi terri- 
 tory created that year. 
 
 The running of the line is mentioned in 1798 as then in pro- 
 gress. Where it would exactly strike no one knew, and for a 
 year or two the Tombigbee settlers were in uncertainty. Law- 
 rence McDonald, for example, was an Indian trader for 
 Panton, Leslie & Co., and Lanzos certifies that McDonald 
 desired to locate in Mobile because he did not wish "to live 
 under the government of the United States of America." Such 
 devotion was appreciated, and he obtained a lot on the north 
 side of "Government " ten by twenty toises. But the lot next 
 north was vacant, and there is nothing whereby to locate this 
 our first refugee. 
 
 The Journal of Andrew EUicott, kept from 1796 to 1800, 
 was published at Philadelphia in 1803, and contains the 
 observations of this American commissioner in running the new 
 boundary. He seems to have begun work near the Mississippi 
 River on April 11, 1798, and worked eastwardly towards 
 Mobile. His movements are not always intelligible to a lay- 
 man, but we learn that he found the observatory already erected 
 when he arrived at the end of the guide line on the Mobile 
 River. Setting up his instruments there March 18, 1799, he 
 completed a course of observations by April 9. He also sent 
 his assistant Gillespie with a Hadley's sextant up to Fort St. 
 Stephens to take the latitude of that place and make a sketch 
 of the river, which was duly done. 
 
THE LOUISIANA CESSION. 355 
 
 The observations made resulted in fixing the boundary stone 
 on a rise between what are now Cold Creek and Chastang's 
 stations, on the Mobile and Birmingham Railroad, This 
 irregular piece of brown sandstone, about three feet high, is 
 still there, visible from the railroad, and called EUicott's Stone. 
 
 ELLICOTT'S STONE. 
 
 It is the basis of all surveying in this part of Alabama. On 
 the north side is, — "U. S. Lat. 31° 1799; " and on the south 
 side, "Dominios de S. M. Carlos IV. Lat. 31° 1799." 
 
 The Journal reads : ^ " One serious difficulty presented itself, 
 that was the continuation of the line tlirough tlie swamp, 
 which is at all times almost impenetrable; but at that season 
 of the year absolutely so : being wholly inundated : — But 
 fortunately we found in the neighborhood of our camp a 
 1 EUicott's Journal, p. 198. 
 
366 COLONIAL MOBILE. 
 
 small hill, the summit of which was just elevated above the 
 tops of the trees in the swamp. From the top of this hill, we 
 could plainly discover the pine trees on the high land, on the 
 east side. Upon ascertaining this fact, we sent a party through 
 to the other side, (along the water courses, by which the swamp 
 is intersected in various directions), with orders to make a large 
 fire in the night with light-wood ; the same was likewise to be 
 done on the hill before mentioned, to obtain nearly the direc- 
 tion from one place to the other. — The atmosphere was too 
 much filled with smoke to discern a flag or other signal, the 
 woods being on fire on both sides of the swamp. — It happened 
 unfortunately that the day before our fires were to be lighted, 
 the fires in the woods had extended over almost the whole of the 
 highlands, on both sides of the swamp; by which so many 
 dead trees were set on fire, that there was no possibility of dis- 
 criminating between them, and our fires. — It was then agreed 
 that the parties should light up, and extinguish their fires a 
 certain number of times ; making stated intervals. — This suc- 
 ceeded so well, that we became certain of not taking a wrong 
 fire in determining the angles. — Contrary to our expectations, 
 a heavy rain fell on the same night, a short time after we had 
 finished the experiment, and extinguished all the fires in the 
 woods. — The storm cleared off with a strong north-west wind, 
 which carried off all the smoke, and enabled us to determine 
 the angles in the day, by erecting signals, which was accom- 
 plished on the second day of April." 
 
 Ellicott notes that Mobile Bay and River make up the most 
 important waterway between the Mississippi and the Atlantic, 
 because of the inlet they offer for an enemy like the Spaniards 
 to penetrate into the interior. 
 
 Running this line lasted some time and cost the Spaniards 
 over $150, 000. It narrowed West Florida to a width of only 
 forty to ninety miles, with a length of 450 miles. According 
 to Pintado, himself at this time deputy surveyor of the pro- 
 vince, "before the establishment of these limits West Florida 
 was so bare of inhabitants to the south of them that, excepting 
 the part of the Mississippi which appertains to it, and the towns 
 of Mobile and Pensacola, the rest was a complete desert, and, 
 exclusive of the garrison of the two last places, and the posts 
 of St. Mark's of Appalachy and Baton Rouge, there were only 
 
THE LOUISIANA CESSION. 357 
 
 counted eight hundred men, in all the extension of the province, 
 capable of bearing arms, and these of all classes and nations, 
 amongst them very few S^janiards ; indeed, the number of these 
 was not sixty. The emigration of the evacuated posts procured 
 for West Florida a great number of colonists, which daily 
 increased, to whom lands were granted by the government of 
 Louisiana ; but the greater part of these were Anglo-Americans, 
 some Irish and Scotch, a few Germans, and about a dozen 
 of Spaniards, the most of them unmarried." ^ 
 
 A change of the method of granting lands was made at the 
 time of this delimitation, and doubtless had some connection 
 with the advance of the American frontier. From 1770 the 
 granting power had vested in the governor of the province; but 
 a royal order given October 22, 1798, in San Lorenzo, changed 
 this and conferred the authority exclusively on the intendant, 
 by whom it was exercised ever afterwards.^ Intendant Juan 
 Ventura Morales thereupon promulgated a set of regulations 
 on the subject. 
 
 December 23, 1800, we first find Joaquin de Osorno, captain 
 of the regiment of Louisiana infantry, acting in the capacity 
 of "Political and Military Commandant," and yet Cayetano 
 Perez sometimes takes acknowledgments of deeds. This was 
 the case August 31, 1801, when Osorno himself bought from 
 Francis Fontanilla the well-known lot, 114 feet front by 126 
 deep, "bounded on the north by the King's Bakehouse, on the 
 east by a lot belonging to the estate of John Joyce, deceased, 
 on the south fronting on the square of the Fort, and on the west 
 by St. Emanuel Street," with building materials. The price 
 was 1200 cash. 
 
 Osorno happens to be (in 1801) the first person to whom 
 there was a bill of sale of slaves which is preserved in our 
 Translated Records, and he as commandant in 1803 has the 
 honor of making the first grant of lands on record for the 
 express purpose of cultivating cotton, plantations for which, 
 he says, would contribiite greatly to encourage industry in this 
 jvu'isdiction. It is a concession to Miguel Desiderio Ardaz of 
 twenty arpens front one league from the town, bounded north 
 
 1 2 White's New Recopilacion, p. 398 ; 2 Martin's Louisiana, p. 221. 
 
 2 2 White's New Recopilacion, p. 339. The regulations are given in an 
 appendix to 3 Gayarr^'s History of Louisiana, p. 632. 
 
358 COLONIAL MOBILE. 
 
 by Semanclaville, — doubtless Lansemandeville,^ on the Bay 
 Shell Road. It is a coincidence that, half a mile lower down 
 the road from that spot, about 1836, S. H. Garrow made the 
 first oil obtained from expressing cotton-seed. 
 
 By official letter of Juan Ventura Morales dated December 
 1, 1802, "the sub-delegation at this place" (Mobile) was in- 
 structed not to transmit to his tribunal petitions for grants of 
 land, as the same was closed in consequence of the death of the 
 assessor-general.^ But this did not prevent the commandant 
 from granting provisional titles. The provident Eslava, in 
 consideration of his great public services, received several in 
 this way, one tract being that between Favre and De Lusser, 
 afterwards to be known in front as the CoUell Tract. One of 
 the largest grants was that by Osorno in 1803 of what is called 
 the Eslava Mill Tract; and the Dubroca, Espejo, and other 
 concessions by Osorno date from about the same time, and were 
 due to fear of cession to the United States.^ 
 
 There is no peaceful event in United States history of greater 
 importance than the purchase of Louisiana from Napoleon, 
 April 30, 1803, after he had secured its retrocession from 
 Spain. The United States were to claim vigorously that they 
 bought to the Perdido, and the Federal courts were to decide 
 that all Spanish grants after this retrocession of October 1, 
 1800, at St. Ildefonso, were null and void. It was morally cer- 
 tain that sooner or later Mobile, and Florida, too, must go to 
 round off the frontier of the great republic, and Eslava was 
 not the only one who acquired concessions to keep from want 
 when change of flag would take away his employment. But 
 Spain ever maintained that Mobile had been in 1763 severed 
 from Louisiana as much as the Ohio country had been, and then 
 by the British made a part of West Florida ; that it had been 
 conquered by Galvez and administered by his successors as part 
 of her West Florida, and was never ceded with Louisiana to 
 France. Talleyrand admitted Spain did not intend to cede it, 
 but his fine hand purposely left it uncertain whether France 
 had claimed it as retroceded. It was considered of little value, 
 — the seat, according to Duvallon, only of fishermen. In point 
 
 ^ Mobile Translated Records, p. 300. 
 2 Ibid., pp. 294, 295. 
 " See Appendix D. 
 
THE LOUISIANA CESSION. 359 
 
 »f fact, Spain calmly held on to Mobile and Baton Rouge. 
 But it did unsettle matters, and this we see reflected in land 
 grants and in the emigration of inhabitants. An unofficial 
 census for 1803 puts the population at 810 only. The king 
 seems to have kept but a launch there, manned by two sail- 
 ors,^ who received $10 a month and rations. 
 
 The principal effect of the cession was, that New Orleans 
 ceased to have any connection with Mobile, and that Mobilians 
 had as in British times to look to Pensacola as their capital, 
 although it was not half as large as Mobile. There Governor 
 Folch resided, and from there now issued all regulations about 
 land as well as political matters. 
 
 Folch and Intendant Morales were bitter enemies, and, when 
 Morales was in effect ejected from New Orleans by Claiborne 
 in 1806, the governor stationed troops at Mobile Point to pre- 
 vent his getting any nearer Pensacola.^ The intendant, he 
 said, could put his records in Fort Charlotte. However, 
 Morales did get to the capital, and in August, 1807, we find him 
 describing himself as "Intendant and Superintendent-General, 
 Sub-delegate of West Florida, Judge of Public Lands." Offi- 
 cially the office of the intendancy was at Pensacola from Feb- 
 ruary, 1806.^ 
 
 Delays were not infrequent in grants before and after the 
 cession. Byrnes was in occupancy several years before getting 
 title, and John Trouillet fared worse. In 1787 he had peti- 
 tioned for a tract of land at Bayou Minet forty (twenty?) by 
 forty arpens, and promptly enough was granted it. The sur- 
 vey, however, did not take place, and after a while Trouillet 
 died. In 1806 his widow revived the claim, and after several 
 decrees the commandant at Mobile was directed to have a sur- 
 vey made and return the result. This was not at first done, 
 but John Forbes, becoming her attorney, the next year pushed 
 the matter through. Collins surveyed the land April 13. Pin- 
 tado recorded Collins' survey and returned a plat. Morales 
 on August 14, 1807, issued a title to the widow Feliciana from 
 Pensacola for 800 arpens, sealed with his armorial bearings and 
 
 * Duvallon's Vue de la Col. Esp. du Mississippi, p. 65, Paris, 1803 ; 2 Mar- 
 tin's Louisiana, pp. 205, 254 ; 9 Howard Rep. (U. S.), p. 127. 
 
 * 4 Gayarr^'s Louisiana, pp. 69, 70. 
 
 * 2 White's New Recopilacion, p. 368 ; Mobile Translated Records, p. 344. 
 
360 COLONIAL MOBILE. 
 
 countersigned by Francis Gutierrez de Arroyo, secretary ad 
 interim of the intendancy, in whose office, as well as in that of 
 John Francis Arnaud de Courville, the office of the exchequer 
 of the principal minister of finance of West Florida, it is said 
 the grant was duly registered, in folios 68-70 and 94-95 respec- 
 tively of the books kept for that purpose.^ 
 
 It was seldom such a patent was issued, for it was expensive 
 and the government respected the permits as titles. ^ The Mobile 
 Translated Records after 1798 are made up as a rule, not of 
 true grants, but of petitions and permits to settle on condition of 
 cultivation, with indorsed orders of survey. The theory of the 
 American confirmations later was, not that such title was per- 
 fect, but that, where the conditions had been carried out, and 
 so proved before Federal commissioners, the title ought to be 
 confirmed, because the Spanish government should and would 
 on application have furnished such a complete title. 
 
 Don Francisco Gutierrez de Arroyo has preserved for us the 
 proceedings of a junta which seems to control the royal finance 
 and land business, too. This, he says, was "held on the 22d 
 of November, 1806, by the order of Don Juan Ventura 
 Morales, provisory honorary intendant of province in this pro- 
 vince, with the sub-delegation of this superintendency -general 
 of royal finances annexed, at which were present Doctor Don 
 Jose Francisco de Heredia, assessor of the said intendancy; 
 Don Juan Francisco Arnaud de Courville, accounting officer 
 and treasurer of these royal treasuries, with the rank of a royal 
 officer, and acting as fiscal of royal finances; Don Manuel 
 Gonzales Armirez, formerly provisory treasurer of the royal 
 treasury of New Orleans, and commissioned to conclude the 
 unfinished business of the retroceded province of Louisiana; 
 and I, the aforesaid provisory secretary of this intendancy of 
 the Junta, with a vote in it; the said intendant presiding." 
 
 The action of this august tribunal related to the aggressive 
 Americans. Louisiana was lost, and if they became numerous 
 in West Florida they would certainly overpower the Spaniards 
 even there. A royal order of February 20, 1805, had been 
 issued against their acquiring lands, and the junta was to devise 
 details for carrying that out. This they did by declaring that 
 
 1 Translated Records, pp. 344-346. 
 ^ 2 White's New Recopilacion, p. 691. 
 
THE LOUISIANA CESSION. 361 
 
 no gratuitous concession could be made to one of Anglo-Ameri- 
 can origin, but that sales at the usual price of -$2.00 an acre 
 (copied from the American price in Louisiana) could be made 
 to all, regardless of origin, who then were Spanish subjects. 
 This determination included Mobile as well as Baton Rouge and 
 Pensacola.^ 
 
 It was apparently this junta, certainly "the department of 
 finances," which earlier in the year had notified Captain Don 
 Vincente Sebastian Pintado that he had been raised to the 
 ofiice of surveyor-general of West Florida on the withdrawal 
 of Captain Don Carlos Trudeau, to whom he had been deputy 
 since May 1, 1796. The appointment was December 13, 1805, 
 but the royal approval dated from May 9 of next year. His 
 work fixed many titles in West Florida, and both in deeds and 
 elsewhere he sometimes gives us the basis of his surveys. "It 
 is to be observed," he says, "the arpent of Paris, of which use 
 was made in Louisiana and West Florida during the Spanish 
 domination, is a square whose side is of ten perches of Paris, 
 and of course contains 100 square perches ; the lineal perch of 
 Paris is of eighteen feet of the same city. The acres are those 
 used by the English in the Floridas, and 512 of these are equal 
 to 605 arpents of Paris." ^ As to fees, we find nine dollars 
 paid on one occasion, but this hardly included the survey. 
 
 No doubt the surveyor could identify the "Old Brick Yard 
 abandoned, four arpens front, bounded east by a small ravine 
 formerly used as a washing place, north by the road, and on the 
 other sides by public lands; " but we cannot, unless it be Espe- 
 jo's, in what was to be the Favre Tract. Similar puzzles abound 
 in the records, and, like the statement of points of the compass, 
 are the despair of an archaeologist.^ We shall have occasion to 
 note several of these brickyards. We see them also up Mobile 
 River, near Bay Minette, and several at Red Bluff, near our 
 Montrose. Forbes & Company seem to have sued Feliciana 
 respecting the legal right to an 150 arpen tract, on the oppo- 
 site side of the Bay of Mobile, valuable because on it there 
 was a brick and a tile yard, with buildings, and obtained in 
 1810 a favorable judgment. The merits of the controversy are 
 
 ^ 2 White's New Recopilacion, pp. 401-403. 
 
 2 Ibid., pp. 338, 347. 
 
 ^ Mobile Translated Records, p. 261. 
 
362 COLONIAL MOBILE. 
 
 not disclosed, but her brother and executor, Eugene Chastang, 
 whose son was a beneficiary under her will, on account of need 
 of money for legacies and to save other more valuable property, 
 finally sold the tract to John Forbes & Co. 
 
 Sawmills were, if anything, even more needed than brick- 
 kilns, and there are references which betray their existence at 
 different points. There had been a French sawmill as far 
 away as Pascagoula, and in 1802 there was one called Durand's, 
 west of the Mandeville Tract. There are traces of a number 
 of them about Mobile, and a creek twelve miles above the city 
 was named Sawmill Creek. Folch's first appearance as gov- 
 ernor-general is as encouraging Gerald and Thomas Byrne 
 to erect their proposed sawmill. While the site is not stated, 
 it was probably on Tensaw River, where the Byrne grant has 
 long been known. 
 
 Other local officials there were, although the surveyor and 
 commandant overshadowed every one. The Indian interpreter 
 was a necessary officer. For a long time it was Pierre Juzan, 
 but he died, and from Perez' second term it was J. B. Trenier. 
 Artola and Bongarzon are mentioned as custom-house guards. 
 Thomas Price was to receive in 1798 and 1806 rather dispro- 
 portionate recompense for his work as interpreter ; and we have 
 already seen that Eslava, royal quartermaster for so long, 
 became an extensive investor at public auctions of lands. 
 Eafael Hidalgo was surgeon of the hospital during much of the 
 Spanish regime, and is often in the records before his death 
 in 1811. He lived with his wife, Elizabeth Chastang, daugh- 
 ter of Joseph Chastang, in a house they built at the southwest 
 corner of our St. Emanuel and Conti. It was purchased in 1797 
 from Chastang, and was to be the subject of litigation in Ameri- 
 can times on account of a deed of Hidalgo to Registe Bernoudy ; 
 but the claimants under Bernoudy were barred by time. 
 
 The case is interesting as upholding the title of the widow 
 under the Spanish law (2 Partidas, 1101) to inherit from the 
 husband in default of blood kin, and as showing that she might 
 supposably become a rich woman in this way. For Hidalgo's 
 widow married several times. About 1813 she married 
 Michael Perrault and lived there with him until 1818 or 1819, 
 when he died, and she then married Victor Gannard. They, 
 too, lived in the same place for some years, but she died else- 
 
THE LOUISIANA CESSION. 363 
 
 where in 1824, herself without issue, and Gannard was her 
 devisee.^ 
 
 Antonio Espejo was also an active citizen. He was a son of 
 Bartolome Espejo, of Ronda, in the diocese of Malaga. He 
 lived in the house he built near the wharf, and only visited his 
 ranches on Portage and Salto bayous. His death occurred in 
 1805 of yellow fever, caught from an Havana vessel, possibly 
 the first death in Spanish times from that dread disease. The 
 Tankersleys and Ingersolls are his descendants. 
 
 ^ Baker v. Chastang, 18 Ala. pp. 418, etc. 
 
CHAPTER XL. 
 
 CHURCH OF THE IMMACULATE CONCEPTION. 
 
 Under the Spaniards, Mobile and Pensacola were subject 
 to the same ecclesiastical authority as New Orleans, but, for- 
 tunately, escaped the scandalous dissensions which disgraced 
 church government on the Mississippi. Louisiana and Florida 
 under Spain were part of the diocese of Santiago de Cuba, 
 whose bishop was James Joseph de Echeverria.^ After 
 O'Reilly had subjugated Louisiana, this bishop in 1772 sent 
 the Capuchin Fray Cyril de Barcelona to New Orleans as his 
 vicar, with four Spanish fathers of that order, none of whom 
 came to Mobile. One was the Antonio de Sedella who as 
 parish priest of New Orleans proved so insubordinate to the 
 bishop, and was shipped back to Spain in 1787 by the gov- 
 ernor for trying to introduce the Inquisition into this country. 
 The year after Mobile was conquered, Cyril was from Rome 
 appointed Bishop of Tricali and Auxiliar of Santiago de Cuba,^ 
 but his actual diocese included New Orleans, Mobile, and Pen- 
 sacola, and on account of these extensive visitations he was 
 allowed $4000 in addition to his regular $3000 salary. 
 
 Cyril, both as vicar and as bishop, endeavored to reform the 
 morals of priests and people of Louisiana, but met with secret 
 apathy, if not open hostility. In 1786 he found it necessary to 
 issue a pastoral calling more especially for the better obser- 
 vance of Sunday.^ To his other difficulties was added that of 
 race antagonism, for it was long before the French of Louisiana 
 became reconciled to Spanish rule. 
 
 The change of name of the Mobile parish to "Yglesia de 
 Purissima Concepcion " seems to be due to Don Jose Espeleta, 
 colonel of the infantry of Navarre, and from March 12, 1780, 
 its records are in Spanish. The Immaculate Conception was 
 
 1 Shea's Archbishop Carroll, p. 543. 
 
 a Ibid., p. 547. s md,^ p. 557. 
 
CHURCH OF THE IMMACULATE CONCEPTION. 365 
 
 then a favorite Spanish dogma, and we find it even in the oath 
 of the officials of Louisiana.^ The new name of the church 
 may have been the origin of that of Conception Street, where 
 the old building was situated. 
 
 The number of pastors is surprising, — thirteen until Ameri- 
 can times ; but we read of the burial of at least two at their 
 post. The first entries in the church records are by Fr. Salva- 
 dor de Esperanza, who describes himself as " religioso mercena- 
 rio y Parroco," — parish priest of the Mercedarian order. 
 Almost his first duty was to inter Augustin Rochon. 
 
 In June, 1781, begins in his stead Fr. Carlos de Veles, of the 
 Capuchin order, who was both pastor of the city and chaplain 
 of the garrison. Carlos prefers the term "campo santo" in- 
 stead of the "cimenterio" of Salvador. Later priests use the 
 two terms interchangeably. He buried Simon Fabre and 
 Louis Carrier, but on June 5, 1783, Miguel Lamport records 
 the interment of Rev. Padre Carlos himself. 
 
 Then comes Fr. Francisco Notario, a Dominican, as cura 
 and capellan, and, in the fall of 1784, Fr. Joseph de Arazena, 
 a Capuchin. He speaks of Mobile sometimes as "ViUa," 
 as did the others before him, but also sometimes as "Plaza de 
 la Movila." He had previously been at Iberville, Louisiana.^ 
 
 It is in the time of Arazena that we have the long entry, 
 attested by Dubroca, Chastang Sr., Duret, Brontin, Landry, 
 and others, dated December 25, 1784, which recites that El 
 Sr. Dn. Henrique Grimarest, lieutenant -colonel of the army of 
 his Catholic Majesty, actual "Governador y el Primero" since 
 the Conquest, lost his wife Da. Anna Narbona, December 26, 
 1788, and that she was buried in the public cemetery of the 
 parish. On this anniversary he builds a brick vault for her 
 remains and as his family tomb, and her obsequies are then 
 duly celebrated. It is remarked incidentally that the church in 
 use was in a ruinous state, and agreed that, if the king or 
 inhabitants should rebuild it elsewhere, Grimarest would simi- 
 larly change the location of the vault. She as well as he are 
 spoken of in the highest terms. 
 
 In 1785 are entries in French by I'Abbe de Levergy (Les- 
 cuses, according to Shea) ^ as cure ; but next year Pedro Juan 
 1 Shea's Archbishop Carroll, pp. 191, 543. 2 /jj^_^ p, 545 
 
 3 Ibid., p. 192 n. 
 
366 COLONIAL MOBILE. 
 
 Eon writes in Spanish again. Eon we know was a man of 
 means, and learning too, but he died soon. 
 
 In 1787 is recorded by Lamport the death of Louis Bodin. 
 Most of the entries relate to Spaniards, from Malaga, Se- 
 villa, Galicia, etc., generally soldiers or officials; but in the 
 next year we find an exception in Joseph Calvert, a native of 
 "la provincia de la Virginia, en los Estados Unido," who had 
 been duly received into the church. The weU-known Lamport 
 and McKenna were among the Irish priests sent over from the 
 College of Salamanca in 1787 to convert and hold the English 
 in Louisiana and Florida.^ 
 
 From December, 1789, for three years, we have Fr. Manuel 
 Garcia, a Franciscan, as parish cura, who speaks of Mobile as 
 "Ciudad de la Movila," the title which he uses also for the City 
 of Mexico. It became his duty in 1790 to bury his predeces- 
 sor, Dr. Miguel Lamport, "Clerigo Presbutero y Cura." 
 
 In December, 1792, begins Constantine McKenna as "Cura 
 Parroco," and he next year officiated at the funeral of Antonio 
 Narbonne, captain of infantry, and two years later at that of 
 Don Pedro Trouillet. In the time of McKenna came the 
 rebuilding of the church, which was needed even eight years 
 before. 
 
 The kings of Spain, under Ferdinand's contract with Popes 
 Alexander VI. and Julius II., in consideration of obtaining for 
 the sovereign all tithes and the right of patronage, became 
 bound to provide for religious instruction in America, and 
 therefore to build churches. 
 
 In 1792 the De Lusser heirs for $200 sold two lots, of twelve 
 and a half toises front by twenty-five deep, to the king for the 
 sole use and purpose of erecting thereon a parish church and 
 dwelling-house for the parish priest, but with the privilege of 
 holding or selling the premises at his sovereign pleasure. It 
 was part of the property acquired by Mme. De Lusser, 1757, 
 from Governor Kerlerec.^ 
 
 This land was at the northwest corner of Conti and Royal 
 streets. On the corner lot was duly erected the parsonage, and 
 on the next, facing Royal, the parochial church, destined to 
 survive imtil 1827. In the public archives Lanzos commemo- 
 
 * Shea's Archbishop Carroll, p. 557. 
 2 Mobile Translated Records, p. 121. 
 
CHURCH OF THE IMMACULATE CONCEPTION. 367 
 
 rates the march of the garrison behind McKenna, as he bore 
 the cross from the old church to the new foundation, where the 
 corner-stone was duly laid, January 31, 1793. The whole 
 work, including parsonage (casa) as well as church, was duly 
 completed by Joyce, the contractor, and on May 22, after 
 official inspection by carpenters, masons, and blacksmiths com- 
 missioned by the commandant, accepted for the crown. It may 
 be that the erection of this new church was due to the energy of 
 McKenna and the influence of Bishop Cyril. This bishop 
 may have lacked in tact, but certainly not in good works and 
 intentions for the prosperity of his see. 
 
 Cyril has been badly treated by history. His efforts for the 
 reform of the Gulf coast proved almost fruitless, and the king 
 relieved him of his office in 1793 and directed him to return 
 to Spain. 1 He went to Havana, however, and was still there 
 in 1799. The reason alleged for deposing him was, "the 
 deplorable state of religion and ecclesiastical discipline," and 
 to correct this the provinces of Louisiana and Florida were 
 next erected into a diocese, bounded east by the American see 
 of Baltimore and west by the Mexican sees of Linares and 
 Durango.2 
 
 The first bishop was Louis Penalver y Cardenas, a native of 
 Havana, a good and experienced man, who arrived at New 
 Orleans in July, 1795. He found the inhabitants very lax in 
 their church duties, much of it being due to intermixture of 
 Protestants and to the democratic and free-thinking tendency 
 of the French. Penalver issued regulations on taking charge, 
 which relate more especially to the conduct of the clergy, and 
 then set about visiting the different parishes. In 1798 is a 
 memorandum of a visitation at Mobile, but the entry of "visi- 
 tado " on the Mobile register is signed, not by the bishop, but 
 by a " secretario, " whose name seems to be Ysidro Quintero. 
 In this year we know Penalver was at Pensacola,^ and there can 
 be little doubt the entry was made while the clear eyes of his 
 round, mother-like face were overseeing the affairs of Mobile, 
 too. 
 
 The cession of Louisiana to France in 1800 was not generally 
 known, but when Penalver in 1801 was promoted to the see of 
 
 1 Shea's Archbishop Carroll, pp. 568, 569. ^ Ibid., p. 570. 
 
 8 Ibid., p. 579. 
 
368 COLONIAL MOBILE. 
 
 Guatemala his place in Louisiana and Florida was not filled. 
 Canon Thomas Hassett and Rev. Patrick Walsh were appointed 
 administrators of the diocese by Penalver when he left, but 
 Hassett soon died, leaving Walsh to fight it out with the schis- 
 matic Sedella in New Orleans. 
 
 Mobile escaped that scandal. The bishop of Havana ex- 
 tended his authority over the Florida portion of the diocese, 
 and this lasted until a rearrangement in American times, when 
 Michael Portier became vicar-apostolic of Alabama and Mis- 
 sissippi.^ 
 
 McKenna is probably the best known of the Spanish priests, 
 and his flowing English hand is much more legible than that 
 of his predecessors. He generally speaks of the church as 
 "Iglesia de Nra. Sra. de la Mobila," which denotes no change 
 of name, for he often has "Nra. Sra. de la Concepcion" also. 
 In his time came the deaths of Santiago de la Saussaye and 
 Valentin Dubroca, among other well-known names. 
 
 From 1800 we have pastor Juan Francisco Vaugeois, whose 
 entries are peculiar in that the "Juan Francisco" is always in 
 the handwriting of the main entry, while the "Vaugeois" is a 
 regular and separate signature, with flourish, in another hand. 
 To him it fell to administer the last rites of his church to 
 Toinette Dufey, Pedro Juzan, Simon de Castro, and Domingo 
 Dolive. At the Castro interment we find witnesses, — almost 
 the only instance under the Spaniards; and they are Antonio 
 Espejo and Rafael Hidalgo. The surgeon's is in a neat, small 
 backhand, while the other is almost undecipherable. 
 
 A separate register was kept for negroes, who are generally 
 slaves, although free mulattoes occur, — such as Juan Batista 
 Lusser in 1797. The only difference in the style of entry, and 
 that possibly unintentional, is that for "body" the word in the 
 white register is "cuerpo;" in the colored, "cadaver." The 
 free colored persons held slaves themselves. One or more is 
 mentioned of Julia Vilard, and at least two of Simon Andry. 
 A number of slaves are mentioned of the house of Forbes, — 
 " de la Casa de Dn. Juan Forbes." 
 
 This negro register comes down later than the other, and 
 shows two entries in 1807 by Sebastian Pili (or Piti\ and others 
 the next year by Dn. (or Dr.) Francisco Lennon, both appar- 
 1 Shea's Archbishop Carroll, pp. 585, 689. 
 
MOBILE IN 1802 
 
CHURCH OF THE IMMACULATE CONCEPTION. 369 
 
 ently acting as pastors ad interim. In 1809 began Vicente 
 Genin, who continued until 1823. 
 
 The parsonage lot was 65 French feet on Royal by 150 on 
 Conti (then called Church), and the church grounds next north 
 had a front of 85 feet. The parsonage had a house, outbuild- 
 ings, and fruit trees. It was the regular residence of the 
 acting priest, although we also find McKenna obtaining a grant 
 to a larger place at the north end of Royal (16 by 20 toises), 
 probably above St. Anthony. He said he wanted to have more 
 room for a garden and stock. He only kept the new lot a 
 short time, for he sold it in 1800 for i50 to John Forbes & Co. 
 It was probably too far from the scene of his duties at the 
 church and hospital.^ 
 
 Pastor Vaugeois lived in the old parsonage until 1803, but 
 the authorities allowed it to become so dilapidated, that, fear- 
 ing it would fall on his head, he moved out in that year, and by 
 direction of the intendant rented a house somewhere in the 
 suburbs for ten dollars a month. The parsonage was leased 
 out to less timid tenants, and in the winter of 1806-7 Dr. 
 William E. Kennedy occupied it at a rental of six dollars a 
 month, he making necessary repairs. Kennedy had taken the 
 oath of allegiance to the Spanish king, and was therefore per- 
 mitted by Governor-General Folch and Commandant Osorno to 
 settle in Mobile and practice medicine. 
 
 Vaugeois, also, found his residence too far from his duties, 
 and on January 27, 1807, while in Pensacola, petitioned 
 Morales to be allowed to purchase the old parsonage at some 
 fair valuation. It seems that a friend of his had promised to 
 make repairs if Vaugeois bought the place. ^ 
 
 But other applicants appeared, when St. Maxent, after consid- 
 ering this, reported that the place should be rejaaired or sold. 
 Two weeks later Thomas Price asked for it, in consideration of 
 having had to sell his own house from not receiving for two 
 years pay as interpreter; and the same day Kennedy asks that 
 it be sold at auction, as he, too, would like to make a bid on it, 
 — rather scouting the idea of a private sale to the priest or 
 any one else. 
 
 1 Mobile Translated Records, pp. 235, 267. 
 
 ^ Kennedy v. Collins, printed record for U. S. Sup. Ct. See 10 How. Rep., 
 p. 174. 
 
370 COLONIAL MOBILE. 
 
 Morales issued a decree of sale on February 18, 1807, direct- 
 ing the commandant to advertise it by posting bills three times, 
 nine days at a time, and to appoint two mechanics to appraise 
 the house and two citizens to appraise the ground, all, as usual, 
 to act under oath and in the presence of assisting witnesses. 
 Proposals would be received by the commandant pending the 
 advertisement. 
 
 St. Maxent appointed as assisting witnesses to notify sur- 
 veyor, appraisers, etc., Francisco Canedo and Rafael Suez, for 
 want of a royal notary public in Mobile, and they were duly 
 sworn. Canedo we often find attesting conveyances in the same 
 capacity. All of the appointees were duly sworn, and acted in 
 their respective capacities. As carpenters we have Antonio 
 Nicolas and Francisco Guiral, and as blacksmiths the even bet- 
 ter known Juan Murrell and Thomas Powell. The mason work 
 was to be valued by "the only intelligent man in that depart- 
 ment," Marcos Lopez, while B. Dubroca and Rafael Hidalgo 
 were to appraise land and fruit trees. Collins was to plat 
 the property, and Price to act in case any of the "above 
 individuals should not possess the Castilian idiom," he be- 
 ing official interpreter of the French and Spanish languages. 
 On the 24th of March all repaired to the parson's house at 
 9 A. M. with the witnesses and made valuation, resulting as 
 follows: Ground, flSO; carpenter work, |400; blacksmith, 
 $17.04; mason work, |120; total, 1667.04, in hard silver, the 
 decimals being rials. 
 
 The only bids received were one from Thomas Powell of 
 $700 and one from Pedro Vinsant of $725, which were for- 
 warded to Pensacola with the other original papers, a transcript 
 of 18 pages being filed in the Mobile archives. 
 
 Here our record stops ; but we know the sale was duly held 
 on June 1, 1807; that Miguel Eslava bid -1805, got the pro- 
 perty, and was duly put in possession by the intendant.^ 
 
 This northwest corner of Royal and Conti streets was long 
 a saloon, but previous to the great fires early in the century 
 was occupied by the United States Hotel, a famous inn. In' 
 1827 the Eslava title was contested by the Catholic authorities; 
 but the Alabama Supreme Court concluded, on consideration of 
 the evidence, that, while the land was bought by the King of 
 ^ Antones v. Eslava, 9 Porter (Ala.) Rep., pp. 527, 532. 
 
CHURCH OF THE IMMACULATE CONCEPTION. 371 
 
 Spain from the De Lussers and used for a church parsonage, 
 there was no trust to retain it for that use, and that the Eslava 
 purchase in 1807 was valid. 
 
 We have no picture of the adjacent church, unless a rather 
 conventional gabled house with cross on one end, in Dinsmore's 
 map of about 1821, is intended as such. This represents it 
 with its length, not end, on Royal Street, and certainly bears 
 out the unfavorable description by the Saxon duke Bernhard, 
 of Saxe Weimar, who saw it in January, 1826. He describes 
 it as resembling a barn, and having a high altar with vessels 
 of tin and a picture of no value, while on the sides of the room 
 were two small altars.-^ It may have looked far different under 
 the Spaniards, when the whole population was Catholic and it 
 had the weight of official influence. 
 
 No more interesting page occurs in the American State 
 Papers than that recounting what is known of the history of 
 the graveyard of 400 by 300 feet at the intersection of Dauphin 
 and Franklin streets. ^ Much of the eloquent reasoning there 
 is pure conjecture; but we learn that from the nineties, at 
 least, the cemetery was located on this, the site of the present 
 Cathedral Square, Catholic Orphan Asylum, bishop's residence, 
 and the property from Dauphin to Conti now or lately owned 
 by the Catholic Church. It was in the pine woods in those 
 days. Spanish funerals, like that of Simon Andry, may have 
 wended their course out Dauphin, but the more natural route 
 would be from the church west along our Conti to the inclosure. 
 The cemetery "was in ruins in 1793, but Lanzos then ordered 
 that "the "campo santo " be kept in better condition by the citi- 
 zens and the graves protected from stock. 
 
 With the city growth in American times, many of the remains 
 were to be transferred to what has now in its turn become the 
 Old Graveyard, on Bayou Street, south of Government. But 
 graves imder Conti Street have even recently been revealed 
 by the digging of a sewer. 
 
 ^ 2 Travels in North America, pp. 31, etc. 
 * 5 American State Papers, p. 131. 
 
CHAPTER XLI. 
 
 THE INDIAN TRADE. 
 
 The English and Americans recognized the Indian title and 
 extinguished it by treaty ; the French and Spanish rather re- 
 garded the savages as subjects and made no special purchases 
 of the territory, which they considered already property of the 
 king. As the price paid by the English was always insignifi- 
 cant, the practical result was the same to the Indians; but it 
 cannot be denied that the Latin immigrants, fewer and less 
 aggressive, did not extinguish the native races, although at first 
 more cruel, while the self-assertive Anglo-Saxons have all but 
 wiped them from the earth. Mexico is largely Indian yet; in 
 the United States the aborigines are curiosities. 
 
 All these governments recognized the avidity of the Indians 
 for simple wares, firearms, and liquor, and, with each, control 
 was from the first a question of trade. It was so with the Iro- 
 quois, swaying between the influences of Albany and Montreal ; 
 it was so later in the Ohio Valley ; and it was so nearer Mo- 
 bile with the natives in the southern mountains between the 
 colonies of England and Spain. The early trade was princi- 
 pally by wood-rangers, but from the beginning the respective 
 governments made presents to the chiefs at every conference 
 and kept open table for them at the posts. Under the English 
 and Spanish, there was more system. 
 
 On the Spanish side of the line the trade was by individuals, 
 but under government supervision ; and after 1789 Panton, Les- 
 lie & Co., from their several headquarters, were in effect the 
 agents of Spain in intercourse with the Choctaws, Chickasaws, 
 Creeks, and even Cherokees.^ The prices were fixed both for 
 buying skins and selling goods, and fixed to meet American 
 competition from Georgia and the Carolinas. Their pack- 
 horses carried goods and their traders brought news, and even 
 official communications, from the Ohio region to the Gulf. The 
 ' 2 White's New Recopilacion, pp. 326, 329. 
 
THE INDIAN TRADE. 373 
 
 Indian treaty of alliance with Spain in 1792 was largely due 
 to that firm. This trade kept on through war and peace, and 
 even through the disturbed times of William Augustus Bowles, 
 who influenced the Creeks in opposition to McGillivray, but was 
 captured and delivered to the Spaniards by him in 1792. He 
 returned, however, and in 1800 destroyed Panton's house at 
 St. Mark's. Until his final capture in 1804, this British 
 adventurer was to ruin their commerce in every way he could, 
 by sea and land.^ 
 
 The house lost money, particularly after the death of their 
 silent partner McGillivray in 1793 near Mobile, but the gov- 
 ernors appreciated the value of their services, and from 1794 
 induced them to continue the business and look to the king for 
 indemnification. Their "dead capital" by 1800 was estimated 
 at almost $400, 000,^ and included their stocks, salaries, ex- 
 penses, and claims against the Indians. "The debts due the 
 actual house," wrote a Spanish official of the time, "must 
 amount to one hundred and twenty thousand dollars, rather 
 more than less; in time of peace they would amount, as ex- 
 perience has shown, to one hundred and eighty thousand dol- 
 lars. The lots, buildings, tools for that trade, amount to forty 
 thousand, more or less. These sums form a dead capital of two 
 hundred and twenty thousand. The debts of the Indians and 
 traders are scarcely ever diminished; and if this happens at 
 some times, at other times they are increased in proportion. 
 To this dead capital must be added the labor of sixty workmen, 
 besides that of the negroes or servants, to prepare a post and 
 pack the skins ; to that must be added the value of two vessels, 
 of from two hundred and twenty to two hundred and fifty tons 
 each, for the houses of Pensacola and Mobile, and a brigantine 
 of one hundred and fifty tons for St. Augustine, with three 
 smaller vessels of from fifty to ninety tons, absolutely necessary 
 for the trade and communication between these three said fac- 
 tories; equally are to be charged the goods or merchandise 
 which must always be on hand in the respective store-houses, 
 and those which are navigating, going and coming from Europe, 
 whose value can, without exaggeration, be stated at more than 
 one hundred and fiity thousand dollars, forming a total of 
 
 » 2 Pickett's Alabama, pp. 116, 192. 
 
 * 2 White's New Recopilacion, pp. 326, 333. 
 
374 COLONIAL MOBILE. 
 
 three hundred and sixty thousand dollars. To this immense 
 sum must be added other annual inevitable losses, without any 
 other profit or advantage than to conserve the friendship of the 
 Indians, in order not to lose the interest and confidence of the 
 traders, so useful to know from them all the information neces- 
 sary to the interest of the house, and political views of govern- 
 ment, to which it has always contributed in a most complete 
 way. One of these expenses is the cost of the open table (an 
 indispensable circumstance and of absolute necessity) which the 
 house keeps for the Indian chiefs, the traders and factors 
 employed in its trade, hospitably receiving likewise all the other 
 transient Indians. Another very great expense is the presents, 
 which, besides those made by the government, the house is 
 obliged to make to the head men of the distant nations who 
 frequently come to its stores, and which cannot be estimated 
 at less than eighteen thousand dollars."^ Little of this could 
 have been realized if the great house was forced to discontinue 
 business. 
 
 The claim against the Lower Creeks or Seminoles was finally 
 settled by cessions of land at the mouth of the Apalachicola 
 Eiver. The first of these purchases was in 1804, in consider- 
 ation of the sum of $66,533 of debts, besides admitted rob- 
 beries; and Forbes & Co. (successors of Panton, Leslie & Co.) 
 were put in possession two years later on petition to Folch, then 
 at Mobile. The second purchase was in 1811 for 119,387.041, 
 and there was also a third cession of an island, all in the same 
 vicinity. Each was by full council of all chiefs and in the pre- 
 sence of the Spanish ofiicials. The total amount of land was 
 1,200,000 acres, mostly pine barrens. ^ The claim for indem- 
 nity was never abandoned, and was under consideration in Spain 
 at least from 1794. It grew with the years : and a new item 
 set out by Forbes in 1818 related to slaves and goods stolen or 
 otherwise lost during the Anglo-American war of 1812, despite 
 the efforts of the house, through its armed vessels, to recover 
 them. It, too, was finally settled by a similar cession in 1818 
 by Spain of one and a half million arpens of adjoining lands; 
 for Spain did not, as U. S. agent Seagrove predicted, sacrifice 
 the house which had maintained her hold on the Indians.^ The 
 
 1 2 White's New Recopilacion, pp. 333, 334. 
 
 2 Ihid., pp. 713, 724, 356, 362. ^ /jj^.^ pp 349^ 350, 354, 723. 
 
THE INDIAN TRADE. 375 
 
 losses were estimated at about 1100,000, and the land was to 
 be in full compensation. 
 
 The trade with both Choctaws and Creeks was by trail and 
 river ; but the Creeks, going by land, of course went mainly to 
 Pensacola, because nearer. That trail went northeast through 
 Burnt Corn towards Tookabatcha and the heart of the confed- 
 eracy, who were thus enabled to compare Florida and Carolina 
 prices. 
 
 The trade of the eastern Choctaws was with Mobile alone. 
 Fort Tombecbe on the river, rehabilitated as the Spanish Fort 
 Confederation, was again an outpost, and the trading path from 
 Mobile northwestwards to the Choctaw nation was one of the 
 best known things in local geography. It seems near the town 
 to have about followed the line of the present Spring Hill 
 Avenue and Centre Street, and crossed Bayou Chateaugue at 
 Murrell's Ford, sometimes called the Portage. Thence on, in its 
 southern part, it was not far from the later St. Stephens Road, 
 and can be traced still higher at intervals, — as, for instance, 
 at old Washington Court-House. It crossed what was later 
 the north boundary of Mobile County, and continued on north- 
 westwardly into the present Mississippi among the main Choc- 
 taw villages. The point where it crossed the 31st degree of 
 latitude, and where it crossed the fifth township north, was in 
 American times to be the starting-place for several counties. 
 The road became in 1809 the west boundary of Baldwin and 
 Washington counties.^ 
 
 The fertile lands on the Tombigbee and lower Alabama riv- 
 ers, the seat now of vast cotton production, were not thickly 
 settled by the Indians ; for the main seats of the Choctaws were 
 in the lower half of our Mississippi, where they lived in 
 northern, southern, and western districts under separate chiefs. 
 Columbus, Meridian, Demopolis, and Selma had no special 
 Indian predecessors, although Pushmataha lived near Meridian. 
 But it would be a mistake to think of the region about the 
 Tombigbee as uninhabited. The district between that and the 
 Alabama River was claimed by both Choctaws and Muscogees ; 
 and Choctaw mounds are not infrequent, especially from what 
 is now called the Fork of Greene County in a line up towards 
 Tuskaloosa, where many remains still exist. At Durden's 
 ^ Toulmin's Laws of Alabama, pp. 81, 82. 
 
376 COLONIAL MOBILE. 
 
 Landing, human bones have been found on the river edge ; and 
 beyond Forkland are many mounds, some twenty feet high and 
 a hundred in diameter. Over the Warrior River, near Car- 
 thage, has been dug up the skeleton of an Indian seven feet high. 
 Across the river from Bladon was at one time a village, and the 
 records of Washington County show cessions by later chiefs of 
 the lower Tombigbee towns. 
 
 The United States early took hold of the Indian problem. 
 To prevent the abuse which had grown out of indiscriminate 
 trading, Congress in 1790 by one act provided for treaties with 
 the tribes, and by another restricted trade to such persons as 
 shovild be licensed and bonded by the government. ^ Washing- 
 ton as a youth had been much with the Indians, and when Presi- 
 dent he was from 1791 untiring in his efforts to protect them 
 in their rights and afford them the kind of commerce they 
 needed. On one occasion recalled by Pushmataha-^e advised 
 them to cultivate the soil, since game would necessarily grow 
 scarcer. Experience showed that individuals could not cope 
 with the great Pensacola-Mobile house, and so, in a message of 
 1793, he recommended that the government take charge of this 
 trade. He thought the matter so important that the United 
 States should be satisfied if reimbursed their outlay. ^ 
 
 This bore fruit in 1796, when Congress authorized the Presi- 
 dent to establish government trading-posts, and made necessary 
 appropriations for that purpose. March 28, 1797, he made a 
 treaty with the Creeks by which that nation ceded lands for 
 such posts; and shortly afterwards we find Colonel Benjamin 
 Hawkins among the Creeks as government agent, and among 
 the Choctaws John McKee in the time of President Adams. 
 
 The first government factory for the Choctaws was a few miles 
 away from Fort Confederation. There the United States agent 
 resided and sold goods to the Indians, largely on the credit of 
 skins to be supplied by them. The name Factory Creek still 
 marks the location. At such posts deerskins and other Indian 
 wares were bought, and supplies, particularly domestic articles 
 and animals, were sold to them on government account. The 
 United States at these factories did directly what Spain at 
 Mobile and Pensacola did indirectly through Panton, Leslie & 
 
 ^ 1 U. S. Statutes at Large, pp. 136, 137. 
 " 2 12 Washington's Works (Sparks), pp. 20, 30, 40. 
 
THE INDIAN TRADE. 377 
 
 Co. and their successors. The cultivated Silas Dinsmore 
 was long the government factor, first on the Chickasahay (near 
 Quitman) and then in Puckshenubbee's district, west of Pearl 
 River. He incurred the enmity of General Jackson for en- 
 forcing passports for slaves of travelers,^ exacted mainly during 
 his attempts to suppress the famous Murrell gang. In 1802 
 the United States authorities were considering the propriety of 
 establishing a military post for the protection of this Chick- 
 asahay factory, but the establishment really did not need it. 
 The Indians transferred to these institutions the respect which 
 they formerly showed the traders. When Dinsmore left the 
 northern Choctaw district, that of Mushulastubbe, he seems to 
 have relied on the influential interpreter John Pitchlyn, resi- 
 dent at the mouth of the Oktibbeha, to control those Choctaws. 
 Dinsmore was enthusiastic at both his stations in improving 
 the condition of the savages. He induced them to make larger 
 truck patches, added cotton to their crops, and introduced 
 poultry, hogs, and horses. The Mayhew missionaries received 
 his warm support. He married a Philadelphia lady, and with 
 Africans operated a large plantation near the agency. 
 
 One of the severest blows to the Spaniards was finding St. 
 Stephens on the American side of the boundary line of 31° pro- 
 vided for in the second article of the treaty of October 27, 1795. 
 But when a detachment of American troops marched across from 
 Natchez, the Spaniards promptly surrendered the place, on May 
 5, 1799, and Lieutenant John McClary of the second infantry 
 received the post for the United States. These troops did not 
 remain long, as they proceeded southwardly to near the actual 
 line, and at Ward's Bluff, among beautiful oaks, built Fort 
 Stoddert in July, named for the acting secretary of war.^ 
 St. Stephens, however, flourished for many years as a town and 
 as the seat of the U. S. Indian factory established by Joseph 
 Chambers in 1803. Chambers induced George S. Gaines to 
 leave a position in Tennessee and come as his assistant in 1805. 
 Gaines succeeded him next year, and, as the old buildings were 
 in decay, in 1811 built as a warehouse, above the fort, probably 
 the first brick house in what is now Alabama, outside of 
 
 * 1 Parton's Jackson, p. 349. 
 
 2 Information from War Department. As to Gaines, see his Reminis- 
 cences in Mobile Register in June and July, 1872. 
 
378 COLONIAL MOBILE. 
 
 Mobile. The old fort was on a bluff above, while the Ameri- 
 can town grew up just below the ravine. Its commercial 
 importance, predicted by Romans and Ellicott, was due to the 
 fact that it was at the head of sloop navigation ; for McGrew's 
 Shoals just above prevented the passage, at the usual stage of 
 water, of everything except canoes. For this reason the gov- 
 ernment factory at St. Stephens naturally became the centre of 
 American influence among the Choctaws. 
 
 Gaines was for a while embarrassed by the duty exacted by 
 the Spaniards at Mobile even on the Federal goods for the sav- 
 ages; but in 1810, although the Indians only permitted pack- 
 horses and not the wagon-road desired, he opened a new route. 
 His supplies were sent from Pittsburg down the Ohio and 
 Mississippi, and he had them barged up the Tennessee to Col- 
 bert's Ferry and then carried overland to the Tombigbee. 
 Pitchlyn's activity and influence were of the greatest assistance 
 in forwarding the goods down the river to St. Stephens. The 
 next year he found it necessary to have his boat boxed in and 
 armored with beef hides as a protection against Indian bullets ; 
 for the time was near when the American Indian policy was to 
 break down, from the savage distrust of the rapid increase of 
 the white settlements. 
 
CHAPTER XLII. 
 
 MISSISSIPPI TERRITORY. 
 
 Virginians and other pioneers (all called Virginians by the 
 Indians) crossed those AUeghanies which Iberville designated 
 as barriers, and formed the new States of Kentucky and Ten- 
 nessee. Georgians, too, were passing through the Creek and 
 Choctaw country and settling about Natchez and on the Tom- 
 bigbee, while the region of the Tennessee River from 1805 had 
 its immigrants also. 
 
 Georgia, like the other colonies, had claimed under her charter 
 to the Mississippi River (as shown on Adair's map of 1775), 
 if not farther, and her Yazoo sales of 1789 and 1795 threat- 
 ened conflict with the Federal government. They were cer- 
 tainly productive of much fraud. The purchase of her rights, 
 however, by the United States in 1802, for a million and a 
 quarter dollars, removed the trouble. Meantime, on April 7, 
 1798, the Territory of Mississippi was created, extending from 
 the Chattahoochee to the Mississippi River north of 31° north 
 latitude. At first the north boundary was run. parallel from 
 the mouth of the Yazoo, but it was in 1804 changed to the line 
 of Tennessee. 
 
 President Adams made Winthrop Sargent of New England, 
 formerly secretary of the Northwest Territory, the first gov- 
 ernor; and General Wilkinson promptly built and occupied 
 Fort Adams, near Davion's old mission, on the first bluff north 
 of the demarcation line. The governor, under his extensive 
 powers, then by proclamation divided the Natchez district into 
 counties. On June 4, 1800, he created Washington County, 
 extending from Pearl River to the Chattahoochee, and having 
 a population of 733 whites and 494 slaves, besides 23 free 
 negroes. A representative government had been already 
 established, under which the general assembly met at Natchez 
 on the first Monday in December, 1800. There were nine 
 representatives from the three counties of Adams, Pickering, 
 
380 COLONIAL MOBILE. 
 
 and Washington, — the last furnishing but one, the others, all 
 on the Mississippi River, four each. 
 
 President Jefferson appointed William C. C. Claiborne, of 
 Tennessee, governor, who soon removed the capital from 
 Natchez to the neighboring village of Washington. Claiborne's 
 incumbency was marked by important events, among them the 
 incorporation in 1803 of Natchez, with a mayor's court of 
 extensive and summary jurisdiction, and the Choctaw treaty of 
 the year before at Fort Confederation. This confirmed to the 
 United States the old cession to the British of all land be- 
 tween the Tombigbee and Mobile on the east and the Chick- 
 asahay River on the west, south of the Hatchee-Tikibee Bluff 
 on the Tombigbee. Brigadier-General Wilkinson signed for the 
 United States, and Pushmataha and other chiefs for the three 
 divisions of the Choctaw nation. 
 
 James Wilkinson was one of the most adroit men of his 
 time. He was of Maryland originally, and-«minent in the 
 Revolutionary War; but, if he served under Washington be- 
 fore Boston, he also followed Benedict Arnold in Canada, and, 
 either naturally or by example, was to resemble the traitor 
 more than the patriot. He went to Kentucky in 1784 to repre- 
 sent Philadelphia merchants, and soon was prominent in the 
 movement to make that a State independent of Virginia. In 
 1787 he followed his tobacco, flour, and bacon down the river 
 to New Orleans, and obtained special trade privileges, and 
 ultimately a pension that made him the leader in the Spanish 
 conspiracy to make Kentucky subject or allied to Spain. 
 
 This continued even after he became an officer in the United 
 States army, and when general-in -chief he was strongly sus- 
 pected of complicity in Burr's plans against both Spain and 
 the Union. His commercial agent at New Orleans, Daniel 
 Clark, seems to have proved the fact in a pamphlet; but a 
 court-martial in 1811 gave him the benefit of a doubt. He 
 was polished and persuasive, and, while he several times turned 
 his coat, he always concealed his tracks. He published me- 
 moirs, and managed to stand high in his country's annals, until 
 Gayarre, after his death, unearthed his correspondence with 
 the Spanish officials. 
 
 Wilkinson and Claiborne were the commissioners who re- 
 ceived for the United States from the French the possession of 
 
MISSISSIPPI TERRITORY. 381 
 
 Louisiana on December 20, 1803 ; and when Claiborne became 
 governor of that new province, Robert Williams of North 
 Carolina succeeded him in Mississippi Territory, whose Bigbee 
 district claimed 1500 people. 
 
 Under an act of Congress, Washington County was now 
 erected into a judicial district, where the superior court, the 
 germ of our later judicial system, was held on the first Mon- 
 days in May and September. Harry Toulmin was appointed 
 by President Jefferson first United States judge of this Tom- 
 bigbee district. He entered on his duties in 1804 at Wake- 
 field, near Mcintosh's Bluff, a place which he named for Gold- 
 smith's vicar. 
 
 He was already a man with a history. Born at Taunton, 
 England, in 1766, he was, while a young man, a Unitarian 
 minister with a large congregation. He was republican in 
 sentiment, and, from too free expression of his sentiments in 
 those early days of the French Revolution, found it necessary, 
 in 1791, to emigrate to America. He became president of the 
 Transylvania University at Lexington, then secretary of state 
 of Kentucky, and compiler of a code of laws for that State. 
 As secretary he promulgated the celebrated Resolutions of 
 1798, strongly suspected to have been written by Madison, and 
 ever after the platform of States' Rights Democrats. It was 
 while secretary of state that he was appointed judge for Mis- 
 sissippi, — "grand juge," as the Creoles always called him. 
 
 Harry Toulmin was active in everything, but is chiefly 
 remembered as compiler of the territorial laws in 1806 (as of 
 those of Alabama in 1823), and for his fourteen years' tenure 
 of office as Federal judge. A characteristic letter of his of 
 August 28, 1808, apparently to the Mobile commandant, is 
 preserved in the archives. It seems a Spanish subject named 
 Kilcrease had murdered a Mobile Frenchman on the Tensaw 
 above the line, and then escaped below it. Toulmin writes 
 that if the Spaniards would deliver up the murderer he would 
 see to a proper trial, or, if the commandant would try the 
 man, he would get up the evidence. He closes with this noble 
 and vigorous language : — 
 
 "I embrace this opportunity of doing myself the honor to 
 assure you that I feel exceedingly solicitous that no facility 
 should ever be afforded, by a difference of national jurisdictions 
 
382 COLONIAL MOBILE. 
 
 between settlements so contiguous, to the vicious and abandoned 
 on either side of the line to commit depredations with impu- 
 nity; and that, as far as it depends upon me, I shall always 
 be ready to cooperate with good men of both governments in 
 the suppression of villainy and licentiousness." 
 
 The years 1 805 and 1806 marked the acquisition of part of 
 the Tennessee valley from the Chickasaws and Cherokees, the 
 agreement with the former being signed in the Chickasaw 
 country for the United States by James Robertson, of Tennes- 
 see, and Silas Dinsmore, of New Hampshire, United States 
 agent in the western Choctaw district. Out of this. Governor 
 Williams in 1808 created the county of Madison, which in 
 two years more was to contain half the population of the Terri- 
 tory. The same commissioners in 1805 acquired a grant from 
 the Choctaws, at the treaty of Mount Dexter, of a strip to 
 connect the Bigbee and Natchez districts, and extending in 
 width from Ellicott's Line to Choctaw Corner, crossing the 
 Bigbee at Fallectabrenna Old Fields, below Tuscahoma. Dins- 
 more ran the north and east lines, but needed the influence of 
 Young Gaines to get it over the Bigbee Indians. ^ 
 
 But these three grants, important as they were, needed high- 
 ways to make them available. The wagon-road from Natchez 
 to the Cumberland, crossing at Muscle Shoals, came a little 
 earlier; but more important for the Mobile district was the 
 Federal Military Road, cut by the United States in 1805, by 
 permission of the Creeks, from the Ocmulgee in Georgia to 
 Mims' Ferry on the Alabama. The line of this road can stiU 
 be traced in part, as it was made the eastern boundary of 
 Monroe County. There was also in the same year acquired 
 from the Cherokees the right to a road from Knoxville across 
 the Tombigbee to Natchez. No more important study can be 
 found than that of the early roads ; for along them poured the 
 immigration which has claimed the Southwest for the Anglo- 
 Saxon civilization. But this advance was accompanied by 
 alarms. 
 
 In consequence of the claim of Spain that the Arroyo 
 Hondo was the east boundary of Texas, General Wilkinson, in 
 
 1 The facts in this chapter are derived from Monette's Valley of the Mis- 
 sissippi, George S. Gaines' Reminiscences, in the Mobile Register, in June and 
 July, 1872, and a second series still in manuscript. 
 
MISSISSIPPI TERRITORY. 383 
 
 1806, prepared for war. Besides his march to Natchitoches, 
 he also contemplated the capture of Mobile from Fort Stoddert, 
 whose commandant was to be assisted by 200 Washington militia 
 under Colonel James Caller, while other troops should make a 
 feint in order to hold Pensacola quiet. Captain Peter Philip 
 Schuyler had succeeded Schaumburgh in 1804, and in 1807 
 was himself succeeded by Captain E. P. Gaines. All were of 
 the second regiment. 
 
 But the movement against the Spanish possessions was soon 
 dropped for a greater peril to Spain, and, as it was feared, to 
 the United States alike. An American Iberville was thought 
 to be planning a western empire which should be independent 
 of the Atlantic seaboard. For as long as all west of the Mis- 
 sissippi and south of 31° was Spanish, the grand future in 
 store for the United States could not be imagined, and a Cortez- 
 like invasion of the Southwest seemed more promising. 
 
 The brilliant Aaron Burr had become an outcast from New 
 York since his unfortunate duel with Alexander Hamilton, and 
 after expiration of his term as Vice-President he turned to the 
 Southwest to better his fortunes. He bought a Spanish claim 
 on the Sabine, and from there would conquer Mexico. The 
 popularity of the enterprise cannot be doubted, whether we 
 consider Burr's discharge at Lexington in 1806, or the grand 
 jury's action in Mississippi next year. But he delayed too 
 long, and this allowed Jefferson's hostile proclamation to have 
 its effect. 
 
 Jefferson was not less inimical than were the friends of 
 Hamilton, and the whole executive branch of the government 
 hounded him. Burr fled when refused release at Washington, 
 near Natchez, and on February 6 Governor Williams offered 
 a reward of $2000. He made his way eastwardly, secreted by 
 friends, and at last sought the house of Colonel Hinson, an 
 admirer of his on the Tombigbee. Inquiring the road at the 
 Wakefield tavern one night, where Colonel Nicholas Perkins 
 and Thomas Malone were playing backgammon, he was recog- 
 nized by Perkins from the description in the proclamation. 
 Perkins, with Sheriff Brightwell, tracked him to Hinson 's, but 
 there he fascinated Mrs. Hinson and the sheriff, too, as he did 
 every one. Hinson was away at the time. Perkins, from 
 Nannahubba Bluff, paddled down to Fort Stoddert, and by 
 
384 COLONIAL MOBILE. 
 
 sunrise induced Captain Gaines to take the road with a file of 
 mounted soldiers. They met Burr and a companion two miles 
 from Hinson's, and made him prisoner without resistance at 
 9 A. M. on February 19, 1807. 
 
 He was kept in honorable captivity at the fort for over two 
 weeks. He played chess with the wife of the commandant, 
 who was a daughter of Judge Toulmin, and became very 
 friendly with the captain's brother, George S. Gaines, the 
 Indian factor, who gratified his curiosity as to the Choctaw 
 Indians and frontier life. 
 
 About March 5 Burr was rowed up the Alabama Eiver to 
 Lake Tensaw Boatyard, where he was committed to a guard 
 of nine men under Colonel Perkins, who conducted him on 
 horseback overland by the trail through the Creeks and other 
 Indians to Georgia, and thence to Richmond. 
 
 Burr was tried before Chief Justice Marshall and acquitted 
 of treason against the United States. His usefulness in America 
 was broken, however, and he spent some time in Europe seeking 
 to interest that more successful adventurer, Napoleon, in his 
 plans; but all in vain. He later returned home and prac- 
 ticed law in New York with much of his old vim and success. 
 He finally laid down the cares of this life in 1836, and was 
 buried at Princeton at the feet of his father, Aaron Burr, and 
 his grandfather, Jonathan Edwards, presidents of the college. 
 A monument, much chipped by admirers, marks his grave. 
 
 What were Burr's plans has been ever since his time a matter 
 of debate. Probably he contemplated seizing Texas and Mex- 
 ico and founding a great Southwestern Empire. When Texas 
 achieved its independence, he exclaimed that he had merely 
 been too soon. 
 
 It would seem that Burr almost alone among the Eastern 
 leaders realized the future of the West. Jefferson had added 
 that imperial domain to the United States, in spite of constitu- 
 tional questions which he failed to solve. New England was 
 almost in revolution over the purchase of Louisiana. Burr, 
 after the Hamilton duel had cut short his power in New York, 
 seems to have devoted himself to dreams of Western expansion. 
 He was practically the first to realize that the United States 
 must grow at the ex]3ense of the Spaniards, whether it was to 
 be towards Texas or West Florida. He but voiced the Zeit- 
 
MISSISSIPPI TERRITORY. 385 
 
 geist of the West. Henry Clay and Andrew Jackson, the men 
 who were more than any other to frame the policy of the future, 
 were his friends and followers. Our own story will give several 
 chapters in this expansion, and Burr's di-eam has gone on from 
 fulfillment to fulfillment even unto our day. 
 
CHAPTER XLIII. 
 
 THE BIGBEE DISTRICT. 
 
 What came to be called the Bigbee District of Mississippi 
 Territory had a development different from that of the Natchez 
 settlements, and, as the nucleus of a future state, deserves atten- 
 tion. 
 
 We have seen the Indian title quieted in British times on both 
 sides of the Tombigbee as far east as Jackson's creek and below, 
 and not a few people settling within these bounds. A great many 
 of them were Tories from the eastern colonies, and some moved 
 away when the Spaniards came. There was, however, a rem- 
 nant left. 
 
 We learn from the travels of Lorenzo Dow in 1803 and 1804^ 
 that at this time there was a long straggling settlement from the 
 Cut-Off northward to Fort St. Stephen, but the so-called town of 
 that name contained only one family. There is no mention of 
 people in the Tensaw District, but it already had that name, 
 and the ferry through the Cut-Off was patronized by this evan- 
 gelist. The great immigration setting towards the South West 
 soon changed all this. It was lai-gest down the Mississippi to- 
 wards the Natchez District, and also came overland from Nash- 
 ville by the Natchez Trace. Nashville itself was a frontier town of 
 forty families, one being Andrew Jackson and wife, and Knox- 
 ville was the capital of the mountain state of Tennessee. There 
 came to be routes from there as well as down the Tennessee 
 River, resulting in the founding of Huntsville and in a further 
 advance across the rough watershed to the Tombigbee. Yet an- 
 other route was that used in part since the time of De Soto down 
 the Alabama River basin through the Cut-Off, or across the Fork 
 
 ^ See his History of Cosmopolite and Polemic Writings, to which is added the 
 Journey of Life by his wife, Peggy Dow. The 6th edition was published in 
 1849. The parts bearing on the Bigbee District are principally pages 163, 
 220, and 650. 
 
THE BIGBEE DISTRICT. 387 
 
 higher up from modern Claiborne to St. Stephens. By these 
 different ways, especially when improved later, came the Amer- 
 ican invasion. 
 
 Immigration was rapidly changing the nature of the South 
 West. The American inherited the exploring or roving nature, 
 the call of the wild, of his old Saxon and Norman forbears, and 
 indeed it had become almost a passion to re-people the once Latin 
 South West, even at the expense and to the detriment of the 
 States on the Atlantic. It was not as when individuals, because 
 of overcrowding, sought new homes beyond the seas, and left 
 tight little England intact. Whole communities now moved south 
 and west. It amounted almost to a new Voelker- Wanderung, 
 for they took institutions, religion, culture, and industries with 
 them. The new country was in general sparsely inhabited, even 
 by Indians, — for these required an average of three square 
 miles to support each individual, — and the Indians were grad- 
 ually pushed back by war or treaty. Even when the Latins 
 were numerous, as on the coast, the newcomers absorbed or 
 amalgamated with them, themselves unconsciously modified in 
 the process. The movement in course of time was of hundreds 
 of thousands. 
 
 The Indian treaties give some idea of the growth of the Big- 
 bee District. The first made by the United States with the 
 Choctaws — that of Hopewell on the Keowee in 1786 ^ — secured 
 the " Natchez District " to the Americans, but all to the east was 
 left to the Choctaws as if there were no Americans on the Big- 
 bee or their government did not know of the Mobile cession of 
 1765. That of 1801, likewise made at Hopewell, providing for 
 a road to Natchez and for tracing the boundary plainly, is also 
 limited to the Natchez District.^ On October 18, next year, how- 
 ever, in a convention with James Wilkinson at Fort Confedera- 
 tion the Choctaws recognized as once British and now American 
 the land between the Chickasawhay and Tombigby rivers from 
 the Gulf to the old line running through Hach-a-Tiggeby Bluff. 
 Wilkinson's proclamation of August 31, 1803, at Hoe Buckin- 
 toopa (St. Stephens) shows that the line was accordingly re-run, 
 the north boundary being Sintee Bogue or Snake Creek.^ The 
 consideration for this recognition was 15 pieces of strouds, 3 ri- 
 
 * 7 United States Statutes at Large, p. 21, 
 
 » Ibid., p. 67. 8 Ibid., pp. 73, 80. 
 
388 COLONIAL MOBILE. 
 
 fles, 150 blankets, 250 pounds of powder, 250 pounds of lead, 
 one bridle, one man's saddle, and one black silk handkerchief. 
 
 Wilkinson probably congratulated himself on making a good 
 bargain, but the Choctaws had taken back all the lands they had 
 ceded the British on the east bank of the Tombigbee. This was 
 rectified, however, by the treaty of Mt. Sterling signed Novem- 
 ber 16, 1805, by the American Commissioners James Robertson 
 and Silas Dinsmoor on the one side and Great Medal Mingoes 
 Pukshuunubbee, Hoomastubbee, Pooshamattaha, and twenty 
 chiefs on the other. The Choctaws then ceded all below Mc- 
 Clarey's Path, and of a line from the Chickasawhay to Faluk- 
 tabunnec on the Bigbee, and all east of the Bigbee from that 
 point over to the boundary between the Creeks and Choctaws on 
 the watershed between the Alabama and Tombigbee.^ McGrew's, 
 Mitchall's, and some other reserves are noted in the treaty. This 
 was to be the last cession for over a decade, and it marks the 
 limits of white settlement until the great reorganization due to 
 the Creek War. 
 
 The centre of population, and of interest as well, in the Big- 
 bee country was about Fort Stoddert on the Mobile River. This 
 was a settlement as well as a military post, and thoroughly re- 
 presentative of the Americans. It was a port of entry, the resi- 
 dence of a United States Collector, the seat of Federal as dis- 
 tinguished from local authority. One might suppose that such 
 a place would be aggressive and a subject of anxiety to the 
 Spaniards below the line; for at Fort Stoddert was Captain 
 Gaines, the American military representative on the border. 
 The United States, however, were conservative. They claimed 
 West Florida and were ready to occupy it; but they stood in fear of 
 Napoleon. His arm was not always long enough to reach across 
 the ocean, like that of England, but within its shorter range it hit 
 quicker and harder. The Spanish authorities at Mobile, there- 
 fore, instead of dreading Fort Stoddert, thought of it as a pro- 
 tection against those whom they called " the firebrands of the 
 Bigbee." 
 
 We have seen how Mississippi Territory extended its juris- 
 diction over this section. Washington County was organized 
 in 1804, and had its complement of territorial courts and insti- 
 tutions. The first county seat was Mcintosh Bluff, the former 
 ^ 7 United States Statutes at Large, p. 98. 
 
THE BIGBEE DISTRICT. 389 
 
 home of the Thomes Indians, and now become the point of 
 departure of American civilization. There presided Judge 
 Ephraim Kirby, the first territorial judge,^ until his early death. 
 He was succeeded by Harry Toulmin. The new county had its 
 sheriff, and familiar names soon appear in the record. Wake- 
 field^ succeeded Mcintosh Bluff as the county seat, and the court 
 files that have survived show an active if frontier community. 
 Crimes and torts were common, and Nicholas Perkins and J. P. 
 Kennedy were the leading lawyers. Somewhat later we find 
 also Lemuel Henry, R. H. Gilmore, Samuel Acre, Sall^, and 
 Joseph Carson. There were superior (afterwards circuit) and 
 county courts, justices of the peace, and even equity cases; for 
 English law and practice flourished, modified by legislation. 
 There were often suits by Orso, Murrell, and others of Mobile, as 
 well as many between the residents. 
 
 Washington Court House was built further in the interior, 
 as more central and convenient, and became a well frequented 
 county site, although never a large place. The log court house 
 and jail, opposite each other on the road from St. Stephens to 
 Mobile, were in sight of some residences, but the homes were 
 generally far apart, for the population was much scattered. 
 
 In 1807, when the settlers were still principally old British colo- 
 nists, they held a meeting at Wakefield to express their in- 
 dignation at such outrages as the firing on the Chesapeake, 
 which were ultimately to bring on war with Great Britain. 
 James Caller, the colonel, representative in the legislature and 
 principal politician, was chairman, and Thomas Malone, long 
 Gaines' assistant at the Trading House, was secretary of the 
 meeting. This patriotic feeling was the more remarkable since 
 they bad not only to satisfy the United States customs duties at 
 Fort Stoddert, where D. Darling was collector after the resig- 
 nation of Lieutenant Gaines, but on everything imported or ex- 
 ported, even to another American port, they had to pay the 
 Spanish commandant at Mobile twelve and a half per cent ad 
 valorem in addition. Kentucky flour, which cost in Natchez 
 four dollars a barrel, sold on the Bigbee for sixteen dollars. 
 Even United States supplies for the Indian factories were 
 
 ' Address of T, M. Owen before Alabama Bar Association, 1901. 
 2 Wakefield was the county seat from 1805 to 1810, St. Stephens succeeded 
 in 1811, and Rodney in 1812. 
 
390 COLONIAL MOBILE. 
 
 stopped at Mobile and duty collected by Spain. In fact, the 
 American government in the fullest sense recognized Mobile as 
 a Spanish port.^ 
 
 The year before Burr's capture Huntsville was begun, and 
 about the same time the St. Stephens settlement commenced. 
 In 1807 commissioners under the act of the legislature laid 
 off the latter town on the property of Edward Lewis, reserving 
 for public use the land near Fort St. Stephen. There the land 
 office for the district east of Pearl Kiver was located under the 
 act of 1808. Thomas W. Maury of Virginia was register, and 
 Lemuel Henry receiver. 
 
 It is seldom that people look as high as the roof to find ex- 
 pression of human nature, but nevertheless it is found there. We 
 have already seen how French pioneers on the Mobile built 
 their houses. One would suppose that on narrow city lots they 
 would put the gable end to the front, running the roof comb as 
 far back as necessary ; but this would throw all the water in the 
 yards, and on low grounds be inconvenient. The curious result 
 was a high pitched roof, sloping to the front and to the back, 
 the eaves making the gallery needed in a warm climate. The 
 longer the house therefore, the higher the roof. 
 
 With the Americans the practice was different. In the first 
 place, land was cheap, the " towns " really villages, and there 
 was no difficulty facing the long side of the cabins on the road. 
 The roof pitch was therefore low. Clapboards took the place 
 of the tiles and thatch common on the Latin coast, but the 
 Americans, too, found the need of a gallery, front and rear. 
 The typical house, which was to be the basis for all houses 
 afterwards, was the log cabin with open hallway through the 
 centre opening into rooms on each side. At the gable ends 
 would be the chimneys, at first of logs and plaster, and in front 
 would be the wide, shady gallery, — its covering sometimes a 
 continuation of the main roof, sometimes one added separately. 
 At the rear, perhaps, would be a similar construction, but with 
 the coming of sawmills opportunity was afforded for adding 
 shed rooms. The kitchen was generally separate, away from the 
 main house, surrounded, perhaps, by smoke houses and other 
 outbuildings. The hallway, which did not always remain an 
 open room in the winter, was the dining and living room ; but the 
 ^ 3 American State Papers, p. 220. 
 
THE BIGBEE DISTRICT. 391 
 
 front gallery was, as under the Creoles, the real social centre. 
 Many of the old log cabins still survive, and the type is still com- 
 mon even where brick or stone has long since succeeded wood. 
 
 The furniture was primitive, very little of it being, as with 
 the French, brought from the old homes. The seats were split 
 logs with wooden legs, the chairs of rush, the beds large wooden 
 boxes with shucks or straw for mattress, all standing on puncheon 
 floors. Clothing was generally homespun. From the difficulty 
 of transportation everything was primitive, but everything was 
 made at home. The circumstances were such as to call out 
 every knack and talent that a man possessed. These very needs 
 and hardships developed the American character which was to 
 count in future. 
 
 This picture was true of every settlement, but especially so of 
 St. Stephens, which grew to be the principal town, — if indeed 
 it be fair to use that word of St. Stephens. But St. Stephens 
 was not entirely isolated. Besides the river route to the outside 
 world, the time came for roads to the old home in the East, and 
 to brother pioneers on the Mississippi. 
 
 In the summer of 1807 Harry Toulmin, James Caller, and 
 Lemuel Henry completed their duty under act for opening the 
 first road from Natchez to Fort Stoddert, and in December notice 
 was given in the "Mississippi Messenger" that the ferry was 
 ready across the Alabama and Tombigbee just above Fort St. 
 Stephen. This road had causeways over "boggy guts and 
 branches," and from Natchez to Georgia was marked with three 
 notches on the trees. 
 
 David Holmes of Virginia succeeded the unpopular Governor 
 Williams in 1809, and on December 21 of that year he signed 
 an act carving out of the southern part of Washington the 
 county of Baldwin, named for the Georgia signer of the Federal 
 Constitution. This showed progress. The Bigbee people in- 
 creased rapidly after the "Three-Chopped Way" was finished, 
 and settlements by 1810 had extended on both sides the river 
 up to Mount Sterling. The population of Washington County 
 was about six thousand, many being from the Carolinas, Georgia, 
 and Tennessee. 
 
 The people were mainly confined to the west side of the 
 Tombigbee, but some pioneers lived to the east on the fertile 
 bottom lands of Bassett's Creek, just as Mims and others were 
 
392 COLONIAL MOBILE. 
 
 settling on the lower Alabama east of the Cut-Off. The people 
 were often rough, but always hospitable. They had learned 
 that, as of old, one might entertain angels unawares. As for 
 amusements, barn-raising, corn-shucking, hunting in all its 
 forms flourished here as everywhere else in the South West, and 
 there were also racing, gambling, and heavy drinking in the 
 towns, for whiskey had superseded the rum of earlier days. But 
 vice had also its antidote. 
 
 Religion has always proved one of the profoundest elements 
 in man's makeup, even when he does not know it. No study of 
 a community is complete without taking its religion into account, 
 and particularly is this true of the South West. By attraction 
 and sometimes by repulsion the Church exercised a powerful 
 influence on development, and for a while the intellectual growth 
 was religious so far as it was not political. Teachers were rare, 
 there were no public schools, few weekly newspapers, and no 
 books except old English classics, — in some respects, however, 
 the best of all. " Church " and " speaking," camp-meetings 
 and political barbecues, were the early educational outfit of the 
 South West. 
 
 We have had occasion to study the good work of the Roman 
 Catholic Church. The time had now come when a new race 
 was to the front, and bringing with it a different creed. There 
 was, inherited from the long past, an antipathy between Catho- 
 lics and Protestants, which was to create difficulties in a homo- 
 geneous growth of the country. It was to be easier for the 
 Anglo-Saxon to absorb the Latin than for either one or the other 
 to adopt or modify the other's faith. The old population leaned 
 upon a Holy Church, which in some respects mediated between 
 God and man ; the new, although with diversities of belief and 
 practice, looked to the spiritual growth of the individual Chris- 
 tian, and recognized no earthly intermediary between man and 
 his Maker. 
 
 The very music of the two faiths echoed their differences. The 
 Catholic joined responsively in the chants of the priest at the 
 altar, or was carried up in rapture by the anthems of a choir, 
 in which he joined, if he joined at all, to swell the volume. The 
 Protestant would sing psalmody chopped into 6's and 7's, long 
 or short metre, — often lined out to him from scarcity of books 
 and education, — but into which he entered with heart and lungs. 
 
THE BIQBEE DISTRICT. 393 
 
 The journal of Lorenzo Dow shows the use then of hymns still 
 familiar, although his favorites were of a theological or gloomy 
 nature. To him " man's extremity was God's opportunity." ^ 
 The religious differences were not unlike the racial elements 
 which now confronted each other. One faith might be right 
 and the other wrong, or both might have elements of truth ; but 
 each was suited, if indeed it was not due, to the evolution of the 
 race stock which professed it. 
 
 The ministration of the priests and the work of the Catholic 
 missionaries had ceased above the line of 31°, and pioneers came 
 before the preachers. There had been Baptists and Congrega- 
 tionalists at Natchez even under the Spaniards, and Baptists 
 and Methodists were there in the earliest days of Mississippi 
 Territory. But the Bigbee District was less fortunate. Possi- 
 bly its first religious visitor was Lorenzo Dow, called " crazy " 
 by many contemporaries. Singular he certainly was and con- 
 tentious ; for that was the spirit of the age. But a good man 
 he was also. His journals and other works bear the imprint of 
 humility before God and earnest desire to perform the mission- 
 ary duty which he felt imposed on him. He was ordained in a 
 northern district by Bishop Asbury, the head of the Methodist 
 movement still new in America. His credentials were questioned 
 in the South, but he received local support and traveled fre- 
 quently between the Atlantic and the Mississippi by way of the 
 Tombigbee settlements. He sold his books for benevolent pur- 
 poses, — in this way building at least one church, — and bought 
 lands on the Tensaw for the home he was never to enjoy. He 
 prayed and preached without ceasing, but established no perma- 
 nent congregations. 
 
 The Presbyterians had established Presbyteries and Synods 
 in the Carolinas and Tennessee, and from the great Southwest- 
 ern revival at the turn of the century date the Cumberland 
 Presbyterian Church and that remarkable pioneer institution,'the 
 camp-meeting, where thousands gathered together for religious 
 purposes. This built up all denominations. By 1808 Sturde- 
 vant on the Bigbee and Gavin in Madison County established 
 missions dependent upon the Methodist Conferences of South 
 Carolina and Tennessee respectively. The Baptists had John 
 
 1 Dow's Works, pp. 198, 310, 342, 348, 349, 666, 667. See Galloway's arti- 
 cle on Dow in 4 Miss. Hist. Socy Publ., p. 233. 
 
394 COLONIAL MOBILE. 
 
 Nicholson on the Flint in the same year and James Courtney on 
 Bassett's Creek. There had been Presbyterians at Natchez, but 
 they were not to organize on the Bigbee until 1817, and the 
 Episcopal Church did not appear until the twenties. The Bap- 
 tists and Methodists were not only the pioneers, but from now 
 on maintained a regular succession of ministers in the Bigbee 
 and Huntsville districts. And the Press was not far behind the 
 Church. 
 
 Among those who came over the Creek road to Fort Stoddert 
 were Miller and Hood, who intended establishing a newspaper 
 at Mobile. They began the " Mobile Centinel " at Fort Stod- 
 dert on May 23, 1811, at four dollars a year, and copies of 
 several issues of this weekly have survived. The second num- 
 ber has four pages of four columns each. It contains news of 
 the Peninsular War and from the House of Commons, but is 
 filled principally with articles regarding Spanish West Florida, 
 whose acquisition Poindexter was advocating in Congress, al- 
 though he had prosecuted Burr in Mississippi for attempting 
 almost the same thing.^ The first newspaper in Mississippi 
 Territory had been the " Natchez Gazette " founded by An- 
 drew Marschalk in 1802, but the "Mobile Centinel" was the 
 first within the limits of what was to be Alabama. 
 
 Its name showed the aspirations of the Bigbee District towards 
 the Gulf, and even before that date these had resulted in acts 
 which deserve attention. 
 
 ^ For an account of this newspaper, see the Mobile Register of July 3, 
 1893. Two issues are ia the possession of Thos. M. Owen, Esq., of Mont- 
 gomery, Ala. 
 
CHAPTER XLIV. 
 
 THE STATE OF WEST FLORIDA. 
 
 When the EUicott Line was run in 1798 the land to the north 
 became Mississippi Territory, and that below remained Spanish 
 West Florida. West Florida thus extended from the line of 
 31° to Bayou Manchac, the lakes and the Gulf of Mexico, and 
 from the Mississippi to the Chattahoochee. Besides Mobile, 
 Baton Rouge, and Biloxi, there were some people on rivers like 
 the Pearl and Pascagoula, but off the waters very few. The 
 Indians had long since given up this district, and were hardly 
 in evidence. 
 
 After the United States took possession of Louisiana the situ- 
 ation became difficult for the Spaniards, for they had an aggres- 
 sive American Territory to the north, and an even larger, if more 
 conglomerate, community in Louisiana to the southwest. The 
 Mobile District might be said to extend as far west as Pearl 
 River, but it was not over strong at best, and was separated from 
 the other parts of West Florida by a pine barren wilderness. 
 There was a kind of road from Baton Rouge to Mobile, but it 
 was primitive and saw little travel. 
 
 The chief industry of the South West, Spanish or American, 
 was agriculture, which had now learned to concern itself mainly 
 with cotton and corn. We are told of the cotton industry on 
 the Mississippi in Baily's " Journal of a Tour " in 1796-97. We 
 know of Krebs' hand press to take out seed, butBaily now speaks 
 of " jennies " operated by horses and producing five hundred 
 pounds of clear cotton per day. Cotton lost three-fourths of 
 its weight with the seed, and the toll was twelve and one-half 
 per cent.^ There were throughout the South West sawmills 
 with the up and down saws, and other industries suited to the 
 times. 
 
 James Hall of Salisbury, North Carolina, was commissioned 
 1 Baily's Journal, p. 285. 
 
396 COLONIAL MOBILE. 
 
 by the Presbyterian General Assembly and the Synod of the 
 Carolinas to go with other missionaries in 1800 through Missis- 
 sippi Territory, and, while he has little to say of Baton Rouge or 
 the Alabama-Tombigbee basin, through which he passed from 
 Nashville, we know that cotton was a staple commodity in the 
 east as well as in the west. Gins operated by horse or water 
 power were frequent about Natchez,^ where cotton produced two 
 thousand pounds to the acre. The industry increased by leaps 
 and bounds after the invention of Whitney's " engine," shortened 
 to "gin." One about Tensaw Boat Yard and another at Mcin- 
 tosh Bluff are said to have been the first gins in the Bigbee 
 District, but a trader had one among the Indians up the Alabama 
 even earlier for a while. Gins made money in more ways than 
 one. Coin was scarce, and the Spanish dollars, escalins or bits, 
 and picayunes were the principal money on both sides of the 
 line. Soon there was territorial legislation on the subject of 
 gins and cotton receipts, whereupon the latter furnished part of 
 the Mississippi currency. In West Florida the Spaniards used 
 only silver from Mexico. 
 
 The whole South West on both sides of Ellicott's Line was 
 rapidly changing from what it had been in old Creole days to 
 that rougher and more active type soon to be known as Western. 
 The Kentuckian had heretofore represented this, but people 
 even from the Ohio Valley came to be known on the lower riv- 
 ers. The Tennesseean brought his wares down to Natchez, Baton 
 Rouge, and New Orleans, although he had to return by land, if 
 he did not stay to settle in the country. Immigration was devel- 
 oping not only the Bigbee and Natchez districts, but the whole 
 South West, American and Spanish. 
 
 The new method of growth was the reverse of that under the 
 Latins. Time had decided that the Mississippi Valley should be 
 a hinterland for the American colonies on the Atlantic rather 
 than for the French colonies on the Gulf. The Americans were 
 advancing from the north and east to take possession of the old 
 Latin lands and assimilate the old population. American immi- 
 gration had come by sea even in Spanish times, but it now ad- 
 vanced southwestward by the interior lines which had formerly 
 served the French northeastern advance. These were on the 
 
 ^ Hall's Brief History of Mississippi Territory, pp. 19, 29. (Reprinted in 
 full in 9 Miss. Hist. Socy Publ., pp. 539-575.) 
 
THE STATE OF WEST FLORIDA. 397 
 
 Mississippi, Tennessee, and Alabama rivers, besides the Natchez 
 Trace and Federal Road now cut across them. 
 
 In every movement in the South West there were, despite 
 their general similarity, several districts which must be taken 
 into account. The Territory of Orleans, as lower Louisiana was 
 called, may for our own purposes be put to one side as negligi- 
 ble, because the Creoles and Americans, instead of amalgamating, 
 practically neutralized each other. When the Burr enterprise 
 was on foot the opposing officer, Wilkinson, considered New 
 Orleans as something to be defended rather than a source of 
 strength. It was garrisoned by Americans, and the argument was 
 seriously pressed that its French were unfit for self-government. 
 Of the Bigbee and Natchez settlements in Mississippi Territory 
 nothing more need be said, but the Spanish districts of Baton 
 Rouge and Mobile were now to be in such unexpected relations 
 that they must receive special consideration. 
 
 Old West Florida was changing. Americans were pressing 
 over the line from New Orleans on the one side and Natchez on 
 the other, acquiring lands, holding Spanish offices, but neverthe- 
 less Americanizing the Baton Rouge district. All of them were 
 not desirable citizens, for the weakness of the government en- 
 couraged immigrants of every character to settle there. Many 
 were of the " shifty " nature afterwards made famous by Simon 
 Suggs.^ It was a frontier country at best, and such a frontier 
 as could be found only under special circumstances, — far off 
 from civilization, subject to the mild rule of a Spanish command- 
 ant, and at a time when relations were strained between the 
 United States and Spain. 
 
 There has been no more unsettled epoch than the first decade 
 of the nineteenth century. England and France were in the 
 midst of their world-wide duel, and Spain, the mother country of 
 the Floridas, divided between the two great combatants. When 
 Napoleon's influence became paramount at Madrid it was with 
 him rather than with the Spanish Court that the American gov- 
 ernment reasoned and traded for much coveted Florida. Strange 
 to say, the power of the great emperor lessened with the acces- 
 sion of his brother Joseph, for this was resented by many Span- 
 iards, and England fomented the civil war which ensued. The 
 Spanish colonies in South America became all but independent, 
 ^ In Baldwin's Flush Times of Alabama. 
 
398 COLONIAL MOBILE. 
 
 and the Baton Rouge district of West Florida, over half sur- 
 rounded by the United States, could have been made American 
 at any time. 
 
 From being merely a red post marking an Indian victory or 
 a border between contending tribes, Baton Rouge had gradually 
 come to be a town of some note. Its business quarter, so far as 
 it had one, was on the river bank and the bluff immediately 
 above, while its straggling residences, frame and adobe, always 
 with long galleries to the front, were scattered along shell roads 
 leading out to the plantations. Its centre was the fort, built by 
 the English and maintained by the Spaniards. When West 
 Florida had become Spanish both the bridge and the fort at 
 Bayou Manchac had been abandoned, and Baton Rouge was the 
 fortress and in a sense the capital of West Florida from the 
 Pearl to the Mississippi. It was never large, but it was the larg- 
 est town in the district. In appearance it was Spanish, but im- 
 migration had greatly changed it. 
 
 So many Americans were there that the Spanish commandant 
 Delassus found it expedient to grant what amounted to home 
 rule, and the anomaly was presented of finding in villages with 
 Spanish or French names, among people of Spanish customs and 
 costumes, all the paraphernalia of Anglo-Saxon civilization. 
 
 There had been insubordination as early as 1805, and five 
 years later came the climax. The Americans of the district felt 
 the spirit of the age. Had not Tennessee and Kentucky achieved 
 statehood even against the will of North Carolina and Virginia? 
 Were not nations made and unmade every day in Europe? Were 
 not states hatching all along the Spanish Main ? A call for a con- 
 vention was sanctioned by the governor, and delegates from San 
 Feliciana, Baton Rouge, St. Helena, and Tanchipaho assembled 
 in July, 1810, at St. John's Plains. Some wished an independ- 
 ent government, others were favorable to the King of Spain, but 
 naturally the majority favored some form of union with the 
 United States. Nevertheless, the actual result was that the con- 
 vention recommended a government under Spanish rule, with 
 courts and other institutions like the American.^ 
 
 These recommendations did not meet with general acceptance, 
 and some of the delegates united in a declaration, set up a flag 
 
 1 Fuller's Purchase of Florida, pp. 182-186 ; Curry's Acquisition of Florida, 
 19 American Historical Magazine, 286 ; 1 La. Hist. Socy Publ., Pts. II. and III. 
 
THE STATE OF WEST FLORIDA. 399 
 
 of blue wool with a silver star, and established a standing army 
 of one hundred and four men. General Philemon Thomas by 
 direction of the convention captured Baton Rouge, — fort, Delas- 
 sus, and all. Patriotism ran high. On September 26, West 
 Florida was declared to be a free and independent state, and 
 the president, John Rhea, was given power to negotiate for recog- 
 nition by the United States. 
 
 The limits of the new commonwealth were somewhat unde- 
 termined towards the east, but proceedings were undertaken to 
 remove all doubts on the subject. General Thomas with his 
 army proceeded to Biloxi, with Mobile as his ultimate goal. 
 
 The Spanish authorities were on the alert against the West 
 Florida revolution, but they were somewhat paralyzed by the 
 situation in Spain itself. Joseph was king one day and Ferdi- 
 nand was king the next, and then both at once. What could 
 Cayetano Perez do under such circumstances? "Under which 
 king, Bezonian ? " The titular sovereign was still Ferdinand, 
 but there was a French society in West Florida intent upon 
 proclaiming King Joseph. 
 
 Joseph Pulaski Kennedy of the Bigbee District, yearning for 
 fame and possibly also for a judgeship, undertook to make the 
 aspirations of King Joseph a reality in West Florida. In June, 
 1810, he started a correspondence with Zenon Orso, a prominent 
 citizen and land-owner in Mobile, as well as with the two Powells 
 who had recently moved below the line, and enlisted them and 
 others in the Bonapartist scheme. This, however, miscarried, 
 and Orso and the Powells in July had the misfortune of being 
 confined within the calaboose of Fort Charlotte. Thereupon 
 Kennedy indignantly wrote to Perez, disclaiming all connection 
 with the oif enders, and kindly lightening the worry of the official 
 by promising to go " to the States " and remain all summer.^ 
 
 Mobile, however, was not yet through with Kennedy. The 
 revolution had taken place at Baton Rouge, and the new author- 
 ities ordered an election in November. Judge Toulmin found 
 greater need for his diplomacy than before. He had influence 
 with the Spanish authorities, and, like John McKee and even 
 Captain Gaines, had personal friends below the line. One of 
 these was James Innerarity, with whom he maintained a cordial 
 
 ^ Much information has been derived from the papers published by T. M. 
 Owen in 2 American Historical Review, pp. 699-705. 
 
400 COLONIAL MOBILE. 
 
 correspondence. Toulmin was indefatigable in warnings, public 
 and private, against any violent steps by the Bigbee settlers. 
 He thereby acquired the enmity not only of Kennedy, but of 
 Colonel Caller, who commanded the Bigbee militia, and of the 
 redoubtable Reuben Kemper, who now appears on the scene 
 as commissioner from the new State of West Florida. 
 
 The Spanish authorities were alarmed, and Governor Folch 
 endeavored to prevent hostilities by promising to abolish those 
 duties upon American imports and exports which had created 
 so much friction. This, however, proved ineffectual. It was 
 too late. 
 
 Kemper led a band of filibusters down the Tensaw River, 
 where Dr. Thomas G. Holmes and a few other fiery spirits 
 joined them. Near the old Apalache settlement, they made 
 speeches and gesticulated towards ancient Mobile, and even sent 
 Cyrus Sibley over to demand its surrender by Folch. But 
 whiskey from Baton Rouge and dissension ruined the expedi- 
 tion. Part crossed over Sawmill Creek, twelve miles above 
 Mobile, but, while fiddling and dancing, were betrayed by an 
 old countryman. Two hundred soldiers sent up in boats under 
 Parades captured the party.^ 
 
 Morro Castle at Havana was to hold them prisoners for years 
 to come, and Sibley's mill was operated by his faithful black 
 servant in the mean time. Even the United States officials dis- 
 approved the expedition, — probably because it was a failure. 
 Claiborne dispatched Colonel Pike by land to Mobile, and some 
 of Jefferson's gunboats proceeded thither from New Orleans. 
 In November, 1811, Col. Thomas H. Cushing of the 2d infantry 
 was stationed in the Orange Grove to protect the city against any 
 other attempt.2 The colonel himself lived with his family at the 
 Dictionary Doctor's, a literary character otherwise unknown. 
 The troops remained until the danger died away, and finally 
 marched to found a new post at Mount Vernon in the high 
 country back from Fort Stoddert. 
 
 The United States probably had no serious objection to see- 
 ing the end of Spanish rule in West Florida, but they had them- 
 selves always claimed the land south of 31° and east to the 
 Perdido under the Louisiana Purchase of 1803. President 
 
 * 2 Pickett's Alabama, p. 237, who relies ou Holmes and other participants. 
 ' Information furnished by the War Department. 
 
THE STATE OF WEST FLORIDA, 401, 
 
 Madison, therefore, declined to recognize the new State of West 
 Florida, or even to annex it, and on October 27 issued a pro- 
 clamation taking possession of the country. General Claiborne, 
 governor of Orleans Territory, was directed to proceed from 
 New Orleans and occupy to the Perdido, and in December he 
 went throughout West Florida distributing the proclamation. 
 Fulwar Skipwith, governor of the new State, resented the Presi- 
 dent's action ; but he could only act the part of Sardauapalus and 
 shut himself up in his fort at Baton Rouge. Instead of a battle. 
 General Thomas had something like a joint debate with Clai- 
 borne during his progress, and characterized the President's 
 proclamation as a declaration of war. The only way he saw, 
 however, of accepting the challenge was also to go to Baton 
 Rouge and prepare to sell his life dearly.^ 
 
 The American policy at this crisis, and indeed all along in 
 regard to Florida, was then thought to be timid. It claimed 
 everything and did nothing. But Napoleon being handicapped 
 in Europe, it now had the merit finally of being successful. 
 When the governor and commander-in-chief of West Florida 
 retired into the fort at Baton Rouge, Claiborne, like Galvez of 
 old, went there with his troops. For a while it seemed uncer- 
 tain which flag would prevail. The stars and stripes were torn 
 down and the single star run up ; but the gunboats came and 
 the fort surrendered before bombardment. The other parishes 
 or districts were occupied with little trouble. 
 
 Folch, the Spanish governor, was uneasy at the general situ- 
 ation and offered to surrender Mobile as weU as the rest of 
 Florida if not relieved by January 1, 1811. President Madison 
 sent this offer to Congress, and the result was an act and a joint 
 resolution authorizing him to take possession of Florida, even 
 east of the Perdido River, and to employ the army and navy for 
 that purpose. Congress directed that this act should not be pro- 
 mulgated for a year, but the President acted in accordance with 
 these provisions. 
 
 The Territory of Orleans at first claimed all the coast and 
 created counties so as to include Pensacola also, but only the 
 Baton Rouge district to the Pearl became a part of the Terri- 
 tory of Orleans. This was in order to counterbalance the 
 French element predominant about New Orleans, although the 
 * 27 Magazine American History, p. 24. 
 
402 COLONIAL MOBILE. 
 
 Americans objected strenuously to being used as a makeweight. 
 The district from the Pearl to the Perdido was by act of May 14, 
 1812, annexed to Mississippi Territory,^ for it was the outlet for 
 the Bigbee and Tensaw districts. 
 
 The recrudescence and the fall, therefore, of West Florida 
 were only momentary, and Mobile was not permanently affected. 
 Of the abortive State of West Florida, the Baton Rouge Dis- 
 trict went back to its old Louisiana allegiance, and the separate- 
 ness of the Alabama-Tombigbee basin was recognized by putting 
 Mobile within the sphere of influence of the Bigbee District. No 
 attempt was made at American occupation. 
 
 ^2 U. S. Statutes at Large, p. 734. 
 
CHAPTER XLV. 
 
 IN THE BALANCE. 
 
 Spanish rule below EUicott's line was mild, and even Brit- 
 ish, we have seen, remained or came there to live. Of them 
 Cornelius McCurtin was a full-blooded Irishman, but after he 
 had had two successive Creole wives and acquired the Farmer 
 plantation and Mobile real estate, he must have felt himself a 
 good Spaniard. John Forbes we know, and also the brothers 
 Innerarity. James married Louise Trouillet, and in his own 
 or her name acquired lands. 
 
 On the other hand, Americans were satisfied that the Union 
 would eventually take possession under the Louisiana purchase, 
 and from this and purposes of business a number, even from 
 New England, gradually became inhabitants, and of necessity 
 Spanish subjects. 
 
 Lewis Judson came from Connecticut, and was in time pos- 
 sibly the leading merchant, after the house of Forbes declined. 
 The Hallett family are descendants of his sister. Peter H. 
 Hobart was from Vermont, and married a Creole. In later 
 years he wrote back to the north to explain that this did not 
 mean she was not white. Hobart was the owner of a mill, and 
 lived to be in American times a contractor and the builder of 
 the first court-house. He was in the same epoch to buy our 
 Spring Hill and make it a summer resort. Carolinians we 
 have also. William E. Kennedy of South Carolina came to 
 Spanish territory.^ He practiced medicine, and we found him 
 in 1807 a Spanish subject, living in the old parsonage at Mobile. 
 He invested in lands, amongst others in those granted the in- 
 terpreter Thomas Price, and after his brother Joshua followed 
 him to this section they became the greatest land-owners of 
 them all. Samuel H. Garrow is said to have been a refugee 
 to Virginia from San Domingo, and, while he was here a few 
 days in Spanish times, he settled in Mobile only in 1813 upon 
 * Kennedy's Exrs. v. Kennedy's Heirs, 2 Ala. Rep., p. 583. 
 
404 COLONIAL MOBILE. 
 
 the change of flag.^ The family are said to have been origi- 
 nally of Toulon. Cyrus Sibley we find on the Tensaw by 1810. 
 
 The oath of allegiance of Josiah Blakeley to the Spanish 
 crown still exists in the archives at Mobile, bearing date July 
 10, 1810. The paper recites that he had already lived four 
 years in the district, and had since 1807 cultivated an island 
 purchased from Don Jose Collins. He says that he had lived 
 six years in Santiago de Cuba. 
 
 We learn much of Blakeley, as well as of the island bought 
 of Hobart, Sossier, and Collins, from his long letter to rela- 
 tives in Connecticut, recorded at Mobile.^ Omitting only some 
 family references, not always intelligible now, he writes as 
 follows : — 
 
 " Mobile, 28th Feb., 1812. 
 
 "My dear Abby, — Your very pleasing, interesting [letter 
 of] December 11 came to hand about the middle of February. 
 Could you, my dear niece, know one half the pleasure it 
 afforded me, you would willingly continue your interesting, 
 pleasing correspondence. I love your dear mother very much. 
 She knows I love her ; but I have one complaint against her, 
 — that she did not sooner inform me that I had so pretty a 
 niece, who could write so pretty a letter. I thank you for 
 being so particular. Ever was it to me a most consolatory 
 reflection that my dear aged mother was with and under the 
 sole care of your most amiable attentive mamma. . . . The 
 unusual number of years added to the days of my dear mother's 
 life does not lessen the sorrow of bidding her a last adieu. To 
 me she had been an indulgent, kind, affectionate mother. She 
 knew I loved her; with me her beloved memory will be dear 
 and lasting. With your dear mamma and family, and with all 
 weeping friends, do I most affectionately and most sincerely 
 sympathize. . . . 
 
 "Mobile, the great object of contention at this moment be- 
 tween the United States and the Spaniards, contains about 90 
 houses, all of wood and but one story high. At the south end 
 of the town is a beautiful fort, built by the French and called 
 Fort Charlotte. The town is about thirty miles north of the 
 
 1 Kennedy v. Collins, U. S. Sup. Ct. printed record, p. 207. 
 
 2 Mobile Records, Misc. Book « E," p. 467. 
 
IN THE BALANCE. 406 
 
 Gulph of Mexico, at the head of what is called Mobile Bay. 
 This bay is from 10 to 20 mUes wide. At the head of this bay, 
 on the west side, stands the now famous town of Mobile. 
 The river Mobile disembogues its waters into the bay by 
 several mouths. From Mobile to the high land on the eastern 
 shore is three leagues, in which are three rich islands, contain- 
 ing about four thousand acres each. Better land for rice and 
 cotton perhaps the world does not afford. These three valu- 
 able islands are mine. The imfortimate dispute between the 
 two nations has rendered it impossible for me to either sell or 
 cultivate these lands. Were the'Americans here, their value 
 would soon be known. Cattle and hogs do well upon them, 
 and no expense. Upon them I have about 30 head of cattle 
 and hundreds of hogs, the hogs wild. I shoot or catch them 
 with a dog. On one of these islands I have a small house and 
 plantation, called Festino. This year intend growing rice. I 
 have also a large survey of land at the mouth of the river 
 Pascagoula, 50 miles west of this. The Gazettes will from time 
 to time inform you what takes place in this coimtry. I have 
 at my Festino plantation the orange, fig, quince, and peach; 
 aU do well. It is here too warm for apples. At Fort Stod- 
 ert, 60 miles north of this, on the west bank of this Mobile 
 River, is an American garrison of 500 or less troops. A little 
 above Fort Stodert the Alabama from the northeast and the 
 Tombigby from the north form a junction, as you may see 
 from the map. They continue one stream to about a league 
 south of the fort, then again separate, forming the Mobile 
 River on the west and the Tensaw on the east. These chan- 
 nels pass through a swamp or marsh about ten miles wide, very 
 little of which is fit for cultivation. Below this marsh and 
 above Mobile Bay are my islands, free of wood and proper for 
 cultivation. They are one continued meadow farther than the 
 eye can reach. Burn the grass and it is fit for the plough or hoe. 
 Between this and Fort Stodert, on the west side, poor land; 
 but few inhabitants, these French. In Mobile about 20 white 
 families, those French, Spanish, Americans, and English. 
 You can easily calculate my circle of acquaintance in Mobile 
 is small. I am acquainted on both sides the river, for a hun- 
 dred miles up, with all the best people. My room is directly 
 opposite the Roman Catholic Church, the only one here, and 
 
406 COLONIAL MOBILE. 
 
 in which I sometimes attend Mass, though no Catholic, I 
 love to see religion attended to; it has a good efifect on the 
 conduct and morals of the people. From this for 500 miles 
 north, I do not believe there is a church or clergyman, the 
 people almost savage. Land in general poor^ and but few 
 inhabitants. Packet boats and other vessels are constantly 
 running between this and Orleans; passage about three days. 
 Orleans is southwest of this. That is a gay, lively place ; the 
 young ladies there dance as well and dress with as much taste 
 as any place I was ever in. You know if the French have 
 money they will both dress and dance. But little attention 
 appears to be paid to the improvement of the mind. Yet many 
 of them make lively, pleasant companions. When I came to 
 this place it was supposed the United States would soon be in 
 possession. . . . By this long delay I have been disappointed. 
 At present my property here is almost unproductive. By the 
 Gazette you will be informed of the state of this country. 
 I long once more to visit the land of my nativity. I have 
 not the pleasure of recollecting you, and suppose you do not 
 recollect me. By a steady correspondence we can become 
 better acquainted. My picture, which I hope is with your 
 beloved mother, will inform you how I look; your mamma 
 can inform you how 1 talk ; my letter will how I write. . . . 
 Several Yankees are here. One of the first merchants in this 
 place is from Connecticut, not far from Stratford, His name 
 is Judson, a good man. This market furnishes plenty of good 
 oysters and fish, and during the winter the greatest plenty of 
 wild geese, ducks, etc. Venison is plenty all the year, often 
 for \ dollar a quarter. . . . 
 
 "My Festino plantation is about three miles from Mobile, 
 where next month, March, I begin planting Rice. Rice gener- 
 ally grows about as high as wheat; on my island it grows six 
 feet high. It also produces cotton superior to any other land 
 in this country. But I have not negroes to cultivate it ; and as 
 the situation of the country now is, I cannot sell planta- 
 tions. . . . 
 
 '■^ Respect yourself^ and believe me your sincere friend, 
 
 "J. Blakely." 
 
 " During this last winter the United States army, which had 
 long been wholly idle in this country, have made a road and 
 
IN THE BALANCE. 407 
 
 bridges from Baton Rouge on the Mississippi to Fort Stodart, 
 also from Fort Stodart to the State of Georgia. I have seen 
 many carriages which came from Savanah to Fort Stodart. 
 
 "You may write me, and come all the way by land, and a 
 good road. I inform your dear mamma, soon as the Ameri- 
 cans have this country I believe I must beg permission to send 
 for one of her daughters. 
 
 "During this last winter we have had one snow two or three 
 inches deep, some of which was on the ground for three days. 
 We have had much cold weather this winter, several times ice 
 half an inch thick ; though not so far north as Egypt we have 
 it much colder. I think my islands are as rich as the Delta of 
 the Nile, but they have one advantage : I can water them once 
 in twenty -four hours, which for rice much increases their value. 
 When the waters in the river above are raised forty feet, at my 
 islands they do not rise one inch. They are last in this wild 
 survey." 
 
 There has been a question whether Josiah spelled his name 
 "Blakeley," as Alabama later named his town, or "Blakely," 
 as the United States confirmed his island title. On the idea 
 that he, like Shakspere, knew best, we must decide for 
 "Blakeley," despite this paper. For this is but a copy, and 
 several original letters preserved in the Spanish archives have 
 it uniformly with the "e." 
 
 Although he had been so long in the Spanish dominions, we 
 find Blakeley shortly before this (August, 1810) declaring in 
 one of these papers that he was unacquainted with the lan- 
 guage. This was in a proceeding that corresponds with our 
 garnishment. Thomas Hutchins claimed that Thomas Drury 
 owed him a thousand pesos, and that Blakeley was said to owe 
 Drury something. Thereupon the commandant must have 
 cited Blakeley, for that gentleman answers that he had be- 
 friended Drury while sick and among strangers, and then 
 shrewdly states an account for seven gallons best old Madeira 
 at four dollars, and for use of a horse, negro, beef, etc., which 
 more than balances the flour, pork, and beef, which Drury 
 may have turned over to Blakeley's people in Mobile. 
 
 Blakeley lived on the Polecat Bay side of his island, above 
 Coffee Bayou. When he bought from Collins in 1807, there 
 
408 COLONIAL MOBILE. 
 
 was already an unfinished dwelling on it, with a well-ditched 
 plantation growing rice, corn, cotton, domestic grasses, and 
 vegetables.^ 
 
 * See Appendix D, § 12. 
 
CHAPTER XLVI. 
 
 THE CAPTURE OF MOBILE. 
 
 Spain assisted the United States to establish their independ- 
 ence, but hardly realized what must be the result. Of all 
 countries she had most to suffer from a strong American power, 
 and in the case of our own country the danger to Spain was 
 the greater because of the leavening influence of the new 
 democratic institutions. 
 
 There have been three times when our relations to Spain 
 were unfriendly. The first was the period which we have now 
 reached, when the natural expansion of the English colonies 
 was to verify the prediction of Iberville, and they were to 
 clamor for the occupation of those possessions which intervened 
 between the west and the Gulf. The second time was when, in 
 our own century, American principles induced the struggles of 
 all her remaining continental provinces for independence, and 
 sympathy and policy evoked the enunciation of that Monroe 
 doctrine of American freedom from European interference 
 which in our day is of so great importance. The third time 
 was to come in the sympathy of the United States for Cubans 
 in their uprisings, and in the world-wide changes which have 
 resulted. 
 
 Spain had accepted from France the gift of Louisiana with 
 reluctance, but when she had taken possession she held to it 
 with Spanish pertinacity. This was the more true when she 
 recovered the Floridas from the British, and found herseK 
 again, as in the sixteenth century, with an unbroken coast line 
 sweeping from Carolina all around the Gulf of Mexico. 
 
 The interior of the country concerned her but little after De 
 Soto found that it had no mines, and so her eighteenth century 
 diplomats had not been careful to acquire the country up to 
 the sources of the Gulf rivers. This had mattered little when 
 only savages lived there, and the sea was a Spanish mare 
 dausum. But conditions in 1812-13 were vastly different. 
 
410 COLONIAL MOBILE. 
 
 In 1812 the United States realized that patience had ceased 
 to be a virtue, and found themselves at war with Great Britain. 
 The British used not only such armies as they could spare from 
 the contest with Napoleon, but by emissaries stirred up the 
 Indians of the west and south. 
 
 Spain aided the English indirectly by allowing use of the 
 Gulf ports as points of distribution to the Indians and of ren- 
 dezvous for British ships. This was not unnatural, as Eng- 
 land was helping the Spanish in Europe in their great revolt 
 from Napoleon. But the United States could not permit it, 
 especially as to Mobile, which they had always claimed as their 
 own under the Louisiana purchase. President Madison, under 
 act of Congress in the spring of 1813, directed General Wil- 
 kinson, commanding at New Orleans, to take possession of 
 Mobile. 
 
 This order was signed by John Armstrong, Secretary of 
 War, and is dated February 16. It was, of course, not re- 
 ceived for some weeks, but Wilkinson then lost no time in 
 getting ready. He took with him seven companies of the 
 second and third regiments infantry and one of artillery. 
 
 He had had many unexpected delays and cross accidents, he 
 reports from Pass Christian, one of them having nearly brought 
 him to "the unprofessional end of death by drowning instead 
 of shooting." He had expected to find at the Pass three gun- 
 boats, which he wished to send to take possession of Mobile 
 Bay and guard the pass to town. But they were gone. One 
 gunboat which he had was grounded, and he had to leave his 
 baggage in it; and another "crazy" one that he would use was 
 for the time out of communication on account of a gale. So 
 he intended waiting for Commodore Shaw to bring two from 
 Bayou St. John. That morning he had dispatched a small 
 vessel with a three-pounder and about twenty men to get into 
 Mobile Bay and prevent all intercourse with Pensacola by sea, 
 at the same time that troops descended from Fort Stoddert, 
 and, by fortifying opposite the town, prevented communication 
 by land. 
 
 The plan succeeded admirably. The Spanish troops on 
 Dauphine Island were compelled to retire ; vessels were inter- 
 cepted; and the first intimation which Don Mauricio Zuniga, 
 the governor at Pensacola, had of any hostile intention of the 
 
THE CAPTURE OF MOBILE. 411 
 
 Americans was on April 12, when the Dauphine Island detach- 
 ment presented themselves before him. He wrote such a letter 
 of mingled surprise and deferential consideration as only a 
 Spaniard could indite. It was handed Wilkinson by Bernard 
 Prieto at Mobile on the 15th. 
 
 The American general landed below Mobile with six hun- 
 dred men. Colonel Bowyer descended the Tensaw with troops, 
 and, with five brass cannon, took a position opposite the city, 
 while Shaw's gunboats held the bay. Cayetano Perez had 
 sixty men, with sixty -two cannon and munitions, in Fort Char- 
 lotte, but no provisions. So unequal the contest ! 
 
 Wilkinson later wrote the Secretary of War that it was some- 
 what difficult to give an amicable aspect to the investiture of a 
 military post, but that he made the attempt. Thus he wrote 
 to Perez on April 12 from camp near Mobile : — 
 
 "The troops of the United States under my command do not 
 approach you as the enemies of Spain, but by order of the 
 President they come to relieve the garrison which you com- 
 mand from the occupancy of a post within the legitimate limits 
 of those States. I therefore hope, sir, that you may peacefully 
 retire from Fort Charlotte, and from the bounds of the Missis- 
 sippi Territory [and proceed] east of the Perdido Kiver, with 
 the garrison you command, and the public and private property 
 which may appertain thereto." 
 
 The reply of the Spanish commandant was made from the 
 fort the same day, as follows : — 
 
 "Excellent Sir, — I have just received by your Aid-de- 
 Camp, Major H. D. Peire, your intimation, and to comply 
 with my duty I cannot do less than protest against it, and pro- 
 pose that, provided you permit me to withdraw from the Fort 
 everything which is in it belonging to his C. M., and that the 
 troops, officers, and those employed by government carry out 
 their equipage and property, and also that the inhabitants be 
 allowed to keep their possessions as they did heretofore, and 
 that you furnish me with transports, I will evacuate it, and 
 the garrison will leave it and go to Pensacola without spilling 
 blood; and leaving the decision respecting the Territory to 
 both nations, not having myself faculty to do it. 
 
 "God grant you many years." 
 
 The articles as finally settled were as follows : — 
 
412 COLONIAL MOBILE. 
 
 "Agreement entered into on this 13tli day of April, 1813, 
 between Major-General James Wilkinson, commanding 
 the forces of the United States of America, and Captain 
 Cayetano Perez, commanding the Spanish garrison of Fort 
 Carlota and the post of Mobile. 
 
 "Art. 1st. Captain Perez proposes to evacuate the Fort on 
 the 15th inst. 
 
 "Agreed, for the hour of 5 o'clock p. m., but a detachment of 
 the troops of the United States shall take post in the vicinity 
 of the Fort to occupy it in the moment of its evacuation. 
 
 "2nd. The Spanish garrison being destitute of provisions, 
 a supply is requested, together with transports to convey the 
 troops to Pensacola. 
 
 " Agreed. But the Spanish government shall be accountable 
 to the United States for the expense ; the vessels to sail as flags 
 of truce, and to be guaranteed by the government of Spain 
 against capture, and also against port charges and pilotage: 
 Major-General Wilkinson engages on the part of the United 
 States to guarantee the safe passage of the Spanish garrison 
 against the vessels of those States and the powers of peace with 
 them. 
 
 "3rd. Captain Perez proposes that the cannon, its attirail 
 and the munitions of war belonging to it, actually in Fort 
 Charlotte, shall be embarked with the troops, or, should this 
 proposition be rejected, an officer shall be appointed by the 
 Spanish commandant to meet an officer of equal rank of the 
 American forces to take an inventory of the Artillery and 
 munitions of war, for which the American officer shall give 
 receipts obligatory on the American government to account for 
 the same to the Spanish government. 
 
 "The first proposition being rejected, the alternative is 
 acceded to, and Major-General Wilkinson will see it carried 
 into effect. 
 
 "4th. That, until the Spanish garrison has sailed, the 
 American troops shall not approach the Fort. 
 
 " Agreed, under the stipulation of the first article, that pre- 
 caution being necessary to the safety of the public property. 
 
 "5th. That an officer of Artillery and a quartermaster of 
 the Spanish garrison be permitted to remain, to deliver the 
 artillery and munitions of war appurtenant thereto, and to 
 
THE CAPTURE OF MOBILE. 413 
 
 settle the accounts of the garrison, under a guarantee of safety 
 against the molestation of persons, papers, or property. 
 
 "Agreed, until the objects of their respective duties shall 
 be accomplished. 
 
 "Mobile, Fort Charlotte, April 13, 1813. 
 
 "Henry D. Petre, Major of Louisiana Volunteers, Aid-de- 
 Camp to Major-General Wilkinson, being duly authorized. 
 
 "Catetano Perez." 
 
 "Additional Article. The contracting parties agree that 
 Lieutenant Sands of the first regiment of artillery on the part 
 of the United States, and Lieutenant Don Juan Estevez on the 
 part of the Spanish government, shall meet, examine, and form 
 inventories of the artillery and munitions of war which may 
 be left in Fort Charlotte by the Spanish garrison, for which 
 the said Lieutenant Sands shall give duplicate receipts, agree- 
 ably to the third Article." 
 
 The evacuation took place, under the forms prescribed by 
 Wilkinson in the general order of April 15. "The Spanish 
 garrison," he says, "will evacuate, and the troops of the United 
 States take possession of Fort Charlotte this evening, or to- 
 morrow morning. A detachment consisting of Captain Walsh, 
 Artillerist, and Butler's and Laurence's companies under the 
 command of Major Carson, will enter the place the moment the 
 rear of the Spanish troops have passed the Glacis. This 
 detachment is to be formed in front of the Fort, the Artil- 
 lerist with lighted matches and twenty-four rounds of blank 
 cartridges. The troops will be under arms at four o'clock, and 
 on the discharge of the cannon will march to town and take 
 such position as may be hereafter ordered. On taking posses- 
 sion of the Fort, the standard is to be hoisted and a national 
 salute fired from the batteries, to be followed by a similar 
 salute from the navy, after which the troops will be marched 
 back to camp. A guard of fifty men properly officered is to 
 be mounted into Fort Charlotte, and the call of all is well is 
 to be repeated by the sentinels every hour, beginning at the 
 guard-house and passing to the right. The contractor must be 
 prepared immediately to issue fresh provisions to the troops 
 three times a week. 
 
 "The General recommends to the commanding officers of 
 battalions and detachments to make the exchange of flour 
 
414 COLONIAL MOBILE. 
 
 for bread on the best terms for the troops which may be prac- 
 tical." 
 
 The American troops had an unexpected accession at Fort 
 Charlotte in the form of a body of Mobile volunteers. Speak- 
 ing of them with the rest of his "little corps," Wilkinson 
 writes the Secretary of War he believes that, whenever put to 
 test, they will prove themselves worthy the name of Americans, 
 and a match for equal numbers taken from the best troops in 
 the world. 
 
 In the same report he says: "As soon as I have looked about 
 me, I shall make the best disposition of my puny force to 
 defend the country and assert our jurisdiction to the Perdido; 
 but, sir, it should be remembered that I am placed in a peril- 
 ous situation, with the ocean in my front, the Creek nation in 
 my rear, the Choctaws on my right, and the Seminoles on my 
 left. The enclosed will give you my effective strength, and I 
 can expect no succor, but by the abandonment of New Orleans, 
 from any quarter nearer than Tennessee or Georgia : it follows 
 that, should we be attacked in force and with decision by land 
 and water, the country must be lost; for two thousand men 
 and fifteen heavy gunboats would be necessary to resist such 
 an attack successfully. These observations are made from a 
 respect to candor, to justice, and our relative stations, and 
 will, I have no doubt, be received with the spirit in which they 
 are offered; yet you may calculate with confidence on what- 
 ever my most active exertions and best judgment can effect 
 with the means I command." 
 
 The first of the garrison orders after occupation, which has 
 been preserved, was for April 17, and reads as follows : — 
 
 "The guard will, until further orders, consist of one Subal- 
 tern, one Sergeant, one Corporal, and twenty-four Privates. 
 In future the vault nearest the flagstaff must be made use of 
 by the soldiers and no other, the door of which must be shut 
 either on going in or coming out. One Sergeant, one Cor- 
 poral, and thirty Privates will be immediately detailed for 
 fatigue after troops this morning. The Sergeant detailed for 
 this duty will report to the Commanding Officer. 
 
 " The Acting Adjutant will cause the water call to beat four 
 or five times per day, at which call eight or ten men of a 
 company can go out for water accompanied by a N. C. Officer. 
 
THE CAPTURE OF MOBILE. 415 
 
 No soldier is permitted to go into town without a written pass 
 from the commanding officer of his Company (waiters ex- 
 cepted), and not more than five men at one time can go; they 
 must also be accompanied by an N. C.^ Officer. The men 
 going to town must be in uniform. 
 
 "W. CARSOisr, Major Commanding." 
 
 On the 20th, General Wilkinson was able to sail for the 
 mouth of the bay to look into establishing a fort. This was 
 actually begun on Mobile Point, and named for the gallant 
 Colonel John Bowyer. The general also marched over to the 
 Perdido and began the construction of a "compact strong 
 work " there to repulse any predatory attack. 
 
 Thus Mobile was captured without "the effusion of a drop 
 of blood," as Wilkinson expressed it, and the occupation of 
 the United States extended to the Perdido River, — the boun- 
 dary which they had always claimed under the Louisiana pur- 
 chase.2 The stars and stripes now waved from Fort Stoddert 
 to Mobile, from Fort Charlotte to Fort Bowyer. Mississippi 
 Territory had reached the Gulf. 
 
 1 The capitalization, etc., in this, as in most other documents cited, is 
 that of the original. " C. M." stands for " Catholic Majesty," and "N. C," 
 of course, for " non-commissioned." As to Fort " Stoddert," it may be 
 remarked that this is the o£&cial spelling. 
 
 * A paper by H. Pillans, Esq., on the relation of the Mobile District to 
 the Louisiana Purchase was read before the Iberville Historical Society and 
 published in the Mobile Register, March 15, 1904. 
 
PART VI. 
 AMERICANIZATION. 
 
 1813-1821. 
 
CHAPTER XLVII. 
 
 THE CREEK WAR. 
 
 With the capture of Mobile, the United States acquired, on 
 all but the Florida side, what Lord Beaconsfield would have 
 called a "scientific frontier." The Tombigbee residents had 
 not only an outlet to the Gulf, but a new district to settle. 
 
 Even before the capture of the city, the governor's proclama- 
 tion had laid off Mobile County. By act of December 18, 
 1812, all south of the thirty-first degree, from the Perdido to 
 the ridge between the Mobile and Pascagoula rivers, was to 
 bear that name, and all west to Biloxi was named Jackson 
 County. Mobile was to gain at the expense of Jackson when 
 Mississippi Territory was divided, ^ and was also to grow north- 
 wardly, although until only a few years ago its north boundary 
 was the irregular line of the old Federal Road.^ 
 
 The new country had an immediate influx of Americans, 
 while not a few of the Spaniards left for Pensacola, which was 
 to remain under Spain for a few years longer, or went to Cuba, 
 the ever-faithful isle. Cayetano Perez returned to Mobile and 
 lived on the bay near Dog River. One cannot but think, 
 from the language used of him by Manrique next year, that he 
 had found Pensacola an unpleasant abode, for that governor 
 told the Indians in a letter found at the Holy Ground that 
 Mobile had been sold to the Americans by a faithless officer.^ 
 The early records of Washington County, too, contain the 
 names of not a few Spaniards. 
 
 George S. Gaines was at Mobile for a while, but Judge 
 Toulmin preferred his grant and home near Fort Stoddert. 
 Another familiar character to us, Sam Dale, was often at 
 
 ^ Toulmin's Laws of Alabama, pp. 83, 84. 
 2 Alabama Acts 1828-29, p. 44. 
 
 8 2 Monette's Valley of the Mississippi, p. 411 ; Mobile Deed Book " A," 
 p. 103. 
 
420 COLONIAL MOBILE. 
 
 Mobile, but bis regular business was that of guide for the 
 immigrants from Georgia to the Bigbee settlements. 
 
 Big Sam, Sam Thlucco, as the Indians called him, was sans 
 peiir et sans reproche, the Daniel Boone of the Gulf region. 
 Early an orphan, the Virginia boy paid off his father's debts 
 and cared for the large family. He was brought up on the 
 border, and learned to know the wiles of the Indians, but not 
 less to love the generous qualities of his savage foes. Tecum- 
 seh he heard at Tookabatcha, and the character of Pushmataha 
 he draws with a loving hand.^ For Dale, like Caesar, could 
 write as well as fight, and his autobiography, edited by the son 
 of General Claiborne, has a place of its own in southwestern 
 literature. 
 
 There was need of his gun rather than his pen. The Ameri- 
 cans were threatened with a greater danger than the Spanish 
 custom-house. The Creek nation, instigated by the British, 
 were in arms, pledged to exterminate the white man from their 
 hunting-grounds. The building of the much used Federal 
 Road in 1811, by consent of some chiefs, had aroused the rest 
 under the very eyes of United States agent Hawkins. The 
 impassioned eloquence of Tecumseh at Creek Tookabatcha in 
 the fall of 1811 or spring of 1812,^ followed by the intrigues 
 of his emissaries the prophets, raised a war spirit before which 
 the friendly Indians had to flee. The Creeks even conferred 
 with the Choctaws at Pushmataha (in the present Choctaw 
 County, Alabama) in July, 1813, in an endeavor to win them 
 to war with the whites, and Tecumseh had visited them before 
 going to the Creeks. 
 
 Occasional murders and outrages alarmed the settlers on the 
 rivers, among them the abduction of Mrs. Crawley, rescued 
 by the brave Tandy Walker from the Creek settlement at 
 the falls of the Black Warrior and brought to St. Stephens. 
 While Fort Stoddert and Mount Vernon were occupied in 
 July, 1813, by regulars under General F. L. Claiborne (bro- 
 ther of the late governor), a line of improvised posts extended 
 across the neck of Clarke County from river to river. Fort 
 Republic was built even in the St. Stephens settlement. A 
 man's house was literally his castle, and many places were 
 
 * Claiborne's Sam Dale, pp. 32, 59, 135 n. 
 
 « Meek's Southwest, p. 242 ; Halbert and Ball's Creek War, pp. 63, 120. 
 
THE CREEK WAR. 421 
 
 stockaded and became neighborhood resorts. The Bigbee and 
 Tensaw plantations were deserted. White's Fort, Fort Sinque- 
 field, besides Fort Madison and others in the fork, and Fort 
 Mims by the Tensaw Boatyard, were filled with refugees. 
 Captain Schamnburgh had once at Fort Stoddert to improvise ' 
 marriage ceremonies for a parsonless people, but this time was 
 over. Dale's occupation as guide to immigrants was gone, 
 and young Jerry Austill now made his perilous night ride as 
 messenoer between Fort Madison and Mount Vernon. Pierce's 
 school and the Pierce gin at the Tensaw Boatyard were no 
 longer in operation, and the newer cotton-gin at Mcintosh's 
 Bluff had also ceased. 
 
 Colonel Caller, of the militia, heard that some Creeks under 
 Peter McQueen had gone to Pensacola for munitions, and he 
 raised a party of one hundred and eighty mounted men to 
 intercept them. This was done at Burnt Corn on July 27, but 
 greed for spoil broke up discipline and the successful attack 
 became a defeat. It was even worse, because it destroyed the 
 white prestige. The capture of Mobile was forgotten in the 
 rout at Burnt Corn, and Indian depredation became more 
 marked. 
 
 Wilkinson had been called to the north to command on the 
 Canadian border, and he was succeeded at Mobile and New 
 Orleans by General Flournoy. This commander was misled by 
 the reports of Hawkins at Tookabatcha, — who was perfectly 
 honest, but hardly appreciated the extent of the outbreak, — 
 and ordered Claiborne to confine himself to the protection of 
 Mobile. 
 
 It was at noon on the 30th of August, while dancing was 
 going on, and a negro was about to be whipped for giving what 
 was deemed a false alarm of Indians coming, that McQueen 
 and Weatherford and their thousand savages dashed through 
 the open gate of the palisade surrounding the house of Samuel 
 Mims on the Tensaw. Major Beasley redeemed his careless- 
 ness by dying sword in hand, and the noble half-breed Dixon 
 Bailey bravely led on the whites in defense of the women and 
 children. But the odds were too great, and at last fire aided 
 the butchery by the savages. Even Bailey was mortally 
 wounded, and hardly two dozen escaped of the five hundred 
 and fifty men, women, and children in that stockaded acre of 
 
422 COLONIAL MOBILE. 
 
 ground. God's acre it was, for, when a relief corps came, it 
 was only to find ashes, and mangled and burning dead. Neigh- 
 boring Fort Pierce was abandoned during that battle and 
 Lieutenant Montgomery led its people to Mobile ; while, 
 among other fugitives from Fort Mims, David Tate and some 
 of his family escaped with the two Pierces on a flatboat down 
 to Fort Stoddert.^ 
 
 The pits that received the victims of Fort Mims are now 
 level with the ground, and only a practiced eye can detect any 
 traces of the rude fort. But that massacre still lives in history, 
 and "Remember Fort Mims!" was the battle-cry that nerved 
 American armies from the west, east, and north to blot the 
 very Creek country from the map. It was the blood of gray- 
 headed Sam Mims crying from the ground, and his spirit lead- 
 ing on, that opened the interior of Alabama to civilization. 
 
 George S. Gaines received details the next day, and he sent 
 Edmondson express through the Choctaws and Cherokees to 
 Nashville to ask Andrew Jackson to invade the Creek country 
 with his brigade of mounted volunteers. The general required 
 little urging from Governor Blount to take the field, and sent 
 McKee to "get out " the friendly Choctaws. Gaines met McKee 
 at Pitchlyn's as he was on the same errand. Pushmataha had 
 learned of the massacre through Edmondson, and went with 
 Gaines to Mobile. Claiborne won the heart of the Choctaw 
 chief by giving him a full suit of United States brigadier 
 regimentals, noted as purchased at Mobile for three hundred 
 dollars.^ At first Flournoy refused the assistance of the 
 Choctaws, nobly tendered at his quarters in Fort Charlotte 
 by that chief in September, 1813, but, realizing his mistake, 
 sent an express and accepted it,^ just as George S. Gaines 
 had reached St. Stephens with Pushmataha and their dispir- 
 iting news. At Flournoy's request Gaines, accompanied by 
 Flood McGrew, attended the council called by Pushmataha 
 near Quitman, and the result was the enlistment of many Choc- 
 taws. 
 
 A brilliant episode of the bloody war which followed was on 
 
 1 2 Pickett's Alabama, p. 284 ; family tradition related by T. T. Tunstall, 
 Tate's grandson ; Halbert and Ball's Creek War, p. 157. 
 "^ Claiborne's Sam Dale, p. 133. 
 ' 2 Pickett's Alabama, p. 290 ; Gaines in Mobile Register. 
 
THE CREEK WAR. 423 
 
 the Alabama River, just above Randon's Creek. On November 
 12, Sam Dale, Jeremiah Austill, James Smith, and a negro, 
 Caesar, while on a scouting expedition, deliberately paddled 
 out in a canoe, and engaged in a hand-to-hand conflict with 
 nine Indians. Austill was knocked down and all but killed, 
 but one by one they dispatched the warriors and threw them 
 over into the river. ^ 
 
 But this, like McKee's burning of the deserted Creek village 
 at Tuskaloosa, like the lamented death of McGrew in a skir- 
 mish, was only an episode. Andrew Jackson, fired by the news 
 of the Fort Mims butchery, on October 13 left Nashville, and 
 with Tennessee volunteers marched for HuntsvUle and the 
 Creek country. Joined by Cherokees and friendly Creeks, he 
 captured Tallesehatche, founded Fort Strother, and on Novem- 
 ber 9 won the battle of Talladega. Perry's victories on Lake 
 Erie and the death of Tecumseh at the north had their counter- 
 part in Jackson's campaign at the south. 
 
 From the east, too, the Georgians under Floyd defeated the 
 Creeks at Autose, but had to retire from lack of provisions. 
 General Claiborne fortunately construed the "defence of Mo- 
 bile " broadly, and in November, 1813, from the west he also 
 marched into the enemy's territory. Above the site of the 
 Canoe Fight, Fort Claiborne at Weatherford's Bluff was built 
 as a base of supplies, and his square fort can still be traced on 
 the bluff of the Alabama River at Claiborne. His objective 
 point was Econachaca, the Holy Ground, on a bluff of the 
 Alabama in what is now Lowndes County. It had been built 
 by Weatherford as a place of safety, where plunder was secured 
 and white prisoners burned. Impregnable, the prophets said, 
 but Claiborne stormed it on December 23, and drove into the 
 water those savages who were not kiUed outright, for there 
 was little quarter in this war. Weatherford himself fled, and 
 with characteristic daring leaped his gray horse Arrow over 
 into the river. The town was burned to the ground, after the 
 army reserved some supplies and the plunder had been turned 
 over to Pushmataha. 
 
 The term of the Mississippi volunteers being out, the army 
 had soon to disband, and the glory of terminating the war was 
 
 1 2 Pickett's Alabama, p. 312 ; Claiborne's Sam Dale, p. 123 ; Halbert 
 and Ball's Creek War, pp. 233, 200. 
 
424 COLONIAL MOBILE. 
 
 left for General Jackson and the Tennessee soldiers. The 
 Creek country had been invaded, burned, and devastated from 
 the north, east, and west, and despite a check at Emuckfau 
 Jackson was successful in other battles. Finally, on March 
 27, Creeks were found, twelve hundred in number, concentrated 
 in the Horseshoe Bend of the Tallapoosa River. Jackson at- 
 tacked the isthmus in front, after Coffee and the Cherokees 
 had crossed the river to cut the foe off from the rear. The 
 Creeks fought as bravely as ever, but hardly two hundred 
 escaped alive. Some saved themselves by such stratagems 
 as that of the wounded Manowa, who stayed under water until 
 night, breathing through a cane. The Americans lost com- 
 paratively few, among them, however, being the brave Major 
 Lemuel Purnell Montgomery, the first man killed on the breast- 
 works. For him, whom Jackson called " the flower of his 
 army," the county containing the present capital was named. 
 The dead were sunk by Jackson in the river to prevent mutila- 
 tion by the Indians.^ 
 
 The Americans soon found themselves resting on the site 
 of Bienville's Fort Toulouse. The old French trenches were 
 cleaned out, a stockade and blockhouse built, and the place 
 re-christened Fort Jackson. It was, a few months later, the 
 scene of the surrender of the brave Weatherford, whom the 
 general could hardly protect from the infuriated Americans. 
 The two men lived to be afterwards strong personal friends. 
 
 Jackson marched his troops back to Tennessee, but, being 
 promoted to the rank of major-general and to command of the 
 southern army, he was again at Fort Jackson on August 9 to 
 conclude a treaty of peace with the defeated Creeks. By this 
 all their country was surrendered to the United States except 
 the part east of the Coosa River and of a line drawn southeast- 
 wardly from Fort Jackson. 
 
 The great Creek war, which had threatened the very exist- 
 ence of the Americans on the Mobile and Tombigbee rivers, 
 thus resulted in opening up to them the woods and prairies of 
 the most fertile part of the future State of Alabama. The 
 sites of Forts Tombecbe and Toulouse were no longer isolated, 
 ^ 2 Monette's Valley of the Mississippi, p. 421. 
 
GRAVE OF PUSHMATAHA 
 
THE CREEK WAR. 425 
 
 but within territory acquired by the whites, and soon to be 
 well settled.^ 
 
 ' At least one survivor of Fort Mims, McGirth by name, was on the 
 Mobile wharf to be reunited to the family which he thought killed at Fort 
 Mims. They, as he learned to his joy, had been rescued by an Indian of 
 the attacking force, whom years before McGirth had adopted and raised 
 with his own children. Pushmataha died at Washington December 24, 1824, 
 burned out with strong drink, and through Senator Jackson's influence there 
 were fired over his grave in the Congressional Cemetery the " big guns " he 
 loved so well. See sketch by Lincecum, 9 Miss. Hist. Socy PubL, p. 415. 
 Sam Dale was to dine familiarly with President Jackson in the White House, 
 and also to feel the hand of civil law in an arrest for debt in Cullum's Hotel 
 at Mobile, from which generous citizens at once released him by paying 
 off the claim. Dale was to be praised and pensioned by the legislature 
 of Alabama and have a county named for him, and his services and sup- 
 plies paid for by the United States at last. Austill was long in business at Mo- 
 bile, much loved. Weatherford lived and died at Little River, in Baldwin 
 County, where his descendants still survive, and in Mobile yet are Tunstalls 
 who are proud of their kinship to him. 
 
 Reuben Davis in his Recollections of Mississippi, p. 59, speaks of Pushma- 
 taha as tried by a white jury, but this was Little Leader, an entirely 
 different man, and years after Pushmataha's death. 
 
 Fort Jackson is now almost ploughed up, and the same insatiate weapon 
 of peace was gradually demolishing its cemetery, where lay Strother, 
 Machesney, and others ; but, on my calling the attention of the War Depart- 
 ment to its neglected condition, the remains were transferred to the National 
 Cemetery at Mobile in January, 1897. 
 
 See 2 Pickett's Alabama, pp. 281, 318 ; Claiborne's Dale, p. 135, n. ; 
 Toulmin's Xaw5 of Alabama, pp. 607, 608 ;& U. S. Statutes at Large, pp. 322, 
 503 ; 1 Parton's Jackson, p. 440, etc. 
 
CHAPTER XLVIII. 
 
 ANDREW JACKSON ON THE ALABAMA RIVEE. 
 
 The Indian war was over, but the Spaniards still claimed 
 Mobile, dissuading the Indians on that account from burning 
 it,^ and an English fleet was threatening the coast. Jackson 
 was promoted to the command of the southwest, and in August, 
 1814, floated down the* Alabama. 
 
 Jackson apparently took with him the five companies of the 
 3d regulars, five hundred strong, leaving Colonel P. Pippen at 
 Fort Jackson with Tennessee militia. On the same boat with 
 the commander and his staff went Major Ho. Tatum, of Nash- 
 ville, summoned by Jackson to act as topographical engineer. 
 To him we are indebted for a full survey of the Alabama 
 River, noting distances, courses, and natural features, the more 
 interesting as it is the first known. ^ 
 
 He mentions Coosawda Town as having been on a high bluff 
 to the right as they descended. It had been burned by Colo- 
 nel Gibson during the war. Taw-wassee Town he identifies 
 on the second day (August 12) as Weatherford's Bluff, lower 
 down on the left, and then on the right, Autauga on a red 
 bluff near an unnamed creek. They proceeded only by day, 
 and thus the observations of Tatum are very full. After 
 noting other bluffs, forests, and windings, on the 13th they 
 passed the Holy Ground, a high bluff forty chains long, on the 
 left, where a prophet had lived before the attack, and next 
 day Durant's extensive place on both sides of the river. On 
 the 15th, the troops landed and took of the corn growing on 
 the right, destroying what they did not need, opposite where 
 Colonel Pearson, of the North Carolina militia, had encamped 
 during the Indian war. Some distance below he describes a 
 
 ^ 2 Monette's Valley of the Mississippi, p. 411, n. 
 
 ' He was at the battle of New Orleans. — 2 Parton's Jackson, p. 72. 
 
JACKSON ON THE RIVER. 427 
 
 high red bluff to the right as the handsomest situation on the 
 river for a town. On the next day he mentions only the 
 usual landmarks, and on the 17th an island, noted as the place 
 where Colonel Benton, in May or June, had let three or four 
 hundred Indians escape. These told him they were on their 
 way to Fort Claiborne to surrender, but afterwards turned up 
 in Pensacola under Francis McQueen. 
 
 They landed at John Weatherford's ferry on the left, near 
 Fort Claiborne, at four P. M., and Jackson seems to have staid 
 at the fort until after ten the next morning. The ferry was 
 on the road from Fort St. Stephens to Milledgeville, and, 
 despite his being brother to the famous William Weatherford, 
 its owner was a friendly Indian. Fort Claiborne was on a 
 bluff called the Alabama Heights, one hundred and fifty feet 
 in perpendicular. The fort he describes as a strong stockade, 
 nearly square, apparently with blockhouses in three corners, so 
 shaped as to have the effect of bastions in defence. There was 
 also a blockhouse at an irregular offset made to avoid includ- 
 ing part of a ravine. 
 
 After leaving, he mentions Weatherford's improvement on 
 the left at the ferry, then Jones' on the right; next, but some 
 distance below, those of the friendly half-breed Peter Randon 
 on both sides of the river, and on the right, further down, 
 improvements of the brave Dixon Bailey. On the 19th, they 
 passed other improvements, — on the left that of Sizemore, a 
 white man who married Bailey's sister, then on the right the 
 plantation of the half-breed Mrs. Dyer, also a small improve- 
 ment on handsome Choctaw Bluff, and those of the friendly 
 half-breed Sam Manac on both sides, a mile below Little 
 River. Among other plantations he also names one of David 
 Tait, whom he seems to think only pretended friendship with 
 the whites during the war so as to cover his own property and 
 that of his half-brother, William Weatherford. The Creek 
 boundary crossed the Alabama at the Cut-off, and there the 
 observations of Major Tatum ceased, as Jackson determined 
 now to press forward at night also. There was the less need 
 for a survey, he says, as Major-General Gaines had already 
 reported on the river from there to Mobile. 
 
 Tatum was much pleased with the country he saw, and says 
 the Alabama "can be navigated with large keel-boats with 
 
428 COLONIAL MOBILE. 
 
 tolerable ease and expedition from the time the fall rains set 
 in until about the months of May or June, after which they 
 become low and are much incommoded, both in ascending and 
 descending, by a variety of shoals." Of the "Cau-hau-ba" 
 River, also, he speaks in glowing terms, pictured to him as it 
 was by officers who had scoured that country, as the "Acadia 
 of America." 
 
 On the Cut-off at Mims' Ferry was Peter Randon's large 
 and valuable plantation. The ferry-house stood on the left 
 bank at a small lagoon, and three miles below was the mouth 
 of a small lake leading up to Pierce's Boatyard, in sight of 
 Fort Mims. 
 
 They encamped fourteen miles above Fort "Stoddard," and 
 upon his arrival on August 20 Jackson proceeded to Mount 
 Vernon, where Major Blue commanded part of the 39th regi- 
 ment. Lieutenant-Colonel Benton had but shortly before 
 marched the rest to Holmes' Hill, two miles from Fort Mims, 
 and was building Fort Montgomery to stop the marauding 
 Indians on the east of the rivers. The next day Jackson pro- 
 ceeded, but had to encamp four miles above Mobile on account 
 of a gale, and did not reach town until nine A. M. next day. 
 It would be a pity, however, not to believe the tradition which 
 makes one of his night stops to have been at the house of the 
 widow Andry, — for Simon was dead. He declined a bed, for, 
 "Madame, I am a soldier still," but on reembarking next 
 morning had the misfortune to lose his sword in the river. 
 There, despite earnest search, it still lies, below Seymour's 
 Bluff. 
 
 Fort Charlotte he found commanded by Colonel Richard 
 Sparks, of the 2d regiment, with five companies of that regi- 
 ment and a detachment of artillery under Lieutenant A. L. 
 Sands. Provisions about that time were good and ammuni- 
 tion abundant, but the fort was in bad order from lack of 
 means to carry out Lafon's plans for repairs, and a valuable 
 park of artillery purchased from the French was going to ruin 
 for lack of plank to shelter it. The soldiers were covered at 
 their own expense, and claimed back clothing for a year or 
 more. 
 
 The hospital and bake-house were not serviceable, and the 
 frame barracks within the fort gone beyond repair. The men 
 
JACKSON ON THE RIVER. 429 
 
 were then quartered In town, but the officers seem to have been 
 in tents within the fort.^ 
 
 There were a great many cattle east of the bay, the property 
 of Mobilians, and Indians, more than suspected to be sent 
 out from Pensacola, committed depredations. A place be- 
 longing to Dolive, for one, was plundered, and overseer and 
 slaves carried off. Jackson met this by sending out parties of 
 soldiers and Choctaws from Mobile and Fort Montgomery, 
 and when a Baratarian pirate brig, prize to the British brig 
 Sophia, foundered on Dauphine Island, Jackson notified the 
 Spanish governor that he would keep the crew (consisting of 
 prize-master, six British and three Spanish sailors) as hos- 
 tages. He received about this time an amicable embassy from 
 that governor in the person of a Lieutenant Gilmar, and suf- 
 fered him to depart ; but events at the mouth of the bay 
 prevented the lieutenant from reaching Pensacola. 
 
 With Colonel Sparks and Captain Thomas L. Butler, 
 Jackson looked about him, and in everything had to rely 
 upon his own resources; for Washington had been burned by 
 the British, and the government was migratory in these days. 
 
 The general is said to have lived at the southwest corner 
 of Conti and Conception streets, — appropriately opposite the 
 site of the Indian House of former days. The old low, white- 
 washed building will be remembered as only recently destroyed 
 to make way for pleasant modern residences. Another tradi- 
 tion, however, makes Jackson's headquarters to have been a 
 log cabin where the Battle House billiard-saloon long stood. 
 George S. Gaines had occasion to visit him, and found him on 
 the piazza reading. The town, it is said, had altogether but 
 one hundred and fifty houses. The fort could not hold all of 
 his troops. They are said to have been encamped near our 
 Frascati. He was not idle at Mobile, and his reconnoitring 
 around the town is said to be commemorated by the name of 
 a village over Three Mile Creek. Tradition says that he dined 
 in the woods there, and the tree which shaded him was long 
 pointed out. Certain it is, the place was named Jacksonville 
 in his honor. 
 
 ^ Report of Assistant Inspector-General Daniel Hughes in War Depart- 
 ment files. Much information has also been derived from the Tatum report 
 above mentioned. 
 
CHAPTER XLIX. 
 
 THE DEFENSE OF FORT BOWYER. 
 
 Fort Bowyer had been begun by Wilkinson, and from there, 
 on September 14, 1813, Bowyer had reported that the British 
 were arming Creeks at Pensacola. Cannon were mounted in 
 May, 1814, but shortly afterwards Bowyer and his command 
 were withdrawn to Mobile. Jackson, however, threw Lawrence 
 into it with one hundred and thirty men. 
 
 Like Fort Charlotte, it had a glacis which all but concealed 
 it, although here there was no covered way, and in shape it 
 was different. It was near the west end of Mobile Point, 
 and on the sea exposure was round, in fact a semicircular 
 battery, which was connected by curtains with a bastion which 
 faced the land approach. Inside, it was one hundred and 
 eighty feet from the summit of the bastion to the parapet of 
 the battery, whose arc described a chord of two hundred feet. 
 The parapet of the semicircular battery was fifteen feet thick, 
 while the parapet elsewhere above the platform was three 
 feet. The interior front was of pine, but there were no case- 
 mates. The fosse was twenty feet wide, but the redoubt was 
 unfortunately commanded by sand mounds two or three hun- 
 dred yards away. 
 
 The artillery consisted of twenty pieces, all but the few 
 twenty-four and twelve pounders being mounted on Spanish 
 carriages of little value. In the bastion were only one nine- 
 pounder and three four-pounders. 
 
 The first attack was in September, 1814. On the 12th, four 
 large vessels were descried in the offing, and on the next day 
 there were several attempt's by the British to throw up in- 
 trenchments on the land side, but the cannon of the fort dis- 
 persed them. Two days later, however, came the sea attack. 
 The garrison took an oath not to surrender unless in extremity, 
 
FORT BOWYER. 431 
 
 adopting a motto not unlike the other Lawrence's on the ship 
 — "Don't give up the fort! " 
 
 The Hermes, of twenty-eight gims, under Commodore Percy, 
 led the attack at 2 p. m., and by 4.30 she anchored within the 
 bay, and the action became general. A battery was erected 
 by Woodbine about seven hundred yards southeast of the fort, 
 but this was soon silenced, and the battle was between the fort 
 and ships. At 5.30 the flag of the Hermes was cut down, and 
 Lawrence chivalrously ceased firing until it could be replaced. 
 The next brig answered the courtesy by a broadside, and then 
 came a reply from all the fort at once. The flag of the fort 
 also fell, but the guns of the British did not pause. It was 
 quickly secured to a sponge staff, however, and gallantly 
 restored to its place. 
 
 As the fleet and the garrison were cannonading each other, 
 the cable of the Hermes was cut, and she drifted directly under 
 the guns of the fort. The Americans seized the opportunity 
 and raked her fore and aft. In such a fire she could not be 
 handled, and finally ran aground a half mile off. Even the 
 brig next her could hardly get out to sea. Finally the com- 
 mander and crew of the Hermes fired the ship and abandoned 
 her, while the rest of the fleet drew off and sailed towards 
 Pensacola, leaving the burning Hermes to her fate. The 
 illumination was beautiful, and at eleven o'clock that night 
 she blew up, and "with fragments strewed the sea." Jackson 
 heard the report at Mobile, thirty miles away, and was ago- 
 nized when told by Laval it was the fort. 
 
 The victory was complete. The loss of the Americans was 
 but four killed and as many wounded ; while on the ships there 
 were one hundred and sixty men killed and seventy wounded, 
 besides two killed on land. Jackson rejoiced at the brilliant 
 success, and on September 17 wrote from Mobile a letter of 
 congratulations to Lawrence and his gallant men.^ He would 
 have been in the fort himself, but for going back to Mobile to 
 send down the reinforcements under Laval, whom the cannon- 
 ade prevented from landing. 
 
 A curious incident of the battle was that it was witnessed by 
 Nolte, a New Orleans cotton speculator, who had two hundred 
 and fifty bales of cotton on boats in the bay awaiting the result. 
 ^ A. L. Latour's War in West Florida and Louisiana, pp. 32-42. 
 
432 COLONIAL MOBILE. 
 
 He followed the fleet to Pensacola, sold his cotton at twenty- 
 two cents a pound, bought blankets, and sold them profitably 
 at New Orleans, making about double the cost price each way.^ 
 Jackson issued at Mobile, four days later, his two famous 
 proclamations to Louisianians. One of these called on the 
 colored people to arm, and aroused much feeling among the 
 whites on the Mississippi. But as soon as General Coffee 
 arrived on Mobile River with twenty -eight hundred men, Jack- 
 son joined him, changed the cavalry into infantry by turning 
 the horses loose on the river bank, and marched in another 
 direction. 
 
 As he could not hear from the War Department, Jackson 
 took the responsibility of proceeding from Mobile, in Novem- 
 ber, with three thousand men to capture Pensacola. His route 
 was by transport across to the Village, where Jackson's Oak is 
 still shown, under which his tent was pitched, ^ and thence 
 overland to his Florida victory. He was soon back at Mobile, 
 however, ready, "by the Eternal," to prevent invasion here or 
 anywhere else. Satisfied that New Orleans would be the point 
 of attack, he sent Coffee to Baton Rouge in December. One 
 of his encampments on the way was in the Espejo grant on 
 Bayou del Salto, between Cottage Hill and Spring Hill, and 
 in consequence both creek and tract have ever since been called 
 " Cantonment." Jackson himself went by easier stages, and 
 won his brilliant victory behind cotton-bales below New Orleans 
 on January 8, 1815, — "St. Jackson's Day." 
 
 An interested witness of that great battle was Sam Dale, 
 who arrived during its progress, after his remarkable ride of 
 eight days from Hawkins' Creek Agency in Georgia, bearing 
 dispatches from Washington. These were too late to do any 
 good. Jackson said, "They are always too late at Washing- 
 ton." But Dale's time was remarkable, for the express even 
 from Mobile was often fourteen days. 
 
 It was Dale who carried east the news of the great victory. 
 For Jackson was so much impressed with his ride from Geor- 
 gia that he sent him immediately back, and, at Big Sam's 
 own request, on the same tough Georgia pony, Paddy. Even 
 Colonel Sparks could not stop him at the lakes to get the news; 
 
 1 Parton's Jackson, pp. 600, 604, 608, 611, etc. 
 
 2 Conversations with William R. Yancey, of the Village. 
 
FORT BOWYER. 433 
 
 and the third day, past midnight, he roused up Winchester, 
 Jackson's successor at Mobile. Winchester put him off until 
 daylight, then to ten A. m., and then until noon, upon which 
 Dale sent word that if the dispatches were not ready by twelve 
 he would go without them. He got them, however, and at noon 
 was on his way. He had to swim his horse over the swelling 
 Alabama at Randon's Landing, and thus, in freezing weather, 
 he rode on, swimming streams, and bearing to all posts news 
 of the glorious victory over the British. On the fifth day from 
 Mobile he reached Mcintosh's army at Fort Decatur, on the 
 Tallapoosa, where a sentinel all but shot him, and the general 
 had to support the half-frozen courier into where a fire and 
 whiskey covdd thaw him out. But the next morning he left 
 again, and on the third evening out ended his long ride by 
 delivering his dispatch to Governor Early at Milledgeville. 
 There he and Paddy provoked almost as much interest as the 
 news they bore.^ 
 
 Major Lawrence was still in command at Fort Bowyer. No 
 doubt the rejoicing there was tempered with the reflection that 
 the British fleet might next attack that post and try to capture 
 Mobile, in order to hold the Alabama basin and the middle 
 Mississippi behind General Jackson. 
 
 Denison Darling was from Fort Stoddert, and Benjamin S. 
 Smoot had been with this, the second regiment, even before 
 the Americans occupied Mobile. Smoot is said to have come 
 to Mobile as a voluntary aide to Jackson, and his miniature 
 shows a beardless youth in a high stock, and blue coat with 
 slashed red facings, a wide purple sash, epaulettes, and white 
 belt supporting a handsome sword. Darling and he about 
 1813 erected, at a cost of one thousand to fifteen hundred 
 dollars, a store within gunshot of Fort Bowyer. The building 
 was eighteen by thirty -five feet, and a story and a half high. 
 Curtis Lewis was their clerk, and they did a good business. 
 The soldiers traded there, and the officers recognized their 
 orders up to half their pay or more. Captain Reuben Cham- 
 berlain says the store was a great convenience. Alas, the fate 
 of war! The store was now to be hastily dismantled and 
 destroyed, by the command of Major Lawrence himself. For 
 
 ^ Claiborne's Dale, p. 160, etc. 
 
434 COLONIAL MOBILE. 
 
 the British were actually coming, and the house of Smoot & 
 Darling might shelter them in an attack on the fort.^ 
 
 On the 6th of February, the fleet was seen off Dauphine 
 Island, and early the next day twenty-five vessels anchored, 
 extending from that island to Fort Bowyer on Mobile Point, 
 while thirteen were parallel with the coast behind the fort. 
 On the 8th, not less than five thousand men were landed three 
 and a haK miles from the fort, and they soon communicated 
 with Keane's division of twenty-five hundred on Dauphine 
 Island by barges and boats plying incessantly over the bay ; 
 for the British camp extended across the Point. 
 
 On the 9th, the siege may be said to have been commenced 
 by the erection of a trench and battery on a commanding 
 mound. The garrision were vigilant and fired incessantly, but 
 sand mounds sheltered the invaders. On the 10th, the British 
 had a trench on the south side of the Point, and by night 
 advanced their works to within forty yards of the fort. 
 
 Resistance was now futile, and so, when at ten a. m. on the 
 11th there was a summons to surrender in half an hour, a 
 parley ensued, and finally it was agreed that the fort be sur- 
 rendered at noon the next day. The loss to the Americans 
 had been one killed and ten woimded, including Lawrence 
 himself; to the British, forty killed. 
 
 The articles provided, (1) That the fort should be surrendered 
 in its existing condition; (2) The garrison should march out 
 with flags flying and drums beating, and ground arms on the 
 glacis, the officers, however, to retain their swords; (3) Pri- 
 vate property should be respected; and (4) Communication 
 should be permitted with the officer commanding the seventh 
 district, and exchange of prisoners effected ; (5) The garrison 
 should remain until noon of the 13th, but there should be a 
 British guard at the inner gate at three P. M. of the preceding 
 day, and the new flag hoisted at the same time. 
 
 * See Report of House Committee of Claims, February 4, 1831. Smoot 
 finally received $1,000. See 6 U. S. Statutes at Large, p. 466. The minia- 
 ture is in the possession of B. S. Woodcock, of Mobile, a descendant of 
 Smoot. Mrs. William Calvert, who was rescued as an infant from Fort 
 Mims, was a daughter, and Mrs. Helen Webster is a granddaughter, of 
 Darling. Mrs. Curtis Lewis was a granddaughter of Sir Robert Farmer; 
 she was daughter of De Vaubercy, of Dauphine Island. 
 

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FORT BOWYER. 435 
 
 Winchester had made from Mobile a tardy and unsuccessful 
 attempt to succor the fort. On the 10th and 11th, he sent a 
 detachment across the bay under the command of Major Blue 
 to divert the enemy, with the result that the enemy captured 
 his three small schooners after the troops had landed. The 
 Americans managed in their turn to take a barge with seven- 
 teen British seamen, who told them of the surrender of the 
 fort. People in town guessed it from reports of citizens who 
 had gone down to Jack's Bluff on the western shore, and from 
 there, the residence of Maximilien Colin, had seen a boat go 
 ashore to take possession after the firing ceased. 
 
 All was confusion at Mobile. On the 15th, Winchester 
 wrote James Monroe, the Secretary of War, of the disaster, 
 and said that he expected the enemy every night; but he was 
 fortunately disappointed, and no further attack was made. 
 Jackson, writing yet later, said he was both astonished and 
 mortified at the defeat; but he was afterwards to do justice to 
 the garrison, and a court-martial on March 25 exonerated 
 Lawrence.^ 
 
 Recently there has been published a history of the famous 
 British Fortieth Regiment, which contains the journal of a 
 lieutenant who was with them at Mobile Bay. He was on 
 Dauphine Island, and gives a very different account of affairs. 
 He says that they landed on the 12th, and that night a cor- 
 vette attempted to storm the fort, but ran aground and had 
 to be blown up, by illumining the whole bay. The two hun- 
 dred frightened Indians who had been aboard were captured 
 by the Americans. 
 
 1 Labour's War in West Florida, etc., pp. 208-212, 215, 219, cl, xxvi, 
 Ixxxiii, Ixxxvii, xcviii, etc. The garrison surrendered consisted of one field 
 officer, three captains, ten subalterns, two stafE officers, sixteen sergeants, 
 sixteen drummers, three hundred and twenty-seven rank and file, twenty 
 women, sixteen children, and three servants not soldiers. The ordnance con- 
 sisted of one twenty-four-pounder and two nine-pounders outside of the 
 fort, and, within, three thirty-two-pounders, eight twenty-four-pounders, six 
 twelve-pounders, five nine-pounders, besides a small brass piece, an eight- 
 inch mortar, a howitzer, three hundred and fifty-one muskets, five hundred 
 flints, powder, cartridges, etc. The brass mortar was one cast in George II.'s 
 reign, and was the only piece taken away by the British. Admiral Cochrane 
 on the 12th wrote Jackson from H. B. M. ship Tonnant, off Mobile Bay, 
 as to exchange of prisoners. 
 
436 COLONIAL MOBILE. 
 
 The Fortieth sailed shortly afterwards for Europe, and at 
 Waterloo were under the personal command of Wellington 
 himself. But even Jove nods, and the lieutenant of the great 
 regiment must have mixed his notes. The burning vessel 
 reminds one of the first attack on Fort Bowyer, and the dates 
 of the official papers discredit the new version; and yet it is 
 confirmed in part by the tradition of the death there of captive 
 Indians from yellow fever. ^ 
 
 The second defence was less successful but not less honor- 
 able than the first, and there were now to be no further hostili- 
 ties. The British headquarters on Dauphine Island were at 
 the Shell Banks, and many of their dead were buried on the 
 island. On February 13, Admiral Cochrane from off Mobile 
 Bay sent Jackson the copy of a bulletin, "this moment received 
 from Jamaica," announcing the signing of a treaty of peace 
 at Ghent on December 24, upon which he offers his sincere 
 congratulations. Jackson was suspicious of the report, but it 
 proved to be true. 
 
 We remember the French execution in front of the fort after 
 the mutiny at Fort Toulouse, but a noted American execution 
 that followed the conclusion of peace was certainly not near 
 the esplanade. 2 We are told that it was on February 21, 
 1815, in an open place near Mobile, while the British fleet was 
 still at anchor. Mr. B. S. Woodcock, an old citizen, pointed 
 out to the author the place at Arlington alongside the Bay Shell 
 Koad where the grave mounds had long been visible. 
 
 It came about in this way. In September preceding, a 
 number of Tennessee soldiers abandoned the army in the Creek 
 country, claiming that the three months for which they en- 
 listed had expired. Their commander construed the time 
 differently. The men were court-martialed at Mobile in De- 
 cember, 1814, and six, all brave men, condemned to death. 
 Jackson, after the battle of New Orleans, approved the finding. 
 
 The Mobile army of fifteen hundred men under General 
 Winchester marched to the scene of execution, and a large 
 crowd of spectators attended. The six were driven there in a 
 wagon, and after their heads were covered with white caps 
 
 * It is said that fifty years later, after the capture of Fort Morgan, Fed- 
 eral troops dug up Indian skeletons and ornaments. 
 2 2 Parton's Jackson, p. 277. 
 
FORT BOWYER. 437 
 
 they were shot down beside their coffins, in due military form, 
 by thirty-six comrades. One victim, named Harris, was a Bap- 
 tist preacher with a large family. Henry Lewis was the only 
 one not killed outright. He crawled forward, before them all, 
 and climbed on his coffin, where he sat dazed, covered with 
 blood. He was removed from this slaughter-pen by pitying 
 hands and lived several days. Such unnecessary severity threw 
 a pall on the rejoicings over the peace, and was remembered 
 in politics against Jackson long afterwards. 
 
 As all captured places held by either nation were, according 
 to treaty, to be surrendered, negotiations were soon in progress 
 looking to the evacuation of Fort Bowyer. On March 17, 
 General Lambert sent word to Mobile by Major Woodruff 
 that he would give it up as soon as the transports could get out 
 of the bay. 
 
 There was also animated correspondence and spirited inter- 
 views about the surrender of slaves. Lambert contended that 
 the many negroes in his camp on Dauphine Island were refu- 
 gees, and he could not admit that the agreement for surrender 
 of captured property covered slaves, as England did not recog- 
 nize property in human beings. 
 
 There was much feeling on the subject, but the British com- 
 mander agreed he would not object, if only persuasion were 
 used by the slaveholders. One Louisianian, Major Lacoste, 
 is said to have gone to Dauphine Island with this view, and, 
 getting his slaves off to one side, he threatened and cajoled and 
 drew such a picture to them of British cruelty, all in plantation 
 French, which the English could not understand, that he got 
 his people away with him without trouble. The major ever 
 afterwards told this story with great gusto. ^ 
 
 At last the troops were all embarked, and the ships sailed 
 away for Europe. Dauphine Island had seen her last great 
 gathering of war vessels until the American Civil War. 
 * 4 Gayarr^'s Louisiana, p. 532. 
 
CHAPTER L. 
 
 A TALE OF THREE PORTS. 
 
 A CELEBRATED French writer has confessed that every French- 
 man is something of a Gascon. The old plans for occupying the 
 Mississippi Valley may possess in their boldness some Gascon 
 features, but they were well conceived, and failed only on account 
 of the absorption of French energies in Europe. Perhaps a con- 
 fession might be made that the Americans have all something 
 of the feeling of Colonel Sellers. The vast potentialities of his 
 continent have made the American plan for a great future. He 
 has become speculative to a high degree, although, on account of 
 his pioneer training, remaining intensely practical. Being on 
 the ground in America, he has been able to succeed where the 
 Fi-enchman failed. 
 
 Not only was there the gradual winning of the interior, but 
 from the beginning many Americans saw that the growth of 
 the country would mean the building of a great city at the mouth 
 of the river system. 
 
 Pensacola was still Spanish, and, therefore, moribund for the 
 present, and the incoming Americans devoted themselves to three 
 lines of effort on the lower rivers. Mobile we know ; but she 
 now had two rivals only a few miles distant. St. Stephens had 
 been built at the fall line of the Tombigbee. Across the Mobile 
 delta was the Tensaw River, even larger than the Mobile, and 
 where Bienville had settled the Apalache Indians it now seemed 
 possible to establish a great seaport. 
 
 St. Stephens was now in its glory. It was the capital of the 
 Territory, the seat of the Land Office and of a bank, and 
 had many citizens who then or afterwards became prominent. 
 There the first and second legislatures deliberated, when James 
 Titus, of Madison, as the only Alabama member of the divided 
 Mississippi upper chamber, "met" by himself and gravely 
 preserved all parliamentary forms. William Wyatt Bibb, late 
 
THREE PORTS. 439 
 
 of Georgia, was governor, and James Magofl&n in charge of 
 the United States Land Office. Silas Dinsmore is said to 
 have been collector, and to have lost his office by injudicious 
 wit. The story goes that, when asked by the government 
 authorities at Washington how far the Tombigbee ran up the 
 country, he replied that it did not run up the country at all, 
 but down. The Tombeckbee Bank, some of whose paper of 
 1818 still exists, had such officers as J. B. Hazard and William 
 Crawford. James G. Lyon was in the merchandise business 
 in the town, selling wood to steamboats and living over his 
 store. Jack F. Ross also settled there, after coming to Mo- 
 bile at Jackson's instruction to pay off the army. He became 
 treasurer of Alabama, and was relieved by legislative act from 
 loss of the public money burned with his home. He was 
 afterwards sheriff of Mobile, but his son William H. was born 
 in 1819 at St. Stephens. 
 
 No map is now known of the town, but even in the Mobile 
 records we find its lots numbered as high as 131, and Lime 
 and High streets mentioned among its thoroughfares. 
 
 Had the Mississippi Convention been permitted to have 
 their way, St. Stephens and Mobile, too, would have been 
 placed in that State, for they wished the Tombigbee and Mobile 
 Bay to be the eastern boundary. The project has had even 
 later advocates. 
 
 The government of the Mobile district was, of course, mili- 
 tary at first, by the general in charge, although we find even 
 in 1813 a number of marriages by Pollard, Mervin, Powell, 
 and Robeshow, justices of the peace of Mobile County, and 
 one by Vicente Genin, the Catholic priest.^ During the Creek 
 War the territorial legislature of Mississippi, on January 20, 
 1814, after the battle of the Holy Ground, passed an act for 
 the incorporation of the Mobile citizens. 
 
 Under it, on March 11, 1814, a meeting of the inhabitants 
 was held at the house of M. McKinsey, Josiah Blakeley in the 
 chair, and it was resolved to hold the election at the dwelling- 
 house of Wilson Carmon. These residences cannot now be 
 identified, but were no doubt like the few Spanish one-story 
 
 1 For marriages, see Appendix. There is some uncertainty whether the 
 justice was named Robeshaw or Robeshow, just as whether another promi- 
 nent citizen spelled his name Duval or DutoI. 
 
440 COLONIAL MOBILE. 
 
 buildings still remaining. Lewis Judson, James Innerarity, 
 and B. Dubroca were appointed commissioners (inspectors 
 we should now call them), and Innerarity and Samuel Acre, 
 the lawyer, a committee to prepare a few translations of the 
 act into French, to be posted up conspicuously. These peace- 
 ful affairs were contemporaneous with Jackson's march to 
 Horseshoe Bend. The polls were accordingly open at Car- 
 mon's on Monday, March 14, from ten to four o'clock. Lewis 
 Judson, James Innerarity, B. Dubroca, P. H. Hobart, T. 
 Powell, A. Robeshow, and S. H. Garrow were duly elected 
 commissioners of the town of Mobile, Miguel Eslava treasurer, 
 Michael McKinsey collector, and Dominique Salles assessor, 
 — a mixture of the old and new stocks. How many property- 
 owners were there to vote we do not know; but three years 
 later, at a similar election, only seventeen voters are mentioned, 
 although we have the names of over a hundred male residents. 
 The next day the commissioners were sworn into office by 
 Josiah Blakeley, as one of the justices of the quorum of 
 Mobile County. Innerarity was elected president, and Mc- 
 Kinsey clerk. On the 16th, a business meeting was held, the 
 first acts being the appointment of a committee on rules on 
 motion of S. H. Garrow, then a resolution establishing the 
 boundaries of the town and of the three wards, and one fixing 
 the tax rate at twelve and a half cents on the hundred dollars. 
 The town limits began at Choctaw Point, then ran due west to 
 where a perpendicular line due north would strike Murrell's 
 Ford over Bayou "Chateaugay" (Three Mile Creek), thence 
 down that creek to the east side of the river, thence south, etc., 
 to the beginning. These are substantially what the boundaries 
 have now long been; but an act of the legislature of December 
 1, 1814, made them triangular, running from Choctaw Point 
 to a place two hundred yards above the Portage on Bayou 
 Chotage, thence down the bayou to its mouth, and thence 
 down the river and bay to the place of beginning. ^ This 
 would seem to take the river out of the town limits, while the 
 ordinance had included it. The Portage was important as the 
 source of water supply, water being hauled thence for the use 
 of troops and citizens, too. Even several years later we find 
 the lawful charge for hauling a barrel of water to be fifty 
 1 Toulmin's Laws of Alabama, p. 781. 
 
THREE PORTS. 441 
 
 cents. The South Ward as established by the commissioners 
 was that part of the town lying south of the fort, as imder 
 the Spaniards; and the first American house there was that 
 erected by Joseph P. Kennedy, Eslava's lawyer, at the south- 
 west corner of St. Emanuel and Monroe streets.^ The Middle 
 Ward extended from the fort to Dauphin Street, and the North 
 embraced all north of Dauphin. Among the rules was one 
 that resolutions adopted should be published by affixing three 
 copies in French in the most public places, showing that and 
 not Spanish to be the predominant language. Non-attendance 
 of commissioners was punished by fine of one dollar, and the 
 commissioners received no compensation, — except the usual 
 honor and abuse. The treasurer had only his stationery; while 
 the collector and assessor were each allowed two and a half 
 per cent, on taxes collected, and the clerk a salary of two 
 hundred dollars per annum. The taxes (exclusive of licenses) 
 seem to have been levied only on land and slaves, and a pen- 
 alty equal to the tax was added for not making return to the 
 assessor. After demand by the collector at the house, the 
 taxes, when necessary, were sued before justices. 
 
 A police commissioner was appointed for each ward to see 
 to enforcement of ordinances, and there were two police consta- 
 bles to make arrests. Fines were declared by the board after 
 hearing the parties, and, unless paid then, sued and collected 
 before a justice. They were divided between the constable 
 and the town. 
 
 The early ordinances relate to cows and goats at large, the 
 regulation of balls, to slaves, obstructing and digging in 
 streets, to burning lime, chimneys, licenses, and the like. The 
 discharge of firearms was prohibited, except to kill dogs at 
 large. This dog ordinance was passed on account of hydro- 
 phobia at Pascagoula. Their law against drums (like many 
 others still in force) seems aimed at the Spanish custom at 
 auctions. Licenses were legalized by the act of December 1, 
 1814, and, as laid, the vehicle license applied as well to plea- 
 sure as to business conveyances. Licenses on stores where dry 
 goods, groceries, or liquor over a quart were sold, were for the 
 first year five dollars, retail liquor places eight dollars, board- 
 ing-houses ten dollars, and billiard-tables twelve dollars. The 
 ^ Michel's petition before U. S. Senate, January 9, 1840. 
 
442 COLONIAL MOBILE. 
 
 first injunction suit was over this "grog-shop*' tax. The rates 
 were raised the next year, except that billiard -tables were less. 
 
 March 28, the board determined on building a frame mar- 
 ket-house, fifty by twenty -five feet and nine feet high, closed 
 on the north side. The site, selected on motion of Judson, was 
 that previously occupied for burning lime, at the northeast end 
 of Dauphin Street, adjoining the water. Garrow entered a 
 formal and vigorous protest against the place, on the ground 
 that it was not a proper site, and was against the interest and 
 views of the majority of the inhabitants, but it was adhered 
 to. A clerk of the market was elected by the first board, who 
 should keep a lookout on all weights and standards. Thomas 
 G. Newbold, an arrival in Mobile of 1810, was first market 
 clerk, and late in the fall he was duly provided with wooden 
 and tin measures and iron and lead weights. 
 
 On April 4, they established a bread tariff or "assize," and 
 this practice was kept up for a long time. Flour being ten 
 dollars a barrel, the "bit loaf" should weigh twenty-eight 
 ounces, — a bit being the Spanish coin worth twelve and a half 
 cents. The penalty for violation was a fine, and forfeiture to 
 the overseer of the poor of all bread on hand ; and a number of 
 convictions are on record. 
 
 In April they resolved, on motion of Garrow, that it was 
 expedient to build a wharf. He wished it at the end of Gov- 
 ernment Street (by the fort esplanade), but the vote on this 
 was a tie. Garrow then left the meeting after forcible remarks, 
 whereupon they made a rule that any one using personalities 
 should be fined ten doUars. However, his plan for the wharf 
 was accepted at the next meeting. The wharf privilege for ten 
 years was to be leased to the highest bidder; this "leassee" 
 should build the wharf as planned by the commissioners, and 
 the town pay him what the structure was worth at the end of 
 the term. He could charge not exceeding certain fixed wharf- 
 age, as six and a half cents per bale of cotton and one dollar 
 per day for vessels of ten tons. This sale of wharf privilege 
 (to be advertised in the "Mobile Gazette") did not, any more 
 than the market, materialize during the first year, however. 
 
 William Crawford (afterwards United States judge) was 
 elected by the board first counsel for the corporation. He 
 had to appear before some justice to sue for fines (it was before 
 
THREE PORTS. 443 
 
 Blakeley until his death in February next), and also defended 
 injunctions and advised the board on many questions. One 
 was, whether they could stop David Files from putting up a 
 miU below the Portage of Bayou " Chateau ge," "near the water- 
 ing-place made use of by the inhabitants," for Mottus and his 
 wife undertook to sell the Espejo Tract, including the wash 
 place, to Files and Terrell. ^ The board later asked the legis- 
 lature for fuller powers over this bayou in order to protect the 
 drinking water, but the act of December 1 prohibited their 
 removing any milldam across the bayou. The city later aided 
 in repair of the bridge there. 
 
 The president could not hold a mayor's court (a defect cor- 
 rected by legislation in 1816), but on resolution of the board 
 he pulled down defective chimneys, removed buildings erected 
 over the street line, and generally represented the police power 
 of the town. A police officer was in August employed at the 
 salary of ten dollars per month, receiving also half the fines 
 levied through his intervention. He was a health officer, too, 
 and compelled the free use of lime in the summer. They 
 believed then in people's burying dead animals and offensive 
 matters on their own premises, although "filth of an inoffen- 
 sive nature " was to be deposited in the pond west of the fort, 
 earlier used as a "washing place." This was about our Church 
 and Franklin streets, on the road to Mandeville. The police 
 officer was also to see that the inhabitants understood and 
 obeyed the ordinance for cutting down weeds on their lots and 
 out to the middle of the street opposite. They had a "vendue 
 master," of rather indefinite powers, too, like the British. 
 
 The board in November, during Jackson's stay in the town, 
 memorialized the legislature for greater powers and larger 
 corporate boundaries. They pointed out that nothing could 
 retard the growth of Mobile, and that the town should have 
 exclusive control of the bay as far south as Dog River, in order 
 to keep the passes open and prevent further injury there from 
 the discharge of ballast; but the only power granted by this 
 legislature not already noticed was that to extend and lay out 
 highways. Congress was also asked for the vacant public lots 
 within the corporate limits. This last request remained un- 
 heeded for many years. 
 
 I Mobile Deed Book " A," p. 67. 
 
444 COLONIAL MOBILE. 
 
 The first board had to establish the whole machinery of 
 town government. Their ordinances seem original, as most 
 are without reference to French or Spanish precedents, except 
 in that they abolish some old usages. They spent five dollars 
 for a table and sixty-three doUars on a corporation seal, as 
 appears from bills they passed for payment, but little on their 
 own convenience. They even met in the mornings, generally 
 at nine o'clock, and so avoided the expense of lights, and used 
 a room rented for thirty-two dollars a year. 
 
 After the declaration of peace the people, in March, 1815, 
 held their second municipal election. Judson (who was the 
 new town president), Hobart, Powell, and Robeshow were 
 reelected commissioners, and the others were succeeded by 
 William Chenault, Diego McVoy, and Michael Perault. Our 
 first board turned over to them a net balance in the treasury 
 of 169. 85|^ to begin on. 
 
 The second board found it necessary to create the office of 
 street overseer, electing their colleague Diego McBoy, or Mc- 
 Voy, as this Spaniard indifferently spells it. It was during 
 this time, too, that the market-house was built. The plan 
 actually carried out called for a one-story building forty by 
 twenty-five feet, with three rows of five pillars each, gables, 
 and three-foot eaves. The materials were "found by the 
 undertaker," — which ominous word only means contractor. 
 The one in question was Theron Kellogg, and his contract was 
 for three hundred and twenty -five dollars. It was on Jirne 1 
 that the board went in a body and designated the north side of 
 Dauphin Street near the water as the site on which to raise the 
 market. 
 
 Later in the year they paid for the erection of four meat- 
 stalls and one for fish, and about the same time made elaborate 
 market regulations. Fresh meat, fish, and oysters could be 
 sold only there; and fowls, butter, eggs, cheese, dried meat, 
 lard, tallow, corn meal, vegetables, and pulse had to be offered 
 there first. Bread and milk, however, could be carried from 
 house to house. Market hours were from daybreak until ten 
 A. M. Stalls in later years were rented out, but at first there 
 seems to have been a fee of twenty-five to thirty-seven and a 
 half cents charged per animal, depending on the size. We fimd 
 not only sheep, pigs, and beef, but goats also sold. Later, 
 
THREE PORTS. 445 
 
 country butchers were exempt, and dried provisions taken out 
 of the list. 
 
 This second board also built the wharf which the first had 
 planned. It was twenty -five feet wide, with wings at the water 
 end, going out to a river depth of nine feet. They leased the 
 privilege at auction, giving the wharf, when built to their 
 satisfaction, over to the builder to collect certain fixed tolls for 
 a period of nine years to reimburse him. This "undertaker" 
 was James Wilson, the business partner of S. H. Garrow. 
 He was to give the next administration much trouble by trying 
 to enter from the government the flooded land adjacent, and 
 indeed his wharf agreement ultimately needed the oversight of 
 the corporation counsel. 
 
 A market-house and wharf had now been provided, but a 
 city prison was still wanting. The authorities had to request 
 the commandant of Fort "Sharlot" to loan the city a "cal- 
 abous " for imprisoning strange negroes. The election of 
 Joseph McCandless as surveyor, and petitioning Congress for 
 the establishment of a marine hospital, complete the more im- 
 portant acts of this administration, which went out of office on 
 March 5, 1816. 
 
 Of the new board Innerarity was president, although Judson 
 was also a member. In his time the cow question agitated the 
 public mind as in more recent years, and was settled by allow- 
 ing each resident to keep five cows instead of two, as in 1814, 
 but next year, however, all restrictions were removed. More 
 important was the construction of Water Street fifty feet wide 
 from Mottus' place to the market, with an outside barrier of 
 three squared timbers at from seven and a half to twelve and 
 a half cents a foot delivered. This great improvement, giving 
 Mobile its first street east of Royal, was accomplished during 
 this and the next year, largely by the cooperation of John 
 Forbes & Co. and Lewis Judson, who voluntarily moved their 
 fences and contributed to payment of the expense in considera- 
 tion of a quitclaim to lands between the projected street and 
 their fence to the west. 
 
 Besides its extra-municipal protest to the postmaster-general 
 about there having been but one mail to Fort "Stoddard" in 
 two months, this board may also be remembered for its estab- 
 lishment of port wardens and their duties, by virtue, doubtless, 
 
446 COLONIAL MOBILE. 
 
 of the act of December 12, 1816, authorizing appointment of 
 port wardens and pilots under suitable bonds. 
 
 In March, 1817, a new board came in, with only McVoy 
 holding over of the old members, and Daniel Duvol was made 
 president. Under them came the first issue of city money, for 
 it was resolved to have struck off five hundred dollars in small- 
 change notes redeemable in specie, Louisiana, Mississijspi, or 
 United States Bank notes. The denominations were fifty, 
 twenty-five, and twelve and a half cents, having in the left 
 margins an ox, horse, and eagle respectively. An overseer of 
 the poor dates from this time, and the appointment of bay 
 pilots, — J. B. Lamie, James Roney, N. Cook, and T. W. 
 Dailey. We do not read that any qualified except Roney and 
 Richard Dailey, and these not immediately. 
 
 We incidentally learn from the license list in the minutes 
 that there were then twenty-seven merchants with $1,000 
 stocks, for these are taxed fifteen dollars each ; and fifteen 
 with less, taxed ten dollars each, although three of the last 
 pay as much again for a billiard-table, too. 
 
 Possibly the most interesting and important matter then 
 was the extension of streets. To the location of the wharf it 
 was due that Water Street had been finished from Dauphin to 
 Mottus' place south of Government, and now provision was 
 made to extend the barrier south to the old (Spanish) wharf. 
 But building a north and south street was not all. We may 
 remember that in Spanish times there was so little use made 
 of the quay that not only was there but one wharf, but the 
 east and west streets were little used beyond Royal, and some 
 not at all. None were more than lanes at most. Now, how- 
 ever, we find a determined and finally successful effort to open 
 all, and this probably in ignorance of the old French dedica- 
 tion to the water. We see the executors of "Andre" notified 
 to open the street from Dubroca's to the river; for, as in 
 French or English times, the street names are not given. This 
 street is probably St. Francis, for Andry owned there; and 
 about the same time Innerarity is ordered to open a street 
 from St. Joseph to Royal. This we know must be St. Francis, 
 although, with an almost Spanish interchange of names, it is 
 called St. Charles. In 1819, more vigorous action was taken, 
 the street then being named as St. Francis. 
 
THREE PORTS. 447 
 
 Hardly less important is the beginning of draining in the 
 appropriation of thirty dollars to open a "canal" to drain the 
 pond in the northwest quarter of town. We learn later that 
 this was about Wilson's, at St. Michael and Joachim, a low 
 place still. There was also a smaller drain opened in the dis- 
 trict near Church Street, for it emptied into the fort ditch. 
 
 After the 1818 election, Garrow was president, and in the 
 settlement of Treasurer Dubroca we find trouble about a coun- 
 terfeit twenty-dollar note, No. 334 H, of the Nashville Bank. 
 The matter was compromised by the town's standing half the 
 loss and the treasurer the rest. 
 
 This administration established a branch of pilots at Dog 
 River Bar, continued street improvement, and contracted for a 
 barrier northwards from the market to Holman's Wharf, near 
 the foot of St. Francis Street. It was early alarmed at finding 
 there were one hundred and sixty-six casks of gunpowder in 
 town. Captain Falk was requested to store them in the fort, 
 and the town limited the amount to be kept by merchants 
 and immediately went about building the first powder-house. 
 Where this was is not stated, but it seems to have been on 
 a half acre of McCandless' land, "in the vicinity of this 
 place," for he claimed and received damages for the ninety 
 pine trees cut without permission. Paupers from vessels being 
 frequent, it was provided that passengers must be officially 
 reported, and bond given where necessary. 
 
 Subscriptions were also raised to buy two fire-engines lately 
 brought to town. One we know cost four hundred and thirty 
 dollars. There was a meeting in the president's office under 
 the wide-galleried United States Hotel, northwest corner of 
 Conti and Royal, to organize the first fire company. Suitable 
 houses were afterwards built, one on the Hospital lot. Next 
 year two fire wards were established, divided by Dauphin 
 Street, an engine and company being in each. Each house- 
 owner was required to have handy at least two standard size 
 leather buckets. All of this was in an elaborate ordinance 
 prescribing precautions against fire. 
 
 Even before 1818, when the first bank was established, a 
 river steamer had been built, and by that year the port was 
 full of vessels, one being from Liverpool. Seven thousand 
 bales of cotton were handled by the little town of eight hun- 
 
448 COLONIAL MOBILE. 
 
 dred inhabitants ; and two seasons later it was sixteen thousand 
 bales, with the steamboats Harriet and Cotton Plant plying 
 the rivers and making the growing interior tributary to an 
 extent not dreamed of in the days of Indian trade. The Cotton 
 Plant was, in the spring of 1823, the first steamboat to ascend 
 the upper Bigbee, and on that occasion made her famous trip 
 to Columbus and return in thirteen days. 
 
 During Garrow's second term, in 1819, came sinking the 
 public well on Dauphin and Royal, and buying for one hun- 
 dred and forty dollars a "burying ground" from W. E. 
 Kennedy a half mile southwest of the inhabited part of the 
 town, — what we call the Old Graveyard, in the heart of the 
 present city. It was important just then from a disastrous 
 visitation of yellow fever in the summer of that year, which 
 the commissioners determined to investigate. The cemeterj' 
 was fenced in 1821 at a cost of four hundred and fifty dollars. 
 A city sexton was put in charge in 1820, who could demand 
 seven dollars for digging graves five feet deep and supplying 
 hearse. 
 
 The well on Dauphin and Royal was part of a plan for sink- 
 ing pumps, which was carried out several years later, but now 
 begins the laying of "sewers," which, with repairs, makes up 
 so much of the early minutes. These were box drains largely, 
 as with the first down Dauphin across the flats to the river. 
 The inhabitants had to make their own sidewalks of earth or 
 gravel. The first book of ordinances also dates from this time, 
 copied by Mr. Willis, covering many subjects, and in a large 
 measure the basis of what still exist. 
 
 There was this year a town meeting to increase taxation in 
 order to provide for improvements and the care of the poor, 
 which resulted in a poU-tax of one dollar for the poor fund. 
 With a just appreciation of the future "increase of the town 
 of Mobile," on July 23 a new street one hundred feet wide 
 was provided for, to be ninety feet east of the existing Water 
 Street. The new street was called Water Street, and the old 
 one renamed Market Street. All foundations between Royal 
 and Market were to be brick, or stone ; all east of Market, of 
 hewn timber on the sides, — in each case to be, like the wharves, 
 filled up with earth, brick, or other clean material. There is 
 no clear evidence, however, that, beyond temporary use of the 
 
THREE PORTS. 449 
 
 name Market Street, any change was made; and next year the 
 city provided for a new street of one hundred feet width, and 
 distant two hundred feet from Water Street. No name was 
 then given to this projected avenue, but it became Commerce 
 Street. The surveyor was ordered to stake it out from Gov- 
 ernment to St. Francis Street. 
 
 But this carries us beyond the time of the town. On Decem- 
 ber 17, 1819, the place was reincoi-porated by the new State 
 of Alabama as the Mayor and Aldermen of the City of Mobile.^ 
 
 Across the bay was a nearer rival than St. Stephens. Josiah 
 Blakeley we have seen buying the marsh islands from the 
 Mobile to the Tensaw. He planned a city which should per- 
 petuate his name, and selected as its site the old seat of the 
 Apalaches, where the Bayou Solime (Salome) empties into the 
 Tensaw. This was the White House plantation, which he had 
 bought from Dr. Joseph Chastang, and after the American 
 occupation he was cautious enough to obtain a release from the 
 Chastang heirs, as he did also from the former owners of his 
 marsh lands. 
 
 Accordingly, in May, 1813, he employed James Magoffin, 
 a surveyor from St. Stephens, to lay off a town there, extend- 
 ing a mile and a half back from its front on the Tensaw. He 
 then commenced selling lots. The first sale recorded was in 
 July, of ten to Warren Ross Dodge for one thousand dollars, 
 one having as high a number as 358, and in a later deed 429 
 is mentioned. We read in this and other deeds that there 
 were at least two "public squares," and that among the street 
 names were Washington, Orleans, Robinson, Franklin, War- 
 ren, Greene, Wayne, Clinton, Baldwin, Hancock, Shelby, 
 Clarke, and Blount, besides Plum, Fig, Live Oak, and Ridge 
 alleys. The lots seem to have been 99 by 199 feet. Judson 
 and other Mobilians invested; and the same year Dodge and 
 Garrow bought the neighboring McVoy Mill site of four hun- 
 dred and eighty acres, with improvements, on Bay Minette. 
 
 The town of "Blakeley" was incorporated under an act of 
 January 6, 1814,^ and Blakeley's plat duly wafered in the 
 Mobile Deed Book "A." This was removed in 1822, however, 
 to grace the Baldwin County records and then disappear. 
 
 1 Toulmin's Laws of Alabama, p. 784. 
 
 2 Ibid., p. 796. 
 
450 COLONIAL MOBILE. 
 
 Samuel Haines was Blakeley's lawyer, and secured this incor- 
 poration, for which, and his general interest in the new town, 
 Blakeley deeded him a number of lots in it.^ 
 
 It is a little singular to think that the founder did not regu- 
 larly reside there. His papers date from Mobile, where, as 
 member of the county court (a justice of the quorum), he 
 took acknowledgments of many deeds, and, as we have seen, 
 helped organize the town government. He died in 1815 with- 
 out issue, his affairs, according to his nuncupative will, in 
 some confusion. 2 His own town continued to grow even after 
 his death, and in 1820 we find not only legislation for regula- 
 tion of the port and harbor of Blakeley, but an elaborate act 
 for government of the corporation. We read two years later 
 that Mobile was quite concerned about a contagious disease in 
 that town. 
 
 Blakeley came to be an important place, but finally it, too, 
 yielded to Mobile, and it may be that like St. Stephens some 
 of its houses now face Mobile streets. For its few remaining 
 buildings are in ruins and its site is desolate, while from its 
 oaks and pleasant heights one can see the spires and electric 
 lights of the older city which it once sought to surpass. 
 
 1 Mobile Deed Book " A," p. 93. 
 
 2 Ibid., p. 90. 
 
CHAPTER LI. 
 
 ALABAMA: A STUDY IN TERRITORIAL GOVERNMENT. 
 
 The American Constitution was to be declared by Gladstone 
 the greatest single product struck from the human intellect ; but 
 it was more than this. While it was an attempt to compress the 
 science of government into one instrument, the future proved, 
 that, instead of doing away with the British idea of constitutional 
 growth, it was itself little more than a stage in development. 
 American evolution was to be as much by judicial construction 
 of the written instrument as by formal amendment of it. In- 
 evitably the American continued the British plan of adapting 
 principles to circumstances, which Burke declared to be the 
 essence of statesmanship. The American constitution was to 
 be amended silently almost like the British and expounded into 
 something greater than its framers knew. 
 
 Jefferson's purchase of Louisiana was a striking instance, and 
 a strong executive would have made the War of 1812 serve in- 
 stead of the Civil War to develop implied powers; but a truer 
 example, because it was of gradual growth, is found in the crea- 
 tion, government, and ending of the territorial organization. It 
 showed the paternal element of the Federal government as dis- 
 tinguished from its agency side, — two features which were later 
 to change positions in their relative importance. 
 
 The Ordinance for government of the Territory northwest of 
 the Ohio was passed under the Confederation, and was itself a 
 growth ; for its prototype of 1784 had not provided a Bill of 
 Rights. The Ordinance of 1787 called for government from 
 without until the male white population reached 5000, when a 
 local house of representatives came into being, all acts, however, 
 being subject to congressional veto. When the population 
 reached 60,000 in one part this district was to become a State. 
 This ordinance was probably ultra vires the Confederation, and 
 indeed the subject is not in so many words in the Constitution ; 
 
452 COLONIAL MOBILE. 
 
 but the Federal Congress found the institution in existence, con- 
 firmed it in 1789, and made it the basis of all subsequent co- 
 lonial organization prior to the Civil War.^ 
 
 The first three States after the old thirteen — Vermont (1791), 
 Kentucky (1792), and Tennessee (1796) — were admitted with- 
 out going through the territorial stage. They had been districts 
 of original States, whose claims were acquired. Henceforth, ex- 
 cept with Maine, the policy was different, although the creation 
 in 1798 of Mississippi Territory included buying out Georgia's 
 claims. The next step was the organization of territories in the 
 Louisiana Purchase, and then followed in 1810 the extension of 
 Orleans Territory to the east and Mississippi Territory to the 
 Gulf, by appropriation of the quasi-state of West Florida. A 
 logical sequence was the annexation of Mobile to Mississippi 
 Territory in 1813. 
 
 These political acts related not to spheres of influence, as under 
 the Latins, but to lands rapidly peopling with American pio- 
 neers. When one recalls that the Eastern States were themselves 
 young and only partially developed, it seems strange to see the 
 vast emigration which sought the West. One is apt to ascribe it 
 to the restlessness with which Americans are credited, but it had 
 a deeper cause. 
 
 Up to the War of 1812 the movement had not been decided, 
 and was somewhat local in its nature. Before that time, too, the 
 Constitution was on trial, and, had hostilities with England con- 
 tinued but little longer, it is quite possible that the Union would 
 have gone to pieces. The general government was becoming 
 weaker, and the New England States inclining to appropriate 
 their Federal taxes for their own defense, if not to form a sepa- 
 rate confederacy. The war was not a success on land. The 
 country suffered from lack of an energetic executive. 
 
 With the unlooked-for treaty of Ghent, which settled no prin- 
 ciple, everything changed. New England had suffered greatly, 
 and many of her inhabitants now settled in the Mohawk and 
 even the Ohio valleys, while, on the other hand, the exhaustion 
 of the tobacco fields of Virginia and Carolina turned the atten- 
 tion of their people to new lands beyond the mountains. The 
 cultivation of cotton required extensive farming, and after the 
 
 ^ The practical evolution of the Territory is best seen in Burnet's Notes 
 on the North-Western Territory. 
 
ALABAMA : STUDY IN TERRITORIAL GOVERNMENT. 453 
 
 invention of the cotton gin it could be indefinitely expanded. 
 Cotton at twenty cents brought seventeen and a half million 
 dollars to the South, tobacco eight and a quarter million, and 
 rice almost three million. The South shipped probably two- 
 thirds of the exports of the country, — in 1816 forty million 
 dollars of the sixty-five. As a result. South Carolina, Georgia, 
 and Louisiana improved. New England lost, and New York 
 merely maintained its previous increase.^ Attention was drawn 
 to the South West as never before. 
 
 The treaty of Ghent revolutionized the history of America. 
 The country had outgrown seaboard transportation and the fu- 
 ture depended upon the improvement of interior waterways and 
 the building of roads and canals. Old political notions changed, 
 and but for Madison the Union would have gone into internal 
 improvements at once. His veto, however, threw New York 
 upon her own resources, and as a result the Erie Canal of 
 1825 made her the Empire State, and with Pennsylvania's roads 
 and canals fixed the ascendency of the Middle States. For 
 transportation is ever the means and test of economic progress. 
 
 The extreme South, on the other hand, found cotton so re- 
 munerative that its whole attention was given to planting. It 
 paid better to go over the mountains to new territories on waters 
 leading to the Mississippi or the Gulf rather than wait for the 
 uncertain construction of interior highways. 
 
 Therefore the valleys draining to the Gulf of Mexico were 
 settled even before the back country of the Atlantic States. 
 To paraphrase Pope, the numbers came.^ Niles' Register 
 claimed that no portion of the world could show such rapid 
 settlement by voluntary immigration. Even more came from 
 Georgia than Virginia and the Carolinas, and somewhat later 
 
 1 9 Adams' United States, pp. 94, 126. 
 
 ^ While this built up Mississippi Territory, it greatly injured the older 
 States. Even in 1815 a committee of the North Carolina Legislature de- 
 clared that within twenty-five years past more than two hundred thousand 
 inhabitants had removed to the waters of the Ohio, Tennessee, and Mobile, 
 and that the movement still continued. Two years later a committee of the 
 Virginia Legislature, in more florid language, declared that her western ter- 
 ritory was unimproved and much of the east had receded from its former 
 opulence, " for the fathers of the land are gone, another outlet to the ocean 
 turns their thoughts from the place of their nativity and their affections 
 from the haunts of their youth." (9 Adams' United States, pp. 164, 165.) 
 
454 COLONIAL MOBILE. 
 
 we are told that it almost seemed the State would be depopulated. 
 The incomers to the Alabama-Tombigbee valleys brought not 
 only political leaders, names, and institutions, but a section of 
 the social fabric, as it were, moved bodily over the Federal Road. 
 Even the territory won by Jackson from the Creeks became too 
 limited ; for the Alabama-Tombigbee country was becoming a 
 field of growth independent of that of the Mississippi.^ 
 
 We leai-n from unpublished reminiscences of George S. Gaines^ 
 that when Silas Dinsmore gave up the position of Choctaw agent 
 in 1815 and removed to St. Stephens, John McKee succeeded 
 him and carried on his policy of schools and civilization. In 
 this John Pitchlyn's influence helped a great deal. For, while 
 the immigrants looked to the future, there was now improve- 
 ment also among the aborigines. They gradually discarded old 
 customs and were to some extent abandoning hunting for agri- 
 culture. The churches had long since taken up the matter of 
 their improvement, material as well as spiritual. The earliest 
 
 ^ Abram Mordecai, a Pennsylvania Jew, settled on Line Creek in 1785. 
 He told Pickett that Colonel Tait during the Revolutionary War drilled 
 Tories at Alabama Town near by. Arthur Moore, who came in the fall of 
 1814, was the first white settler of what is now Montgomery. His pole 
 cabin was about one hundred yards above the powder magazine. He gar- 
 dened, hunted, and fished. Moore moved to Autauga in 1824. 
 
 Andrew Dexter came South to make his fortune, and at a land sale at 
 Milledgeville on August 13, 1817, bid off all of Section 7, Township 16, 
 Range 18, except the northwest quarter. John Falconer was interested 
 with him and received the patent in 1821. Dexter selected the southwest 
 quarter as a site for a town, and there were two surveys made. At the 
 suggestion of John G. Klincke, who felled the first tree, it was named New 
 Philadelphia, and Dexter, in a prophetic mood, reserved a location for a 
 capitol. 
 
 Jonathan C. Farley in the fall of 1817 built the first storehouse and 
 dwelling at the corner of Market and Hull streets, where Madigan long had 
 his store. Next year Vickers built a double log cabin as a place of enter- ' 
 tainment not far away. The earliest merchandise came by wagon and horse 
 from Savannah and Charleston, although occasionally supplies were brought 
 from east Tennessee by flatboat and portages to the Coosa. 
 
 The Alabama Company of Georgia in 1818 laid off the town of East Ala- 
 bama on Fraction A of Section 12, Township 16, Range 17, and the same 
 year Alabama was founded on the river on the east fractional half of Sec- 
 tion 11. By an act of December 3, 1819, Philadelphia and Alabama were 
 incorporated under the name of Montgomery, which in 1822 became the 
 county seat. (See Blue MSS.) 
 
 2 Second Series. Also see Darby's Louisiana, 1817. 
 
ALABAMA : STUDY IN TERRITORIAL GOVERNMENT. 455 
 
 mission stations were among the Cherokees, and Missionary 
 Eidge, which was to acquire a later fame, points back to such 
 efforts. The Mayhew missionaries did their noble work in what 
 has become Mississippi, on the original site not far from the 
 Choctaw Trading House, at a branch station on the Yazoo, 
 where they reached the Chickasaws as well,^ and later else- 
 where also. The boys were taught farming and mechanics ; the 
 girls, housework, sewing, knitting, spinning, and weaving. 
 
 The white population having advanced and the Indians cor- 
 respondingly withdrawn from about St. Stephens, it seemed best 
 to change the Choctaw Trading House to the interior of the nation, 
 and Gaines was deputed to select a suitable site. In November, 
 
 1815, he consulted Pushmataha, and at his suggestion selected 
 the vicinity of old Fort Tombecb^, the Spanish Fort Confedera- 
 tion. Pushmataha said the bluff and creek were familiar to the 
 Choctaws as the residence of the celebrated Indian who made 
 burial boxes, and remarked, with grim humor, that the people 
 would readily come to get blankets for the living where they had 
 formerly got coffins for the dead.^ Gaines complied, and with 
 twelve soldiers and a sergeant, and the carpenters and choppers 
 he hired, completed his work by May, 1816. He moved up in a 
 barge with family, furniture, and public goods, the store was 
 opened, and an active trade commenced with the Indians. 
 
 New cessions of land were necessary, and " Colonel McKee," 
 says Gaines,^ " received orders from the War Department to pro- 
 vide for a treaty to be held at the Trading House near old Fort 
 Tombecbe. The commissioners for holding the Congress were 
 Hon. John Rhea of Tennessee, General John Coffee, and Colo- 
 nel McKee. They arrived at the Factory early in October, 
 
 1816, and the Indians began to assemble soon after from every 
 part of the nation. Beef of the best quality and corn were issued 
 in abundance to the assembled thousands. The chiefs and their 
 principal captains took their meals with the commissioners at the 
 
 ^ H. B. Cushman'a Choctaws, Chickasaws, and Natchez (Greenville, Tex., 
 1899), gives much li^ht on this neglected subject, although the information 
 is scattered. See Warren's article 8 Miss. Hist. Socy Publ., p. 571. 
 
 ^ Gaines found the ditch of the old fort, with many pickets standing, 
 but no houses within. The only neighbor was Samuel Jones, a white man 
 with an Indian family, who resided in an old house buUt by the Spaniards 
 about one hundred yards away. 
 
 ^ MS. Reminiscences. 
 
466 COLONIAL MOBILE. 
 
 Trading House. Ball plays and other games enlivened the en- 
 campment during the day, and the dances of the young folks at 
 night. The chiefs and commissioners talked over the objects of 
 the meeting in the mean time. Several days passed in this way, 
 when the business was submitted to a formal council of the 
 parties and thoroughly discussed on both sides, resulting in the 
 purchase of the Choctaw claim to all lands lying east of the 
 Tombigbee River. The treaty proved satisfactory to the mem- 
 bers of the tribe east of the river, and it was duly ratified by 
 Congress at the ensuing session," ^ 
 
 This treaty, almost the last which will concern us, opened all 
 Alabama to white settlement except the territory of the Chero- 
 kees in the lower Tennessee Valley, the old Creek country east of 
 the Coosa, and the Choctaw land about Fort Confederation. " The 
 survey of the lands," says Gaines, " was soon commenced with 
 great activity. Emigrants from Virginia, the Carolinas, Georgia, 
 Tennessee, and Kentucky poured into the valleys of the Ala- 
 bama and Tombigbee without waiting for the sales of the lands." 
 Carolinians and Virginians came down to Huntsville ^ and on to 
 
 ^ 7 Statutes at Large, p. 152. 
 
 2 The Yazoo Frauds were expunged from Georgia's statute book, but had 
 the effect, nevertheless, of attracting people to her western lands, now 
 making up Mississippi and Alabama. Thus the Tennessee Land Company 
 in 1794-95 acquired title to one million acres extending from the Tennessee 
 line southward between Bear Creek and a bouudary one hundred and twenty 
 miles to the east. This company divided its purchase into one thousand 
 acre lots, which it sold on time about 1806-07, and some of these deeds are 
 among the first records of Madison County. Martin Beatty in 1808 bought 
 the Big Spring and most of the present Huntsville, but he soon relinquished 
 this claim and entered other lands. 
 
 Beatty had been preceded by John Hunt, who came in 1805 and next 
 year brought out his family from East Tennessee; but Hunt failed to perfect 
 his title. Even a year or two earlier old man Ditto was among the Indians 
 at the landing called for him, and the Criners were at the Big Spring on the 
 mountain fork of Flint River. The Chickasaw cession of 1805 west of 
 Duck River and the Cherokee cession in 1806 of lands west of the sources 
 of Elk River were perhaps the real beginnings of the settlement of what in 
 1808 became Madison County. The county was surveyed by Thos. Free- 
 man of Nashville, and in 1809 sales were held at Nashville which attracted 
 probably five thousand people to the new country. Le Roy Pope at this time 
 bought the Big Spring at $23.00 an acre, and next year Huntsville was laid 
 out on a plan agreed upon between Pope and the commissioners to select a 
 county seat. 
 
 Immigration previous to this time had mainly followed the Cherokee line ^ 
 
ALABAMA : STUDY IN TERRITORIAL GOVERNMENT. 457 
 
 St. Stephens, and Georgians across to Claiborne, — the inter- 
 mingling points of both streams of immigration, each to be in 
 turn a reservoir, a new starting point for local colonization. The 
 eastern half of Mississippi Territory was growing rapidly and 
 its settlers had no ties with the western half, which held the 
 reins of government. 
 
 There was a difference between American Territories — which 
 were quasi-colonies — and the colonial organizations which we 
 have heretofore studied ; but, nevertheless, in some sense the 
 United States, like the old countries, exercised a paternal su- 
 pervision, and so there must be added to the elements furnished 
 by the pioneers themselves those supplied by the Federal power. 
 These related not only to instituting local government, and to 
 trade and treaty relations between the white man and the red 
 man, common also under preceding governments, but the super- 
 vision concerned itself in the long run chiefly with the matter of 
 ceded lands. As territory was acquired by treaty, the United 
 States mapped, subdivided, and sold it so as to aid white settle- 
 ment. The Federal land laws, therefore, were of the greatest 
 importance. In all colonial growth an essential is the easy ac- 
 quisition of land ; for from the land, through agriculture, min- 
 ing, forestry, and even manufactures, come the industries of 
 every country. 
 
 This land jurisdiction showed itself in two directions. In the 
 first place, the United States carried out the treaties which re- 
 lated to the old Latin settlers, particularly under the Louisiana 
 
 down the Flint River to the Brownsboro district. After the sales of 1809 
 there was a heavy immigration from the counties of Tennessee south of 
 Nashville. Cumming's was the first mill, and Cabaniss from Virginia soon 
 built the first cotton factory. From 1810 we hear of Thos. Brandon, C. C. 
 Clay, Gabriel Moore, and others soon to be prominent citizens, and court was 
 held in the court house in 1811. 
 
 During the Creek War Huntsville was one of Jackson's bases, and many 
 of his men settled there and elsewhere in the Tennessee Valley after its 
 conclusion. This district was almost a Tennessee colony. 
 
 The Land Office remained at Nashville until 1811, and in 1818 were land 
 sales at Huntsville which brought thousands of new immigrants. There 
 were then twenty thousand people in Madison County alone, and a year or 
 two later possibly fifty thousand in the Tennessee Valley. The present 
 survey of Huntsville dates from 1821. (See Claiborne's Mississippi as Col' 
 onyy Territory and State j Smith and Deland's North Alabama, and Blue 
 MSS.) 
 
458 COLONIAL MOBILE. 
 
 Purchase, and later under the treaty by which Florida was ac- 
 quired in 1819.^ 
 
 With the country lands the new government had free scope 
 and naturally extended to the South West the simple system 
 of townships and sections which had already been in force in 
 the Northwest Territory .^ The land was subdivided into small 
 tracts which settlers could purchase on easy terms, and the result 
 was an increasing immigration which had never been seen under 
 the system of granting large tracts to individuals. This old em- 
 presario plan had been a necessity in colonial times, because there 
 were few small settlers able to transport themselves across the 
 ocean. Unless the government was prepared to go to great 
 trouble and expense in bringing over colonists, the task must 
 be left to those who, by securing large grants, were able to fill 
 them up with people. With the older States furnishing immi- 
 grants by the thousand, the new policy of small grants became 
 possible. 
 
 Another field of Federal supervision related to foreign affairs. 
 At the time Alabama was made a Territory, and at the time she 
 was to be admitted as a State, all south of the line of 31° was 
 still claimed by Spain. Americans have grown to think that 
 hoisting the stars and stripes is irrevocable ; but if Spain had 
 been stronger or Napoleon less occupied in Europe, it is likely 
 
 ^ Congress legislated several times on the old land claims. (2 U. S. Statutes 
 at Large, p. 713 ; 3 Ibid., pp. 528, 699.) Commissioner Crawford, luider act 
 of Congress of April 25, 1812, and the register and receiver under that of 
 March 3, 1819, were diligent in reporting on the validity of claims, and their 
 work was confirmed by act of May 8, 1822. Register Willoughby Barton on 
 July 11, 1820, wrote from Jackson Court House on " the impolicy of holding 
 the claimants of lots in Mobile to strict proof of compliance with the Spanish 
 regulations for the allotment of lands. He will only remark, that it has 
 come within his personal observation that a very large proportion of the 
 granted lots has been built upon, and is inhabited by the grantees and those 
 claiming under them, who are generally the ancient native inhabitants." 
 
 Congress, by acts of May 8, 1822, and March 3, 1827, donated to residents 
 before the American capture a reasonable quantity of land, and constituted 
 the register and receiver a tribunal to receive proof. Their reports were 
 confirmed March 2, 1829. There were later private acts, but by 1829 the 
 great bulk of titles were either settled or put in such condition that they 
 could be settled in the courts. (4 U. S. Statutes at Large, pp. 239, 358.) 
 
 2 The system of surveys into townships and sections begins with the act of 
 May 18, 1796. (1 U. S. Statutes at Large, p. 464.) It was based on Gray- 
 son's Land Act of 1785 under the Confederation. 
 
ALABAMA : STUDY IN TERRITORIAL GOVERNMENT. 459 
 
 that the United States would have learned a severe lesson on the 
 subject of appropriating territories occupied by other nations. 
 
 As it was, during the weakness of Spain the United Statea 
 had been endeavoring to buy Florida, and incidentally to get her 
 recognition of the Louisiana Purchase as extending eastwardly 
 to the Perdido. The negotiations were long, tedious, and subject 
 to frequent interruptions. General Jackson more than once oc- 
 cupied different parts of Florida, and had his zeal checked, and 
 fame increased, by the Federal authorities. Even when the treaty 
 was agreed upon February 22, 1819, it was not ratified by Spain 
 for over two years. ^ While this gave a sanction to the annexation 
 of Mobile, it was of the ex postjacto character. 
 
 Congress had also to deal with the new American citizens them- 
 selves. The difference in interests between the Tombigbee and 
 the Mississippi settlers had shown itself as early as 1803, when the 
 Bigbee inhabitants petitioned Congress to divide the Territory .^ 
 Six years later the same request came from people living in 
 the district east of Pearl River, but Poindexter, the territorial 
 delegate, had the petition tabled. A number of attempts were 
 made to have the Territory admitted as one State, although the 
 project was mainly favored on the Mississippi. The House of 
 Representatives passed several such bills, beginning in 1811, but 
 when they reached the Senate they were voted down, because the 
 proposed State was too large, being twice the size of Pennsyl- 
 vania. The Senate committee at first suggested aline of division 
 up the Mobile River to near its source and thence over to Great 
 Bear Creek, which empties into the Tennessee. Georgia, upon 
 being requested by Congress, assented to division, but nothing 
 was done during the war with England. Meantime the Terri- 
 tory of Mississippi had been extended on the south. 
 
 When William Lattimore was delegate he also attempted to 
 secure admission for an undivided State, but the Senate again 
 refused to pass the House bill. The House then yielded and 
 division became the settled policy, the only question being where 
 the line should run. 
 
 A convention to discuss the subject met in 1816 on Pearl River 
 
 i S U. S. Statutes at Large, p. 252. 
 
 ^ The fullest presentation of this subject is the article of F. L. Riley on 
 Mississippi Boundaries in 3 Miss. Hist. Socy Publ., p. 167. See, also, his 
 school history of Mississippi for this period. 
 
460 COLONIAL MOBILE. 
 
 at the home of John Ford, — one of the old plantation houses, 
 with chimneys at each end and high steps leading to the main 
 floor, common still throughout the South. The presiding officer 
 was Cowles Mead ; among the delegates was Sam Dale from the 
 Tombigbee, and Toulmin was appointed to go to Congress and 
 urge the division of the Territory. His plan seems to have been 
 to have the Pascagoula as the line, but finally a compromise was 
 effected in Congress by which it ran from the northwest corner 
 of Washington County to the mouth of Great Bear Creek in the 
 one direction and south to the Gulf in the other. 
 
 An enabling act was approved March 1, 1817, for the admis- 
 sion of the western division as a State, and a convention of forty- 
 seven delegates met in the old Methodist Church at Washington 
 on the first Monday in July. The boundaries fixed by Congress 
 created great dissatisfaction, and a motion to reconsider the for- 
 mation of the State was put and lost by a tie vote. A petition 
 for other boundaries was sent up, opposed by a counter applica- 
 tion of the Bigbee settlers, but Congress refused to make any 
 change. There was a large vote for adopting the name Wash- 
 ington, but the State was finally admitted under the name of 
 Mississippi. Thus ended the long association of the Mississippi 
 and Alabama-Tombigbee basins.^ 
 
 Congress on March 8, 1817, provided for the government of 
 what was left of the old Territory, the Alabama-Tombigbee basin 
 now coming to its own. It is true the sources of the two rivers 
 were cut off, but much of the Tennessee Valley was added by way 
 of compensation. From the main river it was named Alabama 
 Territory, and local officers, laws, and institutions remained, ex- 
 cept that a new governor and secretary were to be appointed by 
 the President. 
 
 This governor was William Wyatt Bibb, United States sena- 
 tor from Georgia, who somewhat repaid the debt which Georgia 
 owed to the Tombigbee settlers for George M. Troup. Bibb 
 himself illustrated how the South West borrowed from the older 
 States, for he was Virginia born, if Georgia bred. 
 
 The territorial legislature of Alabama held two sessions, — 
 the first January 19 to February 13, and the other Novem- 
 ber 2 to November 21, 1818. There was little need for legisla- 
 tion except as to the two new elements of civilization represented 
 ^ See Mississippi's First Constitution, 6 Miss. Hist. Socy Publ., p. 79. 
 
ALABAMA: STUDY IN TERRITORIAL GOVERNMENT. 461 
 
 by Banks and Steamboats, and as to the towns and new coun- 
 ties made necessary by the ever increasing immigration.^ 
 
 The creation of counties had been at first a matter of sub- 
 dividing the theoretical limits of Washington in the south and 
 Madison in the north, with the addition of Mobile acquired from 
 the Spaniards. Baldwin was first taken from Washington in 
 1809, and Clarke was created in 1812 to inherit the old ex- 
 panse from the Tombigbee to the Georgia line, or, more correctly 
 expressed, to the Creek boundary near the Coosa River. The 
 horrors of the Creek War stopped all progress, but immediately 
 afterwards Monroe County was laid off on June 5, 1815, by ex- 
 ecutive proclamation as containing all the territory acquired by 
 the treaty of Fort Jackson, extending from Clarke to the Coosa ;2 
 and from Monroe in turn Montgomery was taken in 1816. The 
 improvement up to this time, therefore, was on the lower rivers. 
 The Choctaws were still on the upper Bigbee, the Creeks held 
 east of the Coosa, and the Cherokees much of the Tennessee 
 Valley. Gaines has told us of the Choctaw Treaty, and that 
 negotiated by Jackson with the Cherokees in the same year at 
 Turkeytown near modern Gadsden was as decisive for northeast 
 Alabama. Together they caused a great expansion of popula- 
 tion and a second activity in county-making.^ 
 
 ^ We learn from the Blue Manuscripts that in the north one of the earliest 
 settlements, after Madison, was in what is now Limestone County. As early 
 as 1807 people came down from East Tennessee. Soldiers were entertained 
 at government expense, and Wade Hampton in 1809 built Fort Hampton a 
 few miles southwest of present Athens. John Gunter was the earliest white 
 settler in Marshall Countj\ He married a Cherokee woman and had a son 
 in Jackson's army. Blount County was settled mainly from Tennessee, 
 although, as with Lowndes, some came from Georgia and North Carolina. 
 Further south Michael Muckle in 1817 gave his name to what became 
 Marion. Over on the Bigbee Josiah Tilley settled on a bluff in present 
 Pickens County. 
 
 ^ See History of Monroe County in 3 Alabama Historical Society Publ., 
 p. 159. 
 
 * Thus in 1818 in the Tennessee Valley were created Lawrence, Franklin, 
 and Morgan (first called Cotaco) west of the Cherokee boundary, and from 
 Madison were taken Limestone and Lauderdale, while near on the south was 
 Blount. The same year saw the creation of Tuskaloosa and Marengo on the 
 Tombigbee waters, and on the Alabama and its tributaries came Shelby, 
 Dallas and Cahaba, afterwards changed to Bibb. In the same year followed 
 Marion, St. Clair, and Conecuh, scattered from north to south, and Autauga 
 was taken from Montgomery. Then nothing occurred until 1820, when 
 
462 COLONIAL MOBILE. 
 
 There was also after the Creek War a boom in town-making. 
 The old Indian traders had flourished separately, each in his 
 tribe or district. The newcomers, however, built their cabins 
 in clearings, within call of each other, on a commanding river 
 bluff or near some bold spring in the interior. They would 
 sometimes pick out a site suited for present needs ; sometimes, 
 in prospector fashion, select and build for the future. 
 
 The pioneers, unless speculation obscured the vision, generally 
 adopted the native sites, for water supply, navigation, and corn- 
 fields were to prove as important to the more closely settled 
 Americans as to the scattered Indians. Malaria seems to have 
 affected the aborigines less than it did the Americans, even 
 though the newcomers were fortified with whiskey, coffee, 
 and later by quinine. Sometimes, therefore, the settlers were 
 driven back a mile or more from the rivers, after experiments 
 costly in wealth and lives. A book could be written of Ala- 
 bama's Dead Towns, as has been of Georgia's, but many towns 
 lived. Perhaps first would come a few pioneers, then a store, a 
 blacksmith, — the buildings all of logs, — and then local ad- 
 vantages of production or transportation would cause develop- 
 ment into a real town ; for the Anglo-Saxons preferred "town" 
 as the French had ville, " city." 
 
 The new towns had at first little to support them, for it was 
 not yet the day of manufactures, and trade was necessarily 
 small until the country grew. Nevertheless, many of these in- 
 terior sites were well chosen and were the beginnings of pros- 
 perous settlements ; for they were in that limestone country 
 which was to produce corn and cotton in abundance and ulti- 
 mately to make the Gulf region the greatest cotton country on 
 the globe. 
 
 There was no necessary connection between town-making and 
 county-making. Some populous counties never had a large 
 town. In Monroe County the bluff at Fort Claiborne was 
 
 Baldwin finally made a complete somersault from the west to the east 
 bank of the Mobile River, except that it retained Nanna Hubba Island. 
 Many of these names recall revolutionary or national worthies, when Indian 
 words are not preserved, but Clarke and Baldwin show Georgia influence, 
 and Shelby, Lauderdale, and Blount that of Tennessee. Bibb was named 
 for the first governor, and Montgomery for a gallant officer who fell in the 
 Creek War, and thus are quasi-native. The old Latin sites were within 
 Mobile, Washington, and Baldwin. 
 
ALABAMA: STUDY IN TERRITORIAL GOVERNMENT. 463 
 
 in 1819 platted off into the town of Claiborne, which became the 
 seat of manufacture of cotton gins and a great river port, but 
 its importance proved temporary. On the other hand, Hunts- 
 ville was settled before Madison County, and the town was 
 looked to rather than the county. Montgomery, Selma,^ Tus- 
 kaloosa,^ and other places now became important. The country 
 had started on its development, urban and rural. 
 
 The Latin element at this time received an unexpected in- 
 crease. With the final return of Louis XVIII., — which he 
 fondly called his " restoration," — lists were made out of Bona- 
 
 ^ There is a claim that Selma was the site of De Soto's Piache. However 
 that may be, in 1809 and 1810 it was known as High Soapstone Bluff, and 
 the first white man to locate there was Thomas Moore of Tennessee, in 1815. 
 He built a log cabin about the intersection of present Water and Green 
 streets. Perhaps a year later other families came from East Tennessee, 
 but chills and fever drove off them and Moore also. About 1817 Peter 
 Robinson, Robert Lowe, and Mathew McLaughlin, who had been trading up 
 and down the river in a barge or pole boat, built cabins at the bluff. In 
 1817 the Selma Town Land Company was organized by W. R. King, Jesse 
 Beene, and others, and for them was drawn the plan of a town extending 
 to low water mark. Four lots were reserved for churches, and Methodists, 
 Baptists, and Cumberland Presbyterians used three. William R.King him- 
 self lived three miles south of the town. He gave it the name of Selma, 
 December 4, 1820. In 1818 Mike Woodall built a log hotel at Green 
 and Water streets, and about this time James Orman established what is 
 claimed as the first cotton gin factory in the State. (See John Hardy's 
 Selma, 1879.) 
 
 ^ At the time of the Creek War Tuskaloosa was occupied by a hostile 
 settlement which was broken up by John McKee and the Choctaws. Thos. 
 York of Blount County is said to have been the first white resident after the 
 Choctaw cession of 1816. There were two or more towns incorporated 
 about here from 1819 on, and civic life was active from the beginning. In 
 that year Davenport published a newspaper. A Land Office was opened 
 here in 1820, and Colonel McKee was connected with it. (See Blue MSS.) 
 
 The place was the head of navigation of the Tombigbee, and the end of 
 the land immigrant route via Blount with Huntsville and the East. The 
 result was a rapid growth, and a remarkable mingling of stocks. McKee 
 and Levin Powell were from Virginia, Marmaduke Williams from North 
 Carolina, Constantine Perkins and S. L. Perry from Tennessee, R. E. B. 
 Baylor from Kentucky, Dennis Dent from Georgia, etc. These distin- 
 guished men had all come by 1820, and many soon followed. 
 
 On its being found that Cahaba was unhealthy, the capital of the State 
 was moved from the Alabama to the Warrior, and from 1826 Tuskaloosa 
 was the seat of government. The university was opened in 1831. Many 
 men who became prominent elsewhere, particularly down the river at 
 Mobile, received their training at Tuskaloosa. 
 
464 COLONIAL MOBILE. 
 
 partists who were not permitted to remain. Marshal Ney was 
 executed, and many not on the lists sought refuge in other 
 lands. A number reached America from time to time and 
 many gathered at Philadelphia. In planning their future they 
 determined to found a colony in the South West, and Con- 
 gress March 3, 1817,^ granted them four townships of land in 
 Mississippi Territory at two dollars an acre on condition that they 
 should cultivate the vine and olive. Parmentier and others 
 sailed for Mobile in the schooner McDonough. When they 
 arrived in May, 1818, their vessel grounded at the mouth of the 
 bay in a storm, but they were rescued by Lieutenant Beal at 
 night, taken to Fort Bowyer, and afterwards warmly received in 
 the city. Addin Lewis, the collector, conveyed the colonists in 
 a revenue cutter up to St. Stephens, and on the way they visited 
 Judge Toulmin at Fort Stoddert and General Gaines at Fort 
 Montgomery. McGoffin gave them every assistance at the land 
 office, and, although the lands had not been surveyed, they went 
 on up the river to near old Fort Tombecb^. Gaines advised 
 them to settle at White Bluff, the old Chickasaw Gallery, and 
 Peniers and Meslier, whom they had sent out to explore, con- 
 curred. 
 
 They built cabins and named the settlement Demopolis, hav- 
 ing: no closer neighbors than a few Tennesseeans about the north 
 line of Clarke County. Their numbers were increased from 
 Philadelphia, some even coming down the Ohio, and a contract 
 was entered into with Secretary of the Treasury, William H. 
 Crawford, for Township 18, Range 3 East, and Townships 18, 
 19, and 20, Range 4 East, to be used for the culture of the vine 
 and olive. 
 
 One difficulty arose from the fact that the lands contracted for 
 did not coincide with the lands settled on, and as a result some 
 had finally to move further out into the wilderness, where they 
 built Aigleville ; for American immigrants and squatters came to 
 claim their first seats. Cutting through canes whose joints would 
 hold a pint was a difficult matter, and this they had to do yet 
 again from mistaking the land numbers, and they finally built 
 Areola. The policy was not individual property but community 
 ownership, although after a while it was found impracticable to 
 carry this out, and the plan was modified by the government 
 * 3 Statutes at Large, p. 374. 
 
ALABAMA: STUDY IN TERRITORIAL GOVERNMENT. 465 
 
 in 1822. There was difficulty in making the Catawba grow from 
 the attempts being made in the wrong season and from the 
 Bordeaux vines being in improper condition when they arrived ; 
 nevertheless the colonists kept on planting and made some in- 
 different wine. The proper place for viticulture has since been 
 found to be some thirty miles away. The olive was set out in 
 considerable quantities, but did not flourish, for winter generally 
 killed it to the ground, although it came up again in the 
 spring. How much was due to the ignorance of these sol- 
 diers and ladies, how much to the climate, we cannot tell. They 
 dressed frequently in their empire costumes, and their social life 
 exhibited more dancing and visiting than did that of our other 
 immigrants ; but one cannot blame them, exiles rather than 
 pioneers. To improve on their own inexperienced labor, they 
 imported German redemptioners, but many of these proved un- 
 satisfactory, and, despite increase by refugees from San Do- 
 mingo, the colony did not prosper. 
 
 How many settled at Demopolis is uncertain. There were 
 three hundred subscribers, but in 1821 the actual planters seem 
 to be eighty-one. What was their form of government is not 
 clear, and it is probable there was no special organization.^ 
 
 The Bonapartists have furnished some of the best blood of 
 the new commonwealth, but their influence was individual 
 rather than collective. 
 
 During territorial days, Alabama was made up of four river 
 districts, rapidly increasing in population. There was the Ten- 
 nessee Valley, which had been growing faster than the other 
 centres, and seemed likely to control the future of the new com- 
 monwealth. The Tombigbee District now took in both sides of 
 that river, Tuskaloosa at one end balancing St. Stephens at the 
 other. The Alabama River region was being settled wholesale 
 from Georgia, with its centre of growth in Monroe County. 
 Last and relatively least was the Mobile District, apparently 
 losing ground in the race with the interior,^ 
 
 1 Much light has been thrown on this subject by J. W. Beeson's articles 
 in the Demopolis Express in 1895, and in the Alabama Institute of Technology 
 Studies, edited by Professor George Petrie. See paper of A. B. Lyon in 
 1 Gulf States Historical Magazine, p. 325 ; contracts, lists, etc., 3 Am. St. 
 Papers, pp. 343, 349 ; some touching incidents in Gaines' MS. Reminiscences ; 
 also article of G. Whitfield, Jr., 4 Ala. Hist. Socy PubL, p. 321. 
 
 * B^ far the most populous of all the counties now was Madison, and next 
 
466 COLONIAL MOBILE. 
 
 The supervision of the Federal government was soon to reach 
 its end. The territorial limits were defined, the land divided, 
 Indian and foreign relations secured, the population about 
 100,000, of whom the whites were double the number of the ne- 
 groes. The time had come when the child was grown, when the 
 paternal element in the American Constitution should give way 
 to that of agency, when Alabama should enter the Union on 
 an equality with the other States. 
 
 Quickly following a cession of land by the Cherokees in 1819, 
 therefore, came congressional action looking to admitting Ala- 
 bama as a State.^ Twenty-two counties sent delegates to Hunts- 
 ville, and a convention assembled July 5. 
 
 The convention came to an end August 2, 1819, after framing, 
 in a session of less than a month, a constitution suited to exist- 
 ing conditions, but with few striking features. The State was 
 duly admitted into the Union by an act approved December 14, 
 1819,2 j^u(j^ in anticipation of this, the people had already chosen 
 state officers. William C. Bibb was elected chief executive to 
 succeed himself as territorial governor,^ and the General As- 
 sembly, made up of twenty-two senators and forty-five repre- 
 sentatives, met at Huntsville October 19. The new capital was 
 
 largest was Monroe in the centre ; but the Tennessee Valley was dominant, 
 for it had Limestone almost as large, and Blount County was soon populous, 
 possibly because in a line of immigration to the South. In the centre Mont- 
 gomery, Shelby, and Tuskaloosa, ranked together, although after Monroe. 
 Marengo, Cahaba, Dallas, St. Clair, and Autauga corresponded in popula- 
 tion to Lawrence, Franklin, and Cotaco in the north. In the far South, the 
 scene of most of our history, the population was smaller in proportion. Old 
 Washington and Clarke now ranked with newer Tuskaloosa, and Baldwin, 
 Conecuh, and even Mobile only with Dallas and Lawrence. 
 
 1 Act of March 2, 1819 (3 Statutes at Large, p. 489). Of the forty-four 
 members, eight were from Madison, four from Monroe, three each from 
 Blount, Limestone, and Shelby, while Clarke and Washington each furnished 
 two, and Mobile only one. This ratio was defined by the enabling act. 
 
 2 3 Statutes at Large, p. 608. 
 
 8 The legislature elected John W. Walker of Madison and William E. 
 King of Dallas as the first senators. They came from the Tennessee Valley 
 and the Black Belt, and honors were made even by John Crowell of Wash- 
 ington having been elected the single representative to Congress to which 
 Alabama was entitled. The new census taken in 1820 was to show a 
 population of 127,901, of whom the whites were 85,451 and the negroes 
 42,450, — nearly twelve times what had been shown by the census of 
 1810. 
 
MAP 
 
 OF THE 
 
 TOWN 
 
 CAHAWTRA 
 
 CAHAWEA IN 1S19 
 
ALABAMA : STUDY IN TERRITORIAL GOVERNMENT. 467 
 
 to be at Cahaba, below the Holy Ground, ou the historic Alabama 
 River.^ 
 
 The Alabama- Tombigbee basin had gradually realized its 
 separate interests. It had become separate from South Carolina 
 and Georgia on the one side, which claimed it under colonial 
 charters, and on the other from the Mississippi settlements, of 
 which statesmen had tried to make it an appendant. The cen- 
 tral Gulf coast had at last come to its own, and the twenty- 
 second star was added to the American flag. 
 
 ^ According to the Blue Manuscripts the site was first occupied about 
 1817, aud in 1820-21 the place is said to have contained two or three thou- 
 sand people. Among the first settlers were James White and the Lorenzo 
 Roberts who had been with Aaron Burr. In 1819 the " Alabama Press " 
 was established by William B. Allen, who came from the East. Blue in 
 1854 notes that the population was about eight hundred, aud now the place 
 is part of a cotton plantation. 
 
CHAPTER LII. 
 
 THE COMING OF THE STEAMBOAT. 
 
 The greatest empire builders of the world connected their col- 
 onies with Rome by roads which have lasted until now, and the 
 Americans caught the same inspiration. There was not only 
 Boone's jiioneer road through Cumberland Gap, the National 
 Road from Maryland to the Ohio, but we early find the Natchez 
 Road, across Colbert's Ferry, and in our own immediate territory 
 the Federal Road from Milledgeville across jSIims' Ferry to Fort 
 Stoddert, and even further to Natchez. The local centres, more- 
 over, soon had their own highways. Huntsville was connected 
 with Nashville and the East as well as with the Tombigbee coun- 
 try. In 1818 John Owen brought his family southwestward 
 from Virginia even to Tuskaloosa, but his experience shows that 
 some roads were such only in name. 
 
 There were other highways in course of time, such as Jack- 
 son's military road, cut southwardly from the Tennessee River 
 (serviceable in subjugating the Creeks), the great Tennessee 
 Road to Jones' Valley,^ and another via the High Town trail 
 and Attalla to the East. 
 
 As in Italy all great architecture is ascribed to Michael An- 
 gelo, so in our Southern States mounds and fortifications are at- 
 tributed to De Soto and roads to Andrew Jackson. There is 
 little truth in either guess, but worse eponyms could be chosen 
 than De Soto and Jackson. These early highways as regular 
 post routes ^ played g, great role in winning the South West for 
 civilization. 
 
 There were vehicles of all kinds, but the oddest was the roll- 
 ing hogshead. In this goods were packed, trunnions put on the 
 
 ^ Powell's History of Blount County in Transactions Alabama Historical 
 Society, 1855, p. 39. 
 
 2 See article by P. J. Hamilton on Early Roads of Alabama in 2 Trans- 
 actions Alabama Historical Society , p. 39. 
 
THE COMING OF THE STEAMBOAT. 469 
 
 ends, and then shafts attached. Sometimes an ox took the place 
 of a horse, and it was in this way that the Coates family in 1800 
 moved to Clarke County. 
 
 So far as one could see at this time the development of the 
 Alabama-Tombigbee basin was to be by the rivers, with their 
 sources connected, as in ancient days, by roads over the portages. 
 The roads, no doubt, would be better than the old Indian trails, 
 and the river craft might become larger and make more regular 
 trips than in colonial times, but all evolution promised to be by 
 the navigable waters. The greater Mississippi Valley might de- 
 velop in a similar manner, and prophecies were early made that 
 the Ohio basin would pour its wealth up the Tennessee and by 
 portages over to the Tombigbee at Cotton Gin Port on the one 
 side, and to the Coosa at Gadsden or Wetumpka on the other, 
 all finally reaching tide water at Mobile.^ 
 
 The river systems in the South are broken into halves by what 
 is called the fall line, where the granite and other hard rocks of 
 the Apalachian Mountains give place to the softer limestone of 
 the Cotton Belt. The sources of the streams are often rocky, 
 promising abundant power for mills and other industries, but 
 unnavigable except in isolated places. From this fall line, how- 
 ever, to the sea there is little interruption to boats, except from 
 sand-bars and logs when the water is low. Instinctively Ameri- 
 cans built towns at these falls. Thus came into existence We- 
 tumpka, Tuskaloosa, and the like, — no longer Indian, — while 
 other towns were built in agricultural centres, where rivers move 
 on as placid streams. The Tennessee Valley had obstructions 
 at Mussel Shoals, and, as its river came from the northeast and 
 left Alabama in a northwestward course, it must always have a 
 separate life. Receiving most of the earliest immigrants, it out- 
 stripped the ancient port and the Black Belt, hardly yet con- 
 scious of its power. A glance at the territorial counties will 
 show the population to decrease as one traveled from north to 
 south. The Tennessee Valley and country on the uj^per rivers 
 were growing faster than the south end of the Territory. 
 
 It would seem as if the new commonwealth was not only to be 
 Anglo-Saxon in its blood, laws, and institutions, but that the old 
 
 ^ This view was to be held even after railroads came. The earliest rail- 
 ways were generally over the old portage routes from river to river. See 
 article on Cotton Gin Port, 7 Afiss. Hist. Socy Trans., p. 263. 
 
470 COLONIAL MOBILE. 
 
 seaport of Mobile, which so long dominated the Alabama-Tom- 
 bigbee basin, had sunk, despite all anticiiDations, into a negligible 
 quantity. And yet the future had even greater surprises in store 
 than the substitution of Anglo-Saxon influence for the Latin, 
 even greater than the results one might imagine from an amal- 
 gamation of the two stocks. If the new commonwealth was to 
 be simply like a civilized Indian community, a series of isolated 
 settlements connected by canoes and roads, it might in course of 
 time grow up to be populous. The rivers and tributaries per- 
 meating everywhere might furnish means of communication 
 which would make an independent, a self-centred State. It 
 might even be an improvement on those historic European pe- 
 ninsulas which were broken up into different communities by 
 mountains, and connected only by roundabout sea navigation. 
 Such might, indeed, have been the future of all the interior 
 American States; but Providence willed a greater destiny. 
 
 For there came just at the end of the territorial period an eco- 
 nomic revolution which was not only to hasten the growth of all 
 river States, but, by quickening intercommunication, was to 
 draw all Americans closer together, and in time make a Nation 
 of what had been a straggling Confederacy. 
 
 The chief means of communication when the Territory was 
 formed was the old pirogue, modified into flatboats and barges, 
 which could only come down stream, — facilis est descensus. 
 Sometimes these were broken up when they reached Mobile with 
 their cargo of cotton, corn, or naval stoi^es, and early ordinances 
 required that the gunwales be used for street curbs. The boats 
 could not be taken up stream again with cargoes until some 
 mechanical motive power was invented. The importance of river 
 communication was shown by its paying to bring flour milled on 
 the Holston River, five hundred miles away, by water to a twelve 
 mile portage over to the head of the Coosa, and thence by flat- 
 boat to the little town of Montgomery. This voyage consumed 
 two months, and yet was shorter than by flatboat up from 
 Mobile, for young Goldthwaite took three months to make that 
 trip.^ But steam was to change all this. 
 
 And this naturally began on the Father of Waters. Fulton 
 and his associates established works at Pittsburg and turned out 
 steamboats for Western waters. The first one was the Orleans, 
 ' T. H. Clark's Steamboats, in Memorial Record of Alabama, p. 319. 
 
THE COMING OF THE STEAMBOAT. 471 
 
 which in 1811, under N. J. Roosevelt, made her maiden trip down 
 to the city for which she was named, acclaimed all the way, and 
 nowhere more enthusiastically than at Natchez, the capital of 
 Mississippi Territory.^ 
 
 The actual beginning of steamboating on Alabama waters is 
 obscure,, and the name of the earliest steamer is not certain. 
 George S. Gaines says that the first was built by the Messrs. 
 Dearing, and her machinery brought from the North. He does 
 not give the name of the boat, but mentions them as in business 
 at St. Stephens. This may have been the Alabama, built by the 
 St. Stephens Steamboat Company ; ^ but the machinery was not 
 strong enough to carry her against the current. The boat was 
 finally sent over to New Orleans, where she met with even less suc- 
 cess. It was the Nemesis of Fate that St. Stephens should build 
 the first steamboat, and thus begin a system of navigation which 
 would connect the sources of the river with the Bay and might 
 relegate her to a mere landing place. For the time being, how- 
 ever, it was to aid her growth. Soon a second boat, whose name 
 is unknown, appeared upon the rivers, rigged as a three-masted 
 schooner ; but she, too, was unable to stem the current. 
 
 In 1819 Brown and Bell at Blakely built the Mississippi, of 
 four hundred tons, and Tensaw of sixty .^ The last is said to 
 have been built for the Steamboat Company of Alabama, and 
 had a long history even after this corporation sold her. 
 
 It was in keeping with our history heretofore that the Tom- 
 bigbee should be the earlier of the twin rivers to profit by the 
 new invention. The bluffs that had seen Bienville and Vaudreuil 
 
 ^ See Claiborne's Mississippi as Colony, etc., p. 537, for Latrobe's account 
 of this famous voyage, which settled the question, open since Iberville, of the 
 up-stream navigability of the Mississippi. 
 
 2 David Files, Silas Dinsmore, B. S. Smoot, Henry Bright, and others were 
 by an act of February 10, 1818, incorporated as the St. Stephens Steamboat 
 Company. Two years later came the Steamboat Company of Alabama, in- 
 corporated for ten years for similar purposes, its capital not to exceed one 
 hundred and eighty^two thousand dollars ; the principal place of business, 
 Blakely. In 1821 came the Mobile Steamboat Company, made up of Hogan, 
 Judson, and others, with a capital of two hundred thousand dollars, and in 
 the same year T. L. Hallett and his associates were incorporated under the 
 name of the Navigation Steamboat Company with similar powers. (See Ter- 
 ritorial Acts and Tonlmin's Digest.) 
 
 ^ See notes to Wyman's Alabama Territory, in 3 Transactions Alabama 
 Historical Society, p. 126. 
 
472 COLONIAL MOBILE. 
 
 ascend by pirogue to their Chickasaw wars now looked down on 
 the new smoking craft, and not a few astonished Indians were 
 almost rocked out of their canoes by the waves from passing 
 steamers. Madame Re, wife of one of the Bonapartists, relates 
 that she went up to Demopolis on the first boat, and the vines and 
 branches of trees had to be cut away time and again. Her re- 
 collection is that the boat was named the Tensaw ; more certain, 
 however, is it that it was the Mobile, brought from Boston. This 
 was in 1819 and was the first up-river voyage. On May 18 
 she was received at the little town of Demopolis amid great ex- 
 citement ; and at Demopolis she was compelled to remain on ac- 
 count of the swiftness of the river, and her freight for Tuskaloosa 
 was sent up by barge. About the same time appeared the Har- 
 riet, built on the " low steam " principle, of thirty horse power 
 and eighty tons burden ; and she was to have an eventful career. 
 
 It was not until 1821 that the Alabama River was ascended. 
 This was effected by Captain Morril in the Harriet, stopping a 
 day each at Claiborne, Cahaba, and Selma, and finally reaching 
 Montgomery on October 22, ten days from Mobile. A pleasure 
 trip was organized there, which the Harriet took up the river, 
 and so pleased were the business men that they originated a 
 steamboat company of their own.i 
 
 Perhaps the second boat to ascend the Alabama was the Ten- 
 saw, whose reception at Selma, August 5, 1822, has been com- 
 memorated by the local historian.^ Crowds gathered on the bluff 
 looking at the boat with fear and astonishment, and few could 
 make up their minds to go aboard the " belching craft." It had 
 taken twenty-three days to come from Mobile, but Captain Roman 
 " jumped and cracked his heels together and offered to bet he 
 could make the trip in less than fourteen." The Tensaw, unlike 
 her predecessors, was a stern-wheel boat, and the pilot stood upon 
 deck and guided with a lever. There was no hurricane deck, 
 but a shed protected the two hundred bales of cotton which she 
 could carry. At this time another steamer, the Cotton Plant, 
 was on the river, and August 16 she arrived at Montgomery, 
 towing a barge, — the third vessel to ascend so high.^ There 
 
 1 The subject of Early Steamboats has been well worked np by Fraser in 
 the valuable historical studies edited by Professor George Petrie of the Ala- 
 bama Institute of Technology at Auburn. 
 
 2 Hardy's Selrtm, p. 168. « Blue's History of Montgomery. 
 
8a\e at AucUotv. 
 
 TOHE STEAM BOAT TENSAW, vJl 
 
 i^ be sold at public Auction, on Situritjj 
 ihe 15ih- December IfKi at II o'clotlt A x, 
 »t Dauphin Street wharf, for the btne+.jtcl 
 «ll roncerned, at a credit nf sin monlla 
 The purchaser will be required to givei 
 note negociablfe and pavjble at the Bank rf 
 Mobile witli tvo approved etidors^-rs. 
 
 By order of the Directors uf ihc Stem 
 Boat Compiny of Alibaina. 
 
 J. L. SEABURy. Prert. 
 
 Dec. 10 — Itf 
 
 OCT" '*''** above sale is pbstponed until St- 
 lurday.theSJdinst.el 11 o'clock. 
 
 Sleam Boat Uarnott, 
 
 WlLli leave this on Wcdocsd.iy llie 
 26lb insl. for Montgomery, and to 
 lermediate placea. For Freight or Passage 
 sppi; to 
 
 HENRy GUNNISON. 
 Dec 20-8lf Diuphm-strcct Wharf. 
 
 For New Orleans. 
 
 The Regular Packet Schooner 
 HARRIET, John M'Leod, mas- 
 li sail on Tuesday, the 1st of Janua- 
 ry For freight or passage, having supe- 
 rior accoiDinodatioas, apply to tbe master 
 on board at Judson's wharf, or tn 
 Dec 27— L. JUDSON. 
 
 Steam Boat Barriott, 
 
 A*. Nat/dm, Matltr, 
 
 WILL start ftkr Moatg^omeiy, &dJ in- 
 termediate pUc«a, on Suoday next. 
 HENRY GUNNrSO\, Agent. 
 Dec 2T—6 Daupbia-street Wharl. 
 
 FIRST STEAMBOAT ADVERTISEMENTS, 1821 
 
THE COMING OF THE STEAMBOAT. 473 
 
 was not enough steam in those days for whistles, and the signals 
 were given by guns. The boats did not travel by night the un- 
 charted rivers, and indeed in fogs also lay to. From this time 
 on the number of boats increased ripidly. 
 
 Once regular steam navigation was established, the up-country 
 cut loose from dependence on the East and established a new 
 and lasting base on the sea ; for there could be no steamboats 
 without a port, with wharves and terminal facilities ; and this 
 meant the certain growth of Mobile. Under the Spaniards the 
 port had only the King's Wharf ; for that at Montuse Tavern 
 near by was merely for fishing and similar purposes. The citi- 
 zens had to develop the river front independently of the govern- 
 ment, for, unlike the case under the Latins, Anglo-Saxon com- 
 mercial enterprises have always been conducted by individuals. 
 
 The building of the market at the east end of Dauphin, near 
 the present Water Street, determined the location of the first 
 public wharf, and the river front from there south to the Fish 
 Wharf at the foot of Government Street became the commercial 
 centre. The city by cooperation with the land claimants ex- 
 tended Water Street north and south through this district, and 
 in the early twenties opened streets eastwardly. There was a 
 good deal of opposition to private ownership of the shore, but 
 the citizens persisted and built wharves, and legislation recog- 
 nized their right by compelling them to fill up the flooded lands 
 out to the river channel.^ 
 
 The city established a wharf line, added streets on the north 
 and south, and by the time of Goodwin & Haire's map of 1823, 
 a projected Commerce Street marked the river front. From 
 Water Street, passing over Commerce, jut out into the river 
 no less than a dozen wharves, all owned by individuals. 
 
 ^ One interesting question was as t© ownership of the shore. The act of 
 May 26, 1824, which granted the bake-house and hospital lots to Mobile, 
 also gave to it all public land between high water mark and the channel of 
 the river, from Church to North Boundary streets ; but the second section 
 of the act gave to persons owning west of Water Street the flooded land op- 
 posite if they improved it. (4 U. S. Stat, at Large, p. QQ, 14 Peters, p. 353 ; 
 Bmlo V. N. 0. R. R., 55 Ala., p. 480 ; Pollard v. Hagan, 3 How., p. 212 ; 
 Mayor v. Enslava, 9 Porter, p. 577, 16 Peters, p. 234.) 
 
 The act of Alabama requiring filling of water lots was dated 1826, and 
 Mobile passed ordinances to the same effect. (See Blocker's Municipal 
 Ordinances of Mobile, 1835.) 
 
474 COLONIAL MOBILE. 
 
 Mobile was ready to play the part of a great port, for in the 
 port were seen steamboats to the interior and fast sailing packets 
 to New York and Europe. Although, until the removal of the 
 fort in its centre and reclamation of the Orange Grove Tract 
 to the north, the business quarter was cramped, the future could 
 be read. 
 
 Somewhat as with the platting of towns, the admission of Ala- 
 bama did not really constitute a State. The basis was there and 
 the future was certain ; but the elements had not yet fused. The 
 Indians hoped to become American citizens, and the missionaries, 
 as well as the United States agents, were trying to civilize them ; 
 but the whites refused assimilation and began to think of expell- 
 ing the aborigines from the body politic. Indeed, until this was 
 done the Federal creation was not truly a unit. Its upper and 
 lower extremes were intact, but its sides were compressed or cut 
 off. It was rather a number of separate districts tied together 
 by common institutions than a true commonwealth. An Anglo- 
 Saxon development was impossible until treaties like that secured 
 by Eaton and Coffee at Dancing Kabbit Creek, September 27, 
 1830,1 should end the agitation. By removing the old natives, 
 these made way for white immigrants and permitted the growth 
 of a united Alabama, connected by roads and rivers. 
 
 At the beginning of our story the Gulf region was divided, 
 so to speak, among the four Indian confederacies known to us 
 as the Cherokees, Muscogees, Choctaws, and Chickasaws. We 
 have seen the white men come, themselves of different races, 
 and gradually tame the natives into dependence. The Indians 
 ceded lands, especially to the Americans before and just after 
 the Creek War, until four white States of Georgia, Tennessee, 
 Mississippi, and Alabama emerge, while the four old Nations 
 shrink and weaken. And to this change nothing contributed 
 so much as did the new invention in transportation. 
 
 Sidney Lanier tells in his charming way of the coming of the 
 first steamboat up the river. A negro boy is waiting on his 
 grandfather when both are frightened by the noise of the ap- 
 proaching monster. The child runs away, but the old man re- 
 mains on his knees until his prayer is answered and the Devil 
 
 ' 7 U. S. Statutes at Large, p. 333. See article by A. W. Dillard on this 
 famous treaty in 3 Mississippi Historical Society Transactions, p. 99, and 
 Claiborne's Mississippi as Colony, etc., p. 509. 
 
THE COMING OF THE STEAMBOAT. 475 
 
 goes on up the stream without hurting him. It is, however, 
 from another point of view than the poet's that an historian 
 must regard the appearance of the steamboat. It was not a 
 Devil to injure, but an Angel to bless. For a consistent State 
 in the Alabama-Tombigbee basin, indeed the possibility of a 
 real Federal Union of States, was due to the Coming of the 
 Steamboat.^ 
 
 ^ Duke Bernhard of Saxe-Weimar included Alabama in his grand tour, 
 and in January, 1826, visited Montgomery, Cahaba, and Mobile. He de- 
 scended the Alabama in the steamer Steubenville. The Hornet was also on 
 the river, but the party passed near Claiborne the wreck of the Cotton Plant, 
 lost but a month before. They also saw another steamboat wreck, but do 
 not give the name. 
 
 The duke seems not to have met the distinguished Joseph Lakanal, then 
 living on the bay shore at Mandeville. This had also been the home of the 
 celebrated Bertrand, Comte Clausel. He, however, had been amnestied in 
 1820, and shortly returned to France. Lafayette had just passed through, 
 and the arches erected in the general's honor were still standing when 
 Bernhard reached the Alabama towns. 
 
CHAPTER LIII. 
 
 THE END OF FORT CHARLOTTE. 
 
 Up to the present period in our story, Fort Charlotte has 
 been the principal subject of interest. It was so under the 
 French, it was so under the Spaniards, and during the short 
 time it was neglected by the British we saw that Mobile itself 
 was depressed. The fort was the centre of the life of the town, 
 and was its protection, too. 
 
 But now it was not so important, although the garrison was 
 maintained. With the establishment of a republican govern- 
 ment the centre of civil life was rather the council chamber, 
 and since the conquest by the United States the danger from 
 Indian and foreign attack was greatly lessened. As the town 
 grew up around it, the fort itself, which had so long been a 
 protection, came to be regarded as in the way. 
 
 Major George P. Peters, of the artillery, was in command 
 in 1816, and for better oversight of the fort he built a picket 
 fence around it. This interrupted communication with the 
 South Ward. The Board of Commissioners, on motion of 
 Judson, thereupon claimed the free andmndisturbed use of the 
 Common adjoining, as had been the case under former govern- 
 ments, and President Innerarity wrote to the commandant to 
 request removal of the obstruction. Major Peters, on July 19, 
 from Fort Charlotte, declined in the following firm but cour- 
 teous manner : — 
 
 "Your communication of the 17th inst. (in consequence of 
 my absence) did not reach me until this day. I regret much 
 that it contains a requisition which my duty compels me to 
 refuse a compliance with. The fence of which you speak 
 leaves a part of the glacis outside of it, and it is impossible 
 now to pass within it and not travel over some part of the 
 fortification. The winding path, which the citizens were per- 
 mitted the privilege of passing over during the reign of the 
 
THE END OF FORT CHARLOTTE. 477 
 
 Spanish commandants, never could have been by them consid- 
 ered as a street belonging to the town, because it crosses a part 
 of the glacis of the principal works, and does not correspond 
 with any street of the town. Therefore the permission above 
 alluded to, even in times of peace, never could have grown into 
 an absolute right, nor could that of the grazing cattle on any 
 part of a fortification ever become so. The only excuse for 
 a commanding officer allowing such privileges without [within ?] 
 military limits is his possessing absolute authority over the 
 subjects enjoying them, and consequently the power to compel 
 a reparation of damages by the subjects themselves. It is the 
 well-known duty of the commanding officer of a post to pro- 
 tect the public property, and keep in repair the public works 
 intrusted to his care. The object of the fence, therefore, 
 cannot be mistaken, nor the necessity of it denied. 
 
 "In fulfilling my duty as an officer of the United States 
 Army, I have ever been cautious of any infringements on the 
 rights of citizens, or debarring them of any convenience which 
 they could consistently enjoy. It is well known that the citi- 
 zens of this town, far from having lost any privileges by the 
 change of government, have acquired new rights." 
 
 So the fence remained until there was a change in the com- 
 manding officer. On May 17, 1817, we find the board, appar- 
 ently on motion of the energetic Garrow, appointing a commit- 
 tee of the president (Duvol), Garrow, and C. S. Stewart to 
 wait on Captain Beale upon his arrival, and request him to 
 open the highway between the north and south ends of this 
 town. They further resolved that, if he refused, the police 
 officer of the town should be authorized to remove said obstruc- 
 tion. Mr. Lemuel Childress was the one lone policeman of 
 the corporation at the time, and it would be interesting to 
 know how he contemplated the responsibility thus thrust upon 
 him of defying the military of the United States. We do not 
 learn that either Captain Beale or Ajax Childress removed the 
 fence and opened the winding path across the eastern glacis, 
 say through the centre of the present market buildings. It is 
 perhaps significant, however, that in a few days we find Chil- 
 dress removed, Timothy McGrath substituted, and elaborate 
 rules declared for the government of the police officer. 
 
 About this time we get an official description of the fort. 
 
478 COLONIAL MOBILE. 
 
 Brigadier-General Bernard, on December 23, 1817, made a 
 report to Chief Engineer Swift, U. S. A., on the southern 
 frontier of the Union, and in the course of it speaks as follows 
 of Fort Charlotte, the masonry of whose scarf he declares 
 would be easily breached in a siege. He says : — 
 
 " Fort Charlotte, at Mobile Town, has been constructed at the 
 beginning of the eighteenth century : of all the forts in Louisi- 
 ana, this is the only one well and judiciously built ; its delinea- 
 tion and relief are far below that degree of perfection the art 
 had attained in Europe at that epoch. However, both were 
 more than adequate to the purpose for which that fort was 
 intended. It has lost its importance (on account of pacification 
 of the Indians). It hardly defends the west branch of River 
 Mobile, and not at all the branches eastward ; consequently it 
 does not defend the opening of the valleys north of Mobile Bay. 
 However, in the actual state of things, this fort may and ought 
 to be considered as a depot for the militia of the valleys of 
 Alabama and Torabigbee, also as a place of arms against Pen- 
 sacola, and ought to be preserved and kept in repair as long as 
 the said Port of Pensacola does not belong to the Union." 
 
 The dissatisfaction of the municipal authorities and the criti- 
 cism of the military united for the ruin of Fort Charlotte. 
 The pen proved mightier than the sword, and on April 20, 
 1818, Congress passed an act for the sale of Bienville's fort.^ 
 
 This was not actually carried into effect until 1820. Mean- 
 while the i^lace continued garrisoned, and routine papers remain 
 in the War Department relative to returns of property, and 
 accounts of Captain A. L. Sands of the artillery, and Captain 
 Willis Foulk of the 8th Infantry. The fall of 1819 was a 
 sickly one, and we find medicines and hospital stores sent 
 Peters and Stebbins, of Mobile, for the attending surgeon. 
 Pensacola had then just come into possession of the United 
 States, and hospital stores for that point were also forwarded 
 through Captain Foulk. 
 
 After the conclusion of the treaty by which Florida was 
 purchased from Spain, the company of artillery at Mobile was, 
 on March 21, 1821, directed to occupy Pensacola, and the 
 military stores were also removed there. 
 
 ^ 3 C/. S. Statutes at Large, p. 465. Bernard's report was furnished by 
 the War Department. 
 
; I I 
 
 ; i' i > ■'• I 
 
 -'' - ■ ; ' ; : 
 
 
 r ; t! • 3 
 
 '< I 
 
 i I ; 
 
 ' ' ^ : " ;' ' M ■' s : A 
 
 "■ . ' ;' ; ; ' t ; ; **■ 
 
 
 FORT CHARLC 
 
BOUT 1820) 
 
THE END OF FORT CHARLOTTE. 479 
 
 The troops evacuated Fort Charlotte, and everything was pre- 
 pared for the sale of the land. As provided by the act, Silas Dins- 
 more, United States deputy surveyor, was directed to plat it into 
 squares, conforming as nearly as practicable to the general city plan. 
 Dinsmore was, as we have seen, a man of marked individuality ^ 
 and made a plat more according to what he thought the city plan 
 should be than what it was; for the streets were not continuations 
 of those existing, and the lots were only thirty French feet wide. 
 
 The sale was held in October, 1820, and, while there were a 
 few other buyers, the great bulk of the property went to a syn- 
 dicate, who organized themselves into the Mobile Lot Company. 
 They had the property re-platted by Thomas Hubbard, the City 
 Surveyor, to conform to adjacent streets, and this plan remains.^ 
 
 In the new district added to the town, as in the old, the Creole 
 house type prevailed, — a wooden frame filled in with plaster, 
 the long sloping roof draining to the front, where a gallery faced 
 the street. Even when the house was of two stories the type 
 was not changed. The new-coming Americans often built on 
 the old model, although perhaps sometimes the small rooms and 
 porch in front revealed a more Northern taste. 
 
 The yards were still filled with flowers and vegetables, and 
 that strange feature of Latin life was long retained of a fence, 
 or even a brick wall, between near and dear neighbors. This 
 was the nearest approach the Creoles made to the still more ex- 
 clusive Spanish custom of a. patio or court within the house. The 
 Creole flower garden was behind the house, the Spanish inside, 
 while the American had a front yard, if the American happened to 
 care for flowers. The wall protected the privacy of home, the more 
 important from absence of stock laws, — itself a Latin defect. 
 
 The American, although ingenious, never invented a style 
 of architecture, and has contented himself with parts of any and 
 all styles put together according to his notions of comfort. But 
 in the South there was no need of invention, for the Creole 
 type, especially in its addition of the front gallery, fits the cli- 
 mate as well as the aesthetic sense. 
 
 The growth of the cotton business soon brought wealth. The 
 houses became larger, but, even when they were weather-boarded, 
 
 ^ See Appendix. 
 
 ^ The Constitution of the Company and the Hubbard map are in Miscel- 
 laneous Book " A " in the office of the Mobile Probate Judge. See Mobile 
 V. Eslava, 16 Peters (U. S.), p. 243. 
 
480 COLONIAL MOBILE. 
 
 the plastered wall and ceiling of the gallery recalled the custom 
 of filling the whole space between the uprights with mortar. 
 Somewhat later, American planters moving to town built colo- 
 nial homes, with large brick pillars, and many still remain, mon- 
 uments to King Cotton. But the Creole was avenged. Even 
 the stately porticos, founded on Georgian or Virginian models, 
 were re-named galleries until this day. 
 
 Mobile now began to change the outline which it had had 
 since Bienville's day. The river front had extended from St. 
 Michael on the north to Government Street wharf on the south, 
 but from now on we find streets to the river gradually added be- 
 low Government. Church Street even superseded the Charlotte 
 of Dinsmore's plan, and land owners dedicated Eslava Street. 
 The little city clung to the water, its commercial base, and even 
 the residences were close behind the business centre, lying on 
 Conception and Joachim streets parallel with the river. 
 
 A new element was added, however, when Government Street 
 was made a hundred feet wide and run perpendicularly to the 
 river from the old esplanade indefinitely to the west. It lay on 
 high ground and became a road leading to the healthful hills 
 some miles away and, by a turn, to the navigable waters of Mis- 
 sissippi Sound. It made sure a westward development. 
 
 The growth of the port, however, did not change the nature 
 of its industries. These were still colonial in the sense of being 
 confined to handling raw material, such as cotton and afterward 
 lumber. The seal of the city rightly adopted as a motto " Agri- 
 culture and Commerce." Manufactures existed to some extent, 
 but did not flourish. Much of what was needed was imported. 
 
 Nevertheless Mobile was an active commercial point, with 
 people of energy and culture, to which its New England immi- 
 grants contributed no little. 
 
 The original site of Mobile, bounded by streets with French 
 names, remained a Cite Carre; but new districts were to be 
 added, and the first was this Fort Charlotte property. Not only 
 did business gain by extension of the river front, but much of 
 the social and civic life centred in the old esplanade. 
 
 Just as the building of the market had determined the loca- 
 tion of the first wharf at the foot of Dauphin Street, and led to 
 the reclamation of the river shallows out to a river channel 
 fixed by law, through extension north and south of Water and 
 
THE END OF FORT CHARLOTTE. 481 
 
 Commerce also, so tlie re-platting of the Fort Charlotte prop- 
 erty determined that the streets for several blocks below should 
 run parallel to Government, and not, as in Mathews' fanciful 
 plat of 1818, into Government at an angle from the southeast. 
 
 And yet platting streets through the Vauban walls was not 
 altogether the same as opening them, and the new city discussed 
 several plans before the actual demolition was accomplished. 
 Gunpowder was needed to blow down this solid masonry of 
 Mobile brick and oyster-shell lime; and to fill up the new 
 streets the debris was used, instead of the sand which had been 
 industriously hauled before. From time to time in 1821-23, 
 we find amounts expended by the city for pulling down the 
 fort walls that were in the street, and after some hesitation 
 permission seems even to have been granted citizens to use dirt 
 from the old site for filling lots. Water Street was raised 
 with it, and St. Francis and its intersection with Royal were 
 filled up in the same way. Even some of the fort cannon were 
 used to protect street corners, as Royal and Dauphin and St. 
 Michael and Water long testified. One in some way fell over 
 and sank in the ground, to be rediscovered only within the 
 past few years in excavating for a sewer in front of Zadek's. 
 A bomb-proof belonging to Addin Lewis was in 1821 ten- 
 dered to the city for a prison, and accepted for that purpose. 
 People still alive remember playing as children on the ruins 
 of Fort Charlotte. 
 
 This sale of the fort is important for what it ended and for 
 what it began. It was the first of those syndicate land projects 
 which have platted and sold so many Spanish city grants. The 
 Orange Grove auctions, the Favre and Bernoudy divisions, the 
 slow Kennedy sales in the Price Claim, the quicker platting 
 and disposition of the Espejo Tract, all come later, but are 
 a continuation of the process of change from an agricultural to 
 a commercial community begun by the Mobile Lot Company 
 when they bought, platted, and sold Fort Cnarlotte. 
 
 The growth which necessitated the destruction of the fort 
 had already created the first bank, that great Bank of Mobile, 
 so long one of the most famous in the United States. It was 
 chartered November 20, 1818, by the Territory of Alabama, 
 with an authorized capital of five hundred thousand dollars.^ 
 ^ Toulmin's Laws of Alabama, p. 46. 
 
482 COLONIAL MOBILE. 
 
 A. W. Gordon was its first cashier. It was significant that 
 the site of this peaceful institution was near that of a fort 
 bastion, on the west side of Eoyal, north of Church. A pro- 
 jected street through the fort east and west was at first thought 
 of as Charlotte Street, but from 1822 it was known as Church, 
 from the erection of the first Protestant place of worship on 
 the church lot shown on the Lot Company's map. This is the 
 site of the present Christ Church. It was for all Protestant 
 denominations, and was near another bastion, about a block 
 north of where once were Remonville's old Catholic church 
 and cemetery. In 1822, the old hospital on Dauphin was 
 leased out by the city for a theatre ; and two years later, the 
 first theatre building of Mobile was erected by N. M. Ludlow, 
 with the assistance of several public-spirited citizens. This 
 was at the northwest corner of Theatre and Royal, on remains 
 of the fort's southeast bastion. Immediately west was then 
 the first county jail, where now stands the pleasant Kirkbride 
 place. 
 
 Possibly the first brick house in American Mobile was the 
 extensive building by Henry Stickuey on the southwest corner 
 of Water and Church streets, — the old Sailors' Home, torn 
 down only a few years ago. It was near his wharf at the 
 foot of Church Street, and served for residence and business, 
 too. The ground floor was a warehouse ; the first floor above 
 had living-rooms, with verandas, and approach from Church 
 Street; and the second floor had bedrooms and wide hall. 
 On the roof was a cupola, containing a telescope which com- 
 manded the bay. The present Bethel site was the flower 
 garden. 1 
 
 And not only was the old fort so turned to peaceful uses, 
 but in the esjslanade where Beaudrot had been sawn in pieces 
 the county now bought a lot for a court-house ; and in the old 
 Officers' Barracks Square, across Government Street, was built 
 the first cotton compress, that of A. F. Stone & Co. Their 
 negroes, in pressing, pulled ropes across Royal until prohibited 
 by the city in 1823. Further down in Government, below 
 Royal, stood from the time of the fort sale the new public 
 markets until after 1837, when the Supreme Court declared 
 
 ^ Information from Mrs. C. A. Hammond, late of Montgomery, a daugh- 
 ter of Henry Stickney. 
 
THE END OF FORT CHARLOTTE. 483 
 
 them an obstruction ; ^ but even the new and handsome munici- 
 pal buildings and market, erected 1854-55 on the east side of 
 Royal, stand in part on foundations of Fort Charlotte. The 
 Goodwin and Haire map of 1824 shows no signs of the fort, 
 but only the streets and wharves of a modern commercial city. 
 
 The fort was demolished. The bustle of the street not less 
 than the hush of religious service, the zeal of local politics and 
 the rivalry of business, the bench of justice and the scene of 
 forensic eloquence, as well as the tears of tragedy and smiles 
 of comedy, all claimed its site, and have conspired to cause 
 Bienville's fort to be forgotten. Even as Bienville removed 
 the Choctaw wigwams in order to build Fort Louis, that forti- 
 fication now made place for homes and institutions of an 
 American Mobile. 
 
 Truly, "Peace hath her victories no less renowned than war." 
 
 Such is the story of Colonial Mobile. Her growth with the 
 development of the river country of Alabama; her expansion 
 before the Civil War, with the building of a great railroad, 
 to be a port of the West, as well as of the Alabama-Bigbee 
 basin, quite after Iberville's dream; her decline, too, after that 
 war, until Congress cut the ship channel through the bars at 
 the mouth of her rivers ; and then her present prosperity, — 
 these are themes of interest, and deserve careful presentation. 
 But they are beyond the scope of this book. 
 
 The civic and material growth, causing the destruction of 
 Fort Charlotte to make way for a greater Mobile, ended the 
 colonial period. Mobile had become an incorporated city ; its 
 tributary valleys, a State of the American Union. 
 
 Bienville's Mobile and its district had become fuUy Ameri- 
 canized. The friendly Choctaws were to leave their seats to 
 the whites; the free negroes of Spanish times ceased to be 
 important ; even the gentle Creoles gave way to more pushing 
 Americans. The French and Spanish languages gradually 
 yielded to the English, their customs to our own. Compara- 
 tively few of the old families now survive, and even they are 
 largely mixed with American blood. The streets extending 
 out from the original settlement retain French names, but 
 more numerous new ones commemorate Wilkinson, Jackson, 
 1 State V. Mayor, 5 Porter (Ala.), p. 279. 
 
484 COLONIAL MOBILE. 
 
 Claiborne, Jefferson, State, Congress, and other American 
 worthies or institutions. The great fires of 1827 and 1839 
 destroyed the old town, and French and Spanish buildings are 
 now almost unknown. But traditions live, historic spots can 
 still be shown, and imagination loves to wander back and 
 picture the scenes before that change from Latin to American 
 civilization. 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 A. — The Ikduction of De La Vente, 1704. 
 
 (From Mobile Church Records.) 
 
 Jay sousign^ prestre et miss, apost. ateste a tous quil appartiendra 
 que lannee du salut mil sept cents quatre le vint-huit^ du mois de 7bre 
 en vertu des lettres de provision et de collation accordee et scoUee de 
 Le vingt* de JuiUet de lannee derniere, par lesquelles Monseigneur 
 Illustrissime et Reverendissime Eveque de Quebec Erige une Eglise 
 paroissiale dans le lieu dit le fort louis de la louisiane et dont II 
 donne la Cure et le Soin a m. henri RouUeaux De la Vente miss, 
 apost. Du Diocese de Bayeux, Jay mis led pretre en possession actu- 
 elle et corporelle de lad Eglise paroissiale et de tous les droits qui lui 
 apartiennent, apres avoir observ^ les Ceremonies acoutumees et re- 
 quises, Scavoir par lentree de Leglise, laspersion de lean benite, le 
 baiser du grand autel, le touchd du missel, la visite du tres Sainct 
 Sacrement de lautel et le Son des cloches a laquelle possession Jateste 
 que personne ne sest oppos^ donn^ en leglise du fort louis le jour du 
 mois et de Ian sud en presence de Jean baptiste de bieville lieuten . . . 
 du Roy et commandant aud fort, pierre Du Qu . . . de boisbriant 
 major, Nicolas de la Sale Ecrivain et faisant faisant fonction de Com- 
 missaire de la marine. 
 
 Davion. 
 
 BrENTTTLLE. 
 
 Boisbriant. 
 delasalle. ' 
 
 B. — Description de la Ville, et du Fort Louis. 
 
 (From Phelypeauxh Map, 1711.) 
 
 A. fort Louis, fortiffi^ suivant la Longueur de Son Coste exterieur 
 d'une pointe de Bastion a L'autre ayant 90 Toises et par cette lon- 
 gueur Lon a donn^ aux faces des Bastions Vignt trois toises et demie. 
 
 aux flane douze toises et demie. 
 
488 APPENDIX. 
 
 aux Gorges Cinq toises et 
 
 aux Courtines quarantes toises. 
 
 Le fort est Construit de pieux de Bois de C^dre ayant treize pieds 
 dhauteur dont deux et demies entre en terre, et de quatorzes pouces eu 
 quarries de paisseur, plant^es, jointement les uns Contre Les autres. 
 Ces pieux ce terminent par leurs Bout denhaut enpointe Comme des 
 palissades ; interieuremant aux Long de ces pieux il regne une espece 
 de Banquette ayant deux pieds de hauteur en talus Sur, un et demie 
 de Largeur. . . . 
 
 II ny a pour tout Logement dans ce fort que La maison du Gou- 
 verneur. Le magazin ou Sont les eflPets du Roy, et un Corp de Garde 
 Succintement ; Les officiers les Soldats & les habitans ont tous leurs 
 Logements hors du fort Comme cy est marquez, estant disposez de 
 maniere que les rties ont Six toises de Largeur et toutes paralleles 
 les unes aux autres. Les isles de maison ont Cinquante toises . . . 
 en quarries hors ceuze de Vis a Vis le fort qui ont Soixante toises 
 de Largeur Sur Cinquante de profondeur, et Les plus proches de 
 La riviere ont Cinquante toises de Largeur Sur Soixante de profon- 
 deur. . . . 
 
 Les maisons que Lon Batties Sont Construittes de Bois de C^dre et 
 pin Suportdes par un fondemens d'une quantity de pieux de Bois qui 
 ^xddent de terre d'un pied, qu'on pourroit Nommer pillotis parceque 
 ce terrain se trouve inonddes comme vous Le Voyez marquez dans le 
 Plan dans quelques androits, dans les temps de Pluye ; quelques uns 
 ce Sont Servis, pour Suporter leurs maison d'une pierre qui est 
 Comme un Espece de tufle, qui est tres douce et qui Seroit merveil- 
 leuze a faire de Beaux Eddifices. Cette pierre ce prand a dix huit 
 Lieux audossus du nouvelle ^tablissement Les Long des Bord de la 
 Riviere de La Mobille. — Les maisons ont 18, 20 £ 25 pieds auplus de 
 hauteur, il y en d, quelques unes plus Basses Construittes d'un mortis 
 fait avec de la terre et de La Chaud, — 
 
 N?^ cette Chaud est faitte de CoquiUe d'huistre que lon trouve ^ 
 Lentr^ de la Riviere Sur des petittes illes qui en porte le nom, &c. 
 
 Lon donne jl ceuze qui Veute Sdtablir dans Cette endroit, de terrain 
 douze toises et de Mie de Largeur, Sur la face d'une riles Sur Vignt 
 Cinq de profondeur ; — 
 
 Lapierre dont Lon Se Sert pour Supporter les maisons, est Rare et 
 Non commune faute des Voitures qu'il Seroit Necessaires davoir par 
 eaux, Comme des Batteaux plats qu'il ny i, pas, ny dont personnes nen 
 veut faire La d^pence, ce qui Seroit d'un grand Secours, car ceuze 
 dont les maisons ne Sont Soutenues que de pieux de Bois Sont obligez 
 de Les Changer tous les trois ^ quatre ans parce qu'il pourisse dans 
 La terre, &c. 
 
ORDINANCE OF 1667. 489 
 
 B. Maison du Gouverneur. 
 
 C. Magazin du Roy. 
 
 D. Poudriere ou magazin a Poudre. 
 
 E. Corp de Garde. 
 
 F. Prizons. 
 
 G. Bastion dans le quel on met le pavilion. 
 
 H. Bastion dans Le quel est une Cloche nayant point de Chapelle 
 dans le fort. 
 
 C. — The Ordinance op 1667. 
 
 {From Mobile Church Becords.) 
 
 Le present registre contenants quatrevignt-dixhuit feuilles a ete 
 paraphd et cottd par premier et dernier par nous conseiller du roy en 
 ses conseils et son procureur general au conseil superieur de la province 
 de la louisiane pour servir a enregistrer les baptesmes mariages et 
 sepultures de la mobile pour la presente annde 1726 et deliver^ au 
 reverend pere mathias cure du dit lieu pour sy conformer suivant lor- 
 donnance a la nlle Orleans Jan. 21, 1726. — 
 
 Fleukiau. 
 
 Extrait du titre 20 de lordonnance de 1667. 
 
 Seront faits par chacun au deux registres pour ecrire les baptesmes 
 mariages et sepultures en chacune paroisse dont les feuillets seront 
 paraphds et cott^es par premier et dernier par le juge royal du lieu ou 
 leglise est sittud lun desquels servira de minutte et demeura as mains 
 du cur^ ou du vicaire et lautre sera port^ au greffier juge royal pour 
 servir de grosse lesquels deux registre seront fournis annuelleraent aux 
 frais de la fabrique. 
 
 Dans larticle des baptesmes sera fait mention du jour de la naissance 
 et seront nommes lenfant le pere et la mere le parain et la maraine et 
 aux mariages les noms et surnoms ages qualites et demeures de ceux 
 qui se marient sils sont enfants de famille en tutelle curatelle ou en 
 puissance dautruy et y assisteront quatre temoins qui declareront sur 
 le registre sils sont parents de quel costd et en quel degr^ et dans les 
 articles de sepulture sera fait mention du jour du deceds. 
 
 Les baptesmes mariages et sepultures seront en un mesme registre 
 selon lordre des jours sans laisser aucun blanc et aussitot quils auront 
 et^ fait sils seront ecrits et sign^ scavoir les baptesmes par le pere 
 sil est present et par les parains et maraines et les actes de mariages 
 par les personnes maries et par quatre de ceux qui y auront assiste 
 les sepultures par deux des plus proches parents ou amis qui auront 
 assiste au convoy et si aucuns deux ne scavent signer ils le declare- 
 
490 APPENDIX. 
 
 ront et seront de ce interpell^s par le cur^ ou vicaire dont sera fait 
 mention. 
 
 Seront tenus les cur^s ou vicaires six semaines apres chacune ann^e 
 expiree de porter ou denvoyer seurement la grosse et la minutte du 
 registre signe deux et certilfi^ veritable au greffier juge royal qui laura 
 cott^ et paraph^ et sera tenu le greffier de le recevoir et y faire men- 
 tion du jour quil aura apport^ et en donnera la decharge apres receu 
 moins que la grosse aura ^t^ coUation^e a la minutte qui demeurera au 
 cur^ ou vicaire et que le greffier aura band en lun et en lautre tons les 
 blancs et feuillets qui resteront le tout sans frais Laquelle grosse de 
 registre sera gardde par le greffier pour y avoir recours. 
 
 Fleuriau. 
 
 Delaloere Flamont (?) 
 
 D. — The Spanish City Grants. 
 
 The titles in Mobile outside of the old Spanish town rest on grants 
 mainly Spanish, not a score in number. At the extreme north vre have 
 Farmer's Island and Laurent plantation, still marshy for the most 
 part ; and nearer are the Orange Grove and Baudin tracts, the seat of 
 the cotton business ; while northwest is the Fisher Tract, now given 
 over to negroes. South of the old town came in succession the Favre, 
 Bernoudy, and Choctaw Point tracts, all of them then overflowed, or 
 marshy back to the ridge on which run St. Emanuel and Conception 
 streets, now mainly residence quarters. Immediately west of the fort 
 is the McVoy Tract ; while west of the old town is the immense Price 
 Claim (cut across by the De Lusser Tract), the main residence dis- 
 trict of the modern city. Cottage Hill and Spring Hill are rather 
 country tracts, but the Espejo, Dubroca, and Murrell claims on Spring 
 Hill Road are fairly parts of Mobile life, although beyond the western 
 corporate limits. 
 
 The present city is bounded north by One Mile Creek, or Bayou 
 Marmotte. At its greatest extent the corporation has included the 
 marsh lands to the north of this up to Three Mile Creek, or Bayou 
 Chateaugud ; but practically, until the building of the Mobile and Mont- 
 gomery Railroad, and establishment of sawmills since the American 
 Civil War, this territory was of no great importance. Between these 
 two bayous are two tracts, — an island facing the river, and a marsh 
 west of the island. 
 
 1. The former has always gone by the name of The Island, or 
 Farmer's Island, and the title dates back to British times. It does 
 not seem to have been coveted under the Spaniards, but the United 
 
SPANISH GRANTS AT MOBILE 
 
SPANISH CITY GRANTS. 491 
 
 States Congress was on March 3, 1839, to confirm the tract to the 
 heirs of the British claimant, Major Robert Farmer.* 
 
 2. We know more of the western claim, ever called the Laurent 
 Plantation. It is even yet principally marsh, traversed now by the 
 Telegraph Road and the Mobile and Ohio Railroad. In Spanish times 
 it could have had little value except for its front on Three Mile Creek 
 and Bayou Marmotte. 
 
 Bartholem^ Laurent was a land-owner in the city, and obtained a 
 concession to this tract. Laurent had to sign his deeds by mark.^ In 
 1803, Panton, Leslie & Co. purchased it of Laurent for $130 cash. 
 It was then described as situated south of Bayou Satulle (Chateau- 
 gu^?), containing ten arpens front by the usual depth, bounded north 
 by the said bayou, south by uncultivated lands, and east and west by 
 lands belonging to the king.^ As it adjoined their Orange Grove 
 Tract, and had a front on two streams, these merchants may have 
 been able to use it in the Indian trade. 
 
 3. Most of the cotton warehouses of the modern city are in what 
 is called the Orange Grove Tract, and thus no name is more familiar, 
 although the exact site of the orangery and the name of the man who 
 planted it have passed into oblivion. The more common name in 
 earlier times was Poplar Grove. 
 
 We have already seen that the title dates from British times, being, 
 with the Fisher Tract and Farmer's Island, the only direct survivals 
 of that epoch. The British government in 1767 granted the tract, 
 as having 263 acres, to William Richardson, who conveyed it to 
 Panton, Leslie & Co. This grant is said to have been under a British 
 colonial ordinance of 1765, giving a river front of one third the depth 
 in all river concessions.* 
 
 In 1796, on the application of John Forbes for Panton, Leslie & 
 Co., Olivier had James de la Saussaie survey this sixty-three English 
 arpens tract, a quarter of a league north of Mobile, as it then was, and 
 put Forbes in possession. William Simpson, before 1802, found the 
 survey to be defective, so represented to Osorno, and prayed that the 
 tract be resurveyed by Joseph Collins, the regular deputy surveyor of 
 the district. Thereupon the following proceedings were had : ^ — 
 
 The Deputy Surveyor of this place, Joseph Collins, shall appear 
 before me on to-morrow, the fifth instant, at eight o'clock A. M. of the 
 
 ^ Q U. S. Statutes at Large, p. 761. 
 
 2 1 Mobile Translated Records, p. 313. 
 
 3 75j-^,^ p 313 
 
 * Magee v. Hallett, 22 Ala. Rep. p. 711. 
 ^ 1 Translated Records, p. 285. 
 
492 APPENDIX. 
 
 day aforesaid, assisted by two inhabitants the most contiguous to the 
 lands described in the preceding memorial, in order to proceed in my 
 presence, and that of the two witnesses, to the survey of the land 
 aforesaid agreeably to the annexed plat, which is similar to the like 
 one now on file in these archives in the proceedings executed by my 
 predecessor, his Excellency Peter Olivier, and, when completed, let a 
 copy of the same duly authenticated be provided to the petitioner as 
 prayed for. 
 
 Joaquin de Osorno. [Seal.] 
 
 I, Joseph Collins, Deputy Surveyor of the town of Mobile and its 
 Dependencies, etc., Do hereby certify, that in obedience to a decree 
 issued by his honor Joaquin de Osorno, Commandant of the Post of 
 Mobile, bearing date Fourth of May one thousand eight hundred and 
 two, I resorted to the tract of land in order to ascertain the bounda- 
 ries and landmarks recited in the proceedings made and executed by 
 James de la Saussaie, but could not find any, except a cedar post on 
 the south side of the line ; consequently I proceeded to survey the land 
 agreeably to the plat in presence of his honor Joaquin de Osorno, 
 William Simpson, John Trouillet, and James Gold, it resulting from 
 said survey, that the tract of land contains two hundred and eighty 
 superficial arpens, measured by the perches of Paris of eighteen lin- 
 eal feet, of the same City, according to the usage of this Province, sit- 
 uated in the district of Mobile, distant about a quarter of a league from 
 said Town, containing fourteen arpens in front on the Bay of Mobile, 
 bounded on the north by land of Jeremiah Terry, on the west by land 
 of Mr. Fisher, and on the south by public land, the limits of Avhich, 
 the trees, and other land marks, both natural and artificial, serving as 
 boundaries. In testimony whereof, etc. 
 
 John Forbes improved the front, and thought proper to obtain con- 
 firmation by the Spanish authorities, and so in 1807 the intendant gave 
 him a concession for 310 arpens and 77^ perches, extending across the 
 marsh, thus including the improvements. This grant was held to run 
 the north and south lines without deflection to the water.^ 
 
 The plan attached to the Spanish concession is of interest in other 
 respects. It shows One Mile Creek as called La Marmata, but the 
 southern prong as named Arroyo Chacta, — Choctaw Creek. About 
 the centre of the tract is a very large " House," apparently fronting a 
 north and south road. 
 
 The later Orange Grove litigation is interesting as establishing the 
 principle that riparian owners shall claim reclaimed land perpendicu- 
 ^ Hagan v. Campbell, 8 Porter (Ala.), pp. 9, 18. 
 
SPANISH CITY GRANTS. 493 
 
 larly to the river bank, regardless of how their land lines strike the 
 shore. The earlier case extended these lines to low water without 
 such deflection, because the Spanish grant so directed, but the rule was 
 different as to accretion and reclamation in front of that grant.^ 
 
 4. On April 26, 1803, Osorno, pending the stoppage of land busi- 
 ness at the office of the Intendant-General, granted to Joseph Collins 
 a marshy tract two perches front on Royal, bounded north by lands 
 of Panton, Leslie & Co. (Orange Grove), south by St. Louis Street, 
 now first mentioned by name, and east by Mobile River.^ This is the 
 origin of the Collins claim to the Baudin Tract. The grantee was 
 " captain of dragoons attached to the mUitia company of Fish River, 
 and special surveyor of this town." 
 
 In 1806, W. E. Kennedy undertook to improve the tract by fencing 
 and ditching, and so perfect the title, in consideration of obtaining the 
 northern half. It seems that in 1798, Alexander Baudin had obtained 
 a grant of seven arpens at the same spot, and, by his brother Louis 
 and also J. B. Trenier, made a levee from Royal to the river. Ken- 
 nedy in 1814 bought up this Baudin claim and secured its confirma- 
 tion. His executors, after sharp litigation, were finally compelled to 
 carry out the agreement to divide with the heir of Collins,^ although 
 the Collins title had been rejected by the United States authorities in 
 favor of the Baudin. 
 
 5. The De Lusser Tract is in no sense a Spanish grant, but in Span- 
 ish times Don Miguel Eslava acquired his interest in it. On June 21, 
 1809, Joseph Chastang, for Hazeur de Lorme, of New Orleans, " heir 
 of Mr. Lusser," sold Eslava the lot, two arpens four toises front by 
 twenty-five in depth, situated on the south of the royal fort of the town, 
 bounded east by the house and lot of the purchaser, south by vacant 
 lands, and west by lot of M. Morsier. This was doubtless the Morsier 
 located north in the earlier deeds, and by a Spanish inquest still extant. 
 The price for this was $100. In point of fact, Chastang did not 
 represent the De Velle branch, and November 22, 1823, a compromise 
 was effected by which that half interest was given up by the Eslavas. 
 The United States confirmed the title by Act of Congress in 1843.* 
 
 6. On August 13, 1806, William Mc Voy obtained from Intendant- 
 General Morales an order of survey of twenty arpens adjoining Fort 
 Charlotte. He soon sold to Joshua Kennedy, and the tract was culti- 
 
 1 Magee v. Hallett, 22 Ala. p. 699. 
 
 2 1 Mobile Translated Records, p. 295. 
 
 3 Hallett v. Collins, 10 How. (U. S.) p. 174 ; Mobile Deed Book " A," 
 p. 61. 
 
 ^ Mobile Translated Records, p. 372 ; 6 Statutes at Large, p. 887 ; Senate 
 Committee on Land Claims Report of January 9, 1840. 
 
494 APPENDIX. 
 
 vated and inhabited by him and a Spaniard in his emploj"^ from 1807 
 to 1820.^ The use was not such as to conform to the conditions of the 
 sale, and the grant hung fire in American times till confirmed by a 
 special act of Congress, May 5, 1832.'^ 
 
 This McVoy tract was shaped like a T, the cross being along our 
 St. Emanuel and Conception, from the Collel line to Government, the 
 upright wedging in between Fort Charlotte and Eslava down to the 
 river. A grant of land so close to the fort as this would naturally be 
 subject to suspicion, especially as, so late as November 22, 1806, the 
 validity of sale of lots near the forts was considered as unsettled.* 
 
 7. This Collel Tract is a small one of three arpens front by six 
 deep on the margin of the river, immediately north of the Favre claim. 
 It was originally granted Don Francisco Collel, September 20, 1806, 
 and surveyed by Collins. The papers were lost or burned in the Pensa- 
 cola fire of October 24, 1811 ; and on September 4, 1815, Don Jos^ 
 de Soto, colonel, civil and military commandant, intendant pro tern., 
 sub-delegate, etc., at Pensacola, certifies to these facts. This quasi- 
 quitclaim is the existing muniment of title, and shows a purchase by 
 Lieutenant-Colonel Collel, he paying five dollars and one half rial in 
 silver, the value of the twenty-three superficial arpens at two rials 
 each, the royal duty of media annata, and the eighteen per cent, for 
 carriage to Spain. In 1823, the south half was to pass by conveyances 
 of CoUel's daughter, Anne Marie Cavelier, wife of Du Suau De La 
 Croix, of New Orleans, to Thomas F. Townsley, and gradually the 
 whole tract changed hands. It extended from about Madison to south 
 of Canal Street.* 
 
 8. Royal Street ran only north of the fort, but curiously enough is 
 connected with the Favre Tract to the south, the first in time of these 
 large Spanish grants. On June 11, 1798, Simon Andry exchanged 
 this tract below the city for Favre's lot and a half on Royal, between 
 the lots of Savari Tatan to the north and Barthe Renard to the south. 
 Favre was an interpreter as far back as 1754, as we see from the 
 French baptismal registers, and even now, under the Spaniards, inter- 
 preter of the Choctaw nation. Commandant Espeleta had in 1780 
 directed Grimarest to grant this land to Favre, but in some way it had 
 not been done, although Favre had been ever since in possession. 
 
 To effect this exchange, therefore, Favre had now to obtain a grant 
 from Gayoso, the new governor-general, and by a coincidence Andry 
 had to do the same thing for his tract. This concession to Andry is 
 
 1 3 American State Papers, pp. 16, 397; see Mobile Deed Book " A," p. 61. 
 
 2 6 £7". S. Statutes at Large, p. 485. 
 
 ^ 2 White's Neto Recopilacion, p. 403. 
 
 * Mobile Deed Book " G," pp. 142-145, 176, 162, etc. 
 
SPANISH CITY GRANTS. 495 
 
 dated July 10, 1798, when he obtained ten arpens river front (instead 
 of the twenty asked for) by the usual depth of forty, bounded north 
 by a small bayou called Durand, and south by vacant lands. It is 
 recited by Lanzos that old inhabitants testified it had always been 
 vacant property, even before the conquest. Lanzos recommends the 
 grant for the reason that Andry had a sufficient number of slaves to 
 cultivate the land. The usual conditions are imposed, including non- 
 alienation for three years ; ^ and yet on June 11 these parties had, 
 before the same commandant, agreed that Andry should at his own 
 expense obtain the grant and pay the official fees for the very purpose 
 of alienation. 
 
 9. If we depended entirely on the Mobile records, we should miss a 
 number of grants and conveyances. One instance is what is now called 
 the Bernoudy Tract, the vast grant south of the Favre concession. 
 
 It seems that on March 3, 1792, Josd Gaspar Munoi-a obtained from 
 Carondelet a grant to 600 arpens of land on Mobile River, fifteen 
 arpens front by forty deep. Who Munora was is not known, except 
 that he was of Havana before living in Pensacola. The Spanish reg- 
 ulations concerning such gratuitous concessions required three years' 
 occupancy, and, beyond cultivation and the making of brick thereon 
 by Regis Bernoudy for perhaps four years, including 1809 or 1810, 
 and use by Espejo with Munora's permission, there was no possession 
 by any one in Spanish times. Bernoudy did not get a deed from 
 Munora until March 24, 1813, when he paid $1,130 for the tract. 
 Munora's title seems to have been overlooked towards the end of the 
 Spanish times, for Charles Proffit, on November 28, 1811, obtained 
 some sort of paper from Perez, but never occupied the tract. Joseph 
 McCandless, who acquired from Bready, to whom Proffit sold, actually 
 dispossessed Bernoudy for a time, and was in American times to live 
 there for a while and run a brickyard. A current report was that 
 McCandless obtained his title in consideration of the gift to Perez of a 
 large crop-eared riding-horse which the commandant used.^ 
 
 It would seem that Espejo obtained a government title to this land 
 February 16, 1803. He petitioned for a grant of twenty arpens front 
 on the river by forty deep, in order to make bricks to use in building 
 and repairing ovens in his Majesty's bakery, then in Espejo's charge. 
 He describes the land as a mile and a half below the fort, which is too 
 far, but as being between Fontanilla and Andry, which is correct, for 
 these were the former owners of the tracts south and north respec- 
 tively.* There is no doubt Espejo used the Bernoudy Tract for making 
 
 1 Mobile Translated Records, p. 213. 
 
 2 3 American State Papers, pp. 400, 401. 
 2 Mobile Translated Records, p. 303. 
 
496 APPENDIX. 
 
 brick, and it may be that afterwards, learning of the earlier grant to 
 Munora, he attorned to him and abandoned his own claim. Bernoudy 
 lived until seventy years of age, and since 1830 lies (ci git) in a vault 
 in our Old Graveyard. 
 
 10. We have seen that the point we now call Choctaw Point was 
 so named under the French, and that in British times Mr. Stuart lived 
 on the high land near modern Frascati, overlooking the flooded land 
 extending from the bay to about Canal Street. One Joseph Platin 
 is said to have owned it at the Spanish conquest, but he died without 
 lawful heirs. Thus this tract of fifteen arpens front by forty deep 
 became part of the Spanish royal domain. 
 
 The town was too far away, the river shore back to modern St. 
 Emanuel and Conception too marshy, for the point to be very impor- 
 tant. Its principal use was for a Blood Hospital, but this was tempo- 
 rary, for Governor Miro did not hesitate, November 9, 1792, to grant 
 it to Francis Fontanilla, assistant storekeeper, for private purposes. 
 Fontanilla sold it with two negro slaves to Commandant Osorno in 1801 
 for $1200, describing it as a plantation commonly known by the name 
 of Choctaw Point, containing fifteen arpens front by forty arpens in 
 depth, wliich land is called Blood Hospital, bounded on the west by 
 a small bayou, which is bounded by another tract belonging to John 
 Baptiste Lucer, deceased, and on the east by another tract of land 
 marshy and impassable.^ This is substantially the description in Miro's 
 grant. It seems this tract was cultivated from 1797 to 1813. A copy 
 of the original survey by ColHns in 1802-1803 still survives. 
 
 It was not long after this, in 1804, that we find Espejo selling " the 
 place Chato " to William Simpson, partner of the house of Panton, 
 Leslie &, Co., for $500. Espejo had purchased from Osorno. 
 
 For some reason not now known, it was thought necessary that the 
 grant should be confirmed by Intendant-General Morales on April 17, 
 1807, to John Forbes & Co., as containing six hundred acres, three 
 days after a survey by V. S. Pintado. 
 
 This tract is not even to the present well built up, and its east end 
 is still almost impassable, although the destined seat of railroads 
 and docks. Its north line is just south of our Virginia Street, its east 
 boundary the river at Choctaw Point, its south the bay as far as 
 beyond the toll-gate, and its west line runs somewhat east of Ann 
 Street. In 1811, the property was bounded south by Mrs. Bonbell, on 
 the other side of whom was Lansemandeville. 
 
 11. This last, the Mandeville Tract, is the southernmost of those 
 at any time actually within our city limits. We remember it more 
 especially as the probable location of Bienville's chateau. Under the 
 
 ^ Mobile Translated Records, p. 283. 
 
SPANISH CITY GRANTS. 497 
 
 English it had belonged to " John McGillebray and his associates in 
 trade," but was now abandoned. 
 
 In the year 1796, J. B. Alexandre obtained these twenty arpens 
 front on the bay, at the place called " Lansemanville," ^ — Mandeville's 
 Bend. It was bounded south by a bayou. When he conveys it to his 
 son Francis in 1802 for $270, he describes it as bounded north by a 
 bluff, south by a small bayou, west by pine lands, and adjoining the 
 sawmill called Durand's. By that description, Francis, on April 23, 
 1805, sells it for $400 to John Forbes & Co., the source of modern 
 titles. It embraces our Arlington and Fair Grounds. 
 
 12. Blakely Island, just across the river from Mobile, has been 
 inside the city limits only nominally. Joseph Collins, the surveyor, 
 appears to have been its first owner, having acquired it by permit of 
 Osorno April 26, 1803. No Spanish survey seems to have been made, 
 and so later its acreage was found to be 2280, instead of the esti- 
 mated 4000. He sold it in 1807 to Josiah Blakeley, of Connecticut, 
 for $1500. In the deed Collins describes it as seven miles long. 
 This Yankee made it a plantation, which he called Festino.^ It was 
 a matter of festina lente, however, for it is even to-day pretty much in 
 the condition in which he left it. The river front is made serviceable 
 by piles and some wharves, but the intei'ior is marshy still. Coffee 
 Bayou, tradition says, was so named from coffee smuggled through it 
 into Mobile by Cyrus Sibley and others in Spanish times. Bull and 
 the other heirs got title from the United States in 1842 only to 1280 
 acres, and not to the whole island as claimed by Blakeley.^ 
 
 13. Thomas Price we know already as Indian interpreter at Mo- 
 bile, and, on account- of valuable services in that capacity during the 
 time of apprehended trouble with the United States, he obtained two 
 grants of land adjoining the town on the west. 
 
 First Governor-General Manuel Gayoso De Lemos, on November 18, 
 1798, granted Price 540 acres, situate in the suburbs of Mobile, bounded 
 on the north by Terisa's lands and those of Mazuria, on the east by the 
 plan of Mobile, — then extending west about to Joachim Street, — and 
 on the south by lands claimed by Simon Andre (Andry) and Favre. 
 As laid off by Pintado and others, this first grant did not reach to 
 either the Favre or Espejo tracts by possibly a half mile, but adjoined 
 the city on the west and Fisher (Mazuria) Tract on the south. Price 
 — or William E. Kennedy for him — found this out, and proceeded to 
 get a grant out to those tracts. Intendant Morales, on September 18, 
 
 1 Mobile Translated Records, pp. 185, 289. 
 
 2 3 American State Papers, p. 9 ; Mobile Deed Book " A," pp. 41, 45. 
 
 2 Report of House Committee, February 23, 1842 ; 6 U. S. Statutes at 
 Large, p. 836. 
 
498 APPENDIX. 
 
 1806, made Price a further concession of about 500 acres more. The 
 two grants make up a princely domain, now the principal residence 
 section of Mobile, extending west beyond Ann Street. 
 
 On November 24, 1806, Price made Kennedy his attorney to caiTy 
 through his surveys of land in the vicinity of Mobile, and do what 
 might be necessary to obtain the complete titles. Only two days be- 
 fore the execution of this instrument, Kennedy had bought from Price 
 for $200 all of the second (1806) grant, except ten acres in the north- 
 west corner reserved by Price for himself. Price seems later to have 
 located this reservation near our St. Joseph Street. 
 
 It seems that in August, 1807, Price, for $500, also sold Kennedy 
 the tract acquired in 1798 from Gayoso, confirmed by Maxent Novem- 
 ber 25, 1806, but that this deed of 1807 was in some way lost in the 
 Mobile or Pensacola record office. To cure this, on June 6, 1810, Ken- 
 nedy for $700 obtained from Price a deed to the whole tract, which is 
 described as " 1100 arpens," bounded north by Poplar Grove, claimed 
 by J. Forbes & Co., and by lands claimed by William Fisher, west by 
 " A. Espejho," south by Simon Favre, and east by Franc° CoUel and 
 William McVoy, and lots on the western part of Mobile occupied by 
 Charles Lelong and Benjamin De Brocar and Mobile River.^ 
 
 The CoUel and McVoy tracts are well known, and Dubroca had a 
 lot on the northeast corner of Joachim and St. Michael. The Price 
 Claim came to the river only for a short distance north of St. Louis 
 Street, and, indeed, except so far as it overlapped the Baudin claim, 
 hardly reached the water at all. This was not material, for W. E. 
 Kennedy became the owner of both. In American times there was to 
 be an interesting suit to determine how the Orange Grove and Price 
 grant boundary line ran across the land reclaimed from the river after 
 these concessions, the title to valuable property being thus in dispute.^ 
 
 For some reason, possibly because the deed of 1807 was not exe- 
 cuted before the commandant, it was deemed necessary after the 
 American occupation for Kennedy to obtain a further deed to the 540 
 acres first granted Price, and on that occasion Price reserved two 
 (ten ? ) acres at the northeast corner.^ The Price Claim was not 
 patented to Kennedy until 1836, and the whole property was the 
 subject of heavy litigation between the representatives of the two 
 Kennedys. 
 
 14. These ten acres, now containing many handsome residences, 
 have a history separate from that of the general Price Claim. Price 
 
 1 Mobile Deed Book " S," p. 109. 
 
 2 Hagan v. Campbell, 8 Porter (Ala.), p. 9. 
 
 ^ Mobile Deed Book "A," p. 8 ; 3 American State Papers, pp. 440, 441; 
 2 Alabama Reports, p. 571, etc. ; Mobile Deed Book " T," p. 247. 
 
SPANISH CITY GRANTS. 499 
 
 seems to have lived on the reservation, for in 1810 are mentioned as at 
 that point the fields, house, and well made by him. The tract began 
 at the northwest corner of St. Anthony and St. Joseph streets, and was 
 bounded east by St. Joseph Street, north by the Orange Grove line, 
 near our Congress Street, being so platted as to have twenty-one chains 
 on a side. Price agreed to sell the place to Harry Toulmin for $250, 
 and this was finally done in 1818 by W. E. Kennedy, as executor of 
 Thomas Price.^ The west line went about to our Joachim Street. 
 
 15. Beginning at Ryland Street, a little west of Ann, and extend- 
 ing out beyond even the old city limits, is the Espejo Tract. When 
 granted in 1803-1804, it was a league west of Mobile.^ It was a con- 
 cession of land on Three Mile Creek (then bayu o passage de los por- 
 tales), of the usual twenty arpens front by forty deep to the south, 
 which brings it almost to the modern Government Street. The papers 
 are peculiar in apparently reciting only a verbal representation by 
 Espejo. 
 
 The grant was February 22, 1803, by Osorno to Antonio Espejo, at 
 a time when the intendant had, on account of the death of the assessor, 
 directed that no petition for lands be sent to his office until a successor 
 had been appointed. The sub-delegate, as in other cases, declares the 
 case urgent, because cultivation of land and increase of population in 
 the vicinity of the town would conduce greatly to public convenience ; 
 and makes the concession under seal, on condition that the proper 
 petition shall later be presented with all necessary formalities. He 
 describes Espejo as an old and respectable inhabitant of the town. 
 We have known him as having the bakery contract, and as running a 
 brick-yard, and in another transaction he is described as a carpenter.^ 
 April 11, next year, Osorno directs Collins to survey this land, so that 
 valuation may be made. 
 
 We do not know that Espejo actually resided there himself, 
 although it was inhabited and cultivated 1802-1813. The land 
 proved valuable to his children. He left a widow, afterwards Cata- 
 lina Mottus (or Montuse), and three children, — Antonio, Jr. ; Ger- 
 trude, who married Richard Tankersley ; and Catharine, who married 
 William I. Ingersoll. The tract was platted into lots and divided 
 between the four persons in interest in 1828,^ the claim having been 
 duly recognized by the United States upon the favorable report of 
 Commissioner Crawford.^ 
 
 16. Next west of the Espejo Tract was another of similar size, 
 twenty by forty arpens, also fronting Bayou " Chatoga." This was 
 
 1 Mobile Deed Book " B," p. 240. 
 
 2 Mobile Translated Records, p. 304. « /j/^.^ p. 228. 
 
 * Mobile Deed Book " H," p. 384. ^ 3 American State Papers, p. 9. 
 
500 APPENDIX. 
 
 granted Benjamin Duhroca by Osorno February 26, 1803, and the 
 land surveyed Ajiril 18, 1804. A house was built upon it, and there 
 was some cultivation, but not sufficient, in the eyes of United States 
 Commissioner Crawford, to have merited the issue of a title by the 
 Spanish authorities.^ Nevertheless, a certificate of confirmation issued 
 under the act of 1819 and a special act of Congress on May 27, 1840, 
 perfected the title,^ then held by the representatives of William E. 
 Kennedy and by many of his grantees. It covers much of the terri- 
 tory bisected by the present Spring Hill Avenue between the Reservoir 
 and Convent, including the pleasant village of Summerville. 
 
 17. Next out towards Spring Hill lies the Murrell Tract, now, on 
 account of the street railroad, well occupied by country homes, many 
 of elegance. The extensive grounds of the Convent of the Visitation, 
 as well as the home where Mrs. Augusta Evans Wilson wrote some of 
 her famous novels, are within this Spanish grant. It was granted 
 provisionally by Osorno to John Murrell, an inhabitant of Mobile, 
 May 7, 1804, on his petition for the eight hundred arpens bounded 
 north by the Pass of Suriagne, east by lands of Benjamin Dubroca, 
 south and west by the royal domain. Murrell solicited permission to 
 go immediately in possession, with his stock of cattle and hogs, and 
 to erect a house for his dwelling. As Collins was at the time absent, 
 Charles Proffit, lieutenant of the Spanish militia of the District of 
 Mississippi, was directed to survey the tract, — of course on receiving 
 the customary fees.' 
 
 18. On June 12, 1800, Cayetano Perez granted Regis Duret a tract 
 of land one mile square. There seems to have been no survey, but it 
 was cultivated and inhabited from 1809 to 1814.* This is the origin 
 of the title to Sj^ring Hill, a favorite suburb of Mobile in American 
 times. The Hill under the Spaniards was too far away from the little 
 town to attract much attention as a resort. Hobart was in possession 
 as tenant of Duret from 1809. He seems to have aided the heirs in 
 the necessary proof before the United States authorities, and, as pur- 
 chaser at an administration sale, prevailed over one Richardson, who 
 set up some claim of possession after Duret's death in 1819.® Hobart 
 bought from the heirs. 
 
 19. Miguel Eslava, the public storekeeper of the town, seems to 
 have been much exercised by the Louisiana Cession. He had some 
 
 ^ 3 American State Papers, p. 17. 
 
 ^ 6 Statutes at Large, p. 800 ; Reports of Senate Land Claim Committee, 
 January 4, 1839. 
 
 2 Mobile Translated Records, p. 319. 
 
 * 3 American State Papers, p. 10. 
 
 ^ Richardson v. Hobart, 1 Stew. Ala. Kep. 501. 
 
STREETS AND PEOPLE. 501 
 
 town lots, but no doubt expected to be crowded out, and to recross 
 the sea, he says, would be hard on his " infant children." So on 
 February 9, 1803, he petitioned for 5000 arpens on Bayou Durand, 
 about a league from the town, where he might go to farming. Osorno 
 grants it on February 25, conditionally, of course, on his applying to 
 the Intendancy when reopened. On April 20, 1804, the tract seems 
 to have been surveyed by Joseph Collins, and thus was originated that 
 great concession southwest of the city which has come down to our 
 times as the Eslava Mill Tract. Eslava's fears must have been 
 allayed for a while, inasmuch as his actual possession does not ante- 
 date 1809, and he did not go to farming after all. His sawmill hardly 
 goes back of 1815, although Regis Bernoudy may have herded Eslava's 
 cattle there in Spanish times. There were alterations of date and 
 other unsatisfactory features about the original documents, and the 
 title was not at first passed by the American authorities ; but it was 
 finally confirmed by Congress March 3, 1841, some years after his 
 death. ^ 
 
 E. — Spanish Streets and People. 
 
 As a traveler walked about Spanish Mobile, he would see little of 
 American energy. At the mouth of great navigable streams, the coun- 
 try trade of the place was with Indians only, and by canoes ; at the 
 head of a fine bay, foreign commerce was yet small. The King's 
 Wharf, just south of Government Street, accommodated this traffic, 
 and the house of Panton, Leslie & Co. controlled the bulk of it. Near 
 there, the marshy land was filled up so as to make a quay out to the 
 ledge of oyster-shells which lay about where Water Street now runs ; 
 but, north of Dauphin and south of the fort, lagoon and marsh claimed 
 the river bank. The marshes came down from the Bayou Chateaugu^ 
 district to near St. Anthony Street ; and from about Eslava south also 
 the land was similarly overflowed to the east of the ridge, at or near 
 present St. Emanuel Street, even to the bay at modern Frascati. The 
 little town did not extend as far west as Jackson except at one point, 
 and its principal buildings were on Royal Street, north of the fort. 
 Ellicott, in 1799, thought the situation handsome, many of the houses 
 tolerably good, and, for so small a place, the trade considerable. 
 
 South of the fort esplanade were Durette and Don Miguel Eslava's 
 high house, near our Monroe, with his garden in rear, and his negro 
 
 1 Mobile Translated Records, p. 301 ; . Eslava v. Boiling, 22 Ala. 721 ; 
 6 U. S. Statutes at Large, 822 ; Report House Committee on Land Claims, 
 February 17, 1838. 
 
502 APPENDIX. 
 
 huts west of where St. Emanuel Street now runs.^ There was a row 
 of houses east of him across the unnamed street, and on Conception, 
 too, west of the fort, were a few places. Lefleau, for instance, had 
 what is now the Sheffield place on St. Emanuel. Such was the small 
 South District. But the miles of land north and south of the little 
 town were untenanted marshes then, instead of cotton warehouses and 
 lumber yards ; and the gently sloping plain to its west, now crowded 
 with humble homes or handsome residences, was then a vast pine forest 
 interspersed with oaks and magnolias. 
 
 About the streets walked stolid Spanish officials and the vivacious 
 French inhabitants, together with negro slaves and picturesque Choc- 
 taws, while only after the Louisiana Purchase of 1803 would be seen 
 a wide-awake Yankee, come to make his fortune. 
 
 Any visitor, Yankee or otherwise, would first examine frowning Fort 
 Charlotte, then, as ever before, the principal point of interest. It was 
 kept in good repair, especially after the Louisiana cession. Ellicott 
 found it even in 1799 in a good state of defense. Near the single 
 wharf was Montuse (Mottus) Tavern, hardly a modern Battle House, 
 on land granted Antonio Espejo ; for his widow had married Sylvain 
 Mottus, a French refugee. Mottus while a mere boy had gone to Paris 
 in the TeiTor, but a servant spirited him away to America. He was 
 shipwrecked in Florida, learned to be a cooper, and made his way to 
 Mobile. It is more or less romantic to learn that he met his future 
 wife while acting as appraiser of her deceased husband's effects. 
 
 The approach [plazoleta) to the wharf adjoining the Mottus place 
 was nearer the south than the north line of Government ; and the wharf 
 built by Joyce under contract in 1793 was 380 feet long by twelve wide, 
 with cedar posts and two-inch planks. This famous structure was blown 
 down in 1811 and not rebuilt, except that in 1818 Tankersley was to 
 construct a larger one on the same posts in front of the Espejo lot, at 
 southwest corner of Water and Government streets.^ West, beyond 
 the elevation of Royal Street, came places facing the esplanade of the 
 brick fort. The palisade had long since disappeared, and the com- 
 mandant lived northeast Government and St. Emanuel, almost under 
 the Spanish flag floating from the fort. This residence, the old Farmer 
 home, was private property. 
 
 Our Government Street extended but little west, probably not beyond 
 the Rochon place at the southeast corner of Conception. It would seem 
 to have received the name from the Government House, which maps 
 of this century show stood a little southeast of the Semmes Monument. 
 
 ^ Petition of A. Michel before U. S. Senate, January 9, 1840, and ex- 
 hibits ; Ellicott's Journal, p. 201. 
 
 2 Pollard V. Greit, 8 Ala. 933. See, also, original Mobile archives. 
 
STREETS AND PEOPLE. 503 
 
 It is not unlikely that this was connected with the royal storehouse 
 (almacen) erected by Joyce under contract with the crown (Real Ha- 
 cienda) in 1793. The wharf and the warehouse together cost 1280 
 pesos. 
 
 The earliest paper giving the name certainly meant for our Govern- 
 ment Street was the application of Elizabeth Forneret in 1788 for 
 grant of a lot ten by twenty-six toises situated on Government Street, 
 opposite the house and lot of Antony Narbonne (" formerly belonging to 
 Mr. Farniar "), which was granted her on March 15.* The next men- 
 tion was in 1803. On April 5 of that year, Miguel Desiderio Eslava 
 — a son of Don Miguel — obtained from Perez a grant to 2 J lots of 
 vacant land on Government Street, fronting the fort, extending from 
 St. Emanuel, on which they faced 82 feet, to Royal Street. This land 
 was bounded north by houses of the widow of John Joyce and by 
 Joaquin de Osorno. The St. Emanuel Street frontage, however, was 
 behind the Farmer place, which was not included in the grant.' 
 
 There were, of course, a number of other streets, all unpaved and 
 narrow, as under the French. Leaving the fort and its esplanade behind, 
 as one walked down Royal Street he would notice that the old Barracks 
 Square had become private property in 1796, — that of Mary J. Krebs, 
 the widow of Antony Narbonne. She sold it in that year, from Conti 
 to the fort front, for $500. It shortly got into the hands of John Joyce, 
 but from 1806 was to be claimed by Armand Duplantier. On the east 
 side of Royal came first the old lot of John Forbes & Co., 140 feet 
 front, adjoining the King's Wharf, and thus taking in part of Govern- 
 ment Street. With the canal and privilege of building a private wharf, 
 it was valuable for their foreign trade. Next (the site of the present 
 theatre) came the warehouse of Benito Caro, who also filled out to 
 deep water ; and on the corner of Conti, in later years, Lewis Judson ; 
 while, across Conti, Laurendine owned where the Windsor now stands. 
 Thomas Powell was to hold the site of Adam Glass's store, and Judson 
 to come next. For the land east to the water was early taken up, and 
 it, too, had its houses, brick, or frame filled in with brick and clay, all 
 white or yellow washed, and roofed with tile or bark. 
 
 The first cross street, our Conti, was then called Government, 
 although, from the building of the church on the old De Lusser lots 
 in 1792, it gradually acquired the name of Church Street. It was truly 
 a government street until the barracks became private property. With 
 the removal, before 1793, of the Government House from near the 
 Bakery, the name probably migrated, too, to the more southern ave- 
 nue. In point of fact, for a few years both were called Government 
 Street. 
 
 , » Mobile Translated Records, p. 89. » Ibid., p. 310. 
 
504 APPENDIX. 
 
 Proceeding up Royal, we pass the same kind of houses, not all stores 
 by any means. Vines, peach and fig trees abounded elsewhere than 
 on the parsonage land. Many grants of what are now down-town 
 lots were for residences, and made on the condition of building within 
 a year ; for the Spaniards wished to build up jthe waste places and fill 
 the town which so many English had abandoned. From the gabled 
 church to Dauphin Street, and thus including Van Antwerp's, was 
 later the property of James Innerarity, who seems to have acquired it 
 from John Joyce. ^ Innerarity was the managing man for Forbes & 
 Co., and Zadek's corner, too, was owned by that progressive firm. 
 
 Dauphin Street had officially another name under the Spaniards. 
 They renamed all the streets but Royal, and mainly for saints. Thus 
 Dauphin was St. John, and even sometimes Conception, as in 1782,^ 
 although it was at first Galvez Street ; and Conti was once St. Peter, 
 as shown by the map of 1803. 
 
 Spira and Pincus' corner was apparently the residence of Dr. John 
 Chastang, and surrounded by pickets. There is some doubt how far 
 east the pickets extended, and there was to be controversy over how 
 much the Chastang right covered. Next came property confirmed to 
 Pierre Lucien, but which seems to be the property Colomb deeded 
 Fontanilla in 1786. We may remember that a billiard table went 
 with it, and this was long one of the appurtenances, for it is probably 
 the site of the old Battle House billiard saloon. The Battle House 
 land was the winter home of Simon Andr^ with his daughter Lucy 
 next door. In summer he, his wife Jeanne, and their numerous family 
 stayed up the river. Across on the west side of Royal we find, at 
 Dauphin, Cornelius McCurtin, whose widow and devisee, Euphrosyna 
 Bosage, was to marry McVoy. Her descendants owned until lately 
 the places next north of Burke's corner. Then came Dubroca, who 
 sold this 100-foot lot in 1808 to Surtill for $1000. The Custom House 
 marks the site of the stores of Forbes & Co., whose property also in- 
 cluded St. Francis Street, and even beyond to the north, for in Spanish 
 times this was no thoroughfare. The southernmost 90 feet was bought 
 October 12, 1801, by Panton, Leslie & Co., from the widow of Augustin 
 Rochon. It extended back 213 feet to St. Charles Street. William 
 Simpson, on behalf of the firm, paid the $800 in drafts on the royal 
 treasury. From here the main business of Panton and Forbes was 
 done. 
 
 St. Francis Street east of Royal, like Dauphin and even Conti, was 
 represented only by a lane to the river. In 1811 the free mulattress 
 Mary Jeanne was living with her children in a little house at what is 
 now the northeast corner of St. Francis and Royal. This was next 
 
 1 3 American State Papers, p. 398. " Chastang v. Dill, 19 Ala. 423. 
 
STREETS AND PEOPLE. 505 
 
 south of another place of Simon Andrd, which crossed our St. Michael. 
 John Forbes & Co. desired the Mary Jeanne place, as it extended 
 26 toises eastwardly, and was bounded south by the lane going to the 
 river. So they exchanged with her, giving her a place twelve toises 
 front, somewhere on the south side of Church Street, in tlie rear of tlie 
 town. There tliey obligated themselves to build her a house 26 by 18 
 French feet, " like the house of Peter Lorandine, with a double chim- 
 ney of bricks," and they paid her $40 cash besides.^ Thus these 
 merchants got an outlet to the river from their main house. North of 
 Forbes, on the west side of Royal, the residents are not so easy to 
 make out, except that the site of the Southern Express Co. was the 
 residence of Mr. Orbanne (Demouy) by 1808. 
 
 St. Michael is a Spanish name, but one of the curiosities of Mobile 
 titles is that it is not in the surviving records applied to that street. 
 It did not extend east of Royal, and west to our St. Joseph it was cer- 
 tainly called St. Jago at first, and later St. Francis ; while west of St. 
 Joseph it was in 1811 known as Orbanne Street, from the resident at 
 the corner of Royal. Hugo Krebs came next north of Andrd (or 
 Andry) on Royal (with title confirmed in 1842 to his heirs) ; ^ and 
 beyond him was George Tucker, the English carpenter of Panton, 
 Leslie & Co. In 1804 Innerarity was granted what is now the south- 
 east corner of Royal and St. Louis, bounded north by that unopened 
 street. West of St. Joseph this was in 1811 called Monlouis Sti'eet, 
 probably from confusion with the name of the resident on it, but St. 
 Louis also occurs as early as 1803. The site of Princess Theatre was 
 once owned by Simon Andry, who obtained it by a famous exchange 
 with the interpreter Favre. Next south were the Alexandres, who 
 bought from the widow of Narbonne. It would seem that St. Louis, 
 although unopened east of Royal, was dedicated and vested in the 
 public before 1800.^ 
 
 North of St. Louis there were in early times few lots on Royal, — 
 none on the east side, and on the west mainly Raouis (Ruiz ?), where 
 the Electric Lighting Company has its plant. About our St. Anthony, 
 Samuel Mims * had quite a tract from 1796, and in 1804 he sold to 
 Bready, his brother-in-law, who built a fine house ; and where State 
 Street now runs it was that McKenna once moved from the parsonage 
 in order to have more room for his stock and garden. Later come 
 as owners there Innerarity (who bought from Bready), Forbes and 
 Kennedy, even into the marsh lands. The name St. Anthony is in 
 the records first in 1800 ; and at right angles to this street, on an old 
 plan, is another " Government Street," whose history has been lost. 
 
 1 Mobile Translated Records, p. 405. ^ 6 Statutes at Large, p. 872. 
 
 8 Kennedy v. Jones, 11 Ala. 73. * Innerarity v. Mims, 1 Ala. QQQ, etc. 
 
606 APPENDIX. 
 
 There are unaccountable difficulties and conflicts of title in this neigh- 
 borhood, especially as to the Sam Minis property.^ 
 
 Parallel with Royal runs the street we call St. Emanuel south of 
 Dauphin, and St. Joseph north of it. As St. Charles it had been al- 
 ways a favorite residence avenue, although in Spanish times, when it 
 was thus renamed, the residents were a singular medley of whites and 
 free blacks. It is first found as St. Joseph in 1808. The break in 
 its course at Dauphin is inexplicable. Tlie English and French maps 
 run it sti-aight north from the fort, while now, and, from Spanish rec- 
 ords, evidently in Spanish times, the parallelism ceases at Dauphin. 
 St. Joseph begins its course there about seventy-five feet nearer Royal, 
 and thence proceeds northwardly, getting ever a little farther west. 
 When and why this was we do not know, unless we are to consider it 
 due in some way to the fire at the capture of the city. Certain it is, 
 the Spanish occupation made a greater change in lands and titles than 
 the British or American. Besides new owners, the re-grants cease to 
 regard the French lots, and the size often depends upon the whim of 
 the governor. 
 
 On St. Emanuel, in the square north of our Government, we find 
 Durette, Chastang, and others ; and, between Conti and Dauphin, 
 Trouillet and Vilars ; and William Fisher has a large lot on the east 
 side from Conti noi'thwards. The southwest corner of Dauphin and 
 St. Emanuel, facing ninety feet on the latter and one hundred and 
 fifty feet on Dauphin, was inclosed in pickets and owned by Anna 
 Surtill, and as Mrs. Littleton Lecatte she held it until American times. 
 Bienville Square was then (except at its southwest corner, where was 
 the Spanish Hospital), and for a half century later, private property. 
 The late Captain Stephen Charpentier was born on it, about opposite 
 the head of St. Emanuel ; and Diego Alvarez lived on the Square after 
 coming here from Spain in his vessel Marie Louise. The little, white- 
 washed Creole houses with trees and shubbery did not differ from the 
 rest of the town. The northwest corner of St. Cliarles and Dauphin, 
 twelve by ten toises, was entered, as we would say, by Pedro Lavallet 
 in 1793. Nicholas was next west on Dauphin ; Fontanilla was already 
 next north on St. Joseph ; Dufeux soon came next to him, and Cather- 
 ine Durand adjoined her. Fontanilla afterwards obtained the corner 
 and passed it on to Joseph Ortiz. The Manassas site opposite was 
 owned by McCurtin, who held the more important Royal Street front, 
 and a thirty-nine-foot lot, probably the present Masonic Temple, sold 
 in 1810 for two hundred dollars. It was described as facing " St. 
 Emanuel Street," and purchased by Rafael Hidalgo, practitioner of 
 the Royal Hospital near by. 
 
 1 Mims v. Hie/gins, 39 Ala. 12. 
 
STREETS AND PEOPLE. 507 
 
 The northeast corner of Bienville Square had belonged to an English- 
 man named Green, but it was granted again by the Spaniards and 
 passed through William Fisher, after a long possession, to Forbes in 
 1811. Forbes, it will be remembered, owned from Royal to St. 
 Charles, including the Peojjle's Bank and old Bank of Mobile sites, 
 and also owned the bulk of the block bounded by St. Michael on the 
 north and St. Charles on the east. We should probably think of all 
 this large property as used together, — the Royal Street part, perhaps, 
 for stores and skin-houses, the St. Michael Street part for stables and 
 wagon yards. 
 
 The site of Temperance Hall has a history as the residence of Julia 
 Vilars, a mulattress of good character, who was granted in 1792 the 
 northeast corner of St. Charles and St. Jago, with the dimensions of 
 60 by 120 feet, and later even this was enlarged. The same year 
 Martha Triton, a free negress, was granted the lot next north ; and 
 next to her was Girard, whose land, extending to St. Louis Street, 
 also came in 1803 to Forbes & Co. The Heustis lot opposite seems 
 to have been from 1800 the home of Thomas Price ; and Thomas 
 Powell, an employee of Forbes, recommended by Lanzos as a man of 
 good character, had entered the lot next north, now in St. Louis Street. 
 Don Miguel Eslava was to get the lot south of Price and sell it in 1809 
 to P. H. Hobart as in " Square 7," — the first number given for a city 
 block. South of the Hobart place was Andrew Bloque, and, on the 
 corner of St. Michael, Pierre Lucien, who sold to Isabelle Baurrien. 
 
 In 1810 John Murrell sold Hobart for $75 the corner of St. Joseph 
 and St. Louis, 12 by 20 toises, which he had bought in 1806 of Thomas 
 Powell.^ But it would seem St. Joseph in 1810 went no farther ; for 
 the west boundary of the Gallegos property on Royal Street, and lot 
 inclosed in rear, was " a trail leading to the plantation belonging to 
 the house of Foi'bes & Co." ^ The buildings made the land of value, 
 and two interests sold for $5500. It was in this transaction that Pe- 
 tronille, whose husband, Morgan Byrne, was absent in a foreign coun- 
 try without knowing when he would return, availed herself of her 
 legal right to convey without him. On another occasion we see the 
 converse of the rule, — the consent of the husband being apparently 
 necessary for the wife to purchase land.' 
 
 The last important sti'eet parallel with the river was Conception 
 which bore for a while that name and St. Joachim indifferently. Pos- 
 sibly the earliest mention of Conception is in 1792,* a grant of what 
 seems to be northwest Conception and Conti, called Government. The 
 widow Trouillet obtained the southeast corner from the authorities, 
 
 ' Mobile Translated Records, p. 386. ^ /jj^?.^ pp. 390, 403. 
 
 5 Ibid., p. 392. * Ibid., pp. 115, 120, 133. 
 
608 APPENDIX. 
 
 and in 1796 sold it for $20 to Honor^ Colins, a free mulatto, but with- 
 out referring to its history as the Indian House. South towards our 
 Government were Brontin (afterwards Nicholas) and Dolive on the 
 east, and Girard, Trouillet, and others on the west side. 
 
 In 1793 William Mitchell obtains the northeast corner of Conti, ex- 
 tending halfway to Dauphin, owned until lately by his heirs ; and the 
 lot of Ortiz, bought from Espejo in 1802, filled out the other half. 
 Espejo was paid $1225, for the sale included a house, two kitchens, 
 two brick ovens, and other outhouses.^ This is the site of Gayfer's 
 store, but also included the Goodman property on the east, sold by 
 Ortiz to Savana eight years later as fronting the Royal Hospital. 
 
 Almost as large a lot vis-a-vis the Hospital was the property of Iro- 
 goyen, keeper of that institution, and he sold in 1809 to Constanze 
 Higon. Bauer's corner was later owned by Trenier ; and from there 
 up to St. Francis we find Rosalie and Angelica, free negresses, and 
 Joseph Merero, often named with confusion as to their relative loca- 
 tions. Across the street, next to the Hospital, long lived Bartolem^ 
 Laurent ; and Auguste Colin, a free mulatto, adjoined him, having the 
 corner on St. Francis, where he seems to have built a home. 
 
 Across St. Francis Street, William Fisher in 1796 obtained a grant 
 of a " vacant " lot 120 feet on Conception by 60 feet front, the site of 
 the Bienville Pharmacy ; but except Clara Favre, who was opposite 
 the negro Philip at the northeast corner of St. Michael, we have no 
 other owners on the east side of Conception. On the west side, only 
 late names are known, such as Surtill at the corner of St. Francis, and 
 none at all north of St. Michael. 
 
 Our Joachim was even in American times to be " New " Street, and 
 so it is not surprising to find on it only Benjamin Dubroca, taking up 
 almost the whole southwest quarter of the block bounded south by St. 
 Michael ; and Surtill, occupying 120 feet square in the next block, ac- 
 quired for $120 from May Aygue. It was of course bounded north 
 and west by the woods. It is doubtful if St. Francis extended west 
 of Conception, for even in 1809 it seems to be spoken of as a street 
 without " passage " ; ^ and from about our Government Street a path 
 led southwards from Joachim past a pond to Mandeville, on the Bay. 
 
 The north and south streets, as we have noticed, seem to have been 
 the principal ones, and on them all lots face, as far west as Conception. 
 Even on Conti the only exceptions are the Fisher lands at the corner 
 of St. Emanuel, and the east side of Conception from Conti to Dau- 
 phin, whose lots face on Conti and Dauphin respectively. 
 
 Dauphin ran up to our Jackson Street, but beyond this there was 
 
 1 Mobile Translated Records, p. 287. 
 
 2 Ibid., p. 367. 
 
IN THE CREOLE COUNTRY. 509 
 
 only the cemetery, and Dauphin was but a path or country road run- 
 ning northwest to reach the Portage of Bayou Chateaugud. 
 
 But Dauphin was then, as now, the principal street. The Surtills 
 owned on it from tlie southwest corner of Joachim almost to Jackson, 
 and opposite were Trenier, Robeshow, and Nicholas. Leon Nicholas 
 fenced in the corner of Jackson upon his grant in 1810, and Sylvain 
 Nicholas claimed farther east from the next year.^ Junger & Gass' 
 was Robeshow's, and the Girard House was Pierre Laurendine's, while 
 all the block opposite except Harris' store was the property of Trenier. 
 Trenier was a large owner at the American occupation, but does not 
 appear in the early records. 
 
 The more eastern sites on Dauphin have been named in connection 
 with the north and south streets. It must be remembered, too, that 
 not far east of Royal wias the river bank, owned by Forbes on the south, 
 and Henry Baudain from his 1798 grant on the north side of Dauphin ; 
 so that about Luscher's, and Jake Meyer's, fish were more plentiful 
 than bargains. 
 
 Forbes & Co., on November 5, 1811, sold out their many places to 
 William Simpson of New Orleans for $35,000 by the longest docu- 
 ment in the Translated Records, in order to protect the title in case 
 of capture by the Americans. In point of fact, however, it was In- 
 nerarity, and not Simpson, who was to handle the realty of that great 
 house, the origin of so many titles. 
 
 The regulations of 1798 provided for sale of town lots at Mobile as 
 well as elsewhere, and the occasional mention of estimations or valu- 
 ations seems to point to this. But from 1801-03 there is little or no 
 evidence of such sales, although there were petitions from Mobile and 
 orders of survey and valuation.* As late as 1806 we read that the 
 plan of the city had not yet been determined upon.^ 
 
 Under the French, the fee to the soil of the streets was vested in'the 
 public. This was Roman law, and the rule does not appear to have 
 been modified by the Spaniards when they assumed dominion over 
 Mobile. English law is otherwise, but the treaties which have governed 
 the changes of flag have expressly or impliedly preserved all property 
 rights and the use of the streets.* 
 
 F. — In the Creole Country. 
 
 The Creoles loved the water, and any map giving Spanish concessions 
 will show their oblong white spaces, uncut by the land-ofl&ce surveys, 
 
 ^ 3 American State Papers, p. 398. 
 
 2 2 White's New Recopilacion, p. 372. « Ibid., p. 430. 
 
 * Kennedy v. Jones, 11 Ala. 83-85. 
 
510 APPENDIX. 
 
 facing bay and rivers, but with few of them away from the water. 
 This is as true at St. Stephens and Pascagoula as near Mobile. Even 
 Espejo's 1803 ranche at the Cantonment nine miles west of Mobile, 
 near the Great Spring, was on the Bayou del Salto (Cascade). 
 
 It would take a volume to discuss the Spanish grants which were 
 confirmed on Mobile River. First above the city there was the St. 
 Louis tract, this side of Chickasabogue ; then Dubroca's large claim 
 (afterwards sold to Samuel Acre), besides Duplantier, Hobart, and 
 others on Bayou Sara. Hobart built and operated the mill afterwards 
 owned by Cleveland, and lived there, while Diego Alvarez kept a ferry 
 across Chickasabogue near his extensive grant. Constancia Rochon, 
 widow of John Joyce, in 1798 obtained twenty arpens on Bayou Sara 
 as a ranche, because her place across the Bay was unsafe on account 
 of the Indians. Her tract is bounded south by Bayou Tagouacha, 
 perhaps a reminder of Bienville's Touacha Indians. Higher, about 
 Twenty-one Mile Bluff, was Dubroca, and there his colored Creole 
 descendants have ever since remained. 
 
 The neighborhood of first Fort Louis was not deserted. In 1792 
 the widow Rochon obtained the very site, described as land twelve 
 arpens front by forty deep, named the Bluff, " being a piece of land 
 called the Old Fort, distant about nine leagues from this place," situated 
 on Mobile River. A short distance below this, James Innerarity es- 
 tablished a cotton plantation, on which to work the negroes of hia 
 wife, Eloise Isabelle Trouillet, as she owned a number accustomed to 
 agriculture. He applied for a tract " forty arpens on the river by 
 thirty deep, situated on both sides of a small spring [bottom ?] com- 
 monly known by the name of Fond de Lourse, or otherwise tlie Old 
 Fort Spring," situated between the plantation belonging to Dubroca 
 and St. Philip and that of Rochon's at the Old Fort on the river. 
 B. Dubroca and Peter Chastang testify that the tract is vacant, and 
 Perez grants it April 6, 1809, the intendancy being closed. Two 
 years later we find a grant to Isabelle Narbonne bounded north by 
 Innerarity's habitation and south by that of St. Philip. This she 
 wanted as a brickyard for her son's slaves.'^ 
 
 Dr. John Chastang lived at the bluff named for him, and there was 
 growing up the colored Creole settlement representing his blood. 
 Simon Andry had given the name to his imposing bluff, and about 
 there made tar. His hospitable house rendered a hotel unnecessary. 
 His greatest claim to recollection is, that he is said by his descendants 
 to have brought there from Baton Rouge the ancestor of the innumer- 
 
 ^ Mobile Translated Records, pp. 116, 395. As to Andry and the Chas- 
 tangs, much has been learned from their descendants on the river and at 
 Chastang's. Felix Andry, late of Mobile, was of especial assistance. 
 
IN THE CREOLE COUNTRY. 611 
 
 able Mobile chinaberry trees. This is possibly true. The tree is not 
 native to this continent, and was brought to America by the French by 
 way of their West Indian Islands. Above were Trenier, Mottus, Bu- 
 rette, Campbell, and other homes or grants, until we reach the St. 
 Stephens region. 
 
 Fort Charlotte had not remained the only Spanish post in this part 
 of the country. Fort Tombecb^ was still used as Fort Confederation. 
 There Madame Espejo went on her honeymoon. To conciliate the In- 
 dians, and perhaps to guard against American aggression, a new fort 
 also had about 1789 been erected by the government lower down upon 
 the Tombigbee River, which was to give the name to a place familiar 
 in Southern history, — St. Stephens. The earthwork can still be dis- 
 tinctly traced, and Collot represents the fort as a formidable work. 
 Besides the fort there were a number of frame buildings, generally 
 covered with cypress bark. Only the blockhouse, church, and residence 
 of commandant were plastered. In July, 1790, begin certificates from 
 Lieutenant Joseph De Ville Degoutin, commandant of Fort St. Stephen, 
 as to vacancy of tracts applied for on the " Tombagbe." Folch at 
 Mobile is in such cases directed by Miro to put the applicant in pos- 
 session. The garrison in 1791 was one company under Captain 
 Fernando Lisora. 
 
 Then for some years we have no record, but by 1795 there is con- 
 siderable activity in lands about St. Stephens.^ Eslava's assistant at 
 Mobile, Francis Fontanilla, had moved up there three years before, 
 to become royal storekeeper of that post, and occupied a tract adjoin- 
 ing the fort ; but his title was not perfected until 1798. He obtained 
 before that a grant of twenty arpens front about a league from the 
 fort, Hoan Solivan gets ten arpens distant sixteen leagues from the 
 fort, Adam Holinger twenty arpens somewhat nearer, Julian Cas- 
 tro ten, Tobias Rheams twenty, George Brewer twenty, John Baker 
 fifteen, William Powell twenty, Cornelius Rains ten, John Johnston 
 twenty, Daniel Johnston twenty, and Solomon Janson seven. Some 
 of the other settlers were Blackbird, Bant, McGrew, Lorins, Mc- 
 Curtin, Brutin, Moore, and Daniel. A bayou which seems to be a 
 landmark seventeen leagues below the post is called Three Mouths, 
 and easily recognized still as Three Rivers above Mcintosh's. 
 
 These later grants are for grazing or agriculture, and some of the 
 lands are on one side, some on the other, of the Tombecbd. While many 
 concessions are near the fort, several are as much as eighteen leagues 
 south. The procedure there was the same as at Mobile, — a petition 
 to the governor-general, indorsed favorably by the commandant, for 
 example, Antonio Palaas, and a grant by Carondelet, directing the 
 ^ Mobile Translated Records, pp. 154 et seq. 
 
512 APPENDIX. 
 
 surveyor-general of this province, or his duly appointed deputy, to put 
 the petitioner in possession. Most of the applicants state that they 
 have already been in possession from one to ten years, and desire a 
 grant so as to prevent interference by others. 
 
 Among the conveyances of this vicinity we find that William Turn- 
 bull in 1798 sells to Nathan Blackwell his tract at St. Stephens of six 
 arpens front, acquired by grant from Miro in 1788.^ In that district, 
 too, was the place Sanflor, our old Sunflower. Dominique Dolive ob- 
 tained it in 1788, and now (by mark) sells to Young Gaines for $80.* 
 Two years later Adam Holinger (by his mark, A. H.) sells John 
 Callier his forty arpens front, seven miles below Fort St. Stephen, 
 for $400 cash." 
 
 The first known sale of land ascertained by the new line to be within 
 the United States was that of C. U. Demouy, for $250, October 23, 
 1800, to John Brewer, of twenty by forty arpens between lands of said 
 Brewer and Dubroca. Demouy was the ancestor of the Mobile family 
 of that name. Espejo in 1801 acquires from Lieutenant B. Dubroca, 
 as " attorney of the estate of the late John Turnbull & Co.," a forty- 
 arpen tract ; ^ but he seems to sell it immediately to Samuel Minis, an 
 inhabitant of Tensaw River, Washington County, for " five hundred 
 silver dollars in Indian corn at the market price, to be paid on the first 
 of January next." " Espejo got 500 arpens on the Tombecb^ besides 
 a tract of twenty arpens front across the river, also belonging to John 
 B. Turnbull and John Joyce, deceased.^ This was at the Niava and 
 Canes places. 
 
 Ellicott gives an account of this part of the country as he found it 
 at his visit in 1799. 
 
 "The Mobile is a fine large river," he says, "and navigable some 
 distance above the boundary for any vessel that can cross the bar into 
 the bay. One square-rigged vessel has been as high as Fort St. Ste- 
 phens, in latitude 31° 33' 44". . . . 
 
 " About six miles north of the boundary, the Tombeckby and Ala- 
 bama rivers unite, and, after accompanying each other more than three 
 miles, separate ; the western branch, from thence down to the bay, is 
 called Mobile. The Alabama retains its name until it joins some of its 
 own watei's, which had been separated from it for several miles, and 
 then takes the name of Tensaw, which it retains until it falls into the 
 bay. . . . 
 
 " The upland on these rivers is of an inferior quality from their 
 
 mouths up to the latitude of Fort St. Stephens, and produces little 
 
 1 MoUle Translated Records, p. 224. 2 yjj^^ p 237. 
 
 3 Ihid., p. 251. ♦ Hid., p. 276. 
 
 6 Ihid., p. 277. « lUd., p. 280. 
 
IN THE CREOLE COUNTRY. 513 
 
 besides pitch-pine and wire-grass, but is said to become better as you 
 ascend the rivers. The lands on those rivers have notwithstanding 
 had a good character for fertility ; but this has arisen from not dis- 
 criminating between the upland, which is generally unfit for cultivation, 
 and the banks of the rivers, which are fertile in the extreme, and to which 
 agriculture is almost wholly confined for a number of miles above the 
 boundary. But those lands are subject to a great inconvenience from 
 the inundations of the river. 
 
 " Planting is not attempted in the spring until the waters have sub- 
 sided ; and it sometimes happens that inundations follow the first fall 
 of the waters in the spring, and wholly destroy the previous labors of 
 the planters. This was the case in May, 1799, after the corn was two 
 feet high. But this inconvenience is by no means so great as it would 
 be in a more northerly latitude ; there still remains summer sufiicient 
 to bring a crop of corn to full maturity." ^ 
 
 On the Tensaw were many residents at first, although some moved 
 to the Tombigbee. McCurtin had in 1787 obtained the Farmer place, 
 but in 1790 described it as uninhabitable and moved up to St. Ste- 
 phens. This Farmer place of 12,800 arpens became, under McCurtin's 
 will, the property of his widow, and she in 1810, as Madame Diego 
 McVoy, sold it for $650 to Joshua Kennedy, including Rains' Creek 
 and Farmer's Bluff.^ 
 
 This Stockton neighborhood is said to have been settled by Tory 
 refugees. We find Roberts Walsenton, for one, acquiring twenty-four 
 by fifty arpens on the south bank of the Bayou Defango, where it emp- 
 ties into the Tensaw, in order to continue, after the running of the de- 
 marcation, a subject of the King of Spain, — whom God preserve.' 
 Of quite a different faith should have been Washington Wilkins, if 
 one can judge from his name, who acquired for a residence and ranche 
 the land south of Dubroca. 
 
 Gerald Byrnes' tract was about three and a half leagues from the 
 city, on the opposite side of the river, bounded north by the Apalaches 
 and south by widow Bousage, and having as natural boundaries the 
 Bayous Willoy (now Byrnes Creek) and Salome. Cornelius Dunn 
 seems to have in 1793 or 1796 acquired at least part of Madame De 
 Lusser's Tensaw tract, and used it as a cow range on Potato Creek. 
 This title was, in the hands of Root, to prevail over that of De Lusser, 
 represented by Hall.* 
 
 On Tensaw River also was White House, a landmark in the deeds. 
 This had been the seat of the Apalaches, and there, near where that 
 
 1 Ellicott's Journal, pp. 200, 280. ^ Mobile Deed Book " A," p. 69- 
 
 ^ Mobile Translated Records, p. 339. 
 
 * Ibid., p. 253 ; Hall v. Root, 19 Ala. 378. 
 
614 APPENDIX. 
 
 river turns west and the Apalache leaves it for the south, Joseph Chas- 
 tang had 800 arpens. His use of it went back to 1780, although his 
 grant dates from 1792, and after it passed to Josiah Blakeley of Con- 
 necticut it was to have quite an American history. From 1803 Louis 
 Dolive lived on the bay, and his descendants have been numerous 
 about the Village.^ The Trouillets also lived there. 
 
 The lower delta of the Mobile, unlike the part at and above Twenty- 
 one Mile Bluff, had not been granted out to any great extent in French 
 or English times. It was not suitable for habitation, and its products 
 were limited. We have seen Colomb obtaining Chucfa Island ; and 
 Henry Sossier in 1805 received for cattle-raising the east half of an is- 
 land extending from the Tensaw to Spanish River, always before, accord- 
 ing to old residents, unoccupied. Thomas Powell, an honest, laborious 
 man of large family, obtained the other half of this marsh land about 
 the same time.^ The land in question, awkwardly described in the 
 Translated Records, is that large double island extending from Span- 
 ish River and Grand Bay on the west to Tensaw River on the east, and 
 from Raft River on the north to the Tensaw on the south, divided in 
 two by Middle River, running roughly north and south. 
 
 Sossier admits that the land had never been of any use, but pledges 
 himself to ditch and fence and stock it with horses, cattle, and goats, 
 as an experiment. Beef and milk were the two principal things aimed 
 at. How far he succeeded we do not know, but Powell had cotton, 
 rice, and corn growing on his land when he sold to Blakeley in 1808. 
 Sossier conveyed to him in the same year for $1200, whereas Powell 
 received $1800, having some improvements. The land was cultivated 
 by Blakeley himself from 1810.* Blakeley 's name has stuck to the 
 large marsh island farther west, directly across the river from Mobile. 
 
 Other bayous and islands in the Mobile delta still bear French 
 or Indian names, like the Bateau Bays, Chacaloochee Bay, etc., al- 
 though the history of these is lost, but there as elsewhere we find little 
 distinctly Spanish. It is indeed remarkable that despite a rule of 
 thirty-three years so little survives of direct influence of the Spaniard. 
 The explanation is that under Spain the population remained essen- 
 tially French, with a sprinkling of British, while only the ruling class 
 was Spanish. 
 
 We see the same thing all around the bay, although the first two 
 tracts south of the city are Spanish. These are the Eslava Bay Tract, 
 
 1 See Michel's petition before U. S. Senate, January 9, 1840, with Dolive's 
 deposition attached. 
 
 2 Mohile Translated Records, pp. 330, 335. 
 
 * 3 American State Papers, p. 9 ; Mobile Records, Deed Book "A," pp. 41, 
 45. 
 
IN THE CREOLE COUNTRY. 515 
 
 adjoining the Mandeville, and that of Cornelius McCurtin (afterwards 
 Diego McVoy) still further south, taking up much of the long penin- 
 sula between main Dog River and the bay. 
 
 This Eslava Bay Tract (which is different from the Mill Tract) was 
 by Osorno granted Michael Ardaz as a cotton plantation on March 26, 
 1803. The McVoy Tract of 4374.09 acres was a claim of Cornelius 
 McCurtin, who seems to have been trying first one part of the district 
 and then another for residence or other purposes. Twenty acres at the 
 mouth of Dog River was in 1798 the property of John Trouillet at a 
 place called Bateau Panch^. He wanted it for cattle, of which he had 
 a large stock. 
 
 Across that river was where lived Pierre Rochon, of Haldimandic 
 memory, for much of our Hollinger's Island stood in the Rochon name, 
 the origin of its modern titles. The 800 arpens which Powell was to 
 get from Innerarity as the executor of Trouillet's widow, Isabelle 
 Chastang, was probably south of Deer River, and not on the island. 
 
 Mary Rochon, widow of Orbanne Demouy, for $400 sold John 
 Murrell 1200 arpens situated " by the junction of Dog River " (Rio 
 del Perro), about three leagues south of Mobile, belonging to her de- 
 ceased husband, acquired by grant of Carondelet. It was bounded 
 north by Montlimar Creek and lands of Charles Lalande, south by an- 
 other creek (Cedar in a later deed) and the same estate, west by public 
 lands, and east by Dog River. Four months later Murrell sold the 
 tract to Eliphalet Beebe, and he in 1810 conveyed half of it to Asa 
 Beebe for $300. This is the Beebe tract at the mouth of Hall's Mill> 
 Creek.^ 
 
 Farther down the west coast we know Bellefontaine. Charles Mioux 
 had his house and plantation there, part of his unsurveyed tract ex- 
 tending from Pierre Baptiste on the south to Deer River ^ (Rio del 
 Gamo). Upon his death his heirs, who lived at Bay St. Louis, sold it 
 to Mary Anne, a free mulattress, for sixty dollars, or its value in seven 
 head of horned cattle, to be delivered at Pascagoula River on demand. 
 She in turn sold in 1796 to Charles Lalande, a free man of color, for 
 thirty dollars. 
 
 Mon Louis Island (between the bay and Rio del Gallina) was still 
 owned by the Bodins (Baudins), and their man Maximilien Colin (a 
 colored Creole) lived at Jack's Bluff, above the pecan-surrounded home 
 of the Bodins at Miragouane. Henry Francois had been living on his 
 tract near the north end for many years prior to 1808 ; and later we 
 find Durands, connections of the Bodins, upon the island also. 
 
 1 Mobile Translated Records, pp. 373, 378, 381. See Mobile Deed Book 
 "A," p. 73. 
 '^ Ibid., p. 183. 
 
616 APPENDIX. 
 
 Across Mobile Bay a Spanish map shows settlements above the old 
 French Village (Aldea), but none at modern Howard's; and about 
 Montrose have been found silver coins and antiquities more likely of 
 this than De Soto's time. J. B. Loranding had six or seven arpens, 
 with house and kitchen on it, at Red Bluff, about the site of the Brit- 
 ish summer camp of Croftown, and Lieutenant Ferriet vras to buy it 
 in 1805 for 120.^ This neighborhood, near Rock Creek, is now the 
 seat of pottery and brick manufacture, and in Spanish times also was 
 the site of kilns. Isabelle Narbonne, the widow Campbell, obtained a 
 tract of twenty arpens front at the Bluffs in order to put her slaves at 
 making brick and tile, and we have already seen the judicial proceed- 
 ings by which Forbes &, Co. in 1811 purchased the Trouillet brickyard 
 there. Durnford had lived near Montrose, but a place at Battle's 
 seems also to perpetuate his name. It is the north boundary in the 
 grant of 1800 to Eugenio Lavalle, of Pensacola, of forty arpens by 
 the usual depth at " Punta Clara," — the first mention of the famous 
 summer resort. In 1815 we find the partition among Baudin heirs of 
 the classic district near by known as " Hog Range." ^ 
 
 Fish River (Rio del Pez), where Lavalle had another grant, was 
 better settled. Its east branch under the Spaniards was Rio del Salto, 
 from the waterfall we find on English maps, as under the French it had 
 been Le Saut. 
 
 Daniel Jusan acquired by will Daniel "Ward's property north of Fish 
 River, and May 2, 1808, we find him selling thirty-five or forty arpens 
 front to Henry Baudin for $200. Next year H. Baudin for $1000 
 sold N. Weeks this Old Ward Place, from Alligator Creek to the rock 
 fronting the bay.^ Maps of tracts about Fish River show land to have 
 been in great demand there. West of Weeks Bay was N. Cook, or 
 Durette ; south were Baudin, T. Powell, L. Flock, and A. Baudin ; 
 and east of the bay, J. Fernandez. Plock and his wife died of expo- 
 sure, due to being captured by Indians and dragged to Pensacola. 
 Their little daughter Catalina, then nine months old, was dashed 
 against a tree and left by the savages for dead, but was found, and was 
 brought up by Fontanilla on the west side of Mobile Bay. She lived to 
 be Madame Antonio Espejo. 
 
 Up the east fork of Fish River, besides Weeks on the left bank, 
 was on the right the mile-square place of Collins. He could drill his 
 dragoons all on his own heath, near modern Magnolia Springs. 
 
 Below on Mobile Bay was Bon Secours, under the Spanish Rio del 
 Buen Socorro. John Ward in 1793 purchased a house and tract of 
 land there, a mile from the mouth of the bay, from John Even. He 
 
 ' Mobile Translated Records, p. 334. ^ Mobile Deed Book " A," p. 82. 
 « Translated Records, p. 353 ; Deed Book " A," p. 104. 
 
IN THE CREOLE COUNTRY. 517 
 
 discovered afterwards that Even had no title, and so he obtained a 
 provisional grant in 1803 from Osorno to eight hundred arpens. Ward 
 represented himself in his petition as the father of a large family.^ 
 
 This neighborhood, too, was well settled. On the north of the Bon 
 Secours River were the claims of the Cooks, N. and J., and La Coste. 
 Augustin La Coste's claim, for 638.40 acres, originates from Perez's 
 permit of December 2, 1803, and was confirmed by the United States 
 in 1840.^ On the south were Johnson, F. Laney (Lamy ?), and Buck ; 
 while lower, on Bon Secours Bay itself, was where W. E. Kennedy 
 lived for so long. He seems in 1809 to have bought from F. Suarez 
 a tract bounded east by Oyster Bay and west by Lime Kiln Creek, ex- 
 tending back twenty arpens.* 
 
 On Mobile Point (Pta. de la Movila) we recall two early grants, 
 apart from the later claims of Suarez and others. The one was to Fr. 
 Simon, for the fishing trade, of a tract on the bay, from Bon Secours 
 River on the east to Bay Olivier on the west. The other was to John 
 Courrfege, to carry on the fishing trade between Mobile and New Or- 
 leans. It included the coast from Bay Andrew to Mobile Point, and 
 on it this new inhabitant put up the first house. These grants would 
 be valuable as giving safe refuges, apart from the oysters which have 
 ever abounded there. Pleasant Navy Cove has always been a pilot 
 settlement, and is famous for nectarines. There was no fort on tree- 
 bare Mobile Point, and we do not know that the primitive lighthouse 
 there in English times was kept up under the Spaniai'ds. But here 
 was now the usual passage from Seno Mexicano into the bay, and 
 Spanish maps carefully define the twelve-foot line within as well as 
 the eighteen-foot channel at the Point and between adjacent bars. On 
 the Gulf side, the mouth of the Lagoon is called Boca Ciega, — Blind 
 Mouth. 
 
 In the interior few are the old claims, even on watercourses, away 
 from Mobile Bay. On Perdido Bay, only F. Suarez and J. Suarez 
 occur on the western side, although Spanish coins have been dug up 
 among many Indian remains ; and on the shore nearer Pensacola the 
 swamps prevented much occupancy. The neighborhood of Pensacola 
 and the shores of Escambia Bay and River for miles show grants, 
 generally of the same twenty by forty arpens as about Mobile and its 
 waters. 
 
 Famous Dauphine Island had fallen into neglect. We have already 
 seen how in 1781 it was all granted to Joseph Moro, and this was in 
 American times confirmed to Augustin Lacoste, claiming under him. 
 But across the centre of the island, on a line with little Dauphine and 
 
 1 Mobile Translated Records, p. 309. * 6 Statutes at Large, p. 807. 
 
 8 Mobile Deed Book " A," p. 63. 
 
518 APPENDIX. 
 
 Pelican islands, ran the claim of Jean Baptiste Lamy. His settlement 
 began in 1792, but was not founded on any grant ; and these two are 
 the origin of the modern titles. There do not seem in Spanish times 
 to have been many residents ; and there is no indication that at this 
 epoch the old port to the southeast was in use, except that in 1785 the 
 king maintained there a pilot and four sailors at an expense of $696. 
 Pass Drury would seem to be named from Thomas Drury, a settler 
 only of 1812 and without a Spanish grant.^ The names Isla Delfina, 
 Isla Guillori, Isla Pelicano, and the like, show that the Spaniards here, 
 as elsewhere, made no changes in nomenclature except to translate the 
 French words into Spanish. 
 
 The habitations of Grelot and Bosage may be those of the first resi- 
 dents of the pleasant Portersville mainland ; but they were followed 
 in later Spanish times by the Baptistes between Bayous Batterie and 
 Coq d'Inde, and by the occupancy of McGrath, without a grant, of the 
 land from Bayou Coq d'Inde to Bayou Common, the real location of 
 Portersville. But, as on Mon Louis Island, the names of places still 
 recall the French. Point aux Pins, Bayou La Batr^ (Batterie), Bay- 
 ous Coden (Coq d'Inde), Coquilles, Common (Commun), Fowl (Poule) 
 River, are French. " Pass Sweet," under Cedar Point, is a ludicrous 
 Americanization of Passe aux Huitres, — Oyster Pass. 
 
 Pass Christian was also within the jurisdiction of Mobile, as we learn 
 from a deed by Julia de la Brosse, the widow Carri^re, November 5, 
 1799. She does not sign, because blind, but acknowledges before wit- 
 nesses. The conveyance deeds to a negro Charles and family (who 
 had rendered her many services in her sickness) twenty by forty arpens 
 on the seashore, out of the tract acquired by her under the English 
 domination from his '* Excellency Aldeman, Governor-General of 
 Pensacola at that period, the titles of which property were burned 
 at the oflBce of Mobile when the Spaniards conquered the town." * 
 This is interesting as the only mention of General Haldimand in the 
 Translated Records, and possibly the only instance of his granting 
 lands. 
 
 Biloxi, nearer Mobile, always continued a settlement, even if across its 
 bay to the east the memory of Fort Maurepas was lost in the oaks and 
 pines of that promontory. Piernas early made a grant to the widow of 
 Baptiste Christian, who had lived at Biloxi since her birth ; and a little 
 later Mathurin and Careaux obtained land on Dumanon Point, bounded 
 south by the sea and east by " the mouth of the Bay of the Old Fort," 
 for cultivation and other uses. James Innerarity in 1809 became the 
 owner of Round Island, once the property of Francis Krebs.' 
 
 ^ 3 American State Papers, p. 393 ; 2 Martin's Louisiana, p. 81. 
 
 2 Mobile Translated Records, p. 249. » Ibid., pp. 19, 26, 363. 
 
IN THE CREOLE COUNTRY. 519 
 
 The new boundary line in 1798 drove some settlers as far as Pasca- 
 goula. So Adam HoUingcr, son-in-law of Pierre Juzan, who had lived 
 on the Tombecbd,^ and Gerald Byrnes, a carpenter and farmer too, 
 obtained 800 arpens at Ward's Bluff for a cattle range, and as much 
 again for cultivation on Bayou Ward, two and a half miles south of 
 the old French sawmill.^ In 1804 he sold the place to Espejo, and he 
 immediately to Joseph Collins. The next year Isaac Ryan, a carpen- 
 ter, brought up among the French, also obtained a grant there of 300 
 arpens for himself and family. He moved from St. Stephens, he said, 
 because he could not expect the same tranquillity under the Americans 
 as under his Catholic Majesty.' 
 
 Lanzos could not certify about occupancy of lands at Pascagoula, 
 as he more than once frankly advised Gayoso. But when Ambroise 
 Gains obtained 500 arpens, this petitioner produced the indorsement 
 of Charles EUier, Peter and Francis Krebs, James Nadeau, and Francis 
 Colin. He had already been farming there, and as a quiet American 
 he obtained his grant.* 
 
 Betsy Wilson, an old inhabitant of Pascagoula, in 1801 obtained 
 twenty by forty arpens front on both sides of that river, including tlie 
 first bluff " below the confluence of the rivers Chicasaha and Esto- 
 pacha " (Pascagoula), about three or four miles south of the United 
 States boundary, and she also had a ferry across Bayou Billieu. 
 Special deputy surveyor Joseph Collins was duly directed to lay off the 
 bluff tract. Whether this led to the acquaintance of Collins and 
 Elizabeth Wilson is not stated, but Collins before 1805 took up his 
 residence at Pascagoula and married her. The ceremony was per- 
 formed, not by the Mobile priest, but by Mr. White, syndic of the 
 place. They had several children, and one, Sidney, was to settle in 
 the United States Supreme Court that a civil marriage was valid 
 among Spanish colonists, the Council of Trent to the contrary not- 
 withstanding.* 
 
 Simon Cumbest, William Wilson, and the widow Krebs also ob- 
 tained lands there, but the last mention of Pascagoula was in the big 
 sale in 1804 by John Lynd to William Simpson of 40,000 arpens on 
 the river for $20,000. This was doubtless for the omnivorous house 
 of Forbes.^ 
 
 ^ Translated Records, p. 225. 
 
 3 Ibid., pp. 229, 230. See pp. 317, 318. 
 
 « Ibid., p. 231. 
 
 * Ibid., p. 232. 
 
 6 Ibid., p. 274 ; 9 How. Rep. (U. S.), p. 174. 
 
 « Mobile Translated Records, pp. 276, 315, 316, 326. 
 
520 APPENDIX. 
 
 G. — Pabdo Narratives of Florida Explorations, 1766-67.' 
 
 1. — Relacion de la entrada t de la conquista que por 
 mandado de Pero Menendez de Aviles hizo en 1565 en 
 el interior de la Florida el Capitan Juan Pardo, es- 
 crita por el mismo. 
 
 Llegd el Adelantado Pero Menendez de Avilds el ano 1566 i. la 
 cibdad de Santa Elena, i, donde me niandd yo tornase d, proseguir la 
 Jornada, y que me partiese el primer dia de Setierabre del dicho ano, 
 y que donde me demandasen algunos cristianos para dotrinar los yndios, 
 los diese ; y asl yo me parti el primero dia de Setiembre. Ya tengo 
 dicho que no hago mincion de las quarenta leguas, por ser la tierra 
 como es. Y asi por mis jornadas Uegu^ i, Guiomae, i. donde halld 
 muy buen recibimiento y una casa hecha para Su Magestad, que se la 
 avia mandado hazer quando pas^ ; aviendo estado ay dos dias, me partf 
 y llegu^ en otros dos d. Canos, i, donde hall^ mucba cantidad de yndios 
 y caziques, y les torn^ i, hablar de parte de Su Santidad y de Su Mag- 
 estad, y respondieron que ellos estaban prestos y debajo del dominio de 
 Su Santidad y de Su Magestad. De aqui me parti y fui i, Tagaya, y 
 hize el propio parlamento y respondieron questavan prestos como lo 
 abian prometido la primera bez. Otro dia llegu^ i, Tagaya Chico, y 
 hize el propio parlamento, y respondieron que estavan prestos como la 
 primera bez. De ay ful i, un cazique que no me acuerdo de su non- 
 bre, y hize el propio parlamento, y dixeron questavan prestos como la 
 primera bez. De ay fui ^ Racuchi, y hize juntar los yndios y caciques 
 y les hize el propio parlamento, y dixeron questavan prestos como la 
 primera bez. Otro dia me partf y fuf a un despoblado. Otro dia 
 me parti y fuy d Quatariaatiqui, d donde hall^ cantidad de yndios y 
 cazicas, i, donde les hize el parlamento acostunbrado, y dixeron que 
 estavan prestos como la primera bez. De ay fui i, un cazique que no 
 me acuerdo de su nonbre y les hize el parlamento acostumbrado, y 
 respondieron questavan prestos como la primera bez, de estar debajo 
 del dominio de Su Santidad y de Su Magestad. Otro dia me parti y 
 fui i. Quirotoqui, y junt^ los yndios y caziques y les hize el parlamento 
 acostunbrado, y respondieron questavan, como la primera bez, debajo 
 del dominio de Su Santidad y de Su Magestad. Otro dia fuy i. un 
 despoblado ; y toda esta tierra que tengo dicho es muy buena. Otro 
 
 ^ These extracts are taken from the Second Volume of La Florida, Su 
 Conquista y Colonizacion por Pedro Menendez de Aviles, Obra premiada por la 
 Real Academio de la Historia, by Eugenio Ruidlazy Caravia, Madrid, 1893. 
 The first extract is from pp. 469-473, the second from pp. 477-480, and 
 the third from pp. 484-486. 
 
PARDO NARRATIVES OF FLORIDA EXPLORATIONS. 521 
 
 dia bine ^ otro despoblado, y es tierra muy buena. Otro dia Uegu^ d 
 Juada, donde hall^ que el Sarjento Boyano era ido del fuerte donde 
 yo le avia dexado y los soldados, y que le teiiian cercado los yndios ; 
 y con esta nueva yo hize el parlamento al dicho Juada y sus yndios 
 acostunbrado, y ellos respondieron questavan prestos de cumplir como 
 la primera bez, debajo del dominio de Su Santidad y de Su Magestad ; 
 y asl yo me partf luego y pas^ la sierra en quatro dias de despoblado, 
 ^ donde Uegud d Tocalques, un pueblo muy bueno, y tiene las casas de 
 madera, y alli avia gran cantidad de yndios y caciques, y les bize el 
 parlamento de parte de Su Santidad y Su Magestad, y respondieron 
 que ellos querian ser cristianos y tener por senor a Su Magestad. Otro 
 dia me partf, y dorml en despoblado. Otro dia me parti y llegu^ £ 
 Cancbe, d donde la tierra es muy buena, y tiene un rio principal, y 
 tiene unas vegas muy grandes, y alli haU^ gran cantidad de yndios y 
 caciques, y yo les hize el parlamento de parte de Su Santidad y de Su 
 Magestad acostumbrado, y ellos respondieron que querian ser cristianos 
 y tener por Senor k Su Magestad ; aquf estube quatro dias, por que 
 entendi que los yndios que se davan por enemigos eran ya amigos, en- 
 tendiendo como yo yba. Y otro dia me parti y ful £ un despoblado, 
 y otro dia ansi raesmo. Otro dia Uegu^ a Tanasqui, ^ donde tiene un- 
 rio cavdal, y el pueblo esta cercado por una parte de muralla y sus 
 torriones y traveses, d donde hize juntar todos los yndios y caziques y 
 les hize el parlamento acostumbrado, y respondieron questavan prestos 
 para hazer lo que Su Santidad y Su Magestad mandavan ; esta tierra 
 es muy buena, y creo que ay metales de oi-o y plata. Otro dia me part! 
 y llegu^ i. Chihaque, por otro nonbre se llama Lameco, a donde halld 
 al Sarjento Boyano y d los soldados ; a donde me contaron de como 
 los avian tenido apartados los yndios, y ansi yo hize juntar todos los 
 yndios y caziques y les hize el parlamento de parte de Su Santidad y 
 de Su Magestad, y ellos quedaron debaxo del dominio de Su Santidad 
 y de Su Magestad, como en los demas ; aqui estube diez 6 doze dias 
 para que la gente descansase, a donde supe por los yndios amigos como 
 me estavan aguardando en un paso 6 6 7.000 yndios, dondeera Carrosa 
 y Chisca y Costeheycoza ; y con todo esto, yo determine de proseguir 
 my camino, y me party la buelta de las Zacatecas y minas de San 
 Martin ; camin^ tres dias de despoblado, a donde a cabo de los tres dias 
 Uegu^ a un pueblo que no me acuerdo del nombre y juntd los caziques 
 4 yndios y les hize el parlamento acostumbrado, y me respondieron 
 questavan prestos de hazer lo que Su Santidad y Su Magestad man- 
 davan, y que querian ser cristianos ; esta tierra es muy buena y creo ay 
 metales en ella de oro y plata. 
 
 Otro dia me parti y Uegu^ a Satapo, a donde halld mucha cantidad 
 de yndios, y alli no fui bien rescebido conforme y como hasta alli me 
 
522 APPENDIX. 
 
 avian rescebido, por que el cazique se negd ; y asl yo llam^ a la junta 
 pava decilles lo que les cumplia de parte de Dios y de S. M., y se al- 
 legaron pocos, aviendo muchos, y no respondieron cosa ninguna, sino 
 antes se reian, y avia muchos dellos que nos entendian ; y asi aquella 
 noche binieron a mi las lenguas a dezirme que no yrian conmigo por 
 que savian que avia gran cantidad de yndios aguardandome para de- 
 gollarme d ml y a los mios ; y ansi mesmo vino un yndio del propio 
 pueblo y me dixo que le diese una hacha y que me diria una cosa que 
 me enportava mucho ; y asi yo se la di, y dl me cont<5 de como los 
 yndios de Chiscay Carrosa y Costeheycoza nos estavan aguardando una 
 Jornada de allf, y que eran ciento y tantos caziques, y tienen conpetien- 
 cia parte dellos con los de las Zacatecas ; y yo, viendo esto, junt^ mis 
 Oficiales y entramos en nuestro consejo, y hallamos que ya que noso- 
 tros ronpi^semos los enemigos, no podiamos ganar nada por cavsa de 
 las vetuallas, que nos las davan ellos propios, y asi determinamos de 
 encomendallo a Dios y dar la buelta, a donde bolvimos en quatro dias a 
 Lameco, que tiene por otro nonbre Chiaha ; y toda esta tierra, como 
 dicho tengo, es muy buena ; d donde en Lameco es de parecer de todos 
 y mio de hazer un fuerte para que si S. M. fuere servido de proseguir 
 la Jornada se hallase aquel ganado, y fu^ de parescer de todos como 
 dicho tengo ; y ansf quedaron aUf un cabo de esquadra y treynta solda- 
 dos, con provision y municion ; a cavo de quinze dias questo fu^ hecho, 
 me parti y llegu^ a Cauchi, d donde vine siempre por despoblado, a 
 donde el cazique demandd cristianos para que los dotrinase, y de pa- 
 rescer de todos le quedaron doze soldados y un cabo desquadra en una 
 f uer^a que se hizo en ocho dias, queddndole su pdlvora y municion. De 
 ay volvi i, Tocae en dos dias, d donde les tornd d hablar £ los dichos 
 caziques 6 yndios, y todos estavan que obedezian £ Su Santidad y 6, 
 Su Magestad ; aviendo estado aquf dos dias, me partf para Juada y 
 pas^ la tierra en quatro dias, d donde halld mucha junta de yndios y 
 les hize el parlamento acostunbrado, y dixeron que estavan prestos de 
 hazer lo que avian prometido, y allf dex^ d mi Alferez Alberto Escu- 
 dero con treynta soldados, para que tubiese quenta con el dicho fuerte 
 questaba hecho en el dicho pueblo, para que desde alii diese calor d 
 los demds soldados que quedavan de aquella parte de la sierra; y 
 aviendo estado diez dias en Juada, como dicho tengo, me parti la 
 buelta de Guatari y estuve quatro dias en llegar, d donde hall^ los 
 yndios y caziques juntos y les hize el parlamento acostunbrado, y re- 
 spondieron questavan prestos de hazer lo que mandava Su Santidad y 
 Su Magestad, y me demandaron que les dexase cristianos ; y asi, liize 
 un fuerte, d donde dex^ 17 soldados y un cavo desquadra con ellos, d 
 donde en este tienpo me detube en el dicho Guatari diez y seis 6 diez y 
 siete dias, poco mas 6 menos ; y biendo que se concluia el tdrmino que 
 
PARDO NARRATIVES OF FLORIDA EXPLORATIONS. 523 
 
 me did el Adelantado Pero Menendez de Avilds, me parti la baelta de 
 Santa Elena por mis jornadas. Esta tierra, como dicho tengo, Guatari, 
 es una de las buenas tierras que ay en el mundo, y por que tengo hecha 
 relacion en la priniera Jornada desde Guatari hasta Santa Elena no lo 
 hago en esta por la prolegidad. — Juan Pardo. — (Hay una riibrica.) 
 Arch. General de Ind. — Real Patronato. — Est. 1, Caj. 1, Legajo 
 1-19. 
 
 2. — RELACldN DEL VIAJE Y BECONOCIMIENTO QUE HIZO DEL INTERIOR 
 
 DE LA Florida en 1566 el Capitan Juan Pardo, por orden 
 DEL Adelantado Pedro Menendez de Aviles, escrita por el 
 soLDADO Francisco Martinez. 
 
 Este es un traslado bien y fielmente sacado de un traslado sinple 
 que fud sacado de un libro y Memoria de la conquista y tierra de las 
 provincias de la Florida, que el Ilustre Sr. Garcia Osorio, Governador 
 y Capitan General desta ysla por S. M., did i, ml el Escrivano de yuso 
 escripto, que fu^ sacado de un libro y Memoria que ante Su Merced 
 ysibid Francisco Martinez, soldado de la conquista de la dicha Florida, 
 que trata sobre la entrada y conquista de la dicba tierra y nuevo des- 
 cubrimiento della, que su thenor es el siguiente : 
 
 " De la civdad de Santa Elena salid el Capitan Juan Pardo el primer 
 dia de Nobienbre ano de 1566, para entrar la tierra dentro d descu- 
 brilla y conquistalla dende aqui hasta Mexico ; y ansi llegd d, un cacique 
 que se llama Juada, £ donde hizo un fuerte y dejd d su Sargento con 
 treynta soldados, por que avia tanta nieve en la sierra que no se pudo 
 pasar adelante, y el dicho Capitan se bolvid con la demas gente d esta 
 punta de Santa Helena, d donde agora al presente est^ la tierra que 
 hasta alli se avia visto ; es buena en si para pan y vino y todos los 
 gdneros de ganados que en ella se hecharen, por ques tierra liana y de 
 muchos rios dulzes, y buenas arboledas, que son nogales y morales y 
 moreras y nispolas (?) y castanos, liquidanbar y otros muchos g^neros 
 de arboledas ; y ansi mismo es tierra de muchas ca^as, ansi de benados 
 como de liebres y conejos y gallinas y ossos y leones. 
 
 " A treynta dias de como llegd d esta punta de Santa Elena, le vino 
 unta carta al Capitan de su Sargento, en que por ella le dezia que avia 
 tenido guerra con un cacique que se llama Chisca, ques henemigo de 
 los espaiioles, y que le avian muerto mas de myll yndios, y quemado 
 cinquenta bohios, y questo avia hecho con quinze soldados, y dellos no 
 salieron mas de dos heridos, y no heridas peligrosas ; y en la propia 
 carta dezia que si el Sr. Estevan de las Alas y el Sr. Capitan lo man- 
 davan, que pasarian adelante y veria lo que avria ; y ansi el Capitan 
 respondid que dexase diez soldados en el fuerte de Juada y una cabe9a 
 con ellos, y con los demas descubriese lo que pudiese ; y en el entre- 
 
524 APPENDIX. 
 
 tanto que esta carta llegava, enbid un cacique de la sierra i. amenazar 
 al Sargento, diziendo que avia de venir y com^rselos d ellos y ^ un 
 perro quel dicho Sargento thenia ; y visto esto, acordd que era mejor 
 yr ^1 i, buscarlos d ellos que no ellos viniesen i, buscarlo d ^1 ; y ansi, 
 saliendo del fuerte de San Juan con veynte soldados, camind quatro 
 dias por la sierra y lleg<5 una manana i, los enemigos, y los hall<5 tan 
 fortalecidos, que se admir<5, por questavan cercados de una muralla de 
 madera niuy alta y con una pequena puerta con sus trabeses ; y biendo 
 el Sargento que no avia remedio de entrar sino era por la puerta, liizo 
 una pabesada con que entraron con harto peligro. por que hirieron al 
 Sargento en la boca y i. otros nueve soldados en diferentes partes ; no 
 fueron de peligro ninguna; al fin, gand.ndoles el fuerte, se recoxeron 
 los yndios d, los buhios que thenian dentro, del que est^n debaxo de 
 tierra, dende donde salian i, escararau^ar con los espaiioles, y matan- 
 doles muchos yndios les ganaron las puertas de los dichos buhios y les 
 pegaron fuego y los quemaron todos, de raanera que fueron los muertos 
 y quemados 1.500 yndios ; y alii llegd la carta del Capitan al dicho 
 Sargento, en que le mandava lo que arriba tengo dicho : que dexando 
 diez soldados en el dicho fuerte de San Juan, fuese con la demds gen- 
 the i, descubrir lo que mas pudiese, y tomando el coniino de un gran 
 cazique quests de aquel cabo de la sierra, que se dize Chiaha, lleg<5 i, 
 un pueblo suyo,aviendocanaynado quatro dias, donde lo halld tan biencer- 
 cado de muralla y con sus torreones en quadra muy f uertes destacada ; 
 estava este pueblo en medio de dos rios cavdalossos, y mis de 3.000 
 yndios de guerra dentro, por que no avia otra gente ninguna de mugeres 
 ni ninos, donde los recibieron muy bien, y les dieron bien de comer. 
 
 " Otro dia se partieron la buelta del cacique ya dicho y caminaron 
 doze dias, sienpre por pueblos deste cacique, y dindoles todo lo que 
 avian menester, y yndios que los llevasen las cargas ; llegaron al pueblo 
 il donde estava el cacique principal, el qual les recibi<5 muy bien, y les 
 did yndios para que hizlese alii un fuerte y aguardase al Capitan, por 
 queste cacique dezia que queria ser amigo del Capitan y hazer lo que 
 le mandase ; y ansi el dicho Sargento hizo el fuerte, donde aguardd al 
 dicho Capitan que ha de partir deste fuerte mediado Agosto. A este 
 fuerte de Santa Helena an venydo muy muchos caciques y yndios de 
 la tierra dentro, trayendo cada uno lo mejor que tiene, ques gamugas 
 y mandiles y came ; al Capitan salian i. recebir quatro y seis leguas 
 gran numero de yndios, y le llevaban en una silla corriendo hasta que 
 llegavan al pueblo, y alii le tray an todo el vastimento que avia menes- 
 ter para su compailia, de mahiz 6 venado y gallinas y pescados, y el 
 yndio que no llegava i, la silla donde el Capitan y va, se tenia por afren- 
 tado ; unos venian dan^ando, otros vaylando, muy pintados de muchos 
 colores ; y la tierra es muy buena, ansi esta en que estamos como la demas 
 
PARDO NARRATIVES OF FLORIDA EXPLORATIONS. 525 
 
 de adelaiite, por que hemos provado d senbi'ar trigo y cevada y se haze 
 tan bueno como en Espana ; ansl de otras semillas de rdbanos, navos, 
 melones, calabagas de una aiToba, y qualquier semilla aprueva muy bien. 
 
 " El fuerte que hizo el Capitan en Juada es desta punta de Santa 
 Helena ciento y veynte leguas, y desde alii donde estd el Sarjento 
 ciento y quarenta ; de nianera que lo que estd conquistado, dozientas y 
 sesenta leguas. Y todo esto que aqui estd escripto lo an visto los 
 testiij^os que aqul van sus firinas, y es verdad. 
 
 " Fecha en Santa Helena ^ 11 dias del mes de Julio de 1567 afios. — 
 Alonso Garcia. — Pedro de Hermossa. — Pedro Gutierrez Pacheco. 
 — Pedro de Olivares." 
 
 El qual dicho traslado, yo el diclio Eserivano de yuso escripto, hize 
 sacar corregir y concertar el dicho traslado sinple, por mandado del 
 dicho senor Governador, al qual se lo di y entregu^ en la villa de la 
 Havana desta ysla de Cuba en 6 dias del mes de Otubre de 1567 anos, 
 el qual le di firmado de mi nonbre y signo, siendo testigos Alonso de 
 Reyna y Vernaldino de Mata. 
 
 E por ende fize aqui mio signo d tal. — (Hay un signo.) — En testi- 
 monio de verdad, — Bartolora^ de Morales, Eserivano de S. M. publico 
 6 Registros. — (Hay una riibrica.) 
 
 Arch. General de Ind. — Real Patronato. — Est. 1, Caj. 1, Legajo 1-19. 
 
 3. — Relacion escrita por Joan de la Vandera de los lugares 
 
 YQUE TIERRA es CADA LUGAR DE LOS DE LAS PROVIXCIAS 
 
 DE LA Florida, por donde el Capitan Juan Pardo, por 
 
 MANDADO DE PeRO MeNENDEZ DE AviLl^S, ENTRO A DESCUBRIR 
 CAMINO PARA NUEVA EsPANA, DESDE LA PUNTA DE SaNOTA 
 
 Elena de los dichas provincias, los anos de 1566 y 1567, 
 
 QUE todo es coma SE SIGUE. 
 
 Desde Tocar sali<5 derecho i otro lugar que se llama Cauchi, muy 
 principal tierra ; desde aqui adelante compard esta tierra con el Anda- 
 lucia, porque es muy rica tierra toda ella. 
 
 Desde Cauchi salid derecho £ Tanasqui, que tardaraos en llegar d, 
 ^ tres dias, por despoblado ; es una tierra tan rica, que no s6 cdnio me 
 lo encaresca. 
 
 Desde Tanasqui salid derecho i, otro lugar que se llama Solameco, y 
 por otro nombre Chi aha ; es tierra muy rica y anchurosa, lugar grande, 
 cercado de rios muy lindos ; hay en derredor deste lugar, d legua y d 
 dos leguas y d tres leguas, y menos y mas, muchos lugares pequenos, 
 todos cercados de rios. Hay unas leguas de bendicion, mucha uva y 
 muy buena, mucho nispero ; en efecto, es tierra de dngeles. 
 
 Desde Solameco salid derecho al Poniente, i, un lugar que se dice 
 Chalahume, d donde tardamos en llegar tres dias, por despoblado, y £ 
 
526 APPENDIX. 
 
 donde hallamos sierras mas ^speras que la sierra que nombramos. En 
 estos fuertes por donde pasamos es tierra muy rica y agradable y fresca ; 
 al subir una sierra destas, hallamos humo de metal, y preguntando i, 
 los alquimistas, dixeron con juramento que era de plata ; Uegamos 
 d Chalahume, quetiene tan buen sitlo de tierra. en comparacion, como 
 tiene la ciudad de Cdrdoba, muy grandes vegas y muy buenas ; alii 
 hallamos uvas tan buenas como las hay en Espaiia ; s^ decir ques tierra 
 que paresce que espanoles la ban cultivado, segun es buena. 
 
 Desde Chalahume salid derecho otro lugar, que est^ dos leguas de 
 alll, y se dice Satapo, desde donde nos volvimos ; es pueblo razonable 
 de buenas casas y mucho maiz y muchas frutas silvestres ; pero la tierra 
 rica y muy agradable ; y todos estos lugares y los de atrds, situados 
 cabe muy lindos rios. 
 
 Desde Satapo habiamos de ir derechos a Cosaque, creo yo, segun 
 me inform^ de indios y de un soldado que Uegd alia desta compania, y 
 volvid y did cuenta de lo que vido, hay cinco jornadas 6 seis hasta 
 Cossa, tierra muy poco poblada, porque no hay mas de tres lugares 
 pequenos : el primero, que estd dos jornadas de Satapo, que se dice 
 Tasqui ; en estas dos jornadas hay buena tierra y tres rios grandes ; y 
 un poco mas adelante, otro lugar que se dice Tasquiqui, y desde allf, 6 
 otra Jornada mas adelante, otro pueblo destruido que se dice Olitifar, 
 todo buena tierra liana, y desde alli a otras dos jornadas del despoblado, 
 mas adelante, esta un lugar pequeno, y mas adelante deste otro, como 
 una legua. Cossa es pueblo grande, el mayor que hay desde Sancta 
 Elena, por donde fuimos hasta llegar a ^1 ; tendra como hasta ciento 
 cincuenta vecinos, esto es, segun el grandor del pueblo ; es lugar mas 
 rico que ninguno de los dichos ; hay en ^1 de ordinario gran cantidad 
 de indios : esta situado en tierra baxa, a la falda de una sierra ; hay en 
 derredor de la media legua y a cuarto de legua y a legua muy muchos 
 lugares grandes ; es tierra muy abundante ; esta su sitio al sol del 
 Mediodia, y aun a menos de Mediodia. Desde Cossa habiamos de ir 
 derecho A Trascaluza, que es el fin de lo poblado de la Florida. Hay 
 desde Cossa a Trascaluza siete jornadas, y creo que hay en todas ellas 
 dos lugares 6 tres ; todo lo demas es despoblado. Trascaluza se dice 
 que esta al sol del Mediodia, y que desde aqui a tierra de Nueva Es- 
 pana hay, unos dicen que nueve jornadas, otros que once, otros que 
 trece, y lo mas comun nueve jornadas ; todo de despoblado, y en el 
 medio de todo este camino hay un lugar de cuatro 6 cinco casas ; y 
 despues, prosiguiendo en el dicho efecto, la primera poblacion que hay 
 es de Nueva Espana, segun dicen Ruego a Nuestro Seiior lo provea 
 como se le haga servicio. Am^n. — Fecha en la punta de Sancta 
 Elena, 23 dias de Enero de 1569. — Joan de la Vandera. 
 
 Arch, del Conde de Revilla-Gigedo, Marques de San Esteban del 
 
PIERRE LE SUEUR. 627 
 
 Mar. — Leg.° 2, ndm. 3, F. — Arch. General de Simancas. — Pohla- 
 r tones y descripciones. — Coleccidn de Munoz, tomo XXXIX. — 
 Documentos ineditos del Archivo de Indias, tomo IV, p£ig. 560. — 
 Buckingam Smith, Coleccion de varios documentos para la historia 
 de la Florida. Madrid, 1857, tomo I, pdg. 15. 
 
 H. — The Pelican Gikls, 1704, etc. 
 
 {Magm MS. Notes, p. 1073.) 
 
 Fran§oise Marie Anne de Boisre 
 
 naud 
 Jeanne Catherine de Beranhard 
 Jeanne Elisabeth Le Pinteux 
 Marie Noel de Mesnil 
 Gabrielle Savarit 
 Genevieve Burel 
 Marguerite Burel 
 Marie Therese Brochon 
 Angelique Brouyn 
 Marie Briard 
 Marguerite Tavernier 
 
 Catherine Christophle 
 Catherine Tournant (n. p. p.) 
 Marie Philippe 
 Louise Marguerite Housseau 
 Marie Magdeleine Duanet 
 Marie Dufresne 
 Marguerite Guichard 
 Ren^e Gilbert 
 Louise Frantjoise Lefevre 
 Gabrielle Bonet 
 
 Marie Jeanne Marb^, conductrice 
 des fiUes. 
 
 Elisabeth Deshays 
 
 2 families 
 
 Etienne Burs, Marguerite Rousseau femme dudit 
 Louis Burs, fils 
 
 Laurent Closquinet, homme de la sage femme 
 Catherine de Montois, sage femme (400 1.) 
 Henry Saurin Total 30.^ 
 
 100 men of Companies of Volezard and Chateaugu^ and 3 mission- 
 aries. 
 
 I. — Pierre Le Sueur. 
 
 Le Sueur was an explorer of note. There was a Le Sueur who with 
 M. Perrot took possession of the Mississippi, and in 1693 Le Sueur 
 held the post of Missilimakinak. In 1697 he discovered copper and 
 lead on the upper Mississippi and in his efforts to obtain the privilege 
 of opening mines he ran foul of the Canadian authorities, who saw in 
 every preparation an attempt on their beaver trade. The Sioux passed 
 under the dominion of Louisiana in Iberville's time, and Le Sueur 
 moved his family from Montreal to Mobile. In a letter of Cadillac 
 
 ^ On Sept. 6 Bienville says that Ducoudray had delivered to him 
 27 women, etc. 
 
528 APPENDIX. 
 
 dated June 29, 1712, Le Sueur is spoken of as dead and his family 
 as in Montreal. — 6 Margry, Decouvertes, pp. 55, 62, 91, 92. 
 
 Tlie family as given in the Boucherville parish records, near Mont- 
 real, was as follows : — 
 
 Le Sueur, Pierre, interpreter, born 1659, son of Victor and Anne 
 Honneur, of Notre Dame de Heden, in Artois, married March 28, 
 1670, Messier, Marguerite, born May 24, 1676. Their children, — Ma- 
 rie-Anne, born February 15, 1693, at Montreal, Louise Marguerite, 
 born June 4, 1694, Marie, born April 21, 1696, Jean Paul, born June 1, 
 1697, Marguerite, born July 4, 1699. 
 
 Marguerite Messier was daughter of Michel Messier (who was son 
 of David of Rouen) and Anne Le Moyne, who was born 1644 of Pierre 
 and Judith Duc^hene of Dieppe. Charles Le Moyne, father of Bienville, 
 was brother of Anne. 
 
 J. — The Mandevilles. 
 
 As to the Mandevilles the first was Lambert, who was apparently 
 enseigne in Chateaugu^'s company and died before Bienville's memoir 
 of 1711. Bienville had appointed to his place, and then to the lieuten- 
 ance, his brother, Francis de Mandeville, Sieur de Marigny, a native 
 of Bayeux in Normandy. He had a lot at Mobile, at that time, was a 
 captain later, and commanded at Toulouse. On his return to France 
 he was inade chevalier of the order of St. Louis, and came back in 1721 
 to command Fort Cond^. He had a large concession on the west shore 
 of Mobile Bay, which has ever since borne his name ; as it had been 
 the residence of Bienville, we may suppose it that of Mandeville also. 
 After removal to New Orleans, he was major de place and died in 
 1728. His widow next year married Ignace Brouten, captain of en- 
 gineers and commandant at Natchez. One of their daughters married 
 John Joseph Quelfau de Pontalba, and the other Louis Xavier de Luro 
 de Chalraette. Wyman gives some further details in 2 Gulf States 
 Hist. Mag., p. 61. 
 
 K — Census of 1708.^ 
 
 DeNOMBREMENT de CHAQUE SORTE de gens Qin COMPOSENT LA 
 COLONIE DE LA LOUISIANNE DU 12® AOUT 1708. 
 
 PREMliREMENT. 
 
 14 officiers, majors compris,un garde marine servant de commandant. 
 76 soldats, compris 4 officiers soldats. 
 
 > From Correspond ance Generale de la Louisiane, vol. ii., pp. 225-227. 
 
BIENVILLE'S MEMOIR OF 1711. 529 
 
 13 matelots, compris 4 officiers mariniers. 
 
 2 Canadiens servant de commis dans les magazins par ordre de 
 M"' de Bienville, commandant. 
 
 1 Maistre valet audits magazins. 
 
 3 Prestres compris un Cur^. 
 6 ouvriers. 
 
 1 Canadien servant d'interpr^te pour la langue Chicacha. 
 
 6 Mousses, tant pour apprendre les langes sauvages que pour servir 
 
 en mer et k terra les ouvriers. 
 
 122 Total de la garnison. 
 
 24 habitants qui n'ont aucune concession assures de terre ce que 
 empesche la plupart d'ouvrir des habitations. 
 
 28 femraes. 
 
 25 enfans. 
 
 80 esclaves tant sauvages que sauvagesses de differentes nations. 
 279 Total general, compris 6 malades. 
 
 Plus 60 Canadiens qui sont dans les villages sauvages cituez le 
 long du fleuve de Mississipy sans permissions d'aucun gouver- 
 neur, qui detruisent par leur mauvaise vie libertine avec les sau- 
 vagesses tout ce que M" des Missions Estrangeres et autres leur 
 enseignent sur les divins mistaires es la Religion Chrestiene. 
 
 BESTIAUX. 
 
 60 vaches i. let. 
 40 veaux. 
 
 4 toraux 
 
 8 boeufs dont 4 appartenant au Roy. 
 
 1400 Cochons et truyes. 
 
 2000 Poulles ou environ. 
 
 Fait au fort de la Louissiane le 12* Aout 1708. 
 
 De la Salle. 
 
 L. — Bienville's Memoir of 1711. 
 
 This dignified and valuable state paper is dated at the new settlement. 
 Port Dauphin, October 27, 1711, and occupies pages 567-602 of vol- 
 ume 2 of the Correspondance Generale in the archives of the Ministfere 
 des Colonies at Paris. It shows there had been real danger of the ex- 
 tinction of the colony ; but Bienville says, " As this colony is your work, 
 Monseigneur, it hopes that your Hin^hness {Grandeitr) will not abandon 
 it." The maize crop bad entirely failed. There were still five or six 
 
530 APPENDIX. 
 
 houses at old Fort Louis, but their owners were preparing to move to 
 the new establishment. Tobacco seemed to be the most promising 
 crop. Bienville, since the death of La Salle, had to attend to all kinds 
 of detail, as Poirier, who succeeded La Salle, was not posted. This 
 embarrassed Bienville, for he was not versed in matters of the pen. 
 
 As to himself he says, " It is 13 years that I have been here. I am 
 past my youth. I have given my health, and, Monseigneur, I have 
 surely made no profit, — on the contrary I have been obliged to con- 
 tract debts to meet my necessary expenses to placate the savages " and 
 to keep in with the Spaniards of Pensacola. In point of fact, on 
 account of a debt to Madame de Bethune, his apointements had gone to 
 her and he had received nothing. Sauvol, his predecessor, had re- 
 ceived twice as much as himself. He asked the increase of his apointe- 
 ments, the brevet of captain of hruslot or lieutenant of a vessel, and 
 the cross of St. Louis, which carried great distinction in America both 
 with Indians and Spaniards. Bienville therefore considered himself 
 as still in the naval service. 
 
 M. — Crozat. 
 
 Antoine Crozat was born at Toulouse in 1655. He was not only a 
 prominent merchant, but to him was due the construction of the Canal 
 of Picardy. His brother Pierre was also wealthy, but, as he did not 
 possess so much, was known as Le Pauvre to distinguish him from An- 
 toine, who was Le Riche. Antoine in 1712 was granted the commerce 
 of Louisiana for fifteen years, but surrendered it after five. In 1715 
 he became treasurer of the Order of the Holy Spirit. He was not only 
 of noble family, but his children married into the nobility. His daugh- 
 ter Marie Anne married Comte d'Evreux in 1707. His son Antoine, 
 who succeeded to the title of Marquis du Chatel, was a distinguished 
 soldier, who served under Eugene, and in Italy and Germany. An- 
 other son, Joseph Antoine, was president of the Pavlement of Paris 
 and held several other offices. His greatest title to fame, however, 
 was as a collector of paintings, statuary, engravings, and precious stones. 
 His fine collection passed into the hands of the Due d'Orleans. 
 
 Antoine Crozat lived to see all his children distinguished. He died 
 at Paris in 1738.^ 
 
 N. — Grondel. 
 
 Jean Philippe Goujon de Grondel was born at Saverne in 1714 of 
 Swiss parents, and at six years was received into the regiment of Kar- 
 
 ^ See articles in Nouvelle Biographic Generale. 
 
ROCHEMORE. 531 
 
 rer as a cadet gentilhomme. He became a supernumerary enseigne in 
 1730, and two years later went with his regiment to Louisiana. He 
 received serious injuries during the Chickasaw War. It is supposed 
 that to him was due the death of the Choctaw chief Red Shoes, and he 
 put down a revolt of the garrison at Fort Tombecb^. In 1741 he 
 married Mile, du Tisn^ and was employed at Mobile. In 1750 he was 
 made captain, and three years later Chevalier of the Order of St. Louis. 
 He returned to New Orleans in 1758, the year of the arrival of the 
 Ordonnateur Rochemore, and had the misfortune to figure prominently 
 in the dispute between this official and Governor Kerlerec. He re- 
 ceived the contract for rebuilding the barracks, and was accused of 
 being in this merely the cat's paw of the treasurer, Destr^han, called 
 " le petit ordonnateur." He figured largely also in the seizure of the 
 Trois Frferes. He was imprisoned by his colonel and wrote a letter 
 to the governor, asserting that the Thirteen Cantons would see that 
 justice was done him. There is some question as to the wording of 
 the paper, but on other occasions Grondel was also somewhat insubor- 
 dinate. 
 
 He seems to have been dismissed by Kerlerec from the service and 
 returned to Mobile, where he carried out a number of public works. 
 
 Kerlerec sent Grondel back to France, where he is said to have been 
 the author of the Lettres d'un Officier de la Louisiane, printed in 
 Holland in 1764, a book which was a violent attack upon Kerlerec. 
 After Kerlerec's disgrace Grondel was made lieutenant colonel, com- 
 mander at L'Orient, and in 1778 brigadier general. During the Revo- 
 lution he was in prison, but after release became commander of the 
 National Guard of Nemours. He was retired six years later, but lived 
 until 1802.^ 
 
 O. — Rochemore. 
 
 Vincent Gaspard Pierre du Rochemore, third son of the Marquis de 
 Rochemore, living at Nimes, was born in 1713. He was intended for 
 the Church, but finally secured a place in the navy. He became ecri- 
 vain and graduated from the University of Avignon, which qualified 
 him to become ordonnateur. He served at Toulon and Rochefort, 
 visited Louisiana in 1745, and after other service was sent there as 
 ordonnateur thirteen years later. Opinions differ widely as to his 
 probity, but he is conceded to have been energetic. There was a con- 
 stant feud between him and his superior, Kerlerec, leading to long dis- 
 patches in which each accused the other of peculation. Both sent 
 special messengers home to court, — Rochemore's on one occasion being 
 
 ^ See Demieres Annees de la Louisiane Franfaise, pp. 90, 130, 329. 
 
632 APPENDIX. 
 
 concealed between two mattresses and smuggled on board ship. This 
 emissary did not reach France, but Kerlerec's did after an Odyssey of 
 adventures. 
 
 The chief occasion for dispute between them was as to the necessity 
 oi parlementaires, — vessels under flag of truce. Kerlerec contended, 
 that, as the sea was swept of French ships, it was necessary to buy 
 goods of these vessels, even if they were English, and such was the 
 practice in French colonies in the West Indies. The Ordonnateur, on 
 the other hand, insisted on their confiscation, in order, according to 
 the governor, to buy the goods cheap and sell them afterwards at a 
 profit. Instances in point were the affair of the Texel and that of the 
 Trois Frferes, which divided the military and officials of Louisiana into 
 two camps. 
 
 Royal orders favored the supremacy of the governor, destroying the 
 biumvlrat. In 1762 Rochemore was recalled together with a number 
 of officers compromised with him, but after the Treaty of Paris the 
 influence of his family found means to secure the recall and imprison- 
 ment of his rival. Rochemore soon died, but there followed memoires 
 and pamphlets without number, and several official investigations. 
 The final result was adverse to Kerlerec, and he was banished to Rouen. 
 In order to oppose the machinations of the Jesuits, it was necessary 
 for him to return to Paris, which was authorized by the minister ; but 
 he died in 1770 at the age of 66 years. His widow endeavored, but 
 in vain, to clear the memory of the governor. To the same pious end 
 is devoted the Dernieres Annees de laLouisiane Franqaise, published 
 by his kinsman Marc De Villiers du Terrage, at Paris in 1903.^ 
 
 P. — Chabert's Orders on the Tombecbe Magazin.* 
 
 1. — Depeistse Sauvage. 
 
 Le garde magazin delivera a pamingo et son neveu 
 
 une livre de Poudre quatre Pierre a fuzil 
 
 deux Is de Balle deux Boette de vermilion 
 
 a Tombekbd le 27 JuiUet 1759. 
 
 2. — [Beginning is cut off.'j 
 
 former un parti pour Travailler a rompre La paroUe des anglois setant 
 propose lui meme 
 
 * See Dernieres Annees de la Louisiane Franfaise, especially pp. 96, 98, 
 126, 127, 327. 
 
 * Original in single column. 
 
CHABERT'S ORDERS ON THE TOMBECBE MAGAZIN. 533 
 
 Trois paire de mitalles 
 2 au Vi de limbourg 
 deux Chemises 
 Cinq quart de mazamet 
 Trois Livres de Poudre 
 Six Livres des Balles 
 dix Pierres a fuzil 
 
 a Tombekbe le 29 Aout 1759. 
 
 Six Battefeux 
 
 Six Tirrebourre 
 
 deux Pots de taffia 
 
 dix Jointes (?) de Sel 
 
 deux aunes de toille pour pavilion 
 
 une piece de Ruban de soire 
 
 une livre de vermilion 
 
 Chabert. 
 
 3. — Defense Sauvage. 
 
 Le garde magazin Delivrera a n^etnaasse (?) des abeka de Test et deux 
 guerriers venu au fort pour le Service 
 deux livres de Poudre 
 quatre livre des Balle 
 
 une paire de mitalle 
 deux Coutteaux Bocheron 
 huit Pierres a fuzil 
 
 a Tombekbe Le p^' ?'''« 1759. 
 
 deux J*5 de Sel 
 deux Wf de vermilion 
 une B'f dEaudevie 
 une livre de tabac 
 
 Chabert. 
 
 4. — Defense Sauvage. 
 Le garde magazin Delivrera a mingo ouma des Olitachas avec quatre 
 
 guerriers 
 Trois aunes de Limbourge 
 Deux aunes de Mazamet 
 Deux Livres de poudre 
 quatre livres des Balles 
 huit pierres a fuzils 
 Six B'* de vermilion 
 quatre Coutteaux Bucherous 
 
 a Tombekbe Le 21. Sep"?" 1759. 
 
 huit J*'= de Sel 
 
 Deux Ceintures 
 
 Trois pots de guildive 
 
 une aune dindienne 
 
 Deux aunes de toille P. un pavilion 
 
 quatre B°'* de Ruban 
 
 Deux Livres de tabac 
 
 Chabert. 
 
 5. — Defense Sauvage. 
 
 Le garde magazin delivrera a Sanche ou matab^ des Boisbleux 
 une couverte Blanches de 2 Pointe 
 
 une demiL. de Poudre 
 une L. des Balles 
 deux Pierres 
 
 a Tombekbe le 29 7""' 1759. 
 
 une B"* dEaudevie 
 une L. de tabac 
 
 Chabert. 
 
534 APPENDIX. 
 
 6. — Defense de Guerre. 
 
 Le garde naagazin delivrera a la pierre Rouge partisan de concha allant 
 en guerre avec quinze hommes sur nos ennemis 
 
 Cinq aunes de limbourge 
 Trois couvertes Blanches 
 quatre Chemises de Ginga 
 Trois Braguettes 
 Huit Livres de poudre 
 Seize livres des Balles 
 Vingt Cinq Pierres a fuzil 
 Dix Coutteaux Boucheron 
 Six Lv. Jambette 
 Douze Tirrebourre 
 Dix Battefeux 
 Une livre de vermilion 
 quatre Cassetete a pique 
 
 a Tombekbe le p«F« Octobre 1859. 
 
 Trois fuzils FuUe (?) 
 
 Trois aunes de Toille p. pavilion 
 
 Deux Carrotte de Tabac 
 
 une piece de Ruban 
 
 quinze Livres de Soire 
 
 vingt Livres de Sel 
 
 quatre Pots de guildive 
 
 Deux chaudrons de cuivre Jaune 8 
 
 Dix alleines 
 
 quatorze livres de peaux de che- 
 
 vreuil p. souliers 
 Six Ceintures 
 
 Chabert. 
 
 Q. — Elias Durnford. 
 
 (By his g^eat grandson, Lieut. Col. Chas. D. Durnford.) 
 
 Elias Durnford, born at Ringwood, Hampshire, 13th June, 1739, 
 was the eldest son of Elias Durnford of Norwood, Surrey, Treasurer to 
 the Ordnance, Tower of London. He joined the Corps of Engineers at 
 an early age, and in 1761 distinguished himself at the siege and cap- 
 ture of Belleisle on the coast of France. 
 
 In 1762 as Lieutenant of Engineers he served with Lord Albe- 
 marle's Expedition at the siege and capture of Havana, Cuba. His 
 energy and conduct were marked throughout this siege, so much so that 
 as soon as the place was taken he was sent for by the commander-in- 
 chief and publicly thanked. The general, amongst other expressions 
 of approval, said that he " was happy to show his army the good opinion 
 which he entertained of his (Lieut. Durnford's) conduct during the 
 siege," and then appointed Durnford his aide-de-camp. 
 
 He remained aide-de-camp to Lord Albemarle until the headquarters 
 of the army returned to England. He himself, being an exceptional 
 draftsman, was left in Cuba for the purpose of making plans and 
 sketches of Havana and of the country round, and a number of these 
 drawings were engraved by order of the king. 
 
 Upon his return to England Durnford was selected by Lord Har- 
 
ELIAS DURNFORD. 535 
 
 court to attend and explain to His Majesty the progress of the siege and 
 attack on the Morro Castle, Havana. The letter containing the order, 
 however, did not reach him until a few days too late, and so, as he him- 
 self writes, " I lost the opportunity of being known to my sovereign at 
 that time." 
 
 In 1763, upon the establishment of West Florida as a province, 
 Durnford was appointed Commanding Engineer and Surveyor Gen- 
 eral, going out with its first governor, Johnstone. After the death 
 of Governor Elliot, in May, 1769, he returned to England, and on Au- 
 gust 15 of the same year he married in London at the Church of St. 
 James, Westminster, Rebecca, daughter of Philip Walker of Lowen- 
 toft, Suffolk. In the " Historical Chronicle " of December, 1773, is 
 the following : " Plymouth, Nov. 26, 1773, — the 24th inst. landed here 
 from Jersey Capt Nottingham, late Commander of the Earl of Sand- 
 wich packet, which on the 11th inst. lost all her masts, and had every- 
 thing washed off the deck ; the mate and two men were drowned. 
 The Captain and crew, with Governor Durnford and family, who were 
 passengers, were taken out of the wreck by a vessel bound from New- 
 foundland to Jersey, where they were all landed in the greatest distress. 
 The mail was preserved and is gone on express to London." 
 
 At this time the inhabitants of West Florida were memorializing the 
 Home Government against their acting governor. Durnford was seni, 
 for by the Secretary of State, Mr. Grenville, and offered the lieutenant 
 governorship of the province if he would return immediately. This he 
 did, taking over the command of the province until a governor should 
 be appointed. He had the gratification of having with him his sister, 
 the wife of Dr. Samuel Fontenelle. He remained lieutenant governor 
 until 1780. In that year. Mobile being besieged by an overwhelming 
 force of Spaniards under General Galvez, Durnford commanded the 
 small mixed garrison of the fort until, as he writes, " two practicable 
 breaches were made in the front attacked, and all my shot expended." 
 
 After the surrender he remained near Mobile for a short time. His 
 wife on March 31, 1780, gave birth to a son at the Red Cliffs on 
 Mobile Bay, near present Montrose. 
 
 Some family letters refer to the humanity, good faith, and kindness 
 at this time of General Galvez, who filled the ship that Durnford and 
 his family came home in with every convenience. Galvez was very 
 thoughtful in providing for Mrs. Durnford's comfort. 
 
 After his return to England in 1780 Durnford served at several 
 home stations, including New Castle-on-Tyne and Plymouth, where for 
 six years he was chief engineer. 
 
 War breaking out with France in 1793, he embarked with Sir 
 Charles Grey's expedition to the West Indies as colonel and command- 
 
536 APPENDIX. 
 
 ing engineer, — his son, Elias Walker Durnford, being with him as 
 lieutenant in the same corps. He was present at the taking of Mar- 
 tinique March 2, 1794, Guadaloupe, and St. Lucia. He was thanked 
 among others for his services at the taking of Pidgeon Island, Mar- 
 tinique, described as a fort of great strength and importance. 
 
 At Tobago he caught yellow fever and died on the 21st June, 1794. 
 
 Since his day the Royal Engineers have never been without a repre- 
 sentative of the Durnford family. 
 
 R. — Creek Treaty at Pensacola, 1765. 
 
 At a Congress held at Panzacola in the province of West Florida on 
 the Twenty eighth day of May, in the year of our Lord one thousand 
 seven hundred & sixty five by His Excellency George Johnstone Es- 
 quire Governor of West Florida & the Honourable John Stuart Esqr. 
 Sole Agent &, Superintendant of Indian affairs in the Southern Depart- 
 ment of North America. 
 
 A Treaty for the preservation &, Continuance of a perfect peace, & 
 Friendship between His most Sacred Majesty, George the third by the 
 Grace of God of Great Brittain, France, & Ireland, King, Defender of 
 the Faith and so forth. And the several Indian Chiefs herein Named, 
 who are authorized by the Upper and Lower Creek Nations in their 
 own and their Behalfs. 
 
 That a perfect and perpetual peace and sincere Friendship, shall be 
 Continued between His Majesty King George the Third, and all his 
 
 Article Subjects and the said Nations the Upper & Lower Creeks ; 
 
 Ist. and the said Nations of Indians hereby respectively engage 
 
 to give the utmost attention to preserve and maintain peace and friend- 
 ship between their people & the King of Great Britain &, his Subjects 
 & shall not Commit or permit any kind of Hostility Injury or Damage 
 whatsoever against them from henceforward for any Cause, or under 
 any pretense whatsoever, and for laying the Strongest and purest foun- 
 dation for a perfect & perpetual peace & friendship. His most sacred 
 Majesty has been graciously pleased to pardon & forgive all past of- 
 fences and injuries and hereby declares there shall be a general obliv- 
 ion, of all Crimes, Offences & injuries that may have been heretofore 
 committed, or done by any of the said Indians : and the several sub- 
 scribing Chiefs for themselves and their Nation, do hereby ratify, con- 
 firm and forever grant unto His Majesty and Successors the Cession 
 of the Land made by a Treaty concluded at the Congress held at Au- 
 gusta on the 10th day of November in the year of our Lord 1763. 
 
 The Subjects of the Great King George and the aforesaid Nations of 
 
CREEK TREATY AT PENS A COLA, 1765. 537 
 
 Indians, shall forever hereafter be looked upon as one people, and the 
 Governor & Superintendant engage that they will encourage persons to 
 furnish and Supply the said Nations of Indians with all sorts a • i « 
 of Goods usually carried amongst them, in the manner which 
 they now are, & which will be Sufficient to answer all their wants. 
 
 The English Governor & Superintendant engage for themselves & 
 Successors as far as they can, that they will allways give due attention 
 to the Interest of the Indians and will be ready on all occa- 
 sions, to do them full & Ample Justice, and the said Indian 
 parties do expressly promise & engage for themselves severally & for 
 their said Nations, pursuant to the full Right & Power, which they have 
 so to do, that they will in all Cases & upon all Occasions, do full & 
 ample Justice to the English, and will use their utmost endeavours, to 
 prevent any of their People, from giving any disturbance or doing any 
 damage to them, in the Settlements, or elswhere as aforesaid, either 
 by Stealing their Horses, Killing their Cattle, or otherwise, or by doing 
 them any Personal Hurt or injury, and that if any Damage be done as 
 aforesaid Satisfaction shall be made for the same, to the party injured ; 
 and that if any Indian or Indians whatever shall hereafter Murder or 
 kill a white man the Offender, or Offenders, shall without any Delay, 
 Excuse or pretence whatever, be immediately put to Death in a pub- 
 lick manner in the presence of at least two of the English who may be 
 in the Neighbourhood where the Offence is Committed. 
 
 And if any white Man shall kill or Murder an Indian such white 
 Man, shall be tried for the offence, in the same manner as if he had 
 Murdered a White man & if found Guilty shall be executed Article 
 accordingly in the presence of some of the Relations of the 4th. 
 Indian who may be Murdered if they chuse to be present. 
 
 And to prevent all Disputes on Account of encroachments or sup- 
 posed Encroachments committed by the English Inhabitants of this or 
 any other of His Majesties Provinces on the Lands or hunting 
 Grounds, reserved & Claimed by the Upper & Lower Creek 
 Nations of Indians & that no mistakes. Doubts or Disputes may for 
 the future arise thereupon, in consideration of the Great Marks of 
 Friendship, Benevolence, & Clemency extended to us the said Indians 
 of the Upper & Lower Creek Nations by His Majesty King George 
 the third. We the said Chiefs & head Warriors Leaders of our respec- 
 tive Nations by Virtue and in pursuance of the full Right & Power we 
 have & are possessed of, Have agreed and we do hereby agree that for 
 the future the Boundary be at the dividing paths going to the Nation 
 & Mobille where is a Creek, that it shall run along the Side of that 
 Creek untill its Confluence with the River which falls into the Bay, 
 then to run round the Bay & take in all the Plantations which formerly 
 
538 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 belonged to the Yammasee Indians, that no Notice is to be taken of 
 such Cattle or Horses as shall pass the Line ; that from the said Divid- 
 ing paths towards the West the Boundary is run along the path leading 
 to Mobille to the Creek called Cassabae, & from thence still in a straight 
 Line, to another Creek or great Branch within forty Miles of the ferry, 
 and so to go up to the Head of that Creek and from thence turn round 
 towards the River, so as to include all the old french Settlements at 
 Tassa ; the Eastern Line to be determined by the flowing of the Sea in 
 the Bays as was Settled at Augusta, and we do hereby Grant & confirm, 
 unto His Majesty His Heirs and Successors all the Land contained 
 between the said Lines & the Sea Coast. 
 
 And as much as possible to prevent all Disputes and Jealousies be- 
 tween the Traders and the Indians in the said Upper & Lower Creek 
 Nations as well as to fix and ascertain the Prices and Rates 
 at which goods are henceforward to be Sold in the said Na- 
 tions, that the Indians may not be imposed upon, The Governor & 
 Superintendant engage for themselves & Successors, as far as they can, 
 that the Several sorts of Goods, mentioned in the annexed Schedule, 
 shall be furnished to the said Upper & Lower Creek Nations at the 
 Rates therein specified, and the Upper & Lower Creek Chiefs agree 
 & engage for themselves and their respective Nations that the Rates at 
 which Goods of the said several sorts are hereafter to be bartered, for 
 half dressed Deer skins in their Country, shall be as Specified and set 
 forth in the annexed Schedule. 
 
 6th. 
 
 In Testimony Whereof We the underwritten have signed this present 
 Treaty, and put to it the Seals of our Arms, the day & year above 
 written, and the several Kings and Chiefs, of the said Nations of In- 
 dians have also set their hands & Seals to the same, at the time & place 
 aforesaid. 
 
 Tapoulga 
 
 L.S. 
 
 Toupouye Utche. 
 
 L.S. 
 
 Tastanakobuy 
 
 L.S. 
 
 Yahatastanake 
 
 L.S. 
 
 Effalaskina 
 
 L.S. 
 
 Anabuy Mantla 
 
 L.S. 
 
 Oppayu Aljo 
 
 L.S. 
 
 Hillaije Tastanake 
 
 L.S. 
 
 Yahouly Mico 
 
 L.S. 
 
 Nealatko 
 
 L.S. 
 
 Ilobay 
 
 L.S. 
 
 Effa Adjo 
 
 L.S. 
 
 Obuyichlatke 
 
 L.S. 
 
 Tossycay 
 
 L.S. 
 
 Paye Oulaghta 
 
 L.S. 
 
 Sayachka 
 
 L.S. 
 
 Captn. Aleck 
 Yahastanake 
 Emistisiguo 
 The Young Lieut. 
 Nealatko 
 Coosna Nealatko 
 Nehajany 
 Obaly Adjo 
 Effa Mico 
 Tuscay Oulaghta 
 Mico Atke 
 Tostanake Mico 
 Tossycay Mico 
 Wawaugh Ryola 
 Yanatla 
 
 L.S. 
 L.S. 
 L.S. 
 L.S. 
 L.S. 
 L.S. 
 L.S. 
 L.S. 
 L.S. 
 L.S. 
 L.S. 
 L.S. 
 L.S. 
 L.S. 
 L.S. 
 
 George Johnstone j 
 Govr. West Florida | 
 
 John Stuart 
 Superintendant 
 So. District 
 
 L.S. 
 L.S. 
 
 By order of the Governor an 
 Superintendant 
 
 Arthub Gordon 
 
 Secbbtabt 
 
HALDIMAND AND BOUQUET. 
 
 539 
 
 Rates op Goods in the Upper & Lower Ckkek Nations. 
 
 
 lbs. 
 
 
 lbs. 
 
 2 yds. of Strouds for 
 1 Blanket 
 
 8 Leather 
 
 1 Romall handkf 
 
 2 Leather 
 
 8 " 
 
 Saddles according to Quality 
 
 
 1 do. Shagend 
 
 6 
 
 1 Snaffle Bridle 
 
 4 " 
 
 1 White Shirt 
 
 3 
 
 5 Strands Barley Corn Beads 
 
 1 " 
 
 1 Check do. 
 
 4 " 
 
 20 Strands Common do. 
 
 1 " 
 
 1 Fringed housing 
 
 10 
 
 1 pr. Trading Scissors 
 
 1 
 
 1 laced ditto 
 
 6 
 
 1 Knife 
 
 1 
 
 1 pr. Gartering 
 
 4 
 
 1 Cutteau 
 
 3 " 
 
 1 do. Dutch pretties 
 
 2 
 
 1 Trading Rasor 
 
 2 
 
 3 yds. Quality binding 
 
 1 
 
 1 oz. Vermillion 
 
 1 
 
 2 do. Silk ferret 
 
 1 
 
 3 spans Brass Wire 
 
 1 " 
 
 1 do. Indian Calico 
 
 4 
 
 1 pr. Ear Bobs 
 
 2 *' 
 
 1 Trading Gun 
 
 16 " 
 
 1 Large Silk Bengali 
 
 4 " 
 
 10 flints 
 
 1 
 
 1 Small ditto 
 
 3 " 
 
 10 Hawks Bells 
 
 1 
 
 12 pea Buttons 
 
 1 " 
 
 \ Pint Gun Powder 
 40 Bullets 
 
 1 
 1 
 
 Brass j Settles no fixed price. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 S. — Haldimand and Bouquet. 
 
 Some additional particulars as to these soldiers are given in M. 
 May's Histoire Militaire de la Suisse et celle des Suisses dans les 
 differens Services de VEurope, Lausanne, 1787. It will be noted 
 that this author knows nothing of Haldimand's service in West 
 Florida. The copy here printed was furnished by Mr. Beer of the 
 Howard Memorial Library. It had no accents and hence none are 
 given. 
 
 Frederic Haldimand, lieutenant general au service d'Angleterre, 
 & gouverneur du Canada, jusqu'en 1783 ; naquit a Yverdon, canton de 
 Berne ; fit ses premieres armes au service du roi de Sardaigne, & les 
 campagnes de 1743, de 1744, de 1745 & de 1746 en Italie, avec une 
 distinction qui promettait les lors ce qu'il ferait un jour. Rerapli d'ad- 
 miration pour le grand Frederic, & voulant s'instruire dans cette ecole 
 celebre, il passa en 1747 a son service, & y resta jusqu'en 1750, qu'il 
 fut invite par le pi-ince d'Orange a entrer aux gardes Suisses, avec le 
 grade de lieutenant colonel. En 1754 il passa au service de sa majeste 
 Britannique, avec son ami Bouquet, dont nous parlerons dans la notice 
 suivante ; I'un & I'autre avec le grade de colonel, dans le regiment de 
 Royal-Americain qui venait d'etre leve. Ce fut dans cette nouvelle 
 carriere, que cet officier celebre, ne devant son elevation qu'a ses talens 
 superieurs, reunis au merite le plus distingue, & couronne par la valeur 
 la plus heroique, se couvrit d'une gloire immortelle. Le colonel Haldi- 
 mand commenca a deployer ses talens militaires le 8 JuiUet 1758, a 
 I'attaque des retrancheraens de Ticonderoga, defendus par le lieutenant 
 general de Montcalme, & dont malgre les prodiges de valeur du regi- 
 
540 APPENDIX. 
 
 ment de Royal- Americain & plusieurs assauts, les troupes Britanniques 
 ne purent se rendre maitres. La defense du fort d'Oswego, confiee en 
 1759, au colonel Haldimand lui fournit une nouvelle occasion de se 
 signaler. Cette place choisie pour etre le depot de toutes les provisions 
 de guerre & de bouche de I'armee Anglaise, occupee du siege de Nia- 
 gara, &, devenue par cette raison de la plus grande importance, fut 
 attaque par un corps de 4000 Francais, commande par le chevalier de 
 la Come, qui avait ordre du marquis de Vaudreuil gouverneur general 
 du Canada, d'emporter ce poste a tout prix. Le colonel Haldimand, 
 eloigne de plus de 60 milles de I'armee Anglaise, dont le salut depen- 
 dait de la conservation d'Oswego, & n'ayant que 1000 hommes, com- 
 raandes a la verite, par des officiers d'un merite rare & d'une valeur 
 eprouvee, comme les capitaines Steiner de Zurich, Marc Prevot de 
 Geneve, Wullyamoz de Lausanne, & du Dez de Moudon, resista a 
 toutes les attaques du chevalier de la Corne, qui au bout de deux fois 
 24 heures, fut oblige de se retirer avec beaucoup de parte. En 1760, 
 les generaux Wolff &, Amherst employerent le colonel Haldimand, de 
 preference «fe avec succes, au siege du Fort-Guillaume, pres de Mon- 
 treal, &, de Quebek, s'etant singulierement distingue le 12 Septernbre 
 sous le brigadier Moncton, a la bataille de Quebek, & ayant contribue 
 a cette victoire decisive, qui entraina la reddition de Quebek & de 
 Montreal, & la soumission entiere du Canada aux armes Britanniques. 
 Le colonel Haldimand fut cree brigadier general a la fin de cette 
 campagne ; & revenu en Angleterre au printems de 1764, il fut gra- 
 tifie d'une forte pension, comme une juste recompense due a ses ser- 
 vices. Revetu en 1776, du grade de lieutenant general, il fut renvoye 
 en 1777 en Amerique, & charge de partager le commandement & la 
 defense du Canada avec le general Carleton. Ce dernier ayant ete 
 rappelle en 1780, sa majeste Britannique & ses ministres etablirent, 
 dans ces conjonctures critiques, Haldimand, gouverneur general du 
 Canada, croyant ne pouvoir garaiitir plus surement les vastes regions 
 de cette colonic tres-importante, de toute invasion Francaise & Ameri- 
 caine, qu'en la confiant a un general d'une bravoure & capacite aussi 
 reconnue. Le parlement applaudit, de meme que la nation Anglaise, a 
 ce choix, quoique cette distinction fut sans exemple en f aveur d'un ofl&- 
 cier etranger. II est vrai que le general Haldimand la justifia de 
 toutes facons, en faisant d'un cote, cherir le gouvernement Britannique 
 aux Canadiens, & en prenant d'un autre cote, toutes les precautions 
 iiuaginables pour lui conserver ce vaste pays ; de sorte que les Etats- 
 Unis de I'Anierique n'ont pas meme tente d'attaquer «&; envahir le 
 Canada, depuis qu'il fut mis sous les ordres de ce general, jusqu'a la 
 publication de la paix en 1783. Ayant demande sur la fin de cette 
 annee, son rappel, il fut remplace par le general Carleton, & le parle- 
 
HALDIMAND AND BOUQUET. 541 
 
 inent etablit en faveur du general Haldimand, la charge d'inspecteur 
 general des places & gavnisons aux Indes occidentales, avec 1500 livres 
 sterlings d'appointemens. II fut decore le 15 Octobre 1785, par sa 
 niajeste Britannique, de I'ordre de Bath. 
 
 Henri Bouquet, colonel d'infanterie, ensuite brigadier general au 
 service d'Angleterre, & employe en cette quality en Amerique, etait 
 iieveu du general de ce nom au service de Hollande, & natif de Rolle, 
 canton de Berne. II entra en 1732, au service de Hollande, comme 
 cadet dans le regiment de Constant ; y obtint un drapeau en 1735 ; 
 devint sous-lieutenant en 1736 ; quitta en 1738 ce service pour celui 
 du roi de Sardaigne defunt, & entra dans le regiment de Diesbach, en 
 quality de capitaine lieutenant ; obtint en 1749 une compagnie dans ce 
 regiment, devenu Roi. II entra en 1754, au service d'Angleterre, en 
 quality de colonel, dans la brigade de Royal- Am ericain. Ses talens 
 militaires, reunis a la bravoure la plus intrepide, le firent choisir en 
 1760, pour commander un corps d'arm^e, destinde a reduire les nations 
 Indiennes, ennemies de I'Angleterre, etablies de long de I'Ohio, «& a se 
 rendre au fort Pitt, autrement appelle fort du Queue. Le colonel 
 Bouquet, qui s'etait convert de gloire dans diverses expeditions des cam- 
 pagnes precedentes, y mit le comble dans celle-ci, ayant defait plusieurs 
 nations Indiennes qui s'etaient reunies & ligu^es contre lui, aux premiers 
 nouvelles de son approche, & qu'il contraignit a se mettre sous la pro- 
 tection Britannique. II fut elev^ a la fin de cette campagne, au grade 
 de brigadier general, & acheva de soumettre en 1761 & en 1762, toutes 
 les nations Indiennes limitrophes du Canada, des deux Carolines, de 
 la Georgie & de la Floride. Plusieurs de ces nations s'etant ligu^es 
 contre les colonies Anglaises, &, ayant commis des ravages sur les fron- 
 tieres de la Caroline meridionale & de la Georgie, le brigadier general 
 Bouquet, k la tete d'environ 6000 hommes, dont la brigade de Royal- 
 Americain faisait partie, livra le 5 Aout 1762, bataille a 22 chefs 
 Indiens, qui avaient reuni aux environs de 20 mille combattans sous 
 leurs ordres, lesquels dtaient venus attaquer I'arm^e Anglaise comme 
 des forcenes, & apres une mel^e des plus sanglantes, qui dura plus de 
 huit heures, ils furent totalement defaits, I'artillerie de campagne des 
 Anglais, dont le general Bouquet fut tirer un parti merveilleux, ayant 
 fait un carnage affreux de ces Indiens, qui se retirerent a six lieues du 
 champ de bataille. La nuit tombante empecha de poursuivre les 
 Indiens ; ne voulant neanmoins pas leur laisser le tems de revenir de 
 leur abattement, le general Bouquet leur livra le lendemain 6 Aout, 
 une nouvelle bataille, ou il acheva de les tailler en pieces, ayant perdu 
 plus de 12,000 hommes dans ces deux sanglantes jonrn^es. 
 
 Les nations Indiennes, hors d'etat de se remettre de cet echec qui 
 
542 APPENDIX. 
 
 leur avait cout^ I'elite de leurs guerriers, furent obligees de se soa- 
 mettre aux conditions que leur imposa I'Angleterre. Nous avons lieu 
 de croire, que le brigadier general Haldimand partagea avec son ami 
 Bouquet, ce commandement & la gloire de cette expedition ; cependant 
 nous ne voulons pas garantir ce fait. Le brigadier general Bouquet 
 fut charg^ en 1763 du gouvernement de Pensacola, ou il niourut en 
 1765, emportant au tombeau les regrets de tout ce qu'il y avait de plus 
 consider^ dans les colonies Anglaises, de meme que de tons les mili- 
 taires qui avaient servi avec cet officier distingu^ de toutes fa^ons ; en 
 un mot, le digne compagnon, I'ami de coeur & I'emule du general 
 Haldimand, ne devant, comme lui, rien a la fortune & aux recomman- 
 dations, mais tout a son seul merite. 
 
 T. — Acts of the Assembly of British West Florida. 
 (1767-1778.) 
 
 In some way the early historians denied that there was any Legisla- 
 ture for West Florida. In point of fact there were a number of ses- 
 sions, and the statutes passed form an interesting compilation. They 
 cover many subjects and show a well-developed social status. 
 
 The General Assembly, for such was its name, met in a hired house 
 at the capital, Pensacola. It was made up of two bodies, the Council 
 and the House of Assembly, and legislation required the consent of the 
 Governor. The acts could be disallowed by the Board of Trade, the 
 branch of the British Government, which controlled in provincial 
 matters, and some two or three statutes were thus vetoed. The first 
 session was the most prolific, giving rise to twenty-three statutes in the 
 time between November 24, 1766, and June 5, 1767. The second 
 session seems to have lasted only a few days in December, 1767, and 
 from it date only four acts. The third session extended from May 
 26 to June 8, 1769, and shows six acts. The fourth session extended 
 from March 19 to May 18, 1770, and to it may be referred eight acts. 
 Next came a fifth session in the summer of 1771, from June 27 to 
 July 15, producing five acts. From one point of view this was the 
 end of legislative activity in West Florida, for the Governor got along 
 without an assembly until 1778, and there was but one Act of that year, 
 which passed the Lower House on October 23. It is political in its 
 character, relating to the number and rights of representatives in the 
 assembly, and was a termination of the long struggle between the As- 
 sembly and the Governor. 
 
 The captions are annexed and give a general idea of the whole. At 
 
ACTS OF ASSEMBLY OF BRITISH WEST FLORIDA. 543 
 
 the same time a few salient points may be indicated. Thus at the 
 very first session we find extensive provisions as to indentured servants 
 and also for the government of slaves, whether negro or Indian. The 
 sale of liquor was regulated among the British colonists and stringent 
 provisions were made as to its sale to the Indians. There were local 
 acts as to the streets of Mobile and market at Pensacola, and the im- 
 portance of commerce was shown by laws as to wharves, flat boats and 
 canoes, bonds on incoming vessels and the like. The appropriations 
 by the Imperial Government not being sufl&cient to pay the expenses, 
 duties were established upon imports, and, although the act was limited 
 in duration, it was amended and reenacted from time to time. Pro- 
 tection for home industry was thus early made a part of the policy of 
 this portion of our country. Mobile was larger than the capital, and it 
 was necessary to furnish special courts for Charlotte County, which 
 extended from the watershed of present Baldwin County to that of 
 Pascagoula. 
 
 The legislation of 1769 began with an act to encourage the settle- 
 ment of the Mississippi portion of the province, and marks the begin- 
 ning of the development of that portion of the province, which after- 
 ward grew to be of equal importance with Mobile or Pensacola. Then 
 these two latter places instituted vestries and parish officers, for, al- 
 though immigrants from Spanish Louisiana were encouraged by having 
 all disability on account of religion removed, the State religion was 
 Anglican. We have to go far back into the history of Virginia and 
 Carolina to find legislation as thorough in the participations of church 
 officers in civil government as that which prevailed in West Florida. 
 The fluctuating character of the population was shown in the laws as to 
 foreign attachment and thus preventing persons in debt from leaving 
 over sea. 
 
 A Statute of Frauds, covering recording of deeds and joinder by 
 married women, dates from this time. The rural nature of much of 
 the province is shown by acts to prevent the stealing of horses and neat 
 cattle and also restraining the burning of grass and woods. Tramps 
 required regulation, and a Court of Requests for small debts was no 
 less necessary than constables for all claims, and the Court of Common 
 Pleas for general legal purposes. 
 
 Some incidental points of interest may be noted. Thus there had to 
 be a French Translator of Laws. Slavery was recognized and children 
 followed the condition of the mother. Conversion to Christianity did 
 not work manumission. The members of the Assembly were paid for 
 their attendance. No negro could vote, even if free, and neither could 
 a Jew. Gaming was punished. The measures were those of the 
 English, but the money shows a miscellaneous mixture of ryals, dol- 
 
544 APPENDIX. 
 
 lars, bitts, and pounds, shillings and pence. If a slave wasexecuted 
 for crime, his master was reimbursed his value. Debtors were some- 
 times hired to work out their debts. Some of the proceeds of duties 
 went to the establishment of a government road, including ferries, 
 from Pensacola to Mobile, by way of the place known as the Village. 
 Among the punishments we find dismembering, although this was 
 limited to slaves. Forestalling for market was forbidden, but the sale 
 of provisions after market hours was allowed. 
 
 List of Captions of West Florida Acts: 
 
 No. 1. An Act for the regulation of Servants. (Passed Nov. 24, 
 1766.) 
 
 No. 2. An Act for clearing the Town of Mobile of all Offensive 
 Weeds and cutting down the Woods around said Town. (Dee. 10, 
 1766.) 
 
 No. 3. An Act for Granting of Licences to Retailers of Spirituous 
 Liquors Imposing a Duty on said Licences and for Regulating of Tav- 
 erns or Publick Houses. (Nov. 24, 1766.) 
 
 No. 4. An Act to restrain Drunkness and promote Industry. (Dec. 
 15, 1766.) 
 
 No. 5. An Act concerning Coasters. (Dec. 30, 1766.) 
 
 No. 6. An Act for encouraging the Inhabitants of Pensacola and 
 Mobile to Build Wharfs and for establishing rates of Wharfage. (Dec. 
 10, 1766.) 
 
 No. 7. An Act appointing where the Laws of this Province shall be 
 lodged. (Dec. 23, 1766.) 
 
 No. 8. An Act concerning Flats Boats and Canoes. (Dec. 15, 1766.) 
 
 No. 9. An Act to erect Mobile into a County and to establish a 
 Court of Common Pleas therein. (Disallowed Januaiy 15, 1772.) 
 (Passed Dec. 22, 1766.) 
 
 No. 10. An Act Establishing the Interest of Money and to Asser- 
 tain the Damages on Protested Bills of Exchange. (Nov. 15, 1766.) 
 
 No. 11. An Act to encourage Foreigners to come into and settle in 
 this Province. (Dec. 22, 1766.) 
 
 No. 12. An Act to Oblidge Masters of Vessels to give Bound in the 
 Provincial Secretary's Office. (Dec. 22, 1766.) 
 
 No. 13. An Act for Granting Certain Duties to His Majesty to be 
 applied towards Supporting the Government of this Province. (Dec. 
 22, 1766.) 
 
 No. 14. An Act for the Regulation and Government of Negroes and 
 Slaves. (Dec. 24, 1766.) 
 
 No. 15. An Act appointing the Number of the Assembly and regu- 
 lating Elections. (Dec. 11, 1766.) 
 
ACTS OF ASSEMBLY OF BRITISH WEST FLORIDA. 545 
 
 No. 16. An Act to amend and render more Effectual an Act Inti- 
 tuled " An Act foi' Granting certain Duties to His Majesty to be ap- 
 plied towards supporting the Government of this Province." (May 
 18, 1767.) 
 
 No. 17. An Act for clearing the Streets of Pensacola and for Pre- 
 venting Nusances in and about the said Town. (May 30, 1767.) 
 
 No. 18. An Act for Granting certain Duties to His Majesty on all 
 Lumber and other materials for Building Imported into this Province 
 from Foreign parts and for applying the same to certain Purposes. 
 (May 18, 1767.) 
 
 No. 19. An Act to regulate Markets and to Prevent Forestalling. 
 (May 18, 1767.) 
 
 No. 20. An Act for the Order and Government of Slaves. (June 2, 
 1767.) 
 
 No. 21. An Act for Impowering Magistrates and Freeholders of 
 Charlotte County occasionally to Prohibit the Selling of Rum or other 
 Strong Liquors to the Indians. (May 22, 1767.) 
 
 No. 22. An Act concerning Attachments and for Regulating the 
 Marshals Proceedings. (June 1, 1767.) 
 
 No. 23. An Act appointing Commissioners for Building a Market 
 House, Regulating Markets and for applying certain Sums of Money 
 for Establishing a Ferry at the River Perdido, and towards opening a 
 Road from Pensacola to the Bay of Mobile. (June 5, 1767.) 
 
 No. 24. An Act for Granting certain Duties to His Majesty and for 
 Applying the same to certain Purposes. (Dec. 31, 1767.) 
 
 No. 25. An Act to amend an Act intitled " An Act concerning 
 Coasters " and for regulating and Improving the Coasting Trade. 
 (Dec. 24, 1767.) 
 
 No. 26. An Act to Prevent the Selling of Flour other than by Weight 
 and to regulate the Assize of Bread. (Dec. 28, 1767.) 
 
 No. 27. An Act to Confirm and regulate the Court of Requests. 
 (Dec. 28, 1767.) 
 
 No. 28. An Act to encourage the Settlement of that part of this 
 Province lying to the Westward of Charlotte County. (May 26, 
 1769.) 
 
 No. 29. An Act for the relief of Debtors who may be confined in 
 the Gaol and are unable to Support themselves during such their Con- 
 finement, (June 10, 1769.) 
 
 No. 30. An Act for appointing Vestries and Parish OflBcers for the 
 Towns of Pensacola and Mobile. (May 27, 1769.) 
 
 No. 31. An Act to Prevent Dangers by Fire and other Accidents in 
 the Streets of Pensacola. (May 27, 1769.) 
 
 No. 32. An Act to prevent Stealing of Horses and neat Cattle and 
 
546 APPENDIX. 
 
 for the more effectual discovery and punishment of such Persons as 
 shall unlawfully brand mark or Kill the same. (June 8, 1769.) 
 
 No. 33. An Act for Subjecting and making Liable the Attachment of 
 the Estate real and Personal of Absent Debtors in the Custody or power 
 of any Person or Persons within this Province. (May 29, 1769.) 
 
 No. 34. An Act to Prevent Masters of Vessels from carrying off 
 Persons in Debt from this Province for improving the Coasting Trade, 
 & for repealing the Acts of this Province therein mentioned. (May 8, 
 1770.) 
 
 No. 35. An Act for Granting unto His Majesty certain Duties and 
 for appropriating the same to Certain Purposes. (May 16, 1770.) 
 
 No. 36. An Act to prevent burning the Grass and Herbage of the 
 Woods at improper Seasons and to restrain Hunters from leaving the 
 Carcases of Deer near Plantations, and for extending an Act of this 
 Province Intitled an Act to prevent Dangers by Fire and other Accidents 
 in the Streets of Pensacola to the Town of Mobile. (May 18, 1770.) 
 
 No. 37. An Act for preventing fraudulent Mortgages and Convey- 
 ances for enabling Feme Coverts to pass away their estates, and for 
 making valid Deeds of Bargain and Sale. (March 19, 1770.) 
 
 No. 38. An Act for the better regulation of the Indian Trade in the 
 Province of West Florida. (May 16, 1770.) 
 
 No. 39. An Act to amend and render more Effectual the Acts there- 
 in mentioned. (March 24, 1770.) 
 
 No. 40. An Act for punishing all Persons who may Infringe any of 
 the Treaties made with the Indians. (IMay 16, 1770.) 
 
 No. 41. An Act to Indemnify the Officers or Others Commanding 
 the Forts upon Rose Island & in the Town of Mobile from Prosecution 
 in the Cases therein mentioned. (March 31, 1770.) 
 
 No. 42. An Act to continue an Act intituled an Act for Granting 
 unto His Majesty certain Duties and for appropriating the same to cer- 
 tain Purposes. (June 27, 1771.) 
 
 No. 43. An Act for the Punishment of Vagabonds, and other idle 
 and disorderly Persons ; and to prevent Persons hunting on the Indians 
 Grounds and trespassing on the Lands of the Crown. (July 12, 1771.) 
 
 No. 44. An Act for Establishing the method of appointing Consta- 
 bles. (July 8, 1771.) 
 
 No. 45. An Act for the better regulation of Taverns and Public 
 houses and for repealing An Act of the General Assembly of this Prov- 
 ince Entitled *' An Act for Granting of Licences and for regulating of 
 Taverns or Public Houses." (July 12, 1771.) 
 
 No. 46. An Act for Granting unto His Majesty certain Duties and 
 for Appropriating the same to certain Purposes and to Repeal an Act 
 of the General Assembly of this Province Entitled " An Act to continue 
 
LECLERC MILFORT. 547 
 
 an Act Entitled an Act for Granting unto His Majesty Certain Duties 
 and for Appropriating the same to certain purposes." (July 15, 1771.) 
 No. 47. A Bill Intituled An Act for Establishing the Number of 
 Representatives for the different Towns and Districts or Shires in this 
 Colony ; for ascertaining the rights of the Electors and the duration of 
 the Assemblys. (Oct. 23, 1778.) 
 
 U. — Leclebc Milfort. 
 
 Milfort was a Frenchman of note who left France for America in 
 1775, and in his wanderings he traversed the thirteen States. He went 
 from Augusta to the Southern Indians and was well received when they 
 learned he was a Frenchman. Among the gifts to him at Coetas he 
 mentions a pipe and a watermelon {melon d'eau) ; and these have 
 ever distinguished that section of the country. He met McGillivray 
 (which he spells Maguilvray), of whom he gives an interesting sketch. 
 McGillivray, he says, spoke English but not French, and did not know 
 the savage language very well. McGillivray took him to his home at 
 Taskiguy, occupying the site of Fort Toulouse, where he had sixty 
 nhgres, each with a cabin. Milfort established himself there with the 
 lonely chief, went with him on expeditions, and, after being petit chef 
 de guerre, was by McGillivray's influence made Tastenegy or Princi- 
 pal Chief. (Memoire, pp. 30-41.) He married McGillivray's sister. 
 
 He took a journey to the South West in 1781 in order to avoid acting 
 against the French and Americans, and mentions that in 1784 McGil- 
 livray was with chiefs at Mobile and was by " Mirau " and " Navarre " 
 created Spanish commissaire general to the Indians. Milfort was 
 himself later made second commissaire by Carondelet. He gives a 
 great many details as to Mobile, Paskagola, and other places at this 
 time. As an offset to Bowles' statements, Milfort calls that adventurer 
 a " sc^ldrat," and praises William Panton, Jean Forbes, and Laislet. 
 He mentions the Georgia " crakeurs ou gougers." It was Milfort who 
 originated the story that the Moskoquis came from Mexico and were 
 in ceaseless warfare with the Alibamons until the French reconciled 
 them. {Memoire, pp. 229, 236, 263.) 
 
 He mentions the little known fact that in 1787 the Spanish retook 
 and rebuilt the fort of the Apalaches with the consent of the Creeks. 
 
 He gives a sketch of McGillivray's life, and tells how this chief died 
 11 p. M., February 17, 1793, in the house of William Panton at Pen- 
 sacola. 
 
 His Memoire ou Coup d'ceil rapide was published at Paris in 1802. 
 The copy at the Lenox Library in New York has his autograph in the 
 copyright notice. 
 
648 APPENDIX. 
 
 V. — William A. Bowles. 
 
 This remarkable man was a native of Maryland, where he was born 
 about the middle of the 18th century. His father was a planter, but 
 the restless boy is early found in the British army. He was in Pensa- 
 cola in 1778, where for some reason he was dismissed from the service, 
 whereupon he joined the Creek Indians. One of his escapades was liv- 
 ing in a hogshead on Pensacola Bay in order to avoid pursuit. As a 
 soldier he had a good fighting record. He was one of fifty who at- 
 tacked Spanish Fort in the attempt to relieve Mobile, and he served at 
 the defense of Pensacola. With the rest of the garrison he was on the 
 surrender sent to New York. 
 
 During his intercourse with the Indians he brought in scalps to Pen- 
 sacola and he took ammunition from New Providence to the Creeks, by 
 way of St. Marks, of Apalache. He always opposed McGillivray and 
 made many a raid on the property of John Forbes & Co. He was 
 able to do this more successfully after he became the Creek com- 
 mander-in-chief. 
 
 The Authentic Memoirs of Bowles were published in London in 
 1791 and make interesting reading. He represents himself in a very 
 different light from the freebooter he is usually pictured. 
 
 W. — United States Treaties with the Indians. 
 
 (From 7 United States Statutes at Large.) 
 1. CHOCTAWS. 
 
 1. At Hopewell, on the Keowee, near Seneca Old Town. Benjamin 
 Hawkins, Andrew Pickens and Joseph Martin, Commissioners, Jan. 3, 
 1786. Witnesses, — Wm. Blount, John Pitchlynn and others. (Trade 
 and Protection.) Fage 21. 
 
 2. At Fort Adams on the Miss., Dec. 17, 1801. Benjamin Hawkins, 
 Andrew Pickens and Jas. Wilkinson, Commissioners. Witnesses, — 
 John M'Kee and others. (Road.) Page 66. 
 
 3. Fort Confederation on Tombigbee, Oct. 17, 1802. Jas. Wilkinson, 
 Commissioner. Witness, — Silas Dinsmore. (Convention.) (Bound- 
 ary.f Fage 73. 
 
 4. At Hoe Buckintoopa, Aug. 31, 1803. Signed James Wilkin- 
 son. Witnesses, — Young Gaines, Joseph Chambers, Jno. Bowyer. 
 (Boundary Review.) Page 80. 
 
 5. On Mount Dexter, in Pooshapukanuk, in the Choctaw Country, 
 Nov. 16, 1805. James Robertson and Silas Dinsmoor, Commissioners. 
 Witnesses, — John M'Kee, John Pitchlynn and others. (Cession.) 
 
 Page 98. 
 
UNITED STATES TREATIES WITH THE INDIANS. 549 
 
 6. At the Choctaw Trading House, Oct. 24, 1816. John Coffee, 
 John Rhea, John M'Kee, Commissioners. Witnesses, — John Pitch- 
 lynn, Silas Dinsmoor and others. (Cession of Land east of Tombig- 
 bee.) Fage 152. 
 
 7. At Treaty Ground, near Doak's Stand, on Natchez Road, Oct. 18, 
 1820. Andrew Jackson, and Thos. Hinds, Commissioners. Wit- 
 nesses, — John Pitchlynn and others. Page 210. 
 
 8. At Washington City, Jan. 20, 1825. J. C. Calhoun, Commissioner. 
 (Convention.) Witnesses, — Jno. Pitchlynn and others. Page 234. 
 
 9. At Dancing Rabbit Creek, Sept. 27, 1830. John H. Eaton, and 
 John Coffee, Commissioners. Witnesses, — John Pitchlynn and others. 
 (For removal west of Misoissippi.) Fage 333. 
 
 n. CBEEKS. 
 
 1. At City of New York, Aug. 7, 1790. H. Knox, Commissioner, 
 Alexander McGillivray, for the Indians. (Boundary and Protec- 
 tion.) Page 35. 
 
 2. At Colerain, June 29, 1796. Benjamin Hawkins, George Clymer, 
 Andrew Pickens, Commissioners. Page 56. 
 
 3. Near Fort Wilkinson, on the Oconee River, June 16, 1802, James 
 Wilkinson, Benjamin Hawkins and Andrew Pickens, Commissioners. 
 (Cession.) Page 68. 
 
 4. Washington, Nov. 14, 1805. H. Dearborn, Commissioner. Wit- 
 nesses, — Jas. Madison, B. Hawkins, Andrew McClary, and others. 
 (Path.) Page 96. 
 
 5. Fort Jackson, Aug. 9, 1814. Andrew Jackson, Commissioner. 
 Witnesses, ^Hawkins, R. J. Meigs, and others. (Cession and Road.) 
 
 Page 120. 
 
 6. At the Creek Agency, on Flint River, Jan. 22, 1818. D. B. Mit- 
 chell, Commissioner. Witnesses, — SI. Hawkins and others. Page 111. 
 
 7. At the Indian Spring, Jan. 8, 1821. D. M. Forney, D. Meri- 
 wether, Wm. M'Intosh, Commissioners. Witnesses, — SI. Hawkins 
 and others. Page 215. 
 
 8. At the Indian Spring, Jan. 8, 1821. I. M'Intosh, David Adams, 
 Daniel Newnan and Wm. M'Intosh, Commissioners. Page 217. 
 
 9. At the Indian Springs, Feb. 12, 1825. Duncan G. Campbell, 
 Jas. Meriwether, Commissioners. Page 237. 
 
 10. Made at the City of Washington, Jan. 24, 1826. James Bar- 
 bour, Commissioner. Page 286. 
 
 11. Supplementary Article, — To the Creek Treaty of the 24th 
 January, 1826. James Barbour, Commissioner. Page 289. 
 
 12. At the Creek Agency, Nov. 15, 1827. Thomas L. M'Kenney 
 and John Crowell, Commissioners. Page 307. 
 
550 . APPENDIX. 
 
 13. At City of Washington, Mch. 24, 1832. Lewis Cass, Commis- 
 sioner. Page 366. 
 
 14. At Fort Gibson, Feb. 14, 1833. Montfort Stokes, Henry L. 
 Ellsworth and J. F. Schermerhorn, Commissioners. Page 414. 
 
 15. At Fort Gibson, Nov. 23, 1838. Wm. Armstrong and M. Ar- 
 buckle. Commissioners. Page 574. 
 
 III. CHICKASAWS. 
 
 1. At Hopewell, on the Keowee, Jan. 10, 1786. Benjamin Haw- 
 kins, Andrew Pickens, and Joseph Martin, Commissioners. Wit- 
 nesses, — Wm. Blount and others. Page 24. 
 
 2. Chickasaw Bluffs, Oct. 24, 1801. Jas. Wilkinson, Benjamin 
 Hawkins, Andrew Pickens, Commissioners. Witness, — Malcora 
 M'Gee. (Road.) Page 65. 
 
 3. In the Chickasaw Country, July 23, 1805. James Robertson, 
 Silas Dinsmoor, Commissioners. Witnesses, — John Pitchlynn, John 
 M'Kee and others. Page 89. 
 
 4. At the Chickasaw Council House, Sept. 20, 1816. Andrew 
 Jackson, D. Meriwether and J. Franklin, Commissioners. Witnesses, 
 — Jas. Colbert, Jas. Gadsden and others. Page 150. 
 
 5. At the treaty ground east of Old Town, Oct. 19, 1818. Isaac 
 Shelby and Andrew Jackson, Commissioners. Page 192. 
 
 6. At the Council House on Pontitock Creek in the Chickasaw Na- 
 tion, Oct. 20, 1832. John Coffee, Comr. (Road.) Page 388. 
 
 7. At Washington City May 24, 1834. John H. Eaton, Comr. 
 (Convention.) Page 450. 
 
 IV. CHEROKEES. 
 
 1. At Hopewell, on the Keowee, Nov. 28, 1785. Benj. Hawkins, 
 Andrew Pickens, Joseph Martin and Lachlan M'Intosh, Comrs. Wit- 
 nesses, — Wm. Blount and others. Page 18. 
 
 2. At the Treaty Ground on the bank of the Holston, near the 
 mouth of the French Broad, July 2, 1791. William Blount, Comr. 
 Witnesses, — Jas. Robertson and others. Page 39. 
 
 3. At Philadelphia, Feb. 17, 1792. H. Knox, Comr. Page 42. 
 
 4. At Philadelphia, June 26, 1794. H. Knox, Comr. Page 43. 
 
 5. In the Council House near Tellico, on Cherokee ground, Oct. 2, 
 1798. Thos. Butler, Geo. Walton, Comrs. Witnesses, — Silas Dins- 
 moor and others. (Cession and Road.) Page 62. 
 
 6. In the Garrison of Tellico on Cherokee ground, Oct. 24, 1804. 
 Daniel Smith, Return J. Meigs, Comrs. Witnesses, — John McKee 
 and others. Page 228. 
 
 7. At Tellico, Oct. 25, 1805. Return J. Meigs, Danl. Smith, Comrs. 
 (Cession and Road.) Page 93. 
 
HISTORIC LAND OFFICES. 551 
 
 8. Same as above on Oct. 27, 1805. (Road.) Page 95. 
 
 9. At Washington, Jan. 7, 1806. Henry Dearborn, Comr. Wit- 
 nesses, — B. Hawkins, R. J. Meigs, Jno. McClary and others. (Ces- 
 sion.) Page 101. 
 
 10. Done at the point of the line at the upper end of the island, op- 
 posite to the upper part of the said Chickasaw Old Field, the 11th 
 day of Sept., 1807. Jas. Robertson and Return J. Meigs, Corars. 
 Witnesses, — Thos. Freeman and Thos. Orme. Page 103. 
 
 11. At Washington City, March 22, 1816. George Graham, Comr. 
 (Cession.) Page 138. 
 
 12. Same as above on March 22, 1816. (Convention.) Page 139. 
 
 13. At the Chickasaw Council House, Sept. 14, 1816. Andrew 
 Jackson, D. Meriwether and J. Franklin, Comrs. Ratified at Turkey 
 Town, Oct. 4, 1816. Page 148. 
 
 14. At the Cherokee Agency, July 8, 1817. Andrew Jackson, 
 Joseph McMinn and D. Meriwether, Comrs. Page 156. 
 
 15. At City of Washington, Feb. 27, 1819. J. C. Calhoun, Comr. 
 (Cession.) Page 195. 
 
 16. Washington City, May 6, 1828, James Barbour, Comr. 
 (Convention.) Page 311. 
 
 17. At Fort Gibson on the Arkansas River, Feb. 14, 1833. Mont- 
 fort Stokes, Henry L. Ellsworth, J. F. Schermerhorn, Comrs. 
 
 Page 414. 
 
 18. At New Echota in the State of Georgia, Dec. 29, 1835. Wm. 
 Carroll and J. F. Schermerhorn, Comrs. Page 478. 
 
 19. At New Echota, Georgia, March 1, 1836. J. F. Schermerhorn, 
 Comr. Page 488. 
 
 X. — Historic Land Offices. 
 
 The principal land offices in the South West are shown below. Many 
 of them have been discontinued at different dates, and in Alabama the 
 only ones now in operation are those at Huntsville and Montgomery. 
 
 Established 
 Milledgeville, Ga. 
 
 Nashville, Tenn. 
 
 Jackson Court House, Miss. March 3, 1803 
 
 St. Stephens, Ala. March 3, 1803 
 
 Huntsville March 3, 1807 
 
 Cahaba March 3, 1815 
 
 Tuskaloosa May 11, 1820 
 
 Conecuh Court Hoase May 11, 1820 
 
 Montgomery July 10, 1832 
 
552 APPENDIX. 
 
 Y. — Silas Dinsmoor. 
 
 (By his grandson, Silas Dinsmoor, M. D., of Pittsburgh, Pa.) 
 
 Silas Dinsmoor, my grandfather, was born September 26, 1766, at 
 Windham, New Hampshire. At the age of eighteen years he went to 
 Bangor, Maine, and spent one year on a farm near there, working for 
 four dollars a month. He then returned home and fitted for college 
 under the minister of his church. He graduated from Dartmouth 
 College in the class of 1791, and then taught for three years. In 
 1794, Congress having provided for the organization of a corps of en- 
 gineers, he applied for a situation, and was appointed lieutenant. At 
 this time the agency of the Cherokee Indians was vacant, and Presi- 
 dent Washington engaged him in conversation on the best methods of 
 treating the Indian tribes, then under the tutelage of the United States 
 Government. Dinsmoor unreservedly urged that the true way was to 
 teach the Indians civilization. The President asked him to resign his 
 position of lieutenant in the army, and take the position of agent to the 
 Cherokees, and he acceded. 
 
 He spent five years among the Cherokees. He then obtained a 
 situation as purser on board the ship Geoi'ge Washington, under 
 Commodore Bainbridge and made a voyage to Algiers and Constan- 
 tinople. 
 
 His success with the Cherokees brought about his appointment as 
 agent among the Choctaws. He had married Miss Mary Gordon, 
 of Hampstead, New Hampshire, in 1806, and now with his invalid 
 wife traveled by private conveyance from New Hampshire across 
 the Allegheny Mountains to Pittsburgh, where he built a flatboat 
 in which to descend the river. It took sixty-eight days to float from 
 Pittsburgh to the point on the Tennessee River nearest the Choctaw 
 Nation. While agent among the Choctaws he incurred the lasting 
 enmity of Andrew Jackson, a full account of which his descendants 
 are by no means ashamed to have known. His son, my father, was 
 born in St. Stephens, in 1816, while Grandfather was still among the 
 Indians. 
 
 Thomas Freeman was principal surveyor of the public lands of the 
 United States south of Tennessee from his appointment in September, 
 1810, to March 3, 1817, the date of the act which authorized the ap- 
 pointment of a surveyor for the northern part of Mississippi Territory, 
 and his jurisdiction as surveyor over the remainder of the Territory 
 continued until the passage of the Act of April 20, 1818, entitled " An 
 Act respecting the Survey and Sale of the Public Lands in Alabama 
 Territory." By letter dated May 10, 1818, Mr. Freeman was directed 
 
DE LA PUENTE'S MAP. 653 
 
 to transmit to the Surveyor-General of Alabama Territory all the 
 maps, contracts, field notes, and other papers appertaining to that Ter- 
 ritory. 
 
 On May 30, 1819, Thomas Freeman nominated " Silas Dinsmoor, 
 Esq.," late agent of the Choctaw Nation, as his principal deputy. 
 
 Dinsmoor was chairman of the Reception Committee that welcomed 
 Lafayette to Mobile in 1826. Shortly after this he took his family North 
 for the summer, and I think it was during this absence that he lost his 
 library, silverware, etc., in the great fire at Mobile. He surveyed 
 Spi-ing Hill before 1826, and seems to have been living there in 1828. 
 He resided for a short time in Cincinnati, and then bought a farm at 
 Bellevue, Kentucky, thirty miles by river below Cincinnati, where he 
 spent the last ten or fifteen years of his life. He died at Bellevue 
 June 17, 1847, and lies buried on a beautiful hilltop commanding a 
 distant view of the Ohio River. — See Morrison's History of Wind- 
 ham, New Hampshire, 1883. 
 
 Z. — Description in the Margin of De la Puente's Map op 1765. 
 
 Descripcion Geografica de la parte que los Espanoles posseen actual- 
 mente en el Continenti de la Florida ; Del Dominio en que estan los 
 ingleses con lexitimo titulo, solo en virtud del tradato de Paces del ario 
 de 1670. y de la Jurisdiccion que indevidamente ban ocupado despues 
 de dho. tratado, en que se manifiestan las tierra que usurpan, y se di- 
 finen las limites que deven prescribirse a una y otra Nacion, en confor- 
 midf del derecho de la Cor? de Espf 
 
 A. — Provincia de Panzacola en que Panfilo de Narvaez desembarco 
 el afio de 1528, nombrando su Puerto Sta. Cruz, tomando posesion de 
 ella por el Rey de Espana, y ^ la que Dn. Tristan de Luna llamo Santa 
 Maria el ano 1558, que oy se conoce por Santa Maria de Galvez, que 
 era Virrey de Mexico el ano de 1693. que se poblo y fortific6. 
 
 B. — Bahia de San Jose en que ententaron los Franceses establecerse 
 con un fuerte y Poblacion que erigieron el ano de 1718, pero poco des- 
 pues la abandonaron, y de orden del Marques de Valero Virrey de 
 Mexico el ano siguiente de 1719. se pobl6 con Espaiioles, embiando k 
 Dn. Gregorio Salinas Baraona por Gobernador. 
 
 C. — Castillo y Poblacion de Apalache que Dn. Joseph Primo de 
 Rivera erigio el ano de 1718. h, instancia que los Indios Apalachinas 
 hicieron al Gobernador de la Florida a fin de con su abrigo, defenderse 
 de los insultos de otras Naciones que los ingleses de Carolina solicita- 
 van. 
 
554 APPENDIX. 
 
 D. — Bahia que al Adelantado de la Floi-ida Hernando de Soto inti- 
 tule del Spiritu Santo, en la que entrb con su Armada, y dio principio 
 k su descubrimiento y derrota que hizo significada con las dos lineas 
 de puntas. 
 
 E. — Bahia de Carlos Pedro Menendez de Aviles, Adelantado de la 
 Florida el ano de 1566. estrecho alianza con el Cazique, y los suyos y 
 los dexb preparandos a recivir el Santo Evangelio y dominio al Rey 
 de Espana, que consiguio el ano siguiente de 1567. 
 
 F. — Caveza de los Martires, inclusos sus Cayos, 5 cabo de Florida, 
 que descubrio Juan Ponce de Leon en la que desembarcb el ano de 
 1512. y tambien tomb posesion por el Rey de Espana, poblada su costa 
 de Indies de la Nacion Taquesta, que oy se dicen Indias Costas, los que 
 Pedro Menendez Marquez, reduso despues a la Ley Evangelica, que 
 han abandonado, nastante que se ban mantenido y mantienen en lo 
 actual a la devocion de Espana. 
 
 G. — Poblacion y Fortaleza que erigio Pedro Menendez de Aviles, 
 con el nombre de Santa Lucia, agregandola a los Pueblos de los Indios 
 del Rio de Aix, y del contorno que havian dado la obediencia el ailo de 
 1565. 
 
 H. — El ano de 1586. Francisco Drak quemb y saqueo el Castillo 
 llamado San Juan de Pinas que los Espanoles erigieron, el que nunca 
 fue rectificado ; pero hasta los principios de este siglo, hubo Poblaciones 
 y Doctrinas de Indios Cristianos de la Nacion Joreros. 
 
 Y. — Fuerte que subsiste para la defensa de la entrada de 
 14. pies de agua, que se comunica por ella a la Ciudad de San Agus- 
 tin. 
 
 L. — Ciudad de San Agustin Capital de la Provincia del Continenti 
 de Florida, residencia de los Capitanes Gener" que subsisten desde el 
 ano de 1565. en que la f und6 el Adelantado Pedro Menendez de Aviles : 
 su barra de 20 palmos de agua en plea mar. 
 
 M. — Rio nombrado Mayo, por Juan Ribau el ano de 1562. en que 
 remato Laudanier el ano de 1564. Fundb Poblacion y Castillo con el 
 nombre de Carlesford, del que se apoderb por asalto el Adelantado 
 Pedro Menendez, esotir pando todos los Hugonotes establecidos el ano 
 de 1565. mudando su nombra en el de S. Matheo, que dex6 Guarnlcion 
 Espafiola, que se mantubo hasta el principio de este Siglo ; la entrada 
 Barra que forma el rio en la que se llama de S. Juan tiene 20. palmos 
 de agua. 
 
 N. — Sitio de Santa Cruz en que estuvieron poblados los Espanoles 
 e Indios Aimucianos, hasta el ano de 1702. en la isla inmediata forma- 
 ron los ingleses un Fuerte y Poblacion, el ano de 1736. que quema- 
 ron y ebacuaron el mismo ano por instancia y reconvenciones que 
 Dn. Antonio Arredondo embiado de parte del Capitan Gral de la isla 
 
DE LA PUENTE'S MAP. 655 
 
 de Cuba, hizo Dn. Diego Obleptorpe que la havia fomentado indevida- 
 mente. 
 
 0. — Barra de 12. palmos de agua, e isla de S. Martin en que bubo 
 Poblacion y Doctrina Espanola basta el ano de 1702. 
 
 P. — Barra de 12. palmos de agua e isla de S. Pedro, en que bubo 
 Poblacion de Indios Cristianos y Guarnicion Espanola, basta el ano de 
 1702. y desde seis anos k este parte bay una torre de Madera con Ar- 
 tilleria inglesa. 
 
 Q. — Barra de Gualquini de 3. braxas de agua en media mar, isla de 
 S. Simon principal de la Provincia de Guale, en que se ban mantenido 
 poblados Espanoles sus parciales, basta el ano de 1719. que los ingleses 
 de Carolina construyeron un f uerte en las bocas de Talage alias el ta- 
 masa en el que existieron basta el ano de 1727. que lo demolieron y 
 abandonaron ; y en el de 1733. bolvieron k establecerse en la referi 
 ada isla, con Poblacion y f ortificaciones en ambas Puntas, con el nombre 
 de Nuevo Federico actual mente, nostante las Espafloles con un Arma- 
 ment© dispuesto por el Capitan Gral. de la Havana la tai'de del 16. de 
 Julio de este ano forzando el Puerto, asolaron, destruyeron y quemaron 
 los dos Castillos de la boca, la Poblacion, diferentes Casos de Campo y 
 Estancias, nueve embarcaciones, otro Castillo en la Barra de Bejeses, 
 y pusieron en fuga al Gral Ogleptorpe con los suyos al abrigo del 
 Bosque impenetrable de la isla, y de la Fortaleza de la Villa de 
 Federico. 
 
 R. — Barra de 16. palmos de agua e isla de Ballenas, que estan 
 establecidas los ingleses, con un pequeno fuerte de Estacas y ta- 
 blas. 
 
 S. — Boca de Talage arriba nombrado alias Tamasa Rio de Sa. 
 Ysavel. 
 
 T. — Barra de poco fondo e isla de Zapala, Provincia de Guale en 
 q® bubo Poblacion Espanola basta el ano de 1686, que sus Pobladores 
 se retiraron a S. Simon. 
 
 X. — Barra de poco fondo e isla de Santa Catarina, Provincia de 
 Crista en que bubo Poblacion Espanola basta el ano de 1686, que aban- 
 donaron retirandose a S. Simon, de aqui k S. Agustin el ano de 1702. 
 Esta Provincia es la que Lucas Basquez de Aillon desembarcb h intitulb 
 Sa. Elena el ano de 1520, 
 
 Z. — Barra de Penasa, entrada h isla de Asaba, despoblada. 
 
 1. — Barra de poca agua e isla de los Bajos. 
 
 2. — Barra de la Cruz de poca agua cuya entrada es el No de Sabana 
 en q* los inglf como 8. leguas adentro tienen la Poblaz" Principal de 
 Nueva Georgia, y rio arriba como 100 millas la ciud^ de Savana, b 
 Savanaton. 
 
 3. — En la entrada f und6 Juan Rebaut, una Pob°° con el nombre de 
 
556 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 Carolina el aflo de 1562. esto es 40 aiios despues de haver desenib"*" en 
 ella Lucas Basq^' de Aillon, y el aiio de 1563. fue abolida p' los mismoa 
 Franz* hasta q* el ano de 1566. fue poblada por el Adelant**" de Flor' 
 Pedro Menendez, j fortificada con un Castillo que nombr6 S. Felipe, 
 el que existio con Gov" y trapa Espaiiola hasta el ano de 1686. reti- 
 randose & Sa. Catarina, y de alii k S. Simon, y viendose hostilizados 
 de los ingls. fe indios de su devocion, y apoderado se las dhos. ingl' lo 
 Uaman desde el referido ano P'° R' o S. Jorge, esta es la posesion y 
 Fortaleza mas Septentrional que tubieron los Espafioles. . . . 
 
 4. — Posesion en que estan los ingl' desde el ano de 1665. 
 
 6 y 6. — Condadas y Senorios con Patentes de los Reyes Jacobe 1°. 
 Carlos 1°, y Carlos 2° coudesencidas a sus Vasallos. 
 
 7. — Cabo y Bahiade Sa. Maria, y Provincia de Virginea que Pedro 
 Menendez Marquez Sobrino del Adelantado descubrio y reconocio el 
 afio de 1573, y que Walthera Reiling pobl6 con el nombre de Virginea 
 en el ano de 1574. y el ano siguiente de 75, abandonaron hasta el aSo 
 de 1606. que Cristoval Newpot bolbio apoblar erig^° lo Ciudf de Jacobe 
 en el rio Poutan. 
 
 Havana y Mayo 25 de 1765 = Juan Josef Alixio de la Puente. 
 
 Z 1. — Marriages since the American Capture. 
 1813. 
 
 Date. 
 
 Mar. 3. 
 
 Apr. 27. 
 
 May 20. 
 
 June 10. 
 
 July 5. 
 
 July 19. 
 
 July 22. 
 
 Sept. 16. 
 
 Oct. 1. 
 
 Dec. 19. 
 *Aug. 19. 
 *Sept. 15. 
 
 Wm. Lyons. 
 Mathew B. Anger, 
 Daniel Jusan. 
 Wm. H. Davis. 
 Michael Perrault. 
 Littleton Lecatt. 
 Alex. Miller. 
 Stephen Spaulding. 
 Jno. Hatcher. 
 Wm. Plumley. 
 John Jones. 
 Jas. Roney. 
 
 Woman. 
 
 Polly Cole. 
 Margaret Tarvin. 
 Marguerite Chastang. 
 Sarah Conway. 
 Elizabeth Chastang. 
 Ann Surtell. 
 Susan Dougherty. 
 Nancy Myers. 
 Patsey KiUcrease. 
 Patsey Conway. 
 Nancy Levings. 
 Louison Dunmore. 
 
 Person Officiating. 
 
 Wm. PoUard, J. Q. 
 L. K. Mervin, J. P. 
 Theoph. Powell, J. P. 
 Alvan Robeshow, J. P. 
 Vicente Genin, priest. 
 Alvan Robeshow, J. P. 
 Theoph. Powell, J. P. 
 Theoph. PoweU, J. P. 
 Alvan Robeshow, J. P. 
 Alvan Robeshow, J. P. 
 
 Feb. 7. 
 
 Feb. 22. 
 
 June 26. 
 
 June 27. 
 
 Ang. 25. 
 •Apr. 29. 
 *May 30. 
 *June 4. 
 •Dec. 24. 
 
 Wm. McMullin. 
 Peter Laurendine. 
 David Tate. 
 John Meek. 
 Raymond Atkison. 
 John Dias. 
 Richard Dealy. 
 Jacob Chighezola. 
 Frederick Hartley. 
 
 1814. 
 
 Sarah McKennich. 
 Elizabeth Burrows. 
 Penny Coleman. 
 Mary Penton. 
 Winney Holly. 
 Kitty Kline. 
 Marcelle Dumouy. 
 Louisa Baptiste. 
 Peggy Broughton. 
 
 Alvan Robeshow, J. P. 
 Alvan Robeshow, J. P. 
 Alvan Robeshow, J. P. 
 Alvan Robeshow, J. P. 
 Alvan Robeshow, J. Q. 
 
AMERICAN MARRIAGES. 
 1815. 
 
 557 
 
 Date 
 
 . 
 
 Feb. 
 
 13. 
 
 Dec. 
 
 25. 
 
 *May 
 
 22.' 
 
 *May 
 
 23. 
 
 *June 12.1 
 
 *Aug. 
 
 4. 
 
 *Oct. 
 
 12. 
 
 *Jan. 12. 
 
 »Feb. 1. 
 
 Feb. 5. 
 *May 24. 
 *Oct. 4. 
 
 Jno. Galloway. 
 Theron Kellogg. 
 
 Thos. G. Newbold. 
 Antonio Hindemberg. 
 Thos. Bier (Blair). 
 Thos. Doggett. 
 Thos. W. DaUey. 
 
 Jos. Krebs. 
 
 Patrick Byrne. 
 
 Wm. Chenault. 
 Thos. Powell. 
 Laz. I. Bryars. 
 
 *Feb. 4. 1 Louis Dumouy. 
 
 Malachi Simmons. 
 Augustine Lacost. 
 Chas. B. Evans. 
 Francis Rigisby. 
 Joshua Kennedy. 
 M. Mitcbam. 
 Richard Tankersley. 
 Thos. Benson. 
 Jas. D. CilboTirne. 
 Peter Swear. 
 Basile Krebs. 
 
 Feb. 18. Henry S. Neil. 
 
 Apr. 
 
 25. 
 
 July 
 
 19. 
 
 Aug. 
 
 11. 
 
 Oct. 
 
 21. 
 
 Dec. 
 
 15. 
 
 *Jan. 
 
 8. 
 
 *Apr. 
 
 3. 
 
 *May 
 
 16. 
 
 *July 
 
 10. 
 
 *Aug. 
 
 31. 
 
 *Sept. 
 
 8. 
 
 July 15. 
 
 Deo. 8. 
 
 Dec. 13. 
 
 Dec. 15. 
 
 Dec. 19. 
 
 Dec. 27. 
 *Jan. 1. 
 *Feb. 5. 
 *Feb. 6. 
 *Feb. 17. 
 *Feb. 23. 
 * April 8. 
 *May 13. 
 *May 26. 
 *June 18. 
 *June 22. 
 *June 25. 
 
 »Aug. 21. 
 *Aug. 25. 
 *Dec. 3. 
 
 Joseph Suarez. 
 Samuel Davis. 
 Alex. A. Deimy. 
 Herbert Jones. 
 Gamaliel Bell. 
 Gabriel Lewis. 
 Wm. Crowell. 
 Jas. Magee. 
 Peter L. Trouillet. 
 Theron Kellogg. 
 Hugh Woollerd. 
 Robert Carr Lane. 
 Aloysius Stewart. 
 Geo. R. Pinkham. 
 Jepthah Shaw. 
 Jos. Chas. Lioni. 
 Fercol Victor Gannard. 
 
 Samuel Brannan. 
 Thos. Weathers. 
 A. Hindemberg. 
 
 Louisa Ballard. 
 Eliza Beeber. 
 
 Barbara Cadet. 
 Genevieve Kreps. 
 Euphrosie Damoan. 
 Claire Carman. 
 Delphine Weekes. 
 
 1816. 
 
 Eleanor Hendinberg 
 
 (widow). 
 Catharine Caperton 
 
 (widow). 
 Jane Felix. 
 Tabitha Field. 
 Mary Smith. 
 
 1817. 
 
 I Irene Gurlotte. 
 
 1818. 
 
 Mary Billing. 
 Elizabeth Hartley. 
 AUey Davidson. 
 Elizabeth Roper. 
 Susan Kitchen. 
 Elizabeth Cole. 
 Gertrude Mottus. 
 Eliza Brashears. 
 Harriet Cole. 
 Margaret Gamble. 
 Caterine Dupont. 
 
 1819. 
 
 Margaret Shay. 
 
 Elizabeth Foster. 
 Elizabeth Weekley. 
 Ermeline Drake. 
 Elizabeth Shaw. 
 Emily Conell. 
 Elizabeth Edduy. 
 Rebecca Lambert. 
 Mary Connor. 
 Marcellite Fisher. 
 Margaret Killiher. 
 Elizabeth Dawson. 
 Mary S. Dade. 
 Elizabeth Barney. 
 Eliza M. Bleecker. 
 Elizabeth Baley. 
 Margaret Clair Girard. 
 Elizabeth Perault 
 
 (widow). 
 Becky Weathers. 
 Betsy Barnett. 
 Delelely (Delilah ?) 
 
 Conway. 
 
 Person Officiating. 
 
 Alvan Robeshow, J. Q. 
 Alvan Robeshow, C. J. 
 Orphans' Court. 
 
 Thoa. PoweU, J. Q. 
 
 Thos. PoweU, J. Q. 
 Nicholas Cook, J. P. 
 Nicholas Cook, J. P. 
 Thos. Powell, J. Q. 
 Cyrus Sibley, J. Q. 
 
 Alvan Robeshow, C. J. 
 
 Orphans' Court. 
 Nicholas Cook, J. P. 
 Cyrus Sibley, J. Q. 
 D. Duvol, J. P. 
 D. Duvol, J. P. 
 D. Duvol, J. P. 
 D. Duvol, J. P. 
 
658 
 
 APPENDIX. 
 1820. 
 
 Date. 
 
 Man. 
 
 Woman. 
 
 Person Officiating. 
 
 Jan. 6. 
 
 Chas. Bancroft. 
 
 Rebecca Wheathers. 
 
 D. Duvol, J. P. 
 
 Jan. 11. 
 
 Cyrus Beardsley. 
 
 Hepsay Johnson. 
 
 D. Duvol, J. P. 
 
 Feb. 20. 
 
 Wm. Stanmire. 
 
 Winifred Latson. 
 
 Wm. Cooiidge, Judge 
 County Court. 
 
 Mar. 1. 
 
 Wm. PoUard. 
 
 Joice Barlow. 
 
 Cyrus Sibley, Judge 
 County Court. 
 
 June 14. 
 
 Robt. R. Dade. 
 
 Mary Thomson. 
 
 H. V. Chamberlain, 
 C. J. County Court. 
 
 June 26. 
 
 Jas. Wallace. 
 
 Anna Develin. 
 
 H. V. Chamberlain, 
 C. J. County Court. 
 
 Aug. 16. 
 
 Capt. Abra. L. Sands, 
 U. S. A. 
 
 Maria A. Tabele. 
 
 H. V. Chamberlain, 
 
 
 
 C. J. County Court. 
 
 Sept. 3. 
 
 Chas. Merrit. 
 
 Mary Forsythe. 
 
 H. V. Chamberlain, 
 C. J. County Court, 
 
 Sept. 14. 
 
 Wm, Hall. 
 
 Laura Mervin. 
 
 H. V. Chamberlain, 
 C. J. County Court. 
 
 Dec. 10. 
 
 Michael S. McNamara. 
 
 Hipolite Saucier. 
 
 H.V Chamberlain, J. P. 
 
 Dec. 24. 
 
 Jas. Jackson. 
 
 Eunice Shidtes. 
 
 H. V. Chamberlain, 
 C. J. County Court. 
 
 *Jan. 20. 
 
 Jas. Johnson. 
 
 Elizabeth Allen. 
 
 
 *Feb. 8. 
 
 John Doughty. 
 
 Anne S. Fox. 
 
 
 *Mar. 11. 
 
 Robert German. 
 
 Isabella Allen. 
 
 
 *Apr. 25. 
 
 Wm. Isaacs Ingersoll, 
 
 Catherine Espaho. 
 
 
 »Apr. 28. 
 
 Francis Renova. 
 
 Betsy Antonio, 
 
 
 *Apr. 29. 
 
 Thos. F. Lewis. 
 
 Rosanna AUeyn (?) 
 
 
 *Oct. 5. 
 
 Moses Broadhurst. 
 
 Elizabeth Rogers. 
 
 
 *Dec. 16. 
 
 Wm. Erst. 
 
 Maria Bates. 
 
 
 1821. 
 
 Jan. 1. 
 
 Wm, H, Robertson. 
 
 Jane Toulmin. 
 
 H. V. Chamberlain, 
 C. J, County Court. 
 
 Jan. 20. 
 
 Constant Fer, 
 
 Frances Simpson. 
 
 R. Tankersley, J. P. 
 
 Jan. 31. 
 
 Dominique Salles. 
 
 Natale Herpin. 
 
 H. V. Chamberlain, 
 C. J, County Court. 
 
 
 
 Feb. 15. 
 
 Jas. P. Bates, 
 
 Lidia Bates. 
 
 R. Tankersley, J. P. 
 
 Mar, 11, 
 
 Jas, Taylor, 
 
 Susannah Anderson. 
 
 Enoch Bouton, or- 
 dained minister. 
 
 Apr, 9, 
 
 Wm, Roberts. 
 
 Elizabeth Elliott 
 
 H. V. Chamberlain, 
 
 
 
 (widow). 
 
 C. J. County Court. 
 
 Apr. 24. 
 
 Jossue Seifert. 
 
 Rosalie Fonerent. 
 
 R. Tankersley, J. P. 
 
 May 28. 
 
 John Fyffe. 
 
 Catharine Williams. 
 
 H. V. Chamberlain, 
 C.J. County Court. 
 
 Oct. 16. 
 
 Jesse Goodsil. 
 
 Mary Johnston, 
 
 R. Tankersley, J. P. 
 
 Oct. 30. 
 
 John Lovell, 
 
 Maria Elliott. 
 
 R. Tankersley, J. P. 
 
 Nov. 10. 
 
 Ebenezer Johnson. 
 
 Amelia Elwood. 
 
 R. Tankersley, J. P. 
 
 Nov, 22, 
 
 PhiHp Cato. 
 
 Rosanna King. 
 
 Jas. Myers (office not 
 given). 
 
 *May 7, 
 
 Wm. Robertson. 
 
 Lavinia Sims, 
 
 *May 13. 
 
 Theoph. L. Toulmin. 
 
 Arminthe (?) Juzan, 
 
 
 *Aug, 15. 
 
 Benj. Laurendine. 
 
 Eloisa Collins, 
 
 
 *Dec, 1. 
 
 Jas. Ridley. 
 
 Aim Miller. 
 
 
 *Dec, 19, 
 
 Joseph Wheeler. 
 
 Agnes Snyder. 
 
 
 *Dec. 24, 
 
 Calderwood Mason. 
 
 Sally Lott. 
 
 
 NoTB. — The first entries under each year are taken from the returns by the officers, found 
 mainly on the licenses ; but those marked with an asterisk (*) have no such returns, and, includ- 
 ing date, are taken from the bond always given against legal impediments. Such bond date may 
 not always be that of the marriage. In one case, not given in the list, the bond was dated 
 
AMERICAN MARRIAGES. 559 
 
 January, 1820, and the ceremony was not until January, 1822. But, as the licenses and returns 
 are lost, the bond is in these cases the only record evidence tending to show the marriage. 
 
 Among the sureties are some names of prominence. In the Hindemberg bond of 1815 we 
 thus find C. Perez ; in that of Renova, 1820, is Jose Ortis ; to that of William H. Robertson, 
 1821, is Philip McLoskey ; to that of Constant Fer is S. Acre ; to that of T. L. TouUnin is N. 
 Pope ; and on that of Laurendine we find Ramon de Soto. Silvain Mottus files a written con- 
 sent to the marriage of Oertrude Mottus (Espejo), his step-daughter, the ceremony to be by 
 " Padre Bicente Hinere ; " as does John King, Jr., next year, to that of his step-daughter, Eliza 
 M. Bleecker. 
 
 It will be observed that almost all the marriages were before civil officers, such as justice of the 
 peace (or of the quorum), or judge of the orphans' or county court. This ia in part accounted 
 for by the fact that there was no regular Protestant miuiater. 
 
NOTES. 
 
NOTES. 
 
 Preface. Some account of the Iberville Historical Society is given by 
 A. C. Harte in 1 Gulf States Hist. Mag., p. 273. An account of the Louisiana 
 Historical Society by Alc^e Fortier is on page 337 of the same volume. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 Page 8. The Indian remains of the South West have never been fully 
 explored or even described. In Georgia much has been accomplished by 
 the works of C. C. Jones, particularly his Southern Indians, smd. for Tennessee 
 by Thruston's Antiquities of Tennessee, and there is much relative to the Indi- 
 ans themselves in Claiborne's Mississippi, Pickett's Alabama, and Cushman's 
 Choctaws and Chickasaws, the Report of Alabama History Commission, Report 
 of the Mississippi History Commission, Publications of the Alabama and Missis- 
 sippi Hist. Societies, etc. A review by O. D. Street of Mooney's Myths of the 
 Cherokees is in 1 Gulf States Hist. Mag., p. 432. 
 
 Of late years Clarence B. Moore has conducted explorations on the rivers 
 and coast of Alabama and Florida for the Philadelphia Academy of Natural 
 Sciences, and has embodied the results with elaborate illustrations in reports 
 published in its transactions. Of these may be mentioned in vol. xi., " Ab- 
 original Remains of the Alabama River," " Antiquities of the Florida West- 
 Coast," " Aboriginal Remains of the Tombigbee River ; " and in vol. xiii., 
 " Aboriginal Remains of the Black Warrior River (Mound ville)," " Aborigi- 
 nal Remains of the Lower Tombigbee River," " Aboriginal Remains of Mo- 
 bile Bay and Mississippi Sound." 
 
 Nothing, can compare in this field with the annual reports of the Bureau 
 of American Ethnology, but in the period since 1881, when they begin, ef- 
 forts have been principally directed to the living Indians of the West, and 
 little has been done as to the Southern antiquities. The Bureau in 1881 is- 
 sued an important Catalogue of Prehistoric Works east of the Rocky Moun- 
 tains, giving a list of those by States And counties, but it is necessarily brief 
 and imperfect. This list for Alabama is adopted as the basis of the Alabama 
 History Commission Report of 1900, p. 358. 
 
 Among other papers in the Alabama Department of Archives and History 
 is a collection known as the Blue Manuscripts. These are notes made by 
 Mr. M. P. Blue for a projected history of Alabama and contain information 
 from pioneers and others in different counties. Among them are some 
 memoranda as to Indian remains. 
 
 From Talladega he was informed by A. Bowie that a Spanish silver dollar 
 of 1519 was found in leveling a mound at Boiling Springs. From Baldwin, 
 
564 . NOTES. 
 
 Origen Sibley reported that on Joseph Hall's plantation there was a series 
 of mounds, the largest being rectangular, three hundred and fifty by two 
 hundred and fifty feet, about fifty feet high and nearly level on top. From 
 them were derived pots, pans, beads, clay images, busts, Spanish gun-bar- 
 rels, swords, and the like. There had been a Spanish stockade on the Per- 
 dido, near Joseph Swarres (Suarez). 
 
 The principal antiquity in Dallas noted by Blue was a circular ditch at 
 Cahaba, which in 1819 was from five to six feet deep, and from twelve to 
 fifteen feet wide. Within it at a commanding point was a mound eight to 
 ten feet high and sixty to seventy feet in diameter. Many clay pots, jugs, 
 and the like were found about it. It ran from below the state capitol to 
 near Babcock and Fulks' receiving warehouse. This information was given 
 by William Curtis, who had been in Dallas County since 1819. This work 
 was by tradition assigned to De Soto or the French, but it was much more 
 likely of Indian origin. 
 
 In Blount, Butler, Chambers, St. Clair, Talladega, and Sumter counties Blue 
 mentions that mounds were found, but apparently they had not been opened. 
 
 An account of Alabama mounds is given by Owen in 4 Alabama Historical 
 Society Publications, p. 235, and Indian jasper ornaments are described in 
 1 Miss. Hist. Society Publications, p. 91. 
 
 Gatschet has been credited with explaining Mobile as meaning Paddlers ; 
 but he seems to have derived this from H. S. Halbert, long resident among 
 the Mississippi Choctaws, who gives it in his Creek War, p. 22. Halbert 
 gives an account of the Naniwaya Mound in 2 Miss. Hist. Society Publ., p. 223. 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 Page 11. Professor Fortier, in his History of Louisiana, p. 249, agrees that 
 the Spiritu Santo was the Mobile. The lamented John R. Ficklen, likewise 
 of Tulane University, also assented to the reasoning in Colonial Mobile on 
 this subject. 
 
 Page 13. My attention was called by Harry Pillans to Scaife's erroneous 
 translation of Baia de Culata. Instead of meaning " muddy," which would 
 not apply to the lower bay, it means " gunstock bay," which is quite a happy 
 characterization of the shape of this sheet of water. 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 Page 17. As to De Soto's route in Florida see book on that subject by 
 John Wescott, an experienced surveyor. It is reviewed by C. A. Choate in 
 1 Gulf States Hist. Mag., p. 342. The events of the expedition are given in 
 Irving's Conquest of Florida and Grace King's De Soto and his Men in the 
 Land of Florida. 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 Page 30. For some Catholic missions see Annie B. Lyon's article in 2 Gulf 
 States Hist. Mag., p. 186. 
 
 Page 32. Dr. W. S. Wyman has called attention to the account by Davilla 
 Fadilla as throwing light on the Spiritu Santo River. 
 
NOTES. 665 
 
 In July, 1560, some companies of Luna's men went up to Coga to get 
 provisions. At the request of the Co^as the Spaniards agreed to assist 
 them in a campaign against the Napoches, a revolted tribe. The Co(jas 
 defeated the Napoches and ran them out of one of their towns, searched the 
 woods, but could not find them. Then follows : — 
 
 " No es possible (dixeron) sino que el miedo los ennemigos cobraran sabi- 
 endo que venian los Espaiioles con nosotros, les hizo sospechosa la seguridad 
 de los montes, y se fueron a esconder en la gran agua. Quando los Espa- 
 noles oyeron el nombre de grande agua, entendieron que devia ser la mar: y 
 era sono un rio grande que nosotros Uamamos el de Espiritu Santo, y nace 
 entre unos grandes montes de aquella tierra de la Florida. Es muy hondo 
 con dos tiros de arcabuz en ancho. En cierto passo que los Indios sabia, se 
 estendia mas el rio en lo ancho, perdiendo de su hondura, y podia vadearse, 
 como le avian passado los Napoches del primo pueblo, y los de otro que 
 estava a la ribera de aquel rio, qui en oyendo las nuevas tambien le des am- 
 pararon, passando las agiias de Oquechiton, que assi le llaman los Indios a 
 aquel rio, y quiere decir en nuestra lengua, La grande agua." — Historia de 
 la Fundacion y Discurso de la Provincia de Santiago de Mexico de la orden de 
 Predicadores par las Vidas de sus varones insignes y casos notables de Nueva 
 Espagna: Por el maestro Fray Augustin Davilla Padilla. Ed. Sectinda. En 
 Brusseles. MDCXX V. 
 
 Dr. Wyman translates this as follows : — 
 
 " ' It must be,' the Coosas said, * that the fear with which the Napoches 
 were filled, knowing that the Spaniards were coming with our men, made 
 them distrustful of the mountains, and they sought concealment at the big 
 water.' When the Spaniards heard the name, ' big water,' they thought 
 that it meant the sea ; but it was only a great river which our men call the 
 river of the Holy Spirit which has its source among some large mountains in 
 that land of Florida. It is very deep and has a width of two harquebus 
 shots. At a certain crossing place which the Indians were acquainted with, 
 the river is broader but not so deep, and could be forded as the Napoches of 
 the first town had crossed it. Those of the other town, which was on the bank 
 of the river, on hearing the news likewise fled, crossing over the waters of 
 ' Oquechiton.' This is the name given by the Indians to that river, and it 
 means in our language ' the big water.' " 
 
 In Barcia's Ensayo Cronologico " Oquechiton " is perversely spelled 
 "Ochechiton," and Dr. Shea in his Ancient Florida (Winsor's Nar. and Crit. 
 Hist., vol. ii.) has followed Barcia in this spelling. 
 
 In pure Choctaw, says Wyman, "Oka chito " means "the big water." 
 In the Hitchitee and the Stinkard dialects of the great Choctaw-Muskokee 
 stock the final vowel of original Choctaw " Oka " is weakened by plionetic de- 
 cay into " Oke," which is the Alabama word also for water. The Coosas 
 must have been closely allied in blood and language to the Alabanias. They 
 certainly were not pure Muskokees. " Oke Chito " in the language of the 
 Coosas was doubtless the regular form for " big water." 
 
 H. S. Halbert discusses Nanipacna in 2 Gulf States Hist. Mag., p. 130. 
 He translates it as " Hill top." 
 
666 . NOTES. 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 Page 40. Marquette records in his journal that he put his journey under 
 the protection of the Holy Immaculate Virgin and vowed that if she gave 
 him the grace to discover the great river he would name it Conception. 
 
 Page 42. The documentary history of the Le Moynes is given by Jodoin 
 and Vincent in their Hisloire de Longueuil, Montreal, 1889. 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 Page 52. The fort in August, 1704, had sixteen eight and twelve pounders, 
 and contained a one-story house 68 X 16 feet, of squared timber, with " gal- 
 erie," a shingled magasin, 40 X 16, a frame, shingled church 62 X 16, a 
 similar building for corps de garde and used also as an " entrepot " for arms 
 and munitions. There was a city as well as a fort, and in this ville were a 
 thatched shop and forge and another building for the armorer. (4 Magne, 
 MS. Notes, p. 103.) 
 
 One side of the powder magazine is still intact, defined by the flat, sun- 
 burned bricks of that day. Its discovery was due to Gary W. Butt of the 
 Iberville Historical Society. On the occasion of the Bicentennial Celebra- 
 tion in 1902, Mr. Butt in walking along the bluff fell into the cavity, and 
 while struggling to keep away from the river pulled out several of the bricks. 
 
 Page 53. There was an interesting bicentennial celebration of the found- 
 ing of Fort Louis held at the bluff on Jan. 23, 1902. The oration of P. J. 
 Hamilton is found in 1 Gulf States Hist. Mag., p. 1. 
 
 Halbert says that bois blanc is more properly the sycamore than the cotton- 
 wood. Marquette in his journal names both at once, — " cotoniers et les 
 bois blancs." 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 Page 64. Casser la teste is to tomahawk. 
 
 Page 66. These ladies, curiously enough, laid the blame on the Bishop of 
 Quebec. (Magne, MS. Notes, p. 115.) Bienville reports, Sept. 6, 1704, that 
 all the girls were then married. 
 
 Page 68. La Salle's report of Aug. 31, 1704, says that the houses were 
 on streets drawn " au cordo," and were covered with straw or latteinier 
 which he explains as being leaves as large as fans. He probably refers to 
 the palmetto. 
 
 Page 69. The superieure des filles tried to be useful by applying herself to 
 the manual and also the spiritual instruction of the Indian girls. 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 Page 70. The hahitants, according to the Magne MS. Notes, sent a me- 
 morial to France asking that Bienville be immediately sent back. La Salle, 
 now that Iberville is dead, accuses him of peculation. Boisbriant reports 
 that La Vente was unbearable. A little known item in the quarrel between 
 governor and commissaire concerns Mme. La Salle. Once in the absence of 
 
NOTES. 567 
 
 her husband she was keeping the magasin and declined to honor a requisi- 
 tion. Bienville reprimanded her and she was indignant at his conduct. Voila 
 lafemme! 
 
 Page 71. Some of the accusations of La Salle probably grew out of the 
 retention by Bienville of half the goods sent for the Indians. Bienville did 
 this for the purpose of buying supplies when none came from France. On 
 Feb. 20, 1710, he writes Pontchartrain that he had been pursuing this policy 
 for ten years ; and it was the salvation of the colony. La Salle said all the 
 Canadians were lazy and ranged the woods, and therefore he advocated 
 bringing peasants from France. 
 
 Page 73. I am inclined to think that the Cadapouces were really the ad- 
 jacent Talapouces instead of the faraway Catawbas. Spelled Canapouces, 
 they are mentioned among the Indians welcoming L'Epinay on Dauphine 
 Island. {Post, p. 150.) 
 
 Page 74. The settlement on Dauphine Island was named Port Dauphin, 
 thus honoring both the heir apparent and his wife. 
 
 D'Artaguette made a thorough investigation. The answers of a number 
 of habitants to his searching interrogatories were sent to France in 1708 and 
 are preserved in the Correspondance Generale de la Louisiane. 
 
 The change of name of Mobile and of Massacre Island is mentioned in 
 Bienville's Memoire of Oct. 27, 1711. 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 Page 79. D'Artaguette opposed marriage with Indian women not so much 
 on account of deterioration of blood as that instead of making the French- 
 men settle down, it confirmed them in their wandering life. Remonville, on 
 the other hand, favored such marriages as a matter of policy so as to attach 
 the natives to the French. 
 
 Page 80. " Jean de Can" is no doubt the same as "Jean Le Camp." It 
 is often difficult to make out the orthography of the church registers, where 
 misspelling is not uncommon and has variants in different entries. La Salle's 
 report of the population for 1706, given by Alc^e Fortier, settles the proper 
 spelling. (See 1 Fortier's Louisiana, p. 52.) 
 
 Page 82. Mardi Gras celebrations in the South began with the pranks 
 perpetrated by the soldiers at Fort Louis. 
 
 CHAPTER XL 
 
 Page 94. Cadillac had become a persona nan grata in Louisiana as early as 
 1710 from instructing the Miamis and Ouyatanons to rob any one going South 
 from Canada. Graveline and La Source, for instance, had come to Mobile by 
 Pontchartrain' s permission, bringing their families, and nevertheless suffered 
 in this way. (Bienville's dispatch of Feb. 20, 1710.) We do not know 
 Cadillac's side of this, however. Graveline was a merchant, and his name 
 has been preserved in a bay of Dauphine Island. 
 
 Page 95. St. Denis succeeded in opening a contraband trade by means 
 of a Spanish priest. Their correspondence shows the good father's conscience 
 
568 NOTES. 
 
 in a tangle between his desire to get the cheap goods of the French and yet 
 keep in with his compatriots. Much light is thrown on the subject in Gar- 
 rison's Texas, chapter v. 
 
 The adventurous M. You seems to be called Hughes in the Carolinian 
 records. There was also a Mr. Young who made a map of the Louisiana 
 coast. 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 Page 99, Among the commissions issued by Law's Company now surviv- 
 ing may be mentioned that of Sept. 17, 1717, to Boisbriant as commandant 
 of Mobile and vicinity ; Dec. 31, 1717, the brevet of aide-major at Mobile 
 to Nouet de Grandval, and on Feb. 25, succeeding, he was made major there ; 
 Feb. 14, 1718, Le Gac was made director at the comptoir de Visle Dauphine ; 
 March 14, 1718, L'Arcebault was made director general of Louisiana au 
 comptoir de la Mobile^ and on the same day Duverger was commissioned garde 
 magasin et ieneur de livres at the same place, and Sauvage given the corre- 
 sponding position at Dauphine Island. 
 
 Page 100. Macarty Mactigue, born 1706, son of a captain in the regiment 
 of Albemarle, was long in the service of France. He entered the Musket- 
 eers in 1713 and became captain in Louisiana in 1731, and four years later 
 he was aide-major at New Orleans. He was sent to the Illinois, where as 
 commander of Fort Chartres he was a leading figure in the South West until 
 1761. Bienville speaks highly of him, especially in regard to his attention 
 to detail and discipline. Villiers du Terrage has preserved a letter from 
 him in regard to the British attack on Niagara. He died at New Orleans, 
 April 20, 1764. 
 
 See Dernieres Annees de la Louisiane Franfaise, p. 103. 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 Page 107. Halbert would rather translate Naniaba as " Hill Above." 
 
 Page 108. On Sept. 1, 1700, Bienville reports that the English savages had 
 destroyed the Apalaches, — De Soto's and Narvaez' acquaintances. Of the 
 32 captured, 17 were burned, including three "pferes Cordeliers." There 
 were, out of the thousands who had lived near the Florida coast, only 400 
 left, and these had now fled to him for protection. (Magne, MS. Notes, 
 p. 108.) 
 
 Page 112. The Apalaches migrated to Red River in Sept. 1763. {Dernieres 
 Annees de la Louisiane, p. 161.) 
 
 There is much yet to be learned about the Touacha Indians. Two series 
 of large mounds remain in Baldwin County, said to be the site of " Ta- 
 washa," — traditionally said to be a chief, but really a tribal name. They 
 are near Dolive or " Tawasha " Creek. The larger group consists of a 
 central mound, probably twenty-five feet high, surrounded by half a dozen 
 or more of a smaller size. The other group has possibly a still larger 
 mound on the brow of a high hill sloping down to the creek. The usual 
 arrowheads and potsherds have been found on the surface. The soil is 
 clay and stony and could hardly have been thrown up into such command- 
 
NOTES. 569 
 
 ing mounds except by a large population. Indians lived on the mounds within 
 the memory of people now alive. The map of Crenay, 1733, shows them on 
 the east side, although there is no record of their migration from the west- 
 ern. Halbert doubts whether the " Toucha " on the western side can be a 
 worn down form of " Touacha." However, it is not a question of pronuncia- 
 tion, but of maps. Some early draftsman might readily omit one letter. 
 
 Page 113. Bienville accounts for the Choctaw immigration from Florida 
 by their not being allowed firearms by the Spaniards. (Magne, MS. Notes, 
 p. 108.) 
 
 Page 115. See article of John R. Swanton on the Tensaw language. In 
 1806 Jos^ de Gabriel describes them as a branch of the Natches, still pre- 
 serving a sacred fire, confided to the men alone. 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 Page 122. Charlevoix describes and even pictures many of the familiar 
 Southern plants. Among them may be mentioned acacia, cassine, aster, 
 bignonia, ginseng, jasmine, ipecacuanha, laurel, myrtle, persimmon (plak- 
 minier), plane, saracenia, sassafras, smilax, tulip, and tupelo, beside live oak 
 and many other varieties of oaks. In each case after the botanical name is 
 a page or so of description. This occupies the second half of the fourth 
 volume, but is a separate work from his history. Many of the plates are 
 very accurate. 
 
 Page 124. A census of 1726 had shown two hundred and sixty maitres at 
 La Mobille, and two at Dauphine Island. 
 
 Page 129. The contemporaneous map by Broutin spells the place of battle 
 as A^k^a. Other forts adjacent were Tchouka falaya and Apeony. 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 Page 133. The principal reason for Indian restlessness is to be found in 
 the difficulty the French had during war time in securing from France the 
 presents for the natives as well as their own supplies. Vaudreuil's letters 
 show that there was apprehension of descents by Oglethorpe and the Eng- 
 lish fleet. On the other hand, conditions in France were bad. Famine often 
 prevailed, industries declined, and public affairs were so mismanaged at home 
 that it was not surprising little aid reached the colonies, the more especially 
 as Maurepas neglected the navy. (See 2 D'Argenson's Memoirs, pp. 4, 126, 
 127, etc.) D'Argenson labeled the government a " spendthrift anarchy " 
 (p. 150). 
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 Page 142. As to missions, see article of Annie B. Lyon in 2 Gi^lf States 
 Hist. Mag., p. 242. 
 
 CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 Page 152. The word given haugard on the map is probably hangar, shed. 
 The long building bears the name Sovager, and in British times was called 
 " Indian Assembly House." I am inclined to think that toumee, which names 
 
670 NOTES. 
 
 the street, is connected with the Indians, as if it were the Indian house and 
 street for Indian ball game and the like. The hangar at Mobile is mentioned 
 in Derniires Atmees de la Loitisiane, pp. Go, 157. 
 
 Page 154. The parade of the fort was in the interior of the square 
 bounded by Royal, Theatre, St. Emanuel, and Church streets. 
 
 CHAPTER XX. 
 
 Page 166. Remonville writing in June, 1710, says that a score of comfort- 
 able houses had already been built on Massacre Island. 
 
 As to the attack by the " corsaire de la Jamaique," D'Artaguette, writing 
 Jan. 11, 1711, says it was piloted b\' a " fanatique " (j. e., a refugee Hugue- 
 not) who had been at Massacre in a brigaiitiue of Martinique. 
 
 Page 16S. In 1718 the post ou the island was ofticially abandoned and ef- 
 fects taken in part to New Orleans and iu part to Mobile. Next year and 
 in 1720 there were deliberations ou the island by the Couseil de Commerce, 
 and on the latter occasion it was decided that the troops should evacuate the 
 place. 
 
 CHAPTER XXII. 
 
 Page 188. The west part of this Danville map has received special study 
 from H. S. Halbert iu 3 Miss. Hist. Society Publications, p. 367. An inter- 
 esting supplement to it from the collection of Gatschet is given in Riley's 
 School History of Miss., p. 16. Danville is mentioned by D'Argenson as 
 an eminent geographer. 
 
 Page 196. A study of the Yoani or Hiowanni Choctaws will be found in 
 6 Miss. Hist. Society Publications, p. 403. See, also, Halbert on the Six Town 
 division iu Ala. Hist. Comm. Report, p. 380. 
 
 The three Choctaw divisions cornered in the southwestern part of what 
 is now Kemper County, Miss., at what was called Cunshak-Boliikta, and ex- 
 tended thence north, south, and west. Halbert gives the three divisions as 
 follows: (1) Eastern, in Kemper County and eastward, — Ahepat-Okla., 
 potato-eaters. (2) Six Towns, in Jasper County and southward, — Okla.- 
 Hannali. (3) Long People, westward to the Yazoo, — Okla.-Falaiya. A 
 full study of these divisions is given b_v Halbert in Report of Alaba/na 
 History Co7nmission, 1900, pp. 375-386. The Six Towns were those in closest 
 touch with the French, and it may be due to this fact that their political 
 organization was much broken up. 
 
 CHAPTER XXIV. 
 
 Page 214. As to paper money and bons, their form and history, see Dev' 
 nieres Annees de la Louisiane, pp. 126, 135, 137, 144. 
 
 CHAPTER XXVIII. 
 
 Page 252. The plan of Mobile from Roberts' Florida is that of Pitman 
 still in the British archives. The original is different only in giving south- 
 
NOTES. 671 
 
 west of the fort the reference " 2. Parsonage," in marking a cross on the 
 bluff just northeast of the fort, in specifying the barracks and " officers bar- 
 racks," and naming the " Indian Assembly House." 
 
 CHAPTER XXX. 
 
 Page 274. In digging to lay sewer connections on Theatre Street in Octo- 
 ber, 1909, there were found two or more skeletons embedded in shell lime 
 mortar between St. Emanuel and Conception streets. Whether this was 
 meant to destroy or preserve is not clear, but it at least preserved the skele- 
 tons intact. An article on this old French graveyard is found in the Mobile 
 Register of Oct. 8, 1909. 
 
 CHAPTER XXXI. 
 
 Pages 276-287. On Romans' names as well as other Choctaw words, see 
 Halbert's article in 3 Ala. Hist. Society Publications, p. 64. He thinks 
 Sookhanatcha means Possum River ; Bashailawaw, Sedge Grass Plenty ; 
 Hatchause, Little River ; Chickianoee (i)roperly Chickianoce), Buzzard 
 Roost ; Isawaya, Bending Sycamore ; Atchatickpe, River Knob. Halbert 
 and Wyman differ so widely that I prefer to give the versions of both. 
 Halbert doubts if Tagouacha has any connection with Touacha and thinks 
 it is the Choctaw Takon-asha, Plum place. 
 
 CHAPTER XXXIV. 
 
 Page 307. A fuller statement of the British Colonial system and particu- 
 larly the functions of the Board of Trade will be found in Hamilton's Colo- 
 nization of the South, 1907, chapter viii. See, also, Egerton's Short History 
 of British Colonial Policy. An account of West Florida, substantially as 
 read before the American Historical Association at their meeting in New 
 Orleans in 1907, will be found in 7 Miss. Hist. Society Publications, p. 399. 
 
 CHAPTER XXXVI. 
 
 Page 332. Leclerc Milfort was at Mobile in Spanish times when Favrot, 
 a French Creole, was commandant. He describes it as " un petit paradis 
 terrestre," where the inhabitants — there were only forty land owners — 
 while not rich were perfectly happy. Hunting and fishing were very abun- 
 dant, fruits and vegetables as good as in Europe. So plentiful were water- 
 fowl that loaded guns were kept behind the doors. Drinking water was 
 brought from a stream (ruisseau) about a league away. Naval stores made 
 an important industry. Tar was run off in ditches from pitch pine (boi^ gras), 
 and turpentine (terebenthine) obtained by cutting a sloping hole in the tree 
 about a foot from the ground, with a vessel below to catch the sap. 
 
 Milfort reports Favrot as saying that the Ijrick fort could be razed in two 
 hours by a " piece de quatre." (See Milfort's Memoire, pp. 52-57.) 
 
572 NOTES. 
 
 CHAPTER XXXIX. 
 
 Page 352. Espejo's property was really north of tne wharf. The Spanish 
 idiom would seem to account for this and similar mistranslations in docu- 
 ments. The idea intended doubtless is that, say, of land which is bounded 
 south by the wharf, but it is rendered as lying south of the wharf. 
 
 Page 354. Spanish policy as to the Mississippi is discussed by D. Y. 
 Thomas in 2 Gulf States Hist. Mag., p. 343, and by F. L. Riley in 1 Miss. 
 Hist. Society Publications, p. 50, and 3 Ibid., p. 261. 
 
 Page 357. A valuable Spanish commentary on the running of the de- 
 marcation line is found in the report made by Sir Wm. Dunbar to the Span- 
 ish authorities, published in 3 Mississippi Historical Society Publications, p. 
 185. Dunbar was in a literary and scientific way the most eminent man of 
 his day in the South West. A sketch of his life by F. L. Riley is found in 
 2 Mississippi Historical Society Publications, p. 85. The Spanish policy on the 
 Mississippi after the Treaty of San Lorenzo of 1795 is discussed by F. L. 
 Riley in 1 Mississippi Historical Society Publications, p. 50, and the " Transition 
 to American Control" by the same author in 3 Ibid., p. 261. 
 
 The Spanish evacuation of St. Stephens was the subject of a centennial 
 celebration in May, 1898. An address by P. J. Hamilton, as well as the 
 other proceedings, will be found in 3 Alabama Historical Society Publications, 
 pp. 195-227. 
 
 CHAPTER XL. 
 
 Page 367. Shea has published Peualver's ordinances, providing for ser- 
 vices, morality, and for care of the Indians. 
 
 CHAPTER XLI. 
 
 Page 377. The date or dates of the removal of the small tribes near 
 Mobile cannot be precisely fixed, and it may be that some individuals re- 
 mained until they died. A manuscript Descripcion Historica de la Luisiana 
 por D. Jose de Gabriel y Estenos, Teniente Coronel del Real Cuerpo, dated 
 1806, names a number of these nations, but it is not quite clear whether he 
 is speaking of the present or the past. The Apalaches he mentions are 
 those of Florida, and they were few and scattered in the mountains of that 
 name. The Chatots or Chatas he says are few, but Christian and affable, as 
 are the Tomez, north of Puerto Louis. The Taensas are next north and 
 consist of one hundred families. He gives the Movilianos as in the same 
 vicinity. All these nations, he says, speak a language akin to the Chica- 
 chas, whom they hold for brothers. 
 
 Of the larger tribes he mentions the Chactas as the most numerous and 
 peaceful, the Chicachas as much reduced in population, the Cherokees as 
 being with the Iroquois the most independent pueblos of America. The Ali- 
 bamons were inclined to the French, and east of them are the Caouistas, who 
 traded both with French and English. The Abeikas and Conchacs are north 
 of the Alibamons and are as one pueblo, divided in two by swift rivers. 
 
NOTES. 673 
 
 CHAPTER XLII. 
 
 Page 381. The genesis of the judicial system begins with the territorial 
 law of Feb. 28, 1799, establishing the Superior Court and requiring a term 
 to be held annually in each county. A term was accordingly held for the 
 District of Washington at Mcintosh Bluff on the fourth Monday in Septem- 
 ber, 1802, Chief Justice Seth Lewis presiding. Lewis was a native of Massa- 
 chusetts. This was the first session of any court in the district, and such 
 were the inconveniences of travel from Natchez that no term was held the 
 next year. In 1804, however, Justice David Ker held court at Mcintosh 
 Bluff on the first Monday in May. 
 
 Congress had already on March 27 legislated to aid the Bigbee set- 
 tlers by providing a resident judge for the District of Washington, to have 
 the jurisdiction up to that time exercised by the superior court. President 
 Jefferson appointed to this position Ephraim Kirby, a distinguished citi- 
 zen of Connecticut, one of the land commissioners for the territory east of 
 Pearl River, and who had as such already visited Fort Stoddert. Kirby 
 came and held at most one term of court, but died Oct. 20, 1804, at Fort 
 Stoddert, where he was buried. Judge Harry Toulmin was Kirby's suc- 
 cessor. 
 
 The precedent of a separate district was copied for Madison in 1810, where 
 Judge Jones presided in gown, the attendant sheriff armed with a sword. 
 In 1818 came a Middle District. With statehood there was a reorganiza- 
 tion, circuit courts taking the place of the older system. 
 
 See article of T. M. Owen on the Judiciary, in Smith and Deland's 
 North Alabama, and his monograph on Kirby in 1901 Proceedings Ala. Bar 
 Association, p. 167. 
 
 The laws were first those of the judges published in 1799. The earliest 
 related to the Militia and with others is discussed by Dunbar Rowland in 
 1 Gulf States Hist. Mag., p. 270. The first legislature modified many of 
 these. Then came the session acts, digested by Toulmin in 1807 and 
 Edward Turner in 1815. Toulmin also made the Alabama Digest of 
 1823. 
 
 Lynch's Bench and Bar of Mississippi gives a great deal of information as 
 to early laws and lawyers, such as Toulmin (p. 21), Poindexter (p. 29), 
 Turner (p. 84), etc. 
 
 Letters showing conditions at St. Stephens in 1810 are given in 1 Gulf 
 States Hist. Mag., p. 443. 
 
 Page 382. What are called the Yazoo Frauds, which really benefited the 
 Tennessee Valley, are discussed so fully by Pickett, Jones, and others, that, 
 pursuing the plan of devoting special attention to new material, I have 
 given little space to this subject. Recent papers throwing light on the Land 
 System of the Tennessee Yazoo Co. will be found in 1 Gulf States Hist, Mag., 
 p. 141, and on the S. C. Yazoo Co. on p. 358. 
 
 Page 385. A bibliography of Burr may be found in 2 Gulf States Hist. 
 Mag., p. 379. 
 
 A letter from Winthrop Sargent is published in 1 Ibid., p. 140. 
 
574 ' NOTES. 
 
 CHAPTER XLIV. 
 
 Page 398. Henri de la Francia was finally paid in 1849 for the guns he 
 sold Kemper for West Florida. They were used by the Americans at New 
 Orleans and Attorney-General Reverdy Johnson held the United States lia- 
 ble as the successor. (1 La. Hist. Society Publ., p. 24.) As to relations 
 of that State to Louisiana, see Newcombe vs. Skipwith, 1 Martin La. Rep., 
 p. 151. 
 
 The text covers West Florida history so far as concerns the country to the 
 east. It may be added that the two conventions had different surroundings. 
 That of July 17, 1810, presided over by John Mills and Dr. Steele, secretary, 
 was not due to desire for independence of Spain, but to opposition to France, 
 which seemed to dominate Spain. The resolutions adopted expressed these 
 views. Delassus seemed to approve the movement and was himself made 
 governor. He signed the proclamation declaring the new government. 
 
 Delassus, however, considered the arrangement as provisional and urged 
 Folch to repress the movement as an insurrection. This was regarded by 
 the leaders as treachery, and the second convention was held, which issued 
 a declaration of independence, a copy of which was sent to the President of 
 the United States. (4 Gayarrd's Louisiana, pp. 229-243.) In the capture 
 of the fort at Baton Rouge the gallant young Louis de Grandprd lost his 
 life. (See Favrot's article in 1 La. Hist. Society Publications, Pt. II., pp. 
 37-46, Pt. III., pp. 17-30.) 
 
 A study by Henry E. Chambers of West Florida and its Relation to the 
 Historical Cartography of the United States forms one of the Johns Hopkins 
 University Studies, and was published in May, 1898. 
 
 Letters of Robert Smith, American Secretary of State, in November and 
 December, 1810, forbidding any American attack on Mobile, are given in 
 1 Gulf States Hist. Mag., p. 441. 
 
 CHAPTER XLVII. 
 
 Page 420. Halbert on a study of the Brown MS. thinks that Claiborne 
 has done more than justice to Dale, who could hardly write and was a rough 
 character. He lived at what is now Causeyville, Miss. The date of Tecum- 
 seh's visit has been discussed by Halbert, who comes to the conclusion that it 
 was in the fall of 1811. See 4 Ala. Hist. Society Publications, p. 28. 
 
 Page 422. It is only right to add that Weatherford, who was as trust- 
 worthy as he was brave, denies that any prisoners were burned. 
 
 Wilkinson died in the city of Mexico in 1825, and was buried there. See 
 1 Gulf States Hist. Mag., p. 287. For sketch of Hawkins, see 2 Jbid., p. 300, 
 and also 3 Ga. Hist. Society Collections, Part I., p. 5. 
 
 Page 425. The inscription on Pushmataha's grave reads as follows, each 
 paragraph being from a different side of the monument : — 
 
 " Push-ma-ta-ha / a / Choctaw Chief / lies here / This monument to his 
 memory is erected by his Brother / Chiefs / who were associated with him / 
 in a / Delegation / From their nation in the year 1824 to the General Gov- 
 ernment / of the / United States. 
 
NOTES. 575 
 
 " Push-ma- ta-ha was a warrior /of great distinction./ He was wise in 
 Council./ Eloquent iu an extraordinary / degree / and on all occasions and 
 under all circumstances / The White man's friend. 
 
 " He died in Washington / on the 24th of December, 1824,/of the croup, 
 in the/60th year of his age. 
 
 " Among his last words / were the following : / ' When I am gone, / let 
 the big guns be fired over me.' " / 
 
 The notes of Horace Tatum on the river survey have been published in 
 2 Ala. Hist. Society Publications, p. 130. 
 
 CHAPTER LI. 
 
 The boundaries of the State of Alabama, except on the west, are those of 
 the old Mississippi Territory. The running of the southern boundary is dis- 
 cussed in an article on EUicott's Line found in 2 Miss. Hist. Society Publi- 
 cations, p. 157. 
 
 A strip twelve miles wide along the northern boundary was originally 
 acquired by the United States from South Carolina in 1787, when the States 
 agreed to the request of the Confederation to cede their western lands. It 
 became a part of Mississippi Territory when the boundaries were extended 
 in 1804. Politically, therefore, as well as commercially, the two States were 
 connected. 
 
 The eastern boundary will be found discussed in an elaborate note, pre- 
 pared by Judge R. C. Brickell, to the section of the Code of Alabama defin- 
 ing the State boundaries. The western line is the subject of an article by 
 J. H. Bankhead in 2 ^ la. Hist. Society Publications, p. 90, and is fully treated 
 by F. L. Riley in his article on the " Boundaries of Mississippi " in 3 Miss. 
 Hist. Society Publications, p. 167. 
 
 N. B. — As to the identification of the Conchaques (pp. 59, 107) it may 
 be said they were more probably Coosadas than Apalachicolas. Somewhat 
 more light on the location of Cahouitas (p. 202) is afforded by the French 
 map of the middle of the 18th century found in this volume. The Georgia 
 Colonial Records recently printed (vol. 7, pp. 522-524) give a list of traders 
 licensed in 1760 for the Creek country, with significant blanks for some of 
 the posts under French influence. 
 
 As this book is going through the press the American Historical Review 
 (October, 1909, and January, 1910,) prints a number of contemporary docu- 
 ments showing Spanish-American relations on the Mississippi River, par- 
 ticularly as to Georgia's proposed Bourbon County about Natchez. 
 
 The HoUinger inscription (p. 257) reads as follows : — 
 
 SACRED / To the Memory of MADAME / MARY JOSEPHINE HOL- 
 LINGER / who departed tliis life / on the 27ti» of March 1836, / aged 70 
 years / Born in Mobile in 1766, she lived to witness its rise through various 
 changes of Goverment, / to the Commercial Metropolis of a Free / Peo- 
 ple. / She was a devoted wife, an affectionate / Mother and a constant 
 friend, and left / numerous descendants and a large circle / of acquaintances 
 to lament her loss. / ERECTED BY HER CHILDREN. 
 
576 NOTES. 
 
 Among the Vine and Olive colonists (p. 465) who afterwards came to 
 Mobile to live may be mentioned the Ravesies, Chaudrons, Cluis, and also 
 Geo. N. Stewart, an American, who was for a while secretary of the Phila- 
 delphia association. Jean Simon Chaudron was a refugee from San Do- 
 mingo. He was a man of wide culture and author of note. He delivered at 
 Philadelphia a celebrated oration on Washington. He is buried at Mobile, 
 where his descendants still reside. 
 
 Among recent books on later periods of Alabama which throw light also 
 on early times are The Catholic History of Alabama and Floridas, by Mother 
 Austin Carroll, Methodixm in Alabama, by Anson West, The Baptists East 
 of the Mississippi, by B. F. Riley, Plant Life of Alabama, by Charles Mohr, 
 and the Story of Coal and Iron in Alabama, by Ethel Armes, which has just 
 appeared. The illustrations in W. G. Brown's School History of Alabama 
 (1903) and the maps by T. A. Taylor in L. D. Miller's School History of 
 Alabama (1901) greatly aid in the study of the times to which they relate. 
 Miller's book has an appendix based on Colonial Mobile. Other works may 
 be found in Owen's Bibliography of Alabama. 
 
 Plans of Fort Louis. — The two plans of the first Fort Louis (1702 and the 
 other somewhat later) given in this volume furnish many details hitherto 
 unknown as to this establishment. The first shows the original settlement 
 extending from the creek to the fort, with powder magazine in front. It 
 gives the names of some residents, but no street names. The second shows 
 a settlement of possibly one thousand people, including colonists and garri- 
 son, clustered in three districts. The first is the old settlement near the 
 creek, the second extends westwardly from the fort, and the third is grouped 
 about Le Marchd. The well is unmistakable, and a word resembling " puy " 
 (puits, well), is immediately below it. Street names are given on this second 
 plan, but they relate mainly to prominent residents on the respective thor- 
 oughfares. Only the names St. Joseph and St. Frangois were brought down 
 the river to the new site, unless the present Royal is to be regarded as a 
 reminder of the Place Royale surrounding the fort. Rues d'Yberville, 
 Boisbrillant, Serignie and Bienville are exceptions to the practice of changing 
 the street names every few blocks, — obtaining then as now in Paris and 
 other old cities. It grew out of the absorption of small settlements into an 
 all-embracing metropolis. 
 
 Possibly the most interesting feature revealed by the second map is the 
 location of the cemetery (Simetierre) near the Seminaire. This plan gives 
 the names of over one hundred residents, including Tonti, Juchero, St. Denis, 
 Le Sueur, Penegau, Le Freniere, Le Can, as well as that distinguished ro- 
 mancer, "Matieu Sajan " (Mathieu Sagean). The fort is of palisades, and 
 the west side is taken up by the church, which is surmounted by steeple and 
 the Gallic cock. A study of the plan will be found in the Mobile Register 
 of March 4 and 6, 1910. 
 
INDEX 
 
INDEX. 
 
 N. B. — The paging (exclusive of Appendix) wUl show the period. Thus, Early Spanish is pp. 3-36 ; 
 French, pp. 39-217; British, pp. 221-817; Second Spanish, pp. 321-415; American, pp. 411M84. Early- 
 American atfairs north of the Demarcation Line, however, necessarily fall in the Spanish section. 
 The original documents in the Appendix (Spanish, t'rench, and English) as well as tlie final Notes 
 are included in the Index. Alternate spellings are given in parenthesis. 
 
 Abeca, 73, 202, 229, 278, 533. 
 
 Aberdeen, 276. 
 
 Abjuration of heresy, 146. 
 
 Acadians, 270. 
 
 Ackia, battle, 128. 
 
 Acre, S., 389, 440, 510. 
 
 Acts, W. Florida, 542. 
 
 Adair, 125, 205, 208, 209, 246. 
 
 Adams, Fort, 379. 
 
 Administration of Estates, French, 161, 
 170, 178, 183; Spanish, 347, 348. 
 
 Admiralty chart, 260, 288. 
 
 Agriculture, Indian, 5; French, 72, 84, 123, 
 175, 177, 178; Spanish, 328, 395, 404, 513. 
 
 Alabama, on Mississippi, 302. 
 
 Alabama, Basin, importance, 4, 223 ; river, 
 4, 136; Jackson on, 426; Survey by Ta- 
 tum, 426; Steamers, 472; no Indians on 
 lower river, 202, 375. 
 
 Alabama Territory, 438, 460; counties, 461 ; 
 centres, 465; State, capital, 463; admit- 
 ted, 466 ; Indians, 474 ; boundaries, 575. 
 
 Alcalde, 322, 341. 
 
 Alibamons, origin, 20, 63, 65, 189; First 
 French War, 189; in 1708, 73; District, 
 189, 229; mission, 193; French traders, 
 203, 205. 
 
 Alligator, 197, 516. 
 
 Allouez, Claude, 39, 77. 
 
 Alvarez, D., 506, 510. 
 
 "America," 345. 
 
 American character, 438. 
 
 Amusements, pioneer, 392; Indian, 456. 
 
 Ancrum, George, 225, 253. 
 
 Andry (Andr6), Simon, 286, 329, 368, 428, 
 446, 504, 505, 510; exchange with Favre, 
 494. 
 
 Antonio (Antoine), 364, 368. 
 
 Apalache, 17, 201, 553. 
 
 Apalaches, on the Mobile, 66, 103, 568 ; on 
 Tensaw River, 158, 271, 513 ; slaves, 78 ; in 
 church registers, 109, 147; feast of St. 
 Louis, 109; names, 110; change of site, 
 111; cur6. Ill, 112; river, 112; migrate to 
 Red River, 568. 
 Apalachian barrier, 5, 201, 210. 
 Appraisement, 370. 
 Apprenticeship, Spanish, 346. 
 
 Archives, French, 134, 155; British, 294, 
 544; Spanish, 322. 
 
 Areola, 464. 
 
 Arpent, 361. 
 
 Arquebusiers, 80. 
 
 Arrowheads, 6, 107. 
 
 Artillery, 411, 430. 
 
 Assembly, W. Florida, 304; Mobile mem- 
 bers, 305; apportionment, 305; acts, 545; 
 titles, 542. 
 
 Assize, 442. 
 
 Atahachi, 21. 
 
 Attachment, Spanish, 342; British, 543, 
 546. 
 
 Aubert, 160, 192, 194. 
 
 Aubry, 253, 262. 
 
 Auction, 253, 336, 347. 
 
 Augusta, 208, 209, 240 ; treaty, 240, 536. 
 
 Austin, Jerry, ride, 421; canoe light, 423; 
 later life, 425 n. 
 
 Baily, Dixon, 421, 427. 
 
 Baily's Tour, 395. 
 
 Bakehouse, French, 152; English, 271; 
 Spanish, 357. 
 
 Baker, 127, 344, 352. 
 
 Baldwin County, 391, 462 n. 
 
 Ball play, 189. 
 
 Bank, Tombeckbee, 439; Mobile, 447, 482. 
 
 Banse (Baunse), 242, 247. 
 
 Baptism, 72; lay, 78, 140; ordinance, 489; 
 register, 77. 
 
 Baptists, 393. 
 
 Bar, British, 259 n. 
 
 Bark, 261, 277. 
 
 Barracks, 260, 271, 272. 
 
 Barrenness, Jeffreys, 215. 
 
 Barter, 160. 
 
 Barton, Willoughby, 458 n. 
 
 Bartram, travels, 297; sees Miragoine, 301 ; 
 sylvan scene, 299; at Pensacola, 300. 
 
 Basket, Thomas, 306; Creek, 308. 
 
 Bassett's Creek, 391, 394. 
 
 Bateau, 222, 225, 226. 
 
 Baton Rouge, 312, 398; revolt, 398; cap- 
 tured, 401, 574. 
 
 Battle House, site, 504. 
 
 Baudain (Bodin), 155, 515. 
 
580 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Baudin Tract, title, 493. 
 
 Bauclouin, 144. 
 
 Bayou, 186. 
 
 Bayou la Batr6, 136, 171, 327. 
 
 Bayou Sara, 510. 
 
 Bazares, expedition, 30. 
 
 Beads, 195, 204, 206. 
 
 Bear, 285, 286, 290, 342. 
 
 Beasley, Major, 421. 
 
 Beaubois, 144. 
 
 Beauchamps, 137, 287. 
 
 Beaudrot, 190. 
 
 Beaujeu, abandons La Salle, 41. 
 
 Beavers, 54, 58, 60, 61, 278. 
 
 Beebe tract, 515. 
 
 Beef, 230, 208, 290, 514. 
 
 Bees, 290, 300. 
 
 Bellefontaine, 515. 
 
 Bellona, 123. 
 
 Benton, Col., 427, 428. 
 
 Bernhard, Duke, 371, 475 n. 
 
 Bernoudy, family, 141, 161, 194. 
 
 Bernoudy, R., 495, 496, 501. 
 
 Bernoudy Tract, title, 495. 
 
 Bibb, W. W., Governor, 460, 466. 
 
 Bicentennial, Mobile, 566. 
 
 Biedma, 15. 
 
 Bienville Square, site, 506. 
 
 Bienville, as sailor, 42; founds Mobile, 52; 
 debts, 530; as governor, 66, 181; and Ca- 
 dillac, 97; residence, 88; Cross of St. 
 Louis, 98; thinks of marriage, 98; gov- 
 ernor second term, 99; chateau, 100, 137; 
 Bellona, 123; third term, 124; retires, 
 130; memoir of, 92, 529; before Choiseul, 
 216; death, 202; Indian supplies, 567. 
 
 Bigbee District, 381, 386. 
 
 Bignonia, 299, 569. 
 
 Bill of sale, slaves, 357. 
 
 Billiards, 441, 442, 446, 504. 
 
 Biloxi, Iberville at, 45, 46 ; Joussette map, 
 46; abandoned, 52; New Biloxi, 102; 
 Spanish, 518. 
 
 Bishops (see Church and respective 
 names). 
 
 Bit, 256, 442. 
 
 Biumvirat, 182, 532. 
 
 Black Code, 123. 
 
 Black drink, 65, 299. 
 
 Blacksmiths, 370. 
 
 Black Warrior River, 281. 
 
 Blakeley, Josiah, islands, 405, 514; alle- 
 giance, 404; residence, 405; letter, 404; 
 spelling, 407; at Mobile, 439, 440; last 
 years, 450; death, 443, 450. 
 
 Blakeley, town, incor]iorated, 449; streets, 
 449 ; map, 449 ; decline, 450; steamboats, 
 471. 
 
 Blakeley Island, title, 497. 
 
 Blankets, 204, 206, 432, 539. 
 
 Block, 160. 
 
 Blondel, 65, 81, 84, 100, 103. 
 
 Blood Hospital, 496. 
 
 Blue Mss., 563. 
 
 Blue, Major, 428, 435. 
 
 Board of Trade, acts, 307, 571. 
 
 Boarding House, 271. 
 
 Boats, 54, 55, 74, 173, 197, 222, 273, 331, 335, 
 470, 543, 544. 
 
 Bob6, 148, 161. 
 
 Bodins, 170, 366, 515. 
 
 Boisbriant, 47, 63; wounded, 69; lady su- 
 perior, 69; lot, 88; commandant, 99; in 
 Illinois, 100, 124. 
 
 Bois bleu, 163. 
 
 Bolyny, 314. 
 
 Bon Secours, 516. 
 
 Bonapartist, 464, 465. 
 
 Bons, 214. 
 
 Books, Eon's, 348. 
 
 Bosage (Bausage, Bousage), 327. 
 
 Bossu, 186, 197, 214. 
 
 Botany, Charlevoix, 186 ; Bartram, 299. 
 
 Boucane, 184. 
 
 Boundary, Louisiana, 72; Choctaw, 242, 
 275; Creek, 244, 273,289; Choctaw-Chick- 
 asaw, 277; Ellicott, 354. 
 
 Bouquet, Gen., 258; life, 541. 
 
 Bourgeois, 179. 
 
 Bowles, W. A., 373, 547, 548. 
 
 Bowyer, Fort, 415, 430, 464; first battle, 
 
 431; second, 434; garrison, 434 n. 
 Bowyer, John, 411, 430. 
 Boyano, 34, 35, 521. 
 Branch, 195, 245, 447. 
 Bread, 413, 442. 
 Bready, 505. 
 Brick, 272, 289. 
 
 Brick Houses, 271, 272, 377, 482. 
 Brickyards, 361, 495, 516. 
 Browne, Montfort, 259, 260, 269, 270, 301. 
 Buckatunna, 242, 276. 
 Buckej-e, 299. 
 Building Ordinance, 448. 
 Bulbulli, 170. 
 Bull, 325, 529. 
 Burial, ordinance, 489. 
 Burning alive, 127, 423, 574. 
 Burnt Corn, 421. 
 
 Burr, Aaron, expedition, 383; plans, 384; 
 capture, 384; trial, 384; bibliography, 
 573. 
 Busk, 8, 189. 
 Bute, 216. 
 
 Bute, Fort, 224, 312. 
 Butler, T. L., 429. 
 Butt, C. W., 566. 
 Byrnes, 513, 519. 
 
 Cadillac, in Canada, 94 ; arrives in Louis- 
 iana, 94; daughter, 97; in Illinois, 97; 
 trade, 94; recall, 98; Fish River grant, 
 155. 
 
 Cahaba, 467, 551 ; River, 428. 
 
 Cahouita, 202, 229. 
 
 Calaboose, 445. 
 
 Caller, James, 389, 421. 
 
 Calumet, 197. 
 
INDEX, 
 
 581 
 
 Calvert, Mrs., 434. 
 
 Campbell, Gen., 311; marche8 to Tensaw, 
 315; surrender, 317. 
 
 Campbell Town, 305. 
 
 Camp Meeting, 393. 
 
 Campo Santo, 365, 371. 
 
 Canada, 39, 214. 
 
 Canes, 278, 283, 286 n., 464. 
 
 Cannon, 181, 194, 217, 222, 288, 411, 428, 482. 
 
 Canoe, 278. 
 
 Canoe fight, 423. 
 
 Cantankerous, 306. 
 
 Canterbury, innkeeper, 235. 
 
 Cantonment, 432, 510. 
 
 Capital, colonial, 174. 
 
 Capuchins, 143, 147, 366. 
 
 Carlos Bay, 554. 
 
 Carmelites, 111, 143. 
 
 Carney's Bluff, 284, 
 
 Carolina, S., 54, 467. 
 
 Carondelet, 339. 
 
 Carpenter, 81, 370, 519. 
 
 Carriages, 185, 347. 
 
 Carrifere, 110, 137, 273, 323, 518. 
 
 Carson, J., 389; W., 413, 415. 
 
 Carthagena pirates, 63. 
 
 Cassette girls, 124. 
 
 Cassine, 65, 299. 
 
 Catawba, 465. 
 
 Catholics, 392 (see Church). 
 
 Cattle, 52, 160, 230, 245, 251, 255, 258,259, 323, 
 341, 344, 405, 429, 500, 515, 543; as money, 
 160, 515. 
 
 Cauchi, 34, 521, 525. 
 
 Cedar, 87, 156, 198. 
 
 Cemetery, French, 88; Spanish, 365, 371; 
 American, 371, 448. 
 
 Census (see Population), 1708, 528. 
 
 Centibogue (Sentibogue), 243, 244, 284. 
 
 Centinel, Mobile, 394. 
 
 Cessions, Indian, 382, 455, 456 n., 548. 
 
 Chabert, 197, 222 ; Tombecb6 orders, 532. 
 
 Chancery Court, British, 295. 
 
 Chaney, B., 344. 
 
 Chaouanons, 95. 
 
 ChapeUe, 348, 489. 
 
 Charleston, 201, 205, 209, 234, 454 n. 
 
 Charleville, 203. 
 
 Charlevoix, 186. 
 
 Charli, 210. 
 
 Charlotte County, 543, 545. 
 
 Charlotte, Fort, named, 217; repairs 1763, 
 252; Sowers' Report, 271 ; bricks wanted, 
 289; repairs, 1777,266,309 ; garrison, 255 ; 
 cannon, 288, 481 ; esplanade, 337, 502 ; re- 
 pairs, 1793, 338 ; surrender by Perez, 412 ; 
 condition on Jackson's arrival, 428 ; 
 Dinsmore's map, 479 ; road over glacis, 
 476 ; Bernard's report, 478 ; Hubbard's 
 map, 479 ; sale, 478 ; demolishing walls, 
 481 ; Spanish, 502. 
 
 Charlotte St., 482. 
 
 Charpentier, S., 506. 
 
 Chartres, Fort, 100, 127, 177, 224. 
 
 Chastangs, French, 138, 187 ; Spanish, 493, 
 5U4, 510, 514. 
 
 Chateaugue (also Chasteauguay, etc.), ar- 
 rival, 47, 58 ; company, 65, 527 ; expedi- 
 tion 1708, 73 ; in church records, 78, 81 ; 
 house, 89, 92, 94 ; at Pensacola, 101 ; Cay- 
 enne, 124; rescues crew, 166; Bellona, 
 123. 
 
 Chattos, 113, 137. 
 
 Chaumont, concession, 103. 
 
 Cherokees, in De Soto's time, 18 ; in 1708, 
 73 ; English trade, 206, 207 ; Priher, 208 ; 
 Adair, 208 ; cessions to United States, 
 .382. 
 
 Chester, Peter. Governor, 301, 304, 305, 306. 
 
 Chetimachas (Schitimacha), 64, 108, 110, 
 114. 
 
 Chiaha, 18, 34, 36, 202, 521, 522, 524, 525. 
 
 Chicasabogue, 109. 
 
 Chickasaha, 276. 
 
 Chickasaws, De Soto, 26, 46 ; Iberville, 
 57 ; expedition 1736, 126, 276 ; of 1740, 
 129 ; Yaudreuil, 134 ; gallery, 281, 316, 
 464 ; boundary with Choctaws, 277 ; and 
 English, 206, 244 ; Adair, 209 ; cessions 
 to U. S., 382, 4.56 n. 
 
 Chickens (see Poultry). 
 
 Chickianoce, 243, 280. 
 
 Chimney, 443, 505. 
 
 Chinaberry-tree, 510. 
 
 Chis, 347. 
 
 Chisca, 19, 35, 521, 522, 523. 
 
 Choctaw Bluff, 243, 427. 
 
 Choctaw Point, 74, 267. 
 
 Choctaw Point Tract, 496. 
 
 Choctaws, stock, 7 ; Iberville, 57 ; refugees 
 on Mobile Bay, 74 ; moved to Dog River, 
 85 ; alienated, 125 ; and Chickasaw expe- 
 dition, 126 ; Vaudreuil congress, 132 ; 
 characteristics, 196 ; pacified, 230 ; 
 restless, 196, 272 ; divisions, 196, 229, 
 299, 375, 566 ; missions, 199 ; cession 
 1765, 231, 242 ; 1772, 250 ; Creek War, 
 1771, 276 ; help Campbell, 316 ; Spanish 
 trade, 375 ; Tombigbee towns and relics, 
 375 ; factory, 376, 377, 455 ; cessions, 382 ; 
 boundary with Chickasaws, 277. 
 
 Chrystie, A., speaker, 306. 
 
 Chucfa, 324, 514. 
 
 Chunkey game, 196. 
 
 Church, French registers, 144, 180 ; Louis 
 XV, 179 ; Remonville's, 88 ; religious dis- 
 tricts, 143 ; ordinance of 1667, 145, 159 ; 
 rebuilt, 148; dedicated 148; location, 149, 
 150,406 ; Spanish, 365 ; Immaculate Con- 
 ception, 364 ; Spanish administration, 
 364 ; Bishop Echeverria, 364 ; Bishop 
 Cyril, 364 ; dilapidated, 366; site changed, 
 366 ; Bishop Penalver, 3G7 ; administra- 
 tors, 368 ; Spanish registers, 365 ; parson- 
 age, 369 ; building, 371, 379 ; Protestant, 
 392, 406, 482 ; Records under ordinance, 
 1667, 489. 
 
 Church Street, 482, 
 
582 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Church-warden, 146, 307. 
 Claiborne, 103, 423, 427, 463. 
 Claiborne, F. L., 420, 422, 423. 
 Claiborne, W. C. C, 380, 401. 
 Clark, Daniel, 226, 251, 380. 
 Clausel, 475 n. 
 Cloth, 204 ; trade, 533. 
 Clothing, British, 204 ; French, 184 ; Span- 
 ish, 345, 346, 348 ; American, 391. 
 Coach, 184. 
 Coal, 281. 
 
 Coasting trade, 544. 
 C09a, 19, 35. 
 
 Coden (Coq d'Inde), Bayou, 171. 
 Cofifee, 185, 462, 497. 
 Coffee, General, 432, 455. 
 Coffin, 105, 347, 455. 
 Cofltacheque, 18, 34, 240. 
 Coins, 104, 517, 559. 
 Colbert's Ferry, 378. 
 Colin, Maximilien, 515. 
 Collel Tract, 358, 494. 
 Collins, Joseph, surveyor, 493, 494, 516 ; 
 
 marriage, 519 ; title, to Baudin Tract, 
 
 493 ; Blakeley I., 497. 
 Colonization, 211 ; French, 174, 175, 176, 
 
 178 ; English, 178 ; American, 452, 457, 
 
 458. 
 Columbus, 9. 
 Columbus, town, 448. 
 Commandants, Spanish, 321, 332, 325, 339, 
 
 340. 
 Commerce (see Trade), 331, 454 n., 543. 
 Commerce Street, 449. 
 Commissaire, 163, 183. 
 Commissariat, 151. 
 Common Pleas, 543. 
 Company, the Western, 99. 
 Compress, 482. 
 Conception Street, 365, 507. 
 Concessions, 101, 155, 167, 177. 
 Conchaques, 59, 107, 202. 
 Cond^, Fort, 98, 102, 153. 
 Conductrice des flUes, 527. 
 Confederation, Fort, 375, 511 ; treaty 1802, 
 
 380, 387 ; 1816, 455. 
 Congress, Indian, first, 57 ; annual, 121, 
 
 122 ; Dauphine Island, 150, 166 ; of 1765, 
 
 242, 244 ; 1771, 289 ; 1772, 250 ; 1777, 308 ; 
 
 1784, 331. 
 Conti Street, origin, 90 ; first mention, 
 
 135 ; St. Peter, 504 ; " Church St.," 503. 
 " Continuation," 323, 340. 
 Convent, Visitation, 500. 
 Cooking, 185. 
 
 Coosa River, 6 ; towns, 20. 
 Coosadas (Coosaudas), 241, 248, 281, 286, 
 
 426. 
 Copper, 60. 
 
 Corn, 56, 261, 281, 395, 513. 
 Cosa, 19, 35, 526. 
 Costeheycoza, 521, 522. 
 Cotton, French, 177 ; British, 290 ; mill, 
 
 291 ; Spanish, 357, 395, 514 ; oil, 358 ; 
 
 gins, 395, 396 ; Nolte's speculation, 431 ; 
 exports 1818, 447 ; American, 447, 453, 
 462, 479 ; mill, 395, 457 n. ; compress, 
 482 ; on steamer, 472. 
 
 Cotton gin, 396, 421, 463 n. 
 
 Cotton Gin Port, 26, 276. 
 
 Cotton Plant, the, 448, 472, 475 n. 
 
 Council, W. Florida, 307. 
 
 Counties, 461 ; names, 462 n. 
 
 Country, 20 ; Indian, 249 ; Creole, 509. 
 
 Coureurs de bois, 47, 64, 94, 180. 
 
 Courts, French, 183 ; British, 543 ; Chan- 
 cery, 295 ; Requests, 296, 543 ; Spanish, 
 340; court house, 483; American , 573. 
 
 Court Martial, Farmer, 256, 262 ; Cambel, 
 293. 
 
 Coutume de Paris, 182. 
 
 Coweta, 20 n., 131. 
 
 Cows, 57, 445, 529. 
 
 Crawford, Wm., 439, 442. 
 
 Creek, 278. 
 
 Creeks, stock, 7; in De Soto's time, 20; tra- 
 dition, 189, 547; confederacy of 1708, 73; 
 language, 190; characteristics, 189; 
 towns, 204, 248 n. ; under the British, 229; 
 316 ; cession to British, 233, 244, 249 n. ; 
 boundary, 273; restless, 254, 293; caves, 
 330; at Mobile 1781, 330 ; cessions to Pan- 
 ton, Leslie & Co., 374; trade, 375; in 1813, 
 420 ; battles with Jackson, 424; cessions, 
 548. 
 
 Creole, 68, 146, 169, 170, 173, 187, 509. 
 
 Crier, 161. 
 
 Crofton, 265. 
 
 Croftown, 270, 272, 516. 
 
 Crozat, Louisiana, 93; surrenders it, 98; 
 life, 530; family and brother, 530. 
 
 Cucumber tree, 299. 
 
 Cumberland Presbyterians, 393. 
 
 Cur^s (see Church), 274, 348. 
 
 Cut Off, the, 386, 427. 
 
 Cyril, Bishop, 364, 367. 
 
 D'Ahbadie, 164, 216, 253. 
 
 Dale, Sam, early days, 420; canoe fight, 
 423 ; pension, 425 n. ; at Battle of New Or- 
 leans, 432 ; ride, 433 ; at "Washington, 426 
 n.; as delegate, 460; Halberton, 574. 
 
 Dampness at Mobile, 266. 
 
 Dancing Rabbit, treaty, 474. 
 
 Danley, James, 345. 
 
 Danty, 167. 
 
 Danville Map, 136. 
 
 Darling, Denison, 389, 433. 
 
 D'Artaguette, 74,92; (II) 124, 125; (111)127, 
 128. 
 
 D'Aubant, 105, 194. 
 
 Dauphin St., 91, 326, 504, 509; "St. John," 
 504. 
 
 Dauphine Island, harbor, 165; Port Dau- 
 phin, 167, 567; boat for, 74; named, 74, 
 91, 567; Spanish attack, 167; Wreck of 
 Bellona, 168; storm, 1740, 132; history, 
 165 ; port of Mobile, 165, 166 ; Indians, 
 
INDEX. 
 
 583 
 
 166; veuc, 167; church, 144, 166; fort, 166, 
 167; British raid, 166; port closed by bar, 
 167; bourg, 168; magasins, 168; aban- 
 doned, 168, 570; Jeffreys on, 215; granted 
 Moro, 323, 517; Lamy, 324, 518 ; captured 
 by Wilkinson, 410; British on, 434, 436; 
 Spanish, 517. 
 
 Davion, at Tonicas, 44, 60 ; at Biloxi, 47 ; at 
 Mobile, 67, 76, 142 ; and Foucaut, 63. 
 
 Debtors, 545, 546. 
 
 De Can, 507. 
 
 Declaration of Independence, 311. 
 
 Deeds, French, 134, 157; English, 294, 546; 
 Spanish form, 326. 
 
 Deer, 546. 
 
 Deer River, 515. 
 
 Deerskin, 57, 534. 
 
 De Lassus, 570. 
 
 Delimitation, 31°, 354. 
 
 Delisle, 48, 74, 136. 
 
 Delta, Mobile, 4, 107, 286, 297, 405, 514. 
 
 De Luna, 32. 
 
 De Lusser, at Ackia, 128; grants, 129, 140; 
 family, 1.37. 306; Tensaw land, 129, 158, 
 330, 513; tract, 494; sale, 333; south of 
 fort, 333; church lots, 366; river place, 
 286; negro, 368. 
 
 De Lusser Tract, title to, 133, 493. 
 
 Demarcation line, 354, 513 ; cost, 356. 
 
 Demopolis, site, 281, 472; founded by Bon- 
 apartists, 464. 
 
 De Mouy, 323, 505, 512, 515. 
 
 Demuy, 74. 
 
 Department of Mobile, 163. 
 
 Depositions, Spanish, 349. 
 
 Descloseaux, 161. 
 
 De Soto, 14; route, 13, 15, 21, 553, 564; on 
 Mississippi, 26; hogs, 17; cannon, 17, 194. 
 
 Detroit, 94. 
 
 De Velle, 126, 140, 159, 163, 217, 333. 
 
 Dexter, A., 454 n. 
 
 D'Huillier, Fort, 97. 
 
 Diable, 273. 
 
 Dictionary Doctor, 400. 
 
 Dinsmore, (Dinsmoor,) Silas, Choctaw 
 factor, 377, 381, 454; and Jackson, 377; 
 collector, 439; plats, Fort Charlotte, 479; 
 •wit. 439. 
 
 Dioceses, French, 67 ; Spanish, 367. 
 
 Diron (see D'Artaguette). 
 
 Dismembering, 544. 
 
 Dog River, 58, 275, 443, 447, 615. 
 
 Dogs, 16, 441. 
 
 Dolive, D., 330, 368, 429, 514. 
 
 Dollar, 253; silver, 512. 
 
 Dow, George, 276, 279, 306. 
 
 Dow, Lorenzo, 386, 393. 
 
 Dragoons, 312. 
 
 Drainage, 447, 448. 
 
 Drum, 336, 347, 441. 
 
 " Drunkness," 544. 
 
 Drury, 518. 
 
 Dry Goods, Spanish, 346. 
 
 Dubroca, French, 368; tract on Bayou 
 
 Sara, 162; at 21 Mile Bluff, 137, 610; on 
 Joachim Street, 508. 
 
 Dubroca Tract, title, 500. 
 
 Dumont, 132, 134. 
 
 Dunbar, Sir Wm., 572. 
 
 Dunn, C, 613. 
 
 Durand, 141, 501, 515. 
 
 Durant, 426. 
 
 Duret, 141, 333, 334, 340, 500. 
 
 Durnf ord, Elias, bark and cattle, 251 ; sur- 
 vey of bay, 260, 288 ; judge, 261 ; governor, 
 270, 535; in council, 304; defends Fort 
 Charlotte, 313 ; surrender, 315 ; proposed 
 new city, 270; life, 534; place, 260, 267, 
 516. 
 
 Duties, French, 125; British, 225, 259 n., 
 543, 544, 545, 546; Spanish, 378, 389. 
 
 Duval, Daniel, president, 446. 
 
 Eastern Shore, population, 255. 
 
 Echeverria, 364. 
 
 Eelking, Von, 311. 
 
 Elections, 440. 
 
 EUicott, Andrew, 354; line, 356; Stone, 355; 
 on Mobile River, 356, 512. 
 
 Elliot, Governor, 263. 
 
 Elvas, Gentleman of, 15. 
 
 Emancipation, 349. 
 
 Emigration, 387, 396, 452, 453. 
 
 English, numbers, 212. 
 
 Eon, goods and books, 347, 366. 
 
 Episcopal Church, 394. 
 
 Eslava, Miguel, history, 334; house, 335; 
 buys parsonage, 370; grants to, 507, 558; 
 interest in De Lusser Tract, 335, 493; 
 fears cession to U. S., 500. 
 
 Eslava MiU Tract, title, 358, 500 ; Bay Tract, 
 515. 
 
 Espejo, Antonio, origin, 363; wife, 511, 
 516; lands, 352, 499, 502; death, 363; in- 
 terest in Bernoudy Tract, 495; occupa- 
 tions, 352, 368; brickyard, 495; on Tom- 
 bigbee, 512. 
 
 Espejo Tract, 499. 
 
 Espiritu Santo (see Spiritu Santo). 
 
 Esplanade, 150, 337, 493. 
 
 Estates (see Administration). 
 
 Estopacha R., 519. 
 
 Execution, Beaudrot, 190; Marchand's 
 murderers, 191; of 1815, 436; civil, 290, 
 544. 
 
 Exploration, French, 177. 
 
 Exports, British, 206, 289. 
 
 Factory, 84, 206, 455. 
 
 Fall line, 469. 
 
 Families, old French, 136. 
 
 Famine, 72. 
 
 Farley, J. C, 454 n. 
 
 Farmer (Farmar), 161, 217, 251; Aubry on, 
 253; residence, 254; court martial, 256, 
 262; Little Bob, 256; recommended for 
 governor, 263 ; at Taensa, 298 ; lands, 254 ; 
 Assemblyman, 305; home burned, 313; 
 
584 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Tensaw Place under Spaniards, 613; 
 death, 306. 
 
 Farmer's Island, title, 490. 
 
 Farming, 519. 
 
 Fauna, Gulf coast, 44. 
 
 Favre, 141, 251, 286, 494. 
 
 Favre Tract, 494. 
 
 Favrot, 325, 571. 
 
 Febrifuge, 300. 
 
 Federal Road, 382. 
 
 Fees, Spanish, 343, 347. 
 
 Ferdinand, Capuchin, 148; Acadian, 270; 
 leaves and returns, 273; under British, 
 270; death, 274. 
 
 Ferry, Perdido, 270, 309, 538, 545; Pasca- 
 goula, 519. 
 
 Festino, 405, 497. 
 
 Fever, yellow, 69, 363, 436; putrid, 265, 266; 
 summer, 264, 268 ; Bartram, 300. 
 
 Fiefs, 100. 
 
 Fig-tree, 105, 123, 299. 
 
 Figures, Indian, 55, 108. 
 
 Filipina Bay, 30. 
 
 Filling lots, 352, 481, 501, 503. 
 
 Fingers and Forks, 189. 
 
 Fire, precautions, British, 545, 546; com- 
 pany, 447. 
 
 Firearms, Indian, 204, 206. 
 
 Fire Engines, 447. 
 
 Firewood, 253. 
 
 Fish, 175, 290, 406, 444, 517, 571. 
 
 Fish River, 85, 156, 255 ; grant, 156, 516. 
 
 Fisher, William, 336, 506, 508. 
 
 Flags, 128, 204, 222, 224, 489, 532. 
 
 Flandrin, 161. 
 
 Fletcher, Josiah, 344. 
 
 Fleuriau, 145, 489. 
 
 Flint, 57, 533. 
 
 Flora, GuU coast, 4, 53, 55, 299. 
 
 Florida, Spanish, 10, 33; map, 1765, 553; 
 purchase by United States, 459; popula- 
 tion, 1798, 356. 
 
 Flour, 132, 380, 389, 407, 413, 470, 545. 
 
 Flournoy, Gen., 421, 422. 
 
 Flowers, 479. 
 
 Folch, v., 333, 400, 401. 
 
 Fondlou, 82, 510. 
 
 Fontanilla, Francis, 326, 349, 496, 511, 516. 
 
 Food, 184, 185. 
 
 Foot, French, 86. 
 
 Forbes, John, 336, 353. 
 
 Forbes, John & Co., 336; members, 352; 
 filling lot, 351; store, 503, 504, 507 ; sale to 
 Simpson, 509; lauds, 507; river front, 
 445. 
 
 Forestalling, 544. 
 
 Forks, 231, 346. 
 
 Forneret, 234, 237, 241. 
 
 Fortier, Alc(5e, 559, 567. 
 
 Fortieth, British, 435. 
 
 Forts (see their names), control, 255, 288. 
 
 Fothergill, Dr., 297, 302. 
 
 Foucault (Foucaut), 03. 
 
 Fowl, 36, 50, 08, 73, 138, 347, 377. 
 
 Fowl River, 50. 
 
 Franc aleu, 156, 184. 
 
 France under Regency, 178; Louis XV, 
 212; ports, 174; agriculture, 178; taxes, 
 179. 
 
 Frauds, Statute of, 543, 546. 
 
 Free negroes, 120, 368, 507, 508, 515. 
 
 Freebooters, 03, 86. 
 
 Freeman, Thos., 456 n. 
 
 French Broad River, 209. 
 
 French, numbers, 212; words, 186, 190, 197; 
 names, 136, 141, 171, 518; on upper Missis- 
 sippi, 224; in W. Florida, 259, 261, 332; 
 language, 440, 441, 543. 
 
 Frontier xxiii, 381, 391, 397. 
 
 Fruit, 177, 294, 299, 335, 369, 370, 405. 
 
 Funeral, ordinance, 1607, 347. 
 
 Fur Trade, Detroit, 94; Mobile, 121, 255. 
 
 Furniture, 391. 
 
 Gage, Gen. Thos., 221, 255. 
 
 Gaines, E. P., 383, 384, 389. 
 
 Gaines, Geo. S., factor, 377, 378, 384, 422, 
 455; Reminiscences, 382 n. ; at Mobile, 
 419 ; in Indian outbreak, 422. 
 
 Gaines' Trace, 378. 
 
 Gainesville, 280. 
 
 Gallery, 186, 390, 479. 
 
 Galphin, George, 208, 240, 308. 
 
 Galvez, Bernardo, 310; on Mississippi, 312; 
 capture of Mobile, 314; and Durnford, 
 535 ; at Pensacola, 317 ; promoted to Mex- 
 ico, 325. 
 
 Galvez Street, 325. 
 
 Game, 132, 281, 406, 571. 
 
 Gannard, V., 363. 
 
 Gaol, British, 252, 545. 
 
 Garay expedition, 10. 
 
 Garcilaso, 15. 
 
 Garde magasin, Toulouse, 192; Tombecb^, 
 198, 532-534; Mobile, 55. 
 
 Gardens, 178, 185, 222, 479. 
 
 Garnishment, Spanish, 407. 
 
 Garrow, S. H., 403, 440, 442, 447, 477. 
 
 Gazette, 442. 
 
 General Assembly, "W. Florida, 542. 
 
 Genin, cura, 369, 439. 
 
 Georgia, 221, 379, 465, 467; "crakeura," 
 547. 
 
 Germans, in British army, 311. 
 
 Gins, 395, 396, 421, 463. 
 
 Girard, 55, 129, 157, 162, 173. 
 
 Girard House, 509. 
 
 Girls, for marriage, 94, 124; conductrice, 
 527. - ~^" — 
 
 Glassware, 231. 
 
 Goats, 441, 444. 
 
 Gold, 28 n. 
 
 Goodman stores, 508. 
 
 Goodwin «& Haire map, 483. 
 
 Gordon, A. W., 482. 
 
 Gordon, Rev. Wm., 264, 312, 313 n. 
 
 Gouvernement, 151. 
 
 Government House, Spanish, 337, 502. 
 
INDEX. 
 
 585 
 
 Government Street, 354, 482, 502, 503; old 
 street, 503, 505; width, 480. 
 
 Grandville, 58, 88. 
 
 Grant, Dr., 300, 312, 330. 
 
 Grants, British, 247, 250, 491; French, 134; 
 Spanish form, 323, 329; size, 330; pro- 
 cedure, 499 ; on water, 510. 
 
 Graveline, 567. 
 
 Graveyard, French, 69, 85, 571; Spanish, 
 365, 371 ; Old, 257, 371, 448. 
 
 Gravier, 47, 54, 71, 77. 
 
 Greffler, 145, 156, 161, 183, 490. 
 
 Grimarest, H., 321, 365; tomb, 365. 
 
 Grondel, at AckLa, 128; at 21 Mile Bluff, 
 137; lot, 151, 152; life, 530; in Bastille, 
 531. 
 
 Grosse Pointe, 170, 171. 
 
 Guale, province, 555. 
 
 Guatari, 34, 36, 522, 523. 
 
 Guilds, 179. 
 
 Guillori, 169, 306. 
 
 Gumbo, 184. 
 
 Gun, 204, 206, 276, 532, 533. 
 
 Gunboats, 400, 410. 
 
 Guzman, at Mobile, 72, 180. 
 
 Habitants, 170, 179, 187, 529. 
 
 Halbert, 24 n. 
 
 Haldimand, Frederick, 258 ; papers, 258 n. ; 
 
 leaves Florida, 293; in Canada, 294; life, 
 
 539; " Aldeman," 518. 
 Hall, 390. 
 Hangman, 269. 
 Hanxleden, Capt. Von, 316. 
 Harriet, the, 472. 
 Hart, Rev. Mr., 242, 264. 
 Hatchet, 204. 
 
 Hatchetigbee (Atchatikpe), 242, 284, 286. 
 Hats, 277, 281. 
 Haugard (Hangar), 152, 569. 
 Hawkins, Benjamin, 376, 420, 574 
 Hay, 290. 
 
 Health, British period, 264; American, 462. 
 Hennepin, map, 43. 
 Henry, Lemuel, 389, 390. 
 Herbert's Spring, 209. 
 Heresy, abjuration of, 146. 
 Hermes, the, 431. 
 Hewitt, 276. 
 Hickory, 277, 278. 
 Hidalgo, R., 506. 
 Hides, 289. 
 
 " Hieroglyphicks," Indian, 276, 276, 282. 
 Highwaymen, 378. 
 Hinson, 383. 
 
 Hobart, P. H., 500, 507, 510. 
 Hogs, 17, 281, 405, 444, 500. 
 Hogshead, 468, 548. 
 Hollinger, 257, 515, 519. 
 Holmes, T. G., 400. 
 Holy Ground, battle, 423, 426. 
 Holy Spirit (see Spiritu Santo). 
 Hooma, 244, 254. 
 Hopewell, treaties, 387. 
 
 Horses, French, 51, 72; Indian, 197; British, 
 
 310, 345; Bartram's, 302; Spanish, 341, 
 
 495; Arrow, 423; Paddy, 433. 
 Horseshoe Bend, battle, 424. 
 Hospital, French, 89, 151; British, 253; 
 
 Spanish, 482, 508; lot, 506; Blood, 496; 
 
 American, 428. 
 House, French, 68, 138, 160, 298; British, 
 
 253; Spanish, 335, 341, 505; Creole, 68, 
 
 390, 479; American, 390. 
 Hubbard map, 479. 
 Hubert, 98, 99. 
 Huguenot, 140, 570. 
 Hunters, 546, 571. 
 Huntsville, 386, 390, 45G n., 463, 466; Land 
 
 Office, 551. 
 Huv6, 76, 142 ; writing, 76 ; Apalaches, 77, 
 
 109; history, 143, 166. 
 Hymns, 392, 393. 
 
 Iberville, in the north, 42; first voyage, 44; 
 memorial, 48; on English, 49; second 
 voyage, 47; as colonizer, 51; Indian 
 policy, 58; health, 52; death, 70. 
 
 Iberville Historical Society, 559. 
 
 Iberville River, route, 224, 269. 
 
 Ice, 407. 
 
 Illinois, 94; Gravier at, 143; under Crozat, 
 94; British occupation, 224-226. 
 
 Images, Mobilian, 55. 
 
 Immaculate Conception, church, 364. 
 
 Immigration, 387, 396, 452, 453, 456, 544. 
 
 " Immobile," 74. 
 
 Indian House, 152, 271, 570. 
 
 Indians, Alabama, 7, 202 ; agriculture, 16 
 culture, 27; near Mobile, 106; remains 
 xxi, 108, 376, 559 ; resettlement planned 
 by Iberville, 58, 70; trade from British 
 colonies, 204; French influence, 203 
 government, 207; annual congress, 121 
 122, 132 ; liquor, 205, 208 ; Naniaba relics 
 107; population of Southern, 121, 240 
 Dauphine Island, 150, 166; mound near 
 Wetumpka, 194 ; emigrate with French, 
 241 ; British policy, 239, 305 ; population, 
 240, 387; cession to British, 242; boun- 
 daries, 242; "hieroglyphicks," 275, 282 
 Spanish policy, 330, 331, 372, 572; cessions 
 to Panton, Leslie & Co., 374; presents, 
 374; American agents, 376; cessions, 382, 
 455; land for each, 387; American mis- 
 sionaries, 454. 
 
 Indian Trade, French, 177, 203, 276, 567 
 goods, 204, 206, 532-534; British, 206, 209, 
 211, 246, 305, 308, 539, 546 ; Spanish, 331 
 332, 372 ; American, 376 ; factory, 376, 
 455. 
 
 Indian Treaties, 387 ; list of American, 
 548; States, 474. 
 
 Indictment, British, 296. 
 
 Indigo, 123, 289. 
 
 Induction, 67, 487. 
 
 Industries, French, 79, 179 ; American, 
 480. 
 
586 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 IngersoUs, 363, 499 
 
 Ink, 350. 
 
 Innerarity, brothers, 353. 
 
 Innerarity, James, 403, 440, 504, 510, 618 ; in 
 
 American board, 440 ; president, 446. 
 Inquisition, 364. 
 Institutions, xxvii. 
 lutendant, 182, 357, 359, 360, 493. 
 Interest, 162, 544. 
 Interpreter, Indian, 229, 241, 251, 285 n., 
 
 301, 362, 370. 
 Isabella de Bobadilla, 14. 
 
 Jackson, Andrew, at Nashville, 386 ; 
 marches against Creeks, 423 ; victories, 
 424 ; trip down Alabama, 427 ; at An- 
 dry's, 428 ; at Mobile, 429 ; proclamations, 
 432 ; marches to Pensacola, 432, 459 ; 
 cantonment, 432 ; surrender of Law- 
 rence, 435. 
 
 Jackson County, created, 419. 
 
 Jackson Creek, 247. 
 
 Jackson, Fort, 424, 425 n. ; treaty, 424 ; 
 cemetery, 425 n. 
 
 Jacksonville, 429. 
 
 Jamaica smuggler, 85, 126, 570. 
 
 James, Ben, 276. 
 
 Jean Franyois, 148. 
 
 Jeffreys, Thos., geographer, 214. 
 
 Jesuits, Bienville's opinion, 71 ; in Illinois, 
 143 ; Senat, 128 ; vicars-general, 144 ; at 
 Fort Toulouse, 147, 193 ; Tombecb6, 199 ; 
 expulsion, 193. 
 
 Jews, 256, 295. 
 
 Joachim Street, 508. 
 
 Johnstone, Geo., governor, 221, 234 ; de- 
 scription of West Florida, 247 ; quarrel 
 with military, 255 ; leaves, 260. 
 
 Joliet, 40. 
 
 Jongler, 107. 
 
 Joyce, John, 329, 333, 338, 351, 367, 502, 603, 
 510. 
 
 Juada, 34, 521, 522. 
 
 Judge, French, 147, 148, 161, 489. 
 
 Judicial proceedings, 340. 
 
 Judicial system, Mississippi Territory, 
 573. 
 
 Judson, Lewis, 403, 406, 440, 444. 
 
 Junta, land, 360. 
 
 Justice of the Peace, 439. 
 
 Juzan (Jusan) P., 323, 516, 519. 
 
 Kemper, Reuben, 400, 570. 
 
 Kennedy, J. P., 389, 399, 441. 
 
 Kennedy, Joshua. 403, 493, 513. 
 
 Kennedy, Wm. E., 369, 403 ; Baudin Tract, 
 493 ; Price Claim, 403, 497 ; Dubroca 
 Tract, 500 ; Bon Secours, 517. 
 
 Kentucky, xxv, 337, 380, 452. 
 
 Keowee, 387, 548. 
 
 Kerlerec, 150, 214 ; Rochemore, 214 ; re- 
 called, 214. 
 
 Kettle, 57, 252, 277 n., 534, 539. 
 
 King's "Wharf, 473, 502. 
 
 King, W. R., 463 n. 
 
 Kirby, Ephraim, 389, 573. 
 
 Kirkland, Moses, 308. 
 
 Kitchen, 317, 390, 516. 
 
 Knives and Forks, 231, 348. 
 
 Knoxville, 386. 
 
 Krebs, 156, 291, 292, 324, 348, 505, 518, 519. 
 
 La Batr^, named R. d'Erbane, 50 ; La Bat- 
 
 terie, 136, 171, 327. 
 Lacoste claim, 517. 
 Lagauterais, 198, 226. 
 
 La Harpe, 104. 
 
 Lahontan, 48. 
 
 Lakanal, 475 n. 
 
 Lake Route to Mississippi, 223. 
 
 Lalande, 147, 515. 
 
 Lamport, Miguel, 366. 
 
 Lamy, 324, 518. 
 
 Land, grants, French, 156, 157, 184 ; re- 
 cords, French, 157 ; British grants, 259, 
 260 ; Spanish re-grants, 325, 328 ; form, 
 329 ; Spanish system, 328, 357, 511 ; sale 
 of lots, 509 ; American not to acquire, 
 360 ; delays, 359 ; price, 361, 494 ; dimen- 
 sions, 330 ; American legislation, 458 n. ; 
 Spanish claims, 458 n. ; Land Offices, 
 457 n., 551 ; surveys, 458. 
 
 Landry (see Andry). 
 
 L'Anse Mandeville, 496, 497. 
 
 Lanzos, Manuel de, 336, 351, 366. 
 
 La Pointe, 156, 172. 
 
 La Salle, Nicholas, ^crivain, 52 ; Bienville, 
 71 ; family, 183 ; denounces Canadians, 
 567 ; death, 92. 
 
 La Salle, Robert Cavalier, 40 ; founds 
 Louisiana, 41 ; death 41. 
 
 Latin and Saxon, xxvi. 
 
 La Tour, 137, 139. 
 
 Laurent, B., 491. 
 
 Laurent Plantation, 491. 
 
 La Vente, arrival, 67 ; induction, 487 ; 
 Bienville, 71 ; writing, 76 ; death, 92. 
 
 Law, French, 123, 182 ; British, 258 ; Span- 
 ish, 326, 340 ; Mississippi Territory, 573. 
 
 Law, John, 99, 176 ; Company, 99 ; goods, 
 102 ; flight, 104 ; officers, 564 ; Company 
 surrenders, 124. 
 
 Lawrence at Fort Bowyer, 430, 431, 433, 
 434, 435. 
 
 Lawyers, British, 295. 
 
 Lead, 60, 279. 
 
 Le Camp, 68, 80, 567. 
 
 Lecatte, 506. 
 
 Lefleau, 502. 
 
 Legislature, territorial, 439, 460. 
 
 Le Maire, 77, 142. 
 
 Le Moyne, family, 42, 628, 566. 
 
 L'Epinay, 166. 
 
 Le Sueur, arrival, 47 ; Indians, 60, 138 ; 
 Fort D'Huillier, 139 ; green earth, 139 ; 
 life, 527 ; river home, 138, 161 ; family, 
 139, 198, 628. 
 
 Letters, 186. 
 
INDEX. 
 
 587 
 
 Levee, 493. 
 
 Lewis, Addin, 464, 481, 
 
 Lewis, Curtis, 434, 435 n. 
 
 Licenses, trade, 240, 246 ; Uquor, 544 ; mu- 
 nicipal, 441. 
 
 Lighthouse, English, 617. 
 
 Limbourg, 533. 
 
 Lime, 257, 443, 517. 
 
 Limestone, 280, 281. 
 
 Limestone County, 461 n. 
 
 Linder, 342, 343. 
 
 Linen, 204. 
 
 Liquor, 204, 208, 543, 544, 545. 
 
 Lisloy, 230, 295, 327. 
 
 Literature, Maj. Farmer, 254; French, 186. 
 
 Little River, 349. 
 
 Livre, 161,166,214. 
 
 Lizard, place, 287, 323; in Assembly, 305; 
 Creeks, 137. 
 
 Loftus, repulse, 224. 
 
 Log Cabin, 390. 
 
 Logan, Terry & Co., 225. 
 
 Longueuil, 42. 
 
 Lorimer, J.,Dr.,264; report,266; Bartram 
 meets, 300. 
 
 Lot Co., 479, 481. 
 
 Loudon, Fort, 239. 
 
 Louis, Fort (I), description, 53, 487, 676; 
 remains, 287; site, 510; trades, 79; (II), 
 plan, 153; rebuUt of brick, 98; descrip- 
 tion, 86. 
 
 Louis XIV, 41, 42, 53, 91, 174, 178 ; family, 91. 
 
 Louis XV, 212, 217. 
 
 Louisiana, named, 41; and Canada, 60 
 government, 181; leased to Crozat, 93 
 civil districts, 122; church in, 60, 143 
 ecclesiastical districts, 143; periods of 
 history, 175, 176, 181 ; cession to England 
 and Spain, 216; Ulloa,262; 0'Reilly,269; 
 republic planned, 269; Spanish govern- 
 ment, 403; extent, 415; ceded to Napo- 
 leon, 358 ; to United States, 358. 
 
 Louisiana Historical Society, 559. 
 
 Lowery, Spanish Settlements, 15 n. 
 
 Loyalists, 312. 
 
 Lumber, 290. 
 
 Luna, De, 32, 553. 
 
 Lyon, J. G., 439. 
 
 Macarty, 564. 
 
 Madeira, 407. 
 
 Madison County, 382, 456 n., 466. 
 
 Madison, Fort, 421. 
 
 Magazin, 489, 532-534. 
 
 Magnolia, Bartram's, 303 n. 
 
 MagoflBn, James, 449, 464. 
 
 Mail, 445. 
 
 Maitre, 179. 
 
 Malaria, 175, 185, 268, 462. 
 
 Maldonado, 17. 
 
 Malone, Thos., 383, 389. 
 
 Manac, 427. 
 
 Manassas, site, 506. 
 
 Manchac, 223, 302. 
 
 Mandeville, lot, 89; at Toulouse, 96; at 
 Mobile, 103, 124; family, 528; slaves, 78; 
 sent to France, 214. 
 
 Mandeville Tract, title, 496 ; French, 176. 
 
 Manon, 140. 
 
 Manowa, stratagem, 424. 
 
 Manufactures, cotton, 204, 290. 
 
 Manumission, 543. 
 
 Maps, Cantino, 9; Cabot, 13; Cosa, 9; 
 Ruysch, 9; Ortelius, 13; Spanish, of Gulf 
 regions, 553; Hennepin, 43; Bay, 100; 
 Cheuillot, 89; Phelypeaux, 150; Admi- 
 ralty chart, 288; Mobile, 1760,150, 154 n.; 
 Mathews, 481; Dinsmore, 479; Lot Co., 
 479; Goodwin & Haire, 473, 483; Orange 
 Grove, 492; Spanish, 1765, 553. 
 
 Maraine, 489. 
 
 Marchand, 80, 115, 167. 
 
 Marchand mutiny, 190. 
 
 Mardi Gras, 567. 
 
 Marguerite, La, boat, 173. 
 
 Marguillier, 146. 
 
 Market, British, 544, 545; Spanish, 406; 
 American house, 442, 444; regulations, 
 444. 
 
 Market Street, 449. 
 
 Marmotte, Bayou, 50. 
 
 Marquette, 40. 
 
 Marriage, natural, 79, 114; with Indians, 
 563; ban, 172; ordinance, 489; Spanish 
 contract, 346; civil, 439, 519; American, 
 439. 
 
 Martinez exploration, 523. 
 
 Martires, 554. 
 
 Marshes, 137, 266, 268, 307, 601. 
 
 Masonic Temple, 506. 
 
 Massac, Fort, 207. 
 
 Massacre I., discovery, 44; magazines, 62; 
 port, 46, 52, 167 (see Dauphine Island). 
 
 Mast, Iberville's, 55. 
 
 Mather, Mather & Strother, 331, 343, 351. 
 
 Mathieu, 143, 144. 
 
 Mathieu, Bayou, 324. 
 
 Maubila, location, 24; battle, 22. 
 
 Maurepas, 44. 
 
 Maurepas, Fort, 46. 
 
 Mayhew, 377, 455. 
 
 Mazamet, 533. 
 
 McCandless, Joseph, 445, 495. 
 
 McCurtin, Cornelius, 306, 329, 403, 604, 506, 
 513, 515. 
 
 McGillivray & Strothers, 308. 
 
 McGillivray, Alexander, 308, 353, 373, 647. 
 
 McGillivray, John, 309. 
 
 McGillivrays, British, 240, 287 n., 296, 305. 
 
 McGirth, 425 n. 
 
 McGrath Claim, 518. 
 
 McGrew, 247. 
 
 McGrew's Shoals, 247, 284, 378. 
 
 Mcintosh, Jas., 246,285 n. 
 
 Mcintosh Bluff, 247, 285, 389, 396. 
 
 McKee, John, 376, 422, 423, 454, 463 n. 
 
 McKenna, Constantine, 350, 366, 368. 
 
 McQueen, 421, 427. 
 
588 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 McVoy, Diego, 444, 446. 
 
 McVoy Tract, title, 493, 515. 
 
 Measures, land, 86, 361; yard, 539. 
 
 Meat, 268, 338, 444. 
 
 Medals, Indian, 232. 
 
 Media annata, 494. 
 
 Menendez, 33, 554. 
 
 Merchandise, Spanish, 343, 345. 
 
 Merchants, 80, 446. 
 
 Mermaid, Pascagoula, 172. 
 
 Mestifs, 79. 
 
 Methodists, 393. 
 
 Milfort, Le Clerc, 330, 547. 
 
 Milhet, 21C, 269. 
 
 Militia, British, 309, 311, 312; Spanish, 338, 
 
 500; French, 183. 
 Militiamen, the Six, 437. 
 Milk, 514. 
 Mims' Ferry, 428. 
 Mims, Fort, massacre, 421. 
 Mims, Sam, 391, 505, 512. 
 Mines, 28 n., 97, 177, 201. 
 Minet, Bayou, 359. 
 
 Minister, British, 264; Gordon, 264 n.; 
 
 Hart, 264; American, 392. (See Church.) 
 
 Miragoine (Miragouane), name, 101, 155; 
 
 history, 170 ; Bartram sees, 301. 
 Miro, Gov., 325, 338. 
 Mission, Alibamon, 193, 460; Choctaw, 144, 
 
 199. 
 Missionaries, French, 43, 143, 180, 199; 
 
 American, 455. 
 Mississippi Basin, 5 ; River not Holy Spirit, 
 10; discovery, 26; new names, 40, 566; 
 English claims, 42 n. ; fort abandoned, 
 69; Bienville, 93; valley under British, 
 223 ; British settlement, 289, 543. 
 Mississippi Territory, created, 379, 572; 
 first governor, counties, etc., 379 ; Indian 
 acquisitions, 380, 382; Gov. Sargent, 379; 
 Gov. Claiborne, 380; Gov. Williams, 381; 
 extended, 379, 402; east and west, 459; 
 boundaries, 459; division, 459; judicial 
 system, 573; laws, 573. 
 Mitchell, Wm.,508. 
 
 Mobile, meaning, 8, 564; De Soto at, 22; 
 French : — Iberville selects site, 50; rea- 
 sons, 51; foundation, 52; by Louis XIV, 
 86; name, 54, 57; 1711, 487; trades, 79, 
 179; change of site, 85; description of 
 new, 84, 86 ; brick, 98 ; renamed Fort 
 Condti, 102; district, 122; Indians, 122; 
 Charlevoix, 186; Dumont, 132; storm 
 1740, 131; palisaded, 132; Phelypeaux's 
 map, 150; parish, 144, 169, 172; real es- 
 tate, 157; 
 British : — British take possession, 217 ; 
 British, 223, 570; Indian Congress, 242; 
 sickness, 264; Haldimand on, 265; site, 
 266; according to Bartram, 297; in 
 Council and Assembly, 305; names of 
 residents, 306; seized by Galvez, 315; 
 Spanish : — fire, 506; "villa," "plaza," 365; 
 "ciudad," 321,366; described by Blake- 
 
 ley, 404 ; a paradise, 571 ; U. S. troops 
 in Orange Grove, 400; American at- 
 tack forbidden by U. S., 574; Perez' 
 capitulation, 411 ; extent, 501 ; appear- 
 ance in 1812, 404; Spanish, 490, 501, 
 508; square number, 507; expenses at, 
 331; 
 American: — incorporation, 439; first 
 election, 440; boundary, 440; taxes, 441; 
 French language, 441 ; memorial for 
 powers, 443; first commissioners, 440, 
 444; second board, 444; market, 442; 
 wharf, 442, 473; cows, 445; town money, 
 446; drainage, 447, 448 ; ordinances, 448; 
 outline changes, 480; city, 449; Goodwin 
 & Haire map, 473 (see Maps, Popula- 
 tion, Storms). 
 Mobile Bay, 4, 12, 31; Iberville, in, 50; 
 chart, 260,288; Spanish names, 514; plan- 
 tations, 255, 273; bar, 259 n. 
 Mobile County, 419. 
 
 Mobile Lot Co., 479; Hubbard map, 479. 
 Mobile Point, 517. 
 
 Mobile River, 4, 51 ; delta, 3, 265 ; Pauger, 
 102; Charlevoix, 186; Ellicott, 512; Jef- 
 freys, 215; Haldimand, 265; Gaines, 
 427. 
 Mobilians, 5, 8, 47, 51, 107; images, 108; 
 Iberville, 107; whipping, 107; church 
 registers, 108. 
 Mohr, Chas., 303 n. 
 
 Monberault (Monberaut), Chevalier, 162, 
 190, 227, 237; country place, 185, 228, 230; 
 at Mobile, 230; at Pensacola, 232; dis- 
 charge, 235; L. A., 232, 237. 
 Money under Company, 104; Bons,214,570; 
 British, 307, 543; Spanish, 341, 342; corn, 
 512; cattle, 160, 515 ; American, 396; Mo- 
 bile, 446. 
 Mon Louis (Bodin), 170, 273, 324, 505. 
 Mon Louis Island, 171, 515; grant, 155. 
 Monroe County, 461, 462, 465, 466 n. 
 Montgomery, 424, 454 n., 463, n., 470, 472. 
 Montgomery, Fort, 428. 
 Montigny, 43, 47. 
 Montreal, 42, 214. 
 Montrose, 198, 516. 
 Montuse (Mottus), S., 502; Tavern, 502; 
 
 wharf, 502. 
 Morales, J. v., 357, 359. 
 Mordecai, A., 454. 
 Moore, Fort, 208. 
 Moro, Joseph, 323, 517. 
 Mortar, chief, 208, 229, 233. 
 Mortgage, 160. 
 Moscoso, 27. 
 Mosquitoes, 170, 197, 300. 
 Moss, 215, 271. 
 
 Mounds, 55, 560 ; Wetnmpka, 194. 
 Moundville vase, xxi n. 
 Mount Dexter, treaty, 382. 
 Mount Sterling, treaty, 388. 
 Mount Vernon, 400, 428. 
 Mulattoes, 507, 515. 
 
INDEX. 
 
 689 
 
 Murrell Gang, 377. 
 
 Murrell, John, 370, 507, 515. 
 
 Murrell Tract, title, 500. 
 
 Muscogees, branches, 203; towns, 204. (See 
 
 Creeks.) 
 Music, 185. 
 Mustee (Mestif), 302. 
 
 Nana Falaya, 282. 
 
 Naniabas (Naniabes), 106, 668; relics, 107; 
 Island, 28G. 
 
 Nanipacna, 32, 565. 
 
 Nanna Hubba, 107. 
 
 Kapoches, 32, 565. 
 
 Napoleon, 388, 397. 
 
 Narbonne, 161, 365. 
 
 Narraez expedition, 12, 17, 21, 653. 
 
 Nashville, xxiv, 203, 386, 456 n. 
 
 Natchez, Fort Rosalie 96; Fort Panmure, 
 223; road proposed to Mobile, 270; Galvez 
 captures, 312; incorporated, 380; first 
 steamboat, 471. 
 
 Natchitoches, 100. 
 
 Naval stores, 81, 341, 571. 
 
 Navy cove, 517. 
 
 Navy, French, 174. 
 
 Negro, slaves, French, 79, 93, 101, 180; first 
 birth, 79 ; in church registers, 148 ; sol- 
 diers, 126; slave ships, 103; Spanish regis- 
 ter, 368 ; free negroes, 126, 338, 368, 507, 
 508, 515, 518. 
 
 New Orleans, founded, 100; growth, 124; 
 described by Blakeley, 406; battle, 432. 
 
 Newspapers, 394; Centinel, 394; Natchez 
 Gazette, 394 ; Mobile Gazette, 442. 
 
 New Street, 508. 
 
 Nobility, French, 178, 179. 
 
 Nolte, 431 
 
 N. Carolina, 453 n. 
 
 North West Territory, 452. 
 
 Notary, French, 135, 157, 186; Spanish, 325, 
 327, 341, 343, 370. 
 
 Notices, 161. 
 
 Notre Dame de la Mobile, 148, 368. 
 
 Noyant, 42, 269. 
 
 Oak, 53, 569. 
 
 Ocas Island, 328. 
 
 Oglethorpe, 131. 
 
 Ohio River, 213. 
 
 Oil, 358. 
 
 Okchay (Okchoy), 208, 248, 281, 282. 
 
 Okfuskee (Okwhuskee), 188, 205, 248 n. 
 
 Old Fort, 510; Biloxi, 518. 
 
 Olivier, 339, 350, 492. 
 
 Oltibia, 127. 
 
 Ondoyer, 78, 140, 147. 
 
 One Mile Creek, 50. 
 
 Oquechiton, 565. 
 
 Orange, 100, 105. 
 
 Orange Grove, troops, 400; Tract, title, 
 
 491 ; survey, 492 ; South boundary, 498. 
 Ordinance, 1667, 489; American, 441. 
 Ordonnateur, 71, 183, 531. 
 
 O'Reilly, at New Orleans, 269. 
 Orista, Province, 555. 
 Orleans, steamer, 470. 
 Orleans Territory, 397, 401. 
 Orso, Z., 389, 399. 
 Ortiz, 508. 
 
 Osorno, 339, 351, 357, 492. 
 Oysters, 50, 87, 180, 302, 406, 444. 
 
 Pacanas, 249 and note. 
 
 Paillou, 97. 
 
 Palisade, Mobile, 133, 151. 
 
 Palmetto, 25, 566. 
 
 Palmier, 51, 58. 
 
 Panmure, Fort, 223, 312. 
 
 Panton, Leslie & Co., fill lot, 351; Indian 
 trade, 353, 354, 372; capital, 373; Indian 
 cessions to, 374; main store, 507; acquire 
 Laurent Plantation, 491 ; Orange Grove 
 Tract, 491 ; Choctaw Point, 496. 
 
 Panton, Wm., 331, 352. 
 
 Parain, 489. 
 
 Pardo, 33; narrative, 520; Martinez ac- 
 count, 523 ; Vandera account, 525. 
 
 Parent, C, 110. 
 
 Paris, 178; Treaty of, 216; private property 
 under, 251 . 
 
 Paris, Coutume de, 182. 
 
 Parker's, 325. 
 
 Parlementaires, 214, 531. 
 
 Parsonage, Spanish, 369; sale, 369. 
 
 Partition, Spanish, 341. 
 
 Pascagoula, French, 172; Germans, 292; 
 Spanish priests, 172; Spanish, 519. 
 
 Pass for travel, 343. 
 
 Pass Christian, 518. 
 
 Paths, Indian, 56, 73, 196, 375. 
 
 Patron, 173, 192. 
 
 Patron saint, 166. 
 
 Pauger, surveys river, 102. 
 
 Peace, Utrecht, 212; Aix-la-Chapelle, 212; 
 Paris, 216; Ghent, 436, 452. 
 
 Peaches, 276. 
 
 Pearls, 28 n. 
 
 Pecans, 302, 515. 
 
 P6chon, 152, 191, 192. 
 
 Pelican, the, 67; girls, names, 527; conduc- 
 trice, 527; all married, 566. 
 
 pelican Island, 168. 
 
 Peltries, 59, 60, 64, 206, 255, 259, 353, 376. 
 
 PeBalver, Bishop, 367. 
 
 Pencil, 350. 
 
 Penicaut, 47, 81, 186; returns to France, 
 103. 
 
 Pensacola, Spanish province, 553; cession 
 sought by French, 48 ; Iberville at, 52, 56 ; 
 Guzman, 72; aided by Bienville, 72; his 
 attack on, 101 ; Emporium of the West, 
 262; Indian treaty, 244, 536; British, 545; 
 road to Mobile, 271; Galvez' capture, 
 317; capitalof W.Florida, 311, 333; Jack- 
 son captures, 432; grants, 517; Amer- 
 ican, 478. 
 
 Peon, 326. 
 
590 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Perdido, boundary, 181; Ferry, 305, 309; 
 
 bay, 517. 
 Perez, Cayetano, 351, 357, 399 ; surrenders, 
 
 411 ; returned to Mobile, 419. 
 Perier, 124. 
 
 Perkins, Nicholas, 383, 389. 
 Petticoat insurrection, 66. 
 Pewter, 279. 
 
 Phelypeaux's map, description, 487. 
 Phosphorus, 197. 
 Physicians, 264, 312, 506. 
 Piachi, 21, 463 n. 
 Piastres, 161, 230. 
 Picayune, 344. 
 Picture writing, 275, 276. 
 Pierce, 421, 422, 428. 
 Pillans, H., 415 n., 564. 
 Pilots, French, 80, 129, 158; British, 259; 
 
 Spanish, 518; American, 446, 447. 
 Pine, 24, 52, 88, 266, 275, 282, 283, 513, 571. 
 Pineda, discovers Mobile Bay, 10. 
 Pintado, V. S., 323, 357. 
 Pioneers, Ala., 462, 
 Pipe, 6, 197, 547. 
 Pirates, 63, 166, 322 n., 429, 570. 
 Pirogue, 470. 
 
 Pitch, 341; pitch pine, 513. 
 Pitchlyn, John, 377, 378, 454. 
 Pittman, Lieut., 224; survey, 260. 
 Plantations, 286, 300. 
 Planting, 513. 
 Point Clear, 516. 
 Police Oflicers, 441, 443, 477. 
 Pollock, Oliver, 309, 310. 
 Poll tax, 448. 
 Pontchartrain, 44. 
 Pontiac, 224. 
 Poor rate, British, 307. 
 Pope, L., 45G n. 
 Population, Mobile in 1702, 63; 1704, 68; 
 
 1708, 73, 528; 1713, 93; 1717, 98; 1720, 180; 
 
 1728, 124; 1745, 132; 1751, 134; 1760, 153; 
 
 1764, 251; 1785, 3.31; 1788, 333; 1803, 359; 
 
 1812,405; 1818,447; French and English 
 
 colonies, 212; Alabama counties, 457 n., 
 
 466 n., 469; Spanish Florida, 358. 
 Portage, to Tombigbee, xxiv; Mobile, 440, 
 
 443, 499. 
 Portersville, Indian remains, 108; islands, 
 
 136 ; Indian legend, 171 ; Spanish, 518. 
 Portier, Bishop, 368. 
 Possession, title by, 458 n. 
 Potato, 299, 302. 
 Pot, 107. 
 Pottery, 168; Tombecb6, 215; on Mobile 
 
 Bay, 270. 
 Poultry, 36, 50, 57, 273, 444, 529. 
 Pousset, 254. 
 Powder, 532-534, 539; house, 447; magazine, 
 
 87, 155, 489, 566. 
 Powell, Thos., 370, 399, 514. 
 Presbyterians, 393, 394. 
 Priber, 190, 208. 
 Price, Thos., 362, 370 ; house, 369, 507. 
 
 Price Claim, title, 497, 498. 
 
 Priests, French, 142, 146 ; Spanish, 348, 
 365. 
 
 Primrose, 298. 
 
 Prince George, Fort, 207. 
 
 Printing, 394. 
 
 Prison, 445, 481, 489. 
 
 Proffltt, C, 495, 500. 
 
 Prostitutes, 90, 103. 
 
 Protest, 544. 
 
 Protestants, 392, 482. 
 
 Puente map, 1765, 553. 
 
 Pumps, public, 448. 
 
 Punishments, Spanish, 341. 
 
 Pushmataha, 375, 376, 380, 388 ; regimentals, 
 422 ; services, 422, 423 ; at Washington, 
 325 n. ; death, 425 n. ; lived at Causey- 
 ville, 574; at Holy Ground, 423 ; and 
 Trading House, 455 ; death, 425 n. ; epi- 
 taph, 574. 
 
 Quay, 150. 
 
 Quebec, seminary, 43 ; priests at Mobile, 
 
 143 ; fall, 213. 
 Quicksilver, 192. 
 
 Raft from Tombecb^, 198. 
 
 Railroads, early, 469 n. 
 
 Ran don, 427, 428. 
 
 Ranjel, 15, 23. 
 
 Razor, 348, 539. 
 
 Reclaiming river front, Spanish, 351, 352, 
 482, 501,, 
 
 Records, French, 155, 157 ; Spanish, 322 ; 
 British, 160. 
 
 Red Cliff, 254, 261, 267, 516 ; stockade, 270, 
 535 ; proposed city, 270. 
 
 Red Shoe, 125, 133, 197, 531. 
 
 Reform^, 146. 
 
 Registers, church, 144, 147 ; ordinance, 
 145, 489 ; negro, 368. 
 
 Relics, Indian, 6, 108 n., 168, 559. 
 
 Religion, 392, 482, 543. 
 
 Remonville, memorial, 43 ; brings stores, 
 93 ; church, 88. 
 
 Renomm6e, 51, 58, 86. 
 
 Republic, Fort, 420. 
 
 Requests, court of, 296, 543, 545. 
 
 Revolution, American, 302, 309. 
 
 Ribaut, 554. 
 
 Ribero, map, 12. 
 
 Rice, 122, 151, 295, 406. 
 
 Riparian owner, 473 n., 492, 609. 
 
 River bank, title, 473 n., 492, 509. 
 
 Rivers, fall line, 469 ; navigation, 470. 
 
 Roads, Indian, 107, 375 ; French, 178 ; 
 Charleston, 208 ; Natchez to Mobile, 269 ; 
 Spanish, 322, 329 ; Pensacola to Mobile, 
 271, 305,545 ; Mussel Shoals, Military and 
 Cherokee roads, 382, 387; "Three 
 chopped way," 391 ; Claiborne to Baton 
 Rouge, 395, 407 ; American, 453, 468. 
 
 Rochefort, 174. 
 
 Rochelle, 104 n., 174. 
 
INDEX. 
 
 691 
 
 Rochemore, life, B31. 
 
 Rochon, A., 294, 313, 365. 
 
 Rochon, C, 141. 
 
 Rochon, Pierre, 251, 252 ; contractor, 224, 
 
 253, 272, 292 ; and Haldimand, 273 ; wife, 
 
 294 ; title, 294, 515 ; son, 289. 
 Rodney, 389 n. 
 Romans, Bernard, exploration, 275 ; on 
 
 Tombigbee, 276. 
 Roof, 390. 
 Rosalie, Fort, 96. 
 Ross, J. F.,439. 
 
 Ross, Lieutenant, on Mississippi, 225. 
 Round Island, 324, 518. 
 Royal Street, named, 92 ; under Spaniards, 
 
 326, 337, 494. 
 Rum, 237, 258, 289, 293, 305, 308, 545. 
 Russian princess, 105, 194. 
 
 Saddle, 539. 
 
 Sagean, 48. 
 
 St. Anthony Street, 505. 
 
 St. Augustine, 554. 
 
 St. Charles Street, 335, 506. 
 
 St. Cosme, 64. 
 
 St. Denis, arrival, 47 : on Mississippi, 64 ; 
 at Mobile, 69 ; in Mexico, 95 ; lot, 88 ; at 
 Dauphine Island, 167. 
 
 St. Emanuel Street, 506. 
 
 St. Francis Street, 446, 504, 608. 
 
 St. Helene, 89, 96. 
 
 St. Ildefonso, treaty, 358. 
 
 St. Joseph Bay, 553. 
 
 St. Joseph Street, 507. 
 
 St. Louis, 226. 
 
 St. Louis River, 158. 
 
 St. Louis Street, 505. 
 
 St. Louis Tract, 125, 158, 510. 
 
 St. Michael Street, 505. 
 
 St. Michel, 57. 
 
 St. Peter Street, 504. 
 
 St. Philippe, 137. 
 
 St. Stephens, site, 284, 386 ; Fort St. 
 Stephen, 377, 511 ; Spanish grants, 511 ; 
 occupied by Americans, 377, 519 ; laid 
 off, 390 ; in Creek War, 420 ; Land Office, 
 551 ; palmy days, 438 ; in 1810, 573 ; plan, 
 439 ; steamboats, 471 ; Ellicott, 512 ; cen- 
 tennial, 572. 
 
 St. Vallier, 66, 77, 143, 144. 
 
 Sales, after mass, 178, 183. 
 
 Salome, 110, 513. 
 
 Salt, 285, 533. 
 
 Saltpetre, 176. 
 
 Sands, A. L., 428, 478. 
 
 Santabogue (Centibogue), 284, 387. 
 
 Santa Elena (Helena), 33, 36, 523, 524. 
 
 Sargent, Winthrop, 379, 573. 
 
 Satapo, 526. 
 
 Sauvole, 46, 47. 
 
 Saussaye, 368, 491. 
 
 Savage House, 271. 
 
 Savannah, 454 n. 
 
 Sawing asunder, 105. 
 
 Sawmills, 51, 362, 395, 501. 
 
 Saxon and Latin, xxvi. 
 
 Scalps, 64. 
 
 Schaumburgh, Capt., 421. 
 
 School, 263 n., 421. 
 
 Scissors, 539. 
 
 Sea Warrior, 283. 
 
 Seal, 163, 347, 359. 
 
 Sedella, 364, 368. 
 
 Sehoy, 191. 
 
 Seigneurie, 179, 183. 
 
 Selma, 463, 472. 
 
 Seminary of Quebec, 43, 89, 143. 
 
 Seminoles, 375. 
 
 Senat, Jesuit, 128. 
 
 Serigny, 104. 
 
 Servants, 544. 
 
 Seven Years' War, 212. 
 
 Sewers, 448. 
 
 Sexton, 448. 
 
 Seymour's Blufif, 329. 
 
 Shell Bank, Mobile, 351; relics, 108 n.f 
 Portersville, 6 ; Dauphine Island, 168. 
 
 Shipping, American, 447 (see Boats). 
 
 Shirts, 532, 539. 
 
 Shoes, 534. 
 
 Shore, ownership, 473 n. 
 
 Sibley, Cyrus, 400. 
 
 Sickness at Mobile, 264) 292; Lorimer oiv 
 266. 
 
 Silk, 532, 533. 
 
 Silver, 60, 279. 
 
 Silverware, 231, 317. 
 
 Simpson, William, 496, 509, 619. 
 
 Sinquefleld, Fort, 421. 
 
 Six Militiamen, 436. 
 
 Six Towns, 570. 
 
 Sizemore, 427. 
 
 Skins, 57, 59, 60, 205, 353, 376. 
 
 Slaves, Indian, 68, 78, 175, 206, 529, 543; 
 King's, 78; Law's Co., 99, 180; negro, 
 175,255,273; French ships, 103; British, 
 273, 543, 544, 545; emancipation, 349; 
 Spanish, Ul, 342, 345, 349, 357; after 
 Treaty of Ghent, 437 ; Lacoste's negroes, 
 437 ; free negroes have slaves, 369. 
 
 Smallpox, 125, 209, 210. 
 
 Smoke, 277. 
 
 Smoot, B. S., 433. 
 
 Smuggler, British, 86, 126. 
 
 Snow, 407. 
 
 Social life, 76, 137, 392. 
 
 Sceurs grises, 80. 
 
 Soldiers, French, 65; pay, British, 309. 
 
 Sossier, Henry, 514. 
 
 Sou, lot. 
 
 Soup, 184. 
 
 South, the, 453. 
 
 South Carolina, 62, 467, 575. 
 
 South West, 396, 397, 453. 
 
 Sovager, 152, 271. 
 
 Spain in 16th century, 9; and United 
 States, 3.53, 409, 459. 
 
 Spaniards, explorations, 10, 202; spheres 
 
692 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 of influence, 202; forbid French at Bi- 
 loxi, 47; at Mobile, 180; government of 
 Louisiana, 322, 340, 403 ; Mobile expenses, 
 331; policy towards Kentucky, 337; 
 names, 514; population in West Florida, 
 356, 366. (See Land.) 
 
 Spanish Conspiracy, 337, 380. 
 
 Spanish Fort, 310, 548. 
 
 Spanish grants, 322, 359, 490, 506, 512. 
 
 Spanish River, 116. 
 
 Sparks, R., 428. 
 
 Spelling, names. Preface, 439 n., 514, 518. 
 
 " Spendthrift Anarchy," 569. 
 
 Spiritu Santo, 10, 17, 564. 
 
 Sponsors, 6S, 145. 
 
 Spring Hill, 275, 500. 
 
 Spruce beer, 270. 
 
 State making, xxv, 452. 
 
 Steamboats, 470, 471 ; companies, 470 n. 
 
 Steuernagel, journal, 311. 
 
 Stickney, Henry, 482. 
 
 Stockton, 5, 6, 513. 
 
 Stoddert (Stoddart), Fort, 377, 383; com- 
 mandants, 383; port of entry, 388; in 
 Blakeley's time, 405; spelling, 415. 
 
 Stone, 87, 122. 
 
 Storms, 125,139 ; 1740, 131; 1772, 292. 
 
 Streets, French names, 90, 135, 150 ; north 
 and south, 508; British, 543; title, 509; 
 Spanish, 502-509; American, 444, 446. 
 
 Strothers, 306, 308, 312. 
 
 Strouds, 279, 539. 
 
 Stuart (or Stewart), John, 227, 230, 239, 
 538. 
 
 Stuart (or Stewart), Charles, 267, 286, 293. 
 
 Sunflower, place, 247, 330, 512. 
 
 Superior Council, 124, 183. 
 
 Surtill, 506,508,509. 
 
 Survey, American system, 458. 
 
 Surveyors, Sp.inish, 359, 361; fees, 361; 
 American, 445, 456 n. 
 
 Swamp, 268 (see Marsh). 
 
 Swanson & McGillivray, 298, 308. 
 
 Swimming, 196. 
 
 Sycamore, 566. 
 
 Sylvan scene, 299. 
 
 Table ware, 231. 
 
 Taffia, 204, 533. 
 
 Tagouacha, 510, 571. 
 
 Taille, 178. 
 
 Tallapoosa Indians, 20, 229, 249, 339. 
 
 Tamemes, 16. 
 
 Tanasqui, 521, 525. 
 
 Tankersley, 363, 499. 
 
 Tanner, lost, 57. 
 
 Taouachas (Tawasa), 95, 112, 426, 568. 
 
 Tar, 121,280, ,301, 571. 
 
 Tariff, Law's Co., 102; British, 246, 
 
 Tarpaulin, 226. 
 
 Tasquiqui, 526. 
 
 Tate (Tait), David, 422, 427. 
 
 Tatum, Maj., 426. 
 
 Taverns, 546. 
 
 Taw-wassee, 426. 
 
 Taxes, French, 179; Spanish, 322; Ameri- 
 can, 441. (See Duties.) 
 
 Taylor, Wm., 251, 255, 256. 
 
 Tecumseh, 420, 574. 
 
 Temperance, 266. 
 
 Temperance Hall, 507. 
 
 Tennessee, 423, 452. 
 
 Tennessee Valley, 96, 382, 456, 457 n., 466. 
 
 Tensaw, the, 471, 472, 513. 
 
 Tensaw District (Tassa, Taensa), 245, 298, 
 315, 342, 386, 512, 513. 
 
 Tensaws (Tinsas), at Mobile, 95, 115, 569 
 slaves, 78, 115; in Church registers, 115 
 De Lusser Grant, 129, 158; site, 115, 116 
 Farmer, 198. 
 
 Terrage, 533. 
 
 Territories, xxv, 452, 457. 
 
 Theatre, 482. 
 
 Three Mile Creek, 267. 
 
 Three Mouths, 511. 
 
 Timber, 51, 480. 
 
 Titi, 163. 
 
 Titles, Spanish, 458 n.,490; French, 163,179. 
 
 Titus, James, 438. 
 
 Tobacco, 122, 204, 453, 530, 533, 534. 
 
 Tohomes (Thomez), 106, 285. 
 
 Toise, 86. 
 
 Tomahawk, 74, 95, 170, 204, 532. 
 
 Tombecb^, Fort, built, 127; description, 
 196; requisitions, 532 ; under British, 222; 
 abandonment, 246, 259 ; Romans at, 280 ; 
 in American times, 455. 
 
 Tombeckbee Bank, 439. 
 
 Tombigbee River, name, 135, 190, 280; Ro- 
 mans on, 277 ; steamboats, 471 ; EUicott, 
 512 ; American immigration, 456 ; mean- 
 ing of place names, 571. 
 
 Tonty, 40, 41; letter, 45; at Biloxi, 47; 
 among Indians, 54, 57; life, 62; death, 69. 
 
 Tookabatcha, 190, 202, 375, 420. 
 
 Tories, immigrants, 307, 386. 
 
 Touachas (Touchas, Taouachas), 112. 
 
 Toulmin, Harry, early history, 381 ; letter, 
 381 ; Baton Rouge revolt, 399; on division 
 of territory, 460 ; road, 391. 
 
 Toulmin Tract, title, 499. 
 
 Toulouse, Fort, founded, 96; massacre, 104; 
 history, 188; Monberaut at, 190; mutiny, 
 191; English opinion, 207; cannon, 194, 
 222; princess, 105; appearance, 194; 
 priest, 147, 192, 193; mound, 194; Jeffreys 
 on, 215. 
 
 Tournee, Rue de, 150. 
 
 Town Creek, 276. 
 
 Towns, beginnings, 83, 462. 
 
 Tracts, 490. 
 
 Trade, French with Spaniards, 94, 97, 181; 
 fur, 54, 58, 50, 60; Tariff of Company, 102; 
 later French, 270; stations, 122; Anglo- 
 Indian, 254, 276,289; exports, 289; to Lon- 
 don, 259. (See Indian Trade.) 
 Trader, 167, 205, 276. 
 Tradesmen, French, 80, 115, 179. 
 
INDEX. 
 
 693 
 
 Trading House, French, 276; American, 
 
 455. 
 Trails, Indian, Mobile to Choctaws, 375; 
 
 Feusacola to Creeks, 376; to Charleston, 
 
 208; Forbes, 507. 
 Translated Records, 322. 
 Translator, 543. 
 Trascaluza, 526. 
 Traversier, 1C5, 173. 
 Treaty, foreign, of 1795, 354; Paris, 216; St. 
 
 Ildefonso, 358; Ghent, 436, 452; Florida, 
 
 459. 
 Treaty, Indian, Mobile, 242; Pensacola, 244, 
 
 text, 536; Fort Confederation, 380,648; 
 
 1805 and 1806, 382 ; Hopewell, 387, 548, 549 ; 
 
 Mt. Dexter, 382, 548; Mt. Sterling, 388 ; 
 
 Fort Jackson, 424, 549; 1816, 455, 649; 
 
 Turkey town, 461 ; Dancing Rabbit, 474, 
 
 Doaks Stand, 549; commissioners 
 esses, 548-551 ; list Indian trea- 
 
 and 
 ties, 548 
 
 Trenier, J. B., 5t«. 
 
 Tristan de Luna, 32, Jjito 
 
 Troops withdrawn, 261 , 262 ; resio».^_269 
 
 Trouillet, 615 ; partition, 341 ; marriage, ovi 
 
 Troup, Greo. M., 247, 306. 
 
 Trudeau, C. L., 154 n., 323. 
 
 Turnbull, 512. 
 
 TurnbuU & Joyce, 343, 347. 
 
 Turpentine, 571. 
 
 Tuscahoma, 282. 
 
 Tuskaloosa and De Soto, 21, 24. 
 
 Tuskaloosa, village burned, 463 n. ; Amer- 
 ican origin, 463 n. ; Land Office, 551. 
 
 Twenty-one Mile Blufif, 137. 
 
 Twenty-seven Mile Bluff, 52. 
 
 Tuscaroras, 96. 
 
 Ulloa, 262. 
 
 Undertaker, 347, 447. 
 
 Unio, 28 n. 
 
 United States and Spain, 353, 409, 459. 
 
 United States Hotel, 370, 447. 
 
 Utrecht, peace of, 93. 
 
 Vagabonds, 546. 
 
 Valligny (Walligny), 85, 88. 
 
 Van Antwerp's, 504. 
 
 Vandera exploration, 525. 
 
 Varlet, 142. 
 
 Vaudreuil, arrival, 132; rule, 181 ; Chicka- 
 saw expedition, 134; pacifies Choctaws, 
 132; goes to Canada, 150; surrenders 
 Montreal, 214; Madame, 184. 
 
 Vaugeois, J. F., 369. 
 
 Vaulesar (Volezard), company, 65, 527. 
 
 Vauxbercy (Yobiscey), 168, 263, 298. 
 
 Vegetables, 5, 121, 185, 290, 292, 479. 
 
 Velasco, 30. 
 
 Vendor's Lien, 162. 
 
 Vendue master, 253, 443. 
 
 Venison, 280, 406. 
 
 Vermillion, 532. 
 
 Vestry, British, 307, 543, 546. 
 
 Vicars-general, 77, 142, 144, 146, 147. 
 
 Vieux Fort, 52. 
 
 Vilars, Julia, 368, 507. 
 
 VillafaBe, 33. 
 
 Village, the, 267, 316, 514, 516, 544. 
 
 Vine and Olive Colony, 464. 
 
 Virginia, 379, 453 n., 656. 
 
 Voiture, 185, 230. 
 
 Volunteers, Mobile, 414. .' 
 
 Voters, Jews and free negroes not, 543. 
 
 Voyageurs, 88. 
 
 Wakefield, 381, 383, 389. 
 Waldeckers, in British army, 311. 
 Walker, Tandy, 420. 
 Wall, 479. 
 War of 1812, 452. 
 Ward, D., 516. 
 Warden, 146, 307, 446. 
 Wards, Mobile, 440, 441, 447. 
 Warranty, 327. 
 Washing place, 361, 443. 
 Washington, Geo., Indian policy, 376. 
 Washington County, created, 379 ; judicial 
 district, 381, 388; bar, 389; population, 
 
 WashingtL-rv Court House, 375,389. 
 
 Washington, town, 380, 460. 
 
 Water, at Mobile, 266-266, 440, 443, 571. 
 
 Water lily, 299. 
 
 Water melon, 547. 
 
 Water Street, 445, 473. 
 
 Wax -tree, 215, 290, 298. 
 
 Weatherford, William, 421, 423, 424, 425 n., 
 427, 574. 
 
 Wedderburn, 230, 232. 
 
 Weeds, 443, 544. 
 
 Weeks, N., 616. 
 
 Wegg, E. R., 305. 
 
 Weights, pound, 532; ounce, 539. 
 
 Wells, 266, 271, 448. 
 
 West Florida, British, 221, 571; factions, 
 261; governor and military, 255; gov- 
 ernor and Assembly, 542 ; withdrawal of 
 troops, 261; restored, 209; legislation, 
 304, 542; legislature, 305; titles of acts, 
 542. 
 
 West Florida, Spanish, 395. 
 
 West Florida, revolution, 395, 574; state, 
 398, 399; U. S. occupy, 401. 
 
 Western Company, 99. 
 
 AVesterner, 396. 
 
 Wetumpka, 194, 284. 
 
 Wharves, 90, 252, 442, 444, 446, 473, 502, 543. 
 
 AVhiskey, 392, 533. 
 
 White House, 513. 
 
 Widow, Spanish, 362. 
 
 Wife's deed, 507, 543. 
 
 Wilkinson, James, conspirator, 380, 388; 
 Fort Adams, 379; career, 380, 383, 387; 
 takes Mobile, 410 ; report, 411, 414 ; sent 
 North, 421 ; grave, 574. 
 
 Williams, R., Governor, 381. 
 
 Willing, James, 310. 
 
594 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Wilson, Augusta E., 500. 
 
 Wilson, Betsy, 519. 
 
 Wilson, James, 445. 
 
 Winchester, General, 432, 435. 
 
 Wine, 348, 407 
 
 Wire, 539. 
 
 Wiregrass, 513. 
 
 Witnesses, Spanish, 370, 625. (See Indian 
 
 Treaties, 548-551.) 
 WolfenbUttel, 105. 
 Women (see Girls). 
 Woodbine, 299. 
 Woods, Mobile, 158, 266, 307, 352, 508, 543, 
 
 544. 
 Wool, 60. 
 Wyman, W. S., 277 n. 
 
 Tamassees, 111, 113, 233, 245, 246 n. 
 Yankees, Mobile, 403, 406. 
 Yard, 298, 479. 
 
 Yazoo Frauds, 379, 456 n., 573. 
 Ychuse, 32. 
 
 Yellow fever, 69, 363, 436, 536. 
 York, Fort, 222. 
 You, M., 95, 97, 568. 
 Youpon, 65, 299. 
 
 Yowanne (Yoani, Hiowanni), 196, 199, 
 570. 
 
 Zadek's, 481, 504. 
 
 Zeitgeist, xxvi, 385. 
 
 Zone of assimilation, zxiii.