THE 
 
 HISTORY 
 
 OF 
 
 FLORIDA, LOUISIANA, TEXAS, 
 
 AND 
 
 CALIFORNIA, 
 
 AND OF THE ADJOINING COUNTRIES, 
 
 INCLUDING THE WHOLE 
 
 VALLEY OF THE MISSISSIPPI, 
 
 FROM THE DISCOVERY TO THEIR INCORPORATION WITH THE UNITED 
 STATES OF AMERICA. 
 
 BY 
 
 ROBERT GREENHOW 
 
 ' '*> ' 
 
 Author of a Historical and Political Memoir on the North West Coast, published in 
 1840 by the United States Senate ; of a History of Oregon, &c., &c. 
 
 VOLUME I. 
 
 
 
 NEW YORK: 
 
 1856. 
 
THE 
 
 HISTORY 
 
 OF 
 
 FLORIDA, LOUISIANA, TEXAS, 
 
 AND 
 
 CALIFORNIA, 
 
 AND OF THE ADJOINING COUNTRIES, 
 
 INCLUDING THE WHOLE 
 
 VALLEY OF THE MISSISSIPPI, 
 
 FROM THE DISCOVERY TO THEIR INCORPORATION WITH THE UNITED 
 STATES OF AMERICA. 
 
 BY 
 
 ROBERT GREENHOW 
 
 jr Sfr 
 
 Author of a Historical and Political Memoir on the North West Coast, published in 
 1840 by the United States Senate ; of a History of Oregon, &c., &c. 
 
 VOLUME I. 
 
 
 
 NEW YORK: 
 
 1856. 
 
Bancroft Library 
 
 PUEPACE. 
 
 IN offering this History to the public I consider it proper 
 to present an explanation of the author's motives for under 
 taking his task, and afterwards for extending it beyond the 
 limits originally marked out. For many years his attention 
 had been called to the fact that no general and reliable his 
 tory of the southern and south-western portion of our country 
 existed, and that while New England had recorded the 
 minutest incidents of her early story, very little was accu 
 rately known of the settlements in the Valley of the Mis 
 sissippi and on the border lands of the Mexican Gulf. A 
 desire to supply this deficiency and to become the historian 
 of that region, soon possessed the author's mind; and, while 
 engaged in composing his History of Oregon and California, 
 so large an amount of new information was gathered by him, 
 that he resolved, at once, to undertake the task. Years of 
 patient labor were spent in collecting, arranging, and ex 
 amining materials for the work; and, in the course of his 
 pursuit, he encountered so many discrepancies, or perversions 
 of fact, that he determined to subject his own studies to the 
 severest tests of time and criticism before he ventured to offer 
 them to the public. Adhering to this rule, the author fre 
 quently came in collision with statements of writers of estab 
 lished reputation ; but believing that nothing short of abso 
 lute truth could satisfy the high behests of History, he 
 pursued his independent task, taking care to fortify him 
 self with authority for every contravening statement that he 
 recorded. To those who knew Mr. Greenhow, I need not say 
 that these labors were labors of love enthusiastically pursued- 
 but it is proper for me to add that his resources for authority 
 in the various public libraries of Washington and elsewhere ; 
 
11 PREFACE. 
 
 in his extended and valuable correspondence, and, especially, 
 in the unsurpassed collection of his friend and counseller 
 PETER FORCE, were perhaps, unequalled in this country. 
 
 The author originally intended to finish this History with 
 the war of Independence; hut the want of information as to 
 the true boundaries of Louisiana and Texas, induced him 
 to continue the work. His conclusions may he found to differ 
 from those of some of our leading statesmen, and even from 
 the declarations of our national authorities; yet, History left 
 him no discretion in forming and announcing his opinions. 
 
 While engaged in the latter portion of the work, the war 
 with Mexico was actively prosecuted, so that the boundaries 
 of Texas acquired, if possible, a greater importance than ever. 
 The account of California, also, forms a very significant por 
 tion of these volumes, for much of its early Spanish history 
 has such affinity with that of Florida, Louisiana and Texas, 
 that it would have been nearly impossible to separate them 
 without making portions of their history obscure. 
 
 The acquisition of California by the United States, and a 
 hope of restoring his health which had been much impaired 
 by studious confinement, determined the author to visit our 
 Pacific coast. Before going there, however, he deemed it 
 necessary to visit Mexico to procure information, not else 
 where to be had, as to the Spanish government and laws of 
 California. Mr. Greenhow foresaw the importance of this 
 knowledge in the litigation which was likely to ensue, 
 and every facility was afforded for his researches by the 
 Mexican officials. During the six or seven months passed 
 by him in the City of Mexico, the greater part of his time 
 was spent among the archives, where. he considered himself 
 amply repaid by the discovery of many links required for a 
 connected history of California. His health, meanwhile, did 
 not improve, and he suffered, moreover, from an affection of 
 his eyes, in consequence of which, I, who had been the com 
 panion of his journey, became his amanuensis and was thus 
 enabled in some degree to lighten his labors. 
 
 At the end of 1850, we continued our journey to California, 
 crossing the country to Acapulco and thence to San Francisco, 
 where Mr. Grt'enhow soon became actively engaged in the 
 
PREFACE. Ill 
 
 examination and argument of contested land titles. These 
 professional' duties interfered with, but did not altogether 
 suspend his historical studies, and as they approached conclu 
 sion under his careful hand, he became anxious to submit them 
 to the public. But he was not permitted to witness this 
 consummation of his labors. His career was terminated on 
 the 27th of March, 1854, by a violent casualty which occurred 
 in San Francisco a city in which his high integrity and 
 moral worth had won for him the popular esteem at a time 
 when society was almost disorganized. 
 
 Before this sad event Mr. Greenhow had finished stereo 
 typing the whole of the first, and part of the second volume 
 of this work; and he left nearly all of the manuscript for the 
 remainder, in such a condition that it may be put to press with 
 such slight corrections as his own judgment would probably 
 have dictated in revising the proof-sheets. 
 
 I arn deeply impres&ed with the responsibility imposed on 
 me by his death; but I can only endeavor to carry out the will 
 of the author, whose instructions* in tMs respect, I often re 
 ceived, for he seemed to have a conviction that the task of 
 publication would devolve upon me. Whilst I esteem it not 
 only an honorable duty but an affectionate trust, to guard 
 and extend a reputation which is the sacred heritage of his 
 family, I commit this work to the public with the most per 
 fect confidence in the fidelity with which it was prepared, 
 and in its national value as a History. I have had the con 
 solation to receive the warm sympathy of many enlightened 
 and distinguished men who knew the author and were fa 
 miliar with his labors; but I would be unjust to my own 
 feelings if I did not thus publicly express my thanks to^the 
 Honorable JARED SPARKS, and to my friend BRANTZ MAYER of 
 Baltimore, whose familiarity with many of the subjects of 
 this history, enabled him to render me the aid so graciously 
 given. 
 
 ROSE O'NEALE GREENHOW. 
 
 
INTRODUCTION. 
 
 IN the following pages an attempt is made, for the first time, to 
 present in a continuous historical narrative, the principal events relating 
 to the countries bordering upon the northern half of the Mexican 
 Gulf, and to California, from the period of their discovery by Europeans, 
 to their incorporation with the United States. 
 
 In order to show more distinctly what countries are included in the 
 earlier portion of these volumes, it will be premised that the name of 
 Florida was applied in 1512, by the Spaniards to the peninsula now so 
 called, on the north-east side of the Mexican Gulf, and was subsequently 
 extended by them to the whole division of America north and north 
 west of that great arm of the Atlantic. In the following century, after 
 large portions of this division had been abstracted and occupied as pro 
 vinces by the English and French, the latter nation, extending its settle 
 ments from the Atlantic westward to the Mississippi, explored and took 
 possession of the vast regions drained by that river and its branches, 
 which received the appellation of Louisiana; whereupon the Spaniards, 
 to prevent further encroachments on territories which they regarded 
 as exclusively their own, established themselves in the country adjoin 
 ing Louisiana on the south-west, and annexed it to their kingdom of 
 New Spain as the province of Texas. 
 
 The present work will not be expected to embrace a history of the 
 whole division of America thus originally included by the Spaniards 
 in Florida, nor on the other hand, will it be confined to the compara 
 tively small portions now known as Florida, Louisiana and Texas ; but 
 will comprehend all the countries drained by streams entering the 
 Mexican Gulf on the north and those immediately adjacent, between 
 the Atlantic on the east, and the great river called Rio Bravo, Rio 
 Grande and Rio del Norte, on the south-west. These countries are 
 now all within the limits of the United States, to which they have been 
 annexed in various ways. The history of each after its annexation, will 
 be related only so far as regards its connection with the remaining 
 portions, and attention will be directed particularly to the regions ad 
 joining the Mexican Gulf, in which the most important events occurred. 
 
2 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 The early history of these countries, presents few of the events, so 
 varied in character and brilliant in immediate results, which have 
 rendered Mexico a land of romance ; and the writer, in tracing it, finds 
 no opportunity for the indulgence of his fancy, being restricted within 
 the limits of the probable and of the ordinary. The great expeditions 
 of the Spaniards into Florida, ended with one or two exceptions, in the 
 destruction by disease or starvation of all who engaged in them ; and 
 the heroes by whom they were conducted, could only exhibit their 
 powers in the passive courage with which they endured those dreadful 
 but common-place evils. Then followed the settlements of the Spaniards 
 and the French, which never amounted to more than a few paltry vil 
 lages and plantations on the sea-coast or the banks of the large rivers, 
 and were long considered unworthy to be made the subject of dispute 
 or negotiation between the governments of European nations. It was 
 not indeed, until the present century, that attention was directed to 
 wards the territories on the northern side of the Mexican Gulf, and 
 that the vast influence which they might exercise on the political condi 
 tion of the world began to be perceived. The territories which the 
 Spaniards abandoned as worthless, because no gold was found in them, 
 and afterwards occupied only to prevent the development of their re 
 sources and to keep them forever as a desert between Mexico and the 
 possessions of other nations, are now rapidly filling up with a numerous 
 and enlightened population, and in all probability are destined to become 
 the seat of a power greater than that of Spain and the Indies in their 
 palmy days. 
 
 The most interesting portion of the history of these regions is that 
 connected with their occupation by the Americans, in the progress of 
 which, many new and important questions of political law and national 
 right have arisen, while rules, if not principles of action, have been 
 asserted at variance with those previously regarded as established. 
 These new views are daily receiving the sanction of the people and 
 government of the United States, notwithstanding the opposition made 
 to them by European powers retaining interests in America. The 
 circumstances connected with the annexation of Florida, Louisiana, 
 and Texas to the United States, therefore merit the closest investiga 
 tion, in order that the important questions which have thus arisen, 
 may be placed in a distinct and proper light for the judgment of the 
 world. With this object the present work has been undertaken, which 
 will not be without use, if it shall contribute to expose and correct a 
 single error of fact or reasoning. 
 
 The history of Florida, Louisiana and Texas, has, at least for more 
 than a century, been related in works devoted either specially to some 
 portion of them, or to the United States, Spain, England, France, 
 Mexico, or the whole of America generally. In those of the latter class, 
 
INTRODUCTION. 3 
 
 sufficient space could not be assigned for the necessary details, even if 
 the authors had found time to investigate them; whilst in the others, 
 it was of course impossible to present, with the requisite distinctness, 
 many events of a minute character which occurred in remote districts, 
 but which materially affected the interests of the whole. These coun 
 tries indeed remained almost isolated until their occupation by the 
 Americans; their inhabitants having no communication with the ad 
 joining possessions of other nations, and very little with those of the 
 power to which they belonged; whilst the different portions, even when 
 under the dominion of different nations, were generally dependent on 
 each other, and liable to be affected by any measure bearing materially 
 upon one. 
 
 In presenting, therefore, the history of these countries they should 
 be considered as one ; and no point of time, subsequent to that of the 
 first discovery of their coasts, should be selected for its commencement. 
 The most recent and important events in one portion, will be found to 
 be intimately connected with those which occurred in another during 
 the life time of the companions of Columbus, and cannot be properly 
 estimated without reference to the political systems and the views of 
 national law prevailing among civilized states at that remote epoch. 
 The condition of the whole has moreover, until their annexation to the 
 United States, often depended upon political movements in Europe, of 
 which none of the works above mentioned has shown or could shaw 
 the entire influence ; while statesmen, relying on these works for infor 
 mation as to the past, have been and may again be led to the most 
 serious errors and difficulties, in their demands or admissions. 
 
 In the correspondence which led to the Florida treaty of 1820, the 
 facts are often incorrectly represented ; yet, no means have been taken 
 to verify them, while the correspondence is referred to as authority 
 on points concerning the limits of Louisiana and on many others 
 relating to the extent and boundaries of Texas. To attempt to oppose 
 such authority is a task from which he who undertakes it may not 
 reasonably expect a grateful return, especially when his representations 
 do not invariably support the views maintained by many distinguished 
 negotiators and statesmen. 
 
 These pages are the results of the study of the countries in question, 
 pursued for several years of anxious research and reflection, in the 
 course of which, not only have all the printed works and maps hitherto 
 cited as authorities, been consulted, but many others adduced, together 
 with a mass of official manuscripts which have slumbered for more 
 than a century and a half in the archives of Paris, Madrid and Mexico, 
 and still remain unpublished. In discussions of boundaries, undue 
 importance is commonly attached to maps, when, in fact, they prove 
 little but the opinion of the geographer or draftsman who construct- 
 
4 -INTRODUCTION. 
 
 cd them, while many were only designed to advance a public claim or 
 private speculation. Their historic value depends on their accordance 
 with facts and reason, and upon the moral and political character of 
 their authors. 
 
 In the following work, the history of the discovery and settlement 
 of the countries to which it is devoted, is carefully traced; and all 
 other circumstances worthy of note respecting them, are recorded 
 with the minuteness in each case which its importance seemed to 
 require. Especial attention has been given to the negotiations and 
 treaties between the nations interested in those countries, showing not 
 only all the stipulations actually made concerning them, but likewise 
 the political condition in which they were placed by the spirit or proper 
 construction of each agreement. Moreover, the extent of geographical 
 knowledge with regard to that part of America at particular periods, 
 is proved by references, the authority of each of which is critically ex 
 amined. This species of information has been found by the author 
 indispensable in the study of the numerous narratives of expeditions, 
 which have been consulted, and absolutely necessary for understanding 
 the true meaning and bearing of treaties ; while the researches necessary 
 for obtaining it have occupied a large portion of the years spent in 
 preparing these volumes for the public. 
 
HISTORY 
 
 OP 
 
 FLORIDA, LOUISIANA, TEXAS, 
 
 AND 
 
 CALIFORNIA, 
 
 AND OF THE ADJOINING COUNTRIES, INCLUDING THE WHOLE 
 VALLEY OF THE MISSISSIPPI. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 1492 TO 1516. 
 
 THE FIELD OF THIS HlSTORY GEOGRAPHICAL FEATURES MOUN 
 TAINS KIVERS CLIMATE THE MISSISSIPPI AND ITS TRIBU 
 TARIES THE VALLEY OF THE MISSISSIPPI STREAMS OF THE 
 EAST COAST THE ABORIGINAL POPULATION EUROPEAN DIS 
 COVERIES SPANISH GOVERNMENT IN WEST INDIES EARLY 
 MAP OF WEST INDIES DISCOVERY OF FLORIDA, GULF STREAM, 
 AND PACIFIC. 
 
 THE part of America to which the earlier portion of the 
 following history relates, extending on the north side of the 
 Mexican Gulf, from the great river known as Rio Bravo, Rio 
 Grande, or Rio del Norte, and eastwardly to the Atlantic, 
 was discovered and traversed in various directions by the 
 Spaniards, within fifty years after the existence of the New 
 World had been ascertained by Columbus. At that period, 
 and during the remainder of the sixteenth century, these 
 countries and the whole division of the continent farther 
 north, were included under the general name of FLORIDA, 
 bestowed by the Spaniards in commemoration of Easter 
 Sunday, the day on which land was first seen in the vicinity 
 of St. Augustine. 
 
6 EAEXY EXPLORATIONS AND SETTLEMENTS. 
 
 In the course of the following century, several large por 
 tions of this division bordering upon the Atlantic, were suc 
 cessively occupied by the English, the French and the Dutch; 
 and the name of Florida became gradually restricted by all 
 nations, except the Spanish, to the territory south of the Sa 
 vannah river. The French, then penetrating westward from 
 their settlements on the St. Lawrence, explored and occupied 
 the reg-ions drained by the Mississippi, to which they assign 
 ed the appellation of Louisiana, in honor of their sovereign, 
 Louis XIV. 
 
 Florida was thus farther reduced in extent; and the Span 
 iards, in order to restrain the encroachments of other Euro 
 pean nations upon territories which they considered as ex 
 clusively their own, in virtue of the papal concession, as well 
 as of their discoveries and settlements, established themselves 
 in the region next adjoining Louisiana on the west, and an 
 nexed it to their kingdom of Mexico or New Spain, as the 
 Province of Texas. This last establishment was formed in 
 the early part of the seventeenth century, Texas being the 
 name of the principal tribe of the Cenis nation or confederacy 
 of Indians, dwelling between the Ked river and the Trinity. 
 The Spaniards however persisted until a much later period, 
 in applying the name of Florida to the whole division of 
 America north of the Mexican Gulf; treating the colonies of 
 the other European nations in those countries as illegal in 
 trusions.* 
 
 Such were the circumstances under which the names of 
 Florida, Louisiana and Texas were severally applied by the 
 French and Spaniards to these parts of North America. The 
 present work will, of course, not embrace the history of the 
 whole division of the continent thus originally called Flori- 
 
 * See for instance the " Ensayo Chronologico para la Historia de Florida." 
 A Chronological history of Florida, by Don Andres Gonzales Barcia, under the 
 anagram of Gabriel de Cardenas Z. Cano, Historiographer to the crown of Spain, 
 published at Madrid in 1723, in which all the events in the English and French, 
 as well as in the Spanish colonies, north of the Mexican Gulf, are related as parts 
 of the history of his Catholic Majesty's "great Kingdom of Florida. v The work 
 is curious and valuable, and reference will be frequently made to it in the follow 
 ing pages. 
 
THE FIELD OF THIS HISTORY. 7 
 
 da; nor will it, on the other hand, be confined to the com 
 paratively small portions now known respectively as Florida,, 
 Louisiana and Texas. It is intended to present in the first 
 portions of these volumes, a complete account of the discove 
 ries and establishments of the French and the Spaniards,, in 
 the regions adjacent to the northern side of the Mexican Gulf 
 and the Mississippi, which were first explored and occupied 
 by the people of those nations; as well as of the various dis 
 putes and agreements to which they gave rise, until those 
 countries were incorporated with the United States, of which 
 they now form such large and important divisions. 
 
 This is indeed a wide field, but the most important events 
 have occurred in the immediate vicinity of the Mexican Gulf 
 or of the lower Mississippi, which will accordingly form the 
 principal scenes of the history. These events have been 
 hitherto presented, either in works specially devoted to Flo 
 rida, Louisiana, Texas, or to the States in which they are 
 now subdivided, or they are to be found scattered through 
 the annals of Spain, France, Great Britain and the United 
 States; so that it is difficult, if not impossible, to preserve 
 the connection between causes and effects, so essential to 
 render a history reliable. The great questions which have 
 been agitated since the commencement of this century with 
 regard to Florida, Louisiana, and Texas, have been, in con 
 sequence, almost always misrepresented by those to whom 
 the statesman looks for information; and acts of signal in 
 justice have been committed, and disputes and wars between 
 nations have arisen, which might have been avoided by a 
 display of the historical evidence in a more accurate form. 
 The object of this work is to supply the want thus indicated, 
 by exhibiting the countries bordering upon the northern 
 sides of the Mexican Gulf as a whole; and tracing their con 
 nections with each other and with the rest of the world, in 
 such a manner as to afford the means of correcting the 
 errors of public opinion respecting the past, and of equitably 
 adjusting the important questions which may hereafter be 
 raised. 
 
 The early history of these, as of all other parts of America, 
 
8 THE GREAT NATURAL DIVISIONS OF NORTH AMERICA. 
 
 must necessarily be devoted in a great measure to the details 
 of discoveries and explorations, for the ready comprehension 
 of which a general knowledge of the geography of the coun 
 tries will he indispensable ; and a sketch of the principal 
 natural features of the regions drained by streams entering 
 the Mexican Gulf on the north, will accordingly be presented, 
 leaving the more minute description of particular points to 
 the part.s of the work specially relating to them. 
 
 As an introduction to this view, it will be proper first to re 
 mark the North American continent in its three great natural 
 divisions or sections, as indicated by the inclinations of its 
 surface towards the three great basins of the ocean upon 
 which it borders. Of these sections, the Arctic, including 
 all the territories drained by streams which flow into the 
 Arctic or North Polar Ocean, forms about one-third of the 
 continent. It would be needless to say more of it here, tharx_ 
 that it is remarkable from the general smoothness of the 
 surface, and, from the sterility of the land and its frosty cli 
 mate, is entirely uninhabitable by a fixed population. The 
 Pacific section, embracing all west of the great chain of 
 mountains which traverses both the continents, nearly par 
 allel to their western coasts, from Behring's Strait to the 
 Strait of Magellan, is no less remarkable from the irregulari 
 ty of its superficial conformation ; being almost every where 
 intersected by lofty ridges separated only by narrow valleys. 
 
 The Atlantic section of North America comprises about 
 2,204,887 square miles, or one-seventh of the whole continent; 
 and of this portion four-sevenths are drained by streams 
 flowing into the Mexican Gulf, which, with its prolongation 
 the Caribbean Sea, may be considered as occupying a position 
 in the New World similar to that of the Mediterranean in 
 the old. A particular description of this Gulf will be re 
 quired in this place, in order clearly to exhibit the peculiari 
 ties of the regions which it separates peculiarities scarcely 
 less broad and striking than those which distinguish Europe, 
 Asia and Africa from each other. 
 
 The Gulf of Mexico is a part of the Atlantic Ocean occupy 
 ing a wide and deep recess on the eastern side of the Ameri- 
 
THE GULF OF MEXICO AND ITS STREAM. , ' 9 
 
 can continent, between the 18th and 31st parallels of latitude. 
 In form, it approaches an oval, extending in greatest length, 
 from east to west, one thousand miles, and from north to 
 south, eight hundred; its whole superfices being about six 
 hundred thousand square miles rather more than half that 
 of the Mediterranean and its interior seas. On the east, it 
 communicates with the Atlantic by two passages, which are 
 separated by the interposition of the great island o Cuba. 
 By the northern of these passages, called the Bahama Chan 
 nel, between Cuba and the southern extremity of the penin 
 sula of Florida, the communication is direct and immediate: 
 the southern passage, between Cuba and the north-east ex 
 tremity of the peninsula of Yucatan, connects the Mexican 
 Gulf with the Carribbean Sea, which joins the Atlantic by 
 numerous openings between the islands of the West Indian 
 chain or archipelago. Through these last mentioned open 
 ings, the great intertropical current caused by the rotation 
 of the earth, enters the Carribbean Sea, the waters of which, 
 receiving the same impulsion, are carried between Cuba and 
 Yucatan, into the Mexican Gulf. This powerful current then 
 continues along the shores of the latter, south-westward, north 
 ward, eastward and south-eastward, constantly augmented by 
 the influx of great rivers, and rushes out through the Bahama 
 Channel between Cuba' and Florida, forming the well known 
 Gulf-stream of the Atlantic, the effects of which are percep 
 tible near the coasts of Europe. The force of this current is 
 such as to embarrass the entrance of vessels into the Gulf 
 by the northern passage, or their departure from it by the 
 southern, or their navigation against the line of direction of 
 the 'waters along the coasts ; so that those propelled by wind 
 are obliged usually to take circuitous courses, in order to 
 avail themselves of eddies or counter currents, and to escape 
 the dangers from rocks and sand banks, on which they might 
 be drifted during calms or whilst their true position cannot 
 be ascertained by astronomical observations. 
 
 Northward from the Mexican Gulf, the Atlantic section of 
 America extends through forty degrees of latitude, to the 
 Frozen Ocean. In the vast distance of more than two thou- 
 2 
 
10 CHARACTER OF THE LAND. 
 
 sand five hundred miles, with an average breadth of nearly 
 two thousand, the only notable interruptions of the continuity 
 of the land, are presented by the great Lakes communica 
 ting with the Atlantic through the St. Lawrence and Hud- 
 sons Bay which is connected with the same ocean by Hudson's 
 Strait; while the only remarkable elevations of surface, are 
 those of the Apalachian or Alleghany chain, which stretches 
 northward from the 33rd degree of latitude to the 46th, 
 separating the waters flowing directly into the Atlantic, from 
 those entering it through the St. Lawrence on the north, and 
 through the Mississippi on the west. The breadth of the 
 continent between the Mexican Gulf on the east and the 
 Californian Gulf on the Pacific side, does not exceed, at the 
 widest, six hundred miles, measured on the 28th parallel of 
 latitude. Farther south the territory separating the waters 
 of the two oceans diminishes gradually in width until it is 
 reduced to only one hundred and twenty miles, in the Isth 
 mus of Guazecualco or Tehecantepec, the northern boundary 
 of the Mexican Gulf, over which one of the great lines of 
 travel and commerce between that sea and the Pacific, is 
 probably destined to pass. This intervening territory west 
 and south of the Gulf, is nearly equally divided, by the ridge 
 or SIERRA MADRE of the chain separating the waters of the 
 Pacific from those of the Atlantic, whose mountains are 
 often visible from the sea. The immediate environs of 
 the Gulf are, however, flat every where on the northern and 
 generally on the*other sides; and 'are bordered, in many 
 places, by low and narrow islands, enclosing shallow bays 
 or sounds, into which several of the larger rivers discharge 
 their waters. The only islands not thus immediately con 
 tiguous to the mainland, are a few small points of coral rock 
 and sand, within a hundred miles of Yucatan and the north 
 ern extremity of Florida, which contribute to increase the 
 dangers of the navigation, arising from the force of the 
 great current already described. 
 
 The territories north of the- Mexican Gulf, differ in climate 
 no less than surface from those south of that sea. The 
 latter are all situated in the torrid zone, and are rarely 
 
CHARACTERISTICS OF MEXICO RIVERS CLIMATE. 11 
 
 visited by rain, except during the summer months; while 
 the northern regions are at all times subject to the fall of 
 water from the heavens, though usually more in winter than 
 at other seasons of the year. From these differences of 
 climate and the greater extent of the northern division of 
 the continent, the quantity of water poured into the gulf 
 from the north, greatly exceeds the contributions from 
 the other side. The Mississippi alone supplies more than 
 all the remaining streams together; while there are several 
 other rivers, on the same side, superior in that re*spect to the 
 Santander, the Panuco, the Alvarado, the G-uazecualco, the 
 Tabasco or the Usumasinta, the only large streams emptying 
 into the Gulf from the south. The flow of water from the 
 northern territories is however not uniform throughout the 
 year; for the sources of the greatest rivers are situated among 
 mountains on which the snows accumulate in winter and are 
 melted by the returning sun, so as to produce floods in the 
 spring, as regular as those occasioned by summer rains in 
 northern streams. 
 
 Of the countries on the southern side of the Mexican Gulf, 
 which may be comprehended under the general name of 
 Mexico, the most valuable portions, are the table lands 
 among the vast mountain chains, where the climate is mild 
 and equal, and the soil, in some places, very fertile. These 
 portions, have supported, and still support, large numbers 
 of people, in that semi-civilized state which is so favorable 
 to population, where the wants are few and the means of 
 subsistence easily attained; but they are small in extent, 
 when compared with the whole territor^v, and lie in patches 
 or tracts, separated from each other by high ranges of rugged 
 mountains, or by wide sandy plains, opposing barriers to in 
 tercourse, which must ever prove disadvantageous to that 
 division of the New World. The civilization of Europe and 
 the United States, at the present day, while it stimulates 
 labor and increases its products, at the same time gives rise 
 to new necessities, for the gratification of which, each portion 
 of a country must have facilities of communication with all 
 other parts of the world; and in these facilities, Mexico must 
 
12 CHARACTERISTICS OP YUCATAN. 
 
 be always deficient, not only from the causes indicated, but 
 also from the want of good harbors and the general insalu 
 brity of the regions contiguous to the eastern and western 
 coasts. 
 
 Some of the low countries on the south-east side of the 
 Gulf, have however supported a population, not inferior to 
 that of any other part of the world, in comparison with 
 the extent of their surface. A large part of the peninsula 
 of Yucatan, is literally covered with remains of edifices, 
 scarcely less remarkable, in number, extent, or elaborate 
 ness, than those of Egypt or India; erected at periods where 
 of no record remains, but possibly as remote as those in 
 which the pyramids were raised, or the temples of Ellora ex 
 cavated. These remains demonstrate not only the populous- 
 ness of the country and the advancement of its inhabitants 
 in the arts, but also the strength and long duration of 
 their political system; yet, in this territory, the rains are 
 confined to a few weeks of every year, while the character 
 and form of the surface is such, that very few streams or 
 springs of water are to be found during the dry season ; so 
 that the inhabitants are subjected to a still farther tax on 
 their labor, for the construction of reservoirs, scarcely less 
 remarkable as works of art than the edifices and temples 
 we have mentioned. 
 
 In a description of the countries north of the Mexican 
 Gulf, the first objects of attraction should be the rivers, of 
 which not less than ten, of large size, may be counted enter 
 ing the sea, within an extent of coast, of as many hundred 
 miles. Several of these streams are navigable at all times, 
 and others, during their floods, to considerable distances in 
 the interior; some however, as already mentioned, terminate 
 in shallow bays or inlets, forbidding the entrance of any but 
 the smallest vessels, though they may afford a free passage 
 to those of much larger draught, above the neighborhood of 
 their mouths. 
 
 Of the Mississippi, the chief of these streams, it is difficult 
 to determine what should be stated in a limited space. The 
 river which, under that name, enters the Gulf of Mexico, 
 
THE MISSISSIPPI AND ITS TRIBUTARIES. 13 
 
 nearly in the middle' of its northern coast, at the 29th 
 parallel of latitude, in fact traverses, drains, and connects 
 together about one-seventh of North America, comprehending 
 the greater part of the continent between the parallel above 
 mentioned and the 48th degree, where its northern sources 
 are to be found. Over this vast surface, its branches spread 
 in all directions ; many of them wide, deep and rapid, 
 affording passage for large vessels, for hundreds and even 
 thousands of miles, from their confluence with the main 
 trunk, to the vicinity of the sources of all the other principal 
 rivers of the continent, which flow either into the Atlantic, 
 the Arctic, or the Pacific oceans, directly or through their 
 great gulfs or bays. In fact, of the states now composing 
 the American Federal Republic, not less than twenty contri 
 bute water to the Mississippi; and of these, sixteen commu 
 nicate with the Mexican Gulf by navigable streams falling 
 into the same great canal.* 
 
 The Mississippi, which is called the main stream, though 
 inferior in all respects to the Missouri above the point of 
 their union, originates near the 48th degree of latitude 
 in the centre of the North American continent, immediately 
 west of Lake Superior, and after flowing for some distance, 
 wide and deep, it crosses a ledge of rocks under the 45th 
 parallel, where it forms the celebrated cataracts known as the 
 Falls of St. Anthony. Near the 43d degree, it receives the 
 Wisconsin, and near the 39th, the Illinois; both large streams 
 flowing from the east, of which, particularly of the latter, 
 much will be said in the following pages. At a short dis 
 tance "below the mouth of the Illinois, the Missouri rushes in 
 from the west, and the waters which before receiving this 
 accession, were comparatively clear and smooth, are driven 
 into thick and yellow whirlpools, laden with mud and trunks 
 of trees, brought down by the mighty torrent. The Ohio 
 
 New York, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin, Iowa, 
 Missouri, Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas, Louisiana, Texas, Mississippi, and Ala 
 bama, as well as Minnesota, may be and are reached by vessels from the Mississip 
 pi; while Maryland, Michigan, North Carolina, and Georgia, send forth small 
 streams to its great tributaries. 
 
14 THE VALLEY OF THE MISSISSIPPI. 
 
 next enters under the 37th parallel, bringing its waters from 
 the western slope of the Alleghany mountains, and from a 
 vast and fertile region between that chain and the Missis 
 sippi; though it appears to the eye to increase but little, the 
 volume or force of the great river. Farther south, many 
 considerable streams flow into the Mississippi on both sides, 
 but no very large ones from the east; while on the west, it 
 receives the Arkansas near the 34th degree, and the Red 
 River near the 31st, which, like the Missouri, have their 
 sources among the Rocky Mountains, in the vicinity of those 
 of the principal rivers emptying into the Pacific. 
 
 The direct distance from the source of the Mississippi to 
 its mouth is about fourteen hundred miles; the sinuosity of 
 the river is however so great that the line of its passage is 
 nearly double that length, extending thirteen hundred miles 
 above the mouth of the Missouri, and the same distance below 
 that point. In its course southward as far as the 35th degree, 
 it is confined, except in a few spots, by banks of sufficient 
 height to prevent its overflow at any time, but south of that 
 parallel the country in most places on the eastern side, and 
 everywhere on the west, lies beneath the level attained by 
 the waters in their usual annual floods, and consequently is 
 inundated by them to a considerable extent in each direction. 
 The elevated places, on the eastern side of this portion, are 
 the terminations of ridges running thither south-westward 
 from tbe Alleghany mountains,, and some of them form high 
 cliffs, overhanging the stream. The low country on the west, 
 increases constantly in breadth as it is nearer to the Gulf, 
 on which it extends to a great distance, not only on that side, 
 but also east of the mouth of the Mississippi; and it was 
 probably, at some period long past, covered by an arm or 
 prolongation of the sea, which has been gradually filled up 
 by the deposite of mud, sand, and trees, so as merely to leave 
 a passage for the river. In this manner the surface of the 
 regions liable to be inundated is always raised after each 
 overflow, and the mouth of the Mississippi is constantly car 
 ried farther south, by the deposites formed about it on the 
 edge of the Gulf. 
 
ALLUVION FLOODS OF THE RIVER. 15 
 
 The floods of the lower Mississippi, are the results of the 
 sudden influx of water from its great tributaries, produced 
 either by the melting of the snows in the mountains, where 
 their sources are situated, or by the abundance of rain during 
 certain seasons of the year, in the countries through which 
 they respectively pass. The periods of the influx from the 
 different streams are generally regular and successive, so 
 that the waters from one river have usually been carried off 
 by the great trunk to the sea, before those from another 
 have reached it. It however sometimes occurs, that the 
 floods from two or more rivers simultaneously, enter the Mis 
 sissippi which consequently is raised above the usual height 
 and extends its inundations over a wider space. These ex 
 traordinary floods must ever be very injurious to the inhabi 
 tants of the countries they visit; particularly as the only 
 means as yet employed and perhaps the only possible means 
 of protection, must serve to increase the height and violence 
 of the torrents. The artificial embankments, always confin 
 ing the river to its channel, and preventing it from spread 
 ing, necessarily elevate the surface at the floods, and they 
 also raise the bottom, in consequence of the increase of the 
 deposite upon it, which is not counterbalanced, as experience 
 has shown, by the impulse thus given to the rapidity of the 
 current. As the embankments are continued, the elevation 
 of the river above the surrounding cpuntry must increase, 
 unless new channels are opened for carrying off the super 
 abundant waters to the Gulf; and the inhabitants must be 
 placed in the same perilous condition, with those on the 
 lower Po, the surface of which, at the distance of six miles 
 only, is usually above the level of the roofs of the high 
 est palaces in the city of Ferrara. 
 
 The floods acting upon the soft and yielding soil which in 
 general composes the borders of the lower Mississippi, pro 
 duce constant changes in its course. Tfius its banks, on the 
 one side against which the current strikes, are undermined 
 and carried away, while on the opposite side, where the 
 water is comparatively tranquil, deposites of mud and sand 
 are found, which gradually rise into shores. Moreover the 
 
16 NAVIGATION OF THE RIVER AND ITS AFFLUENTS. 
 
 necks of the peninsulas inclosed by the innumerable wind 
 ings of the stream, are frequently cut through, and new 
 channels are thus made, the old ones being gradually con 
 verted into lakes by constant deposites at their extremities, 
 and then filled up by those made during the floods. These 
 changes however must necessarily be confined within narrow 
 limits, except perhaps in the region adjacent to the Gulf, 
 where some one of the outlets, now inconsiderable, may be 
 come enlarged either naturally or by artificial aid, so as 
 to enable it to carry off the greater part of the waters. 
 
 The Mississippi is at all times navigable by large vessels 
 to the mouths of all its principal tributaries, which more 
 over may be ascended to great distances, except when their 
 waters are very low. The Red River, if the obstructions 
 from the accumulation of drift wood were removed, and the 
 Arkansas, might be thus navigated for more than a thousand 
 miles each, during a certain portion of the year; the Ohio 
 and the upper Mississippi, much farther; and the Missouri 
 for more than two thousand miles to its falls, beyond which 
 its branches extend, wide and deep, into the recesses of the 
 Rocky Mountains. 
 
 The territory drained by all these streams, is equal to two 
 fifths of that of Europe. Among these lands, may be found 
 every form of surface, from the wide level prairie, or the soft 
 marshy alluvial, to the rugged mountain peak: their cli 
 mate ranges from the frozen to the torrid; they produce, 
 almost every article, animal, mineral and vegetable, re 
 quired for the use of man; while every facility for intercourse, 
 among the different portions and the rest of the world, is 
 presented by their connected rivers. 
 
 A large portion of these territories, including nearly all 
 west of a line drawn from the sources of the Red River, to 
 those of the Mississippi proper, are indeed irretrievably bar 
 ren, and other portions, especially those bordering upon the 
 Gulf are unhealthy; the remainder is however not surpassed. 
 by any other division of the earth of equal extent, in fertility 
 and variety of productions, in amenity and salubrity of 
 climate, and in facilities for communication throughout. In 
 
THE OHIO AND ITS AFFLUENTS. 17 
 
 all these respects the advantages of the Mississippi and its 
 regions are peculiar. Thus the Nile receives not a single 
 stream, within fifteen hundred miles of the sea, in which 
 long distance, the habitable portion of its valley does not 
 extend beyond the reach of its waters at their flood, while the 
 communication between its upper and lower countries, is 
 interrupted by cataracts and other impediments. The Kiver 
 of the Amazons is probably superior to the Mississippi in 
 length, in volume of water discharged, and in extent of sur 
 face drained, but its navigation, is rendered unsafe by numer 
 ous whirlpools and rapids, while the regions through which 
 it passes, all .situated within the torrid zone, and near the 
 Equator, differ so little in climate soil and productions, that 
 few inducements are offered to the inhabitants of any one 
 portion, to go to another, thus, in a great measure, prevent 
 ing the healthy circulation of commerce. The same obser 
 vations may be applied with few restrictions, to the Kio de 
 la Plata, and the Ganges; of the other great rivers of the 
 world, nothing is known, calculated to throw doubts upon 
 the claim of the Mississippi, to the first place, as a channel 
 or link for commercial intercourse. 
 
 It would be incompatible with the plan of this work to de 
 scribe particularly the great streams which flow into and 
 form the Mississippi. The Ohio and its principal confluents 
 the Tennessee, Cumberland, Wabash, Miami, Kenhawa, 
 and Alleghany, bring to the main river of our country the 
 tributes of a vast region on the east, destined, probably, to 
 sustain a population equal to any other of the same extent 
 on the globe. The lower portions of the Mississippi and 
 Missouri, and their tributaries, the Illinois, Des Moines, and 
 Osage, flow through regions no less fertile and salubrious; 
 while the territories drained by the Arkansas are not so val 
 uable as those already described, nor are they equal in fer 
 tility to the valley of the Red River, which, of itself, would 
 be sufficient to form a rich and productive empire. 
 
 From this difference in the extent and surface. of the coun 
 tries surrounding the Mexican Gulf, the quantity of water 
 poured into it from the continent is greater on the northern 
 
 3 
 
18 STREAMS OF THE EAST COAST. 
 
 than on the other sides. South of the Kio Bravo, which 
 enters the Gulf on the west near the 26th degree of latitude, 
 no stream is to be found comparable in magnitude with many 
 falling into that sea farther north ; while the Mississippi sup 
 plies a much larger amount of 1 water, and drains a much 
 more extensive territory than all the others together. Be 
 tween these two principal rivers are the Colorado, the Brazos, 
 the Trinity, and the Sabine; and east of the Mississippi, the 
 Tombigbee, the Alabama and the Apalachicola, all naviga 
 ble hundreds of miles in the interior, besides many others 
 which are only small by contrast with those in their vicinity. 
 The peninsula gives origin to numerous small streams fall 
 ing into the seas on both sides; and to one large river, the 
 St. John, which traverses it in nearly its whole length from 
 south to north, discharging its waters into the Atlantic near 
 the line of junction with the mainland. 
 
 The Apalachicola, the Alabama and the Tombigbee all 
 have their sources among the southernmost ridges of the Al- 
 leghany or Apalachian chain, which thence extends north 
 eastward to the Gulf of St. Lawrence. The countries tra 
 versed by these rivers are among the most fertile and agree 
 able in America or in the world, and are perhaps destined 
 to contain a vast population: yet they remained, as will be 
 shown, neglected and almost unknown for nearly three cen 
 turies after their discovery. The Sabine and the Trinity flow 
 through plains or undulating regions, probably exceeding in 
 natural advantages those first mentioned east of the Missis 
 sippi. The Brazos and the Colorado rise in the elevated re 
 gion adjoining New Mexico, from which they however derive 
 but a small proportion of their waters, that being the most 
 arid and sterile portion of America, east of the great dividing 
 ridge of the Eocky Mountains. The lower countries through 
 which they flow, though generally less inviting than those 
 farther east, include nevertheless many large tracts of terri 
 tory capable of yielding the most valuable productions in 
 abundance. " 
 
 The Rio Bravo, Eio Grande, or Rio del Norte, each of 
 which names it bears in different parts of its valley, is more 
 
THE RIO GRANDE AND ITS VALLEY. 19 
 
 remarkable for length than for the extent of surface if drains, 
 or the quantity of water it discharges. No other river in 
 the world, except the Nile, receives such inconsiderable ac 
 cessions in so great a distance from source to mouth. Kising 
 among the Eocky Mountains, near the 40th degree of lati 
 tude, it flows southwardly along the base of that chain, from 
 whose eastern declivity it collects the waters in a course of 
 eight hundred miles before turning towards the sea. Thus 
 far, in its transit, it is the "Rio del Norte" the River of the 
 North; in the other eight hundred miles of its journey to 
 the Gulf, it is the "Rio Grande" the Great River, or, "Rio 
 Bravo" the Bold River; and is, probably, the same known 
 in the sixteenth century as the River of Palms. Its only 
 confluents, of any size, are the Rio Puerco, or Muddy, and 
 the Rio de Conchos, both of which remain dry during a con 
 siderable portion of the year. Indeed, except in summer, 
 when rain is most abundant, and the snows are melting on 
 the sierras, this celebrated river is evidently less, at its mouth, 
 than at the distance of a thousand miles above! 
 
 The valley of the Rio Grande or Rio Bravo, seems design 
 ed by nature as a barrier between nations. If a line be drawn 
 through the channel of the stream, from mouth to source, 
 and thence northwardly, direct to the western extremity of 
 Lake Superior, a great extent of territory on both sides will 
 be found to include very few spots not absolutely uninhabita 
 ble. Proceeding westward from the line thus indicated, these 
 peculiarities increase, until we reach a broad desert stretch 
 ing northward, from the southernmost point of the Califor- 
 nian peninsula, through the whole extent of our continent. 
 This inhospitable region will, in all likilehood not only re- 
 remain uninhabited except by the most sparse and reckless 
 population, but can hardly be traversed without imminent 
 danger from want of food and water. A similar belt of 
 desolation, rather narrower but quite as sterile intervenes 
 on the south, between the valley of the Rio Bravo and the 
 productive districts of Mexico ; so that the two flanks of this 
 wilderness are completely sundered, while their differences 
 of climate, surface, productions, and of all the circumstances 
 
20 ABORIGINAL POPULATION. 
 
 which, influence the habits and character of men, would very 
 soon destroy community of feelings and interest between 
 people of the same stock. 
 
 Such, at least, would seem to be the decree of nature, if 
 Geography alone were allowed to decide the intercourse of 
 mankind; yet under the stimulus of trade, the quest of 
 precious metals, and the inventive power of Art, even these 
 lonely wastes may become the highways of continuous 
 traffick, and the regions they separate be linked together 
 by the controlling influence of commerce. 
 
 The history of the Aboriginal inhabitants must begin 
 with their discovery by Europeans in the XVI. century, for 
 no reliable record or tradition regarding them has been pre 
 served for our instruction. In fact, very little was known 
 of the land or its people till a much later period, yet the 
 narratives of the first discoverers, correspond sufficiently 
 with those since obtained, to warrant the assumption that, in 
 the interval, no material change had occurred in the charac 
 ter, customs, and languages of the natives. Indeed, their 
 condition at the beginning of the last century, may be said 
 to have been identical with that of two hundred years before. 
 The Indians of those days were all savages, of 1 a dusky-red 
 or copper color ; with dark hazel or black eyes ; straight, 
 stiff, black hair ; prominent cheekbones, and other well known 
 peculiarities common to aboriginal Americans and distin 
 guishing them from the people of all other regions. They 
 are not, however, to be classed among the lower grades of 
 barbarians. Although they engaged in war and subsisted 
 chiefly by the chase, yet, for a large portion of the year, they 
 dwelt in huts, clad themselves in skins, engaged their women 
 in agriculture, and possessed at least the rudiments of social, 
 political, and religious systems. A number of individuals 
 occupying a certain tract, composed a tribe, under the direc 
 tion of a chief or chiefs whose tenure of office was generally 
 hereditary ; while a number of such tribes formed a confede 
 racy or nation, whose sovereignty reposed either in some 
 distinguished individual, or, more commonly, in an aristoc- 
 
THEIR RELIGION AND ORIGIN. 21 
 
 racy of hereditary chiefs. The right of succession invariably 
 passed, among all the savage nations of North America, 
 through the female line; so that, as a general rule, no man 
 was allowed to marry a woman of his own tribe, while, at his 
 death, a chief was succeeded by the son of his nearest female 
 relation. 
 
 Their religious ideas were exceedingly vague. All the 
 tribes are said to have entertained some notions of an over 
 ruling providence and of a future existence ; yet, so far as 
 these elements of spiritual government are known to have 
 controlled the aborigines, they seem to have increased rather 
 than mitigated their licentiousness and ferocity. Moral ob 
 ligations appear to have been unknown ; their wisdom was 
 but cunning; and generosity or confidence were considered 
 only as evidences of folly and weakness. 
 
 Much has been written, in regard to these and other abo 
 rigines of the New World, to prove their descent from the 
 people of the Old World, or to show, at least, that the Mexi 
 can and Peruvian civilizations were imported from Europe or 
 Asia. Upon these subjects, every thing that is known should, 
 perhaps, be stated, or, the question should be left altogether 
 untouched. It appears, however, to be now generally con 
 ceded that neither anatomy nor natural history; neither as 
 tronomy nor the languages, habits, mechanical arts, sciences, 
 governments, religions, and ceremonies of the aborigines, 
 compared with those of the Old World at any period. with 
 which we are acquainted, afford sufficient grounds for believ 
 ing that communications had taken place between the conti 
 nents. Whatever seems identical, is, in all likelihood, but 
 the result of the common nature and wants of the human 
 race; while the variations are sufficient to show that, if inter 
 course ever occurred, it could only have been at a period al 
 most infinitely remote. 
 
 Of the nations or confederacies occupying the countries 
 adjacent to the northern sides of the Mexican Gulf, more will 
 not be said, at present, than may be necessary to show their 
 respective positions. It should however be observed, that 
 the names by which Indian nations are known among us, 
 
THEIR NAMES. 
 
 are, in many cases, inaccurate as to the people to whom 
 they are applied some being of European origin, while 
 many are merely epithets of ridicule or abuse bestowed by 
 the people of other countries. The narratives of the early ex 
 peditions of the Spaniards, French and English, through the 
 New World, vary considerably in regard to names, not only 
 of nations, but also of countries, towns, rivers and lakes; and 
 these discrepancies will be found not merely between accounts 
 of different expeditions, but between accounts of the same 
 expedition, and even where the names are expressly given 
 as obtained directly from the natives of the country visited. 
 This is however not surprising; for independently of the ob 
 stacles to a clear communication of ideas between parties en 
 tirely ignorant of each others' tongue, and the difficulty of 
 expressing the sound of one language by the orthography of 
 another, experience shows that barbarians rarely have fixed 
 or precise appellations for the objects above mentioned, to 
 which they usually apply general terms, with the occasional 
 addition of some qualification suggested by local circum 
 stances. Thus, the names given, by savages, to rivers, lakes, 
 and seas, will commonly be found to mean water; their 
 country is the land; their town is the tcnvn, and they them 
 selves are men* 
 
 * Many instances, in proof of these observations, will be cited in the following 
 pages, and many others might be adduced. Thus, the Esquimaux of the polar 
 regions are called Eski-mautik or fish-eaters, by which name they were known on 
 the St. Lawrence. The Iroquois are said to have been so called by the French, 
 from their frequent use of an exclamation of approval, resembling Irok in sound; 
 while the Hurons received their name from their mode of dressing the hair, so as 
 to resemble the hure or head of the wild boar. The Muscoghees were termed 
 Creeks by the English traders, from the number of small streams in their country. 
 The natives of the region on the ^vest side of the Mississippi near the Gulf, were 
 distinguished by the odious and unjust title of Attakappas and Okelousas, or red 
 man eaters, among those of the left bank of the great river. The wandering Ca- 
 manches call themselves Patoka ; the bold Dacotas of the Upper Mississippi dis 
 dain the unmeaning appellation of Sioux, bestowed upon them by the early French 
 traders. The great river itself bore an infinite number of names in different re 
 gions through which it flows ; the Indians dwelling on its upper waters, called it 
 Meseha-sibia, Missi-sippi, meaning Great Water ; among the Chickasas, who reach 
 ed it at the Chickasa Bluffs, it was River 'of the Cliffs, and the Choctas knew it as 
 Okinna-chitta, Great Water-path. 
 
TRIBAL DIVISIONS AND DISTRIBUTION. 23 
 
 Considering these countries as divided by the Mississippi, 
 we find the eastern portion inhabited, at the earliest period 
 to which our knowledge extends, by several great tribal con 
 federacies. On the coasts of the Atlantic, from the Santee 
 to the southern part of the peninsula of Florida and the con 
 tiguous islands, the dominant nation was the Yamassee, a 
 bold race, long the terror of Spaniards and afterwards of Eng 
 lishmen, by whom, with the aid of other Indians, they were 
 exterminated about the year 1725. Farther west, on the 
 upper waters of the Alatamaha, the Chattahoochee or Apa- 
 lachicola, and the Alabama, dwelt the Muscoghees since 
 called Creeks by English traders the most extensive and 
 powerful of all those nations, emigrants from which, under 
 the name of Istisemoles or Seminoles, meaning wildmen or 
 runaways, were constantly invading the peninsula of Flo 
 rida, and driving the aboriginal Calos or Calooses to its 
 southern extremity. Still farther west, on the Mobile and 
 Pearl rivers, near the Gulf of Mexico, were the Choctas, fierce, 
 cunning and false, the most influential power of the lower 
 Mississippi regions; while immediately adjoining them on 
 ^he north, between the headwaters of the Tombigbee and 
 those of the Yazoo, was the small but compact and resolute 
 nation of the Chickasas, ever at war with the Choctas, from 
 whose confederacy they were most probably seceders. The 
 simple and hardy Cherokees possessed the mountains, in 
 which lie the head-springs of the Savannah, the Chattahoo 
 chee, the Tennessee, the Cumberland and the Santee, secured 
 from all attacks, by the inaccessibility and uninviting char 
 acter of their country. Lastly, between the Cherokees and 
 the Atlantic, in the regions of the Santee and the Pedee, were 
 the Catabas, inferior to none of their neighbors in courage, 
 cunning or any of the other virtues of savage life. 
 
 Interspersed among these great confederacies, east of the 
 Mississippi, were numerous smaller ones, of whom little more 
 is known than their names, though they appear to have been 
 each attached to the greater nations either as allies or sub 
 jects. Of these should be mentioned the lichees, dwelling 
 on the right bank of the Chattahoochee below its falls, who 
 
24 TBIBAL DIVISIONS AND DISTRIBUTION. 
 
 though forming part of the Muscoghee confederacy, spoke a 
 language not corresponding in a single word or point of con 
 struction, with that of any other people with which it has 
 heen compared. Another remarkable nation was the Natches, 
 on tWte eastern side of the Mississippi, less erratic in their 
 habits, more systematic in their forms of government and 
 religion, hut, at the same time, more ferocious and licentious 
 than any other savages north of the Mexican Gulf, except 
 those on the opposite side of the river. These Indians, though 
 known by a different name, were probably only a separate 
 portion of the same nation, as they resembled each other in 
 all respects. Here also was presented an anomaly more cu 
 rious even than that observed in the Uchees; for, among the 
 Natches were two tribes apparently equal in rank with the 
 others, and having as far as is known, the same forms of 
 government and religion, and the same customs, though each 
 spoke a language entirely distinct from any other used in 
 the country.* 
 
 The regions between the Ohio river, the Lakes and the 
 Mississippi, were occupied by numerous nations, of whom 
 little is known, except of those in the lands traversed by the 
 Illinois river, where an extensive confederacy was establish 
 ed, calling themselves Linni, or Illini, or Innini, meaning 
 Men, the Illinois, so frequently mentioned in the early 
 history of Louisiana. East of them, in the countries travers 
 ed by the Wabash and the Miami, were the Miamis or Twit- 
 towees; while interspersed among them, were the powerful 
 Shawnees, emigrants no doubt from some distant land, speak 
 ing a language wholly different from any other as yet ex 
 amined, and distinguished by their boldness and nomadic 
 habits. 
 
 Still farther east, between the head streams of the Ohio 
 and the Hudson, the whole territory south of Lake Ontario 
 was possessed by the celebrated confederacy of the Five Na 
 tions Seneca, Cayuga, Oneida, Onondaga, and Mohawk, 
 called Iroquois by the French; whose influence, in surround- 
 
 * See the particular account of the Natches, page 301 et seq. 
 
25 
 
 ing regions, was more constant and extensive than that of 
 any other Indian people north of the Mexican G-ulf. 
 
 All the aboriginal nations dwelling between the Missis 
 sippi and the Atlantic, derived most of their subsistence from 
 agriculture; those farther north and east were supported al 
 most entirely by hunting or fishing, and much more deserved 
 the name of barbarians than the inhabitants of the lands 
 bordering the Mexican Gulf. Of the early condition of the 
 Indians west of the Mississippi, but few and unsatisfactory 
 accounts have been preserved. The only extensive confede 
 racy known to have existed in that quarter, resembling in 
 character or customs the people east of the Mississippi,- was 
 that of the Cenis, occupying the country between the Sabine 
 and the Trinity, from one of whose tribes that part of 
 America derived its name of Texas. On the Red river re 
 sided many small nations, the most noted of whom, in his 
 tory, were the Adayes, the Natchitoches, the Nasonis, and 
 the Cadadokios. Beyond the Trinity the country was thinly 
 inhabited: the people on the sea coast supported themselves 
 chiefly on roots and fish ; while the headwaters of the streams 
 were the haunts of sturdy wanderers, known under the names 
 of Apaches, Camanches, and Li pans, who subsisted wholly 
 by the chase of buffaloes in the more northern prairies. 
 
 Of the religious, social, and political systems of these abo 
 rigines, the very little that is known has been acquired at a 
 comparatively recent period, when long intercourse with 
 civilized people had obliterated many characteristic traits. 
 There is reason to believe that at the discovery, as well as in 
 later days, the Indians of these regions were infinitely divi 
 ded, each nearly independent, but, in most cases, forming 
 groups cemented by conquest, community of speech, or any 
 other simple bonds of union. Their languages were numer 
 ous, though nearly all bore degrees of resemblance in con 
 struction, which were sufficient to indicate the likelihood of 
 a common origin. Thus, contiguous tribes generally under 
 stood each other, while the inhabitants of large tracts might 
 be said to speak the same tongue, though the dialects of any 
 two tribes dwelling some distance apart differed considerably. 
 
26 TRIBAL GOVERNMENTS. 
 
 Tribes, or groups of tribes, were found, however, without 
 a word use'd by any of those surrounding them; while, in 
 some instances, two or three languages, radically distinct, 
 were spoken by different portions of the confederates of the 
 same nation, and even of the same village. These anomalies 
 were especially noticed in the vicinity of large streams, and 
 evidently arose from the mixture of people caused by the fa 
 cility of emigration. Between the Mississippi and the Rio 
 Bravo, the nations have been as yet less carefully studied, 
 and their relations to each other, as well as their individual 
 traits, are, of course, still historically undetermined. 
 
 As to the forms of aboriginal government, the law of force 
 was probably paramount; the weak in body, mind, or tribal 
 power, became subject to stronger organizations, and the re 
 spectful acquiescence acquired by one through his superiority, 
 ripened, in time, into hereditary right. Nothing however, 
 like a regular monarchical system, or absolute despotism, 
 seems to have been tolerated among any of these nations. 
 They were generally governed by persons distinguished in 
 war or council, or by their descendants; and in the history 
 of the discovery of these regions or of the attempt to occupy 
 them, we rarely find any individual singled out for over 
 weening power, or even influence, over his people. 
 
 The preceding general observations with regard to the 
 natives found by Europeans in the countries bordering upon 
 the northern sides of the Mexican Gulf, may be applied with 
 little variation to the aborigines of any other large portion 
 of the New World, except the regions intervening between 
 that Gulf and the Pacific on the south, and of the southern 
 continent extending upon the latter sea for some distance 
 south of the equator. In each of these last-mentioned por 
 tions of America, known by the general but incorrect names 
 of Mexico and Peru, the people were at the time of their 
 discovery by Europeans, far advanced in the 'arts of social 
 life, and even in many of the sciences; while their monu 
 ments and records prove that this redemption from the sav 
 age state was possibly coeval with the dawn of civilization 
 in the Old World. Inferior monuments have been discover- 
 
THEIR ARTS AND EDIFICES. 27 
 
 ed in several places on the continent, and in the countries 
 traversed by the upper streams of the Kio Bravo, the Colo 
 rado, Gila, and the Yaqui, midway between the Mexican 
 and the California!! Gulfs, but the history of those who 
 reared them is as yet a matter of conjecture. In all other 
 parts of America, from the Arctic Sea to the Straits of Ma 
 gellan, nothing is left to show that the natives had ever 
 arisen above the condition of those who at the beginning of 
 the sixteenth century were found occupying the regions 
 north of the Gulf of Mexico. 
 
 The valleys of the Mississippi and of its eastern tributaries 
 and many parts of the continent between the Alleghany 
 mountains and the Atlantic, contain extensive mounds, 
 ramparts, and terraces of earth and unhewn rock, among 
 which a few grotesque idols of clay or stone, resembling those 
 of the Mexicans, and some metallic ornaments, have been 
 discovered. These works tend to justify the presumption, 
 that the people by whom they were formed were more nu 
 merous and more inclined to labor, than their successors of 
 a recent period; but they indicate no superiority in the arts 
 of civilized life, possessed by any one of the Indian nations 
 occupying those countries at the time of their discovery.* 
 
 The history of these countries is of a less romantic cast 
 than that of the regions farthej south, while on the other 
 hand, it is perhaps, not less worthy the attention of philoso 
 phers and statesmen. North of the Mexican Gulf there were 
 no rich and populous nations to plunder and enslave; the 
 people were savage, and the land, though offering to industry 
 all that it could desire, held out no temptations to adven 
 turers. The same spirit however which led the Spaniards 
 to Mexico and Peru, directed their first expeditions to Flori 
 da; and the same rude hands that tortured Montezuma, 
 Guatimozin, and Atapualpa, were afterwards employed in the 
 
 * These Ancient Works have been brought distinctly before the world, by the 
 account of them presented in the various explorations of Earth Works in the val 
 ley of the Mississippi, published by the Smithsonian Institution within the last 
 six or seven years. Mr. Gallatin was mistaken in his assertion that not one of these 
 mounds ; 'has ever been found east of the Alleghany mountains." 
 
28 EUROPEAN MOTIVES FOR DISCOVERY OR SETTLEMENT. 
 
 vain search for gold on the Savannah, and the Bed river; 
 for pearls among the muscle shoals of the Tennessee; or in 
 despoiling the poor Catabas, Muscoghees and Choctas of their 
 corn and bear's feet. These expeditions were made by the 
 Spaniards, before an Englishman had occupied the American 
 continent; while the first establishments of the French and 
 Spaniards, in the neighborhood of the Mexican Gulf, long 
 preceded the examinations of those -regions by any other civ 
 ilized people. No Englishman had seen the waters of the 
 Mississippi when Joliet and Marquette explored it from the 
 Wisconsin to the Arkansas, or when La Salle completed the 
 survey of its course to the sea. Expectations even more ex 
 travagant of attaining wealth and dominion by the occupa 
 tion and commerce of the territories traversed by the great 
 river, subsequently led the French, for some time, to exert 
 themselves in peopling that portion of America; while the 
 apprehension of their success brought the Spaniards into the 
 regions next adjoining on the west; and though the spirit 
 thus raised soon sank into indifference, its consequences were 
 very important in determining the fate of the American 
 world. The English, meanwhile, in search of permanent 
 homes came quietly in small parties, seldom exceeding a few 
 families; and, under the nominal protection of charters from 
 their government, settled on the Atlantic coasts, whence 
 they gradually made their way into the interior, until they 
 came into collision with the colonies of other and more 
 adventurous Europeans. 
 
 With these geographical and ethnological outlines of the 
 regions to be first examined, we shall proceed to the history 
 of their discovery and planting. 
 
1493.] FIRST DISCOVERIES IN THE WEST INDIES. 29 
 
 The discovery of the countries north of the Mexican Gulf 
 which we are now to consider, began within twenty years 
 after the first voyage of Columbus across the Atlantic. That 
 voyage was made, as every one knows, under the supposi 
 tion, then reasonably entertained by Geographers, that Asia ex 
 tended eastward to the Atlantic,* and with the hope, no less 
 reasonable, of reaching the south-eastern portion of that conti 
 nent, to which the general name of India, or The Indies, w r as 
 applied in Europe, through a western route, more direct and ex 
 peditious than any other then believed to be practicable. The 
 islands thus found by Columbus, were in consequence regarded 
 as lying in the immediate vicinity of the great empire, of Cathay 
 or China, the farthermost part of the Indies, of the extraordinary 
 wealth, population and refinement of which, accounts had been 
 brought to Europe by the Venitian traveller Marco Polo, two 
 centuries before; and they were accordingly called the West 
 Indies, and their inhabitants were styled Indians, and these ap 
 pellations \vere in time extended to all the countries and people 
 found on the western side of the Atlantic. The name America, 
 first proposed in 1507 by a schoolmaster of Lorraine,! was never 
 
 * This idea will be found expressed in all the maps of the world, constructed 
 during the forty years, immediately following the first voyage of Columbus, and 
 in many of a more recent date. The map of the world, by Ruysch, in the Latin 
 edition of Ptolomey's Geography, published at Rome in 1508, represents New 
 foundland as the easternmost point of Asia, that is to say, as occupying the place 
 of Kamtchatka ; farther southwest, Cathay or China corresponds with the At 
 lantic States of the American Union, its seaport city of Zaitoun or Amoy, hold 
 ing the position of St. Augustine ; and still farther in the same direction, Bangala 
 or Bengal appears instead of Mexico, from which the east coast of India extends 
 to its termination opposite the island of Ceylon. The West India islands, appear 
 at about the same distances, from the south-east coast of China, as they really 
 are from that of Florida, though nearly in their true positions with regard to 
 Europe and to Newfoundland. The eastern part of Cuba only is given, as that 
 island had not been circumnavigated; and a note on the map states the proba 
 bility that Hispaniola might be the Cipango, (Japan) mentioned by Marco Polo. 
 The Atlantic coasts of the new continent, south of the islands, are delineated 
 with some approach to correctness from Darien to Brazil ; no attempt being made 
 to supply what was unknown with respect to the interior of the coasts on the 
 other side. The map is indeed constructed with remarkable honesty throughout, 
 exhibiting the utmost care, on the part of its author, to insert nothing except 
 upon what was then deemed sufficient authority. 
 
 t Martin Waldseemuller, or Hylacomylus, as he styled himself, in a small 
 geographical work, entitled " Cosmographies Instructio, insuper quatuor Ameri- 
 ci Vesputii navigationes," and published at St. Die in Lorraine in 1507. 
 
30 TREATY OF PARTITION OF THE OCEAN. [1494. 
 
 adopted by the Spaniards ; nor was it generally used in any part 
 of the world until the following century. 
 
 These West Indies were discovered by the Spaniards, or more 
 properly by the Castilians ; for Spain was the general appellation of 
 the whole peninsula south of the Pyrenees, which then contained 
 four separate and independent sovereignties, Arragon, Castile, 
 Navarre and Portugal. The sovereigns of Castile and Arragon 
 were united in marriage, but their dominions remained as distinct 
 as before ; and though the commission to Columbus, and all other 
 acts relative to the new countries, were issued in the names of 
 the united sovereigns, yet, the possession of those countries was 
 secured to the crown of Castile. All that is said of Spain or 
 Spaniards, in connection with the early history of America, is 
 therefore to be understood as referring exclusively to the king 
 dom and people of Castile. 
 
 The united sovereigns of Castile and Arragon, and the king 
 of Portugal, were then the principal naval powers of the world : 
 and in order to prevent all disputes between these two parties, it 
 was agreed by a treaty, concluded in 1494, that a meridian tra 
 versing the Atlantic in its whole length, and passing through a 
 point, situated three hundred leagues west of the Cape Verd 
 islands, should separate the seas and lands in which they might 
 respectively pursue their discoveries and conquests in future ; all 
 pagan countries east of that line being left at the disposition of 
 Portugal, while the other powers should enjoy the same rights 
 exclusively on the west. This treaty, founded upon grants made 
 to each of the parties separately, by the head of the Roman 
 Catholic church, the highest authority then acknowledged in the 
 Christian world, long formed the basis of all public law, with 
 regard to the new countries: it was soon subjected to a rude test, 
 by the determination of the fact, that the eastern portion of those 
 countries, south of the equator, lay east of the meridian of parti 
 tion ; but the Spanish government made no attempt to evade the 
 application of the rule established, in this case which was cer 
 tainly not anticipated, and the territory in question called Brazil, 
 was accordingly occupied and possessed by Portugal. 
 
 The sovereigns of France and England were by no means satis 
 fied with this exclusion from the countries beyond the Atlantic, 
 and in defiance of the authority of the church, they encouraged 
 
1500.]EARLY ENGLISH AND PORTUGUESE DISCOVERIES. 31 
 
 their respective subjects to make voyages for discovery and settle 
 ment, in the prohibited directions. Of the expeditions of the 
 French before 1524, little, or rather nothing is known, more than 
 sufficient, to render it probable, that such voyages were made 
 across the Atlantic. The first expedition from England, was that 
 of John Cabot and his son Sebastian, in 1497 or 1498, concerning 
 which, the laborious researches of ingenious persons have only 
 served to show, that those navigators saw the land of the New 
 World, in and north of Newfoundland. It has also been asserted, 
 that they, or one of them, discovered the passage now called 
 Hudson's Strait, and explored the coasts of the continent south 
 ward, as far as the entrance of Chesapeake bay, but whether in 
 this voyage, or in others which Sebastian is supposed, on most 
 slender grounds, to have made in 1499 and 1517, still remains 
 undetermined.* Nor were the Portuguese restrained by their 
 treaty with the Spanish sovereigns, from engaging in the search 
 for a western passage to India, for which object voyages were 
 made in the beginning of the following century by the Cortereals, 
 from Lisbon to the coasts previously visited by the Cabots; and 
 to these navigators likewise has been attributed, the discovery of 
 the passage leading to Hudson's bay, to which they are said to 
 have given the name of the Strait of Anian. Certain it is, that 
 the existence of a wide channel, opening to the Atlantic, near the 
 60th degree of latitude, and supposed to communicate with the 
 Pacific on the west, was known in the middle of the sixteenth 
 century, long before the voyage of Hudson. f 
 
 Under the assurance afforded by the Papal concession and the 
 treaty of partition, the Spaniards eagerly prosecuted the explora 
 tion of the western coasts of the Atlantic, and soon discovered 
 
 many other islands of the West Indian archipelago, together with 
 t 
 
 * Those who are curious with regard to these voyages, should consult the Me 
 moir of Sebastian Cabot, by Richard Biddle, Esq., of Pittsburgh, published at 
 Philadelphia in 1831, in which all that has been said on the subject is collected 
 and reviewed. This is a work of great research, and still greater ingenuity; but 
 it is evidently an argument for the establishment of the claim of Sebastian Cabot, 
 and no one should read it, in order to form correct opinions, without referring to 
 the originals of all the authorities quoted. 
 
 f See the map of the New World, in the celebrated geographical work called 
 " Theatrum Orbis Terrarum," by Abraham Ortelius, published at AntAverp in 1572, 
 in which Hudson's strait and bay are both distinctly represented. The discovery 
 by Hudson took place in 1612. 
 
32 EARLY SPANISH DISCOVERIES. [1500. 
 
 a long line of coast, extending continuously eastward and south 
 ward, from Honduras to and beyond Brazil. These discoveries 
 were effected for the most part, in virtue of capitulations or con 
 tracts between the government and the conductors of the expedi 
 tions, expressing the amount of means, such as vessels, men, 
 arms, supplies, and expenses, to be furnished by each party, and 
 the proportion to be allowed to each of the advantages which 
 might result from the enterprise. Thus, Columbus made his 
 voyages across the Atlantic under a capitulation, assuring to him 
 and his heirs and successors in perpetuity, the titles and preroga 
 tives of High Admiral and Viceroy, of all the countries which he 
 might discover, together with one- tenth of all the property found in 
 them. Ho\v shamelessly these assurances were disregarded, his 
 tory affords abundant proofs ; while it likewise presents a painful 
 consolation in the fact, that those who endeavored to profit by 
 the injustice and indignities heaped upon the great navigator, 
 themselves underwent the same fate in almost every instance. 
 In some cases, however, expeditions were made by governors of 
 colonies, and even by private individuals, having no authority 
 whatsoever from the sovereign, and under the hope either of ob 
 taining some immediate compensation, or of afterwards effecting 
 a contract with the crown, for the possession or use of the coun 
 tries w r hich they might discover and occupy. For those to whom 
 such concessions were made, the title of Adelantado, anciently 
 borne by the governors of frontier provinces in Spain, was re 
 vived, in token of their peculiar mission, to advance (adelantar) 
 and extend the dominions of their sovereign as far as possible; 
 and under this title, which was first held by Bartolome, the 
 brother of Christopher Columbus, many of the most renowned 
 discoverers and conquerors in the New World, prosecuted their 
 enterprises. 
 
 The Spaniards were, however, for a long time after the dis 
 covery of the West Indies, by no means content with the results 
 of their expeditions. The new countries were rich in precious 
 metals, agreeable in climate, fertile in soil, and admirably adapted 
 for the production of spices and other articles, which had been 
 previously procured only with great expense from southern Asia: 
 but population was wanting to render these advantages available. 
 The inhabitants of all the West Indian territories discovered 
 5 
 
1504.] CRUELTY OF THE SPANIARDS TO THE INDIANS. 33 
 
 during the twenty- five years following the first voyage of Colum 
 bus, were indolent savages, unaccustomed to labor in any way; 
 and Europeans would not undergo the perils and difficulties of a 
 voyage across the Atlantic, in order to work under a tropical 
 sun, at wages no higher than they could obtain in their own 
 countries. The earliest settlements were made in the large and 
 fertile island, called Hayti by the natives, and La Espaiiola, or 
 Hispaniola the Spanish Island by its European discoverers, 
 now commonly known as St. Domingo, from the name of the 
 principal city, which was, for several years after its foundation 
 by Columbus, the seat of government of the trans-atlantic do 
 minions of Spain. In order to derive revenue from this island, 
 its aborigines were at first subjected to a poll-tax, payable in 
 gold or silver, which served only to banish them all to the inac 
 cessible mountains and forests of the interior ; and permission 
 was then granted to individuals to open mines and form planta 
 tions of sugar and indigo, on which the natives might be com 
 pelled to work, though under restrictions imposed by the hu 
 manity of Queen Isabella for their protection) civilization, and 
 conversion to Christianity.* 
 
 * The principal sources of information in the remainder of this chapter, are 
 the old Spanish historians and chronicles, viz : " Decades de rebus Oceanicis, et 
 Novo Orbe," Decades of the affairs of the New World containing historical 
 accounts and descriptions, written in Latin, in the form of epistles, by Pietro 
 Martire, better known as Peter Martyr, an Italian priest, residing in Spain at 
 the time of the first discoveries : " Historia General de Indias" General His 
 tory of the New World the earliest work of that kind, by Gonzalo de Oviedo, 
 first published in 1535 : " Historia General de Indias," another General History 
 of the New World, by Francisco Gomara, including all the events prior to 
 1551 : " Historia General de los Hechos, de los Castellanos, en las Islas y 
 Tierra Firme del Mar Oceano," General History of the Deeds of the Castil- 
 ians in the Islands and Mainland of the Ocean by Simon Herrera, the great 
 repository of facts with regard to America prior to 1566 : and lastly, the inval 
 uable " Coleccion de Viajes y Descubrimientos de los Espaiioles," or Collection 
 of Documents relative to the Voyages and Discoveries of the Spaniards, since 
 the latter years of the fifteenth century, by Don Martin Fernandez de Navar- 
 rete, which have thrown so much light on the early history of the New World. 
 These works are all so well known that any observations on them here would 
 be superfluous. They have been carefully searched for facts relating to the 
 conquest of Mexico, and to the other brilliant achievements of the Spaniards in 
 the New World ; but they have been sadly neglected by those engaged in tracing 
 the discoveries of that nation on the northern side of the Mexican Gulf, which 
 have been most inaccurately described by our historians, as will be sufficiently 
 proved in the following pages. 
 
 5 
 
34 DEATH OF QUEEN ISABELLA OF CASTILE. [ J 508. 
 
 Queen Isabella died in 1504 and the Spaniards, being thus en 
 tirely freed from the restrictions which she endeavored to enforce 
 in behalf of the Indians in Hispaniola, increased the labors of those 
 people to such an extent that their numbers rapidly diminished, 
 from fatigue, disease, and desertion ; so that it became neces 
 sary to make expeditions to the other islands, in search of per 
 sons to supply their places, and afterwards to import negroes for 
 that purpose from Africa. Some large fortunes were accumu 
 lated by the Spaniards in this way ; by far the larger proportion 
 of those who engaged in those plantations, however, lost their 
 capital, and the most courageous and enterprising among them 
 were driven to other pursuits, more exciting, though in general 
 not more profitable, as will hereafter be shown. The disap 
 pointed planters became leaders of expeditions for discovery and 
 conquest, in the course of which large empires were found and 
 subjugated, whose inhabitants were exterminated or reduced to 
 slavery, under the pretext of extending a religion the fundamen 
 tal principle of which was peace to all mankind. 1 * 
 
 On the death of Queen Isabella, her dominions, including all the 
 new countries discovered or claimed by the Spaniards on the west 
 ern side of the Atlantic, descended to her eldest daughter Juana, 
 the wife of Philip of Austria, sovereign of the Netherlands, who 
 was immediately proclaimed King of Castile. He, however, 
 died soon afterwards; and his widow being an incurable ma 
 niac, the government of her dominions was administered by 
 her father, King Ferdinand of Arragon, in her name, jointly with 
 that of her infant son Charles, who was then Prince of the Nether-- 
 
 * The proclamations which the leaders of these expeditions were enjoined to 
 address to the natives of the countries invaded by them, " in the best manner 
 possible, 1 ' is a most curious document in illustration of the ideas of that age. 
 The Indians are thereby informed that God created a man and a woman, from 
 whom all the people of the earth are descended ; and that in process of lime he 
 appointed one man, St. Peter, to reign over all, after whose death others suc 
 ceeded, maintaining the same authority to the present day ; and that one of those 
 successors of St. Peter, called Popes, reigning at Rome, had given the posses 
 sion of all the New World and all its people to the King of Spain, to whom the 
 natives of the country were required immediately to submit, as dutiful subjects, 
 under penalty of being enslaved, or put to death if obstinately refusing. It is 
 worthy of notice that neither Christ nor the Virgin, nor any saint except St. 
 Peter, is mentioned in the whole proclamation, which is drawn up with great 
 care, so as to leave the utmost latitude to those charged with the execution of 
 its provisions. 
 
1512.] GOVERNMENT OF THE SPANISH WEST INDIES. 35 
 
 lands, heir to the crown of Castile, and heir-apparent to that of 
 Arragon. Ferdinand, one of the most artful, selfish, and faithless 
 of men, caring nothing for his daughter, and hating her son, as 
 he had hated her husband, conducted the affairs of her kingdom, 
 in all respects, with a view to the advancement of his own in 
 terests. To the trans-atlantic possessions, he indeed devoted 
 much attention, so far at least as concerned the increase of the 
 revenues derivable from them, one-half of which were secured to 
 him by the will of Isabella; and with this object, every species 
 of cruelty and oppression towards the natives was allowed and 
 encouraged, in defiance of the express provisions of that will, so 
 long as it brought gold into the royal coffers. The immediate 
 direction of the affairs of those countries was left almost entirely 
 at the discretion of the president of the council of the Indies, the 
 famous Cardinal Fonseca, Bishop of Burgos, the old and impla 
 cable enemy of Columbus, a minister in every way worthy of 
 such a master, heartless, unprincipled and venal, who bestowed 
 all offices and employments on his own creatures and dependants, 
 and protected them in the commission of all acts of violence and 
 extortion, whilst they in return gratified his avarice or vindictive- 
 ness. The office of admiral and viceroy of the Indies was indeed 
 conceded, in 1508, to Diego Colon,* the eldest son of Columbus, 
 in virtue of a judicial decision on a suit brought by him against the 
 government, in the course of which every species of chicanery 
 had been employed by the king and the cardinal to rob the great 
 navigator of the merit, as well as the reward of his discoveries, 
 but this act of tardy justice was accompanied by so many restric 
 tions on the powers, and so many charges on the revenues of the 
 admiral, that his authority was rendered little more than nominal ; 
 and the whole period of his residence in the West Indies was 
 passed in struggles with the innumerable auditors, judges, 
 comptrollers, treasurers, and other functionaries, by whom he 
 was surrounded, all holding their appointments from the crown, 
 and responsible to it alone, or rather to the Bishop of Burgos, as 
 its representative. 
 
 * The family name of the discoverer of the New World was Colombo or Co- 
 lomo, which he altered to Colon, on establishing himself in Spain, as a precau 
 tion no doubt, against the prejudices which a foreign appellation might raise 
 against him. 
 
36 JUAN PONCE DE LEON, GOVERNOR OF PORTO RICO. [1511. 
 
 About the time of the arrival of the viceroy Colon in Hispa- 
 niola, expeditions were begun from that island to the surround 
 ing countries, in the course of which many important discoveries 
 and conquests were soon effected. Thus Alonzo de Ojeda and 
 his followers, arhong whom w T ere Vasco Nunez de Balboa, the 
 discoverer of the Pacific, and Francisco Pizarro the conqueror 
 of Peru, betook themselves to the mainland immediately south, 
 where they founded Darien and other settlements ; Juan de Es- 
 quivel and Francisco de Garay, subdued the island of San 
 tiago or Jamaica ; Diego de Velasquez, accompanied by his 
 secretary Hernando Cortes and his lieutenant Parifilo de Nar- 
 vaez, established himself in Cuba, Isabella, Fernandina, or 
 Juana, as it was successively called ; and Juan Ponce de Leon, 
 with a band of desperate ruffians aided by a pack of blood 
 hounds, overran the island of San Juan or Porto Rico, of which 
 they nearly exterminated the aborigines. The viceroy, on his 
 arrival, being shocked by the accounts which he received of the 
 conduct of these chiefs, endeavored to restrain them ; and with 
 this object, he commissioned Juan Ceron to supersede Ponce de 
 Leon in the government of Porto Rico ; but the latter, trusting 
 to his credit with the cardinal minister, seized Ceron and sent 
 him as prisoner to Spain. The daring captain had, however, 
 calculated too far upon his influence at court : for the King and 
 the Bishop, considering it politic to sustain the authority of the 
 viceroy on this occasion, confirmed the appointment of Ceron, 
 who returned to Porto Rico as governor in 1511, and the con 
 queror of the island found himself reduced at once to a private 
 station, in which he remained for some time, though not un 
 employed, as will be hereafter shown. 
 
 At that time, notwithstanding the activity of the Spaniards, 
 very little was known of the continent adjacent to the West 
 India islands. Cuba, which was supposed by Columbus to be 
 the easternmost portion of Asia, had been but ~ recently circum 
 navigated ; the coast of the mainland on the south had been 
 imperfectly traced from Honduras eastward to Darien ; and the 
 Lucayos, or Bahama islands, north of Cuba, had also been 
 visited by the Spaniards. Of all that lay between Honduras on 
 the south, and the southern limit of the discoveries of the Cabots 
 and the Cortereals on the north whether Newfoundland or 
 
1512.] 
 
 EARLY MAP OF THE WEST INDIES. 
 
 37 
 
 Chesapeake Bay nothing had been learned ; unless possibly 
 some points on the peninsula of Florida might have been seen by 
 Europeans, as seems to be indicated, though obscurely, in a map 
 of the West Indies published in Ptolomey's Geography at Stras- 
 burg in 1513, of a part of which the following is an exact copy.* 
 
 Under these circumstances, abundant fields for adventure were 
 offered to the Spaniards in that part of the New World ; and 
 no man was more capable of conducting such enterprises than 
 Juan Ponce de Leon, the deposed governor of Porto Rico. 
 During his three years of misrule in that island, he had accu 
 mulated an immense fortune by the plunder of the wretched 1 
 
 * This map may have been interleaved after 1513 ; as was the case, sometimes, 
 with editions of Ptolomey. 
 
PONCE DE LEON SAILS IN SEARCH OF BIMINI. [1512. 
 
 natives ; and being still in the prime of life, he determined to en 
 gage in some new enterprise, by which he might increase his 
 wealth and his reputation. In Porto Rico, as in every other part 
 of the New World, the Spaniards had received from the Indians 
 confused accounts of rich and powerful nations, occupying de 
 lightful countries, in the direction of the setting sun ; and Porice 
 de Leon becoming convinced, from the answers made to his en 
 quiries, that such a nation existed in a region called Bimini, 
 said to be situated north-west of Porto Rico, beyond the Ba 
 hama islands, resolved to go in search of it. To this adventure 
 he is said to have been moreover stimulated, by the report that 
 Bimini contained a stream or fountain, possessing the desirable 
 property of restoring those who bathed in it or drank its waters, 
 to all the vigor of youth, whatsoever may have been their previous 
 infirmity or decrepitude; and if so, he merely yielded faith to that 
 which the best and wisest men of his day would have hesitated 
 to pronounce impossible. 
 
 Three vessels were accordingly equipped by Ponce de Leon, 
 in the harbor of San German, now Guadianilla, on the west coast 
 of Porto Rico, from which he sailed on the 3d of March, 1512, 
 in search of Bimini. Taking his course north-westward, he soon 
 found himself among the islands of the Lucayos group, north of 
 Hispaniola and Cuba, of which he visited several, including 
 Guanahani, now Cat Island, supposed to be the first land seen by 
 Columbus in the New World, and named by him San Salvador. 
 There one of the vessels was repaired ; and the voyage being re 
 sumed in the same direction, the Spaniards, on Easter Sunday, 
 the 27th of April, saw land stretching from north to south across 
 their course. The weather being unfavorable for approaching 
 the shore, they ran along it northward until the 2d of May, when 
 they anchored in latitude of 30 degrees 8 minutes; and Ponce de 
 Leon landing on the same day, took formal possession of the 
 territory, with religious ceremonies, in behalf of the sovereigns 
 of Castile, bestowing upon it the name of Florida, from its ver 
 dant and flowery appearance, as well as in commemoration of 
 the day of its discovery, called Pascha Florida, the Feast of 
 Flowers, in the Roman Catholic Calendar. 
 
 The accounts of all voyages made at that time, are so vague and 
 inexact, especially as regards geographical positions, that it is 
 
1512.] DISCOVERY OF FLORIDA BY PONCE DE LEON. 39 
 
 always difficult, and generally impossible, to identify places men 
 tioned in them. No means of ascertaining longitude were then 
 known; and the instruments as well as the methods for deter 
 mining latitudes were so imperfect, that errors of two and three 
 degrees were often committed by the most skilful navigators. If 
 the latitude of the spot at which Ponce de Leon landed in Florida, 
 be correctly stated, it must have been midway between the pre 
 sent city of St. Augustine, and the mouth of the large river of 
 St. John. 
 
 Resuming their voyage, the Spaniards endeavored to pro 
 ceed along the coast towards the north, but were prevented by 
 the current, which sets southward in the vicinity of the land, and 
 which carried them to the mouth of a river, named by them, Rio 
 de la Cruz, most probably Mosquito Inlet, near the 29th degree 
 of latitude. There they again anchored, and sent parties ashore 
 in search of fresh water, who were soon surrounded and at 
 tacked by bands of daring savages : some of these people, who 
 were made prisoners and carried on board of the vessels, on being 
 questioned as to their country, seemed to say that it was an island 
 called Cautio ; but nothing could be extracted from them respect 
 ing Bimini, or any other rich or civilized region. Continuing 
 the voyage towards the south, Ponce de Leon, on the 8th of 
 May, reached a projecting point of land which was named Cape 
 Corrientes, on account of the violence of the current sweeping 
 around it to the north ; and was certainly the same now known 
 as Cape Canaveral, in latitude of 28 degrees a-nd 18 minutes. 
 Farther south, he entered a large bay, probably Sandwich gulf, 
 where he was again beset by savages in canoes, who endea 
 vored to carry off the anchors of his vessels ; and beyond this 
 place, he observed a multitude of islands, stretching in a line or 
 chain towards the west, which were called Los Martires the 
 Martyrs from their resemblance, when seen at a distance, to 
 persons undergoing various modes of torture. This chain was 
 traced to its termination; and the Spaniards thence sailing north 
 eastward, reached the western side of Florida, which they coasted 
 in that direction, probably as far as the junction of the peninsula 
 with the mainland. Returning to the south, they observed an 
 other small group of islands west of the Martyrs, to which they 
 gave the name of Las Tortugas, in grateful remembrance of the 
 
40 DISCOVERY OF THE GULF STREAM. [1512. 
 
 plentiful supply of turtles obtained there; and Ponce de Leon 
 having in the meantime received some vague accounts of a rich 
 country, governed by a powerful sovereign called Calos, which 
 was supposed to be Bimini, again took his departure, full of 
 hope of attaining the great object of his voyage. 
 
 It is impossible to ascertain the course of the Spanish vessels 
 from the time of their leaving the Tortugas islands, on the 21st 
 of June, until their arrival, on the 25th of the following month, 
 at the Great Bahama island; it is not probable that they again 
 saw the mainland of Florida, though they appear to have once 
 landed on the north-west side of Cuba. At the Great Bahama, 
 they found a Spanish vessel from Hispaniola, commanded by 
 Diego de Miruelo, in company with which, they again set out in 
 search of Bimini : they, however, suffered severely from storms, 
 in one of which, Miruelo's vessel was lost, though her captain 
 and crew were saved ; and their provisions being nearly exhausted, 
 Ponce de Leon resolved to return, with one of his ships, to 
 Porto Rico, leaving the others under Juan Perez de Ortubia, to 
 prosecute the discovery. They accordingly separated on the 
 17th of September, and after a boisterous and difficult passage, 
 Ponce de Leon entered the harbor of San Juan, in Porto Rico, 
 on the 18th of October. The other vessels, under Ortubia, ar 
 rived soon after, bringing no accounts of Bimini ; but Antonio de 
 Alaminos, the pilot of one of them, had observed the great cur 
 rent now called the Gulf Stream, which rushes northward between 
 Florida and the Lucayos islands, a discovery of itself sufficient to 
 give importance to the expedition. 
 
 Such were the particulars of the first visit made by Europeans 
 to the portion of the New World, now occupied by the United 
 States, of which authentic accounts have been preserved. Florida 
 was supposed to be an island, and was thus represented on maps 
 for some time afterwards ; and agreeably to the ideas of geography 
 then prevailing, it was considered as possibly identical with the 
 Cipango, (Japan) described by Marco Polo, as lying eastward 
 of Cathay or China. So well convinced had Ponce de Leon 
 become of the existence of some rich country in that direction, 
 that he immediately proceeded to Spain, where he obtained a 
 commission as Adelantado of Florida and Bimini, for the exclu 
 sive conquest and possession under the crown, of any countries 
 
1513.] DISCOVERY OF THE PACIFIC OCEAN. 41 
 
 north-west of Cuba and Hispaniola. He was, however, at the 
 same time, charged with the command of a squadron, destined 
 for the chastisement of the natives of the small islands east of 
 Porto Rico, on account of their barbarous treatment of the crews 
 of several Spanish vessels thrown upon their coasts ; and with this 
 view, he landed in Guadalupe or Guacana, as it was then called, 
 in the spring of 1515, with a large body of men, and some wo 
 men. But the Spaniards were 'there surprised by the savages, 
 who killed nearly all the men, and carried off the women ; so that 
 Ponce de Leon was obliged to retreat with the remainder to his 
 vessels, and to sail for Porto Rico, where he passed the following 
 five years as governor, without making any attempt to prosecute 
 his examinations in the west. 
 
 A grand discovery had been effected in the interval between these 
 two voyages, which led directly and indirectly, to others more im 
 portant. In 1513, the ocean now called the Pacific, was first 
 reached at the Bay of Panama, by Vasco Nunez de Balboa, the 
 commandant of the Spanish settlement on the north side of the 
 isthmus at Darien. This sea was of course supposed to be the 
 Southern or Indian ocean, bathing the southern shores of Asia; 
 and the place at which it was thus first seen, was believed to be 
 situated not very far south-east of China, and probably near the 
 great island of Java, described by Marco Polo as lying in that 
 direction: in confirmation of which idea, the Indians, on the coast 
 of Panama, were unanimous in their accounts, of rich and popu 
 lous kingdoms in their vicinity, towards the south and the 
 west. Balboa immediately communicated the news to his sov 
 ereign, praying at the same time, for authority and means to 
 prosecute his discoveries: but ere his despatches arrived in 
 Spain, Pedrarias Davila, a nobleman of high rank and distin 
 guished reputation for valor and loyalty, had been appointed 
 governor and captain general of Golden Castile as the Darien 
 countries were named and was on his way with a large arma 
 ment to the West Indies, carrying instructions to seize Balboa, 
 and bring him to trial, for certain illegal acts imputed to "him. 
 Davila arrived in Darien in 1514, and having examined Balboa, 
 the latter was acquitted upon his reports, and was invested by 
 the king with the title and powers of Adelantado of the South 
 Sea. Ere this appointment had been made however, the two 
 6 
 
42 DEATH OF KING FERDINAND. [1516. 
 
 commanders in the Isthmus were at war with each other. A re 
 conciliation was effected, and a maniage contracted between 
 Balboa and the daughter of Davila; but the mutual hatred of the 
 parties soon broke forth again, and the discoverer of the Pacific, 
 having fallen into the hands of his ruthless father-in-law, was 
 tried, condemned, and executed in 1516, just as he was prepar 
 ing an expedition for the conquest of the rich countries in the 
 south, afterwards subdued by Francisco Pizarro. 
 
 In the preceding year, 1515, the Admiral Diego Colon was 
 obliged to proceed to Spain in consequence of a law suit brought 
 against him by the government, for which a mass of witnesses 
 had been summoned, to prove that his father had, in reality, dis 
 covered no part of the new world. About the time of his arrival, 
 in January, 1516, king Ferdinand of Arragon died, leaving no 
 children by his second queen, in consequence of which his throne 
 descended to his daughter, the insane Juana. Her son Charles, 
 then sixteen years of age, being declared to have attained his 
 majority, assumed the government in his own name and in that 
 of his mother, over all the wide and rich dominions of Castile 
 and Arragon, including the greater part of Spain and Italy, in 
 addition to his paternal possessions in the Netherlands. His 
 accession to the throne, forms an important epoch in the 
 history of America and in that of Europe ; for, as in the latter 
 continent, the religious reformation then began, against the pro 
 gress of which he resolutely exerted all his power, so at the same 
 time were those discoveries effected in the New World, which 
 contributed to fix its destinies by establishing the supremacy of 
 Spain over a great portion of its territory. 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 
 1516 TO 1527. 
 
 DISCOVERY OF THE COASTS OF THE MEXICAN GULF AND THE 
 MOUTH OF THE MISSISSIPPI CONQUEST OF MEXICO BY 
 THE SPANIARDS FIRST ATTEMPTS OF EUROPEANS TO OC 
 CUPY THE ATLANTIC COASTS OF FLORIDA. 
 
 AT the moment of the death of Ferdinand of Arragon, his suc 
 cessor Charles was in Flanders, the country of his birth and 
 education ; and Cardinal Ximenes, who governed Castile as 
 Regent, seized the occasion of the absence of the Admiral Colon 
 from the West Indies, to entrust the direction of those colonies 
 to three monks of the order of St. Jerome, who immediately 
 proceeded to Santo Domingo, and entered upon their new duties. 
 The reverend governors were, however, not more successful than 
 the viceroy had been, in enforcing obedience to their authority, 
 especially in the distant colonies, the chiefs of which reigned su 
 preme, each in his own territory, so long as he could secure the 
 favor of the cardinal minister Fonseca in Spain. The most re 
 fractory, as well as most energetic of those chiefs, was Diego 
 de Velazquez, who had obtained the appointment of governor of 
 Cuba, and was rapidly acquiring wealth by the sale of lands and 
 Indians, as well as by the cultivation of his own extensive es 
 tates in that island. Under his direction, the settlements of the 
 Spaniards already extended along both coasts of Cuba, towards 
 its western extremity ; and his little capital, Santiago, was be 
 coming the principal resort of adventurers from other parts of the 
 West Indies, and from Europe, in consequence of the encourage 
 ment offered in the way of grants and employments to those who 
 could pay for them or earn them by services to the governor. 
 
44 EXPEDITION OF HERNANDES DE CORDOVA. [1516. 
 
 Velazquez was indeed, according to the Spanish system, likewise 
 environed by officers, intended as checks and spies upon his pro 
 ceedings: but he knew how to manage them; and they were 
 probably not of a very high order, at least with regard to qualifi 
 cations, judging from the fact that Amador de Lariz, the Contador, 
 or comptroller of the royal revenues of the island, could not read. 
 Among the adventurers thus brought to Santiago in 1516, were 
 a number of officers and soldiers from Darien, who being discon 
 tented with the state of things in that country after the execution 
 of Balboa, obtained their discharge from Davila, and came to 
 Cuba to seek their fortunes. Of these officers, one deserves par 
 ticular mention, namely, Bernal Dias del Castillo, then a young 
 captain, who fifty years later, when a grave and worshipful Regi- 
 dor of the city of Guatemala, indited a narrative of the stirring 
 events in which he was engaged after his arrival in Cuba, more 
 interesting than any other in any language without the limits of 
 fiction.* The adventurers, as usual, immediately on arriving in 
 Cuba, solicited grants of lands and Indians; but being unable to 
 make the necessary presents to the governor and his attendants, 
 their petition remained unnoticed, and their funds thus rapidly 
 diminishing, they were glad to accept the proposition of a certain 
 Francisco Hernandes de Cordova, to join him in an expedition 
 towards the west, in search of some country which might offer 
 inducements for trade, plunder, or settlement. 
 
 * " Historia Verdadera de la Conquista de la Nueva Espana," a True history of 
 the conquest of New Spain. It was first printed at Madrid in 1632, and has been 
 translated into English and all the other languages of western Europe. The best 
 of these versions is, however, but a pale and lifeless reflection of the original, 
 which stands in history as unique and inimitable as Don Quixote in romance. 
 The other authorities for the circumstances related in this chapter in addition to 
 those already named are " Cronica de la Nueva Espana," a chronicle of the con 
 quest of Mexico, by Francisco Lopez de Goniara the letters of Cortes to 
 Charles V, printed at different times and places, and various accounts in the col 
 lections of Ramusio, Hakluyt Purchas, Navarrete and Ternaux Compans. 
 
 The author of this history is familiar with the writings of Solis, Robertson, 
 and Prescott, all of which, and especially the beautiful work of Prescott, have 
 been carefully examined and compared by him, while engaged in the sketch of 
 the conquest of Mexico, inserted in the present chapter. Here however, as else 
 where, he has relied exclusively, on the original evidence, in the original lan 
 guage, wheresoever it was attainable ; and his statements of facts, as well as his 
 conclusions, will be found in some cases, to differ materially from those of the 
 eminent historians above named. 
 
1517.] DISCOVERY OF YUCATAN. 45 
 
 Three vessels were accordingly equipped for the contemplated 
 expedition, and Antonio Alarainos who had accompanied Ponce 
 de Leon to Florida, was engaged as chief pilot. Velazquez took 
 shares in the enterprise, towards which he contributed one vessel : 
 he was also desirous that Cordova should promise to bring him 
 in return some slaves for his plantations ; but Bernal Bias and 
 other cavaliers having refused to embark on those conditions, the 
 idea was abandoned. 
 
 All being prepared, these vessels took their departure on the 
 8th of February, 1517, from a harbor on the north-west side of 
 Cuba, which had been selected as the place of rendezvous ; and 
 sailing around the western extremity of the island, they continued 
 their voyage towards the west for twenty days, when land was 
 discovered. On approaching it they were agreeably surprised 
 by the appearance of a large city; and they were soon surrounded 
 by boats filled with people, who seemed to be much more intelli 
 gent and civilized than any other inhabitants of the New World 
 as yet seen by Europeans. From these people they procured 
 small trinkets of gold, curiously wrought, in return for their own 
 articles ; and agreeably to an invitation from one who appeared 
 to be a person in authority, a few of the Spaniards landed, and 
 endeavored to reach the city. They passed on their way large 
 temples and other buildings of stone, containing idols of the same 
 material, in which pieces of gold were also found, and of course 
 seized by the Spaniards ; but ere they had proceeded far, they 
 were suddenly attacked by a numerous body of men, armed with 
 spears, bows and arrows, and were forced to return to their vessels. 
 
 The country thus discovered, was believed by the Spaniards 
 to be called Yucatan, from some misunderstanding of the answers 
 given by the natives to their questions ; and the place at which 
 they first landed received the name of Cape Catoche, from the 
 frequent use of the expression Cotoch, by those people. Not 
 considering it prudent to remain there any longer, the adventurers 
 sailed along the coast towards the west, and then finding it turn 
 to the south, they traced it in that direction to a great distance, 
 observing many cities, temples, and other signs of civilization on 
 their way. Near two of the largest of these cities, (of which they 
 afterwards learned the names to be Quimpechi, or Campeachy, 
 and Potonchon,) they landed, as well as at other places, in order 
 
46 DISCOVERY OF YUCATAN. [1517 
 
 to procure water: but they were every where met by overwhelm 
 ing bodies of armed natives, who drove them back to their ves 
 sels, and in one of these engagements nearly a quarter of their 
 number were killed, while many others were wounded. 
 
 After leaving Potonchon the Spaniards reached the entrance 
 of a large bay, which the pilot, Alaminos, on examination, be 
 lieved to be the western opening of a strait, separating Yucatan 
 from the continent. By this time their provisions were nearly 
 exhausted, and they had suffered greatly from disease, as well as 
 from the spears and arrows of the natives ; in consequence of 
 which, it was agreed that they should return to Cuba. They 
 accordingly bestowed upon the bay, the name of Terminos, as 
 indicating the termination of the land as well as of their own dis 
 covery at that place ; and taking their course to the north, they 
 soon encountered a storm by which they were driven about at 
 random for several days. The pilot then proposed, that instead 
 of attempting to reach Cuba by the route followed on the way to 
 Yucatan, they should sail northward to Florida where he had 
 already been with Ponce de Leon, and from which the current 
 would soon carry them to their island. This being agreed to, 
 they were conducted to a bay on the south-west side of the pen 
 insula, where the vessels were anchored, and the men landed to 
 refresh themselves. But misfortune still pursued them, for they 
 were attacked by the ferocious natives and obliged to retreat ere 
 their casks could be filled with fresh water. In consequence 
 of this, they tortured with thirst during the remainder of their 
 voyage to Cuba, where they at length arrived, at a harbor called 
 Puerto de Carenas, on which the city of Havanna now stands.* 
 
 Messengers were immediately sent to bear the news of the dis 
 coveries with the gold to the governor; and the greater part of the 
 adventurers soon followed, accompanied by two natives of Yuca- 
 
 * Havanna was the name originally given to the western portion of Cuba, on 
 the south side of which, a town was founded in 1514, called San Christobal, or 
 St. Christopher. The place proving unsuitable, its inhabitants were transferred 
 to one on the north side of the island, which received the same name; and thence 
 they were again carried in 1519, to the Puerto de Carenas, where the town of 
 San Christobal de la Havanna finally rested. Here, as in innumerable other cases, 
 the name of the Saint was dropped in common language, though it is generally 
 used in official documents ; and the highest ecclesiastical authority in that part of 
 Cuba, is styled the Bishop of San Christobal de la Havanna. 
 
1518.] EXPEDITION OF GRIJALVA. 47 
 
 tan, as living evidences of the civilization of the inhabitants of 
 that country. Velazquez lost no time in preparing to avail him 
 self of the advantages thus presented, by obtaining a commission 
 from the Hieronymite governors in Hispaniola, to explore and 
 trade in the new regions, while he also despatched agents to 
 Spain, to procure more extensive powers from the cardinal min 
 ister. For the first objects, he equipped four vessels, the com 
 mand of which was given respectively to Juan de Grijalva, Pedro 
 de Alvarado, Francisco de Montejo, and Alonzo de Avila, the 
 whole being under the direction of Grijalva. Hernandes de Cor 
 dova had died soon after his return, of wounds received in 
 Yucatan and in Florida. The pilot Alaminos, Bernal Dias del 
 Castillo, and many others who had been engaged in the former 
 expedition, also took part in the second, as officers and share 
 holders. 
 
 The town of Matanzas, on the north-west side of Cuba, was 
 on this occasion, the place of rendezvous, from which the vessels 
 sailed on the 5th of April, 1518; eight days afterwards, they 
 reached the island of Cozumel, near the west coast of Yucatan, 
 on which and at other places on that side, they landed, before 
 reaching Cape Catoche, the north-east point of the peninsula. 
 Thence they pursued their course, as in the former expedition, 
 along the northern and western shores of Yucatan, frequently 
 landing and fighting with the natives, to the bay of Terminos, 
 the limit of the discoveries of Cordova in that direction, from 
 which the coast again turned to the -west. Continuing onwards, 
 they passed the mouths of the Tabasco and the Guazecualco 
 rivers, from the latter of which the land again trended to the 
 north; and they soon beheld rising from the borders of the sea, 
 the lofty rugged volcanic mass, named by them Mount San 
 Martin, in compliment to the person who first descried it. 
 
 Beyond Mount San Martin, Alvarado entered a river, to which 
 his name was in consequence assigned; and a little farther north, 
 several sandy islands were observed near the coast, one of which 
 was called Isla de Sacrificios, Isle of Sacrifices, from the re 
 mains of human bodies hanging in a temple erected upon it. 
 Another island, two leagues farther north, received the appella 
 tion of San Juan, in honor of the Saint on whose day, the 24th 
 of June, it was reached ; and the space between it and the main- 
 
48 DISCOVERY OF MEXICO. [1518. 
 
 land, affording good anchorage and protection against storms, 
 the little squadron remained there several days. 
 
 The mainland opposite the islands, was low and sandy, and 
 presented no signs of vegetation for some distance from the sea; 
 but mountains of extraordinary height, one of them (Orizaba) a 
 beautiful cone, white with snow, were observed in the interior. 
 Not far from the anchorage, was a town containing stone build 
 ings, which, or the country around it, w r as called Culua or Ulua ; 
 and from the people of this place, with whom the Spaniards soon 
 engaged in trade, confused accounts were received of a vast and 
 rich empire in the interior, of which Mexigo, or some word re 
 sembling it in sound, appeared to be the name either of the 
 whole, or of the chief city or province. The vague reports thus 
 collected, were confirmed by the superior intelligence and civili 
 zation of these people, and the neat workmanship of the articles 
 of silver and gold, as well as of cotton, which were obtained 
 from them in exchange for beads, knives, and other trifles; and 
 so well convinced was Grijalva of the existence of the great em 
 pire which they described, that he most unfortunately as it 
 proved for himself sent Alvarado in one of the vessels to convey 
 these treasures, with accounts of the discoveries to the governor 
 of Cuba. 
 
 After the departure of Alvarado, which took place in the be 
 ginning of July, Grijalva, with the three remaining vessels, con 
 tinued the voyage along the coast northward, to the mouth of a 
 river entering the sea, near the 32d degree of latitude, which was 
 named Rio de Canoas Canoe river from the number and size 
 of the canoes used by the natives. This was the same stream 
 afterwards called the Panuco, or Tampico, on which the town of 
 Tampico now stands. Grijalva desired to proceed farther ; but 
 the pilot Alaminos did not consider it prudent to do so, as the 
 vessels were leaky, and the weather began to be tempestuous : 
 and they accordingly returned along the coast towards the south. 
 Grijalva then wished his men to remain and form a settlement in 
 the country, somewhere near the islands of San Juan and Sacri- 
 ficios; they however unanimously refused to run the risks, and 
 insisted on returning to Cuba, where they arrived after a long 
 and difficult passage in October. 
 
 In the meantime, the governor of Cuba had been very anxious 
 
1518.] CORTES APPOINTED TO COMMAND THE ARMAMENT. 49 
 
 with regard to the vessels, in search of which, he, in August, sent 
 another under the command of Christobal de Olid ; but soon after 
 the departure of the latter, Alvarado arrived, bringing news of 
 the reported existence of the great and rich empire called Mexico, 
 in the interior of the countiy beyond Yucatan, as well as gold 
 wrought and in bullion, to a large amount, obtained by trading 
 chiefly at Ulua and its vicinity. These accounts excited the 
 strongest sensation in Cuba, and were soon transmitted to the 
 other colonies in the West Indies. The discovery of Yucatan 
 had been considered important, but rather as an indication of the 
 vicinity of India; the observations of Cordova not favoring the 
 supposition that precious metals were found there. On this 
 second occasion, gold enough had been obtained in a few days, 
 at a small town on the coast, to defray all the, expenses of the 
 expedition; and the ambitious and grasping Valazquez, therefore 
 determined immediately to prepare an armament, sufficient for 
 the conquest of this new country, in anticipation of the receipt 
 of a commission to that effect from Spain. 
 
 Considerable progress had been made in the equipment of this 
 force when Grijalva returned to Cuba; and he moreover learned, 
 to his great mortification, that another person had been appointed 
 to command it. The reports of Alvarado had not encouraged 
 Velazquez to rely on the devotion of Grijalva to his interests as 
 exclusively as he desired; and although that officer had evinced 
 the utmost bravery, skill, and general capacity in the conduct of 
 his expedition, there was reason to suspect, that if entrusted with 
 more extensive powers, he might not be content with receiving 
 merely such a portion of the honors and profits accruing, as the 
 governor should be pleased to assign to him. Panfilo de Nar- 
 vaez, the lieutenant governor, had been sent to Spain to present 
 the petition of Velazquez for authority to make conquests in the 
 west, or he would no doubt have received the command ; candi 
 dates were, however, not wanting, and the governor was soon 
 induced to select from among them his former secretary, Hernando 
 Cortes. This person was then about thirty-three years of age; 
 he had come to the West Indies in 1504, without fortune or 
 friends, in search as he declared, of gold ; but had not, until a few 
 months previous, engaged in any regular pursuit, except during 
 the short period of his secretaryship, after which he remained for 
 
 r 
 
50 CORTES SAILS FOR THE CONQUEST OF MEXICO. [1518. 
 
 several years on bad terms with Velazquez, and was regarded 
 only as a dissipated intriguing adventurer. He, however, at 
 length became reconciled to the governor, the sister of whose mis 
 tress he married, receiving upon that occasion, the office of Al 
 calde of Santiago, together with a large grant of lands in the island. 
 
 These favors were speedily followed by his appointment to the 
 command of the expedition destined for the conquest of the rich 
 countries in the west. In person, the new commander was hand 
 some, strong and active ; in disposition, gay and good humored ; 
 and his courage had been proved in the wars with the Indians, 
 as well as in numerous private quarrels and combats; but nothing 
 had been observed in his conduct or character, indicating the 
 mighty genius, which was soon to develope itself. 
 
 The utmost energy and efficiency were immediately displayed 
 by Cortes in the preparations for his expedition ; every resource 
 which the country could afford in the way of vessels, arms, am 
 munition and other materials, was put in requisition, and capi 
 talists were thus induced to subscribe their funds in aid of an 
 enterprise, which gave such promises of success. In this man 
 ner, ten vessels were soon ready for sea, and a large number of 
 men were enlisted at Santiago and other ports in the island, 
 where the vessels were in due time to stop and receive them. 
 The governor had, meanwhile, become thoughtful and melan 
 choly ; for his own observations, as well as the remarks of those 
 around him, showed clearly that he had made a capital mistake 
 as regarded the advancement of his personal interests, in selecting 
 Hernando Cortes to conduct the expedition ; and this error was 
 soon followed by another, in rendering his feelings of jealousy 
 apparent to the object of them, whom it only stimulated to greater 
 exertions. He at length resolved to deprive Cortes of the com 
 mand ; but ere he could carry his determination into execution, 
 the daring leader of the forces quitted Santiago with all his ves 
 sels and three hundred men, for another harbor, where he hastily 
 took on board the people and provisions collected, and then con 
 tinued his voyage to another still farther in the direction of the 
 countries to be invaded. Proceeding in this manner from port 
 to port along the south side of Cuba, constantly increasing his 
 strength, and constantly pursued by the agents of Velazquez, 
 carrying authority for his arrest, he reached Havanna ; and from 
 
1519.] VELAZQUEZ OBTAINS A COMMISSION. 51 
 
 that place, on the 10th of February, 1519, he took his final depar 
 ture for Yucatan, with eleven vessels and more than six hundred 
 men, in defiance of all the efforts of the friends of the governor, 
 to whom he sarcastically sent the most special assurances of his 
 fidelity and attachment. 
 
 Soon after the departure of Cortes from Cuba, the agents of 
 Velazquez returned from Spain, bringing him the long expected 
 commission to conquer and possess the new countries. When 
 the accounts of the discovery of Yucatan reached Europe, the 
 young king Charles had recently arrived in his Spanish do 
 minions from the Netherlands, surrounded by noblemen and 
 favorites of the latter country, on one of whom, the Admiral of 
 Flanders, he immediately bestowed not only Yucatan, but Cuba 
 also, to be held as fiefs of his crown. This act however caused 
 so much indignation among the Castilians, that the concession 
 was revoked; and Cardinal Fonseca, whom Velazquez had se 
 cured by large presents, succeeded in obtaining for him a com 
 mission of Adelantado, to discover, settle, and occupy any ter 
 ritories not already actually possessed by Spaniards, in the 
 West Indies ; and to govern and hold them for his own use and 
 advantage, under certain conditions, as well as to transmit 
 those privileges to his heirs. The splendid prize thus held 
 out to Velazquez might, nevertheless, be snatched from his 
 grasp, as he was convinced that^ no reliance could be placed 
 on the honor of the person whom he had entrusted with the 
 command of his forces in the west: but he had no alternative, 
 except patiently to await the progress of events ; and to this he 
 resigned himself, cursing the folly which had led him to be so 
 egregiously duped. 
 
 The news of the discoveries of Cordova and Grijalva, caused 
 preparations to be commenced in other parts of the West Indies 
 for expeditions in the direction pursued by those navigators. 
 Juan Ponce de Leon was collecting the means for a new voyage 
 to Florida, in virtue of his commission as Adelantado of that 
 country; Pedrarias Davila despatched forces under Hernandez 
 de Cordova, through the continent, westward from Darien ; and 
 Francisco de Garay, the governor of Jamaica, devoted a portion 
 of his immense wealth to the equipment of four vessels, which 
 sailed from that island in the spring of 1519, under Alonzo Al- 
 
52 CORTES LANDS IK MEXICO. [1519, 
 
 varez Pineda, to explore the seas and coasts beyond Cuba. The 
 departure of these armaments, moreover, induced private indi 
 viduals in Hispaniola, to send vessels laden with arms, ammuni 
 tion and provisions for their supply, and articles for trade with 
 the natives on the coasts of the new countries, all of which ar 
 rived, as will be seen, very opportunely for the success of the 
 expedition. 
 
 In the meantime, Cortes, with his squadron, reached the Isle 
 of Cozumel; and on the opposite shore of Yucatan, he succeeded 
 in rescuing from captivity, a Spaniard who had long remained in 
 that country, and who rendered him important services in the 
 sequel, by his knowledge of the people and their language. 
 Thence he pursued the same course which had been taken by 
 Grijalva, along the coast towards the west; and after a variety 
 of adventures, including several conflicts with the Indians, espe 
 cially on the Tabasco riVer, he, on Good Friday, the 21st of 
 April, 1519, anchored between the little island of San Juan and 
 the mainland, near the town of Culua, or Ulua, where Grijalva 
 had obtained the first definite accounts of the rich empire in the 
 interior. 
 
 Of this empire, for which Mexico was supposed to be the general 
 name, farther information was procured at Ulua by Cortes; and 
 ambassadors soon after appeared from its sovereign, Montezuma, 
 bringing presents of gold in large masses, richly wrought, and 
 various other curious or valuable articles, but requiring the stran 
 gers at the same time to quit the territory. This of course 
 served only to stimulate the cupidity of the Spaniards, and to 
 lead them to complain, that they should be limited by the in 
 structions of the governor of Cuba, to exploration and trade, 
 instead of being left at liberty to conquer and occupy a country 
 thus abounding in wealth. Their artful chief, who had left no 
 means untried during the voyage to acquire their confidence, did 
 not fail secretly to foment this dissatisfaction ; and when it had 
 reached the proper degree, he put in execution the first measure 
 of the scheme of self-aggrandizement w r hich he had devised. He 
 began by yielding to the clamorous entreaties of a large number 
 of the officers and men under his command, that a settlement 
 should be formed in the country ; and accordingly on the burning 
 sand, opposite to the island of San Juan, the streets and squares 
 
1519.] FOUNDATION OF VERA CRUZ. 53 
 
 of a city were traced, to which was given the name of La Villa Rica 
 de la Vera Cruz The Rich City of the True Cross in honor of 
 the day of their arrival at the place, and in token of the wealth of 
 which it was to become the depository. Having appointed two 
 of his most trusted adherents as Alcaldes or chiefs of the muni 
 cipality of the new settlement, he formally surrendered into their 
 hands, the instructions and the commission of Captain General, 
 which he had received from the governor of Cuba. This was 
 accepted, of course, most reluctantly, and Cortes was then 
 induced, with great hesitation, and after long entreaty, to as 
 sume the government of the country until the pleasure of their 
 lord, the king, could be learned. A large proportion of the offi 
 cers were attached to the interests of Velazquez and had wit 
 nessed the elevation of Cortes above themselves with feelings of 
 jealousy, which on this occasion burst forth in threats and impre- 
 . cations; but they had to deal with one who was not to be in 
 timidated, and their leaders, after a few days passed in prison and 
 chains, submitted to the overpowering influence of the master spirit. 
 This serious farce having been thus satisfactorily played out, 
 Cortes despatched a vessel to Spain, carrying all the presents re 
 ceived from Montezuma, together with letters* from the munici 
 pality of the new city and from himself to the king, under the 
 charge of two of his friends, Puertocarrero and Montejo, who 
 were to solicit immediate succors, as well as the confirmation of 
 his appointment as Governor and Captain General, independent of 
 any other authority in the West Indies. He then marched with 
 a portion of his men along the coast towards the north, and 
 having found a spotf at the distance of thirty miles in that direc- 
 
 *Of the letter of Cortes, which was dated July 16, 1519, neither the original 
 nor any copy is' now known to exist; it was probably, however, not materially 
 different, as to the facts at least, from that addressed at the same time by the 
 municipality of Vera Cruz, of which a copy was published, with other interesting 
 documents relating to the same period, at Havanna, in 1843, by the enlightened 
 Contador, Don Jose de Zamora, since Regent of the Audiencia of Cuba. 
 
 f This place was, however, abandoned, soon after the conquest, for another at 
 the mouth of a small river, about eighteen miles farther south, where the city of 
 Vera Cruz subsisted, until the end of that century: it was then again transferred 
 to the spot first chosen, opposite to the island of San Juan, on which a strong 
 castle had been shortly before erected, and there it now stands. The site last 
 abandoned, is marked by a small village called la Antigua, the Old Town, 
 twelve miles north of the present city ; and tbe same name is given to the river 
 which flows by it. 
 
54 COMPLETE DISCOVERY OF THE MEXICAN GULF. [1519. 
 
 tion, more suitable for a first settlement, it was determined that 
 the Rich City of the True Cross should be established there, in 
 preference to the site previously chosen. Forts, magazines and 
 dwelling-houses were accordingly erected; and treaties of peace 
 having been concluded with the surrounding cities and districts, 
 the fearless commander destroyed his vessels, in order to cut off 
 all means or hopes of retreat, and commenced his march into the 
 interior in the month of August. 
 
 The Spaniards, however, had not proceeded far from the coast, 
 ere they were recalled by the news that four ships had appeared 
 off Vera Cruz. They were those of Garay, under Pineda, whose 
 departure from Jamaica has been already mentioned. From that 
 island, Pineda sailed around the western end of Cuba, and thence 
 northward until he made the land, probably near the mouth of the 
 Apalachicola river, whence he endeavored to pass eastward, 
 through the supposed channel north of Florida. Finding his 
 course barred by land in that direction, he turned and traced 
 the coasts carefully to some distance westward, and then south 
 ward, observing in his way the mouths of several rivers, particu 
 larly of one, corresponding nearly in position and evidently iden 
 tical with the Mississippi, which he named Rio del Espiritu 
 Santo, (river of the Holy Ghost,) and of another, called by him 
 Rio de Palmas, (river of Palms,) which may have been the same, 
 now known as the Rio Grande or Rio Bravo. 
 
 At length, in the beginning of August, Pineda reached the 
 place where Cortes had established his city of Vera Cruz ; and 
 as the Spaniards in the West Indies were always mistrustful 
 of each other, he took the precaution, before anchoring, to 
 send a few men ashore, to make enquiries. These men were 
 carried before Cortes, who easily induced them to enter his 
 service, and to engage in a scheme for the capture of the 
 vessels ; Pineda, however, having had his suspicions excited, 
 sailed away northward, to a river which he had already visited, 
 near the 22d degree of latitude, where he found a large city, 
 called Panuco, in the midst of a fertile and populous district. 
 This was, no doubt, the same which had received from Grijalva, 
 the name of Canoe river; yet Pineda considered himself the dis 
 coverer, and accordingly took possession of the country in the 
 
1519.] 
 
 FIRST CHART OF THE MEXICAN GULF. 
 
 55 
 
 name of his sovereign ; and after remaining there sometime, en 
 gaged in trading and in repairing his vessels, he returned to 
 Jamaica in October. 
 
 This voyage was important, as it served to prove, that the 
 Florida discovered by Ponce de Leon was a peninsula and not 
 an island ; and that the Atlantic did not communicate with the 
 
 * The account here presented of the voyage of Pineda, is derived chiefly from 
 Navarrete, who has given in the second volume of his Collection, a copy of the 
 patent, or commission, granted by Charles V, to Garay, in 1521, to settle and 
 possess the country north of the Panuco, as will be hereafter related ; the pre 
 amble to which patent recapitulates the principal discoveries made by Pineda, 
 during the voyage in question. Accompanying this paper, is a fac-simile of the 
 chart sent to Spain by Garay, in support of his petition, of which a reduced copy 
 is here presented : 
 
 In this chart, which is curious as being the earliest representation of the coasts 
 of the Mexican gulf, and is remarkably correct, considering the circumstances, 
 the mouth of the Rio del Espiritu Santo is placed somewhat farther west than 
 the entrance of the Mississippi should be ; probably in consequence of the cur 
 rent, against which Pineda had to struggle in sailing along that coast, rendering 
 his estimates of the distance passed over too great. The same error as to the 
 position of the mouth of the Mississippi, is, however, found in all maps of the 
 gulf before the last century. 
 
56 VELAZQUEZ INFORMED OF PROCEEDINGS OF CORTES. [1519. 
 
 Pacific or with the Indian ocean, west of Cuba, but was bounded 
 in that, direction, by land, enclosing a great gulf or interior sea. 
 The shores of this sea, first called by the Spaniards the Gulf of 
 Florida, and afterwards the Mexican Gulf, were delineated on the 
 chart sent to Spain by Garay with the report of the voyage, in a 
 manner so nearly exact, as to show that Pineda had conducted 
 his survey with extraordinary care and success, considering the 
 time employed on it, and the means at his disposition. The. 
 countries seen by him were, indeed, for the most part, low and 
 barren : there w r ere, however, reasons to suppose, that the interior 
 regions might be rich and populous, especially those contiguous 
 to Panuco ; and Garay accordingly sent back the vessels in the 
 following year, under Diego de Camargo, to form a settlement at 
 that place, while he at the same time, took measures to procure 
 from Spain a commission to conquer and possess the territory. 
 
 Meanwhile, the ship sent by Cortes to Spain, under the direc 
 tion of the able pilot Alaminos, took her course across the gulf to 
 the north side of Cuba, where, one of the envoys, in express con 
 travention of his instructions, insisted on landing, in order to 
 visit his plantation ; and some of her crew deserting her at that 
 place, conveyed accounts of all that had occurred, to the governor 
 at Santiago. Great was the rage of Velazquez on learning the 
 daring step taken by his faithless captain : but he did not despair ; 
 and trusting to his influence in Spam, to prevent the concession 
 of any further powers to Cortes, he began the equipment of a 
 large force, which he prepared to send to Mexico under his lieu 
 tenant, Panfilo de Narvaez, in order to re-establish his authority 
 and punish the usurper. 
 
 Ere the envoys of Cortes arrived, in Europe, the king of Arra- 
 gon and Castile, or king of Spain, as he chose to style himself, 
 had been raised by election, to the imperial throne of Germany, 
 which he occupied for nearly forty years, as the emperor Charles 
 V. This election was by no means satisfactory to his Spanish 
 subjects, as he immediately afterwards manifested the strongest 
 anxiety to leave them, in order to enjoy his higher powers and dig 
 nities in Germany ; and insurrections broke out in various parts 
 of Castile and Arragon, with the object of depriving him of the 
 crowns of those kingdoms. The disturbances were, however, 
 queUed by concessions on promises ; and by the same means 
 
1519.] CORTES' AGENTS UNSUCCESSFUL IN SPAIN. 57 
 
 moreover, Charles obtained the supplies of money required to 
 make a suitable appearance on the grand theatre on which he was 
 to play his part. Among these concessions was, probably, the 
 solemn act, in the form of a royal decree,* by which the West 
 Indies, including all the territories w T est of the Atlantic, secured to 
 Castile by the Papal grant and the treaty of partition with Portu 
 gal, were declared to be irrevocably and inalienably annexed to 
 the crown of the former kingdom ; while the ministerial council 
 for the direction of the affairs of those dominions w T as extended 
 and raised to the rank of the other bodies of the same character, 
 under the immediate supervision of the sovereign. 
 
 It was in the beginning of September, 1519, during the exist 
 ence of this disturbed state of things in Spain, that the envoys of 
 Cortes arrived in that kingdom, and presented themselves before 
 the president of the Council of the Indies at Valladolid. They 
 were received, contrary to their hopes, with coldness and harsh 
 ness by Fonseca, who used every means to prevent them from 
 seeing the emperor, while he at the same time labored earnestly, 
 to support the claims of Velazquez. They however, after wait 
 ing several months, succeeded in procuring an audience with 
 their sovereign, who treated them with much condescension, ac 
 cepted the presents of gold and other articles received from Mon- 
 tezuma, and promised to listen to their representations at Co- 
 
 * The decree to this effect, issued by the emperor at Barcelona, on the 14th of 
 September, 1519, is as follows: 
 
 "By donation from the Holy Apostolic See, and other just and legitimate titles, 
 We are Sovereign of the West Indies, of the islands and the mainland of the 
 ocean, discovered or which may be discovered; and they are incorporated with 
 Our Royal Crown of Castile. And as it is Our will, and We have promised arid 
 sworn, that they shall ever remain united thereto, for their greater duration and 
 strength, We prohibit their alienation. And We decree that they shall at no 
 time be separated, or disunited, or divided, in the whole or in part, or in their 
 cities, towns or settlements, from Our Royal Crown of Castile, in any case, or in 
 favor of any person whomsoever. And considering the fidelity of Our vassals, 
 and the labors of the discoverers and settlers, in proceeding thither, to explore 
 and occupy them, in order that they may have greater certainty and confidence 
 in their perpetual union to Our Royal Crown, We promise and give Our Royal 
 Word, for Ourselves and for the kings, Our successors, that they shall never be 
 alienated or divided, in whole or in part, or in their cities, tow T ns or settlements, 
 for any cause or reason, or in favor of any person whomsoever: and if We, or 
 Our successors, should make any donation or alienation, contrary to what is here 
 above set forth, it shall be null and void, as We here declare it." Recopilacion 
 de Leyes de Indias, Lib. IJI. Tit. I. Ley. I. 
 
 8 i 
 
58 VELAZQUEZ SENDS NARVAEZ AGAINST CORTES. [1519. 
 
 runna, where he was to embark in May following for Flanders. 
 But at the time and place thus appointed, Charles had to attend 
 to the affairs of the admiral Diego Colon, w r ho was reinstated in 
 his viceroyalty at Santo Domingo, and to many others of a press 
 ing nature ; so that he had no leisure to devote to a matter appa 
 rently so little important, as a question of authority between a 
 West India governor and his subordinate. He accordingly sailed 
 from Corunna for the Netherlands on the 22d of May, 1520, with 
 out seeing Montejo and Puertocarrero, and left the settlement 
 of their business in the hands of the cardinal, who of course de 
 cided it in favor of Velazquez. The propriety of such a decision 
 can scarcely be denied, though considerations of justice probably 
 had little effect in producing it ; for it Was certainly incumbent 
 on the minister to sustain the regularly constituted and legal au 
 thority, which had been so audaciously violated by the trickery 
 of Cortes, in defiance of his duty to the government as well as 
 of good faith to Velazquez. Messengers were accordingly sent 
 to bear to the governor of Cuba a complete confirmation of his 
 powers, with authority to punish to the fullest extent, the rebel 
 lious captain of his squadron. Ere they arrived there, however, 
 Velazquez had already despatched a large fleet to Vera Cruz 
 with that object; notwithstanding the opposition made to his 
 proceedings by the Hieronymites in Espaliola, who sent Vazquez 
 de Ayllon, an influential member of the Audiencia or Supreme 
 Court, to accompany the expedition, and to prevent as far as 
 possible, any violence against Cortes. Velazquez awaited the 
 result with but little anxiety, as he conceived that whatso 
 ever might be the influence of Cortes over his men, it must 
 fail on the appearance of a superior force, sustained by the au 
 thority of the crown and headed by an officer so distinguished 
 as Panfilo de Narvaez. 
 
 But Velazquez was destined to suffer still greater disappoint 
 ment, from this attempt to subdue the mighty spirit unadvisedly 
 raised by him in the appointment of Corjes to the command of 
 his first armament. 
 
 Immediately after the departure of Pineda from the vicinity of 
 Vera Cruz in August, 1519, Cortes having placed a small garri 
 son there, under Gonzalo de Sandoval, one of his most devoted 
 followers, departed with the others towards the interior; and 
 
1519.] ADVANCE OF CORTES INTO THE INTERIOR. 59 
 
 crossing the stupendous mountain range which runs through that 
 part of the continent, he reached a wide expanse of elevated ter 
 ritory, containing many fertile tracts, thickly inhabited by indus 
 trious people, who though barbarous in some respects, were little 
 inferiojr in general civilization to those of western Europe. These 
 tracts were all highly cultivated ; and the adventurous Spaniards 
 saw rising before them, large and populous cities, abounding in 
 palaces, temples and other edifices of stone laboriously carved, 
 while their cupidity was excited to the utmost, by the profusion 
 of utensils and ornaments of gold and silver, displayed on every 
 side. The country was divided into a number of principalities or 
 republics, all of which were subject in some degree, to Montezu- 
 ma the sovereign of the valley of Anahuac,* and lord of the great 
 city of Tenochtitlan or Mexico, situated in the midst of A lake, 
 surrounded by mountains. Towards this capital, did Cortes, 
 with his four hundred and fifteen followers, direct his course, 
 alternately fighting and treating with the various powers on the 
 way, and always gaining strength, either by victories or alliances. 
 The poor Indians, armed only with clubs, bows and arrows and 
 spears, unacquainted with gunpowder, with horses, and even with 
 iron, were, notwithstanding the bravery which they often exhib 
 ited, soon cowed into submission before their terrible invaders, 
 who, clad in impenetrable mail, mounted on animals of monstrous 
 form and size, and dealing forth thunderbolts, as deadly as those 
 from heaven, were regarded as the dire instruments of some in 
 censed deity. 
 
 * The name Anahuac signified "the country on the water," and seems to have 
 been originally confined to the valley containing the capital, and to have been 
 afterwards extended to all the territories over which the sovereign of that valley 
 obtained authority. Tenochtitlan, the name of the capital, meant a cactus or 
 prickly pear growing on a rock ; and it arose from a tradition or, perhaps, gave 
 rise to the story that the Aztecs, the dominant race in those countries, who are 
 supposed to have arrived there from the north-west about the year 1325 of the 
 Christian era, were induced to establish themselves on the spot, in consequence 
 of the favorable omen drawn from the appearance of an eagle, holding a serpent 
 in his claws, and perched on a cactus growing from a rock in the middle of 
 the lake, as now represented on the Mexican dollar. The name of Mexico is 
 said to have been derived from the war god Mexitl, the special protector of the 
 capital; but this is spmewhat doubtful. After the conquest, it was applied by the 
 Spaniards first to the capital city, re-built on the ruins of Tenochtitlan, then to 
 the valley, and then to the whole country, which was, however, always denomi 
 nated New Spain in official documents 
 
60 CORTES ESTABLISHES HIMSELF IN TENOCHTITLAN. [1519. 
 
 Three months were thus passed in combats and negotiations, 
 in which short time, Cortes had displayed all the qualities of a 
 consummate general, and of a profound politician; and he had 
 acquired an influence over his own men, which rendered them 
 obedient to his commands in every respect, notwithstanding 
 the bitter animosity entertained towards him by a large num 
 ber. At the end of this period, the Spaniards had reduced to 
 submission the powerful states of Tlascala and Cholula, which 
 formed the outworks or barriers of the imperial domains of Ana- 
 huac ; and in the beginning of November, they entered the great 
 valley containing .that state, and saw the towers and temples of 
 Tenochtitlan, standing out from the bright surface of the lake, in 
 which the city sat like Venice "throned on her hundred isles." 
 The enaperor, Montezuma, astounded by their successes, had 
 invited them to visit him in this capital, where they accordingly 
 established themselves in one of his palaces, situated in the centre 
 of the city. Cortes soon after seized the unhappy monarch, 
 and conveying him to that place, made use of his power and 
 of the reverence in which he was held by his people, to extort 
 from them, not only abundant supplies of provisions, but also 
 large amounts of gold, silver and jewels. 
 
 In this manner the Spaniards remained in Tenochtitlan for 
 several months, in a condition between that of masters and cap 
 tives; accumulating riches in their quarters, from which they 
 could, however, seldom venture to stir, and loading their royal 
 hostage with every species of indignity in^ private, though they 
 evinced the utmost respect for him in presence of his subjects. 
 Whilst thus awaiting the arrival of succors and of the confirma 
 tion of his powers from Spain, Cortes could not avoid observing, 
 that the irritation as well as the confidence of the inhabitants was 
 increasing, and that his own men, on the other hand, were daily 
 becoming more depressed and discontented. The partizans of 
 Velazquez among the Spaniards, were ready at any moment, 
 when an opportunity should offer, to depose their actual leader 
 from the command ; while the others cursed his temerity, when 
 they reflected on their critical situation, especially when .the 
 ominous shrieks of human victims fell on their ears, from the 
 principal Teocalli or temple, opposite their quarters, on which 
 
1520.] DEFEAT AND CAPTURE OF NARVAEZ BY CORTES. 61 
 
 those horrible sacrifices were daily made in propitiation of the 
 offended deities of Anahuac. 
 
 At length in May, 1520, when the Spaniards were nearly ex 
 hausted with anxiety and watching, and their leader was straining 
 every faculty of mind and body to preserve his authority over 
 them, and his influence with the people of Tenochtitlan through 
 the agency of their wretched captive monarch, information was 
 received, that a large fleet had arrived at San Juan de Ulua; and 
 letters soon after came from Sandoval, the commandant of Vera 
 Cruz, stating that those vessels were sent from Cuba, undei 
 Panfilo de Narvaez, who was charged by Velazquez, to take the 
 command of all the Spanish forces in that country. Cortes was 
 of course much disturbed by this news ; but he was one of those 
 \vith whom difficulties and dangers serve only to call their powers 
 into action. From the centre of the capital of Anahuac, he opened 
 communications with the officers of Naf vaez on the coast, several 
 of whom w r ere speedily gained to his interests, by presents and 
 promises ; and having thus prepared the way, he suddenly quitted 
 the city .with all his men except eighty- three who were left 
 to guard Montezuma and the treasures, and marched rapidly to 
 wards Vera Cruz. Near that place he was joined by the faithful 
 Sandoval and his little garrison, and with this addition to his 
 strength, he fell upon Narvaez in his quarters at an Indian town 
 not far from the squadron, and wounded and made him prisoner 
 ere he could summon his guards to the defence. Such was 
 the effect produced by this energetic movement, that the troops 
 of the captive commander immediately threw aside the authority 
 of Velazquez, and enlisted w T ith shouts of joy under the banners 
 of his rival. 
 
 Cortes was thus enabled to return, with nearly three times his 
 original force, to the capital, where he, however, found the people 
 in open insurrection, in consequence of the violent and overbear 
 ing conduct of his lieutenant, Alvarado. Nor did his arrival, 
 with this additional strength, serve to allay the storm. A dense 
 throng constantly surrounded the quarters of the Spaniards, inter 
 cepting their supplies of food and water, and murdering all who 
 ventured out in search of them; and their courage increasing 
 with their numbers, they soon commenced an attack with fire, 
 stones and arrows, in the course of which, their captive sover- 
 
62 CORTES EXPELLED FROM TENOCHTITLAN. [1521. 
 
 eign, attempting to address them, fell a victim to the rage of his 
 exasperated subjects. Cortes having thus lost his principal 
 means of restraining the people, found it indispensable to aban 
 don Tenochtitlan ; and after several unsuccessful attempts, in 
 which many of his men were killed, or made prisoners and im 
 mediately sacrificed on the temple, he effected his retreat, though 
 with great loss, through the city and over the long and narrow 
 causeway of Tacuba, on the. dreadful night, la noche triste, 
 of the 1st of July. The particulars of that celebrated retreat, of 
 the harrassed march of the Spaniards across the valley of Ana- 
 huac, and of their decisive victory at Otumba, on the 8th of the 
 same month, have been so often and so graphically described, 
 that it would be superfluous to dwell on them. 
 
 For some months after the battle of Otumba, the Spaniards 
 were engaged in recovering their influence over their former In 
 dian allies, and in reducing some smaller states to submission ; 
 after which they prepared for another attack upon Tenochtitlan. 
 In the meantime they received many additions to their numbers, 
 as well as to their materials, from various sources. Two vessels 
 which had been despatched from Cuba with reinforcements and 
 supplies for Narvaez, fell into the hands of the commandant at 
 Vera Cruz, where they anchored without suspicion, while others 
 arrived from Europe and the West Indies, bringing arms and 
 munitions of war for sale, as well as adventurers whom the fame 
 of the achievements of Cortes attracted to his service. The ships 
 sent by Garay from Jamaica, under Diego de Camargo, to form 
 a settlement at Panuco, after remaining there some time, were 
 attacked by the people, who destroyed one of them and com 
 pelled the others to leave the river ; and the crews of the latter, 
 carried the vessels to Vera Cruz, from which they proceeded to 
 join the army in the interior. 
 
 Thus strengthened, Cortes re-entered the valley of Anahuac, in 
 the beginning of the year 1521, at the head of more than twelve 
 hundred Spaniards and ten thousand Indian auxiliaries, chiefly 
 from Tlascala; and having soon subdued the cities surrounding 
 Tenochtitlan, and with infinite labor constructed and launched 
 several small vessels on the lake, the capital was invested on all 
 sides by his forces, in the middle of June. It was defended by 
 the new emperor Guatimozin and his people, with all the con- 
 
1521.1 SIEGE AND DESTRUCTION OF TENOCHTITLAN. 63 
 
 stancy and energy which despair and desperation could inspire ; 
 but the superiority of European arms and discipline, rendered the 
 Spaniards irresistible, and the standard of Castile was planted 
 among the ruins of Tenochtitlan on the 13th of August. The 
 emperor and all his family were made prisoners ; a large propor 
 tion of the inhabitants, fell in the siege, while others fled in 
 various directions, spreading terror wherever they appeared and 
 rendering the task of conquest more easy to the Spaniards. 
 
 Immediately after the capture of the city, parties were sent, 
 in various directions under leaders of approved courage and fidel 
 ity, to explore and reduce to submission the contiguous portions 
 of the empire, which was soon effected with little opposition in 
 any case. Cortes himself remained in Anahuac, where he en 
 deavored to restore confidence among the natives, and to induce 
 them to return to their homes ; and the same energy and efficiency 
 which had distinguished him in the war, were employed in the 
 re-establishment of peace and the removal of all signs of devas 
 tation. The horrible religion of the country was every where 
 abolished, with little difficulty ; for the people regarding their 
 gods as false or impotent, hastened to place themselves under the 
 protection of those whose worshippers were endowed with such 
 irresistible powers. The blood-stained Teocallis were overthrown 
 and their materials were employed in the construction of churches, 
 palaces and fortresses ; the fair city of Mexico, on a plan more 
 regular and conformable with European customs, was founded 
 among the ruins of Tenochtitlan ; and the empire of the Monte- 
 zumas was converted into the Castilian kingdom of New Spain. 
 
 Such were the principal occurrences of an enterprise, extraor 
 dinary in events as in results, and more extraordinary, perhaps, 
 than any other recorded in history, considering the magnitude of 
 those events and results, when compared with the means by 
 which they were produced. It was effected as already shown, by 
 a few hundred Spaniards, entirely without legal authority from 
 their government, and under circumstances which would have 
 placed them at the present day in the category of pirates and 
 robbers : and pirates and robbers they were, in the design as well 
 as in the conduct of their expedition, undertaken as it was, solely 
 with the object of plunder, and accompanied at every step by 
 acts of basest falsehood and perfidy, and cold and cruel barbarity, 
 
64 REFLECTIONS ON THE CONQUEST OF MEXICO. [1521. 
 
 in all of which, their leader was ever foremost. The romantic 
 splendor of the achievement, and the magnitude of its conse 
 quences, have, however, thrown these deeds into obscurity, and 
 have rendered the places in which they -were committed classic 
 grounds. ' The sandy shore of Vera Cruz, the circumvallations 
 of Tlascala, the pyramid of Cholula, the great square of Mexico, 
 the plain of Otumba, and all the other theatres of the conquest 
 are now visited by travellers from all parts of the civilized world 
 with an interest scarcely less intense than that excited by the 
 fields of Cannse, and Hastings, or the ruined walls of Saguntum. 
 Every fact relating to Cortes and his followers, which can be 
 gleaned from chronicles or manuscripts, is eagerly seized, and 
 subjected to the same critical analysis which, w r ould be bestowed 
 on memorials of the Crusades or the Norman invasion of Eng 
 land ; and the historian who portrays the deeds of those Spanish 
 heroes, if not carried away by the enthusiasm which the subject 
 seldom fails to create, is obliged, under pain of being charged 
 with pedantry and affectation, to soften down the rugged points 
 in their characters, and to excuse or palliate their enormities.* 
 
 * Of the many accounts of the Spanish conquest of Mexico by authors who 
 took no part in it, those of Solis and Prescott stand deservedly pre-eminent ; and 
 the latter work would seem to render superfluous, any farther attempt to illus 
 trate that interesting portion of Mexican history. Solis, a Spaniard, writing in 
 the seventeenth century, could not have been expected to regard with severity 
 these acts of his countrymen ; and the imagination of Prescott rendered him 
 peculiarly susceptible of the magic influence exerted by his subject over all 
 who have placed themselves within its circle. It is, indeed, impossible as yet 
 to obtain a correct idea of those events without a careful study of the original 
 authorities, such as the Despatches of Cortes, the Narrative of Bernal Dias del 
 Castillo, and the History of the Conquest by Gomara ; and the subject still 
 remains open for the exercise of some cold judgment in the investigation of its 
 details, as well as in assembling them for final decision. This revisal has 
 become the more necessary since the second conquest of the same countries 
 scarcely less extraordinary than the first by the forces of the United States 
 under Scott, who has thus proved himself inferior to no leader of his age in 
 military capacity, and to no man of any age in observance of the dictates of 
 humanity towards friends and foes. It would be improper here to attempt a 
 comparison between the circumstances of these two memorable expeditions ; 
 but the belief may be expressed with confidence, that such a comparison, when 
 made, will show the difficulties surmounted in 1847, by the genius and skill of 
 the American commander, and the courage and perseverance of his troops, to 
 have been not less formidable in every respect, than those over which Cortes and 
 his Spaniards triumphed in 1520 
 
1520.] FIRST VOYAGE OF AYLLON TO FL6RIDA. 65 
 
 Several voyages of discovery had meanwhile been made 
 towards the countries north and west of Cuba, in the course of 
 which, much additional light was thrown on the geography of 
 that part of the New World. The first of these expeditions was 
 conducted by Lucas Vazquez de Ayllon, already mentioned as a 
 member of the Audiencia or high court of Hispaniola, who being 
 in want of laborers for his sugar plantations, joined with some 
 other persons, in equipping two vessels, and sailed to the Bahama 
 islands, in the summer of 1520, in quest of Indian slaves. Not 
 succeeding in his object in that archipelago, Ayllon continued his 
 course towards the north-west, and near the 33d degree of lati 
 tude, made the land at the mouth. of a river, which was called 
 the Jordan, after one of his crew ; the point, of land at its entrance 
 being at the same time named Cape Santa Helena, in honor of its 
 discovery, on the 18th of August, the day dedicated to that saint, 
 in the Roman Catholic calendar. From that point, Ayllon, ac 
 cording to his account, explored the coasts as far north as the 
 37th degree of latitude,* landing in many places, the names of 
 which are recorded by him ; and having on the last occasion 
 enticed on board of his vessels a number of stout savages, he 
 sailed with them for Hispaniola, on the way to which, however, 
 one of the vessels was lost or carried by her crew to Vera Cruz, 
 while the greater portion of the captives in the other, died from 
 despondency. The name of Santa Helena was, forty-five years 
 afterwards, given to an island in latitude of 32 degrees 28 minutes, 
 and is now applied to a contiguous inlet, at the mouth of the 
 large river Combahee, forty-five miles south of Charleston in 
 South Carolina. The Jordan has been considered identical with 
 every large river in succession between the Savannah and the 
 Cape Fear inclusive. The statements of Ayllon are, however, 
 like those of all his cotemporaries, so vague as regards geographi- 
 
 * In the commission granted by Charles V. to Ayllon, in 1523, to occupy this 
 country, it is described from the reports of his first voyage, as "a land of which 
 no knowledge has hitherto been obtained, situated in 35, 36 and 37 degrees of 
 north latitude, north of the island of Hispaniola; and from all that has been seen 
 or learned, it is believed to be very fertile, rich, and well adapted for settlements, 
 containing many trees and plants similar to those in Spain, and the people being 
 more docile and likely to become civilized, than those of Hispaniola or any of 
 the other islands as yet discovered; and you have also learned, that the greater 
 part o^this land is ruled by a man of gigantic size; and that pearls and other 
 articles for trade may be found in it, &c." 
 
 9 
 
66 LAST EXPEDITION OF PONCE DE LEON. [1521. 
 
 cal positions, that it is almost impossible to ascertain to what 
 point they refer. 
 
 In the following year, 1521, whilst the siege of Tenochtitlan 
 was in progress, Juan Ponce de Leon made his second expedi 
 tion from Porto Rico, in virtue of his commission as Adelantado 
 of Florida and Bimini, which terminated most disastrously. 
 Having reached the western side of the peninsula of Florida, he 
 landed, with a number of men, in a bay which seems to have 
 been either Charlotte harbor or Tampa bay, and thence began his 
 march into the interior, in search of the rich dominions of king 
 Calos, supposed to lie in that quarter. Ere they had proceeded 
 far, however, the Spaniards were assailed by the warlike natives, 
 who, from the thick matting of shrubs and vines covering those 
 regions, showered their arrows upon the invaders, and soon 
 forced them to retreat to their vessels. In this conflict, Ponce de 
 Leon received several wounds, which were so serious, that it was 
 thought necessary to carry him to Cuba ; and there he soon after 
 died, leaving his name engraven on the great continent of 
 America, in characters which will survive the monuments of the 
 mightiest monarchs of his day.* One of his vessels, on her re 
 turn, was driven, or more probably carried intentionally across 
 the gulf to Vera Cruz, where her men deserted her and entered 
 the service of Cortes, whom they aided in the completion of his 
 conquest. 
 
 Cortes during the progress of his expedition, employed 
 every means to obtain a confirmation of the pow T ers assumed by 
 him; with which object he had despatched to the emperor from 
 time to time, letters detailing the occurrences of his enterprise, 
 accompanied by remittances of gold, and presents to many influ 
 ential persons. But Charles V. was then in Germany, and his 
 attention was engrossed by his efforts to put down heresy in that 
 country, and to establish his supremacy in northern Italy, where 
 
 * The following inscription on the tomb of the discoverer of Florida 
 
 Mole sub hac fortis requiescant ossa Leonis, 
 Qui vicit factis nomina magna suis. 
 
 is somewhat more elegant, but not less bombastic, than that which was placed a 
 century later, over the remains of a much better man Captain John Smith, the 
 hero of the settlement of Virginia beginning. 
 
 Here lies one conquered, that hath conquered kings, 
 
1522.] CORTES SUPERSEDED BY TAPIA. 67 
 
 it was fiercely contested by his rival Francis I. of France ; so 
 that Cardinal Fonseca was left at liberty to pursue his course of 
 enmity to Cortes, and of favor to Velazquez and his other adhe 
 rents and dependants. The Admiral Colon, w^ho had returned 
 to the West Indies, endeavored to obtain the viceroy alty of New 
 Spain, in exchange for his actual government ; but his suit was 
 denied, and Cortes was summoned, in the spring of 1522, to re 
 ceive with due honor, one Christoval de Tapia, formerly an 
 inspector of the revenue in Hispaniola, who arrived at Vera Cruz 
 with a commission as Captain General, to supersede him in the 
 government of the territories added, by his valor and skill, to the 
 dominions of their master. Cortes was, however, not to be so 
 easily stripped of the fruits of his toils : there was in his disposi 
 tion, as much of the fox as of the lion, and in that age of uni 
 versal deceit and faithlessness, no one was more profoundly 
 versed than he in all the arts of falsehood and dissimulation. 
 The new governor was received with every mark of respect; but 
 he was immediately engaged in a discussion as to the extent of 
 his powers, during which his weak mind became so distracted 
 by doubts and apprehensions of violence and treachery, that he 
 was soon glad to relinquish his perilous dignity, and quit the 
 country. About the same time the emperor returned to Spain, 
 and the agents of Cortes having obtained a hearing, succeeded 
 in establishing the claims of their chief, who was accordingly 
 appointed Governor and Captain General of New Spain, while 
 Fonseca and Velazquez were both disgraced and deprived of all 
 their powers and honors. 
 
 Scarcely had Cortes received his commission as Captain Gen 
 eral of Mexico, than he was called to repel an invasion of his 
 rights on the part of another rival. Francisco de Garay, the 
 governor of Jamaica, had, in 1521, obtained, through the influ 
 ence of Fonseca, a patent of Adelantado, empowering him to 
 possess the country discovered by his officer Pineda, in 1519, 
 and especially the portion called Amichel, by the natives, extend 
 ing northward from the Panuco river, the limits of which, on the 
 side of New Spain, were to be determined by Christoval de Tapia, 
 the Captain General, appointed at the same time. With this 
 object Garay equipped a squadron of eleven vessels, carrying 
 eight hundred and fifty Spaniards, and a number of Indians, well 
 
68 EXPEDITION OF GARAY TO PANUCO. [1523. 
 
 provided with horses, artillery, and all other materials for con 
 quest and occupation ; and in order to lose no time, he took with 
 him the plan of a city,* to be called Garaia, which might be im 
 mediately located at any convenient spot, and for which all the 
 municipal officers were appointed before leaving Jamaica. With 
 this large armament, Garay departed from his island on the 26th 
 of June, 1523. At a port in Cuba, where he stopped, news was 
 received that Cortes had already formed a settlement called San 
 Estevan, on the Panuco, and had attached the contiguous coun 
 try to New Spain, agreeably to authority from the emperor; 
 Garay, however, persevered in his course, except, that instead of 
 proceeding directly to Panuco, he sailed for the mouth of the 
 River of Palms, also discovered by Pineda, farther north, at the 
 entrance of which he anchored on the 25th of July. Up this river 
 an officer was sent, with one of the vessels, to explore ; but he 
 returned after going fifteen leagues, with the report that all was 
 desert and barren: and the governor thereupon, determined to 
 march with the greater part of his forces to Panuco, where the 
 ships under Grijalva, who conducted the navigation, should join 
 him with the remainder. 
 
 The old Spanish historians represent the River of Palms as en 
 tering the Mexican Gulf under the tropic of Cancer, about thirty 
 leagues north of the Panuco, according to which, it would be the 
 same now called the Santander: though the fact that the River of 
 Palms seems to have been always considered as the largest stream 
 in that quarter, rather favors the supposition of its identity with 
 the Rio Bravo or Rio Grande, falling into the Gulf, thirty leagues 
 farther north, under the 26th degree of latitude. This latter 
 opinion is also supported by the accounts of the length of time 
 employed by Garay and his men on their march to Panuco, in 
 which it is expressly stated, that he crossed two rivers, one of 
 them so large and rapid in its current, that eighty horses were 
 drowned in it; whereas there is no stream meriting the name of 
 a river, in the whole distance between the Santander and the 
 Panuco. The march was most distressing to the Spaniards, 
 who suffered dreadfully from hunger and thirst, from the difficul 
 ties occasioned by mountains, marshes, lagoons, impenetrable 
 thickets interwoven with vines, and above all, from the torment 
 * " He founded a city in the air," says Herrera. 
 
1523.] MAGELLAN CIRCUMNAVIGATES THE EARTH. 69 
 
 of venomous reptiles and insects, the poisonous bites of which 
 caused many deaths, and intolerable annoyance to all;* and when 
 at length they reached the bank of the Panuco, they found a 
 strong body of troops drawn up on the other side, under one 
 of the officers of Cortes, who exhibited a royal order, forbidding 
 them from trespassing upon that territory. The majority of 
 Garay's officers and men immediately quitted his service, in 
 which they were imitated by the captains and crews of several 
 of his vessels on their arrival; and he was, himself, soon, re 
 duced to the necessity of accepting an invitation from Cortes, to 
 proceed to Mexico, in order that they should treat upon their 
 pretensions in personal conference. The conqueror received his 
 rival at the capital, with great respect, and a compromise was 
 made between them : but ere any part of it could be carried into 
 effect, Garay died suddenly on Christmas day; and for more than 
 two hundred years afterwards, no attempt was made by the 
 Spaniards, to extend their settlements in the country adjacent to 
 the western side of the Mexican Gulf, northward of Panuco. 
 
 In the meantime, Magellan had made his celebrated voyage 
 from the Atlantic, through the strait now bearing his name, into 
 the South Sea, afterwards called the Pacific, and thence north 
 westward across the latter ocean, to the East Indies, where he 
 met his death. The survivors of his crew returned to Europe in 
 1523; but the accounts brought by them were fatal to the expec 
 tations entertained by the Spaniards of conducting the intercourse 
 between their country and India through this new route, which 
 was twice as long as that around the Cape of Good Hope, ex 
 clusively secured to Portugal by the Treaty of Partition, and in 
 finitely more difficult and dangerous. In compensation for this 
 disappointment, the countries brought under the dominion of 
 Spain by Cortes, to which the general name of Mexico was com 
 monly applied, were not only extensive, fertile, agreeable, and 
 rich in precious metals, but were moreover inhabited by a large 
 population, accustomed to labor, who might be compelled to 
 
 * In a letter from one of this party, quoted by Peter Martyr in his 8th Dacade, 
 the -writer says: "We came to the land of misery, where no order, but ever 
 lasting toil and all calamities dwell ; where famine, heat, poisonous mosquitos, 
 noisome worms and flies, persecuting bats, arrows, entangling thickets, devour 
 ing quicksands, and muddy lakes, conspired to afilict us." 
 
"70 SEARCH FOR NEW ROUTES TO INDIA. [1523. 
 
 exert themselves for the advantage of their conquerors, in agricul 
 ture, mining, or the mechanical arts. From the comparative 
 vicinity of these countries to Europe, they might be rendered 
 more important to Spain even than India ; and other empires 
 equally large, rich, well peopled, and conveniently situated, might 
 be discovered, in the interior of the vast continent west of the 
 Atlantic. All these advantages were fully appreciated by Cortes, 
 who exerted every means in his power, to explore and reduce to 
 submission the more distant regions of New Spain ; while Fran 
 cisco Pizarro and Diego de Almagro were engaged in preparing 
 for their first expedition, in search of the golden lands, which 
 they believed, from the reports of the natives at Panama, to lie 
 south-west of that isthmus. 
 
 The expectation of deriving advantage from a western route to 
 India, was however not abandoned in Europe. It was certain, 
 from the examinations made by Magellan and those who preceded 
 him on the eastern coasts of the New World, that the Atlantic and 
 the Pacific were not connected at any point, between the 52d de 
 gree of south latitude, in which Magellan's Strait was situated, 
 and the Isthmus of Darien ; and Cortes soon after the completion 
 of the conquest of New Spain, assured himself that no passage 
 existed through that country, or any other, between Darien and 
 Florida. Such a channel might, however, still be found farther 
 north, nearly in the direct line between Europe and India, which 
 would afford a route preferable in many, if not in all respects, to 
 that around the Cape of Good Hope ; and in the expeditions made 
 with this object, as well as in search of rich countries, the coasts 
 of the northern continent on both seas and large portions of the 
 interior were first explored. 
 
 The emperor Charles V. and Francis I. king of France, had by 
 this time become fairly engaged in their struggle for the dominion 
 of the European continent; Henry VIII. of England preserved a 
 wise neutrality, alternately favoring each of the rivals, as he 
 deemed it necessary to maintain the balance between them. Italy 
 and Flanders -were the principal theatres on which their contest 
 was carried on ; but Francis was determined also to have his 
 share of the navigation and commerce of the ocean, and of the 
 territories of the New World, in defiance of the Papal Bull and 
 the Treaty of Partition : and as a first measure for this purpose, he 
 
1524.] VOYAGE OF VERRAZZANO. 71 
 
 despatched Giovanni Verrazzano, a Florentine navigator, with 
 four ships, in the beginning of 1524, to examine the western 
 coasts of the Atlantic, in search of passages to the Pacific, or of 
 countries worthy of being conquered or settled by the French, 
 while he himself led a large army across the Alps into the 
 Milanese. 
 
 According to Verrazzano's report of his voyage,* he first saw 
 the coast of the New World on the 20th of March, 1524; and 
 having run along it southward arid northward for a few days, he 
 landed in the 34th degree of latitude, where he found a low sandy 
 shore, intersected by many inlets, beyond which were broad 
 plains, and extensive- forests, all corresponding exactly with the 
 part of North Carolina, near Cape Fear. Thence he sailed fifty 
 leagues north-eastward, and again landed, probably near the en 
 trance of Chesapeake Bay, where he met several parties of na 
 tives, whose canoes and hunting and fishing implements, as de 
 scribed in his report, were precisely similar to those seen in that 
 quarter, by the English sixty years later. A hundred leagues 
 farther north, he reached an agreeable place, in the form of a bay 
 or lake, among steep hills, into which a large river discharged 
 itself; leaving this spot with great regret, he continued his voy 
 age along the coast to the east, fifty leagues, and thence north, 
 twenty-five leagues, passing a large island in his way, until he at 
 length entered an excellent harbor, in latitude of 41 degrees 40 
 minutes, where he remained some time, engaged in repairing his 
 vessels. This harbor is universally admitted to be Newport in 
 Rhode Island ; and it appears no less probable, that the large 
 river discharging its waters, in a bay surrounded by hills, was 
 
 * A translation of a part of this report was published by Hakluyt, in the third 
 volume of his Collection. A manuscript of the original in Italian, is preserved 
 in the Magliabecch^an Library, at Florence, from which a copy made by G. W. 
 Greene, Consul of the United States at Rome, may be found in the first volume 
 of the second series of the transactions of the New York Historical^ Society, ac 
 companied by a translation by J. G. Cogswell, Esq. The report is dated on 
 board of the ship le Dauphin at Dieppe, July 8, 1524 ; in it Verrazzano declares 
 his object in the voyage to have been to reach Cathay or China by a western 
 route. Mr. R. Biddle, in his curious memoir of Sebastian Cabot already men 
 tioned, with his usual facility in drawing conclusions from slender premises, sup 
 poses Verrazzano to have been engaged in his second voyage, in the service of 
 England, as the pilot of the Mary of Guildford. 
 
72 SECOND EXPEDITION OF AYLLON. [1526. 
 
 the Hudson.* Having completed his repairs, Verrazzano put to 
 sea again on the 5th of May, and traced the coast to the 51st 
 degree, in which the northern part of Newfoundland is situated ; 
 and thence he struck directly across the Atlantic to France. 
 
 The report of Verrazzano's voyage, contains the earliest ac 
 counts known to exist, of the portion of the American continent, 
 between the 34th and 50th degrees of latitude; and there is no 
 reason to believe, that those countries had ever been seen by 
 Europeans, unless the southernmost may have been discovered 
 by Vazquez de Ayllon in 1520, and the northernmost by John 
 and Sebastian Cabot in 1497, which is very improbable in either 
 case. Verrazzano is said to have left FrUnce in the following 
 year, on another voyage across the Atlantic, from which he never 
 returned. In this latter year, 1525, the forces of that nation were 
 overthrown by those of Charles V. at Pavia; and Francis I. fell 
 into the hands of his rival, who kept him for some time in close 
 captivity at Madrid. The cares and expenses consequent upon 
 this misfortune, and those occasioned by the wars and intestine 
 troubles which ensued, prevented the French from making farther 
 attempts to discover or settle in the New World for ten years ; 
 whilst the dominion of Spain was constantly taking deeper root 
 in that quarter. 
 
 Two years after the voyage of Verrazzano, the earliest attempt 
 was made by Europeans to settle the countries north of the Mexi 
 can Gulf. Lucas Vazquez de Ayllon who, as already related, 
 visited the coasts on the Atlantic about the 34th degree of lati 
 tude in 1520, in search of slaves, was induced by one of the na 
 tives thus brought away by him, to believe, that a part of the 
 continent in that vicinity, called Orista or Chicora, abounded in 
 gold and pearls; and he in consequence proceeded to Spain, 
 where he in 1523, obtained from the emperor a commission to 
 conquer, settle and possess the whole region extending on the 
 ocean, between the 35th arid 37th parallels, on the usual terms, 
 except that the natives were, in no case, to be enslaved, or forced 
 to labor against their will, or treated in any way otherwise, than 
 
 *The learned and exact Diedrich Knickerbocker, in his History of New York, 
 which will, or should, live as long as the Hudson flows, nevertheless declares, 
 that Verrazzano's description of the place thus visited by him, corresponds no 
 more with the mouth of that river, than with his the historian's nightcap! 
 
1526.] EFFORTS OF LAS CASAS IN BEHALF OF THE INDIANS. 73 
 
 as free subjects of his majesty; and that every gentle means 
 should be used to civilize and convert them to the Christian faith. 
 
 These last provisions could scarcely have been acceptable to 
 Ayllon. The emperor had, however, been induced, chiefly by 
 the energetic remonstrances of the justly celebrated Father Bar- 
 tolome de las Casas the best man ever sent from Spain to the 
 New World to espouse the cause of the aborigines of his Indian 
 dominions ; and though all his efforts for their protection, in the 
 countries already occupied by Spaniards, had proved vain, he 
 resolved that they should enjoy their entire liberty in those which 
 might be settled in future. The efforts of the emperor had con 
 siderably checked the practice of transporting the Indians from 
 one country to another; but this served to raise the price of the 
 slaves in the islands, where they were chiefly used, and in con 
 sequence to increase their toils, by which means their numbers 
 were rapidly diminishing: and as laborers other than Spaniards, 
 were indispensable for the maintenance of those colonies, en 
 couragement had been given, with *the reluctant assent of Las 
 Casas, to introduce negroes from Africa, who were found per 
 fectly adapted for the services required from them. Special 
 permission was still often granted to enslave, the Indians, in 
 countries where they ate human flesh, or pertinaciously resisted 
 the attempts to christianise them; and the facility with which 
 charges of this kind might be substantiated, was sufficient to 
 neutralise, in a great degree, the effect of +he humane prohibi 
 tions of the general laws. In Mexico those laws were utterly 
 unavailing ; and but for the stronger measures adopted at a later 
 period, the aborigines must have been soon exterminated there, 
 as in the islands, by the cruel and oppressive treatment of the 
 conquerors, after their possession had been fully assured. 
 
 Ayllon was bound by the terms of his capitulation, to begin 
 his enterprise in the following year, 1524; but he was unable to 
 do so, in consequence of which, the Council of the Indies was 
 about to prosecute him for a breach of contract. He, however, 
 obtained a prolongation of the period, and at length in July, 
 1526, sailed from Hispaniola for Chicora, with six: ships, car 
 rying five hundred men, a large number of horses, and abundant 
 supplies of arms, ammunition and provisions. After a long 
 voyage, the squadron reached the Jordan, which was determined 
 10 
 
74 FIRST SETTLEMENT NORTH OF THE MEXICAN GULF. [1526. 
 
 by observation, to be in latitude of 33 degrees 40 minutes, cor 
 responding very nearly with the mouth of Cape Fear river; but 
 on attempting to enter, the largest ship struck on the bar, and 
 went to pieces. The country was then explored to some distance 
 in the interior, and along the coast towards the north ; and a spot 
 was thus found, fifty leagues beyond the Jordan, where the peo 
 ple were landed, and a settlement, called San Miguel de Gual- 
 dape, was begun. Ayllon had already been undeceived, with 
 regard to the supposed riches of the country ; no signs of precious 
 metals were seen, and the oysters, though excellent as food, 
 yielded no pearls. The natives, moreover, soon began to harrass 
 the settlers, and as the autumn advanced, fevers broke out among 
 them, which soon carried off a large number, including the head 
 of the enterprise. Dissensions then arose as to the right of com 
 manding, which led to combats, murders and executions; and 
 when at length it was resolved that the settlement should be 
 abandoned, only one hundred and fifty survived, of the five hun 
 dred who had landed there a*few months previous.* 
 
 Thus ended the first attempt to establish a European colony in 
 the division of the New World, now forming the Republic of 
 the United States. Of its position, no exact information is given 
 in the accounts of the expedition ; but it was probably near Cape 
 Lookout, in North Carolina, perhaps on the spot now occupied by 
 the town of Beaufort. 
 
 The West Indies, and especially Mexico, were, meanwhile, the 
 scenes of continual violence and treachery. The successes 
 of Cortes and his followers, had brought to those countries 
 crowds of adventurers from Spain, for the most part men of des 
 perate character, ready for any enterprise, ho\vever lawless or 
 dangerous, which promised gold or renown. Some of these 
 uniting in bands under leaders bearing commissions, penetrated 
 the continent in various directions in quest of plunder; while 
 others more fortunate, obtained grants of lands, with assignments 
 of Indians, whom they subjected to the most cruel labors and 
 privations, in defiance of all laws for the protection* of those peo 
 ple. By this oppression, the natives were naturally driven to 
 
 * The account given by Navarrete in the third volume of his Collection, page 
 72, has been here followed exclusively; being much more full and reasonable 
 than those of the old historians. 
 
1525.] CORTES AGAIN SUPERSEDED. 75 
 
 retaliations and insurrections, which were in all cases fearfully 
 avenged by their powerful masters ; and the Spaniards being, 
 moreover, in many parts, at war with each other, the destruction 
 of human life from all these causes, was incalculably great. 
 
 Cortes had found his appointment as Captain General of New 
 Spain, only the commencement of his troubles. - Charles V. was 
 too sagacious and too suspicious, to leave such a man unre 
 strained, at the head of such a country as Mexico might be ren 
 dered by him ; and the conqueror was accordingly beset on all 
 sides by rivals and enemies with powers to annoy him, while 
 every ship from Spain brought some new ordinance curtailing his 
 privileges. He, nevertheless, continued the prosecution of his 
 plans for reducing the country to submission, and civilizing and 
 converting its inhabitants, as well as for exploring the adjoining 
 regions, until 1525, when he was superseded in his governorship, 
 and obliged to spend the .following three years in retirement. 
 
 The emperor had, within that period, granted many commis 
 sions for discovery and conquest in the New World, under one 
 of which, Francisco Pizarro was engaged on his second expedi 
 tion, in search of the rich countries south-east of Panama, sup 
 posed by him to bear the name of Peru ; while Pedro de Alvarado, 
 was establishing his authority in Guatemala, under a similar 
 patent, and Francisco de Montejo as Adelantado of Yucatan, 
 was ravaging that peninsula, and defacing its wonderful monu 
 ments. A patent had been also conceded by Charles V. for the 
 subjugation and settlement of the territories north of the Mexican 
 Gulf, and an expedition was in progress with that object, the 
 particulars of which will be related in the following chapter. 
 
CHAPTER III 
 
 1 526 TO 1 544. 
 
 DISCOVERY or THE INTERIOR OF FLORIDA BY THE SPAN 
 IARDS EXPEDITIONS OF PANFILO DE NARVAEZ AND HER- 
 
 NANDO DE SOTO DISCOVERY OF THE RlVER OF ST. 
 
 LAWRENCE BY THE FRENCH UNDER CARTIER. 
 
 THE attempt made by Panfilo de Narvaez in 1520, to deprive 
 Cortes of the command of the expedition for the conquest of 
 Mexico, and its signal defeat by the latter, have been already 
 mentioned. Narvaez lost an eye on that occasion, and was kept 
 in close confinement in Mexico by his successful rival, for three 
 years ; at the end of which he was liberated, through the inter 
 cession of Garay, and allowed to proceed to Spain. There he 
 joined the enemies of Cortes in their intrigues, which led to the 
 removal of the conqueror from the government of Mexico, and to 
 the many annoyances consequent upon it; and as a recompense 
 for these exertions, Narvaez obtained in 1526 a commission as 
 Adelantado of Florida, together with the means of equipping an 
 armament for the conquest and occupation of that country. 
 
 The patent granted to Narvaez embraced the whole region 
 bordering upon the northern sides of the Mexican Gulf, from 
 the River of Palms, the northern boundary of the Province of 
 Panuco, northward and eastward, to the Atlantic, including the 
 peninsula of Florida; all of which he was to subdue, settle, pos 
 sess and govern, and to transmit the possession and government 
 to his descendants, on condition of yielding to the crown a cer 
 tain proportion of the precious metals, and revenues, derivable 
 from them, and of using every means to convert the natives to 
 the Catholic faith. Notwithstanding the discoveries of Magellan 
 
1528.] EXPEDITION OF NARVAEZ TO FLORIDA. 77* 
 
 and others, showing the great breadth of the Pacific, the Mexican 
 Gulf was still supposed to be bordered on the north-west by 
 China; and Narvaez probably expected to reach the northern part 
 of that Empire, where some of the largest and richest cities in 
 the world had been seen by Marco Polo.* Yet on the other hand, 
 he could scarcely have supposed, that those places could be 
 subdued, or even plundered by the small forces which he should 
 be able to carry with him in his expedition. 
 
 Under this commission Panfilo de Narvaez sailed from Ca 
 diz in June, 1527, with six ships and six hundred men for 
 Hispaniola, in which island and in Cuba he was detained until 
 the spring of the following year. This delay caused him to lose 
 a number of his men by death or desertion ; but he was not dis 
 heartened, and taking his departure from Cuba in the beginning 
 of March, 1528, he on Good-Friday, the 13th of that month, 
 anchored in a bay on the south-west side of the peninsula of 
 Florida, to which the name of Santa Cruz, the Holy Cross, 
 was given, in respectful commemoration of the day. This bay 
 was entered, contrary to the advice of Diego de Miruelo, the 
 pilot, w r ho had accompanied Ponce de Leon and Garay in their 
 expeditions, and who recommended another and much better 
 harbor, discovered by himself, farther north. The Adelantado, 
 however,- having received from the Indians accounts of a rich 
 and populous kingdom called Apalache, situated in the interior, 
 at some distance uncertain, could not restrain his impatience; 
 and he immediately landed with three hundred and forty men, 
 and forty horses, on the shore of the bay. Some of his vessels 
 were then despatched to Cuba, whilst the others were ordered to 
 proceed along the coast northward to the Bay of Miruelo; and 
 having made these dispositions he departed with the troops in 
 search of Apalache, on the first of May. 
 
 The Bay of Santa Cruz was most probably the same, now 
 called Charlotte Harbor, on the south-west side of the peninsula, 
 near the 27th degree of latitude: on the day after leaving it, 
 
 * See the map of the world, attached to the historical and geographical col 
 lection, entitled "Novus Orbis," by Simon Grynseus, published in 1532, in 
 which Tenochtitlan or Mexico, is placed in the south-east part of Cathay or 
 China, about five hundred miles due south of Cambalu or Pekin, and the latter 
 city stands near the head waters of the Panuco river. 
 
78 DISCOVERY OF CALIFORNIA BY CORTES. [1528. 
 
 Narvaez reached another and larger bay, which if the former 
 supposition be correct, would be the Bay of Tampa; and from 
 this latter place, were sent the last communications, received 
 from the Adelantado, by the vessels before their departure. Of 
 these vessels, one was soon lost; the others wandered along the 
 coasts for some months, stopping at various places, in hope of 
 meeting with their commander, and his troops, until they were 
 forced by want of provisions to return to Cuba. In the follow 
 ing year the vessels revisited the coast with no more success ; 
 and notwithstanding all the efforts employed by the wife and 
 family of Narvaez, nothing was heard of him or of any of those 
 who accompanied him, for eight years. 
 
 In the meantime, many events of great importance had occur 
 red in the New World. Cortes wearied with the annoyances to 
 which he was continually subjected in Mexico, went in 1528 to 
 Spain, where his appearance excited the strongest interest among 
 all classes. He was received with distinction by the emperor, 
 who conferred on him the title of Marquis of the Valley of Oax- 
 aca, with large grants of lands in various parts of Mexico, be 
 sides confirming him in the government of that kingdom; in 
 addition to which, he was authorised exclusively, by a commis 
 sion of Adelantado and Admiral of the South Sea, to discover, 
 conquer and possess on the usual conditions, any new countries 
 west of those already under his jurisdiction. Notwithstanding 
 all these marks of favor, Cortes found himself on returning to 
 Mexico, in 1530, nearly without power, in consequence of the ex 
 tensive privileges artd immunities allowed to the Audiencia or 
 High Court, established during his absence, and composed for 
 the most part of persons inimical to him, without whose assent 
 he could undertake nothing; and he was in fact obliged to make 
 actual war on this body, and to expel its president, Nufio de 
 Guzman, before he could establish himself in the capital.* 
 
 As soon as he had resumed his authority in Mexico, Cortes 
 in virtue of his powers as Admiral of the South Sea, caused 
 voyages to be made on that ocean, the coasts of which were 
 thus .traced north-westward to the 30th degree of latitude, the 
 Peninsula of California being at the same time discovered. This 
 new country was also, as Hispaniola and Florida had been, con- 
 * Gomara Cronica de la Nueva Espafia, Chap. 186. 
 
1536.] ARRIVAL OF CABEZA DE VACA IN MEXICO. 79 
 
 sidered identical with Japan; and the conqueror of Mexico, not 
 choosing to trust to others the charge of exploring and subju 
 gating it, sailed thither himself, with a large force in 1535, and 
 spent a year on its rocky coasts and arid mountains. But whilst 
 thus engaged, he learned to his dismay that he had been deprived 
 of all his authority in New Spain, by the arrival of Don An 
 tonio de Mendoza, a nobleman of high rank and influence, as 
 Viceroy of that kingdom; and he was afterwards subjected 
 to innumerable annoyances from legal prosecutions, which 
 embittered the remaining period of his residence in the New 
 World.* 
 
 Of the other remarkable occurrences in the New World, during 
 the period in question, it will be sufficient here to mention the 
 discovery and conquest by the Spaniards, under Pizarro, of the 
 great and rich Empire of the Incas, on the western side of the 
 Southern Continent, to which the name of Peru was applied, as 
 that of Mexico had been to the regions subjugated by Cortes, 
 through erroneous interpretations of the accounts first received 
 from the natives. In Europe, the rivalry between Charles V. 
 and Francis I. led to many bloody battles; but these were all 
 thrown into the shade, by the grand events of the divorce of 
 Henry VIII. of England from his Queen Catherine, the aunt of 
 the emperor, and his marriage with Anne Bolen, which gave so 
 much strength and encouragement to the cause of religious re 
 form, then in progress under the direction of Luther and Calvin. 
 
 Soon after the entrance of the Viceroy Mendoza into Mexico, 
 in the spring of 1536, four naked wild looking men arrived at 
 the tow T n of Culiacan, near the entrance of the Californian Gulf, 
 where a Spanish settlement had been recently formed, and an 
 nounced themselves the survivors of the party, who had invaded 
 Florida in 1528, under Panfilo de Narvaez. They were, Alvaro 
 Nunez de Cabeza de Vaca, the Treasurer and Chief Alguazil, 
 Captains Andrea Dorantes and Alonzo del Castillo, and Este- 
 vanico, a negro : after a few weeks passed at Culiacan, they 
 were sent on to Mexico, where their adventures were related to 
 the Viceroy ; and Cabeza de Vaca then proceeded to Spain, and 
 presented to the emperor a narrative of his travels and sufferings, 
 
 * Particular accounts of these voyages will be found in the first chapter of the 
 History of Oregon and California, by the author of this work. 
 
8J NARRATIVE OF THE EXPEDITION OF NARVAEZ. [1528 
 
 from which is derived all that is known of the movements and 
 fate of Narvaez and his followers, subsequent to their departure 
 from the Bay of Santa Cruz, in May, 1528. In accounts like 
 these, founded entirely on the recollections of persons who had 
 been exposed, as will be shown, for nine years, to the most 
 dreadful hardships and dangers, it would be unreasonable to ex 
 pect accuracy of detail, on any points, not immediately affecting 
 the person of the narrator; Cabeza de Vaca seems, however, to 
 have always spoken the truth, with regard to matters of which 
 he was himself a witness ; and though but one spot mentioned 
 by him can be identified with certainty, his descriptions are suf 
 ficiently distinct to indicate his general course with considerable 
 approach to precision.* 
 
 According to the narrative of Cabeza de Vaca, the march of 
 Narvaez and his followers from the Bay of Santa Cruz, was, from 
 the commencement, attended with difficulties and perils. The 
 country, as correctly described by Cabeza de Vaca, is flat and 
 sandy, or marshy, covered for the most part with thick woods, 
 through which the Spaniards could penetrate, only with great 
 labor; and they were moreover obliged frequently to construct 
 rafts or bridges, in order to cross the ponds and rivers which lay 
 in their way. They at first obtained food by hunting; but their 
 supplies from this source w^ere precarious, and they were obliged 
 to depend chiefly on the fruit of the cabbage-palm, with which 
 the southern parts of the peninsula abound. 
 
 Their course appears to have been northward, at a short dis 
 tance from the sea, which was visited by Cabeza de Vaca, and a 
 few men, at the mouth of a river, probably the Suwannee, or 
 some other entering the north-east angle of the Mexican Gulf. 
 At length, in the middle of June, they crossed a very large river, 
 which seems to have been the Apalachicola, and the country 
 beyond it was found to be the long desired land of Apalache, 
 where they expected to reap the fruits of their toils in the plunder 
 of rich cities. Only a few wigwams could however be discov- 
 
 * " Los Naufragios de Cabeza de Vaca," &c. first published at Valladolid in 
 1554 ; one of the most curious of the early accounts of the proceedings of the 
 Spaniards in America. Translated into English by Mr. Buckingham Smith, 
 and published, for private circulation, by Mr. Geo. W. Riggs, Jr., of Washing 
 ton, January, 1851, since the above was written by Mr. Greenhow. ED. 
 
1528.] THE SPANIARDS EMBARK IN BOATS FOR MEXICO. 81 
 
 ered, from which the terrified natives fled on their approach ; and 
 when they had advanced to some distance, probably as far as the 
 centre of the present State of Alabama, it was determined by 
 unanimous consent, that they should return to the coast and seek 
 their vessels, in order to go back to Cuba. 
 
 Some men were accordingly sent to look for the vessels, under 
 Cabeza de Vaca, who proceeding southward along the banks of a 
 large river, named by them the Magdalena, reached, in a week, 
 a place called Aute; and thence continuing in the same direction, 
 they soon became involved in a labyrinth of creeks and inlets, 
 communicating with an extensive arm of the sea. After looking 
 some time in vain for the vessels, the party returned to Apalache; 
 whereupon Narvaez determined to go with all his men, to one of 
 the inlets thus discovered, and there to build vessels for their 
 conveyance to Mexico or Cuba. The whole party accordingly 
 removed to the shore of a bay, where they began the construc 
 tion of vessels. This was a work of much difficulty, as they had 
 only one carpenter in their number, and no iron for nails, except 
 their stirrups, and such portions of their armor as they could 
 safely dispense with; they, however, labored diligently, and in 
 the end of September, five barques or large boats had been com 
 pleted, each twenty-two cubits in length, which were considered 
 sufficient for a voyage along the coast of Mexico. These barques 
 were made of sawn planks, coated with pitch from the pine trees : 
 the trunks of palmettoes served as masts ; ropes were twisted of 
 horse hair, and the shirts of the men were sewn together for sails. 
 Their horses w T ere killed and the meat was dried for food on the 
 voyage; the skins of the legs being carefully stripped off, to be 
 used as bags or bottles for fresh water; the remainder of the 
 provisions consisted of Indian corn, which was to be parched 
 from time to time as it might be required. A long search was 
 made for stones to be employed as ballast and anchors, but not 
 one could be found, nor had one been seen in the country. 
 
 On the 29th of September their preparations being completed, 
 the Spaniards embarked, two hundred and forty-five in number, 
 each boat carrying forty-nine. When all had taken their places, 
 the vessels sunk nearly to the edges in the water; and nothing 
 could have been more gloomy and unpromising than their con 
 dition and prospects, as they floated westward through the bay, 
 11 
 
82 SITUATION OF APALACHE. [1528. 
 
 to which, in commemoration of the slaughter of their steeds, they 
 gave the name of Baia de Cavallos, or Horse Bay. 
 
 With regard to the places here mentioned, the accounts of the 
 expedition of Narvaez, and of others soon after made by the 
 Spaniards through the same countries, as well as the maps of that 
 period, leave no reason to doubt, that Apalache, or the land of the 
 Apalaches, was the south-east division of the present State of 
 Alabama, and the adjoining portion of Florida, immediately con 
 tiguous to the Apalachicola or Chatta-hoochee* Rock river on 
 the west. At the beginning of the last century, beyond which 
 our exact knowledge of those regions or their inhabitants does not 
 extend, they were occupied by three principal tribes of the great 
 nation or confederacy of the Muscoghees, since called Creeks, 
 namely the Coweeta, the Apalachoocla, and the Uchee.f The 
 Apalachoocla or Apalachicola, whose name has been given to the 
 lower part of the river, was considered as the oldest tribe of the 
 nation ; and its chief town, on the west bank of the river, twenty- 
 five miles below the falls, was sacred to peace, while the Coweeta 
 town, twelve miles farther north, was dedicated to the god of war. 
 Oocla or Acoola or Agoola, as variously pronounced by different 
 tribes, signified a Town or Tribe; and as this was a common ter 
 mination of the names of towns or tribes in that part of America, 
 it seems most reasonable to suppose, that the Apalache visited 
 by the Spaniards under Narvaez in 1528, was Apalach-oocla the 
 town, or tribe, or territory of the Apalaches. The river Magda- 
 lena was most probably the Chocta-hatchee Chocta river which 
 rises in the country of the Muscoghees, and empties into an arm 
 of the Mexican Gulf called Chocta-hatchee bay, communicating 
 on the west with the Bay of Pensacola, by the long and narrow 
 sound of Santa Rosa ; and this bay of Chocta-hatchee may have 
 been the Bayade Cavallos, on which the Spaniards embarked. 
 
 From the place of embarcation, the Spaniards pursued their 
 voyage towards the west, for seven days, before reaching the 
 open Gulf, which they at length entered through a strait, between 
 the mainland and an island most probably through the entrance 
 of the Bay of Pensacola, which is just ninety miles in that direc 
 tion, from the eastern extremity of the Bay of Chocta-hatchee. 
 
 *Hatchee or Hoochee meant a River in the languages of nearly all the nations 
 of that part of America. 
 | See Bartram's account of his visit to these three towns in 1774. 
 
1528.] THE SPANIARDS AT THE MOUTH OF THE MISSISSIPPI. 83 
 
 Thence they continued their navigation westward along the coast, 
 suffering constantly from insufficiency of food, and often from 
 thirst, as their horse-skin bottles proved useless ; and they were 
 obliged, in many cases, to have severe combats with the natives, 
 in order to procure fresh water. 
 
 Wending their way thus slowly along the coast, the Spaniards, 
 at the end of a month, had reached a small cluster of islands near 
 the mainland, where they were attacked by a numerous party of 
 natives in canoes, who chased them during the whole day, and an 
 noyed them considerably by vollies of stones and arrows. "Thus," 
 writes Cabeza de Vaca in his narrative, " we continued our voyage 
 through that day [November 1st] until the hour of vespers; 
 when, my boat being the foremost, I observed a point of land, 
 beyond which was a very great river, and I halted at an islet off 
 the point, to wait for the other boats. The governor, [Narvaez] 
 however, would not come up, but chose rather to remain in a 
 bay very near, where w r ere many small islands ; and there we 
 joined company, and took up fresh water from the sea into which 
 the river poured in a torrent. As we had eaten our corn raw for 
 two days, we landed upon the island to parch some; but finding 
 no wood there, we agreed to go to the river beyond the point, a 
 league distant: on going there, however, the current was so vio 
 lent that we were entirely unable to enter, and were driven away 
 from the land, notwithstanding all our efforts and labor to reach it." 
 
 The river here mentioned could have been no other than the 
 Mississippi, the only stream flowing into the Mexican Gulf, or 
 into any other sea from North America, the waters of which 
 remain so pure and unmixed with those of the sea, as to be 
 potable at the distance of a league from their outlet. This outlet 
 had been already seen in 1519, by Pineda, who represented it on 
 his chart, under the name of Rio del Espiritu Santo; or the merit 
 of discovering the greatest river of North America, if not of the 
 whole world, should have been assigned to Panfilo de Narvaez 
 and Cabeza de Vaca.* 
 
 The mouth of the Mississippi is the only spot mentioned in the 
 
 * This observation of the mouth of the Mississippi by the Spaniards in 1528, is 
 not noticed in any work hitherto published, except the original narrative of Ca 
 beza de Vaca ; the discovery of the great river being elsewhere universally as 
 cribed to Hernando de Soto. 
 
84 , WRECK OF THE SPANISH BOATS. [1528. 
 
 account of the expedition of Narvaez, which can be identified 
 with certainty. Before reaching it, the Spaniards had suffered 
 much ; but there begun the disasters of the party. Not only were 
 they prevented from entering the great river, but they were also 
 driven by the violence of its current during the night, so far out 
 to sea, that their boats were separated, and two disappeared. 
 The three remaining boats continued their voyage along the coast 
 westward five days longer, at the end of which, a dreadful storm 
 arose, and the unfortunate men, exhausted by want of food and 
 water, and by incessant labor at the oars, were unable to prevent 
 their slender skiffs from ; being dashed to pieces on the shore. 
 The boat commanded by the Treasurer and one other, were cast 
 together upon an island, and eighty persons, composing about 
 the half of those on board, succeeded in reaching the land ; 
 the third boat containing the Adelantado, was wrecked, as after 
 wards learned, farther west, where her crew all perished in vari 
 ous ways. 
 
 The island on which Cabeza de Vaca and his companions were 
 thrown, is described by him, as being five leagues in length, by 
 half a league in breadth, and distant half a league from the main 
 land; and as they had spent five days on their passage to it, from 
 the mouth of the Mississippi, it was more probably one of the 
 islands near Atchafalaya Bay, on the coast of Louisiana, about a 
 hundred and fifty miles from the great river, than that of Galves- 
 ton, the next large island on the west, which is situated at more 
 than double that distance. It was temporarily occupied by In 
 dians of large stature, who repaired thither in the cold season, 
 to obtain food from the roots, growing abundantly in the marshy 
 places on that coast: these people soon surrounded the Span 
 iards in great numbers; but to the surprise of the latter, they 
 were treated with kindness, and supplied with food and fuel 
 by the natives, which induced Cabeza de Vaca to fear that 
 he and his companions might be reserved as sacrifices to 
 the gods, or to glut the appetites of their new friends. This 
 dread was however soon removed, when it appeared that the 
 natives regarded their visiters as physicians or sorcerers, who 
 could cure their diseases by charms and medicines; and the 
 Spaniards accordingly exerted themselves in the performance of 
 their supposed functions, praying to the Virgin for aid in their 
 
1533.] THE SPANIARDS ON THE ISLE OF MISERY. 85 
 
 efforts, to secure the favor of the savages : but they seem to have 
 had little success, as more than half of their patients died of a 
 disease of the stomach, before the spring. 
 
 In the meantime, the number of Europeans on the island had 
 been reduced to about fifteen. Of the others, several had been 
 drpwned in an attempt to put to sea in one of the boats, which 
 they had repaired, and a few had gone to the mainland, resolved 
 to make their way if possible to Mexico : but they had for the 
 most part perished from hunger, which drove some to cannibalism, 
 or from sickness, fatigue or despair; and they were fully justified 
 in applying to the place the name of Isla de Malhado Isle of 
 Misery. 
 
 In this island and the adjacent country, Cabeza de Vaca and 
 his companions spent three or four years in wretched slavery, 
 making annual peregrinations, with the tribe to which they were 
 attached, in various directions, in search of food : sometimes to 
 the marshes, where they dug for roots ; then to the oyster beds 
 on the sea shore ; and during a certain period of the year, to 
 sandy wastes in the interior, covered with the cactus, which pro 
 duces an agreeable fruit called the tuna, or prickly pear, resem 
 bling the fig. Of the positions of these places, it is impossible to 
 learn any thing definite, from the narrative of the Treasurer ; nor 
 is any one of the numerous names mentioned by him found in 
 any other account of that part of America. His general descrip 
 tions are, however, perfectly conformable with what we know of 
 the face of those countries, and of their climate and productions; 
 and his minute accounts of the manners and customs of the in 
 habitants, are confirmed in all respects, by subsequent observers. 
 
 At length, probably in 1533, Cabeza de Vaca, Dorantes, Cas 
 tillo, and the negro Estevanico, succeeded in escaping from their 
 masters, and directed their course towards the west, in hopes of 
 reaching some spot occupied by their countrymen. Their jour 
 ney with this view occupied three years, during which they were 
 obliged to ramble in various lines of march, according to circum 
 stances, exposed constantly to hardships of all kinds. The whole 
 powers of their bodies and minds were necessarily devoted to the 
 great object of obtaining food; and they were often obliged to 
 pass many months with one tribe of Indians whom they had con 
 ciliated ere they could procure provisions, sufficient for their 
 
86 CABEZA DE VACA CROSSES THE CONTINENT. [1536. 
 
 supply, until they could reach another tribe. Sometimes they 
 travelled as merchants or pedlars, trafficking in stone, arrow 
 heads, paint, salt y and other articles in request among the Indians; 
 and when it could be done with prudence, they boldly announced 
 themselves as children of the sun, and thus acquired much con 
 sideration. They, however, depended chiefly on their medical 
 skill ; and the Treasurer relates several amusing anecdotes of their 
 practice, one of which from being misinterpreted has been made 
 the grounds of unjust imputations on his veracity.* 
 
 The observations of time, place and direction, made by men 
 under such circumstances could not have been very precise ; and 
 their recollections were doubtless often inaccurate on those points. 
 Enough however may be gathered from the narrative of Cabeza 
 de Vaca, to show through what countries he passed, in his route 
 from the north-western shore of the Mexican Gulf to the en 
 trance of the Gulf of California. Thus we learn that his course 
 was at first south-westward, at no great distance from the gulf, 
 through a level region, traversed by many rivers, and presenting 
 alternately forests and large tracts of open ground or prairie 
 this must have been Texas. He then found the country rough 
 and arid; and agreeably to the advice of the Indians, he turned 
 more to the west, and crossing some mountains, he arrived in a 
 valley, through which ran a large river, flowing from the north. 
 This river was most probably the Rio del Norte; the valley was 
 thickly peopled, and the Spaniards remained in it several months, 
 during which they followed the stream up towards its sources, 
 in a desert region, inhabited by wild Indians, who lived entirely 
 by hunting hump-backed oxen or buffaloes. Thence they crossed 
 a great chain of mountains, to another territory, more fruitful, 
 agreeable and populous, than any seen in their way, which was 
 certainly Sonora; and directing their course along the banks of 
 a river, probably the Yaqui, they reached the shores of the Cali- 
 fornian Gulf, where they first received distinct accounts of their 
 countrymen at Culiacan. There they finjilly arrived, as already 
 stated, in 1536, eight years after their landing in Florida; having 
 
 * In the abstracts of his narrative, Cabeza de Vaca is represented as asserting, 
 that he restored a dead man to life, by prayers and by blowing on him ; whereas, 
 he merely states, that a man believed by him and all others around to be dead, 
 recovered, as was afterwards learned from an Indian. 
 
1537.] EXPEDITION OF FRIAR MARCOS DE NiZA. 87 
 
 made one of the longest journies, and passed through some of 
 the most painful adventures ever recorded. 
 
 Such were the principal circumstances attending the first expe 
 dition of the Spaniards, through the countries north and north 
 west of the Mexican Gulf, according to the evidence of the 
 active, intelligent and courageous Treasurer. From Culiacari, 
 Cabeza de Vaca and his companions proceeded to Mexico, where 
 they were interrogated as to their adventures, by the Viceroy 
 Mendoza and by Cortes. They had themselves seen no signs 
 whatever of wealth, or civilization, in the territories traversed by 
 them ; but they had every where received confused accounts, of 
 rich and powerful nations, dwelling north of their line of route : 
 and the Viceroy, being desirous to learn the truth of these ru 
 mors, despatched Friar Marcos de Niza, a Franciscan friar, in 
 company w r ith the negro Estevanico, in search of the nations in 
 question. At the end of a year the friar returned, and de 
 clared that he had visited a delightful region, called Cibola, which 
 was situated far north-west of Mexico and contained many large 
 and magnificent cities, inhabited by a numerous, wealthy and re 
 fined population; and the right of conquering this country, and 
 converting its occupants to Christianity, immediately became the 
 subject of contest, between various aspirants, including Cortes 
 and Mendoza, each of whom caused expeditions to be made for 
 that purpose, in the direction indicated by the friar. 
 
 Cabeza de Vaca meanwhile, not daunted by the perils and suf 
 ferings which he had encountered in Florida, did^iot hesitate on 
 his arrival in Spain in 1537, to solicit from the emperor a com 
 mission and means to explore the regions north of the Mexican 
 Gulf more fully, in order to ascertain the truth of the rumors 
 which he had heard of rich countries in that direction. His suit 
 was however refused; not from the idea that his search would 
 prove vain, but from the superior influence exerted by another 
 applicant for the same favor. 
 
 Amongst those w r ho most distinguished themselves in the con 
 quest of Peru, by their bravery and military skill, and who ob 
 tained the largest shares of the spoils, was Hernando de Soto. 
 At the conclusion of that conquest, he w r as about forty years of 
 age, and not content with holding a secondary position in Peru, 
 he proceeded to Spain, where he appeared at the court, in great 
 
88 HERNANDO DE SOTO ADELANTADO OF FLORIDA. [1538. 
 
 splendor, about the time when Cabeza cle Vaca began to urge 
 his claim, for the command of forces to be employed in Florida. 
 The wealth and renown of Soto and his connection by marriage 
 with a powerful noble family, soon enabled him to obtain the 
 government of Cuba; and he then proposed to Cabeza de Vaca, 
 who was entirely without means or interest, that the latter should 
 undertake the conquest of Florida, at his expense, and for their 
 joint benefit. The proposal was accepted, but the contract was 
 not completed : and Soto thereupon asked and obtained from the 
 sovereign a commission of Adelantado of Florida, in addition to 
 his government of Cuba; while Cabeza de Vaca was obliged 
 to content himself with the direction of a small force destined 
 for the occupation of the river of La Plata, from which he de 
 rived no other advantage than the materials for another narrative 
 of adventures and sufferings. 
 
 * Of the accounts of the expedition of Hernando de Soto those most worthy of 
 reliance are 
 
 "Relagam Verdadeira, &c.," in English, "A true relation of the conquest of 
 Florida by the Spaniards under Don Hernando de Soto," written in Portuguese, 
 by one of the adventurers, whose name is unknown, and first published at Evora 
 in 1557. The original is very rare but two English translations have appeared ; 
 the first by Hakluyt, in 1609, and reprinted in 184C in the fourth volume of the 
 valuable collection of tracts relating to America, by the learned and indefatiga 
 ble Peter Force of Washington ; the other published anonymously in 1686. 
 
 The narrative of Luis Hernandes de Biedma, the factor of the expedition, pre 
 sented to the Council of the Indies, by the writer in 1544, immediately after his 
 return from Florida. The original still remains unpublished in the archives of 
 the Spanish government ; a French translation, which is somewhat obscure, and 
 most probably incorrect, in many points, is given by Ternaux Compans, in his 
 "Recueil de Voyages, &c.," printed at Paris in 1841. 
 
 In the same French Collection is also a translation of a letter addressed by 
 Soto, to the Municipality of Havanna, from the place of his disembarcation in 
 Florida on the 9th of July, 1539, and sent by the ships returning to Cuba, imme 
 diately before his departure for the interior; it however throws very little light 
 upon the expedition. 
 
 The most full and valuable account in every respect, is that given by Herrera 
 in the 6th and 7th Decades of his History of the Indies, derived from numerous 
 authorities, published and unpublished, to the latter of which, he had access in 
 his quality of Historiographer of the Indies. 
 
 The above may be considered as evidence of the occurrences of the expedition. 
 The celebrated History of the Conquest of Florida, by the Peruvian, Garcilaso 
 de la Vega, entitled "La Florida del Ynca," first published at Lisbon in 1605, is 
 no doubt, as declared, founded on original evidence ; but the facts are so much dis 
 torted by the extravagant dress in which they are all presented, that the work de 
 serves to be classed rather with bombastic romances, than with authentic histories. 
 
V 
 
 1539.] LANDING OF HERNANDO DE SOTO IN FLORIDA. 89 
 
 Immediately on receiving his commission as Adelantado of 
 Florida, Hernando de Soto raised his standard, under which six 
 hundred men, including several of high rank and large fortune, 
 were soon enrolled as volunteers or recruits; and ten vessels 
 having been prepared for their transportation, they sailed from 
 San Lucar, near the mouth of the Guadalquivir, in April, 1538. 
 In due time they arrived in Cuba; but Soto was detained in that 
 island, by the cares of its government until May of the following 
 year, on the 18th of which month he departed with his forces, 
 from Havanna, for the coast of Florida. His squadron consisted 
 of five large ships and four small vessels, carrying together 
 about seven hundred men,* and three hundred horses ; their pro 
 gress was delayed by calms, but in eight days they reached the 
 entrance of a harbor on the western side of the peninsula of 
 Florida, which had been previously selected as the place of dis- 
 embarcation by officers sent for the purpose from Cuba. Some 
 difficulties occurring there, from want of knowledge of the chan 
 nel, Soto landed the men and horses at the entrance and then 
 proceeded with the vessels to the extremity of the harbor, distant 
 twelve leagues from the sea, where all his forces were assembled 
 in the beginning of June. 
 
 The harbor at which the Spaniards thus landed in Florida, 
 was previously known as Baia Honda Deep Bay; but Soto 
 called it Port of Espiritu Santo, in commemoration of his having 
 reached it on Whitsunday, the Pascua del Espiritu Santo, or 
 Feast of the Holy Ghost, according to the Spanish Calendar. 
 It is at present usually supposed to have been the same, now 
 known as Tampa Bay, opening to the Gulf near the 28th degree 
 of latitude; though the name of Port of Espiritu Santo, was ap 
 plied during the remainder of the century, in which Soto made 
 his expedition, to the mouth of the Tocobaga river, now the 
 Suwannee, entering the sea in latitude of 29 degrees 20 minutes. 
 The original accounts of the movements of the Spaniards in 
 Florida, are so vague and defective, that it is almost impossible 
 to identify a single spot mentioned in them ; the statement in one 
 of those narratives, that the vessels (none of them probably 
 drawing more than ten feet when fully laden) found great diffi 
 culty in entering and ascending the harbor, in consequence of its 
 * The numbers are differently stated in the different accounts. 
 
 12 
 
90 PLACE OF LANDING OF THE SPANIARDS. [1539. 
 
 shallowness, seems to contradict the supposition that it could be 
 the Bay of Tampa, which will admit the largest frigates with 
 ease : but this statement is not confirmed by other accounts of 
 higher authority ; and neither the Suwannee, nor any other river 
 or harbor on the western side of the peninsula, north of Tampa, 
 will afford an entrance to vessels drawing more than five feet. 
 It may be added, that the name given by Soto, has been assigned 
 by geographers during the seventeenth century, to every large 
 opening on the northern coasts of the Mexican Gulf, along which 
 it has travelled westward from Tampa to the opposite side, not 
 far from the mouth of the river Bravo, w r here it seems to be now 
 definitively established.* 
 
 At the extremity of the Port of Espiritu Santo, here supposed 
 to be Tampa Bay, was a large Indian village, called Hirrihiagua, 
 entirely deserted, in which Soto established his head quarters, 
 and remained until the middle of July. Exploring parties in the 
 meantime scoured the adjacent country, in search of provisions, 
 in the course of which, they had some severe conflicts with the 
 natives. One of these parties, fortunately, met with a Spaniard 
 
 * Soto, in his letter written at the Port of Espiritu Santo to the Municipality 
 of Havanna, gives the following account of his landing in Florida : 
 
 "I left Havanna with my whole fleet on the 18th of May, though I had written 
 word that I should not weigh anchor until the 25th ; but I sailed thus earlier, in 
 order to take advantage of the wind, which was favorable. Calms ensued 
 when we entered the gulf; yet they were not so constant as to prevent us from 
 reaching this coast in eight days, which we did on Whitsunday. We missed 
 the port by five or six leagues, none of our pilots being able to ascertain where 
 we were, so that I was obliged to go with the brigantines to look for it. We 
 spent three days in this search and in staying there ; being farther delayed by our 
 not knowing the channel, as the bay is twelve leagues and more in depth. This 
 loss of time, obliged me to send my Lieutenant General, Vasco Porcallo de Fi- 
 gueroa, with the brigantines, to take possession of a village, situated at the ex 
 tremity of the bay. I ordered all the troops and horses to be landed on the shore, 
 and with much difficulty I effected my junction with Vasco Porcallo, on the 
 Sunday of the Holy Trinity, &c." 
 
 In the Portuguese narrative of the expedition, the same circumstances are thus 
 presented : 
 
 " On the 25th of May, the day of Pascua del Espiritu Santo, they saw the land 
 of Florida, and because of the shoals, they came to an anchor a league from the 
 shore. On Friday, 30th of May, they landed in Florida, two leagues from a 
 town of an Indian lord, called Ucita. They set on land 213 horses, which they 
 brought with them, to unburden the ships, that they might draw the less water. 
 He landed all his men, and only the seamen remained in the ships, which going 
 up with the tide every day a little, brought them up into the town." 
 
1539.] MARCH THROUGH THE PENINSULA. 91 
 
 named Juan Ortiz, who had landed with Narvaez twelve years 
 before, and had been ever since in captivity among the Indians : 
 he had almost forgotten his native tongue, and knew nothing" of 
 Florida beyond the immediate vicinity of the place where he was 
 found ; but he proved very useful, from his acquaintance with the 
 language and the habits of the people. From his accounts, and 
 the observations of the exploring parties, it became certain, that 
 no precious metals or stones were to be obtained in that region, 
 and the men began, in consequence, to manifest a strong desire to 
 abandon the enterprise; their leader, however, peremptorily 
 insisted on prosecuting it, with which object, he sent back the 
 ships to Cuba, and took his departure in the middle of July for 
 the north, leaving only sixty men and the two smallest vessels at 
 the harbor, under the command of Pedro Calderon. 
 
 From the place of their landing in Florida, the Spaniards 
 marched northward for several days, through pine forests and 
 wide marshes, to an Indian village, the Chief of which, on learn 
 ing their objects, directed them to a country called Ocali, at some 
 distance in the same course, where gold was declared to be so 
 plentiful, that it was used for the commonest purposes. On the 
 way to this country, they passed through a marsh of great extent, 
 traversed by a river, most probably the Long-swamp of the 
 Withlacoochee; and after a tedious journey, they reached Ocali, 
 which was only a large Indian town, presenting no other trea 
 sures to the eager invaders, than the stores of corn and beans, 
 just gathered by its inhabitants, for their support during the 
 winter. Ocali appears to have been the Alachua prairie, one of 
 the most fertile parts of Florida, situated a little north of the 
 centre of the peninsula, midway between the Suwannee and the 
 Ocklowaha rivers. Continuing their march in the direction of 
 New Spain, within ten or twelve leagues of the coast of the gulf, 
 the Spaniards crossed in succession two large streams, corres 
 ponding with the two branches of the Suwannee, and then an 
 other flowing through a district called Ochile, which was 
 doubtless the Oscilla, entering the gulf at its north-east angle. 
 Farther on they came to a populous region called Caliquen, sur 
 rounding two large lakes, which are with good reason supposed 
 to be those hear the present city of Tallahassee; it was sub 
 ject to a chief named Uitacucho, who employed all the arts of 
 
92 SOTO REACHES APALACHE. [1539. 
 
 savage dissimulation, to induce the strangers to lay aside their 
 caution: but Soto was no less versed in those arts himself; and 
 when at length a violent attack was made on the Spaniards, the 
 Indians were easily repelled and driven into one of the lakes, 
 where many of them perished, and their king was made prisoner. 
 Uitacucho still undismayed, endeavored, with the assistance of 
 some of his men remaining with him at large in the camp, to 
 murder the Adelantado, who was struck to the ground and nearly 
 strangled, before assistance could be had; the plot however 
 failed, and the daring chief, with his associates, paid the forfeit 
 of their rash attempt with their lives. 
 
 Pursuing their course as before, parallel to the coast of the 
 gulf, the Spaniards came to a river, called Ossachile, much larger 
 and deeper than any before seen by them in Florida, over which 
 they were obliged to build a bridge of boats ; and on passing it, 
 they found themselves in the country of Apalache, where they 
 received from the natives many accounts of Narvaez and his fol 
 lowers. This river was unquestionably the Apalachicola : at the 
 distance of four days' journey beyond it on the west they reached 
 the chief town, called Anaica; and as the month of October was 
 then far advanced, Soto determined to spend the winter there. 
 A party sent towards the south, soon discovered the spot at 
 which Narvaez had built his boats, its position being clearly in 
 dicated by the bones of horses and the fragments of sawed 
 planks ; and Juan de Aftasco, the comptroller, was then despatched 
 with thirty horsemen to the Bay of Espiritu Santo, to direct the 
 men left there, to come in the vessels, to that part of. the coast. 
 
 This perilous journey of three hundred miles* was performed 
 by Aflasco and his men in eleven days, during which they were 
 constantly beset by enemies ; and having delivered the orders to 
 Calderon, the commandant at the bay, they returned in the same 
 way, with still greater difficulty to Anaica. Calderon soon after 
 appeared with his vessels at the place appointed, near the quar 
 ters of the army ; but it not being considered safe, Francisco de 
 Maldonado was ordered to take the vessels along the coast to- 
 
 * The particulars of this journey are related with minuteness by Hen-era, who 
 thus affords the best means of ascertaining the positions of the places visited by 
 the Spaniards, from the time of their landing, to their establishment for the 
 winter in Apalache. 
 
1539.] DISCOVERY OF ACHUSI OR PENSACOLA BAY. 93 
 
 wards the west, in search of some better harbor. Of the latter * 
 officer nothing was heard for two months, at the end of which 
 information was received from him, that he had discovered an 
 excellent port, called by the natives Ochus or Achusi, sixty 
 leagues west of Anaica; and there he lay with his vessels, until 
 the following spring. 
 
 This port of Ochus or Achusi, though described in the narra 
 tives of the expedition no farther than as an excellent harbor, 
 situated sixty leagues west of Apalache, is one of the few places, 
 if not the only place mentioned in those accounts, which can be 
 identified with certainty at the present day. Eighteen years af 
 ter its discovery by Maldonado, it was selected by the Spaniards 
 as a proper spot for a naval station and a settlement, with which 
 view a large number of persons were carried thither from 
 Mexico, and it received the. name of Bay of Santa Maria : this 
 enterprise did not prove successful, and the Bay of Santa Maria 
 was deserted for a hundred and thirty years longer, at the end of 
 which period it was re-occupied and has ever since been known 
 as the Bay of Pensacola.* Anaica, the town in Apalache at 
 which Hernando de Soto and his followers passed the winter of 
 1539, being sixty leagues east of Achusi, and ten leagues from 
 the sea coast where Narvaez built his boats twelve years earlier, 
 must have been situated between the Apalachicola and the Chacta- 
 hatchee river, probably near the line of separation between the 
 States of Florida and Alabama ; and it may have been the Aute, 
 mentioned in the accounts of the expedition of Narvaez. 
 
 During the winter passed by the Spaniards in Apalache, they 
 as usual treated the natives with the utmost inhumanity, keeping 
 large numbers of them constantly employed in transporting pro 
 visions and in other labors ; in return for which, several of the 
 invaders fell victims to the rage of the overtasked Indians. Soto 
 had in the meantime made inquiries respecting the interior regions, 
 the answers to which were so little calculated to encourage the 
 expectations of his followers, that they often clamorously de 
 manded to be carried back to Cuba ; but their general had firmly 
 resolved never to return, until he had achieved something calcu 
 lated to add to his fame ; and having at length extracted from a 
 
 * See accounts in the following chapter of the expedition of Arellano in 1558, 
 and in Chapter VIII. of the establishment of the Spaniards at Pensacolain 1693. 
 
94 DEPARTURE OF SOTO FROM APALACHE. T1540. 
 
 L 
 
 poor, half-witted youth, who was found in slavery among the 
 natives, some confused accounts of a country called Yupaha, far 
 in the direction of the rising sun, where gold, silver and pearls 
 abounded, he announced his intention to march thither in the en 
 suing spring. Orders were in consequence sent to Maldonado 
 at Achusi, to proceed with the vessels to Cuba and obtain sup 
 plies of provisions, with w r hich he was to return to that harbor, 
 or to the mouth of the river of Espiritu Santo in the autumn; 
 and on the 3d of March, 1540, the whole party, in number 
 about six hundred, set off in search of Yupaha, accompanied by 
 many Indians in chains as porters, and a drove of hogs which 
 they had brought from the West Indies, as a resource, in case of 
 scarcity of food. 
 
 From this time, nothing was heard of Hernando de Soto or of 
 any of his followers, for three years. Maldonado returned ac 
 cording to his orders to Achusi, in the autumn ; and after waiting 
 there some time, he proceeded to the mouth of the river of Es 
 piritu Santo and to other points on the coast, from which he went 
 back to Cuba, without any news of his countrymen. The same 
 course was taken by him in the next, and in each of the two en 
 suing years, with no more success; and preparations were in 
 progress for a complete search through the interior of Florida, to 
 be commenced in the spring of 1544, w T hen information reached 
 Cuba that a large number of persons who had been engaged in 
 the expedition had arrived in Mexico. From the accounts of 
 these persons, several narratives have been composed, differing, 
 as might have been expected, on smaller points, but sufficiently 
 concordant in general, to afford a tolerably clear view of the in 
 cidents of that famous enterprise, of which a concise statement 
 will be now presented. 
 
 From Anaica, the Spaniards marched north-westward, and 
 after passing a marsh, probably on the Chipola river, they reached 
 a very large stream, no doubt the Apalachicola, along the side 
 of which they proceeded northward, for several days, through 
 many Indian towns, to a country called Cofachi, where they 
 crossed the river on a sort of flying bridge. Continuing their 
 course north-eastward, they passed other rivers, probably branches 
 of the Flint, and then reached the country of Altapaha or Al- 
 tamaca, where they first observed that the streams no longer 
 

 1540.] SOTO IN GEORGIA AND SOUTH CAROLINA. 95 
 
 flowed southward to the Mexican Gulf, but took an eastward di 
 rection, to the Atlantic.* These streams must have been the 
 Ocmulgee and the Oconee,f the two great branches of the Ala- 
 tamaha; beyond them the country was much less fruitful and popu 
 lous, and the Spaniards began to suffer from want of food, so 
 much, that it became necessary to kill a number of their hogs. 
 The poor youth who acted as their guide, here had a fit, which 
 however passed off, after a prayer had been said over him : it 
 moreover became evident that he knew nothing of the country, 
 through which they were going; and the Adelantado was about 
 *o order him to be thrown to the dogs, when it was recollected 
 Jiat his services might be required as an interpreter, in case they 
 should really find the land of gold and pearls. 
 
 After many days spent in traversing this poor country, called 
 by the natives Patofa, the Spaniards arrived at a very large river, 
 on the bank of which they marched upwards, in a northerly 
 course, for some days; and then crossing it with much difficulty, 
 and with the loss of several horses, they, in the latter part of 
 April, reached the country of Cutifa-chiqui, which was declared 
 by their guide to be the promised land of Yupaha. It was gov 
 erned by a queen, who received the Spaniards with the utmost 
 hospitality : she had neither gold nor silver, nor had any idea of 
 those metals ; but she supplied the strangers plentifully with corn, 
 beans, and other provisions, and allowed them to rifle the tem 
 ples, or places where the dead were deposited, of the pearls 
 adorning their corpses.^: The jewels thus collected, were proba 
 bly nothing more than wampum, or beads made of shells, of no 
 value; and this must have been well known to Soto, who had 
 received the cushion of Atahualpa, the unfortunate sovereign of 
 Peru, worked with the finest pearls of the South Sea, as his 
 share of the spoils of that kingdom: but he did not allow the- 
 truth to be communicated to his men, among whom the plundei 
 was fairly divided, as an earnest of what they might find in future. 
 
 * Narrative of Biedma, in the Collection of Ternaux Compans. 
 
 f Ok or oke, signified water in the language of nearly all the nations of those 
 countries. 
 
 J Garcilaso de la Vega gives full play to his imagination in the description of 
 the great temple of Tolomeca, the capital of Cutifa-chiqui, which, according to 
 his accounts, would have been a miracle of art and riches. 
 
36 THE SPANIARDS AMONG THE CHEROKEES. [1540. 
 
 In the same temples, or more properly cemeteries, were found 
 some iron hatchets, and other articles of Spanish manufacture; 
 and upon enquiry, it appeared that they had been obtained from 
 white men, who had come some years before, to the coast near 
 the mouth of the river, and built houses, but had nearly all per 
 ished from disease and in contests among themselves. These 
 circumstances, as well as the position of the country, left no doubt 
 that the persons thus mentioned w r ere Vazquez de Ayllon and his 
 people, who had attempted to settle in Chicora in 1526; and the 
 followers of Soto earnestly entreated to be allowed to establish 
 themselves there, urging particularly, the advantages which would 
 result from the foundation of a city on the coast, at which vessels 
 might stop, on their way from Mexico and the West Indian 
 islands to Spain. The Adelantado, however, as on the former 
 occasions, rejected the inglorious proposition : he indeed sent per 
 sons down the river south-eastward, to seek its mouth, but they, 
 after several days, returned without attaining their object; and 
 having in the meantime learned that a rich country, called Coa, 
 lay at some distance in the north-west, he took his departure for 
 it on the 3d of May, with his whole force. 
 
 Cutifa-chiqui was no doubt in the western part of South Caro 
 lina, inhabited a century later by the warlike Catawbas ;* and the 
 great river on*which it bordered may have been the Savannah, 
 or more probably one of the branches of the Santee falling into 
 the Atlantic a little north of Charleston. On leaving the country, 
 the Spaniards carried the queen with them as a hostage for the 
 fidelity of her subjects, of whom a large number were, as usual, 
 seized by the invaders, and compelled to act as guides and por 
 ters; her majesty, however, soon made her escape with one of 
 her lovers, taking off, moreover, all her jewels. Marching north 
 ward up the valley of the river, Soto, in eight days, reached a 
 poor and hilly country, occupied by a simple people called the 
 Chalaque, who supported themselves on roots and the produce 
 of the chase ; this was no doubt the westernmost part of North 
 Carolina, occupied, until a recent period, by the Cherokees, or 
 Tsalakees, as pronounced by some of their tribes. Continuing 
 onwards in a western direction, the Spaniards crossed a range of 
 mountains, and passing through Xualla, Guaxule and Canasauga, 
 
 * May not Cutifa have been the Spanish expression of Cataba or Catawba? 
 
1540.] THE SPANIARDS ON THE TENNESSEE. 97 
 
 (which latter name is still given to a place on one of the extreme 
 north-eastern sources of the Coosa river,) they came to the con 
 siderable town of Chiaha, situated on an island in a large river, 
 where they remained thirty days, feasting on Indian corn, wild 
 turkies, bears' fat, nuts, plums, and mulberries. 
 
 The river in which Chiaha stood was very wide and deep, and 
 was believed by the Spaniards to be that of Espiritu Santo or 
 the Mississippi ; it contained many islands, and its shores were 
 covered with shell-fish, from which several pearls were obtained. 
 These circumstances, together with the position of the place, as 
 indicated by the course of the adventurers towards it, favor the 
 supposition that it may have been situated in the Tennessee river, 
 the largest stream of that region, which contains innumerable 
 islands, and the shores of which, in many parts, abound in crus- 
 taceous animals.* From Chiaha, the Spaniards, after they had 
 sufficiently refreshed themselves, marched along the banks of the 
 river several days, to another large town, called Coste, also situ 
 ated on an island ; and then taking a southward course, they ar 
 rived in the country of Cof a on the 26th of July. 
 
 At Coste, small hatchets of copper were seen, which Soto 
 learned had been brought from a region far in the north called 
 Chisca, where that metal was found in great quantities, "with 
 others of a finer, and brighter color;" and two Spaniards were 
 accordingly sent with Indians, to seek additional information, 
 respecting that region. After some time, this party returned 
 with a report that they had travelled through a rough country for 
 several days, without hearing of Chisca, or seeing any thing 
 worthy of note, except the ox hides, one of which, very soft 
 and covered with fine wool, they brought with them. This is 
 the first allusion to the buffalo, in the accounts of the expedition; 
 the men sent in search of Chisca had no doubt penetrated to the 
 centre of the present State of Tennessee. Copper hatchets are 
 found in many parts of North America, which must have been 
 made of native copper, as the Indians do not appear to have been 
 acquainted with the art of reducing the ore ; and the metal was 
 most probably all brought from the region about Lake Superior, 
 
 * For instance at the Mussel Shoals in the northern part of Alabama, where 
 the Tennessee spreads to a great breadth, embracing hundreds of islands, covered 
 with those shell-fish. 
 
 13 
 
98 SOTO IN GEORGIA AND ALAMABA. [1540. 
 
 where copper exists in its pure state, as well as in the ore, in 
 greater quantities than in any other part of the world, yet known. 
 Possibly that region may have been the Chisca which Soto was 
 so anxious to discover. 
 
 Cof a proved to be a fertile and delightful country, abounding 
 in Indian corn and fruits of various kinds, particularly grapes, 
 which grew on vines of extraordinary size; it no doubt embraced 
 the north-western part of the present State of Georgia, and the 
 adjoining region in Alabama, traversed by the Coosa, one of the 
 head streams of the Alabama, than w T hich no part of America 
 possesses a climate more agreeable and salubrious, combined 
 with a soil so productive. The Spaniards there displayed 
 more than their usual violence towards the natives, whom they 
 compelled to fly to the woods, and then hunted with blood 
 hounds, in order to secure their services, as guides or porters. 
 Having in this manner accumulated a large quantity of provisions, 
 and a sufficient number of Indians to carry them, Soto departed 
 in the middle of August towards the south, apparently with the 
 intention of regaining his vessels, which were expected to arrive 
 at Achusi in the ensuing month, and returning in them to Cuba. 
 
 On their way from Coa the Spaniards passed through a 
 populous country, containing many large towns, the names of 
 which correspond in some cases exactly, and in others very 
 nearly with those of places, since found occupied by the Mus- 
 coghee or Creeks. Among these towns were Tallimuchase and 
 Itaua, the latter on a large stream, which may have been the 
 Etowah, falling into the Coosa; farther on, they reached a larger 
 river, probably the Coosa, beyond which were the towns of Ul- 
 libahali, Toasi and Talise,* all fortified by palisades of logs, 
 covered with clay, as many places in that part of America were 
 found in the last century. Proceeding thus south-westward, they 
 crossed another river, probably the Cahawba, one of the branches 
 of the 'Alabama, and entered the country of Tascalu^a, where 
 
 *Talisee was the name of one of the principal tribes of the Muscoghee, 
 dwelling on the Coosa. Tali is the commencement of many of the names of 
 places in that part of America. Tallimuchase may have been Tallahassee, a 
 very common name, signifying old fields. Vestiges of many of these fortified 
 towns still remain in that part of America, in the shape of vast ditches and 
 mounds, particularly at Cahawba on the Alabama, and at the sites of the old 
 Coweeta and Apalachoocla towns on the Chattahooche. 
 
1540.] THE SPANIARDS AT MAVILLA. 99 
 
 they were received with dignity and courtesy by the chief, a man 
 of large stature, who supplied them plentifully with provisions, 
 and gave them a number of his subjects as porters. Soto, how 
 ever, being doubtful of the fidelity of this prince, seized him with 
 several of his family, and carried them off as hostages ; and the 
 whole party, after crossing a very large river, probably the Tom- 
 bigbee, arrived on the 18th of October at a town called Mavilla, 
 which seems to have been also subject to the king of Tascalup a. 
 
 Tascalupa was no doubt the northern part of the country of 
 the Chactas, traversed by the Tuscaloosa and Tombigbee rivers ; 
 Tascaluf a, in the language of that nation, signifies Black Chief, 
 and may have been the name of the proud king whom the Span 
 iards carried as a hostage to Mavilla. This latter place seems to 
 have been situated near the point of junction of the Tombigbee 
 and Alabama rivers; a tribe of Indians called Mowilla was found 
 there at the beginning of the last century, by the French, who, 
 in consequence, gave the name of Maubile or Mobile to the 
 river and to their principal settlement in that quarter. 
 
 Mavilla contained more than two thousand inhabitants and was 
 surrounded by a strong wall of logs and earth ; in consequence 
 of which, Luis de Moscoso, the second in command of the 
 Spaniards, advised that they should encamp on the outside: but 
 the Adelantado was determined to be more comfortably lodged, 
 and the whole party accordingly established themselves in the 
 houses, from which the natives were ejected with little ceremony. 
 The imprudence thus committed was soon followed by disaster. 
 The king of Tascalu^a, burning under the sense of the indignities 
 offered to him, entered into communication with the chiefs of 
 the town, and a formidable conspiracy was organized. A num 
 ber of people from the country entered Mavilla unperceived, and 
 Ijjd themselves in the houses not occupied by the Spaniards, 
 whilst others were assembled on the adjoining plain as if for a 
 dance. At a preconcerted signal, a rush was made by the In 
 dians, on the place where the captives from Tascalufa were 
 confined ; and these people being liberated and armed, a general 
 attack was begun on the unsuspecting strangers, several of whom 
 fell under the clubs and arrows of the assailants, ere they could 
 arm themselves for defence. European discipline nevertheless 
 prevailed. The Adelantado, in a few moments, mustered his 
 
100 DESTRUCTION OF MAVILLA. [1540. 
 
 men outside of the town, and then laid siege to it. The Indians 
 fought with desperation, but they fell by hundreds, under the 
 balls or swords of the Spaniards, who soon overturned their for 
 tifications, and confined them to the centre of the place. Mavilla 
 was then set on fire, and the besiegers, watching every outlet, 
 drove back the wretched natives into the flames, which, in a few 
 hours, reduced the town and its people to a heap of ashes and 
 half burnt corpses. According to the accounts, several thousand* 
 Indians perished ; but this was no doubt an exaggeration. The 
 conquerors lost eighteen of their men, and many horses; besides 
 which a large number were wounded, and nearly all their clothes, 
 ammunition, tools, spare arms, and other valuable articles, having 
 been unavoidably left in the houses, were destroyed or greatly 
 injured. 
 
 The Spaniards remained eighteen days near Mavilla, after the 
 destruction of that place, in order to afford time for the recovery 
 of the wounded, and to save such articles as might not have been 
 rendered entirely useless by the fire. Soto, meanwhile, received 
 certain information from the Indians of the country, that his ves 
 sels were lying in the harbor of Achusi, distant about six days 
 march from Mavilla. More than a hundred of his followers had 
 died since their arrival in Florida, and every rational hope of ad 
 vantage from this expedition must have disappeared: yet his 
 proud spirit revolted at the idea of returning empty handed 
 among his countrymen in Spain or the West Indies, to pass the 
 remainder of his days in poverty and obscurity ; and being con 
 vinced that his men would abandon the enterprise, if they should 
 learn the arrival of the vessels in their vicinity, he ordered Juan 
 Ortiz, the interpreter, to conceal the circumstance, and took his 
 departure with the whole body towards the north on the 18th of 
 November. 
 
 After that period the wanderings of the Spaniards seem to 
 have been without any definite object, though it is most probable 
 that their leader may have held out to them some inducement in 
 order to secure their obedience; and a strong proof of his ability 
 and of the confidence inspired by him, is afforded in the fact of 
 their submitting to be thus led for years through forests and 
 deserts, exposed to every species of danger and privation, with- 
 * Garcilaso carries the number to eleven thousand! 
 
1541.] THE SPANIARDS AMONG THE CHICASAS. 101 
 
 out any attempt at resistance, and almost without a murmur. 
 Their numbers were less than five hundred ; but they carried 
 with them twice as many Indians of both sexes, of whom the 
 men were generally kept in chains, and were treated with great 
 barbarity by their unfeeling masters. 
 
 From Mavilla, the Spaniai^s, in a few days, reached a country 
 called Pafalaya,* abounding in cane-brakes, through which ran a 
 large river, probably the Tombigbee. This river they passed 
 with great difficulty, on account of the determined opposition of 
 the warlike natives, no doubt Chactas; and continuing in the 
 same direction, they crossed another stream, and entered the 
 country of the Chica^a, where they remained until March of the 
 following year. These Chica^a were of course the Chickasas, 
 who were found, two centuries afterwards, in possession of the 
 territory between the heads of the Tombigbee and Yazoo rivers, 
 now forming the northern part of the State of Mississippi: the} 
 displayed the same animosity to the Spaniards w r hich was in 
 later, days shown by their descendants towards the French; and 
 many encounters took place between the parties, in the course of 
 which, several of the invaders lost their lives, and nearly all the 
 arms, ammunition, and other articles saved at Mavilla, were de 
 stroyed by the burning of their quarters. On this last occasion 
 perished Francisca Hinestrosa the only Spanish woman in the 
 expedition who was taken in labor at the moment of the attack, 
 and could not be extricated from the burning town; fifty horses 
 were also consumed, together with the greater part of the hogs, 
 which formed the principal resource against famine. 
 
 Soto, however, shewed no signs of discouragement: forges 
 were set up, in which the swords injured by the fire were re- 
 tempered; lances, bucklers, and substitutes for saddles were 
 made, and thus equipped, the party resumed their journey on the 
 25th of April. They were constantly harrassed on the way by 
 the Chicafa, who often erected temporary forts of logs at points 
 where the Spaniards were expected to pass; but all these obsta 
 cles were overcome, and the wanderers at length passing through 
 
 * In the languages of the Chactas and Chickasas, Paas means hair, and Falaya 
 or Faraa, as pronounced by different tribes, signifies long. Paa-faraah, the Long 
 hair, was the name of a distinguished Chacta, chief, in the middle of the last cen 
 tury. See Adair's History of the American Indians. 
 
J02 SOTO CROSSES THE MISSISSIPPI. [1541. 
 
 the countries of Alimamu and Quizquiz, reached the Great River - 
 the Rio Grande del Espiritu Santo, of their early navigators the 
 Mico, or King River of the Indians of which such wonderful 
 accounts had been daily received. It fully equalled their antici 
 pations as to its breadth, depth and rapidity, and the number of 
 trees uprooted and borne down by i^ current. By all these signs, 
 there is no difficulty in recognizing the Mississippi.* 
 
 The Spaniards, most probably, reached the Mississippi, near the 
 southernmost of the cliffs, now called the Chickasa Bluffs, where 
 the flourishing city of Memphis, in Tennessee, is situated ; as 
 the country bordering the Great River for more than two hundred 
 miles farther south, is rendered inaccessible on the east, by 
 marshes. Soto immediately determined to cross it, and four 
 barges, each large enough to contain sixty men and five horses, 
 w r ere accordingly constructed, in which the passage was made 
 early in June, 1541, in the face of a crowd of savages assembled 
 in canoes, to bar the way to the invaders. At the place of their 
 landing, the Spaniards found an Indian village, from w r hich they 
 proceeded, in their boats, for some distance up the stream, to the 
 towns of the Icasqui ; and farther north, they reached another 
 nation called Pacaha or Capaha, among whom they remained 
 until August. An exploring party was meanwhile sent west 
 ward, to enquire for Chisca, or for some route to the Pacific; but 
 after advancing several days in that direction, they returned with a 
 report, that the country consisted of vast plains, covered with grass 
 so high that the horses were buried in it, and inhabited only by 
 bands of Indians, who lived by hunting the hump-backed cattle. 
 
 It would be an unsatisfactory task, to attempt to follow the 
 Spaniards in their fruitless wanderings through the regions west 
 of the Mississippi, during the summer of 1541. They seem to 
 have marched westward, as far as the range of highlands, con 
 taining the sources of the White river, and thence southwardly 
 along the base of that ridge, crossing the Arkansas at some 
 distance above its mouth, to the head waters of the Washita. 
 
 * Mississippi or Meshasibi compounded of Missi or Mesha great, and Sipou 
 or Sibi water was the name of the river, among the Indian nations west of 
 Lake Michigan, from whom the French first received definite accounts of it 
 about 1670. In the regions of the upper Ohio, it was called Namesi-Sipou or 
 Fish river; the Chocta name is Okinna-chitto, meaning the Great v, ater-path. 
 
1542.] WANDERINGS WEST OF THE MISSISSIPPI. 103 
 
 In a country called Cayas, they spent a month near a lake of 
 very hot water, most probably the celebrated Hot Springs in the 
 centre of the pre'sent State of Arkansas. They also found there, as 
 at many other places, copious springs of salt water, from which 
 they obtained supplies of salt for themselves and their horses: 
 and then continuing their journey in the same course, they 
 reached a plentiful region called Autiamque, where they re 
 mained during the winter, supporting themselves on Indian corn, 
 prunes, persimmons, dried venison, and other savage dainties, of 
 which they robbed the natives. 
 
 To this period, the Spaniards had procured information as to 
 their course, from the natives of the different countries traversed, 
 through their interpreter Juan Ortiz, who being well acquainted 
 with the language of the inhabitants of the peninsula of Florida, 
 was able, with the aid of others trained by him on the way, to 
 keep up these communications, though they passed, in some 
 cases, through twelve different interpreters: but he unfortu 
 nately died in Autiamque, and they were thenceforth constantly 
 led astray by those on whom they relied for instructions, as to the 
 character of the countries or the nations before them. They 
 thus found themselves in the spring of 1542, without any means 
 of determining whither they had best proceed ; and in this alter 
 native, they had only to make their way back to the Mississippi, 
 which they did by following a stream, probably the Washita, 
 downward, laboring constantly against embarrassments, fiom 
 lakes and marshes. Above the confluence of the two streams, 
 and between them, lay the fertile and populous territory of 
 Guachoya, the sovereign of which informed the Spaniards of 
 another country, called Quigalta, situated on the opposite side 
 of the river, at the distancoppf three days journey farther south, 
 and governed by a powerful lord of the same name, to whom all 
 around paid tribute. To this potentate, Soto sent a message, 
 requiring him immediately to appear and do homage to the Son 
 of the Sxin, whom all obeyed: the Indian, however, replied in 
 the same tone, professing his readiness to receive the strangers 
 in his country, as friends or as enemies, according to their con 
 duct, but refusing to submit to the self-styled Son of the Sun, 
 until he should have proved his lineage by drying up the Great 
 River. 
 
104 
 
 DEATH OF HERNANDO DE SOTO. 
 
 [1542. 
 
 The Spanish commander would no doubt have proceeded at 
 once to chastise this audacious savage, had he been in a condition 
 to do so: but his health was then rapidly declining, in consequence 
 of the fatigues to which he had been so long and constantly ex 
 posed; and he was seized with a slow fever, which, on the 21st 
 of May, 1542, terminated the life of "the virtuous, valiant and 
 renowned Captain Don Hernando de Soto, Governor of Cuba 
 and Adelantado of Florida, whom fortune," says the Portuguese 
 narrative of his expedition, "raised, as it does others, to a great 
 height, in order that his fall should be the more remarkable." 
 He died in the forty-second year of his age, calmly, and with a 
 conscience free from reproach ; thanking his men for their obedi 
 ence and good conduct, in the many trying scenes through w r hich 
 they had passed, and asking them only to pray to God to forgive 
 his sins, and receive his soul into eternal glory. 
 
 The death of Soto was carefully concealed from the Indians, 
 who regarded him as a being of superior intelligence most pro 
 bably as the incarnation of some destroying spirit and he was 
 buried secretly in the camp : but his followers, fearing that after 
 their departure, some indignity might be offered to his remains, 
 disinterred them and committed them at midnight to the current 
 of the great river, the noblest, as well as the safest of sepulchres. 
 The king of Guachoya was, however, convinced of the death of 
 the Spanish chief, and he came to the camp some days afterwards, 
 bringing two of his subjects to be sacrificed in honor of the de 
 ceased, according to the custom of his nation; Moscoso, who 
 succeeded to the command, thanked him for his attention, assur 
 ing him that Soto had ascended to heaven, and ordered the 
 liberation of the proposed victims, who gladly took refuge with 
 their liberators, from the power of ttair inhuman master. . , 
 
 A careful examination of the narratives of the expedition, leads 
 to the conclusion, that the place of Soto's death, was on the right 
 or western bank of the Mississippi, in the present State of Lou 
 isiana, nearly opposite the mouth of the Big Black river. When 
 that part of America was first visited by the French, in the latter 
 years of trie following century, it was occupied by a small but 
 powerful nation, called the Taensas, nearly opposite to whom, 
 though a little lower down the stream, were the Natchez, another 
 small but influential confederacy of tribes, afterwards celebrated 
 
1542.] MOSCOSO IN COMMAND OF THE EXPEDITION. 105 
 
 in the history of the Mississippi regions, for their obstinate resist 
 ance to the establishment of the European dominion in their 
 country. These were the only remarkable nations inhabiting 
 the banks of the Mississippi, below the Ohio, at the period last 
 mentioned ; and the only nations moreover, so far as known, 
 among which human sacrifices were made, at the funerals of dis 
 tinguished personages: and under all these circumstances, it ap 
 pears to be more than probable, that the Guachoya and Quigalta, 
 mentioned in the. accounts of the expedition of Soto, were respec 
 tively the countries of the Taensas and the Natchez. 
 
 The Spaniards regarded the death of their commander with 
 but little regret, being wearied with their fatiguing and unprofita 
 ble wanderings, and anxious to return among their countrymen ; 
 and the announcement by their new chief, Moscoso, of his in 
 tention to lead them by the most direct route to Mexico, was re 
 ceived by the whole body, with the utmost satisfaction. With 
 respect to the route to be pursued, examinations had already 
 shown the country on the w r est bank of the Mississippi, to be 
 nearly impassable, from lakes and marshes; and on the other 
 side, they would be exposed to the enmity of the daring Quigal- 
 tans, Chk-kasas, and other nations, already infuriated against 
 them ; while large vessels would be required to effect the voyage 
 to New Spain, through the river and the gulf. It was therefore 
 concluded, that they should take a south-west course, by which 
 they might reach some Spanish settlement in a few months, un 
 less they should be arrested by deserts, marshes, or enemies. 
 
 They accordingly quitted Guachoya on the 5th of June, and 
 marched slowly westward, with their slaves and mistresses 
 amounting in all to fifteen hundred persons. After crossing 
 numerous streams, lakes and marshes, they arrived in the coun 
 try of Naguatex, on a great river ; and thence continuing their 
 journey through the territories of the Nisione, the Nandacao, the 
 Naquiscoca, the Aays, and the Na^acahoz, corresponding in 
 name as in position, with the Nasoni, the Nadaco, the Natchi- 
 toches, the Adayes, and the Nacogdoches, who in the following 
 century occupied the countries about the Red river and the upper 
 Sabine, they in September reached another large stream, called 
 the Daycao, no doubt the same now known as the Trinity. An 
 exploring party sent forward reported the country to be a desert, 
 14 
 
106 FIRST VESSELS BUILT ON THE MISSISSIPPI. [1543. 
 
 inhabited only by a few wandering Indians, who lived "like 
 Arabs," on roots, fruits and game; and all hopes of reaching 
 New Spain by that route, being thus destroyed, the whole body 
 returned to the Mississippi, on the banks of which, they passed 
 the winter, in a country called Minoya, a little north of their for 
 mer quarters in Guachoya. 
 
 During this winter, many of the Spaniards died; the others 
 were occupied in building vessels, in which they resolved to at 
 tempt the passage to Mexico, by way of the river and the sea. 
 For this purpose, great exertions were made : timber was cut 
 and hewed into planks; the chains of their Indian captives were 
 struck off, and converted into nails and bolts; ropes were manu 
 factured of the bark of trees, and of the skins of buffaloes and 
 horses; and an herb like hemp, found growing in the country, 
 supplied oakum for caulking. The only cooper in the party fell 
 sick; but " it pleased God to restore him to health," and he made 
 two large casks for each vessel. In the spring of 1543, they w T ere 
 exposed to great difficulties, and lost much time, in consequence 
 of the sudden rising of the river, which overflowed the place of 
 their habitation and labors ; they however preserved their vessels 
 and materials, ^Jiough they were unable to work in the two 
 months during which the flood continued. 
 
 In the meantime, some of the Indian slaves, thus freed from 
 their shackles, concerted a plan with the people of Minoya and 
 Guachoya, for murdering the Spaniards, and seizing upon the 
 treasures, in the shape of swords, lances, and other iron articles, 
 which were about to be carried away by the hated white men : 
 but Moscoso discovered the plot in time to prevent its execution ; 
 and he effectually stifled all such projects, by driving the ringlea 
 ders from the camp without their hands and noses. The slaves 
 were however not all enemies to their masters : a large proportion 
 were women, and there were also many children, the fruits of the 
 intercourse, perhaps in some cases of the loves, of the Spaniards, 
 with those dark daughters of the wilderness; and relations had 
 been thus formed, which neither party desired to break. The 
 women regarded with dismay, the preparations for the departure 
 of their lords ; and the latter addressed many petitions to Moscoso 
 for permission to carry their favorites and children with them : 
 but the commander was inexorable on this point, insisting that 
 
1543.] VOYAGE DOWN THE MISSISSIPPI. 107 
 
 no Indians should be taken in the vessels, except those absolutely 
 required for rowing. 
 
 At length in the beginning of July, 1543, the Spaniards had 
 completed seven small brigantines, which were merely large 
 boats, without decks, and of very rude and slender construction, 
 and some canoes for the transportation of their whole number, 
 and of twenty- two horses. The remainder of the horses and the 
 hogs had been killed, and their skins were used to cover the bot 
 toms of the boats, and for other purposes, the flesh being dried for 
 food on the voyage ; the other provisions consisted of Indian corn 
 and beans, of which large quanties had been collected by forage 
 on the natives of the surrounding country. 
 
 The preparations being thus completed, the Spaniards, three 
 hundred and twenty-two in number, embarked on the 2d of July, 
 taking with them one hundred Indians, w r ho were to be employed 
 when necessary, in rowing. The remaining captives, several 
 hundred in number, were left on the river bank, the men pouring 
 forth curses on their departing tyrants, which were however 
 drowned by the shrill wailings of the deserted women and chil 
 dren. The voyage down the Mississippi was attended with 
 some dangers, from the enmity of the Indians. The chief of 
 Guachoya invited the Spaniards to land, as they passed his 
 town, on the day following that of their departure from Minoya; 
 but the invitation was declined, and they continued onward, with 
 little labor, aided by the force of the current. The people fled 
 from the small towns as soon as the squadron appeared in sight, 
 and their corn and meat became the prize of the Spaniards ; but 
 on the third day, when the vessels came before Quigalta, a hun 
 dred canoes, filled with warriors, were seen drawn up to oppose 
 their progress. Juan de Guzman was sent by Moscoso, with 
 fifteen men to clear the way, which proved to be no easy task ; 
 for the Indians leaped into the water, and grappling the canoes 
 overturned them, so that only eleven of the Spaniards were 
 saved : Guzman when last seen, was in the hands of the savages, 
 and was probably sacrificed before the temple at Natchez. The 
 brigantines were next assailed, and their men having no arms, 
 except a few old cross-bows, and no means of protection, other 
 than mats and hides under which they crept, were severely galled 
 by the arrows of the Quigaltans : the mighty current of the stream 
 
108 THE SPANIARDS REACH THE GULF OF MEXICO. [1543. 
 
 however, enabled them to distance their pursuers, and no other 
 attack was made upon them by large forces. 
 
 At some distance below Quigalta, the Spaniards landed and 
 killed nearly all the horses, leaving the others on the bank : and 
 they dismissed the remainder of their Indian captives. Con 
 tinuing their voyage, they, on the seventeenth day, reached the 
 point at which the river divides into separate channels ; and the 
 whole party taking one passage, they soon beheld opening before 
 them, the broad expanse of the Mexican Gulf. According to 
 their computations, they had navigated on the great river about 
 two hundred and fifty leagues from the place of their depar 
 ture in Minoya to the sea; agreeably to which, their brigari- 
 tines must have been built near the line of separation, between 
 the States of Louisiana and Arkansas, that is about two hundred 
 miles above the city of Natchez : and as this last distance seems 
 to correspond with that which they might be supposed to have - 
 passed, in their three days' voyage from Minoya to Quigalta, 
 there is additional reason for considering the last mentioned 
 place, as identical with Natchez. 
 
 The Spaniards were by this time worn down with rowing and 
 watching: for many days they had eaten nothing but boiled corn, 
 which was distributed at the rate of a helmet full for three men per 
 day; and their prospects were indeed gloomy and embarrassing. 
 At the mouth of the river they anchored, and a council was called, 
 in which each man was required to give his opinion freely. Juan 
 de Anasco, "who presumed much on his knowledge of naviga 
 tion," remembered that he had seen a chart, on which the coast 
 of the gulf was represented as running from east to west to the 
 River of Palms, and thence southward to Panuco ; and he re 
 commended in consequence, that they should strike across the 
 sea south-westward, instead of losing time by following the shore 
 westward, as others recommended. Moscoso was of the same 
 opinion; but the great majority protested against it on account 
 of the weakness of their vessels, their want of charts and com 
 passes, and the insufficiency of the casks for carrying water, 
 under which circumstances either a storm or a calm might prove 
 fatal : and it was finally agreed that they should take the other 
 and safer course. Accordingly, on the 18th of July, they weighed 
 anchor, and were soon carried out to sea by the current of the 
 
1543.] ARRIVAL OF THE SPANIARDS IN MEXICO. 109 
 
 river, the water of which they drank until the next day; and then 
 began their voyage along the coast towards Mexico. 
 
 The voyage of the Spaniards along the coast of the Mexican 
 Gulf, westward from the mouth of the Mississippi, was slow, but 
 comparatively safe and easy. They obtained fish in abundance 
 for food, and fresh water when needed from streams or wells dug 
 near the shore ; and their chief annoyance seems to have pro 
 ceeded from the mosquitoes, which blackened their sails. After 
 some days, they took refuge from a storm in an extensive arm of 
 the sea, probably the same now known as Galvezton Bay; and 
 on leaving it, they were rejoiced to find the coast trending south 
 ward. Sailing in that direction some time longer, they saw 
 palm leaves floating on the sea, and high mountains soon after 
 appeared at a distance in the land, giving assurance of their ap 
 proach to New Spain. At length they reached the mouth of a 
 river, the waters from which were muddy, and broke with vio 
 lence on a shoal; and entering it, they beheld Indians in the 
 dress of their countrymen, who informed them in Spanish, that 
 the river was the Panuco. Their joy on receiving this announce 
 ment, was beyond expression by words, and burst forth in tears, 
 shouts and thanks to the Almighty, for their deliverance from the 
 perils by which they had been so long environed. Thus ani 
 mated, they rowed with redoubled energy up the stream, and on 
 the llth of September, 1543, they landed at the Spanish settle 
 ment of Panuco, above the present town of Tampico, three hun 
 dred and eleven persons in all of the six hundred who had en 
 tered Florida with Soto four years previous. 
 
 The wanderers were received with every kindness at Panuco, 
 and an express was sent to bear the news of their arrival to the 
 Viceroy Mendoza, who immediately invited them to the capital. 
 Thither they accordingly went, but the spirit of adventure which 
 had so long sustained them, was not to be suppressed in a mo 
 ment. The comparisons which they made between Florida and 
 New Spain were so disadvantageous to the latter country, that 
 they upbraided their officers for bringing them thither; and their 
 only prayer to the Viceroy, on arriving in Mexico, was that 
 he would afford them the means of establishing themselves in 
 Co^a or on the Great river. This was, however, refused by 
 Mendoza, who had been already nearly ruined by expeditions 
 
110 DISCOVERIES ON THE NORTH PACIFIC. [1542. 
 
 for discovery and settlements; and the company of bold Casti- 
 lians, who had so long faced clangers of all kinds, together, was 
 dissolved. Some settled in Mexico as tradesmen or mechanics, 
 and some entered convents, where they passed the remainder of 
 their lives in prayers and indolence; but the majority betook 
 themselves to the West Indies, and thence to Peru, where new 
 scenes of adventure were opened by the contest between Gonzalo 
 Pizarro, and the president Gasca. 
 
 This expedition of Hernando de Soto, has perhaps occupied a 
 more prominent place in the history of the New World, than it 
 merited, either from its events or its results. The extent of ter 
 ritory explored, and the stern determination displayed on all oc 
 casions, by those engaged in it, were indeed remarkable : nothing 
 however was effected, and very little was learned by the expedi 
 tion ; and the sameness of the character, the productions and the 
 inhabitants of the countries traversed, and the common-place 
 nature of the incidents, render vain all attempts to invest the 
 accounts of it with that poetic interest, which is inseparable from 
 every narrative, however inartificial, of the proceedings of Cortes 
 or Pizarro. 
 
 Whilst this expedition was in progress, another large body of 
 Spaniards under Francisco Vazquez de Coronado, had been 
 despatched by the Viceroy of Mexico, to explore the regions 
 north west of that kingdom, and to conquer the rich province of " 
 Cibola, which friar Marcos de Niza pretended to have discovered 
 near the 36th degree of latitude. Three years were spent by this 
 party, in rambling through the division of the continent, north 
 east of the Californian Gulf, traversed by the rivers now known 
 as the Yaqui, the Gila, the Colorado and the upper streams of 
 the Rio del Norte, and the Arkansas, where many large tracts of 
 fertile and agreeable territory were found, occupied by people not 
 absolutely barbarous, but entirely destitute of the wealth and re 
 finement, attributed to them in the accounts of the imaginative 
 friar. Two squadrons were at the same time employed in explor 
 ing the seas northwest of Mexico ; one was sent by Cortes, under 
 Francisco de Ulloa, who surveyed the coasts of the Californian 
 Gulf, (then called the Sea of Cortes and the Vermillion Sea,) and 
 afterwards those of the main Pacific, as far north as the 36th degree 
 of latitude; Hernando de Alarcon, the commander of the other 
 
 
1542.] DISCOVERY OF CANADA BY THE FRENCH. Ill 
 
 vessels despatched by the Viceroy Mendoza, also examined the 
 shores of the Gulf of California, and penetrated from it to a 
 considerable distance up the great river Colorado, which falls into 
 its northern extremity. The Pacific coasts were subsequently in 
 1542, more minutely surveyed by Juan Rodriquez Cabrillo, who 
 traced them beyond the 43rd parallel, though not far enough to 
 destroy the common belief, in the connection of the new conti 
 nent with Asia.* 
 
 The Spanish dominion in Mexico was in the meantime be 
 coming daily stronger, and more assured, under the wise and 
 firm administration of Mendoza, who seems to have been admi 
 rably qualified for the arduous task assigned to him, of establish 
 ing law and order, in place of the violence and corruption every 
 where prevailing. The conqueror Cortes, broken in health, in 
 spirits, and in fortune, had retired in 1540 to Spain, where he 
 spent in chagrin and neglect, the evening of a life, the noon-day 
 of which had been so brilliant. 
 
 At this period also, the English and the French renewed their 
 attempts to explore the western coasts of the Atlantic, in search 
 of passages to India, or of rich or fertile countries, for conquest 
 or settlement. Of the voyages made with such objects, those 
 most worthy of note were conducted by the French under Jacques 
 Cartier, who, in 1534, discovered the Gulf on the western side 
 of Newfoundland, and the great river emptying into it, and gave 
 to the adjacent territory the name of Canada for what reason is 
 not exactly known. In the following year Cartier made another 
 voyage, in which he penetrated up the great river, then first 
 called by him the St. Lawrence, as far as the island of Hochelaga, 
 where the city of Montreal now stands; and on his return to 
 France, he endeavored to obtain from his sovereign the command 
 of an armament, for the occupation and settlement of the country. 
 Nothing however was done with this view, until 1541, when 
 Cartier was entrusted by Francis I. with a squadron, to prose 
 cute the exploration of the St. Lawrence; but the possession and 
 right to settle, were conferred on Francois de Roberval, with the 
 title of Lieutenant General of Canada, Saguenay and Hochelaga; 
 
 * Particular accounts of the expeditions mentioned in this paragraph may be 
 found in the first chapter of the History of Oregon and California, by the author 
 of the present work. 
 
 
112 RESULTS OF SPANISH DISCOVERIES. [1543. 
 
 an arrangement of course not gratifying to the feelings of the 
 discoverer of those territories. Cartier accordingly sailed to the 
 St. Lawrence, where he built a fort called Charlesbourg, in honor 
 of the second son of the king, near the spot now occupied by 
 Quebec; and Roberval went thither in 1542, with a number o-f 
 vagabonds from the streets of Paris as colonists: but concert be 
 tween the two commanders was impossible, and the whole project 
 failed. Roberval made another attempt for the same purpose 
 some years after, with no more success; and though the gulf and 
 river of St. Lawrence w r ere frequented by fishing vessels, from all 
 parts of western Europe, during that century, no farther efforts 
 were made to occupy their coasts until 1607. 
 
 With the expedition of Hernando de Soto through the coun 
 tries north of the Mexican Gulf, the heroic, or rather the romantic 
 age of American history, may be considered as ending. It was 
 by that time nearly, if not fully established, that no nations, un 
 discovered by Europeans, existed in the New World, from the 
 conquest of which, either wealth or glory could be gained ; and it 
 appeared to be no less commonly admitted that the western conti 
 nent, if not actually joined to Asia, extended uninterruptedly 
 northward as well as southward, beyond the latitudes within 
 which any channel connecting the Atlantic and the Pacific, 
 could be advantageously used for navigation between Europe 
 and India. It seems also to have been generally concluded, 
 from the observations made in the expeditions of Narvaez and 
 Soto, that Florida contained no mines of precious metals; and 
 this opinion prevailed, without contradiction by facts, for more 
 than two centuries longer, during which the great line of auri 
 ferous rocks, stretching south-westward from the Potomac to the 
 Mobile, continued hidden from the greedy eyes of the European 
 race. Had a single lump or a few grains of gold been found by 
 Hernando de Soto, while traversing the hills of Coa, where the 
 veins of that metal are richest, the fate of the North American 
 continent might have been far different: the territories now form 
 ing the States of Alabama, Georgia, and the Carolinas, might 
 have been filled with a Spanish population; and on the shores 
 of Chesapeake Bay, might have arisen a Vera Cruz, or a Pa 
 nama, as the depository of the trade between those regions and 
 the mother country beyond the Atlantic. 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 
 1544 TO 1574. 
 
 FIRST SETTLEMENTS OF EUROPEANS IN FLORIDA EXPEDI 
 TION OF ARELLANO SETTLEMENTS OF THE HUGUENOTS 
 
 UNDER RlBAULT AND LrAUDOUINIERE EXTERMINATION OF 
 
 THE FRENCH, AND OCCUPATION OF EASTERN FLORIDA BY 
 THE SPANIARDS UNDER MENENDEZ. 
 
 NOTWITHSTANDING the ill success, which attended the expe 
 ditions of the Spaniards, under Narvaez and Soto, into the interior 
 of Florida, persons were found anxious to embark in similar en 
 terprises, for the exploration and possession of that country. Two 
 brothers, Julian de Samafio and Pedro de Ahumada, men of large 
 fortune, earnestly entreated the emperor, to grant them commis 
 sions for that purpose, immediately after the return of the survivors 
 of the party of Soto : but the Council of the Indies opposed the 
 project, on the ground of the impolicy of then extending the 
 Spanish settlements in the New World, and their applications 
 were in consequence refused. 
 
 Attempts were however, made through the exertions of Bar- 
 tolome de 'las Casas, then Bishop of Chiapas in Guatemala, to 
 establish missionary stations on the coasts of Florida, for the con 
 version of the natives to Christianity. With this object, the 
 Dominican friars, Luis Cancer, Gregorio Beteta, and others of 
 their order, landed in 1549, at the Bay of Espiritu Santo, (proba 
 bly the mouth of the Suwannee river :) but the cruelties commit 
 ted by the Spaniards, under Narvaez and Soto, were fresh in the 
 minds of the natives of that region, who immediately attacked 
 15 
 
114 SHIPWRECKS ON THE COAST OF FLORIDA. [1553. 
 
 the missionaries, and put several of them to death, before they 
 could regain their vessels.* 
 
 The war between France and Spain in the meantime continued 
 with little intermission; and the privateers of the former nation 
 committed great ravages on the maritime commerce of Spain, 
 particularly by attacking the richly freighted ships proceeding 
 from Mexico, of which many were annually taken, in their pas 
 sage from the gulf to the Atlantic, between Cuba and Florida. 
 A number of Spanish vessels were also, at the same period, lost 
 on the Florida coasts, along which they were carried from Vera 
 Cruz, by the current of the gulf; and on those occasions, the 
 crews, when they escaped from the waves, usually died of star 
 vation, or were murdered or enslaved by the Indians. One of 
 these ships of the first class, carrying a thousand persons, was 
 thus wrecked in 1553, probably near the entrance of the large 
 stream now called the Brazos : three hundred of her crew suc 
 ceeded in reaching the shore, along which they endeavored to 
 make their way back to Mexico ; not more than half of their 
 number, however, arrived at Panuco, the others having perished 
 from hunger, disease, or the clubs and arrows of the savages. 
 The particulars of their journey are related by the historians of 
 the period;! but the accounts are too vague on geographical 
 points, to afford precise ideas as to their route : several rivers are 
 mentioned, as crossed by the travellers, before reaching the River 
 of Palms, one of which called by them Rio Bravo or Bold river, 
 may have been the same now known as the Colorado ; though the 
 name of Rio Bravo was subsequently applied 1o the larger stream 
 entering the gulf farther south, near the 26th degree of latitude, 
 which seems to have been originally called the River of Palms. 
 At this period, several changes took place among the sove 
 reigns of western Europe, which materially affected the political 
 
 * Accounts of this missionary expedition are presented by Torquemada and 
 Barcia; the most particular is however that contained in the narrative of Friar 
 Gregorio de Beteta, addressed to the Viceroy of New Spain immediately on his 
 return from Florida, of which a French translation may be found in the Collec 
 tion of Ternaux Compans. 
 
 f "Ensayo Chronologico, para la Historia General de la Florida" A Chron 
 ological History of Florida, by A. G. Barcia, published at Madrid in 1723, under 
 the name of Gabriel de Cardenas Z. Cano the anagram of that of the author. 
 To this work frequent reference will be made in the ensuing pages. 
 
1556.] BEGINNING OF THE RELIGIOUS WARS IN EUROPE. 115 
 
 condition of those countries, and their relations with each other, 
 and contributed in the end to fix the destinies of a large portion 
 of the New World. In January 1547, Henry VIII. of England 
 died, leaving his throne to his only son Edward VI. a delicate 
 boy of ten years of age; and two months afterwards, Francis I. of 
 France, was in like manner succeeded by the Dauphin, who 
 reigned as Henry II. During the short life of the young sove 
 reign of England, the cause of religious reform, embraced and 
 protected by his government, seemed to be firmly rooted in that 
 kingdom; and under the encouragement thus afforded, the same 
 spirit of opposition to the supremacy of the church of Rome, was 
 rapidly increasing in Germany, France and the Netherlands, 
 notwithstanding the severities exercised towards those who main 
 tained it, by Henry II. and occasionally by Charles V. The 
 hopes of the Protestants, as the reformers called themselves, were 
 however checked in 1553 by the death of Edward VI .and the 
 accession of his eldest sister Mary, the daughter of Catherine of 
 Arragon, to the English crown; and they were reduced to despair 
 in the following year, when that Queen. was united in marriage 
 with her cousin Philip, the eldest son of Charles V. and heir-ap 
 parent to the Spanish throne, who had already exhibited the most 
 determined and ferocious hatred to their cause. How fully 
 these anticipations of evil were realized, it is unnecessary here to 
 show, as every one is acquainted with the dreadful events, which 
 marked the reign of Philip and Mary in England; and still more 
 gloomy were the prospects of the reformers rendered in 1556, 
 when Philip became king of Spain, in consequence of the ab 
 dication of his father, whom policy had led on many occasions 
 to protect them against the efforts of their enemies. 
 
 The dominions of Spain in the West Indies, had by that time 
 assumed a form and consistency, which appeared to promise dura 
 tion, as well as advantage to the mother country ; and the system 
 on which those possessions were to be governed, had been 
 adopted and applied, such as it continued with little variation, as 
 long as the supremacy of Spain was preserved in the American 
 continents. The fundamental principle of this system was, that 
 the whole of the New World except Brazil, belonged of right, 
 exclusively to Spain, and should be kept forever in entire and 
 absolute dependance on that kingdom; with which view foreign- 
 
116 SPANISH GOVERNMENT IN THE NEW WORLD. [1556. 
 
 ers were to be excluded from those territories, and the Spanish 
 settlements were moreover to be restrained in the development, 
 of their resources, so as to prevent the possibility of their be 
 coming independent of the parent State. The heaviest penalties 
 were accordingly declared against all subjects of other nations, 
 who should visit the portion of the New World thus claimed by 
 Spain, or navigate the sea in its vicinity ; and the extension of 
 the settlements, and their intercourse with each other, and with 
 Spain, were regulated by peremptory laws, general or special, all 
 emanating from the Council of the Indies, over which the sove 
 reign himself was supposed to preside on all occasions. 
 
 Mexico and Peru were the only parts of the New World found 
 occupied by people accustomed to regular- labor : and as in those 
 parts moreover, the precious metals were most abundant, the 
 Spanish government directed its attention to them in prefer 
 ence; leaving the others to be settled at such points, and at 
 such periods only, as circumstances might seem to indicate, 
 in order to secure them from falling into the power of foreign 
 nations. Establishments, civil, military and ecclesiastical, were 
 accordingly formed in Mexico and Peru, similar to those in the 
 European dominions of Spain ; each division had its archbishop 
 and bishops, and over each was placed a viceroy, representing the 
 power and person of the monarch, and nominally absolute in his 
 territories, though really checked in all respects by the Audi- 
 encia, which combined the attributes of a high court of appeals, 
 a board of administration, and a council of government, and was 
 responsible only to the sovereign. The other political divisions 
 of the Indies, were governed by captains general, possessing more 
 limited powers, and subject in many cases to the control of the 
 viceroys. 
 
 The commerce of the Indies was under the special direction of 
 the Casa de Contratacion, or House of Contracts, established at 
 Seville, from which port all shipments were made for those coun 
 tries, and at which all vessels coming from them discharged their 
 cargoes ; while each division of the trans-atlantic dominions, had 
 in like manner its exclusive port of entry and departure, and its 
 board of trade, subordinate to the House of Contracts. The 
 centre of commerce of the Mexican Gulf was Vera Cruz, which 
 had been removed in 1526, from the place selected by Cortes, to 
 
1556.] MINES DISCOVERED IN NEW SPAIN. 117 
 
 one farther south, at the entrance of the river Antigua, twelve 
 miles north of the city now bearing that name. Treasures and 
 merchandize to and from Peru, were transported across the isth 
 mus, between Panama and Portobelo : the dangers and difficul 
 ties of the navigation through Magellan's Strait, had caused that 
 route to be abandoned, and the Spanish government had become 
 so well convinced of the evils which might result from the disco 
 very or opening of a more convenient channel of communication 
 between the two oceans, that all attempts with that object, were 
 declared to be penal offences. 
 
 The Indian provinces received from Spain all articles which 
 could be brought from that country; and in return, they sent 
 precious metals, sugar, dye woods, and a few other tropical pro 
 ductions. In Mexico, the mines of silver and gold found in 
 operation at the time of the conquest, were few, and the amounts 
 received from them were small, in consequence of the imperfect 
 mode of working them : many others were however soon dis 
 covered, especially in the unsettled regions north-west of the 
 dominions of Montezuma, which vastly increased the value of 
 those possessions to Spain. In 1550, the rich silver veins of 
 Zacatecas were opened; five years afterwards, Durango was 
 founded by Francisco Ibarra, in a district abounding in mineral 
 wealth; and the mines of San Juan, Ainde, and Santa Barbara, 
 were disc6vered in the territory then called New Biscay, near 
 the headwaters of the River Conchos, which were long regarded 
 as the most productive in the world. The explorations for 
 this object were usually commenced by missionaries, who em 
 ployed the influence acquired by them over the natives, to ob 
 tain a knowledge of the places where precious metals might be 
 obtained : then came military and civil officers, who examined 
 the spots, and selected those around which the country was most 
 fertile, for settlements; and on such spots, colonies were estab 
 lished, by means of arbitrary draughts of natives, from the old 
 and populous provinces, chiefly from Tlascala, where the people 
 were remarkable for their industry and docility. The same sys 
 tem was adopted in Peru, with equal success ; and the Spaniards 
 thus possessing in those two divisions of their Indian empire, as 
 many mines as they could conveniently work, and regarding gold 
 and silver as the best returns which could be derived from them, 
 
118 TREATMENT OF INDIANS BY THE SPANIARDS. [1556. 
 
 discouraged all labors not tending directly or indirectly to increase 
 the supply of the precious metals. 
 
 In the West India islands and on the Atlantic coasts of the 
 continent, south of that archipelago, where settlements were 
 formed by the Spaniards, the aborigines had nearly all disap 
 peared, the laws for their protection having proved ineffectual in 
 every respect, and the labor was performed by negro slaves, of 
 whom large numbers were annually introduced from Africa, in 
 defiance of the efforts of the government to prevent it. In Mexico 
 and Peru, the native population, though much reduced since the 
 conquest of those countries, was still considerable; and every 
 means was employed by the Spanish Government to preserve 
 and increase it. The lands were all owned by the crown, or by 
 individuals to whom they were granted, with their occupants, on 
 the conditions that the latter should be treated with kindness and 
 forbearance by their lords, be instructed in the principles and 
 practice of the Christian religion, and be induced by mild means 
 to labor diligently, and to adopt the arts and usages of civilized 
 life. These humane provisions were, however, disregarded in 
 Mexico and Peru, as in the other parts of the Indies ; and the 
 natives were subjected to the same cruelty and rapacity, which 
 had depopulated Cuba and Hispaniola, until the ecclesiastical 
 power had been seriously engaged in their behalf. The efforts 
 of Las Casas with that object, have been already mentioned ; he 
 was ably seconded by the Dominicans, and the members of 
 several other orders; and in 1536, a Bull* was issued by Pope 
 Paul III., solemnly declaring the aborigines of the trans-atlantic 
 countries to be a men" (which had been previously questioned,) 
 and denouncing as criminal, all attempts to enslave them, or to 
 deprive them of the benefits of the church. From that period, 
 the condition of the natives was improved, particularly in Mexico, 
 where they were shielded in a considerable degree from personal 
 ill treatment, ' and especially from being sold, or transported 
 against their will, from their respective districts, except for the 
 service of the government, which reserved to itself the right of 
 levying as many men as might be required, for working mines or 
 forming colonies. 
 
 The Spanish population in Mexico and Peru was compara- 
 * See the Bull in Torquemada, book 17, chapter 5. 
 
1557.] PHILIP II. ORDERS FLORIDA TO BE OCCUPIED. 119 
 
 tively small, and the government took no pains to increase it, 
 farther than might be absolutely necessary to control and direct 
 the Indians, whose ignorance and apathy rendered them the best 
 and safest instruments for all the purposes contemplated in those 
 countries. The other divisions of the empire presented few in 
 ducements to emigrants who would not work themselves, and 
 had no capital to invest in negroes : the returns for such invest 
 ments, especially in Cuba and Hispaniola, were, however, so 
 great, that those islands might be considered as in a prosperous 
 condition; and Santo Domingo and Havanna, were rising into 
 importance as commercial depositories. 
 
 The Spanish government considered Peru as sufficiently se 
 cured against invasions from other European nations, by the 
 difficulty of reaching it. Mexico was, however, much exposed 
 to such dangers; and the French privateers, which continued to 
 infest the approaches to the gulf, might open the way to more 
 powerful armaments from France or England. This was clearly 
 seen by Philip II., who, from the moment of his assumption of 
 the crown of Spain, displayed the strongest interest in his trans 
 atlantic possessions ; and he immediately signified his accordance 
 with the recommendations of the Council of the Indies, that naval 
 stations and colonies should be established on the northern coasts 
 of the Mexican Gulf, as the most effectual means of averting the 
 anticipated evils. Orders were in consequence sent in 1557, to 
 the Viceroy of Mexico, to have the shores of Florida on the At 
 lantic, as well as on the Gulf, carefully examined; and to occupy 
 without delay, such points as might be most convenient for the 
 contemplated objects. 
 
 The Viceroy Don Luis de Velasco, who succeeded Mendoza in 
 1550, and had strongly urged the occupation of the Florida 
 coasts, lost no time in preparing an expedition for that purpose ; 
 and whilst the equipment of vessels and the collection of men 
 were in progress, he despatched Guido de las Bazares, a pilot well 
 acquainted with the navigation of the gulf to select a proper 
 spot for the first establishment. Bazares accordingly sailed from 
 San Juan de Ulua in September, 1558, and running along the 
 coast northward, he first entered and examined a bay in latitude 
 of 28| degrees, named by him the Bay of San Francisco, which 
 was most probably the same now known as Matagorda Bay, in 
 
120 DISCOVERY OF THE PHILIPPINE BAY. [1558. 
 
 Texas, where the French, under La Salle, attempted to form a 
 settlement in 1685. Thence proceeding eastward, he made the 
 land of Florida in latitude of 29| degrees, and passing among a 
 group of islands, situated near the coast, he discovered a large 
 bay, opening to the gulf between the extremity of a long island 
 and the mainland, which he entered and suryeyed with care. 
 This bay, according to the report of Bazares, extended fifteen 
 leagues northward from its entrance to its extremity, where it 
 received a great river, and was about four leagues in breadth ; 
 the depth of water at the entrance was between three and four 
 fathoms, and somewhat more within : the banks on the east were 
 high and red ; on the other sides they were low, and covered with 
 trees and vines. The climate was agreeable, and appeared to 
 be healthy; the surrounding country bore every mark of fertility; 
 and the pilot conceiving that he had found what was required, 
 took possession of the place, which he named the Philippine 
 Bay, in honor of his sovereign, and returned with the news to 
 Vera Cruz before the end of the year.* 
 
 The viceroy being satisfied with the account presented by 
 Bazares, of the advantages of the Philippine Bay, determined 
 that a colony should be immediately planted on it ; and with that 
 object, a large fleet departed from Vera Cruz in June 1559, car 
 rying more than fifteen hundred persons of all classes, under the 
 command of Tristan de Luna y Arellano, who had been ap 
 pointed Governor and Captain General of Florida. On the 28th 
 of the month, these ships were off the. mouth of the river of Es- 
 piritu Santo, or the Mississippi; and being thence driven east 
 ward, they on the 2d of July saw the land of Florida, in latitude 
 of 29 degrees, near the entrance of the Bay of Miruelo, which 
 was most probably the same, now called the Bay of St. Andrew, 
 a little west of the Apalachicola river. There they remained at 
 anchor until the 17th, when they again set sail, and running 
 along the coast to the west, they soon reached the Philippine 
 Bay, where the horses and the greater part of the soldiers and 
 colonists were immediately landed. Arellano however, was by 
 
 * A French translation of the report of Bazares to the Viceroy Velasco, is given 
 by Ternaux Compans in his " Recueil de Voyages," from which an English transla 
 tion may be found in the Proofs and Illustrations at the end of this volume, under 
 the letter A. 
 
1559.] EXPEDITION OF ARELLANO TO FLORIDA. 121 
 
 no means so well pleased with this place, as the pilot had been : 
 he found it difficult of access from the narrowness and want of 
 depth of the channel at its entrance ; and being persuaded that it 
 must be inferior in all respects, to the port of Achusi, discovered 
 by Maldonado in the expedition of Soto, be determined to remove 
 his people to the latter place, which he knew, from the accounts 
 of that expedition, to be situated at a short distance eastward. 
 The vessels accordingly proceeding twenty leagues along the 
 coast in that direction, found and entered the harbor of Achusi, 
 on the 15th of August, where they were soon joined by the sol 
 diers and settlers who had marched thither, across the country; 
 and the governor being satisfied with the results of his survey, 
 ordered the stores and materials to be landed on the shore of 
 the harbor, the name of which, was changed to that of Santa 
 Maria, in honor of the arrival of the fleet, on the day of the As 
 sumption of the Holy Virgin. * 
 
 The bay of Achusi or Santa Maria, described in the report of 
 Arellano, as one of the best in the Indies, opening to the Mexi 
 can Gulf in latitude of 30 degrees 20 minutes, with red cliffs 
 traversed by gullies on the western side of its entrance, would 
 from those signs alone be recognised as the same now called 
 Pensacola Bay. The Philippine bay twenty leagues farther west, 
 twelve leagues in length, by three or four in breadth, communi 
 cating with the gulf between an island and the mainland, with 
 high red banks on the eastern side, and a large river entering its 
 northern extremity, could be no other than the Bay of Mobile. 
 Of the identity of the harbor of Achusi or Santa Maria, with 
 Pensacola Bay, history leaves no room for doubt, as will be 
 hereafter shown in the account of the definitive occupation of 
 the place, by the Spaniards in 1693, agreeably to orders founded 
 on the descriptions, given by Arellano. f The particulars above 
 mentioned, respecting the Philippine bay, will apply to no 
 other, adjoining the Mexican Gulf, than the bay of Mobile. The 
 islands passed by Bazares on his way from the mouth of the river 
 
 *Ternaux Compans in his Collection also presents a French version of a letter 
 sent by Arellano to the Viceroy from the Bay of Santa Maria, containing the 
 account of his voyage to that place. Barcia's Ensayo Chronologico, is the princi 
 pal authority for the remaining particulars of this expedition, of which no notice 
 whatsoever has been found in any work as yet published in the English language. 
 
 f See chapter viii. of this History. 
 
 16 
 
122 SPANISH FLEET DESTROYED IN PENSACOLA BAY. [1559. 
 
 of Espiritu Santo, are the well known group now called the 
 Chandeleurs, Horn island, Ship island, and others stretching in 
 a line, along the coast from the Mississippi, north-eastward, and 
 ending with Dauphin island, at the entrance of the Bay of 
 Mobile. 
 
 Arellano, so soon as he had made the dispositions above men 
 tioned, at the bay of Santa Maria, despatched a vessel to Vera 
 Cruz, to bear accounts of what had been done, and to request 
 farther supplies of provisions, to be sent to that place. But one 
 of those hurricanes, which render the Mexican Gulf in the month 
 of August, the most unsafe of all the American waters, immedi 
 ately afterwards sw^ept over the harbor, and in a few hours, every 
 vessel was sunk or driven ashore. The Spaniards were dismay 
 ed by this terrible misfortune; their commander however assured 
 them, that additional supplies would soon arrive from Mexico , 
 and having collected all that could be retrieved from the wrecks, 
 he caused huts to be built on the margin of the bay, for the tem 
 porary accommodation of the people, until a large party which 
 had been despatched under his sergeant major, should have se 
 lected a spot in the interior, for a settlement. 
 
 The sergeant major after rambling with his party for forty days 
 through a country, of the most uninviting character, uncultivated 
 and apparently unpeopled, at length reached a large river, and 
 following its course for sometime longer, they arrived at a vil 
 lage, from which the inhabitants fled on the approach of the 
 strangers. Some provisions were however found there, and one 
 of the Indians who returned stated that the ^village was called 
 Nanipacna, and that it had been destroyed many years before, 
 by people resembling the Spaniards, in color and appearance. 
 The exploration was continued for some distance farther; and no 
 place being found more promising for a settlement, than Nani 
 pacna, messengers were sent to inform the governor of the result 
 of the search. The people at the bay had in the meantime con 
 sumed all their provisions, and the surrounding country being a 
 sandy desert, they were in danger of starvation, in case they 
 should remain there much longer. The governor therefore de 
 termined immediately to remove with the whole body to Nani 
 pacna, at which place they accordingly established themselves, 
 in the latter part of November. 
 
1560.J WANDERINGS OF THE SPANIARDS IN FLORIDA. 123 
 
 Nanipacna was distant forty leagues from the Bay of Santa 
 Maria or Pensacola, and was probably a Muscoghee or Chacta 
 village, on the Alabama river.* The Spaniards passed a year 
 there, in the utmost misery, subsisting chiefly on roots, and 
 acorns. In the meantime, the sergeant major with two hundred 
 men, had been sent to seek for the country of Coa, of which 
 the followers of Soto had brought back such flattering accounts; 
 and after a long march, they discovered it, on the upper waters 
 of a large river, called by the natives Ollibahali, which was pro 
 bably the Coosa branch of the Alabama. The inhabitants were 
 then at war with the Napochies, dwelling on another river called 
 Ochechiton, or Great Water, f and the Spaniards having joined 
 the Cohans in an expedition against their enemies, the latter 
 were reduced to submission, and obliged to pay a heavy tribute 
 in Indian corn, beans, and bears' grease, of which the allies of 
 the conquerors took the lion's share. The Great Water, was 
 supposed to be the river of Espiritu Santo ; but as it was fre 
 quently forded by the combatants, during the war, it was more 
 probably the Tennessee, at or near the Mussel Shoals, in the 
 northern part of the State of Alabama. 
 
 On his return from this expedition, the sergeant major sent 
 messengers to the governor, to advise him not to come to Coca, 
 as it would be impossible to find subsistence for the people in 
 that country, the productiveness of which had been much exag 
 gerated by the followers of Soto ; but ere they arrived at Nani 
 pacna, the Spaniards had quitted the place, and returned to the 
 Bay of Santa Maria, Whither the messengers in consequence pro 
 ceeded. Arellano had shortly before caused two of the stranded 
 vessels to be repaired, in which some of his officers and priests 
 had sailed for Havanna in order to entreat for assistance; and he 
 was anxiously awaiting supplies, on the receipt of which, he had 
 determined to march with the whole body to Coca, and form a 
 
 * Nanipacna means the top of a hill among the Chocta and Muscoghee tribes of 
 the Alabama; Pacana was the name of one of the Muscoghee tribes, dwelling on 
 the east bank of the Alabama, just below the junction of the Coosa and Talipoosa 
 branches, not far from the present town of Montgomery in Alabama, distant 
 about 140 miles from Pensacola bay. 
 
 tThis Indian appellation is given with more than usual correctness in the 
 Spanish accounts ; Oke signifying water, and Chitto, great, in the languages of 
 the Muscoghee and Choctas. 
 
124 FLORIDA ABANDONED BY ARELLANO. [1561. 
 
 settlement there. The greater part of the Spaniards were, how 
 ever, disgusted with the enterprise, and headed by one of the 
 higher officers, they insisted on being carried back to Mexico, or 
 the West Indies, by the first opportunity. This disposition was 
 increased by the accounts of the messengers respecting the coun 
 try to which it was proposed to conduct them ; and it proceeded 
 so far, that Arellano, in order to prevent mutiny, was obliged to 
 recall the sergeant major and his party. After some months 
 longer spent in this wretched state, they were at length greeted 
 in the spring of 1561, by the arrival of a squadron sent for their 
 relief from Vera Cruz, under Angel de Villafafie. The governor 
 thereupon renewed his preparations for a settlement in Cof a, to 
 which country he endeavored by persuasions and threats to in 
 duce his men to follow him : but he was obliged in the end, to 
 yield to their desires ; and though he with some of the soldiers, 
 remained until the latter part of the year in Florida, the great 
 mass of the people sent for the occupation of that territory, em 
 barked with Villafane and were landed by him at Havanna. 
 
 Villafafie had been ordered also to examine the Atlantic coasts 
 of Florida in search of places for colonies on that side; and ac 
 cordingly after landing the people at Havanna, he sailed along 
 the shore of the continent northward, and on the 27th of May, 
 entered the river of Santa Helena, the latitude of which he placed 
 nearly in 33 degrees. Not considering that spot suitable, he con 
 tinued his exploration, and on the 2d of June he reached a point 
 of land in 34 degrees then known to Spanish navigators as Cape 
 San Romano, a little beyond which he found a large river, sup 
 posed by him to be the same called the Jordan by Vazquez de 
 Ayllon. After leaving this point, he reached another in 35 de 
 grees, named by him Cape Trafalgar, near which he was in dan 
 ger of shipwreck on the shoals surrounding it ; and fearing to 
 proceed farther, he returned to the West Indies, with a very un 
 favorable account of those coasts, and of the adjoining countries. 
 Agreeably to the latitudes above mentioned, the river of Santa 
 Helena would have been identical with the Santee, and Cape 
 San Romano with Cape Fear; Cape Trafalgar, as described in the 
 accounts of the voyage, presents all the terrible characteristics of 
 Cape Hatteras. 
 
 Thus ended the third great expedition of the Spaniards through 
 
1561.] MENENDEZ ASKS THE GOVERNORSHIP OF FLORIDA. 125 
 
 the territories north of the Mexican Gulf, which, though con 
 ducted on a scale of equipment far superior to those of Narvaez 
 and Soto, has remained almost unnoticed by historians. The 
 results were not calculated to encourage farther efforts for the 
 same objects; yet the spirit of adventure in the New World was 
 not quenched, and there were still found persons ready to risk 
 fame and fortune in enterprises of that kind, with the desperate 
 hope of attaining some more eminent position. 
 
 The principal candidate for the command of another arma 
 ment, to be employed in the discovery and settlement of Florida, 
 was Don Pedro Menendez, or Melendez, or Mendez, as his name 
 is variously written, a native of Aviles in Asturia, a man of that 
 truly iron frame of mind, resolute, rapacious, ruthless and per 
 severing, of which Spain has at all times produced so many, 
 and has sent forth so many for the affliction of the New World. 
 This person, after a long series of adventures on sea and on 
 land, had in 1557 been raised by Philip II. to the command of 
 the India fleet, in which capacity he still farther distinguished 
 himself, by skill and prowess, as well as by devotion to the will 
 of the monarch ; and on learning the news of the failure of the 
 expedition of Arellano, he applied for the governorship of Florida 
 and the direction of forces for its occupation, with the hope not 
 only of acquiring wealth and reputation, but also, and principally 
 of recovering his onty son, who had been wrecked near the south 
 ern-extremity of the peninsula in 1550, and was supposed to be 
 still living in captivity among the natives. His propositions, 
 however, remained without effect until 1564, when circumstances 
 induced the Spanish government to accept them. In order to 
 render these circumstances perfectly intelligible, it will be con 
 venient to present a concise view of some of the most important 
 events, which occurred in Europe whilst the expedition of Arel 
 lano was in progress. 
 
 The first of these events was the death of Mary Queen of 
 England, the wife of Philip II. of Spain, and the accession of 
 her sister Elizabeth to the throne in November, 1558. The 
 war between those two nations and France was ended in April 
 following, by the treaty of Gateau Cambresis, when a new alli 
 ance was formed between the sovereigns of France and Spain, 
 which was cemented by the marriage of Philip II., to the daugh- 
 
126 
 
 ENGLISH FREE-TRADERS IN THE WEST INDIES. [1561. 
 
 ter of Henry II. In the course of the festivities on the latter 
 occasion, the French King was accidentally killed ; his eldest son 
 and successor, Francis II., did not long survive; and before the 
 end of 1560 the crown of France rested on the head of Charles 
 IX., another son of Henry II., then only ten years of age, 
 whose demoniacal disposition had already manifested itself by 
 various acts of malevolence. 
 
 The accession of Elizabeth to the throne of England dissolved 
 the forced connection between that country and Spain , and the 
 mutual hatred of their sovereigns soon burst forth. The English 
 queen excited her subjects openly as well as secretly to contra 
 vene the prohibitory regulations of Spain with regard to settle 
 ment and commerce in the New World; and the West Indian 
 seas were in consequence soon filled with English vessels, en 
 gaged in trade with the people of the contiguous coasts, which 
 they claimed the right to carry on, in virtue of a treaty con 
 cluded in 1529 between Henry VIII. and Charles V. The prin 
 cipal business of these Free-traders, as they afterwards termed 
 themselves, was the capture of negroes on the African coasts, 
 and their transportation to the Spanish colonies, in the islands 
 and the mainland of the West Indies and Mexico, where they 
 were sold at enormous prices to the planters, generally with the 
 connivance of the authorities ; and in this pursuit, Hawkins, 
 Drake, Cavendish, and many others who afterwards arose to dis 
 tinction as navigators, laid the foundation of their fame and for 
 tune. Against these interlopers, all the efforts of the Spanish 
 government proved ineffectual; its most trusted officers were 
 corrupted, and its ships and even forts were attacked, and plun 
 dered by the daring English, whensoever any attempt was made 
 to interfere with the commercial liberty which they insisted on 
 maintaining. 
 
 The overthrow of the papal authority in England by queen 
 Elizabeth, also contributed to widen the breach between her and 
 Philip II. In France, the persecution of the Huguenots, (as 
 the partizans of religious reform were then called,) had only 
 served to increase their numbers, and their boldness ; and nearly 
 one-third of the population of the kingdom, including many of 
 the highest nobles and even princes of the royal family, were 
 found in their ranks. Under such circumstances, while France 
 
1556.] FRANCE ANTARCTIQUE. 127 
 
 was at war with both Spain and England, the reformers were 
 enabled to maintain to a certain extent, their freedom of religious 
 opinion and worship; but after the peace, when Philip II. ac 
 quired an influence in the government of their country, the pen 
 alties against them were revived, and they soon saw, that their 
 only security was to be found in their swords. During the short 
 reign of Francis II., the two parties, Catholic and Protestant, 
 were brought distinctly in view of each other; and upon his 
 death, a struggle was openly begun, for the possession of the 
 boy king Charles IX., between the Catholics, under the queen 
 mother, Catherine de Medici, and the Guise family on the one 
 hand, and the Huguenots headed by the Admiral de Coligny and 
 the Prince of Conde on the other, which soon involved the whole 
 country in civil war. The Catholics had the advantage in num 
 bers, in wealth, in the prestige of royalty, and in the support of 
 the king of Spain, with whom the extirpation of heretics was 
 the ruling passion : the reformers received some aid from Eng 
 land, yet no more than was necessary to prevent their extinction; 
 for Elizabeth, a Protestant, from pride and policy, rather than 
 from conviction, was not inclined to encourage subjects in rebel 
 lion against their liege lords, and had in view only the advance 
 ment of her own kingdom, by keeping the French embroiled at 
 home. 
 
 Some time before this period, the chiefs of the Protestant party 
 in France, had endeavored to found a colony in the New World, 
 to which their brethren could retire, if forced by persecution in 
 Iheir own country ; and profess their opinions, and practise their 
 worship in freedom. With this object, an expedition was fitted 
 out in 1556, by Coligny and Calvin, and placed under the direc 
 tion of Nicolas Durand de Villegagnon, who made a settlement 
 called Fort Coligny, on an island in the harbor of Rio de Janeiro, 
 and took possession of the whole country, bestowing on it the 
 appellation of France Antarctique. Reinforcements were sent 
 to this colony from France, and it was maintained until 1560, 
 when it was broken up by the Portuguese, under the celebrated 
 Mem de Sa, aided by the treachery of Villegagnon, who had 
 been corrupted by the Duke of Guise, during a visit made to 
 France in the previous year. 
 
 Another attempt was then made for the same purpose by 
 
128 
 
 FIRST HUGUENOT EXPEDITION TO FLORIDA. 
 
 [1562. 
 
 Coligny, who having succeeded in engaging the young king, either 
 really or seemingly, in its favor, sent out two vessels from Havre, 
 in February, 1562, with soldiers and colonists of the reformed 
 faith, to found a settlement on the western side of the Atlantic. 
 The French on this occasion, avoiding alike the frozen regions 
 of the St. Lawrence, where Cartier and Roberval had failed in 
 their endeavors to establish themselves, and the burning shores 
 of Brazil, where they would be exposed to the immediate vicinity 
 of the Portuguese, took their course to Florida, in which they 
 considered the prospect of success more flattering; and in the 
 end of April they made the land, somewhere near the present 
 town of St. Augustine. Thence they sailed along the shore 
 northward, occasionally landing and communicating with the na 
 tives; and in this way they observed the mouths of several large 
 streams, of which the one named by them the River of May, from 
 its discovery on the first day of that month, is certainly the same 
 now known as the St. John. Of the other rivers mentioned in 
 the account of this expedition, the Seine seems to correspond 
 with that now called the Nassau, the Somme with the St. Mary, 
 the Garonne with the Alatamaha, and the Riviere Grande w r ith 
 the Savannah. Admitting the exactness of this last supposition 
 the harbor near the 32d degree of latitude, named by Ribault,Port 
 Royal, and selected as the site for a settlement, must have been 
 the inlet on the coast of South Carolina, at present called St. 
 Helena Sound; and not the one farther south now known as Port 
 Royal, which seems rather to have been the Riviere Belle-a-voir 
 of the French accounts. The two inlets are however only^ twenty 
 miles apart, and communicate with each other by passages be 
 tween islands, which they separate from each other and from the 
 mainland.* It has been already said, that this part of the coast 
 had been visited by,the Spaniards under Vazquez de Ayllon in 
 
 * The earliest account of this expedition, is the report addressed by Ribault to 
 Admiral de Coligny on his return to France, of which an English translation was 
 published at London in 1563, entitled, "The whole and true discovery of Terra 
 Florida, &c." The most complete account is however given by Laudouiniere in 
 the " Histoire notable de la Floride," hereafter mentioned, published by Ba- 
 sanier, at Paris in 1586, and by Hakluyt in English, in his Collection. 
 . Many particulars vrhich could not with propriety be inserted in this history, 
 will b( found in the life of Ribault, by Mr. Jared Sparks, in his valuable Collec 
 tion of American Biographies. 
 

 1562.] FIRST FRENCH COLONY IN FLORIDA. ] 29 
 
 1520, and six years afterwards when he endeavored to form a 
 settlement somewhat farther north; no exact knowledge of it 
 had however been obtained at the period in question. 
 
 On one of the islands between these two inlets, or more 
 probably north of St. Helena Sound, Ribault landed, and with due 
 solemnity took possession for his sovereign, setting up at the 
 same time a pillar with the arms of France upon it. He then 
 explored the surrounding country, and began the construction of 
 a fort and buildings for the residence of his people, on another 
 and larger island of the group, possibly that now known as Beau 
 fort. The settlement thus formed was named Charlefort, in honor 
 of the king ; and according to the account of the expedition, it 
 comprised only a few wooden buildings, enclosed by a palisade 
 of eighty or ninety feet square. The work being completed, 
 Ribault sailed with both vessels for France, leaving twenty-five 
 men at the place, and promising to returji before the end of the 
 year with reinforcements and supplies. 
 
 Soon after the departure of Ribault, the fort and houses of the 
 colony, with nearly all their provisions and materials, were de 
 stroyed accidentally by fire. The fort was rebuilt, but the people 
 discouraged by their losses, became mutinous, and refused to 
 work; and when their captain, Albert de la Pierria, attempted to 
 enforce discipline among them, they seized and hung him. Ni 
 colas Barre was then chosen as their leader, under whose direction 
 they built a small vessel, and having rigged her as well as they 
 could, set sail for France. On the way, their provisions and 
 water were exhausted, and they were forced to put to death one 
 of their number, in order to obtain food ; this relief was however 
 only temporary, and they were sinking in weakness and despair, 
 when they were met and succored by an English vessel, and were 
 thus enabled to reach England, from which they afterwards passed 
 over to their own country. 
 
 Ribault, meanwhile, arrived with his two vessels in France in 
 July, 1562, and there found the civil war in progress, between 
 his brethren in religion and the Catholics. The Huguenots were 
 defeated ; but queen Elizabeth saved them, by invading the north 
 ern coasts of France, and a pacification was effected on terms 
 nearly equal. As soon as tranquillity had been restored Coligny 
 again directed his thoughts to the establishment of a colony iij 
 17 
 
130 SECOND EXPEDITION OF THE FRENCH TO FLORIDA. [1564. 
 
 the New World; and having as before, obtained the assent of 
 the young king, he prepared three vessels for the enterprise. 
 The crews, as well as the settlers and soldiers, were selected 
 with as much care as possible; arms, ammunition, provisions, 
 tools and other requisite articles, were furnished in abundance, 
 and the little squadron thus equipped, sailed from Havre on the 
 22d of April, 1564, under the command of Rene de Goulaine de 
 Laudouiniere,* a gentleman from the province of Poitou, who 
 
 *This is the true orthography of the name, as ascertained by the Marquis de 
 Magny, Secretary of the Heraldic College of France, after careful inquiries in 
 Poitou. It is commonly written Laudonniere; but may also be found under the 
 forms of Laduniere, Ladoniere, and Ladignere, in various narratives, published 
 at the period in question. No one accustomed to the examination of the chroni 
 cles of that period will be surprised at these differences. 
 
 Many accounts of this expedition have been given by cotemporary writers, 
 French and Spanish, through which we are enabled to arrive at the principal 
 facts with considerable certainty. The Spanish authorities are noticed at page 
 136 ; those most worthy of credit, on the part of the French, are the following : 
 
 The earliest, entitled "Histoire memorable du dernier voyage aux Indes, 
 lieu appele la Floride," was printed at Dieppe in 1566; its author is supposed 
 to have been Nicolas le Challeux, an old carpenter, who went out with Ribault 
 in 1565, and was one of the few who escaped from Fort Caroline on its capture 
 by the Spaniards. The account of the writer's own experience is given in the 
 most simple and truthful manner; and he appends to it a narrative of the de 
 struction of the French at Matanzas Inlet, by Christophe Le Breton, one of the 
 survivors, which is the principal, if not the only French authority for the cir 
 cumstances of that dreadful affair. The whole may be found reprinted in the 
 Collection of Ternaux Compans. 
 
 The most complete original account of the expedition, is that of Laudoul- 
 niere himself, written upon his return to France, and published after his death 
 at Paris by Basanier, in 1586, under the title of " Histoire Notable de la Flo- 
 ride, &.c." An English version very defective, and in language so obsolete as to 
 be scarcely intelligible at the present day, is contained in the third volume of 
 Hakluyt's Collection : a translation carefully made, of the account of the capture 
 of Fort Caroline by the Spaniards, will be found among the Proofs and Illustra 
 tions, at the end of this volume under the letter B. 
 
 Of the other partial narratives, given in various collections of voyages and 
 travels of the 16th century, one of the most famous, is that in the celebrated Col 
 lection of De Bry, published at Frankfort in 1593, and illustrated by numerous 
 engravings, from drawings made by Jacques Le Moine de Morgues, the 
 draughtsman of the expedition, one of the few who escaped from Fort Caroline 
 on its capture. The drawings were doubtless all made from memory, and 
 though designed without regard for the rules of perspective, they are neverthe 
 less valuable as illustrations ; they v/ere drawn by De Morgues in London, for 
 Sir Walter Raleigh, probably when he was engaged in preparing for his expedi 
 tion to Carolina, and were purchased by De Bry from the widow of the artist, 
 who was then living in poverty in England. 
 
1564.] 
 
 LAUDOUINIEK.E LANDS IN FLORIDA. 
 
 131 
 
 had accompanied Ribault in his expedition, and had before, 
 as well as since that time, conducted himself with great prudence 
 and gallantry. 
 
 Taking his course by the Canary Islands, and the easternmost 
 of the West Indian Archipelago, Laudouiniere reached the coast 
 of Florida, in the latter part of June, near Cape Canaveral ; north 
 
 & Seine, 
 
 deMayorSanMafheo. 
 
 of which, he anchored and landed at an inlet, named by him 
 Riviere des Dauphins or Dolphin river, from the number of those 
 fish observed in it. Continuing his voyage in the same direc 
 tion, he visited in succession, the mouths of the river of May, 
 now the St. John, the Seine or Nassau, and the Somme or St. 
 Mary ; from which last, the vessels returned to the river of May, 
 where it was resolved to make the first establishment. 
 
132 FOUNDATION OF FORT CAROLINE. [1564. 
 
 A spot was accordingly selected on the south bank of the river, 
 about six miles from its mouth ; on which the French after praying 
 to God for his favor, constructed their habitation. It consisted 
 like that at Port Royal, of wooden houses, surrounded by a wall 
 or palisade of logs, wattled or interwoven with boughs; the 
 whole being moreover enclosed by a rampart of earth and logs, 
 of triangular form, on each side of which projected bastions 
 armed with small cannon. The place was thus rendered strong 
 enough to resist attacks from the natives, and in honor of the 
 king it received the name of Fort Caroline.* 
 
 When the buildings had been completed, and the stores were 
 deposited in them, Laudouiniere began to clear land for cultiva 
 tion, and to send exploring parties through the country, in order 
 to discover its advantages and to conciliate the natives. The 
 river of May was thus traced southward to its lakes, more than 
 eighty leagues from its mouth ; and treaties of peace were made 
 with the most powerful Indian chiefs of the vicinity, who en 
 gaged to supply the settlement with corn. The vessels having 
 been in the meantime unladen, and no farther use for them ap 
 pearing, they were sent back to France to carry the news of 
 what had been done, and to bring additional settlers and supplies 
 to the country. 
 
 In this manner, the first summer passed in quiet, and then 
 troubles began to appear in the establishment. Notwithstanding 
 
 *In De Bry's Collection is an engraving of the fort, taken from a drawing, made 
 doubtless from memory, by Lemoine de Morgues. The following description of 
 the place is given by Laudouiniere, in his " Histoire notable de la Floride :" 
 
 " Our fort was built in form of a triangle. The western side towards the land 
 was enclosed by a small ditch, and a rampart of earth, thrown up to the height 
 of nine feet. On the other side towards the river, was a palisade of timber, in 
 the form of gabions ; on the south side, was a bastion within which I caused a 
 house to be built for a magazine ; the whole was of logs and sand, except about 
 two or three feet of the upper part of the ramparts, which were of earth. In the 
 middle, was a large court yard of eighteen paces square ; on the south side of this 
 court, were the barracks, and on the other side a house, which I raised somewhat 
 too high, for the wind soon threw the walls down; and Uearned by experience 
 that v/e could not raise our houses to many stories in this country, from the vio 
 lence of the tempests. One of the sides of my court, which was large and beauti 
 ful, extended to the magazine ; and on the other, towards the river, were my own 
 lodgings, with covered galleries all around. The principal door of my lodging 
 was in the middle of the great court, and the other towards the river. At a short 
 distance from the fort I built an oven in order to avoid the danger of fire, as the 
 houses were covered with palmetto leaves." 
 
1564.] TROUBLES AT FORT CAROLINE. 133 
 
 the Care employed in the selection of the persons for the enter 
 prise, there were among them, many idle and dissolute men, who 
 were ignorant of what they had to expect, and had been induced 
 to join the expedition, merely by the hopes of living at ease 
 without labor, 'in the golden regions of the New World. These 
 hopes had been unfortunately increased, soon after their arrival, 
 by the sight of some pieces of gold and silver, in the possession 
 of the natives, which they readily gave in exchange for the knives 
 and hatchets of the French; and the commands and remon 
 strances of Laudouiniere, thenceforth became ineffectual, to in 
 duce a large number of his men, to labor in their regular employ 
 ments, instead of rambling about the country in search of mines. 
 The principal encouragers of this insubordination were an officer 
 named Le Gievre, and one Roquette, a soldier who had been a 
 monk, and pretended that he had by magical skill, discovered 
 a rich mine of gold, during the voyage up the river of May. 
 Through their means, cabals and conspiracies were formed at 
 Fort Caroline, against the authority and even against the life of 
 the governor, who narrowly escaped death, at one time by 
 poison, and at another by the explosion of a barrel of gunpowder 
 under his bed. 
 
 The search for mines in Florida proved entirely fruitless ; and 
 the gold and silver found in the possession of the natives, having 
 been all obtained from the wrecks of Spanish vessels on the 
 coasts, were soon exhausted. The discontented portion of the 
 colonists thereupon conceived that their objects might be equally 
 well attained, by the plunder of the vessels which passed near 
 them, laden with cargoes so rich ; and two of the barques built 
 for exploring the river, were in consequence carried off in No 
 vember, by parties of seamen and carpenters, who sailed for the 
 West Indies. Another body of mutineers in the following month, 
 seized Laudouiniere, whilst he was confined to bed by sickness, 
 and having carried him on board of one of the vessels, compelled 
 him to sign a passport or commission, under which they seized 
 the principal barque, equipped her with arms and provisions, and 
 took their departure in the same direction. 
 
 The last mentioned party of mutineers returned to the fort in 
 March, 1565, in the most distressed condition, with a Spanish 
 vessel taken by them on the coast of Cuba; and Laudouiniere 
 
134 MENENDEZ ADELANTADO OF FLORIDA. [1565. 
 
 who had during their absence strengthened his authority, imlne- 
 diately seized them and caused four of the ringleaders to be shot. 
 The other deserters also took a rich Spanish vessel, and having 
 divided the spoils among themselves, went to Havanna, where 
 information of the position and force of the French settlement 
 was obtained from them by the governor, and two of their num 
 ber were sent as prisoners to Spain. 
 
 Notwithstanding all the care and secrecy which had been ob 
 served by the Huguenots with regard to their expeditions and 
 establishments in Florida, they of course soon became known to 
 the Spanish government; it is even said, that Charles IX. him 
 self communicated all the particulars to his brother-in-law, king 
 Philip, by a letter in 1564. The proposals made by Pedro Me- 
 nendez to explore and occupy that country were then taken into 
 serious consideration ; and when in the following year, the deser 
 ters from Fort Caroline brought to Spain, accounts of the exact 
 position and extent of the French settlement, in the immediate 
 vicinity of the line of passage of vessels from the West Indies or the 
 Mexican Gulf to Europe, it was determined that the most effec 
 tive measures should be taken, without delay to destroy the here 
 tics, and to prevent future encroachments upon that important 
 portion of the New World. With this object, a patent was on 
 the 20th of March, 1565, granted by the king, to Menendez, 
 constituting him Adelantado of Florida, and empowering him to 
 explore, pacificate, and settle, the whole of that division of 
 America, at his own expense; and to retain the government, and 
 enjoy the advantages derivable from it, in every way, and trans 
 mit the same to his heirs in perpetuity, on certain expressed con 
 ditions, to be always observed. It was however stipulated, in 
 consideration of the nature of the first service to be performed, 
 namely the pacification of the country, in other words the ex 
 termination of the French heretics that five hundred men with 
 their arms and provisions for their maintenance during a short 
 period, and vessels for their transportation, should be allowed by 
 the sovereign, free from all cost to the Adelantado. In accord 
 ance with these stipulations, an armament was forthwith prepar 
 ed; and all being ready for the enterprise, Menendez sailed from 
 Cadiz on the 28th of June, with twelve vessels, carrying about 
 two thousand six hundred persons, mostly destined for Florida, 
 
1565.] HAWKINS AT FORT CAROLINE. 135 
 
 including the two French deserters, who sailed in the admiral's 
 own ship. 
 
 The resources of the French colony on the river of May, 
 against which this formidable expedition was directed, were in 
 the meantime rapidly failing. No assistance arrived from 
 France ; the Indians of the surrounding country became insolent, 
 and refused to furnish corn ; and as no grain had been planted, 
 from the causes already mentioned, famine seemed to impend 
 over the settlement. Laudouiniere was daily besought by the 
 colonists, to return with them to France, in their barques, and 
 he was on the point of yielding to their entreaties, when on the 
 3d of August, four English vessels appeared at the entrance of 
 the river. They were commanded by the famous free-trader 
 John Hawkins, who was then returning to England, with a large 
 amount of specie, and valuable merchandise, obtained in the 
 West Indies, in exchange for negroes brought from the African 
 coast. He was received and treated with great politeness, by 
 Laudouiniere, who aided him in procuring water; and Hawkins 
 in return, supplied the French with some provisions, wine and 
 clothes, and offered to carry them all back to their country. The 
 governor, however, being thus enabled to maintain his position a 
 little longer, and suspecting that the English might afterwards 
 found some claim to the whole territory, on the fact of such an 
 abandonment by the French, declined to accept the offer; though 
 he purchased one of the English vessels, by means of which, 
 and of his barques, the return to France might be effected, in 
 case it should be absolutely necessary. In a few days, Hawkins 
 departed for Europe leaving the French in better situation and 
 spirits than he had found them; not only from the addition made 
 to their immediate comfort by the supplies furnished, but also 
 from the moral influence, which Laudouiniere had been able to 
 acquire over the Indians, by assuring them, that the English 
 commander was his brother, and had come for the special pur 
 pose of assisting him.* 
 
 * Of the visit of Hawkins to Fort Caroline, we have his account, as well as 
 that given by Laudouiniere. The Englishman pronounces an unfavorable opinion 
 of Florida, as a place for a settlement : he admits that it is well adapted for the 
 growth of Indian corn, and for grazing, but it is on the other hand "poor in gold 
 and silver, the things we all seek for." 
 
136 
 
 MENENDEZ APPEARS BEFORE THE FORT. 
 
 [1565. 
 
 Shortly after the departure of the English, four French ships 
 arrived at Fort Caroline, bringing three hundred people of both 
 sexes, as settlers, with supplies of provisions and materials. 
 They were commanded by John Ribault, who had conducted the 
 first expedition to Florida, and now came with a commission as 
 governor, to supersede Laudouiniere, and require him to return 
 to France, and answer certain charges there preferred against 
 him. Laudouiniere, unconscious of wrong, was overwhelmed 
 with surprise and mortification, at this recall; and, though Ri 
 bault entreated him to remain, and give the colony the benefit of 
 his advice, he refused, being unable, as he said, to bear the com 
 mands of another, where he had already suffered so much, in 
 order to effect the settlement. He accordingly resigned his au 
 thority to his successor, and was preparing to go to France, with 
 the vessels, when, on the 4th of September, five Spanish ships of 
 war entered the river. 
 
 These vessels formed a portion of the squadron of Pedro Me- 
 nendez, and were commanded by him in person: the others had 
 been dispersed in a storm before reaching the West Indies.* 
 Menendez, however, was too impatient to await the arrival of his 
 whole force at the place of rendezvous in Porto Rico, but sailing 
 from that island, with the four ships in question, and about six 
 hundred men, he, on the 28th of August, the day assigned to St. 
 Augustine in the Roman Catholic Calendar, made the land of 
 Florida, near the 30th degree of latitude, opposite to the inlet, 
 
 * The proceedings of the Spaniards in this expedition to Florida, are related 
 with great minuteness and apparent accuracy by Barcia, in his "Ensayo Chro- 
 nologico," as derived from official documents, and from a memoir or narrative, 
 written by Dr. Solis de las Meras, the brother-in-law of the Adelantado, who 
 accompanied the expedition, and professes to have witnessed nearly every thing 
 described by him. A portion of the narrative of Solis de las Meras, will be 
 found translated, among the Proofs and Illustrations, in the latter part of this 
 volume, under the letter B. No. 2. We have also the journal of the chaplain 
 Francisco Lopez de Mendoza Grajales, translated into French, and published in 
 the Collection of Ternaux Compans, beginning with the departure of the fleet 
 from Spain, and ending on the 28th of August. 
 
 These accounts agree with each other, and with those of the French very 
 nearly, on all the principal circumstances, so far at least as they relate to events 
 of which the narrators on both sides were witnesses, or were able to procure 
 evidence apparently worthy of credit ; and where they differ, which is with one 
 or two exceptions, only on unimportant points, the Spanish accounts seem to be 
 in every respect preferable to the French. 
 
1565.] RIBAULT SAILS FROM THE RIVER. 137 
 
 which the French had in the preceding year, named River of 
 Dolphins. Off this place, Menendez anchored; and the French 
 deserters having recognized it, he departed under their guidance, 
 for the River of May, which he entered, as already said, on the 
 4th of September. 
 
 Ribault, so soon as he saw the Spanish ships, was aware of 
 their purpose, having been advised of their expedition, by a letter 
 from Coligny, received on the eve of his departure from France; 
 and as the Admiral had at the same time, earnestly enjoined upon 
 him, not to suffer the Spaniards to establish themselves in Florida, 
 he determined to resist them as far as possible. The Spanish 
 commander immediately on anchoring, declared his name and 
 character, and imperiously ordered the French to quit the territo 
 ries of the Catholic ,King: Ribault answered that he would die 
 before abandoning the' post confided to his charge; being how 
 ever unprepared for resistance at the moment, he cut his cables, 
 and proceeded to sea with his four largest ships. Menendez 
 followed with all his force, and a running fight was maintained 
 through the night, without serious damage to either party ; at the 
 end of which time the two squadrons were separated by a storm. 
 
 Ribault returned with three of his vessels to Fort Caroline, 
 where he announced his determination to take all the largest ships 
 and nearly all the most effective men, and go to sea again in 
 search of the Spaniards; to which Laudouiniere strongly objected 
 considering it preferable to concentrate their forces at their 
 strongest points. Ribault, however, exhibited the Admiral's 
 letter, and declared his resolution to resist the Spaniards at sea, 
 as the only means of defeating them, before they should receive 
 reinforcements from the West Indies ; and he accordingly departed 
 on the 10th, with five large vessels, carrying together more than 
 six hundred able men. Fort Caroline was left under the com 
 mand of Laudouiniere, with a feeble garrison, and all the women 
 and children, laborers and wounded, and other ineffective per 
 sons, amounting in all to about two hundred and forty. 
 
 From Fort Caroline, Ribault proceeded along the coast south 
 ward to the River of Dolphins, where he saw the Spanish ships 
 at anchor. He remained before the place, endeavoring to bring 
 them to action, for two days, when a violent storm arose, by 
 which the French vessels were driven farther south, and finally 
 18 
 
138 FOUNDATION OF ST. AUGUSTINE. [1565. 
 
 stranded midway between the River of Dolphins and ' Cape 
 Canaveral. Their crews were nearly all saved; and they refitted 
 one of the small vessels, in which sixteen men were placed under 
 the command of Captain Levasseur, to bear the news of the mis 
 fortune to Fort Caroline. The others took their way along the 
 coast in the same direction, suffering from want of food and water. 
 
 The Spaniards in the meantime had entered the river of Dol 
 phins, on the 7th of September; and Menendez finding the place 
 well adapted for an establishment, selected a spot at the mouth 
 of the little stream, now called North river, opposite the entrance 
 of the inlet, where he with due solemnity, laid the founda 
 tions of a fortress and town, named San Augustine, in honor 
 of the saint, on whose day the land was discovered. By the 
 17th of the month, the works had been advanced sufficiently 
 to render the place capable of resisting any attack which might 
 be anticipated; and the vessels being also secured in the harbor, 
 Menendez determined without farther delay, to attack the 
 French in Fort Caroline. He accordingly set off from St. 
 Augustine, on the 18th of August, with five hundred men, leav 
 ing the others, at that place, under the command of his brother. 
 The march, though not exceeding thirty miles, was painful and 
 difficult, chiefly in consequence of the violence of the rains ; and 
 the men frequently broke out into expressions of discontent, bor 
 dering upon mutiny. Menendez however, engaged as he seems 
 to have been convinced in the most holy of enterprises, and 
 under the immediate protection of the Virgin, closed his ears 
 against all complaints; and pressing onwards, thus arrived during 
 the night of the 20th, in the vicinity of Fort Caroline, where they 
 halted until break of day. 
 
 Fort Caroline was, as already said, merely a few wooden 
 buildings, surrounded by a palisade, enclosed within a triangular 
 rampart of earth; and was armed only with some small cannon. 
 Of its inmates, after the departure of Ribault, not more than sev 
 enteen were effective soldiers ; the others two hundred and twen 
 ty-three in number were laborers, servants, invalids, women and 
 children. In the river opposite the fort, lay three small barques 
 which had been built there, and one ship, La Perle, commanded 
 by Jacques Ribault, the governor's son, together with the vessel 
 purchased from Hawkins. The ground around the fort had been 
 
1585.] CAPTURE OF FORT CAROLINE BY THE SPANIARDS. 139 
 
 cleared to the distance of half a mile ; beyond which lay thick 
 woods, on all sides, except that exposed to the river. Laudoui- 
 niere had been prevented by illness, after the departure of Jean 
 Ribault, from putting the place in the best state of defence, of 
 which it was capable; he however caused the watches to be kept, 
 and this was regularly done, until day break of the 21st, when 
 the officer on duty, allowed the sentinels who had been for some 
 time exposed to a violent rain, to come in to their quarters. At 
 this moment, the Spaniards suddenly rushed from the wood, and 
 entering the enclosure of the fort, without difficulty, through two 
 places where the palisade was defective, they were masters of the 
 whole, ere the French had been fully aroused from their slumbers. 
 Resistance was impossible, and each Frenchman endeavored to 
 save himself as he could. Laudouiniere, with the carpenter Le 
 Challeux, the draughtsman Lemoine de Morgues, and about sixty 
 or seventy others, succeeded in escaping to the woods; where, 
 after some time, they were nearly all taken up, and carried on 
 board the vessels in the river. A few women and children found 
 by the Spaniards in the fort and some men, who at once declared 
 themselves to be Catholics were spared ; the others were put to 
 death, the greater part immediately, the remainder according to the 
 accounts, being hanged on trees in front of the place, with an in 
 scription placed over them, containing the words, ' l Not as French 
 men, but as Lutherans and heretics." Of the French who failed 
 to reach the vessels, five or six surrendered themselves to the 
 Spaniards, and were treated as their brethren had been ; the 
 others fled to the Indians, or perished from hunger in the forests.* 
 Menendez and his pious followers, so soon as they had com 
 pleted their bloody task, and refreshed themselves from the stores 
 of the fort, gratefully returned thanks to the Almighty for the 
 favor and clemency extended to them. They then tore down the 
 arms of France and those of Coligny, which hung together over 
 the gate, and placed the royal escutcheon of Spain in their stead ; 
 bestowing on the fort, as well as on the river, the name of San 
 
 * See the account of the capture of the fort, translated from Laudouiniere's 
 Narrative, as published by Basanier, among the Proofs and Illustrations, in the 
 latter part of this volume, under the letter B, No. 1. The Spanish account pre 
 sented by the chaplain Mendosa Grajales, does not differ from that of the French 
 in any, point to which they both refer. 
 
140 LAUDOUINIERE ESCAPES TO FRANCE. 1565.] 
 
 Matheo, in honor of St. Matthew, on whose day, the 21st of 
 September, the capture was effected. On examining the build 
 ings, the Spaniards were much shocked at finding many Lutheran 
 books, filled with blasphemies against the Pope and the holy 
 church of Rome, as well as packs of playing cards on which, 
 objects the most sacred, were represented as the distinguishing 
 marks of the suites. Among the bodies of the slain, they in par 
 ticular observed that of "a great cosmographer and magician," 
 who bore about his person many articles indicative of his horrid 
 pursuits; this was no doubt La Roquette, the soldier who pre 
 tended to discover gold mines by his skill in sorcery. Such 
 circumstances were calculated to quiet any qualms of conscience 
 which the captors of Fort Caroline might have felt, respecting 
 the propriety of their acts, and to prepare them for the more 
 arduous duties of the same kind, which they were soon to 
 perform. 
 
 When order had been restored in the fort, Menendez caused 
 some cannon to be planted on the river bank, and summoned the 
 French vessels to surrender; promising that their crews with the 
 women and children, who had been spared, should be allowed to 
 return to their country, under his passport, in the small vessels. 
 This was however refused by Laudouiniere, though Jacques 
 Ribault was disposed to accept the offer; and one of the French 
 vessels was in consequence sunk by the shot of the Spaniards, 
 after her crew had escaped to the ship in a boat. As the other 
 vessels were beyond the reach of his guns, Menendez resolved 
 to return immediately to St. Augustine, and to bring his ships to 
 the river, in order to intercept the French ; with which view he 
 took his departure on the 22d, leaving the fort under the com 
 mand of Gonzalo de Villarroel. The Spaniard was however dis 
 appointed on this occasion ; for the French penetrating his inten 
 tions, and learning nothing of Jean Ribault or his squadron, de 
 stroyed the small vessels, and sailed in the two largest for France, 
 where they arrived in safety, after a long and distressful voyage. 
 
 On the 23d of the month, the Adelantado arrived at St. Augus 
 tine, with a few men, and communicated the particulars of the 
 capture of Fort Caroline, and the destruction of its inmates, * 
 which was celebrated by masses and rejoicings. On the pre 
 vious day, the vessel which had been sent by Ribault, to bear 
 
1565.] MASSACRE OF THE FRENCH. 141 
 
 the rrews of his shipwreck to Laudouiniere, entered an inlet near 
 St. Augustine, where almost all of her crew were killed by Span 
 iards or Indians. The survivors were carried before Menendez, 
 who thus learned the destruction of the French ships ; and he was 
 soon after informed by some Indians, that a large body of white 
 men were assembled on the shore of an inlet five leagues farther 
 south. Not doubting that these were the shipwrecked French, 
 he despatched a vessel to the spot,- without delay ; and having 
 then made all his preparations at the town, set off on the 28th, 
 with a body of soldiers to meet the enemy. 
 
 St. Augustine stood, and still stands, opposite the northern inlet 
 or entrance of a sound, which thence extends southward, and 
 parallel to the sea coast twenty miles, and there joins the ocean 
 by another inlet, near its southern extremity. Into this southern 
 extremity of the sound, a small river empties ; and in the space 
 between this river and the sea, on the shore of the inlet, more 
 than two hundred of the shipwrecked French, were collected 
 under the guidance of some officers, nearly all unarmed and des 
 titute of food. On the morning of the 29th of September, Me 
 nendez arrived with his men on the opposite bank of the stream ; 
 and one of the French soon swam over to him, and gave informa 
 tion as to the character and objects of his countrymen, who wished 
 only to be allowed to march in peace to Fort Caroline. The 
 Adelantado upon this, requested the man to return, and invite 
 some of his superior officers to come to the Spanish camp, and 
 confer with him as to what should be done. This proposition 
 being accepted, a parley took place between the two parties, in 
 which Menendez convinced the French, that their fort had been 
 captured and nearly all its inmates put to death ; and in the end the 
 French consented to deliver themselves up to the Spaniards. They 
 accordingly surrendered their arms, and w r ere carried in detach 
 ments in a boat over the inlet. Each detachment immediately on 
 landing was marched towards St. Augustine, but at a short distance 
 from the shore, the Frenchmen were all securely tied, so as to render 
 escape or resistance impossible. They were then asked individ 
 ually, w r hat was th^ir religious faith, and a few who declared 
 themselves Catholics, were separated from the others and sent to 
 the fort in boats. The remainder of each detachment on proclaim 
 ing their adherence, to the doctrines of the reformation were, after 
 
142 DEATH OF RIBAULT. [1565. 
 
 marching a little farther, all put to death, by the swords and dag 
 gers of the ruthless Spaniards, who cried at every blow, "not as 
 Frenchmen, but as heretics, and enemies of God and the Holy 
 Virgin."* 
 
 On the following day, another body of French, three hundred 
 and fifty in number, arrived at the same place, on the south side 
 of the inlet, "and being accosted by the Spaniards, demanded like 
 wise, to be allowed to pass on to their fort near the river of May. 
 They received the same answer, which was given to the others, 
 that the fort had been taken, and its inmates put to death ; and 
 they were required immediately to surrender themselves as pri 
 soners to the authorities of the Spanish monarch. Ribault there 
 upon, being assured of safe conduct, crossed the inlet to the 
 Spanish camp, where he was met and treated with the utmost 
 courtesy by Menendez; and a conference w r as held between 
 them, in which the French commander endeavored to obtain for 
 his countrymen a free passage to France, on the condition of their 
 paying a ransom as soon as they should arrive there. The Ade- 
 lantado however replied, that though it grieved him to lose the 
 ransom, yet he was bound to obey the orders of his sovereign, and 
 he w r ould promise nothing until the French should have placed 
 themselves at his discretion; and Ribault finding the Spaniard 
 inflexible, returned to his men, one hundred and fifty of whom, 
 after some time, resolved to submit to the mercy of their enemies. 
 Ribault himself took the same course, and their intention having 
 been declared to Menendez, they were carried as the others had 
 been over the inlet in parties of ten, who were in like manner 
 securely tied on landing, and driven towards St. Augustine. 
 The French commander being asked of what religion were the 
 prisoners, replied that he and all with him were of the new faith ; 
 four of the men nevertheless proclaimed themselves Catholics, 
 and they as well as twelve others, including all the musicians, 
 reached the town in safety: the remaining one hundred and thir 
 ty-six, were despatched on the way, by the Spanish soldiers, 
 Ribault himself receiving the first blow, whilst engaged in prayer 
 to the Almighty for forgiveness of his sins. 
 
 * See the extract from the narrative of Soils de las Meras, describing these 
 atrocious proceedings, among the Proofs and Illustrations in the latter part of 
 this volume, under the letter B. No. 2 
 
1565.] EXTERMINATION OF THE FRENCH IN FLORIDA. 143 
 
 The inlet near which these horrid deeds were committed, re 
 ceived from the Spaniards the name of Entrada de Matanzas 
 Massacre Inlet which it bears at the present day. The two 
 hundred French, who refused to trust themselves in the power of 
 the Spaniards, retreated along the coast southward to the vicinity 
 of Cape Canaveral, where they endeavored to repair one of their 
 stranded vessels, in order if possible to effect their escape to 
 France; but whilst thus engaged, they were attacked by the per 
 severing Adelantado, who made prisoners of the greater number 
 and drove the others to the woods, where they probably perished. 
 
 Thus it appears, that about six hundred Frenchmen, or more, 
 were put to death by the Spaniards in Florida,* during the 
 months of August, September and October, 1565, nearly all of 
 them, whilst unarmed, and incapable either of resistance or of 
 flight. In contradiction of a part of the statement here pre 
 sented, as derived from the Spanish authorities, two Frenchmen 
 who returned to their country, one of them after being left as 
 dead on the shore of Matanzas inlet, declare that there was but 
 one act of surrender, and one scene of murder at that place ; and 
 that the surrender was made on the faith of a solemn promise 
 from Menendez, that the prisoners should all be sent in safety to 
 France. The Spanish accounts of these occurrences seem to be 
 however much more worthy of credit, in all points, except as re 
 gards the promise of safe conduct which they all deny to have 
 been given by Menendez; especially as no attempt is made by 
 their authors, to disguise or extenuate the cruelties committed 
 by that commander, which are on the contrary, presented and 
 extolled, as acts of justice and heroism, worthy of all admiration. 
 Throwing aside on the one hand the protestations of the Span 
 iards, in denial of the promise of safety, as proceeding from 
 parties too much interested to be impartial, and on the other the 
 accounts of the French seamen, whose means of exact informa 
 tion as to what passed between Ribault and Menendez, must 
 have been slight and imperfect, and regarding only the proba 
 bilities in the case, it seems indeed most strange, that large 
 bodies of men, with arms in their hands, should have surrendered 
 
 * Viz : about 160 at Fort Caroline, and 336 at Matanzas inlet, besides those 
 killed near St. Augustine and Cape Canaveral, who would no doubt complete the 
 number here stated. 
 
144 FAITHLESSNESS OF THE SPANIARDS. [1565. 
 
 themselves to their most deadly foes, without any conditions as 
 to their treatment ; and it is no less difficult to conceive, that the 
 Spanish commander would have hesitated to give any assurance 
 which they might have required, to induce them to submit, though 
 at the same time, firmly resolved to put them all to death, 
 so soon as they should be in his power. Good faith was by 
 no means a characteristic virtue of Europeans at that day; 
 and the history of Spain at all times, presents innumerable in 
 stances, of capitulations solemnly made and then shamefully 
 broken, by the military and civil authorities of that nation.* 
 Whilst therefore circumstances seem to favor the belief, that the 
 Adelantado did engage to send the French back in security to 
 their country, yet at the same time, it is not impossible, that the 
 Huguenot leaders, may have considered it needless, to exact con 
 ditions, which they must have known, to be insufficient to re 
 strain the Spaniards for a moment. 
 
 Whether or not Menendez gave the promise, as asserted by 
 the French, his guilt remains the same. The mere failure to ob 
 serve a capitulation, is a peccadillo when compared with the 
 murder of so many hundreds of unarmed, unresisting persons, 
 the enormity of which, can only be palliated, by the circumstance, 
 that the deed was in accordance with the customs of both nations 
 at the time. The civil wars in France offer innumerable instances 
 of the same kind ; and had Ribault and his followers returned to 
 their native land, the greater part of them would have fallen 
 under the poignards of their own countrymen, in the general 
 massacre of the Protestants, begun on St. Bartholomew's eve in 
 1572. 
 
 The Adelantado having thus freed his province from the 
 French, labored, assidiously to complete the establishment of the 
 Spanish power on its coasts, so as to prevent any farther attempts of 
 foreigners to occupy them. In this he had innumerable difficulties 
 
 * Many cases of the same kind, may be found in Spanish and Spanish Ameri 
 can history of our own times. The massacre of the Texan prisoners, by order 
 of the Mexican president, Santa Anna, at Goliad, on the 29th of March, 183G, 
 is one of them. Nay, more: in April, 1814, the Cortes assembled at Cadiz, 
 composed of probably the best men of Spain, issued a decree with regard to the 
 conduct of its officers toward the insurgents in America, declaring, " that it was 
 derogatory to the majesty and dignity of the national Congress, to confirm a ca 
 pitulation made with malignant rebels.' 
 
1567.] DISCOVERY OF THE CHESAPEAKE BAY. 145 
 
 to overcome, from the inadequacy of his own means, and the un 
 willingness of his government to aid him, as well as from the 
 enmity of the natives and the licentious insubordinate character 
 of his own men. He was thus obliged to make several voyages 
 to the West Indies, and even to Spain, in order to procure sup 
 plies, and on his return he always found some mutiny to be 
 quelled, or some discontent to be appeased by sacrifices. In 
 1566, the garrison of the fort taken from the French on the River 
 of May, was in open insurrection against the commandant Villar- 
 roel, and the fort itself was burnt; but it was soon rebuilt, and 
 others w r ere erected as advanced works on each side of the river 
 at its mouth. The Indians also, having by this time become 
 very inimical to the Spaniards in consequence of the cruelty and 
 indignity with which they were treated by the soldiers, made fre 
 quent incursions on St. Augustine, where they killed the senti 
 nels and stragglers from the garrison, and sometimes set fire to 
 the houses. 
 
 Menendez however by his energy and skill in managing men 
 overcame all these difficulties; and in 1567 he formed two other 
 settlements, on the coast north of the San Matheo, one at Santa 
 Helena, and the other on an island near the mainland farther south 
 called Guale, which seems to have been the same now known as 
 St. Catherine's Island. He also caused the coasts to be explored 
 with care, from the southern extremity of Florida, northward to 
 the latitude of 37 1- degrees, where a great bay was discovered 
 (if not previously known) opening to the ocean by a wide en 
 trance, and receiving the waters of many large rivers. This bay, 
 named by the Spaniards Bay of Santa Maria, was of course the 
 Chesapeake. In 1566, a vessel was sent by Menendez from St. 
 Augustine with a number of men to form a colony on its shore; 
 but the crew mutinied ere they reached the place of their des 
 tination, and carried the vessel to Spain, where the priests who 
 were on board as missionaries justified their conduct. 
 
 The Adelantado also endeavored to form similar establishments 
 on the west side of the peninsula, where he supposed his son to 
 be held in captivity ; and with this view, he erected forts at the 
 Bay of Calos or Carlos, now Charlotte Harbor, and at the mouth 
 of the Tocobaga river, now called the Suwannee, entering the 
 Mexican Gulf at its north-western angle, which was then known 
 19 
 
146 EXPEDITION OF DE GOURGUES. [1567. 
 
 as the Port of Espiritu Santo.* These places were however 
 all abandoned in a short time, in consequence of the animosity 
 of the natives towards the Spaniards, and the insufficiency of 
 the supplies obtained from the surrounding countries. 
 
 In the meantime, the settlements of the Spaniards on the east 
 coast of Florida had sustained a rude shock, and narrowly 
 escaped destruction, during the absence of Menendez in 1567. 
 
 The barbarous proceedings of the Spaniards in Florida, when 
 they first became known in France, excited the utmost indigna 
 tion throughout the kingdom; but the mutual animosity between 
 the Protestants and Catholics was so great, that the desire for 
 revenge was soon confined to the former, while the Catholics 
 in general regarded the destruction of their countrymen with 
 satisfaction. The young king, now almost a man, had advanced 
 rapidly in bigotry, falsehood and cruelty ; and his mother, Cathe 
 rine de Medici, who governed him entirely, was engaged in ar 
 ranging w r ith her son-in-law, the king of Spain, measures for the 
 extermination of the reformers in France and the Netherlands. 
 Under such circumstances, it may be supposed that little regard 
 was paid to the petition addressed to the throne on the 22d of 
 May, 1566, by the relations and friends of the murdered colonists, 
 for the exaction of atonement from Spain ; and it was left for a 
 few private individuals, to attempt what should have been done 
 by the government, in vindication of the honor of France. 
 
 This task was undertaken by Dominique de Gourgues, a gen 
 tleman of Gascony, who had distinguished himself on sea and on 
 land, in wars witty the Spaniards and the Turks; and who, though 
 a Roman Catholic in religion, yet felt deeply the wrongs of his 
 countrymen, and determined so far as possible to avenge them. 
 For this purpose he sold his estates, with the proceeds from which 
 he fitted out three small vessels, and having manned them with two 
 hundred bold men carefully selected, he sailed from France in 
 August, 1567. Of those on board, a small number only were 
 acquainted with the real object of the voyage, which was osten 
 sibly intended for the African coasts: on the others, however, De 
 Gourgues knew that he could depend ; and when, after passing 
 around the south side of Cuba, and entering the Bahama channel, 
 
 *The Spaniards named this river San Juan, which the Indians corrupted into 
 Suwannee. It is frequently called the Apalache in the old maps. 
 
1568.] LANDING OF BE GOURGUES IN FLORIDA. 147 
 
 he unfolded his real intentions, the whole company with one 
 voice declared their readiness to prosecute the enterprise to the 
 death.* 
 
 The French vessels made the land of Florida near St. Augus 
 tine ; and passing in sight of that place, and of the mouth of the 
 river of May, or San Matheo, they anchored farther north, in the 
 stream which had received from Ribault the name of the Seine, 
 probably the same now called the Nassau. Here they were soon 
 surrounded by Indians, among whom were several of the most 
 powerful chiefs of the country, all seeming to be animated by feel 
 ings of extreme hatred against the Spaniards, and professing their 
 readiness to aid the French in the prosecution of their project of 
 revenge. De Gourgues employed every means to conciliate thes-e 
 people, in which he was materially aided by Pierre de Bre, one 
 of his countrymen, who escaped from Fort Caroline at the time 
 of its capture, and had ever since lived among the savages ; and 
 having obtained sufficient information as to the numbers and con 
 dition of the Spaniards, he determined to wait until the following 
 spring, before making his attack upon them. 
 
 In the middle of April, 1568, De Gourgues, with his followers 
 and their Indian allies, began their offensive movement against 
 the Spaniards, who,, as already said, occupied Fort San Matheo, 
 on the site of Fort Caroline, and two smaller forts, one on each 
 side of the river, near its mouth. The three French vessels were 
 securely moored in the stream where they first anchored ; and all 
 the men who could be taken from them, having been placed in 
 boats, built for the purpose, w T ere thus conveyed along the coast 
 to the mouth of another stream or inlet a little farther south. 
 There the forces were landed, and commenced their march towards 
 the Spanish fort, on the north side of the San Matheo,f to which 
 river the boats were also to proceed, sa as to reach it at a time 
 appointed. 
 
 * Two French accounts of this expedition have been published ; one in the 
 " Histoire notable de la Floride," already mentioned, and the other in the collec 
 tion of .papers relative to America, by Ternaux Compans, entitled "La reprinse 
 de la Floride par le Cappitaine Gourgues ;" in addition to which, we have the 
 Spanish account in Barcia's "Ensayo Chronologico." 
 
 f This fort was no doubt situated at the southern extremity of the small island 
 now called St. George or Fort George, on the north side of the mouth of the St. 
 John. 
 
148 DE GOURGUES TAKES THE FORTS. [1558. 
 
 In this manner the French and Indians arrived at break of day, 
 on Sunday after Easter, in sight of the first Spanish fort, on the 
 north side of the river, near its mouth, which had not been then 
 completed. They were* soon observed by a sentinel, who fired his 
 piece twice, in token of alarm ; but ere he could again load it, 
 he was transfixed by the spear of a savage chief, and the French 
 rushing through an opening in the rampart, were masters of the 
 place. The Spaniards, about sixty in number, were put to the 
 sword, with the exception of fifteen, who were reserved for a 
 more solemn occasion ; and the boats having by this time arrived, 
 as directed, the victors rapidly moved in them across the river to 
 attack the fort on the southern bank, which was in like man 
 ner soon taken, and all its defenders, except the same number 
 of fifteen, were put to the sword. 
 
 De Gourgues then prepared for the great object, the capture of 
 the main fort, occupying the spot which had been rendered sacred 
 in the eyes of the French, by the butchery of their countrymen. 
 The Spaniards in rebuilding this fort, had extended and 
 strengthened its works considerably; and it was defended by two 
 hundred and sixty men, under Gonzalo de Villarroel, one of the 
 most trusted officers of Menendez. De Gourgues obtained some 
 information respecting it from his prisoners ; and having recon 
 noitred it himself and estimated the height of the palisades, he 
 caused ladders of length sufficient to surmount them, to be pre 
 pared for an assault. Villarroel in the meantime sent out sixty 
 men to make observations, who being perceived on their ap 
 proach by the French, were cut off and nearly all slain. The 
 Spanish commandant upon this saw no safety except in flight, and 
 he accordingly evacuated the place at once, with all his able 
 bodied troops; but they were pursued and harrassed by their 
 enemies so closely, that a small number only succeeded in reach 
 ing St. Augustine. 
 
 The French on taking possession of Fort San Matheo, found 
 it well supplied with arms, ammunition, and other necessaries. 
 Of these articles some were transferred to the French vessels, 
 and others were distributed among the Indians; but ere they 
 could be all thus appropriated, the buildings took fire by accident, 
 and were soon entirely consumed. De Gourgues thereupon 
 considering his force insufficient for an attack on St. Augustine, 
 
1568.] VENGEANCE OF THE FRENCH. 149 
 
 prepared for his return to France ; before doing which, he how 
 ever performed, what he regarded as a solemn duty. The sur 
 viving Spanish prisoners, amounting in number to nearly a hun 
 dred, were led forth in front of the ruins of the fort; and after 
 an address had been delivered to them by the victor, on the 
 enormity of the crimes, which they had committed against his 
 countrymen, they were all hanged on the same trees, which had 
 been used by Menendez, for the execution of the French three 
 years before. The avengers then sailed for France, leaving the 
 trees laden with their ghastly burthens, over which appeared a 
 board bearing the inscription, " Not as Spaniards or as mariners, 
 but as traitors, robbers and assassins" 
 
 Two of the French vessels returned to France in safety; the 
 other was lost on the way. De Gourgues was received with tri 
 umph by the Protestants at their strong hold La Rochelle ; but so 
 soon as his adventures became known at Paris, a price was set 
 by the government on his head, and he was obliged to secrete 
 himself, in order to escape the vengeance of the queen mother 
 and her party. Fifteen years after, he was engaged by the pre 
 tender to the throne of Portugal, to conduct an expedition for 
 the liberation of that country from the yoke of Spain ; but the 
 enterprise was not executed, and De Gourgues died in obscurity 
 in 1582. Reflections on the morality of his proceedings in 
 Florida, would be out of place here, or in any other work of the 
 present day: the feelings which prompted them, find a response 
 in the breast of almost every man ; and the only regret which 
 can be fairly entertained, is, that the just vengeance of the French 
 could not have fallen on the real authors of the butcheries at Fort 
 Caroline and Matanzas inlet, as well as on their miserable in 
 struments. 
 
 The Adelantado Menendez, on his arrival in Florida, shortly 
 after these events, exerted himself to repair the injuries which 
 had been inflicted on his province by the French ; and with the 
 aid of his nephew and lieutenant, Pedro Menendez Marquez, he 
 soon succeeded in placing the country in a better state of defence 
 than it had been in before. He also endeavored to extend the 
 Spanish establishments northward, along the coast, and through 
 the interior, with which object he prevailed upon the general of 
 the order of Jesuits, to direct his attention to that quarter; and 
 
150 HAWKINS AT SAN JUAN DE ULUA. [1569. 
 
 several missionary and exploring expeditions were in consequence 
 made by the followers of Loyola, through the territories between 
 Santa Helena and the Bay of Santa Maria, or Chesapeake, 
 which were called the Province of Axacan. The Jesuits however 
 gave up the task of reducing to civilization and Christianity the 
 fierce Yamassees and Catawbas, who occupied that part of Ame 
 rica; and the Fransciscans who next entered the field as mis 
 sionaries, being equally unsuccessful, the attempt was abandoned. 
 
 Whilst these events were in progress in Florida, others took 
 place on the coast of Mexico, which led to results no less impor 
 tant in the end, with regard to the northern division of the New 
 World. The Viceroy of New Spain, Luis de Velasco, died in 
 1564, and the government was administered for some time by 
 the Audiencia. During this period, a charge of treason was 
 brought against the Marquis del Valle, son and heir of Cortes, 
 for an alleged attempt to establish a throne for himself in Mexico. 
 He was seized, imprisoned, and finally driven from the country 
 by ill usage. Two of his intimate friends were cruelly executed ; 
 his step-brother was tortured nor was it till after a heavy fine 
 and an investigation which lasted from 1567 to 1574 that his 
 sequestrated estates, sadly wasted by the crown's officials, were 
 restored to him. 
 
 From the investigations respecting this affair, it appeared that 
 the negroes, of whom a large number had been introduced into 
 Mexico chiefly by the English traders, were all engaged in the 
 conspiracy ; and the prohibitions against the importation of Afri 
 cans, were in consequence renewed and strengthened. The 
 traders, however, set all these regulations at defiance, and in 
 September, 1569, John Hawkins arrived with five ships, laden 
 with slaves, at San Juan de Ulua, near Vera Cruz, where he 
 began to land them, agreeably to a secret understanding with 
 the officers of the government. Whilst this was in progress, a 
 large Spanish squadron unexpectedly appeared from Europe, 
 bringing Don Martin Henriques de Almanza, as Viceroy of New 
 Spain, who, not wishing or not daring to tolerate this open in 
 fraction of the laws, endeavored, at first by dissimulation and 
 then by force, to obtain possession of the English vessels. A 
 fierce combat ensued, in which the English, as usual, displayed 
 great courage and skill, and destroyed three of the Spanish ships, 
 
1574.] COMBAT BETWEEN HAWKINS AND THE SPANIARDS. 151 
 
 but the same number having been also lost on their side, 
 Hawkins was obliged to seek safety in flight. This he effected 
 with his own ship, and the other commanded by Francis Drake,/ 
 carrying off at the same time as many of the crews of the de 
 stroyed vessels as could be taken on board; and running along 
 the coast towards the north, they reached the mouth of a small 
 river, near the latitude of 23| degrees, probably the Santander, 
 in which they anchored in order to obtain water. On comparing 
 the stock of provisions with the number of persons who were to be 
 supplied, it became evident that they would soon be reduced to 
 famine ; and a hundred Englishmen were in consequence landed 
 on the coast, after which the ships took their departure for Eng 
 land, where they arrived in safety. The unfortunate individuals 
 thus left on the sandy shore of the Mexican Gulf, made their 
 way with great difficulty to Panuco, and there surrendered them 
 selves as prisoners to the Spaniards ; a few succeeded in returning 
 to their own country, but the greater part remained as captives 
 in Mexico, during the rest of their lives.* 
 
 Upon the report of these occurrences to the Spanish govern 
 ment, the Viceroy of Mexico was instructed immediately to 
 fortify the island of San Juan de Ulua, in order to afford protec 
 tion to the ships which were obliged to lie between it and the 
 mainland, from the want of secure anchorage at Vera Cruz; and 
 a castle was accordingly begun on that spot, which successive 
 additions have rendered one of the most extensive and redoubt 
 able fortresses in the world. The combat which led to this mea 
 sure, was thte earliest notable collision between the English and 
 the Spaniards in the New World. Hawkins was utterly ruined 
 in fortune by his misadventure, and did not again appear on the 
 sea until he was called forth for the defence of his country against 
 the threatened invasion from Spain in 1589: but his lieutenant, 
 Francis Drake, vowed eternal vengeance and hatred against 
 the whole Spanish nation; and how his vow was kept, ever) 
 
 * Hakluyt, in the third volume of his Collection, presents the narratives of 
 several of these men, who escaped from their captivity in Mexico, and returned 
 to their country. Four of those who were landed on the coast, are also said to 
 have made their way northward through the continent to the vicinity of New 
 foundland, and thence to have passed in a French vessel to Europe; but the evi 
 dence is scarcely sufficient to establish the truth of so extraordinary a story. 
 
152 DEATH OF PEDRO MENENDEZ. [1574, 
 
 'subject of king Philip, from Chili to California and Florida, was 
 enabled to testify. 
 
 In the meantime, Pedro Menendez made many visits to Spain, 
 and on each occasion he was received by his sovereign with all 
 the honors to which his distinguished services entitled him. In 
 1569, a letter was addressed to him by Pope Pius V., the arch 
 enemy of the religious reformers, commending his zealous con 
 duct, in exterminating the heretics in Florida, and exhorting him 
 to persevere in the same meritorious course. In 1572, he had 
 the satisfaction to learn that more than a hundred thousand of the 
 hated Huguenots, had been sacrificed by the hands of their coun 
 trymen in France, and he was soon after appointed to the com 
 mand of the great armada, in preparation for the conquest of 
 England ; but he was prevented from taking part in that holy 
 enterprise by death, which overcame this doughty champion of 
 the Church at Corunna, in September, 1574, in the fifty-fifth 
 year of his age. His body rests in the Church of St. Nicholas, 
 in his native town of Aviles; his name will live for ever in the 
 history of the New World, in consequence not only of his barbar 
 ous proceedings in Florida, but also of his having founded the 
 first settlement which has subsisted, in the vast division now 
 forming the Republic of the United States.* 
 
 * The extent of the information with regard to America, possessed in Europe 
 at this period, is best indicated by the maps of the celebrated Flemish geogra 
 pher, Abraham Ortelius, first published at Antwerp in 1572. The Gulf of Mexico 
 is there represented with considerable approach to correctness of outline ; as 
 much indeed, as in any map anterior to 1700. The River of Palms appears fol 
 lowing the course, and entering the Gulf near the position of the Rio Bravo ; the 
 mouth of the Rio del Espiritu Santo is made to enter a bay called Bay de la Cu- 
 lata, some distance west of the true position of the outlet of the Mississippi : other 
 streams seem to correspond with the Colorado, the Brazos, the Mississippi, the 
 Alabama and the Apalachicola, though none of them are given as very large. 
 Farther north, the general direction of the Atlantic coast is delineated with tol 
 erable accuracy, and Newport harbor is clearly designated. The St. Lav/rence 
 is much exaggerated in length at the expense of the great lakes, which seem to 
 have been then unknown ; Hudson's Bay and Straits, and Baffin's Bay, are ex 
 hibited in a manner so nearly correct, that no doubt can exist of their having 
 been explored long before the period at which they are usually supposed to have 
 been discovered. On the Pacific side, the coast of the continent is made to stretch 
 north-westward to the 43rd degree of latitude, and thence to run to the north- 
 cast, as far as the 70th parallel, under which the two oceans are joined by a long 
 and narrow strait. 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 
 1574 TO 1 672. 
 
 EXTENSION OF THE SPANISH SETTLEMENTS NORTHWARD FROM 
 MEXICO OCCUPATION OF THE ATLANTIC COASTS OF NORTH 
 AMERICA AND THE WEST INDIA ISLANDS BY THE ENGLISH, 
 THE FRENCH, AND THE DUTCH. 
 
 DURING the century immediately following the events last men 
 tioned, scarcely a single occurrence worthy of note took place in 
 any of the countries to which this history relates. The small 
 colonies or posts founded by the Spaniards at St. Augustine, 
 Guale and Santa Helena were maintained, though with great dif 
 ficulty and cost; but the regions farther west beyond their imme 
 diate vicinity were left in the undisturbed possession of the abori 
 gines. Many changes had however been effected in the regions 
 farther north bordering upon the Atlantic, of which it will be 
 necessary to present a sketch, in order to explain the circumstances 
 attending the discovery and settlement of the vast territories 
 drained by the Mississippi and its tributary rivers. 
 
 Cotemporary with the events last mentioned in Florida were 
 others of the most important nature in Europe. In 1569, took 
 place the insurrection in the Netherlands, induced by the efforts 
 of Philip II. to establish the inquisition in that part of his do 
 minions, which ended in the liberation of the seven northern 
 provinces, and their union in a republican confederacy, under 
 the pledge of enmity to Spain. The religious reformation in 
 France, was indeed crushed by the massacre of the Huguenots, 
 begun on the eve of St. Bartholomew in 1572: but England 
 thereby became the strong hold of Protestantism, and her whole 
 20 
 
154 RISE OF THE ENGLISH FREEBOOTERS. [1572. 
 
 people were the more firmly bound together against Spain, as 
 the great supporter of the uncompromising Church of Rome. 
 On the other hand, Spain and France were brought into close 
 alliance after the death of Charles IX., who was succeeded by 
 his brother Henry III. in 1574; and the Spanish king moreover 
 obtained the crown of Portugal, which rendered him the sole pos 
 sessor of the New World, as w T ell as of the East Indies so far 
 at least as Papal Bulls could substantiate his claims. 
 
 Under these circumstances, the sovereigns of England and 
 Spain were soon at variance; and then commenced that series of 
 acts of violence, w r hich continued for a hundred and fifty years, 
 almost uninterruptedly, to stain the West Indian seas w r ith the 
 blood of the people of those nations, supplying England with 
 her best and most daring seamen, and daily reducing the power 
 of Spain in the New World as well as in Europe. The first 
 expedition of the English against the Spaniards in the West In 
 dies, was begun in 1572, under the command of Drake, who in that 
 and the two following years spread desolation along the coasts 
 of Carthagena and Darien. In 1575, Oxenham, one of the com 
 panions of Drake, crossed the isthmus of Panama with a number 
 of men, and first displayed the flag of his nation on the Pacific ; 
 and three years afterw r ards that flag was carried by Drake through 
 the neglected Straits of Magellan, and along the whole coast 
 northward to California, on every point of which, its appearance 
 was the prelude to devastation. Drake returned to England 
 through the East Indies and around the Cape of Good Hope, 
 having been the first to circumnavigate the earth in one and the 
 same vessel; and in 1585 he began his great and most terrible 
 visitation of the Spanish West Indies, in the course of which he 
 sacked the large and rich cities of Santo Domingo and Cartha 
 gena, and destroyed the little capital of Florida. On this latter 
 occasion, the English entered first into the river of May or San 
 Matheo, (now the St. John,) from which the Spanish forces 
 retired on their appearance. Drake then proceeded to St. Augus 
 tine, under the guidance of a Frenchman, and having surprised 
 the fort in which were found some cannon and money, he burnt 
 the town and sailed northward for Santa Helena; but the winds 
 being unfavorable for his landing at that place, he left it undis 
 turbed, and continued his voyage along the coast. 
 
1575.] SEARCH FOR A NORTH-WEST PASSAGE. 155 
 
 The English were at the same period, engaged in other ex 
 peditions, which proved in the end still more detrimental to the 
 Spanish supremacy in the New World. The examinations of 
 the coasts and interior regions of America made by the Spaniards 
 had supplied a vast amount of geographical knowledge, which 
 was rendered accessible to all, by the publication of many histo 
 ries, journals, and maps relating to that division of the earth, in 
 the English and French as well as in the Spanish and Italian lan 
 guages.* That the new continent extended unbroken from Magel 
 lan's Strait northward at least as far as the 43d degree of north 
 latitude, had thus been demonstrated; beyond that parallel, it 
 was by some supposed to join Asia in the north-west, while 
 others still believed that the two continents might be separated 
 by a navigable channel, uniting the Atlantic with the Pacific, in 
 such a position as to afford the most direct route for intercourse, 
 between Europe and the East Indies. The Spanish government 
 had, as already said, arrived at the conclusion, that the discovery 
 of such a channel, would be fatal to its monopoly of the coasts 
 and trade of the Pacific, which was considered essential to the 
 subsistence of its dominion in the New World; but the same 
 
 * Among these works, were the Decades of Peter Martyr the general his 
 tories of the Indies, by Oviedo and Gomara the narratives and tracts of Las 
 Casas, relating especially to the ill treatment of the Indians by the Spaniards 
 the narrative of the expedition of Narvaez,by Cabeza de Vaca the Portu 
 guese narrative of the expedition of Soto and various works, respecting Peru, 
 Mexico and other parts of the New World, of which translations either of the 
 whole or of parts, soon after appeared in the English, French, German, and 
 Italian languages. The first four Decades of Peter Martyr were translated into 
 English, by Richard Eden, and published with many extracts from Oviedo, and 
 other Spanish authors, at London in 1555; and were afterwards incorporated 
 in the "History of Travayle," by Willes in 1577. 
 
 One of the most valuable contributions to the history and geography made at 
 this period, was however the Collection of voyages, journals, letters, tracts and 
 other papers, published in Italian, at Venice, between 1554 and 1565, by G. B. 
 Ramusio, in three folio volumes, of which the last is devoted almost entirely to 
 the New World, and contains the Decades of Peter Martyr, the Despatches of 
 Cortes to Charles V., the History of the Indies by Oviedo, and many curious and 
 interesting accounts, then for the first time given to the public. The similar col 
 lections of Hakluyt and De Bry were not begun until a later period. 
 
 Of the maps of the New World which appeared at this time, the one most," 
 worthy of note as approaching most nearly to accuracy, is that contained in the 
 atlas of the celebrated Flemish geographer, Ortelius, entitled, "Theatrum orbis 
 terr-u-um," already mentioned at page 152, as published at Antwerp in 1572. 
 
156 SEARCH FOR A NORTH-WEST PASSAGE. [1578. 
 
 consideration necessarily rendered the rivals and enemies of Spain, 
 desirous to obtain access to that ocean, which for some time 
 formed the great object of the speculations and expeditions of 
 the English and subsequently of the Dutch, or people of the 
 United Netherlands, who rose to eminence as a naval power, 
 soon after the establishment of their independence. 
 
 The expeditions of the English for the discovery of a northern 
 channel of communication between the Atlantic and the Pacific, 
 were at first directed eastward, around the northern extremities 
 of Europe ; in this course, they however advanced no farther, 
 than Nova Zernbla, and the Dutch who followed them were 
 equally unsuccessful. The English then turned their attention 
 towards the north-western side of the Atlantic, the exploration of 
 which was begun, or rather resumed, by Frobisher in 1576; and 
 he was followed -by Davis, Hudson, Button, Baffin, and others, 
 who within the ensuing fifty years examined every inlet and 
 opening in that quarter, seeming to promise a free passage for 
 their vessels towards the west. These voyages, though ineffec 
 tual as regards the attainment of the proposed object, were nev 
 ertheless productive of great advantages, by the increase of geo 
 graphical knowledge, and the improvements in nautical science 
 and practice which resulted from them ; whilst they at the same 
 time powerfully excited among the English, that spirit of mari 
 time adventure, on the subsistence of which, the security and 
 superiority of their nation so essentially depends. 
 
 The English and the Dutch were the only European nations 
 which engaged in the search for new passages to the Pacific ; 
 unless perhaps the Danes may have had that object in view, in 
 their expeditions beyond Greenland, made at the same period. 
 The French were then fully equal, if not superior to either of the 
 other nations, in commercial as well as in military marine, and 
 they conducted the greater part of the fishery on the banks of 
 Newfoundland ; but they were probably restrained by the alliance 
 between their government and that of Spain, from attempting the 
 exploration of the western coasts of the Atlantic, with the above 
 mentioned object. 
 
 Connected with the endeavors of the English, to discover new 
 passages to th.e Pacific, was their desire to plant colonies in 
 America, which was encouraged as much as possible, by queen 
 
1583.] ENGLISH COLONY IN NEWFOUNDLAND. 157 
 
 Elizabeth. In 1578, she granted a commission to Sir Humphrey 
 Gilbert, similar to those given to the Spanish Adelantados, au 
 thorising him to discover and occupy any lands not actually pos 
 sessed by a Christian prince or people, and to hold them forever, 
 or to dispose of them to other British subjects, who might in like 
 manner hold them, according to the laws of the realm, on condi 
 tion of paying to the crown one-fifth of all the precious metals, 
 derived from them. There was however great difficulty in as 
 sembling the men and materials, required for a colony ; nor was 
 any expedition made for the purpose, until after Elizabeth's cele 
 brated declaration to the Spanish government in 1580 that she 
 recognised no right in that power, to places, other than those 
 actually possessed by it, and that she would protect her subjects 
 by every means in her power, in their trade and settlement in the 
 New World. 
 
 . Gilbert at length departed in 1583, with five vessels and two 
 hundred and sixty- men, for Newfoundland; the coasts of which 
 being already much frequented by Europeans engaged in the 
 cod fishery, it was supposed that a settlement made there at some 
 convenient point would enjoy great arid immediate advantages 
 in trade. The colonists were accordingly landed in August, in 
 the harbor of St. John, near the south-east extremity of the is 
 land, where possession was formally taken in the name of the 
 queen; lands were then allotted, and laws were published for 
 the government of the country, after which the proprietor began 
 to seek for mines of gold and silver. In the meantime, the 
 people became discontented and mutinous ; sickness wasted their 
 strength, and their provisions being moreover insufficient, for 
 their support during the winter, it was determined that they 
 should go back to Europe. The whole company accordingly 
 re-embarked, before the end of the same month for England, on 
 the way to which, Gilbert's vessel, with all on board, disappear 
 ed in a violent storm. 
 
 A similar commission to make settlements in America, was 
 granted after the death of Sir Humphrey Gilbert, to his half 
 brother Sir Walter Raleigh, who in 1584, and the six following 
 years sent several vessels to form establishments in the country, 
 now composing the eastern part of North Carolina. To this coun 
 try the name of Virginia was given, in commemoration of the mai- 
 
158 RALEIGH'S COLONIES IN VIRGINIA. [1585. 
 
 denly virtues of the English queen. The spot selected for the first 
 settlement, was Roanoke island, in the passage connecting the 
 two great bays, now called, Albemarle Sound, and Pamlico 
 Sound, which receive the waters of the Chowan, the Roanoke, 
 the Tar, the Neuse, and other large rivers; and more than a hun 
 dred persons were established there in 1585, under the direction 
 of Ralph Lane. The colonists however soon began to suffer 
 from want of food, and became involved in difficulties with the 
 natives of the surrounding country, in consequence of which 
 they lost their spirits and capacity for exertion; and when Sir 
 Francis Drake, on returning from his famous expedition through 
 the West Indies already mentioned, visited their settlement in 
 July, 1586, he found them in so pitiable condition, that he yield 
 ed to their entreaties, and carried them all back to England. In 
 the next two years, Raleigh sent other parties of colonists, who were 
 established at the same place by his agent John White : but the 
 alarm then excited in England by the Spanish armada, prevented 
 any farther communication with Virginia until 1590; and on the 
 return of White to Roanoke, in that year, with supplies, the place 
 was found deserted, and nothing could be learned respecting the 
 fate of its former occupants. 
 
 Disheartened by these failures, Raleigh did not renew his at 
 tempts to plant colonies in North America; and though several 
 voyages were made with that object, to the coasts farther north, 
 by the English and the French, no establishment of a permanent 
 character, w^s effected by either of those or any other European 
 nation, north of the Spanish settlements in Florida, before 1604. 
 The injuries inflicted on the latter settlements by Drake were 
 soon repaired, and the colony was maintained; but it never 
 prospered, and the heirs of Pedro Menendez derived very little 
 advantage from it, in return for the exertions and expenses 
 of the Adelantado in its establishment. The city of Santo 
 Domingo, which had been nearly destroyed by the English in 
 the same expedition, did not recover its former superiority, over 
 the other places in the West Indian archipelago ; and it was 
 soon surpassed by Havanna, which became the most important 
 point in that group. 
 
 The Spaniards were at the same period extending their dis 
 coveries and settlements from Mexico, northward, along the great 
 
1585.] DISCOVERY OF NEW MEXICO. 159 
 
 chain of mountains, which divides the waters flowing to the 
 Mexican Gulf, from those falling into the Pacific and the Gulf of 
 California. The wide territory midway between these two gulfs, 
 then called New Biscay, and now divided into Durango and 
 Chihuahua, had been as already mentioned occupied before the 
 middle of the century; and from its mines was drawn a large pro 
 portion of the silver sent to Europe. This region is bounded on 
 the north and east, by extensive deserts containing only a few 
 spots fit for cultivation. In 1581 however, father Augustin Ruiz 
 or Rodriguez, a Franciscan, established as a missionary in the 
 valley of San Bartolome, having been informed by the Indians 
 that fertile and populous countries abounding in mines were to be 
 found farther north, followed the river Conchos which traverses 
 that valley down to its junction with a much larger stream, flow 
 ing from the .north. Of this discovery r/e sent information to 
 Mexico; and being joined by two other friars, they continued 
 their researches for some months, until they were all killed by 
 the natives. 
 
 The Count de Coruna, Viceroy of Mexico, on being informed 
 of the discoveries of the friars, immediately despatched Antonio 
 de Espejo, with a small force in the direction indicated; and that 
 officer in 1583, traced the large river named by him Rio del 
 Norte, or River of the North, to its sources among high moun 
 tains, near the 40th degree of latitude. The country thus 
 traversed by Espejo, though presenting only a narrow strip, on 
 each side of the stream, capable of supplying vegetable growth, 
 was thickly inhabited by people, who dwelt in cities, and pos 
 sessed many of the elements, at least, of civilization ; and being 
 induced to believe from their language, and customs, that they 
 might be of the same race, which was found by the Spaniards in 
 possession of Mexico he gave the name of New Mexico to the 
 whole region. Continuing their examinations northward, the 
 Spaniards reached another great river, named by them Rio de 
 Vacas, from the number of buffaloes in its vicinity, which they 
 descended in an easterly direction, more than a hundred leagues, 
 without reaching its mouth : this was no doubt the Arkansas ; 
 from the Indians they received accounts of other large streams, 
 and lakes, and of rich and populous countries, situated farther 
 north, but no attempts were made to discover the.m. 
 
160 s".TTL!-::\iv.:\T OF NE\V MEXICO AND NEW LEON. [1590. 
 
 The accounts given by Espejo of the fertility of New Mexico, 
 and the richness of its mines, soon drew thither a number of ad 
 venturers, who uniting in a body, under the command of an out 
 law named Antonio de Leyva Bonilla, plundered the inhabitants 
 and even endeavored to form a state independent of the authority 
 of Spain. Luis de Velasco, the second Viceroy of Mexico of 
 that name, however prepared a small but well appointed force, 
 under the command of Juan de Onate, as Adelantado of New 
 Mexico, and the rebels woe tiiu^ soon brought to submission.* 
 Colonists weitt thcjM!'li-o(Jiifvi! from Mexico; and in 1595, the 
 town of La Santa Fe, was founded by Onate, on a small stream, 
 which falls into the Rio del Norte, in the latitude of 34 degrees 
 41 minutes. 
 
 The territory extending eastward from New Biscay to the 
 Mexican Gulf, and then known under the general name of New 
 Leon, consists, like the more southern parts of Mexico, on the 
 same side, of large tracts of high table land, surrounded and tra 
 versed by mountain ridges, between which and the Gulf lies a 
 lower country also intersected by irregular lines of mountain. 
 This region contains some isolated spots of no great extent, 
 which are rendered fertile by the presence of streams of water, 
 in a climate eminently favorable to vegetation ; but the greater 
 portion is irreclaimably barren, and can never be made to support 
 a population. In the upper country however are many mines 
 of silver which attracted the attention of the Spaniards about the 
 period of the discovery of New Mexico; and in order to derive 
 advantage from them, settlements were formed, for the most part 
 in places combining the advantages of a productive soil with 
 vicinity to these depositories of precious metal, where endeavors 
 were made to collect the natives in villages under the direction 
 of missionaries, with the object of thus providing in time a suffi 
 cient supply of laborers. In this manner, San Luis de Potosi 
 was founded about 1590 by the Viceroy Velasco, who also estab 
 lished the towns of Venado, Charcas and Saltillo, first peopled by 
 emigrants from the province of Tlascala; and the same plan w r as 
 pursued by his successor, the Count de Monterey, under whose 
 government arose Tamaulipas, Coahuila, (now Monclova) and 
 
 * The conquest of New Mexico by Ofiate was the subject of an epic poem by 
 Gaspar de Villagran, Avhich was actually printed at Alcala in 1610. 
 
1600.] SPANISH VOYAGES IN THE NORTH PACIFIC. 161 
 
 Monterey, and afterwards Chihuahua in New Biscay. The lower 
 country near the gulf remained unsettled and almost unexplored 
 for more than a century and a half longer; during which, Panuco 
 near the present town of Tampico, continued to be the northern 
 most Spanish port in the vicinity of the sea. The Count de 
 Monterey also in 1600 caused a new city to be commenced on 
 the spot first chosen by Cortes, opposite the island and castle of 
 San Juan de Ulua, to which the name of Vera Cruz was trans 
 ferred from the place previously so called, twelve miles farther 
 north. On the Pacific side of New Spain, settlements were at the 
 same period made in Sonora, the region bordering upon the 
 eastern shore of the Californian Gulf, in which many places 
 abounding in gold (placeres) were discovered ; attempts were like 
 wise made to occupy the Californian peninsula, but they proved 
 abortive, in consequence of the excessive aridity of the climate. 
 
 The endeavors of the English to discover a north-west passage 
 from the Atlantic to the Pacific, at that time excited the utmost 
 dissatisfaction on the part of the court of Madrid; and ex 
 peditions were directed fro^n the western coasts of Mexico, 
 northward in order that if such a channel of communication be 
 tween the two seas should be found, it might if possible be for 
 tified, so as to prevent other nations from using it to the detri 
 ment of Spain. But no results of any kind were derived from 
 the voyages undertaken with this object;* and it was soon after, 
 generally admitted that the apprehensions which led to them 
 were groundless. The Spaniards were however aroused from 
 their quietude in this respect, by the news of the discovery of the 
 open sea south of Cape Horn, through which the Dutch first 
 sailed into the Pacific in 1616; and the provinces of the Indies 
 on that ocean, were ever after annoyed, and frequently ravaged 
 by enemies of all descriptions. 
 
 In the meantime, the wars which had so long desolated Eu 
 rope, were terminated ; the ambitious and unprincipled sovereigns 
 who maintained them for their own selfish purposes having been 
 succeeded by others, of more reasonable or more peaceful dis 
 positions. In France, a compromise was effected between the 
 Catholics and the Protestants, by the wise and conciliatory mea- 
 
 * Accounts of these expeditions will be found in the second chapter of the 
 History of Oregon and California, by the author of the present work. 
 
 21 
 
162 FRENCH SETTLEMENTS IN ACADIE. [1504. 
 
 sures of Henry IV., which restored that kingdom to its former 
 strength and influence, and enabled it to counterbalance the 
 power of Spain. In the latter country, the ruthless Philip II. 
 was replaced in 1599 by his lethargic son, Philip III ; and the 
 throne of turbulent Elizabeth, was soon after filled by the pedantic, 
 timid and quiet-loving James I. Treaties of amity and com 
 merce were concluded among the various states of Europe, and 
 tranquillity having been thus completely restored, the maritime 
 nations of that division of the world, again turned their attention 
 to colonization. 
 
 For this latter object circumstances were then peculiarly fa 
 vorable. Not only were hopes of wealth presented to capitalists, 
 and the means of subsistence to laborers, but the entire cessation 
 of war in Europe had thrown out of employ a number of daring 
 adventurers, ready to seize any opportunity of escaping from the 
 insignificance to \vhich peace would reduce them; whilst reli 
 gious discontent rendered many individuals and even classes, 
 anxious to quit the scenes of their real, or fancied humiliation. To 
 wards North America as being most accessible were all the projects 
 of colonization directed. The French led the way; they were fol 
 lowed by the English and the Dutch; and within the life-time of 
 the first adventurers, the settlements of those nations, extended 
 at short distances apart, along the whole coast, from the St. 
 Lawrence to the Savannah.* 
 
 The earliest of these settlements were formed by the French 
 in 1604, on the north-west side of the peninsula now called Nova 
 Scotia, and the mainland adjacent on the east, the coasts of 
 which had been explored by the people of that nation, and of 
 England, engaged in trade or fishing, or in seeking proper places 
 for colonies, during the latter years of the preceding century. 
 They were made, in virtue of a commission, granted by king 
 Henry IV. to Pierre Demonts, constituting him Lieutenant General 
 
 The publication of Hakluyt's celebrated Collection, entitled " The principal 
 navigations, voyages, traffiques, and discoveries of the English nation," of which 
 the third volume printed in 1599, relates almost entirely to America, contributed 
 powerfully to foster this spirit of adventure among the English. De Dry's Col 
 lection published in Latin at Frankfort, between 1590 and 1602, also had great 
 effect in making the New World known in Europe, and in spreading the feeling 
 of detestation towards the Spaniards, through that continent. 
 
1607.] ENGLISH SETTLEMENTS IK VIRGINIA. 163 
 
 of the country, territory, coasts and confines of Acadie,* from 
 the 40th degree of latitude to the 46th. In 1608, Quebec was 
 founded on the St. Lawrence, by Champlain one of the as 
 sociates of Demonts, through whose care and energy, the su 
 premacy of France was established on both sides of the river as 
 far as the outlet of the lake, now bearing his name. For these 
 regions on the St. Lawrence, the old appellation of Canada, was 
 revived, that of Acadie being confined to the country farther 
 south-east ; and the whole were subsequently comprehended under 
 the general name of New France. 
 
 The English rapidly followed the French in the career of 
 American colonization. In 1606, king James I. granted by a 
 charter, to two associations, respectively entitled the London 
 Company and the Plymouth Company, all the territories in that 
 part of the world, "commonly called Virginia, and in other 
 parts,' 7 not then actually possessed by a Christian prince or peo 
 ple, included between the 34th and the 45th parallels of north 
 latitude: the London Company was empowered to settle any 
 where between the 34th and the 40th degrees, and the other as 
 sociation to occupy any spot from the 38th to the 45th ; the space 
 between the 38th and the 40th, being left open to both, under 
 certain conditions. In virtue of this charter, the London Com 
 pany in 1607, sent out several vessels with emigrants under 
 Christopher Newport and John Smith, who made a settlement, 
 named by them Jamestown, on the large river also called after 
 their sovereign, emptying into the south-west part of Chesapeake 
 Bay. In 1609, a special charter was granted to this colony, 
 which was styled Virginia; and in 1612 a third charter was is 
 sued, entitling the company to hold all the coasts and islands, 
 within two hundred miles of the mouth of James river, and all 
 the territories thence extending west, and north-west, to the Pa 
 cific. The Plymouth Company also attempted in 1607 to form 
 an establishment on the Kennebeck river; but the place was 
 abandoned in the following year, and the territory which that 
 body was authorised to occupy, remained neglected until 1620. 
 
 The Dutch had in the meantime, established themselves on 
 
 * Acadie is generally supposed to have been a corruption of Arcadie, or Ar 
 cadia; the origin of Canada, is unknown, though there is reason to suppose, that 
 it was the name of an Indian town or country near Quebec. 
 
164 DUTCH SETTLEMENTS ON TEE HUDSON. [1615, 
 
 the large stream, entering the Atlantic, under the 40th degree of 
 latitude, called by them the North river, and by the English the 
 Hudson, in honor of its supposed discoverer Henry Hudson. 
 Their first settlements were made by the West India Company of 
 Amsterdam, at the mouth of this stream, where Fort Amsterdam 
 was erected in 1615, on the spot now occupied by the battery in 
 the city of New York ; the government of Holland however, soon 
 after took possession of the country, to which the name of New 
 Netherlands was given, and the settlements rapidly extended up 
 the river, where Fort Orange was founded on the site of the pre 
 sent city of Albany. 
 
 The earliest permanent settlement of English north of Virginia, 
 was made in 1620, by a small number of persons called Puritans, 
 whose ideas of religious conduct and discipline, were so peculiar 
 and strict, that they were unable either to tolerate the state of 
 things, or to obtain toleration for themselves in their own country.* 
 They, in consequence, emigrated to Holland; but being still dis 
 satisfied, they determined to remove to America, and there to 
 seek some spot, in which they might establish their own system 
 as paramount, and pursue it without the fear of the legal enact 
 ments, or the private antipathy, or the ridicule of the unrighteous 
 in the land of their birth. It was their intention, on leaving 
 
 *The acute and occasionally caustic Scotchman, Dr. William Douglass, in his 
 historical summary of the English colonies in America, published at Boston in 
 1749, thus characterises the first settlers in New England : 
 
 " These Puritans were pious, honest, well meaning people ; but too contracted, 
 rigid, and singular in their discipline and practice of devotion. They would not 
 allow of the English St. George's red cross, in the military ensigns, colors and 
 standards. In common affairs of life, they affected to use scripture terms, and 
 these not always proper : our translation is not goo'd. Ancient terms in common 
 life, used by the polite Greeks and Romans, they called profane, and did not use 
 them : for instance, instead of December 25th, they wrote the 25th day of the 
 tenth month ; instead of Monday, they said the second day of the week. Some 
 of them made a conscience of a pun or a rebus ; thus some good old women 
 would not brew on Saturdays, because the ale or beer would in course work upon 
 the Lord's day following. 
 
 " The generality of the first settlers, soon became more moderate and social ; 
 while others became more obstinately and intractably enthusiastic. These last 
 removed, and gave birth to the volunteer settlements of Providence, Rhode 
 Island, Connecticut and New Haven, in the dominions of New England." 
 
 These were stubborn materials, but the better adapted to the end in view. Had 
 the French settlers in East Florida possessed some of the unamiable peculiarities 
 of the Puritans, their enterprise would not have failed so completely, under the 
 influence of the first opposing circumstances. 
 
1620.] PURITAN SETTLEMENT IN NEW ENGLAND. 165 
 
 Europe, to settle on the Hudson river; but the master of their 
 vessel treacherously, as it is said conducted them to Massachu 
 setts Bay, on the rocky barren shores of which, they landed in 
 November, 1620. There they fixed their habitation; and having 
 been joined by some of their brethren from Europe, they founded 
 a colony, to which' the name of Plymouth was given, in honor of 
 the port in England, whence they took their departure. 
 
 The settlers at Plymouth carried with them no patent or au 
 thority to possess territory in America. Soon after their depar 
 ture however, the Plymouth Company received from the crown 
 a new charter, conceding to it the whole division of the continent 
 between the 40th and the 48th parallels of latitude, from sea to 
 sea, under the name of New England, with all the authority and 
 privileges enjoyed by the Virginia Company; arid from this body, 
 the settlers succeeded in procuring a grant of lands surrounding 
 their establishment of Plymouth. Other grants of the same na 
 ture were made by the New England Company, to individuals or 
 to associations; and in 1621, king James in like manner be 
 stowed on Sir William Alexander, afterwards Earl of Stirling, 
 the whole territory, east of a line drawn from the rnouth of the 
 river St. Croix on the Atlantic, along that stream to its north 
 ernmost source, and thence due north to the St. Lawrence. This 
 last province, which was to be called Nova Scotia or New Scot 
 land, was of course abstracted from New England; and as it more 
 over embraced all the French settlements in Acadie, and a portion 
 of Canada, the concession was very offensive to the French, who 
 prepared to resist the contemplated occupation by the English. 
 James I. was then engaged in a negotiation for the marriage of 
 his eldest son, the Prince of Wales, with the daughter of Philip 
 III. of Spain, which was however broken off; and in 1625, the 
 prince, then king Charles I. was united to the daughter of the 
 late king Henry IV. of France, and sister of the reigning sove 
 reign of that kingdom, Louis XIII., on which occasion, it was 
 agreed that Acadie should belong entirely to France. Had the 
 "Spanish match" been effected, Virginia would probably have 
 been in like manner surrendered to Spain, or at least abandoned 
 by'England; as the Catholic monarch would not have failed to 
 require this sacrifice, which James would have considered very 
 trifling, in order to secure the consummation of his favorite project. 
 
166 THE COMPANY OF NEW FRANCE. [1628. 
 
 The first French colonists in Canada and Acadie, as in Florida, 
 were Protestants. In 1628 however, Cardinal Richelieu, then at 
 the summit of power in France, granted all the possessions of his 
 nation in the New World, to an association of a hundred indi 
 viduals, entitled the Company of New France, on conditions, of 
 which one was, that no foreigner or heretic should be allowed to 
 remain in any of those countries; and Roman Catholic missiona 
 ries were immediately sent thither in great numbers to convert 
 the natives, and to enforce the observance of their faith among the 
 king's subjects. Agreeably to this charter, Florida, as well as 
 the St. Lawrence regions, were embraced in New France, noth 
 ing being said with respect to the intervening territories, occupied 
 by other nations; and as the limits of Acadie were not defined 
 precisely in the original grant of the country to Demonts, and 
 had never been settled by treaty between the two nations claim 
 ing possession in that part of America, they might have been con 
 strued to embrace not only Nova Scotia, but also the whole of 
 New England.* 
 
 Great anxiety wis occasioned among the colonists of New 
 England, by this charter of New France; but king Charles I. 
 confirmed the grant of his father to Alexander, and made others 
 in the territory next adjoining Nova Scotia on the west, to which 
 the name of Maine was given, either in contra-distinction to the 
 islands in its vicinity, or in compliment to the queen, to whom the 
 
 *L 1 Escarbot in his "Histoire de la Nouvelle France," published in 1617, says: 
 " Our New France has for its limits on the west, the territories as far as the Pa 
 cific ocean, on* this side of the tropic of Cancer; on the south, the islands of the 
 Atlantic ocean, in the direction of Cuba and Hispaniola ; on the east, the north 
 sea which bathes New France, and on the north, the unknown lands in the direc 
 tion of the Frozen ocean, as far as the north pole." The description is certainly 
 any thing but precise ; yet it seems to include the whole of America north of the 
 tropic of Cancer. 
 
 Champlain in his " Voyages et decouvertes en la Nouvelle France," in 1632, 
 declares that "by the common consent of all Europe, New France extends at 
 least to the 35th or 36th degree of latitude, as shewn by the maps of the world, 
 published in Spain, Italy, Holland, Flanders, Germany, and even in England." 
 These are of course mere extravagancies, proceeding from exuberance of patri 
 otism, or national vanity on the parts of the writers ; yet we see them at the pre 
 sent day gravely cited as proof of rights. See the " Exploration de TOregon," by 
 M. Duflot de Mofras, vol. 2, page 253, in which the claim of Great Britain to 
 Oregon, as being a part of Canada, is pronounced to be established by such 
 evidence. 
 
1629.] SETTLEMENT OF MARYLAND AND MASSACHUSETTS. 167 
 
 revenues of the province of Maine in France, were secured on her 
 marriage. In 1627, war unexpectedly broke out between Eng 
 land and France, in the course of which, all the possessions of 
 the latter nation in America were conquered by the English. 
 This re-assured the people of New England, and several other 
 colonies were immediately founded in those regions, among 
 which were Massachusetts Bay, adjoining the Plymouth colony on 
 the north, where the town of Boston was commenced in 1629, 
 and New Hampshire still farther in the same direction. Peace 
 was however restored between the two contending nations in 
 1632, by the treaty of St. Germain, through which the French 
 regained all their former possessions in Canada and Acadie: the 
 apprehensions of the New England people in consequence re 
 turned and the company being moreover alarmed by the conduct 
 of the king, surrendered its charter to the crown in 1635; where 
 upon the direction of all the English colonies in America was 
 committed to a board, sitting at" London, entitled "the Lord's 
 Commissioners of the Plantations." 
 
 The Virginia Company had been dissolved in 1625, when the 
 colony became a royal province. Seven years afterwards the 
 portion north of the Potomac river was erected into a separate 
 province called Maryland, the proprietorship and government of 
 which, were granted under certain conditions and restrictions to 
 Lord Baltimore, a Roman Catholic nobleman, and his heirs and 
 assigns forever. These countries were soon in a prosperous 
 situation, notwithstanding the enmity of the savages towards the 
 settlers ; and their population increased rapidly, in consequence 
 of the advantages afforded by the soil and climate, especially for 
 the cultivation of tobacco, which then bore a high price in 
 Europe. 
 
 The apprehensions of danger entertained in New England, 
 from the vicinity of the French, soon vanished ; and several new 
 colonies were formed, of which Connecticut, New Haven and 
 Rhode Island, were off-shoots from the original puritan estab 
 lishments in Plymouth and Massachusetts; while Maine, and 
 others farther east were settled principally by persons coming 
 directly from England, whose ideas on political and religious 
 matters were more nearly consonant with the system of Church 
 and State in that country. The Dutch settlements were also 
 
168 LEAGUE OF THE NEW ENGLAND COLONIES. [1643. 
 
 increasing, and extended from the Hudson eastward to the Con 
 necticut, and westward to and beyond the Delaware or South 
 river as it was called by the people of that nation ; and a small 
 colony of Swedes, had been planted on the right bank of the 
 latter stream, near the site of the present town of New- Castle, 
 which was however soon brought under subjection to the Dutch. 
 
 The Dutch in the New Netherlands were considered as intru 
 ders by the English, who viewed with extreme discontent, this 
 occupation by another and a rival people, of the vast and fertile 
 tract, separating New England from Maryland and Virginia; and 
 many petitions were addressed to the government at London, for 
 the removal of the obnoxious interlopers, by force or by agree 
 ment with the United Provinces. No attention, however, was 
 paid to these representations, by king Charles I. who was too 
 much engaged in the struggle for power with his parliament, to 
 attend to the concerns of a few discontented puritans in a remote 
 land; and the people of New England, being moreover at the 
 same time exposed to danger from the savages, and foreseeing 
 the evil consequences which might result from the revolution, 
 then in progress in the parent State, formed a league in 1643, 
 by which the colonies of Massachusetts, (then including New 
 Hampshire) Plymouth, New Haven and Connecticut, bound 
 themselves to act in concert for their mutual interests and safety. 
 
 The revolution in England proved highly advantageous in all 
 respects to the American colonies of that nation. Those colonies 
 had been placed as soon as possible in a situation to govern them 
 selves almost entirely ; being each provided with its executive, le 
 gislative and judicial departments, resembling those of the country 
 from which they all drew their origin. The New England colonies 
 were in this respect nearly independent of the powers in Eng 
 land; and were, and continued to be in reality, so many repub 
 lics, each managing its own affairs with little interference on 
 the part of any extraneous authority. The systems adopted in 
 Virginia and Maryland were more nearly conformable with that 
 established in the mother country, to which they were also more 
 directly subordinate: and the allegiance to the sovereign, was 
 maintained in those provinces after it had been thrown off in every 
 other portion of the dominions. Accordingly, during the revolu 
 tion in England, the exiled or .discontented royalists, emigrated 
 
1660.] FRENCH AND ENGLISH IN THE WEST INDIES. 169 
 
 in great numbers to Virginia and Maryland; while the professors 
 of republican principles in Church and State, betook themselves 
 to New England, in which they found a home among persons 
 of congenial views and feelings. 
 
 New England was in consequence specially protected and fa 
 vored by Cromwell, who yielding to its representations, sent 
 out a large squadron in 1654, for the conquest of the New Neth 
 erlands. The conclusion of peace with the Dutch, prevented the 
 execution of that design ; but the armament, reinforced by troops 
 from Massachusetts, was directed against the French settlements 
 in Acadie, which were all subjugated, though the two nations 
 w^re not then at war with each other, and were retained for more 
 than twelve years by the conquering party. 
 
 The English, the French, and the Dutch, had in the meantime 
 likewise established themselves, on several of the West India 
 islands, and on the adjacent coasts of South America. Some of 
 the settlements had been commenced about the year 1625, by 
 parties of individuals of those nations, who landed, without any 
 authorization, on the smaller islands, and there remained, unpro 
 tected by any government, except such as they constituted for 
 themselves, and exposed to many difficulties, from disputes with 
 each other, as well as from the attacks of the Spaniards. The 
 other settlements were founded by pirates of the same nations 
 who under the denominations of Bucaniers, Freebooters, Flibus- 
 tiers or Zee-roovers, maintained unceasing warfare against the 
 Spaniards in the West Indies, pillaging their ships, and the 
 towns on their coasts, on both seas, during the w^hole of that 
 century. When the establishments formed in either way, had 
 become sufficiently important to attract attention, officers were 
 sent from London, or Paris, or Amsterdam, who took possession 
 of them in the name of their respective governments. 
 
 France and Spain were at war with each other from 1635 to 
 1659, during which period, the possessions of the former power 
 in the West Indies, were constantly increasing, by settlement as 
 well as by conquest. The western half of Hispaniola, was oc 
 cupied by the flibustiers who held it until 1648; it was then for 
 mally annexed to the French dominions, the name of the Spanish 
 capital of the island, St. Domingo, being assumed for this por 
 tion, in token of the intention to bring the remainder under the 
 22 
 
170 THE ENGLISH CONQUER THE NEW NETHERLANDS. [1665. 
 
 authority of France. In 1655, a large fleet was sent by Cromwell, 
 under Penn and Venables for the conquest of the same island^ 
 the English were repulsed in their attack on its capital city, but 
 they succeeded in subjugating the whole of Jamaica, which has 
 ever since remained in their possession. 
 
 Peace was made between France and Spain, by the treaty of 
 the Pyrennees in 1659, agreeably to which, the young king of 
 France, Louis XIV., married the daughter of Philip IV. of 
 Spain, and the two powers were more closely bound together, 
 by the alliance of Paris in 1662. No arrangements however were 
 made between them, with respect to the New World, in which 
 each tacitly retained what it held, and pursued towards the other 
 the same course as before. It is worthy of remark, that in this 
 interval, took place the earliest direct acknowledgment by the 
 Spanish government, of the right of any other European nation, 
 except Portugal, to hold dominion in America; it being agreed 
 in the treaty of Munster in 1648, between Spain and the United 
 Provinces of the Netherlands, that each party should retain the 
 places possessed by it in the East and West Indies, and in 
 Brazil, and all other coasts and territories of Asia, Africa, and 
 America provided that the subjects of neither should visit 
 the^spots held by the other, in those countries. It may also 
 be mentioned as a curious fact, thai the concession made by 
 Pope Alexander VI. to Spain by the Bull of partition in 1493, 
 was recalled in part by another Pope, Alexander VII., who in 
 1658, issued a brief, acknowledging the king of France as the 
 rightful sovereign of all the countries conquered and occupied 
 by his subjects, in the West Indies, and confirming the appoint 
 ments of ecclesiastics in those dominions. 
 
 In 1660, monarchy was restored in England, and five years 
 afterwards, war broke out between that nation and the United 
 Provinces ; before the declaration of which however, Charles II. 
 carried into execution the design of Cromwell, by suddenly at 
 tacking and conquering all the possessions of the Dutch in North 
 America. Those countries were then bestowed by the king upon 
 his brother the Duke of York and Albany (afterwards James II.,) 
 who divided them into two provinces New Jersey containing the 
 southern portion of the territory between the Hudson and the 
 Delaware rivers and New York comprehending the remainder 
 
1663.] CHARTERS OF CAROLANA AND CAROLINA. 171 
 
 of the New Netherlands ; the name of New Amsterdam being at 
 the same time changed to New York, and that of Fort Orange 
 to Albany. At the conclusion of the war in 1665, these coun 
 tries were left in the hands of the English by the treaty of Breda, 
 by which it was agreed, that each nation should retain its con 
 quests. In 1673 they were again brought under the dominion of 
 the Dutch; but they reverted to the English in the following 
 year, agreeably to the terms of the treaty of Westminster, and 
 remained in their possession until the American revolution. 
 
 By the occupation of the New Netherlands, the English were 
 brought into direct collision with the French of Canada, and an 
 other source of difficulties between them was about the same 
 time opened. The treaty of Breda between England and France 
 in 1665 declared that "the country called Acadie, situated in 
 North America, whereof the king of France formerly enjoyed 
 the possession," should be restored to that sovereign. This act 
 was of course most dissatisfactory to the people of New Eng 
 land; and as the treaty contained no description of the limits 
 of the country ceded, discussions were commenced as to the 
 relative extent of Acadie and Nova Scotia, which continued 
 occasionally to disturb the peace between the two nations, until 
 they were definitively set at rest by the treaty of Paris in 1763, 
 assigning all those countries to Great Britain. 
 
 Whilst the English thus acquired the possession of New York, 
 they were extending their dominion southward, towards the 
 Spanish settlements in Florida. 
 
 King Charles I. had, in 1630, granted to Sir Robert Heath 
 and others, the whole territory south of the 36th parallel of lati 
 tude, the southern limit of Virginia, in order to form a colony, 
 which was to be called Carolana, in honor of the sovereign. 
 This grant having been rendered void, from non-fulfilment of 
 the conditions, Charles II. in 1663, issued a new patent, in favor 
 of the Earl of Clarendon and seven others, constituting them and 
 their successors for ever, proprietors of all the countries in Ameri 
 ca, between the 36th degree of latitude and the 31st, which were 
 to compose the province of Carolina, and to be enjoyed and gov 
 erned by those proprietors in eveiy way not repugnant to the 
 laws of England. 
 
 Previous to this concession, a few settlements had been made 
 
172 FIRST SETTLEMENTS IN CAROLINA. [1665. 
 
 by people from Virginia, as far south as the borders of Albemarle 
 sound, and the country had been explored to Cape Fear river, 
 near which some people from New. England had recently estab 
 lished themselves. In 1663, the year in which the first charter 
 was granted, William Hilton was sent from Barbadoes, by plan 
 ters of that island, to seek a place for a colony in Florida;* and 
 he, after examining Santa Helena, of which the Spaniards were 
 found in occupation, landed on the banks of Cape Fear river, 
 and selected a spot where a settlement was made with the con 
 sent of the proprietors. The population rapidly increased, and 
 in 1667, a system of government was formed for this country, 
 and a legislature was convened, which passed laws and appointed 
 persons to execute them. 
 
 The English had also at this period, partially explored the 
 coasts southward to the San Matheo; and had entered the large 
 river, called by them the Savannah, or Saranna, from a tribe of In 
 dians of that name, residing at its mouth, and probably also the 
 Alatamaha, falling into the ocean midway between the two other 
 streams above mentioned. In virtue of these discoveries as they 
 were pleased to regard them the proprietors of Carolina in 1665, 
 obtained from the king another charter, extending their southern 
 boundary to the 29th parallel of latitude, so as to include all the 
 Spanish settlements in Florida, and the whole northern coast of 
 the Mexican Gulf, to which were moreover added the Bahama 
 islands. Soon after this period the Spaniards withdrew their 
 garrisons from Santa Helena, and all the other points occupied 
 by them north of the San Matheo; and in 1670, an English 
 colony was planted on one of the islands of the Santa Helena 
 group, which was called Port Royal, under the supposition no 
 doubt incorrect of its being the same so named by Ribault, 
 where the first settlement of the Huguenots was established in 
 
 G 
 
 1562. This spot however, proved unhealthy, and the people 
 were in the following year transferred to another, forty miles 
 farther north-east, on the banks of a small river called the Ashley, 
 in honor of Lord Shaftesbury, one of the proprietors ; from which 
 
 * "A relation of a discovery lately made on the coast of Florida from latitude 
 31 to 33 degrees 45 minutes north, by William Hilton, London, 1664." This cu 
 rious narrative has been reprinted by Peter Force, Esq., of Washington, in his 
 collection of tracts relative to America, vol. 4. 
 
1672.] EXTENT OF THE ENGLISH COLONIES. 
 
 they were again removed to the bay at the confluence of the 
 Ashley with the Cooper, where the city of Charleston was begun 
 in 1680. The constitution devised for Carolina by John Locke 
 the wisest and best man of his day with its palatine for life, and 
 its hereditary nobility of Landgraves and Caciques, proved wholly 
 inapplicable to the circumstances of the country and its people; 
 and now remains as a warning against all attempts to govern 
 nations according to abstract sistems. 
 
 The English thus, in 1672, held exclusive possession of the 
 whole Atlantic coast of America, from the Savannah to the Bay 
 of Fundy, along which their settlements extended, though at 
 great distances apart, containing together not less than a hundred 
 thousand persons. The only towns of any size were Boston and 
 New York, each of which carried on a considerable trade with 
 England and the West Indies, their principal exports being furs, 
 grain and timber. From Virginia and Maryland, tobacco was 
 almost the only export, especially after the introduction of negro 
 slaves, which w r as commenced in 1620. Slavery of Indians as 
 well as of negroes, was permitted in the more northern colonies ; 
 but the proportion of slaves in those countries, was never so 
 great as in Maryland, and the other colonies farther south. All 
 these settlements were made on or near tide water, none of them 
 being situated above the heads of the rivers, falling directly into 
 the Atlantic; nor is there sufficient evidence, that any English 
 man, during that century, crossed the Apalachian or Alleghany 
 mountains, which divide those waters from the Mississippi and 
 its tributaries, emptying into the Mexican Gulf.* 
 
 * Coxe, in his Carolana, published in 1722, asserts that a Colonel Wood, who 
 lived at the falls of James River, now Richmond, in Virginia, spent the years 
 from 1654 to 1664, in exploring the Mississippi regions; and also that a large 
 party of men from Boston had crossed the continent to New Mexico in 1679 ; but 
 neither of these assertions is sustained by any proofs ; and the book is filled with 
 similar accounts which we now know to be erroneous. Jeffreys, or whoever 
 wrote the "History of the French dominions in America," published under his 
 name in 1760, adds, (page 134) that the Mississippi was also explored in 1670 by a 
 Captain Bolt ; but he probably here refers to Captain Batt, who was sent in that 
 year by Sir William Berkeley, the governor of Virginia, to make discoveries 
 south-westward from the falls of James River, and who penetrated for some dis 
 tance along the eastern side of the Alleghany ridge, until he reached the head 
 waters of streams flowing "backwards," and supposed by him to fall into the 
 Mexican Gulf. See Beverley's History of Virginia, published in 1722, page 62. 
 
174 STATE OF THE SPANISH POSSESSIONS IN FLORIDA. [1672. 
 
 The Spaniards, on the contrary, had made very few additions 
 to their settlements in North America, since the commencement of 
 the century. In Florida they were confined to St. Augustine, 
 and one or two small places in its vicinity, containing no other 
 inhabitants than the garrisons, and persons connected with the 
 government, probably not exceeding altogether a thousand per 
 sons. These settlements were constantly harrassed by Indians, 
 especially by the Jamafoes or Yamassees, occupying the coasts 
 and islands between the San Matheo or St. John's river and 
 Santa Helena, the Apalaches, including the Seminoles and 
 lichees of the lower Apalachicola, and the Cavitas or Coweetas, 
 or Muscoghees of the Chatta-hoochee. The wars with these 
 savages, the disputes among the heirs of the Adelantado Me- 
 nendez, and the discussions as to ecclesiastical regulations, form 
 the whole subjects of the history of Florida during this period 
 a history not more important or more interesting, than that of 
 any English or Dutch factory on the Guinea coast. 
 
 On the Mexican Gulf, Havanna, Campeachy and Vera Cruz, 
 were the only places of note. Havanna was rising steadily into 
 importance, the seat of government of the island of Cuba, having 
 been transferred thither from Santiago at the beginning of the 
 century. Vera Cruz, occupying its present position, opposite 
 the island and castle of San Juan de Ulua, was a large and flour 
 ishing city, and the depository of the whole commerce between 
 Mexico and Spain. Panuco had sunk into an inconsiderable 
 village, in consequence probably of some change in the depth of 
 water at the mouth of the river, which rendered it inaccessible 
 to vessels drawing more than six feet. North of Panuco, there 
 was not a single settlement of Europeans in the vicinity of the 
 gulf, nor in any part of the vast division of the continent, drained 
 by streams entering that sea, between the valley of the Rio Bravo 
 or Rio Grande on the west, and the peninsula of Florida on the 
 other side. Nor does it appear from Spanish histories or maps, 
 or works of geography, or in any other way, that any thing had 
 been learned respecting the countries last mentioned, since the 
 expedition of Arellano in 1560; except that a confused idea 
 was entertained in Mexico, of the existence of a powerful nation 
 of Indians, called Teguas or Texas, in the region north of the 
 
1672.] THE RIVER OF ESPIRITU SANTO. 175 
 
 Rio Bravo, between New Mexico and the gulf.* Conclusive evi 
 dence is indeed afforded by the works above alluded to, that the 
 connection of the Rio del Norte, near which Santa Fe in New 
 Mexico is situated, with the Rio Grande or Bravo, entering the 
 gulf near the 26th parallel, was not known or suspected by the 
 Spaniards until 1591 ; the former river being before that year, 
 represented as flowing westward to the Californian Gulf.f In the 
 maps of that period, a large river is always made to enter the 
 Mexican Gulf, through a bay called the Bay of Espiritu Santo, 
 situated four or five degrees west of the actual position of the 
 mouth of the Mississippi; the river itself being named in different 
 maps, Rio del Espiritu Santo, Rio de Cuchagua, Rio de la Culata, 
 Rio Grande, and Rio de la Palisada.J The great river repre 
 sented under these various names, notwithstanding its position 
 thus far west, and its termination in a bay, was most probably in 
 tended for the Mississippi, which was certainly known to the 
 Spaniards as Rio del Espiritu Santo during the whole of the six 
 teenth century, and subsequently as the Rio de la Palisada, from 
 the accumulation of logs in the form of a palisade at its entrance. 
 Indeed the existence of the Mississippi could not have been con 
 cealed, or forgotten for any length of time, after the occupation 
 of Mexico; as the greater number of vessels in their usual course 
 from Vera Cruz to the Atlantic, must have crossed the muddy cur 
 rent created by the discharge of its waters into the Gulf. The true 
 place of the mouth of the Mississippi, is usually occupied in those 
 maps, by a small stream, called Rio de Flores ; between the Rio 
 del Espiritu Santo and the Rio Bravo appear several other rivers, 
 
 * "The venerable mother Maria de Jesus Agreda," says Barcia in his Chrono 
 logical History of Florida, "preached in the province of the Teguas [in 1622,] 
 but whether In the spirit, or in reality, she herself could not determine." Whatever 
 this famous extatic nun may have done in the spirit, it seems to be clearly estab 
 lished, that she never in the body, left the walls of the Convent of the Immaculate 
 Conception at Agreda in Arragon, from the time of her first entrance in 1619, to 
 her death in 1665. 
 
 f In some of these maps, the Rio del Norte, is made identical with the Gila, 
 entering the Californian Gulf at its northern extremity ; in others with the 
 Yaqui, which falls into that sea near the 27th degree of latitude. Alcedo in his 
 great " Dictionary, Geographical and Historical of the Indies," published at Ma 
 drid in 1786-9, positively states that the Rio del Norte, empties into the Californian 
 Gulf, in the latitude of 32 degrees; and the error moreover stands uncorrected, 
 in the English translation of that work, by Thompson, published in 1813. 
 
 t See at page 219 the copy of a Spanish map of the gulf, published in 1670. 
 
176 AMERICAN TREATY BETWEEN SPAIN AND ENGLAND. [1670. 
 
 under a variety of appellations, such as Rio de la Magdalena, Rio 
 Escondido, Rio de Montanas, and Rio de Gigantes. 
 
 The Spanish government nevertheless still claimed the exclu 
 sive dominion of the West India islands, and of the whole division 
 of America north of the Mexican Gulf; and still endeavored to 
 enforce its barbarous decrees against all foreigners who should 
 enter those territories;* and many large and costly armaments 
 had been sent by that power, to expel the English, French and 
 Dutch intruders from the Caribean Archipelago, These attempts 
 however proved uniformly unsuccessful ; and they served only to 
 exhaust the resources of Spain, which was from various causes, 
 rapidly sinking to an inferior position among the nations of the 
 civilized world. 
 
 At length in 1670, a treaty was concluded between the Catholic 
 king and Charles II. of England, by which they agreed to respect 
 the rights and dominions of each other, "in the West Indies, 
 or in any part of America," and to maintain peace between their 
 subjects, "inviolably, as well by land as by sea, and fresh water," 
 provided, that the subjects and vessels of neither kingdom, 
 should have access to the ports or places of the other, unless 
 forced thither by unavoidable circumstances. This treaty, known 
 in English history, as the American treaty, resembled in its terms, 
 that concluded at Munster between Spain and the United Nether 
 lands in 1648 as already mentioned; and was the first admis 
 sion by Spain of the right of England to hold dominion in the 
 New World, or to navigate the seas in its vicinity. Its provi 
 sions were of the most general nature, though calculated to open 
 the way for others more specific, without which, the treaty was 
 in fact of little efficacy: with regard to territories occupied ex 
 clusively by either party, and having distinct natural boundaries, 
 such as islands, the right of possession might be considered as 
 clearly recognised; but in all other cases, ample field was left for 
 dispute, and disputes accordingly arose at every point, where 
 the territories held by the two nations were contiguous. 
 
 The American treaty nevertheless gave to the English colo 
 nies, in Carolina, and in the West Indies, an assurance which 
 
 * These prohibitive enactments may nearly all be found in the " Recopilacion 
 de leyes delndias,"or code of laws of the Spanish dominions in the New World. 
 Book 9, titles 27, 30 and 44. 
 
1670.] SLOW PROGRESS OF THE FRENCH COLONIES. 177 
 
 they had previously wanted, and they advanced more rapidly in 
 consequence. The Spaniards indeed lost no opportunity to an 
 noy their rivals in Carolina which they still affected to regard as 
 a part of Florida by direct attacks as well as by exciting the In 
 dians to make war on the frontier settlements of the English ; but 
 the latter by their vigilance and energy, defeated these attempts, 
 and returned the annoyances with interest in the same way. 
 
 The French settlements in America had meanwhile advanced 
 but little, in comparison with those of the English; they were 
 confined to the shores of the peninsula of Acadie or Nova Scotia, 
 and the banks of the St. Lawrence below its rapids, and their 
 population, exclusive of the aborigines, did not exceed eight 
 thousand persons. Their government was conducted on the 
 most despotic plan : the whole of New France, was under the 
 immediate control of a Governor and Captain General, appointed 
 by the crown, with powers scarcely inferior to those of the Span 
 ish viceroys, while the military and ecclesiastical establishments 
 \vere proportionally large and expensive. The trade and settlement 
 of all of these countries were as already said, conceded in 1624, to 
 the company of New France, which retained its privileges, until 
 1663; they were then transferred to the West India Company, 
 which held them, together with the exclusive rights of commerce 
 and navigation in all parts of America and of Africa bordering 
 on the Atlantic, until 1674, when the American provinces were 
 all brought under the direct dominion of the crown. 
 
 The principal places in New France were Port Royal, now 
 Annapolis, on the Acadian peninsula, near the entrance of the Bay 
 of Fundy; and on the St. Lawrence, Quebec the seat of the gen 
 eral government, Trois-rivieres, on the expansion of the river called 
 Lake St. Pierre, and Montreal the centre of religion and com 
 merce, from which the missionaries and traders took their depar 
 ture for the interior. No French establishment of any kind, ex 
 cept some missionary and trading stations, existed before 1673, 
 beyond the rapids of the St. Lawrence; though the shores of all 
 the great lakes had been carefully explored through the exertions 
 of the Jesuits, as clearly proved by their maps, which were al 
 most as exact as those of any part of Europe at the same period. 
 
 The French however by no means intended to limit themselves 
 to these inhospitable regions; in which their establishments were 
 23 
 
178 THE IROQUOIS OR FIVE NATIONS. [1670. 
 
 maintained, as bases for farther operations, whereby their power 
 might be extended southward, over the countries then claimed 
 by Great Britain. The territory south of Lakes Ontario and 
 Erie, from the St. Lawrence to the head-waters of the Ohio, 
 the Susquehanna and the Hudson, was found occupied by a 
 powerful confederacy of Indians, celebrated in the history of 
 Northern America, as the Five Nations, or the Iroquois, as they 
 were called by the French, whose influence prevailed to a much 
 greater distance, in all directions, even north of the lakes, where 
 they held in subjection, the Wyandots or Hurons of the region, 
 between lakes Erie and Huron.* To obtain a footing in this wide 
 and fertile territory, now composing the principal part of the State 
 of New York, was the constant object of the French, from the 
 time of their first settlement in Canada ; to which military com 
 manders, missionaries and traders, had. all directed their efforts, 
 but without the slightest prospect of success. The Dutch whilst 
 they held possession of the country farther south, had contented 
 themselves with the trade of the southern portion of the confederacy, 
 over which they however obtained little influence : but the Eng 
 lish immediately after the annexation of the New Netherlands to 
 their dominions, employed every means in their power, to con 
 ciliate or subdue the Five Nations; and thus arose a contest 
 between them and the French, which continued without any real 
 intermission, until the overthrow of the authority of the latter, 
 on the American continent. 
 
 *The Five Nations of this confederacy, were the Seneka, or Tsonnonthouans. 
 as called by the French, occupying the country from the south-east end of Lake 
 Erie, to the Genesee river, on which the city of Rochester now stands ; the 
 Onondaga or Onontague, extending along the south shore of Lake Ontario, from 
 the Genesee to the Seneka river which enters the lake at Oswego ; the Oneida, 
 or Onneyuths of the French, between the Onondaga and the mountainous region 
 west of Lake Champlain, which was then inhabited by the wild Adirondacks, or 
 Tree-eaters ; the Mohawks, or Agniers of the French, on the River Mohawk, 
 one of the branches of the Hudson, and the Lake of the Sacrament, now Lake 
 George; and the Cayuga or Goyogouen of the French, dwelling near the Cayuga 
 Lake, south of the Onondaga. In 1712, the Tuscarora from North Carolina es 
 tablished themselves in this region, between the Oneida and Ontario lakes, and 
 were admitted into the confederacy, which thenceforth became the Six Nations. 
 
 The name Iroquois is said to have been given to these Indians, by the French, 
 from the frequent use of an expression or exclamation resembling Irok in sound, 
 uttered by them in token of assent, in their deliberative assemblies. The Hurons, 
 were so called by the French, from their manner of dressing their heads, giving 
 them the appearance of the hure or head of the wild boar. 
 
1670.] CHARTER OF THE HUDSON'S BAY COMPANY. 179 
 
 The part of America north of the St. Lawrence countries, 
 surrounding the great interior sea, called Hudson's Bay from its 
 supposed discovery, by the English navigator Henry Hudson 
 in 1608, was considered by the French as dependant on Canada. 
 Charles II. King of England however in 1670, granted by char 
 ter to an association of noblemen and gentlemen, entitled, "The 
 company of adventurers of England trading into Hudson's Bay," 
 the entire and exclusive possession of all "the seas, straits and 
 bays, rivers, lakes, creeks, and sounds, in whatsoever latitude 
 they shall be, that lie within the entrance of the straits, com 
 monly called Hudson's Straits, together with all the lands, coun- 
 ries, and territories, upon the coasts and confines" of those 
 waters, not then actually possessed by subjects of England or 
 of any other Christian prince or state. This concession was of 
 course very annoying to the French, who immediately took mea 
 sures to anticipate the English in the occupation of the coasts 
 of the bay, and another source of discord was thus opened be 
 tween the two nations. 
 
 This charter to the Hudson's Bay Company, was the first in 
 stance of a claim or grant by a European government, of an un 
 occupied tract of territory in America, in which the limits were 
 defined by specific reference to the streams, traversing or draining 
 the tract, or in other words to the ridge or line of highland en 
 circling it. In the previous cases, the French had merely stated 
 in their patents, the extent of coast which they meant to occupy; 
 while the English boldly asserted their title to the whole breadth 
 of the continent, between certain parallels of latitude: and as in 
 this last grant, the principal object expressed in the charter, was 
 to encourage the search for a northern passage between the At 
 lantic and the Pacific, it is strange that the concession like those 
 to the Virginia, New England and Carolina Companies, was not 
 made to extend completely across the continent. 
 
 The charters or patents under which these English and French 
 colonies in A.merica were established, nearly resembled the com 
 missions of the Spanish sovereigns to their Adelantados. They 
 in like manner supposed the existence of a right in the party 
 granting them, to the possession of the territories designated, and 
 were equivalent to public declarations of its intention to support 
 and defend the grantees not only in the enjoyment of the settle- 
 
180 RIGHTS OF NATIONS TO VACANT COUNTRIES. [1672. 
 
 merits which they might make, but also indirectly in the exclu 
 sive right of making settlements, in the whole extent of those 
 territories. History shows that this construction was always 
 placed by the French and English governments, on their respec 
 tive charters; and that neither of those powers ever yielded any 
 territory, claimed on such grounds, except on compulsion, or in 
 return for some advantage gained; though the desire of main 
 taining peace often led them, in their treaties with each other, 
 to leave those questions unsettled or involved in vague and inde 
 terminate generalities. 
 
 The Spanish sovereigns originally founded their claim to the 
 whole of the New World except Brazil, upon the concession 
 made by the Pope to Ferdinand and Isabella, in 1493, and the 
 Treaty of Partition with Portugal ; and when these titles ceased 
 to be respected, they adduced the discoveries and settlements of 
 their subjects, in support of their pretensions. The English and 
 the French seem to have always proceeded upon the principle, 
 that territories not already occupied by some European nation, 
 were open to all, and should belong to the first which made set 
 tlements in them ; no claim on the ground of discovery, being 
 alleged in any charter from either of those powers, at least since 
 the days of Henry VIlI. and Francis I. Queen Elizabeth indeed 
 expressly pronounced all titles to countries, resting on this latter 
 basis, to be as vain and insignificant as those emanating from the 
 Papal authority; and her refusal to recognise the sovereignty of 
 the Spaniards "farther than in the parts where they actually set 
 tled and continued to inhabit," became thenceforward the rule 
 of English policy on those matters. 
 
 The right of a civilized nation to take possession of a country 
 inhabited only by barbarians, incapable of developing its advan 
 tages, will not here be discussed. With regard to the pretension 
 of one civilized nation, to appropriate to itself exclusively, a 
 vast portion of the earth, in which it may at the time not have a 
 single citizen or subject, circumstances so many and various, are 
 to be considered, that it is scarcely possible to lay down any 
 principles, or even rules of a definite nature. If discovery be the 
 basis of the pretension, it is not easy to determine exactly what 
 should constitute a discovery, so complete as to give to the party 
 making it, a preference over all others, in occupying the country; 
 
1672.] TITLES FQUNDED ON DISCOVERY AND SETTLEMENT. 181 
 
 what degree of publicity should have been given to a dis 
 covery, in order to render those subsequently made, inopera 
 tive how far an exploration by one party, may supersede the 
 claims of another, resting merely on the previous ascertainment 
 of the existence of the territory to what extent of territory, the 
 preference in occupation, if clearly established by a particular 
 discovery and survey, might be deemed to apply, and how long 
 it might subsist, without the exercise of the right or what re 
 spect is due to the claims of nations, possessing dominions con 
 tiguous to the vacant territory. Similar questions may arise, 
 after the actual settlement of a country, with regard to the extent 
 of vacant territory, over which a particular establishment should 
 secure to the founder, the rights of immediate jurisdiction, or of 
 preference in occupation ; and, no less difficult would it be, to 
 prescribe rules of conduct, applicable to all the cases which might 
 thus occur. On all these points, disputes have arisen between 
 the civilized nations, by which various portions of the New 
 World were discovered, or claimed and settled : in their discus 
 sions, however, the parties have seldom agreed, either as to facts, 
 or principles of justice, or usages ; and the questions have been, in 
 almost every instance, determined, by force or by compromise. 
 It may, however, be easily shown, that the settlement of a 
 vacant country would be attended with infinitely greater diffi 
 culty and injury to the cause of humanity and civilization, with 
 out such assurances from the parent state to its people, that they 
 should be protected, in the exclusive possession of territories, 
 sufficiently extensive for the accommodation of themselves and 
 their descendants, during a reasonable period of time. It would 
 be needless to enumerate the evils, which would otherwise ensue, 
 from the establishment of several colonies of different nations, 
 in a small space; or to show that the apprehension of those evils 
 w r ould deter respectable persons, from attempting to settle, where 
 they would be thus exposed to violence and knavery, without the 
 possibility of obtaining redress from laws. The extent of coun 
 try which might be embraced in such a charter, without subject 
 ing the party granting it to the charge of injustice or extrava 
 gance, would depend on many circumstances not easily defined, 
 but especially on its actual population, and its vicinity or its 
 means of access, to the territory claimed. 
 
182 
 
 NATIONAL LAW LITTLE REGARDED. 
 
 [1672. 
 
 At the period to which the present Chapter relates, a general 
 international law was scarcely known. Grotius, PufFendorf, and 
 Selden then lived, and their great works which formed the basis 
 of the science, were published in the sixteenth century ; yet, the 
 principles they laid down were regarded as legal abstractions by 
 which governments were not bound to regulate their conduct 1o 
 each other. Very little is said by these eminent writers respect 
 ing the rights of nations to vacant territories, and, indeed very 
 little has been since produced of a satisfactory or paramount 
 character on this subject. Each of the European powers which 
 then held dominion in America, regarded as its own all that .was 
 bounded by limits assigned by its own will. These limits were 
 extended whenever it was deemed expedient, and of course, 
 without reference to the claims of other powers, no matter on 
 what basis they might rest. This condition of territorial claims 
 and rights, in which might made right, continued to exist until 
 a much later period of our history. 
 
CHAPTER VI. 
 
 1672 TO 1684. 
 
 DISCOVERIES OF THE FRENCH JESUITS AND TRADERS IN THE 
 
 INTERIOR OF NORTH AMERICA EXPEDITIONS OF JoLIET AND 
 
 MARQUETTE, AND OF LA SALLE AND HENNEPIN ON THE MIS 
 SISSIPPI COMPLETE EXPLORATION OF THE MISSISSIPPI BY 
 THE FRENCH FROM ITS FALLS TO ITS MOUTH. 
 
 THE labors and success of the French missionaries in explor 
 ing the interior of Canada, have been already noticed. The 
 civilization of the natives, formed with the French, as with the 
 Spaniards, an important object of policy in the New World: but 
 the persons employed for that purpose by the French, also exerted 
 themselves more than those of any other nation, in acquiring ex 
 act knowledge of the countries which they visited ; and through 
 their efforts, principally, if not entirely, the earliest discoveries in 
 the vast division of North America, traversed by the upper Mis 
 sissippi, were effected. 
 
 The French missions in Canada, were at first confided to the 
 Jesuits and the Franciscans, or Recollets, the two orders w r hose 
 members have devoted themselves the most assiduously to such 
 labors. The Jesuits, generally men of education and refinement, 
 directed their efforts to enlighten the minds of the savages, and 
 raise them to the level of reasoning beings ; to which end, so far 
 as it might be attainable, their system seems to have been better 
 adapted than any other as yet put in practice. The basis of 
 this system, was the separation of the Indians from intercourse 
 with all civilized men, except iheir immediate instructors: and 
 with this object, endeavors were made to collect them in com 
 munities around the missionary stations, w r here they were initiated 
 
184 THE JESUITS AND THE RECOLLETS. ['l37J. 
 
 into the doctrines and observances of the Catholic religion, and 
 the arts and customs of social life ; particular care being of course 
 directed to the young, who were, as much as possible, removed 
 from contact with other Indians and with the French traders. The 
 Recollets, on the contrary, were plain, untaught persons, usually 
 taken from the lower ranks, who contented themselves with the 
 performance of the most ordinary functions of the priesthood, and 
 looked to no results beyond the salvation of the souls of indi 
 viduals, in the mode regarded by them as effectual. These two 
 orders, as might be supposed, entertained towards each other, 
 feelings somewhat at variance with that brotherly love, which is 
 so strongly recommended by the founder of the Christian religion ; 
 and it is therefore very difficult to arrive/at the truth, with regard 
 to many important circumstances in the history of French America, 
 on which the evidence is only to be found, in their narratives or 
 reports.* In the accounts of the Recollets, the Jesuits are usually 
 charged with falsehood, dissimulation, and knavery of all kinds, 
 in the language of coarse and direct invective; while better taste 
 and more profound knowledge of the world, led the followers 
 of St. Ignatius to content themselves with passing over in silence, 
 or faintly noticing the labors of their humble rivals. In 1633, how 
 ever, the Recollets were banished from New France, and this ex 
 clusion continued until 1669, when the Jesuits having become the 
 objects of jealousy to the government from their interference in 
 public affairs, and their opposition to the establishment of military 
 and civil authority in the Indian countries, the Franciscans were 
 invited to resume their missionary labors. 
 
 The French missionaries were every where accompanied or 
 followed by the traders, between whom and the Jesuits, subsisted 
 
 * The accounts of these missionaries were, at first, published irregularly in the 
 form of letters, or of histories or descriptions of particular parts of New France ; 
 among the earliest and most curious of which, is the " Grand voyage du pays 
 des Hurons," by the Recollet Gabriel Sagard, printed at Paris in 1632. In that 
 year the Jesuits began to issue their " Relations " in the form of small volumes, 
 which appeared from time to time in France, or Holland, or Italy, and are now 
 in great request among collectors of rare works on American history. In 1717, 
 another series of a similar character, called " Lettres Edifiantes," was com 
 menced at Paris, containing select communications from Jesuits, in all parts of 
 the world ; it was continued at intervals until 1776, when a large number of vol 
 umes had been published, forming together, one of the most agreeable and in 
 structive works to be found in any language. 
 
1G10.] JESUIT MISSIONS ON LAKE MICHIGAN. 185 
 
 a strong mutual antipathy, in consequence of the determined re 
 sistance of the latter, to the demoralising practices of the traders, 
 especially as regards the introduction of spirituous liquors among 
 the Indians. The Recollets had fewer scruples on these points, 
 and were accordingly viewed by the traders in general, with more 
 friendly eyes, if not as natural co-operators. 
 
 The French government availed itself of the services of all 
 these classes for the discovery of the country; the Franciscans 
 and the traders usually acting as pioneers, after whom went the 
 Jesuits, applying their science to the minute examination of the 
 regions thus laid open by the others. The greater number of these 
 traders, were men of coarse manners and dissolute character, who 
 were held in horror by the Jesuits : but there were also among 
 them persons of a higher order, such as Perrot, Joliet and La Salle, 
 who were often entrusted by the governors of New France, with 
 commissions to make treaties with the natives, and to receive 
 their promises of allegiance ; after which, military officers were, if 
 expedient, sent to establish forts for the protection of the missiona 
 ries, traders or settlers. Thus in 1670, Perrot convoked a numer 
 ous assembly of the nations surrounding Lake Michigan, at Chi 
 cago near the southern extremity of that lake, where he made 
 known to them the power and objects of his sovereign; and in 
 the following year, M. de St. Lusson, who had been specially 
 sent for the purpose, solemnly took possession of all the regions 
 of the upper lakes for France in the presence of a multitude of 
 Indians, at Mackinac. 
 
 Among the Jesuits who devoted themselves most ardently to 
 these labors, were Fathers Allouez, Dablon, and Marquette; and 
 to their exertions the world is indebted for the first surveys and 
 maps approaching to exactness, of the Lakes Superior and Michi 
 gan, as well as for the earliest observations of the currents, and 
 the variation in the altitude of the surface of those waters. For 
 the conversion of the natives, they established, in 1670 and the 
 two succeeding years, several missionary stations, of which the 
 principal were on the Sault St. Marie, the outlet of Lake Supe 
 rior, at Michilimackinac or Mackinac on the north side of the 
 passage connecting Lakes Huron and Michigan, and on the Baie 
 des Puants, now Green Bay, which joins the last named lake on 
 the north-west. In such remote places, did these Jesuits volun- 
 
186 FIRST NOTICES OF THE MISSISSIPPI. [16"/2. 
 
 tarily consign themselves for years, to the thankless and futile 
 task of converting and civilizing the Wyandots, Ottawas, Poto- 
 watamies, and other tribes of irreclaimable barbarians, who then 
 occupied the regions surrounding the lakes; their only pleasures 
 being derived from the success of their exertions, and from the 
 study of the new countries, and new objects of all kinds, by 
 which they were surrounded. 
 
 These extensive journies of the French missionaries and tra 
 ders, were performed almost entirely by water, on the lakes and 
 streams which cross the northern parts of America in all direc 
 tions: the vehicles employed being canoes made of the bark 
 of the birch tree, without which those regions would have been 
 uninhabitable by the aborigines. The .canoes are constructed 
 with little trouble, and are so light as to be easily transported 
 around the rapids of the streams, or from one stream to another; 
 while the latter quality renders the labor of propelling them com 
 paratively small; and journies of more than two thousand miles 
 are thus made, in the course of which the canoe is removed from 
 the water and replaced in it, almost daily. 
 
 From the missions on the upper lakes, the Jesuits continued 
 their explorations northward to Hudson's Bay, and north-west 
 to the lakes, now known as Lake Winnipeg, and the Lake of the 
 Woods: on the west and south, they had reached the head 
 waters of the Wisconsin, the Illinois, and the Ohio; and they had 
 received accounts from the Indians, of a mighty river, called 
 Mescha-sibi or Missi-sippi, signifying the Great Water, in the 
 language of the Outagamies and Chipewas west, of Lake Michi 
 gan, into which the other streams were all said to empty. Re 
 specting the course and outlet of this river, much interest was im 
 mediately excited in Canada, where hopes were entertained that 
 it might be found to flow directly into the Pacific, and thus to 
 afford the means of communication between Europe and India; 
 and in 1669, an attempt was made by Messrs. Dolier and Gali- 
 nee, two priests of St. Sulpice, and M. de la Salle, the trader 
 above mentioned, to effect its discovery, by way of the Iroquois 
 country, but without success. Farther information was however 
 collected by Fathers Dablon and Allouez, who in 1672 explored 
 the regions west of Lake Michigan, then occupied by the Chipewii, 
 Menomonie and Outagamie Indians, returning down the Fox or 
 
1672.] JOLIET UNDERTAKES TO EXPLORE THE MISSISSIPPI. 187 
 
 Outagamie river, falling into the south-west extremity of Green 
 Bay, or Baie des Puants,as it was then called from the filthy habits 
 of the Menomonie Indians dwelling near it; and this expedition 
 prepared the way for another completed in the following year 
 which proved, as will be shewn, highly important in its results.* 
 
 While Dablon and Allouez were engaged in their expedition, 
 the government of New France was conducted provisionally by 
 the Intendant, M. Talon, who had always displayed much zeal 
 for the prosecution of discoveries in those countries. In the 
 summer of 1672, however, the Count de Frontenac arrived in 
 Canada as Governor and Captain General, with whose adminis 
 tration, a new area was begun in the history of French America. 
 Frontenac, a bold, ambitious, unscrupulous man, impelled by the 
 desire to extend the dominion of his nation over as large a por 
 tion of the continent as possible, entered at once into the views 
 of Talon, for the exploration of the western regions, with the ob 
 ject of thereby increasing the trade and influence of the French; 
 and Louis Joliet, a Canadian largely interested in the Indian 
 trade, being then about to depart on an expedition to the Upper 
 Lakes, he was commissioned by the Governor, to endeavor to 
 ascertain the course and outlet of the Great River, in order to 
 determine how far its occupation might be advantageous for the 
 objects above indicated. 
 
 Joliet accordingly on his way up the lakes, made inquiries as 
 to the best mode of fulfilling this commission; and on reaching 
 Michilimackinack, he received from Dablon and Allouez, ac 
 counts of their recent journey through the countries west of Lake 
 Michigan, which determined him to attempt the discovery of the 
 Great River in that direction, and without further delay. Mar- 
 quette, though aged and infirm, readily consented to accompany 
 him ; and having agreed upon their route through the Baie des 
 
 *The map on the opposite page, is intended to illustrate the accounts here 
 presented, of the exploration of the Mississippi regions, by the French ; with 
 which object, the geography of the rivers and coasts is given according to the 
 latest and most correct maps and reports, and the positions of the various Indian 
 nations, occupying those countries at the time of their discovery, are indicated by 
 the names, most commonly applied to each, in the narratives of the explorers. 
 The map has been compiled by the author with great care ; the orthography of 
 the Indian names being fixed, as in the text, in the manner calculated, according 
 to his judgment, to represent the true sound as nearly as possible, without de 
 viating too far, from the form already in general use. 
 
188 EXPEDITION OF JOLIET AND MARQUETTE. [1673. 
 
 Puants and the Outagamie river, they departed from the mission 
 of Michilimackinack, on the 13th of May, 1673.* 
 
 *A11 that is now known with certainty of the expedition of Joliet and Mar- 
 quette to the Mississippi, is derived from the narrative of Marquette. Joliet lost 
 all his notes and journals on his way back near Montreal, where he, however, 
 published a short account of his adventures from memory, of which no copy is 
 believed to be now in existence; though an extract or abstract in English is ap 
 pended to the translation of Hennepin's "Nouvelle Decouverte" published at 
 London in 1698 : it is a concise description of the route, such as would be writ 
 ten at the present day for a newspaper by a traveller, immediately on his re 
 turn from an expedition, in order to allay the curiosity of the public. 
 
 The narrative of Marquette was first published at Paris in 1681, by Thevenot, 
 in.his " Recueil de quelques voyages," under the title of " Decouverte de quelques 
 pays et nations de PAmerique Septrentrionale :" it attracted little notice ; and 
 being unaccompanied by any account of its communication, or other proof of 
 authenticity, it has been ever since regarded by many, as one of those literary 
 forgeries, so common at that time in France and Holland. It contains however 
 nothing of consequence respecting the countries said to have been visited, which 
 has not been since confirmed, and the map attached to it, though rude, is too 
 nearly accurate, to have been constructed without a knowledge of the regions 
 represented. 
 
 The author of this history is at present enabled to pronounce with conviction 
 of certainty, in favor of the authenticity of the narrative published by Thevenot, 
 as he has compared it with a copy carefully made, from a copy of Marquette's 
 original account written by the hand of his devoted friend Father Dablon, 
 which has been recently discovered in Montreal, among many other papers, re 
 lating to the missions of the Jesuits in Canada. The printed narrative indeed 
 omits several passages, but none of any importance connected with the main 
 points of the expedition ; and it may therefore be regarded confidently, as ema 
 nating from the pen of the venerable Jesuit, and as containing a correct state 
 ment of the circumstances of their memorable expedition. Attached to Dab- 
 Ion's copy is a map of the route traced on transparent paper, no doubt from Mar 
 quette's original : it resembles the map published by Thevenot, of which it pro 
 bably formed the basis ; the latter is however more nearly correct, perhaps in 
 consequence of information received from La Salle, as there is some reason to 
 believe that it was not published until after the period noted on the title page. 
 
 The narrative of Marquette, though amply sufficient, to indicate. the route 
 pursued, is by no means rich in geographical details; a large portion of it being 
 employed in accounts of the manners and customs of the Indians, and specula 
 tions as to the best mode of converting them to Christianity, like those which 
 are occasionally written by our Protestant missionaries of the present day. If it 
 was really published, in 1681, as declared by its title page, it was certainly the 
 earliest account given to the world of the territories described ; as Hennepin the 
 only civilized person, except Joliet and Marquette and their companions, who 
 had then seen the Upper Mississippi, did not return to France until the end of 
 that year, and did not probably publish his narrative before 1683, though it is 
 dated in 1682. The descriptions of those regions and their inhabitants given by 
 Hennepin, are so much more full and clear than those of the Jesuit, that the lat 
 ter must have been superseded almost immediately after their publication. 
 
1673.] JOLIET AND MARQUETTE REACH THE MISSISSIPPI. 189 
 
 Agreeably to the concise accounts which have been preserved 
 of their expedition, the two travellers, accompanied by five other 
 Frenchmen, and some natives as guides, quitted Michilimacki- 
 nack,* in two bark canoes; and proceeding along the north coast 
 of the Lake of the Illinois or Lake Michigan, towards the west, 
 they entered the Baie des Puants, and arrived in safety about the 
 beginning of June, in the mouth of the Outagamie. The Outa- 
 gamie Indians at this place, on learning the objects of the French 
 men, endeavored to dissuade them from venturing on the Great 
 River, which was represented as beset by dangers of various 
 kinds, rocks, rapids, whirlpools, cannibals, monsters and de 
 mons. Marquette, however, while thanking them for their advice, 
 firmly declared his determination to persevere in the enterprise ; 
 as his companion had been sent by their sovereign, to discover 
 new countries, while he himself was engaged in the service of a 
 deity, who would protect them against all perils: and having pro 
 cured the assistance of several Indians,, they immediately began 
 the ascent of the stream. After laboring; for more than a week 
 
 O 
 
 against the current, passing through many lakes and ponds 
 covered with wild rice, and frequently transporting their canoes 
 arid baggage across necks of land, they on the 9th of the month, 
 reached a large village, inhabited by savages of several nations, 
 which had been visited by Dablon and Allouez in the preceding 
 year, and was the farthermost spot in those regions known to 
 Europeans. Within two leagues of this village they discovered 
 another river, called by the natives Ouisconsin or Wisconsin, 
 which flowed towards the south-west ; and transporting their barks 
 to it, they continued their journey in that direction. The current 
 bore them gently down, and on the 16th they beheld, rolling before 
 them, the w r aters of the Great River, which they "entered," says 
 Marquette, "happily, and with a joy not to be expressed." 
 The travellers found the Great River wide, deep and trans- 
 
 * Michilimackinack, signifying Great Turtle, was the name of the island, now 
 called by abbreviation, Mackinac or Mackinaw, at the outlet of Lake Michigan ; 
 the Jesuit mission, however, was situated on the point of the mainland imme 
 diately north, which is now known as Point Ignatius. The island was regarded 
 with great respect by the Indians as the residence of Michaboo the God of the 
 Waters, who formed Lake Superior by raising up the rocks across its outlet. 
 Michigan is an abbreviation of Michigamink, signifying a very great water, in 
 the language of the Indians on the north-west side of the lake. 
 
190 DISCOVERY OF THE MISSOURI. [1673. 
 
 parent, flowing gently between forests and prairies, and in many 
 places, divided into several channels by islands; on its banks 
 were seen large herds of buffalos, and flocks of aquatic birds rested 
 on its surface, beneath which swam myriads of fish, some of 
 monstrous form and size. After a voyage of a week down the 
 stream southward, they, on the 25th of June, reached an exten 
 sive village or encampment of Indians, of a nation already 
 known to the French by the name of Illinois,* or Men, which 
 they seemed to deserve, by their kindness and hospitality, as 
 well as their frank and gallant bearing. Peace and good feel 
 ing were soon established between the savages and the white 
 strangers, who smoked together with great solemnity the sacred 
 calumet of peace, made of the beautiful red steatite or pipe-stone, 
 found on the banks of the river above, and ornamented with 
 rich feathers; and so well satisfied were the Frenchmen with their 
 hosts, that they remained several days at the village, enjoying the 
 feasts and dances, prepared to do them honor. 
 
 Marquette and Joliet took leave of their friends, the Illinois, 
 in the latter part of June, carrying with them a pipe as a passport 
 to ensure their safety; and continuing their voyage down the 
 Mississippi they were, a few days afterwards, warned, by the 
 rushing of waters, of their approach to the point of its junction 
 with the mightier river from the west, called by the natives the 
 Pekitanouni, and now the Missouri. Of the dangers of this place 
 they had received notice from the Illinois ; and they indeed nar 
 rowly escaped destruction, with which they were for some time 
 threatened, by the collision between their slender barks, and the 
 immense trunks of trees borne down by the turbid, angry river 
 of the west. They next passed in safety, the rocky bluffs or points 
 on the right bank, which were then invested by the Indians, w r ith 
 all the malevolent attributes assigned to Scylla, by the ancient 
 mariners of the Mediterranean; and on the following day, they 
 observed on the east the entrance of the wide but placid Oua- 
 bouskigou, which now bears the more euphonious and appropriate 
 
 * Under this general name of Illini, or Innini, or Linni, of which Illinois is the 
 French form, were embraced a number of tribes of the same nation or language, 
 dwelling on the Illinois river and on the Mississippi, above and below the mouth 
 of the Illinois, and composing a confederacy like that of the Iroquois ; of which 
 the principal tribes were the Kaskaskia, the Tamaroa, the Cahokia, the Peoria, 
 and the Michigamea. 
 
1673.] THE MISSISSIPPI TRACED DOWN TO THE ARKANSAS. 191 
 
 name of Ohio,* bestowed on its north-easternmost branch by the 
 Iroquois, in token of admiration of its beauty. Pursuing their 
 course Without any difficulties worthy of note, except the perse 
 cutions of mosquitos, they met several parties of Indians proba 
 bly Chickasas in canoes of wood, in whose possession were 
 seen fire-arms, glass bottles, and other articles of European fabric, 
 obtained, no doubt, from Virginia; and farther down, they reached 
 a large village of Michigameas on the west bank, where strong 
 signs of hostility were exhibited towards them by the natives. 
 The Jesuit however, had recourse to his "patroness and guide, the 
 immaculate Holy Virgin," who softened the hearts of the savages, 
 and induced them to accept the calumet of peace; and the travellers 
 continuing their voyage, arrived on the 15th of July at the villages 
 of the Akamska or Akansea, opposite the mouth of a large river 
 entering from the west, which could only have been the Arkansas 
 Joliet and Marquette had then, according to their observations 
 of the sun's altitude, descended below the parallel of 34 degrees; 
 and as their course had been constantly southward, since their 
 embarcation on the Mississippi, with no material deflection either 
 to the east or the west, they considered themselves justified in 
 assuming as determined, that the Great River discharged its waters 
 into the Mexican Gulf. Under this conviction, and apprehending 
 danger from the Spaniards farther south, they on the 17th of July, 
 begun their voyage back to Canada. Laboring against the cur 
 rent, which had so much facilitated their passage down,' they as 
 cended the Great River, to the entrance of the Illinois near the 39th 
 degree of latitude : up this stream they proceeded to the vicinity of 
 Lake Michigan, and crossing by land to that lake at the mouth 
 of the Chicago, they returned along the western shore to Green 
 Bay in September. They had effected a grand geographical dis- 
 
 * The word Ohio or Oyo as more properly written according to its true sound 
 in the early French narratives is supposed to have been an exclamation used 
 by the Iroquois, equivalent to Oh ! Beautiful ! The Indians of the countries 
 through Avhich its upper waters flow, called it Alighin-Sipou, or River of the 
 Alighins, from a nation who are reported by tradition to have invaded those coun 
 tries at some early period from the west; and that name, altered to Alleghany, 
 is still applied to its north-easternmost branch. The same name was also as 
 signed in the middle of the last century, to the northern portion of the great 
 chain of mountains dividing the waters of the Mississippi from those flowing di 
 rectly to the Atlantic, of which the southern portion was called the Apalachian 
 mountains ; and it has since been made common to the whole range. 
 
192 LAST LABORS A^'D DEATH OF MARQUETTE. [1675. 
 
 covery, in consequence of which their names were to be insepara 
 bly connected with the history of the vast regions of the Missis 
 sippi : yet the worthy Jesuit, in concluding the narrative Sf their 
 expedition, rejoices not in having made known the existence 
 and traced the course of the greatest of rivers but in having 
 been permitted to preach the gospel first, to some thousands of 
 savages, and more especially to save the soul of an Illinois child, 
 whom he had baptised in its dying moments. 
 
 From Green Bay, Joliet hastened to Quebec, carrying the 
 journals of the expedition, which were however unfortunately 
 lost, by the upsetting of his canoe near Montreal; so that he 
 could only represent the particulars of the discovery from memory, 
 in a concise sketch of his adventures published in Canada. Mar- 
 quette quietly returned to his ordinary labors as a missionary, for 
 the prosecution of which among the Illinois, he made another ex 
 pedition to that country, with his devoted friend Dablon in 1675. 
 But the good man's course was nearly run; his strength failed at 
 Chicago, and he was obliged to return to Michilimackinack, on 
 the way to which, his life was ended quietly on the 18th of May, 
 at the mouth of a small stream, now bearing his name, on the 
 the north-west side of the State of Michigan.* His simple narra 
 tive of the discovery of the Mississippi published six years after 
 wards, has retrieved his memory from the oblivion into which it 
 would otherwise have fallen; and it has at the same time though 
 doubtless contrary to the intention of the worthy Jesuit deprived 
 Joliet of his share of the merit of the enterprise, in which he 
 was the principal, and Marquette only a coadjutor. 
 
 Joliet on arriving in Canada, found the Count de Frontenac so 
 much engrossed by his controversy with the Bishop of Quebec, 
 as to the part which the latter might take in the civil administra 
 tion, and by his projects for obtaining possession of the Iroquois 
 
 * The particulars of this last journey of Marquette to the Illinois and of the 
 death of the venerable Jesuit, are related by Father Dablon, with much minute 
 ness, in a memoir among the papers recently discovered at Montreal. The re 
 mains of Marquette were in 1677, removed with great solemnity, and accom 
 panied by crowds of Indians in canoes, from the place of his death, to the 
 church at Michilimackinack, where as Dablon relates a woman was soon after 
 miraculously relieved from a long and apparently incurable disease, in considera 
 tion of prayers said over his grave. Other miracles might have been effected, 
 and the worthy Jesuit might in due time have been admitted to canonization, had 
 not, the mission been unfortunately abandoned, and the church left to ruin. 
 
1675.] ACCOUNT OF LA SALLE. 193 
 
 country, that he had no leisure to devote to matters of so little 
 immediate importance, as the exploration of the distant regions 
 beyond the lakes. The Governor indeed communicated the fact 
 of the discovery of the Mississippi to the king, most ungenerously 
 suppressing the name of Marquette in his report; it however 
 attracted little attention in Canada and less in Europe, and re 
 mained for several years known only to a few individuals. 
 
 There was however one person in Canada, already mentioned, 
 on whom the news of the discovery of the Mississippi immediately 
 produced a strong impression ; this was Robert Cavelier de la 
 Salle, a native of Rouen, then residing as an Indian trader, at Fort 
 Cataraqui, where he had recently formed an establishment, under 
 the patronage of the Governor General. Of the previous history of 
 this remarkable man, little is to be said: he had been educated 
 by the Jesuits in France, and remained a member of their order 
 nine years, at the end of which he obtained his discharge from 
 the society, either in consequence of some private discontent or 
 disgust, or from a desire to employ himself in more active pur 
 suits, and came to America in 1667. There he entered into the 
 trade with the Indians, in which he seems to have been success 
 ful; and having gained the favor of Count de Frontenac, he 
 obtained permission to form the trading post at Fort Cataraqui, 
 by means of which his communications with the interior coun 
 tries, were considerably increased. The events of his subsequent 
 career belong to the history of America: respecting his character, 
 it may be said in anticipation, that those events, together with the 
 concurring testimony of all who knew him, show him to have 
 been aspiring, courageous, energetic and persevering in the ex 
 treme, and no less overbearing, self-willed, and disdainful of the 
 opinions of others. 
 
 From the moment of his arrival in America, La Salle had en 
 tertained the design of seeking a passage through the continent 
 to Mexico or to the Pacific ;* w r ith which view, he had endeavored 
 
 * "M. Robert Cavelier de la Salle, 1 ' says Hennepin, in the commencement of 
 his first work, published in 1682, "had been for many years persuaded by the 
 accounts received from various savage nations, that considerable establishments 
 might be formed in the south-west, beyond the great lakes; and tnat it might be 
 possible, even to penetrate to the South Sea, by way of the large stream, called 
 the Hohio, by the Iroquois, which falls into the Mescha-sibi, or Grand river, as 
 that word signifies in the language of the Illinois." 
 
 25 
 
194 FRONTENAC GOVERNOR OF CANADA. [1675. 
 
 to collect information from the Indians, with regard to rivers 
 running southward or westward: and he had carefully studied the 
 old Spanish chronicles and histories, relating to the discoveries and 
 establishments of that nation in the northern division of the New 
 World. He communicated his views to Courcelles the Governor 
 and to Talon, from whom he does not seem to have received 
 the encouragement anticipated; and it has even been insinuated,* 
 though upon grounds by no means sufficient, that the expedition 
 of Joliet and Marquette, was made in consequence of his sugges 
 tions, but with the intention of depriving him of the merit of 
 the discovery. The results of that expedition however, strongly 
 excited the imagination of La Salle: he became convinced that 
 the great river flowing from the north through the region beyond 
 the lakes, could be no other than the Rio Grande, down which 
 the followers of Soto had been carried to the Mexican Gulf in 
 1543; and that if this should be confirmed, the means of access 
 would be opened to the rich mines of the Spanish provinces, and 
 perhaps also to China, Japan and the East Indies. Visions of 
 wealth and glory were thus raised up before the trader of Fort 
 Cataraqui, who resolved if possible to realize them. 
 
 Canada at that time presented a fair field for enterprising men. 
 Among the plans for increasing the power of France, or rather 
 of its sovereign, the arrogant and grasping Louis XIV., America 
 was not forgotten ; and the opportunity afforjed by the base 
 venality of the king of England, for the extension of French do 
 minion in the New World was not neglected. With these views, 
 the crown had resumed the entire possession of New France, by 
 extinguishing the privileges of the West India company ; and 
 the bold and ambitious Count de Frontenac had been chosen to 
 direct its first operations. The new governor from the commence 
 ment resolved to secure the Iroquois countries, against the Eng- 
 
 *" Whilst M. de la Salle was thus engaged in building his fort, those who envied 
 him, judging from what he had already done with so much advantage, that he 
 might effect still more with the aid of our Recollet Fathers, who were by their 
 disinterested conduct, drawing so many families around the fort, excited M. Jo 
 liet to forestal him in his discoveries; and that person accordingly went by way 
 of the Baie des Puants, to the river Mescha-sibi, which he descended as far as 
 the Illinois country, and thence came back to Canada, by the lakes, without hav 
 ing made any attempt, then or since, to form any establishment, or to give any 
 information to the Court." Hennepin, p. 15. 
 
1675.] FIRST PROJECTS OF LA SALLE. 195 
 
 lish, and if possible to establish the authority of France over 
 them: and for this object he strengthened and extended the forts 
 on the waters of Lake Champlain, and erected that of Cataraqui, at 
 a place ever since regarded as one of the most important military 
 positions in Canada; while he at the same time employed all the 
 persuasive means at his disposal, by visiting the Iroquois coun 
 tries frequently, and dispatching French traders and missionaries 
 among them. His controversy with the Bishop of Quebec im 
 mediately on his arrival, had indeed armed against him the 
 higher clergy, and the Jesuits, who then possessed great influ 
 ence at Court ; one of the principal grounds of this dispute, os 
 tensibly at least, being the opposition of those ecclesiastics to the 
 distribution of spirituous liquors among the Indians, from w T hich 
 the traders derived a large portion of their profits. Frontenac in 
 sisted that no restrictions of that kind should be imposed, as they 
 could only serve to give advantages to the English, who had no 
 such scruples; and the interests of the traders being in all re 
 spects in accordance with the objects of the sovereign, the gov 
 ernor was able to maintain his position, notwithstanding the pub 
 lic disapproval by the Court of his acts on that particular point. 
 The traders in consequence gave him their entire and efficient 
 support, as also did the lower orders of the clergy, especially 
 the Recollets who had been invited to return to New France in 
 1669; while the Jesuits were obliged to abandon their missions 
 on the upper lakes. 
 
 After some time, La Salle made known his views, though with 
 reserve, to Frontenac, who approved them in every respect; and 
 with this assurance he proceeded in 1675, to France, where he 
 submitted his immediate plans to the government. The cele 
 brated Colbert, then Comptroller General of the finances to 
 Louis XIV., warmly entered into the scheme; and as a first con 
 tribution for its success, he obtained for the ardent adventurer, 
 letters patent of nobility, which w r ere then indispensable for ad 
 vancement in any but the most ordinary pursuits, together with 
 the governorship of Fort Cataraqui, or Frontenac as it was thence 
 forth called, and the lordship of the surrounding tract of country. 
 With this addition to his means, .La Salle returned to Canada, and 
 there spent the two following years, in extending his trade among 
 the Indians, and establishing settlers on his lands; in the course of 
 
196 COMMISSION GRANTED TO LA SALLE. [1678. 
 
 which he made several voyages to the western extremity of Lake 
 Ontario, in vessels built at his fort: and he then again went to 
 France, where through the influence of Colbert and the Prince 
 of Conti, he obtained the authority requisite for the commence 
 ment of his great enterprise. This was given, in the form of a 
 commission or letters patent, dated the 12th of May, 1678, se 
 curing to La ITalle full powers and exclusive right, to discovei 
 the unknown territories, in the western part of New France, and 
 to erect forts in them, which he was to hold and govern on the 
 same terms, as Fort Frontenac ; provided that he should effect 
 his enterprise \vithin the period of five years : the exclusive trade 
 in buffalo skins and furs in all the countries west of those of the 
 Ottawa Indians, being at the same time conferred on him. 
 
 With this precious document, giving him all the authority 
 which he required, and all the assistance which he could have 
 expected, La Salle returned to Quebec, where he arrived on the 
 15th of September, 1678. He was accompanied by the Cheva 
 lier Henri de Tonty, an Italian officer who had distinguished 
 himself in the service of France, on land and on sea, and had ob 
 tained leave to join in the enterprise; and he also brought with 
 him a ship builder, a pilot, and some seamen, for the voyages 
 which might be necessary on the lakes. After a few days spent 
 at Quebec, they hastened to Fort Frontenac, and thence to the 
 Niagara river, where they begun the construction of a vessel 
 above the falls. As soon as this work was sufficiently advanced 
 to admit of his absence, La Salle returned to Fort Frontenac, 
 from which he continued to send provisions and goods for trade 
 to the Niagara; and he was himself preparing to set out for that 
 place, on his expedition to the west, in the middle of the year 
 1679, when he was arrested by the receipt of painful intelligence 
 from Montreal. His creditors becoming alarmed by the apparent 
 wildness of his views and movements, had seized the property in 
 his stores at La Chine near that town, and caused it to be sold, 
 with great loss to the owner. The injury thus inflicted on La 
 Salle's means and prospects was serious, and might have in 
 volved the entire overthrow of his plans ; he did not, however, 
 allow it to depress him, but so soon as he had done all that lay 
 in his power to prevent farther damage, he set out for the Niagara 
 river, where he arrived in the latter part of July. 
 
1679.] PREPARATIONS OF LA SALLE. 197 
 
 On arriving in the Niagara,* La Salle found his vessel com 
 pleted; she was of about forty tons burthen, and was named Le 
 Griffon, in honor of the Count de Frontenac, who bore a griffin on 
 his arms. All things being in readiness for her voyage, she 
 emerged from the river into Lake Erie on the 7th of August, 1679 : 
 her crew consisted of La Salle and three inferior officers, three 
 Recollets, namely, Louis Hennepin, Zenobe Mambre, and Ga 
 briel de la Ribourde, and twenty-seven other persons, mostly 
 
 * All that is known of La Salle's expeditions to the Mississippi countries, is 
 derived from the accounts of three of his companions, hereafter particularly 
 mentioned ; namely, Henri de Tonty his lieutenant, and the Recollets Zenobe 
 Mambre and Louis Hennepin. La Salle himself published nothing, and was on 
 the contrary always anxious to keep his plans and proceedings secret. 
 
 The work entitled "Dernieres decouvertes dans 1'Amerique Septentrionale de 
 M. de la Salle,' 1 published at Paris in 1697, and afterwards translated into Eng 
 lish, was immediately disavowed by Tonty, to whom the authorship was as 
 signed on its title page ; and appears to have been one of those literary forgeries 
 so frequent at that period, though it was undoubtedly founded ori a memoir ad 
 dressed by Tonty, to the French government in 1692. A translation of this me 
 moir, (of which the original is still preserved in the archives of the marine 
 department at Paris,) was published at London in 1841 by Falconer, in his work on 
 the Discovery of the Mississippi, and is a valuable contribution to the history of 
 America, as it bears in all points the impress of truth, and throws light on sev 
 eral questions not before clearly understood. See hereafter the note on page 230. 
 
 The " Description de la Louisiane nouvellement decouverte," by Father Louis 
 Hennepin, appeared at P.aris in the winter of 1682-3. It relates only to a por 
 tion of the first expedition of La Salle, to the Mississippi regions, of which it is 
 however by far the best account extant, and is highly honorable to the intelli 
 gence, good sense and perseverance of the author. It has never been translated 
 into English. Unfortunately for the memory of Hennepin, he many years after 
 wards, published other works, on the same subject, in which vanity or self-inter 
 est, or wounded feelings, induced him to represent all the circumstances in a 
 light entirely different from that in which he had first exhibited them, and to 
 commit numerous and palpable falsehoods, as will be shewn in the notice of 
 those works, in the eighth chapter. 
 
 Father Zenobe's narrative, embraces the whole of both the expeditions of La 
 Salle for the exploration of the Mississippi on which it is the best and almost 
 the only evidence remaining, except as regards the portion described by Henne 
 pin. It was published in 1691, in a small work entitled "Premier etablisse- 
 ment de la Foy dans la Nouvelle France," by Father Chrestien le Clercq, contain 
 ing accounts of the missionary labors of the Recollets in New France, com 
 piled chiefly, from the records of the convents of that order, in Quebec and Mon 
 treal. This work was suppressed immediately after its appearance, doubtless in 
 consequence of the severe and generally coarse and unjust reflections, cast upon 
 the Jesuits, and is now rarely to be found ; the author of the present history, 
 is indebted for the means of examining it, to the Hon. George Bancroft, who 
 possesses a copy, probably the only one in the United States. 
 
198 COMMENCEMENT OF THE EXPEDITION. [1679. 
 
 vagabonds from Canada; Tonty had been sent in advance, to 
 make preparations at Detroit. The vessel proved to be a very 
 dull sailer, and her men were discontented and refractory; she 
 however made her voyage in safety, and having taken up Tonty 
 at Detroit, the whole party reached Mackinac on the 27th of the 
 month. From that place Tonty was again detached to the Sault 
 St. Marie, in search of some deserters: La Salle continued his 
 voyage to Green Bay, where he passed a few days on the island 
 near the entrance in trading with the Pottawatamie Indians ; and 
 having thus obtained a cargo of furs, he sent them in. the vessel 
 back to Niagara, under the charge of the pilot, w T ho was ordered 
 to return as soon as possible with supplies to the mouth of the 
 Miami river, the same now known as the St. Joseph, falling into 
 Lake Michigan on its south-east side.* 
 
 After the departure of the vessel for Niagara, La Salle procured 
 bark canoes, in which he went with the remainder of his party 
 along the western Side of Lake Michigan, to its southern ex 
 tremity, and thence northward to the mouth of the Miami: why 
 he should have taken this circuitous course, instead of leaving 
 the lake at Chicago, and striking across to the Illinois, the ac 
 counts of his expedition do not show. At the mouth of the 
 Miami, a fort was built, where the French remained until they 
 were joined by Tonty; and they then began the ascent of the 
 river on the 3d of December, leaving two men at its mouth with 
 directions for the pilot to follow them with the supplies, which 
 he might bring in the vessel from Niagara. At the distance of 
 eighty miles from the lake, in a southern direction, they discov 
 ered near the Miami, another river, called by the natives Theakiki 
 or Kankakee, flowing westward ; and having dragged their canoes 
 and effects across the marshy space intervening, they embarked 
 on the latter stream, down which they floated to its junction with 
 another branch from the north-west, forming by their confluence, 
 the. large river of the Illinois. Thence they continued their voy- 
 
 * Lake Ontario was at that time called by the French Lake of Frontenac ; Lake 
 Erie was the Lake of Conti; Lake Huron the Lake of Orleans; Lake Michigan 
 the Lake of the Illinois and Lake Dauphin ; Lake Superior was first named Lake 
 Tracy, and afterwards Lake Conde. The traders applied to the rivers and other 
 places visited by them, the names used by the Indians, or the names of the tribes 
 or nations of Indians in their vicinity, for which the missionaries generally sub 
 stituted those of Saints. 
 
1680.] 
 
 LA SALLE IN THE ILLINOIS COUNTRY. 
 
 199 
 
 age down the main trunk, to which La Salle gave the name of 
 Seignelaye, (afterwards transferred by him to Red river) in honor 
 of the eldest son of the minister Colbert ; and in this manner, 
 they early in January, 1680, reached a large village or encamp 
 ment of Illinois Indians, situated at the lower end of an expansion 
 of the river, then called Pimitoui, and now Peoria Lake. 
 
 TFU.'rcvn-crur. 
 
 At this place the natives endeavored to deter the French from 
 the farther prosecution of their enterprise, by threats and exag 
 gerated accounts of the dangers; which produced so much effect 
 upon the men, that six of them deserted and returned to Lake 
 Michigan, while the others became sullen and mutinous, and at 
 tempted to poison their commander. Under these 'circumstances, 
 La Salle considered it most prudent to remain at that place, 
 until the arrival of the reinforcements and supplies expected by 
 the Griffon; and he accordingly erected a fort on a little eminence 
 very near the Indian camp, to which he gave the name of Creve- 
 coeur, or Broken Heart, in token of the great anxiety expe 
 rienced by him at that spot. 
 
 At Fort Crevecceur, La Salle remained from the middle of 
 January, 1680, to the beginning of March, during which period 
 he received several deputations of Indians from the adjoining 
 
200 THE FRENCH AT FORT CREVECCEUR. [1680. 
 
 countries; such as the Osages of the Missouri, the Miamis of the 
 region between the Illinois and Lake Erie, and the Chickasas 
 from the lower Mississippi. The Chickasas were the first peo 
 ple described in the narratives of the expedition of Soto, who were 
 encountered by the French; and from them La Salle obtained 
 full confirmation of his opinion, that the Mississippi was identical 
 with the Rio Grande of the Spaniards. 
 
 During this period, a small vessel was commenced at the fort, 
 while the Friars were engaged in preaching to the Indians ; no 
 news however was received of the Griffon, and the vessel in 
 progress of construction could not be rendered fit for use, with 
 out the iron and other articles expected from Canada. At length 
 La Salle, in despair, resolved to go himself to Fort Frontenac 
 for the supplies, leaving his men on the Illinois, under the charge 
 of Tonty, in whom he placed all confidence ; but in order to 
 secure as much information as possible, respecting the country 
 farther west, he despatched Friar Hennepin,* w y ith two other 
 persons, to descend the Illinois to its mouth, and thence to ex 
 plore the Mississippi northward to its sources. 
 
 La Salle quitted Fort Crevecoeur on the 2nd of March, accom 
 panied by three men, and proceeded to Fort Frontenac, by what 
 route we know not, but probably across the country from the 
 Kankakee to Lake Erie. On reaching his fort, he learned noth 
 ing but bad news : the Griffon had been burnt or wrecked on Lake 
 Michigan; a ship from France laden with goods belonging to 
 him, had been lost on the coast of the Gulf of St. Lawrence; and 
 the people at Frontenac had robbed him of a large amount of 
 property. The Governor General however befriended him, so that 
 he was enabled, on the 23d of July, to set out again for the Illi 
 nois, with supplies and goods for trade: but on reaching that 
 country in December, he found his fort deserted, and being 
 unable to learn the fate of his people, he returned to Michili- 
 mackinac, where he met Tonty and Father Zenobe, with a few 
 men, in June, 1681. 
 
 The Lieutenant and the Friar had a sad tale to relate, as the 
 
 * Hennepin represents these as two common persons, named Michel Ako, and 
 Antoine Auguil, or the Picard Du Gay. Tonty, however, in his memoir, says 
 that the expedition was confided by La Salle to M. Deau or Dacan, (possibly 
 Dacau,) who was accompanied by a Recollet not named. 
 
1680.] ADVENTURES OF FRIAR HENNEPIN. 201 
 
 report of their proceedings, since they had been left by La Salle 
 at Fort Crevecoeur in March, 1680. Their men soon after be 
 came mutinous, and a number of them deserted and returned to 
 Canada, carrying off all the goods, furs and provisions which 
 they could seize; whereupon the Indians exhibited signs of enmi 
 ty, and the proselytes made by the missionaries fell off, and return 
 ed to their pagan practices, under the guidance of their conjurors. 
 The country was moreover invaded by a large body of Iroquois, 
 who drove the Illinois across the Mississippi ; and in the course 
 of the hostilities, the poor French suffered greatly from both par 
 ties, neither of whom could be induced to respect their neutrality. 
 Tonty and his companions however, escaped, and took their way 
 to Lake Michigan, before reaching which, Father Gabriel was 
 murdered by the Kickapoos ; on the lake their canoes were 
 swamped, and they were obliged to walk through the snow, 
 more than two hundred miles to the Jesuit mission on Green 
 Bay, from which they came in the spring of 1681 to Mackinac 
 In these disastrous occurrences, more than a year had been lost ; 
 and La Salle conceiving that nothing could be effected towards 
 the discovery of the Mississippi, with the means then at his dis 
 posal, returned with the whole party to Fort Frontenac. 
 
 In the meantime, Father Louis Hennepin and his two compan 
 ions had performed, in part at least, the task assigned to them by 
 La Salle. They left Fort Crevecoeur in a canoe in the end of 
 February, 1680, and went down the Illinois to its junction with 
 the Mississippi, from which they ascended the latter river and 
 some of its branches, as far north as the 47th parallel, though 
 they failed to reach its sources. Under the 45th degree they 
 found the falls of the Mississippi, named by Hennepin in honor 
 of his patron, the Falls of St. Anthony of Padua, near which 
 they encountered a band of Indians of the famous Dahcota 
 nation, called Issati and Nadoessioux by the friar, and since 
 more commonly known as the Sioux, inhabiting the regions on 
 both sides of the river, for some distance above and below the 
 falls. In this country, they met a party of French traders, under 
 the direction of M. du Luth, and proceeded with them, by way 
 of the Wisconsin and Fox rivers and Green Bay, to Mackinac, 
 where they arrived in November, shortly after the departure of 
 La Salle for the Miami, on his return from Frontenac to Crevecoeur. 
 26 
 
202 SECOND EXPEDITION OF LA SALLE. [1681. 
 
 At Mackinac, Hennepin found forty-two French traders, with 
 whom he passed the winter, and in the spring of 1681, he 
 reached Quebec, where he was received with joy by his breth 
 ren, as one risen from the dead; a report having been previously 
 current in Canada, that he had been hanged by the Indians on 
 the Mississippi, with his own cord of St. Francis. When his 
 garments had been renewed, and his health re-established, he 
 sailed for France, without seeing or communicating with La Salle. 
 
 From this account of his expedition it will be seen, that Hen 
 nepin is to be regarded as the discoverer of the portion of Amer 
 ica traversed by the Mississippi, between the 43d degree of lati 
 tude, in which the mouth of the Wisconsin is situated, and the 
 47th ; the portion extending southward from the Wisconsin to 
 the Arkansas, having been previously examined by Joliet and 
 Marquette. The worthy friar however, in the narrative published 
 by him soon after his return to France, claimed the whole merit of 
 the first discovery of the vast region of the Mississippi, above the 
 Illinois, to which he gave the name of Louisiana in honor of his 
 sovereign ; and at a later period, he did not scruple to assert, that 
 he had also in 1680 first descended the great river to its mouth. 
 
 To return to La Salle. In his first expedition towards the 
 Mississippi, he seems to have contemplated the immediate forma 
 tion of an establishment of some kind, on the lower part of that 
 stream, or the prosecution of the discovery beyond it, to the 
 Spanish provinces. After the entire failure of that enterprise, the 
 expenses of which had ruined his fortune, he was only able, with 
 the aid of Count de Frontenac, to obtain the means of exploring 
 the great river to its mouth, and this he undertook, on the as 
 surance that in case of his success, assistance would be afforded 
 by the government, in carrying out his ulterior schemes. 
 
 With this object La Salle engaged twenty-three Frenchmen and 
 eighteen Indians, all selected with care ; and he moreover allowed 
 ten of the latter to take their wives and some children, making 
 
 ' O 
 
 in all fifty-four grown persons, including the commander, Tonty, 
 and Father Zenobe. In the beginning of January, 1682, this 
 party was assembled at the mouth of the "divine river Chicago,"* 
 
 * So called by Father Zenobe in the " Etablissement de la Foy;*' vol. 2, page 
 214. According to our Indian etymologists, Chicago signifies a place abounding 
 (as that part of the coast of Lake Michigan really does,) in wild leeks; Chicag 
 is the name of that savoury animal the Mephitis putorius or Skunk. 
 
1682.] LA SALLE ON THE MISSISSIPPI. 203 
 
 where the important commercial city of Chicago now stands; 
 thence they passed over land to the Illinois or Seignelaye, and 
 decending that river on the ice to Fort Crevecceur, they there 
 constructed canoes for their* farther transportation. 
 
 Taking their departure from Fort Crevecceur in the beginning 
 of February, the French on the 6th of that month passed through 
 the mouth of the Illinois, into the Mississippi, or Colbert as it 
 had been named by La Salle; and after a detention of some days 
 at that place, they on the 13th encountered the yellow floods of the 
 Missouri, (called River of the Osages, in the accounts of the expe 
 dition,) of which they had no previous knowledge. On the 18th 
 they stopped to hunt, at the mouth of the Ouabouskigou or Oua- 
 bache, now the Ohio, to which was assigned the venerated name 
 of St. Louis; and on the 24th, their canoes were drawn up, near 
 the high banks overhanging the Mississippi on the east, now 
 known as the Chickasa bluffs, near Memphis in Tennessee. 
 There one of their hunters not returning in time, they sent out a 
 party in search of him; and the others as a precaution against 
 surprise, erected a stockade, which they called Fort Prudhomme, 
 after their missing companion. 
 
 The party sent in search of Prudhomme, soon met some Chick 
 asa Indians, who were anxious that the French should visit one 
 of their towns in the interior: this was however declined, in con 
 sequence of some mistrust excited by the varying statements of 
 the natives; and the lost hunter being recovered, the French re 
 sumed their voyage down the Great River, early in March. On 
 the 13th of that month, they spent the day on the west bank, 
 among the Capaha or Kappa Indians, mentioned in the accounts 
 of Soto's expedition ; and twenty leagues below they passed the 
 x-illages at the mouth of the Arkansas, which formed the southern 
 limit of the discoveries of Joliet and Marquette. There they first 
 saw alligators, which increased in number and size as they went 
 farther south. Continuing their course, they on the 20th reached 
 the chief town of the Taensas, a small nation inhabiting the west 
 side of the river; and on the following day, they stopped at the 
 great village of the Natchez, situated on a height which over 
 hangs the Mississippi on the east. These two nations were 
 found to be superior in intelligence, and to exhibit more inge 
 nuity in the construction of their buildings and utensils, and in 
 
204 LA SALLE REACHES THE MOUTH OF THE MISSISSIPPI. [1682. 
 
 the cultivation of their lands, than any Indians whom the French 
 had previously seen in America; whilst they were, on the other 
 hand, more sensual and ferocious in their dispositions and cus 
 toms than any other people. They *erected cabins of logs and 
 earth, covered with wicker work, in the largest of which the bones 
 of their chiefs were deposited and a fire was said to be kept con 
 stantly burning, in honor of their great deity the Sun. These 
 and other peculiarities of the Taensas and the Natches, together 
 with the positions of their territories, are sufficient to establish 
 their identity with the Guachoyans and Quigaltans, visited by the 
 Spaniards under Hernando de Soto in 1542 ; and there is little 
 reason to doubt, that this commander died at the chief town of 
 the Taensas, on the borders of a small lake now called St. Jo 
 seph's lake, on the western side of the Mississippi, nearly oppo 
 site to the mouth of the Big Black river. 
 
 The French took leave of the Natches on Good Friday, and 
 two days afterwards, they encamped at the mouth of a^ large 
 stream joining the Mississippi on the west, to which La Salle 
 transferred the name of Seignelaye, first assigned by him to the 
 Illinois; it was of course the Red river. At a short distance be 
 low, he observed a great outlet of the Mississippi, on the same 
 side, which may have been the Atchafalaya, now entering the 
 Red river near its mouth ; as the latter stream probably at one 
 "time joined the Great Water, higher up than at present. Con 
 tinuing their course downward, they passed the towns of the 
 Houma or Red men, near the site of Baton Rouge ; and farther on, 
 those of the Quinipissa or Colapissa, who came out in large num 
 bers in canoes, armed to arrest the progress of the white men. 
 The French however avoided the encounter by keeping close to 
 the opposite bank ; and on the 5th of April, they reached the 
 place, where the Mississippi is divided into three great channels, 
 about ninety miles below the spot now occupied by New Orleans. 
 
 Each of these channels was explored to its termination in the 
 sea, by a separate party of the French ; La Salle taking the west 
 ern, Tonty the middle or main passage, and D'Autray the other 
 towards the east : they were all found wide and deep ; and La 
 Salle on reaching the Gulf, observed the altitude of the sun with 
 an instrument, rudely constructed by himself. From this obser 
 vation he estimated the latitude of the mouth of the Mississippi, 
 
1682.] LA SALLE TAKES POSSESSION OF LOUISIANA. 205 
 
 at about twenty-seven and a half degrees, which was about a de 
 gree and a half too low, or too far south ; and on comparing this 
 supposed position, with those of other places laid down on the 
 maps of that time, he considered it as situated twenty leagues 
 south-west from the Bay of Espiritu Santo, thirty leagues from the 
 Rio Bravo, sixty from the Rio de Palmas, and one hundred from 
 Panuco. La Salle thus believed the Mississippi to enter the 
 Mexican Gulf, riot far from the actual entrance to Galveston Bay; 
 an error which perhaps contributed to the unfortunate result of 
 his subsequent expedition to that Gulf. 
 
 Reascending the channels, the whole party were again assem 
 bled at the point of their separation, on the 9th of April, when La 
 Salle, standing in the midst, proclaimed aloud the supremacy of 
 thogreat monarch Louis XIV. and his successors, over the whole 
 of Louisiana, from the St. Louis, otherwise called Ohio, Alighin- 
 sipou, or Chukagou, along the great river Colbert or Mississippi 
 to its mouth, with all the adjoining lands, streams and seas as far 
 south as the River of Palms; protesting against all who might 
 thereafter attempt to encroach upon any of those territories or 
 waters, which had been first discovered and first possessed, in the 
 name of His Christian Majesty, with the consent of all the na 
 tions found dwelling therein. A cross was then erected on the spot, 
 before which a mass was said; guns were fired in honor of the 
 occasion, and a column, was planted, at the foot of which a leaden 
 plate was buried, bearing an inscription commemorative of the 
 discovery and possession. A proces-verbal* or official statement 
 of the principal occurrences of the expedition, drawn up by the 
 Notary La Metairie, was finally signed by La Salle, and eleven 
 others of the party ; after which, they begun their return to 
 Canada by the same route. The ascent of the Mississippi was 
 
 *This curious document is still preserved in the archives of the Marine De 
 partment at Paris ; a translation of it may be found in the appendix to Mr. 
 Spark's Life of La Salle, in the llth volume of the Library of American Biogra 
 phy. The account of the occurrences of the expedition is much less detailed, 
 and less valuable in almost every respect, than that presented by Tonty, in his 
 Memoir addressed to the French government in 1692, already noticed at page 
 197; and it is somewhat remarkable, that no mention is made of the discovery 
 of the Red river, or of any other occurrences between the date of the arrival of 
 the French at Natches, and that of their passing the Houma towns. The paper 
 is nevertheless important, as establishing the date of the arrival of La Salle, at 
 the mouth of the Mississippi, which had been usually placed, in the year 1G83. 
 
206 LA SALLE RETURNS TO THE ILLINOIS. [1682. 
 
 of course much more laborious than the voyage down; and they 
 were often in want of food, in consequence of the enmity of the 
 nations on the banks, who would neither supply them, nor allow 
 them to hunt in safety. They were obliged to fight the Quini- 
 pissas, of whom they killed several; and the "Natchez had made 
 preparations to destroy them, but abandoned the design, on seeing 
 the scalps of the Quinipissas, which La Salle generously presented 
 to them. At length, in the beginning of May, they arrived at 
 Fort Prudhomme, on the Chickasa Bluffs, where La Salle was 
 seized with a fever, which detained him several months : he had 
 however sent Tonty forward, with letters to Count de Frontenac ; 
 and he subsequently despatched Father Zenobe by way of Canada, 
 to bear the news of the discoveries to the government at Paris. 
 
 On the arrival of Father Zenobe at Quebec, he learned {hat 
 Count de Frontenac had been deprived of the government of 
 New France, in which he was succeeded by M. de la Barre; and 
 Frontenac having offered him a passage in the ship, in which he 
 was about to sail for France, he deposited a copy of his journal 
 in the convent of his order, and departed for Europe, where he 
 was enabled to communicate the particulars of La Salle's expe 
 dition to the minister Colbert, before the end of the year.* 
 
 Tonty went no farther than Mackinac, where he was joined by 
 La Salle in September. There they were informed of the re 
 moval of Count de Frontenac from the government of New 
 France ; and La Salle, having reason to believe M. de la Barre 
 inimical to his views, returned with all his people to the Illinois 
 river and established a fort called St. Louis, on the summit of a 
 high rockf overhanging that stream near its rapids, which he had 
 observed in the course of his journey from Fort Crevecoeurto Lake 
 Erie in 1680. At this place, he remained until September 
 
 * This journal was fortunately published by Le Clercq, in his " Etablissement 
 de la Foy" at Paris in 1681, and forms the principal source of information with 
 regard to the second expedition of La Salle in the Mississippi countries. 
 
 f This place is now called the Starved Rock, from some tradition respecting a 
 party of Indians beseiged on it by their enemies, and reduced to the last extrem 
 ity of famine, before their strong hold could betaken. It is one of a line of sand 
 stone clifl's, rising from the Illinois on its left bank, about a mile above the en 
 trance of the Vermillion river, thirty miles below the town of Ottawa, where 
 the two great branches of the Illinois unite, and 270 miles from the junction of 
 the latter with the Mississippi. 
 
1683.] FIRST SETTLEMENT IN THE MISSISSIPPI VALLEY. 207 
 
 1683, engaged in forming a settlement, and collecting the In 
 dians around it, in the manner usually pursued by the French, 
 with the object of securing the possession of the lands and privi 
 leges, which would extend, agreeably to his charter, only to such 
 establishments as he might have founded anterior to the 12th of 
 May of that year. He then departed for Quebec, leaving Tonty in 
 command of the fort ; and on his way, he met an officer sent by 
 the Governor to summon him to repair to that capital. What 
 passed between him and M. de la Barre is not known : La Salle 
 however certainly received assurances from the Governor, and 
 from the Intendant de Meulles, that his rights and privileges in 
 the Illinois, as well as at Fort Frontenac, would be respected, 
 and that recommendations in favor of the preservation and in 
 crease of those settlements would be addressed to the ministers; 
 and confiding in these promises, he immediately embarked for 
 France, where he arrived, at Rochelle on the 13th of December. 
 
 Fort St. Louis on the Illinois, was the first spot occupied by 
 civilized persons, with a view to a permanent establishment, in 
 the whole division of America drained by the Mississippi ; and 
 it continued to be the only post in those regions, until the 
 close of the century, when it was abandoned. In the year of its 
 establishment, 1683, the city of Philadelphia was founded by 
 William Penn, as the capital of his province of Pennsylvania, 
 which had been granted to him in the previous year by Charles 
 II., extending westward from the Delaware river, through five 
 degrees of longitude, between Maryland on the south, and the 
 forty-third parallel of latitude on the north. The English colo 
 nies had continued to increase, though they were nearly all 
 afflicted by wars with the Indians, or by internal disturbances, 
 during the period in which the discovery of the Mississippi coun 
 tries was in progress. The attempts of Frontenac to extend the 
 dominion of France over the Iroquois regions, served only to 
 render the Five Nations more inimical to the French, and more 
 dependant on the English, who supplied them with merchandise 
 of all kinds, and particularly with arms and ammunition, on 
 terms much better than those offered by the other party. 
 
 The Spaniards at this period were suffering severely from the 
 incessant attacks on their commerce in the West Indies by the 
 English and French bucaniers, whom no measures on the part 
 
208 NEW MEXICO RAVAGED BY INDIANS. [1683. 
 
 of their own governments could restrain. Campeachy, Chagres, 
 Maracaibo, Laguaira, and many other places on those coasts as 
 well as on the Pacific side of the continent, were plundered by 
 these daring miscreants; and even Vera Cruz, notwithstanding 
 its strong castle and other fortifications, was surprised and sacked 
 in 1683 by two vessels, under the command of the noted Van 
 Home and Laurent de Grave, who carried off property to the 
 value of several millions of dollars. Scarcely less injurious to the 
 Spanish supremacy were the contraband operations of the Eng 
 lish, for which their establishment in Jamaica afforded every fa 
 cility; and the losses thus occasioned together with the enor 
 mous expenses of convoys, fortifications, garrisons, and guarda- 
 costas or cruising vessels for the protection of the coasts, ren 
 dered his West Indian dominions of little value to the Catholic 
 monarch. 
 
 The Spanish settlements founded in New Mexico on the Rio 
 del Norte, or upper branch of the Rio Bravo, in the latter years 
 of the sixteenth century, as already related, though cut off from 
 all other civilized countries by a wide expanse of desert, had 
 flourished in an extraordinary degree, and contained several large 
 towns, from which considerable amounts of precious metals were 
 annually sent to Mexico. In the summer of 1680, however, 
 symptoms of hostile feelings were observed among the Indians 
 of the surrounding territories, and the governor, Otermin, pre 
 pared for defence, by arming the Spanish population, and forti 
 fying the principal places. This seems to have served only to 
 quicken the movements of the savages, vast hordes of whom 
 poured into the settled districts, in the month of August of that 
 year, and the \fhole province was soon desolated, and its inhabi 
 tants destroyed, or forced to fly towards the south. The Mar 
 quis de la Laguna, Viceroy of New Spain, on receiving news of 
 these disasters, despatched a small force to New Mexico, under 
 Juan de Vargas de Luxan, \vho for some time endeavored to re 
 store the country to its former occupants ; but he could only suc 
 ceed in reconquering the southern portion, where the town of 
 Paso del Norte was founded by the fugitives, on the right bank 
 of the river, about three hundred miles below the former capital, 
 Santa Fe. The upper countries were subsequently recovered; 
 but the province never regained its prosperity. 
 
1683.] LA SALLE'S DISCOVERIES UNIMPORTANT. 209 
 
 In the sketch presented in this chapter of the re-discovery and 
 exploration of the Mississippi by the French, it has been impos 
 sible to portray the innumerable difficulties, dangers and em 
 barrassments to which those engaged in it were exposed; nor 
 indeed is it easy to estimate them fully, even with the aid of the 
 original narratives, at the present day, when the whole journey 
 of more than three thousand miles, from the outlet of Lake On 
 tario to the mouth of the Mississippi, may be accomplished in 
 less time than was spent at that period on the way from Frontenac 
 to Niagara. With regard to La Salle, under the disheartening con 
 trarieties and crosses to which he was subjected, he displayed 
 great courage, skill and constancy: but in reviewing the results of 
 his labors, strict justice requires the admission, that he visited no 
 part of the Mississippi regions which had not been previously 
 seen and described by the followers of Hernando de Soto, or by 
 Joliet and Marquette; and that he only verified the discoveries 
 made a hundred and forty years before by the Spaniards, which 
 would no doubt have been otherwise soon done, either by his 
 own countrymen or by the English. 
 
 The merit of re-discovering the great river of North America, 
 should in justice be assigned to Joliet and Marquette, and to the 
 Intendant Talon, by whom their expedition was suggested. The 
 additions made by La Salle to the knowledge of the geography 
 of those regions, were in fact few and unimportant. To have 
 traced the Mississippi from the Arkansas to the gulf, was of no 
 consequence, so long as the exact position of its mouth remained 
 undetermined; and on this latter point, La Salle is certainly 
 amenable to the charge of want of enterprise. Deficiency of 
 food and apprehensions of attack from the Spaniards, are stated 
 as the reasons which induced him to return up the river, without 
 examining the coasts near its entrance; but such reasons would 
 not have prevailed with Orellana, Pizarro or Soto, or in our 
 days, with Lewis, Clarke, Franklin, Ross, Back or Lander, or 
 with many others whose names will not long survive them. 
 
 The farther proceedings of La Salle in America, will be related 
 in the following chapter. 
 
 27 
 
CHAPTER VII 
 
 1684 TO 1690. 
 
 EXPEDITION OF THE FRENCH UNDER LA SALLE TO THE MEXI- 
 .CAN GULF ESTABLISHMENT OF FORT ST. Louis ON THE 
 
 NORTH-WEST COAST OF THAT SEA UNFORTUNATE RESULTS 
 
 OF THE ENTERPRISE MURDER OF LA SALLE AND ABANDON 
 MENT OF THE COUNTRY BY THE FRENCH FIRST EXPEDITION 
 OF THE SPANIARDS INTO TEXAS. 
 
 WHEN La Salle arrived at Paris in the beginning of 1684, 
 Louis XIV. was precisely at the culminating point of his career; 
 holding all the other nations of western Europe in awe, by his 
 armies, his fleets, and his apparent wealth, which rendered him 
 even more successful in negotiation than in war: and the title of 
 Great, bestowed on him by the unanimous vote of the Parliament 
 of Paris three years before, might have seemed at the time, not 
 to be undeserved. The encroachments made or attempted by 
 him on the territories of surrounding nations, had united all those 
 powers, in alliance against France; and he was in a state of 
 quasi war with the United Provinces, Spain, Germany and Swe 
 den. Charles II. of England, though burning to join the allies, 
 was too fast bound in the golden chains of the French monarch 
 to make any efforts for that purpose ; the remaining sovereigns 
 were all so weak, and so little in accord with each other, that they 
 exhibited evident signs of anxiety to escape from the contest. 
 
 Under these circumstances, a plan for the extension of French 
 dominion in the New World, was likely to be received with 
 favor; and La Salle had devised such a plan, while engaged 
 in his peregrinations through the Mississippi countries. In 
 submitting his views to the government, he had to encounter 
 at first, greater difficulties than he anticipated. His patron Col 
 bert had died in September previous; and the Marquis de Seig- 
 nelaye, the son of that minister, then at the head of the depart- 
 
1684.] MEMORIALS OF LA SALLE. 211 
 
 ment of commerce and navigation, through which his proposi 
 tions must pass, had been prejudiced against him by the repre 
 sentations of the Governor of Canada. With the aid of the 
 Count de Frontenac however, he succeeded in conciliating the 
 Marquis, who could not but have been flattered by the high com 
 pliment paid to his family, in the application of the names of 
 Colbert and Seignelaye, to two of the greatest rivers* of the 
 New World; and through his agency the memorials of La Salle, 
 containing the outlines of the scheme, were received, and recom 
 mended to the notice of the sovereign. 
 
 The objects of this scheme, as detailed in the memorials of 
 La Sallef, were simply to form a military establishment in the 
 
 *The Mississippi and the Red river: See the latter part of the following note. 
 
 f The two memorials of La Salle, containing the particulars of this scheme, 
 are preserved in the archives of the Marine Department of Paris ; translations 
 from them have been made by Falconer, and published with his work on the 
 Discovery of the Mississippi, from which the following extracts are taken : 
 
 The first memorial begins thus : 
 
 " The principal result, which the Sieur de la Salle expected from the great 
 perils and labors, undergone by him, in the discovery of the Mississippi, was to 
 satisfy the desire expressed by the late M. Colbert, of finding a port, where the 
 French might establish themselves, and harrass the Spaniards in those regions, 
 from whence they derive all their wealth. The place which he proposes to for 
 tify, lies sixty leagues above the entrance of the river Colbert, (Mississippi) into 
 the Gulf of Mexico, and possesses all the advantages for such a purpose, which 
 could be desired ; on account of its excellent situation, and the favorable disposi 
 tion of the savages, dwelling in that part of the country. [The distance of the 
 place thus selected, from the mouth of the Mississippi, indicates its position as 
 being near the La Fourche outlet of that river, about eighty miles above New 
 Orleans.] The right of the king to this territory, is the common right of all na 
 tions, to lands which they have discovered a right which cannot be disputed, 
 after the possession already taken in the name of His Majesty by M. de la Salle, 
 with the consent of the greater number of its inhabitants. A colony might easily 
 be founded there as the land is very fertile, &c." 
 
 After enumerating the nations of Indians on the Mississippi, of whom he de 
 clares that he met eighteen thousand assembled in a single camp, he conceives 
 that 
 
 " By the union of those forces, it would be possible to form an army of more 
 than fifteen thousand savages, who, finding themselves supported by the French 
 and the Abenaki followers of the Sieur la Salle, with the aid of the arms given 
 to them, would meet no resistance in the province which he intends to attack, 
 where there are not more than four hundred native Spaniards in a country more 
 than one hundred and fifty leagues in length and fifty in breadth, all of whom are 
 officers or artisans, better able to explore mines, than to oppose vigorously an 
 expedition which would be moreover favored by mulattoes, Indians, and negroes, 
 if their liberty were promised to them." 
 
212 PROJECTS OF LA SALLE. [1684. 
 
 Mississippi regions, and thence to invade and to conquer the ad 
 joining northern provinces of Mexico, in which the richest mines 
 of silver and gold were supposed to be situated. For the first 
 expedition with these objects, he asked only that a vessel of 
 thirty guns with her crew and two hundred other men, and a 
 moderate supply of arms, ammunition and provisions, should be 
 placed at his disposition for a year. With these forces, he would 
 sail to the mouth of the Mississippi, and ascend that river, to a 
 point already selected by him, distant sixty leagues from the Gulf, 
 where a fortified post would be established ; and having there 
 
 La Salle then proceeds to describe the Spanish province of New Biscay, which 
 he proposed to invade ; and the advantages which France might derive from its 
 possession : 
 
 "Assuming then," he continues, "these facts, the Sieur de la Salle offers, if 
 the war should continue, to leave France with two hundred men; fifty more will 
 join him who are in the country, [meaning doubtless those with Tonty in the 
 Illinois,] and fifty bucaniers can be taken in on the way at St. Domingo. The 
 savages at Fort St. Louis, to the number of more than four thousand warriors, 
 with many others who will join, can be directed to descend the river. This 
 army he will divide into the three divisions, so that it may be more easily 
 subsisted. In order to compel the Spaniards to divide their forces, two of these 
 divisions shall be each composed of fifty French, fifty Abenakis, and two hundred 
 savages. They will receive orders to attack at the same time the two extremi 
 ties of the province, and on the same day the middle portion of the country will 
 be entered by the other division ; and it is certain that we shall be seconded by 
 all the unhappy beings who there groan in slavery. * * 
 
 " There never was an enterprise of such great importance, proposed at so little 
 risk and expense ; since the Sieur de la Salle asks for its execution, only a vessel 
 of about thirty guns, the power of raising in France two hundred men, whom he 
 may select for the purpose, and exclusive of the equipments of the vessel, provi 
 sions for six months, and the means of payment to the men for a year. * * * 
 
 " It would not require much time to bring this expedition to an end, since it is 
 nearly certain that the savages could be assembled next winter, and the conquest 
 be completed in the spring, in sufficient time to report the news of it by the re 
 turn of the first vessel to France." 
 
 The principal body of the invading forces was to be directed against New Bis 
 cay, by way of the Seignelaye, which name is assigned by La Salle to the Red 
 river, and not to the Illinois, as will be seen in many parts of the memorial, and 
 especially in the following extract : 
 
 " It may be objected, that the Seignelaye is perhaps more distant from New 
 Biscay, than has been assumed. To answer this difficulty, it is sufficient to men 
 tion, that the mouth through which it enters the Mississippi is one hundred 
 leagues west north-west from the place where the latter river discharges itself 
 into the Gulf of Mexico ; and that it has been ascended more than sixty leagues 
 going always to the west." This description could apply to none other than the 
 Red river, which La Salle might have caused to be explored, on his way up the 
 Mississippi. 
 
1684.] VIEWS OF LA SALLE EXTRAVAGANT. 213 
 
 collected a sufficient number of Indians, and if* necessary some 
 bucaniers from St. Domingo, he would proceed by way of the 
 Red river, to the northernmost Spanish province of New Biscay, 
 which he did not doubt would prove an easy conquest, as he was 
 satisfied that it then contained only four hundred Spaniards, and 
 that the aborigines would readily join the invaders. France 
 would thus become possessed of the mines, from which Spain 
 annually imported six millions of crowns, and perhaps also of a 
 means of communication with the Pacific, securing to her the 
 monopoly of the India and China trades. Should peace be made 
 with Spain before the completion of this conquest, the colony es 
 tablished in Louisiana would of itself prove important, politically 
 as well as financially; and would afford the means of effecting 
 the other objects with facility, whensoever war might again occur 
 with that nation. 
 
 These propositions of La Salle, shew that his eagerness to ac 
 quire wealth and renown had overcome his habitual prudence 
 and cautiousness. With a force scarcely sufficient to establish 
 and maintain the smallest settlement, or to secure a single point 
 against attack by regular troops, he offered not only to occupy 
 the Mississippi, and defend it against intrusion by other nations, 
 but also to conquer a vast and valuable territory inhabited by the 
 subjects of a powerful European sovereign, who, moreover, pos 
 sessed extensive and populous countries immediately contiguous. 
 So confident did he appear of the speedy and successful issue of 
 his plans, that he conceived it necessary in his memorials, to 
 provide against the objections which might be raised, on the 
 ground that the attractions presented in the regions to be thus 
 brought under the dominion of France, might be so great, as to 
 lead to the depopulation, not only of Canada, but also of the 
 mother country. 
 
 It is difficult to conceive that La Salle could really have enter 
 tained schemes so extravagant; and it seems reasonable to sus 
 pect, that they may have been presented merely for the purpose 
 of engaging the attention of the ardent and superficial Seignelaye, 
 and securing his aid for the prosecution of other and more feasible 
 designs. La Salle had been for nine years a Jesuit; and on 
 throwing off the robe of that order, he had not divested himself 
 of the systematic reserve, and constant watchfulness to conceal 
 
214 LA SALLE MEETS HENNEPIN AT PARIS. [1684. 
 
 his views, which he had so long practised. Yet the history of 
 his operations in America, shows that his mind was ever turned 
 towards Mexico and the Indies; and that all his labors on the 
 Mississippi, were undertaken with the sole object of opening a 
 route to those regions where his sanguine disposition led him to 
 hope that he might enact the part of Cortes or Albuquerque. 
 His plans were nevertheless approved, in part, at least, by his 
 government; and preparations were immediately commenced at 
 Rochefort, under his directions, for the equipment of a force, 
 larger in some respects, even than he had demanded. 
 
 At Paris, La Salle in the meantime, met Father Hennepin, 
 whom he had not seen since their separation at Fort Crevecceur 
 in February, 1681. The Friar had in 1683 published his journal 
 of the expedition to the Mississippi, which was very annoying to 
 La Salle, as it made known a portion of his discoveries and 
 plans ; and he was probably also irritated by the undue preten 
 sions of Hennepin to a large share of the merit of the enterprise. 
 Of what passed between them, the particulars are not known ; 
 but Hennepin became thenceforth the bitter enemy of La Salle, 
 whose character he endeavored to blacken by falsehoods, in 
 works published by him many years after.* 
 
 * Hennepin's second work published in 1697, under the title of "Nouvelle de- 
 couverte d'un pays plus grand que 1'Europe," "A new discovery of a country 
 larger than Europe," is merely his first work, interlarded with falsehoods, incon 
 sistencies, and impertinence. In it, the Friar pretends, that he explored the 
 whole of the Mississippi, from its sources to the sea in 1680 ; and that though he 
 had " from modesty," suppressed all notice of the lower portion of the great 
 river, in his first narrative, M. de la Salle had become his mortal enemy from 
 the moment when he learned that he had thus been anticipated in the discovery. 
 " This," writes Hennepin, " is the true cause of his malice against me, and of 
 the barbarous usage which I underwent in France, and which was carried so far, 
 that the Marquis de Louvois, was persuaded to command me to depart from the 
 French king's dominions; which I did willingly, though I had reason to believe, 
 that this order was forged after the death of M. de Louvois. The pretended 
 reasons of that violent order were, that I had refused to return to America, 
 where I had been already eleven years, &c." 
 
 The eleven years here mentioned, by the veracious Friar, as the term of his 
 residence in the New World, were however all comprised according to his own 
 statement between 1678 and 1682. La Salle could scarcely have had much 
 agency in the banishment of Hennepin, if it took place about the time of the 
 death of Louvois, which did not occur until 1691, when La Salle had been long 
 dead and still longer forgotten by the French minister. More will be said of 
 these works of Hennepin in the following chapter. 
 
1672.] PREPARATIONS FOR THE EXPEDITION. 215 
 
 La Salle having at length completed his business at Paris, set 
 out for Rochefort, where he arrived on the 28th of May. He there 
 found nearly prepared for his expedition, the barque La Belle, 
 carrying six guns, which had been presented to him by the king, 
 and the brig 1'Aimable and schooner St. Francois, chartered for 
 the transportation of the people and materials : and these vessels 
 were to be convoyed to the mouth of the Mississippi, by the 
 frigate Le Joly, of thirty- six guns, under the command of the 
 Chevalier de Beaujeu. Agents were at the same time employed 
 at Paris, Rouen and other places, to enlist persons as soldiers 
 and settlers; and they were enjoined by La Salle, to admit none 
 but those of good character, in either capacity, and especially to 
 see, that among them, should be a large porportion of mechanics 
 of the different branches required in the colony. As his lieuten 
 ant, he had chosen M. Joutel, an officer of considerable experi 
 ence, who had been recommended to him by his friends in Rouen ; 
 and his old companion Father Zenobe, was to accompany him 
 as chief of the ecclesiastical corps in virtue of a brief obtained 
 from the Pope : two other Recollets, Fathers Maxime le Clercq 
 and Anastase de Douay, and three secular priests, namely Cave- 
 lier, the brother of La Salle, Chefdeville his relation, and Majulle, 
 forming the remainder of that body.* 
 
 Whilst these preparations were in progress at Rochefort, the 
 dispute between France and Spain was unexpectedly brought to 
 a conclusion, by a truce for twenty years, signed at Ratisbon on 
 the 10th of June. By this event, the principal object of the en- 
 
 * The evidence respecting this expedition of the French under La Salle to the 
 Mexican Gulf, is derived from the original narratives of Joutel and Father 
 Anastase, to which Charlevoix and Tonty, have added some particulars, obtained 
 from other sources. The accounts of Father Anastase are given in his own 
 words by le Clercq in his " Etablissement du Foy," chapter 24th, (for a notice of 
 which see page 197.) Joutel furnished the materials, from which a M. Michel 
 composed the work 'under his name, entitled " Journal Historique du denier 
 voyage de M. de la Salle," published at Paris in 1713, when the grant of Louisi 
 ana to Crozat began to attract attention to that part of America. The two ac 
 counts agree in general ; they were both written from recollection, and Joutel 
 had the advantage of consulting the narrative of Father Anastase, which had 
 been long before published. Joutel however complained to Charlevoix, that the 
 composer of his narrative had misrepresented his statements on many points. 
 The history of the expedition given by Hennepin, in his third work, printed in 
 1697, under the title of "Nouveau voyage d'un pays plus grand que PEurope," is 
 derived from Father Anastase and Tonty, and is filled with errors. 
 
216 POWERS GRANTED TO LA SALLE. [1684. 
 
 terprise was of course placed beyond the reach of its projector; as 
 no attack* could be legally made on the recognized possessions 
 of Spain, and the expedition must be limited, for a time at least 
 to the discovery and settlement of unoccupied countries, and the 
 opening of new channels of communication with the Pacific. 
 This was doubtless a severe disappointment to La Salle : no 
 change, however, seems to have been made in the extent and 
 equipment of the forces assigned to him by the government, 
 though its interest in the enterprise, would have been necessarily 
 diminished, if not destroyed ; and he probably had no apprehen 
 sion of being called to a strict account of the manner of employ 
 ing those forces, provided that success should crown their efforts. 
 By the terms of the Royal commission,! dated April 14th, the 
 object of the expedition was declared to be to bring certain coun- 
 
 * This material fact, and its consequences have been strangely overlooked, by 
 all the historians, who have hitherto related the particulars of La Salle's expe 
 dition to the Mexican Gulf. 
 
 f The following translation of La Salle's commission, is worthy of insertion, 
 in order to show what it does not contain, as well as the extent of the powers 
 and privileges actually granted : 
 
 "Louis, By the Grace of God, King of France and Navarre-Greeting Hav 
 ing resolved to engage in certain enterprises in North America, in order to bring 
 several savage nations under Our dominion, and to afford them the lights of 
 Faith and of the Gospel, We have considered, that We could not chose any one 
 better fitted, than the Sieur de la Salle, to command, in Our name, all the French 
 and the savages, whom he may employ, in the execution of the orders given to 
 him by Us. For these and other causes, thereunto moving Us, and being well 
 assured of his affection and fidelity to Our service, We have appointed and or 
 dained, and by these presents signed with Our hand, We do appoint and ordain, 
 the said Sieur de la Salle, to command for Us, in all the Countries in North 
 America, from Fort St. Louis on the Illinois river to New Biscay, which shall 
 be brought anew under our dominion, as well the French, as the savages em 
 ployed by him in the enterprises committed to him by Us ; authorising him to 
 make them live in Union and concord with each other, to keep the military in 
 good order and police, according to Our regulations, to establish Governors and 
 Commandants in such places as he may judge proper, until We shall have order 
 ed otherwise, to maintain commerce and trade, and in general to do and exer 
 cise everything, which may belong to the office of Our Con>mandant, in the 
 said countries, and to enjoy the powers, honors, authorities, prerogatives, pre 
 eminences, franchises, liberties, salary, duties, fruits, profits, revenues, and emolu 
 ments thereof, so long as it may seem 'good to us. 
 
 To all which, We have given and We give You power, by these presents, 
 whereby, We order all Our said subjects, and military forces to recognize, obey 
 and submit to you, in all matters, concerning the present power: for such is* 
 Our pleasure. In witness whereof, We have caused Our secret seal to be affixed 
 lo these presents. Given at Versailles, this 14th of April, 1684. 
 
1684.] DISAGREEMENT BETWEEN LA SALLE AND BEAUJEU. 217 
 
 tries in North America, under the dominion of France, in order 
 that the lights of religion might be afforded to their inhabitants : 
 to which end, La Salle was empowered to command all the 
 French and the natives employed in the service of the crown, in 
 the whole division of that continent, between the Illinois country 
 and New Biscay, with authority to establish posts in such places 
 as he might judge proper, to maintain commerce, and to perform 
 all other duties of a Royal Commandant. By another order, 
 Beaujeu was instructed to command the squadron, and direct its 
 navigation, and to afford to the enterprise, every facility in his 
 power; though he was to comply with the instructions of La 
 Salle, in all matters consistent with the safety of the vessels. In 
 case of La Salle's death, the expedition was to be conducted by 
 the Chevalier de Tonty. What farther instructions may have 
 been given by the government we know not; it is however re 
 markable, that the commission, although dated more than two 
 months before the Truce of Ratisbon, contains no allusion what 
 soever, to hostile operations, against the Spanish Provinces. 
 
 Beaujeu was by no means content with the part assigned to 
 him in the expedition ; he complained to the ministry of the 
 injustice of thus placing him, after thirty years of service on sea 
 and land, under the orders of a man, who held no military rank, 
 and had never served except against savages ; and he entreated 
 that he might at least be allowed to share the command in all 
 that related to war. This request however does not appear to 
 have been granted ; nor were his wounded feelings soothed by 
 the conduct of La Salle, who anxious, irritable, and accustomed 
 to submission from those around him, insisted upon directing 
 every thing, even in matters pertaining to the police and naviga 
 tion of the vessels ; so that a contest arose between the two com 
 manders, which rendered their cordial co-operation impossible. 
 
 The vessels were pronounced ready for sea, in the middle of 
 July, and the people were accordingly embarked. The volun 
 teers were about thirty in number, of whom the principal were 
 La Salle's two nephews Moranget and Cavelier, the latter a boy, 
 the Marquis de Sabloniere, Messieurs Planterose, Ory, Barbier and 
 Thibault, and Talon, a Canadian gentleman with his family; these 
 with the soldiers, settlers, mechanics, and the seamen of the four 
 vessels, amounted to about two hundred and eighty individuals. 
 28 
 
218 ARRIVAL OF THE VESSELS IN ST. DOMINGO. [1684. 
 
 All things being prepared, the vessels sailed on the 24th of 
 July; but they were soon obliged to return, in consequence 
 of an injury sustained by the frigate in a storm, which having 
 been repaired, they again departed on the 1st of August. On 
 the 20th of that month, they were in sight of Madeira, where 
 Beaujeu wished to stop", in order to procure refreshments; but 
 La Salle peremptorily opposed it, on the ground that the Span 
 iards might thus receive information of the force and objects of 
 the expedition, and the voyage was continued without inter 
 ruption, until the end of September, when the Joly, the Belle, 
 and the Aimable, arrived at Petit Gouave, on the south coast of 
 St. Domingo. The schooner St. Franyois had disappeared, and 
 was supposed to have fallen into the hands of the Spaniards. 
 
 In St. Domingo, the vessels were detained nearly two months, 
 before the supplies required for the remainder of the voyage, 
 could be got on board. The differences between the two chiefs 
 of the expedition, had by this time arrived at the point of open 
 war, and La Salle had moreover discovered, that the persons en 
 listed as soldiers, settlers and mechanics, were fpr the most part 
 vagabonds from the streets of Paris, who had never handled an 
 arm or a tool, and were in every other respect, totally unfit for 
 the purposes contemplated. Many of these people were diseased 
 at the time of their embarkation, and others after landing in the 
 island, indulging too freely in the pleasures which it offered, be 
 came sick, enfeebled and demoralised- La Salle himself was 
 seized Avith fever, which soon reduced him apparently to the last 
 extremity ; he recovered, to the evident disappointment of Beau 
 jeu, and was then driven almost to despair, by learning that a 
 large number of his men had died or deserted, to supply the 
 places of whom and to retain the others he was obliged to sacri 
 fice nearly all his private property in the vessels. The new re 
 cruits were in general of worse character than those brought from 
 France, being taken mostly from among the disbanded smugglers 
 and bucaniers, who formed a large class of the population of the 
 island ; and to their evil dispositions, were due many of the un 
 fortunate occurrences which followed. 
 
 The vessels at length put to sea again on the 25th of Novem 
 ber; La Salle, with Joutel, Fathers Zenobe and Anastase, Cave- 
 lier and others of his party, having transferred their quarters from 
 
1684.] 
 
 SPANISH MAP OF THE MEXICAN GULF. 
 
 219 
 
 the frigate to the Aimable. According to the advice received at 
 St. Domingo, they sailed along the south coast of Cuba, to Cape 
 San Antonio, the western extremity of that island, from which 
 they took their departure on the 18th of December. 
 
 9 e Mexico 
 
 At that period the Mexican Gulf was, as already said imper 
 fectly known, even to the Spaniards, although they had occupied 
 its southern side for a hundred and fifty years. The general di 
 rection of its coasts was delineated with some approach to accu 
 racy on the maps of that day as may be seen in the preceding 
 copy of one of them published in 1670 : but scarcely a single 
 point on the northern side had been determined with sufficient 
 exactness to guide the navigator in search of it. A large bay 
 
 
220 VOYAGE ALONG THE NORTH COAST OF THE GULF. [1684. 
 
 was always represented on those maps, under the name of 
 Bay of Espiritu Santo, as lying nearly in the actual position of 
 the Bay of Achafalaya, for which it may have been intended ; 
 ind south-west of this supposed bay, La Salle believed the mouth 
 of the Mississippi to be situated, between the 27th and 28th de 
 grees of latitude that is to say, about four hundred miles west 
 of its true place, at which another considerable river was then 
 said to enter the Gulf. They accordingly on leaving Cape San 
 Antonio steered north-westward across the Gulf, and, after en 
 countering some severe gales, on the tenth day land was seen in the 
 north-east. Continuing the same course slowly, for three days 
 longer, the land was again seen, on the 1st of January, 1685, in 
 latitude of 29 degrees 10 minutes; which, on approaching it, 
 proved to be a level country, with vast quantities of drift wood on 
 the shore. As no one on board was acquainted with the Gulf, the 
 French were left to conjectures respecting the situation of the 
 place: and La Salle having been informed at St. Domingo of the 
 existence of the strong current rushing eastward across the north 
 ern part of that sea, imagined that they might have been thus 
 carried far out of their intended course, and that the land before 
 them might be the coast of the Bay of Apalache, in the angle 
 between the peninsula of Florida and the mainland. 
 
 Whatsoever might have been the opinion of Beaujeu on this 
 point, the navigation was continued, agreeably to La Salle's 
 wishes, in a westward direction, until the 9th of the month, when 
 some shoals were observed near the entrance of a bay, in latitude 
 of 29 degrees 23 minutes. Joutel and others, on board, believed 
 this to be the mouth of the Mississippi, or of the Bay of Espiritu 
 Santo as represented on their maps; but La Salle, being per 
 suaded that they had not yet advanced so far west, and that the 
 mouth of the river lay between the 27th and 28th degrees, con 
 tented himself with a slight examination of the spot, and then 
 pursued his voyage westward along the coast in advance of the 
 other vessels. Proceeding slowly in this way, they soon observed 
 the land trending towards the south ; and when they had reachedv 
 the latitude of twenty-eight and a half degrees, Joutel was sent 
 with some men in a boat to explore and obtain water: he was, 
 however, unable to reach the shore, on account of the violence of 
 the surf; and, though some Indians swam off to his boat, and 
 
1685.] LANDING OF THE SETTLERS. 
 
 were carried on board of the Aimable, nothing could be learned 
 from their signs. 
 
 On the 15th, Joutel succeeded in landing at a place somewhat 
 farther south, which he found to be a sandy plain, apparently an 
 island, containing many large salt pools but no fresh water. The 
 Aimable then sailed on for a few hours longer, during which the 
 coast was observed to turn constantly more towards the south; 
 and as she had been for some days separated from the other ves 
 sels, La Salle anchored as near the land as he could with safety, 
 to await their arrival. 
 
 The Joly and the Belle did not make their appearance until the 
 19th, and a dispute then arose between La Salle and Beaujeu, as 
 to the causes of their delay, and the exact position of the spot in 
 which they were, with relation to the mouth of the Mississippi. 
 La Salle at length admitted that they had most probably passed the 
 outlet of the great river, and he proposed that they should return 
 along the coast in search of it ; to which Beaujeu assented, but 
 on condition that a large supply of provisions should be allowed 
 to the frigate, from the stores in the Aimable. La Salle offered 
 to allow enough for fifteen days, within which time they might 
 reasonably expect to reach the object of their search: this, how 
 ever, did not content Beaujeu; and La Salle, suspecting that the 
 Chevalier intended to desert him, and sail for St. Domingo, re 
 fused any farther allowance of provisions to the frigate, on the 
 ground that the articles could not be obtained from the hold of 
 the Aimable, without endangering her safety, by throwing her out 
 of trim or balance. 
 
 The two commanders being equally fixed in their determina 
 tions on this point, La Salle adopted another course, the motives 
 for which it is not easy to divine. Instead of continuing the 
 search for the outlet of the Mississippi, with the Aimable and the 
 Belle, which were entirely at his disposition, when he had every 
 reason to believe himself within a few days' sail of that spot, he 
 suddenly ordered the people engaged for the enterprise to be land 
 ed opposite the place of his anchorage, with directions that they 
 should march along the shore towards the north, accompanied by 
 the Belle, sailing in sight of them, until the mouth of the Missis 
 sippi, or some other great river, should have been discovered. 
 Accordingly, in the beginning of February, one hundred and 
 
222 SHIPWRECK OF THE AIMABLE. [1685. 
 
 thirty of those persons were disembarked at the entrance of an 
 inlet, which had been already visited by La Salle and other 
 officers; and, on the 4th of that month, they took their depar 
 ture, as directed, under the command of Joutel and Moranget. 
 
 The place at which this landing was effected was situated, ac 
 cording to their observations, about the 28th degree of latitude, 
 near which the Spanish maps of that period placed the mouth of 
 two large rivers called Rio de Montanas and Rio de la Magde- 
 lena, flowing from the north-west; the inlet was no doubt the en 
 trance of the bay, to which the name of Espiritu Santo seems to 
 have been at length definitively assigned, lying immediately un 
 der the 28th parallel above mentioned, four hundred miles west 
 of the mouth of the Mississippi. Thence they marched along 
 the shore, towards the east, for three days, with only a flat sandy 
 waste on the left; and, at the end of that time, their progress was 
 stopped by a wide inlet, or river as they at first supposed it to be, 
 on the banks of which they encamped until the vessels came up. 
 La Salle having then sounded the inlet, and found it sufficiently 
 deep, resolved to bring the Belle and the Aimable into it, and to 
 leave them there until the mouth of the Mississippi should have 
 been discovered. He seems indeed to have considered it possi 
 ble, that the opening, from which a strong current issued, might 
 be one of the outlets of the great river; and, in this supposition, 
 he was x confirmed by the appearance of a number of Indians in 
 canoes, resembling those seen on the lower Mississippi : farther 
 examinations, however, soon showed it to be the entrance of a 
 large arm of the sea, on which he, as its discoverer, bestowed 
 the name of Bay of St. Louis. 
 
 Thus La Salle, with two vessels at his disposition, determined 
 to abandon the search for the Mississippi by sea. Accordingly, 
 on the 20th, the Aimable, having been previously lightened by 
 landing some of her guns, and other heavy articles, near the 
 entrance of the bay, weighed anchor and sailed towards that 
 place; in doing which, however, she struck upon a shoal and 
 sprung a leak. La Salle soon found that she could not be got 
 off in safety, and directed all his efforts to save her cargo, in 
 which he partly succeeded : but a violent storm came up a few 
 days after, and obliged all on board to abandon her; and in the 
 following night she went to pieces. Some of her light goods 
 
1685.] 
 
 BEAUJEU SAILS FOR FRANCE. 
 
 223 
 
 floating ashore excited the cupidity of the Indians, who attempt 
 ed to seize them, but were driven off with menaces by the French; 
 this exasperated the savages, and finding an opportunity, they 
 fell on a small party of the strangers, of whom they killed or 
 wounded several with arrows before they could be repulsed. 
 
 Beaujeu, according to the accounts of the expedition, observed 
 these disasters with coolness if not with satisfaction. He re 
 ceived the captain and crew of the Aimable, and other persons 
 engaged for the enterprise, on board of his ship, and he soon 
 after announced his intention to sail for St. Domingo. La Salle 
 thereupon demanded, that he should at least land the cannon, balls, 
 and other articles destined for the use of the colony, which were 
 in his ship; the Chevalier however returned the answer received 
 by him from La Salle on a former occasion, that those stores 
 were all in the bottom of his hold, and could not be obtained 
 without endangering the safety of the vessel; and on the 14th of 
 March, he set sail for the West Indies. Of the conduct of 
 Beaujeu on this and other occasions, we have no means of form 
 ing a correct judgment, as the accounts are all from those inter 
 ested in favor of La Salle; and it would be unjust to condemn 
 him, when those accounts themselves show, that his temper 
 must have been put to many severe trials, by the arrogance of his 
 colleague. It is, nevertheless, impossible to justify his refusal to 
 land the articles demanded by La Salle, or his desertion of a 
 large number of his countrymen on an unknown coast, even had 
 he not been sent thither, as he was, for the special purpose of 
 protecting them, until their settlement should have been formed 
 with some promise of success. 
 
 The whole number of the French thus left on the western 
 shore of the Mexican Gulf, was about one hundred and eighty. 
 A temporary habitation had been erected for them, near the en 
 trance of the bay, in which the articles landed and those saved 
 from the wreck of the Aimable, were also deposited; but as the 
 place was entirely unsuitable for their longer residence, La Salle 
 set out with a small party, to explore the interior country, in 
 search of some better situation. After a few days he returned, 
 having discovered a spot, which he considered well adapted for 
 a settlement; and thither the people with their supplies and ma 
 terials were transferred, and a fortified dwelling was commenced. 
 
DESCRIPTION OF THE BAY OF ST. LOUIS. 
 
 [1685. 
 
 which was completed in the course of the summer, and received 
 the name of Fort St. Louis. The Belle was likewise brought 
 into the bay, and anchored midway between the fort and the inlet. 
 The exact ppsition of this fort or settlement, remained for a 
 long time undetermined, in consequence of the incorrectness of 
 the accounts and maps of that part of America, which were in 
 nearly all respects, irreconcilable with the original narratives of 
 the enterprise. These narratives are indeed by no means clear, 
 and the latitudes given in them are generally incorrect: more exact 
 information as to the localities, has, however, been obtained from 
 the journals of Spanish expeditions to Texas, cotemporary with 
 that of the French; and by comparing all the accounts, with 
 the results of modern surveys, the positions of the principal 
 points may be now stated with assurance of their accuracy. 
 
 The coast of the Mexican Gulf on its north-west side, is ex 
 posed in only a few places, to the open sea ; being for the most 
 part, bordered by sandy islands, between which and the main 
 land, are a number of sounds and bays connected with the gulf 
 by narrow and shallow inlets. The bay of St. Louis, on which 
 the French settlement was situated, was undoubtedly the same 
 
1685.] SITUATION OF FORT ST. LOUIS. 225 
 
 afterwards called by the Spaniards Bay of San Bernardo, then 
 Bay of Espiritu Santo, and now known L.S Matagorda Bay, joining 
 the Mexican Gulf at its south-east extremity by an inlet, called 
 Paso del Cavallo, in latitude of 28 degrees 18 minutes. The bay 
 is irregular in form. Its greatest length, from east to west, is about 
 fifty miles; in breadth it varies from ten to twenty miles. One 
 large river, now called the Colorado, and several others much 
 smaller, enter it from the north; on the south-east, it is separated 
 from the gulf, in its whole length, by a low and narrow peninsula 
 of sand; on the south-west, it communicates by shallow passages 
 with another bay, to which, as already said, the name of Espiritu 
 Santo has been definitively assigned. Vessels drawing about ten 
 or twelve feet, may enter it from the gulf; but only those of much 
 less draught, can approach its shores or ascend its rivers. 
 
 Fort St. Louis was situated on the west side, and five miles 
 from the mouth of a small river, called by the French Riviere 
 aux Vaches or aux Breufs, on account of the buffaloes seen near it, 
 which empties into a cove on the north- west side of the Bay of 
 St. Louis ; the river is now known by its Spanish name of La 
 Vaca, or La Baca river, having the same signification with that 
 given by the French, and the cove is called La Baca bay. The 
 French establishment consisted of some wooden buildings, made 
 chiefly of pieces of the wreck of the Aimable, covered with buf 
 falo hides, and enclosed by a palisade of logs : on its ramparts 
 were mounted eight pieces of cannon ; and it was furnished with a 
 small number of muskets, swords, pistols, and other arms, and a 
 moderate supply of ammunition, but no cannon balls. 
 
 In the labors required for this first establishment, the French 
 
 * "We were," says Joutel, "in about the 27th degree of latitude [for which 
 read 281] two leagues inland, near the Bay of St. Louis, and the bank of the 
 Riviere aux Bceufs, on a hillock, whence we saw vast and beautiful prairies ex 
 tending far to the west, all level and covered with grass, affording pasture to in 
 finite numbers of buffaloes and other animals. Towards the south appeared 
 other plains, adorned with thickets of several kinds of trees. South and east, 
 lay the bay and the plains which border it on the east. In the north, was the 
 Riviere aux Boeufs running along the side of a hill, beyond which were other 
 wide plains with tufts of wood at snort distances apart, bounded by a forest of 
 large trees." 
 
 The spot might no doubt be easily identified, as there should be on it, some 
 vestiges of an extensive fortification, erected there, as will be hereafter shown, 
 by the Spaniards in 1722. 
 
 29 
 
226 FIRST EXPEDITION INTO THE INTERIOR. [1685. 
 
 passed the summer of 1685, during which a large number of them 
 died, chiefly from diseases contracted at St. Domingo; others 
 were killed by Indians or deserted, and some fell victims to fevers 
 apparently endemic in the country. Their attempts at agricul 
 ture all proved vain, either because the seeds planted were un 
 suitable to the soil and climate, or more probably from want of 
 proper attention and labor; there was, however, no scarcity of 
 food, as deer, buffalo, wild turkies, and other game abounded in 
 their vicinity, and the bay was filled with delightful fish, oysters 
 and turtle. They were once alarmed by the appearance of a 
 vessel at the entrance of the bay ; but she departed without any 
 signs of having observed them. 
 
 La Salle having effected what was immediately required by the 
 circumstances at Fort St. Louis, set out in October, to explore 
 the country, and to teach the natives to respect his people. He 
 took with him sixty men, leaving in the fort thirty-four persons 
 under the command of Joutel ; and as there were about six others 
 on board of the Belle, the whole number lost by sickness, by 
 wounds received from Indians, and by desertion during the eight 
 months which had elapsed since their landing, could not have 
 been less than eighty. From the fort, La Salle proceeded to 
 some distance along the northern side of the bay, when finding 
 a spot suitable for anchorage, he caused the Belle to be brought 
 thither, and laid up for the winter; an operation which w r as at 
 tended with the loss of the pilot of that vessel, and five other 
 men, surprised at night and killed by Indians on the shore of the 
 bay. La Salle then placed the priest Chefdeville and some other 
 persons on board of the vessel, and with the twenty remaining 
 men, he continued his exploration. 
 
 As neither Joutel nor Father Anastase were engaged in this 
 journey, very little is known of the direction taken by La Salle, 
 or the distance to which he proceeded. It appears however to 
 be certain, that he discovered the great river now called the Co 
 lorado, falling into the north-east extremity of the bay; and it is 
 probable that he thence advanced north eastward, in the vicinity 
 of the sea coast, far enough to be assured that the mouth of the 
 Mississippi, must lie at a much greater distance from his settle 
 ment than he had previously imagined. It has been conjectured 
 that he endeavored also to penetrate westward to the vicinity of 
 
1686.] LOSS OF THE BELLE. 227 
 
 the Spanish provinces : this supposition is neither sustained nor 
 invalidated by either of the narratives from which our knowledge 
 of his movements is exclusively derived ; it is however not easy 
 to divine why he should have adopted the course of f a journey 
 by land merely in search of the Mississippi ; and we know from 
 his memorials, that he believed the Spanish settlements to extend 
 much farther north, than they actually did at that time. 
 
 On returning to Fort St. Louis in March, 1686, La Salle learn 
 ed that several men, whom he had sent back from the upper end 
 of the bay, had never arrived and had therefore probably been 
 starved or killed by savages; and also that an extensive conspi 
 racy had been discovered among the people in the fort, the ob 
 ject of which was to murder the principal persons of the garrison 
 and then to escape in the Belle to the West Indies. But that 
 which must have occasioned the greatest concern, was the disap 
 pearance of the vessel from her anchorage ; affording strong rea 
 sons for apprehending that she might have been wrecked in one 
 of the violent storms during the winter. Many deaths had also oc 
 curred at the fort; and the stock of ammunition being almost ex 
 hausted, it became indispensable to obtain assistance from some 
 other quarter, ere their forces should become insufficient, to hold 
 the Indians in check. La Salle therefore declared his intention 
 to set out immediately towards the Illinois, where his friend Ton- 
 ty was in command; calculating that he might be able to return 
 to the fort with supplies before the following winter. In order 
 that this long journey might be accomplished \vith speed and 
 safety, light portable canoes were made for crossing rivers ; and 
 clothing of wicker work was provided for the men, sufficient to 
 resist the arrows of the Ifcdians. These preparations consumed 
 much time; but being at length satisfactorily completed, La Salle 
 set out from Fort St. Louis on the 22d of April, accompanied by 
 twenty persons, including Father Anastase, from whom all the 
 accounts of this journey are derived, as Joutel was again left in 
 command of the place. 
 
 Shortly after their departure a canoe reached the fort, bringing 
 the priest Chefdeville, Sabloniere, and five or six others, the 
 only survivors of those left in the Belle, which had been driven 
 from her moorings in the preceding winter, and wrecked on the 
 south-east shore of the bay. Several of her men had been pre- 
 
228 SECOND JOURNEY TOWARDS THE NORTH. [1686. 
 
 viously lost in Their only boat, while returning from the shore : 
 the others, after the destruction of the vessel, passed three months 
 on the sandy slip of land which separates the bay from the Gulf, 
 supporting themselves as they could, on the provisions saved from 
 the wreck; and there they must have perished, had they not for 
 tunately discovered an old canoe on the shore, in which they made 
 their way to Fort St. Louis. It appears strange that they should 
 not have endeavored to pass around the eastern extremity of the 
 bay: possibly however the sandy, slip, now forming the peninsula 
 separating the bay from the gulf, may have then been an inland; 
 such changes being common on that coast, in consequence of the 
 severe storms to which it is. subject. 
 
 From the account of Father Anastase,* we learn that La Salle 
 in this journey, took a direction east of north from Fort St. Louis ; 
 and pursuing it five days, he reached a river, named by him the 
 Robek, which must have been one of the upper waters of the 
 Colorado. Near this river they met a number of Indians, many 
 of whom were mounted on horses, with saddles and other articles 
 of European manufacture, derived doubtless from the Spaniards ; 
 but they could give no information respecting those people. At 
 the distance of two leagues farther, the French crossed a larger 
 stream probably the main Colorado called by them the Ma- 
 ligne, in consequence of the danger to which one of their men 
 was exposed there; and beyond it they found others, of which 
 one received the name of Hiens, from a German who fell into it, 
 and another was called Riviere des Malheurs, from the accidents 
 experienced in passing it. The country traversed by these streams 
 was much better than those farther south, and was inhabited by 
 friendly Indians, of whom those first met were the Biskatronge, 
 the next the Kironoas, and the next, a numerous and intelligent 
 nation, called the Cenis, who likewise had horses and Spanish 
 articles in their possession ; though they appeared to have never 
 before seen a white person. Through their country ran a large 
 river, which the accounts of subsequent Spanish expeditions 
 show to have been the same now called the Neches, emptying 
 
 * The account of this journey given in the " Etablissement du Foy," [chap. 25] 
 from the journal of Father Anastase, is so vague that it is impossible to identify 
 a single spot mentioned ; and we are only able to arrive at some conclusions on 
 these points, from Joutel's narrative of his passage over the same ground, and 
 from the journals of subsequent Spanish expeditions to that part of America. 
 
1686. 
 
 WRETCHED CONDITION OF THE FRENCH. 
 
 229 
 
 into the Sabine Lake. Thence after some days the French con 
 tinued their route north-eastward to the region of the Nassonis, 
 near the Red river, where La Salle was unfortunately seized with 
 a fever, and lay languishing for two months. Meanwhile several 
 of his men died, and others quitted him to live among the savages : 
 their stock of powder, on which they depended for subsistence, 
 was moreover nearly exhausted ; and being unable to proceed on 
 wards, under such circumstances, they returned to Fort St. Louis. 
 There they arrived in the middle of October, with only eight of 
 the twenty men, who had left the place in April preceding; and 
 La Salle had then to receive from Joutel, confirmation of the loss 
 of their only vessel, arid accounts of sickness, deaths, treachery 
 and conspiracies among the inmates of the fort. 
 
 The condition of the French colonists on the Bay of St. Louis 
 was indeed most deplorable. Of the hundred and eighty, who 
 had landed with La Salle, in March, 1685, only thirty-seven could 
 be mustered at the fort, in the latter part of the following year; 
 and these were nearly all despairing or desperate, and dissatis 
 fied with their leader, towards whom some of them entertained 
 the strongest feelings of animosity. Even the Recollet Father 
 Maxime le Clercq, though considered a good man, could not re 
 frain from consigning to his journal, reflections so bitter upon La 
 Salle's conduct, that Joutel, on learning the fact, thought proper 
 to require the destruction of the papers. Of relief from France 
 no hope was entertained; and under such circumstances, the only 
 resource which seemed to be left was the immediate transfer 
 of the whole party to the Illinois. This would no doubt have 
 been at once attempted had there not been among them six women 
 and four young children, who could not possibly have performed 
 a journey so long, painful, and dangerous: Joutel offered to go 
 with sixteen men to that country in search of assistance ; but La 
 Salle considered his own presence necessary on the journey, and 
 he accordingly determined to make another effort to reach the 
 Illinois. 
 
 For this object, he divided his forces equitably ; taking with 
 him sixteen men, and leaving the remaining ten at the fort for the 
 protection of the women and children. The party destined for the 
 journey included, besides the commander, his brother Cavalier 
 the priest, and their nephews Cavelier and Moranget, Joutel as 
 
230 LA SALLE ATTEMPTS TO REACH THE ILLINOIS. [1687. 
 
 lieutenant, Father Anastase, Liotot the surgeon, the eldest son 
 of Talon, and Nika an Indian from Canada, who had accom 
 panied La Salle in his expeditions, for several years, and always 
 proved true and useful. In the fort remained Barbier as .com 
 mandant, Fathers Zenobe and Maxime, Sabloniere, Chefdeville, 
 Talon with his wife and three young children, and others to the 
 number of twenty. The place was left tolerably well supplied 
 with arms and ammunition, except that there were no balls for the 
 eight pieces of cannon. 
 
 The separation betw'eer^ the two parties took place in gloom 
 and silence, on the morning of the 7th of January, 1687. Pur 
 suing nearly the same route, as in his last expedition, La Salle, 
 on the 13th, passed a large river emptying into the Bay of St. 
 Louis, which Father Anastase calls Riviere aux Cannes, and 
 Joutel names Riviere des Princesses; it was of course the Col 
 orado. Farther on, they crossed another stream, to which they 
 gave the appellation of La Sabloniere, running through a sandy 
 country ; this may have been the St. Bernard : and, in the be 
 ginning of February, they reached the Maligne, the description 
 of which, in both the accounts of this expedition, applies to the 
 Brazos, rather than the Colorado. Having passed it, as well as 
 the Hiens, which Joutel calls the Eure, possibly the same now 
 known as the Navasoto, they spent some time among the 
 friendly Indians in its vicinity; and, in the middle of March, they 
 reached the large river, called by Joutel Riviere aux Canots, 
 which seems to have been the same now known as the Trinity, 
 falling into Galveston Bay. Why they spent more than two 
 months, on their way to this point, which could not have been at a 
 greater distance than two hundred miles from Fort St. Louis, on a 
 route already known to them, and when time was so valuable, 
 we do not learn from either account of the expedition. 
 
 Thus far the French had encountered no obstacles or accidents 
 of importance; dark thoughts, however, had been brooding in 
 the minds of some of the party, and a bloody tragedy was about 
 to be enacted, on the banks of the Riviere aux Canots. 
 
 It has been said, that a large proportion of the people brought 
 by La Salle from France, were of the lowest order, and that others 
 of worse character joined him at St. Domingo. Disease had in 
 deed so far diminished the number of these persons, that they 
 
1687.] CONSPIRACY AGAINST LA SALLE. 231 
 
 formed an inconsiderable minority of the whole body of the colo 
 nists; but a large and effective portion of those who accompanied 
 La Salle in this expedition, were inimical to him, and had deter 
 mined to destroy him, so soon as an opportunity should present 
 itself. The principal of these enemies of their commander were 
 Liotot the surgeon, and Duhaut one of the colonists, who had 
 been detected in several attempts to excite mutinies at the fort; 
 the animosity of the latter, seems to have been in part occasioned 
 by the loss of his brother, who had been sent back by La Salle 
 to the settlement, for some misconduct during the first expedition 
 to the north, and was supposed to have been murdered on the 
 way by Indians.* The other conspirators were Hiens or Hans, 
 the German already mentioned, who had been a bucanier, and 
 had entered the service at St. Domingo, and L'Archeveque and 
 Teissier, seamen: their motives of discontent are not known, 
 but probably had their origin in the haughty manner, and abso 
 lute if not tyrannical character of La Salle. 
 
 The conspirators kept their intentions to themselves until the 
 party had crossed the Riviere aux Canots ; two leagues beyond 
 which La Salle encamped on the 14th of March, and thence sent 
 back Liotot, Duhaut, Hiens and the Indian Nika, to bring the 
 meat of some buffaloes, killed in the morning. As these men did 
 not return on the 17th, La Salle despatched Moranget, accom 
 panied by L'Archeveque, Teissier, a man named Marie or Marne, 
 and his own servant Saget, in search df them. On arriving at 
 the place where the buffaloes lay, Moranget found the men, and 
 reprehended them for their conduct, in harsh language, taking 
 from them moreover, not only the meat required for the use of the 
 whole company, but also the marrow bones and other parts of 
 the animal, usually considered as the special perquisites of the 
 hunters. This irritated the conspirators, who being all assem 
 bled, determined no longer to defer the execution of their plan. 
 Accordingly on that night, Moranget, Nika, and Saget, were each 
 in succession, murdered while they slept, by Liotot, who des- 
 
 *Charlevoix says, as received by him from good authority, that two of the 
 murderers of La Salle doubtless meaning Liotot and Duhaut were associated 
 with him in the enterprise, and had advanced a portion of the funds for the 
 equipment of the expedition, in the success of which they were consequently in 
 terested ; and he intimates that nothing but the unbearable ill temper and tyranny 
 of La Salle could have induced them to commit this act. 
 
232 MURDER OF LA SALLE. [1687. 
 
 patched his victims with an axe; the others standing by with 
 their arms ready, in case resistance should be attempted. The 
 Indian and Saget made no movement after receiving their death 
 blows; Moranget started up and lived some minutes, until Marne 
 had been compelled by the villains to complete their bloody work. 
 The conspirators had now gone too far to recede, and indeed 
 they held the power in their own hands. They remained about 
 the scene of their crime until the 20th of the month, \vhen La 
 Salle becoming uneasy, went himself with Father Anastase, and 
 an Indian, to inquire into the cause of the delay.* On approach 
 ing the river, he fired his gun as a signal ; and he soon after 
 met L'Archeveque, who, in answer to his questions about Moran- 
 
 * Joutel thus relates the particulars of this murder: 
 
 " When he [La Salle] came near the camp of the assassins, on looking around 
 in search of it, he observed some eagles flying about a spot not far off, which led 
 him to believe that they had found some dead animal; and he fired his gun, 
 which was the signal of his death, or at least hastened it. The conspirators 
 hearing the report, concluded that it came from M. de La Salle, who had come 
 in search of them ; and they prepared their arms to surprise him. Duhaut first 
 crossed the river, with L'Archeveque ; and the former, seeing M. de La Salle at 
 a distance, as he was approaching them, advanced and hid himself among some 
 high weeds to wait for him ; so that M. de La Salle, suspecting nothing, and not 
 having even charged his gun again, saw L'Archeveque in front and immediately 
 enquired for his nephew Moranget ; to which L'Archeveque answered, that he 
 was up the river. At the same moment, the traitor Duhaut fired his piece and 
 shot M. de La Salle through the head, so that he dropped down dead on the spot 
 without speaking a word." ****** 
 
 " The shot by which M. de Ln Salle was killed was also a signal to the other 
 assassins to come up, and they all drew around the place where the poor corpse 
 lay, and barbarously stript it to the shirt, and vented their malice against their 
 former commander in vile and opprobrious language. The surgeon Liotot seve 
 ral times said in derision, ' Lie there, Grand Bashaw ! Lie there, Grand Bashaw/ 
 They then dragged it naked among the bushes and left it exposed to the rava- 
 nous wild beasts ; so far was it from being true, as stated by a certain author, 
 [Father Anastase, in the Etablissement de la Foy,] that he was buried, and that 
 a cross was erected over his grave." 
 
 The murder of La Salle has been usually supposed to have been committed 
 near the Brazos river; a careful examination of the narratives of Joutel and 
 Father Anastase has, however, convinced the author of this history, that it must 
 have occurred on the east bank of the Trinity, which river appears to corres 
 pond in all respects with the Riviere aux Canots. It is moreover certain, from 
 the journals of the Spanish expeditions through those regions, that the Cenis, 
 among whom the French arrived after the murder, without crossing any other 
 large river, inhabited the cbuntry traversed by the Neches and its branches, 
 around the present town of Nacogdoches. See the account of the expedition 
 of Alonzo de Leon, in the latter part of this chapter. 
 
1687.] MURDER OF THE ASSASSINS OF LA SALLE. 233 
 
 j 
 
 get and the other men, said in a surly tone that they had gone 
 up the river. In the meantime Duhaut crept softly through the 
 weeds, and when near enough to be sure of his aim he fired 
 his gun at his commander, who, receiving the ball in his head, 
 fell almost instantly dead. The other conspirators then com 
 ing up, stripped the body, and treated it with every indignity ; 
 though they finally allowed Father Anastase, as he says, to bury 
 it, and erect a cross on the spot. 
 
 The conspirators, after the murder of La Salle, were- the mas 
 ters of the party. Of the eight others, Joutel, the two priests, 
 and the two boys, were all who could have been considered as 
 attached to their late chief; and resistance by them would have 
 been unavailing. Cavelier, on learning his brother's fate, ex 
 pected to be the next sacrificed, and asked only half an hour to 
 prepare himself; but they assured him that he had no cause 
 for alarm, as what they had done was occasioned by the ty 
 ranny of La Salle, which had driven them to desperation. 
 Joutel, whom Duhaut had resolved also to kill, w r as spared 
 through the influence of L'Archeveque. Duhaut then assumed 
 the command, and, proceeding onwards, they soon reached the 
 Cenis village: there they remained two months, and were joined 
 by Ruter and Grollet, two of their companions who had deserted 
 during the former expedition. Meanwhile a difference had arisen 
 between the chiefs of the murderers, some wishing to remain in 
 that country, while others insisted upon returning to Fort St. 
 Louis, where they proposed to build a vessel, and go to the West 
 Indies ; and a dispute took place as to the division of the goods, 
 in the course of which, Liotot and Duhaut were killed by Hiens 
 and his partizans. After some time, during which the bucanier 
 and his followers engaged with the Indians in an expedition 
 against their enemies, it was agreed that a separation should be 
 made ; and the two Caveliers, Father Anastase, Joutel, Marne, 
 Teissier, and two others, accordingly took their departure for the 
 Illinois, in the middle of May; leaving Hiens, L'Archeveque, 
 Grollet, Ruter, and Breman, among the Cenis. The young Ta 
 lon also remained with the Indians; but for what reason we know 
 not, unless, as most probable, from anxiety respecting the fate of 
 his father and family. 
 
 The separation probably took place near the head waters of the 
 30 
 
234 FIRST JOURNEY OF TONTY IN AID OF LA SALLE. [1686. 
 
 Neches. Cavelier, Father Anastase, and their party, proceeding 
 north-eastward, crossed a river probably the Sabine, and entered 
 into the country of the Nahordikes Indians; thence they passed 
 to the Nassonis, and, on the 16th of June, they crossed another 
 and very large stream, which was no doubt the Red River. Far 
 ther on, they met in succession the Nachitos, the Cadodakios, 
 and the Cahainano tribes, through whose territories ran many 
 large rivers; in one of these streams, probably the Washita, 
 Marne was drowned, and his name was assigned to it in conse 
 quence. At last, in the middle of July, the wearied travellers 
 reached the mouth of the Arkansas, on the banks of which they, 
 to their joy and surprise, observed a cross, and soon after a house 
 evidently made by civilized people.* 
 
 It will be necessary now to revert to the Chevalier de Tonty, 
 who was left in command of the fort on the Illinois when La 
 Salle departed for France in 1683. On learning that his former 
 chief had embarked for the mouth of the Mississippi, he endea 
 vored to obtain the means of joining him there; but was con 
 stantly disappointed by the opposition of M. de la Barre, the 
 Governor General of Canada. In 1684 however, de la Barre 
 was succeeded by M. de Denonville, who being friendly to La 
 Salle, immediately authorised an expedition from Canada to co 
 operate with him. Tonty accordingly quitted the Illinois in 
 February, 1686, and reached the mouth of the Mississippi in 
 April. From that point he sent canoes in each direction along 
 the coast to some distance, in search of his countrymen; and 
 even endeavored to prevail on his men to accompany him in a 
 voyage in that way, around the peninsula of Florida to New 
 York. They however all refused to engage in so hazardous an 
 enterprise ; whereupon he left marks in conspicuous places on the 
 coast, and gave a letter to a Quinipissa chief, to be delivered to 
 La Salje in case he should arrive there ;f after which he returned 
 
 * According to the computation of Father Anastase, they had travelled from 
 Fort St. Louis north sixty leagues, and east north-east forty leagues to the Cenis ; 
 thence twenty-five leagues east north-east to the Nasonis ; thence forty leagues 
 north north-east to the Cadodakios ; thence twenty-five leagues north-east to the 
 Cahainano ; thence sixty leagues east north-east to the Arkansas in all two 
 hundred and fifty leagues. 
 
 f This letter, as will be seen in the following chapter, was found by M. de 
 Jberville, near the mouth of the Mississippi, in 169U. 
 
1689.] SECOND JOURNEY OF TONTY. 235 
 
 up the river to the Illinois. He however took the precaution to 
 build a house near the mouth of the Arkansas, and to place in it 
 a few men, so as to form an intermediate point for the purpose 
 of facilitating communications, if they should be required between 
 the Illinois and the gulf. 
 
 At this place Cavelier, Father Anastase, Joutel, and the others 
 of their party, arrived in the beginning of July, 1687; and having 
 been there refreshed and provided with canoes and guides, they 
 pursued their route up the Mississippi and the Illinois, to the Rock 
 fort on the latter river, which they reached on the 14th of Sep 
 tember. Tonty was then absent, but he returned in the end of 
 October and greeted the wanderers as brothers. He was not 
 treated with equal frankness by them; for Cavelier and Joutel, 
 while relating the particulars of the expedition thought proper, for 
 some reason not clearly explained, to suppress entirely the fact 
 of the death of La Salle, whom they pretended to have left in good 
 health in the Cenis country.* Having been supplied with money 
 and other necessaries, the priest, the Friar and Joutel departed 
 on the 27th of March, 1688, for Chicago, from which they went 
 to Michilimackinac : there they gave the same false account to 
 the commandant, the celebrated Baron de la Hontan; and even in 
 Canada they concealed the death of La Salle from the Governor 
 General, so that the fact did not become publicly known, until 
 some time after their arrival in France. 
 
 Before, or soon after the departure of Cavelier and his compan 
 ions from the Illinois, Tonty received the news of the death of 
 La Salle, from the person charged with the direction of the es 
 tablishment on the Arkansas, to whom the priest had been more 
 communicative during his stay there. With the hope of rescu 
 ing his unfortunate countrymen at Fort St. Louis, he prepared 
 to penetrate thither, if possible by land ; but he was unable to set 
 out until 1689. In April of that year, he reached the river of 
 the Cadodakios, which the natives, says he, "call the Red river, 
 because it deposites a sand, rendering its waters as red as 
 
 * " This was true," says Joutel, " for Monsieur Cavelier and I, v/ho gave the ac 
 count, were not present at the death of M. de la Salle ; and he was well when he 
 left us." Father Anastase, who was an eye witness, and Teissier, one of the 
 murderers, "to avoid lying, said nothing." No mention is made of this conceal 
 ment in the account given in the Etablissement de la Foy, which is copied from 
 the narrative of Father Anastase 
 
236 THE SPANIARDS IN SEARCH OF THE FRENCH. [1686. 
 
 blood;" crossing it near the present town of Natchitoches, he 
 went to within three days' journey of the place, where La Salle 
 had been killed, and there learned, that some of the French, who 
 had remained in that country, as already related, had been put to 
 death by the Indians. Farther on, Tonty was assured that a 
 large body of Spaniards were in his vicinity, whereupon he was 
 obliged to return to the Illinois.* 
 
 The report received by Tonty, of the presence of the Spaniards 
 in that country, was correct, f 
 
 Information that the French were engaged in making an es 
 tablishment on the north coast of the Mexican Gulf, was received 
 early in 1685 by the governor of Havanna, from a vessel of that 
 nation which had been taken on the coast of Yucatan ; and a ship 
 was in consequence sent under Juan Enriquez Barroto, who ex 
 amined the north coast from the southern extremity of Florida, 
 to Vera Cruz, without discovering any thing calculated to con 
 firm the report. Other rumors to the same effect were received 
 by the Court of Madrid ; and the Count de Monclova, on being 
 appointed Viceroy of Mexico in 1686, was specially instructed to 
 seek for the intruders, and to deal with them according to the 
 general law of the Indies that is to say to put them to death or 
 confine them for life in the mines. 
 
 For this purpose, two armed vessels commanded respectively, 
 by Martin de Ribas, and Juan de Iriarte, with Barroto, as pilot, 
 sailed from Vera Cruz in 1686; and tracing the coast northward, 
 
 * Tonty when at Paris in 1693, presented to the ministry a petition for employ 
 ment, accompanied by a memorial, containing a sketch of his services in Canada, 
 in conjunction with La Salle, and of his subsequent endeavors to penetrate from 
 the Illinois to the fort erected by the French on the Mexican Gulf. This docu 
 ment seems to have fallen into the hands of some unauthorised person in Paris, 
 who from it and from other sources, manufactured a book entitled " Dernieres 
 decouvertes de M. de La Salle dans 1'Amerique Septentrionale," and published 
 it in 1697, under the name of Tonty. It is filled with blunders ; and its publica 
 tion proved very annoying to the honest Italian, who afterwards disavowed it en 
 tirely. The original memorial of Tonty, still remains in the archives of the 
 government at Paris ; a copy of it was procured by Mr. T. Falconer, who in 1844 
 published a translation at London in his work on the discovery of the Mississippi. 
 It is a clear and concise account, bearing every mark of truth, and correctness 
 (except some inaccuracies as to dates) and is calculated from its whole tone, to 
 convey a most favorable opinion of the character of the writer. See page 197. 
 
 f The following accounts of the movements of the Spaniards, are derived from 
 Barcia's " Ensayo Chronologico." and from Spanish manuscripts, in the posses 
 sion of the author. 
 
1687.] THE SPANIARDS DISCOVER THE BAY OF ST. LOUIS. '237 
 
 they found the remains of a vessel, at the entrance of a bay on 
 the west side of the gulf, in latitude of 29 degrees, to which 
 they gave the name of Bay of San Bernardo. Within the bay 
 they discovered the wreck of another vessel, and took from it four 
 pieces of cannon of French manufacture, and a shield bearing the 
 arms of France ; and being thus persuaded that the intruders had 
 all perished, they returned to Vera Cruz. The wrecks were no 
 doubt those of the Aimable and Belle; the latitude assigned to the 
 entrance of the bay, is about one degree too high; but that was a 
 small error for a Spanish navigator, at the period in question. 
 
 The Viceroy, being how r ever still unsatisfied as to the destruc 
 tion of the French, despatched two vessels to the north coasts, 
 under Don Andres de Pes, a distinguished naval officer, who in 
 the spring of 1687, also examined the bay of San Bernardo or 
 St. Louis, and found there the wrecks observed by Ribas and 
 Iriarte; but he did not learn any news of the French establish 
 ment. The Spaniards thence traced the coast eastward to the 
 Bay of Apalache, from which they passed over to Vera Cruz. 
 
 In the following year, an Englishman named White, who had 
 been carried as prisoner to Havanna, declared that the French set 
 tlement was still maintained, and that he had visited it himself; 
 whereupon it was determined in a council of the authorities at 
 Mexico, that farther search should be made for the obnoxious 
 trespassers on the territory of his Catholic majesty. A frigate 
 and a schooner were accordingly sent under Pes, who leaving his 
 ship in the Bay of Mavila, (as the Bay of Mobile was then called,) 
 traced the coast in the schooner westward, and entered the Mis 
 sissippi or Rio de la Palisada, which he ascended to the distance 
 of thirty leagues, without seeing or hearing any thing of the 
 French. If this account be true, as there is every reason to re 
 gard it, the Spaniards may claim the merit of having first entered 
 the great river from the gulf, as well as of having first ascertained 
 its existence, and first navigated it from the interior to the sea. 
 
 In the latter part of that year, 1688, the Count de Monclova 
 was succeeded in the government of Mexico by the Count de 
 Galve, who immediately took measures for the exploration and 
 settlement of the unknown regions bordering upon the Gulf, 
 north and east of the Rio Bravo. The execution of this duty 
 was committed to Alonzo de Leon, who was with that view, ap- 
 
238 EXPEDITION OF ALONZO DE LEON. [1689. 
 
 \ 
 
 pointed governor of a province called Coahuila, or New Ex- 
 tremadura, formed from the western portion of New Leon. 
 
 The capital of the new province, which then contained only 
 a few villages of converted Indians, was the little town of Coa 
 huila, now called Monclova, situated on a branch of the Salado 
 river, one of the tributaries of the Rio Bravo. From this place, 
 Alonzo de Leon set out on the 23d of March, 1689, with a hun 
 dred soldiers and some Indians, under the guidance of a French 
 man from Fort St. Louis, who had been found wandering in the 
 vicinity of Coahuila, in the preceding year. Descending the 
 little stream, to its junction with the Salado, he thence turned 
 north-eastward, and on the 2nd of April he reached the Rio 
 Bravo, which he forded with his troops, probably near the site of 
 the present town of Laredo. Continuing the jnarch in the same 
 direction eighteen leagues, they crossed another river, which was 
 called the Nueces, from the number of nut trees growing on its 
 banks; and ten leagues farther on, another named Rio Hondo or 
 Deep river, probably that now known as the Aransaso. At the 
 distance of eighteen leagues beyond, they rested on the banks of 
 the Medina, now the San Antonio; and on the 14th of the month 
 they crossed the Guadalupe, so named in honor of their patroness, 
 the celebrated Virgin, enthroned near Mexico. The first distinct 
 accounts of the French were there received from the Indians, who 
 stated that the strangers had lived in houses near the sea, until 
 within a few months, when they all died from some disease 
 which broke out among them. These savages had in their pos 
 session French books, and other articles of the manufacture of 
 that nation; and they furnished the Spaniards with guides to 
 conduct them to the spot lately occupied by the white men.* 
 
 Leaving the main body of his troops encamped on the Guada 
 lupe, Alonzo de Leon proceeded, on the 21st of April, with a 
 few men, to the place where stood the ruins of Fort St. Louis. 
 They occupied a slight elevation on a small stream, near its en 
 trance into a bay; and consisted of several wooden buildings, 
 which had been enclosed by a palisade. The principal of these 
 houses was in the form of a fort, made chiefly of pieces from the 
 wreck of a vessel; over the door, was inscribed the number 1685, 
 
 * See translation of the Journal of Alonzo de Leon, among the Proofs and Il 
 lustrations, in the latter part of this volume, under the letter E. 
 
1689.] ARRIVAL OF THE SPANIARDS AT FORT ST. LOUIS. 239 
 
 indicating the year of its construction. Near it was a small 
 building, which seemed to have been used as a chapel; and 
 around were five other houses of logs, entirely covered with buf 
 falo hides. The place had been evidently sacked, and all that 
 savages could consider valuable, had been taken away. Among 
 the ruins were found eight pieces of small iron cannon, some dis 
 mounted, others upon shattered carriages, with three old swivels ; 
 while the ground was covered with torn books, in the French 
 language, broken casks, boxes and bottles, musket stocks, and 
 other articles which the plunderers regarded as of no value. Near 
 the ruins, the Spaniards discovered the remains of three human 
 bodies, one of which seemed to be that of a female, from the 
 fragments of dress adhering to it ; these were decently buried by 
 order of the Governor, who caused a mass to be sung over them. 
 
 Such was the condition of Fort St. Louis in April, 1689, ac 
 cording to the report of Alonzo de Leon. It has been asserted 
 on the contrary, that the Spaniards found the place still occupied 
 by the French, whom they made prisoners or put to death: but 
 there is not the slightest evidence in support of the assertion ; 
 and it is much more reasonable to suppose, that the few helpless 
 men, women and children left there by La Salle in January, 
 1687, had fallen victims to disease, and to the vengeance or cu 
 pidity of the savages, before the arrival of the troops from Mexico. 
 Indeed, Alonzo de Leon, had he acted as thus asserted, would 
 have probably proclaimed the fact as a proof of his punctuality in 
 executing the orders of his government. 
 
 According to a solar observation taken by Alonzo de Leon, at 
 his encampment on the Guadalupe, near Fort St. Louis, that 
 place was situated in latitude of 28 degrees 48 minutes, which 
 is within a few minutes of its real position. Having completed 
 his examination of the spot, and buried the cannon, he continued 
 his march along the south shore of the bay, crossing the lagoons 
 and marshes between it and another bay farther south , to the 
 coast of the gulf, where he found the wreck of the Aimable. He 
 also discovered the entrance of the Guadalupe, into the other bay; 
 and then returning to Fort St. Louis, he took his course north-east 
 along the shore of the Bay of St. Louis to the great river, now 
 known as the Colorado, but named by him the San Marcos, in 
 honor of the saint on whose day, April 25th, it wr^s fast seen. 
 
240 "RETURN OF ALONZO DE LEON TO MEXICO. [1689. 
 
 In the meantime he had learned from the Indians, that some 
 of the French were still living among the tribes farther north ; 
 and he sent messengers with letters inviting them to come to him. 
 One of these messengers brought back a letter, signed Jean 
 L'Archeveque, in which the writer promised that he and one of 
 his companions, Jacques Grollet, would as soon as opportunity 
 should be offered, deliver themselves to the Spanish commander. 
 Accordingly on the 1st of May, these two men appeared at the 
 camp on the San Marcos, dressed and painted as Indians, and 
 gave themselves up to the Governor, to whom they related what 
 they knew, or chose to tell, respecting the proceedings of their 
 countrymen in that part of America. They said that after more 
 than a hundred of the French had died from disease, they and 
 some others had gone to the country of the Cenis farther north; 
 there they had remained until a few months previous, when learn 
 ing that the fort had been taken by Indians, and its inmates put to 
 death, they had returned to the place, which they found in ruins, 
 and had buried the dead bodies, fourteen in number, and set fire 
 to the powder. They added that three of their companions who 
 were in the Cenis country when the fort was taken, still continu 
 ed there, together with three children, w r ho were spared by the 
 savages on that occasion. Of the circumstances attending the 
 murder of La Salle, in which L'Archeveque had taken part, they 
 probably said nothing, as the report of the Spanish commander 
 does not mention them. 
 
 Alonzo de Leon, having been thus assured of the destruction 
 of the French colony, considered it unnecessary to proceed far 
 ther, and he returned to Mexico, just at the time when Tonty 
 was making his way back from the Red River, to the Illinois, as 
 already related. The Viceroy of New Spain, on learning the par 
 ticulars of the expedition, from the Governor of Coahuila, and 
 from the accounts of L'Archeveque and Grollet, immediately sent 
 the two latter persons to Spain, under the charge of Don Andres 
 dePes, who was instructed to urge the government to establish forts 
 and settlements, on the northern sides of the Mexican Gulf, in 
 order to prevent the repetition of encroachments by other nations 
 on those territories. Alonzo de Leon was moreover directed to 
 make another expedition through the regions north of the Rio 
 Bravo; with which object he again crossed that river, in the 
 
1690.] ORIGIN OF THE NAME OF TEXAS. 241 
 
 spring of 1690. Thence proceeding in aline farther west than 
 that first pursued by him, he passed the great river now called 
 the Brazos, which was named by him Rio Colorado, from the 
 extreme redness of its waters; and the other large stream, to 
 which he gave the appellation of Rio de Trinidad, or the Trinity, 
 probably the Riviere aux Canots of the French. Beyond this 
 latter river, he met the Qenis Indians, with whom he made a 
 solemn treaty; and their chief, on declaring his submission to the 
 king of Spain, and professing a desire to embrace Christianity, 
 was duly baptised under the name of Bernardo, and appointed 
 Governor of the Province of Texas. 
 
 This appears to have been the earliest application of the name 
 of Texas to a country in America. It has been already said, 
 that rumors had been current, ever since the conquest of Mexico, 
 of the existence of a numerous and powerful nation of Indians 
 called Texas or Teguas, inhabiting the regions north of the Rio 
 Bravo ; and Alonzo de Leon thought proper to consider the Ce- 
 nis as this nation, from having found in their language the word 
 Teysas or Texas, signifying friends, used as one of the appella 
 tions of their principal tribe. The name of Cenis was accord 
 ingly never afterwards employed by the Spaniards ; in whose 
 accounts the people of that region are generally termed Texas, 
 and sometimes Asinais. These people were in fact a confederacy 
 of tribes, of w r hich the most powerful was called Taxus and 
 Ainais. 
 
 From the country of the Cenis or Texas, the Spaniards con 
 tinued their march northward to that of 'the Cadodakios on the 
 Red River, where they learned that many white men had been 
 in the preceding year, distributing knives, beads, and crosses 
 among the Indians, and endeavoring to excite them against the 
 Spaniards. These white persons were no doubt Tonty and his 
 companions: Alonzo de Leon used every means in his power to 
 counteract the impressions which they had sought to produce ; 
 and not considering it necessary to proceed farther north, he re 
 turned to the Cenis, where he established a mission of Franciscan 
 friars, probably near the spot now occupied by the town of Na- * 
 cogdoches. He also succeeded in obtaining possession of two 
 Frenchmen, Meunier and Breman, and of the eldest son of Ta 
 lon, a youth of seventeen, through whose means the other chil- 
 31 
 
242 REFLECTIONS ON LA SALLE's ENTERPRISE. [1687. 
 
 dren of Talon spared by the Indians on the capture of Fort St. 
 Louis were afterwards recovered. The eldest Talon and Meu- 
 nier were left at the mission as interpreters; the other children, 
 with Breman, were carried by the Governor to Mexico in the lat 
 ter part of the year.* 
 
 Such were the events and the unfortunate termination of this 
 first expedition of the French to the ^orthern coasts of the Mexi 
 can Gulf. It was intended as shown in the memorials of its pro 
 jector, for the subjugation of the northern provinces of New 
 Spain, to which the proposed establishment on the Mississippi, 
 was to be merely subservient, as a rendezvous for the French 
 from Europe, Canada, or St. Domingo, and the Indians from the 
 surrounding countries, by whom the conquest was to be effected : 
 and his movements, after entering the gulf, afford strong reason 
 for the belief, that he then designed, not to seek the mouth of the 
 great river, but to place his forces as near as possible to the 
 points which were to be first attacked, whensoever a change in 
 the relations between France and Spain should justify it, or per 
 haps, whensoever an opportunity should be presented for so doing, 
 with a prospect of success. In the mere establishment of the 
 French at Fort St. Louis, there was nothing which could be 
 justly termed illegal; but La Salle must have been aware that 
 this act would be considered by the Spanish Government as 
 highly criminal, and that he and his associates would become 
 the objects of the unrelenting vindictiveness of that nation, from 
 which they could only expect to escape, by dishonorable or ca 
 lamitous retreat. How far he may have relied on promises of 
 farther aid from France, we know not: there is however no evi 
 dence that expectations of that nature were entertained by him ; 
 
 * L'Archeveque and Grollet, were as already mentioned carried to Spain by 
 Don Andres de Pes, and were brought back in 1692 to Mexico, where they and 
 Breman probably passed the remainder of their lives in prison or in mines. The 
 three eldest sons of Talon, were placed on board of a Spanish ship, in which 
 they were captured by the French in 1696, and restored to their country ; of the 
 other on and the daughter, all that is known, is that they were carried to Spain 
 by one of the viceroys. With regard to those who remained among the Indians, 
 we only learn from Dumont, (Memoires sur la Louisiane,) that in 1751, an old 
 half-breed was residing in the Red river country, who declared himself to be a 
 son of Ruter ; he said that his father had lived to a great age, as a chief of one 
 of the tribes in that region, whom he had taught many arts, and particularly, 
 the use of sails in navigating the rivers. 
 
1686 ] PROJECTS OF LOUIS XIV. AT THIS PERIOD. 243 
 
 and unless they were, his conduct in exposing his helpless follow 
 ers to the certainty of suffering, if not of destruction, without any 
 probability of advantage, was either insane or highly culpable. 
 
 With regard to the conduct of the French government, in 
 abandoning these people, thus sent out under its auspices, to a 
 fate so certain and so dreadful, we are also without materials for 
 forming a judgment. Louis XIV. and his Ministers were by no 
 means indifferent to the interests of their nation in the New World ; 
 and their neglect of La Salle and his followers may in some de 
 gree, have proceeded from circumstances constituting a strong, if 
 not an imperative political necessity for such a course. The am 
 bitious monarch of France then had in view several great objects, 
 of which the principal was, to secure in his family the succession 
 to the crown of Spain, upon the decease of his brother-in-law, 
 the reigning sovereign Charles II. For this end, every effort 
 was employed to conciliate the Spanish King and his nation ; 
 and if the French Government were persuaded, on the return of 
 Beaujeu as every one else seems to have been soon afterwards 
 that La Salle proposed to subjugate the northern provinces of 
 Mexico, no aid or countenance could have been given to his 
 enterprise, without offending Spain so deeply as to endanger the 
 success of the project, for placing a Bourbon Prince on the throne 
 of that country. Such considerations may have prevented the 
 despatch of succors to the colony on the Mexican Gulf; but those 
 unfortunate people, were more probably forgotten, amid the cares 
 which oppressed the government of France at that momentous 
 period. 
 
 The magnificent Louis, had then extinguished nearly every 
 spark of civil and religious liberty throughout his dominions: one 
 thing however remained to be done, in order to render his au 
 thority absolute. A large and industrious portion of his sub 
 jects w T ere Protestants, who, though restricted and persecuted in 
 various ways, still enjoyed a certain degree of freedom of con 
 science and of worship, in virtue of some unrepealed provisions 
 of the edict for their protection, issued by Henry IV. at Nantes, 
 in 1598. On the 22d of October, 1685, this edict was entirely 
 revoked; and decrees at the same time appeared, requiring the 
 immediate submission of all persons in France, to the faith and 
 forms of the Church of Rome, under penalties the most cruel and 
 
 
244 REVOCATION OF THE EDICT OF NANTES. [1685. 
 
 revolting to humanity. A small number of the Huguenots com 
 plied with these requisitions; others fled with their families to the 
 mountains of the Cevennes, in the centre of the kingdom, where 
 they maintained their independence by their swords for several 
 years : but more than three hundred thousand \vere driven forth, 
 to die in misery, or to enrich other lands by their virtues, their 
 intelligence and their mechanical skill. Many of the exiles sought 
 refuge in the English provinces in America; and some of the 
 most distinguished families in New York, Virginia and jSouth 
 Carolina, trace their descent with pride, from those victims of 
 despotism and intolerance. 
 
 Encouraged by the fortunate results which Louis had thus ob 
 tained in France, his cousin, James II., who had succeeded Charles 
 II. on the throne of England in 1685, endeavored three years after 
 wards, to introduce the same system into his kingdom. His en 
 tire failure, his expulsion from England, and the election of his 
 son-in-law William of Orange in his place, are well known. No 
 less vain and ineffectual were the efforts of James, to bring the 
 American colonies, like New France, under the control of a 
 Governor General, unshackled by charters and legislatures : and 
 had the issue of the contest in the mother country been different, 
 the independence of those colonies would have certainly been 
 dated from 1689 instead of 1776. 
 
 Louis espoused the cause of the exiled James II. and a war 
 ensued, in which England, the United Provinces, the emperor of 
 Germany, and the king of Spain, were all soon joined in alliance 
 against France : and when the particulars of La Salle's expedi 
 tion, and the fate of those engaged in it, became known in Eu 
 rope, the public mind was too much engrossed by victories, de 
 feats and negotiations, to pay any attention to matters of so little 
 comparative moment, as those concerning a few vagabonds, un 
 der an unknown leader, rambling and perishing in a country of 
 which no one had any distinct idea.* 
 
 * The first accounts of these circumstances, were brought to Europe by Cave- 
 lier, Joutel and Father Anastase, in 1688; but very little was known of them, 
 previous to the publication of the " Premiere Etablissement de la Foy dans la 
 Nouvelle France," by Father Chrestien Le Clercq, of which a particular notice 
 has been already given. 
 
1689.] CHARACTER OF LA SALLE. 245 
 
 The melancholy circumstances that attend the death of the 
 Sieur de La Salle have enlisted the sympathies of all in his 
 behalf; and biographers and historians have vied with each 
 other, in endeavoring to place his character in the most favora 
 ble point of view, and to enhance the importance of his 
 services in the exploration and settlement of the Mississippi 
 regions and those adjacent on the south-west. Yet, if the ac 
 counts above presented be correct, little will be found worthy of 
 admiration, either in the constitution of his mind, as shown by 
 his conduct, or in his objects, so far as they have been brought to 
 light. Courage and perseverance he certainly possessed, but these 
 qualities were neutralized by an overweening confidence in his own 
 judgment and capacity, leading him not only to treat with indiffer 
 ence and disdain the opinions of others on all points, but also to re 
 ject or neglect those precautions, the proper estimation and use of 
 which are essential to success in all enterprises. He seems, indeed, 
 never to have clearly defined his own intentions; it is otherwise dif 
 ficult to account for the singular want of adaptation of his means to 
 the end apparently in view, or to any others of a reasonable nature. 
 In his expeditions from Canada to the Mississippi, his forces were 
 greater on each occasion than could have been required for mere 
 exploration, while they were wholly insufficient for any purpose of 
 occupation; and his last enterprise was undertaken with means 
 in every respect inadequate to carry out the simplest preliminary 
 measures proposed by him to his government, much less to effect 
 the grand objects of conquest and commercial communication, 
 towards which his mind seems to have been wildly directed. 
 
 These considerations appear to authorize doubts as to the 
 propriety of assigning to La Salle, at the present day, a posi 
 tion in American history, which he certainly did not enjoy 
 among his cotemporaries ; and which nothing that has been 
 since learned of his character, objects, or acts, is calculated 
 to strengthen. On the other hand, it must be admitted that he 
 possessed in a high degree the virtues of benevolence and 
 generosity, so rarely found combined with ambition and self- 
 confidence ; and upon the whole, he deserves to be regard 
 ed among the good, rather than among the great men, who 
 have employed their energies in the discovery and settlement of 
 the New World. 
 
CHAPTER VIII 
 
 1690 TO 1712. 
 
 WAR IN EUROPE ENDED BY THE TREATY OF RYSWICK FOUN 
 DATION OF PENSACOLA SETTLEMENT OF THE FRENCH UN 
 DER IBERVILLE AND BIENVILLE ON THE NORTHERN SIDE OF 
 THE MEXICAN GULF, NEAR THE MOUTH OF THE MISSISSIPPI 
 FOUNDATION OF BILOXY AND MOBILE WAR OF THE 
 SPANISH SUCCESSION, INVOLVING THE ENGLISH, FRENCH 
 AND SPANISH COLONIES IN AMERICA HOSTILITIES IN 
 FLORIDA. 
 
 WE now approach the period, when settlements of a permanent 
 character were made in the countries bordering upon the northern 
 sides of the Mexican Gulf; and that portion of America began, 
 in consequence, to attract the attention of the great European 
 nations which already held dominion in the New World. 
 
 The war begun in 1689, between France and England, soon 
 involved their colonies in America, notwithstanding the provision 
 in the treaty, concluded three years previous, that those countries 
 should remain neutral in the event of a rupture of the peace. 
 Indeed, at the very time when that treaty was signed, a party of 
 French from Canada took forcible possession of several English 
 establishments on Hudson's Bay ; and before the declaration of 
 the war, Count de Frontenac had been restored to his position as 
 Governor General of New France, with orders to invade and 
 conquer New York, of which M. de Callieres had actually been 
 appointed the Governor. 
 
 This latter project was entirely defeated, by the unexpected 
 irruption of the Iroquois into Canada, where they burnt Montreal, 
 and put to death nearly all its inhabitants in August, 1689 ; and 
 the armament under Frontenac, then entering the St. Lawrence, 
 was wasted away in efforts to retrieve the losses consequent upon 
 
1690.] WAR BETWEEN THE FRENCH AND ENGLISH. 247 
 
 that misadventure. The great naval expedition of the English 
 against Quebec, in the following year, proved equally ineffective; 
 the attack on that city was unsuccessful, and the whole fleet 
 under Phipps was lost or dispersed by storms in the St. Law 
 rence. Acadie was conquered by the people of New England ; 
 but it was soon regained by the French, who moreover obtained 
 possession of Newfoundland, and the whole of the Hudson's 
 Bay countries, which they held until the conclusion of the war. 
 
 The other events of this contest in America were of little im 
 portance. Fortunately for the English and French colonies, ob 
 stacles nearly insuperable, prevented them from doing much in 
 jury to each other. The settlements of the two nations were 
 separated by wide tracts of territory, covered by forests, and in 
 habited by warlike Indians, who hated both parties as intruders, 
 and whom it was indispensable for either to conciliate, ere any 
 hostile movement could be commenced against the other; and as 
 provisions sufficient for large bodies of men, on a long march, 
 could neither be carried nor be obtained on the way, these expe 
 ditions were generally on a very small scale, and seldom led to re 
 sults more material than the destruction of some frontier post or 
 settlement. 
 
 The enmity of the Troquois to the French, encouraged in 
 every way by the English traders, caused many and long 
 interruptions of intercourse between the St. Lawrence coun 
 tries and those of the Upper Lakes. La Motte Cadillac at 
 Mackinac, and Tonty at Fort St. Louis on the Illinois, aided by the 
 Jesuits, who had returned to those regions, however, succeeded 
 in maintaining their positions; and after some rude combats w~ith 
 the natives, the predominance of the French was finally estab 
 lished. A number of Canadians were at the same time engaged 
 in trade in that part of America, one of whom, M. le Sueur, dis 
 covered the rich mines of copper and lead, which now give so 
 much importance to the countries about Lake Michigan, in addi 
 tion to their agricultural advantages ; and a hardy class of men, 
 called coureurs de bois, were growing up, composed chiefly of 
 half-breeds, the offspring of Frenchmen and Indian women, who, 
 subsequently, proved very useful in the exploration and settlement 
 of the Mississippi regions. 
 
 Thus the French and English colonies, on the whole, suffered 
 
245 CAROLINA HARRASSED BY INDIANS. [1690. 
 
 little by the war; and those of the latter nation, south of New 
 York, scarcely felt any inconvenience from it. The settlements 
 in Carolina, however, began already to be annoyed by the In 
 dians in their vicinity, particularly by the Catawbas, and the 
 Cherokees of the upper country, of whom the latter were, no 
 doubt, the same people, called Chalaque, in the accounts of the 
 expedition of Soto. The Yamassees, inhabiting the coasts and 
 islands between Charleston and St. Augustine, had been also, at 
 first, inimical to the English, against whom every means was em 
 ployed by the Spaniards, to excite the hostility of the Indians; 
 but in 1686, Cabrera the Governor of Florida, having seized and 
 put to death one of the principal Yamassee chiefs, named Nico- 
 satly, those savages rose in a body in the following year, and de 
 stroyed all the Spanish settlements and forts north of the river 
 San Matheo; after which they remained for flirty years the firm 
 friends of the English. With the great confederacy of the Mus- 
 coghees, afterwards called Creeks, who extended from the upper 
 waters of the Savannah and the Alatamaha westward to those of 
 the Alabama, the people of Carolina soon formed relations of 
 commerce and friendship, which the Spaniards were unable to 
 break, as they could offer the Indians neither presents, nor trade, 
 nor protection in return. 
 
 Spain joined the coalition against France in 1690, and she, in 
 consequence suffered many calamities in the West Indies, where 
 the war was conducted with much determination on all sides. 
 Soon after the commencement of the hostilities in that quarter, 
 Don Andres de Pes arrived at Madrid, whither he had been dis 
 patched by the Viceroy of Mexico, to solicit authority for the es 
 tablishment of forts and colonies in the territories north of the 
 Rio Bravo ; and after much delay, he at length obtained orders to 
 that effect, on the condition, however, that the remittances from 
 Mexico to the mother country should not suffer any diminution 
 in consequence. The Viceroy, thus limited, could only take pre 
 paratory measures, in the hope that they might be followed by 
 others more efficient; and with that object he commissioned Don 
 Domingo Teran de los Rios, to examine the interior of the ter 
 ritories above mentioned, and select proper spots for settlements, 
 whilst two vessels should survey the coast northward from 
 Panuco, in search of a position for a naval establishment. 
 
1691.] EXPEDITION OF TERAN TO TEXAS. 249 
 
 The vessels under Captain Martinez, quitted Vera Cruz in the 
 spring of 1691, and examining the coasts on their way, they 
 reached the Bay of St. Louis or San Bernardo, where they lay 
 until the arrival of the land forces. Teran departed from Coa- 
 huila, in May of the same year, with a large party of soldiers and 
 priests, and following the route of Alonzo de Leon he crossed 
 the Nueces early in June. Thence he continued his march clue 
 north to the Medina, and passing it he discovered immediately 
 beyond, a rich and beautiful valley, traversed by a crystal stream, 
 bursting from the side of a hill, to which he gave the name of 
 San Antonio, in honor of that saint, on whose day, June 13, it 
 was first seen. Having spent some time in examining this place, 
 where he found all that could be required for an interior settle 
 ment, he continued his progress towards the north-east; and 
 crossing, in succession, the rivers named by Alonzo de Leon, the 
 Guadalupe, the San Marcos, (now the Colorado,) the Colorado, 
 ^now the Brazos) and the Trinity, he, in August, arrived at the 
 missions of the Cenis country, which were in a prosperous con 
 dition. There he spent some weeks in exploring; but his men 
 were seized with fevers, and his provisions being insufficient, he 
 removed his quarters southward to the Bay of San Bernardo, 
 where he obtained supplies from the vessels, and was thus ena 
 bled to return to the north. In December he reached the river of 
 the Cadodakios, (now the Red river,) where a council of officers 
 and priests was called to determine whether or not they should at 
 tempt to descend the stream to its mouth : and it being resolved 
 that this could not be done without great hazard, the whole party 
 marched back to the Cenis country. Disputes then took place 
 between the commandant and the missionaries, in consequence 
 of which the latter refused to remain longer in that region ; and the 
 Spaniards, repaired, accordingly to the Bay of San Bernardo, where 
 they all embarked for Vera Cruz, in the latter part of March, 1692.* 
 
 This expedition was to have been followed by the immediate 
 establishment of Spanish colonies in Texas, for which the 
 Count de Galve began preparations, on a scale as extended as his 
 means would allow, in virtue of farther authorization received 
 
 * The concise account here presented, embraces all that is worthy of note in 
 the voluminous journal of the expedition of Teran, of which a copy in manu 
 script is now before the author of this history. 
 
 32 
 
250 FOUNDATION OF PENSACOLA. [1693. 
 
 from Madrid. A formidable insurrection, however, at that mo 
 ment broke out among the Indians in the City of Mexico and its 
 vicinity, in the course of which the palace and other public build 
 ings were destroyed; and considerable expenses being more 
 over rendered necessary for the re-conquest of New Mexico, 
 where the Spanish dominion had been, as already said, entirely 
 overthrown by the natives in 1689, the execution of the projects 
 above mentioned, was in consequence, deferred. 
 
 In the meantime the Spanish government had resolved to 
 abandon St. Augustine, and to transfer all the materials and gar 
 risons to the northern side of the Mexican Gulf. Apprehensions, 
 however, arising, that the English might seize on the places thus 
 relinquished, it was considered more prudent to retain them, 
 though the occupation of the countries farther west was to be 
 carried into effect; and orders were accordingly sent to the Vice 
 roy of Mexico, to form a naval establishment, and colony in 
 the Bay of Santa Maria, or Achusi,* of which the most favorable 
 descriptions were found, in the documents connected with the ex 
 pedition of Tristan de Luna y Arellano in 1560. 
 
 The superintendence of these operations was committed to 
 Don Andres de Pes, who, immediately proceeded to Mexico, car 
 rying back with him the two French prisoners, Larcheveque and 
 Grollet. The disturbances in that country had been soon quelled, 
 though great devastation was committed in the capital and its 
 environs ; and Pes, after a short time employed in preparations, 
 sailed in March 1693, with a frigate and a schooner carrying sol 
 diers, workmen, priests and materials for the Bay of Santa Maria. 
 He reached that place on the 4th of April, and rinding it, on ex 
 amination, well worthy of the commendations bestowed on it by 
 Arellano, he began a fort on the western side of the entrance, 
 which was called the Castle of San Carlos in honor of the king. 
 The name given to the bay by Arellano, was too sacred to be 
 changed; but the title of the Viceroy was appended to it, and in 
 subsequent Spanish histories and documents, it is usually termed 
 the Bay of Santa Maria de Galve. It is an extensive sheet of 
 water joining the Gulf on its north-eastern side, in latitude of 
 30 degrees 21 minutes, and thence stretching by two arms north- 
 
 * Achusi was probably Hatchusee or Hutchusee, meaning a Little river, in 
 the language of the aborigines of that part of America. 
 
1693.] PEACE OF KYSWICK. 251 
 
 ward to the distance of more than twenty miles; it admits large 
 vessels of war, to which secure anchorage is afforded, and on the 
 whole it presents advantages for a naval station superior to any 
 other place in the Gulf, except Havanna. The Spaniards appre 
 ciating these advantages, endeavored to secure them, by increas 
 ing the fortifications, and by the settlement of a town on the 
 western side of the bay, which was called Panzacola or Pensa- 
 cola, from the Panshacoola* Indians inhabiting the adjacent 
 country ; but there, as at St. Augustine, every thing was done 
 in so languid and inefficient a manner, that the occupation was 
 for a long period merely nominal. 
 
 Whether the Spaniards at that time held any other points on 
 the northern shore of the Mexican Gulf, is uncertain. It is proba 
 ble that they had some small forts and missions on the Bay of 
 Apalache and in the adjoining country; though none of them are 
 mentioned, in the very particular accounts which have been pre 
 served of the proceedings of that nation in Florida, at the period 
 in question. The expenses of the establishment on the Bay of 
 Santa Maria, were such as to prevent any further attempts from 
 being made for the extension of the Spanish dominion north of 
 the Rio Bravo; and those countries remained unoccupied for 
 twenty-three years longer, during which interval, they were visit 
 ed only by a few missionaries and vagabonds from Mexico. 
 
 The war in Europe was, meanwhile, conducted on a scale of 
 grandeur and desolation worthy of the powerful sovereigns en 
 gaged in it; yet, at the end of seven years, they all remained 
 nearly in the same relative positions as at the commencement. 
 Negotiations were then begun, and in September, 1697, various 
 treaties of peace were concluded between the belligerants, atRys- 
 wick, in Holland. William of Orange was recognised as sover 
 eign of England and its dependencies, by Louis XIV., who en 
 gaged, never in any way, directly or indirectly, to aid the ene 
 mies of the former prince. With regard to America, it was 
 agreed between France and England, that all territories taken by 
 either nation from the other, since the declaration of the war, 
 should be restored, including even the posts on Hudson's Bay, 
 which had been captured by the French during peace, and though 
 
 * Pansh-acoola meant Hairy-people ; being compounded of Panshe, Hair, and 
 Acoola, or Agoola, or Ookla, as variously pronounced, signifying a Nation. 
 
252 TREATIES OF RYSWICK. [1697. 
 
 recaptured by the English, were to be given up to France ; and 
 that commissioners should be appointed by each power, to ascer 
 tain the true limits of their co-terminous possessions, and to re 
 commend such exchanges as might be advantageous to both. 
 By the treaty between France and Spain, all places taken by 
 either party from the other were, in like manner to be restored, 
 with certain exceptions specially mentioned, none of them, how 
 ever, relating to the New World. It is stated by some historians,* 
 that, on this occasion, Spain formally surrendered to France all 
 her claims to the western part of Hispaniola or St. Domingo ; 
 but this is incorrect, though, the surrender might be clearly in 
 ferred from the silence of the treaty on that point, particularly as 
 the country was not again directly claimed by Spain. 
 
 The stipulation in the treaty between France and England for the 
 determination of the boundaries in America was, no doubt, merely 
 a diplomatic expedient, to defer the discussion of questions, which 
 were not considered immediately important, but on which neither 
 party was willing to make any concession of its claims ; and each 
 remained at liberty, to employ such measures as it might judge 
 necessary, to enlarge its own dominions, until another war should 
 put an end to the existing arrangement. Commissioners were 
 appointed according to the treaty, but they could agree upon 
 nothing : the French insisted that Acadie embraced the whole 
 country east of the Kennebeck, while the English claimed all 
 west of the St. Croix as belonging to New England, alleging 
 that Acadie was neither more nor less than their province of Nova 
 Scotia, of which that river was the western boundary ; and each 
 nation wished to exclude the other from the whole Iroquois re 
 gion. Under such circumstances, all compromise was impracti 
 cable, and the questions remained unsettled. 
 
 No attention had been given by the French, or English govern 
 ments, to the countries of the lower Mississippi, whilst the war 
 was in progress ; the efforts of each party being then directed 
 especially to the acquisition of the regions on the southern sides 
 of the St. Lawrence and Lake Ontario, which were considered 
 far more important. Tonty was suffered to remain with a small 
 garrison in the Illinois, where he rendered great services, as al- 
 
 * Burke, in his account of the European settlements in America, Part V. 
 
1697.] NEW WORKS OF FRIAR HENNEPIN. 253 
 
 ready shown, by counteracting the influence of the English; and 
 some Jesuits were engaged in establishing missions in those coun 
 tries, of which the earliest seems to have been that of St. Joseph, 
 founded by Father Allouez, about the year 1695, among the Pota- 
 watamies on the Miami, or St. Joseph's river, emptying into the 
 south-east part of Lake Michigan. These were the only Euro 
 pean establishments of any kind in the whole division of the con 
 tinent, traversed by streams entering the Mexican Gulf, between 
 Pensacola and the valley of the Rio Bravo ; the English traders 
 had, probably, penetrated westward from Carolina and Virginia 
 to the Mississippi,* though no positive accounts have been pre 
 served of any of their expeditions. 
 
 Immediately after the restoration of peace, the attention of the 
 public in Europe was again directed towards the Mississippi and 
 its territories, by several works, especially by those from the pen 
 of Friar Hennepin,f who had resided, for several years previous, in 
 exile and obscurity in Holland. In these works, the Friar pro 
 fessed to describe the whole interior division of North America, 
 from personal observation : assuming to himself the merit of the 
 first discovery of the Mississippi, from its head waters to the Gulf, 
 during the summer of 1680, when he w r as sent by La Salle to ex 
 amine the upper portion ; and setting aside entirely the claims of 
 Joliet and Marquette, as founded on false statements, and those 
 of La Salle as posterior in date to his own. Hennepin moreover 
 
 * Mitchell in his Map of North America, published at London in 1755, pre 
 sents a line extending from the Savannah, westward, to the Mississippi, as the 
 route of Colonel Welch in 1698. 
 
 f The first of these works was entitled "Nouvelle decouverte d'un tres grand 
 pays situ dans 1'Amerique," published at Amsterdam in 1697, and in English 
 in the following year at London, under the name of " A New Discovery of 
 a Vast Country in America." This is a second version of Hennepin's first 
 work published in 1683, as already mentioned (page 197,) containing his real 
 adventures and discoveries on the Upper Mississippi in 1680, with the interpo 
 lation of false accounts of his pretended voyage down that river to its mouth, 
 in the same year. The particulars of the latter portions are gathered from 
 Le Clercq, and are introduced in so bungling a manner, as to lead to the suspi 
 cion, that the author's mind must have been disordered when he wrote them. 
 
 Hennepin's last work, which he calls his third volume, entitled "Continuation 
 de la Nouvelle decouverte," published at Utrecht in 1698, and in England, as a 
 " Continuation of the New Discovery of a Vast Country in America," contains 
 an account of La Salle's expedition to the Mexican Gulf, derived from Tonty 
 and Le Clercq, with descriptions of the manners and customs of the Indians. 
 
254 DR. COXE AND CAROLANA. [1698. 
 
 asserted, that he had been assured of the existence of a direct and 
 easy route from the Mississippi to the Pacific; and he declared 
 his readiness to conduct an expedition thither for the King of 
 England, to whom he had dedicated his works, and for whom he 
 professed the utmost attachment and respect. The innumerable 
 and evident falsehoods and contradictions, with which these books 
 abound, though intermingled with much that is curious and inter 
 esting, should have prevented any reliance from being placed in 
 the declarations and promises of the author: they, however, 
 attracted much notice, especially in England, where translations 
 were immediately published ; and they led to the revival of an 
 old pretension on the part of that nation, while they also had 
 some effect, in producing the measures adopted at the same time 
 by the French, with regard to the Mississippi regions. 
 
 It has been already mentioned, that King Charles I. of England, 
 granted in 1629, to Sir Robert Heath, the w r hole division of North 
 America, extending from the Atlantic to the Pacific, between the 
 31st and the 36th parallels of latitude, under the name of the 
 Province of Carolana; and that this patent having become void, 
 from non-fulfilment of the conditions, the same countries were, 
 subsequently, conceded to other persons, who established in 
 them the province of Carolina. Dr. Daniel Coxe, an eminent 
 physician of London, however, many years afterwards, obtained 
 possession of the patent to Heath; and considering the rights 
 thus con^yed as still valid, at least with regard to the territories 
 west of those actually occupied by the proprietors of Carolina, 
 he, with the assent of the government, fitted out three vessels at 
 his own expense, which he dispatched from London in 1698, pro 
 vided with all that was required to form a settlement at the mouth 
 of the Mississippi, These vessels sailed for Charleston, where 
 two of them, having taken on board a number of refugee French 
 Protestants as colonists, proceeded to the Mexican Gulf, in 
 search of the Mississippi; but ere they reached that river, the 
 French had already made an establishment in its vicinity, of 
 which an account will be first presented. 
 
 In France, the project of occupying a position on the Mexican 
 Gulf, appears to have been revived by the representations of 
 the Conde de Penalosa, a discontented Spaniard, who is errone 
 ously termed, in the accounts of that period, an ex-viceroy of 
 
1698.] COMMISSION GRANTED TO M. D'lBERVILLE. 55 
 
 Mexico. This person produced a map and a memoir, tending to 
 show, that great facilities would be offered for trade with the 
 northern provinces of Mexico, and even with the Pacific, by the 
 foundation of a French settlement near the mouth of the Mis 
 sissippi; and as the colony of St. Domingo was then beginning 
 to prosper, by the cultivation of sugar, it was conceived that such 
 a settlement might prove advantageous, by supplying that island 
 as well as the mother country with many articles of which they 
 were in want, or which might prove advantageous to their com 
 merce. A commission was accordingly granted, on his urgent 
 request, to Pierre Lemoine d'Iberville,* a Canadian by birth, and 
 a captain in the French navy, who had distinguished himself 
 greatly by his skill and gallantry during the late war, authori 
 sing him to plant colonies, and to maintain garrisons, at the ex 
 pense of the king, for the preservation of the French dominion, 
 over the countries claimed and occupied by M. de la Salle, ex 
 tending on the Gulf of Mexico between Carolina on the east, and 
 Old and New Mexico on the west to establish factories for 
 trade with the natives in furs, skins and other articles, and par 
 ticularly, to seek for mines and places where pearls or precious 
 stones might be obtained. f 
 
 * The important parts borne by Iberville and his brothers, in the settlement of 
 Louisiana, renders some account of their family interesting, if not necessary, in 
 a history of that country. 
 
 The founder of this Canadian family was Jacques Lemoine, the son of an inn 
 keeper of Dieppe, who came to Canada in 1640, while a youth, in the'*3rvice of 
 the Jesuits, and there acquired a large fortune by his skill and industry as a 
 trader. He died in 1685, leaving many sons, each of whom, according to usage, 
 bore the title of one of the estates of the family. Of these sons, three, Messrs. 
 de Mericourt, St. Helene and Bienville were killed in battle near Quebec, when 
 Canada was invaded by the English in 1690. M. d'Iberville, another son, dis 
 tinguished himself, particularly in the capture of the English establishments on 
 Hudson's Bay and Newfoundland, and in the expedition led by him in 1690, 
 against the English settlements on the Mohawk, where he destroyed Schenectady. 
 Of Iberville's subsequent career, much will be said, but more of that of his 
 brother, Bienville, (the second of that name,) to whom the French colony 
 in Louisiana in fact owed its subsistence, during the hard trials of its infancy. 
 The eldest son of the family was ennobled by Louis XIV., who bestowed on him 
 the title of Baron de Longueil ; his descendants in the female line, composing 
 the families of Grant and Montenach, of Montreal, are believed to be the only 
 living representatives of the many children of Jacques Lemoine of Dieppe. 
 
 f See the preamble to the charter granted, in 1712, by Louis XIV. to Crozat, 
 of which a translation will be found among the Proofs and Illustrations, in the 
 latter part of this volume, under the letter F. 
 
256 EARLY HISTORIES OF LOUISIANA. [1698. 
 
 In order to carry these objects into effect,* Iberville was fur 
 nished in the first instance, with two armed vessels, commanded 
 respectively, by himself, and M. de Surgere, and two small schoon- 
 
 * The principal authorities with regard to the early proceedings of the French 
 in the settlement of Louisiana are the following : 
 
 " Journal Historique de la Louisiane," a history of Louisiana, in the form of 
 a journal, by Bernard de la Harpe, a French officer, who served in Louisiana 
 from 1718 to 1723, and during that period compiled these accounts from private 
 journals, the registers of the colony, and his own notes. Notwithstanding its nu 
 merous inaccuracies, respecting events occurring in other countries, and at other 
 times, it is of inestimable value, as being the only original evidence of the 
 greater part of the circumstances, connected with the first establishment of the 
 French in the Mississippi regions. The " Histoire de la Nouvelle France," a 
 history of the French possessions in North America from their first occupation 
 to the year 1740, by the Jesuit Father Charlevoix, has been already mentioned : 
 the last volume contains a sketch of the history of Louisiana, which like other 
 parts of the work, when compared with the authorities, is calculated to convey 
 a higher idea of the sagacity and ingenuity of the author, than of his good faith 
 as a historian. The " Memoires sur la Louisiane," a general description and 
 history of Louisiana, compiled by the Abb le Mascrier, from the papers of Lieu 
 tenant Dumont, a French officer, who had served many years in that country, 
 and published in 1753, bears the impress of truth, in all that relates to the author's 
 own experience and observation. The " Histoire de la Louisiane," by Le Page 
 Dupratz, is well known, having been translated into English and other languages. 
 The author resided in Louisiana for several years, as a manager of estates, and 
 his evidence, like that of Dumont, is valuable, so far as he confines himself to 
 what he saw ; he was, however, ambitious to produce effect, and was thus led 
 to embroider his narrative, by striking details and observations which detract 
 from its value. The " Histoire de la Louisiane," recently published at New 
 Orleans by C. Gayarrd, an eminent citizen of Louisiana, is very valuable from 
 the documents contained in it, copied from the originals in the archives of the 
 French government. 
 
 The particulars respecting the history, language, manners, &c. of the Indian 
 nations, are derived from various sources, in addition to those above mentioned, 
 among which are " Travels through South Carolina, Georgia and Florida," in 
 1774-'5, by William Bartram, a Quaker Naturalist " The Natural History of 
 Florida," by Bernard Romans " The History of the Indian Nations of America,'' 
 by James Adair, for many years a trader in the Creek, Chickasa and Chocta 
 countries The "Journal and Memoir of Col. Benjamin Hawkins," well known 
 as an agent of the United States, among the Southern Indians, which still re 
 mains unpublished, in the possession of Peter Force, Esq. of Washington city 
 The " Synopsis of the Aboriginal Tribes of North America," by the Hon. Al 
 bert Gallatin, in the second volume of the Transactions of the American Anti 
 quarian Society, &,c. The author has, moreover, obtained much curious infor 
 mation, from Choctas, Chickasas, Creeks, and other members of the great nations 
 here so often mentioned ; and he acknowledges his obligations, in this respect, 
 to Colonel Pitchlynn, a Chocta gentleman of intelligence and education, who 
 has devoted himself to the study of the language and antiquities of his race. 
 
1698.] VOYAGE OF IBERVILLE TO LOUISIANA. 257 
 
 ers, carrying together about thirty persons, in addition to their 
 crews, with a moderate supply of provisions, ammunition, and 
 other articles. Among the volunteers, were M. de Sauvolle who 
 was appointed second in command, M. de Bienville, a younger 
 brother of Iberville, then a lieutenant in the French navy, and not 
 more than twenty years old,* and Father Anastase de Douay the 
 Recollet, who after surviving the dangers and difficulties of La 
 Salle's last expedition, had been induced again to quit his cloister, 
 in order to aid the enterprise by his councils and the fruits of his 
 observation. The little squadron sailed from Rochefort, on the 
 24th of September, 1698, and on the 4th of December reached 
 Cape Fran jais in St. Domingo. There several recruits were ob 
 tained, among whom were Laurent de Grave, the celebrated bu- 
 canier, so much dreaded by the Spaniards, on account of. his 
 capture of Vera Cruz, in 1683, with others of the same stamp, 
 engaged as pilots ; and being, moreover, joined by a frigate un 
 der the Marquis de Chateaumorand, they entered the Mexican 
 Gulf in the beginning of the year 1699. 
 
 Taking their course towards the northwest, the French vessels, 
 on the 21st of January, reached the entrance of a bay on the 
 northern side of the Mexican Gulf; and on steering towards it, 
 they saw, to their surprise and mortification, several Spanish ves 
 sels, at anchor within, and a fort on the shore, under the flag of 
 that nation. A boat soon came off, bearing an officer, who ten 
 dered to Iberville, the compliments of the Governor Don Andres 
 de Arriola, and informed him that the place, which was the Bay 
 of Santa Maria de Galve, or Pensacola, had been, for some time 
 occupied by the forces of His Catholic Majesty. Under these 
 circumstances, the French could only continue their voyage to 
 wards the west; and on the 31st of the month, they anchored 
 near an island, to which the name' of He de Massacre,f or Massa 
 cre island, was given, from the quantity of human bones scattered 
 upon it. Farther on they found a convenient anchorage, between 
 
 * From the records of the family of Lemoine at Montreal, it appears that M. 
 Pierre d'Tberville was born April 16th, 1659, and M. Jean Baptiste de Bienville, 
 on the 23d of February, 1680. 
 
 f The He de Massacre was afterwards named Dauphine Island, and then com 
 prised the two islands, now called Massacre and Dauphine, which were sepa 
 rated by an invasion of the sea in 1717, as hereafter related. 
 
 33 
 
258 IBERVILLE ENTERS THE MISSISSIPPI. [1699. 
 
 an island named by them He au Vaisseau, or Ship Island, and 
 the mainland, to which they removed on the 2d of February. A 
 group of small islands, seen by them, in the south, received the 
 appellation of les Chandeleurs, from their discovery on Candle 
 mas day; and the small sandy strips of Horn island, Cat island, 
 and Dog island, were also observed and named about the same 
 period. 
 
 Iberville had endeavored, before leaving France, to collect all 
 the information relative to these countries, and particularly as to 
 the position of the mouth of the Mississippi, which, according 
 to the maps published during the latter years of that century, lay 
 at the north-western extremity of the Mexican Gulf, near the ac 
 tual situation of the entrance to Galveston Bay. He had, however, 
 been convinced by the celebrated geographer Delisle, that the 
 great river discharged its waters much farther east ; and this 
 opinion appearing to be confirmed, by what he was able to ex 
 tract from some natives of the coast, near Ship island, he quitted 
 that place on the 27th of February, with two shallops, accompa 
 nied by Bienville and Father Anastase, in search of the Mississippi. 
 
 Following the coast towards the south-west, they, on the 2d 
 of March, discovered and entered an opening, which, from the 
 force of the current rushing through it, they conceived to be 
 one of the mouths of the Mississippi.* This supposition was 
 strengthened, when advancing up the stream, they observed other 
 outlets ; and farther on, the turbid waters w r ere seen rolling down 
 in a mass, and with a force, which could only belong to one of the 
 greatest of rivers. Laboring upwards, they met numerous par 
 ties of natives on the shore, and in canoes ; and landing at 
 a deserted village, they found in a cabin, some, papers, one 
 of which proved to be a letter addressed by Tonty to La Salle, 
 and left with the savages, in 1686. Communications were 
 soon established with these Indians, who called themselves 
 Mongoulachas; but it was discovered that they had another 
 
 * See the letter addressed in 1700, by the French geographer Delisle, to the 
 .Astronomer Cassini, respecting the position of the mouth of the Mississippi, of 
 which a translation may be found in the " History of the works of the learned," 
 vol. 2, page 276. This paper is devoted chiefly to an examination of a manu 
 script map of Mexico, and the adjacent countries, sent to the Royal Academy of 
 Paris, by the Duke of Escalona, as compared with the information relative to the 
 position of the mouth of the Mississippi, obtained by La Salle, Iberville and others 
 
1699.] IBERVILLE ASCENDS THE MISSISSIPPI. 259 
 
 name Colapissas or Acoola-pissas meaning People who see ;* 
 and it was afterwards rendered certain, that they were the 
 same mentioned in the account of La SahVs expedition, as the 
 Quinipissas, who had exhibited so much hostility to the French 
 on that occasion. Several other small tribes were also visited, 
 among whom were the Bayagoulas, occupying the country about 
 the site of New Orleans, and the Ouachas or Washas, on the op 
 posite side of the great river : beyond these were the Houmas, or 
 Red men, separated from the Bayagoulas by a small rivulet, in 
 which several red stakes were planted, as land-marks; and the 
 place was, in consequence, named Baton Rouge. f 
 
 At length, after eighteen days of laborious navigation up the 
 Mississippi, Iberville and his companions reached one of its great 
 circumvolutions, probably" the same now known as the Tunica 
 Bend, from the Tunica Indians^ dwelling on its banks, not far 
 from the mouth of Red river; and being satisfied with the results 
 of their exploration, they began to retrace their course. While 
 on the w r ay, they were assured by a Bayagoula chief, that a 
 small passage, opening from the Mississippi on the east, commu 
 nicated with another stream, and through it, and some lakes, 
 with the sea; and placing confidence in the account, Iberville di 
 rected his brother to return with the shallops, by the river, to 
 Ship island, while he himself, with a few men, and their guides, 
 should explore the other route in canoes. They accordingly 
 parted at the mouth of the passage, which was called Manchac 
 by the natives ; and Iberville was soon carried by the current into 
 a small stream, and down it into a small lake, communicating on 
 the other side, with another and much larger lake, from which he 
 entered the Gulf, about twelve leagues west of Ship island, on 
 the 1st of April. To the larger of the two lakes thus discovered, 
 he gave the name of Pontchartrain, and to the other that of Mau- 
 repas, in honor of the Ministers of Marine and of Foreign Affairs 
 of France ; the small stream falling into Lake Maurepas, which 
 
 *The Mongoulachas may have .been the Muglashas, a tribe of Choctas, occu 
 pying the country between the Pearl river and Lake Pontchartrain. 
 
 f Such is the origin of the name according to La Harpe : others, however, say 
 that it was suggested by a very large red cypress tree, found growing at the 
 place, on beholding which, one of the men cried out, " Quel beau baton rouge !" 
 " What a fine red stick there is !" 
 
 J The word Tunica signifies a Pillar or Post in the Chocta language. 
 
260 FIRST FRENCH SETTLEMENT AT BILOXY. [1699, 
 
 received the waters of the Mississippi through the outlet of Man- 
 chac, has ever since been known as the Iberville. 
 
 The observations made by Iberville, on the depth of water at 
 the mouth of the Mississippi and the rapidity of the current 
 within, induced him to conclude, that it would not admit large 
 vessels, and that the ascent of such as could enter it, would be 
 difficult and dangerous ; the passage explored by him on his 
 return, was navigable only by boats, for which it however offered 
 a safe and easy access, from the coast to the river. These cir 
 cumstances were calculated to lower his expectations of advan 
 tage from the trade and settlement of the interior ; and he aban 
 doned the idea of an immediate establishment on the Mississippi : 
 but he also had in view the commerce with the Spanish Pro 
 vinces, by which, especially, if a 'Bourbon Prince should be 
 placed on the throne at Madrid, a large portion of the produce 
 of the mines of Mexico might be diverted to France. For this 
 latter object a depository on the coast was indispensable, to 
 which others afterwards founded in the interior might be useful 
 accessories ; and as such a depository should be near the mouth of 
 the Mississippi, in order to guard that important point, and to 
 secure the communications by the river with Canada, he carefully 
 examined the adjacent coasts in search of a proper site. The 
 first place to which he directed his attention was a small bay, 
 near the entrance to Lake Pontchartrain, named by him Bay of 
 St. Louis ; but it proved too shallow, and he afterwards selected 
 a spot called Biloxy,* on the coast farther east, where the stores 
 and materials from the vessels were landed, and a fort and some 
 dwelling houses were immediately commenced. 
 
 Having completed his preparations at Biloxy, Iberville sailed 
 for France on the 4th of May, leaving his colony under the com 
 mand of M. de Sauvolle. His acute and active brother M. de Bi- 
 enville, though a mere youth, immediately employed himself with 
 zeal, in the examination of the surrounding coasts ; he espe 
 cially explored ftie large bay, north of Massacre island, and the 
 river emptying into its northern extremity, which the Spaniards 
 
 * More correctly Apaluxy, meaning Turtle-eaters, the name of the Chocta 
 tribe, occupying that part of the coast. The Choctas have a tradition, that the 
 Indian who first met the French at this place, was named Ullah Mingo, the Boy 
 Chief, and that he was ever after respected by the French and the natives. 
 
1699.] ENGLISH VESSEL IN THE MISSISSIPPI. 61 
 
 called Mavilla or Mabila, from the Mowilla nation of Indians, 
 dwelling upon it, and the French adopting that name, with a 
 slight variation, made it Maubile or Mobile ; and thence he ad 
 vanced across the country, as near to Pensacola as he could with 
 safety, in order to ascertain the extent and strength of the Span 
 ish establishment, taking pains to conciliate the Indians whom 
 he met on his way. 
 
 In September, Bienville proceeded to the Mississippi, through 
 Lake Pontchartrain ; and while engaged in treating with the 
 Ouacha or Washa nation of Indians, inhabiting the vicinity of a 
 small lake, at a short distance farther west, he received informa 
 tion, that a strange vessel had entered the great river. He has 
 tened to the spot where she was lying, and on reaching it he 
 found her to be an English ship, carrying sixteen guns, and com 
 manded by Captain Barr, who declared, that he had been sent by 
 his government, with another vessel then at anchor below, to seek 
 the mouth of the Mississippi and take possession of its territory. 
 As the Englishman seemed to be uncertain, whether or not he had 
 entered that river, Bienville assured him that he had not ; that the 
 Mississippi was much farther west, and that the French had taken 
 possession of the stream, in which they were then lying, and 
 erected a strong fort on it a little higher up. Captain Barr rely 
 ing on the assurances thus given to him, with every appearance 
 of good faith, by a French officer, immediately sailed down 
 the river to its mouth, and there joining the other vessel, 
 they took their departure together in the direction indicated by 
 Bienville. 
 
 These vessels were two of the three, already mentioned, as 
 having been dispatched by Dr. Coxe, for the purpose of making 
 a settlement at the mouth of the Mississippi.* A circumstance 
 connected with their appearance in that river, deserves to be re 
 lated, as showing the spirit which then prevailed in France, with 
 regard to independence in religious matters. Among the persons 
 on board, were many Huguenots who had been expelled from 
 their country on the revocation of the Edict of Nantes in 1686, 
 and had since resided in Carolina. One of their number privately 
 
 * See the curious mass of extravagances respecting the claim of Coxe and the 
 countries to which it extends, published in 1722 by his son Daniel, under the 
 name of " A Description of the English province of Carolana." 
 
262 PRUDENT CONDUCT OF BIENVILLE. [1699. 
 
 presented to Bienville a memorial, assuring him, that nearly all 
 the exiles, would willingly remove to Louisiana, and settle there 
 as subjects of France, if they could be secured in the liberty of 
 exercising their religion. Bienville sent this memorial to the gov 
 ernment at Paris ; but he received in answer a positive refusal, 
 with the declaration, " that the King had not expelled those 
 heretics from his dominions, in order that they should form a re 
 public elsewhere." Louisiana was thus deprived of a large 
 and valuable French population ; but no other answer could 
 have been expected from those who were preparing to exter 
 minate the few Protestants then dwelling in the dreary wilds of 
 the Cevennes. 
 
 Bienville's " prudent and politic conduct" on this occasion, was 
 highly commended by the French Government, and, indeed, 
 proved the foundation of his fortune. In commemoration of 
 the circumstance, the bend in the river where the English vessel 
 was found at anchor, received the name of Le Detour des An 
 glais the English Turn which it still retains ; it is twenty 
 miles below New Orleans, and eighty from the mouth of the river. 
 The English did not renew their attempt to occupy the Missis 
 sippi country, though Dr. Coxe used every exertion for many 
 years afterwards, to induce the government to send an expedi 
 tion for that purpose. King William is said to have favored the 
 design so strongly, as to have declared, that he " would leap 
 over twenty stumbling blocks to effect it ;" but he died in 1702, 
 and in the long and bloody war, which desolated Europe during 
 the ten ensuing years, Louisiana was scarcely remembered. 
 
 Biloxy, the site of the first French settlement in lower Lou 
 isiana, is a barren, sandy spot, offering no other advantages than 
 a tolerable anchorage in front of it. The people left there, were 
 soon seized with fevers, and on the return of Iberville from 
 France in December, 1699, he found them all suffering and de 
 jected. They had, however, unexpectedly received accessions 
 to their numbers, by the arrival of two Jesuits, Messrs. Mon- 
 tigny and Davion, from the Upper Mississippi, and, afterwards, of 
 the Chevalier de Tonty and his men, who had obtained leave to 
 abandon their rock fort on the Illinois, and join their countrymen 
 on the coast. Iberville brought with him a number of settlers 
 and soldiers, and supplies of necessary articles; and he was ac- 
 
1700.] IBERVILLE AGAIN EXPLORES THE MISSISSIPPI. 263 
 
 companied by several gentlemen and officers, among whom were 
 his relation M. Juchereau de St. Denis an active and adven 
 turous Canadian, and M. le Sueur the discoverer of the mines 
 on the Upper Mississippi, who had been sent out with a number 
 of men, by M. L'Huillier, a capitalist of Paris, to work a sup 
 posed mine of copper, on the St. Peter's river.* 
 
 Iberville was alarmed by the accounts of the attempt of the 
 English to establish themselves on the Mississippi ; and, in con 
 sequence, he ordered a fort to be built near the principal outlet of 
 that river, which was placed under the command of St. Denis, 
 and was afterwards called la Balize. He also determined to ex 
 amine the great stream more carefully, in order to see whether set 
 tlements might not be advantageously made on its banks ; and 
 with this view he proceeded by way of the lakes to Manchac, and 
 thence up to the Tunica Bend, where he landed and marched to 
 the principal town of the Natches Indians, situated fifty miles 
 farther north, near the spot now occupied by the city of Natchez. 
 
 Father St. Come, a Jesuit, had arrived at that place a short 
 time previous from Canada, and had ingratiated himself with the 
 people and their chiefs, so far, that the Great Sun, as the head 
 of the nation was called, with all his nobles, came forth in pro 
 cession to meet the French Commandant. Presents were ex 
 changed, and the utmost good feeling seemed to prevail on both 
 sides ; and Iberville, after examining the environs, was so much 
 struck by their advantages of soil, climate and position, that he 
 formed a plan for the establishment of a city near the chief town 
 of the Natches, which he proposed to call Rosalie, in honor of 
 the Countess de Pontchartrain. 
 
 * The adventures of Le Sueur on this expedition are related at length in La 
 Harpe's Journal. Immediately after his arrival in Louisiana, he proceeded with 
 his men up the Mississippi, and the St. Pierre, (more properly the Sans-Pierres) 
 or St. Peter's river, which joins the great stream near the 45th degree of lati 
 tude, to the entrance of the Blue river ; and there he built a fort, in which he spent 
 the winter in preparations to extract copper from a greenish earth, supposed to 
 contain a large proportion of that metal. In the spring of 1702, he, however, 
 returned to Mobile, bringing with him a quantity of this earth, which he carried 
 to France ; and he was soon after followed by his men who abandoned their fort 
 in consequence of the dangers apprehended from Indians. The analysis of the 
 earth showed it to be merely clay, slightly tinged by copper ; but the proportion 
 of that metal was so small, that it could not be extracted to advantage, and the 
 enterprise was not prosecuted farther. 
 
264 IBERVILLE VISITS THE NATCHES. [1700. 
 
 Amongst the Natches, Iberville observed the same degree of 
 refinement in many respects, accompanied by the same barbarity 
 in others, which had been remarked by La Salle twenty years 
 previous. The people supported themselves almost entirely 
 by agriculture, and they were governed according to laws and 
 customs, which seemed to be rigidly enforced; yet the utmost 
 licentiousness prevailed, and human beings were sacrificed, 
 without mercy, at the funerals of their chiefs, and on many other 
 occasions. The same character, disposition and customs, were 
 found among the Taensas, on the opposite side of the Missis 
 sippi, about fifty miles above; and the French, moreover, had an 
 opportunity of witnessing the horrible effects of superstition on 
 those savages, who, when their temple was set on fire by light 
 ning, threw a number of infants into the flames, in order to ap 
 pease the wrath of their offended gods. 
 
 After spending a few days among the Taensas, Iberville, with 
 a portion of hi4 men, returned J>y the Mississippi and the lakes 
 to Biloxy; while Bienville and St. Denis, with the others crossed 
 the country westward, to the Red river, which they reached early 
 in April, at the chief town of the Natchitoches Indians. Thence 
 they extended their observations to the Yatassi, the Adayes, the 
 Nadaco, and other nations farther distant from the Mississippi, 
 with whom they traded and made treaties of peace; and having 
 spent a month in this manner, they joined the commandant at the 
 capital of the province, in the middle of May. 
 
 During the absence of Iberville on this expedition, Arriola, the 
 commandant of Pensacola, appeared in a frigate before the French 
 establishment, with the intention of destroying it, agreeably to 
 orders received from the Viceroy of Mexico ; but finding his 
 forces unequal to the task, he contented himself with summoning 
 the people to quit the dominions of His Catholic Majesty. The 
 summons was treated with contempt by Sauvolle, whereupon, 
 the Spaniards sailed away; but a storm arose, soon after their 
 departure, in the course of which the frigate was driven on one 
 of the Chandeleur islands and lost. 
 
 Shortly after his return from the Mississippi, Iberville sailed 
 for France. The ensuing summer proved very unfortunate for 
 the colony ; more than sixty of the French, including the Com 
 mandant M. de Sauvolle died, and of the remaining one hundred 
 
1702.] FOUNDATION OF FORT LOUIS ON THE MOBILE. 265 
 
 and fifty, a large number suffered severely from fevers and from 
 want of food. No attempt had been made to cultivate the ground ; 
 and the provisions brought from France were almost exhausted, 
 before the middle of December, when Iberville arrived in a ship, 
 commanded by his brother M. de Serigny, with a fresh supply, 
 and a reinforcement of soldiers and colonists. Being con 
 vinced of the entire unfitness of Biloxy for a settlement, he 
 caused the coasts to be farther explored by Bieriville, who at 
 length. reported in favor of two places one at the eastern end of 
 Massacre island for the magazines of the colony and the other 
 on the west bank of the Mobile river, about twenty-five miles 
 above its entrance into the bay, for the principal town and seat 
 of the government : and his selections being approved, store 
 houses were erected at the former place, which received the name 
 of Dauphine island, while a town and a fort called Fort Louis 
 were commenced at the other point on the river. 
 
 These dispositions being made, Iberville again sailed for 
 France, in May, 1701 ; but he never re- visited Louisiana, which 
 remained, during the five following years, under the direction of 
 Bienville as Commandant, and their brother M. de Chateaugue as 
 Lieutenant. 
 
 The establishment of the French on the Mobile, soon brought 
 them into contact w r ith the Indian nations occupying the interior 
 regions drained by that stream. Of these nations, the principal 
 were the Choctas, an extensive confederacy of tribes, dwelling 
 on the western branch of the Mobile, then called the Chickasa 
 river and now the Tombigbee, and on the upper waters of the 
 Pearl river, entering the Gulf midway between Mobile Bay and 
 Lake Pontchartrain. Farther north, between the head waters of 
 the Chickasa, and those of the Tallahatchee or Yazoo, and of 
 the Loosa-Chitto or Big Black rivers, dwelt the Chickasas,* 
 another confederacy, less numerous than that of the Choctas, but 
 powerful from their courage and the strength of their union. 
 The upper streams of the eastern branch of the Mobile, now 
 called the Alabama were occupied by the Alibamons, the western 
 most portion of the great Muscogheef confederacy, which thence 
 extended eastward to the Savannah and the Alatamaha. These 
 
 * Correctly Shickashas, supposed to signify the First settled. 
 
 f More correctly Muscokee, the hard sound of g being unknown among them. 
 
 34 
 
266 FIRST RELATIONS OF FRENCH WITH INDIANS. [1702. 
 
 three nations were evidently of one great family, and their lan 
 guages were dialects of one common tongue. The Chickasas 
 were celebrated for their stern intrepidity, and their unbending 
 resistance to foreign rule or influence; they subsisted almost 
 entirely on the produce of the chase, for which they held almost 
 exclusive possession of the whole territory extending northward 
 to the Ohio. The Choctas no less brave, and more ferocious, 
 were noted above all other Indians, for their love of intrigue, 
 their cunning, dissimulation, covetousness, and disregard of en 
 gagements;* occupying one of the most fertile portions of Ameri 
 ca, they derived much of their support from agriculture, and they 
 presented the remarkable peculiarity, that the men labored with 
 the women in the fields. The Alibamons seem to have been less 
 stubborn than the Chickasas, more grave and honest than the 
 Choctas, and more politic than either. 
 
 The Choctas and Chickasas were the dominant powers of the 
 Lower Mississippi, and between them subsisted the most rancor 
 ous hostility. Of the smaller nations dwelling near that river, 
 the Yazoos,f the Chacchoumas, the Offagoulas, and the Natches 
 were in strict alliance with the Chickasas, while the influence 
 of the Choctas prevailed over the Tunicas, the Houmas, and the 
 others farther south. The Cherokees, inhabiting the moun 
 tainous regions about the head waters of the Tennessee, the Sa 
 vannah and the Chatta-hoochee, were too far removed from the 
 French settlements on the Gulf to have much intercourse with 
 
 * Adair in his history of the Indian nations, characterises the Choctas, as " in 
 the highest degree, of a base, ungrateful and thievish disposition ; fickle and 
 treacherous, ready-witted, and endowed Avith surprising flow of smooth or artful 
 language, on every subject, within the reach of their ideas; in each of which 
 qualities, they far exceed any other society of people. They are such great pro 
 ficients in the art of stealing, that in our store-houses, they often thieve, while 
 they are speaking to, and looking at the owner in the face." Bernard Romans is 
 more favorable to the Choctas, whom he styles a " nation of farmers, rather than 
 of savages ;" all the other evidence of the former character of these people how 
 ever corresponds with that of Adair, though the Choctas of the present day cer 
 tainly exhibit, in their new home between the Red river and the Arkansas, as 
 much honesty, sobriety and industry, and as strong a tendency to cultivation, as 
 any other of the aboriginal nations of America. 
 
 f Yazoo is properly Eyashoo, the Chocta word for the Departed, signifying their 
 secession from that confederacy: Chacchouma means a Red craw-fish, an ani 
 mal abounding in those countries ; the Offagoulas were the Dog nation ; the 
 Houmas were simply Red men. 
 
1703.] 
 
 MISSION OF TONTY TO THE CHICKASAS. 
 
 267 
 
 them for sometime ; and they were almost always at war with the 
 English in their own vicinity, in Carolina. The English had 
 however, as already said, penetrated to the Chickasas, at an ear 
 lier period, and amicable relations had been established between 
 them, to the disadvantage of the Choctas, who were beginning to 
 feel their inferiority from the want of guns and ammunition, when 
 the French made their settlement at Mobile. 
 
 Bienville was soon aware of this state of things among the 
 Indian nations, and he endeavored by every means in his power 
 to counteract the English and to establish the influence of France 
 in those countries. For such purposes no one was better qualified 
 than Tonty, from his acquaintance with the habits and modes of life 
 of the aborigines, as well as his courage and his habitual good 
 temper ; and in 1703, he undertook a mission to the Chickasas, 
 whom he induced to consent to a peace with the Choctas under 
 the guarantee of the French. In confirmation of these engage 
 ments, seventy Chickasa chiefs came to Mobile, where they were 
 met by a large number of Choctas, and the sacred calumet was 
 smoked with great ceremony ; presents were made to both parties, 
 by Bienville, and treaties were concluded between each of them 
 and the French. But the Choctas were unable to resist the tempta 
 tion to plunder and revenge offered by the return of the Chickasas 
 through their country; and the latter were all murdered, while on 
 their way up the river, though under the protection of a French 
 escort, commanded by M. de Boisbriant. From that period the 
 Chickasas became the irreconcilable foes of the French, whom 
 they regarded as accomplices in the treachery ; and their baneful 
 influence, contributed, as will be seen, more than any other cause, 
 to depress the colonies of that nation on the Mississippi. 
 
 Bienville endeavored, at the same time, to establish amicable 
 relations with the Alibamons, but there also he had been antici 
 pated by the English, and his emissaries were beaten and driven 
 away. In order to avenge this insult, Tonty and St. Denis were 
 sent in the spring of 1704, with a small party of French, and 
 some Choctas, to invade the lower towns of the Alibamons, in 
 which they were wholly unsuccessful, being surprised and obliged 
 to retreat with the loss of several men. 
 
 In these expeditions, Tonty explored the two great branches 
 of the Mobile, and obtained much information as to the geo- 
 
268 DEATH OF TONTY. [1704. 
 
 graphy of that part of America, of which he seems to have com 
 piled the earliest maps. His long and active life was, however, 
 drawing to a close ; and after his return from the Alabama, he 
 was seized with a fever, of which he died at Fort St. Louis, on 
 the 4th of September, 1704. 
 
 Whilst the French were thus laboring to establish themselves 
 on the shore of the Mexican Gulf, their numbers were slowly in 
 creasing in the regions of the Upper Mississippi, which were 
 then comprehended under the general name of the Illinois. After 
 the abandonment of Fort St. Louis by Tonty and his men in 
 1699, no military post was maintained in those countries for 
 several years, during which they were visited only by Jesuits and 
 traders. The foundation of the Jesuit mission on St. Joseph's 
 river, by Father Allouez has already been noticed: in 1700, 
 Father Gravier, established another on the rock where Fort St. 
 Louis had stood; and he soon after begun a third, at Cahokia, 
 on the Mississippi, almost opposite to the present city of St. 
 Louis, and a fourth at the principal village of the Kaskaskia In 
 dians, near the mouth of the Kaskaskia river, which falls into the 
 Mississippi from the east, midway between the entrances of the 
 Missouri and the Ohio. Detroit was, at the same time, occupied 
 by the French, under La Motte Cadillac, the commandant of the 
 Upper Lakes ; and. the discovery of the more direct route be 
 tween Canada, and the Mississippi, by way of the Miami and 
 Wabash rivers, led in time to the desertion of the old line of 
 communication by lakes Huron and Michigan and the Illinois. 
 In 1702, an attempt was made by M. Juchereau, and a party of 
 Canadians to form a trading post at the junction of the Ohio,* 
 then called the Ouabaehe or Wabash, and the Mississippi ; but 
 the death of Juchereau, and the enmity of the surrounding In 
 dians, caused the place to be evacuated two years afterwards. 
 
 The Jesuits endeavored also to extend their establishments to 
 the southern portions of the Mississippi Valley, with which ob 
 ject, several members of their order came to the Natches towns, 
 
 * Ohio was the Iroquois name for the northernmost branch, now called the 
 Alleghany ; Ouabaehe and Ouabouskigou were the names used by the Indians 
 near its junction with the Mississippi. The French gave the name of Ouabaehe 
 to the stream now called the Wabash, and that portion of the Ohio below its 
 mouth. 
 
1701.] WAR OF THE SPANISH SUCCESSION. 269 
 
 in 1700. They were, however, less successful there, than in the 
 Illinois ; their first missionary Father St. Come,* was a dissolute 
 person, and his amours with one of the female Suns, occasioned 
 his expulsion from Natches, after which, he was murdered by the 
 Chetimechas Indians dwelling farther south. Father Davion, a 
 Jesuit of a different character, took his position on the Tunica 
 heights overhanging the Mississippi, nearly opposite the mouth 
 of the Red river, where he resided for more than twenty years, 
 in defiance of all dangers and difficulties : the spot on which 
 his hermitage stood, was called in honor of him Rocher a Davion; 
 it was afterwards known as Loftus' Heights, and now r as Fort 
 Adams. 
 
 In the meantime, the whole civilized world had been again in 
 volved in war, by the personal ambition of the sovereigns who 
 controlled its affairs. The object of the contest on that occasion, 
 was the succession to the throne of Spain, upon the death of 
 King Charles II., the last male descendant in the direct line, from 
 the Emperor Charles V. This king, who died in 1700, left no 
 children; and several claimants to his throne immediately ap 
 peared, all deriving their titles through his sisters, and other fe 
 males of his family. The principal pretenders were, however, 
 the Archduke Charles of Austria, second son of the Emperor 
 Leopold of Germany; and Philip Duke of Anjou, second grand 
 son of Louis XIV. of France ; each of whom had been preferred 
 to his elder brother, in order to lessen the jealousy, which would 
 have arisen from the union of two crowns on one sovereign. The 
 King of Spain had been induced in his last moments to designate 
 the Duke of Anjou as his successor; and immediately after his de 
 cease, that prince was proclaimed to the nation, which almost 
 unanimously received him, under the title of Philip V. The 
 Austrian Archduke, nevertheless, persisted in his claim ; and an 
 alliance being formed in his behalf, between Germany, the United 
 Provinces and England, against France and Spain the sup 
 porters of the party on the throne, the war famous in history, as 
 the War of the Spanish Succession, was commenced in 1701. 
 
 Of the particulars of this war in Europe it is unnecessary here 
 
 * Some accounts of St. Come may be found in that repository of scandal, en 
 titled the Memoires de Maurepas. Father Davion was, probably, the original of 
 Father Aubry, in Chateaubriand's celebrated Romance of Atala. 
 
270 ATTACK BY THE ENGLISH ON ST. AUGUSTINE. [1702. 
 
 to speak. The French were defeated in many dreadful battles, 
 of which it will be sufficient to name those of Blenheim, Ramil- 
 lies, Turin and Malplaquet ; and Gibraltar, the key of the Medi 
 terranean fell into the hands of the English, who have ever since 
 retained it. Philip V. whom it was the object of the allies to 
 dethrone, though often driven from his capital, nevertheless, 
 maintained his crown ; not indeed by his talents or merits, for he 
 had none, but the nation was with him, and regarded his oppo 
 nents as its enemies. 
 
 With regard to America, attempts had been made by the Eng 
 lish, before the commencement of the war, through agents sent 
 from their West India islands, to induce the Spanish provinces to 
 embrace the cause of the German pretender to the throne who 
 w^as styled King Charles III. Those countries, however, re 
 mained firm in their allegiance to Philip V., as being the party 
 in possession, on the principle, that the colonies should follow the 
 lot of the mother country. 
 
 Upon the rejection of these overtures, orders were sent from 
 England to the Governor of South Carolina, to prosecute the 
 war with vigor against the Spaniards, in his vicinity ; and 
 six hundred militia, with a number of Yamassee and Muscoghee 
 Indians, were accordingly collected, with whom the Governor, 
 James Moore, sailed for St. Augustine, in November, 1702. 
 Another body of militia and Indians had previously set out for 
 the same point by land, under Colonel Daniel, who arrived there 
 before the appearance of the vessels, and took and burnt the 
 town, without much opposition. The Governor of Florida, Don 
 Jose de Zuniga, however effected his retreat, with the garrison 
 and people to the Castle of San Marcos on the north side of the 
 town, where he remained secure against the attacks of the Eng 
 lish, even after the arrival of their vessels from Charleston, as 
 they were unprovided with artillery capable of producing any 
 effect on the works. In order to supply this deficiency, Colonel 
 Daniel was dispatched to Jamaica ; but soon after his departure, 
 two Spanish ships of war appeared off the harbor, and Moore 
 being seized with a panic, abandoned his vessels to the enemy, 
 and made a hasty retreat, with all his men by land to Carolina. 
 
 Such was the disgraceful result of the first expedition of the 
 Carolinians against the Spaniards. The Governor of St. Angus- 
 
1704.] INTERCOURSE BETWEEN FLORIDA AND LOUISIANA. 271 
 
 tine hastened to restore his town to its former state, and to place 
 it in a condition to resist a new attack ; with which view he sent 
 messengers by land to Pensacola, to request assistance. None 
 could be afforded by the latter place ; but the request was for 
 warded to Bienville, who immediately furnished the Spaniards 
 with some arms and ammunition, and dispatched a vessel to bear 
 the news of what had occurred in Florida, to the Viceroy of 
 Mexico. This act of courtesy led to an extension of the in 
 tercourse between the settlements of the two nations on the Mex 
 ican Gulf, which was carried on to the advantage of both parties, 
 without interruption, until the end of the war, and probably, 
 prevented the entire dispersion of the French colonists. 
 
 The Governor of Florida, by the assistance thus obtained from 
 the Mobile, Vera Cruz and Havanna, was soon enabled to place his 
 province in security ; and in order to keep the Indians of the 
 lower Apalachicola in subjection, he established several posts in 
 that country, of which the principal was at the junction of the 
 Flint and Chattahoochee branches. The English, on the other 
 side, also, exerted themselves to secure the friendship of the In 
 dians of the upper Chattahoochee and Savannah ; and in 1704, 
 Governor Moore at the head of a large number of those savages, 
 attacked tfre Spanish posts last mentioned, from w^hich their gar 
 risons were all driven, in the course of that and the following 
 years. Of the Indians taken by the English in these campaigns, 
 a large number were sent to Boston and sold as slaves; but they 
 died in a short time from consumption or despondency, arid 
 the attempt to defray the expenses of the war by such means was 
 not repeated. 
 
 Iberville had been, meanwhile, actively engaged in France, 
 in preparing an expedition of which he was to have the com 
 mand, against the British possessions in the West Indies and 
 Carolina. For this object, he sailed from Rochefort in the spring 
 of 1706, with a large squadron, and after laying waste the British 
 islands of St. Christopher and Nevis, he was about to attack Ja 
 maica ; but finding that island prepared to resist him, he pro 
 ceeded to Havanna, where he made arrangements with the Cap 
 tain-General Villarin, for the addition of a Spanish naval force, 
 to aid in the accomplishment of his project. There, however, 
 he was seized with the yellow fever, which soon put an end to 
 
272 DEATH OF IBERVILLE. [1706. 
 
 his existence ; and nearly one-half of his men, were carried off by 
 the same disease in a few weeks. His successor in the command, 
 M. Le Fevre de la Barre, after waiting some time in vain for the 
 promised succors, departed with as many vessels as he could 
 man for St. Augustine ; and being there joined by a few Spanish 
 soldiers, he continued his voyage to Charleston, off which place 
 he arrived in September. 
 
 Sir Nathaniel Johnson, who had succeeded Moore in the gov 
 ernment of South Carolina in 1704, had, however, received 
 from a Dutch vessel, timely notice of the approach of the French, 
 and was actively engaged in preparing for defence, when they 
 appeared off the harbor. Le Fevre might, nevertheless, have 
 succeeded in taking Charleston, had he spent less time in recon- 
 noitering and sounding ; but when he at length entered the har 
 bor, he found a large body of militia drawn up on the shore, 
 covered by batteries at the most exposed points. The French 
 commander thereupon summoned the governor to surrender the 
 town and province ; and this having been refused, he attempted 
 to land with a body of men, who were at once repulsed. Other 
 efforts with the same object proved equally unsuccessful ; and 
 the French were in the end obliged to retreat, with the loss of 
 one of their vessels and a large number of men, having only af 
 forded the Carolinians an opportunity to recover the credit losl 
 by them at St. Augustine. 
 
 In the following year, a body of several hundred Indians, 
 mostly Muscoghees from the Chattahoochee and Alabama coun 
 tries, directed by some English and negroes from Carolina, sud 
 denly attacked Pensacola, which, like St. Augustine, was burnt, 
 while the inhabitants retired to the fort. The Indians then sur 
 rounded that place, which must soon have fallen into their hands, 
 had it not been relieved by Bienville and a body of French and 
 Choctas from the Mobile, on whose appearance the English and 
 their Indians retreated to the interior. After this occurrence, the 
 French and Spanish settlements in Louisiana and Florida re 
 mained undisturbed by the English, except that in 1710, the 
 stores at Dauphine island, were plundered by a privateer from 
 Jamaica. 
 
 Farther north, the English provinces of Virginia, Maryland, 
 Pennsylvania and New Jersey, felt no other effects of the war, 
 
1706.] EXCITEMENT AMONG THE INDIANS. 273 
 
 than those caused by the embarrassment of their communications 
 with Europe and the West Indies. New York and New England 
 suffered from the surprise of some of their frontier settlements by 
 the French of Canada; and Acadie, that is to say, a few small fish- 
 .ng villages and forts on the peninsula, fell intp the hands of the 
 English in 1710. But the war was prosecuted very languidly on 
 both sides ; and the only great expedition, which was that of the 
 English under Walker and Hill against Canada in 1711, ter 
 minated like that of Phipps twenty years before, in disaster and 
 destruction to the invaders. 
 
 The w r ar, however, produced a general fermentation among the 
 Indians, especially in the Mississippi countries, in the course of 
 which, many missionaries and traders were murdered, and the 
 Jesuit missions in the Illinois, were entirely broken up. Father 
 Gravier, the principal of those establishments, was severely 
 wounded, while endeavoring to mediate between two contending 
 tribes near the Peoria Lake, and was obliged to fly to Louisiana, 
 where he died in 1706 ; the other Jesuits were all driven to 
 Canada, and did not venture to return to their posts for some 
 time. On the lower Mississippi, the Taensas were attacked and 
 expelled from their country, by the Chickasas and the Yazoos of 
 the opposite side of the river; and after wandering for some 
 time, towards the south, they were invited by Bienville to settle 
 on a branch of the Mobile, which was thenceforth called the 
 Taensas, (or Tensaw,) entering the north-east extremity of Mo 
 bile bay. 
 
 The disputes among the Indians of the lower Mississippi, 
 were fomented and encouraged as much as possible *by the 
 French, who never failed to exact ample atonement in blood for 
 any attack upon their own countrymen. The Chetimechas who 
 murdered the priest St. Come, were exterminated : and the Bay- 
 agoulas, the Mongoulachas or Colapissas, the Pascagoulas, and 
 many other small nations speedily disappeared. The operations 
 of the French in that quarter, were for the most part directed by 
 the Canadian Louis de St. Denis, who had quitted the military 
 service, and established himself as a trader, at a post or fort on 
 the little bayou or creek of St. Jean, falling into Lake Pontchar- 
 train, near the spot now occupied by New Orleans; there he ac 
 quired much influence over the Indians by his skill and daring, 
 35 
 
274 BIENVILLE REMOVED FROM HIS GOVERNORSHIP. [1707. 
 
 and he was known and dreaded by all south of the Natches, as 
 the great arbiter of their destinies. 
 
 In this interval, a change had taken place in the direction of 
 affairs in Louisiana. During Iberville's life, the French colony 
 in that country had been, as already said, left almost entirely at 
 his discretion, or rather that of his brother Bienville ; as Iberville 
 passed but little time in the country, and never visited it after 
 1702. His high character and credit with the government, pre 
 vented any interference or inquiry as to his proceedings; but on 
 his death, his family, having neither fortune nor influence at court, 
 was subjected to attacks from numerous enemies. The inferior 
 officers? of the colony openly expressed their contempt for Bien 
 ville ; and memorials were sent to Paris, signed by all who could 
 write, civil, military and ecclesiastical, condemning his conduct, 
 and praying for his removal and punishment. M. de la Salle, 
 the commissary of accounts wrote to the ministry in 1706, that 
 Iberville and Bienville and their brother Chateaugue the Lieu 
 tenant-Commandant, were three scoundrels, employed only in 
 filling their purses, at the expense of the government and the 
 colonists; and they were afterwards accused of every species of 
 villainy of embezzling the articles and money sent as presents 
 to the Indians, or for the support of the garrison of sacrificing 
 the natives of France to the advantage of their fellow-provincials 
 From Canada and of various other delinquencies, in their public 
 as well as their private capacities. Bienville foresaw the storm 
 so soon as he received the news of the death of his brother; 
 and he endeavored to avert it, by praying for his own recall, 
 in ordet that he might justify himself in person at Versailles. 
 But a decree had been already issued for his arrest on the 23d of 
 July, 1707; and M. de Muys was appointed governor of the 
 colony and province of Louisiana, with orders to carry that de 
 cree into fulfilment immediately on his arrival, and to send Bien 
 ville as prisoner to France. 
 
 Fortunately, however, for Bienville, and probably also for the 
 colony, the new Commandant M. de Muys, died on his passage 
 from France ; and M. Diron d'Artaguette, the Royal Commissary, 
 for the general superintendence of the civil affairs, had been em 
 powered in that contingency to assume the direction of the gov 
 ernment, until farther orders. The new governor reached Mobile in 
 
1708.] 
 
 February, 1708, and found the country and its inhabitants in a 
 state far worse than had been represented. The French were, in 
 fact, on the verge of starvation, and the greater part of the garrison 
 of Fort Louis were living in the woods, among the Indians, by 
 permission of the Commandant, in order that they might support 
 themselves by hunting. From a census then taken, it appeared 
 that the whole population of the colony amounted to only two 
 hundred and seventy-nine persons, of whom one hundred and 
 twenty-two were officers and soldiers, twenty-eight were white 
 women, and eighty were Indians and negroes. These were all 
 collected at Mobile, Dauphine island and Biloxy, except the few 
 Canadians engaged with St. Denis in trade on the Mississippi, 
 or in agriculture at his post of St. Jean, near Lake Pontchartrain; 
 the others lived in absolute idleness, or were employed in con 
 traband traffic with the Spaniards of Pensacola. The small 
 amounts allowed by the government for the support of the estab 
 lishment, had been remitted irregularly, and for the most part in 
 the form of merchandise or provisions from France or St* Do 
 mingo, which were deposited in the public stores; and the or 
 ders for these articles, delivered by the Commandant and Com 
 missary, as pay to the military and civil servants, constituted 
 the whole currency of the colony : the little specie obtained 
 from the Spaniards, being nearly all sent to France. 
 
 The French inhabitants were, for the most part, criminals or 
 vagrants, sent from Europe as a punishment, and incapable of 
 application to any useful pursuit. In the midst of a fertile re 
 gion, they depended for food, on supplies from Europe, or the 
 West Indies, or the Spanish provinces, or the Indian countries of 
 the Mobile or the Mississippi; and the general belief that the es 
 tablishment would be soon abandoned, served to paralyse all ex 
 ertions, among the few who would otherwise have been disposed 
 to labor. The female portion of the community was very small 
 in comparison with the males, and little if at all, superior in 
 character. The French Government did, indeed, in 1704, order 
 twenty young girls to be sent out as help-mates for its disconso 
 late subjects on the Mexican Gulf; and the Bishop of Quebec 
 made the selection, with the utmost regard for their moral as well 
 as their personal qualifications. Unfortunately, however, he con 
 fined himself entirely to Parisians ; and the women whom he 
 
276 MISERABLE CONDITION OF LOUISIANA. [1709. 
 
 destined for the purpose, proved so utterly unfit to bear the labors 
 and privations to which they were exposed, that the colonists be 
 came disgusted with them, and maledictions innumerable were 
 showered by both parties, on the head of the worthy prelate, for 
 his interference in matters belonging more properly to the laity. 
 After this failure, the idea of providing virtuous wives and 
 mothers for the people of the embryo colony on the Mexican 
 Gulf, was relinquished ; and the few women sent thither for many 
 years, were like the men, chosen for the most part from among 
 the inmates of hospitals and prisons. 
 
 This wretched state of things could not, however, be justly as 
 cribed to Bienville or his brothers, though in many respects, their 
 conduct had been undoubtedly marked by selfishness and dis 
 honesty. The circumstances were duly weighed by D'Artaguette, 
 who seems to have been a fair and intelligent person ; and he 
 was so favorably impressed by the sagacity of Bienville, his 
 knowledge of the country, and his evident desire for the pros 
 perity of the colony, that the order for his arrest was suffered to 
 remain in suspense, and a good understanding was soon estab 
 lished between them. The enemies of the Commandant were 
 thus all silenced, except La Salle, the former commissary, and 
 M. de la Vente, the curate of Fort Louis, who continued to pour 
 forth their denunciations against him. La Salle, however, died 
 in 1710; and Bienville neutralised the venom of the curate's re 
 presentations to the ministry, by his own, in one of which he 
 proved that this head of the church, in Louisiana, did not scruple 
 to keep a shop, in which he openly sold goods at extortionate 
 prices " like an Arab Jew." 
 
 In this manner, things continued in Louisiana for three years, 
 without any change of importance in the character or prospects 
 of the French colony. In 1711, the buildings and stores at 
 Fort Louis, were nearly all destroyed by a great and sudden over 
 flow of the Mobile, in consequence of which it was determined 
 to abandon that spot, and to form a new establishment else 
 where. Bienville exerted all his influence on this occasion, 
 in favor of a settlement on the banks of the Mississippi. His 
 experience had convinced him that the country could never 
 be effectively and permanently occupied, until the people should 
 be removed from the barren shores of the Mexican Gulf, where 
 
1710.] FOUNDATION OF MOBILE. 277 
 
 no encouragement was offered for labor, to the fertile regions of 
 the interior, in which many of the most valuable articles of com 
 merce might be produced with ease, and of the finest quality; 
 and with this view he had selected a spot on the left bank of the 
 Mississippi, where it flows nearest to Lake Pontchartrain, pos 
 sessing the advantage of accessibility from the sea by .both- those 
 channels. But D'Artaguette was then preparing to return to 
 France, having been informed of the appointment of M. de la 
 Motte Cadillac, as Governor of Louisiana; and being unwilling 
 to assume the responsibility of such a change under those cir 
 cumstances, the new establishment was begun at the mouth of the 
 Mobile, where a fort was erected, and the town of Mobile was 
 laid out, on the spot now occupied by the important commercial 
 city of that. name. 
 
 Bienville had also become persuaded, that the most industrious 
 persons who could be brought to Louisiana from France, would 
 not easily be induced to labor in the cultivation of a country, the 
 climate of which was so different from that of their native land. In 
 order to remedy this deficiency, he, at first, endeavored to employ 
 the Indians in agriculture, as hired servants, or as slaves ; which, 
 however, was soon found impracticable, from the facility offered for 
 their escape, and the inimical feelings immediately excited among 
 the surrounding nations. The Commandant next proposed to the 
 planters of St. Domingo, that they should furnish Louisiana 
 with negroes, in return for Indians brought from the more distant 
 parts of the continent, in the proportion of three of the latter for 
 each African ; but no arrangement of that kind could be made, 
 the planters having already become satisfied of the entire ineffi 
 ciency of the aborigines of that part of America, as laborers: and 
 Bienville resigned himself to await the period, when the colonists 
 of Louisiana should be in a condition to import their own negroes 
 from Guinea. 
 
 Cotemporary with the establishment of this French colony in 
 Louisiana, were the first efforts of the Spanish Jesuits to introduce 
 their system of civilizing the natives, into the Peninsula of Cali 
 fornia, in which their success was as great as could have been 
 expected, considering the barren character of the country, and 
 the brutish disposition of the people. The Spanish Government 
 at the same time, endeavored to occupy effectively, the region 
 
278 TEXAS REMAINS UNOCCUPIED. [1711. 
 
 called Sonora, extending along the eastern side of the Califor- 
 nian Gulf, which was found to contain many rich mines of gold, 
 in addition to the advantages presented by its soil and climate.* 
 In New Mexico, the authority of Spain was, after many years of 
 war, completely restored; but that province never regained its 
 former prosperity. 
 
 Farther east the territories north of the Rio Bravo, remained 
 entirely in the possession of the natives ; no attempt having been 
 made to occupy them, after their evacuation by Teran in 1691 : 
 and the only persons of European race in that part of America, 
 were a few missionaries and vagabonds from Mexico, of whom 
 one of the latter class, named Urrutia, exercised authority as a 
 chief, over a tribe of the Cenis or Texas near the Trinity river. 
 Father Hidalgo, a Franciscan friar, who had resided for many 
 years in that country, addressed a letter in 1711, to the Governor 
 of the French settlements in Louisiana, inviting him to open a 
 trade with the Cenis, and even to form establishments among 
 them, by means of which a profitable intercourse might be opened 
 with the northern provinces of Mexico; but D'Artaguette did not 
 avail himself of the suggestion, which was, however, adopted by 
 his successor, as will be shown in the following; chapter. 
 
 It is worthy of remark, that before the period last mentioned, 
 the northern shores of the Mexican Gulf, had been surveyed with 
 much care though by whom we know not from the mouth of 
 the Apalachicola, to the mouth of the Mississippi; as those 
 points, and all the principal places intermediate, are represented 
 with perfect accuracy, as regards their latitudes and longitudes, 
 in a map published at London in 1710. Nevertheless, although 
 several astronomers and hydographers were employed on that 
 coast during the following twenty years, all the maps of it pro 
 duced within that period, are remarkably incorrect, some of them 
 to the extent of several degrees of longitude. 
 
 * Accounts of those establishments of the Jesuits in the Californian Peninsula, 
 will be found in the third chapter of the History of Oregon and California, by 
 the author of these pages. 
 
CHAPTER IX 
 
 1712 TO 1718. 
 
 THE WAR OF THE SPANISH SUCCESSION ENDED BY THE 
 TREATIES OF UTRECHT GRANT> OF LOUISIANA BY Louis 
 XIV. TO CROZAT LA MOTTE CADILLAC AND EPINAY GOV 
 ERNORS OF LOUISIANA DEATH OF Louis XIV. AND ESTAB 
 LISHMENT OF THE DUKE OF ORLEANS AS REGENT OF FRANCE 
 FIRST DISTURBANCES AMONG THE NATCHES INDIANS 
 
 QUELLED BY BlENVILLE EXPEDITIONS OF ST. DENIS TO 
 
 MEXICO, LEADING TO THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE SPAN 
 IARDS IN TEXAS. 
 
 THE War of the Spanish Succession begun in 1701, continued 
 for ten years to desolate Europe, without producing any mate 
 rial change in the relative positions of the parties, or affording to 
 those by whom it was commenced, any prospect of effecting the 
 object in view. At length, in 1711, a disposition was evinced 
 on both sides, for the conclusion of the struggle, in consequence 
 of the elevation of the Austrian claimant of the Spanish crown, 
 to the Imperial throne of Germany. A negotiation for peace, was 
 commenced between the courts of France and England, which 
 resulted in their agreement on certain points ; and the other pow 
 ers having been induced to join in this attempt to settle their dif 
 ferences, a congress of plenipotentiaries of the principal sovereign 
 states, was assembled at Utrecht in Holland in January, 1712. 
 
 After several months spent in manoeuvres on the part of some of 
 the powers represented at Utrecht, to hasten, and of others to pre 
 vent certain arrangements, during which the war continued with 
 unabated fury, a cessation of arms between Great Britain and 
 France was proclaimed in August. The British forces were 
 then immediately withdrawn from the allied army; the remaining 
 members of that alliance, with the exception of the Emperor of 
 
280 GENERAL PEACE OF UTRECHT. [1712. 
 
 Germany, successively relinquished their opposition to the scheme 
 presented and admitted by the principal po\\ ers on each side ; 
 and on the 10th of September, the preliminaries of a general 
 peace were signed, agreeably to which, separate negotiations were 
 begun between the several States. 
 
 The French Government had, meanwhile, received a petition 
 from Antoine Crozat, an opulent merchant of Paris, for the cession 
 of the trade of the Mississippi regions to him, during a certain 
 space of time and under certain conditions, to which no defini 
 tive answer was at first given. In the spring of 1712, however, 
 M. Diron d'Artaguette returned from Louisiana, and presented to 
 the ministers his report on the state of that country and of the 
 French colony established in it, which was so unfavorable, as to 
 render them willing to accede to the plan proposed by Crozat, for 
 their relief from a charge thus unpromising. It was, therefore, soon 
 arranged, that Louisiana should be granted to the great capitalist, 
 on terms apparently more liberal than he had expected ; but the 
 matter was to be kept secret, until the negotiations in progress at 
 Utrecht should have been brought to an issue. 
 
 The preliminaries of the general peace reached Paris on the 
 12th of September, and on the 14th of the same month, Louis 
 XIV. signed a charter,* granting to Crozat and his heirs, the ex 
 clusive commerce of the whole division of America entitled 
 Louisiana, for fifteen years, w r ith the perpetual possession of all 
 mines which might be discovered, and of all settlements, manu 
 factories, and other establishments which might be formed in it, 
 during that space of time, upon conditions the least onerous to 
 the grantee. This concession was, how r ever, kept secret for 
 some time, during which the negotiations between the several 
 powers were in progress ; and no measures were taken to carry 
 it into execution, until the general peace had been secured by 
 the particular treaties concluded at Utrecht in April, 1713. 
 
 By these treaties, the Protestant succession in England was 
 recognised and in a manner guarantied : and Philip V. was ac 
 knowledged as King of Spain, upon his renunciation for himself 
 and his descendants of all claims to the throne of France ; whilst 
 the other Princes of the House of Bourbon, in like manner, re- 
 
 * A translation of this Charter will be found among the Proofs and Illustrations 
 at the end of this volume, under the letter F. 
 
1713.] TREATIES OF UTRECHT. 281 
 
 nounced their pretensions to the crown of Spain. The latter 
 crown was deprived of Gibraltar and Minorca, which were se 
 cured to Great Britain, as well as of Sicily, which became the 
 property of the Duke of Savoy, and of Naples and Lombardy, 
 which were assigned to the Emperor of Germany as Duke of 
 Austria. In America, Cape Breton and other islands in the 
 Gulf of St. Lawrence were admitted to belong to France; but 
 Great Britain was to possess all the Hudson's Bay territories, and 
 Newfoundland, and " Nova Scotia or Acadie with its ancient 
 boundaries" and dependencies of all kinds, in their fullest extent. 
 The French were not to disturb or molest " the Five Nations of 
 Indians subject to the dominion of Great Britain, nor the other 
 natives of America who are the friends to the same;" and it was 
 " to be exactly and distinctly settled by commissaries, who are, 
 and who ought to be accounted the subjects and friends of Britain 
 or of France." Other commissaries were also to be appointed, 
 who were to determine within the space of a year, " the limits 
 between the said Bay of Hudson, and the places appertaining to 
 the French," which limits were never to be transgressed by the 
 subjects of either party; the same commissaries being moreover 
 charged " to describe and settle in like manner, the boundaries 
 between the other British and French colonies in those pa\ts." 
 
 The dismemberment of the Spanish empire by the alienation 
 of Gibraltar, Minorca, Sicily, Naples and Lombardy, was a se 
 vere blow to the pride of the nation ; and still more galling to Philip 
 V., was the forced renunciation of his claims to the throne of 
 France. The only person possessing a title to that throne, supe 
 rior to his own, was the son of his eldest brother, then a sickly child 
 of three years old, on whose death without issue, the crown would 
 pass, in virtue of the renunciation of Philip, to the Duke of Or 
 leans, the son of the younger brother of Louis XIV. ; and thus by 
 the treaty of Utrecht, was the fair prospect of inheriting the mag 
 nificent realm of France to be surrendered, for the certainty of 
 possessing the inferior dominion of Spain and the Indies. The 
 alternative was most distressing to Philip V., who did not submit 
 to it, without the internal resolution, not to abide by his renun 
 ciation, in case the death of his young nephew should afford an 
 opportunity for disavowing it. 
 
 By the treaty between Great Britain and Spain, it was admitted 
 36 
 
282 TREATY BETWEEN ENGLAND AND SPAIN. [1713. 
 
 "as a fundamental rule," that the navigation and comme.ce of 
 foreign nations, with regard to the Spanish West Indies, should 
 remain as it was on the death of the late King Charles II. of 
 Spain, in 1700; and that no license should be granted to the 
 French or any other nation, to trade with those countries, other 
 wise than according to treaties already existing, and to an Asiento 
 de negros, or treaty for the supply of negro slaves to the Spanish 
 colonies, by British subjects exclusively, which was immediately 
 to be concluded, in place of the similar contract made between 
 France and Spain in 1701. In order farther to countervail the 
 influence of France, it was stipulated that neither the King of 
 Spain, nor his successors, should ever alienate from the crown of 
 that nation, or in any way transfer to the French, or any other 
 power, any portion of the, Spanish territories in America; the 
 Queen of England at the same time binding herself to employ 
 her influence and aid, in order " that the ancient limits of the 
 Spanish dominions be restored and settled, as they stood in the 
 time of King Charles II., if it should appear that they have been 
 broken into, and lessened in any part since his death." 
 
 These last mentioned provisions of the treaty' betw sen Great 
 Britain and Spain were, doubtless, intended to apply to Louisi 
 ana, wjiere the British were anxious to restrict the French 
 within as narrow limits as possible. The reference to the extent 
 of the " Spanish dominions in the West Indies," was most 
 vague, as their boundaries were never less accurately determined, 
 than in the time of King Charles II. ; and to place the exercise 
 of trade and navigation in those parts, as it was during the reign 
 of that monarch, was only to open the way for future difficulties, 
 between the two nations. Such, indeed, was the result. 
 
 In like manner, the treaty between Great Britain and France, 
 left undetermined many important questions respecting America, 
 from which difficulties could not fail to arise. Commissaries may 
 settle the amount of money to be paid by one nation as damages 
 to the subjects of the other: the party which pays, loses nothing 
 in dignity, and little or nothing in resources; and if the com 
 pensation is insufficient, the loss falls usually on only a few 
 individuals, and is soon forgotten by the public. Very differ 
 ent is the effect when extent of territory is in question: for 
 the transfer of even a few square miles of land, from one 
 
1713.] TREATY BETWEEN ENGLAND AND FRANCE. 233 
 
 nation to another, may make an incalculable change in their 
 relative positions, as to commerce, or military or political 
 strength ; and even when the real or apparent value of the territory 
 is trifling, and ample compensation is made for it in another way, 
 the nation surrendering, is always regarded as losing in dignity, 
 and a map becomes a perpetual source of annoyance and disa 
 greeable reflection, to its government and people. 
 
 For the settlement of the limits of the Hudson's Bay country, 
 a basis was presented by the charter of the Hudson's Bay Com 
 pany, which defined the claim of Great Britain, as extending to 
 all the territories drained by streams falling into that bay, not 
 previously possessed by a Christian prince or people, and to none 
 other; arid the maps of that day accordingly, represented the line 
 of separation between the British and the French possessions in 
 that part of America, as extending along the highlands dividing 
 the waters which flow to Hudson's Bay, from those falling into the 
 St. Lawrence and the great lakes.* With regard to Nova Scotia 
 or Acadie, there were no grounds for determining what was to be 
 surrendered by France under either of those names. The original 
 charter of Henry IV. might be construed as embracing in Acadie, 
 the whole division of America, between the 40th and the 46th 
 parallels of north latitude; while the charter of James I. to Alex 
 ander, included in Nova Scotia, all east of a line drawn through 
 the river St. Croix, from the Atlantic northward to the St. Law 
 rence ; and no description of the boundaries had been made in 
 any of the treaties, by which the same territories were previously 
 transferred from the one party to the other. The provisions re 
 specting the Indian nations, were also couched in language so 
 vague as to afford room for various interpretation. But on all 
 these points the plenipotentiaries, like those who concluded the 
 treaties of Ryswick, merely proposed to remove the minor ques 
 tions involved in them, out of the way of the general pacification. 
 
 A new subject for disputes between the three European nations, 
 holding dominion in North America, was at the same time pro 
 duced by the charter granted to Crozat, the preamble to which 
 declares that the King .having, in 1683, ordered a discovery to 
 be made of the territories between New France and New Mexico, 
 and M. de la Salle to whom this duty was entrusted, having suc- 
 
 * See the map of Senex mentioned at page 278. 
 
284 GRANT OF LOUISIANA TO CROZAT. [1713. 
 
 ceeded in confirming the belief, that a communication by means 
 of great rivers, might be established between Canada and the 
 Mexican Gulf, orders had been given, immediately after the peace 
 of Ryswick, to found a colony and maintain garrisons, by which 
 the possession of the territories bordering on the Gulf of Mexico, 
 between Carolina on the east, and Old and New Mexico on the 
 west, had been preserved : but, that subsequent wars having pre 
 vented His Majesty from deriving all the advantages expected 
 from those dominions, he had resolved to grant to M. Crozat, the 
 entire commerce of the province of Louisiana, embracing all the 
 territories between New Mexico and Carolina, traversed by the 
 Mississippi and all its branches below the Illinois, together with 
 the port and harbor of Dauphine island or Mobile, and the inter 
 vening countries.* 
 
 This declaration by Louis XIV., of the extent and limits of 
 the portion of America claimed by him, under the name of Lou 
 isiana, was as definite as the circumstances of the case required, 
 and as the state of geographical knowledge could have allowed. 
 France thus asserted her right, to the whole division of the con 
 tinent drained by the Mississippi and Mobile rivers and their 
 tributaries, which was supposed to extend eastward to the Eng 
 lish provinces of Carolina, and westward to those of Spain in 
 New Mexico; the countries of the Illinois being attached to New 
 France, while those farther south were granted to Crozat. Of 
 the territories thus assigned, very little was known beyond the 
 immediate vicinity of the large rivers above named. The English 
 had made no settlements west of the head waters of streams falling 
 directly into the Atlantic ; and New Mexico was only the general 
 name for the vast interior tracts on the Rio del Norte, the sources 
 of which were believed to lie far north of their real positions. Of 
 the extent of Louisiana upon the Mexican Gulf, eastward from the 
 Mobile, and westward from the Mississippi, nothing is said in the 
 charter ; and as the trade in the territory granted, would necessa 
 rily be confined for a long period to the vicinity of those two 
 principal streams, the more exact determination of its limits, 
 might well be deferred, until the interests of France, and of the 
 
 * See the Preamble to the Charter, which may be found translated in full 
 among the Proofs and Illustrations in the latter part of this volume, under the 
 letter F. 
 
1713.] EXTENT OF LOUISIANA AS CLAIMED BY FRANCE. 285 
 
 other two nations should require it. The description of the ter 
 ritory claimed for France, was indeed nearly the same in charac 
 ter, with that of the countries included in the charter to the Hud 
 son's Bay Company, which evidently served as a model for the 
 other; and as the Utrecht treaty, directly recognised the validity 
 of the English grant, Louis XIV. might consider himself equally 
 entitled to assert in the same way, his right to a portion of the 
 New World, which had been already in part explored and settled 
 by his subjects, and in which no other European nation had made 
 any recent discovery, or formed any establishment whatsoever. 
 
 The title of France to the Mississippi and Mobile countries 
 was, in fine, as nearly perfect, as any title to countries not com 
 pletely occupied, could be;* and infinitely better, than those ad 
 vanced with regard to the same portion of America by Spain, in 
 virtue of the Papal concession or of first discovery or by Great 
 Britain as founded on her charters of New England, Virginia and 
 Carolina, embracing together the whole breadth of the continent 
 from the 29th to the 46th parallels or by either of those powers, 
 on the grounds of contiguity to its settled dominions. From the 
 Gulf of St. Lawrence to the Gulf of Mexico, already extended a 
 line of French posts and settlements, which were daily increasing 
 in number and in population ; and considering the vast breadth 
 of the territories still unoccupied and unexplored, separating the 
 Mississippi regions from the settlements of the other nations on 
 either side, the presumption was fair, that those regions claimed 
 by France would be peopled, and provided with means of defence, 
 sufficient to constitute an effective and unquestionable possession, 
 long before they could be reached in the natural progress of colo 
 nization, from the English or the Spanish provinces. That this 
 presumption was generally entertained, at the time when the char 
 ter was granted, is certain from the extreme jealousy and alarm 
 created by its publication in England and Spain, as well as in 
 the American colonies of those nations; in all of which, great and 
 immediate danger was apprehended, from the establishment of the 
 French dominion over the extensive and fertile division of the 
 New World, thus formally claimed by that power. The political 
 situation of Europe, however, prevented any active measures 
 from being taken on the subject, at that time, by either Great 
 
 * See observations on this subject at pages 180 et seq. 
 
286 LA MOTTE CADILLAC GOVERNOR OF LOUISIANA. [1713. 
 
 Britain or Spain, except with regard to the conduct which was 
 to be pursued by the authorities of their respective provinces, 
 adjacent to Louisiana; and no opposition was made to the im 
 mediate enjoyment by Crozat, of all the advantages which he 
 might derive from his grant. 
 
 By the terms of his charter, Crozat, and those to whom the 
 same privileges might be specially granted on his recommendation, 
 were to enjoy the perpetual possession of all the lands in Louis 
 iana, which they might bring under cultivation, and of all the es 
 tablishments for manufactures 6r mining, which they might form 
 within fifteen years and continue to work, on their payment to 
 the crown, of one-fifth of all precious metals and stones, and one- 
 tenth of all other metals, thence transported to France; and all 
 goods introduced by him into that country, from France, were to 
 be exempt from duties of every kind. The colony was to be gov 
 erned according to the general ordinances and regulations for the 
 colonies, and the laws and customs of Paris, through a governor 
 and council appointed by the king. The officers and soldiers were 
 to be maintained by the crown, for nine years, after which the 
 expense was to be borne by Crozat: and he was to send, annually, 
 to Louisiana two ships, each of which was to carry, free from ex 
 pense, ten young men and as many young women, and a certain 
 amount of provisions and ammunition, for the royal troops. These 
 were certainly liberal terms ; but the French Government could 
 have done much more, in order to free itself from the other burthens 
 of the colony, whilst at the same time assuring its continuance. 
 
 M. de la Motte Cadillac had been, as already said, appointed 
 Governor of Louisiana in May, 1710; and when Crozat received 
 the grant of that country, some understanding seems to have been 
 established between him and the governor etect, by which the 
 latter was to share the profits of the enterprise. La Motte Ca 
 dillac had been for many years the Commandant of the French 
 posts on the upper Lakes of Canada, and had laid the foundations 
 of Detroit in 1701 ; his conduct there was however, in many in 
 stances, unsatisfactory to the government, as he had produced diffi 
 culties between the French and the surrounding Indian nations, 
 by his irritable and overbearing manner, in consequence of which 
 he had been removed from his command. For what reasons he 
 had been considered worthy of confidence, as the director of the 
 
1713.] PLANS OF CROZAT FOR LOUISIANA. 287 
 
 colony in Louisiana, is not known ; but, he probably, had influ 
 ence enough to render the ministers willing to bestow on him a 
 situation, which they must have considered as wholly unimportant, 
 and scarcely desirable. The other principal officers of the colony, 
 were M. de Bienville as Military Commandant, M. Duclos as 
 Commissary of the King, M. Lebas as Comptroller of Accounts, 
 and Messieurs La Loire des Ursins and Dirigoin as directors of the 
 concerns of Crozat ; these with one or two others, were to 
 compose a Council, which was to be consulted by the Governor on 
 all matters of importance. Immediately after the conclusion of 
 the treaty of peace, all these officers except Bienville, who was 
 already in Louisiana, embarked for Dauphine island, where they 
 arrived on the 17th of May, 1713 ; and an organized system of 
 administration was thus at length provided for the colony, which 
 had hitherto been left at the disposition of a few individuals. 
 
 The new rulers were resolved that all should thenceforth go on 
 methodically ; and the representatives of Crozat's interests were 
 instructed to maintain in Louisiana the sa*me order, the same sub 
 mission to the will of their chief, and the same exclusive devotion 
 to his interests, which reigned in his counting-house at Paris. 
 Agreeably to the plan proposed, the lands were to be granted by the 
 crown in tracts of a certain extent each, to individuals, who could 
 not receive the confirmation of their title, or dispose of any portion 
 of the tract, until at least two-thirds of it had been cleared for 
 cultivation. All commercial operations whatsoever, were to be 
 carried on by Crozat and his agents : Dauphine island was to 
 be the great depository of goods, imported or for exportation; 
 other depositories were to be formed in the interior, at places con 
 venient to the Mississippi, to and from which the articles of com 
 merce were to be transported by water at stated seasons ; and at 
 these places, all purchases and sales were to be made on account 
 of the grantee, according to a. tariff of prices fixed for each. 
 The sum allowed by the government for the maintenance of the 
 colony, amounting to about sixty thousand livres or ten thousand 
 dollars annually, was to be paid at Paris to Crozat ; from whose 
 agents in Louisiana, the Royal Commissary was to receive the 
 equivalent, in money for the pay of the officers, or in goods or 
 provisions, at the prices fixed by the tariffs at the different posts, 
 for the support of the soldiers and laborers. 
 
 
288 -MEXICAN PORTS CLOSED AGAINST THE FRENCH. [1713. 
 
 Means were at the same time employed to attract attention to the 
 colony, by the publication of accounts and maps of Louisiana, 
 representing the country and the advantages offered by it in the 
 most favorable manner ; among which was the interesting narra 
 tive of La Salle's expedition to the Mexican Gulf, by Joutel, who 
 was then living in retirement at Rouen. Of the knowledge of 
 those regions possessed by Crozat himself, some idea may be 
 formed, from the fact, that he proposed to have his merchandise 
 carried up the Mississippi to the Ohio and the Illinois, in sailing 
 vessels; being thus, evidently, unaware of the delays to which 
 they would be subjected, from the mighty current and the innu 
 merable bends and sinuosities of the stream, and of the perils 
 which they would hourly encounter from sand-bars, and from the 
 trunks of great trees, either floating on the surface, or imbedded 
 firmly, like rocks, in the bottom. 
 
 In a country containing less than four hundred inhabitants,* 
 exclusive of savages, Crozat could not have expected that his 
 commercial operations Would at first be very^extensive ; though 
 he appears to have entertained anticipations somewhat extrava 
 gant on that point : his great object, however, was to obtain a 
 share of the commerce with the Spanish colonies, the extent and 
 value of which was then rnuch exaggerated. Accordingly his first 
 ship, which carried out La Motte Cadillac to Louisiana, in 1713, 
 had been laden with the most rare and costly articles of French 
 manufacture; and immediately after the landing of that officer at 
 Dauphine island, she was despatched to Vera Cruz, for the sale 
 of her cargo. But before she reached that place, orders had 
 been received there, for the revival and enforcement of all the pro 
 hibitory regulations with regard to commerce, navigation and set 
 tlement in America, which had been relaxed during the late war. 
 Crozat's ship was, in consequence, not allowed to land any por 
 tion of her cargo at Vera Cruz ; and as no purchasers could be 
 found for her rich silks and delicate wines in Louisiana, and they 
 
 * According to the report, made to the government by Diron d'Artaguette on 
 his return to France in 1712, Louisiana contained twenty-eight French families, 
 and twenty negroes, in addition to two companies of infantry of fifty men each, 
 and seventy-five Canadians in the service of the government ; making in all three 
 hundred and eighty persons. The population of the Illinois not included in this 
 estimate, may have been two hundred. 
 
1713.] WRETCHED CONDITION OF LOUISIANA. 289 
 
 could not be sold in any othep'French colony, she was obliged to 
 return with them to France. 
 
 Crozat was thus rudely awakened from his golden dream, and 
 there was nothing to soothe him, in the communications which he 
 received, respecting the state and prospects of his colony in Lou 
 isiana. Deplorable, indeed, was the condition of that colony, as 
 depicted in the sarcastic despatches of La Motte Cadillac, to the 
 government. The country is pronounced by him entirely unfit 
 for the support of a population, producing neither grains, fruits 
 nor vegetables for food, except a little Indian corn, the crops of 
 which often failed in consequence of the drought: indigo, to 
 bacco and silk, might indeed be raised in the southern portion, 
 and wheat in the Illinois; but several years would be required 
 for the formation of establishments for those purposes, during 
 which flour and all the other necessaries of life, must be brought 
 from France. The colonists are represented, more correctly, as 
 nearly all, miserable scoundrels, sunk in the lowest depths of in 
 dolence and vice:* those writes the Governor who made any 
 attempts at agriculture soon abandoned them, in despair; and the 
 only branches of industry carried on with success, are tavern- 
 keeping and a little smuggling trade with Pensacola, by which, and 
 the embezzlement of the public funds, the Commandant Bienville, 
 and his brothers Chateaugue and Serigny, are said' to have ac 
 cumulated large amounts of property. The plans of Crozat for 
 the commerce of the interior, were treated by La Motte Cadillac 
 as utterly absurd ; and he maintained that the only advantages 
 to be derived from the settlements, would be by the discovery 
 of mines of gold and silver, by the promotion of direct or 
 contraband trade with the Spanish and English colonies during 
 peace, and by the facilities which would be afforded to privateers, 
 
 * " According to the old proverb," says La Motte Cadillac, in one of his let 
 ters to the Minister M. de Pontchartrain, " Bad country, bad people. The in 
 habitants of Louisiana are composed of the dregs of Canada, real gallow's birds, 
 without subordination, or respect for religion or government, given up to vice, 
 and caring for nothing, but Indian women, whom they prefer to the French. 
 The Canadians and the unmarried soldiers keep these women as slaves, under 
 the pretext that they have no other means of getting their clothes washed, their 
 food cooked, or their cabins swept : this conduct is intolerable. 
 
 " As for churches, the people would be delighted to remain without them ; the 
 priests and missionaries assure me. that the greater number have not taken thte 
 sacraments for eight years." 
 
 37 
 
290 LA MOTTE CADILLAC AT WAR WITH BIENVILLE. [1713. 
 
 in the event of war with those nations. The Indians were mere 
 beggars, from whom nothing was to be feared or to be gained; 
 so that there was no necessity for continuing the presents to them, 
 which they had been encouraged by M. de Bienville for his own 
 purposes, to demand. 
 
 In these communications from the Governor of Louisiana, there 
 was much truth ; though his remarks were always more or less 
 distorted by prejudices, and they exhibited undoubted evidences 
 of the extreme irritability of his disposition, rendering hjm but ill 
 adapted for the duties which he had undertaken. This same irrita 
 bility and jealousy on his part, had soon placed him at variance 
 with all the other high officers of the colony, especially with Bien- 
 ville,* who seems to have returned his outbreaks of animosity, by the 
 most cold and measured contempt. There was also great difficulty 
 
 *" The soldiers do but follow the example of their Commandant M. de Bienville, 
 their Major M. de Boisbriant, their Adjutant M. Paillou, and Messrs, de Cha- 
 teaugu the Captain, and Serigny the Lieutenant ; to all of whom I have declared, 
 that I should inform you of their conduct ; and this has only made them violent 
 against me, sure as they are of the support of the Commissary Duclos. The 
 soldiers declare openly, that they will desert, and the other inhabitants that 
 they will quit the country, if they are deprived of their women ; and they all 
 insist, that the king does not disapprove of their proceedings in this respect, as 
 the Commissary, although he has several servants, bought an Indian girl, so soon 
 as he arrived here. They are all badly disciplined, there being no one here 
 capable of forming soldiers. M. de Bienville, the king's lieutenant, came into 
 the country at the age of eighteen, without having served either in France or 
 in Canada; and his brother M. de Chateaugue, as well as the Major Boisbriant, 
 were still younger on their arrival in Louisiana. The Chief Director, M. Diri- 
 goin, has no ability, and the Comptroller Lebas, is very dissipated and thinks 
 of nothing but his pleasures." Letter from La Motte Cadillac. 
 
 On the other hand, the Royal Commissary Duclos says of the Commandant 
 " I cannot praise too highly the admirable manner in which M. de Bienville 
 has conducted himself towards the Indians, in order to reduce them to submis 
 sion. His success, in this respect, has been due entirely to his honorable char 
 acter, and to the scrupulousness with which he observes his promises, as well as 
 to the firmness and equity of his decisions in the controversies between the dif 
 ferent Indian nations, which select him as the arbiter. Most especially has he 
 conciliated their esteem, by discountenancing all acts of robbery or depredation 
 committed against the Indians, by Frenchmen, who are, on each occasion, obliged 
 to make honorable amends to the persons injured." With regard to articles in 
 tended for presents to the Indians, the commissary warns the minister against 
 trusting them to La Motte Cadillac, as he would certainly convert them to his 
 own use ; and recommends that they should be left entirely at the disposal of M. de 
 Bienville, " who is better acquainted than any one else, with the strength of the 
 different nations, and the nature and extent of the presents to be made to each." 
 
1714.] BIENVILLE COMMANDANT OF THE MISSISSIPPI. 
 
 291 
 
 in organizing the Council of Government, which was to include, 
 in addition to the high officers above named, two persons chosen 
 from among the most respectable inhabitants, and of those pro 
 posed, La Motte Cadillac objected to one on account of his being 
 a surgeon, and to another, Lafreniere, the principal merchant in 
 Louisiana, on the more reasonable grounds, that he could neither 
 write nor read. This body was however, at length constituted, and 
 proceeded to business, with the store-keeper as Attorney General, 
 and a soldier of the garrison of Mobile, as Secretary and Archi 
 vist ; and one of its first acts was to follow the example of the 
 Parliament of Paris, by refusing to register the Charter to Crozat. 
 Crozat, notwithstanding these disappointments, persevered in 
 his scheme ; and in the following year he sent out vessels laden 
 with goods more suitable to the wants and means of the people, 
 and carrying colonists male and female, the. latter of whom 
 served to afford a theme for some caustic remarks by the gov 
 ernor.* Crozat at the same time obtained from the king a de 
 cree, for the more effectual enforcement of his commercial regula 
 tions, which rendered him very unpopular in the colony, as it 
 destroyed the contraband trade with Pensacola, almost the only 
 source of profit to the people. The government moreover, on 
 his request, ordered that several forts should be erected and garri 
 soned at its expense, on points in the interior, particularly with 
 the object of restraining the English, whose traders from Caro 
 lina, were penetrating those countries in all directions, even to the 
 Mississippi, and exciting the natives to hostilities against the 
 French. To the mortification of La Motte Cadillac, however, the 
 superintendence of the works thus directed, was assigned, in dis 
 regard of all his denunciations, to Bienville, who also received a 
 commission as Commandant of the Mississippi and its branches, 
 with powers so much enlarged, as to render him nearly indepen 
 dent of the general government of the colony. 
 
 * La Motte Cadillac states that the women had all been seduced by the captain 
 of the vessel which brought them out. Some of them had, however, found hus 
 bands, and one had been taken into the service of the Commissary Duclos, wlw 
 would, no doubt, improve her morals. 
 
 Bienville usually maintained the utmost reserve, in speaking of the other offi 
 cers ; though on one occasion he declared, that the animosity of M. de la Motte- 
 Cadillac towards himself, arose from his refusal to marry that gentleman's 
 daughter. 
 
292 THE JESUITS IN THE ILLINOIS. [1714. 
 
 Whilst these events were passing in lower Louisiana the Jesuits 
 in the Illinois countries were steadily pursuing their favorite ob 
 jects, the civilization of the natives, and their conversion to the 
 Christian religion, notwithstanding the discouragement which the 
 utter indifference of those people was calculated to produce. In 
 vain did the worthy fathers constantly set the example of industry 
 and temperance; the Indians disdained labor, as a mark of ser 
 vitude, and preferred habitual indolence and occasional de 
 bauchery, to all the comforts which regular employment could 
 secure to them.* To the explanations of the mysteries of the 
 Catholic faith, they listened very patiently, yielding a Veady as 
 sent to all, and frequently submitting to be baptised, to make 
 their confessions and to receive the sacraments : but they often 
 required in return the same respect to their own ceremonies, and 
 to the harangues of their own priests, and the sam||f admission of 
 the truth of their traditions, and the reasonableness of their ex 
 pectations as to the future; though it does not appear, that they 
 ever exhibited the slightest inclination to persecute, or to punish 
 any one, for adherence to his own religious belief. 
 
 The Jesuits were, however, not to be deterred by difficulties of 
 this kind, which experience had taught them to expect. They 
 persevered in spite of derision, obloquy, blows, and the falling 
 
 * Interesting accounts of the establishment of the Jesuit missions in the Illi 
 nois may be found in the " Lettres Edifiantes,'' particularly in the communications 
 of Fathers Marest and Gravier. It is difficult, however, to understand the sim 
 plicity if not niaiserie, of the portions of these letters relating to the conversion 
 of the natives ; the paragraphs in which the soul of the writer, seems to over 
 flow with joy, on account of the success of his labors, usually contain some 
 ridiculous instance of the utter carelessness of the converts, or their incapacity to 
 comprehend that of which they are supposed to be convinced. 
 
 The obstacles to the conversion of the aborigines of America to Christianity, 
 are clearly shown by Hennepin, in his accounts of the character and customs of 
 those people. He concludes, with reason, that all efforts for that object, will 
 be vain, until the Indians shall have been redeemed from their wandering state, 
 which he, however, seems to consider almost impracticable, except in a very few 
 cases, from their unconquerable indolence and indifference. He treats as wholly 
 absurd, all the stories of conversions of tribes previously published in Europe; 
 and doubts that any thing has been effected in the way of the salvation of souls, 
 except by the baptism of a few infants who died immediately afterwards. The 
 letters of the Jesuits tend to conclusions scarcely more encouraging ; the worthy 
 fathers, however, endeavor to console themselves and their brethren, for the 
 general fruitlessness of their labors, by dwelling on the extraordinary piety of 
 a few of their converts. 
 
1715.] DEATH OF LOUIS XIV. 293 
 
 off of their proselytes , and it is probable that they might in time 
 have succeeded in the Illinois, at least as far as they did in Cali 
 fornia and Paraguay, provided they could, as in the last named 
 countries, have kept the natives free from communication with 
 other civilized people. But this was impossible, and commerce 
 there, as elsewhere, proved the great stumbling-block to all such 
 schemes. Wheresoever the Jesuit established himself, and gath 
 ered a flock around him, there came the trader from Montreal or 
 Mobile, with his trinkets, his arms and ammunition, his brandy, 
 and his joyous and generally licentious habits ; offering in all 
 respects a contrast to the austere black" gown, not at all favorable 
 to the latter in the eyes of the Indians of either sex. From that 
 moment the influence of the Jesuit declined ; and when he at 
 tempted to control or restrain his neophytes, their savage nature 
 often burst forth, so that the palm of martyrdom was, in many cases, 
 the last consolation of the devoted disciple of St. Ignatius. 
 
 Between the Jesuits and the traders, there could never be 
 friendship or cordial co-operation. The missionaries usually found 
 it best to yield, which they could do with a good grace, when 
 ever it was indispensable ; and as the traders could not venture 
 to provoke too far, a body possessing so much influence with 
 their government, a compromise was generally the result. The 
 traffic was conducted more regularly and fairly ; and the politic 
 priests closed their eyes on many practices, which they were un 
 able to prevent. Some of the traders moreover consented to be 
 united in marriage with their Indian mistresses, and to have their 
 children baptised and instructed by the missionaries; and in this 
 manner, each mission was in time surrounded by a village, com 
 posed of French, Indians, and half-breeds, of whom the number 
 of the latter, was continually increasing. 
 
 In the meantime news had been received of a most important 
 change in the direction of the French Government. In Sep 
 tember, 1715, King Louis XIV., quitted the world, which he 
 had so long enjoyed and disturbed, leaving the throne of France 
 to his great-grandson, Louis XV., a delicate boy of five years old. 
 By the will of the late monarch, a Council of Regency was to 
 conduct the affairs of the kingdom during the minority of the 
 young sovereign ; but this disposition was immediately set aside 
 by the Parliament of Paris, which unanimously appointed, as 
 
294 THE DUKE OF ORLEANS REGENT OF FRANCE. [1715. 
 
 sole Regent, Philip Duke of Orleans, the nephew of Louis XIV. 
 and heir presumptive to the throne, in virtue of the renunciation 
 of Philip V. of Spain. Other events which materially influenced 
 the destinies of Louisiana, soon followed this appointment; and 
 those events, probably, proceeded directly from the trifling cir 
 cumstances which will now be related. 
 
 In the spring of 1715, strong expectations of advantage from 
 Louisiana, were raised by a Canadian named Dutisne, who had 
 received from the Indians in the Illinois, some pieces of silver 
 ore, with the assurance that they had been obtained from a rich 
 mine in that country. As the specimens presented, contained 
 a large proportion of pure silver, La Motte Cadillac despatch 
 ed the joyful intelligence to Europe, \vhere it was extensively 
 circulated and believed; and he himself hastened up the Mis 
 sissippi to the country in which they were said to have been 
 found, but on his arrival there, it appeared that they had all 
 been brought by Indians from New Mexico. The governor 
 then caused a smelting furnace to be erected at a lead mine on 
 the Marameg, or Merrimack river, which enters the Mississippi 
 from the west, thirty-six miles below the mouth of the Missouri: 
 it was, however, soon ascertained that the expense of reducing 
 the metal and transporting it to France, could not be covered by 
 the proceeds of the sale; and La Motte Cadillac in consequence 
 returned to Mobile, less satisfied than ever with Louisiana, whilst 
 the reports which he had sent to Europe, were beginning to at 
 tract universal attention to that colony. 
 
 La Motte Cadillac had ere this period engaged in an attempt 
 to establish commercial relations with the northern provinces of 
 Mexico, which produced most important results. On arriving 
 in Louisiana, he found the letter which had been, as already 
 mentioned, addressed to his predecessor, by Father Hidalgo,* a 
 
 *"This man," writes Stoddart, in his "History of Louisiana," page 32, "was 
 an artful, cunning priest, extremely bold and daring in his actions. He was at 
 the head of the missions in Texas, and makes a conspicuous figure in the history 
 of that country. He published an account of the most material transactions of 
 his life, which was long and active; and several families in Nacogdoches are in 
 possession of the work. And finally, he was canonized for the services he had 
 rendered to his religion and government!" The absurdity of this last assertion 
 throws great doubt over the accuracy of what precedes it. Canonizing is a process 
 rather more difficult and expensive than Mr. Stoddart seems to have imagined. 
 
1715.] ATTEMPT TO OPEN TRADE WITH MEXICO. 295 
 
 Spanish missionary, among the Cenis Indians on the Neches 
 river, representing the condition of that country, as highly favor 
 able for settlement, and for trade with the northern provinces of 
 New Spain. This letter was written when commercial inter 
 course was allowed between the French and the Spanish colonies, 
 and under the impression that it would be continued: the gov 
 ernor, however, notwithstanding the subsequent revival of the 
 prohibitory regulations of the Spaniards, and the repulse of Cro- 
 zat's vessels from Vera Cruz, was induced by the invitations 
 of the missionary to hope that he might still succeed in estab 
 lishing an indirect trade with the provinces above mentioned; 
 and he resolved to make an effort for the purpose. 
 
 There was at that time not a single post or establishment 
 whatsoever, of civilized persons, in the whole division of America, 
 between the Mississippi and the Rio Bravo del Norte, except in 
 the narrow valley of New. Mexico, traversed by the head waters 
 of the latter stream; or further south, within two hundred miles 
 of tKe Mexican Gulf, between the Rio Bravo and the Panuco, 
 or Tampico. Those vast regions were only known from the ac 
 counts of the two or three Spanish expeditions through them, 
 already mentioned ; and their only inhabitants, other than savages, 
 were a few Spanish missionaries and fugitives from Mexico, 
 residing among the Cenis. 
 
 The Spanish establishments nearest to those of the French in 
 Louisiana, were the Presidio or Fort, and Mission of San Juan 
 Bautista, situated at a short distance south of the Rio Bravo, 
 about nine hundred miles from its mouth. Further, in the same 
 direction, were Coahuila or Monclova the capital of the province 
 of Coahuila, Monterey the capital of New Leon, and Saltillo, 
 west of which were Parral, Parras and Chihuahua, all of them 
 small towns; and beyond these, and separated from them by wide 
 desert tracts, were Durango, Zacatecas, and San Luis Potosi, on 
 the outskirts of the ancient and populous provinces of New Spain. 
 
 For communication with these settlements of the Spaniards, 
 two modes presented themselves to the Governor of Louisiana ; 
 either to form a colony or factory on the west coast of the Gulf, 
 at some point most convenient to the towns of the interior, or to 
 make all the communications pass through the Mississippi and 
 the Red River, and thence southward overland: the territories 
 
296 FIRST EXPEDITION OF ST. DENIS TO MEXICO. [1715. 
 
 % 
 
 bordering upon the Gulf, west of the Mississippi, being regarded 
 as impassable, from the number of the streams and the extent of 
 the marshes, as well as from the savage character of their inhab 
 itants. The former mode was in every respect preferable ; but 
 the colony of Louisiana, then containing not more than five or 
 six hundred white persons, was too feeble for the support and 
 protection of a settlement so distant, which would infallibly be 
 soon attacked by the Spaniards : and La Motte Cadillac accord 
 ingly determined to have an experimental expedition made, on 
 the other line of route, in order to ascertain how far commercial 
 intercourse, thus carried on, might be practicable and profitable. 
 The person selected for this enterprise, was the Canadian Louis 
 de St. Denis, who had, as already said, distinguished himself by 
 his shrewdness and courage, and had made several trading voy 
 ages up the Red river;* and he was accordingly furnished with 
 some goods from the public store at Dauphine island, and a pass 
 port from the Governor,! to be exhibited in case of need, declar 
 ing his object to be merely the purchase of' horses and cattle for 
 the colony. He quitted Mobile, on this expedition, in 1714, 
 with about thirty Canadians, to whom he added a number of Tu 
 nica Indians, from the Mississippi; and early in October, he 
 reached the principal village of the Natchitoches, on an island 
 
 *This account of the first Journey of St. Denis to Mexico, is derived princi 
 pally from the report of his examination at Mexico, and various other original 
 and unpublished documents, French and Spanish, connected with his case. 
 Charlevoix unaccountably blends the circumstances of the two expeditions of St. 
 Denis into one ; and he, as well as Le Page Dupratz, introduce into their accounts 
 a number of adventures, which are here omitted, as unimportant or apocryphal. 
 
 f The following translation of this passport, is made from the copy attached to 
 the report of the examination of St. Denis, at Mexico, in June, 1715: 
 
 " We, Antoine de la Motte Cadillac, Seigneur of Davaguet and Montdesert, 
 Governor of Dauphine Island, Fort Louis, Biloxy,and of the country and province 
 of Louisiana, do hereby authorize the Sieur de St. Denis, and the twenty-four 
 Canadians of his party, to take with him any number of Indians, whom he may 
 think necessary, to the Red River, or wherever else he may choose to go, in 
 search of the Mission of the Recolletj Father Francisco Hidalgo, agreeably to 
 the letter written by him, on the 17th of April, 1711, with the object of buying 
 horses and cattle, for the colony and province of Louisiana ; and we request all 
 whom it may concern, to suffer the said Sieur de St. Denis and his party, to pass 
 without impediment. In faith whereof, we have signed this, and sealed it with 
 the seal of our arms, and have caused it to be countersigned by our Secretary, 
 at Fort Louis, Louisiana, this 12th of September, 1713. 
 
 By my Secretary Ou,. " LA MOTTE CADILLAC. 
 
1715.] ST. DENIS ARRIVES IN MEXICO. 297 
 
 f 
 
 near the present town of that name. At that place he left a 
 few men, with orders to return to Mobile unless he should come 
 back within a given time ; and taking some Natchitoches Indians 
 as guides, he proceeded south-westward, to the country of the 
 Cenis, where he learned that Father Hidalgo had returned to 
 Mexico, sometime previous. Thereupon St. Denis resolved 
 to continue his route to the settled Spanish provinces : being, 
 however, fearful of exciting suspicion as to his motives, by carry 
 ing with him so many of his countrymen, he sent back the whole 
 party to Louisiana, with the exception of Penicaut the carpenter, 
 Jallot the surgeon, and one other; and with these and a small 
 number of Cenis, under their chief Bernardino, he took the route 
 towards the Presidio of St. Juan Bautista, in February, 1715. On 
 his way he met with no adventures worthy of note, except an at 
 tack from some wandering Indians (probably the Apaches) after 
 passing the Colorado, or San Marcos as it was then called by the 
 Spaniards ; and having repelled this attack, the travellers reached 
 the Presidio on the Rio Bravo, early in March.* 
 
 The commandant of this place, Don Diego Ramon de Viles- 
 cas, received the four Frenchmen with kindness, but he was 
 obliged, agreeably to his instructions, to detain them, until the 
 pleasure of his immediate superior, the Governor of -Coahuila, 
 could be learned ; and that officer, soon after, sent orders to the 
 fort, that St. Denis should proceed under a guard to the city of 
 Mexico. This being in accordance with his wishes, he took his 
 departure, accompanied by Jallot in the beginning of May, and 
 passing through Saltillo, San Luis Potosi and Queretaro, he 
 reached the capital of New Spain in the middle of that month. 
 
 The arrival of St. Denis created much excitement at Mexico. 
 The Duke de Linares, then Viceroy, caused him to be rigorously 
 interrogated as to the objects of his visit; and, notwithstanding, 
 the readiness displayed by the Frenchman, in communicating all 
 that was asked, and the favorable views of the Viceroy towards 
 his nation, the case was submitted to the Audiencia, or Supreme 
 Court of Justice and Council of Government of the Kingdom. 
 
 * At Mexico, St. Denis declared, in June, 1715, that he had set out on his jour 
 ney a year and nine months previous ; but this seems to have been incorrect. 
 He seems, indeed, to have considered it unwise to tell the truth to the Span 
 iards on any occasion. 
 
 38 
 
298 RELEASE AND MARRIAGE OF ST. DENIS. [1716. 
 
 After some weeks, a report was made on the case, by Espinosa 
 the Fiscal or Attorney General, setting forth the magnitude of the 
 dangers to which the Spanish dominions were exposed by the 
 establishment of the French in Louisana ; and recommending 
 that St. Denis, with his companions, should be escorted back to 
 the Red river, and that Spanish missions, each supported by a 
 small garrison of soldiers, should be planted among the Indian 
 nations, near that stream, in order thus to check the advance of 
 the French towards the Mexican provinces. These views were 
 approved by the Viceroy, who immediately gave orders for their 
 execution ; and he likewise endeavored to induce St. Denis to 
 remain and settle in Mexico, where a situation was offered to 
 him, superior to any which he might reasonably hope to attain 
 in Louisiana. In what manner these offers were received by 
 the Frenchman, is not exactly known. The Spaniards insist 
 that he accepted them, and asked only to be permitted to return 
 to Mobile, and collect his property, after which he would es 
 tablish himself in the position assigned to him ; but it is more 
 probable, that he only availed himself of the confidence reposed in 
 him by the Viceroy, to obtain information and privileges, which 
 he might turn to advantage as a French subject. He how r ever 
 certainly agreed to accompany the Spanish party which was to be 
 despatched to form missions in the Red river countries, and to 
 aid them by his advice and his mediation with the Indians ; and 
 the command of this party was, through his influence, entrusted 
 to Ensign Domingo Ramon, the son of the Commandant of the 
 Presidio of San Juan : St. Denis himself being appointed chief 
 guide and conductor of the baggage and supplies, for which he 
 was to be paid at the rate of fifteen hundred dollars per annum. 
 
 St. Denis quitted Mexico in the latter part of the year, and in 
 February, 1716, he reached the Presidio of San Juan, where he 
 was united in marriage to Donna Maria de Vilescas, the Com 
 mandant's neice, whose affections he had gained during his stay at 
 that place. The soldiers, priests and other persons for the contem 
 plated establishments in the north, were in the meantime collected 
 at the fort, from which they set out on the 20th of March. The 
 party consisted of twenty-four soldiers, nine friars, seven women 
 and thirty-five other persons, including the four Frenchmen, but 
 not the newly married lady, who, for some reason unexplained, 
 
1716.] SPANISH EXPEDITION TO TEXAS. 299 
 
 remained at the fort ; and they carried with them more than five 
 hundred head of horses, mules and cattle.* Their progress was, 
 therefore, necessarily slow. On the 2d of May, they forded the 
 Nueces, the bed of which was found nearly dry; and having 
 in the same way passed the Medina, the northern boundary of 
 Coahuila on the 14th, they encamped for a few days in the 
 beautiful valley of San Antonio, near that river on the north, 
 which had been discovered, as already related, by Teran, in 1691. 
 Continuing their march, they crossed in succession, the Gauda- 
 lupe, the San Marcos now the Colorado, the Colorado now the 
 Brazos, and the Trinity, from which latter river, St. Denis, went 
 in advance, to communicate with the Cenis, and secure their 
 friendship for the Spaniards. In this, the Frenchman was en 
 tirely successful ; and on the 27th of June, he returned to the 
 party, accompanied by the chief Bernardino and a number of his 
 followers, with whom Ramon smoked the calumet of peace, and 
 concluded a solemn treaty of amity and commerce. The places 
 which had been occupied by the Spanish missions and churches, 
 in 1692-3, were discovered, and some of them were again con 
 secrated to the same purposes ; the principal establishment being 
 that of Our Lady of Guadalupe, so named in honor of the pa 
 troness of their expedition, and situated near the spot now occupied 
 by the town of Nacogdoches. The Spaniards then crossed the 
 river of the Adayes, since called the Sabine, and in like manner 
 communicated and entered into agreements with the Adayes In 
 dians, among whom they also founded missions; and St. Denis 
 there taking leave of them, hastened by way of the Natchitoches 
 town, the Red river and the Mississippi, to Mobile, where he ar 
 rived on the 25th of August, 1716, after an absence of nearly 
 two years. 
 
 La Motte Cadillac was by no means satisfied with the result of 
 this expedition, which in place of facilitating the advance of the 
 French towards Mexico, had brought the Spaniards on the borders 
 of Louisiana ; and he immediately despatched M. Blondel, with a 
 
 *The particulars of this expedition are related with minuteness, in the Jour 
 nal of Domingo Ramon, and the report of the missionaries ; of which docu 
 ments, the latter affords some curious observations, as to the religious ideas of 
 the Indians, and the possibility of making ( con verts) in that quarter, singularly 
 coinciding with those of Hennepin, on the same subject. 
 
300 GENERAL EXCITEMENT AMONG INDIANS. [1715. 
 
 few soldiers, to occupy the Natchitoches town, on the Red river, as 
 a check upon the other party. The hope of establishing commer 
 cial relations with northern Mexico was, however, not aban 
 doned; St. Denis was soon ready to return to the Rio Grande,, 
 and four traders of Mobile offered to accompany him, if goods to 
 the amount of sixty thousand livres could be obtained from the 
 public stores for the adventure. This was arranged; and St. 
 Denis with the other traders Messrs. Lafreniere, Delery and Beau- 
 lieu, brothers, and M. Graveline, all Canadians, took their de 
 parture from Mobile, in October, 1716. 
 
 During the absence of St. Denis on his first expedition to 
 Mexico, some important events had occurred in Louisiana. In the 
 beginning of 1715 considerable excitement was manifested among 
 the Indian nations in those parts of America. The Chickasas 
 murdered, several French officers and traders, among whom was 
 M. de St. Helene the nephew of Bienville ; and they attacked the 
 French boats passing on the Mississippi, near the line of heights, 
 then called the Ecores de Prudhomme, now the Chickasa Bluffs 
 in the State of Tennessee. A party of Cherokees at the same time 
 crossed the Ohio, and surprised M. de Ramezay and several 
 other Frenchmen on the Wabash, who were put to death ; and 
 the Illinois Indians again destroyed the missions and settlements 
 in their country, from which the people were driven, as they had 
 been ten years before, to Canada or Louisiana. The Choctas, 
 moreover, begun first to show a hostile disposition towards 
 the French, whose traders were expelled from all the northern 
 towns of that nation ; and the two tribes of the Conchatta and 
 Chickasahay, which refused to take part against their former 
 friends, were forced to quit their grounds on the Pearl river, and 
 fly for refuge to the vicinity of Mobile. 
 
 All these hostile movements among the Indians were, as usual, 
 attributed to the English, whose traders were then in large num 
 bers in those countries ; and the suspicion was no doubt well 
 founded, as there is abundant evidence, that neither of the three 
 European nations, possessing territories in North America, scru 
 pled to excite the savages against its rivals, whensoever opportu 
 nities were presented. Bienville, acting upon this supposition, 
 hastened with a few men, up the Mobile river, where he seized 
 some of the English and destroyed their stores ; and hav- 
 
1715.] THE YAMASSEES EXPELLED FROM CAROLINA. 
 
 301 
 
 ing then assembled a number of chiefs of the Chocta towns, he 
 required them immediately to banish the other interlopers, and 
 to bring him the head of Watacta-chitto, the brother of their 
 principal chief, who had been the leader of the opposition to the 
 French. The Indians demurred at this imperious demand, but 
 they soon obeyed : Watacta-chitto was killed by his brother, and 
 his head was sent to Mobile; the English traders were expelled; 
 the Conchatta and Chickasahay tribes were reinstated in their 
 country and indemnified for their losses, and the whole Chocta 
 nation returned to its former state of amity with the French. 
 
 The English in Carolina were, however, during the same sum 
 mer, themselves visited by an infliction of a similar character, 
 which proved to be one of the most disastrous ever experienced 
 by that nation in the New World. The Yamassees, as already 
 mentioned, had remained in the lower part* of South Carolina, 
 and on the coasts and islands farther south, in friendship with the 
 English, and under their protection, ever since the war with the 
 Spaniards in 1686. In the middle of April, 1715, these savages 
 unexpectedly fell upon the settlements in Port Royal and St. 
 Helena islands, where they killed a large number of the inhabi 
 tants, the remainder escaping in vessels to Charleston ; and then 
 emboldened by this success, they marched towards that city, 
 which they seemed determined to attack. The Governor Charles 
 Craven, who had so effectually terminated the war in North Caro 
 lina in 1711, in the meantime assembled the militia, and met the 
 Yamassees near the Salkehatchee or Saltcatchers river, one of 
 the head waters of the Combahee, where he defeated them with 
 great slaughter ; and pursuing his victory, he drove the fugitives 
 across the Savannah and the Alatamaha, into Florida, and estab 
 lished forts on those rivers, to prevent future incursions. 
 
 Cotemporary with the Yamassee war in Carolina, were the 
 first difficulties experienced by the French from the Natches. As 
 much will be said of these Indians in the following pages, it will 
 be convenient here to present a concise account of them. 
 
 The Natches or Na-chees were a small nation, numbering at that 
 time, not more than two thousand five hundred persons, who in 
 habited a tract of country about twenty miles in length, on the left 
 bank of the Mississippi, four hundred miles from its mouth, and 
 nearly midway between the entrances of the Big Black and Ho- 
 
302 
 
 THE NATCHES COUNTRY. 
 
 [1715. 
 
 mochitto rivers. They supported themselves principally by 
 agriculture, for which strong inducements were offered by the 
 fertility of the country, and its elevation above the river, se 
 curing it against the ravages of floods ; and being surrounded 
 by wandering tribes, they were necessarily led to form their 
 habitations and fields near each other for mutual defence. 
 The greater part of the nation was indeed collected in six or 
 seven villages, situated on or near the banks of a small stream, 
 now called St. Catherine's Creek, which runs for some dis 
 tance from north to south, within three or four miles of the 
 Mississippi, and empties into that river twelve miles below the 
 present city of Natchez. 
 
 THE 
 NATCHES COUNTRY. 
 
 These villages, each occupied by a tribe or clan, bore distinct 
 names, three of which signified respectively, the Apple ; the 
 White Earth ; and the Meal ; the others were called the Jerize- 
 nac, the Gris and the Tioux, whose meanings, if they had any, 
 are unknown. The French accounts speak frequently of a great 
 or principal town, where the head of the nation resided ; but this ' 
 was probably one of the three first named above. These villages 
 
1715.] LANGUAGE OF THE NATCHES. 303 
 
 were merely groups of small cabins, made of stakes and earth, 
 ' thatched with leaves and blades of Indian corn; the cabins of the 
 chiefs were lined with mats, and furnished with rude seats and 
 couches of wood, covered with mats or skins. The cultivation 
 of the earth, was performed by the people of each village in 
 common, under the direction of their chiefs, who distributed the 
 produce; the whole labor consisted in planting corn, beans and 
 tobacco, removing weeds, and gathering the harvest, which was 
 usually plentiful, on account of the great fertility of the soil. The 
 hunting was performed at stated seasons, by the people of each 
 village in a particular section of the country, under the direction 
 of the respective chiefs, who, in like manner, divided the fruits 
 of the chase among the inhabitants. 
 
 In personal appearance and disposition, no difference was re 
 marked between the Natches and the other Indians of that part of 
 America. Of their language, only a few words have been pre 
 served, some of which were nearly identical with those employed 
 to express the same meaning, by the Choctas or Chickasas ;* two 
 of the tribes, however, the Gris and Tioux, spoke languages en 
 tirely distinct from each other, and from the rest of the nation, so 
 that they were considered, in some of the French accounts, as 
 allies, rather than as members of the confederacy. The small 
 remnant of the Natches, now residing as a tribe of the Musco- 
 ghees, on the upper Arkansas, are entirely unintelligible by any 
 of the other Indians, from the Mississippi or Alabama; but they 
 may be the descendants of one or the other of the two tribes 
 above named. 
 
 As the natural consequence of their less erratic habits, and 
 mode of life, the Natches were raised above the level of bar 
 barism of the other nations of that division of America, though 
 by no means so much, as some poetic writers have represented. 
 This advancement was, however, accompanied by a correspond 
 ing increase of depravity. No Indians were more treacherous 
 
 * Mr. Gallatin in the comparative vocabulary of fifty-three Indian nations, at 
 tached to his admirable " Synopsis of the Indian tribes," published in the second 
 volume of the Transactions of the Archoeological Society of Cambridge, gives 
 a vocabulary of the Natches language, obtained by him from Istahlakteh, a 
 chief of the remaining tribe of that nation, then incorporated with the Creeks, 
 who visited Washington in 1826. Very few of the words bear the slightest re 
 semblance to those of any other Indian nation. 
 
304 GOVERNMENT OF THE NATCHES. [1715. 
 
 than the Natches ; among no other people, did greater licentious 
 ness prevail in the intercourse between the sexes, or was human 
 life sacrificed with less compunction ; prostitution was enjoined 
 by custom upon all women, and every civil or religious cere 
 mony, was attended by the murder of individuals in cold blood. 
 
 The government of the Natches was a hereditary monarchy, 
 limited by an aristocracy. Each tribe or village had its chief, 
 called a Wa-shil or Sun, who was absolute within his dominion ; 
 the supreme power was vested, nominally, in a Great Sun, but 
 in all matters of importance he was subject to the control of the 
 other chiefs in council. These Suns were believed to be all de 
 scended from a man and a woman of dazzling brightness, who 
 came among them directly from the great luminary; the line of 
 succession being, as in all other cases, traced only through fe 
 males. Thus, on the death of a Sun, he was succeeded in his 
 title and powers by the eldest son of his nearest female relative; 
 while his own children, fell into a lower rank, and their children, 
 sunk into the common herd of plebians, or Stinkards, according 
 to the signification of the word characterising them. Women of 
 high rank were called Female Suns: they as well as the Suns 
 could marry none but plebians, the offspring in all cases follow 
 ing the lot of the mother, without regard to that of the father, or 
 reputed father ; so that disputes as to legitimacy of birth could 
 rarely occur. The mother or sister, or nearest female relative of 
 the Great Sun, was styled Wa-shil-Tamail, or the Bright or Sun 
 Woman, and was held in the greatest respect by the whole nation: 
 she could, indeed, by law, have but one husband at a time ; but she 
 might repudiate him at her pleasure, or have him put to death on 
 the slightest suspicion of infidelity, and there was no limitation 
 as to the number of her lovers. Among all other persons, po 
 lygamy was allowed to the fullest extent, the forms of marriage 
 beimg most simple. Chastity was, as already said, held in no 
 repute, and jealousy was almost unknown. 
 
 The religion of the Natches, was like that of other barbarous 
 nations, founded on the belief in the existence of a Great and 
 Good Spirit, which directed all things for the advantage of man, 
 while an inferior Evil Spirit was ever laboring for his injury. 
 They worshipped the Sun as the representative or the abode 
 of the Good Spirit; and the chief village contained a large cabin, 
 
1715.] RELIGION OF THE NATCHES. 305 
 
 or temple as it was called by the French, in which a fire was 
 kept constantly burning', and the remains of deceased chiefs 
 were deposited :* they however, addressed their prayers only to 
 the Evil Genius, considering it superfluous to ask any thing of 
 the Great Spirit, who was always intent on their welfare. They 
 also had some vague ideas of a future state, at least ' for their 
 chiefs, who were supposed to be transported after death to a de 
 lightful country, abounding in game and fish : but as, according 
 to their notions, neither wives nor attendants were supplied in 
 this new existence, custom required that on the death of each 
 chief, all his dependants should be immediately sent to continue 
 
 *The chief temple of the Natches, is thus described by the Jesuit in a letter 
 addressed by him from New Orleans in 1730, and published among the Lettres 
 Edifiantes : 
 
 " The religion of this people [the Natches] in certain points strongly resembles 
 that of the ancient Romans. They have a temple filled with idols, representing 
 men and animals, for which they have the most profound veneration. Their 
 temple resembles an oven in form ; and is about one hundred feet in circumfer 
 ence ; it is entered by a small door, four feet high, and has no windows. The 
 roof is covered with three layers of mats, to keep out the rain ; and within and 
 on the top, are three figures of eagles in wood, painted red, yellow and black. 
 Before the door is a sort of shed, and a lodge in which the keeper of the temple 
 resides: the whole is surrounded by a palisade, on which are exposed the heads 
 of enemies, slain by their chiefs in war. Within the temple, are several benches, 
 on which are placed oval baskets, made of canes, containing the bones of chiefs; 
 and by them are placed those of the victims, who gave themselves up to be stran 
 gled, in order to follow their masters to the other world. On another bench, are 
 several baskets neatly painted, containing the idols, which are figures of men and 
 women of stone, or baked clay, heads and tails of snakes of extraordinary size, 
 stuffed owls, bits of crystal, and jaw-bones of large fishes. There was also in 
 1699, a bottle and a plate of glass, which were preserved as treasures of much 
 value. 
 
 " Care is taken to keep up a perpetual fire in this temple, and to prevent it 
 from blazing, for \fchich purpose, only dry wood of oak or walnut is used ; and 
 the old men, are obliged each in turn, to bring a large log to the enclosure. The 
 number of keepers or guardians of the temple is fixed, each serving for one quar 
 ter of a year. The guardian lives in the lodge or porch, like a sentinel, and there 
 watches the fire, to see that it does not go out. He feeds it with two or three 
 large logs, which burn only at the ends, and are never placed one on another, in 
 order that they may not blaze." 
 
 Charlevoix who visited Natches in 1721, found the temple nearly empty, very 
 filthy, and filled with smoke from the sacred fire, which was almost extinguished, 
 the guardian having gone off to a festival : the custom of depositing the dead 
 bodies of chiefs in the interior, had been abandoned; as to the heads of enemies 
 placed on the spikes of the surrounding palisade, Charlevoix treats that as a 
 mere embellishment. 
 
 39 
 
306 NATCHES COMPARED WITH OTHER INDIANS. [1715. 
 
 their services to him ; so that the funeral of each distinguished per 
 son was solemnised by the murder of a number of men, women and 
 children, proportioned to the state which he had maintained on 
 earth. Human sacrifices were also practised on many other occa 
 sions, in propitiation of the Evil Spirit; as during long droughts, 
 and violent storms, or on the departure of a great chief for war. 
 Many of the victims no doubt offered their necks voluntarily to 
 the fatal cord by which they were strangled, and others resigned 
 themselves with resolution, to the fate which they must have long 
 anticipated ; the greater number were, however, seized and con 
 fined until the moment of the sacrifice, shortly before which they 
 were rendered insensible, by pills of tobacco forced upon them. 
 
 The Natches were, in general, disinclined to war, though they 
 exhibited much energy and bravery in their expeditions for that 
 purpose, and a corresponding degree of ferocity towards their 
 captives. The direction of the hostile operations was committed 
 to the great war chief, who was generally the active head of the 
 government, though inferior in dignity to the Great Sun; and the 
 commencement and termination of every expedition were solem 
 nised by ceremonies in the temple. When the Great Sun him 
 self went to war, much care was taken to shield him from all 
 danger; as in the case of his being wounded, killed or made 
 prisoner, the chiefs of the army were liable to be all put to 
 death. 
 
 On all these points of government, religion and social life, 
 many other aboriginal nations of America held nearly the same 
 opinions, and observed nearly the same rules and customs. The 
 temple with its perpetual fire, and the remains of chiefs deposit 
 ed in it the adoration of the Sun the belief in a Good and 
 an Evil Spirit, and in a future state of happiness for good and 
 great men the monarchy limited by an aristocracy and the suc 
 cession through females were common to almost all the aboriginal 
 nations north of the Mexican Gulf, which supported themselves 
 principally by agriculture ; though the Natches seem to have ad 
 hered to them more strongly arid for a greater length of time after 
 the establishment of Europeans in their vicinity, than any othei 
 people, in that portion of the New World. They appear, more 
 over, to have been the only nation, except the Taensas, in the val 
 ley of the Mississippi, among whom human sacrifices were allowed; 
 
1715.] FIRST ATTACK OF THE NATCHES ON THE FRENCH. 307 
 
 though such horrible practices certainly prevailed in Virginia,* 
 and, perhaps, in many other countries east of the great river, at 
 the time of their discovery. It is still usual among the Indians 
 of the upper Missouri to kill the horse or dog of a chief at his 
 funeral, with the same idea of enabling him to prosecute his 
 hunting in the second world. 
 
 O 
 
 Upon the whole it seems most reasonable to conclude that the 
 Natches were Indians of the same race with those by whom they 
 were surrounded;! though they may, like the Uchee tribe among 
 the Muscoghees, have emigrated from some distant point, to that 
 in which they were found by Europeans. The fanciful theories of 
 some poetic travellers and historians, that they may have descend 
 ed from a colony of Aztecs, or a colony of Carthaginians, appear 
 to have had no other foundation, than in the simple facts of their 
 human sacrifices, and their adoration of the Sun, neither of which 
 customs was peculiar to them. 
 
 Until 1715, the Natches always maintained the most friendly 
 relations with the French; and in the preceding year a plantation 
 had been established near their towns, by M. La Loire des Ursins, 
 which promised great advantages from the cultivation of tobacco. 
 
 *See the account given by Captain John Smith, in his History of Virginia, 
 page 36, of the annual sacrifice of fifteen boys, in honor of the Okee or Evil 
 Spirit, on the north side of James river, a little above the Chickahominy. 
 
 fCharlevoix, in the 31st letter of the journal of his travels, says: 
 
 " As regards the nation of the Natches in general, nothing in their personal 
 appearance distinguishes them from the other savages of Canada and Louisiana. 
 They rarely go to war, and do not place their glory in the destruction of men. 
 What particularly distinguishes them, is the very despotic form of their govern 
 ment, the entire dependence amounting to slavery of its subjects, the extreme 
 pride and haughtiness of the chiefs, and the generally pacific disposition, in which, 
 however, some change has appeared of late years. The Hurons also believe 
 their hereditary chiefs to be the issue of the Sun ; but no one amongst them would 
 be the servant of one of those chiefs, or would follow him into the other world, 
 to have the honor of serving him there, as often happens among the Natches. 
 The greater number of the natives of Louisiana had their temples, as well as 
 the Natches, and in all of them a fire was kept perpetually burning. It seems, 
 indeed, that the Mobilians had a sort of supremacy in religious matters over all 
 the other nations ; for when in any other the sacred fire became extinguished, it 
 could only be lighted again, from that burning in their temple. The temple of 
 the Natches is, however, at present, (1721,) the only one which subsists, and it 
 is regarded with great veneration by all surrounding nations." 
 
 What is here said of the Mohilians, most probably refers to the Taensas, who 
 removed to the vicinity i>f Mobile Bay in 1705. 
 
308 BIENVILLE MARCHES AGAINST THE NATCHES. [1716. 
 
 Whether this establishment excited the jealousy of the Indians, 
 or they were influenced by the Chickasas or by the English, or 
 they felt themselves insulted by the impolitic refusal of La Motte 
 Cadillac to smoke the calumet with their Great Sun, they unex 
 pectedly, in the autumn of that year, broke out in hostilities 
 against the French, whom they expelled from their country; and 
 they soon after attacked several boats descending-the Mississippi, 
 the people in which were murdered or wounded and beaten, while 
 the cargoes were seized and carried into the interior. 
 
 Accounts of these last mentioned disasters on the Mississippi 
 were brought to Mobile in January, 1716, by Father Davion, the 
 missionary among the Tunica Indians; and La Motte Cadillac 
 immediately ordered Bienville, to go with thirty-four men to 
 Natchez, where he was to erect a fort, and exact reparation for 
 the outrages. Bienville remonstrated against this order on the 
 grounds of the insufficiency of the force, allowed for its execution: 
 but the governor insisted, notwithstanding, that news had been 
 received through M. La Loire des Ursins of the murder of three 
 other Frenchmen, who were descending the Mississippi, and of 
 farther disorders committed by the Indians ; and the Commandant 
 was obliged to cease his opposition. He accordingly departed 
 with his little army for the Mississippi, where he was fortunately 
 joined by fifteen sailors and by ten of Mr. Crozat's boats, on their 
 way up the river with goods ; and on the 23d of April the whole 
 party reached the Tunica Cliff, on the left bank of the river, about 
 thirty miles by land below Natchez. There a camp was formed, 
 near Father Day ion's hermitage, surrounded by an entrenchment, 
 sufficiently strong to resist attack from savages; and though ac 
 counts had arrived of additional outrages of the Natches upon the 
 French, Bienville dissembling his intentions, merely sent a friendly 
 message to the head of that nation, expressing the governor's 
 desire to establish a trading post near his town.* 
 
 Four days after the despatch of this message, three Natches 
 Indians appeared at the camp to present the calumet of peace; but 
 
 * A particular account of this expedition, though somewhat contradictory in 
 its details, may be found in the report of M. de Richebourg, which is given en 
 tire in the "Histoire de la Louisiane,"by Gayarre", vol. 1, pages 132 to 147. Ac 
 counts are also presented by Charlevoix, La Harpe, Dumont, Le Page Dupratz, 
 and other writers, which have been examined and compared. 
 
1716.] BIENVILLE NEGOTIATES WITH THE NATCHKS. 309 
 
 Bienville learning that they were persons of inferior rank, refused 
 to receive them, or to treat with any other than their highest digni 
 taries. They accordingly returned, and on the 7th of May, several 
 canoes arrived, bringing the Great Sun and his brothers Olabalke- 
 biche or the Stung Serpent, and the Little Sun, with their half 
 brother the Bearded Sun, and eight other chiefs and their attend 
 ants, who on landing inarched towards the camp with great 
 solemnity, singing a song of peace. Bienville received the 
 principal chiefs in his tent; but when they proffered the calu 
 met, he rudely cast it aside, and charging them with their out 
 rages upon his countrymen, he demanded immediate and ample 
 satisfaction. The stupefied Indians remained silent; but they 
 were soon aroused by the entrance of the French soldiers, who 
 loaded them with heavy chains, and carried them off to a prison, 
 prepared for them. There they remained for some hours in sul 
 len silence ; but there were warriors among them, who would not 
 disgrace their nation, by showing signs of fear, and the death 
 song of manly resignation was soon heard from their place of 
 confinement. 
 
 Bienville had, in the meantime, obtained exact accounts of all 
 the circumstances connected with the late outrages, and knew 
 who were the principal authors of them. He, therefore, ordered 
 the Great Sun, the Little Sun and the Stung Serpent, to be 
 brought to his tent at midnight ; and in a tone calculated to reas 
 sure them, he declared that he knew their innocence of all offence 
 towards the French, and offered to restore them to liberty, on con 
 dition that the heads of the guilty persons should be delivered to 
 him. In order to enforce his demand, he reminded them of many 
 past occurrences, shewing the power of his nation; and conjured 
 them to save their country from the fate which would certainly 
 overwhelm it, unless the satisfaction required by him should be 
 immediately granted. His representations produced the desired 
 effect ; and on the following day, the Little Sun proceeded to 
 the towns, in order to submit the requisitions of the terrible com 
 mandant, to the council of chiefs. 
 
 On the 14th, the Little Sun returned to the French camp bring 
 ing three heads, which were laid at the feet of Bienville, with the 
 assurance that they were those of the guilty chiefs. The Com 
 mandant, however, being well informed of all that had taken 
 
310 COMPLETE SUCCESS OF BIENVILLE. [1716. 
 
 place among the Natches, pointed to one of the heads, which he 
 knew to be that of an innocent person, and sternly rebuking the 
 Sun for the attempted deception, ordered him again to be placed 
 with the others in irons. Meanwhile a fever had broken out in 
 the camp, and Bienville being, moreover, aware that the Natches 
 and several other nations in their vicinity were actively preparing 
 for war, found all his address required to terminate the business 
 satisfactorily. He accordingly removed the chains from his 
 principal captives, and allowed the Great Sun and two other 
 chiefs to go to their town, in order that they might employ their 
 influence to obtain the heads of the remaining enemies of France ; 
 especially that of the high and powerful chief called the White 
 Earth, who was known to have himself committed several of 
 the outrages. 
 
 After the departure of the Great Sun, Bienville directed his 
 powers of persuasion, particularly to the Stung Serpent, who was 
 considered the wisest and bravest of the Natches; and he at 
 length drew from that chief, the confession, which seems to ha\ e 
 been anticipated by the Frenchman, that among the most active 
 promoters of the robberies and murders, were his own half-brother 
 the Bearded Sun, and two others of the prisoners in the camp. 
 The Commandant on learning this, ceased to insist on the imme 
 diate delivery of the Sun of White Earth, who had fled into 
 the interior; and he offered to liberate all the captives except 
 the three who had been declared guilty, on condition that the 
 property taken from the French should be restored, that a fort 
 should be erected at Natches at a place to be chosen by him, on 
 which a certain number of Indians should be employed, and that 
 every means should be used to put to death the fugitive chief 
 above named, and to deliver his head to the person left in com 
 mand of the fort. These offers were gladly accepted by the 
 Natches, and a spot was chosen near their towns, where several 
 hundred Indians were compelled to cut and drag the logs, and to 
 dig the ditches for the fort to be established on it. By the micldle 
 of August, the work was completed, and occupied by a small gar 
 rison under M. de Paillou ; and it received the name of Fort 
 Rosalie, in fulfilment of the original intention of Iberville. 
 
 It appears to have been understood, that the Bearded Sun, if 
 not the two other chiefs, who had aided him in the outrages on 
 
1716.] INHUMAN CONDUCT OF BIENVILLE. 311 
 
 the French, should be spared, on the grounds that they had vol 
 untarily come to the camp on the faith of the invitation of the 
 Commandant ;* and it is thus expressly stated in one of the ac 
 counts of the transactions. In the middle of June, however, the 
 two chiefs last mentioned were shot, by order of Bienville: several 
 retainers of the Bearded Sun, thereupon came forward voluntarily, 
 to offer themselves as hostages or as victims, to ensure the safety 
 of their lord ; but the inexorable Commandant refused to listen 
 to their prayers, and on the following day the guilty Sun was sent 
 down the Mississippi to some distance, where he underwent the 
 same fate. The Stung Serpent and the remainder of the captives 
 were liberated after the completion of the fort, and Bienville then 
 returned to Mobile, well satisfied with the manner in which he 
 had conducted the expedition. 
 
 Bienville's conduct in these affairs would have done honor to 
 any savage chief. According to the relation of the circumstances 
 presented by the French, his course had been marked by extreme 
 duplicity and inhumanity, and was well calculated to impress the 
 Indians, with the utmost dread of that nation, as well as the 
 deepest animosity towards them. La Motte Cadillac did not 
 lose the opportunity to mark his detestation of the whole pro 
 ceeding, which he represented as a most execrable series of 
 treacheries. The Commandant, in defence of his execution of 
 the Bearded Sun, declared that he had intended to liberate him, 
 but had been urged to put him to death, by his half-brother the 
 Stung Serpent, on the ground of his turbulent character and un 
 conquerable hatred to the French ; in answer to which, the gov- 
 
 * On this subject La Harpe writes in his journal : 
 
 " M. de Bienville, to put an end to this discussion, told the prisoners, that they 
 could have no doubt, that the great war chief, named the Bearded, brother of the 
 great chief of the nation, was one of the murderers of the French, and had 
 caused the English to be received in their town ; and that as he was in the power 
 of the French, they would be justified in killing him : but that this could not be 
 done, as he had come on the assurance of a promise of safety, unless his nation 
 consented to it. Thereupon, all the chiefs told M. de Bienville, that it would be 
 proper^ to get rid of him, as he was a turbulent and faithless man, who was 
 always disturbing the public tranquillity, &c. v 
 
 Richebourg in his memoir, says nothing of the promise of safe conduct : re 
 presenting the arrival of the chiefs, at the French camp, as the result of a 
 " snare set for them" by Bienville, in stating that his object was merely to found 
 a trading post at their town. 
 
312 RECAL OF LA MOTTE CADILLAC. [1716. 
 
 ernor showed, that Bienville could not have been ignorant of the 
 direct interest of the Stung Serpent, in the removal of the Bearded 
 Sun, who agreeably to the law of succession among the Natches, 
 would have inherited the chieftaincy, (as he in fact did) on the 
 decease of the Great Sun. On this latter occasion, La Motte 
 Cadillac forgot, that he had himself, only a few months previous, 
 boasted in a despatch to the government, of his having induced 
 one of the Chocta chiefs, to kill his brother, by promising to insure 
 to him the place of the murdered man. 
 
 The energetic proceedings of Bienville towards the Choctas 
 and the Natches, produced immediate and powerful effects on 
 the other Indian nations in the vicinity of the Mississippi and the 
 Mobile rivers. The Muscoghees of the upper Alabama, called 
 Alibamons by the French, sent a deputation to Mobile, to renew 
 their treaties of friendship ; and they consented to the establish 
 ment of a garrison in their country, which was, accordingly, 
 placed in a fort erected at the confluence of the Coosa and Tali- 
 poosa rivers, a few miles above the present town of Montgomery, 
 in the State of Alabama. The Chickasas were induced to expel 
 the English traders from their country, and the Illinois invited 
 the French to resume their posts and missions in the regions of 
 the upper Mississippi. 
 
 In the meantime, Crozat, becoming dissatisfied with the man 
 ner in which his affairs had been conducted, and attributing the 
 unpromising state of his colony, to the incapacity of La Motte 
 Cadillac and Duclos, had obtained their recall; and in their 
 places, M. D'Epinay was appointed Governor, and M. Hubert, 
 Commissary, on the 8th of October, 1716. In order to secure 
 the attachment of the new officers to his interests, Crozat in 
 creased their salaries, on the express condition that they should 
 not interfere with the commerce of the country, except in the 
 enforcement of his monopolising restrictions; and he, at the 
 same time, procured decrees from the government, defining more 
 particularly the powers and duties of each and all the mem 
 bers of the administration in Louisiana. The Governor was 
 made the exclusive director of all that regarded the civil and 
 military operations ; the financial affairs of the colony, and the 
 courts of justice were to be under the superintendence of the 
 Commissary, and these two chief officers were to regulate in 
 
1716.] M. D'EPINAY GOVERNOR OF LOUISIANA. 313 
 
 concert, what might be necessary for the police of the country. 
 To console Bienville for the neglect of his claims to the governor 
 ship, the cross of St. Louis was sent to him, and he was made 
 proprietor of Horn island, a barren strip of land rising above 
 the sea opposite the mouth of the Pascagoula river, which was 
 then, at least, utterly worthless. 
 
 The new Governor Epinay, and the Commissary Hubert, ar 
 rived at Mobile in March, 1717, with three companies of sol 
 diers, and fifty settlers; and La Motte Cadillac and Duclos soon 
 after returned to France. Bienville was of course little pleased 
 with the obliviousness of his services, shown by the appointment 
 of Epinay, for which his cross of St. Louis, and his island, were 
 but poor indemnification ; and he was accordingly soon at. war 
 with the Governor, and the Commissary both. Epinay imme 
 diately exerted himself to obtain a knowledge of the state of 
 the colony and to remedy its evils, and he succeeded in causing 
 the cargo of the ship, in which he made his passage to be smug 
 gled into Mexico, near Vera Cruz. He also renewed treaties with 
 the Indian nations, and had made arrangements for the commence 
 ment of an effective fortification on Dauphine island ; but a storm 
 in the month of August, entirely destroyed the harbor at that 
 place, by filling it w r ith sand, and the stores of the colony were in 
 consequence removed to Biloxy, the spot at which they had been 
 first established. Why Mobile -was not selected in preference, is 
 not stated in the records of that time ; but probably, the bay had 
 not then been examined with care sufficient for the discovery of 
 the main channel through it. Bienville who never lost sight of 
 the advantages to be derived from the agriculture and trade of the 
 Mississippi country, again recommended the place which he had 
 selected for the centre of government and commerce of Louisiana, . 
 on the great river near Lake Pontchartrain ; and he had prevailed 
 on Epinay, to take some measures for its occupation, when news 
 arrived of a material change, which had been effected in the 
 regulation of the affairs of that part of America. 
 
 In the meantime, St. Denis was engaged on his second expe 
 dition to the Mexican provinces, which ended still more unfor 
 tunately for the objects in view, than the first. He departed from 
 Mobile in company with the four French traders, as already said, 
 in October, 1716, for Natchitoches, where they arrived by way 
 40 
 
314 SECOND EXPEDITION OF ST. DENIS TO MEXICO. [1717. 
 
 of the lakes, the Mississippi and the Red river, on the 21st of No 
 vember. During a month passed there, they procured a number 
 of horses, sufficient to enable them to continue their journey by 
 land; then taking their course westward, they crossed the river of 
 the Adayes now the Sabine, and on the 6th of January, 1717, 
 they reached the village of the Ayish Indians, where they found 
 a Spanish mission and a small garrison, the members of which 
 received them with much kindness. Thence they passed on to 
 Nacogdoches, and through the other Spanish missions to the 
 Trinity river, from which St. Denis left the traders to follow with 
 their goods at their leisure, and hastened on with a few Indians to 
 San Juan Bautista, to join his wife. 
 
 St. Denis arrived at the Presidio early in April ; but changes 
 had taken place in Mexico, since his former visit, which were by 
 no means favorable. On the 10th of August, 1716, the Duke de 
 Linares, the Viceroy by whom St. Denis had been treated with 
 so much consideration, was succeeded by the Marquis de Valero, 
 a man of stern character, and very inimical to the French, whose 
 establishments in Louisiana he was specially instructed to restrict, 
 and, if possible, to destroy. With this object, he had, imme 
 diately on assuming the government, strengthened the garrison 
 and fortifications of Pensacola, and ordered other points to be 
 occupied on the northern side of the Mexican Gulf; the prohibi 
 tory regulations against foreigners were enforced by^ him with 
 rigor, and he resolved to have the regions north of the Rio Bravo, 
 effectively occupied, so as to reduce the French within as narrow 
 limits as possible.* The charge of the operations for the latter 
 purpose, was committed to Martin de Alarcon, an old soldier 
 who entered fully into the views of the Viceroy, and had been 
 appointed Governor of the province of Texas, or the New Phi 
 lippines, extending northward from the Medina or San Antonio 
 river ; and this officer was at Coahuila, engaged in collecting 
 supplies and men, for the settlement and defence of his province 
 at the time when St. Denis reached the fort of San Juan. 
 
 Alarcon had been informed of the approach of St. Denis, and 
 
 *Thc reasons for these measures are detailed with minuteness, in a report 
 made by the Fiscal or Attorney of the Board of War and Finance of Mexico, 
 to the Viceroy, in November, 1716, setting forth the unjustifiable encroach 
 ments of the French on the territories of His Catholic Majesty, and recom 
 mending means for preventing their farther progress. 
 
1717.] RESULTS OF THE EXPED1TONS OF ST. DENIS. 315 
 
 had given orders for his arrest, which were obeyed by the Com 
 mandant immediately on his arrival at the fort ; and farther orders 
 were soon after received, agreeably to which, the Frenchman was 
 sent as a prisoner to the city of Mexico, where he arrived on the 3d 
 of May. Upon the recommendation of the Duke de Linares, who 
 still remained in the capital, he was at first treated with some 
 kindness by the Viceroy, and he was allowed to remain at large 
 in the capital, where he endeavored to dispose of the goods 
 brought by the merchants r which, as he learned, had been seized 
 at the Presidio on the Rio Bravo, by order of Alarcon. * St. 
 Denis, however, at the same time wrote a letter to the Governor 
 of Louisiana, advising him to occupy the Bay of San Bernardo, 
 as the most convenient point for the introduction of French mer 
 chandise into Mexico; which communication falling into the 
 hands of the Spaniards, he was thrown into prison, and kept 
 confined for several months. 
 
 In this interval, numerous consultations had been held among 
 the authorities at Mexico, and a detailed report of the case had 
 been transmitted to Madrid, accompanied by recommendations 
 for the employment of energetic measures, to restrain the en 
 croachments of the French. In consequence of this report, a 
 Royal Cedula or Decree was issued by the Council of the In-. 
 dies, on the 30th of January, 1718, instructing the Marquis de 
 Valero to establish forts, missions and settlements in Texas, 
 and to induce St. Denis to remain in Mexico, by offers of employ 
 ment, but in no event to allow him to return to Louisiana. The 
 Viceroy accordingly liberated St. Denis from prison, and en 
 deavored to persuade him to accept a grant of lands, and ^n 
 office under the government, in Guatemala, to which he pretended 
 to be favorably inclined; but having received private information 
 of the order for his detention in Mexico, he made his escape from 
 that city, and after a variety of adventures, succeeded in reaching 
 Mobile, with his wife, early in 1719. The four merchants who 
 
 * In the many and voluminous Spanish documents in manuscript from which 
 these accounts of the proceedings of St. Denis in Mexico have been drawn, it is 
 asserted that he engaged, in his first expedition, to return and settle in Mexico ; 
 and that on his second appearance, he falsely represented the goods brought by 
 himself and the traders from Mobile, as his own property, which he had no 
 other means of bringing away from Louisiana, without exciting the suspicions 
 of the government. 
 
316 ERROR AS TO DATE OF SETTLEMENT OF TEXAS. [1718. 
 
 accompanied him, had long before returned to Louisiana, having 
 obtained the liberation of their goods from seizure, and permis 
 sion to dispose of them in Coahuila, through the intervention of 
 the priests of the mission of San Juan Bautista. 
 
 Such were simply the circumstances of the two expeditions of 
 St. Denis to Mexico, upon which more has been said, than they 
 would seem to have merited, with the object of correcting the 
 erroneous ideas, generally entertained, respecting the date of the 
 first permanent settlement of the Spaniards, in the countries be 
 tween the Red river and the Rio Bravo.* That establishment 
 was, as has been shown, entirely the result of the premature at 
 tempts of the French, to force a trade with the northern' provinces 
 of Mexico, which, by exciting the jealousy of the Spanish Gov 
 ernment, induced the adoption of such expensive measures, for 
 the enforcement of its prohibitive system on the northern frontiers 
 
 * Humboldt, in his admirable Political Essay on New Spain, first published in 
 1811, (vol. 1, chap. 8,) makes the following observation with regard to the claim 
 of the United States, to the territories between the Red river and the Rio Bravo, 
 of which Texas forms a part: 
 
 " Anssi les Mexicains alteguent, et avec raison, en leur faveur, que la popula 
 tion Espagnole de Texas est tres ancienne, qu'elle est venue des les premiers 
 temps de la conquete, par Linares, Revilla et Camargo, de 1'interieur de la Nou- 
 velle Espagne, et que M. de La Salle, en de"barquant a 1'ouest du Mississipi, dont 
 il avait manque" 1'embouchure, trouva deja des Espagnols parmiles sauvages qu'il 
 ess ay a de combattre." 
 
 "The Mexicans also allege, and with reason, in their behalf, that the Spanish 
 population of Texas is very ancient, that it came in ever since the earliest pe 
 riods of the conquest, through Linares, Revilla and Camargo, from the interior 
 of New Spain ; and that M. de la Salle, on landing west of the Mississippi, of 
 which he had missed the mouth, found Spaniards already among the Indians, 
 whom he endeavored to oppose." 
 
 Now the conquest of Mexico was completed by the Spaniards before 1524 ; 
 and if the account of the settlement of Texas here presented be admitted as cor 
 rect, the adoption of this allegation on the part of Mexico, by the distinguished 
 author of the Essay on New Spain, must be regarded as a remarkable exception 
 to the general accuracy of his statements and opinions. It may be observed in 
 addition, that neither Camargo nor Revilla were founded before 1750, about 
 which time, the earliest settlements were made on the lower part of the Rio 
 Bravo. As to the Spaniards said to have been met by La Salle among the In 
 dians, no mention is made of them by Joutel or Father Anastase, or Tonty or 
 Charlevoix, or any other authority, with regard to the particulars of that unfor 
 tunate expedition. 
 
 This is not to be considered as prejudging any thing, with regard to the validity 
 of the claim of the United States to the countries in question ; but merely as a 
 correction of an erroneous opinion. 
 
1718.] STATE OF THE ENGLISH PROVINCES. 317 
 
 of New Spain. The right of the Spaniards to occupy this terri 
 tory cannot be doubted : the single position taken by the French 
 on the Bay of St. Louis in 1685, was -destroyed two years after 
 wards ; and no attempt having been since made by that nation, to 
 resume the possession, its title might have been fairly considered 
 as extinct by prescription. It may be here added, that the Span 
 ish settlements thus formed in 1717 were maintained without in 
 terruption, and indeed without direct question by the French, 
 except during the short period of the war between the two nations 
 in 1719 ; after which they were increased and strengthened, and 
 they subsisted quietly under the dominion of Spain for more than 
 a century. 
 
 In Florida, much alarm was created among the Spaniards, by 
 the expulsion of the Yamassees from Carolina, and the subsequent 
 establishment by the English, of a fort at the point where the 
 Oconee and the Okmulgee rivers unite to form the Alatamaha. 
 The fugitive Indians fixed their habitations nearly in the centre 
 of the Peninsula ; and they w r ere followed by other tribes of the 
 Muscoghee confederacy, who, driven from their old grounds be 
 tween the Savannah and the JChattahoochee, by the approach of 
 the white men, went to increase the numbers of the Istisemole or 
 Runaways, commonly called Seminoles, in the vicinity of San 
 Juanito or Suwannee. The English in Carolina were, in the 
 meantime, in a prosperous condition, notwithstanding their con 
 stant disputes with the proprietors ; and that province alone 
 contained, probably, more persons of European race, than all the 
 French and Spanish dominions in America north of the Rio Bravo, 
 besides many negroes. A plan was proposed in 1717 by Sir 
 Robert Montgomery a speculating Scotch baronet, for the set 
 tlement of the country between the Savannah and the Alatamaha, 
 which was to be called the Margravate of Azilia ; and a grant 
 of the territory was obtained with that object, from the proprietors 
 of Carolina, whose charter extended southward to the 29th par 
 allel of latitude : but the scheme was so evidently intended only 
 for the benefit of the projector, that nothing was done in execution 
 of it. The Bahama islands, which had long been the resort of 
 bucaniers and pirates, were effectively occupied as British colo 
 nies, to the security of their vessels, engaged in the trade between 
 the West Indies and the ports on the continent. 
 
318 STRUGGLE BETWEEN THE FRENCH AND ENGLISH. [1718. 
 
 
 
 In Virginia, practicable routes had Been discovered through 
 the Alleghany mountains ; and the active Governor Spotswood, 
 was endeavoring to organize a company in England, for the set 
 tlement of the fertile countries of the upper Ohio. In the Iroquois 
 region, a struggle for supremacy was maintained between the 
 British traders and political agents, and those of France ; and a 
 long correspondence was carried on, between the Governors of 
 Canada and New York, as to the true sense of the stipulations 
 of the Utrecht treaty respecting those countries, which each party 
 interpreted in its own favor. A similar struggle was in progress 
 in Nova Scotia, where the boundaries still remained unsettled ; 
 no commissaries having been appointed by either nation for that 
 purpose, or for the determination of the southern limits of the 
 Hudson's Bay territories, as provider v by the same treaty. The 
 French had indeed evacuated the greater part of the Acadian 
 Peninsula, but without admitting the right of Great Britain ; and 
 they were engaged in the erection of a vast fortress, called Louis- 
 bourg, on the adjacent island of Cape Breton, on which millions 
 of livres were annually expended, under the direction of engineers, 
 trained in the school of Vauban. The English built no fortresses, 
 except a few block-houses at exposed points ; the frugal people 
 of their colonies, dreading the expenses and other evils accompa 
 nying such establishments, more than the attacks which they 
 were intended to avert. 
 
CHAPTER X. 
 
 1718 TO 1721. 
 
 LAW'S MISSISSIPPI SCHEME LOUISIANA SURRENDERED BY 
 CROZAT AND TRANSFERRED TO THE COMPANY OF THE WEST 
 NEW ORLEANS FOUNDED BY BIENVILLE FARTHER ES 
 TABLISHMENTS OF THE SPANIARDS IN TEXAS EXPEDITION 
 OF LA HARPE TO THE RED RIVER WAR BETWEEN FRANCE 
 AND SPAIN HOSTILITIES ON THE MEXICAN GULF CAP 
 TURE OF PENSACOLA BY THE FRENCH SUSPENSION OF THE 
 WAR EXPLOSION OF THE MISSISSIPPI SCHEME. 
 
 WHILST the events last related were in progress in America, 
 great changes had occurred in Europe, which materially affected 
 the condition and prospects of Louisiana. By one of those for 
 tuitous combinations of circumstances, which, from time to time, 
 give an impulse to the movements of nations, as well as of indi 
 viduals, the attention of the whole civilized world was directed 
 to the regions of the Mississippi; and the French colony in that 
 quarter, became, in appearance at least, the object of the especial 
 care of the mother country. 
 
 Upon the death of Louis XIV. France was left in a most im 
 poverished condition. Its national debt exceeded two thousand 
 millions of livres,* on which the annual interest amounted to 
 
 * The French livre was at that time one fifty-fourth part of the marc (3778 
 grains troy) of silver, of eleven-twelfths of pure metal ; and its value in currency 
 of the United States, was almost exactly sixteen cents and three-quarters. The 
 value of the livre was, however, frequently changed during the eight following 
 years, until, at length, in 1726, it was fixed at forty-nine livres and three-quar 
 ters to the marc of silver, making its value exactly seventeen cents and four 
 mills, at which it remained until 1774. 
 
 The national debt of France in 1718, may therefore be considered as about 
 three hundred and forty millions of dollars ; the division of the other sums men 
 tioned in this chapter by six, will give nearly their respective values, in the 
 same currency. 
 
320 LAW'S MISSISSIPPI SCHEME. [1716. 
 
 eighty millions ; and although taxation was carried to the ut 
 most extent, yet such was the disorder, extravagance, and dis 
 honesty of all concerned in the administration, that means could 
 with difficulty be raised for the current expenses of the govern 
 ment. The state bills, or public securities, had fallen to one- 
 third of their nominal value, and were daily sinking ; and not 
 withstanding the various expedients suggested by ignorance or 
 knavery for deferring the catastrophe, the kingdom was verging 
 rapidly to bankruptcy. 
 
 The Regent Duke of Orleans was a man of talents, but indo 
 lent, profligate and luxurious; and he required immense sums, 
 not only for the support of his state and the gratification of his 
 desires, but also in order to create and maintain a party for the 
 security of the succession to himself, in the probable event of the 
 young king's death. Into his mind the idea of retrenchment 
 never entered ; he looked only to increase of the supply, and was 
 ready to engage in any plan, which seemed to lead to that result. 
 Though alchymy w r as then falling into disrepute, its professors 
 could always find a patron in the Regent; and it is, therefore, not 
 astonishing, that he should have been easily induced, to. enter into 
 a scheme, by which a printing press was to do all that could 
 have been expected from the philosopher's stone. 
 
 This scheme so generally known as the Mississippi Scheme 
 was projected by John Law a Scotchman, the son of a banker of 
 Edinburg, and then about forty-five years of age, whose life since 
 reaching manhood, had been spent in intrigues and gambling in 
 various parts of Europe, and whose ability in financial matters, 
 appears to have been much less questionable than his honesty , 
 though upon that point, opinions are to this day divided. His 
 object was simply to substitute paper for coin, as a circulating 
 medium, throughout the kingdom ; and as the paper was to be 
 issued only by the government, which could issue to any extent, 
 the state would never want means, so long as confidence in the 
 value of the paper could be maintained that is to say so long 
 as the faith in the capacity of the government to redeem its paper 
 by real and substantial equivalents, should be sufficient to prevent 
 any great demand for such redemption. Now Law meant to 
 create confidence, yet it is scarcely possible that he could have 
 expected to sustain it very long, while the expenses of the state 
 
1716.] BANK OF JOHN LAW AND COMPANY. 321 
 
 were immeasurably beyond its real income. Still, many of his 
 proceedings seem to show that he was himself deceived thus 
 far, by overweening persuasion of his own capacity to provide 
 an expedient against any shock to which his system could be 
 exposed. 
 
 Law had previously unfolded his plan to several European sove 
 reigns, all of whom had declined to engage in it; one of them 
 the Duke of Savoy, observing that he was not rich enough to be 
 so magnificently ruined : in the Regent of France, however, he 
 found such a patron as he could have desired, enthusiastic, averse 
 to details, and unprincipled ; and the scheme was soon set in 
 operation. The first step was the establishment of a bank at 
 Paris under the name of John Law T and Company, in virtue of a 
 Royal Edict of May 2d, 1716, fixing its capital at six millions 
 of livres divided into twelve hundred shares, for which only one- 
 fourth was required to be paid in cash, the remainder being re 
 ceivable in state stocks, then worth not more than one-third of 
 their nominal value. The bank w r as authorized to receive de- 
 posites-and make payments for individuals, to issue notes, to lend 
 money on security, and to conduct exchanges, for which purpose 
 branches and agencies were established throughout the kingdom, 
 and afterwards throughout Europe ; though it was prohibited 
 from engaging in mercantile transactions on its own account. 
 
 Under these assurances and restrictions, Law's bank begun its 
 operations, which were conducted with so much punctuality and 
 at such moderate rates of profit, as soon to secure to it the con 
 fidence of all men of business. The arbitrary conduct of the 
 government for some time previous, in altering the standards of 
 the coins and their actual and relative values, had produced so 
 much uncertainty in specie as a representative of property, that 
 the notes of the bank before the middle of 1717, rose to fifteen 
 per cent, above par, and they were made, by Royal Decree, re 
 ceivable and payable without discount in all transactions of the 
 government. The way had been then prepared for the second 
 grand measure. 
 
 Ere that time, Crozat had been so much injured in fortune, by 
 
 the expenses of his colony in America, from which no returns 
 
 whatsoever had been received, or could be expected within any 
 
 reasonable period, that he was anxious to free himself from the 
 
 41 
 
 i 
 
322 
 
 CHARTER OF THE COMPANY OF THE WEST. [1717. 
 
 burthen ; and Law, whose attention had been drawn to the Missis 
 sippi regions, by the report of the discovery of a silver mine in 
 the Illinois, as already related, and had thenceforward determined 
 to embrace those countries in his scheme, proposed that they 
 should be granted to a company, formed under his direction for 
 their management. The Regent readily gave his consent; Crozat 
 surrendered all his privileges to the crown in August, 1717,* and 
 Letters Patent were immediately after issued, transferring all those 
 privileges, with the addition of many others, to an association, 
 thereby incorporated, under the title of the Company of the West. 
 Agreeably to these Letters Patent,! the entire commerce of 
 Louisiana and the fur trade of Canada, were secured to the com 
 pany for twenty-five years ; during which period, it should have 
 powers to grant lands, to construct forts, to raise troops, and to 
 nominate the governors and other officers of the colony, who were 
 however to receive their commissions from the sovereign. All 
 lands on which permanent improvements should have been made, 
 and all mines which should have been discovered and worked, 
 within the same space of time, were to belong perpetually to the 
 company, or its grantees ; goods exported to those countries 
 from France, w r ere to be free from all duties whatsoever, and those 
 imported from them into France, were subjected to only half the 
 duties payable on the same goods \from other countries. The in 
 habitants of the province were to be exempt from all taxes and 
 duties whatsoever, so long as the charter of the company should 
 subsist ; and those professing the Catholic religion, whether na 
 tives of France or of other parts of Europe, were to be regarded 
 as Frenchmen, and to enjoy all the privileges and immunities of 
 such, without being required to obtain letters of naturalization ; 
 though they were, as before, prohibited from engaging in any 
 species of commerce, except as agents for the company. The 
 powers and privileges of the company in these respects, were, 
 moreover, extended to the Illinois, which was separated from the 
 Government of New France and united to that of Louisiana, by 
 
 * Crozat was soon after ennobled, by tbe title of Marquis Du Chatel. He 
 died in 1738, at the age of eigbty-three. 
 
 f The Letters Patent or Charter of the company, containing fifty-six articles, 
 maybe found in the original, in the Collection entitled "Edits, Ordonnance* 
 Royaux, &c. concernant la Compagnie des Indes." 
 
1717.] THE ILLINOIS ANNEXED TO LOUISIANA. 323 
 
 a Royal Edict on the 27th of the same month of September ;* 
 and this arrangement of jurisdictions, giving to New France all 
 the territories of the upper Ohio, and of the St. Lawrence and its 
 lakes and streams, with the coasts and islands adjacent to its bay, 
 and to Louisiana all those drained by the Mississippi and the Mo 
 bile and their tributaries, subsisted until the commencement of the 
 war, which extinguished the French dominion in North America. 
 For its constitution and government, the shares of the com 
 pany were fixed at five hundred livres each ; and the holder of 
 fifty shares, whosoever he might be, was entitled to a vote in the 
 meetings of the company. The number of shares was at first 
 two hundred thousand, making a capital of one hundred millions 
 of livres ; but this number was afterwards considerably increased 
 under various pretences. In payment for the shares, the state 
 bills would be received at par, and each share would entitle the 
 holder, to a dividend of all the clear profits derived by the com 
 pany from its possessions; four per cent., or twenty livres on 
 each share, being secured on the revenues from the tobacco mo 
 nopoly and from other sources, by the hypothecation of forty 
 thousand livres of their anticipated annual proceeds to the com 
 pany, on the entrance of each million of livres paid in for stock. 
 The affairs of the company were to be managed by a Board of 
 
 * The following is a translation of the Edict for the annexation of the Illinois 
 countries to Louisiana : 
 
 EXTRACT FROM THE REGISTRIES OF THE COUNCIL OF STATE. 
 
 " The King in his Council, having examined the Letters Patent, in form of 
 Edict, issued in the month of August last, establishing a commercial company 
 under the title of Company of the West, as also those of the 14th of September, 
 1712 granted to the Sieur Crozat, and considering it proper, for the good of the 
 service, and for the advantage and utility of the Company of the West, to ex 
 tend the government of Louisiana, and to add to it the country of the Illinois 
 savages ; having heard the reports thereon, His Majesty being in his Council, 
 with the advice pf the Duke of Orleans His uncle the Regent, has united and 
 incorporated the said country of the savages, with the government of the pro 
 vince of Louisiana; and He wills and decrees, that the said Company of the 
 West shall enjoy the territories comprised under the name of the said country, 
 in the same manner as it is to enjoy those granted by the said Letters Patent, in 
 the month of August last; and the commanders, officers, soldiers, inhabitants, 
 and others who are or may be in the said country, shall acknowledge the Com 
 mandant General of Louisiana, and obey and submit to him, without question, in 
 every way whatsoever, under the penalty assigned for disobedience. Done in the 
 King's Council, in His Majesty's presence, at Paris, on the 27th September, 1717. 
 (Signed) PHELIPEAUX." 
 
324 THE COMPANY TAKES POSSESSION OF LOUISIANA. [1718. 
 
 Directors, holding their places for three years ; the first board 
 was to be appointed by the crown, but after 1720, the directors 
 were to be chosen by the stockholders. Law was of course the 
 first director appointed; the others Messrs. D'Artaguette, Duche, 
 Moreau, Piou, Castaignes, and Mouchard, were all merchants, 
 or holders of financial offices under the government. 
 
 These were apparently generous offers on the part of the French 
 government. The holder of a state bill, of the nominal value of 
 five hundred livres, but for which not more than a hundred and 
 sixty could have been obtained, was to receive for it another 
 bill, on which the annual interest of twenty livres was secured 
 in the most effectual manner, besides a title to the two hundred- 
 thousandth part of the profits derivable from the lands, mines, 
 furs, taxes and trade of a territory, certainly larger than all Eu 
 rope, and believed to be infinitely more fertile and richer in min 
 erals. The first consideration was alone sufficient to induce the 
 holders of state bills to exchange them for the shares of the com 
 pany; and when a large portion of those shares had been thus 
 taken up, the remainder were declared to be also sold. The con 
 fidence of the public was thus naturally increased, and the shares 
 began to rise'in price, carrying up with them, of course, the state 
 bills, which were soon above par ; while specie was at the same 
 time, brought into farther discredit, by edicts altering the value 
 of the coins, and prohibiting the payment of specie beyond a cer 
 tain amount in any transaction. 
 
 The Company of the West entered into the possession of Lou 
 isiana in the beginning of 1718. The condition of the French 
 settlements in that country near the Mexican Gulf, was then little 
 better, than at the period when Crozat undertook their manage 
 ment. Their population had increased to about six hundred,* prin 
 cipally, however, by additions to the military force: no land was 
 cultivated, nor was any branch of industry carried on, except 
 the trifling trade with the Indians and with the Spaniards of Pen- 
 sacola; and the people were, from all accounts, as vicious and 
 indolent, as at any previous period. Indeed the strongest mark 
 of improvement indicated by the records of the colony, was an 
 increase in the number of trie cattle, which had reached four 
 
 * The Report of the Directors of the India Company, made in 1721, give* 
 four hundred as the number in 1718, but it was probably larger. 
 

 
 J718.] EXTRAVAGANT MAPS OF LOUISIANA. 325 
 
 hundred. In the Illinois, the white population amounted to 
 about three hundred, besides some half-breeds, and consisted 
 almost entirely of traders from Canada, who had their homes 
 with their Indian wives, in the villages of Kaskaskia and Caho- 
 kia, under the protection of small French garrisons. As they 
 could receive no provisions from France, they cultivated the 
 earth sufficiently to produce the wheat, Indian corn, and vegeta 
 bles required for their support; and they even occasionally sent a 
 few boats laden with those articles down the Mississippi to Mo 
 bile, in exchange for goods to be employed in their commerce 
 with the Indians. 
 
 The Directors of the Company of the West, were, however, 
 not akall discouraged by this unpromising condition of their ter 
 ritories, with respect to which, as on all other points of their 
 scheme, they relied implicitly on the ignorance of the great mass 
 of the people of Europe. The extent of Louisiana, according 
 to the most moderate computation, was immense, but it might 
 still be exaggerated with advantage: and for this object, the geo 
 grapher Delisle, produced, agreeably to the instructions of the 
 directors, a map, in which' that province was made to include 
 the whole division of America north of the Mexican Gulf be 
 tween the Rio Bravo and New Mexico on the west, and the east 
 ernmost range of the Alleghany chain on the east; the British 
 possessions being reduced to narrow strips on the Atlantic coast 
 north of the Savannah, and Spanish Florida including only the 
 Peninsula and the parts adjacent, on the ocean and gulf. On 
 this map were traced roads, cities, towns, mines of precious 
 metals, and all other marks of advancement in population and 
 wealth ; and copies of it, accompanied by descriptions equally 
 at variance with truth, were published in the principal languages 
 of Europe, and circulated through that continent.* Such were 
 the origin, nature and objects of nearly all the maps of Louisiana 
 which appeared between 1717 and 1723, and which have been 
 
 *One of these maps which has been most frequently cited in proof of the ex 
 tension of Louisiana to the Rio Bravo, is the " Map of Louisiana and the Mis 
 sissippi territories, most humbly inscribed to William Law of Lawreston, [the 
 brother of the projector of the Mississippi Scheme,] by John Senex," contained 
 in the " New General Atlas," published at London in 1721. It is merely a copy, 
 with a few trifling alterations and additions, of that of Delisle. 
 
326 BIENVILLK GOVERNOR GENERAL. [1718. 
 
 of late years, gravely adduced, as incontestable proofs of the true 
 extent and limits of that portion of the French dominions. 
 
 The first act of the company was to recall Epinay from the 
 Government of Louisiana, in place of whom Bienville was ap 
 pointed Governor and Commandant General of the province, with 
 his brother Chateaugue and his relation Boisbriarit under him as 
 
 O 
 
 Lieutenants for the King. The control of the entire administra 
 tion, was committed to the Governor; but a council similar to that 
 already existing, was to be established, composed of the Gov 
 ernor, the King's Lieutenants, the Royal Commissary, the Attor 
 ney General, the Secretary, and three Directors General for the 
 Company, to which all important matters were to be submitted for 
 consideration. The Illinois was to form a sub-province, of which 
 one of the King's Lieutenants was to be the Commandant; and 
 this charge was assigned to Boisbriant, Chateaugue acting imme 
 diately under his brother, in the low r er country. The other mem 
 bers of the Council of Administration were Hubert the Commis 
 sary General, Cartier de Baune the Attorney General, Couture the 
 Secretary, and Villardo, Legast, and Larchambaut, Directors for 
 the Company. 
 
 Bienville thus obtained the object to which his wishes had been 
 long directed ; and his appointment was probably the best which 
 could have been made under the circumstances. He was intrac 
 table and impatient of control or contradiction, and the manner 
 in which his life had been spent, since his arrival at manhood, 
 had rendered him unscrupulous as to the means to be employed 
 for the attainment of an end : but he was well acquainted with 
 Louisiana, and really desirous to promote its advancement, with 
 which his own fame and fortune were connected ; and that was 
 as much as the Company of the West could have expected. He 
 was, in fine, precisely such a man, as the Spanish Council of the 
 Indies would have selected for the. government of a frontier 
 province. 
 
 The system adopted by the Company of the West for the ad 
 ministration of Louisiana, differed very little from that of Crozat, 
 nearly all the erroneous views of which were preserved: these 
 views were, however, universally entertained at the time; and 
 as the object of the company w r as solely to raise the price of 
 its stocks, any departure from established notions, would have 
 
1718.] FIRST CONCESSIONS OF LANDS IN LOUISIANA. 327 
 
 been highly impolitic. The commerce was to be conducted on 
 the strictest principles of monopoly : no foreign vessel, nor 
 French vessel except under license from the company, could 
 enter any port in the territory; and the inhabitants, as before, 
 could buy and sell, only from and to the company's agents, and 
 at prices fixed by tariffs, for each factory or place of business. In 
 order to provide a population for the country, large tracts of land, 
 principally on the banks of the Mississippi, were granted to in 
 dividuals or associations, on condition of their establishing in 
 each, a certain number of persons within a given period.' These 
 large tracts were called Concessions, and the grantees were to form 
 a baronial class in the province; small grants, called Habitations, 
 were also made, the occupants of which Habitans were to 
 represent the peasantry; the name of Etablissement was specially 
 assigned to a group or collection of habitations. 
 
 The first concessions were in the vicinity of Mobile and Biloxy, 
 and on the east or left bank of the Mississippi, at Baton Rouge, 
 the Tunica cliffs, the Natches towns, the mouth of the Yazoo 
 and other places intermediate, above the reach of the , river during 
 its annual spring floods ; after which, points on the same side, 
 not thus naturally secured from inundation, were occupied. On 
 the right: or west bank, no grant was made for some time, except 
 that of four leagues square at the mouth of the Arkansas, which 
 were assigned to Law, upon the condition that he should place 
 eight thousand persons there as settlers, within three years.* It 
 should here be observed, that nearly the whole territory south of 
 the Ohio and adjacent to the Mississippi on the west, is below 
 the surface of the latter river at its greatest height, and is covered 
 by its waters for some time in each year, to the distance of seve 
 ral miles. Large portions of the country on the eastern side, in 
 cluding all below Baton Rouge, are similarly situated; that place 
 and the others first occupied by the French farther north being 
 the extremities of ridges, thence extending from the east, and 
 
 * The measures of land in Louisiana were those of Paris, viz. the Pied or 
 Foot equal to 12.7893 inches English the Toise or Fathom of six pieds and 
 the Arpent of thirty toises or one hundred and eighty pieds square, equal to one 
 English acre and one-fifth. The concessions on the banks of the Mississippi 
 usually embraced a certain number of arpents on the river, (deface aufleuve) arid 
 a certain number behind the former, generally to the depth of forty, so as to in 
 clude all the land fit for cultivation between the stream and the swamp. 
 
328 THE MISSISSIPPI AND ITS BANKS. [1718. 
 
 separated by vallies, with streams flowing through them, which 
 are in like manner raised above their banks, by the back water 
 from the Mississippi in its floods. At the places thus liable to 
 inundation, the highest ground is the bank of the river from which 
 the surface runs in an inclined plane for a short distance, termina 
 ting usually in a swamp ; and in order to secure the lands from 
 the annual ravages of the stream, it is necessary to raise the bank 
 above the greatest height of the waters, by an artificial dyke or 
 rampart of earth, there called a levee, the construction and main 
 tenance of which are of course attended with much labor and ex 
 pense. For this reason the higher points were first selected for 
 settlements ; the low grounds immediately bordering the river 
 being, however, extremely fertile, and especially adapted for the 
 production of rice and other valuable articles, were also speedily 
 engaged by capitalists, who expended large amounts in the trans 
 portation of settlers and the purchase of negroes, to be employed 
 on them for those purposes. 
 
 The first arrival of emigrants under the new system, took 
 place in August, 1718, when six hundred unfortunate persons, 
 taken for the most part from hospitals or prisons in France, were 
 landed on the burning sands of Dauphine island.* Nearly all 
 of them came as settlers, in parties directed by the ow r nerts of the 
 tracts to which they were destined, or by agents employed to su 
 perintend them; the remainder being enlisted as soldiers. As 
 the places to be occupied by the settlers, were all far in the inte 
 rior, and neither provisions, nor means of transportation, nor 
 even shelter had been provided, a large proportion of those peo 
 ple died immediately of fevers; and very few succeeded in reach 
 ing their concessions, w r here similar miseries awaited them. The 
 soldiers were marched off to different garrisons, in which they 
 suffered no less than the settlers, from sickness and hunger; and 
 
 
 
 * Among the proprietors and agents who came to Louisiana with these settlers, 
 were Messrs. Le Page Du Pratz and La Harpe, each of whom wrote a history 
 of the colony, and M. Le Blond de la Tour, the engineer who drew the plan of 
 New Orleans. Le Page Du Pratz, at first intended to establish himself near the 
 new capital; but he afterwards, in conjunction with the Commissary Hubert, 
 formed a settlement at Natchez, Avhere he remained for many years, and was 
 then appointed superintendent of the plantations of the company, which office 
 he held until 1733. 
 
1718.] LARGE ARRIVAL OF EMIGRANTS. 329 
 
 many of both classes, soon deserted to Florida, or Carolina, or 
 took up their abode among the Indians. 
 
 Bienville protested against this practice of sending to Louis 
 iana, persons who could only be a burthen to it; and he succeeded 
 in a few cases, in inducing the proprietors of the lands, to be 
 more careful in their selections. Many of those proprietors were, 
 however, in the secrets of the company, and largely interested 
 in its stock, of which they were more anxious to keep up the 
 price, than to benefit the colony on the Mississippi ; and as for 
 that object, numbers, not character of population, were required, 
 any wretch, who would consent to be transported to Louisiana, 
 was willingly received, Bands of such emigrants were occasion 
 ally paraded through the streets of Paris, dressed in clothes pro 
 vided for the exhibition, and bearing in their hands, the imple 
 ments of agriculture or mining ; and the departure of each vessel 
 which sailed for the Mexican Gulf, was duly chronicled in all the 
 newspapers of western Europe. The females formed a very small 
 proportion, and they were in character, generally, not better than 
 the men ; in consequence of which, it is not extraordinary, that 
 the latter should have preferred concubinage with Indians or ne 
 groes, to marriage with their own country-women. 
 
 In order to secure Louisiana against attacks from the English 
 or the Spaniards on its frontiers, as well as to keep the Indians 
 in check, the old fortifications were strengthened and new ones 
 were commenced at the mouths of the Mississippi, the Arkansas 
 and the Yazoo, and at the point where the Alabama river is formed 
 by the junction of the Coosa and the Talipoosa. At this last 
 mentioned place, the fort established two years previous was 
 extended, and it received the name of Fort Toulouse, in compli 
 ment to an illegitimate son of Louis XIV. ; and a similar work on 
 a large scale was commenced in the Illinois, on the east bank of 
 the Mississippi, sixty-seven miles south of the entrance of the 
 Missouri, which was called Fort Chartres, in honor of the eldest 
 son of the Regent. The Illinois and Wabash countries were 
 likewise explored by Dutisne, and the Missouri was traced from 
 its mouth to the entrance of the Kansas, near which a small post, 
 called Fort Orleans, was afterwards established, under the com 
 mand of M. de Bourgmont. 
 
 Bienville had, as already said, long entertained the conviction, 
 42 
 
330 FOUNDATION OF NEW ORLEANS. [1718. 
 
 that the colony could only prosper by agriculture, for which he 
 considered negroes indispensable ; and from the commencement of 
 his administration he constantly urged the Directors of the Com 
 pany, to take measures for a regular and sufficient supply of such 
 laborers from the African coast. He, moreover, embraced the 
 opportunity presented by the destruction of the harbor at Dau- 
 phine island, to recommend the immediate transfer of the seat of 
 government, and of the public stores to the banks of the Missis 
 sippi; and in anticipation of the assent of the directors, he 
 caused the streets and squares of a city, to be traced through the 
 woods arid swamps, bordering the great river between it and 
 Lake Pontchartrain, to which he gave the name of LA NOUVELLE 
 ORLEANS* NEW ORLEANS in honor of the Regent Duke. 
 The selection of this spot was vehemently opposed by the 
 council of the colony. M. Hubert the Commissary, whilst ad 
 mitting that the seat of government should be on the Mississippi, 
 was in favor of its location at Natchez, where he had himself re 
 ceived a large concession ; the others, for the most part, were of 
 opinion, that commerce should be the principal object of the es 
 tablishment, for which reason the centre of business should be 
 on the shore of the Gulf, between Mobile Bay and the entrance of 
 the lakes. The Directors of the Company preferred Manchac, the 
 point at which the waters of the Mississippi, during its floods, dis 
 charge themselves into the Iberville, and through it into the lakes, 
 situated one hundred and twenty-four miles higher up the river 
 than New Orleans; but their desire to bring the embryo metropo 
 lis in aid of their scheme, induced them to acquiesce in the selec 
 tion made by the Commandant. The name of New Orleans 
 accordingly appeared in Delisle's maps in large letters; and plans 
 of the city, accompanied by descriptions of its edifices, were 
 circulated throughout Europe in 1718, ere a single house had 
 
 *" Those who gave this name," says Charlevoix, "supposed ORLEANS to be 
 of the feminine gender : no matter ; the usage has been established, and usage 
 is superior to rules of grammar." In addition to the authority of the Jesuit on 
 this curious point, we have that of the great enemy of Jesuits, Voltaire, who in 
 his immortal unmentionable poem says 
 
 Tout Orleans, a ces grandes nouvelles, 
 
 Rendit a Dieu graces solennelles. 
 
 It is much to be regretted, that the founder of the city, could not have given 
 it his own name of Bienville, than which none could have been found more 
 appropriate in every respect. 
 
1718.] SPANIARDS OCCUPY ST. JOSEPH'S AND ST. MARK 5 S. 331 
 
 been built on the site. Biloxy however continued for some time 
 to be the seat of the government, and the depository of the mer 
 chandise of the colony ; and store houses were built there, with 
 a fort for their protection, to which the name of Fort Louis was 
 transferred, from the old establishment on the Mobile. 
 
 Another order sent by the directors to Bienville, in furtherance 
 of their scheme, was obeyed by him with less alacrity. It was 
 desirable to magnify the extent of Louisiana on the gulf as much 
 as possible; and the governor was therefore instructed imme 
 diately to form establishments on the Bay of St. Louis or San Ber 
 nardo, where La Salle's colony had been planted, and on the Bay 
 of St. Joseph near the mouth of the Apalachicola river, so as to 
 give to the province nearly the whole northern shore of the gulf, 
 leaving Perisacola an isolated point in the possession of Spain. 
 Bienville in consequence despatched his brother M. de Cha- 
 teaugue, early in 1718, with fifty men to take possession of St. 
 Joseph's Bay ; but while they were engaged in building a fort 
 at the entrance, a Spanish vessel arrived, bearing a summons to 
 the French to quit the place, as being within the territories of His 
 Catholic Majesty. Chateaugue treated the summons with con 
 tempt: his men however being averse to the duty on which 
 they were employed, more than a third of them deserted to St. 
 Augustine or Pensacola, where they were well treated ; and Bien 
 ville, willingly availing himself of these circumstances, withdrew 
 the others from the bay, which was immediately occupied and 
 fortified by the Spaniards. 
 
 The Viceroy of Mexico had a short time before this occurrence, 
 ordered another fort to be erected farther eastward on the River 
 of St. Mark, which had been abandoned ever since the destruc 
 tion of the Spanish establishments in that country by the English 
 in 1704; and this was done without loss of time, by Don Jose 
 Primo de Ribera, who marched thither with a body of men across 
 the country from St. Augustine, in the spring of 1718. The in 
 termediary posts and routes for communication between those 
 places, through the northern part of the Peninsula,- were likewise 
 re-established; and the Spaniards were thus enabled to acquire 
 an influence over the Indians in that quarter, which long rendered 
 abortive, all the attempts of the English to gain possession of the 
 Apalachicola countries. 
 
332 EXPEDITION OF ALARCON TO TEXAS. [1718. 
 
 Equally abortive, as will be shown, were the attempts of the 
 French, to establish themselyes on the western coasts of the 
 Mexican Gulf; on which, no settlement or post of any kind, was 
 ever formed by that nation, beyond the outlets of the Mississippi) 
 after the failure of La Salle's attempt in 1687. 
 
 The Spanish governor of Texas, Don Martin de Alarcon, had, 
 meanwhile, been actively engaged in the establishment of mili 
 tary posts and settlements in his province. Having collected a 
 large number of soldiers, settlers and mechanics, agreeably to his 
 instructions, he crossed the Rio Bravo early in 1718, and directed 
 his inarch north-eastw T ard to the Medina river, the southern boun 
 dary of Texas ; beyond which, in the valley of San Antonio, dis 
 covered by Teran in 1691, he commenced the fort of San Antonio 
 de Bejar, and the mission of San Antonio de Valero. When 
 these works were sufficiently advanced, he continued his march 
 with the remainder of his men to the Qenis country, where he 
 strengthened the missionary force, and erected churches, to pro 
 tect which he placed a small garrison near each of them; and 
 then passing the river of the Adayes, called by him Rio de San 
 Francisco de las Sabinas, from the number of juniper trees in its 
 vicinity, he began the construction of a fortress within a few 
 leagues of Natchitoches, to which he gave the name not very 
 concise of Presidio de San Miguel Arcangel de Linares de 
 Adayes, in honor at once, of the Archangel and the Viceroy., 
 
 Information of these movements of the Spaniards were con 
 veyed to Mobile, where they created some alarm ; and measures 
 were immediately taken by Bienville to counteract them, as well 
 as to obtain farther knowledge of the Red river countries. The 
 conduct of an expedition for these objects, was assigned to Ber 
 nard de la Harpe, an officer of the royal army, who arrived 
 from France in the summer of 1718, with a number of settlers, 
 and a patent for lands in any occupied part of Louisiana. He had 
 resolved to form his establishment on the Red river; and he was, 
 moreover, commissioned by Bienville, to found and command a 
 military post in that quarter, with special authority to check all 
 attempts of the Spaniards, to encroach upon the territories claimed 
 by the sovereign of France. La Harpe being an active and sa 
 gacious person, immediately transferred his people from the coast 
 to the Mississippi, and thence up the Red river, to Natchitoches; 
 
1718.] EXPEDITION OF LA HARPE TO THE RED RIVER. 333 
 
 and after a short stay at that post, he continued his journey much 
 farther in the same direction, to the country of the Nassoni In 
 dians, where he, in May, 1719, begun a settlement, in latitude, 
 according to his observation, of 33 degrees 55 minutes.* 
 
 On his way to this place, La Harpe had made inquiries respect 
 ing the Spanish establishments in the vicinity of the Red river ; 
 and learning that little community of feeling existed between the 
 Governor of Texas and the missionaries, he despatched a letter 
 privately, to Father Antonio Margil, the superior of the Francis 
 can missions among the Cenis, with the object of interesting him 
 and his brethren, in the furtherance of the trade in that quarter, 
 by the offer of two or three per cent, to them, on all goods which 
 might be introduced from Louisiana into the Spanish provinces. 
 He also at the same time addressed a letter to Alarcon, enclosing 
 another from the Governor of Louisiana, in which he declared his 
 desire to promote amicable feelings between the French and the 
 Spaniards ; and answers to both these communications were re 
 ceived by him, at his new establishment. The friar appeared well 
 disposed to comply with the wishes of La Harpe, to whom he, 
 however, recommended the utmost secrecy in their correspon 
 dence, on account of the inimical feelings of the Governor of 
 Texas towards the missionaries; but Alarcon utterly denied the 
 right of the French to the place thus occupied by them in the 
 Nassoni country, and rudely summoned them to quit the territo 
 ries of the Spanish province of Texas. La Harpe replied in the 
 same tone, asserting that the country, called by Alarcon the Pro 
 vince of Texas, had been first possessed by the French, under La 
 Salle in 1684, since which time, the possession had been fre 
 quently renewed ; and that the rivers falling into the Mississippi, 
 as well as the territories which they include, naturally belong to 
 the King of France : ending by an assurance, that whenever the 
 Spaniards should visit the French fort, they would find that it 
 
 * The latitude here given by La Harpe is, probably, about a degree too high ; 
 the place at which he made his settlement, seems to have been the Long Prairie, 
 in the south-west portion of the State of Arkansas, about seven hundred miles 
 by the Red river from its mouth. A French population was certainly main 
 tained there until 1780, when the people removed down the river to Campti, 
 thirty miles above Natchitoches. La Harpe makes an error of the same extent, 
 as to the latitude of Natch itoches. 
 
334 CORRESPONDENCE LA HARPE AND ALARCON. [1718. 
 
 could be maintained against them.* There the correspondence 
 ended; and Alarcon, who had become odious to the missionaries, 
 was soon after recalled from the Government of Texas. 
 
 * The following is a translation of these letters from La Harpe's Journal : 
 
 From La Harpe to Alarcon, written in the beginning of May, 1719. 
 " SIR I have, with great pleasure, taken charge of the letter, which I have 
 the honor to send you, from M. de Bienville, the Commandant General of the 
 Province of Louisiana. On his confiding to me this post of the Nassonis, he en 
 joined me to render every service, which might be in my power, to the Spanish 
 nation ; I can assure you sir, that I will execute his orders with pleasure, having 
 nothing more at heart, than to prove to you, on every occasion, that no one has 
 the honor to be, more completely than myself, sir, 
 
 Your obedient servant, LA HARPE." 
 
 From Alarcon to La Harpe, dated Trinity river, May 20, 1719. 
 " SIR I am sensible of your kindness, and of that of M. de Bienville, by which 
 I am honored. The orders which I have received from the king my master, are, 
 that I should maintain a good understanding with the French of Louisiana, and 
 my own desires lead me no less to render them every service in my power. 1 
 cannot, however, refrain from telling you, that your arrival among the Nassonis 
 surprises me extremely. Your Governor must be ignorant, that the post which 
 you occupy is within my Government ; and that all the territory west of the 
 Nassonis belongs to the Government of New Mexico. I therefore advise you 
 to communicate this to M. de Bienville, or you Avill oblige me to force you to 
 abandon the country, on which the French have no right to settle. 
 
 I have the honor to be, &c. ALARCON." 
 
 To this La Harpe replied from his post on Red river, on the 8th of June : 
 " SIR : The orders which you have received from His Catholic Majesty, to 
 maintain a good understanding with the French of Louisiana, and the inclination 
 which you profess towards them, do not accord with your conduct. Permit me 
 to tell you, that M. de Bienville is perfectly informed as to the limits of his Gov 
 ernment ; and is assured, that the post of the Nassonis is not within the depen 
 dencies of His Catholic Majesty. He moreover knows, that the province which 
 you call Las Tekas, and of which you style yourself the Governor, forms a part 
 of Louisiana. M. de La Salle took possession of it in 1684 ; and since that pe 
 riod, it has been renewed at various times. With regard to the territories west 
 of the Nassonis, I cannot understand by what right you pretend, that they form 
 part of New Mexico. Upon that subject, I have to represent to you, that Don 
 Antoine du Miroir, who in 1683 discovered the provinces of the north, never 
 penetrated into the countries east of New Mexico, arid of the Rio Bravo ; the 
 French were the first to make alliances with the savage Indians there. It is 
 moreover most natural to regard the rivers which flow into the Mississippi, as 
 belonging to the King my master, as also in consequence, the lands included 
 among them. If you will do me the favor to come into this quarter, I will show 
 you that I occupy a post which I can defend. Yours, &c., LA HARPE." 
 
 The Don Antoine du Miroir mentioned by La Harpe, as the discoverer of the 
 northern provinces in 1683, is no other than Don Antonio de Espejo, who pene 
 trated those regions in 1583 (see page 159 ;) the Frenchman having translated 
 the name of the Spaniard literally into his own language, and retarded the date 
 of the expedition by a century. 
 

 1718.] LAW'S BANK BECOMES THE BANK OF FRANCE. 335 
 
 La Harpe finding that he had nothing to fear from the Span 
 iards, after completing his little fort, left a few men in it, and set 
 out to explore the country farther north-west. In this direction 
 he proceeded several hundred miles, crossing the Washita, and a 
 branch of the Arkansas, near which he visited a large encamp 
 ment of Indians, of several tribes, previously unknown to the 
 French. He was, however, unable to obtain any information on 
 the points on which he was most anxious ; the Indians being un 
 acquainted with mines, or routes to the Spanish provinces or to 
 the Pacific: and after escaping several dangers from savages, and 
 suffering from illness, he returned to Mobile in the spring of 1720, 
 but little pleased with his prospects on the Red river. 
 
 The success of the Company of the West had, in the mean 
 time, surpassed the most sanguine expectations of its founders; 
 and at the end of 1718, a dividend of twelve per cent, was de 
 clared on its shares, which was promptly paid to the amount of 
 twelve millions of livres. In September of that year, it had been 
 endowed with the administration of the tobacco monopoly, for 
 which it was to pay four millions of livres annually to the crown ; 
 and nearly all the other branches of the public revenue were soon 
 after, in like manner, conceded to it. The specie of the king 
 dom was, meanwhile, kept in a fluctuating state, by decrees un 
 expectedly issued for re-coinage, or for alterations in the nominal 
 value of the existing pieces, all of which tended to increase con 
 fidence in the notes of the bank; and when the public had thus 
 been prepared, another great measure was carried into execution. 
 
 On the 4th of December, the Regent, by a Royal Edict, de 
 clared Law's bank to be the Bank of France, as he had purchased 
 the whole of its stock, and converted it into the stock of the Mis 
 sissippi Company, which thus became the capital of the institu 
 tion ; and this mark of confidence in the stability and success of 
 the Company, led to a rise in the value of its shares, which every 
 one became anxious to buy. People sold their real property, and 
 moveables, and converted the proceeds into Mississippi shares ; 
 and when these had reached a certain height, the government 
 cautiously disposed of the number reserved for itself, by which 
 means nearly five hundred millions in state bills were withdrawn, 
 and the public debt to that amount was extinguished. These 
 operations were made the excuse for the issue of large quantities 
 
336 ESTABLISHMENT OF THE INDIA COMPANY. [1719. 
 
 of bank notes ; and a general increase in the price of labor and 
 of property took place throughout France. 
 
 In the spring of 1719, the demand for Mississippi stock had 
 become sufficient to authorize a new issue of shares ; as an ex 
 cuse for which, the Senegal Company holding the monopoly of 
 the Guinea trade, and the China and East India Companies ex 
 clusively conducting the commerce of the French with Southern 
 Asia, were successively united with the Company of the West; 
 and the latter, in consequence, had its title changed to the India 
 Company. On the occasion of each of these extensions of its 
 means, additional shares in the Company were created ; and they 
 were sold with rapidity and as acts of favor to individuals, who 
 could immediately afterwards dispose of them with profit for 
 many times the original cost: until at length, in November, 1719, 
 the amount of stock issued was equal, at its first price, to three 
 hundred millions of livres, but was worth at the selling price, 
 three thousand six hundred millions, or about six hundred mil 
 lions of dollars. The state bills, or old national debt had all been 
 redeemed, and the government was rich. Such was, thus far, the 
 result of Law's scheme. 
 
 At that period, however, the French dominion in Louisiana was 
 exposed to the utmost peril, by the sudden rupture of the peace 
 between France and Spain. The appointment of the Duke of 
 Orleans, as Regent of the former kingdom, was regarded with 
 strong feelings of jealousy and resentment, by Philip V. of Spain, 
 who had never ceased to entertain the hope of succeeding to the 
 French crown, in the event of the death of his nephew Louis 
 XV,, notwithstanding his formal renunciation of that birth-right 
 by the treaty of Utrecht. The Regent was well informed of the 
 existence of these feelings, which he returned by hatred and con 
 tempt ; and a game of plots and counterplots was commenced by 
 these two unprincipled men against each other, and was for some 
 time carried on in both kingdoms, as well as in all the sur- 
 
 O ' 
 
 rounding countries. The pride of the King of Spain and of the 
 whole nation had, moreover, been deeply wounded by the pro 
 visions of the treaty of Utrecht, which secured Gibraltar to Great 
 Britain, and alienated from Spain its ancient and valuable posses 
 sions in Italy and Sicily ; and the establishments of the French 
 in Louisiana were, probably, additional causes of irritation. The 
 
1719.] WAR BETWEEN SPAIN AND FRANCE. 337 
 
 
 
 Catholic monarch, a man utterly without head or heart, was then 
 ruled by his imperious queen, Elizabeth of Parma, and his wildly 
 ambitious minister Cardinal Alberoni; and he was thus led, imme 
 diately after the death of Louis XIV., to attempt the recovery of 
 the lost dominions by arms, for which purpose, large forces, mili 
 tary and naval, were prepared as secretly as possible, and under 
 various pretences. But the shrewd Regent was acquainted with 
 every movement, and penetrated every motive, of his rival; and 
 he made use of his information, to awaken the jealousies of the 
 sovereigns of England and Germany, and to secure their alliance 
 in maintaining the existing state of things : so that when a Span 
 ish fleet, bearing a large army, appeared on the coast of Sicily in 
 the summer of 1718, it was met and completely destroyed by a 
 British force under Admiral Byng. 
 
 This disaster served only to render the pretensions of Philip 
 V. and his councillors more extravagant ; and their next meas 
 ure was the famous conspiracy, concocted by the Spanish am 
 bassador Cellamar, in the capital of France, for seizing and con 
 fining the Duke of Orleans, and placing the King of Spain in his 
 stead as Regent, the failure of which covered all concerned in it, 
 with ridicule and disgrace. A treaty of alliance had, meanwhile, 
 been concluded between France, England and Germany, to which 
 the King of Spain was required to adhere; and upon his refusal, 
 war was declared against him, by those powers, in January, 1719. 
 
 In this war the Spaniards were uniformly unsuccessful in Eu 
 rope. At home, their northern provinces were overrun by the 
 French, while the British fleets ravaged their coasts, and de 
 stroyed their naval arsenals. In Italy and Sicily, their armies 
 were defeated by the Imperialists ; and on the ocean, the ships 
 and forces sent from Cadiz, in aid of the pretender to the crown 
 of England, were all sunl^ or taken. 
 
 In America fortune was scarcely less unfavorable to the Span 
 ish arms. The news of the war was brought to Mobile on the 19th 
 of April, 1719, by M. de Serigny, the brother of Bienville, who had 
 been sent out, to survey the coasts about the mouth of the Mis 
 sissippi; and it was determined, that an attack should be made 
 on Pensacola, as soon as possible. For this purpose, six hundred 
 French, and an equal number of Indians were collected, of whom 
 a portion were embarked in three vessels under Serigny, while 
 43 
 
338 PENSACOLA TAKEN BY THE FRENCH. [1719. 
 
 
 
 the others were to march over land. These preparations con 
 sumed much time ; fortunately, however, for the French, the 
 Spaniards remained in ignorance of the rupture of the peace; 
 and no apprehensions were excited at Pensacola, by the appear 
 ance of Serigny's vessels off the entrance of the bay, until he 
 had landed a party of his men on Siguenza Point, the western ex- 
 tremity of Santa Rosa island, and captured the small post estab 
 lished there. The town of Pensacola then consisted of a few 
 huts on the margin of the bay, near the spot at present occupied 
 by the navy yard, due north of Siguenza Point; the castle of San 
 Carlos stood about one mile farther west, and nearer to the Gulf, 
 where the abandoned fort of the Barrancas is now situated. Ere 
 any attempt could be made to place the castle in a defensible 
 condition, the French ships entered the bay, and took their po 
 sitions in front of it ; while Bienville at the same time, displayed 
 his forces on the unoccupied heights in the rear. The vessels 
 then begun a fire on the castle, which, however, seems to have 
 produced no damage : upon its cessation, the Spanish Governor 
 Matamoros, sent a flag of truce to Serigny, to inquire the cause 
 of these hostile proceedings ; and being thus, for the first time, 
 made acquainted with the existence of the war, as he had no ade 
 quate means of defence, he proposed to surrender, on condition 
 that he and all his officers and men should be sent to Havanna. 
 The terms were accepted, and on the 14th of May, the French 
 took possession of the castle, of which Chateaugue was placed in 
 command; and in the middle of the following month, the prison 
 ers, in number one hundred and sixty, were embarked in two 
 French vessels bound for Europe, which were to leave them on 
 the way, at Havanna, agreeably to the capitulation. 
 
 Meanwhile, the news of the war had reached Havanna, where 
 the Captain General Don Gregorio Guazo being anxious to strike 
 a blow at the English, assembled a number of vessels and troops, 
 for the purpose of destroying the settlements^ of that nation in 
 the Bahama Islands, and ajso, if possible, on the coast of Caro 
 lina. This armament left the port, in the beginning of July, un 
 der the command of Don Alfonso Carascosa, and soon after fell 
 in with the two French vessels, which were on their way to Ha 
 vanna with the prisoners taken at Pensacola. The Spanish 
 commander, on learning the facts, seized both the vessels, and 
 
1719.] PENSACOLA RETAKEN BY THE SPANIARDS. 339 
 
 returned with them to Havanna, where it was resolved, that the 
 forces should be immediately directed to the recapture of Pensa- 
 cola. The French were in consequence retained as prisoners in 
 Cuba, and their vessels were added to the squadron, which de 
 parted on its new enterprise in a few days ; while information of 
 what had occurred, was transmitted to the Viceroy of Mexico, 
 w r ith an earnest request for reinforcements, in order to secure the 
 execution of the important objects in view. 
 
 On the 5th of August, the Spanish squadron, having obtained 
 information at St. Joseph's Bay, as to the state of the fort and 
 garrison of Pensacola, arrived at the entrance of that harbor, 
 where a hundred men were immediately landed r;n Siguenza 
 Point, and s-everal vessels were towed into the bjty. The ap 
 pearance of this force, was entirely unexpected by the French, 
 who had taken no pains to secure their conquest The garrison 
 was small, and composed principally of vagabonds recently 
 brought from Europe, the greater part of whom soon refused to 
 obey ; and the only vessels in the harbor were two small schoon 
 ers, one of which was boarded and taken by the Spaniards, the 
 other being deserted and burnt by her crew. In the course of the 
 following night, the castle was completely invested by the assail 
 ants, and Chateaugue having no hopes of relief from Mobile, 
 found himself obliged to surrender on the first summons. A 
 number of his men immediately entered the service of the con 
 querors, while he with the remainder of the troops and the officers 
 were sent as prisoners to Havanna. 
 
 In order to follow up this success, Carascosa, detatched a 
 portion of his squadron, with a number of soldiers, among 
 whom were many of the French deserters, under Don Antonio 
 Mendieta, against the French establishments on Mobile bay. 
 They arrived on the 13th, before Dauphine island, and Mendieta 
 immediately sent a summons to the Commandant Serigny, to sur 
 render under pain of death, if he should resist, not only to him 
 self and his whole garrison, but also to his brother Chateaugue 
 and the remainder of the prisoners in Havanna. To this inso 
 lent and barbarous message, Serigny returned a haughty and con 
 temptuous answer; and he prepared to defend the island as well 
 as he could, with his force of two hundred Frenchmen and some 
 Indians, to which he could expect no addition from Mobile. 
 
 II 
 
840 RECAPTURE OF PENSACOLA BY THE FRENCH. [1719. 
 
 The Spaniards, however, did not disturb him for several days, 
 during which they held complete possession of the bay, the only 
 French vessel of any size being at that time stranded near the 
 shore of Dauphine island ; nor did they effect any other damage 
 than the capture of a few boats, and the plunder of a plantation 
 near the west side of the bay, on which latter occasion, they lost. 
 a number of men, for the most part French deserters. At length, 
 on the 19th, having received large additions to his forces, Men- 
 dieta endeavored to destroy the stranded vessel, and to carry one 
 of the forts on the island: but he was in each case repulsed; and 
 Serigny being in the meantime strengthened by the arrival of 
 some Canadians and Indians from the interior, the Spaniards 
 abandoned their enterprise on the 26th, and returned to Pensacola. 
 
 On the 1st of September, Serigny and his garrison at Dauphine 
 island, were again alarmed by the appearance of several large 
 ships under sail towards the bay : but to their surprise and joy, 
 they soon descried the flags and private signals of their country 
 on the masts, and before night, four French frigates of the largest 
 class, with a store-ship, were anchored in the adjoining roads. 
 One of the frigates with the store-ship had been sent from France 
 by the company, and agreeably to orders carried by them from 
 the government, they were joined at St. Domingo by the other 
 ships under the command of the Marquis de Champmeslin. 
 
 The French having been thus restored to their superiority, it was 
 immediately agreed between Champmeslin and Bienville, that no 
 time should be lost before retaking Pensacola. The ships under 
 the Marquis accordingly sailed for that place on the 14th ; Bienville, 
 as on the former occasion, marching thither from the Bay of Mo 
 bile with his soldiers, and a large body of Indians under St. Denis. 
 The Spaniards had made considerable additions to their fortifi 
 cations at Pensacola, especially by the erection of a battery on 
 Siguenza point which if properly served, might have proved very 
 efficient, in preventing the entry of the French ships into the 
 bay; and they had several armed vessels lying in order near the 
 castle. Champmeslin, however, soon silenced the battery, and 
 entered the bay, on the morning of the 17th of September, 
 whilst Bienville established himself, with his artillery, on the sand 
 hills overlooking the castle ; and the fire was begun on both sides. 
 After some time, the Spanish vessels were abandoned by their 
 
1719.] EXPULSION OF THE SPANIARDS FROM ADAYES. 341 
 
 crews, who fled to the land, and the Commandant Carascosa, 
 considering his force inadequate to a longer defence, surrendered 
 at discretion. He was treated with courtesy by Champmeslin; 
 but Matamoros was severely rebuked and kept in confinement for 
 his treachery, and his tyrannical conduct towards the officers and 
 men of the vessels, which carried him to Havanna. Forty-seven 
 of the French deserters were found among the prisoners, of whom 
 twelve were immediately hanged, the others being condemned to 
 forced labor for life. Of the Spaniards, three hundred were, 
 without delay, sent to Cuba, and there exchanged for Cha- 
 teaugue and his companions ; the others were carried by Champ 
 meslin to France, on his return in the following month. 
 
 On the Red river meanwhile, M. Blondel the Commandant of 
 the fort at Natchitoches, so soon as he received news of the de 
 claration of war, collected all his forces, and with the aid of the 
 surrounding Indians, he expelled the Spaniards from their forts and 
 missions north of the Trinity in June, 1719. Upon his death, 
 w r hich occurred in the autumn of the following year, 1720, M. 
 Renaud was appointed to the command of the post, and St. 
 Denis was at the same time despatched thither, with instructions 
 to organize an expedition of French and Indians against the north 
 ern provinces of Mexico. The results of this expedition will be 
 related hereafter. 
 
 So certain had the Spaniards in Cuba and Mexico been of the 
 success of Carascosa's expedition, that several vessels from Ha 
 vanna and Vera Cruz entered the harbor of Pensacola without 
 suspicion, and were there seized by the French. One of these 
 vessels brought information that a large Spanish squadron was 
 about to be despatched from Havanna, for the capture of all the 
 French settlements on the Gulf; and Bienville was thus kept on 
 the alert until the arrival of several ships of war under M. de 
 Saujon in February, 1720, relieved him from all apprehensions. 
 Other ships of war came in succession to Louisiana, in the course 
 of the summer, among which were the Toulouse and the Henri, 
 commanded by M. de Vallette Laudun, bringing a large amount 
 of supplies and ammunition from Toulon. In one of these ves 
 sels moreover, came the Jesuit Father Laval, commissioned to 
 ascertain the geographical positions of the principal points on the 
 coast, for which purpose he set up an observatory on Dauphine 
 
342 LAVAL'S OBSERVATIONS OF LONGITUDE. [1720. 
 
 Island ; but his instruments were so defective, and he was so 
 much occupied by his duties, as a priest, to the sick, that his re 
 sults when published, were soon proved to be all extravagantly 
 erroneous.* 
 
 In the same year, 1720, a small body of Spaniards composed 
 chiefly of cavalry, with several priests, arrived near the junction 
 of the Kansas river with the Mississippi, where they were attacked 
 by the Otoctata or Otto and the Pani Indians, and were almost all 
 destroyed.! Such at least was the account given to M. de Bois- 
 briant, the French Commandant of the Illinois, by some Indians, 
 
 * The Journal and observations of Father Laval were published at Paris in 
 1728, in a quarto volume, entitled "Voyage de la Louisiane." He had however 
 already in 1723, published the results, according to which, New Orleans was 
 placed 103 degrees west of Paris nearly eleven degrees beyond the longitude 
 assigned to the same place, by Delisle in his map of America, in the preceding 
 year. This brought forth a memoir by Delisle, in defence of his view, read be 
 fore the Academy of Sciences of Paris, and published in its Collection in 1726, 
 which diminished the confidence in the observations of the Jesuit. The question 
 however remained open between the two philosophers until 1729, when it was 
 decided in favor of Delisle, by observations of a total eclipse of the moon on the 
 8th of August, made simultaneously at Paris by Cassini, and at New Orleans by 
 Baron, an astronomer sent thither for those objects ; agreeably to which, New 
 Orleans was 92 degrees 16 minutes west of Paris, equivalent to 89 degrees 5U 
 minutes west of Greenwich only 19 minutes east of its true position. 
 
 f Of this expedition of the Spaniards, La Harpe says in his Journal : 
 
 " 1721, April 24 A letter was received from M. de Boisbriant, Commandant 
 of the Illinois, who stated that the Spaniards, in number three hundred, had 
 set out from Santa Fe, the capital of New Mexico, near the 36th degree of north 
 latitude, with the design of occupying the territory of this colony, whilst their 
 fleet should take possession of the coasts ; that of these three hundred men, only 
 seventy had persevered in the enterprise ; and passing through various savage 
 nations, under the guidance of some Padoucas, instead of taking a direction east 
 one-quarter north-east, they had been led too far towards the north, so that they 
 came on the banks of the Kansas, near the Missouri, where they were met by 
 the Otoctata and Panimaha nations, and had been all killed, with the exception 
 of a single priest, who escaped on horseback. M. de Boisbriant added that some 
 French traders had obtained from those savages some pieces of silver, which 
 had been melted, and appeared to have been reduced from ores discovered by 
 the Spaniards on their way." 
 
 Charlevoix on his way through the Illinois in 1721, saw the robes of another 
 Spanish priest, who had been killed ; and he purchased from an Indian, a pistol 
 which had belonged to him. He endeavored also to obtain the holy ointment, 
 in the possession of the same Indian, who however would not part With it, as he 
 believed it to be an effectual remedy against all diseases. The fact of the ex 
 pedition, is confirmed by Du Pratz, Dumont, and all the other historians and 
 travellers of that period, so that there seems to be no reason to doubt it. 
 
1720.] SPANISH EXPEDITION AGAINST ILLINOIS. 343 
 
 who confirmed it, by the exhibition of articles of clothing, arms, 
 books and sacred utensils, all evidently Spanish, and said to have 
 been taken from the bodies of the slain. Of the truth of this ac 
 count, there can be no reasonable grounds for doubt; the ex 
 pedition appears to have been made from New Mexico, and its 
 object was probably the expulsion of the French from the Illinois, 
 at the same time when their settlements on the coast of the Gulf 
 should have been destroyed by the squadron from Havanna. 
 
 No farther acts of hostility took place between the two nations 
 in America. The war caused very little if any interruption of inter 
 course between France and Louisiana, and emigrants from Eu 
 rope continued to arrive in the latter country, in great numbers, as 
 well as negroes from the African coast. The emigrants were, 
 as before, taken from the dregs of the population of Paris, and 
 the sea-ports of France; of those embarked, a large propor 
 tion died on the passage, and the others were generally attacked 
 with fevers on their arrival, pr languished from want of food, for 
 which the colony was still, in a great measure, dependent on the 
 mother country. Nearly all of those emigrants or engages as 
 they wertf termed had been sent out by the holders of conces 
 sions, and those who survived, were transported to their respec 
 tive places of destination on the Mississippi, by way of Lake 
 Pontchartrain. Bienville endeavored to prevail on the command 
 ers of some of the vessels, to ascend the Mississippi, which had 
 been surveyed, though imperfectly with that view, and discharge 
 their passengers and cargoes at the site of the new capital ; but 
 he was unable to effect this, in consequence of the violent oppo 
 sition to his plans on the part of the other principal members of 
 the Council, who were determined, from jealousy or sell-interest, 
 to prevent the establishment of the seat of control and commerce 
 of the colony at the place selected by him, and to ruin him, if 
 possible, in the opinion of the Regent and the directors of the 
 company. Some of the vessels brought only women as passen 
 gers, sent for the most part from the hospitals, under the charge 
 of nuns or sisters of charity, and all against their inclinations, ex 
 cept one who was honored in consequence, with the appellation 
 ofHademoiselle de bonne Volonte. " They however obtained hus 
 bands immediately on landing, among the new colonists, who 
 rushed to the houses appointed for the residence of the girls, ip 
 
344 PRETENDED RUSSIAN PRINCESS IN LOUISIANA. [1720. 
 
 such crowds, that it became necessary to place guards around 
 them, and in some cases even to dispose of the desired objects by 
 lottery, in order to prevent combats between the eager suitors.* 
 
 Several of the vessels sent to Louisiana at this period, were 
 lost in the Mexican Gulf, from want of knowledge of its shores and 
 currents, of which no accurate ideas were to be obtained from the 
 charts then in use. One of the company's ships, the Marechal 
 
 * It would be improper to omit to notice the following curious story, which is 
 in some degree connected w r ith the colony of Louisiana during this period. 
 
 It must be premised, that the Czarowitz Alexis, eldest son of Peter the Great 
 of Russia (the same who is usually supposed, to have been put to death by his 
 father in 1718) married in 1711, the Princess Charlotte Christina Sophia, daugh 
 ter to the Duke of Brunswick Wolfenbuttel ; and that she, according to historical 
 records, died from the brutal treatment of her husband in November, 1715. 
 
 Duclos however, in his curious memoirs of the reign of Louis XV. relates, that 
 many years afterwards, the celebrated Marshal Saxe met a lady in the garden 
 of the Thuilleries at Paris, whom he recognized as the princess supposed to have 
 thus died in 1715; and who on being questioned by him, admitted herself to be 
 that person. According to her statement, she had been, while pregnant, cruelly 
 beaten by the Czarowitz ; and having been then delivered of a dead child, she 
 prevailed on the Countess of Konigsmarck, the mother of Marshal Saxe, who 
 was her confidential attendant, to spread the report of her decease, and to aid 
 her in quitting a country, where she could no longer remain in safety.' The plan 
 adopted for this purpose succeeded completely ; a figure was buried in her place, 
 and she reached Paris, from which she embarked for Louisiana in company with 
 an old servant passing for her father. There she was recognized by a young 
 officer named D'Aubant, who had seen her in Russia, and a mutual attachment 
 having arisen between them, they were, after the death of the Czarowitz, united 
 in marriage. Since that period she had remained in Louisiana in perfect happi 
 ness, until the ill health of her husband recently obliged them to return to France ; 
 and he had obtained a situation in the Isle of Bourbon, for which they were about 
 to take their departure. 
 
 Marshal Saxe, it seems, was convinced of the truth of this narrative ; and the 
 lady having entreated him not to reveal it, he employed his influence to procure 
 advantages for her and her husband in the Isle of Bourbon, where they remained 
 until the death of D'Aubant in 1747. The lady being then aged and childless, 
 returned to France and established herself at Vitry, where she was residing, 
 under the name of Madame de Moldack, and had been seen by Duclos in 1768, 
 only three years before the date of his account. 
 
 This strange story excited much attention in Europe at the time of its publica 
 tion, and it is said to have drawn from the Russian Government a formal denial 
 of the truth of the principal statement. Nothing has been found in confirmation 
 or in disproof of it, in any document relating to Louisiana; though it is certain, 
 that a M. and Madame D'Aubant did reside for some time at the Isle of Bourbon. 
 The neroine is now generally supposed to have been an ingenious impostor, who 
 made use of some resemblance to the deceased princess, to extract money or ad 
 vancement for her husband, from Marshal Saxe. 
 
1720.] 
 
 VOYAGE OF BERANGER TO THE WEST COAST. 
 
 345 
 
 d'Estrees, while on her way to Mobile in the summer of 1719, with 
 a hundred and fifty galley slaves, ran aground on the west coast 
 of the Gulf near the 29th degree of latitude probably on 
 Galveston island and was, with great difficulty prevented from 
 filling to pieces. She was in the end got off, and reached St. 
 Domingo in safety ; but five officers who were on board, having 
 been induced, from the accounts or signs of some Indians, to be 
 lieve that there was a settlement of their countrymen at a short 
 distance in the interior, quitted the vessel with a small stock of 
 provisions, and set off under the guidance of the savages, in 
 search of the place. Of these persons, nothing was heard until 
 1721, when one of them, M. de Belle-isle, was brought to Natchi- 
 toches, in a most wretched condition, by a party of Cenis, who 
 had rescued him from captivity among the natives near the mouth 
 of the Trinity ; the others had all perished, from disease or hun 
 ger in the neighborhood of the coast.* 
 
 On the arrival in Europe of the news of this accident to the 
 Marechal d'Estrees, orders were immediately sent to the Governor 
 of Louisiana, to found a fort and trading factory on the west coast 
 of the Gulf; and Bienville, as a semblance of compliance, des 
 patched Lieutenant Beranger, in August, 1720, with a small 
 schooner and a few men, in search of a proper position for such 
 establishments. This officer, however, contented himself with a 
 cursory examination of an inlet situated, according to his obser 
 vations, in latitude of 27 degrees 45 minutes, and communicating 
 with a bay, which he did not enter, but which he supposed to be 
 that of St. Louis or San Bernardo. On the shore of this inlet, 
 which was most probably the same now called Copano or Corpus 
 Christi, near the mouth of the river Nueces, Beranger left a ser 
 geant and three men -for what object it is not easy to imagine 
 and then returned to Biloxy, to report the results of his expedi 
 tion to the Governor. No farther measures were, however, taken 
 at that time in fulfilment of the orders of the directory, nor was 
 any thing learned of the men left on the west coast of the Gulf, 
 
 * M. de Belle-isle lived to an advanced age in Louisiana, and his adventures 
 on this occasion, may be found related in every account of that country, written 
 during the middle of the last century. These accounts contain nothing of im 
 portance ; and indeed they differ from each other in all points, becoming more 
 marvellous as the narrator advanced in life. 
 
 44 
 
346 TRUCE BETWEEN THE ALLIES AND SPAIN. [1719. 
 
 who were supposed, according to La Harpe, " to have been 
 eaten by savages." 
 
 The war in Europe had been meanwhile arrested by a truce 
 between the King of Spain, and the Allies in January, 1720; 
 which being followed by the disgrace and expulsion of Cardinal 
 Alberoni, the originator of all the difficulties, Philip V. acceded 
 to the conditions of the alliance. The Regent of France then 
 exerted himself to restore the good understanding between his 
 court and that of Spain, which he succeeded in effecting, as 
 the improved health of the young Louis XV. daily diminished 
 the probability of any contest for the throne of France ; and ne 
 gotiations were begun at Madrid, for a general peace by conces 
 sions on all sides. The parties, nevertheless, maintained their 
 hostile attitudes; and Pensacola continued in the possession of 
 the French for more than two years longer. 
 
 Although Great Britain and France were united in this war 
 against Spain, their relations thus apparently amicable, rested on 
 an insecure basis ; and were daily endangered by the mutual 
 jealousy and distrust of the parties, especially with regard to 
 movements in America. The treaty of Utrecht had, as already 
 shewn, left several grave questions relating to that part of the 
 world, to be settled by Commissaries; including those of the extent 
 and limits of the . territory of the Six Nations, and of Acadie or 
 Nova Scotia, which had been assigned to Great Britain, as also 
 of the line of separation between the Hudson's Bay countries be 
 longing to the same nation, and the French possessions farther 
 south. These stipulations were made in 1713, and were to have 
 been executed according to their terms, within a year; but in con 
 sequence of the desire or necessity on the part of both nations, to 
 remain at peace, after the deaths of Queen Anne and Louis XIV., 
 no measures were taken for the purpose until 1719. At that time 
 much uneasiness was excited in England and English America, 
 by the proceedings of the Mississippi Company in Louisiana, and 
 by the persistance of the French, in holding large portions of Nova 
 Scotia and of the country south of Lake Ontario, in w T hich they 
 were making fortifications and other establishments contrary to 
 the treaty: and the French were no less alarmed, by the active 
 advances of the people of New England, in the occupation of the 
 countries east of the Kennebeck. In these last named countries, 
 
1719.] TENTH ARTICLE OF THE UTRECHT TREATY. 347 
 
 both parties were indeed exerting themselves to the utmost ; and 
 when, in the beginning of 1719, it became probable that the Eng 
 lish would prevail, the Court of France signified to the other party 
 its desire, to have the questions of right which had been reserved 
 by the treaty of Utrecht, settled in the manner provided by that 
 agreement.* 
 
 The Board of Trade and Plantations of Great Britain, to which 
 this proposition was submitted, was divided in opinion as to the 
 course to be pursued: some of its members considering, that the 
 opportunity should be seized, to establish clearly and definitively, 
 the whole line of separation between the dominions of the two 
 nations in America; while others regarded it as more politic, to 
 leave those questions in their actual state of uncertainty, but at 
 the same time to advance the frontier posts and colonies as far 
 and as rapidly as possible. The charters and all other evidences 
 of possession were studied ; and persons supposed to be well ac 
 quainted with those subjects were examined, including Dr. Coxe 
 the claimant of Carolana, who was strenuous in his opinion, that 
 
 * The words of this article of the Treaty of Utrecht are as follows : 
 " X. That the said most Christian King shall restore to the kingdom and 
 Queen of Great Britain, to be possessed in full right for ever, the Bay and Straits 
 of Hudson, together with all lands, seas, sea coasts, rivers and places situate in 
 the said Bay and Straits, and which belong thereunto, no tracts of land or sea 
 being excepted which are at present possessed by the subjects of France. All 
 which, as well as any buildings there made, in the condition they now are, and 
 likewise all fortresses there erected, either before or since the French seized the 
 same, shall within six months from the ratification of the present Treaty, or 
 sooner if possible, be well and truly delivered to the British subjects, having 
 commission from the Queen of Great Britain, to demand and receive the same, 
 entire and undemolished, together with all the cannon and cannon ball which are 
 therein, as also with a quantity of powder, if it be there found, in proportion to 
 the cannon ball, and with the other provision of war usually belonging to cannon. 
 It is however provided, that it may be entirely free for the Company of Quebec, 
 and all other the subjects of the most Christian King whatsoever, to go by land 
 or by sea, whithersoever they please out of the lands of the said bay, together 
 with all their goods, merchandises, arms and effects of what nature or condition 
 soever, except such things as are above reserved in this article. But it is agreed 
 on both sides, to determine within a year, by commissaries to be forthwith named 
 by each party, the limits which are to be fixed between the said Bay of Hudson 
 and the places appertaining to the French ; which limits both the British and 
 French subjects shall be wholly forbid to pass over, or thereby to go to each 
 other by sea or by land. The same commissaries shall also have orders to de 
 scribe and settle in like manner, the boundaries between the other British and 
 French colonies in those parts." 
 
348 APPOINTMENT OF COMMISSARIES. [1719. 
 
 the Government should insist on the Mississippi as the western 
 boundary of the British possessions. The Board however, became 
 convinced, that nothing conclusive could be drawn from any of 
 these authorities, except with regard to Acadie and the Hudson's 
 Bay territories, on which the charter of James I. to Alexander, 
 and of Charles II. to the Hudson's Bay Company, were consider 
 ed as incontestable proofs of right. The appointment of Com 
 missaries was recommended ; but they were to be instructed to 
 confine themselves to the limits of the two countries last men 
 tioned, and to insist on the acknowledgment of the title of 
 Great Britain to those divisions of America, in their fullest ex 
 tent, as well as to the exclusive fishery on the banks and coasts 
 of Newfoundland : though in order to prevent their silence on 
 other points from being interpreted as an admission of the French 
 pretensions, they were to complain of encroachments in the re 
 gions of the Lakes and the Mississippi, whilst declaring that they 
 could not enter into the discussion of those boundaries, until 
 reports had been received from the Governors of the provinces 
 interested.* 
 
 The proposition of the French Government having been ac 
 cepted, Commissaries were appointed by each party: those of 
 Great Britain were Colonel Martin Bladen and Mr. Daniel Pul- 
 teney, both members of Parliament and of the Board of Trade and 
 Plantations, under the instructions of which they were to act; the 
 French Commissaries were the Marech'al d'Estrees and the Abbe 
 Dubois, (soon after made Cardinal,) both members of the Regent's 
 Council. They met at Paris in the winter of 1719-20; but diffi 
 culties presented themselves at the outset, in consequence of the 
 demand made by the French Government, for the withdrawal of 
 the people of New England, who had established themselves in 
 Nova Scotia, until the negotiations should have been concluded: 
 the Court of Great Britain replied by a similar demand, for the 
 evacuation of the same country by the French ; and neither being 
 willing to yield, all attempts at a settlement of boundaries in that 
 quarter, were abandoned. With regard to the Hudson's Bay 
 
 * This account of the deliberations of the Board of Trade and Plantations, is 
 derived from manuscript copies of the minutes of that body on the subject, made 
 by George Chalmers, the author of the " Political Annals of the American Colo 
 nies," and now in the possession of Peter Force, Esq. of Washington. 
 
1720.] PROPOSED EXCHANGE OF GIBRALTAR FOR FLORIDA. 349 
 
 territories, it is most probable, if not absolutely certain, that the 
 discussions of the Commissaries were equally ineffectual; although 
 several lines, differing entirely in course, were afterwards repre 
 sented on English maps, each purporting to be the boundary de 
 termined on this occasion. 
 
 These differences between England and France were not suffi 
 cient to counterbalance the desire on the parts of both Govern 
 ments, to re-establish peace and maintain it on a firm foundation; 
 and it was agreed, that a general Congress of representatives of 
 the great powers of Europe should be convened as soon as pos 
 sible, for the arrangement of all their disputes, with which object, 
 exertions were made to obtain from each nation its engagement 
 to submit to what might be thus determined. Such assurances 
 were given by all the pow r ers except Spain, in the course of the 
 year 1720, and Cambray in French Flanders, was appointed as 
 the place of meeting of the Congress. The Courts of France and 
 Spain were in perfect accord on all points previously disputed 
 between them ; but the differences between the latter nation and 
 Great Britain were not to be so easily reconciled: the destruction 
 of the Spanish fleet by Byng in 1718, had severely mortified the 
 pride of the people, and Philip V. persisted in requiring the re 
 storation of Gibraltar arid Minorca to his dominion. With regard 
 to Gibraltar, the British Government was at first determined to 
 yield nothing ; but George I. notwithstanding the opposition 
 which had been openly made by his Parliament, to the surren 
 der of that fortress on any terms, at length offered to exchange 
 it for Florida, or the Spanish portion of Hispaniola.* To this, 
 
 * With regard to this exchange of Gibraltar for Florida or the Spanish portion 
 of Hispaniola, proposed by the British court to that of Spain, some curious par 
 ticulars will be found in a despatch, written by Mr. Stanhope, the British Envoy 
 at Madrid, to his Government, on the 18th of January, 1721, which will be found 
 at length in Coxe's Memoirs of the Bourbon Kings of Spain, chapter 31. The 
 Envoy, in detailing the obstacles to such an arrangement, mentions particularly 
 the objections made to it by Don Andres de Pes, the President of the Council of 
 the Indies, with w r hom he was on terms of intimacy; and who though well dis 
 posed to favor the English in commerce, and to maintain a good understanding 
 between the two powers, was immovable in his resistance on this point. " During 
 all the time that I have known him," says Mr. Stanhope, "he has seemed to 
 have nothing more zealously at heart, than to drive the French from their set 
 tlements on the Mississippi ; upon this general principle, that the suffering of any 
 foreigners to establish themselves in any part of the Spanish West Indies, would 
 sooner or later occasion the loss of the whole to Spain. He is not only convinced 
 
350 NEGOTIATIONS AT MADRID. [1721. 
 
 however, Philip V. positively refused to consent; being influenced 
 chiefly by Don Andres de Pes the President of the Council of the 
 Indies, and probably also by the Court of France, though the 
 Abbe Dubois, the Regent's minister of Foreign Affairs, was in 
 the pay of Great Britain : and the re-establishment of peace was 
 delayed for sometime after the two governments had agreed on 
 the other principal matters in dispute. 
 
 The good understanding between Spain and France was con 
 firmed by a treaty signed at Madrid on the 27th of March, 1721, 
 by which the two powers bound themselves in perpetual and strict 
 alliance, consigning to eternal oblivion all offences and injuries 
 committed by either against the other during the late war, and 
 guaranteeing mutually all their dominions wheresoever situated, as 
 recognized by existing treaties, or by those which might be con 
 cluded in a congress of the European States to be held without 
 delay at Cambray. The King of Spain was at the same time in 
 duced by the representations of the Regent of France, to admit 
 as sufficient grounds for his assent to a similar arrangement with 
 England, a promise on the part of the latter, for the restoration 
 of Gibraltar at some future period ; and after some difficulties, as 
 to the language to be employed in such an assurance,* a letter 
 written by George I. himself, on the 1st of June, expressing, in 
 terms most equivocal, his readiness to satisfy the Demand of Spain 
 
 that it is impossible ever to persuade the Spaniards to approve of such a propq- 
 sal, but would endeavor to prove to me, that we do not know what we ask, in 
 demanding either of those places. He assures me of his own knowledge, that 
 they would be a charge and no ways profitable, being barren, and scarce pro 
 ductive enough to subsist the inhabitants ; and that we should soon be as tired 
 of them, as we were of Tangier, and for the same reasons, as entailing a con 
 tinual war upon the nation, with the Indians and Spaniards settled there. That 
 therefore we could propose no other advantages by them, but the hopes of penetrating by 
 their means towards the mines, or of carrying on a clandestine trade ; either of which is 
 a reason strong enough to hinder the Spaniards from ever coming into such a project." 
 
 The proposition, it may be added, was itself entirely at variance with the 
 terms of the treaty of Utrecht, by which Spain was bound not to alienate any 
 part of her American possessions ; and if accepted, it must have produced diffi 
 culties, if not war, between Great Britain and France. 
 
 *This curious letter appears in the original French, in the Journal of the House 
 of Commons, for March 21, 1728. The particulars of the negotiation are 
 given, with certain retentions, by Lord Mahon, in the part of his History of Eng 
 land relative to the affairs of 1721; yet strangely enough, he does not allude in 
 his work to the treaties of Madrid, although, a Stanhope was the representative 
 of England on the occasion of their signature. 
 
, 1721.] TREATIES OF MADRID. 351 
 
 respecting the restitution of Gibraltar, so soon as the consent of 
 his Parliament could be obtained, was accepted by Philip V., 
 who thereupon signed a treaty with England, resembling that 
 concluded by him with France. A third treaty was also signed 
 on the same day, the 13th of June, 1721, between the three na 
 tions, binding them all to the maintenance of the stipulations con 
 tained in the others, and constituting a triple 'alliance, and a guar 
 antee of all their possessions in every part of the world, as then 
 admitted by treaties, or as might be settled at Cambray. In order 
 to strengthen the alliance between Spain and France, the young 
 king of the latter country, then eleven years old, was betrothed 
 to the eldest daughter of Philip V. aged four years ; and the heii 
 of the Spanish throne was in like manner affianced to the daugh 
 ter of the Regent Duke. Neither of the marriages thus arranged 
 was effected ; yet the union between the two crowns, though oc 
 casionally threatened w r ith dissolution, continued unbroken foi 
 more than seventy years. 
 
 Whilst these discussions were in progress, the French exerted 
 themselves to strengthen their positions in the disputed countries, 
 by increasing their fortified posts, a^A their missionary stations 
 among the Indians. In Nova Scotia, great influence was exer 
 cised over the dominant savage nation of the Abenakis, by the 
 Jesuit Father Rasle, who was the especial object of the animosity 
 of the New England people ; in the Iroquois regions, M. Joncaire 
 a Frenchman, who had long resided among the Sejekas, re 
 constructed and occupied the old fort at the entrance of the Nia 
 gara river into Lake Ontario ; in the country of the Wabash and 
 Miami, other posts were established, by the Commandant of Fort 
 Ouayatenons (afterwards called Vincennes,) in order to ensure 
 the communications between Canada and the Mississippi ; while 
 the Governor of Louisiana was unwearied in his efforts, to 
 cause the destruction of all the English traders, who should 
 venture within the limits claimed for his province. The Gov 
 ernors of the English possessions, though highly exasperated 
 against the French, and unscrupulous as to the means to be em 
 ployed for arresting them, were much less active; leaving to the 
 people of the respective colonies, the task of repelling encroach 
 ments, and of pushing forward their settlements, at their own 
 risk and cost. 
 
352 THE MISSISSIPPI SCHEME AT ITS HEIGHT. [1719. 
 
 The Mississippi scheme had ere that period passed through all 
 its phases. It was at the full in the latter part of 1719, when the 
 shares of the India Company were sold at ten, twelve, and eigh 
 teen times their original cost; and the notes of the Bank of France, 
 though constantly increasing in number, nevertheless commanded 
 a considerable advance in specie upon their nominal value. The 
 enthusiasm of the public had been then raised to madness by the 
 various expedients employed to enhance the value of the stock of 
 the company, such as accounts of the discovery of mines of pre 
 cious metals or stones in the Mississippi regions, or of new arti 
 cles of necessity or luxury procured from them,* or of new routes 
 to the Pacific, or new channels of trade with the Spanish provinces. 
 The Rue de Quincampoix in Paris, where Law's house and offices 
 were first situated, was crowded day and night, by applicants of 
 both sexes, and of all ages, classes and conditions, for the certifi 
 cates of stock in the India Company, which would entitle them to a 
 share of its profits, or which might be sold, soon after, at a large 
 advance. On the abandonment of that narrow street for the spa 
 cious Place Vendome, the throng increased in proportion to the 
 means of accommodation; smA when the large Hotel de Soissons 
 became the scene of business, its gardens were for some time 
 filled with tents, hired at enormous prices to the eager expectants. 
 Princes and nobles struggled and intrigued for the favor of a short 
 interview with the great dispenser of wealth ; and those whose 
 resources were previously unequal to their support, in the most 
 
 * Among the various means employed at this time to derive revenue from 
 Louisiana, was the attempt to introduce the leaves of the Cassina, or Prinus Gla- 
 ber of Linnaeus, into Europe, as a substitute for tea. These leaves, the produce 
 of a small tree, bearing red berries, called Apalachine by the French, and Yappoii 
 by the English, were much used in decoction by the Indians on the whole coast 
 of America, south of the Chesapeake, as a tonic and febrifuge; and they are uni 
 versally employed in the same way, at the present time, in the lower parts of 
 North Carolina. The leaves are gathered in the summer and dried, or rather 
 parched over the fire, after which they are boiled, and the decoction, bitter and 
 somewhat aromatic, is taken hot in the same quantity and manner as tea. A 
 particular description of the plant and its use, wit^i a colored engraving of it, 
 may be found in "Catesby's Natural History of Carolina," vol. 2, page 57. Tt is 
 also described by Charlevoix, in the account of the plants of Louisiana, attached 
 to his Histoire de la Nouvelle France. "It began," says the learned and spir- 
 ituel Jesuit, in his letters, "to acquire great reputation at Paris, at the time of 
 my departure (1721 :) but that was a bad time for reputations and fortunes of all 
 kinds ; they passed away as rapidly as they were created." 
 
1720.] DECLINE OF THE MISSISSIPPI SCHEME. 353 
 
 moderate v. r ay of life, having converted their property into India 
 stock, considered themselves as persons of fortune, and launched 
 forth into extravagant expenses. In vain did men of eminence in 
 financial affairs endeavor to enlighten the multitude, on the un 
 substantial nature of the project in which they were engaged ; 
 vain were the pasquinades and caricatures,* showered forth daily, 
 by those who had themselves nothing to venture in the specula 
 tion ; vain was the protest of the Parliament of Paris, that this 
 inordinate issue of paper money could only lead the nation to 
 bankruptcy. The Regent had means in abundance for his own 
 expenses, and he could not, or would not, see that the swindling 
 system by which they w r ere obtained, must soon be unmasked. 
 Nearly all the notes of the bank had indeed gone into circulation, 
 through the royal treasury, which made its payments, amounting 
 to hundreds of millions of livres annually, in that way only; the 
 India Company being chiefly used as a means of drawing in those 
 notes, in order to prevent a glut of them in the country. 
 
 In January, 1720, Law, after he had embraced the Roman 
 Catholic faith, was made Comptroller General of the Finances; 
 and the bank was placed under the direction of the India Com 
 pany, whose privileges in Louisiana were rendered perpetual. 
 Confidence had however begun to decline : the bank when re 
 quired to pay large amounts in specie, was unable to do so; alarm 
 was created among the holders of notes, and notwithstanding the 
 innumerable edicts to which the fecundity of Law's invention 
 daily gave birth, in order to keep up the price of the shares of 
 the India Company, they fell rapidly. By these edicts, payments 
 in specie, or the possession of specie, beyond a certain small 
 amount, by any individual, were punishable by confiscation and 
 fine; and the same penalties were afterwards extended to the 
 possession of gold and silver, in any form. Such measures 
 could produce no other effect than to increase the general mistrust, 
 which was changed into consternation, by the edict of May 21, 
 
 * The greater part of these pasquinades and caricatures, were published in 
 Holland, arid thence circulated throughout Europe. A volume of them was is 
 sued in 1720, at Amsterdam, entitled " Der groote tafereel der dwarsheid" The 
 Great Picture of Perversity the engravings in which, executed in a style of broad 
 and not very delicate humor, may have afforded some hints to Hogarth, whose 
 works strongly resemble them. The pictures of the scenes in the Rue Quincam- 
 poix during the period of the excitement, are particularly curious. 
 
 45 
 
354 EXPLOSION OF THE MISSISSIPPI SCHEME. [1720. 
 
 1720, declaring that the value of the bank notes and India shares, 
 should be reduced gradually until the end of the year, when they 
 would be received at only one-half of their nominal amount. The 
 clamors of the people and the remonstrances of the Parliament of 
 Paris, caused the immediate revocation of this act; but the down 
 fall of the paper system was not arrested. In order to calm the 
 popular agitation, specie was restored to currency, and Law re 
 signed the Comptrollership of the Finances ; yet he still retained 
 his influence over the Regent, who believing that the storm would 
 pass away, continued to employ the expedients suggested by him, 
 until it became indispensable to suppress the circulation of paper 
 money entirely. This was done by edicts in October, 1720, and 
 Law was soon after obliged to quit France in disguise, in order 
 to escape the vengeance of those whom he had ruined.* 
 
 The faith of the French Government w r as however pledged for 
 the redemption of the notes of the bank, at least for those which 
 could be shown to have been given for a due consideration. A 
 commission was accordingly instituted in January, 1721, to which 
 the holders of all notes were required to present them within 
 two months ; the India Company being at the same time placed 
 under the direction of four other commissioners, who were to 
 conduct its affairs, until a definitive resolution could be taken 
 with regard to them.f On examination it appeared, that the 
 amount of the bank notes thrown into circulation was two thou 
 sand seven liundred millions, of which, more than one-third had 
 
 *Law retreated to the Netherlands, carrying with him only one large diamond, 
 thence to Denmark, and thence to England, where he remained in poverty and 
 obscurity four years. He then returned to the Continent, and died in Venice in 
 1729, having during this last period of his life, supported himself entirely by 
 gambling. Long was he remembered in France as M. Lass ; the sufferers by 
 his scheme, usually accompanying the mention of his name by "Helas!" 
 His brother William, who was a partner in the bank, remained in France and 
 took the name of Lauriston from his estate in Scotland; he was the great-grand 
 father of the late French Marshal Lauriston. 
 
 f The Commissioners for the Bank, were four brothers named Paris, of whom 
 the eldest had been an inn-keeper's assistant ; those for the regulation of the af 
 fairs of the India Company, were Messrs. Dodun, Ferrand, Machault and Fagon. 
 
 The financial talents of the brothers Paris, and especially of the eldest, Paris 
 Duverney, appear to have been indeed very great, but their honesty has been 
 doubted; indeed, the whole commission was most probably intended, like certain 
 military courts of inquiry and other committees of investigation, in our own 
 times, rather to screen those in power and their favorites or partisans from oblo 
 quy, than to forward the dispensation of justice to the aggrieved. 
 
1721.] AFFAIRS OF THE BANK WOUND UP. 355 
 
 been issued without legal authority, or in defiance of express laws, 
 no doubt for the profligate expenditures of the Regent, or for the 
 gratification of his favorites, though the blame was made to rest 
 wholly on Law. Of those presented to the commissioners, a large 
 proportion were condemned and destroyed as having been unfairly 
 obtained ; the Regent and the India Company gave up others, 
 which were in like manner cancelled, and when the investigation 
 had been completed, the state was found to be charged with more 
 than sixteen hundred millions of livres, on account of the bank, 
 for the acquittal of which, certificates of credit, were delivered to 
 the holders, bearing an interest of two and a half per cent., secured 
 on various branches of the public revenue; the shares of the Bank 
 with which the India Company was to continue charged, amount 
 ed in number to fifty-five thousand four hundred and eighty-one. 
 The kingdom had been relieved from about one-fourth of its debt, 
 which as already said, amounted to two thousand millions of livres 
 when the scheme was commenced, although its expenses had far 
 exceeded its income ever since that period. The India Company 
 was confirmed in the perpetual possession of Louisiana and of all 
 its other territories and privileges in America, Africa and Asia ; 
 and it was allowed to retain the administration of the tobacco, and 
 of some other branches of the royal revenues, and to convert its 
 shares into annuities, by agreement with the holders.* 
 
 Such was the termination of the famous Mississippi scheme, by 
 which vast amounts of property in France were made to change 
 their possessors, and the whole population were converted into 
 gamblers. The confidence of Law in the stability of his system 
 seems to be proved by the fact, that he invested all his own gains 
 
 * " A valuation was made of all the fortunes of the citizens, an undertaking no 
 less extraordinary than the system, and one of the greatest and most difficult 
 operations of finance and justice, ever effected in any nation. It was begun about 
 the end of 1721. It was devised, regulated and conducted by four brothers, who 
 had never before taken any part in public affairs, but who by their genius and 
 their labors, well deserved to be trusted with the fortunes of the State. They 
 established as many bureaus, officers and judges as were necessary, and made ar 
 rangements by which order was brought forth from chaos. Five hundred and 
 eleven thousand citizens, mostly fathers of families, brought their fortunes in 
 paper to this tribunal. All these innumerable debts were liquidated at about six 
 teen hundred and thirty-one millions of livres, [more than two hundred and seventy 
 millions of dollars,] with which the State was charged ; and thus ended this prodi 
 gious game of hazard, at which a foreigner had induced a whole nation to 
 play." Voltaire's " Siecle de Louis XV. ," chapter 2. 
 
356 RESULTS OF LAW'S PROJECTS. [1721. 
 
 by it in real estate in France, which was, as he must have foreseen, 
 confiscated on his disgrace ; and the Regent died under the firm 
 conviction, that nothing but the imprudence of the Parliament of 
 Paris and of some of his ministers, prevented the entire success 
 of the plan. From France, the madness of speculation passed 
 to the adjacent countries. England was convulsed in a similar 
 manner, by the South Sea Scheme, which promised to pay the 
 national debt, and to enrich the whole people, by the profits of 
 the trade with Spanish America agreeably to the Asiento treaty 
 concluded between the two nations in 1713, and to others pro 
 posed, but never completed. The sober Hollanders w T ere carried 
 away in like manner, to the ruin of many of their richest citizens ; 
 and even in Spain, Alberoni was at the moment of his fall, medi 
 tating the establishment of a Philippine Company, which was to 
 make Manilla the depository of the East India v and China trade. 
 With regard to the effects of the Mississippi Scheme on France, 
 opinions have been, and are to the present day divided ; it being 
 considered by some, that the general financial revolution gave an 
 impetus to enterprise and industry throughout the kingdom, and 
 that it was less injurious than \vould have been the bankruptcy 
 of the state, which must otherwise have occurred, about the time 
 of the explosion of the bubble ;* while others contend, that eve i 
 those advantages, if certain, were insufficient to counterbalance 
 the evils resulting from the individual ruin, and the general de 
 moralization of the people. To America, the consequences of 
 Law's project were important, as it assured the continuance of the 
 French colony in Louisiana, which country would otherwise have 
 been infallibly abandoned, upon the failure of Crozat's project in 
 1717, and would most probably have been then occupied by the 
 English, notwithstanding any efforts of the Spaniards to prevent it. 
 
 * Smollett, in his History of England, wrote thus in 1758: "In the scheme 
 of Law there was something substantial: an exclusive trade to Louisiana prom 
 ised some advantage, though the design was defeated by the frantic eagerness of 
 the people. Law himself became the dupe of the Regent, who transferred the 
 burden of fifteen hundred millions of the king's debts to the shoulders of the sub 
 jects; while the projector was sacrificed, as the scape-goat of political iniquity. 
 The South Sea schema provided no commercial advantages of any consequence. 
 It was buoyed up by nothing but the folly and rapaciousness of individuals, &c." 
 
 Burke expresses similar opinions, in his View of the European colonies in 
 America ; at the present day, no distinction is made between the two projects, 
 either as to their honesty, or their feasibility, or their results. 
 
PROOFS AND ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 A. 
 
 DISCOVERY OF THE BAYS OF PENSACOLA AND MOBILE BY 
 THE SPANIARDS. 
 
 1. 
 
 Report of a voyage made in 1558, along the northern coast of 
 the Mexican Gulf, by Guido de las Bazares, agreeably to the 
 orders of Don Luis de Velasco, Viceroy of Mexico, in search of 
 a port for the establishment of a Spanish colony in Florida.* 
 
 SAN JUAN DE ULUA, February 1st, 1559. 
 
 About four or five months since, the Viceroy in the name of his 
 Majesty, ordered Guido de las Bazares, to go with seamen and other 
 persons, and examine the coasts of Florida and the ports thereon, 
 for the security of those who were to be sent to colonize that coun 
 try and Cape Santa Helena. To this effect, he received a com 
 mission and instructions, agreeably to which, he sailed from the 
 fort of San Juan de Ulua in New Spain, on the 3rd of September 
 of the last year 1558, in order to explore the said coasts, and 
 seek a safe harbor, for disembarcation. He had a large barque, 
 and two smaller vessels manned by sixty soldiers and seamen. On 
 the 5th of September he reached the Panuco river, and leaving it 
 on the 14th, he again made the land on that coast in latitude of 
 27 degrees. Sailing along the coast, he discovered a bay in 28^ 
 degrees of latitude, to which he gave the name of San Francisco, 
 and he took possession of it, in the name of the King. 
 
 Quitting that place, he steered towards the Alacranes, in order 
 to make the coast of Florida, where it stretches from north-west to 
 
 * The two letters here presented respecting the discovery of the Bays of Mobile 
 and Pensacola, are translated from the French versions, in the u Recueil de 
 Voyages en Amerique," of Ternaux Compans. They contain the earliest notice 
 on record of the Bay of Mobile ; Pensacola Bay was already known to the Span 
 iards as the Bay of Achusi. 
 
358 PROOFS AND ILLUSTRATIONS. [A. 
 
 south-east, but being prevented by head winds, he made the land 
 in 29^ degrees, on the coast, running east south-east, where he 
 found an island about four leagues from the mainland; and he 
 sailed between this and other islands, and the continent. After 
 exploring this whole coast, he found that it was bordered by shoals 
 and that the country was entirely unfit for colonization, being sub 
 merged in many places ; he however took possession of it, in the 
 name of his Majesty and of the Viceroy, and called the place the 
 Ba} r of Shoals. Thence he continued, ten leagues towards the 
 east, and found a bay, which he named Philippine Bay, the largest 
 and most convenient place in that quarter, and well adapted for his 
 Majesty's purposes. The entrance is in 29^ degrees of latitude ; 
 it is entered by passing the point of an island, seven leagues long, 
 steering east south east ; on the other side of the bay, is a point 
 of the mainland, the distance between the two capes being about 
 half a league. 
 
 In all the discoveries made east or west, no other port was found, 
 so good and commodious as this Philippine Bay. Its most remarka 
 ble characteristics are these. From the entrance, to the point 
 reached in it, the distance is twelve leagues, and it may be three 
 or four leagues more in depth ; in all about fifteen leagues by four 
 in width. The bottom is good, being muddy at the depth of about 
 five fathoms,* at low tide ; the depth at the entrance is three and 
 a half fathoms, and nearly one fathom more, at high tide. The 
 bay is very healthy ; the climate resembling that of Spain, as to 
 its temperature and the quantity of rain ; the ground is higher on the 
 east, than on the west. The bay and contiguous waters abound in 
 fish and shell-fish. The pine trees are in great quantities, well 
 suited for ship building, especially for masts and spars ; there are 
 also live oaks, white oaks, nut trees, cypresses, laurels, and a small 
 tree bearing a fruit like the chestnut, t All these trees, are found 
 on the edge of the water, and thence extend into the interior, and 
 are good for ship building; besides which, are many palmettos and 
 vines. Some small rivulets of fresh water, fall into the bay ; and 
 at its extremity, is a wide opening which seems to be the mouth 
 of a great river. Whilst they lay in this bay, they obtained water 
 from the side towards the north. The woods are rather clear than 
 
 *The Spanish braza or fathom, is equal to a fraction more than five and a 
 half English feet. The main channel at the entrance of the Bay of Mobile, is 
 not now, more than fifteen feet in depth ; but great changes in the depth of the 
 water and the configuration of those coasts, are frequehtly produced by storms. 
 The entrance of Mobile Bay is in latitude of 30 degrees 13 minutes, that is 
 about forty-three miles north of the position assigned to it by Bazares. 
 
 f No doubt the Eastaneus Pwnila, or Chinquepin. 
 
A.J 
 
 DISCOVERY OF MOBILE BAY. 
 
 359 
 
 thick, so that horsemen might fight in them ; and under the trees 
 grows grass for horses and cattle. Beyond the bay on the east, are 
 high hills of reddish clay, of which bricks could be made, and near 
 them, is stone for building. On the west, the clay is red and yel 
 low, suitable for pottery and other purposes. There are also a 
 number of birds of different kinds, such as eagles, ducks, geese, 
 partridges, pigeons and a great deal of game. Large canoes were 
 seen used by the Indians in fishing ; arid places were found, en 
 closed for fishing in. The huts of the natives contained Indian 
 corn, beans and squashes. 
 
 The commandant of the expedition took possession of this bay, 
 in the name of his Majesty, and called it the Philippine Bay. It 
 is distant about two hundred and seventy leagues from the port of 
 San Juan de Ulua. After leaving it, he endeavored twice to ex 
 plore the coast which stretches farther eastward ; he traced it more 
 than twenty leagues, in which he found it running first to the east, 
 and then to the south-eastward ; and being prevented by head 
 winds, from going farther, he twice returned to the Philippine Bay. 
 He also took possession of this coast, in the name of the Viceroy, 
 and called it the Gulf of Velasco. 
 
 The weather being rough and dangerous for vessels, and the pi 
 lots and seamen considering that .it was no longer safe to navigate 
 along that distant coast, the commander thought i,t best to return 
 to New Spain, and give accounts of his discoveries, so that the fleet 
 which was to make the expedition to Florida and Santa Helena, 
 might depart as soon as possible on its voyage. He therefore 
 quitted the coast of Florida, on the 3d of December, and entered 
 the port of San Juan de Ulua, on the 14th, where he made the 
 present report, on oath, as containing all that he had to say ; and 
 after it had been read over to him, he approved it, and signed it 
 
 with his name." -, 
 
 GUIDO DE LAS BAZARES. 
 
 2. 
 EXPEDITION OF ARELLANO TO FLORIDA. 
 
 Despatch from the Viceroy of Mexico , to King Philip II. of 
 Spain, respecting the expedition of Don Tristan de Luna y 
 Arellano, for the settlement of Florida. 
 
 MEXICO, September 24th, 1559. 
 
 SIRE In a former letter, I stated to your Majesty, that the fleet 
 which had been ordered for the colonization of the coasts and the 
 interior of Florida, had sailed; and that I was momentarily expect- 
 
360 PROOFS AND ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 ing the arrival of vessels, bringing me news of the results of the 
 voyage, and where the vessels had anchored. 
 
 On the 9th of this month, a galleon sent by the governor Don 
 Tristan de Arellano, arrived in fourteen days from the port of 
 Ychusi, * where the landing was effected, and which received the 
 name of the Philippine Bay of Santa Maria, in consequence of its 
 having been entered on the day of our Lady of August, t The port 
 and the country are such as your Majesty may see, by the subjoin 
 ed narrative extracted from that sent to me by the governor, and 
 brought by two pilots in the galleon. As at the moment of their 
 arrival, two ships were about to sail for Spain, I have thought pro 
 per to send you this report, reserving to myself to despatch one, 
 more circumstantial, in order to inform your Majesty, particularly, 
 of the result of this expedition. I think that the governor will 
 also send it to you by the vessels which he has brought from Spain, 
 and which are about to depart. Juan Rodriguez, the chief pilot, 
 who observed the latitudes of the coasts and the ports, will go in 
 one of them ; the pilots who came here say, that the port is in a 
 little more than 30 degrees. The Spaniards and the Indians enter 
 ed it without danger. The governor writes to me, that he has met 
 no resistance, that he saw only a few Indians on the shore, that he 
 had learned that at the distance of ten or twelve leagues in the 
 interior from the port, were very fertile and well peopled countries. 
 He requests me to send him horses, and provisions enough for his 
 support, until he has formed his colony at the port, and fortified it, 
 as he did not wish to seize them from the Indians ; adding, that in 
 order to prevent alarm among them, he would not penetrate into 
 the interior. Of two hundred and forty horses carried away by 
 him, he has thrown one hundred into the sea ; the remaining one 
 hundred and forty have been landed in good order, and capable of 
 such services, as may be required, to place him out of reach of dan 
 ger, and to insure the tranquillity of the country, for twelve or 
 fifteen leagues around. In February or March, I shall send him 
 one hundred and fifty horses, and in November of this year, some 
 vessels of middle size, will carry him provisions. 
 
 The fleet intended for the colonization of Florida and Cape Santa 
 Helena, sailed from the port of San Juan de Ulua, on the llth of 
 June. The vessels had favorable weather for seventeen days, at the 
 end of which, they were within twenty leagues of the river of Espi- 
 ritu-Santo [the Mississippi] in about 27^ degrees of latitude. From 
 
 * Written Ychusi, Achusi, and Ochuse, in the old Spanish accounts, 
 f The 15th of August, the day of the Assumption of the Holy Virgin, accord 
 ing to the Roman Catholic calendar. 
 
A.] DISCOVERY OF MOBILE BAY. 361 
 
 that place, they sailed six leagues to the south-east, south south-west, 
 and south, until they reached the latitude of the Alacranes, in 27 
 degrees, south-west of the river.* Thence they made another stretch 
 to the north-east to examine the coasts of Florida ; and eight days 
 afterwards, on the eve of the Visitation of Saint Elizabeth, [July 
 1st] they descried the coast of Florida, at the distance of eight 
 leagues west from the Bay of Miruelo, t in latitude of 25^ degrees. 
 
 The fleet then anchored and took in fresh water, wood and grass ; 
 the bad weather was very annoying, and on the 17th of July, they 
 sailed for the port of Ychusi. A ship going ahead examined the 
 coast ; the pilot who was aboard of her, not recognizing the port 
 of Ychusi, passed it, and anchored in the Philippine Bay, discov 
 ered by Guido de las Bazares. The governor sent Don Tristan de 
 Arellano, f in search of the port of Ychusi, which he knew to be 
 the best and safest on the whole coast. A ship sailing along the 
 coast, towards the east, from which the fleet came, found the port 
 of Ychusi, which is twenty leagues from the Philippine Bay, and 
 about thirty-five leagues from the Bay of Miruelo; so that it lies 
 nearly midway between the two bays, in latitude of 30 degrees 20 
 minutes. The ship having brought news of this, it was agreed to 
 carry the fleet thither, but as it was considered better for the 
 horses, that they should go by land, they were disembarked in the 
 Philippine Bay ; and some companies of infantry, went by land to 
 Ychusi, with about one hundred and forty horses, all that remained 
 of two hundred and forty, the others having died at sea. 
 
 Guido had been to this Philippine Bay ; the fleet ran some danger 
 in entering it, in consequence of the little depth of water, on the 
 bar, which renders the entrance of large vessels difficult, and of the 
 strong current at the place, as well as from bad weather. The army 
 quitted the Philippine Bay for the port of Ychusi, on the day of 
 our Lady of August (loth) for which reason it was called Santa 
 Maria Felipina. It is one of the best ports as yet discovered in 
 the Indies ; the depth at the shallowest place, is not less than 
 eleven cubits and within, it is from seven to eight fathoms. The 
 Spaniards are there still. The bar is half a league wide; the en 
 trance may be easily recognized by a red ravine [barranca] on the 
 eastern side. Vessels may anchor in four or five fathoms, at the 
 
 * The only place in the Mexican Gulf, now known by this name, is a shoal 
 with some islets rising above it, near the west coast of Yucatan, about the 22d 
 degree of latitude. The Alacranes mentioned by Bazares, as in the 27th degree 
 of latitude south-west of the Mississippi, cannot now be identified. 
 
 f Probably the same now called St. Andrew's Bay. 
 
 J Probably a son of the governor. The same person commanded the vessel 
 which brought the news to Mexico. 
 
 46 
 
362 PROOFS AND ILLUSTRATIONS. [A 
 
 distance of a bow shot from the shore, and the harbor is so safe 
 that no wind could occasion the least injury to them. Some 
 cabins were observed, apparently belonging to Indian fishermen ; 
 the soil appears to be very fertile, producing many walnut trees, 
 vines and other fruits ; the woods are thick and in them is much 
 game and birds ; the fish are excellent and of all kinds, and a field 
 of Indian corn was seen. 
 
 On the 25th of the month of August, the governor sent Don 
 Tristan de Arellano in a galleon, which had accompanied him, to 
 bear the news of what had occurred. This vessel entered the port 
 of San Juan de Ulua on the 9th of September ; and the provisions 
 required by the governor, in addition to those carried with him in 
 the fleet, will be immediately sent to him by this vessel. Other 
 vessels are expected here soon, on their way to Spain ; they will 
 however remain here until the country has been explored, and a 
 place has been chosen for the first colony and fortress, and other 
 particulars have been learned about the country, so that every 
 thing maybe known. As soon as these vessels arrive, I shall send 
 a report to your Majesty, according to the accounts received from 
 the governor, the priests and the royal officers. I shall take care 
 to protect them in the name of your Majesty, and to furnish them 
 with all that they may need ; so that they may not vex the natives. 
 and may be thus supported until they shall have formed their 
 colony and gathered in their harvest. They will then penetrate 
 into the interior, which is very fertile, and put into execution the 
 project of propagating our holy religion, so as to please the Lord 
 our God and your Majesty. 
 
 May God our Lord preserve your Majesty's sacred Catholic 
 Royal person, and grant to you dominions still more extensive 
 than those already possessed. 
 
 Luis DE 
 
 [The Viceroy, or his secretary who wrote this despatch, seems 
 to have but partially understood the report of the occurrences of 
 the expedition. In the beginning, he says that the forces under 
 Arellano, had landed at the port of Achusi, which had received the 
 name of Bay of Santa Maria Felipina in consequence of its having 
 oeen entered on the day of our Lady of August ; and in the latter 
 part, he applies the same name, for the same reason, to the other 
 bay, discovered by Bazares, to which alone, the name of Felipina, 
 or the Philippine, was in reality given.] 
 
B.] CAPTURE OF FORT CAROLINE. 363 
 
 B. 
 
 DESTRUCTION OF THE FRENCH COLONY IN FLORIDA. CAP 
 TURE OF FORT CAROLINE. 
 
 Extract from Laudouiniere's narrative describing the capture of 
 Fort Caroline, by tlie Spaniards, and his own escape. * 
 
 [After relating the arrival of the Spaniards in the river of May, 
 their retirement to the river of Dolphins where they established 
 themselves at St. Augustine, and the departure of Jean Ribault car 
 rying all the large vessels and the effective men, Laudouiniere pro 
 ceeds to show what took place at Fort Caroline, of which he was 
 left in command, on the 8th of September, 1565.] 
 
 We then began to prepare for defence, and to restore what had 
 been thrown down, especially on the side towards the river, where 
 I planted sixty trunks of trees in the ground, in order to replace the 
 palisade, and covered them with planks taken from the vessel 
 which I was building. We were however unable to do much work, 
 on account of the storms, which were so hard and incessant, as to 
 prevent us from finishing our enclosure. Finding ourselves in this 
 extremity, I made a review of our men, as they were left by Cap 
 tain Jean Ribault, in order to see who among them, were fit to bear 
 arms ; but there were only nine or ten, and of these not more than 
 two or three, I believe had ever drawn a sword from its sheath, in 
 their lives. Let those who- have said, that I had many men with 
 me and should have been able to defend myself, listen, and if they 
 have understanding, see what sort of men these were. Of nine of 
 them, four were youths who served Captain Ribault, and took care 
 of his dogs, and another was his cook. Among those outside of 
 the fort, and who belonged to Captain Ribault' s company, ihere 
 was a carpenter at least sixty years old, a brewer, an old cross 
 bow-man, two shoemakers, and four or five men with wives, one 
 player on the spinet, the two servants of M. de Lys, the servants 
 of M. de Beauhaire and M. de la Grange, and about eighty-five or 
 six camp followers, men, women and children. Such were my 
 forces numerous, courageous and effective for defence, as .they 
 showed themselves to be. Very different would it have been, if 
 Captain Ribault had not borrowed from me nearly all my men. 
 Of my own men, who were left to me, there were about sixteen or 
 seventeen, who could bear arms, and they were all poor and ema- 
 
 * Translated from the " Histoire Notable de la Floride," written by Laudoui 
 niere and arranged and published after his death by Basanier at Paris in 1585. 
 
PROOFS AND ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 elated ; the others were sick, or suffering from wounds received in 
 the fight, which my lieutenant had with Outina. 
 
 Having made this review, we arranged our guards, dividing them 
 into two parties, so that the soldiers could have every other night 
 tree : and we then examined, to ascertain who might be most effi 
 cient, and of these we selected M. de St. Cler and M. de la Vio-ne, 
 
 ' O ' 
 
 to whom we delivered candles and lanterns, to make the rounds ; on 
 account of the badness of the weather, I gave them also an hour 
 glass, in order that the sentinels might take equal turns of duty. 
 We however did not omit, either from bad weather or from my 
 sickness, to visit the different guard posts. On the night of the 
 19th of September, La Vigne was on guard with his division, and 
 performed all that duty, though it was raining incessantly ; when 
 day broke, and he saw the rain fall still heavier, he took pity on 
 the sentinels who were exposed to it, and not dreaming that the 
 Spaniards would come in such weather, he withdrew them, and 
 went himself to his lodgings. However, some one who had busi 
 ness outside of the fort, and my trumpeter who had gone on the 
 rampart, perceived a body of Spaniards coming down a little hill, 
 and immediately gave the alarm ; which as soon as I heard, I went 
 out armed with sword and buckler, to the middle of the yard, where 
 I began to call the soldiers around me. Some of the boldest of 
 them went toward the breach on the south side, or to the place 
 where the artillery ammunition was kept, and were there overcome 
 and slain. Through the same breach, two standards were intro 
 duced and planted, and two others on the opposite side, where 
 was another breach ; and all those who lodged in that quarter, were 
 in like manner defeated and slain. Whilst I was on my way to 
 assist the persons defending the breach on the south-west, I met a 
 large body of Spaniards, who had forced our men to retreat and came 
 in with them ; they drove me to the square, where on my arrival, 
 I saw among them, the Frenchman FranQois Jean, one of the sea 
 men who had stolen away my barques, and had conducted the 
 Spaniards to the place ; and as soon as he saw me, he cried to them 
 " there is the captain." This body was led on by a captain, who I 
 suppose, was Don Pedro Menendez. They pushed at me with their 
 pikes, which 1 received on my buckler; but seeing that I could 
 make^ no resistance to such numbers, and that the place was al 
 ready taken, and the flags planted on the ramparts, while I had 
 only one man, named Barthelemy,with me, I went to the court of 
 my lodgings, where I was pursued and should have been caught, 
 but for a flag which was stretched across it : for whilst the Span 
 iards were amusing themselves with cutting the cords of the flag, 
 I made my escape through the breach on the west, near the lieu- 
 
B.] CAPTURE OF FORT CAROLINE. 365 
 
 tenant's house, and ran to the woods. There I foun,d many of my 
 men who had' escaped, and among them were three or four badly 
 wounded; and I said to them "My boys, since it is God's will 
 that this evil should come upon u, we must endeavor to make our 
 way through the marshes, to the vessels at the mouth of the river. " 
 Some of them however would go to a village in the woods ; the 
 others followed me through the reeds in the water, until being disa 
 bled by my sickness from going any farther, I sent the men who were 
 with me and could swim well, to the vessels, to give information 
 of w T hat had happened, and to summon them to come to my assis 
 tance. They were unable in all that day, to reach the vessels ; 
 and I was obliged to remain, the whole night, in the water up to my 
 shoulders, with one of my men who would not abandon me. 
 
 On the following day, being scarcely able to breathe, I began with 
 my companion, a soldier named Jean de Chemin, to say my pray 
 ers, as I found myself so weak, that I expected to die every 
 moment ; and in fact had he not held me up, I could not possibly 
 have been saved. After we had said our prayers, I heard a voice, 
 and I judged it to come from one of the men sent to the vessels, 
 which had arrived opposite to them, calling for a boat; for the 
 people in those vessels having learned what had occurred from 
 Jean de Hais, a master carpenter who came to them in a boat had 
 sailed along the shore, to see whether they could save any one, as 
 it was certainly their duty to do ; and they came just to the place, 
 where the two men sent by me were standing and calling to them. 
 As soon as these men were taken up, and the others learned where 
 I was, they came and found me in a piteous condition. Five or six 
 of them took me in their arms, and carried me to the boat, for I could 
 not possibly have walked a step : on entering it, some of the seamen 
 stripped off their clothes to cover me, and wished to carry me im 
 mediately to their vessels and give me some brandy ; but I would 
 not consent to this, until I had first gone along the shore through 
 the reeds in the boat, in search of other unfortunate persons, of 
 whom we thus found eight or ten, and among them the last, was 
 the nephew of the treasurer Le Beau. 
 
 After we had all reached the vessel*, I consoled them as well as 
 I could, and sent back the boat, in search of others. On its re 
 turn, the seamen told me that Captain Jacques Ribault [son of the 
 governor] who was in his vessel about two musket-shots distant, 
 had parleyed with the Spaniards ; and that Frangois Jean [the trai 
 tor] had gone on board of his vessel, and remained there some 
 time ; at which they were much astonished, as this man had been 
 the cause of the whole misfortune. After I had got aboard of the 
 vessel called Le Levrier, Captain Jacques Ribault and Captain 
 
366 PROOFS AND ILLUSTRATIONS. [B. 
 
 Valvot came to see me, and we concluded that we should return to 
 France ; and finding the vessel without captain, ^ilot, mate or 
 second mate, 1 advised that persons should be chosen from among 
 the seamen, to fill these offices, and that they should be chosen by 
 the votes of the seamen. I also took sixteen of the crew of a small 
 vessel, which having no ballast, could not have been saved and 
 was accordingly sunk ; and having thus increased my own force, I 
 appointed the second mate of the small vessel to be my mate. 
 Having no pilot, I begged Captain Jacques Ribault to give me one 
 of four of his men whom I named to act in that capacity ; and he 
 promised to do so, but he never did, notwithstanding all my remon 
 strances when we were about to sail, and that it was for the service 
 of the king. I was obliged to abandon the vessel, which I had bought 
 from the English captain, from want of rigging w r hich had all been 
 taken away by Captain Jean Ribault; and I could only save the guns 
 which jvere iron, giving nine of them to Jacques Ribault, and keep 
 ing five in my own vessel. 
 
 B. No. 2. 
 
 MASSACRE OF THE FRENCH AT MATANZAS INLET. 
 
 Narrative of the Massacre of the French Protestants under Jean 
 Ribault, after their shipwreck on the ^coast of Florida, written 
 by Doctor Solis d# las Meras, the brother-in-law of the Jldelan- 
 tado Pedro Menendez, who witnessed the occurrences. 
 
 [Barcia in his Chronological History of Florida, presents this 
 narrative as "copied from the original manuscript, without altera 
 tion or omission." It contains the only direct evidence of the hor 
 rible circumstances to which it relates ; and this is presented with 
 a detail, and an absence from all compunction on the part of the 
 writer, which are together calculated to inspire the utmost faith in 
 his statements.] 
 
 The Adelantado employed himself in fortifying St. Augustine as 
 well as possible, in order to resist the French, in case they should 
 come to -that place ; and whilst he was thus engaged, some Indians 
 informed him, by signs, that at the distance of four leagues off, 
 were many Christians, who were unable to cross an arm of the sea, 
 though it was very narrow, as it ran up into the land, and they were 
 obliged to cross it in order to reach St. Augustine. The Adelantado 
 thereupon took forty soldiers, and setting off in the evening of the 
 same day, he after midnight, reached that arm of the sea where he 
 rested until morning : then leaving his soldiers concealed, he as- 
 
B.] MASSACRE OF THE FRENCH AT MATANZAS INLET. 367 
 
 cended a tree from which he saw a large number of persons, on 
 the other side, with flags flying ; and in order to prevent them from 
 crossing the inlet, he went near enough to be. able to count them, 
 so that they might suppose him to be accompanied by a strong 
 force. As soon as those persons saw him, one of them swam 
 across the inlet ; he was a Frenchman and he said, that they were 
 all French, who had escaped after the wreck of their vessels in a 
 storm. The -Adelantado then asked him, what Frenchmen they 
 were ? to which he answered, that they were two hundred in num 
 ber, officers and men, under Jean Ribault, the Viceroy and Captain 
 General of that country for the King of France. He was then 
 asked, whether they were Catholics ? and he said, that they were 
 all of the reformed religion; which the Adelantado knew, as they 
 had told him so, when they first saw his vessels, and the same had 
 been declared by the women and children, whose lives were spared, 
 when the fort was taken. He had moreover found in the fort six 
 boxes, filled with books respecting the doctrines of the new sect, 
 all bound and gilt, which he caused to be burnt ; and he also learned 
 that they said no mass, and that the Lutheran opinions were 
 preached to them every evening. The Adelantado upon this ask 
 ed the man, what he wanted ? and he said, that tfyeir captain had 
 sent him to see who the people were on this side of the inlet. On 
 being asked, if he wished to return, he said yes, but he wished to 
 know who were the persons around him. This he said distinctly 
 [in Spanish probably] for he was a Gascon from St. Jean de Luz. 
 The Adelantado then told him to say to his captain, that he was 
 himself the Viceroy and Captain General of all that country, for 
 King Philip ; that he was named Pedro Menendez, and was there 
 with soldiers, to see who the persons were beyond the inlet, 
 having heard of them the day before. The Frenchman then went 
 away, but he soon returned, and asked an assurance of safe conduct 
 for his captain and four other gentlemen, to come over and confer; 
 and to that end, he begged the loan of the boat, in which the Ade 
 lantado had gone thither. In answer, he was told to assure his cap 
 tain, that he might come, in safety, on the word of the Adelantado ; 
 and the boat being sent over for him, be came with the others. 
 
 The Adelantado received them courteously, with about ten of his 
 own men, ordering the others to remain at a short distance, scat 
 tered about on the sand hills, so that the French might suppose 
 their number to be greater. One of the Frenchmen then said, that 
 he was the captain of those men, that four galleons and other small 
 vessels belonging to the King of France, had been' lost in the 
 storm, within the distance of twenty leagues, and they were the 
 crew of one of them ; and he asked for a boat to cross that arm of 
 
PROOFS AND ILLUSTRATIONS. TB. 
 
 L 
 
 the sea, and another four leagues beyond, namely that of St. Au 
 gustine, on the way to their fort, distant twenty leagues from that 
 place. This was the fort which the Admiral had taken from them. 
 He asked them, whether they were Catholics or Lutherans. They 
 said, they were all of the new religion ; whereupon the Adelantado 
 said to them " Gentlemen, your fort has been taken, and every 
 one in it put to death, except the women and children under fifteen 
 years old ; and in order that you may be assured of 'this, the sol 
 diers here with me, have about them, many articles which were 
 in the fort, and here are also two of the French, whom I spared as 
 being Catholics. Sit down and refresh yourselves, and I will send 
 the two Frenchmen to you, as well as the things taken in the fort, 
 in order that you may be satisfied." The Adelantado then gave 
 them food, and sent the two Frenchmen to them, with many articles 
 from the fort, after which he retired to dine among his own people. 
 At the end of an hour, he went back to the French, and asked 
 them, whether they were convinced of the truth of what he had 
 told them ? To which they answered affirmatively, and entreated 
 him to Yavor them with vessels and seamen to carry them to 
 France. The Adelantado replied that he would do so willingly, if 
 they were Catholics, or he had vessels for them ; but that he had 
 no vessels to spare, as he had sent one to the San Mateo to take 
 the French women and children, and carry them to Santo Domin 
 go, and bring back provisions, and the other was required to carry 
 accounts to his Majesty, of all that had occurred there. The 
 French captain then asked, that they should all have assurance of 
 their lives, and be allowed to remain together, until vessels should 
 come to take them to France, as the Kings of Spain and France 
 were brothers and friends. The Adelantado observed, that this 
 was true, and that he should give all favor to Catholics and friends, 
 as he should thereby be serving both sovereigns : but as they were 
 of the new sect, he held them as enemies, and would war upon 
 them to blood and fire ; and would treat with the utmost cruelty, 
 all such as he should find in those lands and seas, of which he was 
 Viceroy and Captain General for his King, and would plant the 
 Holy Gospel in that land, so that the Indians might be enlightened, 
 and brought to the knowledge of the Holy Catholic faith of Jesus 
 Christ our Lord, as prescribed by the Church of Rome ; and whether 
 they should choose to surrender their flags and. arms, and submit 
 to his mercy, for him to do as he pleased with them, or to act in 
 any other way^, they should make no truce or convention with him. 
 The French Captain, finding, after all that he could say, that the 
 Adelantado would not change this determination, went back in the 
 boat to his people, saying that he would inform them of what had 
 
B.] MASSACRE OF THE FRENCH AT MATANZAS INLET. 369 
 
 passed, and agree on what was to be done, and would bring back 
 the answer within two hours ; to which the Adelantado said, that 
 they might act as they pleased, and he would wait for them. 
 
 At the end of the two hours, the same French Captain returned, 
 with the same persons as before, and told the Adelantado, that 
 there were among his people many noblemen, who would give him 
 fifty thousand ducats, if he would spare the lives of them all. The 
 Adelantado answered, that though he was only a poor soldier, he 
 could not be guilty of such an act of meanness which might bring 
 on him the charge of corruption, and that if he should be liberal 
 and merciful, it would be without any considerations of self-inter 
 est. The French Captain however still insisted ; upon which the 
 Adelantado declared, that if heaven and earth should come to 
 gether, he would not alter his resolution. The French Captain 
 thereupon returned to his people, telling the Adelantado that he 
 would immediately obtain their answer ; and in half an hour, he 
 came back, bringing in the boat the flags, with about seventy ar 
 quebuses, twenty pistols, a number of swords, bucklers, and some 
 helmets and breast plates, which he delivered to the Adelantado, 
 declaring that the Frenchmen all surrendered themselves to his 
 mercy. The Adelantado upon this, ordered twenty of his soldiers 
 to go in the boat, and bring over the Frenchmen ten at a time, as 
 the river was narrow, and might be easily crossed : and he ordered 
 Diego de Valdes the Admiral of the fleet, to receive the flags and 
 arms, and to see to the transportation of the French, and that they 
 should not be ill-treated by the soldiers ; after which he retired to 
 the distance of two bow-shots, from the shore, behind some sand 
 hills, where those coming over in the boat, could not see him. 
 He then safd to the French Captain and the eight other men of 
 that nation who were with him "Gentlemen, I have but few 
 men, and they are not as yet well tried, and as you are many in 
 number, it would be easy for you to put us to death, in return for 
 our killing your people, when we took your fort ; and therefore we 
 must tie your hands behind you, and you must thus march about 
 four leagues, to my headquarters." The French Captain answered, 
 lat he might do so, and their hands were accordingly tied behind 
 lem, with match-cords ; but this was not seen by the ten who 
 rere coming over in the boats, it being thus arranged, to prevent 
 French on the other side, from learning what was going on and 
 thus becoming alarmed. 
 
 In this manner, two hundred and eight Frenchmen were brought 
 
 over, and as they arrived the Adelantado asked them, whether 
 
 any among them were Catholics, and might wish to confess ? 
 
 Eight of them admitted themselves to be so, and were sent to 
 
 47 
 
370 PROOFS AND ILLUSTRATIONS. [B. 
 
 the boat, to be carried to St.v Augustine : the others declared that 
 they were members of the New Religion, that they considered 
 themselves good Christians, and that this was their light, and 
 they would follow no other. The Adelantado then ordered them 
 to be marched off, meat and drink having been given to each 
 party, as they came over, before they were tied, which was done 
 in each case, before the arrival of the next party ; and he sent a 
 portion of them ahead under a guard, instructing the captain in 
 command, as soon as he should reach a line which he would find 
 drawn on the sand about a bow-shot off, on the way to the fort, to 
 put all his prisoners to death. The same instructions were given 
 to the commanders of the guard, conducting the remainder : and 
 thus they were all killed, and the Adelantado then returned by 
 night to St. Augustine, which he reached at break of day, the sun 
 being already set when the Frenchmen were put to death. 
 
 On the day after the return of the Adelantado to St. Augustine, 
 the same Indians, came and brought news, that many more Chris 
 tians were assembled beyond the river, at the place where the 
 others had been. The Adelantado at once, saw, that these must be 
 Jean Ribault the General of the Lutherans, on sea and land, whom 
 they styled Viceroy of the King of France, in that country ; he 
 therefore went immediately with a hundred and fifty soldiers, and 
 reached the place where he had before stopped, by midnight. At 
 daybreak, he went to the shore, with his men drawn out in line, 
 and as the light increased, he saw at the distance of two bow-shots, 
 beyond the river, a number of people, who were preparing a raft in 
 order to cross to the place, where he was. As soon as the French 
 saw the Adelantado, they flew to their arms, and displayed a royal 
 standard, and two flags, and with drums beating and fifes playing, 
 they offered battle to the Spaniards. The Adelantado then ordered 
 his men to sit down, and eat their breakfasts, and to give no signs 
 of hostility, and he walked with the Admiral and two Captains up 
 and down on the beach, taking no notice of the display on the other 
 side ; upon which the French halted, and stopping their drums and 
 fifes, sounded a trumpet, <and hoisted a white flag in token of peace. 
 The Adelantado replied by a trumpet, and taking a white handker 
 chief from his pocket, he waved it, in like manner, as a signal of 
 peace. A Frenchman then got on the raft, and cried aloud to us 
 to come over; to which the answer was given by order of the Ade 
 lantado, that as they had a raft, they might come over to the place 
 where he stood, if they wanted any thing from him. The man on 
 the raft replied, that it was difficult to cross there, as the current 
 ran strongly ; and he requested that a canoe belonging to some 
 Indians who were present, should be sent over to them. The 
 
B.] MASSACRE OF THE FRENCH AT MATANZAS INLET. 371 
 
 Adelantado then invited him to swim over, under his assurance of 
 safety ; and a French seaman accordingly swam over, but the Ade 
 lantado would not allow him to speak to him, and bade him to take 
 the canoe, and go and tell his captain, that as he had called out, if 
 he desired any thing, he should send to declare it. The seaman 
 came back with a gentleman, who announced himself as the Ser 
 geant Major of Jean Ribault, Viceroy and Captain General of that 
 country for the King of France, who had sent him to say that his 
 squadron had been wrecked by a storm, on the sea, and that he 
 had with him about three hundred and fifty Frenchmen, with whom 
 he wished to go to a fort of their's, about twenty leagues off; and he 
 requested the loan of boats to cross that river, as well as another 
 about four leagues farther, asking at the same time, whether they 
 were Spaniards, and who was their commander. The Adelantado 
 answered, that they were Spaniards, and that their commander 
 was himself with whom they were speaking, and his name was 
 Pedro Menendez ; and that they should tell their General, that the 
 fort twenty leagues off, had been taken by him, and the Frenchmen 
 in it had been killed, as well as many others, who had escaped 
 from the wrecked vessels, on account of their misconduct ; and he 
 led them to the place where the latter had been put to death, and 
 showed them the bodies, so that they might see, there was no use 
 of crossing the water to go to their fort. The Sergeant Major, 
 with great appearance of self-command, and showing no signs of 
 affliction, answered that he would be glad if the Adelantado would 
 send one of his gentlemen, to state the facts to his General, and to 
 treat of a safe conduct, as his people were tired, and that the Ade 
 lantado would himself go over in his boat, and visit the General. 
 To this the Adelantado replied " My friend go, and God be with 
 you, and give the answer which you have received; and if your 
 General then wishes to talk with me, I give him my word, that he 
 may come and return in safety, with four or six of his companions 
 or counsellors, in order to determine what should be done." With 
 this answer, the French gentleman departed, and in half an hour 
 he returned, and accepted the assurance offered by the Adelantado, 
 and asked for the boat ; but this the Adelantado refused, saying 
 that, they might come over in the canoe, which was safe, as the 
 passage was narrow ; and with this answer the gentleman went 
 back. 
 
 Soon afterwards Jean Ribault the French commander came over, 
 with eight other gentlemen, who were very well received by the 
 Adelantado, and well treated by many other persons in authority ; 
 and a barrel of preserves was given to them, and every thing else to 
 eat and drink, which they desired. Jean Ribault then said, with 
 
372 PROOFS AND ILLUSTRATIONS. [B. 
 
 much humility, and many thanks for this kindness, that as they 
 were sad and depressed, from the news which they had received 
 of the deaths of their companions, they wished to eat and drink be 
 fore proceeding farther ; and this they accordingly did. After 
 wards, Jean Ribault observed, that his friends who had been killed 
 there, as he saw, might have been deceived, but he would not be 
 so ; whereupon the Adelantado ordered the things taken in the fort, 
 which were there, to be produced, as they were in such quantities, 
 that no doubt could remain. Before this the French would not be 
 lieve it, as one of their men, a barber who had been among the 
 number ordered to be killed on the previous occasion, had escaped 
 and swimming over the passage, declared, that the Adelantado 
 had deceived them, by falsely saying that the fort had been taken ; 
 but now they were certain of it; the Adelantado however told 
 them, that for greater assurance, they might speak apart with the 
 Frenchmen there present, who had been in the fort. This they did 
 and Jean Ribault then came to the Adelantado, and admitted that 
 it was all true, but that what had happened to the French, might 
 happen to him ; and that as their Kings were friends, he ought to 
 act a friend's part towards them, by giving them vessels and pro 
 visions to go to France. The Adelantado replied, as he did to 
 those to whom he had previously done justice ; and though they 
 debated the matter long, Jean Ribault could obtain nothing more 
 from the Adelantado. Jean Ribaulit at length declared, that he 
 wished to go back to his people, and communicate what he had 
 learned, as there were among them, many noble persons ; and 
 that he would then return, and bring the answer as to what should 
 be done. 
 
 Three hours afterwards, Jean Ribault returned in the canoe, and 
 stated that among his people, there were various opinions ; some 
 being willing to yield to the mercy of the Adelantado, while others 
 would not do so. The Adelantado answered, that he cared not 
 whether all or a few or none of them came over ; they might do as 
 they pleased. Jean Ribault then said, that the half of them were 
 willing to submit to his mercy, and would pay more than a hundred 
 thousand ducats, as ransom ; and the other half could pay more, as 
 there were among them, persons of great wealth, and large reve 
 nues, who came to settle in that country ; but the Adelantado re 
 plied, "Although it grieves me to lose so large a ransom, which 
 would be of great use to me in effecting this conquest and settle 
 ment, yet this land is placed under my charge, in the King's name, 
 to plant the Holy Gospel in it." Jean Ribault here found that he 
 had ventured too far upon what he thought would avail him ; sup 
 posing from the avarice which was attributed by report, to the 
 
MASSACRE OF THE FRENCH AT MATANZAS INLET. 
 
 373 
 
 Adelantado, that he would have spared them all, since his so doing 
 would have been worth more than two hundred thousand ducats : 
 he therefore said that he would go back again to his people, as it 
 was late, and would return on the following day, and bring their 
 final determination. The Adelantado agreed to await his answer, 
 and at sun set he went back to his men. 
 
 On the following day, Jean Ribault returned in the canoe, and 
 delivered to the Adelantado, two royal standards, one of the King 
 of France, the other of the Admiral, and the company flags, with a 
 sword, a dagger, a cuirass handsomely gilt, a buckler, a pistol, arid 
 a seal given to him by the Admiral of France, to seal the papers, 
 which he might issue ; and he told the Adelantado that about one 
 hundred and fifty of the three hundred and fifty persons there, 
 would deliver themselves up to his mercy, the others having re 
 treated during the night. The boat was then sent over for those who 
 would come, and for their arms ; and the Adelantado directed 
 Captain Diego Flores the Admiral of the fleet, to have them brought 
 over by tens, as the others had been ; and he caused Jean Ribault 
 and those who came, immediately on their landing, to be carried 
 over the sand hills, where their hands were tied behind them, and 
 they told, as before, that this was done, because they could not be 
 left loose, as they were to march four leagues that night. When 
 they had been all tied the Adelantado asked "Whether they 
 were Catholics, or Lutherans, and whether any of them wished to 
 confess ?" to which Jean Ribault answered, that he and all his men 
 were of the new religion; and he began to repeat the Psalm " Do- 
 mine, Memento Mei. " When this was done, he said that "They 
 came from earth, and to earth they should return, and whether now 
 or twenty years later, would make no difference, so the Adelantado 
 might do as he pleased with them;" whereupon the Adelantado 
 ordered them all to be killed, in the same order, at the same line, 
 as the others had been, excepting only the fifers, drummers, trum 
 peters, and four others, who declared themselves Catholics, making 
 in all sixteen persons. The others were all put to death. The 
 Adelantado then went back on that night to St. Augustine, where 
 some charged him with cruelty ; others however said, that he had 
 acted as a good Captain should have done, and that even if they 
 had all been Catholic.!, it would have been unjust not to have killed 
 them, as the provisions on hand, were in quantity so small, that all 
 must have died of famine, unless the French, who were the more 
 numerous party, should have killed the Spaniards. 
 
 Twenty days after these last were killed, some Indians came to 
 the Adelantado, and told him by signs, that at eight days' journey 
 farther south, at Cape Canaveral, near the Bahama Channel, many 
 
374 PROOFS AND ILLUSTRATIONS. [B. 
 
 other white men, like those who had been killed, were engaged in 
 building a fort, and a vessel. The Adelantado immediately sus 
 pected who they were, and that they were engaged in fortifying 
 themselves, and in building vessels, from the remains of those which 
 had been wrecked, in order to send to France for succors ; and he 
 despatched ten soldiers to Fort San Mateo, to carry the news, and 
 ^to order one hundred and fifty men to be sent, in addition to the 
 thirty-five, whom he brought with him from that place to St. Au 
 gustine. These men were immediately sent by the commandant 
 under Captains Juan Velez de Medrano, and Andres Lopez Patirio, 
 and there reached St. Augustine on the 23d of October. 
 
 On the 26th, after mass, the Adelantado set out with three hun 
 dred men, and marching along the coast, accompanied by three 
 boats on the sea, with arms and provisions ; and they all went to 
 gether, so that where the men encamped at night, there were also 
 the boats drawn up on the clear beach. The Adelantado carried 
 in the boats, provisions for the three hundred men for forty days, 
 making the rations for one day serve for two ; and he promised to 
 do all in his power for their advantage ; but he told them that they 
 might undergo great risks and labors ; though he hoped that God 
 would, in his goodness and mercy, aid in every way, the success 
 of their holy and virtuous enterprise. In this manner he took 
 leave of the people at the fort, many of whom wept as he was 
 much beloved, feared, and respected by all. 
 
 In this journey, the Adelantado went on foot to the admiration 
 of all, no horse being taken with the party ; and on the third day 
 the rear guard of fifty soldiers, with many others who were w r earied 
 and could not walk, did not come up. Two soldiers, among the 
 youngest of the party, each between twenty-five and thirty years 
 old, who had been the first to enter the fort, on the San Mateo, 
 when it was taken from the French, on seeing the Adelantado 
 walking, made extraordinary efforts to keep up with him ; at length 
 however, one said to the other, "I am so tired that I must sit 
 down;" they accordingly, without the knowledge of the Adelan 
 tado, sat down, and in a quarter of an hour one of them yielded up 
 his soul to God. The other then endeavored to follow the Adelan 
 tado, but he straggled away in the night, and nothing more was 
 'heard of him. The men all marched along the sea-shore from 
 midnight until sunrise, and then halting, they spread themselves 
 over the plain in search of palm-cabbages, and other vegetables, 
 to eat ; after thus stopping for two hours, they marched until 
 eleven o'clock, or noon, and then rested again until two, when 
 they resumed the march, and continued it until sunset. There 
 was'no day in which they did not march forward eight leagues, to 
 
0.] 
 
 DISCOVERY OF THE CHESAPEAKE BAY. 
 
 375 
 
 the atsonishment of all, as the way lay over sands most difficult to 
 walk in, and they had so little food. 
 
 By these forced marches the Adelantado, on the morning of All 
 Saints day, [November first,] reached the fort which the French 
 were building: the soldiers, as has been said, marching along the 
 shore, guided by Indians, and the three boats accompanying them 
 on the water, under the command of Captain Diego de Maya. 
 The French at the fort, as soon as they saw our men, all fled to 
 the woods, whereupon the Adelantado sent a trumpeter to them to 
 assure them that if they would return their lives should be spared, 
 and they should be treated like Spaniards. About one hundred 
 and fifty of them thereupon came to the Adelantado; but their 
 captain, with about twenty others, sent word to him that they 
 would rather be eaten by Indians than surrender themselves to the 
 'Spaniards. The Adelantado received these people, and treated 
 them very well ; he then set fire to the fort, which was made of 
 logs, and levelled it, and burnt the vessel which they were build 
 ing, and burned the artillery, because he could not bring it away 
 in the boats. 
 
 "These," says Barcia, "are the very words of Doctor Solis de 
 las Meras, in the narrative which he drew up of all the expeditions 
 of the Adelantado, and of the conquest of Florida, written at the 
 time, without any abbreviation or alteration whatsoever. His 
 authority is, of itself, sufficient to overthrow the calumnies and 
 malevolent assertions of the enemies of the Adelantado and of the 
 Spanish nation, if the approbation of the King and the Pope should 
 not be already sufficient." 
 
 c. 
 
 DISCOVERY OF THE CHESAPEAKE BAY BY THE SPANIARDS. 
 
 The Bay of Chesapeake is usually supposed to have been first seen 
 and entered by the English, under Gosnold, Smith, and Newport, who 
 founded the earliest European settlement on its waters in 1607. The 
 only allusion to it, in any English account of anterior date, appears in 
 the narrative, by Ralph Lane, of the proceedings of the colonists sent 
 by Sir Walter Raleigh, in 1585, to occupy the country then first 
 named Virginia, bordering upon the two bays now known as Albe- 
 marle and Pamlico Sounds. Lane there relates that an exploring party 
 of English had penetrated from their settlement on Roanoke Island, 
 
376 PROOFS AND ILLUSTRATIONS. [C. 
 
 between the two sounds, one hundred and thirty miles northward, to 
 the country of the Chesepians, or of Chesepiock; and he had, at the 
 same time, been told by an Indian king, that, "going three days' 
 journey in a canoe up his river of Chawanoke, (the Chowan,) and then 
 descending to the land, you are within four days' journey, to pass over 
 land, northeast to a certain king's country, whose province lieth upon 
 the sea, but his place of greatest strength is an island, situate, as 
 he described unto me, in a bay : the water about the island very deep." 
 The country of the Chesepiocks here mentioned, we afterwards learned 
 from Smith's History of Virginia, page 65, to have been on Elizabeth's 
 riyer, near the southernmost shore of Chesapeake Bay, as, indeed, 
 its position and distance with reference to Roanoke island plainly indi 
 cate. The bay described by the King of Chawanoke could have been 
 no other than the Chesapeake. Lane laments that he had not been 
 able to explore it by way of the river, as well as by vessels sent along 
 the coast to its entrance, particularly as he was assured that it yielded 
 "great store of pearls," and that it received a large river called Mora- 
 tuc, running from the west. 
 
 This is all that appears on record concerning the bay, in any English 
 account earlier than 1607. An abstract of Lane's narrative is given in 
 the sixth part of the celebrated Latin collection of De Bry, published 
 at Frankfort in 1596, accompanied by a map on which a bay is repre 
 sented, extending to some distance westward from the Atlantic, under 
 the thirty-seventh degree of latitude, with a river called Moratuc en 
 tering its upper extremity. The accounts of Raleigh's colonies had 
 been carefully studied by Glosnold, Smith, and the other projectors of 
 their expedition; and it is therefore possible that they may have in 
 tended, on leaving England, to make the bay mentioned by Lane their 
 place of disembarcation. Smith calls it their "desired port," yet he, 
 at the same time, states that they were driven into it, through the 
 providence of God, by an "extreme storm," after Ratcliffe, one of 
 their captains, had proposed to abandon the enterprise and return to 
 England, because they had "three days passed their reckoning, and 
 found no land ;" which seems rather to show that they were bound for 
 Wokokon inlet, the entrance to Roanoke island. 
 
 The discovery of Chesapeake Bay is accordingly attributed, in all our 
 histories as yet published, to the English, at one or other of the periods 
 mentioned ; though when and by whom that name was given is no where 
 directly stated. Stith, in his History of Virginia, states, as the result 
 of his inquiries on the subject, that "Chesapeake signified, in the 
 Indian language, the Mother of Waters, implying that it was the parent 
 and grand reservoir of all the great rivers within it. But this," he 
 properly observes in continuation, "was a dark and uncertain guess, 
 especially considering the unstableness and vast mutability of the In- 
 
C.] DISCOVERY OF THE CHESAPEAKE BAY. 377 
 
 dian tongues, and that nobody at present can pretend to understand 
 their language at this time. The best authority that I have met for 
 this derivation is what a gentleman of credit once assured me, that in 
 a very old Spanish map which he had seen, our bay was laid down 
 under the name of Madre des Acquas, [Madre de Aguas,] or some ex 
 pression to the like purpose." More probably the name of the Chese- 
 piock, or Chesapeake Indians, inhabiting the country between Cape 
 Henry and Hampton Roads, who were the first people met by the 
 English in 1607, may have been transferred to the bay, as those of 
 Pamunkey, Potomac, and Susquehannock were subsequently assigned 
 to the rivers on which the nations so called respectively dwelt. 
 
 Stith, however, had been rightly informed in part, at least, with 
 regard to the early acquaintance of the Spaniards with this bay ; for 
 in maps anterior to the expeditions of the English, a bay joining the 
 Atlantic, in the latitude of its entrance, was laid down under the name 
 of Bay of Santa Maria. It would indeed have been strange that this 
 great basin should have thus long remained unknown to the people of 
 that nation who had, as early as 1526, not only explored the whole 
 coast, from the Mexican Gulf northward to and beyond the thirty-fifth 
 degree of latitude, but had even attempted to form a settlement upon 
 it near that parallel; considering, moreover, that their, vessels, on their 
 way from Mexico and the West Indies to Europe, sailed in the vicinity 
 of the main land nearly as far as Cape Hatteras, before striking across 
 the Atlantic, and must have been often driven much farther in the 
 same direction. But without dwelling farther on these probabilities, 
 incontrovertible evidence will be offered that the Chesapeake was known 
 to the Spaniards as the Bay of Santa Maria, and that an expedition 
 had been made by them for its occupation at least twenty years before 
 any attempt of the English to establish themselves on the American 
 continent. 
 
 This evidence is thus distinctly presented by Barcia in his Ensayo 
 Chronologico para la Historia de la Florida, so frequently cited in 
 these pages. After relating the particulars of the destruction of the 
 Huguenots, and the occupation of Florida by the Spaniards under the 
 Adelantado Menendez, he proceeds to show the efforts of that com 
 mander to explore the coasts and interior of the continent; in the 
 course of which he states, that Menendez, while in the river of San 
 Mateo or St. John, in the summer of 1566, "despatched a captain 
 with thirty soldiers, and two monks of the order of St. Dominick, 
 to the Bay of Santa Maria, which is in thirty-seven degrees of latitude, 
 together with an Indian, brother to the Cacique of Axacan (whom the 
 Dominican Fathers had brought from that country to Mexico, and the 
 viceroy Don Louis de Velasco, had caused to be baptized under his 
 own name,) an acute and very intelligent person, supposed to be a good 
 48 
 
378 PROOFS AND ILLUSTRATIONS. [C. 
 
 Christian, in order to make a settlement there, and to endeavor to 
 convert the people to Christianity." 
 
 This province of Axacan, is described as extending northward from 
 Santa Helena, at the month of the Combahee river, in South Carolina, 
 where the Spaniards had already formed an establishment, maintained 
 by them for more than a century afterwards ; and it appears to have 
 included the whole lower parts of South and North Carolina. It may be 
 observed, that Axacan, as pronounced by a Spaniard, is scarcely dis 
 tinguishable from Wocokon, the name of the place at the entrance of 
 Albemarle Sound, where the English colonists sent by Raleigh landed 
 in 1585; possibly it may have been used by the natives as a general 
 term for the land or the country. The Bay of Santa Maria, on which 
 Menendez thus endeavored to found a settlement, corresponds in lati 
 tude, precisely with the entrance of the Bay of Chesapeake ; which is 
 traversed by the thirty-seventh parallel, midway between its two capes. 
 
 The result of the expedition is thus related by Barcia: "The Cap 
 tain who went with the Indian Louis de Velasco, to the Bay of Santa 
 Maria, was overcome by his crew, acting under the influence of the 
 two monks who, accustomed to the delights of Peru and Spain, were 
 not inclined to enter upon a life of labors, privation and dangers: and 
 the soldiers, needing but little persuasion, to induce them to turn back, 
 made false depositions, to the effect, that they had been prevented by 
 storms, from reaching the Bay of Santa Maria. So they sailed direct 
 for Seville, abusing the King and Adelantado for attempting to settle 
 in that country, of which they spread the worst accounts, though none 
 of them had seen it." 
 
 The Bay of Santa Maria, was thus so well known to the Spaniards 
 in 1566, that an expedition was made from Florida for the occupation 
 of the country adjacent to it. The attempt do33 not app3ar to havo 
 been repeated. Barcia however mentions it again as follows : 
 
 "In 1573, Pedro Monendez Marquez, G-overnor of Florida for his 
 uncle the Adelantado, reduced many Indian nations to obedience, and 
 took possession of their provinces for the king, in presence of Rodrigo 
 de Carrion, the notary of the government of Santa Helena. Being, 
 moreover, himself a good seaman,' (he had been Admiral of the Fleet 
 according to the History of the military orders by Francisco Cano,) he 
 by order of the Adelantado examined the coasts, from the Cape of 
 Martyrs [Cape Sable the southern extremity of Florida] and the pen 
 insula of Tequesta from which the coast begins to run from south to 
 north, at the outlet of the Bahama -channel, along the land in the 
 whole length to and beyond the Bay and Port of Santa Maria which 
 is 3 leagues wide, and is entered towards the north-northwest. In 
 this bay, are many rivers and harbors on both sides, in which vessels 
 may lie at anchor; within ity entrance on the south, the depth is from 
 
C.] DISCOVERY OF THE CHESAPEAKE BAY. 879 
 
 9 to 13 fathoms, and on the north from 5 to 7; at 2 leagues from it in 
 the sea, the depth is the same on the north and south, but there is 
 more sand within. In the channel, there are from 9 to 13 fathoms; 
 in the bay 15 and 16 fathoms ; though some places are found in which 
 no bottom is reached with the lead." 
 
 Barcia then proceeds to give an account of the Governor's voyage 
 along the coast, from the Cape of Martyrs to the Bay of Santa Maria, 
 as derived from his journal or notes, sent to the Council of the Indies, 
 which was the only record of the exploration, as they had no person 
 capable of drawing a map, and the memoir or official report had been 
 lost. In this account, after relating the particulars observed on the 
 way from the Cape of Martyrs to Santa Helena, Barcia continues thus : 
 
 ' ' On this whole coast, from the Cape of Martyrs to the Bay of Santa 
 Maria, when the tide ebbs, the current is southward ; and when it rises, 
 it runs to the north ; and vessels with good cables and anchors have 
 nothing to fear, because the sea breeze falls in the night, and blows 
 towards land in the day, from the Port of Santa Helena, to the Bay 
 of Santa Maria. The Governor steered east, one quarter northeast ; the 
 route being east northeast; and after sailing 112 leagues, in water from 
 16 to 20 fathoms deep, he passed over the edge of a shoal, stretching 
 directly northward, six leagues from land, the point of which is in 34 
 degrees, with a passage two fathoms deep, of little width between it 
 and the land. Continuing towards the east, one quarter northeast, 22 
 leagues, he found another shoal, with a good passage on the land-side, 
 in 35 degrees, which runs 6 leagues with the sea at the distance of 30 
 leagues from the Bay of Santa Maria. The coast is thereabouts very 
 clear, so that you may sail near the land, and anchor at a short dis 
 tance from it ; three or four rivers there enter the sea, one of them 
 very good, and three islets of sand, like turtle shells or shields, about 
 6 leagues from the Bay of Santa Maria, all three of them being with 
 in the space of a league. And he [the Governor] thus went, as I have 
 said, beyond the Port and Bay of Santa Maria." 
 
 This is all that is said by Barcia, of the Bay of Santa Maria; nor 
 has anything farther respecting it, been found in any work relating to 
 the same period. Those who are accustomed to the examination of old 
 narratives of voyages accompanying the descriptions presented by Bar 
 cia, with what is now known of the coast from the 32d to the 38th 
 degree of latitude will admit the correspondence to be remarkable; 
 and the authenticity of the descriptions, will scarcely be doubted ; for if 
 Barcia had intended to claim any rights or merits for his countrymen, 
 which he does not, he certainly would have been more particular in 
 his details. Thus, the shoal mentioned in the paragraph last quoted, 
 in latitude of 34 degrees, is evidently the same, which runs out from 
 Cape Lookout in North Carolina; and the other shoal 22 leagues far- 
 
380 PROOFS AND ILLUSTRATIONS. [D. 
 
 ther northeast, and 30 leagues from the Bay of Santa Maria, may be 
 identified with that which renders the passage around Cape Hatteras 
 so much dreaded by our mariners. Cape Hatteras is 34 leagues from 
 Cape Henry the southern point of the entrance to Chesapeake Bay ; 
 and midway between that point and Cape Charles on the north, the 
 37th parallel of latitude passes. Finally, the depth of the channel in 
 the entrance to the Chesapeake, varies from 6 to 13 fathoms on the 
 south side, being much shallower on the north. 
 
 It seems needless to argue further the identity of the Chesapeake Bay 
 with the Bay of Santa Maria, which is laid down by that name in Span 
 ish maps, of date anterior to the settlement of Virginia. At what 
 time it was discovered, we do not learn. Gomara in the 12th chapter 
 of his Historia General de las Iiidias, published in 1554, describes the 
 whole coast of the New World, so far as then known ; but he passes 
 over ^he space between the Cabo de Arenas, near the 39th degree of 
 latitude probably Cape May and a river situated one hundred leagues 
 farther south. 
 
 D. 
 
 CERTIFIED STATEMENT OF THE ACT OF TAKING POSSESSION OF 
 LOUISIANA, AT THE MOUTH OF MISSISSIPPI, BY M. DE LA 
 SALLE, ON THE 9TH OF APRIL, 1682.* 
 
 Jacques de la Metairie, Notary of Fort Frontenac in New France, 
 charged and commissioned to exercise the same functions during the 
 expedition, to Louisiana, in North America, under M. de La Salle, 
 Governor of Fort Frontenac, for the King, and commanding in the 
 said discovery, by commission from His Majesty, given at St. Germain 
 en Laye on the 12th of May, 1678 to all who may see these presents : 
 
 Be it known, that having been required by M. de La Salle, to deliver 
 to him, a certified statement signed by us, and the witnesses therein 
 named, of his having taken possession of the country of Louisiana, 
 near the three outlets of the river Colbert into the Gulf of Mexico, 
 on the 9th of April, 1682, in the name of the very high, very power 
 ful, invincible and victorious Prince, Louis the Great, by the Grace 
 
 * Since the preceding pages have been put to press, the author has obtained a 
 copy of the original of this document, from which the present translation has 
 been carefully made. It will be found to differ only in a few small points from that 
 of Mr. Sparks appended to his interesting life of La Salle; and it is here inserted, 
 principally, for the sake of the few short notes on more important points, which 
 accompany it. 
 
D.] 
 
 THE ACT OF TAKING POSSESSION OF LOUISIANA. 
 
 381 
 
 of God, King of France and Navarre, the fourteenth of that name, 
 and in the name of his heirs and the successors to his throne : We the 
 notary aforesaid, have delivered the said certified statement [proces 
 verbal] to the said M. de La Salle, the tenor of which is as follows: 
 
 On the 27th of December, 1681, M. de La Salle set out on foot to 
 join M. de Tonty, who had preceded him with his people and baggage, 
 and gone forty leagues into the country of the Niamis. The ice on the 
 Chikagou river in the country of the Mascoutins however arrested his 
 progress ; when the ice became stronger, he went on, carrying his 
 baggage, canoes and one of the men who had been wounded, on sledges, 
 the whole length of this river, and on the Illinois, to the distance of 
 seventy leagues. At length, the French being all together on the 25th 
 of Januarv, 1682, we reached Pimiteoui [Peoria ;] and thence, the river 
 being only partially frozen, we continued our journey to the River 
 Colbert [Mississippi] about sixty leagues from Pimiteoui, and ninety 
 from the great village of the Illinois. 
 
 We reached the banks of the river Colbert on the 6th of February, 
 and remained there until the 13th, waiting for the Indians who had 
 been delayed by the ice. On the 13th, the whole party being assem 
 bled, we resumed our voyage, being twenty-two French, carrying arms, 
 and the Reverend Father Zenobe Mambre, a Recollet Missionary, fol 
 lowed by eighteen savages from New England, and several Algonquin 
 [Chippewa,] Otchipoises [Ojibwas or Chippewas,] and Huron women. 
 
 On the 14th, we arrived at the village of the Maroas [Cahokia,] con 
 sisting of a hundred cabins, entirely uninhabited. Proceeding about a 
 hundred leagues down the River Colbert, we went ashore to hunt on 
 the 26th of February. There a Frenchman was lost in the woods : and 
 M. de La Salle, hearing that a large body of savages had been seen in 
 the neighborhood, and thinking that they might have seized the man, 
 marched through the woods for two days, in search of them ; but in 
 vain, as they had been frightened by the noise of the guns, and had 
 all fled. 
 
 Returning to the camp, M. de La Salle sent Frenchmen and Indians 
 in all directions in search, with orders if they should fall in with sav 
 ages, to take them alive, so as to obtain intelligence respecting the 
 Frenchman. Gabriel Barbie, with two Indians, met five Chickasas, 
 of whom they took two. They were treated with all kindness [by M. 
 de La Salle,] who explained to them, that he was anxious about a 
 Frenchman, who had been lost; and that they were only detained with 
 the object of rescuing this man, if he should be in their hands, and 
 making an advantageous peace with them, as the French did good to 
 all; upon which they assured him, that they had not seen the person, 
 of whom we were in search, but that they would be well pleased to 
 have peace made. Presents were then given to them, and as they said 
 
382 PROOFS AND ILLUSTRATIONS. [D. 
 
 that one of their villages was not more than half a day's journey dis 
 tant, M. de La Salle set out for the place on the following day ; but 
 after travelling all night, and finding the accounts of the savages in 
 contradiction with each other, he determined to go no farther, as he was 
 without provisions. Upon pressing the savages to tell the truth, they 
 at length confessed, that their village was four days' journey farther 
 distant; and seeing that M. de La Salle was angry at having been thus 
 deceived, they proposed that one of them should remain with him, 
 while the other should carry the news to the village, from which the 
 chiefs would come and join them at four days' journey below that 
 place. M. de La Salle accordingly returned to the camp, with one of 
 these Chickasas ; and the Frenchman of whom we were in search hav 
 ing been in the meantime recovered, he continued his voyage, and 
 passed the river of the Chepontias [the St. Francis] and the village 
 of the Metsigameas. The thickness of the fog prevented him from 
 finding the passage, whieh led to the place appointed for meeting the 
 Chickasas. 
 
 On the 12th of March, we arrived at the Kapaha village of Akansa, 
 where we made peace and took possession. On the 15th we passed 
 another of their towns on the bank of the river, and two others farther 
 off in the woods, and reached that of the Imahas, the largest town of 
 this nation, where peace was confirmed, and the chief acknowledged 
 the town to belong to His Majesty. Two Akansas entered with M. de 
 La Salle, to conduct him to their allies the Taensas, about fifty leagues 
 farther down, dwelling in eight villages on the borders of a small lake. 
 On the 19th we passed the towns of the Tourikas, the Yazoos, and the 
 Koueras ; but as they were not on the bank of the river, and were 
 enemies of the Akansas and Taensas, we did not stop. 
 
 On the 19th* we arrived al the towns of the Taensas, who received 
 us well, and supplied us with a large quantity of provisions. Here, 
 also peace was made, as well as with the Koroas, whose chief came to 
 us from their principal village, two leagues from that of the Natches. 
 
 The two chiefs accompanied M. de La Salle to the banks of the 
 river; where the Koroa chief embarked with him, and conducted him 
 to his town, where the peace was confirmed with that nation, which 
 has five other towns of its own, and is in alliance with nearly forty 
 more. On the 31st f we passed the towns of the Houmas without 
 
 * The right bank of the Mississippi opposite the mouth of the Big Black river, on 
 the shore of a small lake, now called Lake St. Joseph, in Taensas county, Louisiana, 
 where several large mounds still mark the site of the former towns. 
 
 f It is probable that some portion of the statement, has been omitted in the copy 
 preserved in France ; as in the interval, between the two dates in this paragraph, 
 the French visited the towns of the Natches, and discovered the mouth of the Red 
 river, which circumstances, the writer of the statement would scarcely have failed 
 to mention. 
 
D.] 
 
 THE ACT OF TAKING POSSESSION OF LOUISIANA. 
 
 383 
 
 knowing it, in consequence of the thickness of the fog and their dis- 
 stance from the river. 
 
 On the 3d of April, at ten in the morning, we saw thirteen or four 
 teen canoes ; and M. de La Salle went ashore, with several men. 
 Foot prints were observed, and a little lower down some savages were 
 found fishing, who fled precipitately as soon as they discovered us. 
 Others of our party then went ashore, on the borders of a marsh, 
 formed by the inundation of the river. M. de La Salle sent two French 
 men, and afterwards two Indians to observe, who on their return stated 
 that there was a town not far off, but in order to reach it, a marsh 
 covered with canes, must be crossed ; and that they had been saluted 
 with a shower of arrows from the people of the town, who not daring 
 to attack them in the marsh, had fled, though neither the French nor 
 their Indians had fired, in obedience to the orders not to do so, unless 
 in case of great danger. We soon after heard a drudi beat in the village, 
 and shouts and howling, such as those barbarians usually make, on 
 beginning an attack : we waited three or four hours, and then as we 
 neither saw nor heard any one, and we could not encamp on the marsh, 
 we returned to our boats. An hour afterwards, we came to the village 
 of Maheouala, which had been recently destroyed, and contained dead 
 bodies, and marks of blood ; and two leagues farther down, we encamped. 
 
 Our voyage was thus continued until the 6th of April, when we 
 reached the three channels, by which the Colbert discharges its waters 
 into the sea ; and we encamped on the westernmost, about three leagues 
 from its mouth. On the 7th, M. de La Salle went down to examine 
 the channel and the coasts of the neighboring sea, while M. de Tonty 
 went through the middle channel. These two outlets having been 
 found fine, wide, and deep, they returned on the 8th, and discovered 
 a dry place, above the inundation, nearly in the 27th degree of the 
 elevation of the north pole, where a column and a cross were prepared, 
 and on the column were painted the arms of France, with the inscription 
 
 "LOUIS THE GREAT, 
 KING OF FRANCE AND NAVARRE, APRIL 9, 1682." 
 
 The whole party being then under arms, the Te Deum, the Exaudi, 
 and the Domine salvum fac Regem, were sung; after which M. de La 
 Salle erected the column, amid salutes of musketry, and shouts of 
 "Long live the King," and then standing near it, he pronounced with 
 a loud voice 
 
 "By authority of the very high, powerful, invincible and victorious 
 Prince, Louis the Great, by the Grace of God, King of France and 
 Navarre, the fourteenth of that name, on this ninth day of April, 1682, 
 1, in virtue of the commission from His Majesty, which I now hold in 
 my hand ready to be exhibited to whomsoever it may concern, have 
 
384 PROOFS AND ILLUSTRATIONS. [D. 
 
 taken and do hereby take possession, in the name of His Majesty, and 
 of His successors to the throne, of this country of Louisiana, of the 
 seas, harbors, ports, bays and places adjacent, and of all the nations, 
 people, cities, boroughs, villages, mines, fisheries, rivers and streams, 
 comprehended within the whole extent of Louisiana, from the mouth 
 of the great river St. Louis on the east, otherwise called Ohio,* 
 Olighinsipouf or Chukagua, and with the consent of the Chouaganous, 
 Chickasas and other nations residing therein, with whom we have made 
 alliance, as also along the river Colbert or Mississippi, and the rivers 
 thereinto emptying from its source, beyond the country of the Sioux or 
 Naudoessioux, with the consent of that nation, and of the Motantees, 
 Illinois, Metsigameas, Natches and Koroas, the principal nations therein 
 residing with whom we have also made alliance ourselves, or through 
 others acting in our behalf, as far as the place of its discharge into the 
 Sea, or Gulf of Mexfeo, near the 27th degree of the elevation of the 
 north pole, and thence to the mouth of the River of Palms. Upon 
 the assurance which we have received from all those nations, that we 
 are the first Europeans, who have descended or ascended the River Col 
 bert, I protest against all who may hereafter undertake to obtain pos 
 session of the countries, nations, and territories above specified, to the 
 prejudice of the right acquired by His Majesty, with the consent of the 
 said nations. Of all which, so far as needful, may be taken as witnesses, 
 those who now hear me ; and I demand a certified statement of the same 
 from the notary here present, to be used whenever necessary and just." 
 To all which every one responded by shouts of Long live the King, 
 and discharges of musketry. Moreover M. de La Salle had buried at 
 the foot of the tree, to which the cross was attached, a leaden plate "hav 
 ing engraved on one side, the arms of France, with this inscription: 
 
 LVDOVICVS MAGNVS REGNAT. 
 
 NONO APRILIS CIQIOCLXXXIL 
 
 ROBERTVS CAVALIER, CVM DOMINO DE TONTY, 
 LEGATO, R. P. ZENOBIO MEMBRE RECOLLECTO, ET 
 
 VIGINTI GALLIS, PRIMVS, HOC FLVMEN INDE 
 AB ILLINEORUM PAGO, ENAVIGAVIT EJVSQVE OSTIVM 
 
 FECIT PERVIVM, 
 NONO APRLIS, ANN! CIOIOCLXXXII. J 
 
 * The countries above the mouth of the Ohio, being considered as belonging to 
 New France. 
 
 fThis is the earliest mention of the name Allegheny, which has been found 
 among the records of Europe. See note on page 191. 
 
 t Louis the Great reigns. April 9, 1682. Robert Cavelier, with M. de Tonty 
 his lieutenant, the Reverend Father Zenobe Mambre a Recollet, and twenty French 
 men, first sailed down this river, from the village of the Illinois to this place, and 
 passed through its mouth, on the ninth of April, 1682. 
 
E. 
 
 EXPEDITION OF ALONZO DE LEON. 
 
 385 
 
 After which M. de La Salle declared, that as His Majesty being the 
 eldest son of the Church, would not acquire any countries for his crown, 
 in which his principal care should not be directed to the establishment 
 of the Christian religion, it was proper to plant the marks of that 
 religion here ; and this was immediately done, by erecting a cross, 
 before which the Vexilla and the Domine salvum fac Regem, were 
 chaunted ; whereupon the ceremony was ended by shouts of Long live 
 the King. 
 
 Of which, and of all here above stated, the said M. de La, Salle 
 having demanded from us a certified statement, we delivered it to him, 
 signed by us, and by the undersigned witnesses, on this 9th of April, 
 1682. 
 
 De La Salle; F. Zenobe, Recollet missionary; Henri de Tonty; 
 Francois de Boisrondet ; Jean Bourdon ; D' Autray ; Jacques Cau- 
 chois; Pierre Yon; Gilles Meneret; Jean Michel, Surgeon; Jean 
 Mas ; Jean Du Lignon ; Nicolas de la Salle. 
 
 LA METAIRIE, Notary. 
 
 E. 
 
 EXPEDITION OF ALONZO DE' LEON TO THE BAY OF ST. Louis 
 
 IN 1689. 
 
 Journal of the Expedition made by General Alonzo de Leon, 
 for the discovery of the Bay of Espiritu Santo, and the 
 French Settlement* in the year 1689.* 
 
 On Wednesday, the 23d of March, 1689, it was determined, that 
 the soldiers and people collected at Coahuila, should take their depar 
 ture ; and they accordingly marched one league down the river. 
 
 Thursday 24th The General set out, and finding the troops about 
 to march down the river, he went on the other side to its junction with 
 the Nadadores. Marched this day 6 leagues northward, through a flat 
 and uninhabitable country. 
 
 Friday 25th Continued down the Nadadores on the south side, 
 passing between two mountains, called the Baluartes. We stopped 
 on the banks of that river, near a large poplar, the only tree seen by 
 
 # The Journal of Alonzo de Leon has never before been published in any lan 
 guage. The present translation has been made by the author of this history, from 
 a manuscript copy of the original. A large portion of it is unimportant; the 
 author however, after some hesitation, concluded that it should be given without 
 any omission or alteration. 
 49 
 
386 PROOFS AND ILLUSTRATIONS. [E 
 
 us in a long distance. Marched 7 leagues northeastward, through a 
 level country with good pasture. 
 
 Saturday 26th Marched down the river as before, to its junction with 
 the Rio de Sabinas, at one league from which we halted. The road 
 is level with good pasture in its vincinity. Distance this day 6 leagues 
 towards the east. 
 
 Sunday 27th Continued down the river, and crossing to its northern 
 side, we marched along its bank, and met the soldiers arriving from 
 the kingdom of New Leon, to join us at the place appointed. We 
 united with salutes of musketry, on both sides, and made an enumera 
 tion of the soldiers, muleteers, and others, as will be seen by the list. 
 We marched 3 leagues eastward. 
 
 Monday 28th Proceeded 6 leagues towards the northeast, crossing 
 some plains, in which was no water. The march was painful, though 
 the ground was level. Halted at a pond of rain water. 
 
 Tuesday 29th Took a direction northeast, quarter north, and went 
 5 leagues through a country generally level, but with some small low 
 hills. 
 
 Wednesday 30th Went 4 leagues towards the north. Before day 
 the French prisoner sent an Indian, in whom he could confide, on before,, 
 to give notice of our approach to his tribe; before reaching which, more 
 than 60 Indians came to meet us, some with arms and others without 
 them, and conducted us to their dwelling place. Here they had pre 
 pared a tent of buffalo skins for the Frenchman, whom they treated 
 with great respect; in front of it, a stake was erected, about four varas 
 high, on which were 16 skulls of Indians, their enemies whom they 
 had killed. Five nations were there collected, according to the account 
 of the Frenchman, namely Hapes, Jumenes, Xialis, Mexcales and 
 another. We counted 85 tents. Some cords, shells, beads, rosaries, 
 knives, and arms were distributed among them, to their great delight; 
 and five head of cattle were killed, of which they all ate. They were 
 in all 490 persons. We halted at a rivulet about dark. 
 
 Thursday 31st We were obliged to remain at this place, from the 
 sickness of our horses, caused by the previous want of water. 
 
 Friday 1st Marched 5 leagues down the river, crossing some low 
 hills. There was no want of water. Our course lay for the most part 
 northward. We halted and encamped on the river [Rio Bravo] opposite 
 the fording place. The river was found fordable. We carried with us 
 an Indian, who assured us that he knew the whole country, and would 
 lead us where some men like ourselves were settled, in six or seven 
 houses, at the distance of about six days' journey, from the said Rio 
 Bravo. This Indian is a savage, but we learned his meaning tolerably 
 well, through the interpretation of another Indian. 
 
 Saturday 2d We crossed the river, and went northward one league, 
 
E. 
 
 EXPEDITION OF AXONZO DE LEON. 
 
 387 
 
 in order to turn some gullies and hills ; then marched northeastward, 
 about 5 leagues, to some ponds which we called Los Cuervos because 
 we saw more than 3000 crows on them at sun set. The ground was 
 level and free from hills. 
 
 Sunday 3d Went 3 leagues eastward, over level country, and 2 
 more over small hills, covered with mezquite bushes. Passed some 
 beds of streams, without water, and having at length found a rivulet, 
 we stopped there, having gone in all 5 long leagues to-day. We gave 
 the name of Arroyo de Ramos to the rivulet, in honor of the day, 
 which is Palm Sunday (Domingo de Ramos.) Here we observed the 
 altitude of the sun, with an astrolabe, which is very defective, and 
 found it to be 26 degrees 31 minutes; the tables on which the calcula 
 tion was made, were however constructed before the Gregorian correc 
 tion, made in 1582, when the equinox was on the 10th of March ; and 
 following the ephermeris of Andrea Argoli, the Roman, who places the 
 equinox this year, on the 20th of March, we find from these tables, 
 that the 3d of April, corresponds with the 24th of March of this year, 
 the first after the Bissextile. These tables, the author says, were taken 
 from the Art of Navigation, by Maestro Medina. We are obliged to 
 state these reasons, because if there be any error, it arises from our 
 want of modern tables. 
 
 Monday 4th Marched for the greater part of this day towards the 
 northeast, and for a short time to the north, in all 8 leagues. The 
 first part of the march was through a level country, after which we 
 found a small grove of mezquite shrubs and on quitting it we entered 
 another, 3 leagues in breadth. We then reached a river, which though 
 then having little water, we saw in the rainy season must overflow its 
 banks, to the breadth of half a league. We named it the Nueces, 
 from the abundance of nut trees near it;* its bed is very rocky, con 
 taining a number of flint stones, some of them very fine. 
 
 Tuesday 5th We crossed the river, after going about half a league 
 along its bank, and entered a defile, beyond which was a forest, so 
 thick, that we were obliged to dismount, and cut a road a league in 
 length, through the prickly pears and mezquite bushes. Our course 
 was eastward. We then entered a mezquite forest, through which 
 we were obliged to make our way dismounted ; and we at length reached 
 a river, which we named Rio Sarco Blue river from the bluish tint 
 of its waters. The distance travelled to-day was 7 leagues in a very 
 indirect course. 
 
 Wednesday 6th We went about 3 leagues northeastward, and 2 east 
 ward, through a country generally level with fine pasturage, inter 
 spersed with pleasant valleys, and some groves of oak. We then 
 
 *The pecan-nut, or carya oliviformis. 
 
388 PROOFS AND ILLUSTRATIONS. [E. 
 
 reached a river, named by us Rio Hondo Deep river because the 
 banks rise on each side more than six or seven fathoms ; near it on 
 both sides, are some small hills, for the most part covered with wood. 
 The water was excellent,. and the horses drank it with avidity. In the 
 bed of the river, we found some large white stones, on some of which 
 crosses and other figures were cut, by the hand of man, with great per 
 fection and apparently long ago. 
 
 Holy Thursday 7th We travelled down the Rio Hondo, without 
 crossing it about 4 leagues, sometimes eastward and at others south-east 
 ward, and we halted on its left bank. The water is of the same quality 
 as above; and the country generally level, with occasional groves of 
 inezquite. Although since the 30th of March when we left the habi 
 tation of the five nations of Indians, we had seen many traces of the 
 natives, they all appeared to be of old date, and we met not a single 
 person. 
 
 Good Friday 8th We crossed the Rio Hondo, and followed it down 
 in a direction east, one quarter northeast. We found on the way two 
 defiles near together, which appeared to be, in the rainy season, covered 
 with water to the depth of more than a fathom; we then reached a 
 stream, in order to cross which, with the loaded mules, it was neces 
 sary to go a little out of our course ; and then the passage was effected 
 with difficulty, on account of the mud, in which some of the mules 
 were stuck. We then came to a clear country, after which was a forest 
 of large inezquite trees, with some pools of water; and there we halted, 
 having marched 8 long leagues eastward. 
 
 Saturday 9th We took our course towards the north, through some 
 forests, which obliged us to deviate to the north, one quarter north 
 east, and more eastward. The ground was very good for travelling. 
 We crossed the bed of a rivulet, without water, and a league farther, 
 we found another with water, which was very good, and good pasture 
 near it. Many small fish were taken in this rivulet, which we named 
 Arroyo del Vino, as we this day opened a barrel of wine, and divided 
 it among the men. We marched this day 5 leagues. We found under 
 the trees quantities of large nuts, resembling those of Spain, but more 
 difficult to open; also many wild grapes, which the Indians assured us, 
 were at the proper season, large and excellent. At this place, our 
 horses ran off about midnight, notwithstanding 15 soldiers were on 
 guard, and we were unable to find all of them * as on the following 
 day, the whole number counted was only 102 horses. 
 
 Easter Sunday, 10th Soldiers were sent in various directions, in 
 search of the horses which were not brought in, until the hour of prayer. 
 We therefore went no farther on this day; and on observing the eleva 
 tion of the pole we found it to be 27 degrees 55 minutes. 
 
 Easter Monday, llth Marched towards the east, crossing two rivu- 
 
E.] EXPEDITION OF ALONZO DE LEON. 389 
 
 lots of good water, and then a forest of oaks and nut trees, for more 
 than 5 leagues. We then reached a river which though wide had very- 
 little water in it, and could be forded without difficulty. "We named 
 it the Medina; its banks are nine or ten fathoms high. Our course 
 this day, was for half the distance east, and the other half northeast, 
 through forests of oak and nut trees. 
 
 Tuesday 12th We crossed the river by a very good ford, and follow 
 ed it clown in an eastern direction, five leagues over low hills without 
 wood, passing some .gullies of red or yellow clay. We then entered 
 a forest of niezquites, and found water in a stream, the first portion of 
 which being dry, we supposed that our guide had misled us. The 
 country hereabouts is very good for pasturage; and as we found the 
 carcass of a lion near the stream we named it Arroyo del Leon.* 
 
 Thursday 14th We marched towards the east, one quarter north 
 east, in search of a large river, which our guide told us that we should 
 find ; and we reached it, at night, after going 6 leagues. Three quarters 
 of the way lay over hills, and the remainder through a rough country, 
 crossed by many gullies, which obliged us often to dismount, in order 
 to get over them. The country was the most pleasant, which we had 
 seen ; the river is not large, and was forded with ease, and its banks 
 are covered with trees. On the way, we killed six buffaloes, the first 
 seen in a distance of more than 100 leagues. We gave to this river 
 the name of Nuestra Seiiora de Guadalupe, in honor of our protectress 
 and mediatrix, whose representation we carried painted on our standard. 
 
 Friday 15th In the morning it was raining,, but we set out, and ford 
 ed the river at a place about a league from our encampment ; and as the 
 rain increased, we stopped at a rivulet near by, going only 2 leagues 
 on this day. A council of war was then held, in consequence of our 
 guide's having said that we were near the settlement of the French ; 
 and it was determined that the Governor should set out on the follow 
 ing day, with 70 men, to reconnoitre, leaving the remainder of the forces 
 encamped at a place a little farther on, where they were to keep oh 
 their guard. 
 
 Saturday 16th Agreeably to the resolution taken yesterday, the 
 Governor set out with 60 soldiers well provided, after a mass had been 
 said to Our Lady of Guadalupe, with all solemnity: the remainder of 
 the party set out at the same time. After marching 3 leagues, an 
 Indian was seen on a hill in front ; and being taken and brought to the 
 Governor, he declared that his village was near, and that four French 
 men were in it. We hastened on, having sent back orders, that 
 the others should stop where they were. Before we reached the vil- 
 
 * The same now called the San Antonio ; the latter name ->vii 3 applied by the 
 Spaniards only to the small branch on which the town of Bexar is situated. 
 
890 PROOFS AND ILLUSTRATIONS. [E. 
 
 lage, the whole of its inhabitants had fled, and we saw them running 
 into a wood, carrying with them eight or ten dogs, laden with buffalo 
 skins. We sent the Indian whom we had encountered, to invite them 
 to return, and he succeeded in bringing back several; but we were as 
 sured that the Frenchmen were not there, and had gone four days before, 
 towards the Texas. At this village we met two Indians, who told us, 
 that at the distance of two days journey farther, we should find those 
 of whom we were in search. We treated these Indians kindly, and 
 gave them presents, such as tobacco, knives and other articles, in order 
 to induce them to guide us, as they did, directing our course towards 
 the north, until sunset, when we reached a village of more than 250 
 souls. Here we obtained farther information respecting the French 
 men through the aid of the French prisoner, as our interpreter; we 
 learnt that these men had gone towards the Texas four days before, and 
 that others of the same nation who settled on the little Sea as they 
 called the Bay had all died by the hands of the Indians on the coast ; 
 that those people had six houses in which they lived ; and that their 
 destruction took place three moons ago, before which, the greater part 
 of them had died of small pox. On this day, the camp moved east 
 ward 3 leagues, and stopped at the place assigned by the Governor, 
 who with the sixty went on towards the north. 
 
 Sunday 17th We stopped to sleep at the Indian village, and then 
 continued our march towards the north. After going 5 leagues, we 
 reached some Indian villages, with which our French prisoner was ac 
 quainted ; and we there learned the direction taken by the four French 
 men with some accuracy : they had gone on horseback four days before 
 towards the Texas. We here entered into a consultation as to what 
 should be done, as the camp was now some distance behind, and the 
 country was unknown ; and it was resolved that a letter should be writ 
 ten to the said Frenchmen, which an Indian was to deliver to them ; 
 and a letter was accordingly written in French by Ensign Francisco 
 Martinez, stating in substance, that having had reason to believe that 
 the Indians on that coast had killed some Christians, and they had 
 escaped, they might come to us, as we should wait for them 3 or 4 
 days at this place, where their settlement had been. This letter was 
 signed by the Governor; and our Chaplain Friar Damian Masaret, of 
 the order of Our Father St. Francis, added to it some lines in Latin, 
 supposing that one of them might be a priest, exhorting them to come to 
 us ; and having enclosed in it some paper for an answer, it was carried 
 away by an Indian, who assured us that it should be delivered to them. 
 About the time of prayer, an Indian came to us from the north, who on 
 being examined through the French prisoner as to the distance from this 
 place to the Texas country, answered that it was not many days' journey 
 off, and that the four Frenchmen had passed his village 3 days since. 
 
E.] EXPEDITION OF ALONZO DE LEON. 391 
 
 Monday 18th Considering the danger to which the camp might be 
 exposed (though it had been left well garrisoned,) we set out towards 
 it. On the way the Governor received a letter to the effect, that the 
 cattle had ran off on the preceding night, and more than 100 horses 
 had escaped, of which some had been retaken, but 36 were still want 
 ing. We continued our journey to the camp, where on arriving, we 
 learned furthermore, that a soldier had been lost, while looking for the 
 horses, and several parties of soldiers were gone in various directions 
 in quest of him ; he did not reappear this day. 
 
 Tuesday 19th As neither the soldier nor the horses reappeared, two 
 parties of soldiers were sent out in different directions ; the Governor 
 himself moreover went out in person, and though every effort was 
 made, they were not found on this day; so that we remained encamped 
 here, in order to continue the search. Meanwhile Indians came to us 
 from various villages, whom we regaled with tobacco and other things, 
 and charged them to join in the search for the soldier and the horses 
 missing, promising to reward them for it. 
 
 Wednesday 20th The camp remained stationary, as neither the 
 soldier nor the horses appeared, though the same measures were repeated 
 of sending out parties in search of them. After the last party had 
 gone, the missing man came in, guided by nine Indians; he had slept 
 on the night before, in an Indian cabin, where he feared that they in 
 tended to kill him, and he accordingly quitted it ; he was much con 
 gratulated on his good luck, in escaping from the hands of those bar 
 barians. On this day finding that our astrolabe had been injured, we 
 repaired it as well as we could, and took an observation of the sun from 
 which we calculated our position to be in latitude of 28 degrees and 
 41 minutes. 
 
 Thursday 21st We set out with the whole camp marching towards 
 the east, and sometimes turning one quarter towards northeast, and 
 northeast, one quarter north, through wide plains, often without seeing 
 any trees in a great distance. We thus went 8 leagues, to a stream 
 of good water, on the banks of which our guide told us, that the French 
 settlement stood not far off. The whole country was agreeable, and 
 we met many buffaloes. 
 
 Friday 22d Although it was raining when day broke, as the site 
 of the French settlement was near, we marched with the whole camp, 
 and at the distance of three leagues down the stream we found the 
 place. After pitching our camp, a musket shot off from the spot, we 
 went to it and there found all the houses robbed, boxes broken open, 
 bottles and other articles thrown about and more than two hundred 
 books apparently in the French language, torn in pieces with their leaves 
 rotten, strewed over the yard. Every thing showed that the aggressors 
 had sacked the place completely; this being proved not only by the 
 
392 PROOFS AND ILLUSTRATIONS. [E. 
 
 state in which we found it, but also from our having seen in the villages 
 passed on our way hither, many books in the French language, in good 
 condition, and other trifles of little value, which were purchased and 
 brought away by us as memorials. 
 
 The Indians committed this destruction not only on the furniture, 
 and other articles of that kind, but also on the arms; as we found more 
 than a hundred musket-stocks, without locks or barrels, which latter 
 must have been carried away, as we supposed from finding only one 
 barrel. At some distance from the houses, were three dead bodies, 
 which had been dragged thither : one of them seemed to bo that of a 
 woman, from a part of the dress adhering to the corpse. They were 
 taken up, and buried with a mass, in presence of the party. 
 
 The principal building in the establishment, was made of wood taken 
 from a ship, and was in form of a fort, with a roof of boards, and an 
 other inclined to carry off the rain. Near and adjoining it, was another 
 house, less strongly built, which seemed to have served as a chapel, 
 for saying mass. The other five houses were made of piles, lined with 
 in, and covered as well as the roof, with buffalo hides, but were all 
 utterly useless for defence. Near the fort and houses, were found eight 
 pieces of iron artillery of middle size, carrying balls of from four to six 
 pounds, three very old swivels without chambers, and some iron bars 
 and bolts, all weighing, about a hundred arrobas. The cannon were 
 some of them lying on the ground, the others on their carriages, which 
 were however broken. Some barrels were found with the heads knocked 
 in; and every thing had been so completely sacked, that nothing of 
 any use could be obtained. 
 
 We searched carefully for other dead bodies, but none were discov 
 ered; from which we concluded, that they had been thrown into the 
 water and eaten by the alligators. 
 
 The settlement was made in a good position, well adapted for defence 
 in any event. Over the principal door of the fort, was inscribed the 
 date of its establishment 1684, with other particulars, which were noted 
 down, in the description of the place, specially drawn up. 
 
 On this day, we marched 3 leagues towards the east ; which added 
 to the preceding distances, make 136 leagues from Coahuila to this 
 place. 
 
 EXPLORATION OF THE BAY AND PORT OF ESPIRITU SANTO. 
 
 Saturday 23d of April, 1689 We set out with 30 men, to examine 
 the bay towards the south, following the small streams down from the 
 settlement, and carrying with us as a guide, the French prisoner, who 
 said that he had gone over the whole of it in a boat. With this as 
 surance, we followed him, but he did not continue down the stream, as 
 he told us that there was no passage in that direction ; so we went 5 
 
E.] EXPEDITION OF ALONZO DE LEOX. 393 
 
 leagues towards the southwest, and having crossed the heads of two 
 streams, we turned to the east, and marched 3 leagues farther, until 
 we reached the shore of the bay, where we slept as it was then night. 
 
 Sunday 24th We set out early, and marched along the shore of the 
 bay, in which the tide was then low. Near it are many lagoons of 
 salt water which in some places were so muddy as to prevent us from 
 passing on horseback, and we were obliged to walk on foot and lead the 
 horses. One arm of the bay, .which seemed to us the largest, ran to- 
 words the north ; the other and smaller towards the south, and the 
 smallest of the three, towards the French settlement above mentioned. 
 We marched 8 leagues along the shore until it pleased God that we 
 descried the mouth, at the distance of two leagues, which was as near 
 as we could go to it with our horses; and in token of joy, we fired a 
 salute, the French prisoner assuring us, that it was the same entrance 
 and port, by which he entered, when he came to these countries, with 
 Monsieur Felipe de Sal.* 
 
 This entrance, so far as we could see and learn, is 2 short leagues 
 in width; in it is a low island or bank of sand, which is nearer to the 
 land, on the side towards Vera Cruz than on the side towards Florida, 
 and through the narrower entrance, the vessels come in, according to 
 the account of the French prisoner. Into this bay, on the south enters 
 the river named by us in honor of Our Lady of Guadalupe, which we 
 could not reach from the impossibility of crossing to its mouth ; though 
 we were certain that it must end there, from the accounts of the French 
 man, and from its direction, as observed when we crossed it. The 
 arm of the bay running to the north, is so long, that we could not see 
 the land beyond it in that direction. On the shore of the bay, which 
 we followed for about 8 leagues, we saw a large mast of a ship, a top 
 gallant mast, a capstan ana some planks, barrel staves, and other pieces 
 of wood, all apparently belonging to some vessel, which had been 
 wrecked in the bay or on the coast, near its entrance. Having ex 
 amined the entrance of the bay, we returned by the same route, and 
 slept on the banks of a small rivulet, at the foot of a hill, near an 
 Indian village, recently deserted, in which we found a French book, a 
 broken bottle, and other things showing that the people had taken part 
 in the destruction of the French. The water of this stream, was rather 
 brackish ; we found in it four canoes. 
 
 Monday 25th We came to the camp, where we found an answer 
 to the letter, written to the Frenchmen, who had gone towards the 
 Texas. It was read by the royal standard-bearer, and said in sub 
 stance that they would in two days come where we where ; as they 
 were tired of wandering among barbarians ; it was written in ochre, 
 
 * Franciso de La Salle ? 
 50 
 
394 PROOFS AND ILLUSTRATIONS. [E. 
 
 and bore only one signature, that of Jean Larcheveque of Bayonne. 
 In our exploration of the bay, in going and returning we went about 
 52 leagues. 
 
 EXPLORATION OF THE RIVER OF SAN MARCOS. 
 
 Tuesday, April 26th It was determined that we should go with the 
 whole camp in the direction from which we came, as the brackish water 
 of this stream did not agree with the horses ; and we accordingly went 
 3 leagues up the stream, and encamped again at the same place which 
 we had before occupied. We then set out, twenty in number, towards 
 the south, and at the distance of 3 leagues, we reached a large river, 
 which as the French prisoner told us, enters into the bay. We followed 
 it down along the bank, until we met with some lagoons, which im 
 peded our progress; it is very large, larger we believe than the Rio 
 Grande, and we concluded that it might be navigated by a small vessel. 
 We therefore determined to trace it to its entrance into the bay, what 
 ever difficulties we might encounter, as the distance seemed to be about 
 three quarters of a league, and there did not appear to be more, from 
 that point to the entrance of the stream, on which the French made 
 their settlement, about a league and a half from the bay. We marched 
 this day about 15 leagues. We observed the altitude of the sun, on 
 the shore of the bay, and found it to be 26 degrees 3 minutes, making 
 allowances for error, on account of the defective state of the astrolabe. 
 We gave to the river the name of San Marcos, as we discovered it on 
 the day after that of St. Mark.* 
 
 RETURN TO Co AHULL A. 
 
 Wednesday, April 27th We set out with the whole party, and stop 
 ped at some ponds, near a hill on the wayside. 
 
 Thursday 28th We continued our journey. At the same time, the 
 Governor with 30 men took his course northward, in search of the 
 Frenchmen, from whom he had received the letter. The camp was 
 pitched on the River of Our Lady of Guadalupe. 
 
 On Friday 29th and Saturday 30th the camp remained at the same 
 place. 
 
 Sunday, May 1st About prayer time, the Governor arrived with his 
 men, accompanied by two Frenchmen, marked and painted like Indians, 
 whom he had met about 25 leagues beyond the place, from which the 
 camp had been removed. One of these men was Jean, the writer of 
 the letter, the other was named Jacques Grollet, a native of Rochelle : 
 they gave the following account of the destruction of their country- 
 
 * It is now called the Colorado ; it enters the bay in the latitude of 28 degrees 
 46 minutes. The River Brazos was at first called Colorado by the Spaniards. 
 
K] 
 
 EXPEDITION OF ALONZO DE LEON. 
 
 395 
 
 men. It was begun by the small pox, which carried off more than a 
 hundred persons ; the remainder having always lived in good under 
 standing with the Indians of the country, apprehended nothing from 
 them, until a little more than a month previous, when five Indians 
 came to the settlement, under pretence of selling some articles, and 
 were lodged in the outermost house ; they were there joined by others, 
 coming with the same apparent object, and the French suspecting 
 nothing, allowed them to pass freely through the whole place. The 
 number of the Indians thus gradually increased ; and at length, a large 
 body of savages, suddenly rushed from the banks of the stream, where 
 they had secreted themselves, and attacking the French, put them all 
 to death, including two friars and a priest, with knives and clubs, after 
 which they sacked the buildings. The Frenchmen who related the 
 circumstances, were themselves absent at the time, having gone to the 
 Texas country; on receiving the news of what had happened, four of 
 them went together to the place, where they found their companions 
 dead, and they buried fourteen of them, and set fire to about a hundred 
 bar-rels of gunpowder, in order to prevent the Indians from carrying 
 it away. They said that the place was well provided with fire arms, 
 swords and daggers, and contained three chalices and other ornamented 
 articles, with many books beautifully bound. 
 
 The said Frenchmen were marked on the face like Indians, and 
 wrapped in skins of deer and buffalo. They were found in the village 
 of the chief of the Texas, who took great care of them, and supported 
 them. He came with them to the camp, and was well treated; and 
 though only a wild Indian, he seemed to be a man of much capacity, 
 and had an oratory with images in it. The Governor made presents 
 of knives, beads and other small articles to him and the Indians who 
 came with him ; so that they went away well contented, and promised 
 to come and bring other Indians with them to the province of Coahuila. 
 
 The Governor examined the Frenchmen separately, and took their 
 declarations, in order to send them to the viceroy. We then continued 
 our journey as far as the River Nueces, from which the Governor set 
 off in advance, on Tuesday the 10th of May, with some men, in order 
 to communicate the particulars of the expedition to his excellency as 
 soon as possible. We reached the fort of Coahuila on the 13th of the 
 same month of May, at night, when this journal was finished, and 
 signed, in attestation of the facts, by the Governor. 
 

 
 396 FUNERAL OF THE STUNG SERPENT. [1725. 
 
 were immolated, against their own will, or apparent will, except 
 an old woman, who was killed for speaking disrespectfully of the 
 late chief, and an infant strangled by its parents, who thereby 
 saved their own lives, and were raised to a higher rank. Thir 
 teen women and three men, however, offered themselves volunta 
 rily, and were put to death by their nearest relations : among 
 them were the two wives of the Great Sun, his principal. warrior, 
 his physician and his pipe-bearer, and the wife of the latter, who 
 though not required to die, insisted on accompanying her beloved 
 husband "Thou hast never before rejected me," cried this af 
 fectionate savage, "let me go with thee now ; we have always 
 walked together, and eaten together, and we will do so still ; I 
 go not with thy chief, but with thee." One of the intended vic 
 tims, a warrior who endeavored to escape and was re-taken, on 
 evincing signs of weakness, was declared unworthy of the honor 
 of joining his master; but two women, his near relations, imme 
 diately appeared as substitutes for the recreant, in order to remove 
 the disgrace from their family. 1 In like manner, the mother of a 
 woman who had been a favorite of the chief, but was then at New 
 Orleans as a hostage in the hands of the French, took the place 
 of her daughter, and was strangled with the others in front of the 
 great temple. Strong must have been the convictions of religion, 
 and the sense of honor, which could induce such self devotion. 
 
 Farther north, the Chickasas from time to time resumed their 
 piratical cruises on the Mississippi, and attacked the French, en 
 gaged in the river trade, especially in the vicinity of the cliffs, to 
 which the name of that daring nation of savages, began to be 
 assigned. The Governor, however, did not seem to apprehend 
 any immediate danger to the colony from the Indians; and he 
 contented himself with the usual means of securing the fidelity of 
 the Choctas, by presents and by purchasing the scalps of Chicka 
 sas and English, until he was roused to the necessity of active mea 
 sures, by a catastrophe which occurred on the Missouri in 1728. 
 
 This was the destruction of Fort Orleans, at the confluence of 
 the Missouri with the Kansas, and the massacre of the whole 
 garrison by the Osages; respecting which, the following rather 
 curious circumstances should be related. M. de Bourgmont. 
 the founder of this fort, had as a mistress, a young Illinois 
 woman, whom he carried with him to France in 1725, in com- 
 
727.] 
 
 DESTRUCTION OF FORT ORLEANS. 
 
 397 
 
 pany with some other Indians of that nation, under the immediate 
 charge of a sergeant named Dubois. The savages excited much 
 attention at Paris ; they danced on the theatres, they received 
 presents from the nobility, and several of them, including the 
 Commandant's mistress, were solemnly baptised in the cathedral 
 of Notre Dame. At this time, however, Bourgmont married a 
 lady of rank, and was transferred to a higher position in Europe; 
 and his mistress being then a useless appendage to his state, she 
 was married to Dubois the sergeant, who was made a lieutenant, 
 and appointed to the command of Fort Orleans. On their return 
 to that place, Madame Dubois became disgusted with her lonely 
 position on the Missouri, and sighing for the liberty of her early 
 life, she signified her determination to go back to her friends in 
 the Illinois. Her husband consented, and she took her departure ;* 
 soon after* which, the capture of the fort and the massacre of the 
 garrison were effected, by the neighboring Indians, though in 
 what manner, the French were never able to learn. 
 
 Immediately on receiving the news of this disaster, Perier 
 wrote to France, urging the Government to send three hundred 
 additfc>nal soldiers to Louisiana without delay, and to afford him 
 the means of increasing the strength of the posts and supplying 
 them properly with arms, ammunition and provisions : no atten 
 tion however was paid to his call, which was regarded as pro- 
 
 * This woman afterwards married a French officer named Marin, and lived in 
 the Illinois to an advanced age. One of the Indian chiefs who accompanied her, 
 on being asked by Bossu many years afterwards, what he most admired at Paris, 
 without hesitation declared his preference for the markets where meat was al 
 ways to be had, and the puppet shows where little men danced: he mistook the 
 Paris beaux with their curled wigs, rouged faces, and superabundance of jewel 
 ry, for hermaphrodites. Another chief appeared to be so completely carried 
 away by his feelings, on describing the palaces of the Tuilleries and Versailles, 
 and especially the Hospital of the Invalides which he called the wigwam of the 
 old warriors that he was, as usual, universally believed by his countrymen, to 
 have been bewitched, and he could never regain his consideration among them. 
 
 Voltaire saw these Indians at Fontainebleau, and he asked the woman, whether 
 she had ever eaten human flesh ? " to which she answered yes," writes Voltaire 
 in his Essai sur les Moeurs, " in a manner, as quiet and indifferent, as if the 
 question had been about any ordinary occurrence." It is however probable, 
 either that the Indian mistook the meaning of the question, or that the philoso 
 pher was deceived as to her answer ; there being no reason to believe that can 
 nibalism was then practised by the savages of the Mississippi countries, though 
 it must necessarily often occur, among people who depend exclusively on hunt 
 ing for support. 
 
398 THE FRENCH SETTLEMENTS AT NATCHES. [1728. 
 
 ceeding from interested views on his part, similar to those attri 
 buted to Bienville. Parsimony had moreover succeeded to waste, 
 in the administration of the affairs of the India Company; and 
 the cautious Cardinal Fleury appears to have considered the 
 colony in Louisiana only as a burthen, which was to be borne 
 in order to prevent the English from obtaining possession of the 
 Mississippi. The remonstrances of Perier were thus suffered to 
 remain unheeded for more than a year longer, before the expira 
 tion of which period, the colony had received a fatal blow from a 
 quarter, whence it was least anticipated.* 
 
 The most flourishing of all the French settlements in Louisiana 
 were those at Natchez, the principal of which were, the conces 
 sion of St. Catherine, belonging to the Messrs. Kolly Swiss bank 
 ers of Paris, that of La Terre Blanche, on the site of a former 
 Indian village of the same name, recently established by the Ma- 
 rechal de Belle Isle, and another large plantation formed by M. 
 La Loire des Ursins; besides several farms, all lying' within the 
 space of four or five miles square, bordering upon the Mississippi. 
 Not far from the river, stood Fort Rosalie, a small work of earth 
 and logs, garrisoned usually by thirty men, who with the people 
 attached to the plantations, made the whole number of the French 
 at the place not less than five hundred ; and there were in addi 
 tion, about two hundred negroes. The Indians had been reduced, 
 by emigration, to less than fifteen hundred ; and of their six villages 
 only three remained, namely, that of the Meal where the Great 
 Sun resided, and those of the Tioux, and the Apple, which latter 
 
 * Particular accounts of the catastrophe at Natchez, are given by Le Page Du 
 Pratz, who had resided at that place some time before, and by Dumont, who was 
 then a lieutenant of the garrison of Fort Rosalie, though absent at New Orleans 
 when the events occurred. As to the main facts they agree in general ; though 
 they differ on some minor points, which are in consequence either omitted, or 
 touched but lightly in the following narrative. Dumont, as usual, tells his story 
 plainly, as he received it; his chief authority being his wife, who was one of the 
 captives retained by the Indians, after the massacre of the Frenchmen : Le Page 
 Du Pratz, on the other hand, exhibits his customary desire to produce effect, by 
 embroidering his narrative with striking circumstances ; recording the discussions 
 of the Natches chiefs, as to the course to be pursued towards the French, as 
 well as the confidential communications between the Great Sun and his mother 
 with all the exactness which could have been expected from him, if he had been 
 present on the occasions, and had been perfectly acquainted with the language 
 employed. Some additional particulars are given in a letter from Father Le 
 Petit, a Jesuit missionary, which may be found among the Lettres Edifiantes. 
 
1729.] TYRANNICAL CONDUCT OF THE FRENCH. 399 
 
 had been rebuilt since its destruction by the French in 1723. 
 The Great Sun was a young man of negative disposition, and 
 was supposed to be governed entirely by his mother the Stung 
 Arm, a woman of strong character, and devotedly attached to the 
 French ; the principal direction of the affairs of the nation was, 
 however, held by the Sun of the Apple, who was the great Wai- 
 Chief, a brother of the Old Hair, whose head had been demand 
 ed by Bienville, on the occasion of the last disturbances.* 
 
 The command of the French garrison at Natchez, and the 
 general superintendence of the settlement, haft been committed 
 usually to discreet persons, who took pains to conciliate the In 
 dians; but in 1728, the command was conferred on M. Chopard, 
 a man of brutal manners and rapacious disposition, who immedi 
 ately disgusted the officers, the settlers, and the Indians, by his 
 rudeness and tyranny on every occasion. Chopard however suc 
 ceeded in satisfying the Governor, from whom he likewise ob 
 tained leave to form a plantation at Natchez ; and having with 
 this object purchased several negroes, he brought them up to that 
 place in the summer of 1729, and began to explore the environs, 
 in search of a proper site for his establishment. He at length se 
 lected a spot, which was no other than that occupied by the Indian 
 village of the Meal and its great temple, on the bayou of St. 
 Catherine, midway between the concessions of St. Catherine and 
 La Terre Blanche ;f and having abruptly declared his intentions 
 to the Great Sun, he ordered that chief to remove with his people 
 
 * The father of the Great Sun was said to have been a Frenchman ; and his 
 younger brother, the Little Sun, bore the name of St. Come, in token of the af 
 fection of the Stung Arm for the gallant and unfortunate Jesuit, who first under 
 took the task of converting the Natches to Christianity. 
 
 f Stoddart, in his History of Louisiana, says " This village was situated about 
 twelve miles below the present city of Natchez, and nearly three miles to the 
 eastward of the Mississippi, on the site of which is the seat of Col. Anthony 
 Hutchings." This is however undoubtedly erroneous. Fort Rosalie stood near 
 the edge of the cliff, at the south-west angle of the present city of Natchez ; and 
 we know, that the Indian village, which Chopard wished to occupy for his plan 
 tation, was on St. Catherine's creek, within a league and a quarter, or less than 
 four miles, of Fort Rosalie, from the repeated accounts of its position by Le Page 
 Du Pratz and Dumont, and especially from the map in the Memoires of the latter 
 author, (vol. 2, page 94,) in which the village is placed east by north of the fdrt. 
 Possibly it may have been near the present village of Seltzerville, where a vast 
 mound of earth seems to mark the spot as sacred to some deity, or as the deposi 
 tory of the remains of honored individuals. 
 
400 THE NATCHES RESOLVE TO DESTROY THE FRENCH. [1729. 
 
 to some other place. The astounded Indian answered, that his 
 ancestors had dwelt there from time immemorial, that their bones 
 rested in the temple, and that it would be most unjust thus to 
 expel him, without any remuneration for the sacrifice. These 
 representations nevertheless served only to irritate Chopard; and 
 the Great Sun was in the end obliged to promise a large present 
 of fowls, dried meat, and other articles, in return for a delay of 
 two months, granted to him for the purpose of gathering in his 
 crops, and providing another habitation for himself and his people. 
 
 This new act ^)f oppression, as yet unexampled at Natchez, 
 produced the utmost indignation and dismay among the Indians, 
 who plainly saw that they should soon be all driven from their 
 country, unless they could deliver themselves from their persecu 
 tors by their own efforts ; and it was soon resolved, in a council 
 of their most influential chiefs, that the latter course should be 
 tried. Deputies w r ere accordingly despatched to all the clans of 
 their own nation in exile, as well as to the Yazoos, the Chickasas, 
 and even to the Choctas, inviting them to join the league for the 
 extirpation of the intruding strangers ; and the answers returned 
 were such, as to lead to the formation of a plan in concert for that 
 object. Each of the French settlements was to be attacked, on 
 the same day, by the Indians residing nearest to it; and in order 
 to ensure precision as to the time of commencing the onslaught, 
 bundles of sticks, each containing the same number of pieces, were 
 delivered to the representatives of the confederate tribes, with 
 directions to each tribe, to remove one stick from its bundle daily, 
 and to strike so soon as none should be left. 
 
 The Sun of the Apple appears to have been the principal di 
 rector of the scheme of blood and Vengeance, with which the 
 Great Sun was but partially entrusted, from fear of the influence 
 of his mother the Stung Arm, and her well known affection for 
 the strangers. This woman nevertheless penetrated the secret, 
 and gave hints of what was meditated to more than one of the 
 intended victims : but the warning was not sufficiently distinct, 
 or it came^too late to be of use; for on the 28th of November, 
 when the last stick but one was drawn from the bundle preserved 
 in the great temple at Natchez, the French were still reposing in 
 entire unconsciousness of the danger hanging over them. On 
 the morning of that day, indeed, the interpreter of the garrison 
 
1729.] 
 
 COMMENCEMENT OF THE ATTACK. 
 
 401 
 
 and four other persons, who had gone together to Chopard to 
 communicate some circumstances calculated to put him on his 
 guard against the Indians, were abused by the irritable Command 
 ant, and sent to expiate their intrusiveness in prison. 
 
 On the following day, the 29th of November, 1729, the last 
 stick of the fatal bundle was solemnly burnt in the sacred fire of 
 the temple, and the Indians prepared for the attack on the French. 
 The Commandant was, on the same morning, informed of the 
 arrival of a galley at the landing place on the river, bringing the 
 articles required for the commencement of his plantation ; and as 
 the two months, at the end of which he was to be put in posses 
 sion of the tract, had nearly expired, he went over to that place, 
 with the judge and the storekeeper, and passed some hours in 
 consultation with them as to his plans. On returning to his house, 
 which was immediately contiguous to the fort, he went to his 
 chamber to take some repose ; but he was soon aroused by the 
 drums and shouts of the Indians, who came in procession, headed 
 by the Sun of the Apple, to bear the present promised, in consid 
 eration of the time allowed for their removal from their village. 
 The corn, meat and fowls were displayed, the calumet was smoked, 
 and songs and dances were begun in honor of the Commandant, 
 who was so much pleased, that he ordered the interpreter and the 
 other men arrested on the preceding day, to be set at liberty. 
 
 So entire was the security of the French at that period, that 
 the Indians were freely admitted into their houses and even into 
 the fort, at all times ; and no settler refused to lend his gun and 
 ammunition to a savage of his acquaintance, from any feeling of 
 mistrust or apprehension. Accordingly no surprise was created 
 by the dispersion of the Natches through the village and the 
 buildings of the fort, after the ceremony; and their requests for 
 the loan of guns and pistols to hunt a wolf which had lately ap 
 peared in the vicinity, were universally met by compliance. A 
 party of natives thus provided with arms, proceeded to the river 
 where the galley lay, and after lounging about on board and on 
 shore, each took his place by a Frenchman, in expectation of the 
 preconcerted signal. A gun was at length fired on the cliff, and 
 every Frenchman in the galley, except one who leaped into the 
 river, was immediately put to death : from the shore, the signal 
 was transmitted by repetition to the habitations of the French, in 
 51 
 
402 THE FRENCH DESTROYED BY THE NATCHES. [1729. 
 
 each of which, the same tragedy was enacted ; and at the end of 
 half an hour from the first blow, not a dozen white men remained 
 alive at the settlement. Chopard, the wretched cause of the ca 
 lamity, fled on the first sign of hostility to his garden, from which 
 he endeavored to gain the fort; but the garrison had already been 
 butchered, and the Commandant was dragged before the Great 
 Sun, who disdaining to soil his own hands with blood so vile, 
 ordered him to be despatched by one of the meanest of his subjects. 
 
 M. La Loire des Ursins, the owner of a plantation near Fort 
 Rosalie, had been a short time previous informed of the intention 
 of the savages, arid having made some hasty preparations for the 
 defence of his place, he rode to the fort, to give the alarm; but 
 he was met on the way by the War Chief, bearing the head of the 
 Commandant, and he immediately fell, pierced by many balls. 
 At his plantation alone was any resistance made ; eight men and 
 a woman there courageously maintained themselves against the 
 savages, until only two men were left alive, who escaped in the 
 darkness of the night, and succeeded in reaching New Orleans. 
 M. de Kolly and his son, who had come over from Paris to visit 
 their estates, were both sacrificed. Father Poisson, a Jesuit, 
 whose letters* present such interesting descriptions of the Mis 
 sissippi regions, was despatched by the tomahawk of a chief, as 
 he was returning from the administration of the sacrament, to a 
 dying countryman; and M. du Coder, the Commandant of the 
 fort of the Yazoos, then on a visit to Natchez, met his death while 
 endeavoring to defend the priest. The w r omen and children were 
 nearly all spared, as also the negroes, who were probably con 
 cerned in the plot; and a tailor and a carpenter were saved by 
 the special command of the Great Sun, who was anxious to avail 
 himself of their professional skill. Of the others who avoided 
 death at the first onset, only four or five reached the French set 
 tlements; those who were discovered by the Indians, perished 
 after long tortures in the flames before the great temple. 
 
 Immediately after the massacre, the Natches plundered the fort 
 and galley, both of which were then burnt; and supposing that 
 the French had been, in like manner, destroyed at all the other 
 places, they gave themselves up to riot and debauchery. On that 
 
 * Published in the Lettres Edifiantes. 
 
1729.] MASSACRE OF THE FRENCH AT THE YAZOO. 403 
 
 night, however, arrived some Indians from the Yazoo, who gave 
 information, that the notice for the murder of the French had 
 not reached that place, or had been misunderstood ; but it was 
 soon agreed, that the same course should be pursued there, and 
 the Yazoos returned to carry the plan into execution. On their 
 way, they met some French descending the river, whom they 
 charged to deliver their assurances of respect to the Governor at 
 New Orleans ; nevertheless, on the 12th of December, all the 
 settlers on the Yazoo, with the whole garrison of Fort St. Pierre, 
 except four women and five children, were put to death, in the 
 same manner as at Natchez. The first who fell was the Jesuit 
 Father Souel; the number of the other victims was seventeen. 
 The Jesuit Dutrouleau, who stopped at the mouth of the river a 
 few days afterwards, on his way from the Arkansas, was fired on 
 and severely wounded ; but he succeeded in escaping and reached 
 New Orleans. Other boats on their way down from the Illinois, 
 were in like manner attacked as they passed Natchez, and those 
 on board were nearly all killed. 
 
 Such were the circumstances of the celebrated massacre of the 
 French by the natives, on the Mississippi in 1729, in which about 
 two hundred and eighty men* were sacrificed, while nearly an 
 equal number of women and children, fell as captives into the 
 hands of the savages. The number of the slain, was less than 
 that of the English during the similar outbreak of the Indians on 
 James River, in Virginia, rather more than a century previous : 
 the English colony, however, soon recovered from the blow; to 
 the French, their disaster was fatal, and all their subsequent 
 efforts proved insufficient, as will be shewn, to restore their su 
 premacy on the Mississippi. This disaster was occasioned by 
 'tyranny and cupidity on the part of the settlers, combined with 
 
 *Perier in his despatch to the Government of March 18, 1730, makes the 
 number killed about two hundred and fifty; Dumont, who was an officer of the 
 garrison at Natchez, and had left the place only two days before the massacre, 
 places it at seven hundred ; Le Page Du Pratz, who was in Louisiana at the 
 time, says nearly nine hundred, and Bossu, who did not arrive in that country 
 until 1751, raises the amount to two thousand. 
 
 The most extensive massacre of persons of European race, by Indians, in any 
 part of America north of Mexico, took place in Virginia, in 1721, when three 
 hundred and forty-seven of the English settlers, nearly all on the banks of James 
 River, were put to death by the natives. 
 
404 THE INDIANS PROBABLY EXCITED BY THE ENGLISH. [1729. 
 
 their carelessness and contempt of the natives who were thus 
 excited and encouraged to attempt the destruction of the stran 
 gers, so different from themselves in color, feature, customs, and 
 objects, and with whom they had, and could have, nothing in 
 common. That the Indians were stimulated to the act by the 
 English traders, either directly, or through the influence of the 
 Chickasas, is probable : it has always been asserted by the 
 French, and is distinctly affirmed by the best English authority 
 on the subject; and the general conduct of the two nations to 
 wards each other in this respect, fully sustains the belief. 
 
 Even before the massacre took place, rumors had been current 
 in the lower country, of intended hostilities on the part of the 
 Indians, which had created much uneasiness at New Orleans and 
 Mobile ; and on the 1st of December, a large body of Choctas, 
 headed by their chiefs, painted and armed for war, appeared on 
 Lake Pontchartrain, and requested permission to enter the capital 
 in order, as they pretended, to smoke the calumet and hold a talk 
 with the Governor. Perier however refused to admit more than 
 a small number of chiefs; in consequence of which, they all moved 
 off with apparent dissatisfaction. Several Frenchmen were about 
 the same time murdered on the Mobile by unknown hands; and 
 
 * " Some of the old Natches warriors who formerly lived on the Mississippi, 
 two hundred miles west of the Choctas, told me, the French demanded from 
 every one of their warriors a drest buck skin, without any value, that is, they 
 taxed them : but that the warriors' hearts grew very cross, and they loved the 
 deer skins. According to the French accounts of the Mississippi Indians, this 
 seems to have been in 1729. As those Indians were of a peaceable and kindly 
 disposition, numerous and warlike, and always kept a friendly intercourse with 
 the Chickasas, who never had any good will to the French, these soon understood 
 their heart burnings, and by the advice of the old English traders, carried them white 
 pipes and tobacco, in their own name and that of South Carolina, persuading them with 
 earnestness and policy to cut off the French, as they were resolved to enslave them 
 in their own beloved land. The Chickasas succeeded in their embassy: but as 
 the Indians are slow in their councils, on things of great importance, though 
 equally close and intent, it was the following year before they could put their 
 grand scheme into execution. Some of their head men indeed opposed the plan; 
 yet they never discovered it: but when these went a hunting in the woods, the 
 embers burst into a raging flame. They attacked the French, who were flour 
 ishing away in the greatest security, and as was affirmed, they entirely cut off 
 the garrison and neighboring settlements, consisting of fifteen hundred men, 
 women and children ; the misconduct of a few indiscreet persons occasioned so 
 'great a number of innocent lives to be thus cut off." Adair's History of the 
 American Indians, page 353. 
 
1730.] THE FRENCH MARCH AGAINST THE NATCHES. 405 
 
 M. Diron d'Artaguette, who commanded that district, was warned 
 to be on his guard. There is in fact, no reason to doubt, that 
 the Choctas had entered fully into the scheme for the destruction 
 of the French, which the superior strength of the principal places 
 m the lower country, and the military discipline maintained there, 
 had prevented them from attempting to execute. It is also cer 
 tain, that soon after the massacre at Natchez, Chocta deputies 
 came to that place and received a portion of the spoils, with 
 which they went away, apparently much dissatisfied.* 
 
 The first account of the events at Natchez was brought to New 
 Orleans, four days after their occurrence, by Ricard a storekeeper, 
 who had escaped from the galley when the attack commenced ; 
 and other persons soon after arrived, bringing farther news, until 
 the particulars of the destruction of the French at that place, as 
 well as at the mouth of the Yazoo, had been clearly ascertained. 
 Perier on the first alarm, sent an officer to France, to urge the 
 immediate despatch of succors; and he then raised as many men 
 as he could, who were sent up the river under Colonel de Lou- 
 bois in two vessels recently arrived from France. M. le Sueur a 
 daring Canadian, at the same time wept among the Choctas in 
 order to secure their aid if possible, or at least to learn their in 
 tentions ; and he performed his dangerous task so well, that he 
 was soon on the march towards Natchez with six hundred In 
 dians, commanded by the Alibamon Mingo and the Red Shoe, 
 all breathing the most deadly hatred to the foes of the French. 
 
 Loubois slowly ascending the Mississippi with his two vessels, 
 reached the Tunica town nearly opposite the mouth of the Red 
 river, in the latter part of December ; and there he remained 
 throughout the month of January, 1730, endeavoring to obtain 
 the restoration of the captives held by the Natches. The cunning 
 savages on this occasion amused the French, in various ways, 
 until they had, with the aid of the negroes constructed two rude 
 
 * Dumont states, on the authority of his wife, who was one of the prisoners 
 detained by the Natches, that the massacre took place two days earlier than had 
 been proposed, in consequence of the removal of two sticks from the bundle, 
 kept in the temple, by a child of the Sun of the Apple, who amused himself by 
 burning them, as he had seen his father do, in the sacred fire ; and that the 1st 
 of December, on which the Choctas appeared in force near New Orleans, was 
 the day originally appointed. Another account says that the sticks were inten 
 tionally removed by the Stung Arm. 
 
 Ill 
 
406 ATTACK OF THE CHOCTAS ON THE NATCHES. [1730. 
 
 forts ; and then considering themselves strong enough, they threw 
 off the mask, and put to death some officers and men whom Lou- 
 bois had sent to bear them proposals. The French, however, 
 still remained inactive ; and the Natches becoming careless in 
 consequence, returned to their debauchery, in which they were 
 indulging on the 27th of January, when the Choctas under their 
 chiefs and Le Sueur, reached the vicinity of their position. Led 
 on by the hope of plunder, the Choctas immediately fell upon 
 their enemies, of whom they killed a hundred, including the War 
 Chief, and took several prisoners, besides rescuing fifty-four 
 French women and children and nearly a hundred negroes. They 
 might have indeed destroyed the whole of the Natches, who were 
 entirely unprepared, but for the exertions of a number of negroes 
 who had joined the latter, and by their resistance, afforded time 
 for the Indians to retire with their other prisoners into the forts.* 
 The news of this success of the Choctas aroused Loubois from 
 his inactivity ; and having been reinforced by a large party from 
 New Orleans, under young D'Artaguette the nephew of the 
 Commandant of Mobile, he marched to Natchez, where he arrived 
 on the 12th of February, with about six hundred men. After a 
 week spent in approaches, the forts of the Indians were attacked 
 on the 20th, but without success. These miserable fortifications 
 of wood and earth unprovided with artillery, were then cannonaded 
 for several days with no effect; for the French being panic struck, 
 it was impossible to bring them to the assault when a breach had 
 been made, and the Natches made frequent sorties at night, in 
 which they destroyed the works of the besiegers. The Choctas 
 having by this time consumed nearly all their provisions, declared 
 their determination to return home; and notwithstanding all the 
 efforts of Le Sueur, and the promises made to them by Loubois, 
 they would have done so, had not the Natches proposed a parley. 
 Negotiations were again carried on, through the agency of one of 
 the captive French women; and it was finally agreed, that the be^ 
 sieged should be allowed to quit the place without molestation, on 
 
 * Minute accounts of the expeditions of the French against the Natches are 
 presented in the despatches of Perier and the Commissioner Baron to the Gov 
 ernment, which are copied at Ipngth by Gayarre in his " Histoire de la Louis- 
 iane," chapter 11. The statements are however not always clear or consistent, 
 especially on the points most disgraceful to the French. 
 
1730.] THE HATCHES ESCAPE FROM THEIR FORTS. 407 
 
 condition of their surrendering the prisoners. Accordingly on the 
 27th of the month, the women and children with nearly all the ne 
 groes were liberated ; and on the following night, the Natches aban 
 doned their forts, carry ing off the remainder of the negroes, without 
 any attempt being made to arrest their passage, although Loubois 
 declared his intention to do so. Perier in his despatch to the 
 Government represents this transaction, as the result of the mag 
 nanimity of the French Commandant, in return for the liberation 
 of the prisoners; but there is abundant evidence, that Loubois 
 had lost all confidence in his men, among whom only a few ne 
 groes and the Germans under Arensberg from the Cote Allemande, 
 appear to have displayed any courage in the affair. The Choc- 
 tas claimed the whole credit of the result, to which indeed they 
 were justly entitled; and they treated their allies most cavalierly 
 in consequence. They demanded the lion's share of the property 
 recovered from the Natches, and farther presents of goods in re 
 turn for the captives rescued, to secure the delivery of which, 
 they did not scruple to exact hostages. They also insisted on 
 carrying off several negroes, who professed a desire to remain 
 with them ; and they were allowed to put to death, with all the 
 refinements of savage torture, some others w r ho had taken part 
 with the Natches.* 
 
 Loubois destroyed, the Indian forts, and rebuilt Fort Rosalie 
 on a better plan, and having placed a garrison there, he returned 
 to New Orleans. The women, who during their captivity had 
 suffered every evil and indignity, and had seen their infants torn 
 from their breasts and offered up as sacrifices, were treated with 
 the utmost kindness, especially by the Ursuline nuns then re 
 cently established in the capital. The surviving owners of the 
 estates at Natchez, and the heirs of those who had been killed, were 
 allowed to choose lands near Point Coupee, where some planta 
 tions were formed by them ; but none were found disposed to renew 
 the settlements at the place where the great catastrophe had oc- 
 
 * Dumont relates a romantic story of a negro at New Orleans, who cut off his 
 own right hand, in order to free himself from the revolting duties of a public 
 executioner, to which he was appointed or rather condemned, by the Governor 
 of Louisiana. The account has not been contradicted; but the same thing is 
 said to have taken place in Spain, during the middle ages, and was made the 
 subject of a tragedy by one of the poets of that country, more than a century 
 before the foundation of New Orleans. 
 
408 INSURRECTION OF NEGROES AT NEW ORLEANS. [1730. 
 
 curre^, which continued to be little more than a military post, so 
 long as Louisiana was occupied by the French. 
 
 The Natches were yet by no means conquered. A large num 
 ber, probably amounting to five hundred men, with their women 
 and children, had established themselves in the marshy region of 
 the Washita, west of the Mississippi, nearly opposite to their old 
 place of abode, from which they occasionally threatened the 
 French at Natchez and Natchitoches : the others had retired 
 towards the Chickasa country, and thence they often caine in 
 small parties to the vicinity of Fort Rosalie, in order to surprise 
 and murder the stragglers from that post. One of these parties, 
 in the summer of 1730, had nearly gained possession of the fort, 
 to which they obtained admittance, as a deputation of Choctas : 
 another party, in like manner succeeded in killing the great chief 
 of the Tunicas, who were attached to the French, and several of 
 his followers, before they were discovered. Of the Natches made 
 prisoners by the French, or their Indian allies, in the course of 
 the same year, Perier caused some to be publicly burnt, on the 
 levee in front of New Orleans; the others w r ere sent to St. Do 
 mingo to be there sold as slaves. 
 
 The French in Louisiana were exposed to another peril in the 
 summer of 1730. The Governor had since the expedition to 
 Natchez, placed much more confidence in the courage of the ne 
 groes, than in that of his own countrymen ; and he employed a 
 band of Africans to extirpate the small nation of the Ouachas or 
 .Washas, dwelling on the borders of a lake about thirty miles west 
 of New Orleans, who had excited some alarm during the prece 
 ding winter. The expedition was successful, but the negroes 
 on their return, became so much elated with their own prowess, 
 that they considered it a task no less easy, to destroy their own 
 masters; and a conspiracy was accordingly soon arranged among 
 them, for the murder of all the white people at New Orleans and 
 in the neighboring plantations, on a day appointed. The insolent 
 answer of a black woman to her master, led to the discovery of 
 the plot in time to prevent its execution ; and the Governor was 
 enabled to offer to the good citizens of the capital, the spectacle 
 of the operations of the wheel, and other civilized instruments of 
 torture and death, previously unknown there, to which the ring 
 leaders were subjected. 
 
1731.] EXPULSION OF THE NATCHKS FROM THE WASHITA. 409 
 
 At this time, a small body of troops from France reached New 
 Orleans under the command of M. Perier de Salverte, the brother 
 of the Governor; and it was determined that an expedition should 
 be made against the Natches in the Washita country, for which 
 purpose, about a thousand men were assembled at the mouth of 
 the Red river. Thence they proceeded in boats up the Black 
 River or lower Washita, in search of the enemy, who were, after 
 some time, found posted in forts on a marshy spot called Bayou 
 d'Argent * The forts of the Indians were invested by the French 
 in January, 1731, and some cannons with a mortar made of wood, 
 were brought to bear upon them. The Natches, as before, de 
 fended themselves bravely; their provisions however being soon 
 exhausted, they proposed to capitulate, and in proof of their sin 
 cerity, they delivered up to the French all the negroes, nineteen 
 in number, remaining in their possession. Perier upon this, 
 agreed to receive the Great Sun, his brother St. Come the Little 
 Sun, and two other chiefs, at his quarters, in order to discuss the 
 terms; but no sooner had the Indians entered the place, than they 
 were seized and placed in confinement. One of the chiefs escaped 
 in the following night, and reaching the forts, he assured his 
 brethren, that the French intended to burn all who should fall 
 into their hands; and it was in consequence resolved that the 
 warriors should make a desperate effort to break through the lines 
 of the besiegers, leaving the others to their fate. This was done 
 without difficulty, and three hundred men thus effected their eva 
 sion, under cover of a thick mist; so that the French on closing up 
 their lines on the following morning, found only fifty men, with 
 about four hundred women and children, with whom they return 
 ed in triumph to New Orleans. 
 
 Of the Natches made prisoners by the French, some were burnt 
 at New Orleans, and some were retained there as captives or 
 slaves until their death. The Great Sun, his brother St. Come, 
 
 * M. Robin, a Frenchman who travelled through Louisiana in 1803, conceives 
 that he discovered this spot, on the plantation of a M. Ebrard, near the junction 
 of the Black River with a small stream, leading to the Catahoola lake. The 
 mounds and fortifications observed by Robin, were however probably of much 
 more ancient date; like those found in other parts of Louisiana and on the Ohio, 
 of which such interesting descriptions are presented in the work of Messrs. 
 Squier and Davis, published in 1848, by the Smithsonian Institute in Washing 
 ton City. 
 
 52 
 
410 THE CHIEFS SENT AS SLAVES TO ST. DOMINGO. [1731 
 
 and the other principal persons, with their families, were sent to 
 St. Domingo, where many of them soon fell victims to the dis 
 eases of that island. The survivors were supported until the 
 following year at the expense of the India Company, after which, 
 they were all sold as slaves, by order of the Directors of that 
 body.* Of their subsequent history nothing has been discovered ; 
 they probably soon sunk under the labors of the plantations. 
 
 In the course of the following summer several minor expedi 
 tions were made from New Orleans against the Natches, who 
 from time to time, appeared in force at different points. A party 
 of them took a position within six miles of Natchitoches, where 
 they built a fort on the banks of a small lake, and endeavored to 
 prevail on the French, by threats and by promises, to quit that 
 country. The stout Commandant St. Denis, was however no*t 
 to be affected by such means, and he soon assembled a small 
 force of French, Indians, and even of Spaniards from the neigh 
 boring fortress of Adayes, with whom he attacked the Natches in 
 their stronghold, and killed more than sixty ; the others amount 
 ing to as many more, fled, impressed probably with greater respect 
 for the courage and activity of the white men, than preceding 
 occurrences were calculated to create. 
 
 * " Perier, the commanding officer of the colony, had them all carried away 
 to Cape Franais, where the most important member of the dynasty died a few 
 months after his arrival. The other Suns were maintained by the Company, for 
 the moderate sum of one thousand eight hundred arid eighty-eight livres seven 
 sous; arid when application was made to M. de Maurepas to defray this expense, 
 the Minister wrote to the Directors of the Company under date of April 22, 1731, 
 ' I know no other course to be pursued, than to order the survivors of these two 
 Indian families to be sold or sent back to Louisiana.' What was done in conse 
 quence, may be seen by the following resolution, extracted from the Registers 
 of the India Company, deposited in the archives of the Court of Accounts 'It 
 was resolved to order the sale of the survivors of the said two families of Natches 
 Indians.' At the time when this order was given, the India Company was 
 claiming the glory of civilizing the very people, whose chiefs were thus sold as 
 slaves." Histoire de la Louisiane, by Barbe Marbois. 
 
 Bienville, on his way from Louisiana in 1733, stopped at Cape Francais, from 
 which he wrote thus to the Minister at Paris, on the 23rd of January: 
 
 "At this place, I saw the Chiefs of the Natches, who are here as slaves, and 
 among them the one named St. Come, who had been induced to believe, that 
 they would be allowed to return with me, to their country. They assured me, 
 that their nation alone was engaged in the revolt, that they had been forced to it 
 by the hard usage to which they were subjected, and that they had resolved upon 
 it, without consulting any of the other nations.' 1 Gayarre, vol. 1, page 292. 
 
1731.] THE NATCHES CEASE TO EXIST AS A NATION. 411 
 
 After this period, the Natches never constituted a distinct na 
 tion. Bands of them, for some time, roved over the country west 
 of the Mississippi, occasionally attacking the Tunicas and other 
 Indians in alliance with the French ; the greater part however 
 became incorporated with the Chickasas, and the Muscoghees, 
 in each of which confederacies, they still form separate tribes, 
 retaining their own language and many of their customs, in the 
 manner usually practised among the aboriginal nations of 
 America. The determination displayed by this people in their 
 resistance to the French has created for them an interest which 
 seems to have been, strangely enough, increased by the peculiar 
 ferocity of their character and the loathsomeness of their customs; 
 and historians have dwelt upon their destruction with expressions 
 of regret, and novelists have endeavored to excite feelings of 
 sympathy in their behalf,* which when viewed through the cold 
 medium of reason, are utterly at variance with justice or good 
 taste. The patches in fact, with all the superiority of intelligence 
 and refinement over surrounding nations, which may be admitted 
 as pertaining to them, were barbarians, in the most objectionable 
 sense of the term, whose only virtue was their courage, and whose 
 extinction cannot in any way be regarded as a wrong to the cause 
 of humanity. 
 
 This war, of course, proved very costly to the India Company, 
 as the troops, with all the arms/ammunition, and even provisions, 
 were sent from France, and a large proportion of those supplies, 
 was wasted or embezzled on the way ; and that body having, 
 according to the Report of its Directors, expended more than 
 twenty millions of livres on Louisiana, without receiving, or 
 having reason to expect any adequate return, then resolved to 
 entreat the King to revoke his grant, and to resume the entire 
 possession of the country. A petition to that effect was ac 
 cordingly addressed to the Crown on the 22d of January, 1731 ; 
 and, on the following day, His Majesty was pleased to accede to 
 it, on the condition that the Company should pay fourteen hun 
 dred and fifty thousand livres, in the course of the ten ensuing 
 years, as compensation for the benefits which the colony would 
 
 * Every one has read Chateaubriand's famous Tale of Atala and Chactas; 
 though very few are probably acquainted with the long, dull mass of false senti 
 mentality, called "The Natches," of which this tale is an episode. 
 
412 LOUISIANA RETROCEDED TO FRANCE. [1731. 
 
 lose from the withdrawal of the supplies of merchandise and 
 negroes, hitherto furnished by the association. The proposed 
 condition was accepted, and the retrocession was soon after 
 formally effected at New Orleans ; the Crown receiving all the 
 property of the Company in the Province, estimated at two 
 hundred and sixty thousand livres, in part payment of the debt 
 due to it.* A general settlement of accounts was then made, in 
 a summary manner, by commissioners who, being unable, in 
 most cases, to recover any thing from the debtors to the Com 
 pany, gave to its creditors merely acknowledgments of their 
 claims, accompanied by prohibitions to prosecute that body for 
 the discharge of them in Europe ; while the bills issued by the 
 
 * The following translations of the letter from the Comptroller General of 
 France, to the Directors of the India Company, and of their resolution upon its 
 contents, show the terms upon which Louisiana was retroceded to the Crown : 
 
 " MARLY, January 23. 
 
 Gentlemen : I have communicated to His Majesty, the report 06 the delibera 
 tions, by which you were yesterday authorised, for and in the name of the India 
 Company, to pray His Majesty most humbly, for the reasons therein set forth, 
 to revoke the concession of the colony of Louisiana, reserving to the India 
 Company, only the privilege of the exclusive commerce of that colony, upon its 
 engagement to supply to the inhabitants of Louisiana, at the usual prices and 
 terms, five hundred negroes annually, with all that may be required for their 
 indispensable wants, or what would be still more advantageous for the interests 
 of the Company to accept the retrocession of this privilege of commerce, 
 which the Company conceives may be extremely burdensome to it, on the con 
 dition of its making a compensation to His Majesty for such engagement, to the 
 extent which His Majesty, and his Council, may determine : And His Majesty 
 orders me to inform you of His intentions thereupon, to the effect that being 
 anxious to treat the India Company with favor, His Majesty has reduced the 
 sum of three millions six hundred thousand livres, which the Secretary of State, 
 for the Marine, considered as a proper equivalent for the renunciation of those 
 commercial engagements, to fourteen hundred and fifty thousand livres, payable 
 within the ensuing ten years, namely two hundred thousand in each of the 
 first three years, one hundred and sixty thousand in each of the three years 
 next following, and one hundred thousand in each of the four last years. On 
 the receipt of these presents, you will assemble, to take into consideration the 
 intentions of His Majesty, as herein expressed. ORRY." 
 
 The acceptance by the India Company is thus expressed in its Registers : 
 
 "On this 24th of January, 1731, in the Assembly of the Syndics and Directors 
 of the India Company the letter of Monseigneur, the Comptroller General of 
 the Finances, having been read, it was determined to authorize the Syndics and 
 Directors of the India Company to submit, for and in the name of the said Com 
 pany, to pay the said sum of fourteen hundred and fifty thousand livres, according 
 to the terms prescribed by His Majesty, to the person whom, and in the manner 
 in which, His Majesty may order, lor receiving them." 
 
1728.] PROSPECTS OF THE FRENCH IN LOUISIANA. 413 
 
 officers and agents of the Company, which constituted a large 
 portion of the currency, were arbitrarily driven from circulation, 
 to the loss, by their holders, of almost their entire value. Perier 
 was continued in the government until the beginning of 1733, 
 when he was superseded by Bienville, who was again placed at 
 the head of the colony. 
 
 Thus ended the control of the India Company in Louisiana, 
 after thirteen years of labors and vast expenditures, the whole 
 result of which, had been the establishment of about six thou 
 sand Europeans and Canadians, and two thousand negroes, on 
 the banks of the Mississippi. A foundation had, nevertheless, 
 been thus laid, for the effective occupation of those regions by the 
 French ; and with moderate assistance from the parent State, 
 and moderate prudence and industry among its inhabitants, 
 Louisiana might, in time, have rivalled in prosperity, the older 
 provinces of the English on the Atlantic coasts, which it so far 
 surpassed in fertility, and in every other advantage, except the 
 important one of vicinity to the sea. The French colony w r as, 
 however, unfortunately under the dominion of a despotic govern 
 ment, subjected to regulations arbitrarily devised in a distant 
 court, and directed by persons appointed, and sent out from that 
 court, without any regard for the happiness or welfare of its 
 people: whilst the English provinces were, in reality, each an 
 almost independent State, looking to the mother country only for 
 protection and succor, and left, with little interference on the 
 part of the central power, to manage its own affairs, in the way 
 most conducive to its own welfare. Every encouragement to 
 exertion, was thus offered to each and all of the English colonies, 
 and to each individual within their limits ; whilst Louisiana and 
 Canada were, and continued to be, only plantations of the Crown, 
 and their people were nearly in the condition of serfs, inferior, 
 as regarded all rights and privileges, to their fellow subjects in 
 Europe. 
 
 That there was no incapacity on the part of the French, at that 
 time, to render Louisiana a flourishing country, sufficient proof 
 is afforded by the condition of their colony in St. Domingo, 
 which, under a liberal system, was rapidly rising to the high 
 state of prosperity, afterwards attained by it, through the culti 
 vation of sugar, coffee and indigo^, and the contraband trade 
 
414 WAR BETWEEN ENGLAND AND SPAIN. [1731. 
 
 with the Spanish possessions. For this trade, great facilities 
 were also offered by the French ports on the Mexican Gulf; and 
 the climate and soil of the adjoining regions, were adapted for the 
 growth of many valuable articles, such as indigo, sugar, tobacco, 
 and rice, while abundant supplies of provisions, of all kinds, 
 might be obtained from the countries farther north. The same 
 liberality was indeed extended to Louisiana in 1732, when all 
 the monopolies previously held by the Company, were abolished, 
 and the commerce between the colony and France, was freed 
 from all duties on exports or imports, in either country, many 
 valuable privileges being moreover accorded to the vessels en 
 gaged in it. These benefits were, however, as will be shown, 
 all neutralized by untoward circumstances, arising in part from 
 the selfishness and ambition of those entrusted with the immediate 
 direction of the colony, which effectually arrested its advance 
 ment, and prevented it from ever becoming, other than an ex 
 pensive and burdensome appendage to the mother country. 
 
 War had in the meantime again broken out, between England 
 and Spain, in consequence of the insane desire of Philip V. to 
 regain the possession of Gibraltar, which impelled him to direct 
 a large armament against that fortress, in the beginning of 1727. 
 The English were however prepared, and the siege, though long 
 continued, proved unavailing. By this time, relations of the most 
 intimate nature, had been restored, between France and Spain, 
 by the conciliatory efforts of the French minister, Cardinal Fleu- 
 ry, through whose mediation the hostilities were arrested : there 
 is even reason to believe that King George I. had resolved to de 
 liver up Gibraltar to Spain ; but this project, if entertained, was 
 defeated by the death of that monarch in June, 1727, and it could 
 find no favor with his successor George II. In order to settle 
 the affairs of Europe, on a firm basis, a Congress of representa 
 tives of the great powers was then assembled at Soissons, which 
 like that of Cambray, ended only by increasing the general dis 
 satisfaction. Fleury and the English minister Walpole who was no 
 less peacefully inclined, nevertheless persevered ; and a treaty of 
 alliance, similar to that of Madrid, was at length concluded at 
 Seville, in November, 1729, between England, France and Spain. 
 According to this treaty, all things were to be restored to the 
 same state as in 1725, and commissaries were to be appointed 
 
1731.] PROSPERITY OF THE ENGLISH COLONIES. 415 
 
 by the English and Spanish Governments, to examine and de 
 cide upon all their claims and differences, as to commerce and 
 navigation, " as well in the Indies as in Europe, and upon all 
 other pretensions of the two powers, in America, founded on 
 treaties, whether with respect to limits or otherwise." This last 
 provision, so extensive in its bearings, underwent the fate to which 
 those of a similar character have been almost universally subject 
 ed: the commissaries were, after long delays, appointed, and they 
 met at Madrid in February, 1732, and presented memorials of the 
 claims of their respective nations, which were reciprocally declar 
 ed inadmissable ; they were then after much wrangling recalled, 
 and the controversy was resumed between their governments, 
 with additional violence on both sides. The Spaniards rendered 
 their prohibitory regulations as to trade and navigation more 
 stringent, and increased the numbers of their guarda-costas; 
 while the English took other measures, more decisively injurious 
 as will be seen, to the supremacy of their rivals in the New World. 
 The English provinces in America were then in the full enjoy 
 ment of peace and prosperity, though each of them was engaged 
 in disputes with the government of the mother country, on account 
 of some real or fancied grievance. In Carolina, the opposition of 
 the people, to the proprietors was so constant and violent, that the 
 latter were at length in 1729, glad to dispose of their rights to 
 the Crown; one of them, Lord Carteret receiving, in place of 
 the money paid to the others, a tract nearly sixty miles in 
 breadth from the southern boundary of Virginia, which was de 
 clared to extend across the Continent, from the Atlantic Ocean 
 to the Pacific. North Carolina then contained six thousand 
 white inhabitants, and half that number of negroes somewhat 
 exceeding Louisiana in both those classes of population. South 
 Carolina with the same number of inhabitants of European race, 
 had at least ten thousand African slaves. The condition of the 
 latter province was highly satisfactory : the negroes indeed some 
 times gave cause for uneasiness, and the Cherokees steadily re 
 sisted the advance of the English towards the upper countries, 
 which were in the end settled by emigrants from Virginia, and 
 the more northern colonies ; and the yellow fever, which first ap 
 peared in America in 1729 among the Spanish guarda-costas at 
 Carthagena, soon after broke out at Charleston, and carried off a 
 
416 STEADY ADVANCE OF THE ENGLISH FRONTIERS. [1731. 
 
 large number of persons. But for all these evils, abundant com 
 pensation was afforded by the advantages of soil and climate, 
 attracting emigrants thither from many parts of Europe, especially 
 after the introduction of the culture of rice, which then began to 
 form the staple production of the country. 
 
 There were few, if any white inhabitants, in either of the pro 
 vinces of Carolina west of the falls of the rivers. In Virginia, 
 settlements were formed in the easternmost vallies between the 
 lines of mountains, which compose the Apalachian or Allegany 
 chain ; and the traders and hunters of that colony had penetrated 
 to the Ohio, and even to the vicinity of the French posts on the 
 Wabash and the Illinois. Farther north, the governments and 
 the people of Pennsylvania, New York, Connecticut, Massachu 
 setts and New Hampshire, were steadily engaged in conciliating 
 or subduing the Indians on their western frontiers, in which the 
 French of Canada were using every effort to counteract them. 
 The English interest however prevailed among the Iroquois ; and 
 in 1726 a treaty was concluded at Albany between the chiefs of 
 the Senekas, Cayugas and Onondagas, on the one part, ami com 
 missioners from the Government of New York, on the other, by 
 which the Indians ceded to the King of England, a tract of coun 
 try sixty miles in breadth, extending from Oswego westward 
 along Lake Ontario, the Niagara and Lake Erie, to Cuyahoga 
 creek, emptying into the latter lake where the City of Cleveland 
 in Ohio now stands "to be protected by his said majesty, his 
 heirs and successors for ever, to and for the use of us [the In 
 dians,] our heirs, and successors and the said three nations." 
 This treaty, it will be afterwards seen, was regarded by the Eng 
 lish as an absolute cession, in virtue of which, lands in those 
 territories were freely granted to their subjects; and the alleged 
 violation by the French, of the rights thus supposed to have been 
 acquired, was one of the principal causes of the war between the 
 two nations begun in 1754. By similar agreements with the In 
 dians, as well as by the steady advance of their settlements, the 
 people of New England were extending their occupation effectively 
 eastward, in which direction they had advanced nearly to the River 
 of St. John; though the French still claimed the Kennebec as 
 their western boundary on the Atlantic coast, as well as the whole 
 territory bordering upon the Gulf and River of St. Lawrence. 
 
1731.] CONDITION OF FLORIDA AND TEXAS. 417 
 
 The Marquis de Beauharnais, Governor General of Canada, 
 was meanwhile no less actively engaged in strengthening the 
 whole line of fortifications on the frontiers of his province, from 
 Fort Ouayatenons, on the Wabash, afterwards called Vincennes, 
 to the peninsula of Acadie; and in 1730 he established a new 
 fortified post on Crown Point, at the head of Lake Champlain, 
 which proved no less annoying to the English, than their Fort 
 Oswego was to the French. The Marquis, likewise endeavored 
 to extend the discovery of the Continent westward if possible to 
 the Pacific, for which purpose, special privileges were granted 
 to M. Verendrye a trader; he however effected nothing of conse 
 quence, so far as is known, the royal government refusing all the 
 petitions addressed to it by Beauharnais and his successors, for 
 the appropriation of money to such enterprises. 
 
 The Spanish provinces adjoining Louisiana remained, during 
 this period, nearly stationary in population and in all other respects. 
 In Florida, the only settlements were those of St. Augustine, St. 
 Mark and Pensacola, with a few intermediate posts, which were 
 supported entirely by the expenditures of the government on 
 fortifications, and in the payment of civil and military officers, and 
 garrisons, with their dependants. Yet, the Governors of that 
 country claimed jurisdiction, at least as far northward as the Sa 
 vannah, and were constantly endeavoring, by intrigues with the 
 Indians and negroes, to harrass or destroy the " intrusive" Eng 
 lish posts, within those limits, especially the fort at the junction 
 of the Oconee and the Ocmulgee, which was a perpetual source 
 of annoyance and irritation to the Spaniards. 
 
 In Texas, the same want of method and energy prevailed. 
 The forts and missions were maintained, but very inadequately ; 
 the garrisons having seldom more than half of their complement 
 of men, and the missionaries being unable, from their extreme 
 poverty, to acquire any influence over the natives. The Mar 
 quis de Aguayo, had indeed, after long solicitation, obtained 
 orders from Madrid, for the establishment of two hundred fami- 
 les from the Canary Islands, and as many from Tlascala, at the 
 points selected by him for towns ; a long period, however, 
 elapsed, before any thing was dope, and when seventeen families 
 from each place had been transported to San Antonio, the orders 
 were considered as fulfilled. This immigration took place in 1729 ; 
 53 
 
418 SPANIARDS IN TEXAS ANNOYED BY INDIANS. [1731; 
 
 the people were all established near the fortress of Bexar, and their 
 settlement received the name of San Fernando, in honor of the 
 Prince of the Asturias, afterwards King Ferdinand VI., though it 
 was more commonly known by its present appellation of San 
 Antonio. The principal missions were those of Nuestra Senora 
 de Concepcion de Acufia, San Juan Capistrano, and San Fran 
 cisco de la Espada, all on the San Antonio river, within a short 
 distance from Bexar; they w r ere established by the Marquis de 
 Casafuerte, Viceroy of Mexico, in 1731, though the vast and 
 noble edifices belonging to them, which now excite universal 
 admiration, w r ere not commenced until a much later period. 
 
 The Spaniards had not been long established in Texas, ere 
 they attracted the notice of the Apaches and Camanches, those 
 Arabs of the desert of New Mexico, the irreconcilable foes of 
 all who owned horses and cattle. In 1724, a- party of Apaches 
 surprised the fort of Loreto, erected by Aguayo on the site 
 of La Salle's Fort St. Louis, and plundered it, after killing, the 
 Commandant Diego Ramon, and many of his soldiers; and in 
 1730, San Antonio was beset by a host of savages, who carried 
 off nearly all the cattle. In the following year, an expedition 
 was made by Don Pedro de Ribera, the Governor, with a hundred 
 and fifty men, for the purpose of checking the audacity of these 
 Indians, who were defeated, according to the report of that officer, 
 with great loss ; but no effect was produced, and the colony was 
 ever after exposed to similar inroads, which checked its advance 
 ment as effectually, as that of Louisiana was arrested, by the 
 enmity of the Natches and the Chickasas. 
 
CHAPTER XIII 
 
 1 732 TO 1 749. 
 
 BlENVILLE AGAIN GOVERNOR OF LOUISIANA FOUNDATION OF 
 
 THE ENGLISH COLONY OF GEORGIA UNFORTUNATE EXPE 
 DITION OF THE FRENCH AGAINST THE CHICKASAS WAR 
 BETWEEN GREAT BRITAIN AND SPAIN UNSUCCESSFUL EX 
 PEDITION OF THE ENGLISH AGAINST FLORIDA, AND OF THE 
 SPANIARDS AGAINST GEORGIA THE LINES OF SEPARATION 
 BETWEEN LOUISIANA AND THE ADJOINING SPANISH PRO 
 VINCES RECOGNIZED BY BOTH NATIONS BlENVILLE SUPER 
 SEDED BY VAUDREUIL GENERAL WAR. IN EUROPE RE 
 NEWAL OF DISPUTES BETWEEN THE FRENCH AND THE 
 
 INDIANS DEATH OF THE RED SHOE PEACE OF Aix LA 
 CHAPELLE. 
 
 WHATSOEVER may have been the views of the French Govern 
 ment in resuming the possession of Louisiana, its first measures 
 appeared to be generally favorable to the advancement of the 
 colony. The commercial restrictions of the India Company, as 
 well as those of the government, were nearly all removed; and 
 the opening of the trade with the West Indies afforded a market 
 for the timber and turpentine of the province, in which a few 
 vessels were soon employed. Many useless and expensive -offices 
 were abolished; and the colonial council was reorganized on a 
 plan calculated to render it more useful and efficient, by enforcing 
 the accountability of the officers of the government, and in some 
 measure to supply the want of a legislative assembly, as six of 
 its thirteen members were chosen from among the inhabitants of 
 the country. Perier was, as already said, retained in the com 
 mand until the spring of 1733, when Bienville again took his 
 place as Governor General. 
 
420 CONDITION OF LOUISIANA. [1733. 
 
 Bienville was then fifty-four years old. He had passed nearly 
 the half of his life in Louisiana, in situations which enabled him 
 to obtain a more minute knowledge of the country and its affairs, 
 than any one else could have possessed ; his views for its ad 
 vancement, were in general reasonable, and he hoped to carry 
 some of them into execution, as he, for the first time perhaps, 
 enjoyed the entire confidence of the government. He had how 
 ever a most difficult task to perform. His reports as to the state 
 of the colony on his arrival, present indeed a discouraging, if not 
 disgusting picture of vice and misery. New Orleans, the object 
 of his fondest anticipations, was a filthy receptacle of starving 
 vagabonds, black and white. The Chickasas and Natches had 
 complete possession of the Mississippi, from the Ohio to the 
 Yazoo, and extended their depredations southward to Point 
 Coupee, which had been ravaged by them in the preceding year. 
 The plantations were annually desolated by hurricanes or inun 
 dations, and many of them had been abandoned, from these 
 causes, or from the uncertainty of the tenure of the lands, and 
 disputes respecting limits, which were undetermined either by 
 general regulations or by express provisions in any case ; while 
 the habitans or small proprietors, were reduced to wild fruits, roots 
 and seeds, for support. The currency consisted only of depre 
 ciated paper ; trade was embarrassed and almost extinguished ; 
 and the population, under the pressure of these various evils, 
 was daily diminishing in numbers, from death and emigration. 
 
 Almost every colony has been subjected to similar trials in its 
 infancy ; and there was reason to hope, that tranquillity and the 
 establishment of a better system of administration, in the country, 
 would inspire confidence, and thus produce a disposition among 
 the people, to avail themselves of the advantages offered in such 
 abundance, by nature. To these ends, Bienville's first efforts 
 were directed ; but they proved fruitless. He could only substi 
 tute, for the paper found in use as money, other paper, equally 
 without security, as to the maintenance of its declared value. The 
 large landed proprietors residing in France, had interest at court, 
 sufficient to prevent investigations of their titles ; and the minis 
 ters refused all the solicitations of the governor, for the estab 
 lishment of a college at New Orleans, and schools in other 
 places, on the ground of their expensiveness. Unfortunately 
 
1733.] INCREASE OF THE ENGLISH COLONIES. 421 
 
 moreover, an old feud existed between the Governor and M. 
 Diron d'Artaguette the Royal Commissary and Commandant of 
 Mobile, which was increased by several circumstances, after the 
 return of Bienville to Louisiana. 
 
 In -order to relieve the country from the visitations of the 
 Chickasas, and at the same time to inspire the other Indian nations 
 with more respect for the French, Bienville exerted himself in 
 the first place, to regain his former influence over the Choctas, 
 in which he however found greater difficulty, than he had antici 
 pated, in consequence of the increase of English traders among 
 that people. The Choctas were only to be won, by trade and 
 presents ; the English made few presents, but they traded on 
 more liberal terms, than the French could offer, as the latter had 
 no market for deer skins, the only articles presented by the In 
 dians, in exchange for European goods. Bienville distributed 
 presents as freely as he could, and he raised the price to be paid 
 for Chickasa scalps ; but he was unable to overthrow the moral 
 effect of the increasing numbers of the English, and the wealth 
 and power exhibited by them, when compared with what was 
 seen among the French. 
 
 The influence of the English in those countries was moreover, 
 about the same period, considerably extended and strengthened 
 by the establishment of a new province, under a charter from the 
 crown, in the territory south of the Savannah. Several proposi 
 tions had been addressed to the British government, as already 
 said, for the occupation of this territory, which was included in the 
 second charter of Carolina, granted in 1665 ; but they had been 
 unfavorably received, principally from the unwillingness of the 
 Ministry, to increase the grounds of dispute with Spain. In 
 1732 however, when all expectation of terminating the discus 
 sions with that power, had proved vain, a charter was given by 
 King George II.,* to a number of persons as trustees, for the 
 
 *Thc charter, dated June 9, 1732, describes the new province as " seven un 
 divided parts, (the whole into eight equal parts to be divided,) of all those lands, 
 countries and territories, situate, lying and being in that part of South Carolina, 
 in America, which lies from the most northern stream of the river, there com 
 monly called Savannah, all along the sea coast to the southward, unto the most 
 southern stream of a certain other great water, or river, called Alatamaha, and 
 westward from the heads of the said rivers respectively, in direct lines to the 
 South seas. 1 ' 
 
422 FOUNDATION OF THE COLONY OF GEORGIA. [1733. 
 
 foundation and maintenance of a colony, to be called Georgia, 
 which was to embrace within its limits, seven-eighths of the 
 \vhole division of America, extending from the Atlantic west 
 ward between the Savannah and the Alatamaha, and between 
 parallels of latitude drawn from the sources of those rivers, to 
 the Pacific. The trustees were to have the entire direction of 
 the colony, under certain restrictions, for twenty-one years, at the 
 end of which it was to revert to the crown ; their services were 
 to be gratuitous, and all rents and other profits derived from the 
 country, while under their superintendence, were to be employed 
 for its advantage. This scheme was devised by James Oglethorpe, 
 a gallant and enthusiastic gentleman, who had served with dis 
 tinction in the army and in parliament ; his object being to pro 
 vide an asylum for the poor and distressed, not only of the British 
 dominions, but of all other Protestant countries, as well as to 
 form a rampart in the south, against the progress of the French 
 and the Spaniards, to both of which nations he bore all the hatred 
 of a true born Englishman. Agreeably to the'system adopted by 
 the trustees at his suggestion, not more than five hundred acres 
 of ground could be granted to any one individual ; and the lands 
 so conceded, were to be entailed on the eldest male descendants 
 of the grantee, in default of whom, they were to revert to the 
 colony; slavery and the use of spirituous liquors were entirely 
 prohibited; the Indians were to be protected against the tyranny 
 or cunning of the white people ; religion and morality were to 
 be encouraged and enforced by laws, and many other regulations 
 were made, equally unexceptionable in the abstract, and equally 
 unsuitable, as was soon demonstrated, to the circumstances under 
 which they were to be applied. 
 
 The cautious Walpole was opposed to the establishment of this 
 colony, which could not fail to prove an obstacle to the mainten 
 ance of his policy of peace. Oglethorpe however prevailed ; he 
 obtained large amounts of money from individuals, in aid of the 
 enterprise, and having been appointed Governor of Georgia, by the 
 trustees, he sailed with a number of settlers for the new province, 
 where' they arrived in January 1733. Lands were immediately 
 distributed to the people, agreeably to the regulations, and the 
 towns of Savannah, Ebenezer and Augusta were founded ; the 
 first near the mouth of the Savannah, and the last at its falls. 
 
J733.] ALARM AND JEALOUSY OF THE SPANIARDS. 423 
 
 Oglethorpe then convened an assembly of chiefs of the Indian 
 tribes, occupying the adjacent regions, with whom he made a 
 treaty, conveying to Great Britain, the absolute possession of the 
 whole territory and islands between the Savannah and the Alata- 
 maha, except certain small portions, reserved to the savages; 
 and he soon after entered into similar territorial and commercial 
 conventions, with the Muscoghees and the Choctas, from the 
 latter of which nations, the Red Shoe appeared, as the plenipo 
 tentiary, at Augusta, in 1734. 
 
 In all these proceedings of the English, with respect to Georgia, 
 the claims of the French and the Spaniards to countries first dis 
 covered and occupied by them, were utterly disregarded ; Ogle 
 thorpe being resolved, either by charters from his sovereign, or by 
 treaties with the Indians, to assert the right of expelling the 
 people of the other nations, from the whole division of America, 
 bordering upon the northern side of the Mexican Gulf. The 
 Spaniards looked with alarm, at this new encroachment upon 
 what they considered as their own territory: their ambassador at 
 London protested solemnly against the establishment of the new 
 colony, but of course without effect ; and foreseeing a collision 
 between the two races in that quarter, they began to strengthen 
 their fortifications at St. Augustine, St. Marks and Pensacola, 
 and to increase their garrisons in those places. The danger 
 to the French was more remote, and the good understanding 
 between their Court and that of England, was not disturbed by 
 the establishment of the new colony. The Governor of Louisiana 
 however, view r ed the matter in a more serious light, and in order 
 to provide, in time, against the evils, which he apprehended, he 
 strengthened the garrison of Fort Toulouse on the upper Alabama, 
 and he urged the ministers in France to afford him the means of 
 effectually arresting the inroads of the Chickasas. 
 
 In the meantime, the Red Shoe came back from Augusta, in 
 the autumn of 1734, much dissatisfied with the presents and 
 honors paid to him by the English; and D'Artaguette took 
 advantage of this disposition, to engage him and his warriors 
 in an attack upon the Chickasas, for which he requested the 
 Governor to furnish one hundred soldiers to be commanded by 
 himself, and a large supply of ammunition. Bienville, however, 
 cither from distrust of the Red Shoe, whose influence he under- 
 
424 ACCOUNT OF THE CHICKASA COUNTRY. [1734. 
 
 valued, or from that jealousy which seems to have predomi 
 nated in him over all other considerations, refused to grant more 
 than thirty men, who were to be sent under Le Sueur. The 
 Choctas were in consequence disappointed ; and although they 
 behaved gallantly, especially the Red Shoe who distinguished 
 himself in the attack of a Chickasa town, no other results were 
 obtained, of greater importance, than the taking of a fe\v scalps, 
 for which heavy demands were made on the French at Mobile. 
 Bienville, who had repaired to that place in order to meet the 
 Choctas, acceded to their demands; and he moreover prevailed 
 upon them to assist him, in an expedition against their common 
 enemies, from which he hoped to obtain reputation for himself, 
 and security for the colony, the great object of his solicitude. 
 
 The Chickasas were a small nation, probably not exceeding 
 six thousand persons, who occupied a fertile territory, immediately 
 adjoining that of the Choctas on the north, and at present in 
 cluded in the counties of Fayette, Chickasa and Pontotoc in the 
 State of Mississippi, between the head waters of the great western 
 branch of the Mobile, now called the Tombigbee, and those of 
 the Yazoo emptying into the Mississippi. They dwelt in several 
 villages situated near each other, for mutual defence, and they 
 cultivated the earth, though their principal support was derived 
 from hunting, for which they maintained exclusive possession of 
 the country, farther north, to the Ohio, the Mississippi, and the 
 Cherokee or Tennessee. On the west, they were separated from 
 the Mississippi by a wide tract of morass, bordering upon that 
 river, for more than two hundred miles, from the mouth of the 
 Yazoo, to that of the Margot or Wolf River, at the foot of the 
 southernmost of the cliffs now known as the Chickasa Bluffs, 
 where the flourishing city of Memphis, in Tennessee, is situated. 
 This was the nearest point of the Mississippi accessible to the 
 Chickasas, whose name for the great stream Sak-ti-halafa 
 Okinna signified a River at a precipitous high place. 
 
 The bravery of the Chickasas and their skill in war, had 
 already become proverbial among the Indian nations : but 
 they were now to be brought into collision with a civilized 
 people, among whom military science had been most extensively 
 cultivated, and military renown was most highly prized ; and 
 preparations were made for attacking them, on a scale of such 
 
1735.] FRENCH EXPEDITION AGAINST THE CHICKASAS. 425 
 
 magnitude, as apparently to insure the success of the French. 
 For this purpose every means at the disposition of the colony 
 was employed ; men were collected and armed and trained at all 
 the posts, and additional supplies of arms, ammunition and heavy 
 artillery were earnestly requested from France, while the fidelity 
 of the Choctas was maintained at a great expense, by presents. 
 
 According to Bienville's plan, the troops were to be divided into 
 two bodies, which were to move simultaneously from the Missis 
 sippi and the Mobile, on the principal town of the Chickasas, 
 called Chooka-falaya, or the Long-house ; and it was hoped that 
 the Indians thus enclosed, w T ould either be crushed, or be driven 
 upon their enemies, the Cherokees in the north-east, or on the 
 Shawnees, Miamis and Illinois beyond the Ohio. The largei 
 body composing the Choctas and all the French of the lower 
 country who could be spared, was to be commanded by the Gov 
 ernor in person ; a rendezvous being appointed for them on the 
 western branch of the Mobile, fifty miles above its confluence 
 with the Tuscaloosa or Black Warrior river, where a post called 
 Fort Tombecbe was established on a cliff overhanging the 
 stream on the west.* The other party, consisting of the regular 
 troops, settlers and Indians, from the Illinois and the Wabash, was 
 to be assembled at the mouth of the Margot, where they were to 
 be joined by those from the Arkansas and other points on the 
 Mississippi; and they were thence to march south-east to the point 
 of attack, under young D'Artaguette, the nephew of the Com 
 missary, who was Commandant of the Illinois. 
 
 The period first appointed for the assemblage of these two bo 
 dies, at their respective places of rendezvous, was the beginning 
 of 1736, so that the attack might be made from both sides, on the 
 1st of March; but the arms, supplies and reinforcements, expect 
 ed from France not arriving at that period, the commencement 
 of operations was deferred until the month of May following. In 
 
 *The place is now known as Jones' Bluff, in Sumpter County, in the State of 
 Alabama. The name of the fort, which has since been given to the* great 
 western branch of the Mobile, and is now usually written Tombigbee, signified, 
 according to the Choctas of the present day, the place where boxes are made, 
 from a tradition that a French carpenter had first settled there, who made boxes 
 for the natives : Romans, however, derives it from Ec-tom-bogue-bee, meaning 
 Crooked creek, which he says, was the name of the small stream, flowing by 
 the fort into the river. 
 54 
 
426 BIENVILLE ASCENDS THE TOMBIGBEE. [1736. 
 
 the meantime, a boat laden with gunpowder, had been sent from 
 New Orleans for the use of the northern division, under the charge 
 of an officer who thought proper to leave the ammunition at the 
 mouth of the Arkansas, in order to make room in the boat for 
 goods of his own. It became necessary in consequence to des 
 patch another officer with some men from Fort Chartres, in order 
 to bring the powder to the mouth of the Margot ; and this party 
 on reaching the latter place were surprised by the Chickasas, who 
 killed nearly all of them, and made prisoners of the others, ob 
 taining at the same time an abundant supply of powder, the arti 
 cle most needed by them. Soon after this unfortunate occur 
 rence, D'Artaguette arrived at the place appointed, with a small 
 number of French and Indians from the Illinois, and others from 
 the Wabash within the jurisdiction of Canada, under Francois 
 de Vincennes, Commandant of Fort Ouayatenons, now Vincennes. 
 A detachment of similar forces from the lower Mississippi was 
 also, agreeably to the arrangements, to join them at the same 
 place under M. de Montcherval ; but as they did not appear in 
 the middle of April, when the march was to be commenced, and 
 the Indian allies of the French were becoming restless, D'Arta 
 guette departed with forty-one regular soldiers, ninety-nine volun 
 teers, and three hundred and sixty-six Indians, in the direction of 
 the Chickasa towns. 
 
 Bienville was in the meantime still at Mobile, anxiously await 
 ing the arrival of the reinforcements, and above all, of the heavy 
 artillery expected from France, which he considered in fact in 
 dispensable, having learned that the Chickasas, with the aid of 
 some English traders, had rendered their towns almost impreg 
 nable to troops unprovided with battering cannon. His hopes 
 from that quarter however proved vain; and being unable longer 
 to delay the commencement of his operations, he proceeded to 
 Fort Tombecbe, from which he began his expedition on the 4th 
 of May. His forces consisted of five hundred and seventy 
 French and Swiss* and fifty negroes, with six hundred Choctas, 
 (not Ralf of the number promised) under their great chiefs the Ali- 
 bamon Mingo and the Red Shoe. They ascended the Tombecbe 
 partly in boats and partly on foot, several hundred miles,, to its 
 
 * These numbers are taken from Bienville's despatch to the French Govern 
 ment of the 12th of June ; the other accounts represent the force as much greater. 
 
1736.] THE FRENCH REACH THE CHICKASA TOWN. 427 
 
 junction with one of its branches from the west called Oketibeha,* 
 where the town of Columbus in the State of Mississippi now 
 stands, distant about forty miles from the point of attack. At 
 this place it had been intended to leave the river; but the de 
 termination was changed, and they proceeded higher up to the 
 mouth of another small stream, nearer to the Chickasa towns, at 
 which a temporary fort was constructed for the protection of the 
 boats and materials not immediately required. 
 
 From this place, now known as Cotton-Gin-port, the French 
 and their allies set out on the 24th of May, leaving at the fort a 
 garrison of twenty men under M. de Vandereck. On that day, 
 they went but two leagues, and passed the night disagreeably, 
 without shelter from a violent storm, which lasted until morning; 
 the march was then resumed with caution, and after some diffi 
 culties in passing marshes and swoln streams, they again encamp 
 ed within two leagues, of the Long House, which they reached 
 early on the 26th. This town against which the attack of the 
 French was about to be directed, consisted of some large cabins, 
 or groups of small .cabins connected together, surrounding a slight 
 eminence crowned with a rude fort of logs and earth, in the 
 centre of a prairie. The roofs of the cabins and of the fort, were 
 made of poles, covered with earth; and each group was enclosed 
 by a palisatle of logs, behind which holes were dug in the 
 ground, to secure the defenders against musketry, and even in a 
 measure against light artillery. The Indians were well provided 
 with guns and ammunition, and were aided by the advice of 
 several English traders, who were among them ; so that their 
 position was, upon the whole stronger, than many which have 
 been held out by a few determined men, against forces infinitely 
 superior, and provided with all the means and materials for siege 
 or assault. A British flag was flying on the fort, according to 
 one of the accounts; while another states that it "was raised over 
 a hut occupied by some English. 
 
 Bienville on examining the place, felt little inclination to attack 
 it, as he had no cannon, and he proposed to move on to another vil 
 lage, which was said to be occupied by Natches : but the Choctas, 
 
 * Oketibeha means, The water where we fought them; in commemoration as 
 it is said of a great battle at that place in which the Cherokees were beaten by 
 the Choctas. 
 
428 THE FRENCH REPULSED BY THE CHICKASAS. [1736. 
 
 in the exuberance of their zeal and courage, insisted on beginning 
 the war at this point ; and as the same opinion was entertained by 
 the French officers, the Governor yielded to their wishes. A com 
 pany of grenadiers, with sixty Swiss and two hundred volunteers, 
 were accordingly ordered to advance, under the command of M. 
 de Noyan, Bienville's nephew, against one of the groups of 
 cabins, preceded by some negroes carrying mantelets or shields of 
 planks, for the protection of the men against musket shots. 
 Some of these blacks were soon wounded, upon which the others 
 threw down the mantelets and fled : the grenadiers, however, 
 marched on, and succeeded in setting one of the cabins on fire 
 with their hand-grenades, after the Indians who defended it had 
 escaped to the fort ; but the French were exposed to a fire from 
 the other cabins, so constant and well directed, that their com 
 mander, and a large number of their officers and men w r ere soon 
 killed or wounded. The Choctas were then, with much difficulty, 
 brought to the assault, from which they, like the negroes, fled 
 upon the fall of some of their number; and Bienville, consider 
 ing it needless to continue the attack, sent M. de Beauchamp, 
 with eighty men, to recall the troops, and cover their retreat. 
 This was done in good order, as the Chickasas did not venture 
 to leave their fort ; and the French encamped for the Jiight, at a 
 short distance from the village. M. de Contrecoeur, the captain 
 of the grenadiers, M. de Lusser, who commanded the Swiss, M. 
 de Juzan, the adjutant, and seven other officers, were left dead 
 on the field, with thirty-two of the men, whose bodies were seen 
 on the next day hanging in quarters, on the Chickasa fort ; and 
 more than sixty, including M. de Noyan, were brought away 
 severely wounded. Of the number of Chickasas engaged in the 
 defence, no account could be obtained ; none of the estimates 
 made by the French, carried it as high as a hundred men, and 
 the English traders make it still less. 
 
 The night was passed by the French undisturbed. On the 
 following morning, a deputation appeared from another Chickasa* 
 village, to propose peace, but Bienville was so much irritated 
 by the events of the preceding day, that he ordered his men to 
 fire on them, and four of the number were thus killed. An 
 attempt was then made to renew the attack, but it was soon 
 abandoned; and the Choctas, under the influence of the Red 
 
1736.] SHAMEFUL RETREAT OF BIENVILLE. 429 
 
 Shoe, having evinced a disposition to separate themselves from 
 their allies, and return directly home, it was determined that the 
 enterprise should be abandoned. Litters and hurdles were ac 
 cordingly prepared for the wounded, and the army retreating 
 slowly, reached the place of embarkation on the Tombecbe, in 
 two days. Had they delayed their retreat much longer, it would 
 probably have been very disastrous ; for the river was rapidly 
 falling, and they might have been obliged to march several hun 
 dred miles with their wounded, through a difficult country, in 
 which the Chickasas would not have failed to harrass them. They 
 however descended the river safely to Fort Tombecbe, which 
 they reached on the 2nd of June ; and thence Bienville hastened 
 to Mobile, where he had to communicate the ill success of the ex 
 pedition, to the commandant D'Artaguette, his rival and enemy.* 
 While engaged in this expedition, Bienville had, of course, 
 
 * Bienville in his despatches to the government, endeavored to diminish the 
 amount of his own responsibility, by dwelling on the difficulties which he had 
 to encounter, not only from the Chickasas and their English allies, but also from 
 the want of energy, and punctuality of his own officers, and the falsehood of 
 his Indian auxiliaries, against whom he was obliged to be ever on his guard ; 
 alluding at the same time, to the neglect of his urgent entreaties for heavy ar 
 tillery, and to the miserable character of the soldiers sent out to him, whose 
 cowardice he could not have anticipated. "True it is," he writes, "that no 
 one could have expected to make soldiers, of the miserable herd of scoundrels, 
 sent here as recruits ; and it is most painful to be obliged to jeopard the honor 
 of the nation, with such troops, and to expose the officers to the alternative of 
 death or disgrace. The recruits, lately arrived in the Gironde, are the worst 
 of all : there are among them but one or two of more than five feet high ; the 
 rest are under four feet ten inches ; and as to their morals, of the whole number 
 of fifty-two, more than one half have been already publicly whipped for theft. 
 They are, in fine, only so many useless mouths, who will always be a burthen, 
 and never a benefit to the colony." 
 
 M. Diron d'Artaguette carefully excludes all these palliatives from his 
 communication to the ministry, which is thus bitterly laconic " Our army, 
 composed of more than fifteen hundred men, and commanded by M. de Bien 
 ville in person, has failed, as you will learn by his own reports, in the attack on 
 the first village which they found on their way. This village was defended by 
 thirty or forty men, entrenched in a fort, and in several surrounding cabins, 
 equally strong, from which they discharged their shot, so effectively, as to put 
 more than a hundred of ours hors dc combat, and occasioned so much disorder 
 among our men, that M. de Bienville was forced to retreat. We cannot say 
 that we have killed a single Chickasa ; and it is reported, that without the as 
 sistance of the Choctas, we should not have had four men left to bring us the 
 news of the defeat." Gayarre's Histoire de La Louisiane. 
 
430 DESTRUCTION OF D'ARTAGUETTE AND HIS MEN. [1736. 
 
 been anxiously expecting to see or hear from young D'Arta- 
 guette, of whose arrival with his men at the Chickasa Bluffs, 
 he had been informed before leaving Mobile. No news of that 
 body was however obtained until the return of the Governor to 
 Mobile, when he received a letter from D'Artaguette, written in 
 the middle of April, stating that he should immediately begin 
 his march to the interior, so as to meet the troops from the south 
 at the appointed time and place ; and information of his de 
 parture for that purpose, was soon after brought to New Orleans. 
 The next accounts of that body were most deplorable. They ar 
 rived in the end of April, before a Chickasa village, which they 
 immediately attacked; but scarcely had they begun the assault, ere 
 they found themselves beset by a large body of the savages, who 
 had been concealed in a neighboring wood. The Indian auxil 
 iaries of the French, thereupon threw down their arms and fled ; 
 and the Illinois militia having been likewise seized with a panic, 
 which rendered them incapable of sustaining the action, the 
 route became general. About eighty of the French escaped 
 under the direction of a young ensign, named Voisin, and 
 reached the mouth of the Margot, on their way to which, they 
 were met by M. de Montcherval and his men, from the Arkansas, 
 proceeding to join D'Artaguette. Of the others, nothing was 
 heard during several months. 
 
 At length an Indian woman, and soon after, a sergeant who had 
 been left among the Chickasas, brought to New Orleans, ac 
 counts of the fate of the remainder of their party. D'Artaguette 
 and Vincennes, with the few who supported them, fought gal 
 lantly for some time ; they were however, in the end, overpowered, 
 and made prisoners by the Indians, who treated them kindly at 
 first, with the object, no doubt, of procuring peace through their 
 means. But when Bienville and his army had retreated, after 
 the failure of their attack on the Long House, the savages, being 
 no longer restrained by fear of the future, gave a loose to their 
 feelings of hatred against the invaders. The sergeant, who 
 brought the news, was spared by his master, in return for some 
 service rendered ; and two men were in like manner preserved, 
 to be exchanged for a Chickasa chief, made prisoner by Bienville. 
 The others, nineteen in number, including D'Artaguette, Vincen 
 nes and the Jesuit Father Senat, who had accompanied the 
 
1737.] THE FRENCH DISCOURAGED BY THEIR DEFEATS. 43 
 
 party as chaplain, were all burnt alive, at a solemn feast by the 
 Chickasas.* 
 
 The unfortunate results of these expeditions necessarily pro 
 duced an effect upon the Indians most unfavorable to the French, 
 especially on the Choctas who openly proclaimed their contempt 
 for that nation; and Bienville resolved to engage in no enterprise 
 
 * The following extracts from Adair's History of the Indian Nations, no doubt 
 relate to these expeditions. They are characteristic as showing the fierce feelings 
 which prevailed among the English traders, towards the French at that period. 
 
 " A body of the lower French, and about fourteen hundred Choctas, attacked 
 the Long House, when only sixty warriors were at home : yet they fought so 
 desperately, as to secure themselves, their women and children, till some of the 
 hunters, who had been immediately sent for, came home to their assistance ; 
 when, though exceedingly, inferior in numbers, they drove the French off with 
 great loss." 
 
 " Another time, the Lower and Upper Louisiana French, and a great body of 
 red auxiliaries surprised late at night all their [Chickasa] present towns except 
 Amalahta, that had about forty warriors, and stood at some distance from the 
 others. A considerable number of the enemy were posted at every door, to 
 prevent their escape ; and what few ran out were killed on the spot. The 
 French seemed quite sure of their prey, having so well enclosed it. But at the 
 dawn of day, when they were capering and using those flourishes that are pecu 
 liar to that volatile nation, the people of the other town drew around them, stark 
 naked, and all painted over, red and black; thus they attacked them, killed 
 numbers on the spot, released their brethren, who joined them like enraged 
 lions, increasing as they swept along, and in turn encircled their enemies. 
 Their release increased their joy and fury ; and they rent the sky with their 
 sounds. Their flashy enemies now changed their boasting tune, into " Oh Mot- 
 bleu /" and gave up all for lost. Their red allies out-heeled them, and left them 
 to receive their just fate. They were all cut off but two, an officer and a negro, 
 who faithfully held his horse till he mounted, and then ran alongside of him. A 
 couple of swift runners were sent after them, who soon came up with them, and 
 told them to nveauu go home and inform their people, that 'as the Chickasa 
 hogs had now a plenty of ugly French carcasses to feed on till next year, they 
 hoped then to have another visit from them and their red friends; and that as 
 messengers, they wished them safe home.' They accordingly returned with 
 heavy hearts to the Chickasa landing place north-west on the Mississippi, at the 
 distance of one hundred and seventy miles, where they took boat, and deliver 
 ed their unexpected message. Grief and trembling spread through the country; 
 and the inhabitants could not secure themselves from the fury of these warlike 
 and enraged Chickasas. Every one of their prisoners was put to the fiery tor 
 ture, without any possibility of redemption, their hearts were so exceedingly 
 embittered against them." 
 
 The particulars of this unsuccessful campaign of the French, were related to 
 the author of this history, by an old Chickasa chief, at Washington, in the sum 
 mer of 1848, with no material variation from the account here presented as de 
 rived entirely from French authorities. 
 
432 THE FRENCH COLONY ON THE VERGE OF RUIN. [1736, 
 
 of the same kind in future without troops and artillery, sufficient 
 to enable him to dispense with Indian auxiliaries. The Gov 
 ernment, however, disappointed by the manner in which he had 
 conducted his campaign, refused all his applications to that effect; 
 and the Indians, encouraged by his inaction, became daily more 
 insolent and annoying. The Chickasas soon held entire posses 
 sion of the part of the Mississippi, between the Arkansas an^l the 
 Ohio ; and a number of savages from the environs of the latter 
 river, under the direction of English traders from Virginia, estab 
 lished themselves near the mouth of the Wabash, and cut off all 
 communications by that route, between the lakes and the Mis 
 sissippi. Under these circumstances the French colony seemed 
 rapidly verging to ruin. All industry was paralyzed, famine pre 
 vailed every where, and the people as well as the soldiers, desert 
 ed whenever opportunities were offered, to Carolina and even to 
 the Spanish settlements in Florida. In the Illinois, there was no 
 want of the means of subsistence; but no market being offered 
 for the productions of the country, in consequence of the inter 
 ruption of communications with lower Louisiana, the people 
 ceased to cultivate the earth, any farther than was necessary for 
 the supply of their own immediate wants. The little settlement of 
 Natchitoches on the Red river, under the direction of its founder 
 the gallant old Chevalier de St. Denis, seems to have presented 
 the only exception to the general misery of the lower country: its 
 tobacco began to be known and appreciated in Europe, from 
 which its people received a few foreign articles in return ; and 
 the irregular trade carried on with Texas, brought thither the 
 greater part of the specie, which came into Louisiana. 
 
 The English colony in Georgia meanwhile continued to ad 
 vance, although discontent soon appeared among the settlers, in 
 consequence of the restrictive regulations of the trustees, especi 
 ally with regard to the exclusion of slavery and spirituous liquors. 
 The climate was found to be very unfavorable to the health of 
 Europeans laboring in the fields, and they considered spirituous 
 liquors not only necessary for their own comfort, but indispensa 
 ble for their trade with the Indians : so that they soon began to 
 regard with envy, their fellow subjects north of the Savannah, 
 who were prospering by the employment of negroes on their plan 
 tations, and were untrammelled by annoying prohibitions. Such 
 

 1736.] INCREASE OF THE COLONY OF GEORGIA. 433 
 
 was the general feeling among the colonists on the return of 
 Oglethorpe from England, whither he had gone in 1734, ,to ob 
 tain funds and settlers; and as he was supposed, with justice, to 
 be the principal cause and defender of the restrictive system, a 
 party was soon organized in resistance to his authority, which was 
 favored and encouraged in every way by the people of Carolina. 
 
 Oglethorpe on this occasion brought with him from Europe a 
 number of Germans, and of Scotchmen from the Highlands, and 
 distributed them at various points, chiefly on the coasts and is 
 lands, as far south as the river of St. John, at the entrance of 
 which- he erected a fort on St. George's island. Forts were in 
 like manner erected at Darien, near the mouth of the Alatamaha, 
 where a settlement of Scotchmen was formed, and on the islands 
 of St. Simon, Jekyll, Cumberland and Amelia, the two last of 
 which were named after members of the royal family of England; 
 and a town called Frederica, in honor of the Prince of Wales, 
 was begun on the channel separating St. Simon's island from 
 the mainland, which was intended to be the principal seat of 
 commerce of the country. Oglethorpe had convinced himself 
 that the channels separating these islands from the Continent, 
 were in fact all continuations of the Alatamaha, and even that the 
 St. John was only a branch of that river. 
 
 Upon the establishment of these posts, the Spaniards became 
 seriously alarmed, and orders were given to the Governor of Flo 
 rida, to expel the intruders from the territories of his Catholic 
 Majesty. Oglethorpe on learning that preparations for this pur 
 pose were in progress, sent two gentlemen to St. Augustine, to 
 make inquiries on- the subject, who were at first detained and 
 threatened with imprisonment at that place; but the Governor, 
 Don Francisco de Moral Sanchez, finally agreed to liberate them, 
 and to authorise commissioners to treat with Oglethorpe on the 
 points of difference. The meeting took place at Frederica, where 
 Don Antonio de Arredondo, appeared as the representative of the 
 Governor of Florida ; and after some discussions as to the extent 
 of the territories of the respective parties, an agreement was con 
 cluded in September, 1736, to the effect, that the English fort at 
 St. George's Island should be abandoned, and that neither party 
 should act in a hostile manner towards the other, or excite the 
 Indians to do so, until the determination of their governments on 
 55 
 
434 DISPUTE BETWEEN ENGLAND AND SPAIN. [1738. 
 
 the subject of boundaries should have been learnell. The agree 
 ment, was however, rescinded by the Captain General of Cuba, 
 Don Francisco de Guemes Horcasitas, who sent a peremptory 
 summons to Oglethorpe, for the evacuation of Georgia. This de 
 mand was submitted by the Governor in person to the British 
 government ; and Walpole, notwithstanding his anxiety to preserve 
 peace, found himself obliged to make a peremptory denial of the 
 claim of Spain to that territory, and to insist on reparation of the 
 injuries inflicted on his countrymen in the West Indies by the 
 cruisers of that nation, and by the denial of the right of the Eng 
 lish to cut wood at Honduras, and to trade with the Indians of 
 the Mosquito coast. 
 
 A small force was at the same time placed at the disposition 
 of Oglethorpe, who returned with it to Georgia in September, 
 1738; but he there found that the Spaniards had been tampering 
 with the Indians of his province, that the government of South 
 Carolina had been interfering in its affairs, and that extreme dis 
 content prevailed in the colony itself. He, however, by great 
 exertions, counteracted these difficulties; he reasoned with the 
 Carolinians, and induced them to join with him in preparations 
 for resistance ; he visited the Creek towns on the Chattahoochee, 
 where he made new treaties with their chiefs ; and he strengthen 
 ed the forts, and distributed his soldiers, on all the islands near 
 the coast, resuming the possession of St. George's Island, at the 
 mouth of the St. John, within forty miles of St. Augustine: by 
 which means he succeeded in placing the country in a state of 
 defence, against the attack expected from the Spaniards. 
 
 This threatening state of things between Great Britain and 
 Spain, may have had some effect in inducing the French govern 
 ment to listen to the representations of the Governor of Louisiana, 
 with regard to the perilous position in which that province was 
 placed by the enmity of the Indians. Bienville was at length in 
 formed, that a large number of troops with abundant supplies of 
 arms an.d munitions of war, would be sent to Louisiana; and in 
 May, 1738, seven hundred men with artillery and materials of all 
 kinds, arrived at New Orleans. With them, however, to Bien- 
 ville's mortification came M. de Noailles d'Aime, a lieutenant in 
 the navy, who was to command all the forces of the colony in any 
 expedition against the Indians, and to be consulted on all mat- 
 

 
 1739.] NEW EXPEDITION AGAINST THE CHICKASAS. 435 
 
 ters relating to it, u as he possesses" wrote the minister "the 
 talents and experience required in a commander." The Governor 
 was indeed to retain the general direction, but nothing more im 
 mediate ; and if the arms of France should be crowned with suc 
 cess, to M. de Noailles d'Aime, not to M. de Bienville, would 
 redound all the honor. 
 
 It was however too late for Bienville to oppose a new expedi 
 tion against the Chickasas ; and preparations for that purpose 
 were accordingly commenced early in 1739. On this occasion it 
 was determined, that the forces should be all united in one army, 
 which was to be assembled at the mouth of the Margot; and a 
 fort was built there, on the spot now occupied by the city of Mem 
 phis, which was called Fort Assumption, in honor of the day -of 
 its completion, the 15th of August, the anniversary of the As 
 sumption of the Virgin. At this place were collected a vast 
 amount of arms, ammunition, and military equipments of all 
 kinds, including heavy artillery, and mortars, with their balls and 
 bombs; and no less than twelve hundred French troops, and two 
 thousand Indians were assembled there in the autumn of 1739, 
 drawn from every part of Louisiana, and even from the banks of the 
 St. Lawrence. The Canadians were led by M. de Celeron, with 
 Messrs, de Longueil, Bienville's nephew, and de St. Laurent, as 
 lieutenants ; they had descended the Allegany* and Ohio from the 
 eastern end of Lake Erie, and were probably the first large party 
 of white men who navigated those rivers, in their whole length. 
 The contingent from the Illinois, was under M. de la Buissoniere, 
 
 * Allegany, derived as already said, from Alighin-sipou, the name of the Ohio 
 among the Indians of the western parts of Pennsylvania and Virginia, was first 
 applied by the English, about the year 1745, to the north-eastern branch of that , 
 river, now called the Allegany, and afterwards to the northern portion of the 
 great chain of mountains, separating the streams which flow directly to the At 
 lantic, from those falling into the Mississippi. The French however considered 
 the Allegany as the main stream of the Ohio; and it seems to have been the 
 same, to which that name was originally assigned by the Iroquois. 
 
 The party who thus came from Canada by these rivers, either then or on their 
 return by the same route, found the first bones of the mastodon, or American 
 mammoth, which were carried to Europe. They were obtained from a marsh, 
 no doubt the same now known as the Big-bone-lick, on the Kentucky side of the 
 Ohio, about one hundred miles above the present city of Louisville ; and were 
 deposited by the Baron de Longueil, in the Museum of the Garden of Natural 
 History at Paris, where they still remain. See the " Memoires de 1'Academie 
 des Sciences 1 ' for 1762. 
 
436 IMPOTENT CONCLUSION OF THE EXPEDITION. [1740. 
 
 who had succeeded the unfortunate D'Artaguette, in the command 
 of that part of Louisiana ; those from the lower country were un 
 der the immediate direction of Noyan, another nephew of Bien 
 ville, and were accompanied by engineers, draughtsmen, artiller 
 ists, and persons skilled in various other branches of military 
 science, whose services might be required in the expedition. No 
 such force had ever been assembled in the Mississippi regions ; 
 and as a large portion of the Choctas, under the Alibamon Min- 
 go, were at the same time to attack the Chickasas, from the side 
 of the Tombecbe, there was certainly every reason to anticipate 
 a result favorable to the French. 
 
 Bienville did not reach Fort Assumption until the 12th of No 
 vember, and the engineers who had been employed ever since the 
 beginning of the summer in reconnoitering, then reported that no 
 road practicable for artillery had been discovered, from that place 
 to the Chickasa towns. It was thereupon determined that the ex 
 pedition should be deferred until the ensuing spring, and the 
 whole army went into winter quarters at the place where they re 
 mained until March, 1740. A road sufficient for the passage of 
 the cannon, had in the meantime been made, through the marshes 
 south-east of the fort; but just then the provisions were pronoun 
 ced insufficient. A large number of the French had moreover died 
 during the winter, and of the survivors, only a small proportion 
 were considered fit for active service : and a council of war hav 
 ing been assembled, it was determined that, under such circum 
 stances, the expedition could not be prosecuted without jeopard 
 ing the honor of His Majesty's arms. 
 
 De Celeron, and the other Canadian officers, however, pro 
 tested against this decision, and declared their resolution to 
 march against the enemy, with their own followers ; whereupon 
 it was agreed, that they should proceed on a mission to the 
 Chickasas, and that the other forces should, if possible, be kept 
 together, until their return. The Canadians accordingly marched 
 to the Chickasa towns, where De Celeron managed his affairs 
 so well, as to induce the Indians to send deputies to the French 
 camp, to sue for peace : they were graciously received by 
 Bienville, who was just on the point of returning to New Orleans ; 
 and a treaty was concluded, in which the Chickasas agreed to 
 cast off the Natches, and to make no farther attacks on the 
 
1741.] 
 
 French. Fort Assumption, and another which had been erected 
 on the west side of the Mississippi, at the mouth of the river 
 St. Francois, were then destroyed, and the army was entirely 
 disbanded. 
 
 Such a result, after the humiliations experienced in the pre 
 ceding campaigns against the Chickasas, was regarded by the 
 French as a triumph ; and Bienville did not hesitate to represent 
 it nearly in that light, in his despatches to the Government.* It 
 however produced no effects whatsoever, as the Chickasas and 
 the Natches immediately renewed their attacks on the French, who 
 were thus forced to return to their former course, of bribing the 
 Choctas, to make war on their enemies. In order to secure the 
 fidelity of the latter people, Bienville arranged a mode of conduct 
 ing the trade with them, which proved for some time very effec 
 tive. He established an understanding with some English mer 
 chants in New York and Charleston, who engaged to supply him 
 with goods in return for deer skins, of which he had no other 
 means of disposing ; and as the rivers gave the French greater 
 facilities of transportation, than wer,e enjoyed by the English, the 
 traders of the two nations were brought more nearly on an equality 
 in the Indian countries. 
 
 These Indian wars w T ere by no means honorable to the French 
 either as soldiers or as men; exhibiting, as they did, a series 
 of acts of treachery and misconduct, unredeemed by any mani 
 festations of courage, except on the part of a few individuals. 
 Glory is seldom to be acquired in wars with savages, however 
 successful may be the result ; and they frequently fail, from 
 circumstances, inseparably attending them, unfavorable to civili 
 zed troops. But the annals of no other portion of America, 
 present instances of such general poltroonery, in such large num 
 bers of persons of European race, as we find displayed by the 
 French in their contests with the Natches, and Chickasas, 
 
 * Bienville, in his despatch of May 6, 1740, says : "If our success in this 
 affair has not been such, as we might have anticipated, the glory of the King's 
 arms has not suffered in it. All the nations have been struck, with our prepara 
 tions for the campaign, and have felt the superiority of our forces. They have 
 all seen the measures taken by the enemy through fear, in order to obtain peace. 
 I may even venture to assert, that for the tranquillity of the colony, our affairs 
 are in a better state than they would have been if we had marched against the 
 enenay." This last assertion, nt least, seems to have been fully authorised by 
 the results of the preceding campaigns. 
 
438 DAUFHINE ISLAND DIVIDED BY A HURRICANE. [1741. 
 
 agreeably to the express statements, officially made by their own 
 high officers, to the government ; and the only excuse which 
 seems admissable in behalf of the men is, that those officers 
 were, for the most part, utterly without principle, and were al 
 ways actuated by feelings of jealousy towards each other. It is 
 difficult to account for the inactivity of the French, during the 
 seven months spent by them at Fort Assumption, within a hun 
 dred and fifty miles of the enemy knowing as we now do, that 
 no serious obstacles -really existed, to their passage, with their 
 artillery through the country- unless upon the supposition, that 
 Bienville was determined to prevent his coadjutor, M. de Noailles, 
 from gathering laurels, to which the orders of their government, 
 prevented him from aspiring. 
 
 In addition to its other calamities, Louisiana was, in the au 
 tumn of the following year, 1741, visited by two dreadful hurri 
 canes, far exceeding, in violence, any previously witnessed by 
 the French in that country. In the first of these storms, on the 
 llth of September, the middle of Dauphine island was carried 
 away by the waves, leaving the other portions separated by 
 channel of more than a league in width : of these two portions 
 the eastern still retains the name of Dauphine, the other being 
 now called Massacre island. The capital of the colony fortunately 
 escaped, and from its store-houses, provisions w r ere sent to the 
 other parts of the lower country, in which the people must, with 
 out such aid, have perished from starvation. 
 
 In the meantime war was in progress between Great Britain 
 and Spain, and the whole European world was on the eve of a 
 conflagration. The demands for reparation of injuries, addressed 
 by the British Government to that of Spain, produced a nego 
 tiation, which ended in a convention signed at the Pardo, near 
 Madrid, on the 14th of January, 1739. According to its terms, 
 some vessels which had been seized by the Spaniards in the 
 West Indies, were to be restored, payment was to be made 
 by that nation of some debts due to British subjects, and the 
 line of separation, between the territories of the two parties in 
 America, was to be settled by commissaries, all things remain 
 ing in their actual condition, until the question should have 
 been decided. This convention was received with little favor by 
 the people of England, and was approved by a very sm?ll ma- 
 
I 
 
 1740.] OGLETHORPE MARCHES AGAINST ST. AUGUSTINE. 439 
 
 jority in Parliament ; and when it afterwards appeared, that the 
 Spaniards still continued their acts of violence towards British 
 subjects in the West Indies, and were preparing to enforce their 
 claim to Georgia, war was declared against them in October, 1739. 
 Admiral Vernon was sent with a powerful fleet to the West 
 Indies, and Anson with a few vessels to the Pacific; while Ogle- 
 thorpe was ordered to command the forces against Florida, with 
 the title of Major General. 
 
 Oglethorpe, immediately on receiving this commission, re 
 solved to anticipate the Spaniards, by an attack upon St. Au 
 gustine ; for which purpose he made every exertion to collect 
 forces at St. George's Island. Having received the promise of 
 a large number of volunteers from Carolina, he proceeded with 
 his regular soldiers, and a number of Indians, to the place of 
 rendezvous in May, 1740 ; and then crossing the mouth of the 
 St. John, he took the fort of San Diego on its southern side, 
 and that of San Francisco de la Popa, on the left bank of the 
 river, immediately west of St. Augustine, by which he cut off 
 the communications between that place and the settlements on 
 the Gulf of Mexico. Having garrisoned these points, he returned 
 to St. George's Island, to await the arrival of the Carolina vol 
 unteers, and the vessels with the artillery from Charleston. 
 
 After some days, the vessels commanded by Captain Warren 
 arrived, bringing four hundred volunteers under Colonel Vander- 
 dussen, with a large number of Indians, principally Creeks, and 
 a few Chickasas ; and those, having been landed on the south 
 side of the St. John, began their march, on the 8th of June, for 
 St. Augustine, to which the vessels with the heavy artillery, ma 
 terials and provisions, were at the same time directed. 
 
 The town of St. Augustine stands on the mainland of Florida, 
 opposite the northern entrance of Matanzas Sound, a narrow and 
 shallow channel, nearly twenty miles in length, which separates 
 the island of Anastasia* from the Continent. The northern en 
 trance of this sound forms the harbor, admitting vessels which 
 draw not more than ten or twelve feet: on the south and west, 
 the town is bordered by a marsh, traversed by a small stream 
 called St. Sebastian's creek, which protects it from attack on 
 those sides; and on the north, where alone it is accessible from 
 
 * See the map on page 131. 
 
440 THE SPANIARDS PREPARED FOR DEFENCE. [1740. 
 
 the land, stands the castle of San Marcos, a strong stone fortress, 
 then mounting forty pieces of cannon, including some of large 
 calibre. Two miles farther north, was a small out work called 
 Fort Musa; other batteries were erected at exposed points on the 
 mainland and on Anastasia Island, and a thick wall of stone ran 
 along the eastern side of the town towards the harbor, intended 
 to prevent inundation from the sea during hurricanes, as well as 
 for protection against enemies. The place was commanded by 
 Don Manuel de Monteano, the Governor of Florida, who pos 
 sessed courage and devotion to his cause, though as afterwards 
 appeared, he was destitute of all other qualities of a general.* 
 
 The delay of Oglethorpe at St. George's Island had afforded 
 time for the Spaniards to drive in their cattle from the plains north 
 of St. Augustine, and to strengthen their works around the town; 
 and they moreover received a large supply of ammunition and 
 men from Havanna, by vessels which could not have entered the 
 harbor, if the English had marched thither immediately after their 
 arrival at the mouth of the St. John. On the 10th of June, Ogle- 
 thorpe reached Fort Musa, of which possession was taken upon 
 its evacuation by the garrison agreeably to orders ; and in that 
 work he established about one hundred highlanders, under Col. 
 Palmer, who had commanded the expedition against St. Augus 
 tine in 1725, as already related. The volunteers under Vander- 
 dussen were sent to take a post on the creek, north-west of the 
 town ; while the general with his regulars, crossed the sound to 
 Anastasia Island, and began there to erect batteries against the 
 castle. The vessels blockaded the harbor and Matanzas inlet, 
 none of those of large size being able to approach the town. 
 
 Whilst these preparations for attack were in progress, the Span 
 iards, on the 15th of June, made a sally from the castle on Fort 
 Musa, which they took after an obstinate resistance, killing Col. 
 Palmer and the greater part of his highlanders, and carrying off 
 the others as prisoners. This disaster produced the most serious 
 
 * A volume containing copies of all the papers relative to this siege of St. Au 
 gustine, and other matters of the same period, is now preserved among the 
 archives of that place ; and some letters from Governor Monteano, describing 
 the defence of the town and the retreat of the English, in the usual bombastic 
 style of Spanish commanders, may be found translated in the History of the Semi- 
 nole war in 1835 and the three following years, by Captain W. Sprague, pub 
 lished at New York in 1847. 
 
1740.] OGLETHORPE ABANDONS FLORIDA. 441 
 
 discouragement among the volunteers and Indians, the latter of 
 whom immediately began to desert; and Oglethorpe had in the 
 meantime discovered that his guns could produce no effect on the 
 castle. He, however, summoned the Governor to surrender, and 
 having received a contemptuous message in reply, he endeavored 
 to assemble his forces for a general assault ; but this being found 
 impracticable, no other course was left than a blockade, during 
 which the Indians nearly all disappeared, and sickness began 
 to disable the men. Oglethorpe himself was seized with a fever, 
 arid all hopes of starving out the place were destroyed, by the en 
 trance of several vessels, through Matanzas inlet, laden with pro 
 visions from Havanna. The commander of the English squadron 
 moreover considered it hazardous to remain longer on the coast, as 
 the hurricane season was drawing near; and it was finally resolved 
 to abandon the enterprise. Some of the troops were accordingly 
 embarked in the vessels, and the others made good their retreat 
 by land, without interruption from the Spaniards, who were thus 
 relieved from the presence of their enemies, by the 5th of July. 
 Oglethorpe was severely blamed for his conduct in this expedition, 
 especially for not having marched directly to St. Augustine, after 
 the capture of the forts on the St. John, and for having alienated 
 the Indians, by compelling them to observe the usages of civili 
 zed warfare.* With the forces under his command, however, 
 success was scarcely possible ; and his greatest fault seems to 
 have been, that he engaged in the enterprise, without having 
 learned or duly appreciated the difficulties. 
 
 * A Chickasa, who had killed a Spaniard, brought the head of his enemy to 
 Oglethorpe, and claimed his reward ; the bloody prize was however rejected by 
 the humane Governor, with abhorrence, to the astonishment and discontent of 
 the Indians, many of whom immediately deserted the camp, declaring that if 
 they had carried the head of an Englishman to a French commander, they would 
 have received very different treatment. This impolitic proceeding of Oglethorpe 
 was not often imitated by the British commanders in America; who, though they 
 may have turned with disgust from a reeking head, did not refuse to receive or 
 pay for a dried scalp, as recently as 1814. 
 
 The Indians were entirely incapable of understanding the reasons of the com 
 munications, which pagsed under flags of truce, between the English and the 
 Spaniards, and the polite manner in which the latter were treated by the Gen 
 eral : and they in the end concluded that the whole war was a pretext for their 
 destruction. So well convinced of this were the Cherokees, that the English 
 had great difficulty in restraining them from joining the French in a body, during 
 the subsequent war, in revenge for this supposed act of treachery. See Adair. 
 
 56 
 
442 THE SPANIARDS PREPARE TO INVADE GEORGIA. [1742. 
 
 In the meantime, Admiral Vernon had taken Portobelo and 
 Chagres, but had failed in his attack upon Carthagena. A small 
 portion of the force employed in those operations, which would 
 have been of no advantage, even if perfectly successful, might 
 have expelled the Spaniards forever from Florida ; but the British 
 Government may possibly have considered a Spanish garrison at 
 St. Augustine useful, as a salutary check on the tendencies to 
 self-government, which had already occasionally manifested them 
 selves among all the English colonies in America. In like man 
 ner, though the differences between Great Britain and France on 
 several important questions were then daily increasing, and the 
 French were preparing for the struggle in the New World, by 
 strengthening their great fortresses of Quebec and Louisburg, and 
 securing the Indians in their behalf, the English provinces were 
 left to provide for their own safety by their own resources. 
 
 The losses thus sustained by Vernon at Carthagena, in 1740, 
 obliged him to return with his fleet to Europe in the following 
 year; and the Spaniards relieved from that danger, resolved im 
 mediately to direct their forces against Carolina and Georgia. For 
 this purpose several thousand men and a large fleet were sent to 
 St. Augustine under Don Antonio deArredondo; and being there 
 joined by others under the Governor Monteano, they took their 
 departure in^the middle of June, 1742, for the coast of Georgia. 
 
 The English had been warned of their danger some time be 
 fore, and General Oglethorpe had done all in his power to place 
 the exposed points under his command in a state of defence. 
 Unfortunately however, he was, as already mentioned, by no means 
 a favorite in Carolina, either with the government or the people, 
 and there was much discontent with his administration in Geor 
 gia; so that he could only assemble about seven hundred men, 
 of whom the majority were militia^ and a few Indians, before the 
 Spanish ships made their appearance off the entrance of St. Si 
 mon's Sound, forming the harbor of Frederica. On this sound 
 batteries had been erected with a strong fort on the channel, which 
 separates St. Simon's Island from the mainland ; the Spanish 
 ships, however, passed the batteries after a severe engagement, 
 in which their loss was considerable, and they anchored on the 
 5th of July, within ten miles of Frederica. 
 
 Frederica stood on the west side of St. Simon's Island, oppo- 
 
1742.] MONTEANO LANDS ON ST. SIMON'S ISLAND. 443 
 
 site the mainland of Georgia, from which it was separated by the 
 channel above mentioned : the part of the island between it and 
 the place at which the Spanish ships anchored, was marshy, and 
 covered with thick woods ; and Oglethorpe, after his batteries 
 were rendered useless, had spiked the heavy guns and withdrawn 
 all the men for the defence of the town. He expected some sup 
 plies of soldiers, provisions and ammunition from Charleston, and 
 he was determined by every means to gain time, for which his 
 plan was to harrass the enemy and retard their movements, but 
 to avoid a general action. His men were, with this object, posted 
 in several detachments, on the line by which the Spaniards would 
 march ; and as a last resource, in case retreat should be necessary, 
 the fort a little below the town was strong and well armed, and 
 could contain all the people and soldiers. 
 
 The Spaniards landed on the 6th of July, in number not less 
 than three thousand; and on the following day, they marched 
 across the island undisturbed, to within two miles of Frederica. 
 There, on the edge of a marsh, between them and the town, they 
 were attacked by Oglethorpe so vigorously, that their advanced 
 guard were entirely routed, and many of them made prisoners be 
 fore the others could come up, through the thick woods ; and the 
 whole body was forced back to the place of their landing, where 
 they encamped under cover of the guns of their ships, and re 
 mained several days without attempting to resume the offensive. 
 During this period they were hfirrassed, especially at night, by 
 the English and Indians, who killed large numbers ; while their 
 ranks were farther thinned by sickness and desertion, and their 
 energies were paralyzed by a violent dispute, which had arisen 
 between the two commanders, Monteano and Arredondo. 
 
 Of this state of things among the Spaniards, Oglethorpe was 
 well informed by prisoners and deserters ; and he employed the 
 same channels to increase the indecision of his enemies, by false 
 reports as to the extent of his own forces, and his expectations 
 of assistance. He thus succeeded in convincing the Spanish 
 commanders, that he was daily looking for the arrival of Vernon 
 with a large fleet from England ; and when a few vessels sent 
 from Charleston, to watch the movements of the enemy, appear 
 ed in front of the island, no doubt was entertained by Monteano 
 and Arredondo, that they were part of the expected fleet. The 
 
444 THE SPANIARDS DEFEATED AND EXPELLED. [1742. 
 
 Spaniards thereupon saw that they must quit their confined posi 
 tion in the Sound without delay; before which, however, they re 
 solved to make one more effort for the destruction of Frederica. 
 They accordingly set forth from their camp on the 13th, and again 
 arrived within a short distance of the town, where they halted to 
 rest; but no sooner had they laid aside their arms, than they were 
 attacked by the ever watchful Oglethorpe, defeated with dreadful 
 slaughter, and driven back to their ships. On the following day, 
 the 14th of July, the invaders hastily re-embarked and quitted 
 the Sound, leaving a large number of their men; wounded and 
 prisoners, with several pieces of cannon in the hands of the Eng 
 lish; and after attacking the forts on Cumberland island, with no 
 better success, they sailed back to St. Augustine and Havanna. 
 
 Expeditions for invasion and conquest rarely succeed; but 
 very rarely has one been resisted and defeated in a manner, more 
 complete and more honorable to the defenders, than that of the 
 Spaniards against Georgia in 1742. Monteano, on his return, 
 was arrested and cashiered, notwithstanding his gallantry and 
 success, in the defence of St. Augustine in 1740. Oglethorpe 
 received the congratulations and thanks of the Governors of 
 several of the northern colonies ; but from South Carolina, came 
 only an address of some of the inhabitants of Port Royal, while 
 from his own province of Georgia, a series of charges of mis 
 conduct against him, were transmitted to England. 
 
 In the spring of the following year, Oglethorpe made another 
 expedition with a few of his own men, and a number of Indians 
 against St. Augustine ; but the Spaniards were alarmed in time, 
 and ere he reached the town, they were so well prepared to receive 
 him, that he was obliged to return without effecting any thing, to 
 Frederica. After this repulse, he proceeded to England, where a 
 court martial was ordered to examine the charges which had 
 been made against him. They were pronounced groundless and 
 malicious, and he was acquitted in the most honorable manner; and 
 he did good service against the Pretender in 1745. He however 
 did not again visit America, being probably unwilling either to 
 oppose, or to admit the changes apparently inevitable, in the sys 
 tem which he had established in Georgia; and the remainder of his 
 life, prolonged to ninety years, was passed in England, in the 
 enjoyment of all the happiness which respectability, wealth, and 
 fortunate domestic associations, could secure to man. 
 
1743. J B1ENVILLE SUPERSEDED BY VAUDREUIL, 445 
 
 The trustees of Georgia endeavored for some years longer, to 
 maintain their system, but the resistance of the people rendered 
 it in time impossible. Negroes were introduced from South Caro 
 lina, as servants hired for one year, and the term was then ex 
 tended to ten years, and even to a hundred years, until they were 
 at length openly imported from Africa, as rum was brought in 
 from the West Indies. Dissensions also arose among the people 
 from these and other causes, and in 1751 the charter was surren 
 dered to the crown, after which the peculiar restrictions intro 
 duced by Oglethorpe were removed, and the country b$gan to 
 exhibit signs of prosperity. 
 
 In the meantime, a change was made in the direction of 
 affairs in Louisiana. Bienville's conduct in his expeditions 
 against the Chickasas, had subjected him to numerous expressions 
 of dissatisfaction on the part of the ministry, which, becoming 
 known in Louisiana, encouraged his enemies to treat him with 
 contempt and ridicule. In vain did he set forth his services in 
 memorials; in vain did he enumerate the Chickasa scalps, taken 
 under his influence by the Choctas ; in vain did he show his in 
 veterate hatred towards the English, by confining in dungeons, 
 or surrendering to the Spaniards, the unfortunate subjects of that 
 nation, who were found on the Ohio, or the Mississippi, or were 
 delivered to him by the Indians.* These services availed him 
 nothing, and he had no other alternative than to request his re 
 call; it was granted, and on the 10th of May^, 1743, he yielded 
 up the command at New Orleans, to the Marquis de Vaudreuil, 
 the son of a former Governor General of New France, who had 
 been appointed to succeed him. 
 
 From what has been shewn of Bienville's course, during his 
 long connexion with Louisiana, it will be seen that he merits a 
 conspicuous place in the history of the New World ; though not 
 so much from his own character and talents, as from the nature 
 of the events, in which he bore a part, always important. He 
 seems to have been, in the first place, really anxious for the ad 
 vancement and good of the colony, for which he was ready to 
 
 * Among the persons thus imprisoned, was John Peter Sallee, a Virginian, 
 who after several years of imprisonment in Louisiana, escaped and returned to 
 his country, where he settled, on James River at its confluence with North 
 River, immediately east of the Blue ridge. 
 
446 CHARACTER OF BIENVILLE. [1743. 
 
 commit any act, however repugnant to honor or humanity. His 
 desire was to see flourishing French settlements rise on the banks 
 of the Mississippi ; and with that object, he applied himself dili 
 gently to the extermination of the natives of those regions, by 
 every means, which could have been admissible, with regard to 
 noxious animals. He made war on them openly with his own 
 forces ; and he encouraged them to destroy each other by 
 fomenting their mutual animosities, and exciting their cupidity, 
 and by offering in his own conduct, examples of cruelty arid 
 treachery, which could not have failed to produce serious effects 
 upon trfe short-sighted savages. That the inferior races of man 
 to whom nature has denied the capacity to improve what 
 the earth offers must yield and disappear before those endowed 
 with higher powers, is a law against the execution of which, it 
 would be vain to contend : but the people to whom the task of 
 enforcing it is committed, may and should, do so, with leniency; 
 and their governments are bound to employ only just and humane 
 men for this purpose, as much as for the management of their 
 prisons, or asylums for the insane. Of such qualifications, no 
 man possessed less than Bienville; nor was any mode of life less 
 calculated to encourage feelings of honor, justice or humanity, 
 than that in which he was engaged, from youth to old age, among 
 rogues, ruffians and savages. With what degree of faith he 
 served his government, we know not : it would be unfair to pro 
 nounce him guilty of the numerous delinquencies with which he 
 was charged, during his residence in Louisiana; but we are au 
 thorised to suspect, that one uniformly false and treacherous 
 to his enemies, could not have been always true to his friends.* 
 
 Vaudreuil assumed the government of Louisiana at a critical 
 period, when all Europe was again involved in war by the selfish 
 ambition of its sovereigns; and the contest was as before, extend 
 ed to the American dominions of England, France and Spain. 
 
 The causes of this war were numerous. The imperial crown of 
 Germany was in dispute between Maria Theresa, Queln of Hun- 
 
 * Bienville probably left Louisiana with a moderate, if not a large fortune. 
 His plantation, opposite to New Orleans, was purchased by his successor, M. de 
 Vaudreuil. He proceeded immediately to Paris, where he passed the remainder 
 of his life in retirement, and died in 1767, in his eighty-sixth year, after seeing 
 no doubt to his grief and mortification the colony for which he had so long 
 labored, transferred to the dominion of another nation. 
 
1743.] GENERAL WAR IN EUROPE. 447 
 
 gary, and the Elector Charles of Bavaria. Frederic II. who had 
 just succeeded to the throne of Prussia, was anxious to include in 
 his kingdom the Austrian province of Silesia, and Hanover the 
 patrimony of the King of England. Philip V. of Spain desired 
 to regain Gibraltar and Minorca, and to secure two of his sons on 
 the thrones of Naples and Parma. Louis XV. of France wished 
 to enjoy the pomp and parade of a war, for which the acquisi 
 tion of some territory in the Netherlands or on the Rhine, was the 
 pretext. England wanted nothing except peace with Spain; but 
 George II. was determined at all hazards, not to lose Hanover. 
 Under these circumstances the hostilities were begun in Germany 
 in 1741: in February of the following year, Sir Robert Walpole, 
 unable longer to maintain his position, was obliged to resign the 
 direction of the State; and in January, 1743, his old coadjutor, 
 Cardinal Fleury died at the age of eighty-four, leaving Louis XV. 
 at full liberty to pursue the course which his favorites and mis 
 tresses might point out to him. English and French armies were 
 sent into Germany, where they soon came into collision, and the 
 French were utterly routed at Dettingen on the 27th of June. 
 Alliances were then formed ^between France, Spain, Prussia and 
 Bavaria, on the one side, and between Great Britain, Holland 
 and the Queen of Hungary on the other; and the struggle became 
 general throughout Europe before the end of the year. 
 
 At this period a secret treaty was concluded between the sove 
 reigns of France and Spain, which deserves special notice from 
 the peculiarities of its provisions, and the importance of their 
 consequences in the New World as well as in Europe. By this 
 treaty, concluded at Fontainebleau on the 25th of October, 1743, 
 the two monarchs guarantied to each other, in terms far more 
 specific and binding than those employed in any^ previous en 
 gagement, " all their kingdoms, states and lordships, as well 
 in as out of Europe, and all the rights which they have, or ought 
 to have therein." Particular provisions were made for the de 
 struction of the colony of Georgia, for the liberation of Spain 
 from the Asiento treaty, and for the restoration to that power, of 
 all the territories of which she had been, or might be, despoiled by 
 England: and this alliance was soon after rendered common to the 
 King of Naples and the Duke Parma, sons of Philip V. being, as 
 expressly stated in the additional article to that effect, signed in 
 
448 FIRST FAMILY COMPACT BETWEEN FRANCE AND SPAIN. [1743. 
 
 November following, intended as a Pacte de Famillc, or Family 
 Compact, between the various Princes of the House of Bourbon. 
 The treaty so well known by the same appellation, concluded in 
 1761, was merely a development and confirmation of this the 
 original compact, which carried into execution the design of 
 Louis XIV., and subsisted, without infringement by either of the 
 parties, until the French revolution. * 
 
 Of the dreadful battles and sieges in the Netherlands, Germa 
 ny and Italy, and the conflicts on the ocean during this war it 
 would be needless to speak. The invasion of Great Britain by 
 the Stuart pretender to the throne in 1745, may however be men 
 tioned, as it rendered necessary the retention of the forces of that 
 nation at home, which would otherwise have been directed 
 against the French and Spanish provinces beyond the Atlantic. 
 
 In America the news of the war between England and France 
 was first received in the spring of 1744, by the Governor of the 
 French Island of Cape Breton, who immediately sent a body of 
 men to occupy the neighboring English settlement of Canso, in 
 Nova Scotia. Nothing of great importance occurred during that 
 year; but in June following, the strong fortress and town of 
 Louisbourg, the capital of Cape Breton, on which the French 
 had expended such vast sums, as to render it apparently impreg 
 nable, was besieged and taken by an army of volunteers from 
 Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Connecticut, under William 
 Pepperel, of Boston, supported by a small squadron from England. 
 
 The success of this expedition encouraged Mr. Shirley, the 
 Governor of Massachusetts, by whom it was organized, to form 
 a plan for the conquest of all the other French possessions in 
 America, in the same manner ; that is, by a combination of land 
 forces from the colonies with British ships of war. The plan 
 
 * This treaty remained for a long time unknown, except to the parties imme 
 diately concerned; and was first published by Flassan, in his " Histoire de la Di 
 plomatic Francaise," in 1811. Its tenth article relating to America is as follows: 
 
 " Art. X. As the safety of Florida cannot be complete, so long as the new 
 colony of Georgia subsists, for the establishment of which the English have never 
 yet been able to produce any title in justification, their said Majesties will 
 take measures in concert, to oblige the English to destroy this new colony, as 
 well as any other fort which they may have constructed in the territory of His 
 Catholic Majesty in America, and to restore the country or places belonging to 
 Spain which the English may have already occupied or which they may occupy 
 in the course of the war." 
 
1745.] TRIUMPHS OF THE ENGLISH IN AMERICA. 449 
 
 was approved by the government, and a large armament was as 
 sembled at Portsmouth in England to be commanded by General 
 Sinclair,* while not less than eight thousand men w r ere raised in 
 the colonies: but the ships were not ready until the middle of 
 September, 1746, when it was considered too late for their voy 
 age across the ocean ; and their forces were in consequence di 
 rected against the opposite coast of Bretagne, where their efforts 
 produced only disgrace and ridicule. The French made several 
 incursions from Canada into New Yor,k and New England, 
 which ended as usual in the destruction of some frontier settle 
 ments; and in 1746, they endeavored to regain Louisbourg by 
 means of a large naval armament under the Duke d'Anville, 
 which was almost entirely destroyed by storms near Nova Scotia. 
 
 The British colonies farther south remained undisturbed during 
 the war, from which the principal inconvenience suffered by them, 
 was the interruption of their commerce with Europe and the West 
 Indies, and the murder of some of their traders, by Indians in the 
 interest of France or of Spain. 
 
 In Georgia and Florida, no hostilities were committed by either 
 party against the other, except a few marauding expeditions; nor 
 does any plan seem to have been arranged between Spain and 
 France, for the expulsion of the English from Georgia, agreeably 
 to the engagements made in the Family Compact. All the forcer 
 of France and Spain, which could be spared from Europe, were 
 in fact required to preserve the dominions of those nations in the 
 West Indies, from devastation, if not from conquest, by the pow 
 erful British fleets which ranged through the adjoining seas, under 
 Knowles, Hawke, Townshend, and other distinguished com 
 manders. Either of these fleets might doubtless have easily con 
 quered Florida or lower Louisiana, as both countries were entirely 
 destitute of the means of resistance, and they might both have 
 been retained by a few small garrisons; yet the vast armaments 
 of the English were wasted in attempts to batter down the old 
 Spanish forts at Laguaira, Porto Cabello and other places on the 
 coast of Terra Firma, or to capture islands which were not worth 
 the expense of holding them. 
 
 * David Hume was to have accompanied this expedition, as Secretary to the 
 Commander-in-chief. 
 
 57 
 
450 LOUISIANA AS FOUND BY VAUDREUIL. [1743. 
 
 Louisiana had been left by Bienville, on his resignation of the 
 government to Vaudreuil, in a condition even worse than that in 
 which he found it. After forty-four years of subsistence of the 
 French colony, it contained only six thousand persons other than 
 Indians, and of these, more than one-third were negroes.* The 
 lower districts still received a large proportion of their provisions 
 from France, in consequence of the suspension of the communi 
 cations with the Illinois, by the supremacy of the Chickasas on 
 the Mississippi, from the Arkansas to the Ohio. From Pointe 
 Coupee to Kaskaskia, through seven degrees of latitude, the only 
 French settlements were those immediately under the guns of the 
 forts at Natchez and at the mouth of the Arkansas, and at Natchi- 
 toches on the Red river, where small quantities of Indian corn 
 were raised, for the support of the inhabitants and garrisons, and 
 some tobacco for consumption in Europe. The tobacco of Lou 
 isiana, particularly that of Natchitoches, indeed began to be 
 prized by snuff-takers in Europe; and a few small vessels annu 
 ally took from Mobile and New Orleans, cargoes of timber and 
 pitch, in return for the rum and sugar which they brought thither. 
 These were, however, the only exports from lower Louisiana; 
 while in the Illinois, agriculture was diminishing, from the want 
 of a market, and the principal employment of the people was in 
 trade with the Indians, who gave their furs in payment for articles 
 of French manufacture from Canada. 
 
 All these evils were of course increased by the war between 
 France and England, begun in the autumn of 1743, soon after 
 the arrival of Vaudreuil as Governor of Louisiana; as all inter 
 course with the mother country was immediately out off, and the 
 Indians were of course rendered discontented, if not hostile, by 
 the inability of the French to supply them w 7 ith goods, either in 
 trade or as presents. The new Governor displayed much energy 
 and talent in his efforts to sustain the colony under these depress 
 ing circumstances if that can be called talent, which consisted 
 
 * According to a census of Louisiana, taken in 1745, the whole population 
 amounted to four thousand, of whom eight hundred were soldiers, and the ne 
 groes to two thousand and twentyr New Orleans contained eight hundred 
 whites, and three hundred blacks, besides the garrison of two hundred men. 
 The richest individual in the colony was M. Dubreuil, who had five hundred 
 negroes employed on his plantations, particularly on that immediately adjoining 
 New Orleans, and now occupied by the Third Municipality of that city. 
 
1744.] ENMITY OF THE RED SHOE TO THE FRENCH. 
 
 451 
 
 chiefly in the dextrous employment of dissimulation and false 
 hood, accompanied by a constant care for the advancement of his 
 own interests. He re-opened the communications between the 
 lower country and the Illinois, by means of squadrons of armed 
 boats navigating the river; he succeeded in renewing the arrange 
 ment with the English merchants of New York, Charleston aryd 
 Jamaica, by whom goods were secretly sent to New Orleans and 
 Mobile, and there exchanged for deer skins; and he evinced the 
 utmost desire to effect a general peace between those Indians 
 and the Chickasas, with the object of throwing the latter off their 
 guard, and thus obtaining an opportunity to destroy them entirely. 
 Savages however, accustomed from their childhood to distrust 
 every act and word, are not easily deceived : the amiable propo 
 sals of Vaudreuil produced no effect on the Chickasas, who re 
 ceived his presents, and then plundered the boats and frontier 
 settlements of the French ; while the great majority of the Choc 
 tas, under the influence of the Red Shoe, sided with the English. 
 The Red Shoe had been much exasperated against the French 
 by their failure to supply him with certain presents of arms and 
 ammunition which had been promised, as well as by the seduc 
 tion of his favorite wife, by one of the officers of Fort Tombecbe; 
 and he was thus easily led to favor the views of the English, who 
 employed as their agent, the bold and skilful trader James Adair, 
 the author of the interesting account of the Indian nations of that 
 part of America, so frequently mentioned in these pages. Adair, 
 like Vaudreuil, had in view the reconciliation of the Chickasas 
 with the Choctas, not however with the object of destroying both, 
 but to unite them in a confederacy with the English, against the 
 French ;* he succeeded to a certain extent, and the consequences 
 might have been very disastrous to the colony of Louisiana, had 
 not the impatience of the Indians led them to commence hostili 
 ties too soon, by the murder of the Chevalier de Verbois, a French 
 officer, and two traders on the Alabama in the summer of 1746. 
 The French being thus put on their guard, could not be surprised; 
 and their Governor immediately demanded from the Choctas, the 
 head of the Red Shoe, who was known to have instigated the 
 murders, as the only means of averting his vengeance. This 
 
 * See Adair's Account of the American Indians, pages 314 et seq., in which 
 he gives full vent to his detestation of the French. 
 
452 EFFORTS OF VAUDREUIL IN LOUISIANA. [1747. 
 
 demand Vaudreuil indeed had no power to enforce, as he was 
 unprovided with men, arms or ammunition, and was in daily ex 
 pectation of an attack from the British, who were said to be on 
 their way under Admiral Knowles, to the Mississippi: the Choc- 
 tas were nevertheless disconcerted, and it was resolved, in an 
 assembly of their chiefs, convened near Fort Tombecbe, by 
 Grandpre the commandant of that place, that the Red Shoe should 
 be put to death. The party of the doomed chieftain was how 
 ever too large for the execution of this decree without difficulty; 
 and a civil war was begun in that nation, which continued for 
 several years, with little intermission. 
 
 The efforts of Vaudreuil were in the meantime producing some 
 improvement, especially in the Illinois, where agriculture and 
 commerce were revived, in consequence of the regularity of the 
 communications established on the Mississippi. A squadron of 
 large bateaus ascended that river in the spring of each year, 
 carrying such articles of European or West India merchandise 
 as could be received, despite the watchfulness of the English 
 cruisers; and they returned in the autumn with cargoes of Hour, 
 meat, skins, furs, lead and other productions of the upper coun 
 try. For the upward voyage three or four months were required, 
 the descent being effected in half of that time. The Governor 
 endeavored also to re-establish the fort at the mouth of the Mar- 
 got, near the lowest of the Chickasa Bluffs, in order to exclude 
 the Chickasas from the Mississippi; but he was never able to 
 spare the number of men requisite to garrison such a post, though 
 he succeeded in occupying another position on the north side of 
 the Ohio, forty miles above its mouth, a little below the entrance 
 of the Cherokee or .Tennessee river, which was called Fort As 
 sumption,* and proved useful in securing the communications 
 \vith Canada, by way of the Wabash and the Miami. The 
 Chickasas, however, from time to time, repeated their inroads 
 upon the French settlements: in 1748, they surprised the estab 
 lishment at the mouth of the Arkansas, and killed or carried off 
 several of the inhabitants, before the garrison of the fort could be 
 collected for defence; and similar attacks were made by them on 
 the German Coast, and on Pointe Coupee, while New Orleans 
 
 * Afterwards Fort Massacre, pnd by abbreviation Fort Massac, from the sur 
 prise of the place and the destruction of the garrison by the Cherokees in 17G3. 
 
1748.] 
 
 MURDER OF THE RED SHOE. 
 
 453 
 
 and Mobile were kept in constant dread of invasion, by the Eng 
 lish from the Gulf. 
 
 In the same year, 1748, Vaudreuil succeeded in effecting the 
 death of the Red Shoe, who was murdered by some Indians at 
 the instigation of French officers deputed for that purpose, whilst 
 he was escorting an English trader with goods from the Chickasa 
 country to the Alabama.* M. de Grandpre the Commandant of 
 Fort Tombecbe seems to have directed the measures for this act, 
 which was executed through the agency of Lieutenant Grondel; 
 an act excusable only on the grounds scarcely admissible 
 of its conformity with the usages of all the European nations then 
 holding dominion in America. It was not however a barren 
 crime ; for though the influence of the English was still main 
 tained over the Indians for some time, through the exertions of 
 Mingo Push-kush the half brother of the Red Shoe, and of Paya- 
 mataha the great war chief of the Chickasas, yet the French after 
 the termination of the w r ar with Great Britain, regained their 
 power much more easily, than they could have done, had their 
 daring enemy survived to oppose them. 
 
 The war between England and Spain produced as before, an 
 increase of intercourse between the Spanish and the French pro 
 vinces on the Mexican Gulf, the Governors of which were in 
 structed to assist each other by every means in their power. 
 
 * Adair thus relates the particulars of this murder: "Red Shoe afterwards 
 fared the same fate, by one of his own countrymen, for the sake of a French 
 reward, while he was escorting the foresaid gallant trader, and others from the 
 Chickasas to his own country. He had the misfortune to be taken very sick on 
 the path, and to lie apart from the camp, according to their usual custom. A 
 Juda, tempted by the high reward of the French for killing him, officiously pre 
 tended to take great care of him : while Red Shoe kept his face towards him, 
 the barbarian had such feelings of awe and pity, that he had not power to per 
 petrate his wicked design ; but when he turned his back, then he gave the fatal 
 shot. In a moment, the wretch ran off', and though the whole camp were out 
 in an instant, to a considerable breadth, he evaded their pursuit, by darting like 
 a snake into a deep crevice of the earth." Account of the Indians, page 328. 
 
 The French accounts of this transaction agree as to the principal point of the 
 demand (the head of the Red Shoe) by Vaudreuil, and of his assassination by 
 Indians in the manner related by Adair; though they differ as to the direct 
 agency of the French in the execution. Those who may consider any moral 
 difference to exist, between urging the commission of an act, and taking part 
 directly in it, may consult Bossu, Bauclry de Lozieres, and Gayarre, as to the 
 circumstances. 
 
454 PROGRESS OF SPANISH SETTLEMENTS ON THE GULF. [1746. 
 
 Bienville supplied the Viceroy of Mexico with cannon and ammu 
 nition in 1741, when an attack by Vernon on Vera Cruz was ex 
 pected; and the contraband trade of the French, with the ports of 
 Florida and Mexico, was in return less severely interdicted. At 
 tempts were likewise made by the Spaniards, to" occupy the coun 
 try bordering upon the Mexican Gulf, between Panuco or Tam- 
 pico and the Bay of Espiritu Santo, now Matagorda Bay, which 
 had remained uninhabited and indeed unexplored, and was then 
 known under the general name of La Sierra Gorda. Authority 
 to "reduce and pacificate" this vast territory, was in 1739, grant 
 ed by the King of Spain to Don Jose de Escandon, as Lieutenant 
 Captain General of La Sierra Gorda; and through his exertions 
 and expenses, several small settlements were formed in the course 
 of the ensuing twenty years, of which the principal were New 
 Santander on the Santander river, entering the Gulf midway be 
 tween the Panuco and the Rio Bravo, and Camargo, Revilla and 
 Laredo on the latter stream. The Spanish population of Texas 
 however increased but little, in consequence chiefly of the enmity 
 of the savages, who annually made inroads upon the settlements; 
 although the garrisons were strengthened, and several new mis 
 sions were founded on the frontiers, in the hope of reducing those 
 people to quiet by mild means. The principal advance of popu 
 lation was in the town of San Fernando or San Antonio de Bexar, 
 which contained about six hundred inhabitants exclusive of the 
 soldiers, in 1743. The fort erected by Aguayo on the site of La 
 Salle's Fort St. Louis, was in the same year abandoned, on ac 
 count of its insalubrity and its distance from the other posts; and 
 another bearing the same name of La Bahia the Bay was 
 erected on the Medina or San Antonio river, forty miles from its 
 mouth, opposite the spot now occupied by the town of Goliad. 
 
 The lines of separation between the possessions of Spain and 
 France were also at this time, understood and admitted on both 
 sides, as they subsisted until the termination of the French do 
 minion in Louisiana; the extravagant assumptions of the India 
 Company having been abandoned, so far as regarded the coun 
 tries occupied by the Spaniards. The earliest map on which 
 those lines have been found, is that of the West Indies and the 
 countries surrounding the Mexican Gulf by D'Anville, attached 
 to Charlevoix's History of St. Domingo, published at Paris in 
 
1731.] BOUNDARY BETWEEN LOUISIANA AND TEXAS. 
 
 455 
 
 1731, of the portion of which including lower Louisiana, an exact 
 copy is here presented. 
 
 On this map, will be seen, a line running north-eastward from 
 the Mexican Gulf, near the mouth of the Perdido river, as sepa 
 rating Louisiana from Florida on the east; and on the other side 
 of the Mississippi, a similar line, which begins on the Gulf, east 
 of the mouth of the Sabine or R. Mexicano as it is called 
 by D'Anville and thence extends north-westward between that 
 stream and the Red river, dividing Louisiana from the Span 
 ish province of Texas, or Tecas, as the name was then usually 
 written by the French.* The same lines may be found, on all the 
 subsequent maps of D'Anville, and of all the other French geo 
 graphers, on which the boundaries of the possessions of that nation 
 in North America are traced: the eastern line extending from 
 the Perdido northward, to the dividing ridge of the Apalachian 
 or Allegany mountains, and along that ridge to its termination 
 
 * The name of R. Mexicano may be found, in the maps of Delisle published in 
 1718 and 1722, in that of Popple in 1733, in that of Bellin in 1744, and in a few 
 others of the same period, assigned to another river entering the Gulf east of the 
 Sabine ; and Humboldt, in his " Essay on New Spain," chap, viii., pronounces it 
 identical with the Mermentao. All the best authorities, French, English and 
 Spanish, however, apply the name of R. Mexicano to the river occupying the 
 position of the Sabine, between which and the Red river, the Spanish fortress of 
 Adayes is placed; this river is also called the Magdalena, but more generally R. 
 de Adayes, and very rarely the Sabine, though that name was assigned to it by 
 the Spaniards in their first expeditions to Texas. 
 
1744.] 
 
 REPORT OF THE MARQUIS DE ALTAMIRA. 
 
 459 
 
 threat contained in the concluding part of this epistle, was by no 
 means calculated to render the old French Commandant disposed 
 to comply with the summons of the Spaniard ; in his answer he 
 stated that "the Marquis de Aguayo had erected the fort of 
 Adayes in 1721, long before which time, the French had estab 
 lished themselves on the island, and in the country adjacent on the 
 south side of the Red river, where they had houses and pens for 
 cattle, without any opposition from the Marquis or his successors; 
 that the French represented the Natchitoches Indians, the original 
 possessors of the territory on both sides of the river, as the Span 
 iards represented the Adayes, who dwelt farther west ; and as 
 the space of seven leagues between the two forts had never been 
 divided, there w r as no reason by which the Spaniards could claim 
 the whole ; but however that might be, he acted under orders 
 from his superiors, and if attacked with arms, he would defend 
 himself in the same way, leaving the consequences to fall on the 
 party which might begin the contest. " The correspondence there 
 ended; and Sandoval, having no means of compelling the French 
 to retire, could only communicate t'he particulars to the Viceroy 
 of Mexico, who transmitted them to Madrid. 
 
 In 1736, Sandoval was removed from the government of Texas, 
 and a prosecution was commenced against him, at the instigation 
 of his successor, Don Carlos Franquis, the proceedings of which 
 were continued for several years, at great expense to all concern 
 ed. At length, the evidence having been collected, it was sub 
 mitted to the Marquis de Altamira, Auditor of War at Mexico, 
 who presented his report on the subject to the Viceroy, Count' de 
 Fonclara, on the 4th of July, 1744.* In this long and able docu 
 ment, the Marquis enters into the particulars of the settlement of 
 Texas, which are related fairly and dispassionately; and he con 
 cludes by declaring as his conviction "that the place called the 
 Great Mountain, midway between the two posts of Adayes and 
 Natchitoches, had been always regarded as the definitive boun- 
 
 *This report, of which the author possesses a copy in the original Spanish, is 
 the principal source of the information here presented, with regard to this dis 
 pute as to boundaries, between the authorities of Louisiana and those of Texas. 
 The conclusions are repeated and confirmed by numerous other official docu 
 ments of later date, showing that no doubt existed among the Spaniards, as to 
 the admission of the boundary on both sides. 
 
460 SOUTH-WEST BOUNDARY OF TEXAS. [1744. 
 
 dary separating the dominions of the two crowns, and not the 
 Red river, on this [south] side of which, the French had houses 
 and other possessions, extending as far as the said Great Moun 
 tain." This opinion of the Auditor was no doubt confirmed by 
 the Government, as the French remained in quiet occupation of 
 the place 'chosen by them, on the south side of the Red river, 
 where the town of Natchitoches now stands. The Great Moun 
 tain was a range of low hills, along the foot of w r hich, as stated 
 in the report, flows the small stream called Arroyo Hondo, or 
 Deep rivulet, ever after regarded as the precise dividing line be 
 tween the two jurisdictions. 
 
 The report of the Marquis de Altamira, also states with pre 
 cision, the other boundaries of Texas, on which points he, as 
 Auditor of War, was the highest authority. In describing the 
 provinces adjoining on the south, he says " Next beyond the 
 kingdom of New Leon is the province and government of Coa- 
 huila or New Estremadura, extending more than one hundred 
 and twenty leagues in length, from the river Medina, where 
 begins our farthermost province and government of Texas or the 
 New Philippines." "From the river Medina, where the said 
 province of Texas begins, to the Fort of Adayes where it ends, 
 its breadth from the west to the Mexican Gulf, is about eighty 
 leagues." 4 The Medina is the river now called the San Antonio; 
 the latter name being applied by the Spaniards only to the small 
 stream, on which the town of San Fernando or San Antonio de 
 Bexar is situated, falling into the Medina at a short distance be 
 low that place : the eighty leagues which are given as the extent 
 of the province westward from the Mexican Gulf, would include all 
 the territory east of the range of mountains or highlands where 
 lie the sources of the Neches, the Trinity, and all the other rivers 
 of Texas, except the Brazos and Colorado. The limits thus de 
 fined remained unchanged, during the whole period of the pos 
 session if the country by Spain, and appear to have been adopted 
 
 * See also the " Teatro Americano, Descripcion General de la Nueva Espafla" 
 by Antonio de Villa-Sefior y Sanchez, published at Madrid in 1748, containing 
 minute information, geographical and statistical, respecting the Mexican pro 
 vinces; and the Appendix to the Journal of the expedition of Captain Z. M. Pike 
 through the northernmost of those provinces in 1806, describing them from notes 
 afforded by the Spanish authorities. 
 
1748.] 
 
 PEACE OF AIX LA CHAPELLE. 
 
 461 
 
 and continued by the Mexicans so long as they held dominion 
 in those countries. 
 
 In the meantime Philip V. died in July, 1746, leaving the 
 crown of Spain to his eldest son Ferdinand V., that of Naples to 
 another son vDon Carlos, and that of Parma to the third Don 
 Philip. Many alliances among the powers of Europe had been 
 made, and many had been broken; some of the most important 
 questions in dispute had however been settled de facto, and the 
 reasons for continuing the war were thus so far diminished at the 
 commencement of 1748, that the parties engaged in it, were in 
 duced to agree on certain terms for its termination. A congress 
 of plenipotentiaries was accordingly assembled at Aix la Chapelle, 
 where a treaty was concluded on the 18th of October, between 
 Great Britain and the United Provinces on the one hand, and 
 France on the other, to which Spain, Austria, and the remaining 
 States subsequently acceded. The great European questions 
 were thereby definitively settled : Maria Theresa was acknow 
 ledged as Empress of Germany and possessor of all the Austrian 
 dominions, except Silesia, which was secured to Prussia, and 
 Parma which was left to Don Philip of Spain ; the right of the 
 House of Hanover to the throne of England was confirmed, and 
 the pretensions of the Stuarts forever set at rest; and other ar 
 rangements were made, with the exception of which, all things 
 were to return to the same state, as before the war. This latter 
 provision was extended to America, including the admission of 
 the right of Great Britain to the enjoyment of the advantages of 
 the Mento, during the four years from 1739 to 1743, for the loss 
 of which she was to be indemnified: all territories and places 
 taken by either of the belligerants from the other, were of course 
 to be restored; and the rights of each were to remain precisely as 
 they stood before the commencement of the hostilities, agreeably 
 to the treaties of Utrecht, and to others which were renewed so far 
 as they related to such rights. These arrangements were con 
 sidered in England, as constituting a poor return for the expenses 
 of the war, and the gallantry which had been displayed by the 
 nation in conducting it; while the French and the Spaniards, 
 had reason to congratulate themselves on such a termination of 
 the contest, in which neither of those parties had gained laurels, 
 or any other advantages. 
 
72 PROGRESS OF DISCOVERY IN AMERICA. [1748. 
 
 Many additions, some of them important, were made to the 
 geography and history of North America, in the interval of time 
 to which this chapter relates. The search for a north-west pas- 
 sage, or northern channel of communication between the Atlantic 
 and the Pacific Oceans, was renewed, in consequence of the ttv- 
 quent attacks made on the Hudson's Bay Company, for the neg 
 lect of the condition implied in its charter, that it should perse 
 vere in this search, and of the offer by the British Government, 
 of a reward of twenty thousand pounds, to the discoverer of such 
 a channel; and some voyages were made, by which the north 
 western arms of the Bay were explored farther than before. The 
 French at the same time, became more familiar with the countries 
 between the Ohio and the Lakes; and they penetrated the wil 
 derness north-westward from those great reservoirs, to a consid 
 erable distance, though certainly not beyond the range of moun 
 tains which divides the waters flowing respectively into the two 
 Oceans. The Russians likewise entered upon the career of dis 
 covery, and their gallant navigators Bering* and Tchirikof, sailing 
 from Kamtchatka, ascertained the existence of many islands, and 
 a large extent of coast east of that peninsula, between the 54th 
 and the 64th parallels of latitude, which were rightly conjectured 
 to be parts of America.* 
 
 During this period moreover, the. enlightened Jesuit Charle- 
 voix, in 1744, published his history of New France, including all 
 the possessions of the French in North America, accompanied by 
 the journal of his travels through those countries in 1721-2. The 
 Histories of Virginia by Keith and Stith, the Historical and Po 
 litical Summary of the English Provinces by Douglass, the His 
 tory of the Five Nations of Indians by Golden, the Natural His 
 tory of Carolina, Florida, &,c. by Catesby, the Maps of D'Anville, 
 Bellin and Popple the latter more remarkable for size than for 
 accuracy were likewise given to the public; all tending in va 
 rious degrees, to increase the importance of the New World in 
 the eyes of Europeans, and thus to bring on the great events, 
 which soon followed. 
 
 * Accounts ojf these discoveries of the Russians, will be found in the fifth 
 chapter of the " History of Oregon and California," by the author of this work. 
 
CHAPTER XIV 
 
 1749 TO 1763. 
 
 DIFFICULTIES OF EXECUTING THE TREATY OF Aix LA CHA- 
 PELLE IN AMERICA DISPUTES BETWEEN FRANCE AND 
 GREAT BRITAIN AS TO BOUNDARIES UNSUCCESSFUL NE 
 GOTIATIONS BY COMMISSARIES CONFLICTS IN NOVA SCOTIA 
 AND THE OHIO COUNTRIES FlRST CAMPAIGNS OF WASH 
 INGTON KERLEREC SUCCEEDS VAUDREUIL AS GOVERNOR OF 
 LOUISIANA WAR BETWEEN GREAT BRITAIN AND FRANCE 
 CANADA CONQUERED BY THE BRITISH FRUITLESS NEGO 
 TIATIONS FOR PEACE SECOND FAMILY COMPACT BETWEEN 
 FRANCE AND SPAIN SPAIN JOINS FRANCE AGAINST GREAT 
 BRITAIN SUCCESS OF THK BRITISH NEW NEGOTIATIONS 
 TREATY OF PEACE CONCLUDED AT PARIS CESSION OF 
 CANADA, EAST LOUISIANA AND FLORIDA TO GREAT BRI 
 TAIN, AND OF WEST LOUISIANA TO SPAIN. 
 
 THE war ended by the treaty of Aix la Chapelle had the im 
 portant effect of bringing the English and French colonies in 
 America distinctly in view of the civilized world, and of inducing 
 inquiries as to their relative situations, extent, and resources, 
 which were thenceforward to be admitted as elements in the cal 
 culations of European statesmen. The people of the British 
 colonies at the same time began to make those enquiries and 
 comparisons themselves, and to feel that they had a country, and 
 might have a national existence, and a name, independent of the 
 distant powers to which they had been hitherto regarded only as 
 appendages. The manifestation of these feelings had already 
 excited the jealousy of the government of the parent State, which 
 was to be still farther increased by the more important events 
 related in the present chapter. 
 
464 NEW DIFFICULTIES BETWEEN FRANCE & ENGLAND. [1749. 
 
 The restitutions prescribed by the treaty were made, as speedily 
 as possible, in all the quarters of the world; and the people of 
 New England, with feelings of deep mortification, saw Louis- 
 bourg and the island on which it stands, surrendered to its former 
 masters, in July, 1749. The British ministry, on the other hund, 
 showed its determination to occupy Nova Scotia effectively, by 
 sending thither, immediately on the termination of the war, a 
 number of emigrants, principally disbanded soldiers, and found 
 ing a city, which was named Halifax in honor of the President 
 of the Board of Trade and Plantations, upon the Bay of Chebuc- 
 too, opening to the Atlantic on the south-east side of the Penin 
 sula. Large tracts of land upon the upper waters of the Ohio, 
 supposed to be still included in the limits of Virginia, were at the 
 same time, granted to an association of persons in England and 
 Virginia, called the Ohio Company, by which agents and sur 
 veyors were immediately despatched to select proper sites for es 
 tablishments on that river; and other associations in New York, 
 Pennsylvania, Carolina and Georgia were in like manner authori 
 zed to trade and settle in the territories claimed by those pro 
 vinces, west of their existing establishments. 
 
 All these acts of the English, were however regarded by the 
 French, as encroachments upon their dominions, or on the rights 
 of the Indian nations, whom they considered as under their pro 
 tection; and remonstrances against them were addressed to the 
 British ministers by those of France, and by the Governor Gen 
 eral of New France to the Governors of the adjoining British 
 provinces. In Nova Scotia, a regular system of hostilities was 
 begun, between the British settlers and the French inhabitants of 
 the country calling themselves neutrals, in which the troops on 
 both sides soon took part; and the war was continued with fury, 
 until 1751, when it was arrested by a compromise between the 
 Commandants of the two nations, until the question of right could 
 be decided by their governments. On the Ohio, a body of armed 
 men was sent by the Governor General La Galissoniere from 
 Quebec, under M. De Celeron, (the officer who had commanded 
 the Canadians in the war against the Chickasas in 1740) with 
 orders to expel the Virginia and Pennsylvania intruders, to secure 
 the friendship of the Indians, and to select places for fortified 
 posts. These orders were executed by De Celeron with lenity 
 
1749.] 
 
 EXPEDITION OF CELERON TO THE OHIO. 
 
 465 
 
 towards the traders, whom he dismissed with a warning not to 
 return to the country west of the Alleghany mountains; and he 
 carefully examined the upper branches of the Ohio, affixing lead 
 en plates in various places, with inscriptions declaring the rights 
 of his sovereign to those regions.* 
 
 On the Mississippi, the peace enabled the French to regain 
 their influence over the savages, by a more regular supply of 
 presents, and by the increase in the forces of the province, to 
 which more than one thousand men were sent in 1749, to be dis 
 tributed among the various garrisons ; and a treaty was made 
 between Vaudreuil and the Choctas, in the following year, by 
 which the latter bound themselves, to exclude the English from 
 their territories, and to continue the war with the Chickasas. 
 The agriculture and commerce of the country were thus some 
 what advanced; to the benefit however chiefly of the Governor 
 and the other officers, who increased their fortunes by the sale of 
 offices, by the purchase of paper money at low prices to be after 
 wards re-issued in payment of troops and workmen, and by every 
 other species of extortion and embezzlement. Vaudreuil was 
 moreover, like his predecessors, at war with the Royal Commis 
 sary or Intendant of the Finances of the colony, M. de la Rou- 
 villiere; and each of these personages sent to France by every 
 vessel charges of misconduct against the other. Thus when the 
 
 * The following; is a copy of the inscription on one of these plates, which was 
 buried by De Celeron, according to his official statement, on the 20th of July, 
 1749, at the foot of a red oak tree, on the south bank of the Alleghany, opposite 
 to the point of a little island, at the junction of that river with the Conewango, 
 where the town of Warren in Pennsylvania now stands. 
 
 ''L/ari mil sept cent quarante neuf, du Regne de Louis XV. Roi de France, 
 Nous Celoron, Commandant du detachement envoye par M. le Marquis de la Ga- 
 lissoniere, Commandant General de la Nouvelle France, pour retablir la tranquil- 
 lite dans quelques villages de ces Cantons, avons enterr cette plaque au confluent 
 de 1'Ohio et du Kanaougon, ce vingt neuf Juillet, pour monument du renouvelle- 
 ment de possession, que nous avons prise de la dite riviere Ohio, et de toutes les 
 terres des deux cotes, jusqu'a la source des dites rivieres, ainsi qu'en ont joui ou 
 du. jouir les procedens Rois de France, et qu'ils s'y sont maintenus par les armes 
 et par les traites, et specialement par ceux de Riswick, d'Utrecht, et d'Aix la 
 Chapelle; avons de plus affiche dans le meme lieu a un arbre, les armes du Roi." 
 
 Several of these plates, each eight or nine inches square, and bearing the 
 above inscription in capital letters, except as to the date and place of deposite, 
 have been found at the mouths of the Muskingum and of the Kanawha, and at 
 other points on the Ohio. 
 
 59 
 
466' FIRST FRENCH POSTS ON THE ALLEGHANY. [1752. 
 
 Governor complained of the refusal of the Commissary to supply 
 the posts with necessaries, and the Choctas with presents, the 
 latter declared, that the Marquis demanded double the requisite 
 quantity of those articles, with the sole object of selling the sur 
 plus for his own profit, and accused him moreover, of compelling 
 the soldiers to frequent no other taverns than those kept by his 
 own creatures, and of which he shared the gains. 
 
 A large number of the troops sent to Louisiana, were stationed 
 in the Illinois, where Fort Chartres w r as rebuilt on a ne\v and ex 
 tended plan, so as to render it capable of sustaining a siege by 
 regular forces ; and in order to secure the possession of the Ohio, 
 which was considered indispensable for the subsistence of the 
 French dominion in America, other officers were successively 
 despatched from Canada with bodies of men, chiefly marines, to 
 occupy the several points recommended by Celeron. The first 
 spot thus fortified, was Presqu'ile or the Peninsula, on the south 
 east side of Lake Erie, where the town of Erie in Pennsylvania 
 now stands: another fort was erected on the river le Boeuf, or 
 French Creek, eighteen miles south of Presqu'ile; and a third 
 called Fort Machault, in honor of the Minister of Marine, about 
 forty-five miles farther in the interior, at Venango now Franklin, 
 in the angle formed by the junction of French Creek w r ith the 
 Alleghany, the great northern branch, or as the French consid 
 ered it the main stream of the Ohio. Traders and settlers from 
 Virginia and Pennsylvania however still continued to resort to 
 those countries; and the seizure of some of these men, who were 
 sent as prisoners to France, in 1751, contributed to increase the 
 difficulties between the Governments of the two nations. 
 
 The treaty of Aix la Chapelle, had indeed left many important 
 points relative to America, for future settlement by negotiation. 
 The rights and dominions of the two nations were, according to 
 its ninth article, "to be restored on the same footing as they were 
 or should have been,* before the commencement of the present 
 war;" no other indications being given as to what that "footing" 
 
 *The words "should have been" are omitt?^ in some English copies of the trea 
 ty, the French of which, is however the only authentic version, by the terms of 
 its separate articles. The Abbe Mably, in his " Droit Public de 1'Europe," chap, 
 xiv., states that these words were adroitly inserted by the English plenipotentia 
 ry, in order to afford a pretext for the wide interpretation, which was afterwards 
 given to the terms of the restitution. 
 
1752.] 
 
 PRETENDED SETTLEMENT OF BOUNDARY. 
 
 467 
 
 was, or "should have been," at the period prescribed, except by 
 reference to various anterior treaties, which were specially renewed 
 and confirmed, in all points not otherwise settled, by the stipula 
 tions then made. The Utrecht treaty, the most recent of these 
 agreements, was however entirely silent as to boundaries; for al 
 though certain countries therein named, were ceded or admitted to 
 belong to one or the other of the parties, their limits and all other 
 questions concerning them, were expressly reserved for determina 
 tion, or rather for ascertainment, by Commissaries, according to 
 the terms of previous treaties, which were equally indefinite on 
 those points; and the attempts to effect such determinations, had 
 produced no result in any case. 
 
 Assertions had indeed been made about this period, by certain 
 English writers on history and geography, that some line of sep 
 aration between the Hudson's Bay territories belonging to Great 
 Britain on the north, and the dominions of the French next ad 
 joining on the south, had been determined by Commissaries of 
 those nations, appointed agreeably to the tenth article of the treaty 
 of Utrecht," which provided for that mode of settling the ques 
 tion, and were admitted by their governments. These assertions, 
 however, all proceeded from persons entitled to no confidence; 
 and they differed from each other materially as to the course of 
 the supposed boundaries: one of them represented the line as ex 
 tending from a point on the Atlantic coast, midway between the 
 St. Lawrence and Hudson's Strait, south-westward to the 49th 
 degree of latitude; another continued this line westward along 
 the 49th parallel to the Pacific ; while a third gave a totally dif 
 ferent boundary, following the course of the highlands separating 
 the waters of Hudson's Bay from those falling into the St. Law 
 rence, the Lakes and the Mississippi. They appear to have at 
 tracted little or no attention at the time when they were made; 
 and had been generally forgotten, like many others of a similar 
 kind, at the beginning of the present century, when one of them, 
 presenting the boundary as fixed on the 49th parallel, was revived 
 by the Government of the United States, and became in time, the 
 base of two important treaties of limits, between that Republic 
 
 * See that article in full, with the account of the negotiation between the 
 English and French Commissaries, at page 347 of the first volume. 
 
468 PRETENDED LIMITS UNDER THE UTRECHT TREATY. [1750. 
 
 and Great Britain. It is now certain that no such settlement of 
 boundaries in that quarter was ever effected;* and it is only ex- 
 
 *The earliest mention of such a supposed settlement of boundaries, appears 
 in the fourth volume, page 349 of the " History of America" by Salmon, a writer 
 of all-work for the London booksellers, published in 1739, as a part of the cele 
 brated compilation called the Universal History. It is in these words: ''Com 
 missioners did afterwards settle the limits, by an imaginary line, drawn from a 
 promontory situate on the Atlantic Ocean, in 58 degrees 30 minutes, and running 
 from thence south-west to Lake Miscosink or Mistasin, and from thence south 
 west indefinitely, to the latitude of forty-nine ; all the countries to the north be 
 ing assigned to Great Britain, and all on the south, between that line and the 
 river of St. Lawrence or Canada, to France." 
 
 This assertion was adopted, without any variation, by Hutchins in his " Histori 
 cal and Topographical Account of Louisiana," published in 1784. Douglass thus 
 presents it with a notable addition, in his ''Summary of the English Provinces in 
 America," vol. 1, page 8: " By the treaty of Utrecht, the Canada or French line 
 with Hudson's Bay Company or Great Britain was ascertained, viz: from a cer 
 tain promontory upon the Atlantic Ocean, in north latitude 58 degrees 30 min 
 utes, to run south-west to Lake Mistasin (which communicates by Indian water 
 carriage, by Rupert's river with Hudson's Bay, and by Seguany river with St. 
 Lawrence river at the port of Tadousac, thirty leagues below Quebec,) and 
 from thence continued still south-west, to north latitude forty-nine degrees, and 
 from thence due west indefinitely." 
 
 In the meantime D'Anville's fine map of North America had appeared, in 1746, 
 presenting the line of separation between the British and French dominicris 
 south of the St. Lawrence, as already said, running from the Gulf of Mexico at 
 the mouth of the Perdido, north-eastward to and along the Apalachian or Alle- 
 ghany chain, in its whole length, and thence eastward to the Atlantic, near the 
 Bay of Fundy. North of the St. Lawrence, a dotted line is traced on this map, 
 nearly parallel to the eastern shore of James' Bay, (the southernmost part of 
 Hudson's Bay,) extending from the 54th degree of latitude south-westward ir 
 regularly to the 51st, as representing the course of the highlands separating the 
 waters of that Bay from those flowing to the Atlantic and the St. Lawrence, arid 
 marked " Hauteur des terres." In the copy of this map published in London in 
 1752, "greatly improved by John Bclton," all these lines disappear, the boundaries 
 being made to suit the views of Great Britain; and a line is introduced in the 
 course, described by Douglass with the following note near it on the map " The 
 line that parts French Canada from British Canada, was settled by Commissaries 
 after the peace of Utrecht, making a course from Davis' Inlet on the Atlantic 
 Sea, down to the 46th degree, through the Lake Abitibis to the North West 
 Ocean : therefore D'Anville's dotted line east of James' Bay is false." This line 
 may be found traced on some of the maps published in the middle of the last cen 
 tury ; while others, including those of Mitchell and Jeffries in 1755, of Bennet 
 1776, of Faden 1777, and of Harrison in 1787, present a line following the course 
 of the highlands enclosing the waters of Hudson's Bay on the south, as the 
 " Bounds of Hudson's Bay by the treaty of Utrecht ;" but the greater number, 
 embracing nearly all those of highest authority, contain no line of separation 
 between the dominions of France and Great Britain north of the St. Lawrence. 
 
 This subject will be farther treated hereafter at pages. 
 
1751.] NEGOTIATIONS OF COMMISSARIES AT PARIS. 
 
 469 
 
 traordinary, that these assertions, so evidently unsupported, should 
 have obtained credit among statesmen. 
 
 Of the impossibility of settling those questions of boundary by 
 arrangement, the Governments of France ancF Great Britain must 
 have been doubtless, as on the previous occasions, well aware. 
 An attempt was however made, in appearance at least, with that 
 object, while each nation was ardently engaged, as already shown, 
 in endeavoring to secure the possession of the disputed territories, 
 by occupation, or by the increase of its influence over the Indians. 
 Commissaries were appointed by each Government, who met at 
 Paris in the summer of 1750; Mr. Shirley, late Governor of Mas 
 sachusetts, and Mr. Mildmay being the representatives of Great 
 Britain, and the Marquis de la Galissoniere late Governor General 
 of New France, and M. Silhouette, acting on the part of France. 
 
 The duty first assigned to the Commissaries, was to fix the 
 limits of the country secured to Great Britain by the treaty of 
 Utrecht, under the name of Acadie or Nova Scotia. The Eng 
 lishmen opened the discussion by claiming for their nation, the 
 whole territory extending from New England to the Gulf of St. 
 Lawrence, between the river St. Lawrence and the Atlantic; de 
 nying to the French any right, to any portion of the Continent 
 south of that river. The French on the other hand insisted, that 
 the Nova Scotia secured to Great Britain by the Utrecht treaty, 
 was neither more nor less than the province of Acadie, which was 
 declared by them, to be only a small strip of land on the south 
 west side of the Peninsula so called; and that the remainder of 
 the territory claimed by the British, was either comprised in 
 Canada, or belonged to Indian nations in alliance with, and under 
 the protection of France. In support of these extreme preten*- 
 sions, which were maintained without any signs of concession by 
 each party, many long memorials were presented, accompanied 
 by numerous documents and maps, affording together, undeniable 
 evidence of the learning, labor and ingenuity of the Commissa 
 ries, who in fact exhausted their subject.* The question at issue 
 
 *The proceedings of these Commissaries fill four large quarto volumes, pub 
 lished at Paris between 1751 and 1756, under the title of" Memoires des Com- 
 missaires du Roi, et de ceux de Sa Majeste Britannique, sur les possessions et 
 les clroits respectifs, des deux couronnes en Amerique" forming together one 
 of the most valuable collections of documents yet made, relative to the early 
 history of North America. 
 
470 EFFORTS OF ENGLISH AND FRENCH IN AMERICA. [1752. 
 
 nevertheless seemed as far from a decision, at the end of the first 
 vear of the discussion, as at its commencement; nothing being 
 proved, except the entire absence of all right on the part of either 
 nation, to the possession of more than a few small points in the 
 disputed region, agreeably to any admitted rule of conduct in 
 stich cases. Other questions respecting the islands of St. Lucie 
 and Tobago were then submitted to the Commissaries, and were 
 treated in the same way, and with no more definite results; and 
 after two years passed in these futile investigations, the attempt 
 to insure the continuance of peace by that means was abandoned. 
 While these discussions were in progress at Paris, affairs were 
 proceeding rapidly in America to a crisis. The English traders 
 and settlers were boldly advancing into the interior of the Conti 
 nent; and the Governors of the French provinces were actively 
 engaged in adopting every possible means to arrest them, espe 
 cially by exciting the Indians to make war upon the daring in 
 truders. The English fort at Oswego was the particular object 
 of the jealousy of the French, and their missionaries among the 
 Iroquois labored diligently, to effect a union of those nations 
 for its destruction;* while the English were no less anxious to 
 procure the expulsion of their rivals from Fort St. Frederic or 
 Crown Point, where Lake Champlain expands into a broad sheet 
 of water, about ninety miles .from Albany. On the Ohio, the 
 English were daily gaining ground, and one of the agents of the 
 Ohio company, Mr. Gist, had penetrated as far as the Miami 
 river; through his efforts the Twittoweef or Miami Indians, had 
 been induced to attack the French settlements on the Wabash, 
 
 * The most active and zealous of the French missionaries engaged in this pious 
 work, was the Abbe Francois Picquet, of whom a curious biographical memoir, 
 read by M. de la Lande before the Academy of Sciences at Paris, may be found 
 in the Lettres Edifiantes. In it is an extract from the instructions of the Minis 
 ter of Marine M. Rouille to the Abbe, to impress upon the Indians, "that the 
 only means of relieving themselves from the pretensions of the English to the 
 possession of their territories, is to destroy Oswego, so as to deprive them of a 
 post, which was established chiefly for the purpose of restraining the Iroquois." 
 The Abbe displayed great talent and boldness in his endeavors to comply with 
 these instructions; but fortunately for the English, he was not seconded by the 
 Commandants of the French garrisons, between whom and the missionaries there 
 was a mutual repulsion, preventing all cordial co-operation. 
 
 f This name is said to be an imitation of the cry or whistle of the plover. It 
 is usually written T~"ightee, and sometimes T\vixtee. 
 
1752.] 
 
 PLANS OF THE FRENCH IN AMERICA. 
 
 471 
 
 and the flame had extended to the Illinois, where a plan was 
 formed in 1751 for the extermination of the Europeans, which 
 was only frustrated by the energy of the French Commandant, an 
 Irishman named MacCarty. Farther south, the Chickasas again 
 took up the hatchet, and interrupted the communications between 
 the upper and the lower Mississippi; and a large French force 
 was again assembled at the Chickasa Bluffs, with the hope of 
 overwhelming these irreconcilable foes. Vaudreuil, however) 
 on this occasion gained no more glory than Bienville had reaped 
 from his expeditions : he marched from the Mississippi to the 
 Chickasa towns in the summer of 1752 ; but each village was 
 found, as before, strongly fortified, through the exertions of the 
 British traders, and the French were obliged to return, without 
 having ventured to attack any one of them. 
 
 The French Government had in fact, by this time, arrived at 
 the conclusion, that the overthrow of the authority of Great Britain 
 in America and in India, was indispensable to the security of its 
 own dominion in those parts of the world; and plans had been 
 devised with that object, which might have been considered wise 
 and provident, had the power and resources of France, equalled 
 the estimates of her statesmen and commanders with regard to 
 them. The first great measure embraced in this plan, respecting 
 America, was the establishment of a connection between the 
 provinces of the St. Lawrence and those of the Mississippi, by 
 the effective occupation of all the strong points in those countries^ 
 a measure which had been indeed contemplated, ever since the 
 settlement of Louisiana, and the execution of which the English 
 had as constantly labored to prevent. For the success of this 
 plan, facilities were offered by the position of the great interior 
 waters of that part of America, most favorable for intercourse be 
 tween the French possessions; while the English, in order to 
 reach any one of them, would be obliged to traverse lofty moun 
 tains and dense forests, presenting impediments almost insur 
 mountable to the march of large bodies of troops, with their ne 
 cessary arms, ammunition and provisions. The completion of 
 such a system of fortified posts would, it was hoped by the French, 
 place the provinces of their rivals at their mercy, or at least arrest 
 the advance of the settlements of that people, which would thus 
 be exposed to attack in all directions. With the exception of 
 
472 POPULATION OF ENGLISH AND FRENCH COLONIES. [1753. 
 
 Oswego, the French had all the principal points on the waters of 
 the St. Lawrence, namely Frontenac, Niagara, Presqu'ile, Detroit, 
 and Mackinac, between which and the Mississippi, the only im 
 portant spot remaining to be occupied by them, was at the conflu 
 ence of the Monongahela and Alleghany rivers, called by the 
 English the Forks of the Ohio, where the flourishing city of Pitts- 
 burg now stands. 
 
 The Briiish Government was, probably, by no means equally 
 anxious to expel the French from the North American Continent, 
 where they might serve as a check upon the tendencies to inde 
 pendence, which had so unequivocally manifested themselves 
 among the English colonies; and His Christian Majesty might 
 probably been suffered to retain his dominions on the St. Law 
 rence and the Mississippi, so long as he should riot overstep the 
 bounds, within which the dignity of Great Britain required that 
 he should be restrained. But the people of the British American 
 colonies were not content with any restrictions upon their advance 
 into the interior of the Continent: wherever good land was tp be 
 found, they then, as now, claimed the right of settling and of es 
 tablishing their own customs and laws, to the exclusion of all 
 others; and it must have been evident to their rulers, that any 
 attempt to curb this disposition, would prove vain, if not perilous 
 to the subsistence of the authority of the mother country. 
 
 The English colonies at that time contained at least a million 
 of inhabitants of pure European race, while the whole number of 
 French subjects, in New France and Louisiana, was less than 
 fifty thousand: the French were however always the superior in 
 numbers of regular forces, which had been then recently increased 
 to perhaps ten thousand, and their militia were well trained and 
 equipped for war. The jealousy prevailing between the different 
 English provinces, each regarding itself almost as an independent 
 State, moreover rendered concert among them, for any object 
 except opposition to the mother country, extremely difficult, if 
 not impossible: their legislative assembles could rarely be in 
 duced to appropriate funds for defence; and their militia, unless 
 supported by large bodies of regulars, were generally tardy and 
 wasteful, to a degree which seriously impaired their efficiency. 
 It is nevertheless difficult at the present day to comprehend, either 
 the expectations of the French, or the fears of the English. Con- 
 
1753.] KERLEREC GOVERNOR OF LOUISIANA. 473 
 
 tinents are to be overspread with population, by industry and 
 perseverance in the quiet pursuits of life, for which armies and 
 fortifications are only useful as protections; and the French, ever 
 under the influence of the military spirit, had already proved be 
 yond all possibility of doubt, their vast inferiority as colonizers 
 to the English, who never drew the sword unless it was absolutely 
 necessary, to defend their ploughs, looms and anvils. 
 
 The particulars of the plan for connecting Canada and Louis 
 iana by colonies and forts, appear to have been suggested by 
 Vaudreuil, who made many communications to the French min 
 isters on the subject ; and in order that he might farther unfold 
 his views, he was summoned to Paris, where he arrived in the 
 spring of 1753, having resigned the government of Louisiana on 
 the 9th of February, to M. de Kerlerec a captain in the royal 
 navy. M. de la Jonquiere had in the meantime succeeded La 
 Galissoniere, as Governor General of New France; and upon his 
 death, in March, 1752, the Marquis de Duquesne was appointed 
 to that important situation. He immediately increased the forces 
 in the Ohio countries, which were placed under the command of 
 M. Legardeur de St. Pierre, an old and experienced officer; and 
 he made preparations for farther establishments in those regions, 
 all of which above the Wabash, had been declared within the 
 limits of his province, agreeably to the line of separation recently 
 established between Canada and Louisiana, extending from the 
 head waters of the latter stream north-westward to the Mississippi 
 at the mouth of Rock river. 
 
 These proceedings of the French in the Ohio territories, soon 
 became known in New York, Virginia and Pennsylvania, where 
 they excited some alarm and much indignation. Representations 
 were made to the ministers at London, who in consequence sent 
 orders to the Governors of those provinces, to take measures in 
 concert for defence against these hostile invasions; \vhile the 
 colonies were themselves urged to unite for the same common 
 purpose. Funds were moreover placed at the disposition of the 
 Governor of Virginia, within whose jurisdiction the countries of 
 the Ohio were considered as lying, in order to enable him to 
 raise troops and build forts, for the maintenance of the British 
 dominion in that quarter, where it appeared to be most seriously 
 menaced by the French. 
 60* 
 
474 CLAIM OF VIRGINIA TO THE OHIO COUNTRIES. [1753. 
 
 The claim of Virginia to the Ohio countries was founded upon 
 the terms of the second and third charters granted to the Virginia 
 Company by James I. in 1609 and 1612; agreeably to which, it 
 embraced the coasts of the Atlantic, northward and southward 
 from Point Comfort at the mouth of James river, to the distance 
 of two hundred miles in each direction, and the whole territory 
 thence extending across the Continent, "west and north-west," 
 to the Pacific.* The coast thus described, comprehended nearly 
 the whole line from Cape Fear to the entrance of New York bay; 
 and the territory stretching westward from that line included nearly 
 the whole course of the Ohio proper that is to say, below the 
 junction of its two great branches the Alleghany and the Monon- 
 gahela; while a line drawn north-westward from the northernmost 
 point on the coast granted, would have placed in Virginia, all the 
 countries drained by the Ohio, the Upper Mississippi, and the Mis 
 souri, and by all the streams falling into Lakes Erie, Huron, 
 Michigan, and Superior from the south and west. This latter 
 construction of its boundaries was maintained by Virginia, except 
 with regard to the portions of its original grant, which had been 
 assigned by charters from the crown, to Maryland, Pennsylvania 
 and Carolina ; and these portions comprehended all south of the 
 latitude of 36 degrees 30 minutes, and all north of the Potomac, 
 and of a line drawn from the mouth of that river eastward to the 
 Atlantic, together with such other territory on the north as might 
 be ascertained to belong to Pennsylvania, which was to extend 
 through five degrees of longitude, eastward from the Delaware. 
 
 The upper waters of the Ohio, on which the French had estab 
 lished themselves, were included in the last mentioned territory, 
 then in question between Virginia and Pennsylvania; and were 
 moreover claimed by other provinces, on grounds which it is un- 
 
 * "All those lands, countries, and territories, situate, lying and being in 
 
 that part of America called Virginia, from the point of land called Cape or Point 
 Comfort, all along the sea coast to the northward two hundred miles, and from 
 the said point of Cape Comfort, all along the sea coast, to the southward two 
 hundred miles, and all that space and circuit of land, lying from the sea coast 
 of the precinct aforesaid, up into the land, throughout from sea to sea, west and 
 north-west, and also all the islands lying within one hundred miles along the 
 coast of both seas of the precinct aforesaid." 
 
 These are the words of the second charter, recited in the third, which was 
 granted in 1712. Both documents may be found at length in Stith's History of 
 Virginia and in Hening's Statutes of Virginia. 
 
1753.] WASHINGTON'S MISSION TO THE UPPER OHIO. 475 
 
 necessary here to explain. The French Government founded its 
 pretensions to those regions, upon first discovery and occupation ; 
 supporting them, sometimes by reference to the charter of Louis 
 XIV. to Crozat in 1713, and the decree annexing the Illinois to 
 Louisiana in 1718, in which the whole division of America drain 
 ed by the Mississippi and its tributaries, is declared to be included 
 in that French province; while it was asserted on other occasions, 
 that the countries of the Ohio had always formed part of Canada, 
 and on others again, that they belonged to the Indian confederacy 
 of the Iroquois under the protection of tlie French. 
 
 The Virginians however had no doubt of the sufficiency of their 
 title to the Ohio countries; and their Governor, Mr. Dinwiddie, 
 in order to learn the objects and strength of the French in that 
 quarter, commissioned George Washington, then a major in the 
 provincial militia, though only twenty-one years of age, to proceed 
 thither with a letter to the French commandant, inquiring by 
 what right he appeared in arms, in the terjitories of the British 
 King. In performance of this duty, the young envoy, accompa 
 nied by a few men, proceeded from Williamsburg the capital of 
 Virginia, by way of Alexandria, Winchester and Wills' Creek, 
 (now Cumberland in Maryland,) to the foot of the Alleghany 
 mountains; and crossing that range in November, 1753, he reach 
 ed the Forks of the Ohio, the importance of which, he after a 
 careful examination, fully appreciated. Thence he went up the 
 valley of the Alleghany to Venango, where he found the first 
 French post, commanded by Captain Joncaire; and after a short 
 stay, during which they were well treated, the Virginians con 
 tinued their journey northward to Fort Le Boeuf, the head quar 
 ters of the Chevalier de St. Pierre, the commandant of the upper 
 Ohio, to whom Washington delivered the letter from Governor 
 Dinwiddie. To the question propounded in this letter, the com 
 mandant only answered, that he had been sent by the Governor 
 General of New France, to establish and maintain the authority 
 of their sovereign over those countries, which belonged of right 
 to France, and to seize every person of any other nation who 
 should attempt to trade on the Ohio or its waters ; and that it was 
 his intention scrupulously to execute this commission. As to the 
 origin and base of the right thus assumed, Washington could 
 only learn, that it was derived "from a discovery made by one 
 
476 THE FRENCH SEND REINFORCEMENTS TO THE OHIO. [1754. 
 
 La Salle sixty years ago;" and as he could produce no better 
 title himself, and his object was rather to observe than to discuss, 
 he returned to Williamsburg, carrying with him a mass of valua 
 ble information, relative to the posts, the forces arid the views of 
 the French, which was soon after published in the form of a jour 
 nal, and has since been often reprinted.* 
 
 Accounts of Washington's visit to Fort Le Bceuf, were imme 
 diately despatched to the Governor General at Quebec, who there 
 upon sent M. Pecaudy de Contrecoeur with a large body of rein 
 forcements, to take the Command on the Ohio. This officer on 
 reaching Venango, learned that the English were already engaged 
 in building a fort at the Forks of the river; and considering it 
 important to arrest these operations at once, he proceeded to that 
 point, where he found about fifty Virginians under Captain Trent, 
 who had been sent by Dinwiddie to occupy the place upon the 
 recommendation of Washington, and who retired on the first 
 summons from the French. Contrecoeur being satisfied of the 
 great advantages of the position unsurpassed indeed, in many 
 advantageous respects, by any other in the interior of America 
 commenced a large work at the point of the junction of the two 
 streams, which was named Fort Duquesne in honor of the Gov 
 ernor General of New France. 
 
 The news of these proceedings of the French on the Ohio, 
 were soon carried through the British colonies; and a convention 
 or Congress of delegates from nearly all those north of the Poto 
 mac, was assembled at Albany, to which the principal chiefs of 
 the Six Nations also repaired in June. Treaties were made 
 between the parties, on terms calculated to secure the attachment 
 of the savages; and this business being despatched, propositions 
 were presented by Benjamin Franklin one of the delegates from 
 
 *"The Journal of Major George Washington, &c. :" London, 1753. It may 
 be found in Marshall's "Life of Washington" and in the second volume of 
 Sparks' "Life and Writings of Washington," which contains many other docu 
 ments relative to the events of Washington's early military proceedings. 
 
 Farther information on these and other circumstances, which led to the war 
 hetween England and France, is communicated in a work published by the French 
 Government at Paris in 1756, entitled " Mcmoire, contcnant le precis des faits, 
 avec leurs pieces justificatives, pour servir de reponse aux observations envoyi-es 
 par les ministres Anglais, dans les cours de 1'Europe" which was translated and 
 printed in English at New York in the following year, as " A Memoir in answei 
 to the observations sent by the English Ministry to the Courts of Europe." 
 
1754.] CONVENTION OR CONGRESS AT ALBANY. 477 
 
 Pennsylvania, for a union of all the colonies under a General 
 Government, consisting of a legislative body elected by the 
 colonies, and an executive President appointed by the crown : 
 the acts passed by the General Assembly were to have the as 
 sent of the sovereign in order to render them valid; while the 
 officers and agents of the President, should receive the approval 
 of the legislature, before entering upon the performance of their 
 functions. This plan, in which may be seen the rudiments of 
 the Federal constitution, adopted thirty-five years afterwards for 
 the union of the same colonies as free and independent States, 
 was at once rejected by the provinces and by the mother country ; 
 the latter refusing to concede the powers claimed for the General 
 Legislature, while the colonies were equally opposed to those 
 which would be conferred upon the representative of the crown. 
 
 In the meantime important events had occurred on the Ohio. 
 The French were actively engaged in the construction of their 
 Fort Duquesne in the latter part of May, 1754, when they received 
 news that a large number of English soldiers from Virginia, had 
 crossed the mountains, and were marching towards them. In 
 order to ascertain the strength and objects of this body, Contre- 
 coeur detached M. Villiers de Jumonville, a' young ensign, of a 
 family already distinguished for courage and enterprise, with 
 thirty-five men, to make observations; instructing him, in case 
 he should meet the English, to read to them a formal summons, 
 of which he was the bearer, to quit those territories under pain of 
 being obliged to do so by force. 
 
 The English, of whose approach news had been thus brought 
 to Fort Duquesne, were about three hundred Virginians, com 
 manded by Washington, as Lieutenant Colonel. They had been 
 raised and equipped by order of the Governor, under an act from 
 the legislature of the Province, appropriating ten thousand pounds 
 for the defence of the Ohio; and their commander having learned 
 on the way, the fact of the expulsion of Trent and his men from, 
 the Forks of the river, and the occupation of that important spot 
 by the French, was hastening to take another position on the 
 Monongahela, thirty-seven miles from Fort Duquesne, where the 
 town of Brownsville in Pennsylvania is now situated. Soon after 
 crossing the Alleghany mountains, Washington was informed by 
 some Indians, that a party of French were in his vicinity; and 
 
478 DEATH OF M. DE JUMONVILLE. [1754. 
 
 being unable to ascertain their numbers, he threw up an entrench 
 ment at a place called the Great Meadows, near the present town 
 of Union in Fayette county, Pennsylvania, where he left his bag 
 gage and all his men, except forty with whom he marched ahead 
 accompanied by some Indians, in search of the enemy. 
 
 The French whom Washington went to meet, were Jumonville 
 and his thirty-four men. They were found by the Virginians 
 early on the morning of the 28th of May, in an obscure hollow, 
 where they had encamped during the previous night; and Wash 
 ington having surrounded their position, so as to close every ave 
 nue for escape, attacked them on all sides at the same moment. 
 Thus surprised, the French could make no effectual resistance: 
 Jumonville and nine of his men were immediately killed ; one or 
 two then escaped, and the remainder after firing a few shots, laid 
 down their arms. The Indians, as usual, tore off the scalps from 
 the dead, which were sent with presents to the tribes farther north ; 
 the prisoners were despatched under guard to Williamsburg. 
 Upon the person of Jumonville were found the instructions and 
 the summons given to him by Contrecoeur, both serving to show, 
 that the intentions of the French were not directly hostile; and the 
 same views were confirmed by the declarations of the prisoners. 
 Yet Washington seemed, from the terms of his letter to Governor 
 Dinwiddie, not to have had any doubts as to the propriety of his 
 own conduct in the attack; unless indeed they might be inferred 
 from the remarkable conciseness of his account of the action the 
 first in which he was ever engaged and the length of his argu 
 ments, in demonstration of the evil designs of the French.* 
 
 * The only original reports of these circumstances, are to be found in the des 
 patches of Washington to Governor Dinwiddie, and of Contrecoeur to the Mar 
 quis Duquesne. Washington's account of the action with Jumonville is all em 
 braced in these few words : 
 
 " When we came to the place where the tracks were, the [Indian] Half-king 
 sent two Indians to follow their tracks and discern their lodgement, which they 
 did, at half a mile from the road, in a very obscure place, surrounded with rocks. 
 I thereupon, in conjunction with the Half-king and Monacawacha, formed a 
 disposition to attack them on all sides, which we accordingly did; and after an 
 engagement of about fifteen minutes, we killed ten, wounded one, and took 
 twenty-one prisoners. Amongst the killed, was M. de Jumonville the com 
 mander." Sparks' Life and Writings of Washington, vol. 2, page 32. 
 
 Contrecoiur thus relates the particulars as derived from one of Jumonville's 
 men who escaped : " One of that party, Monceau by name, a Canadian, made his 
 
1754.] DE YILLIERS MARCHES AGAINST WASHINGTON. 479 
 
 Accounts of the death of Jumonville and the capture of his 
 party, were carried to Fort Duquesne, by one of the men who 
 escaped. They excited the utmost indignation ; and Contrecoeur 
 immediately ordered M. Le Mercier, his second officer, to pro 
 ceed with five hundred soldiers, and chastise the intruders upon 
 the territories claimed by their sovereign. Ere Le Mercier could 
 set out, M. de Villiers, the elder brother of Jumonville, arrived 
 from the Illinois, and claimed the command; which being assign 
 ed to him, he quitted the fort on the 29th of June, and on the 
 3rd of the following month reached the Great Meadows, where 
 Washington had thrown up an entrenchment, named by him Fort 
 Necessity. The Virginians immediately advanced from their 
 lines, and a battle was begun, which continued throughout the 
 day, though rather languidly ; as the French exhibited no dispo 
 sition to leave their cover in the wood, and Washington did not 
 attempt an attack, probably from want of confidence in his men, 
 who were all raw volunteers, and inferior in numbers and equip 
 ment to their opponents. At night, Villiers proposed a parley; 
 and this being accepted, he offered terms of capitulation, to which 
 
 escape, and tells us that they had built themselves cabins, in a low bottom, where 
 they sheltered themselves, as it rained hard. About seven o'clock on the next 
 morning, they saw themselves surrounded by the English on one side, and by In 
 dians on the other; the English gave them two volleys, but the Indians did not fire. 
 M. de Jumonville by his interpreter, told them to desist, as he had something to 
 say to them; upon which they ceased firing. M. de Jumonville then ordered the 
 summons, which I had sent them to retire, to be read, a copy of which I have the 
 honor to send you. The said Monceau saw all the French coming close around 
 M. de Jumonville, whilst the summons was read ; so that they were all in pla 
 toons, between the English arid the Indians, and in the meantime, Monceau made 
 the best of his way to us. * * * The Indians who were present when the 
 thing was done, say that M. de Jumonville was killed by a musket shot in the 
 head, while they were reading the summons, &c." See the Memoir published 
 by the French Government in 1755, as mentioned in the note on page 475. 
 
 The two accounts do not differ in any material point; and they both show 
 clearly, that the French were surprised, surrounded, and attacked by Washing 
 ton, ere they could prepare to fight or to explain their objects. 
 
 It is strange that with these documents before them the authenticity at least 
 of which could not be doubted the circumstances of this affair should have 
 been so frequently misstated by historians. What are we to say, for instance, 
 to the following extract, from the Life of Washington, by great and good Chief 
 Justice Marshall, as revised, corrected and published by the author in 1833, vol. 
 1, page 4: " At day-break, his [Washington's] troops fired and rushed upon the 
 party, which immediately surrendered. One man only escaped capture; and 
 J\J. Jumonville atone, the commanding officer was killed." 
 
480 REFLECTIONS ON WASHINGTON'S CONDUCT. [1754. 
 
 Washington, after many alterations had been made in them, final 
 ly agreed. The Virginians were allowed to evacuate the place 
 with all their arms and munitions of war except artillery, on con 
 dition that they should retire beyond the Alleghany mountains, 
 and that the prisoners taken by them should be restored; it being 
 expressly stated in the articles, which were drawn up in French, 
 and imperfectly explained to Washington by a Dutch interpreter, 
 that the principal object of the French was to avenge the assas 
 sination of Jumonville.* 
 
 Such were the circumstances which led directly to the celebra 
 ted struggle between Great Britain and France, for dominion in 
 North America. The commander of the Virginians was the same 
 George Washington whose death 'forty-five years later, was 
 mourned in all parts of the civilized world, as a loss to humanity; 
 whose statue, erected long afterwards by the universal assent of a 
 grateful nation, bears the inscriptions, no less true than beautiful 
 
 "First in war, First in peace, First in the hearts of his Countrymen." 
 
 9 
 The incomparable manner in which Washington discharged his 
 
 subsequent trusts, the highest ever confided to man, renders it the 
 desire, and indeed the duty of those who relate the circumstances 
 of his attack upon Jumonville, to defend his conduct as far as the 
 principles of right will allow: yet youth, inexperience, and the 
 prejudices of early life prejudices which he soon abandoned 
 are the only grounds of excuse for that conduct. France and 
 England were then in peace, and engaged in discussions for the 
 determination of their rights, to the territory in which the attack 
 was made. Jumonville bore instructions from his Government, 
 
 Washington, many years afterwards, addressed a letter to a friend with re 
 gard to the French accounts of this affair, which may be found, though without 
 date or address, in the Appendix to Marshall's Life of Washington* published 
 in 1833, vol. 1, page 12. He therein says: 
 
 "That we v/ere wilfully or ignorantly deceived by our interpreter, in regard 
 to the word assassination I do aver, and will to my dying moment; so will every 
 officer that was present. The interpreter was a Dutchman, little acquainted 
 with the English tongue, and therefore might not advert to the tone and mean 
 ing of the word in English; but whatever were his motives for so doing, certain 
 it is, he called it the death, or the loss of the Sieur de Jumonville." 
 
 Washington made no farther allusion to the circumstances of the death of 
 Jumonville, in this letter, or on any other occasion, so far as is known, subse 
 quent to the date of his account of that action transmitted to Dinwiddie. 
 
1754.] ENGLAND AND FRANCE PREPARE FOR WAR. 481 
 
 to give warning, but not to commence hostilities, for which his 
 force was clearly inadequate. Washington was ignorant of the 
 nature of these instructions, and he says that he regarded the 
 French as spies : but the French commander, had only six weeks 
 previous, demonstrated his desire to preserve the peace, by al 
 lowing Trent and his men to retire uninjured from their position 
 at the Forks of the Ohio; and Washington had himself, in the 
 preceding winter, been received and treated with courtesy by the 
 people of the same nation at Fort Le Bo3uf, whither he had gone, 
 as admitted by him, with the object of obtaining information. 
 Finally he surprised Jumonville at a great disadvantage in 
 amount offeree as well as in position; and humanity, as well as 
 generosity required, that the French should have been allowed time 
 to explain their purposes, while prudence and policy dictated the 
 same course, in order to avoid the responsibility of breaking the 
 peace. What would have been the feeling of the English world, 
 had the results been reversed had Jumonville surprised and at 
 tacked the Virginians, and killed their leader and more than a 
 quarter of their number, under similar circumstances? Of Wash 
 ington^ own judgment upon the subject, in after life, nothing is 
 known; it seems however scarcely credible, that he could have 
 regarded his proceedings otherwise than with regret. 
 
 The circumstances above related, produced a strong sensation 
 throughout Europe, as well as in America ; and it was not diffi 
 cult to foresee that war must soon be renewed between France 
 and England. The French regarded the death of Jumonville as 
 an act of assassination ; and the name of Washington was re 
 peated with every epithet of abhorrence attached to it, by the 
 poets, historians and orators of Paris. The British Government 
 viewed the whole proceeding only as demonstrating the necessity 
 of employing stronger forces on the Ohio ; and measures were 
 immediately taken for the purpose, as well as to confirm the 
 friendship of the dominant Indian nations in that quarter. Major 
 General Edward Braddock was appointed Commander-in-Chief 
 of all the British forces in North America, and was instructed 
 immediately to expel the French from the Ohio, and from all the 
 other countries farther east, lying south of the lakes and the St.- 
 Lawrence. On the part of France, the Marquis de Vaudreuil was 
 made Governor General of Canada, in place of Du Quesne; and 
 61 
 
482 LAST NEGOTIATIONS AT LONDON. [1755. 
 
 he was employed in superintending the equipment of a large body 
 of troops, who were to sail in the ensuing spring, with the object 
 of securing the possession of Nova Scotia, the Iroquois countries 
 and the Ohio. 
 
 At the same time also, in order to divert the attention of the 
 British, and to arrest as far as possible their preparations for war 
 until the armament under Vaudreuil should have arrived in Cana 
 da, the French Government proposed through the Duke de Mire- 
 poix, its Ambassador at London that the question as to the pos 
 session of the Ohio regions should be submitted to the Commis 
 saries who were still employed, nominally at least, at Paris; and 
 that until these questions should have been determined, the coun 
 tries traversed by that river, should be restored to the condition 
 in which they were before the peace of Aix la Chapelle. The 
 British ministers, having a similar reason for not wishing to com 
 mence hostilities immediately, accepted the offer of negotiation, 
 and proposed in answer that the condition of things at the time 
 of the treaty of Utrecht should be assumed as the basis ; but this 
 was refused by the French, on the grounds that the Utrecht treaty 
 did not in any way relate or allude to the Ohio, and that the 
 British neither held nor claimed any part of that river, before the 
 late peace. The British ministers, in reply, insisted that the Ohio 
 was comprised in the territory of the Six Nations, which was 
 secured to them by the treaty of Utrecht; and a correspondence 
 ensued, in which each Government developed and supported its 
 ow r n views, as to the interpretation of that treaty, not only with 
 regard to the Ohio regions, but to all other portions of America 
 in question between them.\ The French distinctly claimed the 
 whole of the St. Lawrence and the great lakes, and all the coun 
 tries drained by streams falling into them, as having always 
 formed parts of Canada; as well as the Ohio countries, on the 
 ground of their having been first discovered, first explored, and 
 first occupied by French subjects, and of the absolute necessity 
 of the river, as a means of communication between their different 
 possessions. The British on the other hand, adduced the words 
 of the treaty of Utrecht, recognizing the Five Nations as subjects 
 of Great Britain, and thereby excluding the French from the 
 countries occupied by those Indians, which extended, according 
 to their views, southward from the Lakes Erie and Ontario, so 
 
1755.] HOSTILITIES CONTINUED IN AMERICA. ) 483 
 
 far as to embrace all the Ohio regions; and they treated as absurd, 
 the claims of the French founded on discovery and occupation.* 
 
 In the course of this correspondence, on the 6th of February, 
 1755, the French Government presented a projet of a preliminary 
 convention, to subsist during the discussions for the definitive 
 settlement of the questions at issue, provided they should not 
 continue longer than two years, according to which the terri 
 tory between the Ohio and the Alleghany mountains, should be 
 evacuated by both parties, and all grants of lands made in it by 
 either, should be held as void, all other things relative to North 
 America being meanwhile restored to the state, in which they 
 stood by the treaty of Utrecht. To this the British in a few days 
 replied by a counter-projet, to the effect that all forts or posts 
 established by either nation, on the south side of Lake Erie or 
 on the Ohio, should be evacuated and destroyed; and that a wide 
 tract of territory, extending southwardly from the western half of 
 that lake, to and beyond the Ohio, should be also evacuated by 
 their forces, and be regarded as neutral by their subjects, \vho 
 should have full and equal liberty of trade therein, until the con 
 clusion of the discussions. Neither of these propositions was 
 accepted by the party to which it was addressed; but the corres 
 pondence continued without any appearance of concession or 
 prospect of compromise, until the middle of 1755. 
 
 In the meantime, the French fleet had sailed from Brest with 
 three thousand men, under the Marquis de Vaudreuil as Governor 
 Genera], and the Baron de Dieskau as commander of the forces. 
 It was followed by an English squadron under Boscawen, who 
 on the 7th of June, attacked and took two of the French ships, 
 with several companies of soldiers on board, off the coast of New 
 foundland. The remainder of the French fleet reached Quebec, 
 where the troops were landed, and Dieskau immediately set off 
 with two thousand of them, in the direction of Lake Champlain, 
 in order to destroy the English posts in that quarter, and to 
 penetrate if possible as far as Albany. The news of the capture 
 of the two French ships of course ended the negotiations at Lon 
 don: and accounts of other events of a more serious nature soon 
 after arriving., destroyed all prospects of accommodation. 
 
 * The documents of this negotiation are given at length, in the Memoir ad 
 dressed by the French Government to the other Courts of Europe in 1756. 
 
484 THE FRENCH EXPELLED FROM 1S 7 OVA SCOTIA. [1755. 
 
 Nova Scotia had been invaded in May, by a large force sent 
 from Boston, under Colonel Winslow, who completely subjugated 
 that country, and expelled all the French soldiers from it. The 
 inhabitants were almost entirely of French origin, and though 
 professing neutrality, were attached to that nation, by feelings 
 which, it was believed, would never be eradicated; it was in con 
 sequence determined to remove them from their country, and 
 several thousands of these unfortunate people were accordingly 
 transported to Massachusetts and other colonies, where they sub 
 sisted miserably under the name of Neutral French, until the 
 greater part of them repaired to France, or St. Domingo, or Lou 
 isiana. Their places were supplied by emigrants chiefly from 
 Scotland, with whom the climate of Nova Scotia was found to 
 agree in all respects; and the territory has ever since remained 
 in the uninterrupted possession of Great Britain. 
 
 The attempt made by the British to settle the controversy as to 
 the dominion of the Ohio regions in the same way, terminated 
 in a manner much less satisfactory to that nation. 
 
 General Braddock arrived in Virginia in February, 1755, with 
 two regiments of regular troops ; and having made requisitions on 
 the Governors of that province, and of North Carolina, Maryland 
 and Pennsylvania for additional forces and supplies, he proceed 
 ed to Fort Cumberland on the Potomac, which had been appoint 
 ed as the rendezvous of his army. Washington, whom he had 
 selected as aid-de-canlp, with the rank of colonel, strongly urged 
 him immediately to press onwards to Fort Duquesne, ere the gar 
 rison at that place should be increased : Braddock followed this 
 advice, and though badly supplied, in consequence of the failure 
 of the contractors to produce the wagons and provisions required, 
 he set off on the 10th of June, with about twelve hundred men, 
 and ten pieces of artillery, leaving eight hundred others to follow 
 under Colonel Dunbar. The natural impediments offered by 
 mountains, forests and streams retarded the march, and it was not 
 until the 9th of July, that they reached the MonongaheJa, which 
 was crossed a little below its junction with the Youghogany, about 
 fifteen miles from Fort Duquesne. 
 
 The approach of the English to the fort had been communi 
 cated to the French several days previous; and the Commandant 
 De Contrecoeur was inclined to evacuate the place, which he did 
 
 
1755.] DEFEAT OF THE ENGLISH UNDER BRADDOCK. 485 
 
 not consider defensible against a force so much superior to his 
 own. One of his officers, M. de Beaujeu however offered to ad 
 vance against the enemy, with a small number of men and In 
 dians; and the proposition being accepted, he set out on the 
 morning of the day on which Braddock crossed the Monongahela, 
 at the head of two hundred and fifty French and about six hun 
 dred Indians, taking his course along the right bank of that stream. 
 Having proceeded in this direction six miles, Beaujeu learned that 
 the English were crossing the Monongahela again, at a short dis 
 tance before him; and he concealed his men among the trees and 
 in the ravines, bordering upon a plain near the river, through 
 which his enemy would soon pass. 
 
 The English general unsuspecting, and disdaining the caution 
 which his aid-de-camp Washington endeavored to impress upon 
 him, marched onwards with his men, after fording the river to its 
 right bank; and at one o'clock they entered the plain above men 
 tioned, which they had nearly traversed, when they suddenly re 
 ceived a volley of musketry in front. The foremost columns re 
 turned the fire, but at random, as they could see no enemy, and 
 the regular troops, unaccustomed to this mode of warfare, be 
 came panic-struck and fell into confusion; the Virginians on 
 the other hand, took refuge each behind a tree, and directed 
 their fire, as opportunities were offered, against the French 
 and Indians, The battle thus lasted three hours, at the end of 
 which more than one half of the English officers, as well as of the 
 soldiers, were killed or disabled by wounds ; those who could, 
 then retreated, leaving the others with all the artillery, baggage, 
 ammunitions and stores in the hands of the French. Braddock 
 was carried from the field severely wounded; all the other princi 
 pal officers of the English were killed or wounded except Wash 
 ington, on whom fell the conduct of the retreat. The panic 
 communicated itself to Dunbar's men, who were met, soon after 
 re-crossing the river, and it was impossible to restore order and 
 subordination, until they arrived at Cumberland. The general 
 died on the way, near Fort Necessity, the place at which Wash 
 ington had capitulated to the French in the preceding year; and 
 the spot where his remains were deposited, is still shewn to the 
 traveller on the road side, at the foot of the westernmost ridge of 
 the Alleghanies. The loss on the part of the French was trifling; 
 
486 EFFECTS OF BRADDOCK's DEFEAT ON THE INDIANS. [1755. 
 
 their commander Beaujeu had however been slain at the com 
 mencement of the action, and his successor Dumas did not con 
 sider it prudent to attempt to pursue the retreating foe ; so that 
 after the Indians had killed and scalped their prisoners, the party 
 returned in triumph, and laden with spoils to Fort Duquesne. 
 
 The alarm and depression produced throughout the British colo 
 nies by the news of Braddock's defeat, were in a measure coun 
 terbalanced by General Johnson's victory over Dieskau and cap 
 ture of that commander, on the shores of the Lake of the Sacra 
 ment thenceforward known as Lake George, in September fol 
 lowing. General Shirley, who succeeded Braddock in the com 
 mand of the forces, then endeavored to organise an expedition 
 against Fort Niagara, with which object, boats w r ere built and 
 troops were collected at Oswego; but the proceedings were con 
 ducted so slowly, that winter set in ere the preparations were 
 completed, and it became necessary to abandon the enterprise. 
 
 In Louisiana, M. de Kerlerec, who succeeded Vaudreuil in the 
 government in the summer of 1753, had exerted himself like his 
 predecessors, in endeavoring to secure the Indians in favor of the 
 French ; in this, however, he had made but little progress, until 
 the arrival of the news of the defeat of Braddock, the moral effect 
 of which was most prejudicial to the cause of the English. The 
 'Choctas seized the traders of the latter nation in their country, 
 and carried them as prisoners to Mobile; the Chickasas appeared 
 to be cowed into submission, and the Great Mortar, the principal 
 chief of the Upper or Coweeta Creeks, whom the French pre 
 tended to style Emperor, declared openly in their favor. 
 
 The condition of the French colony in Louisiana, was little if 
 at all improved in any respect. Its population did not exceed 
 six thousand whites, of whom about fourteen hundred were in 
 the Illinois, and about four thousand negroes almost all of them 
 in the lower country. The immigration was very small, not more 
 than sufficient to counterbalance the loss by death, and the de 
 parture or desertion as it was termed of the inhabitants to the 
 West Indies or the English provinces; and the persons sent 
 thither from France as settlers, were in general but ill calculated, 
 morally or physically, to advance the prosperity of the colony. 
 The people continued to be, as before, idle and dissolute; the 
 soldiers were insolent, insubordinate and cowardly, and the offi- 
 
1755.] WRETCHED CONDITION OF LOUISIANA. 487 
 
 j both civil and military, were tyrannical and venal. The 
 Governor, Kerlerec, seems indeed to have been inferior in talent 
 and energy to each of his predecessors, though if possible more 
 false and grasping than any one of them. His despatches to the 
 Government are a tissue of complaints on account of the delay 
 of supplies, and of invectives against 'the English, whom he is 
 always confident of being able to destroy, if he were only in a 
 situation to satisfy the demands of the Choclas for presents, and 
 to increase the garrisons of the frontier posts. These posts were 
 frequently the scenes of most horrible crimes, committed some 
 times by the Commandants, and sometimes by the soldiers; who 
 seem to have been fully equal in brutality to the Turks of Algiers. 
 A religious dispute was moreover in progress, in Louisiana, at 
 this period, in which the people seem to have generally taken 
 sides, probably from the want of any more material cause for ex 
 citement. The parties were the Jesuits and the Capuchins the 
 black-gowns and the bare-feet as they were respectively termed 
 by the Indians ; and the whole question was, whether or not the 
 Jesuits should exercise their priestly functions in New Orleans 
 and its district, which had been placed by royal ordinance, in 
 1722, under the exclusive ecclesiastical direction of the Capu 
 chins. The Jesuits had, as already shown, obtained permission 
 to form an establishment near the city, for which they purchased 
 a portion of the plantation of M. de Bienville in 1726; and with 
 the care and economy always bestowed by them on their affairs, 
 this establishment had been considerably increased and extended^ 
 while its possessors were at the same time steadily rising in con 
 sideration among the people. The prohibitions to which they 
 were subjected by law, fell into desuetude; and they openly per 
 formed all the offices of their religion, taking care at first to avoid 
 as far as possible, any shock to the susceptibilities of the Capu 
 chins. Success however rendered the Jesuits less observant in 
 this latter respect, until they at length went so far, as to assume 
 authority in the district, and even trt threaten their rivals with an 
 enforcement towards them of the same interdiction, to which they 
 themselves had been obliged, in the first instance to submit. 
 The Capuchins were too weak to struggle against opponents then 
 so powerful: but the star of the Jesuits had reached the highest 
 point of its course, and was, though imperceptibly, sinking; and 
 
488 DISPUTE BETWEEN ENGLAND AND SPAIN. [1755. 
 
 what the mendicant friars failed to effect by representations to the 
 ecclesiastical hierarchy, was soon after consummated, as will be 
 shown, by the strong hand of the civil power. 
 
 Kerlerec endeavored also, through the agency of the Creeks to 
 gain over the Cherokees : but Attakullakulla the Little Carpen 
 ter the most esteemed <*f their chiefs, who had made the treaty 
 with the English at London in 1730, informed the Governor of 
 South Carolina of the designs of the French; and through his in 
 fluence, a new treaty was made, by which the Cherokees ceded 
 to the English the whole of their territory on the Savannah and 
 the upper waters of the Tennessee or Cherokee river. In this 
 territory two forts were immediately erected, one called Prince 
 George, in honor of the heir apparent to the throne, on the Seneca 
 a branch of the Savannah in the north-west angle of South Caro 
 lina; and the other at the confluence of the Tellico with the Little 
 Tennessee, in the south-east part of the present State of Ten 
 nessee, which was named Fort Loudoun, after Lord Loudoun 
 the commander-in-chief of the British forces in America. 
 
 The defeat of Braddock by the French, served also to encour 
 age the Spaniards in resistance to the advancement of the English 
 power. The relations between Great Britain and Spain, were 
 then indeed by no means of an amicable character. A Convention 
 between the two nations, concluded at Madrid in October, 1750, 
 had fixed the terms of the indemnification, to be made to the 
 British for the loss of the advantages of the Asiento contract, 
 agreeably to the treaty of A ix la Chapelle; but the great questions 
 as to the navigation of the West Indian seas, and the boundaries 
 of the possessions of the two nations in America, were undeter 
 mined. On the ocean, the Spanish guarda-costas ransacked and 
 plundered British vessels and ill-treated their crews. On the 
 American continent, the English continued their encroachments 
 upon the territories claimed by Spain ; and their settlements ex 
 tended southward, from the Alatamaha to the Santilla, and even 
 to the St. Mary, where a colony of Virginians had been planted 
 by a man named Grey, in spite of the threats and remonstrances 
 of the Governor of Florida. In 1755, Don Jose de Leon, was sent 
 from St. Augustine, with a party of dragoons, to expel the English 
 from these latter places; this was easily effected, but on the re 
 tirement of the troops, the settlers returned, and occupied their 
 
.var 
 
 1756.] BEGINNING OF THE SEVEN YEARS WAR. 
 
 former positions. A complaint was then addressed to the p;o; t;rn- 
 ment at London, which issued orders to the Governors of Geor 
 gia and South Carolina for the withdrawal of its subj< 
 those countries; however, before the orders could be < \ 
 the two nations were again at war with each other. 
 
 Notwithstanding all the hostile operations above mention 
 America, and on the ocean, the peace was not formally br> 
 until the spring of 1756, when the French attacked Minorca, 
 which then belonged to Great Britain. The other European 
 powers had by this time become involved on one side or the' other, 
 as their respective interests dictated; and the declaration of 
 by Great Britain against France, on the, 17th of May, was the 
 mencement of another general struggle among the nations of that 
 quarter of the world, which is celebrated in history as " the Seven 
 Years War." During its continuance many combinations were 
 formed, but the principal parties in the field, were Great Britain 
 and Prussia in alliance against France and Austria. The Prussians 
 and the Austrians limited their desolating movements to Germany ; 
 the French and the English met hand to hand on the cultivated 
 fields of Europe, in the trackless forests of America, in the burning 
 plains of Hindostan, and in fleets on every division of the ocean. 
 
 In North America, the war between the English and the French 
 was confined almost exclusively to the countries of the St. Lnw- 
 renqe and the Upper Ohio; a sketch of the events in those regions 
 will however be necessary, in order to explain their effects upon 
 Florida and Louisiana. In the spring of 1756, the Marquis de 
 Montcalm arrived at Quebec, to supply the place of Dieskau in 
 command of the French forces ; and he immediately marched 
 against Oswego, which, after a gallant defence by the garrison, 
 was taken on the 14th of August. The loss of this most impor 
 tant point dispirited the English, who could only remain on the 
 defensive, until winter put an end to the operations; and in the fol 
 lowing year 1757, Montcalm was again successful in the only ex 
 pedition undertaken by him, in which Fort William Henry 
 lished by Johnson at the southern extremity of Lake ( " 
 was forced to capitulate. The French were thus far triumphant, 
 and nothing impeded their communications between Quebec and 
 New Orleans, the whole intervening regions of the Lakes and the 
 Mississippi being in their undisputed possession. The Six Na~ 
 62 
 
490 PROGRESS OF THE WAR IN THE NORTH. [1758. 
 
 tions of the Iroquois acknowledged their supremacy; in the Illinois 
 all was kept in profound tranquillity, and farther south every thing 
 went on, wretchedly indeed, but without the occurrence of any 
 event worthy of note.* The French and Indians made several in 
 cursions into Virginia, Maryland and Pennsylvania, in which, par 
 ticularly in one led by M. de Villiers, another brother of Jumon- 
 ville, they comnfitteci ravages on the frontier settlements, and 
 arried away many of the inhabitants to Louisiana and Canada, f 
 William Pitt had, in the meantime, become established in power 
 as chief of the British ministry; and under his imperious and ener 
 getic dictation, the aspect of things in America was soon chang 
 ed. Lord Loudoun was succeeded as commander of the forces, 
 by General Abercrombie, who found himself in the spring of 1758, 
 at the head of fifty thousand men, mostly regular troops. The 
 French had also considerably increased the number of their sol 
 diers in America; and their great fortresses of Louisbourg and 
 Quebec, with the line of smaller forts extending westward, ren 
 dered their position exceedingly strong. A serious dispute had 
 however arisen between the Governor General Vaudreuil, and the 
 military Commandant Montcalm ; the latter of whom urged their 
 King to embrace the opportunity offered by success, to negotiate 
 with Great Britain for a favorable boundary, while Vaudreuil could 
 think of nothing less, than driving the English into the Atlantic,, 
 and taking of all their provinces. 
 
 *The European world at this period, received some important additions to its 
 knowledge of the Mississippi regions, by the publication of several works, which 
 have been frequently mentioned in the preceding pages. 
 
 Le Page, Du Pratz, who had acted as Director of the Royal Plantations in 
 Louisiana, until the surrender of the India Company's charter in 1731, published 
 in 1758 his Natural and Civil History of that country, which has been translated 
 into English and several other languages. Though filled with errors on all mat 
 ters of which the writer was not an eye witness, and written in the most confus 
 ed and disorderly manner, it is nevertheless valuable from the apparent sinceri 
 ty and truthfulness of the accounts of many interesting circumstances. 
 
 The " Memoires sur la Louisiane," compiled by the Abb6 le Mascrier from 
 the notes of Captain Dumont, had appeared previously in 1753. Bossu, from 
 whose narrative of his residence in Louisiana, much information is derived as to 
 events from 1751 to 1761, did not publish his work until some years afterwards. 
 
 f The French accounts of that period, speak particularly of the gallantry dis 
 played by Villiers, in the capture of a fort in Virginia, which is sometimes called 
 Granville, and sometimes Dambelle. The prisoners were carried to the Illinois, 
 whence they were conducted to New Orleans by Bossu, as related in his travels. 
 
1758.] CAPTURE OF FORT DUQUESNE BY THE ENGLISH. 491 
 
 Under these new circumstances, the campaign of 1758 was 
 begun. In the north-east. General Amherst with twelve thousand 
 soldiers, and a large naval armament, attacked Louisbourg, which 
 after a short defence, was surrendered with all its magazines of 
 provisions, ammunition and arms, and its garrison of nearly three 
 thousand men became prisoners of war. From the Hudson, 
 General Abercrombie proceeded to Lake George with sixteen 
 thousand men, and besieged the strong fortress of Carillon or 
 Ticonderoga, at the outlet of that Lake, from which he was re 
 pulsed with loss by Montcalm on the 8th of July. Abercrombie 
 was nevertheless able to detach a portion of his army, under 
 General Bradstreet, who embarking at Oswego, crossed Lake 
 Ontario and took and destroyed Fort Frontenac, the important 
 post established by La Salle, at the outlet of the lake by the St. 
 Lawrence, where the city of Kingston now stands. 
 
 At the same time, no less than eight thousand British regulars 
 and volunteers from Pennsylvania, Maryland and Virginia, were 
 on the way under General Forbes, with the object of expelling 
 the French from the Ohio ; the Virginians being commanded by 
 Colonel Washington, whose good conduct in the unfortunate ex 
 pedition of Braddock, had w r on for him the respect of all, and 
 caused great reliance to be placed on his judgment, by the direc 
 tors of the operations in that quarter. The first encounter be 
 tween the parties was unfavorable to the English, as Major Grant 
 with eight hundred men who had been sent in advance, were met 
 near the fort on the 14th of September, and defeated with great 
 loss by the French under Captain Aubry. The main army under 
 Forbes did not reach the place until the 25th of November, and 
 then they found only the ruins of the French post: the Comman 
 dant' De Lignerie having but five hundred men in his garrison, 
 and being deserted by all his Indians, had wisely retreated in 
 boats down the Ohio to Louisiana, so that nothing was left for the 
 English, except to rebuild the fort, which they did, changing its 
 name to Fort Pitt. The Indians immediately came in crowds to 
 offer their services to the new masters of this important spot, by 
 the capture of which, quiet and confidence was restored to the 
 English, throughout their whole frontier on the Ohio ; settlers then 
 appeared from the east, and the town of Pittsburgh in time grew 
 up under the walls of Fort Pitt. 
 
492 CANADA CONQUERED BY THE ENGLISH. [1759. 
 
 Far more important were the events of the following year, in 
 which the British arms were crowned with signal success at every 
 point. In America, the conduct of the war on the part of that 
 nation had been entrusted by Pitt to Major General Edward 
 Wolfe, as commander-in-chief, who had projected three great 
 expeditions, all simultaneous and tending to (he same end, the 
 conquest of Canada. Wolfe was himself to head one army, which 
 was to ascend the St. Lawrence in a fleet to Quebec; another was 
 to proceed under General Amherst for the capture of the French 
 posts on Lake Champlain, while the third, under Prideaux and 
 Johnson, was to attack; the stronghold of the enemy on the Niagara. 
 
 The details of these expeditions it is unnecessary to present; 
 their results are well known, but should be recapitulated. The 
 French fort at Niagara was taken by Johnson on the 24th of Ju 
 ly, after a severe action, in which Prideaux was killed, and all the 
 other French posts in that quarter iell soon into the hands of the 
 English. On the approach of Amherst from Albany, Ticondero- 
 ga and Crown Point were successively evacuated by the French, 
 who concentrated their forces in the Isle aux Noix on Lake 
 Champlain; and Amherst not being strong enough to attack them, 
 was obliged to pass the winter at Crown Point. In the mean 
 time several actions had been fought before Quebec, in the last of 
 which the English gained possession of the heights of Abraham 
 commanding the city, on the 13th of September, when Wolfe and 
 Montcalm were both killed. The town and fortress was then 
 surrendered by the Governor M. de Ramezay, and the approach 
 of winter put an end to all operations. 
 
 Whilst these events were passing in North America, the French 
 West India islands of Mariegalante and Guadaloupe fell into the 
 hands of the English; the French fleets were beaten and destroy 
 ed in several engagements, and the terrible battle of Minden on 
 the 1st of August, proved so decisive in its effects upon the forces 
 of Louis XV. that they were obliged to abandon Germany. The 
 succors sent from France to the St. Lawrence, were captured by 
 Byron at the mouth of that river, in the spring of 1760; and after 
 several fruitless efforts to regain Quebec, Vaudreuil on the 8th of 
 September, signed a capitulation at Montreal, by which he sur 
 rendered to General Amherst, the whole territory of Canada, on 
 condition that the inhabitants were to be protected in their civil 
 
1760.] THE CHEROKEES ATTACK SOUTH CAROLINA. 493 
 
 rights, and in the exercise of their religion, until a treaty of peace 
 should have determined the future destinies of the country. Vau- 
 dreuil and his principal officers were immediately sent to France, 
 whither they were followed by the remainder of the French troops. 
 General Amherst then detached Major Rogers with a body of 
 men to take possession of Detroit, Mackinac and the other posts 
 on the Great Lakes which w r ere surrendered, after some opposition 
 from the Indians, in the spring and summer, and the flag of 
 France disappeared from the regions of the St. Lawrence. 
 
 The satisfaction produced among the English colonies by these 
 triumphs in the north, was lessened by troubles in the south- west. 
 The Cherokees did not long remain faithful to the engagements 
 contracted with the Governor of South Carolina in 1756; or 
 rather, they were driven to break those engagements, by the ill- 
 treatment of the traders and settlers in their vicinity. They be 
 gan, as usual, by attacks on the frontier settlements of the English, 
 which proving successful, they boldly laid siege to forts Prince 
 George and Loudoun. Fort Prince George was relieved by a large 
 body of highlanders detached by General Amherst for the purpose, 
 under Major Montgomery in the spring of 1760; but that officer 
 advancing incautiously towards the upper country, fell into an am 
 buscade, and after losing several of his men, was obliged to re 
 treat. Fort Loudoun then capitulated to the Indians, who put to 
 death the greater part of its defenders. In the following year 
 1761, the English resumed the offensive under the command of 
 Major Grant, who defeated the Cherokees, and harrassed them 
 in every way to such an extent, that they \vere obliged to sue for 
 peace. Similar attacks were made by the Indians on the settle 
 ments in Virginia and Pennsylvania, which were as usual attri 
 buted to the agency of the French : but the evils produced were 
 on so small a scale, that no effectual attempt was made to check 
 them, until the conclusion of the war w r ith France. 
 
 Louisiana remained undisturbed, though much distress was occa 
 sioned, especially in the lower country, by the interruption of com 
 munications with France and the West Indies, which completely 
 prostrated the agriculture and commerce of the inhabitants. The 
 same circumstances also prevented the transmission of the funds 
 from France, for the payment of the civil and military officers and 
 the soldiers*, which formed the whole circulating medium of the 
 
I 
 
 494 STATE OF LOUISIANA DURING THE WAR. [1760. 
 
 colony; and in order to remedy this deficiency the royal commis 
 sary M. de Rochemore, issued notes called bons, varying in 
 amount from half a livre to a hundred livres, with the understand 
 ing that any one, on presenting them for a certain sum, might re 
 ceive in exchange, a bill on the French treasury, payable at sight 
 in Paris. /This arrangement was found to answer very well for 
 some time ; the bills were passed off to the captains of English 
 vessels who frequented Mobile and New Orleans, during the whole 
 period of the war, under different pretexts, bringing cargoes of 
 goods from Jamaica, Charleston or New York, and for some time 
 they were regularly paid on presentation in France. 
 
 This illicit trade with the English was encouraged as far as 
 possible by Kerlerec, but it was violently opposed by Roche- 
 more; and an open contest was carried on between the two high 
 functionaries, in which every person in the colony took part, ac 
 cording to his interests or his views of justice. Rochemore con 
 tended, that it was most imprudent to allow the enemies this free 
 access to the rivers and ports of the country, enabling them to ac 
 quire a knowledge of its strength, which might be employed 
 against it; while the Governor maintained, that without the sup 
 plies thus furnished by the English, the colony would soon be 
 ruined. The French government tacitly took part with Kerlerec, 
 and the remonstrances of the commissary were not heeded : at 
 length, however, in 1759, the treasury suddenly refused to pay 
 any farther bills, drawn on it from Louisiana, on the grounds of 
 want of sufficiency in the vouchers ; and the trade with the Eng 
 lish w r as thus considerably diminished, from the incapacity of the 
 people of the country to afford adequate returns. The govern 
 ment nevertheless, made no other provision for the expenses of 
 the administration in Louisiana, which were, for three years, met 
 only by loans exacted from the inhabitants in the most oppressive 
 manner; and at the end of that period, the debts thus contracted, 
 exceeded seven millions of francs. The same dishonest proceed 
 ings had been practised in Canada to a much greater extent by 
 the Intendant M. Begon, who was severely punished on his re 
 turn to France, for excesses encouraged directly or indirectly by 
 the ministry. 
 
 At this time, an attempt was made for the restoration of peace, 
 which however served only to render the difficulties greater. 
 
1761.] NEGOTIATION BETWEEN ENGLAND AND FRANCE. 495 
 
 
 
 Whilst the British were engaged in completing the conquest 
 of Canada, their King George II. died in October, 1760, and was 
 succeeded by his grandson George III., then in the twenty-second 
 year of his age : in August of the preceding year, Ferdinand VI. of 
 Spain had been in like manner succeeded by his brother Charles 
 III. ; and these two events materially changed the aspect of affairs 
 both in Europe and in America. George III. was a man of 
 limited capacity, obstinate and most jealous of his prerogative, 
 upon the maintenance of which he considered the security, not 
 only of his own crown, but of the whole kingdom to depend. 
 The new king of Spain was more upright, and of much stronger 
 character in every respect, than any of his predecessors since 
 Philip II. ; and being really desirous for the advancement of the 
 interests of his nation, he determined immediately to endeavor 
 to restore peace in Europe. Partly through his mediation, nego 
 tiations were begun for that object, in June 1761, between Mr. 
 Pitt and M. de Bussy a French commissioner, at London, and 
 at Paris between Mr. Stanley and the Duke de Choiseul who had 
 recently become Prime Minister of France. 
 
 The questions discussed in this negotiation, related almost exclu 
 sively to America, in which the parties had the greatest interests at 
 stake.* The possession of Canada by Great Britain was admitted 
 from the commencement by the French; but difficulties occurred 
 as to the territory which was to be embraced under that general 
 name, and as to the islands in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, which 
 France wished to retain for the benefit of her fishery. Pitt, as 
 suming the most haughty and uncompromising tone, refused to 
 allow any island, or other facility for the fishery, to the French; 
 and he insisted that Canada should include the whole course of 
 the Ohio, upon the grounds that the French Commissaries had so 
 stated its extent during the late discussion, and that Vaudreuil 
 had declared that territory to lie within his government, at the 
 time of the surrender. This Vaudreuil, however, positively deni 
 ed, protesting that he had represented Canada as separated from. 
 
 *The documents exchanged in this negotiation, were printed in France by 
 order of the Government, under the title of " Actes et Memoiresauthentiques des 
 negociations faites pour le paix en 1761," and soon after in English at London; 
 and may be all found, with many others relating to the same subject, in the loth 
 volume of the Parliamentary History. 
 
496 NEGOTIATION ABRUPTLY TERMINATED. [1761. 
 
 Louisiana by a line drawn along the highlands, between the head 
 waters of the Wabash and the Illinois on the south, and those of 
 the streams falling into the Lakes Michigan and Erie on the north. 
 M. de Bussy then offered as the ultimatum of his government, 
 that the line separating the dominions of the two powers in 
 America, should be drawn from the Perdido river northward to the 
 Lakes, so as to include in Louisiana, the whole course of the 
 Mobile river, and the lower portions of the Tennessee, the Cum 
 berland and the Ohio. Upon the rejection of this proposition, it 
 was modified, by substituting for a line of boundary, a strip or 
 tract of territory extending from the Mexican Gulf to Lake Erie, 
 wherein no settlements should be made by either nation; but this 
 was also peremptorily refused by the imperious British minister, 
 who had vowed, as he said " that another peace of Utrecht 
 should not disgrace the annals of England." 
 
 The business was at this point rendered more complicated, by 
 the attempt on the part of the French government, to introduce 
 into it, the consideration of certain claims of Spain with regard to 
 America, of which the principal were, the concession to that na 
 tion of the privilege to fish on the banks of Newfoundland, and the 
 abandonment by the English, of their establishments on the Bay 
 of Honduras. This however only served to afford Pitt, who hated 
 and despised Spain and its people, an opportunity for a reply* the 
 most haughty and insolent to be found in the records of diploma 
 cy repelling all pretensions on the part of France to interfere in 
 disputes between Great Britain and Spain ; and after some farther 
 correspondence, in the same tone, the negotiation was broken off 
 in September. Mr. Pitt in fact believed that the discussion 
 was a pretext on the part of France to gain time; and he had in 
 consequence pressed the war against that powder as much as pos 
 sible, and exerted himself in preparing new forces, during the 
 whole period of the negotiation. 
 
 * The following extract from Mr. Pitt's letter to M. de Bussy of July 24, 1761, 
 is characteristic of its author : " It is my duty farther to declare to you, in plain 
 terms, in the name of His Majesty, that he will not suffer the disputes of Spain, 
 to be blended in any manner whatever, in the negotiation of peace between the 
 two crowns; to which I must add, that it will be considered an affront to His 
 Majesty's dignity, and as a thing incompatible with the sincerity of the negotia 
 tion, to make any farther mention of such a circumstance. Moreover, it is ex 
 pected, that France will not at any time, presume a right of intermeddling in 
 such disputes, between Great Britain and Spain." 
 
 
1761.] DISCUSSIONS IN ENGLAND RESPECTING CANADA. 497 
 
 | 
 
 A discussion was at the same time, carried on in England, 
 through newspapers and pamphlets for the most part anonymous, 
 as to the policy of retaining the countries conquered from the 
 French in America, in the event of a peace.* Their retention was 
 urged, on the grounds of the security which it would afford to 
 the English colonies, and the general diminution of the power 
 and influence of the French ; while it was insisted on the other 
 hand, that France should be left in possession of Canada and 
 Louisiana, as "a check" upon the English colonies themselves, 
 which would otherwise "extend almost without bounds, into the 
 inland parts, and increase infinitely from all causes; having a 
 numerous, hardy, independent people, possessed of a strong 
 country, communicating little or not at all with England, living 
 wholly on their own labor, and in process of time knowing little 
 and inquiring little about the mother country." These latter views 
 were defended with much ability by a writer, since known to be 
 Edmund Burke; and they were opposed with less force perhaps, 
 but \vith greater ingenuity and knowledge of the circumstances, 
 by another anonymous author, who proved to be Benjamin 
 Franklin. The latter denounced the proposed "check," as a 
 "modest w r ord for massacreing men, women and children," to 
 which the French would be directly incited by the restitution of 
 Canada; and he recommended instead, as less cruel, the adoption 
 of the mode employed by Pharaoh for preventing the increase of 
 the Israelites. In answer to another assertion, that the extension 
 of the British territory in America would drain the mother coun 
 try of its population, Franklin declared that the emigration -from 
 Britain alone to the transatlantic provinces, for a long period 
 immediately preceding, had been less than ten families in each 
 year! Burke was the advocate of the interests and glory of Great 
 
 *The discussion was begun by Lord Bath, (better known by his family name 
 of Edward Pulteney,) in "A Letter to two great men," (the Duke of Newcastle 
 and Mr. Pitt,) which brought forth from Burke, an "Answer to the letter to two 
 great men, 1 ' containing the passage here extracted on the necessity of "a check." 
 Franklin's paper was entitled, " The interests of Great Britain considered, with 
 regard to her colonies, and the acquisition of Canada and Guadaloupe ;" arid to 
 this Burke, in 1762, replied, by "An examination of the commercial principles 
 of the late negotiation between Great Britain and France," in which he repeat 
 ed arid defended his former vieAV, that the retention of Guadaloupe would be 
 more advantageous to Great Britain, than the annexation of Canada to her 
 empire. 
 
498 SECOND FAMILY COMPACT OF THE BOURBONS. [1761. 
 
 Britain alone ; Franklin contended for those of the whole British 
 people. At the present day, it would be difficult to disprove the 
 reasonableness of the views presented by Burke; as there can be 
 no doubt that the English colonies would have increased in every 
 way, much more slowly, had the French been replaced in posses 
 sion of the territories conquered, and that they might have re 
 mained much longer under the tutelage of the mother country, 
 whose government would have taken care to afford them no far 
 ther support or protection, than might be necessary to maintain a 
 balance of power between them and their immediate neighbors. 
 Fortunately however for America and for the world, Canada was 
 retained at the peace soon after concluded. 
 
 The suspicions of the British minister with regard to the sin 
 cerity of the French, proved to be well founded ; for the Duke 
 de Choiseul was engaged at the same time, in a most secret 
 negotiation with Spain, to which he rendered that with Great Bri 
 tain subservient; and he attained his end, by the conclusion of a 
 second " Family Compact," binding France and Spain together, 
 in an alliance much more intimate than any previously existing 
 between them, or indeed between any two independent nations. 
 
 By this compact, signed at Paris on the 15th of August, 1761, 
 the two sovereigns renewed the mutual guarantee made at Fon- 
 tainebleau in 1743,* of all their dominions, in any part of the 
 world, without reserve or exception ; and they in like manner, 
 pledged themselves, to consider as their common enemy, any 
 power which might become the enemy of either, and to maintain 
 and furnish upon the first demand, a certain amount of military 
 and naval force for the war, except in some specified cases in 
 which Spain was not to be required to take part. All the sove 
 reigns of the House of Bourbon, and none others, might enter into 
 the compact ; and the subjects and vessels of the parties were to 
 be entitled to peculiar privileges and advantages, in the dominions 
 of all of them. At the same time moreover, a Convention was 
 signed, by which Spain engaged to declare war against Great 
 Britain on the 1st of May, 1762, unless the latter should have pre- 
 
 *Sec the account of this first Family Compact at page 448. It is most re 
 markable that this treaty should be so little known, considering the length of 
 time which has passed since its publication in 1811. l^ T o allusion to it has been 
 found in any English or American history. 
 
1762.] SPAIN JOINS FRANCE AGAINST ENGLAND. 499 
 
 viously made peace with France; and all the advantages acquired, 
 or losses sustained by either during this war, were to be made 
 common to both, by sharing, or by compensation to the loser. 
 
 Although this negotiation had been conducted with the utmost 
 care to keep it secret, Pitt soon learned that some engagements 
 in the nature of an alliance, had been concluded between France 
 and Spain ; and he proposed to his colleagues, that the British 
 ambassador at Madrid should be instructed to demand the terms 
 of these stipulations, in support of which demand, a strong fleet 
 should be placed before Cadiz. Pitt was however not so power 
 ful in the cabinet as he had been: the new king, ignorant, 
 obstinate and wedded to his prerogative, was not pleased to see 
 any other will than his own exerted openly ; his favorite Lord 
 Bute pronounced the proposition rash and unadvisable, and the 
 minister, unable to carry his views into effect, resigned his office, 
 receiving however at the same time, a peerage for his wife, and 
 an immense pension secured to himself. 
 
 The Earl of Egremont succeeded Pitt as the head of the British 
 ministry, though Lord Bute directed every thing. No efforts 
 were spared to prevent a rupture of the peace with Spain, but 
 they proved unavailing. The Court of Madrid temporised, and 
 continued its preparations for war; and so soon as the treasure 
 fleet from America, was safely moored in Cadiz, it threw off the 
 mask, and set Great Britain at defiance. The Spanish ambassa 
 dor quitted London, after venting his spleen against Pitt, in a 
 memorial, holding him up as the cause of all the difficulties be 
 tween the two nations ; and in January, 1672, war- was declared 
 by each power against the other, almost at the same moment. 
 
 The vast armaments prepared by Pitt then came into play with 
 terrible effect. Martinique, Granada and St. Lucie were taken 
 by Rodney in January, and in August following, Havanna was 
 surrendered to Albemarle and Pococke. In the East Indies, the 
 dominion of France had been entirely overthrown by Clive ; and 
 Sir William Draper, with a large force sent from Madras, captured 
 the Philippine Islands in September. On the American Conti 
 nent, the only hostile operations were those of the English against 
 the Indians of the Lake regions, who resolutely opposed the es 
 tablishment of the new white people among them j but Florida 
 and Louisiana lay at the mercy of the conquerors of Canada. 
 
500 NEGOTIATIONS FOR PEACE RESUMED AT PARIS. [1762. 
 
 Negotiations had been meanwhile re-opened, through the inter 
 vention of the Sardinian plenipotentiaries at London and Paris, 
 who conducted the real communications between Bute and Choi- 
 seul, while the Duke of Bedford as British ambassador at Paris, 
 and the Duke de Nivernois representing France in the same ca 
 pacity at London, were the ostensible agents.* The French, after 
 some discussion as to the boundaries of Canada, in order if pos 
 sible to retain a portion of the territory between the Lakes and 
 the Mississippi, agreed to surrender to England all their posses 
 sions east of that river, except New T Orleans, in return for their 
 lost West India Islands ; they were nevertheless anxious, as be 
 fore, to secure some coast or island on the banks of Newfound 
 land, for the benefit of their fishery, and the Spaniards insisted 
 on the abandonment of Honduras by the British. These difficul 
 ties however disappeared on the arrival of the news of the 
 capture of Havanna, in return for w r hich the British demanded 
 the cession either of Florida or of Porto Rico ; and the Spanish 
 government, after a short deliberation, found it more prudent to 
 surrender Florida, and to recede from all its other preten 
 sions without delay, in order to avoid farther losses. The pre 
 liminaries of a treaty w r ere in consequence drawn up and signed 
 at Paris, on the 3rd of November, 1762, by the plenipotentiaries 
 
 *The Count de Viry was the Sardinian Minister at London, the Eailli de So 
 lar represented the same power at Paris ; they are universally described as being 
 men of superior talents and character, and they each exercised considerable in 
 fluence in the Courts to which they were accredited. The weight of the busi 
 ness of the negotiation in London, fell on Mr. Stuart Mackenzie, the brother of 
 Lord Bute, to whom Dutens the author of the curious and interesting memoirs, 
 was private secretary. 
 
 The Dukes of Bedford and Nivernois were selected as ambassadors on account 
 of their hi^-h rank and wealth, as well as from the mediocrity of their talents, 
 which rendered them well adapted for pageants. The British ambassador soon 
 discovered the light in which he was regarded by the Minister at home, and 
 complained of it somewhat angrily to Lord Bute in his letter of September 20th, 
 1762, in which he asks "yhat occasion there was for sending a minister to this 
 Court, if the whole was to be transacted from ministry to ministry ? and why he 
 was solicited for this contemptible employment of transmitting projects only to 
 his Court, after so long a negotiation which must be finished soon or not at all?" 
 
 The correspondence of the Duke of Bedford, recently published by his great- 
 grandson Lord John Russell, throws much light upon the progress of the nego 
 tiation a'. Paris, as well as upon subsequent events at London ; and if it fails to 
 raise the Duke in the opinion of the world, as a man of capacity, it effectually 
 vindicates him from the aspersians cast upon his private character, by Junius. 
 
1762.] PRELIMINARIES OF A TREATY AGREED ON. 501 
 
 of England and Portugal on the one part, and those of Spain and 
 France on the other, with the understanding that they should be 
 submitted to the British parliament for its approval; as the minis 
 ters of that nation did not choose to assume the responsibility of 
 the restitution of Havanna on the terms proposed, or indeed, on 
 any terms, without such an assurance. 
 
 Agreeably to the preliminaries thus concluded, Minorca was 
 to be restored to Great Britain, and all the places in Europe be 
 longing to either of the parties before the war, which were then 
 occupied by troops of the other, were to be immediately evacua 
 ted. In the East Indies, the French were to surrender to Great 
 Britain, all their possessions except a few factories and trading 
 places, which they were allowed to retain, though under condi 
 tions calculated effectually to stifle all their expectations of politi 
 cal dominion in that quarter. In America, the results were most 
 important. Great Britain restored to France, Guadaloupe and 
 Martinique, and to Spain all the places conquered from her during 
 the war, including Havanna; in return for which, Spain ceded 
 Florida to Great Britain, while France surrendered to the same 
 power, her rights and claims to Nova Scotia, Canada and all other 
 parts of the continent east of a line, drawn along the Mississippi, 
 from its source to its outlet through the river Iberville, and thence 
 through the latter streanTtmd the Lakes Maurepas and Pontchar- 
 train to the Mexican Gulf,* together with all the islands in and near 
 the Gulf of St. Lawrence, except the two small ones of St. Pierre 
 and Miquelon which the French were to retain for the purposes 
 of their fishery. The inhabitants of the territories thus ceded to 
 Great Britain were to enjoy the free exercise of their religion, and 
 to be protected in the possession of their property ; and the navi- 
 
 * The Duke of Bedford was anxious to secure to Great Britain the whole ter 
 ritory east of the Mississippi, including New Orleans ; and when he found the 
 French resolved not to cede that city, he endeavored to limit them to its imme 
 diate environs : they however insisted on the line through the Iberville and the 
 Lakes, which was in the end admitted. "It is remarkable," writes the Duke to 
 the Earl of Egremont on the 24th of December, 1762, "that the Marquis of 
 Grimaldi [Spanish ambassador] took a great part in this dispute against me, 
 which he has never before done in points solely French ; which, I own, increases 
 my suspicion, that the report I have heard, that France intended to cede New- 
 Orleans to Spain, has some foundation." Correspondence of the Duke of Bed 
 ford, vol. 3, page 180. 
 
502 TREATY OF PEACE CONCLUDED AT PARIS. [1763. 
 
 gation of the Mississippi was to be perpetually open to the sub 
 jects of that power, and to those of France, in its whole length. 
 British subjects were not to be disturbed in cutting logwood in the 
 Bay of Honduras, and other parts of the Spanish territory in that 
 quarter, with which object they might build houses for residence 
 or for stores; though no fortifications could be erected, and those 
 already standing were to be demolished. 
 
 These provisions were all expressed in language the most clear 
 and unequivocal ; the ministers who dictated them being resolved 
 to leave as few points as possible, open to attack in Parliament. 
 They were opposed in the House of Commons by Mr. Pitt, with 
 his usual vehemence, chiefly on the grounds of the surrender of 
 Havanna to Spain and the French West India Islands to France, 
 and the assignment of St. Pierre and Miquelon to the latter pow 
 er for its fishery, for which he considered Florida and the other 
 countries not already in the possession of Great Britain, as an in 
 sufficient return. The preliminaries were however approved by 
 large majorities in both houses, and a treaty containing the same 
 stipulations, in the same words a few trifling alterations except- 
 ed was accordingly ratified by all the parties at Paris, on the 
 10th of February, 1763.* Prussia and Austria in like manner 
 settled their dispute by a treaty at Hubertsburg a few days after 
 wards, and peace was thus completely re-established throughout 
 the civilized world. 
 
 The treaty thus concluded at Paris in 1763, was by far more 
 important as regards the New World, than any other previous 
 
 *The principal provisions of the treaty respecting America, are as follows: 
 " ART. 4. His Most Christian Majesty renounces all pretensions, which he has 
 heretofore formed, or might have formed, to Nova Scotia or Acadia, in all its 
 parts, and guaranties the whole of it, and with all its dependencies, to the king 
 of Great Britain. Moreover, His Most Christian Majesty cedes and guaranties 
 to His said Britannic Majesty, in full right, Canada with all its dependencies, as 
 well as the island of Cape Breton and all the other islands and coasts in the 
 Gulf and River of St. Lawrence, and in general every thing that depends on the 
 said countries, lands, islands and coasts, with the sovereignty, property, posses 
 sion, and all rights acquired by treaty or otherwise, which the Most Christian 
 King and the Crown of France have had till now, over the said countries, lands, 
 islands, places, coasts and their inhabitants; so that the Most Christian King 
 cedes and makes over the whole to the said king, and to the Crown of Great 
 Britain, and that in the most ample manner and form, without restriction, and 
 without any liberty to depart from the said cession and guarantee, under any pre 
 tence, or to disturb Great Britain in the possessions above mentioned." 
 
1763.] IMPORTANCE OF THE TREATY OF PARIS. 503 
 
 agreement of the same nature, since the Treaty of Partition of 
 1492. It established the first line of boundary between the pos 
 sessions of civilized nations in North America a line eternally 
 stamped on the face of the Continent, extending through eighteen 
 decrees of latitude, from the northernmost limit of its habitable 
 
 Q ' 
 
 " ART. 7. In order to re-establish peace on solid and durable foundations, and 
 to remove forever all subject of dispute with regard to the limits of the British 
 and French territories on the continent of America; it is agreed, that for the 
 future, the confines between the dominions of His Britannic Majesty and those 
 of his Most Christian Majesty, in that part of the world, shall be fixed irrevoca 
 bly, by a line drawn along the middle of the river Mississippi, from its source to 
 the river Iberville, and from thence by a line drawn along the middle of this 
 river, and the lakes Maurepas and Pontchartrain to the sea ; and for this purpose 
 the Most Christian King cedes in full right, and guaranties to his Britannic Ma 
 jesty, the river and port of the Mobile, and everything which he possesses, or 
 ought to possess on the left side of the river Mississippi, except the town of New 
 Orleans, and the island in which it is situated, which shall remain to France ; 
 provided that the navigation of the river Mississippi shall be equally free, as 
 well to the subjects of Great Britain as to those of France, in its whole breadth 
 and length, from its source to the sea, and expressly that part which is between 
 the said island of New Orleans and the right bank of that river, as well as the 
 passage both in and out of its mouth : It is farther stipulated, that the vessels 
 belonging to the subjects of either nation shall not be stopped, visited, or sub 
 jected to the payment of any duty whatsoever." 
 
 " ART. 17. His Britannic Majesty shall cause to be demolished all the fortifi 
 cations which his subjects shall have erected in the Bay of Honduras, and other 
 places of the territory of Spain in that part of the world, four months after the 
 ratification of the present treaty : and His Catholic Majesty's subjects, or their 
 workmen, are not to be disturbed or molested under any pretence whatsoever ii> 
 the said places, in their occupation of cutting, loading, and carrying away logwood; 
 and for this purpose they may build, Avithout hindrance, and occupy without inter 
 ruption, the houses and magazines necessary for them, for their families, and for 
 their effects ; and his Catholic Majesty assures to them, by this article, the full 
 enjoyment of those advantages and powers on the Spanish coasts and territories, 
 as above stipulated, immediately after the ratification of the present treaty." 
 
 " ART. 19. The King of Great Britain shall restore to Spain, all the territory 
 which he has conquered in the Island of Cuba, with the fortress of Havarma." 
 
 "ART. 20. In consequence of the restitution stipulated in the preceding arti 
 cle, His Catholic Majesty cedes and guaranties, in full right, to His Britannic 
 Majesty, Florida with Fort St. Augustine and the Bay of Pensacola, as well as 
 all that Spain possesses on the continent of North America, to the east or to the 
 south-east of the river Mississippi ; and, in general, every thing that depends 
 on the said countries and lands, with the sovereignty, property, possession, and 
 all rights acquired by treaties or otherwise, which the Catholic King and Crown 
 of Spain have had till now over the said countries, lands, places and their in 
 habitants ; so that the Catholic King cedes and makes over the whole to the said 
 king, and to the Crown of Great Britain, and that in the most ample manner and 
 form." 
 
504 ADVANTAGES OF THE TREATY TO GREAT BRITAIN. [1763. 
 
 territory to the Mexican Gulf. " The confines between the do 
 minions of His Britannic Majesty, and those of His Most Chris 
 tian Majesty, in that part of the world," says the treaty, " shall 
 be fixed irrevocably, by a line drawn along the middle of the 
 river Mississippi, from its source to the river Iberville, and from 
 thence by a line drawn along the middle of this river and the 
 Lakes Maurepas and Pontchartrain to the sea." All lying east 
 of this line was secured to Great Britain, and the countries ceded 
 were moreover each specially named and described, in terms so 
 exact, as to leave not the slightest doubt of their meaning in any 
 case; nothing being reserved for subsequent determination by 
 commissaries, or in any other way. With regard to the territory 
 west of the great boundary, nothing is said in the Treaty of 
 Paris. North of this territory, as well as of those ceded by 
 France on the east, Great Britain likewise possessed all the re 
 gions drained by streams entering into Hudson's Bay, the south 
 ernmost sources of which, were situated in the immediate vicinity 
 of the head-waters of those falling into the St. Lawrence, the 
 Lakes and the Mississippi ; and the right to this portion of 
 America, was secured beyond question to Great Britain, by the 
 Treaty of Utrecht which was renewed and confirmed by the 
 Paris treaty. To have attempted to determine the line of sepa 
 ration between the Hudson's Bay territory, and that which was 
 left to France west of the Mississippi, would have been useless 
 at that time, when the countries through which it might be 
 supposed to pass, were utterly unexplored; especially as the 
 terms of the two treaties above mentioned, showed with perfect 
 distinctness, that this boundary must run along the ridge or height 
 of land separating the streams falling into Hudson's Bay from 
 those flowing to the Mississippi, westward as far as the claims 
 of the two nations might extend. 
 
 The boundary between Louisiana and the Mexican provinces, 
 long before informally adopted by the people and the authorities 
 of those countries, still remained unchanged, either by removal, 
 or by extension, or by diminution. Natch itoches arid Adayes 
 were still the only settlements of the two nations sufficiently near 
 to each other, to render any determination of limits necessary; 
 and the Arroyo Hondo, running midway between them, was still 
 respected as separating the jurisdictions of their commandants. 
 
1763.] NEW FORTS ESTABLISHED IN TEXAS. 505 
 
 Natehitoches, was however, the source of great and constant 
 annoyance to the Spaniards, as from that place, the wild Indians 
 received the principal portion of the arms arid ammunition 
 which they employed in their attacks on the frontier settlements 
 of Mexico ; the remainder being supplied by the French vessels, 
 which frequented the coast of Texas, especially those of the great 
 basin, now known as Galveston Bay, receiving the waters of the 
 Trinity and several other rivers. The Spanish Government ad 
 dressed many remonstrances to that, of France, with the object 
 of obtaining some relief from these evils, either by the suppres 
 sion of the trade with the Indians, or by the abandonment of 
 Natchitoches; and when it was found that no favorable results 
 could be obtained in this way, orders were given to the Viceroy 
 of Mexico, to establish a line of fortified posts along the whole 
 northern and western frontiers of Texas. With this object, after 
 numerous consultations, a fort was at length established in 1751, 
 on the San Xavier, a branch of the Guadalupe, which was how 
 ever, soon after abandoned, from the want of water and pasture, 
 for another place farther north-west, on the San S; ba, one of the 
 headwaters of the Colorado. A post was also formed in the 
 vicinity of the Bay of Galveston, which was called San Agustin 
 de Ahumada, after the family name of the Viceroy Marquis de 
 las Amarillas; but it was consumed by fire, and another spot 
 was selected, at the mouth of the stream, since celebrated as the 
 San Jacinto, where Fort Orcoquizas was founded in 1757. To 
 each of these forts, a mission was attached; and those already 
 established in the vicinity of San Antonio de Bexar were enlarged 
 by the erection of the extensive and magnificent buildings of 
 stone, which still excite the admiration of the traveller. 
 
 The attempts of the Spaniards to restrain the Indians in Texas 
 by these means, proved wholly abortive. On the 22nd of March, 
 1758, the mission near Fort San Saba, was surprised by a band 
 of those barbarians, who sacked and destroyed it, after putting 
 to death nearly all its inmates; and the efforts of the Comman 
 dant of the fort, were insufficient to induce his men to sally forth 
 against the invaders. Great consternation was produced by this 
 event, and various were the plans proposed in consequence at 
 Mexico; until it was at length determined, in a Council of war, 
 that the Indians should be chastised for their audacity in a man- 
 64 
 
506 CONDITION OF TEXAS NOT IMPROVED. [1763. 
 
 ncr calculated effectually to prevent the repetition of such at 
 tacks. For this object, more than five hundred men were sent 
 from San Antonio, in August, 1759, under the command of 
 Colonel Diego Ortiz Parilla the Governor of Texas, who march 
 ing northward, discovered a large body of Indians encamped in 
 a fortified enclosure near the sources of the Trinity river. The 
 Spaniards being well provided with artillery, immediately ad 
 vanced to assault the place; they were however, like the French 
 in the great expedition against the Chickasa towns, twenty-five 
 years previous, repulsed and completely routed, all their baggage, 
 ammunition and six pieces of cannon remaining in the hands of 
 the savages; and Parilla was unable to collect his forces again, 
 until he reached San Antonio. 
 
 The expenses of these establishments in Texas were enormous ; 
 yet the reports of the various commissioners, civil, military and 
 ecclesiastical, sent from time to time to inspect them, are filled 
 with u counts of their wretched and inefficient condition. The 
 missions were often without a single convert; the forts were in 
 ruins, and the soldiers, though well paid, were sunk in sloth and 
 misery, ragged and starving, where the slightest exertion on their 
 parts, would have enabled them to live in comfort. These ex 
 penses were not however always borne by the government, which 
 was occasionally relieved from a portion of the burthen, by the 
 enterprise or the pious and disinterested liberality of individuals. 
 The convents contributed largely, especially those of , the Fancis- 
 can order, of San Fernando in Mexico, Santa Cruz in Queretaro y 
 and Guadalupe in Zacatecas, from which the greater part of the 
 missionaries were despatched. D. Jose de Escandon still prose 
 cuted, at great cost, his efforts to settle the territories adjoining the 
 coast north of Tampico; and about this time, he founded Camargo, 
 Revilla and Laredo, on the Rio Bravo, the latter seven hundred 
 miles from its mouth, with several other places, none of which 
 have since risen above the rank of poor villages. In 1758 more 
 over, Don Pedro de Terreros, the owner of extensive silver mines 
 in Mexico, offered to defray all the expenses of the missions in 
 Texas for three years ; and having done so, he, at the end of that 
 period, received the title of Conde de Regla, as a reward for his 
 patriotic sacrifices. But these efforts served only to add a few 
 
CHAPTER XV 
 
 1763 TO 1770. 
 
 FLORIDA AND EASTERN LOUISIANA SURRENDERED TO GREAT 
 BRITAIN D'ABADIE DIRECTOR GENERAL OF LOUISIANA 
 ESTABLISHMENT OF FIVE NEW BRITISH PROVINCES IN 
 AMERICA ULLOA ARRIVES IN LOUISIANA, AS SPANISH 
 COMMISSIONER TO RECEIVE THE POSSESSION OPPOSITION 
 OF THE PEOPLE TO THE TRANSFER EXPULSION OF ULLOA 
 ATTEMPTS OF THE PEOPLE OF LOUISIANA TO PLACE THEM 
 SELVES UNDER THE PROTECTION OF GREAT BRITAIN ARRI 
 VAL OF A LARGE SPANISH FORCE UNDER O'REILLY, WHO 
 TAKES POSSESSION OF LOUISIANA, AND PUTS TO DEATH THE 
 
 LEADERS OF THE OPPOSITION TO SPAIN EXTENT AND LIMITS 
 
 OF LOUISIANA AS THUS SURRENDERED BY FRANCE TO SPAIN. 
 
 THE treaty concluded at Paris in February, 1763, was followed 
 by fifteen years of peace, unbroken though often threatened with 
 rupture, between the parties ; and time was thus afforded for the 
 developement of new circumstances, which led to great moral 
 and political revolutions, first in America, and afterwards among 
 the nations of Europe, from which the New World derived its 
 civilized population. 
 
 The history of these revolutions, is interwoven with that of the 
 countries, to which the present work chiefly relates. In fact, the 
 treaty of Paris, which transferred the greater and better portion 
 of those countries from Spain and France to Great Britain, 
 planted the first seeds of the changes; for by increasing the re 
 sources of the colonies of the latter power, and removing all 
 apprehensions of danger from foreign enemies, it rendered those 
 
510 PLANS OF THE BRITISH GOVERNMENT. [1763. 
 
 colonies less dependant upon the mother country, and less patient 
 of its authority. This effect, had been, as already shown, fore 
 seen in England; and the Government, adopting the idea, began 
 immediately after the conclusion of the peace, to devise means 
 for regulating that is restraining the advancement of the Ameri 
 can colonies, as the only alternative for preventing their separa 
 tion from the mother country, which otherwise seemed inevitable 
 if not imminent. Lord Bute withdrew from the responsibility of 
 such measures, by resigning his place in the ministry, in April, 
 1763 ; he was succeeded by Mr. George Grenville, who with 
 greater boldness, or rather rashness, undertook the task of ren 
 dering the American colonies, then containing more than fifteen 
 hundred thousand white inhabitants,* sensible that they were not 
 independent Republics, by requiring their submission to contri 
 butions and restrictions imposed by a Legislature, in which they 
 were not represented. These measures and their consequences 
 are now well known; but it will be necessary occasionally to 
 advert to them here, on account of their influence on the destinies 
 of the countries more particularly in question. 
 
 The stipulations of the treaty of Paris, respecting territories in 
 America, were too definite to afford any room for doubt as to 
 their meaning; and the losing parties were neither of them, in a 
 situation to oppose or delay the execution. Canada had been 
 for three years in the possession of the English, whose flng 
 waved over every post from Louisbourg to Mackinac ; and Ha- 
 vanna was held by the same power, in pledge, if necessary for 
 the surrender of Florida. The French inhabitants of Canada 
 then numbered about eighty thousand,* nearly all of whom resided 
 on the banks of the St. Lawrence, below its rapids; and their 
 character was not such, as to give any cause for uneasiness to 
 the new lords of the dominion. The countries of the Lakes and 
 the Ohio, and the remainder of Louisiana ceded to England, 
 were by far more fertile and valuable in every respect, than the 
 portion retained by France west of the great line of boundary, and 
 they contained probably more than half of the population of the 
 whole province: but these people were scattered over a wide 
 space, and could make no resistance; and large numbers of 
 them prepared, immediately on learning the terms of the peace, to 
 
 .*" These numbers are given on doubtful authorities. 
 
1763.] OUTBREAK OF THE INDIANS UNDER PONTIAC. 511 
 
 retire beyond the Mississippi. The portion of Florida which 
 Spain had to cede was of little value agriculturally; its inhabi 
 tants, other than Indians, were few, and these would probably 
 nearly all quit the country upon its surrender to the English : but 
 its possession by the latter was important for the prosperity of the 
 regions farther north, to which it opened a long line of coast, 
 embracing the mouths of several large rivers. Why the British 
 Government, when holding France and Spain at its mercy, did 
 not also insist upon the cession of New Orleans, cannot be ex 
 plained satisfactorily, except upon the supposition of a desire to 
 check the advancement of the interior countries, by leaving that 
 key of the Mississippi, and only site for a commercial emporium 
 upon its waters, in the hands of an enemy. 
 
 No apprehensions being entertained by the British Government, 
 of resistance to the execution of the treaty by France or Spain, 
 Havanna was surrendered on the 7th of July by Keppel, to the 
 Spanish Commissioners Conde de Ricla and General O'Reilly. 
 General Gage the commander-in-chief of the British forces in 
 North America, was- at the same time engaged in preparations 
 for taking possession of Florida and the Illinois countries ; when 
 information was received of a general outbreak among the Indians 
 of the north-west, who had almost simultaneously captured Ve- 
 nango, Presqu'ile, Mackinac, arid every other post in that quarter, 
 except Niagara, Detroit and Fort Pitt, and put to death nearly 
 all their inmates. These disasters were the result of a conspi 
 racy, for the destruction of the English, embracing all the savage 
 nations of the Lakes and Ohio countries, between Lake Ontario 
 and the Illinois. It is supposed to have been conceived or 
 fomented by the French, although the Illinois tribes, most nearly 
 connected with those people, remained neutral ; the head of the 
 enterprise was however, an Ottawa Chief, named Pontiac, who 
 had been distinguished for his devotion to the cause of France, 
 and for his courage and success in the late war against the Eng 
 lish. The influence of Sir William Johnson, prevented the Six 
 Nations from joining in the attack, except the Senecas, dwelling 
 between Lakes Erie and Ontario, who for some time held Fort 
 Niagara closely besieged. Pontiac himself directed the attempt 
 upon Detroit, which was frustrated by the energy of the Com 
 mandant Major Gladwin ; Mackinac was taken on the 4th of 
 
512 FLORIDA SURRENDERED TO THE BRITISH. [1763. 
 
 June, by the Sacs and Chippewas, large numbers of whom were 
 admitted into the fort by the incautious Major Etherington, while 
 the remainder were engaged in a game of ball on an adjoining 
 field, with the garrison as spectators. 
 
 General Gage immediately despatched Captains Dalyell and 
 Grant, with three hundred men, for the relief of Detroit, while 
 Colonel Bouquet proceeded with a larger number towards Fort 
 Pitt. The former party w r ere w r aylaid by Pontiac, near the place 
 of their destination, and many of them, including Dalyell, were 
 killed ere the remainder under Grant could reach the fort: Bou 
 quet, after a severe battle with the savages at Bushy-run near 
 Fort Pitt, reached that place with little loss ; but he was unable 
 to take the field from want of supplies until the following summer. 
 The excitement among the Indians extended southward through 
 the western portions of Virginia and Carolina : the Cherokees 
 indeed remained quiet ; but the Muscoghees or Creeks, crossed 
 the Savannah in December, 1763, and attacked a settlement called 
 the Long-canes on a small stream of the same name, emptying 
 into that river, from which they were gallantly repulsed by the 
 people, under the direction of Mr. Patrick Calhoun,* though not 
 until they had killed several of the settlers. 
 
 These difficulties with the Indians prevented the British from 
 taking possession of the countries of the Upper Mississippi for 
 two years. Colonel Robinson was however despatched from 
 New York to St. Augustine, which was surrendered to him by the 
 Spanish Commandant in the beginning of October, 1763. The 
 place was then said, to contain about two thousand inhabitants, 
 principally negroes, in addition to twenty-five hundred soldiers : 
 these people were at first disposed to remain in the country ; 
 they however soon became dissatisfied, and retired with the sol 
 diers to Cuba, where lands w^ere granted to them near Matanzas. 
 Pensacola was about the same time given up to Colonel Prevost, 
 who arrived there with a battalion of three hundred men from 
 Havanna : the town had been rebuilt at the western extremity 
 of Santa Rosa Island, after the restoration by the French in 1722 ; 
 but this site was abandoned, in consequence of the destruction of 
 the greater part of the houses by the waves, during a storm in 
 1754, and another was selected on the western shore of the bay 
 
 * Father of the Hon. John C. Calhoun of South Carolina. 
 
1763.] DELIVERY OF MOBILE TO THE BRITISH. 513 
 
 eight miles from its entrance, where Pensacola has ever since 
 Stood. It contained only a small number of inhabitants, all of 
 whom departed with the garrison to Cuba, immediately after the 
 surrender to the English : and as a similar emigration took place 
 from St. Marks, the English were soon the only people in the 
 country of European descent. 
 
 On the 20th of the same month of October, Major Robert 
 Farmer who had been also despatched from Havanna, received 
 formal possession of the town and fort of Mobile, from the French 
 Commandant Pierre Annibal de Velle, and the acting Commis 
 sary Jean Gabriel Fazende. On the 23rd of November, Fort 
 Tombechbe was surrendered by its chief officer Captain Pierre 
 Chabert, to Lieutenant Thomas Ford ; and Fort Toulouse at the 
 junction of the Coosa and Talipoosa branches of the Alabama, 
 was soon after delivered to the English, by its commandant the 
 Chevalier de la Noue. The French withdrew from these latter 
 places almost entirely ; and it is worthy of remark, that they 
 were followed by the Muscoghee tribe of the Alibamons, dwell 
 ing around Fort Toulouse, and by the remnant of the Taensas, 
 who had resided near the junction of the Alabama and Tom 
 bechbe rivers, ever since their expulsion from their old seat on 
 the Mississippi in 1706. The Taensas were established by the 
 Government of Louisiana, in the country of the Opelousas more 
 properly Okelousas or Black-waters, which had then been re 
 cently explored by M. Marigny de Mandeville; and a post called 
 Fort Opelousas, was founded in their vicinity, on the Vermillion 
 river, fifty miles west of the Mississippi, where the town of the 
 same name now stands. The Alibamons, were placed on the 
 eastern side of the Mississippi, near the old towns of the Hou- 
 mas, about seventy miles above New Orleans. 
 
 In the meantime the cession of Louisiana by France to Spain, 
 though rumored in Paris immediately after it took place, had not 
 been officially proclaimed by the Government of either of the 
 parties. It appears indeed to have been positively denied by the 
 French Ministry on an occasion, on which it certainly ought to 
 have been communicated ; for M. D'Abadie, who was appointed 
 Commandant and Director General of Louisiana, in place of 
 Kerlerec, in the spring of 1763, certainly quitted France under the 
 conviction, that the report of the cession was entirely groundless. 
 65 
 
514 SPAIN HESITATES TO ACCEPT LOUISIANA. [1763. 
 
 This silence of the two Governments and the subsequent de 
 lays in the consummation of the transfer, were occasioned, as 
 may be here said in anticipation, by the unwillingness on the part 
 of King Charles III. of Spain, to accept the territory thus offered 
 to him by his cousin of France. The Catholic Monarch was then 
 endeavoring ardently and sincerely, to retrieve his dominions, 
 from the languid and disordered condition, into which they had 
 sunk; and for this object, his attention was chiefly directed to the 
 augmentation of the public revenues, and diminution of the ex 
 penditures, which, according to Spanish ideas of political econo 
 my, could only be effected, "by more strictly enforcing the old 
 prohibitory system, especially with regard to the transatlantic 
 colonies. New taxes w r ere to be laid on the people of those 
 countries, who were also to be farther restricted in commerce and 
 manufactures, so as to secure the monopoly of both to the mother 
 country ; and new settlements and fortifications were to be made, 
 where they might, more effectually bind the colonies together, 
 and render them defensible against foreign enemies. For 
 these purposes, large expenditures would be required in the first 
 instance ; and doubts were reasonably entertained by the Spanish 
 Government, w r hether it would be politic to add to its dominions, 
 a large tract of territory inhabited only by a few people of another 
 nation, and almost unexplored, from which no return could be 
 expected during a long period, if ever, for the cost of maintaining 
 the possession. The countries adjoining the Gulf and the Mis 
 sissippi could not be rendered fit for cultivation without a vast 
 previous outlay for drainage and embankments ; and those of the 
 interior were too remote, from the seats of Spanish power, for 
 their protection against the all-encroaching English. In fine, 
 the only real advantage which the Spanish Government could ex 
 pect to derive from the possession of this territory, would be by- 
 keeping it, as a desert between the English and the precious pro 
 vinces of Mexico ; which would be as effectually attained by leav 
 ing it in the hands of the French, without subjecting the Catho 
 lic Monarch, to the expenses of maintaining the colony and to the 
 danger of new disputes with the English. 
 
 Another circumstance contributed to render the King of Spain 
 unwilling to accept the possession as offered by France. The 
 debt of the province, that is to say, the debt of the French 
 
1763.] KERLEREC IMPRISONED IN THE BASTILE. 515 
 
 Government on account of the province due almost entirely to 
 its inhabitants, exceeded seven millions of livres, or about twelve 
 hundred thousand dollars; the evidences of which existed in pa 
 per money, in bons or due bills issued, as already shown, by the 
 provincial authorities, in bills of exchange drawn on the Govern 
 ment in redemption of the bons and returnecLunpaid, and in certifi 
 cates of loans arbitrarily exacted after the refusal of the Govern 
 ment to acquit the amount of the bons and bills of exchange. 
 The unprincipled Duke de Choiseul, who then directed the affairs 
 of France without control or question, as Vizier to the indolent, 
 voluptuous Sultan Louis XV., was determined never to pay this 
 debt; and with that view, he began by seeking what portions 
 might be repudiated, on the grounds of informality or of knavery 
 in their issue. A commission was accordingly instituted, to ex 
 amine the conduct of the Governor Kerlerec, of the Royal Com 
 missary Rochemore, w r ho had been displaced upon the represen 
 tations of the Governor, and of his successor M. Foucault ; and 
 this commission having reported, that Kerlerec had been guilty 
 of malversation of the sums raised by the Commissaries agreea 
 bly to his demands, as well as of many other acts of fraud or vio 
 lence, he was imprisoned in the Bastile immediately on arriving 
 in France. The Minister having in this manner proved, or at 
 least rendered it probable or possible, that a large number of the 
 bons might have been given without a proper consideration, ob 
 tained a pretext for deferring the payment of any of them, until 
 he should be enabled openly to reject them all, after the surren 
 der of Louisiana and its peoplej into the hands of the Spaniards. 
 The Catholic Monarch was however desirous, that this business 
 should be settled before he took possession of the country, in 
 order that he might be freed from all embarrassments and impor 
 tunities on account of the debt, for which he was resolved not to 
 become in any way responsible. 
 
 M. D'Abadie the new Director General of Louisiana, landed 
 at New Orleans on the 29th of June, 1763. Like all his prede 
 cessors, he found the condition of the country much worse than 
 he had anticipated ; and his first letters were, like those of Kerle 
 rec, Vaudreuil and the olhers, filled with details of the indolence, 
 drunkenness, and misery of the people, the knavery of the 
 Government officers, and the neglect and recklessness every 
 
516 EMBARRASSMENTS OF GOVERNOR D 5 ABADIE. [1763. 
 
 where apparent. He was immediately surrounded by complain 
 ants and claimants of all classes, and on all accounts, chiefly 
 however, by the holders of paper-money, Government bons, re 
 turned bills of exchange, and certificates of loans, which were all 
 three hundred per cent, below par. In answer to their questions 
 and prayers for relief^ he could only offer them new paper- money, 
 the issue of which, merely served to depreciate the value of what 
 was already on hand ; and this produced a formal remonstrance 
 from the principal merchants of the colony, couched in terms of 
 insubordination so strong and unequivocal, as greatly to shock 
 the feelings of the loyal Governor. 
 
 This tone of independence, or more properly indifference, which 
 he soon found every where prevailing, was regarded by M. 
 D'Abadie as ominous of evil: in order to repress it, he pro 
 posed to fill all the offices of the colony by natives of France of 
 approved fidelity to the crown ; and w r ith this view, he recom 
 mended the immediate removal of several Creole members of the 
 Council, and especially of M. Chauvin de Lafreniere, an emi 
 nent and influential lawyer of New Orleans, who had been re 
 cently appointed Attorney General. In order to improve the 
 condition of the province, he could devise no means more effec 
 tive, than that of conceding to Frenchmen, monopolies of all the 
 branches of commerce and industry, which could be subjected to 
 such restrictions : and he accordingly obtained the privilege of 
 executing all the printing in the country, for M. Braud, who un 
 der this protection, established the first press at New Orleans in 
 1764; while the whole trade with the Indians of the Missouri and 
 the upper Mississippi, was in like manner secured to a company 
 of individuals, at the head of whom was Pierre Ligueste Laclede. 
 This latter concession proved most advantageous to Louisiana, 
 as well as to those to whom it was made. Laclede a man of 
 capital and energy, immediately proceeded up the Mississippi, 
 where he founded several trading posts on that river and on the 
 Missouri, near their junction; and these posts were soon converted 
 inlo settlements, on the evacuation of the Illinois by the French, 
 who would probably have remained in the latter territory under 
 the dominion of Great Britain, without the new support thus of 
 fered to them among their countrymen, on the western side of 
 the Mississippi. 
 
1764.] EXPULSION OF THE JESUITS. 517 
 
 The dispute between the Capuchins and Jesuits, which had so 
 long agitated New Orleans, was at this time ended in a summary 
 manner, by the ejection of the disciples of Loyola from the coun 
 try. This celebrated order had been long the object of the attacks 
 of the philosophers of France, who assailed it by arguments, 
 by examples drawn from history, and by ridicule ; and it also in 
 time, excited the jealousy of Governments, especially of those 
 most despotic and most devoted to the Roman Catholic Church. 
 After many attempts had been made in vain, to procure their 
 suppression by the Pope, the Marquis de Pombal, who ruled Por 
 tugal with an iron rod in the name of its imbecile sovereign Jo 
 seph I. caused all the Jesuits to be expelled from those dominions, 
 in September, 1759, and all their property to be confiscated. In 
 France, the Duke de Choiseul was no less inimical to them ; and 
 their whole order was brought into farther discredit, by the expo 
 sure of some commercial transactions of a nature by no means 
 creditable, in which it had been engaged. At length the Parlia 
 ment of Paris, by a Decree of August 6th, 1762, declared their 
 proceedings abuses, and forbade them longer to reside or act to 
 gether as a community ; and this being found ineffectual, another 
 Decree was issued on the 9th of March, 1764, by which they 
 were obliged to quit all the French territories within a month 
 after the notice. The execution of this order in Louisiana, was 
 accompanied by no incidents worthy of note. The fine establish 
 ment and grounds of the Jesuits immediately adjoining New Or 
 leans on the west, were sold for nearly a million of livres to a M, 
 Pradel; the place afterwards came into the possession of Bertrand 
 Gravier, who divided it into lots, and thus formed the Faubourg 
 Sainte Marie, now included in the Fourth and Fifth Municipali 
 ties of that city. Their lands and buildings at Kaskaskia, 
 and in other parts of the Illinois, were in like manner confiscated 
 and sold for the benefit of the French treasury, although that 
 country no longer belonged to France; the purchaser M. Beau- 
 vais, however, did not obtain the possession of the property, as 
 the English authorities, after occupying the country, refused to 
 admit the validity of the sale. 
 
 Whatsoever may have been the faults or crimes of the Jesuits 
 in Europe, their presence in America seems to have been every 
 where attended with good. They failed indeed every where,, 
 
518 ATTACK ON MAJOR LOFTUS. [1764. 
 
 except in Paraguay, in attaining the end for which they always 
 labored the establishment of a community of natives, under the 
 exclusive direction of their order: but they always protected the 
 poor Aborigines against, their white oppressors, and softened and 
 humanized both parties, by their patient and self-denying conduct, 
 and their conciliatory measures; while to their researches, the 
 world is indebted for the earliest exact accounts of many distant 
 regions, into which they penetrated, in defiance of the most ap 
 palling perils and privations. 
 
 To the Jesuits, Louisiana owes the introduction of the sugar 
 cane, which was brought by members of their order from St. 
 Domingo, in 1751, and planted on their estate, near New Orleans. 
 Experience having shown the soil and climate of that region to 
 be favorable to its growth, several planters, particularly Messrs. 
 Dubreuil and Destrehan, engaged in its cultivation; and in 1763 
 a cargo of the sugar was shipped for France. Unfortunately, 
 however, from some defect in the manufacture, its crystalization 
 was so incomplete, that nearly the whole of it leaked from the 
 hogshead in the form of molasses ; and for more than thirty years 
 afterwards, the quantity made in Louisiana was never more than 
 sufficient for the supply of the province, and generally much les. 
 
 The surrender of the territories ceded to the British by the 
 treaty of Paris, was a source of deep mortification to M. D'Abadie; 
 particularly as it brought those meddling rivals of France into 
 the very heart of Louisiana, in virtue of their right to navigate 
 the Mississippi in its whole length. 
 
 For the occupation of Natchez, Major Loftus was sent from 
 Pensacola to the Mississippi, with three hundred men, and some 
 women and children, with whom he quitted New Orleans, in 
 ten boats, for the place of their destination, on the 27th of Feb 
 ruary, 1764. They were accompanied by a small escort of French, 
 who left them at Pointe Coupee ; they then continued their voy 
 age without interruption, as far as the Rocher a Davion the cliffs 
 so often mentioned in the preceding pages, a little above the 
 mouth of the Red river, on the opposite side of the Mississippi 
 where they on the 20th of March, received a volley of musketry 
 from unseen hands, which killed six of their number and wounded 
 seven others. This unexpected attack disconcerted the English 
 commander, who considering it imprudent to proceed farther, 
 
1764.] THE INDIANS SUBDUKD BY THE BRITISH. 519 
 
 returned to Manchac, the outlet of the Mississippi to the Iberville, 
 and thence despatched an officer to New Orleans, to represent 
 the affair to the Governor. D'Abadie denied all knowledge of 
 the authors of the outrage, who were supposed by him to be In 
 dians; but the Governor of Florida was so little satisfied with 
 these assurances, that he recalled Loitus and his men from the 
 Mississippi, and the occupation of Natchez, was also 'deferred 
 until the following year. The Rocher a Davion was so called, 
 as already stated, after the courageous missionary Father Davion, 
 who resided there among the Tunica Indians, during the first 
 twenty years of the century; in consequence of the incident last 
 related, it received from the English the name of Loftus' heights, 
 which it retained until the occupation of the country by the peo 
 ple of the United States, when Fort Adams was erected on it. 
 
 The difficulties between the English and the Indians continued 
 until the end of 1764, by which time the latter had been entirely 
 subdued, by the resolute conduct of the English under Bradstreet, 
 on the upper lakes, and Bouquet on the Ohio, aidd by the in 
 fluence and exertions of Sir William Johnson, in the countries 
 south of Lake Ontario. Pontiac, the chief of the insurrection, 
 abandoned by his allies, took refuge in the Illinois, where he was 
 three years after murdered by a Frenchman. That the Indians 
 were aided in their resistance to the English by the French, is 
 most probable if not certain ; and the latter retaliated in the 
 same way, whenever an opportunity w T as presented. Thus in 
 the winter of 1763-4, a number of Cherokees under Ottassite or 
 Judd's Friend, a chief devoted to the English cause and acting 
 under instructions from the Governor of South Carolina, de 
 scended the Tennessee river to its mouth, where after waiting 
 for some days, they intercepted two large boats laden with ammu 
 nition for the Miami Indians, under the charge of some French 
 men, who were carried as prisoners to Charleston. About the 
 same time, Fort Assumption on the north bank of the Ohio, forty- 
 six miles above its mouth, was surprised by Indians, probably 
 Chickasas, who put to death all found in it; the place was in 
 consequence called Fort Massacre, and is now known under the 
 abbreviated name of Fort Massac. 
 
 Peace being thus restored, the commander-in-chief of the Brit 
 ish forces again prepared to take possession of the Mississippi* 
 
520 THE ENGLISH OCCUPY NATCHEZ AND ILLINOIS. [1765- 
 
 countries. A vessel of war was sent up that river, with materials 
 for the construction and armament of a fort, which was estab 
 lished at the outlet to the Iberville in 1765, and named Fort 
 Bute; and Natchez and the mouth of the Yazoo were then suc 
 cessively occupied by a party of Scotch Grays under Captain 
 Campbell, who changed the name of Fort Rosalie to Fort Pan- 
 mure, in honor of their Colonel. Major Sterling was at the same 
 time despatched with a large body of Highlanders to receive 
 possession of the Illinois, from which the French soldiers had 
 been nearly all withdrawn in the preceding year, by the Com 
 mandant M. Nyon de Villiers. M. de St. Ange, who was left 
 with a few men, at Fort Chartres, surrendered that place and 
 the whole country to Sterling, on the 10th of October; and the 
 British then held under their authority, all the territories in North 
 America, assigned to them by the treaty of Paris. 
 
 The French population of the Illinois country at the time of 
 this cession, was probably about eight hundred, with one-fourth 
 of that number of negroes ; nearly all of whom resided in the small 
 villages of Cahokia,Fort Chartres, Prairie-du-Rocher, and Kaskas- 
 kia. Fort Chartres had been rebuilt within the preceding fifteen 
 years, so as to form a fortification sufficient to resist any attacks 
 which might be expected, either from English or Indians; it stood 
 on the edge of the Mississippi bank, one hundred and twenty- 
 four miles above the mouth of the Ohio, and sixty-seven miles 
 below that of the Missouri, and was built of stone in form of a 
 quadrangle, with a bastion at each angle, enclosing a number of 
 large houses, for barracks, armories, magazines, and other mili 
 tary purposes. Prairie-du-rocher was four miles south-east of 
 the fort, and Kaskaskia ten miles farther in the same direction, 
 near the mouth of the river of the same name; Cahokia was fifty 
 miles north of Fort Chartres. These places were all situated in 
 a tract of low land extending from the Kaskaskia river, to the 
 Illinois, between the Mississippi and the highlands, which form 
 the eastern border of its basin. On the opposite side of the Great 
 River, the French had likewise made some small settlements, the 
 principal of which, near Kaskaskia, had received from its weal 
 thier neighbors, the soubriquet of Misere or Misery ; while an 
 other in the vicinity of Cahokia, seventeen miles below the mouth 
 of the Missouri, was honored with the appellation of Pain-Court, 
 
1763.] NEW PROVINCES FORMED BY PROCLAMATION. 521 
 
 in allusion to the proverbial scarcity of bread in its district. At 
 each of these places, the company of Laclede formed an estab 
 lishment for the Indian trade, of which it had, as already said, 
 obtained the monopoly from the French Government, in the pre 
 ceding year; and the number of their inhabitants being soon in 
 creased by emigration from the opposite region, after its surren 
 der to the English, the opprobious name of Misere was changed 
 to Sainte Genevieve, while Pain-Court became Saint Louis. 
 
 The countries thus acquired by Great Britain, in North Ameri 
 ca, through the treaty of Paris, were nearly all within the limits 
 of some one of the existing colonies of that nation, agreeably to 
 their charters, which originally included the whole breadth of the 
 Continent, between the 29th arid the 48th parallels of latitude; 
 and the Governments or the people of several of these provinces, 
 were preparing to avail themselves of the advantages, thus offered 
 to them by making settlements in the new countries, when they 
 were arrested for the time, by a Royal Proclamation,* issued at 
 
 * The description of the boundaries of these Provinces, in the proclamation, 
 are as follows : 
 
 " First, the government of Quebec, bounded on the Labrador coast by the 
 river St. John, to the south end of the Lake Nipissing; from whence the said 
 line, crossing the river St. Lawrence and the Lake Champlain in 45 degrees of 
 north latitude, passes along *he High-Lands, which divide the rivers that empty 
 themselves into the said river St. Lawrence, from those which fall into the sea; 
 and also along the north coast of the Baye de Chaleurs, and the coast of the 
 Gulf of St. Lawrence to Cape Rosieres, and from thence crossing the mouth 
 of the river St. Lawrence, by the west end of the Island of Anticosti, termi 
 nates at the aforesaid river St. John. 
 
 " Secondly, the government of East Florida, bounded to the westward by the 
 Gulf of Mexico and the Apalachicola river; to the northward by a line drawn 
 from that part of the said river, where the Cattahoochee and Flint rivers meet, 
 to the source of St. Mary's river, and by the course of the said river, to the At 
 lantic Ocean; and to the east and south, by the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of 
 Florida, including all the islands within six leagues of the sea-coast. 
 
 " Thirdly, the government of West Florida, bounded to the southward, by the 
 Gulf of Mexico, including all islands within six leagues of the coast, from the 
 river Apalachicola to Lake Pontchartrain; to the westward by the said Lake, 
 the Lake Maurepas, and the river Mississippi; to the northward, by aline drawn 
 due east from that part of the river Mississippi, which lies in thirty-one degrees 
 north latitude, to the river Apalachicola, or Cattahoochee; and to the eastward 
 by the said river. 
 
 ' ; Fourthly, the government of Grenada, comprehending the island of that 
 name, together with the Grenadines, and the Islands of Dominico, St. Vincent, 
 and Tobago. 
 
 66 
 
522 CONDITIONS OF GRANTS OF LAND. [1763. 
 
 London on the 7th of October, 1763. By this proclamation, 
 three new provinces were erected in parts of the Continent which 
 had been already occupied by civilized people, and one in the 
 West Indies, comprehending the Islands of Granada, Dominica, 
 St. Vincent's, Tobago and the Grenadines. The provinces on 
 the Continent were Quebec, embracing all the territory to some 
 distance on each side of the St. Lawrence, below the place where 
 the river is crossed by the 45th parallel of latitude East Florida, 
 including the Peninsula and the adjoining country, between the 
 Atlantic and the river Apalachicola, as far north as a line drawn 
 from the junction of the Chattahoochee and Flint rivers which form 
 the Apalachicola, eastward to the source of St. Mary's river, and 
 thence down that stream to the Atlantic ; the territory between 
 the St. Mary and the Alatamaha being annexed to Georgia; and 
 West Florida, which comprised all south of the 31st parallel of 
 latitude, between the Apalachicola and the great boundary line, 
 running through the Mississippi, the Iberville, and the lakes 
 Maurepas and Pontchartrain. Each of these new provinces was 
 to be under the immediate control and direction of the Crown, 
 administered by a Governor, possessing extensive powers civil 
 and military, until circumstances should warrant the establish 
 ment of a legislative body, similar in form to those of the other 
 crown colonies. Lands were to be assigned by these Governors in 
 their respective provinces to reduced officers of the army or navy, 
 and soldiers, who had served in the late war, and to other indi 
 viduals who might solicit them, on condition of settlement, to a 
 certain extent, within a certain time, and under moderate quit 
 rents and services: but no lands not included in the new prov 
 inces, or in the Hudson's Bay territories, and situated beyond the 
 heads of the rivers, falling directly into the Atlantic, could be 
 granted or sold by any Governor or other British authority in 
 America, or be occupied by any British subject in virtue of gift 
 or purchase from the Indians, or under any other pretext, without 
 the special permission of the King, to whom was reserved the 
 exclusive right of making purchases from the Aborigines, or 
 otherwise extinguishing their titles to lands. Finally, the trade 
 with the Aborigines in the several provinces, could be conducted 
 only by traders, licensed by the respective Governors, under 
 security for their observance of the regulations made by the 
 
1763.] DISREGARD OF THE PROHIBITIONS. 523 
 
 Crown. The trade with the other Indian countries was afterwards 
 in like manner, placed under (he direction of Superintendents Gen 
 eral, of whom one was to be appointed for the northern, and one 
 lor the southern territories; and these officers in conjunction with 
 the Governors of the provinces interested in each case, were em 
 powered to make treaties with the various nations, defining their 
 boundaries, and regulating the terms of intercourse with them. 
 
 The provisions of this proclamation, were in general fair and 
 equitable, especially those for the protection of the Aborigines, 
 against the knavery of the white people; and they formed the 
 bases of the regulations, made with the same object by the 
 United States, after the establishment of their independence. 
 The prohibition of the concession of lands by the Governors, 
 beyond the heads of the rivers falling into the Atlantic, however, 
 occasioned much dissatisfaction among the people of the old 
 provinces, in whose charters those lands were embraced; some 
 considering it as a direct invasion of their rights, while others 
 viewed it *only as a temporary expedient on the part of the min 
 istry, to quiet the minds of the Indians,* who had been impressed 
 by the French with the idea, that they were all to be driven from 
 their countries by the British. It was probably intended also, 
 in part at least, as a check upon the advance of the population 
 into the interior, which could not fail to render the provinces 
 more independent of the control of the mother country ; but 
 whatever may have been its object, it had no effect, as settle 
 ments were soon after made on the upper waters of the Ohio, the 
 Kanawha and the Tennessee, as freely as if no such restriction 
 existed. 
 
 Immediately after the appearance of this proclamation, Gen 
 eral James Murray, was appointed Governor of the province of 
 Quebec, Colonel James Grant of East .Florida, and Captain 
 
 * Colonel George Washington, who was then residing at his plantation of 
 Mount Vernon on the Potomac, wrote thus to Mr. W. Crawford on the 21st of 
 September, 1767. 
 
 " I offered in my last, to join you in attempting to secure some of the most 
 valuable lands in the King's part, which I think may be accomplished after a 
 while; notwithstanding the Proclamation that restrains it at present, and pro 
 hibits the settling of them at all; for I never can look at that proclamation, in 
 any other light, (but this I say between ourselves,) than as a temporary expedi 
 ent, to quiet the minds of the Indians. It must fall of course, in a few years, 
 especially when those Indians consent to our occupying the lands." 
 
524 TREATIES BETWEEN THE BRITISH AND INDIANS. [1765. 
 
 George Johnstone, of West Florida. Sir William Johnson, was 
 at the same time made General Superintendent of the Indian 
 countries in the north, and Mr. John Steuart in those of the 
 south. The Governors were instructed to invite settlers to their 
 provinces by the offer of one-hundred acres of land to each head 
 of a family, and fifty acres in addition, for every other person 
 attached to it, on the conditions of their paying five shillings for 
 every fifty acres, and an annual quit rent of a half-penny per acre, 
 and that three acres of every fifty granted, should have been 
 cleared or drained and cultivated, and three heads of cattle have 
 been placed upon every fifty acres of uncultivated ground, within 
 three years after the date of the concession. Proclamations to 
 this effect were accordingly issued by the Governors of the Flori- 
 das, accompanied by descriptions of the countries, and notices 
 of the various advantages offered to settlers in them; and the In 
 dian nations of that part of the Continent, were invited to send 
 deputies to certain places, to meet the Superintendent and the 
 Governors, for the determination of boundaries, and other matters 
 of common interest. 
 
 For this latter object, a large number of Muscoghees and 
 Choctas were assembled at Mobile, in the spring of 1765, where 
 they were informed by Messrs. Johnstone and Steuart, of the kind 
 intentions of the British Government to protect them in the pos 
 session of their old hunting grounds, and were assured that the 
 treaties and other agreements made or which might be made 
 with them, would be scrupulously observed by the English, while 
 similar observances would be strictly exacted from them. Pres 
 ents were distributed, marks of honor were bestowed on the most 
 distinguished chiefs, and every other means was employed to 
 conciliate them, and to accommodate their differences among 
 themselves. Treaties were then proposed, and after discussions 
 and alterations, were concluded, distinctly defining the bounda 
 ries of each of the nations, within which no lands could be 
 bought or settlements be made by white men, without the consent 
 of the Indians, and of the British authorities. Thus, nearly the 
 whole of the countries of the lower Tombigbee and Alabama 
 rivers, were secured to the Choctas, and those of the upper Ala 
 bama and Chattahoochee to the Muscoghees or Creeks; and in 
 order to quiet the apprehensiors of those nations, Forts Toulouse 
 
1764.] BRITISH SETTLEMENTS IN EAST FLORIDA. 525 
 
 and Tombechbe were soon after abandoned.* In like manner, 
 by a treaty concluded at St. Augustine in November of the same 
 year, the Seminoles, or Lower Creeks of the Peninsula, were 
 secured in the possession of the country, extending from the 
 vicinity of the river St. John, north-westward to the head waters 
 of the St. Mary and the Alatamaha; and other treaties were af 
 terwards made with the smaller Indian nations, by which, large 
 bodies of fine lands were opened to British settlers. 
 
 In the territories not thus specially reserved to the Indians, 
 lands were granted by the Governors of each of the Floridas ac 
 cording to the provisions of the proclamation, as well as by the 
 Crown, to individuals and companies. The earliest of these large 
 grants, were made in the eastern provinces, where the principal 
 patentees were Lords Egmont, Hillsborough, Hawke and Gran- 
 ville, Sir William Duncan, and Messrs. Oswald, Turnbull, Rolle 
 and Moultrie. Lord Egmont obtained the whole of Amelia 
 island, which extends from the mouth of St. Mary's river to that 
 of the Nassau, within a few miles of the St. John; and he there 
 formed a cotton plantation which was soon in a prosperous 
 condition. Mr. Rolle's grant embraced forty thousand acres, 
 to be chosen by him from any vacant lands in the province : 
 he had first determined to make his settlement at St. Mark's, 
 and with that object, he sailed from London, accompanied by 
 several hundred persons, mostly paupers, towards the entrance 
 of the Mexican Gulf; but having been forced by storms to put 
 into the mouth of the St. John, he was so much pleased with the 
 country, that he selected a tract upon that river, about forty miles 
 south-west of St. Augustine, where he formed his establishment, 
 called Charlottea, in honor of the Queen. Messrs. Oswald and 
 Moultrie, established their people on the Halifax river near its 
 entrance into the Atlantic, about seventy miles below St. Augus 
 tine, w r here they commenced large plantations of sugar and in- 
 
 * These places were visited by Bartram in 1774, when the only vestiges found, 
 were some embankments and old fields at Fort Tombechbe", and a few small 
 iron cannon, and some fine apple-trees at Fort Toulouse. Fort Tombechbe, was 
 situated as already said, on a cliff now known as Jones' Bluff, overhanging the 
 Tombechbe or Tombigbee river, on the west, about fifty miles above its conflu 
 ence with the Alabama. Fort Toulouse stood in the angle formed by the junc 
 tion of the Coosa and Talipoosa rivers, seven miles north of Montgomery the 
 present capital of the State of Alabama ; the place was occupied during the Creek 
 war in 1817, by the Americans, who erected on it a work called Fort Jackson. 
 
D26 WEST FLORIDA EXTENDED FARTHER NORTH. [1765. 
 
 digo. Dr. Turnbull, in conjunction with Sir William Duncan, 
 selected a tract a short distance south of that occupied by Messrs. 
 Moultrie and Oswald, at the entrance of the Halifax and Hills- 
 borough rivers into Mosquito Inlet, on which they laid out a town 
 on a high shelly bluff, overhanging the Hillsborough on the west; 
 and there they in 1767 established several hundreds of Minor- 
 cans, Corsicans, and Greeks from the Morea, who were to be 
 employed in the cultivation of olives, grapes, figs, and currants, 
 for exportation, and in making wine, in addition to the produc 
 tion of the other articles above mentioned. The unfortunate re 
 sult of this last enterprise will be hereafter related. 
 
 In West Florida, the earliest grants of lands were made in the 
 vicinity of Pensacola and Mobile, chiefly to French Protestants ; 
 the greater part of these settlers, however, soon died of the yellow 
 fever, which seems to have made its first appearance on the 
 northern side of the Mexican Gulf, at Pensacola in 1765, and 
 that portion of Florida was, in consequence, avoided by emi 
 grants from Europe or from the southern colonies. A town 
 called New Richmond was at the same time laid off at Baton 
 Rouge on the Mississippi: but the applications were principally 
 directed to procure lands near the Great River, north of the 31st 
 parallel of latitude, which had been fixed by the proclamation, as 
 the northern boundary of the province; and the British Govern 
 ment being most anxious to have the banks of that river speedily 
 and effectively occupied by its own subjects, as soon as possible, 
 determined in March, 1764, that the northern boundary should be 
 removed to the latitude of the mouth of the Yazoo river. Governor 
 Johnstone was accordingly authorised to include all south of that 
 line, in his province; and the commissions and instructions given 
 to all the subsequent Governors, so long as the country remained 
 in the possession of Great Britain, declare West Florida to be 
 bounded on the north by "a line drawn from the mouth of the 
 Yazoo river, where it unites with the Mississippi, due east, to the 
 Apalachicola." No order, proclamation, or other act of the British 
 Government, except those above mentioned, sanctioning this 
 change in the extent and limits of West Florida, was ever publish 
 ed or seems to have been made: but the authority of the Governor 
 of that province, to grant lands and to exercise jurisdiction in the 
 territory as far as the latitude of the mouth of the Yazoo, was 
 
1764.] PASSAGE OF THE STAMP ACT. 527 
 
 never questioned. Under the protection thus afforded, the settle 
 ment of the eastern banks of the Mississippi proceeded rapidly; 
 large grants of lands being made to several individuals in England 
 and America, especially in the eastern provinces, by whom plan 
 tations were formed for the cultivation of corn, indigo, and to 
 bacco, at the points most secure from inundation, between the 
 Iberville and the Yazoo. 
 
 On the Ohio, the Virginians and Pennsylvanians bought lands 
 frpm the Indians and fixed their habitations without regard for the 
 Royal proclamation, which became, as Washington foresaw, a 
 dead letter in all its prohibitions of that nature. In the Illinois, 
 no establishments were formed by the English for some years, 
 during which the French merely maintained their old settlements, 
 without any remarkable change. Farther north-west the efforts 
 of the English were directed chiefly to trade, in which they seem 
 to have been less successful than the French. They also explored 
 the regions bordering upon the southern shore of Lake Superior, 
 where many of those remarkable deposites of copper and lead, 
 which now render that part of the continent so valuable, were 
 discovered. A company was formed in London in 1769, for 
 working these mines, in order to extract the silver combined with 
 the other metals; but the project was soon abandoned.* 
 
 In the meantime, serious discontent was prevailing throughout 
 the old colonies of England in America. Soon after the appear 
 ance of the Royal proclamation for the government of the new 
 provinces, the earliest measures of the British Ministers for re 
 straining and taxing the American colonies, were proposed in 
 Parliament. In March 1764, Mr. Grenville presented his cele 
 brated resolution, that towards defraying the expenses of pro 
 tecting and securing the colonies, it may be proper to charge 
 certain stamp duties in those countries ; and this having been 
 carried, acts were passed in succession, establishing stamp du 
 ties on all legal and mercantile documents in the American pro 
 vinces, and duties of import on certain articles brought, into them 
 from foreign countries, and requiring them to support troops 
 which were to be quartered in various places. Against these 
 acts, the people and the legislative assemblies of several colonies, 
 
 * See the travels and adventures of Alexander Henry, who was the agent of 
 this company, published at Montreal in 1809. 
 
528 RESISTANCE OF THE BRITISH PROVINCES. [1765. 
 
 immediately protested, and remonstrated, on the grounds that 
 laws imposing taxes on British subjects could not be rightfully 
 made, without the consent of representatives chosen by them 
 selves. This view of the question was not admitted by the min 
 istry, which disregarded the remonstrances of the colonies, and 
 the latter in consequence, proceeded to more effective measures. 
 Resolutions were passed by the Legislatures of some of the pro 
 vinces for impeding or preventing the execution of the obnoxious 
 laws, and the people resisted their application by force ; and a 
 Congress of representatives from nearly all the colonies was con 
 vened at New York, by which a Declaration of Rights and Griev 
 ances was drawn up, in October, 1765, and submitted to the 
 Ministers, by Commissioners appointed for the purpose. This 
 universal and determined resistance led to the repeal of the 
 stamp act on the 18th of March, 1766; but Parliament, at 'the 
 same time, asserted the right of the Government, to make all 
 laws and statutes to bind the colonies in America, in all cases 
 whatsoever ; and new taxes were imposed, and troops and ships 
 of war were sent to America, to enforce that obedience to the 
 authority of the mother country, which was considered due in 
 return for the protection afforded by it. These new acts of power 
 added fuel to the flame, and excited the people to resistance in 
 every part of the old provinces. The collectors of the customs 
 were attacked, whenever they ventured to exercise their func 
 tions, unsupported by large bodies of troops ; and it became evi 
 dent that the dependence of the colonies upon Great Britain could 
 not be maintained under the existing circumstances, without a 
 struggle, the ultimate results of which it was impossible to foresee 
 Louisiana still remained in the possession of the French. The 
 Director General D'Abadie, persevered in his thankless and un 
 promising labors, for the regeneration of the province, agreeably 
 to his ideas; but the belief that it had been ceded to Spain, 
 checked all disposition on the part of the people to labor for its 
 improvement. This belief was confirmed and encouraged by the 
 English, whose vessels freely ascended and descended the Mis 
 sissippi, according to the terms of the treaty, and though ex 
 cluded as carefully as possible from New Orleans, held frequent 
 communications with the people at other points in its vicinity, 
 where they introduced large quantities of goods by contraband. 
 
1764.] LETTER OF THE KING OF FRANCE TO O ? ABADIE. 529 
 
 This irregular commerce, the Governor endeavored to .\heck, by 
 vigilance, though he could not venture to employ force, as the 
 people were evidently not disposed to submit to any measures 
 of that nature; and he was obliged, with grief, to submit to the 
 injuries thus inflicted on the royal revenues, in consequence of 
 the voyages made by the inhabitants of the capital to Manchac, 
 and to le Petit Manchac, as they called the spot opposite to New 
 Orleans, where the interlopers landed their merchandise in passing. 
 
 M. D'Abadie. however, persisted in contradicting and even in 
 disbelieving the reports of the cession of Louisiana to Spain, until 
 the month of October, 1764, when he received a letter from 
 King Louis XV. himself, which dispelled all doubts on the sub 
 ject. By this letter, dated Versailles, April 21, His Majesty 
 informed the Director General of Louisiana that he had, of his 
 own free will, ceded that province to his cousin Charles III. of 
 Spain, in November, 1762, in confirmation of which, he more 
 over sent official copies of the acts of cession and acceptance 
 exchanged on that occasion ; and he therefore charged M 
 D'Abadie to deliver up the country with all its forts and dependen 
 cies, as they were at the time of the cession, to the person who 
 might appear with powers from His Catholic Majesty to re- 
 reive them, and to retire to France or to one of the West India 
 Islands, with the officers civil and military, and the soldiers who 
 might not choose to enter the service of Spain. 
 
 The King's letter was immediately published to the people, 
 who eagerly examined it in search of some guarantee for their 
 future condition and treatment by their new masters ; but all 
 that they could find on these points, was embraced in the follow 
 ing indefinite passage: u I hope at the same time, for the ad 
 vantage and tranquillity of Louisiana, and I promise myself, in 
 consequence of the friendship and affection of His Catholic Ma 
 jesty, that he will give orders to his Governor, and to every other 
 officer employed in his service in the said colony, and in the city 
 of New Orleans, that the ecclesiastics and the religious houses 
 appropriated to the curacies and missions, may be maintained 
 and continued in the enjoyment of the rights, privileges, and 
 exemptions attributed to them by the titles of their establishment; 
 that the ordinary judges, as well as the Superior Council, may 
 continue to dispense justice, according to the laws, forms, and 
 67 
 
DEATH OF D'ABADIE. [1765 
 
 usages of the colony; that the inhabitants may be confirmed in 
 the possession of their property, according to the concessions 
 made to them by the Governors and Commissaries of the said 
 colony, and the said concessions may be regarded and reputed 
 as confirmed by His Catholic Majesty, even though they might 
 not have been yet so confirmed by myself; and finally, that His 
 Catholic Majesty will give to his subjects in Louisiana, the same 
 marks of protection and kindness, which they have received 
 under my dominion, and from which, only the mis-fortunes of war 
 have prevented them from deriving greater benefits." 
 
 These unmeaning expressions of His Majesty's hopes and ex 
 pectations afforded no assurance to the inhabitants of Louisiana, 
 who could not fail to see that they had been transferred with their 
 country, to a new master, as provinces and their people in Eu 
 rope were transferred at the conclusion of every war, without 
 any provision for their future lot. It would indeed have been idle 
 in them to suppose, that any exception would be made in their 
 favor, by such a Government as that of Louis XV. or that if made, 
 it would have been respected, by a power like Spain, which had 
 ever been most inimical to the existence of rights and privileges 
 among its subjects, especially in the colonies. It would have 
 been no less difficult for them to specify "the marks of pro 
 tection and kindness," which they had received from the sove 
 reign of France; nor could they have reasonably supposed, that 
 their condition would be rendered much, if at all, worse, oy 
 the change of dominion thus announced to them: and they would 
 probably have submitted to their fate at first, as they did in the 
 end, with indifference, had any hope been held out, of the re 
 demption of the Government paper, in which almost every man 
 in the province was deeply interested. But on this point, the 
 letter was silent, and the Director General, to whom it was ad 
 dressed, could give no information. That worthy personage, 
 was so completely overwhelmed by the news of the cession, 
 that he at once lost all his capacity for action or thought, and 
 alter lingering a few months, he died in February, 1765, leaving 
 to Captain Charles Philippe Aubry, as commandant of the troops 
 the task of executing the orders of their master. 
 
 The inhabitants were at first overcome by the news of the ces 
 sion ; there were however, at New Orleans a few men, exercising 
 
1765.] REMOIsSTRANCES OF THE LOUIS1ANIANS. 531 
 
 considerable influence in the province, by their talents, character, 
 wealth, or official position, who determined by all means in their 
 power, to resist the transfer. At the head ot'this party, was the At 
 torney General, Lafreniere, the third person in rank in the colonial 
 administration, a native of the country, ardent, enthusiastic, and 
 eloquent, but, as his conduct sufficiently proved, possessing 
 neither the discretion nor the firmness, required for measures 
 such as he contemplated. In the Superior Council, of which he 
 was a member, he was opposed by the commandant Aubry, 
 and the commissary Foucault, who having neither interests nor 
 attachments in Louisiana, and being both anxious to escape the 
 fate of Kerlerec, endeavored to calm the agitation of the people, 
 and induce them to submit quietly to the change; but of the six 
 other councillors,* Lafreniere controled a sufficient number, to 
 give him a majority of the voices on almost every occasion, so 
 as to throw upon the commandant and the commissary, a heavy 
 responsibility for any steps, which they might take in exercise 
 of their powers, contrary to the opinions of the whole as a body. 
 Out of the Council, the leaders of the patriots as they termed 
 themselves were the brothers Jean and Joseph Milhet the rich 
 est merchants in the country, Noyan a grand nephew of Bien- 
 ville and Iberville, and son-in-la\v to Lafreniere, Doucet a law 
 yer, Caresse a merchant, Villere a planter, and Marquis a re- 
 firfed Swiss officer; and they were supported by many other in 
 dividuals in the country, as well as in the capital, comprising 
 together, all the most important persons of the province. Through 
 their exertions, a convention of deputies informally chosen in the 
 different districts, was assembled at New Orleans in January, 1765, 
 by which an address to the throne was drawn up remonstrating 
 against the transfer of Louisiana to Spain, and praying for relief 
 from their financial afflictions ; and Jean Milhet was commissioned 
 to proceed to Paris, and lay it at the feet of their gracious Sove 
 reign Louis XV. 
 
 The envoy M. Milhet, on arriving at Paris applied for aid and 
 direction to M. de Bienville, the former Governor of Louisiana, 
 who, then in his eighty-sixth year, still took the deepest interest 
 
 * The Council was then composed of Aubry the Commandant, Foucault the 
 Commissary, Lafreniere the Attorney General, Messrs. Delalande, Delaunay, 
 Kernion, Laplace, Lachaise, and Lesacier Councillors, and Garic the Secretary. 
 
532 MISSION OF JKAN MILHET TO PARIS. [1765. 
 
 in all that concerned that country ; and he was thus enabled to 
 obtain an interview with the Duke de Choiseul, who however, 
 gave no direct answers on any point for some time. All the ef 
 forts of Milhet to see the King were fruitless ; and he was at 
 length informed by the minister, that the cession of Louisiana 
 was an act which neither could, nor under any circumstances 
 would be recalled, as France was unable to bear the expenses of 
 so useless a possession. With regard to the paper money and 
 other Government securities, Choiseul spoke less distinctly, but 
 he offered no encouragement for the expectation that any relief 
 would be soon offered for those grievances. 
 
 Positive orders were at the same time sent from Paris to the 
 Commandant and the other authorities of Louisiana, to make every 
 preparation for its surrender immediately on the arrival of the 
 Spanish Commissioner, who had been appointed to receive the 
 possession, and these orders were exhibited by Aubry, as the 
 only reply which he could give to a memorial from the merchants 
 of New Orleans, addressed to him on the 28th of June, in conse 
 quence of the reports received from Milhet. Months however 
 passed by without the appearance of the Spaniards in Louisiana; 
 and vague hopes thus arose among the people that something 
 might have occurred to prevent the dreaded consummation of the 
 surrender. 
 
 In the meantime, the population of the colony had been con 
 siderably increased, by the immigration of persons from the ter 
 ritories surrendered to Great Britain. Those from Mobile^ and 
 Natchez, nearly all established themselves at New Orleans and 
 its vicinity; while those from the Illinois, settled for the most 
 part on the western bank of the Mississippi, in and near St. Louis 
 and St. Genevieve. About five hundred Acadians, moreover 
 arrived in Louisiana, during the year 1765. These unfortunate 
 people, who had been expelled, as already mentioned, from their 
 native land, by the British authorities, upon their refusal to take 
 the oath of allegiance to that power in 1753, remained for ten 
 years, forming small communities, in different parts of the British 
 colonies, principally in the larger cities of Boston, Philadelphia, 
 and Charleston, where they were known under the general name 
 of the Neutral French. Having nothing in common with those 
 among whom they thus resided, the Acadians were, after the 
 
1765.] LETTER OF ULLOA TO THE COUNCIL. 533 
 
 peace, induced to emigrate to St. Domingo, where four hundred 
 and eighteen of them were landed in July, 1764: of this number, 
 a large proportion were immediately seized with fevers, which 
 carried off many, while the others suffered dreadfully from disease, 
 hunger, and the terrible heat of the climate; and as it became 
 evident that the island was entirely unsuit.ed to them, it was de 
 termined that they should be removed to some more northern 
 colony. Accordingly, three hundred and twenty, were sent to 
 Louisiana, where they arrived in January, 1765; and they were 
 followed by two hundred others, including several families, who 
 came from Charleston, after the departure of the first body. In 
 their new home they appear to have been received with no great 
 demonstration of delight by their fellow subjects : lands were 
 however, assigned to them on both sides of the Mississippi, be- 
 low New Orleans ; chiefly however, on the west, in the district 
 called La Fourche, and in the Opelousas and Attakappas regions, 
 where their descendants still form a large portion of the people. 
 The hopes of the people of Louisiana, founded on the non-ap 
 pearance of the Spaniards, to take possession of their country, 
 were dissipated in August, 1765, by the receipt of a letter, ad 
 dressed to the Superior Council, of which the following is a 
 translation at length: 
 
 HAVANNA, July 10th, 1765. 
 
 GENTLEMEN : Having recently received orders from His Catho 
 lic Majesty, to proceed to your city, and take possession of it, 
 agreeably to the orders also given by His Christian Majesty, I 
 embrace this occasion to inform you of it, and to say, that I shall 
 soon have the honor to be with you, in fulfilment of this com 
 mission. I flatter myself, in anticipation, with the hope that I 
 shall thus have favorable opportunities afforded to me for render 
 ing all the services, which you and the inhabitants of your city, 
 may desire ; and I pray you to assure them of this in my name, 
 and that in so doing, I shall not only fulfil my duties, but at the 
 same time 'my own inclination. 
 
 ANTONIO DE ULLOA. 
 
 The writer of this letter was a Captain in the Spanish Navy, 
 already well and favorably known in Europe, by his interesting 
 work on the civil and political condition of the colonies of that 
 
534 ARRIVAL OF ULLOA IN LOUISIANA. [1766. 
 
 nation in South America,* to which he had been sent on a toui 
 of inspection, about twenty years before ; and as his representa 
 tions had led to the reform of many abuses in the administration 
 of those countries, the assignment of the commission to receive 
 possession of Louisiana to such a person, seemed to indicate 
 views on the part of Spain, more congenial to the wishes of the 
 people than they had anticipated. The dissatisfaction occasioned 
 by the certainty of their approaching transfer to Spain, was in 
 consequence much moderated, especially as it was understood, 
 that no change would be made in the administrative system of 
 the country, which was to remain distinct from all the other 
 Spanish Colonies ;f and when Ulloa reached New Orleans, 
 which was not until the 10th of March, 1766, he was received 
 with respect, if not with enthusiasm, by the people as well as by 
 the authorities. 
 
 These feelings however, soon gave place to others of an oppo 
 site nature. Ulloa came attended by only ninety Spanish soldiers, 
 and three civil officers, Don Jose Loyola as Commissary of war, 
 Don Martin Navarro as Intendant of finance, and Don Antonio 
 Estevan Gayarre as Comptroller of accounts. When requested 
 
 * "Relacion Historica del viage a la America Meridional, para medir algunos 
 grades de meridiano terrestre &c. por Don Jorge Juan y Don Antonio Ulloa." 
 4 vols. Madrid, 1743 translated into English, and published at London in 1758, 
 in 2 vols., under the title of " A Voyage to South America, describing at large 
 the Spanish cities, &,c., on that extensive continent, &.c." Ulloa had been se 
 lected with Don Jorge Juan, a distinguished naval officer, to proceed to South 
 America in 1735, and there in conjunction with Messrs. Bouguer, la Condamine, 
 and Godin, to measure a degree of the meridian, near the equator; while similar 
 observations should be made by Maupertuis, Clairaut, and others, in the northern 
 parts of Sweden, in order to obtain a more accurate idea of the form of the earth. 
 The scientific labors devolved chiefly upon Juan ; Ulloa being employed in ex 
 amining the political condition of those countries, which he seems to have per 
 formed with signal ability and honesty. Of his report, however, only a small 
 part was published by the Spanish Government, in the work above mentioned; 
 the more important details of the abuses of the administration, and the tyranny 
 exercised by the .Government authorities, remained carefully concealed in 
 manuscript, in the archives 6f the Indies, until 1825, when they were given to 
 the world, in the original at London, by a person who had by some means ob 
 tained a copy, under the title of "Noticias Secrelas de America." 
 
 f Such seems to have been in fact the first intention of the Spanish Govern 
 ment, agreeably to the Royal order, of January 28th, 1771, containing abstracts 
 of the various provisions, which had been made with regard to Louisiana, sinoe 
 the period of its cession. 
 
17' ' POPULATION OF LOUIS! ASA. 
 
 by the Superior Council, to exhibit his powers, in order that they 
 shoul.i be registered, he coldly replied that he had no concern 
 with that body or with any other authority, except the comman 
 dant, as the representative of His Christian Majesty; and to the 
 latter officer he declared his intention not to receive the posses 
 sion of the country, until the arrival of the troops who were to 
 follow from Cuba. Upon the all absorbing question, of the dis 
 positions to be made with regard to the paper money, the Span 
 ish Commissioner had no instructions; though he was willing to 
 redeem a portion of the notes issued by D'Abadie, in specif', at 
 their current value, about, one quarter of the nominal, though the 
 same notes would be issued again in payment of the expenses of 
 his administration. This offer was however accepted by only a 
 few of the holders, the others still clinging to the hope of receiv 
 ing justice from the French Government. 
 
 After a few days thus passed at New Orleans, Ulloa set off 
 accompanied by the Commissary Foucault, on a tour of inspec 
 tion through the country, in which he was engaged until Septem 
 ber following. During the intervening period, he visited the 
 Illinois and the Red river countries, and established Spanish 
 garrisons at Manchac opposite to the English Fort Bute, at St. 
 Louis, at Natchitoches, and at other points. He moreover caused 
 a census to be taken, from which it appeared, that the colony 
 contained five thousand five hundred and sixty-two white persons, 
 nearly the same number as in 1721 and a number rather 
 larger of negroes.* 
 
 On returning from his tour, Ulloa passed only a few days at 
 New Orleans, and thence proceeded to the Balise, where he es 
 tablished himself in a new fort, erected during his absence, and 
 garrisoned by Spanish soldiers ; and there he was united in mar 
 riage to the Marchioness de Abrado, a rich widow from Peru. 
 Shortly afterwards, on the 6th of September, an ordinance was 
 issued by the Commandant Aubry, in the name of the Spanish 
 Government, confining the trade of the colony to communica 
 tions with six ports of the Spanish peninsula, to be conducted in 
 
 *Viz eighteen hundred and ninety-three white men capable of bearing arms, 
 one thousand and forty-four marriageable white women, thirteen hundred and 
 seventy-five white boys, and twelve hundred and forty-four white girls. The 
 whole number of the blacks was five thousand nine hundred and forty. 
 
536 FIRST SPANISH DECREES IN LOUISIANA. T1766 
 
 / >> 
 
 Spanish built vessels, owned and commanded by Spaniards, only; 
 though as a favor, in order to prevent injury to the inhabitants 
 from so -sudden a change, vessels would be allowed for a certain 
 time, to sail between Louisiana and France, or St. Domingo, in 
 virtue of passports to be obtained from the Spanish Government, 
 or from its authorities in the province, with the understanding, 
 however, that the merchandise thus introduced, should be sold 
 only at prices fixed by a Spanish tariff. This innovation filled 
 the people with dismay, as it tended directly to the destruction 
 of the commerce of the colony, and indeed of the colony itself; 
 for Louisiana produced nothing, which Spain could not draw from 
 its other provinces, in abundance, of better quality and at lower 
 prices: and the merchants of New Orleans immediately addressed 
 a remonstrance against the new regulations to the Superior Coun 
 cil, in which a discussion arose between Aubry and Lafieniere, 
 as to the legality of the Spanish decree, and the powers of the 
 Commissioner of that nation. The Commandant admitted that 
 LJlloa had never received possession of the province, nor even 
 exhibited any title to receive it; whereupon the Attorney Gen 
 eral insisted with more of reason than discretion, that the supre 
 macy of France still continued, and therefore, no act of another 
 Government could have effect. The discussion became very vio 
 lent, but it ended in a compromise, made through the intervention 
 of the Commissary, agreeably to which, the obnoxious regula 
 tions w T ere not to be enforced, so long as Spain should not have 
 taken effective possession of the country. 
 
 Immediately after this affair, Aubry hastened to the Balise, 
 where he urged, and finally prevailed upon Ulloa to receive the 
 possession of the province; and this act was accordingly per 
 formed, though in private, and under positive injunctions from 
 the Spanish Commissioner to keep it secret. The reason as 
 signed for this strange proceeding, was the want of Spanish 
 forces in the country, sufficient to maintain the dominion of the 
 Catholic Monarch; as the French soldiers refused to act under 
 the flag of another nation, and required their discharge, to which 
 they were by law entitled from the length of their service. But 
 there were other motives for delaying the publication of the fact 
 of the surrender; of which the principal was the continued un 
 willingness of the Spanish Government to receive Louisiana. 
 
1766.] HESITATION OF THE COURT OF SPAIN. 537 
 
 The acts of cession had fixed no time for its fulfilment; and in 
 order to arrive at a proper conclusion as to the policy of accept 
 ing the country, Ulloa had been sent to examine it, for which his 
 observations on South America, seemed to show that he was well 
 suited ; and although he went provided with powers to accept 
 the surrender, he was to make use of them only, under certain 
 circumstances. 
 
 Moreover, about the time of Ulloa's arrival in Louisiana, a dis 
 pute occurred between France and Spain, which for a short time 
 endangered the continuance of their good understanding. A co 
 lony of Canadians, Acadians and other exiles or refugees from 
 the late French colonies in America, was planted in 1765, under 
 the auspices of the Duke de Choiseul, on one of the desert islands 
 of the Falkland groupe, near the entrance of Magellan's Strait:. 
 The Spanish Government remonstrated against this, as an en 
 croachment on the rights of Spain; Choiseul refused to admit the 
 existence of such right to the islands in question, and a discus 
 sion ensued, which might have led to a war, had not Louis XV. 
 been induced, by a personal application from his cousin, Charles 
 III. to order the immediate abandonment of the islands by the 
 French, upon the repayment of the expenses incurred by M. de 
 Bougainville, the founder of the settlement. 
 
 The happy termination of this difficulty, was probably in part 
 due, to the disputes which had arisen, and were then daily in 
 creasing between Great Britain and Spain, in consequence of the 
 expulsion of the log-wood cutters of the former nation from the 
 coasts of Yucatan and other places in that quarter of America, 
 by the Spaniards, in violation of the seventeenth article of the 
 treaty of Paris, as well as from the refusal of the Spanish Govern 
 ment, to pay two millions of dollars, the balance of the sum prom 
 ised as the ransom of Manilla, after its capture by the British in 
 1763. Another obstacle how r ever, to the execution of the cession 
 of Louisiana, immediately arose from the demand made by the 
 French Government, that Spain should be responsible for all the 
 expenses of the province, since the date of the acceptance of the 
 cession; which was accompanied by a decree from the King of 
 France repudiating all the notes issued for those purposes 
 since the year 1762. The Court of Madrid, on being informed 
 of this pretension, and of the financial condition of the colony in 
 
538 DE PAGES IN LOUISIANA. [1767. 
 
 general, positively refused to assume these debts, on the grounds 
 that no time had been fixed for the surrender of the country, and 
 that France having enjoyed all the advantages of the possession, 
 should pay all the costs; and another long discussion followed, 
 which was terminated in the summer of 1767, by an agreement, 
 that Spain should be answ r erable only for the debts contracted 
 since the arrival of Ulloa in Louisiana. Notes of acknowledgment 
 were accordingly issued by Messrs. Loyola, Navarro and Gayarre, 
 respectively, in the name of His Catholic Majesty, which the peo 
 ple were obliged to accept, as the only return for their labor or 
 for the articles furnished by them ; the small quantities of specie 
 received from Havanna or Mexico, being used entirely in the 
 purchase of the French notes, issued since Ulloa's arrival at 
 their depreciated value. Ulloa was however still unable to pro 
 claim the authority of his Sovereign over the country, from the 
 want of troops sufficient to render it effective in case of resistance 
 on the part of the inhabitants; as all the forces which could be 
 spared in the West Indies, were required in Mexico and Cuba, 
 to quell insurrections caused by the attempt to impose a new sys 
 tem of taxation, on those countries. 
 
 Louisiana was at this period visited by Captain de Pages, of 
 the French Navy, on his way through Mexico to the Pacific, 
 over which he sailed to the East Indies. He arrived on the 28th 
 of July, 1767, at New Orleans, where he spent only a few days, 
 and then departed in a canoe for Natchitoches by way of the 
 Mississippi and the Red rivers. Of the capital of Louisiana, he 
 says nothing worthy of note, in the narrative published by him 
 on his return to France;* nor does he make the slightest allusion 
 to the peculiar political situation of the countrv, which he seems 
 indeed to have considered as already in the possession of Spain. 
 Natchitoches, he describes as an extensive meadow, interspersed 
 with plantations of tobacco and Indian corn, in the middle of 
 which was a square enclosure of palisades, forming the fort, 
 with about seventy small wooden houses in a straight line, but 
 situated at considerable distances apart. The houses were 
 
 * "Voyage autour du Monde pendant les anne"es 1767-1776. Par M. de Pag2S 
 Capitaine des Vaissieux du Roi." 2 vols. Paris 1782. Translated into English 
 and published at London, in 1783, under the title of "Travels around the world, 
 
1768.] SPANISH REGULATIONS ENFORCED IN LOUISIANA. 539 
 
 inconvenient and filthy, the food wretched, and the people ignor 
 ant and indolent, though lively and good natured. Thence he 
 proceeded through the woods to the first Spanish settlement, at 
 Adayes, which resembled that of Natchitoches, but was much 
 more miserable in every respect, the people being nearly savage ; 
 nor did he find any indications of civilization, until his arrival at 
 San Antonio de Bexar. That place had then become a town of 
 perhaps two thousand inhabitants, composed chiefly of people 
 from the Canary islands, and from Tlascala in Mexico, of whom 
 a small number had been recently introduced ; and Pages speaks 
 in high terms of praise, of the delightfulness of the climate 
 and of the agreeable dispositions of the ladies, among whom he 
 spent some time, contributing in return his services, to the de 
 fence of the place against the usual annual attack by the Apaches. 
 Leaving Sari Antonio in the middle of December, he continued 
 his journey through Laredo, Saltillo and San Luis Potosi, to Mex 
 ico, and thence to Acapulco where he embarked in a galleon for 
 Manilla. His narrative, though exhibiting no remarkable infor 
 mation, or powers of observing and describing, is nevertheless, 
 written in an easy and unaffected style; and is valuable, as being 
 the earliest and for a long time the only particular account given 
 to the world, of the countries through which he passed, from the 
 Red river to the Rio Bravo, and indeed to Mexico. 
 
 In the meantime, although the authority of France still sub 
 sisted in name, and to a certain extent in fact, throughout Louis 
 iana, and notwithstanding the resolution of the Superior Council, 
 that the commercial regulations proclaimed by the Spanish Com 
 missioner should not have effect until the completion of the trans 
 fer of the country to Spain, changes had been gradually intro 
 duced, similar in many respects to those proposed in the obnox 
 ious ordinance repudiated by the Council. Ships indeed arrived 
 from France and St. Domingo, but they all brought passports 
 from Spanish authorities, without which they were not allowed 
 to enter; nor could any vessel quit Louisiana, for any port, unless 
 provided with similar licenses from the Spanish Commissioner. 
 The importation of negroes from St. Domingo had been first sub 
 jected to conditions, and then forbidden ; after which the prohi 
 bition was made general. The Superior Council subsisted, but 
 a council had been also instituted by Ulloa, composed of the 
 
540 GREAT DISCONTENT IN LOUISIANA. [1768. 
 
 Spanish Intendant, Commissary and Comptroller, and other per 
 sons Spanish and French ; and as neither of these high bodies 
 recognized the other in any way, it was impossible td'prevent fre 
 quent collisions between their executive officers. Aubry how 
 ever, succeeded by great dexterity, in preserving the public tran 
 quillity,* until the month of October, 1768, when this anomalous 
 state of things, was ended by a sudden explosion. 
 
 Nearly six years had then elapsed since the cession of Louis 
 iana to Spain, and four since the fact had been made known in 
 the colony. During that period great injury had been sustained 
 by the people in their commerce and their agriculture, from the 
 restrictive measures of the Spaniards, and still more from the 
 general uncertainty of their condition; and a feeling of disgust 
 had arisen among them, not only towards those whom they re 
 garded as foreign enemies, and oppressors, but also towards the 
 treacherous Government of France, which had thus basely aban 
 doned them. Under these circumstances, the tone of indepen 
 dence which had so much shocked D'Abadie, had become strong 
 er arid more general; and matters directly treasonable towards 
 France as well as Spain, became the subjects of open discussion, 
 not only in New Orleans, but also throughout the whole of the 
 lower country, and especially among the Germans of the Cote 
 Allemande, and the Acadians, who formed the sturdiest portion 
 of the population. The more quiet members of the community 
 were disposed to emigrate to the English territories east of the 
 Mississippi, from which they seem to have been withheld chiefly, 
 by a lingering hope of the redemption of the paper money : but 
 the more bold and ambitious, were forming projects for the estab 
 lishment of a separate state, under the guarantee or the protec 
 tion of Great Britain; and to this end, overtures were made in the 
 spring of 1768, by Lafreniere and his partisans, to Mr.. John El 
 liott, who had in the preceding year succeeded Johnstone in the 
 
 * " My position is indeed most extraordinary;" writes Aubry to his Govern 
 ment, on the 20th of January, 1768, " while commanding for the King of France, 
 I am at the same time governing the colony as if it belonged to the King of 
 Spain, and am forming Frenchmen for subjection to Spanish dominion. It is 
 by no means flattering to me, to remain as Governor of a colony, which under 
 goes so many revolutions, which has for three years, not known whether it be 
 French or Spanish, and which until the possession be taken of it, is properly 
 speaking, without any master." 
 
1768.] GENERAL ASSEMBLY AT NEW ORLEANS. 541 
 
 Government of West Florida. The proposition was however 
 decidedly repelled by Elliott, whose Government would certainly 
 not have encouraged such a movement, calculated to involve 
 Great Britain in difficulties with France and Spain, at a moment, 
 when its own colonies were almost in rebellion against its au 
 thority ; and the leaders of the opposition to Spain in Louisiana, 
 then resolved upon another measure which could not fail to pro 
 duce the most serious consequences. This was no less than the 
 formal and forcible expulsion of the Spaniards from the coun 
 try ; and as the co-operation of the whole people would be re 
 quired to effect it, secret agents were despatched to all the par 
 ishes, to induce them to send delegates to another General As 
 sembly, to be held at New Orleans in October. 
 
 So carefully had this business been conducted, that the Com 
 mandant Aubry, remained in entire ignorance of what was in 
 tended, until the delegates began to arrive in New Orleans. He 
 then endeavored to prevail on Lafreniere and on Foucault who 
 appeared to act in conjunction with the Attorney General, from 
 proceeding farther; and finding this impossible, he prepared to 
 prevent the meeting of the Assembly by force. With this object 
 he posted soldiers at various points, and caused the Spanish 
 ship-of-war, Volante, which was then lying in the river, to anchor 
 opposite the Place d'armes of New Orleans; but the other party 
 had been equally alert, and on the 28th of October, the day ap 
 pointed for the meeting, eight hundred armed men from the coun 
 try, chiefly Germans and Acadians, appeared in the city under 
 the command of Messrs, de Noyan and Villere, ready to protect 
 the Assembly. 
 
 The Assembly was composed of the wealthiest planters and 
 other most notable persons of Louisiana. The business had, how 
 ever, been all arranged previously by Lafreniere, the lawyer 
 Doucet, the merchant Caresse, Jean Milhet who had just return 
 ed from his mission to France, and the other chiefs of the move 
 ment, who explained their views in speeches; and it was on the 
 first day determined, that a memorial should be addressed to the 
 Council, setting forth the grievances of the province, and praying 
 that means should be taken for its relief. The task of drawing 
 up this memorial, was assigned to Caresse, who soon produced 
 such a paper, written probably by Lafreniere, wherein the Coun- 
 
542 ULLOA EXPELLED FROM LOUISIANA. [1768. 
 
 cil was solicited, or rather summoned, immediately to cause 
 Ulloa and his Spaniards to be expelled from the country, as ille 
 gal disturbers of the public peace. This paper was signed by 
 the other members of the Assembly, and by many citizens of 
 .New Orleans and its vicinity, to the number of more than five 
 hundred, and was presented to the Superior Council on the same 
 day. Five members of that body, having declared themselves 
 unable from sickness to attend, others were appointed to act in 
 their stead, as w r as allowed by the law on extraordinary occa 
 sions : the memorial was examined by a committee, who re 
 ported in its favor; and Lafreniere as Attorney General, having 
 sustained the report by his opinion, a decree was issued on the 
 following day, by unanimous consent of the council, entirely in 
 accordance with the desires of the petitioners. 
 
 By this decree, all the acts of Ulloa since his arrival in the coun 
 try, were pronounced illegal, as he had never caused his powers to 
 be examined and registered by the Superior Council, and those 
 acts were moreover at variance with the order of the King of France 
 to D'Abadie, which guarantied freedom of trade to the colony, 
 and the continuance of its laws and establishments : and for these 
 reasons, the council ordered that the Spanish Commissioner and 
 all the other subjects of that nation should be immediately re 
 moved from the country, with the exception of Navarro, Loyola, 
 and Gayarre, who were to be held personally responsible for the 
 redemption of the notes, issued in their names, in payment for 
 supplies or labor, until it should appear, that they had been 
 authorised so to do, by the King of Spain ; finally, Messrs. Au- 
 bry and Foucault, were requested to join the Superior Council, 
 in conducting the administration of the province, and in endea 
 voring to obtain from the King of France, the confirmation of its 
 privileges, agreeably to his royal promise. 
 
 Aubry and Foucault immediately protested against this decree, 
 as being illegal, and offensive to the Kings of France and Spain 
 equally: but their objections were not received by the Council; 
 and Aubry finding himself unable to resist the torrent of popular 
 will, advised the Spanish Commissioner to comply with its re 
 quisitions. Ulloa accordingly left the city, on the 1st of Novem 
 ber, in a French vessel; and after a short stay at the Balise, he 
 continued his voyage to Havanna, where he arrived on the 4th 
 
1769. ] PETITION TO THE KING OF FRANCE. 543 
 
 of December. The Spanish Commissary, Intendant, and Comp 
 troller, who were detained agreeably to the decree, refused to ad 
 mit the authority of the Council, and declared themselves pri 
 soners ; and the Commandants of the various Spanish garrisons 
 in like manner submitted to the necessity imposed on them. 
 The ship-of-war however, still remained in the river, below New 
 Orleans, under the pretext of being unfit for sea, until the month 
 of April, 1769, when she was forced to take her departure. 
 
 Immediately after the expulsion of the Spanish Commissioner, 
 the authors of the act began to prepare for its justification. Wit 
 nesses were examined, and their depositions were taken, proving 
 the commission of various deeds which were pronounced illegal, 
 as being contrary to the established laws of the colony, and the 
 authority of its Superior Council ; and official copies of these 
 documents were sent with a letter to the Minister of Foreign Af 
 fairs of France, accompanied by a petition or representation to 
 the King, earnestly praying that the colony might not be surren 
 dered to Spain. Letters were also addressed to the Minister by 
 Aubry and Foucault, each of whom endeavored to extenuate the 
 proceedings, and to show that he himself had done all in his 
 power, to restrain them. 
 
 The petition addressed to the King of France by the Superior 
 Council, presented a picture of the state of Louisiana at the time 
 of the arrival of Ulloa, very different from that given by D'Aba- 
 die two years previous. According to this petition, the colony 
 was then in the most flourishing condition, and exhibited every 
 mark of successful industry : lands, houses, and negroes all 
 bore high prices ; the trade with the Indians was carried to the 
 utmost exremities of the continent; the river was crowded with 
 vessels from France, the West Indies, and other countries, and 
 specie flowed in abundantly, from the Spanish provinces. The 
 order to D'Abadie for the surrender of the province to Spain, had 
 indeed been received with grief, by the inhabitants, who glory in 
 the name of Frenchmen; but it guarantied their tranquillity and 
 welfare, as it assured them, that they should be governed as be 
 fore, according to the laws and usages of the country ; and not 
 withstanding the cession, they considered themselves always as 
 subjects of Louis the Well Beloved, under whose beneficent rule, 
 dispensed by pure and virtuous officers, nothing was wanting to 
 
544 LOUIS LE BIENAIME. [1769. 
 
 complete their happiness. These flattering prospects had how 
 ever been all dissipated by the Spanish Commissioner, who had 
 invaded and annulled the privileges, thus guarantied to them, not 
 withstanding the positive assurances contained in his letter from 
 Havarma, that they would be respected ; their commerce had 
 been ruined by odious restrictions and prohibitions ; their feelings 
 had been shocked by innovations in their social system; arbi 
 trary acts of all kinds had been daily committed, and even the 
 Superior Council, established and confirmed by His Majesty, on 
 attempting to stay these evils, had been treated with contempt, 
 and actually superseded, by the creation of another body, under 
 the same title. Such acts could not be borne by Frenchmen; 
 and Ulloa, the author of them all, had been pronounced by unani 
 mous acclaim, the enemy of the people. The whole colony had 
 with one voice demanded his expulsion ; and the Superior Coun 
 cil, after maturely weighing the circumstances, and being assured 
 by M. Aubry that Ulloa had produced no powers or titles to jus 
 tify his conduct, had issued the decree for his expulsion, as a 
 disturber of the public tranquillity, which had been carried into 
 execution, while the air resounded with the cry of Long live our 
 King Louis the Well Beloved.* 
 
 It may easily be seen, that Lafreniere and his associates in 
 these proceedings, were imitating the conduct of the people of the 
 British colonies at the same period, in resistance to the attempts 
 of the Government of the mother country, to tax them and to 
 quarter soldiers among them, agreeably to the decrees of a Par 
 liament, in which the colonies were not represented. There was 
 however, a wide difference between the two resisting parties 
 in the course which they respectively pursued, to attain their 
 ends. The supporters and representatives of the people of the 
 English provinces, in all their addresses, petitions, and remon 
 strances to the Government, were scrupulously exact as to facts, 
 leaving their opponents no other grounds for reply, than those 
 which might be afforded by their reasonings and deductions ; 
 
 *Le Bienaime the title bestowed on the King, by the people of Paris, on his 
 recovery from a dangerous illness in 1744. Louis XV. is said to have been as 
 much surprised as pleased with this mark of the affection of his people, and to 
 have honestly acknowledged, that " he did not know what he had ever done to 
 merit it." 
 
stipulation or reservation of any kind respecting the rights of the 
 inhabitants, or their treatment by their new masters; nor did 
 Louis XV. in his letter to D'Abadie do more than express his 
 " hopes and persuasions" that the privileges already enjoyed and 
 the religious and administrative establishments, usages and regula 
 tions already subsisting in the colony would be maintained ; nor 
 did Ulloa in his letter announcing his appointment and approach 
 ing arrival in Louisiana to receive the possession, promise any 
 thing, except in general terms of courtesy, that he would be happy 
 to render any service in his power to the Council and the inhabi 
 tants. Spain had certainly not taken possession of the country 
 in the manner supposed, and with justice, to be requisite in such 
 cases; nor does it appear, that the person styling himself the 
 Commissioner of that nation, had ever exhibited to the authorities 
 found by him in the colony, who were entitled to require it, any 
 power or title to act in such capacity: yet the fact that he was 
 so commissioned by his Government, notwithstanding his neglect 
 to comply with the forms prescribed by the French laws, was 
 abundantly proved, by the conduct of the Commandant Aubry 
 and the Commissary Foucault, the highest French authorities of 
 the colony, who were known to be in constant correspondence 
 with the Government of France, in openly recognizing him as 
 Commissioner, and co-operating in the execution of his measures. 
 Under these circumstances, to regard Ulloa simply as a foreigner 
 illegally disturbing the tranquillity of the country, was an absur 
 dity, and it must have been felt to be so, by those who made the 
 declaration; and while it was criminal to disseminate such ideas 
 among the ignorant people of Louisiana, and thus to lead them 
 on to acts, the evil consequences of which must have been clearly 
 foreseen as inevitable, it was ridiculous to expect to excuse those 
 acts, or avert those consequences, by presenting to the French 
 Government, reasons or apologies utterly destitute of foundation. 
 The documents above mentioned from the Superior Council of 
 Louisiana, were carried to France in the spring of 1769, by three 
 Deputies, M. de Bienville a grand nephew of the late Governor 
 69 
 
546 NEW MISSION TO PARIS FRUITLESS. [1769. 
 
 of that name (who had died in the preceding year,) M. ]e Sacier 
 a syndic of commerce of New Orleans and member of the Supe 
 rior Council, and M. de Saintelette a wealthy proprietor of the 
 colony. They arrived at Paris in March, and presented their 
 papers to the Duke de Choiseul, who received Saintelette as an 
 old acquaintance, but refused to communicate with the others in 
 any way. They were, however, induced to believe, that the ces 
 sion to Spain would be recalled, and such was the tenor of their 
 letters to their friends in Louisiana; until at length in the begin 
 ning of May, Choiseul unexpectedly informed Saintelette, that 
 nothing could be done in compliance with the petition of those 
 who sent him, as the King of Spain had already despatched a 
 large body of troops to establish his supremacy in the territory 
 ceded to him. The deputies were allowed to remain undisturbed 
 at Paris, and even to publish their documents in the Gazette, 
 much to the annoyance of the Spanish Government, which after 
 wards replied to them through the newspapers of Vienna and 
 Leyden; and they succeeded in obtaining from the King of France 
 an order for the conversion of all the bons and other securities 
 given in his name before the arrival of Ulloa, into a stock amount 
 ing to three-fifths of their nominal value, and bearing interest of 
 five per cent, until its redemption. 
 
 The statement of the French minister, with regard to the des 
 patch of a large body of Spanish troops to Louisiana, was per 
 fectly correct. Ulloa, on reaching Havanna, found there eight 
 hundred soldiers, who had recently arrived under the direction 
 of Don Juan Ignacio Urriza appointed Intendant of Louisiana, on 
 their way to that country; the Commissioner however did not 
 consider it prudent to return with them to New Orleans, and it 
 was agreed that they should remain in Cuba until farther orders 
 were received from Spain, whither he proceeded directly to com 
 municate what had occurred.* 
 
 On the arrival of the news of these events at Mad?id, a council 
 of the ministers was convened, in which, after long deliberation, 
 it was resolved, that the cession of Louisiana should be accepted, 
 
 "Ulloa never returned to America. He afterwards reached a high grade in 
 the Spanish navy, though" he was more distinguished for his contributions to sci 
 ence, than for his skill and success on the ocean. He died at Cadiz on the 3rd 
 of July, 1795, in the 80th year of hi 
 
1769.] O'REILLY SENT TO RECEIVE LOUISIANA. 547 
 
 on the grounds that an invariable line of separation between the 
 English and the Spanish possessions would thus be established ; 
 that the contraband trade of the French with the other Spanish 
 dominions would be abolished, and that of the English would be 
 greatly diminished ; that Louisiana might be rendered advanta 
 geous to the more southern colonies of Spain, especially Cuba and 
 Porto Rico, by supplying them with corn and other articles which 
 they could not produce; that the expense of maintaining the pos 
 session, would not exceed that which had been required for hold 
 ing Florida, and it might be greatly lessened, by the abandonment 
 of the forts in Texas and New Mexico, which would be rendered 
 useless ; and finally, that if France should retain Louisiana, her 
 merchants would be enabled to carry on a much more extensive 
 contraband trade with the Spanish dominions than before.* The 
 King having approved this resolution, measures were taken to 
 carry it into immediate execution; and the task was committed 
 to Lieutenant General Alexandro O'Reilly, an Irishman who had 
 seen much service in Europe and the West Indies, and was then 
 about to depart for Cuba and Mexico, on a tour of inspection of 
 the troops and fortresses. He was accordingly commissioned 
 on the 29th of October, 1768, to proceed to Louisiana, where he 
 was to take possession of the country for the King, to chastise 
 'the principal leaders of the late rebellious movements, and regu 
 late the government on the same system which was established 
 in the other colonies of the Indies, f Some time was required for 
 preparations in Spain, on the completion of which, O'Reilly sailed 
 from Cadiz for Havanna; and from the latter place, he took his 
 departure on the 6th of July, 1769, w r ith a large fleet carrying 
 nearly four thousand soldiers, and abundant supplies of provisions, 
 ammunition and money, for the Mississippi. 
 
 Meanwhile the excitement was kept up in Louisiana by La- 
 freniere and his associates, who encouraged by the first commu 
 nications from their deputies in Paris, assured the people that the 
 country would not be surrendered to the Spaniards, and inveigled 
 
 * These reasons are set forth, in a despatch from the Spanish Minister of State 
 Marquis de Grimaldi, to the Conde de Fuentes Ambassador at Paris. 
 
 f See. the Royal order of January 28th, 1771, containing an abstract of the 
 various measures, which had been taken with regard to Louisiana, in White's 
 New Recopilacion, vol. 2, page 164. 
 
548 REPUBLIC PROPOSED IN LOUISIANA. [1769. 
 
 their imaginations by numerous extravagant schemes for its ad 
 vancement. Aubry on the other hand, exerted himself to calm 
 the agitation, and prevent excesses which could only serve to in 
 flame the fury of the Spaniards; but his efforts at conciliation 
 \vere for some time unavailing, and whenever he ventured to 
 employ force, he was compelled to desist, by the immediate dis 
 play of the overpowering superiority of the opposite party. In 
 this manner, the Spanish ship of war which had remained in the 
 Mississippi, was compelled to leave the river in April, 1767; and 
 the officers of that nation who were left in the country, were 
 daily subjected to violence and insult. 
 
 Before the middle of the summer however, all expectation that 
 Louisiana would be retained by France, had vanished, and it 
 became certain, that the Spaniards were preparing to establish 
 their supremacy by arms. Another appeal was then made by the 
 leaders of the movement to the British authorities at Pensacola, 
 to take the country under the protection of their Government, or 
 even under its authority; and this having been rejected more 
 positively than before, it was wildly proposed to establish a Re 
 public, with a legislative council of forty members, and an execu 
 tive chief styled a protector, all elected by the people. The pro 
 position seems however not to have been carried beyond some 
 discussion in conversation and in printed papers, without any 
 specific act of adhesion, or of animadversion either by the Supe 
 rior Council, or by any assembly of the people or their represen 
 tatives ; nor does any individual appear to have been compromis 
 ed by it. The leaders of the movement w r ere in fact losing 
 ground, and rapidly falling into a minority, especially since a 
 prospect had been presented of the redemption of the papermo- 
 ney, by the French Government; and Aubry who had been in 
 formed of the overtures made by Lafreniere and his associates to 
 the British authorities, and had even, as reported, received from 
 the Governor of West Florida copies of the correspondence on 
 that subject, made use of these facts to lessen their consideration 
 among the people.* 
 
 *Thc following account of the surrender of Louisiana to O'Reilly, is derived 
 chiefly from Gayarre", who presents a number of interesting documents obtained 
 from the archives of France ; and from a manuscript copy of a Spanish official 
 report of the circumstances, procured from Madrid. 
 
1769.] ARRIVAL OF o'REILLY IN THE MISSISSIPPI. 549 
 
 Under these circumstances, the agitation in Louisiana was ra 
 pidly subsiding; and the Commandant had organized a guard of 
 four hundred men at New Orleans, to maintain the peace, when, 
 on the 24th of July, accounts were received of the arrival at the 
 Balise, of the Spanish squadron under O'Reilly, for the occupa 
 tion of the country, in the name of His Catholic Majesty. This 
 news of course occasioned universal consternation. A few of 
 the most extravagant leaders of the movement against Spain, en 
 deavored to prevail on the people to resist the invaders; and 
 messengers were sent to summon the Acadians and the Germans 
 to the rescue. The call however was unanswered, from the ob 
 vious consideration, that the Spanish troops then at the mouth 
 of the Mississippi, fully provided with all the means and appli 
 ances of war, actually exceeded in number the whole white male 
 population of the colony; and the proposition then made to the 
 people of New Orleans to burn their city, and retire in a body to 
 the British territory, was received with still less favor by those to 
 whom it was addressed. All signs of excitement and defiance 
 thus soon disappeared: the white cockades which had been uni 
 versally worn by the agitators, were removed from every hat; the 
 Spanish officers who had been held in durance ever since the 
 expulsion of Ulloa, resumed their swords, with haughty ominous 
 looks; and Lafreniere with other chiefs of the party thus over 
 thrown, came to Aubry, to solicit his mediation in their behalf. 
 
 At midnight on the 25th, Don Francisco Bouligny arrived at 
 New Orleans, with communications from the Spanish commander- 
 in-chief, to the head of the French administration in Louisiana, 
 announcing his presence in the Mississippi, and his purposes. 
 This officer was received on the levee, with appropriate signs of 
 respect, by Loyola, Gayarre and Navarro, in the midst of a silent 
 crowd of people ; and was then immediately conducted to Aubry, 
 who early on the following morning publicly proclaimed the 
 arrival of the Spaniards. Lafreniere, Marquis and Milhet, who 
 were in fact the authors of all the movements against Spain, then 
 appeared, offering themselves to bear to O'Reilly the assurances 
 of the submission of the inhabitants to the authority represented 
 by him, as well as of their attachment and esteem for his person; 
 and their offer being accepted, they proceeded, in company with 
 Bouligny to the Balise, where the Spanish squadron lay at anchor. 
 
550 INTERVIEW BETWEEN O^REILLY AND LAFRENIERE. [1769 
 
 These deputies* were treated with the utmost courtesy by the 
 
 *The particulars of this interview are thus related in the Spanish repoit : 
 
 * The people being made aware of the dangers of their position, determined, 
 after several discussions, to appoint three deputies, to compliment the General, 
 and implore his clemency ; and for this object they appointed Messrs. Lafrenire, 
 Marquis and Milhet. These deputies returned with the officer, who had brought 
 the letter to the Commandant ; in forty hours they reached the ship in which 
 the General resided, and there M. Lafrfcniere addressed him thus: 
 
 "M. Marquis, late Commandant of the Company of Swiss, M. Milhet mer 
 chant and Lieutenant of militia, and myself the King's Attorney General and an 
 inhabitant .of this country, have been chosen to come and assure Your Excellency 
 of their submission of the colony to the orders of His Most Christian Majesty 
 and His Catholic Majesty, and of their veneration for the virtues and military 
 talents, which have placed Your Excellency in the position now occupied by you. 
 We are charged to assure Your Excellency, of the profound respect entertained 
 in the colony for His Catholic Majesty, and of their love for His Most Christian 
 Majesty, and the whole Bourbon family. The colony has never entertained the 
 slightest intention, of failing in any way, in the profound respect which it pro 
 fesses towards the great Monarch, whom Your Excellency represents. The 
 austere character of Don Antonio de Ulloa, and the overthrow of the privileges 
 assured to us by the Act of Cession, have been the causes of the revolutions in 
 this colony. We entreat Your Excellency not to regard it as a conquered coun 
 try ; the orders borne by Your Excellency are sufficient to insure to you the pos 
 session of the country, and to produce more effect upon the hearts of the people 
 than your arms. The French are docile, and accustomed to be governed with 
 mildness, and Your Excellency will find us all submissire to the orders of the 
 two sovereigns. The colony implores Your Excellency, to protect its privileges, 
 and to grant a sufficient delay, to those who may choose to quit it.' 
 
 "Don Alexandro O'Reilly heard this address without interrupting it, and with 
 all the seriousness and dignity which characterize him, he replied as follows: 
 
 'Gentlemen It is impossible to form a correct judgment, without a know 
 ledge of the circumstances, and it shall be my care to inquire into those relating 
 to this affair, so soon as I reach New Orleans. You may be assured, that it will 
 be my chief pleasure to act :with kindness, and that I shall deeply regret to be 
 obliged to injure any person. I will be the first to afford you all the means for 
 quieting your apprehensions, and those of the people, and convincing them of 
 the kind dispositions to which my character prompts me. I am much pleased 
 with the part which you have taken. Be assured that I would have caused 
 my sovereign's flag to be respected, and that nothing could have prevented 
 me from so doing; such was my resolution, and I should have ascended the 
 river to the Illinois, if it had been necessary to effect it. Men are often carried 
 away in moments of high excitement; but how could you, a mere handful of 
 men, believe yourselves capable of making head against one of the most power 
 ful kings of Europe ? How could you suppose, that your king, united as he is to 
 my master by the bonds of blood and of strictest amity, would have ever sus 
 tained you, or hav.e listened to the cries of a seditious people?' Here Marquis 
 endeavored to explain ; but he was interrupted by the General with ' Be quiet 
 gentlemen ; I will hear you at the proper time. I am aware that things often 
 appear very dark at a distance, which are light when viewed in their vicinity." 
 
1709.] SURRENDER OF LOUialXNA 1 > o i- -\ I N . 551 
 
 General, who after reprehending them somewhat severely for 
 their folly, promised to afford every mt\uis which they could 
 desire for their justification; he then invited them to dine, and 
 on their return with Bouligny to New Orleans, they assured that 
 officer of their admiration for the talents and sauvity of his chief, 
 and expressed the most confident hopes, that their past delin 
 quencies would be consigned to oblivion, 
 
 O'Reilly remained at the Balise, until the middle of August, 
 when the preparations for his reception at New Orleans being 
 completed, he ascended that river in a frigate, accompanied by a 
 fleet of smaller vessels, and anchored in front of the city, on the 
 17th of the month. On the following day, he landed w 7 ith three 
 thousand men, on the Place-d'armes, or grand square, looking 
 upon the river, where the French troops and militia were drawn 
 up: he then delivered to the Commandant Aubry his commission 
 to receive the possession of the province, which being duly ac 
 knowledged, the keys of the four gates of the city were presented 
 to him, while the flag of Spain replaced that of France amid the 
 roar of cannon and musketry. 
 
 Thus ended the dominion of France in North America, after a 
 painful existence, or rather struggle for existence, of one hundred 
 and sixty-five years, during which it had produced as little ad 
 vantage as was possible, either to the mother country, or to its 
 subjects, or to the cause of civilization and humanity; and taking 
 subsequent events into consideration, few will be found, at the 
 present time, bold enough to regret its dissolution. Whether from 
 peculiarities in the national character of the French, or from er 
 roneous views of the nature and objects of colonies on the part 
 of their Government, leading to an erroneous system of adminis 
 tration, or more probably from both these causes combined, they 
 have been most unfortunate in their establishments in new coun 
 tries; and their attempts with that object, in North America, have 
 always presented a contrast most unfavorable to them, with those 
 of the English. These French colonies, howsoever founded, 
 were maintained for political purposes entirely, with the view of 
 counterbalancing or overthrowing the rising dominion of Great 
 Britain, in that division of the New World; but as in the mother 
 country, so in its transatlantic possessions, every thing was to be 
 regulated according to the will of the despotic monarch, to whose 
 
552 REFLECTIONS ON OVERTHROW OF THE FRENCH. [1769. 
 
 honor and glory, they were to be solely subservient. In Louis 
 iana this system of mis-government was carried to the utmost 
 extent. Colonists were sent out, in numbers sufficient, and vast 
 sums were drawn from the national treasury for the support of 
 the establishments; but liberty, individual as well as political, 
 was restricted even more than in France, and individual enter 
 prise was trammelled in every possible way, by taxes and regu 
 lations arbitrarily imposed, without regard for the welfare of those 
 who were expected to carry these^great political ends into execu 
 tion. Every man was there required to labor, and to buy and to 
 sell, only according to certain rules devised in Paris; and every 
 livre was to be expended under the direction of certain court fa 
 vorites, whose only object was to enrich themselves as speedily 
 as possible: nothing being left to the judgment of those most 
 deeply interested in the welfare of the colony. The wars with 
 the Indians in which Louisiana was constantly involved, through 
 the ambition of its governors, formed another cancer, consuming 
 its resources aud paralysing the industry of the people; while the 
 nation was, on almost every occasion, humiliated by their unfor 
 tunate results. 
 
 The British Government on the contrary, fortunately for its 
 colonies in America, had no system for their regulation, and in 
 deed paid very little attention to them in any way, farther than 
 was necessary to secure the monopoly of their commerce; and 
 this too was done, more by the enticement of superior advan 
 tages, than by actual restrictions which, as experience occa 
 sionally demonstrated, were not to be enforced without consider 
 able difficulty and expense, and danger of provoking resistance. 
 The settlement of their disputes with the Indians were moreover 
 left almost entirely to themselves; and their wars with those 
 people, undertaken either in self defence, or for the attainment 
 of some well defined end, generally the acquisition of territory 
 for immediate occupation, were usually conducted with little ex 
 penditure either of blood* or treasure on their part, and were in 
 most cases terminated in a manner satisfactory to their interests 
 and their honor. The ill success of the French in their colonies, 
 as compared with the results obtained by the English, in every 
 region in which they have attempted to establish themselves, is 
 also no doubt in some measure to be attributed to that perse- 
 
1769.] TRIAL OF LAFRENIERE AND HIS ASSOCIATES. 553 
 
 verance under adverse circumstances, so indispensable for those 
 who attempt the settlement of new countries, and which has 
 been displayed in a much higher degree by the Anglo Saxons 
 than by the French, or any other nation of modern times. 
 
 The French dominion in Louisiana was indeed restored, Icng 
 after this surrender to Spain, though it was only in form, and for 
 a moment. Among those who witnessed the ceremony of that 
 surrender in 1769, some lived to see the national flag of France 
 not the royal white and fleurs-de-lys of the Bourbons, but the 
 republican tri-color of the consuls displayed in the Place- 
 d'armes of New Orleans; but this was in token, not of real pos 
 session, but merely of safe-keeping of the country for a few 
 days, until its surrender to a people, fortunately possessing the 
 ability and the will to develope its great resources. 
 
 The surrender of Louisiana to Spain was however not to be 
 consummated without a bloody tragedy. The outraged dignity 
 of the Catholic monarch was to be avenged, and his new subjects 
 were to reaeive a lesson in obedience, sufficiently impressive to 
 prevent all future attempts at insubordination. On the. day after 
 the surrender, the new Governor required from the former Com 
 mandant, a detailed account of the circumstances connected with 
 the expulsion of Ulloa, and particularly a list of the individuals 
 concerned in writing and publishing the decree of the Superior 
 Council dated October 29th, 1768, and the memorial addressed 
 in the following month, by the inhabitants of Louisiana to the 
 King of France, in defence of their proceedings. In answer, 
 Aubry presented a statement of all that had occurred, since the 
 arrival of the first Spanish Commissioner, accompanied by copies 
 of all the papers relating to those affairs; and he designated 
 "Messieurs de Masan a Chevalier of St. Louis, Lafreniere the 
 Attorney General, Marquis a retired Commandant of the Swiss 
 company in Louisiana, Villere the Captain of the militia of the 
 German settlement, Noyan a retired Captain of Cavalry and Bien- 
 ville his brother an ensign in the navy, all rich and distinguished 
 persons in the country, as the chiefs of this criminal enterprise," 
 while he also threw great blame on Foucault for his conduct. 
 
 Having received this report, O'Reilly held a grand levee on 
 the 21st, at which were present all the principal persons of New 
 Orleans. There he exhibited to Aubry in private, the orders of 
 70 
 
554 DEATH OF VILLERE. [1769. 
 
 his sovereign to seize and punish those who were engaged in in 
 stigating the late rebellious proceedings; and then at a given 
 signal, all the persons accused who were present, were seized 
 and carried away as prisoners. Others were subsequently arrest 
 ed, and a commission was instituted by O'Reilly for their exam 
 ination and trial, which on the 20th of October, decided that 
 Nicolas Chauvin de Lafreniere, Jean Baptiste Noyan, Pierre Ca- 
 resse, Pierre Marquis, Joseph Milhet, Joseph Petit, Balthasar 
 Masan, Julien Jerome Doucet, Pierre Hardy de Boisblanc, Jean 
 Milhet, and Pierre Poupet, were guilty of sedition against the 
 Spanish Government. Villere had been killed in endeavoring to 
 escape arrest;* and Foucault, after having been seized, was set at 
 liberty, in consideration of the office lately held by him under the 
 French Government, and doubtless also ^for other reasons, less 
 honorable to his reputation. The decision was approved by 
 O'Reilly, and on the 24th of the same month, he declared his 
 sentence to the effect that Lafreniere, Noyan, Caresse, Marquis 
 and Joseph Milhet, as chiefs of the late conspiracy, should be 
 hanged on the gallows ; the others as participators w,ere con- 
 
 
 
 *The particulars of the death of Villere are thus related by Martin in his 
 History of Louisiana: 
 
 "Villere, who was on his plantation at the German Coast, had been marked 
 as one of the victims; but his absence from the city rendering his arrest less 
 easy, it had been determined to release one of the prisoners on his being secured. 
 He had been apprised of the impending danger, and it had been recommended 
 to him to provide for his safety by seeking the protection of the British flag 
 waving at Manchac. When he was deliberating on the step it became him to 
 take, he received a letter from Aubry, the commandant of the French troops, 
 assuring him he had nothing to apprehend, and advising him to return to the 
 city. Averse to flight, as it would imply a consciousness of guilt, he yielded to 
 Aubry 's recommendation and returned to New Orleans; but as ho passed the 
 gate, the officer commanding the guard arrested him. He was immediately con 
 veyed on board of a frigate that lay at the leve"e. On hearing of this, his lady, 
 a grand-daughter of La Chaise, the former Commissary General and ordonna- 
 teur, hastened to the city. As her boat approached the frigate, it was hailed 
 and ordered away. She made herself known, and solicited admission to her 
 husband, but was answered, she could not see him, as the captain was on shore 
 and had left orders that no communication should be allowed with the prisoner. 
 Villere recognized his wife's voice, and insisted on being permitted to see her. 
 On this being refused, a struggle ensued, in which he (ell, pierced by the bayo 
 nets of his guards. His bloody shirt thrown into the boat, announced to the 
 lady that she had ceased to be a wife ; and a sailor cut the rope that fastened 
 the boat to the frigate." 
 
1769.] EXECUTION OF LAFRENIERE AND FOUR OTHERS. 555 
 
 demned to imprisonment, Petit for life, Masan and Doucet for ten 
 years, and Boisblanc, Jean Milhet and Poupet for six years, the 
 property of all being confiscated for the benefit of the royal treasury. 
 
 The sentence was carried into effect without any delay. On 
 the following day, August 25, 1769, Lafreniere, Milhet, Noyan, 
 Marquis and Caresse, were carried to the place appointed for 
 their execution, in a small square or court in front of the bar 
 racks,* which was surrounded by the Spanish troops; and after 
 their sentence had been read to them in Spanish and in French, 
 by the secretary of the expedition, they were all shot : the 
 manner of their death having been changed, from the want of 
 a person properly qualified to hang them, as originally intended. 
 
 The late Commissary Foucault, against whom the proceedings 
 had been dismissed, returned to France, where he was at first 
 imprisoned in the Bastile; but he was soon after liberated, and 
 sent in his former capacity to the Isle of Bourbon. Aubry sailed 
 with some of the soldiers and inhabitants, from New Orleans to 
 Bordeaux ; but the ship was lost at the entrance of the Garonne, 
 and the commandant and nearly all the other persons on board 
 perished. The remaining six who had been condemned to im 
 prisonment, were about the same period sent to Havanna, where 
 they were kept immured in the Moro Castle for some time, until 
 their liberation was effected through the intercession of the French 
 
 O 
 
 Government, arid they were allowed to retire to St. Domingo. 
 
 It has been alleged, that in the execution of Lafreniere and his 
 associates, O'Reilly had exceeded his instructions, and that he 
 was severely reprimanded for his cruelty by the King of Spain 
 on his return. There appears however to be no grounds for this 
 assertion, as we have the words of the King himself, declaring 
 that he had commissioned O'Reilly to chastise the chief instiga 
 tors of the movements against his authority in Louisiana;! and 
 according to the Spanish political system and customs, no chas 
 tisement could be too severe, for those who in any way resist the 
 will of the sovereign. 
 
 * The place of execution was in the centre of the block or square in New Or 
 leans, bounded by Royal, Bourbon, Toulouse and Conti streets, which was then 
 occupied by the Royal Barracks. 
 
 *See the Royal Order of January 28th, 1771, in White's New Recopilacion, 
 vol. 2, page ]84. 
 
556 REFLECTIONS ON THE CONDUCT OF THE FRENCH. [1769. 
 
 The punishment of these men was certainly an unnecessary 
 act of cruelty, though they on the other hand, by no means 
 merit the extraordinary admiration and sympathy which is claim 
 ed for them by historians; nor does the record of their proceed 
 ings exhibit any thing, which should entitle them to be regarded 
 as heroes, 01 martyrs in the cause of liberty. A revolt against 
 the constituted authorities of a country is under all circumstances, 
 a grave matter; and those who excite it, should weigh with care, 
 not only the extent of the evils which they desire to remove, but 
 also the prospects of success, as a failure will almost certainly 
 increase the evils, and render their removal in future more diffi 
 cult. The transfer of Louisiana and its people by France to 
 Spain, was one of those acts of despotism, for which political 
 expediency offers the sole apology: but the conduct of those gov 
 ernments and especially of that of France, in leaving the country 
 for seven years after the cession, in a state so anomalous and un 
 certain as to paralyse all exertions, and to reduce the people to 
 desperation, is utterly indefensible. Under these circumstances, 
 the right of the people to provide for their own security, by such 
 measures as they might deem most proper, is morally unquestion 
 able. Louisiana was however without population, resources or 
 allies, sufficient to afford the slightest hope, of a favorable result 
 from an attempt to avert the transfer to Spain by force of arms ; 
 and the destruction of the country could be the only consequence 
 of such an attempt, in behalf of which nothing was to be expected, 
 from the interposition of France or of any other power. Those 
 who could council a^people thus situated to appeal to force for 
 redress, should have- possessed the stern determination of a Le- 
 onidas, united with the worldly wisdom of a Franklin; but none 
 of these qualities were found in the leaders of the movement in 
 Louisiana, who exhibited no discretion whatsoever in the selec 
 tion- or the employment of their means, and whose violence, while 
 temporarily in the majority, contrasts painfully with their abject 
 submission in the hour of trial. Their sufferings have brought 
 them into notice, and secured for them a place in the history of 
 the New World, w 7 hich they w r ould otherwise not have attained. 
 Had they been left undisturbed, they would doubtless, like their 
 more prudent associates, have soon sunk into quiet and loyal 
 subjects of Spain.