Yale University Library 39002032511835 PURCHAS JlTTMf >Y^LE«¥MIP¥EII£SflirY«' Gift of JAMES T. BABB American Occupation THE LOUISIANA PUECHASE AND THE EXPLORATION EARLY HISTORY AND BUILDING OF THE WEST BY RIPLEY HITCHCOCK With Illustrations . and Maps GINN & COMPANY BOSTON • NEW YORK ¦ CHICAGO • LONDON Copyright, 1903 By RIPLEY HITCHCOCK ALL EIGHTS RESERVED c ^!-3c QClj- "Ittjcnaum $}xt&& GINN & COMPANY- PRO PRIETORS . BOSTON • U.S.A. TO M. W. H„ INTRODUCTION In the year 1803 the United States bought from France the greater part of our country lying between the Mississippi River and the Rocky Mountains. The area acquired con tained nearly a million square miles. This "Louisiana Purchase" has been called an event "worthy to rank with the Declara tion of Independence and the formation of the Constitution." The price of the empire which we gained in 1803 was |15,000,000. This seems a large amount even in this day of the easy handling of millions, but the taxable wealth of the Lou isiana territory to-day is more than four hun dred times the purchase money. In whole or in part fourteen states and territories have been formed in the area which was bought, and there are over fifteen million people within its borders. vi INTEODUCTION These are impressive facts and they invite questions as to what the Louisiana territory was and how we happened to secure it. The answers tell a curious story, full of happen ings so strange that they have the quality of romance. In the sixteenth century the Span iards, first of white men to penetrate Louisi ana, might havev occupied and perhaps have held it for at least two centuries d,nd a half, but they were lured away by the gold and sil ver of Mexico and South America. Later there were disasters near home, and always there was their own incapacity in colonization. Next came the French, descending from the north and holding Louisiana until their power on this continent was broken at the fall of Quebec in 1759. Four years later France ceded Louisiana to Spain. After our Revolu tion England yielded us a boundary on the Great Lakes, the Mississippi, and the thirty- first degree. She promised also the free navi gation of the Mississippi. But this promise Spain, holding the river's mouth, refused to sanction, and as American pioneers pressed INTEODUCTION vii westward across the AHeghenies and sought the natural route to a market afforded by the water ways, this refusal became a matter of supreme moment. There followed a critical period in the his tory of the West. In 1790 the possibility of a war between England and Spain led Pitt to consider a seizure of New Orleans. A little later France, always regretting the loss of Lou isiana, employed the French minister Genet to use the discontent of our frontiersmen as a means of wresting Louisiana and Florida from Spain. Later still France's efforts to regain Louisiana became successful under the powerful guidance of Napoleon. His plans were laid for occupation. They were checked by the negro revolt in San Domingo and the prospect of war with England. Meantime the West was ablaze, and Presi dent Jefferson sent Monroe as commissioner to Paris to secure New Orleans and the Floridas and make clear the way to the sea. The instructions of Monroe and Livingston were limited to a strip of seacoast. But viii INTKODUCTIO'N Napoleon changed his mind. He offered them the whole vast area of Louisiana, and thus suddenly and unexpectedly we acquired Louisiana from France even before possession had formally passed to France from Spain. What was bought was for the most part a wilderness. How this wilderness was ex plored is told in the second part of this volume in an abridged version of the journals of Lewis and Clark, the classical explorers of the West. This outline of the first great American expedition into the far West and across the continent is followed by sketches of the jour neys of Pike, Colter, Hunt, Wyeth, Prince Maximilian of Wied, Bonneville, Fremont, and others, — soldiers, traders, scientists, makers of the old trails, and pioneers of the greatest of river routes, the Missouri- Mississippi. This third division of the story naturally includes the American fur trade, as well as the trails and water routes of the West. These explorers, trappers, and traders made the early American history of Louisiana, INTKODUCTIO'N" ix but long before them were the eras of Span iards like Coronado,and Frenchmen like Father Marquette, La Salle, and the Verendryes. The waning of the fur trade's supremacy toward the middle of the nineteenth century was followed by discoveries of mineral wealth, by the pressure of settlement, by railroad building, by the cattle industry, and by other factors in the earlier building of the West which are sketched in the fourth part of this narrative. With the later political organiza tion and giant growth of the old Louisiana territory within comparatively recent years this history deals only in a summary of facts. Since the purpose of this book is to afford a continuous and very simple narrative, it has not seemed necessary or wise to enter at length into the diplomatic and political his tory of the purchase of Louisiana. That story may be read in the first and second volumes of Henry Adams's "History of the United States of America " and in McMaster's " His tory of the People of the United States." The French side of the history is emphasized in X INTRODUCTION Dr. J. K. Hosmer's popular "History of the Louisiana Purchase." Many other references will be found throughout this volume. There seems to be no single book which tells the story of the West succinctly and includes the work of the Spanish and French pioneers, and also accounts of the various phases of American exploration and of the typical figures and aspects of the Western formative periods. It is hoped that this vol ume, in spite of its modest character, may afford a certain comprehensiveness which will be of convenience and of value to students of the earlier history of the West between the Mississippi and the mountains. I desire to express my sense of obligation to my friends, Professor John Bach McMaster and George Parker Winship, Esq., for their kindness in reading portions of the proofs. I wish also to acknowledge the aid of Mr. Percy Waller of the Lenox Library, New York, in reading the proofs and in preparing the index. E. H. CONTENTS PART I DISCOVERY AND ACQUISITION THE SPANISH AND FRENCH PERIODS AND THE PURCHASE PAGE Chapter I. The Spanish Discoveries .... 3 What the Louisiana Purchase was. Early Spanish explorers. Discovery of the Mississippi. Pineda, Cabeza de Vaca, Coronado, De Soto, and Docampo. The Spaniards first in the field. Their weakness in colonization. Chapter II. The French in Louisiana ... 21 Nicollet's early expeditions. Saint Lusson claims the West for France. Marquette and Joliet explore the upper Mississippi. La Salle descends to the mouth. The Erench claim to Louisiana. Tonty and other pioneers. The founders of New Orleans. The search for a way to the western ocean. Le Sueur and other explorers. The Verendryes see the Eocky Mountains. xi xii CONTENTS PAGE Chapter III. The French in the Eighteenth Century 34 The founding of New Orleans. Extent of French possessions. The beginnings of St. Louis. The gate way of Louisiana. Downfall of French power. Louisiana ceded to Spain. American and English explorations. Oregon not included in Louisiana. Chapter IV. The American Westward Move ment 45 Advancing beyond the AHeghenies. Settlement rather than exploration or exploitation. Experiences of the pioneers. Their way to the sea blocked by Spanish control of the mouth of the Mississippi. How the Spaniards ruled New Orleans. Chapter V. Louisiana's Critical Period . . 54 France tries to regain the West. Genet's intrigues. Attitude of England and Spain. Napoleon's designs. Talleyrand's plans for a colonial empire. Louisiana ceded to France. Napoleon's plans checked by Tous- saint's rebellion in San Domingo. Chapter VI. Louisiana an Active Issue . . 64 The East slow to see the facts. Foresight of Wash ington, Jefferson, and Hamilton. A critical period. Spanish exactions. The river closed. Popular agita tion. The West ready for war. Jefferson resolves to buy New Orleans and the Floridas. Monroe appointed commissioner. Livingston's work in Paris. Talley rand's startling proposition. How Napoleon made his purpose known. A family quarrel in a bath-room. CONTENTS xiii PAGE Chapter VII. The Purchase arranged ... 76 Closing the bargain. The terms of payment. What was bought. Questions as to West Florida. The news in the United States. Federalist opposition. Debates over the right to buy and rule foreign territory. The treaty ratified. Provisions for government. Chapter VIII. Transfer to the United States 86 Louisiana still in Spain's hands. Delivery to France. Cession by France to the United States. A country without government. Congress gives the President power. Importance of the precedents. The territory divided. A last foreign invasion. PART II THE LEWIS AND CLARK EXPEDITION Chapter IX. Exploring Louisiana 97 An unknown interior. Jefferson's early interest in exploration. Ledyard's vain attempt. Jefferson selects Lewis and Clark. Who they were. Their in structions. The uncertainty as to their route. Chapter X. Preparing for the Journey . . 106 An uninformed Spaniard. A company of picked men. Some curious supplies. The journal of the expedition. Chapter XI. Starting for the Wilderness . Ill Trappers and Indians. Across Missouri. The first sight of buffalo. Turning northward. A council with the Indians near Council Bluffs. An odd way of fish ing. A country full of game. xiv CONTENTS PAGE Chaptkr XII. In South Dakota 120 A haunted mountain. Among the Sioux. A curious fraternity. Some new animals. Trouble with the Tetons. The first meeting with the grizzly bear. Reaching the Arikara Indians. The approach of cold weather. Chapter XIII. At the Mandan Villages . . 128 The winter camp. Hunting the buffalo. The journey onward. Finding the Yellowstone River. Adventures with grizzly bears. Hunting in Montana. Chapter XIV. Across Montana 137 Discovery of the Musselshell. The first glimpse of the Rockies. A buffalo charges the camp. A narrow escape. At the Great Falls of the Missouri. A difficult portage. Reaching the Three Forks of the Missouri. In an unknown country. Chapter XV. Through the Rockies to the Pacific 146 Ascending the Jefferson. Reaching the Great Divide. Some friendly Indians. Sacajawea meets old acquaint ances. Hardships and disappointments. Struggling across the mountains. Among the Nez Perces. On toward the sea. Passing the cataracts of the Columbia. The first glimpse of the sea. Chapter XVI. On the Pacific Slope .... 159 The winter camp. Peculiarities of the Clatsop Indians. A scarcity of supplies. Turning homeward. Sur mounting the cascades. Journeying by land. Trouble some Indians. Living on dog flesh. A search for their horses. Indian cooking. Suffering of the explorers. CONTENTS xv PAGE Chapter XVII. Across the Mountains . . .171 A rough mountain road. Dividing the party. An adventure with a grizzly. Fighting with Indians. An accident to Captain Lewis. His indomitable courage. Passing the Great Falls of the Missouri. Lewis over takes Captain Clark. Chapter XVIII. Captain Clark's Adventures 178 Crossing the Yellowstone. The last glimpse of the Rockies. Buffalo and bears. Reaching the Missouri. Attacked by mosquitoes. Pryor loses the horses. Bitten by a wolf. The whole party reunited. Chapter XIX. On the Way Home 185 At the Mandan villages again. Big White accom panies the explorers. Colter remains in the wilder ness. His subsequent discovery of Yellowstone Park. Parting with the faithful squaw. Descending the river. The arrival at St. Louis. The news in Wash ington. The later life of Lewis and Clark. PART III THE EXPLORATION OF THE WEST Chapter XX. Pike's Explorations 199 Ascending the Mississippi. A second expedition westward. Hostile Spanish influence. Into Colorado. The first glimpse of Pike's Peak. On the upper Arkansas. Disappointment and privation. In Spanish territory. Captured by the Spaniards. Pike's return and death. xvi CONTENTS PAGE Chapter XXI. Routes of Exploration . . • 208 The great water ways. Importance of the Missouri. The Santa F3, Overland, and Oregon trails. The fur trade the chief industry. Its effect on exploration. Chapter XXII. Typical Pathfinders . . . 226 Trade seeking the Northwest. Hunt and the " over land Astorians." Ashley and Wyeth. Bonneville's journeys. Explorations by Fremont. PART IV THE BUILDING OF THE WEST Chapter XXIII. A Formative Period . . . 241 Influences of the westward movement. A time of expansion. Development of the Mississippi Valley. Influences upon upper Louisiana. Types of the middle period. The soldier's work in the West. Labors of missionaries. Whitman's journey and its real purpose. Chapter XXIV. The Coming of Industries . 255 The search for mineral wealth. Louisiana ignored for California. Later developments. The day of the "pony express." The great cattle industry. Open ing of the interior by the first transcontinental railroad. Chapter XXV. Permanent Occupation . . . 270 The Free Soil issue. Kansas and Nebraska. Dis tribution of public lands. Louisiana in the Civil War. A glance at later development. Political and economic consequence of the old Louisiana Purchase. CONTENTS xvii PAGE Appendix I 287 Treaty of Purchase between the United States and the French Republic. A Convention between the United States of America and the French Republic 293 Appendix II. The Louisiana Purchase of To- Day 296 Its vast area. Statistical summary of the states and territories formed from the Purchase. Fifteen mil lions of people. Wealth four hundred times the pur chase money. The empire which we gained. Louisiana 296 Arkansas 300 Colorado 303 Indian Territory 307 Iowa 309 Kansas 312 Minnesota 316 Missouri 320 Montana 323 Nebraska 325 North Dakota 328 Oklahoma 330 South Dakota 333 Wyoming 335 Index 339 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS AND MAPS American Occupation Frontispiece Expansion Map of the United States Facing 3 " Hunch-backed Cow " Facing 8 Pueblo of the Zufii Indians Facing 10 De Soto's First View of the Mississippi River 13 De Soto's Expedition (1539-1542) 15 Old Spanish Gateway at St. Augustine 17 Spanish Explorations • .... 19 La Salle 23 Louis XIV, King of France ... 25 Autograph of Jolliet .... . . 26 Father Marquette (from Trentenove's statue in the Capitol at Washington) Facing 26 La Salle at the Mouth of the Mississippi 28 Autograph of Tonty . . 29 Map of the Verendryes' Route Facing 32 Autograph of Le Moyne d' Iberville 35 Autograph of Bienville 36 Autograph of John Law ... 36 New Orleans in 1719 37 The Royal Flag of France 39 Montcalm . 40 George Rogers Clark 46 George Rogers Clark's Expedition to capture Vincennes in 1779 Facing 46 Anthony Wayne 47 A Flatboat on the Ohio 50 XX ILLUSTRATIONS AND MAPS PAGE Autograph of Genet 55 Autograph of Talleyrand 57 Autograph of Toussaint L'Ouverture 61 Alexander Hamilton 65 Livingston's Autograph 67 James Monroe 68 Napoleon as First Consul Facing 72 Thomas Jefferson 81 Wilkinson's Autograph 88 The Cabildo, or City Hall Facing 88 Claiborne's Autograph 89 Andrew Jackson riding along the Lines after the Battle of New Orleans 92 Bad Lands of Dakota 98 Meriwether Lewis (from the drawing by St. Merain) Facing 100 William Clark Facing 104 Washington One Hundred Years ago 107 French Fort at Saint Louis Facing 108 In the Days of the Buffalo Hunter 115 Totem of the Sioux 121 Calumet, or Pipe of Peace 122 Stone Hatchet 124 Nature's Fortifications (from the plan drawn by Lewis and Clark) Facing 126 A Mandan Hut 128 Mandan Indians using "Bull Boats" made of Buffalo Hide Facing 130 Interior of Deserted Mandan Hut 131 Map of Lewis and Clark Pass 148 Mouth of the Columbia River (from the plan drawn by Lewis and Clark) Facing 160 Multnomah Falls Facing 164 Meriwether Lewis Facing 174 A Mandan Chief Facing 186 Pike's Peak Trail at Minnehaha Falls 205 ILLUSTRATIONS AND MAPS xxi PAGE Zebulon M. Pike Facing 206 Emigrant Train crossing the Plains 2Q9 Pike's Peak from Pike's Peak Avenue, Colorado Springs Facing 210 Whitman's Journey to save his Mission 252 Sutter's Mill Facing 256 Indians attacking the " Overland Mail " 258 A " Pony Express " Rider 260 Completion of the First Transcontinental Railroad Facing 268 LOUISIANA Part I DISCOVERY AND ACQUISITION THE SPANISH AND FRENCH PERIODS AND THE PURCHASE Map showing the Expansion of the United States on this Continent, omitting Alaska CHAPTER I THE SPANISH DISCOVEEEES What the Louisiana Purchase was. Early Spanish explorers. Discovery of the Mississippi. Pineda, Cabeza de Vaca, Coronado, De Soto, and Docampo. The Spaniards first in the field. Their weakness in colonization. At the opening of the year 1803 the terri tory of the United States was bounded on the west by the Mississippi River.1 In April of that year a treaty was signed in Paris by which nearly a million square miles west of the Mississippi, stretching from the mouth of the river to British America, was purchased from France for $15,000,000, and the total area of our country was more than doubled. This great event is known in history as the 1 On the south the boundary was the thirty-first parallel of latitude from the Mississippi to the Apalachicola, down the middle of that river to the Flint, thence to the head of St. Marys River, and down the latter to the sea. 3 4 LOUISIANA PUECHASE Louisiana Purchase. By this treaty, which was signed by Robert R. Livingston and James Monroe representing the United States, and BarbeVMarbois representing the Republic of France, Napoleon Bonaparte — then the First Consul of France and afterward Emperor — ceded to the United States the territory which now contains Louisiana, Arkansas, Kansas, Missouri, Iowa, Nebraska, South Dakota, North Dakota, Montana, "Wyoming, Indian Territory, and parts of Colorado and Oklahoma.1 1 Much attention has been given by historians to the ques tion whether or not Texas was or should have been included in the Louisiana Purchase. Henry Adams and Professor Edward Channing are among the more conspicuous advo cates of Texas as a part of Louisiana, and Professor A. C. McLaughlin declares that France " had good ground for claiming the Texas country perhaps even to the Rio Grande." Schouler and H. H. Bancroft take a contrary view, and the thesis that Texas was not a part of the Louisiana Purchase is ably maintained in an interesting monograph by Professor John R. Ficklen. This discussion is not essential to the present narrative, since the United States, after claiming the territory as far west not only as the Rio Bravo but even to the Rio Grande, yielded the point in 1819, when by treaty with Spain the Floridas were acquired and Texas abandoned. THE SPANISH DISCOVERERS 5 It is easy now to see that this great addi tion to our country was of incalculable impor tance. At the time, however, the significance of the purchase, which has been called a turn ing point in our history, was not realized. We can understand the situation better by showing what had been learned up to 1803 of the vast region which Jefferson and Napoleon added to the United States. It is sometimes said that the Louisiana ter ritory was unexplored. In one sense this is true, but we shall find that as a matter of fact many white men had penetrated this wilder ness. The first were Spaniards who followed after Columbus. The purpose of Columbus, and, for a time, of others after him, was to find a water way to Cathay, or China, and the Spice Islands by the westward route, and to secure their rich trade. The extent of Amer ica was so httle understood that much time was spent in trying to find a passage through or around our continent. Cipango, as Japan was called, was supposed to he much farther east ; indeed, in some old maps it seems included 6 LOUISIANA PUECHASE within our boundaries. It was the Spanish pioneer explorers of the sixteenth century who first penetrated western North America and discovered the vast extent of our country. It was in a search for this water route to the west that, in 1519, Don Diego Velasquez, the Spanish governor of Cuba, sent out four caravels commanded by Don Alonzo Alvarez de Pineda. The little fleet finally sailed west ward across the Gulf of Mexico until Pineda met Cortes, the conqueror of Mexico, and his followers, who claimed that territory. The point of chief interest to us is that on his return Pineda found the mouth of a great river, which he explored for a few leagues and named the Rio de Espiritu Santo. This was the Missis sippi. We may think of Pineda, therefore, as the first white man to approach the confines of the territory known later as Louisiana. A few years later, in 1527, another Spaniard reached Louisiana, and the story of this man, Alvar Nufiez Cabeza de Vaca,1 is of peculiar 1 The " Relation " of Cabeza de Vaca's journey, by him self, was first published at Zamora, Spain, in 1542. The THE SPANISH DISCOVEREES 7 historical interest. He was treasurer of an expedition sent from Spain to Florida. With his comrades he struggled across Florida to the Gulf, and then, sorely tried by their hardships, they built rude boats as best they could. Their horses were killed for food. The manes and tails and some vegetable fibers were twisted into ropes ; rough tools and nails were wrought out of stirrups and spurs, and shirts were pieced together for sails. Finally, the unhappy fugi tives put to sea in five boats. They were ignorant of the waters and the coast, but they hoped to reach the Spanish settlements in Mexico. After a time they passed the mouth of the Mississippi, and then their boats were shattered by storms, and only fifteen men lived to be cast upon an island west of the mouth of the Mississippi, which they aptly termed " The Isle of Misfortunes." first edition of Buckingham Smith's translation appeared in 1851, and the last, after his death, in 1871. While the translator's notes cannot be accepted implicitly in the light of later research, this translation holds a place of peculiar distinction in our early history as the first presentation in English of a most important source of historical knowledge. 8 LOUISIANA PUECHASE Of this remnant all but four were slain by the Indians. Cabeza de Vaca himself was taken captive. For six terrible years he was held by his savage masters, who dwelt in east ern Texas and western Louisiana. Sometimes he was forced to act as a "medicine man." Again he was sent out as a trader, making long journeys as far north as the Red River country, where, it is believed, he was the first white man to see the "hunch-backed cows," as the older Spanish writers termed the buffalo. Finally, at some point west of the Sabine River in Texas, he was reunited to his three sur viving comrades. They succeeded in escaping from their captors, and by using the rites of "medicine men," with which they mingled " earnest prayers to the true God," they pre served themselves from harm at the hands of other Indians. Slowly and painfully they toiled westward across Texas, hoping to reach the Spaniards in Mexico. They seem to have crossed the Rio Pecos near its junction with the Rio Grande, and then crossing the latter river to have journeyed IBS SINCVLARITE2 tre cefle Flcnde zr U riviere de Palme fi trtuaettl fi™^ diuerf" '§'"' dt kites mm ff menfis -.entre Lfqud- lei Ion pent voir Vnc ejfece de grands taureaux , por- m~'f - tins cernes lon7,AesJeu!cmentd')n pit , {fflirledos ^ne lumueur ou eminence scome~\n coameau: U pod Ion? par tout le corps yduquel la coitleur $ 'approchefort Je celle d'~^ne mule fauue . e^r encores I'efi plutc^ tuy qui efi deffouls le mento.Lcn en amena ")mefm deux totnyifs en Efpavne 3de Ora dejquels fay"} eu U peat* ©r non autre chofe >& ny peurentliuie long temps. Cell animal ainfi que Undit3eft pcrpetuel ennemy du chcualy&ne le peut endurer pres de luy.De U i'lori- de tirantau promontoire de liaxe 3fe trouue qaelque petite rimer ebonies ejclaues >->»/ pefcher buttres , qui portent perles. Or depun que Jommes 'Ven'M tufquc Uf que de toucher la colleBion des hmtres _, ne ~>mx ou~ Lite)' par quelmoyen les par lei enfint tirleSyt&nt &&* fades y c The Buffalo (From Thevet's " Les Singularitez de la France Antarctique," Antwerp, 1558. "Winsor considers this one of the earliest, if not the earliest, picture of the buffalo.) THE SPANISH DISCOVEEEES 9 through the Mexican states of Chihuahua and Sonora. Turning southward they finally, in May, 1536, reached Culiacan in Sinaloa, the northern outpost of Spanish settlement. Over two thousand miles were traversed by these fugitives in this flight, which restored them to their countrymen eight years after their ill- starred expedition landed in Florida. With the exception of their passage by the mouth of the Mississippi and some wanderings in Louisiana and to the north, they had had little to do with the actual territory of the Purchase,1 but the stories which these survivors brought back made others eager to explore the mysterious interior of the New World. One story which appealed particularly to the imaginations of the Spaniards was a tale which Cabeza de Vaca had heard of the Seven Cities of Cibola, to the north, which were de scribed as full of treasures. In search of these cities a fearless priest, Fray Marcos de Nizza, started from Sinaloa in 1539, taking with him one of Cabeza de Vaca's companions, a negro 1 That is, of course, eliminating Texas, 10 LOUISIANA PURCHASE named Estevanico. He found no treasures, but he reached the " cities," which are believed to have been the pueblos or villages of the Zuni Indians near the present Zuni village in west ern New Mexico. When he returned and reported that he had actually seen certain strange towns to the north, there was a stir among the Spaniards, always tireless in the quest for treasure. The viceroy of Mexico, Mendoza, promptly organ ized an expedition under the command of Coronado, governor of New Galicia, to take possession of this rich country. He started in 1540, captured the Zuni villages and wintered in New Mexico, where he heard a marvelous tale which brought destruction to many of the early treasure seekers. This was the legend of Quivira, a wonderful city of gold. Lured by this golden myth, Coronado crossed Indian Ter ritory and pressed on to northeastern Kansas.1 1 General Simpson believed that Coronado reached a point somewhere in the eastern half of the border country of Kan sas and Nebraska. Bandelier placed the main seat of the Quiviras "in northeastern Kansas, beyond the Arkansas River and more than 100 miles northeast of Great Bend." Pueblo of the Zrifi Ixlhaxs (From a photograph) THE SPANISH DISCOVEEEES 11 He found a tribe of Indians called the Qui viras, but they had no gold and knew of none, and he was forced to make his painful way back empty-handed. This wonderful journey of Coronado may be called the first great exploration within the Louisiana territory. It is most fortunate that narratives of this remarkable expedition have come down to us. The best of these was written by Castaneda, who is supposed to have been a well-educated private soldier in Coronado's army.1 A journey far longer and more perilous than that of Coronado originated in the devo tion of the brave priest Fray Juan de Padilla, who was with Coronado, and returned to min ister to the Quiviras accompanied only by one soldier, Andre's Docampo, and two boys, Lucas and Sebastian. The good priest was slain in northeastern Kansas. Docampo and the boys 1 A translation of this narrative follows Mr. George Parker Winship's critical discussion of the Coronado expe dition published in the Report of the Bureau of Ethnology for 1892-1893. " The Spanish Pioneers," by C. F. Lummis, offers a vivid sketch of early Spanish exploration and con quest throughout the Western Hemisphere, 12 LOUISIANA PUECHASE wandered over the plains for nine heart-break ing years, sometimes prisoners, sometimes fugitives, finally reaching the Mexican town of Tampico on the Gulf. Their journeyings must have covered thousands of miles of Louisiana territory, but no records have been preserved.1 At the same time that Coronado was leading his soldiers eastward, another Spanish officer was struggling from Florida towards the west. This was the famous Fernando de Soto, gov ernor of Cuba, who was commissioned to conquer the unknown territory on the Gulf of Mexico which had been granted to Narvaez by a royal patent. De Soto sailed from Havana in 1539 and, landing his force of nearly six hundred men in Florida, fought his bloody way through Georgia and Alabama and on to the Mississippi, which he crossed at Chickasaw Bluff. This was in 1541, and De Soto was the first white man to see the Mississippi except at its mouth.2 1 See " The Spanish Pioneers," by C. F. Lummis. 2 There has been much historical discussion as to the dis covery of the Mississippi, and the question of the claims of Pineda in 1519, of Cabeza de Vaca, who crossed one of its mouths in 1528, and of De Soto, has been argued at length THE SPANISH DISCOVERERS 13 After crossing the great river De Soto marched northward to Little Prairie, led by the vague De Soto's First View of the Mississippi River tales of gold which so often lured the Spaniards to an evil fate. He sent out expeditions, one by Kye in the Hakluyt Society's :- Discovery and Conquest of Florida," 1851. See Winsor's "Narrative and Critical History of America," Vol. II, pp. 289-292. 14 LOUISIANA PURCHASE of which marched eight days to the north west and reached the open prairies. It seems probable that De Soto approached the Mis souri River, although he learned nothing of it. At this very time, in the summer of 1541, De Soto and his starving followers must have been so near Coronado's army that an Indian runner could have carried a message from one to the other in a few days. Indeed, Coronado heard of these white men and sent a messenger, who failed in his errand. Thus, in the first half of the sixteenth century two Spaniards, one starting from Tampa Bay in Florida and the other from the Gulf of California, practi cally completed a journey across the continent.1 De Soto's wanderings on the west bank of the Mississippi are of interest here chiefly because he entered the Louisiana territory. He met with little save disaster, and after a bitter winter passed on a branch of the Missis sippi, which seems to have been the Washita, he started southward with the remnants of 1 Winsor's " Narrative and Critical History of America," Vol II, p. 292. THE SPANISH DISCOVERERS 15 his force. At the mouth of the Red River, on May 21, 1542, the baffled "conqueror" died. Surrounded as his survivors were by hostile Indians, they dared not leave his body in a grave lest the Indians should discover it ; so ="TT; ^/-p- /Vor/A Caro/ina &£ De Soto's Expedition, 1539-1542. (The outlines and names of States are given for convenience in tracing De Soto's course.) this proud Spanish warrior found his last rest ing place beneath the waters of the Mississippi. The survivors, led by Luis de Moscoco, at first undertook to go westward in the hope of reaching their countrymen in New Spain, and some chroniclers have credited them with so 16 LOUISIANA PURCHASE long a journey across the plains that they came within sight of the mountains. But their attempts to reach their friends in Mexico yielded no results, and they made their pain ful way back to the Mississippi. There they built boats and descended the river. They skirted the coast of Texas, and in September, 1543, the wretched remnants of De Soto's once proud expedition reached Tampico. Pineda had found the mouth of the Rio de Espiritu Santo, but De Soto is justly remem bered as the true discoverer of the Mississippi. On this discovery was based an early claim to Louisiana. But the story of the Spaniards in North America was very different from their record in the south, where Cortes had gained an empire by his conquest of Mexico (1519- 1521), and Pizarro another in Peru (1531- 1534). The early expeditions of the Span iards within the present territory of the United States represented even larger possibilities, as they were the first comers in this new land. Pineda, Coronado, De Soto, and other Span iards made their journeys in the first half THE SPANISH DISCOVERERS 17 of the sixteenth century, and the oldest town in the United States, St. Augustine, Florida, was founded by the Spaniards in 1565. The Spaniards had sailed by the shores of Virginia long before Raleigh had dreamed of settlement. Old Spanish Gateway at St. Augustine It was not until 1605 that the French on the north founded Port Royal, now Annapolis, N. S., which was followed by Quebec in 1608. It was not until 1607 that the English founded Jamestown, in Virginia, and not until 1620 that the Pilgrims made their way to Plym outh. Thus in the struggle for a continent 18 LOUISIANA PURCHASE the Spaniards had all the advantages of priority, and they might have held North America. But Spanish discovery was not ac companied by the qualities which have wrought out a very different history for Anglo-Saxon expansion, and there were other obstacles. Louisiana lay open to Spain in the six teenth century, but the Spaniards, like other Europeans of their time, held to the " Bullion theory," — that the precious metals" were the only form of wealth, — and the gold and silver of Mexico and South America blinded them to the opportunities awaiting them in the development of the Mississippi valley. Fur thermore, after 1570 Spain's energies were absorbed in attempts to suppress Protestant ism in Europe and to crush the revolting Netherlands.1 In 1588 Spain's maritime power was crippled by England's destruction of the Invincible Armada. All this checked a career in the New World which, continuing as it began, might have 1 See " The Discovery of America," by John Fiske, par ticularly Chapter XII. THE SPANISH DISCOVERERS 19 meant a warfare against heretics in Virginia and New England like that which stained the early annals of Florida. It might have meant also an assured grasp of the Mississippi and Spanish Explorations Louisiana. But Spain's distraction and exhaus tion gave a clear field for the English settlers on the eastern seaboard, and also for the French who came from the north to explore the Missis sippi and claim the interior of our country. The seventeenth century found Spain sus picious and uneasy, but for the most part 20 LOUISIANA PURCHASE inactive as regards Louisiana. In the early eighteenth century, about 1716, a Spanish expedition moved eastward from Santa ¥6 to check the French by establishing a mili tary post in the upper Mississippi valley, but it came to a disastrous end. So far as the Louisiana territory is concerned the brilliant beginnings of Spain suffered an inglorious lapse. We owe to De Vaca, Coronado, and De Soto the amplest knowledge which the sixteenth century afforded of the interior of North America, but the Spanish desire for conquest and gold rather than real coloni zation and development proved impotent in the end. Many years later than the Spaniards — not until the seventeenth century — came the French, adventurous, impelled by pride of country, desirous of territory and of trade, but like the Spaniards lacking the colonizing power of the race which finally dominated Louisiana. CHAPTER II THE FRENCH IN LOUISIANA Nicollet's early expeditions. Saint Lusson claims the West for France. Marquette and Joliet explore the upper Missis sippi. La Salle descends to the mouth. The French claim to Louisiana. Tonty and other pioneers. The founders of New Orleans. The search for a way to the western ocean. Le Sueur and other explorers. The Verendryes see the Rocky Mountains. It was nearly a century after the disastrous end of De Soto's journey and the return of Coronado's expedition before the first repre sentative of the New France, which was press ing up the St. Lawrence, reached a tributary of the Mississippi. This was Jean Nicollet, a French interpreter of Three Rivers, whose journey westward as far as Green Bay and the Wisconsin River about 1634 J was due to tales of a strange people, who, it was held, might be the Chinese. This Oriental myth, which 1 As to the question of date see Winsor, Vol. IV, p. 304. 21 22 LOUISIANA PURCHASE persisted so long, was not shattered by Nicol let's discovery that these " Orientals " were really Winnebago Indians. He returned be lieving that the Wisconsin River, which he claimed1 to have reached and descended for a distance, had borne him within three days' journey of the sea. Tales of the great river, the "Mesipi" of the Sioux, were brought back by adventurous French traders and priests in the years that followed Nicollet's quest. " Through what regions did it flow?" In Parkman's eloquent words, "Whither would it lead them, — to the South Sea or the Sea of Virginia, to Mexico, Japan or China ? The problem was soon to be solved and the mystery revealed." Of the gallant French explorers who first penetrated the interior of our country, one of the bravest and deservedly most famous was Robert Cavelier, born at Rouen in 1643 and 1C. W. Butterfteld's "History of Discovery by Jean Nicollet," etc. (Cincinnati, 1881), indicates that Nicollet did not descend the Wisconsin. He was, however, the first white man to reach Green Bay. THE FRENCH IN LOUISIANA 23 best known as La Salle. At the age of twenty- three he came to Canada. He became seignior of an estate near Montreal, but ambition, love of adventure, an ardor for discovery and con quest soon led him to the ex ploration of the unknown West. It seems certain that in 1669 he journeyed from Lake Erie to a branch of the Ohio and de scended at least as far as the falls at Louis ville. But a more glorious journey of dis covery was yet to come. At nearly the same time Jean Talon, intendant of Canada, was making the first formal move in the great game which was to checkmate England and Spain by a French control of the interior that would confine La Salle 24 LOUISIANA PURCHASE England to the eastern seaboard and hold the Spaniards at bay in the south and southwest. It was with this in view that in 1670 he ordered Daumont de Saint Lusson to Lake Superior to take possession of the interior. It was early in May that the French soldiers and priests assembled on a hill near the foot of the Sault Sainte Marie, surrounded by wondering Indians, who watched them raise a cross and place beside it a post bearing the arms of France. All the known country of the Great Lakes, all the contiguous countries discovered and undiscovered, " bounded on the one side by the seas of the North and of the West, and on the other by the South Sea," were claimed by Saint Lusson, SAvord in hand, as the possessions of " the most High, Mighty and Redoubted Monarch, Louis, Fourteenth of that name, Most Christian King of France and of Navarre." Such was the proud claim of France cover ing the valley of the Mississippi and the coun try to the west ; but of the geography of much of the western territory the French had little THE FRENCH IX LOUISIANA 25 more knowledge than the Spaniards in 1493 when the bull of Pope Alexander VI divided the Western World between the Spaniards and Portuguese. Of the many French soldiers, priests, traders, and adventurers associated with the early history of the Louisiana territory, the most famous are Father Mar quette and the j La Salle whom j|| we have met at the outset of his career It was in 1673, sixty-five years after Samuel de Champlain founded Quebec, that Louis Joliet, an agent of Count Frontenac, governor of New France, or Canada, and Father Marquette, a Jesuit priest of singular devoutness, and Louts XIV, King of France 26 LOUISIANA PURCHASE unflinching courage, were commissioned to discover the great river which had proved so elusive, — the Mississippi. From Mackinaw they journeyed to Green Bay and entered Fox River. With the aid of Indian guides they found their way to a portage which brought them to the Wisconsin River. " They bade farewell to the waters that flowed to the St. Lawrence, and committed themselves to the current that Autograph of Jolliet, or joliet as the name was to bear IS USUALLY SPELLED ^^ ^ ^^ not whither, — perhaps to the Gulf of Mexico, perhaps to the South Sea, or the Gulf of California." 1 On June 17 they reached the present site of Prairie du Chien, Wisconsin, and there before them stretched the stream which was the object of th eir quest. Day after day, in spite of strange and terrifying adventures, they kept their way 1 Parkman, « La Salle and the Discovery of the Great West." Father Marquette (From Trentanove's statue in the Capitol at "Washington) This is an ideal figure. In 1897 a painting was discovered in Montreal which is claimed to be a portrait. THE FRENCH IN LOUISIANA 27 down the great river, passing the mouth of the Missouri, which Lewis and Clark were after wards to ascend, and finally reaching the mouth of the Arkansas. They were seven hundred miles from the mouth of the Mississippi, al though they thought themselves much nearer - but their journey had made it clear that the Mississippi flowed southward to the Gulf of Mexico. This fact was ascertained, and, since below them lay danger from hostile Indians and possibly from Spaniards, they reembarked on July 17, and set forth on their arduous return journey to report their discovery. In accord ance with the custom of these pioneer priests Father Marquette kept a careful journal, and this " Relation," as it is called, preserves the record of the perilous quest of a classic figure in the discovery of the West.1 In 1682 La Salle, seeking a trade route for the transportation of heavy skins, descended the Mississippi to its mouth. This was the first time that the entire course of the " Father of 1 Mr. Reuben G. Thwaite's " Father Marquette " is an excellent presentation of this stoiy. 28 LOUISIANA PURCHASE Waters " had been traversed by a white man. On April 9, on the shore near the mouth, he La Salle at the Mouth of the Mississippi erected a column bearing the arms of France and an inscription, and took possession of "this THE FRENCH IN LOUISIANA 29 country of Louisiana" from "the mouth of the great river St. Louis, otherwise called the Ohio, ... as also along the river Colbert,1 or Mississippi, and the rivers which discharge themselves thereinto, from its source ... as far as its mouth. . . ." But after this triumph came a dangerous ill ness which kept him a prisoner at the Chicka saw Bluffs, while his faith ful follower Tonty was dispatched to Michilli- mackinac 2 with tidings of his success. La Salle Autograph of Tonty returned to France and was finally, in 1684, enabled to set sail for the 1 A short-lived name given in honor of the minister of finance of Louis XIV. 2 The name was applied generally by the French to the region about the Straits of Mackinac between Lake Huron and Lake Michigan. The island of Mackinac to the east was an early military post, and was also the first site of the mission of St. Ignace, afterwards transferred to the present site of St. Ignace on the mainland north of the straits, where Father Marquette was finally interred a year after his death in 1675 near the present site of Ludington, Michigan. A century later the English built a fort at the present site of Mackinaw City, south of the straits. 30 LOUISIANA PURCHASE mouth of the Mississippi with a force which was to build fortifications, establish a colony, and hold the country against the Spanish. Through an error they landed at Matagorda Bay, in Texas, and there followed a squalid period of privation, suffering, and discontent, culminating in a conspiracy of La Salle's fol lowers and the assassination of this brave explorer in 1687. Several of those who served with La Salle made their mark in the early annals of the west. Joutel and Tonty, his loyal lieutenants, have left valuable records of adventurous ex plorations. Another less heroic figure was Father Hennepin, the discoverer of the Falls of St. Anthony at Minneapolis, who for a time accompanied La Salle. But Father Hennepin, unhappily, was romancer as well as historian. To Pierre Le Sueur is due the credit of a journey in 1700 from the mouth of the Mis sissippi to the country of the Sioux, in the present state of Minnesota, and a return down the river. This journey was made in a profit less search for furs and mineral wealth. In the THE FRENCH IN LOUISIANA 31 same year Pierre Le Moyne d'Iberville planned an expedition to the upper Missouri, lured by the hope of a western passage down some river to the western sea. In 1717 Hubert urged a similar plan upon the French Council of Marine.1 The belief in the myth of the northwest pass age2 to the Orient was waning, but there was still faith, not wholly unfounded, in a nearly continuous river route to the western ocean, and, failing this, it was believed that a way could be made by land. 1In 1704 Bienville reported that over one hundred Canadians were scattered along the Mississippi and Mis souri. In 1705 a Canadian named Laurain claimed to have ascended the Missouri, and in 1708 Nicolas de la Salle proposed a plan like those of Iberville and Hubert. In 1719 Du Tisn6 ascended the Missouri above Grand River. Afterward he crossed the state of Missouri and reached the Indians on the Osage River. The early eighteenth-century explorations of Saint Denis, La Harpe, Bourgmont, and the brothers Mallet, for the most part in the southern half of the Louisiana territory, in Texas, and even Xew Mexico, helped, in the language of Parkman ("A Half Century of Conflict "), " to unveil the remote southwest." 2 This idea represented a phase of the long search for a northwest passage to the Orient, which is perhaps most closely identified in the popular mind with the early attempts in the region of Hudson Bay and in the Arctic. 32 LOUISIANA PURCHASE Under the regency of the Duke of Orleans, in 1716, three posts were planned between Lake Superior and Lake Winnipeg to serve as bases of supplies for an overland expedi tion, and one was actually built at the mouth of the river Kaministiguia on the north shore of Lake Superior. But nothing more was done, and three years later Charlevoix, the Jesuit his torian of early Canada, was ordered to visit the country and report upon a passage to the west ern sea. His report was that the Pacific prob ably lay just to the west of the country of the Sioux. One plan which he advocated was the ascent of the Missouri, " the source of which is certainly not far from the sea." Iberville and Charlevoix had pointed to the Missouri as the route nearly a century before the journey of Lewis and Clark. Then came the Verendryes, who preceded the Americans almost to the Rocky Mountains. La Verendrye the elder, a French soldier, explorer, and trader, built forts at the Lake of the Woods, on the site of Winnipeg, and at the mouth of the Saskatchewan. In the course ..VJVIInnetarees MANDANS Map of the Verendryes' Route THE FRENCH IX LOUISIANA 33 of his expeditions he traveled as far as the Mandan villages on the Missouri in his search for the western sea. This was in 1738. It was among the descendants of these Mandans living near Bismarck, Dakota, that Lewis and Clark passed a winter nearly seventy years later. In 1712 the two sons of Verendrye made their way to the Mandan villages, and un dertook an expedition westward, under the guidance of the Indians, hoping to find the Pacific. They traveled between the Black Hills and the Missouri, entered Montana, and finally, after much uncertain journeying and many strange experiences with the nomadic tribes of Indians, the mountains rose before them. The Spaniards had crossed the moun tains to the south, but the Verendryes were the first white men to see the true Rocky Mountains on the north. It was in January, 1743, that they discovered the mountains, probably the Big Horn range in Wyoming. In the records of French Louisiana the names of the Verendryes merit a place with those of Father Marquette and La Salle. CHAPTER III THE FRENCH IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY The founding of New Orleans. Extent of French possessions. The beginnings of St. Louis. The gateway of Louisiana. Downfall of French power. Louisiana ceded to Spain. American and English explorations. Oregon not included in Louisiana. While French explorers and traders were following the northern rivers, signs of genu ine colonization began to appear in the south. At the beginning of the eighteenth century three countries maintained conflicting claims to the valley of the Mississippi. Spain held Florida and based her claim to the westward on De Soto's discovery of the great river. France held the upper waters, and La Salle and others had descended the river to its mouth and asserted possession. The char ters of some of the Enghsh colonies on the 34 FRENCH IN EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 35 seaboard embodied sweeping claims to terri tory from the Atlantic to the Pacific. In spite of the doubts of King Louis XIV of France as to the value of the new coun try, he was finally persuaded to sanction the founding of a French colony at the mouth of the Mississippi. This was largely due to the enthusiasm of a gallant Canadian, Pierre Autograph of Le Moyne d'Ikehville Le Moyne dTberville, who sailed from France with an armed expedition in 1698. The first colony was established the year following at Biloxi, upon the Gulf of Mexico, within the present limits of Mississippi, but its checkered career was ended in 1718, when Bienville dTberville, a brother of Le Moyne, founded the city of New Orleans. The early years of the French colonists were not prosperous. In an effort to make the colony a source of income rather than 36 LOUISIANA PURCHASE expense, the king in 1712 gave to Antoine Crozat an exclusive right to trade in that quarter. The failure of this plan resulted in its abandonment in 1717, and the Company of the West, better known as the Missis sippi Company, was formed, which succeeded to Crozat's rights. Under the leadership of the notorious John Law, who for a time was a financial mag nate in France, the company issued an unlim ited amount of paper money without adequate security. This was done in part to further the interests of the company in the Mississippi Autograph of Bienville Autograph of John Law valley; but after a period of wild excitement and speculation in France it was found that the paper money could not be exchanged for coin or solid property, and in 1721 there followed FRENCH IN EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 37 collapse, failure, and ruin. This was the end of what is known as the Mississippi Bubble. In spite of the dismay and suffering caused by this failure, the growth of the colony was quickened during this era of speculation by enforced emigration from France, since it was VUE DE IA IfOUVELLE ORLEANS EN .1119 a £erMct0,r,/iiat1tert&rJ!iitm/cuirjt„it,en/n,mirdit„fpai,tnn& tmjjiioLe do latmeo' mi le ifckorJcmeiit ila ctnr.r d„t'l,;uK t/hMir'f /f "... 'iiiar.r^ /tuyrr/iii. fiSjianAJkofaxt. lasviflc. >/y ft. 'nieleve'e rf /.,r rfcrri.hv t„i/uen> tt^itre* Aavu/emeiifs.. Jhirt/J'itrct. New Orleans in 1719 necessary to settle and develop the new lands as quickly as possible. These troubles, with attacks by the Indians, illness, and lack of proper supplies, clouded the early years of French settlement in Louisiana; but the French remained, and later the colony began to enjoy prosperity. 38 LOUISIANA PURCHASE Thus by discovery, exploration (and to some extent by colonization), and by the building of forts on the north and east, the French held the Mississippi valley, together with the vaguely known empire to the west. The word " colonization " must be accepted with limita tions, for neither the French nor the Spanish were led by the motives which caused the Eng lish settlers to regard the new country as a permanent home and to develop it for the future as well as for the present. But while New Orleans was struggling through its early years at the mouth of the Mississippi, the French trappers and traders were descending the river from the north. In 1762 M. d'Abbadie, the French director general of Louisiana, granted to Pierre Laclede, the head of a company of merchants, the exclusive right to trade with the Indians on the Missouri. Two years later this company founded the city of St. Louis, selecting its present site for the erection of a house and four stores. This was the beginning of the city, which for practically a century remained FRENCH IN EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 39 the commercial center of the Louisiana terri tory. It was here that the American fur trade had its headquarters, and up to nearly the middle of the nineteenth century the traffic in furs was the chief industry of the Louisiana territory.1 As time went on the commerce of the Southwest and of the great river passed in swelling volume through St. Louis, the gateway of the West; but all this was then in the future. Even before St. Louis was founded a The Eotal Flag of Fkance change had come in the fortunes of France. The long warfare between the French and English in North America had culminated, and the rule of France on this continent was ended forever. 1 The " History of the American Fur Trade," and the " History of Early Steamboat Navigation on the Missouri River," by Captain Hiram M. Chittenden, U.S.A., are indis pensable to students of the early nineteenth-century history of the West. 40 LOUISIANA PURCHASE In 1759 the English General Wolfe defeated the French General Montcalm on the Plains of Abraham, under the walls of Quebec. Four years later, in 1763, France ceded to England her American possessions east of the Missis sippi, with the exception of New Orleans.1 But New Orleans and the French possessions west of the Missis sippi, — that is, the country of the Louisiana Purchase, — were secretly ceded to Spain by King Louis XV of France, who desired to cement a Spanish alliance. In 1768 the first Spanish governor appeared at New Orleans, and northward from the sea Montcalm 1 In the same year Spain transferred Florida to England in exchange for Havana, but Spain received Florida back in 1783. FRENCH IN EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 41 along the west bank of the Mississippi, four teen hundred miles, the Spanish authority prevailed. All the traffic down the Missis sippi from the valley of the Ohio or else where must pass under the Spanish flag. The American Revolution was at this time close at hand. Then there came the critical period of the adoption of the Constitution and the organization of the government of the United States, so that the attention of the American people was occupied elsewhere. For nearly forty years the Spaniards, who had been the first to penetrate the Louisiana Purchase, held full possession, although, as we shall see, France presently undertook to regain the coun try, and with the growth of the United States west of the AHeghenies the American pressure began to strain the arbitrary boundaries. The Spaniards made no prolonged explora tions to the north, but Americans and English began to investigate the unknown and remote west. Jonathan Carver, a native of New York and an officer in the war with France, sug gested an attempt to cross the northwest 42 LOUISIANA PURCHASE portion of America by land. This was looked upon as visionary, but in 1766 Carver under took an exploring expedition in which he followed the Minnesota River for some two hundred miles. The interest of this journey to us lies in the fact that Career heard much from the Indians regarding the " Shining Moun tains," as the Rocky Mountains were termed, and that he learned of the Oregon, or " River of the West," which is now the Columbia. It occurred to him that by ascending the Mis souri it might be possible to cross to the head waters of the Columbia. But official indiffer ence prevented the attempt. This idea was carried out nearly forty years afterward by Lewis and Clark. Twenty-five years later a Scotchman, Alexander Mackenzie, crossed the continent to the Pacific, but his route lay farther north, through what is now Manitoba and British Columbia. On the Pacific coast the Spaniards held California, but they knew little of the North west. This was reached by the famous ex plorer, Captain Cook, who visited Alaska in FRENCH IN EIGHTEENTH CENTURY 43 1778. Vancouver, another English explorer, sailed by the mouth of the Columbia without entering it ; this was left for American enter prise. In 1787 some Boston merchants sent Captain Robert Gray in the sloop Washington and Captain John Kendrick in the ship Colum bia around Cape Horn to the northwest coast to trade for furs, which were to be exchanged for silk and tea in China. So far as Gray was concerned the journey was successful, and after exchanging ships with Kendrick. Gray returned by way of China in the Columbia, which was the first ship to circumnavigate the globe under the American flag. On this first voy age Gray nearly lost his ship on the bar of an unknown stream, probably the Columbia. On his second voyage, in 1792, he entered and named the great river. His discovery was earlier than that of Vancouver and formed the basis of the subsequent claim to Oregon urged by the United States against Great Britain.1 Gray was followed by other 1 H. H. Bancroft argues for the discovery of the Colum bia by Heceta in 1775, but Gray's discovery is generally 44 LOUISIANA PURCHASE traders, and in a few years a regular trading post was established near the mouth of the Columbia. While a knowledge of these northwestern explorations is desirable, it should be under stood that Oregon, as the northwest beyond the Rocky Mountains was called, was not in cluded in the Louisiana Purchase. The Loui siana Purchase extended only to the Rocky Mountains, but, as it was important to find a way across and to explore the Columbia to the sea, the task of finding a route to the Pacific was included in the instructions to Lewis and Clark. accepted. The rival claims of Gray and Vancouver and their relation to the Oregon question are not essential here. CHAPTER IV THE AMERICAN WESTWARD MOVEMENT Advancing beyond the AHeghenies. Settlement rather than exploration or exploitation. Experiences of the pioneers. Their way to the sea blocked by Spanish control of the mouth of the Mississippi. How the Spaniards ruled New Orleans. After the long periods of desultory Span ish exploration, of French trading expeditions and attempts at military and commercial occupation which have been sketched in the preceding chapters, the history of Louisiana shows the influence of Americans bent upon actual settlement of the country to the west ward of the AHeghenies.1 The downfall of 1McMaster's "History of the People of the United States," Vol. II, and Roosevelt's "Winning of the West" give picturesque accounts of the pioneers and the significance of their movement. Hinsdale's " The Old Northwest," Win- sor's "The Mississippi Basin (1697-1763)" and "The West ward Movement (1763-1798) " may be consulted with profit. 45 46 LOUISIANA PURCHASE French power on this continent brought the beginning of another era in the history of Louisiana. But the operation of the forces represented in the American westward pres sure was delayed, first by the Revolution, and then by the fierce opposition of the south western and north western Indian tribes who fought to hold the Middle West. In spite of all obstacles the way was opened by the rifles of the soldiers and frontiers men who followed George Rogers Clark, Anthony Wayne, and other leaders in the winning of the West. Close behind them came a swelling tide of migration across the AHeghenies. The sound of the axes and rifles of the American pioneers along the eastern trib utaries of the Mississippi marked the opening of a new epoch in the history of the West. George Rogers Clark George Rogers Clark's Expedition to capture Vincennes in 1779 AMERICAN WESTWARD MOVEMENT 47 Up to the end of the Revolution the pos session of Louisiana territory by one foreign power or another had not touched Ameri cans closely. But now the conditions were changed. In the western migra tion of the later eighteenth century and the demands of these frontiersmen for a free route to the seaboard lay influences which finally resulted in the acquisition of Louisiana.1 1 " In 1784 Pittsburg numbered one hundred dwellings and almost one thousand inhabitants. It was the centring point of emigrants to the West, and from it the travellers were carried in keel-boats, in Kentucky flat-boats, and Indian pirogues down the waters of the Ohio, ... to the filthy and squalid settlements at the falls of the Ohio, or on to the shores of the Mississippi, where La Clede, twenty years earlier, had laid the foundations of St. Louis. . . . The boat was at every moment likely to become entangled in the branches of the trees that skirted the river, or be fired into by the Indians who lurked in the woods. The cabin was therefore low, . . . and lined with blankets and with Anthony Wayne 48 LOUISIANA PURCHASE The growth of this movement is shown by the returns of the census for Kentucky, Ten nessee, and the Northwest Territory, which then represented our West. In 1790 there were 73,677 people in Kentucky, and in 1800 there were 220,955. Tennessee showed 35,691 people in 1790, and 105,602 in 1800. The census of 1790 gives no population for Ohio and Indiana territories, but ten years later there were 44,678. Before these stalwart pioneers the forests were swept aside to make room for farms. Rude log cabins were built with chimneys of logs plastered with mud. The settlers made their simple furniture with their own tools. Their hunting shirts and trousers were of homemade linsey, a mixture of linen and wool, and of deerskin. Most of their food was gained by their rifles and their traps. Corn was pounded or ground in rude beds to guard the inmates from Indian bullets. From St. Louis rude boats and rafts floated down the river to Natchez and New Orleans. . . . The current was so rapid that it seemed hopeless to attempt a return. The boats were therefore hastily put together and sold at New Orleans as lumber." — McMaster's History, Vol. I, pp. 69-70. AMERICAN WESTWARD MOVEMENT 49 stone mortars to make meal. But the vigor and energy of these hardy pioneers soon bet tered their condition. They began to raise tobacco and wheat and to cure hams and bacon. Then came the question of trade.1 How could they exchange these products for money or for goods of which they stood in need ? There was no market at hand. The railroad was yet in the future. To the east ward lay the AHeghenies and a long and difficult journey by land impossible for their purposes. Their easiest and cheapest route to a market was by water, and close at hand were the Ohio and other rivers flowing to the 1 Certain economic phases of this pioneer life have been summarized as follows : " Currency was very scarce and was replaced by articles of general value, such as skins and jugs of whiskey. Cowbells were also such a necessity that they became an acceptable tender. Small currency was scarce, and a silver dollar was often cut into half dollars or quarters with an axe or chisel. . . . Salt was worth six cents a pound. Beef sold at four cents a pound and deer meat at three. . . . Corn was .sold at fifty cents a bushel. A single log cabin could be built for $150. Feather beds were a great luxury and readily brought six dollars each. The family washing was done on the river bank." — Sparks's " Expansion of the American People." 50 LOUISIANA PURCHASE Mississippi, and offering a tempting water way to New Orleans and the sea. But New Orleans was held by the Spaniards. Their laws and customs regulations were arbitrary; A Elatboat on the Ohio their business methods were antiquated, com plicated, and irksome. Between their medi aeval rule and the free and impatient spirit of the pioneers there was instant conflict. In the early nineties the Spanish authorities AMERICAN WESTWARD MOVEMENT 51 closed navigation and refused to grant the right to deposit goods at New Orleans to await the arrival of trading vessels. This right was essential for the men who journeyed down the great river in their "broad-horns," or rude homemade boats. A crisis seemed at hand in 1795, but it was averted by the Spanish minister of state, Manuel Godoy, known as the "Prince of Peace," 1 who more than once had proved his friendly feeling for the United States. In 1795 a treaty was signed, which granted the right of deposit, with certain minor limita tions, for three years. Thus an outbreak was averted. The way to a market was kept open during the three years, and thereafter until 1802. Then the Spaniards withdrew the right of deposit, the West rose in pro test, and therein lay a potent motive for the 1 This remarkable title was derived from Godoy's negoti ation of the treaty of Basel with France in 1795. His per sonal character was open to reproach, but in his attitude toward France and toward American interests at the mouth of the Mississippi he rendered valuable aid to the United States. 52 LOUISIANA PURCHASE acquisition of at least the mouth of the Mis sissippi. But the immediate demand of these American settlers was not for Louisiana, but simply for an open seaport, or at most the possession of the river's mouth. On the south, therefore, the Americans were shut in by Spain. In these days, when we have seen Spain losing the very last of her holdings in the Western Hemisphere, it is hard to realize the extent of her sway a little more than a century ago. A hun dred years before our war with Spain the Spaniards held Texas, Mexico, and the Flori- das, not to mention the West Indies and all of Central and South America except Brazil. They controlled the ports of Pensacola, Mobile, and New Orleans. The Spanish possessions ran from Fernandina to Natchez, and then north on the west bank of the Mississippi to the Lake of the Woods. Above New Orleans, as far as Point Coupee, there were planta tions and villages. North of Point Couple the west bank of the river was, with few exceptions, a wilderness. AMERICAN WESTWARD MOVEMENT 53 The older part of New Orleans,1 which was laid out under BienviUe by the Sieur La Blonde de la Tour, was inclosed by ramparts. Most of the streets retained their French names. Outside the ramparts dwelt a motley colony of foreigners and Americans. Many of the latter were traders who had floated down the river in clumsy boats, bringing produce for sale or shipment. The levee was crowded with shipping and piled high with goods. Spanish officers, regidores, alcaldes, and syn dics, ruled a city which offered a most pictur esque mingling of Spanish, French, Creole, foreign, and American types. But while aU this was undoubtedly picturesque, the mediae val customs of the Spaniards, and their many rules and taxes, were galling to the active and impatient Americans. 1 McMaster, Vol. Ill, chap, xiv, gives a picturesque de scription of Spanish New Orleans. CHAPTER V LOUISIANA'S CRITICAL PERIOD France tries to regain the West. Genet's intrigues. Attitude of England and Spain. Napoleon's designs. Talleyrand's plans for a colonial empire. Louisiana ceded to France. Napoleon's plans checked by Toussaint's rebellion in San Domingo. If Spanish control of the outlet of our western trade was bad, a French rule under the aggressive Napoleon would have been Worse, and this began to appear as a possi- bHity. The pride of the French had been hurt by their cession of Louisiana to Spain. So strong was this feeling that various efforts were made by French ministers to regain the lost territory. To the government of the United States Louisiana became in the last decade of the eighteenth century a source of constant anxiety. From the beginning of this decade to the consummation of the 54 LOUISIANA'S CRITICAL PERIOD 55 purchase in 1803 was the most critical period in the varied history of Louisiana. Within our borders there was the expansion of a race not to be held in check. Without, the efforts of three great powers were concerned at vari ous times with the possession of Louisiana. A mere outline of these efforts will illustrate the perils of the situation. In 1790, when England and Spain were at variance, the English minister William Pitt contemplated a seizure of the Floridas and Lou isiana, which Washing ton, and Jefferson, then Secretary Of State, Autograph of Genet rightly viewed as a menace to the future of the United States. Fortunately the danger passed, but only to be succeeded by a new peril. France, eager to recover Louisiana, sent Genet as her minister to the United States in 1793 with a proposition for an aUiance which should aim at the wresting of Canada from England and the seizure of Louisiana *6 56 LOUISIANA PURCHASE and the Floridas from Spain. When this " entangling foreign alliance " was declined, Genet, acting under secret instructions from his government, instigated movements in the Carolinas and Georgia to seize the Floridas, and in Kentucky to descend upon New Orleans. The frontiersmen were ready, but the progress of the French Revolution and the request of our government for Genet's recall prevented a frontier revolt against Spanish occupation which might have had results of lasting consequence. The plottings of Genet to wrest Louisiana from Spain were followed by France's attempt to secure Louisiana through the treaty of Basel, which closed her war with Spain. In 1796, through the French minister to Spain, another effort was made in the series, which resulted in success in 1800. By 1797 there were added complications. The Spanish minister at Wash ington was expressing apprehensions of an invasion of upper Louisiana by the English. The English minister Liston denied the charge, but admitted that there had been LOUISIANA'S CRITICAL PERIOD 57 some discussion of an invasion of Louisiana from the south. As a matter of fact, Senator Blount of Tennessee was implicated in this plot and was expelled from the Senate.1 In the foUowing year Talleyrand broached his plan of a great colonial French empire in his formal proposition to Spain to exchange Louisiana for a principality to be made up of the papal legations and the duchy of Parma. This ambitious scheme was coupled with a generally in imical attitude * • /* • ^e. /t^ <