George Washington Cable.
“Posson Jone.”
NOTES TO NEXT GROUP
- Start proofreading at STOPPED HERE. It's pg. 51 in the pdf. (Line 450)
Jean Baptiste Le Moyne, sieur de Bienville
King, Grace Elizabeth, 1852-1932
I'-'
Digitized by the Internet Archivein 2015
I
https://archive.org/details/jeanbaptistelemoOOking
JEAN l^Al’TTSTK LK MOVNFSIEUR 1)K BIENVILLE.
lEAN BAPTISTE LE MOYNE
EUR DE BIENVILLE
GRACE KING
AU^'HOiv or “MONSIEUR MOTlEj ETC.
NEW YORK
DODD. MEAD AND COMPANY1893
TO
THE STUDENTS OF TULANE UNIVERSITY,
OF LOUISIANA,
0ecorb of t\)t iFirst ^Bo^iernor of tht ^tate
/S DEDICATED.
PREFACE.
The circumscribed limits of this volume make aword of preface necessary for that general submission of authorities and credentials of which particular note could not be made.
Apart from official documents, Bienville has no bibliography, except the short account of him contained in the “Histoire de Longueuil et de la Famillede Longueuil,” by Messrs. Alex. Jodoin and J. L.Vincent. It is to these excellent, painstaking compilers that we are indebted for the publication in bookform of the only two unofficial documents of Bienvillein existence, — a letter to his brother, and his will; also, for much new and interesting information about Charles Le Moyne and his family. The authors explain the lack of fuller and more private details of this historical family by the destruction of their accumulations of papers in Montreal, in order to clear out a garret needed for the quartering of troops during the affair of the “Trent.”
For official documents, recourse was had directly to the two separate transcriptions made from the originals in the Archives de la Marine, by M. Pierre Margry and M. Magne, for the State of Louisiana, now in the library of the Tulane University of Louisiana. These, superadded to M. Margry’s “Explorations et Decouvertes,” with his résumé of the times and circumstances contained in the introductory notes of the fifth and sixth volumes, form a clear and almost perfect documentary history of the French settlement of Louisiana. Use was made of the “Journal Historique” whenever dates and facts tallied with the above authorities. The rich historical French library of Tulane University, which contains all and more of the bibliography of Louisiana cited, furnished the general information.
The labours of an archiviste of Pans, employed to discover some traces of Bienville after his retirement to that city, were fruitless. The parish registers which might have given a clew to his residence were burnedin the Hotel de Ville in 1871. The registers of Montmartre Cemetery, which might have revealed the location of his tomb, are also missing.
No Louisiana historical question can be treated without tributary homage to the Hon. Charles Gayarre.It may be said that it is he, the former of the State Library, the devoted collector of archives and traditions, and, for half a century, the indefatigable explorer in colonial records, who has made intelligent workin Louisiana history possible to the present generation. Acknowledgment is made to him with sincere gratitude.
Grace King.
Paris, April 5, 1892.
JEAN BAPTISTE LE MOYNE,
SIEUR DE BIENVILLE.1
CHAPTER I.
Jean Baptiste le Moyne, the son of Charles le Moyne, écuyer, Sieur de Longueuil, and of Dame Catherine Primot, his wife, was born at Ville Marie, Canada, on the 23d of February, 1680, and baptized, according to the parish registry, the same day, having for godfather Jean le Ber, son of Jacques le Ber, and for godmother Marianne Jeanne de Carrion, daughter of Philippe de Carrion, Sieur du Fresnoy. He was the twelfth child and eighth son of his parents.
Charles le Moyne and Catherine Primot belonged to that sturdy emigrant stock which, yielding the Cana-dians the first and best fruits of French blood onAmerican soil furnished a race of pioneers to the NewWorld unsurpassed, if not unequalled, by any that itshistory chronicles.
When one says Canadian, one says Norman, and when one says Norman, one says Scandinavian. And for bold hardihood, valour, and endurance; for dauntless
1 Histoire de Longueuil et de la Faraille Longueuil, par Alex. Jodoin et J. L. Vincent.
enterprise, persistent effort, and unextinguishable determination, — for all the rugged, crude essentials of primitive virility, these recrudescent adventurers loom up in the dawn of American settlement with the huge distinction and gigantic proportions of their Homeric ancestors. Without exaggeration it may be said, what France gained in America, she gained through her Normans ; what she lost, she lost in her own capital.
It was from the town of Dieppe that Charles le Moyne issued. He was the son of Pierre le Moyne and Judith Duchesne, and was baptized in the parish church of St. Remi de Dieppe on the 2d of August, 1626, receiving, it is carefully stated, the name of Charles from the honourable man, Charles le Doux, his godfather.
When he was about seven years of age, his parents moved from the parish of St. Remi to that of St. Jacques, — the patron saint of fishermen, — the quarter of the seafaring folk. Here they kept an hostelry.
Ever since the days of Champlain, Dieppe had been one of the busiest stations on the road from the Old France to the New. Through the little Norman seaport, as through a bunghole, gushed a constant stream of emigration, the overflow from the effervescent population inside. Its streets were thronged, its hostelries crowded, by the outgoing, waiting for a bark; by the in coming, for post-horses. Ship after ship loaded at its quay, — an overload generally of passengers aureoled in advance by the spectators not only with heavenly crowns, but with the more tangible ones of earth, — adventurers seeking a new chance at life, fame, and fortune; merchants and scientists, grave with secret theories of transatlantic finances and physics; soldiers, Government appointees, priests, singly or in company with fervent bands of devotees, inflamed, if not inspired,to Christianize the distant savages out of the powers of hell and the devil.
It is easily conceived what the greedy ears and inquisitive eyes of a precocious lad would pick up in such scenes. It is not conceivable that an enterprising lad should hold back at such a time and such a place; for under the impulse of the Société de Ville Marie, Dieppe was furnishing, not only the means, but the subjects for emigration from her own and neighbouring precincts. In 1641, at the age of fifteen, Charles Le Moyne, joining a band of his townspeople, shipped for Quebec, where a maternal uncle, Adrien Duchesne, had established himself some twenty years before. By taking service with the Jesuits, he opened his career in the New World with a shrewdness which testifies that he had profited by hearsay in the Old. The Jesuits sent him into the country of the Hurons, where he remained four years, at the end of which he received his pay; according to the journal of the Jesuits, — twenty crowns and his clothing. But the knowledge of Indian dialects and characteristics, and of the physical, moral, and commercial features of the country acquired during this term of service, furnished the capital out of which he drew his prosperous future.
Le Moyne passed on to Trois Rivières in the multiple capacity of trader, soldier, and interpreter, — a combination of sails which could not fail to catch some breeze of fortune. The following year he entered into the service of the Société de Ville Marie on the then exposed and frontier site of the present Montreal. His loyalty and courage, his skill and address in dealing with the Indians,his youth, strength, and spirit, are all faithfully transcribed by his patrons. He must indeed have soon made himself indispensable to the exalted pietists, who needed all the support of their visions and miracles to enable them to cope with such elements of evil as beset them roundabout in the blood thirsty Iroquois and the hardly less cruel rigours of the Canadian climate. It is not surprising that in their acute need for such a servitor they should attribute his presence among them to the direct interposition of Providence on their behalf. But they did not limit their gratitude, nor remit Le Moyne’s remuneration, to Providence. However much his daring with the Indians had commended him to their revenges,and however thick the crowns of saints and martyrs fell about him, his mundane shrewdness enabled him to avoid them, while his thrift worked out his pecuniary profit. At the age of twenty-eight he found himself not only celebrated in his small world on account of his fights and treaties with the Indians, but in addition the possessor of money and the proprietor of a rich concession , — consequently, in a position to marry. Such men marry well.
Catherine Tierry was the adopted daughter of Antoine Primot and Martine Messier, a worthy and well-to-do couple of the diocese of Rouen, who, responding to the call of the time, determined to devote their lives to the work of Ville Marie. Being childless, they obtained the one-year-old babe from her parents, and fetched her across the ocean with them in 1642, — one year after the emigration of her future husband.
The little one grew and throve in the desperate conditions about her; the crack of the gun, the terrors ofIndian warfare, alternating, when there was an alternation, only with the sound of the church-bell and the ascetic enjoyment of devotion. She acquired the educational necessities of the period, and expanded into such virtue and modesty, according to the chronicle, such beauty of person and character, and such rich religious development, as made her at fourteen the most promising wife and mother in the settlement. Le Moyne asked her in marriage; and in order, the chronicle says,to secure the preference over any other wooer, contracted by notarial act, dated Dec. 10, 1653, to marry her shortly after that date, putting up six hundred livres as forfeit-money. The adopted parents, no less anxious to secure so advantageous a son-in-law, guaranteed their good faith by a like amount. Monsieur Maisonneuve and Mademoiselle Mance, the spiritual father and mother of the settlement, signed their names, with other witnesses, to the paper. Events justified the estimation of all parties and the importance to the settlement of the event. The marriage was duly celebrated during the next six months; it is recorded in the registry of the church of Notre-Dame, Montreal. A marriage so creditable to their nascent city received more than verbal approbation from the seigneurs of Ville Marie. Monsieur de Maisonneuve in their name presented the newly wedded ones with a concession of ninety arpents of land, between the St. Lawrence and Jean Saint-Père rivers,comprising Pointe Saint-Charles, — so named henceforth for Le Moyne.
The chronicle now proceeds, in a double column, to itemize the ever-ascending account of financial and domestic prosperity. A few years after the marriage,the concession of the present seat of the family was obtained. It was erected into a seigneury, and named Longueuil from the arrondissement in Normandy in which Dieppe stood, and in 1676 the letters of nobility were granted which made Charles Le Moyne Sieurde Longueuil.
None the less, soldier, trader, and interpreter, he extended the range of his activities and services fromVille Marie to the whole of Canada; and while figuring in every account of the Indian fights, treaties, and expeditions of the time, — wounded and captured also once, — he continued his shrewd financial ventures and acquisitions of land, accumulating that provision of fiefs and dowers which his ambition and foresight deemed necessary for his sons and daughters, — an ever-increasing list;Dame Catherine keeping up her tally well, of wife and mother, as she had promised.
Le Moyne died in 1685. His wife, bravely carrying on his business after him, survived him but five years.The inventory of the estate was princely for the period and place, — domains, silver, and commercial establishments. But it is not this, nor his title of nobility, that makes the Dieppe tavern-keeper’s son important or interesting to us, it is that tally, the keeping of which was confided to Dame Catherine, — the list of sons and daughters, of whom it may be said, with a retrospective view of their good parental equipment of strength, sense, and effectiveness, that no marriage ever contracted within her limits had ever been so profitable to Canada as that of Charles Le Moyne and
Catherine Primot. Of the twelve sons, nine live distinguished in history, three were killed on the field of battle,and three became governors of cities or provinces. Their names are as follows: Charles, Sieur de Longueuil; Jacques, Sieur de Sainte-Hélène; Pierre, Sieur d'Iberville; Paul, Sieur de Maricourt; Francois, Sieur de Bienville I; Joseph, Sieur de Serigny; Louis, Sieur de Chateauguay I; Jean Baptiste, Sieur de Bienville II. ;Antoine, Sieur de Chateauguay II; Francois Marie, Sieur de Sauvole. There were two daughters. Catherine Jeanne married Pierre Payen, Seigneur of Noyan, of the noble house of Chavoy, captain of marines and Chevalier of Saint Louis. She was the mother of the De Noyans whose connection with their uncle De Bienville, and whose fortunes and misfortunes in Louisiana, are still the subject of local romance there. Marie Anne married the Sieur de la Chassaigne, captain in the marine, Chevalier of Saint Louis, and afterwards governor of Trois Rivieres.
The subject of our biography, as has been seen, was but five years old when he lost his father; at ten he was completely orphaned. There are no childhood records of these men. Their history begins with their fighting majority, which they fixed themselves according to their spirit and their physical endowment; before this period it is a mere matter of dates. De Bienville him-self says^ that the only father he ever knew was his eldest brother, Charles, Sieur and later Baron of Longueuil, with whom he presumably lived before, and certainly after, their mother’s death in 1690.
1 Letter to the Baron de Longueuil, dated Louisiana, 2d Oct.,1713 (Histoirede Longueuil). This letter is given in full later.
This was the year in which the great fortress chateau of Longueuil was finished, — the refuge and wonder of stateliness for the country round; built all in brick and masonry, with walls and towers, guardrooms and barracks, handsome church, farmyard, stables, sheepfolds,dovecotes, etc., decorated with all the insignia of nobility, as enumerated in the letter of Louis XIV. which conferred the title of baron on the possessor. Elevated by all the height of one generation above the humble class from which his father sprang, the second Sieur deLongueuil lived up to all the honours and duties of his position with the thoroughness of a descendant of the Crusaders. Not in the rough wars of Canada, but in the elegant campaign of Flanders, did he serve his apprenticeship as page of the Maréchal d'Humières. He had not only been to the court of the Great Monarch, but with his Indian attendant had figured there, as related by the Duchess of Orleans in one of her letters to her sister, the Countess Palatine Louise ; and he married no bourgeoise like his mother, but the daughter ofa nobleman. Mademoiselle Claude Elizabeth Souart d'Adoucourt, lady to her Royal Highness of Orleans herself.
It is unmistakably to this house and to these surroundings that Louisiana is indebted for that “tenue de grand seigneur ” of her young Canadian governor which, however aggravating to his enemies, yet throws a quaint picturesqueness over his ambitions and character, — a picturesqueness kept fresh in the city he founded by occasional haphazards, bits of faded splendour belonging once to the Hôtel de Bienville, and by many a recorded ceremonial function and many a rhetorical phrase still dimly brilliant in the dusty pages of official documents and private relations of the time.
In 1691, the young De Bienville I. was killed, gallantly fighting at Repentigny. The eleven-year-old Jean Baptiste was invested with the vacated title, — an investiture which comprised only the title, to judge from the stray remarks made from time to time by the inheritor of it. De Bienville, as he is hence forth called, intended to pursue his career upon the sea, following the example of his brothers D’Iberville and De Serigny, who were proving to the world that the Canadians were indomitable coureurs de mer as well as coureurs de bois. At seventeen he is mentioned as garde-marin or midshipman, at Brest and at Rochefort, whence he must have sailed with Serigny’s squadron, which carried to Iberville, then at Placentia, the orders and the reinforcements necessary for another effort against the English establishments of Hudson Bay. He says he served at the side of Iberville on this expedition. It is an expedition which French and Canadian historians love to recall, — a titanesque affair, where, amid all the grim terrors of the Polar regions, after fighting for three weeks with icebergs, which separated him from his fleet,the Canadian commander met, single-handed, three English vessels. Out-sailing and out-manoeuvring them,he sank one, captured the other, and put the third to flight. Driven on the coast and shipwrecked by a tempest during the night, he saved himself, crew, and am-munition, but no provisions; the nearest lay under th eEnglish flag at Fort Bourbon. He was marching on foot to capture them, when his belated fleet arrived. All proceeded together to the fort; took it, and once more put the French flag in temporary possession of the disputed region.
Bienville accompanied Iberville to France. While the latter was discharging his scurvy-stricken crew into the hospital of Port Louis, he was sent for by Maurepas ;the commission to discover and take possession of the mouth of the Mississippi was offered him. He accepted it as summarily as it was offered, and for the new enter-prise retained Bienville at his side, as garde-marin.
CHAPTER II.
There was no time to lose. The sharp eyes of the English were also turned towards the mouth of the Mississippi. The peace of Ryswick, which had liberated French enterprise, liberated theirs no less, and they were as eager to profit by the streak of calm which fellover European politics as their rivals over the Channel. A company had already been formed in London for the establishment of a colonial and trading post upon the banks of the great river; English vessels, loaded with Huguenot emigrants, it was confidently reported to Iberville, were on the point of sailing to take possession. The geographical prize was evidently to be to the swift. Minister and commander worked with a will. Orders from the former quickly followed, where they did not precede, requisitions from the latter. Two small frigates, the Badine ” and the “Marin,” were overhauled, chartered, and refitted. Two of the stout Norman fishing boats, called traversiers, were secured as transports. Crews were selected, and supernumeraries added by Iberville himself, — Canadians whom he knew, filibusters, Spanish deserters from Mexico, and Spanish-speaking Frenchmen. The usual stock-in-trade for Indian presents and barter, the provisions, the arms andammunition, were all passed under the same keen eye, which could never tolerate the unforeseen in its horizon.
He made his preparations not only to arrive first at the goal, but to fight for it, should he come in second, and in either case to secure it and maintain it against all contestants. The expedition, thus fully and surely equipped, sailed from Brest on Friday, the 24th of October, 1698, at seven o’clock in the morning, Iberville leading, in the “Badine,” the Comte de Surgeres following in the “Marin ; ” the heavily freighted, slower sailing traversiers lagging behind.
The voyage over the ocean was uneventful, except for the disappearance of one of the traversiers during a squall off Madeira. After a short search it was abandoned as lost, and the squadron continued without it. In less than six weeks the vessels anchored off Cape Francois, St. Domingo. Here the forced calm ofthe voyage was replaced by a bustling activity. Flour was made into biscuits, the casks were refilled with water, and one of the long-boats was taken out of frame and mounted.
The corvette “Frangois,” commanded by the Marquis de Chateaubriand, nephew of the great Tourville, reported now to Iberville for escort duty, according to the orders of the Minister of Marine; and the lost transport made her appearance, belated, but not otherwise injured from the squall.
During their short sojourn on land the crew paid the usual penalty of mortality to the heat, eating imprudences, and the deadly fever, there called Siam fever, which, Iberville wrote to the Minister of Marine, seemed to have a particular grudge against the Canadians and scriveners. The ranks were replenished, however, with filibusters, — a class of men (tropical Canadians they might be called) to whom Iberville ever showed a strong inclination, and one well fitted for the enterprise in view.
Four English vessels had been observed cruising around. Prepossessed with the idea that they were on the same quest as he, Iberville pressed his provisionment to a rapid finish; and on the first day of 1699,the signals were flown from the “Badine ” for the newstart.
Favoured by good weather, but with the pestilential fever still aboard, the squadron made its way along the coast of Cuba, safely doubled Cape Corriente, gained the channel of Yucatan, and passing between Cape St.Antoine and Cape Catoche, dropped into the Gulf of Mexico.
As a general guide over the waters which had been the field of his career for twenty years, the governor of St. Domingo furnished Iberville with Laurent de Graff, one of the most noted filibusters of his time, and one of the leaders in the celebrated expedition which had once taken Vera Cruz and held it for ransom.
By his advice Iberville directed the course of the squadron towards a fine harbour, discovered by a filibuster captain upon a time when, making for St. Domingo, he had been driven into the Gulf by contrary winds, — a harbour where the Spaniards were in the habit of going for masts, and which, it was rumoured, had been recently taken possession of by them, to preventany other nation from establishing itself there.
According to Iberville’s and his officers’ calculations,this harbour should be found almost due north from where their vessels entered the Gulf, on the coast of
Florida, somewhere between the river marked on their map as the Indios, and the Cabo de Lodo (MobilePoint), or about fifty miles west of the old Spanish possession of Apalache Bay, and about the same distance east of Mobile Bay. Iberville decided to look for the Mississippi in exactly the same location as the Espiritu Santo upon the early maps, and no doubt upon the two in his possession.
The ships sailed cautiously along, feeling their way with the lead, keeping a sharp lookout for the squalls — which, according to Spanish descriptions, made a hell of the Gulf of Mexico — and for the suspicious English vessels, experiencing, however, nothing more disturbing than calms and sudden veerings of the wind, and seeing nothing more alarming than flying-fish, and porpoises sporting under the beautiful blue waters, or the gulls foraging over the surface of them.
The officers took observations and compared notes, the men fished, the frigates heaving to from time to time for the lagging transports to catch up, and all lying by at sunset for the night. The afternoon of the twenty-third day, as the “ Badine ” was casting anchor for the night, land was sighted in the northeast. Iberville shouted to Surgeres, on the “Marin,” to crowd all sail towards it until sunset. At night the red glare of flames could be distinctly seen in that quarter, — prairies, the Canadians surmised, fired by Indians after buffalo. Along, low, half-inundated streak of land, running east and west, came into view with daylight. Nearer approach revealed shores of glistening white sand, a line of forest, a moderately sized stream, and behind all, far inland,the prairies still smoking from the night’s conflagration.
The steering had been true to the point; the fleet layabout south of Apalachicola Bay. The vessels anchored for the night off Cape San Bias, firing cannon, to attract the attention of any savages thereabouts.
With the morning, a systematic inspection of the coastline was organized; Lescalette, the lieutenant of the“Badine,” rowing in a barge close in, sounding and exploring every opening that presented itself, the frigates following as near as their draughts permitted, the corvette remaining well out to sea.
The river marked on their map as the Indios was passed, and league after league slowly told off in the course westward, until Lescalette signalled, not only the discovery of the mouth of a river, but the portentous fact that there were masts of vessels in it. The French officers in haste assembled for council on board theman-of-war, whose guns, at the request of Iberville, gave the signal to anchor for the night. The frigates and transports, as usual, answered with volleys of musketry. The vessels in the distant port fired off their guns also, — a defiant menace it sounded to the French. Then a fog fell, and for hours both fleets were insulated in a common cloud of ignorance and disquietude. When it lifted, a white flag was seen flying from one of the masts in the harbour, out of which a sloop advanced half way towards the French, paused until they raised their colours, then returned. The Marquis de Chasteaumorant, elaborate in deferential politeness, and minute in his delicate regard for the susceptibilities of his Canadian commander, had omitted his pennant, and all marks of his superior rank from the “François.” But as the “François” was the largest and best-armed vessel in the squadron, and as the ships in the unknown harbour might be the English, Iberville requested the royal commander to display his colours again, which he did, thus assuming the role of commander-in-chief, for the nonce, of the expedition.
By daylight, Iberville sent Lescalette ashore to find outthe name and nationality of the establishment, with careful instructions, however, not to reveal the destination or designs of the French. In order to furnish an excuse to enter the harbour, he was to represent that they were inneed of wood and water, that the frigates were in search of a large body of Canadians reported to be on that coast, to whom they were conveying the king’s order to return. The transports were to play the role of free booters captured by the French, the corvette was to be accounted for as having joined them at St. Domingo upon the rumour that a pirate vessel of fifty or sixty guns was cruising about those waters.
And now the name of the young De Bienville is formally introduced into history by the three relations of the expedition. “ My brother De Bienville,” and the young brother of M.d Iberville,” is hence forward generally well in front when there is a boat to be manned, a message taken, or an adventure attempted. He was sent with Lescalette to remain in the boat and prevent the crew having any communication with the garrison on land. They made their way without difficulty past the sentinel, although the orders were to let no strangers into the harbour. Lescalette landed, and was conducted to the major in command. During his absence, De Bienville, passing himself off as his valet, and speaking English, obtained from a Bayonnais such various informal items as he judged might complete, establish, or refute official statements. Iberville received, on their return, a full budget from both.
The harbour was Santa Maria de Galvez de Pensacola. The Spaniards had been in possession but four months. The commandant was Don Andres de la Riola. The garrison consisted of about three hundred, the greater number galley slaves and fellows picked up any way, from anywhere, — most of them at the time in irons. The frigates in the harbour, one of eighteen, the other of twenty guns, had fetched the colonists there, and were now ready to return to Vera Cruz, loaded with masts. They had taken the French squadron for the long expected armadillo from Vera Cruz, and so had fired off their guns in salute of welcome. The country was miserable, the men were mutinous, and the officers dissatisfied. The entire establishment consisted of but shelters for the garrison, and a half-finished stockade fort on the left side of the mouth of the river.
A Spanish officer accompanied Lescalette on his return, the half finished stockade fort firing a salute as they passed. Chasteaumorant, still acting the role of commander-in-chief, received the Spanish messenger, who brought the regrets of his commander that the French fleet could not be allowed to enter the harbour, as his establishment was a new and feeble one, but offering to have wood and water conveyed to them by his men and boats. As for refreshments, he was in greater lack of them than the French, being entirely dependent on Vera Cruz for them. He sent some present to the French commander, which Chasteaumorant returned with a demi-john of wine.
During their officer’s absence the Spanish crew availed themselves of the opportunity to beg of the French the charity of some biscuit, as they were, they said, starving. They professed themselves anxious to serve the French king, and offered to desert to Chasteaumorant. He had food distributed to them, but warned them if they deserted he should be forced to return them to the Spanish authorities. He notes in his journal that judging by the way the Spanish officers ate when they dined with him, the story of their lack of food must be correct.
Their first pretext having failed, Chasteaumorant, in concert with, or more likely at the instigation of, Iberville, now wrote to Don Andres de la Riola that not considering the king’s ships to be in safety where they were, he should proceed the next morning to sound the entrance to the harbour, so that he might know it, in case he should be forced to seek shelter there from a south wind. This was in fact thoroughly accomplished at day-light the next morning by Iberville, Surgeres, and DeGraff, who sounded up to the very frigates at anchor, before a note from the Spanish commander arrived, begging them to retire immediately, sending his own pilotto remain with them during their stay, and in emergency, to guide them into a place of safety, — any place on thecoast was free to them except Pensacola. The Frenchhad their anchors raised ready to make the entrance, but they concluded instead, with reluctance, to relieve their anxious hosts and continue their voyage westward.
The beauty of the harbour, which was pronounced superior to Brest, the abundant forests of mast-timber, — “enough,” writes Surgeres, to furnish the whole of France,” — and the weakness and timidity of the Spanish garrison, rendered the temptation most seductive; and the French commanders looked upon their decision as a most heroic piece of renunciation in favour of international good-will. As Chasteaumorant remarks regretfully, he could have driven the Spaniards out and secured the harbour very cheaply.
At the instance of the prudent Iberville, the marquis wrote once again to Don Andres, reiterating Lescalette’s fiction about the object of the expedition. As for the real end of it, much additional general and confirmative information concerning it had been acquired during the hospitalities extended to the Spanish officers and the captains of the Spanish frigates. Don Andres’ pilot especially, whom Chasteaumorant kept with him until the moment of sailing, gave instructions about the soundings, islands, and banks along the coast, which proved correct and valuable. All agreed that no English vessels had been seen anywhere about there. Where upon, for the second time during the voyage, Chasteaumorant offered to relieve Iberville of his apparently unnecessary escort. The latter, however, as courteously declined being relieved, insisting that there might still be need for the corvette. According to his instructions from the Minister of Marine, Chasteaumorant had to continue with Iberville until dismissed in due form, — a condition imposed upon the minister by Iberville himself, mindful of his predecessor’s, the unfortunate La Salle’s experience with his royal escort.
Stopping of nights and during fogs, it took the squadron two days to arrive opposite the thin strip of land which half encloses Mobile Bay on the south.
Here they dropped anchor, and, with their usual methodical alacrity, set about taking observations and soundings; and here they experienced their first bad weather. Shifting gales, torrents of rain, terrific thunder and lightning, and violent seas, more than made good the evil characterization of the region by the Spaniards. The “Frangois ” put out to sea, the frigates withdrew from the coast, and one of the transports stranded (recovering at change of tide, however). The reconnoitring open boats returned from the channel with such unsatisfactory and contradictory accounts of the depth that Iberville determined to investigate it for himself. Taking with him his young brother, he was rowed by his Canadians to the point of the encircling strip of land, where he passed the night, to be on the spot to begin his task with the day. The storm broke over them here, raging with great violence. Daylight brought a lull which permitted them to sound and mark as far as the channel. Again the wind arose and the rain-floods descended; the thick mist shut off from them the sight of their vessels. The rowers spent themselves in vain to make headway over the billows; they were forced to turn about and run into the nearest land, which they reached so weak and exhausted from their efforts that they could barely make a fire to dry themselves. Weatherbound here for three days, they had ample leisure to examine the narrow limits of their refuge, — a small island rising between the Gulf and the bay, about twelve miles long and one and a half broad at its widest. At the southwestern end a hideous heap of skulls and bones bore ghastly witness to some barbarity of Indian warfare, and not of ancient date, as testified by the comparative preservation of the bones and freshness of the domestic utensils scattered around. The brothers named the place, from this event, Massacre Island. During their enforced sojourn here, the Canadians hunted, killing ducks, bustards, and wild cats. Iberville, making his way over to the mainland, about ten miles off, followed the shore-line some distance ; when, landing, he climbed to the top of a white-oak-tree and studied what his eye could reach of the scene around him, — a rugged forestline, running beyond him still for ten or twelve miles north, where it seemed to form a cape turning westward ; east of which, from the yellowish colour of the waters, he judged a river discharged itself into the bay; oak, elm, birch, pine, walnut, chestnut, ash, and other trees unknown to him, rose in the forest around him. The land was high; above inundation ; the soil bore quantities of vines and flowers, fragrant violets, novel yellow blossoms, and wild peas like those in St. Domingo. Proceeding still on foot, signs of Indian habitations presented themselves, — cabins, pieces of cooking utensils, remnants and vestiges of food not a week old. It was presumably the encampment of some tribe on a seasonal visit tot he gulf shore for fish.
Before embarking for his island again, Iberville fired off his gun several times and cut into the bark of a tree the fact and meaning of his presence there, — that he had come thither in three ships, fetching with him a calumet of peace.
Fine weather at last declared itself. The sounding of the channel was completed, and the retarded boats returned to the ships, loaded with wood and with grass for the live-stock. At midday, under a light north wind, in the serene, exhilarating weather that such a wind brings to this region after a storm, the little fleet set sail again for the next station marked on the map, — which was no less than the Mississippi itself.
Mobile Point and Massacre Island diminished and disappeared behind them; before them, in the north west and north-northwest, two other islands came into view, — mere specks of white sand, supporting a few trees, in the dancing, twinkling blue waters. Suddenly the fair wind changed to a shifting south, — the storm wind of the Gulf. The wish to find a harbour became an anxiety, a pressing necessity; glasses were turned from the heavens to the Gulf north and west for thecoast-line which should appear, but did not.
Bienville and Lescalette were sent to look for ananchorage around the western end of the island to the north of them, — marked on the early maps Ile a Bienville, now from a sailor’s losing his horn there in an after expedition, Horn Island, — but they were picked up the next day, tacking to get to windward of the island, after a fruitless search.
Other islands rose into view as they continued to sail westward, one in the west, and one in the south, — a mere sandy surface, without a tree. To get shelter from the wind, the ships anchored to the north of this last. It was named Chandeleur, from the recent feast of Candlemas.
Surgeres, with his ensign, Sauvole, and Bienville were sent in a Biscayen to seek for a pass around the little island to the north, — now Ship Island; then named or marked on the early maps Ile a Surgeres, or Ile Lescalette. The felucca was also sent to reconnoitre around the dot of an islet to the west of it. It returned, bringing reports only of the quantities of curious little animals, resembling cats, found upon it. Of course they named it Cat Island; but the cats were in reality racoons.
The weather, despite apprehensions, remained fine ;the ships rode at anchor all day, the men making astonishing catches of fish, and watching the innumerable flocks of wild duck and geese passing overhead.
At eight o’clock at night was heard the welcome voice of Bienville in his Biscayen, going from ship to ship, to communicate the good tidings that the sought for anchorage had been found.
In the first light of the slow dawning February morning the “Badine flew the signal; and had there been any one there to witness it, — some wonder-stricken aboriginal, standing on the distant mainland and looking south, as, ray by ray, the sun drove the mist from the horizon, — white sails might have been seen to rise from the green, gray expanse, to widen, advance, converge, and file through the pretty opening between the two fragile, floating-looking islands ; and just where the eye is accustomed now to see the clustering of masts around the Government station, Iberville’s fleet might have been seen to hover, drop anchor, and furl sail, — at last as safe as though in the envied Pensacola harbour.
CHAPTER III.
It was a harbour in which the French officers exultingly proclaimed they could find a shelter from every wind that blew.
The live-stock was landed,1 tents were erected, and the rest of the long-boats taken out of frame and set up. The crews dispersed themselves enthusiastically over their glad possession, limited as it was in area; and their exuberant indulgence in fish and bathing failed not to produce a prompt response in the shape of a mild epi-demic. It was, in truth, an arid resting-place enough, — a mere strip of shifting white sand piled according to the fantasy of the last gale; with a sparse wood at one extremity, and only grass enough to serve as ambush for that pestiferous torment of the feet, the needle-pointed burrs called “rocachats.” Over one beach dashed the green, transparent billows from the Gulf, flashing their captive fish like spangles in the sunlight. Along the other, — the island is but two beaches, seamed together with aridge of sand, — along the other, the blue waters of the Sound revealed their calm, transparent depths of beauty,with their strange poetic growths of shell and weed, and clusters of iris-hued anemones, their browsing, lurking,playing silver-fish, and brilliant darting crabs.
1 The swine must have been put upon Cat Island; for memo-rials a few years later relate that the hogs upon Cat Island had destroyed all the “cats,” and had become so numerous that they preyed upon each other.
But despite its relief to Iberville, its harbourage bless-ing, its glorious phantasms of cloud and sea colouring, the little island has furnished but joyless scenes to his-tory. Sun-baked, wind-swept, storm-driven, with a glare that sears the human eye to certain blindness, the In-dians shunned it, the French learned to loathe it; once a place of most cruel imprisonment to thousands of un-fortunate captives, from which hearts turn with horror, it is now serving as a national harbour, and a post of most wearisome residence to the Federal officials.
In sight of the mainland, with his squadron in security, and the Mississippi, according to his calculations, within reach of his open boats, and finally — and mostpotent reason — freed from all apprehensions of the English, Iberville felt that he might safely dismiss Chasteau-morant. The marquis, dining with him on the Badine,”was therefore courteously informed that whenever it was his pleasure to return to St. Domingo, he was at liberty to do so. The actual departure of the “Francois,” however, did not take place for several days, during which the hospitalities and social amenities of the two commanders continue to throw a pleasant and genial glow over their official relations.
Moving figures of men could be made out on the distant shore, and at night the light of campfires shone on what appeared to be the end of an island lying close to land. Iberville lost no time in making his investigation, determined to make friends with the Indians, who, ashe had understood at Pensacola, entertained a horror ofthe Spaniards. He took Father Anasthase Douay, a former companion of La Salle, with him in his Biscayen. Bienville and two Canadians followed in canoes. It was a distance of about twenty miles to the land. Disembarking, Iberville and the priest found the fresh trail ofthe Indians seen from the ships. They pursued it. Bienville and the Canadians paddled along close to the shore in the shallow water; the Biscayen followed in the distance. Night overtook them after ten miles, and they camped where they were. In the early morning they espied the lurking forms of Indians watching them from afar. Leaving behind at their camp some hatchets, knives, beads, and vermilion as a bait, and also as testimonials of his good-will, Iberville and his party pursued the trail they were on. It led them, after a few miles, near enough to the little island for them to distinguish canoes filled with Indians crossing between it and the mainland (Deer Island, named for the game found on it, and Biloxi). Bienville in his canoe immediately started towards them. The Indians, taking — Iberville writes — the Frenchmen for Spaniards, fled in terror; leaping to the land, running into the forest, abandoning their canoes and all that they contained. The Canadians tried in vain to head them off or arrest them by their friendly cries. They came upon one poor creature unable to escape, — an old man lame from a putrefying wound in the leg. The Canadians made signs to him of their friendly intentions. He responded with signs also that he was suffering cold and great pain, and petitioned to be carried ashore. This his captors willingly did, making l)esides a fire for him, wiapping him in a coverlet, and building a shelter over him. They also gave him food and tobacco, drew his canoe upon the beach in sight, placed his sacks of corn round him, and withdrew, making him understand that they were going to pass the night at some distance from him.
In the mean time Bienville, with two Canadians, had been sent into the forest in chase of the fugitives. They returned with an old woman found hiding. She was in great terror, says Surgeres, thinking that her last hour had come. But her trepidation was allayed by friendly signs and a present of enough tobacco for herself and her whole family. She was conducted to the old man, and made to see the evidences of the good will and generosity shown him by the strangers, who still further proved their kindness by leaving the two old creaturesby themselves together.
As Iberville anticipated, the woman slipped away during the night, carrying her present and the recital of her experiences to her people. As for the poor old man, he had fared hardly; the grass around him had caught on fire, and he had with difficulty saved himself from being burned alive. The Canadians extinguished the flames and laid him on a bearskin, where he expired a half hour afterwards.
The results of the old woman’s good offices were soon seen, or rather heard. The unmistakable sounds of Indian vocalization were heard approaching through the woods. But timidity, apparently, or distrust took possession of the singers, who would not venture from behind the trees. The eager Frenchmen waited impatiently and in vain for the embassy, and finally returned to their camp. Some Canadians, hunting in the woods,later met the still hesitating Indians, and reassured them into resuming their procession and calumet chant.
Iberville received them with their own expressive greeting of endearment, — a gentle rubbing of the stomach, — distributed presents among them, conducted them to their abandoned canoes of the day before, showed them their corn intact, and finally feasted them on sagamity. The good cheer enticed other laggards and spies from the woods, and good fellowship was not long in establishing itself. Two old women were immediately putto pounding corn for the return feast, given promptly by the Indians. All the whites and reds smoked together afterwards, the Indians calling their guests allies, and teaching them words of their dialect. Night separated them; each race going to its own encampment, several miles apart. The next morning, however, when, in pursuance of their good fellowship, the Canadians sought the camp of their friends, struggling painfully through swamp and thicket to get there, they found but ten clouted warriors, warned by the signal shot of the Canadian scout, waiting for them, arms in hand. The rest of the tribe had all departed, prudently taking their canoes and corn with them.
Iberville complains in his journal that notwithstanding he never smoked, he had to smoke all over again with them. More presents were distributed among them, and Iberville was able to persuade three of them to accompany him to his ship, leaving Bienville and two Canadians behind as hostages. The weather was very beautiful, and a quick sail was made to the ships at anchor. The chief, standing in the Biscayen, intoned his chant of peace as they approached. On board, the savages were regaled with all that their experienced hosts could suggest for their beguilement. Presents were made them, the ships were put through their manoeuvres, cannon were fired off, and spy-glasses held to their eyes, — the last the strangest wonder of all to them; they could see so far off with one eye, and so near with the other at the same time! French brandy, burning in their stomachs so long after it was swallowed, also greatly astonished them. Chasteaumorant writes that they were well-made, robustmen; that he made them several questions by signs, but that they answered, like veritable hogs, with grunts. They belonged to the Annochy and Moctoby tribes. They described their village, and the neighbouring village of Chozetta, as being not more than three days’ journey from the ships, on the banks of the Pascagoula River, which they assured Iberville was four fathoms deep, begging him to fetch his ships into it.
Iberville could find out from them nothing about the Mississippi. Of the Indian tribes mentioned in the Tonty and Hennepin Relations of La Salle’s voyage down the Mississippi, he could get no trace, with the exception of the Nipissas, whom he identified with the Quinipissas, — located, however, by the Relations twenty-five miles up the river, while these Indians placed them only nine miles away.
Iberville returned with his savages to the mainland, where he found Bienville feasting, smoking, and otherwise making himself agreeable to some newly arrived guests. These were, indeed, of importance. They were a chief and warriors of the Mongoulachas and Bayagoulas tribes, who lived on the banks of the Mississippi itself. On a hunting expedition they had heard the sound of the cannon, and had come to see the cause of it. They lavished compliments and caresses on the young Bienville, asking him if he had come there in the bark canoe they saw, and if he belonged to the people up above the Mississippi, which they called the Malban-chia. The chief advanced to meet Iberville, with all the dignity and ceremony of his rank and people, passing his hand over the commander's stomach and raising his eyes to heaven, which demonstrations, Iberville writes, were punctiliously returned. When similar protestations and attestations had been indulged in by all, they repaired to Bienville’s tent. Here Iberville presented his calumetto them to smoke, — a most imposing pipe, made of iron in the shape of a ship, decorated with beads and flying thefleur de lys; giving them also hatchets, knives, and otherpresents, that, as he told them, they and the French henceforth should be but one nation. A festal dish of sagamity, confected with prunes, was served, and brandy, which the Indians enjoyed burning rather than drinking.
At night the Indians gave their feast, and smoked their calumet, and made their presents of skins of the musk-rat, which, according to them, allied the French with the four nations west of the Mississippi, — the Mongoulacha, Ouacha, Tontymacha, and Yagneschito ; and with the Biloxi, Moctoby, Houma, Pascagoula, Techloel, and Amilco, on the east of it. The feasting, singing, and dancing — Canadians no whit behind the Indians in the two latter — lasted until midnight.
These Indians also gave Iberville to understand that they hated the Spaniards. They were at that time at war with the Quinipissas, who they knew had fought with La Salle. Among their allies, the Houmas and the Tangipahoas were both named in the Relations of La Salle’s exploration of the Mississippi. Feeling the end of a guiding thread, indeed, in his hand, Iberville drewsome maps to learn where that fork of the river was,through which the Relations averred the explorers had travelled to the Sound. The Indians seemed to indicate this to be the Pascagoula River; but reflection convinced Iberville that what they meant was that it was through that river they themselves reached streams thatcommunicated with the Mississippi.
Iberville proposed going directly to the mouth of the Pascagoula and sounding it, Bienville and three Cana-dians, with their canoes, remaining with the Indians.
The chief, however, wished to continue his hunt after buflalo and wild turkey; but he promised to return to the spot in four nights to meet the French, when he would share his game with them, and they would all have a feast and proceed together to the Mississippi. He would light a fire on the shore to signal his return; Iberville was to answer with four cannon shot from his ship. Upon this they parted, the French turning their sloops and canoes in the direction of Pascagoula River. Contrary winds, however, prevented their making it. Judging from its size and appearance that it could not possibly have the depth of water described, at its mouth, Iberville, without further waste of time, put back, hoping to catch the Indians before they had started on their hunt, and persuade them to guide him at once to their branch of the Mississippi. But the Indians had departed, and their camp was deserted. Nothing remained for Iberville but to camp for the night where he was, and return the next morning to his ships and await the return of his guides. Twelve hours later, — a day too soon for the appointment, — smoke was descried at the point of rendezvous. The four cannon shots were fired, and preparations immediately begun to fit the Biscayens with men, food, and ammunition for the exploration of the river. Iberville, Bienville, Surgeres, Lescalette, and all the Canadians of the “Badine ” and Marin ” were of the party. Arrived at the place of meeting, not an Indian was to be seen, and the woods, having caught fire fromthe beacon, were all in flames. A stormy north wind the next day made navigation impossible. When it subsided, Bienville was sent in his canoe to search for news of the absentees. He returned with two men and two women, — one of the men an Annochy friend. Hetold Iberville that the Bayougoulas had gone home. They had stayed on their hunt only two nights after parting from the French. They had kindled the fires to show that they were leaving, being out of provisions, and with the wind favourable for reaching the Malbanchia. In other words, they had given him the slip. Sending a party to sound and explore the Pascagoula, Iberville returned to Ship Island, without a vestige left of any hope he may have founded on the Indians.
Getting into the Mississippi by one of its outlets, following it down to its mouth, fixing the exact locality of it, and then rejoining his vessels in the Gulf, would have been to Iberville a task of most easy and expeditious accomplishment. Thrown now upon his own resources, he pushed forward, with energies stimulated by his recent baffling, to his original and more difficult plan.
In less than twenty-four hours the new expedition was under way. The two barges, armed each with a swivel-gun, and with a canoe in tow, were equipped, with fifty Canadians, sailors, and filibusters, twenty-five days’ provisions, and arms and ammunition not only for the voyage, but for the projected establishment at the mouth of the river, when found. Iberville took Bienville with him in one barge. Sauvole, the ensign of the “ Marin,” commanded the other barge, having with him Anasthase Douay, the priest who, as the companion of La Salle and a former explorer of the river, was expected to establish its identity.
Surgeres remained in command of the fleet at Ship Island, with permission, as he was short of provisions,to return to France in the “Marin,” in six weeks, if Iberville had not returned.
It was the morning of Friday, the 27th of February, they set out. The weather was unfavourable, the wind blowing from the southeast, with rain and fog. They sailed for some islands that appeared in the south. Running six leagues, the length of one of them, a low,flat, rush-covered surface, called by Iberville Sable, or Sand Island, they entered that terraqueous maze of the Delta through which the mind follows their adventures with admiring confusion. Islands, islets, sand-bars,reefs, points, bays, shallows, breakers, gravel-banks,and mud-heaps repeat themselves in Iberville’s diary with a regularity which, however, can not be called monotonous.
Despite the wind, the water presented a calm, un-ruffled surface, protected as it was by a continuous screen of islands rising in clusters, budding in longs prays, as it were, from the shallow bottoms, reaching from northeast to southwest.
Beyond, far out in the open, the eye could touch the Chandeleurs; and beyond them, from out the invisible,the ear could gather the roar of breakers over still other islands.
The mainland lay to their right, — a shelving strip of woodless sand, scooped, notched, and ragged, reaching out into the water. In order to pass no river it might hold, the barges kept it well in sight; dragging at times laboriously over the shoaling bottom. They passed their night on the point of an island, inundated at hightide, like the rest.
The next morning, a fog, through which they could not see, hid everything from them. The day was consumed, as one narrative says, in fending off the little islands that beset their way wherever they turned. They made a short halt for rest on ground so fragile that it trembled if a heavy object was dropped upon it; they tried the oysters here, but found them not so good as those in Europe. In the afternoon, while they were pitching their camp for the night, a dreadful storm broke over them, with deafening thunder-claps and blinding flashes of lightning, and a deluge of rain that lasted all night and prevented a start in the morning. Suddenly the wind jumped to the northeast, and bore down upon them with freezing keenness. They had no wood; they dug in vain in the sodden sand for drinking water. The water rose all around them, covering the island and their camp a half foot deep. They cut twigs and rushes,and raised a standing place, where, during the drenching down pour, they hung over a smouldering fire. And so their Sunday passed.
On Monday they were able to make a start. The wind blew stiffly from the north. Running before it, they pushed alternately to the east and west, seeking some issue out of the maze that held them. Struggling around a point, they came in sight of the main land again, still extending south-southeast before them; and still they followed it.
The unbridled wind had now free range at them. The raging seas broke over and over their open boats, badly weighted with the canoes which they had been forced to take aboard. They stretched their tarred canvases, and held them down by main strength. At one moment they were running with the wind into land, fearing in the storm to pass the Mississippi by. At another, they were fighting with the wind to keep off the land against which it and the sea were driving them; every gust threatening to beach them, every billow to swamp them. For three hours they battled for their lives off a cape whose jutting rocky points seemed to cut off all hopes of escape. Darkness was coming on. The irresistible fury of the gale showed no sign of abatement. There seemed no choice but that of perishing at sea, or perishing on shore during the night. Iberville seized the one mitigation of waning daylight for himself and his men. Sauvole saw him put his barge about, with the wind full astern, and drive her on the rocks. He followed, and the mouth of the Mississippi was discovered!
CHAPTER IV.
The impregnable cape separated before them into little hillocks. The threatening rocks that seemed to have risen from the deep to aid the fury of a merciless gale, revealed themselves to be the simulations they were, — weird, jagged, fantastic, the outstretching limbs and branches of massed heaps of driftwood, cemented by slime and sediment, and hardened by the elements ;the huge forest wreckage which the serried currents of the mighty stream had borne down and tossed there,to picket its encroachments upon the Gulf; the far-famed, well-named Palissa does, which had hitherto barricaded entrance from the sea. A turbid volume of whitish waters charged through the openings, holding its way, unmixed, unmixing, far out through the clear green waters of the Gulf. The Frenchmen tasted it, — it was fresh, “and great consolation it gave them,” Iberville says, in the consternation they were in.” The words of the great La Salle came back to him, — that he would recognize the waters of the Mississippi by their being whitish and thickish, and by their not mixing with the waters of the Gulf.
Advancing into one of the three openings that offered,the boats were almost wrecked again in the surf which crested over a sand-bar, sighted too late. The stream be-came thicker and whiter, and the current so swift that even with the wind now in their favour, the sails could make poor headway. The sea tossed and foamed outside the two low smooth tongues of land, not a musket-shot from edge to edge, which banked the river from it; not a tree, only grasses and rushes, the tenuous first growth of a recent soil, falling in heavy fringes over into the current, which stretched and pulled them along in its course.Then, by degrees, firmer ground and heavier growth.When the boats landed for a camp, the eye could not penetrate, nor the foot separate, the thick growths that confronted them. A space was cleared, fires were lighted, the frugal supper of porridge was cooked and eaten, and watches were set for the night; Canadians and filibusters alternating with the sailors.
His day’s work over, the hardy leader gives a sigh of satisfaction. “We feel, stretched upon these rushes, sheltered from the bad weather, all the pleasure there is in seeing one’s self safe from an evident peril,” exulting with robust virility : “C’est un mestier bien gaillard de descouvrir les costes de la mer avec des chaloupes qui nesont ny assez grandes pour tenir la mer soulz voiles, ny á l’ancre, et trop grandes pour donner a une coste plate,oil elles eschouent et touchent á demylieue au large.”“It is gallant enough work discovering the shores of the sea in barges not large enough to keep to sea with either sail or anchor, and too large to land on a flat coast, where they strand and touch a half league out.”
The next morning it was Mardi-Gras morning : they celebrated mass, chanted the Te Deum, and for the third time a cross was raised ^ in that chaos of strug-
1 The first time by La Salle, when he explored the river to its mouth; the second time by Tonty, who journeyed to meet his
gling land and water. The wind and rough water pre-vented soundings or explorations, which were deferred until the return trip, and perhaps a happier chance of weather. After breakfasting very succinctly,'’ the Relation says, — for either through prudential motives of economy, or from loss of provisions during the storm,Iberville had shortened the rations, — they took to their boats again, and steered up the river.
It spread out before them into a broad expanse, from which two other issues, in the southeast and southwest,branched out towards the Gulf. Crossing the exposed space, a squall struck them, which dismasted one of the barges. It was forced to go into shore for repairs, at a spot where the men found quantities of almost ripe blackberries.
Above these branches, or passes, the river began to converge again, and the banks gradually to change their character. Sedges and rushes passed into cane^ and willows, which increased in height and sturdiness until they filled forests. Ducks, sarcelles, and bustards started from cover before them. They saw a stag wolf running along the bank, and an opossum, and in the forests theCanadian hunters discovered abundant tracks of deer,goats, and wild beeves.
Twelve leagues from its mouth, the river made a bend to the west. Here they stopped for the night. A little bayou ran near by ; they named it Mardi-Gras, for the
Old commander at the mouth of the river when the latter met the tragic end of his hopes in Matagorda Bay. Tonty found the original cross prone, half buried in sediment. He erected it higher up the river, on firmer soil, as he supposed. Iberville found no traces of it.
day. The cannon were fired off, for the intelligence of any Indians within hearing. Iberville climbed to the top of a tree to spy out the country about him. Nothing but willows, canebrakes, and thickets were to be seen,over a flat land, that overflowed four feet deep in high water.
If this was the Mississippi, according to the journals of the La Salle party given him for his guidance, Iberville should find, forty leagues up the river, on the left bank, the deserted village of the Tangipahoas, the cabins of which, in La Salle’s time, were filled with corpses.Two leagues above the Tangipahoas should be found the Quinipissas; and forty leagues above these, a division or fork in the river. La Fourche des Chetimachas. Thence to the Coroas should be six leagues ; to the Natchez, ten ; to the Tensas, twelve; to the Arkansas, eighty. The itinerary seemed plain, and by authority accurate. He prepared to follow it.
But a more unreliable, confusing set of guide-books he could not have had, as will be seen. The collection consisted of that version of the priest Zenobe Membre’s account of the La Salle expedition contained in the sec-ond volume of Le Clerc’s “Etablissement de la Foi;” the priest Hennepin’s plagiarism from the same, contained in his spurious Relation, and an account by Tonty,which the latter afterwards personally disowned to Iberville. On Ash Wednesday morning, mass was duly celebrated, ashes were distributed, and a cross was erected.In default of wind, the journey proceeded by oars.
The land began to rise perceptibly ; the overflow,according to the tally kept by the bark of the trees,decreasing to a foot and a half From the usual postof observation, a tree-top, a sheet of water behind the right bank could be seen running in the same direction as the river.1 Over on the opposite side was a forest of different shades of green, in some places a mere seam, in others a quarter of a league wide, behind it,prairies dotted with tufts of foliage.
1 Lake Borgne.
Drift began to load the rising currents. No signs of inhabitants were visible, except some ferries, moored to the bank, — bundles of cane pointed at both ends, fast ened together by cross pieces of wood. Every morning each camping-place was marked by a cross and cuts in the bark of trees. Every evening the cannon were fired ;but the reverberating echoes, tossed from bank to bank,awoke no hearers, no responders. Canadians were kept hunting for game, to eke out the ever-decreasing rations.The journals make note of great alligators pursued,sometimes killed and cooked, — and not unpalatable meat when liberated from its musk.
The travelling was slow and laborious, mostly by oars. A different wind was needed for each bend in the river, and the river boxed the compass once, if not twice,a day. The water continued to rise, the drift to in-crease. The reinforced currents tore irresistibly round the bends, driving the helpless boats out of their course,until the men learned to hug to the bank in the quieter waters, while Bienville, scouting ahead in his canoe, acted as guidon. Fires in the distance, a discarded cracked canoe (not of bark, but burned out of the whole log)showed that they were creeping upon human life.Quantities of blackberries now lined the banks, but no fruit or nut trees yet enriched the forest. The trees grew handsomer, the foliage richer, vines, already passed the blossoming, hung in festoons heavy with promise of grapes. The land overflowed still, but slightly, only eight or ten inches deep. Many wild beeves were seen,of which the hunters killed one.
Five days passed with diminishing food, and increasing difficulties of driftwood and current to contend with.Still nothing was to be seen ahead but the half-sub-merged trees which the tawny waters bore down upon them, and nothing on land but the occasional lethargic alligator, or chance glimpses of more attractive game.The men began to show fatigue and discouragement.
At last, one morning, turning a bend, they came insight of two Indians paddling a pirogue ; but in great alarm, the savages made for the woods and escaped. A gunshot farther on, five more pirogues of Indians were seen. This time, landing below them, Iberville approached them on foot. All fled to one warrior. HimIberville greeted and embraced in the Indian manner;and sending his own men and boats out into the middle of the stream, he persuaded him to recall his companions. This the Indian did, by chanting a peace-song.A small gratuity of trifles allayed the suspicions and se-cured the good will of the Indians. They belonged to the Annochy tribe. Inquiring after his Bayougoula friends, Iberville was told a tantalizing bit of information that they had returned to their village by a little stream that ran from the Mississippi into the Sound.Iberville asked to be guided to this village ; but theAnnochy declined to interrupt their hunt. A hatchet,however, bought the services of one.
The exhausted larders of the barges were replenished with meat, the Indians gladly availing themselves of the opportunity to trade away their necessities for French trumpery. One old fellow, in particular, spread out his entire stock of dried beef and bear’s meat; and sitting behind it in market style, bargained the whole of it away — a hundred pounds — for two knives. As theIndians had not heard the cannon, one was shot off for their edification. They threw themselves to the earth in transports of fear and astonishment at such a terrific exhibition of power.
That night the camp was pitched on the right bank of the river, — according to Iberville’s calculations, about thirty-five leagues from its mouth. Near by was a small deserted Indian village or camp, — ten or more cabins thatched with straw, — and on a point of the river’s bank,what seemed to have once been a kind of stronghold, a small fortification of canes and saplings the height of a man, enclosing an oval space fifty feet long and twenty-five broad, in which were a few huts. Both banks in this locality were almost impassable, on account of the canes, which grew to a prodigious height and thickness.The guide took Iberville six leagues above this stop-ping-place (about the location now of the city of NewOrleans), and showed him the Indian portage between the river and the bay — as the Indians called it — in which the French ships lay. It was then widely strewed with baggage of parties going and returning, over which pirogues could be easily dragged. To demonstrate how short it was, the guide himself took a package from the river to the lake (Lake Pontchartrain) and returned.
The weather changed from oppressive heat to oppressive cold ; but the only change the river was another increase in its rapidity and crookedness. The rowers pulled six miles to advance one, and averred that to get around a bend they crossed the stream four or five times.While they were camping on the right bank of the river during an idle day caused by rain, some of the men went out hunting, and two Breton sailors belonging to the Marin ” were lost. Cannon were fired at intervals during the night to guide them to camp, and at day-light four men were sent into the woods to search for them, directed by Iberville to fire their guns occasionally as they advanced. When they returned, after a fruit-less tramp, Iberville sent out another party of eight men, with compasses, starting each in a different direction, with provisions, in case they found the wanderers,forbidding them to return to the camp until the cannon signalled them. The barges were ordered up and down the river to scan the banks. All in vain ; no trace or sound of the unfortunates could be gathered, and the expedition sorrowfully had to abandon the search and proceed without them.
The next afternoon they passed a little stream about two hundred paces wide, flowing into the river from the west. The guide called it the River of the Ouachas(now Bayou Plaquemines). A league and a half beyond,they met two pirogues filled with Indian men and women. These turned out to be Ouachas and Bayagoulas. After trading what corn they had to the French-men, the Ouachas continued their journey to their village, two days distant, while the Bayagoulas turned back to announce in theirs the approach of visitors.The French landed, set up an iron mill they had with them, and ground their acquisition of corn. Their flour was gone ; they had very little bread left. With the ground corn they made sagamity, — hominy seasoned with salt pork; and this formed their diet, with water,for the brandy was exhausted.
At half past six o’clock the next morning they were on their way to the landing-place of the Bayougoulas;and nerved by the prospect of rest and refreshment, themen rowed their best and with a will.
A league below the landing, a pirogue met them, with a delegation of Bayagoulas and Mongoulachas, singing,and brandishing a calumet three feet long, brilliant with its decoration of coloured feathers. Passing from one barge to the other, they presented it, on the part of their tribes, to th white men to smoke ; after which the 'calumet-bearer stationed himself in the prow of Iberville’s boat, from which he brandished his symbol of peace,and chanted his song to the assemblage of his people waiting on the bank. As Iberville stepped from his boat, he was taken by two warriors, who, gently sup-porting him under the arms, led him to a cleared space,spread with bear-skins, where the chief sat in state, surrounded by warriors and women, — a mark of confidence. Sauvole, Bienville, and the priest, received with the same cordiality, were also led forward with the same ceremony. Resting on two forked sticks, in the v^erycentre of the meeting-place, guarded by a warrior whonever left it nor took his eyes off it, Iberville beheld the brave calumet which he had presented to the Indians on the sea-shore, — the miniature ship, with the fleur-de-lys banner.
After much smoking, the priest only feigning to smoke,sagamity, cooked with soft red beans, was passed around, with various kinds of corn-bread, pones baked in ashes,and different cakes made of fine corn-flour, enough not only for the officers, but for the whole expedition.Iberville gave the usual largess in the shape of presents,adding a treat of brandy weakened with water, — of which, however, the Indians partook sparingly, finding it rather ardent for their uncivilized stomachs.
The Mongoulacha chief, described as “a man of inconceivable pride, never laughing, staring fixedly before him all the time,” wore a garment which was like a light in the wilderness to the Frenchmen, — a coat, or capote, of blue Poitou serge. In response to the eager inquiries about it, he said it had been given to him, in passing, by the “Iron Hand,” Tonty, of whom he related confirmatively many incidents, partly by signs,and partly in his own language. Iberville says that he could understand the words he took down in writing on the sea-shore, but that his brother Bienville, who had kept the guide with him in his canoe, had learned the language so well that he could understand everything in it, and speak it passably.
The La Salle Relations spoke of the river’s dividing into two channels, and said ; We followed the channel to the right, although we had intended taking the other,but passed it in a fog without seeing it.” Iberville, who wished to descend by this channel, or fork, on the right,to the sea, and thus acquaint himself with all the outlets of the river, catechised the Indians about it. But he could hear nothing of it from them. They maintained that the Mississippi neither forked nor branched, and that Tonty had passed by them both going to and re-turning from the mouth.
Iberville could not square this at all, he says, with the accounts in the Relations, especially with that of theRecollet Hennepin, whom he thought himself more particularly obliged to trust.
The Indians drew a map of the country to demonstrate how Tonty had passed from them to the Houma.As for the deserted pillaged village of the Tangipahoas, their village had never been on the banks of the Mississippi. They had formed one of the seven tribes of the Quinipissas whose villages the Houma had destroyed, adopting the survivors into their own tribe, where Iberville could see them.
The doughty heart, which had been equal to any enterprise, however perilous, sank before such discrepancies and contradictions. He was, as he says,in a very embarrassing situation : one hundred and ninety leagues away from his vessels, his provisions exhausted, his men spent with their strenuous and constant toil up stream; with his establishment still to locate, and Surgeres behind him, with orders to return to France in six weeks. “Always,” he writes,“coming back to the Relation of the Récollet father,not being able to believe him so unworthy as to make a false statement to the whole of France,” although he knew that the priest had lied oft and arrantly in his accounts of Canada and Hudson Bay.
There was also, of course, the suspicion that the Bayagoulas, out of fear or jealousy of the Quinipissas, might be deceiving him.
He was convinced that if he put back from where he was, without further proof that Tonty had passed by there, and that he, Iberville, was in the Mississippi, it would not be credited in France that he had been there, in face of the contradictory Relations. There seemed nothing for him to do but to push on to theHouma, — still five days’ journey farther off up the river.
During his cogitations, the afternoon sped in feasting,singing, and dancing. At nightfall the Indians took their departure for their village, about a mile inland,on the high land, making a brilliant procession, holding blazing fagots of cane in their hands to light their way. The French promised to visit them the next day.
By daylight a deputation of them was back again,singing, and bringing the precious calumet, which when off duty was carefully kept in a leathern bag. The ceremony of smoking it over, it was again deposited on the forked sticks, a warrior mounting guard over it.At six o’clock, mass being said and breakfast eaten,Iberville, Bienville, Sauvole, the priest, and two Canadians set out for the village. They found it situated near a little stream surrounded by a palisade of caneten feet high. They were met at the gateway, andled to the open space before the cabin of the Mongoulacha chief, who seemed to outrank the Bayougoula chief. When they were seated on the cane mats spread upon the ground for them, Iberville displayed his presents, — a gala lot, grandiose in the pleased eyes of the savages, a scarlet doublet embroidered in tinsel, scarlet hose, shirts, blankets, mirrors, beads, hatchets, knives.
The Indians reciprocated with their richest, — twelve large dressed deer-skins (which Iberville gave to his men for shirts), and copious feasts of sagamity and bread.
While the presents were being apportioned, Iberville promenaded through the village, of which he writes a minute description. The temple, which occupied the central position in it, was round, about thirty feet in circumference, and constructed of timber set upright in the ground, and cemented half way up with mud. The roof was a conical-shaped cap made of split cane neatly joined together, with rude figures of birds and animals daubed upon it, noticeably a cock in red. Over the entrance was a shed eight feet deep, supported by two large pillars connected by a great transverse beam. On one side of the entrance were the same rude images as on the roof; on the other, the opossum appeared in all its carefully accentuated manifold uglinesses, — pig’s head, rat’s tail, badger’s skin, and pouched stomach. Iberville, describing it, mentions that he had killed and examined eight. Entering the narrow tall door, two dried worm-eaten logs were perceived,smouldering, end to end, with a fire that was supposed never to die out. At the far end was a kind of table,a scaffold upon which lay bundles of bear, deer, and beef skins, — the offerings of the faithful to their tutelarydeity, the opossum, called, in the vernacular of the tribe,Choucouacha, whose image, painted in red and black,ornamented the walls. Among the offerings Iberville discovered a glass bottle, — another track in the sand for him, which he failed not to trace to its origin. It also had been left by Tonty when in passing there to or from the mouth of the river.
With the exception of the portico, the cabins were constructed exactly like the temple, some as large,others smaller. The earth furnished the flooring to all,and the opening in the apex of the conical roof did duty for chimney and windows. The beds, elevated about two feet above the ground, were frames, with bark-covered twigs or branches the size of a man’s arm, for slats, over which were laid cane mats for matresses, and bear-skins for covering. The only other furniture of the cabins were the earthen pots, which the women made neatly and delicately enough. The men went naked, — “without perceiving it,” as Iberville says. The women wore girdles of cloth woven from the fibres of the bark of trees, coloured mostly red and white, and fringed with long cords, which fell to the knee, moving gracefully with every motion of the body. The little girls wore girdles of moss. The young women — Iberville says he saw no pretty ones among them — had a fashion of blackening their teeth and tattooing their faces and breasts, and were much given to bracelets and bangles. All the women wore their hair in packages, as it is described,on top of their heads. The young men adorned them-selves with a primitive and masculine kind of a sash made of feathers strung together, weighted at the end with bits of stone or metal, which, hanging down behind like a horse’s tail, jangled and tinkled when the wearers danced,and made as much clatter as a courier arriving.
The village consisted, in all, of about two hundred cabins, with some hundred and fifty men and a very small proportion of women, who had suffered greatly from the small-pox, which had destroyed a quarter of the tribe, and which was prevalent at the time. The dead,wrapped only in cane mats, and disposed under little conical covers on the scaffolds erected all around the village, attracted huge flocks of bustards, and otherwise gave notice of the recent great mortality. The fields were small. They were tilled with implements made of bones, and when the crops were gathered, served as play-grounds for a game which consisted in throwing great sticks after a little bullet-shaped pebble. Iberville thought them the most beggarly set of Indian warriors he had ever seen. Although well-made and agile, their bodies were not hardened by exercise or discipline ; they kept their faces painted, and wore their hair short, and lived almost entirely on corn, with only an occasional treat of game,which, however, they had to hunt at great distances,the boundaries of the different hunting territories being strictly defined, and maintained by force of arms. They possessed a few chickens, which, tradition related, they had brought with them or obtained from some tribes coming from the Far West. The surrounding forests were rich in all sorts of woods except pine, but with no fruit trees except the wild apple and peach.
A party of Indians escorted the French to their camp.The rest of the warriors followed an hour afterwards,bringing presents of corn and bread, the Mongoulacha chief resplendently conspicuous among them in his red doublet.
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51
CHAPTER V.
A GREAT cross, bearing the arms of France, was raisedthe following morning at the landing-place, and the nextstage of the journey began. The Bayougoula chief,accompanying the party as guide and introducer, wentin the barge with Iberville, eight of his men following inpirogues. He pointed out to Iberville, on the right-hand side of the river as they ascended, the littlestream which conducted to the home of the Biloxi andAnnochy. He called it the Ascantia River, and saidit was the only fork he knew of from the Mississippito the sea.
They came to the dividing-line between the hunting-grounds of the Houmas and Bayagoulas, — a little riverwhich had a great reputation for fish, but which yieldedto the French, however, only a meagre result of cat.”Scattered about the bank were a number of cabins, withthe usual palmetto thatchings; and where it could catchthe eye, stood a red leafless cornstalk, with heads offish and bear, — the votive offerings of lucky hunters.^Bienville, who had landed with the Indians two leaguesbelow for a bear-hunt, here rejoined his party with a finetrophy of his success. But there are two sides to everyhunting story; and Sauvole, with the careful veracity of
1 The Baton-Rouge which gave the capital of Louisiana itsname.
52
7?AJV BAPTISTE LE MOYNE,
the sportsman who is not-in the hunt, explains in hisnarrative that it was an Indian who discovered the bearin the hollow of the tree, and drove it out by droppingfire-brands upon it; and that all that Bienville did wasto shoot the bear as it came out, and that he had beenforced to yield the game to the discoverer of it.
They now passed the first island in the river; it wasabout a league long. Two leagues above the islandthe right bank rose to an elevation of fifty feet, whichcontinued for six miles, the opposite bank remainingas flat as ever. And still two leagues farther on, theBayagoula chief pointed out to Iberville a little bayounot six feet wide, by which,, he said, if the bargescould only get through, a whole day’s journey wouldbe saved.
The Canadian commander was not one to be stopped byan “ if” in such an emergency, with time to be shortened.He immediately halted his barges and sent Bienville for-ward in his canoe to investigate. His report was thatthe barges could be taken through at the expense of alittle work. Orders were given to the Canadians, whoshouldered their axes and went to work. A drift-pilethirty feet high and five hundred paces thick was cutthrough, a pathway three hundred and fifty feet longwas cleared for the portage of the baggage, and thebottom of the runlet cleared of obstructions and asmuch as possible levelled. The luggage was unshippedand carried over the portage, pulleys were rigged to thetrees, and the barges slowly tolled along.
It was raining, and the trampled ground soon becamea mire in which the men could not keep foothold ; butunder the urgings of their commander, and their own
53
eagerness to knock off at least one day from their irk-some rowing, the men accomplished their task. At nineo’clock at night, by the blazing light of cane fagots, thebarges were launched out of the by-way into the greatriver again, with,eighteen miles safely put behind them.Thus Pointe Coupee was made, — a cut-off which the Mis-sissippi, as keen to save time and distance as Iberville,was not slow to profit by, abandoning for it in time itsoriginal channel. The tired labourers crossed to thebank, where Bienville, preceding them, had the camp andsupper already prepared, — a supper of Indian simplicityand frugality; the last two hundred pounds of provis-ions in each barge being reserved for the return voyage.
The crews rowed through the last stretch of the jour-ney, six long leagues, cursing and swearing, Ibervillewrites, against all authors of false Relations and of suchprolongations of anxiety, fatigue, and deprivation.
Cannon were fired well in advance, to apprise theIndians of their approach. Experience had evidentlytaught the savages whom and what to expect after suchan announcement, and the proper palliative ceremonies.
As soon as the barges hove in sight, the deputationswaiting at the landing-place raised their chant and flour-ished their calumet. The Bayagoula chief answeredin kind for the French; embraces and tendernesses wereprofusely lavished in the reception, and first the officers,then all the crew, were smoked with.
Iberville, Bienville, Sauvole, and the priest, with anescort of Canadians, set out at once for the village.
The deputation, singing all the time, walked ahead,leading, without a stop, through swamps and canebrakes,and up and down the little steep, irregular hills that
54
JEAN BAPTISTE LE MOYNE,
diversified the difficulties of the way, at a speed whichseverely taxed the heavily clad white men to follow.
Four hundred feet from the village another deputation,with song and pipe, stood waiting, and another ceremo-nious smoking was inflicted upon the impatient Iberville.They proceeded again, and again were halted upon alittle elevation about a hundred paces away, until thechief was officially informed by a messenger of theirarrival, and the proper invitation to advance was received.This time the procession attained the entrance of thevillage, the chanters always in front, singing, the warriorsfollowing with their calumets.
The chief and two of his dignitaries now made theirappearance, each one holding — as a last propitiatoryand complimentary effort — a white cross, the calumetof the Christians.
Iberville and his officers were saluted, and carefullyescorted to the temple, where, on account of the rain,mats had been spread for the reception.
After smoking and partaking of sagamity and pumpkin,Iberville came directly to the point with his presents,explaining that he had still handsomer ones in the])arges awaiting donation, — a piece of astuteness whichthe Indians seemed to understand and appreciate per-fectly well. Their politeness was extremely painstaking.After each separate gift, the whole assembly would rise,and extending their arms, give the prolonged “Hou !Hou ! Hou ! ” howl of thanks, d'he rain ceasing, anadjournment was made to the open space in front ofthe chiefs cabin, where all the villagd could gatheraround the strangers, and where the smoking and eatingwere not suffered to languish a single instant. In the
55
afternoon a ball in all form was given. Singers, station-ing themselves on one side the open space, raised themusic, beating time with the chichicouchy. ^ rattles intheir hands. A moment’s pause to whet expectationand curiosity, and the youth and beauty of the tribebounded into the circle, — thirty-five girls and youngmen, gorgeous in all their savage panoply of costume, withtheir girdles of feathers, fringe, and tinsel flying andtinkling in the air, faces and bodies glittering with freshpaint. The girls wore bouquets of bird plumes in theirbraids, and carried in their hands long bunches of varie-gated feathers, which they used as fans and to beat timewith.
The bucks had added to their bravery by hangingdisks of thin metal from their girdles, which clashed andbanged against their knees, adding a martial beat to themeasures of the chichicouchy and the songs.
For three hours, the dancing was kept up, without asign of fatigue or lessened pleasure. When night fell,all repaired to the cabin of the chief, where, after supperby the light of a cane fagot fifteen feet long and twothick, the young men danced a war-dance, armed cap-a-pie, with bows, arrows, knives, and tomahawks. Atmidnight all retired, leaving the chief with his guests, — not to repose, however ; for Iberville says that the Houmaand Bayagoula chiefs began immediately to harangueone the other, the Houma speaking for himself, theBayagoula for himself and the French.
The Houma chief is described as a venerable patri-arch of seventy, five feet ten inches tall, and stout inproportion, with a flattened forehead which was then an1 Gourds, holding a few pebbles.
obsolete fashion, and not customary among the men ofhis tribe.
The Houma village was essentially like the Baya-goula. The cabins, numbering about one hundred andforty, were built in a double row around the top of a hill,with the usual open space in the centre. At most, itheld three hundred and fifty warriors. The cornfieldslay in the valleys and on neighbouring hills, the soil ofwhich was black, strong, and rich.
The French wished to return to their boats thefirst thing in the morning ; but the chief detained themuntil the women had finished pounding a present ofcorn for them. While they were waiting, six of the menfrom the boats, anxious at their long absence, appearedin search of them. The pounding completed, all tooktheir departure, after firing numerous salutes. Theywere followed to the outskirts of the settlement by pro-testing hosts and politely weeping women. Two hoursafter their arrival at the boat the chief paid the returnvisit, followed by a retinue of half his village, loaded withpresents of corn. The men all carried crosses, and whenthey came to the great cross erected by the French,they marched solemnly in procession around it, singingto it and throwing offerings of tobacco upon it, deter-mined at any price to secure its good-will. They re-ceived the anticipated return of the handsomer presentsawaiting them in the barges, and were well satisfied withtheir red embroidered coat, and the shirts, knives, hatch-ets, flints, and beads that Iberville gave with a liberalhand.
The calumet was smoked, and one of the principalwarriors made a speech to Iberville, which lasted over a
57
half hour ; all the officers listening gravely and atten-tively, although not one of them understood a word ofit. Iberville needing more corn, forty men were sentduring the night to the village for it. They returned bydaylight, bringing at least three barrels of it, with quan-tities of pumpkins and some fowls.
The Houmas had much to say of Tonty, who hadpassed five days with them at their village, leaving hisboats at the same place where Iberville had moored his.But the Quinipissas gave the lie direct to the Rela-tions by stating that their village was seven days distantfrom the mouth of the river, and that neither Tontynor any of the French had ever been there, — which, saysIberville, greatly distressed and perplexed him; andhe could not see that he was any nearer certaintythan when at the Bayagoulas. Apprehending that theHoumas might also have reasons for concealing thetruth, there seemed to be no way of arriving at thesolution of his doubts and the Relations’ misstatements,except by going on to the next tribe mentioned in theRelations, — to the Coroas, six leagues below whom,according to the Recollet father, the enigmatical fork inthe river had been met. The next day, Sunday, afterthe usual oratorical display by the Indian warriors, andanother procession around the cross, and more ob-lations of tobacco upon it, the boats pushed off fromshore for another forced journey of still nine days’ morehard rowing up stream.
Iberville started in the pirogue with the five Houmasand one Tensas, who had consented to accompany theexpedition ; Hut in order to see if the Tensas would nottalk differently when separated from his crowd, he soon
58 y?AJV BAPTISTE LE MOYNE,
changed to his barge, taking the Tensas with him. Thelatter, however, firmly sustained the assertion that he hadbeen as high as the Arkansas, and that the Mississippi, orMalbanchia, did not fork. He drew a map of the coun-try, showing that in three days they would arrive at a riverflowing in from the west, — the Tassenocogoula (RedRiver), which had two forks ; and upon one of them henamed several tribes mentioned by Tonty in his ac-count of La Salle’s journey towards the Arkansas. Oneday, after leaving the Tassenocogoula, the Tensas said theMississippi, by a great turn, would lead them back towithin a league and a half of the Houma village theyhad just left, where they would find the chief and hiswarriors waiting to feast them. Three days after thisturn they would reach the village of Theloel, composedof eight smaller villages, of which the Natchez formedone. From the Natchez, ascending the river two daysand a half, they would reach the Tensas, and three dayshigher up than the Tensas they would find the Coroas,or Yazous. All of which was fairly correct; but nothingcould have been more different from the order of tribesand distances given in the Relation of Father ZenobeMembr^, contained in Father Chre'tien Le Clerc’s“Etablissement de la Foi,” his guide.
In one column, Iberville set down the tribes as theyappeared in the Relation, with the distances thereascribed between them. In another, he placed thedistances he had made so far in the journey, as calcu-lated by himself and his pilots, with the Indian villageshe had passed, filling out the rest of the journey, as faras the Arkansas, with tlie distances and tribes, all theIndians individually and collectively agreed upon. The
59
result of a comparison between them was a difference ofninety-three miles in distance, and no resemblance what-ever in the order of villages.
It was noon; the stop was made for dinner. Hesubjected the Indians again to a rigid cross-examination.The Bayagoula, impressed by such^ obstinate pertina city in looking for a fork which did not exist in the river, and knowing full well that Tonty had not passedthrough any fork, but had gone to the mouth and returned by the main stream, finally was driven to confessthat the Mongoulacha chief had in his possession a written paper like the one Iberville had given him,which Tonty had left with him to give to a man who wasto come up the river from the sea. This paper couldbe for no other than La Salle. Iberville reflected for aspace of two hours, and then, he says, came to the conclusion that so many Indians could not lie about s opatent a fact as a fork in the river. If Father Zenobe Membre’s Relation was true, that La Salle, Tonty, and hehad descended by the western branch of the Mississippi,and as the Indians and this letter conclusively proved that Tonty had descended and ascended, the secondtime, by the same route as he did the first with LaSalle, and that he had confidently expected La Salle to ascend also by this route, coming from the Gulf into the mouth of the river, — then this stream upon which they travelled and which Iberville was on, according to them, was not the Mississippi, but a western branch ofthe Mississippi; and as there was, as far as Pensacola, no considerable stream east of this, flowing into the Gulf,except the Mobile, then it followed that that must b ethe Mississippi, — which was an absurdity, as the mouth
60 JEAN BAPTISTE LE MOYNE,
I
of the Mobile River did not at all answer to the description of the mouth of the Mississippi. And Iberville says,further, he knew that when Father Zenobe was at BaySt. Louis (Matagorda Bay) with La Salle, he had statedthat that water might belong to the western branch ofthe Mississippi, but that he was not able to recognize it,having only descended the eastern branch. Throwing the priestly narrative to the winds, and pronouncing theauthor a liar who had disguised every truth, the Cana-dian commander determined that he was in the Mississippi, and that he would consume no more time and expend no more trouble in the vain attempt of tryingto make his facts tally with the Recollet’s fiction. He issued his orders, the boats were turned down stream,and by six o’clock in the evening they were again tied at the landing of the Houmas.
STOPPED HERE
Bienville and two Canadians were immediately speededto the village to acquaint the Bayagoulas tarrying therewith the change of plan, and bid them be at the land-ing-place by daylight if they wished to return with theFrench. But the Bayougoula warriors, engaged in frol-icking with the Houma women, showed so little dispo-sition to heed the summons that Bienville, feigning greatindignation, turned upon his heel, and refusing all refresh-ment and overtures, returned to the camp, making thesixteen — or more correctly, considering the country, theeighteen — miles in less than three hours : an exhibitionof physical strength which all the journals note with admi-ration, mentioning especially that he had to feel most ofhis way home in the dark, through the canebrakes.
The village, terrified beyond measure at such porten-tous conduct, hurriedly got corn, pumpkins, chickens,
6i
and calumets together, loaded them upon the recalci-trant Bayagoulas, who were urged to hasten with allspeed after the offended messenger, the Houma chiefsending six of his tribe along with them, and promisingto present himself in the morning.
Iberville accepted their explanations and excuses, andsent back some of the Houmas to the village by torch-light for more corn, which he offered to buy. But thechief marched in the next morning at the head of ninetyof his people, men and women, bearing full supplies ofprovisions as presents, all brimming over with such Re-ferences and homages to the cross, and such devices inthe way of politeness and tendernesses to the French,that the threatened harmony was completely restored,and the reconciliation made a love-feast.
It was not long before the anxious hosts had thepleasure of seeing their difficult guests push forwardthe preparations for departure; and there was anothereffusion of embraces and protestations on both sides.Finally the moment of departure came, the officerswere supported to the barges, the barges pushed off,the cannon fired a salute, the Indians shouted, theFrench cried, “Vive le roi! ” With supra-Gallic refine-ment of compliment, these savage Frenchmen gaveback the cry in their crude but eager imitations untilthe barges disappeared down the river.
Rowing willingly and easily down stream towardsbread and wine, and away from corn-meal and simplewater, the men brought the barges next day to theAscantia, the little river that led to the lake where theships lay at anchor. The canoes gained a day by goingthrough the new cut-off,” where they found, they re-
62
y?A.V BAPTISTE LE MOYNE,
ported, the alligators swarming around the still glowingembers of their fires.
The large boats not being able to get through theAscantia, Iberville determined to explore it himself inpirogues. He left the expedition in command of hisnext in rank, Sauvole, and his own barge, with the Bay-agoula chief, to Bienville, whom he charged to buy ifpossible, but at any hazards to secure, the all-importantletter of Tonty from the Mongoulacha chief. Then,pushing through the tangled opening of the little stream,he, with his Indian guide and four Canadian attendants,in their two pirogues, were lost to view.
In answer to their cannon-shot, Sauvole and Bien-ville found a party of Bayagoulas waiting at their land-ing with song and calumet and the joyful news that thetwo lost sailors had been found, and at the time werein the village.
Here the first disagreeable feeling was elicited fromthe natives by an untoward incident, which modernreaders must regret, although the chroniclers of it, inno mood either for R^collet priests or their narratives,treat it with an unseemly want of sympathy, if not withactual levity. In the confusion of disembarkation, FatherAnasthase Douay missed the wallet in which he car-ried his breviary and a little manuscript, his faithfuljournal of all that had occurred during the expedition.The loss was irreparable to him; he was inconsolable,and in the excitement of his grief attributed the theft toan Indian who had travelled in the same boat with him,and who, he declared, never took his eyes off the walletwhen he, the priest, took out his breviary to read hisprayers. The next day, the Feast of the Annunciation, it
63
was, when the officers went to the Indian village. FatherAnasthase accompanied them, in search of his property,and laid a complaint before the chief that one of histribe had stolen it. The village was instantly called to-gether and the accusation stated, the reverend fatherstanding by, weeping bitterly, — hoping thus, the savageconscience proving invulnerable, to touch the savageheart. The Indians were, or appeared to be, so discon-certed that they could not answer when the chief askedthem if any one had seen the wallet. The priest thenvisited every cabin, in tears and despair, until the In-dians, growing more and more offended, began to bethreatening, when the French had the priest conductedto the barges and left there. But the entente cor-diale, once broken, could not be resumed. The oldwomen stopped pounding corn, the messengers returnedwith the supplies of provisions they were taking to theboats. The forms of amity were indeed preserved, butno assistance or hospitality was further offered or yielded.Bienville bought Tonty’s letter for a hatchet from theMongoulacha chief. The suspicious savage explainedthat he had concealed it, fearing the French might beSpaniards. He now produced, in addition, an Imita-tion of Christ,” some pictures, and a gun which he saidthe Iron Hand had also given him.
One can fancy the eagerness with which the preciousdocument was opened and read, and the expressions ofdisgust and impatience which fell from all lips at itstardy appearance amid the doubts and misgivings whichit so easily and clearly solved. Besides settling thefact that the Mississippi was the Mississippi, it explainedaway one at least of Iberville’s perplexities. It was
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y?AA^ BAPTISTE LE MOYNE,
dated from the village of the Quinipissas, showing thatthe Mongoulachas and Bayagoulas, for their own pur-poses, had either deceived him, or were deceiving Iber-ville’s party by giving a false name to their village.
Hearing, Tonty wrote, that La Salle had lost a ship inhis expedition in search of the mouth of the river, andthat the savages were plundering him, and fearing thathe was in open warfare with them, he, Tonty, withtwenty-five men, had descended to the mouth of theriver to assist him. All the Indians met, going andcoming, had shown themselves friendly; but although hehad explored the Gulf twenty-five miles on each sidethe mouth of the river, he had discovered no trace ofhis friend. He had found the cross bearing the arms ofthe king, erected by La Salle eight years before, lyinghalf buried in the sand, and he had set it up again,seven leagues higher up the river. Upon a tree standingnear the cross he had fixed a sign, and in the hollow ofit he had placed a letter, addressed “A M. de La Salle,Gouverneur-General de la Louisiane.” ^
Bienville also bought from the Mongoulacha chief, fora gun and some ammunition, a little boy, who, Sauvolesays, cried bitterly at parting from his people.
^ It should be explained that the Mississippi itself is responsible for some of the errors attributed to the Relations, and also formuch of La Salle’s mystification on the coast of Texas. Whenhe descended and ascended the river it was flood-high, which sochanged the topography of its banks and its mouth that Tonty,in his later trip, almost failed to recognize them. Iberville alsomet a man afterwards who knew the river well, and who waswith Tonty among the Quinipissas. He assured Iberville thatthe chief of the Quinipissas was also chief of the Mongoulachas,and that they were established twenty leagues lower down the
river.
'Fhe restored sailors recounted their wanderings andsufferings to a sympathetic and interested audience.They had found their way to the river, and were tryingto ascend the banks of it, in the hope of catching up withthe boats, when, at the last extremity of fatigue and starva-tion, they were rescued by some Indians, who, minister-ing to them in their exhausted condition, in their kind-ness conveyed them to the Bayougoulas, offering, in casethey could not find their companions, to take them inpirogues* to their vessels at Ship Island.
Making from twelve to nineteen leagues a day, thebarges soon reached the passes. One of them — evi-dently the Passe a Sauvole — was, by Iberville’s com-mands, explored and sounded. In a reversed order, thefirst experiences and sufferings in the Delta were gonethrough, — minus, however, the terrific storm ; and thebarges drew up alongside their ships, their work done,just one month and two weeks after starting out, and justeight hours after the arrival of Iberville. The command-er’s voyage had not been a light one. The Ascantiaproved to be about ten feet wide and three or four deep,and very much obstructed. During the first day, he hadtravelled seven leagues, and made fifty portages overfallen trees and drifted rafts. The country was one ofthe finest he had ever seen, rich earth, fine forests, andno canebrakes, but overflowing five or six feet in highwater. The river was filled with fish and crocodile, andwild turkeys in quantities had been heard, although therehad been no success in killing any. On the secondday the guide deserted; but he determined to continuewithout him, certain, if he returned to the Mississippi,that he could not overtake the barges, and wishing to
5
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JEAN BAPTISTE LE MOYNE,
show the Indians that he could go where he chose, — confident, at all events, of reaching his ships, even if hewere forced to abandon the pirogues he had, travel byland, and make other pirogues as he needed them.One of the Canadians fell ill, and Iberville had to re-place him at the portages, carrying one end of a pirogue,which, he says, fatigued him greatly. In all, he madeeighty portages during the journey. The Ascantia wasre-named the Iberville; the first lake they came to, apretty oval sheet of water, six leagues by four, wasnamed after the young principal of the expedition, theCount of Maurepas; the second after his father, Pont-chartrain, the Minister of Marine.
There was no time for explorations or soundings, onlyfor such observations as a forced march permitted; buttaken as they were by an eye born and trained to accu-racy, they stand to-day, in Iberville’s official report, afair description of the region. Camping at night on thelow grassy points or islands around the lakes, he madeacquaintance with those pests of succeeding generationsof hunters and fishermen, the insatiable lake-shore mos-quitoes, — terrible little animals,” he says, “to men inneed of rest.” His record of seven to twelve leagues aday, — a pretty good record for the character of the coun-try traversed, — soon brought him to the shore oppositehis ships. The weather was cloudy and windy. Hekindled a great fire to attract the attention of his ships,that boats might be sent next day, in case the lakeprovQd too rough for crossing in pirogues. The mor-ning was clear, however, the water calm. He set out inthe pirogues, and was more than half way over to ShipIsland when he met the barges coming to investigate
67
the cause of the fire of the night before. He arrivedon board the Badine ” at midday, — eight hours, ashas been said, before his barges from the Mississippi.
Speaking of the Tonty letter, he remarked character-istically, that he was sorry he was not in the party whichdescended the river with it, for he should have foundthe tree in which Tonty had deposited the other letter.He says he could easily have done so, as there werevery few trees eight leagues from the mouth of the river,and those few only on the left-hand side ascending.
Sauvole reported that he had discovered one spoton the river-lands which did not overflow. It was uponthe left bank descending, about twenty-five leaguesabove the mouth of the river, and a league more orless inward.
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yEAA' BAETISTE LE A/OVA^E,
CHAPTER VI.
Instead of searching for Sauvole’s one point of highland upon the bank of the Mississippi, and making hisestablishment at once where Bienville was forced tomake it later, after fifteen years of costly and painfulexperimentation, Iberville, pressed by time and dimin-ishing provisions, cast his eye around for a situationnearer at hand. It was vitally necessary for him tomake his establishment at once, on account of failingsupplies, and as near to his ships as possible. Themouth of the Pascagoula River, witli its easy inland com-munication, was obviously the first choice ; but it hadbeen surveyed during the expedition by Iberville’s or-ders, and there was no depth of water in it. The littlebay of Biloxi, with its island shelter, offered the nextbest conditions of harbourage proximity to the fleetand to the villages of the Biloxis, Pascagoulas, and Moc-tobys, from which, at need, assistance might be drawn.Iberville, within a few hours after his return from hisarduous journey, with all his fatigues upon him, de-spatched the felucca to- this point to investigate thepracticability of reaching it in the transports. An un-favourable answer was brought the next morning. Tak-ing the felucca then himself, Iberville sailed back to thelakes he had just traversed, to see what they mightoffer. The following night he returned, about ten
69
o’clock, having lost his bearings again and again in thedarkness and in the heavy sea, which every momentall but swamped him, and in a tide that had alreadycarried him beyond the islands, and was carrying himout to sea, when the lights in the ships’ masts rescuedhim. While he had found on Pontchartrain and Mau-repas good situations for a fort and sufficient depth ofwater for the transports, the distance from the fleet andfrom the Mississippi would make them acceptable onlyas a last resource. The statement of an officer of the“Marin ” contradicting the low depth of water at themouth of the Pascagoula was sufficient to induce him toproceed there at once with men, implements, and mate-rials for work. But after two hours’ sounding, he foundnot only a uselessly meagre channel through interveningsand-bars, but an oyster-bank which blocked the mouthof the river. There seemed nothing for it but to makethe establishment on Lake Pontchartrain, with all theforeseen drawbacks of tedious transportation from theships, and without the reinforcement of workmen whichotherwise could have been drawn from the crews. Bien-ville, who had accompanied the felucca, as usual, in hispirogue, was sent back to the fleet with the discouragingnews.
In passing Biloxi, on his way from Pascagoula,the indefatigable commander made one more trial ofsounding with his own hand. The proverbial reward tothe eye of the master ensued. A seven-foot deep chan-nel was found, which led to a snug little harbour betweenthe mainland and the island, which was a complete cloakagainst the south wind. Following the terraced-looking,oak-grown shore around its curve, a diminutive bay
70
JEAN BAPTISTE LE MOYNE,
opened to Iberville’s view. He made the tour of itin his pirogue, and that night slept on the spot he hadselected for his fort, which was at least to serve hispurpose until a more advantageous position could beselected, under less stringent circumstances.
A railroad trestle now spans the deep embrasuredlittle recess, and the eye of the speeding passenger cannote on the eastern side the eminence upon whichIberville camped nearly two centuries ago. Now, asthen, guns, planted upon it, would sweep three fourthsof the limited horizon, arbitrarily commanding the chan-nel) in all its length and breadth. The channel now isever white with sails of business or pleasure boats, andthe fanciful gaudiness of summer villas studs the sombre,heavily-wooded beach. Opposite the island, under thewide-spreading branches of the great oaks where once thefishing and hunting parties of Indians lighted their firesand swung their caldrons, a quaint assemblage of Frenchand Spanish houses form a town, — a town picturesqueand redolent of an indefinable charm, despite the sordidvulgarities of competing summer-resort hotels. The eyemust be churlish indeed that does not brighten at therecollection of the panorama of the passing hours there,from the time the sun first rises, to set in motion thegrand phantasmagory of cloud and water transmuta-tions, until it drops, oppressive with tropical splendour,into a sea glorified to receive it, out of which themoon rises, or has risen, to plate mainland and opensea, the town, island, anchored boats, and rippling water,in one silvery sheen ; or, when the moon does notrise, when the stars shine out and, increasing in sizeand brilliancy, seem to descend lower and lower
71
to the earth, the water striking back rival and scin-tillating reflections, until the constellations seem toform kinships with the lights of the town and withthe lamps swinging in the dim cordage over invisiblehulks.
The eight-mile stretch of island in front — a weanlingfrom the mainland, according to tradition — has lost thegame which still gives it its name and its beauty, if it everhad any. It holds a thinning forest growth, — a wind-riven, wind-shaken, weirdly ugly race of stunted oaks, dis-located and distorted by their sharp cyclonic struggles;some of them, old and wizen, still crouching from theblast that felled them in tender youth; some, proneupon the ground, whence their branches have grownupright into stout trees; all of them tied and gnarledtogether, like forlorn hopes, by vines as wrinkled andsinewy as themselves, all of them hoar with a moss thathad never been otherwise than whipped to raggednessby the wind.
Trees were cut, a space was cleared, and the plan ofthe fort laid out. But the impatient Iberville com-plained that the work went slowly : few of the menwere good woodsmen; some of them took a day tocut a tree; but he acknowledged that the trees were ofprodigious size, and of the hardest oak and nut woods;a forge had to be constructed to mend the axes whichwere broken constantly upon them. Large draughts ofworkmen were supplied from the crews of the ships,between which and the fort the barges and small boatsplied incessantly, landing the guns, ammunition, pro-visions, and live-stock, and ferrying the details of menback and forth over the twenty-five miles of separation.
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y?AX BAPT/STE j^E MOV EE,
The logs for the bastions, and posts for the stockadewere cut a half league away, and boated a hundred at atime to the fort. For two days twenty-five men werekept busy sowing corn and peas. The officers mul-tiplied themselves to meet their double duties on seaand land. Even Father Anasthase had to prepare forEaster ubiquitously ; confessing the ships and then con-fessing the fort, celebrating the Communion here, thenhurrying away to celebrate it there, on one of hisjourneys coming within two fingers of sinking to thebottom, a storm striking the barge, heavily laden withcannon-balls, the lake rising in billows, and the rainpouring down in such torrents as to render the lakefresh for eight days afterwards.
In the thick of the work five Spanish deserters arrivedfrom Pensacola on their way to Mexico. They broughta sad tale of the mortality from starvation and diseasethey had left behind them. The commandant had hur-ried away to Vera Cruz with the news of the designs ofthe French upon the coast, leaving his garrison in direwant of every necessity; all who could, were deserting.
The Spaniards were so full of betrayal to their latemasters, and so eager for enterprise, they painted thebeauty and richness of the Mexican mines, the supine-ness of the Spaniards, the easy distance to San LuisPotosi, the facilities for capturing the periodicalsilver caravels, and their own ability to conduct theFrench thither, in such glowing language that eventhe practical Iberville was fired with enthusiasm. Hekept the deserters to take back with him to Francefor future reference and use, and in his official journalto the minister reckoned that with five hundred Cana-
dians (he never reckons with Frenchmen), he couldhold in terror the whole Spanish territory.
The necessity of relieving the pressure upon thesupplies pushed the fort to a hasty completion. Twoof the bastions were built of logs two and a half feetthick j the other two were of stockade. It was sur-mounted by a parapet four feet high, armed with twelvecannon, and liberally equipped with men and ammu-nition ; but the lodgings and magazines were yetunfinished when Iberville and Surgeres took theirdeparture, carrying with them only the bare crew andprovisions necessary to get to France.
The young lieutenant of the “Marin,” Sauvole,^ wasleft in command, — “a young man,” Iberville writes,
1 This Sauvole, sometimes called the first governor of Loui-siana, is often identified, and by good authorities, with aFran9ois Marie le Moyne, Sieur de Sauvole, a brother of Iber-ville and Bienville, of whom, beyond the fact of his birth, verylittle is authentically known. None of the official documentsconnected with the early history of Louisiana mention him asthe brother of Iberville and Bienville. M. Pierre Margry, inhis able introduction to the sixth volume of his “Decouvertes etDocuments historiques,” introduces him briefly and simply as'?^parent de M. Polastron, commandant de St. Malo,” Sauvolein his Relation never insinuates that he was a Le Moyne andbrother to his commander-in-chief; on the contrary, in this frag-mentary document there is evinced a marked prejudice againstCanadians, and no admiration, in speaking of Iberville and Bien-ville. Iberville, who is most careful always to note “My brotherDe Bienville,” calls him only the Sieur de Sauvole, with theabove laconic commendations; and finally, De Bienville, who,during the course of his long life, more than once recalls his ser-vices and losses, and those of his family, to the Government, inorder to stimulate the generosity of a minister, does not includethis very creditable career in his account.
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y?AJV BAPTISTE LE MOYNE,
“of merit and capable.” Bienville was advanced toSauvole’s position of “lieutenant of the king,” andLevasseur Russouelle, the Canadian, to that of sergeant-major. Father Anasthase, satisfied, and perhaps moretnan satisfied, with discoveries of the Mississippi, par-ticularly by Canadians, demanded to be taken back toFrance to enter his convent, which, he said, he neverwished to leave again. Iberville installed the almonerof the “Badine,” M. Bordenave, in his place, — “avery honest man,” he says; but he bluffly regrets nothaving a Jesuit missionary to leave, “who,” he says,“would have learned the language of the Indians ina very short while.” On the 2d of May, Iberville andSurgeres, with the last detail of men, withdrew from thefort; on the third, a Sunday, they sailed from ShipIsland. They arrived in France during the latter partof June.
Sauvole applied himself with serious conscientious-ness to the administration of his small government. Hehad mass celebrated every morning as regularly asaboard ship, and, he notes, Bienville and Levasseur at-tended it, setting a very good example to the men.Work on the unfinished buildings was prosecuted withvigour; while to promote and maintain the discipline sonecessary in a small military establishment he put him-self to studying the characters and dispositions of hismen, — a rather hopeless pursuit when applied to themen he had to do with.
There is no trace of the hardy Canadian optimismof his predecessor in the elegantly written journal ofthe young Frenchman. It begins, indeed, hopefullyenough ; but it soon dwindles away both in volume and
spirit, ending with detached entries penned with thelistless indifference that betrays climatic enervation.
The seed sowed by Iberville, which sprouted sopromptly, and from which such wonders were expected,soon withered under the hot sun, in the prolongeddrought which came to afflict them, — a drought duringwhich even the swamps dried up. Water became soscarce that had it not been for the discovery of a springa league and a half from the fort, great suffering wouldhave ensued. Provisions grew so scarce that a faminealso would have set in, were it not for the arrival of thetransport which, by Iberville’s injunctions, had beensent to St. Domingo for supplies. The uncanny shapesof alligators met the eye at every moment, — they werekilled at the very foot of the fort; and a rattlesnake paidhis respects by stinging one of Sauvole’s dogs, whichdied in a quarter of an hour, after swelling so greatlythat he could not move from the spot. The soilwas found ungrateful, nothing but burning sand, inwhich innumerably fruitless sowings were made. Beforeattention was called to it, the boats in the water wereseriously damaged by worms; the very trees in theforest were worm-eaten as they stood. In the hotweather the men could only work two hours morningand evening, and most of them were attacked withdysentery, from drinking bad water. As for their otherbeverage, brandy, Sauvole can only speak of it withbitterness as the most pernicious of drinks, not onlyon account of the health, but on account of the discus-sions and quarrels it engenders. It ruins the body andbrutalizes the mind.” And whatever precautions hecould take, it was never possible for him to make the
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JEAN BAPTISTE LE MOYNE,
men drink their ration daily; they would hide it insecret places until enough accumulated to intoxicate.Wine would not have been a hundredth part so bad, orbeer, had he possessed the ingredients to make it. Witheither one or the other the men would have behavedbetter, and the officers been spared the infliction of somuch punishment.
On the I St of July, two pirogues paddled across thebay to the fort. They were filled, not with Indianvisitors, as might be expected, but with white men, — Canadians and two Seminary priests. Fathers Montignyand Davion, who had journeyed down the river, fromtheir distant missions among the Tensas and Tunicas, tosee the new P'rench establishment, of which the Indianshad brought them rumours. They were worn out withfatigue and from their intense suffering for want ofdrinking water during the ten days it had taken themto make their way from the mouth of the river to Biloxi.But for a rain, they would have perished of thirst.
They were received with all the cordiality anticipated,and their spent forces refreshed with venison broth,from a deer providentially found by the hunters the daybefore; but it was before the arrival of the transportof provisions from St. Domingo, and the addition ofeighteen men was a serious tax on the supplies, whichhad been measured with no lavish hand to carry a cer-tain number of mouths to a certain term; so that Sau-vole was forced to beg his guests to depart after ninedays. The Canadians acceded unwillingly enough ; butthe good priests, seeing the straits to which their hostwas put for their entertainment, did their best to com-inaiul their turbulent companions. M. de Montigny
wished to establish himself among the Natchez, who, hesaid, were the most numerous and respected of theIndians along the Mississippi. Sauvole gave him presentswith which to ingratiate himself among them, — wine andwafers for his sacred offices, and flour for himself.
The Indian visitors had to be treated with more cir-cumspection. Every week brought a deputation fromthe neighboring tribes, prompted by curiosity and greed,and Sauvole, according to his instructions, was carefulnot to disappoint them. The first to make an appear-ance was their old acquaintance Autobiscania, the Baya-goula chief, with a party of his warriors. They werereceived with military honours, which duly terrified them,as was intended; but the presents reassured them, par-ticularly the shirts, which, to their great delight, werefitted upon them. They looked with wonder at thefort, beyond measure astonished that the French couldget together and pile up such a number of great logs insuch a short space of time. All went well until thesentinel came at nightfall to get the watchword fromthe sergeant. The whispering threw the Indians into astate of serious meditation and fears of treachery, outof which Sauvole had to calm and soothe them.
At daylight, they confessed that their wives were onthe other side of the bay, and they would also like tosee the fort. Permission being given, the savage dameswere sent for. When they landed, Autobiscania, anx-ious that the show should be equal to the female antici-pations, made signs to prompt Sauvole to put his menunder arms, and ran himself to hunt up the drummer.When the visit terminated, which it seems to have doneto the satisfaction of all parties concerned, Sauvole sent
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JEAAT BAPTISTE LE MOYNE,
two French boys along with the Indians to learn theirlanguage, keeping an Indian boy with him to learnFrench.
Autobiscania was persuaded to remain and guideBienville to the Quinipissas. The wily chief, wishingto retain his monopoly of friendship with the French,hesitated a long time before consenting, alleging a fearthat the Quinipissas would kill the white men. Bien-ville, carrying presents and a calumet, remained withthe Quinipissas, or Colapissis, as they were also called,four days, during which time a friendship was cementedwith all ceremony on both sides. But the return visitto the fort was not paid, as promised by them, theBayagoula chief, no doubt, sufficiently intimidatingthem to prevent it.
In answer to his question, the Quinipissas told Bien-ville that they had never seen nor heard of La Salle orTonty. Bienville then visited the villages of the Moc-tobys, Biloxis, and Pascagoulas, along the PascagoulaRiver, eight leagues above its mouth. Unfortunately hekept no journal, and Sauvole in his journal gives smalland unsatisfactory extracts from the report renderedhim. The three villages in all contained not more thanone hundred and twenty cabins, and counted but ahundred warriors. A party of them came shortly after-wards to the fort, bringing their calumet and a presentof deer-skins. Sauvole says that they were the mostpolite and most self-possessed savages he had seen.
From Pascagoula River, Bienville went to Mobile Bay,which he again explored and sounded. Then, witheight Canadians, he marched by land to Pensacola, andmade a thorough reconnoissance of that place, and
79
found it by no means in the deserted, abandoned statewhich the deserters reported, and which Sauvole in hisjournal so frankly desires.
After a short stay in Biloxi, Bienville set out agaui,on the 23d of August, with two pirogues, five men, threeweeks’ provision, and a stock of presents, on the moreimportant enterprise of retracing Iberville’s route intothe Mississippi, and hunting up the tribes living on thebanks of the Ouacha River (Bayou Plaquemines). Inthree days he reached the Iberville River, and in a weekwas at the Bayagoula village, which he found in a greatstate of excitement over a sudden attack of theHoumas.
Obtaining a guide, he proceeded to the Ouacha, andpaddled up it twelve leagues to the Ouacha landing. Thevillage was situated a quarter of a league inland. ButBienville met here Indians of a different temper fromany encountered hitherto in his travels. So ferociousand menacing were they that he was very glad to beat aretreat to his pirogues, where, during the night, theymade an attempt to surprise him. The village was com-? posed of three tribes, — the Ouachas, the Chouachas,and the Opelousas ; the last described as a wanderingtribe, mostly frequenting the Gulf shores.
Bienville intended following the Ouacha to its exit' into the Gulf, had there been such an exit; but, as theIndians informed him, the little river lost itself in various, inland bayous and swamps, most of which dried up dur-ing the summer. He therefore returned to the Missis-sippi, and the pirogues had rapidly paddled their waydown stream to within twenty-three miles above themouth, where they were arrested by a most startling
8o
yEAJV BAPTISTE LE MOYNE,
apparition. A corvette lay anchored in mid-stream be-fore them. Sauvole gives only a succinct account ofwhat followed. Iberville, in his report to the Ministerof Marine, enlarges upon it, from subsequent interviewswith his brother. One of the pirogues was sent tospeak the corvette. It proved to be English. Bien-ville now advanced in his pirogue, and went aboard.The captain, named Banks, turned out to be a quondamprisoner of Iberville’s, captured in Hudson Bay, andconsequently an acquaintance of Bienville’s, to whomhe gave all the information desired about himself andhis ship, confessing frankly that he was in search of theMississippi. It was, at last, the English expedition ofwhich Iberville had received warning, and against whichhe had held himself so sedulously on the alert. Thiswas one of three vessels, loaded with emigrants,which had, in truth, set sail from London to make anestablishment upon the banks of the Mississippi, aboutthe very time in October that Iberville with his squadronsailed from Brest. They had passed the winter in Car-olina, where the greater number of the colonists, pleasedwith the climate, had chosen to remain. In May, oneship had returned to England, leaving the other two topursue the object of the expedition, — the search forthe mouth of the Mississippi. The captain said they hadcruised fruitlessly for thirty leagues round about wherethe Relations of Tonty and Hennepin had placed it.Returning the length of the Gulf coast, he. CaptainBanks, had found this stream, and entered it; and as itwas the only large stream he had discovered in hiscruise on that shore, he doubted not it was the Mis-sissippi. Bienville, the Relations say, convinced the cap-
Si
tain that the river they were in, and all the surroundingcountry, were in the possession of the king of France,who had force sufficient at hand to protect his rights.Bienville had the satisfaction of seeing the captain assentto his representations, and finally raise anchor and headthe corvette down stream. The “English Turn ” in theMississippi still commemorates the bend of the riverwhere the young lieutenant and his five Canadians ob-tained this triumph over the Englishman.^ Bienvilleremained on the corvette, conversing with the captain,and having sufficient intercourse with another personageaboard to attract the suspicious distrust of the Englishofficers. This personage had made himself known tothe young Canadian as a French Protestant, by nameSecond, an engineer, and one of the band of emigrantswho had disembarked in the English king’s possessionof Carolina. He assured Bienville that he and all theFrench refugees with him wished with their whole heartsthat the king of France would permit them to establishthemselves in Louisiana under his domination; he an-
1 The falsehood usually attributed to Bienville, his assuranceto Captain Banks that the river he was on was not the Missis-sippi, which lay farther to the east, appears to be an afterthoughtof the captain’s, and no wise an improvement upon the truth,certainly, if he was seeking self-exculpation. Daniel Coxe, theson of the principal of the expedition, and the claimant of thevalley of the Mississippi, does not mention it in his account ofthe transaction in his “Carolana,” and it is not mentioned bySauvole, Pennicaut, or by Iberville, to whom it would have beenquite a natural and justifiable method of procedure with anenemy. It is first met in French in the journal of La Harpe,who came to Louisiana only in 1718, and he evidently gives it toemphasize the gullibility of the Englishman. See Thomassy,“Geologie Pratique de la Louisiane,” p. 6.
6
82 JEAN BAPTISTE LE MOYNE,
swered for it that there would soon be a numerous colonyof them settled, that they were unhappy under the ruleof the English, who were not congenial to the French.He begged Bienville to take charge of his petition tothe French king, giving his London and Carolina ad-dress, that the answer might be forwarded to him. Sau-vole does not mention this Protestant episode, butIberville dwells upon it, as Bienville apparently dweltupon it to him, as one would repeat an advantageousproposition which as a business man one wished, butdared not advise.
After seeing the English corvette safe out of theriver, the captain promising and threatening to returnand make good his claim, Bienville paddled up theriver to a portage through which he cut across to LakePontchartrain. He reached Biloxi early in October.
Coincidentally, a visit from some Pascagoulas whobrought with them a Choctaw, confirmed the seriousnessof the English determination to encroach upon, if nottake possession of, the southern end of the continent.The Choctaw (from the upper Alabama region) relatedthat the English had already had dealings with them,and that two Englishmen were established among theChickasaws (in the upper Mississippi district). ThisDavion the missionary had also discovered, the English-men having tried to buy beaver-skins from the French-men established among the Tunicas, and even makingpropositions to the Indians to kill the missionary, whichthey refused to do.
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CHAPTER VII.
At Biloxi, a fine August brought the trying summerto a close, and an early autumn put an end to the illnessand discomfort of the men, — at least, Sauvole chroniclesno complaint. The winter came on, terribly cold, thedrinking-water freezing in the glasses. A new centurywas ushered in, whether with any festivities on the partof the little garrison, no chronicle is made ; but there ismentioned the great impatience of all for the arrival ofIberville, due daily. A boat was stationed at ShipIsland on watch for him, and on the eve of TwelfthNight the firing of cannon signalled over the water thegood announcement to the waiting ears.
Sauvole hastened over to meet his commander with hisreport, — a good one, despite all his gloomy forebodings ;but four men dead, with all the illness, dissipation, andprivation. Iberville returned with him to the fort, wherehe was received with salvos of artillery and with “allpossible joy,” as the loyal Pennicaut writes. Ibervilleindeed came like a belated Santa Claus to his colonialfamily. To Sauvole and Bienville he brought the royalcommissions of their new rank, insuring to the latter apay of twelve hundred francs per annum. For the colonythere were supplies, money, and reinforcements, — mostnotably, as he no doubt would have ranked them, sixtyCanadian coureurs de bois, who had served with him
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in Hudson Bay, a Jesuit priest to replace the Recolletfather, and a royal commissary, who was to rank secondonly to Sauvole. There accompanied him also the SieurLe Sueur, a geologist, with thirty workmen, who came toexploit a certain fabulous hill of green earth on theupper Mississippi; the after-celebrated Juchereau de St.Denis, a distinguished Canadian and a connection ofIberville’s wife ; the Sieur de Boisbriant also, celebratedafterwards in the annals of the colony ; and Antoine LeMoyne de Chateauguay, his seventeen-year-old brother.
Iberville’s stay at Biloxi was only long enough toselect sixty men and make his preparations for anothertrip up the Mississippi.
Instead of risking another voyage through the mouthof the Mississippi, the two barges and three pirogueswere carried into Lake Pontchartrain to the little bayou,^about four miles below Iberville Bayou (Manchac), whichlead to the short portage into the Mississippi, shown bythe guide during the other expedition. The barges evi-dently could not get through the sluggish shallow marsh
1 A glance at the map of the lower Mississippi will show thevery indefinite character of such a geographical indication. Itwould seem that the little bayou in question and the short port-age must have been the Bayou St. John and the well-known In-dian high road (which would now lead directly through NewOrleans), preferred by early travellers as the safest and surestway into the Mississippi. Dupratz says he came through theBayou Schoupic, and that the deserted village of the Quinipissaswas on the bank of the Bayou St. John. Iberville puts this vil-lage (as seen above) a league and a half above his portage.Above or below Bayou St. John, Schoupic, or Tigouyou, or anyother of the innumerable bayous of the region, it is evident thatthe ground traversed was in or very near the present limits ofNew Orleans.
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Stream. They were left in the lake, and Iberville andBienville proceeded in their pirogues. Iberville de-scribes the portage as about a league and a half long, onehalf of the distance knee-deep in mud and water, theother in good condition, the country covered partly by for-est, partly by canebrake. He and Bienville visited a de-serted village of the Quinipissas about a league and a halfabove their portage, upon a spot which was inundatedvery little or not at all. The abandoned fields were grownup with trees already two feet in circumference. Clear-ing a little space, Iberville made the first planting ofsugar-cane in Louisiana; but the seed brought from St.Domingo was sour and yellow, and so came to nought.
The whole month of January was consumed in lookingfor a site for the proposed fort. There seemed nonesecure from overflow. Bienville was sent up to theBayougoulas to learn from them what spots on the lowerbank of the river were above high-water mark. Iberville,rejoining the barges, returned to his vessels, where hewaited until the messenger brought word that Bienvillewas coming down the river with the Bayagoula chief,who would point out all the unoverflowed spots withinfifteen leagues of the river’s mouth.
The transport was put under way, and during a truceof the winds, safely entered the river. Three days after-wards, at midnight, the two brothers met on a point ofland on the right bank (ascending) eighteen leaguesfrom the mouth, which, the Bayagoula chief assuredthem, was not subject to inundation.
It was indeed one of the most attractive points in theregion. An edge of open forest, six hundred paceswide, extended along the river bank for about three
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leagues below them. Two leagues above was a forest ofcypress, or cedars of Lebanon, as Iberville calls them, — the very wood for pirogues, and where pirogue-makingwas immediately commenced. Behind was an extendedview of prairie land, studded with clusters of trees.
Work was begun at once upon the fort, planned to bea stout defence in case of emergency, — a twenty-eightfoot square log building two stories high, machicolated.The powder-magazine was elevated five feet above theground, and well banked with earth, top and sides.
About the middle of February, — an exceedingly coldFebruary, even Iberville remarks, — while the clearing,cutting, and building were in busy progress, there arrivedof an afternoon a visitor than whom no one on the con-tinent could have been more useful or more welcometo Iberville ; this was Henry de Tonty, the friend andcompanion, and without question the most unselfish,loyal, straightforward, and intelligent pioneer Franceever possessed in America. He had heard of the settle-ment at the mouth of the river, and came from his poston the Arkansas to make proffer of his services. A bandof Canadians, loaded with peltry, from the country of theIllinois and Tamaroas accompanied him, attracted bythe offers which Sauvole had disseminated among theIndians, especially to catch wandering coureurs de hoisand attach them to the enterprise. Iberville immedi-ately engaged them in his service, and found them a mostprovidential reinforcement, as there was considerablesickness among his men, not a few dying of fevers con-tracted at St. Domingo, or most likely upon the spot.
Tonty here had the o])portunity to discover the fraud-ulent manuscript imposed as his upon Iberville, and also
to rectify some of the latter’s apprehensions gatheredfrom the clerical Relations.
Iberville’s projects up the Mississippi included an ex-ploration of Red River, whose unknown course seemedto offer an inlet for enterprise against the Mexican goldand silver mines of the supine Spaniards. Tonty agreeingto accompany him, the finishing of the fort was left to theCanadian, Sieur de Maltot, and they set out, Bienville inadvance, a forerunner to prepare ways and means.
At the portage of the Tigouyou (called for a short in-terval Ravine le Sueur), they came up with the geologistlaboriously getting his men, boats, and provisions throughfrom the lake into the river which was to conduct him tothe chimerical treasures of green and blue earth piledinto hills in the country whence it took its source. Iber-ville expresses his scepticism of this as well as the otherschemes which an inherent love of the marvellous seemedto push France into fathering.
Arrived at the village of the Bayagoulas, the newsof the English arming the Chickasaws was confirmed.Iberville’s first plan was for Tonty, on his return to theIllinois, to entrap the English leaders into coming amongthe Tunicas, with the bait of trading with them, to arrestthem and hand them over to a detail of Canadians, who,it is presumed, were competent to deal with them. Butthe English were found to be too numerous for thisstratagem to be practically successful, and Iberville hadto console himself with the promised determination toarm the Choctaws and unite all the Indians south ofthe Chickasaws in a solid confederacy for the French.
He had little difficulty in reconciling the Houmas withthe Bayagoulas and inducing the former to return the
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prisoners captured in so high-handed a manner. Speak-ing in their own manner to them, he says he expressedgreat grief and indignation at their making war upon theBayagoulas, after the alliance so solemnly made betweenthem all the year before. The Houmas demanded thatthe Bayagoulas should come to them to smoke thecalumet of peace, fetching presents to ransom the prison-ers, as the custom was. Iberville offered himself as proxyfor his friends, and so the matter was concluded. TheHouma village was reduced to half of the populationof the previous year by an epidemic of the flux; butthere was an accession to it of a band of forty Little ”Tensas, as they were called, — a volunteer corps toassist the Houmas against the Bayagoulas. TheseLittle Tensas inhabited generally a territory about threeleagues west of the Houmas, but they were an erranttribe which lived entirely upon game. It was some ofthem who, the year before, had told Iberville about RedRiver and the number of tribes living along its course,professing to have been through the country and toknow it well; and it had been Iberville’s intention tosecure guides from them. But now, do what he could,he could induce none of them to accompany him as faras the Caddodaquios. They now protested that RedRiver was rafted and completely unnavigable, and thatthe only road they knew to the Caddodaquios and Nat-chitoches, the only one they ever travelled, was by landand through the village of the “Big” Tensas, above theNatchez. Although from its mouth Red River ap-peared to Iberville to be easily navigable, he did notdare, in flice of the many ramifications ascribed to it,venture in it without a guide. He determined to pro-
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ceed to the Big Tensas village, and from there journeyoverland to the Caddodaquios and Natchitoches, follow-ing Red River, if he then desired it, on his return tothe Mississippi, in pirogues which they could easily con-struct by the way. Giving the Houmas a half-bushelof corn, some peas, and some orange, apple, and cottonseed to plant (the first cotton-seed planted in Louisiana),he gathered together his men, scattered hunting overthe country, and sent for the pirogues waiting for himat the mouth of Red River, and set them all in motionup the Mississippi towards the Natchez and Tensas.
The great stream still meandered before them, twist-ing like a huge paraph over the country. The piroguespaddled against the monotonous yellow currents whichoffered no novelties to them, except the ceaseless de-struction and reconstruction of a monster water-way atwork, — the freshly verdured batture formations againstone bank, the caving land of the other, with its half-submerged forests peering above the thick waters. Slowcollecting rafts filling up one curve, the deflected cur-rents hurrying away to the next point to gnaw out an-other. From time to time a patient fisherman wouldbe seen crouched on his little moored gunwale catch-ing, when luck was with him, catfish and minnows, orcarp and sardines, as Iberville called them. Here, onehundred and twenty-five leagues from the sea, they cameacross the innocent causes of Iberville’s tragic perplexitiesand of the apparent priestly mendacities — the two littlehalf-league-large islands which formed the three branchesor forks of the Relations, but placed by them sixty-fiveleagues farther down.
At the Natchez landing, eighteen leagues above the
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Houmas, a messenger was sent to apprise the chieftheir coming. He responded by sending his brother,escorted by twenty-five men, with the calumet of peaceand an invitation to the village. Climbing to the sum-mit of the steep bluff, then covered with magnificentforest trees, Iberville gazed upon the beautiful rurallandscape which he proposed affixing to the picturesquekingdom of France, — a landscape upon which afterwardsFrench rapine was to bring a washing of blood. It wasa country,” he says, “ of plains and prairies, filled withlittle hills and groves of trees, oaks some of them, withroads intercrossing from village to village and fromcabin to cabin, — a country resembling France not alittle.’’
Half way to the village the chief appeared, cere-moniously advancing, surrounded by his body-guard, — twenty large, well-made men. He was rather athin man, about five feet three or four inches tall, withan intelligent countenance, and, according to Iberville,he was the most absolute Indian monarch he, Iberville,had ever seen. At that time he was suffering from theflux which shortly afterwards killed him.
All the men of the tribe appeared to be handsomeand well-made, but they were very lazy, — very civil,but very lazy.
The village differed from the other villages visited,only in being handsomer and better built. The cabinof the chief stood eminent on a spacious mound tenfeet high ; facing it was the temple ; around, in an oval,were placed the cabins, enclosing a handsome o])ensj:>ace. A small running stream near by furnished thewater.
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Iberville found a letter there from Montigny, who hadreturned to his Tensas mission but three days before.The priest stated that he had visited all the cabins ofthe Natchez, about four hundred, scattered over eightleagues of country, along the course of the creek, andthat he had baptized one hundred and eighty children,from one to four years old.
Iberville presented the chief with a gun and ammuni-tion, a capote, a blanket, and the usual quantum ofhatchets, knives, beads, and small articles for distribu-tion. The chief presented the French officers each witha small white cross and a pearl, which, with the conscious-ness of the expectations in France founded upon pearlfisheries in Louisiana, Iberville treats with rather ungra-cious criticism. He remarks that the Natchez languagewas very different from the Houma, but that he was en-abled to converse with the chief through his brotherBienville, who was beginning to make himself understoodin Bayagoula, Houma, Chickasaw, and Colapissa.
Leaving Bienville and the rest of the party at theNatchez to get and pound corn for the expedition,Iberville set out with six men in one pirogue for thegreat village of the I'ensas, to make the other arrange-ments for the overland journey. A day and a halfbrought him to the Tensas landing. The pirogue, withtwo men, was left at the river, while Iberville with theother four struck out through the woods in search of thelake where they were to find pirogues to reach the village. But the guide lost his way, and the party, havingno provisions with them, passed a supperless night inthe woods. In the morning they were more successful.'Fhey discovered the lake, and in answer to their gun-
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shots, they found four Indians awaiting them with apirogue. The lake, a mere curving branch of water,cut off, at a distant date, through some caprice, by theMississippi, was not more than twelve miles long to amile and a half wide.^ Paddling through two leaguesof it, they reached at midday the village, — a group ofabout a hundred and twenty cabins, scattered along theshore, extending some six miles, the greater numberconcentrated towards that end of the lake which ap-proached nearer to the Mississippi, and opposite a smalloutlet, along which also were built some cabins. Thetribe at one time had been very numerous, but at thetime of Iberville’s visit, like all the Indian tribes he men-tions, seemed to be suffering a rapid and fatal decrease,and there were barely three hundred warriors left.
The missionary Montigny, fired with zeal by recentencouragement from his savage flock, was, with his twoFrench assistants, busy building a church and a dwellingfor himself, — indulging, no doubt, in those propheticvisions of the nearing dawn of Christianity, which musthave furnished the only roseate hue to the future horizonof such as he. But like too many of such visions, thiswas a baseless fabric, to be destroyed by a demonstra-tion of barbaric fanaticism which the French spectatorsrelate with horror.
1 The relative positions of Lake Tensas and the MississippiRiver furnish Thomassy (“Geologic Pratique de la Louisiane ”)with an important fact in favour of his argument on the gradualdisplacement of the river from the west to the east. In Fran-quelin’s map of the voyages of La Salle, 1684, Tensas Lake is rep-resented as communicating directly with the river. In 1700,Iberville found it one league to the west of the river. In 1S59,Thomassy placed it several miles to the west.
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A terrific storm broke out during the night. Light-ning struck the old temple, setting it afire. It was con-sumed entirely. With a readiness and certainty whichwould have done credit to his Christian competitor, thevenerable Indian patriarch who performed the functionsof high priest, attributed the disaster to divine wrath be-cause, after the recent demise of their king, the Tensas,under the teachings and infiuence of the French priest,and in obedience to their own satisfaction, had omittedthe human sacrifice enjoined by their religion. It wasthe opportunity of all others to crush a rival and restorea supremacy. Standing by the flames, raging throughthe elemental chaos of rain, wind, thunder, and light-ning, the savage interpreter of divine justice, raising hisvoice to a dominating distinctness, called repeatedly;“Women ! bring your children and offer them in sacri-fice to the Great Spirit to appease him ! Five devoteesresponded, and five pappooses, strapped in their swad-dling clothes, were thrown into the heart of the burningpile. Even in their primitive intelligence, this was re-garded as the supreme efibrt of human sacrifice, and thefive mothers from henceforth were sanctified and con-secrated in the community. Proud of his victory, theold priest led them in triumph to the cabin of the newking, where the old men of the village assembled to dothem honour, praising, caressing them, clothing them inwhite mantles woven from the fibre of the bark of themulberry-tree, and fastening long plumes in their hair.The adulatory attentions continued for eight days, dur-ing which, day and night, they sat in state before theking’s cabin, maintaining their publicity during the darkhours by singing aloud, and every afternoon formed the
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principal feature in the dedicatory services which wereto change the cabin into a temple. Iberville, who hadgone to the Mississippi to meet Bienville and his party,and so had missed the burning of the temple, returnedin time for the dedicatory ceremonies which took theform of a rude, symbolical representation of the recentdisaster and expiatory sacrificial act, — a sacrificial play,as it were.
Every afternoon of the eight days, about six o’clock,three youths, about twenty years of age, fetched a fagotapiece, which was thrown down before the door of thenew temple. The temple-keeper, an old man, wouldpile them into a pyre, and going into the temple, wouldreappear with a fagot of canes lighted from the sacredfire within. The patriarchal priest, observing from adistance, would then slowly advance with a solemn step,chanting, and beating an accompaniment with a stickupon a leathern cushion which he carried. He was fol-lowed by the five sacrificing mothers, bearing bundlesof wet moss. As the procession approached, the tem-ple-keeper applied his torch to the fagot-heap. Thepriest led the way, chanting three times around theblaze; the women then threw themselves upon it, andbeat it out with their bundles of wet moss. The priestthen led them to the river, where they bathed in public.Vanity seems to have grown also under the stimulant offaith, and to have become an accessory, if not before,after the fact; for during the ])rocession around the fire,Iberville detected symptoms of levity, and desire tolaugh and talk among the fair postulants, for which theold priest severely reprimanded them.
A pain in his knee that disabled Iberville from walk-
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ing, vetoed his being of the Red River expedition. Heconfided its command to Bienville. After seeing himstart oft' with his Ouachita guide, six Tensas, and twentyCanadians, he made his preparations to return to themouth of the river. Montigny, with his attendants andpossessions, accompanied him. Against such a mani-festation of diabolical interference and such a revival ofpagan zeal and enthusiasm as he had witnessed, themissionary felt powerless and hopeless. The Indianmedicine-man had completely routed him and his hu-mane doctrines. Among the Natchez, weather per-mitting, he calculated upon a more grateful harvest.
The Natchez chief lay dying, and in the great distressof his people, Iberville had no opportunity for consulta-tion about the stand to be taken against the English-inspired Chickasaws. But Tonty, who did not take hisdeparture until they reached the Houmas’ landing, wascharged with presents for the Tunicas and for theChickasaw chief, who was shortly to visit the Tunicas,and who was to be made to understand through theTunica missionary, Davion, that the French were a fix-ture at the mouth of the river, and that it would be notonly more profitable to trade with them than with theEnglish, but that in case of a hostile attitude by theChickasaws, the Indians of the lower country would bearmed with guns and united in one band against them.Iberville made a short stop at the Bayagoula village;leaving it at noon one day, he reached the fort thenext evening at nine o’clock, his bark canoe accomplish-ing the distance, one hundred and twenty-six miles, inthirty-three hours.
The work upon the fort had advanced but slowly,
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most of the men liaving been and being ill; the sowingsof corn and peas, however, had come up finely. Thenext day Iberville visited a little stream which ran to therear of the fort, hoping to find it a practicable passagethrough to his vessels in the Sound. He sent SieurDuguay with three men in a canoe to explore it, whilehe in a canoe with two men tried a portage two leaguesabove the fort, on which he had also ventured somehope. But he found it so difficult that he was obligedto give it up. He returned to the fort in a pretty hotfever, he says. The fever, continuing, retained him inthe insalubrious spot; and in fact it was this tropical ill-ness, caused by over- exertion and exposure, which madethe breach in the hardy Canadian’s constitution throughwhich death, in the same latitude, finally entered. Hesent to Sauvole for the bulls, cows, calves, hogs, fowls,to stock the new establishment, and for the other neces-sary provisions. In default of communicating bayou orportage, he chro'nicles with satisfaction that the transportbrought them from Ship Island through the mouth ofthe river safely and quickly in thirty-six hours. Thetransport also brought a budget of news from Biloxi andShip Island.
De la Riola, the governor of Pensacola, to imposeupon or intimidate the French, had paid a visit to ShipIsland and Biloxi in all the panoply of his power, ina frigate of twenty-four cannon and one hundred andforty men, accompanied by a smaller vessel of six can-non and forty men, and a sloop armed with six swivel-guns and twenty men. He had come, he majesticallyinformed the French commander, in pursuance of theorders of tlie Viceroy of Mexico, to drive the French
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away, supposing them to represent merely some tradingcommunity; but as they were, on the contrary, repre-sentatives of a crowned head, his orders* were not tomolest them.
Surgeres, Sauvole, the officers, and men proved equalto the occasion. The ponderous and unwelcome visitorswere received with honours, and regaled with a gener-osity that must have disappointed as well as astonishedthem. No Pensacola revelations of weakness, dissatis-faction, and misery took place at Ship Island or Biloxi.During the visit, which lasted four days, the garrisonwere kept in gala uniform and on gala rations. Tracesof sickness and privation were sedulously hidden; cornwas banished from sight; while the jealously guardedstores of wine and flour were lavished with contemptu-ous prodigality. Laughter and gayety flowed with theease and abundance of spontaneity from the highest tothe lowest, and for the nonce the little obscure anchor-ages gave a sparkle of that glitter which befitted a royalpost of that dazzling splendour, the Sun-King.
Despite his brilliant entertainment, however, theSpanish functionary, in taking leave, delivered a formalwritten protest against the establishment, which he saidthe French had made in the possessions of the king ofSpain, contrary to the good understanding which existedbetween the two Crowns; and he begged the French tomake no further settlements on that coast until he hadcommunicated with his Spanish Majesty, which he pur-posed to do directly. He sailed away as majestically ashe had arrived. But as a frugal ancestor of the Sun-King was fond of remarking, “Quand orgueuil marchedevant, dommage marche derriere.”
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It was seven days later, Surgeres had sailed toFrance, and De Ricoiiart, left in command of ShipIsland, beheld an open boat approaching from the sea.The figures of men in distress were made out in it. Itneared ; it landed; the figures were the late guests,
— the Spanish commander and two of his officers.Stripped to his vest, famishing with a five days’ hungerand thirst whetted rather than assuaged by one smallbit of chocolate, exhausted with five days’ unremittedlabour, and with want of sleep from a like period ofcombat with the mosquitoes, — De la Riola related hispitiful adventure. A gale had struck his fleet, and all
— frigate, smaller vessel, and sloop — had been ship-wrecked on Chandeleur Islands. Everything, even tothe wardrobes of the officers, had been lost.
Again the French were equal to the occasion, or, asDe Ricouart puts it, equal to the requirements of thehonour of France upon such occasions. Messengerswere despatched with the news to Pensacola; boatswere sent to rescue the miserable crews perishing onthe exposed sand-bars. Food, drink, and clothes wereprepared, and De la Riola himself was equipped, cap-a-pie, from the wardrobe of Iberville. Sauvole im-mediately made a visit of condolence, with offers ofservice and a present of handsome linen and a gun.De la Riola insisted upon departing at once and reliev-ing his hosts of the onerous charge of his entire equipage.But he was given to understand that he did the Frenchinjustice if he supposed he incommoded them in theleast, and he was so pressed to remain until he and hismen were completely refreshed and rested, that he con-sented. When he returned to Pensacola, part of the
crew were transported in French boats, and all wereprovided with three weeks’ refreshment.
At the fort, Iberville’s fever continued. He foundthat during high tide the water covered the land allaround him. A south wind and heavy rains increasedthe inundation until it was two feet deep. When itsubsided, the land was such a mass of mud that the mencould not walk upon it.
As soon as he was able, the sick commandant returnedthrough the passes to his vessel, reaching it on the 15thof April.
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CHAPTER VIII.
In the mean time, Bienville was prosecuting his jour-ney from the Tensas village to the limits of northwest-ern Louisiana. His journal is a fragment, a third ofit, the last part, being undecipherable from damage bywater; and it contains at best only a bare record ofdistance made; but a few extracts from it will give anidea what the journey was, and will also serve to intro-duce the journalist, who appears for the first time inthese Relations speaking in propria persona : —
“On the 22d of March I left the village at nine o’clockin the morning, with twenty-two Canadians, six Tensas,and one Ouachita. I marched all day in an overflowedcountry, the water half-way up the leg, or to the knees. Inthe evening I arrived at the bank of a little river aboutseventy paces wide and very deep, four and a half leaguesdistant, to the west, from the Tensas. I found there someOuachitas, with several pirogues partly loaded with salt.They were abandoning their village to go and live with theTensas. They had come from their home by little riversnavigable only in high water.
“23^^. In the morning I crossed the river in the pirogueof the Indians. A half league from there, towards the west,
I came to a river thirty paces wide, running north andsouth, whicli I had a great deal of trou-ble in crossing, notfinding wood to make rafts, on wliich to cross tlie baggage.”
lOI
They usually swam or waded the streams, pushingthe rafts before them, after firing off their guns to scareaway the alligators, for fear of their attacking them inthe water, which they find, en passant.^ very cold.
“The rain drove us to camp early. The Tensas de-serted on account of the bad roads and cold weather; theydo not like walking naked through the water.
“24/72, We set out at sunrise, the weather pretty cold.Three quarters of a league towards the west I came to twolittle rivers, which we crossed on trees that we threw overfrom one side to the other. Two leagues from there wecame to a beautiful dry prairie, ... at the end of whichwas a river about forty paces wide, with a strong currentand full of crocodiles. We crossed it with rafts. . . .
“25/^. . . . Marched all day through woods, prairies, andsavannas, always, without intermission, in water up to theknees, waist, and sometimes to the neck. A man of mediumheight is at great disadvantage in such countries. I seesome of my men with the water only up to their waists,while I and others are nearly swimming, pushing our bun-dles before us on rafts, to keep them from getting wet. Icamped at five o’clock in the evening, later than we wished,not finding any dry land except on the edge of a prairie,where there seemed to be good hunting, and where mymen killed a beef.
“26M. Remained in this good hunting place, where mymen killed three deer and twelve turkeys, very fat. The? bloody flux ’ attacked two of my men.
“27/A. Set out in the morning, leaving at the camp twosick men and a comrade to take care of them. A halfleague from the camp came to a river thirty-five paceswide. Crossed it with rafts. Two leagues from that riverwe came to another one twenty-five paces wide, whichwe also crossed. A quarter of a league from this river
102 .
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we came to a swamp a quarter of a league wide, which wecrossed as we did the river. The water was very cold.We camped near by, on the border of a little lake. I cal-culate that we have made to-day four leagues, west-south-west, and are very tired.
“28/^, Sunday. I arrived at the village of the Ouachi-tas. After having gone two leagues and a half towards thewest, we swam across a swamp five hundred paces broad,and traversed several prairies separated by strips of forest,and came to the village of the Ouachitas. This village ison the banks of the River Marne, or Sablonniere [RedRiver], or rather on a branch of it. There are not morethan five cabins there, and about seventy men. The riverin this place may be about one hundred and eighty paceswide, and with as much current as the Mississippi. Itseems to be deep. ... It rained all day.
2gik. Rained until mid-day, when I set out with aNatchito to guide me to his village. We crossed a river ^very broad and rather dry. From there we fell into a wetcountry, which lasted a league and a^ half. We came totwo little rivers very rapid, which we had to swim across ;the water in them was very cold. From there we traverseda swamp, at the end of which we met six Natchitocheswho were going to the Coroas to sell salt. The last rainsmake the road very difficult for us.
“31J/. Rained a part of the day. . . . Camped on theedge of a marsh. ... I am running short of provisions.Three of my men still continue to walk, but they have hadfevers for two days.
April I. Rained in torrents all night, and this morn-ing until ten o’clock. . . . Our guide made us make a verylarge detour to get around tlie swamp. . . . We crossed eightlittle rivers from ten to twelve paces wide, and very deep;
’ The journal says three leagues wide. Evidently a mistakeor an omission; probably three ciuarters of a league is meant.
103
we cut down trees for bridges; after which we came toseveral swamps and sloughs, in which the water came upto the waist and arm-pits. We walked until night withoutbeing able to find in all that time one arpent proper for acamping-ground. We see no traces of game, and are re-duced to two small, thin sagamities a day.
“7.d. Rained all night and until two o’clock in the day.We were only able to make a league and a half to-day, be-cause of the bad roads through the swamp; the water was ashi^h as the waist at least. We came to six little rivers thatwe had to cross on narrow trees at least two feet under thewater. The cane grows so thick in this country that wehad to force our way through, which fatigued us very much,having passed the two last nights in the rain, failing to findlarge trees from which to strip the bark for cabins. . . .
“3^. Rained all night in torrents.
“ith. A half league from our camp we came to a swamp,a quarter of a league wide, where there was no bottom atsix feet, and which was filled with wood, out of which wemade rafts to carry our clothes. We were all day in cross-ing it. The water was very cold, several of my men wereseized with the cold, and had to climb up in the trees andstay there to recover; four passed nearly the whole day upin them, until rafts were sent to fetch them away. My menand I were never so tired in our lives. . . . This is goodwork for tempering the fires of youth. But we never stopsinging and laughing, to show our guides that fatigue doesnot trouble us, and that we are different men from theSpaniards.
“6//^. We made three leagues and a half west-southwest,when we came to a large lake which we were obliged to goaround, making two leagues and a half south-southeast. . . .We came to two cabins of Natchitoches, who took to flighton seeing us. Our guide reassured them, and they came tous ; they were well treated. We can only get to their vil-
104
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lage (they have but two villages) in pirogues, on account ofthe overflow of the river.
“^th, I took two pirogues and left with the half of mymen, . . . and arrived at the village of the Souchitionys,where I was well received.”
He describes this village as consisting of fifteen cabinsin all. The river in front of it was very broad, filledwith driftwood, and four fathoms deep in the high water.
“I immediately sent the pirogues to fetch the rest ofmy men. . , . The Natchitoches are about a league distant,settled in cabins along Red River.
“8//^. All the men arrived. I put the Indians to workpounding corn.
“()th. Rained all day ; the women could not finish pound-ing the Indian corn. The warriors came to fetch me, andcarried me on their shoulders into a kind of hall coveredwith palmettos, where they were all assembled to sing thecalumet. I gave them and the chief of the Natchitochesa little present and a calumet of peace.
“loth. Rained all day; the chief promised me his son toconduct me to the Yataches.
“wth. Easter ; left in pirogues to get over three leaguesof bad country, north-northeast of the village. . . .
“12M. Left our pirogues, and marched by land oneleague north, where we found a large lake six leagueslong and a half league wide. . .
“13M. Crossed five little rivers, very close together,which flowed into this lake. Went to the north-north-east a league and a half, and fell upon a beaten track,which we followed, going five leagues and a half west-northwest through open forests and rivers, finding springsand good hunting ; deer and turkeys.
“14M. Continued to march. Came to a wooded swamp.
105
very deep, and so long that our guides said that we shouldhave to sleep four nights to get around it, but that about aleague to the south there were three cabins on the bank ofa river where there were pirogues. I put my men imme-diately to hollowing out a pirogue with our tomahawks.It was finished in five hours, large enough to hold sixmen, whom I sent to hunt for the Indian cabins and thepirogues. My men went hunting and killed six deer.
“i$th. My men returned, bringing me the three pi-rogues, in which we embarked; and having made fourleagues north-northeast, arrived on the other side of thelake, where we slept,
“i6th. Left our pirogues and marched the length of thelake on a ridge of fine country and forest, where we killed,walking along, five deer, and made three leagues and ahalf to the northwest, crossing several hills pretty high. . . .We fired several shots to notify the Indians on the otherside of a lake a league away, in the west-southwest. Fivemen came in a pirogue to discover who we were. Ourguide called them and made them come to us. I em-barked in their pirogue with two of my men, leavingthree Indians in my place. 1 went to their village,which was covered with water. They were living onscaffolds. There were fifteen cabins scattered aroundthere of the tribe of the Nakasas, who live on the banksof Red River. . . .
“ijth. I sent the pirogues for my men, who arrived atmidday. I set out immediately in two pirogue’s to go tothe Yataches, cutting across the woods the shortest way,the river having overflowed the country for two leagues’distance. Night overtook us opposite a little village ofthe Nakasas, — eight cabins on the left bank of RedRiver, where we slept. The river is a hundred and sixtypaces wide at this place, and has as much current as theMississippi.
“18M. Sent three pirogues to fetch the rest of my men.
o6
y?AJV BAPTISTE LE MOYNE,
There is not an arpent of land around these cabins thatis not overflowed. I found very little corn. . . .
“19M. My men arrived. It was too late to go to theYataches, which made the Indians very angry, makingus understand that they had no more corn to give us. . . .All the Indians about here are tattooed around the eyesand on the nose, with three stripes on the chin.
“'loth. We left in two old pirogues, the ends of whichwere stopped with earth; ... . followed the river, whichmakes several bends; . . . arrived at the village of theYataches. The cabins are scattered along the river forthe space of two leagues. Upon our arrival, the Indians,having heard from an Indian arrived a little before us,that we wished provisions and pirogues, had hidden theircorn and pirogues. I threatened them if they did not pro-vide us with them that I would remain there. I sent mymen, at the same time, through the cabins. From here tothe Caddodaquios, in summer, they calculate it as only twodays’ journey.
“2IJ-/. The Indians giving me to understand that theywould give me the pirogues and provisions, to procuregreater diligence I sent a man into each cabin with beadsand other trifles to get the corn pounded promptly, andI went with two men in a pirogue to search for otherpirogues the length of the river. I only found three,which I bought with two hatchets apiece. The waterfell to-day two feet. I went into forty different cabinsthe length of the river.
“lid. Embarked for the Caddodaquios, who are north-west from here. Although the Indians tell me that it willtake ten days and ten nights to get there by the river, Icannot believe it, as it is only two days’ journey by land,on which I cannot travel, on account of the high water;but being once started, the guides, seeing me determinedto go there, will, as they have done in several places, tellme the truth about the distance. . . .”
The Indians persisting in their assurance that it wouldtake ten days and ten nights to reach the Caddodaquios,and as the current in the river was very strong, and hehad only twenty days left to the date at which he was dueat the vessels, besides several of his men being disabledfrom maladies resulting from their exposure and fatigue,Bienville adopted the resolution of turning back, and notendeavoring to reach the limit of the Spanish posses-sions. He was enabled, however, from questioning theIndians, to form an idea of what these possessions were,and where they were. Several Caddodaquios, a Naova-diche, and a Nadaco, whom he talked to, had been toa Spanish settlement five leagues and a half to the westof the Caddodaquios village, where there were white,black, and mulatto men, women, and children engagedin cultivating the land. This settlement was near thevillage of the Naovadiches. The Indians said that theSpaniards often came to the Caddodaquios on horse-back, to the number of thirty or forty, but that theynever slept there. Bienville applied himself particularlyto finding out if the Spaniards had any mines aboutthere, or dug in the earth for silver. He was told no,that they only raised corn, that they had money like thepieces Bienville showed them, that they staked it oncards, some of them stamping their feet and tearingthe cards up when they lost.
On the 23d of April the party began to descendRed River in four pirogues. After this the journalbecomes unintelligible. Cutting across the country,the party struck the banks of the Mississippi on thenth of May. Here continual rain arrested them fourdays, and they had to give three days to hunting, being
I08 JEAN BAPTISTE^ LE MOYNE,
entirely out of provisions. On the i8th of May theyarrived at the ships.
Iberville mentions that they brought the news offurther infractions of the peace so recently sworn bytheir allies. The Bayagoulas had arisen and massacredtheir village associates, the Mongoulachas, whose emptycabins and dispossessed fields had been filled by an im-portation of Colapissas and Sioux. Iberville says thatthe event gives him a good title to the greater portion ofthe Bayagoula village, for it belonged to the Mongou-lacha chief, who sold it to him, Iberville, with all hisother villages near the sea
Montigny and Davion, arriving about the same time,brought further disquieting confirmation of the tamper-ings of the English with the Indians to the north of theFrench; and Tonty wrote of the efforts he had madein carrying out Iberville’s purpose to frustrate thesetamperings, by extolling the superior trading advantagesthe French could offer to these same Indians over theEnglish.
Iberville made one more visit to his new fort on theMississippi, to regulate, as he said, a great many affairsthere.
Putting Bienville in command, he returned to ShipIsland, and sailed for France on the 28th of May.Montigny, the priest, sailed with him.
log
CHAPTER IX.
1700-1701.
Bienville received no written instructions from Iber-ville, as Sauvole did, and he seems to have made onlyverbal reports. But notwithstanding there is no refer-ence to, or publication of, any written correspondencebetween the brothers, one is made aware that even atthis time there did exist between them, as between allthe Canadians engaged in the Louisiana enterprise,private communication of some sort for the distribu-tion of intelligence, and a tacit agreement as to thefurtherance of their policy or what the French calledtheir projects. The governor of Canada openly ac-cused them of such a combination, which the Frenchofficers sent at different times to the colony, consecratedtheir small energies to denounce and thwart, althoughoffering no better substitute by their own conduct.
As has been said, Bienville kept no journal; butglimpses are obtained of him in his handsomely desig-nated fort of the Mississippi by the casual mention ofothers. Sauvole gives us the laconic statement of himthat he had great trouble to subsist there. FatherGravier, of the Society of Jesus, who came there in1701 from his post among the Illinois, to assist Fatherdu Rhu (a Jesuit brought from France by Iberville),
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makes a pen picture of the place which gives amplejustification to Sauvole’s comment; and this was beforethe fever came, with its contribution of distress. Thispicture of what was accomplished, forms an interesting“pendant ” to Iberville’s letter to the Minister of Ma-rine, written on the same spot, detailing what he in-tended to accomplish.
“There is no fort,” writes Gravier, “nor bastion, in-trenchment, nor redoubt; all consists of a battery of sixguns, six and eight pounders, on the brow of the bluff, andof five or six cabins separate from each other, and coveredwith palm-leaves. M. de Bienville has quite a nice littlehouse there. I perceived on arriving that they began tocry famine, and that the breadstuffs began to run out, — which obliged me to take to Indian food, so as to be aburden to none, and to put up with corn, without meat orfish, till the vessels come, which are hardly expected beforethe end of March. . . . The wheat which had been plantedhere was already quite high when the inundations causedby a furious swell of the sea in August swept it away. Thegarden was hardly more successful, besides there being agreat quantity of black snakes that ate the lettuces andother vegetables to the root. . . . The high waters overflowso furiously here that they have been four months in thewater, often knee-deep outside their cabins, although theIndians had assured them that the place was never inun-dated. . . . They could not make the first settlement in aspot where there are more mosquitoes than here. Theyare here almost the whole year. In sooth, they have givenus but little truce for seven or eight days ; at this momentthey sting me in close ranks; and in the month of Decem-ber, when you ought not to be troubled by them, there wassuch a furious quantity that I could not write a word with-out having my hands and face covered, and it was impos-
Ill
sible for me to sleep the whole night. They stung me soin one eye that I thought I should lose it. The French ofthis fort told me that from the month of March there issuch a prodigious quantity of them that the air was dark-ened with them, and that they could not distinguish eachother ten paces apart. . . . The arrival of the vessels isexpected from day to day.
“As for Fort Biloxi,” he goes on to say, “besides theair being better and the country more open, all kinds ofgarden vegetables can be raised there; deer are near, andhunting good ; and to temper the heat, every day, an houror two before noon, there comes from the sea a breeze thatcools the air. Only the water is not very good; it is alittle spring that supplies them, for that of the bay is morethan brackish, and is not drinkable. There are more thana hundred and twenty men in the fort.”
The superiority of his condition over that of Bienvilledoes not seem to have been much of a solace to Sau-vole, — at least it does not appear so in his journal. Hecomplains of the state of scarcity before the arrival ofrelief from France ; and in fact he seems to have sufferednot only for lack of food, drink, health, and peace, butfor lack of everything that could have made such a lotbearable to such a man.
He struggled manfully through the instructions left byIberville. St. Denis, with twelve Canadians, was sent tocontinue the exploration of the Red River country, withorders to push as far towards the west — consequentlyas close to New Mexico — as possible, where it wasthought, if anywhere in Louisiana, gold and silver mineswere to be found. A Spaniard was to guide the party,and Indians on the route, hostile to the Spaniards, were
12
y?AJV BAPTISTE LE MOYNE,
to be carefully conciliated. Maps were to be made ofthe country, and any mines discovered (it is presumedno matter how near the Spanish lines), were to be im-mediately taken possession of, in the name of the kingof France. Other work was provided in abundance forBiloxi, — the testing of the durability of the differentforest woods, charred and uncharred, in the waters ofthe bay; the gathering of pearls and of buffalo wool; ^the Mobile River was to be explored, and a visit ofreconnoissance made to the much-talked-of Choctaws.But Sauvole found, as the summer came on, anotherand different programme laid down for him by a com-mander fully as arbitrary as Iberville.
He chronicles once and awhile some little episodethat makes a pleasant interpolation in the general monot-ony of his complaints. The Tohomes and MobileIndians had come to ask help and protection in someof their inter-tribal disputes, and had gained both byfurnishing supplies of corn. These savages describedthe lands lying along their river, the Mobile, as beingthe finest in the country, and expressed an ardent de-sire that the French should establish themselves uponthem, being, of course, on bad terms with the Spaniards,who had killed one of their men.
The long-expected vessel, the “Enflammee,” at lengtharrived, the last of May; but she appears to havebrought only transitory relief, for a transport was sentnot long afterwards to St. Domingo for both food andmedicine.
^ There was an idea, emanating from France, of herding thebuffaloes in pens near Hiloxi, and domesticating them for theirwool.
SIEUR DE BIENVILLE.
II3
Among the passengers of the Enflamme'e ” was oneof the products of that sensational age, — MathieuSagean, a growth of the Hennepin order, although, be-ing a mere hedonist, a more harmless specimen. Hisstory, a fantastically wondrous one, of a voyage up theMississippi some twenty years before, and of his discov-eries thereupon of strange countries, peoples, customs,and treasures of precious stones and wealth galore, hadfound credence with Pontchartrain, who consigned himand a manuscript copy of his inventions forthwith toSauvole, with stringent orders to furnish twenty-fourpirogues and one hundred Canadians, and expedite theglowing author with all haste into his realm of fancy.The Canadians, who knew their America better thanPontchartrain did his man, denounced the flimsy impos-ture to Sauvole, who also drew his own conclusions fromthe manuscript. Pontchartrain’s orders were obeyed asto the making of the pirogues, but haste was otherwisemade very slowly; Sagean,” writes Sauvole, in thehumour of the situation, “ acting the impatient all thetime over the delay, convinced that if a start is notmade by September, he will be forced, on account of theice, to pass his winter with the Illinois.” Shortly after-wards the arrival of Tonty is recorded. The rainyseason set in, and sickness was not long in making itsappearance, reaching its worst about the ist of July, andattacking particularly the Canadians, who were never-theless not a whit more orderly on that account. Sauvolewaxes indignant over their mutinous conduct and indis-position to work. I give my assurance that for theleast task I have to go myself and get them out of their
beds, and I dare not quit them until they have finished
8
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what I wish accomplished.” Such men, he says, costtoo much ; and although he recognizes their vivacity,strength, and quickness when the task pleases them,French hirelings would be preferable. An Englishman,settled among the Chickasaws, had been killed andplundered by Canadian voyageurs; three Canadians,travelling in Carolina, had, on the contrary, been well re-ceived by the English. Le Sueur arrived from the coun-try of the Sioux with the feluccas Iberville had loanedhim, loaded with green earth from his mine, andseveral specimens of copper, which he shipped toFrance on the Enflamme'e.” Sauvole cites this suc-cess with his Frenchmen in favour of the advantagesof French against Canadian labour.
Sauvole charged the priests going up the river to theirmission work among the Natchez, to buy and sendcorn to him, and also to send an invitation to FatherMarest to come down the river from his station amongthe Illinois, and assist in the work of the new settle-ment. The Jesuit Du Rhu, instead of endeavouring toalleviate the general moral and physical discomfort,seems to have made use of his spiritual powers in justthe opposite effort, showing himself,” Sauvole writes,on this, as on other occasions, of a frivolous, unaccom-modating character, getting into trouble with all theofficers, without being able to stand the least remon-strance, to such a degree, even, that to revenge himself(for such a remonstrance, presumably) he tried to drawthe men away from the obedience due him, Sauvole.
The Enflammt^e ” sailed for France. The transport,which had been sent to St. Domingo for food andmedicine, brouglit only twenty-two barrels of Hour, and
a few of wine, — a supply which could not go far, partic-ularly in the overplus of men in the fort. Canadianvoyageurs, to the number of sixty, had travelled downthe river to the fort, with their accumulations of peltry,in hopes of trade and refreshment of their rude neces-sities ; but Sauvole, obeying the orders dictated by thegrowing jealousy and discontent of Canada towards thenew colony, would not allow them to ship one hair bythe “Enfiammee.” They paid, Sauvole says, their tri-bute to the epidemic, and although they did not deserveit, he could not help succouring them.
Sauvole himself paid his tribute also to the epidemic.His last entry in the journal is dated Aug. 4, 1701. Asimple paragraph by La Harpe and a curt mention byIberville record that he died just eighteen days after-wards, on the 2 2d of August. One wishes some, ifeven conventional, term of regret or esteem for theyoung commander, some testimony to his appearanceand character, if not to his work and influence; but hisown fragmentary journals and one commendatory sen-tence by Iberville are all that remain to fix the person-ality of the young ensign of the Marin,” the relativeof M. de Polastron, commandant of St. Malo,” whomwe call the first governor of Louisiana. Bienville imme-diately left the fort of the Mississippi to take commandat Biloxi; Iberville carried his fever with him to France.It hung upon him some time in La Rochelle, delayinghis report to the Minister of Marine. In January, 1701,he was in Paris three weeks, personally pushing theaffairs of his establishment, and working upon a paperwhich, if its argument had succeeded with the Frenchand Spanish Governments, would have placed those
affairs indeed in a promising light, and changed the his-tory of the Gulf of Mexico. From the Spanish Govern-ment he wished to obtain the cession of Pensacola, andfrom the French such a regular system of fortificationand arming of Indians along the Mississippi and itstributaries as would hold them beyond peradventure toFrance, and establish a solid bulwark of French domina-tion straight through the continent from Canada to theGulf of Mexico, — a bulwark which, while it would barthe West to the English, would furnish such a vantage-ground of aggression into the East that it would be amere question of time when they, the English, wouldbe confined to a thin strip along the Atlantic coast.
Whether Iberville, with his keen sagacity, saw thatCanada was a foredoomed loss to France and gain toEngland, and he consequently sought to create an equiva-lent and counterpoise in the erection and solidificationof a French, or at least French and Spanish, power inthe southern end of the continent; whether he reallydreaded the encroachments of the English upon Alabamaand Florida; the inability of the Spaniards to hold them,and their gradual yielding to the English, who, by push-ing west and south, could close in around the Frenchpossessions of Louisiana until they would be left hang-ing, as it were, from Canada upon the thread of theMississippi, a thread which could at any moment besevered in a score of places by the English or An-glo-Indians ; whether, in short, Iberville was loyallyminded to the Spaniards, or, holding the Gulf, as heclaimed, from La Salle’s bay, on the coast of Texas, toMobile in Alabama, with the intermediary mouth of theMississippi and the good anchorage of Ship Island, he
sought by specious reasons to obtain from the Frenchking of Spain Pensacola, which would not only extendthe French coast-line, but guarantee the French domi-nation over the Gulf of Mexico and supervision of theroute of the Spanish galleons, and furnish a latch-key toVera Cruz, — whether, as has been said, Iberville wasloyally minded to the Spaniards, or intended to enacttowards them the rok of the English towards the Frenchin Canada, is a question to be decided when his own lifeis written.
His paper was submitted to the king of Spain, whoin his turn submitted it to the Junta of War and the In-dies. The Junta, however, far from being convinced bythe Canadian’s careful enumeration and recapitulationof the reasons why Spain could not hold her possessionsagainst the English, and of the great profit to be gainedby ceding them to France, not only negatived the wholeproposition, but characterized Iberville’s possession ofthe mouth of the Mississippi as an usurpation, and ad-vised the offering to him and his men the simple choiceof changing their allegiance to the Crown of Spain, or ofbeing driven out as adventurers and interlopers, appeal-ing to the indisputable investiture accorded to themonarchy of Spain in the New World by the bull ofAlexander VI. Pending the negotiation, Iberville loadedhis frigate, the “Renommee,” with the necessary suppliesfor Biloxi and the fort of the Mississippi, and made amemorandum for the Minister of Marine of what wouldbe required for the proper arming and fortification ofPensacola, should the Spanish Government consent to itscession. Should it not consent, — which Iberville sayswould be an act of obstinacy on its part, and of great
Il8 y?AJV BAPTISTE LE MOYNE,
ignorance, for the English, with the aid of the inlandIndians, would not fail to drive the Spaniards out ofFlorida, — he intended to erect a fortification at MobileBay, make peace with the Chickasaws, and arm themagainst the Indians. It was this latter alternative whichhe was forced to adopt.
After waiting the utmost limit of time for the return ofthe “Enflamme'e,” and the no less overdue answer fromSpain, he received orders from Versailles for immediatesailing.
On this voyage Iberville was accompanied by his fifthbrother and closest emulator in the family and his ablecoadjutor in the Hudson Bay expedition, Le Moyne deSerigny, lieutenant of marine in command of the “Pal-mier.” On the 15 th of December they arrived beforePensacola, which the relaxing vigilance of the Spaniardspermitted them to enter. De la Riola was absent inVera Cruz ; but his sergeant-major came on board to payhis respects, and announced the death of Sauvole.
Iberville in his turn announced the succession of theDuke of Anjou to the throne of Spain, — intelligencewhich was received with great joy.
A boat was despatched to Biloxi with orders for Bien-ville at once to transport himself to Mobile with menand materials necessary to make an establishment there.Serigny and Chateauguay took over from Pensacolaprovisions, materials, and eighty men from the equipageof the Renommee ” and “Palmier ” in small boats.With them went over at the same time to Mobile the Sieurde la Salle, a relation of the great explorer, and one ofthe first discoverers, he claims, of the Mississippi. Ap-])ointed royal commissary of the colony, he turned out
II9
eventually, as will be seen, a royal mischief-maker.Iberville himself was unable to go to Mobile, being con-fined to his bed, ever since leaving St. Domingo, with anabscess in his side for which he had to submit to anoperation that caused him great suffering. His activity,however, seems little diminished thereby. Every day ofhis journal is well filled with previsional and provisionalorders and instructions, — building magazines for theroyal property on Massacre Island; locating the newestablishment on Mobile River, “ sixteen leagues fromMassacre Island at the second bluff,” he writes to Bien-ville ; sending constant reinforcements of workmen fromhis crew; directing the building of flat boats to lighterthe freighted barges through Mobile Bay; sendingTontywith ambassadorial powers to the Chickasaws and Choc-taws ; and lending one of his boats to the Spaniards tosend to Vera Cruz for relief. Pensacola was in its nor-mal state of misery ; Iberville writes that it could not begreater. The long-due ship of provisions from Vera Cruzwas feared to be lost; the garrison was utterly destituteof food, clothing, and money. Of the one hundred andeighty men composing it, sixty were convicts, and they,Iberville says,were the better men ; all were discontented,and desertions were of daily occurrence. When theFrench ships arrived, the governor and officers wereworn out, having been on foot night and day from anindefinitely protracted apprehension of a mutiny.
20
y?AjV BAPTISTE LE MOYNE,
CHAPTER X.
Bienville’s garrison at Biloxi was in no better condi-tion physically than the Spanish garrison at Pensacola.One half of the men were actually ill or convalescent,and all. were in dire distress for want of food, havinghad no other subsistence for three months than thesmall quantities of corn that could be bought frq.m theIndians, and what game the hunters could kill. Bien-ville mustered a force of forty for the work at Mobile,where he, with his brothers Serigny and Chateauguay,displayed the same activity in executing Iberville’sorders that the latter did in issuing them.
Tents were erected on Massacre Island, and maga-zines hastily constructed to receive the provisions andgoods discharged from the transports, while work wasbegun upon the fort and magazines at Mobile. All themen and material were landed at the first place, and fer-ried over to their final port, the shallows in the channelnot permitting the free entrance of the vessels themselvesinto the bay. In reading of the contrarieties of wind andtide that befell them, of the sand-banks and shifting chan-nels, of the tedious and never-ceasing work of trans-portation, and of the unavoidable accidents and mishapsattending it, — one is not surprised at the recurring long-ing of the French and their increasing admiration forthe commodious and easily accessible harbour ofPensacola.
I2I
Iberville’s wound healing in the course of twomonths, he was able to sail over to Mobile in the“Palmier,” carrying the last instalment of provisions.One Spanish pilot had told him of a channel betweenMassacre Island and the little island to the south of it,Pelican Island. As soon as the wind permitted, he foundthis channel, and easily carried the Palmier ’’through itover the bar, and anchored in Mobile Harbour, which hepraises as having a depth of thirty feet, and protectionfrom north and south wind. The channel, he wrote,although difficult of entrance, would be easy to defend;but he was not sure that a south wind might not shiftthe bar at the mouth, — which really occurred some tenyears afterwards, practically closing it.
He found the transport, under command of M. deMarigny, engaged in trips between Biloxi and Mobile,stranded on the shore, where it had been driven fromits anchors by a south wind. After working at it forsome time, he left it to await relief from a high tide. AtMassacre Island he sharply and promptly defined M. dela Salle’s duties and position for him, the royal commis-sary having begun the exercise of his functions withmore zeal than discretion; Iberville explaining that hedid not wish affairs to come to the same pass as duringthe administration of M. de Sauvole, when the com-missary pretended to command everything and every-body, even to the commander himself. He put agarde magazin in charge of the stores, who was todeliver goods to M. de la Salle upon an order fromthe commander. Crossing the bay, he entered themouth of the river, and ascended it to the site of thenew establishment, where he found Bienville busily at
T 22
yEA.V BAPTISTE LE MOYNE,
work clearing the forests, building the fort and a hugeflat-bottomed boat, which was to do ferriage duty be-tween Mobile and Massacre Island.
Iberville speaks with pleasure of the beautiful natureof the country, of the high banks, the magnificentforests of valuable trees, — white and red oak, laurel,sassafras, and nut trees, and particularly the* pines, thefinest mast-timber in the world. He ordered a mastcut for the Palmier,” which had lost hers in a thunder-storm off St. Domingo.
Bienville was sent to explore the Mobile River, begin-ning with the little islands that studded its mouth. Hefound upon them only abandoned habitations of Indiansdriven away by the same war against the Conchaquesand Alabamas, which had scattered so many of its evi-dences over the beautiful country. The guide showedBienville the island which held concealed the figures ofthe ancient gods, renowned among all the tribes round-about, — the gods to whom the Mobilians used to comeyearly with sacrificial offerings. The myth was that theyhad descended from heaven, and to touch them was tosuffer the penalty of instant death. It took no less abribe than a gem to induce the Indian guide to revealthe site of the destroyed sanctuary. He did it by walk-ing backwards, and would not approach nearer than tenpaces.
Bienville searched until he found the figures on ahillock near the village, among the canes. There werefive of them, — a bear, an owl, a man, a woman, and achild, made of plaster, the three latter fiishioned in thesimilitude of the Indians of tliat country. Bienvillebrought them to Iberville, who thought them to be the
123
work of some of De Soto’s Spaniards. He kept them byhim and took them to France with him, — ? much to thesurprise of the Indians, who could not account for histemerity or continuance in life.
Six leagues above the new establishment were theMobile Indians; two leagues above them the Tohomes,or “little chief” Indians. Their villages were spread outover both banks and the islands of the river, in clustersof from four to twelve cabins or families. Most of theirland overflowed during high water for a period of aboutten days.
At the time of the settlement of the French, the twotribes numbered only about three hundred and fiftymen; but the many deserted habitations all aroundspoke of an epoch when the river flowed through athick population of them, — an epoch which the Frenchcould but regret, for they appear most estimable inthe accounts of Iberville : a laborious, frugal people,cultivating their lands industriously, and keeping uptheir peaceful intercourse one with another by meansof cleared roads through the forests from village to vil-lage. They it was who furnished the granaries of theFrench for years, and indeed proved their mainstayduring the famines which the uncertain communicationswith France inflicted periodically upon the colonists.
The famines of the French were, however, periodicand temporary, and, as they say, they could alwaysmanage; the hunger of the Spaniards was chronic, andthey seem to have had no resource but borrowing fromthe French, who were thus, from the time of their settle-ment in the country, kept in the embarrassing positionof having to grant politically and courteously what they
124 y^AJV BAPT/S7'E LE MOYNE,
detested granting at all, and so of maintaining for yearsa rival whom they despised, in a locality they coveted, — a locality of which, without the charity of the French,famine would have time and time a^ain forced the aban-donment. Iberville’s journal records that althoughfifty barrels of flour had already been given to him, thegovernor of Pensacola now wrote asking for more pro-visions, — in fact, Iberville says the Spaniards lived uponhim for two months. The journal omits none of thedetails that fill up the thoughts and days of the busygovernor, — sending the boats to buy corn of theTohomes and Mobilians ; the rain; the return of theboats ; the laying out of the prospective city. Fourdays were consumed in aligning the streets and inmaking allotments. M. de la Salle, the notary, andthe four families brought from France, were providedfor, and the latter put to clearing land. The tannerwhom Iberville had also brought from France, wanderedimprudently in the woods, and lost his way. The usualsearch was made, with no results. Fifteen days later, ahunter discovered the unfortunate wretch sitting at thefoot of a tree on a beautiful bank near a trench he haddug, at the head of which he had erected a cross bear-ing the history of his tragic adventure. He no longerresembled a man, the journal says, having for twelvedays had no food but water.
One day, some forerunners from Tonty announcedhis speedy arrival with four Choctaw chiefs and threenotable Chickasaw warriors; and all other interests sub-sided in that of preparing an effective reception forthem. The ]:>arty arrived at night. By eight o’clockthe next morning the presents for the two great rival
125
savage powers were selected and exposed ; two hun-dred pounds of powder, two hundred and eight poundsof balls, two hundred pounds of bird-shot, twelve guns,one hundred hatchets, one hundred and fifty knives,with caldrons, beads, flints, awls, and other importantarticles to the Indians, that swelled the total to a con-siderable and tempting bait. With it before their eyes,the Indians seem to have experienced little difficulty incoming to terms with the donors. Iberville assembledthem in a solemn conclave, and with Bienville as inter-preter, made them a speech exposing with franknessthe policy he intended adopting towards them, butgrinding his lens to suit their simple eyes. He paintedthe insidious designs of the English, arming tribe againsttribe, until the extermination of its natural defendersleft the country at their mercy. He counted up beforethem the number of Indians who had been killed, andthe still more unfortunate ones, the prisoners, sold intoslavery by the English. He told them, he says, severalother things also calculated to destroy their estimationof the English, and insure their driving them out.
Ner contra^ he made the eulogium of the French, andpainted the glittering benefits to be derived by the In-dians from their friendship, — trade and merchandise,justice and protection without stint, and above all, nomore bloody inter-tribal wars. Should obtuseness orcraft of Indians or English defeat the arguments thuseloquently coloured, should the Chickasaws eventually not-become friends of the French and enemies of the Eng-lish, Iberville threatened the representatives of that tribein his presence with the arming' of the Choctaws, To-homes, and Mobilians, as he had already armed the
126 JEAN BAPTISTE LE MOYNE,
Natchez against them ; and also, instead of arresting,to excite the Illinois in their war against them. TheChickasaws, far from proving obtuse to bribe, argument,and menace, were, on the contrary, most amenable.They promised all that was required against the Eng-lish, buried the hatchet with the Choctaws, and with theFrench formed all the alliance necessary to acquirethe cement of so goodly an array of presents.
Iberville, elated, computed that this treaty was goodto the Crown of France for at least two thousand Chicka-saws, of whom seven or eight hundred were armed, andfor about four thousand Choctaws. He set himself atonce to ratify his share of the articles of it. Five Cana-dians were sent, with the returning Choctaw chiefs, upthe Mobile River to the spot where Iberville had prom-ised to locate a trading-station; and three Canadianswere sent, with two of the Chickasaws, to the Illinois, todemand of them the return of their Chickasaw prisonersand to acquaint them that Iberville had buried the hat-chet which the governor of Canada had told them toraise against the Chaouanons, allies of the Chickasaws.Letters were also sent by these last messengers to theVicar-general of Quebec, Bishop St. Vallier, then at theTamaroas, praying that missionaries might be sent imme-diately among the Chickasaws and Choctaws, to assureand maintain, not their spiritual condition, but theirgood disposition to the French.
There was but six months’ supply of provisions onhand in the stores of the garrison. As there was littleprospect of relief from France, and as the governor ofPensacola confessed there was none of his being able toreturn the French loans to him, Iberville gave Bienville
127
an order to send to St. Domingo for what was necessary.On the last day of March, 1702, he left the anchorageof Massacre Island and sailed to the harbour of Pensa-cola, where the Renomm^e ” lay waiting for him. Hiscolony and his brother never saw him again.
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;yEAjV BAPTISTE LE MOYNE,
CHAPTER XI.
1702-1704.
Fort St. Louis de la Mobile, the headquarters ofBienville, became the capital of the new French domin-ion, and the young man of twenty-two the chief execu-tive, virtually the first governor, of Louisiana, — a namethat then covered three States and a half. Even in the re-duced extent to which the royal names are now limited,the office of governor has never been eminently dis-tinguished for ease of administration or laurel-leavedemoluments. But while every holder of it since Bien-ville (with the usual necessary notable exceptions in thenear past) has commended himself to the hearty sym-pathy, if not to the admiration, of the impartial observer,not one of them is more deserving the meed of compas-sion than this tyro official, wrestling with the English andIndians, and cajoling the Spaniards, for the territory heoccupied, fighting the suspicion, distrust, and calumny ofthose beneath him for the authority he exercised. Ward-ing off famine and disease with one hand, controlling andguiding his leash of turbulent Canadians with the other,dismissed twice from office, with, for thanks, the acquittalof a Scotch verdict, he nevertheless seems to have con-ducted his administration through the torpid encourage-ment of his superior, and active insults of his inferiors, withthe same stolidity of determination with which he con-
129
ducted his pioneers through the freezing swamps of theRed River country. And it may be added that he left solittle mark upon the written history of the State he made,that suspicion points to some obliteration or destructionof record by those who, to secure the future working oftheir malevolence, usurped the natural privilege of time.
According to the understanding of Iberville, basedupon information obtained from the Indians themselvesand from bands of reconnoitring Canadians, the loca-tion of the different tribes surrounding Mobile wasroughly as follows : Nearest, on the Mobile River, ashas been stated, the Tohomes and Mobilians, aboutthree hundred and fifty families. To the northwest ofthese, between the Tombigbee and the Mississippi, laythe villages of the Choctaws, about four thousand fami-lies. North of the Choctaws were the Chickasaws, lesspowerful than the former in point of numbers, but fiercer,more unmanageable, and infinitely more to be dreaded,as they proved to the French. Northeast from Mobile,on the Alabama River, lived the Alabamas, four hundredfamilies strong. On the Apalachicola River were thelands of the Conchaques, whom the Spaniards calledApalachicolas, — a tribe once subdued by them, butwhich, under the harassing depredations of EnglishIndians, were being divided and scattered, some fami-lies seeking refuge with the French, others going overto their foes and establishing themselves in Carolina.
Bienville immediately applied himself to manipulatingthese warring, discordant savage elements into someefficient organization for the French, directing presentsand caresses, menaces and punishment, with his unfail-ing accuracy of judgment in Indian affairs. Patiently
9
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and deftly he worked ; but he had foes fully as deft, ifless patient, than he, who could underwork ; and he neversaw his Indian levee of protection nearing completion,but some crayfish-hole in an unexpected quarter wouldagain let in the floods of war, and his edifice be threat-ened with demolition; the English proving themselvesnot all Captain Banks in Louisiana affairs.
Ravaging inroads were equipped from Carolina intothe French and Spanish Indians’ villages and cornfields,and harvest after harvest was destroyed with well-timedruthlessness. The news of the War of the Spanish Suc-cession developed the secret into open machinations,and the Southern Colonial English received a contribu-tion from their Government of a fleet, which, hoveringlike a threatening cloud over the sea-board of Floridaand Louisiana, kept the Spanish and French stations ina tense state of apprehension.
The Spaniards, as ill-provided with munitions of waras with food, knew no better defence than to shut them-selves in their strongholds and send out urgent appealsto Havana, Vera Cruz, Bienville, — the latter generallythe transmitter of the appeals to the two places. Hardlya month passed that Fort St. Louis saw not some barkspeeding through the waters of the river bearing someSpanish officer, from St. Augustine, Apalachicola, orPensacola, with his message of dire emergency ; and theyoung commander was forced to respond with men,provisions, arms, or boats, and the case was a tax forwhich his garrison and stores were poorly provided.Like Iberville, he wrote to the minister that, truthfully,had it not been for him, the Spaniards would have beenmore than once forced to abandon their possessions.
I31
And along the Mississippi, wherever an English tradercould insinuate himself, tribes broke into revolt, and thetorch of war, so carefully extinguished by the French,would be re-lighted, and bloody destruction spread fromvillage to village; the missionaries and their attendantsfurnishing always the first victims. And almost as of-ten as the Spanish barks, there would come, hurryingover the rough waters of the Gulf, long-pointed cypresspirogues from the river country, bearing appeals forfood and protection, with news of terrifying fears ormore terrifying realities from the roused savages, notinfrequently fetching a load of wounded, discouragedpastors fleeing from missions where their sheep hadturned into ravening wolves. So came Father Davion,fleeing from the Tunicas, bearing the story of the assas-sination of the aged priest Foucault and his attendantsby their Coroas guides as they were peacefully descend-ing the river to visit Mobile.
Bienville intrusted the punishment of the Coroas tothe Arkansas, who gladly undertook it, while he pre-pared to inflict upon the Alabamas what they meritedfor an act of treachery which had incensed the wholecolony. Notwithstanding the peace solemnly sworn andratified between them, they were induced by the Eng-lish (so the French say) not only to raise the hatchetagainst the new colony, but to do so with a predeter-mined ruse.
Some of their chiefs came to the fort with such plaus-ible stories of the plenteousness of corn with them andtheir neighbours that Bienville, as anticipated in his con- ?stant scarcity of food, gladly accepted the opportunityof purchasing of them. When they returned, he sent
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five men, four Frenchmen and one Canadian, with themfor this purpose. After a lapse of some weeks the Cana-dian alone came back to relate tlie success of the savagestratagem. The party, it seems, beguiling their journeywith pleasant visits to near-lying Indian villages, had, inperfect cordiality and good-will, travelled to within twodays of the Alabama village. Here the chiefs beggedthe white men to remain while they went in advanceto notify their people, so that a suitable reception couldbe prepared. That night, while the white men slept,the Indians returned, and succeeded in tomahawkingfour of them. The Canadian escaped by leaping intothe river and swimming for his life under a shower ofbullets fired after him. A hatchet, sent with surer aim,inflicted an ugly wound on the arm ; this he dressedwith pine gum gathered from the trees, chewed andapplied as he fled through the forest.
Bienville prepared for a brilliant and effective cam-paign ; as it was his first essay in arms against the savages,a success seemed imperative to insure the stability ofhis future relations with them. The result curiously re-sembles that of his last essay, thirty years afterwards.
Raising a levy among his Indian allies, he mustered aforce of nearly two hundred men, sixty of whom wereCanadians. St. Denis and Tonty shared the commandof the expedition. There was a grand camp-fire heldin Mobile, the rallying-point, with great feasting andrejoicing everywhere. Bienville says that one wouldhave thouglit all, Indians and French, of the same nation.After the feast, several days were given up to medicine,according to the Indian custom. Then Bienville dis-tributed guns and sabres to the principal warriors, and
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the start was made in pirogues. The plan was to ascendthe Mobile River to the Alabama, to land at some con-venient point, and marching rapidly across the country,fall, as a surprise, upon the foe. The apparent zeal andprotestations of loyalty of the Mobilians, and their posi-tion of nearest neighbours, advanced them to the con-fidential post of counsellors and guides; their youngmen also were to carry the baggage of the French. Butunder their affecte(i bustle and hurry, it was soon per-ceived that the Mobilians were delaying affairs as muchas possible, and they succeeded in retarding the baggagethree days after the pirogues arrived at the landing'place.Immediately the ammunition was distributed, the sav-ages were warned not to approach too near the fire withthe powder. Unfortunately two of them forgot, or wereheedless: their powder exploded upon them, burningthem so severely that they died two days afterwards ingreat agony. This was an omen which the savage mindcould not but respect, particularly in a war conductedby strangers against their own race. A great many im-mediately turned back from the expedition. The marchproceeded, and was conducted at the discretion of theMobile guides, who, faithful to their policy, conductedthe little army so cunningly that at the end of eighteendays it was spent with marching, and very little, if any,nearer the enemy than when it set out. They wouldnot start until two hours after sunrise, forcing the Frenchto march during the heat of the day. “But,” as Bien-ville writes, “that would have been nothing if the Choc-taws and Mobilians had not deserted in a body, and ifsickness had not broken out among the Frenchmen,unused to such exposure, heat, and exertion,” The
almoner, the surgeon, and twelve men succumbed. Thenthe chief of the Tohomes fell ill, and he and all his menturned back. The few Indians who remained did notconceal their intention of soon following so pleasing anexample. In such a state of affairs the three com-manders decided that as they could not advance withouttheir allies, there was no choice left them but to turnback also, particularly as their suspicions of the Mobil-ians led them to believe that they would find the Ala-bamas on guard, or warned out of their village. Theydetermined, however, that their vengeance, more thanever needed, should only be deferred, but that the nexttime it should not be at the mercy of any Indian allies.Marching in a straight line, they reached the fort in fourdays.
After a few days’ repose the new expedition, mannedwith Canadians and French, made a hopeful start. TheMobilians, who no doubt had warned the Alabamas ofthe previous advance, were counted upon to have alsoadvised them of the ensuing retreat; so the expectationof a surprise this time was a guarantee. Bienville, Tonty,and St. Denis again commanded. They were moresuccessful in reaching the Indians, but hardly more soin executing vengeance upon them. They made theentire journey by water. As they neared the spot wheretheir companions had been assassinated, they discoverednine pirogues, belonging to a party of Alabamas on ahunt. 'Fhey were secured, carried down stream, andconcealed. Scouts were sent to spy out the camp. Itwas found a short distance above, on a bluff upon thebank of the river. Bienville was for attacking it at once ;but his companions prevailed in favour of a surprise at
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night. They waited in their hiding-places through therest of the day until darkness fell and until, through thedarkness, the camp-fires dimmed to a dull, smoulderingglow, when the savages, as they judged, would be in thefastness of their heavy sleep. Then the Tommand wasgiven, and the stealthy advance began. There was thethick forest, a canebrake, and the bluff between themand the camp-fires. With all their precautions, a drytwig crackled under some foot. A wakeful Indiancalled out a challenge in his own language; but in thedead silence that followed, he laid his head down againto sleep. The advance was resumed. Foot-falls now fellupon the half-sleeping ear; the war-cry rose in the air;a gun went off in the darkness, killing one of the French-men. The old men, women, and children broke fromthe camp and ran into the forest. The warriors retreatedslowly after them, firing their guns at the invaders. Allescaped, with the exception of four, — two killed, and twowounded. The French also had two men killed ; andfor the rest of their vengeance were fain to contentthemselves with destroying the Alabamas’ camp, break-ing up their pirogues, and throwing their hunting bootyinto the river.
Bienville thought that the demonstration, such as itwas, had a wholesome effect upon the savages bothfriendly and inimical. But he did not entirely trust tothis effect, nor cease his efforts here. On his return toMobile he put the scalps of the Alabamas in the market,offering a gun and five pounds of powder and ball apiecefor them, — a road to self-armament of which the Choc-taws and Chickasaws were not slow in availing them-selves. The war sputtered along like a slow fire for
136 y?AJV BAPTISTE LE MOYNE,
nine years. It was an easy channel for French andEnglish animosities, and one kept open with only thesmall expense of guns and ammunition to both of them.
The Mobilians were detached a few years afterwardsfrom the Alabamas by Bienville’s generosity in restoringto them some captive Alabama women and children,taken by De Boisbriant on one of the independent ex-peditions for which he was noted in the colony. TheMobilians claimed the captives as kinspeople, and theirgratitude to Bienville for their restoration maintainedthem in unswerving loyalty to the French ever afterwards.
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CHAPTER XII.
1704, 1705.
In the mean time the fort and its dependencies werecompleted. It is described by one of its builders, theliterary ship-carpenter, Pennicaut, as being sixty fathomssquare, with a battery of six guns at each corner. Insidewere a chapel, the guard-house, and officers’ lodgings ; inthe centre, a square parade-ground. The barracks ofthe soldiers and Canadians were outside, some fifty pacesto the left, on the bank of the river. Later, on an emi-nence also to the left of the fort, was erected the resi-dence for priests.
In the month of August, 1703, the ship “ La Loire ”arrived from France with seventeen passengers, sixty thou-sand livres of money, and provisions and goods for thecolonists, — a much-needed succour. Iberville, namedcommander-in-chief of the new French possession, wasdetained in Paris to accompany the next ship, “Le Peli-can,” to sail for Louisiana, so it was promised, the follow-ing September. She did not arrive until midsummer of1704, and she came without the commander-in-chief,who was this time detained in France by ill health ; butthe force of his influence at court was evidenced in thecargo. Everything that a Government paternally solici-tous could provide for an infant colony came on the“Pelican,” — live-stock, food, merchandise (this to be
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sold, however, for the profit of the king), a parish priest, acurate, four missionaries, a sick nurse, four families ofartisans, seventy-five soldiers of the new Company beingraised in France for Louisiana by Volezard and Cha-teaugue', and, most welcome of all, under charge of twoGray Sisters, twenty-three young girls reared in piety,and drawn from sources above suspicion, who knew howto work,” for whose safe and honourable transport theminister warned the captain he would be held respon-sible. These were the wives with whom Iberville pro-posed to anchor the roving, lawless coiu^eurs de bois tothe colony, and domesticate them into respectable citi-zens. All well featured and pleasing, they were married,with one obstinate exception, within a month. The ar-tisans received their allotment of lands along the riverfront, the cattle were set at large, the goods and provi-sions stored in the magazines, and the sun of prosperityseemed about to rise over Fort St. Louis de la Mobile.But in reality the “Pelican ” proved a poor mother-bird toher nestlings, her hold a Pandora’s box to Bienville. Inthe first place, touching at Havana on her way, or return-ing to it, after the discharge of her cargo, for some beevesand oxen, the ship brought in the yellow fever. Underthe circumstances it is not surprising that it raged ruth-lessly. In the month of September, — the month of pesti-lential climax in this climate, — Bienville wrote to theMinister of Marine that two thirds of the colonists lay illor dead, and he, like his brother, invariably stated tlicbest view of any subject. The “Pelican ” lost half hercrew, and to get back to France had to be re-equippedwith twenty soldiers from the garrison. Thirty of thenew Volezard Company died ; Donge, the Jesuit priest.
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Levasseur, and, most serious loss of all to Bienville andto the colony, the efficient, the loyal, the admirableHenri de Tonty died. The Pelican ” sailed away, carry-ing to the Minister of Marine Bienville’s account of thescourge, his mortuary report, and his demand for moreemigrants, live-stock, and particularly oxen for plough-ing. The captain despatched a brigantine to him fromHavana with the warning that the English were arriv-ing at Carolina to drive him out of Mobile and theMississippi. If they come, they will not drive us awayso easily,” Bienville wrote. His main reliance, like Iber-ville’s, was upon the Canadians. Bands of wanderingcoureurs de bois made their way from time to time to thefort with their peltry to trade, or with nothing but theircuriosity to gratify. These the young Canadian gover-nor generally succeeded in enrolling into his serviceeither as soldiers or emissaries to the Indians. Thesight of this growing force in Louisiana of their own out-laws did not act to allay the resentment of the CanadianGovernment against what it would persist in consider-ing a rival establishment. It cried out about the tradein peltry, and even thus timely was not reticent in itsinsinuations against the band of Canadian brothers andkinsmen who did or might make profit out of it. Andin the barely crawling colony itself, a general, or, it maybe, a particular, feeling began to evince itself among theFrenchmen against what De la Salle, the notary, at leastconsidered a partisan organization for the furthering ofthe interests of the Canadians, — a feeling that De laSalle took it upon himself to express later. There wereother feelings also to be voiced afterwards, — feelingswhich the Journal historique ” and Pennicaut and Bien-
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ville himself for some time discreetly make no allusionto. They give the pioneer and soldier history of the littleplace, narrating with pride every step forward in their pro-gress with the Indians, and of every successful trial oftheir wit against the wit of the English and Spaniards.These other feelings belonged to the historically cele-brated Curate de la Vente, and they bring us to the secondcategory of the ill gifts of the Pelican ” to the colony.Perhaps they had better be classed in the first, for in themoral and financial damage done to the feeble establish-ment, the infliction of this contentious priest upon itwas a sorer curse than the yellow fever, — there is nodoubt whatever that the Canadians at least so consideredit. During the ripening of the dissensions sowed by theclericals right and left, the chronicle of the fort proceedswith the account, which is the same in all new settle-ments in America, of the efforts to establish some stablepolitical relations with such unstable qualities as Indianpoliticians.
The I St of February, 1705, tidings came to Mobile thatthe Chickasaws had seized and sold as slaves to the Eng-lish several Choctaw families who had come to visit themin good faith, and that the act of treachery had caused arupture between the two nations. As there were in FortSt. Louis at the time more than seventy Chickasaws ofboth sexes, they were very much troubled about return-ing to their villages, which they could not do withoutpassing through the territory of the irate Choctaws. Attheir solicitation, Bienville sent twenty-five Canadiansunder De Boisbriant to escort them. They arrived ontheir route at the Choctaw village about the end of themonth. The Choctaw chief assured De Boisbriant that
41
they would not oppose the return of the Chickasaws,but that it was only just to reproach them with theirperfidy in the presence of the French. Therefore, theChickasaws were invited to assemble in the open spacein the centre of the village, and the Choctaw chief, withhis calumet in his hand, began his penitentiary harangueto them. He reproached them with their injustices andwant of good faith; told them if the French took anyinterest in them, it was because of ignorance of their realcharacter. The Chickasaws listened presumably withmore uneasiness than contrition. Around, a circle ofChoctaws had gradually closed them in. When theorator had logically reached his point that they were toovile to live, and^therefore it was proper they should die,reversing the plumed pipe in his hand, there was no ap-peal and no hope of escape from the sentence, whichwas executed at the instant. Only the women andchildren were spared. Several Choctaws were killed inthe melee, and De Boisbriant accidentally received aball in trying to get out of the way. He was placedupon a litter and carried to the fort by a numerousescort of Choctaws.
It was a blow which staggered the Chickasaws. Theysent deputation after deputation to Bienville, prayinghis good offices in favour of peace. After a year’s hos-tilities and losses had somewhat mitigated the resentmentof the Choctaws, and chastened them, Bienville was ableto bring them to terms and persuade them to smoke thepipe of peace with their adversaries. The reconcilia-tion proved a mere truce, however, and Bienville’s hopeof uniting the two powerful tribes for the French an illu-sion. A month later, the Choctaws were again at Fort
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St. Louis, smarting from another outrage of the Chicka-saws, who had again broken into one of their villages,and again carried off more of their people. They de-manded powder and ball of Bienville, which he granted,and another war was added to the list, and counted tothe advantage of the English in Carolina.
A year passed, and nothing was heard from France.Stores were eked out with purchases of corn from theIndians, and other necessities from Havana and VeraCruz. Chateauguay was the sea-courier of the colony,and during the long interval between the last and thenext vessels from France, he ran his two traversie7'swith the regularity of a packet-line between Mobile,Pensacola, Havana, and Vera Cruz, doing the postaland carrying business, not for one, but for two colonies, — a business, however, which, as will be seen later, hadanother interpretation put upon it. His arrivals anddepartures are par excellence the important items inthe details of the “Journal Hi'storique,” which givesus also an adventure of Chateauguay.
Returning from Pensacola, whither he had been sum-moned by the vice-admiral of the Spanish “Armadillo,”whose frigate of forty-six guns had been wrecked in portby a sudden squall, Chateauguay saw struggling off Mo-bile Point a brigantine, battered and broken and on thepoint of sinking. Answering the crew’s cries and signalsfor help, he sailed to it. It proved to be a filibusterbrigantine from Martinique, which had been caught ina storm while doubling Cape St. Anthony. Its mast wasgone, its deck had been driven in, it had lost its fore-castle, and eight men had been swept overboard. Cha-teauguay lent the captain an anchor, landed his crew, —
143
ninety Frenchmen and Spaniards, — and carried himand his treasure, — seventy-two thousand piastres, — to Fort St. Louis. The brigantine sank the next dayat her anchors. How much of the saved treasure cameto the rescuer is not stated, although Pennicaut de-scribes the filibuster captain’s gratitude as boundless.Two years to a month after the departure of thePelican,” Chateauguay arrived in the harbour of Mas-sacre Island from Havana, followed by the ?^Aigle,”a frigate of thirty-six guns, under command of DeNoyan, brother-in-law of Bienville, convoying a brigan-tine of supplies to the colony.
The “Aigle ” sailed away in August, carrying Bien-ville’s long official report to his Government, containedin two letters, one written before the arrival of the fri-gate, and one during her stay in port. They furnishsuch a clear, succinct, and reasonable epitome of the his-tory of his establishment (the official documents of bothIberville and Bienville are always admirably clear) thatit seems almost needless to attempt to add to them.
After detailing the Chickasaw and Choctaw complica-tions, Bienville reports the destruction of Pensacola byfire, the loss of the vice-admiral’s ship, and his assistanceto the Spaniards in both emergencies, his being forcedto borrow food from them on several occasions, and hisdiscussions with them over the limits of their respectiveterritories, the Spaniards claiming one bank of the Mo-bile, and Bienville maintaining his rights to both. FatherGravier had arrived, his arm pierced with five arrow-heads, shot by the Indians of his mission. Fifty Cana-dians also had arrived from the upper Mississippi, with theintention of settling. Among them were two men, who
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liad travelled from village to village on the Missouri tovery near the mines of the Spaniards. They assuredBienville it was the finest country in the world ; showingthree specimens of minerals from there to support theirasseverations, which they also backed by the assurancethat the savages of the region were at war with the Span-iards. The Choctaws had made a fine stand with theirnew arms against the Indian allies of the English. Hewas constructing a mill, and forcing the colonists tosow small tracts of land j but there was a good deal ofgeneral sickness among them. All the coureurs de boisexcept the married ones had returned to the woods,going in preference up among the Illinois, where therewere Jesuit missionaries. There were not enough mis-sionaries in the country ; but only the strong and robustshould be sent, the savages despising the pale and feeble-looking. Also, only grown men should be sent to colo-nize. He proposed sending some Indian chiefs toFrance, that they might see what the country was, they,so far, having but a poor opinion of the French.
The colonists asked for negroes to cultivate theirlands; they would pay cash for them. “There weresome tribes who sold their prisoners for slaves; but asthey deserted too easily, the colonists did not wantthem, but asked permission to carry these slaves to theislands to exchange them for negroes. This is what theEnglish did.” ^
’ The inaccuracy of the following is patent: —
“Bienville proposed to send Indians to the islands, there to be ex-changed for negroes. If his plan had met with approval, perhaps hemight have made the cylony self-supporting, and thus have avoided, in1710, the scandal of subsisting his men by scattering them among the very
These were the important, but they appeared to benot the heaviest, cares of the callow governor; theywere what he felt his ability could cope with. There isa tone of hopelessness and powerlessness in the follow-ing, which shows that there are limits to Canadianhardihood and endurance : “One of the girls sent outhad refused to marry, although several good pmUs hadbeen offered to her. The men colonists were beginningto accustom themselves to eating corn; but the women,many of whom were Parisians, eat it with difficulty,” — which makes them rail against Monsieur the Bishop ofQuebec, who had given them to understand that theywere coming to the Promised Land. The priest De laVente had refused to baptize a child of whom Bienvillewas god-father, on the pretext that he, Bienville, wastalking to a woman; 1 and the priest refused to makereparation afterwards. De la Vente would receiveorders from no one but the Bishop of Quebec, who hadappointed him. “One would expect,” Bienville com-ments, “ the disorders he causes, as he had to be recalledfrom the Indies, where he was stationed, the inhabitantsrefusing absolutely to have him.” The priest crossedhim in everything, demanded to have his church roofed,threatening to have it done at the expense of him to
savages whom he wished to sell into slavery.” — Justin Winsor:“Canada and Louisiana.” Narrative and Critical History ofAmerica, v. 27.
As will be seen, the French scattered themselves amongfriendly Indians in 1710, and there was no idea (a most foolishone) of selling these into slavery. The above is Bienville’s pro-position, verbatim, after Margry.
^ For fear the copyist might have made a mistake in the word,the compiler, Margry, returned to his summary — it was, talking^
10
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whom he thought the work belonged (apparently Bien-ville), although he had several legacies in his hands forthe purpose. Bienville had invited the priest to leavethe chapel in the fort and take possession of his churchoutside ; and the latter had threatened him with excom-munication, and was even near doing so, Bienville wish-ing to attend the mass which his almoner, the Jesuit,celebrated in the fort. Despite the commands of theking to the contrary, the priest authorized marriagesbetween Frenchmen and Indian women, which gave theformer warrant to scatter themselves among the Indiansand lead libertine lives in the woods, under the excusethat they were married there. The ill treatment whichDe la Vente had inflicted upon the Jesuit Gravier hadforced Bienville to send him, Gravier, away (evidentlyby the “Aigle ”). From Gravier could be learnedwhat sort of man the priest De la Vente was.
The commissary, De la Salle, sinned in the other ex-treme. He has no servant. He waits upon himself,and works the ground with his own hands, — which doesnot comport with the dignity of his office.” Bienvillehad spoken to him abou^- it, to which he had repliedthat his Majesty did not pay enough for him to have avalet. The writer did not fail, as no officer of the timeever failed to do at every opportunity, to remind theminister of his nine years’ service in Louisiana, askingfor an augmentation of salary, and complaining that hishealth was beginning to suffer.
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CHAPTER XIII.
1706, 1707.
Louisiana, with its elemental discords, was but aminiature reflection of the greater province of Canada;in fact, the tropical ground was only sprouting seed ofCanada’s sowing. The governor, the priests, the royalcommissary, and those active skirmishers in familyquarrels, the women, were engaged in no new drama,they were simply re-enacting the well-known and well-worn roles which neither time, place, nor circumstanceseems able to disassociate from sex, clerical and officialposition. With their plotting and counterplotting, crimi-nation and recrimination, Satan himself could not haveworsened the moral atmosphere of the struggling com-munity, nor more surely have blighted its first promise.
In Louisiana a slight change of the Canadian originalis offered in the personality of the young, rude, unletteredCanadian, who from midshipman and lieutenant of ma-rines, had been pushed to the first place of a command,whose entire character and administration constitutedone obstinate determination to maintain and increasethe grasp of country left him by Iberville. Bulwarkinghimself against the Spaniards in the east, spying out theirland in the west, fending off the English at the north, keep-ing his channel of the Mississippi well open, scouring theGulf with his little vessels, arming the Indians against
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yEAiV BAPTISTE LE MOVjVE,
one another and against everybody but himself, buying,borrowing food, quartering his men in times of dearthupon the Indians, recalling them at every new invoicefrom France, Havana, or Vera Cruz, marrying the girls,breaking the Canadians into farmers, punishing savages,repressing his own bandits, building, sowing, carryingout with a handful of soldiers and a pittance of moneythe great Mississippi and Gulf policy of Iberville, — hisactivity and dexterity, it would seem, must have com-pelled acknowledgment from even his detractors. Itmust be confessed, however, that he was most lament-ably overmatched in his domestic adversaries, and com-bat them as violently as he could, and did unfortunatelytoo often with their own weapons, De la Salle and Dela Vente to this day tell their story against him, and tothis day the biographer of Bienville must still be hisapologist.!
De la Salle explains himself in his letters; a word ofpreamble is necessary to explain De la Vente.
The missionary zeal of the Roman Catholic priesthoodin North America developed (if indeed it was not de-veloped by) a spirit of competition among the differentorders engaged in proselyting the savages, which some-times savoured more of trade and politics than religion.Partisanship naturally ensued, which infected not onlythe civil and military authorities, but the ecclesiasticaltribunals. The missionaries themselves were not onlyattacked in their name and reputation, but in the goodwork for which they were actually exposing themselves
! Margry confesses that the character of Bienville, all said,was not symi)athetic to him (Introduction to vol. v.), and hemakes no effort to render it sympathetic to others.
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to the most cruel of deaths, and their good work ravishedof its moral effect by the overt and covert accusations ofthe friends and members of rival societies. The injuryto the interests of France thereby was as irreparable asthe injury to the interests of religion.
The Jesuits, always in the van of missionary work,could with fair show of reason claim, through Marquetteand Joliet, the spiritual territory of the Mississippi valley.Allouez, at Kaskaskia, had continued the mission amongthe Illinois dropped by the dying hand of Marquette.To Allouez had succeeded Gravier, appointed vicar-general by the Bishop of Quebec. In addition to otherextensions of the work of his Order, Gravier planned andcarried out a mission among the Tamaroas branch of theIllinois Indians.
But the Recollets also had a claim upon the Missis-sippi valley. La Salle’s monomaniacal feelings againstthe Jesuits will be remembered. A Recollet thereforeaccompanied him upon his voyage down the Mississippiin 1681, Zenobe Membre ; and he it was who had thehonour of intoning the Vexilla Regis and Te Deu?n atLa Salle’s magnificent prise de possession ” of verylittle less than the whole of the South of the NorthAmerican continent.
The Bishop of Quebec, Saint-Vallier, by a promptassertion of his rights, prevented the dismembermentof his diocese, which the Holy See attempted by theappointment of several Vicariates Apostolic in the Mis-sissippi valley. Saint-Vallier also claimed the Missis-sippi valley through Marquette and Joliet, — the onea priest of his diocese, the other a pupil of his Seminary.The revocation of the Vicariates Apostolic followed.
The Seminary of Quebec, a foundling of the ForeignMissions ” of Paris, then obtained from Saint-Vallier,in 1698, official authorization to mission work in thefields of the West and along the Mississippi and itstributaries, projecting their first mission among theTamaroas. The Jesuits protested that this tribe wasalready their own. Nevertheless, the Seminary priests,Montigny, Davion, and Saint-Cosme, arrived, and tookup their stations respectively among the Natchez, Tunicas,and Tamaroas.
Iberville, the son of a former employee of the Jesuits,was as frank in his sentiments for them as De la Sallehad been against them. He established a Jesuit priest,Du Rhu, at the Fort of the Mississippi, and seldomlost an opportunity of exalting Jesuit intelligence to the .detriment of that possessed by Re'collets.
Holding the mouth of the Mississippi and establishedat its head, the Jesuits solicited from Saint-Vallier theexclusive spiritual direction of Louisiana. The bishoprefused to grant this to any one religious order,withdrawing from Gravier the power of vicar-general.An appeal from the Jesuits, complaining of the intru-sion into their territory, and a memoir from the bishop,were forwarded to the king. He referred the matter'O an ecclesiastical commission, who decided in favourof the Seminary. In 1703, therefore, Saint-Valliererected Mobile formally into a parish, annexing it tothe Seminary of Foreign Missions at Paris and Quebec,which agreed to supply the clergy. Their first appoint-ment as priest to the new parish was the Rev. HenriRoulleaux de la Vente, of the diocese of Hayeux, who,according to Bienville, was not altogether ignorant of
colonial experiences; his curate was Alexandre Herve'.The maintenance of the clergy was expected from theking, and it was fixed at one thousand livres a yearfor the priest, and six hundred for the curate; but theMinister of Marine, instead of paying or even confirm-ing these terms, expressed astonishment that they shouldhave been promised, “ the king,” he said, not havingdecided the matter yet.”
On his arrival in Mobile, De la Vente found theparish church in process of construction, and the paro-chial functions in the hands of Davion, who was livingmost amicably in the same house with Donge, theJesuit, — a new house, still without doors and windows,for the completion of which the Jesuit had loaned themoney. The epidemic, co-instant with the arrival ofthe Pelican,” must have held even ecclesiasticalbickerings in abeyance. Dong^, as has been said, wasone of the victims. It must have been during thefirst respite after the desperate struggle with the epi-demic that De la Vente was formally inducted into hisparish and placed in corporal possession of his church,after the observance of the required ceremonial, — theentry into the church, the sprinkling of holy water, thekissing of the high altar, the touching of the missal,the visit to the blessed sacrament of the altar, and theringing of bells, according to the careful enumeration ofthe entry signed by Jean Baptiste de Bienville, com-mander, Pierre du Guay (Dugue) de Boisbriant, andNicolas de la Salle, scribe, acting Commissary of Ma-rine, contained in the old parochial registry of Mobile.
Like Iberville, Bienville threw his affections to theside of his father’s old patrons. When, two years after
152 y?A,V BAPTISTE LE MOYNE,
De la Vente’s arrival, Gravier made his appearance atthe fort, bearing in his body, not only the wounds, butin his arm an inextricable flint arrow-head, shot theremonths before by one of his relapsed flock (instigatedby native priests, who also resented an intrusion intotheir territory), — the wise might well have had fore-boldings. The commander’s warm reception and gra-cious treatment of the Jesuit could not fail to arouse(by that time it may only have needed quickening) thejealous violence of the parish priest. A year later itwas in full blast, as Bienville’s letter shows. Bienvilleaccused the priest of inspiring De la Salle’s attack againsthim. If this be true, De la Vente must have been grati-fied with himself as an inspiriting source ; for De laSalle’s epistolary assaults, insinuations, and accusationsare a credit to that species of literature by which scribesand commissaries in French colonial governments haveever undermined the reputation of their chiefs.
In August, 1706, he expedited his first shaft in a let-ter to M. Begon, the intendant at Rochefort, “begginghim to arrest on arrival a certain Lallemand, merchantand commissary of M. d’Iberville, who had embarkedon the ?Aigle’ with more than fifteen thousand livres inpiastres. He had also taken what he wished out ofhis Majesty’s stores and powder magazine, without ren-dering an account to the commissary. He, De la Salle,had also heard that Bienville had sent a pirogue in pur-suit of the pirogue bearing De la Vente’s letters to the?Aigle,’ in order to withhold the said letters, and thatthe priest had otherwise cause to complain of Bienville’sill-treatment of him.” A month later the commissary in-dited a thirty-page memoir, sent in duplicate, one copy
IS3
by a Spanish vessel, for, he explains, Iberville and hisbrothers form a league down there, which governs every-thing, even liberty of access to the minister. The mailswere so untrustworthy between Louisiana and Francethat he had been obliged to write several letters andconfide them to different persons on the “Aigle,’’ inorder to inform the minister of the truth of affairs inthe country; not that it was possible, even then, to givethe particulars, as M. dTberville had sure ways of beinginformed of all that M. de la Salle’s conscience wouldoblige him to write to the minister, and he would com-municate, by way of Havana or Vera Cruz, with hisleague of brothers, upon whom his, De la Salle’s, livingdepends, and they would proceed to inflict upon him allthe suffering their revenge could suggest.
The bane of the commissary’s conscience, and in hisopinion the bane of the colony, was Bienville, againstwhom his bill of indictment was loaded to the full.“ Nothing was to be seen in Louisiana but poverty,dearth, dissipation, extravagance, dishonesty, and tyran-ny,” all of which seems to have been furnished gratis bythe commander.
“The fort already rotting, the site of it the worst thatcould have been chosen; it should be abandoned for Mas-sacre Island. The colonists on the bay had succeededbetter in four months than those on the river in nine years.The scarcity of provisions was attributed to the bands ofCanadians whom Bienville supported and retained, not-withstanding the orders of the minister for their disband-ment. Bienville had brought back two prisoners from hisAlabama effort, and had burned them to death before thegate of the fort. He had also ill-treated the wife of Dela Salle while the latter was away in Pensacola, whither he
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had been sent by Bienville on business. Half of the goodsand provisions were stolen in the transportation from Mas-sacre Island to the fort, do what the commissary could toprevent it, and work as he might from morning till nighttrying to regulate affairs as they were regulated in France.Bienville was tenacious only in contradicting the orders ofthe commissary. Bienville took all the game and othercommodities brought by the Indians, for himself, althoughthey were brought out of gratitude to the king. He solda deer at eighty per cent profit. The traversiers hadbeen engaged in carrying merchandise and peltry toVera Cruz in the interests of Iberville and his brothers.Bienville himself had employed his Majesty’s crews andvessels to send merchandise and brandy to Pensacola tosell.
“As soon as anything is needed for the service of theking, M. de Bienville knows immediately who can furnishit, and obliges him [the commissary] to buy it at a priceof Bienville’s fixing. ... M. de Chateauguay will notrender an account of his purchases and disbursements forthe colony, but he has great care to charge the expenses hehas personally been put to, which are reimbursed imme-diately by M. de Bienville. . . . Bienville had opposed thereception of Hervd as almoner of the fort, and had* givenorders to De la Salle to pay a Jesuit in his place. Twothirds of the flour sent by the Government was lacking onarrival of the vessels, which were loaded instead with mer-chandise for Bienville and his officers, who sold to thecolonists, making enormous profits. Bienville also buysfrom the king at twenty-five per cent above cost, and sellsto the colonists at four hundred. . . . Iberville had
written a very menacing letter to him, complaining of hisfidelity to the service of the king, and suggesting, amongother things, that it would be easy for him to render falseaccounts and ^counterfeit the signature of the late commis-sary, the Sieur de Becancourt.”
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M. d’Iberville had also retained the orders upon theTreasury for expenses in Louisiana, to cover advanceswhich he pretended to have made.
“I leave your Highness to judge of the character of theman, who passes in your mind for something quite differ-ent. I have in hand the proof of what I advance.”
Diverging from the interests of the colony a moment,the scribe speaks of his own affairs. He begs permis-sion to represent to the minister that he cannot live,with his family, on his moderate salary, in a countrywhere everything is exorbitantly high, and he, the onlyofficer who perfectly obedient to the orders of theking, is not engaged in commerce. He hopes the min-ister will throw a favourable glance upon an unfortu-nate wretch who has sacrificed a great number of yearswithout any advancement, others, on the contrary, reap-ing the harvest of his labours; M. d’Iberville, besides,threatening to put another in his place. He hadmarried a girl of quality, recommended by Madamela Grande Duchesse (the “Journal Historique ” aversthat the second wife, like the first, was a hospitalgirl), and that his numerous family of children ren-dered the Government rations, suppressed by Iberville,a necessity, etc.
Whether through indiscretion on the part of the writer,or, as he leads one to expect, from a violation of themail, it is apparent that the spirit, if not the contents,of the letters became known to the persons most con-cerned; an effort on behalf of Bienville resulted.
Father Gravier wrote a letter, — a studiously disinter-ested and politic one, — giving the news of the colony
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in a general, casual manner, which, however, pointedlyanswered De la Salle’s important items : —
“The fort and town could not have been better placed.Fruit and grain grew well on the soil, but the colonistsneeded negroes to clear the land. It had been proposedto remove the town to the mouth of the river, in order tobe nearer Massacre Island, where the ships land; but thewater was brackish there, and the establishment would betoo far away from the Mobilians, Tohomes, and Apalaches,who had to be kept under hand. A fort was necessary atMassacre Island. The trade in peltry would be good ifthe French had an establishment among the Illinois andon the Ohio. . . .
“M. de Bienville was very clever in managing the In-dians; he knew many of their languages. He had givenfour leagues of land along the Mobile to the Apalaches;he was often obliged to give presents to these savages andto those settled in the neighbourhood of the fort. Heassists all the colonists who are in need, and shares withthem what little provisions he can obtain, so that theyare all very contented.
“The garrison was very weak; nothing could be donewithout the Canadians, who were very necessary forIndian expeditions.”
The letter of De Boisbriant went straight from hismind to his object: —
“The curate, De la Vente, had declared himself openlyagainst the Sieur de Bienville without cause. I wouldhave let them settle their differences alone, if the service ofhis Majesty was not concerned. The Sieur de la Ventewished to persuade the colonists that the misery they werein for want of food came from the Sieur de Bienville’s notinforming his Majesty of the necessity of sending vessels
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oftener to Mobile; but not being able to gain anything bythis, because the Sieur de Bienville assists the colonistsas much as he can, and at any rate they are contented, heturned to the soldiers, a great many of whom are sick, andunder pretext of sympathy in their sufferings he had dis-tributed the money remitted to him, through La Salle, byorder of Bienville, as a charity of his own; giving them tounderstand that he continually represented their wretched-ness to Bienville, who paid no attention to it.
“The curate boasted to every one that he would have theSieur de Bienville recalled, and he had the temerity so tothreaten him himself, with great bursts of temper, to whichM. de Bienville had answered with a great deal of self-control. All of the ecclesiastics who are with M de la Ventesuffer much from his ill-temper. A man with such a temperis not at all fit for the establishment of such a colony. Allthe inhabitants ask with fervour that he be recalled, andthere are even many who would have quit here if they hadhad the means.’'
Chateauguay, for his part, wrote asking permission toreturn to France, alleging the usual convenient excuseof ill health.
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CHAPTER XIV.
1706-1710.
Iberville died of the yellow fever at Havana on the9th of July, 1706. Chateauguay, returning from one ofhis trips to the island, brought the news to the colonythe September following.
The great Canadian’s last expedition was another anda necessary step towards the realization of his policy ofFrench domination of Southern North America, — adomination which, with the Gulf States, as we call them,must include the Gulf itself. With passive, if not active,co-operation of the Spaniards, the English were to bedriven out of the Antilles by constant waylayings of theirfleet, revolts incited among tlieir negroes, and filibus-tering ” away of their islands. Iberville's past encoun-ters with the English seemed to warrant, in his ownmind, his self-confidence regarding future transactionswith them. His proved intrepidity, coolness, emergencycapabilities, and freedom from scrupulous restraints,united with his developing political force and sagacity,would seem to warrant others in surmising, had he lived,not only great national changes in the Mexican waters,with his league of kinsmen and compatriots, but eventhe formation of a new independent power therein.
Barely recovered from the illness which had hung uponhim since his second visit to Louisiana, he left France with
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an armament, purposing to make a descent upon Barba-does and other English islands of the Antilles, and to in-tercept the English-American convoys. Landing atMartinique for a reinforcement of two thousand filibus-ters, he heard that the English, apprised of his coming,were already prepared for him, and had taken measuresto prevent an uprising of the negroes. He threw him-self, therefore, upon the little islands of Nevis andSt. Christopher, and captured them inside and out,their governors, inhabitants, negroes, vessels in port,armed and loaded merchantmen, and levied such a con-tribution upon them as inundated momentarily Marti-nique, his bank of deposit, with s-udden wealth. Afterthis exploit he made up his mind to attack the Carolinacoast; but stopping at Havana, where an epidemic wasraging, to take on a thousand Spaniards, he lost eighthundred men, many officers, and his own life. Hisdeath was almost a vital blow to his foundling colony;and Bienville, not long in finding out the weakening ofhis own position, unsupported by the influence of thefeared Iberville, wrote during the next February to theminister, petitioning for leave of absence and reinstate- ?ment to his old position in the marine.
“It would be very sad, my Lord,” he says, “if for havingremained here to establish this colony, I should be deprivedof my promotion. I hope you will kindly consider my pastservices and those I am actually rendering. I have no re-ward to expect except from your Highness, of whom I aska lieutenancy of vessel. The late M. dTberville, underwhom I learned my profession, could have answered formy capacity, particularly in regard to the marine. Youknow, my Lord, that we have never had a patron with yourHighness, and that it is you yourself who put a price upon
our services. The king gives me twelve hundred livres ayear, which would not suffice for three months, exposedas I am every day to the visits of the Spaniards, ever en-tailing new expenses upon me, in a place where everythingis exorbitantly high.”
He again explains the condition and needs of thesettlement. There was constant illness in the spring,when they should be sowing, among the unacclimatedcolonists. They could not, single-handed, cultivateenough land to render themselves entirely self-support-ing. It was the irregularity and delay in sending vesselsfrom France that produced crises from lack of necessi-ties not produced in the country, which he had to buy atthe king’s expense. He had not been able to build thefort promised among the Chickasaws, for lack of men togarrison it, and merchandise to trade with the Indians.The lack of men had also forced him to abandon thefort on the Mississippi, and it was important to have afort there to keep the Indians in check. Of the hun-dred men that should form the two royal companies, hecounted but forty-five, of whose youth and physical inca-pability he complained, and of those the captains weremissing, Chateauguay being always at sea, and Volezardnot having yet arrived. He did not know what wouldhave become of the colony if he had dismissed theCanadians, according to the orders of M. Begon. Hereminded the minister again that Massacre Islandshould be fortified.
The small bloody affairs of the Indians had taken an-other kaleidoscopic turn. Along the Mississippi thereseemed to be a general relapse towards natural barbar-ities and forced migrations. The Chetimachas about
l6l
the same time declared war against their neighbours,the Touachas. These last, Bienville managed to recon-cile, however, before they came to blows. St. Deniswas sent against the Chetimachas, to punish them forthe death of the missionary, and also to settle anotheroutstanding account for some Frenchmen killed severalyears before. He returned with ten cabins of womenand children, whom he had surprised and captured forslaves, and one warrior who had boasted of killing St.Casme, whom, after consultation, he says, with his offi-cers, Bienville had executed in the open square of thefort by a blow on the head.
He himself led a hundred and twenty Canadians andIndians to the relief of Pensacola, again a prey to thefire and slaughter of the English Indians. When he ar-rived, however, the enemy had retired. The Spaniards,aware at last of the usefulness of Indian allies, beggedBienville to send back the Apalaches, Touachas, Pensa-colas, and Choctaws to their first allegiance to Spain;asking him also to instruct them, the Spaniards, in theart of retaining it, — which was about the last kindnessBienville or his Government had any idea of rendering;the ministerial letters according perfectly with Iberville’sand Bienville’s policy of doing all possible amicable in-jury to the Spanish tenure of the country.
From Vera Cruz, by the same indefatigable mail-car-rier Chateauguay, came the news of De Noyan’s death, — another weakening of the family league, and anotherloss to the colony.
One small vessel, loaded with brandy, salt, and to-bacco, sailed on a trading venture into the port of Mas-sacre Island during the winter of 1708, — a notable
event. She disposed of all of her cargo easily, but un-fortunately furnished material for a future charge againstBienville, whom De la Salle accuses of selling appar-ently this same brandy to the colony of Pensacola. Thecommissary and the priest were still active in the fort, — almost as active as the Indian outside.
Bienville wrote that the commissary refused to allowChateauguay anything for one of his voyages to Havana,and had even had the temerity to tear up the order givenby Bienville for it. He had likewise some time beforerefused to give an Indian chief the presents ordered byBienville, tearing up that order also. The colonists wereunable to obtain from him the money due them by theking, the commissary insisting he had no more moneybelonging to the king. Bienville and De Boisbriant hadgone over his accounts and had found a credit to theking still of twenty-four hundred livres, and a balancefrom the two thousand piastres which Bienville hadbeen forced to borrow from a merchant in Martiniqueto relieve the past scarcity. De la Salle claimed thisas an equivalent of the lodgings and rations due him bythe Government, and for payment for his trip to Pen-sacola. Bienville and De Boisbriant convinced him,however (so Bienville says), that his journey to Pen-sacola was for the service of the king and in the lineof his duty, that there were spacious lodgings assignedto him in the fort, and that it was not the intentionof the king that the commissary should draw ^rations.All the res])onse that Bienville could obtain from thecommissary was that Bienville was no longer in a po-sition to hurt him now that his protector and solici- .tor at the side of the minister, Iberville, was dead.
“I know,” confesses Bienville, that he has written toyou that I have threatened to remove him from the con-trol of the magazine. It is true, in face of his insult, Idid so threaten him, in the presence of my officers, whourged me to it; but as he has not rendered any ac-counts of his office for five years, I thought it better tostand him than to come to such an extremity. ”
The commander then passes to the muscular adminis-tration of the spiritual adviser of the colony. De laVente had laid the chapel of the fort under interdict,and had performed his ecclesiastical functions in hiskitchen, situated at the other end of the town, refusinga house which the inhabitants had offered him. Theparochial church which Bienville had begun to build forhim, and of which he had taken such formal and cere-monious possession, he had refused to finish, pretendingthat it was too small for him. It had consequently re-mained open, exposed to wind and weather, and hadrecently been blown down in a gale. The grand vicarof the Bishop of Quebec, who had come to Mobileseeking assistance for his mission, had removed the in-terdict from the chapel and brought the priest to reason,obliging him to take the house offered. Many personshad given him, Bienville, certificates of the “ridiculousmanners ” of the priest, some of which he proceeds todescribe : —
“The priest was a violent, passionate, double-facedman, capable by his talk of leading the colonists to revoltif they did not have confidence in their commander. Hebrings divorce into households, publicly insults the women,baptizes the children all naked outside the church, — a cus-tom unknown in France, and which kills them here. There
164 yBAJV BAPTISTE LE MOYNE,
was not a man to be found who took more pleasure introuble than he. He had written to Pensacola for flour,saying, wrongfully, as the Spaniards themselves acknowl-edged, that Bienville was starving them to death. Alamentable thing to show thus to strangers the dissensionsexisting in the colony! Bienville could not relate all thehard things said of himself and his officers, which thepriest had been forced to retract. He wrote voluminouslyto his superior, with whom he threatens them all; but hecould only write falsehoods and calumnies, which he couldnot prove. Bienville relied upon the goodness of the min-ister to render justice to him, and to the colony that peacewhich the Jesuits maintained, but which this curate hadentirely banished. ... In a country like this,” he interjectswith some pathos, “where not a single pleasure is known,one might at least hope for a suitable pastor.” 1
One very small cartridge in the epistolary fusillade,perhaps an offset to Gravier’s shot, appears in an unex-ploded state among the manuscript copies of all thiscorrespondence. It is an undated, unaddressed mis-sive from the Superior of the Gray Sisters, who had beensent out with the marriageable girls ; and the charge shemakes against the commander has the merit at least of areasonable amount of veracity and momentousness, evenread as it is after a space of nearly two centuries. Shedescribes herself as being devoted to the spiritual andmanual training of the Indian girls in the colony, andstates that the Sieur de Boisbriant had had the intentionof marrying her, but that M. de Bienville and his brotherhad’prevented him ; and that she was sure M. de Bien-ville had not the qualities needful for a governor ofMobile.
^ From Margiy’s transcription
165
CHAPTER XV.
1708.
It was nearly three years before the parent countryagain stretched out a hand towards the colony; andthen it was not with a caressing palm, but with onenerved for chastisement: there might have been slow-ness in succouring, there was none in punishing. WhenIberville’s old ship, the “Renomm^e,” sailed into theharbour of Massacre Island on the loth of February,the air must have become sulphurous; for she wasfraught with some of the thunder of Judgment Day.Every accusation that had gone out from Louisiana,returned from France with a warrant of condemnation;and for four years the busy pens of priest, scribe, andgovernor had been inditing accusations with lavishliberality.
In France, orders had been issued for the arrest ofLallemand, the supposed accomplice of Iberville, and aninvestigation instituted into the charges of peculationand appropriation of public funds brought against thedead commander, whose heirs were summoned to ren-der an account of his pretended claims against theGovernment.^ In order to remove, on this occasion
1 In “Histoire de Longueuil,” Jodoin and Vincent, it is statedthat Iberville, as long as he lived, sustained the colony of Louis-iana with loans of large sums, without interest, the treasury not
166 ' y?A.V BAPTISTE LE MOVAE,
at least, any temptation to cupidity, the officers of thecolony were allowed no' freight whatever on the vessel,all the merchandise shipped being owned by the king,to be sold for his profit. As for the soldiers, theMinister of Marine had taken the precaution the yearbefore to warn M. Begon that the low state of theMarine funds permitted the supplying only of the ab>solutely necessary; consequently, no clothing could besent them, as they were to be clothed in future everytwo years. (The soldiers had been already three yearswithout clothing.) Of the amount of money necessaryfor expenses only one fourth was remitted.
Here the stint seemed to end ; of supersedure, in-vestigation, advice, reproof, and directions, the supplywas still undiminished in governmental centres.
A new governor, M. de Muy, was appointed, and anew commissary, M. Diron dhArtaguette, who was sentby the minister particularly to report upon the affairs ofthe colony and draw them if possible out of the hope-less condition into which they appeared to have ^fallen.
M. de Muy, a Norman and an officer of merit, ac-cording to the recommendation of the time, who hadworked his way upwards, grade by grade, from ensignto the governorship of Cayenne, whence he was recalledto assume that of Louisiana, had no opportunity of re-sponding to the minister’s expectations of him. Hedied at Havana on his way out.
Bienville received his dismissal in a letter from the min-
being able to furnish them. His advances for his last arma-ment greatly reduced the heritage of his widow and four minorchildren.
167
ister, who, without circumlocution, informed him of allthe charges against him made by La Salle and others, — malversation, peculation, illicit trade in skins, and sendinga pirogue to intercept the curate’s letter, which was notreceived in France. He was told frankly that he was tobe called to account for it, and if found guilty, to bepunished severely. Subjoined was an order for him toreturn to France on the Renommee ” as soon as hehad given M. de Muy all the information needed forhis government; but he was not to leave without DeMuy’s permission.
The governor presumptive carried a provisional orderfor his predecessor’s arrest, and voluminous instructionsfor his guidance. The instructions hold a careful equi-librium between respect for Bienville’s advice and ser-vices, and recognition of the suspicions aroused in theministerial mind against him, and the fear of losing forthe Government any of the benefit of the former, and ofnot gaining profit by the latter. M. de Muy was to puthimself in thorough and available possession of all Bien-ville’s knowledge relating to the country and his methodof governing it, and to follow his policy of dealing withthe Indians and Spaniards. The proposition to ex-change Indian for African slaves from the islands, ofwhich the king approved, was to be considered andadopted, if it were true, as Bienville wrote, that theEnglish so exchanged their slaves captured from Indianallies of the French. The construction of a mill wasalso approved; but the money advanced by the kingwas to be returned, with considerable profits of interest,to be acquired out of the grain ground; and a proposof profits, as it were, the twenty-five per cent profit.
168 JEAN BAPTISTE LE MOYNE,
at which Bienville sold the goods supplied by hisMajesty, was not sufficient, considering the risk and costof transportation. A special injunction was addedagainst trading in skins : his Majesty is resolved not to
permit the entry into France of any skins that come bythe way of Louisiana, in order to sustain the province ofCanada, as he had promised to do when he engaged inthe establishment of Louisiana. The king wished to becorrectly informed concerning the exact utility the prov-ince would be to France commercially; if it were to bedisadvantageous to France, he would abandon it, with-out going on any further with the enterprise. As soonas possible, a detailed account of such commercial pros-pects was to be sent to the king, especially in regard towhat commerce could be expected from the Spaniards,and what riches could be hoped for from that quarter,”in case of a war. “And I wish,’’ ends the minister,with a mind for small as well as large interests, thatyou could give another name than Mobile to the place.Look for one that would suit, and let me know.”
The memoir then proceeds to deal with the issue thathad brought about the change of administration, — quar-rels between the governor, the commissary, and thepriest; and strenuously with the charges of the twolatter against the former, every one of which was care-fully enumerated. De Muy was to inform the minis-ter of all the facts, especially of the burning of theAlabamas and the cruel treatment of prisoners, and theruinous prices (for his own profit) put upon his Majesty’sgoods by Bienville.
Between the writing of this and the sailing of the“Renommee,” additional letters from De la Salle
had arrived, and the certainty of Bienville’s guilt be-came a foregone conclusion with Pontchartrain. Headded a postscript to De Muy, enclosing extracts fromDe la Salle’s last, with an order for Bienville’s arrestand conveyance to France as a prisoner, expressing hisopinion that if De la Salle’s charges were true, Bienvillemerited the punishment of the guilty. De Muy andD’Artaguette were together to conduct an investigationof his conduct, and if in their opinion the facts andpractices set forth were proved, he was to be arrestedand sent prisoner to France. If their verdict wereotherwise, the lettre de cachet was to be returned tothe minister.
A letter to D’Artaguette of the same date, and import,was tempered with a little vacillation in the foregoneconclusion, or perhaps an afterthought of ministerial ormanly equity in regard to the accused. But I recom-mend not to adopt this course, unless it appears clearto you both that he merits the treatment, and not other-wise.” The captain of the Renommee ” was informedof the charges against the accused, and given an orderto receive him on the “Renommee,” conduct him toFrance, and deliver him to the commandant of thefirst port in which he landed, to be detained, awaitingfurther orders from?the king.
Bienville at once, he says in his letter to the minister,February 25th, petitioned the captain of the “Renom-m^e ” to put his second officer in command of theprovince, so that he might return to France ; but thecaptain had refused, for fear of the minister’s displeasure,and so he had been forced to remain in command. Hehad not been able to learn from D’Artaguette the nature
170
y?AA^ BAPTISTE LE MOYNE,
of the charges against him (evidently the official charges,for he had received them personally from the minister).D’Artaguette had told him that his orders were not tocommunicate them, and that consequently he, Bienville,was in the hard condition of not being able to justifyhimself. He then begged D’Artaguette to proceedalone with the investigation of the charges preferredagainst him, and to interrogate all the colonists, with theexception of three men, whom he specifies by name,giving his reasons. D’Artaguette could easily informhimself of the truth; the testimony of the inhabitantswould be his justification. As for sending a pirogue tocapture the curate’s letters, Bienville had proved, in thepresence of D’Artaguette, that the letters in question hadbeen given to an officer, the priest agreeing, saying thathe was sorry he had written what he had, and no moreattention should be paid to it. As for the execution ofthe Chetimachas, his defence was the declaration that“the Indians always kill as many of their enemies asthey have had killed by them, without which it is con-sidered disgraceful to speak of accommodation. To actotherwise would be to expose one’s self to be considereda coward. In the beginning of the wars in Canadathere was opposition to putting the Iroquois to death ;on the contrary, they were sent away with handsomepresents, and it was seen that they mocked us, treatingthe French like women who did not dare kill them forfear of their revenge. Monsieur the Count of Frontenacfinally took the stand of burning them, men, women,and children, cruelly, which had so good an effect thatafterwards they did not dare come in war against uswithout fear.” Nevertheless, he affirms that he had
i;i
taken care not to kill a single woman, although theIndians kill women with men, to satisfy their revenge.He had always returned them to their villages, with themessage that the French thought it beneath them tokill women.
Breaking away from his personal affairs, he writeswith indignation of the small assistance sent after sopatient an endurance. The colony was in consternationto find, on the arrival of the “Renommee,” that no pro-vision had been made for the payment of the garrison,to whom two years’ arrears were due. The magazinewas bare of provisions, the men were naked, and theycould procure nothing, as no one would give themcredit on the bills of the treasury of the Marine. For sixmonths they had subsisted on Indian corn. He excusedthe highness of prices with which the minister had re-proached him, by the difficulties of his position in a timeof scarcity, and complained that De la Salle would notinsert in his estimates his, Bienville’s, statements of whatwas needed for the establishment. “It seems to methat he is more interested in the ruin than in the pro-gress of the colony.” Although indispensable for expe-peditions against, and treaties with, the Indians, theCanadians had been discharged, as the minister com-manded. There was no longer any boat for sea service ;the brigantine had gone to the bottom, worm-eaten.It was impossible for a boat to last many years in thesewaters, without sheathing, on account of the worms.There was no longer any missionary on the Mississippi.The Jesuits had a fine mission on the Missouri, andthere was among the Tamaroas a foreign missions priestwho had merit and showed zeal; but he knew neither
172
yEAAT BAPTISTE LE MOYNE,
how to make himself beloved nor how to instruct thesavages. There was a foreign missions priest then inMobile who would not go on a mission for fear of beingkilled by the Indians. I must confess to you, myLord, that these gentlemen of the foreign missions, farfrom running to martyrdom, flee it, as one has just donehere. Every day one sees Jesuits maltreated by theIndians without abandoning their missions ; on the con-trary, it seems to inspire them, and they never becomediscouraged.” Proceeding with a stroke that demon-strates that the Indians were not the only foes withwhom he practised retaliation, —
“The Rev. Father Gravier has arrived here [he returnedon the “Renommde ” ] with an order from your Highnessfor me to give him men to ascend to his mission; but asthe whole of my garrison and three fourths of the colonistsdid not perform their Easter duties last year on account oftheir want of confidence in the gentleman of the foreignmissions, I invited him to remain here until Easter, so thatthe people of the colony can have liberty of co7iscience.This good father is known here and loved. I am sure thatnot one in the colony this year will miss the opportunityoffered by the father for performing their Easter duties, noone failing in them as long as we had only Jesuits.”
Among other worries, De la Vente was causing greattrouble to Frenchmen not living in families, who hadwomen slaves to serve them. Until he hears from theminister on the subject, he obliges the masters to sendtheir slaves to pass the night where there are Frenchwomen. He again asks for leave of absence, and thepayment of his maintenance by the Government, beingalready in debt over eleven thousand livres.
173
In this letter Bienville advanced the idea, which ex-perience had ripened to conviction in his mind, andwhich, however obstinately he maintained it, met unfor-tunately with a more successfully obstinate oppositionfrom higher authorities, that the true initiative of Frenchprosperity in Louisiana lay not in the Gulf portsand in trade, but in agriculture and the colonization ofthe Mississippi River. It was a substitution of Iber-ville’s grandiose scheme by a small practical policy ofhis own. He proposed to begin immediately, if theking would, once for all, assume the expense of sixty oreighty labouring emigrants with their families, — smallfamilies, as children are a charge at first. He wouldtransport them through Lake Pontchartrain to the Mis-sissippi, and settle them about the Bayagoulas, where(and his judgment is good to-day), he says, are thefinest lands in the country.
D’Artaguette’s reports were not only an acquittal, buta vindication of Bienville; they read like the common-sense conclusions of a man of business, although theredoes not fail an insinuating notification from De la Salleto the minister that the commissary was lodged with thebrother of Bienville, and that all three ate together everyday.
After repeating the general items of Bienville’s effortsamong the Chickasaws and Choctaws, the machinationsof the English, and the difficulties and hardships con-tended against in the past, D’Artaguette paints thecondition of the colony, and gives a better idea thanBienville does of its wretchedness. The Canadians inservice had not been paid in two years, they owedmoney everywhere, and would return to their wood-
74
JEAN BAPTISTE LE MOYNE,
ranging life unless girls were sent out for wives for them.More attention should be paid to the seed shipped ; aquarter of the last wheat arrived spoiled. Cows, mares,and stallions could easily be procured in Havana, andbrought on the incoming ships. Sheep should be sentfrom France. There was no longer any boat in thecolony, — a flat boat had been built to transport freightfrom Massacre Island to Mobile; another would bebuilt. The colonists needed the mill, and would paythe king for his advance in money to construct it. Afort was needed on Massacre Island ; the garrison, con-sisting of only ninety men, was kept in a miserable condi-tion physically, by the necessity of keeping up constantguard duty there. There were only eleven inhabitantsin the whole establishment not in the pay of the king,and these would be a long time in making a maintenanceout of their lands, unless they could exchange Indians fornegro slaves, as the English did. If this expedient werenot admissible, negroes should be sent them. Sooneror later, — he echoes Bienville, — the establishmentwould have to be transferred to the high banks ofthe Mississippi. The land on the Mobile overflowed.The ground lower down on the river was better thanwhere the fort was situated, but it would ruin thefew colonists to make a change now. In the shorttime he had been there, he had only heard who hadappeared to him the least biassed in the affair of thequarrel between the commander and the commissary.They all declared themselves satisfied with Bienvilleand his conduct, and thought it would be desirablefor him to retain the governorship. Only one of thesewitnesses had charged that the royal vessels had been
175
sailed in the interests of Bienville and his brother, andthat they kept a store, under the name of a relative,
in which they sold merchandise and powder at ex-
orbitant prices. He, D’Artaguette, had examinedparticularly the shop about which so much noise hadbeen made. It was kept by a poor widow, burdenedwith four children, to whom, as to others, merchan-dise was given out of the royal stores, on payment
of price. He had found in it only a few pairs of
shoes and some pieces of old iron. It had not appearedto him that Bienville had usurped the functions of thecommissary, and he was persuaded that the differencescomplained of by the latter were in the main of littleconsequence. In regard to the game and beef broughtby the Indians, all the inhabitants agreed that Bienvillehad made a distribution of it among them all, and hadnot sold any. And — a very apparent deduction, itwould seem — it was not possible to carry on any tradeat Mobile without ready money, and none was sent out.The whole garrison was very poor, as well as the colonists,and all were in need of everything.
The curate was not the kind of Christian formed bythe beatitudes. In a doughty letter to his superior helet fly a volley of blows about the head of his antagonist,maintaining everything, retracting nothing, giving quitea different reason for the performance of their Easterduties by the men, and still averring that he dare notwrite in his justification, for fear his letter would besuppressed.
De la Salle forwarded to the minister the originalletter of Iberville to him, on which he had based hischarges; but its language was found too vague to sub-
176 yEAJV BAPTISTE LE MOYNE,
stantiate even a suspicion of dishonesty. D’Artaguetterendered to the minister the detailed account asked for.All things considered, it was more creditable to hisCanadian subaltern than to himself. One hundred andtwenty men constituted the entire force of the garrison,officers, soldiers, sailors, workmen, interpreters, priests,and boys. The colonists numbered in all one hundredand fifty-seven, — twenty-four men, twenty-eight women,twenty-five children, eighty Indian slaves, and sixty un-attached Canadians, who could be fixed in the settle-ment with wives. Despite the dearth of food and distressfrom sickness, the live-stock had been spared in ameasure that proves better than any documents thepatient thrift of the settlers and the stability of theirconfidence in their venture. There were fifty milchcows, four bulls, forty calves, eight beeves, fourteenhundred hogs, and about two thousand chickens.
177
CHAPTER XVI.
1709-1711.
PoNTCHARTRAiN appears to have experienced aquickening of conscience on the perusal of the state-ments he had called for from D’Artaguette; and theaffairs of the colony received that ministerial lookinginto which they so sadly needed. He found out thatthe worst was true. The troops had not been paid intwo years. The money ordered to Louisiana had simplynot been sent. “It is not surprising/’ he wrote toBegon, “ that the colony suffers to the degree shownme, if the treasurer of the marine does not remit thefunds ordered.” The missing amounts were traced ina sharp correspondence, and fifteen thousand livres re-covered, which were ordered to be sent with the appro-priations for the current year; but these appropriationsthemselves could not be paid in full, for the best ofreasons.
It was a time — the period immediately following theofficial venality of naval officers — when nothing waspaid in the Marine; consequently, when the royal navyof France began to sink to those depths of poverty anddegradation, and her colonies to the suffering and ne-glect to which an extravagant government, overtakenby bankruptcy, abandoned them.
12
178
yEAJV BAFT/STE LE MO YNE,
Deprived of his efficient arm of supply and defence,Iberville, with his colonial project — one might call itspeculation — ever calling for the margins which its naturaldevelopment required, and which a depleted exchequerforbade, Pontchartrain saw no choice but abandonment,or transference of it to the shoulders of one of thoseconvenient porters of heavy financial transactions, — acompany. He began to look around for one uponwhich to shift his burden, giving directions, meanwhile,that the necessary supplies of food and clothing be sentby the first vessel. But even this first vessel, it wasfound, the Government could not afford to fit out. Nocompany being forthcoming, private enterprise was so-licited ; and the usual eventualities attending individualefforts kept the matter in abeyance until two years andseven months had elapsed before the Sieur de Remon-ville could be found, terms arranged, and the “Renom-mee ” loaded with the necessities for the waiting colony.
In September, 1711, she sailed into the harbour ofMassacre Island.
If the colony was in poverty three years before, itshould have been in destitution now, — and it was, for allthat the Government had furnished; but necessity hadnot failed in her teachings, and necessity had never abetter coadjutor than Bienville. As a royal colony, theplace had certainly been dispensed from existing, and theSieur de Remonville, had he had an experienced eye insuch matters, must have remarked that he had come toa very promising beginning of a filibuster settlement, — indeed, so promising was it that D’Artaguette seriouslydiscussed the proposition made by a thousand free-booters from Carthagena to settle there.
179
There was, in such a country, no starvation to fear.The salt-meat was exhausted; but there was always, withthe Indians to supply corn, an emergency provision offlour kept on hand. The most serious anticipatory ca-lamity was the threatened exhaustion of the supply ofgunpowder; but this was averted by a timely loan fromSt. Domingo. Two or three brigantines found theirway from the islands across the Gulf to them ; one, aslaver, to whom the colonists sold some of their Indians ;another, a trader, but the establishment was too poor topurchase the cargo. The captain put the vessel itself upat auction, and on the advice of D’Artaguette theofficers bought it, in order to have some means of com-munication with the French and Spanish islands.
During the summer months, in order to spare hisstores of provisions, and, although he does not say so,to diminish the ravages of the periodical malady, whichseems to have existed endemically, Bienville allowed hisunmarried men to disperse themselves among the adja-cent Indian tribes.^ It was a privilege of which theFrenchmen, all coureurs d'aventiires^ if not coiireurs debois, eagerly availed themselves, and one which must havefurnished rare results of romantic frolic and pleasure, tojudge by the written accounts of one of them, Penni-caut. The political results, the good-fellowship estab-lished between the white men and the Indians (there isno record of an abuse of their privilege by the whitemen), and the consequent ensuing sense of security andstability to the feeble colony, seem not to have beensufficiently estimated by the chroniclers of the time, al-
1 The quartering of his men upon them, with which someAmerican historians reproach him.
l8o ;}^?AJV BAPTISTE LE MOYNE,
though these results must have formed the basis of Bien-ville’s self-confidence in treating of Indian affairs. Notonly personal, but hereditary experience proved thevalue of just such amicable commingling of the tworaces, when the civilized minority wished to gain themastery over the barbarous majority.
Pennicaut relates that, foreseeing a scarcity of pro-visions, three times he solicited the favour of summeringwith the Indians, and obtained it, thanks to the com-manders knowledge of his good character and the goodcharacter of the men he was careful to select for the ex-cursion. His pen indeed dwells with such gusto on thedescription of this free forest life, and under the glowof reminiscence bursts into such an effusion of volubleconfidences, that the historic loses itself in the fictionalvalue of his journal. Among the Natchez, but moreparticularly among the Colapissas, on the border of LakePontchartfain, he lived what has become the staple ofnative American romance and poetry, — long boatingexpeditions, days of hunting, nights of dancing andfrolicking with the young folks, around the camp fire,under the green leaves. A violinist was taken on one ex-cursion, and there was teaching of songs and the gavotteand cotillon to the pretty Indian girls, the sombre woodsresounding with merriment, and learning from them allthat merry-hearted, light-o’-love Frenchmen could amusethemselves by learning from pretty Indian girls; and thealways effusive adieux, tear-besprinkled by the younggirls, when the summons came to return to the fort. Ifit was half as charmingly lived as it is charmingly toldby tlie young carpenter, it must have been not withunmitigated sorrow that the unmarried portion of the
I8l
garrison saw the river rise to a damaging height to theIndians’ corn-crop. Bienville’s influence with the na-tives, his command of their dialects, his — according totheir standard — fair and just treatment of them, neverforgetting a promise, and never forgiving an injury,prevented the complete success of the English effort toinclude Mobile in the annual raids of their Indians uponthe Spanish possessions. The Choctaw and Chickasawchiefs, as vacillating in their enmities as in their friend-ships, were subsidized by continual presents into a stateof at least ineffectual hesitation, and their coalition,which at any time could have swept the handful ofFrenchmen out of existence, obstructed.
There was an attack made on the villages of theMobilians and Tohomes, but the defence was so bravethat by the time Bienville arrived with his reinforce-ments, in answer to his allies’ summons, the enemywere glad to beat a retreat, leaving in the hands of theMobilians and Tohomes five prisoners, who were burnednext day. Shortly afterwards, spies brought word of atremendous armament among the English Indians, andof a projected attack on the French settlement by wayof the river. The fear that this attack might be secondedby one from the sea, threw Bienville and the colony intoa state of great uneasiness.
What they dreaded, the Spaniards experienced. Fortwo months Pensacola lay surrounded by hostile Indians,the garrison locked in the fort by the knowledge of cer-tain death sighting the first venturer outside. Their
only food was barley-bread soaked in water. When
that gave out, the governor wrote Bienville, they wouldbe reduced to picking up shell-fish along the shore for
food. He asked a loan from the French ; but therewere only a few barrels of corn and flour to send him.
Successive overflows continued to destroy successivecorn-crops of the Indians, until there seemed no pros-pect for other nourishment than acorns. In 1711, FortSt. Louis itself stood under water. In the extremity oflack of provisions, powder, and men, a council of officerswas called, and it was decided to concentrate forcesand means, and bring the two posts nearer together,by removing the fort colony nearer the island. Thetransfer was made immediately by the anxious colonists,willing at any sacrifice to secure a way of escape frominland attack, to Massacre Island, or along the coastto the friendly Spaniards, and also to be nearer theincoming vessels of provisions.
Massacre Island throve and prospered amid all un-toward circumstances, with the sure persistency of aport town. Inhabitants drifted to it from the fort, fromthe country, dropped upon it from vessels, and like allvagrant seed, they took root and flourished. Houseswere built, stores set up, trees set out, and gardensplanted, until, as Bienville said, it was a pleasure to seeit. And the property accumulated was considered sovaluable that the loss inflicted by an enterprising Eng-lish invader was estimated at fifty thousand pounds.
All hope of the “Renommee ” had been abandoned;vessels were sent to Vera Cruz to buy food, if perad-venture the governor there would sell again on credit — which he had refused on the last application — when thebelated vessel arrived. Although the relief she broughtwas mediocre, Bienville wrote to the minister, still itgave them courage to proceed, and freed them from the
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fear which was beginning to take shape, that they wouldbe forced to abandon their establishment after such anexpenditure of work and trouble. He put in a plea forthe soldiers, who were so naked that they were objectsof compassion. He had given them some deer-skins,out of which they had made coverings. And the colo-nists, he said, should be encouraged by the reimburse-ment of the advances they had made to the Government.
D’Artaguette, preparing to return on the “Renom-mee,” showed Bienville the hitherto concealed instruc-tions, written four years before to De Muy, concerninghim. Bienville merely mentioned the fact to the min-ister, without again referring to the charges against him-self, or attempting any further defence ; but he venturesto add : It is thirteen years that I have been here. I
have passed my youth and used up my health here, andI certainly, my Lord, have not made any profit. Farfrom it, as I can prove to you, I have been obliged tocontract debts to sustain the expenditures which I couldnot dispense with making, to retain the savages whocome down upon me in numbers, to gain whom I amforced to pet them in a thousand ways that cost money,and the Spaniards, who make us frequent visits, andwhom we cannot avoid receiving, for they sorhetimesassist us in our need.” He asked for a concession ofland, in extent from half a league below his presentestablishment to the Riviere aux Perles, to be erectedinto a fief, with permission to give it his name, and alsoprays for his promotion to the grade of lieutenant andfor the cross of St. Louis. After all my exposures andsufferings, and not having received a cent of my salaryfor seven years, I think I merit them.”
184 yEAJV BAPTISTE LE MOYNE,
In obedience to the desire expressed by the ministerso long since, in De May’s instructions, the name ofMobile was changed into (to a surety a piece of D’Arta-guette’s wit at the expense of the young Canadian andthe minister) /;/2mobile, that of Massacre Island toDauphin Island.
Arrived in France, D’Artaguette wrote his reportfrom Bayonne, — a characteristic document of bluntdirectness ; —
“The soldiers were deserting to the English of Carolinaon account of their misery. They would desert to thesavages if the latter had not received orders to arrest andfetch them back. Two equipments of clothing were duethem. They were naked. For the most part of the timethey lived on beaten corn boiled with meat. The coats andshirts brought out by the ? Renommee ’ were spoiled.The number of colonists was too small for them to under-take any considerable work; they were moreover ruined bythe extravagance of their wives [evidently the exportedgirls], who were naturally lazy, and had only come therefor libertinage and idleness. However, a taste for tradewith Spain was developing; but the English, by burningMassacre Island, had destroyed all the gains from it.”
He reiterates his opinion as to the importance and ad-vantage of Louisiana to the French ; speaks of the dis-satisfaction and jealousy of the Spaniards, which canbe laughed at; the only people to fear are the English,and they can be kept off by the Indians, and particu-larly by an establishment on the Wabash [Ohio].”
During the winter of 1709, D’Artaguette had accom-panied Bienville to the place on the Mississippi, betweenit and Lake Bontchartrain, where the latter wished tomake his new settlement. A few colonists were already
there, to whom Bienville had given tracts of land. Theyhad planted corn, which he, D’Artaguette, saw, andwhich was very fine; and he quoted their opinion thata hundred colonists could support themselves in thesame locality. He concludes by saying that he hadnot seen the colour of his salary for five years.
The “Renomme'e ” departed, and the colony settleddown to another period of governmental oblivion. Butthere were mitigations in their lot which made thefuture more hopeful than the past had ever been.
In 1710 De la Salle had died, and shortly afterwardsDe la Vente had taken his departure for France. Tradecontinued to sprout on Massacre, now Dauphin, Island.The peltry bought from Indians and coureiirs de bois,which could not be exported to France, found readysale in the Spanish possessions; and garden vegetablesand chickens brought in small supplies of cash from theever-hungry garrison at Pensacola. The island itself hadadded a church to its attractions, — the gift of the Sieurde Remonville, pleased with the flourishing aspect ofaffairs there. The Apalaches, who had followed Bien-ville down the river, settled themselves on their assign-ment of land near the new fort. Here, under thespiritual charge of M. Herve, they built themselves achurch, and became so edifying a religious example,that the colonists used to jaunt out on Sundays andfeast-days to see them perform their devotions and hearthem sing the Latin hymns.
Another member of the Le Moyne family had comeout to the new colony, in whose fortunes they evidentlyhad confidence, — De Sainte-Helene, a midshipman,son of Jacques Le Moyne de Sainte-Helene, who had
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received his death-wound at the siege of Quebec, in1690.
The companionship of his nephew was not an un-alloyed pleasure to the uncle, as will be seen. Thenephew’s first exploit was allowing his vessel to sink tothe bottom in the harbour of Vera Cruz, where Bienvillehad sent him for provisions. Fortunately the new vice-roy there, the Duke of Linares, who had succeeded tothe Duke of Albuquerque, was anxious to be on goodterms with the French, and he replaced the lost boatwith a brigantine, pretending that his delay in furnish-ing the provisions had been the cause of the accident.In the spring of 1712, Bienville finally had the satis-faction, not only of bringing the Alabamas to terms, butalso of including all his Indian allies in one generalpeace.
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CHAPTER XVII.
1712, 1713.
The efforts of Pontchartrain which had procured thetemporary relief of a Remonville were further successful.A rich merchant, the Sieur Antoine de Crozat, a capi-talist and moneyed favourite of the court, after a two-years’ negotiation was induced to relieve his royalmaster of the burdensome colony for what profit hecould draw out of it, for the space of fifteen successiveyears. The charter of the trading privilege as it wascalled, bristled with provisions and stipulations of allkinds for all manner of protection to the two contract-ants ; but to even a casual reader of Bienville’s andD’Artaguette’s official reports, they read like a handsomeceremonial preceding the shearing of a lamb. D’Ar-taguette’s last report was dated Paris, Sept. 8, 1712.In face of it, in despite of it, Crozat’s charter was signedon September 14th, but six days afterwards. Crozat,however, was not the only one to be pitied in this royalbargain. The king was to maintain the necessary mili-tary force in the country; civil affairs were to be con-fided to a council, as in the islands of St. Domingo andMartinique. Crozat was to be represented by threecommissioners.
Bienville, without reference to the accusations againsthim, his vindication, or his appeals for leave of absence,
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was unceremoniously assigned to what might be calledthe Indian department, — a position whose responsibili-ties were sharp enough to define themselves, but whoselimitations were left to the uncertainties of future indi-vidual interpretation. Over all was to rule the succes-sor of De Muy, La Motte Cadillac, who had consumedthe long interval since his appointment in endeavouringto reach his distant command, a failure by land, necessi-tating a journey to France, and sailing thence. Tohim Crozat promptly attached a lien in the shape of aninterest in his trading privilege.
In the policy to be carried out, the minister prescribedto his substitute an extract from Iberville’s and Bien-ville’s neglected scheme. Five posts were designatedto be established and maintained, — one at DauphinIsland, where the governor was to reside in future, oneat Mobile, one at the head of Mobile River, one on the? Ohio, and one at Natchez, to be called Rosalie (afterthe Countess of Pontchartrain), — which, with the Mis-sissippi and all its affluents and effluents, was to beunder the command of Bienville, who was also to havethe disposition of one half of the funds set aside forpresents to the Indians.
In June, 1713, the “Baron de la Fosse,” of fortyguns, safely brought into harbour the new installation,personal, financial, and political. A more careful in-stallation of personal, financial, and political disorderwas never accomplished by even France in colonialhistory.
The object of Crozat was trade, not with Louisiana,but with the Spanish possessions ; his methods were theselfish ones of the alien monopolist. His intention was
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to do for himself what Bienville and Iberville were try-ing to do in the interests of the colony. He pro-posed establishing a warehouse for his merchandise atDauphin Island, and a line of trading brigantines totouch at all the Spanish ports between Pensacola, VeraCruz, and the Campeche coast. It was a project ofwhich the approaching peace (treaty of Utrecht) seemedto make the success plausible. But the same peace,which guaranteed his ships, liberated also the merchantmarine of England. Not only this, the first tradingnation, also the first treaty-making nation, of the worldsecured by this same peace, upon which Crozat restedhis hopes, not only the closing of these same ports toFrench vessels, but the monopoly of the slave-trade.Crozat’s charter, before he could put it into execution,was made, in fact, waste paper. His colony returned hisindifference in kind, and frustrated as much as possiblehis extortionate attempts upon it by “filibustering ” andsmuggling. It was a losing fight, from the arrival of the“Baron de la Fosse,” to principal and accessories.
Gascon by birth and by qualities, one may say, Ca-dillac had been, if not one of the foremost, one of theprominent French pioneers in America for twenty years.Indefatigable, shrewd, clever, he had, according to con-temporary portraiture of him, not only ideas enough toequip himself with an Indian policy, a military policy, aregulation-of-royal-and-ecclesiastical-powers policy, anda colonization policy, but he had also been gifted withabundant strength of body and mind, tongue and pen, toenforce the same. He was a protege of Frontenac, con-sequently an enemy of the Jesuits, against whom hewould fire a shot at any time in any of his policies.
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With Iberville, he held that the great rivers running northand south must be held to France, if France wished tohold her American possessions; and that New Orleans,Quebec, and his city, Detroit, were to be her sheet-anchors in the continent. The activity and enthusiasmwhich Cadillac threw into his services, his experiences,his studies, his reflections, his whole self, had securedhim rapid advancement and solid recognition. An ablemanager of Indian affairs, reputed to be one of theablest; a veteran, if ever there was one, in the interne-cine strife between Church and State ; a post-graduatein official complications, having had his own personalexperiences of accusations, trials, condemnations, inves-tigations, and acquittals, — he had, in one word, thewhole colonial question, general and particular, at hisfingers’ ends. His appointment, it would be supposed,would have been the ne plus ultra of administrativewisdom. His failure, however, might have been read inhis very recommendations. He had too many policies,too much experience ; he knew too much to learn more,and too little for a different sphere and different circum-stances. The result, as Louisiana experienced, was amiddle-aged obstinacy which not only ignored otherinformation, but utterly despised the possessors of it.
Like an old practitioner he went to work at Bienvilleand his colony, shaking, twisting, turning them untilwhat he was determined to find in them was demon-strated beyond peradventure or shadow of turning in hismind, and then he enunciated (letter to minister, 25, 26October, 1713) his opinion, or rather his contempt, ofthe whole affair committed to his charge. His roughfrankness has at least the merit of honesty, for personally
19
his profit must have lain at least with a temporary pallia-tion of what he considered the iruth. This is his versionof Bienville’s pretty establishment of Dauphin Island :
“He had counted upon it one dozen fig-trees, which werevery handsome; three wild pear-trees and a little plum-treeabout three feet high, which had seven poor plums upon it;about thirty feet of vine, bearing in all nine bunches ofgrapes, some of them dried or rotting, the rest only a littleripe; and forty plants of French melons and pumpkins.That was the Paradise, the Pomona, the Fortunate Isles ofthe Relations! Pure fables i ”
With small regard for Crozat’s peace of mind, he pro-ceeds, not only to damn any agricultural hopes from thesoil, but the whole country itself, in tofo^ with the peopleit contained, — red, black, and white. But his descrip-tion belies his desire, or rather temper : —
“I have already said that if the inhabitants have notcultivated tobacco and indigo, it is because they do notmake anything by this culture. They have only been ableto raise corn and vegetables. During the first years theseharvests were abandoned. This permitted them to raisehogs and fowls, and to live passably. But during the lastthree years neither vegetables nor corn have come, eitherby excess of wet or drought, and the suffering has beenvery great. All the commerce, heretofore, has only con-sisted of timber, deer, bear, and wild-cat skins. Thecoureurs de bois get the skins and slaves from the Indians,and sell them to the colonists. The skins were resold tothe Spaniards at Pensacola or to the vessels that camefrom the islands; the slaves were employed in sawingtimber and clearing the land. The colonists carried to
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Pensacola, where there was no clearing, their vegetablesand corn, and this trade threw a little money into the colony,and gave the colonists the means of buying from theislands. This is all, and the only commerce here ; and ithas not enriched the colonists, for they are very poor, butit has enabled them to subsist. ... If there is anything towonder at, it is that with so much poverty and so little com-merce the inhabitants should have consented to remain inthe colony. But it is to be remembered that it is recog-nized that the land will produce indigo, silk, and tobacco,although the colonists have not cultivated them, out ofignorance of their culture, and fear that the colony wouldbe abandoned. . . . They awaited peace with impatience,persuaded that when peace was made, vessels would comewhich would give a sustenance to commerce, and that bythe way the garrison would then be treated, some conclu-sions might be reached as to the ulterior views of the Gov-ernment in regard to the establishment. . . . According to.the proverb, ? bad country, bad people,’ one can say thatthere is a collection here formed from the dregs of Canada,gens de sac et de corde, without respect for religion or forgovernment, addicted to vice, and principally to Indianwomen, whom they prefer to French women. It is verydifficult to remedy it, when his Majesty desires that theyshould be governed with mildness, and when he wishes agovernor to comport himself so that the inhabitants shallmake no complaint against him. On arriving, I found thewhole garrison in the woods among the savages, who pro-vided for them with their guns, and thus for want, not onlyof bread, but of corn, the harvests having failed for twoconsecutive years; and even if it had not failed, it is to beremembered that the harvest saves over here only fromone year to the other, the vermin ruining it entirely. Thelieutenant of the king, Bienville, came here at the age ofeighteen, without having served either in France or Canada.
His brother, Chateauguay, came here still younger, as wellMajor Boisbriant. There was no one here of the professionto train the soldiers, therefore they are badly disciplined.. . . The colony could not be poorer than it is at present.The Canadians who are here are returning to Canada, andnevertheless without them no enterprise is possible. Fiftyof them should be maintained in the service of the king tomake expeditions. If God gives me health, I shall try toelevate the colony, which is not worth a straw at present.But if it is to be preserved, at least one hundred new soldiersare needed, well equipped and provided with good breadand meat. We need Canadians and sailors; and amongthe troupes there must be labourers, masons, stone-cutters,carpenters, millers. [He asked for a church.] I thinkthe inhabitants would be delighted not to have one. Ac-cording to the priests and missionaries, the greater portionof them have not approached the sacraments for seven oreight years. The soldiers have not performed their Easterduties, following the example of Bienville, their command-ant, Boisbriant, their major, Chateauguay, captain, andS^rigny, a minor officer, — to all of whom. I declared Iwould so inform your Majesty, which made them break outagainst me, with the help of the commissary, Duclos.”
Cadillac assuming missionary duties after his expressedopinions of clerical interferences in the past, has a trulyhumorous touch; but he was not one to be restrainedby even humour in the exercise of his duties or pen.He charges point blank into the natural enemy of allcommandants, the commissary. Duclos and he agreedabout no one thing in the colony: the fortifications, fur-loughs, presents to the Indians, all were in dispute be-tween them. It would be difficult, he predicted, fortheir union to subsist much longer. Duclos had refusedto go over the accounts to examine the justice of the
13
complaints against Bienville, and the truth about thatofficer was not obtainable. Not so Cadillac’s theoryabout it: —
“I have learned that De Muy, dying in Havana, M. Du-casse, who was there, took all the official papers relating tothe government of Louisiana, and addressed them to M. deBienville, who found out in the instructions the suit thatwas to be instigated against him. He profited by theknowledge, like a clever man; scattering and sending outof his government all who would testify against him, eithersailors or Canadians in the pay of the king, the rest [of hisaccusers] being dead. As it is an affair that has beengoing on for twelve years nearly, it is difficult to find livingwitnesses who can testify correctly, being, besides, con-vinced by the conduct of the Sieur d’Artaguette, who didnothing in the matter, and by that of Duclos, that the affairhad been completely dropped. This cannot be doubted[the dropping of the investigation], in view of the intimacyexisting between these two gentlemen [Bienville andDuclos]. In truth, one should be of very ill humour toill treat so good a host, who leaves no stone unturned tomake good cheer, not only for his guest, but for all whocome to see his guest.”
And already Cadillac begins to suspect Duclos ofbeing connected in trade with Bienville, although, ac-cording to his own showing, such a connection musthave been most innocently unprofitable.
Bienville he indorses, however, as skilful in managingthe Indians, and he recommends that he be sent to hispost, Natchez, at once.
The report of Duclos to the minister, which antedatedhis principal’s by a few days, was, as might be expected,a brief on the other side. He found, on arrival, not
95
only the climate of Mobile delightful, but a mine of salt-petre within forty leagues of the fort. He also describedthe poverty of the colonists ; but gave as a reason theirhaving to change their location so often. Divine servicewas held in a chamber of a house which the missionarieshad purchased; a church was being built, thanks to thegenerosity of the Sieur de Remonville. The missionariesat the fort were pious; but it was a pity they did notlearn the language of the Indians. The soldiers werepersuaded that they had a right to their provisions andpay; a great many of them demanding their discharge.The writer charged dissipation and extravagance againstthose who formerly had care of the magazines of mer-chandise and ammunition. Many of the receipts forprovisions furnished had no shape, and the inhabitantsdid not know how to go about to get them paid.
“The accounts found among the papers of M. de laSalle are in so little order that M. de Bienville, who, actingcommissary, without knowing how, and who was not at allfitted for such business, did not know where to begin tomake his accounts to the treasurer of the Marine for theexpenditures since 1706.”
Speaking of the debts of Bienville and Chateauguay,he says that the poverty of both was so great “that theywere obliged to take what they needed from the royalstores. As they did not carry on any trade, and werenot paid their salaries, they had no other resource inorder to live. What is very certain is, they are both verypoor.”
In addition to his report, Duclos wrote a lengthy me-morial, divided into chapters, which does suggest theintimate companionship complained of by Cadillac. No
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one so well as Bienville could have supplied him withthe facts of the condition of the colony as set forth,with the arguments against the cession to Crozat, andwith the proofs of its prejudice to the development ofthe place, and the eventual advantage to the king ifCrozat could be brought to renounce his charter. Howmuch of Bienville’s good cheer furnished inspiration forthe following, Cadillac no doubt also could specify:
“I cannot too highly praise the manner with which M.de Bienville has been able to gain the savages and domi-nate them. He has succeeded in this by his generosity,his loyalty, his scrupulous exactitude in keeping his wordand every promise made, and by the firm and equitablemanner with which he renders justice among the differentIndian tribes. . . . He has particularly conciliated theiresteem by punishing severely any thefts or depredationscommitted by the French, who are forced to make amendsevery time they commit an injury against an Indian.”
As for the presents to the savages, Duclos withoutreservation informs the minister that Cadillac turnsthem to his own profit, and he advises tlie minister tomake the governor, in the distribution of presents, con-sult with Bienville, who knows better than any one inthe colony the strength of the Indian tribes, and conse-({uently the amount and value of the presents necessaryto make them.” Recurring to the charges againstIberville and his brothers, Duclos affirms that the richestof all, not excepting one, could not realize a revenue ofsix hundred livres a year, after haying sold all he pos-sessed and paid his debts.
In conclusion, the young commissary, in a mannerthat refutes the later opinion of the minister concerning
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his capacity, pleads for liberty of commerce for thecolony, and demonstrates that without it the Sieur deCrozat would gain nothing out of his charter. Asnothing flatters a man so much as liberty, and as theyeven prefer a liberty that is onerous, to restraints that areadvantageous, the mere appearance of being able totrade freely would hold the colonists that are here, andattract others.’’
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CHAPTER XVIII.
1713-
In a private letter' to his brother, the Baron of Lon-gueuil, — the only private letter we have from him, — Bienville gives a view of the colony and of himself whichmakes one all the more dissatisfied with the conven-tional and uniform representations of both in the officialdocuments : —
Louisiana, 2 Oct., 1713.
You will no doubt have learned, sir and very dearbrother, that since last year the king has given this countryto a Company for fifteen years, and that Monsieur de laMotte Cadillac, governor of it, and interested in it [thecompany], had come here, with all his family, in a frigate offorty tons. They arrived the 5th of June last; and he hasput such consternation in this country that, from the highestto the lowest, all are asking with insistence to go out of it.Several of the inhabitants have already gone to Vera Cruzand Havana ; each one is seeking some way of escape. It isindeed a sad tiling, particularly for us officers and soldiers,to whom nothing came from France. My brother S^rignywas not able to ship even a small box by paying the freight.We are obliged to sell our slaves and small furniture, tomake a little money to buy flour, shirts, and other cloth-
^ Histoire de Longueuil, Jodoin, and Vincent, p. 119. Letterpublished first in “Revue Canadienne,” October, 1881, p. 596.
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ing from the store of the Company. They do not wishto receive our salaries [certificates], at half or even twothirds discount; they wish only money, and this autumnwe must clothe ourselves. ... A quarter of flour is soldto us at ninety livres, a hat forty livres, an ell of Rouenlinen seven livres; and so on. When we try to say thatthat is too high, we are answered that they do not force usto buy, that that is the current price among the Spaniards,and that if we can do without, not to take it. But howget elsewhere? There is only this one store. Therecame also a C07n77iissah'e ordo7i7iateur., with strict ordersfrom the minister to make us pay for all the provisionsand other goods we had been obliged to take from theking’s store, when resources from France failed, at thehighest prices such goods could ever have in this country,so that those of us who calculated that we only owed theking two or three thousand livres, we have to find fromeight to ten thousand. It is forbidden also in the futureto deliver anything to the officers from the royal stores,not even a pound of powder. In spite of ourselves, we mustbuy from the Company. Our soldiers are as poor as we;they have not been paid in seven years, and by this vessel[the one that brought La Motte-Cadillac] there only camefor them one coat and two shirts [apiece], no stockings, — nothing else. For all provisions, there is only given tothem one pound of bad flour; no meat, no vegetables.They are crying, ? Enough ! ’ They often desert, and theprison is full of those who are caught. I will tell younothing of M. de la Motte, except that we all find it verydisagreeable to serve under him. He is completely dazzledat seeing himself the governor of the charming province ofLouisiana. If he were not at the head of this Company, hewould perhaps assist the officers a little. Upon his arrival,all the voyageurs were here, with large supplies of peltry,which he obliged them to sell at vile prices ; selling them
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in return merchandise exorbitantly high, so that they haveall decamped to the Illinois, protesting that they will neveragain descend here, but in future go to Montreal.
It is only five months since the arrival of the vessel thatbrought De la Motte, and already all the provisions are atan end. The king has only two barrels of flour left. M.de la Motte has given the soldiers leave to go and livewherever they please among the savages. There is noguard-mounting any longer. I will not expand further onthe sad condition in which the colony is ; it has never beenso miserable. There is a great deal due by the king foradvances made by the inhabitants in times of past need,and nothing has been paid yet. M. de la Motte has agrown daughter who has a great deal of merit. I wouldthink of asking her in marriage, if I had received yourconsent and that of my very dear sister, although I shouldhave a great deal of trouble to make up my mind to becomethe son-in-law of M. de la Motte, on account of all thesnarls I see him in with everybody. He is the most arti-ficial man in the world, who never says aught but the con-trary of what he thinks.
I gave myself already, a year ago, the pleasure of writ-ing to you on the subject of this future marriage, to knowyour thought. I had not at that time seen the young lady.I have not touched with her upon the subject of the mar-riage, and will not do so until I hear your will on the sub-ject. I have never had a father; it is you who served mefor one. I think that you will kindly continue your goodoffices to me in regard to the twelve thousand livres whichyou kindly withdrew from the sale of “Pres-de-ville ” andthe city house, and we beg you, Chateauguay and I, tohave it held for us in France. Chateauguay informs youwhat he owes to Madame de Bethune (the widow of Iber-ville, remarried to the Comte de Bethune), and begs you tosend it to her. As for me, I owe nothing to anybody.
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M. de S^rigny, who told you that I was in debt to him,is mistaken; he has never loaned me a sol since I canremember myself as reasonable: it is he who owes me athousand pieces, which I sent him six years ago. On theseven thousand livres, or thereabouts, that you may havefor me, I beg you to remit seven hundred livres in Frenchmoney to the heirs of a certain Duchery who died here fiveyears ago; his father was named Denis Darbois ; the bap-tismal name of this one also is Denis. I have here threemoney orders belonging to him: one for 360 livres, for hispay for one year; another for 180 livres, for clothes soldseveral Canadians in the service of the king, who could onlypay in money orders ; and also another for 160 livres, forsome other transactions which I assumed for this Duchery.His father, I believe, belongs to “Cap Rouge,” — threeleagues from Quebec. I wrote to his parents, who havemade no reply. It should be the same to them to receivefrom you cards [card-money], which is the money of Can-ada, as these money orders, which I do not think will bepaid until the king pays his cards. . . .
I have heard here casually {en batons rompus') that theheirs of the late Chevalier de B^cancourt [one of the firstcommissaries in the colony] had not been paid by the lateM. d’Iberville the eight hundred livres which the auction ofhis possessions amounted to, — which astonishes me, havingwritten at the time to M. d’Iberville that I had received thissum of eight hundred livres and [for him] to give them to theheirs. I sent him the inventory which I had signed by theofficers in duplicate. He acknowledged to me the receptionof it, telling me that he had found at Paris the eldest of theMessieurs de Becancourt, to whom he had loaned money,more even than that sum covered. I cannot learn from theaccounts Madame de Bethune sends me if she is carryingthe eight hundred livres for me, as nothing is sent me indetail, only the totals. The clerks she has, not being the
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same as before, during the lifetime of her husband, I can-not exactly find out if I owe that amount. I have still theletter, in which my late brother informs me that he has ac-counts with the eldest of the Messieurs de Becancourt, andthat he is satisfied ; but in the uncertainty I think I should,in conscience, pray you to see these gentlemen, the heirs ofthe said Chevalier de Becancourt, and to pay them the sumof eight hundred livres, after taking their oath that theyhave never received the above amount, particularly theeldest of the family. If you have to pay this amount, therewill not remain more than 4,500 of the 6,000 livres; youwill have them sent for me in France in the manner youthink most proper, either in employing cards, peltry, orsending them in bills of exchange, the whole addressed tomy brother De Serigny. You will know better than I themanner which will be most advantageous for me, on ac-count of the risks, which are at present small, having peacewith England. I approve and will hold well done what-ever you do in the matter.
While I am writing, Madame Le Sueur has come in;she assures me of having heard it said by one Babin,called Lasource, who came here by land five years ago,that the heirs of the Sieur de Becancourt had obliged him,Babin, who was in debt to the late M. d’Iberville, to paythem, — which debt he was condemned to pay, and did pay.As this Babin, or Lasource, is not here at present, — he livesten leagues from here, — I cannot know exactly how muchhe paid on the account of M. d’Iberville. Madame LeSueur says she thinks it was to Madame de Sourdis (DeVillebon) that the said Lasource gave 400 to 700 livres.You will have the kindness to inform yourself about it, andto pay nothing until I have heard from this Babin that hehas paid, on the account of M. d’Iberville, the amount ofthe Bdcancourt heritage. As the rest of the voyagers whointend going into your part of the country leave shortly, I
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will enlighten you better about it. In regard to what youtell me, — Saint-Helene is to take on the twelve thousandlivres, — I shall keep account; he owes me considerable.He has a very poor head, and spends a great deal: one cantrust him with nothing, he dissipates a great deal. I havekept him here by me, and have given him the command ofthe little brigantines which the king keeps in the country;he has 600 livres a year and his valet. The commissary isone of my intimates ; we live together. I got him to writeto the minister very advantageously about Saint-Hdlene ;he continues the same pay that I had given him. The lastvoyage that I sent Saint-Helene on to Vera Cruz, he spentmore than 5,000 livres in nine months’ time. When I askedhim to account for it, the only reason he could give me w^asthat he had bought six very fine horses very dear, whichhad died, and the rest was not his fault; that his pilot hadsolicited him to feast the other pilots and ship-captains inport; and, in short, several similar reasons. I confess toyou, a very little more, and I would have sent him back tomy brother Serigny, who sent him to me. He will ruinme if he continues. He drinks and smokes a great deal;he is assuredly the only one of the family who does so.He does not stick to anything; he has just, however, prom-ised me that he will be more orderly in the future. He isleaving for Havana to get Indian corn for the garrison,which is reduced to running the woods for a living.
I have strong expectations that this company will notbe able to hold out in this country, and that it will abandonit, whatever good hopes M. de la Motte gives M. Crozatand Le Bar, who have an interest in it [the Company].Their one object is to open a great commerce with Spain;but they will certainly not accomplish anything. TheSpaniards are warned, and they thrust their hands in every-where, searching even into the sheathing of the ships whichgo there for provisions. A vessel is just at this moment
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arriving from Vera Cruz, which they [the Company] sentunder pretext of asking help. It was sent back, in sight ofland, without a hearing.
I am very sensible of the expressions of friendship thatyou give me in your letters, and also of [those of] my verydear sister, who had the goodness to think of me. I havereceived two of her letters, which gave me real pleasure.
I pray her to continue to write to me, it is the only conso-lation I have in this country, to hear from you and her. Itremble every time I hear that there is some great sicknessin Canada. As you are both beginning to enter into years,the risk is greater.
You will kindly permit me to embrace here M. de Lon-gueuil [eldest son of the baron], who, I am assured, hasreturned to Canada a lieutenant; you must be thinking ofsoon making a captain of him. Suffer me to embrace hereMadame de Varennes, my very dear niece; I am muchpleased that you inform me she is happy with M. de Va-rennes : I had heard quite differently, which troubled memuch. She is an amiable girl, with all the merit in theworld, according to the portrait I have heard made of her.My dear cousin De Senneville, be sure to give him mycompliments; I despair of ever hearing from him, afterhaving written to him (without an answer) as often as I didwhen I first came here. I know he is very negligent aboutwriting, which takes from me all thought that he is actingfrom indifference.
I am writing to M. de la Chassagne, begging him to re-proach my sister with her neglect; she has never yet writtento me a single line in her life, — at which I am very muchmortified, loving her as tenderly as I do, and I threaten herin the letter I am writing, to force her henceforth to writeto me, by the importunities I threaten to write to her.
Chateauguay is writing to you very lengthily. He will,no doubt, touch upon the worry M. de la Motte is causing
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him. He has taken possession of his house, despite himand whatever resistance he could make, as it was a large,new two-storied house, and good to lodge Ids [Cadillac’s]whole family, which is numerous.
As I expect to go to France next year, I pray you, myvery dear sister, to recommend to your patron to aid me inobtaining what I might find to suit me. It is a favour Iask of you, and also that of believing me, with much respect,sir and very dear brother.
Your very humble and very obedient servant,
Bienville.
I forgot to tell you that I think the minister completelyrecovered from his attitude against me. The curate-priest,niy enemy, has been recalled; another has come in hisplace, who often eats of my soup. The minister gives meplenty of the holy water of the court. In the last lettershe writes me promising that on the first opportunity I mightbe advanced. I almost flatter myself that if this companyshould fail, M. de la Motte might be recalled, and I remainagain commandant. It is only in case that this shouldhappen that T ask your consent to marry Mile, de la Motte ;for without that I do not see ahead how I could providefor a wife or provide for myself, for our governor is verystingy. He has not yet offered us a glass of water sincethe five months he has been here. The officers are alwaysat my house. As heretofore, in regard to the money I hadin my hands belonging to the heirs of Poitier, here inclosed,I have remitted it all into the hands of the Sieur Charly, uponthe procuration of his father, De Poitier. I am very muchmortified because M. Pacaud writes me that Poitier oweshim; but it was too late, it was already delivered.
While Bienville was thus seemingly occupied renew-ing his family relations, arranging his financial affairs, in-
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dulging in matrimonial speculations, preparing either forretreat to France or replacement to his old commandin case of Cadillac’s happy failure, the latter was wrest-ling with the swarming difficulties of his government.As he truthfully said, a sim.ilar one existed nowheie inthe world. His pen alone can do justice to it. In orderto reap a new harvest of presents, feastings, and pacifica-tions out of the new administration, the natives werebreaking out into complications in every quarter. Nomarket could be found for Crozat’s merchandise, eitheropenly or surreptitiously, by land or by water, in any ofthe Spanish possessions. The king, as usual, defaultingfrom his share of the charter, was sending neither pay,clothes, nor provisions for the soldiers, who were mu-tinous and deserting. The girls sent out to marry wereworthless characters. Even the Creator was 'particepscriminis in the disorder and distress, for having createdsuch a country, the vilest of the vile for infertility, in-salubrity, and influences for general moral depravation.It was not worth wasting money on, and could be ofno utility to France, except for commercial depredationsupon the Spaniards in time of peace, and armed ones intime of war. But of all the difficulties of his position,Bienville and Duclos were the most exasperating, and,indeed, in the governor’s point of view, most responsiblefor all the rest. They had formed a cabal among theofficers, which, waxing in violence and impertinence, metin the house of the commissary for the purpose of drink-ing, debauchery, and formation of schemes against thegovernor. Without regard apparently for any prospectsof tender family relations, he had had Bienville arrestedfor giving him the lie twice consecutively. He took the
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disciplining of the soldiers in hand himself, and put onein irons, — a mutineer who came to demand food fromhim. He particularly prided himself upon his treatmentof the colonists, who had assembled themselves withouthis permission and drawn up a petition asking that M.Crozat would sell only by wholesale, and only at fifty percent profit on the price in France. Cadillac says that thepetition contained several other demands equally absurd,but that news of it coming to him, he proclaimed loudlythat he would hang any bearer of it as the leader ofrebellion; and this threat coming to the ears of Bien-ville and Duclos, they suppressed it.
Crozat came to the protection of his interest by rain-ing down upon the colony ordinances against trade inany shape or form, even to the small marketing pro-visionment of Pensacola, under penalty of confiscationto the benefit of Crozat. It was also forbidden for anyone in the colony to possess a vessel proper for seatravel, or for any one, not of the colony, to send anyvessel into it for the purpose of trade. As much as pos-sible all expenses were paid in the merchandise whichaccumulated to rot in the warehouses, and prices werestrained to cover, not only all legitimate profit, extor-tionate as it was, but also the loss from disappointmentof the Spanish trade.
Cadillac was not less ingenious in coming to therescue of his authority, put in derision by the cabal ofgodless young officers. He emitted an ordinance whichforbade the wearing of swords or other arms by any onenot proving his title of nobility to the clerk of the coun-cil, under pain of three hundred livres fine and onemonth’s imprisonment, with increased punishment in
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case of a repetition of the offence. And in every letterthe minister was importuned to interfere, or to authorizethe governor to proceed with such drastic remedies ashis skill and experience suggested, not only in civil andmilitary matters, but in ecclesiastical.
A surcease of the moral and political strain was ob-tained, not, the Journal Historique ” says, without theconnivance of Bienville. Towards the close of the year1714, Dutisne, a Canadian, arrived in Mobile to en-gage in the service of Crozat. He brought with himsome specimens of ore, which had been given him inthe country of the Illinois by some Canadians, who as-sured him that they had found them near Kaskaskias.These specimens were exhibited to Cadillac, who hadthem tested. They were found to contain a large pro-portion of silver. His imagination inflamed by pros-pects of colonial and personal wealth, Cadillac, withouta moment’s hesitation, and with all haste and secrecy,made his preparations and took his departure for theregions of the supposed mines, leaving his command,untrammelled to Bienville, and to the presumably wellsatisfied cabal of Canadian officers.
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CHAPTER XIX.
1715,1716.
The Indians soon recognized the grip of a familiarhand upon them, rousing them from their comfortableand profitable double-dealing. English traders hadcrept in among the Chickasavvs, Choctaws, Yazous, andNatchez, and English emissaries were busy among thetribes still nearer the French. An English officer fromCarolina, travelling in friendly security down the Mis-sissippi, was arrested at Manchac by a pirogue of Cana-dians sent for the purpose, and brought to Mobile.Although Bienville set him at liberty and passed him onto Pensacola, it is related, rather grimly, that he waskilled by a Tohomes Indian on his way back to Carolina.Already Indian chiefs were accepting English invi-tations to visit their settlement in Carolina. Bienvillesent for the principal of the Choctaw chiefs, who onlycame, says the “Journal Historique,” upon the assur-ance of Cadillac’s absence. They were treated to suchdenunciations of their broken faith, such reproaches fortheir disloyalty, and of what they were to expect in theway of profit and friendship from the French, that theypromised all that was required of them, and went awayprimed to acquit it. And in a short time they, in fact,returned with three English male prisoners, whom theyhad pillaged. Other tribes, envious of their booty or
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their loyalty, followed their example. In less than amonth, a general pillaging of English merchandise hadscattered the English traders. Those who were broughtprisoners to Mobile were sent on a voyage to VeraCruz. De Sainte-Helene lost his not very valuablelife in a Chickasaw village where a massacre of thetraders preceded their pillaging. Following the adviceof a chief to keep out of the way, he remained in hiscabin; but while he was bending over to get a lightfor his pipe, two young savages, mistaking him for anEnglishman, slipped up behind him and killed him.Renewed alliances with the French naturally followedthis outbreak against their rivals, — alliances whichBienville forced to include, not only intertribal peace,but punishment of the disloyal; the Choctaw chiefspushing their regenerated allegiance so far as to bringto him, according to his demand, the heads of thoseof the tribe who had been led by partisanship of theEnglish into visiting Carolina, who, Bienville con-vinced them, were the causes of all their delinquencies.
In the month of October, Cadillac returned from theIllinois. His letters to the minister during his miningexperiment keep up a brave show of hope and convic-tion ; but his voyage, as he had found out, was a wild-goose chase. The specimens of ore had not beenfound near Kaskaskia, but had been given to theCanadians there by some coureurs de bois^ who hadobtained them from some Spaniards. The governorreturned therefore to his capital more determined andbetter fitted than ever by temper to carry out his idealof authority, d'he greatest obstacle to it in his opinionwas sliortly to be removed.
Bienville received orders from France to proceed witha force of eighty men to his post at the Natchez, makean establishment, and take up his residence there.Pirogues were being constructed, and other preparationsmade for the expedition, when news was received inJanuary, 1716, which changed the character of the en-terprise, and indeed, eventually, the character of theFrench occupation of the Mississippi. The Natchezwere in war, they had pillaged Crozat’s storehouse,killed all the commissioners they could find, and wereputting to death all the Frenchmen caught travelling upand down the river. Nothing could be more disastrousto the colony; there was no nation so important to thesuccess of it as the Natchez, none whom it was so neces-sary to keep on good terms with, and none, now thatthey were in revolt, whom it was so vital to subjugatepromptly and in an impressive and satisfactory manner.Bienville hastened his departure in every possible man-ner. Unfortunately there is no account from him ofthe first Natchez war, as it is called, nor from Cadil-lac. The Relations from the two participants in it,Richebourg and Pennicaut, leave nothing to be desiredin detail and manner; but the former, as Cadillac’sclique explain, belonged to Bienville’s cabal, and thelatter was ever his fervent admirer. Both substantiallyagree. But however related and by whom, the affairis interesting in the light it throws upon Bienville’scharacter, upon the character of the Natchez, and thedescription of the unique duel which took place be-tween the representatives of a barbarized civilizationand a civilized barbarity.
Duclos, who forwards Richebourg’s memoir to the
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minister^ repeats the former’s account of Cadillac’s im-politic conduct in refusing or slighting the calumet ofthe Natchez both in going up the river to the Illinois,and returning. The Natchez, suspiciously concludingfrom this that some stroke was intended against them,simply took the initiative, as they imagined. Riche-bourg expressed this, in his opinion, as the cause ofthe war, frankly to Cadillac, who agreed, says Duclos,in its probable correctness. Cadillac’s reasons tothe minister for the war were quite otherwise. Hewrote that after the accidental burning of the Natcheztemple, by flames carried from the cabin of Crozat’sagent, four Frenchmen travelling up to the Illinois werekilled, according to Indian custom, which demands ahuman sacrifice for the burning of a temple, when thechief does not throw himself into the flames. Bienville’scomment upon this is that the Frenchmen were killedfour weeks after the extinction of the fire, and that dur-ing the burning of the temple there were Frenchmenamong the Natchez to whom no harm was done.Richebourg writes that after the news arrived in Mo-bile, when Bienville was making all haste to depart, hesolicited Cadillac to detail the force of eighty men,ordered by Pontchartrain. Cadillac refused to domore than give him the company of Richebourg, whichconsisted only of thirty-four men. Bienville then gotDuclos and the agents of Crozat to join him in repre-senting to Cadillac the impossibility of constructinga fort and carrying on a war with the Natchez, whonumbered at least eight hundred men, with a force ofthirty-four. The result was an addition of fifteensailors. With these he started, in eight pirogues. He
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arrived at the Tunicas, eighteen leagues below theNatchez, on the 23d of April. There he learnedthat the Natchez had assassinated another French-man coining down the river from the Illinois, andwere lying in wait at the same place for fifteen morewho were expected. Davion, the missionary at theTunicas, advised Bienville of the fact that the Natchezwere still ignorant that the French knew of theirmisdeeds, the assassinations being kept a profoundsecret among them. He warned him also against theTunicas, who had received presents to kill him. Con-cealing his anxiety at this last information, and hisknowledge of the state of affairs among the Natchez,Bienville assembled the 'Funica warriors, and gave outto them that his mission was to make a small estab-lishment among the Natchez, where that nation andothers could trade their peltry for merchandise; but ashis men were very fatigued with the voyage, and therewas some sickness among them, he was going to campon an island a third of a league below their village, torest for some time, and that they would do him a favourby sending some of their tribe to announce his arrivalto the Natchez, which was done at once ; and Bienville,after smoking the calumet of the Tunicas, and makingthem smoke his, proceeded to the island, where heimmediately went to work putting up a little intrench-ment of pieux and the necessary lodgments for histroops. On the 27 th, three Natchez arrived, sent bytheir chief to present the calumet to Bienville. Hewaved it aside, saying that they could get some of hissoldiers to smoke it, but that for himself, being a greatchief of the French, he would only smoke a caluniet
214 BAPTISTE LE MOYNE,
presented by a sun chief. This somewhat disconcertedthe warriors. However, Bienville, having given themsomething to eat, affected great gayety with them,asked the news of their chiefs, expressed great desireto see them, and his astonishment that they had notalready come to bring him refreshments, that appar-ently the Natchez did not care about the French mak-ing an establishment with them, and that if it was so,he would make it at the Tunicas. The warriors replied,with evident satisfaction, that their nation desired noth-ing better than to have an establishment of the Frenchon their territory, and that they were convinced that infive or six days the chiefs of the nation, without fail,would come themselves to express their joy at it. Thenext day the three warriors returned. Bienville sentwith them a young Frenchman who spoke their lan-guage perfectly, to whom he had explained everythingto say to the chiefs, and all the answers necessary toinduce them to come to the island. The same day hesent one of his bravest and most adroit Canadians in apirogue with an Illinois to slip by the Natchez duringthe night and hasten up the river to warn the fifteenmen coming down from the Illinois. He gave himalso, to place in the different points of the river, a dozenlarge sheets of parchment, on which was written inlarge characters: “The Natchez have declared waragainst the French, and M. de Bienville is campedat the Tunicas.”
In about a week six Canadian trappers arrived atthe island camp in three pirogues loaded with peltry,smoked beef, and bear’s oil. They related that, un-aware of the hostilities of the Natchez, they had landed
215
there; but hardly had their feet touched land whensome twenty men jumped upon them, disarmed them,and carried off everything they had in their pirogues.They were conducted to the village of the chief namedThe Bearded, — a great warrior. He asked them im-mediately how many more Frenchmen were comingdown after them ; they answered, ingenuously, that theyhad left twelve more in six pirogues, who were stillhunting, but who would not be long behind them. Ashort while afterwards, some of the great chiefs of theNatchez came in a great temper to take The Beardedto task for having pillaged and disarmed the Canadians.Their arms were at once returned to them, and the re-storation of their property promised. They were givenfood, and shut up in a cabin to themselves, where theyremained three days, during which the chiefs and war-riors deliberated night and day what they should^ dowith them. The fourth day the chiefs came for them,and conducted them to their pirogues, in which theyfound almost everything that had been taken from them.There, the chiefs told them that Bienville was at theTunicas, resting, that shortly he expected to come tothe Natchez to make an establishment, and that theyintended sending him provisions in a few days.
On the 8th of May, at ten o’clock in the morning,there were seen approaching the island four pirogues, ineach of which were four men erect, chanting the cal-umet, and three sitting under parasols, with twelveswimmers round about. It was the Natchez chiefs, com-ing to fall into the trap prepared for them. Bienville’sinterpreter accompanied them, and another Frenchman.
Bienville, an adept in savage ceremonies and customs,
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ordered one half of his men not to show themselves,but to remain under arms, at hand in their barracks.The other half were to remain unarmed around his tent,and when the boats landed, were to take their arms, oneby one, as the savages stepped ashore; and he chargedthem only to let the eight chiefs he named (knowing allthe warriors by name) enter his tent; the rest were toremain seated at the door, — all of which was executed,as he said. The eight chiefs entered singing, holdingtheir calumet, which they passed several times over Bien-ville, from his head to his feet, in sign of union, pass-ing their hands over his stomach, then over theirs;after which they presented him their calumet to smoke.He pushed the calumet aside with contempt, and saidhe wished to hear their speeches and know theirthoughts before he smoked with them. This discon-certed the chiefs, who went out of the tent and pre-sented their calumets to the sun. One of them, thegreat priest of the temple, fixing his looks on the sun,raising his arms over his head, invoked it in prayer.Then they re-entered the tent, and again pre’sented theircalumets. Bienville, as if bored by their ceremonies,said to them that they had to tell him what satisfactionthey were going to give him for the five Frenchmenwhom they had assassinated. This stunned them ; theyhung their heads without answering. At which Bien-ville made a sign to have them seized and conducted tothe prison he had prepared for them. They were putin irons. In the evening, bread and meat were pre-sented to them. They refused to eat. All sang theirdeath-song. At nightfall, Bienville had brought to histent the great chief of the nation, called the Great
217
Sun, his brother, Stung Serpent, and a secondbrother, surnamed the Little Sun. As they seemed halfdead already, Bienville, to reassure them, commencedby promising them not to put them to death. He toldthem he knew it was not by their orders that the fiveFrenchmen had been assassinated ; that for his satisfac-tion, he wished not only the heads of the murderersbrought to him, but the heads of the chiefs who hadgiven the order; that the scalps would not content him,that he wished their heads, so as to recognize them bytheir tattooed marks; that he gave them that night toconsult among themselves as to the measures they hadto take to accord him a prompt satisfaction, otherwisehe might take a stand bad for their nation. He addedthat they were not ignorant of the credit he had amongall his savage allies ; that it would be easy to declare waragainst them and to destroy all their eight villages, with-out risking the life of a single Frenchman; that theymust remember that in 1704, when the Tchioumachaqui(Chetimachas) assassinated a missionary and threeFrenchmen, upon their refusal to deliver up the mur-derers, all of his allied nations had been set upon them,so that from four hundred families they were reduced, inless than two years, to ninety. He then cited to theman example which he had made in 1707, when, as hereminded them, he had condemned a Frenchman todeath for killing two Pascagoula Indians. In 1703, theCoiras chiefs had made no difficulty about putting todeath five of their warriors who had killed a missionaryand two other Frenchmen ; and that, in that same year,he had forced the chief of the Touachas to put todeath two of their men who had assassinated a Chicka-
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saw; and in 1715, the Choctaws had furnished him thesame satisfaction; the Mobilians, in 1707, had broughthim the head of one of their tribe who had killed a Tou-acha, and that in 1709 the Pascagoulas, having killed aMobilian, he had forced them to render satisfaction tothe injured parties.
This speech, the truth of which they could not con-test, and which they do not seem to have doubted,made a great impression on the Natchez chiefs. Theylistened with great attention, and made no attempt toanswer. Visibly, however, they seemed to suffer mostacutely from the humiliation of being put in irons, liketheir vassals.
The next morning, at daylight, the three brotherchiefs asked to speak to Bienville. They were broughtinto his presence. They prayed his attention to thefact that there was no one in the village of sufficientauthority to put the men, whose heads he demanded, todeath ; that if he would permit it, the chief, the Ser-pent, as the head of the nation, would go and accom-plish the dangerous mission, 'bhis Bienville refused,putting in the place of the Serpent his younger brother,,the Little Sun, whom he embarked immediately in apirogue armed with twelve soldiers and an officer. Hewas landed two leagues below his village, whither hemade his way by land.
The next day two Canadians arrived from the upperriver in safety, having seen and profited by the parch-ment advertisements; and two days later, the Canadianand Iroquois returned from their mission with elevenl-'renchmen whom they had met seven leagues abovethe Natchez, and saved from the ambush prepared for
them. The reinforcement was all the more welcome,as it included seven pirogues loaded with meat andmeal, which were beginning to run low on the riverisland. They reported that a pirogue, with one Cana-dian and two Illinois, who had separated from the party,had been taken by the Natchez.
Five days after the Little Sun departed, he returned,fetching with him three heads, of which (with the aidof Pennicaut) only two were identified as belongingto the criminals concerned in the assassination. Bienvillesummoned the chiefs to his presence, and causing therejected head to be thrown at their feet, remarked thatin endeavouring to impose upon him they had sacri-ficed an innocent man. The chiefs confessed that thehead was that of a warrior who had taken no part inthe killing of the Frenchmen, but that being the brotherof one of the murderers who had escaped, they had puthim to death in his place. Bienville, showing his dis-pleasure at the incomplete punishment and insufficientnumber of heads, told them that they would have tosend, on the morrow, another warrior, another chief, totheir village, to obtain what he demanded. The LittleSun was put in irons and imprisoned like the others.He had brought with him, in a vain attempt at propitia-tion, the last prisoners of the Natchez, — the Canadianand two Illinois Indians whom he had delivered fromthe stake, where they were bound, to be burned.
The next day, two warriors and the great priest ofthe temple were sent under a guard to the Natchez vil-lage. They were confident of fetching back the headof the chief White-Earth, the leader of the movementagainst the PTench. The same day Davion sent a
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warning to Bienville from the Tunicas that the Natchezwere arming to rescue their chiefs or perisli with them.The Tunicas offered forty of their bravest warriors forthe emergency ; but Bienville, suspicious of all the natives,assured them that he was not at all afraid, but that theywould do him a favour by continuing to send their spiesamong the Natchez, and keeping him informed of theirmovements.
The high water of the Mississippi began to encroachupon the island. It rose until even the highest partwas overflowed a half foot deep. The weather was ex-cessively hot. Fevers broke out, and the men sufferedseverely from colics and pains in their limbs from livingconstantly in the wet. Bienville had to abandon histent and take to a scaffolding. An elevated powdermagazine had also to be constructed.
The chief. Serpent, caught the fever. Bienvillehad his irons removed, and permitted him and hisbrothers to pass the days with him in his lodgings.During their contracted companionship there was abun-dant time and opportunity for the Canadian to exerciseto the utmost his inflexible influence over savage minds.His threats, reproaches, and exhortations drew tearsand sighs from his unfortunate prisoners. They agreedas to the treason and culpability of their nation, per-sisting in their assurances, however, which they said theFrenchmen in Natchez could prove, that they per-sonally had never taken part in any of the councils heldto invite the English to come there ; and as for the kill-ing of the Frenchmen, they had only heard of it eightdays afterwards, and that they then regretted and weptover it, weeping as they spoke. Bienville pressing
221
them to further confidence, they related everything as ithad happened, confessing that the three warrior chiefsof Chestnut, White Earth, and Grigas villages were thecausers of all the trouble, that it was they who had in-vited the English to their villages, and it was they whohad ordered the massacre of the Frenchmen. Two ofthem were at that moment in the French prison, theirfoster-brother. The Bearded, and Alahoflechia; but thethird. White Earth, had not come with them. Theysaid that for a year these chiefs had acquired suchpower over the nation that they were more feared andobeyed than even they, the heads of the nation. TheSerpent added that there were two other men in theprison who had taken part in the killing, and that heknew of none others besides.
Bienville then, for his part, confessing that he hadalways had his doubts about their being involved inthe affair, informed them that they should no longerbe treated as prisoners. He had their beds made inhis quarters, where they henceforth slept.
On the 25 th of May, ten days after their departure,’the deputation sent for the head of White Earth re-turned without it. He, they said, had taken flight; butthey restored several of the slaves taken from the mas-sacred Frenchmen, and much of their property.
The sickness that increased among his men daily, andno doubt the conviction that he had reached the limitof his power over the Natchez, forced Bienville to putan end to his war of negotiation. On the ist of June heordered all the Natchez in the prison, where they hadbeen confined for a month, with the exception of thefour certified criminals, to be brought before him; and
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in the presence of their three chiefs he declared hisconditions of peace to them : that they should givetheir word to kill White Earth so soon as theycould catch up with him, and deliver his head to theFrench officer stationed at Natchez; that they shouldconsent, without delay, to the putting to death of thetwo chiefs and two warriors then in prison and in irons,as reparation for their killing the Frenchmen; that theyshould restore all that they had stolen, and force theirmen to pay for the value of what had been lost, in skinsand provisions; that they should pledge their nationto cut two thousand five hundred pieux, thirteen feetand ten inches long, of Acacia wood, and transport themto make a fort on the spot on the banks of the Mis-sissippi which would be designated to them; and thatbesides, they should engage to furnish bark from threethousand cypress-trees to cover the buildings in the fortwith, and that before the end of July.
Whatever the conditions to the Indians, under the cir-cumstances, there was no alternative but to accept them.The chiefs did it with a grace that in days past wouldhave been called royal. They thanked Bienville, eachone making an harangue, in which they no doubt ex-pressed all the regret for the past, and some of the pro-testations for the future, with, perhaps, a modicum ofthe devotion to and admiration of the French attri-buted to them by Richebourg. They all repeated thearticles and conditions of the proposed peace, bindingthemselves not only to execute them faithfully, but toperform even more than was required.
After their speeches the chiefs asked Bienville if hewould permit them again to offer their calumet. He
223
replied that it was not yet time for that, they must firstreturn to their villages, assemble their warriors, and ex-plain the conditions upon which he accorded peace tothem, and that he would send an officer and two soldierswith them to see that they did it.
The four guilty ones, in the prison, not doubting ofthe fate reserved for them, recommenced their death-chants. The Serpent, fearing the commotion in theirvillages when the returning Indians brought the news ofthe proposed execution of such famous warriors, prayedBienville to give out that they were merely to be takendown to the colony, to the governor, who would decideupon them. He himself visited them in prison to tran-quillize them, assuring them that they were not to beput to death.
Two days afterwards all the Natchez, with the excep-tion of the Serpent and the Little Sun, kept as hostages,were restored to their villages. The aide-major, Pail-loux, and two soldiers accompanied them, under instruc-tions from Bienville to remain with one soldier at theprincipal village in case the nation accepted the terms,sending one soldier and a chief to the island to renderan account of it. He was also to search for the mostsuitable site near the river for a fort.
On the 7th of June the pirogue bore back to theisland nine old men of the Natchez and the soldier,bearing Pailloux’ written account of what had takenplace, the great joy of the natives at having their chiefsrestored to them, and their disposition to do all thatwas demanded of them. Pailloux also had found amost advantageous position for a fort, near the river.The nine patriarchs presented their calumet, which Bien-
224 /?AJ\r BAPTISTE LE MOYNE,
ville accepted, and smoked with great ceremony. Hethen presented his, which was likewise accepted andsmoked. The next day the old men returned. TheLittle Sun was allowed to go with them, but the Serpentwas still retained as a hostage. A pirogue at the sametime took to Pailloux the axes, spades, pickaxes, andother instruments necessary for building the fort. On thefollowing day the two imprisoned braves had theirheads broken by the soldiers. De Richebourg, one ofthe sufferers from illness, was permitted to return toMobile. His report to the governor was anything butapproved of. Cadillac pronounced Bienville’s conductas against the rights of humanity, and execrable. Theforce and influence of this judgment, however just, wasnullified in the small community by a recent stroke ofCadillac’s own against the Indians, of one of which heeven boasted to Pontchartrain : having induced a Choc-taw chief to assassinate his brother, by promising himthe murdered man’s position. And as Duclos perti-nently remarked, in quoting the governor’s dictum tothe minister, Cadillac would have blamed Bienville, nomatter what the latter had done.
The day after De Richebourg left, Bienville deliveredhimself of his two remaining Natchez prisoners, by giv-ing them in charge to a party of Canadian traders, whowere resuming their journey with their peltry to themouth of the river. Their orders were to knock thechiefs on the h^ad when they were about ten or twelveleagues from the island. As they were taking them tothe boats to embark them, The Bearded interrupted hisdeath-chant to sing his war-song. He related his won-derful deeds against different nations, and the number
225
of scalps he had raised. He called out the five French-men whom he had had killed, and said he died withregret at not having killed more. The Serpent, whostood looking on and listening attentively, could not con-ceal his disgust at such, to him, unintelligent conduct;turning to Bienville, he said, “He is ray brother, but Ido not regret him ; you are ridding us of a bad man.”
As the Mississippi did not fall, and the island still re-mained several inches under water, Bienville was forcedto send his sick men and convalescents to the high landsof the Tunicas, where the Indians cared for them as-siduously, and kept them supplied with fresh beef andvenison.
A party of Natchitoches arriving at the Tunicas witha pirogue-load of salt to sell, Bienville heard from themof the movement of a large party of Spaniards fromMexico towards Red River, with the purpose of mak-ing an establishment there. He hurried off immediatelya sergeant with six soldiers to the head of Red River toforestall them by at least an official proprietorship.
On the 22d of July, De Pailloux reported the fortin a tenable condition. Bienville, making a levy ofthirty rowers upon the Tunicas, abandoned his amphi-bious quarters, and with what remained of his force,proceeded up the river. He had not ten well soldiersin his company. The Serpent, who was still with them,summoned to the landing-place a hundred and fifty ofhis men, who transferred the baggage from the boats tothe fort on the same day that they arrived there.
The Indians were still furnishing their contributionsof timber and cypress-bark. In the course of themonth the fortifications and buildings were completed,
15
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and the flag of France floated over a conquered countryand a subdued nation. Like the Tunicas, the surround-ing tribes were quick to reaffirm themselves with thesuccessful party, and claim alliance with such accom-plished foes. The Yazous and Ossagoulas came withtheir calumet to Bienville, who received them with hisand their punctilious etiquette, and the same day thewhole strength of the Natchez villages turned out todance and sing, and rejoice before the rude but grimwalls of that tyrant, military force, which they had raisedagainst themselves.
At the end of August such peace and tranquillityreigned over the so-recently convulsed community thatBienville felt justified in handing his command over toDe Pailloux, while he went upon the not very pleasantmission of making to his superior officer the official re-port of the termination of his campaign, — perhaps ofits justification; for it is safe to presume that he hadnot been left in ignorance of Cadillac’s opinion of it.His mind in going down the river must have been asbusily occupied with plans for compassing the Gasconas it had been with schemes against the Natchez in goingup. But in this event it was lost thought-work.
When he reached Mobile on the 4th of October, acommunication from the Minister of Marine was handedhim. It contained an order for him to take commanduntil the arrival of De I’Epinay, named to succeed M.de la Motte Cadillac.
The Gascon had sinned against Talleyrand’s dictum.In one of his letters to the Government, he says : “Ithink that so much care, so much trouble, should cer-tainly merit the words of the Scripture, ? Well done.
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good and faithful servant/ etc. . . . but just the oppo-site comes to me; the more I do, and the better I do it,the more I am ill-treated and scolded, — which discou-rages me completely. Sometimes the desire seizes meto do badly, according to the example of those aroundme, to see if I should not succeed better.” No time wasgranted him to put the latter policy in practice; andwhatever his deserts or his idea of them, and his meritof the Scriptural encomium, he received from Crozat butthe paltry recognition expressed in writing to the minis-ter, I am of the opinion that all the disorders of whichM. de la Motte complains come from the bad adminis-tration of M. de la Motte Cadillac himself.”
Pontchartrain’s tribute was as follows : Messieurs
de la Motte Cadillac and Duclos, who have charactersincompatible, without having the intelligence necessaryfor their functions, are hereby dismissed and replaced.”
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JEAN BAPTISTE LE MOYNE,
CHAPTER XX.
1717, 1718.
Bienville’s disappointment at not succeeding Ca-dillac was great. In the hearts of his companions,friends, followers, it became resentment, which did notbode well for the new administration. There was but ashort time granted in which to enjoy their old independ-ence and authority ; they had hardly begun to exercise itbefore it terminated. In the beginning of March, 1717,two war-vessels escorted into the harbour “La Paix,”which, with the new officials, fifty emigrants and threecompanies of infantry, brought the usual modicum ofministerial instructions and reprehensions, with one slightvariation in the way of recognition. Bienville receivedthe Cross of St. Louis, and the concession of HornIsland, — in soccage, however, not in fief, as he hadasked.
The ships were witnesses of the revolution in naturepredicted as possible by Iberville twenty years before.A wind-storm, driving the sand u}) the cliannel, formedthe bar which has since condemned it. 'I'he ships seek-ing egress, where they had entered over a depth of twentyfeet, met a closed passage before them which completelyblocked them in. They had to be unloaded, and carriedaround through the channel of Grand Cozier Island.
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De TEpinay was an old lieutenant of marine whohad seen considerable service in Canada. Crozat, withmore confidence in his enterprise than in men, not onlygave him, as he had done Cadillac, an interest in the pro-fits of the charter, but agreed to pay him two thousandlivres a year if, in his position as governor, he wouldstrictly and severely execute the royal ordinance pro-tecting the monopoly of trade.
The minister, in a vain attempt to profit by expe-rience, condescends to be minutely particular in hiscareful limitations to the authority of governor androyal commissary, and to be minutely solicitous in hisefforts to predispose harmonious relations between them ;“his Majesty wishing, in case of any difficulty not fore-seen, that they should explain themselves one to another,in mildness and amity, and always with a view to theirservice and to the public good.” But the danger pro-vided for is never that which comes to pass. The in-structions based on what was done and finished were,as usual, lamentably deficient as a guide in the future.
De I’Epinay and Hubert, his commissioner, eitherfrom natural temperament or the effect of administra-tive instructions, broke the precedent set by past gov-ernors and commissioners by fulfilling their officialfunctions in harmony. The discord came from the bandof men, the discoverers of the country, — its develop-ers, defenders, its holders for the past twenty years, whoresented the ministerial belittling of them, the hamper-ing of their conduct, their subordination to non-com-petent aliens. The growing coterie of rival Frenchofficers excited their jealousy, their distrust; and theCanadians resembled too nearly their savage friends to
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yEAjV BAPTISTE LE MOYNE,
submit to what they could resist^ and forgive where theycould resent.
The contest broke out sharply. The government wasadministered with all preciseness, owing perhaps to thevery enmity which divided the officials into two camps.Bienville naturally found De I’Epinay arbitrary and venal.As for his method of governing the Indians, he wroteto Hubert he could understand nothing about it. Hewrote to the minister that De I’Epinay had seized alljurisdiction, civil and criminal, publishing ordinances ofpolice, giving his orders to the treasurer, withholdingfor himself the presents intended by the Governmentfor the Indians, carrying on trade for himself, but put-ting in irons any one who imitated his example, and — always a telling accusation to the court of Louis XIV.and the Regent — led a scandalous life. He had pro-mulgated an ordinance against the selling of brandy tothe Indians, than which nothing could have made himmore unpopular with his compatriots, as brandy was notonly their most lucrative article of commerce, but theirmost effective means of assuring themselves of the affec-tions of the natives.
Hubert, who was the active organ of the adminis-tration, couched his resentment in a broad, but safelydamnatory statement, which could not be met with eitherproof or denial: he charged that Bienville was pen-sioned by the Spanish Government. It was an accusa-tion for which Bienville never forgave him, and whichhe never personally or officially omitted an oi)portunityto revenge.
'Phe administration, sucli as it was, was of short dura-tion. Crozat, suffering from the fulfilment of the pre-
231
diction of the knowing ones at the beginning of hischarter, terminated his experiment of instituting a vastlucrative commerce where there was possibility for onlytrade. His prayer to be relieved of his magnificentprivilege and bad bargain was granted, and Louisianaand the Mississippi, wholesale and retail, with the onespiritual exception of souls, which still were a monopolyof the Bishop of Quebec, was thrown into a parcelwith the peltry trade of Canada (whose charter oppor-tunely expired at the time), and given over for twenty-five years to a Company called the Western. The king^in virtue of his authority to name the directors, gave thepresidency of it to John Law. Among the directors wasD’Artaguette, now receiver-general of finances of Auch.
The charter of the Western Company, like that ofCrozat, was based not so*much upqn false hopes andstatements as upon a false estimate of the time neces-sary to turn a colony into a good financial investment.The usual attempt to make it profitable before it wasself-supporting was to be made, — an attempt whichbade fair to press hard on the Company first, and thecolonists afterwards.
There was no time, with a future of but twenty-fiveyears, to wait for natural growth and development. Theseed which should have been fructifying for twenty yearspast was still to be sowed. But the Company of 1718,like any company or trust of to-day, proposed to incu-bate for nature, and the various artificial stimuli oflethargic prosperity were to be remorselessly applied toLouisiana. In other words, Louisiana was to beboomed/’ and by the archetypal “ boomer ” of finan-cial history, John Law.
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y?AA^ BAPTISTE LE MOYNE,
Agriculture, not mining, was the new countersign (al-ways following Iberville’s and Bienville’s policy). Largeconcessions of land were to be granted, on condition ofsettlement and cultivation ; plantations were to be laidoff on the banks of the Mississippi; tobacco, rice, silk,indigo, tar, and ship-timber were to be exported \ abun-dant imports of provisions and merchandise were torender unnecessary, and consequently mitigate, the sup-pression of the illicit trade with Pensacola.
There was obviously but one man in the colony capa-ble of handling it under the new, or, it might be said,any, conditions. De I’Epinay was summarily recalled,and he, Bienville, was made commandant-general, or gov-ernor, with a salary of six thousand livres a year. Hubertwas retained, and named commissioner-general, with asalary of five thousand livres a year.
These appointments and the backing up of them bythree ships with provisions, merchandise, and emigrants,threw the colonists into, for them, the novel excitementand exhilaration of hope and enterprise.
Bienville, without further delay, executed the oft-re-peated orders to take possession of St. Joseph’s Bay, — the unfortunate site of the apotheosis of La Salle’sMississippi attempt. Chateauguay was sent there with adetachment of fifty soldiers. He built a fort upon theill-fated spot; but French possession of it was no betterassured thereby than in the first instance. In a shortwhile the Spaniards persuaded the greater part of thegarrison to desert, and the difficulties of sustaining theremainder, not in allegiance, but in life, caused theirwithdrawal during the course of the year.
An engineer was sent to sound the bar of the river.
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Bienville and Chateauguay were also instructed to makesoundings. Drags and grapnels were sent, to be tried,for the Mississippi scheme demanded at least a passageinto the Mississippi.
Bienville’s repeated demands for an establishmentupon the Mississippi finally found a hearing \ but he wasadvised that the location was still to be considered. Hewas asked whether Manchac would not be better, onaccount of its double communication with Mobile bylake and river, and its command of Red River. Waivingsuch distant advice and judgment, and seizing the gol-den opportunity of means and authority once more inhis hand, Bienville took fifty men himself and put themat once to clearing the land and building lodgings onthe ground selected by himself years before, and to beabandoned for no Manchac; the spot, a ridge of highland about thirty leagues from the mouth of the Mis-sissippi, lying between the river and Lake Pontchar-train, with easy portage and bayou communication be-tween the two, — the one site in his judgment for thecity destined, as he was assured, to become the capitalof the Mississippi valley. The map of the valley it-self was divided out over in France by the Company,with the showy policy of such landed enterprises.To Law was conceded four leagues square upon theArkansas. A company, headed by Leblanc, Secretaryof State, the Comte de Belleville, and the Marquisd’Auleck, took possession of the Yazous. Concessionsat Natchez were made to the commissioner, Hubert,and to a company of St. Malo merchants. Natchito-ches was conceded to Bernard de la Harpe, the com-piler of the “Journal Historique; ” Tunicas to St.
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y?AJV BAPTISTE LE MOYNE,
Reine; Pointe Coupee to De Meuse; the present siteof Baton Rouge to Diron d’Artaguette ; the bank of theMississippi opposite Manchac to Paris Duvernay; theTchoupitoulas lands to De Muys ; that of the Oumas tothe Marquis d’Ancouis ; Cannes-Brule'es was given to theMarquis d’Artagnac; the bank opposite to De Guiche,De la Houssaie, and De la Houpe ; Bay St. Louis toMadame de Mezieres; and Pascagoulas to Madame deChaumont.
Ship after ship began to arrive from France, loadedby the new great enterprise, — soldiers, officers, agents,concessioners, and commissioners for the Company bythe score. In one month alone, August, 1718, threeships brought over eight hundred passengers. Colo-nists were sent by the townful, had there been buttowns to receive them, — sixty for the concession of M.Paris Duvernay, at the old village of the Bayagoulas,seventy for the concession of De la Houssaie at the Ya-zous ; sixty for that of De la Harpe at the Natchitoches ;sixty-eight for the new post on the Mississippi, to becalled New Orleans, in honour of Law’s patron, theRegent; and smaller parties for smaller grants of land.
The small establishments of Mobile and DauphinIsland staggered under the sudden burden put uponthem, and Bienville’s powers were more than taxed ful-filling the dazzling French terms of the Company, — freelodgings, food, and transportation to concessions. Theconcessions were scattered all over the Mississippicountry : boats and carts luid to be made to forward theemigrants to them ; prox'isions were consumed as fastas landed; and tlie (piality of tlie po])ulation sent, — agreat numl)er consisting of convicts, — forced a timely
235
and earnest protest from Bienville, despite his evidentyielding to the exhilarating current of the boom.”He wrote that hardly a man was sent who was fitted forthe most necessary work. He asked that more carpen-ters and labourers be sent, or at least men who couldassist in making lodgings and transportations for them-selves ; or that carts at least be brought with them, andenough provision to feed them until they reached theirdestination. His own force of workmen was over-whelmed ; he had to advance their pay to three dollarsa day. I have, nevertheless,” he says, been able tosend M. de Boisbriant up the Illinois with one hundredmen, and I flatter myself it is a great deal. I do notfear even to assure the council that it was absolutelyall that could have been accomplished under thecircumstances.”
Among the eight hundred arrivals of August was theacute observer and genial raconteur^ the first historian ofLouisiana, Le Page du Pratz. He came with a force often men, and selected a tract of land to be located nearthe new city, on the banks of the Mississippi, alreadyas a speculation assuming attractions to capitalists andemigrants. Du Pratz says his ship anchored in the openroad before Dauphin Island. As soon as the Te Deiimhad been sung in thankfulness for the safe voyage, thepassengers and their effects were landed. On the is-land he was lodged and fed, not by the Company, butby a friend, an old ship-captain, who treated him to themost wonderful good cheer, the fish particularly elicitingglowing praise. Bienville at the very time was absent,founding his city. Du Pratz’ sojourn, his three days ofwaiting for the return of the commandant-general, gave
him an ardent desire to leave the sandy, arid crystallineisland, which even the good cheer and companionshipcould not assuage.
Bienville expressed his satisfaction that Du Pratz hadselected a location near the capital, as he called it,for he said that a good farm near a city was often ofgreater profit than lordly lands in a wood. He boughtfrom Du Pratz a compass, — paying for it, the authorchronicles, an honest price. It was for Du Tisne, juststarting off for a journey by land to Canada. In a fewdays Bienville had the means of transportation in readi-ness, and Du Pratz, provided with a letter of introduc-tion to the commandant of New Orleans, De Paillouxhastened the departure of his party with as much joy, hesays, as diligence.
His boats followed the gently curving line of the Gulfcoast, as it is called, camping the first night at themouth of Pascagoula River, passing the next day beforeBiloxi, and then by Bay St. Louis, leaving Horn Island,Ship Island, Cat Island, behind them on the left, — theusual, and always beautiful, itinerary of the summeryacht. Going through the Rigolets, camping, en pas-sant, on the Isle a Coquilles, he entered Lake Pontchar-train ; Pointe aux Herbes and Bayou St. Jean droppedbehind him, and Bayou Schoupique, which was guardedby a fort, received him. The boats ascended it for abouta league, and landed at the old village of the Colapissas,or Aqueloupissas, as Dupratz learned correctly to pro-nounce tlie name of the “nation who see and hear.”The party was received by Jean Lavigne, a Canadianwho had bought the village of the Aqueloupissas. Du-pratz sought a location for his concession on the banks
237
of the Bayou St. Jean, at a short half league, he de-scribes it,’from the situation of the capital that was tobe, — then only designated by a clearing and a logbarracks covered with palmetto-leaves, the lodging forthe commandant and troops. Having apparently thewhole of Bayou St. Jean to choose from, the author be-came soon the contented and undisputed possessor ofhis farm, and the delighted owner of an Indian slave,than whom Shezehezarade was not more entertaining toher master. He commenced with avidity his experi-ments with the soil, his observations of nature, and hisexperiences with alligators and Indians. Differing withone of the latter in a barter of a gun for some chickens,and treating his correspondent with the suspicion whichprudence had taught him to use in such affairs withinhabitants of the Old World, the Indian, incensed,took the road to New Orleans and complained toBienville. Dupratz was summoned to explain his pro-ceedings. He did so by exposing his opinion, or ratherhis idea, of the savages. “The governor replied,” henarrates, “that I did not know these people yet, andthat when I did know them, I should do them justice.He spoke the truth.”
238 JEAN BAPTISTE LE MOYNE,
?chapter XXL
1719.
On the 19th of April the "?Marechal de Villars ” andthe ?^Philippe” brought into port one hundred andthirty passengers. Among them were De Serigny andhis son, a midshipman; the former, returning decoratedwith the cross of St. Louis and the advanced grade of“ lieutenant de vaisseau,” was charged with a commis-sion to examine and sound, with Bienville, the coast ofLouisiana.^
But what the ships brought of most importance to thecolony was the news of the declaration of war betweenFrance and Spain. At last the moment had come forthe getting of the coveted port of Pensacola. TheFrench hardly needed the advice given by the WesternCompany to Bienville some months previous to profitby such an opportunity. They were not the men tolet an occasion of the kind go by default. A councilof war was instantly summoned, and measures in allhaste adopted to surprise the Spaniards, who, ignorantof the news, were carelessly basking in innocent security.
The cargoes were discharged from the ships, and 011the 13th of May De Serigny sailed out of the roadstead
1 De Serigiiy’s maps form the beginning of the scientific carto-graphy of the Mississippi delta.
239
of Dauphin Island, followed by the Marechal de Villars ”and the “Comte de Toulouse,” which latter vessel for-tunately was in port at the time. They carried an armyof a hundred and fifty soldiers. Bienville, with eightymen, sailed in a sloop.
Bienville gives the facts of his victory in his officialreport to the minister. The approaches to the victory;are the pleasant duty of the early historians, Dupratzand Dumont, whose enjoyment of what they describeis communicated to readers of the present day.
With a fair wind the ships made a good run to IsleSte. Rosa, the outpost of the Spaniards. Anchoringas close to land as possible, the troops disembarked un-perceived, and easily mastered the small guard stationedthere. Putting their prisoners in irons and assumingtheir uniforms, and forcing the Spanish drummer to beatas usual, the Spaniards who came out at daybreak thenext morning to relieve guard were as easily seized,disarmed, and deprived of their uniforms, which servedto disguise more of their enemies. The Spanish-uni-formed Frenchmen embarking in the boat that hadbrought out the guard, crossed the bay, entered the fort,surprised the sentinels on duty, and captured the wholeplace, — soldiers, magazine, store-house, and the com-mandant, who was still in bed, and who claimed this ashis first notification of the rupture between the two Gov-ernments. Bienville says in his despatch that simplythe commandant surrendered the fort at four o’clock inthe afternoon, that he put his brother Chateauguay incommand, and according to the terms of capitulation todeliver his prisoners in the nearest port, shipped theentire garrison for Havana on his two ships, the “Comte
240
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de Toulouse ” and the “Mar^chal de Villars,” undercommand of De Richebourg; he then returned toMobile. The Governor of Havana was not devoid ofingenuity himself. He received De Richebourg mostceremoniously, thanking him for the politeness of hisvisit; but no sooner were the prisoners in his hands thanhe captured the capturers, with their ships, placing thesoldiers in irons, and putting the entire crew, officersand all, into prison, and, according to the French ac-counts, treated them so hardly, fed them so badly, andinsulted them so grievously that most of the soldiersdeserted to him, to deliver themselves. He thenequipped the French vessels with a Spanish crew,Spanish soldiers, and some of the French deserters, andsent them, with his squadron, to retake the lost Pensa-cola. They came in sight of it on the 3d of August.The Spanish vessels drew up behind Isle Ste. Rosa.The French vessels, flying the French colours, boldly en-tered the channel. To the challenge of the sentry theyanswered, “ De Richebourg.” Scarcely was anchordropped, however, than the French flag was lowered,the Spanish run up, and three cannon-shots were fired.At the signal, the rest of the squadron made their ap-pearance, twelve sail in all. The next day eighteenhundred men were landed, and began the assault.
Although the return visit of the Spaniards was expected,and in a measure prepared for, Chateauguay found hismeans of defence as totally inadequate as his rivals’ hadbeen. Sixty of his soldiers immediately abandoned him,escaping from the fort and joining the enemy. The restshowing every disposition to follow their example, nochoice was left, upon the summons to surrender, but
241
capitulation. He obtained the sortie, with all the hon-ours of war, and transportation to Old Spain, — a moregenial and more advantageous place of imprisonmentthan Havana, under the circumstances. He was never-theless sent to Havana. At the news of the Spaniards’reappearance at Pensacola, Serigny had hastened byland to Chateauguay’s assistance with a troop of sav-ages and soldiers; but hearing of his surrender mid-way from some fugitive slaves, he turned, and marchedas rapidly back to Dauphin Island to prepare for whathe had no doubt would be the next step in the Spanishprogramme.
In truth, he had hardly arrived at the island before theadvance of the Spanish flotilla was sighted. Three brig-antines approached, from one of which a boat was sentto the Company’s ship, “ Le Philippe,” with an officercharged with a letter to the captain. The missive, dated??'on board ?Notre Dame de Vigogne,’ 13th August,1719, at ten o’clock in the morning,” contained an im-perative summons for the surrender of the ship, withoutany damage to it, under penalty of the captain’s beingtreated as an incendiary, and all the French, includingChateauguay and his garrison, accorded no quarter. Acordial reception, on the contrary, was promised all thosewho freely and willingly gave themselves up.
The captain of the “Philippe ” sent the Spanish officerwith his letter ashore to Serigny, who, according to the?^Journal Historique,” received him surrounded by hissoldiers, Canadians, and savages in all their war-paintand greed of scalps; and according to Bienville, toldhim that the Spaniards could come when they pleased,they would find the French prepared to receive them.
16
242
yj^AJV BAPTISTE LE MOYNE,
In the mean time a reinforcement of soldiers waspassed on board the “Philippe.”
During the night one of the brigantines entered thebay and did considerable damage, capturing two boatsof provisions sent by Serigny to Bienville, and pillagingand burning a settlement belonging to a company ofCanadians on the Mobile coast, half way between thefort and the island, where a great deal of property hadbeen sent from the latter place for security, and of whichthe booty consequently was large.
Fortunately that night Bienville was sending a rein-forcement of white men and Indians to his brother.These fell upon the marauders. Very few escaped.Five were killed, the Indians scalping them, six weredrowned trying to regain their boats, and eighteen weretaken prisoners. Of these latter, the deserters from theFrench had their heads broken with a hatchet, in defaultof an executioner to inflict the legal capital punishment.As it was impossible to defend the bay or the moutli ofthe river, no more boats of provisions, or otherwise, wererisked to Bienville. All forces were turned to puttingDauphin Island in a state of defence.
During a high tide the “Philippe ” was brought in towithin a pistol-shot of land, and made Dst with pile andcable in a deep hole, or kind of bay, to the west of theisland. With all her guns bristling on the ocean tide,and her reinforced equipage, she presented, for the times,a formidable citadel of defence to the enemy.
An intrenched battery of three twel\'e-])ounders wasplaced to command the old channel. The rest of theisland was i)atrolled by Serigny, who, the accounts say,multiplied himself into being everywhere with his mixed
force, the regulars of which, Bienville says, were moreto be dreaded than the enemy.
Three days after the brigantines the rest of the Spanishfleet, including the captured French vessels, hove insight, and anchored in the roadstead. Once or twice ademonstration of attack was made, which was warded offwith a counter-demonstration. Neither daring to landnor approach within gunshot of the “Philippe ” or thebattery, the fleet contented itself with remaining in itsposition for fourteen days, and canonading boats from asafe and harmless distance.
On the 24th, signs of departure were observed amongthe sails ; by the 28th all had disappeared, with the ex-ception of two large vessels left to cruise before theisland and intercept its water communication.
The long stay of the Spanish fleet excited apprehen-sions among the French that it was waiting to be joinedby the squadron from Vera Cruz. When, therefore, onthe I St of September, sails were again sighted in theGulf, as no ships were expected from France, the gen-eral anxiety became keen. It changed to wildest joyas three war-ships of the royal navy neared, escortingtwo loaded vessels belonging to the Company. Theywere the “Hercules,” of sixty cannon, under the Comtede Champmeslin, the “Mars,” of fifty-eight, and the“Triton,” of fifty-six cannon. The Company’s ship, the“Union,” armed with forty-eight cannon, brought onehundred and ninety-nine passengers, and the fleet“Marie ” a freight of provisions and merchandise.The Spanish cruisers took flight for Pensacola.
As soon as the good news reached him, Bienvillehastened from Mobile, and with Serigny went aboard
244
BAPT/STE LE MOYiYE,
Champmeslin’s sliip, where a council of all the officers,military and marine, was held. The recapture of Pen-sacola and capture of the Spanish fleet was the unani-mous determination; but it was decided not to proceedwithout a fortnight’s preparation. The Company’s ships,which were to be joined to the men-of-war, had to beunloaded, the “Philippe ” to be got out to sea againand put in trim, and Bienville needed time to get hisIndians together again and prepare their provisions.It was agreed that Champmeslin should take commandof the fleet, and that Bienville, at the head of a companyof soldiers and volunteers, should go in sloops as far asthe Perdido River, where one of his officers was to meethim with five hundred Indians, — all of which was car-ried into effect. On the 15th of September the startwas made. By the evening of the i6th Bienville hadinvested the fort by land, so that no escape on that sidewas possible. The next morning Champmeslin led hisfleet into the bay. The large fort made very little de-fence. The small one on Ste. Rosa Island and the shipsfought gallantly for two hours, at the end of which allsurrendered. The plundering of the large fort was givento the Indians, who acquitted themselves, says the Jour-nal Historique,” as men who knew their trade ; but therewas no scalping, Bienville having given orders against it.The same authority also states that Bienville restrainedthe ardour of his troops and held them back until Champ-meslin had terminated his action, that the latter mighthave the honours of the day, but that when the pillagingof the fort was completed, Champmeslin took possessionof forts and ships, assigned the commands, decided uponthe prisoners, and received the swords of the Spanish
245
officers, trenching upon the rights of Bienville as com-mander of the province of Louisiana, and therefore asthe sole appointer of landed commands — which Bien-ville bore without protestation, for fear of prejudicingthe service of the king.
Thirty-five of the French deserters were found amongthe Spanish prisoners. They were tried before a coun-cil of war; twelve were condemned to be hanged (andwere hanged from the mast of the recaptured Comte deToulouse ”), and the rest sent to the galleys.
It had been hoped that large quantities of munitionsof war and provisions would be found in the fort. Tothe disappointment of the conquerors, the stores con-tained only a fifteen days’ supply. Champmeslin wasobliged, to get rid of feeding his prisoners, to send themto Havana on one of the captured ships. He retainedthe superior officers as sureties, and demanded a re-turn of French prisoners, whose fate, according to aletter received from Chateauguay, was hardly in accord-ance with the articles of war. The Governor of Havanahad not wished to give food either to officers or sailors,and the latter were forced to carry stone and do otherwork to gain a subsistence.
Stores were replenished by several Spanish vessels ofprovisions, decoyed into the old port by the exhibitionof their national flags, — one, a “pink,” carried eightysoldiers, of whom it is chronicled with evident satisfac-tion that although well clothed in good uniforms, theywere not despoiled of them.
One of the Company’s vessels, loaded with merchan-dise for Dauphin Island, and with a present of wine anddelicacies from the Company to the officers, was sig-
246
yEAJV BAPTISTE LE MOYNE,
nailed into the new French port. The officers, not need-ing the wine and delicacies, disposed of them at very-great profit.
The supineness of the Spaniard under dispossessionwas not to be counted on in the future. Before sail-ing away with his squadron, in October, Champmeslinburned the fort and all the buildings behind him,and left only an officer, with a file of men and somesavages, in charge, and to give notice of a new Spanishattempt.
Bienville writes bitterly of the character and insuf-ficiency of his forces, the cause of this unsatisfactoryproceeding ; —
“The Council will permit me to represent to it that itis very disagreeable for an officer in charge of a colony tohave, to defend it, only a band of deserters, convicts, andrascals who are always ready, not only to abandon you, buteven to turn against you. What attachment to the countrycan these people have, who are sent here by force, andwho have no hope of returning to their mother-country tCan one believe that they will not use all their efforts todeliver themselves from such a situation, particularly in acountry as open as this is, by going either to the side ofthe English or the Spaniards ? It seems to me that it isabsolutely necessary, if it is desired to preserve this colonyto the king, to send as much as possible only willing men,and to endeavour to procure for life here more comfortsthan have been enjoyed up to the present.* ... At anyrate, what population we have in the colony is so scatteredamong the different establishments that our only forcesare the savages, of whom we cannot make use at present,owing to the scarcity of provisions. If we had sufficientforce we should be able to maintain ourselves against any
247
efforts of the Spaniards, although they are, with the neigh-bouring Havana and Vera Cruz, very powerful, — unlessthey should send large vessels to cruise on our coasts andcapture the supplies sent from France, which is their idea,from what we have heard from the French deserters. Inthis manner it would be very easy for them to throw us inthe last extremity, and put it out of our power to preservethe colony, if the Company does not send us means strongenough to make our coasts secure.”
248 y?AjV BAPTISTE LE MOYNE,
CHAPTER XXII.
I719-1722.
Grown suddenly by its influx of population andinterests beyond its primitive colonial administration ofjudgment, Louisiana had reached the need of the legalforms and practices common to the civilized world fromwhich it sprang. The Company of the West respondedwith adequate provisions ; but the uncertainty whichhuman character and temperament throws into all ap-pointments, caused the usual disappointments and re-tardation of public affairs. Under the circumstances,the prolongation for a short period of gubernatorialarbitrariness (if such existed) would have been betterfor the colony.
The Superior Council of the capital, which held asitting once a month, was retained and reformed, to in-clude the governor, Bienville, Hubert, tlie commissaireordonnafenr, first councillor Boisbriant, and Chateauguay,royal officers, with three other councillors chosen fromamong other directors or agents of the Company, anattorney-general, and a secretary. This was an appel-late court for the smaller councils, or inferior tribunals,established in every locality where sufficient populationcould be found to furnish the constituting elements, — an agent of the Company and two notable” inhabitants,
249
Although, as M. Gayarre notes, Bienville occupiedthe place of honour at the council, the real president wasthe first councillor, Hubert, who in any division of senti-ment would as naturally rally the Company’s employeesto his side, as Bienville would his brother and cousin.Unfortunately in such a division the majority of voiceswould not have expressed, and did not express, the bestpractical knowledge and judgment. And it was thispractical knowledge and judgment that the situation ofLouisiana demanded.
There were the usual Indian troubles to the north;more than usually grave, in that the English were morethan usually successful in their machinations amongChickasaws and Choctaws; but as long as the Missis-sippi was kept open and safe for the French, the rushof development of the country by the hard-pressed capi-talists of the Company in France, left the local rulersof it no time or thought for its defence, beyond Bien-ville’s persistently warning the French against the Eng-lish traders.
'riie Mississippi scheme was beginning to become theMississippi bubble. Inflation was preparing its usualresult of immolation. But the victims in the Old Worldwere financial, those in the new, human ; and the wrecksof the fortunes which strewed the Rue Quincampoixwere more than matched by the corpses that strewedthe beaches of Daupliin Island and Biloxi.
In 1720 the ships from France brought in emigrantsby the hundred, hundred and fifty, two hundred, fourhundred, — the fillings ” for titled concessions, or thedeluded peasants and traders, whose sordid economieshad been expended for the seigneurial estates, with future
250
BAPTISTE LE JIIOYATE,
nobility and fortune, in the New World, so temptinglyput upon the market of a war-scraped, famine-strickencountry by the wonderful new Company, with its won-derful new patent for coining money from “ faith,” ascredulity was termed.
Landed upon the sands of Dauphin Island, ill fromthe voyage, without sheker, with insufficient food, unableto get away, unable to find work, or gain anything bycultivating the arid soil, tortured and blinded by the daz-zling crystalline sand under the rays of a tropical sun,exposed to the infections of the ships from the islands,always waiting and hoping for the delayed transportationinland, it is easy to believe the statement that most ofthe unfortunates died of their misery.
The directors of the Company, finding themselvesmore and more helpless before the increasing compli-cations of their situation, more and more inadequate tomeet the increasing demands upon them, panic-strickenat the crisis which they foresaw impending, could, intheir ignorances, grievances, and divided counsels, thinkof no remedial expedient but a change of base.
Bienville exerted himself in vain in favour of his pro-ject, — establishment upon the Mississippi, its coloniza-tion by the direct transportation of emigrants to farmson its rich alluvial soil, and their immediate self-supportby agriculture.
Hubert had his counter-project, which he had alreadyrecommended to the Company, a year before, — thecentralizing of the colony at Biloxi, with Ship Islandfortified as a port. Absurd as it seems now, absurd asit must have appeared then to the men who had livedthrough one experiment at that spot, Hubert’s project
251
was adopted by the Superior Council, and received theindorsement of the Company. Biloxi henceforth was tobe the capital. The move was effected with all haste, tothe great expense to the Company, and loss to the colo-nists. By 1721 Dauphin Island was a way station. ShipIsland the receiving port, and Biloxi the depot of mer-chandise and emigrants. The sequel is lamentable.
The number of emigrants increased instead of dimin-ishing, and the quality of them decreased with every ship-load. The Company, to keep up its boom ” before itsshareholders in France by its tide of emigration, wasexporting its scrapings of asylums, hospitals, reforma-tories, and its midnight nettings of Paris streets by itspaid dog-catchers of humanity. And, in addition, slave-ships began to answer the demand, by bringing in theirnaked, reeking African cargo of misery, degradation, andwretchedness, to be dumped like ballast on Biloxi beach.The historians and romancers of the time describe theFrench side of this peopling of the Mississippi. Whattook place as a result in Louisiana, in the absenceof private letters, must be inferred from such a casualentry into the -?Journal Historique ” as, 4th April,1721, M. Berranger . . . was sent to Cape Francois;he was to fetch back corn for food for the negroes whowere dying of hunger and misery on the sands of FortLouis,” and from the careful description of Le PageDu Pratz. At the solicitation of a friend, who hadlarge concessions and larger expectations there, he hadchanged the location of his farm from New Orleans toNatchez. About two years after his settlement there hemade a trip down the river to New Orleans to sell someof his commodities, and also having heard that all let-
252
y?AJV BAPTISTE LE MOYNE,
ters sent to France were intercepted, he wished toassure himself of some reliable means of communi-cation. And a propos of this, he relates that althoughnot on friendly terms with the commandant of Natchez,who was anxious to ingratiate himself with the governorat the expense of everybody, he offered to take chargeof any letters which the former might have for the latter.The commandant said he had no letters, in spite of thefact that Du Pratz knew he had letters for Bienville.Du Pratz, equal to him, however, obtained from hishead clerk a certificate that he had so offered and beenrefused. Arrived in New Orleans, and hearing of the ar-rival of some new concessioners at Biloxi, he determinedto take his commodities there. Paying his respects tothe governor in Biloxi, Bienville asked that official ifhe had no letters for him. He was told that DuPratz had asked for letters and been refused; uponwhich he said, coldly, that Du Pratz had not wishedto take charge of them. For all reply,” says thehistorian, “I pulled out the certificate and showed ithim.” And then he goes on with, —
“I never could divine the reason why the principal es-tablishment of the colony should have been placed in thatspot, or why it should have been wished to locate the capitalthere ; nothing could have been more contrary to goodsense, for not only vessels could not approach it nearerthan four leagues, but, what was more vexatious, nothingcould be discharged from the ships there without threechanges from smaller to smaller boats, — and even, to dis-charge the smallest boats, carts had to be sent out over ahundred paces into the water. And what should still haveaverted the establishment of Biloxi is that the soil is ofthe most sterile ; it is nothing but fine sand, white and
^53
brilliant, on which it is impossible to make a vegetablegrow ; and in addition, one was extremely annoyed by therats, which swarm there, which gnaw even the wood of theguns. The famine had been so great there that more thanfive hundred persons had died of hunger. Bread was verydear, meat very scarce ; there was only fish, in which theplace abounds, and which was tolerably plentiful. Thefamine arose from the arrival of so many of the concession-ers together, so that not enough provisions were on handto feed them, nor boats to transport them to their destina-tion, as the Company was obligated to do. What savedsome, was the great quantity of oysters found along theshore; but to get them, one had to go out in the water, upto the thighs, a distance of a gunshot from the shore. Ifthis food nourished some, it made others ill, which was alsodue to the long time they had to stay in the water.”
Most of the dead bodies found lying by heaps ofoyster-shells were Germans,” says Dumont, — Law’s colo-nists for his own concessions on the Arkansas ; the mostregretted of his victims, on account of the sterling quali-ties of the survivors, who have perpetuated their goodrecord of honest laboriousness to this day. The disas-ters were not all land disasters; the Company’s vessels,as well as the colony, are arraigned by such items in the“Journal Historique ” as : “ist March, 1721 . . . Ar-rived, forty Germans for the concession of M. Law, theremains of two hundred embarked ; the others had diedduring the voyage. 17th, ? L’Africain ’ . . . arrived withone hundred and ninety negroes of Juida, of two hun-dred and ninety shipped.” — “ 23d . . . Arrived withthree hundred and fourteen negroes, of four hundredand fifty-three shipped.” — “20th April . . . The frigate? N^reide,’ . . . two hundred and ninety-four negroes,
the remains of three hundred and fifty, . . , bringingthe news that the frigate ? Charles,’ loaded with negroes,had been burned more than sixty miles from the coast,that most of the crew had perished, that those whowere saved had suffered much from hunger and thirst,having been reduced to load their sloops with severalnegroes for subsistence; ” and other similar tragediesthat might be cited.
A drunken sleeping sergeant, by letting his lightedpipe fall in his tent, started a fire which consumed Bi-loxi to the ground and terminated its history as thecapital of Louisiana.
A council of all the colonial executive directors, engi-neers, and officers was held, and another transference ofheadquarters was decided upon. Bienville again madean effort in favour of the Mississippi and New Orleans,again set forth his arguments, which were backed withno less authority than that of Diron d’Artaguette, thedirector-general of Louisiana for the Company; andagain Hubert made test of strength, and again provedhis majority of votes in the council. Hubert, associat-ing New Orleans with its founder, and the Mississippiwith New Orleans, had become as violent an opponentof both as Cadillac, for the same reasons, had been.And Hubert’s friends had become his partisans againstwhat they also considered a rival platform of a rivaland Canadian government. The point of land oppositeDeer Island, called thenceforth New Biloxi, was chosenfor the seat of government, and orders for its establish-ment carried into effect at once, regardless, as before,of expense to the Company and loss to the colonists.
Bienville met the persistent denial, in the face of ex-
255
perience, of the possibility of loaded vessels entering themouth of the Mississippi, by the proposition to send the“Dromadaire,” one of the Company’s vessels then inport, through it, as a test. One of the directors, LeGac, opposed this violently, on the strength of a certifi-cate of the captain of the “Dromadaire ” that his ves-sel could not get through the mouth of the river. Bien-ville then took it upon himself to declare that he wouldsend the vessel through it on his own responsibility,Le Gac warning him, if he did so, that he would beheld liable for any consequent damages. The Dro-madaire ” was in fact carried triumphantly through thepasses some months later.
In France, the Mississippi scheme had become theMississippi bubble ; collapse had succeeded to inflation.The Louisiana directors, taxed on all sides for contri-bution to the disaster by the extravagance of their ex-penditures, and for the discreditable disorders andwretchedness in the colony, which letters and rumourshad made a public scandal in France, vented some oftheir bitterness upon their colonial vicegerent, in aletter dated 20th October, 1720, — a letter of which Bien-ville’s organ, the “Journal Historique,” gives a versionwith indignation. The Company had heard with griefthat a complete division between Bienville and the di-rectors had thrown the affairs of the colony into a fright-ful state of chaos; he could conceive the effect thatsuch news, spread throughout the kingdom, had producedon all minds. The Company had been blamed for ap-pointing rulers so negligent of the Company’s interests,so careful of their own. His Royal Highness thoughtBienville the author of all the disorders, and that far
256 ^EAAT BAPTISTE LE MOYNE,
from keeping the promise given to accord him the gradeof brigadier in the royal army, and to raise him to com-mander in the order of St. Louis, had taken a standvery unfavourable to him ; and notwithstanding the ex-planations of the directors that it was the Company’sagents who had thwarted the governor in every way,the prince had replied that the favours of kings were onlygiven for effective services, and that to deserve themBienville must show himself worthy of them. The di-rectors added that a new director-in-chief of the Com-pany would be sent to Louisiana, from whom — mostoptimistically, it must seem — they hoped a better future.
As the honours withheld had been announced to himas accorded by both the Company and the Minister ofWar, Bienville, says the “Journal Historique,” was ex-ceedingly mortified. His first idea was to write to hisRoyal Highness himself, not on account of the lost tes-timonials, but to rehabilitate his reputation, and fix theblame of the state of affairs in Louisiana on the rightparties, by showing that his authority had been so cur-tailed that he could not even nominate his own officersto commission, but could only recommend them to theCompany’s agents.
If the letter was written, it has not been retained inthe official documents ; and mayhap the only answer thereprimand received from Bienville was a more vigorouspushing forward of his dominant idea, infused by theCompany’s hope that the new director-general would in-deed inaugurate a better future. His determinationwas to prove beyond peradventure his scheme, — notonly the practicable one, but the only practicable one,in the eyes of all, even of his bitterest opponents. The
257
Company, by sending a corps of capable engineers toLouisiana, had made the proof of the navigability ofthe Mississippi a question of science, not of personalityor partisanship, as it had been. As usual, Bienville wasnot slow in turning circumstances to his profit. TheSieur le Blond de la Tour, chief of the engineers forLouisiana, being detained from sailing by illness, hissecond in command, the Sieur Pauger, preceded him toBiloxi with the workmen. One infers from after eventsthat during the interval between his and his chiefs ar-rival, Pauger was made by Bienville an advocate of theadvantages of his colonial plan as against Hubert’s;and a similar inference supposes an early conversion ofDe la Tour, if not to Hubert’s scientifically untenabletopographical position, to his prejudices. The resultswere as grievous a difference between the two engineersas that of which the Company complained between thecommissary and the governor, but the gaining of hispoint by Bienville.
After the completion of the engineering work at NewBiloxi, De la Tour, ill again, was forced to send his lieu-tenant in his place to perform the much-needed workof laying out New Orleans as a regular city, as Paugerexplains it. Hampered and retarded as usual by theagents of the Company, he accomplished the task, — cleared the neglected space, alligned the streets, as-signed allotments, and made a plan of the whole, con-taining the names of the owners to the allotments, whichhe forwarded to the council, receiving their approval.
During an enforced respite in this work, and after itscompletion, he made two trips to the mouth of the river,sounding the passes, making a map of them, and writ-
17
25H BAPTISTE LE MOYA'E,
ing a report upon them, thinking,” as he wrote tothe Company, “that so much zeal and hard work wouldgratify the Company. Instead, he had received a repri-mand for assuming authority which did not belong tohim, his zeal being made a crime, on the false reportsof commissioners, who, for all their reporting upon offi-cers, are not the more faithful in performance of theirduty, but are the cause of all the discord in the colony.”There is a more satisfactory reason for Pauger’s repri-mand, in a communication from the governor to theminister, dated a few days prior to Pauger’s letter.Bienville’s encloses Pauger’s written report of the river,and a map, sent surreptitiously,” he says, “ Pauger notwishing to give it without order of his superior.”
The documents were final in their reach, — they killedBiloxi, and assured the future of New Orleans. Thesoundings guaranteed a free entrance through the passesfor third-class vessels ; the insuperable obstacle, the bar,was found to be a shifting deposit of mud, removableunder a full current of the river, which Pauger proposedto guard against, by a simple plan, enclosed, of stoppingcertain outlets and jettying certain localities.
Just at the time, June, 1721, the news of Law’s failureand flight reached the colony. All enterprise, all hope,was for the moment paralyzed, and an epidemic of thepanic of the distant capital seemed imminent. But ships,emigrants, soldiers, and merchandise continued to ar-rive ; and whatever the depths to which the paper valua-tions of her resources could descend, in France and onthe spot, through the flimsy card currency imposed uponthe community, Louisiana herself held steadily solventto all investors’of honest work in her soil; and such in-
vestors, despite all others’ failures, had become moreand more numerous and confident.
Bienville, himself, continued the pressing upon theCompany of Pauger’s documents, and his arguments andhis objections to the wasting of men, work, and moneyon Ship Island and Biloxi. He writes again, assuringthem that vessels drawing thirteen feet could enter theriver under full sail without touching bottom, and that itwould not be difficult to render the pass practicable forlarger vessels.
“I should already have had work done upon it if the en-gineers whose duty it particularly is were of the sameopinion; but they were solely occupied with Biloxi. . . .Have taken upon myself to send through the river twoflutes, one of three hundred, and one of four hundred tons.They entered under full sail. I should have done the samewith others that have lately arrived, if such precise ordershad not been given to discharge these vessels at Biloxi.”
He repeated Du Pratz’ description of the costly andtedious methods of unloading which the choice ofBiloxi imposed upon the Company.
26o
;/?AJV BAPTISTE LE MOYNE,
CHAPTER XXIII.
1721-1723.
In the summer of 1721 the new director-general, Du-vergier, announced by the Company, arrived. His com-mission made him commandant of marine, and presidentof the Superior Council, with a salary of twenty thou-sand livres a year. Although he brought to Bienville theaugmentation of his salary to an equal figure, to Cha-teauguay and Boisbrillant^ the cross of St. Louis, and tothe younger officers, among them Bienville’s nephew,De Noyan, advanced grades, his own prerogatives andauthority more than counterbalanced the effect of thesegratifications. Bienville saw himself again supersededat the council; Chateauguay imagined that his rank ofcaptain and services entitled him to the command ofthe marine; and each member of the Canadian staffsaw some cause of resentment in the manner in whichhis rightful authority, as he considered it, was adminis-tered by another foreigner, a stranger in the colony, analien to all the past hardships and vicissitudes.
But there were still hardships and vicissitudes enoughin the colony, at least around Biloxi, to graduate anynew-comer through experience to merit according tothe curriculum of colonial education. There was notonly the same problem to feed the emigrants and ne-groes that arriv('d, and the large body of soldiers and
workman gathered around headquarters, but there wereall the disorders to be anticipated from the indiscrim-inate sowings of convicts and vagrants in a new, thinlysettled, flimsily protected Government.
Garrisons in distant posts deserted in squads to theEnglish when they did not join the savages in ambus-cading and waylaying their late commanders. Crewsmutinied, capturing their vessels and sailing off to theCaribbean Islands. Between Ship Island and the mouthof the river the sloops of workmen would also rid them-selves of overseers and guards, and make a landing,which could easily enable them in any direction to at-tain liberty and license. And again, the Indians alongthe watercourses were raising their hands againsttravellers.
In September, the colony learned that the Companyof the Indies had been put in liquidation. Three com-missioners landed, charged to examine into the accountsof the colony. As Hubert had not kept a written regis-ter of his accounts, he was summoned to render themorally before Bienville and the rest of the directors capa-ble of passing upon them, — which, says the ^?JournalHistorique,” embarrassed him very much. He recusedBienville ; but when the other directors straightened outhis affairs for him, Bienville, at their solicitation, signedthe statement.
Duvergier enjoyed but a short period of his authority,which he seems to have exercised mainly, according tohis subordinates, in arbitrary making and unmaking ofofficers in his marine. Bienville, a few months later, wasgiven the precedence at the council board ; but with areduction of salary to twelve thousand livres a year,
262
y?AJV BAPTISTE LE MOYNE,
which, however, as he was informed by the Company,was no reduction at all, as it was to be paid in cur-rency. In the spring of 1722 Duvergier returned toFrance loaded with written complaints and affidavitsagainst different individuals, promising to procure thedismissal of Bienville, Boisbrillant, and Chateauguay.and the cassation of several minor officers. Hubert fol-lowed him to France some months afterwards, voicing thesame kind intentions, in spite of a seeming reconcilia-tion which Father Charlevoix, passing through the colony,effected between him and Bienville. The directors andengineers were still spending money and work uponBiloxi, with their fixed idea of the permanency of theposition as headquarters of the colony; buildings werebeing erected there, a hospital was being put upon DeerIsland, the plan of a fort made and adopted for ShipIsland, — when in May, 1722, two new commissionersfrom the Company in France arrived. Messieurs de Sau-noy and De la Chaise. Assuming control of the ad-ministration and the regulation of the long-standingconfusion in the accounts between Crozat and the Com-pany of the Indies, they inaugurated their rule by ter-minating, in Bienville’s favour, his long contest with apast decade of governors, agents, directors, and com-missaries. They ordered the transportation of theseat of government to New Orleans, and, as Bienvillealso had urged, the establishment of a post on theArkansas, by which communication could be kept openbetween the lower colony and the Illinois, and the in-troduction of live-stock from the Spanish possessionsin the West effected. A memorial, or manifesto, intwelve articles, regulated anew the tariff for slaves and
263
merchandise, currency and budget of expenses, dividedLouisiana into five civil and three great religious dis-tricts, and exhorted, in the last article, a more regularattention to Christian duties than had been observedin the past. All evidences bespoke, instead of an aban-donment of Louisiana in consequence of Law’s failure,a reasonable and judicious pushing forward of thecolony.
De la Tour, however, was made lieutenant-general ofthe province, which ( “Journal Historique ”) was takenas a mortifying rebuff by Bienville and Chateauguay.The commissioners brought also the announcement ofthe re-establishment to health of the king, and his mar-riage with the Infanta of Spain, and also the marriage ofthe Prince of Asturias with Mademoiselle de Montpen-sier. Public rejoicings were ordered for the occasion,and the sending of a boat, with felicitations, to Havanaand Vera Cruz, — a very appropriate suggestion, remarksthe “Journal Historique,” if there were thought in itfor the advantages of secret commerce. The Te Deiimwas sung, and the ceremony of blessing the flags wasperformed. Bienville presented De la Tour to the troopsas lieutenant-general of the colony, at five o’clock in theafternoon all the vessels in port fired three salutes withcannon and musketry, and at night there were “feux dejoie.” The double alliance between the two Crownsmade the longer retention of Pensacola hopelessly im-possible. It was formally surrendered to its originalowners in the beginning of the year 1723. The workof transference of the capital to New Orleans was begunwithout delay, and prosecuted with vigour. On the lothof June (1722) De la Tour and Pauger both sailed as
264 BAPTISTE LE MOYNE,
avant-coiireurs^ to take the pink iVventurier ” throughthe mouth of the Mississippi. Word was. brought backthat she had passed the bar on the ist of July. Otherboats followed, with men, building materials, ammuni-tion, and provisions. Under De la Tour’s supervision,the prospective city took form and shape. A churchand houses were built, levees thrown up, ditches dug,and a great canal was constructed in the rear for drain-age. A cemetery was located, and a quay constructed,protected with palisades. Bienville arrived and tookup his residence there in August. To Pauger was as-signed a post at the Belize. With fifty workmen anda dredge-boat, his admirable sagacity and enterpriseperformed marvels in an incredibly short time, workingfor the colony and New Orleans as no one had everworked for it but Bienville. Besides keeping a passopen, he built, out of the drift caught from the river,lodgings, store-houses, boats, a smithy, and a chapel witha belfry that could serve for a lighthouse ; while hisgarden furnished the gladdest of welcomes both to theeye and heart of the weary incoming sea-traveller.
New Orleans, however, had no more fortunate begin-nings than Mobile or Biloxi. In the midst of the build-ing and transportation, the September storm came onwith a hitherto unexperienced violence. For five daysthe furious south wind, raging from east to west, sweptland and sea. The ripened crops of rice, corn, andbeans were utterly destroyed, the houses and buildingsof the planters blown down. In New Orleans thechurch, hosj)ital, and most of the new edifices weredemolished, and three vessels wrecked in the river.At Biloxi, the magazine, with all the stores, and a ship
265
with its cargo of ammunition and food, were destroyed;almost all the . boats, sloops, and pirogues were lost,and two ships rendered totally unfit for service. Fora week the greatest apprehensions were suffered onaccount of the three ships anchored at Ship Islandand the Dromadaire,” on its way to the mouth of theriver with the pine timber for a storehouse which hadcost the Company over a hundred thousand livres \ andthe first comfort in the desolation came from the newsthat none of the vessels had suffered. The Droma-daire ” had ridden through the storm in safety at themouth of the river, the other vessels at their harbourageat Ship Island. All of them arrived in course of timeat New Orleans, passing, as it was invariably recorded atthe time, with facility and safety over the bar. An-other crop of rice came up from the seeds scattered bythe storm, — a proof of the fertility of the land, whichcame also as a great consolation to the colonists; butthe destruction of other food which could not be re-placed, brought upon them the affliction of anotherone of those short, sharp, cruel terms of famine sufferedin the old days of government neglect. And with theproverbial generosity of misfortune in New Orleans,the fevers that always follow a midsummer turning-upof the soil there, broke out, with great mortality. Theindomitable Bienville himself fell dangerously ill, andfor a Iqng time his life was despaired of, — an illnesswhich the “Journal Historique ” attributes to grief atso many contre-temps in the colony, and finding him-self, after twenty-three years of service upon it, withno assured rank in it. Writing to the minister, Feb-ruary I, 1723, he, however, makes no allusion to his
266
y?A,V BAPTISTE LE IIOYAE,
fever or other illness, reporting only the renditionof Pensacola, the goodly quantity of scalps broughtback by the Choctaws Irom the war-path upon whichhe had sent them against the Chickasaws, the completeabandonment of Biloxi, where only one military com-pany remained, and his work of establishing a batteryand garrison at the mouth of the river to protect it“from insult.”
Within six months the newly restored Spaniards atPensacola renewed their ancient neighbourly relations.The commandant wrote to Bienville, asking the loanof some provisions until his supplies, which were dailyexpected, arrived from Vera Cruz, offering to cometo New Orleans for them. Bienville and the council,however, with more wisdom than the Spaniards hadshown in regard to Pensacola, in consenting to the\oan, waived the compliment of the visit, with its im-politic results of introducing the Spaniards to the mouthof the river and the state of the city, by deliveringthe provisions asked in Mobile.
The disaffected Natchez tribes had gradually recov-ered from the crushing punishment inflicted upon them,and again, influenced either by the English or by theChickasaws, allies of the English, had commenced theirdepredations and ambushed assaults upon the French, — attempts which had grown in boldness until fearswere entertained for the safety of the post. After theusual routine of pacificatory measures, — summoning thechiefs to him, haranguing them, re-baiting their loyaltywith presents, all to no effect, — Bienville saw himselfforced to an attitude more intelligible or more imposingto the savage mind. In October, 1723, he landed
267
suddenly at the Natchez with a small army of sevenhundred men, — regulars, volunteers, and Indians (Tu-nicas, Choctaws, and Yazous). To give the rebelliousvillagers no time to rally or fortify, he began his marchagainst them the morning after arrival. Stung Serpent,always on his old terms with the French, and morethan ever a diplomatist, hurried to Fort Rosalie, wherethe commandant slept, and commenced his negotia-tions before he had time to join the march. The chiefcame to beg pardon for his nation, confessing that thepeople of the White Apple, Jenzenaque, and GrayVillage were in a state of insurrection, which he him-self had not been able to overcome. All that he ap-parently obtained from Bienville was that vengeanceshould strike only the three guilty villages, and thatthe Great Village and the Corn Village should bespared. It was on All Saints’ Day that the army, withall precautions for their surprise, filed through the nar-row paths of the forest surrounding the doomed WhiteApple Village. They came to a mud cabin, beforewhich were three squaws pounding corn. The womenran in and closed the door after them. Two or threewarriors inside made a defence, but they were expedi-tiously killed and scalped, and the women made prisoners.With the exception of one or two individual exploitsof Canadians and Indian scouts, this was the onlywarlike achievement of the French in the campaign.The White Apple Village was found evacuated, de-serted, — nothing but empty cabins. It was burned.The army returned to St. Catherine’s Concession,whence they had set out in the morning. A fewdays later, the commandant led his army against the
268 y?AAT BAPTISTE LE MOYNE,
Gray Village, with the same result. Not an Indianwas to be seen. The abandoned village and templewere burned. From a captured squaw it was learnedthat the Indians were awaiting the French at the Ten-zenaque village, a half league away. “ On this,” re-lates, with gusto, Dumont,^ the historian of the oc-casion, “the army wheeled about, and the Tunica chieftook the lead, marching right on the enemy. Sometime after, a strong cabin was discovered, built on aheight; here it was believed the Indians were to befound. The drums beat at once, the fifes struck up,and the army, forming into a square battalion, ad-vanced on the cabin. The Tunica chief, who was atthe head, first reached the height. He approachedthe cabin, examined it, and found it empty. TheIndians had abandoned it so precipitately that theyhad left behind some guns, balls, and horns of powder.The Tunica chief, taking a turn around the height,perceived below him one of the enemy’s chiefs calledthe ? Little Sun,’ or rather, they both at the sametime saw each other, aimed, and fired. The Tunicachief stretched his enemy dead on the spot, but fellhimself dangerously wounded.”
The army again returned to St. Catherine’s, and Bien-ville summoned Slung Serpent to him. The chief pre-sented himself It was not Bienville’s hour of triumph,as on the little island of the Mississippi, and onewishes for a glimpse into the Serpent’s heart duringthe interview which resulted in the elaborate peaceand pardon accorded the absent rebels. The termswere not onerous, — the head of Old Hair, the chief of^ Dumont’s History of Louisiana; French’s Ilist.Ct)!!.
269
the White Apple Village, and of a free negro who haddeserted from the French to the Indians. The Serpentrequested three days, at the end of which he broughtthe bloody ransom ; and the second war of the Natchez,as it was called, was over.
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y/LA.V BAPTISTE LE MOYNE,
CHAPTER XXIV.
1723-1725.
Duvergier was arrested on arrival in France forleaving the colony without permission of the Company.In disculpating himself, he no doubt seized the desiredopportunity to incriminate others and make good hispromises of vengeance to his enemies. Hubert hadexposed himself to no such disgrace, but his adventin his native country was nevertheless not unmarredwith humiliating experiences. He wrote to the minis-ter, Paris, April ii, 1723, that he had been obliged tokeep his chamber on account of a writ of arrest againsthim for a letter of change he had not been able toacquit. He sent his memoir on Louisiana by his wife.Different from Cadillac’s celebrated paper, it gave fullcredit to Providence for his excellent creation of acountry, for the spoiling of which Bienville alone stoodresponsible. For two years he, the writer, had sufferedthe greatest humiliations and risk of life for himself andfamily from the tyrannous dealings of the commandant.Colonists had been put in irons for exposing themselvesto make the complaints that he was doing, etc. Amarginal note here on the document, “Keep in theSecretariat, without showing in the office,” evidentlytabled Hubert and the rest of his arraignment. Anaffidavit of a few months later travelled farther. It
271
was drawn up in somewhat imposing form, dated NewOrleans, August 28, 1723, signed by Raguet, a sub-commissioner, countersigned by Father Raphael deLuxembourg, Superior of the Capuchins and Curate ofNew Orleans, with a notarial certificate of its copy fromthe original, dated 17th September, 1723. Its contentswere as follows ; —
“The Sieur Raguet, wishing to discharge his con-science, and obeying Holy Church, our Mother, . . . de-clares before the curate of this city of New Orleans thathe had full knowledge of the facts, circumstances, etc.,contained in said memoir [whether Hubert’s is not stated].
. . . The Sieur Raguet contents himself with declaring,for the present, . . . that he has knowledge of these facts,and that, in case of need, and when so required, he willmake a detailed and circumstantial deposition as muchas he can, and that even it would be appropriate, in orderto know the truth about ? every thing, to make a judicialinvestigation, in which all the old inhabitants who havebeen vexed and ill-treated, who have knowledge of whathas taken place, should be summoned to depose what theywould not dare otherwise, and that it all should be donesecretly before the commissioners named by the king forthe purpose. . . . Also, one portion of the facts uponwhich the Sieur de Raguet could throw light . . . aboutthe dissipation that had been made in the revenues andgoods of the king at the time M. de Bienville was bothcommissary and commandant, which will be more clearlyknown when he, the afihrmer, shall have finished the workwhich the Council of the Marine, as well as the gentlemenof the Treasury, have engaged him to do, — to examine andreport on all the old accounts of the Marine from the com-mencement of the colony to the time of its transferenceto New Orleans.”
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yEAjV BAPTISTE LE MOYNE,
This was not to be side-tracked in the secretariat, orignored by the board of commissioners in France. Theresponse was prompt. On the i6th of February, 1724,a letter was directed from the king, directing M. deBienville to return to France, leaving the commandof the colony to M. de la Tour until the arrival ofM. de Boisbriant from the Illinois. The news of thedeath of De la Tour having meanwhile reached France,another letter was written to Bienville, ist April, 1724,directing him to remit command of the colony to Cha-teauguay pending the arrival of Boisbrillant, after whichChateauguay could avail himself of the permission givenhim by the Company to return to France. ShouldChateauguay himself be in the Illinois, Bienville wasto remain in command and not embark before thearrival of Boisbrillant.
With nothing but the bare compilation of officialrecords before one, it is impo'ssible to form other thanvague conjectures as to the effect at the time of theseorders upon Bienville, his friends, and the colony. Theaffairs of the latter since its foundation had never beenin so equable and promising a condition, the colonyitself never so vital with life and strength, not fromdistant French interfusion, but from the inherent vitalityand strength, which men, like trees, grow from the soilin which they are planted. Iberville’s grasp of conti-nent had become a country; Bienville’s establishmenton the Mississippi, its city, its brain and nerve centre.The shadowy hopes of twenty-five years ago were be-coming realities ; the poignant vicissitudes, a parent’smemory, from which the children’s future dawned, afair and promising morning.
273
Bienville, while his letters of recall were journeyingto him, with the Superior Council, was holding regularsittings in New Orleans, purveying to the ever-increasinglegislative needs of the growing community under theircharge, recognized that the time had come to extendthe segis of the law over the accumulating populationof negroes who had been, and were being, brought intothe colony, with all the crude barbarity of their nativewilds upon them, by the competing cupidity of aliencompanies. A legal mode was required for freeingthose whom gratitude or affection thus commended (aby no means inconsiderable number, as statistics ofthe time show), and for defining and protecting thehuman rights which a state of slavery still allowedthe others. The code of regulations, celebrated underthe name of the Black Code,^ compiled by the jur-ists of Louis XIV. for the island of St. Domingo, wasadopted, and, with a few curtailments and alterations,promulgated in Louisiana in March, 1724. It was thelast public ordinance to which Bienville attached hisname before returning to France.
On the receipt of the letters, according to Dumont,
1 “Black Code” means code for the blacks. The adverbialsubstitute is sometimes mistaken for an adjective, to the detrimentof the code itself, its compilers, and even its promulgator, Bien-ville. Voltaire mentions it, with great satisfaction, as a “juris-prudence nouvelle etablie en faveur des negres de nos coloniesqui n’avaient pas encore joui des droits de I’humanite.” Areading of its ordinances, and a comparison of them withother slave regulations, and indeed with the ordinances againstE.oman Catholics in the older and better-settled English colo-nies, would perhaps rectify the grammatical misconception al-luded to.
i8
274 BAPTISTE LE MOYNE,
the only recounter of it, Bienville immediately madehis preparations for departure on the ship which hadbrought his letters of recall, took leave of his friends,went to Mobile, and thence to Dauphin Island, to awaitthe “ Bellona,” which was to convey him and Cha-teauguay to France. The ship appeared in the road-stead before the once busy harbour; but an accident,the upsetting of her barge on its way to land, preventedembarkation, which, as it was Holy Saturday, was post-poned until Easter Monday. At dawn of that dayboats were sent ashore for Bienville, Chateauguay, andtheir luggage. Hardly had they reached land whensignals for help were heard from the “ Bellona,” — twocannons fired in quick succession, followed, after aninterval, by two others. The weather was delightful,not a wave, not a breath of wind : in the eyes of all,the ship slowly sank under the water, the crew andpassengers jumping overboard with whatever they couldseize for buoys. The planks had started in her keel.
Bienville returned to New Orleans, and waited somemonths for another vessel, taking no part, however, inthe government of Boisbriant.
Arrived in France, he presented his justification tothe minister, — the memoir of the services that hadfilled his life since, a mere stripling, he had followed hisbrother Iberville in quest of the country, for the govern-ment of which he was now, a middle-aged man, calledto account.
The services form all there is of the history of Louisi-ana up to this date. Somewhat may be gathered ofthe history of Bienville from a few extracts. The paperbegins: “It is thirty-four years since the Sieur de
275
Bienville has the honour of serving the king, twenty-seven of which as lieutenant of the king and com-mandant of the colony.”
After the resume of his policy with the Indians, —
“It is not without trouble that I arrived at being ab-solute master of so many nations of such barbarous tem-pers and such different characters, almost each one ofwhich has a particular language. One can conjecturehow many difficulties I encountered and what risks I ranto lay the foundations of the colony and maintain it tothe present time. Necessit}^, it is said, renders us indus-trious ; but I experienced that it also renders us intrepidin danger, and makes us perform, so to speak, the im-possible, in the different conjunctures in which one findsone’s self confined in an unknown world with such a smallforce. I first applied myself to putting myself in a po-sition to govern by myself without the aid of an inter-preter. I applied myself to the language which appearedto me to be the dominant one among the savages, andof which the knowledge would facilitate me in learningthe others in the end. I was fortunate enough, fromthe first years, to gain their confidence and their friend-ship. I studied, to know well their customs, so as tobe able to retain them in peace with one another; sothat, for the twenty-seven years during which I had thehonour of commanding in the province, I was the arbiterof their differences. I always governed these nations,born in independence, so to speak, despotically, and Ipushed my authority to the deposing of chiefs.”
He terminates : —
“The Sieur de Bienville dares say that the establish-ment of the colony is due to the constancy with whichhe has attached himself to it for twenty-seven years, with-
2/6
JEAN BAPTISTE LE MOYNE,
out going out of it since be made the discovery of it withhis brother Iberville. This attachment made him dis-continue his services in the Marine, where his family wasso well known. . .
In New Orleans, the Superior Council, through theattorney-general, summoned the Sieur Raguet to sus-tain the deposition signed with his name and givento the curate Raphael.
“The Sieur Raguet,” says the requisition^ of the attor-ney-general, “did not appear, in consequence of whichM. de la Chaise condemned him to pay a fine of tenlivres, according to the ordinance, and resummoned him.He neither appeared in answer to this second summons,simply making answer to the clerk that he ? did not re-member anything any longer,’ in language and with alevity improper and unsuitable to justice, showing every-where a contempt of and disobedience to the colonywhich should be repressed. As in these revelations theSieur Raguet had advanced general accusations so graveagainst all those who had been at the head of the colony,he should either prove them, and not affect silence anddefault of memory, which was his excuse, or pass for acalumniator, who, contrary to the respect due his supe-riors, falsely accuses them of the most horrible malver-sation, with the sole object of blackening them, and insinu-ating the most disadvantageous opinion concerning them.It was the council’s duty on his [the attorney-general’s]requisition, to condemn the Sieur Raguet to such repara-
^ “A messieurs du Conseil Superieur de la province de laLouisiane . . . arretes en la chambre du conseil le 28 aout,1725,” signed De la Chaise, Perrault, Fazende, Perry. Theinstructions to the Superior Council in regard to the inves-tigation are not in the compilations of ofticial documents eitherof Margry or Magne.
277
tion, punishment, fine or prison, as they should judgeproper. ... As the Sieur Raguet only excepts M. dela Tour from the most unworthy conduct, and as it fol-lows, he attacks the honour, probity, fidelity, and justice ofMessrs, de Bienville, Boisbriant, Chateauguay, Hubert [?],... in other words, all those who have ever acted forthe Company, it is necessary that he give the explanationof the transactions [enumerated]; in short, prove all
that he advanced in his deposition, or be regarded as aperturber of public repose and punished as such. . . .The council was requested to revoke the Sieur Raguet’scommission as substitute to the attorney-general, andto ordain that he should be judged and punished asthe ordinances prescribed for calumniators, according tothe quality of the persons he has tried to blacken, and thegravity of the crimes imputed to them.”
The Sieur Raguet’s commission was revoked, asprayed for by the attorney-general.
The year following, rumours being rife in the colonythat the Indians were rejoicing over the recall of theirold commandant, and that his reappearance there wouldbe the signal for the breaking forth of hostilities fromthem, De Noyan, Bienville’s nephew, made a requestto the Superior Council that the Natchez, Houmas,Tunicas, and other tribes might give voice to theirsentiments and refute so grievous a calumny againsthis uncle. The Superior Council acceding, these na-tions made their declarations intelligible through theirinterpreters, that they all regretted Bienville.
Bienville, nevertheless, was destituted, and in hisruin involved his family. Chateauguay was relieved ofhis rank ; the two De Noyaus were broken and sentto France. Perier was named governor. Acting, ac-
278
;/?AN BAPTISTE LE MOYNE,
cording to his instructions, in unison with De la Chaise,who was invested as president of the council, com-missioner, and secret investigator of the Company, withwellnigh unrestricted power, the disgrace of Bienvillewas made to involve, within a year, the disgrace ofnearly every acting member of the Government. Who-ever opposed the authority of De la Chaise and thecouncil was dismissed from office, and generally sentout of the country. Roisbriant was recalled to Franceto give an account of his conduct. Pauger, Perry,Perrault, as members of the council, were censured;the two latter were sent to France. Fazende, anothermember of the council, was allowed to remain in thecolony. The attorney-general resigned ; his office, forthe time being, was suppressed. In short, for the firsttime since its colonization, Louisiana was to own in itsgovernment neither member nor affiliator of the familyof its founders. According to modern political parlance,a new slate, and a French one, was to be adopted andenforced.
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CHAPTER XXV.
1733-1736-
After his memoir to the minister, Bienville’s namedrops out of official mention, and his life in Paris isa blank which the imagination alone can fill. In thecolony, Perier and De la Chaise carried on the gov-ernment intrusted to them in the manner required:a government of thrifty despotism for absentee owners.They complain of the want of discipline in the troopsand of their fondness for living a la sauvage, and ofthe general lack of religion and morality, which seemsto have grieved all French officials in Louisiana; buttheir charge appears to have become very much tamedunder their hands. The old Canadian spirit of owner-ship of the country, the bluster, the brag, the indiffer-ence to laws, the impudence to governors sent fromFrance, the smuggling, the coureurs de bois adven-tures and frolics, the projects for despoiling the Span-iard and outwitting the Englishman, — there is no traceof these in the reports of the new administration. Theprosperity of the colony under this spirit, that is, theagricultural development of it by patient labour, was,according to circumstantial evidence, fairly, normallyprogressive ; the security of it was entirely fanciful.
The massacre of the entire white male populationat Natchez in the later part of 1729 was not more
28o
y?AA^ BAPTISTE LE MOYAE,
of a surprise to the victims than the news of it wasto the Government at New Orleans. Surprise musthave been the least of the sentiments experienced bythe directors of the Company in France on readingPerier's despatch containing the account of it. Sys-tematic injustice and daily petty tyrannies on the partof the French had consolidated the whole Natchez na-tion in enmity against them. A culminating outrage — usurpation of their territory by the officer in command,Chepart — had been the signal of revolt; the grosscarelessness and blind self-confidence of the same offi-cer had not only made the catastrophe possible, but abloody success; and the news of a confederacy ofIndians, a grand plot of general massacre, came toswell the horror of what had happened by the fearof it as imminent. The colony trembled from limitto limit. New Orleans was given over to a panic, dur-ing which a peaceful remnant of Chouachas, livingabove the city on the bank of the river, was massacred.But the promptitude of action that could alone re-es-tablish the French in the eyes of their savage friendsand allies was irreparably delayed.
The Choctaws were the first in the field. Sevenhundred of them, under the Canadian, Le Sueur, fellupon the Natchez while they were still in the midstof their feasting and rejoicing, killing sixty of theirwarriors, and rescuing fifty-nine women and childrenand one hundred slaves who had been taken prisoners.It was February before the troops from New Orleans,seven hundred men under Loubois, arrived. ddieNatchez, in the mean time, had securely fortifiedthemselves at the White Apple Village in two strong
28
liouses, Fort Flour and well-named by the French FoitValor. Their defence was splendid. The Frenchopened siege with all the science of Continental war-fare, — sappers, miners, cannon; but, from the first,they were hopelessly overmatched in every soldierlyqualification by their savage foes. Their elaborateexplanations of their discomfiture are but a series ofhumiliated apologies. Perier accuses the French sol-diers of cowardice, — says they were intimidated. Hecompliments, however, the courage of the colonists,particularly of the Creoles. Fifteen negro volunteers,he wrote, behaved with inconceivable valour. Thehonours of the campaign, however, all agreed, restedwith the Choctaws. They, at least, had the merit ofterminating it. Waiting in vain, after several days’ can-nonading, for the French to make a promised breachin one of the forts, and suffering the spectacle ofthirty Frenchmen running from their trench before asortie of the Natchez, the Choctaws opened a parleywith Fort Flour. Alabama Mingo, one of their mostfamous chiefs, made a speech to the obstinate foes,in which he convinced them that although the Frenchcould not fight them, they and the Choctaws weresufficient in numbers, and possessed patience enough,to blockade them, and force them into surrenderingthrough starvation. The Natchez made their terms:they to surrender to the Choctaws the remainder oftheir French women, children, and negro prisoners;the French to evacuate their position, and, with theirguns, retire to the bank of the river, — which was exe-cuted on the 26th of February. On the nights ofthe 28th and 29th of February, the Natchez secretly
282
yEAAT BAPTISTE LE MOYNE,
made their escape from the forts, eluding even thepursuit of the French. With their allies, the Yazous,some of them sought refuge with the Chickasaws. Theothers, crossing the river, made their way forty mileswestward through forest and swamp, to, no doubt, atraditional refuge and resting-place in the legendarymigration of their people from the East,^ — an impos-ing mound-surrounded tumulus in the present parish ofCatahoula, just above the juncture of Little River withthe Ouachita. It was a vantage-ground for attack uponthe Tunicas, and ambushing of travellers upon the Mis-sissippi, of which the now vindictive warriors availedthemselves, to the bloody cost of the colony. Herethey remained until tidings reached them (Jan. 3,1731) of the great armament of white men and Indians,led by Perier, close upon their track. 'Fhey withdrewto a far stronger military position, — to a thirty-foot highbluff on the eastern end of a plateau known now asSicily Island,'^ situated at the southwest extremity ofa small lake (Lake Lovelace). Here they intrenchedthemselves.
According to his own statement, it took Perier andtwenty different scouting-parties nine months to locate
1 “Mississippi as Province, Territory, and State ” (I. F.H. Claiborne, Jackson, Miss., 18S0), — an invaluable work tothe student of the history of the “Gulf States,” from whichthese details are taken almost verbally.
^ Claiborne, in locating “the last stand of the Natchez,”quotes from papers by D. W. Tallafiero, Ksq., and Dr. Kil-patrick, of Catahoola parish, and T. O. S. Doniphan, of Natchez,whose careful personal investigations of the subject fi.v thecorrectness of Claiborne’s position, and the incorrectness ofMonette’s.
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his enemies ; to arrive, with his thousand men, throughthe, to them, intricate country, up the bluff, and planthis mortars in front of their earthworks, was the mostheroic part of his campaign.
The Natchez, as before, held their own, and de-fended themselves gallantly four days, until they broughtabout a parley, for which, after a two days’ rain “bybucketfuls,’’ the French could not conceal their eager-ness. Perier refused to treat with any but the chiefs.Two Suns and the great warrior who had defendedthe Flour Fort presented themselves. Perier demandedthe surrender of the negro prisoners still in their pos-session. This was acceded to. He then offered tospare the lives of all the Natchez, men, women, andchildren, who delivered themselves up to him the nextday. The ambassadors then, in a manner that Perierdoes not explain, became prisoners. He complainsthat the great warrior of the Flour Fort made his es-cape from the tent where he was guarded by twelveof his most alert men, white and Indians. The nextday, four hundred and fifty women and children, andforty-five men, left the Natchez fortifications, and rangedthemselves inside those of the French; but they camein such small groups that the whole day was consumedin the transaction. Seventy still remained in their fort,asking a delay until the morrow. It was raining stillin torrents. Between the water under foot and wateroverhead, not being able to take them, Perier says hewas forced to consent. At nine o’clock at night theweather cleared. The Natchez forts were then founddeserted. Again the great fighting bulk of the nation,under the leadership of the redoubtable warrior of the
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Flour Fort, had given the slip to their captors. Thestronghold was destroyed the next day, and two pris-oners taken were scalped and burned. Perier returnedto New Orleans with his trophies of women and chil-dren, the two Suns, and forty men, all of whom hesold into slavery in St. Domingo.
Upon receipt of the intelligence of the Natchezdisaster, with the great loss of property involved, andforeseeing a war, in addition to their other overwhelm-ing expenses in'the colony, the Company of the Indiesobtained the retrocession of their charter to the king,Jan. 23, 1731.
The Ministry of Marine in taking possession of theirold burden may have followed individual convictions, orthey may have sought perhaps in their memory for theconditions which in the past had made it most tolerable.Their memory may have been aided by personal solici-tation of the old Canadian clique, assembled, thanksto the Superior Council of Louisiana, in the effectiveministerial centre of Paris; a visit of Diron d’Arta-guette to France about the time may have furnished thedecisive counsel which resulted in the re-establishmentof Bienville to his former position and the practicalrefutation of his accusers, and the rehabilitation of him-self and policy by the royal government. The archivespreserve some reclamations which had been made fromtime to time, — a memoir by a M. Dodun, 1726. “If it
is desired to save the country, which is in the greatestdanger, it is indispensably necessary to send back theSieurs de Bienville and Chateauguay ; ” it stated that theSieur de Bienville had been disjjlaced by a cabal, in spileof M. Dodun, who could not get them, being so abject,
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to say what they had reproached him with. KnowingBienville’s long services and merit, M. Dodun had givenhis testimony of them before M. le Due (?), who hadsent it to M. de Maurepas. M. Dodun had also madea report to the king.
Out of the fulness of an ecclesiastical wrangle, 1728,radiate a few beams of local light upon the subject.When Louisiana in 1722 was divided into three spiritualdistricts, the Bishop of Quebec assigned them, — Mobileto the Carmelites, New Orleans to the Capuchins, andthe Illinois to the Jesuits. The Jesuits, however, hadobtained a residence in New Orleans upon the promiseto exercise no spiritual function without consent of theCapuchins, Far from keeping this promise, accordingto the Capuchins, the Rev. Father Beaubois, S. J.,arrived from France with a number of missionaries, andcommenced a systematic infringement of it, had him-self made director of the Convent of the Ursulines, andotherwise so alarmed the Capuchins by his arrogation ofdominion that they prayed the council for an ordinanceagainst him and the Bishop of Canada for his recall.Among other charges, they specify “that Father Beau-bois affected a close intimacy with every one in thecolony with whom the Company had reason to be dis-satisfied. ... It was at his house they assembled,voluntarily hearing mass only in his chapel, which theyqualified as the chapel of honest folk. The Jesuit, littlerestrained in his talk, would launch even in publicagainst those who were not of his party, and would par-ticipate in raillery not very decent against the Capuchinsand their Superior.”
The Jesuit answers the charges seriatim, ranging the
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complaints made against him under four lieads ; to thesecond of which, that he was an unquiet, quarrelsome man,he makes answer “That it had been written to Francethat he was devoted to Bienville, and was rousing the col-ony to have him recalled. He acknowledged that he wasvery much attached to M. de Bienville, and that he hadeven wished his return to the colony as long as hebelieved the return possible. . . . Some persons in thecolony had never been able to pardon him that he hadbeen such a friend of M. de Bienville, this officer havingbecome the object of such implacable hatred that it hadbecome extended even to his relations and friends.”There was pique because Father Beaubois had boughtone of his plantations. In November, 1731, M. deBeauchamp, commandant at Mobile, giving the disgust-ing facts of the condition of the colony, — the harassingguerilla warfare of the Natchez up and down the river;the threatening attitude of the Chickasaws ; the Alabamason the point of declaring war against the Choctaws ; theinsurrection of the negroes; Perier’s barbarous punish-ment of them, and his cruel reprisals against the savages, — concludes with the sensible criticism on the governor’spast course, —
“One fault of policy, which I and all the old settlers findin M. Perier, is that he has given a perfect knowledge tothe Choctaws of the forces of the colony, by obligingthem to come to New Orleans for their presents; so thatto-day there are three times as many chiefs in New Orleansthan when M. de Bienville went away, and consequentlythree times as many presents to make. In addition, thesesavages, who, being woodsmen, had never dared risk them-selves on the water, have become boatmen, and .so qualifiedto make war upon us in any part of the colony. That is
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the reason for which M. de Bienville never suffered theChoctaws to come for their presents either at Biloxi, orNew Orleans, to keep from them all knowledge of histroops and supplies, always remitting the presents toMobile, which is nearer to them. The evil is 7iow beyondremedy, unless M. de Bienville could return.”
Stopping at Cape Francois on his way to Louisiana,January, 1733, Bienville had an interview with the en=slaved Natchez chiefs. They assured him, he wroteto the minister, that their tribe only was implicated inthe revolt, and that they had been driven to it by hardtreatment, without having taken counsel of the othertribes.^ Perier, 6th March, 1733, announces his succes-sor’s arrival to the minister, and gives the account of itwhich is historical only in the serious acceptance of itby some authorities in judging Bienville’s character.^He says in substance : As soon as Bienville had setfoot on land he remitted the government to him, althoughthe day before, Bienville had paid him the “ most insultingcompliment in the world,” by the Sieur de Macarty, aide-major of New Orleans, for which he, Perier, demandedjustice. Macarty came to him drunk, and told him if hedid not dislodge at once, according to the order givenby Bienville, he would have all his furniture thrown intothe street. The next day Perier, who attributed theindignity and the low conduct to the state of the mes-senger, heard it excused by Bienville. Perier remarkedto the latter that such manners were not very propertowards a gallant man, no matter if he were not in office,
^ Margry’s compilation.
- Margry, Introduction to sixth volume, — and all those whohave followed his opinions without seeking their base.
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and that it was a pity he was so lacking to himself inbeing lacking to him (Perier), — adding that it was notvery just gratitude for the very different conduct shownby Perier on his arrival, when he had taken Bienville andfamily under his protection, although they were held insuch horror, and at the head of the troops had forbiddenevil speaking of him, under penalty of punishment.
One can but remember here the apparent entire des-titution of Bienville and his family at the period cited.The account proceeds : —
“Bienville, no doubt repenting of this proceeding, sentand asked the orders of Perier, when he was admitted tothe council; but Perier declared to Salmon that he wouldhave nothing to do with such a man. When Bienville ar-rived, he had gone to meet him on the bank of the river,having all the honours rendered him which accompanythis kind of reception, — that is, firing of cannon, andtroops under arms. The cabal of the Sieur de Bienville,who had laboured to make him, Perier, pass for a violentman, and not master of his movements, would be very gladif they could tell Perier what they had seen and heard theirchief do. Bienville, in spite of the order of the king, whichhe disregards in a manner to convince one of his im-pertinence and ignorance, refused to be received at thehead of the troops, saying that it was sufficient to be re-ceived in the council.”
Bienville took up his residence again in his old hotelthus summarily vacated. It was situated in the spacenow bounded by Chartres, Decatur, Bienville,and Custom-House Streets. 'The Ursuline nuns occupied it tempora-rily on their arrival in i 728, while they were awaitingthe construction of their convent ; and one of them, the
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young and vivacious Madeline Hachard, describes it inone of her letters to her father as The finest house inthe town. It is a two-story building, with an attic, . . .with six doors in the first story for egress and ingress.In all the stories there are large windows, but with noglass. The frames are closed with very thin linen, ad-mitting of as much light as glass.” The same facile pengives also a sketch of Bienville’s city, — a pleasanter onethan those usually quoted : —
“Our town is very handsome, well constructed, and regu-larly built, as much as I could judge on the day of ourarrival; for ever since that day we have remained cloisteredin our dwelling. . . . The streets are large and straight*,
, . . the houses are well built, with upright joists, filled withmortar between the interstices, and the exterior white-washed with slack lime. In the interior they are wains-coted. , . . The colonists are very proud of their capital.Suffice it to say that there is a song currently sung herewhich emphatically declares that New Orleans is as beau-tiful as Paris. Beyond that it is impossible to go. . . .The women here are extremely ignorant as to the means ofsecuring their salvation, but they are very expert in the artof displaying their beauty. There is so much luxury inthis town that there is no distinction among the classes sofar as dress goes. The magnificence of display is equalin all. Most of them reduce themselves and their familyto the hard lot of living at home on nothing but sagamity,and flaunt abroad in robes of velvet and damask, orna-mented with the most costly ribbons. The women herepaint and rouge to hide the ravages of time, and wear ontheir faces, as embellishment, small black patches.”
While the ex-governor was making his doleances tothe minister, the governor, according to his and Salmon’s
19
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correspondence of the spring and summer (1733), wasputting his hand to his work. He could arrive at noaccurate estimate of the strength of the Natchez, butthrough his Indian allies he established the fact of threedivisions of them, — one in the interior of their territory,an impracticable country above their old villages;another, and a larger one, in the neighbourhood of theOuachitas, on the Yazoo River; the third and largestbody near the Chickasaws, who had given them land fora new village. In case the Chickasaws could not bebrought to terms, and their guests, the Natchez, extermi-nated, as now French security and prestige demanded,he passed in review his more distant and powerfulIndian allies, whose dispositions he had been able tosound. The Illinois were uncertain, as were also theWabash, Arkansas, and Osages. The Natchitoches hadrecently made an attempt to revolt against the French.The Choctaws, the main reliance in a war against theChickasaws, offered no guarantee of loyalty, except theoccasional killing and plundering of English traders ;and under the recent short-sighted administration, asDe Beauchamp had written, abuses had crept in whichmade the nations more difficult than ever to manipulate.The chiefs had multiplied themselves to one hundredand eleven, each one of which had separately to betreated with and ballasted with presents; all were arro-gant and insolent, and most of them in treaty with theEnglish of Carolina. In short, while small parties ofChoctaws could be kept on the war-path, nothing couldbe hoped from them as a nation without the prelimi-nary long, tiresome processes of Indian negotiations, — processes which, in fact, did consume the entire year of
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1731. As for the soldiers, without barracks, bedding,and clothing, no steps could be taken towards the dis-ciplining of them for service until the government’sneglect of them had been repaired.
In the ecclesiastical matters of the parish,, which wasstill in a flourishing state of discord, the governor wasbarely installed before the Capuchin Superior, the curateof the city, Father Raphael de Luxembourg, came(perhaps as a test) to consult him and Salmon about theorder received from the Bishop of Quebec to interdictthe Jesuits in New Orleans and its neighbourhood. Bien-ville writes to the minister that he and Salmon, notwishing to enter into the matter, had answered that thecurate should know better than they what to do, butthat it was a delicate step for religion. Making somedefence for the order of his friend Beaubois, he addedthat the Jesuits had gained general esteem by their goodconduct, and were doing much in the service of religion ;that the Capuchins could not administer to the wholeparish, which was extensive, comprising also the hospitaland nunnery. Besides, the nuns did not wish to submitto the order of the Bishop of Canada and receive aCapuchin for director. This condemnation was notmeant to touch Father Raphael, a respectable man byhis learning and morals, but Father FTyacinth, whoseconduct was so licentious that he was despised even bythe libertines.” Bienville had learned, however, thatFather Raphael had forbidden the nuns to have anycommunication with the Jesuits, who in two days wereto be laid under general interdict. Beaubois seemed tobe the sole object of the hatred felt by the Bishop ofCanada against the whole society; nevertheless, every
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one agreed that he gave no cause for it, — Salmon in par-ticular, since the Jesuits’ return, had not remarked any-thing reprehensible in their morals, which were regularand edifying.
The following autumn the governor related a chafingof the spiritual and civil authorities. This time one ofthe captains of the garrison determined to marry a younggirl, and not being able to obtain the permission ofPerier or Bienville, the couple had gone to Pensacola,where, for money, the Spanish Franciscan had marriedthem. The officer being ordered up to the Illinois, andthe rumour getting abroad that he intended taking hiswife with him, the New Orleans priests presented arequisition to Bienville to prevent the lady from goingwith her husband, or to oblige the officer to remove theopposition to his marriage. The officer and the Superiorof the Capuchins were summoned before the council,and the latter was requested to make known the founda-tion of his opposition to the marriage, which, afterhearing, the council pronounced of no effect. But asthe Capuchin proclaimed anew that the marriage wassacrilegious, clandestine, and not according to law, for-bidding the parties to live together under pain of majorexcommunication, enjoining penances, fasts, etc., — Bienville, not to leave the position of the lady uncer-tain, had closed his eyes to her departure to the Illinoiswith the officer.
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CHAPTER XXVI.
1736.
As Bienville wrote of himself to the Minister ofMarine, February 10, 1736, his letters for two yearsseem full of contradictions about the measures necessaryto finish the Natchez war and frustrate the English in-trigues with the Choctaws. His own intrigues with theChickasaws met with as careful frustration by the Eng-lish. After two years’ negotiations, conducted with allthe skill and judgment with which nature and experiencehad furnished him, the Chickasaws still refused to aban-don the refugee Natchez to him for punishment.
In the correspondence alluded to, there is an evidentreluctance to come to the armed issue which the failureof diplomacy made the more necessary to maintain theFrench supremacy in the eyes of the savages, and hiscareful precautions evince an apprehensive conscious-ness in his mind of the merit and strength of his foes.There is an apprehensive suspiciousness also, not onlyof the fighting inferiority of his allies, the Choctaws, butof their loyalty. Under his patient and persistent incite-ments, they had kept war-parties in the field against theChickasaws, and had committed themselves by isolatedacts of brigandage against the English ; but the nationwas divided in sentiment, and all his efforts to solidify
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it in a consistent condition of warfare had met with dis-appointment. With superhuman patience he resumedover and over again his manipulation of the two trickyChoctaw chiefs, Red Shoe and Alabama Mingo, to ar-rive at the but partial conviction in his own mind oftheir reliability when the call for support should be madeupon them. His temporizing policy with the Choctawsproduced a dilference of opinion between him andD’Artaguette, who frankly distrusted them; the differ-ence increased to an estrangement, which, as Bienvilleadhered none the less inflexibly to his views, transformedthe friend into a criticising opponent and unwillingsubordinate.
Bienville’s plan of campaign was one in which, hewrote to the minister, he thought he had employedevery imaginable means for success. It was to pene-trate by the Tombigbee into the Chickasaw country,where he was to be joined by D’Artaguette (brother ofDiron), commandant at the Illinois, with a force ofabout three hundred good men. The orders were sentto D’Artaguette, fixing the place of meeting, — EcoresaPrudhomme (Jones’s Bluff), on the Tombigbee, four days’journey from the Chickasaw villages. The time wasplaced between the loth and 15th of March.
Bienville during the summer took up his position atMobile, where, in a grand council, he exposed his plansto the Choctaw chiefs, and secured their willing and, ashe judged, reliable co-operation. Salmon, in New Or-leans, undertook to forward the troops and provisionsto him. But the means of transportation to be furnishedby the middle of October were not ready by the middleof January. Sending a detachment in advance with
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everything necessary to make an establishment and con-struct accommodations at the junction of the Mobile andTombigbee as a resting-place for the army, Bienville,despite the rigours of the season, crossed the Gulf andhastened to New Orleans, where he personally pushedforward the belated preparations. He sent a courier toD’Artaguette to retard his march until the last of April.As fast as pirogues and flat-boats were finished, heembarked them for Mobile, with what force could bespared from the garrisons of Natchez, Natchitoches andNew Orleans. He also raised a company of volunteersamong the young men and voyageurs in the city, andanother among the unmarried men from the country.He himself returned to Mobile on the 4th March, leav-ing De Noyan to bring on the four companies stillwaiting for boats.
The royal vessel, by which the mortars for the expe-dition were expected, did not arrive in Mobile until theend of February ? and then it was found that by whatBienville calls some deplorable negligence, tlie cannonhad not been shipped. The expedition had to go with-out them. Contrary winds retarded De Noyan and hissoldiers until March 22d, and in the rough weather oneof the large boats of provision, lost half her cargo of rice.This necessitated another delay for the making of breadin Mobile, and bakers were sent up to the establishmenton the Tombigbee, with orders to turn into biscuit allthe flour on hand there. Finally, however, every misad-venture having been, as far as humanly possible, reme-died, the start was made on the ist of April. Thearmament made a grand and notable show on the Mo-bile, — five hundred soldiers, without counting the bril-liant staff of officers, and forly-fiv'^e blacks, commanded
296 y?AJV BAPTISTE LE MOYNE,
by free negroes, rowing up the river in the early morn-ing sun, in thirty pirogues, followed by thirty flat-boats.
With continued heavy rains and the current againstthem, it took twenty-three days to arrive at the Tom-bigbee juncture. Here it was found that the comman-dant had been able to construct but one working fur-nace, the fat earth of the region not hardening in fire.Bienville put his men to work. By mixing sand andslime, they managed to construct three others ; but alltogether could only provide a baking for three days inadvance.
The Choctaw chiefs, justifying Bienville’s judgmentof them, began to arrive; Alabama Mingo among thefirst, Soulier Rouge among the last comers. A day wasgiven up to receiving them. Each chief, Bienville says,began his harangue with protestations of fidelity, andended with demands for ammunition, vermilion, andprovisions. The two former were given, but Bienvillereminded them of his warning to them in Mobile tofetch their own provisions. They related that some ofthe warriors had been turned back, after they had setout, by a rumour that when the two French armies met,the Choctaws were to be destroyed, and peace madewith the Chickasaws. Bienville immediately sent oneof his most trusted young Canadians to reassure thesuspicious warriors and induce them to join the expedi-tion. Writing these details at the camp on the Tom-bigbee. May 2, 1736, Bienville mentions, — with littlesuspicion of the correctness of his prescience, —
“Several war-parties, who have brought scalps to me, toldme of having seen great roads, which make them believethat help has been sent to the Chickasaws by the English.
29;
I think rather that it is M. d’Artaguette, who, hurried bythe savages, has arrived before me, and did not wish toreturn without striking a blow.”
On the I St of May, all the chiefs having arrived, agrand consultation was held; it was agreed that theChoctaw forces should meet the French in fourteen daysat the little creek which separated the Chickasaw andChoctaw territories, whence the united array wouldmarch against the enemy. The chiefs then took theirdeparture, and the French re-embarked for the laststage of their journey by boat. By the 22d of themonth, all arrived at the landing-place, — some nineleagues above the Chickasaw villages. Bienville re-marked that the Choctaws had not rallied in as greatnumbers as promised; all together not numbering oversix hundred men. A small fortification (Fort Ottibia)was thrown up to protect the boats and provisions, anda garrison of twenty men, with the boatmen, store-keepers, and sick, were left in charge. After a distribu-tion of twelve days’ provisions and ammunition, thearmy was put in motion on the 24th, marching in Indianfile, in two columns, through the woods, with the In-dians on either flank. The bad weather still pursuedthem ; during the first camp a terrible storm, which re-turned several times during the night, threatened ruinto both ammunition and provisions. The next daythere were three deep ravines to pass, filled with waterwaist high, the sides closed with impenetrable cane-brakes ; but after this, they came to a most beautifulprairie, and camped about two leagues from the Chicka-saw villages.
Neither Choctaws nor French could conceal their
2g8 JEAN BAPTISTE LE MOYAE,
want of confidence in one another. Soulier Rougewished to reconnoitre with some of his men, Bienville,fearing an evil turn from him, had him accompanied bysome Canadians. As the party did not return thatnight, and several shots being heard, the report againspread among the Choctaws that the whole expeditionwas a stratagem to deliver them up to the Chickasaws.Foolish as the report was, the Choctaws were on thepoint of abandoning the French when the reconnoiterersappeared.
Tranquillity being restored and the march resumed,the great chief of the Choctaws at the first halt askedBienville which village he intended attacking first.Bienville told him the Natchez, as they were the authorsof the war. The great chief then represented that thefirst village, Tchiouakafalay, was the nearest of the Chick-asaw villages to the Choctaws, and did them most harm,and that he would like to attack that first, particularlyas it was filled with provisions which the Choctawsneeded, and without which they could not follow theFrench any more. Hardly doubting, Bienville relates,but that the Choctaws would return home after takingthis first village, their habit being to fly after they hadstruck the first blow, he persuaded them to attack theNatchez village first, promising to return and take theSchioukafalay afterwards. They appeared satisfied, andtheir guides, leading the army through the woods, as ifto conduct it to the point agreed upon, came to a smallprairie about a league in extent, in the middle of whichwere three villages placed triangularly on the crest of aridge, at the foot of which flowed a brook almost dry.This little prairie was only a league distant from the
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large prairie where were most of the Chickasaw villages.A small forest separated them. The Choctaws main-taining that no water could be found farther on, Bien-ville defiled his army the length of the woods thatskirted the prairie and gained a little eminence, where ahalt was made for dinner. It was a little past midday,and the men as they marched stooped to pluck the wildstrawberries that covered the earth, thick and lusciousunder their feet.
The Choctaws, who had gained their point by a ruse,hastened to complete the trick by precipitating an action.While the army was defiling through the woods, a partyof three, with war-cries and yells, began shooting andskirmishing around the first village, and succeeded indrawing its defensive fires upon the French. The Frenchofficers then joined their demands to the Choctaws thatthis first village, which they did not think was good formuch resistance, should be at once taken. Pressed onall sides, Bienville explains, not to leave these strong-holds behind the army, and not being able to refusewithout rebuffing the Choctaws, he gave his consent tothe attack, after making the chiefs promise to accom-pany him to the Natchez after the taking of the villages, — which promise they gave, with many protestations andreiterations. A company of grenadiers, a detachmentof fifteen men from each of the eight French companies,sixty Swiss, and forty-five volunteers under De Noyan,were commanded to be in readiness by two o’clock forthe attack.
From the height where the French were, four or fiveEnglishmen could be discerned, bustling around amongthe excited Chickasaws, and over one village floated the
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English flag. The French battalion moved out of thewoods, crossed the brook, and began to ascend theridge. A murderous fire poured upon them from threedirections. One of the negro bearers, carrying manteletsin front, was killed. The rest threw down their burdensand fled. The column of grenadiers, first attaining thesummit and the entrance of the village, met the fullforce of the hidden batteries about them. Two or threefortified cabins were taken and burned ; but when it cameto crossing the open space between them and the nextcabins, under the same fire, the Chevalier de Noyan,looking about him, saw only a few officers, a remnant ofgrenadiers, and about a dozen volunteers. The soldiers,hopeless at fighting an enemy whom they could notdraw out, sought shelter from the range of their loop-holes. Crowding behind the captured cabins, they re-fused to be driven out by their sergeants. Almost allthe officers were killed or wounded. The Chevalier deNoyan and four officers fell wounded at the samemoment. In vain De Noyan sent his aide to rally thesoldiers ; the killing of the aide among them, only addedto their panic. He finally got a message to Bienville,that unless assistance were sent, or retreat sounded, notan officer would be left alive.
Upon this report, and viewing from the point wherehe was the combat, and the conduct of the French andSwiss soldiers, and with a sudden alarm in the campthat a reinforcement from the Chickasaws of the greatprairie beyond, were approaching, Bienville sent a com-pany of eighty men to protect the retreat and fetchoff the wounded, which they did not accomplish with-out serious loss. 'I'he officers, massed together, were
S/EUR be BIENVILLE.
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found still fighting and holding their own. The Choc-taws, who had been keeping themselves under coverunder the side of the hill, then, says Bienville, raisedthemselves up, and made several discharges of theirfirearms; but they also lost twenty-two men killed andwounded, which discouraged and disgusted them not alittle.
The night was passed in felling trees, and makinghasty defences to assure the camp against surprise. Itseems hardly doubtful that if the Chickasaws had fol-lowed up the prestige of their defence with an assault,they would have made a bloody end of the whole Frencharmy. But the savages, either from their own or theEnglish counsels, stood secure, silent, invisible, alert, intheir strongholds, leaving the French to take what initia-tive they chose, after their lesson. As Bienville experi-enced cruelly, there was no choice. The great number ofhis wounded; the scarcity of provisions, he having beenforced, after all, to feed the Choctaws, to hold them ; thefear that the Choctaws might abandon him at any mo-ment, — made retreat a necessity, and a quick one anurgent necessity. For in addition to other apprehen-sions, the falling of the Tombigbee came to threaten thecutting off of his water transportation. A retreat byland, harassed at every covert by Chickasaws andNatchez, would convert the present repulse into anirremediable disaster.
As for resuming an attack upon the Chickasaw villageswithout cannon, he dismissed any such alternative bysimply sending a plan of the villages to the minister anddescribing the system of fortifications used by thesesavages: —
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“After having surrounded their cabins with severalrows of great pieux (filled with earth), they hollow out theearth inside, until they can let themselves down in it,shoulder-deep, and shoot through loopholes almost levelwith the ground ; but they obtain still more advantage fromthe natural situation of their cabins, which are separatedone from the other, so that their fires cross, than from allthe arts of fortifying them that the English can suggest.The coverings of the cabins are a thatching of wood andmud, proof against fire-arrows and grenades ; nothing butbombs could damage them.”
Litters were made for the wounded; and at the hourat which they arrived the day before, and in the samemanner, in two columns, the army withdrew. The tiredsoldiers, having had no rest during the night, loadedwith their baggage and carrying their wounded, marchedslowly, — which completed the disgust of the Choctaws.Soulier Rouge exerted himself to the utmost to get hispeople to abandon the French then and there ; but theGreat Chief and Bienville were able to frustrate him. Tohasten the march, Bienville proposed that they shouldassist in carrying the wounded; and after many difficul-ties, obtained that each village should take charge of oneman. The Ottibia and the boats were reached in twodays; the water was so low that in many places a pas-sage had to be cut through the bottom for the lx)ats.On the 2d of June all arrived at the Tombigbee. Thewounded, with the surgeons, were hurried on to Mobile.Bienville followed after. From the Tohomes he receivedthe first intelligence of the full extent of his disaster, whichDiron d’Artaguette, mad with grief and resentment overthe useless sacrifice of his brother, more than confirmed.
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It was indeed a useless, a most deplorable, sacrifice,and a misfortune from which Bienville never recovered.His surmise about D’Artaguette was only too true. Theyoung commandant, as a letter awaiting Bienville inMobile announced, following his first instructions, hadset out from the Illinois with his force of one hundredand forty white men and two hundred and sixty-sixIndians, — Iroquois, Arkansas, Miamis, and Illinois, — toreach the rendezvous early in March, marching slowly,that some delayed reinforcements from the Michigamiasand Arkansas, under the Sieur de Montcherval, mightovertake him. Arrived at the Chickasaw Bluffs, his scoutscould discover no signs or traces of Bienville’s army.The next day a courier from the Illinois appeared withBienville’s letter and change of plan. He immediatelycalled a council of war of his officers and the Indianchiefs. The latter advised striking a blow immediately,as the Indians, not having provisions enough to remainlong in campaign, would be forced to quit; addingthat their scouts reported in the large prairie a smallvillage of thirty cabins, separated from all the rest,which could be easily taken; they would undoubt-edly find it full of provisions, which would enable themto wait for Bienville under the protection of the forti-fications they could throw around the place. Almostall the officers seconding this advice, the attack uponthe village was decided. Their march to the prairie waspushed forward with rapidity and, as they supposed,without being discovered. Arrived within a quarter of aleague of the great prairie, — it was Palm Sunday, — thebaggage was left under a guard of thirty men, and the restof the army confidently took the road to the village. It
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was the road to certain death to all but two of them.Hardly had the attack upon the village begun, whenD’Artaguette saw a troop of from four to five hundredsavages issue from behind a neighboring hill, and beardown upon him with such rapidity and force that hisIndians, the Miamis and Illinois, the greater part of hisarmy, took to flight. He turned to gain the road to hisbaggage, to save or at least blow up his powder, fightingdesperately, step by step, he, his officers, men, and thesixty-six Iroquois and Arkansas, — all his Indians whostood by him. Nineteen were taken alive, among themD’Artaguette, — desperately wounded in three places, — two officers, and Father Senac, a Jesuit priest.
Two days’ journey from the prairie, the advancingreinforcement, under Montcherval, met the flying debj'isof the baggage guard. With them he turned back tothe Illinois, sending a courier to acquaint Bienville withthe catastrophe. The courier, as has been seen, neverreached him. Provided abundantly with ammunition,warned through the papers found on D’Artaguette (readto them by the English traders) of Bienville’s plans, theChickasaws had abundant time, with their English friends,to take their measures of defence; and, as has beenseen, they took them well. As Bienville said, it was notastonishing that-he found the preparation that destroyedhis combinations ; for he had counted upon having to dowith savages, brave in truth, but incapable of fortifyingthemselves as. they had done to the degree that it wasimpossible to fight them without artillery.
An Avoyelles woman slave who escaped from theChickasaws to the Alabamas some time afterwards,related the unfortunate fitte of the prisoners. The after-
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noon of the engagement two were put aside, to exchangefor a Chickasaw warrior in the hands of the French.The remaining seventeen were divided into two lots, andburned in two huge fires prepared by the Chickasawwomen. All died heroically, — one Frenchman, so it hascome down to us, singing his death-song to the last, likean Indian brave.
Bienville effected the exchange of the two survivors.Save these, he could not obtain further details of theaffair, which, as above, he related to the minister. Allagreed, he said, that but for the courage of the Iroquoisand Arkansas, not a Frenchman would have survived theexpedition.
20
3o6
y?AA' BAPTISTE LE MOYNE,
CHAPTER XXVII.
1737-1740.
There was no interest so important now in thecolony as restoring the lost prestige of the French,and diminishing the effects of the triumph of theChickasaws in the country. Bienville had no soonergot back to New Orleans than he commenced his pre-parations for another campaign, — preparations basedon his recent new knowledge of the Chickasaws, andon other misconceptions. He wrote to the minister forartillery and bombs, to break in the roofs of the forts,and for soldiers ; for to fight with those he had, was,he said, to compromise the reputation of the nation,and force his officers into the necessity of dishonouror getting themselves killed. Of the last recruits sent,there were not more than one or two over five feet inheight, — the rest were below four feet ten ; and as fortheir morale, more than half had passed under thelash for theft.
He sent two engineers, Deverge and Broutin, toexplore the shortest and best routes into the Chicka-saw country, — the one by the Mississippi, the otherby the Mobile, River. He wrote to M. de Beauharnaisto secure the reinforcement of a company of Cana-dians, and, travelling incessantly from the capital toMobile, he prosecuted his work of holding the Choc-
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taw chiefs firm and solid to him; and despite themachinations of the English and the treacheries ofSoulier Rouge, for the three years during which hispreparations lasted, he kept war-parties, both of Choc-taws and Illinois, in the field, destroying the Chick-asaw crops, intercepting their English supplies, andharassing them into that state of discouraging disquie-tude which, although not a brilliant, was the most ef-fective, warfare against the volatile savage nature. Hisdespatches to the minister contain, nevertheless, someindications of other preoccupations and responsibilities, — the changes in the bar at the Balize and the mouthof the river, his past experiments to keep a permanentpassage open, and his suggestion of a vessel whichcould be sunk or lightened by pumps, to be kepttravelling backwards and forwards, hollowing out afurrow with her keel.
A humble sailor dying (1739) leaving his sav-ings to found a hospital (the present Charity Hospitalof New Orleans), a building had to be bought, repaired,and furnished, and a residue of the money kept forfuture use. There were also to be met the financialcomplications brought about by the different emissionsof paper, card, and metal currency, with the attendantmiseries of speculation and usury. There was, as ever,high water, overflows, destruction of crops, sickness,food-scarcity, discouragement of colonists, discontentand desertion of soldiers; but the machinery of govern-ment, in the absorption elsewhere of individual ener-gies and efforts, seemed to roll along, for once, by itsown impetus over the calamities of nature.
In the spring of 1738 the engineers returned with
308 JEAA^ BAPTISTE LE MOYNE,
the results of their explorations in reports and maps.The Chickasaws, according to them, lay at about equaldistances from the Mobile and the Mississippi. De-verge’s route, by the Mississippi and Yazoo rivers, wasselected by Bienville, on account of a recent peacebetween the Chickasaws and the Choctaws, although,as Deverge complained to the minister, the correctnessof both his map and report was doubted. Officers,engineers, and a detachment of soldiers were sent upthe Mississippi to build a fort and depot for provisionsat the mouth of the St. Francis River, and another (onthe opposite bank) at the mouth of the Margot (Wolf-River), which was to be the rendezvous for the forcesfrom North, West, and South. Two hundred horseswere sent from New Orleans, and two hundred orderedfrom Natchitoches to the Illinois for the transportationof the provisions, which, in default of Louisiana crops,were to be drawn from the abundant fields of theWest. The rest of 1738 was passed in making prepa-rations for the campaign. In June, 1739, the assist-ance demanded from the Home Government was sentout, — arms, munitions, provisions, merchandise, witha reinforcement of seven hundred soldiers, includingbombardiers, cannoniers, and miners, under the Sieurde Noailles d’Aime. This officer was also instructed totake command of all the troops, regular and militia,in the colony during the approaching expedition, andBienville was recommended to act in concert withhim, as with one “ who had all the talents and ex-perience necessary for the command.’*
Tliis, however, was to be one of tliose commands forwhich there was no computing the necessary talents and
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experience. One of De Noailles d’Aime’s young officerskept a journal,^ which reveals one of the difficulties ofthis war with the Chickasaws. By the time his troopsreached New Orleans, thirty, stricken with scurvy, hadto be put in the hospital on the opposite side of theriver, and twenty in the City Hospital. In fifteen daysthe number had increased to eighty-four. By July 25,sixty having died, and the sick list mounting to onehundred and forty, and others falling sick every day,the first convoy was hurried out of the city, three com-panies, reduced from fifty men to forty-one each.Another convoy of one hundred and twenty-eight menwere started off on the 8th of August. Of these, fourofficers and fifteen privates had to be landed sick atTchoupitoulas, a few miles above the city. Four daysafterwards, one officer and four men died. The rest ofthe battalion, which the journalist accompanied, left thecity in September, having suffered a loss of seventy mendead and seventy-four on the sick list. They reachedFort Assumption, as the new establishment was called,on October 3, with sixteen men too ill to rise; eighthad been buried on the way, and forty-five left behindat Natchez.
Bienville left New Orleans also in September, butmaking a detour to invite the Arkansas to join the ex-pedition, did not reach Fort Assumption until the middleof November. He carried with him sixteen hundredIndians and the rest of the colonial troops. He foundhis reinforcements from the Illinois and Canada waitingfor him, — the former under De la Buissonniere, the suc-cessor of D’Artaguette ; the latter, a company of Mon-1 Claiborne’s History of Mississippi.
310 y?AJV BAFTIS7E LE MOYNE,
treal and Quebec cadets, and three hundred Northernsavages under the Sieur de Longueuil, constituting, withhis own force, the respectable army, for the time, of twelvehundred white men and two thousand four hundredsavages. The young French officer gives a graphic de-scription of the encampment, — the French disciplinedsoldiers, the turbulent Canadians, the negro servants,the savages, with their interchanges of feastings, cere-monies, harangues; their war-parties, scalps, and prison-ers, whom the missionaries made efforts to save, butwho nevertheless were burned, with more than usualhorrible cruelties; and as time passed, and the great ex-pedition promised was not forthcoming, their dissatis-faction, discontent, and desertion by large bodies ; withBienville arranging and consulting with his officers,pacifying his Canadians, and unweariedly performing allthe etiquette of ceremony, speech, and calumet requiredby the exigencies of savage alliances.
Bienville’s own account to the minister gives a noless graphic, if a less picturesque, view of the situationhe found himself in at Fort Assumption.
As he had suspected, and as Deverge' had been forcedto acknowledge, the latter had been incorrect in bothmap and report. The distance of the Chickasaw vil-lages from the Mississippi was found to be as muchagain as he had computed. A new survey was madefor a road, which was found, upon Bienville's examina-tion, to be impracticable from overflow of small streamsswollen, by rains. De Noyan indicated a route overhigher lands. Another survey was made, and it wasfound possible to open a road traversable by the artilleryand wagons; relays of men were put to work upon it.
Three months were thus consumed ! In addition, therains, which had rendered the first road impracticable,had so filled up the bottoms which the live-stock had tocross, in coming from St. Francis to Fort Assumption,that in eight days more than half were lost, and therest, eighty beeves and thirty-four horses, arrived in sucha state of exhaustion that there was no hope of gettingany service out of them. The only resources, therefore,were the hundred and fifty horses and hundred oxenbought by Bienville and Salmon at Natchitoches, whichwere to be delivered on the 1st September, but of whichno news had been heard. At the end of January it waslearned that the oxen had wandered off and becomelost seventy miles from Natchez, and that the horsesthat had not perished on the road, had been abandonedon the other side of the Arkansas, whose overflow ren-dered all approach to it an impossibility.
Without a road to the Chickasaws, and withoutmeans of transportation, the French forces on the banksof the Mississippi saw themselves threatened with amore humiliating fate than befell those assembled onthe banks of the Tombigbee. The safety, the inacces-sibility of their enemies had received at their handsonly a more brilliant proving than ever. Provisionswere running low, the Indians were deserting, the Frenchbattalion was reduced to fourteen men, the grenadiersto twenty-eight men to a company.
Bienville and his officers held a council of war todecide how to end, with the least humiliation to theFrench arms, a situation becoming daily more criticaland untenable.
The Chickasaws, on their side, had not been unim-
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pressed by the great preparations against them. Despitethe arms, ammunition, and volunteer aid from the Eng-lish, and notwithstanding the tried strength of theirforts, they had, from the first assembling of the Frencharmy on the Mississippi, begun to drop in the neighbour-hood all the anonymous symbols and calumets currentamong Indians as amenities for peace. A letter hadeven been found from them, offering the return of threeFrench prisoners in their possession, with whose goodtreatment they were convinced the French would besatisfied. Upon these hints, disdained at the time, theFrench commanders were now glad to act. The North-ern Indians, who had been clamouring to be led againstthe enemy, but who had been restrained from policy,were given permission to march. On February 6 aparty of five hundred, needing no made roads, immedi-ately took their own paths through the woods to theChickasaw villages. The French council sent with themthe commandant of the Canadian forces, the Sieur deCe'loron, and one hundred Canadians. Celoron's mis-sion was, briefly, to allow the Indians to accomplishwhat they could against the Chickasaws; but he was toreceive any overtures of peace and bring about anynegotiations which would bring the Chickasaws as sup-pliants to the French. He acquitted himself like theastute Canadian he was. His Indians flattered them-selves they would surprise the villages ; but they foundthe Chickasaws thoroughly warned and on their guard,shut up in their strongholds, from which no demonstra-tions could entice them, save once or twice whenthey came out for a brief moment to display a whiteflag.
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Cdoron intrenched himself, and after allowing somedays of skirmishing to his Indians, opened the desirednegotiations. The French prisoners were returned, andthe Chickasaw chiefs provided with sufficient guaranteesto induce them to visit Fort Assumption ; but Celoronwarned them that they would not be listened to unlessthey delivered up the Natchez. The Chickasaws, equalto this as to other occasions, replied that although theyhad bound and imprisoned their Natchez guests in orderto deliver them, unfortunately some of their young menhad loosed them, and all had escaped to the Cherokeesexcept three.
At Fort Assumption there was no desire to prolongnegotiations or force issues. The Chickasaw chiefswere made to appear in the eyes of the French Indiansas the suppliants for peace j they were reconciled withtheir Northern foes, but their quarrel with the Choc-taws was kept carefully alight. Their excuses for theescape of the Natchez were received without criticism,and the three devoted scapegoats for the nation handedover to the French savages. These, with a Natchezwoman and three children, and four English traders cap-tured and treated to a free voyage to France, constitutethe net results of the gain of the war to the French, — unless, which might be taken into consideration, theseveral succeeding years of good conduct of the Chick-asaws be attributed, not to their own needed repose aftera strenuous effort, but to the effects upon their mindsof the sight of the French resources, and the evidenceof the commander’s determination to apply them, hadthe forces of nature, which savages can respect, notbeen against him. During the latter part of March,
Bienville dismissed his allies, who took their departurenorth, west, and south. Destroying his depot at St.Francis River and his Fort Assumption, he himself setout for New Orleans on the ist of April.
Bienville, in terminating his despatch to the minister,says all that could be said about his failure ; I feelwith grief that your Highness will not be satisfied withthis enterprise which has cost the king so much expense ;but I flatter myself at the same time that you will kindlyobserve that I did not neglect a single precaution neces-sary to render the campaign as glorious as his Majestyhad reason to expect; ” relating the conjunction, intime, of all his reinforcements, his store of provisions,more than necessary, had it not been for the inevitableobstacles, his loss of cattle and horses. “ At any rate,my Lord, if we have not come out of the affair with allthe glory we had a right to promise ourselves, the gloryof the king’s arms has not suffered.”
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CHAPTER XXVIII.
1741-1743.
Bienville’s sense of failure increased instead of di-minishing, after his arrival in New Orleans. His dis-couragement seems to have sapped from his heart allthe old optimistic verve that had vivified his devotionto the colony, — his colony, as he had some right toconsider it. Far from maintaining, as of yore, hisright and his sufficiency, as best man, to it, in its mis-fortunes as in its prosperity, he wrote to the minister,June 18, 1740 : —
“The labour, the anxiety, and the trouble of mind whichI have had to bear for the eight years during which it haspleased your Highness to maintain me in this government,have so enfeebled my health that I should not hesitate tosupplicate you to give me leave to cross over to Franceby the first vessel of the king, if the interest of the colonyand that of my reputation did not exact of me that Ishould put the finishing touches to the treaty of peace Ihave commenced with the Chickasaws, and which I donot think proper to hasten to a conclusion, in order to givethe Choctaws time to avenge themselves upon the Chicka-saws and their protectors for the insults they have re-ceived. This remainder of the war will only weaken theChoctaws the more, and disgust the English with tradingwith our tribes. It is thus, after having re-establishedpeace and tranquillity in the colony, that I desire that it may
be permitted me to make a voyage to France to restoremy exhausted health. I supplicate your Highness, there-fore, kindly to ask permission of the king for me. I donot expect to be able to profit by it before the return ofthe vessel of 1742, and in case France does not take partin the war which is lighted in Europe.”
There is no allusion in any of his reports or lettersto the jealousies, piques, and contentions with whichthe engineer, Deverge, sought to excuse some of theunsuccess of the expedition. On the contrary, writing,so soon after his humiliation, of the promotions amongthe officers, he makes a moving plea that they be paidin bills of exchange, instead of in the vitiated cardmoney of the colony : —
“Losses have fallen upon them, . . . which make theirlife so hard that it is not possible for them to maintainthemselves here. ... I supplicate his Highness to havesome regard to the very humble prayer which I have thehonour of making him. I know that the officers who haveno plantations, however moderately they live, cannot sus-tain themselves without going into debt; and those whohave plantations have difficulty in keeping even with theirrevenues.”
To his nephew, De Noyan, returning to France athis own expense, he pays the tribute, “that, naturallygenerous, he had, upon all occasions upon which hewas commander, and principally in the last campaign,made expenditures so much abov^e his salary that al-though he enjoyed a good revenue, he could not havemade the voyage without the assistance of his friends.”
While awaiting a response from the minister, the
Choctaws were, by degrees, brought into a more reliableunion with the French than they had ever been, whiletheir war against the Chickasaws was continued with avigour and spirit that astonished Bienville; who, retail-ing their successful raids and skirmishes, declared thatthey now fought even better than the Chickasaws.
The year 1741 was another hard one for the colony.Two tornadoes in September swept away all the cropsin the field, and destroyed all the magazines of pro-visions and the shipping along the Gulf coast and Delta.New Orleans and its environs alone escaped. Thecommandant at Mobile and De Loubois, lieutenant ofthe king, described to the minister the dire straitsof the colonists for food and shelter, and the generaldiscouragement of the whole colony, the decrease ofpopulation, the fears of Indians, and the general in-security felt by all, in Bienville’s treaty with theChickasaws.
The minister’s response did not spare Bienville eitherfor the abortionate campaign, the calamities of nature,or, what appeared as intolerable to him, presumably thecited decrease of population, for the permission givenby him for two families to pass over into the island ofSt. Domingo; and he was told that he must find itagreeable to conform to the commands of his Majesty,which forbade, without royal orders, his allowing anyinhabitant to leave the colony.
The desired permission to resign was not withheld,and during the two following years Bienville was oc-cupied, as he said, in removing difficulties out of thepath of his successor, — sending without intermissionhis Canadian-commanded Choctaws against the Chicka-
3I8 y?AJV BAPT/STE LE MOYNE.,
saws; rooting out the remnants of Natchez still in thecountry; bushwhacking the English traders and theircaravans; preparing his outposts to meet an attack ofthe English in case of war; assisting Pensacola withcannon, and his intermediation to secure the neu-trality of neighbouring Indians ; instructing Loubois,whom he expected to command in the interval be-tween his departure and the arrival of his successor, inhis Indian policy and management of the Choctaws,sending him to Mobile to make the yearly distributionof presents; correcting abuses in the finances; draw-ing up ordinances with Salmon, to prevent frauds inthe tobacco ; writing a memorial upon the wax-tree ; ”and sending the reports of experiments and investiga-tions made by Du Pratz and Alexandre, a botanist.
Loubois, completely reacting during the time fromhis former judgments against Bienville, wrote, June,1742, a handsome retraction and apology to the minis-ter, with a long explanation of how his error came about, — through the reports of an ill-named “Bonnefoi; ”stating that he had made the same retraction to Bienville,to whom also he had communicated at the time his criti-cism on the Chickasaw peace.
Of the financial distress and scarcities of the colony,for which the minister held him responsible with Salmon,Bienville gave the simple explanation, March, 1741, —
“For some time past there has been speculating herein bills of exchange as in specie ; but either because it wasnot so public, or so considerable, it is only since my returnfrom my last campaign that I have heard of several indi-viduals using all the credit they have to obtain bills of ex-change from France, and selling them to the merchants
319
here for card money, at a profit of fifty per cent. I amassured that on the departure of the last vessel some weresold at sixty per cent profit. I think Salmon could nothave known of this abuse, or he would have promptlystopped it. However, it has had all the bad results it couldhave. Card money has fallen into as great discredit as? bons ’ on the Treasury. . . . Everything that comes fromFrance has risen to an exorbitant price, for the merchants. . . have to protect themselves. Every one has sufferedexcept the speculators.”
In taking cognizance of the matter, he protests thathe has never been consulted about it, that none ofthe financial business of the colony had been commu-nicated to him, and that he disagreed so completelywith Salmon, who took the side of the speculators,that the latter would not set foot in his house. Thescarcity of provisions came as much from the poorquality of provisions sent as from the lack of them ; andas for the merchants of France appearing discouragedwith trading with the colony, he had not seen a vesselarrive that had sold its cargo below one hundred per centprofit, and for the last eighteen months certain merchan-dise had brought four or five hundred per cent profit.
It is no longer doubtful but that this country will becomeflourishing,’’ he asseverates, in spite of all unfavourableprognostics, and in the face of the complaining letters ofLoubois. His difference with Salmon, lasting throughthe year, received the prompt admonition of the min-ister, for both participants denied the responsibility ofit. Bienville, for his part of it, assured the minister thatno spirit of bickering had come into the rupture, andthat he had nothing to reproach himself with in this
I
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regard; “and if your Highness were informed of myconduct with this officer, you could reproach me onlywith too much complaisance and more considerationthan was proper in my position.” He had, however,sacrificed his resentment to the will of the minister, andhad lent himself to all the propositions of reconciliationmade by De Noyan, who had charged himself withthe making up, and that he must say M. de Salmonhad shown the same disposition.
In the same letter, March 26, 1742, recurring againto his Chickasaw compromise, and defending it, heevinces the continuation of his unmitigated sense ofdiscouragement: —
“If success had always responded to my application tothe affairs of this government, and to my zeal for the ser-vice of the king, I should willingly have consecrated therest of my days to him; but a species of fatality, for sometime, pursuing and thwarting most of my best-concertedplans, has often made me lose the fruit of my labours, andperhaps a part of the confidence of your Highness in me.I have not thought, therefore, that I should strain myselfany longer against my misfortune. I wish that the officerwho will be chosen to succeed me may be happier than I.”
His last demand upon the Government was, conjointlywith Salmon, for a college for the colony, to be situatedat New Orleans, — a demand which was refused.
The Marquis de Vaudreuil, his successor, arrived onthe loth of May, 1743, when Bienville took his depart-ure from the colony, never more to see it. He hadpassed forty-four years working in it and for it. Asa mark of favour, the Minister of Marine allowed him thebills of exchange asked for, in which to ])lace the pro-
321
ceeds of the sale of his property. The fear of bearingtoo heavily upon the commerce, he said, had made himask for only sixty thousand livres, which would be aboutthe sum of his effects and a part of his negroes. Hehad decided not to sell his land at present, nor the restof his negroes. His salary for the last term of hisappointment was twelve thousand livres a year.
21
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CHAPTER XXIX.
1765-1769.
Out of the oblivion of his after life in Paris the figureof Bienville arises but once again into history, at theappeal of the colony which had learned to call him“Father.” It is an episode which local traditions cher-ish, — a scene the imagination loves to represent.
Step by step the English had advanced in the progressof their domination of the New World. Step by stepFrance had receded from the high-sounding “prises depossessions ” of her explorers and pioneers; piecemealby piecemeal the soil, wet with the blood of her martyrsto King and Church, had been thrown in to make goodweight in European treaties.
The English flag floated over Canada; its presenceformed a line of demarcation down the Mississippi, withthe exception of New Orleans and the island, taking inall the territory to the east, and joining it to their Spanishacquisition in Florida. And by secret treaty, that whichthe English did not take, was ceded to Spain.
At Versailles, April 21, 1764, the king and his min-ister, De Choiseiil, signed the instrument which in-structed the Governor of Louisiana, Abadie, to makeknown to the colonists the fact of the donation of theircountry and themselves to Charles III. of Spain, andhis gracious acceptance.
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It seemed too incredible, even from a king of France,too base even from Louis XV. The colonists passedfrom their first state of consternation to one of delibera-tive reason. By a precocious intuition of the rights of apeople, a large and notable assembly, composed of repre-sentatives from every parish, was held in New Orleans;and to the orders of the king to Avadie, they responded,by unanimous resolution, with a petition from themselvesto the king, — a petition heart-moving in its appeal notto be thrown out from their mother-country, not to becut off from their ancestral allegiance.
Jean Milhet was deputed to take this petition toFrance and lay it at the foot of the throne. Arrivedin Paris, Milhet sought out Bienville, — always, tradi-tion relates, the eager recipient of news from Lou-isiana, and the most indignant mourner over itsdismemberment.
The young ensign of the discovery of the Mississippiwas then in his eighty-sixth year. The white-hairedCanadian patriarch appeared with the young deputybefore the courtesan’s servitor who had penned it allaway, — the great Mississippi river, valley, and delta,the long, unbroken line of Gulf coast, Iberville’s greatscheme, his own great colony, the city he had founded.
The chronicle merely adds that De Choiseul man-aged to prevent both them and their petition fromcoming under the eyes of the king, who, in his satur-nalian orgies, far from remembering that he had everhad a Bienville, had forgotten that he ever possesseda Louisiana.
Bienville died in 1768, passing from his unknownhome in Paris to his unknown tomb in Montmartre.
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He was spared overliving the final passing of his col-ony, family, and friends under the Spanish yoke.
During Milhet’s absence the colonists, with the blindfaith of bigots in their king and country, refused recog-nition of Spanish authority, ordering the Spanish gov-ernor, Ulloa, and his ships away.
Milhet returned with the account of his fruitless ef-forts. The colony fell into the desperation that suc-ceeds to hoping against hope. A wild, premature flutterfor liberty broke out in their councils. Their talk, theirspeeches, rang with a tone which was afterwards to bequalified in history as “American.” Armed prepara-tions were being made. O’Reilly, the avenger of Ulloaand Spanish royalty, landed in New Orleans, July, 1769.On the 25th October following, six of the rebels,as they were called, were shot in the barrack yard.Among them was Bienville’s grand-nephew, the youngJean Baptiste, commonly known as Bienville de Noyan.Six more were exported to Cuba and condemned toprison for terms varying from six years to lifetime.The twelve had their property confiscated. All the“chiefs and authors of the rebellion,” as wrote Ulloato Grinaldi, minister of Spain, were the children ofCanadians who had followed Bienville to Louisiana,“and who had received so little education that theydid not know even how to write, having come, withthe axe on their shoulder, to live by the work of theirhands.”
32s
BIENVILLE’S WILL, MADE IN 1765.
In the name of the Father, etc.
Persuaded, as I am, of the necessity of death, and ofthe uncertainty of the hour, I wish, before it arrives, toput my affairs in order. Firstly, I consign my soul toGod. I wish to live and die in the bosom of the Church.I implore the mercy of God and of Jesus Christ, mySaviour. I ask the protection of the Holy Virgin, Motherof God, and of Saint John the Baptist, my patron saint,and of all the saints of paradise.
I give and bequeath to the poor of the parish in whichI die, the sum of one thousand pounds, in one payment.I direct that three hundred masses be said for the reposeof my soul, in such church as my testamentary executormay choose. I give and bequeath to the herein-namedVeuraine, called Picard, my valet, a pension of two hun-dred and fifty pounds during his life, if he be in my ser-vice the day of my death. Moreover, an agreement shallbe made with him, by which he shall receive, by the pay-ment of two hundred and fifty pounds, a life rental of thehouse I placed over his head. I further give and be-queath to him my wardrobe, consisting of all my personalapparel, such as coats, shirts. I further give him the bedand bedding on which he sleeps.
I give and bequeath to the herein-named Renaud, mycook, the sum of three hundred pounds, if she remainin my service till the day of my death.
I give and bequeath to the herein-named Marechal,my footman, two hundred francs, to be paid at once, ifhe remain in my service till the day of my death.
326
JEAN BAPTISTE LE MOYNE,
I give and bequeath to the herein-named Baron inycoachman the sum of one hundred pounds, if he is still inmy service.
I give and bequeath to the herein-named Marguerite,the girl who helps in the kitchen, sixty francs, if sheremain in my service till the day of my death.
I declare that all my property is acquired, and that thelittle which I should have received from my father andmother was lost during my minority ; for this reason, beingfree to dispose of my property in favour of whom I please, Iwish by this will, as much as is in my power, to give to all ofmy nearest relatives marks of my friendship and liberality.
I give and bequeath to my nephew, Payan de Noyan,Seigneur de Chavoy, in lower Normandy, son of my sisterLe Moyne de Noyan, the sum of ten thousand pounds, to betaken from the share of my grand-nephew, Payan de Noyan,to whom I advanced a like sum of ten thousand pounds tobuy a commission in the cavalry, and whose note I hold.
I give and bequeath to my nephew Le Moyne de Lon-gueil, son of my eldest brother, Le Moyne de Longueil, adiamond worth fifteen hundred francs, to be paid at once.
I give and bequeath to my two grand-nieces, De Gran-dive de Lavanaie, [or Savanaie] who are daughters of myniece Le Moyne d’Iberville, who was daughter of mybrother Le Moyne d’Iberville, each a diamond worthfifteen hundred pounds.
I make and institute my universal legatees for onefourth, my grand-nephew Le Moyne de Longueil, son ofmy nephew Le Moyne de Longueil, who is son of myeldest brother Le Moyne de Longueil; my nephew LeMoyne de S^rigny, younger son of my brother Le Moynede S^rigny, for another fourth. My nephew Le Moyne deChateauguay, who is the son of my brother Le Moyne deChateauguay, for another fourth. And my grand-nephewsLe Moyne de S^rigny de Loir, and their sister, children
SI EUR DE BIENVILLE, 327
of my nephew Le Moyne de S^rigny de Loir, for the lastfourth.
I charge my said universal legatees to pay all my justdebts, should 1 leave any, — I do not think I shall, — and to carry out all the provisions of this my present will.
1 name as executor of this will my said nephew LeMoyne de Serigny, younger son of my brother Le Moynede Serigny, praying and desiring him to execute my pres-ent will as containing my last wishes. To this end 1 re-voke all other wills and codicils, this present one containingmy last wishes.
Made, written, and signed by my hand in Paris thefifteenth of January, one thousand seven hundred andsixty-five.
Le Moyne de Bienville.
On the margin : —
Registered in Paris, the fifteenth of April, one thou-sand seven hundred and sixty-seven.
Received : sixty-five pounds. — Langlois.
I have forgotten in this will to make mention of mynephew Payan de Noyan, son of my sister Le Moyne deNoyan, to whom I give and bequeath a diamond worthfifteen hundred pounds.
Paris, the fifteenth of April, one thousand seven hun-dred and sixty-five.
Le Moyne de Bienville.
Registered in Paris, April fifteenth, seventeen hun-dred and sixty-seven.
Received: thirteen cents. — Langlois.
??
;4
INDEX.
Alabama Mingo, 281.
Bienville. See De Bienville.Black Code, the, 273.
Cadillac, M. de la Motte, 1S9-194, 206, 207, 210, 212, 224, 227.Choctaws and Chickasaws, 141, 280,281, 297-300. See Indians.Crozat, Antoine de, 187, 207, 231.
D’Artaguette, Diron de, 183,184, 185, 231, 254.
Dauphin Island (Massacre Island),182, 184, 185, 191, 249-251.
De Bienville, Jean Baptiste LeMoyne, Sieur de, birth, i; ances-try, I, 2; becomes Sieur de Bien-ville, 9; joins d’Iberville, 10, 11,12 ; acts as spy, 16 ; personal in-cidents, 26-29, 31, 32, 35, 60;appointed lieutenant, 74 ; false-hoods attributed to, 81; quoted,100-106, 172, 198-205, 246, 247,259, 275, 296, 301, 314, 315, 318,320 ; on Red River, 107 ; left incharge of fort, 108 ; at Biloxi,115; explores Mobile River, 122,123 ; executive of the Louisianaterritory, 128; campaign againstthe Alabamas, 132-136; admin-istration of, 147, 148; troubleswith De la Vente, 148-159 ; asksto be relieved, 159, 160 ; troubleswith De la Salle, 162, 163 ; pro-visional dismissal of, 167 ; defenceof, 169-172; vindicated by D’Ar-taguette, 173; placed in charge of
the Indian department, 188 ; warwith the Natchez, 211-227; isdecorated and receives HornIsland, 228; made Commandant-General, 232; takes Pensacola,238, 239; attacked by Spaniards,241-243 ; retakes Pensacola, 244;honours withheld from, 256; laysout New Orleans, 257; supersededby Duvergier, 260; triumph of,262; second war upon the Nat-chez, 266-269; returns to France,274; ruin of, 277; revisits Louis-iana, 287; war with Indians, 294-314; final departure for France,320; death of, 323; will of, 325-
327-
De la Salle, Commissaire, 152, 153,154, 162, 163, 175, 185.
De la Vente, Le Cure, 140, 145,146,^148-152, 163, 185.
De I’Epinay, Lieut, and Gov., 229.
De Serigny, Le Moyne, 118, 238,241.
D’Iberville, Pierre Le Moyne,Sieur, takes charge of Mississippiexpedition, 10; returns to France,108; second visit to Louisiana,118 ; final return to France, 127;death of, 158.
Du Pratz, Le Page, 235, 236, 237,252.
Du Ru, le pere, 114.
English intrigues with Indians,209, 249, 261, 266, 293.
Gravier, le pere, 109, 110, iii,146, 156.
330
INDEX.
Hachard, Madeleine, quoted, 289.
Iberville. See D’Iberville.
Indians, human sacrifices among,93, 94; situation of the varioustribes of, 129; Indian girls, 180;wars with, 132-136, 211-227,
266-269, 294-314; general peacemade by De Bienville, 186; Eng-lish intrigues with, 209, 249, 261,266, 293.
Jesuits, the, 149, 150, 291.
Journal Historique, quoted, 253-256, 265.
Law, John, 231, 234, 253,258. SeeMississippi Scheme.
Le Moyne, Jean Baptiste, See DeBienville.
Longueuil, Baron de, quoted, 108.
Longueuil, Chateau de, 8.
Louisiana, government of, 248, 273 ;ecclesiastical disputes in, 285.
Massacre Island (Dauphin Is-land), 182, 184, 185, 191, 249,250, 251.
Mississippi River, discovery of themouth of, 35; ascent of byD’Iberville, 39-60; second as-cent of, 84.
Mississippi Scheme, 231, 234, 249,250, 251, 253, 255, 258.
Mobile, 1^37, 182, 184, 195, 234.
Mobile River, explored by De Bien-ville, 122.
Natchez Indians, 89, go, gi ;first war with, 211-227; secondwar with, 266-269 ; massacre by,279; third war with, 280-284.
New Orleans, laid out by De Bien-ville, 257; made capital of Louis-iana, 262-264; tornado at, 264;described by Madeleine Hachard,289.
Pennicaut, narrative of, 179, 180.Pensacola, besieged by Indians, 181;taken by French, 238, 239, 244,264, 266.
Pontchartrain, Lake, 66, 69.
Primot (Tierry), Catherine, i, 2,
4-7-
Raguet, Sieur, quoted, 271 ; con-demned, 276.
Sagean, Mathieu, 113.
Sauvole, Sieur de, 73, 74, 75, 77;death of, 115.
Slave trade in Louisiana, 251, 253.Spain and France, 238, 263.
Tonty, Henri de, 139.
Women sent from France to Louis-iana, 138, 145, 183, 206.
Yellow Fever in Louisiana, 138.
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Robert Morris (1734-1806), Superintendent of Financeunder the Continental Congress. By Prof WilliamG. Sumner, of Yale University.
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Capuchin -->Notes
- Capuchin A Catholic friar.
Text prepared by:
- Myles Simmons
Summer 2021 Group
- Sierra Gilbert
- Jalen Helm
- Rosario Hernandez
Source
Cable, George Washington. "Posson Jone'" and P?re Rapha?l: With a New Word Setting Forth How and Why the Two Tales Are One. Illus. Stanley M. Arthurs. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1909. Google Books. Web. 27 Feb. 2012. <http://books. google.com/books?id=bzhLAAAAIAAJ>.