USA > Alabama > History of Alabama, and incidentally of Georgia and Mississippi, from the earliest period, v. 1 > Part 13
USA > Georgia > History of Alabama, and incidentally of Georgia and Mississippi, from the earliest period, v. 1 > Part 13
USA > Mississippi > History of Alabama, and incidentally of Georgia and Mississippi, from the earliest period, v. 1 > Part 13
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1699 January 20
A deputation sent by Iberville were received with much politeness, but the Don declined to permit the French vessels
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to enter the harbor, for fear of a treacherous surprise .* The CHAPTER French then made sail to the west, and presently cast anchor IV. 1699 off an island, which, from the quantity of human bones dis- January 31 covered upon it by Midshipman Bienville, was called the Isle of Massacre. The small vessels passed through the channel between two elevations, to which they gave the name of Cat and Ship Islands. The fifty-two gun ship sailed for St. Do- mingo, while the frigates lay off a group of banks, which received the name of the Chandeliers. Iberville despatched two boats to the main land, the crews of which found seven recently abandoned canoes, and succeeded in capturing two sick old Indians, whom they left with presents. The next day, a woman being taken and likewise sent off with presents, return- ed with two of her people, who belonged to the Biloxi tribe, whose name was given by the French to the bay. Four savages of this nation were then carried on board of Iberville's ship, while his brother, Bienville, remained upon the beach, as a hostage. On the same evening, twenty-four Bayagolas arrived upon the shore, being on their way to fight the Mo- bilians, who, they said, lived on the banks of a great river which flowed into the sea, not far to the east.t
* The Spaniards, who still claimed the whole circuit of the Gulf, had hastened to occupy the Pensacola harbor, the best upon it. The-bar- rier thus formed, made the dividing line between Florida and Louisiana.
+ Journal Historique de l'Etablissement des Français a la Louisiane, par Bernard de la Harpe, pp. 4-S. La Harpe was one of the first French settlers in Mobile, and he kept a journal of all he witnessed in that place, at Dauphin, Biloxi, Ship Island, &c., &c.
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CHAPTER IV. 1699 February 27
When Iberville had caused some huts to be erected upon Ship Island, he entered a boat with thirty men, accompanied by his brother Bienville, and Father Athanase, a Franciscan friar, the companion of the unfortunate La Salle in his descent of the Mississippi, and at the time when he was killed upon the plains of Texas. Upon the third day, Iberville made the Balize, and was the first to enter the great river from the sea. He ascended for the space of ten days, until he arrived at a town of the Bayagola nation. There he found, preserved by these Indians, a prayer book which belonged to the first ex- pedition of La Salle, some cloaks which the discoverer had given them, a coat of mail which had belonged to the troop of De Soto, and a letter written by the Chevalier Tonti to La Salle, whom he had been disappointed in not meeting, as we have already seen. All these things combined to dis- pel the doubts which Iberville had entertained, that this was really the Mississippi, and re-assured the convictions of Father Athanase. Continuing the voyage to a point which he named Portage de la Croix, Iberville turned his boat down stream and touched at Bayou Manchac. Here Bien- ville, who was placed in command of the main boat, presently descended the river to the sea, while Iberville passed through the bayou, in birch-bark canoes, guided by a Bayagola Indian. Entering the river Amite, he soon fell into Lakes Maurepas and Pontchartrain, which he named in honor of the two principal Ministers of his King. Bienville joined him, soon after he reached his shipping.
1699
At the eastern extremity of the bay of Biloxi and within
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the limits of the present State of Mississippi, a fort, with four CHAPTER bastions and mounted with twelve pieces of artillery, was IV 1699 May 1 now erected, the command of which was given to Sauvolle, the elder of the two brothers of Iberville, while Bienville, the youngest of the three, was made lieutenant. After the colonists had built huts and houses around it, Iberville and the Count Sugeres sailed in the two frigates for France. Sauvolle despatched a vessel to St. Domingo for provisions, and Bienville, with a small command, to visit the neighboring tribes, with whom he desired to cultivate friendly relations. Visiting the Callapissas upon the northern shore of Lake Pontchartrain, and the Pascagoulas upon the river of that name, among whom he distributed presents, and going by land from Mobile Point to Pensacola to observe the move- ments of the Spaniards, he returned to Fort Biloxi ; but in a few days set off in a boat, again to explore the Mississippi river. After having ascended it some distance, and while 1699 August 16 returning he met, not far below the site of New Orleans, an English captain named Bar, in charge of a vessel of sixteen guns, who asserted that there was another vessel of the same class belonging to him at the mouth of the river, and that his intention was to establish an English colony upon the banks of the Mississippi. The ingenious Bienville turned him towards the Gulf, by telling him that France, had already taken possession of the river in which he then was, and above there had occupied it with a fort and garrison ; and, furthermore, that the Mississippi river lay considerably to the west.
11*
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CHAPTER IV
1699
In the meantime, Sauvolle received two Canadian mission- aries, who had sometime before established themselves among the Yazoos. These holy men dropped down the Mississippi, entered the lakes by the Bayou Manchac, and paid their brethren an unexpected but most pleasing visit. Upon a bluff on the Mississippi, the site of old Fort Adams, lived one of these men, Father Davion, who erected a cross in the open air, and kept his holy relies in the hollow of a large tree. Here he told the Indians who the true God was, and bap- tized those who were converted, with the waters of the ancient Mississippi. Could a life so entirely solitary, and attended with so many dangers, have been influenced by any other motives than such as are prompted by the purest piety ?
December 7
At length, the roar of distant cannon at sea announced the arrival of two large ships of war, commanded by Iberville and the Count Sugeres, direct from France, laden with provisions for the colony, and having on board thirty laborers and sixty Canadians, intended as military pioneers, with their command- ers, St. Dennis and Malton, together with a person named Le Sueur, who had acquired some celebrity in his voyages to Can- ada. They brought the pleasing intelligence that Sauvolle had been appointed Governor of Louisiana, and Bienville Lieu- tenant Governor. Boisbriant, who also came with the ships, was commissioned to take the command of Fort Biloxi.
1700
January 15
Dreading the advance of the British, and determined to se- cure the banks of the Mississippi from their grasp, Iberville sailed, with fifty Canadians, to a point eighteen leagues above the Balize, which had been selected by the indefatigable young
------
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Bienville, who had arrived for that purpose, a few days before, by CHAPTER way of Manchac, with some Bayagolas, who were acquainted IV. with the inundations of the river. Here they immediately be- gan the construction of a fort, and, after a short time, were joined by the aged Tonti, who came from Canada, down the Mississippi, with a fow Frenchmen and Indians. This veteran pioneer was joyfully received by those who had so often heard of his intrepid and fearless adventures.
In the meantime Sauvolle wrote to the Minister, regretting that he was not allowed to accompany Iberville upon the Mis- sissippi, where he could have learned so much of the country, condemned the location at Biloxi as too low, sterile and sick- ly, and gave it as his opinion that the country offered no in- ducement to enterprise, except in the solitary article of hides. He closed his letter by expressing the hope that some mines of precious metals would be discovered. About this time Governor Roalli, of Pensacola, advanced to Ship Island with a man-of-war and some smaller vessels, for the purpose of ex- pelling the French; but, deterred by Iberville's fleet, he has- tened back, leaving only a proclamation protesting against the settlement of any portion of the coast, the whole breadth of which, he contended, belonged to Ilis Catholic Majesty's Mexican possessions.
Taking with them the Chevalier Tonti, Iberville and Bien- ville left their new fort and ascended the Mississippi, visiting the different tribes upon its shores, and finally resting at the site of the present city of Natchez, where lived the Indians who bore that name, and whose manners and customs have al-
1700
March 11
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CHAPTER
IV. ready been described. Delighted with this place, and re- solved to plant a settlement there, Iberville marked out a town, and called it Rosalie-the name of the Countess Pont- chartrain. From this place the Chevalier Tonti went up the river, and Bienville and St. Dennis, with twenty-two Cana- dians, started to the west, by an overland route, to reconnoitre the Spanish settlements, while Iberville floated down the river to rejoin his fleet.
1700
May 28
Returning from the west to Biloxi, Bienville was sent to take the connnand of the new establishment upon the Missis- sippi, and then Iberville once more spread the sails of his ships for beloved France. Meanwhile the colony languished; the earth was not cultivated, and, relying for supplies from St. Domingo, horrible famine and sickness reduced the num- ber of inhabitants to one hundred and fifty souls ! Sauvolle himself died, leaving the cares of the colony to the more re- doubtable Bienville. The latter, deploring the condition of his people, and seeing the necessity of tilling the earth, in a despatch to the French government urged them to send him laborers, rather than the vicious and the idle, who roamed the forests in search of mines and Indian mistresses.
1701 August 22
September
A delegation of Choctaws and Mobilians visited Fort Bi- loxi, and requested assistance in their war with the Chicka- saws. These were succeeded by twenty other Mobilians, and the Chief of the Alabamas, all of whom were dismissed with presents and exhortations to remain at peace with each other. At this time, the Spaniards of Pensaeola and the French colo- ny were not only upon good terins, but of mutual assistance
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to each other; so much so, that Bienville arrested eighteen CHAPTER Spanish deserters and sent them back to Don Martin, the IV. Governor of Pensacola.
Iberville and his brother, Serigny, arriving at Pensacola, direct from France, on board two men-of-war, despatched supplies to the colonists in smaller vessels, which were joyful- ly received, as a meagre portion of corn had for a long time barely kept them alive. Having received orders to break up the colonial establishment at Biloxi, and to remove it upon the Mobile, Bienville left only twenty soldiers at the fort, un- der Boisbriant, and sailed with his people to Dauphin Island, to which, as we have seen, they first gave the name of Massa- cre. Here he met his brother, Serigny, and a person named La Salle. The latter had been sent out to perform the duties of Marine Commissary. With forty sailors and some ship- carpenters, Bienville began the construction of a warehouse on Dauphin Island. With a sufficient force of soldiers, artisans and laborers, he then sailed up the bay of Mobile, and at the month of Dog river commenced the erection of a fort, a ware- house and other public buildings. This place received the name of Mobile, from the spacious bay upon which it was situ- ated, which was called after the tribe of Indians who had so resolutely fought De Soto upon the field of Maubila. The fort itself was long designated as Fort St. Louis de la Mobile .*
* In 1777, Bartram, being on a voyage from Mobile to Pearl river, in a French trading boat, touched at the month of Dog river and saw there the ruins of old Fort St. Louis de la Mobile, where lay some iron cannon and some immense iron kettles, formerly used by the French for boiling tar into pitch -Bartram's Travels, pp. 416-117.
1701 December 18
1702
1540 October 18
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CHAPTER Here was the seat of government for the space of nine years, IV. when, in 1711, as we shall see, the French moved up to the mouth of Mobile river, where they founded the town of Mo- bile, which has since become the beautiful commercial en- porium of the State of Alabama. A few days of activity and bustle had scarcely been passed at the new place, at the mouth of Dog river, before it was made sad by the meeting of Bien- ville and Iberville, who wept for the loss of Sauvolle while affectionately locked in each other's srins.
1702 February 18
Iberville had passed with his ship-of-war, the Palmier, over the bar of Mobile point, finding at least twenty feet of water. It was not long before La Salle and his family came up to Mobile, which now presented the appearance of a settlement, with houses and shelters. Bienville, anxious to obtain the friendship of all the tribes upon the Mobile river and its tri- butaries, and to institute friendly relations between the differ- ent savage nations themselves, had sent Tonti, with a small command, to the Choctaw and Chickasaw countries. They now returned, with seven Chiefs of those tribes. The Go- vernor gave them handsome presents, and exhorted them to remain at peace with the French and with each other. Then Iberville and his retinue dropped down the bay of Mobile, February 31 went to Pensacola, and from thence sailed for France.
Mobile being now the seat of government, various delega- tions of Chiefs, Spaniards from Vera Cruz, and Canadians from the northern lakes and rivers, constantly repaired there to see Governor Bienville upon business. Among others, a delegation of eight Chiefs of the Alabamas arrived, whom
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his Excellency treated with kindness, and dissuaded from CHAPTER making war upon the Mobilians, Tomez and Chickasaws. IV. June 1702 Don Robles came with a letter from the Governor of Pensa- cola, requesting the loan of provisions for his famishing garri- son, with which the generous Frenchman readily complied. Midshipman Becaucourt, commanding the colonial marine, made several trips to Vera Cruz and returned with provisions, the King of Spain having granted the French free access to his colonial ports. Father Davion, the missionary upon the Mississippi, and Father Liomoge, a Jesuit, came by way of · the Bayou Manchac, and reported that one of their compan- Summer ions and four other Frenchmen had been killed by the Indians above the Yazoo river. News also reached Bienville, that St. Dennis, at the head of his Canadian scouts, had wantonly made war upon and killed some Indians with whom they were at peace, for the purpose of obtaining slaves. Bienville, grieved at his conduct, endeavored, unsuccessfully, to have the slaves restored to their people. Governor Martin, of Pen- sacola, came to Mobile, with the information that France and Spain had gone to war with England, and his request to be furnished with arms and ammunition was granted by Bienville. IIe was succeeded by two Spanish officers from St. Augustine, Autumn with a letter from Serda, Governor of that place, requesting military supplies, as he had been blockaded by the English and Indians. Bienville sent to his assistance a liberal supply of powder and ball.
The English of Carolina began to disturb the French colonies, by sending emissaries among the Muscogees and
1703
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CHAPTER Alabamas. In a very short time, two artful Alabamas came IV. down the river, to decoy the French into the country.
1703 Having assured the Governor that their homes abounded in corn, which would be furnished at the most reasonable price, May 3 the latter forthwith despatched Labrie, with four Canadians in canoes, to procure some. They had not proceeded far, before they were all killed except one of the Canadians, who returned to Mobile with his arm nearly severed by a blow which he received from an axe. To avenge this outrage, December 22 Bienville began the ascent of the Mobile in seven canoes, in which were forty soldiers and Canadians. In fourteen days he arrived in the vicinity of the Alabamas, upon the river of that name, where he discovered ten canoes without occupants, but saw smoke floating upon the air and rising over the forest trees and cane, upon the bluff. St. Dennis and Tonti advised him not to make the attack until night, to which he assented, contrary to his better judgment. The night was very dark, and the path which led to the Indian camp was full of weeds and briars. However, an engagement ensued, in which three Frenchmen were slain, and the savages dispersed. Capturing: 1704 January 11 the canoes, which were laden with provisions, Bienville returned to Mobile. But he did not relax in his efforts to be revenged, for he presently engaged parties of Chickasaws and Choctaws to pursue the Alabamas, who brought some of their scalps to Mobile, for which they received rewards .*
* Journal Historique de l'Etablissement des Français a la Louisiane, par Bernard de la Harpe, pp. 35-83.
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An official despatch represented the following to be the CHAPTER condition of the feeble colony of Louisiana at this period : IV.
" 180 men capable of bearing arms.
1704 April 30
2 French families, with three little girls and seven little boys.
6 young Indian boys, slaves, from fifteen to twenty years of age.
A little of the territory around Fort Louis (Mobile) has been cultivated.
80 wooden houses, of one story high, covered with palm leaves and straw.
9 oxen, five of which belonged to the King.
14 cows.
4 bulls, one of which belonged to the King.
6 calves. 100 hogs. 3 kids. 400 hens."
This account did not, of course, include the officers.
The colonists, suffering from severe famine, were tempora- rily relieved by the Governor of Pensacola, but again became destitute of provisions ; and, while forced to disperse them- selves along the coast, procuring subsistence upon fish and oysters, a vessel of war from France, commanded by Chateaug- ne, another brother of Bienville, happily re-established abun- dance among them. This vessel was succeeded by the Pelican, another man-of-war, laden with provisions, and having on board seventy-five soldiers intended for the various posts, La Vente, of
July 24
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CHAPTER
IV.
1704
July 24
the foreign mission, sent as rector by the Bishop of Quebec, four Priests, and four Sisters of Charity, together with four fami- lies of laborers. But what created more novelty and excite- ment than all the rest of the arrival, were twenty-three girls, whom Bienville was informed, by the Minister's despatch, were all of spotless chastity, pious and industrious, and that his Majesty had enjoined upon the Bishop of Quebec to send no females to Mobile who did not bear characters as irre- proachable as these. He was instructed to have them married to Canadians and others, who were competent to support them. Only a few days rolled round, before they all found husbands. These were the first marriages which were solem- nized in old Mobile, or, indeed, upon any part of the soil of Alabama, by Christian marital rites .*
August
But sickness and disasters soon dispelled the joy which these arrivals had occasioned. Half the crew of the Pelican died. Tonti and Levassuer, invaluable officers-Father Dange, a Jesuit-and thirty of the soldiers lately arrived, soon followed them to the grave. The fort and out-houses at Pensacola were wrapped in flames. Lambert, with his Canadians, driven from the post of Washita by the Indians, had fled to Mobile, while the Chickasaws and Choctaws had began a war with
September
* " The first child born in the colony, and, consequently, the first " Creole," was named Claude Jousset, and was the son of a Canadian who carried on a small trading business at Mobile."-Louisiana, its Colonial History and Romance, by Charles Gayarre. New-York : . 1851. pp. 461-465.
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THE FRENCH IN ALABAMA AND MISSISSIPPI.
each other, which was exceedingly embarrassing to Bienville. CHAPTER More than seventy of the former, of both sexes, being in IV Mobile, and imploring Bienville to have them safely conducted to their nation, the route to which lay over the country of their enemies, he despatched twenty Canadians, under Bois- briant, with them. Arriving at one of the Choctaw towns, the 1704 December inhabitants assembled in great numbers to. put them to death, but Boisbriant interposing, they then fell upon a stratagem to accomplish their purposes. Pretending that they only desired to rebuke the Chickasaws for their conduct, while the Chief was accordingly making his speech to them, he let a feather fall, which was a signal for attack. The Chickasaw warriors 1705 February were all instantly put to death, and the women and children reserved for slaves. Boisbriant was accidentally wounded by a ball, which was exceedingly regretted by the Choctaws, three hundred of whom carried him on a litter to Mobile, in mourn- ful procession. Bienville was shocked and mortified at the ruthless massacre, and saw, at a glance, that the Chickasaws would suspect him of decoying these unhappy people there to meet the fate which they received.
When Boisbriant recovered from his wound, he was de- spatched up the Alabama river, with sixty Canadians, to fight the Alabamas and Muscogees. After a long absence he re- turned with only two scalps and an Indian slave. In the meanwhile, the Chickasaws and Choctaws. continued their war, which raged with the most savage ferocity. The French unavoidably became implicated in these feuds. Being consid- ered the exclusive friends of the Choctaws, on account of their
1706 February
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CHAPTER proximity, they were often suddenly slain by skulking Chicka- IV. saws. Iberville wrote to the Minister that famine again prevailed in the unhappy colony of Louisiana ; that the Spaniards could afford them but little corn, which the men only had become accustomed to cat, the Parisian women eschewing it, and blaming the Bishop for not telling them what they had to 1706 encounter in the "promised land ;" that fifty men had come to make a settlement at Mobile from the Upper Mississippi ; and that the colonists would not unite to resist the savages and combat famine, but quarrelled among themselves. At this period, Commissary General La Salle had commenced a series of vindictive and unprincipled assaults upon the character of September 7 Bienville, in his despatches to the Court. In one of these he said that "Iberville, Bienville and Chateaugne, the three brothers, are guilty of all kinds of malpractices, and are ex- tortioners and knaves, who waste the property of his Majes- ty." Father La Vente, the rector of Mobile, a man of bad temper and sordid feelings, and unpopular with the priests over whom he was placed, became a willing coadjutor of La Salle in his indiscriminate abuse of the Governor. He, too, October wrote letters to the Court, the burden of which was the cor- ruption of Bienville's colonial government. He essaved to persnade the inhabitants that their sufferings were owing alone to the conduct of their Governor, who too tardily or. dered supplies from France. He attempted to buy up the sick soldiers whom he visited by giving them (as his own) money which had been placed in his hands for charitable pur- poses. The Lady Superior also vented her spleen against
·
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THE FRENCH IN ALABAMA AND MISSISSIPPI.
Bienville, by writing to the Minister that Boisbriant had in- CHAPTER tended to have married her, but had been prevented by the IV. Governor. Hence, she adds, "Bienville does not possess the qualities necessary for a Governor."
The colonists continued to lead unpleasant lives ; the Mus- cogees and Alabamas threatened their existence ; their hearts were troubled with the Chickasaw and Choctaw war; while the quarrels among the authorities contimed to increase. Father Gravier, a Jesuit, took up the cudgels for Bienville, and defended him in a letter which he addressed to the Minister. But Bienville, disdaining these cabals, contin- ued to discharge his duty faithfully to the goverment, as far as it could be done with his means and ability, and in his despatches refrained from alluding to the animosities of the commissary and rector, except casually to mention that he had encountered much opposition from the former. Iberville, the indefatigable founder of Louisiana and the devo- ted friend of the colonists, died of the yellow fever at Havana, where he had touched with his fleet while on his way to attack Charleston and Jamaica. This was a severe blow, added to the general sufferings of the colony, and seri- ously retarded its advance. About the same time, Ber- guier, Grand Vicar of the Lord of Quebec, came from the Illi- nois country to Mobile, and reported that St. Come, a mis- sionary among the Natchez, with three other Frenchmen, had been murdered, while descending the Mississippi, by the C'hau- machas. This indneed Bienville to send presents to all the nations of the Lower Mississippi, which would cause them to
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