USA > Alabama > History of Alabama, and incidentally of Georgia and Mississippi, from the earliest period, v. 1 > Part 17
USA > Georgia > History of Alabama, and incidentally of Georgia and Mississippi, from the earliest period, v. 1 > Part 17
USA > Mississippi > History of Alabama, and incidentally of Georgia and Mississippi, from the earliest period, v. 1 > Part 17
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tion. Among the grants were several upon the Yazoo river, CHAPTER near Natchez, upon Red river, at Baton Rouge, and at other VI. - points upon the Mississippi river. Failing in the scheme to make the colony an agricultural country, by the importation of colonists who were to have settled upon these grants, the company next turned its attention to SLAVERY, as a means of effecting that which was so much desired .*
The following regulation of the company fixed the price the colonists were to pay for the negroes, which they im- ported from Africa: "The company considers every negro of seventeen years of age, and over, without bodily d. fect, also every negress from fifteen to thirty years of age, as worth 'piece d'Inde.'t
Three little negroes, from eight to ten years old, are valued at two of the same coins.
Two negro children, over ten years of age, are valued at one 'picce d'Inde.'
One year's credit will be given to the old inhabitants for half the price. The other half must be paid immediately.
Those colonists who have been settled here two years are called old inhabitants.
The new settlers shall be entitled to one and two years credit."
In a despatch to the Minister, Bienville complained that 1718 September 25
* Histoire de la Louisiane, par Charles Gayarre, vol. 1, pp. 148-166. Journal Historique de l'Etablissement des Français a la Louisiane, par Bernard de la Harpe, pp. 131-141.
t Piece d'Inde was 660 livres. 14*
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CHAPTER the colonists recently sent to Louisiana, were not the kind VI. desirable ; that among them were to be found scarcely any carpenters or laborers, "notwithstanding laboring people em- ployed in the country are paid ten or fifteen livres per day, which delays improvement and causes great expense to the company."
1719 April 19
Two vessels arrived from the mother country, and brought the startling intelligence that Spain and France had gone to war with each other. A council, composed of Bienville, D'Hubert, Larchebault and Le Gac, determined upon the neces- sity of immediately possessing the important post of Pensa- cola. None of the military officers were consulted in this movement, as they should have been, especially upon the plan of attack. Bienville assembled, at Mobile, some Cana- dians and four hundred Indians. His brother, Serigny, sailed from Dauphin Island, with three men-of-war, on board of which he had embarked one hundred and fifty soldiers. Bienville embarked in a sloop, with twenty men, made the mouth of the Perdido, and went up that river to meet the Canadians and Indians, whom he had instructed to march across the country from Mobile, and whom he found already at the place of rendezvous. Placing himself at their head. he marched to Pensacola. In the meantime, the fleet stood before that place, and at four o'clock, in the evening, Gover- nor Matamora surrendered to the French, when he found that he was invested both by sea and land. According to the terms of the capitulation, Bienville embarked the Spam-h garrison on board two of the men-of-war, with directions to
May 13
May 14
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convey them safely to Havana. Arriving at that place, the CHAPTER governor of Cuba ordered all the French forces to be landed VI. and imprisoned, seized the two men-of-war, manned them with sailors and soldiers, and sent them back to attack Pensacola. This was a most shameful disregard of the terms of the capitulation. The Spanish fleet, comprising the two French vessels and a Spanish man-of-war, with nine brigatines and eighteen hundred men, invested Pensacola, and the next day made their attack. Bienville had returned to 1719 August 6 Mobile, and had left his brother, Chateaugne, in command. Seeing the superior force of the enemy, fifty soldiers deserted from the fort and joined the Spaniards, which forced Chat- eaugné to capitulate. He was allowed to march out of the fort, with the honors of war and to be carried to old Spain. The store ship Dauphin was accidentally destroyed by fire, and the St. Louis was captured by the Spaniards. The commander of the Spanish squadron next turned his eyes to Dauphin Island, and presently sent thither two well manned brigantines. To the captain of the French ship, Phillippe, which lay at anchor at Dauphin Island, he sent a summons to surrender, but the captain referred the messenger to Serigny, who commanded the fort; the latter declined to surrender the island. During the night the two brigantines entered the bay of Mobile, and half way between Dauphin Island and the town of Mobile, landed thirty-five men to burn and plunder the inhabitants. While they were here destroying the improvements of a settler, they were suddenly attacked by a detachment of Canadians and Indians, whom
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CHAPTER Bienville had hastened to send from Mobile, to support his VI. brother, Serigny. Five Spaniards were slain, whose scalps the Indians immediately scoured; six were drowned in the endeavour to reach the brigantines, while eighteen were made prisoners ; among the latter were some of the French soldiers, who had deserted from Chateaugn', and who were now promptly beheaded for their treason." Two days after- wards the remainder of the Spanish squadron stood before 1719 August 19 Dauphin Island, and continued for four days to cannonade the Philippe and the town. Serigny, with one hundred and sixty soldiers and two hundred Indians, aided by the gallant officers and men of the Philippe, which was anchored within pistol shot of the fort, succeeded in repulsing the Spaniards, August 26 who sustained considerable loss. The ships of the enemy then set sail for Pensacola.
September 2
Three ships of the French line, under the command of Champineslin, convoying two of the company's ships, arrived off Dauphin Island, direct from France. The two Spanish brigantines, which were cruising in the bay, between this island and Mobile, escaped to sea and sailed to Pensacola, as soon as the French fleet was discovered. Bienville and Serigny repaired on board of the ship of Champme-lin, where was presently convened a council, composed of all the sea captains
* La Harpe states (page 155,) that eighteen French deserters, who were made prisoners, were bound by the Indians and carried to Eien- ville, at Mobile. who caused seventeen of theai to be decapitated, and that the remaining one was hang on Dauphin Island.
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in port, who decided to capture the Spanish squadron and to CHAPTER take the Fort of Pensacola. Time was allowed the vessels to VI. . discharge their freiglit and to take in wood and water, and Bienville to assemble the savages and prepare them for the expedition. When all things were ready, the Philippe and the Union, vessels belonging to the company, were joined to the squadron, together with two hundred and fifty of the new troops, lately arrived, while Bienville, with the soldiers and volunteers, sailed in sloops to the river Perdido, where he was joined by five hundred Indians, under the command of Lan- gueville, who had marched with them from Mobile. From this point Bienville sent a detachment of French and Indians to invest the principal fort at Pensacola, to prevent all egress from it, and to harrass the enemy as inuch as possible. In the meantime, Champmeslin entered the harbor of Pensacola, and, after a conflict of two hours duration, captured four ships and six brigantines, which were anchored before St. Rosa, and reduced the sinall fort, situated at the point of that island. Bienville, having marched across the country from the Perdido, had advanced in the rear of the town with his whole force. He made a resolute attack upon the fort, which was surren- dered two hours after the victory at St. Rosa's Island. The Indians fought with great courage, often attempting to pull up the palisades of the fort. The plunder was divided among them, but they were prohibited, by Bienville, from taking any scalps. The pillage being ended, Champmeslin returned the sword which Don Alphonzo, commander of the Spanish fleet, had presented to him as his conqueror, assuring him that he
1713 September 17
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CHAPTER was worthy of wearing it. But Matamora, the governor of VI. Pensacola, who had acted with so much perfidy towards the French victors who conveyed him to Havana, was suffered to be disarmed by a common sailor, and was severely reproached for his conduct. The loss of the French in these engagements was only six men ; that of the Spaniards was much greater. Champmeslin despatched the St. Louis, one of the Spanish vessels, to Havana, with three hundred and sixty of the pris- oners. The commander was instructed to demand an exchange of the French prisoners, at the head of whom was Chateaugne, who had not been carried to Spain, according to the capitula- tion, but had been closely confined in Moro Castle.
1719 September 18
A Spanish brigantine from Havana, laden with corn flour, and brandy for the garrison, entered the bay of Pensacola, supposing the fleet to belong to Spain, into whose hands, it was now believed, the whole of Louisiana had fallen, and was immediately captured by the French squadron. On the same day, forty-seven French deserters were tried, twelve of whom were hung at the yard-arms of the Count de Toulouse, and the remainder condemned to serve the company as galley- slaves. Thus ended the expedition against Pensacola, the command of which was given to DeLisle, a lieutenant of the navy.
1719
Since the commencement of this year, vessels from France had constantly brought over to Louisiana liberal supplies of provisions, merchandise, and not unfrequently distinguished persons and emigrants, thus adding to the number and giving character to her population, and causing her slowly to emerge
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from the supineness and insignificance of former times. For CHAPTER this reason, and also on account of the war with Spain, it VI. - became necessary to re-organize the colonial government in several respects. A royal ordinance decreed that a Supreme Council should be composed of those directors who were resi- dents in the colony, the governor, the two royal lieutenants, four councillors, an attorney-general, and a secretary. Three members for civil affairs, and five for criminal cases, could constitute a quorum. Its jurisdiction was to be the highest in the colony, and its sessions were to be monthly. The former council had been the only tribunal in the colony, but now it was decided to establish inferior courts, of which the directors of the company, or their agents, were to be judges, in the places where they resided. These, with two respectable citizens of the neighborhood, were to have cognizance of civil business. They were required, in criminal cases, to add four more citizens to their number. An appeal from their decisions could be had to the Supreme Council,-the members of which were not allowed to charge for their final opinions.
Bienville, the governor, D'Hubert, commissary-general and first councillor, Boisbriant and Chateaugne, royal lieutenants, L' Archambault, Villardo and Legas, other councillors, Cartier de Baune, the attorney general, and Couture, secretary, com- posed the first Supreme Council, which met under the auspi- ces of the Western or India Company. Although the gover- nor occupied the place of honor in this body, D'Hubert, the first councillor, was the real president, who took the vote, pro-
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CHAPTER nounced judgment, affixed the public seals, and filled the VI. station of chief judge.
1719
Bienville was opposed in his long cherished desire of re- moving the government to the site of New-Orleans, by D'Hlu- bert and the Directors, who dreaded the inundations of the Mississippi, and who contended that the colony was not in a situation to oppose levees to the floods at that point. D'Hubert suggested the location of Natchez; but as he owned large grants there, his motives were suspected. It was decided to adopt the views of L'Archambault, Villardo and Legas, who inclined more towards commerce than agriculture, and who recommended that a new establishment should be formed east of the bay of Biloxi, which should be called New Biloxi. 1 detachment was sent there to build barracks and houses.
The cultivation of rice, indigo and tobacco had already occupied the attention of the colonists to some extent, who found the lands extremely productive for those protitable plants. But the climate was too warm and unhealthy for European labor, and hence one thousand of the Children of the Sun, from Africa, had been introduced into the colony. and from that moment Louisiana began to prosper. But many things yet impeded its advancement. Among other impediments, the company, to secure the exclusive com- November 26 merce of Louisiana, issued an edict forbiding any vessel to enter the colony under penalty of confiscation. This was 1:20 January followed up by a proclamation, regulating the price of mer- chaudize, which the colonists were compelled to buy at the company's ware-houses, and no where else. It also arbitrarily
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fixed the price which the colonists were to receive for their CHAPTER products, skins, and for every thing which they had for sale .* Gayarre says-" At the present day, we can hardly discover how the whites, whom the company transported from Eu- rope, differed from the blacks, who were bought from Africa , at least as to their relation to the company ; for these two classes of men belonged both to one master-the all-pow- erful company !"
The Royal Squadron intended to protect the commerce of Louisiana, arrived with two hundred and thirty passengers, February 28 1720 among whom were several girls, and a considerable quantity of provisions and merchandize. Several months elapsed when two vessels of the Royal Navy bore the intelligence, June 8 July 1 that a treaty of peace had been concluded with Spain. These were succeeded by three other vessels of war, which anchored at Dauphin Island, and which brought with them a contagious malady, contracted at St. Domingo, which killed many of the crew, and filled their bodies, as it was ascertained by post mortem examination, with horrible worms! At the same time, the ship Herenles came with one hundred and twenty negroes from Guinea, and a brigantine from Havana,
* Goods were to be obtained in the company's stores at Mobile, Dauphin Island, and Pensaeola. To these prices, an advance of five per cent. was to be added on goods delivered at New-Orleans, ten at Natchez, thirteen at the Yazoos, twenty at Natchitoches, and fifty at the Illinois and on the Missouri. The produce of the country was to be received in the company's ware-houses in New-Orleans, Biloxi, Ship Island and Mobile .- Martin's Louisiana, vol. 1, pp. 218-219.
.
VI. -
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CHAPTER arrived at Mobile with Chateaugne and others, who had been
VI. made prisoners at Pensacola, and who were now released in pursuance of the treaty of peace.
So long as the French colony of Louisiana remained in a feeble and thriftless condition, the English of Carolina were content only to annoy it occasionally ; but now that it gave signs of durable vitality, under the auspices of a powerful company, they began to oppose it with the fiercest hostility. Rivalry in trade, together with national jealousy, fomented quarrels, and caused blood to flow between the Coureurs de bois and the English. The French traders also mnet the latter in all parts of the Indian nations, within the limits of the present states of Alabama and Mississippi. Each contended for the patronage of the savages, and each endeav- ored to expell the other from those situations, where they had established themselves. The Carolina traders, many of whom had quartered themselves in the Chickasaw towns, arrayed that tribe in war against the French, and they committed the first act of hostility, by the murder of Serigny. a French officer, whom Bienville had posted among them to cultivate their friendship .. This war greatly embarrassed Bienville, who, with difficulty, brought to his assistance the larger body of the Choctaws. At this time, the forces of the colony had been augmented to twenty companies, of fifty men each, who were required to defend the province of Louisiana, the inhabitants of which were scattered from Fort Toulouse, upon the Coosa, to La Harpe's station, upon Rod river. The Alabamas could barely be kept neutral, for they
1720 July
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complained that their peltries brought lower prices at the CHAPTER French ports, than at those of the English, and that the VI. goods which they received for them, were also held at a dearer rate.
Vessels with emigrants and provisions, continued to cast their anchors upon the sands of Mobile Bay. A store ship brought out two hundred and sixty persons for the grant of St. Catherine, in the vicinity of Natchez. Another arrived at Ship Island with two hundred and forty emigrants, for the grant of Louvre, and was succeeded by still another, on board of which was de L'Orme, new director-general, with a salary of five thousand livres, together with other vessels laden with provisions, laborers and merchandize.
In the meantime, the public houses had been completed at New Biloxi, and thither the government of Louisiana was, unwisely, transferred. It had remained at old and new December 20 Mobile, since January, 1702, but during this trying period, of eighteen years, the governors occasionally resided at Dau- phin Island.
A vessel, belonging to the company, furled her sails in the splendid bay of Mobile, and disembarked three hundred colonists, for the grant of Madame Chaumont, at Pascagoula, whom the colonial government soon placed there, but whom they forbade to enter into any branch of trade, such as that which would result from the culture of hemp, flax, and the vine, or which would compete with the commerce of the company. A ship arrived with twenty-five girls, taken from a house of correction, in Paris, called the Saltpetriere. They
1720
August
September
1721 January 3
January 9
January 5
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CHAPTER had been sent over in consequence of the great complaints VI. made to the Minister, by various officers of the colony, on account of the want of wives, and they had been confided. by the directors in France, to sister Gertrude, and, under her. to sisters Louise and Bergere, who were authorised to conduct to Louisiana, "such girls as were willing to go thither ato! remain under the care of sister Gertrude, until they shall marry, which they must not do without her consent." Tl .. directors or the Minister in sending these prostitutes to Mobile, where they soon took up their abode, did not act consistently with a previous ordinance, which they had passed, that "hereafter, no more vagabonds shall be sent to Louisiana, but that any French and foreign families and laborers might go." Much contention now arose between the stockholders and the directors. The latter were reproached for their enormous outlays, and for the appointment of juer- sons to govern the colonies, who appeared to have their exclusive interest to subserve ; and Bienville was written to, and informed that the Regent complained that his service- were not effectual. But to arouse all his exertions, the same letter promised the governor the rank of Brigadier, with the ribbon of St. Louis, if his future conduct should merit them. 1721 March 17 The Africaine, a ship of war, arrived at Mobile, with ole hundred and twenty negroes, out of the number of two hundred and twenty-four, who had embarked at Guinea. She March 23 was succeeded by the Maire, with three hundred and thirty- eight more, who were, for the present, all quartered at Mobile, and where they remained in a state bordering up !!
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starvation, from the famine which now universally prevailed in the colony. The Neride also came with two hundred and thirty-eight Africans, the remainder of three hundred and fifty, who sailed from Angola. She had put to sea, with the frigate Charles, laden with negroes, which took fire and was consumed, more than sixty leagues from land, a large major- ity of her crew perishing in the flames. The whites escaped in the boats, with a few of the Africans, but tossed for many days at the mercy of the waves, and suffering for subsistance, the unhappy negroes were killed, one after another, for food! The present population of France are abolitionists, and de- nounce the Southern States for -their mild and beneficial systeni of domestic slavery, and yet their ancestors, in the manner we have described, put these slaves into our possession. So did England with her men-of-war, at the same period, plant her American colonies with slaves, also captured in Africa. The Puritan fathers of New England received them, paid for them, put them to hard labor, sold and re-sold them for many years, and yet their descendants profess to be shocked at the sight of a Southern slaveholder, and denounce Southern slavery as a "damning sin before God!"
With two hundred German emigrants, who were sent over to occupy the grant of Law upon the Arkansas river, came also a woman, whose adventures in Europe and America are related in the histories of that period. She was believed to be the wife of the Czarowitz Alexis Petrowitz, son of Peter the Great, Emperor of all the Russias. Her resemblance to that Princess was so striking, as to deceive those who knew the
CHAPTER VI.
1721 March
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CHAPTER latter intimately. The story ran, that to escape the brutal VI. treatment of the Prince, her husband, she pretended to die, and was actually entombed, but when taken from the tomb in a few hours afterwards, put herself beyond the reach of perse- cution, by flying to a foreign land. The Chevalier d'Aubont. one of the officers of the Mobile garrison, who had been at St. Petersburg, had seen the Princess, and had heard of her strange escape, now believed that this woman who was then in Mobile, was the beautiful and accomplished lady herself. He was sure he recognized her beneath the incognito which she had assumed, and which she appeared desirous to retain.
The Chevalier married her, and after a long residence in Louisiana, most of which was passed in Mobile, she followed him to France, and thence to the Island of Bourbon, whither he was sent with the rank of Major. In 1765, she became a widow, and went to Paris with a daughter born in Mobile. In 1771, her mysterious and romantic life was terminated in the midst of the most abject poverty !*
* Judge Martin, in his history of Louisiana. vol. 1, pp. 231-232, states, that this woman was an impostor, and that she imposed on the credulity of the Chevalier d'Aubout and many others ; that she ha i once been attached to the wardrobe of the Princess whom she assunn d to represent ; and that a few years before the declaration of American Independence, a similar imposition was practiced upon the people of the Southern British Provinces, by a female, driven by her misconduct from the post of maid of honor, to Princess Matilda, sister of GeorLe III. She was convicted at Old Badly, and transported to Maryland. Before the expiration of her time, she effected her escape, travelled
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An ordinance decreed that the council should meet daily , at New Biloxi ; that merchandize should be sold at that VI. 1721
CHAPTER
place, Mobile, and New-Orleans, at fifty per cent. profit September 5 on the manufacture of France, seventy per cent. among the Natchez and Yazoos, one hundred per cent. among the Ar- kansas, and fifty per cent. among the Alabamas and Musco- gees, on account of the proximity of Fort Toulouse to the English influence, with which the French company were anxious successfully to compete. Another ordinance declared September 27 that negroes should be sold to the inhabitants at the price of the "piece de Inde," or six hundred and sixty livres, * in three annual instalments, to be paid in tobacco or rice. If, after the second year, the debtor failed to pay, the company could take the negro if not paid for during the third year. If the effects of the debtor failed to discharge the whole debt, the company could then take his body. It also declared that leaf tobacco delivered at the warehouses of New Biloxi, New- Orleans and Mobile, should command the price of twenty livres per quintal ; riee, twelve livres per quintal ; wine, one hundred and twenty livres a hogshead; and a quarter of brandy, the same price. It also declared that Louisiana should, hereafter, be formed into nine divisions : New-Orleans,
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