USA > Alabama > Mobile County > Mobile > The founding of Mobile, 1702-1718, studies in the history of the first capital of the province of Louisiana, with map showing its relation to the present city > Part 3
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The boats were very useful where everyone lived on the water, and there were no roads beyond trad- ing paths. Proportionally navigation was more im- portant than now, for all trade and commerce were carried on by water. And apart from communica- tion among the French on Mobile waters, the Indian trade up the rivers and commerce to France, we read much of trips to Pensacola and Vera Cruz. Starvation,-disette,-was a frequent visitor, es- pecially at the old fort, and but for the coasting trade to the Spanish colonies, our French settlement might now share the fate of Raleigh's colony at Roanoke.
All honor, then, not only to Iberville and the armed Renommee but also to Chateaugue and Be- cancourt with their peaceful felouques and brigan- tines.
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II. MOBILE.
IX .- THE REMOVAL AS TOLD BY THE REMOVERS.
Mobile had been established with two outlooks,- the one towards the Indian tribes high up the river system, the other towards France and trade in the Gulf of Mexico. The latter was necessarily con- ducted from Port Dauphin at the east end of Dau- phine Island, for there was the deep harbor. The other called for a river site, as the pirogues and other boats of the day could not venture on the rough bay. It might be a question whether Iberville had not selected a point too high up for his main settlement. There was no question of its conven- ience so far as the Indians were concerned, particu- larly the few but influential Mobilians, but just as the French had to experiment for several years to find what grain was suited to the country, so they were to learn by experience as to the best site for their capital.
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High water had already threatened Fort Louis, but in March, 1711, came the floods which settled the question for all time. This, together with the surrounding circumstances, is told so fully in two dispatches dater shortly afterwards, on June 20, 1711, that we will give them as in the nature of what Prof. A. B. Hart would call history told by contem- poraries. One was from Bienville himself at Mas-
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sacre Island to Pontchartrain, the minister of the marine, and is as follows, after discussing his Span- ish neighbors :
"We have arrived at that period when we could not bear our own misery. It is so great that I dare not describe it to your highness. We are not able to sustain ourselves any longer against the flood of presents which the British make to the Indians and which they offer them for abandoning our side, and if we have sustained ourselves up to the present, I protest that it is not without much management and care. It is two years since we have given the In- dians anything, and during that time we have kept them hoping from month to month. I have no am- munition,-I dare not tell you further of our condi- tion; I am seeking some from Martinique, but they will do as they have done, that is to say, pay no at- tention to our representation. As the opportunity of this boat is not sure on account of the latitude where it must go, we are trying to see if we can find a suitable boat here to send direct to France to ren- der account of all I cannot put on paper.
"The waters have risen so greatly this spring that the habitans of this town (bourg) have asked me to change the location and put it at the entrance of the river, eight leagues lower, where there is a splendid place (bel endroit), and this I have accorded them. They are all building there at present (il y batisse tous a presant). This fort is all rotten, so that it will not cost more to build another one at the mouth of the river, where we will be in position to aid Mas- sacre Island. I will cause a village of Indians to de- scend to the site which we are abandoning. I will also make the more laborious and expert of these
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natives come down to the new establishment. I have already commenced to have work done and to have made cedar piling (pieux de sedre) for the enclosure (encinte) of this new fort. If I had any goods suit- able for pay to the Indians I could have the new fort built cheap, but having none, I will do nothing that I do not know how to pay for."
The other dispatch possibly carried more weight; for it was written by D'Artaguiette, who had been sent over to investigate colonial conditions. He also addresses Monseigneur Pontchartrain, and writes as follows :
"The waters rose so considerably this spring and with so much impetuosity that the greater part of the houses of this town (bourg) have been covered (noyez) up to the comb (fet) of the roof in five or six days. This lasted more than a month; the in- habitants have all asked to change down the river, which one could not refuse them; the fort is all rot- ten. M. de Bienville, who sees like myself, the im- possibility of aiding the port (Dauphine Island) from so far, and that four years ago the same acci- dent happened, joined to the assurance which all the Indians give us that the waters rise even higher. all these reasons have made us take the resolution of changing; the commandant has had people working with much diligence in making cedar piling (pieux de cedre), which lasts much longer than other wood, for the enclosure (enceinte) of the fort and its bas- tions. This wood is found in places difficult of ac- cess, but its hardness makes the trouble worth while. The Apalache Indians, who have been working on this piling. are looking after their crops, and it is not possible for them to work further until after
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their harvest. Meantime they ask to be paid, and there is nothing to pay them with. We are so de- prived of everything that dying of misery would not be worse. We have asked aid of San Domingo, Martinique and everywhere, without anyone's deign- ing to give attention to our complaints. They have written us from Vera Cruz that an armanent is be- ing made up at Jamaica (British) to come here and capture us, and that the Renommee (French) des- tined for here has been captured. Finally, I cannot tell you our present condition, it is beyond expres- sion; one cannot change the fort and the garrison until the arrival of the help which you will send this colony. It will be necessary to send an engineer to construct this fort and to build one little battery or several batteries at the Port of Massacre, with a detachment of marines to guard it. This place since its fire has been rebuilt by the energy of the inhabi- tants. who like to live there much better than they did before. so that they do not deserve to be exposed to the insult of foreign vessels."
We have also an account by Penicaut, who was one of the habitans. We thus have the removal from the public and the private point of view, together with an account of the new neighborhood.
"At the beginning of this year." says he, "the fort of Mobile and the establishment of the habitans in the neighborhood of the fort were inundated by an overflow of the river to such an extent that only the high elevatins were not damaged.
"MM. D'Artaguiette and Bienville, seeing that, according to the report of the Indians, we should be often exposed to these inundations, resolved to change the fort of Mobile. They chose a place where
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we had put the Chactas upon a bend of Mobile bay, to the right. We gave them whom we displaced another site for their homes two leagues further down, to our right in descending to the sea, on the bank of Dog River.
"M. Paillou, aide-major, went with our officers to the place where we had planned to build the new fort. He laid out the outside lines, then the es- planade, which ought to be left vacant around the fort, and marked also further out the location for each family, giving each one a lot twelve toises wide by twenty-five long. He marked out at the same time place for the barracks for the soldiers ; the resi- dence of the priests was to the left of the fort, facing the sea. We worked the whole year on this estab- lishment.
"This year a party of fifteen Chactas, while on a bear hunt, was met in the woods by a party of Ali- bamons, their enemies. The chief of the Chactas, named Dos Grille, a brave man, was not dismayed by the number of the Alibamons, and, although hit by a gunshot from afar, and the ball had pierced his cheek, he took out the bullet, which had staid in his mouth, put it in his gun, and killed the man who had wounded him. He immediately reassembled his fifteen men on an elevated spot, and from there, each one being posted behind a tree, they killed more than thirty Alibamons. The Alibamons did not dare resist any longer, and took to flight, aban- doning their dead and wounded.
"The Chactas had only three men killed and three or four slightly wounded. They brought to our fort to MM. D'Artaguiette and Bienville the thirty scalps and the skins of two deers which they had killed
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while coming. We made them presents of merchan- dise and gave them considerable powder and ball in recognition of their bravery. The chief of these Chactas had killed eight himself, though wounded, as I have said, by a ball in his mouth.
"Several habitans of Mobile this year went and established themselves on the seashore at the place called Miragouin, about five leagues from Mobile going towards Dauphine Island, one league beyond Fowl River.
"The rest of the year was spent in completing the new fort which we built on the seashore; we erected two batteries outside, each of twelve guns, which commanded the sea.
"The new fort of Mobile on the seashore being completed and the houses finished, we transported all household goods and merchandise in canoes, and made rafts upon which we put cannon and in gen- eral all munitions and effects which had been at the old fort. The habitans carried their effects at the same time to the respective habitations which had been given them near the new fort and we entirely abandoned the old.
"Some days after we had been established at the new place on the seashore there arrived a vessel which anchored in the roads of Dauphine Island; it was the frigate named the Renommee, commanded by M. de Remonville, who was captain.
"The sieur de Valigny, an officer who since a boy had been fort major, came in this vessel with twenty- five Frenchmen, whom he had brought over to rein- force the garrison.
"We disembarked the munitions of war and sup- plies and put them in the magazines of the fort on
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Dauphine Island with troops to guard them."
Their old acquaintance, disette,-famine,-follow- ed the French and they had to seek adventures among the Indians as they had at the old fort. In this way they learned to know the new neighbor- hood.
"M. Biondel, lieutenant of infantry, went with 30 soldiers to live among the Chactas. Sieur de la Valigny went with twenty-five soldiers across Mo- bile Bay to the neighborhood of Fish River. He took with him eight Apalache Indians who were ex- cellent hunters. These Apalaches, whose village had been destroyed by the Alibamons, had come, as I have told, and been established between the Mo- bilians and the Tomes in a place which M. Bienville had given them, with grain to plant their lands the first year; but the year that we quit the site of the first fort of Mobile they followed us and MM. D'Artaguiette and Bienville assigned them a district on the banks of the river St. Martin (Three Mile Creek) a league above us, counting from the bay. The Taouachas were also placed on the river so as to be a league above the Apalaches. They, too, had left the Spaniards because of war with the Ali- bamons; they are not Christians like the Apalaches. who are the single Christian nation which came from Spanish territory.
"The Apalaches have divine service like the Cath- olics in France. Their great feast is the Day of St. Louis; they come in the evening before to invite the officers of the fort to the feast at their village, and on that day they give good cheer to all who come, and especially the French.
"The priests of our fort go there to say high mass,
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which the Indians hear with a great deal of devo- tion, chanting the Psalms in Latin as we do in France, and after dinner the vespers and the bene- diction of the Holy Sacrament. Both men and wo- men are on this day well dressed. The men have a kind of cloth overcoat (surtout) and the women wear cloaks (manteaux) with petticoats (jupes) of silk a la Francoise; but they have no headdress (coeffure), the head being bare ; their hair, long and very black, is plaited and hangs down in one or two plaits, like the Spanish women. Those who have hair too long plait it down to the middle of the back and then tie it up with ribbon.
"They have a church, where one of the French priests goes to say mass every Sunday and feast day ; and also a baptismal font to baptize their children, and cemetery (cimetiere) alongside the church, in which there is a cross ; there they bury their dead.
"On St. Louis Day, after service is finished, to- wards evening they mask, men, women and children; they dance the rest of the day with the French who happen to be there and other Indians who come that day to the village ; they have any quantity of cooked meat at refresh them. They love the French very much, and it must be confessed that there is nothing savage about them except their language, which is a mixture of Spanish and Alibamon."
The centre of the Mobile settlement was the new fort. This was built of palisades very close to the edge of the water, and in fact it must have needed some filling to reclaim the front part of it from the marshy bank. It was apparently begun some day in May, on the site now marked by a commeromative tablet. Like Rome, Mobile was not built in a day.
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We know from the later dispatch from Bienville that even in October of this year there were still a few houses occupied at Old Fort Louis. But official life centred at New Fort Louis and the old site was forgotten in the life and activity of the new.
The port on Dauphine Island remained unchanged except that it became more popular. Penicaut says this occurred at the same time New Fort Louis was built.
"During this time," says he, "M. Lavigne-Voisin, a captain from Saint Malo, made land at Dauphine Island, where he anchored, and thereupon went to Mobile to see MM. D. Artaguiette and Bienville, and, after having stayed there several days, he asked permission to build a fort on Dauphine Island, which pleased them very much. He did not fail to com- mence work as soon as he got back; he made em- brasures in his fort for cannon, which protected the entrance of the port for all vessels which come to land there.
"He at the same time had built a very handsome church in the district where the habitans of the island lived. The front of the church faced the port where the vessels were, so that those who were on board could come in a moment to hear mass, which caused many habitans of the environs of Mo- bile to establish themselves upon Dauphine Island." And this, he adds, was even more marked after Remonville's arrival in the fall, and soon the port became a little town itself.
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X .- NEW MOBILE.
Bienville selected for the new site of his colony a plateau near the mouth of the river. A slight slope back from the river reached a wide level space ten 1 feet above ordinary water on which a large city could be built. The river bank was marshy, but it was only about a hundred yards wide. To the south was Choctaw Point swamp, to the north the low ground of the mouth of the bayou he called Mar- motte (and Americans One Mile Creek), but it would be a long time before the town could extend so far. The long, low bluff overlooking the river afforded a good place for a front street, and a cape or projection where the river made a bend to the west presented an admirable place for a fort to com- mand the approach from the sea in the one direction and from the Indian country in the other. On the location he selected grew up the city of Mobile, to flourish and grow under five flags.
The boundaries of Bienville's Mobile were approx- imately St. Michael street on the north, Conception street on the west, and Canal street on the south. The eastern street was Royal, running along the high land. The slope to the east was often muddy and overflowed and no houses were built on the east side of Royal, except that the fort extended almost to the river. West of the fort, too, there were two blocks running out to Joachim street, and bounded on three sides by the woods. The principal street was Royal.
The plat gives a detailed description of the fort itself as follows :
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"Fort Louis is fortified with an exterior length from one point of bastion to another of 540 feet.
"The fort is constructed of cedar pilings 13 feet high, of which 2 1-2 are in the ground. and 14 inches square planted close together. These stakes end on top in points like palisades. On the inside along the piling runs a kind of banquette in good slope, two feet high and one and a half wide.
"There is in the fort only the governor's house, the magasin where are the king's effects, and a guard-house. The officers, soldiers, and habitans have their abode outside the fort, being placed in such manner that the streets are six toises wide and parallel. The blocks are 300 feet square, except those opposite the fort.
"The houses are constructed of cedar and pine upon a foundation of wooden stakes which project out of the ground a foot, because this soil is inun- dated in certain localities in time of rain. Some people use to support their houses a kind of turf (tufle), very soft, and would be admirable for fine buildings. This stone is found 18 leagues above the new settlement along the bank of the Mobile River. The houses are 18, 20 to 25 feet high or more, some lower, constructed of a kind of plaster (mortie) made of earth and lime. This lime is made of oyster shell found at the mouth of the river on little islands which are called Shell Islands.
"They give every one who wishes to settle in this place a lot 75 feet front on a street by 150 feet deep.
"The stone to support the houses is scarce and not much used for lack of means of water transporta- tion, such as flatboats, for there are none, and peo- ple do not care to go to the expense of building
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them. This stone would be a great aid, for those whose houses rest only on wooden piles are obliged to renew them every three or four years, because they decay in the ground."
We have "the names of officers and principal habitans who occupy the lots (emplacements) of this new colony (establisement)." Proceeding north- northward on present Royal street from the fort the block up to the present Conti we find occupied by only two places. There is some confusion as to the southern one, but there can be little doubt that this was the site of the parish church (Leglize et paroisse), for the other place, that on the corner of Conti, was occupied by the priests of the Seminary of Quebec,-who had a large lot called the Seminaire at Old Mobile. From Conti to Dauphin were only two people of note, on the southern corner being M. de Chateaugue, the great sailor brother of Bienville, and next north of him, Sieur Poirrier, the commis- sary (garde magasin). The magasin itself was, as shown in the description, within the fort, on its western side. The lots facing on Royal were gener- ally four to a block, and the other two of this square, now Van Antwerp's, as well as almost all of the two blocks to the north, were occupied by habitans and voyageurs. Between Dauphin and St. Francis, how- ever, were even in those days lots occupied by peo- ple in the employ of the government,-somewhat as now. for this was the site of the Custom House; and next north of the present Glennon building was M. de St. Helesne.
The land behind these Royal street lots were occu- pied mainly by soldiers, but also in two instances by "several women." Across the present St. Emanuel
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street from them were mainly soldiers, employees and habitans, except that at the northwest corner of St. Emanuel and Government streets was M. Des Laurier, who occupied the important position of. surgeon (chirurgien major), and at the southwest corner of St. Emanuel and St. Francis, and thus in the present Bienville Square, was the well known soldier, M. Blondel. Most of the lots on Conception street are unmarked, except that the present square was occupied by soldiers, habitans and employees, and that Gayfer's and the Goodman stores next east were taken up by the grounds of the hospital.
No one lived further west, except that there are two blocks set off for soldiers on the west side of Conception from Government to Monroe streets. East of these and immediately west of the fort were two blocks which were occupied. The cemetery lay at the southeast corner of Conception and Gov- ernment streets, taking up the site of the Fidelia Club and adjacent property. On the St. Emanuel street front of these two blocks, and facing the trees of the fort esplanade, were some well known people. Thus about the Acker place was M. de Boisbrillant. a distinguished officer whose romantic affair with a gray nun Bienville interrupted. Next south of him was M. de Grandville, and next on the corner of Church street, on the site of Christ Church, was M. Valligny, a prominent soldier. On the southwest corner of St. Emanuel and Church streets was M. de St. Denis, one of the most distinguished explorers of old Louisiana. His name and Bienville's are the only names also found on the map of Old Mobile. He did not live at Mobile very long. for he soon made his headquarters at what is now Ocean Springs,
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but he came back to Mobile every now and then. Next south of him was Jean Louis, master cannoneer (maitre cainonier), and then after some unnamed habitant we find on a corner near modern Theatre street M. Du Clos, the ordonnateur, corresponding almost to the position of civil governor.
South of the fort four blocks are laid out from our Monroe to Canal, but they contain very few people. Most of them are filled by soldiers, habitans, em- ployees and "plusieurs femmes" again, but there are two or three notable exceptions. The front square immediately south of the fort, somewhat as at Old Mobile. belonged to Bienville, for he had a whole block to himself. At the southwest corner of Madison and Royal was the residence (logement) of the priests, probably Jesuits. These were entirely independent of the Seminary of Quebec, and not al- ways friendly with it. Immediately west of the priests. and thus on the south side of Madison mid- way between Royal and St. Emanuel, was M. Mande- ville, the first of a name always distinguished in Louisiana. The Mandeville Tract at Mobile was called for him, and after the founding of New Or- leans the family were prominent there, even down into American times. On the corner opposite the priests was the engineer, M. de Paillou, who laid off Mobile, Fort Toulouse, and later Fort Rosalie a.c Natchez.
There was but one wharf in French times, the King's Wharf. Bienville originally built it north of the fort, and its cedar logs still remain, buried under the soil. Afterwards it was rebuilt in a more sub- stantial manner in front of the fort. Over this passed all imports and exports. The exports were
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mainly hides, in winter furs and beaver skins, be- sides naval stores and some timber. The imports were everything needed for the colony and for the presents annually made to the Indian tribes to keep them in good humor. Canary wine was sometimes brought in Spanish boats, for Spanish wine as yet was even more famous than French. The different French soldiers, by dispensation from a roval decree to the contrary, had space reserved on incoming ships to bring over furniture, wine. or anything else which they needed. Supplies did not all go to the royal magasin, for we know that there were many marchands, or shopkeepers, at Mobile, and when the magasin ran low the governor did not hesitate to press their goods for public purposes.
The plans of Old Mobile at Twenty-seven Mile Bluff gave names of streets and people, while that of New Mobile in 1711 omits both. The word habitant was domesticated at Mobile just as it was at Montreal, but no names of habitans are given on our map. Some habitans are known to have moved to Mobile. but their residences are unknown. for this map gives only the officials. There were many habitans, voyageurs, employees, whose names we do not know, as is true of the soldiers also; but if we miss the godly family named Dieu on the plan of the old city, at least we also miss in the new Mathieu Sagean, who, if he had been named Cook, would have been a chef. La Pointe lived at Scranton, and Alexandre on Dauphine Island, but were probably at first in Mobile.
A remarkable feature of the new settlement is that none of the streets, with the possible exception of St. Francis, bears the name which we saw in the
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town at Twenty-seven Mile Bluff. There is no rea- son to suppose that there has been any change since 1711 in the name of streets north of Government. Those extending from the present Government to Theatre street. and all east and west streets further south were to be laid out anew by the Americans. One or two hit the old lines, but unless we were to guess that Theatre street bore the name of Bien- ville and Government street the name of Iberville as up the river, we have no clue to the nomenclature.
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