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 6
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The concluding Title XVI is on Criees, also of a feu- dal nature.
The book gives lists of seigneuries in which the Coutume de Paris prevails, and one of the most in- teresting things about it is the Proces Verbal show- ing how these customs got edited. The king would issue a proclamation calling together the Bishop of Paris, councillors and representatives of the many different places and institutions subject to this Coutume, and, after debate, it would be determined that certain old articles were not now conformable to the existing custom, and should be rewritten.
This was not thought of as legislation, law-mak- ing, but as declaratory of what the legal custom actually was. The revision in question was in the year 1580, and was made in the grand hall of the Seneschal of Paris. There the Customs were for- mally digested and revised under letters patent of the king, in proceedings occupying forty-nine quarto pages. It is to be noted that amongst the signatures and seals were those of Longueil. a name which was afterwards to be assumed by the Le Moynes in Canada.
It will be observed, therefore, that the contents of this old book illustrate James Bryce's acute remark that the Roman Civil Law concerns itself mainly with the status of persons and property, including family and successions, while English Common Law concerns itself more especially with contracts and tort. The Civil Law is static, the Common Law dynamic. This is natural, as the English nation progressed earlier to commercial interests which de- pended on individual initiative.
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XIX .- THE SOLDIERS.
The city plan of 1711 shows a square flag floating from a staff in the southeast bastion of Fort Louis. It seems to be white and has dots on it : is there any- thing to be known about it ?
We have become so accustomed to speaking af- fectionately of Old Glory, Union Jack, and the like that it gives something of a shock to find that na- tional flags are not an ancient institution. One won- ders at this in the monarchy of Louis XIV, but in point of faet the centralization was about the mnon- arch and not of the nation,-"L'etat. c'est moi." The nobility was exalted and attracted to Ver- sailles, although the provinces retained much of their colonial peculiarities, but the royal banner was not erected into a national ensign. The royal flag contained golden fleurs de lis, often three in num- ber, on either a blue or white ground, the difference depending on circumstances not very clear. Either was correct. On the Mobile plat the lilies seem to be arranged in a central square, which is unusual. The fleur de lis was the emblem of the Bourbon family, and it was not until the Great Revolution that the slumbering nationality of France awakened, and the tricolor became the national flag. Great Britain and even the United States had a true flag earlier than France. That containing the fleurs de lis was rather personal than national, and was used as representative of the king rther than as represen- tative of the country.
Mobile was the only American city founded by Louis XIV and so it was appropriate that the royal banner, with gold lilies on a white ground, should
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wave over it. The navy had a flag sooner than the army, and as naval officers governed Louisiana, the French flag was more prominent there than even in France.
There has always been more or less rivalry be- tween the army and navy. Sometimes the navy has had to support the operations of the army, but in Louisiana we find the navy supreme. The country was necessarily discovered and settled by sea, and the government remained in the hands of the Minis- try of Marine, corresponding to our Navy Depart- ment. Iberville, Bienville and others were naval of- ficers, and for this reason we study the army under peculiar circumstances. The first garrison was of marines, but soon regular companies were raised in France to supply Louisiana. The French army un- der Louvois, Louis XIV's great war minister, reach- ed a high pitch of development. but the modern army organization dates from a later time,-that of Frederick the Great. Even under Louvois the regi- ments, like the nobility, were called for the provinces. Companies were named for the officers who recruited them. Perhaps the earliest company in Mobile was the Polastron, and in 1704 a hundred men came by the Pelican to complete the Vaulezard and Chateau- gue companies and superseded the Canadians.
The number of soldiers differed from time to time, but after the War of the Spanish Succession became serious in Europe few could be spared for America. In 1708 the total garrison was 122. Prob- ably never more than four companies were quarter- ed in early Mobile, and generally it was two. There were two in 1708 when 30 recruits were sent from France. For 1711 the expense was 25,000 livres, in
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1715, 32,000 livres, when Mandeville's and Bajot's companies came over. Even in 1717 it was with an effort that four companies in addition to. those in Louisiana were raised in France, and of these but three came at one time. And this was in the time of Crozat, when peace in Europe and colonial re- organization enabled the Regent to do more than had been possible under Louis XIV. Many soldiers were from Switzerland, for the Swiss, like the Italians of old, rented out their men. Not a few found their way to Mobile,-the famous Grondel for one.
In Louisiana we find only infantry and coast ar- tillery; for the dashing cavalry of Europe would have little opportunity in the forests of America. Even the artillery was confined to forts on the wa- ter; for field artillery was as yet not much used and could not readily be moved in a country without roads, and Frederick had not yet popularized flying artillery. In 1718 there were thirty-five pieces at Mobile and Dauphine Island, with and without car- riages, and the number was not greatly altered af- terwards. Bienville planned to carry some up against the Chickasaws, but was not able to do much even in 1736. One of the French cannon can still be seen in the Public Square at Mobile. The infantry was the great arm of the service. It car- ried heavy flintlock muskets. four and a half feet long, and surmounted by "baionettes" in 1706,-in- struments practically the invention of Vauban. They marked progress, for they abolished the old pikeman, but were themselves to be abandoned in America after some years as unsuited to the tangled thickets. Drums were common enough, but bands
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came only later. The favorite song,-almost a na- tional air, so far as they had one,-was a satire on Marlborough, and is preserved to us in "He's a Jolly Good Fellow." 'There was from 1703 a regu- lar blue uniform for the royal household troops, but each regiment of the time had its own color, with a tendency to copy the buttons, prominent lining and pockets of Versailles. Three cornered hats, long coats and knee breeches were usual, but the eqaulet was not invented until the middle of the century.
The officers generally named under the comman- dant are major, captain, lieutenant and enseigne, who carried the spontoon or spear as well as a sword. Sometimes they are spoken of as "blue" of- ficers, and some they are called "reformed". This sounds as if they might be Protestants, but in reality "reforme" means that they are on half pay. It is to be imagined, however, that during the many colonial wars they soon earned full pay, a per diem of thirty cents.
. Louis XIV invented the barrack system instead of billeting his troops on the country as previously, and we find these casernes at Mobile. Most colonial towns were walled, but Mobile not only was without a wall, but only the garrison on duty occpied quar- ters within the fort. The soldiers as well as officers lived in houses about town, and this tended to make the military fraternize with the habitans. Indeed the two classes tended more and more to become one.
These habitans gave good account of themselves when the Spaniards attacked Dauphine Island, and they suffered badly when the English raided that settlement. The French garrison had severe treat- ment later when they attacked a British smuggling
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ship from Jamaica, which had run in past Dauphine Island.
As in the colonial government, so among the armed forces the line was not sharply drawn between sol- diers and sailors. In America, not a few sailors were freebooters,-filibustiers,-who had preyed up- on the Spanish plate fleet from the Isthmus of Pana- ma, or sacked ports on the Spanish Main. A whole colony of these volunteered to settle at Mobile, but Bienville wisely declined. One of the first pilots was the freebooter Le Grave from San Domingo, but soon the king maintained pilots for the bay as well as for the river.
There was constant need of the military. When St. Augustine was besieged by the British in 1702 it sent to Mobile for air. Two years later there was a well founded rumor of a squadron fitting out at Charleston for the capture of Mobile,-a compliment Iberville was planning to return just before his death. Perhaps the Spanish Succession War closed none too soon, for it was understood that the British at Charleston, recognizing the real seat of Latin power, were then planning the capture of Mobile. When there was peace in Europe the British and French colonies were often hostile. Their traders were always rivals among the Indian tribes. Even Spaniards were not always friendly, and during the short Spanish war Bienville captured Pensacola and held it for several years. There was, therefore, con- stant need of either offensive or defensive operations in the Mobile territory.
After all, the true defenders of Louisiana were the habitans. Although they were not- organized as militia, they were all hunters and used to arms, even
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where they did not, as coureurs and voyageurs, live a part of the time with the Indians in the woods. The soldiers themselves showed a power of adapta- tion to their new surroundings not found among the British. The principal use of soldiers from France was to drill the habitans, and at one time we find the habitans drilling the soldiers, for the border warfere of the South called for scouting much oftener than it did for maneuvres. The soldiers from France frequently settled in Louisiana after their terms had expired, and this tended to give the country a mili- tary tinge as well as to unify it. In this, perhaps, was the germ of that marked spirit of independence in Louisianians on which the governors commented a few years later.
XX .- THE EARLIEST SHIPPING LIST.
At the time Mobile was founded England had not the commanding position upon the sea which she afterwards assumed. This was to be the result of the Seven Years War, and in 1711 the issue was by no means certain. Colbert, one of the early minis- ters of Louis XIV, was a commercial genius seldom equalled in any country, and he had successfully bent his energies towards building up the French navy. Not only did he aim at ships for the purposes of war, but a merchant marine was even more in his mind.
Even during the war with England, there was sel- dom a season when the royal ships did not come from Rochefort or La Rochelle to Port Dauphin, the har- bor of Mobile. They were all armed, or convoyed by naval vessels, and we are fortunate enough to have two different colonial narratives which give lists of
ships. The more detailed is the Journal Historique attributed to La Harpe, and this is supplemented by the Relation of Penicaut, which sometimes adds a few details.
In 1699, January 31, came the Badine of thirty guns, the Marin of thirty, the Francois of fifty, and in December La Gironde of forty-six guns, and La Renommee of fifty,-a year later she carried fifty-six. Iberville's first voyage was this on the Badine, and his second was that on the Renommee. All vessels seem to have staid two or three months in port. These visited Biloxi, new Ocean Springs.
In 1701, May 30, came L'Enflammee of twenty-six guns, and on December 18, La Renommee and Le Palmier, and it was from his sickbed on the Renom- mee that Iberville directed the foundation of Mobile. These were, therefore, the first vessels visiting the port of Mobile. Iberville procured a mast for the Palmier from the new settlement.
In August, 1703, came La Loire, one of the few vessels mentioned with nothing said about the num- ber of guns. She may have been a merchant vessel, and in fact we are told that she was a chaloupe, a smaller kind of sailing vessel.
In July, 1704, there arrived the Pelican of fifty guns, one of the largest ships of the navy, but un- fortunately bringing from her stop at San Domingo that first visitation of yellow fever, which proved so fatal. Iberville was to have come on her, but was detained in France by sickness. It so happened he never revisited his colony after the first three voyages, as he was employed on warlike expeditions in the West Indies, and in 1706 died of yellow fever at Havana.
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No vessel is noted for 1705, but we are told that La Rosaire of forty-six guns was wrecked at Pensa- cola under Vice Admiral L'Andeche.
For June, 1706, is noted L'Aigle of thirty-six guns, convoying a brigantine with supplies; Chateaugue was in command. There was also a fifty gun vessel which came only to Pensacola and sent over supplies, -for one thing, curiously enough, "legune," vege- tables ! The next year the tables were turned, as the British Indians burned all Pensacola outside of the fort and Bienville assisted the garrison with food. La Harpe gives the Renommee as arriving in Feb- ruary, 1707.
It is this time that Penicaut assigns the tragical account of the St. Antoine. She was commanded by St. Maurice of St. Malo, and had under the bow- sprit as her figurehead a wooden statue of St. An- toine. The irreverent sailors in some way dislodged the figrue, tied a stone around its neck, and threw it into the sea. Shipwreck immediately followed at the east end of Dauphine Island.
Then follows a blank for 1709 and 1710, except in brigantines for the coasting trade to the Spanish colonies and French Islands, and in fact down until 1711, covering the period of want at Old Mobile, and the removal to the present site. Public dis- asters and famine in Frence prevented the gov- ernment from sending aid to the American colonies, and threw governmental responsibility on Bienville in Louisiana, and even supplies when they came were from a private source. In September of that year there came again the Renommee, with abundant supplies,-a vessel which Grace King says is truly "The Renowned" of our early history. This voyage
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was a private venture, the monarch supplying the ship, and Remonville, ever friendly to the colony, the cargo.
For 1712 we are given the St. Avoie, a trading ves- sel and not a part of the king's navy. It came under the pious La Vigne Voisin, who built a church at his favorite Dauphine Island.
Peace was signed with England, and in May, 1713, the Baron de la Fosse, of forty guns, arrived with Cadillac, the new governor, Duclos, the new com- missaire, and the whole slate of officers which su- perseded Bienville and his Canadians, besides 400,- 000 livres of merchandise. La Harpe also mentions the Louisiane of twenty guns for this year, and Peni- caut the Dauphine.
For 1714 we have La Justice of two hundred tons, which sank in the old channel of the port on Dau- phine Island. The Dauphine seems to have come back early in this year, and La Harpe mentions her as also returning in August, 1715. Crozat intended building a merchant marine of brigantines to ply from a central magasin on Dauphine Island; but with the peace the Spaniards closed their ports to their old allies, and nothing was left but smuggling. Crozat was not liberal himself. In this year a frigate from the great port of La Rochelle and a brigantine from Martinique were both turned away; for no ship could trade at Mobile except those of Crozat. He consented to the formation at Mobile of the first Southern syndicate,-St. Denis, Graveline, De Lery, La Freniere, Beaulieu and Derbanne .- and they made a brave attempt to trade overland to Mexico.
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La Paix of twelve guns was sole arrival for 1716, but next year not only does Penicaut give La Dau-
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phine, but he and La Harpe have a good deal to say about the Duclos and Paon, each of thirty guns, and La Paix. We even have pictures of these vessels, and the Paon had the remarkable experience of coming through a 21-foot channel into the port at Dauphine Island, only to have a storm fill the chan- nel with sand behind her and imprison her. She was finally taken out by an inward passage after being lightened to ten feet.
In February, 1718, came John Law's first vessels, the Neptune, Dauphine and Vigilante, with commis- sions for his new officials. Shipping still frequented Dauphine Island, but mainly to bring colonists for the Mississippi concessions. From the island they proceeded in smaller boats to their destinations. In this way Dauphine Island was the great distributing point for the Mississippi Bubble. Biloxi now super- sedes Mobile as the capital.
XXI .- THE CRADLE AND THE GRAVE.
It is a truth which we have learned from Malthus, that, while the population of a country may outrun the means of subsistence, nevertheless there is a smaller birth rate in times of distress than in other years. The colony of Louisiana during its first years offers a good field of observation as to this and other social laws. On account of the prevalence of war in Europe and the British predominance on the ocean, but few people came before the Peace of Utrecht, and so Louisiana presented something in the nature of the closed tube which physicists use in their experiments.
The settlement at Biloxi,-our Ocean Springs,- was only temporary and disastrous in itself. Not
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only did Sauvole, the commandant, but not a few of the one hundred and fifty people noted as resi- dents die in 1701. The coureurs de bois were by no means ideal colonists, but it is to be remembered that these Canadians, brave if rude, were the origin- al nucleus of the colony, and when later anchored by marriage made good citizens. At the time of the re- moval to Fort Louis on Mobile River the colonists, although reinforced, were in all only one hundred and thirty. They were increased the next year by some eighteen passengers, most of whom probably remained, and in 1704 we have the first real census returns. This year, before the inrvad of yellow fever in the fall, was probably the banner year for this up-river. settlement. We are told that the town covered one hundred and ninety arpens,-an arpent being a little less than an acre,- and consisted of eighty one-story houses. In these lived twenty-seven families, including ten children,-three girls and seven boys.
The birth rate means more than immigration, es- pecially if there is rivalry with another race, for it shows virility and contentment and has the promise and potency of a future nation. Even if numbers of immigrants and of birth were the same, immigrants might not all be desirable or might not assimilate, while the natural increase by what the Shorter Cate- chism calls ordinary generation makes up a homo- geneous people. The church registers do not record the marriages until after the capital period, and it would not be fair to rely upon the incidental men tion of couples, important as this is in tracing an- cestry. Fortunately the Baptismal Register sur- vives, even if it be not complete. The first two
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years passed without any record and then October 4, 1704, comes the first birth, that of Francois, son of Jean de Can (properly given elsewhere as . Le Camp) and Magdeleine Robert, his wife. Francois Le Camp, therefore, was the first Creole of the colony, a title which after his removal passed to an- other as a mark of honor. There was in 1704 also a LeMay child, which died, however, within a few days. Besides white families, there were eleven slaves, all Indian, and one hundred and eighty sol- diers. These families were constituted in part of the twenty-three young women who came over in the Pelican that fall, and were married within one month. The next year came another birth, that of Jacques, son of maitre canonier Roy, but the church records entirely fail for 1706, despite the Pelican marriages. In 1706 we are told that there were nineteen families, and that the total population was eighty-two.
In the year 1707 (that in which there was the at- tempt to supersede Bienville by another governor), was socially not without significance as marking the birth of a child half negro, half Choctaw, but yet more as showing the rapid increase of white births to seven, of whom all but two were from October to November. Names of all kinds as well as trades and offices increase from this year, and in 1708 we find ten births, of whom all but three range from January 30 to June 18, and the remainder are in Oc- tober and December. In 1709 were seven, of whom the majority were from February to May, and the others in August and October. The population at this time was made up of one hundred and twenty- two soldiers, seventy-seven habitans, and eighty In-
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dian slaves, the habitans almost equally divided be- tween men, women and children. It was in the year 1708 that the Renommee came with supplies after over a year of want. Shortly previous to this Cha- teaugue's traversier, which brought the goods from Dauphine Island, had been accidentally sunk, and, although this loss was supplied, there was a failure of crops and the curious entry of the bringing of vegetables out from France. The next year was dis- astrous on account of the overflow, and the removal of the town to the new site. Accordingly in sym- pathy with public distress the birth rate falls off; scattered through 1710 were three births and 1711 records none.
Even on the new site the recovery was slow, for there were no births until the second half of 1712, and of these two one was illegitimate. Indeed, Crozat's exploitation was not reflected in the birth register for several years. In the year 1713 we are told that the total population had become four hundred, including twenty negro and other slaves, but as this also embraces the garrison, generally amounting to one hundred and fifty soldiers, we can reckon the habitans as not over two hundred. In this year was the second consignment of marriage- able young women, there being twenty-five girls . brought from the Province of Brittany,-where per- haps even then resided the ancestors of Ernest Renan. 1714 shows two births, one of these of a Tensaw wife of a colonist. 1714 shows none at all of whites, and only two Indian. In January of this year a vessel arrived at Dauphine Island with sup- plies from France, but sank in the old channel, and the only relief was that Chateaugue obtained some
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supplies from Vera Cruz. With 1715, however, peace and Crozat have at least twelve births to their credit. almost all in the winter and in the fall .. This. however, was the best year, for 1716 and 1717 each show eight, the latter mainly in the fall, and 1718 only four.
1717 was the year marking the change of govern- ment from Crozat to John Law, and the population suddenly jumped to seven hundred because of the large immigration, but the births are stationary at eight, mainly in the fall, and the next year there were six. John Law sent over so many colonists that the registers now assume a different appearance, and Huve and the occasional Davion have their hands full of baptisms. Of the fifteen births in 1719 only three occur after June, while of the twenty- three of 1720 the majority are from August on, and the nineteen of 1721 are almost equally divided.
These about reached high-water mark, for the cap- ital had now been removed to the Mississippi. Nev- ertheless, immigrants came and after a fall to twelve births in each of the years 1723 and 1724, the num- ber twenty-three was reached again the next year, for, although relatively Mobile was less important, it continued to grow in actual size.
The situation of the colony, distressing as it was, at least permits an interesting study in one respect. The two periods of war and peace, of about ten years each, present somewhat different aspects, but each shows October as the month of most numerous birth s. On the whole, there were twenty-one for that month as against seventeen and sixteen for March and February, which rank next in order, while January and December rank next, each with
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thirteen births. The least prolific month is July, with only three to its credit for the eighteen years of record. The physiological side of birth months is an interesting subject itself.
The general increase follows very closely those of the years of peace, but the troubled times preceding 1714 shows a somewhat different story. October is then the most proilfic, March being next also, but far behind, but not only did August equal February for the third place, but January and December had no place much better than the lowest, omitting Sep- tember, which recorded no birth at all. The rate is perhaps one to every ten families each year. The population would double about every thirty years if nobody died.
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