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REYNOLAG HISTORICAL GENZALUCY COLLECTION
ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY 3 1833 02305 4593
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LOUISIANA:
ITS HISTORY
AS A FRENCH COLONY.
3d THIRD SERIES OF LECTURES .. 1852.
BY Etienne - . -
CHARLES GAYARRE. 5 -
DEBILE PRINCIPIUM MELIORA FORTUNA SEQUETUR.
NEW YORK : JOHN WILEY, 167 BROADWAY.
1852.
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1764855
F GAYARRÉ. CHARLES ÉTIENNE ARTHUR, 1805-1895.
. 3303
676 Louisiana: its history as a French colony. Third series of lectures ... New York, Wiley, 1852.
380р.
·
--
F876.3303
ENTERED, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1852, BY CHARLES GAYARRE, 1 In the Clerk's Office of the United States' District Court for the District of Louisiana
39013
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R. CRAIGHEAD, PRINTER AND STEREOTYPER. 53 Vesey street, N. Y.
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B
.
CONTENTS.
1
FIRST LECTURE.
PAGE
Anecdotes of De Vaudreuil
17
The Chickasaws sue for Peace
20
Effects of Paper Currency in the Colony
21
Trading Monopoly granted to Déruisseau
23
Lead Mines discovered in Illinois
24
Indian Difficulties
25
Proposed Expedition against the Chickasaws
27
Dispute between Lenormant and Vaudreuil
29 30
Proposed Fortifications on the Mississippi .
31
Means of Defence of the Colony .
34
Terrible Hurricane in Louisiana .
35
Lenormant's Remarks on Paper Money
36
Extent of the New Orleans District .
38
Civil War among the Choctaws .
39
Outrages committed by the Choctaws .
40
Red Shoe killed .
41
Renewal of Hostilities
42
Tixerant discomfited by Choctaw Hunters .
43
The Indians attack the German Coast Planters
44
Baby, the Dancing Master, repulses the Indians .
45
Death of Baby-Close of the year 1748
46
Views of the Government on Commerce
47
Census of Louisiana in 1745
28
Obstructions at the mouth of the Mississippi
iv
CONTENTS.
Ascendency of the French .
PAGE 49
Tranquillity re-established :
50
Paper Money
51
Increase of the Military Forces .
52
Paper Money counterfeited .
53
Pierre Boucher .
54
Lettres de Cachet
55
Distribution of the Troops .
56
Complaints against Vaudreuil
.
57
- Complaints against Rouvillière
58
Condition of the Colony
62
Introduction of the Sugar-Cane .
63
Expedition against the Chickasaws
64
State of Agriculture .
65
The Marquis of Vaudreuil .
66
SECOND LECTURE.
Kerlerec's Opinion of the Indians . 69
Kerlerec Endeavours to Conciliate the Indians
70
Changes among the Officers
71
State of the Colony
72
Character of the Troops
73
Tribute to the Indians
74
Tragic Occurrence
75
Fears of Invasion
77
Gain of the Mississippi on the Gulf
78
Fears of British Invasion
79
Religious Warfare
80
Intrigues of the English
82
Discontent of the Indians
83
Attack on Fort Duquesne
'84
Rochemore .
85
Introduction of the Sugar Cane .
87
Recall of Rochemore .
88
Help solicited from Spain .
89
Departure of Rochemore
91
Cession of Louisiana to Spain
92
Treaty of Peace signed at Paris
93
Indignation of the Indians .
95
Dissensions in the Colony .
96
Description of Louisiana, by Redon de Rassac .
97
.
·
.
1
CONTENTS.
V
Disputes between the French and English .
PAGE 98
Opposition of the Indians to the English
99
Expulsion of the Jesuits from Louisiana
190
Complaints against the English 101
Major Loftus ascends the Mississippi .
102
Loftus attacked by the Indians
103
Loftus returns to New Orleans
104
Condition of Louisiana
105
Memorial of Kerlerec .
108
Anxiety of the French Government
109
Letter of Louis XV. to D'Abbadie
111
Reflections on the Fate of Louisiana
113
THIRD LECTURE.
Arrival of the Acadians
116
Expulsion of the Acadians .
117
Fate of the Acadians .
118
Dispersion of the Acadians .
120
122
Settlement of Acadians in Louisiana .
123
English Fortifications ..
125
Description of Baton Rouge
126
Presentation of the Petition
129
Result of the Mission .
130
Ulloa appointed Governor of Louisiana Arrival of Ulloa .
133
.
Character of Charles III. .
134
Military Career of Charles III. .
135
Administration of Charles III. .
188
His Death .
141
Carrer of Antonio de Ulloa
142
Early Career of Antonio de Ulloa
145
Character of Antonio de Ulloa
150
Don Estevan Gayarre .
152
Don Martin Navarro .
155
·
The Mississippi a common thoroughfare
124
Protest against the Cession .
128
182
Treatment of the Superior Council
131
Hatred of the Acadians to the English
vi
CONTENTS.
FOURTH LECTURE.
PAGE
Ulloa's Instructions
158
Excitement Concerning the Paper Currency
159
Difficulty with the French Troops
161
Wretched Condition of Louisiana
163
Hostility of the Inhabitants to Ulloa .
164
Character of the Inhabitants
165
Embarrassments of the Government
166
Commercial Decree
167 168
Commercial Regulations
169
Remonstrances of the Merchants
170
Doubts as to the Act of Cession
171
Seclusion of Ulloa
173
Proposition of Ulloa .
174
Sojourn of Ulloa at the Balize
175
Marriage of Ulloa
177.
Letter of the Marquis of Grimaldi
178
Return of Jean Milhet
180
Ulloa's Tastes, Habits, and Disposition
181
Unpopularity of his Wife .
183
Conversational Powers of Ulloa
184
Letter of Aubry .
185
Conspiracy against the Spaniards
186
General Insurrection .
189
Petition for the Expulsion of Ulloa
192
Proceedings before the Council .
193
Decree of the Council
202
Opinion of Foucault
203
Protest of Aubry
204
Reflections on Lafrenière's Address
205
Quotations from Lafrenière's Address .
207
Character of Ulloa as Governor .
208
FIFTH LECTURE.
Delegates appointed by the Insurgents 210
Embarkation of Ulloa .
.
211
Manifesto of the Colonists
212
Anecdote .
CONTENTS.
vii
PAGE
Appointment of a Committee of Inquiry
217
Depositions of the Witnesses
218
The Council's Letter to the Duke of Praslin
219
Representations to the King.
220
Foucault's Letter to the Duke of Praslin
223
Aubry's Letter to the Duke of Praslin .
224
Position of the Revolutionists
227
Letters of Ulloa on the Revolution
228
Petition of the Colonists
237
Foucault's Despatches .
241
Aubry's Despatches ·
245
Council of Ministers in Spain
247
Grimaldi's Letter to Fuentes
262
Symptoms of Reaction
268
SIXTH LECTURE.
Letter of Aubry .
270
Aubry and the Council .
271
New Delegates sent to France
272
Foucault's Treachery
273
Departure of the Frigate
276
Increase of the Reaction
278
Scheme of a Republic .
279
Anxieties of the Public Mind
280
Reaction in Favor of the Spanish Officers .
281
Arrival of O'Reilly
282
The Career of O'Reilly
283
Message from O'Reilly to Aubry .
287
Aubry's Speech to the People
288
Deputation from the City .
289
Address of Lafrenière .
290
O'Reilly's Reply .
291
Close of the Interview
292
Landing of the Spaniards .
293
Landing of the Troops
294
Reception of O'Reilly .
295
The Closing Ceremonies
296
Aubry's Despatches .
297
Letter from O'Reilly to Aubry
298
Aubry's Answer .
300
Arrest of the Insurgent Leaders
301
,
viii
CONTENTS.
PAGE
Death of Villere .
303
O'Reilly's Proclamation
305
Arrest of Foucault
306
Ceremony of Swearing Allegiance
307
Proceedings with respect to Foucault
308
Letter from Aubry .
309
Foucault sent to France
310
Release of Braud
311
SEVENTH LECTURE.
A State Trial .
313
Presentment of the Attorney-General
318
Remarks on the Plea of the Accused
331
Quotation from Vattel
332
The Judgment .
334
Appeals to O'Reilly
337
His Inflexibility .
338
The Negro Jeannot
339
Execution of the Prisoners .
340
Death of Aubry .
341
Comments on the Execution
342
.
Despatch of O'Reilly to Grimaldi
· 344
Feelings and Ideas of the Time
345
Charge of Duplicity against O'Reilly
347
Anecdote of Cardinal Richelieu
348
Maisons d'Acadiens
350
Polished Manners of the Colonists
351
Census of the Inhabitants .
352
Concluding Remarks .
353
APPENDIX
. 359
PREFACE
TO THE THIRD SERIES
OF
LECTURES ON LOUISIANA.
THIS is the third and last series of the Historical Lectures on Louisiana, embracing a period which extends from its discovery to 1769, when it was finally transferred by the French to the Spaniards, in virtue of the Fontainebleau treaty signed in November, 1762. This work is, as far as I could make it so, a detailed and accurate history of Louisiana, as a French colony. The preface to the first series of Lectures, which was criticised by some as unworthy of the serious nature of the subject which I had undertaken to investigate, accounts for the defects apparent in the whole production, if tested according to the rules of regular and classical composition, and shows that they proceed, in part, from the very fact of its accidental creation. As I already said in that Preface, I looked upon the first four Lectures, as nugæ serice, to which I attached no more import- ance, than a child does, to the soap bubbles which he puffs through the tube of the tiny reed, picked up by him for the amusement of the passing hour. But struck with the interest which I had excited, I examined, with more sober thoughts, the flowery field in which I had sported, almost with the buoyancy of a school boy. Checking the freaks of my imagin- ation, that boon companion with whom I had been gambolling, I took to the plough, broke the ground, and turned myself to a more serious and useful occupation. This is, I think, clearly
PREFACE.
observable in the second series of Lectures. In the third and last series, which I now venture to lay before the public, a change of tone and manner, corresponding with the authenticity and growing importance of the events which I had to record, will be still more perceptible.
Should the continuation of life and the enjoyment of leisure permit me to gratify my wishes, I purpose to write the history of the Spanish domination in Louisiana, from 1769 to 1803, when was effected the almost simultaneous cession of that province, by Spain to France, and by France to the United States of America. Embracing an entirely distinct period of history, it will be a different work from the preceding, as much perhaps in point of style and the other elements of composition, as with regard to the characteristic features of the new Lords of the land.
Whatever may be the defects of this work (and they are numerous), their exposure cannot give me pain by defeating me in the pursuit of what I never aimed at-literary reputation. But notwithstanding their existence, I may be permitted to con- gratulate myself upon having thrown some light and interest on a subject, so far very little known-the history of the land of my birth. I rest satisfied with having been an humble pioneer, and with having erected in the wilderness the modest wooden structure, which, I hope, will soon give way to more stately edifices, showing the elegant proportions of a more classical architecture.
I beg leave, in conclusion, to refer those who think that the history of Louisiana which I have submitted to the public, is indebted to my imagination for many of its romantic incidents, and who may be willing to test the accuracy of my historical statements, to works, not of recent date, the authorship of which is attributed to: Bossu, Perrin du Lac, Charlevoix, Pittman, Dumont, Le Page du Pratz, Hennepin, Lahontan, Baudry des Lozières, Laharpe, and Laval; and I also refer to voluminous manuscripts copied from the archives of France
.
xi
PREFACE.
and Spain, and which have become the property of the State. These are my vouchers, and I have nothing to fear from their examination, however minute and critical it may be, with regard to the detection of any intentional errors on my part, conscious as I am, that, in the composition of this work, I have been animated with the same feelings which must glow in the breast of a devoted son, who attempts truthfully and scrupu- lously to reproduce and to perpetuate, with the painter's art; the perishing features of a cherished mother.
BATON ROUGE, July 15th, 1851.
LOUISIANA:
ITS .
HISTORY AS A FRENCH COLONY.
FIRST LECTURE.
ADMINISTRATION OF THE MARQUIS OF VAUDREUIL AS GOVERNOR OF LOUISIANA- ANECDOTES ILLUSTRATING HIS CHARACTER-THE CHICKASAWS SUE FOR PEACE- VAUDREUIL'S ANSWER-ORDINANCE CONCERNING LEVEES-EFFECTS OF THE PAPER CURRENCY LY THE COLONY-MONOPOLY OF TRADE GRANTED TO DERUISSEAU- DIMOVERIES OF MINES OF LEAD, COPPER, AND IRON -- NEGOTIATIONS WITH THE INDIANS-DEPREDATIONS COMMITTED BY THE CHICKASAWS-POPULATION OF NEW" ORLEANS IN 1745, SITUATION OF THE COLONY-MISUNDERSTANDINGS BETWEEN COMMISSARY LENORMANT AND GOVERNOR VAUDREUIL-OUTRAGE COMMITTED BY RED SHOE-REPORTS ON THE MOUTHS AND SAND-BARS OF THE MISSISSIPPI- MEANS OF DEFENCE ADOPTED TO PROTECT LOUISIANA AGAINST INVASION-TERRI- BLE HURRICANE-FINANCES OF THE COLONY-PAPER MONEY AND STOCK- JOBBING-CIVIL WAR AMONG THE CHOCTAWS-A PARTY OF THEM ATTACK THR GERMAN COAST-GREAT ALARM-ASSASSINATION OF RED SHOE-INCREASE OF THE INDIAN DISTURBANCES-DARING OF THE CHOCTAWS-COWARDICE OF TIXERANT- HEROUM OF TWO NEGROES-DESPERATE RESISTANCE OF BABY, THE DANCING MASTER, WHEN ATTACKED BY THE CHOCTAWS -- COMMERCE OF THE COLONY- ENCOURAGEMENT GIVEN TO AGRICULTURE-YIELD OF THE WAX TREE-THE CREOLES DECLARED FITTEST MEN TO WAGE WAR AGAINST THE INDIANS-CRUSHING BLOW GIVEN BY GRAND-PRE TO THE CHOCTAWS-HIS TREATY OF PEACE WITH THAT NATION-LARGE FORCES SENT TO LOUISIANA-COUNTERFEITING OF THE PAPER MONEY OF THE COLONY BY A COLORED MAN-HIS PUNISHMENT- GRAND-PRE MADE A KNIGHT OF ST. LOUIS-ORIGIN OF THE GRAND-PRÉ FAMILY IN LOUISIANA-QUARRELS BETWEEN VAUDREUIL AND THE COMMISSARY MICHEL DE LA ROUVILLIERE, THE SUCCESSOR OF LENORMANT-SUGAR CANES WENT TO THE JESUITS OF LOUISIANA-ARRIVAL OF SIXTY GIRLS-MANNER IN WHICH THEY WERE SETTLED IN THE COLONY-FRUITLESS EXPEDITION OF VAU- DREUIL AGAINST THE CHICKASAWS-ANECDOTE OF THE COLAPISSA FATHER- DEATH OF LA ROUVILLIERE-HE IS SUCCEEDED BY D'AUBERVILLE-VAUDREUIL WENT TO CANADA-KERLEREC, GOVERNOR OF LOUISIANA IN FEBRUARY, 1753.
THE appointment of the Marquis of Vaudreuil as Governor of Louisiana, in the place of Bienville,
2
.
18
ANECDOTES OF DE VAUDREUIL.
produced a favorable impression on the colonists, and gave rise to flattering hopes. It was known that the Marquis was the son of a distinguished officer who had been Governor-general of Canada, and that he belonged to an influential family at the French court. His nomination was received as a token that the government intended to make serious efforts to put the colony on a more respectable footing, and it was presumed that the Marquis would not have accepted the post of a petty governor in so insignificant a colony, if he had not received promises that the province over which he had been called to rule, would soon be destined, under the powerful patronage of the mother' country, to acquire more importance than it had so far possessed. His arrival in the colony was therefore hailed with joy, as the harbinger of better days. That joy rested also on the knowledge of the hereditary reputation of all the Vaudreuils for kind- ness and liberality. With respect to these qualifica- tions, the present Governor of Louisiana was no unworthy representative of his ancestors. A few anecdotes related of him will fully illustrate his cha- racter.
It happened that one of his servants acted with · insolence towards an officer of the garrison in New Orleans, who had come to pay his respects to the governor on one of his reception days. The marchio- . ness having been informed of the fact, brought it to the knowledge of her husband, and insisted on the culprit's being dismissed. De Vaudreuil acquiesced in a demand which he thought just, and consented to part with that servant, although a favorite one. He sent for 'his privy purse, and after having paid the wages due to the servant, he added a bounty of three hundred livres. His wife expostulated with him on
19
ANECDOTES OF DE VAUDREUIL.
this strange piece of liberality, and observed that it was offering a reward to impertinence. Unmoved, and without returning an answer, the Marquis threw again three hundred livres to the lacquey, and seeing the flush of anger rising on his wife's brow : " Madam," said he, with great composure, "I do not reward him for his insolence, but for his faithful past services, and if you show too much displeasure to the poor devil, I will give him the whole purse, to indemnify him for his having incurred the mortification which you now inflict upon him."
Once, an officer of the garrison wrote against him to the minister of marine. The minister transmitted the letter to De Vaudreuil. One day, the same officer was addressing some gross flattery to the Marquis, who stood it for a while, but the dose becoming too nauseating, " What conduct is this ?" exclaimed the Marquis, " how dare you thus give the lie to your own written assertions? Is it possible that you should so soon have forgotten a certain letter which you have written against me ?" " A letter against you, general, and from me?" "Yes, sir." "I swear that nothing can be more false." " Beware, sir; do not force me to look for that letter, for if you compel me to take that trouble, I will immediately have your commission taken away from you." The officer did not reply, and never, from that moment, did the Marquis open his lips on the subject, or show by any act that he remembered the circumstance.
It also happened, that a menial in his household had lost or mislaid a valuable piece of plate. The Marquis was at table when the offence was discovered, and the guilty one, trembling with emotion, and overwhelmed with shame at his being accused of so much negligence, and perhaps of theft, was brought
20
THE CHICKASAWS SUE FOR PEACE.
1
up to his presence. The Marquis, at first, looked at him with some severity of countenance, but his face soon resumed its usual benevolent expression, and turning to his butler, he said : " Get a bottle of my best wine, and give it to this poor fellow to cure him of his fright." This is enough; no more can be wanted to give the measure of De Vaudreuil's heart.
! Bienville, when he departed from the colony, had left it at war with the Chickasaws. These Indians, ' on their being informed that a new governor had arrived, sent to him four of their chiefs, with a Frenchman, their prisoner, named Carignan, to sue for peace." Vaudreuil answered that he would not treat with them, except it were in concert with his allies, the Choctaws, to whom they should make ample amends for all the injuries they had inflicted upon them at the instigation of the English, and except they should drive away from their villages the English traders, who, he said, were the authors of all their misfortunes. The Chickasaws took time to consider these conditions.
The necessity of providing against the ever threaten- ing overflows of the Mississippi had struck De Vau- dreuil, and jointly with Salmon, the king's commissary, he published, on the 18th of October, an ordinance which commanded the planters to have their levees made, or in a safe condition, by the 1st of January, 1744, under the penalty of forfeiting their lands to the crown. Evidently, this penalty was sufficiently stringent to secure the execution of the ordinance. Thus closed the year 1743, during which the ex- penses of the administration of the colony amounted to 348,528 livres.
In the beginning of 1744, the Chickasaws informed De Vaudreuil that they would accept his conditions,
EFFECTS OF PAPER CURRENCY IN THE COLONY. 21
and dismiss the English traders from their villages, if the French could supply them with all the goods, merchandise, and ammunition, of which they stood in need. This, De Vaudreuil could not do, nor could he promise to do, without exposing himself to a breach of faith ; and with no small degree of concern did he learn that the Chickasaws were negotiating with the Choctaws, to conclude a treaty of peace with them, without including the French. On this state of things, he wrote to his government : "I will do my best to defeat these negotiations, which, if successful, would be ruinous to the colony .. We must not forget that we are in a state of the utmost destitution, that our warehouses are empty, and that, between us, who can only make fair promises, and the English, who can give, the Indians cannot hesitate in their choice. Many of them have already carried their furs to the English, and this example will be contagious. All that I can do is, to insinuate to the Choctaws that the Chickasaws are not in good faith in their proposals for peace, and that probably their only object is to lull their enemies into unguarded security, and to strike an unexpected blow upon them, or perhaps that they seek, under cover of their pretended negotiations for peace, to keep the Choctaws in a state of inaction, and in the mean time quietly to get in their harvests." The Marquis concluded his despatch by endeavoring to impress upon the government his conviction of the necessity of forwarding to him, as soon as possible, an ample supply of goods and merchandise.
Vaudreuil had found the colony in a deplorable financial condition. It will be recollected that the government had, in 1735, contrary to the advice of Bienville and Salmon, called in the depreciated paper money of the India Company, and had replaced it by
-
-
22 EFFECTS OF PAPER CURRENCY IN THE COLONY.
pasteboard notes (billets de cartes), which, it was said, offered an infinitely better security than the preceding one, because the king's paper was not to be weighed in the same scale with the Company's paper. But hardly had nine years elapsed, when this royal paper was as much depreciated as its more modest predeces- sor. The depreciation was such, that it was necessary to give three hundred livres in paper for what might have been got for one hundred livres in coin. On the 27th of April, the council of state declared that it considered this condition of things as prejudicial to the finances of the government, to the welfare of the colony, and the progress of commerce, and that it had resolved to put an end to such disorders. It, therefore, determined to call in all pasteboard notes, and to pay one hundred livres for every two hundred and fifty livres worth of paper. Such was the rate established, and the mode of payment was not in specie, but consisted in giving drafts on the treasury in France. On these drafts the holders had again to lose a discount. It was also decreed, that all the pasteboard notes which should not be brought in within two months after the promulgation of this edict, should become null and void. In support of the justice of this high-handed and arbitrary measure, it was stated that the government did not feel under the obligation to take up those notes at par, because they had been given to meet expenses and claims which had been raised in proportion to the actual or expected depre- ciation of the currency in which these were to be paid. Such was the impotent apology offered by the government for its shameless breach of faith, and the poor, helpless colonists had to be satisfied with it. They had found out, too' late, that the King's paper, although it went by a more lofty name,
23
TRADING MONOPOLY GRANTED TO DERUISSEAU.
was as much of a worthless rag as the Company's paper.
Unfortunately, the Marquis of Vaudreuil marked the beginning of his administration by following the old nefarious custom of granting monopolies. On the Sth of August, he conceded to a man named Déruis- seau, the exclusive right of trading in all the country watered by the Missouri, and the streams falling into that river. This privilege was for a term a little exceeding five years, beginning on the Ist of January, 1745, to terminate on the 20th of May, 1750. To this grant several conditions were annexed, among which were these :- Deruisseau bound himself to finish the fort established on the Missouri territory, to keep in it a sufficient stock of merchandise to satisfy the wants of the Indians, to maintain, at his own expense, the several Indian tribes of that district in a state of amity among themselves and with the French, to supply the garrison of the fort with the necessary means of subsistence, to pay to its commander an annual bounty. of one hundred pistoles, and to trans- port to the fort, without charge, all the provisions and effects of that commander. It was stipulated by the governor, that he reserved ito himself the right to modify, change, or alter any of the conditions of the grant, according to circumstances, and in the way which the prosperity of the country might require.
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