A history of Louisiana, Volume II, Part 12

Author: Fortier, Alcace, 1856-1914
Publication date: 1904
Publisher: New York, Goupil & co. of Paris, Manzi, Joyant & co., successors
Number of Pages: 772


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barrio, or commissary of police, was to be appointed." " The alcaldes de barrio were directed to take charge of fire-engines and their implements and to command the fire and axmen companies, in case of conflagration. They were also empowered to preserve the peace, and to take cognizance of small debts." 1


On July 11, 1792, according to instructions from the King, Carondelet issued the following regulations with regard to the slaves:


1. That each slave should receive monthly, for his food, one barrel of corn, at least.


2. That every Sunday should be exclusively his own, without his being compelled to work for his master, ex- cept in urgent cases, when he must be paid or indemnified.


3. That, on other days, the slaves should not begin to work before daybreak, nor continue after dark. One half hour to be allowed at breakfast, and two hours at dinner.


4. Two brown shirts, a woolen coat and pantaloons, and a pair of linen pantaloons, and two handkerchiefs, to be allowed yearly to each male slave, and suitable dresses to female slaves.


5. None to be punished with more than thirty lashes within twenty-four hours.


6. Delinquents to be fined in the sum of one hundred dollars, and in grave cases the slave may be ordered to be sold to another.


It was prohibited to import negroes from the French and British West India Islands, but the King later ex- pressed his desire to see negroes imported from Africa, and he encouraged this trade.


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On September 15, 1792, Carondelet mentioned having captured in New Orleans, on March 12, Captain William Augustus Bowles, and having sent him to Cadiz.ª This celebrated adventurer was born in Maryland, and when the War of the Revolution broke out he entered the Eng- lish army at the age of fourteen years. In 1777 he was dismissed from his regiment for insubordination. IIe was at that time in Florida, and he entered the tribe of the 'Talapouches, or Creeks, and married the daughter of one of the chiefs. In 1781 he reentered the English army and made war against the Spaniards, but he was unable to submit to military discipline, and returned among the Creeks. For some time he led the life of a corsair, cap- turing several Spanish merchant vessels. He was un- remitting in his hostility against the Spaniards until taken prisoner by Carondelet in 1792. He was kept in Spain for some time, then was sent to Manila, and in 1797 escaped to England, where he was received by the Duke of Portland and kindly treated by the govern- ment. He returned to America and resumed his lios- tilities against the Spaniards until he was finally cap- tured and sent to Morro Castle in Havana, where he died. The life of Bowles is a real romance, and Perrin du Lac considers him a great man and a patriot.3 His influence with the Creeks, however, was not as great as that of Alexander McGillivray, the friend of the Spaniards, who died on February 17, 1793.


In June, 1793, the commerce of Louisiana was favored with the extension of the commercial franchises that had been conceded by the royal schedule of 1782, and Caron-


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delet relaxed as much as possible the rigor of the Span- ish regulations concerning commerce.4 The governor was endeavoring to promote the prosperity of the colony by attending to internal improvements, such as the light- ing of New Orleans and the employment of watchmen; but in 1793 he was placed in an embarrassing situation by the republican spirit that was manifested in Louisiana.


The great events of the French Revolution exerted an influence in the province, which was thrown into a state of agitation by the news of the execution of Louis XVI, on January 21, 1793. Carondelet forbade the exhibition at the theater of martial dances to revolutionary airs, and had six individuals arrested and sent to Havana for expressing republican principles. In order to guard against any insurrection or foreign attack, the governor had new fortifications erected around New Orleans. Forts, redoubts, batteries, and palisades were constructed, and deep ditches were dug.


The friendship of the Indians was also secured by an offensive and defensive treaty made on October 28, 1793, through Colonel Gayoso de Lemos, governor of Nat- chez, with the Chickasaws, the Creeks, the Cherokees, and the Alibamons, and twenty thousand Indians, it was thought, could be opposed, if needed, to the Americans.


Carondelet tried to reduce the expenses of the ad- ministration of Louisiana, and in a long communication to his Government he gave his opinion about the reduc- tions that could wisely be made." He recommended that the expenses of the hospital be reduced, and said that the number of patients attended to every day was about


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DON FRANCISCO LOUIS HECTOR, BARON DE CARONDELET DE NOYELLES, SEIGNEUR D'HAINE SAINT PIERRE 1747-1807 -


Sixth Spanish Governor of Louisiana and afterward Vice- roy of Peru. From a contemporary painting belonging to the Duc de Bailen, Madrid, one of his lineal descend- ants.


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seventy. He was more generous with regard to the Ur- sulines, and said that the $1896 paid them could not be diminished in any way. The same recommendation was made with regard to the salaries of the two Spanish schoolmasters, who received the munificent sum of $1050 -for both. Carondelet was evidently doing the best he could for the cause of education in Louisiana.


On January 18, 1794, the governor wrote a long and interesting letter to the Duke de la Alcudia. He men- tioned that when he arrived in Louisiana he found the province without any protection whatever, as the few forts were in ruins, and the artillery in poor condition. As to the river, of which the Americans claimed the navi- gation, it was defended by one single galley (galera), in poor condition. In less than two years he had placed New Orleans in a respectable state of defense against the foreigners, and also against insurgents, as Fort St. Charles could destroy the city. He built Fort St. Philip near the mouth of the river, which could prevent foreign ships, whatever their number, from advancing, and erected also Fort Nogales on the land acquired from the Choctaws. Six galleys and two galliots (galeotas) pro- tect the Mississippi as far as the Ohio,-that is to say, a distance of five hundred leagues,-and impress the war- like Indian tribes that dwell in these regions with the power of Spain. By a treaty with the Choctaws which has cost less than one thousand dollars, navigation on Mobile River has been extended sixty leagues beyond Fort Tombecbé, and friendship with the Choctaws as- sured. The latter tribe have at least ten thousand war-


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riors, and their good will extends the influence of the King as far as the Yazoo country, which the Americans are trying to usurp. Carondelet refers again to the ex- traordinary talents of Bowles, then he mentions the tur- bulent spirit of some Frenchmen, whose letters he has intercepted, and he says the parochial church is unfinished and hopes that the bishop, who will soon arrive in New Orleans, will induce Don Andres Almonester to complete the church. He himself is not on good terms with Don Andres.


Carondelet seemed to be indefatigable. On February 24, 1794, he addressed another communication to Don Diego Gardoqui, who was now one of the ministers in Spain. The governor gives the fullest details about everything concerning the colony. He says the cabildo house has not yet been rebuilt, and he recommends that a canal be constructed, half a league long, which would cost from $25,000 to $30,000, from the city to Bayou St. John, for drainage and sanitary purposes. If the canal was not dug, the city would have to be abandoned, as it would be finally in a hollow from which the waters would have no egress. The canal referred to was completed in ' 1796 and named Carondelet by the cabildo, a name that it still bears. The expenses for propitiating the Indians amounted annually to $55,209.


In the year 1794 the offices of governor and intendant were separated, and Don Francisco de Rendon arrived in Louisiana as intendant.


In 1794 the " Moniteur de la Louisiane " was pub- lished; it was the first newspaper in Louisiana, and its


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THE "MONITEUR "


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appearance indicated that new ideas were penetrating into the colony. Indeed, French Jacobins in Philadel- phia circulated in Louisiana an address in which the colonists were urged to establish an independent govern- ment. At the same time the French minister to the United States, Genet, endeavored to prepare an expedi- tion in the West against. the Spanish provinces. His principal agent in Kentucky was Auguste de la Chaise, a native of Louisiana, and a man of great intrepidity and energy, who died, in 1803, a general in the French army at Santo Domingo. Genet's schemes were frustrated by Washington.


The earliest number of the "Moniteur de la Louisiane" known to be in existence is No. 26.6 It is dated Monday, August 25, of the " common year," and is a four-page octavo paper, two columns on each page. It begins with a few local notices, such as the following: " A vendre, deux arpens de terre cultivable, sur 8 de profondeur, at- tenant à l'habitation des Demoiselles Devergès, près de la ville dans le chemin du Bayou. Celui qui voudra en faire l'acquisition, s'adressera aux dites Dlles. qui fe- ront crédit jusqu'à la fin de cette année." " From letters worthy of belief " news is given of a battle on April 26 between the French and the Allies, and of the probable . advance of the latter against Paris. "It is certain that nothing could prevent the army of the Prince of Coburg, which consists of one hundred and fifty thousand men, from penetrating as far as Paris, and from causing there a revolution that would annihilate the barbarous despot- ism of the Robespierres and Barreres under which France


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[1794


has fallen by a fatality without example." It is evident that the editor of the "Moniteur " was not one of the Jacobins who were giving Carondelet so much trouble in New Orleans. The paper then gives news of a storm at Natchez on August 11, which upset the pirogues on the river and threw down the corn; then European news through Havana, and an extract from the Gazette of Ma- drid. Among the important news is the following: " On May 3, the famous Count Destaing terminated at Paris his brilliant career under the knife of the guillotine." This number ends with the beginning of a very energetic letter to " a so-called planter of Bayou Sara," from a person, evidently a physician, who says that one should simplify, as much as possible, the instruments and the remedies, and even know how to substitute at the right time equivalent means in order to relieve the patient in interior as well as in exterior diseases. The " Moniteur " was from the press of L. Duclot, with permission and privilege of " Mgr. le Gouverneur."


On December 8, 1794, New Orleans was again dev- astated by a terrible conflagration, as in 1788.7 The fire broke out at two o'clock in the afternoon in Royal Street; it was started by some boys who were playing in the yard of Don Francisco Mayronne, next to a hay-store; and as there was a brisk wind, the fire became so fierce that in less than three hours two hundred and twelve houses and stores were reduced to ashes, including a pow- der-magazine. Two stores were also destroyed in which some soldiers were lodged and where were sixteen hun- dred barrels of flour, the only ones in the town, and


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which belonged to the government. The following were also burned: sixty-seven gun-carriages and other artillery implements, the prison, the provisional church, the house in which the Capuchins lived, the barracks of the dra- goons, the stables and servants' quarters of the govern- ment house, and many other buildings. The St. Louis redoubt suffered considerably, in spite of the efforts of the troops and of the people, and the fire stopped only when it lacked fuel. The city, which had just recovered from the fire of 1788, and had been afflicted within the past three months with three hurricanes, was left in a deplorable condition, as one third of the houses, the best in the city, were burned. All the houses and stores of the merchants were destroyed, except two.


The governor sent for one thousand barrels of flour from Havana, and procured flour also from Vera Cruz and from the United States, and endeavored to obtain voluntary subscriptions from Havana to aid the people of New Orleans. Carondelet feared that the enemies of the Spaniards might take advantage of the calamities of the province to excite an insurrection, and he assured the people that the King, who intended to spend a mil- lion dollars to rebuild the capital of Guatemala, would be willing to give a certain amount to the unfortunate inhabitants of New Orleans. In order to avoid such conflagrations, Carondelet proposed that premiums be given to those who in rebuilding their houses should cover them with roofs of tiles. " At present," he said, " the houses are covered with roofs of shingles, and when they take fire they spread it to buildings sometimes very dis-


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tant, and the breaking down of houses adjoining the fire does not put a stop to it."


The year 1794 was marked by an event that was to exert a great influence on the welfare of Louisiana; this was the planting of sugar-cane by Étienne de Boré, which was to result in the first successful manufacture of sugar in the province, at least on a large scale. In 1751 the Jesuits introduced the sugar-cane into Louisiana from Santo Domingo; but neither they nor Dubreuil, the wealthy planter, had been successful in making well- granulated sugar. Judge Gayarré says: 8


The manufacture of sugar had been abandoned since 1766, as being unsuited to the climate, and only a few individuals continued to plant canes in the neighborhood of New Orleans, to be sold to the market of that town. It is true that two Span- iards, Mendez and Solis, had lately given more extension to the planting of that reed, but they had never succeeded in manu- facturing sugar. One of them boiled its juice into syrup, and the other distilled it into a spirituous liquor, of a very indifferent quality, called taffia.


It has been asserted that Don Antonio Mendez, re- ferred to by Gayarre, was the first to succeed in granu- lating sugar, on his plantation in St. Bernard parish. This, however, has generally been attributed to Etienne de Boré, and Gayarré, who was his grandson, gives, in his History of Louisiana, interesting details of Boré's success. The latter is mentioned also by Judge Martin as being the first successful sugar-manufacturer in Loui- siana, and there seems to be no reasonable doubt on this point.


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The cultivation of indigo had been for a long time the most remunerative, but, owing to a succession of hurri- canes, and to the appearance of an insect which had done great harm to the plant, the crops failed utterly in 1793 and 1794, and the planters of Louisiana saw themselves on the brink of ruin. It was then (in 1794) that Étienne de Boré resolved to cultivate the sugar-cane on a larger scale than ever in the province .?


Jean Étienne de Boré was born at Kaskaskia, in the Illinois district, on December 27, 1741. His father, Louis de Boré, was of an old Norman family, and his mother was Thérèse Céleste Carrière de Montbrun. He was descended from Robert de Boré, who had been one of the councilors of Louis XIV, director-general of the post-office department, and one of the stewards of the King's household. As was the custom in the colony, Jean Étienne de Boré's parents sent him to France to be edu- cated. He received the training of a military school, which may account for the self-reliance and firmness of character that were to render his name forever memor- able in the history of Louisiana. On leaving school he entered the celebrated corps of the mousquetaires, or guardsmen, and in 1768 he came to Louisiana, on leave of absence, to see about his property in the colony. It was the very year when Lafrenière and his brave com- panions had tried to free the province from the yoke of Spain and to establish an independent government in Louisiana. Boré returned to France in 1769, and re- ceived from Louis XV his commission as captain of cavalry. He married, in 1771, the daughter of Destré-


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han, ex-treasurer of Louisiana during the French dom- ination, and, as his wife had some property in the colony, he resigned his commission and returned to Louisiana, which was beginning to prosper under the mild rule of Governor Unzaga.


Étienne de Boré settled on a plantation in St. Charles parish, which he exchanged for one about six miles above New Orleans. That plantation comprised the land where were later Burtheville, Bloomingdale, and Hurstville, merged afterward in the city of New Orleans, and what is now Audubon Park formed its upper limit. In 1794 Étienne de Boré, like all the planters in the colony, had lost a great deal of money by the failure of the indigo crop. He resolved, therefore, to undertake the cultivation of sugar-cane, being confident that sugar could be manu- factured in Louisiana. IIe bought a quantity of cane from Mendez and Solis, and planted it on his land, not- withstanding the opposition of his friends and relatives, and especially of his wife, whose father had been unsuc- cessful in attempts to manufacture sugar. A gentleman named Morim, from Santo Domingo, who was then in New Orleans, went to see Boré, and found him in his field planting his cane. Morim told him he had come to in- form him that he could not succeed in manufacturing sugar in Louisiana, because the climate was so cold that the cane would never be ripe enough to produce a suffi- cient quantity of saccharine matter. Boré listened to him attentively, and made this characteristic reply: "I am very much obliged to you, sir, for your kindness in try- ing to induce me to abandon an undertaking which you


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believe to be rash and injudicious; but, as you see, my sugar-house is being built, my canes are almost all planted, and I have incurred two thirds of the expenses necessary for this year's crop, therefore I should lose much more by abandoning my canes than by attempting to grind them. Besides, I am convinced that I am right and that I shall succeed." Morim, seeing that Bore's de- cision was irrevocable, asked him to take him as his sugar-maker, and his offer was accepted. In 1795 Boré ground his cane, and, after a moment of anxious suspense, the sugar-maker, says Judge Gayarre, cried out, “It granulates!" These two words rang through Louisiana, and in a short time fields green with cane, and sugar- houses in full operation, could be seen all about. With his first crop Boré made one hundred hogsheads of sugar. He sold his sugar at twelve and one half cents a pound, and his molasses at fifty cents a gallon, and made a profit of $12,000. Étienne de Boré died on his plantation, twenty-four years after his great success, and left a fortune of $100,000 to each of his three daughters. He became in 1803 the first mayor of New Orleans when the cabildo was abolished by the French colonial prefect Laussat.10


During the French domination Louisiana was under the ecclesiastical jurisdiction of the Bishop of Quebec; but after the Spaniards had taken possession of the province the jurisdiction was transferred to the see of Santiago de Cuba, of which the head was Bishop Echevarria. Fa- ther Cirilo was made a bishop and auxiliary to the Bishop of Santiago de Cuba in 1781, and remained in


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New Orleans until 1793. In 1790 the bishopric of Santi- ago de Cuba was divided; the southern portion of Cuba became an archbishopric, and the northern portion, with the two Floridas and Louisiana, formed the bishopric of Havana.11 In 1793 Louisiana and the Floridas were formed into a new bishopric, and Don Luis de Peñalver y Cardenas was appointed the first bishop. He arrived in New Orleans on July 17, 1795, and St. Louis Church was made his cathedral. Bishop Peñalver remained in Loui- siana until 1801, when he was made Archbishop of Gua- temala.


In 1795 the cabildo asked for the creation of six more offices of regidor, and the request was granted by the King in 1797. In the same year (1795) Carondelet was again actively engaged in intrigues for the separation of the West from the Union. He employed as emissary Thomas Power, an Englishman who had been natural- ized a Spaniard, and to further his plans he counted prin- cipally on Wilkinson, Sebastian, Innis, Murray, and Nicholas. He sent Don Manuel Gayoso de Lemos to New Madrid to hold a conference with some of the Americans named above, but Sebastian was the only one that met Gayoso de Lemos. He proceeded to Natchez, and then to New Orleans, and went later to Philadelphia by sea, to return to Kentucky. Martin and Gayarre say that Wilkinson received ten thousand dollars from Carondelet through Power, but the writer has seen no official document confirming this fact. The intrigues with the West were fortunately brought to a close at that time by a treaty, which was signed on October 20, 1795. The principal stipulations were as follows; 12


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TREATY OF 1795


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The second article stipulates that the future boundary between the United States and the Floridas shall be the thirty-first parallel of north latitude, from the Missis- sippi eastward to the Chattahoochee River; thence along a line running due east, from the mouth of Flint River to the head of the St. Mary's River, and thence down the middle of that river to the Atlantic Ocean; and that within six months after the ratification of the treaty, the troops and garrisons of each power shall be withdrawn to its own side of the boundary, and the people shall be at liberty to return with all their effects, if they desire so to do.


The fourth article stipulates that the middle of the Mississippi River shall be the western boundary of the United States, from its source to the intersection of the said line of demarcation. The King of Spain also stipu- lates that the whole width of said river, from its source to the sea, shall be free to the people of the United States.


The King of Spain stipulates and agrees to permit the people of the United States, for the term of three years, to use the port of New Orleans as a place of deposit for their produce and merchandise, and to export the same free from all duty or charge, except a reasonable con- sideration to be paid for storage and other incidental cx- penses; that the term of three years may, by subsequent negotiation, be extended, or instead, some other point in the island of New Orleans shall be designated as a place of deposit for the American trade. Other com- mercial advantages were likewise held out as within the reach of negotiation.


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Large grants of land in Louisiana were made at that time (1795) to three French royalists-the Marquis de Maison Rouge, the Baron de Bastrop, and Jacques Céran de Lassus de St. Vrain. Carondelet was endeavor- ing, by all possible means, to render the province pros- perous, but it was in great danger from an insurrection of the slaves in 1795. This began on Julien Poydras's plantation in Pointe Coupée parish, and the murder of all the whites was planned. Carondelet, however, re- pressed the insurrection very severely. The cabildo, on February 29, 1796, requested the governor to ask that the importation of slaves into the province be prohibited, and to issue a provisional proclamation to that effect, and this he did.


On December 1, 1796, the intendant, Don Juan Ven- tura Morales, in a despatch to Don Diego Gardoqui, an- nounced the establishment of a fort in the village of the Great Osages, at the expense of Don Augusto Chouteau. This fort was called Carondelet, and was constructed in 1794 by Renato Augusto Chouteau, an inhabitant and merchant of St. Louis of the Illinois, who, aided by his brother Don Pedro, represented to the government the necessity of establishing among the Indians a fort that might restrain the young warriors, punish murderers, and effect restitution of stolen property. Chouteau offered to furnish four eannon and four swivel-guns and a gar- rison of twenty men, for whom the King should pay one hundred dollars a year for each man. Chouteau was to be governor of the fort; and, to compensate him for his expenses, he was to receive the exclusive right of trade


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with the Osages from December, 1794, to November, 1800. These conditions were approved by Governor Ca- rondelet, and Chouteau constructed the fort.


On October 7, 1796, Spain declared war against Great Britain, and Carondelet displayed great activity in put- ting the colony in a state of defense. In the same month of October Intendant Morales announced the breaking out of an epidemic, which had occurred in the latter part of August. This was probably the first appearance of yellow fever in New Orleans, and it produced great con- sternation.




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