USA > Louisiana > A history of Louisiana, Volume II > Part 9
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Everything concerning Bernardo de Galvez is so in- teresting that we shall give here an abstract of the royal schedule by which Louisiana, Pensacola, Mobile, and West Florida were erected into an independent cap- tainey, and Galvez appointed to command it. The schedule was printed at Havana on March 4, 1782, and reprinted by a friend on July 15, 1782, at Santa Fé de Bo- gota.7 A copy of the reprint is to be found in the John Carter Brown Library, Providence, Rhode Island. The King addresses Galvez and says in substance: "Know that I am well informed of your distinguished merit and of your signal services; that, following the example of. your ancestors, you chose very young the profession of arms, and that, as you had made war in Portugal as a vol- unteer, and with the rank of lieutenant of infantry, in 1772, I sent you afterward to the Kingdom of New Spain, where as captain of infantry and commandant of the provinces in the interior and on the frontier of that em- pire, you maintained the honor of my royal arms, chastis- ing several times the ferocious Apache Indians, at the cost of your blood, as you were wounded in several engage- ments and exposed to great peril in others. Having re-
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ROYAL SCHEDULE
1783]
turned to Spain by my order in 1772, you were captain of the regiment of infantry of Seville at the battle of Argel in 1775, and you were seriously wounded, for which I gave you the rank of lieutenant-colonel, and ordered you to return to the Military School of Avila, where, according to the reports of your chiefs, you distinguished yourself by your diligence and your talents. In order to defend the province of Louisiana and to increase its population and its commerce, and to have at that point a person in whom I had entire confidence, I appointed you in 1776 colonel of the regiment of Louisiana, and named you immediately provisional governor, in which office and in other employments, as in some delicate dealings with the English upon the river and its banks, you acted with the greatest prudence, activity, and honor, worthy of my royal name and sovereignty, for which I appointed you in 1779 a brigadier. When I was compelled by the just and excellent motives which were apparent to all Europe to declare war against the King of Great Britain, you received my orders and instructions relative to the war, with the title of governor of Louisiana, at the end of July, 1779, and although, on account of the situation and feeble condition of that province, all the officers whom you had assembled in council declared unanimously that the plan should be reduced to a mere defensive until rein- forcements should be received from Havana, you alone took the heroic resolution of attacking the English in their own posts and fortifications."
The King then speaks of the hurricane of August 18, 1779, and its devastations, which did not discourage Gal-
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vez, as described above, and the campaign against Baton Rouge, which ended by the capture of Fort Manchac, Fort Baton Rouge, the surrender of Fort Panmure at Natchez, and other posts of the English on the east side of the Mississippi, and the capture of eight vessels that had come from Pensacola to the help of the forts.
This undertaking and its respective operations were so well directed, and the result was so fortunate, that without having more than one man wounded, you made one thousand Englishmen sur- render, and placed under my domination four hundred and thirty leagues of rich and most fertile lands, peopled with plantations and different Indian nations dealing in peltries, preventing in this way my enemies from entrance into the interior provinces of New Spain, for which particular service I made you mariscal de campo [major-general] of my armies.
The King then refers to the siege and capture of Mo- bile on March 14, 1780. He relates how the Spanish fleet was wrecked, and how about eight hundred men found themselves almost naked on the coast of a desert island, without provisions, ammunition, or any other resources except those that were suggested by the valor of the com- mander and the constancy of the troops; and yet the gen- eral had resolved to attack the fort of Mobile, making ladders out of pieces of the wrecked ships. The arrival of provisions and troops from Havana in four small ships made it possible to besiege Mobile, which was sur- rendered with three hundred and seven men in the sight of General Campbell, who had left Pensacola with eleven hundred men to reinforce Mobile, and who retired hur- riedly with the loss of a captain and sixteen dragoons
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taken prisoners, and with the mortification of seeing his expedition thwarted while he was an eye-witness of the military skill of Galvez and the valor of the Spanish troops, which dragged by hand the artillery and all that was necessary for the siege.
IIere follows a very complete narrative of the siege of Pensacola in 1781. Special mention is made of Galvez's heroism when he crossed the bar on board the brig Gal- veztown, after the officers of the Spanish fleet had refused to risk their ships in such an undertaking. Galvez, said the King, had understood how dishonorable it would be for the royal arms to desist from the attack on Pensacola. Full details are given of the siege, and mention is made of the fact that Galvez was wounded twice, but that he continued to direct the operations against the city, which capitulated on May 10, 1781. .
By this glorious conquest, and those made formerly, has been accomplished the important and desired object of expelling the English from the whole Mexican Gulf, where they have done so much harm to my subjects and royal interests, in time of peace as well as of war; and having received from you the news of such a happy result, I granted you immediately the rank of lieutenant- general of my armies; and remembering that the great post of Pensacola was named at the time of its discovery Bay of Santa Maria; that later it received the name of Galve in honor of the count of that name who visited it and established a settlement there when he was viceroy of New Spain; and that it is just that there remain of you in that region an honorable and perpetual remem- brance, I have decreed that from this time and forever it be named Bay of Santa Maria de Galvez, in honor of the Most Holy Virgin and in remembrance of you as its conqueror: that the castle of
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Barrancas Coloradas, called formerly Santo Thomé, be named San Carlos for having been constructed at the time of Don Carlos II, and its recovery effected during my fortunate reign: that Fort George be named hereafter San Miguel for having capitulated on the day of the Apparition of this Holy Archangel General of the God of Armies: and that to perpetuate in your posterity the memory of the heroic action, when alone you forced the entrance to that bay, you should place as a crest on your coat of arms the brig Galveztown with the motto: Yo Solo; and that your children, descendants, and successors use this escutcheon.
The King then says he has resolved to erect into a governorship and captaincy-general, independent of the island of Cuba and of the Indies, the provinces of Louisi- ana, Pensacola, Mobile, Apalache, and others which the English possessed, by the name of West Florida, and to appoint Galvez first governor and independent captain- general, with a salary at present of ten thousand dollars per annum. The King adds that he has ordered that a narrative be made in this royal schedule of the signal ser- vices of Galvez and of the rewards he has merited, for the honor and satisfaction of the latter, that his illustrious house and family might keep this document, which was a testimonial of the royal gratitude for his great merit and for the just causes for which he has been distin- guished.
Very few subjects have received such praise from their sovereign and have deserved it as well as Galvez. He be- came as popular as viceroy of Mexico as he had been as governor of Louisiana, and his wife, who was a native of the latter province, is said to have contributed greatly to his popularity by her exquisite charm and her charity.
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GOVERNOR MIRÒ
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Bernardo de Galvez died in Mexico in 1786, at the age of thirty.8
The successor of Galvez was Don Estevan Mirò, who was appointed governor of Louisiana on July 14, 1785, " on account of his services as governor ad interim during the absence of titular Governor Count de Galvez while commanding the army in the late war." 9 Mirò was to re- ceive a salary of four thousand dollars. He was not as brilliant a man as his predecessor, but his administration was mild and enlightened, and may be compared with that of Unzaga, into whose official acts he was ordered to inquire as juez de residencia, or judge of residence.10 " Residence," says Judge Martin, " is a term which, in the jurisprudence of Spain, is used to denote an inquiry into the official conduct of any public functionary, whenever, by death, removal, or any other cause, he has ceased to execute the duties of his office. The decision of a judge of residence is reviewed on appeal by the Council of the Indies. The inquiry is made at the principal place of the district in which the late officer exercised his functions." This investigation into the acts of an official should have produced excellent effects, but it seems that, however good in theory the custom was, it did not amount to much in practice and was a mere formality.
One of the first acts of Governor Mirò's administration was the establishment by the cabildo of a hospital for lepers, on a ridge of high land in the rear of New Or- leans, between the river and Bayou St. John. This was known as Lepers' Land long after the hospital and its inmates had disappeared from New Orleans.
الح السكر
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'A census of the inhabitants of Louisiana and West Florida was taken in 1785, with the following results: Within the city of New Orleans, 4980; from the Balize to the city, 2100; at Terre aux Bœufs, 576; on Bayous St. John and Gentilly, 678; Tchoupitoulas, 7046; parish of St. Charles, 1903; St. John the Baptist, 1300; St. James, 1332; Lafourche, 646; Lafourche, interior, 352; Iberville, 673; Pointe Coupée, 1521; Opelousas, 1211; Attakapas, 1070; New Iberia, 125; Ouachita, 207; Rap- ides, 88; Avoyelles, 287; Natchitoches, 756; Arkansas, 196; St. Geneviève, 694; St. Louis, 897; Manchac, 77; Galveston, 242; Baton Rouge, 270; Natchez, 1550; Mo- bile, 746; Pensacola, 592; total, 32,115. The census of 1785 proved that the population had more than doubled since 1769, when O'Reilly established the Spanish domi- nation.
In the same year, 1785, there was a considerable acces- sion to the population by the arrival of a number of Aca- dian families, who came over at the expense of the King of France and were settled on both sides of the river near Plaquemines, at Terre aux Bœufs, on Bayou Lafourche, and in the Attakapas and Opelousas.
We have seen that the State of Georgia claimed all the ' territory from the Atlantic to the Mississippi, bounded on the south by the thirty-first parallel of latitude. Part of this region, however, was occupied by the Spaniards, and commissioners were appointed, who arrived in New Orleans in the autumn of 1785. "They notified the Spanish governor that on February 7, 1785, the Legisla- ture of Georgia had passed an act which provided for
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DON ESTEVAN MIRÒ 1714-1:95
Fifth Spanish Governor of Louisiana. He afterward rose to the rank of Lieutenant-General in the Spanish army. From a contemporary portrait in the possession of Baron Édouard de Pontalba, Senlis, France.
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the erection of a county, by the name of Bourbon County, near the Mississippi, comprising all the lands below the mouth of the Yazoo, to which the Indian title had been extinguished.11
Governor Mirò refused to consider their claims, and to surrender to them the fort and district of Natchez, of which Colonel Francisco Bouligny was then comman- dant. In a letter to them, dated September 7, 1785, he says : 12
It is not my duty to insist on the indisputable right of Spain to own the territory as far as the mouth of the Ohio River, on the cast bank of the Mississippi River, since Don Diego Gardoqui is sent by His Majesty to Philadelphia as special commissioner to adjust the terms of limit with the aforesaid United States; thus I shall only mention that I have received no orders to deliver the said fort and district of Natchez, and, consistently with my oath, I am compelled to refuse them to all claimants, and to de- fend them against whatever enemies might offer to attack them, so long as I have no order from my sovereign to yield them up; consequently, I cannot permit you, sirs, to exercise your com- mission of justices of the peace in the said district or in any other within the dominions of His Majesty up to the already mentioned mouth of the Ohio River, which are under my command, and I hope that you will abstain from exercising therein any act of au- thority that I could consider hostile on your part, as from the present time I declare that you shall control nothing whatever in the territories of His Majesty, and by the laws of the Indies I can permit in them no foreign interference.
These words are quoted to show how polite and how firm was Governor Mirò. To the end of the Spanish domination the governors of Louisiana were called upon
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to display great tact and courage in their dealings with the Americans, who claimed free navigation of the Mis- sissippi River and coveted the city of New Orleans, which was destined to be the great emporium of the Mis- sissippi valley.
Governor Mirò displayed his usual gentleness and tact in 1785 by allowing further time to the British settlers in East and West Florida to remove their persons and effects from these provinces, after the eighteen months agreed upon by the treaty had expired. This was done with the consent of Galvez, who as captain-general of Louisiana and Florida was Mirò's superior. The same privilege was granted the inhabitants of Natchez, and in 1786 the King approved Mirò's conduct and allowed the British settlers to remain in their districts on their taking an oath of allegiance and fidelity. Irish priests were to be sent to the districts where there were English-speaking people, in the hope of bringing them over to the Catholic faith. No one was to be molested on account of his re- ligious opinions, but no public worship other than the Catholic was allowed.
Since the royal schedule of 1782 the trade of New Or- leans had revived, and commercial houses from France had established themselves there. But the planters who - had obtained credit from the British traders, at the time of the Manchac establishments referred to at length in Col- onel Bouligny's memoir, were sorely pressed for payment. Mirò, as formerly Unzaga, came to the help of the honest debtors, sometimes, it was said, satisfying the creditor from his own purse. In 1786 the governor issued his
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"BANDO DE BUEN GOBIERNO"
bando de buen gobierno, which was a proclamation some- what equivalent to the inaugural address of our American governors. It differed from the latter, however, in the fact that the Spanish governors not only announced what they intended to do, but issued orders that were as much to be obeyed by the people as laws passed by our present legislatures and approved by our American governors. Mirò's bando de buen gobierno is very interesting, and we shall quote in full what Judge Martin says about it: 13
In this document Mirò begins by stating that religion being the object of the wise laws of Spain, and a reverend demeanor in church a consequence of it, the bishop having lately published an edict with regard to the respect and devotion with which the faithful are to attend the celebration of the holy mysteries, the proceedings of the vicar-general against delinquents will receive every necessary aid from the government. Working on the Sab- bath and other holy festivals is prohibited, except in cases of ne- cessity, without the license of the vicar. He forbids the doors of shops or stores being kept open during the hours of divine ser- vice, and the dances of slaves on the public square, on those days, before the close of the evening service.
He declares his intention to proceed with severity against all persons living in concubinage. He observes that the idleness of free negro, mulatto, and quadroon women, resulting from their dependence for a livelihood on incontinence and libertinage, will not be tolerated. He recommends them to renounce their mode of living, and to betake themselves to honest labor; and declares his determination to have those who neglect his recommendation sent out of the province, warning them that he will consider their excessive attention to dress as an evidence of their conduct.
He complains that the distinction which had been established in the head-dress of females of color is disregarded, and urges
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[1786
that it is useful to enforce it; forbids them to wear thereon any plumes or jewelry, and directs them to wear their hair bound in a handkerchief.
He announces that the laws against gambling and dueling, and against those who carry about their persons dirks, pistols, and other arms, shall be rigorously enforced.
The nightly assemblages of people of color are prohibited.
The inhabitants of the city are forbidden to leave it, either by land or water, without a passport; and those who leave the prov- ince are to give security for the payment of their debts.
Persons coming in, by land or water, are to present themselves at the government house.
Those who harbor convicts, or deserters, from the land or naval service, are to be punished.
Any large concourse of people, without the knowledge of gov- ernment, is inhibited.
None are to walk out at night without urgent necessity, and not then without a light.
No house or apartment is to be rented to a slave.
Tavern-keepers are to shut their houses at regular hours, and not to sell spirituous liquors to Indians, soldiers, or slaves.
Purchases from soldiers, Indians, convicts, or slaves are pro- hibited.
Regulations are made to prevent forestalling, hogs running at large in the streets, the keeping too great a number of dogs, and the removal of dead animals.
Measures are taken to guard against conflagrations, for drain- ing the streets, and for keeping the landing on the levee unob- structed.
Verbal sales of slaves are prohibited.
During a part of Mirò's administration as governor of Louisiana, Martin Navarro was intendant. He was as wise as his chief, and in one of his despatches in 1786 he
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speaks of the commerce with the Indian tribes and makes suggestions that " would cause to fall into Spanish hands the manna offered by the trade with the Indians, which is a casket of wealth, of which others have the use, al- though we hold its key. The treasures of that mine would then find their way into the coffers of our nation, and our enemies would not wrest from us the bread that should help to our sustenance, and forty thousand dollars a year would be sufficient to supply all the wants of that trade." " 14 He concludes his despatch with these sensible words:
If the province of Louisiana is intended to serve as a barrier against the Americans, it cannot answer this purpose without a considerable increase of its population, and it can acquire the numerous population of which it is susceptible, only through com- merce and agriculture. The one requires protection, the other assistance. The former cannot prosper without freedom and un- limited expansion; the latter cannot succeed without laborers. Both are necessary to supply the means of paying the expenses of the colony, to secure the possessions and the rights of the sovereign, and to make his power and arms respected. These are all my views on this matter.
In 1787 the districts of Opelousas and Attakapas, which, thus far, had had but one commandant for both, werc separated. The Chevalier de Clouet, who before had been in command of both, was left in charge of the At- takapas, and Don Nicolas Forstall was appointed com- mandant of the district of Opelousas. At that time Mirò made special efforts to encourage emigration from the west into Louisiana, and, says Gayarré, wishing to as-
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certain the number of Acadians who had settled in Loui- siana, he caused a census to be taken, and it was found in 1787, that the population amounted to fifteen hundred and eighty-seven souls.
Don Diego de Gardoqui had been sent as minister to the United States. He resolved to encourage emigration from Kentucky and North Carolina to the right bank of the Mississippi, and he formed plans for annexing the western part of the United States to the province of Louisiana.
"On March 21, 1788," says Gayarré, "that being Good Friday, at half-past one in the afternoon, a fire broke out in New Orleans, in the house of the mili- tary treasurer, Vicente José Nuñez, and reduced to ashes eight hundred and fifty-six edifices, among which were the stores of all the merchants, and the dwell- ings of the principal inhabitants, the cathedral, the convent of the Capuchins, with the greater portion of their books, the town hall, the watch-house, and the arsenal with all its contents. Only seven hundred and. fifty muskets were saved. The public prison was also burned, and there was hardly time to save the lives of the inmates. Most of the buildings that escaped were those that fronted the river. Mirò sent to the court of Spain a detailed account of the losses occasioned by this fire, put- ting them down at $2,595,561." The governor did every- thing in his power to relieve the distress of the inhabitants.
In a despatch of April 1, 1788,15 already referred to with regard to the state of education in Louisiana in 1772, during Unzaga's administration, Mirò says the
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THE SPANISH LANGUAGE
1788]
conflagration of March 21, 1788, destroyed the building that had been rented as a school-house for Don Manuel de Lara, and that Don Andres Almonester y Roxas had offered the use of a small house where Don Manuel might reside and keep school in a room thirteen feet long by twelve feet wide, a sufficient space, as many families have gone to the plantations to live, and only twelve students remain out of twenty-three who were at the school before the fire. The governor recommends that a brick school- house be built, at a cost of six thousand dollars. He adds that "the introduction of the Spanish language in the province was a difficult work, and one requiring a long time, as had been the case in all countries where a change of domination had taken place. Until now, all that has been accomplished is, that the proceedings of the courts of justice in New Orleans be conducted in Spanish. Such has not been the case in the posts and in the parishes, where absolutely nothing but French is spoken. Even in the city the books of the merchants are kept in that language, except of those merchants who are Span- iards by birth. For this reason, as here, those persons who do not possess plantations aspire to give no other profession to their sons than that of merchants (a rea- son for which they reduce education to knowing how to read, write, and count) ; they prefer to give their chil- dren that instruction in French, and even before the fire there were eight schools that were attended by about four hundred boys and girls."
In the same despatch of April 1, 1788, Mirò announces that he is going to remove the cemetery from the interior
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of the city, and on November 30, 1788, he mentions the hospital of charity, the hospital for lepers, and the church of the convent of the Ursuline nuns, which Don Andres Almonester y Roxas had built at his own expense, in- creasing the small fund which the Charity Hospital pos- sessed.16 The governor suggests that the favor solicited by Almonester be granted him, or any other, at the King's pleasure, which would influence him to construct at his own expense, as he has offered, the parochial church of the city, at a cost of fifty thousand dollars. We do not know what was the favor which Almonester solicited of the King of Spain.
In 1788 Mirò received and executed a commission of juez de residencia into the acts of Galvez as governor, but probably Don Estevan found nothing to criticize in the administration of his brilliant predecessor.
In the spring of 1788 Don Martin Navarro, the able intendant of Louisiana, left the province, and Mirò united in his person the offices of governor and intendant. In his last communication to the King, Navarro had called attention to the ambition of the United States, whose aim was to extend their possessions to the Pacific Ocean. He spoke of the danger to the Spanish provinces arising from the emancipation of the former British col- onies, and suggested that the best way to protect Louisi- ana and the Floridas was to dismember the western coun- try. This was also Gardoqui's policy, and probably Mirò's, and attempts were seriously made by the Spanish authorities to accomplish that purpose.
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