USA > Louisiana > A history of Louisiana, revised edition > Part 10
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The publication of this communication threw the colonists into the greatest grief and consternation. They had been forced to submit to the triumph of the English flag, and the loss to England of all the magnificent country bought with two centuries of their blood and labor ; but that was accord- ing to the fortunes of war. Now they were called upon to yield the last portion of the continent over which the French flag floated and see themselves and the great mouth of the Mississippi tossed like a trifle to a nation who had never lifted a finger for them, a nation too insignificant as a foe to be much esteemed as a friend.
M. d'Abadie died in 1765, and thus could not carry out his instructions. The government was put in to the hands of' Aubry, the commander of the royal troops.
The Acadians. 1764-1765 .*- Before the feelings of the col- onists had time to calm, there arrived in their midst a band of
traband depot. D'Abadie, seeing the necessities of the colonists, closed his eyes to the custom.
* Acadia, or Nova Scotia, as it is now called, had been conquered from France by the English, and transferred to the British crown, by the treaty of Utrecht, in 1713. It was stipulated that those of the French who chose to remain in the country as subjects to the King of England should enjoy free exercise of their reli-
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compatriots whose unhappy fate seemed to foretell their own. On the open levee, in front of New Orleans, a weary band of twenty pilgrims from Acadia landed and told their sad story-a story which has found worthy immortality in verse. t Their country also had been ceded away ; their homes, their churches, their allegiance.
The citizens greeted them with tender and generous hos- pitality, furnishing them food, clothing, lodging and sympa- thy. Aubry gave them land, settling them on the river bank above the German coast, at what is still known as the Acadian coast. Succeeding bands were located in the Lafourche, Attakapas and Opelousas district, where their descendants live to this day ; a worthy, industrious and frugal population, retaining, even in the wealth and official distinction that many have attained, the primitive faith and simplicity of their early history.
QUESTIONS.
Who was the Marquis de Vaudreuil? What of the war declared in Europe? Give account of colony and city under De Vaudreuil? Who succeeded to De Vaudreuil? Give an account of the Seven Years' War. Kerlerec's defences. The treaty of Paris. British pos- session of the country. Expulsion of the Jesuits When was the cession to Spain made known? What of its effect on the colony? Who succeeded to Abadie? Who were the Acadians?
gion ; the rest were allowed to remove within a year. Very few withdrew. Most of them hoped that something might occur to prevent the necessity of it. Ill will between the new and old possessors of the land was to be expected. The English accused the priests of encouraging it, and suspected the Acadians of inviting Indian war parties into the country. A new and still more binding oath of allegiance to England was drawn up, and for years the English tried to force it upon the Aca- dians. It was then decided that all who refused to take it should be removed from the country. The number removed was over 6000. Many were settled in the British colonies from Massachusetts to Georgia. Wretched, among a people hating them
for their religion and their nation, they soon began a pilgrimage to Canada and to Louisiana. Ship loads of Acadians were transported to England, whence they made their way to France, where they were settled in the interior of the country or sent in colonies to the French establishment in Guyana and the West Indies. From the West Indies the Acadians voyaged over the Gulf of Mexico to join their breth- ren in Louisiana, and here they were afterward joined by the wanderers from Guy. ana. In 1784, in consequence of negotiations with Spain, all the remaining Acadian refugees in France were sent to Louisiana. From 1764 to 178S it is calculated that the Acadian immigration to Louisiana numbered over 4000 souls.
[ Read " Evangeline," by Longfellow.
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CHAPTER XVII.
RESISTANCE TO SPANISH DOMINATION.
The Louisianans were not to be ceded away from their country and flag without a protest. Public sentiment ripened into action. Each parish throughout the colony was re- quested to send delegates to a meeting to be held in New Orleans. The parishes responding with their best and most notable citizens, a large and impressive assembly met. The attorney general, 'Lafreniere, opened proceedings with an energetic and eloquein speech, proposing a resolution in which the colonists of Louisiana en masse supplicated the King of France not to sever them from their country * The resolution passed unanimously, and Jean Milhet, one of the richest and most influential merchants of New Orleans, was deputed to carry it to France and lay it at the foot of the throne.
Milhet departed on the first vessel. In Paris he sought out Bienville, now a white-haired patriarch eighty-six years of age. Together, they went with the memorial to the Prime Minister, De Choiseul, whom they asked to present them to the king. But as De Choiseul had been the counsellor of the cession of Louisiana, he was not in the mind to further any remonstrance against it. He received the deputies with civility and listened to them with patience, but he so artfully thwarted their designs that Milhet was never able to present his paper.
Over a year passed after the official news of the cession and after the meeting ; Milhet did not return from France, and no Spanish envoy presented himself to take possession of the
* The following are the names of those who were foremost in the first political convention held in Louisiana: Lafreniere, Doucet, St. Lette, Pin, Villere, the 'chevalier d'Arensbourg, Jean Milhet, Joseph Milhet, St. Maxent, De la Chaise, Marquis, Garic, Masson, Masange, Poupet, Noyan, Boisblanc, Grandmaison, Lallande, Lesassier, Braud (royal printer), Kernion, Carrere, Dessales, etc.
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colony. To all appearances either the King of Spain or the King of France was hesitating about it. The colonists there- fore rebounded from their first feeling to hope and courage.
Ulloa. 1766 .- Suddenly the bright horizon darkened .. A letter came to the Superior Council in July, 1766, from Don Antonio de Ulloa, announcing his arrival in Havana on his way to take possession of Louisiana, of which he had been appointed governor. He did not reach the colony, however, until the following spring. He was accompanied by two companies of infantry, a commissary of war, De Loyola ; an intendant, Navarro ; and a royal comptroller, Gayarre. They met a respectful but cold reception from the citizens.
Requested by the Superior Council to present his creden- tials, Ulloa refused, saying that he did not wish to take pos- session until the arrival of the rest of the Spanish troops, adding that he had nothing to do with the Superior Council, which was a civil tribunal, and that in taking possession he only recognized Aubry as competent to treat with him.
The colonists fell again into despair over their situation. Instead of mitigating it by his personal influence, Ulloa only rendered it worse, and the prospect of submission to him be- came unendurable. Although a distinguished man of science and letters, he was most unattractive and impolitic. Cold, haughty, reserved and dictatorial, he was in every respect a painful contrast to the people whom he was sent to govern ; and, restricting his intercourse entirely to the military gov- ernor, Aubry, he ignored the colonists in a manner most ex- asperating to the independent, free-spoken creoles.
He offered to take the French soldiers into the service of Spain, but they refused to change their allegiance. The Spanish soldiers were lodged, therefore, apart from them, and Aubry was forced to garrison the city with his troops and still to act the part of governor. In reality he was only the mouthpiece and deputy of Ulloa, who assumed surrep- titiously all the rights of his unacknowledged official position.
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He had a census of the inhabitants taken, made a tour of inspection of the different military establishments in the province, and as Aubry had received no money from France to pay French soldiers or to carry on the government, he ad- vanced him the funds to do so. He issued various ordinances and decrees, one of them forbidding trading vessels entering the port without previously submitting to him the estimate and price of their cargoes, and restricting all trade to six Spanish ports and to vessels commanded by Spaniards. Vessels sailing to or from Louisiana were even prohibited from entering any Spanish port in America, except in case of distress, and then had to submit to strict examination and heavy charges.
What the people of Louisiana most dreaded in the trans- fer to Spain was the application to them of the narrow- minded decrees of trade framed for the Spanish colonies, which would ruin their commerce to the profit of the com- merce of Spanish ports. This decree of Ulloa was the real- ization of their worst fears. Commercial ruin stared them in the face.
The merchants, in a body, presented a petition* to the Superior Council, signed by names that are still distinguished in Louisiana, begging a suspension of the decree until they could be heard on the subject. The ship captains also pre- sented a similar petition.
Ulloa meanwhile descended the river to the Balize, and re- mained there seven months, awaiting the arrival of the wealthy lady from Peru whom he was to marry. Aubry made peri-
* The merchants who signed the petition against the decree to the Superior Council, were: Joseph Milhet, Rose, Cantrelle D. Braud, J. Mercier, L. Ducrest, Petit, Duforest, Toutant Beauregard, L. Boisdore, B. Duplessis, Bracquier, P. O. Caresse, J. Vienne. P. Segond, Voix, Durel, Blache, M. Poupet Jr., Poupet, Estebe. Rodrigue, J. Sauvestre, G. Gardelle, Ducarpe, F. Durand, J. and N. Boudet. Riv- oire, Macuenara, F. Denis, J. Arnoult, A. Renard, P, Senilh, A. Bodaille, Laulhe, Dubourg, Festas, Frigiere, Ranson, Fournier, St. Pe, Detour, Villefranche Salo- mon, Delassize Blaignat, Langlois, Fortier, Lafitte, Ilenard, Estady, Astier, Brunet, Bienvenue, Sarpy, Doraison, Cavelier, Papion, Gaurrege, Revoil, Guezille, Guignan, St. Anne, Moullineau, P. Hery, A. Ollivier, Broussard, Dumas, Grueu- mard, Chateau, Simon, Hugues, Sarrou, Raguet, Nicolet, Brion, Betremleux, Blan- din, Duterte, Bijon, D'Hubeck, Duralde, Bonnemaison, Joli, Forstal, L'Enfant.
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odical visits to him; during one of which he signed a secret act, putting Ulloa in possession of the province, and at the same time authorized him to raise the Spanish flag whenever he wished. Relieved from the presence of Ulloa and still awaiting the result of Milhet's mission the colonists began again to indulge their patriotic dreams.
Milhet returned from France ; instead of the good news expected, he brought the report of total failure. In- dignation succeeded to disappointment. Throwing off all concealment, the colonists voiced their hatred of Spain and Ulloa, and their loathing of the yoke about to be put upon them. Calm was completely destroyed. From one end of the colony to the other the wildest excitement prevailed. Meetings were held in which heated addresses increased still more the violence of feeling. Finally the country was again invited to send delegates to another grand meeting to be held in the capital.
As before, Lafreniere took an important part and made an impassioned speech. He was ably sustained by the two brothers Milhet, and by Doucet, a lawyer lately arrived from France. The proceedings terminated by an address to the Superior Council, calling upon it to declare Ulloa an usurper and oppressor for having raised the Spanish flag in several places in the colony without having exhibited and registered his credentials at the Superior Council or in such a manner that the citizens could see them; for having on his own private authority and without reason detained captains and their ships in port ; for having put French citizens under arrest on board the Spanish frigate ; and for having held coun- cils with Spanish officers in which decrees of arrest had been rendered against French citizens; the citizens, therefore, prayed the Superior Council to order Ulloa out of the colony. The paper was signed by five hundred and fifty respectable names. It was ordered printed by the royal commissary and circulated in every parish. After the address was read to the council and handed to a committee for consideration, the
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attorney general * submitted a brief in which the duties of councils and parliaments to the people were explained and the legal points bearing upon the competency of the Royal Superior Council to act in the premises exposed.
On the 29th of October the petition was taken up by the council, and after some debate a decree was passed order- ing Ulloa to produce his powers from the King of Spain, if he had any, that they might be recorded in its minutes or to depart within a month. Ulloa accepted the last alternative, and on the following afternoon embarked with all his house- hold on a frigate then at the levee. Aubry with a detail of soldiers escorted him and left a guard on the vessel.
Expulsion of Ulloa .- At daylight the next morning a crowd of revelers, who had passed the night at a wedding feast, appeared on the levee shouting, and singing patriotic songs. The frigate, containing the hated Spaniard and his equally hated wife, lay before them in the gray dawn. They could not resist the temptation ; one of them cut its ropes, and with delight the crowd watched the vessel move from its moorings, yield to the current and drift away from the city.
A few days afterwards a memorial or manifesto, explain- ing and justifying the expulsion, was printed and dissemi- nated. The Superior Council despatched one of its members, Mr. Lesassier, with a copy of the decree and an explanatory letter to the Minister of Foreign Affairs in France. The citizens sent another address to the king voicing their senti- ments against Ulloa, and praying to be allowed to remain Frenchmen, and Aubry, who had protested against the ex- pulsion, also wrote his account of the affair, reiterating what
* Lafreniere in his speech referred to the successful opposition of the British American colonies to the Stamp Act, and drew the attention of the council to the noble conduct of the people of Burgundy in 1526, when summoned by Launoy, the viceroy of Naples, to recognize as their sovereign the emperor Charles V, to whom Francis I had ceded the province by the treaty of Madrid. The States and courts of justice being convened to deliberate on the emperor's message, they unani- mously answered that the province was a part of the French monarchy and that the king had not the power of alienating it. The nobles resolutely declared that if the king abandoned them they would resort to arms and the last drop of their blood would be spilt in defence of their country.
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he had written shortly after the arrival of Ulloa, that notwith- standing the Spaniard's reputation in all the academies of Europe, he was not the proper man to govern the colony, not having the qualities requisite to command Frenchmen. Instead of gaining the hearts of the people, he had done everything to alienate them. He seemed to despise the colony and particularly the Superior Council, and by his in- discreet conduct had rendered the Spanish domination dreaded, uttering threats which menaced a horrible tyranny in the future. Aubry also described the great distress finan- cial and commercial, since the advent of Ulloa, the depression of all values and the decrease of population.
Ulloa from Havana sent to his goverernment a report of the insult to his king and to himself. He passed in re- view by name the men who had taken a prominent part in the rebellion, as he called it. He described them as extrava- gant and overwhelmed with debts and only seeking in revo- lution an escape from their responsibilities. All, he said, were children of Canadians, who had come to Louisiana axe on shoulder, to live by the work of their hands.
The momentary calm that follows the storm fell over Louisiana and the Louisianians. During the interval between the sending of their communication to their government in France and getting an answer, there was much discussion and speculation about future events. There had been a thought of casting off all monarchical allegiance, and making Louisiana a republic under the protection of England, and three months before the expulsion emissaries had been sent to the English governor at Pensacola to sound him on the subject. The English official returned an unfavorable answer, however, and, it is said, betrayed the communication to Aubry, who, in his turn, delivered it to the Spanish gov- ernor.
O'Reilly. 1769 .- Like a thunderclap, six months after- wards, came the announcement from the commandant at Balize
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HISTORY OF LOUISIANA.
of the arrival of Count O'Reilly, lieutenant general of the armies of Spain, with a formidable number of ships and troops. The news was enough to chill the colonists with fear. The pitiless, bloody record of Spain as an avenger in the past arose before them, with the vision of their own defenceless position. The leaders of the Spanish opposition hastened to Aubry, in despair at what they had brought upon the colony. The French general reassured them. As no blood had been shed in the expulsion of Ulloa, he thought that a prompt sub- mission would be accepted as sufficient atonement for the past. He sent an officer to tranquilize the inhabitants along the coast and warn them to keep quiet.
That evening a Spanish officer arrived with dispatches from O'Reilly, stating that he had come to take possession of the country for the King of Spain and would exhibit his creden- tials at his first interview with Aubry. The next day Aubry assembled the citizens and made them an address announcing the arrival of the Spanish envoy ; counseling submission and obedience, and taking upon himself to assure them that if they followed his advice they could have full confidence in the clemency of the King of Spain.
Lafreniere, one of the Milhets and Marquis, offered to go personally to O'Reilly to present their submission and the submission of the citizens. Aubry gave them a letter of in- troduction, and O'Reilly received them courteously.' La- freniere introduced himself and companions as delegates from the people, charged to make profession of submission and respect to the King of Spain. Throwing the blame of what had occurred on the illegal conduct of Ulloa, he pro- tested that the credentials which O'Reilly brought were more authoritative to the colony than the army under his command ; but the colony implored his benevolence for such privileges of time as would be needed by those who should wish to emigrate from it. O'Reilly responded kindly that it was not possible for him to come to any decision until he
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had examined all the facts of the case on the spot; that the colonists could be assured that no one loved to do good more than he, and that it would plunge him into despair to cause the smallest injury to any one. He begged the colonists to be tranquil, and trust to his good sentiments toward them. He mentioned the word sedition; Marquis interrupted him and explained that that word was not applicable to the colo- nists. O'Reilly kept the party to dinner, treated them with all courtesy, and sent them away full of hope in regard to the past. Their report of the interview calmed the agitation in the city, which sank into much needed repose and peace.
QUESTIONS.
Give an account of opposition to Spanish domination. Arrival of Ulloa. Refusal to exhibit his credentials. Expulsion. Their com- munication to the home government. Further proceedings of the colonists. O'Reilly's arrival.
SPANISH DOMINATION.
CHAPTER XVIII.
O'REILLY TAKES POSSESSION.
On the night of August 17, 1769, the Spanish frigate, followed by twenty-three other vessels, sailed up the river and anchored in front of the city.
At mid-day of the 18th Aubry had the general alarm beaten. The troops and militia marched out and formed, facing the vessels, on one side of the Place d' Armes. General O'Reilly landed, and three thousand soldiers filing after him formed on the other three sides of the open space.
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O'Reilly, advancing to Aubry, presented his credentials from the King of Spain and his orders to receive the province. The papers were read aloud to the assembled citizens. Au- bry made a proclamation relieving the colonists from their allegiance to France, and delivered the keys of the city to O'Reilly. The vessels discharged their guns, the soldiers fired salvos of musketry and shouted. The Spanish flag was raised on all public buildings, the French flag lowered. Spanish guards relieved the French guards. A Te Deum was then celebrated at the church, and the ceremonies termi- nated by a grand parade of the Spanish military, who, with their discipline and finished equipments, presented a truly awe-inspiring appearance to the colonists.
O'Reilly took up his residence in one of the handsomest houses in the city and assumed a mode of life more regal and stately than had ever been displayed by any previous governor. In the largest apartment of his hotel a kind of throne was placed under a canopy, and here, like a mimic king, he gave audiences and held receptions. The colonists, faithful to their professions, came in num- bers to pay their respects. They were accompanied by their wives and daughters, who, with their per- sonal attractiveness and handsome O'REILLY. toilettes, endeavored to throw the graceful charm of society over the grim and sombre state of a military ceremony.
The Spaniard maintained a graciousness of demeanor which exceeded even the most sanguine expectations. He had written, however, privately to Aubry, demanding full and entire information respecting the expulsion of Ulloa, with the literal citation of all orders, protestations, and pub-
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lic and private documents relating thereto, and particularly the names of the persons who wrote and published the decree of the council ordering the expulsion and the man- ifesto succeeding it.
Aubry, accepting the role of informer, furnished not only all that was officially required, but such gratuitous personal evidence as would make him agreeable to the Spaniards. Masan, Chevalier of St. Louis ; Foucault, the commissary : Marquis, ex-captain of a Swiss company; the two De Noyans, nephews of Bienville ; and Villere, were named as the richest and most distinguished citizens who had taken part in the Spanish expulsion. All the documents with sig- natures attached, and the manifesto with Braud's stamp as printer, were put into O'Reilly's hands.
Upon different pretexts, O'Reilly secured the attendance of Lafreniere, De Noyan, the two Milhets and Boisblanc on the same day at his levee. HIe received them with more than his usual courtesy, and suavely begged them to pass into the next room with him. They complied unhesitat- ingly, walked into the apartment and were surrounded by Spanish grenadiers with fixed bayonets. Then throw- ing off his mask, O'Reilly denounced his guests as rebels to the King of Spain, informing them that they were prisoners of state and their property and fortunes confiscated. The gentlemen, then under strong guard, were conveyed to the places which had been selected for their imprisonment ; some to the barracks, some to the frigate in the river, and some to their houses, where a guard was stationed.
Villeré, who had been marked 'also for arrest, was on his plantation on the German coast. On the news of O'Reilly's arrival he had intended to put himself and family under the protection of the British flag at Manchac, when he received a letter from Aubry assuring him that he had nothing to appre- hend, and advising him, on the contrary, to come to the city. As flight seemed to imply a consciousness of guilt, this advice
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was more congenial to Villere's character. He set out at once for New Orleans. At the city gate he was stopped and carried a prisoner aboard the frigate. Madame Villeré, hearing of her husband's arrest, hastened also to the city, and taking a boat had herself rowed to the frigate. She was ordered away. Villere, hearing the supplicating voice of his wife, made an effort to get on deck to see her. The sentinel opposed him. There was a struggle, and the gallant creole fell, transfixed with a bayonet. He died shortly afterwards.
Trial of the Patriots .- O'Reilly confided the trial of the prisoners to his own officials, who made all the examina- tions, records of testimony, etc., necessary for a prosecution for treason according to Spanish criminal law.
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