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Joutel, the priest, and La Salle's brother made their es- cape from the assassins. Reaching the Arkansas, they got into the Mississippi, and from thence to Canada and France, where they arrived eighteen months after leaving the coast of Texas. Their appeal to the king in behalf of their com- panions of Fort St. Louis was in vain. Louis XIV would do nothing for them. Their fate was indeed most tragic. The Indians fell upon the fort and slaughtered all the in- mates with the exception of two children and one man, whom they kept prisoners. The Spaniards, who claimed this part of the country, sailing over there not long afterwards to drive the French away, found nothing but dilapidated walls and buildings and mutilated corpses. One man, however, had made a life-saving effort for La Salle. This was Tonty. In his distant fort on the Illinois river, he heard from Indians and Canadian tramps that La Salle was in the mouth of the river, shipwrecked and a prey to the Indians. Raising a band of
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HISTORY OF LOUISIANA.
Canadians, he with all speed journeyed there. He found, of course, no trace of La Salle nor of his expedition.
QUESTIONS.
How was the new expedition to be different from the last? What were La Salle's plans when the colony was established? When and with how many did he sail? What appears from the very beginning? What happened at St. Domingo? What did he do when the truth broke upon him? What happened? Who escaped? What did they do in France? What was the fate of the colony? Who made an at- tempt in behalf of La Salle?
CHAPTER V.
FRENCH EXPLORERS CONTINUED.
France was at the time plunged in war, fighting Spain, England, and the other principal powers of Europe com- bined against her in the league called the Holy Alliance. The Mississippi, the grand new territory of Louisiana, and the abandoned massacred colony of Matagorda Bay, were for- gotten in the excitement of great battles and sieges nearer home. But as soon as the peace of Ryswick was signed (1697), Louis XIV showed himself eager enough to take up and push La Salle's great scheme.
Louis XIV, however, was not the only king of Europe who had his eyes fiexd on the rare prize of the Mississippi and Louisiana. There was, besides, William III, king of England, anxious to gain it to add to his possessions in America. And there was also Charles II, king of Spain, determined that no power except his should be established over the gulf, and near his precious mines of Mexico.
Louis XIV's minister of marine was the Count Louis de Pontchartrain, a man of great moral worth and enlighten- ment. The Count de Pontchartrain's secretary and assistant was his son, Jerome Count de Maurepas, a young man of
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brilliant qualities, filled with ambition for himself and for the glory of France. It was to these two men that France owed her triumphs over England and Spain in the contest for the possession of the Mississippi and Louisiana.
When Louis XIV announced, after the peace of Ryswick, his determination to continue La Salle's enterprise, Pont- chartrain, with energy and vigor, fitted out the expedition for it, and Maurepas produced the man to lead it. This man was the great Canadian seaman, Pierre Lemoyne d'Iber- ville.
Iberville. 1698 .- Iberville was the son of Charles Le Moyne, of Dieppe, Normandy, one of the earliest and most noted settlers of Canada. He was one of nine brothers, all of whom distinguished themselves working and fighting for their country .* Of all the nine, Iberville was the most glorious, and it is with pride that Louisiana points to him as her founder.
Before he was fourteen, he had become a good sailor by cruising in a vessel of his father's in the Gulf of St. Lawrence. After that he voy- aged on the Atlantic, sailing with IBERVILLE. skilful navigators, to and fro, be- tween Canada and France. Strong, active, daring and hand- some, he never failed to please his superiors and secure the good fellowship of his subordinates; and there seemed no enterprise on land or sea perilous enough to daunt him. His
* The names of these famous brothers were Charles, Sieur de Longueuil ; Jacques, Sieur de Sainte Helene; Paul Pierre, Sieur d'Iberville; Paul, Sieur de Maricourt; Francois, Sieur de Bienville; Joseph, Sieur de Serigny ; Louis, Sieur de Cha- teauguay I; Jean Baptiste, Sieur de Bienville II. The youngest brother, named Sauvole, died in infancy. He has been mistaken for Sauvole, the French officer who sailed with Iberville, and who is called the first governor of Louisiana.
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most famous exploits were against the English in Hudson's Bay and on the coast of Newfoundland. In canoe or in snow shoes, brandishing gun, hatchet or cutlass, we see him ever in the front of his hardy band of Canadians and Indians, and always leading to success. From 1686, the year that the unfortunate La Salle was making his life and death struggle on the coast of Texas, until 1697, when the Peace of Ryswick put an end to the war with England, he was the hero of one brilliant action after another, until his name in the reports from Canada to France became the sure sign of French victory and English defeat.
When Maurepas, therefore, sent for Iberville and confided to him the mission of completing La Salle's work, he well knew that his man was one who had never disappointed ex- pectations of a friend or a foe
Iberville's Expedition. 1698 .- La Salle's original plan was to be carried out. A colony was to be transported di- rectly from France to the Mississippi and settled there ; com- munications were to be opened by river to Canada, and forts built at the mouths of all the important streams emptying into the Mississippi.
Pontchartrain and Maurepas threw themselves heartily into pushing forward the preparations. Two frigates, the Badine and Marin, were fitted and manned with a picked crew ; and two freight ships were purchased and filled gen- erously with stores of ammunition, arms, provisions, presents for the Indians, etc. Iberville himself superintended every- thing on the spot ; selected his men, tried, tested his arms, and examined the provisions and presents for the Indians. For in all his enterprises Iberville never left anything to the chance of another man's sense of duty.
Joutel was, after all his adventures, living peaceably in his native city of Rouen. Pontchartrain tried to induce him to join the expedition, but Joutel refused. He sent, however, to Iberville the journal he had written of La Salle's expedi-
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tion. It contained only the accounts of a great failure, but there is no surer way to success than by studying the reasons of another's failure.
Everything being completed on the morning of the 24th of October, 1698, Iberville fired the signal from his frigate, the Badine, and led the way out of the harbor of Brest, followed by the Count de Surgeres in the Marin ; the heavily loaded freight ships sailed slower behind them.
With Iberville sailed his young eighteen-year-old brother, Bienville, a midshipman ; with the Count de Surgeres sailed, as lieutenant, the Sieur de Sauvole,* both destined to be gov- ernors of Louisiana.
One of the freight ships disappeared in a gale, off Ma- deira, and after a short search was given up as lost. The rest of the squadron, after a quick and uneventful voyage, ar- rived at St. Domingo, where they made a hasty stay for sup- plies of fresh water and food. Here the royal escort, the Marquis de Chateaumorant, on the warship Francois joined them, and shortly afterwards, much to the delight of the whole squadron, the lost freight ship made her appearance, with her mast broken, but not otherwise injured by the gale.
Before he left France, Iberville had heard of an English expedition being fitted out also to discover and take posses- sion of the mouth of the Mississippi, and he had made up his mind, if it were to be a race, to be the first at the goal; if a contest, to hold good, by ruse or force, his reputation against his rivals.
Some English vessels had been sighted off St. Domingo ; fearing that they might belong to the English expedition, he hastened his departure, setting sail from the island on the last day of December. He took with him as pilot, Lawrence de Graff, one of the most noted buccaneers of the time and
* This is the officer sometimes called, in early histories, the brother of Iberville and Bienville, He, however, was no relation to them.
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HISTORY OF LOUISIANA.
region, a man who had lived upon the Gulf of Mexico and knew it thoroughly.
They sailed through the channel of the Yucatan, and steered due north, across the Gulf of Mexico. Anchoring every night and sounding their way as they went along by day, they advanced slowly. It was not until the afternoon of the twenty-third day that land was sighted. Taking his bearings, Iberville found that he had struck the coast of Florida as he expected, just south of Apalachicola Bay.
De Graff had spoken of a beautiful harbor on the coast of Florida, well known to buccaneers, who went there for mast timber and to get shelter from storms. Iberville, anxious to find and take possession of it, commenced a systematic search for it. He sent a barge to row in and explore close along the shore, while he brought the ships in as near as their draught permitted, and scanned the land with his glasses. Mile after mile was thus passed. Suddenly the barge sig- naled a bay ahead with the masts of vessels in it. Iberville thought the vessels must be English. IIe fired the signal to halt. The vessels in the bay, taking it for a warlike demonstration, answered with a volley of musketry. Then a fog fell and the vessels saw nothing of one another for hours. When it lifted, Iberville sent a party ashore and found out that the harbor was the one he was in search of, but that the Spaniards were in possession and had named it Santa Maria de Galvez de Pensacola.
The disappointed French squadron remained at Pensacola several days and then set sail for Mobile Bay.
Fearing opposition from the Spaniards, Iberville concealed from them the real object of his expedition, giving out in- stead that he was in search of some roving coureurs de bois, to whom he was carrying the king's orders to return to Can- ada.
Mobile Bay. 1699 .- The ships anchroed in front of Mo- bile Bay. Iberville, with his young brother, Bienville, crossed
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to the long, narrow island that lay like a breakwater between the gulf and the bay, and explored it, At one end they came to a ghastly heap of human bones, left from some ruthless Indian massacre ; so they named the island Massacre Island. A terrific storm here broke over the fleet. Iberville, engaged in sounding the channel, was driven with his men to one of the near little islands for shelter. For three days they were held there, storm-bound, the driving rain, mists and spray shutting them off from even the sight of their ves- sels in the gulf.
When the storms had subsided and fair weather set in, Iberville explored the shores of Mobile Bay. Returning to the ships, anchors were raised and sails set for another stage of the search.
Mobile Point and Massacre Island dropped in the distance behind them. Before them, in the beautiful blue, glistening waters to the north and northwest, other islands came into view ; dots of white sand and green trees that seemed to float on the dancing waves. Iberville sent Bienville to look for harborage in them from the south wind that was threatening another storm. Bienville returned after an unsuccessful search and the ships sailed on anxiously in the stiffening breeze. Other islands appeared in the northwest, and nearer, in the south, two flat, sandy surfaces. Iberville ran into these and found the shelter he needed. It was Candlemas day, and the islands received the name of Chandeleur Islands. In the morning, Bienville was again sent out to look for a har- borage among the islands to the north and a pass between them. This time his search was successful. At daylight, Iberville, leading the way in the Badine, steered his fleet through the pass between the two islands and anchored safely in the harbor of Ship Island.
Ilis men, freed at last from their long confinement on ship- board, spread themselves gladly over the small place, delight- ing in the rare abundance of fish and oysters. The live stock
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HISTORY OF LOUISIANA.
was landed ; the swine were put on the adjoining island, which the sailors named Cat Island, on account of the quan- tities of little animals upon it, which they took for cats. The little animals were really raccoons, and it is said that in a few years the swine destroyed them all.
QUESTIONS.
What was the condition of France at the time? What followed after the Peace of Ryswick? Who, besides Louis XIV, wanted Louis- iana? Who was the Count de Pontchartrain? Who the Count de Maurepas? Who was Iberville? How many brothers had he? When were his most famous exploits performed? Whose plan was to be carried out? When did Iberville sail? Who sailed as midshipman under him? Who as lieutenant under Surgeres? Relate the voyage to San Domingo? What did Iberville hear before sailing from France? Whom did he take with him as pilot? How did he steer across the gulf? What part of the Florida coast was first sighted? What had De Graff spoken of? What harbor was it? Why did Iber- ville conceal his designs from the Spaniards? For what point did he set sail? Why was the island named Massacre? How were Chandeleur Islands named? Why was Cat Island so named?
CHAPTER VI.
FRENCH EXPLORERS CONTINUED.
North of Ship Island, about twenty miles away, the low, scalloping shore line of the mainland could be seen, and upon it, with glasses, Iberville could distinguish the forms of Indians moving about. He lost no time in sailing over there in a sloop, well provided with presents for the Indians and well protected by a crew of Canadians. Bienville accompanied him in a canoe. Landing, they followed the tracks of the In- dians, and came to where they could see canoes full of them busily crossing to and fro between Deer Island and Biloxi. At sight of the white men the natives abandoned their canoes and fled in terror. The Canadians pursued, but were
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only able to come up with one of them, a poor old man who lay helpless on the beach, unable to move on account of a putrefying sore on his leg. He was moaning and shivering with cold and pain and seemed to expect instant death from the white men. The Canadians reassured him by signs, took him in their arms and carefully carried him higher up the beach-laid him on a buffalo skin and kindled a fire to warm him. They put a handsome present of tobacco near him, and, to show that they did not intend anything un- friendly, drew up the abandoned canoes of provisions on the beach and left them. A squaw, as old and almost as wretched as the man, seeing that the white men did nothing warlike, crept out of the woods where she had been hiding and watching, and joined the group. The Canadians with- drew and left them together.
During the night the old woman slipped away to carry the news and some of the tobacco to her tribe. In the morning the Canadians found a piteous spectacle ; the fire had caught on the weeds and grasses around the old man, and the poor wretch lay half burned. The Canadians did what they could to ease his pains, but in a few moments he died.
The old squaw returned, bringing some of her tribe with her, and later in the day many more came slipping out of the forest to jom in the smoking and feasting of the white men, and received some of the tobacco, hatchets, knives, beads and paint which Iberville distributed with a generous hand. He finally succeeded in gaining their good will and confidence sufficiently to induce three of the chiefs to go with him on a visit to the ships, Bienville and two Canadians being left behind as hostages.
Ship Island. 1699 .- As the boats approached the ships the chiefs stood up and began to chant their peace songs. Their reception gratified their vanity exceedingly. Iberville had cannon shot off, and the ships put through their manœu- vres and gave them a great feast with sagamity made with
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HISTORY OF LOUISIANA.
prunes. He gave them, also, brandy to drink, which aston- ished them greatly, burning their stomachs so long after it was swallowed. But what excited their greatest wonder and admiration was the spy glass, by which they could see so far with one eye, while the other eye stayed at home. They ex- amined everything on the floating houses, as they called the ships, with the greatest curiosity. They belonged to the Annochy and Biloxi tribes and lived on the Pascagoula river. They did not know anything of the Mississippi, nor of any of the tribes met by La Salle.
When Iberville returned with them to the mainland, he found Bienville making friends with a new set of Indians. These were a party of Bayougoulas and Mongoulachas war- riors who were out on a hunt, but hearing the sound of cannon they had hastened to the seashore to find out what it was. Much to Iberville's gratification they lived on the banks of the Mississippi, which they called the Meschacebe, and knew the tribes met by La Salle. Iberville gave them a store of presents, among them a calumet or peace pipe, such as they had never seen before. It was of metal, shaped like a ship under full sail, flying the lily banner of France. The evening was passed in a great jollity, with singing and dancing and telling of stories around the camp fire. In the morning the warriors left to continue their bunt, promising to return in three days and guide Iberville by the little river they traveled on into the Mississippi. They were to light a fire at the camp on the seashore, as the signal of their return, and Iberville was to answer by a cannon shot. Iberville sailed back to his ships, elated. Once guided into the river, all that he had to do to accomplish his task, was to follow it to its mouth, fix the exact latitude and longitude, make his way to Ship Island, get his vessels and sail there.
Twenty-four hours later, a day too soon for the appoint- ment, the signal fire was descried on the mainland. Iberville, with all haste, sailed over to the spot. But he found only
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the forest ablaze from the fire ; not an Indian was to be seen. He returned disappointed to Ship Island.
Looking for the Mouth of the Mississippi .- The next day, however, he had another expedition ready to execute his first plan. Two sloops were manned with a good force of Canadians, sailors and filibusters,* and provided with ample supplies of ammunition and food for six weeks and each car- rying a canoe in tow. Iberville commanded one, Sauvole the other. They sailed from the ships, and steered south, where in clear water low lying groups of bare, sandy islands could be seen.
In the Mississippi Delta .- It was Friday, the 27th of February. The wind was from the southeast, with rain and fog. The sea tossed restlessly. Running the length of the first island, the boats entered the strange scene of the Missis- sippi delta. Far as the eye could reach, islands small and great rose before them. Some standing high and dry, others rippled over by the slightest wave. Here the water broad- ened out into deep, handsome bays; there it crested and curled into sheets of foam, over rising bottoms and sand bars. No vegetation was to be seen except willows and osiers. The men struggled with sail and oar to find a way through the watery maze ; consuming hours to get around one island only to find another blocking their path. Well tired out at night, they pitched their camp on the nearest dry land. They made now and then catches of fish and gathered oysters to add to their fare. The only game they saw was wild-cats; great rough, red-furred animals. On Sunday such a furious storm broke over them that they could not leave their camp. The thunder pealed as they had never heard it before ; the light- ning flashed fearfully ; the rain descended in torrents. The water rose until it stood two inches over the highest part of their island, and the waves swept it from end to end.
*The term filibuster is derived from "flibote," a small, fast sailing vessel used by the Dutch. It was applied to roying adventurers who formerly sailed the Galt of Mexico in search of conquest and plunder.
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The day was passed cutting osiers and piling them up to stand on, catching rain for drinking water, and during the showers hanging shivering over the smouldering fire to pro- tect it.
Finding the Mississippi. Monday, March 2, 1699 .- On Monday the weather permitted an early start. Steering always south and southeast, the sloops kept the irregular shore line to the right in view, so as not to pass any river that might be there. The northeast wind rose to a gale and the sea broke over the small barks. The canoes were taken up and shipped inside, and the men took turns holding their gummed cloths down over the deck by main strength, to keep the water from pouring in and swamping them. Tack- ing this way and that, first off the shore for fear of being beached, then on, for fear of being engulfed in the raging sea, the sloops fought their way along. For three hours they battled gallantly to double a rocky point that rose grim and threatening before them. The night was coming on. The bad weather showed no signs of abatement. Iberville saw before him no hope. He must either be wrecked ashore or perish at sea during the night. Determined to seize the one chance of daylight for himself and his men, he grasped the tiller, put his sloop about, and, with the wind full astern, drove her upon the rocks. The other sloops followed his example. But, to his wonder, as he approached, the rocks opened out before him and through the openings whitish muddy water gushed into the gulf. He steered into it, tasted it ; it was fresh ; the Mississippi was discovered !
The murderous rocks were only driftwood, piled in huge, fantastic shapes, covered with deposits of Mississippi mud, hardened into cement by sun and wind ! They looked indeed like the palisades which made the Spaniards call the river the Palissado.
The boats advanced up the river until they came to a good camping place. Then landing, lighting their fires, and put-
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ting their supper to cook, the men threw themselves upon the rushes and enjoyed the rest they had so richly earned.
It was the last Monday of the carnival ; as the stars came out, and the savory fragrance of their homely repast stole- upon the air, they could not help contrasting their day's work with the masquerading and frolicking of friends and relatives in the old world. And they exulted in the dangers they had run, and the brave success they had met, for, as Iberville said, it was a gallant task, discovering unknown shores in boats that were not large enough to keep to sea in a gale, and yet were too large to land on a shelving shore, where they touch and strand a mile out.
QUESTIONS.
What lay to the north of Ship Island? Relate what followed. Give episode of the old Indian. Describe the reception and entertainment of the Indians at Ship Island. To what tribe did they belong? Did they know anything of the Mississippi or of the Indians met by La Salle? What did Iberville find on his return to the mainland? To what tribe did these Indians belong? Where did they live? What did they promise Iberville? What followed? Continue with the start on Monday. What course did the boats pursue? Why? De- scribe the gale. Relate what followed. What were the murderous rocks at the mouth of the river? What had the Spaniards called the river? What day was it?
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CHAPTER VII.
FRENCH EXPLORERS CONTINUED.
The next morning Mardi Gras, mass was celebrated, the Te Deum sung, and a cross and the arms of the king of France erected. The boats pushed off from the shore for the exploration of the river. Like De Soto and La Salle, Iberville gazed with awe at the mighty stream which rolled before him, whose currents bore down what appeared to be floating forests. The boats had hard work to make any head-
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way with such a current against them; they needed a new wind for every turn, and could not make much use of their sails, and the men at the oars declared they rowed six miles to progress one. Their first day's journey ended at the little bayou named Mardi Gras for the day.
The low, grass covered banks began to rise higher and higher as they advanced. Instead of willows and sedges, oaks and magnolias and thickly grown forests gradually made their appearance.
Bienville, paddling ahead to reconnoitre, would sometimes startle up flocks of ducks and sarcelles ; and sometimes deer, wild beeves, raccoons and opossums running along the bank, would tempt the Canadians into a hunt; and great was the rejoicing around the camp fire when fresh game was brought in to add to their larder. Several alligators were killed and the meat cooked, but it was not exactly enjoyed. Every afternoon when the camp was pitched the cannon was fired off to attract the attention of any Indians thereabouts, and Iberville would climb to the top of a tall tree to take obser- wations of the new country about him. They saw no Indians until the fifth day, when turning a bend the explorers came upon two in a pirogue. But in a flash, they leaped to shore and disappeared in the woods. A gun shot further on, five pirogues full of Indians were seen. Iberville succeeded in speaking with them. These Indians belonged to the Annochy tribe, which lived, as we have seen, along the lake shores. They gladly traded their stores of dried meat to the French- men. One old fellow in particular was most enterprising ; spreading out his entire stock and sitting behind it in market style, bargained the whole of it-a hundred pounds-for two knives. The Annochys knew the Bayougoula hunters who were met by Iberville and they gave him a guide to their vil- lage.
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