USA > Louisiana > Orleans Parish > New Orleans > Creole families of New Orleans > Part 18
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"Other planters followed the example of M. de Boré, and the cane will doubtless be very soon cultivated in every part of this territory where the climate permits. The facility with which sugar planters amass wealth is almost incredible. . . . It is not uncommon with 220 working hands to make from ten to fourteen thousand dollars; and there are several planters whose field negroes do not exceed forty who make more than twenty thousand dollars a year. . The sugar planters raise a sufficiency of corn for their own use; nor do those citizens who reside near New Orleans neglect their gardens. I think Colonel Macarty told me that his daily receipts from the markets were equal to nine dollars.
". . . Yesterday I dined with M. Destrehan; he is esteemed the best sugar planter in the territory and is perhaps the wealthiest; his sugars bring him in near thirty thousand dollars per annum and
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his rents in the city, six thousand. But he is nevertheless an econo- mist; everything around him has the air of simplicity; his table is good but by no means luxuriantly served. He is much attached to retirement; and the education of his children (ten in number) and the improvement of his estate constituteat present his primary cares.
"M. Destrehan (de Boré's brother-in-law) is certainly a man of sense, but has strong prejudices and although they may be founded in error it is not in the power of man to remove them. He continues in the opinion that Congress has not been just to the ceded terri- tory; but is nevertheless an admirer of the American government."
In 1796 a stirring event occurred on the planta- tion. The French General, Collot, on his way to New Orleans from the Western states and territories, stopped to visit Etienne de Boré. As soon as this was known in the city, the Governor, Baron de Carondelet, who had received from Philadelphia a confidential communication informing him that General Collot was intrusted by the French Govern- ment with a secret mission against which the Spanish authorities were to be on their guard, sent up an armed boat by the river and fifty dragoons by land to arrest him. The General was put in the boat and taken down to New Orleans, where he was imprisoned in Fort St. Charles (on the spot where stood the United States Mint). On the next day he was called upon by the Spanish Governor, who offered him a house in town which he might occupy on parole, with a soldier at his door. The General accepted the proposition and left the fort in the Governor's carriage. Shortly afterwards, his maps and drawings having been taken away from him, he was put on board one of the King's galleys and transported to the Balize, where he was detained a prisoner in the house of the chief pilot, Juan Ron-
Note .- Official letter book of W. C. Claiborne. Vol. III, page 61.
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qillo, situated in the midst of a vast swamp from which there was no egress except by boat. He remained there for two months, when he was allowed to embark on board an American brig for Philadelphia.
Etienne de Boré was extremely indignant at the arbitrary arrest of his guest, and he expressed his feelings loudly and without restraint. As he was known for his intense attachment to France and her interests, it is said that the Baron thought seriously of having him also arrested and transported to Havana, but that he was deterred by the fear of the commotion that would be produced by inflicting so harsh a treatment on so distinguished a citizen- one who by his personal character, his rank, his family connections and the benefit he had lately conferred on Louisiana by the introduction of a new and valuable branch of industry, commanded uni- versal sympathy and exercised the widest influence.
What an imaginative child hears, he sees; and the historian in after days could relate this event as if his heart and not merely his memory had been tinged by it. In the same way, he could relate that truly royal moment in the hospitality of his old home when the three illustrious visitors, the Duc d'Orléans, the Comte de Beaujolais and the Duc de Montpen- sier passed some days there. As the old mousquetaire repeated to his grandson :
"Little did I think when in the household troops of Louis XV that the day would come when three princes of the blood would be my guests on the banks of the Mississippi."
When the colony was transferred from Spain to France, de Boré was appointed Mayor of the city of
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New Orleans for reasons that Laussat explains in his confidential despatch:
"I thought also of securing without loss of time an imposing sup- port in the civil department of the government and I selected for Mayor of the city, M. Etienne de Boré, a native of Louisiana of a distinguished family, formerly mousquetaire in France, one of the largest and most skillful planters of the province; a gentleman re- nowned for his patriotism and for a character of undeviating inde- pendence. I made a powerful appeal to him in the name of his country whose interests required his services and I had the satisfac- tion to win him over. After M. de Boré, and through his influence, I secured the services of some of the most distinguished among the colonists."
De Boré continued to act as Mayor during the initial years of the American Domination and faithfully endeavored to bring into the management of the city the same order that reigned on his plantation. He ably seconded Governor Claiborne in his efforts to prevent an outbreak between the turbulent Americans and the excitable Creoles whenever they met-particularly in the exciting scenes that spoiled the pleasure of the public balls when the Americans would call out for their favorite dances, the Creoles for theirs; and such an uproar would ensue as to frighten the ladies and drive them away, while the gentlemen would try to enforce their desires by their swords or even fists. De Boré regulated this disorder by drawing up a programme with American and French dances, alternating in regular succession; and stationing gendarmes to · enforce it.
Bernard Marigny describes such a scene in a ball given in 1804 in the "Salle rue Condé." The Anglo- Saxons, who loved to amuse themselves, but in a different manner from the people of French origin,
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asserted that as Louisiana had been bought by the United States the amusements should be conducted according to the American taste, that the "rill" (reel) should replace the waltz, and the jig the cotil- lion. The Creoles, informed of these ridiculous pre- tensions, attended the ball, as well as the French, who were naturalized Americans, by the fact of the ces- sion of Louisiana to the United States. An infernal row took place; the men were armed. That evening was to decide whether the reel or the waltz was to triumph. In the midst of so much noise and con- fusion which frightened the beau sexe, who were all on the point of retiring from the room, a young lady jumped on a chair. She belonged to a family in which wit was and is a heredity. Her face was animated by excitement.
"Sirs," she said to the furious Americans, "for thirty years we were Spaniards, and the Spaniards never forced us to dance the fandango. We wish to dance neither the reel nor the jig."
The astonished Americans asked all over the room, "What did she say?" General Wilkinson, who was present and exerting himself to induce calm, stood on a chair and translated what the beautiful Creole had said and ordered the musicians to play a waltz and to the great astonishment of every one began to waltz himself. Crying "Hurrah! Hurrah!" The Anglo-Saxons, vanquished by Beauty, began also to dance.
Claiborne, in a letter of May 21st, 1804 acknow-
NOTE .- From "Reflexions sur la campagne du General Jackson en Louisiane en 1814 et 1815," by Bernard Marigny. New Orleans, 1848.
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ledges receipt of a letter from de Boré announcing his wish to resign the mayoralty.
"I cannot," writes the Governor, "but regret the circumstances which have induced your relinquishment of an office the duties of which have been discharged with so much credit to yourself and advantage to the city."
When the territorial government which had been decreed by Act of Congress went into operation in Louisiana, de Boré was appointed a member of the Legislative Council by the President. He had, however, been one of the leaders of the opposition against the establishment of a territorial govern- ment, when full statehood in the Union had been stipulated in the cession by Napoleon; and as he had been most zealous in stimulating his fellow citizens to remonstrate against the form of government imposed upon them, he could not aid in establishing it and, therefore, declined the proffered seat in the Legislative Council. This refusal, with that of the other gentleman named by the President, had a considerable influence on other members, who held back in dubious suspense; and two months nearly elapsed before a Council could be formed, notwith- standing the incessant efforts of Claiborne to soothe and conciliate the refractory tempers that he had to deal with.
The portrait of the ex-mousquetaire and planter bears out the character given by his grandson. It represents a man of sixty of quiet dignity and simple manners, looking at one with piercing, shrewd, yet kindly eyes, and with a pleasant paternal smile- in short, a man of business ability and a good disciplinarian, though of benevolent disposition.
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His house was furnished in the style of plain simplicity that prevailed among the planters of his day, but the table and wines went to the other extreme. In the memory of Gayarré, they were, as he wrote, "superb," and the hospitality they graced were worthy of them. Every Sunday there came regularly to dinner a score or two of guests from New Orleans. Among them some Knights of St. Louis, wearing their decorations, struck the imagina- tion of the future historian; among them the Hazures, two brothers who lived near the Bayou St. Jean on the Gentilly Road. (Their tombs may be seen to-day in the old St. Louis Cemetery.)
"There was something," says Gayarre, "in all those waifs of another age, in their appearance, in their dress, in their physiognomy, in their manners, in their peculiarities of conversation and language, in their bows and greetings, in their accent and the modulation of the voice, that produced a most vivid impression. These men of the old régime seemed to entertain more esteem and respect for each other than we do now for our contemporaries. As I grew in years I be- came more deeply impressed with the faith which men of that epoch reposed in one another."
And again:
"There is not a vestige, not a wreck's fragment of the de Boré plantation left," writes Gayarré at eighty with pathos, "save myself, standing alone, forgotten but trying in vain to forget."
M. de Boré died when seventy-eight years of age; at his very last moments he summoned his grandson to his presence. Putting his hands on his head, he blessed him and gave him his parting instructions and recommendations with a firm voice:
"Let no temptation ever betray you out of the path of honor and virtue. Keep your conscience always free from self-reproach, so that your death may be as calm as mine. Trusting in the mercy of
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God, I fear not to appear before His tribunal where I hope not to grieve for you when in due time we are to meet again and when you shall render your accounts to Him."
According to his directions his funeral and his tomb were to be of the plainest kind, and the thou- sand dollars that might have been spent upon them given to the Charity Hospital.
He died February 2nd, 1829. On a little side path of the old St. Louis Cemetery may be seen his last resting place. The tomb, as he requested, is of the plainest kind, with no inscription upon it but his name and dates. In the great hall of the Charity Hospital, a tablet bears the record of the donation of a thousand dollars given by his family.
CHAPTER XVI
GAYARRÉ
Non l'avenir n'est a personne Sire! l'avenir est a Dieu! Qui sait si l'onde qui tressaille, Si le cri des gouffres amers, Si la trombe aux ardentes serres Si les éclairs et les tonnerres, Seigneur! ne sont pas necessaires A la perle que font les mers! -VICTOR HUGO.
G AYARRE is the first fruit of the grafting of the stock of Spain upon the French stock growing in Louisiana. The grafting came about in this wise. On March 5th, 1766, as the standard bearer of the name himself relates, the long expected and much dreaded Ulloa arrived in New Orleans to take possession of the colony of Louisiana for Spain. He landed with two companies of infantry and was accompanied by three joint commissioners: Loyola, Commissary of War; Gayarré, Contador or Comp- troller; and Navarro, Treasurer.
While it is conceded by all historians that Ulloa was totally lacking in the qualities needed for the proper performance of his high office, it is as generally recognized that no better men than the three com- missioners could have been named for the duties entrusted to them-duties which even the irate Creoles handsomely avowed they accomplished, not only as loyal servants of the King, but also as Spanish
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gentlemen of the highest rank. They, therefore, were never included in the rigid ostracism practised against Ulloa, but on the contrary, from the first were received with the respect due them and accorded the generous hospitality of the citizens.
Don Juan Joseph de Loyola belonged to the famous family of Guiposcoa, which produced the great founder of the Jesuits; and he showed the elegance of manner, the high breeding and the knightly courage that distinguished his celebrated kinsman, Ignatius, in addition to his poetical mind, luxuriant imagination and religious enthusiasm. Don Martin Navarro, on the contrary, was the son of a poor tavern keeper who had risen by dint of industry, perseverance and address. Shrewd, active and honest, he deserved the confidence he gained, and being, withal, a boon companion and skillful in the ways of the world, he had also the genial qualities that make smooth and easy the path to social success.
Don Estevan Gayarré, the great-grandfather of Louisiana's historian, was the younger son of a patrician house of the Kingdom of Navarre. He had enlisted at the age of nineteen in the army of Spain and he served in it with distinction for twenty- four years. His health being impaired from a wound received in the war with Italy, he was in 1755 permitted to retire, and was a year later appointed Contador for the army and the Kingdom of Gallicia. He was finally chosen for the place of Contador in the newly acquired Province of Louisiana.
He is pictured by his great-grandson as a man excelling in all the gentle qualities of an affectionate nature, besides possessing a mind far above the ordinary. He showed, especially, the robust traits
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of character that distinguished the hardy race of mountaineers among whom he was raised in the valley of Roncal, in Navarre, surrounded by the impressive scenery of the Pyrenees. His young son, Juan Antonio, joined him in New Orleans.
The three courtly Spaniards, during the uneasy month that followed Ulloa's arrival, when Lafrénière's fiery eloquence was kindling sedition in the populace, increased their circle of friends and found more and more doors opened to them, al- though they were in constant attendance upon their obnoxious commander.
The tradition that accounts for the pleasant social bridging of the ugly chasm of hatred contains two pretty versions. According to one, the Spanish gentlemen themselves were too refined and polished not to appreciate the charm of the place and of the society into which they had been thrust so rudely, so that they showed their feelings of admiration and . sympathy for the ladies and gentlemen whom they" met. The other version states that the ladies and ! gentlemen of New Orleans' society who met the Spanish officials were themselves too sensitive to) high-born manners and the charm of graceful!' courtesy to resist their own hospitable desires and! make known the pleasures of their table and salon! to the strangers. Thus was brought about, despite; political opposition, the conditions necessary for the ' sowing of Spanish seed in French soil. It is on record, however, that although subjected to many attempts to elicit information from them as to the feelings and plans of their commander, the Spanish) gentlemen could always manage to answer in al manner that silenced or parried inquiry without loss of cordiality.
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The enigmatic Ulloa, after an absence of seven months at the Balize, returned in March, bringing with him in triumph his beautiful young bride, the Marquise d'Abrado, celebrated as one of the richest women of Peru. They opened their house and gave receptions on three evenings of the week. The Spanish officers attended as a matter of course; also the three commissioners and a sprinkling of French officers, with the citizens who had been put on the Council instituted by Ulloa to supply the place of the discarded French Su erior Council: de Grand Pré, de Grand Maison, " llivier de Vezin, de la Chaise (the brother-in-law) of Villeré and kinsman of Lafrenière), Reggio, MIL ent and Dreux. But none of the ladies of the city's they always proudly recalled, could bring themst ves to pay Madame Ulloa the civility she expecte from them, and the beautiful stranger and her Pe vian girls, sneered at as "colored," reigned alone : her dismal soirées. In fact she was more hated, i that were possible, than her husband.
On the first appearance of danger, Gayarre, Loyola, Navarro and the few other Spaniards who were in the city, with some of their French friends, gathered around Ulloa to die with him or save him. They barricaded his house and put it in a state to stand a siege. From time to time the frenzied people would come rushing upon it, uttering fierce shouts and cries of vengeance, but they were always restrained at the last moment and prevented from committing the outrage intended. In the evening, when Ulloa sullenly consented to retreat to the Spanish frigate awaiting him, the three Spanish com- missioners accompanied him. A large concourse of
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people waited on the river bank to see his departure. As Loyola, Gayarré and Navarro approached the bank, returning from the Spanish vessel in their boat, the crowd opened before them with respect, and as the gentlemen passed through to their residences they bowed right and left with stately formality; in their steady look there was neither fear, anger nor defiance, only an expression of cold indifference. And it is always related as typical of the manners of the Spaniards that, as the vessel glided away, the Captain standing on his quarter- deck, bowed to the crowd while the guns of his ship fired a salute.
In the calm that followed the storm, the revolution being accomplished, aro ominous stillness fell upon the minds of the populace and all ideas of further resistance were gradually abandoned. The schemes of the idealistic Lafrénière and his partisans began to demonstrate their utter impracticability. Loyola, Gayarré and Navarro saw their circle of friends increasing and their importance in the colony rising. They were men capable of sympathizing with the growing anxiety of their friends and the cruel torture of their suspense. They became pain- fully affected, says Gayarré, by the direct and indirect appeals to their feelings; but not knowing what course their government would pursue they had to be careful not to commit themselves in any official way, confining themselves to assurances only of their feelings and wishes and to what they thought might be expected from the well-known clemency of Carlos III.
Thus matters stood, to continue the narration of : Gayarré, when, on the 24th of July, 1769, New "
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Orleans was thrown in a violent commotion by the news that a formidable Spanish fleet had made its appearance at the Balize in command of General O'Reilly who had been appointed to take possession of Louisiana and who had brought with him such a large army that resistance would be impossible. The leaders of the insurrection, seeing at last the hopelessness of their condition, became greatly alarmed and, in desperation, sought counsel from Aubry. He cheered and encouraged them with his belief that O'Reilly could not possibly have the intention of spreading terror and desolation in the province, and he counselle l them to see the General themselves. As no blood had been spilled, it was to be hoped that if the colonists submitted now promptly, their trust in the clemency of His Catholic Majesty would not be in vain.
In the afternoon came the news that a Spanish officer was coming up the river with despatches from O'Reilly to Aubry. "On that night," to profit by Gayarré's description, "there was no thought of sleep for the greater part of the population. They were seen clustering in groups in the streets or hurrying from house to house. About ten o'clock, Loyola, Gayarré and Navarro, preceded by torches and followed by friends, were seen going through the streets to the landing place. At eleven, the Spanish envoy, Francisco Bouligny, arrived in front of the Place d'Armes, and, jumping ashore, was greeted by his countrymen. Passing through the large and anxious crowd, they quickly walked to the house of the Governor, who was in bed, but he arose at once to receive O'Reilly's messenger, who translated to him the Spanish communication that
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he bore. On the next day Bouligny, the three Spanish commissioners and the most influential among the French officers and citizens dined with Aubry. The dinner was very gay, and Aubry took occasion to assure Bouligny that the people had listened to counsels of prudence and were prepared to act on them.
When Bouligny departed the following day, he was accompanied by Lafrénière, Marquis and Milhet who had decided, according to their well- known courage, to present themselves to the Spanish General and assume the responsibility of the revolu- tion. After forty hours on the way, they reached the Balize and were presented by Bouligny to O'Reilly, who received them with dignified polite- ness. After a long interview with them he detained them to dinner, treating them with the most delicate attention, displaying the utmost suavity of manner and, in short, sending the Creoles away fully im- pressed with the certainty that their past misde- meanor should be forgotten, reports Bouligny who was present at both interview and dinner.
The city sighed with relief and hope began to soothe its troubled inhabitants. We know the sub- sequent movement of the drama and its tragic fifth act. Shakespeare himself could not have invented a more poignant crisis than the arrest, the trial, the condemnation, the appalling sentence and the agony of the citizens. Some of the Creole ladies whose husbands, fathers or brothers had taken no part in the revolution but who were, on the con- trary, in favor of Spain, hoping to exercise some influence over O'Reilly, demeaned themselves, as
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they afterwards felt it, to make a passionate appeal to him for mercy for the condemned, pouring out their souls to him in supplication; but the Irish- Spaniard, looking upon them with his cold, crafty eyes, resisted them with inexorable firmness and with the same "suavity" of manner that his friends say characterized him. Loyola, Navarro and Gayarré, under the irresistible impulse of their own feelings, went to him and spoke for the people among whom they had lived for three years, advising the hard-hearted man at least to assume the responsi- bility of suspending the sentence until further orders could be received from Spain. Their answer was that the condemned would be executed the next day-and they were.
When O'Reilly departed, Loyola went with him to Cuba, where his wife awaited him. Navarro followed soon after. Don Estevan Gayarré remained in Louisiana with his son who had been appointed by O'Reilly Commissary of War, although but eighteen years of age. Don Estevan subsequently obtained leave to retire to his native country and to be put on the list of retired pensioners. He died at the close of the century. The following letter written by him to one of his grandsons in Louisiana was preserved by Charles Gayarré, and was often quoted by him in his old age-with sad effect.
"My son, I may say that I have already one foot in the grave. I have little of earthly goods to bequeath or dispose of, contenting myself with leaving at my death what will be necessary to bury me in seven feet of ground with the little but honorable exhibition of military pomp, within which have shrunk all my vain hopes in this miserable world. Yea, such is this world! Its flitting glories fade away-and there remains nothing but the alternate lassitude and
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