USA > Louisiana > History of Louisiana, the Spanish domination > Part 10
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By a royal order of the 4th of May, 1778, the indem- nity to be paid to owners of slaves sentenced to death, perpetual labor and transportation, or of runaway slaves killed in the attempt made to arrest them, was fixed at two hundred dollars a head; but, in this latter case,* the indemnity was due only to those who had previously consented to pay a proportion of the price of the slaves thus killed, which proportion was to be deducted from the indemnity.
The province was reviving under the healthful influ- ence of the extension of its commercial franchises, when it received a considerable accession to its population by the arrival of a number of families, transported to Loui- siana from the Canary Islands, at the king's expense.
* Martin's History of Louisiana, vol. ii., p. 43.
116
SPANISH COLONISTS FROM THE CANARY ISLANDS.
Some of them, under the command of Marigny de Man- deville, settled at Terre aux Bœufs, on a tract of land now included in the parish of St. Bernard; others, under the guidance of St. Maxent, located themselves near Bayou Manchac, at about twenty-four miles from the town of Baton Rouge, where they established a village which they called Galvezton; the rest formed that of Venezuela, on Bayou Lafourche. The government car- ried its parental solicitude so far as to build a house for each family, and a church for each settlement. These emigrants were very poor, and were supplied with cattle, fowls and farming utensils; rations were furnished them for a period of four years, out of the king's stores, and considerable pecuniary assistance was afforded to them .* Their descendants are now known under the name of Islingues, which is derived from the Spanish word, Isleños, meaning islanders.
It must not be forgotten that, by an ordinance pro- mulgated when Spain took possession of Louisiana, in 1766, vessels from New Orleans were restricted to sail to six Spanish ports only. Persisting in the new and wiser course of policy into which he had lately entered, the king put Louisiana on the same footing with his more favored colonies, and opened to her vessels any of the ports of the Peninsula to which the commerce of the Indies was permitted. Furthermore, the exportation of furs and peltries from Louisiana was, at the same time, encouraged by an exemption from duty for a period of ten years, and it was only on their re-exportation from Spain that the ordinary duty was to be paid.
This was a step towards liberality, but what seemed to the colonists to be a departure from it was the prohi- bition of the introduction and reading of a French book,
* Martin's History of Louisiana, vol. i., p. 48.
THE ENGLISH TRADE EXCLUDED FROM THE COLONY. 117
written by Mercier, and entitled: "The year two thousand four hundred and forty." The Governor was instructed to proceed to the destruction. of every copy of it which might be found in the province. Another book reprobated by the royal decree was Robertson's History of America. The formidable tribunal of the Inquisition had condemned Mercier's book; and the king, or rather his all-powerful minister, Joseph Galvez, president of the council of the Indies, thought that he had good reasons to prevent his Majesty's subjects from reading certain remarks, or statements of facts, which were contained in Robertson's History, and which he deemed to be false and slanderous. At this time, not only was the king considerate enough to wish that the minds of his subjects should not be contaminated by the perusal of dangerous books, but also was he anxious to secure the allegiance even of the foreigners who resided in his dominions. Thus, a considerable number of indi- viduals from the United States, from West and East Florida, and from other parts, who had settled in New Orleans, were required to depart. or to take an oath of fidelity to his Catholic Majesty. In such a dilemma, the great majority of them chose to swear as they were desired.
For many years, the English had not fared so badly in Louisiana. Now, their trade with the colony was entirely ruined. "The British flag," say Villars and Favre d'Aunoy, in a despatch dated on the 18th of July, 1778, "has not appeared in this river for more than three months, or, at least, it is only to be seen flying at the mast-head of a frigate destined to protect the Man- chac settlement. The duties to be paid by our ships, on their coming here, are reduced every day, because the Spaniards are made more tractable by the need in which
118
THE CONFISCATION OF NOYAN'S ESTATE.
they stand of our commerce. Finally, the whole trade of the Mississippi is now in our hands."
On the 20th of August, Villars, one of the French commissioners, wrote a despatch in which he informed his government of the steps he had taken, to obtain the reversal of the decree by which the Spanish govern- ment had confiscated the property of the brother of . Noyan, one of the unfortunate colonists who had been shot by O'Reilly's order. This brother, who was called Bienville after his uncle, the founder of New Orleans, had taken a part in the conspiracy against the Spaniards, and had been sent, as an emissary, to the English com- mander at Pensacola, to propose, in the name of the insurgents, that the colony be put under the protection of the English as an independent republic. On the death of his elder brother, he assumed the name and title of Chevalier de Noyan. Villars' despatch on the subject is as follows :
" The Chevalier de Noyan, lieutenant of a ship of the line, died in the month of March last, at St. Domingo, where he had gone into copartnership with the Baron de Breteuil. As he was one of the instigators of the revo- lution of 1768, General O'Reilly, who was clothed with the most extensive powers, ordered the sequestration of his property ; but, as it was not sold, and as its revenues were merely deposited in the king's treasury, without being appropriated by him to the royal domain, it was inferred that the object of his Majesty was to deprive the Chevalier de Noyan, for some years, of his income, and thereby to cut him off from the means of living in comfort, but with the reserved intention of putting an end to the punishment by restoring the culprit, on a future day, to the possession of his property. Viewing the case in this light, the Duke de Duras, the Count de
119
OTHER COLONISTS FROM THE CANARY ISLANDS.
Vergennes, and the Baron de Breteuil, as the kinsmen, the protectors and the friends of the Chevalier de Noyan, repeatedly addressed to the court of Spain, through our ambassador, the Marquis d'Ossun, the most pressing soli- citations to obtain a decree raising the sequestration. But these gentlemen pursued, I believe, an impolitic course. They grounded their application on Noyan's innocence, which they could not establish without calling into question the justice of Count O'Reilly, and of the king, who had ratified the conduct of his agent. There- fore did the court of Spain refuse to grant their request. Now that M. de Noyan is dead, is the moment, or never, of making a last effort in the interest of his widow and children. I have prepared for the president of the coun- cil of Indies a memorial, which Governor Galvez will forward and will support to the utmost of his power."
This shows that it was then known in the colony, al- though this knowledge appears to have since faded away, that O'Reilly had come to Louisiana with the most extensive powers, and that the king had approved the judicial tragedy of which this officer was the author. This despatch, with many other authentic documents, emphatically contradicts the tradition that CountO'Reilly, by putting to death Lafrenière and his companions, had incurred the displeasure of his royal master-which popular belief, like most traditions, is not supported by the unyielding and uncompromising facts which it is the duty of history to record.
In the beginning of the year, 1779, Don Juan Doro- theo del Portege succeeded Don Cecilio Odoardo in the office of auditor of war and assessor of government.
In a despatch of the 15th of January, Galvez informed his government of another accession to the population of Louisiana, by the arrival of 499 individuals from the
120 RAVAGES OF THE SMALL-POX AND OF HURRICANES.
Canary Islands, who had come to the colony at the king's expense. They received as favorable a treatment, at least, as their predecessors ; nay, greater advantages were granted to them, for it appears that some of the emigrant families, besides the lands, the cattle, rations, pecuniary and other aid given to them, received the splendid do- nation of between three and four thousand dollars. This certainly was a very handsome beginning at the time, in a new country, offering so many resources. According to the government's direction, these people were trans- ported to the district of the Attakapas, under the com- mand of Bouligny, and formed, on Bayou Teche, a set- tlement then called New Iberia. They attempted the cultivation of flax and hemp, but without success ; and most of them abandoned agricultural pursuits, to confine their industry entirely to the raising of cattle, to which they were naturally invited by the luxuriant and bound- less prairies that surrounded them on every side.
Almost at the same time, there came to the province, for its spiritual relief, by the order and at the charge of the king, six capuchin friars, one of whom, named Anto- nio de Sedella, lived to extreme old age in Louisiana, and died in 1829, leaving behind him a spotless reputation and an honored memory.
One of the most serious afflictions of the colony, in this year, as in the preceding ones, was the small pox, which proved very fatal in New Orleans, and on the plantations above and below. It appears to have been, for many years, in Louisiana, the disease most prevalent and most feared. Hurricanes seem also to have been one of its chief scourges, and their frequency was really astonishing. Galvez, in a despatch of the 15th of January, 1779, speaks of one which had raged from the 7th to the 10th of October, 1778, with such violence,
121
SPAIN DECLARES WAR AGAINST ENGLAND.
that the sea rose higher than it had ever been known to do before, destroying entirely all the establishments at the Balize, Bayou St. John, and Tigouyou.
But the attention of the inhabitants was diverted from these calamities by stirring events, in which they were called to take a part. Thus, France, having recog- nised the independence of the United States, had con- cluded a treaty of alliance and commerce with them and afforded them considerable succor. England, very naturally, considered such proceedings as equivalent to a declaration of war, and hostilities had actually begun, when Spain offered her mediation, and made proposi- tions tending to secure a general peace, which was to be agreed upon in a meeting of the ministers of the bellige- rent powers at Madrid, including those of the United States. But this was not palatable to the pride of Eng- land, and, on the rejection by the cabinet of St. James of the terms offered by Spain, the Catholic King deter- mined to join his cousin of France in the coming struggle against Great Britain. His ambassador left London without taking leave, and the British government, acting with its customary energy and promptitude, immediately issued letters of marque against the ships and subjects of Spain.
On the 8th of May, the King of Spain published a formal declaration of war against Great Britain, and, on the 8th of July, authorized his subjects in America to take their share in the hostilities to be waged against the English and their possessions. No news could have been more welcome to Galvez. He was young, bold, energetic, and he felt that his talents were equal to the career which was opening before him. Availing himself of the occasion with alacrity, he immediately planned an attack against the neighboring English possessions, and submitted it to a council of war. It was composed of
122
GALVEZ' MILITARY PREPARATIONS.
men of a less fiery spirit, who rejected his proposition, and recommended that all offensive action be suspended until reinforcements be received from Havana. They also advised that, in the mean time, Galvez should con- fine all his exertions to the execution of the best mea- sures that might be devised for the defence of the colony.
Galvez' mind was not so constituted as to induce him to submit implicitly to the decision of his advisers, and he acted as men of his temperament usually do in similar circumstances. He had convened a council of war, in the hope that it would agree with him, but as it did not, he resolved to act on his own responsibility. He had discovered by intercepted letters from Natchez, that the English intended to surprise New Orleans,* and he con- cluded to ward off the blow by being the first to attack, when he was thought to be hardly capable of defence. He labored under the apprehension that, if the English once possessed themselves of both banks of the river down to its mouth, they might then find themselves in a situation to carry the war into New Mexico and the other provinces of New Spain. These were strong con- siderations, which weighed on his mind, and which stimulated his zeal. Under the pretext of preparing for defence, he proceeded with indefatigable activity to pre- pare for carrying into execution his secret designs, which he intrusted only to Don Juan Antonio Gayarre, whom he appointed commissary of war for the projected expe- dition. He had proposed to march against the enemy on the 22nd of August, resolving to call together, previously, on the 20th, all the inhabitants who were at hand, and whom he intended to invite to follow him. But, on the 18th, a hurricane, that well-known visiter of
* Supplemento á la Gazetta de Madrid de Viernes, 14 de Enero de 1780.
123
GALVEZ' MILITARY PREPARATIONS.
the country, suddenly burst out with such violence, that, in three hours, it destroyed a large number of houses in New Orleans, the greater part of the dwellings and im- provements on the banks of the river, for forty miles up and down, swept off like chaff all the crops, killed almost all the cattle, and spread general consternation through- out the province. All the vessels which Galvez had in readiness for the expedition went to the bottom of the Mississippi, with the exception of the frigate, El Volante, which was saved by the intrepidity and skill of its commander, Luis Lorenzo de Terrazas.
This was a sad and unexpected reverse, disconcerting all the measures of the Governor. But reflecting that if, in the state of prostration in which the colony was, time was given to the English, whose establishments had not suffered from the hurricane, they could, by calling the Indians to their assistance, take the field with fifteen hundred men, and secure the conquest of the Spanish possessions, he made up his mind to persevere in his original intentions, and ordered the commissary of war, Don Juan Antonio Gayarre, to renew his preparations. But in the exhausted state of the colony, it was not easy to provide all those various elements, the combination of which is necessary to secure the success of the invasion of an enemy's territory, and the commissary of war had to tax his energy and ability to the utmost to satisfy the impatience of his chief. He had to apply himself to his task, day and night, and allow himself no breathing time, until it was completed. Galvez, in order to induce the colonists to join him in the contemplated expedition, in spite of the circumstances of desolation in which the country then was, had recourse to an expedient, "to which," says the supplement to the Madrid Gazette of the 29th of August, 1780, "he was in part indebted for his final success."
124
GALVEZ' ADDRESS TO THE LOUISIANIANS.
With the official communication of the declaration of war, Galvez, who was only governor ad interim, had received intelligence that the king had confirmed him in the government of Louisiana. But he had concealed this fact, in order that it should not be known that he had heard from Madrid. He now convened the inha- bitants on the public square at New Orleans, discoursed on the miserable condition of the province, and regretted that, in such untoward circumstances, he had to inform them that war had been declared against Great Britain, and that he had received strict orders to put the colony in a state of defence, because an attack was anticipated. He then showed them his commission as governor of Louisiana under the royal patent. " Gentlemen," said he, addressing them with the energy of language and sentiment which was suited to the occasion, "I cannot avail myself of my commission, without previously swear- ing before the cabildo, that I shall defend the province; but, although I am disposed to shed the last drop of my blood for Louisiana and for my king, I cannot take an oath which I may be exposed to violate, because I do not know whether you will help me in resisting the ambitious designs of the English. What do you say ? Shall I take the oath of governor? Shall I swear to defend Louisiana? Will you stand by me, and conquer or die with your governor and for your king?" So saying, with the left hand he displayed the royal com- mission, under the broad seal of Spain, and, with the right, he drew his sword with an expression of heroic determination. An immense and enthusiastic acclama- tion was the answer. "Fear not taking your oath of office," cried the crowd, as if with one voice; "for the defence of Louisiana, and for the service of the king, we tender you our lives, and we would say our fortunes, if we had any remaining." On the spot, Galvez went
125
GALVEZ READY TO ATTACK THE ENGLISH.
through the ceremony of his installation, amidst the increasing enthusiasm and shouts of the whole popula- tion, and, immediately after, hastened to accelerate his preparations, with the united assistance and efforts of the colonists.
Still concealing his real designs, the governor gave out that he was going to post his troops in those places to which he expected that the first attacks of the Eng- lish would be directed. He ordered down to New Orleans all the boats which had been spared by the hurricane, at those points on the river where its violence had not been so much felt. One schooner and three gunboats were raised out of the river, into which they had sunk, and the provisions, ammunition and artillery were put in them. The artillery consisted of ten pieces, one twenty-four, five eighteen, and four four-pounders, under the command of Don Julien Alvarez, who, although his health was greatly impaired, took charge with ala- crity of the trust reposed in him. This small fleet was to go up the river at the same time with the army, in order to supply its wants. On the 26th of August, Galvez gave the command of New Orleans and of the garrison which was left in it to Lieutenant Colonel Don Pedro Piernas, and delivered up the civil administration of the province, during his absence, to the contador, or comp- troller, Don Martin Navarro. He appointed as second in command to himself, in the campaign which he was to undertake, Colonel Don Manuel Gonzales; next in rank. came Don Estevan Miró, and Jacinto Panis, with the commissary of war, Don Juan Antonio Gayarre. These were to be under him the principal actors in the expe- dition.
On the 27th, these arrangements being made, the governor took his departure in the morning, to recruit at the German and Acadian Coasts all the men that he
126
DEPARTURE OF THE EXPEDITION.
might prevail upon to join him. On the same day, in the afternoon, his small army put itself in motion. It was composed of 170 veteran soldiers, 330 recruits, 20 carabiniers, 60 militiamen, and 80 free blacks and mu- lattoes, of Oliver Pollock, the agent of the American Congress, with nine of his countrymen, as volunteers- making a total of 670 men, without one single engineer among them, says the Supplement to the Madrid Gazette, which relates all the details of this expedition. They were reinforced on the way by 600 men of every condi- tion and color, besides 160 Indians, who had been gathered up at the German Coast, at the Acadian Coast, at Opeloussas, Attakapas and Pointe Coupée. These troops, when united, formed a body of fourteen hundred and thirty men. Although they were provided with no tents, and with none of those articles which are usually deemed necessary to an army entering upon a campaign, yet they marched on with unabated ardor, and much order, through the thick woods which, at that time, shaded a considerable portion of the banks of the river. With a view to guard against surprises, the colored men and the Indians were ordered to keep ahead of the main body of the troops, at a distance of about three quarters of a mile, and closely to reconnoitre the woods. Next came the veteran troops, whose left was protected by the river and by the artillery of the boats, and whose right rested on the forest. The militia formed the rear guard.
On the 6th of September (1779) the Spaniards came in sight of Fort Manchac, situated at a distance of about one hundred and fifteen miles from New Orleans. But disease and the fatigues of the journey had caused a diminution of more than one third in their number. It was only when he was about a mile and a half from the fort, that Galvez informed his troops of the declaration
127
FORT MANCHAC CARRIED BY STORM.
of war against the English, and of the positive instruc tions he had received to attack their establishments. This communication was responded to with demonstra- tions of joy; a general disposition was shown to come to close quarters with the enemy, and there was exhibited a patriotic emulation, as to which should distinguish himself most in the service of the king.
On the 7th, in the morning, the regulars were posted in an advantageous position, with the intention of op- posing them to a body of four hundred Englishmen who were said to be coming with artillery and provisions to the relief of Manchac, and the assault was given to the fort by the militia, with complete success. Gilbert An- toine de St. Maxent, brother-in-law to ex-Governor Unzaga, was the first who entered the fort through one of its embrasures. The garrison was composed of a captain, a first lieutenant and a second lieutenant, with twenty privates, of whom one was killed, and five escaped with one of the lieutenants. The rest remained prisoners of war. This certainly was no great exploit.
On the 8th, the inventory of the fort was made; six days of rest were allowed to the troops; and, on the 13th, they resumed their march for Baton Rouge, which is only fifteen miles from Manchac. At a mile and a half from Baton Rouge, the army took its quarters, and the artillery was landed from the boats. Already had Grand Pré, with all the forces which he had been able to bring with him from Pointe Coupée, occupied a posi- tion between Baton Rouge and Natchez, in order to interrupt all communication between these two places, as he actually did, after having possessed himself of two English posts, one of which was on Thompson's Creek, and the other on the Amite, forcing their garrisons to surrender themselves prisoners of war.
128
SIEGE OF BATON ROUGE.
Governor Galvez, having, with some officers, recon- noitred the fort of Baton Rouge, saw that it would be impossible to carry it by storm, on account of its strength. This fort was surrounded by a ditch, eighteen feet wide and nine in depth; it had, besides, very high walls, with a parapet protected with chevaux de frise, and a garrison of four hundred regulars and one hundred militiamen, and was supplied with thirteen pieces of heavy artillery. The governor also considered that the greater portion of his forces consisted of natives of the country, among whom there were many heads of fami- lies, and that a victory would be dearly bought by the blood which it would cost, and the desolation it would spread in the colony. Therefore, resisting the repeated and pressing solicitations of his troops to be led to the assault, he resolved to open trenches and establish batteries.
1
There was near the fort a wood which projected towards it in the shape of a triangle. This, at the first glance, seemed the most favorable spot from which to attack, and this the governor chose, to deceive the ene- my, and to divert their attention from the point where he intended to carry on his works. Thither he sent a detachment of militia, supported by the colored compa- nies and the Indians, in order that, under cover of the trees, and during the night, they should make as much noise as possible, and simulate an attack.
The English wasted and spent in vain their ammuni- tion, by firing with ball and grape at that part of the wood from which they thought they would be assailed, whilst, in the meantime, the Spaniards, without being incommoded, were erecting their batteries within musket shot of the fort, behind a garden which concealed their operations. The English discovered the stratagem when
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