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320
LIFE OF WM. AUGUSTUS BOWLES.
joined again the Creeks, by whom he was heartily wel- comed back, as if he had been a chief of their own tribe and race, and with them, he began hostilities against the Americans and the Spaniards, towards whom he enter- tained an equal animosity. He marched upon the town of St. Marks, captured the fort, and again plundered stores which belonged to Panton, of whom he seemed destined to be the scourge. He conducted his foraging expeditions with such skill, activity and energy, that he became far and wide an object of terror, and the name of Bowles remained a household word, but too familiar to the frightened imagination of almost every woman and child in the settlements of the hardy pioneers of Alabama and Florida. He had at last made himself so troublesome, that the Americans and the Spaniards, who distrusted each other, and whose interests were opposed in so many things, easily agreed on one point- which was-the necessity of their combining to get rid of their implacable foe, and they secretly offered a large reward for his capture. This temptation was so power- ful, that it could not be resisted ; and Bowles' own war- riors seized and pinioned him, at a grand festival to which he had unsuspiciously resorted. During the night which followed this act of treachery, gnawing apart the ropes with which he was bound, he escaped in the most miraculous manner, to the great astonishment of the Indians. But, being retaken by his pursuers, he was conveyed to Mobile, and thence to Havana, where he subsequently died in one of the dungeons of the Moro Castle. Such was the romantic and eventful life of this remarkable adventurer, who, for several years, had main- tained himself in a position to exercise some considerable influence on the destinies of Louisiana.
McGillivray did not survive long the first capture of his rival, Bowles, which, as already stated, was effected
321
M'GILLIVRAY'S DEATH.
in the beginning of the year 1792, and of which he had been one of the main instruments. . On his return from New Orleans, late in the summer of that very year, he was taken ill, at Mobile, of a fever, which revived old constitutional diseases, and brought on a crisis, of which he died a short time after. William Panton, the far- famed Pensacola merchant, of whom he was the friend, and to some extent the partner, and whose commercial dealings with the Indians he had so long and so faith- fully promoted, wrote to Lachland McGillivray, the father of the chieftain, who was still living at Dunma- glas in Scotland, an interesting letter on the death of his son .* "Your son, Sir," said Panton, "was a man that I esteemed greatly. I was perfectly convinced that our regard for each other was mutual. It so happened, that we had an interest in serving each other, which first brought us together, and the longer we were acquainted, the stronger was our friendship.
"I found him deserted by the British, without pay, without money, without friends, and without property, saving a few negroes, and he and his nation threatened with destruction by the Georgians, unless they agreed to cede them the better part of their country. I had the good fortune to point out a mode by which he could save them all, and it succeeded beyond expectation, &c. *
"He died on the 17th of February, 1793, of compli- cated disorders-of inflamed lungs and the gout on the stomach. He was taken ill on the path coming from his cow-pen, on Little river, where one of his wives, Jo- seph Curnell's daughter, resided, and died eight days after his arrival here (Pensacola). No pains, no atten- tion, no cost was spared to save the life of my friend,
* Pickett's History of Alabama, vol. ii., p. 141.
21
322
M'GILLIVRAY'S CHARACTER.
but fate would have it otherwise, and he breathed his
last in my arms, &c.
*
*
*
"He died possessed of sixty negroes, three hundred head of cattle, with a large stock of horses, &c. *
* * *
"I advised, I supported, I pushed him on, to be the great man. Spaniards and Americans felt his weight, and this enabled him to haul me after him, so as to establish this house with more solid privileges than, without him, I should have obtained. This being the case, if he had lived, I meant, besides what he was owing me, to have added considerably to his stock of negroes. What I intended to do for the father, I will do for his children. This ought not to operate against your making that ample provision for your grandson and his two sis- ters, which you have it in your power to make. They have lately lost their mother, so that they have no friends, poor things, but you and me. My heart bleeds for them, and what I can, I will do. The boy, Alleck, is old enough to be sent to Scotland, to school, which I intend to do, next year, and then you will see him."
Such was the end of the man, whom the Spaniards had considered as one of their most valuable allies, to protect Louisiana against the approach of the Americans. McGillivray was one of those interesting characters who have now become so scarce, and who, in the early days of the history of America, presented in their persons the curious spectacle of the combined qualities and de- fects of the wild Indian and the educated white man of the Caucasian race-what is called a half-breed-a com- pound of night and day-a moral, intellectual and phy- sical twilight-the blending of colors and races-the offspring of the embraces of civilization and barbarism- the embodiment of the spirit of the wilderness still
323
M'GILLIVRAY'S CHARACTER.
retaining its nature and propensities, although somewhat tamed and refined by the tuition of morality, the reve- lations of religion, and the soothing influence of the arts and sciences. He, himself, seemed to delight in showing, by his usual dress, the opposite elements which composed his organization; for that dress was a striking mixture of the Indian and European garb. When he travelled among the whites, it was always with befitting dignity, and with two servants, one of whom was a half-breed, and the other a negro. When moving on the territory of his nation, he was followed, like a chief, by an Indian escort. In imitation of more powerful rulers, he had several places of residence, if not palaces, where he en- tertained his visitors with the most liberal hospitality. His two favorite seats were at Hickory Ground, and at little Tallase. The historian Pickett, who, being a native of Alabama, has had a better opportunity than any one else, to procure the fullest information concerning this distinguished chieftain of the land where he dwells, thus describes his person :
" General McGillivray was six feet high, spare made, and remarkably erect in person and carriage. His eyes were large, dark and piercing. His forehead was so peculiarly shaped, that the old Indian countrymen often spoke of it. It commenced expanding at his eyes, and widened considerably at the top of his head. It was a bold and lofty forehead. His fingers were long and tapering, and he wielded a pen with the greatest rapidity. His face was handsome, and indicative of quick thought and much sagacity. Unless interested in conversation, he was disposed to be taciturn, but even then was polite and respectful." Pickett calls him the Talleyrand of Alabama. If, as a barbarian, he delighted in the plu- rality of wives, and thereby was pointedly opposed in taste to his exquisitely civilized prototype, who never
324
M'GILLIVRAY'S CHARACTER.
could bear to live with the only one he had taken to his bosom, he certainly had, if small and great things can be assimilated, some diplomatic resemblance with the celebrated statesman of France. For he succeeded in persuading the Americans, the British and the Spaniards, that he was serving them all, whilst he was serving him- self only, and, which is better, perhaps his own people. The individual who, Proteus-like, could in turn-nay more, who could at the same time, be a British Colonel, a Spanish and American General, a polished gentleman, a Greek and Latin scholar, and a wild Indian Chief with the frightful tomahawk at his belt and the war paint on his body, a shrewd politician, a keen-sighted merchant, a skilful speculator, the emperor of the Creeks and Seminoles, the able negotiator of treaties with Washing- ton in person and other great men, the writer of papers which would challenge the admiration of the most fastidious-he, who could be a mason among the Chris- tians, and a pagan prophet in the woods; he, who could have presents, titles, decorations showered at the same time upon him from England, Spain and the United States, and who could so long arrest their encroachments against himself and his nation, by playing them, like puppets, against each other, must be allowed to tower far above the common herd of men. He was interred with masonic honors in the splendid garden of William Panton, in the town of Pensacola .* He was much regretted by the Spaniards, but his death literally spread desolation among his people, and one of them, on pro- nouncing a funeral oration to his memory, might, with truth, had he known anything of Hebrew history and of Latin language, have applied to him what was said of one of the Machabei: Fleverunt eum omnis populus
Pickett's History of Alabama, vol. ii., p. 142.
325
EXTENSION OF COMMERCIAL FRANCHISES.
Israel planctu magno, et lugebant dies multos, et dixerunt : quo modo cecidit vir potens, qui salvum facie- bat populum Israel !
If the intelligence of the capture of Bowles had been grateful to the ministers of Madrid, they were not as well pleased with the information which they received from Carondelet, in a despatch of the 20th of December, in which they were made to understand that the mate- rials for the military defence of Louisiana were in the most wretched state, and that it was impossible to do what was absolutely necessary to put them in a proper condition, without an expenditure of at least $250,000. The revenue received through the custom-house at New Orleans, amounted, this year (1792), to $89,499.
On the 1st of January, 1793, the King issued an ordi- nance approving the prohibitory measure which Caron- delet, on the recommendation of the Cabildo, had adopted concerning the importation of slaves into Louisi- ana from Jamaica and the French West India Islands ; and, at the same time, wishing to encourage the slave trade from Africa, his Catholic Majesty granted great privileges to such of his subjects as would engage in it with Spanish vessels.
On the 9th of June, the King issued another ordinance, continuing, increasing and extending the commercial franchises which had been conceded by the royal schedule of 1782 .* This wise policy was extremely favorable to the commerce of New Orleans, which, be- sides, had hitherto been fostered by the enlightened liberality of the Spanish Governors, who had always connived at the violation of those stringent and ill- devised commercial regulations of Spain, which, in her colonies, absolutely confined all trade to her natural born
* Martin's History of Louisiana, vol. ii., p. 118.
326
EXTENSION OF COMMERCIAL FRANCHISES.
subjects, or to such as were naturalized and residing in her dominions. Particularly since the conflagration which had destroyed New Orleans in 1788, Mirò had openly disregarded the positive instructions of the minister of finances, had thrown open the port of New Orleans to a brisk trade with Philadelphia, and had extended the same patronage to foreign merchants residing in the province, although not naturalized, and the same policy was still very properly pursued by the Baron de Carondelet. It must be said that the King, on being informed of the necessities of Louisiana, approved of the disregard of his own laws by his own representa- tives. "After this," says Judge Martin in his History of Louisiana, " the officers of the custom-house contented themselves with the simple declaration of an individual, generally the consignee, that he was owner of the vessel. No oath was administered; the production of no docu- ment was required; the declaration was even accepted from an individual who did not reside in the province, on his asserting that he meant to do so, or on his pro- ducing a licence to import goods. No one was thereby deceived, but the custom-house officers were furnished with a pretext for registering as a Spanish bottom, and thus preserve an appearance of compliance with the law. So little attention was paid to this, that, at times, the Governor and Intendant certified that a vessel was American property, while she appeared on the custom- house books as a Spanish vessel." A strange anomaly, indeed, coupled with a still more curious one-that of the King of Spain's preference to approve the violation of his superannuated, moth-eaten and obnoxious laws, than consent to their repeal or modification.
The hope of quiet and prosperous times was thus smiling on the inhabitants of Louisiana, when they were violently agitated by the news that Louis XVI. had
327
JACOBINISM IN LOUISIANA.
perished on the scaffold on the 21st of January, 1793, and that the King of Spain had declared war against the new French Republic. Although the fate of the august victim was deplored, yet the feelings of the majority of the population of Louisiana were in favor of the new order of things which was expected to be established in France, in the hope that a free govern- ment, resting on a solid basis, would succeed the bloody anarchy which they considered as having only a tem- porary and transitory existence. They were not also without secret hopes of being re-annexed to France, by a more vigorous and enlightened government than the one which had given them away to Spain ; and even one hundred and fifty of them were bold enough to sign a petition openly addressed to the French Government, and praying for their being replaced under the protec- tion of France. The sympathies of the colonists were not concealed ; at the theatre, the celebrated French hymn, " La Marseillaise," was frantically asked from the orchestra, and in some of the tippling-shops of New Orleans, which were resorted to by such spirits as rejoice in the atmosphere of these places, the jacobinical song of " Ça ira-ça ira, les Aristocrates à la lanterne," was. vociferated with a degree of boldness which showed they thought that help was at hand, and that punishment would hesitate to visit them. The Baron's critical situa- tion may easily be imagined. "He prepared and pro- moted," says Judge Martin in his History of Louisiana," the subscription of a paper, in which the colonists gave assurance of their loyalty to, and affection for, the Catholic King, and bound themselves to support his government in Louisiana. He put a stop to the prac- tice which had of late been introduced, of entertaining the audience at the theatre with the exhibition of certain martial dances to revolutionary airs. He caused six
328
CARONDELET'S DEFENSIVE MEASURES.
individuals who had manifested their approbation of the new French principles, and evinced a desire of seeing them acted upon in Louisiana, to be arrested and con- fined in the fort. At the intercession of several respect- able inhabitants of New Orleans, he promised to liberate them ; but, believing afterwards that he had discovered new causes of alarm, which rendered a decisive step necessary, he shipped them for Havana, where they were detained during a twelvemonth."
These circumstances required that Louisiana be put on such a footing as to meet all emergencies, and, on the 30th of September, Carondelet informed his government that the fortifications and all the other necessary mate- rials for the protection of the colony had been allowed to go to ruin ; that the amount of the annual expenditure fixed for Louisiana by O'Reilly, in 1769, at the rate of $115,000, had not been sufficient to answer all the exigencies; and that, although, since 1784, the budget of the province had been carried up to $537,869, and had been so kept up to the present day, still, for some cause or other, unknown to him, the fortifications and artillery had been so neglected, that they were unfit for any practical use; and that, to comply with the royal order of October, 1791, requiring Louisiana to be put in an ordinary state of defence, would demand an annual appropriation of $100,279, over and above the regular budget, in order to cover the expenses to be occasioned by an increase of troops, as four additional battalions would be absolutely necessary.
In these difficult conjunctures, it was of the utmost importance to secure the friendship of the Indians, and therefore all the efforts of Carondelet were bent towards strengthening old alliances with them, and making new ones. These efforts were crowned with success, and, on the 28th of October, he had the satisfaction, through his
-
329
FORTIFICATIONS AT NEW ORLEANS.
agent and representative, Colonel Gayoso de Lemos, Governor of Natchez, to make a reciprocally defensive and offensive treaty, between Spain on one side, and the Chickasaws, the Creeks, the Talapouches, the Cherokees, and the Alibamons on the other. The treaty of 1784 was ratified in all its points, and these different Indian nations, forming a confederacy for their mutual assist- ance, bound themselves never to act in any thing which might have a bearing on the interest, security or welfare of the parties to the treaty, without first obtaining the consent of them all, and the approbation of the Governor of Louisiana. In return for the protection which Spain promised to extend over all these nations, they obligated themselves to contribute, to the utmost of their power, to maintain his Catholic Majesty in possession of the provinces of Louisiana and of the two Floridas. Spain, being the patron of all these nations, was to negotiate with the United States, in order to have the limits of the territories of every one of said nations, respectively fixed between them and the United States, so as to avoid any further cause for quarrel and dissension. The other articles of the treaty were concerning the distribution of presents to the several tribes, and other objects of minor importance.
On the 18th of January, 1794, Carondelet wrote to the ministry a despatch, in which he informed them that he was erecting, without the assistance of one solitary engineer, considerable fortifications, or repairing old ones, at several points of the colony, and particularly around New Orleans. He observed that they would not only protect the city against the attack of an enemy, but also keep in check its inhabitants themselves, who had lately shown a disposition to embrace the new-fangled doctrines of France, and had manifested the desire of returning under her domination. "I am every day on horseback
330
SPANISH ALLIANCE WITH THE INDIANS.
before dawn," said he, "in order to visit the works, to urge the laborers, and to attend to all my other innu- merable duties." He added that, if New Orleans had not been awed by the forts which he had caused to be constructed, its population would have rebelled, and a revolution have taken place. "By the exertion of the utmost vigilance, and at the cost of sleepless nights," said he, "by frightening some, by punishing others, by driving several out of the colony, and particularly those Frenchmen who had lately come among us, and who had already contaminated the greater part of the pro- vince with their notions and maxims of equality, by intercepting the letters and papers of a suspicious cha- racter, and by dissembling with all, I have obtained more than I had hoped, considering that the whole colony is now in a state of internal tranquillity." He further remarks that, with regard to his secret and confidential despatches, he has nobody about him that he could ven- ture to trust with the copying of them; that the obliga- tion imposed upon him by the order of the King, to transcribe for, and to submit to, the Captain-general of the island of Cuba, of which Louisiana is a dependency, all the documents he has to forward to the Secretary of State at Madrid, multiplies his labors to an enormous extent, and that the most robust man could not resist the wear and tear of such a life; that the secretary of · the government of the colony, Don Armesto, is an inde- fatigable man, but that it is physically impossible that he should do all that is to be done, and that the King's service would be materially benefited, if the Captain- general resided in Louisiana.
The Baron de Carondelet further expressed some feel- ings of proud satisfaction at the late treaty which he had concluded with the Talapouches, the Chickasaws and other nations, and in virtue of which he could, at any
331
CARONDELET'S POLICY AND VIEWS.
time, as he declared, oppose, if necessary, twenty thou sand Indians to the Americans, for the trifling annual expenditure of ten thousand dollars. But, by another of his despatches, dated on the 24th of February, it appears that the pensions and presents given to the In- dians amounted to the yearly and pretty round sum of $55,000.
In this long and very able despatch, the Baron reviews the situation of the colony, and proposes to abandon the fort of Natchez, which is commanded by neighboring heights and can really be of no avail in a case of emer- gency, for the one at the Walnut Hills, which is situated one hundred and twenty miles higher on the river, and which he describes as being in an infinitely stronger position, and as being the key of the province. He says that, on any sudden invasion by the French, should they come down the river, he could oppose to them fifteen hundred men from the Natchez district and from the upper parts of the colony; he represents, that his salary, which is nominally $6,000, but which in reality is re- duced to $4,757, on account of certain deductions to be made from it, is not adequate to the exigencies of his rank and to his official expenses; he calls the attention of the government to various improvements to be made and abuses to be reformed, to the propriety of increasing the salary of some officers and diminishing that of others, of creating some offices and of suppressing several; he proposes the digging of a canal from the ditches that run along the ramparts with which the town is encircled to Bayou St. John, about a mile back towards the swamps; he represents that this work would not cost more than $30,000, and would be of immense utility, as it would give through Bayou St. John and the lakes, an opening to the commerce of New Orleans with Mobile and Pensacola, and would drain the putrid waters stag-
332
INTERFERENCE BETWEEN DEBTORS AND CREDITORS.
nating around it and producing those epidemics which are so fatal to its prosperity. "Should this drainage not be executed," said he, "it will be necessary to abandon the town in less than three or four years; for the inun- dations of the Mississippi, which, on the breaking of any one of its levees or dykes in this neighborhood, cover almost all the streets of New Orleans, gradually raise by their deposits the adjacent lands, and thus make of the town a sort of sink, which will have no outlet for its waters." It appears from very curious documents ac- · companying this despatch, and giving the most detailed accounts of the annual expenses of the colony, including the Mobile and Pensacola districts, that they had, by degrees, ascended to $776,304 in 1793, on which the Baron proposed a reduction of $239,023. The receipts of the custom-house, which constituted the most impor- tant part of the revenue, had not produced, this year, more than $76,815. The military expenses alone amount- ed to $438,436; as to the pay of the clergy, it was only $12,866. Besides the regular expenses of the govern- ment, the supplying of Pensacola and Mobile with goods for the trade with the Indians required an annual dis- bursement of $80,000-that is, $40,000 for each one of these towns.
On the 17th of May, 1794, the Baron de Carondelet wrote to his government to beg the King to step in be- tween the inhabitants of Natchez and their creditors, so as to allow to the former some delays to pay their debts, and thus prevent them from being ruined by litigation.
"Since my taking possession of this government," said he, " my continual and all engrossing occupations in main- taining public tranquillity, and in putting in a regular state of defence this province, which is open on all sides, and which, from the date of the administration of my imme- diate predecessor to the present day, has not ceased to
333
CARONDELET FAVORS THE NATCHEZ DISTRICT.
be threatened by the ambitious designs of the Ameri- cans, have consumed and absorbed all my time for almost two years ; and the war lately declared against France has, finally, much increased my anxieties and trouble in a colony, which is mostly occupied by French people, and which has been repeatedly exposed to invasions, both by sea and from the upper part of the Mississippi. These causes have prevented my submitting sooner to your consideration a subject, which is of so very delicate a nature." Carondelet then informs the minister, that the Natchez district was originally peopled by English and American emigrants, who settled it since the treaty of peace concluded in 1783; that they engaged in the cultivation of tobacco, under the flattering prospect of selling annually to the royal treasury two hundred thou- sand pounds of this their only produce ; that they had contracted large debts for the acquisition of negroes and of other things required by their agricultural pursuits ; that, in 1789, on account of unfavorable circumstances, they had not been able to meet their obligations, and had obtained delays from their creditors on certain con- ditions ; but that most of them had not been able to comply with those conditions, on account of the insuffi- ciency of the crops, of the difficulty of selling them, and of several other untoward events, among which was the promulgation of the royal schedule of 1790, declaring that the government had reduced to forty thousand pounds the quantity of tobacco which it would purchase for the future. Carondelet further stated that, if the law was permitted to have its course, these people, rather than allow themselves to be utterly ruined, would take refuge with their negroes on the territory of the Indians and the Americans ; that they had recently undertaken, with many difficulties to be overcome, the cultivation of cotton and indigo; that it was necessary to consider that
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