USA > Louisiana > History of Louisiana, the Spanish domination > Part 29
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49
374
IMPROVEMENTS IN NEW ORLEANS.
van Gayarré, who had come with Ulloa in 1766, had taken Arroyo's place, and Don Manuel Hoa had suc- ceeded Gayarré. For these changes he begged the royal approbation.
Until the year 1796, the city of New Orleans had never been lighted at night except by the moon, and had been guarded by occasional patrols only, when cir- cumstances required it. But, on the 30th of March of that year, the Baron wrote to his government that, considering the frequent and almost inevitable robberies which were perpetrated in a city of six thousand souls, by a multitude of vagabonds of every nation, he had, as proposed before, imposed a tax of nine reales a year on every chimney, to provide for the expenses of the police ; that he had formed a body of thirteen serenos,* or watchmen, and established eighty lamps; that the keep- ing up of these thirteen watchmen and eighty lamps would cost $3,898 annually; and that to meet these expenses, he had to call for a proportionate contribution, which he had apportioned among all the inhabitants of New Orleans. To make this tax lighter, he proposed that eighteen hundred feet in depth of that part of the commons fronting the rear of the city and nearest to the fortifications, which were unproductive of any revenue to said city, because they were inundated six months in the year, be divided into lots of sixty feet front by one hundred and fifty in depth, and conceded to such of the inhabitants as should offer to cultivate them into gar- dens, on condition of their paying annually a certain sum to defray the expense of lighting up the streets- which sum would be so much to be deducted from what the city had now to pay.
* A sereno is a night watch, so called from his announcing in a loud voice from time to time the state of the weather, and from his frequently crying out: 'Sereno," fair weather.
375
FIRST APPEARANCE OF YELLOW FEVER.
These were decided improvements calculated to melio- rate the condition of New Orleans, which, unfortunately, was visited, it is said for the first time, with the yellow fever in the fall of the year 1796. That autumn proved, besides, very sickly in every other way.
The Intendant Ventura Morales, in a despatch of the 31st of October, speaks of it in the following terms: " An epidemic which broke out in the latter part of August, and which is prevalent to this day, has terrified and still keeps in a state of consternation the whole population of this town. Some of the medical faculty call it a malignant fever; some say that it is the disease so well known in America under the name of 'black vomit,' and, finally, others affirm that it is the yellow fever which proved so fatal in Philadelphia, in the au- tumn of 1794. Although the number of deaths has not been excessive, considering that, according to the parish registry, it has not yet reached two hundred among the whites since the breaking out of the epidemic, and con- sidering that many died from other diseases, still it must be admitted that the loss of lives is very great, because, although those who died out of the precincts of the town, and the protestants who perished (and they were nume- rous), have not been registered, nevertheless the number of deaths exceeds, by two thirds, those which occurred in the same lapse of time, in ordinary years.
" A peculiarity to be remarked in the disease is, that it attacks foreigners in preference to the natives, and what is singular, it seems to select the Flemish, the Eng- lish, and the Americans, who rarely recover, and who generally die the second or third day after the invasion of the disease. Such is not the case with the Spaniards and the colored people, with whom the recipe of Dr. Masderall has produced marvellous effects."
As to the sanitary condition of the morals and religion
376
BISHOP PENALVERT'S DESPATCH.
of the inhabitants Bishop Peñalvert had said in a de spatch of the 1st of November, 1795 :
"Since my arrival in this town, on the 17th of July, I have been studying with the keenest attention the character of its inhabitants, in order to regulate my ecclesiastical government in accordance with the infor- mation which I may obtain on this important subject.
"On the 2d of August, I began the discharge of my pastoral functions. I took possession without any diffi- culty of all the buildings appertaining to the church, and examined all the books, accounts, and other matters thereto relating. But as to re-establishing the purity of religion, and reforming the manners of the people, which are the chief objects El Tridentino* has in view, I have encountered many obstacles.
" The inhabitants do not listen to, or if they do, they disregard, all exhortations to maintain in its orthodoxy the Catholic faith, and to preserve the innocence of life. But, without ceasing to pray the Father of all mercies to send his light into the darkness which surrounds these people, I am putting into operation human means to remedy these evils, and I will submit to your Excellency those which I deem conducive to the interests of religion and of the state.
".Because his Majesty tolerates here the Protestants, for sound reasons of state, the bad Christians, who are in large numbers in this colony, think that they are author- ized to live without any religion at all. Many adults die without having received the sacrament of communion. Out of the eleven thousand souls composing this parish, hardly three to four hundred comply with the precept of partaking at least once a year of the Lord's supper. Of the regiment of Louisiana, there are not above thirty,
* The Bishop alludes to the disciplinary rules established by the Council of Trent.
377
BISHOP PENALVERT'S DESPATCH.
including officers and soldiers, who have discharged this sacred duty for the last three years. No more than about the fourth part of the population of the town ever attends mass, and on Sundays only, and on those great holydays which require it imperiously. To do so on the other holydays they consider as a superfluous act of devotion to which they are not bound. Most of the married and unmarried men live in a state of concu- binage, and there are fathers who procure courtezans for the use of their sons, whom they thus intentionally pre- vent from getting lawful wives .* The marriage contract is one which, from a universal custom, admitting only of a few accidental exceptions, is never entered into among the slaves. Fasting on Fridays, in Lent, and during vigi- lias y temporas, is a thing unknown ; and there are other mal-practices which denote the little of religion existing here among the inhabitants, and which demonstrate that there remains in their bosoms but a slight spark of the faith instilled into them at the baptismal font.
" I presume that a large portion of these people are vassals of the king, because they live on his domain, and accept his favors. But I must speak the truth. His Majesty possesses their bodies and not their souls. Re- bellion is in their hearts, and their minds are imbued with the maxims of democracy ; and had they not for their chief so active and energetic a man as the present governor, there would long since have been an eruption of the pent-up volcano ; and should another less sagacious chief ever forget the fermenting elements which are at work under ground, there can be no doubt but that there would be an explosion.
" Their houses are full of books written against reli- gion and the state. They are permitted to read them
* Hay padres que proporcionan las mancebas á sus hijos para distraerles los matrimonios.
378
BISHOP PENALVERT'S DESPATCH.
with impunity, and, at the dinner table, they make use of the most shameful, lascivious, and sacrilegious songs.
"This melancholy sketch of the religious and moral customs and condition of the flock which has fallen to my lot, will make you understand the cause of whatever act of scandal may suddenly break out, which, however, I shall strive to prevent ; and the better so to do, I have used and am still using some means, which I intend as remedies, and which I am going to communicate to your Excellency.
"The Spanish school, which has been established here at the expense of the crown, is kept as it ought to be ; but as there are others which are French, and of which one alone is opened by authority and with the regular license, and as I was ignorant of the faith professed by the teachers and of their morality, I have prescribed for them such regulations as are in conformity with the pro- visions of our legislation.
" Excellent results are obtained from the Convent of the Ursulines, in which a good many girls are educated ; but their inclinations are so decidedly French, that they have even refused to admit among them Spanish women who wished to become Nuns, so long as these applicants should remain ignorant of the French idiom, and they have shed many tears on account of their being obliged to read in Spanish books their spiritual exercises, and to comply with the other duties of their community in the manner prescribed to them.
" This is the nursery of those future matrons who will inculcate on their children the principles which they here imbibe. The education which they receive in this insti- tution is the cause of their being less vicious than the other sex. As to what the boys are taught in the Spanish school, it is soon forgotten. Should their education be continued in a college, they would be confirmed in their
379
GENERAL VICTOR COLLOT.
religious principles, in the good habits given to them, and in their loyalty as faithful vassals to the crown. But they leave the school when still very young, and retire to the houses of their parents mostly situated in the country, where they hear neither the name of God nor of King, but daily witness the corrupt morals of their parents."
The Bishop goes on enumerating the means and expe- dients through which he hopes to remedy all the evils which he thus energetically describes. So much for the representation made of Louisiana by the Bishop Don Luis de Peñalvert y Cardenas, in the year of our Lord 1795.
-
There is another delineation of Louisiana from the pen of the French general Victor Collot, who visited that province in 1796, and who gives a most minute descrip- tion of its military resources and of its fortifications at the time. The character of the work which he published may be said to be almost entirely strategic. It is evi- dent that this superior officer had received from his government a mission which he had fully the ability to
execute. He points out the two rivers of the Arkansas and of the Grands Osages as being the keys of Mexico ; "for," says he, " although these two rivers are separated from each other at their mouths by a distance of more than six hundred miles ; although the first empties itself into the Mississippi, and the second into the Missouri, yet, as the river des Grands Osages runs south-east, and the river of the Arkansas north-east, they come so near one another at their sources, that they are separated only by a narrow valley, at the extremity of which is Santa Fé.
"From the point where ceases the navigation of the river of the Arkansas to Santa Fé, there are sixty miles, and from the point where ceases the navigation of the
380
THE NEW ORLEANS FORTIFICATIONS.
river des Grands Osages, there are from one hundred and fifteen to one hundred and twenty miles.
"Thus, supposing two bodies of troops, one of which would muster in the State of Indiana, at the mouth of the river of the Illinois, and opposite that of the Missouri, and the other in the State of Tennessee, at the "Ecores à Margot," a little above the river of the Arkansas, the first ascending the Missouri and the river of the Grands Osages, the second that of the Arkansas, they might both arrive within an interval of very few days, at the same given point (Santa Fé), as they would have about the same facilities of navigation and the same distance to run over. The difficulties to be overcome by the column on the right, in ascending the Missouri for ninety miles, and in moving on land sixty miles more than the column on the left, would be more than compensated by the facility which it would find in going up the river of the Grands Osages, which is much less rapid than that of the Arkan- sas ; and, considering that from the head of these two rivers, the ground, from its nature, presents neither mountains nor rivers which might be serious obstacles, one may easily appreciate how important it is for Spain that these two passages be closed."
General Collot also gives a description of the fortifica- tions of New Orleans. "At the superior extremity of the city, when facing the river," said he, " is a draining canal which runs from the Mississippi in the direction of Lake Pontchartrain. Its width is twenty-four feet by eight in depth .* This canal, by the means of a sluice, supplies with water the ditches of the city.
"Its defensive works consist in five small forts and a great battery, which are distributed in the following manner :
* This is a singular error: there never was such a canal; it was merely in contemplation.
381
THE NEW ORLEANS FORTIFICATIONS.
" On the side which fronts the river, and at both ex- tremities, are two forts which command the road and the river. Their shape is that of a regular pentagon, with a parapet eighteen feet thick, coated with brick, with a ditch and covered way. In each of these forts are bar- racks for the accommodation of one hundred and fifty men, and a powder magazine. Their artillery is com- posed of a dozen twelve and eighteen-pounders.
" Between these two forts, and in front of the princi- pal street of the city, is a great battery, commanding the river with its guns, and crossing its fires with the two forts.
" The first of these forts-that is, that on the right, which is most considerable-is called St. Charles, the other St. Louis.
" In the rear, and to cover the city on the land side, are three other forts. They are less considerable than the two first. There is one at each of the two salient angles of the long square forming the city, and a third between the two, a little beyond the line, so as to form an obtuse angle." These three forts have no covered way and are not revetted,t but are merely strengthened with friezes and palisades. They are armed with eight guns and have accommodations for one hundred men. The one on the right is called Fort Burgundy, that on the left St. Ferdinand, and that of the middle St. Joseph.
" The five forts and the battery cross their fire with one another, and are connected by a ditch of forty feet in width by seven in depth. With the earth taken out of the ditch, there has been formed on the inside a pa- rapet three feet high, on which have been placed, closely serried, a line of twelve feet pickets. Back of. these pickets is a small causeway. The earth has been cast
* Un angle obtus.
t Ne sont pas revêtus.
382
THE NEW ORLEANS FORTIFICATIONS.
so as to render the slope exceedingly easy and accessible Three feet water are always kept up in the moats, even during the driest season of the year, by means of ditches communicating with the draining canal.
" It cannot be denied that these miniature forts are well kept and trimmed up. But, particularly on ac- count of their ridiculous distribution, and also on account of their want of capaciousness, they look more like play- things intended for babies than military defences. For there is not one which cannot be stormed, and which five hundred determined men would not carry sword in hand. Once master of one of the principal forts, either St. Louis or St. Charles, the enemy would have no need of minding the others, because, by bringing the guns to bear upon the city, it would be forced to capitulate im- mediately, or be burnt up in less than an hour, and have its inhabitants destroyed, as none of the forts can admit of more than one hundred and fifty men. We believe that M. de Carondelet, when he adopted this bad system of defence, thought more of securing the obedience of the subjects of his Catholic Majesty, than of providing a defence against the attack of a foreign enemy, and, in this point of view, he may be said to have completely succeeded." 1
General Collot describes also the fort at the Plaque- mine Turn ; he says that it is provided with twenty pieces of artillery of various calibre, and that it can ac- commodate three hundred men ..
He further gives the following description of the inhabitants of the Illinois District: "On the American side, there are still to be found some Frenchmen, to wit: at Kaskaskias, at Rock's Prairie (prairie du rocher), at Piorias on Red River, at Dog's prairie (prairie du chien), near Wisconsin, at Chicago on Lake Michigan, and at the Post of Vincennes on the Wabash.
383
THE INHABITANTS OF THE ILLINOIS DISTRICT.
" Most of these people are a compound of traders, adventurers, wood runners, rowers and warriors- ignorant, superstitious and obstinate-whom no fatigues, no privations, no dangers can stop in their enterprises, which they always carry through. Of the qualities which distinguish the French, they have retained no- thing except courage.
" When at home, and in the privacies of their ordi- mary life, their character is very much like that of the Aborigines, with whom they live. They are therefore indolent, lazy and addicted to drunkenness, cultivating the earth but little or not at all; the French which they speak has become so corrupt, that it has degenerated into a sort of jargon, and they have even forgotten the regular division of the months, and of time itself, according to the calculations of civilization. If you ask them when a particular event happened, they will answer, that it was when the waters were high, when the strawberries were ripe, or in the corn and potato season. Should it be suggested to them to change anything for the better, even in matters which are acknowledged by them as being defective, or should any improvement be recom- mended to them in agriculture, or in some of the branches of commerce, their only answer is: it is the custom ; so it was with our fathers. I get along with it -so, of course, will my children. They love France and speak of it with pride."
General Collot, on his way to New Orleans from the upper country, had stopped to visit Etienne Boré at his sugar plantation, six miles above New Orleans, where he was arrested by order of the Baron de Carondelet, who had sent up fifty dragoons by land and an armed boat by the river. The General was put in the boat, and taken down to New Orleans, where he was imprisoned in Fort St. Charles ; on the next day, he was called
384
GENERAL COLLOT'S ARREST.
upon by the Governor, who proposed to him a house in town, which he might occupy on parole, and with a Spanish soldier at his door. The General, having accepted the proposition, left the fort for his new lodg- ings in the Governor's carriage, which had been politely tendered to him. On the 1st of November, the General, from whom some of his maps, drawings and writings had been taken away, was conveyed on board of one of the King's galleys, and, being accompanied by a captain of the regiment of Louisiana, who was not to lose sight of his person, was transported to the Balize, where he was deposited in the house of the chief pilot, Juan Ron- quillo, " situated," says he, "in the midst of a vast swamp, and from which there was no issuing except in a boat." He remained at this dismal spot, until the 22d of December, when he embarked on board of the brig Iphigenia for Philadelphia. It is evident from the General's own relation of his visit to New Orleans that he was not permitted to examine the fortifications of that place, and that he must have described them from hearsay.
The Baron de Carondelet wrote to citizen Adet, who was the representative of the French republic near the government of the United States, in order to justify the course which he had pursued towards General Collot. His reasons were :*
1º-The silence of the minister, who had neglected to notify him, the Governor, of the approach of the General.
* In a despatch of the 10th of December, 1796, the Intendant Morales says : No habiendo tenido por conveniente este Gobernador que el general de la Republica Francesa Jorge Victor Collot que se introdujo en esta provincia por el Ohio, accompañado de su ayudante de campo, tenga comunicacion con estos moradores ni que se instruya del Estado de defensa de la ciudad, tomé el partido de enviarle al puesto de la Baliza, a esperar ocasion para embarcarle para cual- quiera puesto de los Estados Unidos.
THE END OF CARONDELET'S ADMINISTRATION. 385
2º-A confidential communication which he, the Baron de Carondelet, had received from Philadelphia, warning him that General Collot was intrusted with a secret mission, against which the Spanish authorities were to be on their guard.
3º-The information given by one of his subaltern off- cers, that General Collot was reconnoitring the province.
4º-The alarm and excitement which the presence of that superior officer had caused in the colony, and which originated from the rumor mentioned in the American newspapers-that Louisiana was soon to become a French possession.
Etienne Boré was known for his extreme attachment to the French interest, which he was at no pains to con- ceal, and it is said that the Baron seriously thought of having him arrested and transported to Havana, but that he was deterred by the fear of producing a commo- tion by inflicting so harsh a treatment on so distinguished a citizen, who, by his personal character, his rank, his family connections, and the benefit he had lately con- ferred on his country by the introduction of a new branch of industry, commanded universal sympathies and exercised the widest influence.
In the fall of 1797, the Baron de Carondelet departed for Quito, on his having been appointed President of the Royal Audience of the province of that name. The Baron was a short-sized, plump gentleman, somewhat choleric in his disposition, but not destitute of good nature. He was firm and prudent, with a good deal of activity and capacity for business, and, he has left in Louisiana a respected and popular memory.
25
CHAPTER VII.
GAYOSO'S ADMINISTRATION
1797 to 1799.
CASACALVO'S ADMINISTRATION.
1799 to 1801.
BRIGADIER-GENERAL GAYOSO DE LEMOS had been in stalled into office on the 1st of August, 1797, but it was only in the month of January, 1798, that, in conformity to established usage, he published his Bando de Buen Gobierno-a sort of charter, or programme, making known the principles and regulations on which the Governor thought that a good government ought to be established, and by which he was to be guided in his future administration. It contained nothing worthy of any special notice.
Shortly after, he addressed to the Commandants at the different posts throughout the colony the following set of instructions, in relation to grants of lands :
" 1º-Commandants are forbidden" to grant land to a new settler, coming from another spot where he has al- ready obtained a grant. Such a one must either buy land, or obtain a grant from the Governor himself.
" 2º-If a settler be a foreigner, unmarried, and with- out either slaves, money, or other property, no grant is
Martin's History of Louisiana, vol. ii., p. 153.
387
GAYOSO'S ADMINISTRATION.
to be made to him, until he shall have remained four years in the post, demeaning himself well in some honest and useful occupation.
" 3º-Mechanics are to be protected, but no land is to be granted to them, until they shall have acquired some property, and a residence of three years, in the exercise of their trade.
" 4º-No grant of land is to be made to any unmarried emigrant, who has neither trade nor property, until after a residence of four years, during which time he must have been employed in the culture of the ground.
" 5°-But if, after a residence of two years, such a per- son should marry the daughter of an honest farmer, with his consent, and be by him recommended, a grant of land may be made to him.
"6°-Liberty of conscience is not to be extended be- yond the first generation ; the children of the emigrant must become Catholics; and emigrants, not agreeing to this, must not be admitted, but expelled, even when they bring property with them.' This is to be explained to settlers who do not profess the Catholic faith.
" 7º-In Upper Louisiana, no settler is to be admitted, who is not a farmer or a mechanic.
" 8°-It is expressly recommended to Commandants, to watch that no preacher of any religion but the Catholic comes into the province.
" 9º-To every married emigrant of the above descrip- tion two hundred arpens may be granted, with the addi- tion of fifty for every child he brings.
" 10°-If he brings negroes, twenty additional arpens are to be granted him for each : but. in no case, are more than eight hundred arpens to be granted to an emigrant.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.