USA > Louisiana > Louisiana : its history as a French colony. Third series of lectures > Part 10
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completely foiled in the campaign which she attempted against Portugal, whose resistance was made effective by the assistance of the English. Charles was obliged to give up Florida in exchange for peace.
The war of 1778 was followed by more satisfactory results. The French Duke of Crillon, the commander of the troops of his Catholic Majesty, took possession of Mahon, in 1781, and by the treaty of peace, Minorca and Florida were restored to Spain. Released from the struggle with so potent an enemy as England, Charles attempted to check the depredations and to punish the insolence of the pirates of Algiers. Count O'Reilly was intrusted with the command of that important expedi- tion. This officer had military talents and zeal, which were admitted even by his enemies; but he was an Irishman by birth, and Spanish pride ill brooked that the services of a foreigner should be preferred to those of so many worthy sons of the land. The death of the Marquis of La Romana, who perished in a skirmish, in which he became the victim of his fiery imprudence, gave rise to unfounded suspicions and to seditious clam- ors. The temper and the situation of the army became such, that O'Reilly had to reembark it with precipitation. 'This expedition was as fatal to Charles III., as a . similar one had been to Charles V. His only con- solation was, to be able to say that he had not been there in person. Probably, if he had headed his army, his royal presence would have prevented the dissensions and jealousies which ruined the expedition.
This brief abstract of the events which marked the military career of Charles III., proves that it was not inglorious. But this prince showed himself still greater in the civil administration of his Kingdom. He carried into execution with indomitable perseverance the plans of useful reforms which he had conceived on ascending
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the throne. His was the noble conception to revive the energies of that ancient and once so powerful nation, and to rekindle the sacred light of the arts and sciences, which the Austrian dynasty of the monarchs of Spain had allowed to be extinguished. His ambition was, to be the Peter the Great of his nation. But his first ope- rations produced a feeling of discontent, which soon ripened into violent opposition. The attachment of the Spanish people to their usages, to their prejudices, and above all, to their national costume, went, at the time, far beyond all that can be imagined and described. The Castilians, of all classes, were clad in black, and besides, in all seasons, were wrapped in cloaks up to their eyes ; a large, broad brimmed hat was carried in such a way as to complete the concealment of their faces. This mysterious and gloomy costume not only shocked the sight and awakened apprehensions, but also, materially assisted felons in eluding the vigilance of the police. In imitation of the Russian reformer who had commanded his subjects to shave their chins, Charles III. ordered his to lay aside their cloaks and hats. Not so submissive the Spaniards were, as the Muscovite serfs. They revolted at what they thought to be a · trespass on their rights, and an unwarrantable interfer- ence with their taste and comfort. The Wallon guards, who were on duty at the royal palace, were slaughtered by the populace ; but they had made so obstinate a re- sistance, that they had given time to the King to fly to Aranjuez, where he collected fresh troops. This cloak and hat insurrection produced a ministerial change ; the Count of Aranda was appointed President of the Coun- cil of Castile, and reestablished good order ; the favor- ite minister . of Charles, the Marquis of Squilace, an Italian by birth, was dismissed, as being odious to the populace and to the nobility, and a sort of compromise
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took place between the King and his people as to the hats and cloaks. To gratify their Sovereign, the people gave up their broad brimmed hats ; but in return, to please his loyal subjects, the King had to tolerate the cloaks, provided they should be somewhat curtailed in their length and width. On the faith of these transac- tions, good harmony was restored, and the royal parent and his children were as loving as ever.
Many are the useful establishments and the public monuments which, at the present day, are to be traced up to the reign of Charles III. The high roads in Spain, the Custom House, and the Post Office building in Madrid, the works which have embellished that capi- tal, and secured the health of its inhabitants, the Cabinet of Natural History, the Botanical Garden, the Academies of Painting and Drawing, the canal of Tudela, that of Madrid, abandoned since his death, and many other im- provements, either originated with, or were perfected by him. He loved an upright and enlightened administra- tion of justice, and he selected, with rare discrimination, his magistrates and public functionaries among the most virtuous and learned citizens. From those whom he once tried and found honest and capable, he never with- drew his confidence on any insidious delation or un- founded and vague accusations. The Counts of Flori- da Blanca and of Campomanes were raised to the first offices of the Kingdom from a state of obscurity ; and, although they were rivals and hostile to each other, they both enjoyed, at the same time, the esteem of their So- vereign, who did not allow himself to be prejudiced by one against the other. Charles had the good sense of employing these two men, each in the department to which he was suited, and never permitted himself to be influenced by their passions. It is by such means that this prince succeeded in rousing Spain from the lethargy
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in which she had been so long plunged, since Philip III. Certainly, nothing but the energetic will of a despotic sovereign, could have stirred into action a na- tion benumbed in its faculties, concentrated within itself, and chilled into petrifaction. Obstacles of all sorts were to be conquered, and Charles did not shrink from the unpleasant task. We have of him some sayings, which describe perfectly the situation of Spain, the in- justice of public opinion, and the turn of mind of that monarch. "My subjects," said he, "are like children who cry when cleansed." Whenever he heard of a love affair, a political intrigue, or a family quarrel, he used to ask : " What monk is there at the bottom of it?" He liked to speak of the dangers and fatigues he had undergone in war, and always treasured up faithfully the recollection of the least service which had been rendered him. The corps of royal Carabineers had dis- tinguished itself in the campaigns of Italy. At Velletri, when Charles was in danger of being made prisoner, the Carabineers saved him. Years had elapsed since that event, when, one day, the Minister of War, pro- posing to him retrenchments and economical reforms in his military household, summoned up all his eloquence to demonstrate that the corps of Carabineers had a vi- cious organisation, and was more onerous than useful. Charles seemed not to have heard his remarks, and gave no answer. 'The Minister renewed his attacks, and spoke with more decision and pertinacity. The King who, all the while, was brooding over his anger, thun- dered out, "If any one dares again speak against my Carabineers, I will have him hung."
In 1759, when he took possession of the throne of Spain, he was surprised to see a grandee of the kingdom presenting himself to perform the functions of Great Chamberlain, which a gentleman of the name of Losada
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had been accustomed to discharge near his person, for many years past. " Where is Losada ?" cried out the King impatiently. The answer was : " Sire, Losada is not a grandee of Spain. The etiquette of the court re- quires that he who has the honor of serving your Majesty as Great Chamberlain, be invested with that dignity." " Well," said the King, "I make Losada a Duke. : Let him come, and give me my shirt." He had, through the benevolence of his nature, retained almost all the ser- vants of his predecessor, and, among others, a valet of the royal chamber, who continued to wait on him for seventeen years. One day, the King heard of his death. "God bless his soul," said he, " for an honest man he was ; although, since the first time I saw him at Bar- celona, I never could bear him." Charles was the most methodical man of his kingdom, and could, in his ac- tions, have challenged the regularity of a clock. From the 1st of January to the 31st of December, the precise hour for every occupation and every pleasure was set down and minutely observed. Years in advance, every Spaniard knew when the King would go to bed, when he would leave it, and the exact day when he would undertake a particular journey. He was a sort of al- manac in flesh and blood, indicating the rising and set- ting of the sun. Charles was certainly not gifted with the brilliant qualities of a hero, but possessed a sound judgment, a wise firmness of mind, an excellent under- standing, and above all, those qualifications which con- stitute a good and useful man. The Spaniards still cherish the memory of his paternal administration and of his private virtues. He died in Madrid, on the 14th of December, 1788, at the age of seventy-two, not with- out having foreseen the storms which threatened Europe and given judicious advice to his successor. When King of Naples, he had created the decoration of the
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order of St. Janvier, and when King of Spain, that of the Immaculate Conception or Charles III.
Such was the prince into whose hands Louisiana was to pass. He certainly paid her a great compliment, and gave her the measure of his regard, by the selection which he made of her first governor. He could- hardly have sent her a more distinguished character than Don Antonio de Ulloa, who had made himself illustrious in the republic of letters, and who was one of the brightest ornaments of Spain in the eighteenth century, by his scientific labors and travels, and by his long and useful services as a naval officer and an administrator.
Antonio de Ulloa* was born in Seville, on the 12th of January, 1716. His family was already distinguished in the maritime annals of the country, and took care to fit him for their hereditary career, by making him go through the best course of studies. He entered the navy as a midshipman, in 1733, and he soon acquired a reputation which surpassed the hopes of his friends and family. The first commission with which he was in- trusted, was to join the learned expedition concerted between the governments of Spain and France, to mea- sure an arc of the meridian at the equator, which was an operation desired by the Academy of Sciences of Paris, in order to determine the configuration of the carth, and which was to be executed by three members of that body, Bouguer, La Condamine, and Godin.
It being thought that the province of Quito in Peru offered the equatorial station most favorable to that enterprise, which would be a long and a laborious one, it had been found necessary to apply to the Spanish government, to obtain leave for foreigners to penetrate into that rich country, as the pioneers of science. Spain
* Biographie Universelle de Michaud.
£
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had always jealously guarded her provinces of America against foreign intrusion, and against the investigations of curiosity. But the friendship which then united the two courts, and a generous emulation in favor of science, prevailed on every other consideration. It was decided that two officers of the royal navy, capable of assisting the French academicians in their labors, should be sent with them for their protection, and to recommend them to the local authorities, as well as to share, in the name of their country, in the honor of that important opera- tion. The King left the choice of the two officers to the Royal Academy of Midshipmen, and the young An- tonio de Ulloa, who was hardly nineteen years old, was selected with another officer, named George Juan, who had acquired celebrity as a mathematician. Both wor- thily executed their commission, worked together with the greatest harmony, and kept themselves free from those bickerings and quarrels, which occurred among their French associates. On their return, thirteen years after their departure, and one year before the academi- cians of Paris, they published the results of that great expedition. George Juan, having more specially re- served to himself the digesting and editing of the geo- metrical, physical and astronomical observations, made either in common, or by each of them separately, pub- lished in 1748, at the cost of the Spanish government, his volume of " Observations," &c. Madrid, in 4to .; and a few months after, Ulloa published also at the cost of the King, the " Historical relation of a voyage made to South America, by order of the King, to measure some degrees of the meridian, and ascertain the true configu- ration and size of the earth, with divers astronomical and physical observations," &c. Madrid, 1748.
Departing with the grade of lieutenant of a ship of the line, on two vessels of war, one of which transported
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to Carthagena the new Viceroy of Peru, they awaited, during five months, in that city, the arrival of the French sloop, which, at last, brought Bouguer, La Condamine, and Godin. This long detention enabled them to make numerous observations on the natural history, the sta- tistics of the country, and the manners of its inhabit- ants, which are fully set forth in the relation of Ulloa, who showed himself possessed of an observing, logi- cal, and judicious mind. The members of the expedi- tion, having thus been brought together, departed with a rich supply of mathematical instruments, and repaired to Quito by the way of Porto Bello, Panama, and Guayaquil. From the beginning of their trigonome- trical labors, in June, 1736, to their completion, Ulloa never ceased contributing to them, with a zeal which elicited the praises of his colleagues ; he participated in all the operations of Bouguer and La Condamine, whilst George Juan and Godin were engaged, on their side, in making separate calculations and pursuing a series of triangles. The geometrical measurements were com- pleted, only after the lapse of four years, during which these distinguished men, willing to be the martyrs of science, were exposed to innumerable fatigues and perils, either by their long sojourning on snow-covered . mountains, amidst dangerous precipices, or by their suddenly passing from those frozen regions to the burn- ing temperature of the plains, or finally by their running foul of the ignorance or prejudices of the inhabitants of those regions, which came very near being fatal to the expedition, in 1739. Ulloa describes, in the most in- teresting manner, and with touching simplicity, all the sufferings which he and his companions had to endure. What is characteristic, is the indifference he shows in recording all that occurred to himself, and he almost omits to mention a very serious illness which brought
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him to the very verge of the grave, in one of the moun- tainous regions of that country. He illustrates the pre- judices of the natives by several humorous anecdotes, and, among others, that of an Indian who, taking these learned men for magicians, fell on his knees before them, and supplicated them to reveal to him who had stolen his ass. Towards the end of September, 1740, when they were making astronomical observations, at one of the extremities of the arc of the meridian which had been measured, an order of the Viceroy of Peru obliged the two Spanish officers to proceed suddenly to Lima. War had just broken out between England and Spain, and Vice-Admiral Anson was threatening the coasts of the Spanish possessions. Ulloa and Juan were intrusted with the care of putting in a state of defence the sea-coast in the latitude of Lima and Cal- lao. When this was executed, they were permitted to return to Quito, and resume their scientific labors. But soon after they had reached their destination, they were called to Guayaquil. The sacking of Payta by the English fleet had scattered terror far and wide. It is impossible to form an adequate idea of the fatigues attending their goings forward and backward, without knowing fully the difficulty of travelling through the mountains of Peru. In every trying circumstance in which they were placed, and whatever were the ob- stacles they had to overcome, Ulloa and Juan discharged their duties with a zeal and fortitude which cannot be too highly appreciated.
When they had provided for the safety of Guayaquil, only one of them was permitted to depart, and it was Ulloa who, although the season was extremely unfavor- able to travelling, hastened back through every fatigue and danger to Quito. On entering that city, he met an order to return in all haste to Lima, whither he went
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with Juan, who joined him on the way. There they took the command of two frigates, to cruise on the coasts of Chili and of the island of Juan Fernandez. Fortunately, on the arrival of reinforcements, Ulloa and George Juan were permitted to resume their scientific mission at Quito, where, of all the French academicians, they found only Godin, with whom they observed the comet of 1744. At last, impatient for a return to Europe with the fruits of their labors, they embarked at Callao, each in one of two French ships, which were to go round Cape Horn on their way to Brest. These ships were separated in a stress of weather ; and the one on which Ulloa was, overtook two French ships, with which she was navigating in concert, when they were attacked by English privateers, much superior to them in force. After very hard fighting, the two vessels, which had on board three millions of dollars, were captured, and Ulloa's ship escaped with difficulty. To avoid new dangers, it was thought necessary to proceed in a totally different direction, and the ship sailed towards North America. When she entered Louis- bourg, at Cape Breton, all on board congratulated them- selves on having escaped from so many dangers ; but this feeling of exultation was not of long duration, and they were obliged to surrender to the English, who had just taken that town, and who had designedly kept hoisted up the French flag as a decoy. A prisoner of war, Ulloa was transported to England, where he was treated with much consideration. It is the privilege of the votary of science who has acquired celebrity, to excite universal sympathy. Kindred spirits he meets everywhere, who are linked to him by the freemasonry of learning. So it was with Ulloa, in whose favor many distinguished personages interested themselves, and, among others, the celebrated Vice-President of the
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Royal Society of London, Martin Folkes. Through their protection, he soon recovered his liberty and papers. Martin Folkes presented him to his colleagues, and had him elected a member of the Society.
Bidding adieu to his English friends, he embarked for Lisbon, whence he proceeded to Madrid, where he ar- rived in 1746, at the commencement of the reign of Ferdinand VI. He met with the most flattering recep- tion, and was made the Captain of a frigate and a commander in the order of St. James. To the relations of his voyage to, and observations 'in, South America, he joined an historical summary of the Peruvian mon- archs, from Manco Capac, the first of them, to the latest kings of Spain and of the Indies. Shortly after, Ulloa travelled through a considerable part of Europe, by order of the King, and the information he gathered in his travels was happily applied to the service of the State and to the benefit of the nation.
During the remainder of his active career, Ulloa en- deavored to conciliate his taste for study with the numerous commissions with which he was intrusted in the Naval department, and later, in the department of the Interior, where his learning was taxed for the improve- ment of the domestic industry of the nation. The superintendence of the quicksilver mine of Guancavelica, in Peru, was his reward; but the products of that mine had been greatly curtailed by the avarice and embezzle- ments of those who had the privilege of working it. Ulloa had the daring to denounce the depredations of some men in power, and the consequence was that he lost his place.
When Charles the Third ascended the throne, his able ministers, who showed great discriminating zeal and patriotism in bringing out all the native talents which Spain possessed, raised Ulloa to the grade of Com-
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modore, and gave him the command of the fleet of the Indies. When, by the treaty of peace of 1762, Loui- siana was ceded to Spain, Ulloa was appointed to take possession of that province, to govern it, and to organ- ize, on a proper footing adapted to the wants of the country, the different branches of the Spanish adminis- tration. This was a difficult task, and one requiring both the knowledge of the world and the learned wisdom of the closet. Ulloa arrived at New Orleans, as we have seen, on the 5th of March, 1766, and we shall soon have to relate the events which preceded and fol- lowed his expulsion from that province.
In the intervals of his campaigns at sea, Ulloa used to correspond with all the men who had acquired celebrity by their learning, and was elected one of the associate members of the academies of Stockholm and Berlin. Since 1748, he had been one of the regular correspondents of the Academy of Sciences of Paris. In 1772, he published in Madrid, in 1 vol. in 4to., a col- lection of observations under this title : "Noticias Ame- ricanas, entretenimientos physico historicos sobre la America Meridional, y la Septentrional Oriental." In this work, he reviews the soil, the climate, the vegetable, animal, and mineral productions of those vast countries. Ilis disquisitions on marine petrifactions, on the Indians, their manners, usages, antiquities, languages, and their probable origin, are full of interest, although some of his hypothetical remarks will hardly be sanctioned by the sobriety of logical deductions. In 1773, he pre- sented to the Spanish ministry another valuable work on the naval forces of Europe and Africa. In 1778, he published, at Cadix, his observations at sea of the eclipse of the sun which took place in that year. They made known a singular fact, which, for some time, en- gaged the attention of all the astronomers. The author
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assures having seen, for one minute, during the eclipse of the sun, and to have caused to be seen by several other persons, a brilliant spot on the moon, which he considers to be a real hole through that planet. " Ac- cording to my calculations," said the celebrated astro- nomer, Lalande, " that hole ought to be forty-five miles in depth, and three hundred and twenty-seven in length. But it cannot be looked upon as a volcano." In the judgment of the same Lalande, Antonio de Ulloa was one of the greatest promoters of astronomy in Spain, and it was particularly through his exertions that the observatory of Cadix was constructed. This brief sketch is sufficient to show what high grade Ulloa had attained in the hierarchy of the princes of science.
But Ulloa, although possessing in the most eminent degree the theory of navigation, did not rise above me- diocrity in its practical application. He, at different times, commanded fleets without flattering results to his fame. He had reached, however, the grade of Lieu- tenant General of the royal navies of Spain, when he was ordered, in 1779, to cruise in the latitude of the Azore islands, to capture eight English vessels belong- ing to the India Company, and returning loaded with the wealth of Asia. He was next to proceed to Havana, where he was to be provided with additional forces, to attack the provinces of Florida. His orders were to break the seal of his letters of instructions only in a certain latitude ; but Ulloa, absorbed in astronomical observations, or some deep study, forgot to open his letters of instructions in time, and returned at the ex- piration of two months, after a useless cruise. He was accused of having allowed the eight English ships to pass without noticing them, and of having suffered a Spanish frigate and a merchant ship from Manilla to be captured within sight of his own fleet, without interfer-
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ing. These were grave accusations, which caused his being arrested and brought, in 1780, before a court martial, which, it must be said, was convened at his own request. Either because the accusation was not proved, or because his superior merit and the eminent services he had rendered to his country, disposed his judges to be indulgent for a fault which had resulted from mere absence of mind-of a mind abstracted in the pursuit of science,-he was honorably acquitted, and retained his grade, titles, and decorations. But he ceased to be employed at sea ; he served only as the Commander of maritime departments, and was director general by interim of the naval armies of Spain. In this capacity, he was intrusted with the examination of the students at the school of marine artillery of Cadix. Ulloa became also minister of the Junta General of Commerce and of the Mint, and died in the island of Leon, on the 3d of July, 1795, at the advanced age of eighty. Townsend, the English traveller, who had visited him in Cadix, eight years before, has left of him the following portrait :
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