USA > Louisiana > Louisiana : its history as a French colony. Third series of lectures > Part 11
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" The Spaniard whose conversation interested me most, was Don Antonio de Ulloa. I found in him a true philosopher,* full of wit and learning, sprightly in his conversation, free and easy in his manners. He is of a small size, extremely thin, and bending under the weight of years ; he was dressed like a farmer, and surrounded by his numerous children, the youngest of whom, two years old, was playing on his knees. In the room where he used to receive his visitors there could be seen, lying confusedly scattered, chairs, tables, trunks, boxes, books, papers, a bedstead, a printing press, umbrellas, articles of clothing, carpenter's tools, mathematical instruments, a barometer, a clock, weapons, paintings, mirrors, fossils, minerals, shells, a kettle, basins, broken
* In the absence of the original, this is a re-translation, from a French translation
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CHARACTER OF ANTONIO DE ULLOA.
pitchers, American antiquities, silver ingots, and a curious mummy of the Canary islands." This at once gives a key to Ulloa's character. His heart must have been as amiable as his head was profoundly learned.
It is not solely by services rendered to the state, and by his superior acquirements in the highest depart- ments of science, that Ulloa has left a name deservedly honored in his country. Spain owes to him the creation of the first cabinet of natural history, and the first labor- atory of metallurgy it possessed; the conception of the canal of Old Castile, for navigation and irrigation, commenced under Charles III. and abandoned after the death of that monarch; the knowledge of platina and its properties ; of electricity and artificial magnetism. It is he who perfected the art of engraving and printing in Spain ; who directed the Spanish geographers of the time in the composition of a correct map of the Penin- sula, who made known the advantages of the wool called churla, which resembles that of Canterbury in England ; and the secret of manufacturing superfine cloth by mixing this wool with the merino wool. In order to demonstrate the advantages of his discovery, he esta- . blished at Segovia, with the authorization and on the account of the king, a manufactory, out of which came cloths as superfine as any of those produced in foreign countries. Finally, it was on his earnest representations that young men were sent to different parts of Europe, to be instructed in the liberal and mechanical arts, which he wished to introduce into his own country. Such was the first Spanish Governor given to Louisiana, and well might the most refined and fastidious com- munity have been proud of the choice.
The companions of Ulloa and his associates in power were not unworthy of their chief, and might, at least,
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DON ESTEVAN GAYARRE.
have challenged comparison with any of the French rulers who preceded them in the colony.
Don Juan Joseph de Loyola, the commissary of war and military intendant, was, it is said, of the family which boasted of having produced Ignatio de Loyola, the celebrated native of the province of Guipuscoa-at first the noble cavalier, the brilliant courtier, the poet, the intrepid hero; at last, the saintly enthusiast, the extraordinary compound of piety and genius run mad ; in a word, the originator of the most powerful associa- tion the world ever knew-the founder of the prodigious order of the Jesuits. Don Juan Joseph de Loyola was no unfit representative of the name he bore. He had the elegance of manners, the high breeding, and the knightly bravery of his namesake; nay, to make the resemblance stronger, and as it were in proof of the kindred blood he pretended to have in his veins, he seemed to have inherited, as an heirloom, the poetical mind, the heated imagination, and the religious enthu- siasm which colored his life, which gleamed like a subdued fire. under the crust of his most worldly actions, and marked him as an interesting object of study to the observer, and as a man of no ordinary stamp.
Don Estevan de Gayarre, the contador, or royal . . auditor and comptroller, was a younger son of a patrician house of the kingdom of Navarre, in Spain. At the age of nineteen, on the 1st of November, 1741, he had sought to better his fortunes by the chances of war, and by enlisting in the army. From 1742 to 1748, under the command of his Royal Highness Don Felipe, he served with distinction in Italy. In his first campaign in Piemont, he was in the engagements of Aygabel and St. André ; in the second, he shared the dangers of the retreat through the defile of Lanell ;* in the third, he
* This is the Spanish orthography of these names in the documents which I possess.
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DON ESTEVAN GAYARRE.
was at the attack of the trenches and batteries of Nice ; at the storming of the citadels of Villa Franca and Montalban, in the county of Nice, which were built amidst almost inaccessible rocks, and which could be approached only through narrow gorges and yawning abysses, commanded by a formidable artillery, and defended by a numerous army occupying the neigh- boring heights. Villa Franca, which is perched on a rock rising up twelve hundred feet, and bristling with guns, was garrisoned by ten thousand Piemontese, assisted by the English Admiral Mathews, with a portion of the marines and gunners of his fleet. Both these for- tresses, which seemed impregnable, were carried by a simultaneous assault of the French and Spaniards ; the Piemontese were cut to pieces, and the English put to flight. Twenty thousand prisoners, among whom was the Count de La Suze, the commander-in-chief, one hun- dred and seven pieces of artillery, and the conquest of the county of Nice, were the results of these two glo- rious expeditions.
Don Estevan Gayarre was also at the taking of the Post of the Barricades, a passage of eighteen feet wide, between two mountains towering to the sky, protected by the Stura, which the king of Sardinia had turned from its natural course into the precipice, and by three intrenchments and a covered way; at the siege of Demont, a fortress built at an immense cost on the top of an isolated rock, in the midst of the valley of Stura, and which was taken on the 17th of August, 1744, after a siege of one month; at the siege of the fortified town of Coni, and at what the Spaniards called the glorious battle of the Campo de la Madona del Holmo. This bat- tle, in which he was dangerously wounded, is the one which occurred under the walls of Coni, when the com- ·
bined armies of Spain and France were attacked, on the
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DON ESTEVAN GAYARRE.
30th of September, 1744, by the king of Sardinia at the head of superior forces to those of his adversaries. The Piemontese, with a loss of five thousand men, were beaten back by the French and Spaniards, who fought with the generous emulation of old rivals in feats of arms and deeds of glory. In the campaign of the year 1747, in the county of Nice, Don Estevan Gayarre attracted the notice and obtained the commendation of his superiors, by the zeal and intelligence which he dis- played in several perilous sallies and partial expeditions, which he led through the country.
On the 1st of December, 1751, after having served ten years, he applied to the court to be permitted to retire from the army; and considering, said his certificate of discharge,* that among the other causes of the step he had taken, was that of his having exhausted his patri- mony, by his just inclination to, and love of, the military career, and, above all, the permanent injury done to his health by the serious wound he had received at the bat- tle of the Madona del Holmo, in 1744. He was gra- ciously granted what he sued for, and was strongly recommended to the royal favor. Probably in conse- quence of it, he obtained, in January, 1752, one of the most important offices at La Coruna, under Don Fran- cisco de Mendoza y Sotomayor, general Contador, or auditor and comptroller, for the army and kingdom of Gallicia. On the 31st of May, 1765, he received a let- ter from the Marquis of Piedra Buena, asking him whether he would, as Contador, or royal comptroller of the province of Louisiana, accompany Ulloa to that colony. His answer to this proposition is remarkably in harmony with the reluctance which Spain felt to take possession of the territorial present tendered to her by
* La de haver extinguido su patrimonio en justa inclinacion y amor de las armas, y la principal, de la minoracion de su salud por la gravedad de su herida.
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DON MARTIN NAVARRO.
France, and is a characteristic specimen of the light in which was considered a mission to a country, not then of very good fame, and certainly of very little import- ance, at the time, in European estimation. In his reply to the Marquis of Piedra Buena, Don Estevan Gayarre says that, "after having had the honor of serving the king twenty-four years, his devotion and fealty to the royal person cannot permit him to refuse to discharge any duties, which his majesty might think of imposing upon him." But, on signifying his acceptance to the Marquis of Piedra Buena, he dwells upon the merit which he thinks he deserves by it, and stipulates that his going to America must be understood as not interfering with his promotion in the Peninsula. On the 10th of June, 1765, he was finally appointed by the king : Con- tador princpial del Ministerio de Guerra y Real Hacienda, in the province of Louisiana. Thus far go the public documents concerning this gentleman. There are others of a private nature, testifying to his many virtues, to the excellence of his mind, and showing that, in those quali- ties which adorn the soul, he could hardly be excelled. He possessed, in an eminent degree, all the noble traits of character which distinguish the healthy and hardy race of mountaineers, among whom he was born, in the valley of Roncal in Navarre, amidst the impressive scenery of the Pyrennean heights. To those qualifica- tions he owed, no doubt, the many testimonials of res- pect and esteem he received, in the different situations in which he was placed, during the course of a long life vouchsafed to him by providence.
Don Martin Navarro, the treasurer, represented among his colleagues the democratic element, which, in later days, was to exercise so powerful an influence over the destinies of mankind. He was the son of a poor tavern-keeper, and had risen, by dint of industry, perse-
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DON MARTIN NAVARRO.
verance, and address. Shrewd, active, and honest, he deserved to be trusted; and being withal a boon compa- nion, and skilful in the ways of the world, he had those qualifications which mollify envy, conciliate opposition, and render smooth and easy the path to success. Like water, which seeks its level, his talents and acquirements had, by slow degrees, raised him to the position in society which was his due.
Such were the men, who, in 1766, had come, in the name of Charles III., king of Spain, and of the Indies, to take possession of the country ceded to him in 1762.
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FOURTH LECTURE.
ULLOA'A SALARY-HIS INSTRUCTIONS-HIS EFFORTS TO KEEP UP THE DEPRECIATED FRENCH PAPER MONEY-THESE EFFORTS ARE COUNTERACTED BY THE COLONISTS- REFUSAL OF THE FRENCH TROOPS TO PASS INTO THE SERVICE OF SPAIN-CAUSES FOR WHICH ULLOA DOES NOT TAKE FORMAL POSSESSION OF THE COLONY-HIS IM- PRESSIONS, UNFAVORABLE TO THE POPULATION-FRANCE REFUSES TO PAY THE EX- PENSES OF THE COLONY SINCE MARCH, 1766-THEY ARE ASSUMED BY THE SPANISH GOVERNMENT-AUBRY RETAINS THE NOMINAL COMMAND OF THE COLONY, BUT GOVERNS ACCORDING TO ULLOA'S DICTATES-SPANISH COMMERCIAL DECREE, ON THE 6TH OF MAY, 1766-APPOINTMENT OF FRENCH COMMISSARIES TO PURCHASE ARTI- CLES OF EXPORTATION-ULLOA VISITS THE SEVERAL POSTS AND SETTLEMENTS- OTHER SPANISH DECREE OF COMMERCE IN SEPTEMBER, 1766-EFFECTS OF THAT DECREE-REMONSTRANCES OF THE COLONISTS AGAINST IT-ITS EXECUTION, SUS- PENDED BY AUBRY-FOUCAULT'S LETTER TO HIS GOVERNMENT ON THE SUBJECT- THE COLONISTS ARE UNDER THE IMPRESSION THAT THEIR ANCIENT RIGHTS AND PRI- VILEGES ARE SECURED UNDER, THE TREATY OF CESSION-ULLOA SOJOURNS SEVEN MONTHS AT THE BALIZE-HIS MARRIAGE WITH THE MARCHIONESS OF ABRADO- AUBRY'S DESCRIPTION OF ULLOA'S CHARACTER-COMMUNICATION OF THE MARQUIS OF GRIMALDI TU THE COUNT OF FUENTES ON SPAIN'S DELAY TO TAKE POSSESSION or LOUISIANA-RETURN OF JEAN MILHET, THE DELEGATE OF THE COLONISTS TO FRANCE-SIGNS OF HOSTILITY TO THE SPANIARDS-INTENSE COLD IN 1768- INCREASE OF EXCITEMENT-ULLOA'S TASTES, HABITS, AND DISPOSITIONS-HIS WIFE GIVES OFFENCE-AUBRY'S OBSERVATIONS ON HIS OWN EXTRAORDINARY POSI- TIOY-CONSPIRACY AGAINST THE SPANIARDS-PROCEEDINGS OF THE CONSPIRATORS- CHARACTER OF LAFRENIERE, THE KING'S ATTORNEY GENERAL-THE CONSPIRATORS ". TAKE POSSESSION OF NEW ORLEANS AT THE HEAD OF THE ACADIANS AND GER- MANS -- GENERAL INSURRECTION-AUBRY'S CONDUCT-ULLOA RETIRES ON BOARD OF THE SPANISH FRIGATE-LOYOLA, GAYARRE, NAVARRO, AND THE OTHER SPANIARDS, OY THE POINT OF BEING EXTERMINATED-THE COLONISTS DEMAND OF THE SUTE- RIOR COUNCIL THE EXPULSION OF THE SPANIARDS-SPEECH OF LAFRENIERE IN THE COUNCIL-DECREE OF THE COUNCIL AGAINST ULLOA, GAYARRE, LOYOLA, AND NAVARRO-AUBRY'S PROTEST AGAINST IT-OPINION EMITTED BY FOUCAULT IN THE COUNCIL-DINNER AT FOUCAULT'S HOUSE-THE COUNCIL VISITS THE INSURGENTS IN A BODY-TUMULTUOUS REJOICINGS OF THE PEOPLE-REFLECTIONS.
THE annual salary allowed to Don Antonio de Ulloa, as governor, in 1766, of a colony of ten thousand whites and blacks, was $6000. The same sum is granted, in 1851, as a sufficient remuneration for his services, to the
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ULLOA'S INSTRUCTIONS.
present governor of Louisiana, with a population of more than 500,000 souls. Considering the difference of circumstances, and of the relative value of money at that time and in our days, it cannot but be seen that there was, in reality, a striking difference between the two salaries. Under the French government, the`salary of the governor had risen, from two thousand dollars given to Bienville, to ten thousand allowed to the Mar- quis of Vaudreuil.
Acting with the usual benevolence which formed one of the well known features of his character, and taking into consideration the habits, customs, prejudices, wants, and wishes of his new subjects, Charles III. had given to Ulloa the following instructions :
"I have resolved that, in that new acquisition, there be no change in the administration of its government, and therefore, that it be not subjected to the laws and usages which are observed in my American dominions, from which it is a distinct colony, and with which it is to have no commerce. It is my will that it be indepen- dent of the ministry of the Indies (ministerio de Indias), of its council, and of the other tribunals annexed to it ; and that all which may be relative to that colony, shall pass through the Ministry of State (ministerio de Estado), and that you communicate to me, through that channel alone, whatever may be appertaining to your government."
It will be recollected, that there were in the colony seven millions of paper currency, which had been issued by the French government. When the rumor spread that the Spaniards were coming up the river, among the other causes of consternation, was the uncertainty existing as to that currency. Would the Spanish government reject it altogether ? Would it be sup- pressed in private transactions ? Or would the new
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EXCITEMENT CONCERNING THE PAPER CURRENCY. 159
government step into the place of the old, and assume its obligations ? In that case, would the paper currency be redeemed at par, or only at the discount of 75 per cent., which the French government had established as the legal amount of its depreciation, although, in fact, in the common run of business among individuals, four dollars in that paper currency represented only one dol- lar in specie. So intense became the excitement on the subject, that, on the very day of Ulloa's arrival, the intendant commissary Foucault, thought himself justified, in his first interview with the Spanish governor, to lay before him the apprehensions of the colonists. Ulloa returned the gracious answer, that he perfectly under- stood the distress which would result from the suppres- sion of that currency, and that, in order to keep it in cir- culation until he received instructions to stop it by its conversion into some other currency, he would, imme- diately after having taken possession of the colony, order that the paper issued by the French government be received as well among the Spaniards as among the French, at the rate of 75 per cent., which was the rate of depreciation acknowledged by the government of France. Aubry and Foucault hastened to make public this liberal declaration. But the colonists were not satisfied, and clamored that the paper ought to be taken at par.
So anxious was Ulloa to conciliate those over whose destinies he had come to preside, that, having been informed of their complaints, he resolved, in order to put an end to their discontent, to show them that his intention was that the Spaniards should fare no better than the colonists. To accomplish this object, he bought with dollars, at a discount of seventy-five per cent., all the paper he could get in the market, and tendered it to the Spanish troops, in discharge of one-
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160 EXCITEMENT CONCERNING THE PAPER CURRENCY.
third of their pay. But these troops obstinately refused to receive it, and Ulloa found himself opposed in this scheme, both by the French and the Spaniards. The inhabitants of Louisiana, who were in the habit of losing three dollars in four of the paper currency, in meeting the current expenses of life, and who had been eager to furnish the French government with as much of it as it had chosen to redeem at seventy-five per cent., refused to part with it on the same terms when offered by Ulloa ; and although it was to please them and to show his impartiality, that this functionary was attempting to give it in payment to his troops, yet it was with considerable difficulty that he could procure the small quantity which he had tendered to his troops, and at which they had scouted. The colonists gave as a reason, that the king of France would, if Louisiana had not been transferred to Spain, have called in all his paper at par, and that his Catholic Majesty was bound to do the same; they further pretended, that although the colony had ceased to belong to the most Christian king, yet that, true to the plighted faith of his royal word, he would pay to the last cent the full amount of the depreciated paper. But the whole financial history of the colony gave the most emphatic contradiction to these assertions, and the pretensions of the colonists were provokingly unjust and unreasonable. They originated from the desire of throwing every obstacle in the way of the new government, and this was the true reason why Ulloa's liberality met with so singular a return. This was the first trial which the philosophy of the man of science had to undergo in Louisiana; and it is not unfair to suppose that he came to the conclu- sion, that he had to deal with a very intractable set of people.
Another cause of irritation for the Spaniards soon
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DIFFICULTY WITH THE FRENCH TROOPS.
followed. France, in order to induce Charles III. to take charge of the burdensome colony of Louisiana, and in order to soften the prospect of the fruitless dis- bursements with which he was threatened, in case of his accepting the donation pressed upon him, had represented to that monarch that it would not be necessary for Spain to go to the immediate expense of transporting troops, ammunition, &c., to that colony ; and had promised that the three hundred men of infantry she had in Louisiana would remain there at the . service of his Catholic Majesty, as long as he pleased to retain them. This was the cause of Ulloa's having come only with ninety men to take possession of the province. But the French troops, having for some time past been entitled to their discharge, peremptorily refused to pass into the service of Spain. It was in vain that Aubry, Ulloa, and Foucault assured them that their engagement would not be of long duration, because troops were expected from the Peninsula ; it was in vain they were informed that the wish of their king was that they should so enlist, and that a promise to that effect had been made by his most Christian Majesty ; it was in vain that their officers, at least ostensibly, urged them to continue to be on military duty under the Spanish banner. They answered that their time was out; that they were willing, however, not to avail themselves of their right to be discharged, but that it was a sacrifice which they would undergo only to serve their legitimate king under the national flag. Aubry convened all the French officers, laid before them the instructions which he had received from his government, to put the military forces of the colony at the disposal of the Spanish governor, and consulted them on the practicability of coercing the troops into the service of Spain ; but the officers 11
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DIFFICULTIES WITH THE TROOPS.
1
unanimously declared that the attempt would be exceedingly dangerous. Such being the state of affairs, Ulloa gave up all idea of taking possession of the colony for the present ; rented, at the extremity of the town, some houses, in which he lodged his two com- panies of foot, and sent immediate information to his government of the circumstances in which he was placed.
The pay of the Spanish soldiers in Havana was thirty-five livres per month ; but Ulloa, on his arrival in Louisiana, reduced to seven livres a month the pay of the ninety men he had taken at that city, on his way to New Orleans. This was the pay of the French soldiers in Louisiana, and Ulloa had, no doubt, taken this step with a good intention-that of putting the Spanish troops on the same footing with the French, and of preventing any invidious comparison. But it was a stroke of bad policy ; it was an act of injustice to the Spanish troops, who became discontented ; and it was wanting in liberality to the French, who railed at the ill-timed economy. Probably if Ulloa had raised the French pay of seven livres to the Spanish pay of thirty- five per month, the temptation to enlist would have been so great, that the aversion of the French would have yielded to the allurement tendered to them. Ulloa's course, on this occasion, must certainly be blamed, unless he acted under special instructions.
These were the difficulties he met on the threshold, and they produced on him very unfavorable impressions, to which other circumstances had contributed to give a deeper shade. The influence of physical and external objects, even on the strongest mind, is well known; and it is not therefore astonishing that the gloomy scenery of the Balize, of the heavily timbered and uncultivated banks of the Mississippi, as well as the
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WRETCHED CONDITION OF LOUISIANA.
miserable appearance of the hamlet of New Orleans, which then numbered no more than three thousand inhabitants of all color and condition, should not have predisposed in favor of Louisiana a man who had revelled, for so many years, amidst the most gorgeous productions of nature and art in Spain, in Peru, and many other parts of the earth. On the 5th of March, when he landed at New Orleans, it was in the midst of a storm, through which the new comers saw, for the first time, the capital of the province lately added to the dominions of the Catholic King, and its aspect looked dismal enough. The inhabitants frowned upon the representative of the majesty of Spain; the French troops spurned the idea of serving under the proud flag of Castile, in spite of the assurance given by their king, that their assistance would be secured to the Spaniards, in taking possession of the ceded territory. The French government had, therefore, in the opinion of the Spaniards, been unfaithful to, or unmindful of, its engagements. It was negligence, or breach of faith, and it was resented as such by those whom it had placed in a position full of difficulties.
It must be admitted, and it is abundantly proved by the despatches of the highest functionaries, as well as by the documents containing the written complaints of the inhabitants, that Louisiana had been, since its foundation, that is for sixty-six years, in a starving con- dition ; that being deficient in the knowledge of its internal resources, or rather in energy or will to develop them, it had been almost entirely dependent, for its very food and for everything else, on the mother country, which could no longer supply its wants ; and that the tenure by which the French king held this possession was so precarious and burdensome, that he had pressed the acceptance of it, as a present, on the
164 HOSTILITY OF THE INHABITANTS TO ULLOA.
Spanish king, who had hesitated to receive the onerous donation, and had consented to it merely to oblige his beloved cousin of France. Now when the Spaniards had come, at the urgent invitation of France ; when they certainly could not make matters worse for the colonists, than they had been so far; when, on the - contrary, there was the prospect of a change for the better ; when the dollars of Spain were to be intro- duced, instead of the stamped paper rags which had constituted the currency of the country ; when Ulloa, on the very day of his arrival, had hastened to relieve the uneasiness of the inhabitants, by promising to keep up the present rate of the depreciated paper, such as it had been fixed by France ; when he had made known his instructions, that no changes would take place in the civil organization, in the laws, customs, and usages of the province ; when he had professed in his letter from Havana to the Superior Council, and since, in repeated verbal declarations, that it was both his duty and his most anxious wish to do all in his power to be useful and agreeable to the people ; when to remove national prejudices, he had put the Spanish troops on the footing of the French, with regard to their pay, it surely was passing strange, as he thought, that under these circumstances he and his companions should be guests so unwelcome, nay, should meet with so much and so ill concealed hostility. He felt it keenly.
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