USA > Louisiana > Louisiana : its history as a French colony. Third series of lectures > Part 17
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" The captain of the German militia, called Villere, is the brother in law of Lafrenière, and is married to the niece of D'Arensbourg, who commands at the German Coast. The captain of the Tchoupitoulas militia is an individual named Léry, who is Lafrenière's
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first cousin ; thus, the interests of Lafreniere are sup- ported by the three companies of militia, commanded by his cousin, his brother in law and their relations ; so that, with mere pretences to induce the militia of the town to rebel, it happens that the whole colony is put in a state of insurrection at the voice of one single man. ,
" The uncle of Noyan and Bienville had come from Canada to govern Louisiana, and, among the common people he brought over with him, there were four brothers, of the surname of Leroy, who, afterwards, assumed different surnames in Louisiana, one causing himself to be called Lafrenière, the other, Lery, the third, Beaulieu, and the fourth, Chauvin. These four Cana- dians were of so low an extraction, and had so little education, that they could not write, and had come with an axe on the shoulder to live on their manual labor. The sons of these men are now the chiefs and authors of the rebellion.
" In a letter which I had the honor to write to your Excellency, before the event of the rebellion, I had informed you of the precaution which I had taken to send Mr. Maxent, with fifteen hundred dollars, to pay the Germans for the provisions which had been bought from them, in order to supply the Acadians with food, because the conspirators had availed themselves of the pretext, that this payment would never be made, in order to induce these people to co-operate with them.
"On the day following Maxent's departure, Lafrenière and another individual, named Marquis, sent, early in the morning, Villere and Verret, in pursuit of Maxent, to arrest him, and to prevent his delivering the money to the Germans, fearing, if they were paid, that the motive which had prompted them to join the rebels, existing no longer, these people might withdraw from
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the conspiracy, and thus force the conspirators to give up their designs. Maxent arrived at the plantation of D'Arensbourg, for whom I had given him a letter, and when he delivered it to that gentleman, he found him so different from what he expected, that, notwithstanding the very old age of that officer, and the unequivocal proofs, already received, of his fidelity, he discovered in him a man who had entirely yielded to the persua- sions of his relations, Villeré and Lery, who had arrayed himself in the defence of liberty, and who had resolved that he should neither be the subject of the King, nor that the colony should belong to his Majesty.
" Maxent was arrested by Verret, as he states in his declaration, at one Cantrelle's house, who is the father in law of another Verret, commanding the Acadians, and where he was exceedingly ill used. The same Ver- ret, whose first name is Andre, has confirmed Maxent's declaration to Mr. de Sale, lieutenant of foot, who com- manded the detachment given to me by the French governor, for the protection of my person and my papers, on the 2d of November, when the vessel in which I had embarked was moored in front of the plan- tation of Madam D'Aunoy. Consequently it is proved by the detention of the person of Maxent, that a plot had been formed to seduce the province from its fealty to Spain, by preventing the execution of those measures, which prudence had suggested, to remove the pretexts which were intended to be put in use.
"The same Andre Verret has declared to Mr. de Sale that, with regard to the order to arrest Maxent, he had received it from Villeré, Lafrenière, and Marquis.
" Lafrenière and Foucault have availed themselves of the discontent caused among the merchants by the com- mercial decree. With regard to the Acadians and Ger- mans, they were persuaded to come to town, to be paid
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what was due to them in reimbursement of their Canadian bonds. Accordingly, they came unarmed, with their captains Judice and Verret. It was in town that arms were distributed to them.
" After the success of the rebellion, the Acadians, being discontented at their having been deceived, made reproaches to their chiefs, and complained of their not having been indemnified for their loss of time and for the damage they had incurred in abandoning their labors.
" The Germans were misled by their being made to believe, that they were threatened with tyranny, and by other false assertions, as well as by calumnies against the Spaniards.
" With regard to the great body of the inhabitants, they were driven by force and violence into this scheme of insurrection by the chiefs of the rebels.
" The Germans and the Acadians are nevertheless guilty of ingratitude, because they had received nothing but benefits from the Spaniards. They were enticed away.
" If there was any scarcity of provisions, in 1766, it was the fault of Mr. Foucault alone, who neglected to procure them.
"The names at the bottom of the memorial of the planters, merchants, &c., &c., which I attribute to La- frénière, were signed on a blank piece of paper, which was subsequently filled up. It bears the stamp of Lafrenière's style, which is easily detected. In that document are to be found those arrogant expressions, that superciliousness and that insolent freedom with which he is in the habit of declaiming against our nation, and of endeavoring to persuade the inhabitants to remain French.
"From the beginning, I had clearly seen that this man would never be a faithful subject of the King, and
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that he would use all his powers of eloquence to inspire the rest of his countrymen with his sentiments, and your Excellency may remember that I gave you timely information of it, in 1766. At the same time and in the same letters, I informed your Excellency that Lafrenière was considerably in debt-so much so, that the whole of his property could not pay the obligations he had contracted in France. De Noyan, his son in law, Vil- leré, Milhet, and the principal chiefs of the conspiracy are in the same position.
" It would entirely suit their convenience, that this colony should remain a French possession, that Lafrenière should be the head and the master spirit of the Superior Council, by which means, he, Lafrenière, would be able to defraud his baffled creditors, and to prevent his friends and relations from being ruined by their own creditors, which would be the case, if they were compelled to pay their debts. Lafrenière had entertained the hope that, after the fall of the Spaniards, he would, with the other members of his family, be able to realize large funds, with which he would retire to France. Foucault's object was to keep up the colonial and commercial connection of France with Louisiana, in order that he might retain his office of counselor and commissary, as I have already informed your Excellency.
"It is not the first time that the seditious maxims of Lafrenière have caused troubles. If Mr. de Kerlerec, when he was Governor of this colony, passed over the intrigues and the practices by which this turbulent spirit then agitated the colony, it was because he was obliged to resist, at the same time, both this secret and intestine war and an open one from the English, so that he was not prepared to take efficacious measures to repress such disorders.
" Mr. D'Abbadie, his successor, experienced so much
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opposition and so many inconveniences from the same source, that he more than once laid his complaints before the court of France, and represented the risks to which the colony was exposed from the senseless ambition of a subject, who pretended to unite in his per- son all the powers of the government ; and he earnestly insisted on the necessity of removing him from the office of Attorney General, which had been given to him only for a limited time. If the court of France did not comply with his representations, it is because, the cession of Louisiana having been made, it was deemed expedient to leave it to Spain, to act on the reformns which might be thought necessary."
So much for Ulloa's views and self-defence. But his expulsion had not satisfied the insurgents, and, in the month of December, they presented another petition to the Superior Council for the expulsion of the Spanish frigate. It was conceived in these terms :
" Mr. Marquis, late commander of the fourth Swiss company, the chevalier De La Ronde, late lieutenant of foot, Le Breton, late guardsman in the King's house- hold troops, all, syndics* of the planters and colonists of this province, Mess. Caresse and Braquier, syndics of the merchants of New-Orleans, represent: that the frigate which used to serve as a prison to the citizens oppressed by Ulloa, as an asylum to the slaves who rebelled against their masters, and which was but too evident a sign of the expiring freedom of navigation, that this very frigate continues to sport her flag in this harbor, where she seems to domineer ; that the posts of Manchac, of Natchez and of the Illinois are still occupied by Spanish garrisons and commanders ; that
* A Syndic is the chief or headman of a corporation or community, of which he is a member, and with the management of whose affairs he is intrusted.
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the officers of his Catholic Majesty are no . more disposed to depart, than if this colony was under the rule of Spain, and that, so far, there is no apparent change in the frightful prospect of that foreign domina- tion, which has so much disquieted the inhabitants of this colony ; that, with regard to the Spanish frigate, it is not astonishing that her remaining in this port should have caused general discontent, considering that the recollection of the vexations which she exercised in conformity with the orders of Ulloa, both in relation to the freedom of navigation and to that of the citizens, cannot but produce indignation, &c., &c. *
" Said petitioners proceed to represent, that the decree rendered by the court, on the 29th of October last, when it enjoined Mr. Ulloa to embark within three days, either in the frigate, or in such other vessel as he might choose, did also impliedly enjoin the officers of said frigate, to make themselves ready to depart in a few days, and that if Mr. Ulloa was allowed to choose the vessel in which he was to sail, it is only because the court had presumed that the frigate was in want of some repairs to go to sea with security; that even a vague rumor had been spread, that Mr. Ulloa himself, before his departure, had ordered the officers of the frigate to have her promptly repaired, and then to leave the coun- try for Havana, without loss of time; that, in fact, they had taken workmen almost immediately, but that their labors were conducted with excessive slowness ; that the careening of that frigate seems to be the work of Penelope; and that there will be no end to it, if their diligence is not stimulated; that, according to the declaration of all the seafaring men of this port, she ought to have been ready a long time since, and that they would undertake to make her seaworthy in fifteen days.
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" Said petitioners further represent : That this slow proceeding has no tendency to produce tranquillity and general satisfaction ; that devotedly obedient to the orders of his most Christian Majesty, the colonists cherish and revere all that bears such a character ; but that they hold in utter detestation all that can perpetu- ate to their eye the image of the Spanish authority, and the traces of the administration, which Ulloa presented to them under so threatening an aspect, well seconded as he was, by all those to whom he had delegated the slightest particle of the powers he assumed; that the petitioners have lately received sad news, in relation to those who have exercised those illegal powers ; that the merchants, Rivard and Bérard, who were going to the Illinois, have been forced to land at the Arkansas, not to hear any longer the insulting language, in which a certain Catalan, named Chouriac, who was sent by the Spaniards to the Illinois, as storekeeper and commissary, expressed himself towards the French nation ; that Pier- nas, the commander of the Spanish troops, when going with said Chouriac to the Illinois district, to assume its government, had met, at the Ecores à Margot, a boat which was coming down ; that said Piernas and Chouriac stopped her, and pressed out of her two rowers to in- crease their own crew, by threatening to fire at the boat with their swivel gun if they were not obeyed, and to put in chains the nine men who manned her; that not- withstanding they could spare no one out of their small number, yet they drew lots to ascertain which of them would embark in the Spanish boat, in which they had nothing to expect but ill usage ; that having attempted to stipulate for their wages, the said Chouriac told them that they must go to work for the service of the King without further discussion.
" The petitioners beg leave to state in addition, that
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this circumstance recalls to mind another, which is not a less powerful demonstration of the evident tyranny, already exercised by the officers acting under the com- mand of Mr. Ulloa; that these facts are related such as they happened, without the least passion or rancor ; and the petitioners ardently wish that the pure spirit of truth which guides their pen, may open the eyes of some bad citizens, if, unfortunately, there should be any among them, whose base and venal souls should still be wavering between the choice of liberty or slavery. Thus the petitioners represent, that Mr. Chamard departed last year in his boat for the Illinois; that having stopped at Natchez, Mr. Piernas, the Spanish commander at that place, addressed one of the passengers on board Cha- mard's boat, and asked him for provisions, as he feared that he would soon be in need of them ; that this pas- senger answered that some might easily be procured at Pointe Coupée or elsewhere, adding that the boats bound from New Orleans to the Illinois, far from being able to sell their provisions, were obliged to purchase some for their own use at all the posts established on the banks of the river ; that Mr. Piernas having retired, the men of the boat thought they had done with hin, and that they were pushing from the shore, when sud- denly Mr. Piernas had a piece of artillery loaded, to fire at the boat, if she dared to leave the landing, and caused the alarum bell to be tolled, (the ordinary signal to take up arms,) collected his troops, and ordered Mr. de La- villebeuvre to put himself at their head ; that this officer, notwithstanding the strong reluctance which he felt, was obliged to obey, and the provisions had to be delivered up to Piernas ; that there never was a specimen of more complete vexation and of better circumstantiated vio- lence ; that the natural inference is, that they, the colonists, must be looked upon by the Spaniards as gal-
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ley slaves ; finally, that the haughty temper and tyran- uical pretensions of that self styled officer of his Catholic Majesty cannot but be the cause of unbounded indigna- tion.
" The petitioners further represent, in their aforesaid capacities and character, that it falls within the province of the court to apply the remedy to the evil which they expose, and they do not hesitate to say, that the con- tinuance of these vexations would convert the colony into a desert.
" Therefore they beg the Council to solicit from Mr. Aubry's sense of justice, that he should invite the captain of the Spanish frigate, the Volante, to hasten his departure, in the interest of public tranquillity."
The Superior Council, on the conclusions of the at- torney general, who supported the petition, rendered a decree in conformity with the prayer of the petitioners.
On the 23d of December, Foucault, continuing the part which he had so long been playing, of secretly in- stigating insurrection and of openly disclaiming all par- ticipation in it-nay-of apparently opposing the mea- sures which he had provoked by underhand suggestions, wrote to his government :
" On the 9th inst. (December, 1768) the syndics of the planters, merchants and inhabitants of this colony handed to me a petition addressed by them, in their official capacity, to the Superior Council, begging that the frigate of the King of Spain, which is moored at the quay of the town, together with the officers and other persons having titles or brevets from his Catholic Ma- jesty, or commissions from Mr. Ulloa, the same having come with him or in other Spanish vessels, be compelled to withdraw from this colony, within the shortest pos- sible delay. I was aware of the vexations which had given rise to this demand, and they were so iniquitous,
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that I could not help blaming inwardly captain Piernas, the Spanish commander at Natchez, and Chouriac, whom Ulloa had sent as storekeeper and commissary at the Illinois. But I was at first tempted not to lend a favor- able ear to the petition of the colonists, because, in my . opinion, the Superior Council could not grant what they prayed for, without going out of the bounds which it had prescribed to itself in its decree of the 29th of October last ; and because to dismiss from the colony the vessels and the officers sent to it by his Catholic Majesty, would be an infraction of the orders of our Sovereign, and be- cause it seemed to me that it would be more proper to suspend any of those officers, who should make an abu- sive use of their authority, and to account for our motives in so doing, &c., &c. *
" But, for many reasons, I was obliged to convene the Council for the next day. It rendered an interlocutory decree, ordering a judicial investigation of the facts im- puted to Piernas and Chouriac, to be reported upon as a basis for further proceedings.
" On the 14th, the Council having met again, to take into consideration the report, which contained the de- positions of four witnesses, I gave my opinion in writing, and stated my reasons for strongly opposing any decree of expulsion, either against the frigate, or any Spanish officer. But the Council ordered that its decree of the 29th of October should be carried into full execution, and begged Mr. Aubry to solicit the captain of the frigate to accelerate his departure in the shortest possible delay. It has also begged me to offer to that captain, and if accepted, to furnish him with, any additional number of sailors, workmen, or whatever other things he might deem necessary to have, in order to enable him to quit the colony. I complied with the wishes of the Council
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on this subject, notwithstanding the reluctance which I felt, but only with regard to the sailors and workmen, because, with regard to provisions and other supplies, I had nothing which I could dispose of in the King's ware- houses. I have the honor, my Lord, to transmit to you, herein annexed, copies of the report of the committee of inquiry appointed by the Council, on the charges brought against the Spanish officers, of the opinion which I gave in the Council, and of the decree of that tribunal.
" We shall take the command of the several posts established by Ulloa, in conformity with the request which he addressed to Mr. Aubry, and they shall be oc- cupied by the French, until we receive the orders which we have asked for. We have been for a month in pos- session of the Post at the Balize. Mr. Aubry and myself have sent Mr. Andry, sub-engineer, to the posts of Iber- ville and Natchez, in order, jointly with the officers of his Catholic Majesty, who command at these places, to draw and sign the plans and estimates of all the buildings, and make an inventory of all the artillery, provisions, ammunition, merchandise and other effects there to be found, in concert with those commanding officers and the storekeepers ; to receive the whole into his custody, and to station at each of these points eight or ten Aca- dians, in the place of the soldiers, whom it is impossible to send there, on account of the small number of them that are here."
Foucault concludes with saying, that all the Spaniards are withdrawing from the other posts, and that it is agreed with them that, after the event of the 29th of October, the expenses of the colony shall, nevertheless, be supported by the King of Spain, up to the 31st of December next inclusively, and that the account shall be settled accordingly.
This despatch is another proof of the miserable
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shuffling, to which Foucault resorted in all those trans- actions. His plan had been to show himself, in his official acts, as favorable to the insurgents as he possibly could, and to encourage them as far as he could go, without committing himself too much in the eye of the French and Spanish governments. Thus, he had affected to oppose the expulsion of the frigate and of the Spanish officers, and at the same time, he had recommended to suspend from their functions any of these very same officers who might be deemed guilty of an abuse of power. Yet to a man of his intelligence this dilemma must certainly have presented itself: the colony was either a Spanish, or a French province. If French, the colonists had the right, not only to prevent the Spanish officers from exercising their usurped functions, but also to expel them altogether, as intruders and trespassers. On the other hand, if Louisiana was a Spanish pos- session, and if, as Foucault maintained, the officers of his Catholic Majesty could not be driven away, whence did the colonists derive their authority, save from the right of revolution, to suspend them from their func- tions, on the plea of abuses of power ? Whence the right assumed by Foucault, on behalf of the colonists, to account for so high handed a measure, not to the King of Spain, their new master, but to the late one, the King of France ? These inconsistencies evidently proceeded from his desire to steer his bark safely between two opposite shoals.
On the very day when Foucault was writing the preceding despatch, Aubry, whose mind was sufficiently enlightened, and whose judgment was sufficiently calm, to foresee the fatal consequences of what had happened in Louisiana, and therefore whose anxieties were inces- santly growing, communicated to the Minister his reflections on the revolution which he had witnessed.
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He wrote : " I find myself under the sad necessity of speaking, and of telling all, in spite of my reluctance to do so. The Council behaved badly. The attorney general Lafrenière is one of the principal leaders.
" Mr. de Ulloa committed several faults, but never perpetrated crimes, and, setting aside his rank and his character, did not deserve the treatment which he underwent.
" It is necessary to send here a battalion and a new council. The one, to drive out of the country from ten to twelve firebrands, who rule it as they please, and are the causes of all the harm done ; the other, to administer justice, which is almost entirely set aside.
" Should this revolution produce no change in the arrangements between France and Spain, in relation to this colony, would it not be proper that his Majesty should transmit his orders here as soon as possible, and announce his ultimate and irrevocable will on the cession to Spain, promising pardon and oblivion, save to a few who are guilty, and whom it is absolutely necessary to punish ? Besides, it is probable that the guiltiest will take refuge among the English, when they shall learn the arrival of troops.
" It is much to be desired that the officer who may be sent by his Catholic Majesty to take possession of this colony, should have the necessary qualifications. If Mr. de Ulloa had been of a milder and more com- plaisant disposition, the colony would long ago have become. Spanish ; all would have remained quiet, and we should not be in the situation in which we are now. I assure you, my Lord, that, but for me, he would have been sent away two years ago.
" It is desirable that, for some time, vessels should be allowed to come here from France and from the Islands. It is the greatest benefit that his
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Catholic Majesty could confer on the inhabitants of Louisiana.
" Should the province remain to France, its inhabit- ants would be transported with joy. It would be the most agreeable news they could receive, as they gene- rally have French hearts. But I am certain that, at present, they would prefer passing under the English domination than the Spanish, unless his Catholic Majesty should be disposed to grant them some pri- vileges and advantages, to induce them to live under his flag. Ulloa's too great severity has frightened them, and they fear to be governed as despotically as the Mexicans.
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