USA > Louisiana > Louisiana : its history as a French colony. Third series of lectures > Part 5
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THE MARQUIS OF VAUDREUIL.
colony prospers rapidly from its own impulse, and requires only gentle stimulation. In the last three years, forty-five brick houses were erected in New Orleans, and several fine new plantations were estab- lished."
A short time after writing this despatch, Michel de la Rouvillière died, and was succeeded by D'Auber- ville. Under the administration of the Marquis of Vaudreuil, the expenses of the colony kept steadily increasing, and amounted, for the year 1752, to 930,767 livres.
On the 9th of February, 1753, Kerlerec took pos- session of the government of Louisiana, the Marquis of Vaudreuil having been appointed Governor of Canada, where he distinguished himself, in 1756, by the skill and courage with which he resisted the invasion of the English.
The administration of the Marquis of Vaudreuil was long and fondly remembered in Louisiana, as an epoch of unusual brilliancy, but which was followed up by corresponding gloom. His administration, if small things may be compared with great ones, was for Louisiana, with regard to splendor, luxury, military display, and expenses of every kind, what the reign of Louis XIV. had been for France. He was a man of patrician birth and high breeding, who liked to live in a manner worthy of his rank. Remarkable for his personal graces and comeliness, for the dignity of his bearing and the fascination of his address, he was fond of pomp, show, and pleasure; surrounded by a host of brilliant officers, of whom he was the idol, he loved to keep up a miniature court, in distant imitation of that of Versailles ; and long after he had departed, old people were fond of talking of the exquisitely refined manners, of the magnificent balls, of the
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THE MARQUIS OF VAUDREUIL.
splendidly uniformed troops, of the high-born young officers, and of the many other unparalleled things they had seen in the days of the Great Marquis.
A .
SECOND LECTURE.
ARRIVAL OF GOVERNOR KERLEREC-HE SHOWS HIMSELF FAVORABLE TO THE INDIANS -HIS DEALING WITH THEM-HIS OPINION OF THE INHABITANTS OF LOUISIANA- HIS DESCRIPTION OF THE STATE OF THE COUNTRY-HIS OPINION OF THE FRENCH AND SWISS TROOPS-REDUCTION OF THE FORCES AND OF THE EXPENSES OF THE COLONY-ARRIVAL OF SOME EMIGRANTS FROM LORRAINE-APPREHENSIONS OF AN ATTACK FROM THE ENGLISHI-CRUELTY OF THE FRENCH COMMANDER AT CAT ISLAND-HE IS MURDERED BY ILIS SOLDIERS-MANNER IN WHICH THEY ARE PUNISHED-HARD FATE OF BAUDROT-DEFENSIVE PREPARATIONS AGAINST THE ENGLISH-CURIOUS FACT AS TO BALIZE ISLAND-REVULSION OF KERLEREC'S SEN- TIMENTS IN RELATION TO THE INDIANS-HEAVY EXPENSES OF THE FRENCH ADMI- NISTRATION IN LOUISIANA-WARFARE BETWEEN THE CAPUCHINS AND JESUITS- THE ENGLISH CUT OFF ALL COMMUNICATION BETWEEN FRANCE AND LOUISIANA -DEFENCELESS STATE OF THE COLONY-MILITARY POWER OF THE CHOCTAWS AND ALIBAMONS IN 1758-ARRIVAL OF THE INTENDANT ROCHEMORE-PAPER MONEY OPE- RATIONS OF ROCHEMORE-HE IS BLAMED FOR THEM BY HIS GOVERNMENT-QUAR- RELS BETWEEN ROCHEMORE AND KERLEREO-ROCHEMORE IS DISMISSED FROM OFFICE AND HIS FRIENDS ARE EMBARKED FOR FRANCE-ATTEMPT TO MANUFACTURE SUGAR FROM THE CANE-NEW ORLEANS FORTIFIED WITH A DITCH AND A PALI- SADE-ARRIVAL OF FOUCAULT AS KING'S COMMISSARY-HIS DESCRIPTION OF THE COLONY-CESSION OF LOUISIANA TO SPAIN AND TO THE ENGLISH-PROTEST OF THE . INDIANS AGAINST THE CESSION-KERLEREC IS RECALLED AND THROWN INTO THE BASTILLE-D'ABBADIE APPOINTED GOVERNOR-DESCRIPTION OF THE COLONY BY REDON DE RASSAC-THE ENGLISH TAKE POSSESSION OF MOBILE AND TOMBECBEE- BICKERINGS BETWEEN THE FRENCH AND ENGLISH-HOSTILITY OF THE INDIANS OF LOUISIANA TO THE ENGLISH-ENGAGEMENT BETWEEN THE ENGLISH MAJOR LOFTUS AND THE INDIANS ON THE RIVER MISSISSIPPI-EXPULSION OF THE JESUITS FROM THE COLONY-D'ABBADIE'S DESCRIPTION OF THE COLONY-PETITION OF THE MERCHANTS OF NEW ORLEANS TO D'ABBADIE-HIS OPINION OF THAT PETITION- MONOPOLY OF PRINTING GRANTED TO BRAUD-LETTER OF LOUIS XV. TO D'AB- BADIE ON THE TREATY OF CESSION.
KERLEREC, the successor of the Marquis of Vaudreuil, was a captain in the Royal Navy. He was a distin- guished officer, who had been in active service at sea twenty-five years, and who had been in four engage- ments, in which he had displayed ability and courage, and had received several wounds. He reached the
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KERLEREC'S OPINION OF THE INDIANS.
Balize on the 24th of January, 1753, New Orleans on the 3d of February, and was installed as Governor on the 9th of that month.
Kerlerec began his administration by showing him- self very well disposed towards the Indians, in whose favor he seems to have imbibed very decided impres- sions on his arrival in Louisiana. On the 11th of June, he convened a court-martial, to take into con- sideration the representations made by the Choctaws, on behalf of certain deserters who had been arrested by them and delivered up to the French, under the stipulations of a treaty, by which the Choctaws were bound to arrest all the French deserters, and the French, on the other side, had obligated themselves to pardon those that should be arrested and delivered up by the Choctaws. The Indians had faithfully com- plied with their part of the treaty ; but the French seemed disposed to forget their obligations, and were detaining in prison, probably with the intention of proceeding to more rigorous means of punishment, three deserters who had been put in their possession under the treaty. The Indians had justly threatened to consider themselves as released from their obliga- tion of arresting French deserters, if those that were in prison did not receive a full pardon. The court- martial, presided over by Kerlerec, decided in favor of the demand of the Indians, who were exceedingly gratified, when Kerlerec gave them the official infor- mation of that fact, and assured them that, for the future, the rights of the Indians and of the French would be impartially weighed in the same scales.
On the 20th of August, the new Governor wrote to his government :- " I am satisfied with the Choctaws. It seems to me that they are true to their plighted faith. But we must be the same in our transactions
70 KERLEREC ENDEAVOURS TO CONCILIATE THE INDIANS.
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with them. They are men who reflect, and who have more logic and precision in their reasoning than it is commonly thought."
At a meeting of the Choctaw chiefs, Kerlerec re- proached them, in a friendly tone, with their receiv- ing, in their villages, English traders. He told them that, so long as they extended one hand to the French and the other to the English, they were to expect con- stant troubles, because they ought not to forget that the English were the originators of all the difficulties which had happened between the Choctaws and the French, and which had divided the Choctaws them- selves into hostile parties. To these observations, the Indians replied, with a good deal of sense and truth : " The original wrongs and faults are on the side of the French. They are the first of the white race whom we have known, and who have inspired us with new wants, from which we cannot free ourselves, and for the satis- faction of which they are often but partially prepared, when not totally unprovided. The English study our tastes with more care than you do ; they have a more diversified and a richer stock of merchandise. Hence are we driven to trade with them, when our hearts are with you. It is a matter of necessity, not of choice. Satisfy all our wants, and we shall, now and for ever, renounce the English."
Kerlerec admitted the strength of these observations, to which he called the attention of the French govern- ment, and he took this circumstance as a theme for requesting a larger supply than usual, of every sort of merchandise. He also convened the chiefs of the Arkansas, whom he feasted with great liberality, and whom he dismissed, much delighted with their recep- tion at New Orleans, after having recommended them to send, all along the Mississippi, for about forty leagues
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CHANGES AMONG THE OFFICERS.
up and down, war expeditions against the Chickasaws, the Cherokees, and the Chaouannons.
With regard to the Chickasaws, although their num- bers had been much curtailed, they were still very trou- blesome, and had lately killed all the men of a convoy destined for the Illinois district, sparing only one girl, ten years old, whom they carried away. Kerlerec be- took himself to ransoming several prisoners, who had long been among the Indians. For the ransom of every male adult, the Governor gave one hundred pounds weight of deer skin, and proportionately less for females and children.
Kerlerec also proceeded to make some mutations among the officers of the several posts. "I have recalled," says he, in one of his despatches, " Mr. de Pontalba, who had the command of Pointe Coupée, although he ought to have been kept there for the good of that locality ; but I was obliged to give way under the pressure of the calumnies of a gang of intriguers, who had spread the rumor that Mr. de Pont- alba would retain his post, because he had annually. paid to the Governor a stipend of twelve thousand livres ; and that the same influence would be brought to bear upon me with the same results. Before the departure of Mr. de Vaudreuil, a petition signed by forty of the most respectable inhabitants of Pointe Coupée had been presented to me, to retain Mr. de Pontalba in the command. But I had to yield to malicious insinuations, and I must confess that this circumstance has filled me with grief, with humiliation, with contempt and disgust toward the people. of this country."
The fact is that Kerlerec, in less than six months after his arrival, was beginning to see the tide of a sea of trouble and vexations rising fast upon him.
72
STATE OF THE COLONY.
Many of the officers were discontented, and the Capu- chins, whom he seems to have offended, were using - against him all their priestly influence.
The state of the colony itself was not such as to present a very gratifying spectacle to its Governor, and, in 'connection with this subject, Kerlerec wrote to his government : " The German Settlement has not re- covered from the unfortunate blow which it received from the Indians, in or about the year 1748. The inhabitants of that post withdraw from it insensibly, and therefore their numbers diminish every day. To those who remain nothing can inspire a feeling of security, and they are so disgusted with their present position, that many of them have petitioned me for lands elsewhere, unless I grant them an increase of . troops for their protection. They even desire that those troops be Swiss, on account of the sympathies and affinities which they have with the men of that nation, and because the Swiss, being disposed to hard working, will help them in their agricultural labors, and will marry and settle among them, much more than the French are likely to do. Another reason is, that the troops of our nation, on account of the horrid acts of which they are known to be capable, have inspired the German settlers who have retained a proper sense of their worth and dignity, with a deep aversion to having with them any communication. I have sent to these Germans fifteen men of the Swiss company of Vélezand, and for the reasons here given, I solicit an increase of the Swiss troops. The Swiss behave exceedingly well : it would be necessary to carry their number to three hundred. I would prefer reducing the French troops and augmenting the Swiss ; such is the superiority of the latter over the former !"
When reading the despatches of the governors of
73
CHARACTER OF THE TROOPS.
Louisiana for a series of fifty-four years, one is tempted to believe, that the French government used to select from the convicts in the King's jails, the men who were sent as soldiers to Louisiana. Bienville complained of the disgrace and grief inflicted upon him by putting under his command certain specimens of humanity, whose dwarfish size did not exceed four feet and a half, whose stunted and crooked proportions offended the sight, and whose vices were only equalled by their cowardice. Périer blushed at the necessity of confess- ing, that his soldiers usually fled at the first flash of an Indian gun. He even said, in one of his despatches, that his troops were so wretchedly bad, that they seemed to have been picked purposely for the colony, and that it would be much better to trust negroes on the battle-field, and use them as soldiers, were they not too valuable property, because they, at least, were brave men. Now comes Kerlerec, who, pouring out the last and bitterest drop remaining in the vial of vituperation, informs his government that it would be more expedient to send him Swiss instead of French troops, on account of the decided superiority of the * former, and because the apprehension of the horrid acts of which the French troops were known to be capable, had induced the colonists to wish to avoid the contaminating and dangerous contact of such villains. What had become, one is tempted to exclaim, of the soldiers of Turenne and of Condé ? What had become of the chivalry, that had threatened, under Louis XIV., to subdue the whole of Europe ? What had become of the heroism, that had blazed uninterruptedly through so many centuries, and that had so freely spilt the noble blood of France, in every part of the world, from the days when the sword of a Gaul weighed so heavily in the Roman scales at the foot of the Capitol, down
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TRIBUTE TO THE INDIANS.
to the recently fought battle of Fontenoy? The fields of Canada were soon destined to show that the French soldiers, under Montcalm and others, had undergone no degeneracy. But the stern impartiality of the historian makes it his duty to record these words, which were written by a French officer (Périer) when giving an account of a panic : " I am grieved to see that there is less of the French temperament in Louisiana than anywhere else." It is a relief, however, to remark that every Governor, although applying the most withering expressions of contempt to the colonial French soldiers, who, generally, were commanded by officers of distinguished abilities and great intrepidity, seldom fails to pay a flattering homage to the courage of the French colonists and of the few Creoles or natives of Louisiana.
After the departure of Vaudreuil, the troops were reduced to thirteen hundred and fifty men. The rest of the forces of the colony was composed of four com- panies of militia and one company of land waiters (gardes-côtes), the whole amounting to about five hundred men. The object of this reduction was to diminish the expenses, which for this year, 1753, rose to 887,205 livres.
The colony had been advancing in age, without having gathered strength enough to cease to be tribu- tary to the Indians; for, at the beginning of the year 1754, Kerlerec wrote to his government : " I lack mer- chandise to trade with, and, particularly, to make to the Choctaws the customary presents which they expect, and of which three have now become due, without this debt having been discharged. This is the cause of their addressing me vehement and even insolent re- proaches. They threaten to call in the English."
This year, the population of the colony was slightly
75
TRAGIC OCCURRENCE.
increased, by the arrival of some families from Lor- raine. They were located at the German settlement, which, as we have seen, was undergoing a gradual process of depopulation, that was checked by this cir- cumstance. They were industrious people, and proved a valuable acquisition.
The colony was, at this time, under great apprehen- sion of being attacked by the English, and, on the 9th of July, Kerlerec wrote to his government in very strong language, to represent the utterly defenceless state of the colony, which was open on all sides, and destitute of everything. " And yet," said Kerlerec, " the English are moving everywhere about us, and threaten to interrupt our communications with the Illinois." 1
From the fear of danger coming from abroad, the attention of the colonists was diverted, for a time, by an event which filled them with horror, and the impression of which has been, in the traditions of the fireside, transmitted to us from generation to genera- tion.
In Cat Island, there was a small garrison command- ed by an officer named Roux, or Duroux, who was extremely cruel and avaricious. He used to employ his men making charcoal, which he sold for his private benefit ; and for the slightest offence, ordering them to be stript stark naked, he had them tied to trees, in the midst of a swamp, and in the thickest of swarms of musquitoes. There he doomed them to endure the torments of a long night. The natural result ensued ; the victims rose upon the tyrant, put him to death, fled to the mainland near Mobile, and, joining some English traders, endeavored to reach Georgia across the Indian territories. But, at the bidding of the French, a party of Choctaws" pursued the fugitives, and
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TRAGIC OCCURRENCE.
made them prisoners, with the exception of one, who destroyed himself. They were taken to New Orleans, where they were tried. Two were broken on the wheel, and one of them, who was a Swiss, was, in con- formity, it is said, with the penal code observed by the Swiss in the service of France, placed in a coffin, and (horresco referens) sawed asunder right across the waist, by two sergeants of the Swiss troops. In our days, it is more than doubtful, considering the provo- cation, whether these men would have been punished at all. So different are the judgments of man under the never-ceasing modifications produced by time !
The Indians, whose greediness and acuteness never losť an opportunity of obtaining some presents or indemnities from the French, pretended that their territory had been polluted by the suicide of the French soldier who had put an end to his life; and they claimed a present as an atonement for the crime. It was the Alibamons who urged this pretension, and Kerlerec, who wished to conciliate them, acceded to their demand.
When Roux was murdered by the soldiers under his command, there was, on Cat Island, a man named Baudrot, who had been thrown into prison by Roux, for disobedience to one of his arbitrary and oppressive orders. Baudrot had frequently been employed by the successive governors of Louisiana, to negociate with the Indian nations, and he had always shown himself worthy of the trust reposed in him. He was held in high estimation by the Indians, of whose languages he had acquired a perfect knowledge, and he was well acquainted with their manners, their customs, their laws, and the geography of the territo- ries which they claimed as their own. Wonders were related of his physical strength, and had made him
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FEARS OF INVASION.
known far and wide. The Choctaws, in particular, had conceived such respect and friendship for him, that they had adopted him, and had granted him all the privileges possessed by one of their race. The soldiers of Roux, after having murdered their com- mander, forced Baudrot to act as their guide, to a certain distance, through the territory of the Indians, and then sent him back, with a certificate that he had yielded only to violence on their part. He was tried, however, and found guilty, as an accomplice to the . flight of the soldiers. To the horror of all the inha- bitants of Louisiana, with almost every one of whom he had become acquainted in the course of his travels and wanderings, and whose sympathies he had gained, he was broken on the wheel, and his body, being denied Christian sepulture, was flung into the Missis- sippi, as if it had been the offensive carcass of the vilest animal. Such were the scenes acted in Louisiana in 1751! This barbarous deed struck with astonish- ment even the savages, and inspired them with an in- dignation which they did not fear loudly to express to Governor Kerlerec. The descendants of Baudrot are still in existence in Louisiana.
As already mentioned, the colony was under a lively sense of the danger of foreign invasion, and it became necessary to quiet the apprehensions of the inhabitants by defensive preparations. On the 20th of September, Kerlerec and the Intendant Commissary, D'Auberville, said; in a despatch to their government :- " The land, which is formed of alluvial deposits, at the mouth of the Mississippi, is so deficient in substance and solidity, that it is not possible, without considerable expenses, to establish thereon a settlement or durable fortifica- tions. The fortifications which the India Company had caused to be erected there, and which were exten-
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GAIN OF THE MISSISSIPPI ON THE GULF.
sive, are destroyed. There are remaining but few vestiges of them, which are daily sinking into the mud, and are always under water when the tide rises, notwithstanding the repairs made to them in 1741 and 1742. It is important, however, to have at that locality a shelter for a small garrison, for pilots and their necessaries, and for those things of which the coming and departing vessels may stand in need."
" A fifty gun ship, with a solid bottom, a well caulked waist, and the rablets from stern to stem, up and down, starboard and larboard, lined with a sheet of lead, four inches wide, sheathed with nails and red cypress wood to preserve it from the worms, would last at least thirty years in the river. It would be the best substitute for a fort, which the nature of the soil renders impossible."
A fact of some importance is mentioned in this very same despatch :- " Balize Island, they said, which, twenty years ago, was half a league at sea, has now fallen back one league and a half on one side of the river, and joins that projection of land which the Mississippi gradually forms in carrying its waters into the Gulf. In this way, the island is now distant from the ships coming from sea. This circumstance makes it the more imperative to establish a floating post."
If there is no exaggeration in the assertion of the fact mentioned in this despatch, the Mississippi had gained on the Gulf, six miles in twenty years, and if his progress has ever after continued in the same pro- portion, the great Father of Rivers must be, in 1850, about twenty-nine miles farther than in 1754, in his career of conquest over the sea, and in his loving ap- proach toward the fair Island of Cuba.
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FEARS OF BRITISH INVASION.
In the month of December, there was at Mobile a great festival, given on the occasion of the distribution of presents to the Indians. Satisfied with their share, the Choctaws solemnly voted to Kerlerec the title of Father of the Choctaws. But Kerlerec seemed, at this time, to have a sad opinion of the virtues of his children, for he wrote to his government :- " I am sufficiently acquainted with the Choctaws to know that they are covetous, lying, and treacherous. So that I keep on my guard without showing it." This is a very different appreciation from the one made by Kerlerec the year preceding, when he said of the Choctaws :- " I am satisfied with them. It seems to me that they are truc to their plighted faith. They are men who reflect, and who hare more logic and precision in their reasoning than it is commonly thought." Thus Kerlerec had changed his mind, as other men have done, and will do, on more than one subject.
Whatever was the real character of the Choctaws, they had remained true to the French in making war against the Chickasaws, who would have long been destroved, if the Cherokees and Chaouannons, who were in the habit of marrying among them, had not supplied them with constant recruits. But their losses had been so heavy for a series of years, that it was evident that the triumph of the French was soon to be complete over these inveterate enemies.
Although the French government had recommended the strictest economy, and had diminished the number of the troops, the expenses of the year 1754 rose to .. 1. 121 livres.
I Im year 1755 brought on an increase of the fear of Brunch invasion. In the month of June, Kerlerec went twelve men to Cat Island, to watch the approach of the English, who were expected soon to make their
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RELIGIOUS WARFARE.
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appearance at Ship Island; and these men were instructed to give him timely notice of the operations of the enemy. He also increased the fortifications at the English Turn, and he wrote to his government for an additional force of five hundred men. This year, the English had attacked the French in Canada, and Kerlerec had great fears for Louisiana, which the English had always coveted. He became therefore clamorous for help from the mother country. But France was then undergoing the deleterious influence resulting from the Orleans regency, and from the corrupt and pusillanimous reign of Louis XV. Her exhausted energies were not such as to enable her to protect effectually and to preserve her distant pos- sessions.
At that time, there sprung up in the colony a sort of religious warfare, which added to the distraction produced by the expectation of perils from abroad. · In 1717, the Capuchins of the province of Champagne, in France, had secured for their body exclusive eccle- siastical jurisdiction over New Orleans and a large portion of the territory of Louisiana. In 1726, the Jesuits had also obtained permission to settle in the colony ; and in order to avoid all collision with the Ca- puchins, their jurisdiction had been confined to a remote region in the upper part of the colony. But they had taken care to procure, as an apparently insignificant favor, that their Superior might reside in New Orleans, on condition that he should not discharge there any eccle- siastical function, unless it should be with the consent of the Superior of the Capuchins. This was an enter- ing wedge, which the well known and exquisite dexterity of the Jesuits turned to goodly purpose, so far as their interest was concerned. Enough had been granted to men in whom the energy of enterprise was
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