USA > Louisiana > Romance of the history of Louisiana. A series of lectures > Part 2
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EXPEDITION OF DE SOTO.
unmindful he, the Christian knight, the hater and con- queror of Moorish infidelity, of the souls of his future vassals ; for, twenty-two ecclesiastics accompany him to preach the word of God. Among his followers are gentlemen of the best blood of Spain and of Portugal : Don Juan de Guzman ; Pedro Calderon, who, by his combined skill and bravery, had won the praises of Gonzalvo de Cordova, yclept " the great captain ;" Vasconcellos de Silva, of Portugal, who for birth and courage knew no superior ; Nuno Tobar, a knight above fear and reproach ; and Muscoso de Alvarado, whom that small host of heroes ranked in their estima- tion next to De Soto himself. But I stop an enumera- tion which, if I did justice to all, would be too long.
What materials for romance ! Here is chivalry, with all its glittering pomp, its soul-stirring aspirations, in full march, with its iron heels and gilded spurs, towards the unknown and hitherto unexplored soil of Louisiana. In sooth, it must have been a splendid sight ! Let us look at the glorious pageantry as it sweeps by, through the long vistas of those pine woods! How nobly they bear themselves, those bronzed sons of Spain, clad in refulgent armor ! How brave that music sounds! How fleet they move, those Andalusian chargers, with arched necks and dilated nostrils ! But the whole train suddenly halts in that verdant valley, by that bubbling stream, shaded by those venerable
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32
EXPEDITION OF DE SOTO.
oaks with gray moss hanging from their branches in imitation of the whitening beard of age. Does not the whole encampment rise distinct upon your minds ?
The tents with gay pennons, with armorial bear- ings ; the proud steed whose impatient foot spurns the ground ; those men stretched on the velvet grass and recruiting their wearied strength by sleep ; some sing- ing old Castilian or Moorish roundelays; others musing on the sweet rulers of their souls, left in their distant home ; a few kneeling before the officiating priest, at the altar which a moment sufficed for their pious ardor to erect, under yonder secluded bower ; some burnish- ing their arms, others engaged in mimic warfare and trials of skill or strength ; De Soto sitting apart with his peers in rank if not in command, and intent upon developing to them his plans of conquest, while the dusky faces of some Indian boys and women in the background express wild astonishment. None of the warriors of that race are to be seen ; they are reported to be absent on a distant hunting excursion. But,
methinks that at times I spy through the neighboring thickets the fierce glance of more than one eye, spark- ling with the suppressed fury of anticipated revenge. What a scene ! and would it not afford delight to the poet's imagination or to the painter's eye ?
In two ponderous volumes, the historian Garcillasso relates the thousand incidents of that romantic expedi-
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33
EXPEDITION OF DE SOTO.
tion. What more interesting than the reception of Soto at the court of the Princess Cofachiqui, the Dido of the wilderness ! What battles, what victories over men, over the elements themselves, and over the end- less obstacles thrown out by rebellious nature ! What incredible physical difficulties overcome by the advanc- ing host! How heroic is the resistance of the Mobiliens and of the Alabamas! With what headlong fury those denizens of the forest rush upon the iron clad warriors, and dare the thunders of those whom they take to be the children of the sun ! How splendidly described is the siege of Mobile, where women fought like men, and wrapped themselves up in the flames of their de- stroyed city rather than surrender to their invaders !
But let the conquering hero beware ! Now he is encamped on the territory of the Chickasaws, the most ferocious of the Indian tribes. And lucky was it that Soto was as prudent as he was brave, and slept equally prepared for the defence and for the attack. Hark! in the dead of a winter's night, when the cold wind of the north, in the month of January, 1541, was howling through the leafless trees, a simultaneous howl was heard, more hideous far than the voice of the tempest. The Indians rush impetuous, with firebrands, and the thatched roofs which sheltered the Spaniards are soon on fire, threatening them with immediate destruction. The horses rearing and plunging in wild affright, and
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34
EXPEDITION OF DE SOTO.
breaking loose from their ligaments; the undaunted Spaniards, half naked, struggling against the devouring element and the unsparing foe ; the desperate deeds of valor executed by Soto and his companions ; the deep- toned shouts of St. Jago and Spain to the rescue ; the demon-like shrieks of the red warriors ; the final over- throw of the Indians ; the hot pursuit by the light of the flaming village ;- form a picture highly exciting to the imagination, and cold indeed must he be who does not take delight in the strange contrast of the heroic warfare of chivalry on one side, and of the untutored courage of man in his savage state, on the other.
It would be too long to follow Soto in his peregri- nations during two years, through part of Alabama, Mississippi, and Tennessee. At last he stands on the banks of the Mississippi, near the spot where now flourishes the Egyptian named city of Memphis. He crosses the mighty river, and onward he goes, up to the White River, while roaming over the territory of the Arkansas. Meeting with alternate hospitality and hostility on the part of the Indians, he arrives at the mouth of the Red River, within the present limits of the State of Louisiana. There he was fated to close his adventurous career.
Three years of intense bodily fatigue and mental excitement had undermined the hero's constitution. Alas! well might the spirit droop within him! He had
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1755257
EXPEDITION OF DE SOTO.
landed on the shore of the North American continent with high hopes, dreaming of conquest over wealthy nations and magnificent cities. What had he met ? Interminable forests, endless lagoons, inextricable marshes, sharp and continual conflicts with men little superior, in his estimation, to the brutish creation. He who in Spain was cheered by beauty's glance, by the songs of the minstrel, when he sped to the contest with adversaries worthy of his prowess, with the noble and chivalric Moors ; he who had revelled in the halls of the imperial Incas of Peru, and who there had amassed princely wealth ; he, the flower of knightly courts, had been roaming like a vagrant over an immense territory, where he had discovered none but half-naked savages, dwelling in miserable huts, ignobly repulsive when compared with Castilla's stately domes, with Granada's fantastic palaces, and with Peru's imperial dwellings, massive with gold ! His wealth was gone, two-thirds of his brave companions were dead. What account of them would he render to their noble families ! He, the bankrupt in fame and in fortune, how would he withstand the gibes of envy ! Thought, that scourge of life, that inward consumer of man, racks his brain, his heart is seared with deep anguish ; a slow fever wastes his powerful frame, and he sinks at last on the couch of sickness, never to rise again. The Spaniards cluster round him, and alternately look with despair
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DEATH OF DE SOTO.
at their dying chieftain, and at the ominous hue of the bloody river, known at this day under the name of the Red River. But not he the man to allow the wild havoc within the soul to betray itself in the outward mien ; not he, in common with the vulgar herd, the man to utter one word of wail! With smiling lips and serene brow he cheers his companions and summons them, one by one, to swear allegiance in his hands to Muscoso de Alvarado, whom he designates as his successor. " Union and perseverance, my friends," he says ; "so long as the breath of life animates your bodies, do not falter in the enterprise you have undertaken. Spain expects a richer harvest of glory and more ample do- mains from her children." These were his last words, and then he dies. Blest be the soul of the noble knight and of the true Christian ! Rest his mortal remains in peace within that oaken trunk scooped by his com- panions, and by them sunk many fathoms deep in the bed of the Mississippi !
The Spaniards, at first, had tried to conceal the death of Soto from the Indians, because they felt that there was protection in the belief of his existence. What mockery it was to their grief, to simulate joy on the very tomb of their beloved chief, whom they had buried in their camp before seeking for him a safer place of repose ! But when, the slaves of hard neces- sity, they were, with heavy hearts but smiling faces.
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PERILS OF HIS FOLLOWERS.
coursing in tournament over the burial-ground, and profaning the consecrated spot, the more effectually to mislead the conjectures of the Indians, they saw that their subterfuge was vain, and that the red men, with significant glances, were pointing. to each other the precise spot where the great white warrior slept. How dolorously does Garcillasso describe the exhumation and the plunging of the body into the turbid stream of the Great Father of Rivers !
Then comes an Odyssey of woes. The attempt of the Spaniards to go by land to Mexico; their wander- ing as far as the Rio Grande and the mountainous region which lies between Mexico and Texas, and which was destined, in after years, to be so famous in American history ; their return to the mouth of Red River ; their building of vessels capable of navigating at sea; the tender compassion and affectionate assist- ance of the good Cazique Anilco; the league of the other Indian princes, far and wide, under the auspices of the great king, Quigualtanqui, the Agamemnon of the confederacy ; the discovery of the plot ; the retreat of all the Indian chiefs save the indomitable Quigual- tanqui ; the fleet of one thousand canoes, mounted by twenty thousand men, with which he pursued the weary and despairing Spaniards for seventeen long days, assailing them with incessant fury ; the giving up of the chase only when the sea was nearly in sight ;
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THEIR FLIGHT FROM THE COUNTRY.
the fierce parting words of the Indians to the Spaniards : " Tell your countrymen that you have been pursued by Quigualtanqui alone ; if he had been better assisted by his peers, none of you would have survived to tell the tale ;" the solemn -rites with which, in their thousand canoes riveted on the water, they, on the day they ceased their pursuit, adored the rising sun and saluted him with their thanksgivings for the expulsion of the invaders ; the hair-breadth escapes of the three hundred Spaniards who alone out of the bright host of their former companions, had succeeded in fleeing from the hostile shore of Louisiana ; their toils during a naviga- tion of ninety days to the port of Panuco, where they at last arrived in a state of utter destitution, are all thrilling incidents connected with the history of Lou- isiana, and replete with the very essence of poetry.
When Alvarado, the Ulysses of that expedition, related his adventures in the halls of Montezuma, Don Francisco de Mendoza, the son of the viceroy, broke out with passionate admiration of the conduct of Qui- gualtanqui : " A noble barbarian," exclaimed he, " an honest man and a true patriot." This remark, worthy of the high lineage and of the ancestral fame of him who spoke it, is a just tribute to the Louisianian chief, and is an apt epilogue to the recital of those romantic achievements, the nature of which is such, that the poet's pen would be more at ease with it than that of the historian.
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DISCOVERY OF THE MISSISSIPPI.
One hundred and thirty years had passed away since the apparition of Soto on the soil of Louisiana, without any further attempt of the white race to pene- trate into that fair region, when on the 7th of July, 1673, a small band of Europeans and Canadians reached the Mississippi, which they had come to seek from the far distant city of Quebec. That band had two leaders, Father Marquette, a monk, and Joliet, a merchant, the prototypes of two great sources of power, religion and commerce, which, in the course of time, were destined to exercise such influence on the civilization of the western territory, traversed by the mighty river which they had discovered. They could not be ordinary men, those adventurers, who in those days under- took to expose themselves to the fatigues and perils of a journey through unknown solitudes, from the St. Lawrence to the Mississippi ! That humble monkish gown of Father Marquette concealed a hero's heart ; and in the merchant's breast there dwelt a soul that would have disgraced no belted knight.
Whether it was owing to the peaceful garb in which they had presented themselves, or to some other cause, the Indians hardly showed any of that hostility which they had exhibited towards the armed invasion of Spain. Joliet and Father Marquette floated down the river without much impediment, as far as the Arkansas. There, having received sufficient evidence that the
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MARQUETTE AND JOLIET.
Mississippi discharged itself into the Gulf of Mexico, they retraced their way back and returned to Canada. But in that frail bark drifting down the current of the Mississippi, and in which sat the hard plodding mer- chant, with the deep wrinkles of thought and forecast on his brow, planning schemes of trade with unknown nations, and surveying with curious eye that boundless territory which seemed, as he went along, to stretch in commensurate proportion with the infiniteness of space ; in that frail bark, I say, where mused over his breviary that gray-headed monk, leaning on that long staff, sur- mounted with the silver cross of Christ, and computing the souls that he had saved and still hoped to save from idolatry, is there not as much poetry as in the famed vessel of Argos, sailing in quest of the golden fleece ? Were not their hearts as brave as those of the Greek adventurers ? were not their dangers as great ? and was not the object which they had in view much superior ?
The grandeur of their enterprise was, even at that time, fully appreciated. On their return to Quebec, and on their giving information that they had discovered that mighty river of which the Europeans had but a vague knowledge conveyed to them by the Indians, and which, from the accounts given of its width and length, was considered to be one of the greatest wonders of the world, universal admiration was expressed ; the bells of the Cathedral tolled merrily for a whole day, and the
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MARQUETTE AND JOLIET.
bishop, followed by his clergy and the whole popula- tion, sang a solemn Te Deum at the foot of the altar. Thus, on the first acquaintance of our European fathers with the great valley of the Mississippi, of which our present State of Louisiana is the heart, there was an instinct that told them it was there that the seeds of empire and greatness were sown. Were they not right in those divinations which pushed them onward to that favored spot through so many obstacles ? Greatness and empire were there, and therefore all the future elements of poetry.
Joliet and Marquette were dead, and nothing yet had been done to take possession of the newly discov- ered regions of the West ; but the impetus was given ; the march of civilization once begun could not retro- grade ; that mighty traveller, with religion for his tide, was pushed onward by the hand of God ; and the same spirit which had driven the crusaders to Asia, now turned the attention of Europe to the continent of America. The spell which had concealed the Mis- sissippi amidst hitherto impenetrable forests, and, as it were, an ocean of trees, was broken ; and the Indians, who claimed its banks as their hereditary domain, were now fated to witness the rapid succession of irresistible intruders.
Seven years, since the expedition of Marquette and Joliet, had rolled by, when Robert Cavalier de La Salle,
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LA SALLE.
in the month of January, 1682, feasted his eyes with the sight of the far-famed Mississippi. For his com- panions he had forty soldiers, three monks, and the Chevalier de Tonti. IIe had received the education of a Jesuit, and had been destined to the cloister, and to become a tutor of children in a seminary of that cele- brated order of which he was to become a member. But he had that will, and those passions, and that in- tellect, which cannot be forced into a contracted chan- nel of action. Born poor and a plebeian, he wished to be both noble and rich; obscure, he longed to be fa- mous. Why not ? Man shapes his own destinies when the fortitude of the soul corresponds with the vigorous organization of the mind. When the heart dares prompt the execution of what genius conceives, nothing remains but to choose the field of success. That choice was soon made by La Salle. America was then exercising magnetic attraction upon all bold spirits, and did not fail to have the same influence on his own. Obeying the impulse of his ambition, he crossed the Atlantic without hesitation, and landed in Canada in 1673.
When on the continent of America, that fond object of his dreams, La Salle felt that he was in a congenial atmosphere with his temperament. His mind seemed to expand, his conceptions to become more vivid, his natural eloquence to be gifted with more persuasion,
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LA SALLE.
and he was acknowledged at once by all who saw and heard him, to be a superior being. Brought into con- tact with Count Frontenac, who was the governor of Canada, he communicated to him his views and pro- jects for the aggrandizement of France, and suggested to him the gigantic plan of connecting the St. Law- rence with the Mississippi by an uninterrupted chain of forts. "From the information which I have been able to collect," said he to the Count, "I think I may affirm that the Mississippi draws its source somewhere in the vicinity of the Celestial Empire, and that France will be not only the mistress of all the territory between the St. Lawrence and the Mississippi, but will command the trade of China, flowing down the new and mighty channel which I shall open to the Gulf of Mexico." Count Frontenac was seduced by the magnificence of the prospect sketched by the enthusiast, but not daring to incur the expenses which such an undertaking would have required, referred him to the court of France.
To France, then, the adventurer returns with in- creased confidence ; for he had secured one thing, he had gained one point ; introduction to the noble and to the wealthy under the auspices of Count Frontenac. The spirit of Columbus was in him, and nothing abash- ed he would have forced his way to the foot of the throne and appealed to Majesty itself, with that assu- rance which genius imparts. But sufficient was it for
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LA SALLE.
him to gain the good graces of one of the royal blood of France, the Prince de Conti. Ile fired the prince's mind with his own contagious enthusiasm, and through him obtained from the king not only an immense con- cession of land, but was clothed with all the powers and privileges which he required for trading with the Indians, and for carrying on his meditated plans of dis- covery. Nay, more, he was ennobled by letters-patent, and thus one of the most ardent wishes of his heart was gratified. At last, he was no longer a plebeian, and with Macbeth he could exclaim, "Now, thane of Cawdor, the greatest is behind."
La Salle re-crossed the Atlantic with one worthy of being his fides Achates, and capable of understanding the workings of his mind and of his heart. That man was the Chevalier De Tonti, who, as an officer, had served with distinction in many a war, and who after- wards became famous among the Indians for the iron hand with which he had artificially supplied the one which he had lost.
On the 15th of September, 1678, proud and erect with the consciousness of success, La Salle stood again in the walls of Quebec; and stimulated by the cheers of the whole population, he immediately entered into the execution of his projects. Four years after, in 1682, he was at the mouth of the Mississippi, and in the name (as appears by a notarial act still extant) of
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LA SALLE.
the most puissant, most high, most invincible and victo- · rious Prince, Louis the Great, King of France, took possession of all the country which he had discovered. Hlow his heart must have swelled with exultation, when he stood at the mouth of the great river on which all his hopes had centred ; when he unfurled the white banner and erected the stately column to which he appended the royal escutcheon of France, amidst the shouts of his companions and the discharge of firearms ! With what devotion he must have joined in the solemn Te Deum sung on that memorable occasion !
To relate all the heart-thrilling adventures which occurred to La Salle during the four years which elapsed between the opening and the conclusion of that expedition, would be to go beyond the limits which are allotted to me. Suffice it to say, that at this day to Overcome the one-hundredth part of the difficulties which he had to encounter, would immortalize a man. Ah! if it be true that man is never greater than when engaged in a generous and unyielding struggle against dangers and adversity, then must it be admitted that during those four years of trials La Salle was pre-emi- nently great. Was he not worthy of admiration, when to the camp of the Iroquois, who at first had received him like friends, but had been converted into foes, he dared to go alone, to meet the charges brought against him by the subtle Mansolia, whose words were so per-
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LA SALLE.
suasive, and whose wisdom appeared so wonderful, that it was attributed to his holding intercourse with spirits of another world? How interesting the spectacle ! How vividly it pictures itself to my mind ! How it would grace the pages of a Fennimore Cooper, or of one having the magic pen of a Walter Scott! Me- thinks I see that areopagus of stern old Indian warriors listening with knit brows and compressed lips to the passionate accusation so skilfully urged against La Salle, and to the prediction that amity to the white race was the sure forerunner of destruction to all the Indian tribes. La Salle rose in his turn ; how eloquent, how pathetic he was when appealing to the better feel- ings of the Indians, and how deserving of the verdict rendered in his favor !
But the enmity, the ambushes of Indians were not to him the only sources of danger. Those he could have stood unmoved ! But what must have been his feelings when he became conscious of the poison which had been administered to him by some of his compan- ions, who thought that by destroying him they would spare to themselves the anticipated horrors of an expe- dition which they no longer had the courage to prose- cute ! What his despair was, is attested by the name of " Crere Cour," which he gave to a fort he built a short time after-the fort of the "Broken Heart !" But let us turn from his miseries to the more grateful spectacle of his ovation.
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LA SALLE.
In 1684 he returned to France, and found himself famous. IIe, the poor boy, the ignoble by birth, for whom paternal tenderness had dreamed nothing higher than the honor of being a teacher in a seminary of Je- suits, was presented to Louis XIV, amidst all the splendors of his court ! That Jupiter among the kings of the earth had a smile to bestow upon the humble subject who came to deposit at the foot of the throne the title-deeds of such broad domains. But that smile of royalty was destined to be the last smile of fortune. The favors which he then obtained bred nothing but reverses. Every thing, however, wore a bright aspect, and the star of his destiny appeared to be culminating in the heavens.
Thus a fleet, composed of four vessels, was put at his disposal, with all the materials necessary to establish a colony, and once more he left the shores of his native country, but this time invested with high command, and hoping perhaps to be the founder of an empire. That, indeed, was something worth having struggled for!' But alas ! he had struggled in vain ; the meshes of adverse fate were drawing close around him. Here is not the place to relate his misunderstandings, degen- erating into bitter quarrels with the proud Beaujeu, who had the subordinate command of the fleet, and who thought himself dishonored-he, the old captain of thirty years' standing, he, the nobleman-by being
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LA SALLE.
placed under the control of the unprofessional, of the plebeian, of him whom he called a pedagogue, fit only to rule over children. The result of that conflict was, that La Salle found himself abandoned on the shores of the Bay of St. Bernard, in 1685, and was reduced to shift for himself, with very limited resources. Here follows a period of three other years of great sufferings and of bold and incessant wanderings through the ter- ritory of the present State of Texas, until, after a long series of adventures, he was basely murdered by his French companions, and revenged by his body-servant, an Englishman by birth. He died somewhere about the spot where now stands the city of Washington, which owes its foundation to some of that race to which belonged his avenger, and the star-spangled ban- ner now proudly waves where the first pioneer of civi- lization consecrated with his blood the future land of liberty.
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