USA > Louisiana > Romance of the history of Louisiana. A series of lectures > Part 6
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When the French were at Natchez, they were struck with horror at an occurrence, too clearly de- monstrating the fierceness of disposition of that tribe, which was destined, in after years, to become so cele- brated in the history of Louisiana. One of their tem- ples having been set on fire by lightning, a hideous
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NATCHEZ.
spectacle presented itself to the Europeans. The tu- multuous rush of the Indians-the infernal howlings and lamentations of the men, women, and children- the unearthly vociferations of the priests, their fantas- tic dances and ceremonies around the burning edifice -- the demoniac fury with which mothers rushed to the fatal spot, and, with the piercing cries and gesticu- lations of maniacs, flung their new-born babes into the flames to pacify their irritated deity-the increas- ing anger of the heavens blackening with the impend- ing storm, the lurid flashes of the lightnings, darting as it were in mutual enmity from the clashing clouds -the low, distant growling of the coming tempest- the long column of smoke and fire shooting upwards from the funeral pyre, and looking like one of the gigantic torches of Pandemonium-the war of the ele- ments combined with the worst effects of the frenzied superstition of man-the suddenness and strangeness of the awful scene-all these circumstances produced such an impression upon the French, as to deprive them, for the moment, of the powers of volition and action. Rooted to the ground, they stood aghast with astonishment and indignation at the appalling scene. Was it a dream ?- a wild delirium of the mind ? But no-the monstrous reality of the vision was but too apparent ; and they threw themselves among the In- dians, supplicating them to cease their horrible sacri-
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DISTRESS OF THE COLONISTS.
fice to their gods, and joining threats to their supplica- tions. Owing to that intervention, and perhaps be- cause a sufficient number of victims had been offered, the priests gave the signal of retreat, and the Indians slowly withdrew from the accursed spot. Such was the aspect under which the Natchez showed them- selves, for the first time, to their visitors : it was an ominous presage for the future.
After these explorations, Iberville departed again for France, to solicit additional assistance from the govern- ment, and left Bienville in command of the new fort on the Mississippi. It was very hard for the two brothers, Sauvolle and Bienville, to be thus separated, when they stood so much in need of each other's countenance, to breast the difficulties that sprung up around them with a luxuriance which they seemed to borrow from the vegetation of the country. The distance between the Mississippi and Biloxi was not so easily overcome in these days as in ours, and the means which the two brothers had of communing together were very scanty and uncertain. Sauvolle and his companions had suf- fered much from the severity of the winter, which had been so great that in one of his despatches he informed his government that "water, when poured into tumblers to rinse them, froze instantaneously, and before it could be used."
At last, the spring made its appearance, or rather
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DISTRESS OF THE COLONISTS.
the season which bears that denomination, but which did not introduce itself with the genial and mild atmos- phere that is its characteristic in other climes. The month of April was so hot that the colonists could work only two hours in the morning and two in the evening. When there was no breeze, the reflection of the sun from the sea and from the sandy beach was intolerable ; and if they sought relief under the pine trees of the forest, instead of meeting cool shades, it seemed to them that there came from the very lungs of the trees a hot breath, which sent them back hastily to the burning shore, in quest of air. Many of the colonists, accus- tomed to the climate of Canada and France, languished, pined, fell sick, and died. Some, as they lay panting under the few oaks that grew near the fort, dreamed of the verdant valleys, the refreshing streams, the pictu- resque hills, and the snow-capped mountains of their native land. The fond scenes upon which their ima- gination dwelt with rapture, would occasionally as- sume, to their enfeebled vision, the distinctness of real existence, and feverish recollection would produce on the horizon of the mind, such an apparition as tantalizes the dying traveller in the parched deserts of Arabia. When despair had paved the way, it was easy for dis- ease to follow, and to crush those that were already prostrate in mind and in body. To increase the misery of those poor wretches, famine herself raised her spec-
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SAUVOLLE, FIRST GOVERNOR.
tral form among them, and grasped pestilence by the hand to assist her in the work of desolation. Thus, that fiendish sisterhood reigned supreme, where, in our days, health, abundance, and wealth, secured by the improvements of civilization, bless the land with per- petual smiles.
Sauvolle, from the feebleness of his constitution, was more exposed than any of his companions to be affected by the perils of the situation ; and yet it was he upon whom devolved the duty of watching over the safety of others. But he was sadly incapacitated from the dis- charge of that duty by physical and moral causes. When an infant, he had inherited a large fortune from an aunt, whose godson he was. With such means at his future command, the boy, who gave early evidence of a superior intellect, became the darling hope of his family, and was sent to France to be qualified for the splendid career which parental fondness anticipated for him. The seeds of education were not, in that instance, thrown on a rebellious soil ; and when Sauvolle left the seat of learning where he had been trained, he carried away with him the admiration of his professors and of his schoolmates. In the high circles of society where his birth and fortune entitled him to appear, he produced no less sensation ; and well he might, for he appeared, to an eminent degree, capable of adorning any station which he might wish to occupy. Nature had been
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SAUVOLLE'S BRILLIANT PROSPECTS.
pleased to produce another Crichton, and Sauvolle soon became known as the American prodigy. Racine called him a poet ; Bossuet had declared that there were in him all the materials of a great orator ; and the haughty Villars, after a conversation of several hours with him, was heard to say, " Here is a Marshal of France in embryo."
The frivolous admired his wonderful expertness in fencing, in horsemanship, and his other acquirements of a similar nature ; artists might have been proud of his talent for painting and for music ; and those friends that were admitted into his intimacy, were struck with his modesty and with the high-toned morality which pervaded the life of one so young. The softer sex, yielding to the fascination of his manly graces, was held captive by them, and hailed his first steps on the world's stage with all the passionate enthusiasm of the female heart. But he loved and was loved by the fair- est daughter of one of the noblest houses of France, and his nuptials were soon to be celebrated with fitting pomp. Was not this the acme of human felicity ? If so, whence that paleness which sat on his brow, and spoke of inward pain, moral or physical ? Whence those sudden starts ? Why was he observed occasion- ally to grasp his heart with a convulsive hand ? What appalling disclosure could make him desert her to whom · his faith was plighted, and could so abruptly hurry him
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SAUVOLLE'S MISFORTUNES.
away from France and from that seat where so much happiness was treasured up for him ? That it was no voluntary act on his part, and that he was merely com- plying with the stern decree of fate, could be plainly inferred from that look of despair which, from the ship that bore him away, he cast at the shores of France when receding from his sight. So must Adam have looked, when he saw the flaming sword of the angel of punishment interposed between him and Paradise.
Sauvolle arrived in Canada at the very moment when Iberville and Bienville were preparing their ex- pedition to Lousiana, and he eagerly begged to join them, saying that he knew his days were numbered, that he had come back to die in America, and that since his higher aspirations were all blasted, he could yet find some sort of melancholy pleasure in closing his career in that new colony, of which his brothers were to be the founders, and to which they were to attach their names for ever.
Poor Sauvolle ! the star of his destiny which rose up at the court of Louis the XIVth with such gorgeousness, was now setting in gloom and desolation on the bleak shore of Biloxi. How acute must his mental agony have been, when, by day and by night, the comparison of what he might have been with what he was, must have incessantly forced itself upon his mind! Why had Nature qualified him to be the best of husbands
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SAUVOLLE'S MISFORTUNES.
and fathers, when forbidding him, at the same time, to assume the sacred character which he coveted, and to form those ties, without which, existence could only be a curse to one so exquisitely framed to nourish the choicest affections of our race ? Why give him all the elements of greatness, and preclude their development ? Why inspire him with the consciousness of worth, and deny him time and life for its manifestation ? Why had such a mind and such a soul been lodged in a de- fective body, soon to be dissolved ? Why a blade of such workmanship in such an unworthy scabbard ? Why create a being with feelings as intense as ever animated one of his species, merely to bruise them in the bud ? Why shower upon him gifts of such value, when they were to be instantly resumed ? Why light up the luminary which was to be extinguished before its rays could be diffused ? Was it not a solemn mock- ery? What object could it answer, except to inflict extreme misery ? Surely, it could only be a concep- tion or device of the arch-enemy of mankind ! But how could he be allowed thus to trifle with God's crea- tures ? Were they his puppets and playthings ? or, was it one of God's inscrutable designs ? Was it an enigma only to be solved hereafter ?- These were the reflec- tions which were coursing each other in Sauvolle's mind, as he, with folded arms, one day stood on the parapet of the fort at Biloxi, looking sorrowfully at the
SAUVOLLE'S DEATH. 113
scene of desolation around him, at his diseased and famished companions. Overwhelmed with grief, he withdrew his gaze from the harrowing sight, heaved a deep sigh and uplifted his eyes towards heaven, with a look which plainly asked, if his placid resignation and acquiescent fortitude had not entitled him at last to re- pose. That look of anguish was answered : a slight convulsion flitted over his face, his hand grasped the left side of his breast, his body tottered, and Sauvolle was dead before he reached the ground.
Such was the fate of the first governor of Louisiana. A hard fate indeed is that of defective organization ! An anticipated damnation it is, for the unbeliever, when spiritual perfection is palsied and rendered inert by being clogged with physical imperfection, or wedded to diseased matter ! When genius was flashing in the head, when the spirit of God lived in the soul, why did creation defeat its own apparent purposes, in this case, by planting in the heart the seeds of aneurism? It is a question which staggers philosophy, confounds human reason, and is solved only by the revelations of Chris- tianity.
What a pity that Sauvolle had not the faith of a Davion, or of a St. Louis, whose deaths I have re- corded in the preceding pages ! He would have known that the heavier the cross we bear with Chris- tian resignation in this world, the greater the reward
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REFLECTIONS.
is in the better one which awaits us : and that our trials in this, our initiatory state of terrestrial existence, are merely intended by the infinite goodness of the Crea- tor, as golden opportunities for us to show our fidelity, and to deserve a higher or lesser degree of happiness, when we shall enter into the celestial kingdom of spiritual and eternal life, secured to us at the price of sufferings alone : and what sufferings ! Those of the Godhead himself! He would not then have repined at pursuing the thorny path, trod before, for his sake, by the divine Victim, and with Job, he would have said : " Who is he that hideth counsel without know- ledge ? Therefore have I uttered that I understood not ; things too wonderful for me, which I knew not. The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away ; blessed be the name of the Lord!"
I lately stood where the first establishment of the French was made, and I saw no vestiges of their pas- sage, save in the middle of the space formerly occu- pied by the fort, where I discovered a laying of bricks on a level with the ground, and covering the common area of a tonib. Is it the repository of Sauvolle's re- mains ? I had with me no pickaxe to solve the ques- tion, and indeed, it was more agreeable to the mood in which I was then, to indulge in speculations, than to ascertain the truth. Since the fort had been aban- doned, it was evident that there never had been any
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REFLECTIONS.
attempt to turn the ground to some useful purpose, although, being cleared of trees, it must have been more eligible for a settlement than the adjoining ground which remained covered with wood. Yet, on the right and left, beyond the two ravines already men- tioned, habitations are to be seen ; but a sort of tradi- tionary awe seems to have repelled intrusion from the spot marked by such melancholy recollections. On the right, as you approach the place, a beautiful villa, occupied by an Anglo-American family, is replete with all the comforts and resources of modern civilization ; while on the left, there may be seen a rude hut, where still reside descendants from the first settlers, living in primitive ignorance and irreclaimable poverty, which lose, however, their offensive features, by being mixed up with so much of patriarchal virtues, of pristine in- nocence, and of arcadian felicity. Those two fami- lies, separated only by the site of the old fort, but be- tween whose social position there existed such an im- mense distance, struck me as being fit representatives of the past and of the present. One was the type of the French colony, and the other, the emblem of its modern transformation.
I gazed with indescribable feelings on the spot where Sauvolle and his companions had suffered so much. Humble and abandoned as it is, it was clothed in my eye with a sacred character, when I remen-
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REFLECTIONS.
bered that it was the cradle of so many sovereign states, which are but disjecta membra of the old colony of Louisiana. What a contrast between the French colony of 1700, and its imperial substitute of 1848! Is there in the mythological records of antiquity, or in the fairy tales of the Arabian Nights, any thing that will not sink into insignificance, when compared with the romance of such a history ?
THIRD LECTURE.
THIRD LECTURE.
SITUATION OF THE COLONY FROM 1701 TO 1712-THE PETTICOAT IN- SURRECTION-HISTORY AND DEATH OF IBERVILLE-BIENVILLE, THE SECOND GOVERNOR OF LOUISIANA-HISTORY OF ANTHONY CROZAT, THE GREAT BANKER-CONCESSION OF LOUISIANA TO HIM.
SAUVOLLE had died on the 22d of July, 1701, and Louisiana had remained under the sole charge of Bien- ville, who, though very young, was fully equal to meet that emergency, by the maturity of his mind and by his other qualifications. He had hardly consigned his brother to the tomb, when Iberville returned with two ships of the line and a brig, laden with troops and pro- visions. The first object that greeted his sight, on his landing, was Bienville, whose person was in deep mourning, and whose face wore such an expression as plainly told that a blow, fatal to both, had been struck in the absence of the head of the family. In their mute embraces, the two brothers felt that they understood each other better than if their grief had vented itself in words, and Iberville's first impulse was to seek Sau- volle's tomb. There he knelt for hours, bathed in
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IBERVILLE S GRIEF.
tears, and absorbed in fervent prayer for him whom he was to see no more in the garb of mortality. This re- cent blow reminded him of a father's death, whom he had seen carried back, bleeding, from the battle-field ; and then his four brothers, who had met the same stern and honorable fate, rose to his sight with their ghastly wounds ; and he bethought himself of the sweet and melancholy face of his mother, who had sunk gradually into the grave, drooping like a gentle flower under the rough visitations of the wind of adversity. On these heavy recollections of the past, his heart swelled with tears, and he implored heaven to spare his devoted family, or, if any one of its members was again destined to an early death, to take him, Iberville, as a free offer- ing, in preference to the objects of his love. But there are men, upon whom grief operates as fire upon steel : it purifies the metal, and gives more elasticity to its spring ; it works upon the soul with that same mysteri- ous process by which nature transforms the dark carbun- cle into the shining diamond. Those men know how to turn from the desolation of their heart, and survey the world with a clearer, serener eye, to choose the sphere where they can best accomplish their mission on this earth-that mission-the fulfilment of duties whence good is to result to mankind, or to their country. One of these highly gifted beings Iberville was, and he soon withdrew his attention from the grave, to give it en-
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DAUPHINE ISLAND.
tirely to the consolidation of the great national enter- prise he had undertaken-the establishment of a colony in Louisiana.
According to Iberville's orders, and in conformity with the king's instructions, Bienville left Boisbriant, his cousin, with twenty men, at the old fort of Biloxi, and transported the principal seat of the colony to the western side of the river Mobile, not far from the spot where now stands the city of Mobile. Near the mouth of that river, there is an island, which the French had called Massacre Island, from the great quantity of hu- man bones which they found bleaching on its shores. It was evident that there some awful tragedy had been acted ; but tradition, when interrogated, laid her choppy finger upon her skinny lips, and answered not. This uncertainty, giving a free scope to the imagination, shrouded the place with a higher degree of horror, and with a deeper hue of fantastical gloom. It looked like the favorite ball-room of the witches of hell. The wind sighed so mournfully through the shrivelled up pines, whose vampire heads seemed incessantly to bow to some invisible and grisly visitors ; the footsteps of the stranger emitted such an awful and supernatural sound, when trampling on the skulls which strewed his path, that it was impossible for the coldest imagination not to labor under some crude and ill-defined appre- hensions. Verily, the weird sisters could not have
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DAUPHINE ISLAND.
chosen a fitter abode. Nevertheless, the French, sup- ported by their mercurial temperament, were not de- terred from forming an establishment on that sepulchral island, which, they thought, afforded some facilities for their transatlantic communications. They changed its name, however, and called it Dauphine Island. As, to many, this name may be without signification, it may not be improper to state, that the wife of the eldest born of the King of France, and consequently, of the pre- sumptive heir to the crown, was, at that time, called the Dauphine, and her husband the Dauphin. This was in compliment to the province of Dauphiné, which was annexed to the kingdom of France, on the abdication of a Count of Dauphiné, who ceded that principality to the French monarch in 1319. Hence the origin of the appellation given to the island. It was a high- sounding and courtly name for such a bleak repository of the dead !
Iberville did not tarry long in Louisiana. His home was the broad ocean, where he had been nursed, as it were ; and he might have exclaimed with truth, in the words of Byron :-
- " I have loved thee, Ocean ! and my joy Of youthful sports was on thy breast to be Borne, like bubbles, onward : from a boy I wantoned with thy breakers-they to me Were a delight ; and if the freshening sea
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IBERVILLE LEAVES THE COLONY.
Made them a terror-'twas a pleasing fear, For I was as it were a child of thee, And trusted to thy billows far and near, And laid my hand upon thy mane."
But, before his departure, he gave some wholesome advice to his government :- " It is necessary," said he, in one of his despatches, " to send here honest tillers of the earth, and not rogues and paupers, who come to Louisiana solely with the intention of making a fortune, by all sorts of means, in order to speed back to Europe. Such men cannot be elements of prosperity to a colony." He left those, of whom he was the chief protector, abun- dantly supplied with every thing, and seeing that their affectionate hearts were troubled with manifold mis- givings as to their fate, which appeared to them to be closely linked with his own, he promised soon to return, and to bring additional strength to what he justly look- ed upon as his creation. But it had been decreed otherwise.
In 1703, war had broken out between Great Britain, France and Spain ; and Iberville, a distinguished officer of the French navy, was engaged in expeditions that kept him away from the colony. It did not cease, how- ever, to occupy his thoughts, and had become clothed, in his eye, with a sort of family interest. Louisiana was thus left, for some time, to her scanty resources ; but, weak as she was, she gave early proofs of that gen-
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THE COLONY RELIEVED BY PENSACOLA.
erous spirit which has ever since animated her ; and, on the towns of Pensacola and San Augustine, then in possession of the Spaniards, being threatened with an invasion by the English of South Carolina, she sent to her neighbors what help she could, in men, ammunition, and supplies of all sorts. It was the more meritorious, as it was the obolum of the poor ! .
The year 1703 slowly rolled by, and gave way to 1704. Still, nothing was heard from the parent coun- try. There seemed to be an impassable barrier between the old and the new continent. The milk which flowed from the motherly breast of France could no longer reach the parched lips of her new-born infant ; and famine began to pinch the colonists, who scattered themselves all along the coast, to live by fishing. They were reduced to the veriest extremity of misery, and despair had settled in every bosom, in spite of the en- couragements of Bienville, who displayed the most manly fortitude amidst all the trials to which he was subjected, when suddenly a vessel made its appearance. The colonists rushed to the shore with wild anxiety, but their exultation was greatly diminished when, on the nearer approach of the moving speck, they recog- nized the Spanish, instead of the French flag. It was relief, however, coming to them, and proffered by a friendly hand. It was a return made by the governor of Pensacola, for the kindness he had experienced the
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ARRIVAL OF CHATEAUGUE.
year previous. Thus, the debt of gratitude was paid : it was a practical lesson. Where the seeds of charity are cast, there springs the harvest in time of need.
Good things, like evils, do not come single, and this succor was but the herald of another one, still more effectual, in the shape of a ship from France. Iberville had not been able to redeem his pledge to the poor colonists, but he had sent his brother Chateaugué in his place, at the imminent risk of being captured by the English, who occupied, at that time, most of the ave- nues of the Gulf of Mexico. He was not the man to spare either himself, or his family, in cases of emergency, and his heroic soul was inured to such sacrifices. Grate- ful the colonists were for this act of devotedness, and they resumed the occupation of those tenements which they had abandoned in search of food. The aspect of things was suddenly changed ; abundance and hope re- appeared in the land, whose population was increased by the arrival of seventeen persons, who came, under the guidance of Chateaugue, with the intention of making a permanent settlement, and who, in evidence of their determination, had provided themselves with all the implements of husbandry. We, who daily see hundreds flocking to our shores, and who look at the occurrence with as much unconcern as at the passing cloud, can hardly conceive the excitement produced by the arrival of those seventeen emigrants among men
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ARRIVAL OF WIVES
who, for nearly two years, had been cut off from com- munication with the rest of the civilized world. A denizen of the moon, dropping on this planet, would not be stared at and interrogated with more eager curiosity.
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