USA > Louisiana > Romance of the history of Louisiana. A series of lectures > Part 9
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HISTORY OF CROZAT.
she cannot be permitted to assume such a relation to me in the eye of the world. She is young, and it shall be our special care, by gentle means, to cure her by degrees of the wild passion which has possessed her soul, poor child. As this, our first conversation on this painful topic, shall be the last, I wish to express my sentiments to you with sufficient fullness, that I may be clearly understood. I wish you to know that my heart is not inflated with vulgar pride. I do not think that my blood is different from yours in its composi- tion, and is noble solely because I descend from a par- ticular breed, and that yours is vile, because the acci- dental circumstance of birth has placed you among the plebeians and what we call the base and the low- born. A peasant's son, if he be virtuous and great in soul and in mind, is more in my estimation than a king's, if an idiot or a wicked man. Thus far, I sup- pose we understand each other. , There is but one valuable nobility-that in which hereditary rank is founded on a long succession of glorious deeds. Such is the case with our house. It has been an historical one, trunk and branches, for much more than twelve centuries. Kings, emperors claim a kindred blood
with ours. Our name is indissolubly bound with the history of Europe and Asia, and the annals of the kingdom of France, in particular, may be said to be the records of our house. We have long ceased to
163
HISTORY OF CROZAT.
count the famous knights, the high constables, the marshals, generals, and other great men who have sprung from our fruitful race. This is what I call no- bility. To this present day, none of that race has ever contracted an alliance which was not of an illustrious and historical character. It is a principle, nay more, Crozat, it is a religion with us, and it is too late for us to turn apostates. It is to that creed, which we have cherished from time immemorial, that we are indebted for what we are. If once untrue to ourselves, there is an instinctive presentiment which tells us that we shall be blasted with the curse of heaven. Right or wrong, it is a principle, I say ; and there is such mysterious vitality and power in a principle, be it what it may, that if strictly and systematically adhered to for ages, it will work wonders. Therefore the traditions of our house must stand unbroken for ever, coeval with its existence, and remain imperishable pyramids of our faith in our own worth.
" I know that your daughter, whom I have raised in my lap, and whose transcendent qualities I appre- ciate as they deserve, would be the best of wives, and bless my son with earthly bliss. But, Crozat, those of my race are not born to be happy, but to be great. This is the condition of their existence. They do not marry for themselves, but for the glorification of their house. It is a sacred mission, and it must be fulfilled.
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HISTORY OF CROZAT.
Every animated thing in the creation must follow the bent of its nature. The wooing dove may be satisfied with the security of its lot in the verdant foliage of the forest, but the eagle must speed to the sun, even if he be consumed by its rays. Such being the fate of our race, a hard one in many respects, you see, my dear Crozat-and I say so with deep regret at the con- sequences which you anticipate, not however without a hope that they may be averted-you must clearly see that an alliance between our families is an impossi- bility. It would be fatal to your daughter, who would be scorched by ascending, Phaeton-like, into a sphere not calculated for her ; and it would also be fatal to my son, who would be disgraced for his being recreant to his ancestors and to his posterity. You deserve infi- nite credit for having risen to the summit where you now stand. You have been ennobled, and you are one of the greatest merchants of the age, but you are not yet a Medici! You have not forced your way, like that family, into the ranks of the potentates of the earth .. If, indeed-but why talk of such idle dreams ? Adieu, Crozat, be comforted-be of good cheer .- Things may not be as bad as you think for your daugh- ter. Her present attachment not being encouraged, she may in time form another one. Farewell, my friend, put your faith in God : he is the best healer of the wounds of the heart!"
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HISTORY OF CROZAT.
Crozat bowed low to the duchess, whose extended hand he kissed reverentially, and he withdrew from the chilling frigidity of her august presence. Crouch- ing under the weight of his misfortune, and under the consciousness of the invincible and immortal pride he had to deal with, he tottered to his solitary room, and sinking into a large gothic chair, buried his feverish head into his convulsive hands. Hot tears trickled through the contracted fingers, and he sobbed and groaned aloud, when he recalled, one by one, all the words of the duchess, as they slowly fell from her lips, burning his soul, searing his brains, filtering through his heart like distilled drops of liquid fire. Suddenly he started up with fierce energy; his face was lighted with dauntless resolution : he ground his teeth, clinched his fist, as if for a struggle, and shook it in defiance of some invisible adversary, while he moved on with expanded chest and with a frame dilating into the majesty of some imaginary command. "O Daughter," he exclaimed, " thou shalt be saved, and if necessary, I will accomplish impossibilities. Did not the proud duchess say that if I were a Medici! the ruler of provinces !- if I had an historical name? she did! and I know that she would keep her word. Well then! ye powers of heaven or hell, that helped the Medici, I bow to ye, and call ye to my aid, by the only incantation which I know, the strong
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HISTORY OF CROZAT-ORIGIN OF HIS CHARTER.
magic of an energetic mind. I invoke your assistance, be the sacrifice on my part whatever it may :- I will sign any bond ye please-I will set my all on the cast of a die-and gamble against fate. My daughter is the stake, and death to her and to me the forfeit!" This was a sinful ebullition of passion-the only excuse the paroxysm of a delirious mind. But still it was impious, and his protecting angel averted his face and flew upward. Alas! poor Crozat!
Hence the origin of that charter, by which Louisi- ana was ceded, as it were, to Crozat. He flattered himself with the hope that, if successful in his gigantic enterprise, a few years might ripen the privileges he had obtained into the concession of a principality, which he would form in the New World, a principality which, as a great feudatory vassal, he would hold in subjection to the crown of France. Then he would say to the proud duchess, " I am a Medici. My name outweighs many a haughty one in the scales of history : -my nobility rests not only on title, but on noble deeds. . These were your words-I hold you to them -redeem your pledge-one of your blood cannot be false-I claim your son-I give him a princess for his bride, and domains ten times broader than France, or any kingdom in Europe, for her dowry!"
So hoped the heart of the father-so schemed the head of the great merchant !. What man ever had
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THE HOPES OF CROZAT.
stronger motives to fire his genius? What ambition more sacred and more deserving of reward than his ? And yet none, save one, guessed at the motives which actuated him! He was taxed with being insatiable of wealth : people wondered at his gigantic avidity. Some there were, who shrugged their shoulders, and said that he was tempting fate, that it was time for him to be satisfied with what he had, without exposing his present wonderful acquisitions for the uncertainty of a greater fortune. Such are the blind judgments of the world! Crozat was blamed for being too ambi- tious, and envy railed at the inordinate avidity of the rash adventurer, when pity ought to have wept over the miseries of the broken-hearted father. On the dizzy eminence whither he had ascended, Crozat, when he looked round for sympathy, was met by the basilisk stare of a jealous, cold-blooded world, who stood by, calculating his chances of success, and grinning in anticipation at the wished-for failure of his defeated schemes. At such a sight, his heart sank within his breast, and elevating his hands, clasped in prayer, " Angels and ministers of grace," he said, "ye know that it is no ambitious cravings, but the racked feelings of a father, that urge me to the undertaking, upon which I call down your blessings. Be ye my friends and protectors in heaven, for Crozat has none on this earth."
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FOURTH LECTURE.
FOURTII LECTURE.
LAMOTHE CADILLAC, GOVERNOR OF LOUISIANA-SITUATION OF THE COLONY IN 1713-FEUD BETWEEN CADILLAC AND BIENVILLE-CHA- RACTER OF RICHEBOURG-FIRST EXPEDITION AGAINST THE NATCHEZ -DE L'EPINAY SUCCEEDS CADILLAC-THE CURATE DE LA VENTE- EXPEDITION OF ST. DENNIS TO MEXICO-HIS ADVENTURES-JAL- LOT, THE SURGEON-IN 1717 CROZAT GIVES UP HIS CHARTER-HIS DEATH.
WHEN Crozat obtained the royal charter, granting him so many commercial privileges in Louisiana. the military forces which were in the colony, and which constituted its only protection, did not exceed two companies of infantry of fifty men each. There were also seventy-five Canadians in the pay of the king, and they were used for every species of service. The balance of the population hardly came up to three hundred souls, and that population, small as it was and almost imperceptible, happened to be scattered over a boundless territory, where they could not communicate together without innumerable difficulties, frightful dan- gers, and without delays which, in these our days of rapid locomotion, can scarcely be sufficiently appreciat- ed. As to the blacks, who now have risen to such
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FORTS CONSTRUCTED.
importance in our social polity, they did not number more than twenty heads. It is probable, that of this scanty population, there were not fifty persons in the present limits of the State of Louisiana, and the con- trast, which now presents itself to the mind, affords a rich treat to the imagination, and particularly to our national pride, since we were the wonder-working power.
The possession of the province of Louisiana, if possession it can be called, France had secured by the construction of five forts. They were located at Mo- bile, at Biloxi, Ship Island, Dauphine Island, and on the bank of the Mississippi. 'Those fortifications were of a very humble nature, and their materials were chiefly composed of stakes, logs and clay. They suf- ficed, however, to intimidate the Indians. Such were the paltry results, after fifteen years, of the attempt made by a powerful government to colonize Louisiana; and now, one single man, a private individual, was daring enough to grapple and struggle with an under- taking, which, so far, had proved abortive in the hands of the great Louis the XIVth!
It must be remembered that De Muys, who had been appointed to supersede Bienville, had died in Havana in 1707, and that the youthful founder of the colony had, by that event, remained Governor ad interim of Loui- siana. But on the 17th of May, 1713, a great change
173
ARRIVAL OF LAMOTHE CADILLAC.
had come over the face of things, and the colonists stood on the tiptoe of expectation, when they were in- formed that a ship had arrived with Lamothe Cadillac, as Governor, Duclos as Commissary in the place of D'Artaguette, who had returned to France, Lebas as Comptroller, Dirigoin and La Loire des Ursins, as the agents of Crozat in the colony. Bienville was retained as Lieutenant Governor, and it was expected that, in that subordinate office, he would, from his knowledge of the state of affairs in the province, be of signal use to his successor, and be a willing instrument, which the supposed superior abilities of Lamothe Cadillac would turn to some goodly purpose. This certainly was a compliment paid to the patriotism of Bienville, but was it not disregarding too much the frailties of human nature ? Cheerfully to obey, where one formerly had nothing to do but to issue the word of command, is not an every day occurrence, and it is a trial to which politic heads ought not to expose the virtue of man.
The principal instructions given by Crozat to La- mothe Cadillac were, that he should diligently look after mines, and endeavor to find out an opening for the introduction of his goods and merchandise into the Spanish colonies of Mexico, either with the consent of the authorities, or without it, by smuggling. If he succeeded in these two enterprises, Crozat calculated that he would speedily obtain inexhaustible wealth, such
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HISTORY OF CADILLAC.
wealth as would enable him to throw a large popula- tion into Louisiana, as it were by magic, and to realize the fond dreams of his paternal heart. Impatient of delay, he had, in order to stimulate the exertions of Lamothe Cadillac, secured to him a considerable share in the profits which he hoped to realize. Lamothe Ca- dillac had fought with valor in Canada, and as a reward for his services, (so, at least, his commission declared,) had been appointed by the king, governor of Louisiana. Had Crozat known the deficiencies of that officer's in- tellect, he, no doubt, would have strongly remonstrated against such a choice.
Lamothe Cadillac was born on the banks of the Garonne, in the province of Gascony, in France. He was of an ancient family, which, for several centuries, had, by some fatality or other, been rapidly sliding down from the elevated position which it had occupied. When Lamothe Cadillac was ushered into life, the do- mains of his ancestors had, for many past generations, been reduced to a few acres of land. That small estate was dignified, however, with an old dilapidated edifice, which bore the name of custle, although, at a distance, to an unprejudiced eye, it presented some un- lucky resemblance to a barn. A solitary tower dressed, as it were, in a gown of moss and ivy, raised its gray head to a height which might have been called respect- able, and which appeared to offer special attraction to
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HISTORY OF CADILLAC.
crows, swallows and bats. Much to the mortification of the present owner, it had been called by the young wags of the neighborhood, " Cadillac's Rookery," and was currently known under that ungenteel appellation. Cadillac had received a provincial and domestic educa- tion, and had, to his twenty-fifth year, moved in a very contracted sphere. Nay, it may be said that he had almost lived in solitude, for he had lost both his parents, when hardly eighteen summers had passed over his head, and he had since kept company with none but the old tutor to whom he was indebted for such classi- cal attainments as he had acquired. His mind being as much curtailed in its proportions, as his patrimonial acres, his intellectual vision could not extend very far, and if .Cadillac was not literally a dunce, it was well known that Cadillac's wits would never run away with him.
Whether it was owing to this accidental organiza- tion of his brain, or not, certain it is that one thing afforded the most intense delight to Cadillac :- it was, that no blood so refined as his own ran in the veins of any other human being, and that his person was the Very incarnation of nobility. With such a conviction rooted in his heart, it is not astonishing that his tall, thin, and emaciated body should have stiffened itself into the most accurate observation of the perpendicular. In- deed, it was exceedingly pleasant, and exhilarating to
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176
HISTORY OF CADILLAC.
the lungs, to see Cadillac, on a Sunday morning, strut- ting along in full dress, on his way to church, through the meagre village attached to his hereditary domain. His bow to the mayor and to the curate was something rare, an exquisite burlesque of infinite majesty, thawing into infinite affability. His ponderous wig, the curls of which spread like a peacock's tail, seemed to be alive with conscious pride at the good luck it had of cover- ing a head of such importance to the human race. His eyes, in whose favor nature had been pleased to de- viate from the oval into the round shape, were pos- sessed with a stare of astonishment, as if they meant to convey the expression that the spirit within was in a trance of stupefaction at the astounding fact that the being it animated did not produce a more startling effect upon the world. The physiognomy which I am endeavoring to depict, was rendered more remarkable by a stout, cocked up, snub nose, which looked as if it had hurried back, in a fright, from the lips, to squat in rather too close proximity to the eyes, and which, with its dilated nostrils, seemed always on the point of sneezing at something thrusting itself between the wind and its nobility. His lips wore a mocking smile, as if sneering at the strange circumstance that a Cadillac should be reduced to be an obscure, penniless individ- ual. But, if Cadillac had his weak points, it must also be told that he was not without his strong ones. Thus,
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177
CADILLAC'S MARRIAGE.
he had a great deal of energy, bordering, it is true, upon obstinacy ;- he was a rigidly moral and pious man ;- and he was too proud not to be valiant.
With a mind so framed, was it to be wondered at that Cadillac deemed it a paramount duty to himself and to his Maker, not to allow his race to become ex- tinct ? Acting under a keen sense of that duty, and impressed with a belief that he might, by a rich alli- ance, restore his house to that ancient splendor which he considered as its birthright, but of which evil tongues said, that it was indeed so truly ancient, that it had long ceased to be recorded in the memory of man, he, one day, issued in state and in his gayest apparel, from his feudal tower, and for miles around, paid for- mal visits to all the wealthy patricians of his neighbor- hood. He was every where received with that high- bred courtesy, which those of that class extend to all, and particularly to such as belong to their own order, but he was secretly voted a quiz. After a few months of ineffectual efforts, Cadillac returned to his pigeon hole, in the most disconsolate mood ; and, after a year's repining, he was forced to content himself with the hand of a poor spinster, who dwelt in a neighboring town, where, like Cadillac, she lingered in all the pride of unsullied descent and hereditary poverty. Shortly after her marriage, the lady, who was a distant relation to the celebrated Duke of Lauzun, recommend-
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178
CADILLAC APPOINTED CAPTAIN.
ed herself and her husband to the patronage of that nobleman, who was then one of the brightest of that galaxy of stars that adorned the court of Louis the XIVth. Her letter was written in a quaint, fantastic style, and Lauzun, who received it on his way to the king's morning levee, showed it to the monarch, and was happy enough, by the drollery of his comments, to force a smile from those august lips. Availing himself of that smile, Lauzun, who was in one of his good fits, for the kindness of his nature was rather problematical, and the result of accident rather than of disposition, obtained for his poor connexion the appointment of captain to one of the companies of infantry, which had been ordered to Canada.
The reception of this favor with a congratulatory letter from Lauzun, added stilts to Cadillac's pompos- ity, and his few dependents and vassals became really astounded at the sublimity of his attitudes. On that occasion, the increased grandeur of his habitual car- riage was but the translation of the magnificence of his cogitations. He had heard of the exploits of Cor- tez and Pizarro, and he came to the logical conclusion in his own mind that Canada would be as glorious a field as Peru or Mexico, and that he would at least rival the achievements of the Spanish heroes. Fame and wealth were at last within his grasp, and the long eclipsed star of the Cadillacs would again blaze out with renewed lustre !
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CADILLAC IN CANADA.
The dreams of Cadillac were soon put to flight by sad realities, when he landed in Canada, where hard- ships of every kind assailed him. The snows and blasts of Siberian winters, the heat of summers equal to those of Africa, endless marches and counter- marches after a wary and perfidious enemy, visible only when he could attack with tenfold chances in his favor, the sufferings of hunger and thirst which were among the ordinary privations of his every day life, the wants of civilization so keenly felt amidst all the destitution of savage existence, days of bodily and mental labor, and nights of anxious vigil, hair-breadth escapes on water and on land, the ever-recurring dan- ger of being tomahawked and scalped, the war-whoops and incessant attacks of the Indians, the honorable distinctions of wounds and of a broken constitution in the service of his country-these were the concomi- tants and the results of Cadillac's career in Canada during twenty years ! All this Cadillac had supported with remarkable fortitude, although not without impa- tience, wondering all the time that something or other did not happen to make him what he thought nature and his birth intended and entitled him to be-a great man !
But twenty years had elapsed, and at their expira- tion, he found himself no better than a lieutenant- colonel. To increase his vexation, he had no other
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180
CADILLAC IN CANADA.
issue by his marriage than a daughter, now eighteen years of age, and thus he remained without the pros- pect of having an heir to continue his line, and to bear his noble name. The disappointment of his hopes in this respect, was the keenest of all his afflictions ; he was approaching the trying climacteric of fifty-four, and he was as poor as when he departed from the banks of the Garonne. A lieutenant-colonel he was, and would remain, in all probability. His superior officer seemed to be marvellously tenacious of his post and of life, and would neither die nor advance one step beyond his grade : bullets spared him, and minis- ters never thought of his promotion. Thus it was clear, from all appearances, that Cadillac was not in a position soon to become a marshal of France, and that Canada was not the land where he could acquire that wealth he was so ambitious of, to enshrine his old gray- headed tower, as a curious relic of the feudal power of his ancestry, within the splendid architecture of a new palace, and to revive the glories of his race. Hence he had imbibed the most intense contempt for the barren country where so much of his life had been spent in vain, and he would sneer at the appellation of New France given to Canada; he thought it was a disparagement to the beautiful and noble kingdom of which he boasted to be a native, and he frequently amused his brother officers with his indignation on this
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CADILLAC IN CANADA.
subject. " This world may revolve on its axis to all eternity," he would say, " and Canada will no more be made to resemble France, than a dwarf will ever be the personification of a giant!" This was a favorite phrase with which he loved to close his complaints against the object of his abomination, whenever he was betrayed into an expression of his feelings ; for of late, he had become silent and moody, and only talked, when he could not do otherwise. It was evident that his mind was wrapped up within itself, and absorbed in the solution of some problem, or the contemplation of a subject which taxed all its powers of thought. What could it be ? But at last it was discovered that the object of Cadillac's abstracted cogitations, was the constant blasting of all his hopes, in spite of his mighty efforts to realize them. So strange did it ap- pear to him, that he could come to no other conclu- sion than that, if he had not risen higher on the stage of life, it was necessarily because he was spell bound.
Cadillac, since his arrival in Canada, had kept up, with the great connexion he had acquired by his mar- riage, the Duke of Lauzun, a regular correspondence, in which, to the infinite glee of that nobleman, he used to enumerate his manifold mishaps. Now, acting un- der the impression that he was decidedly the victim of fate or witchcraft, he wrote to Lauzun a long letter,
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CADILLAC GOVERNOR OF LOUISIANA.
, in which he surpassed himself in his bombastic style, and out-heroding Herod, poured out on paper, in inco- herent declamations, the vexed spirit which ailed him, and cut such antics in black and white, that Lauzun, on the perusal of this epistolary elegy, laughed him- self into tears, and almost screamed with delight. It
happened at that time, that the ministry was in search of a governor for Louisiana, and the mischievous Lau- zun, who thought that the more he exalted Cadillac, the greater source of merriment he prepared for him- self, had sufficient power to have him appointed to that office. This profligate nobleman never troubled his wits about what would become of Louisiana under such an administration. Provided he found out a fit theatre, and had it properly illuminated, to enjoy, at his ease, the buffooneries of a favorite actor, what cared he for the rest ?
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