USA > Louisiana > Sketches, historical and descriptive, of Louisiana > Part 35
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The preceding remarks are mostly predicated on the idea of profit. Other considerations of much greater weight urge us to fix our trading establishments, protect- ed by a competent number of troops, more in the vicinity of the Indian villages, and at a distance from our popula- tion. The custom of inviting the Indians to some of our large villages to receive their annuities, and to trade at our factories, is extremely pernicious to them, and detrimen- tal to the whites. While they remain among us, they are exposed to temptations, which they cannot resist. Their love of ardent spirits is well known ; and they will gratify this propensity at the expense of their present and future good. Unfortunately, many of our citizens contribute to their destruction, by an open evasion or violation of the . laws. The scenes of intoxication witnessed in most of our frontier towns, furnish evidence of this melancholy truth. The Indians readily part with their goods, and e- ven with their ammunition, for ardent spirits. . Their drunkenness terminates only with the means of it. They generally return to their homes without clothing for them-
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selves or families, and without the necessary supplies of " powder and lead. The privations they suffer in conse- quence of receiving their annuities and other goods in our settlements, are of a serious nature, and demand our in- terposition. Our citizens are often disturbed by their drunken revels, particularly those at Nachitoches, where ' the troops are frequently summoned to repress the riots and disorders occasioned by them. The only apparent re- medy to these evils, is to remove the causes of them. Were our factories placed more immediately in the vici- nity of the Indians, or at least in positions less accessible to the whites, our trade would be more profitable, the In- dians more copiously supplied, their industry stimulated, and the avails of it more readily appropriated to the re- lief of themselves and families. This too would tend to facilitate the introduction of agriculture and manufactures among them, to excite their indifference to the English and Spaniards, and to make them friendly to the United States. No doubt the establishments recently made near the river Des moins, and on the Missouri, are parts of a comprehensive system, intended to afford security to our frontiers, and to improve the condition of the Indians. These objects will be attained with the less difficulty the further we extend our intercourse up Red river, the Mis- souri, and the Mississippi.
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The effects of such extended arrangements would be sensibly felt. A competition at this time exists between our own and the Canadian traders on the Mississippi. The latter, in conjunction with those of the Spaniards, also contest the Indian trade with us on some parts of the Missouri ; and the trade on Red river is almost exclusive- ly possessed by our Mexican neighbors. These com- petitions are unfavorable to us; and the consequences of our neglect and inattention will become more serious the longer we delay to provide against them. The inter- course now carried on by the English and Spaniards with
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the Indians in our territory if suffered to continue, will be- come more firmly fixed, frequent, and extensive. Their influence, even at this time, is so considerable as to ren- der the Indians unfriendly towards us : Our traders are sometimes murdered ; often driven from their pursuits, and robbed of their property. If this influence be not counteracted, one effect will be, that numerous depreda- tions will be committed on our frontiers, at least on our mercantile adventurers, which are the usual precursors of Indian hostility. A second effect will be, that we shall be wholly excluded from the upper parts of Red river, the Missouri, and the head waters of the Mississippi ; for . if the English and Spaniards once obtain the power, they will unquestionably prevail on the Indians to forbid us the -navigation of those rivers; they have already made the attempt, and the Indians have been threatened with pun- ishment for their seeming hesitation. A third, and a much more important effect will be, that the English and. Spaniards will raise pretensions to the country about the heads of our great rivers, and these will be powerfully supported by the auxiliary aids of the Indians. Should such a crisis ever occur, and such a crisis is extremely probable, it will be difficult, and perhaps impossible, for us to adjust, and to maintain our territorial rights, or to guard our extensive frontiers against the hostile and bloody incursions of our predatory neighbors.
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There is no position more true than this, that the In- dians will readily yield their exclusive friendship to those whose power they dread, and who supply them the most liberally with goods, and on the best terms. Another po- sition equally true is, that those who possess their friend- ship have it in their power to stimulate them to acts of aggression, or to give their dispositions and exertions any direction they please. . This power, at present, is in some measure possessed by the English and Spaniards, and they endeavor to exercise it in a manner the best suited
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to their interests. "The establishment of three or four ad- ditional garrisons and factories at the places we have men- tioned, would probably transfer the same power into the hands of the United States, and effectually extinguish the . rivalship and competition already noticed. : It would also enable us the more easily to maintain our territorial rights, not simply by the advantages of actual possession, but by the assistance of the Indians. Besides, such a power in our hands would serve to weaken the expectations of the English and Spaniards, and probably induce them to a- bandon their pretensions without a struggle.
Other favorable consequences would result from such establishments. . We should be able to introduce agricul- ture, and some of the household arts, among those Indi- ans the most destitute of game ; to make them acquainted with new and more convenient modes of life, calculated to mitigate the evils of their condition, to soften their manners, and the ferocity of their minds. Establishments on any of the great rivers would probably draw after them a considerable population, which would ultimately contri- bute to their support, and in other respects prove benefi- cial to the public. The Spaniards already carry consider- able quantities of specie to Nachitoches, as also to the mouth of the river Platte on the Missouri, where they oc- casionally meet our traders, and exchange it with them for merchandize. Perhaps it would be good policy to encou- rage this traffic, particularly on the Missouri, and an es- tablishment in that quarter would be likely to favor it. Upper Louisiana is nearly destitute of a circulating me- dium, and a moderate influx of specie from Santa Fè would be of advantage to it.
If, however, public factories among the more distant Indians be considered as drawing after them considerable expense,without the prospect of an adequate remunera- tion, perhaps nearly the same ends may be answered by instituting or tolerating trading companies. It would be 3 N
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impolitic for both to exist at the same time, in the same quarter; because these would produce an unprofitable competition, and the latter would ultimately prevail. They would disperse their merchandize over a wide ex- tent of country, deposit it at all the Indian hunting camps, and by these means secure nearly all their trade. It would be better policy to encourage our traders to contend with those of Canada and the Spanish provin- ces, provided the latter be permitted to enter our terri- ' tory; and were this trade carried on in the vicinity of our garrisons, no doubt the former would triumph over their rivals. These garrisons would repress the pyratic depredations of the Indians, and sufficiently bridle the unfriendly designs of the English and Spanish traders.
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Grateful it is to the feelings of the philanthropist, and philosopher, to contemplate the improvements already made among the aborigines of our country, and to be- hold in prospect their final emancipation from the chains of ignorance and barbarity. The time, perhaps, is not remote, when this prospect will be realized ; when moral philosophy and the arts will find a habitation in our western regions ; when populous towns and cities will adorn the margins of our interior rivers and lakes ; and when man shall no longer be the enemy of man.
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.. The continued and augmented exertions of govern- ment will be necessary to assure these valuable effects. 'The vigorous and enlightened policy now in operation is calculated, if steadily pursued, to draw the attention of the Indians to the products of manual labor ; and in- deed this is the pivot on which rests the fate of our measures. To till the ground is odious to most of them. Labor of this kind imposes more restraint than is consistent with the turn of their minds. The French in early time took some of their children, and taught them the habits of industry ; but no soon-
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er were they able to discover a difference between their condition and that of their kindred, than they fled to the woods. The Tartars possess the same ideas of life. They conceive it a punishment to be confined to any particular village or district, or to be obliged to labor in the field for their support. The quantum of game among the Indians, who live in the vicinity of the whites, evidently decreases ; but this is not suffici- ent of itself to alter their modes of life. Ancient pre- judices and habits will still continue to govern them, un- less they be convinced, by proofs adapted to their senses, that a change would be productive of advantages.
Many intelligent men are of opinion, that the gradual dimunition of game will precipitate our neighboring Indians to the wild regions of Louisiana. Two reasons may be urged against this opinion. In the first place, most of the hunting grounds on the west side of the Mississippi are claimed and occupied ; so that were our more eastern Indians to enter on them, it would be con- sidered as an act of aggression, and a war would proba- bly ensue. They have sufficient foresight to calculate on such a result, and this will induce them to be ex- tremely cautious in their movements. If such a move- ment be for the interest of the United States, it must be carried into effect under the auspices of the govern- ment. In the second place, the Indians are much more attached to their ancient districts and villages than is commonly supposed. Their veneration for the tombs of their fathers and friends, would induce them to suf- fer the greatest hardships rather than abandon these pre- cious and pious remains. It may also be added, that · these Indians gradually incline to agriculture, and the longer they pursue it, the less disposed will they be to hazard a removal to unknown regions.
It is difficult to relieve the Indians from two of the greatest scourges of the human race, war among them-
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selves, and the use of ardent spirits. Perhaps these fatal propensities proceed less from their nature than from their peculiar situation.
An opinion prevails among them, that a nation is res- pected in proportion to the bravery of its warriors. With them the art of war is cultivated and preserved by experiment only. The chiefs of some of the nations in Louisiana have often expressed their regret to the au- thor of these sketches, that their young men were arriv- ing at manhood, and had no knowledge of war, and that it was necessary, for their instruction, to provoke hostilities. They also assigned their want of qualified chiefs as another reason in favor of war. It is a maxim with them to raise those to the rank of chiefs, who have most distinguished themselves in the stratagems of the field, or procured the greatest number of scalps. Per- haps those, with whom we have an established intercourse are so much under our control, as to enable us to appease their occasional differences.
Wise and salutary measures are devised by our laws to prevent the sale of ardent spirits to Indians ; and it is extremely unfortunate that they are infracted with impu- nity. Under the Spanish government, a drunken Indian was seldom seen in the villages of Louisiana. The sale of ardent spirits to Indians and slaves was prohibited under severe penalties, and offenders had it not in their power to elude them. They were fined twenty five dol- lars for the first offence ; fifty dollars for the second ; and for the third they were sent to the capital, to be disposed of by the supreme tribunal of justice .. No sooner were we in possession of the territory than the people either considered themselves liberated from all le- gal restraint, or they found it practicable to evade the laws of their country.
The habit of intoxication, like that of war, as we have already hinted, mostly results from their situation and
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pursuits. While. engaged in the chase, or in a contest with their enemies, they are patient, temperate, hardy, and active; but when exempted from laborious exercises, they are almost destitute of entity ; a fatal languor seizes them ; their minds are inert ; they experience a kind of intellectual vacuum ; and hence they resort to the inflam- mable potion. They do not discern, that the remedy is more pernicious than the disease, and it is useless to rea- .son with them on the subject. When the cause of in- temperance be removed, a reformation may be expected.
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CHAPTER XVII.
A WELSH NATION IN AMERICA.
IT has long been a subject of enquiry, whether some part of this continent was not peopled from Wales. Au- thorities, indeed, are not wanting to prove their migration from that country more than three hundred years before, the days of Columbus, and also their existence in Ameri- ca during the two last centuries. Their migration is re- corded by three Welsh historians or bards, and the exist- ence of one or more Welsh colonies among us is attested by various transient persons, on whom we are usually o- bliged to depend for such discoveries. It is morally im- possible, that such a chain of testimony, as will soon be
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adduced, should be fabricated ; nor can any reasonable mo- tive be assigned for attempts to deceive the world by rela- tions founded in fraud and imposture, particularly by so many different persons, and at such distant periods of time" from each other.
Many of the learned, both in Europe and Ameicra, have endeavored to trace the origin of the aboriginals of our country. Some are of opinion, that they sprung from Asia, some from Africa, and others from the north of Eu- rope. Perhaps they derive their origins from all of them ; and why is it not as likely, that Wales furnished a popu- lation for America as some of the countries just named, particularly Africa, and the north of Europe ? If the Phe- nicians or Carthaginians from Africa, or some of the rude nations from the north of Europe, ever planted colonies on our coasts, it was probably more owing to some unfor- tunate occurrences than design. It is indeed likely, that the Romans had some confused notions of the discoveries of the former people in the Atlantic, and that they impar- ted their knowledge on this subject to the Britons after they had made permanent establishments among them. The paucity of history furnishes no argument in favor of a . contrary doctrine ; the Welsh had few or no writers in the time of the Romans, and therefore were unable to hand down a history of events to posterity. Even so late as the days of Alfred, the clergy were unacquainted with Latin, and none of his lay subjects could either read or write; yet literature in those times was much more preva- lent in England than in Wales.
'The Welsh had as powerful motives for colonization as any other people. These ancient Britons have been celebrated for their bravery, and for the noble stand they made against several successive invaders. When the Ro- mans laid waste the provinces of England by fire and sword, and resistence became vain, a portion of the inha- bitants retired to the mountains of Wales, where they .in
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some measure retained their liberty, though part of their country was bridled by garrisons. The Saxons and Danes inflicted the same injuries on the Welsh, and the former conquered two of their counties. Henry the first, in 1112, planted a strong colony of Flemings on the frontiers of Wales, as a barrier to England. He was succeeded by a prince of great military talents, and of powerful resources, under whose reign this migration of the Welsh is said to have happened, and during the long period he was seated on the throne, the Welsh trembled for their safety. But the conquest of Ireland, and other events of importance, most probably diverted the attention of Henry the second from an invasion of the last refuge of British liberty. Indeed the kings of the Norman race, were much more troublesome to Wales than their predecessors; and this country was often the theatre of bloody conflicts, till at last it was reduced to submission.
Besides, Wales was generally governed by a number of petty princes, and their interests or ambition frequent- ly produced destructive wars between them. Invaded from without, and convulsed within, the Welsh had strong motives to abandon their country, and to hazard their lives in pursuit of another, especially at a time when they had nearly lost all hopes of maintaining their liberties. They were probably unacquainted with the difficulties they had to encounter; and the ordinary ones across the ocean from Wales are not much greater than those from Africa, and much less than those usually experienced from the north of Europe ..
At any rate the subject is curious, and deserves inves- tigation ; and we shall now proceed to collect and arrange such materials as appear to throw the most light on it. Many of these materials have been already published at various times; but they seem not to have excited the at- tention which is due to their importance.
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In the history of Wales, written by Caradoc, in the Welsh language, translated into English by Llwyd, and published by Dr. David Powel, in 1584, the voyages of Madoc, a Welsh prince, in 1170, are particularly related. On the death of Owen Gwyneth, prince of North Wales, his sons quarrelled about the succession. After stating the particulars of this quarrel, the historian proceeds thus :-
" MADOC, another of Owen Gwyneth his sonnes, " left the land in contention betwixt his brethren, and " prepared certain shipps, with men and munition, and " sought adventures by seas, sailing west, and leaving the " coast of Ireland so farre north, that he came to land un- " known, where he saw many strange things. This land " must needs be some part of that country, of which the " Spanyards affirme themselves to be the first founders " since Haunoes time; for, by reason and order of cos- " mographie, this land to which Madoc came, must needs " be some part of Nova Hispania, or Florida .* Whereupon " it is manifest that that country was long before by Bretons " discovered, afore either Columbus or Americus Vesputi- " us led any Spanyard thither. Of the voyage and return " of Madoc there be many fables fained, as the common " people do use in distance of place and length of time, " rather to augment than diminish; but sure it is that " there he was. And after he had returned home, and " declared the pleasant and fruitfulle countryes that he " had seen without inhabitants, and upon the contrary part, " for what barren and wilde ground his brethren and ne- " phues did murther one another, he prepared a number " of shipps, and got with him such men and women as " were desirous to live in quietnesse, and taking leave of " his friends, took his journey thitherward again. There-
. At this period all North America was known by the name of Florida.
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" fore it was to be presupposed, that he and his people " inhabited part of those countryes ; for it appeareth by " Francis Lopez de Gomara, that in Acuzamil, and other " places, the people honoreth the crosse: Whereby it may " be gathered, that christians had been there before the " coming of the Spanyards. But because this people " were not many, they followed the manners of the land, " and used the language found there. This Madoc ariv- " ing in the countrey, into the which he came in the year " 1170, left most of his people there, and returning back " for more of his own nation, acquaintance, and friends " to inhabit that fayre and large countrey, went thither a- " gain with ten sails, as I find noted by Gutyn Owen. I " am of opinion that the land whereunto he came was " some part of Mexico. The causes which make me to " think so, be these. 1 The common report of the inha- " bitants of that countrey, which affirme that theyr rulers " descended from a strange nation that came thither from " a farre countrey: which thing is confessed by Montezu- " ma, king of that countrey, in an oration made for qui- " eting his people, at his submission to the king of Cas- " tile, Hernando Cortez being present, which is laid down " in the Spanish chronicles of the conquest of the West " Indies. 2. The British words and names of places " used in that country, even to this day do argue the " same, as when they talk together they use the word " Gwrando, which is hearken, or listen. Also they have " a certain bird with a white head, which they call Pen- " guin, that is, white head. But the island of Corroceo, " the river Guyndor, and the white rock of Penguin, which " be all British (or Welsh) words, do manifestly show, " that it, was that country Madoc and his people inha- " bited.'
This historical passage is quoted and preserved by Hak- luyt in his voyages and discoveries of the Britons, pub- lished in 1589. Several historians have mentioned the
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voyages of Madoc, and seem to consider them as indis- putable, Dr. Warrington, in his late history of Wales, has carefully examined the original Welsh authorities on which the above passage is founded : They are the poems of Meredyth ap Rhys, Guytin Owen, and Cynfryg ap Grenw; the first flourished in 1470, the second in 1480, and the third about the same period. These bards, or historians composed their works antecedent to the expe- ditions of Columbus, and they relate or allude to the voy- ages of Madoc, as events well known in their time, and universally believed to have happened three hundred years before,
Dr. Belknap seems to discredit the truth of the histori- cal passage before quoted, because it appears to him " confused and contradictory ; the country discovered by " Madoc is said to be without inhabitants, and yet the peo- " ple whom he carried thither followed the manners of the " land, and used the language found there."
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In making this objection, the doctor evidently departed from his usual accuracy of discrimination. Madoc is said to have made three voyages. During the first he disco- vered unknown land. The second presented him with pleasant and fruitful countries without inhabitants. What he discovered on his third voyage no one knows. That the Welsh followed the manners of the lund, and used the language found there, were the mere suggestions of Cara- doc and lakluyt, made more than four centuries subse- quent to the migration, to which they allude. Their de- sign was to prove, that the Mexicans derived their origin from the Welsh ; yet, to account for the difference of lan- guage, it was necessary to infer the loss of their own, and the adoption of the prevalent one of the country. 'The accounts given by Madoc himself on his return from his two first voyages, as preserved by the three original au- thors already mentioned, are perfectly natural and con- sistent ; all the confusion and contradiction in the narrative
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must be wholly ascribed to their commentators, who wrote after the conquest of Mexico. It is worthy of remark, that Dr. Belknap has quoted only one of the original au- thorities, which attest the adventures of Madoc, and which gave birth to the historical passage before quoted. His partiality, too, for Columbus, and his zealous endea- vors to render ample justice to the memory of that cele- brated man, no doubt made him less disposed to admit the possibility of a competitor.
The art of navigation was little known in those days ; yet it pretty plainly appears, that Madoc united his two first colonies at the point of destination. Of the fate of the third, which sailed in ten ships, we have no account. If by some unfortunate occurrence, such as shipwreck, ad- . verse winds, or the want of a more accurate knowledge of navigation, it happened to make land at a great dis- tance from the other two colonies, probably they remained disunited and unknown to each other; and this accounts in part, for the apparent confusion in some of the subse- quent proofs of their dispersed situation on this conti- nent.
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