USA > Louisiana > Sketches, historical and descriptive, of Louisiana > Part 5
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As revenge is the predominant passion of the Indians, no wonder the murder of a warrior prompted the Nat- chez to take up arms. They attacked the French in all quarters, and killed many of them. At last the Stung Serpent, an influential chief, was prevailed on to inter-
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pose his authority, and the slaughter ceased. This gene- rous interposition probably prevented the utter extermi- nation of the French in this quarter. A treaty of peace was the result ; mutual confidence was restored ; and all former enmities appeared to be buried in oblivion.
This peace had no other effect than to lull the Natchez in security, and to precipitate the French into the black- est treachery. It was duly ratified by M. Biainville ; yet he took advantage of it to inflict a sudden and dreadful blow on these innocent people ! He found means to elude their cautious vigilance, and soon after the peace, arrived at Fort Rosalie with seven hundred men, when he attack- ed the defenceless natives, slaughtered them in their huts, and demanded the head of one, whom he styled a muti- nous Chief, as the price of peace, with which they were obliged to comply. This war, or rather wanton slaugh- ter lasted four days.
From this moment the Natchez despaired of ever liv- ing in peace with the French, who, although loaded with benefits, daily usurped their lands, and inflicted personal injuries, and whose insolence and rapaciousness increased with their numbers. They reflected on the ingratitude of the French, who studiously rewarded their kindness with injustice ; they even anticipated the assumption of a still more dreadful power over them, calculated at no re- mote period to destroy their existence as a nation. Hence they perceived no medium between their own ruin, and the total annihilation of their enemies. This painful al- ternative rendered them thoughtful, distrustful, and pen- sive, and extremely timid in devising the means of future security.
Shortly after the slaughter just mentioned, a French Officer accidentally met the Stung Serpent, who appeared disposed to avoid him. " Why do you wish to shun me ? " we were once friends ; are we no longer so ?" said the Officer. The indignant Chief replied in a long speech,
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and among other things observed ; " Why did the French " come into our country ? we did not go to seek them. " They asked us for land, and we told them to take it the " were they pleased ; there was enough for them and for " us; the same Sun ought to enlighten us both, and we " ought to walk together as friends in the same path ; " we promised to give them food, assist them to build, " and to labour in the fields. We have done so." 'The Natchez were well convinced, that they could not openiy contend with the French. This made them the more pa- tient of injuries, and they resolved to bear them as long as they were tolerable.
Affairs remained in this situation till 1729, when a cir- cumstance occurred, which justified the highest resent- ment of the Natchez, but which ultimately plunged them into ruin.
M. de Chopart, the Commandant of Fort Rosalie, had been guilty of such repeated acts of injustice, as to ren- der an investigation of his conduct indispensable ; and for this purpose he was ordered to New Orleans. This event excited much joy among the Indians, but it was of short duration. That Officer appeared before M. Perier, who at that time administered the Government, and found means to justify his proceedings in such a manner as to be re-instated in his command. On his return to his post he conceived himself at liberty to indulge his malice against the Indians ; partly on account of the trou- ble they had given him, but much more on account of the satisfaction manifested by them at the prospects of his disgrace. As some gratification to his spite, he suddenly resolved to build a town on the site of the village of the White Apple,# " which covered a square of about three
* This village was situated about twelve miles below the present.city of Vatchez, and nearly three miles to theeastward of the Mississippi ; on the site of which is the seat of the late Col. Anthony Hutchings. Not a vestige of Indian industry now remains, except a few mounts.
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miles in extent." Accordingly he sent for the Sun, or Chief, of that village, and directed him to clear the huts, and to plant themselves in some other place. "The Chief" replied, perhaps rather hastily, " that their ancestors had "lived there for many ages, and that it was good for " their descendants to occupy the same ground." This noble and dignified language served only to exasperate the haughty Commandant, and to extort from him the de- claration, " that unless the village was abandoned in a few " days, the inhabitants of it should repent of their obsti- " nacy." The Chief then retired to consult the old men, and to hold a council. As a bloody conflict was inevitable, the Indians resorted to such expedients as were calculated to gain time. They wished to create an indissoluble union among themselves, and to devise means adequate to the end : one of these was the assistance of their allies, which they deemed of infinite importance. They therefore represented to M. de Chopart, " that their " corn had just come out of the ground, that their hens " were laying their eggs, and that to abandon their village " at that time would prove as injurious to the French as to " themselves." M. de Chopart treated these reasons with disdain, and menaced immediate destruction, unless his desires were gratified. 'The Indians in general are fruitful of expedients ; and the Natchez, who were well acquainted with the avaricious disposition of their adver- .sary, at last resorted to one, which for a while suspended his wrath. They obtained permission to remain in their own houses till after harvest, on condition, that each hut should pay him a fowl and a basket of corn.
During this short interval the Natchez frequently and privately assembled in council, and a plan of operations was carefully concerted. "They unanimously resolved to make one great effort to preserve their independence, and to defend the tombs of their fathers. They proceeded with caution, and omitted nothing to ensure success.
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They invited the Chickasaws to share in the arduous en- terprize ; but by a strange fatality, occasioned by the trea- chery of one of their own women, the latter were deceiv- ed as to the time of the intended blow, and therefore did not arrive in season to participate in the struggle. The massacre of all the French was what they had in view, and it was concluded to commence the work at the time of presenting the tribute of corn and fowls. Notwith- standing all their precaution, and the inducement each one had to observe inviolable secrecy, yet one of their chief women suspected the plot ; and either offended at the se- clusion of her sex, at least of one of her rank, from a knowledge of it, or influenced by private attachment, communicated her suspicions to some soldiers and others. Even just before the fatal catastrophe, M. de Chopart was cautioned to be on his guard ; but his evil genius led him to disregard the admonitions given him, to punish those who prognosticated danger, and to repose himself in criminal security.
At length the fatal period arrived, when the vengeance of the injured and vindictive Savages was to burst on the devoted heads of the French. Near the close of the last day of November 1729, the grand Sun, with some war- riors, repaired to the Fort with the tribute of corn and fowls agreed on. They seized the gate and other passa- ges, and the Soldiers were instantly deprived of the means of defence. Such was their number, and so well distri- buted, that opposition was vain. Other parties repaired to their appointed rendezvous, and the houses of the French about the country were filled with them. The massacre was general among the men; the slaves, and some of the women and children were spared. The chiefs and warriors, disdaining to stain their hands with the blood of M. de Chopart, he fell by one of the mean- est of the Indians. "This settlement contained about sev- en hundred French, and very few of them escaped 'to
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carry the dreadful tidings to the Capital. The Forts and Settlements at the Yazous and Washita shared the same fate. Thus these extensive possessions of the French, which were gradually progressing to maturity, and the most wealthy of any in the Colony, presented a melan- choly picture. They were first plundered, and then ex- posed to the flames.
The news of this disaster created much confusion in the Capital, and all seemed to imagine, that the merci- less Savages were at their doors. M. Perier was very active in contriving measures to punish his enemies. The Chickasaws were offended with the Natchez Indians for commencing the attack without them, and therefore rea- dily accepted the invitation of the French. In February 1730, about fifteen hundred of them arrived in the neigh- bourhood of the Natchez, where they were joined the next month by a detachment of troops from New Orleans, under the command of M. de Loubois.
The Natchez Indians, anticipating the storm, endea- voured to provide against it. They strongly fortified themselves in the Fort; but on the appearance of the French, supported by their numerous auxiliaries, and some pieces of heavy ordnance, they were induced to sue for peace. They offered to release the prisoners in their custody, on condition that friendship and amity should be restored, and permission given them to live on their own ground, and their future repose secured. The French were not disposed to grant these favors, nor did they return an explicit answer. Deception was prac- tised on both sides, and for once the French were com- pletely duped. The Natchez wished for an opportunity of leaving their country ; the French aimed at the posses- sion of the prisoners, after which they intended to in- dulge themselves in the indiscriminate slaughter of their enemies. M. de Loubois finally proposed to suspend the attack, provided the Natchez would agree to release
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the prisoners the next day. This proposition was ac- cepted.
The Natchez were highly pleased with this arrange- ment, as it seemed to afford them the means of escape. During the following night they silently deserted the Fort, loaded with their plunder and baggage, and cros- sed the Mississippi! This dextrous manœuvre filled the French with astonishment; but they were in no condition to pursue the fugitives. Their first care was to build a terrace Fort, to supply it with cannon and ammunition, and one hundred and twenty effective men. The auxil- iaries were then dismissed, and the remainder of the French returned to New Orleans.
In the mean time the Natchez retired to the mouth of Silver Creek,* about one hundred and eighty miles up Red River, where they erected a fortification for their defence. The arrival of one hundred and fifty soldiers from France, enabled M. Perier to march at the head of a respectable force in pursuit of them ; he was soon be- fore them, opened a battery of mortars on their Fort, and put them into great confusion. 'They made several desperate sallies, and were repulsed with great slaughter. They endeavoured to escape, but this was impracticable. In vain they attempted to negociate ; they struggled in vain to avoid the leaden messengers of death, and at last surrendered at discretion. The women and children . were immediately reduced to slavery, and dispersed a- mong the plantations. The remains of this wretched people were eventually sent in the same condition to St. Domingo. On the first arrival of the French among them, their villages contained about twelve hundred souls.
Thus the Natchez Indians, once so useful to the French, became almost extinct. "The fugitives, who es-
' At no great distance below Natchitoches. No creek in that quar . ter is known by that naine at the present day.
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caped the carnage and the chains of bondage, united themselves to the Chickasaws and Creeks, and their an- cient language is still preserved among them.
Of all the Indians in this quarter known to the Whites, the Natchez were the most polished and civilized. They had an established religion amongst them, in many parti- culars rational and consistent, as likewise regular orders of Priesthood. They had a temple dedicated to the Great Spirit, in which they preserved the eternal fire. If their religion was occasionally stained with human sacrifi- ces, particularly on the death of their Suns, or Chiefs, we ought to be the less surprised, as many other nations on the globe admit of the same practice. To them were denied the advantages of literature, and above all, the blessings of our revealed religion. They were guided alone by the dictates of nature ; and hence their aberrati- ons were less criminal. Perhaps their religious rites and ceremonies were originally derived from a pure source ; for who will pretend to say that their ancestors six or eight centuries ago were unacquainted with the Scrip- tures? No doubt these tokens of religion were greatly obscured and perverted by tradition ; but this is rather the misfortune than the crime of the Indians. This re- mark is applicable to all the aborigines of America.
The civil polity of the Natchez partook of the refine- ments of a people, apparently in some degree learned and scientific ; it exhibited penetration and wisdom, and was calculated to render them happy. They had Kings, or Chiefs, whom they denominated Suns, invested with absolute power, as likewise a kind of subordinate nobi- lity ; and the usual distinctions created by rank were well understood and preserved among them. "They were just, generous, and humane, and never failed to extend relief to the objects of distress and misery. "They were well acquainted with the properties of medicinal plants ; and the cures they performed, particularly among the French,
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appear almost incredible. What is much more to their praise, they never deemed it glorious to destroy the hu- man species, and for this reason seldom waged any other than defensive war.
Ilistory is seldom seen to smile ; and perhaps no one presents a more frightful picture than that of the con- quests in the new world. The work of death carried on by ancient conquerors, was in some instances more mag- nificent, but in none so prolific of human blood. Besides, the ancient nations had nearly the same knowledge of the art of war, at least they made use of the same weapons ; and hence their contests were in some measure equal. But the Europeans on this continent, furnished with su- perior weapons of destruction, often vanquished numer- ous armies of the natives, with little or no loss on their side ; many of whom, terrified at their mode of warfare, suffered themselves to be enslaved, and even empaled, at discretion. The Spanish history, in particular, for more than two centuries, affords nothing but a series of complicated crimes, the black catalogue of which will continue to excite in every breast, the mingled emotions of pity and indignation. They made war on defenceless nations without provocation, spilt oceans of blood, and involved millions of their fellow creatures in misery. "They trampled on all those laws deemed sacred by the ci- vilized world, and their misdeeds find no other excuse than what is derived from the gratification of their ava- rice.
The ways of Providence are inscruitable. Good ap- pears frequently, to our limited conceptions, to be the re- sult of evil. Perhaps the United States owe their exist- ence as a nation, to the religious persecutions of the Mo- ther Country. The victorious progress of the Romans diffused the arts and sciences among the States of Europe, and to this cause may be attributed, in a great measure, their present perfection. Still more are they indebted to
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the conquests in the new world for the wide extension of their commerce, and even for the intercourse, which they have established with the other great continents. The desolations occasioned by the Spaniards have, more than any other, produced a wonderful change in the political and moral character of nations; if they have multiplied their wants, they have at the same time elicited the means of gratification. Yet we must ever deplore the primary causes of these events, and regret the hard conditions imposed on the original proprietors of the soil in this quarter of the globe.
The Spaniards wholly abjured the pacific character of Christians, and followed the example of those nations whom they pronounced barbarous. They not only ensla- ved the prisoners taken in battle, but likewise those peace- able and effeminate people, who submitted themselves at discretion. They compelled them to labour in the mines of Hispaniola and Cuba, where vast numbers perished.
The first contained more than a million of inhabitants, and at the end of fifteen years from the first discovery of that place, they were reduced to less than sixty thousand ! On the second upwards of half a million perished. A si- milar destruction took place on the continent.
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'Those who ought first to know the evils of the State, are generally the last to be made acquainted with them. Thus it happened in the reductions of the Indians to sla- very. Their fate was unknown to the Spanish Monarch for many years. The eloquent Father de las Casas, who witnessed their miseries, was the first to carry their com - plaints to the throne ; and in him the unhappy Indians found an able advocate and friend. On this occasion the avaritious colonists became his inveterate opposers, and devised a thousand expedients to defeat his measures. Even the pious ministers of the Christian Church, who were sent out to propagate the glad tidings of salvation among the heathen ; those heralds of meekness, mercy,
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and peace, condescended to advocate the bondage of the Indians ; for, in one of their synodical assemblies held a- bout this period, they pronounced the Indians incapable of receiving the Eucharist, because they manifested a defect of understanding, and accordingly decreed their exclu- sion from that privilege. The Roman Pontiff was of a different opinion ; he not only abrogated the decree, but likewise declared, that. the Indians were entitled to the rights of human nature; and therefore authorized their admission into holy orders, and to the participation of the sacraments. The Spanish monarch was disposed to ac- cede to these sentiments ; but when it was represented to him, that the Europeans were unable to labor in the warm climates of the precious metals, and that, unless the Indians were employed, the acquisition of silver and gold must cease, he began to doubt, to deliberate and to waver. The danger did not escape the penetration of de las Casas; and, apprehensive of the consequences, he seized the critical moment, and proposed the slavery of the Africans as a substitute for that of the Indians. Hence this good man has been stigmatised as the first advocate of negro slavery. But the truth is, that of the two evils he wished to adopt the least; for he concluded, that the distance of Africa from America, and the difficulty and expense of procuring slaves in that part of the globe, would serve to render the system less pernicious. If he was mistaken in his opinion, the motive by which he was actuated, must ever be deemed pure. The king of Spain remained no longer undecided. He sanctioned ne- gro slavery in 1517, and at the same time decreed, that the Indians should be liberated from their imperious mas- ters and overseers ; no longer be obliged to till the lands, or to labor in the mines, except at certain fixed periods in rotation, and at fixed wages. This regulation still exists in the Spanish provinces ; so that, while the Indians are
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exempted from the badges of servitude, they cannot be pronounced absolutely free.
This kind of middle character attached itself to those of the conquered provinces only. The Spaniards for a long time carried havoc and desolation among those nati- ons, who were disposed to maintain their liberty, and ma- ny of them remain unconquered to this day. The noble stand made by the Araucanians, a people of Chili, casts a shade over the deeds of valor displayed by the Greeks and Romans in the brightest periods of their history. These proud sons of liberty, by no means numerous, with the imperfect weapons in use among them, vanquish- ed, and even annihilated, several veteran armies, who had gathered a harvest of renown in the wars of Europe un- der their military monarch. They even had the courage to besiege fortified cities, and the address to make them- selves masters of them, after which they reduced them to ashes. They soon obtained the European art of war, (though not the weapons) as practised in those days, and their hopes of success never deserted them amid their great- est dangers. To mitigate the terrible effects of the Spa- nish musketry and cannon, they precipitated themselves into the thickest ranks of their enemies, and contended hand to hand. The war commenced in 1550, and conti- nued without intermission for ninety years, when a short peace only ensued, the precursor to a still more bloody conflict ; and be it recorded to their immortal honor, that they have maintained their independence to this day.
The Spaniards found their country divided into pro- vinces, 'and these again into counties or districts. Their system of government, both general and local, resembled in theory, some of those deemed the most perfect in Eu- rope, and indeed it was not much unlike that of the Uni- ted States in most of its essential features. They culti- vated eloquence, poetry, and music. They had some knowledge of the arts and sciences, particularly of astro-
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nomy ; for they divided the year (of three hundred and sixty five days) into seasons, months, days, and hours. The names of their several months indicated some re- markable quality or thing common to each period, like those of the ancient Egyptians and Persians, and of the modern French. Their language was copi us and flexi- · ble, and their eloquence of no ordinary kind. Are these people the proper objects of slavery ? Say rather, they are entitled to the respect of the present age, and to the homage of posterity.
Men are imitative creatures, and examples are contagi- ous. This is particularly verified in the conduct of the French. In imitation of the first conquerors of America, they reduced the Natchez to slavery, because they dared to contend for their rights. Near the close of their go- vernment in Louisiana, the people on Red River purchas- ed several Indian prisoners brought from the bay of St. Bernard ; but their successors, the Spaniards, liberated them. At a subsequent period the Spaniards themselves connived at the slavery of several Indians of both sexes in another quarter of the province. Their parents were free ; and yet the highest court of the United States in . that country has lately sanctioned their cruel fate by a so- lemn decision. The Spanish authorities had no such legal power. Where shall we look for that exercised by their successors ?
It is of no use to enter into a disquisition on the right of conquests, or to ascertain the obligations due from the conquerors to the countries and inhabitants subdued by . them. All these were prostrated by the Spaniards ; in a much less degree by the French ; and even our pious : English ancestors stand charged with violating their own principles on these points.
It is evident from what we have seen, that the Missis- sippi Company acquired Louisiana at a moment unfavour- able to its interests. The expectation of a profitable re-
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venue, and an anxiety to rival in power the English and Spaniards of the new world, induced it to be liberal , in the advances of money. But as Mr. Law was a fo- reigner, he was of course unpopular. He had many powerful enemies about the French court, who finally completed his ruin, and destroyed the credit of the Com- pany ; so that in 1731; the charter was resigned to the crown.
The Mississippi scheme was no less bold in its concep- tion, than disasterous in its consequences. It seized with- in its grasp the bank, the mint, all the trading companies, and all the revenues of the kingdom. The object was to employ this vast capital in opening the rich mines of Lou- isiana, and in cultivating its fertile soil; in carrying on the whole commerce of the nation, and in managing the royal revenues. The company created three hundred thousand shares, at five hundred livres each ; fifty thou- sand shares at five hundred and fifty livres each ; three hundred thousand shares at five thousand livres each ; all of which were sold in market, and before the completion of the sale, they rose to an enormous height. ' 'The a- mount of the stock thus. created, without taking the rise into calculation, amounted to sixteen hundred seventy se- ven millions, five hundred thousand livres, or three hun- dred and ten million, six hundred forty eight thousand, one hundred forty eight dollars ! Such indeed was the phrensy of speculation, that the whole nation, clergy and laity, peers and plebeians, princes and statesmen, mecha- nics, and even ladies, employed their wealth in purchas- ing these shares. The scheme was calculated to enrich the nation as well as the holders of the scrip; but a per- fidious breach of royal faith destroyed the credit of the paper, and multitudes were involved in ruin, though the public treasury gained by it the annual sum of twenty three millions of livres. The enemies of the financier, (and these were the dignified clergy, who were ambitious
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