USA > Louisiana > Orleans Parish > New Orleans > Standard history of New Orleans, Louisiana, giving a description of the natural advantages, natural history settlement, Indians, Creoles, municipal and military history, mercantile and commercial interests, banking, transportation, etc. > Part 2
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Governor Périer received some reinforcements from France, and on November 15, 1730, he departed with 650 soldiers, including the militia, and 350 Indian warriors, for the Black River. In this expedition he succeeded in bringing back to New Orleans, on February 5, 1731, 427 captives, including the Great Sun and several chiefs. These were sent to San Domingo by Périer and sold as slaves. He had previously allowed to be burned in New Orleans, as a warning, four men and two women.
The tribe of the Natchez, now reduced by one-half, was in the summer of 1731 nearly annihilated by the brave Saint-Denis, the commandant at Natchi- toches. What remained of the tribe was adopted by the Chickasaws, and the Natchez lost their name. Such was the fate of these Indians, whom Le Page du Pratz praises highly, and who seem to have been far superior in intelligence to the other tribes in Louisiana.
The Natchez war had occasioned heavy expense to the Western Company and had delaved the growth of the colony, therefore the Company begged the King to allow them to surrender their charter. Their petition was granted, and Louisiana became again, in April, 1732, a royal province. It had pros- pered considerably during the fifteen years it had been under the control of the Western Company. The population in 1732 was 5,000 whites and 2,000
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blacks, and trade and agriculture were flourishing. At this period of history ends the colonization of Louisiana. The seed sown by Iberville had fructified, and in spite of many vicissitudes, the colony planted at Biloxi in 1699, was to become the great State of Louisiana, and Bienville's town of one hundred huts was to become the metropolis of the Southern States of the American Union.
III .- THE CHICKASAW WAR, AND THE TREATY OF FON- TAINEBLEAU.
VAUDREUIL AND KESLEREC.
Bienville was reappointed governor in 1732, and the colonists were de- lighted to see him again, but the last administration of that distinguished man was marked with great disasters in the wars with the Indians. The tribes seemed to have been somewhat dissatisfied with Périer, and the latter's successor had a hard task in his dealings with the Indians. We shall follow here Dumont's account of the war with the Chickasaws.
We have seen that the remnant of the Natchez tribe, after their defeat by Saint-Denis, were adopted by the Chickasaws. In 1734 Bienville asked for the surrender of the fugitives, but met with a refusal. He, therefore, prepared to attack the Chickasaws. This tribe was the most warlike in the colony, and had always manifested some hostility against the French. Bienville sent to the Illinois country a convoy of five boats, one loaded with powder and the others with goods, but the commander, Leblanc, left the powder in the Arkansas country, went to the Illinois, and sent for the powder. On the way back the powder was taken by the Indians, and all the Frenchmen in the boat were killed or taken prisoners. Leblanc transmitted the orders of the governor to the chev- alier d'Artaguette, commandant of Fort Chartres, and younger brother of the commissary Diron d'Artaguette. The latter was again, at that time, in Louisiana, and was now on bad terms with the governor. The orders to d'Arta- guette were to meet Bienville in the Chickasaw country, by May 10, with what- ever troops he could gather.
Bienville started from Mobile, by the river, on April 1, 1736, and, on April 20, the army arrived at a place called Tombigby. There they were joined by the Choctaw auxiliaries. Having been detained by rains at Tombigby until
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May 4th the expedition started again, and on May 25th reached a place distant seven leagues from the Chiekasaw village. They found the Indians in a strongly fortified post, and, although Bienville's troops, both regulars and militia attacked the fort with great bravery, they were repulsed with heavy loss, as they had no material for a siege. Bienville ordered the army to retreat, and returned to New Orleans, where he heard of the sad fate of d'Artaguette.
The commandant at Fort Chartres had obeyed his chief's orders, and had marehed into the country of the Chickasaws. Having arrived there before Bienville, and not being supported by the main army of the French, he was defeated by the Indians and forced to surrender. D'Artaguette, Vincennes, Father Senae, a Jesnit missionary, and a number of other Frenehmen were burned at the stake. The unhappy fate of young d'Artaguette struek the imag- ination of the colonists, and his name has beeome eonneeted with a proverb in Louisiana. In speaking of something very old one says : "Vieux comme du temps d'Artaguette," "as old as the time of d'Artaguette."
Bienville was very anxious to avenge d'Artaguette's death and to regain his military renown. He did not believe, however, that he had sufficient troops to conquer the Chickasaws and he applied to France for reinforcements. The chevalier de Beauharnais, governor of Canada, was ordered to send troops to assist Bienville, and a body of marines arrived from France, commanded by the chevalier Louis d'Aymé de Noailles. The expedition was conveyed by the Mississippi, then ealled St. Louis River, to Fort St. Franeis on the St. Francis River, and from there to the Margot River, now Wolf River. The army built a fort ealled Fort Assumption, near the present eity of Memphis, and received at that place large reinforcements. The Sieur de la Buisonière, sueeessor to the unfortunate d'Artaguette at Fort Chartres, captain de Celoron, and lieuten- ant de St. Laurent, "followed," says Dumont, "by thirty eadets, sent by the governor of Canada, with a great number of Canada Indians."
" The army of Bienville," says Judge Martin, "numbered about 1200 white troops, and double that number of Indian and black troops." For some unae- eountable reason the troops remained at Fort Assumption, at some distance from the Indians, from August, 1739, to March, 1740, without attacking the enemy. The provisions failed, siekness broke out in the camp, especially among the soldiers recently arrived from France, and Bienville resolved, instead of con- quering the Chickasaws, to grant them peace, if they asked for it. Ile aecord- ingly sent Celoron, with his thirty Canadian eadets and his Indian allies, to
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advance against the Chickasaws. The latter, believing that the whole army of Bienville was marching to attack them, begged for peace and presented the calu- met to Celoron. This commander promised peace, and Bienville ratified the treaty in April, 1740. He gave presents to his Indian allies and dismissed them. The army uow returned to New Orleans, after destroying Forts As- sumption and St. Francis. The Chickasaws were never conquered, and they and the Natchez fugitives continued to commit depredations. There was, how- ever, no open war with them after Bienville's unsuccessful expedition.
We have given in detail the war with the Chickasaws, as it was the last expedition undertaken by Bienville. We feel great sorrow at the failure of his last two campaigns, and we cannot understand his apparent mismanagement of the war, as prior to 1736, he had been very successful in his dealings with the Indians. Mortified and grieved at his failure, Bienville asked to be relieved of his command, and on May 10, 1743, he returned to France. He was then sixty-two years old and had been about forty-four years in the colony. We shall see later the Father of New Orleans in Paris, trying, in his old age, to prevent the transfer of his cherished Louisiana to the rule of Spain.
Bienville's successor, the Marquis de Vaudreuil, was a real grand seigneur, and he has always been remembered in Louisiana for his elegant manners and his sumptuous entertainments. One of his first acts was to keep up the enmity between the Chickasaws and the Choctaws. Red Shoe, a Choctaw chief, gave Vaudreuil great trouble by his restlessness and duplicity. He sided one day with the English, another day with the French, and was ever ready to receive money or provisions from either party. He was the cause of a civil war among the Choctaws, and was finally killed by the party friendly to the French. The different Indian tribes harassed the colonists considerably during Vaudreuil's administration, and among the persons killed by the savages in 1748 was the unfortunate dancing master, Baby, whose loss was deeply mourned in New Or- leans.
Vaudreuil belonged to an influential family and obtained from the French government a large increase in the number of soldiers to serve in Louisiana. He undertook an expedition against the Chickasaws in 1752, but accomplished little besides burning and devastating their country. The marquis, however, re- mained in high favor at court and was promoted in 1753 to the governorship of Canada. There he displayed great ability and courage in the French wars with the English.
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Bossu, a captain of marines, wrote from New Orleans, on July 1, 1751, that Governor Vaudreuil received most hospitably the troops which had come from France. He speaks of the inhabitants of Louisiana and says: "One calls Creoles those who are born of a Frenchman and a Frenchwoman or of a Euro- pean woman. The Creoles, in general, are very brave, tall and well made; they have many dispositions for the arts and the sciences; but as they cannot culti- vate them perfectly on account of the scarcity of good teachers, the rich and considerate do not fail to send their children to France, as to the first school in the world, in all things. As to the sex which has no other duty to perform but that of pleasing, it is born here with that advantage and has no need to go to Europe to seek the deceitful art."
As to New Orleans, Bossu says: "That town is situated on the banks of the Mississippi, one of the largest rivers in the world, since it waters more than eight hundred leagues of known countries. Its pure and delicious waters flow for forty leagues, in the midst of a number of plantations, which form a charm- ing sight on its two banks, where one enjoys abundantly the pleasures of hunt- ing, of fishing, and all the other delights of life."
Bossu regrets very much the departure of Vaudreuil, and mentions the latter's successor, Kerlerec, in no flattering terms, saying: "He has qualities of heart very different from those of his predecessor; but this new governor may give as an excuse that he did not come so far only for a change of air." It was during Kerlerec's administration that Villiers, an officer at Fort Chartres of the Illinois, avenged the death of his brother Jumonville, who was killed at the Great Meadows in April, 1754. Villiers attacked Colonel Washington at Fort Necessity and compelled him to surrender on July 4, 1754.
During the administration of Kerlerec there were violent disputes between him and his commissary ordonnateur, Rochemore, and the colony not only made no progress, but seemed to be retrograding. The unsuccessful wars of Louis XV. hardly allowed any help to be given Louisiana, and the unwise financial policy of the government caused great distress in the colony by the instability of the currency, whether copper coin, or note or card money. In June, 1761, Rochemore was replaced by Foucault, who was soon to play an important part in the history of Louisiana,
The Seven Years' War ended disastrously for France in Europe, Canada, and India, and the wretched and corrupt administration of Louis XV. caused France to lose all her colonies in America and nearly all in India. The loss of
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Canada, as Gayarré expresses it so well, "caused a painful emotion in Louisiana, which was bound to it by so many ties, and which, for such a long time, had formed a dependency of Canada. A vague presentment made the colonists fear a change of domination. Indeed, on November 13, 1762, the King of Spain accepted, by a secret treaty, the gift which the King of France made to him of Louisiana."
Louis XV. ceded "by the pure effect of the generosity of his heart" "all the country known by the name of Louisiana as well as New Orleans, and the island in which that town is situated." The King of France was desirous to give to his cousin of Spain a proof of the great interest he took in his welfare, and was touched by the sacrifices made by his Catholic Majesty to bring about peace. This shameful treaty was signed at Fontainebleau by Grimaldi for Spain and Choiseul for France. It is a pity that the latter affixed his signature to such a disgraceful State paper. Choiseul was one of the few able ministers of Louis XV., and he had, by his "Family Compact," united all the different branches of the Bourbons, and made France powerful again in Europe, in spite of Rosbach and other defeats. When Madame Du Barry caused the fall of Choiseul in 1770, the doom of the monarchy was sealed, and Louis XV. could truly say: "After me the deluge."
IV .- THE REVOLUTION OF OCTOBER, 1768.
UI.LOA, AUBRY, AND LAFRENIERE.
The treaty of Fontainebleau was kept secret, and, on February 10, 1763, the shameful treaty of Paris was signed. Louis XV. ceded to Great Britain, by article 7, the river and port of Mobile and all the possessions on the left bank of the Mississippi, with the exception of the town of New Orleans and the island in which it is situated. Spain, in its turn ceded to Great Britain Florida, called later West Florida, with the fort of St. Augustine and the bay of Pensacola, and all the country to the east and south-east of the Mississippi
The King of France continued to act as possessor of Louisiana, as the treaty of Fontainebleau was still kept secret. On June 29, 1763, d'Abbadie arrived in New Orleans with the title of director general, and Kerlerec returned to France where he was thrown into the Bastille on his arrival in Paris. In
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1764 d'Abbadie obtained for Braud an exclusive privilege to establish a printing press and to sell books in the colony. Braud's press was soon to be of great value to the colonists in their heroic struggle in 1768 against Spanish oppres- sion.
In October, 1764, d'Abbadie received an official communication from the French court announcing the cession to Spain. Louisiana was to pass from the domination of Louis XV. to that of Charles III. If it had not been the fact of their being handed over like cattle by one master to another, the Louisianians should have felt relieved to be no longer the subjects of the infamous King who had been the cause of so many disasters to France. Charles III., of Spain, was a far better man and an abler ruler than the Bourbon at Versailles.
On February 4, 1765, d'Abbadie died, much regretted by every one in Louisiana, and Aubry succeeded him as commandant or governor. The name of the latter is unfortunately connected with the saddest event in our history. When the colonists heard in October, 1764, of the cession to Spain, they were thrown into consternation and despair. They were greatly attached to France, and a number of them had left the part of the provinee eeded to England, in order to remain Frenchinen. A meeting was held in New Orleans of delegates from every parish, and Lafrenière, the attorney general, made a speech in which he suggested that a petition be sent to the King begging him not to give them away to another nation. The colonists were not aware of the infamy of the King, and they hoped that he would be touched by their expressions of devotion and love. Jean Milhet, the wealthiest merchant in New Orleans, was sent to France as the representative of the Louisianians.
As soon as Milhet arrived in Paris he went to see Bienville, who was then eighty-four years old. This venerable and distinguished man called with Mil- bet on Choiseul, who received them kindly, but did not allow them to see the King. Milhet failed in his endeavors, and Bienville had the sorrow to see his beloved Louisiana beconie a Spanish province. Milhet announced his failure to his compatriots, but the latter had begun to hope that Spain would not take possession of the colony. On July 10, 1765, however, Don Antonio de Ulloa wrote from Havana to Aubry that he had been appointed governor of Louisiana, and he arrived in New Orleans on March 5, 1766.
The Spanish King had certainly not appeared very anxious to take posses- sion of his new dominion. More than three years had elapsed, from the date of the secret treaty of Fontainebleau, by which France had ceded Louisiana to
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Spain, before a Spanish official appeared in the colony, and when that official did arrive he eame nearly alone and did not assume authority in a public manner. However, Aubry recognized him as the representative of the King of Spain, and issued orders in the latter's name. Ulloa had with him only two companies of infantry, composed of ninety men, and the French soldiers in Louisiana refused to enter the service of Spain, claiming that the time of their enlistment had expired. The Spanish governor, therefore, delayed taking pos- session officially until he should have more troops to sustain his authority.
The condition of affairs was very unfortunate; for Ulloa's orders, issued through Aubry, did not appear binding on the inhabitants, and merely irritated them. Such was the case, especially with an ordinanee dated September 6, 1766, by which no merchants were allowed to sell their goods in the colony before they had submitted their prices to the inspection of "just and intelligent" persons, who would judge whether the priees asked were excessive or not. The merehants of New Orleans protested against this ordinance and begged the Su- perior Couneil not to allow it to be enforced before they could be heard on the subjeet. It is evident that the inhabitants were opposed to every aet of Ulloa's and to the eession to Spain. The governor was a man of merit, a distinguished scientist, but laeked taet as a ruler of people opposed to a change of domination, and who should have been treated with the greatest gentleness. Ulloa treated the inhabitants with haughtiness and aeted certainly in a strange manner, when he remained at the Balize, at the mouth of the Mississippi, for seven months, to await his Peruvian bride, and never went once in the mean time to New Orleans. The colonists were justified in not submitting to his rule and in asking for his withdrawal from the country,
Jean Milhet returned from France at about that time, and the narrative of his failure caused in the colony an exeitement which brought about the great event known as the Revolution of 1768. Lafreniere was at the head of the movement, and chief among his lieutenants were Villere, Marquis, Caresse, Noyan, Milhet, Doueet, Mazent, Petit and Boisblane. At a meeting held in New Orleans Lafreniere made a magnificent speech, of which our historian, Gayarré, says: " There is a passage in Lafrenière's address of which Louisi- ana may well be proud, and of which she can boast, as spoken by one of her chil- dren, in 1768, before the voice of 1776 was heard. In proportion, said he, to the extent both of eommeree and population, is the solidity of thrones : both are fed by liberty and competition, which are the nursing mothers of the State,
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of which the spirit of monopoly is the tyrant and stepmother. Without liberty there are but few virtues. Despotism breeds pusillanimity, and deepens the abyss of vices. Man is considered as sinning before God only because he retains his free will."
After hearing Lafrenière's bold and eloquent words, 560 of the most influ- ential inhabitants signed a petition asking the Superior Council to expel Ulloa from the colony. Immediately all the inhabitants took up arms. The Germans were led by Villere and the Acadians by Marquis, and from all the parishes brave and resolute men assembled in New Orleans. The Superior Council, on October 29, 1768, ordered Ulloa to show his powers or to leave the colony of which he pretended to be governor. He withdrew on board a ship at anchor in the river, but at daybreak some young men who were returning from a wed- ding, cut the cables of the vessel on which was Ulloa. The Spaniard was thus expelled and a revolution had taken place.
Braud, the King's printer, printed a long memoir of the planters and mer- chants of Louisiana, about the event of October, 1768. It is one of the most important and interesting documents in our history. The colonists do not prove their case fully against Ulloa, but one sees in their memoir their bitter opposi- tion to the rule of Spain, to the rule of the foreigner. Their spirit was patri- otic, and the Louisianians of to-day should admire their feelings and be proud of their heroism. Foucault and Aubry played an unenviable part in these events and may be considered informers, although the commissary Foucault was one of the participants in the revolution.
On December 14, 1768, the inhabitants petitioned the Council to order the expulsion of the Spanish frigate, which had remained in the river, and the frigate finally left the country on April 20, 1769. The colonists had been most persistent in their opposition to everything Spanish. Aubry, the representa- tive of the French King, protested against these acts of violence, but the Louis- ianians still hoped to induce Louis XV. to remain their sovereign. They sent again to France as delegates St. Lette and Le Sassier, who were not more suc- cessful than Milhet had been formerly. It was now known that Louis had dis- owned forever his subjects in Louisiana, and the latter thought of proclaiming a republic on the banks of the Mississippi. "There is no doubt," says Gayarre, "but that the colonists would have eagerly adopted this form of goverment, had it been possible at the time, for it must be recollected that from the earliest ex- istence of the colony, almost all its governors had uniformly complained of the
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republiean spirit which they had observed in the inhabitants." Our ancestors were evidently mistaken in their noble efforts, and their plans were but a dream, for how were they to resist the power of the King of Spain, with a population of 12,000 souls, of whom half were slaves ? "But," says Gayarre again, "they nevertheless bequeathed to their posterity the right of elaiming for Louisiana the merit of having been the first European colony that entertained the design of proclaiming her independenee."
When the news of the event of October, 1768, was known in Spain, it was decided to leave the country, decided to remain. On August 18, 1769, the was to be maintained and that troops would be sent to subdue the rebels. Don Alejandro O'Reilly was appointed governor and eaptain-general of the pro- vince of Louisiana, and he arrived at the Balize, on July 23, 1769, on a frigate, accompanied by twenty-eight transports, having 4,500 soldiers on board. The news of O'Reilly's arrival was carried to New Orleans by Don Francisco Bouligny and was received with great consternation. "Resistance," says Mar- tin, "was spoken of." The inhabitants decided to send three representatives to O'Reilly in order to tell him that they had decided to abandon the colony and wished no other favor from him, but to be allowed two years in which to pre- pare for their departure. The Spanish governor received very politely the delegates, who were Lafrenière, Marquis, and Millet, and assured them, says Martin, "that all past transactions would be buried in oblivion, and all who had offended should be forgiven." The delegates reported O'Reilly's word to their countrymen, and all were quieted. Those who had already taken up arms and gone to New Orleans returned to their homes, and a number of persons who had decided by the council of the King that the authority of His Catholic Majesty Spanish troops landed on the levee at New Orleans, and the same afternoon the Freneh flag was lowered from a mast in the Place d'Arines, and the Spanish flag took its place. O'Reilly attended a Te Deum in the cathedral, and Spain took thus formal possession of Louisiana.
V .- THE RULE OF SPAIN. O'REILLY, UNZAGA, AND GALVEZ.
General O'Reilly asked of Aubry a narrative of what had taken place in October, 1768, and the French governor had the weakness or the cowardice to set as informer against his own countrymen. Nothing required that he should
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give any information to O'Reilly. As soon as the latter had taken possession of the province, in the name of Spain, Aubry's duties as governor ceased, and he should have tried to protect mnen whose sole crime was that they had made earnest efforts to remain Frenchmen. Posterity must certainly judge Aubry severely for his conduct in 1768 and until his departure from Louisiana in 1770. O'Reilly seemed unwilling for several days to take any action with re- gard to the events leading to Ulloa's expulsion, when suddenly, at the end of August, 1769, he caused to be arrested, Lafrenière, Foucault, Noyan, and Bois- blanc, members of the Superior Council, and Braud, the printer, while these gentlemen were at his own house attending his levee. Shortly afterwards, Mar- quis, an officer in the troops, Doucet, a lawyer, Petit and Mazant, planters, Jean and Joseph Milhet, Caresse, and Poupet, merchants, were arrested.
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