USA > Louisiana > The history of Louisiana : from the earliest period, Volume I > Part 14
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The Marquis encreased the garrison of Fort Fon- tenac, and furnished it abundantly with provisions and ammunition. This gave umbrage to governor Dongan, who wrote him the Iroquois considered this reinforcement as the prelude to the invasion of their country; that these Indians were the allies, nay the subjects of the English crown, and an act of hostility against them could only be viewed as an infraction of the peace. which existed between France and England; that he was informed a fort was about to be erected at Niagara; a circumstance which surprised him the more, as the Marquis, though but lately arrived in America, could not well
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be supposed ignorant of that part of the country being within the province of New York.
The Marquis answered, that the consciousness of the Iroquois, that they deserved chastisement, could alone excite their apprehensions: however, the supplies sent to Fort Fontenac ought not to have alarmed these Indians, as there had always been a large garrison at that post, and the difficulty of supplying it rendered it necessary to improve every opportunity ; that the governor was under an error, as to the right of his sovereign to the country of the Iroquois ; he ought to have known, that the French had taken possession of it, long before any Englishman came to New York; that, however, as the kings of England and France were now at peace, it did not behoove their officers in America, to enter into any altercation about their rights.
Louis the fourteenth having approved the emis- sion of card money made in Canada, during the pre- ceding year, another emission was now prepared in Paris, in which pasteboard was used instead of cards. An impression was made on each piece, of the coin of the kingdom, of the corresponding value.
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Pasteboard proving inconvenient, cards were again resorted to. Each had the flourish, which the intendant usually added to his signature. He signed all those of the value of four livres and upwards, and those of six livres and above, were also signed by the governor.
Once a year, at a fixed period, the cards were re- quired to be brought to the colonial treasury, and exchanged for bills on the treasurer-general of the marine, or his deputy at Rochefort. Those, which appeared too ragged for circulation, were burnt, and the rest again paid out of the treasury.
For awhile. the cards were thus punctually ex- LOU. I.
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changed once a year; but in course of time, bills ceased to be given for them. Their value, which till then had been equal to gold, now began to diminish ; the price of all commodities rose proportionably, and the colonial government was compelled, in order to meet the increased demands on its treasury, to re- sort to new and repeated emissions; and the people found a new source of distress, in the means adopted for their relief.
The English colonies in America, in the latter part of the seventeenth and the first of the eighteenth cen- tury, had also recourse to emissions of paper cur- rency. They every where yielded at first, a mo- mentary relief. The currency borrowed its value from confidence; moderation might have preserved, but profusion almost universally destroyed it, and the depreciated paper proved a greater evil than that it was intended to remedy.
The earliest emissions in these colonies, date in those of New England of 1696, in New York of 1709, in New Jersey of 1720, in Pennsylvania of 1722, in Delaware of 1730, in North Carolina and Barbadoes of 1705, and in South Carolina of 1703. If the co- lonies of Maryland and Virginia, during the period of their dependence on the crown, had no paper currency (a circumstance which has not been ascer- tained) it was probably owing to their finding in tobac- co, their staple commodity, the means of substituting the contract of exchange to that of sale. Merchants there kept their accounts in pounds of tobacco, and the fees of the colonial officers were by law fixed and made payable in that article.
A few days after the return of Lasalle to the fort, the Belle was cast ashore in a hurricane and bilged. The officer who commanded her, the chaplain and four of her crew, alone escaped. With her, thirty-
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six barrels of flour, some wine and a quantity of merchandize were lost. She was the only vessel remaining in the colony, and would have been of vast service to Lasalle; he expected to have sailed in her to Hispaniola, in search of succour. On the loss of his last vessel, he determined to proceed to Fort St. Louis of the Illinois, in order to apprize government of his miscarriage, and solicit farther aid.
Accompanied by his brother and nephew, by father Athanase, fifteen other Frenchmen and two trusty Indians, who had followed him from Canada, on the twenty-second of May, mass having been said to implore the benediction of heaven on his journey, he sat off and travelled northeasterly, taking with him two canoes and two sleighs.
He crossed several streams, and saw large herds of buffaloes, among which were a few horses, 'so wild that they could not be caught without great ad- dress and much difficulty. Every night, he took the precaution of surrounding his camp with poles, to guard against surprise. On the twenty-fifth, towards noon, he met with four Indians on horseback, of a tribe called the Quoaquis; their dress was chiefly of leather : they had boots, saddles and a kind of shield of the same material, and wooden stirrups; the bits of their bridles were of wolf or bear's teeth. They inquired who the party were, and, being in- formed, invited them to their village.
Two days after, Lasalle crossed a river, which he called Riber, from one of the party, who was drowned in crossing it. Herc he halted for six days ; his men killed a buffalo, and salted and smoked the meat. Three days after he crossed another stream, which he called Hiens, after one of the party, who sank
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into the mud and was drawn out with great diffi- culty.
Lasalle now altered his course, travelling due east. After a march of several days, he came to a tribe called the Biscatonges, where he obtained dressed buffalo skins, of which his men made mocko- sons, a kind of covering for the foot, much used by the Indians, and resembling a mitten or a glove without fingers. These Indians also supplied La- salle with canoes; the two, he had brought from the fort, being already so crazy as to be of but little use.
On the following day, as the French approached a village, one of them shot a deer; this so terrified the Indians, that they all fled. Lasalle ordered his men under arms. as they entered the village. It con- sisted of about three hundred cabins; the wife of one of the chiefs was still in hers, being so old that she could not move. She was given to understand, she had nothing to fear. Three of her sons, who had remained at a small distance, noticing the peaceable demeanor of the strangers, called back her country- men, who immediately returned. They offered the calumet to, and entertained, the French with much cordiality.
Unwilling to put too much confidence in these friendly appearances, Lasalle encamped at night, on the opposite side of a cane brake, that encircled the village, and surrounded himself with poles as usual. These precautions proved timely; for during the night, a party of Indians, armed with arrows, ap- . proached. The rustling of the canes warning La- salle, he gave them to understand, without quitting his entrenchment, that if they did not retire, he would order his men to fire. The night passed with- out any further disturbance. and in the morning, the
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hosts and the guests parted with apparent marks of friendship.
Eight miles further, they came to a village of the Chinonoas. These Indians dwelt in the neighbour- hood of the Spaniards, who often came among and vexed them. They immediately recognised the French as being of another nation, by their language and mien; and their hate of the Spaniards, inspired them with the opposite sentiment for their present visitors, who were not long without letting their hosts know, they were at war with the Spaniards. The Indians pressed Lasalle to tarry, and accom- pany them on an expedition they were projecting, against their troublesome neighbours. He excused himself on the smallness of his party, who were ill provided with arms. He was supplied with provi- sions, and took leave.
On the next day, Rica, the Indian servant of La- salle, stopped suddenly, exclaiming he was a dead man; he immediately fell, and in a few minutes, · swelled to an astonishing degree. He had been bitten by a rattle snake. After the scarification of the wound, and the application of such herbs, as his countrymen quickly pointed out, he was relieved. This accident detained the party during two days.
They next came to a wide river, which rendered it necessary to make a raft with canes and branches covered with hides. Lasalle, his nephew and two servants, ventured on it first. When they reached the middle of the stream, the violence of the current carried them out of the sight of their companions. After floating thus for a couple of miles, the raft rested on a large tree which had fallen into the river, almost torn out by the roots. By pulling on its branches, they found the means of reaching the op- posite shore. The rest of the party remained all
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the night and the following day in distressing un- certainty. They proceeded along the river, loudly calling their leader, and night came on without their being relieved; but in the morning, the calls being resumed, were soon answered by Lasalle from the opposite shore. A stronger raft was made, and the rest of the party crossed.
They now reached a village of the Cenis, having overtaken an Indian on horseback, who was return- ing to it. His wife sat behind him, and other horses followed, loaded with the produce of his chase. He gave part of it to Lasalle, and preceded the party into the village, leaving his wife with them. Some of the chiefs came out to meet the French, who staid several days, and traded with their hosts for some horses. This was the largest settlement, Lasalle had come to. It extended for upwards of twenty miles, interspersed with hamlets of ten or twelve cabins. These were large, often exceeding forty feet in length. Dollars were seen among the peo- ple, and many articles of furniture, as spoons, forks, plates, &c., which manifested they traded with the Spaniards. Horses were in great plenty, and the Indians very willing to part with a serviceable one, for an axe. Lasalle saw, in one of the cabins, a printed copy of one of the Pope's Bulls, exempting Mexicans from fast during the summer. The natives made a very good map of their country on pieces of bark, and shewed they were within six days' march from the Spanish settlements.
After staying five or six days, Lasalle proceeded to the Nassonites, where he was received with much courtesy. It was perceivable that the Indians of this tribe, had much intercourse with the Spaniards; for when they saw father Athanase, they made the sign of the cross and kneeled, to give him to understand,
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they were acquainted with the ceremonies of the mass. Here, four men of the party deserted, at- tracted, as was believed, by the charms of some of the Cenis women.
Lasalle and his nephew fell dangerously ill. Two months elapsed, before they felt themselves in a si- tuation to travel. His ammunition now was exhaust- ed, and he was at the distance of four hundred and fifty miles in a straight line from his fort. The party unanimously agreed to return. On their march back, one of them attempting to swim across a river was devoured by an alligator. They reached the fort, on the seventeenth of October.
There was a considerable tract of land cleared, and under cultivation. Comfortable houses had been built, and gardens were to be seen near most of them; the settlement was in a flourishing condi- tion, and the Indians, in the immediate neighbour- hood, were friendly.
After a stay of two months with the colonists, La- salle determined on returning by the way of Canada to France, in order to solicit a reinforcement of hus- bandmen and mechanics. He sat off in the begin- ning of the new year, accompanied by his brother and nephew, father Athanase and seventeen men. He took the same route as before. There were in the party, when they left the settlement, two brothers of the name of Lancelot. The younger, being weak and infirm, was unable to keep up, and was sent back on the second day; the elder was desirous to re- turn also: but Lasalle, thinking the party too weak, refused his consent. The young man was met near the settlement by a party of Indians, who killed him. Intelligence of this misfortune reaching the party. the surviving brother, casting the blame on Lasalle. did not conceal his resentment; but vented it in
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threats. At length, it seemed to have subsided. After a march of about two months, provisions fail- ing, this man with Liotot, the surgeon, Hiens and Duhault, were sent to kill buffaloes and salt and smoke the meat. These persons, displeased with Lasalle and his nephew, who commanded this small detachment, plotted their destruction. In the even- ing of the seventeenth of March, Liotot despatched Lasalle's nephew, his servant and an Indian, with an axe. His companions standing by, ready to defend him with their arms, had any resistance been made. Lasalle, missing his nephew, left the party with father Athanase, and retrograded. Meeting Lancelot, he inquired whither his nephew was; the wretch pointed to a spot, over which a number of buzzards were hovering; as Lasalle advanced, he met with another of the accomplices, to whom he put the same ques- tion; but Duhault, who lay concealed in high grass, fired ; the ball lodged in Lasalle's head ; he fell and survived an hour only. This was on the nineteenth of March 1687, near the western branch of Trinity River.
The murderers, joined by other malcontents, tak- ing possession of the provisions, ammunition and every thing that belonged to the deceased, compel- led the rest of the party to continue with them. In a quarrel among themselves, two of them were killed, and the rest sought an asylum among the Indians.
Lasalle's brother, father Athanase and five others .continued their route towards the Illinois. A few days after, de Monte, one of them, bathing in a river, was drowned. In the latter part of July, this small party reached the country of the Arkansas. They noticed a large cross fixed in the ground, near a house built like those of the French in Canada. Here they found two of their countrymen, Couture
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and Delaunay, natives of Rouen, who had come thither from the fort at the Illinois. Here the party learned that the Chevalier de Tonti, on his way to the mouth of the Mississippi, to meet Lasalle, had left six Frenchmen, at the Arkansas; four of whom had returned to the Illinois. After staying some time . with Couture and Delaunay, the travellers disposed of their horses and procured canoes, in which they ascended the Mississippi, and the river of the Illi- nois to Fort St. Louis, which they reached on the fourth of September. The Chevalier de Tonti was absent, and Bellefontaine, his lieutenant, comman- ded. The travellers thought it prudent to conceal the death of Lasalle; they staid but a few days in the fort, and proceeded, by the way of Michillimackinac to Canada, and landed at Quebec, on the ninth of October, and soon after took shipping for France.
Charlevoix .- Tonti .- Hennepin.
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CHAPTER VI.
The English excite the Iroquois against the Indian allies of the French .- Proposals of James II. to Louis XIV. for the neutrality of their American dominions .- In- · structions to Denonville .- The English attack Iberville, in Hudson's Bay, and he repels them .- Iroquois Chiefs decoyed, made prisoners and sent to the galleys at Mar- seilles .- Vaudreuil leuds the Canadian forces against the Iroquois .- Correspondence between Denonville and the . Governor of New York .- The French are attacked in a defile .- Good conduct of their red allies and the mi- litia .- The Iroquois are routed, one of their villages is burnt, and their plantations laid waste .- Denonville marches back to Niagara and builds a fort .- Epidemic disease .- The Iroquois ravage the plantations near Fort Frontenac .- They sue for and obtain peace .- Po- pulation of Canada .- Abdication of James 11 .- Wil- liam and Mary .- Distress of the Colony on the Gulf of Mexico .-. Alonzo de Leon scours the country .- Province of Texas .- Frontenac returns to New France. Commissioners for settling the boundaries of the French and English Colonies in North America .- Frontenac's instructions .- De Callicres .- La Caffiniere .- Projected attack of New York .- Irruption of the Iroquois -De- -claration of War between France and England .- Corlaer, Sermente and Kaskebe .- Medal .- Famine. Vaudreuil takes possession of Acadie .- Du Palais .- The English possess themselves of Hudson's Bay .- Iberverville retakes it und winters there .- Scurvy .- iber- ville reduces the Fort at Pentagoct .- The English land in Acadie and distress the planters .- Iberville's success in New Foundland .- The Fort in Hudson's Bay taken by
. the English, and retaken by Iberville .- Pcace of Ris- wick .- De Callieres.
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DURING the fall of 1687, a party of the Iroquois fell on some of the Indians in alliance with the French . near Michillimackinac. Father Lamber- ville, the missionary at that post, was informed that this attack had been determined on at a meeting of deputies of several tribes, the chiefs of which had been lately convened at Albany, by the governor of New York, who had assured them the Marquis de Denonville meant to wage war against them: the governor advised them to begin it themselves, by falling on the French or their allies, whenever they met them, as, not suspecting any attack, they would be found an easy prey. He promised that, whatever might be the consequences, he never would for- sake his red allies.
While the government of New York was provok- ing its Indians to hostilities against Canada, James the second was apparently pursuing quite a differ- ent line of conduct. The Marquis received a letter from the Minister, informing him that the cabinet of St. James had proposed to the Ambassador of France, a treaty of neutrality, between the subjects of the two crowns in North America; and its offers having been accepted, one had been concluded in the preceding fall. The Marquis was accordingly directed to have the treaty published throughout the colony, and registered in the superior council, and to see it faith- fully executed by the king's subjects in Canada.
By the fourteenth and fifteenth articles, it was agreed that the two sovereigns should send or- ders to their respective governors and other officers, to cause to be arrested and prosecuted, as pirates, the captains and crews of all vessels, sailing without a commission, and any of the subjects of either king, sailing under one from a prince or state at war with him.
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It does not appear that the English had any other view, than to lull the French into security ; for they fell on Fort St. Anne, in Hudson's Bay ; but Iberville, who commanded there, repelled the assailants, took one of their ships, and burnt a house which they had erected on the sea-shore.
Louis the fourteenth, with the view of increasing the crews of his galleys, and avenging the ill treat- ment of his subjects who fell into the hands of the Iroquois, had directed the Marquis' predecessor to send over all those Indians taken in war, to be em- ployed on board of the galleys at Marseilles. The Marquis, under this order, had the imprudence of de- coying, through various pretences, a number of Iro- quois Chiefs, into Fort Frontenac, where he had them put in irons and afterwards sent over. This unfortu- nate step was disowned at court; but the Indians were not ordered back. The disavowal had the ef- fect of emboldening the Iroquois, who attributed this act of justice and humanity to the king's apprehen- sion of exciting the resentment of their nation. It attached them the more to the English.
In the summer, these Indians becoming more and more troublesome, it was deemed necessary to march against them. The Chevalier de Vaudreuil, who had been sent to command the troops, took the field. He encamped on the island of St. Helen, op- posite that of Montreal, with eight hundred regulars and one thousand militia. Champigny de Norroy, the intendant, preceded the army to Fort Fronte- nac: the Marquis followed it. At the fort, he received a letter from the governor of New York, complaining bitterly of the French making war against the allies of his sovereign. At the same time a piece of infor- mation was received, showing that but little reliance was to be placed on the writer's apparently peacea-
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ble disposition. A party of sixty white men from Albany, attended by a number of Indians, and guided by a French deserter, were surprised carrying goods and amunition to Michillimackinac. The officer commanding there, seized the goods and amunition, made the English prisoners, and sent the deserter to the Marquis, who had him shot.
The army now moved to the river des Sables, and marched into the country of the enemy. After hav- ing safely passed through two defiles, it was attacked by a party of about eight hundred Iroquois, who, pouring a destructive fire on its van, ran to at- tack its rear, while another party repeated the charge in front. This threw the army in some confusion; but the allied Indians, better used to fight in the woods, stood together, till the French rallied to them. The regulars, to whom this kind of warfare was quite novel, were not so useful in this instance as the militia. The army, now collected, dispersed the Indians. The French had only six men killed : the Iroquois forty-five killed and sixty wounded. The Marquis now marched to and encamped in one of the largest villages of the enemy, which was found quite deserted, and every house in it was burnt. After rambling for ten days, and laying waste every settlement and destroying every plantation, the Mar- quis, finding his regulars and militia much weakened by fatigue and disease, and his Indians impatient of returning, gave up the pursuit and returned to Nia- agara, where he employed his men in building a fort.
In the fall an epidemic disease ravaged the colony. Fort Chambly and Fort Frontenac were attacked in November; although the Indians were repelled in both places, they committed great ravages on the plantations of the neighbourhood, and burnt several houses.
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They made proposals of peace, in 1688, the follow- ing year, on condition that their chiefs in Marseilles should be brought back. The Marquis willingly ac- cepted these offers. The frontier settlers had been prevented, by the dread of new irruptions, from cul- tivating their fields. Dearth prevailed all over the colony, and the enemy was the more to be feared, that he had a powerful aid in the English at New York.
According to a census of this year, Canada had a population of eleven thousand two hundred and forty- nine persons.
James attempting to establish popery, had become obnoxious to the people; he was cruel and oppress- ive, and his subjects. who, half a century before, had led his father to the scaffold, offered his crown to the prince of Orange, the husband of his eldest daughter.
William landed in England, on the fourth of Novem- ber, 1688. James, terrified, abdicated his crown and fled to France. The Irish for awhile supported his cause; but William and Mary were soon after re- cognised as sovereigns of the three kingdoms.
The people left by Lasalle in Fort St. Louis, not receiving any succour from France, and their stock of amunition being exhausted, were unable to de- fend themselves against the neighbouring Indians. Disease made great havoc among them ; in the mean- while, the Viceroy of Mexico, in compliance with a standing article of his instructions, by Philip the se- cond, enjoining the extermination of all foreigners who might penetrate into the gulf of Mexico, directed an expedition to be formed at Cohaguilla, under the orders of Don Alonzo de Leon, to scour the country and hunt out the French colonists, if any were still remaining. This officer, with a small force, arrived on the twenty-second of April, 1689, at Fort St. Louis, and on the twenty-fourth, at the entrance of the bay,
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where he found the hull of the French vessel that had been wrecked. He saw no white man at either place. Having heard, on his march, that some of Lasalle's companions were still wandering about the country, or had taken refuge among the Indians, he shaped his course towards the Assinais, but found no trace of those he was in quest of. It is said that Don Alonzo was courteously received by the Assinais, and gave these Indians the appellation of Texas or friends. A few years after, the Spaniards sent mis- sionaries into this part of the country, and afterwards established military posts or presidios, among these Indians. These missions or posts were the begin- ning of the Spanish settlements in the province of Texas.
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