USA > Louisiana > The history of Louisiana : from the earliest period, Volume I > Part 15
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The Count de Frontenac was now appointed governor-general of New France. In his instructions, which bear date of the seventh of June, 1689, it is sta- ted that the reciprocal and repeated attacks of the French and English in Acadie and Hudson's Bay, had induced the appointment of commissioners, on the part of the two crowns, to report on their respective pretentions ; but, as the facts alleged, by either party, were not admitted by the other, the conferences had been suspended, till they could be verified. In the meanwhile, the late revolution in England had put, at least for the present, an end to these negociations. The count was, therefore, instructed to aid the company trading to these places, and drive the English from the ground they had usurped. He was informed that, with regard to Acadie, the English commissioners had recognised the rights of France on the territory, as far as Pentagoet ; and the attack of the forts on that river, by the people of Boston had been disavowed ; and he was instructed to take, in concert with Monneval, governor of Acadie, the
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measures necessary to prevent the repetition of a like outrage. It was announced that the king. in- formed that the English of New York continued their intrigues with the Iroquois, inducing them to wage war against his Canadian subjects and his Indian al- lies, whom they supplied with arms and ammunition, had determined on carrying into execution, a plan, projected by Callieres. the governor of Montreal. for taking possession of the city and province of New York, and had directed La Caffiniere to proceed with a naval force to Acadie and follow the count's direc- tions.
On his arrival in Acadie, with this naval comman- der, while the governor-general was concerting with him the plans of simultaneous attacks by the navy on the city of New York, and the land forces on Al- bany, the intelligence he received from Canada was such as to induce him to forego every plan of offensive operation against the English.
Fifteen hundred Iroquois made an irruption, in the island of Montreal, on the twenty-fifth of August. This overpowering force struck every one on the island with consternation : no resistance was made. The Indians laid the plantations waste, burnt the house and massacred the male inhabitants that fell
into their hands. The females were made prisoners; but even all their lives were not spared. The bellies of pregnant women were ripped open, and the fruit torn out of the womb. Small children were put on the spit, and the mother compelled to turn it. Two hundred persons were killed, in the small settlement of La Chine, the first they attacked. As they advan- ced towards the town of Montreal, destruction, fire and smoke marked their way. They made them- selves masters of the fort, notwithstanding the vigor- ous and resolute resistance of Robeyre, who com-
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manded there. Thus they were in possession of the whole island ; they kept it till October. -
On the arrival of the Count de Frontenac at Que- bec, the Iroquois retreated for awhile, in order to provide the means of returning soon, in a situation to pursue their irruptions as far as the capital, where they intended to co-operate with an English fleet, which they expected to meet before it. They boast- ed that before the spring, there should not be one Frenchman alive in Canada.
In the meanwhile, war had been declared in France against England, on the twenty-fifth of June. The winter was spent in Canada, in making arrange- ments for the campaign of the following year. The chiefs lost not, in their attention to the measures which the defence of the colony demanded, the view of the offensive ones, recommended by the king against New York and Albany-considering the re- duction of the English colony, as the only mean of protecting that committed to their care: but the spring vessels brought the king's orders to abandon the projected attack on the city of New York by sea, the immense armaments, which circumstances re- quired in Europe, disabling the minister of the navy from sparing any ships for that purpose.
Three large detachments of the army advanced in the spring on the northern frontier of New York, and had considerable success. They took Corlaer, Ser- mantel and Kaskebe.
Afterwards, a party of the Iroquois came to the mouth of the river Sorel, and carried off a number of lads, who were pasturing cattle. The Iroquois were pursued and the lads brought back, except one, whom they had killed, because he could not keep up with them.
Another party, who came to the island of Orleans. LOU. I. 17
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was attacked by a farmer, of the name of Columbet, who collected twenty-five of his neighbours. He was killed, with a few of his followers; but the Iroquois were repelled and left twenty-five of their men on the field of battle.
A third made about thirty prisoners, men, women and children: they were followed, but the pursuit proved a fatal one to them, as the Indians, unable to escape with their captives, massacred them all.
The French had no naval force in North America. The English colonies supplied the mother country with one; and Sir William Phipps, sailing from Bos- ton with a small fleet, on the twenty-second of May, took Port Royal, in Acadie, and soon after the other ports of that colony. Thence he proceeded to the island of New Foundland, where he pillaged the port of Plaisance.
On the sixteenth of June, his fleet, now consisting of thirty-four sail, cast anchor below Quebec, and he summoned the Count de Frontenac to surrender. On receiving a resolute answer, Sir William approached the city. and the fort began a fierce cannonade: the flag-staff of his ship was broken by a shot, and a Ca- nadian boldly committed himself to the waves to take it: he succeeded, notwithstanding the brisk fire of the musketry, and the flag was triumphantly carried to the cathedral, where it was deposited as a trophy? On the eighteenth, fifteen hundred men landed, and were repulsed with the loss of three hundred. On the next day, the shipping drew near and cannonaded the lower town; but the fire from the castle soon compelled them to retire in some confusion. On the twentieth, a larger body was landed than before, at some distance below the city : they boldly advanced towards it; but the count sallied forth, with all his force, and repulsed them. They retreated to the
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place of their landing, where the vicinity of the ship- ping prevented him from following them. During the night, five pieces of artillery were landed, and in the morning the enemy advanced with these; but the count coming out, with a larger force than the pre- ceding day, the English retreated at first in tolerably good order; but the galling fire of the French on the rear, and of their Indians on the land side, soon threw them in great confusion: those who reached the boats, embarking and pushing off in much haste, left their companions and cannon behind ; many of those were killed and the rest taken.
The fleet now weighed anchor and drifted down. They stopped out of the reach of the guns of the French, till an exchange of prisoners was made-Sir William having several on board of his fleet, taken in Acadie, New Foundland, and along the St. Law- rence as he ascended it.
He had expected that while he was attacking Que- bec, a number of Iroquois, swelled and directed by some of his countrymen from Albany, would enter the island of Montreal and fall on the town : thus creating a necessity for the division of the forces of the colony, which would ensure the fall of Quebec, and finally enable him to make himself master of the whole province. But the English did not find among the Iro- quois all the warriors they expected to join. The garrison of the upper fort had been reinforced and. well supplied with arms and ammunition, and an at- tack being expected above, rather than below, the militia were able to disperse the parties of the Iro- quois, who approached.
Louis the fourteenth caused a medal to be struck in commemoration of this negative victory ; which is believed to be the first event, in the history of Ame- rica, of which there is a numismatic record. The inscription on the medal is, Francia in novo orbe victrix.
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In the fall, the scarcity of provisions was ex- treme. The alarm, in which the country had been in the spring and the beginning of the summer. had drawn most of the people from their farms during seed time : and although a small fleet of merchant vessels, which entered the river while the English were attacking Quebec, found a shelter, till after their departure, up the Saguenay, the supply they brought in afforded but a temporary relief and was soon exhausted. The famine was most severely felt in the capital : the troops were sent in small detach- ments in every parish, and the men scattered among such farmers, as could best afford them subsistence. They were all very cheerfully received.
The Iroquois came down in great numbers the following spring. A body of upwards of one thou- sand encamped near the island of Montreal : a de- tachment of one hundred and twenty was sent nor- therly, and one of two hundred southerly. The first fell on the settlements of the Pointe aux trembles, where they burnt upwards of thirty houses and made several prisoners, whom they treated with extreme cruelty. The other, among whom were about twen- ty Englishmen, went towards Chambly, where they laid all the plantations waste, capturing men, women and children. Several other parties went in various directions : all carrying desolation before them. The colonists could not keep any large force together, owing to the improbability of finding subsistence. Small bodies, however, kept the field, and scoured the country with so much success, that the foe was compelled to retreat.
A victualling convoy, which arrived during the . summer, enabled the Canadians to wait for the sea- son of reaping.
The Chevalier de Villebon, appointed governor of Acadie, arrived at Port Royal in November : find-
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ing no English force there, he called the inhabitants together, and, hoisting the white flag, took quiet and formal possession of the country.
Canada was greatly disturbed in the following year by the Iroquois : the French had several skir- mishes with large parties of these Indians; but no decisive action took place.
In the latter part, a French fleet under the orders of Du Palais, came on the Canadian sea. The Eng- lish attacked Plaisance, in the island of New Found- land without success : and the government of Massa- chusetts was equally unfortunate in an attempt against Villebon in Acadie.
In 1693, king William determined to indulge the people of New England and New York, with a second effort to reduce Quebec-the frontier settlements of these provinces being incessantly harrassed by irruptions of the Indians allied with France, often directed by the white people ; but an attack on Mar- tinique was the previous object of the naval and land forces destined against Canada. A contagious fever broke out in the fleet, while it was in the West Indies, and by the time the ships reached North America, had swept away upwards of three thousand soldiers and sailors. This disaster prevented any hostility against Canada or Acadie. Fort St. Anne, in the bay of Hudson, was taken by the English.
Iberville was in the following year, sent thither with two ships, and a small land force. The Eng- lish had a garrison of fifty men only, in Fort Nelson. There was no military officer commanding there; but, they were under the orders of a factor of the company ; he made no resistance. On its being re- duced, its name was changed to Fort Bourbon ; Iber- ville wintered there. The scurvy made a great havoc among his people. In the summer he left the
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command to Lasaut, to whom he gave Marigny, as his lieutenant, with a garrison of sixty Canadians and some Indians. He brought away a very considerable . quantity of furs and peltries, collected from the natives.
In Canada, the Count de Frontenac, contrary to the representations of the Intendant, the advice of his military officers, and the directions of the Minis- ter, took upon himself to rebuild the fort at Cata- rocoui. He went up, with seven hundred men for this purpose. It was in vain objected to him, that this force, and the funds that were thus to be em- ployed, might be more usefully used in an offensive expedition against the Iroquois, who continued to annoy the distant settlements. He left in it a garrison of fifty-eight men.
In the fall, the Count and the Intendant recom- mended to the Minister, to send ten or twelve ships of the line against an English fleet that was expected in the Canadian sea, and to attempt the reduction of Boston. They represented that town as carrying on a considerable trade, and assured him its falling into the hands of the French would ensure the fishe- ries exclusively to them. The king's council, how- ever, determined on confining the operations of the next campaign in America, to driving the English from the places they occupied in New Foundland, and the fort of Penkuit, from which they continued to harrass the settlements in Acadie, and which, being in the immediate neighbourhood of the Abenaquis, gave the people of New England, a great oppor- tunity of subduing these Indians, or at least of seduc- ing them from their alliance with, and dependence on the French crown.
Accordingly, in the next summer, Iberville arrived with two ships, on the coast of Acadie, and on the
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third of July, met with three ships of war of the ene- my; one of which, the Newport of sixty guns, he captured : a heavy fog, that rose during the en- gagement, favoured the escape of the other two. Having taken fifty Indians on board at Beaubassin, he proceeded to Pentagoet, where the Baron of St. Castin, had marched with twenty-five soldiers and two hundred and fifty Indians. On the fifteenth, the Baron, having raised two batteries, sent a summons to the Commandant, representing the land and naval forces, ready to co-operate against him, as too large to admit of a successful resistance. The English- man replied, that if the sea was covered with French ships, and the country around with French soldiers, he would not think of surrendering the fort, as long as he had a gun to fire. On this, a cannonade be- gan, from the batteries and shipping. Iberville landed during the night and erected a bomb battery. On the next day, fire bombs, thrown into the fort, appeared to create confusion : the Baron now sent word that, if the besieged waited for the assault, they would have his Indians to deal with, whom it might . possibly be out of his power to control. This threat had its effect, and the fort capitulated.
Iberville, after this, sailed for New Foundland. An English fleet still hovered on the coast of Acadie : its commander, having landed four or five hundred men at Beaubassin, was shown by the inhabitants an instrument of writing, left with them by Sir Wil- liam Phipps, declaring that, as they had submitted to the forces of William and Mary, he had taken them under his sovereign's protection. They were answered, they should in no manner be injured. Orders were accordingly given to the soldiers, who were prohibited from taking any thing, except such cattle as might be needed for the fleet; for which,
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payment was promised. The commodore walked with the inhabitants, who had waited on him, to the house of one Bourgeois, where he and his officers were entertained, and where the most respectable inhabitants came to visit him. The soldiers, how- ever, went about pillaging, and treating the Acadians as a conquered people, and when complaints were made to the chief, he did not restrain them. Walk- ing out accidentally, towards the church, he noticed a paper stuck on the door, subscribed by Count de Frontenac. It contained regulations, respecting the traffic with the Indians. Pretending to be much irri- tated at this discovery, he charged the inhabitants with a breach of their sworn neutrality, ordered the church to be set on fire, and authorised his soldiers to continue the pillage. The plantations were laid waste, and most of the houses burnt. The forces being re-embarked, the fleet went to the river St. John, where an unsuccessful attack was made on the fort.
In the meanwhile, Iberville went to New Found- land, where he had considerable success, and took the Fort of St. John. He was preparing to drive the English from the two only places which they held in that island, when he received orders to sail for the bay of Hudson, with four ships which arrived from France. The English had captured Fort Bourbon, in that bay. He iost one of his ships in the ice, and a storm separated two of the others from him. The . ship he was in was drove ashore in another gale : but the two who had disappeared, joining the one he had left, he gave battle to some English ships, which he found in the bay. He sunk one of them and took another ; the third escaped-and towards the middle of September he re-captured Fort Bourbon.
The peace of Riswick, in the meanwhile, put an
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end to hostilities. On the twentieth of September, Louis the fourteenth acknowleged William the third, king of England, and the two monarchs agreed mutu- ally to restore to each other, all conquests made during the war, and to appoint commissioners to ex- amine and determine the rights and pretentions of each to the places situated in Hudson's Bay.
In the following year, Count de Frontenac died, and was succeeded, in the government-general of New France, by the Chevalier de Callieres.
At this period, the population of New France did not exceed sixteen thousand ; that of Canada being thirteen, and that of Acadie three thousand.
We have seen that, before the accession of the Bourbons and the Stuarts, in the early part of the seventeenth century, all the efforts of France and England, towards colonization in the western hemis- phere had proved abortive. The progress of these nations, under the princes of those houses, were simultaneous, but unequal, both in the means em- ployed and the result. Vast were those of France : exiguous those of England. Yet the population of the colonies of the latter, was sixteen times that of those of the former: it exceeded two hundred and sixty thousand.
Judge Marshal has shown, in his history of the colonies planted by the English in North America, how immense and rapid are the advances of a com- munity, allowed to manage its own concerns, unaid- ed, and even checked at times, by a distant admin- istration. Sequar, sed haud passibus equis. Mine shall be the humble task to show how small and tardy are those advances in a colony, absolutely guided by the mother country, notwithstanding the great assistance the latter may afford to the former.
About three-fourths of a century, after Henry the LOU. I. 18
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fourth laid the foundation of Quebec, William Penn, an individual of the English nation, cut down the first tree, on the spot which Philadelphia now covers, and in about twelve years after, the quaker, by his unaided exertions, had collected twenty thousand persons around his city : one-fourth more than the efforts of three successive monarchs of France, com- manding the resources of that mighty kingdom, and employing several ships of the royal navy in the transportation of soldiers and colonists, had been able to unite in New France.
Charlevoix.
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CHAPTER VII.
Iberville's offers to plant a French colony in Louisiana are accepted .- An expedition is prepared, sails from La Rochelle, and touches at Hispaniola .- Andres de la Riolle .- Pensacola .-- Massacre, Horn, Ship, Chan- deleur and Cat Islands .- A settlement begun on Ship Island .- Bay of Pascagoula .- Biloxi and Bayagoula Indians .- Iberville and Bienville enter and ascend the Mississippi .- Fork of Chetimachas .- Washas .- Pla- quemines .- Bayou Manchac .- Oumas .-- Point Cou- pée .- Portage de la Croix .- Lakes Maurepas and Pontchartrain .- Bay of St. Louis .- A fort built on the Bay of Biloxi .- Iberville leaves Sauvolle in command and sails for France -Scotch colony at Darien .- Sau- volle sends a small vessel to Hispaniola for provisions .- Colapissas .-- Chickasaws .- Missionaries among the Yazoos and Tunicas .- Mobile and Thome Indians visit Sauvolle .- English Turn .- French Protestants .- Return of Iberville .- Boisbriant .- St. Denys .- Mal- ton .- A fort built on the Mississippi .- The Chevalier de Tonti .- The Natchez and Tacnsas .- St. Come .- Rosalie .- Yatassees .- Protest of the Governor of Pen- sacola .-- Washitas .- Red River .- Iberville sails for France .-- Philip V .- War of the Spanish succession .- St. Peter and Green Rivers .- Fort Thuillier .- Sagan. Sauvolle dies .- Choctaws, Chickasaws and Alibamons. . - Return of Iberville-Head Quarters removed to . Mobile .- Dauphine Island .- Iberville departs for France .- Queen Anne .- Declaration of War .- Irrup- tion from Canada into Massachusetts and New Hamp- shire .- Attack of St. Augustine .- Wabash .- Apala- chian Indians .- Bienville chastises the Alibamons .- Recruits .- Grey Sisters .- Fire at Biloxi .- Disease .-
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Destruction of the French settlement on the Wabash .- Chickasaws and Choctaws .- Cherokees .- Illinois .- Fa- ther Gratiot .-- Bayagoulas .-- Hurons .- Arkansas .- Iberville's death .- T'unicas .- Taensas .- Attack on Pen- sacola .- Touachas .- Abikas .-- Alibamons .- Another attack on Pensacola .- Irruption from Canada into Massachusetts .- General Nicholson .- De Muys and Diron D'Artaguette .- The English take Port Royal in Acadie .- The settlement on Mobile River removed higher up .- The Chickasaws attack the Choctaws .- Failure of the English in an attempt against Quebec und Montreal .-- La Ville-Voisin .- Anthony Crozat .- Peace of Utrecht.
LOUIS the fourteenth seemed to have lost sight of Louisiana, in the prosecution of the war, which the treaty of Riswick terminated. We have seen that Lasalle had lost his life. in the attempt to plant a French colony on the Mississippi.
Iberville, on his return from Hudson's Bay, flatter- ing himself with the hope of better success, offered to prosecute Lasalle's plan, and was patronised by the Count de Pontchartrain, the Minister of the ma- rine, who ordered an expedition to be prepared at La Rochelle.
Two frigates of thirty guns each, and two smaller vessels were employed in this service. The com- mand of one of the frigates and of the armament was given to Iberville, and that of the other to the Count - de Sugeres. A company of marines and about two hundred settlers, including a few women and children embarked. Most of the men were Canadians, who had enlisted in the troops sent over from France during the war, and were disbanded at the peace.
This small fleet sailed on the twenty fourth of Sep- tember, 1698, for Cape Francois, in the island of St.
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Domingo, where it arrived after a passage of seventy- two days. Here it was joined by a fifty gun ship, commanded by Chateaumorant. Leaving the cape on New-Year's day, the ships cast anchor on the twenty-fifth of January, before the island, which now bears the name of St. Rose.
Iberville sent a boat to the main, where Don Andres de la Riolle had a short time before led three hundred Spaniards, on the spot on which, in the time of Soto, lay the Indian town of Anchusi, and now stands the town of Pensacola. Two ships of his nation were at anchor under the protection of a battery that had just been erected.
Dou Andres received the officer in the boat with civility ; but as his naval force was much inferior to that of the French, declined permitting Iberville to bring in his ships. They proceeded northerly to another island, not very distant, to which from a heap of human bones, near the beach, the name of Mas- sacre island was given. It is now known as Dauphine Island.
Sailing afterwards farther on, they entered a pass between two islands, which received the names of Horn and Ship Islands ; but being stopped by the shallowness of the water, they came out, and shaping their course southwesterly, reached two other islands, now known as those of the Chandeleur, either from the circumstance of their having been first approach- ed on the second of February, Candlemas day, or from their being covered with the myrtle shrub, from the wax of the berries of which the first colonists made their candles. The anchor was cast here, and the pass between Ship Island, and another called Cat Island, (from a number of these animals found on it) was sounded, and the smaller vessels entered through it. The fifty gun ship now returned to St. Domingo;
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and the two frigates remained before one of the Chandeleur islands.
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