USA > Louisiana > The history of Louisiana : from the earliest period, Volume I > Part 17
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gold, arrived in this vessel. The minister, yielding to the illusion which Sagan's memoirs produced, had ordered his services to be secured at a great expense, and instructed Sauvolle to have twenty-four pirogues built and one hundred Canadians placed with them, under the orders of this man, to enable him to pro- ceed to the Missouri and work the mines. He was well known to most of the Canadians in Louisiana, who were conscious he never had been on the Mis- souri. Sauvolle, informed of the character of the man, did not hurry the intended expedition, although, in obedience to his instructions, he gave orders for the building of the pirogues. The frigate staid but a few days in Louisiana.
Sauvolle dying, on the twenty-second of July, Bienville succeeded him, in the chief command and removed from the Mississippi to Biloxi. Parties of the Choctaws and Mobile Indians came a few days after his arrival, to visit him. Their object was to solicit the aid of the French against the Chickasaws, who harrassed them by frequent irruptions in their villages. The French chief. considering that his colony was too weak to be embroiled in the quarrels of the Indian tribes near it, declined giving his visi- tors any offensive aid, but sent an officer, accompan- icd by a few Canadians, to afford the Choctaws his good offices as mediator.
A party of the Alibamons visited the fort, about the same time.
The utter neglect of agriculture, and the failure of the supplies which had been relied on from France, St. Domingo and Vera Cruz, reduced the colony to great distress during the summer : the people hav- ing nothing to subsist on, but a few baskets of corn, occasionally brought in by the natives, and what could be obtained by the chase or drawn from the
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water by the net or line. In the fall, disease added its horrors to those of famine. Most of the colonists sickened and many died ; their number was reduced to one hundred and fifty. They were not relieved till late in December.
Iberville now arrived with two ships of the line and a brig, bringing a reinforcement of troops.
In pursuance of the king's instructions, Bienville left twenty men, under the orders of Boisbriant, at the fort of Biloxi, and moved his head quarters to the western bank of the river Mobile.
The officer, who had accompanied the Choctaws and Mobilians, now returned. He had been suc- cessful, in his mediation, and a peace had been con- cluded, between these Indians and the Chickasaws.
A supply of provisions from Vera Cruz, where Bienville had sent a light vessel, added to a large one by the fleet, restored abundance in the colony, and enabled him toafford relief to the garrison of Pen- sacola, which was reduced to great distress.
Besides the new settlement on Mobile river, an- other was now begun on Massacre Island, the omin- ous name of which was changed to Dauphine Island. Its fine port affording a much more convenient place to land goods, than Ship Island, the coast of Biloxi or Mobile river. Barracks and stores were built, with a number of houses, and a fort was erected to afford them protection.
Iberville returned to France in the fleet.
William the third of England, died on the sixteenth of March, in consequence of a fall from his horse, in the fifty-third year of his age. Mary, his queen, had died in 1694. Neither left issue-Anne her sister, succeeded him.
The new queen declared war against France and Spain, on the second of May. i
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There were other causes of irritation between England and France, than the late increase of pow= er and influence France had acquired in consequence of the occupation of the throne of Spain, by a grand- son of Louis the fourteenth. The late treaty of peace in 1696, had left the boundary line, between the dominions of France and England, unascertained. The queen claimed the whole country to the west of the river of St. Croix, as part of the province of Mas- sachusetts; while the king sought to exclude her sub- jects from the fisheries on the coast, and from all the country east of the Kennebec river. De Callieres, Governor of Canada, proposed to Governor Dudley, of Massachusetts, that the colonies should forbear taking part in the war between the mother countries; but the offer was not acceded to, and hostilities be- gan immediately, by irruptions of the French of Cana- da and their Indian allies, on the frontier settlements of Massachusetts and New Hampshire. Governor Moore. of South Carolina, on the first rumour of the declaration of war, proposed to the Legislature to furnish him the means of making an excursion into Florida. A war with Spain was already a popular measure in all the English American provinces. The colonists considered it as the readiest mean they had of acquiring specie, of which there was generally a great scarcity among them. The appli- cation of Moore was successful, and he soon proceed- ed to the attack of St. Augustine.
This alarmed the Spaniards at Pensacola, and they solicited Bienville's aid. At the same time, an offi- cer from the garrison of St. Augustine reached Mo- bile, on a like errand. The French chief afforded to the governor of Pensacola arms and ammunition, and sent one hundred men, Canadians, Europeans and Indians, to St. Augustine. At the same time he des-
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patched a light vessel to Vera Cruz, to convey in- formation to the vice-roy, of the danger of the pos- sessions of his sovereign, in the neighbourhood of Louisiana and Carolina.
In the meanwhile, the English of Carolina had in- duced the Chickasaws to send emissaries among the Indians, in the vicinity of the settlements of the French on the gulf, to induce them to take part in the war; and in the fall, father Davion and father Limoges, who dwelt among the Natchez, came to Mobile and informed Bienville, the Coroas had kil- led Foucault their colleague, and three other French- men. The commandant of the fort at Albany had also prevailed on the Iroquois to attack the frontier settlers in Canada. The Indians fell also on detach- ed plantations, which the French had, to the south of the lakes, as far as the Wabash. Juchereau, a relation of St. Denys, had led thither a number of Ca- nadians, who successfully employed themselves in collecting furs and peltries. Driven from this place, he had led his party westerly; and a pirogue with some of his men reached Mobile, on the third of February. Their object was to solicit the assistance of the government of Louisiana : Bienville had been instructed to afford it. But the relief he had lately yielded to the Spaniards, the length of time he had been without succour from France, and the wants of his colony, limited the aid he gave Juchereau, to one barrel of powder.
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In the summer, information reached Mobile of the death of the Chevalier de Callieres, governor-general of New France, of which government, Louisiana made a part. He was succeeded by the Marquis de Vau- dreuil.
The men sent by Bienville, to the relief of St. Au- gustine, found, on their arrival there, a naval force
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from the island of Cuba, on the approach of which, the troops of Carolina and their red allies had re- treated. Becancourt, who had gone to Vera. Cruz to give information of the danger of St. Augustine, returned with a letter from the Duke of Albuquer- que, vice-roy of Mexico, in which that. nobleman communicated to Bienville, the orders he had Trom his sovereign, to admit vessels from Louisiana in the ports of his government, and to allow them to export provisions.
The men, whom Lesueur had left at Fort Thuil- lier among the Sioux, for awhile thought that the Mississippi was a sufficient barrier between them and the Indians, under the influence of the English ; but they now found themselves so vigorously attacked, that they could no longer retain their position. They descended the Mississippi, and reached Mobile on the third of March. 1704.
The government of South Carolina, after the forced retreat of its troops, from St. Augustine, had employ- ed a part of them against the Indians, in its neigh- bourhood, under the protection of Spain. Large parties of the Cherokees, Cohuntas, Talapooses and Alibamons, swelled by a number of negroes and headed by Englishmen, invaded the country of the Apalaches. An officer of the garrison of St. Marks, came to Mobile, to inform Bienville that the Apala- che Indians had applied to the commandant of that · fort, for a supply of arms and ammunition, which it had not been thought prudent to grant. In consequence of this, two thousand of these Indians had been com- pelled to remove towards Carolina Two of their villages, the inhabitants of which were catholics, had remained faithful to the Spaniards; their warriors had fought bravely, and two hundred of them had been killed. The enemy had committed much
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waste in the neighbourhood, principally, in the remo- val or destruction of cattle. Bienville was solicited to send a few soldiers to St. Marks : but he thought his garrison too weak to be divided, and supplied the Spaniards with military stores only.
At the same time, a number of Englishmen came among the Alibamons, with the view of inducing them to fall on the French. These Indians resisted their solicitations, and sent word to Bienville to be on his guard, offering to furnish him with corn, of which, they said they had great abundance. The garrison being ill supplied with this article, Dubreuil was sent with a few soldiers to effect a purchase. One of these returned soon after, with a broken arm. He related that the party had been met by twelve of these Indians, at the distance of two days' journey from their village, with the calumet of peace ; but, at night, the Indians treacherously rose on them, and murdered his companions. He succeeded in making his escape, by throwing himself into the river, after having received the stroke of an axe on his arm. The Indians fired several times at him, while he was swimming.
A small fleet, composed of a French frigate, under the order of Lefevre de la Barre, a son of the late governor of New France, and four Spanish sloops, made this year an unsuccessful attack on Charleston, in South Carolina. Sir Nathaniel Johnson, governor of that province, having had timely information of the approach of the enemy, made a powerful and suc- cessful resistance.
Louisiana now suffered greatly from the scarcity of provisions. But, the governor of Pensacola, re- turning from a visit to Mexico, brought a very ample supply for his garrison, and cheerfully relieved his neighbours. They had been obliged to separate, in LOU. I.
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small parties, along the coast, in order to seek a pre- carious subsistence out of the water. Shortly after- wards, the returnof Becancourt, who had been sent to Vera Cruz, restored abundance. Bienville received by him the thanks of the vice-roy, for the aid afforded to the garrisons of St. Marks and Pensacola, with as- surance of his readiness to supply the French at Lou- isiana, with any thing they might need.
The arrival, soon after, of a ship from France (un- der Chateaugué, a brother of Bienville) loaded with provisions and military stores, removed for awhile the apprehension of famine. Seventeen new colo- nists came in her, and brought implements of hus- bandry.
The satisfaction, which the restoration of plenty created, was marred by the arrival of a party of Chickasaws, who reported that five Frenchmen had been killed by the Tagouiaco Indians, who dwelt on one of the streams which flow into the Wabash. These Indians had been excited to this aggression, by some English traders, who had lately arrived among them from Virginia.
These repeated and unprovoked outrages from the Indians, induced Bienville to march against the Ali- bamons, whose treacherous conduct towards the men he had sent, on their invitation to purchase corn in their village, remained unpunished. He left the fort about Christmas, with forty chosen men, attend- ed by a few Chickasaws. He did not meet any of the . enemy until after a march of several days. towards night, and was advised by his officers to delay the attack till day-light. The Alibamons occupied an eminence of difficult access, which the French ap- proached. The night was dark and the ground cov- ered with rushes, and the noise, necessarily made by the French, in their progress, enabled the foe to pour
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in a destructive fire. Two men were killed, and one was dangerously wounded. The Indians now dis- persed, and Bienville was compelled to return with- out inflicting any other injury, than the capture of five pirogues laden with provisions. The Chicka- saws pursued the Alibamons, and afterwards return- ed to the fort, with five scalps, for which they were liberally rewarded.
The garrison received, during the summer, an ad- dition of seventy-five soldiers, who arrived in a fifty gun ship, commanded, by Decoudray. Two Grey Sisters came in the same ship to attend the hospital, and also five priests of the foreign missions (sent by the bishop of Quebec, of whose diocess Louisiana made a part.) Besides these military and spiritual supplies, an ample stock of provisions was brought. Neither were ot! er wants of the colonists forgotten : twenty-three poor girls now landed, and immediately found as many husbands.
A vessel, in which Becancourt, had been sent to Vera Cruz to obtain provisions, returned early in the fall; but he had died on the return voyage.
Ample as the stock of provisions in the colony was now, compared with that of former years, an accident happened in Pensacola, which rendered an early at- tention to future supplies necessary. The fort was con- sumed by fire, and the garrison lost its winter stock of provisions. They did not seek relief among their neighbours in vain.
A party of Choctaws brought to Mobile the scalps of five Alibamons. From them and a party of Chick- asaws, Bienville learnt that a number of Englishmen were busily employed in their villages, in their en- deavours to estrange these Indians, from their alli- ance with the French.
Disease made this year considerable havoc in the
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colony, and small as its population was, it counted thirty-five deaths in the fall.
Father Davion, one of the missionaries who had lately descended the Mississippi, was still in the fort, and it had been thought hazardous to permit him to return. His flock greatly lamented the protracted absence of their pastor. In November, two Tunica chiefs came to escort him back. Bienville told them he could not consent to the return of the priest among them, till they had avenged the death of fa- ther Foucault, his colleague, murdered by the Co- roas, at the instigation of the English, and he expect- ed they would seize the traders of that nation among them, and bring them prisoners to Mobile, with their goods: he offered to supply them with ammunition : h.s proposition was accepted, and St. Denys proposed to go with them, accompanied by twelve Canadians. The party was to be supported by · another Canadian of the name of Lambert, who was returning to the Wabash with forty of his neighbours. The Tunica chiefs sat off, having promised to meet St. Denys at the Natchez. Bienville gave orders for building pirogues ; but before they were finished, ac- counts reached Mobile of the total destruction of the French settlements on the Wabash. by the Indian allies of the British. Lambert gave up his intended journey, and it being thought dangerous for St. Denys and his party to proceed, without the escort which had been anticipated, the project was abandoned. Juchereau sent down to Mobile fifteen thousand hides, which he and his companions had collected on the Wabash.
The Indians near the French were not always in peace among themselves. In the spring, the Chick- asaws made an irruption into the country of the Choctaws, captured a number of their people, car-
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ried them to South Carolina, and sold them as slaves. There were about forty of the former, men, women and children, around the fort of Mobile. These people solicited an escort from Bienville, as they could not return home without crossing the country of the latter. He detached St. Denys with twenty Cana- dians, on this service. As they approached the first . Choctaw village, he went in alone to beseech the chiefs to allow the Indians he escorted to pass. In granting this request, the chiefs stipulated that their head man, should be allowed to reproach the Chick- asaws. in the presence of the French, for the treachery of their people. They were brought into an open field for this purpose, with their guns cocked and their knives in their hands. The Choctaw chiefs were surrounded by three hundred warriors. Their head man, holding a calumet, began by upbraiding the Chickasaws, with the perfidity of their nation. He assured them that, if the French took any interest in their safety, it was from a want of knowledge of their baseness, and it was just they should expiate by their deaths the crimes of their people. He lowered the plumage of the calumet, and at this preconcert- ed signal, the Choctaws taking a correct aim, fired. The Chickasaw women and children alone escaped. This was not, however, effected without the destruc- tion of some of the Choctaws. St. Denys. attempting to interfere, was himself wounded. The Choctaw chiefs brought him back to the fort and a great num- ber of their warriors followed in mournful procession.
During the next month, a number of Chickasaw chief's went to the Tunicas, and embarking, at their village, descended the Mississippi and bayou Man- chac. They crossed the lakes and came to Mobile, to solicit Bienville's mediation, in effecting a reconci- liation, with the Choctaws. Six other chiefs came,
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in another direction, on the same errand. He sent an officer, attended by three Canadians and a num- ber of Thome Indians, to request some of the Choc- taw chiefs to pay him a visit. They came accord- ingly, and peace was concluded between the ( hoc- taws and Chickasaws, and the Thome and Mobile tribes.
The Choctaw chiefs had scarcely returned home, when their country was invaded by two thousand Cherokees, commanded by an English officer from Carolina. Several of their villages were destroyed and three hundred of their women and children were led away into slavery.
· At the time the intelligence of this irruption reach- ed Mobile, father Gratiot, a Jesuit missionary at the Illinois, reached the fort and reported that a party of white men from Virginia had come among these Indians, and instigated them to rise against the French, a number of whom had been killed. The holy man had with much difficulty effected his es- cape, but not without receiving a wound, which was still deemed dangerous.
A party of Choctaws brought the scalps of nine Alibamons to Bienville. These Indians were inces- santly committing hostilities against the French and their allies. Boisbriant was sent with twelve Cana- dians and the Choctaws, to chastise them; but this expedition had but little success. Two scalps of the Alibamons were brought by the Choctaws.
The peace, which through the mediation of Bienville, the Choctaws and Chickasaws had con- cluded, in the fort of Mobile, was but of a short dura- tion. Towards the end of March, the latter made an unprovoked invasion of the country of the former, and brought away one hundred and fifty persons. The French chief could not forget that the Choctaw's
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had yielded to his representations, in burying the hatchet ; and he thought it his duty to assist them against the violators of the treaty. He sent them a considerable supply of powder and lead.
Hostilities among the Indian nations were not con- fined to the neighbourhood of Mobile and Carolina ; but extended across the country to the banks of the Mississippi. The Tensas, compelled by the Yazous to abandon their villages near the Natchez, had come down to the Bayagoulas, who received them with great cordiality. The treacherous guests, regardless of the laws of hospitality, rose, in the night, on their unsuspecting hosts and slaughtered the greater part of them. Fearful afterwards that the Oumas and Colapissas, the allies of the Bayagoulas, might be in- duced, by those who escaped, to avenge the death of their countrymen, the Tunicas sent four warriors of the Chetimachas and Yachimichas, to join them. The houses and fields of the Bayagulas were destroyed and ravaged. The Tensas now turned their arms against their allies, made several prisoners and car- ried them into slavery.
The misfortune of the Bayagoulas excited no sympathy among the French. It was considered as a just retaliation for their treachery in destroying their former friends and neighbours, the Mongou- lachas.
In the fall, a party of the Hurons, from Detroit, came down against the Arkansas; who, being ac- cidentally apprised of their approach, went forward, met, and destroyed most of them. A few of the invaders were made prisoners and brought to the village of the victors, where they were put to death with excruciating tortures.
The colonists learned, with much regret, in the fall of the year, the death of Iberville. He had sail-
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ed from France, with a large fleet, for the attack of Jamaica: but, learning that the English, conscious of their danger, had made such preparations as would probably prevent his success, he proceeded to the islands of St. Kitts and Nevis, on which he raised large contributions. He then proceeded to St. Do- mingo, where he intended taking one thousand troops for an expedition against Charleston. The yellow fever made a great havoc in his fleet. He fell a vic- tim to the dire disease; and the expedition was abandoned.
An Englishman, trading among the Tunicas, was despoiled of his goods: he returned to Carolina and prevailed on some of the Chickasaws, Alibamons and other tribes in alliance with his nation, to accompany and assist him in taking revenge. The Tunicas, find- ing themselves too weak to resist this invasion, sought refuge among the Oumas ; and, like the Tensas, re- warded the hospitality they received, by rising in the unsuspecting hour of rest on this party, and murder- ing or making prisoners of most of them. Some of the Oumas, who escaped, removed to a stream, now known as the bayou St. John, not very distant from the spot on which the city of New Orleans was after- wards built.
On New Year's day, Bourgoing, appointed by the bishop of Quebec, his vicar general in Louisiana, ar- rived at Mobile by the way of the Mississippi. He brought accounts of the death of St. Cosme, a mission- ary and three other Frenchmen, by the Chetimachas. Bienville sent presents to his allies on the Mississip- pi, to induce thein to declare war against these Indi- ans. He was not able to raise more than eighty war- riors. St. Denys joined them with seven Canadians, and led this little band into the country of the Cheti-
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machas, destroyed their villages, ravaged their fields, and dispersed the inhabitants.
During the summer, an unsuccessful attempt was made on Acadie, from New England.
Two hundred Indians, headed by a few English- men. came to Pensacola, sat fire to the houses near the fort, killed ten Spaniards and a Frenchman, and made twelve Apalache or Choctaw Indians prisoners.
A party of Touachas came to Mobile with two scalps and a slave of the Abikas in the beginning of November; they reported the Alibamons were indaily expectation of English troops from Charleston, with whom they were preparing to march to a second at- tack on Pensacola. Accordingly in the latter part of the month, Bienville was informed that the place was actually besieged. At the head of one hundred and twenty Canadians and as many Indians, he marched to its relief. He reached it on the eighth of Decem- ber; the besiegers had withdrawn on hearing of the approach of the French. Their force consisted only of three hundred and fifty Indians, and thirteen white men, commanded by one Cheney, commission- ed by Sir Nathaniel Johnson, governor of South Ca- rolina. The French, after staying three days in Pen- sacola, were ordered, on account of the scarcity of provisions, to return.
A vessel from Havana, laden with provisions, brandy and tobacco, came early in January to trade with the colony. This was the first instance, ten years after the arrival of the French in Louisiana, of a vessel coming to trade with them.
The Marquis de Vaudreuil, governor of Canada had planned a considerable expedition against New England. His allied Indians kept the frontier set- tlers of that country in constant alarm. He was, how- ever, disappointed in his expectation of raising the LOU. .. 22
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force he had contemplated. A strong party of Cana- dians and Indians, nevertheless, entered the province of Massachusetts, and destroyed a part of the town · of Haverhill, killed one hundred of its inhabitants, and carried off seventy prisoners. In the pursuit, howe- ver, a number of the prisoners were retaken, and a few of the French killed. .
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