USA > Louisiana > The history of Louisiana : from the earliest period, Volume I > Part 2
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. XXI
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER XII.
Salmon takes possession of the province for the king. Property of the company purchased. Re- demptioners and muskets. Superior council re- organized. The Natchez are repulsed at Natchi- toches. Negro plot. Exemption from duties. Military peace establishment. Georgia settled. War in Europe. Bienville re-appointed governor. Troops. Furloughs and grants of land. Scarcity of provisions. Card money. Irruption of the Natch- ez. Bienville prepares to march against them. Conspiracy among the soldiers at Tombeckbee. Bienville's unsuccessful attack on a fort of the Chickasaws. The Chevalier d'Artaguette. Span- ish hostilities against the British in the West Indies. The French cabinet approves the plan of a new ex- pedition against the Chickasaws. Peace in Eu- rope. The garrison of St. Augustine reinforced. Bienville at the head of the colonial force ascends the Mississippi. Detachments from Canada and the Illinois. Injudicious delay. Disease. Fam- ine. Celeron marches against the westernmost fort of the Chickasaws. They sue for peace. Bien- ville destroys his forts and the army returns. Death of Charles VI. Maria Theresa. War in Europe. 291
CHAPTER XIII.
The Marquis de Vaudreuil. Superior Council. Geor- gia. Nova Scotia. War. Irruption from Canada. Paper securities. The Island of Cape Breton taken. D'Anville's fleet. Ferdinand VI. Hur- · ricane. Dearth. Relief from the Illinois. Over- seer of the high ways. Surveyor General. Olivi- er Duvezin. Civil Regulations. Peace of Aix-la-
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TABLE OF
chapelle. Redemptioners and muskets. Larou- villiere. Ohio Company. Complaint of the Gover- nor General, of New France. Quota of troops in Louisiana. The culture of tobacco encouraged. British traders among the Twigtwees arrested. Ex- emptions of duty. Recruits from France. Sugar Cane. Mytle Wax. Irruption of the Chickasaws. Vaudreuil marches into their country. A fort built on French creek. Governor Dinwiddie. Major Washington. Kerlerec. Descloseaux. Jumon- ville. Villiers. Fort Necessity. Murder of the Commandant on Cat Island. Beausejour. The Acadian Coast. General Braddock. Fort Du- quesne. Crown Point and Niagara. Declaration of War. The Earl of Loudoun. The Marquis de Montcalm. Fort Oswego and William Henry taken by the French and the Island of Cape Breton and St. John by the British. Fort Frontenac. General Forbes. Fort Duquesne. Fort Massac. Barracks in New Orleans. Rochemore. Diaz Arria. Belot. Marigny de Mandeville. Lahoupe. Ticonderoga. Crown Point, Niagara and Quebec
taken. Charles III. George III. Attakapas,
Opelousas and Avoyelles. Depreciated paper. Unsuccessful negociation between Great Britain and France. The family compact. Martinico, St. Lucie, Grenada and Havana taken. Treaty between France and Spain. Peace of Paris.
CHAPTER XIV. 311
Treaty of Paris. East and West Florida. Gover- nor Johnson. Pensacola. Mobile and Fort Tou- louse. Indian allies of the French. D'Abadie. Major Loftus. Baton Rouge. Natchez. Felici- ana. Manshac. Petit Manshac. The king's let-
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CONTENTS.
ter. Consternation of the colonists. General meeting. Public securities. Jean Milhet. Sugar planters. Dissentions in the British provinces. Aubry. Pirates in the West India seas. Madame Desnoyers. Ulloa. Introduction of African ne- groes. Census. Fort Bute. A Peruvian lady. Spanish troops. New forts. Great cold. Gene- ral meeting. Petition to the council. Thoughts of resistance. Aid asked from Governor Elliot. Decree of the council. Ulloa embarks. The cables of the ship he was in cut. General meeting. A deputation to France. Spanish troops destined for Louisiana arrive at the Havana. Urissa. Ill suceess of the deputation. Edict relating to paper securities. Alternate hopes and fears. A Spanish fleet arrives at the Balize. O'Reilly's message. Town meeting. A deputation is sent. The fears of the inhabitants subside. The Spanish fleet reaches New Orleans. O'Reilly lands and takes possession. 340
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1
HISTORY
OF
LOUISIANA.
PRELIMINARY CHAPTER.
Topographical view of the State of Louisiana.
LOUISIANA. admitted into the confederacy of the United States of America, on the thirtieth of April, 1812, is the southwesternmost state.
It lies from about the twenty-ninth to the thirty- fourth degree of north latitude and between the eighty- ninth and ninety-fifth degree and thirty minutes west longitude from Greenwich.
Its limits are fixed in the preamble of its constitu- tion, and an act of its legislature of the twelfth of Au- gu-t. 1812.
The southern limit is the gulf of Mexico, from Pearl to Sabine river.
The western separates the state, and the United States, from the Spanish province of Texas. It be- gins on the gulf, at the mouth of the Sabine, and fol- lows a line drawn along the middle of that stream, so as to include all islands to the thirty-second degree of north latitude and thence due north to the thirty- third degree.
The northern separates the state, on the western " bank of the Mississippi from the territory of Arkan- "as, and on the eastern from the state of Mississippi.
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PRELIMINARY
The line begins on the point at which the western limit terminates, and runs along the northern part of the thirty-third degree, to a point in that parallel, in the middle of the Mississippi river: on the western side, it begins at a point in the middle of the river in the northern part of the thirty-first degree and runs on that parrallel to the eastern branch of Pearl river.
The eastern separates, in its whole length, the states of Louisiana and Mississippi. It is a line drawn in the middle of the Mississippi river between the two points, already mentioned, and another drawn from the eastern termination of the north boundary on Pearl river, running along the middle of that stream to its mouth in the estuary, which connects lake Pontchar- train with the gulf.
The area, within these limits, is a superfice of about forty-eight thousand square miles : Louisiana being, in extent equal to North Carolina, and superior to every other state in the union, except Virginia, Mis- souri, Georgia and Illinois.
The population to the square mile is three persons; equal to that of Alabama and Indiana, and inferior to that of every other state, except Illinois and Missouri.
The aggregate population is of one hundred and forty-six thousand persons : inferior to those of every state except Alabama, Rhode Island, Delaware, Missis- sippi, Missouri and Illinois: considerably below the one half of the averaged population of the states, which is about four hundred thousand.
The free population is of eighty thousand one hun- dred and eighty three persons; of which seventy thou: sand four hundred and seventy-three are white, and nine thousand seven hundred and ten coloured.
Agriculture employs fifty thousand one hundred and sixty-eight, and manufactures tive thousand seven
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hundred and ninety-seven. The number of foreign- ers not naturalised is three thousand and sixty-two.
Although Louisiana lies between the twenty-eighth and thirty-fourth degrees of north latitude, its tempe- rature widely differs from that of the countries, lying between the same parallels in the old world; the Cape de Verd islands and the southern parts of Al- giers, Tripoli, Tunis. Morocco, Egypt, Arabia Felix, Persia, China and Japan.
We must ascend the Mediterranean, to reach a country in which the degree of cold, which is felt in Louisiana, is experienced, and descend about ten degrees towards the equator to find a country in which the heat felt in Louisiana, prevails,
Cold is seldom so intense in the city of Nice, or Savoy, nor heat greater in Havana, than in New Or- leans, which lies within the thirtieth degree of north- ern latitude. and is consequently never approached by the sun, in his zenith, nearer than six degrees and a hall; for the variety of temperature, observable as the result of other circumstances than the relative pro- pinquity to the equinoctial line, is no where more obvious than in Louisiana. In New Orleans, during the months of June, July and August, the thermometer rises to the ninety-eighth andeven the hundredth de- gree of Farenheit's scale ; which is thegreatest degree heat of the human body, when in health. In winter it sometimes falls to seventeen: and Ulloa relates that he has seen the Mississippi frozen, before New Or- leans, for several yards from the shore. The varia- tions in the thermometer are frequent and sudden: it falls and rises within a few hours, from ten to twenty- four degress.
Summer is the longest season : it continues for five months, besides many hot days in March and April.
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PRELIMINARY .
October and November. In June and July heat is diminished, by eastern breezes and abundant rains ; the hottest days are in August. In this month, and the first part of September, heat is less supportable than in the West Indies, from the absence of the eas- tern breeze.
. The principal causes of heat, in New Orleans and its vicinity are, the equality of the soil, the great timber with which the neighbouring country is covered, and the feebleness of the wind, which does not allow it to penetrate the inhabited parts of the country : add to this, the distance from the sea, which prevents the wind, that reigns there, from reaching the city, in which the air is commonly still during the hot months. ' If the wind comes from the north, it reaches New Orleans, after passing over a vast extent of plains and woods, loading itself with their hot vapour.
Heat, intense as it is, does not seem as in other countries, to concentrate itself in the earth and warm it to a certain depth: on the contrary, the water of the Mississippi, taken from the surface, is warm and from below. cold. This demonstrates that the heat, which prevails in the country, does not penetrate be- low, and is accidental. generated by the absence of wind, or the action of the sun on woods, marshes and swamps.
The effect of great heats is felt in a manner not common elsewhere. In walking after the setting of the sun, one passes suddenly into a much hotter atmos. phere, than that which preceded, and after twenty or thirty steps, the cooler air is felt : as if the country was. divided into bands or zones of different temperatures. In the space of an hour, three or four of these sudden transitions are perceptible.
This is not easily accounted for. It results proba- bly from the burning of the woods, which takes place
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after gathering the crop, and is one of the ordinary causes of heat in the air, in the direction of the fire. The land being equal in quality and form, it cannot be imagined that the rays of the sun are more fixed in one spot, than another. It is likely that some of the columns of air, considered horizontally. remain unmoved since the setting of the sun, and thus pre- serve the heat it communicated; while others, set in motion by a light or variable wind, lose theirs. These mutations are perceived when there is no wind.
In the fall, which is the most pleasant season in Louisiana, and often prolongs itself during the first winter months, the sky is remarkably serene ; especi- ally, when the wind is northerly. In October, the thermometer frequently rises to the seventy-eighth degree, which is the greatest heat in Spain.
In a country, in which the heat of summer is so great and so long, it might not be presumed that the cold of winter should be, at times, so severe as expe- rience shews. Sharp frosts have occurred as early as November, but their duration, at this period, is ex- tremely short. In the latter part of December, in Ja. nuary and the first part of February, the mercury has been known to fall many degrees below the freezing point. But cold days are rare in Louisiana, even in winter. In this season, heat succeeds to cold with such rapidity, that after three days of hard frost, as many generally follow, in which the average heat of summer prevails.
Spring is an extremely short season. A Louisiani- an is hardly sensible of its presence, when the suffo- cating air of summer is felt, for a while, and then win- ter days return.
The winds are generally erratic and changeable. blowing within a short space of time, from every point
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PRELIMINARY
of the compass without regularity, and seldom two successive days from any one.
In July, August and September, there are frequent squalls, with much rain, thunder and lightning, and sometimes gales of wind from the south and south west.
From the middle of October to April, the northern wind prevails and sometimes blows very hard : when it changes to the eastward or southward. it is common- ly attended with close hazy or foggy weather.
In April, May and the first part of June, sea and land breezes prevail and refresh the air.
The south and southwest winds bring rain in win- ter; when they cease, the northwest wind prevails, and cold weather begins. When it continues, and its strengthincreases, it infallibly freezes. When the wind passes from east to west, without stopping, cold is nei- ther great nor lasting; for the wind passes promptly to the east and from thence to south and southwest, and the rain begins.
The north and northwest winds are those which bring cold and hard frost in winter, and a suffocating heat in summer.
The cause of the cold they bring is the same in Lou. isiana, as in all the eastern parts of North America. The immense extent of country. covered with snow over which they pass, probably from the pole; while, on the opposite side of the Atlantic, the continents of Europe and Asia end in the seventy-fifth degree of latitude, and are separated from the pole, by a vast expanse of sea. But there cannot be any other cause of the heat they bring than the large plains, thick woods and wide pieces of water, which they cross ; the humidity of which, acted upon by the intense heat of the sun, gives rise to ardent vapours, the heat of
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which being communicated to the air, instead of cool- ing, renders it more suffocating than in calm weather.
Ulloa noticed in Louisiana a particularity, which he says is not observed elsewhere. At certain times, when rains are abundant, a yellow, thick coat, re- sembling brimstone appears floating on puddles and the big vats or butts, in which rain water is collected and preserved : it is gathered in abundance along the brims of these receptacles. The atmosphere, he ob- serves, is loaded with sulphureous particles, as is evin- ced by frequent tempests; it being rare that rain should not be accompanied by violent thunder. This, he conludes, experience demonstrates to proceed from thick woods, filled with resinous trees, the subtle parts of which are exhaled, and mixing with the sulphure- ous parts of the atmosphere, unite with them, and are together precipitated with the clouds that bring down the tempest. This sulphureous substance is so abun- dant and ordinary, and at times so much more per- ceptible than at others, that this circumstance has given rise to the popular error that a rain of sulphur falls.
Before we proceed to take a view of the face of the country, the gulf on which the state is situated, and the mighty stream which traverses it, attract our at- tention.
The gulf of Mexico may be considered as a great whirlpool. The general course of the waters, in the Atlantic ocean, as well as the current of the air, with- in and near the middle zone, being from east to west, the force of the sea comes upon the West India is- lands and their lengths are in that direction. When the waters get into the great gulf, they are obstructed
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PRELIMINARY
every where, and as it were turned round by the land. The great velocity of this body of water is towards the equator, and it must get out, where it meets with the least resistance, that is on the side towards the pole, where it forms the strong current, or passage, called the gulf stream.
The natural course of the waters therefore, on the northern part of the gulf, should be from west to east: but it is partially changed, by frequent currents which are very unequal, depending certainly on the winds, but seldom on that which blows on the spot.
By the general law of the tides. there should be flood for six hours and ebb during the six following. But here, an ebb will continue for cighteen or twenty hours, and a flood during six or four only, and vice ver- sa.
A southern wind always raises and keeps the wa- ters up in the bays, and a northern almost entirely- empties them. Yet, it must be allowed that these ebbs and flows are not equable in their continuance. Upon an accurate observation of them, we discover a ten- dency to two ebbs and flows in twenty-four hours, though they be overpowered by the winds and cur- rents.
The entrance of the bays and rivers on the gulf is defended generally by a shallow sand bank, forming a bar farther out towards the sea than is usual else- where. The depth on the bar is not at all proportion- ed to that within. The mouths of the rivers are fre- quently divided into different channels, by swamps co- . vered with reeds, owing probably to the conflict be- tween the currents and the rise of the river, in certain seasons of the year.
The water of the gulf is not much heavier than the common. Anaerometer, immersible in common water with a weight of two ounces and twenty two grains
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CHAPTER.
was found so in that of the gulf, with one of two oun- ces and fifty three grains, according to an experience by Father Laval, at the distance of ninety leagues from the coast. Fifty leagues inside of the mediter- ranean, on the coast of Spain, near Almeria, the same instrument floated on sea water with a weight, less than two ounces and sixty six grains. The rea- son of this difference, he concluded was, that larger rivers flow into the gulf, especially the Mississippi, bringing into it a greater quantity of fresh water than those which flow into the mediterranean.
The Mississippi is remarkable by its great length, uncommon depth, and the muddiness and salubrity of its waters, after its junction with the Missouri.
The source of this mighty river is supposed to be about three thousand miles from the gulf.
From the falls of St. Anthony, it glides with a plea- sant and clear stream, and becomes comparatively narrow before it reaches the Missouri, the muddy waters of which discolour those of the Mississippi to the sea.
Its rapidity, breadth and other peculiarities, now give it the majestic appearance of the Missouri, which affords a more extensive navigation, and is a longer, broader and deeper river, which has been ascended near three thousand miles, and preserves its width and depth to that distance.
From their junction to nearly opposite the Ohio, the western bank of the Mississippi (with the excep- tion of a few places) is the highest, thence to bayou Manshac, it is the lowest, and has not the least discer- nable rising or eminence for seven hundred and fifty miles. Thence to the sea, there is not any eminence on either bank, but the eastern appears a little the highest, as far as the English turn, from whence both
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PRELIMINARY
gradually decline to the gulf, where they are not more than two or three feet higher than the common sur- face of the water.
The direction of the channel is so crooked, from the mouth of the Ohio to New Orleans, that the dis- tance is eight hundred and fifty-six miles by water, and four hundred and fifty only by land.
The water of the Mississippi appears foul, turbid and unwholesome, but in reality it is not so. It is so loaded with mud, that being put in a vase, it yields a sediment ; and the sight of a quantity of earthly par- ticles is offensive. In the highest floods, it unroots and carries with it large trunks of trees to a great dis- tance: some covered with verdure, others dry and rotten. This abundance of sound and decayed timber cannot fail to impart some of their substance to the element on which it floats. Yet the mixture is not per- ceptible, and experience has shewn that the water is wholesome.
The river receives a number of other streams, the waters of some of which are saltish and impregnated with metallic particles : but the water of the main ri- ver predominates so much over those of the tributary branches, that it preserves its salubrity.
During the summer, while the Mississippi is low, the water is clear, but not so good as at its flood. That of the sea then ascends to a great distance and affects that of the river, without rendering it unwhole- some. The latter is then warm on the surface, but preserves its coolness below.
Although it is so loaded with dirt, yet it does not generate the stone. It being supposed that, however clarified it may be, it still continues to contain some earthy particles. In many families, a number of jars are used, in order to give time to the water to yield its deposit, and the oldest is used. After having thue
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CHAPTER.
remained for a long time, even for a year. if a portion of the water be taken in a glass, not the least extra- neous particle can be discovered, but it appears as diaphanous as chrystal; yet if it remain one or two days, there will be seen at the bottom a subtle earth resembling soap. A coat of this is seen floating in the large jars. in which the water is put to settle. Com- mon people, especially those who navigate the Mis- sissippi, use its water in the most turbid state : and al- though they do so, while they are weary and sweating, there is no example of its having proved hurtful.
The coolness of the water may be attributed to the northern clime, in which the river has its source, and the great quantity of snow which it receives, or in which it is said to originate, and the ice it brings down from the vast plains west to north, as far as the forty- fifth degree. In this long course, it carries away a prodigious quantity of earthly particles, which, being kept constantly in motion, are so subtilized, that viewed in a glass, they appear like a smoke, filling its capacity. This great subtility is doubtless what communicates to the water, that wholesome quality, which facilitates digestion, excites appetite and main- tains health, without producing any of the inconveni- ences, which other waters occasion.
The Mississippi rises at its flood higher than the neighbouring land, and inundates it, where it is not protected by an artificial bank or levée. Although the river be deep and wide, its ravages, before it was confined by such banks, on the contiguous fields was not very great, owing to the profundity of its bed, which occasions the great strength of its current to be below, where the rapidity and weight of the water unite.
The water that escapes over the levees, or oozes through them, joined to that which flows in placesthat
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PRELIMINARY
are unprotected, as well as the rain water, never re- turns into the river, but fills the vast cypress swamps beyond the tillable land, and finally find their way in- to these lakes, on both sides of the stream, in the vici- nity of the sea. The declivity of the land on the eas- tern side towards lakes Maurepas and Pontchartrain, shews that the carth which the water of the Missis- sippi deposited, formed, in course of time, the island, on which the city of New Orleans stands.
It is clear that the bed of the river rises in the same proportion as its banks. This is manifested by the constant necessity there is of raising the levees.
At the mouth of the river, there is also some evi- dence that its bed rises. About the year 1722, there were twenty five feet of water on the bar : Ulloa found twenty in 1767, at the highest flood, and now in 1826 there are sixteen ; while the depth within has ever remained the same. It is possible that the bar, at the different mouths of the river, may have risen, while the bottom of the bed within may have remained unaltered. But the mass of water, which passes through these mouths, being the same as for- merly, it follows that its force against the waves of the sea is not altered, and no good reason can appear why the sea should retain the sand to a higher level than before on the bank. It is much more natural to con- clude that the bed of the river has risen, whereby its mouths are widened and it meets the waves of the sea with less force. than when it came through deep- er and narrower channels.
The strength and rapidity of the current are such in high water, that before steam was used in propel- ling boats, it could not be stemmed without much la- bour and waste of time : although the sturdy naviga- tors were greatly aided by eddies or countercurrents, which every where run in the bends, close to theshore.
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The current in high water descends at the rate of five and even six miles an hour, and in low water at the rate of two only. It is much more rapid in those pla- ces, where shoals, battures or clusters of islands nar- row the bed of the river : the circumference of these shoals or battures is in some places of several miles : and they render the voyage longer and more danger- ous, at low water.
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