USA > Louisiana > The history of Louisiana : from the earliest period, Volume I > Part 20
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The land, coasts, harbours and islands, in Louis- iana, are granted to the company, as they were to Crozat, it doing faith and homage to the king, and furnishing a crown of gold of the weight of thirty marks, at each mutation of the sovereignty.
It is authorised to make treaties with the Indians, and to declare and prosecute war against them in case of insult.
The property of all mines it may open and work, is granted to it, without the payment of any duty whatsoever.'
The faculty is given it to grant land, even allod- ially, to erect forts, levy troops and recruits, even in
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the kingdom, procuring the king's permission for this purpose.
It is authorised to nominate governors, and the officers commanding the troops. who are to be pre- sented by the directors and commissioned by the king, and removable by the company. Provisional com- missions may, in case of necessity, be granted, to be valid during six months, or until the royal commission arrive.
The directors and all officers are to take an oath of fidelity to the king.
Military officers in Louisiana are permitted to enter into the service of the company, and others to go there with the king's license to serve it. All, while in its service, are to preserve their respective ranks and grades in the royal land and naval forces : and the king promises to acknowledge as rendered to himself all services they may render to the company.
Power is given to fit out ships of war and cast can- non, and to appoint and remove judges and officers of justice : but the judges of the superior council are to be nominated and commissioned by the king.
All civil suits, to which the company may be a party, are to be determined by the consular jurisdic- tion of the city of Paris, the sentences of which un- der a fixed sum, are to be in the last resort: those above are to be provisorily executed notwithstanding, but without prejudice of the appeal, which is to be brought before the Parliament of Paris. Criminal jurisdiction is not to draw with it that of the civil matter.
The king promises not to grant any letter of dis- pensation or respite to any debtor of the company ; and he assures it of the protection of his name, against any foreign nation, injuring the company.
French vessels and crews alone, are to be employed
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by it. and it is to bring the produce of Louisiana, into the ports of the kingdom. All goods, in its vessels, are to be presumed its property, unless it be shewn, they were shipped with its license.
The subjects of the king, removing to Louisiana, are to preserve their national character, and their children (and those of European parents, professing the Roman Catholic religion) born there, are to be considered as natural born subjects.
During the continuance of the charter, the inhabit- ants of Louisiana are exempted from any tax or im- position, and the company's goods from duty.
With the view of encouraging it to build vessels in Louisiana, a gratification is to be paid on the arrival of each of them in France.
Four hundred quintals of powder are to be deliv- ered, annually, to the company, out of the royal magazines, at cost.
The stock is divided into shares of five hundred livres each, (about one hundred dollars.) Their num- ber is not limited; but the company is authorised to close the subscription at discretion. The shares of aliens are exempted from the droit d'aubaine and con- fiscation, in case of war.
Holders are to have a vote for every fifty shares. The affairs of the company are, during the two first years, to be managed by directors appointed by the king, and afterwards by others, appointed triennially by the stock holders.
The king gives to the company all the forts, mag- azines. guns, ammunitions, vessels, boats, provisions, &c., in Louisiana; with all the merchandize surrend- ered by Crozat.
It is to build churches and provide clergymen ; Louisiana is to remain part of the diocess of Quebec. It engages to bring in, during its privilege, six thou- LOU. I. 26
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sand white persons and three thousand negroes ; but it is stipulated, it shall not bring any person from another colony without the license of the governor.
Although the king had consented to redeem the card money that inundated Canada, according to the petition of the planters and merchants of that colony, in 1713, he was tardy in the performance of his engageinent, and it was not till this year, that the circulation of it was stopped. At the same time, the value of coin there, was reduced to the standard of the realm; dearly bought experience having shewn that the rise of its legal value had not a tendency to retain specie in the colony. and that the only mean of preventing the exportation of it, was the payment of whatever was imported, in the produce of the country.
On the ninth of February, 1718, three of the com- pany's ships arrived, with as many companies of infantry and sixty-nine colonists. Boisbriant, who came in this fleet, and who was appointed king's lieutenant in the colony, was the bearer of Bienville's commission. as governor of the province; l'Epinai bring recalled. Hubert had been made director- general of the concerns of the company in Louisiana. The troops and the inhabitants generally saw with great pleasure the chief command restored to Bien- ville. He had spent twenty years in the colony, and was well acquainted with its wants and resources.
The three Canadians, who had gone on a trading expedition to the province of New Leon, in 1716, returned to Mobile. They had been joined by St. Denys, and having supplied themselves with horses and mules at Natchitoches, they journeyed to a small village of the Adayes, which had but thirty warriors. Fording the river here, they came soon after to a group of about ten cabins of the Adeyches; near which the Spaniards had a mission composed of two -
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" friars, three soldiers and a woman. Their next stage was at Nagogdoches, where they found the same number of friars, a lay brother and a woman. The first village of the Assinais was thirty miles farther. Here they met two friars and a woman. St. Denys now parted from his companions and went ahead with a part of the goods. His companions, after journeying for twenty-five miles, reached the first presidio, garrisoned by a captain, lieutenant and twenty-five soldiers; they journeyed along, crossing two streams, about thirty miles to the last village of the Assinais, near which was a mission composed of two friars and a few soldiers. They halted seventy miles farther on the bank of the river Trinity. At near- ly the samedistance, they crossed a river, near which, were immense herds of buffaloes. It had two branches, on the farthest of which was an Indian village of fifty huts. The travellers found Rio Colorado, at the distance of about fifty miles. This is the stream, near the mouth of which, Lasalle built Fort Louis, which the Spaniards destroyed in 1696. Soon after crossing it, the party was attacked by about sixty Spaniards, on horse back, covered with hides, who, intimidated by its spirited conduct, fled; but, shortly after, came upon the rear of the French, and carried away a mulatto woman and three mules, one of which was loaded with a quantity of goods. The French reached, on the next day, the camp of a wandering tribe of Indians, who had erected about thirty huts and who gave them a friendly reception. After a stay of two days to rest, the party crossed on the second day the river St. Mark, and on the evening of the following, that of Guadeloupe. Fording after- wards that of St. Anthony, they stopped at the pres- idio of St. John the Baptist, on the western side of
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Rio Bravo or Del Norte, at the distance of about six miles from the stream.
The garrison of this post consisted of a captain, lieutenant and thirty six soldiers. The settlement was confined to a square, surrounded with mud- houses. Within this command, were the missions of St. Joseph and St. Bernard.
The French were informed here, that the goods, brought by St. Denys, had been seized, and he was gone to Mexico to solicit their release. To avoid a similar misfortune, they placed theirs in the hands of the friars, and afterwards disposed of them to mer- chants from Bocca de Leon. They were tarrying to receive their payment, when accounts reached the presidio, that St. Denys had been imprisoned. This induced them to depart abruptly, and make the best of their way to Mobile.
On their return they found a new mission had been established at the Adayes, under the name of San Miguel de Linarez.
The report of these people convinced the colonial government, that it would be in vain to make any further attempt towards establishing a trade with the neighbouring provinces of Spain.
Bienville, according to the last instructions he had received, despatched Chateaugué, with fifty men, to take possession of the bay of St. Joseph, between Pen- sacola and St. Marks. Chateaugué marked out the lines of a fort, and left Gousy to build and command it.
In the meanwhile, Bienville visited the banks of the Mississippi, in order to select a spot for the prin- cipal settlement of the province. He chose that, on which the city of New Orleans now stands, and left there fifty men to clear the ground and erect barracks.
The company had been taught, by the failure of all the plans of Crozat," that nothing was to be expected
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from a trade with the Spaniards, or the search after mines of the precious metals, in Louisiana; and, that no considerable advantage could attend an exclusive trade with an extensive province, thinly peopled, unless agriculture enabled the planters to purchase, and furnish returns for, the merchandize that might be sent thither. It was imagined the culture of the soil would be best promoted by large grants (many of several miles front on the rivers) to powerful and wealthy individuals in the kingdom.
Accordingly, one was made on the Arkansas river, of twelve miles square to Law, a Scotchman, who had acquired great credit at court, by several plans of finance, which he had proposed. Others of inferior, though still very large, extent, were made-parti- cularly one on the river of the Yazous, to a company composed of Leblanc, secretary of state, Count de Belleville, the Marquis of Assleck and Leblond, who afterwards came to Louisiana, as a general officer of the engineers : others at the Natchez, to Hubert, and a company of merchants of St. Maloes; at the Cadodaquious, above the Natchitoches, up Red river, to Benard de la Harpe ; at the Tunicas, to St. Reine ; at Point Coupée, to de Meuse ; at the place on which now stands the town of Baton Rouge, to Diron d'Ar- taguette ; on the right side of the Mississippi, oppo- site to Bayou Manchac, to Paris Duvernay; at the Tchoupitoulas, to de Muys; at the Oumas, to the Marquis d'Ancouis ; at the Cannes Brulées, to the Marquis d'Artagnac ; opposite to these on the right side of the river, to de Guiche, de la Honsaie and de la Houpe; at the bay of St. Louis, to Madame de Mezieres; and at the Pascagoulas, to Madame de Chaumont ..
It had been stipulated with Law, that he should bring fifteen hundred persons from Germany or Pro-
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vence, to settle the land granted him, on the Arkan- sas, and he was to maintain a small body of horse and foot for their protection. Each of the other grantees was bound to transport a number of settlers. propor- tioned to the extent of his grant. The company ex- pected by these means, to fulfil the obligation imposed by the charter, to introduce six thousand white per- sons into the colony. Experience, however, showed that, although these large grants facilitated the trans- portation of settlers, little was obtained from the labours of men, brought over from a distant clime, to cultivate land, the proprietors of which staid behind.
The first accession of population, which Louisiana received in this manner, consisted of sixty men, led by Dubuisson. to occupy the land granted to Paris Duvernay. They arrived in the month of April.
In June, three of the company's ships arrived : Richbourg, a knight of St. Louis, and Grandval. lately appointed major of the fort at Mobile, with a number of subaltern officers, came in these vessels. They were accompanied by Legas, an under-director, who brought thirty young men, to be employed as clerks, in the offices of the company; seventy settlers of the grant of de la Houssaie, and sixty of that of de la Houpe, with twelve companies of fifteen settlers. each of lesser grants; a number of soldiers and con- victs, came also at the same time. The addition to the population of the colony by these vessels amount- ed to upwards of eight hundred persons.
The Spaniards complained grievously of the oc- cupation of the bay of St. Joseph, as a military post. They had induced one half of the garrison to desert ; Chateaugué was sent to bring back the remainder. The fort, being thus abandoned by the French, was immediately after occupied by the Spaniards.
The former spread themselves widely over Louis;
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iana, in the fall. Benard de la Harpe, with sixty set- tlers, went to take possession of his grant, at the Cad- odaquious, up Red river. Bizart was sent with a small detachment to the river Yazous, where he built fort St. Peter, and Boisbriant went to take the com- mand at the Illinois. Thus the settlements of the French, in Louisiana, acquired the utmost extension - from east to west, they ever had, i. e. from Fort Tou- louse, on the Alibamons, to a point on Red river, beyond the present limits of the state. This circum -- stance weakened much the colony, and was certainly unpropitious to its progress in agriculture. Its com- merce was supposed to be favoured, by pushing the settlements among distant tribes of Indians, and facilitating the collections of furs and peltries.
A number of soldiers of the garrison of Mobile, deserted this winter, and found their way by land, to the settlements of the British in South Carolina.
A large party of Spaniards from the neighbouring provinces came to the Missouri, with the view of descending and attacking the French at the Illinois. They fell on two towns of the Missouri Indians and routed the inhabitants. But, those at the mouth of the river, having timely notice of the approach of the foe, collected in vast numbers, attacked and defeated it. They made a great slaughter and tortured to death all the prisoners they took, except two friars. One of these died soon after: the other remained awhile in captivity. Ife had a fine horse and was very skilful in the management of it: one day, as he was amusing the Indians with feats of horsemanship, he applied his spurs to the sides of the animal and effect- ed his escape.
In the spring, l'Archambault, lately appointed director-general of the company's concerns, arrived at Mobile, with upwards of one hundred passengers.
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St. Denys now returned from Mexico. He had left the presidio of St. John the Baptist, with the view of procuring the release of his goods. On his arrival, the Marquis de Valero, who had succeeded the Duke of Linarez, in the viceroyalty,. had flat- tered him with hopes of success. But Don Martin de Alacorne, governor of the province of Texas. having heard of the passage of St. Denys through his government, without having seen him, had written to the Marquis, representing St. Denys as a suspicious character, who was claiming property that was not his own. Too ready an ear was given to the misre- presentation of Don Martin, and St. Denys was ar- rested and imprisoned. One month after, he obtained, from the royal audience, a decree for the release of his person and the restitution of his goods. He disposed of them to much advantage; but the person whom he employed for the collection of the proceeds, wasted them. Exasperated by his misfortune, he vented his rage in abuses of the Spaniards, and in vaunting his influence with the Indians. This indis- cretion occasioned an order for his arrest; but some of his wife's relations gave him notice of it, and furnished the means of escape.
The only advantage the company derived from his excursion, was the evidence of his fidelity, and some information relating to the Spanish settlements.
The province of New Leon was thinly peopled, but rich in the gifts of nature. It had large meadows covered with cattle and vast fields highly cultivated, abounding in all kinds of grain and fruit ; Monterey was its capital. Caldereto, Labradores, St. Antonio de Llanos, Linarez and Tesalve, were small open towns. The province had no mine ; but the industry of its inhabitants made them sharers in the profits of their neighbours.
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The Spaniards were seeking to avail themselves of the facility, which the union of the monarchies of France and Spain under princes of the same family, · offered of penetrating into the western part of Louis- fana. They remembered the bay of St. Bernard, and the fort built there by Lasalle : they erected another on its ruins, in which they displayed the flag of Spain. They had called near it some wandering tribes of Indians, who, soon after, attacked by others less pacific, removed their village seventy miles farther, westerly.
The Spaniards next brought over, from the Canary Islands, a number of families, who, finding the soil, immediately on the margin of the sea, quite sterile, ascended the river San Antonio, one of those that fall into the bay of St. Bernard, and which, by the help of dykes, is made to cover and fertilize its banks. At the distance of about two hundred miles from the sea, on the border and near the source of this stream, they established the town of San Fernandez.
Another body, amounting to five hundred of these Islanders, came soon after, and proceeded to the north west. They settled among the Assinais and Abenaquis; tribes remarkable for the friendly re- ception they had given to Lasalle. Two friars and a few soldiers had detached themselves from this little colony, to catechise the Adayes, within twenty miles from the Natchitoches, among whom several French were domiciliated.
The Spaniards called the country, they thus usurp- ed from their neighbours, New Phillipine, in honor to the monarch of Spain, and in the hope, too, that a name, dear to the French, might lessen the irritation, which the encroachment was calculated to excite.
Two company ships arrived from France, on the twenty-ninth of April. Serigny and thirty other pas- LOU. I. 27
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sengers came in them. This officer was charged with the survey of the coast of Louisiana. He brought the account of the declaration of war by France against Spain, on the ninth of January, in consequence of Philip's refusal to comply with some. of the stipulations of the triple alliance.
In a council of war composed of Bienville, Hubert, L'Archambault, Legas and Serigny, the attack of Pensacola was determined on.
Bienville, with as many soldiers of the garrison as could be spared, a number of Canadians and four hundred Indians, gathered around the fort, marched . by land, while Serigny, with the shipping approached the place by water. Mattamore, the Spanish gover- nor, having but a few soldiers, surrendered it without resistance, asking as an only condition, an exemption from pillage for the inhabitants, and a passage to the Havana. Two of the company's ships went to Cuba on this service, and Chateaugue was left in command.
Experince had shewn the great fertility of the land in Louisiana, especially on the banks of the Mississip- pi, and its aptitude to the culture of tobacco, indigo, cotton and rice; but the labourers were very few, and many of the new comers had fallen victims to the climate. The survivors found it impossible to work in the field during the great heats of the summer,
protracted through a part of the autumn.
The
necessity of obtaining cultivators from Africa, was apparent ; the company yielding thereto, sent two of its ships to the coast of Africa, from whence they brought five hundred negroes, who were landed at Pensacola. They brought thirty recruits to the gar- rison.
A number of soldiers having deserted this year, and it being supposed they had gone to South Carolina, Vauchez de la Tondiere was sent to Charleston to
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claim them. Governor Johnston, far from listening to the request of Bienville, sent his messenger to England; an injustice, which the indiscreet confi- dence of Bienville by no means justified.
In violation of the laws of war, the captain-general of the island of Cuba, seized the company's ships, which had entered the port of Havana to land the garrison of Pensacola, pursuant to one of the stipula- tions of the capitulation. Having manned them with sailors of his nation, and put a small land force on board, he sent them back to retake the place. They appeared before it on the fifth of August.
L'Archambault was still there; Chateaugué and he determined on a vigorous defence. in the hope of being soon succoured by Bienville and Serigny : but the confusion, which the unexpected approach of the enemy created, and the mutiny of some soldiers, ex- cited by a few Spanish subaltern officers, who had been incautiously suffered to remain, compelled Chateaugué to surrender the next day.
Serigny, having learnt the arrival of the Spaniards, was advancing, when he heard of their success. Aware that they would not long remain idle, he hast- ened to Dauphine Island. and had hardly anchored, when the enemy hove in sight. Don Antonio de la Mandella, the commodore, sent a boat to summon the officer commanding the ship, in which Serigny had advanced, to an immediate surrender ; threatening in case of delay, or injury to the ship, to give no quarters, and even to extend his rigour to Chateaugué and the other French prisoners, taken at Pensacola. Diouis, who commanded the shipping, sent the messenger on shore to Serigny, who received him surrounded by two hundred soldiers, and a greater number of In- dians ; the latter manifested anxiety and impatience to be permitted to present Serigny with the Span-
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iard's scalp. He was directed to make known to Don Antonio, the determined resolution of the French to defend the shipping and island. Fifty men were sent on board of the shipping to enable them to resist the landing.
Towards the evening, one of the enemy's ships entered Mobile river, and took a boat with five men and a quantity of provisions; and on the next day, another boat laden also with provisions, going from Dauphine Island to the fort at Mobile, was captured.
In the meanwhile, Bienville reached Dauphine Island, with a large body of Indians, and the Span- iards were repulsed in their attempt to land. Nine- teen of their men were killed or drowned. Eighteen French deserters were taken by the Indians : seven- teen of them were shot at Mobile, and the other hung on the island.
It appearing impracticable to prevent the enemy from entering Mobile river, it was determined no longer to attempt sending provisions to the fort. Every effort was directed to the protection of the island. The Spaniards did not attempt any thing till the eighteenth, when two ships were discovered coming from Pensacola. They hovered around the island the two following days, and Serigny employed this time in erecting batteries near the places in which a landing was most to be apprehended. On the twenty-first, the enemy approached the western end of the island, and exchanged a few shots with a French ship, supported by a battery. They next moved to Point Guidery, at the eastern end of the settlement. Serigny ordered Trudeau, a Canadian officer, to take as many Indians as he could, and op- pose the landing. About one hundred Spaniards came on shore; but Trudeau, approaching with twelve Indians only, they were so alarmed at the
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yells and shrieks of those allies of the French, that they retreated in much confusion. Ten of their men were killed or drowned.
On the next day, the enemy succeeded in effecting a second landing at the same place, but the only advantage it procured was a supply of water, obtained before the force sent by Serigny to drive them back arrived. On the same day the garrison was reinforced by sixty Indians from Mobile ; at night the barracks were consumed by an accidental fire.
Shots were again exchanged the next morning by a Spanish and a French ship under a battery. The former sailed off, on the following day, after firing a few broad-sides at the houses. The rest of the fleet, departing one after the other, were all out of sight on the twenty-eighth.
Three ships of the line, under the orders of the Count de Champmeslin, escorting two company ships, hove in sight on the first of September. The garri- son were greatly alarmed, mistaking them for a fleet from Vera Cruz, which, it had been reported, was coming to prosecute the success of the Spanish arms, and reduce the whole province of Louisiana.
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