USA > Louisiana > The history of Louisiana : from the earliest period, Volume II > Part 3
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tude assembled. Inflamed with rage at the view of the dead bodies, they were with difficulty prevented, by their most influential friends, from rushing on the troops. The officer of the guard and the soldiers who had fired were apprehended. He and six of the men were acquitted: two were found guilty of man- slaughter.
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CHAPTER II.
Buccarelly .- Doucet and his companions re- leused .--- Commerce of New-Orleans .--- Royal Schedule .- Marquis de la Torre-Hurricane- Spanish language .-- Bishoprick of Cuba .- Bobe Descloseque .- Daniel Boone .- Tea des- troyed in Boston -Fagot de la Gariniere .- Grant of lands-Creeks and Chickasaus .- First Congress in Philadelphia-Parlementa- ry proceedings -- General Gage .- General Ly- man .- Battles of Lexington and Bunkerhill .-- Invasion of Canada .- Olivier de- Vezin .- La Barre de la Cestiere-Don Bernard de Galvez. -Unzaga promoted .- The British land on . Long Island .-- Battleof Brooklyn-Washington cracuates New- York, and crosses the Hudson .- Attack at Trenton.
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O'Reilly's commission having a particular object, which was now accomplished, Don Antonio Maria Buccarelly, captain-general of the island of Cuba, Succeeded him, as captain-general of the province of Louisiana.
An appeal lay in certain cases from the tribunals of the province to the captain-general; from him to the royal audience in St. Domingo, in the island of His- paniola ; and from thence to the council of the Indies in Madrid.
Charles the third disapproved of O'Reilly's con- duct, and he received, on his landing at Cadiz, an order prohibiting his appearance at court,
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The ordinary alcades for the year 1771, were Cha- bert and Forstall.
'The colonists now heard with pleasure that Fou- cault had been released from his confinement in the bastille, in which he had remained eighteen months; that the eldest son of Mazent, who was in the Moro Castle, under O'Reilly's sentence of imprisonment, had gone to Madrid, thrown himself at the feet of the king, and solicited his father's pardon, offering, if another victim was indispensable, to take his place. His application was seconded by the court of France, and all those who had been sent from Louisiana to the Moro Castle received a pardon.
Foucault had gone to the island of Bourbon, in the capacity of commissary-general and ordonateur.
None of the other prisoners, now liberated, return- ed to Louisiana. Most of them settled in Cape Francois.
The commerce of the province suffered greatly from the restrictive system of Spanish regulations. By a royal schedule, which Ulloa had published in New-Orleans, on the sixth of September, 1266, the trade of Louisiana had been confined to six ports of the peninsula. These were Seville, Alicant, Cartha- gena, Malaga, Barcelona, and Coruna; and no trade was to be carried on in any other than Spanish built vessels, owned and commanded by the king's subjects. Vessels sailing to or from Louisiana, were prohibited from entering any other port in the Span- ish dominious in America, except in case of distress, and they were then subjected to strict examination and heavy charges.
By a royal schedule of the twenty-third of March, 1768, however, the commerce of Louisiana had been favored by an exemption from duty, on any foreign or VOL II. 1
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Spanish merchandise, both in the exportation from any of the ports of the peninsula, to which the com- merce of the-province was permitted, and on the importation into New-Orleans; but the exportation of specie or produce was burdened with a duty of four per cent.
Permission had lately been granted for the admis- sion of two vessels from France every year.
The merchants of New-Orleans complained of this restrictive system, as very oppressive. 'They could not advantageously procure, in any of the six ports of the peninsula, named in the schedule of 1766, the merchandise they wanted, nor find there a vent for the produce of the province. The indigo of Louisiana was in no great demand in any port of Spain, where that article might be procured of a much better quality from Guatimala, Caraccas, and other provinces on the main. Furs and peltries were with difficulty sold or preserved in so warm a climate, and timber and lumber could not well bear the ex- pense of transportation to such distant countries. They also complained that the British engrossed all the trade of the Mississippi.
Vessels of that nation were incessantly plying on that stream. Under the pretence of trading to those ports, on the left bank, over which their flag was dis- played, they supplied the people in the city and on the plantations, above and below, with goods and . slaves. They took in exchange whatever their cus- tomers had to spare, and extended to them a most lib- cral credit, which the good faith of the purchasers amply justified. Besides very large warehouses near the ports at Manshac, Baton Rouge and Natch- ez, and a number of vessels constantly moored a short distance above New-Orleans, opposite to the
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spot now known as the fauxbourg La Fayette, the British had two large ones, or floating warehouses, the cabins of which were fitted up with shelves and counters, as a store These constantly plyed along the shore, and at the call of any planter, stopped before his door.
About one hundred and sixty thousand dollars were brought annually from Vera Cruz, since the ar- rival of' O'Reilly, for defraying the expenses of the colonial government: the indigo crops were worth about one hundred and eighty thousand: furs and peltries were exported to the amount of two hundred thousand: one hundred thousand were received for timber, lumber and provisions. All this formed an aggregate of seven hundred thousand dollars to pay for imported goods, which was entirely enjoyed by British traders, except ouly the cargoes of two French vessels, and about fifteen thousand dollars, the value of boards shipped to Havana for sugar boxes.
Batteaux left New-Orleans for Pointe Coupee, Natchitoches, the Arkansas and St. Louis; but most of their cargoes were taken, on their way, from the British floating warehouses, or the stores at Man- shac, Baton Rouge, or Natchez.
British adventurers found also, in Louisiana, the means of forming agricultural establishments, on the left bank of the Mississippi, above Manchac, where la id was obtained with much facility. An individ- ual chartered a vessel of about one hundred and fifty tons in Jamaica, for five hundred dollars. He put on board goods, and about twenty or thirty slaves, which he obtained on credit. Entering the Missis- sippi with these, he disposed of the goods and three- fourths of the slaves, and received in exchange, pro- duce sufficient to pay for the whole and the hire of his
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vessel. With five or six slaves, he began a plantation, obtaining credit, in a store near it, for his farming utensils, and the means of procuring some cattle and his subsistence till he made a cron. After a few years he was a farmer in easy circumstances.
The British owed to this trade, with the former subjects of France. much, if not all, their establish- ments on the left bank of the Mississippi, besides the great advantages they derived from its navigation. A French trader durst not shew the flag of his na- tion, and was compelled to charter a British bottom, and load her with goods; but the British merchant who sold them, and was certain to be paid, realised much greater profits.
Unzaga winked at this infraction of the commer- cial and revenue laws of spain, and disregarded the clamours of the merchants of New-Orleans, who sus- pected that the indulgence shewn to British traders was not gratuitous.
The ordinary alcades, chosen by the cabildo, for the year 1722, were Amelot and the Chevalier de Villiers.
On the promotion of Buccarelly to the vice-royalty of Mexico, the Marquis de la Torre succeeded him as captain-general of the island of Cuba and the pro- vince of Louisiana.
Col. Estecheria arrived, and assumed the com- mand of the regiment of Louisiana.
Most of the forces which O'Reilly had left in New- Orleans sailed for Havana.
The country was desolated, in the summer of this year, by a hurricane, of which Roman has preserved the details. It began on the last day of August, and continued until the third of September. It was not,
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however, felt in New-Orleans, where the weather continued fine, though the wind blew very high from the east. In lake Ponchartrain and the passes of the Rigolets and Chef Menteur, the water rose to a pro- digious height, and the islands in the neighbourhood were several feet under water. The vessels, at the Balize, were all driven into the marshes, and a Span- ish ship foundered, and every person on board per- ished. Along the coast, from lake Borgne to Pen- sacola, the wind ranged from south south-east and east; but farther west it blew with greatest violence, from north north-east and cast. A schooner, belong- ing to the British government, having a detachment of the sixteenth regiment on board, was driven wester- ly as far as Cat island, under the western part of which she cast anchor; but the water rose so high that she parted her cable and floated over the island. The wind entirely destroyed the woods for about thirty miles from the sea shore, At Mobile, the effects of it were terrible. Vessels, boats, and logs were drawn up the streets to a great distance. The gulleys and hollows, as well as the lower grounds of the town, were so filled with logs, that the inhabitants casily provided themselves with their winter supply of fuel. The salt spray was carried, by the wind, four or five miles from the sea shore, and then de- seended in showers.
For thirty miles up a branch of the Pascagoula, which, from the number of cedar trees on its bank, is called Cedar creek, there was scarcely a tree left standing: the pines were thrown down or bro- ken; and those trees which did not entirely yield to the violence of the wind, were twisted like ropes.
But the most singular effect of this hurricane, was the production of a second growth of leaves and fruit
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on the mulberry trees. This hardy tree budded, fol- iateel, blossomed and bore fruit within four weeks after the storm.
With the view of promoting the instruction of the rising generation in the Spanish tongue, a priest was brought over from Spain, at the king's expense, who, with two assistants, taught the elements of that language. Four young women were also sent from Havana, who took the veil in the convent of the Ur- suline nuns of New-Orleans, and were employed in teaching Spanish to young persons of their sex .- This was the only encouragement given to learning during the whole period of the Spanish government.
The winter was so severe this year that the orange trees perished.
The breach which the stamp act had occasioned between the British North American provinces and their mother country, was daily widening; and this year, on the suggestion of the province of Mas- sachusetts bay, committees were appointed within the others, for the purpose of correspondence and the organization of a system of resistance to the measures adopted by parliament.
Duplessis and Doriocourt were the ordinary al- cades chosen on the first of Jannary, 1773.
It being deemed improper that a Spanish province should continue to form a part of a French bishop- rick, Louisiana was now separated from that of Quebec, and annexed to that of Cuba, and Don Santiago Joseph de Echevaria, the incumbent of the latter see, appointed Father Dagobert his vicar-ge- neral in the province.
Bobe Descloseaus, who had remained in New-
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Orleans to attend to the redemption of the bills of credit emitted by the French government, having previously obtained the consent of his sovereign, now sailed for Cape Francois. Amelot, an engineer, and Garderat, a major of infantry, took passage in the same słup, with the widow of Carlier, the former comptrol- ler of the marine, her two daughters, and a few other French officers, who had been detained by their pri- vate concerns. Neither the ship nor any of the pas- sengers were ever heard of, after she left the Balize.
Time, and Unzaga's mild administration, began to reconcile the colonists to their fate. The resources which they found in a clandestine trade with the British, and the sums brought from Vera Cruz to meet the expenses of government, circulating in , the country, had enabled many planters to extend their establishments. But many had employed for this purpose the proceeds of their crops, which jus- tice required to be reserved for the discharge of their debts. To the difficulties which indiscretion had created, were superadded those that were occasioned by the ravages of the late hurricane. The disap- pointed creditors became clamorous, and some be- gan to attempt coorcing payment by legal measures. Over these, the influence of a governor of a Spanish colony is very great. Unzaga exerted his, in allay- ing the clamours of injured creditors, without dis- tressing honest debtors, by employing coercion a- gainst those only who were able, but unwilling to dis- charge their debts. He gave evidence of his impar- tiality in this respect, by compelling St. Maxent, a wealthy planter, whose daughter he had married and who sought to avail himself of this circumstance to bid defiance to his creditors. In this manner, he obtained indulgence for those debtors who really re- quired it.
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Daniel Boone, with his family and four others, and about forty-five men from Powell's Valley, began this year the first settlement on Kentucky river.
The British East India company having made large shipments of tea to Boston, New-York, Phda- delphia and Charleston, the people in these cities op- posed its landing. In the first, they went much far- ther. Onhearing of the arrival of the company's ships there, it was voted, by acclamation, in a numer- ous meeting of the inhabitants, that the tea should not be landed, nor the duties on it paid; but that it should be sent back in the same vessels in which it had been brought. On the adjournment of the meeting, an immense crowd repaired to the quay, and a number of the most resolute, disguised as Mohawk Indians, boarded the ships; and, in about two hours, broke open three hundred and forty boxes of tea, and discharged the contents into the sea.
The cabildo made choice of Forstall and Chabert, as ordinary alcades for the year 1274; and early in January, Fagot de la Gariniere, took his seat in that body, as a perpetual regidor and receiver of fines; having purchased these offices from Bienvenu, for fourteen hundred dollars.
On the tenth of May, Louis the fifteenth, the last monarch of France, who reigned over Louisiana, died, in the sixty-fifth year of his age, and was suc- ceeded by hisgrand-son, the Duke of Berry, the un- fortunato Louis the sixteenth.
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By a royal schedule of the fourth of August, the power of granting vacant lands, in the province, was vested in the governor, according to the regulations made by O'Reilly, on the eighth of January, 1770.
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The Creeks and Chickasaws, this year, sent a number of their chiefs to Charleston, in South Caro- lina, where they made a cession to the British of se- veral millions of acres of valuable land, in payment of their debts to traders of that nation.
Early in September, delegates from twelve of the British North American provinces met in congress, in the city of Philadelphia. They prepared a petition to the king, and an address to the people of Great Britain, on the subject of their grievances.
The resentment of parliament, on hearing of the destruction of the tea at Boston, was manifested by the occlusion of that port, until reparation should be made to the East India company; and the king de- clared himself convinced that good order would soon be restored in the town. Another statute was passed annulling the charter of the province of Mas- sachusetts bay, and authorising the transportation from any of the provinces, for trial in another pro- vince or in England, of any person indicted for mur- der, or any other capital offence. A statute was also passed, for quartering soldiers on the inhabitants. The boundaries ' of the province of Quebec were extended, so as to include the territory between the lakes, the Ohio and the Mississippi, and its govern- ment was vested in a legislative council, to be appoint- ed by the crown. At the request of the Canadians, the French laws were restored to them in civil mat- ters. Two years after, in the declaration of inde- pendence, these last measures were urged as grounds of complaint, by the American congress, against George the third, that "he had abolished the free system of English laws in a neighbouring province, establishing therein an arbitrary government, and extending its boundaries, so as to render it at once VOL. II. 5
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.an example and instrument for introducing the same absolute rule in the other colonies."
In the meanwhile, General Gage fortified Boston- neck, and had the ammunition and stores in the pro- vincial arsenal at Cambridge, and the powder in the magazine at Charleston, brought to Boston.
Dufossat and Duplessis were the ordinary alcades for the year 1775.
Unzapa was now promoted to the rank of a briga- dier-general, and the office of intendant was united to that of governor, in his person.
There were a considerable number of runaway negroes, committing great depredations on the plan- tations. Unzaga, to remedy or lessen this evil, issued a proclamation offering an amnesty, or free pardon, to such as voluntarily returned to their masters, and absolutely forbidding the latter to punish them. This measure had the intended effect; altho' the slaves could not absolutely be protected from the resent- ment of their masters, who might easily have found a pretence for disregarding Unzaga's injunction.
We'have seen, towards the end of the preceding volume, that general Lyman, of Connecticut, had contemplated, in 1263, an extensive settlement on the Ohio, and had applied to government for a grant of land. This officer had served with distinction during the preceding war. He had been appointed · major-general and commander-in-chief of the forces of his native province in 1755; and, in 1762, he was at Havana, in command of all the American troops. On the return of peace.a company had by his exertions been formed, under the style of the Military Adven- turers, composed chiefly of officers and soldiers who had lately served in America. Their object was to
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obtain a considerable extent of territory, on which they might settle, with as large a number of their countrymen as could be induced to join them. Gc- neral Lyman went to England as the agent of the company, entertaining no doubt of the success of his application. On his arrival, he found that the friends in the ministry, on whom he depend- cd, had been removed, and those who had succeed- ed them had other persons to provide for, and found it convenient to forget his services, and those of his associates. Insurmountable obstacles seemed to em- barrass him. Atlast, after a stay of several years, hc obtained grants on the Mississippi and Yazoo rivers, and returned. Many of his former companions had died; several had removed to a distance; many bad grown old; and all had passed that period of life, when men are willing to encounter the dangers and hardships attending the settlement of a wilderness, under a different climate, and at the distance of a thousand miles from their homes. After a short stay in Connecticut, he departed, with his eldest son and a few friends, with whom he soon formed a settlement, near Fort Panmure, in the district of Natchez.
Open hostilities broke out, this year, in the contest which terminated by the severance of thirteen British provinces from the mother country On the 20th of April, the militia of Massachusetts routed a body of re- gulars at Lexington. In the month of May, the Ame- ricans possessed themselves, by surprise, of Ticonde- roga; and the fortress of Crown-point surrendered to them soon after. On the first of June, congress appointed George Washington commander-in-chief of all the forces of the united colonies; and he pro- ceeded immediately to the vicinity of Boston, where
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the regular army and the militia of New-England kept the royal forces in check, and obtained a deci- sive advantage on the seventeenth of June, at Breed's Hill.
In the meanwhile, the provincial congresses had organised their militia, and raised a few bodies of re- gular troops
Part of the force of New-York, and the adjacent provinces, under generals Wooster and Montgomery, marched into Canada, and took possession of Cham- bly, St. Johas, and Montreal, during the months of October and November. General Arnold, with some troops from Connecticut, crossed the wilderness and formed a junction with Wooster and Montgom- ery, on the right bank of the river St. Lawrence, op- posite to Quebec: and crossing the stream, dky made an unsuccessful attack upon the town, in which Montgomery fell, on the thirty-first day of Decem- ber.
The ordinary alcades, for the year 1776, were D'Ernonville and Livaudois.
Olivier de Vezin took his seat, in the Cabildo, as perpetual regidor and principal provincial alcade; Labarre de la Cestiere, as a perpetual regidor and alguazil mayor; the Chevalier de Clapion, as a per- petual regidor and receiver of fines; and Forstall, as perpetual regidor.
Don Bernardo de Galvez succeeded Estacheria in the command of the regiment of Louisiana.
There were, at this period, a number of merchants from Boston, New-York and Philadelphia, in New- Orleans: they were all well disposed towards the American cause. Oliver Pollock was the most conspicuous. They had procured a good supply of
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arms and ammunition for the settlers of the wes- tern part of Pennsylvania, which was delivered to colonel Gibson, who came from Pittsburgh for it. This had been done with the knowledge of the colo- mal government, who gave some assistance to the colonel.
Unzaga received the appointment of captain-ge- neral of Caraccas. He was much regretted in Lou- isn'ta. His mild administration had endeared him to the colonists. He had overlooked the breach of the commercial and fiscal laws of Spain, by the British, who had entirely engrossed the commerce of the pro- vice. 'They had introduced a considerable number of slaves, and by the great aid they afforded to plan- ters, had enabled most of them to extend their estab- lishments to a degree hitherto unknown in the pro- vince, and others to form now ones. By the timely exercise of coercion against the dishonest and indo- lent, he had checked the profligacy of those who misused the facilities which British traders afforded, and compelled them to reduce or surrender estab- lishments which they were unable to sustain. His conduct, in this respect, tho' not absolutely approved by the king's ministers, did not deprive him of the confidence of his sovereign. His promotion fully proved this. Without this illicit trade, Louisiana must have remained an insignificant province.
The British army evacuated Boston on the seven- teenth of March, and Washington led his to New- York. The united colonies proclaimed their inde- pendence on the fourth of July. The royal land and naval forces reached Staten Island, near Now- York, eight days after. The army landed on Long Island on the twenty-second, and five days after, re-
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pulsed the Americans at Brooklyn. General Wash- ington abandoned the city of New-York in Septem- ber, leading his force un North river, which he cross- ed on the thirteenth of November, and had some suc- cess in Trenton.
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THE THIRD.
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CHAPTER III.
Don Bernard de Galrez .- Don Diego J. Na- rarro .- Commercial regulations .- Captain Wil- ling .- Counties of Illinois and Washington .- Battles of Princeton and Brandywine .- Phiia- delphia taken .- Battle of Germantown .- Sur- render of Burgoyne .- Migrations from the Canary islands -Royal schedule-Vincennes taken-French treaty .- Philadelphia evacua- ted .- Savannah taken .- Don Diego D. del Po- tigo .- Migration from Malaga .- War between Great Britain, France and Spain .- Galres's success at Manchac .- Baton Rouge and Natch- cz .- Hurricane .- First settlement on C'umber- land rirer .- Mobile taken .- Attack on St. Louis. -Charleston taken .- Don Juan M. de Cagiga. -Siege of Pensacola.
By a royal schedule, of the tenth of July, 1776, Unzaga had been directed to surrender, provisional- ly, the government and intendancy of Louisiana, on his departure for the province of Caracas, to Don Bernard de Galvez, colonel of the regiment of Lou- isiana. This gendeman had powerful friends. His uncle, Don Joseph de Galvez, was president of the council of the Indies; and his father, Don Mathias de Galvez, vice-rov of New Spain. He entered on the duties of his office on the first of January, 1777.
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