USA > Louisiana > The history of Louisiana : from the earliest period, Volume II > Part 9
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18. Vessels from the allowed ports, and from Bil- boa and San Sebastian, trading to New-Orleans, Pensacola, and St. Augustine, are prohibited from entering any other port of the king's dominions in America.
19. Exportations from New-Orleans, Pensacola, or St. Augustine, for any other port of these domin- ions, are prohibited, except in cases of the most ur- gent necessity, to be certified by the governor, who will give licenses therefor. But then nothing can VOL. II. 16
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be exported except articles of the produce of these provinces.
. 20. The king remits to his subjects all duties here- tofore payable on vessels expressly purchased for this trade.
21. The governor and intendant are directed to make a new tariff, to be submitted to the king,
On the representation of the Baron, the office of intendant was separated from that of governor, and Don Francisco de Rendon, who had been employed as secretary of legation from Spain in the United States, having been invested with the former, came to New-Orleans in the begining of the year 1794.
The pope divided the bishoprick of Havana; and the provinces of Louisiana, East and West Florida, were erected into a distinct one. Don Louis de Pe- nalvert, provisor and vicar-general of the bishop of Havana, was called to the new sec, and established bis cathedral in New-Orleans.
Two canons were added to the clergy of the pro- vince.
Genet, the minister of the French republic in Phi- ladelphia, had planned two expeditions from the western part of the United States, against the domin- ions of Spain on the Mississippi and the Gulf of Mexico. Several citizens of' the United States had . accepted commissions from him. Many of these had been seduced by him in Charleston, where he had landed, in Philadelphia, and in the states of North Carolina, Virginia and Maryland. Others (and their number was not small) had yielded their aid to his agents in Kentucky and Tennessee, under the belief that the interests of the western people would be promoted by the success of the enterprise;
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imagining that the French once in possession of New- Orleans, the American government would find it easy to obtain the free navigation of the Mississippi. The idea of a separation of the western people from their brothers on the Atlantic, and an an alliance or union with the French of Louisiana, was still foster- ed by many. "With these views, soldiers were se- cretly recruited for the enterprise. Auguste de la Chaise, a creole of Louisiana, (grand-son of the for- mer commissary ordonnateur) had been sent to Ken- tucky to superintend the recruiting service there, and was to be one of the leaders of the expedition against the Spanish territory on the Missississippi. Another individual, of the name of Clarke, was on a similar errand in the back counties of Georgia, from which state and the neighbouring one, another expedition was to be directed against East Florida. The aid of a considerable body of Indians, raised among the Creeks and Cherok, es, had been obtained.
The Baron hed early information of the danger that threatened the province under his care, from the Spanish minister at Philadelphia, and took carly measures to avert it. He completed the fortifications of New-Orleans, and visited most of the parishes to animate the people, and put the militia in a situation of being useful. His care did not stop here. He des- patched Thomas Power, an intelligent English nan, to Kentucky, who, under the pretence of being en- gaged in collecting materials for a natural history of the western part of the United States, was to preparethe way for the execution of the plan proposed by Navar- ro, seven years before, by conversing with the most influential individuals among those who were dispos- ed to promote a separation from the Atlantic states, and an alliance or connection with Spain, and giving
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them assurances of the cheerful concurrence of the colonial government of Louisiana, and its readiness to supply them with arms, ammunition and money.
This year, Le Moniteur de la Louisiane, the only periodical paper published in the province during its subjection to Spain, made its first appearance.
The Baron did not suffer the care he took for the protection of the province to direct his attention from the improvement of-the city. On the ninth of May, he gave notice of his intention to dig a canal, which, carrying off the water of the city and its environs into one of the branches of the bayou St. John, would rid New-Orleans of the stagnating ponds, which render- ed it sickly, and the multitude of musquitoes, which harassed the inhabitants.
He mentioned, that the expenses of the war allow- ing no hope of obtaining the assistance of the king for digging a considerable canal of navigation, he had asked from his majesty only the labour of the negro- convicts, which, with that of a few hands that might be furnished by able and zealous individuals, might afford a canal for conveying off the water, and in suc- cessive years it might be deepened, so as to -become a convenient canal, navigable for schooners, facili- tating the intercourse between the opposite side of the lakes, Mobile and Pensacola, with New-Orleans.
In announcing the king's assent to this proposition, the Baron declared his intention of requesting from the inhabitants of the city, in the month of June fol- lowing, such a number of negroes as they might spare, to clear the ground through which the canal was to pass, and expressed his belief that, this being done, the convicts might complete the work.
A passage, eight feet in breadth, was to be left on each side, for horses drawing flat boats, and in time,
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schooners. A wide levee, for foot travellers, was to afford an agreeable promenade, under a double row of trees.
About sixty negroes were sent, and the canal was begun with a depth of six feet only. It turned around the large trees which obstructed its way.
Indigo had hitherto been the principal object of the attention of planters on the banks of the Missis- sippi ; but during several years, its success had sadly disappointed their hopes. At first, the failure of the crops had resulted from the vicissitudes of the sea- sons: of late, an insect attacked the plant and des- troyed its leaves. In the years 1793 and 1294, its ravages were so great that almost every plant perish- ed, and the fields presented nothing to the eye but naked stems.
Since the year 1766, the manufacture of sugar had been entirely abandoned in Louisiana. A few in- « dividuals had, however, contrived to plant a few canes in the neighbourhood of the city: they found a vent for them in the market. Two Spaniards, Men- dez and Solis, had lately made larger plantations. One of them boiled the juice of the cane into syrup, and the other had set up a distillery, in which . he made indifferent taffiia.
Etienne Bore, a native of the Illinois, who resi- ded about six miles above the city, finding his fortune considerably reduced by the failure of the indigo crops for several successive years, conceived the idea of retrieving his losses by the manufacture of sugar. The attempt was considered by all as a visionary one. His wife, (a daughter of Destrehan, the coloni- al treasurer under the government of France, who had been one of the first to attempt, and one of the last to abandon, the manufacture of sugar) remember-
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ing her father's ill success, warned him of the risk he ran ofadding to, instead of repairing his losses, and hisrelations and friends joined their remonstrances to hers. He, however, persisted; and, having procured a quantity of canes from Mendez and Solis, began to plant.
This year, Don Andre Almonaster, a perpetual regidor and alferez real, completed at his own ex- pense the erection of a cathedral church in New- Orleans, having laid the foundation of it in 1792. He had before built and endowed a hospital.
A conflagration reduced a considerable part of the city to ashes, and in the month of August the pro- vince was desolated by a hurricane.
The ordinary alcades, for the year 1795, were De Lovio and Pontalba.
The cabildo made a representation to the king, and prayed that six more offices of regidor might be cre- ated; the increase of population rendering, in their opinion, this measure necessary.
They also prayed that the zealous services of the Baron might be rewarded by the appointment of cap- tam-general.
. It seems that the progress of the French revolution- . ary principles was great in the province, and that the hope that Lachaise would succeed in gathering such a force in Kentucky as might enable him, in the lan- guage of the day, to "give freedom to the country of his birth," inflamed the minds of many; for, on the first of June, the Baron issued a proclamation for es- tablishing several regulations of police; in the pre- amble of which he complains of "the success with which evil-minded, turbulent, and enthusiastic indi- viduals, who certainly had nothing to lose, had spread
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false rumours, calculated to give rise to the most complete mistrust between government and the peo- ple, whereby the province is threatened with all the disasters to which the French colonies have fallen a prey."
After this, the proclamation announces that, to re- store order and public tranquility, syndics, chosen among the most notable planters, are to be appoint- ed, residing within about nine miles from each other, to be subordinate to the commandant, to whom they are to give weekly accounts of ever important occur- rence.
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It is made the duty of every one having the knowl- edge, even by hear-say, of any offence or seditious expressions, tending to excite alarm or disturb public tranquility, to give immediate notice to the syndic, commandant, or governor.
Every assemblage, of more than eight persons, to consult on public matters, is absolutely forbid- den. .
Every individual is bound to denounce to the com- mandant, any syndic, guilty of an offence in making use of any seditious expressions.
Every traveller found without a passport is imme- diately to be arrested, carried before the syndic, who is to examine and send him to the commandant.
Every traveller, possessed of any important event, is first to give notice of it to the syndic, who is to take a note of it, and register his name, and afterwards, ac- cording to circumstances, permit or forbid the com- munication of the event, giving information of it to the commandant.
Syndics are to direct patrols from time to time.
The vigilance of the executive of the United States
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was such, that Lachaise's efforts proved abortive, and the legislature of South Carolina took measures which - ended in the arrest of Genet's agents in the south, and the expedition against East Florida failed.
. The Baron thought the strictest vigilance was re- quired in the city, and he availed himself of the circumstance of some nocturnal depredations, to is- sue a proclamation enforcing a severe police, and di- recting the shutting of the gates at an early hour.
The canal behind the city was widened to fifteen feet. About one hundred and fifty negroes were sent by the inhabitants of the city and its neighbour- hood, and all the convict slaves were employed on it. In the month of October, the Baron, by a publication in the Moniteur, brought to view the future grandeur of New-Orleans, its increasing commerce, the neces- sity of opening a communication between the city and the sea, through the lakes, and announced that six days more of the labour of the slaves in the city, and within fifteen miles above and below, would enable the colonial government to complete the canal.
Another publication, on the twenty-third of No- vember, draws the attention of the inhabitants to the facilities they have found in procuring wood through the canal, the marked diminution of mortality du- ring the preceding three months, and asks, as the last assistance which he would require, the labour of the slaves for eight days more.
A number of French royalists had come to New- `Orleans, and proposed plans for the removal of a number of their countrymen to Louisiana, from the United States, where they had sought an asylum, and the colonial government was induced to make seve- ral very extensive grants of land.
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The principal was to the Marquis de Maisonrouge, a knight of St.Louis. He offered to bring down thirty families, who were waiting on the banks of the Ohio, and were anxious to form an establishment on those of the Washita, to raise wheat and manufacture it in- to flour.
The encouragement given by the colonial govern- ment was not confined to a grant of land. It cove- nanted to pay two hundred dollars to every family, composed of at least two white persons, fit for agri- culture or the arts necessary in the settlement, as car- penters, blacksmiths, &c. Four hundred dollars to those having four labourers, and the same proportion to those having only an artisan or labourer. They were to be assisted with guides and provisions from New Madrid to Washita, Their baggage and imple- ments of agriculture, were to be transported from New Madrid at the king's expense. Each family, consisting of at least two white persons fit for agri- culture, was entitled to four hundred acres of land, with a proportionate increase to larger ones. Set- tlers were permitted to bring white European ser- vants, to be bound to them for six or more years, who, at the expiration of their time, were to receive grants of land in the same proportion.
This agreement was, a few months after, approved by the king.
The Baron, in these plans for colonising the banks of the Washita, had not lost sight of his favourite one for the separation of the western people from the - Union, the idea of which was still entertained by se- veral influential individuals in Kentucky, whom Powers had visited, and who had recommend- ed that an officer of rank should be sent by the colo- VOL. II. 17
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nial government, to miret part of them at the mouth of the Ohio. He made choice, for this purpose, of Don Manuel Gayoso de Lemos, who commanded at Natchez, and who sat offearly in the summer. The ostensible object of this officer's journey was to lead a number of soldiers, who were to erect and garrison a fort at the Chickasaw bluffs. Having set these men at work, Gayoso proceeded to New Madrid, from whence, according to a previous arrangement, he despatched Power to Red Banks, for the purpose of bringing down Sebastian, Innis, Murray and Nicho- las, who had been chosen to hold a conference with the officer to be sent by the Baron at the mouth of the Ohio Power found Sebastian at the Red Banks, who informed him that some family concerns prevented Innis from leaving home; that, as the courts were now in session, the absence of Nicholas, a lawyer in great practice, would excite suspicion, and that Murray had, for some time past, got into such a state of habitual intoxication, that he was absolute- ly incapable of attending to any kind of business. He added, he was authorised by Innis and Nicholas, to treat with Gayoso in their names, and accordingly proeceded, in Power's boat, to the Mississippi, where they found Gayoso. He had employed his people in building a small stockade fort, on the right bank of the river, opposite the month of the Ohio, with the view of having it believed that this fortification was the object of his journey. He proposed to Sebastian to come down to New-Orleans and confer with the Baron. This was agreed to; and, after a short stay, they proceeded down. Gavoso and Sebastian in the former's galley; Power and a Mr. Vander Rogers in a king's barge. They proceeded to Natchez, where they stopped,
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Whilst a part of the white population evinced their anxiety to imitate the French, in a struggle for freedom, it is not extraordinary that the slaves should have been seduced into an attempt to rise, by the re- ports of the success of the blacks in Hispaniola An insurrection was planned in the parish of Pointe Coupee, an insulated one, in which the number of slaves was considerable. The conspiracy was form- ed on the plantation of Julien Poydras, a wealthy planter, who was then absent on a journey to the United States: from thence its progress had been ex- tended to all parts of the parish. The indiscrimin- ate slaughter of every white man was intended. A disagreement, as to the day the massacre was to take place, gave rise to a quarrel among the principal leaders, which led to a discovery of the plot. The militia was instantly put under arms; and the Baron, on the first information, sent a part of the regular force. The slaves attempted a resistance, and twen- ty-five of them were killed before those that had been selected for trial were arrested and confined. Sera- no, the assessor of the intendancy, went up to assist Dupart, the civil commandant, at the trials. Fifty were found guilty; others were severely flogged. Sixteen of the first were hung in different parts of the parish; the nine remaining were put on board of a galley, which floated down to New-Orleans. On her way, one of them was landed near the church of cach parish along the river, and left hanging on a tree. This timely exercise of severity quieted, for a while, the apprehensions of the inhabitants, who had been considerably alarmed.
In the meanwhile, Wayne had concluded a treaty of peace with the hostile Indians, on the northwest of
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the Ohio, on the twentieth of August, and the pleni- potentiaries of the United States and Spain had signed a treaty at San Lorenzo, on the twenty-seventh of October.
Archives-Gazettes-Clark-Marshal.
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CHAPTER VIII.
Treaty between Spain and the United States .- The Count de Santa Clara .- The Baron de Bas- trop .- Lighting of the city .- Power's mission to Kentucky .- Clark and Lachaise's expeditions. Royal audience at Puerto del Principe .-- New regidors .-- Eilicot .- Lieutenant M' Leary .- The Baron seeks to delay the cracuation of the Spa- nish posts .- Lieutenant Pope .-- Power's second mission: His instructions .-- The Baron rein- forces the garrisons of Fori Panmure and Wal- nut Hill .- Commotion at Natchez .-- Gayoso re- tires into the fort: His proclamation,-General meeting of the people .- Committee of safety .- Their propositions are approved by Gayoso .- The Baron accedes to them .- His departure .- State of Tennessee .-- John Adams.
By the Spanish treaty, the southern boundary of the United States, as given by their treaty of peace with Great Britain, was recognised ; and their western, as far as related to the boundary of the territory of Spain, was declared to be a line, beginning at a point in the middle of the channel or bed of the Mississippi, on their northern boundary, running along the middle of said channel, to the thirty-first degree of north lati- tude.
The king agrees that the navigation of the Missis- sippi, in its whole breadth, from its source to the gulf, shall be free only to his subjects and the colomes of the United States, unless, by special convention, he
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extends the privilege to the subjects of other pow- ers.
The parties promise to maintain, by all the means in their power, peace and harmony among the several nations of Indians inhabiting the country adjacent to the southern boundary of the United States ; and the better to attain this object, both parties bind them- selves, expressly, to restrain, by force, all hostilities on the part of Indian nations living within their territo- ries, and to make no treaty, except a treaty of peace, with any Indian nation living within the territory of the other.
Provision is made for the protection of vessels, for cases of embargo and seizure for debt or crime, stress of weather, vessels captured by pirates, the estates of the deceased, passports, contraband trade, access to courts of justice, &c.
The principle that free ships make free goods, is recognised.
It is provided that the subjects or colonies of either party shall not make war against those of the other.
Arrangements are made for running the southern boundary line of the United States.
The king promises to permit citizens of the United States, during a period of ten years, from the ratifica- tion of the treaty, to deposit their merchandise and effects in the port of N. Orleans, and export them free from duty, except a fair charge for the use of stores; and he engages to extend the permission, if it does not, during that period, appear prejudicial to his in- terests; and if he does not continue to permit the de- posit there, he will assign to them an equivalent es- ta! fishment on some other spot of the banks of the Mississippi.
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Perez and. Lachaise were the ordinary alcades for the year 1796.
Early in January, Gayoso, Sebastian, and Powers came to New-Orleans; and early in the spring the two latter sailed for Philadelphia.
The Count de Santa-Clara succeeded Las Casas as captain-general of the island of Cuba, the provin- ces of Louisiana and East and West-Florida.
The alarm into which the late attempt of the blacks at Pointe-Coupee threw the colonists, induced the cabildo, on the 29th of February, to request the Baron to transmit to the king their prayer that the introduction of slaves from any part of the world might be prohibited; and they desired the Baron to issue his proclamation, provisorily, to forbid their importation. He complied with their wishes.
Boré's success, in his first attempt to manufacture sugar, was very great, and he sold his crop for twelve thousand dollars, His example induced a number of other planters to plant cane.
By a royal order, given at Aranjuez, on the 20th of June, Don Carlos de Jaen, a licentiate of Havana, was appointed judge of residence of Miro. He did . not, however, come over for several years.
Don Francisco de Rendon, having been appointed intendant and corregidor of the province of Zacate- cas, sailed from New-Orleans, and the functions of the intendant devolved on Don Juan Benaventura Morales, the contador.
This year the canal behind the city was comple- ted, and a number of schooners went through it to a basin that had been dug near the ramparts. 'The cabildo, as a mark of their gratitude for the adminis- trator, to whose care this important improvement was due, directed that it should be called "the Canal Carondelet."
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The project of inducing French rovalists to migrate to Louisiana, continued to be a favorite one with the Baron; and, with a view of promoting it, very exten- sive grants of land were made.
The most considerable one was that made to the Baron de Bastrop. It was of twelve square leagues, on the banks of the Washita. The emigrants were intended to be employed in the culture of wheat and the manufacture of flour. The colonial government took upon itself the charge of bringing them down from New-Madrid, and of providing for their subsis- tence during six months. It promised not to molest them on account of their religion; but declared that the Roman Catholic was the only one the rites of which would be allowed to be performed.
Another grant was to James Ceran Delassus de St. Vrain, an officer of the late roval navy of France, who had lost his fortune in the late revolution in his own country, and who, having been compelled to re- move to the United States, had rendered himself use- ful to Spain, in assisting the emissaries of the Baron in defeating the plans of Genet against the king's do- minions on the Mississippi and the gulf. This grant was of ten thousand square arpents. The grantee proposed to exert his industry in discovering and working lead mines. The privilege was given him of locating his grant in several mines, salines, mill- seats, and other places, as might best snit his interest, without any obligation, on his part. of making any settlement thereon, as the execution of his plan would require large disbursements, and could be realised only in places remote from the white population and among the Indians.
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Julien Dubuc had made a settlement. on the frontiers of the province, on land purchased from the Indians, in the midst of whom it was effected, and opened and worked several lead mines, which he called " the mines of Spain." The Baron now granted him all the land from the coast, above the little river Maquegnito to the banks of the Mosque- bemanque, forming about six leagues on the west bank of the Mississippi river, by a depth of three leagues.
'The Marquis de Maison-Rouge having completed his establishment on the Washita, the Baron, on the twentieth of June, appropriated conclusively thirty thousand superficial acres of land for the Marquis's establishment ; it being understood that no American settler was to be admitted within the grant.
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