USA > Louisiana > The province and the states, a history of the province of Louisiana under France and Spain, and of the territories and states of the United States formed therefrom, Vol. I > Part 17
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Late in November, 1721, the colonial commissioners ordered an expedition sent up the Arkansas river to learn if that stream was navigable as far as the villages of the Indians who had visited De la Harpe in 1719 at Fort St. Louis de Carlorette, probably about as far up as the mouth of the Canadian branch. M. de la Harpe was placed in command of this expedition, the following being his orders and instructions : "We, John Baptist D'Bien- ville, Chevalier of the order of St. Louis and commanding gen- eral of the Province of Lonisiana, give orders to M. De la Harpe, commandant of the Bay of St Bernard, to set out with a detach- ment of sixteen soldiers to the Arkansas and there remain a suf- ficient time to collect provisions; and further to take with him M. D'Franchome to act as second in command. That the said De la Harpe will ascend the headwaters of the Arkansas, to exam- ine the quality of the land and ascertain what Indian tribes live there, with whom he can make treaties of alliance, as well as to do all other things he may judge necessary to be done, keep an exact journal of his route, mark the courses of the streams, their currents, and their islands, and ascertain what mines are in the country ; and if by chance the Spaniards wish to make any settle-
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ments there, to inform them that all the countries lying on these rivers are dependencies of France ; that when the said Sieur de la Harpe shall have performed all of these duties in a manner that requires nothing further to be done, he will return to headquar- ters, leaving M D'Franchome at his post." (Dated Fort St Louis, Mobile, December 10, 1721.)
The post was to be established there to supply the colony with cattle and to protect the new settlements that were about to spring up in that region. The expedition set forth on the 16th of Decen- ber, taking along a considerable quantity of merchandise to be exchanged for the corn and beans of the Indians. He really took with him eighteen men and provisions for forty-five days. He advanced up the Mississippi, passing Fort Rosalie, at Natchez, on January 20, 1722. Near the mouth of the Yazoo river he passed two pirogues of Canadians, who were taking a cargo of five thousand pounds of salt meat from the Illinois country to New Orleans. On the 27th of February he reached the lowest branch of the Arkansas, which he entered and sailed up, passing White river, upon which higher up lived the Osages, and which entered the Arkansas near the villages of the Soutoues, a tribe of the Arkansas nation. Their principal village at this time comprised about forty cabins and three hundred and thirty inhab- itants. Here he found M. D'Laboulay, who had been sent here the previous September by Governor D'Bienville to protect from capture the boat loads of provisions sent down the river from the Illinois to New Orleans. The Indians seemed adverse to giving any information, and he was told that five Frenchmen from Law's concession, who had ascended the Arkansas river to pur- chase horses, had been killed on its headwaters by the Osages. It was afterward learned that one of these men, Richards, evaded the Osages and succeeded in reaching the country discovered in 1719 by De la Harpe, where he was well received. After remain- ing at Arkansas post until March 10, De la Harpe advanced up the Arkansas river with his detachment increased to twenty-two men, including M. D'Franchome, who had been serving as ensign of this post. He arrived at French Rock on the 9th of April. "This rock is on the right of the river ascending, and forms three steep hills of one hundred and sixty feet in height, near to which are several fine slate quarries." Ile continued ascending until the 17th of April, when running short of provisions and his men being attacked by dysentery, he concluded to return. Hle pro- ceeded by land five or six days' journey and then turned back. However, he had ascended far enough to feel assured that the
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river was navigable as far as the country of the Padoucas. The object of the expedition was not accomplished.
On the Ioth of November, 1721, Father Peter F. X. Charlevoix made the descent of the Mississippi from Kaskaskia. He was accompanied by three companions. They passed Cape St. Anthony on the 12th on the left. Before reaching the mouth of the Ohio, they passed a spot where the Cherokees had killed about forty Frenchmen, among whom were sons of M. de Ramezai, gov- ernor of Montreal, and Baron de Longueuil, the king's lieutenant of the same city. They passed the country of the Chicachas (Chickasaws), where they saw a monument which had been set up to mark the site of the slaughter of some of the tribe by an expedition of the Illinois. On December 2, they arrived at the first of the Arkansas villages, situated in a beautiful meadow on the west side of the Mississippi. "There are three others in the space of eight leagues and each makes a nation or particular tribe; there is also one of the four which unites two tribes ; but they are all comprised under the name of Arkansas. The West- ern Company have a magazine here which expects some mer- chandises, and a clerk who fares but poorly in the meantime and who is heartily weary of living here. The river of the Arkansas, which they say comes a great way, runs into the Mississippi by two channels four leagnes distant from each other. The first is eight leagues from hence. The separation of its two branches is made at seven leagues above the second, and the smallest of its two mouths but only at two leagues above the first.
* * Two leagues higher ( up the Mississippi ) are the Tori- mans and the Tongingas, who make but one village. Two leagues higher as the Sothonis ( Assotone). The Cappas are a little further. Over against their village we see the sad ruins of Mr. Law's grant, of which the company remain the proprietors. It is here that the nine thousand Germans were to be sent which were raised in the Palatinate and 'tis a great pity they never came. But Mr. Law was ill-used, as well as the greatest part of the other grantees." Continuing, they reached the mouth of the Yasous or Yachoux ( Yazoo) on the 9th of December, and passing up the same three leagues reached the fort, where M. Bizart, the commanding officer, had just died. He was spoken of very highly as a most exemplary man and offi- cer. "The company has in this post a magazine of expectation, as at the Arkansas; but the fort and the land belong to a society composed of M le Blanc, secretary of state, M le Compte de Belle-Isle, M le Marquis D'Asfeld, and M le Mond. brigadier
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engineer. On the 15th we arrived at Natchez. This canton, the finest, most fertile and the most populous of all Loms- iana, is forty leagues distant from the Yasous and on the same hand." On the top of the hill was a small redoubt, enclosed with palisades. "The late M. D'Iberville, who was the first that entered the Mississippi by its mouth, being come as high as the Natchez, found this country so charming and so advantageously situated that he thought he could find no better situation for the metrop- olis of the new colony. He traced out the plan of it and intended to call it Rosalie, which was the name of Madam de Pontchar- train."
On January 10, 1722, Charlevoix writes, "I am at length arrived in this famous city, which they have called la Nouvelle Orleans. Those who have given it this name thought that Orleans was of the feminine gender; but what signifies that ? Custom has established it, and that is above the rules of granmar. 'This city is the first, which one of the greatest rivers in the world has seen raised on its banks, The eight hundred fine houses and the five parishes, which the newspapers gave it some two years ago, are reduced at present to a hundred barracks, placed at no very great order; to a great storehouse built of wood; to two or three houses, which would be no ornament to a village in France; and to the half of a sorry storehouse, which they agreed to lend to the lord of the place, and which he had no sooner taken possession of, but they turned him out to dwell under a tent. .
Two leagues lower than the river of the Tonicas, we leave on the right hand the Red River or Rio Colorado. 'There are several grants situated here, which in all appearance will not grow very rich. The motive of this settlement is the neighborhood of the Spaniards, which at all times has been a fatal enticement to this colony. In hopes of trading with them, they leave the best lands in the world uncultivated. The Natchitoches are settled on Red River, and we have judged it convenient to build a fort among them, to hinder the Spaniards from settling nearer us." Passing the famous cut-off just below the mouth of Red river, they came to the grant called St. Reyne, at the head of which were Messrs. Coetlogon and Kolli. "We went a league further and came to the grant of Madam de Mezieres." At both of these settlements they were in sore need of men, because the residents were not inclined to labor, but preferred to wander and explore.
On New Year's day they went to say mass three leagues from Madam de Mezieres, in a grant very well situated and which
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THE WESTERN COMP.INY AND ITS SUCCESSORS.
belonged to M. Diron D'Artaguette, inspector-general of the troops of Louisiana .: "We staid all the day in this grant, which is not much forwarder than the rest, and which they call la Baton Rouge (The Red Stick). The next day we made eleven leagues and encamped a little below the Bayagoulas, which we had left on the right hand, after having visited here the ruins of the ancient village. It was very populous about twenty years since. The smallpox has destroyed a part of its inhabitants, the rest are gone away and dispersed. They have not so much as even heard any news of them for several years, and it is a doubt whether there is a single family remaining. The land they possess is very rich. Messrs. Paris have a grant here, where they have planted in rows a great number of white mulberry trees, and they make very fine silk here already. They also begin to cultivate here, with much success, indigo and tobacco." A little later they passed the night on the fine spot where they had "settled the grant of M le Marquis D'Ancenis, at present Duke de Bethune, . which by a fire happening in the great magazine and by several other accidents, one after another is reduced to nothing. The Colapissas had here formed a little village, which did not subsist long. . On the 4th of January we arrived at the great village of the Colapissas. It is the finest village of Louisiana, yet they reckon in it but two hundred warriors." Five leagues farther down was Cannes Brulees (or Brunt Reeds), where was located the grant to M. le Comte D'Artaguiere. This was on the east side of the river. On the west side, between the Colapissas and the Cannes Brulees was the site of the old Taensas village ; here M. de Meuse had a grant, where was a director, but no men nor merchandise. At the distance of three leagues of New Orleans was Choupitoulas, where considerable improvements had been made. Here were Sieur du Breuil and three Canadian brothers named Chauvins. "I have nothing to add to what I have said in the beginning of the former letter concerning the present state of New Orleans. The truest idea you can form of it, is to represent to yourself two hundred. persons that are sent to build a city, and who are · encamped on the side of a great river; where they have thought on nothing but to shelter themselves from the injuries of the air, whilst they wait for a plan, and have built themselves houses. M de Pauger, whom I have still the honor to accompany, has just now showed me one of his drawing. It is very fine and very regular, but it will not be so easy to execute it as it was to trace it on paper. Between New Orleans and the sea there are no grants ; they would have too little depth; there are only some
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small private habitations and some magazines for the great grants."
In 1719 the Western Company fixed the prices at which the products of the colonists would be received by them. Deer skins ranged from fifteen to twenty-five cents each, dressed thirty cents ; hides (buffalo) eight cents per pound ; the best tobacco five dollars per hundred; extra flour three dollars ; rice four dollars ; wheat two dollars; barley and oats ninety cents; silk from one dollar and a half to two dollars per pound. The only market for the colonists living in the modern Louisiana Purchase was at New Orleans. The settlement had no sooner been formed at Biloxi than the Illinois country began to send down flour, pork and hides. This was the beginning of a trade down the Mis- sissippi which long afterward would have caused war had not the differences been adjusted by Spain and the United States in 1795 and again in 1802-3. It is well known that nearly all the remote Indian tribes of the west, from the time of the earliest settlement of Louisiana, were visited by white traders, who boldly went among them for the purpose of obtaining their various commodities and to exchange therefor the goods of the French people. But Spain had preceded France in securing the trade of the far western tribes; and for many years it was the paramount object of Crozat and the Western Company to divert this trade down the water courses to New Orleans ; hence expeditions were sent up Red and Arkansas rivers to form treaties with those tribes. The Spaniards had settled Santa Fe as early as about 1582-3; and by the time the French established Biloxi they were numerously located in the upper valley of the Rio Grande and had already monoplized the Indian trade of all the far western tribes. But the French expeditions failed to alienate the western tribes from the Spanish, and finally the latter determined to retaliate by . an attack on the French of the Illinois. An expedition was sent out, of which the following is an account :
"In 1720 the Spaniards formed the design of settling at the Missouris, who are near the Illinois, in order to confine us (the French) more on the eastward; the Missouris are far distant from New Mexico, which is the most northerly province the Spaniards have. They believed that in order to put their colony in safety, it was necessary they should entirely destroy the Missouris; but concluding that it would be impossible to subdue them with their own forces alone, they resolved to make an alliance with the Osages, a people who were the neighbors of the Missouris and at the same time their mortal enemies. With that view they formed
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THE WESTERN COMPANY AND ITS SUCCESSORS.
a cavaran at Santa Fé, consisting of men, women and soldiers, having a Jacobin (Dominican) priest for their chaplain and an engineer captain for their chief and conductor, with the horses and cattle necessary for a permanent settlement. The caravan being set out mistook its road and arrived at the Missonris, taking them to be the Osages. Immediately the conductor of the cara- van ordered his interpreter to speak to the chief of the Missouris, as if he had been that of the Osages, and telling that they were come to make an alliance with him, in order to destroy together their enemies, the Missouris. The great chief of the Missouris concealed his thoughts upon this expedition, showed the Span- iards signs of great joy and promised to execute a design with them which gave him much pleasure. To that purpose he invited them to rest for a few days after their tiresome journey till he had assembled his warriors and held council with the old men; but the result of that council was that they should entertain their guests very well and affect the sincerest friendship for them. They agreed together to set out in three days. The Spanish cap- tain immediately distributed fifteen (five) hundred muskets, with an equal number of pistols, sabres and hatchets; but the very morning after this agreement the Missouris came by break of day into the Spanish camp and killed them all except the Jacobin priest, whose singular dress did not seem to belong to a warrior. All these transactions the Missouris themselves related, when they brought the ornaments of the chapel hither (to Fort Char- tres on the Mississippi). These people, not knowing the respect dne the sacred utensils, hung the chalice to a horse's neck, as if it had been a bell. They were dressed ont in these ornaments, the chief having on the naked skin the chasuble, with the paten sus- pended from his neck. The Missouris told him ( D'Boisbriant ) that the Spaniards intended to have destroyed them; that they had brought him all these things as being of no use to them, and that if he would he might give them such goods in return as were more to their liking. Accordingly, he gave them some goods, and sent the ornaments to M D'Bienville, who was then the governor of the Province of Louisiana. It has been claimed that D'Bois- briant planned the destruction of this Spanish army. As the Indians had got a great number of Spanish horses from the cara- van, the chief of the Missouris gave the finest of them to M D'Boisbriant. They had likewise brought with them the map which had conducted them so ill."*
* Nouveau Voyages aux Indies Occidentales, par M. Bossu, captaine dans les troupes de la marine. English edition, London, 1771.
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It is well known that some time prior to 1705, a number of Frenchmen ascended the Missouri river and built a rude post among the Missouris. It is told that one of the leaders, Dubois, long afterward married the chief's daughter, took her and other Indians to Europe with him, where she was received by royalty and thus signally honored; that he finally returned with her to the tribe via New Orleans and was entertained by the company ; and that the Frenchmen, including Dubois, were all finally mas- sacred by the bride's people at her suggestion and perhaps insti- gation. It is also related that long before the French occupancy, an Indian, probably of the Yazoos, ascended the Mississippi and the Missouri rivers, thence crossed the Rocky mountains and passed down the Columbia river to the Pacific ocean. Finally, after years of wandering, he returned to his people on the banks of the Mississippi and lived to tell the tale, when an old man, to the first Frenchmen to visit the West. His name was Mon- cachtabi. This tale is wrapped in doubt.
Fort Chartres, built on the Mississippi river, a short distance above Kaskaskia by D'Boisbriant in 1720, was for a long time the headquarters of the traders who ascended the Missouri to carry on traffic with the natives. The construction of this fort was followed by the extension of the Illinois settlements to the banks of the Mississippi, and soon led to the establishment of trading posts on the Missouri. Prairie du Rocher, St. Philippe and Cahokia were built in Illinois in the vicinity of the fort. The Sulpitians erected a water mill for grinding corn and for sawing lumber at Cahokia ; and a large warehouse of the Western Com- pany was built at Fort Chartres. Soon the lead and the pelts and furs obtained from the Missouri country began flowing down the muddy current of the river. It was under the governments of Crozat and the Western Company that the colonists began to demand titles to their plantations or farms. The French king was lord paramount of the soil ; but armed with authority from him the proprietors granted tracts to the colonists, which were later to be confirmed by the French government. When it was found by the various adventurers that the expected gold and sil- ver was not in the country, they were forced to do something else for a livelihood, and accordingly many of them accepted plantation grants and began to till the soil and form substantial and permanent homes. D'Boisbriant executed the first of these grants in the Missouri country soon after the establishment of Fort Chartres. Whether all the conditions were complied with or not, the more or less permanent occupation of the grants per-
After a Jesuit Map, Parkman Mississippi Valley, 1672-3
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THE WESTERN COMPANY AND ITS SUCCESSORS.
fected the titles in most cases. These primitive grants are the bases of many of the titles to land in Missouri, Arkansas and Louisiana.
In 1723 the Royal Indian Company succeeded to the rights of the Western Company so far as Louisiana was concerned. The changes and depression caused by the failure of Law, the great cost of the Indian wars, the absence of the expected precious minerals, the rupture of the monopoly of the company by the irregular trade of the coureurs de bois and by the invasion of the Spaniards on the west and the English to the Mississippi, and the many desertions from the colony, induced the company fin- ally to petition for the relinquishment of its charter, and the sur- render was granted. The proclamation of the king on April 10, 1732, transferred the control of Louisiana Province to the French government. Prior to 1711 the scattered French settlements on the upper and lower Mississippi, the Illinois, the Arkansas and the Red rivers, were obscure dependencies of New France or Canada and were without organization as a whole, though each had its specific name, as Illinois, Arkansas, Natchitoches, Biloxi, etc. But in 1711 all the tract of country from the Alleghanies to the Rockies and from the Gulf to Minnesota was constituted Louisiana Province, with a government subordinate to Canada. The Province was ruled by a governor, a commandant general and various subordinate officers, with headquarters at Mobile. Owing to the death of D'Muys, the first appointive governor, Diron D'Artaguette, served as provisional governor, until the arrival of Antoine D'Lamothe Cadillac, who had been appointed in place of D'Muys. The latter served until March, 1717, when he was succeeded by M. D'Epinay. The governorship passed to D'Bienville in February, 1718, and remained with him until 1725, when, owing to the jealousy of his subordinates, he was recalled. D'Perier succeeded, the interim being filled by D'Bois- briant.
In the autumn of 1723, it is known that the Missouri river and its varions branches, up probably as far as the mouth of the Platte river in Nebraska, were thoroughly explored by the French miners under Phillip Francois D'Renault. He came with two hundred Frenchmen and three hundred slaves to Fort Chartres, whence they spread out over the west as far as they could do so in safety, and opened many lead and other mines in the present State of Missouri. Not finding the precious metals expected, they fin- ally dispersed, and D'Renault was compensated with six grants of
I-12
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THE PROVINCE AND THE STATES.
land and many of his companions engaged in agriculture. When, in 1725, D'Bienville was deposed from the governorship of the colony, D'Boisbriant was sent to New Orleans from Fort Char- tres to serve as such until the arrival of M. D'Perier, his succes- sor, who reached New Orleans in August, 1726.
In order to gain the friendship of the western Indians, par- ticularly of Padoucas or Pawnees living in the present States of Kansas and Nebraska, and thereby, through them, be enabled to open commercial communication with the Spaniards of New Mexico, the governor of Louisiana, with the approval of the Royal India Company and the government of France, dispatched M. D'Bourgmont (who had previously gone up the Missouri sev- eral times, but without important results) up the Mississippi and the Missouri rivers in the spring of 1724, with instructions to organize a sufficient force on the Missouri river near the present Jefferson City, to enable him to reach the country of the Pawnees. Accompanied by a small body of Frenchmen, M. D'Bourgmont duly reached the mouth of the Osage river near which, upon an island in the Missouri, he built a fort which he named Fort Orleans, and soon afterward began preparations for the journey. He secured the assistance of about one hundred and sixty Indians of the Missouri and Osage tribes, who were commanded by their great chiefs ; and, being well supplied with provisions and mer- chandise to be presented to the upper tribes, set forth up the Missouri on the 3d of July. They did not go by water, but jour- neyed by land, with horses and Indians to carry the goods and supplies. On the seventh they reached the outposts of the Kan- sas tribe, and on the following day crossed the Missouri, swim- ming their horses, and a few hours later arrived at the first villages of that tribe, situated not far from the mouth of Kansas river. They had come up on the north side of the river, but had crossed over, and late on the 8th arrived at the principal Kansas towns. They were well received, and determined, before going farther, to secure a rendezvous of as many of the western tribes as possible at this point. Messengers were sent to the various tribes ; and in the meantime, a firm coalition was established with the Kansas nation. In two days representatives of the Othonez (Otoes) arrived and pledged their friendship and assistance. A large body of them agreed to hunt for him and keep him supplied with fresh meat. Envoys came from several other nations, but were not authorized to conclude terms of peace. A number of Pawnees present promised the friendship of their tribe.
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