USA > Mississippi > A history of Mississippi : from the discovery of the great river > Part 10
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As evidence of the increasing difficulties which threat- ened the existence of the colony, the Alibamons and Tala- pouches, under the wily advice of the Chickasaws, who were largely guided by the influence of the English, were on the eve of declaring war on the Choctaws, the only In- dians whose alliance and active assistance the French could hope for. "If such an event had taken place," says Beauchamp, in continuation, "the colony would have been on fire." He then proceeds to inveigh against the admin- istration of Periere, with great severity, and proceeds thus :
"The evil is now without a remedy, unless M. de Bien- ville could come back. Perhaps he could succeed in changing the state of things, on account of the considera- tion which the Indians have always had for him, and of the services which he has rendered them, particularly to
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the Choctaws." After a very particular review of the con- dition of affairs in the colony, Beauchamp continues thus : "You see to what a state is reduced this colony, which has so long been groaning under a harsh command. The colonists are in a miserably wretched condition, and are ill-supplied with the provisions and the merchandise they want. When flour is sent here, the heads of the colony take hold of it, as they do with all the brandy and cor- dials which are imported, and they do not part with these articles except at exorbitant prices. It is, after all, what they do for every sort of merchandise. The soldiers, also, have always had just causes of complaint against the com- pany with regard to their food and clothing. I need not speak of the enormous profits made by the company on everything of which it is permitted the sale in the colony."
With this graphic, and undeniably truthful description of the condition of affairs in the colony, it is not strange that the India Company, the child of John Law's versatile brain, at last grew weary, as did its predecessor, Anthony Crozat, of the care and responsibility of the colony. Soon after the massacre of the French at Fort Rosalie, the India Company became disgusted with their charge, and opened negotiations with the government for the surrender and annulment of their charter. These negotiations were pro- tracted to a great length, but finally, during the winter of 1731 and 1732, the surrender of the charter of the India Company was accepted by the government, and the Com- pany was thus relieved of any further control of, or con- nection with the colony, after fourteen years of the most dismal failure known to the history of government, com- merce or finance, on the American continent. During the winter of 1732 and 1733, M. Periere was removed from the position of Governor, and Bienville was, for the fourth time, appointed Governor of the colony. Early in the year 1733, Bienville, greatly to the satisfaction of the sol- diers and the people, returned to the colony after an ab- sence of eight years. There can scarcely be room for doubt that the return of Bienville to Louisiana, with his old position of Governor, and all the power the position implied, was no less gratifying to himself than to the col-
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onists. But this restoration to power for ten years added nothing to the reputation or happiness of Bienville. Nor did it add to the peace and prosperity of the wretchedly misgoverned colony, or to the quiet and repose of the un- fortunate colonists. For thirty-four years these colonists had been constantly exposed to the assaults of the wily and cruel Indian tribes by whom they were surrounded. Nor were these the only dangers to which the people were exposed. The diseases of this new and fertile country swept off hundreds of people every year. were frequently exposed to famine. With a folly and
In addition, they fatuity that is utterly incomprehensible at the present day, the French government and the India Company had failed utterly to encourage the production of food crops, and relied upon the home government for their supplies of provisions. To add to the unhappiness of Bienville, he indulged in the wild dream of driving the Chickasaw In- dians from the wide district of territory which they occu- pied in the northern portion of the present State of Mis- sissippi. The Chickasaw tribe was one of the largest, most powerful, warlike and ferocious of the aboriginal tribes. Their territory extended from the Tombigbee on the east, to the Mississippi on the west, and comprised at once a beautiful and fertile country. The woods abounded with wild game, and the beautiful streams, which traversed the country in every direction, were teeming with delicious fish. The Chickasaw Indians were able at any time to muster ten thousand warriors for field or foray.
In the month of April, 1736, Bienville, with five hun- dred and forty-four Frenchmen, forty-five negroes and six hundred Choctaw Indians, arrived at the Tombigbee depot, (this depot is supposed to have been at Cotton Gin Port, on the eastern bank of the Tombigbee river, in the present county of Monroe) having been greatly delayed by strong "currents, freshets, storms and constant rains." Another month was wasted in marching to the Chickasaw towns, where they arrived on the 22d of May, and encamped at a distance of twenty-seven miles from the principal villages. In a few days Bienville. having completed his arrange-
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ments, directed an assault to be made on the vil- lages, which was, with much bloodshed, repulsed. The battle waged for two or three hours, but finally the French were driven from the field, with the loss of many killed outright, and a large number were wounded. A few of the dead soldiers fell into the hands of the Indians, who, greatly to the horror of the French, "impaled their naked corpses on their pallisades." Bienville and his dispirited followers wearily retreated to the Tombigbee, where they had left their barges, and their arrival was none too soon, for when they reached the river they found it rapidly fall- ing. This necessitated an immediate embarkation, or a weary march by land through an almost impenetrable wilderness. This latter was not to be thought of, and the discomfitted party was at once embarked on the falling waters of the Tombigbee.
It was the original purpose of Bienville to have d'Arta- guette, the brother of Diron d'Artaguette, who had greatly distinguished himself during the assault on Fort Rosalie, and was then in command on the Illinois, to co-operate with him with all his forces in his campaign against the Chickasaw Indians. D'Artaguette was promptly on the ground with a force of thirty soldiers, one hundred volun- teers, and nearly the entire force of the Kaskaskia In- dians. He was joined shortly by de Vincennes, with forty Iroquois and many of the Wabash Indians. Reaching the vicinity of the Chickasaw villages, he received a letter from Bienville informing him, that, owing to unexpected delays, he would not be able to reach the Chickasaws be- fore the end of April. This letter was submitted to a council of war, composed of officers and Indian chiefs. There was reported to be an isolated village, having not more than thirty cabins, supposed to be that of the Natchez refugees, which the Indians thought could be readily captured. In this opinion the French officers con- curred, and the attack was resolved upon. The entire force of d'Artaguette was one hundred and thirty French- men and three hundred and sixty-six Indians, and on Palm Sunday, 1736, the attack on the village was gal- lantly made ; but hardly had the engagement commenced,
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when a body of some five hundred Chickasaws, accom- panied by thirty Englishmen, who had ensconced them- selves behind a hill, rushed suddenly and with such impet- uosity upon the attacking party, that, according to Gay- arre, "the Miamis and the Illinois took to flight. Thirty- eight Iroquois and twenty eight Arkansas Indians, sent by Grandpre, were the only Indians that stood by the French, who fought with desperate valor against the overwhelming odds they had to contend with."
Twelve French officers were soon killed, and d'Arta- guette, having lost forty five of his one hundred men, was soon forced to retreat, but they were pursued with such fury that they were finally completely routed. D'Arta- guette fell, covered with wounds, and was taken prisoner, together with Father Senac, a Jesuit, Du Tisne, an officer of the regular army, Lalande, a militia captain, five or six soldiers and militia men, "numbering nineteen in all." The victory of the Chickasaws was very com- plete, and the spoils they captured were most valuable. Among the captured property were "the provisions and baggage of the French, with four hundred and fifty pounds of powder, twelve thousand bullets and eleven horses." "D'Artaguette, Father Senac and fifteen others," says Gayarre, "were burned alive, according to the usage of the Indians in festivals for victories obtained, and the remaining two captains were set aside to be ex- changed for a Chickasaw warrior who was in the hands of the French. This exchange effectually took place some time after. The melancholy fate of d'Artaguette and his companions produced in the colony almost as painful an impression as the Natchez massacre, and the bad success of Bienville was another cause of humiliation, which con- tributed to increase the gloom hanging over the country."
The inglorious failure of the expedition against the Chickasaws, which Bienville had led in person, and the loss of so many valuable lives, must have been profoundly humiliating to that officer, but he made an earnest effort to justify himself to the home government. In his official report to the Minister of the Colonial Department, he said : "Your Excellency will have seen by the accounts of this
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laborious campaign, which I have transmitted to the gov- ernment, that in its conception and execution, and in the closing retreat, I made the best use I could of the means I had at my disposal, and you will also have remarked that, after having suffered in my preparations from delays which I could not anticipate, much less could I foresee the cow- ardice of the troops put under my orders. It is true, that, considering the pitiful recruits of blackguards which are sent here, one ought never to entertain the flattering hope of making soldiers of them. What is worse, is the obli- gation under which I am, with such troops, to hazard the reputation of the nation, and to expose our officers to the necessity of meeting death or dishonor. The recruits re- cently arrived by the Gironde are still inferior to the pre- ceding ones. There are but one or two men among them whose size is above five feet ; as to the rest, they are under four feet ten inches. With regard to their moral character, it is sufficient to state that, out of fifty-two who have lately been sent here, more than one-half have already been whipped for larceny. In a word, these useless beings are not worth the food bestowed upon them ; they are burdens to the colony, and from them no efficient military service is to be expected."
"It was only after his return to New Orleans that Bien- ville," says Gayarre, "learned that d'Artaguette had ar- rived before him at the Chickasaw villages, and had met with a signal defeat and tragical death."
There can be no question that the system of recruiting soldiers for the colony, adopted by the home government, was radically defective Every governor of the colony had constantly protested against the character of the soldiers sent here, and the complaint was ever that these "so-called" soldiers were recruited from the prisons and. workhouses of France. Nothing valuable could be ex- pected from a gang of jail birds, convicts and ruffians, and the usual result followed with absolute certainty, dis- aster, dishonor, and death to the officers whose misfortune it was to be placed in command of such hopeless vaga- bonds, thieves and cowards.
Governor Bienville still persisted in his purpose of driv-
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ing the powerful and warlike Chickasaws from their beautiful country, and in accordance with this oft-repeated demand, the home government had sent him "amuni- tion, provisions, merchandise and seven hundred men." It had also furnished him with a number of "bombardiers, cannoniers and miners," and with these reinforcements came M. de Noailles, with whom Bienville was directed to act in concert, because the former has the necessary talents and experience to command." This must have been a most mortifying instruction to Bienville, but he managed to conceal his humiliation under a smiling and calm exterior, though the wound to his soldierly sensibilities must have rankled deep and lasting.
The influence of the English was constantly extending with the Choctaw Indians, and with that influence the in- trigues of the former against the French were energetically directed to the alienation of the Choctaws from their former allies. This was to some extent successful. The important Chief Red Shoe had already joined the English, and in 1739, when the Chevalier de Noyan was sent to the Choctaws to conciliate them and obtain their support in the expedition against the Chickasaws, he was successful in his mission to the extent of securing thirty-two villages, while ten towns under the control of Red Shoe adhered to the English.
The greater portion of the year 1739 was dedicated to making preparations for a campaign which it was hoped was to end in the destruction of the Chickasaw nation. The Choctaw Chief, Red Shoe, had gone to the English settlements in Georgia with a considerable idea of his im- portance, with the expectation of being munificently re- warded. The English, however, received him coldly, and Red Shoe, thoroughly disgusted, returned to his nation and renewed his allegiance to the French. The return of this important Chief gare to Bienville the united support of the Choctaws, a matter of supreme importance to him.
Bienville had determined to abandon his former route to the Chickasaw country, across the lakes and up the Tombigbee river, and resolved to ascend the Mississippi river in barges, and for that purpose appointed the general
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rendezvous at the mouth of the Margot (now Wolf) river, near the present city of Memphis. From this rendezvous, the distance to the Chickasaw villages was about one hun- dred and fifty miles, through a high, beautiful and gently undulating country. In the month of August the Chevalier de Noyan, who was in command of the advance guard of the expedition, reached the general rendezvous. Soon after his arrival de la Buissonniere reached the mouth of the Margot from the Illinois district, with a detachment of regulars, militia, and some two hundred Indians. About a week later witnessed the arrival of Celeron and St. Laurent, in command of a company of Canadian cadets from Montreal and Quebec, and a large body of Northern Indians. It may seem to the reader rather odd that these troops and Indians, from the far North and West, should have traversed an unbroken wilderness for many hundreds of miles, and arrived at the rendezvous in the month of August, while it took Bienville until the 12th day of No- vember to reach the same objective point. In the mean- time, the troops that had been lying idle on the banks of the Margot river had been suffering dreadfully with dis- ease, and a very large number of deaths had occurred among them. On the 12th of November there was a review of the entire command, and it was found to number twelve hundred white men and twenty-four hundred In- dians. This was a force quite sufficient to make an im- pression upon the Chickasaws, and incline them to peace, but the usual fatality seemed to be paralyzing this, the greatest military expedition that had yet been seen in the colony. It soon became apparent that some remarkable miscalculation had been made in regard to the quantity of provisions on hand to vitual so large a force as was there as- sembled. Months were wasted in idleness and indecision. and Bienville and de Noailles seemed to be smitten with absolute imbecility. In the month of February, 1740, a council of war was held and a remarkable decision was arrived at. It was resolved that "considering all the un- toward circumstances the French had to contend with, it was impossible to march to the Chickasaw villages, without hazarding the reputation of the king's arms, and orders
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were given to prepare for a retreat." Connected with this most inglorious fiasco, this marching up the hill merely for the purpose of "marching down again," Gayarre tells us, with what ease this expedition might have been made a splendid success, redounding to the honor of the French arms, and adding immensely to the reputation of the two officers chiefly concerned. He says :
"What is remarkable is, that Celeron, either authorized by Bienville, or assuming the undertaking on his own re- sponsibility, departed from Fort Assumption, (a fort built by the first soldiers who reached the general rendezvous at the mouth of the Margot river), on the 15th of March, after the bulk of the army had moved off down the Missis- sippi, and marched upon the Chickasaw villages, with his company of cadets, about one hundred Frenchmen and four or five hundred Indians. When Celeron appeared in sight of the villages with his small force, the Chickasaws, either believing it was only the head of the French army which was coming behind, or frightened at the vastness of the preparations which had been made against them, and at the unalterable determination which the French seemed to have taken to wage a war of extermination against their nation, presented themselves before the French officer, as suppliants for peace, which they solicited in the humblest terms. Celeron accepted their propositions, and sent some of their chiefs after Bienville, whom they overtook on his way to New Orleans. The French governor made with them a treaty by which they promised to deliver up the Natchez they had in their possession, and to exterminate the rest of that unfortunate race. However, Bienville de- clared to them that the treaty of peace did not include the Choctaws, who would continue to make war upon, and to receive from the French the customary price for every Chickasaw scalp they would raise." No better proof of the abundant success which should have crowned this ex- pedition, had it only been conducted with skill and energy, can possibly be offered, and it must have been a bitter re- flection to Bienville, when he remembered the remarkable success that Celeron had achieved with one hundred Frenchmen and five hundred Indians, while himself and
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de Noailles, with a force six times as large, had only achieved a miserable and disgraceful failure.
Celeron having successfully accomplished what Bienville and de Noailles, with six times his force, had ingloriously failed in, returned to the mouth of the Margot river, where, having razed Fort Assumption to the ground, departed for his far away post in Canada.
Bienville, chafing under the repeated failures of his expe- ditions against the Chickasaw Indians, and having failed to satisfy the home government that his reverses were not due to his own bad management, was frequently in receipt of letters from his government, which, from their harshness, must have stung his proud spirit to the quick, finally re- solved to demand his recall.
It is impossible not to sympathize with a proud, high- spirited soldier who had grown gray in the service of his country, and who had seen all his efforts come to naught. There is something sad and almost pathetic in a letter he dispatched to his government under the date of March 26th, 1742, in which he said :
"If success had always corresponded with my applica- tion to the affairs of the government and administration of this colony, and with my zeal for the king, I should have rejoiced in consecrating the rest of my days to such objects; but through a sort of fatality which, for some time past, has obstinately thwarted my best concerted plans, I have frequently lost the fruit of my labors, and perhaps some ground in your Excellency's confidence. Therefore have I come to the conclusion, that it is no lon- ger necessary for me to struggle against my adverse for- tune. I hope that better luck may attend my successor. During the balance of my stay here, I will give all my attention to smooth difficulties attached to the office which I shall deliver up to him, and it is to me a subject of self- gratulation that I shall transmit to him the government of the colony when its affairs are in a better condition than they have ever been."
The Marquis de Vaudreuil, the successor of Bienville, arrived in New Orleans on the 10th day of May, 1743 and Bienville soon departed for France, never again to return
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to the colony which he so loved, and to the service of which he had given forty-four years of his life. When Bienville took his departure for France he was sixty- five years of age, and his life was prolonged for a quarter of a century. He left, after forty four years of service to the colony, with the respect, the confidence and the love of all the people, whose prayers, benedictions and good wishes attended him on his voyage. His successor seemed to have inherited the mania for mining that had character- ized Governor Cadillac, and he was constantly announcing the discovery of mines in various portions of the immense territory comprised within the colony of Louisiana. This delusion had long been the prevalent one in the councils of the French government, but "it is difficult," says Gayarre, "to imagine how the working of those mines could have been carried on with success in those days. The colony could not subsist on its own resources, and provisions had to be sent from the mother country," and at the very time De Vaudreuil was recommending the working of mines in Arkansas and Illinois, he wrote in 1744, "if flour had not arrived by the Elephant the troops would have revolted on account of the want of food," and Gayarre well may ask, "in such circumstances how could several hundred workmen have been supported in the mines of Arkansas and Illinois ?"
When De Vaudreuil arrived in New Orleans, the Chick- asaw Indians sent four of their chiefs, with a French prisoner, to sue for peace. The Governor informed them that he would not treat with them save in concert with his allies, the Choctaws, to whom amends should be made for all injuries received at the hands of the Chickasaws, and that the latter "should drive away from their villages the English traders, who he said were the authors of all their misfortunes." The Chickasaw chiefs took time to com- municate these terms to their tribe, and in the beginning of 1744 the Chickasaws announced to the Governor that they would accept his terms, and "would dismiss the Eng- lish traders from their villages, if the French could supply them with all the goods, merchandise and ammunition they
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council of the the chiefs of the Chickasaw and Choctaw Indians to assemble at Mobile. The prime object of this council, on the part of the Governor, was to make safe the pathway for the immigrants who at this early period were steadily flowing into the colony of West Florida. These immigrants were compelled to pass through the territories occupied by Indians. Many families traveled by way of the Ohio, the Holstein, and the Tennessee rivers, and frequent murders had been committed by Indians of the Cherokee tribe. The details of the traffic between the En- glish traders and the Indians were arranged without diffi- culty, and regular prices for merchandise and peltries were agreed upon.
While this immigration was flowing into the colony, the English traders were in the enjoyment of a large and lu- crative free trade on the Tombigbee and Mississippi rivers, very much to the annoyance and injury of their Span- ish neighbors. To show how close this neighborhood really was, may be instanced by the fact that on either side of the Iberville, a very narrow stream, there was a Spanish and an English fort. Fort Bute, with the English flag flying and bidding defiance to its foes, stood on the northern bank of the river, while a Spanish fort, flaunting the proud ensign of Spain, was immediately opposite. Near each fortification were large warehouses, owned sev- erally by opulent and enterprising English and Spanish merchants. Not a trace of fort, or vestige of stately ware- houses are visible to-day, and it would be hard to con- vince the dwellers around the mouth of the Iberville of the present day, that the story here told is not of "such stuff as dreams are made of."
A very lively illicit trade in African slaves was carried on at this time. The laws of Spain were contravened by British traders who brought the negroes from the coast of Africa, took them direct to the Island of Jamaica, an En- glish possession, and thence to Pensacola, where they were transported by the lakes to Manshac, where, under the protection of the guns of Fort Bute and the British Hag, these African slaves were sold to the planters in ex- change for indigo, tobacco, staves, peltries, etc. The
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