USA > Mississippi > A history of Mississippi : from the discovery of the great river > Part 4
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" This charter of concessions virtually made Crozat the supreme lord and master of Louisiana. Thus Louisiana was dealt with as if it had been a royal farm, and leased by Louis XIV to the highest bidder. It is a mere business transaction, but which colors itself with the hue of romance, when it is remembered that Louisiana was the farm, Louis XIV the landlord, and that Anthony Crozat was the farmer."
The condition of the country at the time Crozat was clothed with such extraordinary powers and privileges, is thus graphically described by Gayarre: " When Crozat obtained the royal charter granting him so many commer- cial privileges in Louisiana, the military forces which were in the colony, and which constituted its only protection, did not exceed two companies of infantry of fifty men each.
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There were also seventy-five Canadians in the pay of the king, and they were used for every species of service. The balance of the population hardly came up to three hundred souls, and that population, small as it was, and almost imperceptible, happened to be scattered over a boundless territory, where they could not communicate together without interminable difficulties, frightful dangers, and without delays, which, in these our days of rapid loco- motion, can scarcely be sufficiently appreciated. As to the blacks, who now have risen to such importance in our social polity, they did not number more than twenty heads. It is probable that of this scanty population there were not fifty persons in the present limits of the State of Louisiana. The possession of the province of Louisiana, if possession it can be called, France had secured by the construction of five forts. They were located at Mobile, at Biloxi, Ship Island. Dauphine Island, and on the bank of the Missis- sippi. These fortifications were of a very humble nature. and their materials were chiefly composed of stakes, logs and clay. They sufficed, however, to intimidate the In . dians. Such were the paltry results, after fifteen years, of the attempt made by a powerful government to colonize Louisiana ; and now, one single man, a private individual, was daring enough to grapple and struggle with an under- taking, which so far had proved abortive in the hands of the great Louis XIV."
Meantime, pending the negotiations for the Crozat con- cessions, troubles were constantly accumulating around the devoted head of Governor Bienville. The reader will remember his dismissal in 1707, when De Muys was ap- pointed to succeed him. It will also be remembered that De Muys died at Havana while en route to Louisiana, and thus Bienville remained at the head of the Louisiana colony during the intervening five years. It must also be remembered that his enemies, chief among whom was La Salle, the displaced Royal Commissary of the colony, and the Curate de la Vente, were not idle in all those years. On the contrary, these conspirators against the good name of the Governor, were particularly active in circulating the vilest slanders against him. Only once he 3
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failed to maintain his usual serenity. Once only, when stung to frenzy, did he deign to notice the vile calumnies circulated by this vicious and corrupt cabal, and then he answered them in tones of virtuous indignation. He demonstrated to them, to use the language of Daniel Web- ster, uttered more than a century later, " that there were blows to be received as well as to be given." In answer to the calumnies of the Curate de la Vente, in a blaze of indignation, he said: "He has tried to stir up everybody against me, and who, in the meantime, did not blush to keep a shop where his mode of trafficking showed that he was a shrewd compound of the Arab and the Jew."
On the 17th of May, 1713, the arrival of a ship from France brought the intelligence of the concession to An- thony Crozat; the appointment of Lamothe Cadillac, as Governor, Duclos as Commissary, in the place of d'Arta- guette, who had returned to France, Lebas as Comptroller, Dirigoin and La Loire des Ursins, as the agents of Crozat in Louisiana. The one bitter drop in the cup of joy of La Salle, and the Curate de la Vente, was the fact that Bienville was to be retained in the comparatively unim- portant position of Lieutenant-Governor of the colony.
Lamothe Cadillac was born on the Garonne, in the prov- ince of Gascony, descended from an ancient family whose pretensions were in an inverse ratio to their wealth, or to the extent of their constantly narrowing domains. The new Governor was a veritable gascon, weak, vain, and capri- cious. In appearance he was an exaggerated likeness of " the knight of the rueful countenance," immortalized by the genius of Cervantes. That anything but disastrous fail- ure should accompany his rule was a forgone conclusion, and that conclusion was converted into a sad reality.
The first and principal instruction given by Crozat to Cadillac, was that he should diligently look after mines, and endeavor to find an opening for the introduction of his goods and merchandise into the Spanish colonies in Mexico, either with the consent of the authorities, or without it, "by smuggling," is the pointed way in which Gayarre puts it.
The great, the fundamental error which attended all the efforts of the French to colonize Louisiana, may be traced
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to the delusive idea that the precious metals were to be found on the shores of the great river in as profuse abund- ance as rewarded Cortez in Mexico, and Pizarro in Peru. the land of the Incas. Blind to the fact that the soil be- neath their feet contained a mine of exhaustless wealth. ready to respond to the touch of man in boundless profu- sion, they vainly sought for gold, silver and precious stones, while they suffered the pangs of hunger utterly unmindful of the treasures under their feet.
When Governor Cadillac landed on Dauphine Island. we can well imagine his disgust while penning the follow - ing lines to the Minister of the Marine. He writes : "The wealth of Dauphine Island consists of a score of fig trees, three wild pear trees, and three apple trees of the same nature, a dwarfish plum tree, three feet high, with seven bad looking plums, thirty plants of vine, with nine branches of half rotten and half dried-up grapes, forty stands of French melons and some pumpkins. This is the terrestrial paradise of which we had heard so much. Nothing but fables and lies."
Cadillac, remembering his instructions, commenced to explore the country in the hope of finding mines of gold and silver which should rival the richest yet discovered. Finding neither gold, silver or precious stones, his disgust with the country over which he was sent to rule. naturally deepened, and in his next dispatch he writes: " This is a very wretched country, good for nothing, and incapable of producing either tobacco, wheat or vegetables, even as high as Natchez !"
January, 1714, arrived, and again Governor Cadillac sent a dispatch to the home government, in which he writes :
" The inhabitants are no better than the country ! They are the very scum and refuse of Canada, ruffians who have thus far cheated the gibbet of its dues ! Vagabonds who are without subordination to the laws, without any respect to religion or for the government, graceless profligates who are so steeped in vice that they prefer the Indian females to French women! How can I find a remedy for such
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evils, when his Majesty instructs me to behave with ex- treme lenity, and in such a manner as not to provoke con- plaints ! But what shall I say of the troops who are with- out discipline, and scattered among the Indians, at whose expense they subsist ! The Colony is not worth a straw for the moment, but I shall endeavor to make something of it. if God grants me health."
Later on this marvel of a Governor wrote the Ministry the following sentence of a dispatch : "Believe me this . hole Continent is not worth having, and our colonists are so dissatisfied that they are all disposed to run away."
Cadillac had accepted the position of Governor of Louis- iana, dreaming that 'he should acquire vast wealth by the discovery of mines of gold, silver and precious stones, fabulous in their riches, and anything that inter- fered with this, the dearest desire of his heart, filled him with unutterable disgust. To think of devoting his sub- lime intellect and superhuman energies to the frivolous pursuits of agriculture, or commerce, to think of devoting himself to the promotion and growth of a healthy, self- supporting Colony, to opening up the country, to the mak- ing of roads, to the building of avenues of intercourse and trade, was an occupation that he looked down upon with the loftiest contempt and scorn. On receiving orders to assist the agents of Crozat in establishing trading posts on the Wabash and Illinois rivers, he lost his temper, and in a fit of frantic indignation, wrote the Ministry the fol- lowing insolent dispatch : "I have seen Crozat's instruc- tions to his agents. I thought they issued from a lunatic asylum, and there appeared to me to be no more sense in them than in the Apocalypse. What! is it expected that for any commercial or profitable purposes, boats will ever be able to run up the Mississippi, into the Wabash, the Missouri or the Red river ? One might as well try to bite a slice off of the moon. Not only are these rivers as rapid as the Rhone, but in their crooked course they imitate to perfection a snake's undulations. Hence, for instance, on every turn of the Mississippi, it would be necessary to wait for a change of wind, if wind could be had, because this river is so lined up with thick woods, that very little sind has access to its bed."
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In the disposition of the public land. the Governor thought it entirely beneath his dignity to take the slightest interest. In writing the Ministry he said: "Give the colonists as much land as they please. Why stint the measure ? The lands are so bad that there is no necessity to care for the number of acres. A copious distribution of them would be cheap liberality."
The dream of Cadillac was to grow suddenly wealthy by the discovery of mines of gold and silver, and all his energies had been devoted to that single purpose. He had sent out numerous exploring parties, but the precious metals had thus far eluded his persistent search. He had spent large sums in his fruitless search for gold mines, but the fever still burned in his heart and brain. To his great disgust he found, that in consequence of his lack of funds he could no longer continue his vain search for mines. In this dilemma he sought Duclos, the Royal Commissary, for more money to continue his researches. That financial functionary informed the Governor that his treasury was empty, and therefore it was impossible for him to comply with his demands. Nothing daunted, Cadillac uttered the word "borrow." "I cannot," responded Duclos. "Well. then," said the irate official, "what is the use of your being a financier, if you cannot raise money by borrow- ing, and what is the use of my being a Governor, if I have no funds to carry on the purposes of my government ?"
But the cup of his humiliation was not yet full. It mantled to the brim, however, when Duclos demanded of him a full and complete account of all the monies placed in his hands, and how. and for what purpose they had been expended. The Royal Commissary also insisted on having a full account of all the goods, merchandise and trinkets which had been delivered to him for distribution among the Indians. The astonishment and indignation of the Governor knew no bounds, and he immediately penned a dispatch to the ministry informing them of the enormity of this offence against his dignity. Troubles of every sort were accumulating around Cadillac. His weakness, his inordinate vanity, his pride and his lust of wealth, had rendered him ridiculous in the eyes of the officers, the
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soldiers and the colonists. He had absolutely hated Bien- ville, of whom he always spoke sneeringly as a Canadian, and therefore not comparable with a native of France. The Governor had an only daughter who had accompanied him to the wilds of Louisiana. This daughter was a plain young lady, but her eyes had looked on Bienville with favor. She had learned to love the young soldier ere that love had been sought. When her father became aware of the condition of his daughter's heart he was in a white heat of indignation. He bemoaned the terrible misfortune of a daughter of the house of Cadillac, wedding a Cana- ยท dian adventurer, but reflection taught him that by his assistance Bienville yet might rise superior to having been born in Canada, and so he concluded to send for him and thus form an alliance offensive and defensive for life. Bien- ville was sent for, and having been received with great civility, was diplomatically informed of the happiness in store for him. The fortunate recipient of this unexpected happiness bowed to the ground in recognition of the res- plendent honor. He manifested the utmost gratitude for having been thought worthy of the heart and hand of Made- moiselle Cadillac, was much honored by the suggestion so far beyond his humble aspirations, but, with much regret. assured the Governor that he was under an eternal vow of celibacy. But for that vow, which nothing could induce him to violate, he would be the happiest of all human beings with his incomparable daughter. This was the last straw upon the back of the camel, the last drop in the brimming cup of his humiliation. To think that a Cadillac should be refused by a Canadian was too much, and that proud blood rebelled against this new indignity, and sought for means of revenge. The search was brief. Bienville was again sent for. He was met with frowning brows and in- formed that he would start immediately for the villages of the Natchez Indians. The Governor said to him: "Sir, I have received secret information that four Canadians on their way to Illinois have been massacred by the Natchez. You must punish the murderers, and build a fort on the territory of that perfidious nation to keep it in check. Take Richebourg's company of thirty-four men, fifteen
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sailors to man your boats, and proceed to execute my commands." "What !" responded Bienville, "do you really intend to send me with thirty-four men to encoun- ter a hostile tribe that numbers eight hundred warriors ?" To this question Cadillac made answer : " A truce to your observations-to hear must be to obey. I cannot dispose of a greater force. I have myself good ground to expect being attacked by the neighboring nations, who, as I am informed, have entered into a conspiracy against us. Yet the offence committed by the Natchez must be instantly requited, or they would be emboldened into the perpetra- tion of worse outrages. Go, then, with such means as I can give ; in case of success, your merit will be greater, but if you should meet with any reverse you will be at no loss for an excuse, and all the responsibility shall be mine."
Bienville, satisfied that his ruin had been deliberately resolved upon, deemed it idle to waste further words and quietly withdrew to consult with Captain Richebourg who was to accompany him on his perilous expedition. Riche- bourg was a veteran soldier, of keen intelligence, marked courage and unquestioned fidelity.
In a few days thereafter, Bienville, with Captain Riche- bourg and his thirty-four soldiers and fifteen sailors, took their departure for the villages of the Natchez Indians, and upon the morning of the 24th of April, 1716, landed on Tunica Island, about eighteen leagues below the Natchez villages. Here Bienville immediately proceeded to con- struct defensive works, inside of which he erected three log houses; "one he intended for a store house for his provis- ions and ammunition, the second as a guard-house, and the third for a prison." Having thus concluded arrangements for the safety of his command, Bienville dispatched a Tunica Indian to the Natchez to inform them that "he was coming to establish a factory among them, to trade in furs and to supply them, in exchange, with all the European merchandise they might want." With the customary cun- ning of the red men, they debated the question pro and con, but finally concluded to visit Bienville at his temporary Island home. On the 27th, three Indians arrived at Tunica Island and offered him the calumet, as an evidence of their
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peaceful purpose. Bienville, however, haughtily refused to smoke, but affected to consider himself slighted because the Chief himself had not come to offer the homage which was his due. He enlarged upon the great benefit his coming would be to the tribe, but as they appeared totally insensible to the advantages his factory would confer, he intimated broadly that he would locate his factory among the Tunicas, who had always been the friends of the French. "After this speech" says Gayarre, "Bienville ordered the three envoys to be well feasted and treated with kindness. The next day they returned to their villa- ges with a Frenchman whose mission was to address a formal invitation to the Natchez Chiefs to a conference on Tunica Island." Again there was a long debate as to whether this invitation should be accepted, but the intima- tion from Bienville, that he would transfer his factory to the village of the Tunica Indians turned the scale, "and in an evil hour," says Gayerre, "for the Indian Chiefs, their visit to Bienville's camp was resolved upon." The " Great Sun," two of his brothers, the "Stung Serpent,'' and "The Little Sun," attended by a large retinue, in great state reached Tunica Island on the 8th day of May. Bienville had given orders that half of his command, which had been materially strengthened by the arrival of twenty-two Frenchmen and Canadians, inured to war and to hardships, from the Illinois country, should be fully armed and conceal themselves in the guard-house, while the other half were to appear unarmed and obse- quious in their attention to their visitors. "Eight of the principal chiefs were admitted to his tent, while the re- mainder were kept outside until his pleasure could be made known." Bienville at once charged the Indians with the murder of the four Frenchmen, and refused to smoke the calumet until they had cleared themselves of the crime or surrendered their murderers. The Indians stood aghast at the turn affairs had suddenly taken and stood silent and chapfallen, and while in this condition the voice of Bienville was heard to utter the order, "let them be carried to the prison prepared for them, and let them be secured with chains, stocks and fetters !"
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Bienville, while pretending to exculpate the great chiefs who were then his guests and prisoners, from any knowl- edge of or participation in the murder of the four French- men, demanded " the heads of the murderers, and of the chiefs who ordered or sanctioned the deed." "I will not be satisfied," he said, " with their scalps,-I wish for the very heads, in order that I may be sure that deceit has not been practiced. This whole night I give you for con- sultation on the best mode of affording me satisfaction. If you refuse, woe to your tribe ! "
After listening to this speech the Indians were remanded to prison for the night. Early the next morning they re- quested to be shown to the tent of the great white Chief, and to speak to him. Being conducted to his presence, the chief first in rank and importance, addressed him thus : " The voice of the Great Spirit has made itself heard within us last night. We have listened to his dictate, and we come to give our white brother whatever satisfaction he desires. But we wish him to observe that we, the great chiefs, being all prisoners, there is no man left behind who has the power to accomplish the mission of bringing the heads thou demandest. Let, therefore, the Stung Ser- pent be liberated, and thy will shall be done."
This proposition Bienville declined, for several reasons, but instead he suggested that " Little Sun " should be lib- erated and return to his tribe. After an absence of five days the "Little Sun" returned with three heads, but Bienville soon detected the ruse that had been attempted. One was the head of the brother of one of the chiefs who ordered the murder, and this he flung indignantly at the feet of the great chiefs, declaring sternly, "This substi- tution cannot be accepted." The Chief of the "White Clay," who had connived at the murder of the French- men, had taken flight, and so, with the Indian idea of jus- tice, they had chopped off the head of his brother! The " Great Sun," the " Stung Serpent " and the "Little Sun," who had thus far remained silent, now came forward and made full confession. They asseverated most solemnly that they possessed no previous knowledge of the pre- meditated slaughter of the four Frenchmen, but they de-
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clared that "four of the murderers were among Bienville's prisoners," that two of them were ordinary warriors, and two chiefs; "one of them was called the Chief of the Beard ;" the other was named Alahoflechia, the Chief of the Walnut Village. They affirmed that these were the only guilty ones, with the exception of Oyelape, the Chief of the " White Clay," who was in hiding.
By an adroit mingling of hauteur, dissimulation, bully- ing and treachery, Bienville succeeded in all his plans. The two chiefs and the two warriors who were in his prison were put to death in the presence of a large number of chiefs and warriors. "Now, then," said Bienville, " let us bury the hatchet of war!" "Hear, then, on what condi- tions I release you and grant you peace. You will swear to put to death, as soon as possible, Oyelape, the Chief of the White Clay, and you will bring his head to the French officer whom I shall station among you. You will restore every object that you ever have taken from the French ! For what has been lost or wasted, you will force your people to pay the equivalent in furs and provisions. You will oblige them to cut two thousand five hundred stalks of acacia-wood, thirteen feet long by a diameter of ten inches, and to convey the whole to the bank of the Missis- sippi, at such a spot as it will please the French to erect a fort ; and furthermore, you will bind yourselves to furnish us, as a covering for our buildings, with the bark of three thousand trees. This is to be executed before the first day of July ; and above all, you will also swear, never, under any pretext or color whatever, to entertain the slightest commercial or friendly relations with the British, whom you know to be the eternal enemies of the French !"
The Indians complied in good faith with all the stipula- tions they had entered into in regard to the material of the fort to be built by Bienville, and on the 3d day of August. 1716, Fort Rosalie, on the site of the present city of Natchez, was completed and was ready for occupation. The 25th of the same month found Bienville and his little command safely quartered in the strong fortification that the Indians themselves had helped him to build, and on the 28th of August, Bienville left Major Pailloux in com-
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mand of the new fort and departed for Mobile, where he arrived on the 4th day of October, having successfully ac- complished a most difficult and perilous mission, a mis- sion he believed that was purposely planned to lead to his destruction, and his gratification was of course deep and lasting. His arrival in Mobile was marked by another highly gratifying incident, the receipt of a letter from the Minister of the Marine Department, instructing him to resume the government of the colony in the absence of L'Epinay, appointed to succeed Cadillac. On the 22d of June, 1716, Cadillac wrote a dispatch to his government in which all his pent-up discontent found free vent : "De- cidedly this colony is a monster without head or tail, and its government is a shapeless absurdity. The cause of it is that the fictions of fabulists have been believed in pref- erence to the veracity of my declarations. Has it not been asserted that there are mines in Arkansas and else - where ? It is a deliberate error. Has not a certain set of novel writers published that this country is a paradise, when its beauty or its utility is a mere phantom of the brain. I protest that, having visited and examined the whole of it with care, I never saw anything so worthless. I know how to govern as well as anybody, but poverty and impotence are two ugly scars on the face of a governor. What can I do with a force of forty soldiers, out of whom five or six are disabled ? A pretty army that is, and well calculated to make me respected by the inhabitants or by the Indians. As a climax to my vexation, they are badly fed, badly paid, badly clothed, and without discipline. As to the officers, they are not much better. Verily, I do not believe that there is in the whole universe such another government." This was only a sample of his dispatches to the home government. His vanity and his prejudices gave color to everything he looked at, and it was no won- der that a series of such dispatches should have finally disgusted the government, and aroused the contempt of Anthony Crozat, into whose lap the fortunes of Louisiana had been recklessly thrown. In a letter from Crozat the old merchant plainly told Cadillac "that all the evils of which he complained originated from his own bad admin-
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