A history of Mississippi : from the discovery of the great river, Part 9

Author: Lowry, Robert, 1830-1910; McCardle, William H
Publication date: 1891
Publisher: Jackson, Miss. : R.H. Henry & Co.
Number of Pages: 674


USA > Mississippi > A history of Mississippi : from the discovery of the great river > Part 9


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The French Governors for the period of time covered by the years from 1730 to 1763, were :


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First-M. Periere, who had been appointed to succeed Bienville.


Second-Bienville, who was for the third time appointed Governor.


Third-The Marquis of Vaudreuil.


Fourth-M. Kerlerec, who succeeded the Marquis of Vaudreuil.


CHAPTER V.


MISSISSIPPI AS AN ENGLISH PROVINCE, FROM 1763 TO 1781.


B Y the provisions of the treaty of Paris, entered into on the 10th day of February, 1763, between the kings of Spain and France, on the one part, and the king of Great Britain on the other, England became possessed of a good portion of the territory embraced within the limits of the present State of Mississippi. Under the treaty of Paris the territory ceded to England, so far as Mississippi is con- cerned, was thus described, and the limits thereof defined, by a "line drawn along the middle of the river Mississippi, from its source to the river Iberville, and from thence by a line in the middle of that stream, and of the lakes Maurepas and Pontchartrain to the sea ; and to that effect, the most Christian King cedes, in full property and with full guaranty, to his Britanic Majesty, the river and port of Mobile, and all that he possesses or has the right to possess, on the left bank of the Mississippi, with the excep- tion of the town of New Orleans and the Island on which it stands." By the same treaty the king of Spain ceded to the king of England, "the Province of Florida, with the Fort of St. Augustine and the Bay of Pensacola, as well as all the country he possessed on the continent of North America, to the east and south-east of the Mississippi river."


The government of England, always prompt in looking after and protecting its possessions, in whatever quarter of the globe they may chance to be, was not less prompt and energetic in taking possession of the immense country it had acquired by the treaty of Paris, and thus the terri- tory of Mississippi became an appendage of "the inviolate


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island of the free," and came under the protection of the meteor flag of England for more than eighteen years.


Florida was divided into two provinces, and West Florida, embracing the territory of Mississippi, was estab- lished with the following boundaries: "to the southward by the Gulf of Mexico, (including all islands within six leagues of the coast) from the river Apalachicola to lake Pontchartrain. To the westward by said lake, lake Mau- repas and the river Mississippi. To the northward by a line drawn due east from the Mississippi river, along the 31st degree north latitude, to the river Apalachicola, and the eastward by said river." By a subsequent order in council the boundaries of West Florida were extended as follows : From "a line to begin at the mouth of the Yazoo, and run due east to the Chattahoochie, and thence to the mouth of the Apalachicola river; thence westward along the Gulf of Mexico, through lakes Borgne, Pontchartrain, and Maurepas up the rivers Amite and Iberville, to the Mis- sissippi, and thence along the middle of said river to the mouth of the Yazoo."


On the 21st day of November, 1763, Captain George Johnstone was appointed Governor of West Florida, and arrived at Pensacola early in the year 1764. Governor Johnstone was a native of Scotland, a distinguished naval officer, and brought with him a regiment of veteran High- landers, with many persons in his train as settlers in the colony. He immediately sent garrisons to the various forts in the province, and designated the commandants thereof. Among those were Fort Conde, at Mobile, to which he gave the name of Fort Charlotte, in honor of the British Queen. To that at Manchac he gave the name of Bute, while Fort Rosalie, at Natchez, he changed to Pan- mure. These last were two ministers of George the Third. Governor Johnstone established a Superior Court at Pen- sacola, whose jurisdiction extended over the entire Prov- ince, from the Mississippi river to Pensacola. This was a court established for the trial of all civil cases beyond a magistrate's jurisdiction, as well as for the trial of crimi- nal offenders. Thus persons charged with the commission , of crime at Natchez, or at the mouth of the Yazoo,' were


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taken before the Superior Court at Pensacola, where they were tried under the laws of England. Minor civil magis- trates were also appointed in various sections of the Prov- ince, for the adjudication of small amounts in dispute between individuals, but when the amount at issue ex- ceeded that usually adjudicated by magistrates, the matter in dispute was compelled to be carried to the Superior Court.


The instructions to Governor Johnstone were of an ex- ceedingly liberal character generally, but his instructions in regard to the disposition of the public lands were most liberal. "He was empowered to make grants of land," says Col. Claiborne, "without fee or reward, to every re- tired officer who had served in America against the French and Indians, and to all private soldiers disbanded in America, who should apply." These rewards, however, it must be said, were hugely disproportionate to the service supposed to have been rendered. A field officer was en- titled to receive a grant of five thousand acres; a captain, to three thousand acres ; every subaltern or staff officer, two thousand acres ; non commissioned officers, three hundred, and privates, one hundred acres.


These liberal land grants gave a wonderful impetus to


- immigration, and to the settlement of the country. Many of these retired officers who received these grants, them- selves became citizens, and devoted their energies to the settlement and building up of the colony. Those who did not choose thus to utilize the lands granted them, sold their grants to others who did, and during the nearly nine- teen years of the English rule in Mississippi, was remark- able as the first time that immigration had ever been attracted to the colony.


It is true that under the early rule of the French, some settlements had been made in the vicinity of Natchez, near the mouth of the Yazoo, and along the shores of the Sound, as at Bay St. Louis, Biloxi (old and new), Pascagoulas. etc., etc. But the Natchez Indians, in 1729, had surprised the garrison at Fort Rosalie, murdered the soldiers, scalped the settlers in the vicinity, burned their houses and drove off their stock. The garrison at Fort St. Peter, near the


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mouth of the Yazoo, soon after shared the same fate. The small settlement in the neighborhood was broken up, the people murdered and their houses burned.


Fort St. Peter was located on the Yazoo river, in War- ren county, at a point long known as "Snyder's Bluff," a defensive position occupied by the Confederate forces dur- ing the late war between the States.


It is safe to say, therefore, that after an occupation of the territory for nearly sixty-five years by the French, after spending countless millions of treasure, having sac- rificed thousands of valuable lives, there were not to be found, when the English assumed control of the colony of Mississippi, from the Tombigbee to the Gulf of Mexico, or west from that stream to the mighty king of floods, three hundred people, white and black combined.


"This generous provision on the part of the Crown," says Claiborne, "was the nest-egg of our population. It attracted a class of enterprising and intelligent men, who, after the peace of 1763, had been drifting about. Immigra- tion rapidly set in, consisting at first of disbanded officers and soldiers. The troubles and dissensions between the colonies were growing serious. Great diversity of opinion existed among the colonists, and especially in the Caro- linas. Many persons loyal to the crown, but unwilling to take part against the people among whom they lived, embracing, in numerous instances, their kindred and even their own households, sought refuge in West Florida from the distractions at home. It has been the custom to de- nounce these men as tories and enemies of their country. Such censure would be proper when applied to men who drew the sword against their countrymen, and waged upon them a savage and relentless war. But the same sentence should not be pronounced on those whose sense of loyalty and of duty forbade them to fight against the king, but rather than stain their hands with kindred blood, re- nounced home, comfort, society and position, for an asylum in the wilderness. The right of conscience and opinion is sacred, and at this distance of time, these men, once generally condemned, may be properly appreciated. Many of this class from Georgia and the Carolinas, and


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some from the colonies farther north, followed the British flag to Pensacola, and thence made their way to the shores of Lake Pontchartrain, to Manchac, Baton Rouge, Natchez, Bayou Pierre and Walnut Hills," this latter point being the site of the present populous and flourishing city of Vicksburg.


Governor Johnstone proved to be an intelligent and ener- getic executive officer, and promptly looked after the in- terest of the colony and the people confided to his care. In the year 1764, he placed Col. Robert Farmer, who was a man of fortune, and highly educated, in command of Fort Charlotte, at Mobile. Col. Farmer soon fitted out an expedition of three hundred and fifty men, under the com- mand of Major Loftus, to take possession of the posts in the Illinois country. The expedition departed by the way of the lakes to ascend the Mississippi, Great Britain, by treaty stipulations, having the right to the navigation of that great river. Major Loftus seems to have been a fanatical, narrow-minded man, with a huge appreciation of his own importance. The detachment left New Orleans in February. Col. Claiborne says: "The French Gov- ernor, who was still in command in New Orleans, had taken the precaution to advise the Indians to keep the peace, and placed his interpreter at the service of the English officer." Referring to this expedition, Col. Clai- borne has these additional remarks :


"Between New Orleans and Point Coupee they lost fifty men by desertion. At the Point they came near a collision with the French. A slave took refuge on one of the barges, where he was discovered by his master, who ap- plied to the commandant of the French post for his arrest. Major Loftus would not allow the arrest, declaring, in advance of the great jurists of England, that the fugitive on his barge stood on British soil, and was under the pro- tection of the flag. He ordered his men to stand to their arms. The French commandant prudently desisted."


Major Loftus was very valorous in maintaining a senti- ment in defiance of the rights of comity and good neigh- borhood, while he was well aware of the fact that his countrymen were at that very time actively engaged in the


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slave trade, that British vessels were constantly bringing stolen negroes from the coast of Africa to America, and that the flag of England floated over slave ships, and gave protection to the most nefarious traffic that ever disgraced any country or any flag. Major Loftus was the advance guard, or avant courier, of a sentiment that some years later flourished in great luxuriance among our brethren in the New England States. Having amassed colossal for- tunes by bringing to America tens of thousands of African slaves, and selling them to the early planters of the South, these pious, God-fearing "saints of the Lord," concluded to placate the great Ruler of the Universe, by denouncing the system of human slavery as "the sum of all villainies,'. and anathematizing the men who purchased African slaves from them.


Having performed this gallant feat of arms at Pointe Coupee, Major Loftus proceeded up the river in pursuance of his orders, but on approaching the point now known as Fort Adams, he was fired on by a small party of Indians lying in ambush. Some six or eight of his men were killed, and as many wounded, whereupon the valorous Major pre- cipitately retired without firing a gun. He hastily re- treated to New Orleans, where he vented his rage upon the French, wildly charging them with being in league with the Indians, and the real authors of his misadventures. He repaired at once to Mobile, and from thence to Pensa- cola, and we hear of Major Loftus no more in connection with the history of Mississippi.


He gave, by common consent, his name to a bold head- land on the Mississippi river, in what is now Wilkinson county. The French had named it La Roche a Davion, in honor of a pious and devoted priest of that name, who had established a mission there, but in memory of the heroic manner in which Major Loftus repelled the assault of the Indians at that point, it was afterwards known as "Loftus Heights." A few years later General Wilkinson erected a fort there, and in honor of the then President of the United States, called it Fort Adams, and the post- office there still bears the name of "Fort Adams."


In the year 1765, Governor Johnstone invited a general


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jected to outrages that make the blood run cold, all cried aloud for the sternest and bloodiest retribution. On the 16th of January, the heart of the Governor was made much lighter by the intelligence that a body of seven hundred Choctaw warriors, under the command of a French officer, named Le Sueur, were marching against the Natchez, and that a force of one hundred and fifty of the same nation had been thrown between the Natchez and the Yazoo tribes, in order to prevent the former from sending their prisoners to the latter, as it was surmised they would do if they were attacked. The rendezvous of the French forces was fixed in the territory of the Tunica Indians, a tribe that had been uniformly friendly to the French, and was placed under the command of Loubois, a soldier of tried courage and supposed ability. The number of French soldiers assembled at the Tunica rendezvous was estimated at about five hundred men of all arms, and the aggregate, including the Choctaws, under the command of Le Sueur, reached the number of fourteen hundred effective men. The Natchez had been constantly drinking and carousing since the massacre of Fort Rosalie, and were in a perpet- ual state of helpless drunkenness, owing to the large quan- tity of brandy and wine they had captured. On the 27th of January, 1730, while engaged in one of their carousals on the banks of St. Catherine's Creek, they were suddenly attacked by Le Sueur and his Choctaw warriors. Their defeat would have been certain and decisive, if the negroes who had joined the Natchez after the Fort Rosalie massa- cre had not fought with desperation on the side of their new-found allies. The desperation exhibited by the Afri- cans enabled the Natchez to retire within two forts they had erected in anticipation of a result they knew would follow, but the Choctaws under Le Sueur killed sixty of the Natchez braves, captured fifteen or twenty prisoners, res- cued fifty odd French women and children, and recovered some one hundred African slaves.


On the 8th day of February, a portion of the French forces arrived at Natchez and joined the Choctaws on St. Catherine's Creek. The next day the French took up a position nearer the Mississippi. The remainder of the 6


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French forces arrived on that day, and the next few days were consumed in getting the artillery, a few indifferent guns, in position, and in futile parleyings with the Indians. A few skirmishes of a most undecisive character had occurred, and the Choctaw braves were profoundly dis- gusted with the imbecility of the French, and threatened to withdraw their forces if the siege was not prosecuted with greater vigor. Intimidated by the more active opera- tions of the French, caused by the threatened withdrawal of the Choctaws, the Natchez, on the morning of the 25th, hoisted a white flag, as a manifestation of their desire to have a parley. The result of the parley was, that the French forces should retire to the bank of the river, and that the Natchez, on surrendering to the Choctaws their prison- ers, and the spoils they had captured. were to remain in possession of their lands and forts. This was a most piti- able finale, but the most contemptible part of it was the determination of the commander of the French, as soon as he had obtained possession of the prisoners, to ignore the stipulations he had engaged to fulfill, and re-commence the siege against the Natchez. He had a more wily foe to contend with, however, than he dreamed of. The Natchez had no notion of trusting to French faith. They had learned through a generation to distrust the pale faces, and they knew, intuitively, that the French could never forgive them for slaughtering so many of their countrymen. Gayarre thus tells the shameful story of the siege and its results :


"On the 27th of February, 1730, they (the Natchez war- riors), delivered to the Choctaws all the French women, children and negroes, and on the night of the 28th they made their escape! On the morning of the 29th, the French, much to their surprise, saw the forts deserted and found in them nothing but worthless rags. Thus finished this expedition, which reflects little credit on the French arms."


The truth is, that like all military operations undertaken by the French in the colony of Louisiana, the expedition against the Natchez tribe was a mere abortion, a ridiculous fiasco, disgraceful to the arms of France.


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Diron d' Artaguette, one of the King's Commissaries, in reporting, in one of his dispatches to the home govern- ment, reflects severely on the absence of all judgment, policy or vigor on the part of Governor Periere. He also condemns Lubois for his great delay at the Tunica ren- dezvous. He refers to "the shameful conclusion of the siege," and adds, "the Choctaws, it is alleged, wanted to retire, but the truth is, that the French army was the first to give up ! And strange stories are told about silver plate and other valuable articles, which became the subjects of clandestine transactions." The only inference to be drawn from this statement is, that the Indians bribed the French to connive at their escape !


In his official report to the home government, Governor Periere labors hard to explain the causes of this wretched failure. "Several causes," he says, "have prevented our capturing the whole Natchez nation. The first, the weak- ness of our troops, which were good for nothing. The second, the distrust in which we were of the Choctaws, whom we suspected of treason. They also boasted that the English and the Chickasaws were coming to their rescue. All these circumstances, which were not encouraging for men who had but little experience, forced Lubois, who had served with distinction, to be satisfied with the surrender of our women, children and negroes." In this report Periere continues : "Fifteen negroes, in whose hands we had put weapons, performed prodigies of valor. If the blacks did not cost so much, and if their labors were not so neces- sary to the colony, it would be better to turn them into soldiers, and to dismiss those we have, who are so bad and cowardly that they seem to have been manufactured purposely for this country."


The Natchez Indians having abandoned their native hills in Mississippi, crossed the great river with a view to estab- lishing themselves in new homes west of that stream. It is not the purpose of this volume to follow them in their wanderings, their fierce conflicts, and their sufferings. It is believed that a portion of the tribe found homes and hunting grounds in the territory of the warlike Chickasaws on the Tombigbee, but the tribe soon perished as their oracles had foretold.


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On the first day of August, Governor Periere wrote to the home government as follows :


"Those of the Indians who had entered into the general conspiracy, have, since its failure, come back to us, and now help us in daily harassing the Natchez, who have crossed the Mississippi and retired into the interior of the country. Since their flight I have succeeded in having fifty of them either killed or taken prisoners. Latterly, I burned here four men and two women, and sent the rest to San Domingo! Two hundred and fifty warriors of the friendly nations have been dispatched by me to watch and blockade the Natchez until we receive more troops from France."


"A few days after," says Gayarre, "The Tunicas carried to New Orleans a Natchez woman they had captured, and Governor Periere allowed them to burn her with great cere- mony on a platform erected in front of the city, between the city and the levee. The victim supported with the most stoical fortitude all the tortures which were inflicted upon her, and did not shed a tear. On the contrary, she up- braided her torturers with their want of skill, and flinging at them every opprobrious epithet she could think of, she prophesied their speedy destruction. Her prediction proved true. The Tunicas had hardly returned home when they were surprised by the Natchez, their village burned, their old chief, the constant ally of the French, killed, and almost their whole nation destroyed."


Gayarre continues thus :


"The Chickasaws having granted an asylum to a portion of the Natchez, foresaw that they would be attacked in their turn, and sought to anticipate the'blow, by stirring up the Indian nations against the French, and by exciting the blacks to revolt. Fortunately the conspiracy of the blacks was discovered in time ; one woman was hung and eight men were broken on the wheel, among whom was a negro of the name of Sambo, who was at the head of the con- spirators, and who was a man of the most desperate character. The majority of the negroes then in the colony were Banbaras, and they were the concoctors of the re- bellion. Their plan was, after having butchered the


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whites, to keep as their slaves all the blacks who were not of their nation, and to rule the country under leaders periodically elected. It would have been a sort of Banbara republic. All these events, crowding upon each other, had kept the colonists in a constant fever of fearful excitement. Their apprehensions were a little allayed by the arrival. on the 10th of August, of a small additional corps of troops, commanded by De Salverte, a brother of Periere : so that the forces of the colony could then be set down at about one thousand to twelve hundred regulars, and eight hundred militiamen. It would have been a pretty effective force if it could have been kept concentrated, instead of scattered in distant settlements."


"In the closing month of the year 1730, Governor Periere leaded an expedition against the Natchez Indians, who were supposed to be in the neighborhood of Trinity river, in the present State of Louisiana. After various combats with that tribe he succeeded, in January, 1731, in captur- ing the Great Sun, the Little Sun, forty-five male Indians. and four hundred and fifty women and children. Among the women was the mother of the Little Sun. Immedi- ately on his arrival at New Orleans he sent these captives to the Island of San Domingo, where they were sold to the planters as slaves.


"After their last defeat near Black River, some of the scattered remnants of that tribe having incorporated them- selves with the Chickasaws," says Gayarre, "were inces- santly engaged in marauding expeditions against their white foes." Diron d'Artaguette believed, despite their heavy losses in their recent conflicts with the French, the Natchez were still able to take the field with no less than three hundred warriors. About this time Governor Periere sent to the Chickasaws to demand that they should "dis- miss the Natchez under pain of his displeasure." These warlike Indians answered that they would "know how to protect those to whom the hospitality of their tribe had been pledged." "Thus," says Gayarre, "a Chickasaw war had risen from the ashes of the Natchez war." Various attempts were made to induce the Choctaws to ally them- selves with the French in this new war against the Chick-


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asaws, "but," said Diron d'Artaguette sadly, "how can we ever succeed, when we have nothing in our possession to tempt these Indians to become our allies, when we are without resources, without provisions, and have everything to fear."


Beauchamp, the officer in command at Mobile, in a dis- patch to the home government, thus refers to the serious dangers that surrounded the colony :


"The Choctaws are not disposed favorably, which is the more to be regretted from the fact, that, should this nation declare itself against us, we should be obliged to abandon the colony ; provided, however, we had time to do so. Since the departure of Bienville, all the Indians have been spoiled. In spite of the augmentation of merchandise we have to supply them with, and the reduction in the quan- tity of furs which they give us back in return, they are not satisfied. On the contrary, they are insolent, and less tractable. Our war with the Natchez was a source of vexation and danger only to our traders on the Missis- sippi, but the Chickasaw war is the cause of uneasiness and apprehension to the whole colony. These Indians had sent three emissaries to the Illinois to urge them to take sides against us, but these emissaries have been delivered into our hands, and M. Periere intends to have them burned."




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