USA > Mississippi > Adams County > Natchez > Historical sketch of the Natchez, or District of Natchez, in the state of Mississippi; from 1763 to 1798 > Part 2
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
. Prognosticate a real fight; Preparing fiint, and steel, and ball, My armies and my fleet to maul ; Rebelling so, a graceless pack, As to let fly at soldier's back. All this, though long obliged to bear, From want of men, but not from fear, I'm able now, by augmentation,
To give a proper castigation,
. But first, I do my grace extend, And hereby promise to befriend All those who do their sins confess, And meekly own they have transgressed ; Who will for pardon plead with me, Lead godly lives and drink their tea : Such future conduct and behaviour, Restores them to my gracious favour : But then, I must out of this plan lock Both Samuel Adams and John Hancock ; For such vile traitors, like debentures. Must be tucked up, at all adventures, As any proffer of a pardon,
Will only tend such rogues to harden. But every other mother's son, As soon as he lays down his gun, And on surrendering his toledo, May go to and fro, unhurt, as we do. And so doth run the king's command, That all who please may kiss my hand.
By command of MOTHER CAREY,
THOMAS FLUCKER, Secretary.
The name of the secretary, it is believed, is truly given, while that of a female friend of the genera' is inserted in the place of that officer's.' National Gazette
Our admiration, which is a very pleasing motion of the mind, immediately rises at - the conaderation of any object that takes up a great deal of room in the fancy. Addison.
THE FAMILY MAGAZINE
225 OK
and Batavia, the burden of which frequently amounts ; energy to support him in a foreign colony, but a, to 600 or even to 1000 tuns. All well-informed writers agree, as already stated, that no alteration has been made in the naval architecture of this ex- traordinary people for several centuries past ; and it has excited their wonder, in no small degree, that though Canton is visited by the ships of various na- tions, the superiour construction of which, it might be apprehended, must be necessarily acknowledged, yet they have never thought proper to adopt any in- provement whatever in the art. It is rational, how- ever, to believe that if no innovation has been made in the form and rigging of their vessels, the size and burden of them have been, nevertheless, permitted to increase with the spirit of trade and foreign com- merce which the example of Europeans cannot but have diffused. 'This supposition will reconcile the account just given of the tunnage of the modern Chi- wese vessels with the seemingly contradictory au- thority of former visiters, from whom it has been un- Jerstood that the capacity of the Chinese vessels, or junks, never exceeded three hundred tuns.
AN HISTORICAL SKETCH .
OF THE NATCHEZ, OR DISTRICT OF NATCHEZ, IN THE STATE OF MISSISSIPPI; FROM. 1763 LO 1798-
BY MANN BUTLER. (Continued from last No.)
NATCHEZ, for the first time, since the exploration of De Soto, became a Spanish territory, on the 21st September, 1779. This transfer of dominion was 1.ot, however, immediately acquiesced in, either by the British planters, or the Indians. Deep dislike to the Spaniards existed in both nations ; and though this did not instantly break out, the fire was only winothered, not quenched.
About this time, or 1780, Stephen Minor, an en- ferprising young man descended the Mississippi from Redstone, on the Monongahela, (now Browns- „town, in Pennsylvania, ) for the purpose of obtaining military supplies from New Orleans. He succeeded in his mission, and procceded on his return by land, on the western bank of the Mississippi, with a cara- van of loaded mules. In the course of his journey he was attacked by one of the violent intermittent fevers, which so sorely infest the banks of Southern Atreams. This prevented him from pursuing his route, in company with his men, when the fit was upon him. In this condition he would lie by, until the ague had passed off, and then ride on to over- Make his company at their stage, or rather encamp- meut for the night. One day, when not far from the present post of Arkansas, he was as usual attacked hy his fever, followed by an ague, that compelled Ium to stop. On recovering from the chilly fit, he followed the trail of his caravan, and after riding a trw miles he came upon the murdered bodies of his men : his goods had all been taken off; and he left kick in the heart of an Indian wilderness. Circum- etoners not a little disheartening, but such and even worse were often manfully endured by the pioneers. Mmor partook largely of their indomitable spirit ; + 14th of March, 1780 .- Martin's Louisiana. he inade the best of his way to the post, whence he + 9th of May, 1781 .- Martin's Louisiana. returned to New Orleans, with nothing but his own ! of Natchez, and maternal grandfather to John F. II. Claiborn.
* Father to the present gentleman of that name in the veinity
VOL. VI .- 29
a bustling tine, and at a point full of daring enter- prise. Our adventurer devoted himself to the ac- quisition of the French and Spanish languages, and this attention, coupled with many manly qualities, soon attracted the notice of the Spanish officers at New Orleans. Accordingly, when in the spring of 1780, Governour Galvez undertook an expedition against Mobile, then in the possession of the British, Minor was readily enfisted into the governour's body-guard, the finest body of inen which could be raised at New Orleans. In this expedition Minor had the good fortune to save the life of his general by killing an Indian who was aiming at the gover- nour. Another version of this story, however, rep- resents that Hooper, (a white man of some notoriety in the early history of Natchez,) had drawn sight upon the governour, as he was reconnoitring the bay in an open boat ; when a British officer, struck by the barbarity of the warfare, suddenly struck up Hooper's rifle and thereby saved the general's life. Hooper, with the dogged spirit of a backwoodsman, then swore he would fight no longer in a cansc so managed, and suddenly packing up his small bag- gage, he left the British camp. Galvez reduced Mobile again under the Spanish government," and Minor was rewarded for his services by a commission in the Spanish service and by the continued favour of the government. These changes were so little knowu in the eastern part of the United States, that Congress, in 1779, granted a commission to one James Robinson, a friend and companion of Willing to carry on hostile enterprises on the Mississippi; supposing these western districts still under the British government. Upon Robinson's reaching Natchez, with some thirty or forty followers, he first found out that the Spaniards had got possession of the country. The expedition was therefore entirely broken off, the men dispersed and the leader died In the spring of 1781, Galvez set off from Mobile on an expedition against Pensacola, at that time also in the possession of the British. Here he was met by a large Spanish naval force from Havana, and he compelled General Campbell and Governour Chester to surrender this comunanding point on the Gulf of Mexico.t But during these operations against Pensacola, and while, with characteristick British confidence, the Natchez settlers anticipated the success of Great Britain; in earnest of it, they undertook to reduce the Spanish fort at Natchez. 'The persons who took the lead in this daring enter- prise were Colonel Anthony Hutchins,# Jacob Win- frey, Captain D. Bloomart, Christian Bingham, John and Philip Alston, and one Turner Mulkey, a Bap- tist preacher.
This party applied to Governour Chester, at Pen- sacola, for assistance, through a messenger, of the name of Christopher Man. The British governour received the communication with the welcome to be expected ; but felt too much concerned for the wel- fare of the Natchez people to encourage them to take up arms against the Spaniards, until the pros- pcets of maintaining Pensacola were more favour-
:
226
à
THE FAMILY MAGAZINE
able. He, however, sent whatever supplies he could of the revolters set off to visit the village of spare, with directions to Man to remain with Ful- Natchez, then entirely under the hill. The road some, a Choctaw chief, until further orders. Man, however, eager to play a more active part than that warranted by his orders, urged Fulsome to push on the project of attacking Natchez and plundering the friends of the Spanish government. " In this latter project if even Pensacola should fall," said Man to Fulsome, "we shall be out of Spanish jurisdic- tion ; and the Spaniards would never look for us among the Choctaws. Then the credentials and sup- plies I have," continucd hc, " from Governour Ches- ter are such, that the Natchez people will be ready was covered by an intervening ridge from the fire of the fort, and on the south, a considerable ravine protected an object from its guns. Some of the soldiers, however, not well acquainted with the ground, attempted to pass the ridge in full sight of the garrison, when a discharge of grape-shot from a six-pounder in the fort, rolled them down the hill with all imaginable expedition. Calvin Smith, a boy at the time too young to be pressed into ser- vice, was looking on. Commandant Bloomart pitch- ed his camp in the hollow, in front of the present house of Job Routh, then occupied by John Row. The siege continucd in this harmless way for sever- al days, with more noise than effect ; till a small six-pounder was discovered and fixed up by the in- surgents. This piece had been ploughed up at the French meadows, ncar St. Catharine's creek, and had lain there as worthless until this unexpected military demand again brought it into nse. On examination, it proved to be injured in appearance only. Bloomart now opened his entrenchinents against Fort Paumure ; and in the meantime intelli- gence was received of a large Illinois boat coming up the river. 'The insurgent chief instantly despatch- ed forty or fifty men to waylay the boat at a point, where her burden would compcl her to come close to the shore, in order to stem the current with oars. The prize was easily captured, and with it, a most acceptable reinforcement of two swivels and a quan- tity of ammunition. The principal difficulty was that the prisoners were nearly as numerous as their cap- tors ; and the latter had no means of securing them
as bulldogs to seize the Spaniards. If we sue- cecd, we shall have not only the plunder of the fort but also that of the Illinois boats, that will come down the river richly laden with peltries." This scheme of war and rebellion too easily won upon the excitable parties, to whom it was proposed. A body of fifteen or twenty whites and as many In- dians, collected and procecded to Natchez. An ex- press started before them, brought out their confede- rates and a plan of operation was soon adopted. Every man in the district, capable of bearing arms, was summoned to meet at John Row's, accontred for service, and to march against Fort Paumure, un- der the penalty of treason to the British govern- ment. This was sometime in May, 1781 ; it could not have been far from this date, as the capitulation of Pensacola by the British, took place on the ninth of May, and this intelligence was received some time after the rupture of this insurrection. The threat of declaring all malcontents enemies to the British government and sending them to Pensacola was not all necessary to rouse the people. The |but by compelling them to take an oath not to serve British government had a thousand ties of sympathy against his Britannick Majesty. The captured party were then permitted to dispose of themselves, at pleasure. Two days after this capture the insur- gents were able to open a considerable battery with with a people themselves of British stock, that ne- cessarily attached them to it in preference to the government of the Spaniards-foreigners in customs and above all, in language, itself such a powerful the bobtail, (as they called the broken piece of artil- conductor to social and national sympathies. In- deed, two individuals and still more, two nations, speaking different languages are too insulated from one another to enjoy or maintain intercourse and friendship.
The disaffection of the district was so decided that the people ran to arms with alacrity. Moreover, the idle condition, owing to the want of trade, left the people scarcely anything to do, after the short time required in this genial climate to lay by, or finish the cultivation of, their Indian corn. Hunting was the only additional employment. By such a people the enterprise against the Spanish govern- ment was embraced with all the eagerness of a frol- ick. There were not more than five or six men who stayed away from it. Alexander M.Intosh fled with all his disposable property into the Spanish fort, but the planters, who had been summoned to arms, assembled as directed, and after roll-call and detailing a small guard, they were dismissed. Any of them who lived near were, with a carelessness strongly evidencing their confidence, permitted to retire to their homes, on condition of appearing at nine o'clock the next morning. Such was the security of the insurgents, and such the supineness of the Spanish garrison ! The next day the commissary procured plenty of provisions for this rapid assem- gge. On the ensning Sunday afternoon, a party | gallant stock from which they were descended
lery,) and the two prize swivels. The entrenchment was carried within five hundred yards of the fort, when Bloomart with a glass of bitters in his hand, (of which he was said to be very fond,) mounted Bobtail and drank the Spanish commandant's health, as loud as he could halloo. Very different from this reckless and daring conduct was that of the Spanish officer ; some shots having, in the course of the day passed through his house, it drove the womanish fellow out of his quarters. Still the insurgents were too distant to produce much effect with their light pieces of artillery. Bloomart therefore undertook to advance his entrenchments in the face of a heavy cannonade. 'The fort was strong, the ramparts eight or ten feet thick, and so old as to be like solid earth ; on the inside of the wall was a heavy stockade made of cypress, sawed, well-jointed, and too high to be escaladed. Nor was there any want of pro- visions for a siege of months ; plenty of ammuni- tion and a well of water in the centre of the works. For this stage of fortifications, the Spanish fort of Natchez may well be pronounced to liave been im- pregnable to all the rude mneans the country could afford. But art is a poor substitute for nature in any case ; and in matters of war, stout hearts are stron- ger than any walls. In this respect the Natchez insurgents were well armed, like the manly and
227
THE FAMILY MAGAZINE:
Like their other countrymen on the frontier, the skill : Natchez with the news. The return was quicker of these raw soldiers at the riffe, was unexcelled. If a man's eye could be seen through a port hole, two or three rifles were instantly discharged at it. Such sharp shooting soon produces a panick in a garrison, unless counteracted by active measures on the part of the commandant. It was singularly ex- hibited at the siege of Vincennes, by Clark, in 1779. Vet during the siege, but one man was killed through & block-house window.
than the descent. Captain Winfrey's now (in 1838) Butler's plantation, was on the direct road to Natchez. Here the party of united French and Indians landed. surprised a detachment of Natchez people, which was stationed at Winfrey's house, and killed fourteen out of twenty who composed the guard. From this point the hostile party extended their depredations at such length as to drive the people into forts. There were two of them between Natchez and the French Meadows, about three miles apart. About this time, William Ellis was found murdered at his plan- tation, on the south side of Homochitto. These out- rages soon provoked heavy retaliation from the set- tlers, and forced the Spanish party to take a position at the White Cliffs. No sooner was this movement of the enemy known, than our countrymen repaired in great eagerness to mect thicm. So keen was the resentment of the people at tho outrages inflicted by the Spaniards, that it was necessary to draft the men who should remain in charge of the fort. Some time about the middle of June, 1781, the people as- sembled in a body of some two hundred men and prepared to attack the enemy, (about three hundred strong,) at the same time, by land and water. Just at this period an express arrived from Pensacola with the intelligence that it had surrendered to Governour Galvez. This news placed the Natchez people in no little consternation. Instead of fighting under the powerful flag of Great Britain as they proudly believed themselves, they suddenly by the revolution of events, found themselves unsupported insurgents against the monarchy of Spain. The plan against the Opolousas plunderers was unfortu- nately abandoned ; and peace and pardon were soli- cited of the Spaniards. For this purpose, M.Intosh was despatched to New Orleans to arrange matters with the government. Mulligan the commandant of the French party was placed in possession of Fort Paumure and he promised protection to all who would keep a white flag flying at their houses, as a sign of submission. Illfated confidence! What people ever found protection which they did no' exact by their own spirit and arnis ? The Natchez people were no exception to the remark. Plunder- ing parties scoured the country, seizing the property
While things were in this condition, an old fel- low found means to introduce himself into the fort ; Le informed the commanding officer that his assail- ants. were undermining it. The information was well received and the author was dismissed to ob- tain further intelligence for which he was promised an ample reward. The signal concerted by the Spanish officer with this spy of Bloomart was, to ring a large cow bell near the fort gate. The emis- sary returned as agreed upon, and he assured the Spaniards, that the enemy were springing a mine, but he could communicate no further particulars. He was again dismissed to procure further intelli- gence, but did not return again. M'Intosh told the Spanish commander that he knew the fellow well, and that he was a great liar, on whom no dependance could be placed, this however did not allay the alarm of the Spaniards. A cow with a large bell hung round her neck was killed by order of the comman- dant, while feeding on the ramparts, mistaken per- haps for the spy. A circumstance soon occurred which still kept the alarming intelligence of the spy, active in the minds of the garrison. A few mornings afterward, a respectable sergeant of artil- lery, reported that while charging a gun, he dropped n ball, the hollow sound of which, upon the ground, startled him. He tried it again, and again ; and then called the lieutenant of the guard. This of- ficer concurred in the opinion of the sergeant, that a mine was sprung under that part of the fort. The commandant was then notified of the circumstance : anil be, with the other superiour officers, repeated the experiment, sounding with a ball and beating a drum. These trials only confirmed the general panick at the belief that they were all to be blown up in a few hours, and notwithstanding everything that M. Intosh could say to the contrary, a white flag was hoisted of the people, destroying their houses, and commit- on the pickets of the Spanish fort. A parley took ting the usual heense of petty provincial warfare. This condition of things continued for about thirty days, when a battalion of Spanish troops under the command of Colonel Guardpue arrived from New Orleans and took regular possession of the country. The change was great at first only ; the leaders of the late insurrection, who did not get out of the way, were imprisoned, and their property sequestrated Among these were Bloomart, Winfrey, and George Alston, who were made prisoners ; Captain Binga- man was spared through the influence of M.Intosh. A Captain Turner gathered a band, and in defiance of the government, stationed himself with ten or twelve men at Petit Gulf, (now Rodney,) and stopped all the boats which attempted to pass. In one of these predatory attacks he was at length killed. Many of the inhabitants fled to the Inchans, where they were safe from the Spaniards. Some of these Natchez fugitives joined Colbort, a chief of the Chickasaws, and though a Scotchman by birth place and a capitulation of the Spanish garrison to the British party was agreed upon. The terms were to surrender the fort to the besiegers, the garrison to march out under arms with colours to a certain point, where they were to ground their arms and to take an oath not to serve against the British government during the war. The Spanish troops were to be escorted to Loftus's Heights, and thence conveyed to New Orleans. Thus fell in twelve days, a garrison of a hundred soldiers, well pro- vided with every munition of war, before a hetero- geneous assemblage of two hundred and seventy men, one six-pounder and two swivels. This num- ber was ascertained, when the plunder of the Illi- timis boat was divided among the captors. In two or three days the escort set off with the prisoners and when parting with them at the point agreed upon, a Spanish forco was seen coming up the river. It Was a detachment from Opolousas, with a large body of Indians ; the escort had barely time to escape to | father to the half-breeds of his name. These
028
THE FAMILY MAGAZINE.
formed with the Indians a formidable party, that sta- [ muscalonge is not, in Lake Erie at least, caught in tioned themselves at the present site of Memphis, very large quantities, and is generally sold fresh. There may be other kinds of fish, but those named are the chief, and the most valuable. on the Mississippi. Here all the boats passing were stopped and plundered at pleasure. These attacks compelled the river navigation to nuite and arm Very few white fish are taken in Lake Erie, and we believe no trout. Pike, pickerel, and bass, are canght in abundance about the islands in the upper part of the lake, and in the Maumee bay and river These are salted in considerable quantities In De- troit river the same kinds are found as in Lake Erie, and white fish are caught to some extent. themselves against the robbers. To add to the calamities usually brought on any country by civil war, a dreadful murrain broke out among the cattle ; and very generally killed the stock which the Indians had left behind. Ten or fifteen a day, of a luidred head, would be carried off, after a few hours' sick- ness. This fatal disease together with the injury done by the enemy to the corn crop in the summer, reduced the country to the brink of starvation, by the first of September.
In Lakes Huron and Michigan, and the straits of Mackinaw, trout, white fish, and other kinds are caught in abundance. The Thunder Bay islands, a group near 'Thunder bay, in Lake Huron, the Bea- ver, Fox, and Manitou islands, near the fort of Lake Michigan, and Twin rivers, on the western shore, are the principal fisheries of those two lakes. Fish are caught, however, at other places in the lakes. They are also caught in the vicinity of Mackinaw in abundance ; about the small islands in the straits, and at Point St. Ignace.
It is supposed that these fish might be taken in Green bay. A year or two since, some persons caught a very large quantity of trout at Sturgeon bay in winter, fishing with a hook through the ice They piled up their fish, intending to carry them frozen, to Navarino, to be salted ; but a sudden thaw spoiled the speculation.
Immense quantities have been taken upon Lake Superiour for two or three years past ; it is said that these are mostly caught about the group of islands known as the " Twelve Apostles," near the head of the lake. But little is known about this, however, as the trade of Superiour is, in fact, monopolized by the American Fur Company, There is no mode of going up this lake except in vessels of one of these companies ; and the American Fur Company does - not permit adventurers a passage in its vessels.
Two schooners have been heretofore employed upon Lake Superiour; one belonging to each of these companies. A new one was built the last spring by the American Fur Company, so that there are now three. When the canal around the Sault de St. Marie shall be finished, it is likely there will be a rush of competition for the business of Lake Superiour. Whether the expectation of those who are sanguine will be realized, as to the extent and value of the trade thus to be opened, time will deter- mine. Furs are growing scarce upon the shore, it is said ; fish are abundant, and whether there are minerals upon the shore worth digging for, is dis- puted. But when that ship canal is completed, Lake Superionr and the country around it, will be minutely explored, and its resources, whatever they may be, ascertaincd.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.