USA > Mississippi > School history of Mississippi; for use in public and private schools > Part 3
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26. Bienville and the English .- Bienville visited the neighboring Indians along the northern shore of Lake Pontchartrain and the Pascagoula, and gave them presents. He also went to Pensacola to watch the movements of a Spanish force that had recently fortified that place. A few days after his return to Biloxi he determined to explore the Mississippi again. When he was returning from his expedition, he met an English vessel of sixteen guns under the command of Captain Barr, who said that he intended to establish an English colony on the Mississippi. Bienville replied that the Mississippi was some distance to the west, and that the French had taken possession of the river Barr was on. Thanking him, Captain Barr returned to the Gulf, and the point he had reached was afterwards known from this circumstance as " the English Turn."
27. Efforts to Control the Mississippi River .- Iberville, fearing that the English might control the Mississippi, determined to build a fort eighteen leagues above its mouth, at a point that Bienville had selected. After he had com- pleted his fortification, the two brothers, Iberville and Bien- ville, in company with Tonti, the veteran explorer of the great river, visited the tribes upon its shores. When they reached the site of the present city of Natchez, Iberville was so favorably impressed with the place that he resolved to 3
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plant a settlement there. This resolution was not put into effect, however, until several years later.
28. Iberville .- After planting the first settlement at Biloxi, Iberville made several trips to France in its interest. When he returned to the colony he always found a hearty welcome, for he never failed to bring supplies and rein- forcements. He brought to the colony cattle, sheep, hogs, and a better grade of horses. Realizing that the strength of a new colony depended more upon the kind of men sent to it than upon anything else, he insisted that only indus- trious, thrifty men should be sent to Louisiana. He also insisted that they should receive some assistance from the mother country, declaring that the weakness of French colonies lay in sending out the poor and giving them no start. As a source of wealth to the colony and a means of securing their aid against the English in the great conflict which he saw was inevitable, he planned an extensive trade with the Indians. We are told that his reports aroused the interest of science, the zeal of commerce, and en- couraged the government to greater exertions. In one of his communications he showed that Spain had no just claim to the Mississippi Valley, and predicted that the English colonists would soon cross the mountains from the Atlantic seaboard and contend for the possession of the land along the great river and its tributaries. In less than one hundred years, said this prophet, the English, unless opposed by growth and persistence like their own, would occupy the whole of America. And so they did.
29. Sauvole as Commandant .- The care of this little colony weighed too heavily upon its first commandant to permit him to engage in the numerous exploring expedi- tions with Iberville and Bienville. While they were on the Mississippi he wrote, expressing his regrets that he could not accompany them. He complained that the location of
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1727015
the capital was too low and sickly, and closed by expressing a hope that some mines of precious metals would be dis- covered. This vain hope of the governor had exerted a hurtful influence on the colonists; for instead of providing food for themselves by cultivating the soil, they had relied upon the French colony of San Domingo (sän do měn'go) for supplies until their numbers were greatly decreased by famine and disease. Sauvole himself died in 1701, leaving the direction of the colony to his more practical successor, Bienville.
30. Bienville as Commandant .- The new commandant at once gave evidence of a correct knowledge of the needs of the starving colonists. He wrote to the home government, . and urged that laborers be sent to the colony instead of lazy and immoral adventurers, who spent their time in search of mines and in other profitless pursuits. He not only urged the Indians to remain at peace among themselves, but aided the neighboring Spaniards of Pensacola in keeping order. BIENVILLE In 1701 a fort and magazine were estab- lished on Dauphine (daw'fin) Island, at the mouth of Mo- bile Bay. The year following, the capital of the colony was moved to the Mobile River, Biloxi being left in the care of twenty soldiers under Boisbriant. This site was chosen because it was well situated for watching the Spaniards at Pensacola, and for checking the increasing influence of the English on the Atlantic coast; besides, the Mobile River furnished an casy means of entering the interior of the country. Thus Mobile became the center from which French influence spread through the country to the north and the west; and in this way was laid the basis for settle-
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ments that were in after years to spread over the whole ' country whose history you are studying .*
In 1704 twenty-three young French women of goud character and industrious habits arrived at the capital. Before the lapse of many days all of them had found husbands ; the marriages that followed were the first in the
colony to be solemnized by Christian ceremony. În 1706 famine prevailed in the colony. To add to their unhappy situation, dissensions arose among the colonists and be- tween Bienville and a surbordinate officer named La Salle. Finally an order came deposing both Bienville and La Salle. When Bienville's successor, D'Artaguette (dar ta get'), arrived, he investigated the charges against Bienville, and wrote to the home, government that all the accusations brought against Bienville were false. Thereupon Bienville was reinstated in office. He recommended that negro slaves should be brought to the settlement for use as laborers. Negroes were in the colony as early as 1707, though it is not known when they were first brought into it. The year 1710 closed disastrously for the colony. Complaints were made against Bienville and another famine scattered the people among the Indians to procure something to eat.
31. Relations with Canada .- During the first three years of its history the colony was nominally a part of Canada. The relations between the two sections however, were not pleasant, as their trading interests conflicted. Finally the governor of Canada began to desire more complete control over Louisiana affairs; while Iberville insisted on having the boundaries defined, and complained that the Canadians belittled him and his colony with the natives by contrast- ing the liberality of Canada with the poverty of Louisiana.
*For a concise statement of the results of recent investiga- tions of the history of this period see Hamilton's Colonial Mobile. Chapters V. te VIII.
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In spite of these quarrels, the little stations in Louisiana remained under the political control of the older and better organized colony on the north until 1701.
32. Government of the Colony .- During this . entire period* the government of the colony seems to have been of a military type, though it had some features of the French civil system. Military law alone prevailed, and justice was administered by military tribunals. The chief officer was the "commandant of the Bay of Biloxi and its environs." The extent of his authority, however, is not definitely known. Although Sauvole held the chief command until his death, Iberville, as long as he was in the colony, always treated with the Indians and acted as chief officer. We are told that "it was he of whom the company of Canada com- plained for interfering with the trade in beaver skins ; it was he whom the court evidently looked upon as the head of the colony, even before he was formally appointed to the chief command."
Summary
1. A French settlement was made at Biloxi in 1699, which thus became the capital of a vaguely defined region embracing the entire valley of the Mississippi.
2. The English had a rival claim to this country, and were turned from it by the misrepresentations of Bienville, who was determined to control the Mississippi River.
3. Iberville made several voyages to France in behalf of the new colony, and offered to the home government many practical suggestions which, if followed, would have led to the prosperity of the colony.
4. Sauvole was commandant of the colony until 1701, when he was succeeded by the more practical Bienville, who made efforts
*Read in this connection, Winston's Narrative and Critical History of America, Vol. V., p. 25, et seq.
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HISTORY OF MISSISSIPPI
to secure a better class of settlers, to direct their efforts to more profitable pursuits, and to promote peace with the natives.
5. The capital of the colony was moved to the Mobile River in 1702.
6. The colony suffered from numerous famines, and there were constant dissensions not only within the colony, but between it and Canada, which insisted upon exercising political and com- mercial control over these little stations to the south.
CHAPTER V
THE RULE OF COMMERCIAL MONOPOLIES (1713-1731)
33. The Colony Given Up by the King .- From 1701 to 1714 France was engaged in a desperate war with England, Holland, and Germany, in which she lost men, money, and territory. As the new French colony on the Gulf of Mexico was still a source of expense to the king, he was glad to shift this burden to the shoulders of one of his wealthy subjects, Anthony Crozat (cro za'). A charter was granted to Crozat, giving him exclusive right to trade in this colony for a period of fifteen years, and making the government of the colony nominally " dependent upon the general government of New France " (Canada).
34. Governor Cadillac .- Crozat expected to make a for- tune through mining and Mexican commerce. As Bien- ville had insisted upon agriculture, his policy did not suit the new proprietor. A new governor, Cadillac (ka dil yak'), who had founded Detroit, and was a man of much expe- rience in American affairs, was sent over to take charge of the colony. Repeated efforts to trade with the Spaniards of Mexico proved to be no more profitable than the at- tempt to find mines of gold and silver in the Mississippi Valley. Trade with the Indians was more successful, but this was not sufficient to support the colony.
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35. Affairs on the Mississippi .- In 1714 an English officer who was exploring the Mississippi River was captured and carried to Mobile, the capital of the colony. He Was afterwards released, but was captured by the Indians, who, as they said, " broke his head." Before this, however, the presence of traders from the English colony of Carolina among the Natchez had given the French reason to doubt the security of their hold upon the trade as well as the possession of this part of Louisiana.
Previous to 1714 the French had erected a warehouse among the Natchez Indians. These savages soon murdered some of the settlers, and robbed the warehouse. It there- fore became necessary to send Bienville to punish them (1716). While on this expedition, he not only punished the offenders, but obtained the grant of a site for a fort. Fort Rosalie was erected, and this was the beginning of the city of Natchez.
36. Governor L'Epinay .- The numerous complaints made to Crozat from time to time, caused the removal of Cadillac. To the disappointment of Bienville and his friends, a new governor, L'Epinay (lā pē nā'), was sent over to take charge of the colony. After a few months of fruitless waiting for larger returns from the colony under the new governor, Crozat was convinced that Louisiana could not be made a source of wealth to him. In his disappointment he prayed for permission to surrender his charter to the regent of France, who granted the request (1717).
37. The Western Company .- On the day Crozat surren- dered his charter, Louisiana affairs were discussed in the French Council of State, and it was resolved that inasmuch as colonizing such a country was too great an undertaking for any private individual, and was unbecoming the dignity of the king, it should be intrusted to a company. For this purpose the Western Company was formed at once. The
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district of Illinois was separated from Canada and made a part of Louisiana, and the government of this vast region was given over to the control of the new company.
38. John Law and His Scheme .- The direction of the affairs of the new company was assumed by John Law, the originator of the scheme. His remarkable career is thus summed up by Hamilton: " Scotch gambler, outlaw from England, introducer of the game of faro, French banker, intimate of the notorious regent, the Duke of Orleans, head of the Mississippi Bubble,* outlaw again, then a wanderer on the face of the earth until his death. The life of this brilliant man reads like a romance." His company was given a charter for twenty-five years, and was expected to develop the agriculture of the colony. It made the fatal mistake, however, of trying to do in a few years what needed a century, and Law soon found it necessary to ignore sound business principles in order to keep pace with the spirit of speculation which he had aroused. Among the extraordi- nary privileges given to this company was authority to confer grants, levy troops, build and equip fleets, wage war against the natives, and make treaties with them, remove justices, and establish councils. The Western Company soon developed into the "Company of the Indies," and as such absorbed the rights of the Senegal, the Africa, the China, and the India companies. In 1718 it was united with the royal bank, and Law became the French minister of finance. Shares in this inflated company now sold for twenty times their original value, and Frenchmen read with eagerness the exaggerated accounts of the "fertile soil, the balmy air, and the golden sands " of far-away Louisiana In 1720 the company failed to redeem its notes, the " Mis-
*For a good account of the "Mississippi Bubble," see Gayarre's History of Louisiana, Vol. I., pp. 191-233; Pickett's History of Alabama, Vol. I., Chapter VI.
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sissippi Bubble " burst, and Law fled from Paris under the cover of night. The company he had organized lasted ten years longer, and then went into bankruptcy.
39. Result of Law's Scheme .- Although Law's scheme caused the financial ruin of many wealthy and noble French families, it revived interest in Louisiana. It brought to our shores hundreds of colonists from France and Germany ; . it brought to our soil the orange from Hispaniola and the fig from Provence (pro vons') ; it added the culture of indigo to that of rice and tobacco; it supplied the demand SIT for money and for negro slaves; it es- tablished a settlement COLONIES C FRANCOISES INTA 1721 H at New Orleans; it helped to colonize the fertile banks of the Mississippi; and it OLD FRENCH COPPER COINS brought back the cap- ital of Louisiana to a new Biloxi within the limits of the present State of Mississippi, near the site of the first capital. The colony prospered after the time of Law as it had never done before.
40. Government of the Colony .- Bienville was again made governor, much to the joy of the colonists. In order the better to control the commerce of the Mississippi, he selected the site of New Orleans for a new capital of the colony. This selection was opposed by the members of the company, one of whom preferred Natchez. To settle the matter peaceably, new Biloxi was agreed upon ($39), and this place was the capital from the close of 1720 to 1723, when it was changed to New Orleans.
Mobile continued to be the center of French influence in dealing with the Indians. Bienville attended annual Indian congresses at this place, where he feasted the friendly
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natives and gave presents to them. By 1721 about one- third of the Indian warriors between Carolina and the Mississippi had been won over from the side of the English to that of the French. At that time Louisiana was divided into nine districts, three of which-Biloxi, Natchez, and Yazoo-were within the present limits of Mississippi. Each of these had one or more garrisons and trading- houses.
In 1724 Bienville issued the " Black Code,"* which was so called because the greater part of it related to the treatment of the negro slaves. It also contained clauses banishing Jews, and establishing the Catholic religion alone. Shortly afterwards he was recalled and Boisbriant was left in com- mand until the arrival of Périer (pa're a'), the newly ap- pointed governor. Nothing in the administration of Périer demands attention, except the anxiety which the presence of English traders gave him and the troubles that resulted from his harsh policy in dealing with the natives.
41. English Encroachments .- In 1727 the new governor wrote that the English still persisted in carrying their trade into the very heart of the province. Notwithstanding the fact that he had given the natives orders to plunder the English traders, and had promised to pay them for so doing, sixty or seventy horses laden with merchandise had recently passed into the country of the Chicaksaws without being molested.
42. Terrible Massacre at Natchez .- The commander of the post at Natchez determined to move his forces from Fort Rosalie to the site of White Apple village, about twelve miles to the south. This village was occupied by some friendly Indians, who were commanded to leave it in order to make way for the French. The following ex-
*A copy of this code is given in the appendix to Gayarre's History of Louisiana, Vol. I.
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tracts, written by a man living at that time in Louisiana, give a vivid account of the events that followed: .
" The commandant sent for the 'sun' of that village, who made answer to his demands 'that his ancestors had lived in that village for as many years as there were hairs in his double cue, and therefore it was good they should continue there.' Scarcely had the interpreter explained this answer to the commandant, when the latter fell into a passion and threateningly told the sun that if he did not quit his village in a few days he might repent it. The sun replied : 'When the French came to ask for land to settle on, they told us there was land enough still unoccupied for them, and that the same sun would en- lighten them, and all would walk in the same path.' The commandant replied that he was re- solved to be obeyed.
"At a meeting of the Indian council to con- sider this matter, a most venerable man rose and delivered the following speech : 'Before the French came among us we were men, content with what we had, and Indians and their Prisoner. walked with boldness every path. Now we are groping about, afraid of meeting briars. We walk like slaves, which we shall soon be, since the French already treat us as if we were such. Shall we suffer them to multiply till we are no longer in a condition to oppose them? What will the other nations say of the Natchez, who are admitted to be
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the greatest of all the red men? Let us set ourselves at liberty.'"
A bloody plot was then laid with great secrecy, and in order to gain time the Indians bribed the French com- mander to allow them to remain until they had gathered their corn. Finally (October 28, 1729) they surprised the French, killing two hundred and fifty of them and carrying many of the women and children into slavery. The Indians . then captured a large quantity of brandy and celebrated this bloody occasion by engaging in a drunken spree .*
43. Massacre at Fort St. Peter .- The success of the Natchez massacre encouraged the Yazoo Indians to attempt the destruction of Fort St. Peter on the Yazoo River near the present city of Vicksburg. The garrison consisted of a small body of men, all of whom were murdered (January 2, 1730). The families living near the fort were also mur- dered, only a few women and children being kept as slaves.
44. Destruction of the Natchez Nation .- Upon hearing of the massacre at Fort Rosalie, Governor Périer at once prepared to retake the fort and to free those who were held as captives. He sent against the enemy a strong force of French soldiers and Choctaw Indians, who began the attack at daybreak (January 27th). With a very slight loss the Choctaws captured eighteen prisoners, took sixty scalps, and rescued one hundred and sixty captives, one hundred and six of them being negro slaves. A month later the rest of the captives were surrendered, and the Natchez made their escape across the river into Louisiana. They were pursued and again attacked near Trinity River. After several fights a large number was captured and sold as slaves to the planters of San Domingo. Thus ended the existence of the Natchez Indians as a distinct nation.
*An interesting account of this massacre will be found in Pickett's History of Alabama, Vol. I., Chapter VII.
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Summary
1. In 1713 Anthony Crozat assumed control of the colony of Louisiana in the vain hope of making a fortune by mining and trade.
2. In 1717 he surrendered the colony to the regent of France, who in turn granted it to the Western Company under the control of John Law.
3. The "Mississippi Bubble" burst after a short time, and though it resulted in the financial ruin of many Frenchmen, it. gave a new impulse to the settlement of the colony.
4. Bienville, who again became governor, moved the capital of the colony to new Biloxi and then to New Orleans, and issued the celebrated "Black Code."
5. Under the administration of Governor Périer, Bienville's successor, the encroachments of traders from the English colonies became a source of concern, and the unjust way in which the Indians were treated resulted in a bloody massacre of the French at Natchez and at Fort St. Peter.,
CHAPTER VI
UNDER ROYAL CONTROL (1731-1763)
45. Change of Government .- Scarcely had the cruelties of the Natchez massacre been avenged, when the colonial authorities discovered a darker war cloud gathering in another part of their territory. The company, discouraged by the outlook, prayed for permission to surrender its possessions to the crown. After some delay the petition was granted and Louisiana became a royal province in 1732. Bienville was again made governor, very much to the delight of the colonists. Upon coming into office in 1733, the new governor had the misfortune to inherit many of the bad results following the misrule of the governor who pre- ceded him.
46. Indian Troubles .- Several influences hostile to the French were now at work among the Indians, particularly
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among the Chickasaws. A remnant of the Natchez nation had fled to the warlike Chickasaws, who swore to protect them against their enemies. The cruelties of the French in their dealings with the captives taken in the war with the Natchez caused all of the Indians in the present State of Mississippi to sympathize with this unfortunate nation. At this time a Frenchman, having greatly wronged a chief of the Choctaws, helped to increase their hostility towards the little colony. English traders, always ready to arouse the Indians against the French, now became more numerous among the Chickasaws, and even found their way into the Choctaw nation. Upon the return of Bienville (1731), he found that both of these nations were under English influence.
47. Chickasaw War .- Bienville promptly began to make preparations to invade the country of the Chickasaws. He hoped to conquer them, and by a display of force cause other Indians to forsake the English. He got a promise of help from D'Artaguette (d'ar ta get'), a French officer in command of a post in Illinois, and secured the aid of all the Choctaws that could be induced to join the French.
On the first day of May, he held a final conference with the Choctaw chiefs, at which it was agreed that a large force of Choctaw's should meet the French at the present site of Cotton Gin Port, on the Tombigbee River. The French reached this point May 22d, and after building a small fort, the combined forces of nearly twelve hundred French, negroes, and Choctaws entered upon their march against the Chickasaws.
48. Battle of Ackia .- The impatient Choctaws and some of the French officers induced Bienville to attack a Chicka- saw town over which an English flag was floating, and within which there were several Englishmen, who helped in the defence. The battle that followed was very disastrous
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to the French, as they received little aid from the Choctaws. who did more howling than fighting. After having sus- tained a great loss, the French withdrew with difficulty, and, fortunately for them, without being followed.
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