USA > Mississippi > School history of Mississippi; for use in public and private schools > Part 4
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49. D'Artaguette's Expedition -Upon his descent of the Tombigbee, Bienville heard of the calamity that had befallen the expedition from Illinois that had promised to aid him. D'Artaguette left Fort Chartres (shärtr) at the appointed time with one hundred and forty Frenchmen, and about three hundred Indians. After arriving at Chickasaw Bluffs, near Memphis, he received a letter from Bienville, stating that he would not be able to reach the Chickasaw country before the last of April. The Indian troops were eager for the conflict, and in order to retain their aid, D'Arta- guette had to enter the enemy's country without delay. In the fight that followed his allies fled ; nineteen French- men were captured, fifteen of whom, including the wounded D'Artaguette, were burned alive. More unfortunately still, D'Artaguette's papers, containing Bienville's plans, were captured. This had enabled the Chickasaws, aided by the English traders, to win the battle of Ackia.
50. Bienville's Second Expedition Against the Chickasaws (1740) .- Bienville saw that it was necessary to regain the reputation that had been lost by the failure of two succes- sive expeditions. He therefore spent several years 'in pre- paring for another expedition against the Chickasaws. This time he reached the scene of conflict by way of the Missis- sippi. He did not gain a victory ; yet the enemy, supposing a large army had invaded their country, sued for peace, promising to expel the English traders and to remain true to the French. These terms were gladly accepted, and the French withdrew.
51. Bienville's Retirement .- Bienville was greatly disap- pointed over the results of the Chickasaw War and over the
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HISTORY OF MISSISSIPPI
harsh criticisms of his administration, and voluntarily retired to private life, at wie age of sixty-five. 1215 While awaiting the arrival of his successor he spent the time lessening the difficulties attached to the office which he was to give up. He then went to France, where he lived to the advanced age of ninety, never forgetting for a moment the colony to which he had devoted forty years of his vigorous manhood. For many years the familiar form of a decrepit old man was the first to go on board the vessels that landed in France from the shores of Louisiana. This was the aged Bienville seeking for tidings from his beloved colony. We are told that to the time of his death he grieved over its misfortunes and exulted in its triumphs and prosperity.
52. English Settlers from Georgia .- According to the charter under which Georgia was settled (1732), it em- braced a large portion of the present State of Mississippi. In 1733 the governor of Georgia made treaties with the Chickasaws and some of the Choctaws. As a result of these treaties it was no longer necessary for English traders to make the tedious journey over the Carolina mountains in order to trade with the Indians of the Mississippi Valley, since they could take a more southerly route and avoid the mountains altogether. When the number of English traders increased, the French again became alarmed about the safety of their colony and the success of the Indian trade.
53. Administration of Governor Vaudreuil (1743-1753) .- Governor Vaudreuil (vo dré'yuh) reached the colony in 1743. His administration contains little of interest. The year after his arrival, a census was taken, which showed that the colony had four thousand white inhabitants and two thousand negro slaves. At this time Pascagoula con- tained only ten white males and fifteen negroes. The pop- ulation of Biloxi, Pass Christian, and Bay St. Louis is not given. Prosperity had at length begun to dawn upon the
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UNDER ROYAL CONTROL
colony. Wealth increased with the development of agricul- ture and commerce. The Ch' kasaws were still trouble- some. They renewed their alliance with the English, and Vaudreuil determined to invade their country (1753). In purpose, route, methods, and results this expedition was almost identical with that made by Bienville in his first attack on this same foe, sixteen years previously.
54. Administration of Governor Kerlerec (1753-1763) .-- Shortly after Governor Kerlerec (kér'le rek) entered upor . the duties of his office, he found it necessary to protect hin colony against English vessels that were harassing the coast. In 1756 England formally declared war against France. A fleet of English privateers then blockaded the passes at the mouth of the Mississippi and cut off con- munications with France for a period of three years.
55. The Seven Years' War (1756-1763) .- The inhabitants of Louisiana suffered little from the Seven Years' Wal between England and France for the control of North America. The principal part of the fighting was done near the border of Canada, where the French and the English colonies were strongest and in closest contact. Spair entered into the struggle against England, her old enemy At the end of the war England held Quebec, Montreal Fort Duquesne (du kan'), and all the other French strong- holds in America. As France could no longer continue the struggle, she was forced to accept the hard terms made by her conqueror ; and a treaty of peace was signed at Paris (June 1, 1763).
56. France Driven Out of North America (1763) .- At the end of this war France divided her North American possessions between England and Spain. England received Canada and that part of the present territory of the United States which she claimed east of the Mississippi, with the exception of the "Isle of Orleans." This "island " lies
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HISTORY OF MISSISSIPPI
between the Mississippi on the one side, and the Manchac, Lakes Maurepas and Pontchartrain and the Rigolets on the other. Spain surrendered the Floridas to England in exchange for Cuba, which had been captured by the English in the war. The " Isle of Orleans " and all of the French territory west of the Mississippi was given to Spain to pay her for the losses she had sustained in her efforts to help France.
France thus lost possession of the territory of the present State of Mississippi sixty-four years after the date of her first settlement within its borders. This brings us to another epoch in the history of the State. -
Summary
1. The harsh treatment that the Natchez tribe had received at the hands of the French enlisted the sympathy of the other Indians and helped the English to gain influence among the Indians. Bienville forced a war on the Chicksaws to regain control of them.
2. Three expeditions were sent against the Chickasaws. The first and third ascended the Tombigbee River and attacked the enemy with results that were very disastrous to the French; the second ascended the Mississippi and made a treaty with the enemy without conquering them.
3. Bienville retired to private life and spent his declining years in France, never forgetting the colony to which he had devoted forty years of his vigorous manhood.
4. The English became more troublesome to the colony through the activity of their traders among the Indians and of their vessels at the mouths of the Mississippi River.
5. The disastrous results of the Seven Years' War drove France out of North America (1763) and divided her possessions between England and Spain, the former getting Florida among the other additions to her territory.
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EARLY GOVERNMENT OF THE COLONY
EPOCH III
UNDER ENGLISH RULE (1763-1781)
CHAPTER VII
EARLY GOVERNMENT OF THE COLONY (1763-1771)
57. Establishment of West Florida .- By a royal procla- mation of October 7, 1763, the newly acquired English possessions on the Gulf were divided into the provinces of East Florida and West Florida. The latter of these embraced all of the English possessions between the Appa- lachicola (ăp pã lăch i ko'lä) and the Mississippi rivers and south of the thirty-first parallel. The year following this proclamation, representations were made to the king that there were a large number of settlements on the Mississippi north of the thirty-first parallel, which should be included in West Florida. He extended the northern boundary of this province to a line running due east from the mouth of the Yazoo River, which is in latitude 32° 28' north .*
58. District of Illinois .- Although a large part of the present State of Mississippi was in the province of West Florida, more than half of it was in the district of Illinois,
*To be explicit, the province of West Florida embraced the territory bounded on the north by latitude 32º 28', on the east by the Chattahoochie and the Appalachicola rivers; on the south by the Gulf. Lakes Borgne, Pontchartrain, and Maurepas, the Amite and the Iberville rivers; and on the west by the Mississippi from the Iberville to the Yazoo. May 15, 1767, the northern boundary of the province was extended to latitude 32° 30', the other bounda- ries being left unchanged.
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EARLY GOVERNMENT OF THE COLONY
which was not open to white settlement. The governors of the other English colonies were expressly forbidden by the king to make any grants of land between West Florida and the Great Lakes. By this order the king disregarded the charter rights of some of the older colonies, to which this territory had already been granted, and by so doing gave cause for future trouble (§119). During the entire period of English occupation that part of Mississippi north of latitude 32° 30' was uninhabited by white men, except ing a few traders, who lived among the Chickasaws.
59. Early Governors .- The first governor of West Florida was Captain George Johnstone of the royal navy. He reached the colony early in 1764, and promptly began to organize the government in accordance with the laws of England, and to occupy the forts with British soldiers. Fort Condé (kon da'), at Mobile, he changed to Fort Charlotte. in honor of the Queen of England, and Fort Rosalie t Panmure, in honor of a minister of George III. He built a fort at Manchac, which he named Fort Bute (būte) in honor of another minister of the king of England. Gover- nor Johnstone left the colony (1768) because the inhabitants had become very much dissatisfied with him. The rule of Governor Montford Browne, Governor Johnstone's suc -- cessor, was stormy, and he likewise left the province to become governor of the Bahamas. He was succeeded by Acting-Governor Elias Durnford (1770). It is doubtful whether Governor Eliot, who was made chief executive, ever reached the province alive, it being thought by some writers that he committed suicide.
60. Dissatisfaction Among the French and Indians of West Florida .- When West Florida passed into the posses- sion of England, many of the French living within its limits determined to migrate into French territory. Some of them afterwards changed their purpose, because they were
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HISTORY OF MISSISSIPPI
assured that their religious, political, and property rights would be respected by the new government, and others, because the territory into which they had expected to move passed into the possession of Spain. At first only three months were given the French in which to emigrate from West Florida or take the oath of allegiance to the king of England. This time was extended so as to comply with the Treaty of Paris, which provided that eighteen months should be allowed for this purpose. At one time it seemed that so many of the French would leave the country that it was a cause of anxiety to the British, who made more than one effort to induce them to move from Louisiana into the colony.
Many of the Indians were at first as much opposed to this change of government as were the French themselves. This probably accounts for the migration of the Biloxis and the Pascagoulas to Louisiana (1764), and it certainly explains the hostility of the Tunicas ($61). The Ten- saws and part of the Alabamas also left their old homes in the present State of Alabama and crossed the Mississippi because of their attachment to the French. In 1764 a great congress of all the Indian tribes living south of the Ohio River was held at Mobile. It was attended by two thousand natives, and resulted in an alliance with all but a few Choctaws and Creeks.
61. Expedition of Major Loftus .- In 1764 Major Loftus, who had been appointed to take charge of the Illinois country, began to ascend the Mississippi River with four hundred men. In a narrow channel of the river near the mouth of the Red River, his party was fired upon from ambush by some Tunica Indians, who killed five and wounded four of the men. The surviving members returned to Mobile. The point of the river where this dis-
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EARLY GOVERNMENT OF THE COLONY
aster occurred was afterwards known as "Loftus Heights." Fort Adams was afterwards built at this place.
62. Improvements Under the English .- Although the British had a right by the Treaty of Paris to enter the Mississippi through its mouth, they preferred to avoid New Orleans, and to use the lake route along the border of their new possessions in going to and from the settlements on the Mississippi River. They promptly built a fort to pro- tect this passage and to watch the Spanish. This was the origin of Fort Bute, to which reference has already been made. Fort Panmure was built on the site of old Fort Rosalie.
The English set to work with their characteristic prompt- ness and energy to make other improvements in their new possessions. In two months they expended upwards of five thousand dollars in vain efforts to remove obstructions to the passage of boats through the Iberville. If they could have made this small stream navigable, they might have succeeded in one of their cherished plans-namely, to turn at least part of the trade of the great Mississippi Valley from New Orleans to Mobile. They were more successful in their numerous efforts to improve the forts and buildings in Mobile and other places.
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63. Trade .- The English finally won the esteem of the Indians by improvements in the law of the country and by the regulation of trade. Shortly after they took pos- session of West Florida a local trader in Mobile was imprisoned upon a charge of selling a Choctaw a cracked brass kettle, and a white man was found guilty of murder- ing an Indian, and was punished. A low scale of prices was made for articles sold the Indians, and traders were required to give bond in order to obtain license to trade.
Goods were carried in canoes or on pack-horses. The exports were obtained principally from the Indians, and
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HISTORY OF MISSISSIPPI
were greater in variety than in volume. The two most Besides these, important articles were indigo and hides. the following articles were also exported from the colony CIANOSTRA FLORIDA ID in 1772: Corn, rice, tobacco, myrtle, wax, pecans, oranges, sas- safras, timber, lum- OCCIDENTALIS ATTISIS ber, staves, hoops, tar and pitch, bear's oil, dried saltfish, cat- tle, tallow, and salted MELIORIBUSUTERE wild beef. After the failure to make the Iberville navigable, FATIS Governor Browne GEORGIUS ES ETPREL I PROVINCI urged in vain the building of a. road from Natchez to Mo- bile in order to cut off the Indian trade that was going down the Mississippi to the CKOK C Spanish city of New Orleans. WAY
ET LUN DUX SRIAR THES
MI D.G. MAG. BRIFRET
64. Land Grants .- The royal proclama- tion of October 7, 1763, authorized the SEAL OF THE PROVINCE OF WEST FLORIDA (Affixed to Land Grants) granting of land to ed to their means of cultivation. settlers, in tracts suit- Officers of the army and navy who would actually live in the colony were to be given grants varying from two hundred to five thousand acres, according to their rank, and privates were to receive,
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EARLY GOVERNMENT OF THE COLONY
under the same conditions, sixty acres. No one was allowed to acquire land by purchase or grant from the Indians. According to the terms of these grants, an annual tax of one penny (about two cents) an acre was exacted by the king, and three acres out of every fifty had to be cleared within a stated period.
65. Other Efforts to Attract Immigration .- In order to induce settlers to accept these liberal terms upon which grants were made, Governor Johnstone issued a glowing description of West Florida. He dwelt at length upon the agricultural and commercial advantages of the country, and prophesied that our cities would become as great in trade as had Tyre, Sidon, Amsterdam, Venice, Genoa, and other great cities. "On the whole," said he, " whether we regard the situation or the climate, West Florida bids fair to be the emporium as well as the most pleasant part of the New World." Several books, relating to the geography.of the country, its natives, its plants, and its animals, were pub- lished.
66. The New Government .- At Pensacola, the capital, a superior council was established for the double purpose of advising the governor and of serving as a judicial tribunal. Magistrates were appointed in different parts of the province for the trial of minor cases, but all important cases were tried before the superior council. When a man living on the Mississippi was accused of a crime or had an impor- tant case to be tried, he was put to the great inconvenience of going to Pensacola in order to appear before the proper tribunal. The first representative assembly in West Florida was called by Governor Johnstone, with the advice of his council, to meet at Pensacola in 1766. Five other assem- blies were held at the same place within the next twelve vears.
67. A New Order of Things .- The English established in
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HISTORY OF MISSISSIPPI
this country a new order of things. New laws were made and new courts were created. The gay, adventurous French gave way to the thrifty, industrious English. The great forests along the Mississippi, which up to this time had not surrendered a foot of their territory, nor yielded a penny of their great wealth, soon began to disappear before the axe of the American and English settler. Chivalry was displaced by industry, and adventure by home-seeking.
Summary
1. In 1763 Great Britain organized her territory between the Mississippi and the Chattahoochie into the colony of West Florida, with latitude 31 degrees as its northern boundary, which was afterwards extended to latitude 32° 28' and finally to 32° 30'.
2. The territory north of West Florida was called the District of Illinois, from which all white settlers were excluded.
3. There was great dissatisfaction among the French and Indians of West Florida over the change in the government of the colony, and many of them moved west of the Mississippi and south of the Manchac. The Tunicas fired with fatal results upon a body of English who were ascending the Mississippi under the command of Major Loftus.
4. The English began promptly to make improvements at several points, and to conciliate the natives by just treatment and by a wholesome regulation of trade.
5. Immigrants were attracted by liberal grants and by glowing descriptions of the country and exaggerated accounts of its com- mercial possibilities.
6. By an objectionable regulation the inhabitants from all parts of the colony were put to the great inconvenience of going to Pensacola, the capital, in order to reach a tribunal authorized to decide cases of importance.
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WEST FLORIDA UNDER GOVERNOR CHESTER
CHAPTER VIII
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WEST FLORIDA UNDER GOVERNOR CHESTER (1771-1781)
68. Administration of Governor Chester .- Governor Browne, having been made governor of the Bahamas, was succeeded (1770) by Peter Chester. In 1772 writs were issued ordering an election of representatives to a legislative assembly ; but instead of electing representatives for three years, according to a requirement of the writs, the citizens added to their votes the condition that the elected members were to serve only one year. The governor declined to accept this condition, and the citizens of the colony pre- ferred to remain without an assembly rather than be de- prived of annual elections. After the lapse of six years the governor found it necessary to convene a new assembly.
69. Politics in West Florida During the Revolution .- The interest of the student of history is so much absorbed by what happened at Bunker Hill, Lexington, Philadelphia, Valley Forge, and a long list of other places, made famous by the events of the Revolution, that he is apt to forget that there were other British colonies besides those on the Atlantic coast. All of the southern colonies except East and West Florida deposed their royal governors shortly after the outbreak of the Revolution. In West Florida Gov. Chester still presided over his council, though he had refused to call an assembly for the six years preceding 1778. An assembly was finally called only because it was needed to pass bills regulating the militia and the Indian trade. This "cantankarous body," as Chester called it, proved to be as independent as some of those in the thirteen colonies. The members quarreled over the fact that some parts of the colony were not represented, until the session had lasted thirty-four days without passing the bills desired. After
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HISTORY OF MISSISSIPPI
preparing a petition, in which they presented their grievances to the "King's Majesty in Council," they adjourned never to meet again. This was the last assembly held in the colony while it was under British rule. It is said that in 1778 two American agents carried the Declarar tion of Independence to Mobile for distribution. As this document was then contraband of war, one of these agent: was imprisoned and put in irons until exchanged in the following year .*
70. Effects of the Revolution Upon the Settlement of West Florida .- As the colony was still small and far removed from the scenes of conflict, and was struggling with the hardships of frontier life, it was not expected to take any active part in the Revolutionary War. The colony was very much benefited by the war. The Tories driven from Georgia and the Carolinas were the first white settlers in the eastern part of the present State of Mississippi. They met with a cordial welcome from Governor Chester and his council Settlements along the Mississippi increased more rapidly than in any other part of the colony. In 1773 there were .only thirty-three settlements on the eastern bank of the Mississippi between Natchez and the present State of Louisiana. We are told that in 1776 the town of Natchez consisted of " only ten log houses and two frame houses, all situated under the bluff. About seventy . eight families, scattered in different settlements, consti. tuted the whole population of the district, few of which had immigrated to the country previous to 1772." There were four small stores in the town. Previous to 1778 West Florida was divided into two districts-Pensacola and Mobile-the latter of which embraced all of the present State of Mississippi. By this time that part of the colony
*A fuller treatment of this subject will be found in Hamilton's Colonial Mobile, chapter XXX.
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WEST FLORIDA UNDER GOVERNOR CHESTER
along the Mississippi had increased so much in population that it was separated from the District of Mobile, and made into the District of Manchac and the District of Natchez. These two newly created districts contained a greater num- ber of respectable, wealthy planters and settlers than either of the other districts.
71. Expedition of James Willing .- In 1778 James Willing, who had formerly been a merchant at Natchez, was sent down the Mississippi by Congress in order to induce the English settlements along its bank to remain neutral during the war, and to procure military stores at New Orleans. Messages having been sent in advance to the settlers, many of them met him at different points and cheerfully took the oath to remain neutral. He was especially welcomed at Natchez, his former home. After leaving this place, how- ever, he robbed the homes of some of the most wealthy and influential citizens of the district, among whom were Sir William Dunbar and Colonel Anthony Hutchins. From the home of the former he carried away property to the value of about $1,000, and from that of the latter twelve valuable slaves, besides plate, money, and other things of value. After robbing some of the other inhabitants, he went to New Orleans, carrying Colonel Hutchins as a prisoner. On his way down the Mississippi he captured an armed English ship at Manchac, and carried it to New Orleans, where he sold it and wasted the money.
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