The History of Louisiana, Or of the Western Parts of Virginia and Carolina
by Le Page du Pratz · English · Gutenberg #9153 · 835,047 chars · public domain (US)
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Title: The History of Louisiana, Or of the Western Parts of Virginia and Carolina
Author: Le Page du Pratz
Release date: October 1, 2005 [eBook #9153]
Most recently updated: March 14, 2015
Language: English
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*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE HISTORY OF LOUISIANA, OR OF THE WESTERN PARTS OF VIRGINIA AND CAROLINA ***
Produced by Stan Goodman and Distributed Proofreaders
THE HISTORY OF LOUISIANA,
OR OF THE WESTERN PARTS
OF VIRGINIA AND CAROLINA:
Containing a DESCRIPTION
of the Countries
that lie on both Sides
of the River Missisippi:
With an ACCOUNT of the
SETTLEMENTS,
INHABITANTS,
SOIL,
CLIMATE,
AND
PRODUCTS.
Translated from the FRENCH
Of M. LE PAGE Du PRATZ;
With some Notes and Observations
relating to our Colonies.
Foreword
Antoine Simon Le Page Du Pratz was a Dutchman, as his birth in Holland
about 1695 apparently proves. He died in 1775, just where available
records do not tell us, but the probabilities are that he died in
France, for it is said he entered the French Army, serving with the
Dragoons, and saw service in Germany. While there is some speculation
about all the foregoing, there can be no speculation about the
statement that on May 25, 1718 he left La Rochelle, France, in one of
three ships bound for a place called Louisiana.
For M. Le Page tells us about this in a three-volume work he wrote
called, Histoire de la Louisiane, recognized as the authority to be
consulted by all who have written on the early history of New Orleans
and the Louisiana province.
Le Page, who arrived in Louisiana August 25, 1718, three months after
leaving La Rochelle, spent four months at Dauphin Island before he and
his men made their way to Bayou St. John where he set up a plantation.
He had at last reached New Orleans, which he correctly states,
"existed only in name," and had to occupy an old lodge once used by an
Acolapissa Indian. The young settler, he was only about 23 at the
time, after arranging his shelter tells us: "A few days afterwards I
purchased from a neighbour a native female slave, so as to have a
woman to cook for us. My slave and I could not speak each other's
language; but I made myself understood by means of signs." This slave,
a girl of the Chitimacha tribe, remained with Le Page for years, and
one draws the inference that she was possessed of a vigorous
personality, and was not devoid of charm or bravery. Le Page writes
that when frightened by an alligator approaching his camp fire, he ran
to the lodge for his gun. However, the Indian girl calmly picked up a
stick and hammered the 'gator so lustily on its nose that it
retreated. As Le Page arrived with his gun, ready to shoot "the
monster," he tells us: "She began to smile, and said many things which
I did not comprehend, but she made me understand by signs, that there
was no occasion for a gun to kill such a beast."
It is unfortunate, for the purpose of sociological study, that this
Indian girl appears so infrequently in the many accounts Le Page has
left us in his highly interesting studies of early Louisiana and its
original inhabitants. He does not even tell us the Indian girl's name.
We are told that after living on the banks of Bayou St. John for about
two years, he left for the bluff lands of the Natchez country. His
Indian girl decided she would go with him, as she had relatives there.
Hearing of her plan, her old father offered to buy her back from Le
Page. The Chitimacha girl, however, refused to leave her master,
whereupon, the Indian father performed a rite of his tribe, which made
her the ward of the white man--a simple ceremony of joining hands.
Le Page spent eight years among the Natchez and what he wrote about
them--their lives, their customs, their ceremonials--has been
acknowledged to be the best and most accurate accounts we have of
these original inhabitants of Louisiana. He has left us, in his
splendid history, much information on the other Indian tribes of the
lower Mississippi River country.
Antoine Simon Le Page Du Pratz tells us he spent sixteen years in
Louisiana before returning to France in 1734. They were years well
spent--to judge by what he wrote.
As it was written and published in the French language, Le Page's
history proved in many instances to be a tantalizing casket of
historical treasure that could not be opened by those who had not
mastered French. The original edition, published in Paris in 1758, a
score of years after the author landed in New Orleans, was followed in
1763 by a two-volume edition in English, and eleven years later in
1774, by a one-volume edition in English, entitled: "The History of
Louisiana, or of the Western Parts of Virginia and Carolina." The
texts in the English editions are identical.
Fortunately, early historians who could not read the French edition,
were now able to read M. Le Page's accounts of his adventures in the
New World. Unfortunately, especially for present day historians, the
English editions have become increasingly rare--many libraries do not
have them on their shelves. Therefore, the present re-publication
fills a long-felt want.
The English translation, with its added matter, is reproduced exactly
as it was printed for T. Becket to be sold in his shop at the corner
of the Adelphi in the Strand, London, 1774. Errors of grammar and
spelling are not corrected. The only change is the modernizing of the
old _s_'s which look like _f_'s.
The present edition is really two works in one, for the English
translation did not include any of the original edition's many
illustrations. The London books did have two folding maps, one of the
Louisiana province, the other of the country about the mouths of the
Mississippi River. Not only are these maps reproduced in the present
work, but in addition, all the other illustrations, including the rare
map of New Orleans, appearing in the original French edition, are
included. These quaint engravings of the birds, the beasts, the
flowers, the shrubs, the trees, fish, the deer and buffalo hunts, and
the habits and customs of the Natchez Indians, add much to the value
of the present re-publication. I have captioned them with present-day
names of the flora and fauna.
STANLEY CLISBY ARTHUR.
(_Mr. Arthur is a naturalist, historian and writer, and
executive-director of the Louisiana State Museum.--J. S. W.
Harmanson, Publisher_.)
CONTENTS
Preface
BOOK I.
The Transactions of the French in Louisiana.
CHAP. I.
Of the first Discovery and Settlement of Louisiana
CHAP. II.
The Return of M. de St. Denis: His settling the Spaniards
at the Assinaïs. His second Journey to Mexico, and Return
from thence
CHAP. III.
Embarkation of eight hundred Men by the West-India Company
to Louisiana. Arrival and Stay at Cape François. Arrival
at the Isle Dauphine. Description of that Island
CHAP. IV.
The Author's Departure for his Grant. Description of the
Places he passed through, as far as New Orleans
CHAP. V.
The Author put in Possession of his Territory. His
Resolution to go and settle among the Natchez
CHAP. VI.
The Voyage of the Author to Biloxi. Description of that
Place. Settlement of Grants. The Author discovers two
Copper Mines. His Return to the Natchez
CHAP. VII.
First War with the Natchez. Cause of the War
CHAP. VIII.
The Governor surprized the Natchez with seven hundred
Men. Astonishing Cures performed by the Natives. The
Author sends upwards of three hundred Simples to the
Company
CHAP. IX.
French Settlements, or Posts. Post at Mobile. The Mouths
of the Missisippi. The Situation and Description of New
Orleans
CHAP. X.
The Voyages of the French to the Missouris, Canzas, and
Padoucas. The Settlements they in vain attempted to make
in those Countries; with a Description of an extraordinary
Phaenomenon
CHAP. XI.
The War with the Chitimachas. The Conspiracy of the Negroes
against the French. Their Execution
CHAP. XII.
The War of the Natchez. Massacre of the French in 1729.
Extirpation of the Natchez in 1730
CHAP. XIII.
The War with the Chicasaws. The first Expedition by the
River Mobile. The second by the River Missisippi. The War
with the Chactaws terminated by the Prudence of M. de
Vaudreuil
CHAP. XIV.
Reflections on what gives Occasion to Wars in Louisiana.
The Means of avoiding Wars in that Province, as also the
Manner of coming off with Advantage and little Expence in
them
CHAP. XV.
Pensacola taken by Surprize by the French. Retaken by the
Spaniards. Again retaken by the French, and demolished
BOOK II.
Of the Country and its Products.
CHAP. I.
Geographical Description of Louisiana. Its climate
Description of the Lower Louisiana, and the Mouths of the
Missisippi.
CHAP. II.
The Author's journey in Louisiana, from the Natchez to the
River St. Francis, and the Country of the Chicasaws
CHAP. III.
The Nature of the Lands of Louisiana. The Lands on the
Coast.
CHAP. IV.
Quality of the Lands above the Fork. A Quarry of Stone
for building. High Lands to the East: Their vast Fertility.
West Coast: West Lands: Saltpetre
CHAP. V.
Quality of the Lands of the Red River. Posts of
Nachitoches. A Silver Mine. Lands of the Black River
CHAP. VI.
A Brook of salt Water: Salt Lakes. Lands of the River
of the Arkansas. Red-veined Marble: Slate: Plaster.
Hunting the Buffalo. The dry Sand-banks in the Missisippi
CHAP. VII.
The Lands of the River St. Francis. Mine of Marameg, and
other Mines. A Lead Mine. A soft Stone, resembling
Porphyry. Lands of the Missouri. The Lands North of the
Wabache. The Lands of the Illinois. De La Mothe's Mine,
and other Mines
CHAP. VIII.
Of the Agriculture, or Manner of cultivating, ordering,
and manufacturing the Commodities that are proper
Articles of Commerce. Of the Culture of Maiz, Rice, and
other Fruits of the Country. Of the Silk Worm
CHAP. IX.
Of Indigo, Tobacco, Cotton, Wax, Hops, and Saffron
CHAP. X.
Of the Commerce that is, and may be carried on in
Louisiana. Of the Commodities which that Province
may furnish in Return for those of Europe. Of the
Commerce of Louisiana with the Isles
CHAP. XI.
Of the Commerce with the Spaniards. The Commodities
they bring to the Colony, if there is a Demand for
them. Of such as may be given in Return, and may suit
them. Reflections on the Commerce of this Province,
and the great Advantages which the State and
particular Persons may derive therefrom
Some Abstracts from the Historical Memoirs of Louisiana,
by M. Dumont.
I. Of Tobacco, with the Way of cultivating and curing it
II. Of the Way of making Indigo
III. Of Tar; the Way of making it; and of making it into
pitch
IV. Of the Mines of Louisiana
Extract from a late French Writer, concerning the Importance
of Louisiana to France
BOOK III.
The Natural History of Louisiana.
CHAP. I.
Of Corn and Pulse
CHAP. II.
Of the Fruit Trees of Louisiana
CHAP. III.
Of Forest Trees
CHAP. IV.
Of Shrubs and Excrescences
CHAP. V.
Of Creeping Plants
CHAP. VI.
Of the Quadrupedes
CHAP. VII.
Of Birds and flying Insects
CHAP. VIII.
Of Fishes and Shell-Fish
BOOK IV.
Of the Natives of Louisiana.
CHAP. I.
The Origin of the Americans
CHAP. II.
An Account of the several Nations of Louisiana
SECT. I.
Of the Nations inhabiting on the East of the Missisippi
SECT. II.
Of the Nations inhabiting on the West of the Missisippi
CHAP. III.
A Description of the Natives of Louisiana; of their
Manners and Customs, particularly those of the Natchez:
Of their Language, their Religion, Ceremonies, Rulers,
or Suns, Feasts, Marriages, &c
SECT. I.
A Description of the Natives; the different Employments
of the two Sexes; and their Manner of bringing up their
Children
SECT. II.
Of the Language, Government, Religion, Ceremonies, and
Feasts of the Natives
SECT. III.
Of their Marriages, and Distinction of Ranks
SECT. IV.
Of the Temples, Tombs, Burials, and other religious
Ceremonies of the People of Louisiana
SECT. V.
Of the Arts and Manufactures of the Natives
SECT. VI.
Of the Attire and Diversions of the Natives: Of their
Meals and Fastings
SECT. VII.
Of the Indian Art of War
CHAP. IV.
Of the Negroes of Louisiana
SECT. I.
Of the Choice of Negroes; of their Distempers, and the
Manner of curing them
SECT. II.
Of the Manner of governing the Negroes
INDEX
List of Illustrations
Indian in Summer Time
Indian in Winter Time
Indian Woman and Daughter
Plan of New Orleans, 1720
Beaver, Beaver lodge, Beaver dam
Indians of the North Leaving in the Winter with their
Families for a Hunt
Indigo
Cotton and Rice on the Stalk
Appalachean Beans. Sweet Potatoes
Watermelon
Pawpaw. Blue Whortle-berry
Sweet Gum or Liquid-Amber
Cypress
Magnolia
Sassafras
Myrtle Wax Tree. Vinegar Tree
Poplar ("Cotton Tree")
Black Oak
Linden or Bass Tree
Box Elder or Stink-wood Tree
Cassine or Yapon. Tooth-ache Tree or Prickly Ash
Passion Thorn or Honey Locust. Bearded Creeper
Palmetto
Bramble, Sarsaparilla
Rattlesnake Herb
Red Dye Plant. Flat Root
Panther or Catamount. Bison or Buffalo
Indian Deer Hunt
Wild Cat. Opossum. Skunk
Alligator. Rattle Snake. Green Snake
Pelican. Wood Stock
Flying Squirrel. Roseate Spoonbill. Snowy Heron
White Ibis. Tobacco Worm. Cock Roach
Cat Fish. Gar Fish. Spoonbill Catfish
Indian Buffalo Hunt on Foot
Dance of the Natchez Indians
Burial of the Stung Serpent
Bringing the Pipe of Peace
Torture of Prisoners. Plan of Fort
{i}
PREFACE
The History of Louisiana, which we here present to the public, was
wrote by a planter of sixteen years experience in that country, who
had likewise the advantage of being overseer or director of the public
plantations, both when they belonged to the company, and afterwards
when they fell to the crown; by which means he had the best
opportunities of knowing the nature of the soil and climate, and what
they produce, or what improvements they are likely to admit of; a
thing in which this nation is, without doubt, highly concerned and
interested. And when our author published this history in 1758, he had
likewise the advantage, not only of the accounts of F. Charlevoix, and
others, but of the Historical Memoirs of Louisiana, published at Paris
in 1753, by Mr. Dumont, an officer who resided two-and-twenty years in
the country, and was personally concerned and acquainted with many of
the transactions in it; from whom we have extracted some passages, to
render this account more complete.
But whatever opportunities our author had of gaining a knowledge of
his subject, it must be owned, that he made his accounts of it very
perplexed. By endeavoring to take in every thing, he descends to many
trifles; and by dwelling too long on a subject, he comes to render it
obscure, by being prolix in things which hardly relate to what he
treats of. He interrupts the thread of his discourse with private
anecdotes, long harangues, and tedious narrations, which have little
or no relation to the subject, and are of much less consequence to the
reader. The want of method and order throughout the whole work is
still more apparent; and that, joined to these digressions, renders
his accounts, however just and interesting, so tedious and irksome to
read, and at the same time so indistinct, that few seem to have reaped
the benefit of them. For these reasons it was necessary to methodize
the whole work; to abridge some parts of it; and to leave out many
things that appear to be trifling. This we have endeavored to do in
the translation, by reducing the whole work to four general heads or
books; and {ii} by bringing the several subjects treated of, the
accounts of which lie scattered up and down in different parts of the
original, under these their proper heads; so that the connection
between them, and the accounts of any one subject, may more easily
appear.
This, it is presumed, will appear to be a subject of no small
consequence and importance to this nation, especially at this time.
The countries here treated of, have not only by right always belonged
to Great-Britain, but part of them is now acknowledged to it by the
former usurpers: and it is to be hoped, that the nation may now reap
some advantages from those countries, on which it has expended so many
millions; which there is no more likely way to do, than by making them
better known in the first place, and by learning from the experience
of others, what they do or are likely to produce, that may turn to
account to the nation.
It has been generally suspected, that this nation has suffered much,
from the want of a due knowledge of her dominions in America, which we
should endeavor to prevent for the future. If that may be said of any
part of America, it certainly may of those countries, which have been
called by the French Louisiana. They have not only included under that
name all the western parts of Virginia and Carolina; and thereby
imagined, that they had, from this nominal title, a just right to
those antient dominions of the crown of Britain: but what is of worse
consequence perhaps, they have equally deceived and imposed upon many,
by the extravagant hopes and unreasonable expectations they had formed
to themselves, of the vast advantages they were to reap from those
countries, as soon as they had usurped them; which when they came to
be disappointed in, they ran from one extreme to another, and
condemned the country as good for nothing, because it did not answer
the extravagant hopes they had conceived of it; and we seem to be
misled by their prejudices, and to be drawn into mistakes by their
artifice or folly. Because the Missisippi scheme failed in 1719, every
other reasonable scheme of improving that country, and of reaping any
advantage from it, must do the same. It is to wipe off these
prejudices, that the following account of these countries, which
appears to be both {iii} just and reasonable, and agreeable to every
thing we know of America, may be the more necessary.
We have been long ago told by F. Charlevoix, from whence it is, that
many people have formed a contemptible opinion of this country that
lies on and about the Missisippi. They are misled, says he, by the
relations of some seafaring people, and others, who are no manner of
judges of such things, and have never seen any part of the country but
the coast side, about Mobile, and the mouths of the Mississippi; which
our author here tells us is as dismal to appearance, the only thing
those people are capable of judging of, as the interior parts of the
country, which they never saw, are delightful, fruitful, and inviting.
They tell us, besides, that the country is unhealthful; because there
happens to be a marsh at the mouth of the Missisippi, (and what river
is there without one?) which they imagine must be unhealthful, rather
than that they know it to be so; not considering, that all the coast
both of North and South America is the same; and not knowing, that the
whole continent, above this single part on the coast, is the most
likely, from its situation, and has been found by all the experience
that has been had of it, to be the most healthy part of all North
America in the same climates, as will abundantly appear from the
following and all other accounts.
To give a general view of those countries, we should consider them as
they are naturally divided into four parts; 1. The sea coast; 2. The
Lower Louisiana, or western part of Carolina; 3. The Upper Louisiana,
or western part of Virginia; and 4, the river Missisippi.
I. The sea coast is the same with all the rest of the coast of North
America to the southward of New York, and indeed from thence to Mexico,
as far as we are acquainted with it. It is all a low flat sandy beach,
and the soil for some twenty or thirty miles distance from the shore,
more or less, is all a _pine barren_, as it is called, or a sandy
desart; with few or no good ports or harbours on the coast, especially
in all those southern parts of America, from Chesapeak bay to Mexico.
But however barren this coast is in other respects, it is entirely
covered with tall pines, which afford great store of pitch, tar, and
turpentine. {iv} These pines likewise make good masts for ships; which I
have known to last for twenty odd years, when it is well known, that our
common masts of New England white pine will often decay in three or four
years. These masts were of that kind that is called the pitch pine, and
lightwood pine; of which I knew a ship built that ran for sixteen years,
when her planks of this pine were as sound and rather harder than at
first, although her oak timbers were rotten. The cypress, of which there
is such plenty in the swamps on this coast, is reckoned to be equally
serviceable, if not more so, both for masts (of which it would afford
the largest of any tree that we know), and for ship building. And ships
might be built of both these timbers for half the price perhaps of any
others, both on account of the vast plenty of them, and of their being
so easily worked.
In most parts of these coasts likewise, especially about the
Missisippi, there is great plenty of cedars and ever-green oaks; which
make the best ships of any that are built in North America. And we
suspect it is of these cedars and the American cypress, that the
Spaniards build their ships of war at the Havanna. Of these there is
the greatest plenty, immediately; to the westward of the mouth of the
Missisippi where "large vessels can go to the lake of the Chetimachas,
and nothing hinders them to go and cut the finest oaks in the world,
with which all that coast is covered;" [Footnote: _Charlevoix_ Hist. N.
France, Tom. III. p. 444.] which, moreover, is a sure sign of a very
good, instead of a bad soil; and accordingly we see the French have
settled their tobacco plantations thereabouts. It is not without
reason then, that our author tells us, the largest navies might be
built in that country at a very small expence.
From this it appears, that even the sea coast, barren as it is, from
which the whole country has been so much depreciated, is not without
its advantages, and those peculiarly adapted to a trading and maritime
nation. Had these sandy desarts indeed been in such a climate as
Canada, they would have been of as little value, as many would make
them here. It might be difficult indeed to settle colonies merely for
these or any other {v} productions of those poor lands: but to the
westward of the Missisippi, the coast is much more fruitful all along
the bay of Mexico; being watered with a great number of rivers, the
banks of which are very fertile, and are covered with forests of the
tallest oaks, &c. as far as to New Mexico, a thing not to be seen any
where else on these coasts. The coast alone will supply all the
products of North America, and is as convenient to navigation as any
part of it, without going nigh the Missisippi; so that it is with good
reason our author says, "That country promises great riches to such as
shall inhabit it, from the excellent quality of its lands," [Footnote:
See p. 163.] in such a climate.
These are the productions of the dry (we cannot call them high)
grounds: the swamps, with which this coast abounds, are still more
fruitful, and abundantly compensate the avidity and barrenness of the
soil around them. They bear rice in such plenty, especially the marsh
about New Orleans, "That the inhabitants reap the greatest advantage
from it, and reckon it the manna of the land." [Footnote: _Dumont_,
I. 15.] It was such marshes on the Nile, in the same climate, that were
the granary of the Roman empire. And from a few such marshes in
Carolina, not to be compared to those on the Missisippi, either in
extent or fertility, Britain receives at least two or three hundred
thousand pounds a year, and might vend twice that value of their
products.
But however barren or noxious these low lands on the sea coast may be,
they extend but a little way about the Missisippi, not above thirty or
forty miles in a straight line, on the east side of that river, and
about twice as far on the west side; in which last, the lands are, in
recompence, much more fruitful. To follow the course of the river
indeed, which runs very obliquely south-east and north-west, as well
as crooked, they reckon it eighty-two leagues from the mouth of the
river to the Cut-Point, where the high lands begin.
II. By the Lower Louisiana, our author means only the Delta of the
Missisippi, or the drowned lands made by the overflowing of the river.
But we may more properly give {vi} that appellation to the whole
country, from the low and flat sea coast above described, to the
mountains, which begin about the latitude 35°, a little above the
river St. Francis; that is, five degrees of latitude, or three hundred
and fifty statute miles from the coast; which they reckon to be six
hundred and sixty miles up the Missisippi. About that latitude a
continued ridge of mountains runs westward from the Apalachean
mountains nigh to the banks of the Missisippi, which are thereabouts
very high, at what we have called the Chicasaw Cliffs. Opposite to
these on the west side of the Missisippi, the country is mountainous,
and continues to be so here and there, as far as we have any accounts
of it, westward to the mountains of New Mexico; which run in a chain
of continued ridges from north to south, and are reckoned to divide
that country from Louisiana, about 900 miles west from the Missisippi.
This is one entire level champaign country; the part of which that
lies west of the Missisippi is 900 miles (of sixty to a degree) by
300, and contains 270,000 square miles, as much as both France and
Spain put together. This country lies in the latitude of those
fruitful regions of Barbary, Syria, Persia, India, and the middle of
China, and is alone sufficient to supply the world with all the
products of North America. It is very fertile in every thing, both in
lands and metals, by all the accounts we have of it; and is watered by
several large navigable rivers, that spread over the whole country
from the Missisippi to New Mexico; besides several smaller rivers on
the coast west of the Missisippi, that fall into the bay of Mexico; of
which we have no good accounts, if it be not that Mr. Coxe tells us of
one, the river of the Cenis, which, he says, "is broad, deep, and
navigable almost to its heads, which chiefly proceed from the ridge of
hills that separate this province from New Mexico," [Footnote:
Description of Carolina, p. 37] and runs through the rich and
fertile country on the coast above mentioned.
The western part of this country is more fertile, says our author,
than that on the east side of the Missisippi; in which part, however,
says he, the lands are very fertile, with a rich {vii} black mould
three feet deep in the hills, and much deeper in the bottoms, with a
strong clayey foundation. Reeds and canes even grow upon the hill
sides; which, with the oaks, walnuts, tulip-trees, &c. are a sure sign
of a good and rich soil. And all along the Missisippi on both sides,
Dumont tells, "The lands, which are all free from inundations, are
excellent for culture, particularly those about Baton Rouge,
Cut-Point, Arkansas, Natchez, and Yasous, which produce Indian corn,
tobacco, indigo, &c. and all kinds of provisions and esculent plants,
with little or no care or labour, and almost without culture; the soil
being in all those places a black mould of an excellent quality."
[Footnote: Memoires, I. 16.]
These accounts are confirmed by our own people, who were sent by the
government of Virginia in 1742, to view these the western parts of
that province; and although they only went down the Ohio and
Missisippi to New Orleans, they reported, that "they saw more good
land on the Missisippi, and its many large branches, than they judge
is in all the English colonies, as far as they are inhabited;" as
appears from the report of that government to the board of trade.
What makes this fertile country more eligible and valuable, is, that
it appears both from its situation, and from the experience the French
have had of it, [Footnote: See p. 120, 121.] to be by far the most
healthful of any in all these southern parts of North America; a thing
of the last consequence in settling colonies, especially in those
southern parts of America, which are in general very unhealthful. All
the sea coasts of our colonies, to the southward of Chesapeak bay, or
even of New-York, are low and flat, marshy and swampy, and very
unhealthful on that account and those on and about the bay of Mexico,
and in Florida, are withal excessively hot and intemperate, so that
white people are unfit for labour in them; by which all our southern
colonies, which alone promise to be of any great advantage to the
nation, are so thin of people, that we have but 25,000 white people in
all South Carolina. [Footnote: Description of South Carolina. by----,
p. 30.] But those lands on the Missisippi are, on {viii} the
contrary, high, dry, hilly, and in some places mountainous at no great
distance from the river, besides the ridges of the Apalachean
mountains above mentioned, that lie to the northward of them; which
must greatly refresh and cool the air all over the country, especially
in comparison of what it is on the low and flat, sandy and parched sea
coasts of our present colonies. These high lands begin immediately
above the Delta, or drowned lands, at the mouth of the Missisippi;
above which the banks of that river are from one hundred to two
hundred feet high, without any marshes about them; and continue such
for nine hundred miles to the river Ohio, especially on the east side
of the river. [Footnote: See p. 158]
Such a situation on rich and fertile lands in that climate, and on a
navigable river, must appear to be of the utmost consequence. It is only
from the rich lands on the river sides (which indeed are the only lands
that can generally be called rich in all countries, and especially in
North America), that this nation reaps any thing of value from all the
colonies it has in that part of the world. But "rich lands on river
sides in hot climates are extremely unhealthful," says a very good judge,
[Footnote: _Arbuthnot_ on Air. _App_.] and we have often found to our
cost. How ought we then to value such rich and healthful countries on
the Missisippi? As much surely as some would depreciate and vilify them.
It may be observed, that all the countries in America are only populous
in the inland parts, and generally at a distance from navigation; as the
sea coasts both of North and South America are generally low, damp,
excessively hot, and unhealthful; at least in all the southern parts,
from which alone we can expect any considerable returns. Instances of
this may be seen in the adjacent provinces of Mexico, New Mexico, Terra
Firma, Peru, Quito, etc. and far more in our southern colonies, which
never became populous, till the people removed to the inland parts, at a
distance from the sea. This we are in a manner prevented to do in our
colonies, by the mountains which surround us, and confine us to the
coast; whereas on the Missisippi the whole continent is open to them,
and they have, besides, this healthy {ix} situation on the lower parts
of that river, at a small distance from the sea.
If those things are duly considered, it will appear, that they who are
possessed of the Missisippi, will in time command that continent; and
that we shall be confined on the sea coasts of our colonies, to that
unhealthful situation, which many would persuade us is so much to be
dreaded on the Missisippi. It is by this means that we have so very few
people in all our southern colonies; and have not been able to get in
one hundred years above twenty-five thousand people in South Carolina;
when the French has not less than eighty or ninety thousand in Canada,
besides ten or twelve thousand on the Missisippi, to oppose to them. The
low and drowned lands, indeed, about the mouth of the Missisippi must no
doubt be more or less unhealthful; but they are far from being so very
pernicious as many represent them. The waters there are fresh, which we
know, by manifold experience in America, are much less prejudicial to
health than the offensive fetid marshes, that are to be found every
where else on the salt waters. Accordingly we are credibly informed,
that some of the inhabitants of New Orleans say, they never enjoyed
better health even in France; and for that reason they invite their
countrymen, in their letters to them, we are told, to come and partake
of the salutary benefits of that delightful country. The clearing,
draining, and cultivating of those low lands, must make a very great
change upon them, from the accounts we have had of them in their rude
and uncultivated state.
III. The Upper Louisiana we call that part of the continent, which
lies to the northward of the mountains above mentioned in latitude
35°. This country is in many places hilly and mountainous for which
reason we cannot expect it to be so fertile as the plains below it.
But those hills on the west side of the Missisippi are generally
suspected to contain mines, as well as the mountains of New Mexico, of
which they are a continuation. But the fertile plains of Louisiana are
perhaps more valuable than all the mines of Mexico; which there would
be no doubt of, if they were duly cultivated. They will breed and
maintain ten times as many people, and supply them with {x} many more
necessaries, and articles of trade and navigation, than the richest
mines of Peru.
The most important place in this country, and perhaps in all North
America, is at the Forks of the Missisippi, where the Ohio falls into
that river; which, like another ocean, is the general receptacle of
all the rivers that water the interior parts of that vast continent.
Here those large and navigable rivers, the Ohio, river of the
Cherokees, Wabache, Illinois, Missouri, and Missisippi, besides many
others, which spread over that whole continent, from the Apalachean
mountains to the mountains of New Mexico, upwards of one thousand
miles, both north, south, east, and west, all meet together at this
spot; and that in the best climate, and one of the most fruitful
countries of any in all that part of the world, in the latitude 37°,
the latitude of the Capes of Virginia, and of Santa Fe, the capital of
New Mexico. By that means there is a convenient navigation to this
place from our present settlements to New Mexico; and from all the
inland parts of North America, farther than we are acquainted with it:
and all the natives of that continent, those old friends and allies of
the French, have by that means a free and ready access to this place;
nigh to which the French formed a settlement, to secure their interest
on the frontiers of all our southern colonies. In short this place is
the centre of that vast continent, and of all the nations in it, and
seems to be intended by nature to command them both; for which reason
it ought no longer to be neglected by Britain. As soon as we pass the
Apalachean mountains, this seems to be the most proper place to settle
at; and was pitched upon for that purpose, by those who were the best
acquainted with those countries, and the proper places of making
settlements in them, of any we know. And if the settlements at this
place had been made, as they were proposed, about twenty years ago,
they might have prevented, or at least frustrated, the late attempts
to wrest that country, and the territories of the Ohio, out of the
hands of the English; and they may do the same again.
But many will tell us, that those inland parts of North America will
be of no use to Britain, on account of their distance {xi} from the
sea, and inconvenience to navigation. That indeed might be said of the
parts which lie immediately beyond the mountains, as the country of
the Cherokees, and Ohio Indians about Pitsburg, the only countries
thereabouts that we can extend our settlements to; which are so
inconvenient to navigation, that nothing can be brought from them
across the mountains, at least none of those gross commodities, which
are the staple of North America; and they are as inconvenient to have
any thing carried from them, nigh two thousand miles, down the river
Ohio, and then by the Missisippi. For that reason those countries,
which we look upon to be the most convenient, are the most
inconvenient to us of any, although they join upon our present
settlements. It is for these reasons, that the first settlements we
make beyond the mountains, that is, beyond those we are now possessed
of, should be upon the Missisippi, as we have said, convenient to the
navigation of that river; and in time those new settlements may come
to join to our present plantations; and we may by that means reap the
benefit of all those inland parts of North America, by means of the
navigation of the Missisippi, which will be secured by this post at
the Forks. If that is not done, we cannot see how any of those inland
parts of America, and the territories of the Ohio, which were the
great objects of the present war, can ever be of any use to Britain,
as the inhabitants of all those countries can otherwise have little or
no correspondence with it.
IV. This famous river, the Missisippi, is navigable upwards of two
thousand miles, to the falls of St. Anthony in latitude 45°, the only
fall we know in it, which is 16 degrees of latitude above its mouth;
and even above that fall, our author tells us, there is thirty fathom
of water in the river, with a proportionate breadth. About one
thousand miles from its mouth it receives the river Ohio, which is
navigable one thousand miles farther, some say one thousand five
hundred, nigh to its source, not far from Lake Ontario in New York; in
all which space there is but one fall or rapide in the Ohio, and that
navigable both up and down, at least in canoes. This fall is three
hundred miles from the Missisippi, and one thousand three hundred from
the sea, with five fathom of water up to {xii} it. The other large
branches of the Ohio, the river of the Cherokees, and the Wabache,
afford a like navigation, from lake Erie in the north to the Cherokees
in the south, and from thence to the bay of Mexico, by the Missisippi:
not to mention the great river Missouri, which runs to the north-west
parts of New Mexico, much farther than we have any good accounts of
that continent. From this it appears, that the Missouri affords the
most extensive navigation of any river we know; so that it may justly
be compared to an inland sea, which spreads over nine tenths of all
the continent of North America; all which the French pretended to lay
claim to, for no other reason but because they were possessed of a
paltry settlement at the mouth of this river.
If those things are considered, the importance of the navigation of
the Missisippi, and of a port at the mouth of it, will abundantly
appear. Whatever that navigation is, good or bad, it is the only one
for all the interior parts of North America, which are as large as a
great part of Europe; no part of which can be of any service to
Britain, without the navigation of the Missisippi, and settlements
upon it. It is not without reason then, that we say, whoever are
possessed of this river, and of the vast tracts of fertile lands upon
it, must in time command that continent, and the trade of it, as well
as all the natives in it, by the supplies which this navigation will
enable them to furnish those people. By those means, if the French, or
any others, are left in possession of the Missisippi, while we neglect
it, they must command all that continent beyond the Apalachean
mountains, and disturb our settlements much more than ever they did,
or were able to do; the very thing they engaged in this war to
accomplish, and we to prevent.
The Missisippi indeed is rapid for twelve hundred miles, as far as to
the Missouri, which makes it difficult to go up the river by water.
For that reason the French have been used to quit the Missisippi at
the river St. Francis, from which they have a nigher way to the Forks
of the Missisippi by land. But however difficult it may be to ascend
the river, it is, notwithstanding often done; and its rapidity
facilitates a descent upon it, and a ready conveyance for those gross
commodities, which {xiii} are the chief staple of North America, from
the most remote places of the continent above mentioned: and as for
lighter European goods, they are more easily carried by land, as our
Indian traders do, over great part of the continent, on their horses,
of which this country abounds with great plenty.
The worst part of the navigation, as well as of the country, is
reckoned to be at the mouth of the river; which, however, our author
tells us, is from seventeen to eighteen feet deep, and will admit
ships of five hundred tons, the largest generally used in the
plantation trade. And even this navigation might be easily mended, not
only by clearing the river of a narrow bar in the passes, which our
author, Charlevoix, and others, think might be easily done; but
likewise by means of a bay described by Mr. Coxe, from the actual
survey of his people, lying to the westward of the south pass of the
river; which, he says, has from twenty-five to six fathom water in it,
close to the shore, and not above a mile from the Missisippi, above
all the shoals and difficult passes in it, and where the river has one
hundred feet of water. By cutting through that one mile then, it would
appear that a port might be made there for ships of any burden; the
importance of which is evident, from its commanding all the inland
parts of North America on one side, and the pass from Mexico on the
other; so as to be preferable in these respects even to the Havanna;
not to mention that it is fresh water, and free from worms, which
destroy all the ships in those parts.
And as for the navigation from the Missisippi to Europe, our author
shews that voyage may be performed in six weeks; which is as short a
time as our ships generally take to go to and from our colonies. They
go to the Missisippi with the trade winds, and return with the
currents.
It would lead us beyond the bounds of a preface, to shew the many
advantages of those lands on the Missisippi to Britain, or the
necessity of possessing them. That would require a treatise by itself,
of which we can only give a few abstracts in this place. For this
purpose we should compare those lands with our present colonies; and
should be well informed of the quantity and condition of the lands we
already possess, before {xiv} we can form any just judgement of what
may be farther proper or requisite.
Our present possessions in North America between the sea and the
mountains appear, from many surveys and actual mensurations, as well
as from all the maps and other accounts we have of them, to be at a
medium about three degrees of longitude, or one hundred and forty
miles broad, in a straight line; and they extend from Georgia, in
latitude 32°, to the bay of Fundi, in latitude 45° (which is much
farther both north and south, than the lands appear to be of any great
value); which makes 13 degrees difference of latitude, or 780 miles:
this length multiplied by the breadth 140, makes 109,200 square
miles., This is not above as much land as is contained in Britain and
Ireland; which, by Templeman's Survey, make 105,634 square miles.
Instead of being as large as a great part of Europe then, as we are
commonly told, all the lands we possess in North America, between the
sea and mountains, do not amount to much more than these two islands.
This appears farther, from the particular surveys of each of our
colonies, as well as from this general estimate of the whole.
Of these lands which we thus possess, both the northern and southern
parts are very poor and barren, and produce little or nothing, at
least for Britain. It is only in our middle plantations, Virginia,
Maryland, and Carolina, that the lands produce any staple commodity
for Britain, or that appear to be fit for that purpose. In short, it
is only the more rich and fertile lands on and about Chesapeak bay,
with a few swamps in Carolina, like the lands on the Missisippi, that
turn to any great account to this nation in all North America, or that
are ever likely to do it. This makes the quantity of lands that
produce any staple commodity for Britain in North America incredibly
small, and vastly less than what is commonly imagined. It is reckoned,
that there are more such lands in Virginia, than in all the rest of
our colonies; and yet it appeared from the public records, about
twenty-five years ago, that there was not above as much land patented
in that colony, which is at the same time the oldest of any in all
North America, than is in the county of Yorkshire, in England, to-wit,
{xv} 4684 square miles; although the country was then settled to the
mountains.
If we examine all our other colonies, there will appear to be as great
a scarcity and want of good lands in them, at least to answer the
great end of colonies, the making of a staple commodity for Britain.
In short, our colonies are already settled to the mountains, and have
no lands, either to extend their settlements, as they increase and
multiply; to keep up their plantations of staple commodities for
Britain; or to enlarge the British dominions by the number of
foreigners that remove to them; till they pass those mountains, and
settle on the Missisippi.
This scarcity of land in our colonies proceeds from the mountains,
with which they are surrounded, and by which they are confined to this
narrow tract, and a low vale, along the sea side. The breadth of the
continent from the Atlantic ocean to the Missisippi, appears to be
about 600 miles (of 60 to a degree) of which there is about 140 at a
medium, or 150 at most, that lies between the sea and mountains: and
there is such another, and rather more fertile tract of level and
improveable lands, about the same breadth, between the western parts
of those mountains and the Missisippi: so that the mountainous country
which lies between these two, is equal to them both, and makes one
half of all the lands between the Missisippi and Atlantic ocean; if we
except a small tract of a level champaign country upon the heads of
the Ohio, which is possessed by the Six Nations, and their dependents.
These mountainous and barren desarts, which lie immediately beyond our
present settlements, are not only unfit for culture themselves, and so
inconvenient to navigation, whether to the ocean, or to the
Missisippi, that little or no use can be made of them; but they
likewise preclude us from any access to those more fertile lands that
lie beyond them, which would otherwise have been occupied long ago,
but never can be settled, so at least as to turn to any account to
Britain, without the possession and navigation of the Missisippi;
which is, as it were, the sea of all the inland parts of North America
beyond the Apalachean mountains, without which those inland parts of
that continent can never turn to any account to this nation.
{xvi} It is this our situation in North America, that renders all that
continent beyond our present settlements of little or no use, at least
to Britain; and makes the possession of the Missisippi absolutely
necessary to reap the benefit of it. We possess but a fourth part of
the continent between that river and the ocean; and but a tenth part
of what lies east of Mexico; and can never enjoy any great advantages
from any more of it, till we settle on the Missisippi.
How necessary such settlements on the Missisippi may be, will farther
appear from what we possess on this side of it. The lands in North
America are in general but very poor or barren; and if any of them are
more fertile, the soil is light and shallow, and soon worn out with
culture. It is only the virgin fertility of fresh lands, such as those
on the Missisippi, that makes the lands in North America appear to be
fruitful, or that renders them of any great value to this nation. But
such lands in our colonies, that have hitherto produced their staple
commodities for Britain, are now exhausted and worn out, and we meet
with none such on this side of the Missisippi. But when their lands
are worn out, neither the value of their commodities, nor the
circumstances of the planters, will admit of manuring them, at least
to any great advantage to this nation.
The staple commodities of North America are so gross and bulky, and of
so small value, that it generally takes one half of them to pay the
freight and other charges in sending them to Britain; so that unless
our planters have some advantage in making them, such as cheap, rich,
and fresh lands, they never can make any; their returns to Britain are
then neglected, and the trade is gained by others who have these
advantages; such as those who may be possessed of the Missisippi, or
by the Germans, Russians, Turks, &c. who have plenty of lands, and
labour cheap: by which means they make more of our staple of North
America, tobacco, than we do ourselves; while we cannot make their
staple of hemp, flax, iron, pot-ash, &c. By that means our people are
obliged to interfere with their mother country, for want of the use of
those lands of which there is such plenty in North America, to produce
these commodities that are so much wanted from thence.
{xvii} The consequences of this may be much more prejudicial to this
nation, than is commonly apprehended. This trade of North America,
whatever may be the income from it, consists in those gross and bulky
commodities that are the chief and principal sources of navigation;
which maintain whole countries to make them, whole fleets to transport
them, and numbers of people to manufacture them at home; on which
accounts this trade is more profitable to a nation, than the mines of
Mexico or Peru. If we compare this with other branches of trade, as
the sugar trade, or even the fishery, it will appear to be by far the
most profitable to the nation, whatever those others may be to a few
individuals. We set a great value on the fishery, in which we do not
employ a third part of the seamen that we do in the plantation trade
of North America; and the same may be said of the sugar trade. The
tobacco trade alone employs more seamen in Britain, than either the
fishery, or sugar trade; [Footnote: By the best accounts we have, there
were 4000 seamen employed in the tobacco trade, in the year 1733, when
the inspection on tobacco passed into a law; and we may perhaps reckon
them now 4500, although some reckon them less.
By the same accounts, taken by the custom-house officers, it appeared,
that the number of British ships employed in all America, including
the fishery, were 1400, with 17,000 seamen; besides 9000 or 10,000
seamen belonging to North-America, who are all ready to enter into the
service of Britain on, any emergency or encouragement.
Of these there were but 4000 seamen employed in the fishery from
Britain; and about as many, or 3600, in the sugar trade.
The French, on the other hand, employ upwards of 20,000 seamen in the
fishery, and many more than we do in the sugar trade.
In short, the plantation trade of North America is to Britain, what
the fishery is to France, the great nursery of seamen, which may be
much improved. It is for this reason that we have always thought this
nation ought, for its safety, to enjoy an exclusive right to the one
or the other of these at least.] and brings in more money to the
nation than all the products of America perhaps put together.
But those gross commodities that afford these sources of navigation,
however valuable they may be to the public, and to this nation in
particular, are far from being so to individuals: they are cheap, and
of small value, either to make, or to trade {xviii} in them; and for
that reason they are neglected by private people, who never think of
making them, unless the public takes care to give them all due
encouragement, and to set them about those employments; for which
purpose good and proper lands, such as those on the Missisippi, are
absolutely necessary, without which nothing can be done.
The many advantages of such lands that produce a staple for Britain,
in North America, are not to be told. The whole interest of the nation
in those colonies depends upon them, if not the colonies themselves.
Such lands alone enable the colonies to take their manufactures and
other necessaries from Britain, to the mutual advantage of both. And
how necessary that may be will appear from the state of those colonies
in North America, which do not make, one with another, as much as is
sufficient to supply them only with the necessary article of
cloathing; not to mention the many other things they want and take
from Britain; and even how they pay for that is more than any man can
tell. In short, it would appear that our colonies in North America
cannot subsist much longer, if at all, in a state of dependence for
all their manufactures and other necessaries, unless they are provided
with other lands that may enable them to purchase them; and where they
will find any such lands, but upon the Missisippi, is more than we can
tell. When their lands are worn out, are poor and barren, or in an
improper climate or situation, or that they will produce nothing to
send to Britain, such lands can only be converted into corn and
pasture grounds; and the people in our colonies are thereby
necessarily obliged, for a bare subsistence, to interfere with
Britain, not only in manufactures, but in the very produce of their
lands.
By this we may perceive the absurdity of the popular outcry, that we
have already _land enough_, and more than we can make use of in North
America. They who may be of that opinion should shew us, where that
land is to be found, and what it will produce, that may turn to any
account to the nation. Those people derive their opinion from what
they see in Europe, where the quantity of land that we possess in
North America, will, no doubt, maintain a greater number of people
than we have there. But they should consider, that those people in
{xix} Europe are not maintained by the planting of a bare raw
commodity, with such immense charges upon it, but by farming,
manufactures, trade, and commerce; which they will soon reduce our
colonies to, who would confine them to their present settlements,
between the sea coast and the mountains that surround them.
Some of our colonies perhaps may imagine they cannot subsist without
these employments; which indeed would appear to be the case in their
present state: but that seems to be as contrary to their true
interest, as it is to their condition of British colonies. They have
neither skill, materials, nor any other conveniences to make
manufactures; whereas their lands require only culture to produce a
staple commodity, providing they are possessed of such as are fit for
that purpose. Manufactures are the produce of labour, which is both
scarce and dear among them; whereas lands are, or may, and should be
made, both cheap and in plenty; by which they may always reap much
greater profits from the one than the other. That is, moreover, a
certain pledge for the allegiance and dependance of the colonies; and
at the same time makes their dependance to become their interest. It
has been found by frequent experience, that the making of a staple
commodity for Britain, is more profitable than manufactures, providing
they have good lands to work.
It were to be wished indeed, that we could support our interest in
America, and those sources of navigation, by countries that were more
convenient to it, than those on the Missisippi. But that, we fear, is
not to be done, however it may be desired. We wish we could say as much
of the lands in Florida, and on the bay of Mexico, as of those on the
Missisippi: but they are not to be compared to these, by all accounts,
however convenient they may be in other respects to navigation. In all
those southern and maritime parts of that continent the lands are in
general but very poor and mean, being little more than _pine barrens_,
or _sandy desarts_. The climate is at the same time so intemperate, that
white people are in a great measure unfit for labour in it, as much as
they are in the islands; this obliges them to make use of slaves, which
are now become so dear, that it is to be doubted, whether all the
produce {xx} of those lands will enable the proprietors of them to
purchase slaves, or any other labourers; without which they can turn to
little or no account to the nation, and those countries can support but
very few people, if it were only to protect and defend them.
The most convenient part of those countries seems to be about Mobile
and Pensacola; which are, as it were, an entrepot between our present
settlements and the Missisippi, and safe station for our ships. But it
is a pity that the lands about them are the most barren, and the
climate the most intemperate, by all accounts, of any perhaps in all
America. [Footnote: See page 49, 111, &c. _Charlevoix_ Hist. N. France,
Tom. III. 484. _Laval, infra_, &c.] And our author tells us, the lands
are not much better even on the river of Mobile; which is but a very
inconsiderable one. But the great inconvenience of those countries
proceeds from the number of Indians in them; which will make it very
difficult to settle any profitable plantations among them, especially
in the inland parts that are more fertile; whereas the Missisippi is
free from Indians for 1000 miles. It was but in the year 1715, that
those Indians overran all the colony of Carolina, even to
Charles-Town; by which the French got possession of that country, and
of the Missisippi; both which they had just before, in June 1713,
dispossessed us of.
If we turn our eyes again to the lands in our northern colonies, it is
to be feared we can expect much less from them. There is an
inconvenience attending them, with regard to any improvements on them
for Britain, which is not to be remedied. The climate is so severe,
and the winters so long, that the people are obliged to spend that
time in providing the necessaries of life, which should be employed in
profitable colonies, on the making of some staple commodity, and
returns to Britain. They are obliged to feed their creatures for five
or six months in the year, which employs their time in summer, and
takes up the best of their lands, such as they are, which should
produce their staple commodities, to provide for themselves and their
stocks against winter. For that reason the people in all our northern
colonies are necessarily obliged to become farmers, {xxi} to make corn
and provisions, instead of planters, who make a staple commodity for
Britain; and thereby interfere with their mother country in the most
material and essential of all employments to a nation, agriculture.
In short, neither the soil nor climate will admit of any improvements
for Britain, in any of those northern colonies. If they would produce
any thing of that kind, it must be hemp; which never could be made in
them to any advantage, as appears from many trials of it in New
England. [Footnote: See _Douglas's_ Hist. N. America. _Elliot's_
Improvements on New England, &c.] The great dependance of those
northern colonies is upon the supplies of lumber and provisions which
they send to the islands. But as they increase and multiply, their
woods are cut down, lumber becomes scarce and dear, and the number of
people inhances the value of land, and of every thing it produces,
especially provisions.
If this is the case of those northern colonies on the sea coast, what
can we expect from the inland parts; in which the soil is not only
more barren, and the climate more severe, but they are, with all these
disadvantages, so inconvenient to navigation, both on account of their
distance, and of the many falls and currents in the river St.
Lawrence, that it is to be feared those inland parts of our northern
colonies will never produce any thing for Britain, more than a few
furrs; which they will do much better in the hands of the natives,
than in ours. These our northern colonies, however, are very populous,
and increase and multiply very fast. There are above a million of
people in them, who can make but very little upon their lands for
themselves, and still less for their mother country. For these reasons
it is presumed, it would be an advantage to them, as well as to the
whole nation, to remove their spare people, who want lands, to those
vacant lands in the southern parts of the continent, which turn to so
much greater account than any that they are possessed of. There they
may have the necessaries of life in the greatest plenty; their stocks
maintain themselves the whole year round, with little or no cost or
labour; "by which means many people have a thousand head {xxii} of
cattle, and for one man to have two hundred, is very common, with
other stock in proportion." [Footnote: Description of South Carolina, p.
68.] This enables them to bestow their whole labour, both in summer
and winter, on the making of some staple commodity for Britain,
getting lumber and provisions for the islands, &c. which both enriches
them and the whole nation. That is much better, surely, than to perish
in winter for want of cloathing, which they must do unless they make
it; and to excite those grudges and jealousies, which must ever
subsist between them and their mother country in their present state,
and grow so much the worse, the longer they continue in it.
The many advantages that would ensue from the peopling of those
southern parts of the continent from our northern colonies, are hardly
to be told. We might thereby people and secure those countries, and
reap the profits of them, without any loss of people; which are not to
be spared for that purpose in Britain, or any other of her dominions.
This is the great use and advantage that may be made of the expulsion
of the French from those northern parts of America. They have hitherto
obliged us to strengthen those northern colonies, and have confined
the people in them to towns and townships, in which their labour could
turn to no great account, either to themselves or to the nation, by
which we have, in a great measure, loss the labour of one half of the
people in our colonies. But as they are now free from any danger on
their borders, they may extend their settlements with safety, disperse
themselves on plantations, and cultivate those lands that may turn to
some account, both to them and to the whole nation. In short, they may
now make some staple commodity for Britain; on which the interest of
the colonies, and of the nation in them, chiefly depends; and which we
can never expect from those colonies in their present situation.
What those commodities are, that we might get from those southern
parts of North America, will appear from the following accounts; which
we have not room here to consider more particularly. We need only
mention hemp, flax, and silk, those great articles and necessary
materials of manufactures; for which alone this nation pays at least a
million and an half {xxiii} a-year, if not two millions, and could
never get them from all the colonies we have. Cotton and indigo are
equally useful. Not to mention copper, iron, potash, &c. which, with
hemp, flax, and silk, make the great balance of trade against the
nation, and drain it of its treasure; when we might have those
commodities from our colonies for manufactures, and both supply
ourselves and others with them. Wine, oil, raisins, and currants, &c.
those products of France and Spain, on which Britain expends so much
of her treasure, to enrich her enemies, might likewise be had from
those her own dominions. Britain might thereby cut off those resources
of her enemies; secure her colonies for the future; and prevent such
calamities of war, by cultivating those more laudable arts of peace:
which will be the more necessary, as these are the only advantages the
nation can expect, for the many millions that have been expended on
America.
_A Description of the Harbour of_ PENSACOLA.
As the harbour of Pensacola will appear to be a considerable
acquisition to Britain, it may be some satisfaction to give the
following account of it, from F. Laval, royal professor of
mathematics, and master of the marine academy at Toulon; who was sent
to Louisiana, on purpose to make observations, in 1719; and had the
accounts of the officers who took Pensacola at that time, and surveyed
the place.
"The colonies of Pensacola, and of Dauphin-Island, are at present on
the decline, the inhabitants having removed to settle at Mobile and
Biloxi, or at New-Orleans, where the lands are much better; for at the
first the soil is chiefly sand, mixed with little earth. The land,
however, is covered with woods of pines, firs, and oaks; which make
good trees, as well as at Ship-Island. The road of Pensacola is the
only good port thereabouts for large ships, and Ship-Island for small
ones, where vessels that draw from thirteen to fourteen feet water,
may ride in safety, under the island, in fifteen feet, and a good
holding ground; as well as in the other ports, which are all only open
roads, exposed to the south, and from west to east.
"Pensacola is in north-latitude 30° 25'; and is the only road in the
bay of Mexico, in which ships can be safe from all {xxiv} winds. It is
land-locked on every side, and will hold a great number of ships,
which have very good anchorage in it, in a good holding ground of soft
sand, and from twenty-five to thirty-four feet of water. You will find
not less than twenty-one feet of water on the barr, which is at the
entrance into the road, providing you keep in the deepest part of the
channel. Before a ship enters the harbour, she should bring the fort
of Pensacola to bear between north and north 1/4 east, and keep that
course till she is west or west 1/4 south, from the fort on the island
of St. Rose, that is, till that fort bears east, and east 1/4 north.
Then she must bear away a little to the land on the west side, keeping
about mid-way between that and the island, to avoid a bank on this
last, which runs out to some distance west-north-west from the point
of the island.
"If there are any breakers on the ledge of rocks, which lie to the
westward of the barr, as often happens; if there is any wind, that may
serve for a mark to ships, which steer along that ledge, at the
distance of a good musket-shot, as they enter upon the barr; then keep
the course above mentioned. Sometimes the currents set very strong out
of the road, which you should take care of, less they should carry you
upon these rocks.
"As there is but half a foot rising (_levèe_) on the barr of Pensacola,
every ship of war, if it be not in a storm, may depend upon nineteen
(perhaps twenty) feet of water, to go into the harbour, as there are
twenty-one feet on the barr. Ships that draw twenty feet must be towed
in. By this we see, that ships of sixty guns may go into this harbour:
and even seventy gun ships, the largest requisite in that country in
time of war, if they were built flat-bottomed, like the Dutch ships,
might pass every where in that harbour.
"In 1719 Pensacola was taken by Mr. Champmelin, in the Hercules man of
war, of sixty-four guns, but carried only fifty-six; in company with
the Mars, pierced for sixty guns, but had in only fifty-four; and the
Triton, pierced for fifty-four guns, but carried only fifty; with two
frigates of thirty-six and twenty guns. [Footnote: The admiral was on
board of the Hercules, which drew twenty-one feet of water, and there
were but twenty-two feet into the harbour in the highest tides; so
that they despaired of carrying in this ship. But an old Canadian,
named Crimeau, a man of experience, who was perfectly acquainted with
that coast, boasted of being able to do it, and succeeded; for which
he was the next year honoured with letters of noblesse. _Dumont_ (an
officer there at that time) 11.22.
But _Bellin_, from the charts of the admiralty, makes but twenty feet of
water on the barr of Pensacola. The difference may arise from the
tides, which are very irregular and uncertain on all that coast,
according to the winds; never rising above three feet, sometimes much
less. In twenty-four hours the tide ebbs in the harbour for eighteen
or nineteen hours, and flows five or six. _Laval_.]
{xxv} "This road is subject to one inconvenience; several rivers fall
into it, which occasion strong currents, and make boats or canoes, as
they pass backwards and forwards, apt to run a-ground; but as the
bottom is all sand, they are not apt to founder. On the other hand
there is a great advantage in this road; it is free from worms, which
never breed in fresh water, so that vessels are never worm-eaten in
it."
But F. Charlevoix seems to contradict this last circumstance: "The bay
of Pensacola would be a pretty good port, (says he) if the worms did
not eat the vessels in it, and if there was a little more water in the
entrance into it; for the Hercules, commanded by Mr. Champmelin,
touched upon it." It is not so certain then, that this harbour is
altogether free from worms; although it may not be so subject to them,
as other places in those climes, from the many small fresh water
rivers that fall into this bay, which may have been the occasion of
these accounts, that are seemingly contradictory.
In such a place ships might at least be preserved from worms, in all
likelihood, by paying their bottoms with aloes, or mixing it with
their other stuff. That has been found to prevent the biting of these
worms; and might be had in plenty on the spot. Many kinds of aloes
would grow on the barren sandy lands about Pensacola, and in Florida,
which is the proper soil for them; and would be a good improvement for
those lands, which will hardly bear any thing else to advantage,
whatever use is made of it.
Having room in this place, we may fill it up with an answer to a
common objection against Louisiana; which is, {xxvi} that this country
is never likely to turn to any account, because the French have made
so little of it.
But that objection, however common, will appear to proceed only from
the ignorance of those who make it. No country can produce any thing
without labourers; which, it is certain, the French have never had in
Louisiana, in any numbers at least, sufficient to make it turn to any
greater account than it has hitherto done. The reason of this appears
not to be owing to the country, but to their proceedings and
misconduct in it. Out of the many thousand people who were contracted
for by the grantees, to be sent to Louisiana in 1719, there were but
eight hundred sent, we see; and of these the greatest part were ruined
by their idle schemes, which made them and others abandon the country
entirely. The few again who remained in it were cut off by an Indian
massacre in 1729, which broke up the only promising settlements they
had in the country, those of the Natchez, and Yasous, which were never
afterwards reinstated. Instead of encouraging the colony in such
misfortunes, the minister, Cardinal Fleuri, either from a spirit of
oeconomy, or because it might be contrary to some other of his views,
withdrew his protection from it, gave up the public plantations, and
must thereby, no doubt, have very much discouraged others. By these
means they have had few or no people in Louisiana, but such as were
condemned to be sent to it for their crimes, women of ill fame,
deserted soldiers, insolvent debtors, and galley-slaves, _forçats_, as
they call them; "who, looking on the country only as a place of exile,
were disheartened at every thing in it; and had no regard for the
progress of a colony, of which they were only members by compulsion,
and neither knew nor considered its advantages to the state. It is
from such people that many have their accounts of this country; and
throw the blame of all miscarriages in it upon the country, when they
are only owing to the incapacity and negligence of those who were
instructed to settle it." [Footnote: _Charlevoix_ Hist. New France, Tom.
III. p. 447.]
{1}
THE HISTORY OF LOUISIANA
BOOK I.
_The Transactions of the_ French _in_ LOUISIANA.
CHAPTER I.
_Of the first Discovery and Settlement of_ LOUISIANA.
After the Spaniards came to have settlements on the Great Antilles, it
was not long before they attempted to make discoveries on the coasts
of the Gulf of Mexico. In 1520, Lucas Vasquez de Aillon landed on the
continent to the north of that Gulf, being favourably received by the
people of that country, who made him presents in gold, pearls, and
plated silver. This favourable reception made him return thither four
years after; but the natives having changed their friendly sentiments
towards him, killed two hundred of his men, and obliged him to retire.
In 1528, Pamphilo Nesunez [Footnote: Narvaez.] landed also on that
coast, receiving from the first nations he met in his way, presents
made in gold; which, by signs, they made him to understand, came from
the Apalachean mountains, in the country which at this day goes under
the name of Florida: and thither he attempted to go, undertaking a
hazardous journey of twenty-five days. In this march he was so often
attacked by the new people he continually discovered, and lost so many
of his men, as only to think of re-embarking with the few that were
left, {2} happy to have himself escaped the dangers which his
imprudence had exposed him to.
The relation published by the Historian of Dominico [Footnote:
Ferdinando.] Soto, who in 1539 landed in the Bay of St. Esprit, is so
romantic, and so constantly contradicted by all who have travelled
that country, that far from giving credit to it, we ought rather to
suppose his enterprize had no success; as no traces of it have
remained, any more than of those that went before. The inutility of
these attempts proved no manner of discouragement to the Spaniards.
After the discovery of Florida, it was with a jealous eye they saw the
French settle there in 1564, under René de Laudonniere, sent thither
by the Admiral de Coligni, where he built Fort Carolin; the ruins of
which are still to be seen above the Fort of Pensacola. [Footnote: This
intended settlement of Admiral Coligni was on the east coast of
Florida, about St. Augustin, instead of Pensacola. De Laet is of
opinion, that their Fort Carolin was the same with St. Augustin.]
There the Spaniards some time after attacked them, and forcing them to
capitulate, cruelly murdered them, without any regard had to the
treaty concluded between them. As France was at that time involved in
the calamities of a religious war, this act of barbarity had remained
unresented, had not a single man of Mont Marfan, named Dominique de
Gourges, attempted, in the name of the nation, to take vengeance
thereof. In 1567, having fitted out a vessel, and sailed for Florida,
he took three forts built by the Spaniards; and after killing many of
them in the several attacks he made, hanged the rest: and having
settled there a new post, [Footnote: He abandoned the country without
making any settlement; nor have the French ever had any settlement in
it from that day to this. See Laudonniere. Hakluyt, &c.] returned to
France. But the disorders of the state having prevented the
maintaining that post, the Spaniards soon after retook possession of
the country, where they remain to this day.
From that time the French seemed to have dropped all thoughts of that
coast, or of attempting any discoveries therein; when the wars in
Canada with the natives afforded them the {3} knowledge of the vast
country they are possessed of at this day. In one of these wars a
Recollet, or Franciscan Friar, name F. Hennepin, was taken and carried
to the Illinois. As he had some skill in surgery, he proved
serviceable to that people, and was also kindly treated by them: and
being at full liberty, he travelled over the country, following for a
considerable time the banks of the river St. Louis, or Missisipi,
without being able to proceed to its mouth. However, he failed not to
take possession of that country, in the name of Louis XIV., calling it
Louisiana. Providence having facilitated his return to Canada, he gave
the most advantageous account of all he had seen; and after his return
to France, drew up a relation thereof, dedicated to M. Colbert.
The account he gave of Louisiana failed not to produce its good
effects. Me de la Salle, equally famous for his misfortunes and his
courage, undertook to traverse these unknown countries quite to the
sea. In Jan. 1679 he set out from Quebec with a large detachment, and
being come among the Illinois, there built the first fort France ever
had in that country, calling it Crevecæur; and there he left a good
garrison under the command of the Chevalier de Tonti. From thence he
went down the river St. Louis, quite to its mouth; which, as has been
said, is in the Gulf of Mexico; and having made observations, and
taken the elevation in the best manner he could, returned by the same
way to Quebec, from whence he passed over to France.
After giving the particulars of his journey to M. Colbert, that great
minister, who knew of what importance it was to the state to make sure
of so fine and extensive a country, scrupled not to allow him a ship and
a small frigate, in order to find out, by the way of the gulf of Mexico,
the mouth of the river St. Louis. He set sail in 1685: but his
observations, doubtless, not having had all the justness requisite,
after arriving in the gulf, he got beyond the river, and running too far
westward, entered the bay of St. Bernard: and some misunderstanding
happening between him and the officers of the vessels, he debarqued with
the men under his command, and having settled a post in that place,
undertook to go by land in quest of {4} the great river. But after a
march of several days, some of his people, irritated on account of the
fatigue he exposed them to, availing themselves of an opportunity, when
separated from the rest of his men, basely assassinated him. The
soldiers, though deprived of their commander, still continued their
route, and, after crossing many rivers, arrived at length at the
Arkansas, where they unexpectedly found a French post lately settled.
The Chevalier de Tonti was gone down from the fort of the Illinois,
quite to the mouth of the river, about the time he judged M. de la Salle
might have arrived by sea; and not finding him, was gone up again, in
order to return to his post. And in his way entering the river of the
Arkansas, quite to the village of that nation, with whom he made an
alliance, some of his people insisted, they might be allowed to settle
there; which was agreed to, he leaving ten of them in that place; and
this small cantonment maintained its ground, not only because from time
to time encreased by some Canadians, who came down this river; but above
all, because those who formed it had the prudent precaution to live in
peace with the natives, and treat as legitimate the children they had by
the daughters of the Arkansas, with whom they matched out of necessity.
The report of the pleasantness of Louisiana spreading through Canada,
many Frenchmen of that country repaired to settle there, dispersing
themselves at pleasure along the river St. Louis, especially towards
its mouth, and even in some islands on the coast, and on the river
Mobile, which lies nearer Canada. The facility of the commerce with
St. Domingo was, undoubtedly, what invited them to the neighbourbood
of the sea, though the interior parts of the country be in all
respects far preferable. However, these scattered settlements,
incapable to maintain their ground of themselves, and too distant to
be able to afford mutual assistance, neither warranted the possession
of this country, nor could they be called a taking of possession.
Louisiana remained in this neglected state, till M. d'Hiberville, Chef
d' Escadre, having discovered, in 1698, the mouths of the river St.
Louis, and being nominated Governor General of that vast country,
carried thither the first colony in 1699. As he was a native of
Canada, the colony almost entirely consisted of Canadians, among whom
M. de Luchereau, {5} uncle of Madam d'Hiberville, particularly
distinguished himself.
The settlement was made on the river Mobile, with all the facility
that could be wished; but its progress proved slow: for these first
inhabitants had no other advantage above the natives, as to the
necessaries of life, but what their own industry, joined to some rude
tools, to give the plainest forms to timbers, afforded them.
The war which Louis IV, had at that time to maintain, and the pressing
necessities of the state, continually engrossed the attention of the
ministry, nor allowed them time to think of Louisiana. What was then
thought most advisable, was to make a grant of it to some rich person;
who, finding it his interest to improve that country, would, at the
same time that he promoted his own interest, promote that of the
state. Louisiana was thus ceded to M. Crozat. And it is to be
presumed, had M. d'Hiberville lived longer, the colony would have made
considerable progress: but that illustrious sea-officer, whose
authority was considerable, dying at the Havannah, in 1701 (after
which this settlement was deserted) a long time must intervene before
a new Governor could arrive from France. The person pitched upon to
fill that post, was M. de la Motte Cadillac, who arrived in that
country in June 1713.
The colony had but a scanty measure of commodities, and money scarcer
yet: it was rather in a state of languor, than of vigorous activity,
in one of the finest countries in the world; because impossible for it
to do the laborious works, and make the first advances, always
requisite in the best lands.
The Spaniards, for a long time, considered Louisiana as a property
justly theirs, because it constitutes the greatest Part of Florida,
which they first discovered. The pains the French were at then to
settle there, roused their jealousy, to form the design of cramping
us, by settling at the Assinaïs, a nation not very distant from the
Nactchitoches, whither some Frenchmen had penetrated. There the
Spaniards met with no small difficulty to form that settlement, and
being at a loss how to accomplish it, one F. Ydalgo, a Franciscan
Friar, took it in his head to write to the French, to beg their
assistance in {6} settling a mission among the Assinaïs. He sent three
different copies of his letter hap-hazard three different ways to our
settlements, hoping one of them at least might fall into the hands of
the French.
Nor was he disappointed in his hope, one of them, from one post to
another, and from hand to hand, falling into the hands of M. de la
Motte. That General, incessantly taken up with the concerns of the
colony, and the means of relieving it, was not apprized of the designs
of the Spaniards in that letter; could only see therein a sure and
short method to remedy the present evils, by favouring the Spaniards,
and making a treaty of commerce with them, which might procure to the
colony what it was in want of, and what the Spaniards abounded with,
namely, horses, cattle, and money: He therefore communicated that
letter to M. de St. Denis, to whom he proposed to undertake a journey
by land to Mexico.
M. de St. Denis, for the fourteen years he was in Louisiana, had made
several excursions up and down the country; and having a general
knowledge of all the languages of the different nations which inhabit
it, gained the love and esteem of these people, so far as to be
acknowledged their Grand Chief.
This gentleman, in other respects a man of courage, prudence, and
resolution, was then the fittest person M. de la Motte could have
pitched upon, to put his design in execution.
How fatiguing soever the enterprize was, M. de St. Denis undertook it
with pleasure, and set out with twenty-five men. This small company
would have made some figure, had it continued entire; but some of them
dropped M. de St. Denis by the way, and many of them remained among
the Nactchitoches, to whose country he was come. He was therefore
obliged to set out from that place, accompanied only by ten men, with
whom he traversed upwards of an hundred and fifty leagues in a country
entirely depopulated, having on his route met with no nation, till he
came to the Presidio, or fortress of St. John Baptist, on the Rio
(river) del Norte, in New Mexico.
The Governor of this fort was Don Diego Raimond, an officer advanced
in years, who favourbly received M. de St. {7} Denis, on acquainting
him, that the motive to his journey was F. Ydalgo's letter, and that
he had orders to repair to Mexico. But as the Spaniards do not readily
allow strangers to travel through the countries of their dominion in
America, for fear the view of these fine countries should inspire
notions, the consequences of which might be greatly prejudicial to
them, D. Diego did not chuse to permit M. de St. Denis to continue his
route, without the previous consent of the Viceroy. It was therefore
necessary to dispatch a courier to Mexico, and to wait his return.
The courier, impatiently longed for, arrived at length, with the
permission granted by the Duke of Linarez, Viceroy of Mexico. Upon
which M. de St. Denis set out directly, and arrived at Mexico, June 5,
1715. The Viceroy had naturally an affection to France; M. de St.
Denis was therefore favourably received, saving some precautions,
which the Duke thought proper to take, not to give any disgust to some
officers of justice who were about him.
The affair was soon dispatched; the Duke of Linarez having promised to
make a treaty of commerce, as soon as the Spaniards should be settled
at the Assinaïs; which M. de St. Denis undertook to do, upon his
return to Louisiana.
CHAPTER II.
_The Return of M. de St. Denis: His settling the_ Spaniards _at the_
Assinaïs. _His Second Journey to_ Mexico, _and Return from thence_.
M. De St. Denis soon returned to the fort of St. John Baptist; after
which he resolved to form the caravan, which was to be settled at the
Assinaïs; at whose head M. de St. Denis put himself, and happily
conducted it to the place appointed. And then having, in quality of
Grand Chief, assembled the nation of the Assinaïs, he exhorted them to
receive and use the Spaniards well. The veneration which that people
had for him, made them submit to his will in all things; and thus the
promise he had made to the Duke of Linarez was faithfully fulfilled.
{8} The Assinaïs are fifty leagues distant from the Nactchitoches. The
Spaniards, finding themselves still at too great a distance from us,
availed themselves of that first settlement, in order to form a second
among the Adaies, a nation which is ten leagues from our post of the
Nactchitoches: whereby they confine us on the west within the
neighbourhood of the river St. Louis; and from that time it was not
their fault, that they had not cramped us to the north, as I shall
mention in its place.
To this anecdote of their history I shall, in a word or two, add that
of their settlement at Pensacola, on the coast of Florida, three
months after M. d'Hiberville had carried the first inhabitants to
Louisiana, that country having continued to be inhabited by Europeans,
ever since the garrison left there by Dominique de Gourges; which
either perished, or deserted, for want of being supported.[Footnote:
They returned to France. See p. 3.]
To return to M. de la Motte and M. de St. Denis: the former, ever
attentive to the project of having a treaty of commerce concluded with
the Spaniards, and pleased with the success of M. de St. Denis's
journey to Mexico, proposed his return thither again, not doubting but
the Duke of Linarez would be as good as his word, as the French had
already been. M. de St. Denis, ever ready to obey, accepted the
commission of his General. But this second journey was not to be
undertaken as the first; it was proper to carry some goods, in order
to execute that treaty, as soon as it should be concluded, and to
indemnify himself for the expences he was to be at. Though the
store-houses of M. Crozat were full, it was no easy matter to get the
goods. The factors refused to give any on credit; nay, refused M. de
la Motte's security; and there was no money to be had to pay them. The
Governor was therefore obliged to form a company of the most
responsible men of the colony: and to this company only the factors
determined to advance the goods. This expedient was far from being
agreeable to M. de St. Denis, who opened his mind to M. de la Motte on
that head, and told him, that some or all of his partners would
accompany the goods they had engaged to be security for; and that,
although it was absolutely necessary the effects should appear to be
his {9} property alone, they would not fail to discover they
themselves were the proprietors; which would be sufficient to cause
their confiscation, the commerce between the two nations not being
open. M. de la Motte saw the solidity of these reasons; but the
impossibility of acting otherwise constrained him to supersede them:
and, as M. de St. Denis had foreseen, it accordingly happened.
He set out from Mobile, August 13, 1716, escorted, as he all along
apprehended, by some of those concerned; and being come to the
Assinaïs, he there passed the winter. On the 19th of March, the year
following, setting out on his journey, he soon arrived at the Presidio
of St. John Baptist. M. de St. Denis declared these goods to be his
own property, in order to obviate their confiscation, which was
otherwise unavoidable; and wanted to shew some acts of bounty and
generosity, in order to gain the friendship of the Spaniards. But the
untractableness, the avarice, and indiscretion of the parties
concerned, broke through all his measures; and to prevent the entire
disconcerting of them, he hastened his departure for Mexico, where he
arrived May 14, 1717. The Duke of Linarez was yet there, but sick, and
on his death-bed. M. de St. Denis had, however, time to see him, who
knew him again: and that Nobleman took care to have him recommended to
the Viceroy his successor; namely, the Marquis of Balero, a man as
much against the French as the Duke was for them.
M. de St. Denis did not long solicit the Marquis of Balero for
concluding the treaty of commerce; he soon had other business to mind.
F. Olivarez, who, on the representation of P. Ydalgo, as a person of a
jealous, turbulent, and dangerous disposition, had been excluded from
the mission to the Assinaïs, being then at the court of the Viceroy,
saw with an evil eye the Person who had settled F. Ydalgo in that
mission, and resolved to be avenged on him for the vexation caused by
that disappointment. He joined himself to an officer, named Don Martin
de Alaron, a person peculiarly protected by the Marquis of Balero: and
they succeeded so well with that nobleman that in the time M. de St.
Denis least expected, he found himself arrested, and clapt in a
dungeon; from which he was not discharged {10} till December 20 of
this year, by an order of the Sovereign Council of Mexico, to which he
found means to present several petitions. The Viceroy, constrained to
enlarge him, allotted the town for his place of confinement.
The business of the treaty of commerce being now at an end, M. de St.
Denis's attention was only engaged how to make the most of the goods,
of which Don Diego Raymond had sent as large a quantity as he could,
to the town of Mexico; where they were seized by D. Martin de Alaron,
as contraband; he being one of the emissaries of his protector,
appointed to persecute such strangers as did not dearly purchase the
permission to sell their goods. M. de St. Denis could make only enough
of his pillaged and damaged effects just to defray certain expences of
suit, which, in a country that abounds with nothing else but gold and
silver, are enormous.
Our prisoner having nothing further to engross his attention in
Mexico, but the safety of his person, seriously bethought himself how
to secure it; as he had ever just grounds to apprehend some bad
treatment at the bands of his three avowed enemies. Having therefore
planned the means of his flight, on September 25, 1718, as the night
came on, he quitted Mexico, and placing himself in ambush at a certain
distance from the town, waited till his good fortune should afford the
means of travelling otherwise than on foot. About nine at night, a
horseman, well-mounted, cast up. To rush of a sudden upon him,
dismount him, mount his horse, turn the bridle, and set up a gallop,
was the work of a moment only for St. Denis. He rode on at a good pace
till day, then quitted the common road, to repose him: a precaution he
observed all along, till he came near to the Presidio of St. John
Baptist. From thence he continued his journey on foot; and at length,
on April 2, 1719, arrived at the French colony, where he found
considerable alterations.
From the departure of M. de St. Denis from Mexico, to his return
again, almost three years had elapsed. In that long time, the grant of
Louisiana was transferred from M. Crozat to the West India Company; M.
de la Motte Cadillac was dead, and M. de Biainville, brother to M.
d'Hiberville, succeeded as {11} governor general. The capital place of
the colony was no longer at Mobile, nor even at Old Biloxi, whither it
had been removed: New Orleans, now begun to be built, was become the
capital of the country, whither he repaired to give M. de Biainville
an account of his journey; after which he retired to his settlement.
The king afterwards conferred upon him the cross of St. Louis, in
acknowledgement and recompence of his services.
The West India Company, building great hopes of commerce on Louisiana,
made efforts to people that country, sufficient to accomplish their
end. Thither, for the first time, they sent, in 1718, a colony of
eight hundred: men some of which settled at New Orleans, others formed
the settlements of the Natchez. It was with this embarkation I passed
over to Louisiana.
CHAPTER III.
_Embarkation of eight hundred Men by the_ West India Company _to_
Louisiana. _Arrival and Stay at _Cape François. _Arrival at_ Isle
Dauphine. _Description of that Island_.
The embarkation was made at Rochelle on three different vessels, on
one of which I embarked. For the first days of our voyage we had the
wind contrary, but no high sea. On the eighth the wind turned more
favourable. I observed nothing interesting till we came to the Tropick
of Cancer, where the ceremony of baptizing was performed on those who
had never been a voyage: after passing the Tropick, the Commodore
steered too much to the south, our captain observed. In effect, after
several days sailing, we were obliged to bear off to the north: we
afterwards discovered the isle of St. Juan de Porto Rico, which
belongs to the Spaniards. Losing sight of that, we discovered the
island of St. Domingo; and a little after, as we bore on, we saw the
Grange, which is a rock, overtopping the steep coast, which is almost
perpendicular to the edge of the water. This rock, seen at a distance,
seems to have the figure of a grange, or barn. A few hours after we
{12} arrived at Cape François, distant from that rock only twelve
leagues.
We were two months in this passage to Cape François; both on account
of the contrary winds, we had on setting out, and of the calms, which
are frequent in those seas: our vessel, besides, being clumsy and
heavy, had some difficulty to keep up with the others; which, not to
leave us behind, carried only their four greater sails, while we had
out between seventeen and eighteen.
It is in those seas we meet with the Tradewinds; which though weak, a
great deal of way might be made, did they blow constantly, because
their course is from east to west without varying: storms are never
observed in these seas, but the calms often prove a great hindrance;
and then it is necessary to wait some days, till a _grain_, or squall,
brings back the wind: a _grain_ is a small spot seen in the air, which
spreads very fast, and forms a cloud, that gives a wind, which is
brisk at first, but not lasting, though enough to make way with.
Nothing besides remarkable is here seen, but the chace of the
_flying-fish_ by the Bonitas.
The Bonita is a fish, which is sometimes two feet long; extremely fond
of the _flying-fish_; which is the reason it always keeps to the places
where these fish are found: its flesh is extremely delicate and of a
good flavour.
The _flying-fish_ is of the length of a herring, but rounder. From its
sides, instead of fins, issue out two wings, each about four inches in
length, by two in breadth at the extremity; they fold together and
open out like a fan, and are round at the end; consisting of a very
fine membrane, pierced with a vast many little holes, which keep the
water, when the fish is out of it: in order to avoid the pursuit of
the Bonita, it darts into the air, spreads out its wings, goes
straight on, without being able to turn to the right or left; which is
the reason, that as soon as the toilets, or little sheets of water,
which fill up the small holes of its wings, are dried up, it falls
down again; and the same Bonita, which pursued it in the water, still
following it with his eye in the air, catches it when fallen into the
water; it sometimes falls on board ships. The Bonita, in his turn,
{13} becomes the prey of the seamen, by means of little puppets, in
the form of _flying-fish_, which it swallows, and by that means is
taken.
We stayed fifteen days at Cape François, to take in wood and water,
and to refresh. It is situate on the north part of the island of St.
Domingo, which part the French are in possession of, as the Spaniards
are of the other. The fruits and sweet-meats of the country are
excellent, but the meat good for nothing, hard, dry, and tough. This
country being scorched, grass is very scarce, and animals therein
languish and droop. Six weeks before our arrival, fifteen hundred
persons died of an epidemic distemper, called the Siam distemper.
We sailed from Cape François, with the same wind, and the finest
weather imaginable. We then passed between the islands of Tortuga and
St. Domingo, where we espied Port de Paix, which is over-against
Tortuga: we afterwards found ourselves between the extremities of St.
Domingo and Cuba which belongs to the Spaniards: we then steered along
the south coast of this last, leaving to the left Jamaica, and the
great and little Kayemans, which are subject to the English. We at
length quitted Cuba at Cape Anthony, steering for Louisiana a north
west course. We espied land in coming towards it, but so flat, though
distant but a league from us, that we had great difficulty to
distinguish it, though we had then but four fathom water. We put out
the boat to examine the land, which we found to be Candlemas island
(la Chandeleur.) We directly set sail for the island of Massacre,
since called Isle Dauphine, situated three leagues to the south of
that continent, which forms the Gulf of Mexico to the north, at about
27° 35' North latitude, and 288° of longitude. A little after we
discovered the Isle Dauphine, and cast anchor before the harbour, in
the road, because the harbour itself was choaked up. To make this
passage we took three months, and arrived only August 25th. We had a
prosperous voyage all along, and the more so, as no one died, or was
even dangerously ill the whole time, for which we caused _Te Deum_
solemnly to be sung.
We were then put on shore with all our effects. The company had
undertaken to transport us with our servants and {14} effects, at
their expence, and to lodge, maintain and convey us to our several
concessions, or grants.
This gulf abounds with delicious fish; as the _sarde_ (pilchard) red
fish, cod, sturgeon, ringed thornback, and many other sorts, the best
in their kind. The _sarde_ is a large fish; its flesh is delicate, and
of a fine flavour, the scales grey, and of a moderate size. The red
fish is so called, from its red scales, of the size of a crown piece.
The cod, fished for on this coast, is of the middling sort, and very
delicate. The thornback is the same as in France. Before we quit this
island, it will not, perhaps, be improper to mention some things about
it.
The Isle Massacre was so called by the first Frenchman who landed
there, because on the shore of this island they found a small rising
ground, or eminence, which appeared the more extraordinary in an
island altogether flat, and seemingly formed only by the sand, thrown
in by some high gusts of wind. As the whole coast of the gulf is very
flat, and along the continent lies a chain of such islands, which seem
to be mutually joined by their points, and to form a line parallel
with the continent, this small eminence appeared to them
extraordinary: it was more narrowly examined, and in different parts
thereof they found dead mens bones, just appearing above the little
earth that covered them. Then their curiosity led them to rake off the
earth in several places; but finding nothing underneath, but a heap of
bones, they cried out with horror, _Ah! what a Massacre!_ They
afterwards understood by the natives, who are at no great distance
off, that a nation adjoining to that island, being at war with another
much more powerful, was constrained to quit the continent, which is
only three leagues off, and to remove to this island, there to live in
peace the rest of their days; but that their enemies, justly confiding
in their superiority, pursued them to this their feeble retreat, and
entirely destroyed them; and after raising this inhuman trophy of
their victorious barbarity, retired again. I myself saw this fatal
monument, which made me imagine this unhappy nation must have been
even numerous toward its period, as only the bones of their warriors,
and aged men must have lain there, their custom being to make slaves
of their {15} young people. Such is the origin of the first name of
this island, which, on our arrival, was changed to that of Isle
Dauphine: an act of prudence, it should-seem, to discontinue an
appellation, so odious, of a place that was the cradle of the colony;
as Mobile was its birth-place.
This island is very flat, and all a white sand, as are all the others,
and the coast in like manner. Its length is about seven leagues from
east to west; its breadth a short league from south to north,
especially to the east, where the settlement was made, on account of
the harbour which was at the south end of the island, and choaked up
by a high sea, a little before our arrival: this east end runs to a
point. It is tolerably well stored with pine; but so dry and parched,
on account of its crystal sand, as that no greens or pulse can grow
therein, and beasts are pinched and hard put to it for sustenance.
In the mean time, M. de Biainville, commandant general for the company
in this colony, was gone to mark out the spot on which the capital was
to be built, namely, one of the banks of the river Missisippi, where
at present stands the city of New Orleans, so called in honour of the
duke of Orleans, then regent.
CHAPTER IV.
_The Author's Departure for his Grant. Description of the Places he
passed through, as far as_ New Orleans.
The time of my departure, so much wished for, came at length. I set
out with my hired servants, all my effects, and a letter for M.
Paillou, major general at New Orleans, who commanded there in the
absence of M. de Biainville. We coasted along the continent, and came
to lie in the mouth of the river of the Pasca-Ogoulas; so called,
because near its mouth, and to the east of a bay of the same name,
dwells a nation, called Pasca-Ogoulas, which denotes the Nation of
Bread. Here it may be remarked, that in the province of Louisiana, the
appellation of several people terminates in the word Ogoula, which
signifies _nation_; and that most of the rivers derive their names from
the nations which dwell on {16} their banks. We then passed in view of
Biloxi, where formerly was a petty nation of that name; then in view
of the bay of St. Louis, leaving to the left successively Isle
Dauphine, Isle a Corne, (Horne-island,) Isle aux Vaisseaux,
(Ship-island,) and Isle aux Chats, (Cat-island).
I have already described Isle Dauphine, let us now proceed to the
three following. Horn-island is very flat and tolerably wooded, about
six leagues in length, narrowed to a point to the west side. I know
not whether it was for this reason, or on account of the number of
horned cattle upon it, that it received this name; but it is certain,
that the first Canadians, who settled on Isle Dauphine, had put most
of their cattle, in great numbers, there; whereby they came to grow
rich even when they slept. These cattle not requiring any attendance,
or other care, in this island, came to multiply in such a manner, that
the owners made great profits of them on our arrival in the colony.
Proceeding still westward, we meet Ship-island; so called, because
there is a small harbour, in which vessels at different times have put
in for shelter. But as the island is distant four leagues from the
coast, and that this coast is so flat, that boats cannot approach
nearer than half a league, this harbour comes to be entirely useless.
This island may be about five leagues in length, and a large league in
breadth at the west point. Near that point to the north is the
harbour, facing the continent; towards the east end it may be half a
league in breadth: it is sufficiently wooded, and inhabited only by
rats, which swarm there.
At two leagues distance, going still westward, we meet Cat-island; so
called, because at the time it was discovered, great numbers of cats
were found upon it. This island is very small, not above half a league
in diameter. The forests are over-run with underwood: a circumstance
which, doubtless, determined M. de Biainville to put in some hogs to
breed; which multiplied to such numbers, that, in 1722, going to hunt
them, no other creatures were to be seen; and it was judged, that in
time they must have devoured each other. It was found they had
destroyed the cats.
{17} All these islands are very flat, and have the same bottom of
white sand; the woods, especially of the three first, consist of pine;
they are almost all at the same distance from the continent, the coast
of which is equally sandy.
After passing the bay of St. Louis, of which I have spoken, we enter
the two channels which lead to Lake Pontchartrain, called at present
the Lake St. Louis: of these channels, one is named the Great, the
other the Little; and they are about two leagues in length, and formed
by a chain of islets, or little isles, between the continent and
Cockle-island. The great channel is to the south.
We lay at the end of the channels in Cockle-island; so called, because
almost entirely formed of the shells named Coquilles des Palourdes, in
the sea-ports, without a mixture of any others. This isle lies before
the mouth of the Lake St. Louis to the east, and leaves at its two
extremities two outlets to the lake; the one, by which we entered,
which is the channel just mentioned; the other, by the Lake Borgne.
The lake, moreover, at the other end westward, communicates, by a
channel, with the Lake Maurepas; and may be about ten leagues in
length from east to west, and seven in breadth. Several rivers, in
their course southward, fall into it. To the south of the lake is a
great creek (Bayouc, a stream of dead water, with little or no
observable current) called Bayouc St. Jean; it comes close to New
Orleans, and falls into this lake at Grass Point (Pointe aux Herbes)
which projects a great way into the lake, at two leagues distance from
Cockle-island. We passed near that Point, which is nothing but a
quagmire. From thence we proceeded to the Bayouc Choupic, so
denominated from a fish of that name, and three leagues from the
Pointe aux Herbes. The many rivulets, which discharge themselves into
this lake, make its waters almost fresh, though it communicates with
the sea: and on this account it abounds not only with sea fish but
with fresh water fish, some of which, particularly carp, would appear
to be of a monstrous size in France.
We entered this Creek Choupic: at the entrance of which is a fort at
present. We went up this creek for the space of a league, and landed
at a place where formerly stood the village {18} of the natives, who
are called Cola-Pissas, an appellation corrupted by the French, the
true name of that nation being Aquelou-Pissas, that is, _the nation of
men that hear and see_. From this place to New Orleans, and the river
Missisippi, on which that capital is built, the distance is only a
league.
CHAPTER V.
_The Author put in Possession of his Territory. His Resolution to go
and settle among the_ Natchez.
Being arrived at the Creek Choupic the Sicur Lavigne, a Canadian, lodged
me in a cabin of the Aquelou-Pissas, whose village he had bought. He
gave others to my workmen for their lodging; and we were all happy to
find, upon our arrival, that we were under shelter, in a place that was
uninhabited. A few days after my arrival I bought an Indian female slave
of one of the inhabitants, in order to have a person who could dress our
victuals, as I perceived the inhabitants did all they could to entice
away our labourers, and to gain them by fair promises. As for my slave
and me, we did not understand one another's language; but I made myself
to be understood by signs, which these natives comprehend very easily:
she was of the nation of the Chitimachas, with whom the French had been
at war for some years.
I went to view a spot on St. John's Creek, about half a league distant
from the place where the capital was to be founded, which was yet only
marked out by a hut, covered with palmetto-leaves, and which the
commandant had caused to be built for his own lodging; and after him
for M. Paillou, whom he left commandant of that post. I had chosen
that place preferably to any others, with a view to dispose more
easily of my goods and provisions, and that I might not have them to
transport to a great distance. I told M. Paillou of my choice, who
came and put me in possession, in the name of the West-India company.
I built a hut upon my settlement, about forty yards from the creek of
St. John, till I could build my house, and lodging {19} for my people.
As my hut was composed of very combustible materials, I caused a fire
to be made at a distance, about half way from the creek, to avoid
accidents: which occasioned an adventure, that put me in mind of the
prejudices they have in Europe, from the relations that are commonly
current. The account I am going to give of it, may have upon those who
think as I did then, the same effect that it had upon me.
It was almost night, when my slave perceived, within two yards of the
fire, a young alligator, five feet long, which beheld the fire without
moving. I was in the garden hard by, when she made me repeated signs
to come to her; I ran with speed, and upon my arrival she shewed me
the crocodile, without speaking to me; the little time that I examined
it, I could see, its eyes were so fixed on the fire, that all our
motions could not take them off. I ran to my cabin to look for my gun,
as I am a pretty good marksman: but what was my surprize, when I came
out, and saw the girl with a great stick in her hand attacking the
monster! Seeing me arrive, she began to smile, and said many things,
which I did not comprehend. But she made me understand, by signs, that
there was no occasion for a gun to kill such a beast; for the stick
she shewed me was sufficient for the purpose.
The next day the former master of my slave came to ask me for some
salad-plants; for I was the only one who had any garden-stuff, having
taken care to preserve the seeds I had brought over with me. As he
understood the language of the natives, I begged him to ask the girl,
why she had killed the alligator so rashly. He began to laugh, and
told me, that all new comers were afraid of those creatures, although
they have no reason to be so: and that I ought not to be surprized at
what the girl had done, because her nation inhabited the borders of a
lake, which was full of those creatures; that the children, when they
saw the young ones come on land, pursued them, and killed them, by the
assistance of the people of the cabin, who made good cheer of them.
I was pleased with my habitation, and I had good reasons, which I have
already related, to make me prefer it to others; notwithstanding I had
room to believe, that the situation was {20} none of the healthiest,
the country about it being very damp. But this cause of an unwholesome
air does not exist at present, since they have cleared the ground, and
made a bank before the town. The quality of that land is very good,
for what I had sown came up very well. Having found in the spring some
peach-stones which began to sprout, I planted them; and the following
autumn they had made shoots, four feet high, with branches in
proportion.
Notwithstanding these advantages, I took a resolution to quit this
settlement, in order to make another one, about a hundred leagues
higher up; and I shall give the reasons, which, in my opinion, will
appear sufficient to have made me take that step.
My surgeon came to take his leave of me, letting me know, he could be
of no service to me, near such a town as was forming; where there was
a much abler surgeon than himself; and that they had talked to him so
favourably of the post of the Natchez, that he was very desirous to go
there, and the more so, as that place, being unprovided with a
surgeon, might be more to his advantage. To satisfy me of the truth of
what he told me, he went immediately and brought one of the old
inhabitants, of whom I had bought my slave, who confirmed the account
he had given me of the fineness of the country of the Natchez. The
account of the old man, joined to many other advantages, to be found
there, had made him think of abandoning the place where we were, to
settle there; and he reckoned to be abundantly repaid for it in a
little time.
My slave heard the discourse that I have related, and as she began to
understand French, and I the language of the country, she addressed
herself to me thus: "Thou art going, then, to that country; the sky is
much finer there; game is in much greater plenty; and as I have
relations, who retired there in the war which we had with the French,
they will bring us every thing we want: they tell me that country is
very fine, that they live well in it, and to a good old age."
Two days afterwards I told M. Hubert what I had heard of the country
of the Natchez. He made answer, that he was {21} so persuaded of the
goodness of that part of the country, that he was making ready to go
there himself, to take up his grant, and to establish a large
settlement for the company: and, continued he, "I shall be very glad,
if you do the same: we shall be Company to one another, and you will
unquestionably do your business better there than here."
[Illustration: _Indian in summer time_]
This determined me to follow his advice: I quitted my settlement, and
took lodgings in the town, till I should find an {22} opportunity to
depart, and receive some negroes whom I expected in a short time.
[Footnote: Chap. VIII.] My stay at New Orleans appeared long, before I
heard of the arrival of the negroes. Some days after the news of their
arrival, M. Hubert brought me two good ones, which had fallen to me by
lot. One was a young negro about twenty, with his wife of the same
age; which cost me both together 1320 livres, or L. sterling.
Two days after that I set off with them alone in a pettyaugre (a large
canoe,) because I was told we should make much better speed in such a
vessel, than in the boats that went with us; and that I had only to
take powder and ball with me, to provide my whole company with game
sufficient to maintain us; for which purpose it was necessary to make
use of a paddle, instead of oars, which make too much noise for the
game. I had a barrel of powder, with fifteen pounds of shot, which I
thought would be sufficient for the voyage: but I found by experience,
that this was not sufficient for the vast plenty of game that is to be
met with upon that river, without ever going out of your way. I had
not gone above twenty-eight leagues, to the grant of M. Paris du
Vernai, when I was obliged to borrow of him fifteen pounds of shot
more. Upon this I took care of my ammunition, and shot nothing but
what was fit for our provision; such as wild ducks, summer ducks,
teal, and saw-bills. Among the rest I killed a carancro, wild geese,
cranes, and flamingo's; I likewise often killed young alligators; the
tail of which was a feast for the slaves, as well as for the French
and Canadian rowers.
Among other things I cannot omit to give an account of a monstrous
large alligator I killed with a musquet ball, as it lay upon the bank,
about ten feet above the edge of the water. We measured it, and found
it to be nineteen feet long, its head three feet and a half long,
above two feet nine inches broad, and the other parts in proportion:
at the belly it was two feet two inches thick; and it infected the
whole air with the odor of musk. M. Mehane told me, he had killed one
twenty-two feet long.
{23} After several days navigation, we arrived at Tonicas on Christmas
eve; where we heard mass from M. d' Avion, of the foreign missions,
with whom we passed the rest of the holy days, on account of the good
reception and kind invitation he gave us. I asked him, if his great
zeal for the salvation of the natives was attended with any success;
he answered me, that notwithstanding the profound respect the people
shewed him, it was with the greatest difficulty he could get leave to
baptize a few children at the point of death; that those of an
advanced age excused themselves from embracing our holy religion
because they are too old, say they, to accustom themselves to rules,
that are so difficult to be observed; that the chief, who had killed
the physician, that attended his only son in a distemper of which he
died, had taken a resolution to fast every Friday while he lived, in
remorse for his inhumanity with which he had been so sharply
reproached by him. This grand chief attended both morning and evening
prayers; the women and children likewise assisted regularly at them;
but the men, who did not come very often, took more pleasure in
ringing the bell. In other respects, they did not suffer this zealous
pastor to want for any thing, but furnished him with whatever he
desired.
We were yet twenty-five leagues to the end of our journey to the
Natchez, and we left the Tonicas, where we saw nothing interesting, if
it were not several steep hills, which stand together; among which
there is one that they name the White Hill, because they find in it
several veins of an earth, that is white, greasy, and very fine, with
which I have seen very good potters ware made. On the same hill there
are veins of ochre, of which the Natchez had just taken some to stain
their earthen Ware, which looked well enough; when it was besmeared
with ochre, it became red on burning.
At last we arrived at the Natchez, after a voyage of twenty-four
leagues; and we put on shore at a landing-place, which is at the foot
of a hill two hundred feet high, upon the top of which Fort Rosalie
[Footnote: Fort Rosalie, in the country of the Natchez, was at first
pitched upon for the metropolis of this colony. But though it be
necessary to begin by a settlement near the sea; yet if ever Louisiana
comes to be in a flourishing condition, as it may very well be, it
appears to me, that the capital of it cannot be better situated than
in this place. It is not subject to inundations of the river; the air
is pure; the country very extensive; the land fit for every thing, and
well watered; it is not at too great a distance from the sea, and
nothing hinders vessels to go up to it. In fine, it is within reach of
every place intended to be settled. Charlevoix, Hist. de la N. France,
III. 415.
This is on the east side of the Missisippi, and appears to be the
first post on that river which we ought to secure.] is built,
surrounded only with pallisadoes. {24} About the middle of the hill
stands the magazine, nigh to some houses of the inhabitants, who are
settled there, because the ascent is not so steep in that place; and
it is for the same reason that the magazine is built there. When you
are upon the top of this hill, you discover the whole country, which
is an extensive beautiful plain, with several little hills
interspersed here and there, upon which the inhabitants have built and
made their settlements. The prospect of it is charming.
On our arrival at the Natchez I was very well received by M. Loire de
Flaucourt, storekeeper of this post, who regaled us with the game that
abounds in this place; and after two days I hired a house near the
fort, for M. Hubert and his family, on their arrival, till he could
build upon his own plantation. He likewise desired me to choose two
convenient parcels of land, whereon to settle two considerable
plantations, one for the company, and the other for himself. I went to
them in two or three days after my arrival, with an old inhabitant for
my guide, and to shew me the proper places, and at the same time to
choose a spot of ground for myself; this last I pitched upon the first
day, because it is more easy to choose for one's self than for others.
I found upon the main road that leads from the chief village of the
Natchez to the fort, about an hundred paces from this last, a cabin of
the natives upon the road side, surrounded with a spot of cleared
ground, the whole of which I bought by means of an interpreter. I made
this purchase with the more pleasure, as I had upon the spot,
wherewithal to lodge me and my people, with all my effects: the
cleared ground was about six acres, which would form a garden and a
plantation for {25} tobacco, which was then the only commodity
cultivated by the inhabitants. I had water convenient for my house,
and all my land was very good. On one side stood a rising ground with
a gentle declivity, covered with a thick field of canes, which always
grow upon the rich lands; behind that was a great meadow, and on the
other side was a forest of white walnuts (Hiecories) of nigh fifty
acres, covered with grass knee deep. All this piece of ground was in
general good, and contained about four hundred acres of a measure
greater than that of Paris: the soil is black and light.
The other two pieces of land, which M. Hubert had ordered me to look
for, I took up on the border of the little river of the Natchez, each
of them half a league from the great village of that nation, and a
league from the fort; and my plantation stood between these two and
the fort, bounding the two others. After this I took up my lodging
upon my own plantation, in the hut I had bought of the Indian, and put
my people in another, which they built for themselves at the side of
mine; so that I was lodged pretty much like our wood-cutters in
France, when they are at work in the woods.
As soon as I was put in possession of my habitation, I went with an
interpreter to see the other fields, which the Indians had cleared
upon my land, and bought them all, except one, which an Indian would
never sell to me: it was situated very convenient for me, I had a mind
for it, and would have given him a good price; but I could never make
him agree to my proposals. He gave me to understand, that without
selling it, he would give it up to me, as soon as I should clear my
ground to his; and that while he stayed on his own ground near me, I
should always find him ready to serve me, and that he would go
a-hunting and fishing for me. This answer satisfied me, because I must
have had twenty negroes, before I could have been able to have reached
him; they assured me likewise, that he was an honest man; and far from
having any occasion to complain of him as a neighbour, his stay there
was extremely serviceable to me.
I had not been settled at the Natchez six months, when I found a pain
in my thigh, which, however, did not hinder me {26} to go about my
business. I consulted our surgeon about it, who caused me to be
bleeded; on which the humour fell upon the other thigh, and fixed
there with such violence, that I could not walk without extreme pain.
I consulted the physicians and surgeons of New Orleans, who advised me
to use aromatic baths; and if they proved of no service, I must go to
France, to drink the waters, and to bathe in them. This answer
satisfied me so much the less, as I was neither certain of my cure by
that means, nor would my present situation allow me to go to France.
This cruel distemper, I believe, proceeded from the rains, with which
I was wet, during our whole voyage; and might be some effects of the
fatigues I had undergone in war, during several campaigns I had made
in Germany.
As I could not go out of my hut, several neighbours were so good as to
come and see me, and every day we were no less than twelve at table
from the time of our arrival, which was on the fifth of January, 1720.
Among the rest F. de Ville, who waited there, in his journey to the
Illinois, till the ice, which began to come down from the north, was
gone. His conversation afforded me great satisfaction in my
confinement, and allayed the vexation I was under from my two negroes
being run away. In the mean time my distemper did not abate, which
made me resolve to apply to one of the Indian conjurers, who are both
surgeons, divines, and sorcerers; and who told me he would cure me by
sucking the place where I felt my pain. He made several scarifications
upon the part with a sharp flint, each of them about as large as the
prick of a lancet, and in such a form, that he could suck them all at
once, which gave me extreme pain for the space of half an hour. The
next day I found myself a little better, and walked about into my
field, where they advised me to put myself in the hands of some of the
Natchez, who, they said, did surprising cures, of which they told me
many instances, confirmed by creditable people. In such a situation a
man will do any thing for a cure, especially as the remedy, which they
told me of, was very simple: it was only a poultice, which they put
upon the part affected, and in eight days time I was able to walk to
the fort, finding myself perfectly cured, as I have felt no return of
my pain since that {27} time. This was, without doubt, a great
satisfaction to a young man, who found himself otherwise in good
health, but had been confined to the house for four months and a half,
without being able to go out a moment; and gave me as much joy as I
could well have, after the loss of a good negro, who died of a
defluxion on the breast, which he catched by running away into the
woods, where his youth and want of experience made him believe he
might live without the toils of slavery; but being found by the
Tonicas, constant friends of the French, who live about twenty leagues
from the Nàtchez, they carried him to their village, where he and
his wife were given to a Frenchman, for whom they worked, and by that
means got their livelihood; till M. de Montplaisir sent them home to
me.
This M. de Montplaisir, one of the most agreeable gentlemen in the
colony, was sent by the company from Clerac in Gascony, to manage
their plantation at the Natchez, to make tobacco upon it, and to shew
the people the way of cultivating and curing it; the company having
learned, that this place produced excellent tobacco, and that the
people of Clerac were perfectly well acquainted with the culture and
way of managing it.
CHAPTER VI.
_The Voyage of the Author to_ Biloxi. _Description of that Place.
Settlement of Grants. The Author discovers two Coppermines. His Return
to the Natchez._
<b>The</b> second year after my settling among the Natchez, I went to
New Orleans, as I was desirous to sell my goods and commodities
myself, instead of selling them to the travelling pedlars, who often
require too great a profit for their pains. Another reason that made
me undertake this voyage, was to send my letters to France myself,
which I was certainly informed, were generally intercepted.
Before my departure, I went to the commandant of the fort, and asked
him whether he had any letters for the government. I was not on very
good terms of friendship with this commandant of the Natchez, who
endeavoured to pay his court {28} to the governor, at the expence of
others. I knew he had letters for M. de Biainville, although he told
me he had none, which made me get a certificate from the commissary
general of this refusal to my demand; and at the same time the
commissary begged me to carry down a servant of the company, and gave
me an order to pay for his maintenance. As I made no great haste, but
stopt to see my friends, in my going down the river, the commandant
had time to send his letters, and to write to the governor, that I
refused to take them. As soon as I arrived at Biloxi, this occasioned
M. de Biainville to tell me, with some coldness, that I refused to
charge myself with his letters. Upon this I shewed him the certificate
of the commissary general; to which he could give no other answer,
than by telling me, that at least I could not deny, that I had brought
away by stealth a servant of the company. Upon this I shewed him the
other certificate of the commissary general, by which he desired the
directors to reimburse me the charges of bringing down this servant,
who was of no use to him above; which put the governor in a very bad
humour.
Upon my arrival at New Orleans I was informed, that there were several
grantees arrived at New Biloxi. I thought fit then to go thither, both
to sell my goods, and to get sure conveyance for my letters to France.
Here I was invited to sup with M. d'Artaguette, king's lieutenant, who
usually invited all the grantees, as well as myself. I there found
several of the grantees, who were all my friends; and among us we made
out a sure conveyance for our letters to France, of which we
afterwards made use.
Biloxi is situate opposite to Ship-Island, and four leagues from it.
But I never could guess the reason, why the principal settlement was
made at this place, nor why the capital should be built at it; as
nothing could be more repugnant to good sense; vessels not being able
to come within four leagues of it; but what was worse, nothing could
be brought from them, but by changing the boats three different times,
from a smaller size to another still smaller; after which they had to
go upwards of an hundred paces with small carts through the water to
unload the least boats. But what ought still to have {29} been a
greater discouragement against making a settlement at Biloxi, was,
that the land is the most barren of any to be found thereabouts; being
nothing but a fine sand, as white and shining as snow, on which no
kind of greens can be raised; besides, the being extremely incommoded
with rats, which swarm there in the sand, and at that time ate even
the very stocks of the guns, the famine being there so very great,
that more than five hundred people died of hunger; bread being very
dear, and flesh-meat still more rare. There was nothing in plenty but
fish, with which this place abounds.
This scarcity proceeded from the arrival of several grantees all at
once; so as to have neither provisions, nor boats to transport them to
the places of their destination, as the company had obliged themselves
to do. The great plenty of oysters, found upon the coast, saved the
lives of some of them, although obliged to wade almost up to their
thighs for them, a gun-shot from the shore. If this food nourished
several of them, it threw numbers into sickness; which was still more
heightened by the long time they were obliged to be in the water.
The grants were those of M. Law, who was to have fifteen hundred men,
consisting of Germans, Provençals, &c. to form the settlement.
His land being marked out at the Arkansas, consisted of four leagues
square, and was erected into a duchy, with accoutrements for a company
of dragoons, and merchandize for more than a million of livres. M.
Levans, who was a trustee of it, had his chaise to visit the different
posts of the grant. But M. Law soon after becoming bankrupt, the
company seized on all the effects and merchandise; and but a few of
those who engaged in the service of that grant, remained at the
Arkansas; they were afterwards all dispersed and set at liberty. The
Germans almost to a man settled eight leagues above, and to the west
of the capital. This grant ruined near a thousand persons at L'Orient
before their embarkation, and above two hundred at Biloxi; not to
mention those who came out at the same time with me in 1718. All this
distress, of which I was a witness at Biloxi, determined me to make an
excursion a few leagues on the coast, in order to pass some days {30}
with a friend, who received me with pleasure. We mounted horse to
visit the interior part of the country a few leagues from the sea. I
found the fields pleasant enough, but less fertile than along the
Missisippi; as they have some resemblance of the neighbouring coast,
which has scarce any other plants but pines, that run a great way, and
some red and white cedars.
When we came to the plain, I carefully searched every spot that I
thought worth my attention. In consequence of the search I found two
mines of copper, whose metal plainly appeared above ground. They stood
about half a league asunder. We may justly conclude that they are very
rich, as they thus disclose themselves on the surface of the earth.
When I had made a sufficient excursion, and judged I could find
nothing further to satisfy my curiosity, I returned to Biloxi, where I
found two boats of the company, just preparing to depart for New
Orleans, and a large pettyaugre, which belonged to F. Charlevoix the
jesuit, whose name is well known in the republic of letters: with him
I returned to New Orleans.
Some time after my return from New Orleans to the Natchez, towards the
month of March 1722, a phaenomenon happened, which frightened the
whole province. Every morning, for eight days running, a hollow noise,
somewhat loud, was heard to reach from the sea to the Illinois; which
arose from the west. In the afternoon it was heard to descend from the
east, and that with an incredible quickness; and though the noise
seemed to bear on the water, yet without agitating it, or discovering
any more wind on the river than before. This frightful noise was only
the prelude of a most violent tempest. The hurricane, the most furious
ever felt in the province, lasted three days. As it arose from the
south-west and north-east, it reached all the settlements which were
along the Missisippi; and was felt for some leagues more or less
strong, in proportion to the greater or less distance: but in the
places, where the force or height of the hurricane passed, it
overturned every thing in its way, which was an extent of a large
quarter of a league broad; so that one would take it for {31} an
avenue made on purpose, the place where it passed being entirely laid
flat, whilst every thing stood upright on each side. The largest trees
were torn up by the roots, and their branches broken to pieces and
laid flat to the earth, as were also the reeds of the woods. In the
meadows, the grass itself, which was then but six inches high, and
which is very fine, could not escape, but was trampled, faded, and
laid quite flat to the earth.
[Illustration: Indian in winter time]
{32} The height of the hurricane passed at a league from my
habitation; and yet my hose, which was built on piles, would have been
overturned, had I not speedily propped it with a timber, with the
great end in the earth, and nailed to the house with an iron hook
seven or eight inches long. Several houses of our post were
overturned. But it was happy for us in this colony, that the height of
the hurricane passed not directly oer any post, but obliquely
traversed the Missisippi, over a country intirely uninhabited. As this
hurricane came from the south, it so swelled the sea, that the
Missisippi flowed back against its current, so as to rise upwards of
fifteen feet high.
CHAPTER VII.
_First War with the_ Natchez. _Cause of the War._
In the same year, towards the end of summer, we had the first war with
the Natchez. The French had settled at the Natchez, without any
opposition from these people; so far from opposing them, they did them
a great deal of service, and gave them very material assistance in
procuring provisions; for those, who were sent by the West India
Comany with the first fleet, had been detained at New Orleans. Had it
not been for the natives, the people must have perished by famine and
distress: for, how excellent soever a new country it may be, it must
be cleared, grubbed up, and sown, and then at least we are to wait the
first harvest, or crop. But during all that time people must live, and
the company was well apprized of this, as they had send, witht he
eight hundred men they had transported to Louisiana, provisions for
three years. The grantees and planters, obliged _to treat_, or truck for
provisions with the Natchez, in consequence of that saw their funds
wasted, and themselves incapable of forming so considerable a
settlement, without this trucking, as necessary, as it was frequent.
However, some benefit resulted from this; namely that the Natchez,
enticed by the facility of trucking for goods, before unknown to them,
as fusils, gun-powder, lead, brandy, linen, cloths, and other like
things, by means of an exchange of what they abounded with, came to be
more and more attached {33} to the French; and would have continued
very useful friends, had not the little satisfaction which the
commandant of Fort Rosalie had given them, for the misbehavior of one
of his soldiers, alienated their minds. This fort covered the
settlement of the Natchez, and protected that of St. Catharine, which
was on the banks of the rivulet of the Natchez; but botht he defence
and protection it afforded were very inconsiderable; for this fort was
only pallisadoed, open at six breaches, without a ditch, and with a
very weak garrison. On the other hand, the houses of the inhabitants,
though considerably numerous, were of themselves of no strength; and
then the inhabitants, dispersed in the country, each amidst his field,
far from affording mutual assistance, as they would had they been in a
body, stood each of them, upon any accident, in need of the assistance
of others.
A young soldier of Fort Rosalie had given some credit to an old
warrior of a village of the Natchez; which was that of the White
Apple, each village having its peculiar name: the warrior, in return,
was to give him some corn. Towards the beginning of the winter 1723,
this soldier lodging near the fort, the old warrior came to see him;
the soldier insisted on his corn; the native answered calmly, that the
corn was not yet dry enough to shake out the grain; that besides, his
wife had been ill, and that he would pay him as soon as possible. The
young man, little satisfied with this answer, threatened to cudgel the
old man: upon which, this last, who was in the soldier's hut,
affronted at this threat, told him, he should turn out, and try who
was the best man. On this challenge, the soldier, calling out murder,
brings the guard to his assistance. The guard being come, the young
fellow pressed them to fire upon the warrior, who was returning to his
village at his usual pace; a soldier was imprudent enough to fire: the
old man dropt down. The commandant was soon apprized of what happened,
and came to the spot; where the witnesses, both French and Natchez,
informed him of the fact. Both justice and prudence demanded to take
an exemplary punishment of the soldier; but he got off with a
reprimand. After this the natives made a litter, and carried off their
warrior, who died the {34} following night of his wounds, though the
fusil was only charged with great shot.
Revenge is the predominant passion of the people in America: so that
we ought not to be surprised, if the death of this old warrior raised
his whole village against the French. The rest of the nation took no
part at first in the quarrel.
The first effect of the resentment of the Natchez fell upon a
Frenchman named M. Guenot, whom they surprised returning from the fort
to St. Catharine, and upon another inhabitant, whom they killed in his
bed. Soon after they attacked, all in a body, the settlement of St.
Catharine, and the other below Fort Rosalie. It was at this last I had
fixed my abode: I therefore saw myself exposed, like many others, to
pay with my goods, and perhaps my life, for the rashness of a soldier,
and the too great indulgence of his captain. But as I was already
acquainted with the character of the people we had to deal with, I
despaired not to save both. I therefore barricadoed myself in my
house, and having put myself in a posture of defence, when they came
in the night, according to their custom, to surprise me, they durst
not attack me.
This first attempt, which I justly imagined was to be followed by
another, if not by many such, made me resolve, as soon as day came, to
retire under the fort, as all the inhabitants also did, and thither to
carry all the provisions I had at my lodge. I could execute only half
of my scheme. My slaves having begun to remove the best things, I was
scarce arrived under the fort, but the commandant begged I might put
myself at the head of the inhabitants, to go to succour St. Catharine.
He had already sent thither all his garrison, reserving only five men
to guard the fort; but this succour was not sufficient to relieve the
settlement, which the natives in great numbers vigorously straitned.
I departed without delay: we heard the firing at a distance, but the
noise ceased as soon as I was come, and the natives appeared to have
retired: they had, doubtless, discovered me on my march, and the sight
of a reinforcement which I had brought with me, deceived them. The
officer who commanded the detachment of the garrison, and whom I
relieved, returned {35} to the fort with his men; and the command
being thus devolved on me, I caused all the Negroes to be assembled,
and ordered them to cut down all the bushes; which covering the
country, favoured the approach of the enemy, quite to the doors of the
houses of that Grant. This operation was performed without
molestation, if you except a few shot, fired by the natives from the
woods, where they lay concealed on the other side of the rivulet; for
the plain round St. Catharine being entirely cleared of every thing
that could screen them, they durst not shew themselves any more.
However, the commandant of Fort Rosalie sent to treat with the _Stung
Serpent_; in order to prevail with him to appease that part of his
nation, and procure a peace. As that great warrior was our friend, he
effectually laboured therein, and hostilities ceased. After I had
passed twenty-four hours in St. Catharine, I was relieved by a new
detachment from the inhabitants, whom, in my turn, I relieved next
day. It was on this second guard, which I mounted, that the village we
had been at war with sent me, by their deputies, the _calumet_ or _pipe
of peace_. I at first had some thoughts of refusing it, knowing that
this honour was due to the commandant of the fort; and it appeared to
me a thing so much the more delicate to deprive him of it, as we were
not upon very good terms with each other. However, the evident risk of
giving occasion to protract the war, by refusing it, determined me to
accept of it; after having, however, taken the advice of those about
me; who all judged it proper to treat these people gently, to whom the
commandant was become odious.
I asked the deputies, what they would have? They answered, faultering,
_Peace_. "Good, said I; but why bring you the Calumet of Peace to me? It
is to the Chief of the Fort you are to carry it, if you wish to have a
Peace." "Our orders" said they, "are to carry it first to you, if you
choose to receive it by only smoking therein: after which we will
carry it to the Chief of the Fort; but if you refuse receiving it, our
orders are to return."
Upon this I told them, that I agreed to smoke in their pipe, on
condition they would carry it to the Chief of the Fort. {36} They then
made me an harangue; to which I answered, that it were best to resume
our former manner of living together, and that the French and the
_Red-men_ should entirely forget what had passed. To conclude, that they
had nothing further to do, but to go and carry the Pipe to the Chief
of the Fort, and then go home and sleep in peace.
This was the issue of the first war we had with the Natchez, which
lasted only three or four days.
The commerce, or truck, was set again on the same footing it had been
before; and those who had suffered any damage, now thought only how
they might best repair it. Some time after, the Major General arrived
from New Orleans, being sent by the Governor of Louisiana to ratify
the peace; which he did, and mutual sincerity was restored, and became
as perfect as if there had never been any rupture between us.
It had been much to be wished, that matters had remained on so good a
footing. As we were placed in one of the best and finest countries of
the world; were in strict connection with the natives, from whom we
derived much knowledge of the nature of the productions of the
country, and of the animals of all sorts, with which it abounds; and
likewise reaped great advantage in our traffic for furs and
provisions; and were aided by them in many laborious works, we wanted
nothing but a profound peace, in order to form solid settlements,
capable of making us lay aside all thoughts of Europe: but Providence
had otherwise ordered.
The winter which succeeded this war was so severe, that a colder was
never remembered. The rain fell in icicles in such quantities as to
astonish the oldest Natchez, to whom this great cold appeared new and
uncommon.
Towards the autumn of this year I saw a phaenomenon which struck the
superstitious with great terror: it was in effect so extraordinary,
that I never remember to have heard of any thing that either
resembled, or even came up to it. I had just supped without doors, in
order to enjoy the cool of the evening; my face was turned to the
west, and I sat before my table to examine some planets which had
already appeared. {37} I perceived a glimmering light, which made me
raise my eyes; and immediately I saw, at the elevation of about 45
degrees above the horizon, a light proceeding from the south, of the
breadth of three inches, which went off to the north, always spreading
itself as it moved, and made itself heard by a whizzing light like
that of the largest sky-rocket. I judged by the eye that this light
could not be above our atmosphere, and the whizzing noise which I
heard confirmed me in that notion. {38} When it came in like manner to
be about 45 degrees to the north above the horizon, it stopped short,
and ceased enlargeing itself: in that place it appeared to be twenty
inches broad; so that in its course, which had been very rapid, it
formed the figure of a trumpet-marine, and left in its passage very
lively sparks, shining brighter than those which fly from under a
smith's hammer; but they were extinguished almost as fast as they were
emitted.
[Illustration: _Indian woman and daughter_ (on p. 37)]
At the north elevation I just mentioned, there issued out with a great
noise from the middle of the large end, a ball quite round, and all on
fire: this ball was about six inches in diameter; it fell below the
horizon to the north, and emitted, about twenty minutes after, a
hollow, but very loud noise for the space of a minute, which appeared
to come from a great distance. The light began to be weakened to the
south, after emitting the ball, and at length disappeared, before the
noise of the ball was heard.
CHAPTER VIII.
_The Governor surprized the_ Natchez _with seven hundred Men.
Astonishing Cures performed by the Natives. The Author sends upwards of
three hundred Simples to the Company._
M. De Biainville, at the beginning of the winter which followed this
phaenomenonived very privately at our quarter of the Natchez, his
march having been communicated to none but the Commandant of this
Post, who had orders to seize all the Natchez that should come to the
Fort that day, to prevent the news of his arrival being carried to
their country men. He brought with him, in regular troops, inhabitants
and natives, who were our allies, to the number of seven hundred men.
Orders were given that all our settlers at the Natchez should repair
before his door at midnight at the latest: I went thither and mixed
with the crowd, without making myself known.
We arrived two hours before day at the settlement of St. Catharine.
The Commandant having at length found me out, {39} ordered me, in the
King's name, to put myself at the head of the settlers among the
Natchez, and to take the command upon me; and these he ordered to pay
the same obedience to me as to himself. We advanced with great silence
towards the village of the Apple. It may be easily seen that all this
precaution was taken in order to surprise our enemies, who ought so
much the less to expect this act of hostility, as they had fairly made
peace with us, and as M. Paillou, Major General, had come and ratified
this peace in behalf of the Governor. We marched to the enemy and
invested the first hut of the Natchez, which we found separate; the
drums, in concert with the fifes, beat the charge; we fired upon the
hut, in which were only three men and two women.
From thence we afterwards moved on to the village, that is, several
huts that stood together in a row. We halted at three of them that lay
near each other, in which between twelve and fifteen Natchez had
entrenched themselves. By our manner of proceeding one would have
thought that we came only to view the huts. Full of indignation that
none exerted himself to fall upon them, I took upon me with my men to
go round and take the enemy in rear. They took to their heels, and I
pursued; but we had need of the swiftness of deer to be able to come
up with them. I came so near, however, that they threw away their
cloaths, to run with the greater speed.
I rejoined our people, and expected a reprimand for having forced the
enemy without orders; though I had my excuse ready. But here I was
mistaken; for I met with nothing but encomiums.
This war, of which I shall give no further detail, lasted only four
days. M. de Biainville demanded the head of an old mutinous Chief of
this village; and the natives, in order to obtain a peace, delivered
him up.
I happened to live at some distance from the village of the Apple, and
very seldom saw any of the people. Such as lived nearer had more
frequent visits from them; but after this war, and the peace which
followed upon it, I never saw one of them. My neighbours who lived
nearer to them saw but a few of them, even a long time after the
conclusion of the war. The {40} natives of the other villages came but
very seldom among us; and indeed, if we could have done well without
them, I could have wished to have been rid of them for ever. But we
had neither a flesh nor a fish-market; therefore, without them, we
must have taken up with what the poultry-yard and kitchen-garden
furnished; which would have been extremely inconvenient.
I one day stopped the Stung Serpent, who was passing without taking
notice of any one. He was brother to the Great Sun, and Chief of the
Warriors of the Natchez. I accordingly called to him, and said, "We
were formerly friends, are we no longer so?" He answered, _Noco_; that
is, I cannot tell. I replied, "You used to come to my house; at
present you pass by. Have you forgot the way; or is my house
disagreeable to you? As for me, my heart is always the same, both
towards you and all my friends. I am not capable of changing, why then
are you changed?"
He took some time to answer, and seemed to be embarrassed by what I
said to him. He never went to the fort, but when sent for the
Commandant, who put me upon sounding him; in order to discover whether
his people still retained any grudge.
He at length broke silence, and told me, "he was ashamed to have been
so long without seeing me; but I imagined," said he, "that you were
displeased at our nation; because among all the French who were in the
war, you were the only one that fell upon us." "You are in the wrong,"
said I, "to think so. M. de Biainville being our War-chief, we are
bound to obey him; in like manner as you, though a Sun, are obliged to
kill, or cause to be killed, whomsoever your brother, the Great Sun
orders to be put to death. Many other Frenchmen, besides me, sought an
opportunity to attack your countrymen, in obedience to the orders of
M. de Biainville; and several other Frenchmen fell upon the nearest
hut, one of whom was killed by the first shot which the Natchez
fired."
He then said: "I did not approve, as you know, the war our people made
upon the French to avenge the death of their {41} relation, seeing I
made them carry the _pipe of peace_ to the French. This you well know,
as you first smoked in the pipe yourself. Have the French two hearts, a
good one today, and tomorrow a bad one? As for my brother and me, we
have but one heart and one word. Tell me then, if thou art, as thou
sayest, my true friend, what thou thinketh of all this, and shut thy
mouth to every thing else. We know not what to think of the French, who,
after having begun the war, granted a peace, and offered it of
themselves; and then at the time we were quiet, believing ourselves to
be at peace, people come to kill us, without saying a word."
"Why," continued he, with an air of displeasure, "did the French come
into our country? We did not go to seek them: they asked for land of
us, because their country was too little for all the men that were in
it. We told them they might take land where they pleased, there was
enough for them and for us; that it was good the same sun should
enlighten us both, and that we would walk as friends in the same path;
and that we would give them of our provisions, assist them to build,
and to labour in their fields. We have done so; is not this true? What
occasion then had we for Frenchmen? Before they came, did we not live
better than we do, seeing we deprive ourselves of a part of our corn,
our game, and fish, to give a part to them? In what respect, then, had
we occasion for them? Was it for their guns? The bows and arrows which
we used, were sufficient to make us live well. Was it for their white,
blue, and red blankets? We can do well enough with buffalo skins,
which are warmer; our women wrought feather-blankets for the winter,
and mulberry-mantles for the summer; which indeed were not so
beautiful; but our women were more laborious and less vain than they
are now. In fine, before the arrival of the French, we lived like men
who can be satisfied with what they have; whereas at this day we are
like slaves, who are not suffered to do as they please."
To this unexpected discourse I know not what answer another would have
made; but I frankly own, that if at my first address he seemed to be
confused, I really was so in my turn. "My heart," said I to him,
"better understands thy {42} reasons than my ears, though they are
full of them; and though I have a tongue to answer, my ears have not
heard the reasons of M. de Biainville, to tell them thee: but I know
it was necessary to have the head he demanded, in order to a peace.
When our Chiefs command us, we never require the reasons: I can say
nothing else to thee. But to shew you that I am always your real
friend, I have here a beautiful _pipe of peace_, which I wanted to carry
to my own country. I know you have ordered all your warriors to kill
some white eagles, in order to make one, because you have occasion for
it. I give it you without any other design than to shew you that I
reckon nothing dear to me, when I want to do you a pleasure."
I went to look for it, and I gave it him, telling him, that it was
_without design;_ that is, according to them, from no interested motive.
The natives put as great a value on a _pipe of peace_ as on a gun. Mine
was adorned with tinsel and silver wire: so that in their estimation
my pipe was worth two guns. He appeared to be extremely well pleased
with it; put it up hastily in his case, squeezed my hand with a smile,
and called me his true friend.
The winter was now drawing to a close, and in a little time the
natives were to bring us bear-oil to truck. I hoped that by his means
I should have of the best preferably to any other; which was the only
compensation I expected for my pipe. But I was agreeably disappointed.
He sent me a deer-skin of bear-oil, so very large that a stout man
could hardly carry it, and the bearer told me, that he sent it to me
as his true friend, _without design_. This deer-skin contained
thirty-one pots of the measure of the country, or sixty-two pints
Paris measure.
Three days after, the Great Sun, his brother, sent me another
deer-skin of the same oil, to the quantity of forty pints. The
commonest sort sold this year at twenty sols a pint, and I was sure
mine was not of the worst kind.
For some days a _fistula lacrymalis_ had come into my left eye, which
discharged an humour, when pressed, that portended danger. I shewed it
to M. St. Hilaire, an able surgeon, who {43} had practised for about
twelve years in the Hôtel Dieu at Paris.
He told me it was necessary to use the fire for it; and that,
notwithstanding this operation, my sight would remain as good as ever,
only my eye would be blood-shot: and that if I did not speedily set
about the operation, the bone of the nose would become carious.
These reasons gave me much uneasiness, as having both to fear and to
suffer at the same time: however, after I had resolved to undergo the
operation, the Grand Sun and his brother came one morning very early,
with a man loaded with game, as a present for me.
The Great Sun observed I had a swelling in my eye, and asked me what
was the matter with it. I shewed it him, and told him, that in order
to cure it, I must have fire put to it; but that I had some difficulty
to comply, as I dreaded the consequences of such an operation. Without
replying, or in the least apprizing me, he ordered the man who brought
the game to go in quest of his physician, and tell him, he waited for
him at my house. The messenger and physician made such dispatch, that
this last came in an hour after. The Great Sun ordered him to look at
my eye, and endeavour to cure me: after examining it, the physician
said, he would undertake to cure me with simples and common water. I
consented to this with so much the greater pleasure and readiness, as
by this treatment I ran no manner of risque.
That very evening the physician came with his simples, all pounded
together, and making but a single ball, which he put with the water in
a deep bason, he made me bend my head into it, so as the eye affected
stood dipt quite open in the water. I continued to do so for eight or
ten days, morning and evening; after which, without any other
operation, I was perfectly cured, and never after had any return of
the disorder.
It is easy from this relation to understand what dextrous physicians
the natives of Louisiana are. I have seen them perform surprising
cures on Frenchmen; on two especially, who had put themselves under
the hands of a French surgeon {44} settled at this post. Both patients
were about to undergo the grand cure; and after having been under the
hands of the surgeon for some time, their heads swelled to such a
degree, that one of them made his escape, with as much agility as a
criminal would from the hands of justice, when a favourable
opportunity offers. He applied to a Natchez physician, who cured him
in eight days: his comrade continuing still under the French surgeon,
died under his hands three days after the escape of his companion,
whom I saw three years after in a state of perfect health.
In the war which I lately mentioned, the Grand Chief of the Tonicas,
our allies, was wounded with a ball, which went through his cheek,
came out under the jaw, again entered his body at the neck, and
pierced through to the shoulder-blade, lodging at last between the
flesh and the skin: the wound had its direction in this manner;
because when he received it, he happened to be in a stooping posture,
as were all his men, in order to fire. The French surgeon, under whose
care he was, and who dressed him with great precaution, was an able
man, and spared no pains in order to effect a cure. But the physicians
of this Chief, who visited him every day, asked the Frenchman what
time the cure would take? he answered, six weeks at least: they
returned no answer, but went directly and made a litter; spoke to
their Chief, and put him on it, carried him off, and treated him in
their own manner, and in eight days affected a complete cure.
These are facts well known in the colony. The physicians of the
country have performed many other cures, which, if they were to be all
related, would require a whole volume apart; but I have confined
myself to the three above mentioned, in order to shew that disorders
frequently accounted almost incurable, are, without any painful
operation, and in a short time, cured by physicians, natives of
Louisiana.
The West India Company being informed that this province produces a
great many simples, whose virtues, known by the natives, afforded so
easy a cure to all sorts of distempers, ordered M. de la Chaise, who
was sent from France in quality of Director General of this colony, to
cause enquiry to be made {45} into the simples proper for physick and
for dying, by means of some Frenchmen, who might perhaps be masters of
the secrets of the natives. I was pointed out for this purpose to M.
de la Chaise, who was but just arrived, and who wrote to me, desiring
my assistance in this enquiry; which I gave him with pleasure, and in
which I exerted myself to my utmost, because I well knew the Company
continually aimed at what might be for the benefit of the colony.
After I thought I had done in that respect, what might give
satisfaction to the Company, I transplanted in earth, put into cane
baskets, above three hundred simples, with their numbers, and a
memorial, which gave a detail of their virtues, and taught the manner
of using them. I afterwards understood that they were planted in a
botanic garden made for the purpose, by order of the Company.
CHAPTER IX.
_French Settlements, or Posts. The Post at Mobile. The Mouths of the
Missisippi. The Situation and Description of_ New Orleans.
The Settlement at Mobile was the first seat of the colony in this
province. It was the residence of the Commandant General, the
Commissary General, the Staff-officers, &c. As vessels could not enter
the river Mobile, and there was a small harbour at Isle Dauphine, a
settlement was made suited to the harbour, with a guardhouse for its
security: so that these two settlements may be said to have made but
one; both on account of their proximity, and necessary connection with
each other. The settlement of Mobile, ten leagues, however, from its
harbour, lies on the banks of the river of that name; and Isle
Dauphine, over against the mouth of that river, is four leagues from
the coast.
Though the settlement of Mobile be the oldest, yet it is far from
being the most considerable. Only some inhabitants remained there, the
greatest part of the first inhabitants having left it, in order to
settle on the river Missisippi, ever since New Orleans became the
capital of the colony. That old post is the {46} ordinary residence of
a King's Lieutenant, a Regulating Commissary, and a Treasurer. The
fort, with four bastions, terraced and palisaded, has a garrison.
This post is a check upon the nation of Choctaws, and cuts off the
communication of the English with them; it protects the neighbouring
nations, and keeps them in our alliance; in fine, it supports our
peltry trade, which is considerable with the Choctaws and other
nations. [Footnote: Fort Lewis at Mobile is built upon the river that
bears the same name, which falls into the sea opposite to Dauphine
island. The fort is about 15 or 16 leagues distant from that island;
and is built of brick, fortified with four bastions, in the manner of
Vauban, with half-moons, a covered way and glacis. There is a magazine
in it, with barracks for the troops of the garrison, which is
generally pretty numerous, and a flag for the commandant.
I must own, I never could see for what reason this fort was built, or
what could be the use of it. For although it is 120 leagues from the
capital, to go down the river, yet it is from thence that they must
have every thing that is necessary for the support of the garrison:
and the soil is so bad, being nothing but sand, that it produces
nothing but pines and firs, with a little pulse, which grows there but
very indifferently: so that there are here but very few people. The
only advantage of this place is, that the air is mild and healthful,
and that it affords a traffick with the Spaniards who are near it. The
winter is the most agreeable season, as it is mild, and affords plenty
of game. But in summer the heats are excessive; and the inhabitants
have nothing hardly to live upon but fish, which are pretty plentiful
on the coast, and in the river. _Dumont_, II. 80.]
The same reason which pointed out the necessity of this post, with
respect to the Choctaws, also shewed the necessity of building a fort
at Tombecbé, to check the English in their ambitious views on the side
of the Chicasaws. That fort was built only since the war with the
Chicasaws in 1736.
Near the river Mobile stands the small settlement of the
Pasca-Ogoulas; which consists only of a few Canadians, lovers of
tranquillity, which they prefer to all the advantages they could reap
from commerce. They content themselves with a frugal country life, and
never go to New Orleans but for necessaries.
From that settlement quite to New Orleans, by the way of Lake St.
Louis, there is no post at present. Formerly, and {47} just before the
building of the capital, there were the old and new Biloxi:
settlements, which have deserved an oblivion as lasting as their
duration was short.
To proceed with order and perspicuity, we will go up the Missisippi
from its mouth.
Fort Balise is at the entrance of the Missisippi, in 29° degrees North
Latitude, and 286° 30' of Longitude. This fort is built on an isle, at
one of the mouths of the Missisippi. Tho' there are but seventeen feet
water in the channel, I have seen vessels of five hundred ton enter
into it. I know not why this entrance is left so neglected, as we are
not in want of able engineers in France, in the hydraulic branch, a
part of the mathematics to which I have most applyed myself. I know it
is no easy matter so to deepen or hollow the channel of a bar, that it
may never after need clearing, and that the expences run high: but my
zeal for promoting the advantage of this colony having prompted me to
make reflections on those passes, or entrances of the Missisippi, and
being perfectly well acquainted both with the country and the nature
of the soil, I dare flatter myself, I may be able to accomplish it, to
the great benefit of the province, and acquit myself therein with
honour, at a small charge, and in a manner not to need repetition.
[Footnote: Seven leagues above the mouth of the river we meet with two
other passes, as large as the middle one by which we entered; one is
called the Otter Pass, and the other the East Pass; and they assure
me, it is only by this last Pass that ships now go up or down the
river, they having entirely deserted the ancient middle pass. _Dumont,_
I. 4.
Many other bays and rivers, not known to our authors, lying along the
bay of Mexico, to the westward of the Missisippi, are described by Mr.
Coxe, in his account of Carolina, called by the French Louisiana.]
I say, fort Balise is built upon an island; a circumstance, I imagine,
sufficient to make it understood, that this fort is irregular; the
figure and extent of this small island not admitting it to be
otherwise.
In going up the Missisippi, we meet with nothing remarkable before we
come to the Detour aux Anglois, the English Reach: in that part the
river takes a large compass; so that {48} the same wind, which was
before fair, proves contrary in this elbow, or reach. For this reason
it was thought proper to build two forts at that place, one on each
side of the river, to check any attempts of strangers. These forts are
more than sufficient to oppose the passage of an hundred sail; as
ships can go up the river, only one after another, and can neither
cast anchor, nor come on shore to moor.
It will, perhaps, be thought extraordinary that ships cannot anchor in
this place. I imagine the reader will be of my opinion, when I tell
him, the bottom is only a soft mud, or ooze, almost entirely covered
with dead trees, and this for upwards of an hundred leagues. As to
putting on shore, it is equally impossible and needless to attempt it;
because the place where these forts stand, is but a neck of land
between the river and the marshes: now it is impossible for a shallop,
or canoe, to come near to moor a vessel, in sight of a fort well
guarded, or for an enemy to throw up a trench in a neck of land so
soft. Besides, the situation of the two forts is such, that they may in
a short time receive succours, both from the inhabitants, who are on
the interior edge of the crescent, formed by the river, and from New
Orleans, which is very near thereto.
The distance from this place to the capital is reckoned six leagues by
water, and the course nearly circular; the winding, or reach, having
the figure of a C almost close. Both sides of the river are lined with
houses, which afford a beautiful prospect to the eye; however, as this
voyage is tedious by water, it is often performed on horseback by
land.
The great difficulties attending the going up the river under sail,
particularly at the English Reach, for the reasons mentioned, put me
upon devising a very simple and cheap machine, to make vessels go up
with ease quite to New-Orleans. Ships are sometimes a month in the
passage from Balise to the capital; whereas by my method they would
not be eight days, even with a contrary wind; and thus ships would go
four times quicker than by towing, or turning it. This machine might
be deposited at Balise, and delivered to the vessel, in order to go up
the current, and be returned again on its setting sail. It is besides
proper to observe, that this machine would be no detriment {49} to the
forts, as they would always have it in their power to stop the vessels
of enemies, who might happen to use it.
New Orleans, the capital of the colony, is situated to the East, on
the banks of the Missisippi, in 30° of North Latitude. At my first
arrival in Louisiana, it existed only in name; for on my landing I
understood M. de Biainville, commandant general, was only gone to mark
out the spot; whence he returned three days after our arrival at Isle
Dauphine.
He pitched upon this spot in preference to many others, more agreeable
and commodious; but for that time this was a place proper enough:
besides, it is not every man that can see so far as some others. As
the principal settlement was then at Mobile, it was proper to have the
capital fixed at a place from which there could be an easy
communication with this post: and thus a better choice could not have
been made, as the town being on the banks of the Missisippi, vessels,
tho' of a thousand ton, may lay their sides close to the shore even at
low water; or at most, need only lay a small bridge, with two of their
yards, in order to load or unload, to roll barrels and bales, &c.
without fatiguing the ship's crew. This town is only a league from St.
John's creek, where passengers take water for Mobile, in going to
which they pass Lake St. Louis, and from thence all along the coast; a
communication which was necessary at that time.
I should imagine, that if a town was at this day to be built in this
province, a rising ground would be pitched upon, to avoid inundations;
besides, the bottom should be sufficiently firm, for bearing grand
stone edifices.
Such as have been a good way in the country, without seeing stone, or
the least pebble, in upwards of a hundred leagues extent, will doubtless
say, such a proposition is impossible, as they never observed stone
proper for building in the parts they travelled over. I might answer,
and tell them, they have eyes, and see not. I narrowly considered the
nature of this country, and found quarries in it; and if there were any
in the colony I ought to find them, as my condition and profession of
architect should have procured me the knowledge of {51} them. After
giving the situation of the capital, it is proper I describe the order
in which it is built.
[Illustration: _Plan of New Orleans, 1720_ (on p. 50)]
The place of arms is in the middle of that part of the town which
faces the river; in the middle of the ground of the place of arms
stands the parish church, called St. Louis, where the Capuchins
officiate, whose house is to the left of the church. To the right
stand the prison, or jail, and the guard-house: both sides of the
place of arms are taken up by two bodies or rows of barracks. This
place stands all open to the river.
All the streets are laid out both in length and breadth by the line,
and intersect and cross each other at right angles. The streets divide
the town into sixty-six isles; eleven along the river lengthwise, or
in front, and six in depth: each of those isles is fifty square
toises, and each again divided into twelve emplacements, or
compartments, for lodging as many families. The Intendant's house
stands behind the barracks on the left; and the magazine, or
warehouse-general behind the barracks on the right, on viewing the
town from the river side. The Governor's house stands in the middle of
that part of the town, from which we go from the place of arms to the
habitation of the Jesuits, which is near the town. The house of the
Ursulin Nuns is quite at the end of the town, to the right; as is also
the hospital of the sick, of which the nuns have the inspection. What
I have just described faces the river.
On the banks of the river runs a causey, or mole, as well on the side
of the town as on the opposite side, from the English Reach quite to
the town, and about ten leagues beyond it; which makes about fifteen
or sixteen leagues on each side the river; and which may be travelled
in a coach or on horseback, on a bottom as smooth as a table.
The greatest part of the houses is of brick; the rest are of timber
and brick.
The length of the causeys, I just mentioned, is sufficient to shew,
that on these two sides of the Missisippi there are many habitations
standing close together; each making a causey to secure his ground
from inundations, which fail not to come every year with the spring:
and at that time, if any ships {52} happen to be in the harbour of New
Orleans, they speedily set sail; because the prodigious quantity of
dead wood, or trees torn up by the roots, which the river brings down,
would lodge before the ship, and break the stoutest cables.
At the end of St. John's Creek, on the banks of the Lake St. Louis,
there is a redoubt, and a guard to defend it.
From this creek to the town, a part of its banks is inhabited by
planters; in like manner as are the long banks of another creek: the
habitations of this last go under the name of Gentilly.
After these habitations, which are upon the Missisippi quite beyond
the Cannes Brulées, Burnt Canes, we meet none till we come to the
Oumas, a petty nation so called. This settlement is inconsiderable,
tho' one of the oldest next to the capital. It lies on the east of the
Missisippi.
The Baton Rogue is also on the east side of the Missisippi, and
distant twenty-six leagues from New Orleans: it was formerly the grant
of M. Artaguette d'Iron: it is there we see the famouse cypress-tree
of which a ship-carpenter offered to make two pettyaugres, one of
sixteen, the other of fourteen tons. Some one of the first
adventurers, who landed in this quarter, happened to say, that tree
would make a fine walking-stick, and as cypress is a red wood, it was
afterwards called le Baton Rouge. Its height could never be measured,
it rises so out of sight.
Two leagues higher up than le Baton Rouge, was the Grant of M. Paris
du Vernai. This settlement is called Bayou-Ogoulas, from a nation of
that name, which formerly dwelt here. It is on the west side of the
Missisippi, and twenty-eight leagues from New Orleans.
At a league on this side of Pointe Coupée, are les Petits Ecores,
(little Cliffs) where was the grant of the Marquis de Mezieres. At
this grant were a director and under-director; but the surgeon found
out the secret of remaining sole master. The place is very beautiful,
especially behind les Petits Ecores, where we go up by a gentle
ascent. Near these cliffs, a rivulet falls into the Missisippi, into
which a spring discharges its waters, which so attract the buffalos,
that they are very often {53} found on its banks. 'Tis a pity this
ground was deserted; there was enough of it to make a very
considerable grant: a good water-mill might be guilt on the brook I
just mentioned.
At forty leagues from New Orleans lies a la Pointe Coupée, so called,
because the Missisippi made there an elbow or winding, and formed the
figure of a circle, open only about an hundred and odd toises, thro'
which it made itself a shorter way, and where all its water runs at
present. This was not the work of nature alone: two travellers, coming
down the Missisippi, were forced to stop short at this place, because
they observed at a distance the surff, or waves, to be very high, the
wind beating against the current, and the river being out, so that they
durst not venture to proceed. Just by them passed a rivulet, caused by
the inundation, which might be a foot deep, by four or five feet broad,
more or less. One of the travellers, seeing himself without any thing to
do, took his fusil and followed the course of this rivulet, in hopes of
killing some game. He had not gone an hundred toises, before he was put
into a very great surprize, on perceiving a great opening, as when one
is just getting out of a thick forest. He continues to advance, sees a
large extent of water, which he takes for a lake; but turning on his
left, he espies les Petits Ecores, just mentioned, and by experience he
knew, he must go ten leagues to get thither: Upon this he knew, these
were the waters of the river. He runs to acquaint his companion: this
last wants to be sure of it: certain as they are both of it, they
resolve, that it was necessary to cut away the roots, which stood in the
passage, and to level the more elevated places. They attempted at length
to pass their pettyaugre through, by pushing it before them. They
succeeded beyond their expectation; the water which came on, aided them
as much by its weight as by its depth, which was increased by the
obstacle it met in its way: and they saw themselves in a short time in
the Missisippi, ten leagues lower down than they were an hour before; or
than they would have been, if they had followed the bed of the river, as
they were formerly constrained to do.
This little labour of our travellers moved the earth; the roots being
cut away in part, proved no longer an obstacle to {54} the course of
the water; the slope or descent in this small passage was equal to
that in the river for the ten leagues of the compass it took; in fine,
nature, though feebly aided, performed the rest. The first time I went
up the river, its entire body of water passed through this part; and
though the channel was only made six years before, the old bed was
almost filled with the ooze, which the river had there deposited; and
I have seen trees growing there of an astonishing size, that one might
wonder how they should come to be so large in so short a time.
In this spot, which is called la Pointe Coupée, the Cut-point, was the
Grant of M. de Meuse, at present one of the most considerable posts of
the colony, with a fort, a garrison, and an officer to command there.
The river is on each side lined with inhabitants, who make a great
deal of tobacco. There an Inspector resides, who examines and receives
it, in order to prevent the merchants being defrauded. The inhabitants
of the west side have high lands behind them, which form a very fine
country, as I have observed above.
Twenty leagues above this Cut-point, and sixty leagues from New
Orleans, we meet with the Red River. In an island formed by that
river, stands a French post, with a fort, a garrison, its commandant
and officers. The first inhabitants who settled there, were some
soldiers of that post, discharged after their time of serving was
expired, who set themselves to make tobacco in the island. But the
fine sand, carried by the wind upon the leaves of the tobacco, made it
of a bad quality, which obliged them to abandon the island and settle
on the continent, where they found a good soil, on which they made
better tobacco. This post is called the Nachitoches, from a nation of
that name, settled in the neighbourhood. At this post M. de St. Denis
commanded.
Several inhabitants of Louisiana, allured thither by the hopes of making
soon great fortunes, because distant only seven leagues from the
Spaniards, imagined the abundant treasures of New Mexico would pour in
upon them. But in this they happened to be mistaken; for the Spanish
post, called the Adaïes less money in it than the poorest village in
Europe: the Spaniards being ill clad, ill fed, and always ready to buy
{55} goods of the French on credit: which may be said in general of all
the Spaniards of New Mexico, amidst all their mines of gold and silver.
This we are well informed of by our merchants, who have dealt with the
Spaniards of this post, and found their habitations and way of living to
be very mean, and more so than those of the French.
From the confluence of this Red River, in going up the Missisippi, as
we have hitherto done, we find, about thirty leagues higher up, the
post of the Natchez.
Let not the reader be displeased at my saying often, _nearly_, or _about
so many leagues_: we can ascertain nothing justly as to the distances
in a country where we travel only by water. Those who go up the
Missisippi, having more trouble, and taking more time than those who
go down, reckon the route more or less long, according to the time in
which they make their voyage; besides, when the water is high, it
covers passes, which often shorten the way a great deal.
The Natchez are situate in about 32° odd minutes of north latitude,
and 280° of longitude. The fort at this post stands two hundred feet
perpendicular above low-water mark. From this fort the point of view
extends west of the Missisippi quite to the horizon, that is, on the
side opposite to that where the fort stands, though the west side be
covered with woods, because the foot of the fort stands much higher
than the trees. On the same side with the fort, the country holds at a
pretty equal height, and declines only by a gentle and almost
imperceptible slope, insensibly losing itself from one eminence to
another.
The nation which gave name to this post, inhabited this very place at
a league from the landing-place on the Missisippi, and dwelt on the
banks of a rivulet, which has only a course of four or five leagues to
that river. All travellers who passed and stopped here, went to pay a
visit to the natives, the Natchez. The distance of the league they
went to them is through so fine and good a country, the natives
themselves were so obliging and familiar, and the women so amiable,
that all travellers failed not to make the greatest encomiums both on
the country, and on the native inhabitants.
{56} The just commendations bestowed upon them drew thither
inhabitants in such numbers, as to determine the Company to give
orders for building a fort there, as well to support the French
already settled, and those who should afterwards come thither, as to
be a check on that nation. The garrison consisted only of between
thirty and forty men, a Captain, a Lieutenant, Under Lieutenant, and
two Serjeants.
The Company had there a warehouse for the supply of the inhabitants, who
were daily increasing in spite of all the efforts of one of the
principal Superiors, who put all imaginable obstacles in the way: and
notwithstanding the progress this settlement made, and the encomiums
bestowed upon it, and which it deserved, God in his providence gave it
up to the rage of its enemies, in order to take vengeance of the sins
committed there; for without mentioning those who escaped the general
massacre, there perished of them upwards of five hundred.
Forty leagues higher up than the Natchez, is the river Yasou. The
Grant of M. le Blanc, Minister, or Secretary at War, was settled
there, four leagues from the Missisippi, as you go up this little
river. [Footnote: The village of the Indians (Yasous) is a league from
this settlement; and on one side of it there is a hill, on which they
pretend that the English formerly had a fort; accordingly there are
still some traces of it to be seen. _Dumont_, II. 296.] There a fort
stands, with a company of men, commanded by a Captain, a Lieutenant,
Under-Lieutenant, and two Serjeants. This company, together with the
servants, were in the pay of this Minister.
This post was very advantageously situated, as well for the goodness
of the air as the quality of the soil, like to that of the Natchez, as
for the landing-place, which was very commodious, and for the commerce
with the natives, if our people but knew how to gain and preserve
their friendship. But the neighbourhood of the Chicasaws, ever fast
friends of the English, and ever instigated by them to give us
uneasiness, almost cut off any hopes of succeeding. This post was on
these accounts threatened with utter ruin, sooner or later; as
actually happened in 1722, by means of those wretched Chicasaws; {57}
who came in the night and murdered the people in the settlements that
were made by two serjeants out of the fort. But a boy who was scalped
by them was cured, and escaped with life.
Sixty miles higher up than the Yasouz, and at the distance of two
hundred leagues from New Orleans, dwell the Arkansas, to the west of
the Missisippi. At the entrance of the river which goes by the name of
that nation, there is a small fort, which defends that post, which is
the second of the colony in point of time.
It is a great pity so good and fine a country is distant from the sea
upwards of two hundred leagues. I cannot omit mentioning, that wheat
thrives extremely well here, without our being obliged ever to manure
the land; and I am so prepossessed in its favour, that I persuade
myself the beauty of the climate has a great influence on the
character of the inhabitants, who are at the same time very gentle and
very brave. They have ever had an inviolable friendship for the
French, uninfluenced thereto either by fear or views of interest; and
live with the French near them as brethren rather than as neighbours.
In going from the Arkansas to the Illinois, we meet with the river St.
Francis, thirty leagues more to the north, and on the west side of the
Missisippi. There a small fort has been built since my return to
France. To the East of the Missisippi, but more to the north, we also
meet, at about thirty leagues, the river Margot, near the steep banks
of Prud'homme: there a fort was also built, called Assumption, for
undertaking an expedition against the Chicasaws, who are nearly in the
same latitude. These two forts, after that expedition, were entirely
demolished by the French, because they were thought to be no longer
necessary. It is, however, probable enough, that this fort Assumption
would have been a check upon the Chicasaws, who are always roving in
those parts. Besides, the steep banks of Prud'homme contain iron and
pit-coal. On the other hand, the country is very beautiful, and of an
excellent quality, abounding with plains and meadows, which favour the
excursions of the Chicasaws, and which they will ever continue to make
upon us, till we have the address to divert them from their commerce
with the English.
{58} We have no other French settlements to mention in Louisiana, but
that of the Illinois; in which part of the colony we had the first
fort. At present the French settlement here is on the banks of the
Missisippi, near one of the villages of the Illinois. [Footnote: They
have, or had formerly, other settlements hereabouts, at Kaskaskies,
fort Chartres, Tamaroas, and on the river Marameg, on the west side of
the Missisippi, where they found those mines that gave rise to the
Missisippi scheme in 1719. In 1742, when John Howard, Sallee and
others, were sent from Virginia to view those countries, they were
made prisoners by the French; who came from a settlement they had on
an island in the Missisippi, a little above the Ohio, where they made
salt, lead, &c. and went from thence to New Orleans, in a fleet of
boats and canoes, guarded by a large armed schooner. _Report of the
Government of Virginia_.] That post is commanded by one of the
principal officers; and M. de Bois-Briant, who was lieutenant of the
king, has commanded at it.
Many French inhabitants both from Canada and Europe live there at this
day; but the Canadians make three-fourths at least. The Jesuits have
the Cure there, with a fine habitation and a mill; in digging the
foundation of which last, a quarry of orbicular flat stones was found,
about two inches in diameter, of the shape of a buffoon's cap, with
six sides, whose groove was set with small buttons of the size of the
head of a minikin or small pin. Some of these stones were bigger, some
smaller; between the stones which could not be joined, there was no
earth found.
The Canadians, who are numerous in Louisiana, are most of them at the
Illinois. This climate, doubtless, agrees better with them, because
nearer Canada than any other settlement of the colony. Besides, in
coming from Canada, they always pass through this settlement; which
makes them choose to continue here. They bring their wives with them,
or marry the French or India women. The ladies even venture to make
this long and painful voyage from Canada, in order to end their days in
a country which the Canadians look upon as a terrestrial paradise
[Footnote: It is this that has made the French undergo so many long and
perilous voyages in North-America, upwards of two thousand miles,
against currents, cataracts, and boisterous winds on the lakes, in
order to get to this settlement of the Illinois, which is nigh to the
Forks of the Missisippi, the most important place in all the inland
parts of North-America, to which the French will sooner or later remove
from Canada; and there erect another Montreal, that will be much more
dangerous and prejudicial to us, than ever the other in Canada was.
They will here be in the midst of all their old friends and allies, and
much more convenient to carry on a trade with them, to spirit them up
against the English, &c. than ever they were at Montreal. To this
settlement, where they likewise are not without good hopes of finding
mines, the French will for ever be removing, as long as any of them are
left in Canada.]
{59}
CHAPTER X.
_The Voyages of the_ French _to the_ Missouris, Canzas, _and_ Padoucas.
_The Settlements they in vain attempted to make in those Countries; with
a Description of an extraordinary Phaenomenon._
The Padoucas, who lie west by northwest of the Missouris, happened at
that time to be at war with the neighbouring nations, the Canzas,
Othouez, Aiaouez, Osages, Missouris, and Panimahas, all in amity with
the French. To conciliate a peace between all these nations and the
Padoucas, M. de Bourgmont sent to engage them, as being our allies, to
accompany him on a journey to the Padoucas, in order to bring about a
general pacification, and by that means to facilitate the traffick or
truck between them and us, and conclude an alliance with the Padoucas.
For this purpose M. de Bourgmont set out on the 3d of July, 1724, from
Fort Orleans, which lies near the Missouris, a nation dwelling on the
banks of the river of that name, in order to join that people, and
then to proceed to the Canzas, where the general rendezvous of the
several nations was appointed.
M. de Bourgmont was accompanied by an hundred Missouris, commanded by
their Grand Chief, and eight other Chiefs of war, and by sixty-four
Osages, commanded by four Chiefs of war, besides a few Frenchmen. On
the sixth he joined the Grand Chief, six other Chiefs of war, and
several Warriors of the Canzas, who presented him the Pipe of Peace,
{60} and performed the honours customary on such occasions, to the
Missouris and Osages.
On the 7th they passed through extensive meadows and woods, and
arrived on the banks of the river Missouri, over against the village
of the Canzas.
On the 8th the French crossed the Missouri in a pettyaugre, the
Indians on floats of cane, and the horses were swam over. They landed
within a gun-shot of the Canzas, who flocked to receive them with the
Pipe; their Grand Chief, in the name of the nation, assuring M. de
Bourgmont that all their warriors would accompany him in his journey
to the Padoucas, with protestations of friendship and fidelity,
confirmed by smoking the Pipe. The same assurances were made him by
the other Chiefs, who entertained him in their huts, and [Footnote: It
is thus they express their joy and caresses, at the sight of a person
they respect.] rubbed him over and his companions.
On the 9th M. de Bourgmont dispatched five Missouris to acquaint the
Othouez with his arrival at the Canzas. They returned on the 10th, and
brought word that the Othouez promised to hunt for him and his
Warriors, and to cause provisions to be dried for the journey; that
their Chief would set out directly, in order to wait on M. de
Bourgmont, and carry him the word of the whole nation.
The Canzas continued to regale the French; brought them also great
quantities of grapes, of which the French made a good wine.
On the 24th of July, at six in the morning, this little army set out,
consisting of three hundred Warriors, including the Chiefs of the
Canzas, three hundred women, about five hundred young people, and at
least three hundred dogs. The women carried considerable loads, to the
astonishment of the French, unaccustomed to such a sight. The young
women also were well loaded for their years; and the dogs were made to
trail a part of the baggage, and that in the following manner: the
back of the dog was covered with a skin, with its pile on, then the
dog was girthed round, and his breast-leather put on; and {61} taking
two poles of the thickness of one's arm, and twelve feet long, they
fastened their two ends half a foot asunder, laying on the dog's
saddle the thong that fastened the two poles; and to the poles they
also fastened, behind the dog, a ring or hoop, lengthwise, on which
they laid the load.
On the 28th and 29th the army crossed several brooks and small rivers,
passed through several meadows and thickets, meeting every where on
their way a great deal of game.
On the 30th M. de Bourgmont, finding himself very ill, was obliged to
have a litter made, in order to be carried back to Fort Orleans till
he should recover. Before his departure he gave orders about two
Padouca slaves whom he had ransomed, and was to send before him to
that nation, in order to ingratiate himself by this act of generosity.
These he caused to be sent by one Gaillard, who was to tell their
nation, that M. de Bourgmont, being fallen ill on his intended journey
to their country, was obliged to return home; but that as soon as he
got well again, he would resume his journey to their country, in order
to procure a general peace between them and the other nations.
On the evening of the same day arrived at the camp the Grand Chief of
the Othouez: who acquainted M. de Bourgmont, that a great part of his
Warriors waited for him on the road to the Padoucas, and that he came
to receive his orders; but was sorry to find him ill.
At length, on the 4th of August, M. de Bourgmont set out from the
Canzas in a pettyaugre, and arrived the 5th at Fort Orleans.
On the 6th of September, M. de Bourgmont, who was still at Fort
Orleans, was informed of the arrival of the two Padouca slaves on the
25th of August at their own nation; and that meeting on the way a body
of Padouca hunters, a day's journey from their village, the Padouca
slaves made the signal of their nation, by throwing their mantles
thrice over their heads: that they spoke much in commendation of the
generosity of M. de Bourgmont, who had ransomed them: told all he had
done in order to a general pacification: in fine, extolled the French
to such a degree, that their discourse, held in presence {62} of the
Grand Chief and of the whole nation, diffused an universal joy that
Gaillard told them, the flag they saw was the symbol of Peace, and the
word of the Sovereign of the French: that in a little time the several
nations would come to be like brethren
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