_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.