before him. In the straits in which he and his people were placed, his
splendid qualities for leadership shine out of the gloom like a guiding
star. The resources of the colony were nearly exhausted in fitting out
previous parties, but the scanty stores were ransacked anew to equip
those who were to be the saviors of the rest. The horses which La Salle
had brought in were loaded with baggage and ammunition. All was ready.
A midnight mass was solemnly said. La Salle spoke a few hopeful words
to those who were to endure a suspense perhaps even greater than his
own, and then, mastering his own feelings, he turned away to join his
followers,—the forlorn hope of the expiring colony.
On the 15th of March, 1687, the hunters who were out killed a buffalo.
The party therefore halted till the meat could be brought into camp.
Here it was that the hatred, long nursed in secret, openly revealed
itself in murder. Misery always begets quarrels, but in this case the
sole incitement was revenge. La Salle had the unhappy faculty of making
enemies, of whom his worst ones were then close at hand, and plotting
for his life. A quarrel about the meat hastened the work on. Those
who were faithful to La Salle became the conspirators' first victims.
Three of these, whom La Salle had sent over to the hunters' camp, were
butchered while they slept.
La Salle himself was encamped six miles distant from the place where
these murders were committed. Growing uneasy at the long absence of
the men he had sent away, he started with an Indian guide for their
camp. A friar named Douay also accompanied him. This friar noted in La
Salle's talk and manner the presentiment of coming evil. On reaching
a point which he supposed to be near the hunters' camp, La Salle fired
his musket as a signal. One of the conspirators showed himself, while
the others lay hid in the long prairie-grass unobserved. La Salle fell
into the snare thus set for him. While advancing toward the decoy, whose
insolent replies angered him, La Salle constantly neared the ambuscade.
Suddenly a shot was fired. When the smoke cleared away, La Salle was
seen stretched lifeless upon the prairie. He was quite dead.[5] The
bullet had gone through his brain.
Thus, in the prime of life, fell Robert Cavelier de La Salle, and thus
again must history record its indignant protest in the death of a man
of highest intellectual force, whose worth to the world was monumental
as compared with that of the vulgar assassin who slew him.
NOTE.—THE COLONISTS AT ST. LOUIS, except three or four who
were carried into captivity, were all massacred by the
Indians. A Spanish expedition in 1689 found the place a
solitude. Those who escaped subsequently related what had
occurred. Although this was the first white colony to be
founded in Texas,[6] in itself it was an accident, no less
productive of results, because it led the Spaniards to occupy
the country in order to keep out intruders like La Salle.
Geographical knowledge was also remarkably extended.
FOOTNOTES
[1] NEW BISCAY. Refer to chapter "New Mexico."
[2] LAVACA RIVER, also called by the French La Vache (the
cow).
[3] ST. LOUIS. This name was some time preserved in
connection with St. Bernard, or MATAGORDA BAY. Not to be
confounded with St. Louis of the Illinois.
[4] CENIS INDIANS occupied the east bank of the Trinity,
toward Red River.
[5] THE MURDER is located at a point nearly midway between
the Brazos and Trinity Rivers, on a map in the author's
possession, and not far from the old Spanish trail between
Nacodoches and the Presidio del Norte. After the murder, the
survivors went forward to the Cenis villages. In a quarrel
about the plunder, two of the ringleaders, Duhant and Liotot,
were killed by their confederates. This left the way open for
Joutel, the two priests, Cavelier (La Salle's brother), and
Douay, with three others, to continue their attempt to reach
the Mississippi. Those implicated in La Salle's murder, dared
not return to the settlements. With Indian guides the river
was struck at the Arkansas villages, where the fugitives met
with two of Tonty's men, who helped them on their way. Tonty
had been down the river on a fruitless search for La Salle.
[6] TEXAS. The name, in its present orthography, occurs at
this time in connection with La Salle's colony, but is first
found in "A Briefe Relation of Two Notable Voyages" (Hakluyt
iii. 464), made first by the friar Augustin Ruiz, in 1581, to
the Tiguas Indians, and next by Antonio de Espejo in 1583.
Shortened to Tejas (Tahas), the name was easily turned into
Texas, its present rendering.
IBERVILLE FOUNDS LOUISIANA.
Where La Salle had sowed, others were to reap, yet so comprehensive
were his plans, so well matured, so entirely feasible withal, that what
followed was but the natural result of his efforts. La Salle was like
the general who falls in the moment of victory. All honor then to his
name![1]
Therefore while we record his failure, individually, to do all he
purposed in this, his last expedition, the success which came later was
due to the master mind of La Salle. We shall not find, in any explorer
of his time, so original a mind united with such rare gifts for doing
the work to which he devoted himself.
For a time, the project of colonizing Louisiana[2] quietly slept.
It was then revived by a naval officer named Iberville,[3] who thus
became, in a manner, heir to La Salle's projects.
Iberville promised to rediscover the mouth of the Mississippi, and hold
it afterward by building a fort at its mouth, just as La Salle would
have done if he had lived to carry out his schemes.
Although it had slumbered long, the moment the project was renewed
by so capable a man as Iberville, every intelligent Frenchman saw
its importance. The minister Ponchartrain approved it directly it was
broached to him, the more because he knew that if any man could succeed
in what he undertook, Iberville would.
Iberville had seen much service in Canada, Hudson's Bay and
Newfoundland. Being himself a naval officer of rank, he would command
his own ships, and not be hampered by a divided command, or the jealousy
of a rival, which had proved such a formidable stumbling-block to La
Salle.
As the war was now over, Iberville wished to distinguish himself by some
worthy action done in the interests of peaceful conquest.
Two ships were therefore got ready, which sailed from Rochefort in
October, 1698, and anchored at St. Domingo[4] in December. Sailing
thence they fell in with the Florida coast January 27. A bay opened
before them. Iberville wished to put into this port, but on attempting
to do so he found it in the possession of three hundred Spaniards from
Vera Cruz, whose commander forbade his landing there. This place was
called Pensacola.[5]
Fearing the Spaniards were on the same errand[6] with himself,
Iberville at once made sail for the westward, hugging the shores as
closely as possible in order not to miss the river among the mists which
commonly hang over and hide it from view. Finding in Mobile Bay a harbor
where his ships could safely ride, while he himself continued the search
along the shore in boats, Iberville came to an anchor there.
Very shortly his exploring parties came to the Pascagoula River, where
they found many savages living. From this river they pushed on through
the intervening lagoons that everywhere intersect this shallow shore,
till, on the 2d of March, the Mississippi itself was entered through
one of its numerous passes.
Sailing on up the river, Iberville passed first one populous town and
then another, receiving everywhere a cordial welcome from the savages,
yet doubting within himself whether he was on the true Mississippi,
till one day a chief brought him a letter[7] which Tonty had left for
La Salle thirteen years before, when, after searching for his chief in
vain, this trusty comrade had turned back for the Illinois.
After mentioning that he had found La Salle's cross thrown down, and
had set up another in a better place, the letter concludes by saying,
"It is a great chagrin to me that we are going back without finding you,
after having coasted the Mexican (Louisiana) shore for thirty leagues,
and the Florida twenty-five."
[Illustration: SUGAR PLANT.]
This letter having removed all Iberville's doubts, he fell down the
river again, and having nowhere found, within sixty leagues of the Gulf,
a proper place to begin a settlement on, he turned back to the Bay of
Biloxi, where a spot was chosen and the ground marked out for one.
After seeing the establishment at Biloxi well under way, Iberville
took ship for France. He was back again early in January, 1701. During
his absence an English corvette had sailed twenty-five leagues up the
Mississippi to a point where the river sweeps grandly round to the east.
At this place her captain was warned back by the French, from which
circumstance the bend received the name of the English Turn, which it
has ever since borne.
Iberville also learned that English traders from Carolina[8] had
penetrated into the Chickasaw country above him. Finding himself
menaced both by sea and land, and delay dangerous, Iberville shut up the
entrance from sea by mounting some cannon near the mouth of the river.
The century turned noiselessly on its hinges with no other
establishments in all this great domain of Louisiana except that planted
by La Salle on the Illinois, and the one at Biloxi.
In 1701 Iberville began a settlement at Mobile. The next year he
erected storehouses and barracks on Dauphine Island[9] for permanent
occupation. In a few years this island became the general headquarters
of the Louisiana colony. Nothing worthy of the name, however, existed
before 1708. Up to this time the handful of colonists lived on what
was sent them from France, or obtained by trading French goods with the
savages. They sowed wheat, but found the climate too damp for growing
it with success. They also began the planting of tobacco, which did so
well that its culture presently became a mainstay of the colony.
[Illustration: MOUTHS OF THE MISSISSIPPI, AND ADJACENT COASTS.]
But while Iberville had thus gained a foothold, in what might be called
a good strategic position for approaching the Mississippi, either from
sea or through Lake Ponchartrain, he was actually but little nearer than
the Spaniards at Pensacola, who kept a watch on all his movements. Never
did nature seem more persistently thwarting the schemes of men than in
the attempt of these Frenchmen to enter upon what they considered their
rightful inheritance.
FOOTNOTES
[1] LA SALLE'S NAME is perpetuated in many places in the
United States, notably in a city and county of Illinois.
[2] COLONIZING LOUISIANA quietly slept, partly, but not
wholly, in consequence of war between England and France.
[3] IBERVILLE, LE MOYNE DE, was one of eight brothers, all
eminent in the annals of Canada. He was considered one of the
greatest sailors France has produced. In 1685 he assisted
in expelling the English from Hudson's Bay. Afterward he
took part in the defence of Quebec by Frontenac; destroyed
Pemaquid; and took St. John's, Newfoundland. As a commander
he was almost uniformly successful. Iberville's name is
perpetuated in a town and parish of Louisiana.
[4] ST. DOMINGO, or Hayti, had been seized by French
buccaneers, 1630. The French government took possession of the
island, 1677, thus establishing a _dépôt_ for their operations
in the Gulf of Mexico.
[5] PENSACOLA (Indian). A place of much historic interest.
First discovered, according to the Spaniards, by Narvaez,
then by Maldonado, one of De Soto's captains. It received
several Spanish names, notably that of Santa Maria de Galve,
but finally retained that of the neighboring tribe of savages.
[6] ON THE SAME ERRAND. That the Spaniards knew of the
Mississippi is clear from their having given it the name
Iberville afterward found so apt when ascending it,—Rio de
los Palissades,—a title suggested by the enormous rafts of
uprooted trees which the river brought down and left stranded
at its mouth.
[7] TONTY'S LETTER was left in the forks of a tree where
the Indians found it. It may be seen in full in Charlevoix,
ii. 259.
[8] ENGLISH TRADERS from Carolina were pushing their way
across the Appalachians. Many French Protestants who had fled
from their country on the revocation of the Edict of Nantes,
were settled in South Carolina, and it was feared the English
would attempt to settle a colony of them in Louisiana.
[9] DAUPHINE, originally Massacre Island.
FRANCE WINS THE PRIZE.
"_A soldier, fire, and water, soon make room for themselves._"
Iberville died at Havana in 1706, leaving his uncompleted work to his
younger brother, Bienville,[1] who set vigorously about it.
Many believed Natchez to be the best point on the river for founding a
settlement. Natchez therefore assumed importance to French plans for
the future. But Natchez was the principal seat of a powerful nation
whose enmity it would be impolitic to arouse by making forcible entry
upon their lands. An opportunity soon offered itself, however, which
Bienville quickly took advantage of.
[Illustration: BIENVILLE.
FOUNDER OF NEW ORLEANS, 1718.]
In the first place some outrages committed by the Natchez upon passing
traders gave Bienville the pretext he sought for building a fort at
their village, which was promptly done (1714).
These people being overawed, the next step taken was the building of
a fortified house at Natchitoches,[2] on the Red River, as a check
to the Spaniards, who, already, were working their way east from the
Rio Grande toward the Mississippi, partly to overawe the troublesome
Comanches, and partly to engross the Indian trade of that region for
themselves. Thus early in its history the Mississippi and its commerce
were become a bone of contention between English, Spaniards and French.
Again the folly of farming out the trade of a whole country to a single
individual, which had been tried in Canada with such bad effects, was
repeated here in Louisiana. This monopoly was granted (1712) to Anthony
Crozat for twenty-five years. Like all speculators, Crozat aimed to
make the most in the shortest time, letting the future of the colony
take care of itself. He was to control, absolutely, all that came into
the colony or went out of it. Agriculture was neglected and trade only
encouraged. And all trade was monopolized by Anthony Crozat. This was
the penny wise, pound foolish, colonial system of France, adopted
with the purpose of putting a little money into the royal treasury
at a nominal saving to it of certain sums required for maintaining
its authority in the colony. This policy turned the colony into a
trading-post, and the people themselves into dependants of Crozat.
When Crozat entered upon his exclusive privileges there were but
twenty-eight families in the whole province, of whom not more than
half were actual settlers, the rest being either traders, innkeepers or
laborers, who had no fixed residence.
The roving traders, or _Coureurs de Bois_,[3] bartered French goods
with the Indians for peltries and slaves, which were sold in the
settlements. It was found that tobacco, indigo, cotton and rice could be
profitably cultivated, but none except slaves were employed in tilling
the soil, which, indeed, is comparatively worthless in the neighborhood
where the colonists first located themselves. Consequently only such
things as would help to eke out a subsistence—such as corn, vegetables
and poultry—were cultivated at all. In a word, the colony literally
lived from hand to mouth. Instead of growing stronger and richer, of its
own robust growth, it grew, if possible, weaker and poorer by reason of
a policy, or system, under which no colony has ever thrived.
Little inducement was held out for the colonist to identify himself
with the country, or feel that he and it must grow up together. He was a
sojourner in a strange land. He could never hope to get rich by trade,
since every thing must pass through the hands of Crozat's agents, at a
price fixed by them.
This was by no means the whole weakness of Louisiana in her infancy.
Perhaps the primary evil lay in the fact that so far the French neither
controlled access to the Mississippi, in the place where they were,
or had formed any settled plan for securing that solid foothold on its
banks which alone could render them masters of the situation.
Crozat's failure was, in the nature of things, foreordained. His scheme,
indeed, proved a stumbling-block to the colony and a loss to himself.
In five years (1717) he was glad to surrender his monopoly to the crown.
[Illustration: FRENCH SOLDIERS.]
From its ashes sprung the gigantic Mississippi Scheme of John Law,[4]
to whom all Louisiana, now including the Illinois country, was granted
for a term of years. Compared with this prodigality Crozat's concession
was but a plaything. It not only gave Law's Company proprietary rights
to the soil, but power was conferred to administer justice, make peace
or war with the natives, build forts, levy troops and with consent of
the crown to appoint such military governors as it should think fitting.
These extraordinary privileges were put in force by a royal edict, dated
in September, 1717.
The new company granted lands along the river to individuals or
associated persons, who were sometimes actual emigrants, sometimes
great personages who sent out colonists at their own cost, or again
the company itself undertook the building up of plantations or lands
reserved by it for the purpose. One colony of Alsatians was sent out
by Law to begin a plantation on the Arkansas.[5] Others, more or
less flourishing, were located at the mouth of the Yazoo, Natchez and
Baton Rouge. All were agricultural plantations, though in most cases
the plantations themselves consisted of a few poor huts covered with
a thatch of palm-leaves. The earliest forts were usually a square
earthwork, strengthened with palisades about the parapet.
The company's agricultural system was founded upon African slave
labor.[6] Slaves were brought from St. Domingo or other of the West
India islands. By some their employment was viewed with alarm, because
it was thought the blacks would soon outnumber the whites, and might
some day rise and overpower them; but we find only the feeblest protest
entered against the moral wrong of slavery in any record of the time.
Negroes could work in the fields, under the burning sun, when the whites
could not. Their labor cost no more than their maintenance. The planters
easily adopted what, indeed, already existed among their neighbors.
Self-interest stifled conscience.
The new company wisely appointed Bienville governor. Three ships brought
munitions, troops, and stores of every sort from France, with which to
put new life into the expiring colony.
It was at this time (February, 1718) that Bienville began the foundation
of the destined metropolis of Louisiana. The spot chosen by him was
clearly but a fragment of the delta which the river had been for ages
silently building of its own mud and driftwood. It had literally risen
from the sea. Elevated only a few feet above sea-level, threatened with
frequent inundation, and in its primitive estate a cypress swamp, it
seemed little suited for the abode of men, yet time has confirmed the
wisdom of the choice.
Here, then, a hundred miles from the Gulf, on the alluvial banks of the
great river, twenty-five convicts and as many carpenters were set to
work clearing the ground and building the humble log cabins, which were
to constitute the capital, in its infancy.
The settlement was named New Orleans,[7] in honor of the Regent,
Orleans, who ruled France during the minority of Louis XV.
Up to this time it was supposed that large ships could not cross the
bar, at the river's mouth, but upon sounding the channel, enough water
was found to float one of the company's ships, which then sailed up to
New Orleans. From this day, the river may be said to have been fairly
open to commerce with the outside world. As respects the passage up and
down, it had practically become an every-day excursion for the Canadian
voyageurs who, with the Indians, had so long formed its floating
population. These adventurers now drew up their canoes, along the bank,
at New Orleans, whose promiscuous assemblage of Indians, habitants,
convicts, soldiers and priests, they joined.
Father Charlevoix, the historian of New France, thus describes New
Orleans as he saw it in 1721:—
"The most just idea I can give you is to imagine two hundred
persons who have been sent to build a city, and who are
encamped on its banks. This city is the first which one of the
greatest rivers of the world has seen rise on its borders.
It is composed of a hundred barracks placed without much
order, a large storehouse built of wood, two or three houses
which would not adorn a poor village in France, and part of
a wretched barrack which they have been willing to lend the
Lord, for his service, and of which He had scarcely taken
possession when He was thrust out and made to take shelter
under a tent."
[Illustration: NEW ORLEANS, 1719.]
In the cluster of French names,—Louisiana, New Orleans, Ponchartrain,
Iberville and Maurepas,—the great personages who bore a conspicuous part
in the founding of Louisiana are fittingly perpetuated.
From Quebec to New Orleans, from the St. Lawrence to the Gulf, a line
of posts, half-military, half-religious, had sprung up in La Salle's
footsteps. France had won the prize.
FOOTNOTES
[1] BIENVILLE, from his long and useful association with
the province, was called the "Father of Louisiana."
[2] NATCHITOCHES became an important strategic point with
reference to the Spaniards in Texas, who had founded missions
at San Antonio and a post at Nacodoches.
[3] "COUREURS DE BOIS, or Wood Rangers, are French or
Canadese, so called from employing their whole life in
the rough exercise of transporting merchandise goods to
the lakes of Canada and to all the other countries of that
continent in order to trade with the savages. And in regard
that they run in canoes a thousand leagues up the country,
notwithstanding the danger of the sea and enemies, I take it
they should rather be called Runners of Risks than Runners of
the Woods."—_Baron la Hontan._
[4] JOHN LAW of Edinburgh was made comptroller-general
of the finances of France, upon the strength of a scheme
for establishing a bank, and an East India and Mississippi
Company, by the profits of which the national debt of France
was to be paid off. In 1716 he opened his bank, and the
deluded of every rank subscribed for shares both in the bank
and company. A. de Pontmartin calls it the "idolatry of the
golden calf." Voltaire relates that he had seen Law come to
court with dukes, marshals and bishops in his train. The
imaginary riches of Louisiana furnished the basis for the
scheme. At first the shares went up. In 1720 the inflated
bubble exploded, spreading ruin everywhere. Law himself died
in poverty. It infused a spasm of prosperity in Louisiana,
soon to be followed by reaction which brought every thing to
a standstill. Consult any good encyclopædia.
[5] ON THE ARKANSAS, but very soon removed lower down the
river. These Germans were pioneers of free labor in Louisiana.
They became the market gardeners for New Orleans.
[6] SLAVERY. Negro slavery was then established in the
Spanish and English American colonies.
[7] NEW ORLEANS was regularly laid out in 1720. It was
protected from inundation by an embankment called a levee.
LOUIS XIV.