Pickett's History of Alabama - Chapter 10 - The India or Mississippi Company

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                 Albert James Pickett: HISTORY OF ALABAMA.
                  (Kindly contributed by William C. Bell)
       ______________________________________________________________
     
                                CHAPTER X. 
                                      
                     THE INDIA OR MISSISSIPPI COMPANY. 
                                      
   Mar. 9 1717: L 'Epinay, the new governor, and the fourth which had
   been placed over the colony of Louisiana, Hubert, the new
   commissary-general, three companies of infantry and fifty colonists,
   arrived from France, on board three vessels, which belonged to Crozat.
   Among the colonists were Roi Dubreuil, Guennot, Trefontaine and Massy,
   men of worth and intelligence, who had formed themselves into an
   association to settle some portion of the almost boundless country of
   Louisiana.
   
   To prevent the struggle for power which had never failed to display
   itself between the former governor, emmissaries and officers of the
   colony. The King of France, by written instructions, defined the
   duties of each. He declared that all military regulations, and the
   "dignity of command," should pertain to the governor alone; but in the
   building of public houses and fortifications, the marching of
   expeditions, and the means of raising funds, he was to confer with the
   commissary, whose joint views were to be presented for the
   ratification of his majesty. The administration of the funds,
   provisions, merchandise and everything which related to the warehouses
   was confided to the commissary, who, however, could make no bargain or
   sale without the consent of the governor. The administration of the
   hospitals was also confided to the commissary, with the supervision of
   the governor. The administartion of justice was committed to the
   commissary in his function of first councillor and chief judges. The
   affairs of the police, and the power of conferring grants of land were
   given jointly to these officers. Letters patent established a Supreme
   Council of Louisiana, the meetings of which his majesty authorized to
   be held either at Fort St. Louis, of Mobile, or upon Dauphine Island.
   The King granted to Bienville, for his numerous services, the Island
   of Come, not as a fief, but in villageage, and instructed L'Epinay to
   present him with the cross of St. Louis. These marks of favor did not
   reconcile Bienville, who considered himself beyond all others,
   entitled to the government of Louisiana. Consequently jealosies and
   disputes soon created a disagreeable and unhappy state of things,
   arraying the friends of Bienville on one side, and those of the
   governor and commissary on the other. As Crozat attempted to bribe
   Cadillac, in order to attain his most vigorous and successful
   exertions in advancing his commerce, so, for the same end, he entered
   into a contract with L'Epinay, engaging to give him two thousand
   livres a year, and divers other advantages. The great monopolist had
   designed to establish a large contraband trade with the Spanish
   possessions if he could not carry on a legitimate one. But he
   succeeded in neither, and next, turning his attention to a commerce
   with the various Indian tribes upon the Mississippi, Alabama,
   Tombigby, and their tributaries, he found that so far from being
   renumerated, he had to encounter the heaviest losses. Aug 1717: At
   length, aware that he had assumed a burthen beyond his strength, he
   humbly offered to return to the King that charter, the extensive
   privileges of which he had once imagined would make him the richest
   man in the world! The preposition was accepted, and the Council of
   State transmitted orders to L'Epinay to transfer the colonial
   government to Bienville, and to return to France. The gubernatorial
   career of the former gentleman was of short duration, and remarkable
   for nothing, except a proclamation, in which he forbade the sale of
   brandy to the Indians --- at that period a very unpopular measure.
   
   During the five years of the existence of the colony, under the
   charter of Crozat, commerce and agriculture had not prospered, yet the
   population had slowly increased, and now numbered about seven hundred
   souls. The colonists, also, possessed some four hundred horned cattle.
   The inhabitants had devoted themselves to a trade in provisions and
   Indian slaves, and to a commerce with the Spaniards, who, despite of
   the watchfulness of Crozat's agents, had managed to carry off,
   annually, about twelve thousand piastres.
   
   The Marine Cabinet of France, composed of De Bourbon and D'Estrees,
   came to the conclusion that as the enterprise which Crozat had assumed
   had proved itself of too gigantic a character for any one man, and as
   it would not be proper for the King to take charge of Louisiana, and
   embarress himself by entering into its thousand cares and commercial
   details, it would better comport with the welfare of France and her
   colony, to turn the latter ovr to the management of an association of
   men. Accordingly, the Western or India Company, with a capital of one
   hundred thousand livres, was allowed to take the unhappy people of
   Louisiana under their charge, and to expose them, once this company
   were not required to be solely subjects of the King of France, but
   might be foreigners. Sept 6 1717: The charter, which was registered in
   the Parliament, at Paris, gave this company the exclusive privilege of
   carrying on all commerce in Louisiana, for the long period of
   twenty-five years. It also gave them the exclusive privilege,
   extending from the 1st of January, 1718, to the 31st of December,
   1742, of purchasing beaver skins from Canada -- the King reserving the
   right of regulating their price, and of determining the quantuty to be
   sold. The company possessed the power of conferring grants, amking war
   or peace with the Indians, establishing forts, levying troops,
   appointing governors, or other officers, for the colony, upon the
   recommendation of the directors of the company; building vessels of
   war, casting pieces of artillery, and of nominating the inferior
   judges, and all the other officers of justice, the King reserving to
   himself only the right of appointing the members of the Supreme
   Council.
   
   It was further provided by the charter that the military officers
   could enter into the service of the company without losing their rank
   in the army or navy, but they were not allowed to seize. either in the
   hands of the directors, or in those of its cashier or its agents, the
   effects, shares or profits of the stockholders, except in case of
   failure or open bankruptcy or death of said stockholders. The
   merchandise of the company was to be free from all charges either of
   entry or departure, and to those portions of the territory where they
   had made permanent improvements, the company was to have durable
   rights, which were to extend also to the mines, which they might
   discover and work. The only thing which savored of liberally toward
   the inhabitants, was their exemption from taxation during the
   existence of the charter. The eccelsiastical jurisdiction was still to
   form a part of the diocese of Quebec, while the companny was to build
   churches and pay the clergy. It was to transport to the colony, during
   the term of its charter, six thousand whites and three thousand
   negroes; but it was prohibited from sending negroes or whites to other
   French colonies, without the permission of the Governor of Louisiana.
   The directors were to be appointed by the King, for the first two
   years, and afterwartds they were to be elected every three years, by
   the stockholders, each of whom had a vote for every fifty shares. In
   short, the India Company was granted all manner of powers and
   privileges.
   
   A celebrated Scotchman, named Law, who was now director of the Bank of
   France; D'Artaguette, receiver-general of the finances of Auch; Duche,
   receiver of those of Rochelle; Moreau, commercial deputy of the city
   of St. Malo; Piou, deputy of the city of Nantes; and Costaignes and
   Mauchard, merchants of Rochelle, were nominated by the King of France
   as the first directors for the colony of Louisiana, under the new
   charter. Feb 9 1718: The company then sent over three companies of
   infantry, and sixty-nine colonists. The three vessels which bore them
   arrived at Dauphine Island, and the inhabitants were revived with
   pleasing anticipation of better times, especially as the great and
   good Bienville, whom they almost idolized, was made Governor with a
   salary of six thousand livres. He, who had been twenty years in this
   wild and inhospitable country, and who, amidst the deepest gloom and
   the greatestt suffering of the colonists, had never once left them,
   but had sustained them with his fearless spirit, mighty arm and
   benvolent heart, was eminently deserving the high post to which he was
   now elevated. The first thing he did was to seek a suitable place for
   the location of the principal settlement of the colony. He selected
   the site of New Orleans, which had long been a favorite point with
   him, as we have seen. March 1718: He proceeded there with fifty
   persons, carpenters and galley slaves, whom he set to work to clear
   away the woods and erect houses, He next sent a detachment of fifty
   soldiers, under Chateaugne, to build a fort upon the bay of St.
   Joseph, situated between Pensacola and St. Marks, which, being
   completed, De Gousey was left in command. From him Captain Roka, a
   Spaniard, induced twenty-five soldiers to desert and flee to St.
   Augustine. The post of St. Joseph was soon abandoned by the French,
   who had no right to settle any part of Florida, and it was immediately
   occupied by the Spaniards.
   
   Apr. 28 1718: In the vessels which arrived on the 9th of February came
   Major Boisbriant, who had paid a visit to France, and who was now
   commissioned a royal lieutenant, with a salary of three thousand
   livres. D'Hubert was retained as Commissary General, with a salary of
   five thousand livres. These vessels were succeeded by another, having
   on board sixty passengers for the grant belonging to Paris Duvernet,
   which embraced the old Indian village of Pascagoula, where they were
   presently located. Three more ships arrived at Dauphin Island, which
   brought out Richebourg, now to act as major of Mobile; Lieutenants
   Noyan and Meleque, and Daniel, major of New Orleans. At the same time
   there arrived forty commisioners, with Le Gac, sub-director, seventy
   persons for the grant of Houssays, and sixty for that of La Harpe.
   
   It was wisely determined to encourage agriculture, as the best means
   of increasing the wealth and importance of Louisiana; and for that
   purpose extensive grants of land were made to the richest and most
   powerful persons of the kingdom of France. Four leagues square were
   ceded to the Scotch financier, Law, on the Arkansas river, where he
   was to settle fifteen hundred Germans, whom he was to protect by a
   small body of cavalry and infantry. The other persons to whom grants
   were made, likewise bound themselves to furnish a certain number of
   emigrants. But the experment did not succeed. These great proprietors
   did send Louisiana a few colonists, but a majority of them fell
   victims to the climate, and those who survived did not devote
   themselves to any useful occupation. Among the grants were several
   upon the Yazoo river, near Natchez, upon the Red river, at Baton
   Rouge, and at other points upon the Mississippi river. Falling in the
   scheme to make the colony an agricultural country, by the importation
   of colonists who were to have settled upon these grants, the company
   next turned its attention to slavery, as a means of effecting that
   which was so much desired. *
   
   * Histoire de la Louisiane par Charles Gayarre, vol. 1, pp. 148-166.
   Journal Historique de l'Etablissement des Francais a la Louisiane, par
   Bernard de la Harpe, pp. 131-144. 216
   
   The following regulation of the company fixed the price the colonists
   were to pay for the negroes, which they imported from Africa: "The
   company considers every negro of seventeen years of age, and over,
   without bodily defect, also every negress from fifteen to thirty years
   of age, as worth 'piece d'Inde. *
   
   * Piece d'Inde was 660 livres.
   
     Three little negroes, from eight to ten years old, are valued at
     two of the same coins.
     
     Two negro children, over ten years of age, are valued at one 'piece
     d'Inde.'
     
     One year's credit will be given to the old inhabitants for half the
     price. The other half must be paid immediately.
     
     Those colonists who have been settled here two years are called old
     inhabitants.
     
     Sept. 25 1718: The new settlers shall be entitled to one and two
     years credit."
     
   In a despatch to the Minister, Bienville complained that the colonists
   recently sent to Louisiana, were not the kind desirable; that among
   them were to be found scarcely any carpenters or laborers,
   "notwithstanding laboring people employed in the country are paid ten
   or fifteen livres per day, which delays improvement and causes great
   expense to the company."
   
   Two vessels arrived from the mother country, and brought the startling
   intelligence that Spain and France had gone to war with each other. A
   council, composed of Bienville, D'Hubert, Larehebault and Le Gac,
   determined upon the necessity of immediately possessing the important
   post of Pensacola. None of the miliatry officers were consulted in
   this movement, as they should have been, especially upon the plan of
   attack. Bienville assemled, at Mobile, some Canadians and four hundred
   Indians. His brother, Serigny, sailed from Dauphine Island, with three
   men-of-war, on board of which he embarked in a sloop, with twenty men,
   made the mouth of the Perdido. and went up the river to meet the
   Canadians and Indians, whom he had instructed to march across the
   country from Mobile, and whom he found already at the place of
   rendezvous. May 14: Placing himself at their head, he marched to
   Pensacola. In the meantime, the fleet stood before that place, and at
   four o'clock, in the evening, Governor Matamora surrendered to the
   French, when he found that he was invested both by sea and land.
   According to the terms of the capitulation, Bienville embarked the
   Spanish garrison on board two of the men-of-war, with directions to
   convey them safely to Havana. Arriving at that place, the governor of
   Cuba orderd all the French forces to be landed and imprisoned, seized
   the men-of-war, manned them with sailors and soldiers, and sent them
   back to attack Pensacola. This was a most shameful disregard of the
   terms of capitulation. The Spanish fleet, comprising the two French
   vessels and a Spanish man-of-war, with nine brigantines and eighteen
   hunrded men, invested Pensacola, and the next day made their attack.
   Bienville had returned to Mobile, and had left his brother,
   Chateaugne, in command. Seeing the supoerir force of the enemy, fifty
   soldiers deserted from the fort and joined the Spaniards, which forced
   Chateaugne to capitulate. He was allowed to march out of the fort,
   with the honors of war and to be carried to old Spain. The store ship
   Dauphin was accidentally destoryed by fire, and St. Louis was capture
   byu the Spaniards. The commmander of the Spanish squadron next turned
   his eyes to Dauphin Islandm and presently sent thither two well manned
   brigantines. To the captain of the French ship, Phillippe, which lay
   at anchor at Dauphin Island, he sent a messenger to Serigny, who
   commanded the fort; the latter declined to surrender the island.
   During the night two brigantines entered the bay of Mobile, landed
   thirty-five men to burn and plunder the inhabitants. While they were
   here destroying the improvements of a settler, they were suddenly
   attacked by a detachment of Candians and Indians, whom Bienville had
   hastened to send from Mobile, to support his brother, Serigny. Five
   Spaniards were slain, whose scalps the Indians immediately secured;
   six were drowned in the endeavor to reach the brigantines, while
   eighteen were made prisoners; among the latter were some of the French
   soldiers, who had deserted from Chateaugne and who were now promptly
   beheaded for their treason. * Two days afterwards the remainder of the
   Spanish squadron stood before Dauphin Island, and continued for four
   days to cannonade the Phillippe and the town. Serigny, with one
   hundred and sixty soldiers and two hundred Indians, aided by the
   gallant officers and men of the Phillippe, which anchored within
   pistol shot of the fort, succeeded in repulsing the Spaniards, who
   sustained considerable loss. The ships of the enemy then set sail for
   Pensacola.
   
   * La Harpe states (page 155), that eighteen French deserters, who were
   made prisoners, were bound by the Indians and carried to Bienville, at
   Mobile, who caused seventeen of them to be decapitated and that the
   remaining one was hung on Dauphin Island.
   
   Three ships of the French line, under command of Champmeslin,
   convoying two of the company's ships, arrived off Dauphin Island,
   direct from France. The two Spanish brigantines, which were crusing in
   the bay, between this island and Mobile, escaped to sea and sailed to
   Pensacola, as soon as the French fleet was discovered. Bienville and
   Serigny repaired on board of the ship Champmeslin, where was presently
   convened a council, composed of all the sea captains in port, who
   decided to capture the Spanish squadron and to take the fort of
   Pensacola. Time was allowed the vessels to discharge their freight and
   to take in wood and water, and Bienville to assemble the savages and
   prepare them for the expedition. When all things were ready, the
   Phillippe and the Union, vessels belonging to the company, were joined
   to the squadron, together with two hundred and fifty of the new
   troops, lately arrived, while Bienville, with the soldiers and
   volunteers, sailed in sloops to the river Perdido, where he was joined
   by five hundred Indians under the command of Langueville, who had
   marched with them from Mobile. From this point Bienville sent a
   detachment of French and Indians to invest the principal fort at
   Pensacola, to prevent all egress from it and to harrass the enemy as
   much as possible. In the meantime, Champmeslin entered the harbor of
   Pensacola, and, after a conflict of two hours' duration, captured four
   ships and six brigantines, which were anchored before St. Rosa, and
   reduced the small fort situated at the point of that Island.
   Bienville, having marched across the country from the Perdido, had
   advanced in the rear of the town with his whole force. He made a
   resolute attack upon the fort, which was surrendered two hours after
   the victory at St. Rosa's Island. The Indians fought with great
   couarage, often attempting to pull up the palisades of the fort. The
   plunder was divided among them, but they prohibited by Bienville from
   taking any scalps. The pillage being ended, Champmeslin returned the
   sword which Don Alphonzo, commander of the Spanish fleet, had
   presented to him as his conqueror, assuring him that he was worthy of
   wearing it. But Matamora, the Governor of Pensacola, who had acted
   with so much perfidity towards the French victors, who conveyed him to
   Havana, was suffered to be disarmed by a common sailor, and was
   severely reproacjhed for his conduct. The loss of the French in these
   engagements was only six men; that of the Spaniards was much greater.
   Champmeslin despatched the St. Louis, one of the Spanish vessels, to
   Havana, with three hundred and sixty of the prisoners. The commander
   was instructed to demand an exchange of the French prisoners, at the
   head of whom was Chateaugne, who had not been carried to Spain,
   according to the capitulation, but had been clodely confined in Moro
   Castle.
   
   A Spanish brigantine from Havana, laden with corn flour and brandy for
   the garrison, entered the bay of Pensacola, supposing the fleet to
   belong to Spain, into whose hands it was now believed the whole of
   Louisiana had fallen, and was immediately captured by the French
   squadron. On the same day forty-seven French deserters were tried,
   twelve of whom were hung at the yard-arms of the Count de Toulouse,
   and the remainder condemned to serve the company as galley slaves.
   Thus ended the expedition against Pensacola, the command of which was
   given to DeLisle, a lieutenant of the navy.
   
   1719: Since the commencement of this year, vessels from France had
   constantly brought over to Louisiana libreal supplies of provisions,
   merchandise, and not unfrequently distinguished persons and emigrants,
   thus adding to the number and giving character to her population, and
   causing her slowly to emerge from the supineness and insignificance of
   former times. For this seasonm, and also on account of the war with
   Spain, it became necessary to re-organize the colonial government in
   several respects. A royal ordinance decreed that a Supreme Council
   should be composed of those directors who were residents in the
   colony, the governor, the two royal lieutenants, four councillors, an
   attorney-general, and a secretary. Three members for civil affairs,
   and five for criminal cases, could constitute a quorum. Its
   jurisdiction was to be the highest in the colony, and its sessions
   were to be monthly. The former council had been the only tribunal in
   the colony, but it was now decided to establish inferior courts, of
   which the directors of the company, or their agents, were to be
   judges, in places where they resided. These, with two respectable
   citizens of the neighborhood, were to have cognizance of civil
   business. They were required, in criminal cases, to add four more
   citizens to their number. An appeal from their decisions could be had
   to the Supreme Council -- the members of which were not allowed to
   charge for their final opinion.
   
   Bienville, the governor; D'Hubert, commissary-general and first
   councillor; Boisbriant and Chateaugne, royal lieutenants;
   L'Archambault, Villardo and Legas, other councillors; Cartier 221 de
   Baune, the attorney-general; and Couture, secretary, composed the
   first Supreme Council, which met under the auspices of the Western or
   India Company. Although the governor occupied the place of honor in
   this body, D'Hubert, the first councillor, was the real president, who
   took the vote, pronounced judgment, affixed the public seals, and
   filled the station of chief judge.
   
   1719: Bienville was opposed in his long cherished desire of removing
   the directors, who dreaded the inundations of the Mississippi, and who
   contended that the colony was not in a situation to oppose levees to
   the floods at that point. D'Hubert suggested the location of Natchez;
   but as he owned large grants there, his motives were suspected. It was
   decided to adopt the views of L'Archambault, Villardo and Legas, who
   inclined more towards commerce than agriculture, and who reccommended
   that a new establishment should be formed east off the bay of Biloxi,
   which should be called New Biloxi. A detachment was sent there to
   build barracks and houses.
   
   The cultivation of rice, indigo and tobacco had already occupied the
   attention of the colonists to some extent, who found the lands
   extremely productive for these profitable plants. But the climate was
   too warm and unhealthy for European labor, and hence one thousand of
   the Children of the Sun, from Africa, had been introduced into the
   colony, and from that moment Louisiana began to prosper. Nov 26 1719:
   But many things yet impede its advancement. Among other impediments.
   the company, to secure the exclusive commerce of Louisiana, issued an
   edict forbidding any vessel to enter the colony under penalty of
   confiscation. This was followed up by a proclamation, regulating the
   price of merchandise, which the colonists were compelled to buy at the
   company's warehouses, and nowhere else. Jan 1720: It also arbitrarily
   fixed the price which the colonists were to receive for their product,
   skins, and for everything which they had for sale.* Gayarre says: "At
   the present day, we can hardly discover how the whites, whom the
   company transported from Europe, differed from the blacks, who were
   brought from Africa, at least as to their relation to the company; for
   these two classes of men belonged both to one master-the all-powerful
   company!"
   
   * Goods were to be obtained in the company's stores at Mobile, Dauphin
   Island, and Pensacola, To these prices, an advance of five per cent
   was to be added on goods delivered at New Orleans, ten at Natchez,
   thirteen at the Yazoos, twenty at Natchitoches and fifty at the
   Illinois and on the Missouri. The produce of the country was to be
   received in the company's warehouses in New Orleans, Biloxi, Ship
   Island and Mobile Martin's Louisiana, vol. 1, pp. 218-219.
   
   The Royal Squadron, intended to protect the commerce of Louisiana,
   arrived with two huindred and thirty passengers, among them were
   several girls, and a considerable quantuty of provisions and
   merchandise. Several months elapsed, when two vessels of the Royal
   Navy bore the intelligence that a treaty of peace had been concluded
   with Spain. These were succeeded by three other vessels of war, which
   anchored at Dauphin Island, and which brought with them a contagious
   malady, contracted at St. Domingo, which killed many of the crew, and
   filled their bodies, as it was ascertained by post mortem examination,
   with horrible worms! At the same time, the ship Hercules came with one
   hundred and twenty negroes from Guinea, and a brigantine from Havana
   arrived at Mobile with Chateaugne and others, who had been made
   prisoners at Pensacola, and who were now released in pursuance of the
   treaty of peace.
   
   So long as the French colony of Louisiana remained in a feeble and
   thriftless condition, the English of Carolina were content only to
   annoy it occasionally; but now that it gave signs of durable vitality,
   under the auspices of a powerful company, they began to oppose it with
   the fiercest hostility. Rivalry in trade, together with the national
   jealousy, fomented quarrels, and caused blood to flow between the
   Coureurs de bois and the English. The French traders also met the
   latter in all parts of the Indian nations, within the limits of the
   present States of Alabama and Mississippi. Each contended for the
   patronage of the savages, and each endeavored to expel the other from
   these situations where they had established themselves. The Carolina
   traders, many of whom had quartered themselves in the Chickasaw towns,
   arrayed that tribe in war against the French, and they committed the
   first act of hostility, by the murder of Serigny, a French officer,
   whom Bienville had posted among them to cultivate their friendship.
   This war greatly embarrassed Bienville, who, with difficulty, brought
   to his assistance the larger body of the Choctaws. At this time, the
   forces of the colony had been augmented to twenty companies, of fifty
   men each, who were required to defend the province of Louisiana, the
   inhabitants of which were scattered from Fort Toulouse, upon the
   Coosa, to La Harpe's station, upon Red river. The Alabamas could
   barely be kept neutral, for they complained that their peltries
   brought lower prices at the French ports, than at those of the
   English, and that the goods which they received for them, were also
   held at a dearer price.
   
   1720: Vessels with emigrants and provisions, continued to cast their
   anchors upon the sands of Mobile Bay. A store ship brought out two
   hundred and sixty persons for the grant of St. Catharine, in the
   vicinity of Natchez. August -Sept: Another arrived at Ship Island with
   two hundred and forty emigrants, for the grant of Louvre, and was
   succeeded by still another, on board of which was de L'Orme, now
   director general, with a salary of five thousand livres, together with
   other vessels laden with provisions, laborers and merchandise.
   
   Dec 20 1720: In the meantime, the public houses had been completed at
   New Biloxi, and thither the government of Louisiana was, unwisely,
   transferred. It had remained at old and new Mobile since January,
   1702, but during this trying period, of eighteen years, the governors
   occasionally resided at Dauphin Island.
   
   A vessel, belonging to the company, furled her sails in the splendid
   bay of Mobile, and disembarked three hundred colonists for the grant
   of Madame Chaumont, at Pascagoula, whom the colonial government soon
   placed there., but whom they forbader to enter into the branch of
   trade, such as that whic h would result from the culture of hemp,
   flax, and the vine, or which would compete with the commerce of the
   company. A ship arrived with twenty-five girls, taken from a house of
   correction, in Paris, called the Saltpetriere. They had been sent over
   in consequence of the great complaints made to the Minister, by
   various officers of the colony, on account of want of wives, and they
   had been confided, by the directors in France, to sister Gertrude,
   and, under her, to sisters Louise and Bergere, who were authorized to
   conduct to Louisiana, "such girls as were willing to go thither and
   remain under the care of Sister Gertrude, until they shall marry,
   which they must not do without her consent." The directors or the
   Minister in sending these prostitutes to Mobile, where they soon took
   up their abode, did not act consistently with a previous ordinance,
   which they had passed, that "hereafter, no more vagabonds shall be
   sent to Louisiana, but that any French and foreign families and
   laborers may go." Much contention now arose between the stockholders
   and the directors. The latter were repoached for their numerous
   outlays, and for the appointment of persons to govern the colonies,
   who appeared to have their exclusive interest to subserve; and
   Bienville was written to, and informed that the Regent complained that
   his services were not effectual. But to arouse all his exertions, the
   same letter promised the governor the rank of Brigadier, with the
   ribbon of St. Louis, if his future conduct should merit them. Mar 17
   1721: The Africaine, a ship of war, arrived at Mobile, with one
   hundred and twenty negroes, out of the number of two hundred and
   twenty-four, who had embarked at Guinea. Mar. 23: She was succeeded by
   the Maire, with three hundred and thirty-eight more, who were, for the
   present, all quartered at Mobile, and where they remained in a state
   bordering upon starvation, from the famine which now universally
   prevailed in the colony. The Neride also came with two hundred and
   thirty-eight Africans, the remainder of three hundred and fifty who
   sailed from Angola. She had put to sea, with the frigate Charles,
   laden with negroes, which took fire and was consumed, more than sixty
   leagues from land, a large majority of her crew perishing in the
   flames. The whites escaped in the boats, with a few of the Africans,
   tossed for many days at the mercy of the waves, and suffering for
   subsistance, the unhappy negroes were killed, one after another, for
   food! The present population of France are abolitionists, and denounce
   the Southern States for their mild and beneficial system of domestic
   slavery, and yet their ancestors, in the manner we have described, put
   these slaves into our possession. So did England, with her men-of-war,
   at the same period, plant her American colonies with slaves, also
   captured in Africa. The Puritan fathers of New England, received them,
   paid for them, put them to hard laboir, sold and re-sold them for many
   years, and yet their descendants profess to be shocked at the sight of
   a Southern slaveholder, and denounce Southern slavery as a "damning
   sin before God!"
   
   March 1721: With two hundred German emigrants, who were sent over to
   occupy the grant of Law upon the Arkansas river, came also a woman,
   whose adventures in Europe and America are related in the histories of
   that period. She was believed to be the wife of the Czarowitz Alexis
   Petrowitz, son of Peter the Great, Emperor of all the Russians. Her
   resemblance to that Princess was so striking as to deceive those who
   knew the latter intimately. The story ran, that to escape the brutal
   treatment of the Prince, her husband, she pretended to die, and was
   actually entombed, but when taken from the tomb in a few hours
   afterwards put herself beyond the reach of persecution by flying to a
   foreign land. The Chevalier D'Aubont, one of the officers of the
   Mobile garrison, who had been at St. Petersburg, had seen the
   Princess, and had heard of her strange escape, now believed that this
   woman who was then in Mobile was the beautiful and accomplished lady
   herself. He was sure he recognized her beneath the incognito which she
   had assumed, and which she appeared desirous to retain.
   
   The Chevalier married her, and after a long residence in Louisiana,
   most of which was passed in Mobile, she followed him to France, and
   thence to the Island of Bourbon, whither he was sent with the rank of
   Major. In 1765 she became a widow, and went to Paris with a daughter
   born in Mobile. In 1771 her mysterious and romantic life was
   terminated in the midst of the most abject poverty.* 
   
   * Judge Martin, in his History of Louisiana, vol. I, pp. 231-232,
   states that this woman was an imposter. and that she imposed on the
   credulity of Chevalier D'Aubant and many others; that she had once
   been attached to the wardrobe of the Princess whom she assumed to
   represent, and that a few years before the declaration of American
   Independence a similar imposition was practiced upon the people of the
   Southern British Provinces by a female, driven by her misconduct from
   the post of maid of honor to Princess Matilda, sister of George III.
   She was convicted at Old Bailey and transprted to Maryland. Before the
   expiration of her time she effected her escape, traveled through the
   provinces of Virginia and the Carolinas, personating the Princess, and
   levying contributions upon the credulity of the inhabitants. She was
   at length arrested in Charleston, prosecuted and publicly whipped.
   
   An ordinance decreed that the council should meet daily at New Biloxi;
   that merchandise should be sold at that place, Mobile, and New
   Orleans, at fifty per cent. profit on the manufacture of France,
   seventy per cent. among the Natchez and Yazoos, one hundred per cent.
   among the Arkansas, and fifty per cent. among the Alabamas and
   Muscogees, on account of the proximity of Fort Toulouse to the English
   influence, with which the French company were anxious successfully to
   compete. Another ordinance decared that negroes should be sold to the
   inhabitants at the price of the "piece de Inde," or six hundred and
   sixty livres, * in three annual installments. to be paid in tobacco or
   rice. If, after the second year, the debtor failed to pay, the company
   could take the negro if not paid for during the third year. If the
   effects of the debtor failed to discharge the whole debt, the company
   could then take his body. It also declared that leaf tobacco delivered
   at the warehouses of New Biloxi, New Orleans and Mobile should command
   the price of twenty livres per quintal; rice, twelve livres per
   quintal; wine, one hundred and twenty livres a hogshead; and a quarter
   of brandy, the same price. It also declared that Louisiana should,
   hereafter, be formed into nine divisions--New Orleans, Biloxi, Mobile,
   Alabama, Yazoo, Natchitoches, Arkansas, and Illinois; that in the
   chief town of each there should be a commandant and a judge, from
   whose decisions an appeal could be had to the Supreme Council of New
   Biloxi.
   
   * Equal to one hundred and seventy-six dollars.
   
     STATE OF THE COLONY AT THE CLOSE OF 1721. 
     
     "In the vessels which the India Company has sent thither
     from the 25th October, 1717, to May, 1721, there have
     emigrated, on the forty-three belonging to it, and
     in the squadron of M. de Saunjo.................................
     7020
     These, with the 400 who were already there
     ................................400
     [total]............................................................
     ..............................7420
     
     Of this number those who have died, deserted, or returned
     to France
     ...................................................................
     ................2000
     [total]............................................................
     .............................5420
     
   To them the number of colonists is added, to which may be set down
   about 600 negroes."
   
   Mar. 12 1722: From this statement it appears that the colony of
   Louisiana had really begun to prosper, but many impediments still
   retarded its more rapid advance, among which may be enumerated its
   expenses, which, for the year 1721, amounted to four hundred and
   seventy-four thousand two hundred and seventy-four livres. The
   company, too, issued an ordinance prohibiting the inhabitants from
   selling their negroes to the Spaniards, or to other foreigners, or
   taking them out of the colony, under a sever penalty, besides their
   confiscation.
   
   Bienville, writing from Mobile, acquainted the Minister with the
   difficulty of discharging the cargoes of vessels upon the low shores
   of New Biloxi, and again brought to his consideration the superior
   advantages of New Orleans, for the capital of the colony. One more
   councillor was added to the supreme council, which now consisted of
   Brusle, Fazende, Perry. Guilhet and Masclary. Two hundred and fifty
   Germans, commanded by the Chevalier D'Arensbourg, a Swedish officer,
   arrived at Mobile, with whom came Marigny de Mandaville, who had
   obtained, in France, the Cross of St. Louis and the command of Fort
   Conde, in Mobile. This was by far the best fort in the colony, and was
   now rapidly drawing to a state of completion; it was built of brick,
   with four bastions, and a great many casements for soldiers.* The
   vessel which brought over these Germans bore the distressing news that
   the great royal bank, which Law, the Scotch financier, under the
   auspices of the Duke of Orleans, had established in France, had
   utterly failed; that Law had left the country in disgrace, and that
   the people whom he had induced to take stock, found it worthless and
   themselves ruined. All Paris was in a ferment, and no one could
   anticipate an end to this long train of commercial evils which the
   scheming ability of this Scotchman had engendered. The company which
   had charge of Louisiana, and indeed the chief inhabitants now feared
   that the government of France would abandon them. But some supplies
   continued to arrive, in spite of the panic which pervaded the mother
   country. Duvergier, who had been appointed director-general and
   commander of the marine, disembarked at Pensacola, bearing the Cross
   of St. Louis for Boisbrriant, St. Dennis and Chateuagne.
   
   * Mr. E:. T. Wood, of Mobile, who wrote a history of that place,
   embodied in a directory, which he published, says that when Fort Conde
   (which was also called Fort Charlotte by the British after they took
   possession of it,) was pulled down by the Americans some years after
   the place fell into their hands, that the corner-stone was found with
   the date of 1717, distinctly engraved upon it.
   
   The failure of the Royal Bank of France, and the distress which it
   produced in all parts of that kingdom, caused Louisiana, for a time,
   to be so neglected, that the inhabitants beacme destitute of
   provisions. The officers were obliged to dismiss the garrisons of
   Mobile and Biloxi, and send them to the Choctaw nation to precure
   subsistence among the Indians, while many of the colonists abandoned
   their homes and betook themselves to the sea-side to procure a scanty
   living upon fish and oysters. It was even worse at some of the more
   distant posts, particularly at Fort Toulouse, upon the Coosa, now in
   Alabama. There, the soldiers were tortured by famine, and corrupted by
   some British traders, who induced them to desert and fly to
   Charleston. The command consisted of a captain, a lieutenant, an
   ensign, a corporal and twenty-six soldiers. When the latter had
   perfected their mutiny, the planning of which had occupied several
   days, they rose upon the officers, one morning, about breakfast. Capt.
   Marchand was instantly slain. Lieutenant Villemont and Ensign Paque
   made their escape through a port-hole of one of the bastions, and fled
   to the Hickory Ground, a town of Creek Indians, three miles above, on
   the east bank of the Coosa, and embracing the lower suburbs of the
   modern city of Wetumpka. Here Villemont made irresistable appeals to
   the warriors to march against the mutineers. He, at the same time,
   despatched Paque across the Big Mortar, whom the ensign succeeded in
   enlisting in the cause of the King. In the meantime, the mutineers,
   having killed the captain, intimidated the corporal, who now joined
   them in a general pillage of the fort. They appropriated to themselves
   the money and clothing of the officers, leaving only the sacred
   wardrobe of the priest, a Jesuit father, whom they did not molest. The
   magazine, constructed of brick, was forced open, and arms and
   ammunition taken from it. * The store-room was plundered of its
   contents, consisting of a very limited supply of flour and meat. The
   mutineers, after partaking of a hearty repast, marched off to the Red
   Warrior's Bluff, ** where they crossed the Tallapoosa and took up the
   line of march for Charleston. Villemont, with the Indian force which
   he had speedily raised, marched against them. A battle ensued at the
   ford of Line Creek, which now divides the modern counties of
   Montgomery and Macon. Sixteen of these deserters were slain. They all
   fought with the desperation of tigers. *** The others, except two who
   escaped. were taken prisoners, and Villemont, who was wounded in the
   action, marched with them back to Fort Toulouse. Here the fort was
   found to be in a very solitary condition, being inhabited only by a
   Jesuit father, who had resolved to remian until he could get a
   favorable opporrtunity of going to Mobile, not believing that the
   brave and indefatigable Villemont could subdue the deserters; the body
   of the unfortunate Captian Marchand had already been interred by him
   and some Indians. Villemont, the next day, obtained some canoes and
   placed the deserters in them, in charge of an Indian guard, at the
   head of which was Ensign Paque, who conveyed them to Mobile, where
   they were shortly afterwards executed. Villemont and the priest were
   solitary inmates of Fort Toulouse for several months, until another
   garrison was sent up the river. The lieutenant had, however, many
   Indian warriors lying around the fort, who were ready to aid him if he
   had been attacked by the English, who were anxious to occupy the fort.
   ****
   
   * Some of the brick of this magazine are yet to be seen lying about
   the ruins of old Fort Toulouse, now called old Fort Jackson, and I
   have several of them in my house, taken from that place.
   ** The Red Warrior's Bluff of that day is the present Grey's Ferry.
   *** The bones of these sixteen Frenchmen lay, for many years, very
   near the house which Walter B. Lucas afterwards erected, and where he
   for a long time kept entertainment.
   **** The revolt of the garrison of Fort Toulouse, upon the Coosa, is
   mentioned by Gayarre, in his History of Louisiana, vol. I, p. 190; by
   La Harpe, p. 261; by Judge Martin, vol. 2, p, 239; but I have derived
   the chief facts from Indian traditions handed down by General
   Alexander McGillivray a very great Indian Chief of mixed blood, who
   was the grandson of the unfortunate captain Marchand, who was killed
   upon this occasion.
   
   Fortunately, a vessel arrived with provisions for the King's troops.
   She brought the news that the Regent had entrusted the affairs of the
   colony to the management of three commisioners: Ferrand, Faget and
   Machinet. A detailed account of a great hurricane which swept along
   the coast of Louisiana, of the desertion of soldiers, sailors and
   workmen, and a recommendation to allow free passage to all who might
   choose to retuen to France, as a remedy for desertions generally,
   formed the subjects of a communincation addressed by De l'Orme to the
   Minister. While the distressing situation of the colony rendered the
   offices of the three commisioners by no means sinecures, embarassments
   were further produced by a war which the Natchez had begun, and the
   worthlessness of the paper money hitherto used in the colony, to
   remedy which cards were substituted after the notes were suppressed.
   One Michel, of Mobile, was the person appointed to engrave these
   cards. 
   
   1723: The new commissioners who had succeeded to the directorship of
   the company, readily acceded to the long cherished wish of Bienville,
   to remove the seat of government to New Orleans, and it was
   accordingly established at that place.* The population of New Orleans,
   at that period numbered only two hundred souls, who occupied a hundred
   huts and cabins!
   
   * Histoire de Louisiane, par Charles Gayarre, vol. 1, pp. 166 193.
   Journal Historique de l'Establigsement des Francais a la Louisiane,
   par Bernard de la Harpe, pp. 144-289. Martin's History of Louisiana,
   vol. 1, pp. 218-244.
   
   The commissioners of the company, in a new code of regulations,
   declared that negroes should be hereafter be sold at six hundred and
   seventy-six livres, * payable in one, two or three years, either in
   rice or tobacco. The province was divided into nine districts, civil
   and military, as follows: Alabama, Mobile, Biloxi, New Orleans,
   Natchez, Yazoo, Illinois, Wabash, Arkansas and Natchitoches. There was
   a commandant and a judge appointed for each of these districts. Three
   great ecclesiastical districts were also formed. The first was
   entrusted to the Capuchins, and extended from the mouth of Mississippi
   river to Illinois. The barefooted Carmelites were stationed at Fort
   Toulouse, upon the Coosa river, at Mobile and at Biloxi, while the
   Jesuits labored upon the Wabash and Illinois. Churches and chapels
   were ordered to be constructed, for many of the colonists had been
   forced to worship in the open air, around crosses, the bottom parts of
   which were buried in the ground!
   
   * Equal to one hundred and sixty-nine dollars.
   
   1723: Bienville restored Pensacola to the Spaniards in pursuance of
   orders of his government; for Spain and France had concluded a peace.
   In a despatch to the Minister, he stated that his allies,--the
   Choctaws,--had destroyed three towns of the Chickasaws, and had
   brought to him one hundred prisoners and four hundred scalps!
   Bienville communicated this intelligence with much apparent gusto,
   accompanied with the remark that "this important result was obtained
   without risking the life of a single Frenchman."
   
   Although the colonists often existed in a state of penury and want,
   they did not abandon their passion for gambling, which was carried to
   such an extnet that the government issued an ordinance against all
   games of chance. An ordinance was also promulgated against the trade
   which many of the colonists were illicitly conducting with the Natchez
   Indians. The month of September terminated with a dreadful tornado,
   which prostrated the church, the hospital;, and thirty houses in New
   Orleans; destroyed the crops upon the Mobile and Pearl rivers;
   dismantled the shipping in the differnet ports, and left the whole
   colony in a condition of wretchfulness and famine. Added to all this,
   a whole company of Swiss infantry, which had embarked at Biloxi for
   New Orleans, rose upon the captain of the vessel and compelled him to
   carry them to Charleston. Oct 1723: Yet, in the midst of all these
   calamities, the indefatigiable Bienville departed from New Orleans
   with seven hundred men to punish the Natchez, who had recently killed
   several Frenchmen. He returned after having terminated the second war
   with them, by procuring the heads of the principal offenders.
   Notwithstanding the important services which this great man was
   continuing to render the colony, his relentless enemies sought every
   opportunity to make him odious to the ruling powers of France.
   Aspersed in despatches, which were speedily borne across the ocean, he
   was at the same moment insulted at home by libellous placards in the
   streets. Feb 16 1724: At length he received orders to sail for France,
   to answer the charges against him, leaving the command to Broisbriant
   until his return.
   
   March 1724: But before Bienville embarked upon the broad Atlantic, he
   issued the celebrated "BLACK CODE," in the name of the King. It
   declared that all Jews should leave the colony; that all slaves should
   be instructed in the Roman Catholic religion; that no other religion
   should be tolerated in the colony; that if the owners of negroes were
   not true Catholics, their slaves should be confiscated; and that the
   white inhabitants should not enter into marital relations with
   negroes, nor live with them in a state of concubinage.
   
   The "Black Code" contained many other aricles in relation to the
   government of slaves -- some of which were precisely like those now in
   force in the Southwestern States of the present confederacy. The year
   1724 was remarkable for arbitrary edicts; but there was one which was
   beneficial. The inhabitants had become so accustomed to rely upon
   France for all the necessities of subsisitence, that valuable cattle,
   sent to Louisiana for purposes of propagation, were always killed and
   devoured. An ordinance was issued by the King, at the request of the
   Superior Council, punishing with death every person who should
   intentionally kill or severely wound any horse or horned animal which
   did not belong to him.
   
   1725: De la Chaise, nephew of the famous father of that name, who was
   the confessor of Louis XIV., presided over the council, which was now
   held monthly in the town of New Orleans.
   
   Aug 9 1726: But to return to Bienville. That brave man appeared at
   Paris, after a prosperous voyage, and submitted an eloquent memoir to
   the King in justification of his official conduct. It also contained a
   history of the serveices to which he had, from the commencement of the
   colonial establishment, devoted a period of twenty-five years. But, in
   spite of his true exposition of his arduous labors spent in the
   insalubrious forest of America, among savages and reptiles, and in
   spite of the exertions made by his friends, both in France and
   Louisiana, to re-establish him in confidence of the King, he was
   removed from office, and Perrier nominated Governor of Louisiana. The
   government did not stop here. Chateaugne, the brother of Bienville,
   lost the post of Royal Lieutenant, while two nephews of Bienville,
   maned Noyan, one a Captain and the other an Ensign, were cashiered
   without any just cause. Thus the influence of Bienville was overthrown
   in Louisiana. In the meantime the new Governor arrived in New Orleans.
   
   1727: Governor Perrier, in a dispatch to the Minister, employed this
   language in reference to the encroachments of the English of South
   Carolina:
   
     "The English continue to urge their commerce into the very heart of
     the province. Sixty or seventy horses, laden with merchandise, have
     passed into the country of the Chickasaws, to which nation I have
     given orders to plunder the English of their goods, promising to
     recompense them by a present. As yet I have heard nothing from that
     quarter. It appears that a league was formed among all the Indian
     nations of their neighborhood to attack the Spanish settlements.
     Whereupon the Governor of Pensacola requested assistance from me.
     Having no news for our interest not to have the English so near us,
     and in consequence, informed the Tallapoosa, * who were before
     Pensacola, that if they did not immediately retire I should attack
     them with those nations who were friendly to us. I also gave notice
     to the Alabamas, that if they attacked the Spaniards, who were our
     friends, I should be compelled to assist the latter. But I should
     have taken care not to have interfered with the natives who were
     frinedly to us, in order that I might not commit myself with regard
     to the English. This had a good effect. The Governor thanked me,
     informing me that war was declared in Europe. Notwithstanding, I
     shall indirectly assist the Spanish until I receive other orders
     from your highness, at the same time taking the liberty to
     represent that our sole effort should be to prevent the English
     from approaching us.
     
     * Meaning the Creeks, who lived upon the Tallapoosa river.
     
     "I have caused all the nations, from the Arkansas to the mouth of
     the river, to make peace with each other. There remain at variance
     only the Choctaws and Chickasaws, who have a discussion concerning
     a Chief of the latter nation who was killed by the former. I shall
     go to Mobile to settle their affairs, and shall take measures with
     them to prevent the English from entering our territory during the
     ensuing year, and by degrees to abolish the custom which they have
     formed, of trading for all the deer skins obtained by the Indians,
     in order that the latter may nt be obliged to trade with the
     English to get rid of them."
     
   A vessel belonging to the company arrived with quite a number of young
   girls, who, unlike many others who had been sent to Louisiana, had not
   been taken from the house of correction. They were each provided with
   a little chest, containing articles of apparel, and from this
   circumstance they were called girls de la cassette--girls of the
   chest. They were placed under the surveillance of the Ursuline nuns
   until they could be disposed of by marriage.*
   
   * Histoire de la Louisiane, par Charles Gayarre, vol. 1, pp. 193-235,
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