Biographical and Pictorial History of Arkansas, Chapter I

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BIOGRAPHICAL AND PICTORIAL HISTORY OF ARKANSAS.
BY JOHN HALLUM.
VOL. I.
ALBANY: WEED, PARSON'S AND COMPANY, PRINTERS.
1887.

Entered according to act of Congress in the year eighteen hundred and eighty-seven,
BY JOHN HALLUM, 
In the office of the Librarian of Congress at Washington.


BIOGRAPHICAL AND PICTORIAL
HISTORY OF ARKANSAS.

HISTORICAL.

CHAPTER I.

THE discovery of America by the poor Genoese navigator under the sympathizing
patronage of Isabella, opened up to the human race the grandest possibilities
yet made patent to the world.

The native majesty of an adorable woman has linked her name with an achievement
which will outlast and outshine all the artificial and adventitious greatness
imparted to the simple wearer of a crown.

This discovery gave the world a momentum, first in arms, then in the arts and
sciences, which now encircles it in a halo of light.

To-day we can stand on the mountain top, above the clouds, where Balboa first
threw his eyes westward on the Pacific ocean, and in a moment whisper to the
tenants in the ancient palace of Andalusia, and in another moment to all the
capitals and commercial marts of the world.

In the sixteenth century Spain attained the summit of her greatness and the
first place in the sisterhood of nations. From 1520 to 1556 Charles V, as king
of Spain and emperor of Germany, carried her banners and victorious arms from
the Baltic to the Mediterranean, and her proud marine was mistress of all the
waters navigated by man. 

Chivalry marked out for achievement in that iron age feats hitherto unknown to
the wildest visions of romance.

Pizarro, with a handful of daring followers, invaded South America, ascended the
lofty Andes and took possession of the throne of the ancient Incas in the name
of Spain.

The daring and sublimely heroic Cortes burned his ships behind him to inspire
his followers with iron nerve and make certain glory or death. He conquered
Mexico and took possession of the palace and the throne of the ancient
Montezumas in the name of Charles V.

Balboa ascended the northern Andes, discovered the western route to the Indies,
and solved the mighty problem to navigation in the name of Spain.

In this connection we deem it appropriate to give a short historical and
biographical sketch of De Soto, the first European explorer of Arkansas.

Fernando De Soto, the great Spanish explorer, was born about 1496, when Spain
was beginning her ascension to the foremost power in the world. Of a noble
family, De Soto spent several years at one of the Spanish universities and
distinguished himself in literature. A chivalric soldier, in 1519 he accompanied
the celebrated Pedrarias Davila to America as governor of Darien.

In 1527 he supported Hernandez in Central America, and was the most liberal and
elevated in sentiment of all the Spanish-American explorers and conquerors. In
1528 he explored the Central American coast for seven hundred miles in search of
the supposed straits connecting the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. In 1532 he
joined Pizarro in the conquest of Peru, and with fifty horsemen the next year
penetrated to the heart of that ancient empire of the Incas. He entered Cuzco
the seat of empire and captured the Inca Atahualpa, who paid an immense sum for
ransom, but Pizarro treacherously refused to release the monarch, which greatly
incensed De Soto.

Soon after this he returned to Spain the possessor of great riches, and was
flatteringly received by the great emperor, Charles V. In 1536 De Soto proposed
to Charles V to undertake the conquest of Florida at his own expense. This
undefined country extended an unknown distance in the heart of the continent and
was then believed to be the richest country in the world.

With six hundred men, twenty-four priests and twenty officers, equipped at his
own expense, he set sail from San Lucan in April, 1538, and landed in Tampa bay,
May 25, 1539, having stopped in the West India Islands, where the ladies
accompanying the expedition were left. Narvaez had preceded him some years, and
by his cruelties had raised legions of enemies to all Europeans. This was
unfortunate for De Soto and his brave followers, and caused them the loss of
eighty men and forty-two horses in a great battle near where Mobile now stands,
fought in October, 1540.

In July, 1539, he sent his ships to Havana. After various wanderings and the
loss of many men and horses he reached the Mississippi river in June, 1541, at
the third Chickasaw Bluffs, where Memphis now stands. He remained here from June
19 to July 29, then crossed the Mississippi and marched to the highlands of
White river in Arkansas, being the first European to plant foot on our soil.
This was the western limit of his exploration.

From the head waters of White river he proceeded south by way of Hot Springs, to
an Indian village called Autamque on the Washita river, where he spent his third
winter.

In March, 1542, he broke up his camp on the Washita and followed that stream to
its confluence with the Mississippi, where he was attacked with fever, and died
in May or June, 1542, after having appointed Mascoso his successor.

To conceal his death from the natives his body was wrapped in a mantle and sunk
in the middle of the stream at midnight. His followers, reduced more than one-
half, started east but were driven back to the river, where they passed the next
winter.

In 1543 they constructed boats and descended the river to the gulf, where they
dispersed. Condensed from Appleton's Cyclopedia.

When De Soto entered Arkansas and for more than two centuries afterward it was
inhabited by three powerful tribes of Indians, since known in our history as the
Great and Little Osages, who inhabited a large territory extending from the
Missouri river to Red river, Texas, and it was also inhabited by the Quawpaws.

The Cherokees, who occupied western Arkansas long after, did so in virtue of
treaties with the United States. The Chickasaws in De Soto's time occupied a
vast region of country to the east of the Mississippi river. After this, one
hundred and thirty-two years elapsed before another European visited Arkansas.

In 1673 two bold Jesuit explorers, Marquette and Joliett, crossed the lakes from
Canada and descended the Illinois river to its confluence with the Mississippi,
thence down the Mississippi to the junction of the Arkansas, but did not
colonize or take possession of the country. In 1682 La Salle, a French explorer,
following the same route, descended the Mississippi to the gulf and took
possession in the name of France, and named the country Louisiana in honor of
Louis XIY of France. In 16S6 Tonti left several French Canadians at an Indian
village of the Quawpaw tribe, located at a point on the Arkansas river,
subsequently known as the Arkansas Post, but these early trappers soon left and
returned to Canada or perished. This Quawpaw village was occasionally visited by
a French trader, and sometimes by a missionary, but no permanent settlement was
made in Arkansas until 1721, when the celebrated John Law established a number
of French colonists and their families at the Indian village to which they gave
the name of Arkansas Post. This was the first permanent settlement in Arkansas.

John Law is an important factor in the history of Arkansas and deserves special
mention. He was a native of Edinburgh, and was of the illustrious house of the
Duke of Argyle and one of the most remarkable men of the age in which he lived.
He possessed great learning on subjects connected with finance, the most
fascinating manners and commanding person. He was the author of several works on
finance - he examined in person the operations of the great banks of England,
Amsterdam and Venice.

France was then greatly oppressed with debt and a deranged currency. The Duke of
Orleans was then (1716) regent for the infant king, Louis XV. Law was a man of
large private fortune, and his suavity of manner and great talents commended him
to the regent. In 1716 he established a private bank in Paris. In 1717 he, in
connection with his bank, established the "Company of the West," with a royal
grant in fee of the province of Louisiana, which among other recitals contains
the following: "To enable said 'Company of the West' to make permanent
establishments, and to put in a condition to execute all the enterprises it may
project, we have given, granted and conceded; and we give, grant and concede, by
these presents, in perpetuity, all the lands, harbors and islands which compose
our province of Louisiana."

The eighth article declares that "the company may sell and alienate the lands of
the concession, as they think proper, and may grant them in fee-simple - "we
wish, that those who have no grants or patents from us may be required to take
concessions from the company, to assure themselves of their rights to the lands
they possess, which shall be made to them gratuitously."

The tenth article provides that "the company may establish governors and other
superior officers, as they may judge fit, which shall be presented to us for our
commissions, they may dismiss them and establish others."

"The said company as lord high justiciaries in the country ceded to them, may
establish judges and other officers whenever they may deem it necessary, and to
depose and replace them."

Judge Joseph M. White, who digested the laws of France and Spain, says: "These
were the leading features of an ordinance dictated by Law, to create an empire
for France in America, and to supply from the mines of that continent enough
gold and silver to support that system of banking which he had introduced in
France, based on sound and solid principles."

But in 1718 his bank was converted into the bank royal, and charged with the
management of the deranged royal revenues. Books were opened that the public, or
rather private citizens, might take stock in the bank royal, which had at its
helm the greatest financier the world had produced (in the estimation of
France). Prince and peasant alike shared this delusion, which amounted to a
national mania. The stock soon rose to twenty times its original cost.

Law gathered his colonists on this tidal wave, and shipped them to Louisiana
before the bubble burst, and left France a financial wreck; some of these
families, as we have seen, settled at Arkansas Post, and became the first
permanent European settlers in Arkansas. New Orleans, The Balize, Kaskaskia,
Cahokia, St. Louis, St. Genevieve, Prairie Du Roche, Peoria, Detroit and many
other places received large accessions under this impetus to colonization. The
governors of districts and commandants of posts were authorized to grant
concessions of land to actual settlers.

By royal edict in 1725 the companies of the east and the west were united under
the name of the "Company of the Indies," and it was again declared that it
should enjoy its privileges in perpetuity, and the grant of Louisiana was
confirmed. After an existence of fourteen years the "Company of the Indies"
surrendered its charter to the crown.

Judge White is of opinion that Law could have carried out his vast designs if he
had been able to resist the wants of an effete and impoverished aristocracy,
which drove him to overissue and inflation, collapsed the bank in two years, and
brought bankruptcy to France.

The reader must not forget that various authors call the cession of Louisiana to
Law and company by different names: "The Mississippi Company," "The Company of
the West," "Law's Company," "Law's Bubble," and "The Company of the Indies." Nor
must it be inferred that the first French colonists in Louisiana came under the
auspices of Law's company.

A few straggling Canadian French voyageurs preceded Law's colonists. Vincennes
on the Wabash river was settled by them as early as 1710. Peoria on the Illinois
river, St. Louis and St. Genevieve on the Mississippi, and other places of less
note were first occupied by Canadian French, but to Law belongs the credit of
imparting the character of colonies, and giving impetus to the settlement of the
country.

Spain, as we have seen, was entitled by right of discovery and the law of
nations, to Louisiana, one hundred and thirty-two years before the French took
possession of it. But she was pre-occupied with her vast colonial interests in
South America, Mexico, the West Indies, Florida, and her still greater European
interests and complications nearer home, and was unable to pay any attention to
Louisiana.

That vast area in the heart of North America, known in history as the province
of Louisiana, extended north from the mouth of the Mississippi river, over
twenty degrees of latitude, thence west to the Pacific ocean, and included the
area now embraced in the States of Louisiana, Arkansas, Missouri, Illinois,
Iowa, Minnesota, Nebraska, Kansas, Oregon, all that portion of Colorado east of
the Rocky mountains and east of the Arkansas river, and the territories of
Dakota, Wyoming, Montana, Idaho, Washington, and the Indian territory.

The territory of the United States was more than doubled by this accession.
Before its acquisition we did not own a foot of territory west of the
Mississippi river. Then the States of Mississippi, Tennessee, Kentucky and
Indiana marked the limits of our western frontier. The gulf States did not
extend to the gulf of Mexico by fifty miles. Then all that portion of territory
now belonging to the gulf States, fronting on the gulf of Mexico, belonged to
the Spanish province of West Florida, which we did not acquire until 1819.
Jealous, showy and punctilious France, very soon after her Canadian subjects
commenced crossing the lakes and descending the streams flowing into the gulf,
assumed dominion and manifested it to the world by the appointment of governors
or viceroys.

The first royal viceroy, the Marquis de Sanville, was commissioned and invested
with the emblem of sovereignty over the vast territories of Louisiana in 1689.
He thus became the nominal ruler over less than two hundred and fifty itinerant
hunters and trappers, one-half of whom he could not have found in twelve months
with a search warrant. But it answered the emblems of sovereignty and marked an
era in the history and civilization of the west. The seal on that commission,
though but an empty emblem of authority over men, imparted immortality to the
name it honored.

The viceroys from 1689 to 1718 were appointed by the crown; after that until
1732 they were appointed by Law and his successors.

In 1762, the uncertain vicissitudes of war, the final arbiter of nations,
humiliated Louis XV of France, by tearing from his crown all of his vast
possessions in North America, never to be united to it again until Bonaparte
compelled Spain in 1801 to execute the secret treaty of St. Ildefonso.

By the treaty of Fontainebleau, entered into on the 3d of November, 1762, and
confirmed ten days later in the palace of the Escurial, and in February
following in the palaces of St. James and the Tuilleries, Canada, stretching
from the gulf of St. Lawrence to the Arctic and Pacific oceans, was ceded to
Great Britain and Louisiana, stretching from the gulf of Mexico, northward to
the lakes and the British possessions, thence westward to the Pacific ocean, was
ceded to Spain.

This treaty of Fontainebleau carried with it in area the greatest empire ever
conveyed by a stroke of either pen or sword.

The sovereignty of Arkansas has followed all these vibrations of the European
political pendulum.