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60

BEGINNINGS OF LOUISIANA.

two barges to find the entrance to the Mississippi. By following the muddy water they came to the mouth of the great river on March 2, 1699. They afterward ascended as high as its confluence with the Red River and received from the Indians letter written by Tonty to La Salle in 1686.* They then retraced their steps down the river, and leaving the main stream, and passing through the Lakes Maurepas and Pontchartrain, made their way back by a shorter passage to the place where they had left the other colonists. Upon his return to the colony, Iberville erected a fort on the Bay of Biloxi, which he named Maurepas in honor of a son of the younger Pontchartrain.† On May 3, 1699, Iberville returned to France, leaving his brothers, Sauvolle and Bienville, in command.‡ Such was the beginning of Louisiana, and it constituted an important movement in advancing the progress and plans of the French in America. "Already

a line of communication existed between Quebec and the Gulf of Mexico. The boundless southern region made a part of the French empire by lilies carved on forest trees, or crosses erected on bluffs, and occupied by French missionaries and for

*Phelps, Louisiana, pp. 19, 27-36.

P. J. Hamilton, Colonial Mobile, p. 32; Phelps, pp. 37-38.

Parkman, Half-Century of Conflict, vol. i., pp. 288-292; Johnson, French Pathfinders, pp. 278-283; Ogg, Opening of the Mississippi, pp. 169-182; Winsor, The Mississippi Basin, pp. 3343; The South in the Building of the Nation, vol. iii., pp. 86-87.

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But England was aware of the movements of the French and determined to assert her claim to the territory thus occupied. An expedition was therefore sent out under Daniel Coxe, a London physician who had purchased the old patent of Carolana, and he soon reached the mouth of the Mississippi. In September, 1699, as Bienville was making some explorations among the forks below New Orleans, he met an English ship of 16 guns. It is stated by many that he persuaded the English commander to abandon the expedition, saying that the region was already occupied and settled by the French. He thus got rid of a very troublesome visitor. The point where the English vessel is supposed to have turned is still known as English Turn.

In December, 1699, Iberville returned to the colony, reaching Biloxi January 8, 1700. He had been in

* Bancroft, History of the United States, vol. iii., p. 202 (1st ed.), vol. ii., p. 189 (last rev.).

† Coxe subsequently compiled a Description of the English Province of Carolana, by the Spaniards called Florida and by the French La Louisiane, which will be found in French, Historical Collections of Louisiana, vol. ii., pp. 223

276.

This statement lacks satisfactory evidence and is based on the journal of La Harpe, in French, Historical Collections of Louisiana, vol. iii., p. 17 and a statement in François-Xavier Martin's History of Louisiana, p. 149. It is copied withtout comment by most historians. Winsor, The Mississippi Basin, p. 45, says, “it does not seem to be satisfactorily shown that the usual story is true."

EXPLORATIONS AND DEATH OF IBERVILLE.

trusted with the execution of a number of important projects, but was especially instructed to look for and to find gold. He was instructed also to look well into the matter of the reputed pearl fisheries and to find out whether or not the country was adapted to silk-raising, it being suggested that the Indian girls and children might be employed at the pastoral task of raising silkworms.* Accordingly, Iberville, accompanied by Le Sueur and Bienville, ascended the Mississippi and visited various tribes of Indians, in the hope of locating the yellow metal, but inquiry and search were alike in vain. In 1700 Iberville was joined by Tonty with a few companions from the banks of the Illinois, and the combined party ascended the Mississippi for some 300 or 400 miles.† A few weeks later Le Sueur departed on his trip to the Minnesota country to search for "green earth," as will be related in subsequent pages. Late in May, 1700, upon his return from the expedition, Iberville sailed for France, leaving Sauvolle and Bienville in charge of the colony. Hardly had he departed, however, when the colonists were attacked by various. fevers, and large numbers died, Sauvolle being among the earliest to succumb. In December, 1701, when

* Phelps, Louisiana, pp. 39-40.

Grace King gives some passages from Bienville's journal that are interesting:- Jean Baptiste Le Moyne, Sieur de Bienville, chap. viii. See also Winsor, The Mississippi Basin, p. 48 et seq.

VOL. II-5

61

Iberville again returned from France
(to which he had gone for soldiers and
provisions), he found hardly 150 sur-
vivors.
vivors. In the spring of 1702 Iber-
ville returned to France in the hope
that he could induce the government
to send further aid, by reciting the
condition of the colony. In 1703 he
was prepared to set out for America,
but the labors of the past few years
had worn on him so greatly that his
constitution was undermined, and he
was unable to make the trip until
three years had passed.* In 1706 he
set out, but on the journey he was at-
tacked by yellow fever and on July 9,
of that year, passed away at Havana.
At the time of his death Louisiana
was little more than a wilderness and
contained only about 30 families.†

*In 1703 the colony had been attacked by yellow fever and about two-thirds of the colony fell victims to the pestilence, among them being Tonty. Phelps, Louisiana, p. 49.

The principal authorities for Iberville's voyages are the Relation of the carpenter Penicaut, a translation of which will be found in French, Historical Collections of Louisiana, new series, vol. i., pp. 35-175; Iberville's Narrative, in French, new series, vol. i., pp. 19-31; Dumont's (?) Mémoir, in French, vol. v., pp. 1-122; Shea, Charleroix's History of New France (6 vols.); Sauvolle's Journal, in French, vol. iii., pp. 223240; etc. See also Charles B. Reed, The First Great Canadian; The Story of Pierre Le Moyne, Sieur D'Iberville (1910); Hamilton, Colonial Mobile, chaps. vi.-xii.; Ogg, Opening of the Mississippi, pp. 169-192; Monette, History of the Mississippi Valley, vol. i., chap. v.; Gayarré, History of Louisiana, vol. i., pp. 30-115; King and Ficklen, History of Louisiana, pp. 26-86; W. G. Brown, History of Alabama, chap. ii.; Martin, History of Louisiana, vol. i., chap. vii; Rozier, History of Early Settlements in the Mississippi Valley; John R. Spears and Alonzo H. Clark, A History of the Mississippi Valley from its Discovery to the End of the Foreign Domination (1903).

62

MOBILE FOUNDED; THE CROZAT PATENT.

Meanwhile, the greater part of the settlers determined to abandon Biloxi, and they removed to Mobile, near the head of Mobile Bay.* This was the first European settlement within the limits of what is now the State of Alabama, and for the next twenty years it constituted the headquarters of the colony. At this time there was no systematic attempt to promote the industries of the colony; pearls, gold mines, furs, and the wool of the buffalo were the chief articles sought by the colonists. The sandy desert and the soil on Dauphine Island were poor and unproductive, and, as Bancroft says, "Bienville and his few soldiers were insulated and unhappy, at the mercy of the rise of waters in the river; and the buzz and sting of mosquitoes, the hissing of the snakes, the croaking of the frogs, the cries of alligators, seemed to claim that the country should still for a generation be the inheritance of reptiles, - while at the fort of Mobile, the sighing of the pines and the hopeless character of the barrens, warned the emigrants to seek homes farther within the land." Bienville, now being chief in authority, was charged with peculation and other offences and De Muys was sent out to succeed him, but he died on the voyage. Diron d'Artagnette was then appointed to the chief command, reaching the colony in February, 1708. The complaints, though not proven, continued to pour in to the home gov

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*See Hamilton, Colonial Mobile, p. 37 et seq.

ernment, and in 1710 La MotheCadillac was sent out to supersede Bienville, but he did not reach the colony until May, 1713. From time to time recruits were added to the colony, but until ten years later the colony does not seem to have contained over 200 at any time,* and doubtless, if provisions had not been sent from France and St. Domingo, even these would have perished of starvation.

Louis XIV. now considered that the colony had become a burden on the country, and on September 14, 1712, he granted to Anthony Crozat the exclusive privilege for fifteen years of trading in that immense territory, which France claimed under the name of Louisiana.† In the meantime Bienville had been acting as governor, but, as previously stated, he was succeeded in 1713 in that position by Cadillac, he then taking the office of lieutenant-governor. Cadillac had been expressly charged by Crozat to look after mineral wealth, and the

*On the numbers in the colony see W. G. Brown, History of Alabama, p. 37.

On

The Crozat patent is in French, Historical Collections of Louisiana, vol. iii., pp. 38-42. the entire enterprise see Parkman, Half-Century of Conflict, vol. i., pp. 295-305; Wallace, History of Illinois and Louisiana, under French Rule, chap. xii.; Winsor, The Mississippi Basin, pp. 8398; Hamilton, Colonial Mobile, chap. xi.; Gayarré, History of Louisiana, vol. i., pp. 102–191; Phelps, Louisiana, p. 52 et seq.; Martin, History of Louisiana, vol. i., chap. viii; Monette, History of the Mississippi Valley, vol. i., chap. v.; Winsor, Narrative and Critical History, vol. v., pp. 28-31; Brown, History of Alabama, chap. iii.; Pickett, History of Alabama, vol. i., chap. v.; Ogg, Opening of the Mississippi Valley, p. 199 et seq.

THE MISSISSIPPI COMPANY; JOHN LAW.

office,

new governor expected soon to be possessed of an immense fortune. His expeditions, however, met with failure, and in 1716 he was unceremoniously dismissed from his office, Bienville assuming charge of affairs until L'Epinay arrived six months later.* Crozat had now become wearied with the ill success of his plans for establishing commercial relations with the Spaniardst and securing some of the trade from the Indians, and in 1717, therefore, he persuaded the government to assume the burden. At this time the population in Louisiana, both white and colored, was computed to be about 700, and despite Bienville's activity in conciliating the Natchez Indians among whom he had built Fort Rosalie, and notwithstanding the efforts at home on behalf of the colony, it was at this time in a very distressing condition.

The French government, however, was exceedingly reluctant to give up the hope of obtaining wealth from the colony, and in August, 1717, the French Regent and his councillors

Phelps, Louisiana, p. 55.

For details of which see Winsor, The Mississippi Basin, pp. 90-98; George P. Garrison, Texas;

A Contest of Civilizations, chap. v.; La Harpe's (?) journal in French, Historical Collections of Louisiana, vol. iii., pp. 47-48; Penicaut's journal in French, ibid, new series, vol. i., pp. 114-128; Shea, Charleroia's History of New France, vol. vi., pp. 19-24.

On this war see Shea, Charleroix's History of New France, vol. vi., pp. 28-31; the Mémoir by Richebourg in French, Historical Collections of Louisiana, vol. iii., pp. 241-252; Martin, History of Louisiana, vol. i., chap. viii.

63

determined to transfer it to the famous Company of the West, better known as the Mississippi Company, under whose management it was confidently fidently believed immense wealth would come to the French treasury.* Their hopes were blasted, however, for this gigantic scheme proved to be one of the most wonderful bubbles ever blown up to astonish, delude, and ruin thousands of people. It was set in operation and its charter registered by the parliament of Paris on September 6, 1717, and commenced business with a capital of 100,000,000 livres. To John Law belongs all the credit for bringing this mighty piece of " high finance" into being. At this time he was about 46 years of age, having been born at Edinburgh in 1671, and his career had been notorious from the time he reached man's estate. When he was 23 years. of age, according to Gayarré, he was, "a bankrupt, an adulterer, a murderer, and an exiled outlaw.' But certainly he possessed remarkable financial ability, and by agreeable and attractive manners, and his enthusiastic advocacy of his schemes, he succeeded in influencing the easily aroused imaginations of the Frenchmen. They became his willing dupes and readily fell in with a plan whereby they could reap enormous profits with little expenditure of labor or money. It was only necessary, in

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The patent is in French, Historical Collections of Louisiana, vol. iii., pp. 49-59.

64

THE MISSISSIPPI BUBBLE.

order to obtain wealth, to despatch bankruptcy. But the Regent has the settlers to Louisiana.

*

Arriving in Paris with some 2,500,000 francs, which he had obtained at a gambling table, he found a state of affairs exactly suited to his purpose. Shortly after his arrival, Louis XIV. died, and in 1716, when the Duke of Orleans, the Regent, took charge of national affairs, he found that the treasury of the nation was entirely empty. "The public debt was immense; it was a legacy bequeathed by the military glory of Louis XIV., and the other pompous vanities of his long reign. The consequence was, that the load of taxation was overwhelming, merely to pay the interest of this debt, without any hope of diminishing the capital. All the sources of industry were dried up: the very winds which wafted the barks of commerce, seemed to have died away under the pressure of the time; trade stood still; the manufacturers were struck with palsy; the merchant, the trader, the artificer, once flourishing in affluence, were now transformed into clamorous beggars, and those who could yet command some small means, were preparing to emigrate to foreign parts. The lifeblood that animated the kingdom, was stagnated in all its arteries, and the danger of an awful crisis became such, that it was actually proposed in the Council of the State to expunge the public debt, by an act of national

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credit of having rejected the proposition; and a commission was appointed to inquire into the financial situation of the kingdom, and to prepare a remedy for the evil."* Law therefore reached Paris in the nick of time, and learning of the depressed state of finances, he proposed a scheme of relief which was eagerly caught at. In 1716 a bank was established, under Law's name, with a capital of 6,000,000 livres, divided into shares of 500 livres each.† This bank was remarkably successful, owing to Law's ability, and a year afterward its notes were ordered to be received as specie by the royal treasury. Step by step Law's scheme advanced until in December, 1718, the bank was abolished, and a Royal Bank, with Law as director-general, sprang into existence. Law then was appointed director-general of the Mississippi Company and the two were merged into one. Wild speculation now followed, into the details of which we cannot go. But finally the paper currency had been inflated to such an extent that it was found impossible to redeem it,‡ and within a comparatively short time, the bubble burst, scattering ruin and disaster in every direction. In May, 1720, payment was stopped by the bank, at which time there were notes in circulation amounting to 2,235,085,590

* Gayarré, History of Louisiana, vol. i., p. 99. Phelps, Louisiana, p. 57.

Ibid, p. 59.

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