Standard history of New Orleans, Louisiana, giving a description of the natural advantages, natural history ... settlement, Indians, Creoles, municipal and military history, mercantile and commercial interests, banking, transportation, struggles against high water, the press, educational ... etc.
fH4>i; iiii! |i' ". iii:- Ml l;:' i'l!: ).;oi, ■•iK:r-, :j iV'j livi; M' »'!•'■ 'I'l'l'; i li^ijfj 1» (.! , <;* <• !r'' ';'(:! j;i'/ii' ii:r;M o / / "^-X'.A^V*^- C^^^Uu/^(l^ STANDARD HISTORY OF NEW ORLEANS. LOUISIANA GIVING A DESCRIPTION OF THE NATURAL ADVANTAGES, NATURAL HISTORY IN REGARD TO THE FLORA AND BIRDS, SETTLEMENT, INDIANS, CREOLES, MUNICIPAL AND MILITARY HISTORY, MERCANTILE AND COMMERCIAL INTERESTS, BANKING. TRANSPORTATION, STRUGGLES AGAINST HIGH WATER, THE PRESS. EDUCATIONAL, LITERATURE AND ART, THE CHURCHES, OLD BURYING GROUNDS, BENCH AND BAR, MEDICAL, PUBLIC AND CHARIT- ABLE INSTITUTIONS, THE CARNIVAL, AMUSEMENTS, CLUBS, SOCIETIES, ASSOCIATIONS. ETC EDITED BY HENRY RIGHTOR THE LEWIS PUBLISHING COMPANY CHICAGO 190O INDQIEO A COPYRIGHT, 1900 BY THE LEWIS PUBLISHING CO. CHICAGO ' O 3. PREFACE, IT is the aim of the present volume to supply a work which shall deal with the history of New Orleans not alone in its broadest sense of civic development, but as well in respect of those some- what more intimate and, in a sense, personal details which, though not properly a part of the history of the municipality, possess an ever-widening bearing upon that history and entitle them to the per- petuity of print. If there be deficiencies in the volume, they are to be attributed to this very ambition, for the minutiae referred to is endless, and it is inevitable that the proper estimate should not always have been placed upon the multiplicity of detail confronting the writ- ers. The book will, nevertheless, contribute its mite, and if it enrich the history-literature of the State only to the extent of providing an accurate and reliable volume with sources of information accessible by means of a carefully prepared index, the labor expended upon it shall not have been lost. It is hoped that what the value may lack in uniformity and symmetry, by reason of the number of writers engaged upon it, with the resultant diversity of views, may be compensated by the earnestness which has inspired the composition of the various chapters. Original records have been consulted wherever accessible and every writer has given a personal attention to the revision of proof-sheets. The chapters upon sugar and rice have been added because these industries have been of exceptional importance in the city's commercial history. The writers and the editor are indebted, for invaluable assistance and advice in directing to sources of information, to Mr. William Beer, Librarian of the Howard and of the Fisk Free and Public Libraries. The Editor. ill CONTENTS. CHAPTJ':!; 1. Page Colonial Times 7 CHAPTER II. The Indians of Louisiana 30 CHAPTP:H III. Advantages of New Orleans .37 CHAPTER IV. Municipal Government 78 CHAPTER V. Military Vid CHAPTER VI. Fight Against High Water 171 CHAPTKR Vll. The Creoles 184 CHAPTER Vlll. The Medical History of New Orleans 303 CHAPTER IX. History of Education in New Orleans 32G CHAPTER X. Old Burial Places 256 CHAPTER XL The Press 267 CHAPTER XII. Transportation 286 CHAPTER XIIL Secret Orders 315- Ti CONTENTS. CHAPTER XIV. • p^. The Nature of Bird Life at New Orleans 335 CHAPTER XV. Literature and Art 361 CHAPTER XVL Flora of Louisiana 389 CHAPTER XVII. The Bench and Bar of New Orleans 394 CHAPTER XVIII. Public Buildings and Charities 417 CHAPTER XIX. The Amusements of New Orleans 463 CHAPTER XX. The Churches 480 CHAPTER XXI. Manufactures 511 CHAPTER XXII. Commercial and Mercantile Interests 538 CHAPTER XXIII. Banking and Finance STS CHAPTER XXIV. Clubs and Kindred Organizations 606 CHAPTER XXV. The Carnival 629 CHAPTER XXVI. The Sugar Industry 646 STANDARD HISTORY OF NEW ORLEANS. CHAPTER I. COLONIAL TIMES. The Feench and Spanish Dominations. By Alcke Fortier, ~D. Lit., Pro- fessor OK Romance Languages in Tulane University of Louisiana, President of the Louisiana Histokicae Society. L— EXPLORATIONS AND SETTLEMENTS. I.A SAI.LE, IBERVILLE, AND BIENVILLE. THE history of LoHisiana begin.? in reality with the expedition of Robert Cavelier de La Salle down the Mississippi River in 1682. That heroic man was born at Roiien in Normandy, and formed the project of explor- ing to its mouth the great river discovered by Hernando de Soto in 1541, and rediscovered in 1673 by Father Marquette and Louis Joliet. La Salle went (o Canada, saw Governor Froiitenac, obtained his apjiroval of his plans, and re- turned to France, where he secured privileges from King Louis XIV. He arrived at Quebec in 1G78, and immediately made preparations for his under- taking. Henri de Tonty, the chivalric Italian, was La Salle's most trusted companion and the principal historian of the expedition. Before 1682, La Salle had been unsuccessful in his efforts to reach the Mississippi, but had displayed wonderful constancy and courage. On February 6, 1682, he entered the mighty stream from the Illinois River, and on April 9, he reached the Gulf by three passes into which the river divided itself. La Salle erected on the shore a cross, and a column on which were inscribed the name and the coat of arms of the King. He named the coimtry Louisiana, in honor of the French monarch, and took possession of the vast territory watered by the Mississippi and its tributaries, in the name of Louis XIV. 8 STANDARD HISTORY OF NEW ORLEANS. La Salle returned to Canada, and from there went to France, where he was well received by the King, who gave him the means to undertake the coloni- zation of Louisiana. He started from La Rochelle, on July 4, 1684, with a &.mall fleet of four vessels, commanded by Beaujeu and containing 250 persons, liesides the officers and the crew. After having stopped for a time at San Domingo the fleet, reduced to three vessels, arrived at a large river emptying into the Gulf of Mexico. It was thought to be the Mississippi, and Beaujeu returned to France leaving to La Salle the brig La Belle. The explorer built a fort, which he called St. Louis, on the bay of St. Bernard or Matagorda, and his brig having been wrecked in a storm, he resolved to return by land to Canada, in order to obtain help for his colony. He was accompanied by his brother, his nephew, and a few companions, among whom was Joutel, who has related the expedition. In 1687 the heroic La Salle was murdered by some of his own men, and the colony established in Texas was destroyed by the Indians. After the failure of La Salle's expedition, France was not, for several years, in a condition to make another attempt to colonize Louisiana. By the Revolu- tion of 1688 James II. was expelled from England, and Louis XIV. undertook to replace on his throne the Stuart monarch. There was a war which lasted for nearly ten years, and which ended in 1697, by the treaty of Ryswick. Then arose a favorable opportunity for plans of colonization, and the man who knew how to take advantage of the occasion was Iberville, a Canadian sailor who had greatly distinguished himself in the wars against the English. He offered to form a settlement in Louisiana, and the plan was favorably received by the King and his minister, Pontchartrain. Iberville started from Brest on October 24, 1698, with two frigates and two freight ships, and at San Domingo was joined by the Marquis de Chateaumorant in command of a war vessel. On January 25 the fleet anchored before the island of St. Rosa, but the Spanish governor of Pensacola did not allow the French to enter the harbor. They set sail again and cast anchor before the Chandeleur Islands. Iberville landed on Ship Island, built some huts there and went with his brother Bienville to explore the coast of what is now Biloxi and Ocean Springs. He found the country beautiful and was well received by the Indians, and built, a little later, a fort on the eastern shore of the Bay of Biloxi. Before building his fort, however, Iberville had started, on February 27, with his brother Bienville, to look for the mouth of the Mississippi, and had succeeded in discovering the hidden river on March 2, 1699. The two brothers STANDARD HISTORY OF NEW ORLEANS. g went up the Mississippi, as far as the country of the Houmas, near the mouth of Red River, and had no doubt about their being on La Salle's river, when they found, among -the Bayougoulas, a letter from Tonty, who had gone down the Mississippi in search of La Salle, at the time of the last expedition of the great explorer. At the place where is now the town of Baton Rouge, Iberville saw a tall may-pole on which the Indians had hung offerings of fish and game, and he called the place Baton Rouge. Near by was a small river or bayou named Manchac, and Iberville entered it and reached again his fleet at Ship Island, after having passed through two lakes and a bay, which he called, respectively, Maurepas, Pontchartrain, and St. Louis. Bienville returned by way of the Mississippi. Iberville sailed for France in May, 1699, after having sown the seed from which Louisiana was to grow. He gave the command of the colony to Sauvole, a brave and capable young French officer, who has left an interesting account of the difficulties attending the establishment of the colony. The coast on the Mississippi Sound is beautiful, with its white sand and magnificent trees: oaks, magnolias, and pines, but the land is not fertile. The colonists, besides, for several years, paid little attention to tilling the ground and counted for sub- sistence on the provisions sent from France. Iberville did not abandon his infant colony, but returned to it in the begin- ning of 1700. He again went up the Mississippi with Bienville, and with Tonty, who had come from Canada to meet the French. Iberville went as far as the Natchez country and ordered a fort which he called Rosalie to be built there. He built also a fort fifty-four miles from the mouth of the river and called it Maurepas. He gave the command of it to Bienville, who stayed there until the death of Sauvole in August, 1701, when he became governor of Louis- ana at the early age of twenty-two. Iberville returned once more to Louisiana at the end of 1701, and remained until March, 1702. He had the seat of the colony transferred to fort St. Louis de la Mobile. Iberville, the father of Louisiana, died in 1706 at Havana, whither he had gone to prepare an expedition against the English in the Caro- linas. His death was a great blow to the colony, which was left with very little support from France. Bienville was obliged several times to scatter some of his men among the Indians, who treated them kindly. Penicaut, the carpenter, has given a charming description of his stay among the Natchitoches. He tells us how he tried to teach French to two Indian maidens, and how one of his lo STANDARD HISTORY OF NEW ORLEANS. Gonipanions, a violinist, taught the young 2)eople to dance the stately minuet of the court of yersailles. In spite of Bienville's efforts to make the colony prosper, he was superseded in 1708, and a new governor, de Muys, was sent to Louisiana. The latter died on tTie way, and the new commissary general, Diron d'Artaguette, sent such a favorable report to the French government about Bienville that the young governor was kept at the head of the colony, which he had governed ad intenm, after the death of de Muys. France had been brought to great distress by the war of the Spanish suc- cession undertaken by Louis XIV. to place his grandson, the Duke of Anjou, on the throne of Spain, which had been bequeathed to the latter by Charles II. Marlborough and Prince Eugene had defeated the armies of the French in several great battles, and the country was saved from a shameful peace only by the battle of Denain, won by Villars in 1712. It was no easy matter to maintain colonies when the kingdom was in danger, therefore, in 1712, Louis XIV. was glad to transfer Louisiana to a wealthy banker named Crozat, for a period of fifteen years. The colony, at that time, contained a population of about 380 l>ersons, scattered, says Gayarrc, over an immense territory and protected by five forts : at Mobile, at Biloxi, on the Mississippi, at Ship Island, and Dauphine or Massacre Island, near Mobile. In 1710 Lamothc Cadillac had been named govern >r. He was the founder of Detroit and had given proof of ability and courage, but in his new position he failed completely. He seemed to have lacked tact in his dealings with the Indians, and the first Xatchez war broke out in 1716. The Xatchez were an intelligent race and had strange customs. They adored the sun and kept a fire burning perpetually in their temple. Their chief was called the Great Sun, and the succession was in the female line. In 1716 the Xatchez rose against the French, and Bienville, who was second in command in the colony, was sent affainst them. As he bad onlv a few men with him, he resorted to a stratagem which we could hardly approve at present and made the Indian chiefs fall into a snare. He put two of them to death and made terms with the others. He also built Fort Rosalie, of which the site had been chosen by Iberville. Ill 1716 Lamothe Cadillac was recalled, and de I'Epinay named governor. In 1717, however, Crozat gave up liis charter. He believed that he would have a prosperous trade V-ith tlie Spaniards in Mexico, but had failed in this and had been restricted to an unprofitable trade with the Indians. The council of STANDARD IIISTOBY OF NEW ORLEANS. ii marine decided to maintain the colony and declared : "That it is too con- siderable an enterprise to be confided to a single individual ; that it does not ?nit the King to take charge of it himself, inasmuch as His Majesty cannot enter into all the details of commerce, which are inseparable from it ; therefore, the best to be done is to choose a company strong enough to support this enterprise." Louisiana was transferred, with a population of about 700 souls, to the Company of the West or of the Indies. The latter was to have almost absolute control over the colony for twenty-five years, enjoying a monopoly of trade, naming the governor and other officers, except the members of the Superior Council. The company obligated itself to send to Louisiana six thousand whites and three thousand blacks. The famous John Law, director general of the bank of France, was the president of the company. At the end of Crozat's regime, Saint-Denis had laid the foundation of the toAvn of K'atchitoches and had gone to Mexico, where he had had a number of romantic adventures, and had married a beautifiil Mexican girl. II._THE BEGINNINGS OF NEW ORLEANS. THE WESTERN COMPANY AND THE NATCHEZ WAR. As soon as the organization of tlie Western Company was completed three ships were sent to Louisiana. They carried soldiers and sixty-nine colonists, and as Gayarre says, "caused the hope of better days to revive in the colony." Bien- ville was appointed governor for the second time, and in 1718 rendered to Louisiana the greatest service possible by laying the foundation of the present city of NeAv Orleans. The following extract from Father Charlevoix's Historical Journal is in- teresting, as it is probably the first letter written from New Orleans that has come down to us. It is addressed to the Duchess of Lesdig^iieres, and is taken from the "Historical Collections" of B. F. French. " New Orleans, January 10, 1722. " I am at length arrived in this famous city, which they have called la NouveUe-Orleans. Those who have given it this name, thought that Orleans was of the feminine gender ; but what signifies that ? Custom has established it, and that is above the rules of grammar. " This city is the first, which one of the greatest rivers in the world has seen raised on its banks. If the eight hundred fine houses and the five parishes, which the newspapers gave it some two years ago, are reduced at present to a 12 STANDARD HISTORY OF NEW ORLEANS. hundred barracks, placed in no very great order; to a great storehouse, built of wood ; to two or three houses, which would be no ornament to a village of France ; and to the half of a sorry storehouse, which they agreed to lend to the lord of the place, and which he had no sooner taken possession of, but they turned him out to dwell under a tent ; what pleasure, on the other side, to see insensibly in- creasing this future capital of a fine and vast country, and to be able to say, not with a sigh, like the hero of Virgil, speaking of his dear native place consiniied by the flames, and the fields where the city of Troy had been, but full of a well- grounded hope, this wild and desert place, which the reeds and trees do yet al- most wholly cover, will be one day, and perhaps that day is not far off, an ojiulent city, and the metropolis of a great and rich colony. " You will ask me, madam, on what I found this hope ? I found it on tlie situation of this city, at tliirty-three leagues from the sea, and on the side of a navigable river, that one nuiy come up to this place in twenty-four hours ; on the fruitfulness of the soil ; on the mildness and goodness of its climate, in ?)0° north latitude; on the industry of its inhabitants; on the neighborhood of Mexico, to which we may go in fifteen days by sea ; on that of the Havana, which is still nearer : and of the Ena-lish colonies. Need there anvthina; more to render a city flourishing ? Rome and Paris had not such considerable be- ginnings, were not built under such happy auspices, and their foimders did not find on the Seine and the Tiber the advantages which we have found on the Mississippi, in comparison of which those two rivers are but little brooks." Although New Oi-leans, in 1722, was composed only of "a hundred barracks," and about 200 inhabitants, Bienville wisely foresaw its great future and tried, as early as 1719, to have the seat of government transferred to the town on the Mississippi. The Superior Council, however, did not share the views of the governor, and decided to transfer the seat of government from Mobile, near Dauphine Island, to Biloxi, which, having been burned by accident, was aban- doned for Xcw Biloxi, on the other .«ide of the Bay. In 1722 tlie news reached Louisiana of the failure of Law's bank, due to an exaggerated emission of paper money based on no tangible security. The colonists feared that Law's failure would interfere with the affairs of the Western Company and induce it to neglect Lcaiisiana. Such was not the case, for there soon arrived in the colony three commissioners charged with the ad- ministration of the affairs of the company. The commissioners, in 1723, allowed Bienville to make Xew Orleans the capital of Louisiana. On January 25, 1723, Pauger, the engineer, made an important report concerning the mouth of the river, saying that "he found that ships drawing fourteen, fifteen feet of water, and even more, could pass there easily." STANDARD HISTORY OF NEW ORLEANS. 13 Owing to the failure of Law's bank the financial affairs of the colony were in a wretched condition. The paper money was almost worthless and was or- dered to be exchanged for cards, which were soon as worthless. Another result of Law's faihire was the establishment on the Mississippi River, at a short dis- tance from N'ew Orleans, of about foiar hundred Germans, who had been sent to the Arkansas country, but had been compelled to go to Sew Orleans. From these settlers came the name of German Coast. On February Ifi, 1724, Bienville was ordered to return to France to ren- der an account of his conduct. From the foundation of the colony there had existed serious dissensions between the superior officers in command, and Bien- ville's enemies were once more successful, as they had been in 1708, in their intrigues against him. During his second administration Bienville had taken Pensacola in 1719 (i-eturned to Spain in l72o), had undertaken a war against the !N"atchez and had defeated them, had issued the Black Code, and had entered into negotiations by which the LTrsuline nuns were to come to Louisiana to in- struct the girls in the colony. I take the liberty to quote here from my "Louisiana Stiidies" the following extracts referring to education in colonial times in Louisiana : " The hundred huts mentioned by Father Charlevoix soon became spacious man- sions, which, althoiigh rough looking and unwieldy, contained in their poorly furnished rooms and wide halls elegant gentlemen and ladies and charming children. The parents had been educated in France. Where were the little ones to be instructed ? The wealthy inhabitants sent their sons to the colleges of the mother country, but could girls be separated from their mothers, and what was to be done with the sons of the poor ? A worthy Capuchin monk, Father Cecil, opened a school for boys near his church, and was the first teacher in Louisiana. As for the teachers for girls, Bienville thought of the soeurs grises of his native Canada ; but having failed in that direction, he consulted Father Beaubois, superior of the few Jesuits at that time in Louisiana, and was advised by him to procTire the services of the Lh-suline nuns. A treaty was signed on September 13, 1726, between the nuns and the company of the Indies, and Bien- ville, although he was no longer governor when the Ursulines arrived in Louisi- ana, is entitled to the honor of being the founder of the first girls' school and of the first hospital in the colony." The hospital was also to be under the charge of the Ursulines. The nuns, twelve in number, left Lorient, on February 22, 1727, and r 14 STAXDAIU) IlISTUnr OF NEW ORLEANS. reached 'New Orleans on August 7, 1727. Their superior was Mother Tranche- pain, and among the sisters was the talented Madeleine Hachard, to whom we owe a charming description of the journey of the nuns, and of Xew Orleans in 1727. Governor Perier, Bienville's successor, went to meet the nuns on their arrival, and they were given as a residence Bienville's house, where they stayed until 1734. They moved then to their convent on Conde street, later Chartres street, now the palace of the archbishop of New Orleans. The plan of the new to^vn had been made by chief engineer de la Tour, about whom Dumont says in his Memoir (B. Y. French, "Historical Memoirs") : " The Sieur de la Tour was no sooner arrived at the place, then consisting only of some unimportant houses, scattered here and there, formed by voyageurs who had come down from Illinois, than he cleared a pretty long and wide strip along the river, to put in execution the plan he had projected. Then, with the help of some piqueurs, he traced on the ground the streets and q\iarters which were to form the new town, and notified all who wished building sites to present their petitions to the council. To each settler who appeared they gave a plot ten fathoms front bv twenty deep, and as each square was fifty fa'thoms front, it gave twelve plots in each, the two middle ones being ten front by twenty-five deep. It Avas ordained that those who obtained these plots should be bound to enclose them with palisades, and leave all around a strip at least three feet wide, at the foot of which a ditch was to be dug, to serve as a drain for the river water in time of inundation. The Sieur de la Tour deemed these canals, commimicat- ing from square to sqiuire, not only absolutely necessary, but even, to preserve the city from inundation, raised in front, near a slight elevation, running to the river, a dike or levee of earth, at the foot of which he dug a similar drain." Governor Perier arrived in New Orleans in 1725. During his administra- tion a great war with the Indians took place. The Chickasaws had never been very friendly to the French, and the iffatchez seemed restless. Bienville had asked for more troops, and Perier repeated the request when he became governor, but without success. The Indians were led to attack the French by the greed and injustice of the commandant at Fort Rosalie, Ohepart. This vile man ordered the Natchez to abandon one of their finest villages, the White Apple, in order that he might establish a plantation there. The Indian chief succeeded in obtaining, or rather in buying, a delay from him, but the Natchez, henceforth, STANDARD HISTORY OF NEW ORLEANS. 15 ihonght that their safety lay in destroying the French at Fort Rosalie. On hearing of this disaster Perier made active preparations to attack the ISTatchez. Lesneur induced the Choctaws to ally themselves with the French, and Perier sent Major Loiihois with the main hody of troops to co-operate with Lesiieur. The savage auxiliaries of the latter, however, refused to wait for Loubois's detachment, and attacking the ISTatchez by surprise, killed a number of them and recovered .51 French women and children, two men, and one hun- dred and six slaves. The Choctaws then dispersed. The !Natchez intrenched themselves strongly and resisted for some time successfully the attacks of Louhois. Finally they offered to surrender their prisoners, more than two hundred in number, provided the siege were aban- doned. These terms were accepted, but the Indians, not trusting the French, managed to escape, leaving their prisoners behind. Some of the Natchez sought refuge among the Chickasaws, while the greater part, led by the Great Sun, retired upon a mound on the Black River. Governor Perier received some reinforcements from France, and on November 15, 1730, he departed with 650 soldiers, including the militia, and 350 Indian warriors, for the Black River. In this expedition he succeeded in bringing back to New Orleans, on February 5, 1731, 427 captives, including the Great Sim and several chiefs. These Avere sent to San Domingo by Perier and sold as slaves. He had previously allowed to be burned in New Orleans, as a warning, foiir men and two women. The tribe of the Natchez, now reduced by one-half, was in the summer of 1731 nearly annihilated by the brave Saint-Denis, the commandant at Natchi- toches. What remained of the tribe was adopted by the Chickasaws, and the Natchez lost their name. Such was the fate of these Indians, whom Le Page du Pratz praises highly, and who seem to have been far superior in intelligence to the other tribes in Louisiana. The Natchez war had occasioned heavy expense to the Western Company and had delayed the growth of the colony, therefore the Company begged the King to allow them to surrender their charter. Their petition was granted, and Louisiana became again, in April, 1732, a royal province. It had pros- pered considerably during the fifteen years it had been under the control of the Western Company. The population in 1732 was 5,000 whites and 2,000 i6 STAXDARD HISTORY OF XEW ORLEANS. blacks, and trade and agriculture were flourishing. At this period of history ends the colonization of Louisiana. The seed sown by Iberville had friictified, and in sjiite of many vicissitudes, the colony- planted at Biloxi in 169D, was to become the great State of Louisiana, and Bienville's town of one hundred huts was to become the metropolis of the Southern States of the American Union. III.— THE CHICKASAW WAE, AND THE TEEATY OF FON- TAINEBLEAIT. VAUnKEUIL AND KESLEREC. Bienville was reappointed governor in 1732, and the colonists wore de- lighted to see him again, but the last administration of that distinguished man was marked with great disasters in the wars with the Indians. The tribes seemed to have been somewhat dissatisfied with Perier, and the latter's successor had a hard task in his dealings with the Indians. We shall follow here Dumont's account of the war with the Chickasaws. We have seen that the remnant of the Natchez tribe, after their defeat by Saint-Denis, were adopted by the Chickasaws. In 1734 Bienville asked for the surrender of the fugitives, but met with a refusal. He, therefore, prepared to attack the Chickasaws. This tribe was the most warlike in the colony, and had always manifested some hostility against the French. Bienville sent to the Illinois country a convoy of five boats, one loaded with powder and the others with goods, but the commander, Leblanc, left the powder in the Arkansas country, M-ent to the Illinois, and sent for the powder. On the way back the powder was taken by the Indians, and all the Frenchmen in the boat were killed or taken prisoners. Leblanc transmitted the orders of the governor to the chev- alier d'Artaguette, commandant of Fort Chartres, and younger brother of the commissary Diron d'Artagniette. The latter was again, at that time, in Louisiana, and was now on bad tenns with the governoi-. The orders to d'Arta- guette were to meet Bienville in the Chickasaw country, by May 10, with what- ever troops he could gather. Bienville started from Mobile, by the river, on April 1, 1736, and, on April 20, the army arrived at a place called Tombigby. There they were joined by the Choctaw auxiliaries. Having been detained by rains at Tombigby until STAXDARD IIISTOUY OF NEW ORLEAXS. 17 Mav 4tli the exijedition started again, ami on May 25tli reached a place distant seven leagues from the Chickasaw village. They found the Indians in a strongly fortified post, and, although Bienville's troops, both regulars and militia attacked the fort with great bravery, they were repulsed with heavy loss, as they had no material for a siege. Bienville ordered the army to retreat, and returned to jSTew Orleans, where he heard of the sad fate of d'Artaguette. The commandant at Fort Chartres had obeyed his chief's orders, and had marched into the country of the Chickasaws. Having arrived there before Bienville, and not being supported by the main army of the French, he was defeated by the Indians and forced to surrender. D'Artaguette, Vincennes, Father Senac, a Jesuit missionary, and a number of other Frenchmen were burned at the stake. The unhappy fate of young d'Artaguette struck the inuig- ination of the colonists, and his name has become connected with a proverb in Loi:isiana. In speaking of something very old one says: "Vii'ux cornme du iemps d'Artaguette," "as old as the time of d'Artaguette." Bienville was very anxious to avenge d'Artaguette's death and to regain his military renown. He did not believe, however, that he had suiScicnt troops to conquer the Chickasaws and he applied to France for reinforcements. The chevalier de Beauharnais, governor of Canada, was ordered to send troops to assist Bienville, and a body of marines arrived from France, commanded by the chevalier Louis d'Ayme de Noailles. The exi>edition was conveyed by the Mississippi, then called St. Louis Kiver, to Fort St. Francis on the St. Francis Eiver, and from there to the Margot Kiver, now Wolf River. The army built a fort called Fort Assumption, near the present city of Memphis, and received at that place large reinforcements. The Sieur de la Buisoniere, successor to the unfortunate d'Artaguette at Fort Chartres, captain de Celoron, and lieuten- ant de St. Laurent, "followed," says Dumont, "by thirty cadets, sent by the governor of Canada, with a great number of Canada Indians." " The army of Bienville," says Judge Martin, "numbered about 1200 white troops, and double that number of Indian and black troops." For some unac- countable reason the troops remained at Fort Assumption, at some distance from the Indians, from .\ugiist, 1739, to March, IT-tO, without attacking the enemy. The provisions failed, sickness broke out in the camp, especially among the soldiers recently arrived from France, and Bienville resolved, instead of con- quering the Chickasaws, to grant them peace, if they asked for it. He accord- ingly sent Celoron, Avith his thirty Canadian cadets and his Indian allies, to 1 8 STANDAED HISTORY OF NEW ORLEANS. advance against the Chickasaws. The hatter, believing that the whole arniv of Bienville was marching to attack them, begged for peace and presented the calu- met to Celoron. This commander promised peace, and Bienville ratified the treaty in April, 1740. He gave presents to his Indian allies and dismissed them. The army now returned to New Orleans, after destroying Forts As- sumption and St.. Francis. The Chickasaws were never conquered, and they and the Natchez fugitives contiimcd to commit depredations. There was, how- ever, no open war with them after Bienville's unsuccessful expedition. We have given in detail the war with the Chickasaws, as it was the last expedition undertaken by Bienville. We feel great sorrow at the failure of his last two campaigns, and we cannot understand his apparent mismanagement of the war, as prior to 1736, he had been very successful in his dealings with the Indians. Mortified and grieved at his failure, Bienville asked to be relieved of his conmiand, and on j\Iay 10, 174.'), he returned to France. He was then sixty-two years old and had been about forty-four years in the colony. We V shall see later the Father of New Orleans in Paris, trying, in his old age, to prevent the transfer of his cherished Louisiana to the rule of Spain. Bienville's successor, the IMarquis de Vaudreuil, was a real grand seigneur, and he has always been remembered in Louisiana for his elegant manners and his sumptuous entertainments. One of his first acts was to keep up the enmity between the Chickasaws and the Choctaws. Red Shoe, a Choctaw chief, gave Vaudreuil great trouble by his restlessness and duplicity. He sided one day with the English, another day with the French, and was ever ready to receive money or provisions from either party. He was the cause of a civil war among the Choctaws, and was finally killed by the party friendly to the French. The different Indian tribes harassed the colonists considerably during Vaudreuil's administration, and among the persons killed by the savages in 1748 was the unfortunate dancing master, Baby, whose loss was deejily mourned in New Or- leans. Vaudreuil belonged to aji influential family and obtained from the French government a large increase in the number of soldiers to serve in Louisiana. He imdertook an expedition against the Chickasaws in 1752, but accomplished little besides burning and devasratiiig their country. The marquis, however, re- mained in high favor at court and wa^; promoted in 17.t.') to the governorship of Canada. There he displayed great ability and courage in the French wars with the English. STANDARD HISTORY OF SEW ORLEANS. 19 Bossn, a captain of marines, wrote from New Orleans, on July 1, 1751, 'ihat Governor Vandreuil received most hospitably the troops which had come ■from France. He speaks of the inhabitants of Louisiana and says : "One calls Creoles those who are born of a Frenchman and a Fi*enchwoman or of a Euro- pean woman. The Creoles, in general, are very brave, tall and well made ; they liave many dispositions for the arts and the sciences; but as they cannot culti- vate them perfectly on account of the scarcity of good teachers, the rich and considerate do not fail to send their children to France, as to the first school in the world, in all things. As to the sex which has no other duty to perform but that of i^leasing, it is born here with tliat advantage and has no need to go to Europe to seek the deceitful art." As to New Orleans, Bossu says: "That town is situated on the banks of Llie Mississippi, one of the largest rivei's in the world, since it waters more than eight himdred leagues of known countries. Its pure and delicious waters flow for forty leagues, in the midst of a number of plantations, which form a charm- ing sight on its two banks, where one enjoys abundantly the pleasures of hunt- ing, of fishing, and all the oth'er delights of life." Bossu regrets very much tiie departure of Vaudreuil, and mentions the Litter's successor, Kerlerec, in no flattering terms, saying: "lie has qualities of heart very different from those of his predecessor; but this new governor may give as an excuse that ho did not come so far only for a change of air." It was during Kerhsrec's administration that Villiers, an officer at Fort Chartres of the Illinois, avenged the death of hi: Itrother Jumonville, who was killed at liie Great Meadows in April, IT.j-f. \'illiers attacked Colonel Washington at Port Necessity and oonipellt'd him to surrender on July 4, 17.5-1. During tlic administration of Kerlerec there were violent disputes between iiim and his commissary ordonnateur, Rochemore, and the colony not only made no progress, but seemed to be retrogradiiig. The unsuccessful wars of Louis XV. hardly allowed any help to be given Louisiana, and the unwise financial policy of tlie government caused great distress in the colony by the instability of tlie currency, ^vhether copper coin, or note or card money. In June, 1761, Rochemore was replaced by Foucault, who was soon to play an important part in (lie history of Louisiana. The Seven Years' War ended disastrously for France in Europe, Canada, and India, and the wretched and corrupt administration of Louis XV. caused France to lose all her colonies in America and nearly all in India. The loss of 20 STANDARD HISTORY OF NEW ORLEANS. Canada, as Gayarre expresses it so well, "caused a painful emotion in Louisiana, which was bound to it by so many ties, and which, for such a long time, had formed a dependency of Canada. A vague presentment made the colonists fear a change of domination. Indeed, on K^ovember 13, 1762, the King of Spain accepted, by a secret treaty, the gift which the King of France made to him of Louisiana." Louis XV. ceded "by the pure effect of the generosity of his heart" H- * * "^]j ^Yie country known by the name of Louisiana as well as New Orleans, and the island in which that town is situated." The King of France was desirous to give to his cousin of Spain a proof of the great intei'est he took in his welfare, and was touched by the sacrifices made by his Catholic Majesty to bring about peace. This shameful treaty was signed at Fontainebleau by Grimaldi for Spain and Choiseul for France. It is a pity that the latter affixed his signature to such a disgraceful State paper. Choiseul was one of the few able ministers of Louis XV., and he had, by his "Family Compact," imited all tTie different branches of the Bourbons, and made France powerful again in Europe, in spite of Rosbach and other defeats. When Madame Du Barry caused the fall of Choiseul in 1770, the doom of the monarchy was sealed, and Louis XV. could truly say: "After me the deluge." IV.— THE REVOLUTION OF OCTOBER, 1768. III.LOA, AUBEY, AND I.AFRENIEEE. The treaty of Fontainebleau was kept secret, and, on February 10, 1763, the shameful treaty of Paris was signed. Louis XV. ceded to Gi-eat Britain, by article 7, the river and port of Mobile and all the possessions on the left bank of the Mississippi, with the exception of the town of New Orleans and the island in which it is situated. Spain, in its turn ceded to Great Britain Florida, called later West Florida, with the fort of St. Augustine and the bay of Pensacola, and all the country to the east and south-east of the Mississippi The King of France continued to act as possessor of Louisiana, as the treaty of Fontainebleau was still kept secret. On June 29, 1763, d'Abbadie arrived in New Orleans with the title of director general, and Kerlerec returned to France where he was thro^m into the Bastille on his ai-rival in Paris. In STANDAED HISTORY OF NEW ORLEANS. 21 1764 d'Abbadie obtained for Braud an exclusive privilege to establish a printing press and to sell books in the colony. Braud's press was soon to be of great value to the colonists in their heroic struggle in 1768 against Spanish oppres- sion. In October, 1764, d'Abbadie received an official communication from the French court announcing the cession to Spain. Louisiana was to pass from the domination of Louis XV. to that of Charles III. If it had not been the fact of their being handed over like cattle by one master to another, the Louisianians should have felt relieved to be no longer the subjects of the infamous King who had been the cause of so many disasters to France. Charles III., of Spain, was a far better man and an abler ruler than the Bourbon at Versailles. 