THE SETTLEMENT OF LOUISIANA

By Benard De La Harpe.

THE manuscript, from which this account of the settlement of Louisiana is taken, came into Thomas Jefferson's possession more than 100 years ago. In a letter to James Monroe, dated from Monticello, February 4th, 1816, Jefferson writes: "On our acquisition of that country (Louisiana), there was found in the possession of the family of the late Governor Messier, a most valuable and original MS. history of the settlement of Louisiana by the French, written by Benard De La Harpe, a principal agent through the whole of it. . . . The history bears such marks of authenticity as place it beyond question. Governor Claiborne obtained the MS. for us, and thinking it too hazardous to risk its loss by the way, unless a copy were retained, he had a copy taken. The original having arrived safe at Washington, he sent me the copy, which I now have. . . . It is my wish to deposit the copy for safe-keeping with the Philosophical Society at Philadelphia."

ON THE 24th of September, 1698, two frigates, Le Badine, of thirty guns and two hundred men, commanded by M. d'Iberville; and Le Marin, of thirty guns, commanded by M. la Comte de Surgere, with two store-ships, were fitted out by order of the King, and sailed from Rochefort to plant a colony on the Mississippi. On the 4th of December, they arrived at Cape Francois, St. Domingo, where they found M. le Marquis de Chateaumorant, who commanded the frigate Le Francais, of fifty guns, to whom M. d'Iberville delivered instructions for him to join in the expedition to the Mississippi River. . . . On the 6th of February, M. d'Iberville anchored off the pass, between Horn and Ship Island, which he named, and finding it difficult to enter this channel, he sailed four leagues further to the west, where he discovered the Chandeleur Islands.

On the 27th M. d'Iberville and Bienville embarked in two feluccas, with Father Anatase and thirty men each, to explore the mouths of the Mississippi River. On the 2nd of March they entered a large river, which Father Anatase, who had accompanied M. de la Salle, recognized as the Mississippi from the appearance of its turbid waters. On the 7th, having advanced forty leagues up the river, they perceived at some distance three canoes filled with Indians, who all fled except one man, to whom they gave some presents, and learned from him that they belonged to the Bayagoula nation. They met several canoes of Indians belonging to the Ouacha nation, living near the fork of the Mississippi, who told them that they did not live far from the Chitimachas nation.

On the 14th they arrived at the Bayagoula and Mongaulacha nations, numbering about eight hundred warriors. They found here several cloaks, which had been given them by M. de la Salle. . . . It was here, while looking for Father Anatase's breviary, they found several prayer books in an Indian basket, in which were written the names of several Canadians who had accompanied the late M. de la Salle down the river; together with a letter addressed to him by Chevalier de Tonty, informing him "that having learned of his departure from France to form a settlement on this river, he had descended it as far as the sea with twenty Canadians and thirty Chaounans," from the neighborhood of the Ouabache. This discovery now relieved them from all doubts of the river they were in, and they ascertained the mouth of the Mississippi to be in about twenty-nine degrees north latitude.

On the 12th of April M. d'Iberville set out to visit a bay about nine leagues from Ship Island, to which he gave the name of St. Louis. On finding the water very shallow there, he concluded to fix his settlement at Biloxi. Here he built a fort with four bastions, which he mounted with twelve cannons, and gave the command of it to his brothers Sauvolle and Bienville; and having manned it with a force of thirty-five men, he set sail for France on the 4th of May.

On the 7th of December, a salute was fired at the fort, announcing the arrival of MM. d'Iberville and La Surgere, in the ships Renomme of fifty, and the Gironde of forty-six guns, with many officers and passengers. . . . M. Le Sueur also came as a passenger in the Gironde. He had acquired celebrity by his travels in Canada; and was now sent on the part of M. L'Huillier, Farmer General, to make a settlement on the Mississippi, and to work some mines there which he had discovered some years before.

M. d'Iberville was informed of the attempt of the English to find the Mississippi, and he resolved to make a settlement on its banks. He accordingly set sail on two shallops, with fifty men, and arrived in the river on the 15th of January, 1700. He had previously sent in M. de Bienville to the Bayagoulas to procure guides, and to select a place above inundation. They conducted him to a ridge, of high land, at a distance of about eighteen leagues from the sea. Four days after, M. d'Iberville arrived there and commenced building a fort.

.. . On the 28th of May, 1700, M. d'Iberville set sail for France, and on the same day M. de Bienville took command of the fort on the Mississippi. On the 29th he dispatched M. de Saint Denis to explore the country in the Red River, and to watch the Spaniards. On the 30th of May, 1701, the Enflammee of twenty-six guns, commanded by M. de la Ronde, arrived at Ship Island. Among the passengers was M. Sagan, a traveler from Canada, who had presented a memoir to the minister, M. de Pontchartrain, assuring him that he had traveled all over the Mississippi, and had found mines of gold on its banks; and that the Indians had worked them. The minister, putting faith in his statements, granted to M. Sagan some privileges, and ordered M. de Sauvolle to supply him with twenty-four pirogues and one hundred Canadians, to accompany him to the Missouri.

On the 22d of August, M. de Sauvolle died at Biloxi, and M. de Bienville was left sole commander of the colony.

On the 16th of September, a party of Chactas arrived at Biloxi to demand of the French some troops to assist them to fight the Chicachas. The Chactas nation contained forty villages, and over five thousand warriors. On the 25th of October, twenty Mobileans arrived at Fort Biloxi. This nation was situated about one hundred and forty leagues up that river, and contained about four hundred men. On the 18th of December, a shallop arrived from Pensacola with the news that MM. d'Iberville and Serigny had arrived there with the King's ships, the Renommee of fifty guns, and the Palmier of forty-four guns. This news spread joy in the garrison, as it had then been living on corn for more than three months. It had lost by sickness upwards of sixty men, leaving only one hundred and fifty persons in the colony.

M. de Bienville received orders by the shallop to evacuate Biloxi, and remove to Mobile River. On the 5th of January, 1701, M. de Bienville took up his march for the Mobile River, leaving but twenty men under the command of M. de Boisbriant to man the fort. At Dauphin Island, M. de Bienville had an interview with MM. de Serigny and Chateaugue, who had arrived there with a detachment of sailors and workmen, to build a magazine for the reception of the goods and provisions which had been brought from France. On the 16th M. de Bienville commenced a settlement on the Mobile River, about eighteen leagues from the sea. On the 10th M. le Sueur returned from his expedition to the Scioux, with two hundred thousand pounds weight of copper ore.