XXXVII. 1768. In May of the same year, the Spanish restrictive CHAP. system was applied to Louisiana; in September, an ordinance compelled French vessels having special Oct. permits to accept the paper currency in pay for their cargoes, at an arbitrary tariff of prices. "The extension and freedom of trade," remonstrated the merchants, "far from injuring States and Colonies, are their strength and support." The ordinance was suspended; but not till the alarm had destroyed all commerce. Unable to take possession of his office, Ulloa in September retired from New Orleans, to reside at the Balise.1 It was only there and in Missouri, opposite Natchez, and at the river Iberville, that Spanish jurisdiction was directly exercised. This state of things continued for a little more than two years. But the arbitrary and passionate conduct of Ulloa, the depreciation of the currency with the prospect of its becoming an almost total loss, the disputes respecting the expenses of the Colony since the cession in 1762, the interruption of commerce, a captious ordinance which made a private monopoly of the traffic with the Indians, uncertainty of jurisdiction and allegiance, agitated the Colony from one end to the other. It was proposed to make of New Orleans a republic, like Amsterdam or Venice; with a legislative body of forty men, and a single executive. The people in the country parishes met together; crowded in a mass into the city; joined those of New Orleans; and formed a numerous assembly, in which Lafré XXXVII 1768. Oct. CHAP. nière, John Milhet, Joseph Milhet, and the lawyer Doucet were conspicuous. "Why," said they, "should the two sovereigns form agreements which can have no result but our misery without advantage to either?" On the twenty-fifth of October they adopted an Address to the Superior Council, written by Lafrénière and Caresse, rehearsing their griefs, and in their Petition of Rights, they claimed freedom of commerce with the ports of France and America, and the expulsion of Ulloa from the Colony. The Address, sustained by the signatures of five or six hundred persons, was adopted the next day by the Council, in spite of the protest of Aubry; and when the French flag was displayed on the public square, children and women ran up to kiss its folds; and it was raised by nine hundred men, amidst shouts of "Long live the King of France; we will have no King but him."1 Ulloa retreated to Havana, and sent his representations to Spain; while the inhabitants of Louisiana took up the idea of a republic, as the alternative to their renewed connection with France. They elected their own Treasurer, and syndics to represent the mass of the Colony; sent their envoys to Paris with supplicatory letters to the Duke of Orleans and the Prince of Conti; and memorialized the French Monarch to stand as intercessor between them and the Catholic King. Their hope was to be a Colony of France or a free Commonwealth.2 1 Aubry to Lieut. Gov. Brown at Pensacola, 11 November, 1768. Compare Foucault to the Minister, 22 Nov. 1768, and the Paper published by Denis Braud, reprinted in Pittman's Mississippi: Appendix. 2 Ulloa to the Spanish Minister, Dec. 1768; Aubry to O'Reilly, 20 August, 1769; Gayarré, ii. 281, 302. There is little need of looking beyond Gayarré, who rests his narrative on authentic documents. XXXVII. 1768. "The success of the people of New Orleans in CHAP. driving away the Spaniards," wrote Du Châtelet to Choiseul, on hearing the news, "is at least a good example for the English Colonies; may they set about following it." 1 Oct. 'Du Chatelet to Choiseul, 24 Feb. 1769. 19 * CHAPTER XXXVIII. THE KING AND THE BRITISH PARLIAMENT AGAINST THE TOWN CHAP. 1768. Oct. OCTOBER-DECEMBER, 1768. 8 SPAIN valued Louisiana as a screen for Mexico; and England, in her turn, held the valley of the Mississippi from jealousy of France, not to colonize it. To the great joy of Spain,' and in conformity to a policy, against which the advice of Shelburne could not prevail, every idea of settling the country was opposed; and every post between Mobile and Fort Chartres was abandoned; John Finley, a backwoodsman of North Carolina, who this year passed through Kentucky, found not one white man's cabin in all the enchanting wilderness. Gage would have even given up Fort Chartres, and as a consequence the intermediate Pittsburg.5 2 It was Hillsborough's purpose to prevent coloni 1 D'Ossun, French Ambassador at Madrid, to Choiseul, 6 Dec. 1768. Compare the elaborate Narrative of Lord Barrington, Secretary of War, of May, 1766. zation, and to hold the territory through the friendship of the savages. But this design was obstructed by the actual settlements in Illinois and on the Wabash; the roving disposition of the Americans; and the avarice of British officers who coveted profit from concessions of lands. In this conflict of interests, the office of the Colonial Secretary was swayed by wavering opinions, producing only inconclusive correspondence, references, and reports on the questions, how to regulate trade with the Indians; how to "reform" the excess in expenses; how to keep off settlers; how to restrain the cupidity of British Governors and agents. The Spanish town of Saint Louis, on the west of the Mississippi, was fast rising into importance, as the centre of the fur trade with the Indian nations on the Missouri; but the population of Illinois had declined, and scarcely amounted to more than one thousand three hundred and fifty-eight, of whom rather more than three hundred were Africans. Kaskaskias counted six hundred white persons, and three hundred and three negroes. At Kahokia there were about three hundred persons; at Prairie Du Rocher, one hundred and twenty-five; at St. Philip fifteen; and not more at Fort Chartres, which the floods of Spring CHAP. XXXVIII 1768. Oct. Representation of the Board of Trade, 7 March, 1768. A copy is among the Broadhead Papers, rol. xli. Hillsborough to Gage, 14 March, 1768. W. S. Johnson to Gov. Pitkin, 12 March, 1768. ร W. S. Johnson to Gov. Pitkin, 12 Feb. 1767; Same to Same, 13 Nov. 1767. Same to E. Dyer, 12 Sept. 1767. Compare the Papers of the Board of Trade when Clare was its President, with those of Ensign Hutchins' Remarks on State of the Settlements in the Illinois Country; in Gage to Hillsborough, 6 Jan. 1769. |