The History of Louisiana Part 5

Astonis.h.i.+ng Cures performed by the Natives. The Author sends upwards of three hundred Simples to the Company._

M. De Biainville, at the beginning of the winter which followed this phaenomenonived very privately at our quarter of the Natchez, his march having been communicated to none but the Commandant of this Post, who had orders to seize all the Natchez that should come to the Fort that day, to prevent the news of his arrival being carried to their country men. He brought with him, in regular troops, inhabitants and natives, who were our allies, to the number of seven hundred men.

Orders were given that all our settlers at the Natchez should repair before his door at midnight at the latest: I went thither and mixed with the crowd, without making myself known.

We arrived two hours before day at the settlement of St. Catharine.

The Commandant having at length found me out, {39} ordered me, in the King's name, to put myself at the head of the settlers among the Natchez, and to take the command upon me; and these he ordered to pay the same obedience to me as to himself. We advanced with great silence towards the village of the Apple. It may be easily seen that all this precaution was taken in order to surprise our enemies, who ought so much the less to expect this act of hostility, as they had fairly made peace with us, and as M. Paillou, Major General, had come and ratified this peace in behalf of the Governor. We marched to the enemy and invested the first hut of the Natchez, which we found separate; the drums, in concert with the fifes, beat the charge; we fired upon the hut, in which were only three men and two women.

From thence we afterwards moved on to the village, that is, several huts that stood together in a row. We halted at three of them that lay near each other, in which between twelve and fifteen Natchez had entrenched themselves. By our manner of proceeding one would have thought that we came only to view the huts. Full of indignation that none exerted himself to fall upon them, I took upon me with my men to go round and take the enemy in rear. They took to their heels, and I pursued; but we had need of the swiftness of deer to be able to come up with them. I came so near, however, that they threw away their cloaths, to run with the greater speed.

I rejoined our people, and expected a reprimand for having forced the enemy without orders; though I had my excuse ready. But here I was mistaken; for I met with nothing but encomiums.

This war, of which I shall give no further detail, lasted only four days. M. de Biainville demanded the head of an old mutinous Chief of this village; and the natives, in order to obtain a peace, delivered him up.

I happened to live at some distance from the village of the Apple, and very seldom saw any of the people. Such as lived nearer had more frequent visits from them; but after this war, and the peace which followed upon it, I never saw one of them. My neighbours who lived nearer to them saw but a few of them, even a long time after the conclusion of the war. The {40} natives of the other villages came but very seldom among us; and indeed, if we could have done well without them, I could have wished to have been rid of them for ever. But we had neither a flesh nor a fish-market; therefore, without them, we must have taken up with what the poultry-yard and kitchen-garden furnished; which would have been extremely inconvenient.

I one day stopped the Stung Serpent, who was pa.s.sing without taking notice of any one. He was brother to the Great Sun, and Chief of the Warriors of the Natchez. I accordingly called to him, and said, "We were formerly friends, are we no longer so?" He answered, _Noco_; that is, I cannot tell. I replied, "You used to come to my house; at present you pa.s.s by. Have you forgot the way; or is my house disagreeable to you? As for me, my heart is always the same, both towards you and all my friends. I am not capable of changing, why then are you changed?"

He took some time to answer, and seemed to be embarra.s.sed by what I said to him. He never went to the fort, but when sent for the Commandant, who put me upon sounding him; in order to discover whether his people still retained any grudge.

He at length broke silence, and told me, "he was ashamed to have been so long without seeing me; but I imagined," said he, "that you were displeased at our nation; because among all the French who were in the war, you were the only one that fell upon us." "You are in the wrong,"

said I, "to think so. M. de Biainville being our War-chief, we are bound to obey him; in like manner as you, though a Sun, are obliged to kill, or cause to be killed, whomsoever your brother, the Great Sun orders to be put to death. Many other Frenchmen, besides me, sought an opportunity to attack your countrymen, in obedience to the orders of M. de Biainville; and several other Frenchmen fell upon the nearest hut, one of whom was killed by the first shot which the Natchez fired."

He then said: "I did not approve, as you know, the war our people made upon the French to avenge the death of their {41} relation, seeing I made them carry the _pipe of peace_ to the French. This you well know, as you first smoked in the pipe yourself. Have the French two hearts, a good one today, and tomorrow a bad one? As for my brother and me, we have but one heart and one word. Tell me then, if thou art, as thou sayest, my true friend, what thou thinketh of all this, and shut thy mouth to every thing else. We know not what to think of the French, who, after having begun the war, granted a peace, and offered it of themselves; and then at the time we were quiet, believing ourselves to be at peace, people come to kill us, without saying a word."

"Why," continued he, with an air of displeasure, "did the French come into our country? We did not go to seek them: they asked for land of us, because their country was too little for all the men that were in it. We told them they might take land where they pleased, there was enough for them and for us; that it was good the same sun should enlighten us both, and that we would walk as friends in the same path; and that we would give them of our provisions, a.s.sist them to build, and to labour in their fields. We have done so; is not this true? What occasion then had we for Frenchmen? Before they came, did we not live better than we do, seeing we deprive ourselves of a part of our corn, our game, and fish, to give a part to them? In what respect, then, had we occasion for them? Was it for their guns? The bows and arrows which we used, were sufficient to make us live well. Was it for their white, blue, and red blankets? We can do well enough with buffalo skins, which are warmer; our women wrought feather-blankets for the winter, and mulberry-mantles for the summer; which indeed were not so beautiful; but our women were more laborious and less vain than they are now. In fine, before the arrival of the French, we lived like men who can be satisfied with what they have; whereas at this day we are like slaves, who are not suffered to do as they please."

To this unexpected discourse I know not what answer another would have made; but I frankly own, that if at my first address he seemed to be confused, I really was so in my turn. "My heart," said I to him, "better understands thy {42} reasons than my ears, though they are full of them; and though I have a tongue to answer, my ears have not heard the reasons of M. de Biainville, to tell them thee: but I know it was necessary to have the head he demanded, in order to a peace.

When our Chiefs command us, we never require the reasons: I can say nothing else to thee. But to shew you that I am always your real friend, I have here a beautiful _pipe of peace_, which I wanted to carry to my own country. I know you have ordered all your warriors to kill some white eagles, in order to make one, because you have occasion for it. I give it you without any other design than to shew you that I reckon nothing dear to me, when I want to do you a pleasure."

I went to look for it, and I gave it him, telling him, that it was _without design;_ that is, according to them, from no interested motive.

The natives put as great a value on a _pipe of peace_ as on a gun. Mine was adorned with tinsel and silver wire: so that in their estimation my pipe was worth two guns. He appeared to be extremely well pleased with it; put it up hastily in his case, squeezed my hand with a smile, and called me his true friend.

The winter was now drawing to a close, and in a little time the natives were to bring us bear-oil to truck. I hoped that by his means I should have of the best preferably to any other; which was the only compensation I expected for my pipe. But I was agreeably disappointed.

He sent me a deer-skin of bear-oil, so very large that a stout man could hardly carry it, and the bearer told me, that he sent it to me as his true friend, _without design_. This deer-skin contained thirty-one pots of the measure of the country, or sixty-two pints Paris measure.

Three days after, the Great Sun, his brother, sent me another deer-skin of the same oil, to the quant.i.ty of forty pints. The commonest sort sold this year at twenty sols a pint, and I was sure mine was not of the worst kind.

For some days a _fistula lacrymalis_ had come into my left eye, which discharged an humour, when pressed, that portended danger. I shewed it to M. St. Hilaire, an able surgeon, who {43} had practised for about twelve years in the Hotel Dieu at Paris.

He told me it was necessary to use the fire for it; and that, notwithstanding this operation, my sight would remain as good as ever, only my eye would be blood-shot: and that if I did not speedily set about the operation, the bone of the nose would become carious.

These reasons gave me much uneasiness, as having both to fear and to suffer at the same time: however, after I had resolved to undergo the operation, the Grand Sun and his brother came one morning very early, with a man loaded with game, as a present for me.

The Great Sun observed I had a swelling in my eye, and asked me what was the matter with it. I shewed it him, and told him, that in order to cure it, I must have fire put to it; but that I had some difficulty to comply, as I dreaded the consequences of such an operation. Without replying, or in the least apprizing me, he ordered the man who brought the game to go in quest of his physician, and tell him, he waited for him at my house. The messenger and physician made such dispatch, that this last came in an hour after. The Great Sun ordered him to look at my eye, and endeavour to cure me: after examining it, the physician said, he would undertake to cure me with simples and common water. I consented to this with so much the greater pleasure and readiness, as by this treatment I ran no manner of risque.

That very evening the physician came with his simples, all pounded together, and making but a single ball, which he put with the water in a deep bason, he made me bend my head into it, so as the eye affected stood dipt quite open in the water. I continued to do so for eight or ten days, morning and evening; after which, without any other operation, I was perfectly cured, and never after had any return of the disorder.

It is easy from this relation to understand what dextrous physicians the natives of Louisiana are. I have seen them perform surprising cures on Frenchmen; on two especially, who had put themselves under the hands of a French surgeon {44} settled at this post. Both patients were about to undergo the grand cure; and after having been under the hands of the surgeon for some time, their heads swelled to such a degree, that one of them made his escape, with as much agility as a criminal would from the hands of justice, when a favourable opportunity offers. He applied to a Natchez physician, who cured him in eight days: his comrade continuing still under the French surgeon, died under his hands three days after the escape of his companion, whom I saw three years after in a state of perfect health.

In the war which I lately mentioned, the Grand Chief of the Tonicas, our allies, was wounded with a ball, which went through his cheek, came out under the jaw, again entered his body at the neck, and pierced through to the shoulder-blade, lodging at last between the flesh and the skin: the wound had its direction in this manner; because when he received it, he happened to be in a stooping posture, as were all his men, in order to fire. The French surgeon, under whose care he was, and who dressed him with great precaution, was an able man, and spared no pains in order to effect a cure. But the physicians of this Chief, who visited him every day, asked the Frenchman what time the cure would take? he answered, six weeks at least: they returned no answer, but went directly and made a litter; spoke to their Chief, and put him on it, carried him off, and treated him in their own manner, and in eight days affected a complete cure.

These are facts well known in the colony. The physicians of the country have performed many other cures, which, if they were to be all related, would require a whole volume apart; but I have confined myself to the three above mentioned, in order to shew that disorders frequently accounted almost incurable, are, without any painful operation, and in a short time, cured by physicians, natives of Louisiana.

The West India Company being informed that this province produces a great many simples, whose virtues, known by the natives, afforded so easy a cure to all sorts of distempers, ordered M. de la Chaise, who was sent from France in quality of Director General of this colony, to cause enquiry to be made {45} into the simples proper for physick and for dying, by means of some Frenchmen, who might perhaps be masters of the secrets of the natives. I was pointed out for this purpose to M.

de la Chaise, who was but just arrived, and who wrote to me, desiring my a.s.sistance in this enquiry; which I gave him with pleasure, and in which I exerted myself to my utmost, because I well knew the Company continually aimed at what might be for the benefit of the colony.

After I thought I had done in that respect, what might give satisfaction to the Company, I transplanted in earth, put into cane baskets, above three hundred simples, with their numbers, and a memorial, which gave a detail of their virtues, and taught the manner of using them. I afterwards understood that they were planted in a botanic garden made for the purpose, by order of the Company.

CHAPTER IX.

_French Settlements, or Posts. The Post at Mobile. The Mouths of the Missisippi. The Situation and Description of_ New Orleans.

The Settlement at Mobile was the first seat of the colony in this province. It was the residence of the Commandant General, the Commissary General, the Staff-officers, &c. As vessels could not enter the river Mobile, and there was a small harbour at Isle Dauphine, a settlement was made suited to the harbour, with a guardhouse for its security: so that these two settlements may be said to have made but one; both on account of their proximity, and necessary connection with each other. The settlement of Mobile, ten leagues, however, from its harbour, lies on the banks of the river of that name; and Isle Dauphine, over against the mouth of that river, is four leagues from the coast.

Though the settlement of Mobile be the oldest, yet it is far from being the most considerable. Only some inhabitants remained there, the greatest part of the first inhabitants having left it, in order to settle on the river Missisippi, ever since New Orleans became the capital of the colony. That old post is the {46} ordinary residence of a King's Lieutenant, a Regulating Commissary, and a Treasurer. The fort, with four bastions, terraced and palisaded, has a garrison.

This post is a check upon the nation of Choctaws, and cuts off the communication of the English with them; it protects the neighbouring nations, and keeps them in our alliance; in fine, it supports our peltry trade, which is considerable with the Choctaws and other nations. [Footnote: Fort Lewis at Mobile is built upon the river that bears the same name, which falls into the sea opposite to Dauphine island. The fort is about 15 or 16 leagues distant from that island; and is built of brick, fortified with four bastions, in the manner of Vauban, with half-moons, a covered way and glacis. There is a magazine in it, with barracks for the troops of the garrison, which is generally pretty numerous, and a flag for the commandant.

I must own, I never could see for what reason this fort was built, or what could be the use of it. For although it is 120 leagues from the capital, to go down the river, yet it is from thence that they must have every thing that is necessary for the support of the garrison: and the soil is so bad, being nothing but sand, that it produces nothing but pines and firs, with a little pulse, which grows there but very indifferently: so that there are here but very few people. The only advantage of this place is, that the air is mild and healthful, and that it affords a traffick with the Spaniards who are near it. The winter is the most agreeable season, as it is mild, and affords plenty of game. But in summer the heats are excessive; and the inhabitants have nothing hardly to live upon but fish, which are pretty plentiful on the coast, and in the river. _Dumont_, II. 80.]

The same reason which pointed out the necessity of this post, with respect to the Choctaws, also shewed the necessity of building a fort at Tombecbe, to check the English in their ambitious views on the side of the Chicasaws. That fort was built only since the war with the Chicasaws in 1736.

Near the river Mobile stands the small settlement of the Pasca-Ogoulas; which consists only of a few Canadians, lovers of tranquillity, which they prefer to all the advantages they could reap from commerce. They content themselves with a frugal country life, and never go to New Orleans but for necessaries.

From that settlement quite to New Orleans, by the way of Lake St.

Louis, there is no post at present. Formerly, and {47} just before the building of the capital, there were the old and new Biloxi: settlements, which have deserved an oblivion as lasting as their duration was short.

To proceed with order and perspicuity, we will go up the Missisippi from its mouth.

Fort Balise is at the entrance of the Missisippi, in 29 degrees North Lat.i.tude, and 286 30' of Longitude. This fort is built on an isle, at one of the mouths of the Missisippi. Tho' there are but seventeen feet water in the channel, I have seen vessels of five hundred ton enter into it. I know not why this entrance is left so neglected, as we are not in want of able engineers in France, in the hydraulic branch, a part of the mathematics to which I have most applyed myself. I know it is no easy matter so to deepen or hollow the channel of a bar, that it may never after need clearing, and that the expences run high: but my zeal for promoting the advantage of this colony having prompted me to make reflections on those pa.s.ses, or entrances of the Missisippi, and being perfectly well acquainted both with the country and the nature of the soil, I dare flatter myself, I may be able to accomplish it, to the great benefit of the province, and acquit myself therein with honour, at a small charge, and in a manner not to need repet.i.tion.

[Footnote: Seven leagues above the mouth of the river we meet with two other pa.s.ses, as large as the middle one by which we entered; one is called the Otter Pa.s.s, and the other the East Pa.s.s; and they a.s.sure me, it is only by this last Pa.s.s that s.h.i.+ps now go up or down the river, they having entirely deserted the ancient middle pa.s.s. _Dumont,_ I. 4.

Many other bays and rivers, not known to our authors, lying along the bay of Mexico, to the westward of the Missisippi, are described by Mr.

c.o.xe, in his account of Carolina, called by the French Louisiana.]

I say, fort Balise is built upon an island; a circ.u.mstance, I imagine, sufficient to make it understood, that this fort is irregular; the figure and extent of this small island not admitting it to be otherwise.

In going up the Missisippi, we meet with nothing remarkable before we come to the Detour aux Anglois, the English Reach: in that part the river takes a large compa.s.s; so that {48} the same wind, which was before fair, proves contrary in this elbow, or reach. For this reason it was thought proper to build two forts at that place, one on each side of the river, to check any attempts of strangers. These forts are more than sufficient to oppose the pa.s.sage of an hundred sail; as s.h.i.+ps can go up the river, only one after another, and can neither cast anchor, nor come on sh.o.r.e to moor.

It will, perhaps, be thought extraordinary that s.h.i.+ps cannot anchor in this place. I imagine the reader will be of my opinion, when I tell him, the bottom is only a soft mud, or ooze, almost entirely covered with dead trees, and this for upwards of an hundred leagues. As to putting on sh.o.r.e, it is equally impossible and needless to attempt it; because the place where these forts stand, is but a neck of land between the river and the marshes: now it is impossible for a shallop, or canoe, to come near to moor a vessel, in sight of a fort well guarded, or for an enemy to throw up a trench in a neck of land so soft. Besides, the situation of the two forts is such, that they may in a short time receive succours, both from the inhabitants, who are on the interior edge of the crescent, formed by the river, and from New Orleans, which is very near thereto.

The distance from this place to the capital is reckoned six leagues by water, and the course nearly circular; the winding, or reach, having the figure of a C almost close. Both sides of the river are lined with houses, which afford a beautiful prospect to the eye; however, as this voyage is tedious by water, it is often performed on horseback by land.