lO CONTENTS [lO
PAfiB
Radeau 6i
Shallop 61
Febuqne 62
Traversier 63
Bateau 65
CHAPTER V Boats (continued)
Barque 70
Brigantin 70
Caiche (Quaiche) 72
Frigate 72
Keel-boat 73
Galftre 73
Methods of propulsion
Rowing yj
SaiU ^ 73
Punting 73
Cordelling 73
Crewg
Number of men and how obtained 74
Captain and his duties 74
Pajr of boatmen 75
Time of passage
From New Orleans to the Illinois country 75
From the Illinois country to Fort Dn Quesne 75
From New Orleans to Mobile 75
Rales 76
Ocean-going vessels
Number and length of service 77
From what port despatched 77
Size 78
Passengers
Classes 79
Fare 80
Convoys 80
Crews
Officers 80
Sailors 81
PACB
CHAPTER VI Highways
Buffalo paths 82
Indian trails
North of the Ohio river 84
South of the Ohio river 87
^^rade trails
Caravans 89
Difficulties of the journey 90
French roads
Laws regulating 91
Construction 93
In and around New Orleans 93
At Fort Rosalie 94
In the Illinois country 94
Conveyances used 95
CHAPTER VII
Barter
l^ Among the Indian tribes . . 97
Between Indians and Europeans 97
Among French in Louisiana loo
Standards of measure lOO
CHAPTER VIII
Silver Coins
Early uses in Louisiana 102
•. Company's difficulty to keep in circulation 102
i Increased use of French coins in 1731 104
(Adjustment of Spanish to French money values 105
Schemes to keep specie in Louisiana 105
Specie from the West Indies 106
Scarcity of specie in Louisiana 107
CHAPTER IX
Copper Coins
Copper coinage for the French colonies in general 108
Copper coins for Louisiana 109
. Speculation in copper coins 109
1 Laws relating to copper coins no
PAGB
\ Difficulties of keeping copper in circulation Ill
Copper coin under the royal regime 113
CHAPTER X Paper Money and Credit, 1699-1739
Kinds of paper money I15
Bills of exchange as current money 115
Orders on the treasury 117
Orders on the storehouse 117
The Company's adjustment of paper money Il8
Speculation in paper money during the time of the Company 119
Defacing of paper money 121
Need for more money in Louisiana 121
Retirements of the Company's paper money 122
Monetary experiments after the retrocession 122
Card money 125
State of the 6nances of Louisiana, 1736-1739 127
CHAPTER XI
Paper Money and Credit, 1739-1763
State of the finances of Louisiana, 1740-1741 129
The depreciation of paper money . . . 129
Causes of the disorder in the finances of the province 130
Withdrawal of paper money from circulation . 133
Re-introduction of card money 135
State of the finances of Louisiana, 1744-1749 138
The card money of 1750 139
Counterfeiting 140
State of the finances in 1752 141
The issue of " bons " 142
Bills of exchange on the treasury of other French colonies 142
State of the finances, 1754-1758 142
Rochemore's administration of the finances, 1758-1759 143
Finances of Louisiana, 1760-1762 148
CHAPTER XII Trade between France and Louisiana, 1699-1731
Establishment of Louisiana as a trading colony • 154
Louisiana under Crozat 157
Louisiana under the Company
Oi^anization 159
Policy > . . . 160
PAGE
Freight regulations 161
Liberty of trade granted 163
Exports, 1726-1729 164
Trade in walking-sticks . 166
Results of the Company's commercial experiment 166
Obstacles in the way of trade development 166
Some reasons for the Company's retirement 168
CHAPTER XIII
Trade between France and Louisuna, 1731-1763
The French merchant marine in 1731 169
Interesting the French merchants in Louisiana 169
State of the province at the time of the retrocession 170
Renewal of activity , 171
Trade conditions, 1732 172
Attempts to increase colonial exports, 1732 .... • 174
Trade conditions, 1733-1734 176
The brandy and flour imports 183
Exports in 1735 ^^4
Governmental trade in 1735 ^^5
Private trade in 1735 186
Trade conditions, 1736-1738 187
Abuses 190
Imports for 1739 190
Exports, 1736-1740 190
Extent of trade in 1739 194
CHAPTER XIV Trade between France and Louisiana, 1731-1763 (^continued)
Trade interrupted by the English 195
Nature and extent of the private trade in 1740 195
Trade conditions, 1740-1743 196
The royal navy in 1744 202
Government trade, 1744-1750 202
Activity of the French merchants, 1745-1749 203
Exports of Louisiana, 1743-1750 208
Trade conditions, 1750-1754 211
Colonial trade, 1754-1756 212
Exports of Louisiana, 1750-1754 214
Trade with the colony, 1755-1758 218
Trade conditions, 1759 219
Trade at the close of the French regime 221
14 CONTENTS [l4
CHAPTER XV Thx Slave Trade The Indian slave trade
La Salle 226
The English 226
The French 227
Decline 229
Extent 230
Price of slaves , 230
The negro slave trade
Before 1712 230
Under Crozat 231
Under the Company of the West 231
Under the Company of the Indies
Extent . 231
Nature 232
Distribution 233
Methods of buying slaves 234
Legislation 235
Under the crown, 1721-1763
Efforts to increase the trade . . . . • 336
Activity of the trade, 1754-1763 244
Number of slaves in the province 245
Price of slaves 246
Summary 249
CHAPTER XVI
The Domestic Tkade of Lower Louisuna
The beginnings 250
Meat 251
Lard 260
Tallow 261
Olive oil 261
Bear's oil 262
Butter and cheese 263
Eggs 263
MUk 264
Flour 265
Bread 266
Rice 268
Com 269
PAGE
Liquors 272
General merchandise stores 278
Drugs . 281
^^ Live stock
Horses 282
Cattle 282
Hogs and sheep 284
Lumber 284
Brick 285
Lime 287
Real estate 287
CHAPTER XVII --The Trade of the Illinois Country
The nature of the trade under the Companies 288
Trade from 1732 to 1734 289
Trade from 1736 to 1742 291
Trade from 1743 to 1750 292
Abuses 294
Trade from 1752 to 1755 297
Effects of the war upon trade 299
Business houses and business men in the Illinois country 299
Kinds of trade carried on by the Illinois merchants
European goods 300
I Live stock 301
Real estate 303
Building materials 303
Lead 303
CHAPTER XVIII New France in the Fur Trade of the Mississippi Valley
The extension of the trade westward < . 304
Relation of the missionary to the trade 305
La Salle and the fur trade ; 306
Trade of Tonty and La Forest on the upper Illinois river 308
Le Sueur's trade among the Sioux . ... 310
Conflict between the French and English of New York for control of the
western fur trade 310
Condition of the trade at the close of the seventeenth century 312
Conflict between New France and Louisiana over the fur trade ,
Le Sueur 314
Juchereau 314
Trade at Detroit 315
PAOS
French push trade into English territory 315
Conditions of the trade in New France, 1700-1720 315
Effect of Indian wars upon the trade 318
English competitors in the trade 319
Amount of peltry that passed from the Mississippi valley
To the English 333
To New France 334
CHAPTER XIX The Fur Trade of Louisiana, 1699-1763
Iberville's schemes
As to the Illinois countiy ~. 335
As to the Hudson's Bay region 335
Le Sueur's activities 336
Actual beginnings of the fur trade 337
The entrance of the Carolina traders 339
Trade under Crozat
English intrusions 341
Work of the French trader 34a
Effect of Indian hostility toward
The French 343
The English 343
ResulU 344
Trade under the Companies
Methods employed to improve the trade 344
Effects of the acquisition of the Illinois country 345
English activity 346
Trade in the upper part of the valley 347
Effect of Indian wars 348
Trade under the crown
Conditions at the time of the retrocession 349
Mobile trade, 1732-1734 350
Illinois trade 353
Trade agreements with the Indians 354
Efiiect of the English ill-treatment of the Indians 355
Trade from 1736 to 1744 356
r Effect of the war, 1744-1748 357
i Conditions of trade, 1749-1754 361
I Attitude of the Indians toward trade during the war 363
I Trade with the Illinois country during the war 365
Results at the close of the war 365
J 7] CONTENTS ly
PACK
CHAPTER XX
Trade with the French West Indies
Beginnings 367
Under Crozat
Attitude of the islanders 369
Attitude of the colonists 369
Results 370
Under the Companies
Policy 371
Colonists' part in the trade 372
Trade conference 372
Withdrawal of the Company's control 373
Under the crown, 1731-1763
Policy 373
Trade, 1732-1734 374
Misfortunes 376
New boats for the service 377
Trade, 1736-1740 378
English seizures 379
Trade, 1742-1744 380 .
Trade during the war 381
Condition from 1750 to 1754 382
Proportions of the trade at the opening of the war, 1754 385 i
Trade during the war 386 \
J
^y
CHAPTER XXI Trade with Mexico
Early French Plans 388
Iberville's plan for building up trade 388
Under Crozat
Activity of the agents 389
Success of the new policy 390
Change in methods 391
Under the Companies
Policy adopted in 1717 391
Development of the trade 392
War's effect upon the trade 396
Conditions of the trade, 1729-1731 397
As carried on under the crown
Attempts at promotion 397
Improvement in the trade, 1741 401
l
rACB
Recovery in 1743 402
The efifects of the war upon trade 403
Trade, 1747-1754 403
Trade during the war 405
CHAPTER XXII
Trade with New Mexico and Texas
As developed on the lower Mississippi
Early plans 407
Crozat's activities 407
Work oi the Companies
With the Spanish missionaries 409
On St. Bernard Bay 411
With the Spanish officials 412
Activities of the crown
Outlook from 1731-1742 414
_ Eflect of the death of St. Denis on the trade 414
Work of Governor Vaudreuil with the viceroy 415
As attempted from the Illinois country
Early 415
Later 416
Influence on the trade 417
CHAPTER XXIII Trade with Florida With Pensacola
From 1699-1712
French sustaining the Spanish post 418
Spanish provisioning of Mobile 420
^jynder Crozat 421
y^ Progress under the Companies
Policy 421
As carried on by the crown
Attempts at promotion 422
_ Extent 423
Trade from 1741 to 1763 425
, With St. Augustine 427
CHAPTER XXIV Trade with Cuba Early attempts 43'
FAGK
Under Crozat
Domestic animals 433
Activities under the Companies
^.x-^Falling-off in the trade, 1717 434
Bienville's effort to advance trade 435
Proportions of the trade 435
Under the crown
Difficulties in the way of development 436
Trade in 1743 , 437
Trade, 1744-1752 438
Vaudreuil's work
With Spanish merchants 438
Effect of the war 438
With Spanish officials 439
Schemes to evade Spanish restrictions 440
Effects of peace 440
Effects of Vaudreuil's recall upon trade 441
Trade during the war . 441
CHAPTER XXV
Trade with the English
Attitude of the French and English toward one another 443
The English trader 443
Beginnings 444
Crozat's efforts 445
nder the Companies
French attitude toward the trade 446
English methods and extent of the trade 446
English efforts to promote trade, 1733-1744 .... 448
Trade conditions, 1744-1754 456
Trade conditions, 1754-1763
Use of'« parliamentaries" (cartel-ships) 458
Kerl6rec's policy 459
Results from Kerl6rec's work 459
French and English attitude in 1759 460
English methods of carrying on the trade 461
Bibliography 464
CHAPTER I
Introduction
The province of Louisiana under French rule included, roughly speaking, the whole of the valleys of the Mississippi and Mobile rivers. To the northeast of this area lay the colony of New France where the chief occupation of the people was the fur trade. Every one from the governor down to the humblest inhabitant was interested directly or indirectly in the expansion of this trade, a fact that led to explorations in search of new centers for its development.
Governor Frontenac, acting upon the advice of the in-tendant, an experienced fur trader, appointed Joliet, a tactful, intelligent man, a native of Quebec who had mastered more than one of the numerous Indian languages, to take up the work of pushing forward exploration and the fur trade. With Father Marquette and a few other companions, Joliet, May 17, 1673, left Michili-mackinac for the west, and June 17 of the same year reached the Mississippi at the mouth of the Wisconsin river. They entered and passed down that river to latitude 33° 40' and returned to the starting place by way of the Illinois river and Lake Michigan, thereby making knqwn to the French much of the Mississippi and all of the Illinois river.^
The reports of these men concerning the great fertility of the soil, the mildness of the climate, the abundance of
^ The Jesuit Relations and Allied Documents, vol. lix, pp. 89-107, 159. 21] 21
'*, V* ::
22 rH£ COMMERCE OF LOUISIANA [22
game of all kinds, and the docility of the Illinois Indians gave considerable stimulus to French interest in the Mississippi valley. Father Marquette made a second voyage to the Illinois region for the purpose of establishing a mission there. This undertaking was crowned with success in 1675 by the founding on the upper Illinois river among the Kaskaskia Indians of a mission which he named the Immaculate Conception.' Two years later Allouez took charge of the mission and from that time onward missionary work was carried on regularly among the Illinois Indians.'
The traders, too, were soon again in the Illinois country. On May 12, 1678, La Salle received a patent from the king to carry on trade and exploration in the west. He started for the territory assigned him the next year, but found so many obstacles to be overcome that it was January, 1680, before he reached the Illinois. On arriving at Lake Peoria he began the construction of a fort which he called Crevecoeur, and from here as a starting point he proposed to explore the Mississippi above and below the mouth of the Illinois river.
Hennepin was placed in charge of the exploration of the upper Mississippi. Leaving Fort Crevecoeur February 29, 1680, he passed down the Illinois and up the Mississippi to where the river is obstructed by falls. These he named in honor of Saint Anthony of Padua, passed around them and continued his exploration on up the river to the source in Lake Issati (sic), sixty leagues to the west of Lake Superior.'
• The Jesuit Relations and Allied Documents, vol. lix, pp. 185-191, 235.
• Ibid., voL be, pp. 163-167; vol. Ixv, p. 69.
• Margry, Dicouvertes et Etablissements des Franqais dans VOuest et dans le Sud de I'Amirique Septentrionale, vol. i, pp. 477-481.
Soon after the departure of Hennepin from Creve-coeur, La Salle set out overland for Fort Frontenac and was not at his Illinois station again until December,
1681. In a short time he left this post and passed on down the Illinois in order to begin exploring the lower Mississippi. This he found full of floating ice and he was forced to delay his descent until navigation was safe. On April 9, 1682 he reached the mouth of the river, planted a cross, took possession of the valley in the name of the king of France and named the country Louisiana. After this formality La Salle started on the return voyage and reached the Illinois villages July 15,
1682. Fort Crevecoeur, during his absence, had been entirely destroyed. He left eight of his men there and with the remainder went by land to Lake Michigan where he met Tonty, whom he sent with nine men to join those he had at Crevecoeur. La Salle went on to Michilimackinac and, as soon as it was possible for him to make the journey, joined his men at Lake Peoria. Under his guidance a new fort was constructed on a rocky prominence well guarded by nature and now called Starved Rock, not far from the present city of Utica, Illinois. This post he named Fort St. Louis. Leaving it under the command of Tonty, he went to Quebec, reaching that place November 13, 1683, and early the next year set sail for France, in order to get permission to return by way of the Gulf of Mexico to plant a colony on the lower Mississippi.^
La Salle secured the consent and aid of the crown for the undertaking and in February, 1685, was at Matagorda Bay, Texas, near which, on the Garcitas river, he built a fort that he named "Fort of St. Louis Bay."
1 Margry, op. cit,, vol. i, pp. 502, 519-520, 549-570.
Hardships and insubordination followed. On March 9, 1687, while on a journey in search of the Mississippi, La Salle was assassinated by one of his own men.' This act ended a colonizing enterprise that had added nothing to the settlement and very little to the exploration of the Mississippi valley.
After La Salle's efforts in the IlHnois country in 1682, French military and commercial occupation was not again discontinued. La Barre, who succeeded Fronte-nac as governor of New France, however, hated La Salle and tried hard to destroy the latter's work in the Illinois country; but fortunately his efforts met with small success.' Until after the migration of the Kas-kaskia Indians to the region between the Kaskaskia and Mississippi rivers in the autumn of 1700, in order to escape the onslaughts of the Iroquois and Fox Indiarts, as well as to be in closer touch with the new French settlement on the Gulf coast, Tonty and La Forest were established at Fort St. Louis on the upper Illinois river.'
In 1698 the crown again took up the work of colonizing the lower Mississippi valley, and sent out an expedition under Iberville, a native of New France. In the early part of the next year he reached the Gulf of Mexico, selected a location on Biloxi Bay and built on the site a post which he named Biloxi.* The new settlement had a hard struggle to keep itself alive. It was in an unhealthy situation surrounded by a morass, and was
' Margry, op. cit., vol. iii, pp. 106-120, 318-335; The Mississippi Valley Historical Review, vol. ii, pp. 165-182.
* Parkman, Count Frontenac and New France under Louis XIV, vol. i, pp. 76-92.
* Jes. Rel, vol. Ixv, p. loi.
* La Harpe, Journal Historique de l'£tablissement des Francois d la Louisiane, pp. 4-7; Margry, vol. iv, pp. 213-296.
not on a waterway that led to the interior of the country. Consequently, in 1702, Iberville gave orders for the foundation of a new settlement on the west side of the Mobile river, about 18 leagues from the sea. Here a fort was built and named " Fort St. Louis de la Mobile." This location Iberville thought superior to that of Biloxi, since it brought the French into much easier communication with the Indians of the Mobile valley, with the French in the Illinois country and with the Spanish of Pensacola. Moreover he claimed for the new settlement a good harbor which could be entered easily and was naturally defended.'
It was soon discovered that the site for the new post was not well chosen. The land on which it was located was low and subjected to inundations, a circumstance which in 1711 led to the removal of the settlement to the mouth of the Mobile river, eight leagues nearer the sea. Around this fort there grew up a village called Mobile which early became the capital of the province.* The new post was not far enough inland to combat successfully English aggression; therefore, in 1714, For Toulouse was built on the upper waters of the Alabama river.3 To the same end, in 1736, Fort Tombecbee was erected on the river of the same name, not far from the Choctaw."* During the French period these two posts mark the frontier of settlement in this region.
The discovery of an English vessel a short distance up the Mississippi river, in 1700, caused the French to construct a fort on the lower waters of that river. A site
^ Jes. Rel, vol. Ixv, p. 179; Margry, vol. iv, pp. 533-534, 603; Le Page du Pratz, Histoire de la Louisiane, vol. i, pp. 268-269; La Harpe, p. 38. ' Margry, vol. v, pp. 481, 482, 484; La Harpe, pp. 107-108. ' Historical Collections of Louisiana and Florida, vol. i, p. 128. * Le Page du Pratz, vol. ii, p. 255.
on the south side was selected and a rough fort, called Fort Mississippi, was built eighteen leagues from the mouth. This post, which was not abandoned until 1705, had five or six houses for the soldiers and a small but neat house for the commandant, Bienville/
War at home occupied too much of the attention of France for the proper development of its infant colony of Louisiana. Consequently in 1712, in return for exclusive rights of trade in the province, Antoine Crozat, an energetic and successful French merchant, took over the work. A desire on his part to reap immediate and substantial returns from the smallest possible investment of capital doomed the venture to financial failure. In 1717 he gave the province back to the crown, which at once granted it to the Company of the West with substantially the same privileges as had been given to Crozat. Under the new patent, however, Louisiana was made to include the Illinois country as well.
The interest of the Company of the West in establishing trade with the Spanish of New Mexico caused a movement of settlement westward. In 1717 New Biloxi was founded on the Gulf coast,' and a site was selected for a new village, to be named New Orleans. Here a settlement was begun in 1718,' which later replaced Mobile as the capital of the colony, and in 1723 had a few log cabins along the river front ** put up without order."*
Louisiana, in 1721, was divided into nine military dis-
* Jes. ReL, voL Ixv, p. 161; La Harpe, p. 19.
* Margry, vol. v, p. 548.
* Ibid., vol. V, p. 549; La Harpe, p. 142.
* Records of the American Catholi£ Historical Society of Philadelphia, vol. X, p. 202.
tricts.' The growth of settlement in three of those districts, Mobile, Biloxi and Alibamon, has already been described. In the district of New Orleans, in 1722, Fort Balise was built for the purpose of commanding the mouth of the Mississippi, and from there to within ten leagues of New Orleans the land was low, marshy and unfit for occupation. At that distance below the village, however, settlements began to appear separated from each other by only a few miles.^ The same condition existed above New Orleans. At ten leagues above the capital, extending for five or six leagues along the west bank of the Mississippi, were three villages of German settlers.3 Before the end of the French control of Louisiana, New Orleans grew to be a comparatively large town, surrounded on all sides by farms and plantations.'* In 1721, furthermore, there was a fort (St. Pierre) in the Yazoo district on the river of the same name. Not many settlers took up land near it, because of Indian hostility.^
Fort Rosalie, ninety-five leagues up the Mississippi river from New Orleans, was the center of the Natchez district. This fort, begun in 1700 and finished in 1716, was splendidly located on high fertile ground which, before the Indian massacre, was considered one of the best locations on the lower Mississippi. After the Natchez revolt, settlement in this region grew slowly notwithstanding the situation was most desirable.^ Some fifty leagues below Fort RosaHe there was a cluster of fertile
1 La Harpe, p. 296.
'^ Jes. Rel., vol. Ixix, p. 209; Hist. Coll. La., pt. iii, p. 181. ' Jes. Rel, vol. Ixix, p. 215. ^Ibid., pp. 211, 215.
* La Harpe, pp. 310, 330.
« Le Page du Pratz, vol. iii, p. 230; Margry, vol. v, pp. 573-5745 Hist. Coll. La., pt. iii, p. 21.
farms stretching out for some distance along the west bank of the river, called Pointe Coupee/
North of the Natchez lay the Arkansas district with a fort, begun by Tonty in 1685, near the mouth of the Arkansas river. From here to the Illinois country, one hundred and fifty leagues, there was not a single permanent French settlement along this part of the Mississippi,' though the forts of St. Francis (1739) thirty leagues above the Arkansas, St. Martin (1738) a little farther up the river on an island of the same name, I'Assomption (1739) at the mouth of the Margot river (Wolf river), and Prud*-homme (1719J forty leagues above, had been established, and had survived for short periods of time.^
The exploration of the country to the west of the Mississippi was begun in 1700, when Bienville and St. Denis made a voyage of discovery up the Red river. Later they conducted further explorations in this part of Louisiana, and in time St. Denis, through Texas, reached New Mexico. La Harpe, Du Tisne, Verendrye and others extended this work as far as the Rocky Mountains. In 1717 Fort Natchitoches, seventy leagues above the mouth of the Red river, was erected, and as was the case at the other French posts, a village slowly grew up around it. Natchitoches continued to the end of the French regime to be the only French settlement in this part of Louisiana."
> Jes. ReL, vol. Ixix, p. 215. * Ibid., p. 217.
• Journal de la Guerre du Micissippi contre les Chicachas, en 1739 et finie en 1740, etc., pp. 37-40; Le Page du Pratz, vol. ii, p. 291; La Harpe, p. 305; Jefferys, The Natural and Civil History of the French Dominions in North and South America, pt. i, p. 143; Margry, vol. v, p. 403; Delisle's Map, 1718; Collot, A Journey in North America, vol. ii, p. 28.
* Margry, vol. vi, pp. 193-305, 309-315. 583-612; La Harpe, pp. 30, 130-131.
The Illinois country, as has been shown, was quite well known to the people of New France before the beginning of colonization on the lower Mississippi. There were no permanent settlements made until 1700, when both Cahokia and Kaskaskia were begun/ Later settlements were made at Fort Chartres (1720), St. Anne (1719), St. Philippe (1726), and Prairie du Rocher (1722). Across the Mississippi river, one mile from its western bank, southwest from Kaskaskia, were St. Genevieve (1732), and near Cahokia, Prairie du Pont (1760)."
These settlements were surrounded by an outer ring of frontier posts. At Lake Peoria on the north there had been a few settlers almost continuously since the time of La Salle. They cultivated the soil to some extent, but for the most part were interested in the Indian trade.' To the south of the settlements was Fort Massac (1710 or 1711), a Jesuit mission and fortified trading post. This post was situated upon the Ohio, about forty miles from its mouth, and was placed there to protect the French from the marauding Cherokee.^ As early as 1714 Charville, a trader, sent out by Crozat's agents on the Gulf, went among the Indians on the Cumberland river and established a trading post on the
* Jes. Rel., vol. Ixv, pp. loi, 263, 264; vol. Ixiv, p. 278; Early Voyages Up and Down the Mississippi, pp. 60-65.
' Jes. Rel., vol. Ixv, pp. 101-105; vol. Ixix, p. 221; La Harpe, p. 243; Archives Nationales, Colonies, Serie C^^, vol. xxxv, fol. 126; Early Western Travels, vol. iv, p. 266; Transactions of the Illinois State Historical Society, No. 8, p. 105; No. 10, pp. 58-61.
* A. N., C, Sir. Ci3, vol. xxix, fol. 85; Jes. Rel, vol. Ixiv, p. 161, note 29; Blanchard, History of Illinois, p. 55.
* Trans. III. Hist. Soc, No. 8, 1903, pp. 38-64; Chicago Historical Society Collections, vol. iii, p. 55.
site of the present city of Nashville.' In 1756 a new fort was begun at the mouth of Cherokee river and was named I'Ascension (Ft. Massac), but the work was stopped owing to the lack of funds.' Fort Ouiatanon on the upper Wabash marked the frontier on the east. Here a fort was built (1719 or 1720) to give protection to the French from the assaults of the Iroquois.' Later it was found necessary to build Fort Vincennes (1733 or 1734) on the lower Wabash in order to keep out the English traders.*
In 1721 the Spanish from New Mexico and their Indian allies threatened the French settlements from the west. This danger, together with the news that the Spanish were about to begin the erection of a fort upon the Kansas river, caused the authorities of Louisiana to send an order to the Illinois country to stop this aggression. Accordingly Fort Orleans (1724) was constructed not far from the mouth of the Grand river. This frontier post was established with a double purpose: to check the advance of the Spaniards, if need be, though preferably to build up a trade with them; and secondly for the conclusion of alliances and the establishment of trade with the neighboring Indians. Fort Orleans, however, did not prosper, and it was soon suggested that the garrison be reduced to eight men.*
* Ramsey, The Annals of Tennessee, p. 45; Winsor, The Mississippi Basin, p. 87.
' Villiers du Terrage, Les Dernidres Annces de la Louisiane Fran-(aise, p. 79.
* Documents Relating to the Colonial History of the State of New York, vol. ix, p. 894; Indiana Historical Society Publications, vol. ii, p. 329-
*A. N., C, Sir. C18, vol. xviii, fols. 70-88; SSr. F«, vol. xxiv, fol. 241.
* Ibid., Sir. C", vol. xi, fols. 366-368; Margry, vol. vi, p. 452; Le Page du Pratz, vol. iii, p. 142.
The Company of the West, in 1719, gave way to the Company of the Indies. This corporation continued in control of the province of Louisiana until 1731, when it relinquished its powers to the crown. Bienville, being the most prominent as well as the most influential man in Louisiana, soon became governor. Struggles with the other colonial officials finally led to Bienville's recall in 1742 and the naming of Vaudreuil, a native of New France, as governor of Louisiana in his place. The new governor had tact, good judgment and much dignity, a combination which enabled him to govern the province with as little friction, perhaps, as was possible, and to leave it for a higher colonial post in 1752.
Governor Kerlerec, who succeeded Vaudreuil, was a man of abihty and integrity, but from the start he was handicapped in his administration of the colony. He was forced to begin his work after the close of one, and at the beginning of another and much longer, war. He had the misfortune to be obliged to work with several " ordonnateurs," or finance officers, and finally with one whom he could neither direct nor restrain. Against great odds he managed to give the colony as good a government as could reasonably be expected under the circumstances, and was recalled only when Louisiana passed, in 1763, under Spanish and English control.
CHAPTER II Waterways
The huge valley lying between the Great Lakes on the north, the Gulf of Mexico on the south, the Appalachian range on the east, and the Rockies on the west, is drained by the Mobile and Mississippi river systems, and a few single rivers flowing directly or undirectly into the Gulf of Mexico. For the smaller boats of the time these rivers furnished highways to almost every part of the region. Nine of the chief rivers of the Mississippi system, together with the principal rivers of the Alabama network, afford sixteen thousand miles of navigable waterways. To this mileage, however, should be added that supplied by a large number of smaller rivers and streams used in making exploring and trading expeditions. The navigable rivers of the Mississippi valley, indeed, opened to the French " such a scene of inland navigation as cannot be paralleled in any other part of the world."'
Within the Mississippi valley there are various places where the headwaters of the two systems are not far apart. Such intervening stretches of land the French called "portages," or carrying places. From the Tombigbee branch of the Mobile system it is possible to pass over a portage of three miles to the Tennessee river, and by another branch of the same system and a similar carriage almost
1 Coiden, The History of the Five Nations of Canada, vol. ii, pp. 3^37.
directly to the lower Mississippi.' The hostility of the Chickasaw who were in control of the territory in which it was located rendered it impossible, however, for the French ever to make a free use of the former of these two connections.
Then, too, New Orleans through lake and stream had water communication with Mobile. At times when Lake Pontchartrain overflowed its banks it afforded an uninterrupted watercourse. At all other times, however, a carriage over the bars at the head of the lake was necessary/
The waterways of Louisiana were rendered still more serviceable by the discovery of many convenient portages from one to another branch of the same river system. For example, a trader was able to pass from a branch of the Wisconsin river over short portages to the Rock and Illinois rivers, thus shortening the route to his place of destination.3
In order further to increase the utility of these natural highways, the French on the lower Mississippi constructed canals, either for the purpose of making a more direct route to the Gulf of Mexico, or of joining the Mississippi with the bayous at the rear of the settlements. These connections with the Mississippi were used for the transportation of lumber. In 1724 one large landholder across the river from New Orleans alone had between eight and ten miles of such canals.'* For his own and
* Winsor, The Westward Movement, p. 522, map; Transactions of the Alabama Historical Society, vol. ii, p. 44.
* A. N., C, Sir. O^, vol. ix, fol. 62; A Topographical and Statistical Account of the Province of Louisiana, p. 24.
' Colden, vol. ii, pp. 36-37; Parrish, Historic Illinois, etc., p. 105.
* Archives, Biblioth^que du Dipartement des Colonies, Serie G^, vol. 464; Hutchins, An Historical, Narrative and Topographical Description of Louisiana and West Florida, p. 415.
the use of the public as well, the entrepreneur of public works {entrepreneur des travaux du rot) established water connection between New Orleans and Barataria Bay. This canal, twenty-five feet wide and a little more than three leagues long, was finished in 1739 and in 1741 the colony was deriving considerable benefit from it through the exportation of lumber over the route.' As early as 1723 it was proposed to construct a canal between St. Jean Bay and Lake Pontchartrain.' The work was begun in 1728; but it was some years later before there was a direct waterway through canal, lake and stream between the capital and Mobile.'
The internal advantages of this network of waterways did not exceed, in any respect, its external possibilities. The Mississippi afforded close connections with the Spanish provinces on the west, and was in such proximity to the rivers of the Arctic region as to cause them also to be claimed by the French.* A number of the branches of the St. Lawrence system, too, took their rise near the source of the Mississippi, thereby affording to the French colonies in North America good highways for intercolonial intercourse.
The expedition of Joliet and Marquette resulted in the discovery and use of the Fox-Wisconsin portage which Marquette states was about" 2700 paces " in length.* This distance, however, was variable; continuous water passage from one to the other was available during a period of freshets. In the dry season the portage was about a
* A. N., C, Sir. 0», vol. xxiv, fols. 31-32; vol. xxv, fols. 193-194, 26&-272; vol. xxvi, fols. 17.
* Ibid., vol. vii, fol. 260.
* Ibid., vol. xi, fols. 20, 122; vol. xiii, fols. 82-83.
* Margry, vol. vi, pp. 510-512. ' Jes. Rel., vol. lix, p. 105.
mile and a half wide.' The shortness of the portage and the directness of the journey from New France through Michilimackinac to the Mississippi made this route attractive to the French traveler and trader.
By 1699, the very year that the first permanent settlement was made in Louisiana, the Fox-Wisconsin portage had become practically closed on account of the hostilities of the Fox Indians.^ They made it impossible in fact to establish a military post along this route, and as a result the French were able to use the portage only during the short intervals of inter-tribal peace. At the same time the Fox-Dakota alliance closed the communication with the Mississippi by way of Michilimackinac, Lake Superior and the St. Croix portage.^ Thereupon the French changed the course of their voyages and went from Michilimackinac to the Illinois by the waterway leading from the south end of Lake Michigan.
Here there was a choice of several routes : one by way of the two Calumet rivers^ over a portage either to the Des Plaines, the north, or to the Kankakee, the south, branch of the Illinois river; another by the Chicago-Des Plaines route; a third by the St. Joseph river which of itself affords two waterways. Of the first two routes the second was the better known, and hence was more frequently used by the French. From about 1685 a French post called Miamis, had been in existence at the mouth of the Chicago river.* Marquette, in fact, made his return
* Winsor, The Miss. Basin, pp. 22-23, map; Carver, Travels through the Interior Part of North America in the years 1766, 1767 and 1768, map.
* Early Voyages, etc., p. 49.
' Winsor, op. cit., p. 22; Carver, map.
* Charlevoix, A Voyage to North America, etc., vol. ii, pp. 127, 139-140; Winsor, op. cit., p. 24; Hennepin, A New Discovery of a Vast Country in America, vol. i, p. 22, map; Jes. Rel., vol. lix, p. 161, note,
voyage by the Chicago-Des Plaines route over a portage a little more than a mile in length.' St. Cosme, on finding the Fox-Wisconsin highway blocked by unfriendly Indians, says he " was obliged to take the Chicago route." He followed this river until it is " lost in the prairie," whereupon, in order to reach the Illinois he found it necessary to make two short portages.* The carrying-place varied from four to nine miles in length according to the season of the year. Sometimes during the spring freshets it was not over a mile, and when the water was exceptionally high a canoe could pass from one river system to the other.' Charlevoix, however, states that he rejected this route because he had been told that in summer the Des Plaines river was too shallow at times to be used for canoes.* In that case the length of the portage would be as much as ten or twelve miles. The Iroquois-Fox alliance, however, pushed the Illinois Indians southward and caused the abandonment by the French of Fort St. Louis on the upper Illinois river.' This movement left the Chicago route unguarded and consequently the French travelers became a prey to hostile Indians. The route then gradually fell into disuse and by 1718 was so nearly given up as to find no place on the French maps of the period.^
pp. 313-314; Early Voyages, etc., p. 51, note; Collections and Researches made by the Michigan Pioneer and Historical Society, vol. xix, p. 6; Deslisle's Map, 1718.
' Jes. Rel, vol. lix, p. 161, note; Early Voyages, etc., p. 51.
» Early Voyages, etc., pp. 49-54.
• les. Rel., vol. lix, p. 161, note 41; Winsor, op. cit., p. 24.
* Charlevoix, op. cit., vol. ii, p. 139.
* Early Voyages, etc., pp. 58-59; Andreas, The History of Chicago, vol. i, p. 91.
• Delisle's Map, 1718, N. Y. Pub. Lib.; Le Gac, Memoire d'aprds les Voyages sur la Louisiane, map, 1722, Newberry Lib., Chicago.
Once more travelers from Michilimackinac to the Illinois country were forced to shift the course of their voyages farther to the east.' They now went up the St. Joseph river, from which they passed over a portage, varying according to the season of the year from about three to five miles in length, to the Kankakee, the south fork of the Illinois river.'' In 1711 a mission station was erected on the St. Joseph sixty leagues from its mouth, and the following year the French constructed at the mission a military post which they occupied to the end of their control in the Mississippi valley.^ This waterway to the Illinois country was further protected in the early part of the eighteenth century by the Miami Indians who checked the advance of the Iroquois, thereby affording travelers over the St. Joseph-Kankakee route some degree of security."* It was possible, though usually undesirable because of the circuitousness of the course, to go from the St. Joseph over a portage of nine miles to the Wabash river, down which one could pass to the Mississippi and thence by way of the latter to the Illinois country.5 The St. Joseph, therefore, formed a link in each of three routes from New France to that region. The third ran from Montreal by way of Lake Erie and the Maumee river to the St. Joseph, and then to the Kankakee and Illinois. ^
1 Pennsylvania Archives, Second Series, vol. vi, pp. 54-55.
' Charlevoix, op. cit., vol. ii, p. 139; Baker, "The St. Joseph-Kankakee Portage," in Northern Indiana Historical Society Publications, p. 24; Coll. and Res. Mich. Pio. and Hist. Sac, vol. x, p. 248.
* Jes. Rel., vol. Hx, p. 314, note; Baker, op. cit., pp. 20, 36.
* Winsor, op. cit., p. 26.
* Ibid.; Hulbert, Historic Highways of America, vol. vii, p. 175.
" Delisle's Map, 1718; Margry, vol. ii, pp. 97, 98, 244, 248; Vergennes, Memoire Historique et Politique sur la Louisiane, p. 83.
With the growth of settlement on the lower Mississippi, intercourse with New France yearly became more frequent, and consequently led to the use of the Maumee-Wabash-Kankakee route, which was known perhaps as early as 1656' and was certainly known to both La Salle and Allouez.' In 1682 La Salle writes of it as the shortest and most direct, though because of hostile Iroquois, the most dangerous route from New France to the Illi-nois.3 This waterway, therefore, was not in general use until the Miami Indians had repulsed the Iroquois-Fox alliance and located themselves upon it about 1715.* From 1718 onward the route was definitely marked out on the French maps, and was the principal highway between New Orleans and Detroit, Montreal and Quebec* In order to give further protection to it, the French established and garrisoned Fort Ouiatanon on the upper Wabash river, which added security and gave great impetus to travel over the Wabash-Maumee route.^ Later they found it necessary to establish Fort Vincennes on the lower Wabash, in order to defend themselves against the English traders who were now rapidly making inroads into French territory.' This route, on account of the military protection thus given and its short portage
• Winsor, op. cit., p. 26; Benton, The IVabash Trade Route in the Development of the Old Northwest, J. H. U. Studies, vol. xxi, p. 12; The American Antiquarian, vol. i, p. 223, Sanson's Map.
' Benton, op. cit., p. 12; Margry, vol. ii, p. 98.
• Margry, vol. ii, pp. 244, 296; Winsor, op. cit., p. 26.
• Do£. Rel. Col. Hist. N. Y., vol. ix, pp. 890, 894; Reports and Collections of the State Historical Society of Wisconsin, vol. viii, p. 242; Winsor, op. cit., p. 26.
• Jefferys, pt. i, p. 134, map.
• Ind. Hist. Soc. Pub., vol. ii, No. 8, pp. 329, 330; Doc. Rel. Col. Hist. N. Y., vol. ix, pp. 891, 894.
' Penn. Col. Papers, p. 194; Dunn, Indiana, pp. 45-55.
of only about nine miles,- continued throughout the French period to be the highway most frequently used between Louisiana and New France.'
The more eastern branches of the Mississippi taking their rise close to the St. Lawrence system were of little use to the French since they were almost entirely under the control of the Iroquois. The route most frequently followed by the Indians on entering the Mississippi valley was by way of Lake Erie to the Sandusky river, from this river over a portage of about a mile to the Scioto river and thence directly to the Ohio.' The Indians made use also of a route from Lake Erie by way of the Cuyahoga river which they ascended to its forks. Here they either passed up the west branch of that river to the head of navigation and made a portage of about eight miles to the east fork of the Muskingum river, or passed up the east branch of the Cuyahoga to a portage connection with Big Beaver creek which flows into the Ohio about thirty miles below Pittsburg.3 Over these, and no doubt over some other less frequented routes, the traders from New York followed the Indians into the Mississippi valley.
There were connections between the Mississippi and the rivers of the Atlantic coast plain, also, that were convenient for the traders. Pennsylvania, through the Susquehanna and the Juniata, had good portage communication with the Allegheny branch of the Ohio, while Virginia had access to another and even more direct
* Board of Trade Papers, vol. x, pt. 2, 1718-1720, Penn. Hist. Soc. Trans., Vergennes, p. 84; Coll. and Res. Mich. Pio. and Hist. Soc, vol. xix, p. 5,
» Doc. Rel. Col. Hist. N. Y., vol. ix, p. 886.
* An Account of the Remarkable Occurrences in the Life of Col. James Smith, etc., Ohio Valley Hist. Series, No. 5, pp. 56, 172, note.
route by way of the Potomac river to the Monongahela branch.' The Carolina rivers, too, allowed for comfortable portages with the Tennessee, Cumberland and Alabama rivers.' With the exception of Fort Toulouse on the upper water of the Alabama, however, the vast-ness of the province and the existence of the Chickasaw-Iroquois alliance made it impossible for the French to protect these entrances to Louisiana by military posts. Therefore they became English, rather than French, highways into the Mississippi valley.
The waters of the Gulf of Mexico, the chief connection of Louisiana by sea with the outside world, were shallow for a considerable distance from the coast. The whole of the Louisiana coast, in fact, was skirted by a " barrier-beach," "little banks of sand forming a sort of double coast at a distance of twenty-five to thirty toise from the shore." 3 Moreover the whole of the coast " was so flat, that it could hardly be seen at a distance of two leagues and it is not easy to get up to it."*
Mobile Bay, however, which was about thirty miles long and from four to eight miles wide and deep enough for all the largest boats, could be entered with comparative ease.' As a rule European vessels did not pass up the bay. Landing places were poor, and the Mobile and its branches were too narrow and winding to make it possible for sea-going vessels to go far inland.* Therefore,
* Ellet; The Physical Geography of the Mississippi Valley, pp. 6-9.
* Winsor, op. cit., pp. 19-20,
3 Chaville, " La Voyag« en Louisiane," 1720-1724, in Journal de la So-ciitS des Amiri£anistes de Paris, 1903, vol. iv, p. 124.
* Raynal, A Philosophical and Political History of the Settlement and Trade of the Europeans in the East and West Indies, vol. v, p. 253.
•Chaville, vol. iv, p. 124; Margry, vol. vi, pp. 532-533-
* Charlevoix, History and General Description of New France, vol. vi, pp. 36, 38, 39.
Dauphin Island, a part of the "barrier-beach," was used as a landing place.'
Biloxi Bay could be entered only by shallops not in excess of a hundred tons. Larger boats could go no nearer Biloxi than five leagues. Here, however, they found good anchorage in the roadstead in front of Ship Island, also a part of the " barrier-beach."" To go inland from Biloxi it was necessary to pass up narrow shallow streams so clogged in places with floating logs as to necessitate a resort to portages.3
The shallowness of the water along the coast caused the Mississippi river to enter the Gulf of Mexico through a number of mouths, all of which were more or less obstructed by sand bars. In 1700 it was claimed there was not more than eleven feet of water in any of the various mouths and in most of them much less."* " These openings," it was said, "are constantly changing and most of them have but little depth of water." ^ To the west of the mouth of the Mississippi the French made no use of the Gulf coast as harbors, except occasionally in their attempts to build up a trade with the Spanish in Mexico.
' La Harpe, pp. 94, 105, 107, 108, no, 128, 131, 132.
* Jes. Rel., vol. Ixv, p. 165; Charlevoix, op. cit., vol. vi, p. 39.
* Margry, vol. v, pp. 620-621; Jes. Rel., vol. Ixv, p. 171.
* Jes. Rel., vol. Ixv, p. 171; Raynal, vol. v. p. 253. ' Raynal, vol. v, p. 253.
CHAPTER III Navigation
With the exception of the Chickasaw who were much afraid of the water,' the French on their entrance into the Mississippi valley found the Indians using the rivers as highways.' This example probably had its influence upon the white travelers, yet the physiography of the country was undoubtedly the determining factor which caused them to adopt and continue to use the same mode of travel, notwithstanding the fact that in making such voyages hindrances almost innumerable had to be overcome.
In passing down the Mississippi the French found the current at the mouth of the Missouri powerful and impetuous ; a little farther down stream a rocky cHfif extended into the river and formed a whirlpool where the water was constantly boiling up, whirling around and lashing itself into foam against the shores.^ Continuing the descent, they found enormous floating trees, with dangerous currents near them, high dense woods on the banks keeping out the winds,* and many other obstacles
* The Present State of the Country and Inhabitants, European and Indians of Louisiana on the North Continent of America, 1744, p. 8.
' Colden, vol. ii, pp. 36-37; Jes. ReL, vol. Iviii, p. 97.
* Early Voyages, etc., pp. 65, 68; Jefferys, pt i, p. 138.
* Jes. Rel., vol. Ixv, pp. 109-161; Pittman, The Present State of the European Settlements on the Mississippi, pp. 36-37.
such as sand bars, permanent islands, wooded islands,' "planters"" and " sawyers,"' any one of which could easily and often did put their boats out of commission/ Moreover, throughout the course there were few camping or landing places and the many bends in the river, varying from three to eight miles, made the journey by water double the distance by land. One traveler in relating his voyage down stream says " we boxed the compass in three hours travel, and went half around in going two leagues." Necessarily, therefore, navigation on the Mississippi was for the French *' slow, tedious and very difficult." 5
To all these difficulties must be added the bodily discomforts from tornadoes, heavy rains, excessive heat, scarcity of food and drinking water, black flies, gnats and mosquitoes.^ The torture of the mosquito alone is said by one traveler to have been so intense that every thing else in comparison with it seemed " only a recreation." He believed " the plagues of Egypt were not more cruel," and asserted that the "little insect had caused more swearing since the French came to the Mississippi than had been done before that time in all the
^ These were places where large quantities of drift-wood had been arrested and matted together.
* " Planters" were trunks of trees firmly fastened by their roots to the bottom of the river and appearing no more than about one foot above water when at medium height. The largest boats running against these would not move them,
' " Sawyers " were trunks of trees also fastened to the bottom, but yielding to the force of the current and appearing and disappearing like the movements of a saw.
* Jes. Rel., vol. Ixv, pp. iii, 153; Bossu, vol. ii, pp. 113-114; Hutchins, p. 412; A. N., C, Ser. C^*, vol. xi, fol. 33.
• Jes. Rel., vol. Ixv, pp. 137, 159, 161.
• Ibid., pp. Ill, 113, 127, 137, 155, 161; vol. Ixvii, p. 291.
rest df the world." Be that as it may, a swarm of mosquitoes set out with the traveler in the morning; at night when he landed it was " mosquitoes' hour."'
From the mouth of the Missouri to the falls of St. Anthony, travel was somewhat less strenuous. Here the many bends and numerous islands greatly abated the force of the current. On the other hand there were in this stretch of the Mississippi two rock obstructions that formed rapids,—one near the mouth of the Rock river some fifteen miles in length, the other a short distance above the Des Moines river about eleven miles long,* which at low water interrupted navigation. At such times travelers were forced to "discharge their boats and get into the water and push them along with their hands." 3
On the tributaries of the Mississippi the navigation was very similar to that on the main river above the mouth of the Missouri. All but the Missouri were shallow except during flood times, and above the rapids, usually, it was necessary to make the voyage in boats smaller than those used below the falls.* Belief indeed was expressed in Louisiana that the difficulties attendant upon these journeys would prevent the establishment of trade between the different parts of the province. On this point Governor Cadillac writes:
Is it to be expected that for any commercial or profitable purpose boats will ever be able to run up the Mississippi
* Jes. Rel., vol. Ixvii, pp. 293-297.
* Leveret, " The Lower Rapids of the Mississippi River," in Proceedings of the Iowa Academy of Science, 1898, vol. vi, p. 74.
* Margry, vol. v, pp. 411-412; Jefferys, p. 135.
* Jefferys, p. 136; Jes. Rel., vol. lix, p. 107; Hennepin, A New Discovery, etc., vol. i, pp. 186, 221-226; Giarlevoix, A Voyage to No. Am.^ etc., vol. ii, pp. 139-140; Early Voyages, etc., p. 171.
into the Wabash, the Missouri, or the Red rivers ? One might as well try to bite a slice off the moon. Not only are these rivers as rapid as the Rhone, but in their crooked courses they imitate to perfection a snake's undulations. Hence, for instance, on every turn of the Mississippi it would be necessary to wait for a change of wind, could it be had, because this river is so lined up with woods that very little wind has access to its bed.*
Fortunately for Louisiana this sort of opinion was not prevalent. As early as 1700 boats were making voyages from the Illinois country to the Gulf of Mexico. All the voyages, however, did not start from the Illinois country. In 1700 La Sueur left Biloxi to go up the Mississippi to the mines supposed to be located upon the upper waters of that river.'
The growth of settlement in the Illinois country and on the lower Mississippi caused a proportional increase in the voyages between these two places. Throughout the period of French occupation single boats from time to time made voyages to all parts of Louisiana, yet by far the larger number of expeditions, especially between New Orleans and the Illinois country, were made by convoys of from two to twenty or more boats.' Not infrequently a number of armed men were designated by the government to accompany the little fleet as a guard, the size of which varied with the degree of danger attendant upon the voyage and the number of men in the colony available for such work. Before starting on the journey this military escort appointed one of its own
^ Lowry and MoCardle, A History of Mississippi, etc., p. 36.
* Margry, vol. v, pp. 402-415.
* Pittman, p. 36; Kerlirec's Report, 1758, p. 69; Bossu, vol. i, pp. Z3, 113; Margry, vol. v, p. 358; A. N., C, Ser. C^^, vol. xiii, fols. 85-86; Rec. Am. Cath. Hist. Soc. Phila., vol. x, p. 206.
men as a leader, or asked the officials to give them one whose duty it was to take charge of the guard, to name the men who were to be on duty during meal time and during the encampment for the night, and in general to give commands. In 1732 twenty men were given as a military escort for four pirogues of "voyageurs" going from New Orleans to the Illinois country.'
Whoever made these journeys soon learned that the best time to leave the Illinois country for New Orleans was about the beginning of February, when the water was high and flowing at the rate of something like five miles an hour, which would give an advantage of three miles an hour over a voyage made during low water." Then, too, as at this time of year the land on both sides of the Mississippi was flooded, and the Indians were engaged in hunting, both circumstances helped to insure the traveler against Indian attacks.'
In order to avoid the impetuous currents and to reach the Illinois country before winter set in, convoys going up stream usually left New Orleans sometime between August and November. In most cases enough time was thus given for the journey and for a stay of sufficient length to dispose of the cargo and to take on another for the return trip at flood times.^ Occasionally, however, the allotted time was not adequate, and the convoy was forced to encamp and wait for the ice to break in the spring before completing the voyage.' During this
» A. N., C, Sir. 0», vol. xiv, fol. 48; Sir. F», vol. xxiv, fol. 361; Pittman, p. 36.
* Pittman, pp. 36-37.
* The Olden Times, vol. i, p. 319.
* A. N,, C, Sir. O", vol, viii, fols. 451-461; Sir. F*, vol, xxiv, fol. 361; Bossu, vol. i, pp. 33, III, 158; Pittman, p. 36,
' Bossu, vol, i, p, 158.
stay of the boatmen in the Illinois country there was a safe and comfortable harbor for the boats on the Kas-kaskia river where they could be anchored while prepara^ tions were being made for the return trip.'
The convoys were owned both by private parties and by the colonial government. Bienville, in 1722, sent out an order to all the posts along the river between New Orleans and the Illinois country to give every possible protection to the government convoys,' which even with this help in many cases were managed badly.. The captains in charge of the convoys were often selfish and dishonest men who sought chiefly to advance their own interests; moreover the amount of merchandise carried was thought to be too small for the number of men in the crew; consequently before 1723 the "inspec-teur " of the colony had made two journeys to the Illinois country for the purpose of finding ways and means of making the river service more efficient.' The government, notwithstanding these irregularities, sent out annually two convoys made up of seven or eight boats each, one of which left New Orleans in the fall, the other in the spring.* During the intercolonial wars, the officials were obliged to supplement the regular convoys by extra ones.s
When hostilities began between the French and English on the upper Ohio, convoys carrying food and ammunition, were annually sent out from the Illinois country to Fort Du Quesne. These convoys left in time to pass the falls of the Ohio at time of high water; other-
^ A. N., C, Sir. C13, vol. xxxv, fol, 128.
' La Harpe, p. 314.
» A. N., C, Sir. C13, vol. viii, fols, 451-461.
* Ibid.; Pittman, p. 36. * Bossu, vol. i, p. 23.
^g THE COMMERCE OF LOUISIANA [^g
wise they were put to the trouble of a portage, Before the war had been long in progress similar convoys went up the Wabash to the French troops in Canada.' These, however, did not prevent others leaving the IlHnois for New Orleans just as they had done before the rupture with the English.' During the war it was necessary to provide much larger companies of soldiers in order to give adequate protection to the boatmen.^
The added war dangers proved to be no more of a deterrent to these persevering Frenchmen than the natural obstacles attendant upon the way had been when such journeys were first undertaken, and each year many boats passed up and down the Mississippi between the Illinois country and New Orleans. Moreover, the boat traffic on the Mississippi between the capital and the neighboring settlements reached considerable proportions before the end of the French control of Louisiana. Trips were made down the river with supplies for the weekly market and for fete days, while boats were sent to the capital with large cargoes of lumber and other colonial products.* From New Orleans, also, frequent journeys were undertaken by way of lake and stream to Mobile and from here up the rivers to Forts Toulouse and Tombecbee.5
All along the Mississippi where there were settlements on both banks of the river numerous boats were used only in plying from shore to shore.^ In the Illinois
• Bossu, vol. i, p. 179; Kerlerec's Report, 1758, pp. 69-70; A. N., C, Sir. O'.vol. xxxvii, fols. 188-190; Trans. III. Hist. Soc, No. n, p. 222.
« A. N., C, Sir. 08, vol. xxxviii. fol. 26; Sir. B, vol. Ixiii, fol. 608.
• Pittman, p. 36; Bossu, vol. i, p. 33; Chalmer's Papers Relating to the Indians, 1750-1775, N. Y. Pub. Lib.
• A. N., C, Sir. Ci», vol. xiv, fol. 138.
• Ibid., vol. xxii, fols. 46-50; vol. xxiv, fol. 159.
• Le Page du Prat2, vol. ii, p. 186.
country there were also two ferries, one at Cahokia, the other between Kaskaskia and St. Genevieve. Both were in use at the time that France relinquished control of the province; the latter having been in operation since 1727, some years before the settlement of St. Genevieve was begun. The ferry at Cahokia made it possible in 1763 for the French settlers who wished to migrate from the English to the Spanish part of Louisiana to take with them all their movable property.'
Difficulties to navigation were not wholly confined to that between the different settlements of Louisiana. In the north the ice often blocked the water routes. In such cases the canoe, when the wind was favorable, was converted into an ice-boat. One traveler writes : " instead of putting the canoe into the water, we placed it upon the ice, over which the wind, which was in our favor, and a sail made it go as on water. When the wind failed us, in place of paddles we used ropes to draw it along, as horses draw carriages." ' Tonty, in the Illinois country, says : " the river being frozen we made sledges and dragged our baggage thirty leagues below the villages of Illinois." 3 In the south the natural formation of the Gulf coast, as shown above, provided few landing places for the vessels coming to the colony and even in fair weather a ship might easily be stranded for days on low-lying sand-bars. If the misfortune occurred at the time of a violent storm it was certain to cause the vessel's destruction.*
In 1717 a storm entirely choked up the harbor at
* Breese, The Early History of Illinois, etc., App., p. 290; Trans. III. Hist. Soc, No. 12, pp. 217-218.
* Jes. Rel., vol. Ix, pp. 151, 161. ' Hist. Colls. La., pt. i, p. 59.
* /4. A^., C, Sir. C^^, vol. xvii, fols. 29-30, 100-102. I
Dauphin Island. One day a vessel on entering found twenty-one feet of water in the channel through which it passed. Two days later, on attempting to pass out over the same course, it stuck in the sand and had to be unloaded and taken out through a different channel where there was not above ten feet of water.' Nothing like this had occurred since the French had established themselves on the Mobile, but the experience contributed much to the founding of New Biloxi. At this new post vessels were obliged to anchor in the roadstead in front of Ship Island. From this point the cargo was carried to New Biloxi in smaller boats and from here up the Manchac, where a second transfer was necessary in order to get supplies to the colonists located in the interior settlements.'
The growing importance of the establishments along the Mississippi river each year made it more and more desirable that the ships from France should land their loads in closer proximity to these places. To this end Bienville, in 1722, in the face of violent opposition, succeeded in having New Biloxi abandoned. This act did away with the only depot on the Gulf coast in which merchandise destined for the Mississippi settlements was received, and therefore forced the boats to sail directly to New Orleans.3
New perils were thus added to the long dangerous sea voyage. At the mouth of the Mississippi the vessels were in danger of collision with huge floating logs that came rushing down the river with great force.* Having
» Margry, vol. v, p. 548; La Harpe, p. 132. « A. N.. C, Sir. C", vol. x, fol. 158.
• Margry, vol. v, pp. 639-646.
* Raynal, vol. v, p. 253.
escaped these hazards, it required even greater vigilance to pass safely the bars which, almost from the beginning of their occupation of Louisiana the French knew were located in all of the numerous mouths of the Mississippi/
In order to find the way to improve conditions at the mouth of that river, in 1717 the home government ordered the royal engineer and director of the Company to make soundings for the purpose of ascertaining the length of the bars and the depth of the water over them, and the course and rapidity of the current. This information, together with the date on which the investigations were made, were to be sent to France.' The next year the command was again given, along with an order to the Louisiana engineer, to try to remove the bars by means of iron dredges, of which the French government sent over six, together with four grappling-irons. These contrivances were to be passed over the bars in order to stir up the mud and thus cause it to pass out of the channel with the flow of the water.3
In 1719 more explicit orders concerning the improvement of conditions at the mouth of the Mississippi were sent out. The engineer was told to examine the bars with the idea of their removal, either by means of dredges or other similar devices, or by dykes or other water obstructions, whereby the bulk of the water would be sent through one channel, thereby increasing the force of the current and causing it to clear its own channel. The engineer was directed to erect at the entrance of the river two small towers sufficiently high so that they could be seen at a considerable distance during the day
1 Jes. Rel, vol. Ixv, p. 171; Pittman, p. 35. * Margry, vol. v, pp. 598-599-» Ihid., pp. 602-603.
and on which throughout the night lights were always to be kept burning. He was further instructed to make an exact map of the channels, along with which he was to send to France an estimate of the work necessary to make them navigable.' Accordingly the engineer, after making the needful soundings, sent in a report to the home government, in 1722, stating that the lighthouses at the entrance of the river were in operation, and that it was believed that the river itself could be made to remove permanently all the bars at the entrance. The cost of the work to accomplish it he believed would not be great.' Notwithstanding this favorable report nothing further, at this time, was done toward the removal of the obstructions to the navigation of the Mississippi.
Sixteen years later, in 1738, the royal engineer reported as follows:
There are daily changes at the mouth of the river and the Balise bar. It has been remarked that, when the winter is short and the north wind has not prevailed much, these changes become more perceptible and the water is not so deep. This may proceed from the existence of two other passes, through which water runs with more rapidity than in the one which is called the Balise. . . . To obviate this inconvenience, the India Company, some twelve years since, had caused to be constructed iron harrows (herses), which were dragged over the bar, but this expedient had its disadvantages .... it removed the soft mud, and left the sand, which, forming a solid and compact body, would, in time, not only have interfered with the passage of ships, but have prevented it altogether. This caused the harrows to be abandoned. As the ships of the company were large, and could not pass
* Margry, vol. v, pp. 609. 612-613.
* Ibid., pp. 632-633; La Harpe, pp. 247-248; Bernard, Recueil de Voyage au Nord, vol. v, p. a.
without being lightened, a small vessel (flute) was left stationed on the Balise bar, to receive part of the cargoes, and the spot where this vessel happened to be anchored, deepened gradually to twenty-five feet. From this fact the inference has been drawn, that, to deepen entirely the Balise, it would be proper to have a vessel drawing eighteen feet, in the hold of which brick wells should be constructed. By alternately pumping water into and out of this well, the vessel would rise and sink at will ; and by running her up and down over the bar, it is evident that she would cut a channel through. It is true this would be expensive, but the utility of the measure would be incalculable.*
The home government seems not to have acted upon this ingenious method of clearing the Balise channel. War at home was occupying too much of the time of the French officials for them to consider this colonial work. The Balise channel continued to be the one most commonly made use of, but it was necessary to keep a pilot constantly employed in making soundings.
This royal pilot was stationed at the Balise to be in readiness to meet the ships and conduct them over the bars." In his report to the home government in 1750, the chief pilot there wrote:
For these twenty-five years during which I have been employed here in the piloting vessels in and out, I rarely took them out by the same way in which I took them in ; and these changes generally happened in October when this river has not much current.*
Nothing further was done to remove the obstructions. When it passed them, a ship could go on up the river
' Gayarre, History of Louisiana, vol. i, pp. 500-502. ' Pittman, p. 35; Jes. Rel., vol. Ixix, p. 205. ' Gayarre, op. cit., App., ii, p. 361.
where there was sufficient depth of water for any of the ocean vessels. At eight leagues from the mouth, however, there was a bend which made it necessary for a boat to wait for a favorable wind. During a delay that might vary from a day to a month, the ship could make last to a tree on bank and " haul close."' From this point boats found no further obstacle in the way to New Orleans, above which sea-going vessels rarely passed.
• Pittman, p. 35; Le Page du Pratz, vol. ii, pp. 257, 259.
CHAPTER IV
Boats
The French began to navigate the Mississippi and its tributaries in boats closely resembling those used by the Indians of the lake region. Joliet and his companions made their voyage of discovery down the Mississippi in two canoes *' built of birch-bark, cedar splits, and ribs of spruce covered with yellow pine pitch, so light and strong, that they could be carried across portages on the shoulders of four men."' By 1700 there were many of those canoes plying up and down the rivers of the Mississippi valley. Usually they were put together with bark and splits, yet it was not unknown for the Indians, and French as well, to make them out of large bufifalo hides, stretched over a framework of willow poles. These were called " bull-boats." They were used chiefly in emergencies and could be made large enough to carry five or six persons across the lake or river.'
Canoes were referred to by the French as " two-place," ** three-place," etc. according to the number of men in the crew. A " two-place" canoe was from twelve to fourteen feet long and could carry, in addition to its human freight, from three to four hundred pounds of merchandise, whereas a " four-place " canoe was as much as twenty feet long, and had a capacity, similarly, of from
^ Shea, Discovery and Exploration of the Mississippi Valley, p. 7.
* A., B. N., Ft., vol. 12224, fols. 109-164; Margry, vol. iv, p. 607; vol. V, p. 357; Chittenden, The American Fur Trade of the Far West, vol. h p. 35.
one thousand to two thousand pounds. Besides these smaller boats the French early began the construction of larger vessels which they called " master canoes " {canots tnaitres). These were about thirty-six feet long and large enough to carry fourteen persons and a corresponding amount of freight. They were usually four feet wide by two anda half feet deep in the middle, and two at the bow and stern.' Sometimes they had seats, placed a little lower in the canoe than the cross-pieces that held the boat in shape. La Salle, in fact, began the construction at Fort Crevecoeur in 1683 of a " mastercanoe" that was forty two feet keel by twelve feet beam.'
Bark canoes had no rudders and the boatmen propelled them by the " force of their arms with some paddles." ' Sometimes when the wind was favorable, a sail, made of thin birch-bark and fastened to upright poles placed in holes in the cross-bars of the boat, was used. ♦ Canoes of this sort were admirably suited to river navi-tion where there were no rapids, and where portagages from one river to another were necessary.* Their use, however, was by no means limited to the upper waters of the rivers. Many of them found their way to the Gulf coast and in fact were employed in every part of Louisiana.^
* Trans. III. Hist. Soc, No. 10, pp. 131-132; Hennepin, A New Discovery of a Vast Country, etc., vol. i, pp. 36-37; Le Page du Pratz, vol. ii, pp. 49-50.
» Doc. Rel. Col. Hist. N. Y., vol. ix, p. 383; Colls. III. Hisi. Lib., vol. i, pp. 88-89.
• Hennepin, op. cit., vol. i, p. 37.
* Le Page du Pratz, vol. ii, p. 50.
'Chaville, op. cit., vol. iv, p. 137; Colls. III. Hist. Soc, Va. Ser., vol. i, p. xviii.
• Margry, vol. iv, p. 607; vol. v, p. 357; Kalm, Travels in North America, vol. ii, pp. 299-315; vol. iii, p. 15.
Because of the different materials available for the construction of boats, the Indians south of the Ohio ^ave the French a different model, a "dug-out" made from the trunk of a large cotton-wood tree. In 1673 Marquette saw many such vessels, one Indian village alone: having two hundred and eighty.' Scarcely was Biloxi established when the settlers began to make boats similar to those used by the southern Indians. In 1700 they finished twelve, from thirty to thirty-five feet long.' Le Sueur no doubt used some of these on his voyage to the Illinois country, where they proved to be curiosities to the Illinois Indians who had seen only the bark canoes and a few Indian " dug-outs." ^
The French, however, did not confine themselves wholly to the cotton-wood, but made " dug-outs " from the trunks of several different kinds of trees, of which the cypress was the most highly prized.* Constructed in this fashion the boats necessarily varied in size, the smaller ones being so narrow as not to be able to bear a sail. In a strong wind the water frequently dashed over them.5 The larger-sized vessels, however, were from forty to fifty feet long by three to five feet wide and could carry thirty men. In freight capacity they ranged from one ton to forty-five or fifty tons. As a rule the French called such boats " pirogues" and frequently also,, "canoes."^
^ Jes. Rel., vol. Iviii, p. 97.
^ A. N., C, Sir. C13, vol. i, fol. 307.
' Hist. Colls. La. and Fla., vol. i, p. 65.
* Le Page du Pratz, vol. i, p. 320; vol. ii, p. 31; Charlevoix, A Voyage to N. Am., vol. ii, p. 177.
* Margry, vol. v, p. 381; Charlevoix, op. cit., vol. ii, p. 177.
* Le Page du Pratz, vol. ii, pp. 33-34; Margry, vol. v, pp. 419-420; Jes. Rel., vol. Iviii, p. 97; Dumont, vol. i, p. 64.
A pirogue had seats for the rowers and for the coxswain. Usually it was guided by an oar attached to the stern; in other cases, a more pretentious rudder, made of planks was used.' It was propelled by oars, aided by a sail if the wind were favorable.' The Company of the Indies during its control of the province owned many boats of this kind.^ In 1737, however, the royal government decreased the number by introducing into the river service a larger boat of different construction.^
By far the most of the pirogues were owned by private persons. Because of their simple construction they could be easily built. When there was a shortage in the government supply, private pirogues made up the deficiency, especially between New Orleans and the Illinois country where they were always more numerous than any other kind of boat.' It was not uncommon for twenty to thirty of them to pass from the Illinois to the capital in a single convoy; usually the number was much smaller. In Louisiana, where communication was largely carried on by boat, the general usefulness of the pirogue enabled it to maintain its popularity throughout the French period.* The very simplicity of construction, however, gave almost no market for such boats, even if in 1735 five of them did sell for four hundred and ten livres.'
Another boat in general service on the Mississippi
* Dumont, voL i, pp. 62-63.
' Charlevoix, op. cit, vol. ii, p. 177; Ra)mal, vol. v, p. 252. » A. N., C. Sir. C", vol. vii, fol. 40.
* Ibid., voL xxii, fols. 18-20.
* Ibid., vol. vi, fol. 299; vol. xiv, fol. 48; vol. xxxiv, fols. 291-296; Sir. B. vol. Ixiii, fol. 608.
* Ibid., Sir. C*', vol. xv, fols. 133-136; vol. xvi, fol. 300; vol. xxxiv, iols. 291-296; Margry, vol. v, p. 419; vol. vi, p. 244.
' A. N., C, Sir. O*. vol. xx. fols. 250-251.
was the " cajeu." This was made of strong canes bound tightly together in such a way as to form a Hght vessel useful in making crossings from one bank of the river to the other. These boats were so easily constructed that they filled the place in the south that the "bull-boats " did in the north.' The boats used in the Illinois country for such crossings were pirogues sawed lengthwise into two equal parts with a broad flat piece of timber inserted in the middle in order to give greater beam to the vessel so that horses and cattle could be carried across the river with greater safety.'
Neither the bark canoe nor the pirogue answered fully the needs of the province; hence variations from these types soon began to appear. As early as 1700, in fact, Iberville had proposed the construction of light flat boats {bateaux plats) on which to carry large quantities of buffalo wool and hides from the interior down the Mississippi to the Gulf of Mexico.3 Eight years later a contract for a flat boat was let to a shipwright and thirteen inhabitants of Mobile. This vessel drew one foot of water empty and three or four when loaded to its full capacity of about thirty tons, and was used upon the Gulf of Mexico* as a " transport-boat." ^ In 1709, the same carpenter built a second flat boat of about twelve tons burden and intended for the builder's own use in a trade he hoped to establish with Tampico and other Spanish towns.^
^ Le Page du Pratz, vol. ii, p. 186.
» Trans. III. Hist. Soc, No. 12, pp. 217-218; Breese, The Early History of III., et£., App., p. 290; Hall, Notes on the Western States, p. 218. ' Margry, vol. iv, p. 376.
* The French used this term for the boats carrying merchandise from sea-going vessels to the settlements, and also from Louisiana to the West Indies or Mexico.
* A. N., C, Sir. C^», vol, ii, fols. 193-211. • Ibid., fols. 395-403.
The number ot such boats did not increase rapidly. An inventory of the royal property in Louisiana in 1718 shows only two of fifteen tons, three of four, and one of two tons capacity, the two largest being in very bad condition.' On the arrival of the new director of the Company in August of the same year he made a report to the home government of the condition of the province, and in this communication stated there were twenty-four or twenty-five flat boats ready to be used in carrying settlers from the vessels that brought them from France to their "concessions" along the Mississippi. This number does not seem to have been sufficient, for in 1719 Bienville was ordered by the Company to have a number of new ones constructed, and the work was begun soon after at Mobile, Biloxi and New Orleans.' When the work of transportation had slackened, he sent seven of them, with crews of nine or ten men each, from Biloxi by way of the mouth of the Mississippi to New Orleans on a voyage of inspection.'
In 1737 the colonial officials considered it advisable to increase the number of flat boats and to place them on the New Orleans-Illinois route. The contract, let to the lowest bidder, fell to certain settlers along the Mississippi. Fifty large vessels, forty by nine by four feet, each of twelve tons burden, to be finished in the month of October, 1738, were provided for.* A boat of this type, be it said, was not a flatboat or " broad-horn " of the later period of Mississippi boat traffic, for it had a sharp bow and stern and was of light draft and narrow
^^. N., C, SSr. C", vol. V, fol. 182.
* Margry, vol. v, p. 571; Kalm, vol. iii, p. 15; A., B. A. £., Mimoires tt Documents, Amirique, vol. i, fol. 107.
*A. N.. C. Sir. C", vol. vi, fol. 11.
* Ihid., vol. xxii, fols. 18-20.
beam. It was made of several pieces of timber with a broad flat bottom, was larger than a canoe and of greater capacity than the large pirogue.^ Toward the end of the French period in Louisiana, however, a boat resembling a flatboat of the present day began to be used on the Mississippi and its tributaries. This was called a " radeau" and served principally as a freight boat and for heavy and bulky merchandise in general.°
The French also made use of shallops (^chaloupes). As early as 1704 two of these boats were at Biloxi, and in 1707 were brought into the transport service.^ Before 1722 they had been placed on the lower Mississippi, where they were used for different kinds of work. Most of the boats in that part of Louisiana were broken to pieces by a violent storm that visited the Gulf region in August; of the government shallops only two remained.* The number, however, was soon increased, and in 1727 such boats were making voyages up the Mississippi to New Orleans with from twelve to fifteen passengers,^ and five years later it was proposed that shallops tow ocean vessels from the Balise to New Orleans.^ In 1746 a shallop of sixty tons, manned by a crew of five or six sailors, was owned and used on the Gulf of Mexico by a settler who had a cattle ranch on Deer Island.' Then, too, shallops were utilized by sea-going vessels for
' Kalm, vol. iii, p. 16; Early Western Travels, vol. xxvi, p. 61.
* Bossu, vol. i, p. 35.
* Beranger, p. 103; A. N., C, Ser. C^^, vol. i, fols. 468-470; vol. ii, fols. 5-32.
* A. N., C, Ser. C^s, vol. vi, fol. 340.
* Relations du Voyage des Dames Religieuses Ursulines de Rouen ci la Nouvelle Orlians, p. 32.
« A. N., C, Ser. C^\ vol. xv, fols. 54-56.
* Ibid., vol. XXX, fol. 254.
all sorts of purposes, such as lifting anchor and doing rescue work in time of peril. Shallops, thus employed, were of about four tons capacity and varied in number from one to three for each vessel.' Even the " brigan-tins" on the river were sometimes provided with a shallop to help raise the anchor.'
Just what kind of boat it was that passed under the name of shallop in Louisiana is not easy to determine. As the name " canoe," at times, was applied to the pirogue, so shallop, in the same way, became also a term used indifferently for all medium-sized, and sometimes even for larger, boats. In structure, it seems to have followed closely the flatboat, differing from it no doubt only in some minor detail.
As early as 1713 an overseer of shallops was suggested by the " ordonnateur," and the next year two such officers were appointed, each of whom received for his services thirty livres a month.' Penicaut, from whose writings so much knowledge of the early history of the colony of Louisiana has been derived, was a maker and repairer of shallops, a term which in this case was applied to boats of all kinds, even including the large pirogues owned by the government.*
In an enumeration of boats used in Louisiana in 1704, it was stated " there are three shallops, one of which is a •felouque'" {felucca).^ Here again the term shallop is employed in the larger meaning. This type of boat had been in use in Louisiana since its foundation, for Iberville,
* A. N., C, Sir. Ci», vol. iii, fols. 287-309; vol. xxxiv, fol. p. 119.
* Ibid., vol. xxxiv, fol. 119.
« Ibid., vol. iii, fols. 262^263; 287-309.
* Margry, vol. v, p. 584; Kalm, vol. iii, p. 15. » A. N., C, Sir. 0«, vol. i, fols. 468-470.
in 1700, speaks of sending his "felouque" into the interior of the country.' The "felouque" was a small, swift-sailing ship propelled by both oars and lateen sails, resembling in general the shallop, yet built in such a way that the helm could be used indifferently at either end of the boat. The number of these feluccas was increased from time to time, but they seem never to have become popular. For the most part its use was confined to the lower Mississippi and Gulf of Mexico, where it was employed in coasting voyages and for transport service.' The larger boats in use in Louisiana were "bateaux," " brigantins," "barques," "keel-boats," " traversiers," " caiches," and frigates. "Bateaux" and "traversiers" were general terms. For example, any vessel making frequent voyages between places not far apart might be called a " traversier," regardless of its particular form. In 1704 there were two "traversiers," each of fifty tons capacity and with complete armament, making voyages from Louisiana to Mexico.^ Such trips continued from time to time until one of the "traversiers," in 1706, ran too close to the shore and was wrecked ofi the coast not far from Biloxi.-* In 1722 the "traversiers" then in the province, when not engaged in making journeys to the West Indies, were employed as " transport-boats " {bdtiments de transport). For this work, however, they were not well adapted, since they could get no nearer the shore than three-fourths of a league, thereby making it necessary to transfer the merchandise to shallops in order to land it.^ The term "traversier" continued in
^ Margry, vol. iv, pp. 363-364-« A., B. A. £., Am., vol. i, fol. 88.
* A.N., C, Sir. C13, vol. i, fols. 387-396, 468-470.
* Ibid., vol. ii, fols. 5-32, 57-59. * Ihid., vol. vi, fols. 288-289.
use throughout the French period, but after the resumption of royal rule it was employed much less frequently.
" Bateau " had a still more general use. As a name it could be applied to any sort of small boat whether propelled by sails or oars, or by both sails and oars. Moreover, the term was used quite as often in reference to boats on the river as to those on the open sea. The French wrote " brigantin," " barque " or " bateau " more or less indifferently in referring to one and the same craft.' The application of the term ** bateau," furthermore, may be shown by an account of the vessels in lower Louisiana that were mentioned as such.
In 1709, for example, the clerk of the province proposed to buy a "bateau" for the royal service. It was to be used in making voyages to Vera Cruz, and hence was simply a " traversier." Before the government had closed the bargain, however, Bienville and d'Artaguette bought it for fifteen hundred livres and put it on this service as a private enterprise. By 1713 two trips to Vera Cruz are recorded for it.' In 1711 a "bateau" of fifty tons was bought by the authorities for two thousands livres. This vessel was intended for a similar service between the West Indies and the colony.' In 1712 a " bateau" of thirty-five tons owned by a settler on Dauphin Island was brought from France. It had been necessary for the owner to secure a permit for himself, his Canadian companions and the boat itself, because an exclusive trading privilege had just been granted to Crozat, and the crown wished to protect that privilege.* A " bateau "
^A. N., C, Sir. C*. vol. ii, fols. 57-69; vol. iii, fols. 245-248; A., B. A. £., Am., vol. i, fols. 81-129.
• A. N., C, S^. 0», vol. iii, fols. 66; vol. v, fols. 257-259.
• Ibid., vol. ii, fols. 586-602.
• Ibid., Sir. B, vol. xxxiv, fols. 127, 131. \
in a colony where a boat of fifty tons cost more than one of two hundred in Europe, it was felt, would be an advantage rather than a hindrance to Crozat/ In 1717 a " bateau," " La Catherine," was bought by the government for two thousand livres for service in Louisiana.' There were already at Mobile a " bateau " of between sixty and seventy tons, and another of from twenty-five to forty, and still others elsewhere, all of them badly in need of repairs.^
For some time before the Company surrendered its right to the crown it had neither increased nor repaired the "bateaux" of Louisiana, Consequently the royal government found it necessary almost immediately to appropriate ten thousand livres for the construction of new, and the repair of old, vessels of the sort in the province/ This need for boats was enhanced, moreover, by the storm that destroyed many ships in lower Lou-isiana.5 Among those lost was one wrecked off Horn Island while en route from New Orleans to Mobile by way of the Balise. After the storm there was but one royal "bateau" fit for service.^ Salmon, the " ordonna-teur," attempted to buy others in the West Indies to take the place of those lost, but was not successful. An Englishman came to Mobile about the same time and oflfered to sell a "bateau" of one hundred tons; a society organized for the purpose of establishing trade with the West Indies agreed to take it, but the owner did not return with the vessel to complete his share of the bargain.7 This same year the provincial government
^A. N., C, Sir. CIS, vol. iii, fol. 605.
* Ibid., Sir. B, vol. xxxix, fol. 70.
* A., B. A. £., Am., vol. i, fols. 107-108.
* A. N., C, Sir. C18, vol. xiii, fols. 268-270; vol. xv, fols. 54-56. 5 Supra.
* Ibid., vol. xvii, fols. 53-54. ' Ibid., vol. xvi, fol. 83.
bought at Vera Cruz a " bateau'' of between sixty and seventy tons, which was called " L'Aigle Noir" and was to be a " traversier" along with an old "brigantin," the "St. Louis".'
Scarcely had the crown provided " bateaux " for official service in Louisiana when it was discovered that they were used more for the private trade of the government staff than for public purposes. To put an end to this abuse, Salmon issued an ordinance making it illegal for any official to convert such boats to private uses.' There were, however, not enough "bateaux" in the province, even though employed exclusively for official objects. A recommendation, therefore, was sent to the home government, in 1735, requesting it to have the needful boats constructed, each of from fifty to one hundred and fifty tons capacity, for the service in Louisiana.^ The request being ignored, the colonists themselves made some attempts at increasing the number. In 1737 a "bateau " of fifty tons, " La Marie Elisabeth," from Bordeaux, was condemned by the colonial officials as unseaworthy. A settler bought it and with the aid of a ship carpenter made it again ready for use and at once freighted it for Martinique. This gain, however, was offset by the loss the same year of a " bateau " of sixty tons, " La Marguerite," which was wrecked off Horn Island on its return voyage from Cape Frangais (Cape Haitien). This vessel, too, was owned by a colonist and, when wrecked, was returning to Louisiana from its second journey that year to the West Indies.*
^ A. N., C, Sir. 0», vol. xvi, fols. 122-124; vol. xvii, fols. 167-169.
* Ibid., Sir. A, vol. xxiii, October 18, 1734. » Ihid., Sir. Ci», vol. xx, fols. 57-6o.
* Ibid., vol. xxii, fols. 173-175. 182.
In 1740 a storm again passed over lower Louisiana causing great loss in boats of all kinds. A large ** bateau " with its captain and four of the best negro sailors in the colony foundered while on its way from Mobile to New Orleans.' In order to have new ships built in place of the old ones lost, the crown the next year sent to Louisiana a ship carpenter. The deplorable state of the French finances, however, prevented the grant of further aid.^ In 1749 the home government was again asked to increase the number of Louisiana " bateaux," especially for the New Orleans-Mobile lake and river route where the need was the greatest. Here there was but one boat of the kind and that was quite unfit for service.3
On the Mississippi between New Orleans and the Illinois country, the term " bateau " was used as early as 1717. In that year two small vessels of the sort were sent from France on the ship, " La Dauphine," and destined for service on the Mississippi. Others were soon added, but the supply seems never to have equaled the demand.** A " bateau" of sixteen tons, built at New Orleans for voyages between the capital and the Illinois country, was finished in 1733. When about ready to begin its maiden trip and while still at anchor, it was struck and badly damaged by a tree floating swiftly down stream. Repairs were at once begun and the boat started up the Mississippi early in 1734.^ There was need for more such ''bateaux" on this course,
'/4. iV., C, Sir. O*, vol. xxvi, fols. 127-130. '^ Ibid., Ser. B, vol. Ixxii, fol. 9. '^ Ibid., Ser. C^^, vol. xxxiv, fols. 118-119. * Ibid., vol. V, fol. 99; Margry, vol. vi, p. 244. "A.M., C, Ser. C^^, vol. xix, fols. 8-10.
yet the home government did nothing in the matter until the outbreak of the Chickasaw War, when it became necessary to increase the number immediately. At the request of Bienville, in 1737, the " ordonnateur" placed a contract for the construction of fifty ** bateaux," forty by nine feet, which were to cost one thousand five hundred and fifty livres each. The caulking, iron-work, rigging, gearing etc., brought the price up to three thousand four hundred and forty livres. The boats were to be finished by March, 1738.' The "bateaux" for the New Orleans-Illinois service were put in repair in 1746' and again in 1748, before they were allowed to leave the town.'
The "bateau" was used, also, on other rivers of the province. In 1739 boats of the kind were passing from Mobile up the river to Fort Toulouse, Fort Tombecbee, and to New Orleans.* Three years later Dubreuil, " entrepreneur of public works," launched a " bateau " of forty tons to be used carrying stone down the Mobile from a quarry five leagues above.' The number of voyages between New Orleans and the other parts of the province, furthermore, was greatly increased by additions to the military forces, compelling the " ordonnateur," in 1752, to enlarge correspondingly the number of boats on the river service. Six thousand livres, accordingly, was appropriated for the construction of new and the repairing of old " bateaux." ^
^A. N., C, Sir. C'», vol. xx, fob. 176-179.
* Ihid., voL XXX, foL 23.
» Ibid., vol. xxxii, fols. 196-197.
* Ihid., vol. xvii, fols. 100-102; vol. xxii, fols. 46-50.
* Ihid., voL xxvii, fol. 134.
* Ihid., vol. xxxvi, fol. 285.
The final war between the French and English led to the employment of " bateaux" on the Ohio and Wabash rivers. Convoys of fifteen or sixteen such boats made annual trips from the Illinois country up the Ohio to Fort Du Quesne, and also up the Wabash with supplies for the troops in New France/
' Kerlerec's Report, 1758, p. 70; Pittman, p. 36; Trans. III. Hist. Soc, No. II, pp. 222-223; No. 8, p. iii; North American Review, vol. xlix, p. 77'
CHAPTER V Boats (Continued)
Passing now to a consideration of certain specific types of vessels, it may be said that a " barque " was a boat too small to be rigged with the same kind of sails and in the same way as those used on a " brigantin ". As early as 1704 a " barque " of fifty tons was built and launched in Louisiana, the sails having been brought from France/ In 1707, one such boat was all that was needed for the service of the colony on the Gulf of Mexico.^ By 1713 "barques" were in use on the Mississippi river. Here they were supplied with oars as well as with masts and sails. Ranging in capacity from forty-five to fifty tons, they were used as freighters.* In 1751, six boats of the sort left New Orleans for the Illinois country with four companies of troops (400 men) and large supplies of merchandise.*
The term "brigantin" was first applied in 1707 to a Louisiana boat of about fifty tons burden.*^ By 1713. another of from sixty to seventy tons had been added. It was small enough to pass some distance above Fort St. Louis de la Mobile, and yet large enough to make sea voyages to Tampico, Havana and Vera Cruz for cargoes of domestic animals and flour, and required only twelve men
» A. N., C, Sir. Ci», vol. i, fols. 468-470. ' Ibid., vol. ii, fols. 57-69. » Ibid., vol. iii, fols. 209-310.
* Bossu, voL i, p. 33.
• A. N., C, Sh. CIS, vol. ii, fols. 5-32.
to man it/ The next year a " brigantin " was sent from Mobile up the Mississippi after supplies of corn for the garrison. Not being able to secure the quantity needed, the vessel was later despatched to Vera Cruz to buy flour, a voyage which under favorable conditions required two months." In 1717 the "brigantin", " Le Neptune", was sent from France with supplies for the province and directed to remain permanently in Louisiana. It was even intended for the navigation of the Mississippi as far as the Illinois country; but a voyage of the sort seems never to have been accomplished."^
An inventory taken in 1718 of the vessels in Louisiana shows several " brigantins". There was one of from twenty-five to forty tons at Mobile, another at Biloxi of from thirty to thirty-five tons, and " Le Pinere ", between New and Old Biloxi. Though stranded and badly worm-eaten, all of them were capable of being repaired and put afloat ready for further service, except the one at Biloxi. Besides these there were at New Orleans two " brigantins " of fifteen and eighteen tons, respectively, and a large one of fifty tons which was in a state of decay.* Of these boats only one seems to have born an individual name.
Before 1731 the Company of the Indies had begun in Louisiana the construction of a " brigantin ", forty-five by nineteen by nine feet, and of seventy-six tons capacity. The Company, however, never completed the boat, which was taken over by the crown and launched in December, 1733, under the name " La Louisiane ".^ At this time the " brigantin " " St. Louis ", was in use at New Orleans but was very old and almost unfit for sea voyages and later in
' Ibid., vol. iil, fols. 126-140, 186, 245-248.
''Ibid., fols. 511-533, 561-606. 2 Margry, vol. v, p. 596.
♦ A., B. A. £., Am., vol. i, fols. 81-129.
* A. N., C, Sir. C^^, vol. xv, fol. 19; vol. xvii, fols. 100-loi; vol. xix, fols. 8-10.
the year was lost while returning from a voyage to Mobile by way of the Mississippi.^ Another " brigantin " plied on the river and lake route between New Orleans and Mobile. By 1749 this boat had grown too old for effective work, and the crown was asked to put in its place a new vessel of from eighty to ninety tons burden and not drawing above nine feet of water when loaded to its full capacity. It was desired to have the boat fitted up with masts and sails and provided with an extra set of sails, ropes, cables and anchors, as well as a shallop for raising the anchor, and armed with eight cannon.*
Few " caiches " (ketches) and frigates were ever in use in Louisiana. Of the former, one was brought from France in 1718 and used in the transport service at Biloxi.* About this time also there was at New Orleans a frigate of 150 tons burden and carrying sixteen cannon. Although vessels of this sort were intended primarily for warlike purposes, they were, at times, used to carry both freight and passengers. The arrangement of the sails and the employment of the cannon were the features differentiating such ships from the others in service.*
About 1742 the "keel-boat" began to be used T)n the Mississippi. This was a smaller vessel than the " bateau " and of lighter construction. It was usually from sixty to seventy feet long, with a breadth of beam of from fifteen to eighteen feet. The keel extended from bow to stem and the boat drew, usually, only from twenty to thirty inches of water. Most of the boats of this kind were of English construction and in the English service."
»/4. N., C, Sh. Ci3, vol. xiv, fol. 38; vol. xv, fols. 55-56; vol. xix, fols. 8-10.
» Ibid., vol. xxxiv, fols. 118-119. * A.. B. A. £., Am., vol. i, fol. 87.
* Ibid., fol. 107; A. N., C. Sir. B, vol. Ixix, fols. 106-107.
» Hall, pp. 218-219; Kalm, vol. iii, p. 15; Early Western Travels, vol. XXvi, pp. 60-61.
In 1723 it was proposed to put on the New Orleans-Illinois route a " galere "of from fifty to sixty tons burden and a smaller, or " demi-galere ". It was claimed that the " galere " would be a decided improvement over the flat boat (bateau plat) and pirogue in use on the Mississippi. On these craft the cargo, when not under cover, was often badly damaged by heavy rains, whereas on the " galere " there were decks below which the merchandise could be stored and kept dry. An appeal was made to the home government for carpenters for the work; but it was unheeded, and the ships were not built. ^
Notwithstanding the many different kinds of boats in use on the rivers of Louisiana, there was no great variety in the way they were propelled. From the largest to the smallest, all were rowed both up and down stream. Sails, to be sure, were used whenever it was possible, yet that sort of motor power could never, on a river voyage, be depended upon.* During times of low water resort was made to " punting ". On either side of the vessel a boatman at the bow thrust a pole into the water till it struck bottom. With the poles, in this position, the men pushed upon them, at the same time walking toward the stern, and in this way the boat was moved forward. When the stern was reached the poles were pulled out of the water, carried to the bow, again planted and the process was repeated.^
After 1750, " cordelling " or towing was employed. In order to keep the cable from catching on the bushes along the shore, it was passed through a hole in the top of a high mast placed a little forward of the centre of the boat, and
» A. N., C, Sir. C13, vol. vii, fol. 40.
• Pittman, pp. 36-37; Raynal, vol. v, p. 253; Bossu, vol. i, p. 33-
• Hall, p. 221; Early Western Travels, vol. xxvi, pp. 60-61; Moses, Illinois, etc., vol. i, p. 105.
the end of the line fastened to the bow. The boat was then pulled forward by from twenty to thirty men strung along on the shore. Sometimes the shore end of the cable was attached to a tree and the men on board the boat did the pulling,' Another sort of towing was in use on the lower Mississippi, where vessels were pulled from the Balise to New Orleans by shallops.^
The number of men composing the crew on the different kinds of river boats varied greatly, even on those of the same construction and size. It frequently happened that there were not enough sailors in the entire province to man them adequately. Many were manned by owners of both boat and cargo.'' In 1713 a " barque " of from forty-five to fifty tons required a crew of twenty men for a voyage up the Mississippi.* At Mobile, in 1733, there were j twelve negroes who were sailors on the " bateau " that / passed from that place up the river to Fort Toulouse, Fort Tombecbee. and to New Orleans. Though efficient sailors, their number was far too small; hence the colonial officials requested the home government to increase the supply.' The shortage continuing, in 1751 a further request was made for more sailors for the New Orleans-Illinois route. The negroes belonging to the government had grown old. There had never been more than one negro for each " bateau ", consequently, since about twenty-four men were needed, it usually fell to the soldiers to do the rowing.
* Hall, pp. 218, 221; Early Western Travels, vol. xxvi, pp. 60-61; Moses, vol. i, p. 105.
» A. N., C, Sir. O*, vol. xv, fols. 54-56.
' Ibid., Sir. B, vol. xci. fol. 8; Margry, vol. v. p. 357; vol. vi, pp. 358-359, 435-*A.N., C, Sir. C", vol. iii, fols. 245-248.
* Ibid., vol. xxiv, fols. 158-160.
Besides their pay as such, they received a small " gratification " varying in amount with the length of the voyage.^ Each " bateau ", for the most part, was provided with a captain, yet it was not uncommon for a number of boats to be sent out under the command of a single officer,"
The pay of the sailors on the river boats is difficult to determine. Le Sueur paid some Canadian " vagabonds " 500 livres (French money) for a year's labor. This, however, included work as hunters as well as boatmen.^ In 1714 sailors were receiving twenty-four livres a month.* On'aT^ boat of twenty-five tons, the construction of which was pro- / posed in 1725, the captain was to receive forty livres a / month, for a period of six months, and the sailors twenty.^ This amount may be regarded as a fair average.
The time necessary for a voyage from New Orleans to the Illinois country varied from three to four months, whereas the return trip could be made in from twelve to twenty-five days." A voyage from the Illinois to Fort Du Quesne required three months going up, and twelve days -,, down stream.' Boats proceeding from New Orleans to /Slobile by the lake route took four days,* while those going by way of the Mississippi, with favorable winds, could arrive at the Balise in about the same time. The sharp bend in the river made it necessary for the vessels to wait for a
^A. N., C, Ser. Cis, vol. xxxv, fols. 8-12.
* Ibid., vol. vi, fol. 11; vol. viii, fols. 451-461; Pittman, p. 36. ' Margry, vol. vi, pp. 68-69.
* A. N., C, Ser. C^«, vol. iii, fols. 287-309.
* Ibid., vol. viii, fols. 451-461.
* Ibid.; Pittman, p. 36.
'' Kerlerec's Report, 1758, p. 70; The Present State of the Country et£., 1744, p. 31.
« A. N., C, Ser. O^, vol. vii, fol. 31.
change of wind, a circumstance, as above observed,^ that might prolong the voyage to New Orleans anywhere from a day to a month.^ The canoes usually went at the rate of four miles an hour down stream; but from daybreak to dusk, if provided with a sail and having a favorable wind, they were able to make from thirty to thirty-five leagues, and on lakes sometimes more.' The larger boats with say approximately twenty men could go about six or seven leagues a day up stream.* The rate of progress, however, was in direct proportion to the size of the crew.
It seems fitting to conclude this description of the boats of Lx)uisiana with some account of the vessels plying between the province and France. During the period up to 1763 more than one hundred different ships were engaged. Some of them made a few voyages to Louisiana and were then transferred to the service of other French colonies. The voyages of a considerable number extended over many years, in a few cases as long as thirty. These vessels, however, rarely came year after year, and in only one case did the same ship undertake two voyages in a single year.' The number of French vessels sent to Louisiana, the irregularity of their visits and the colony's commercial history in this respect may be illustrated by the following diagram:
» Supra, p. 54.
^A. N., C, Ser. C^', vol. vii, fols. 33-34; Le Page du Pratr, vol. ii, p. 259-
* Jes. Rel., vol. lix, p. 91; Raynal, vol. v, p. 253; Hennepin, A New Discovery, etc., vol. i, p. 37; Hist. Colls, of La., pt. 4, p. 7.
* Jes. Rel., vol. Ixvii, pp. 287, 29s, 297; Pittman, p. 36.
* These conclusions are based on a rough list compiled of all the vessels mentioned in contemporary sources. The references are too numerous for citation.
BOATS
77
ITOO I7M 1710 1715 IT20 I7il (7ao 1735 1740 I74S 1750 (755 I7M 1765
The curve from 1699 to 1712 tells of the time of famine, and from 1712 to 1717 of Crozat's erratic management of the province. Then followed the period when Louisiana was under the rule of the Companies which sent out many-vessels with settlers and merchandise. On resuming control of the colony in 1731, the crown was unable to despatch a sufficient number of vessels and hence endeavored to attract merchants to the colonial trade by offering them "gratifications ", or bounties, on the shipment of certain classes of merchandise, amounting for a while to as much as forty livres a ton, but eventually reduced to twenty.^ The curve gives some indication of the success of the effort. From 1744 to about 1752 a change of conditions in the French West Indies sent many merchant vessels to Louisiana.^ From 1754 to the end of the French regime the curve indicates great irregularity, due to the misfortunes of war and to English interference.
The French vessels coming to Louisiana sailed from the ports of La Rochelle,* Rochefort,* Bordeaux,'' St. Malo,"
^ A. N., C, Set. B, vol. Ixi, fol. 629; vol. Ixii, fol. 235.
* A., B. N., Joly Coll., vol. 1726, fols. 145-146. » A. N., C, Sir. CIS, vol. xiv, fol. 36.
* Ibid., vol. i, fols. 514-569.
* Ibid., vol. xvi, fols. 38-39; vol. xxxiv, fol. 361.
* Ibid., vol. xxiv, fol. 256.
Marseilles/ Nantes/ Havre/ Bayonne/ and Dunkerque/ The greater number of those despatched by the crown sailed from Rochefort, and by merchants, from La Rochelle and Bordeaux. In the two ports last named there were cases where the same merchant kept vessels in the Louisiana service from the third decade of the eighteenth century onward until the final war with England made trade with the province impossible.
The ships at first were quite small, ranging from thirty-five to sixty tons burden. None seems to have reached one hundred tons or more before the time of the Company of the Indies, when the boats were anywhere from no Xxj^ 500 tons capacity. Those sent out by the crown and by merchants for several years after 1731 were for the most part of small tonnage. Not until 1736 is there a record of a vessel of as much as 250 tons. Some were as small as fifty' or sixty ^ tons, whereas the majority were between 100 and 200. After 1736 the size of the vessels was considerably increased. Many of them were between 400 and 500 tons, and a few reached 700 tons.* The smaller ones, however, still held their own and in 1759 a boat of fifty tons started on a voyage to Louisiana, but was seized by the British three weeks after it left Havre.'
These French ships engaged in the Louisiana service were not essentially different from those despatched to
» A. N„ C, Sir. C", vol. xxxiv, fol. 359. ' Ibid., vol. iii, fol. i6; vol. xxiv, f ols. 254-256.
* A., B. N., Fr., vol. 11334, fol. 171.
* A. N., C, Sir. 0», vol. xxxiv, fol. 297.
* Ibid., Sir. B, voL xcviii, fol. 96.
* Ibid., vol. Ixii, fol. 91.
' Ibid., vol. Ixi, fols. 647-648.
« Ibid., Sir. 0«, vol. xl, fols. 62-63.
» A., B. N., Fr., vol. 11334, fols. 186-187.
other French colonies. Nor were they smaller than boats similarly employed by other nations. In fact the French vessels of the time were usually larger than those of other countries. None of the Spanish or English vessels, for example, resorting to Louisiana, was above fifty or sixty tons.^
The vessels were known by the various designations of frigate,' " paquetbot ",^ " brigantin ",* " flute '\^ " cour-rier" or " dogre ",« " galere ",' " navire ",' "gabare"," " goelette ",''* " parlementaire "," and " balandre " or " be-landre".^^ Like the names applied to the colonial boats, some are general terms; others refer to boats of a special construction. Regardless of name, each of the ships was some sort of sailing craft, and most of them were merchant vessels carrying both freight and passengers. As a rule the frigate was a warship, yet it also at times was used to carry both freight and passengers.^*
The passengers were divided into different classes: those " a la table du capitaine ", " a I'office du capitaine " " ration munitionnaire ", " ration simple ", and those who provided
^ A. N., C, Sir. B, vol. xlv, fols. 232-233; Sloane Coll., vol. 32854, fol. 252, British Museum Lib. ' A. N., C, Ser. C^^, vol. iii, fols. 791-792. ' Ibid., vol. ii, fol. 544.
* Ibid., vol. iii, fol. 186.
* Ibid., Sir. B, vol. xlix, fol. 119.
* Ibid., Sir. C^^, vol. xi, fols. 31; A., B. N., Fr., vol. ii335. fol. 151-^ A. N., C, Sir. C^^, vol. vii, fol. 40; vol. xi, fol. 31.
* Ibid., vol. XV, fol. 54.
* Ibid., vol. xxxiii, fol. 28. '0 Ibid., vol. xxxix, fol. 74.
" Ibid., vol. xxxii, fols. 20-22.
'* Ibid., vol. vii, fol. 40; La Harpe, p. 104.
'^ A. N., C, Sir. B, vol. lix, fols. 106-107.
their own food. The " ration simple " was one ration, while that of " ration munitionnaire " was one and a half a day, per person.^ In 1731 it cost the crown sixty livres, each, plus the price of their food, to send soldiers to Louisiana.^ Two years later the price of a passage at the captain's table was 150 livres, while at ** ration munitionnaire " the fare was only eighty livres.^ In 1739 the passage of individuals sent out by the crown on merchant ships amounted to 400 livres each. This was an exorbitant charge, however, one of many of the sort in cases where the government paid the bill.* By 1756 the price of a single passage to Louisiana without food had arisen to 158 livres, while at the captain's table the price was 500.° In 1761 it cost the crown a little more than 172 livres for each passenger it sent to the province.'
Many of the vessels came singly from France to Louisiana, but as a rule two or three of the ships made the journey across the sea together. During war times France sent vessels out in convoys at certain fixed periods, in order to give the combined number sufficient protection against seizure and to enable it the more easily and quickly to ascertain its losses at sea,^
The vessels were supplied with a captain, under-officers and a crew. Sometimes the captain and owner were one and the same person, who sold the cargo and bought another for the return voyage.* The ships had their own
»i<. N., C, Sir. B. vol. Ixxxii, fol. 330; vol. bcxv, fol. 3795 Sir. 0», vol. xvi, fols. 38-39; vol. XXX, fols. 67-70. » Ibid., Sir. B, vol. Iv, fol. 148.
* Ibid., vol. Iviii, fol. 14; Sir. 0», vol. xvi, fols. 33-39.
* Ibid., Sir. C^*, vol. xxiv, fols. 136-138.
» A., B. N., Fr., vol. H336, fols. io6, 171. • Ibid., fols. 193-194.
T A. N., C, Sir. C", vol. xl, fols. 62-63.
* Ibid., Sir. B, voL Ix, fol. 106.
pilots. Where there was more than one, the first received fifty Hvres a month and the second forty.^ There were also special pilots kept by the crown at the Balise.^ A pilot of this sort received from the captain of the ship ten livres a hundred tons to bring the vessel in and take it out.' Three years later, owing to a scarcity at the Balise, the crown was asked to send out two smart young men as pilots for the post. An officer on one of the royal ships was found to answer the qualifications, and he was secured at 800 livres a year. Later another pilot who had been commander of a " bateau " on the coast of St. Domingue, was obtained for 600 livres.*
The number of the crew varied necessarily with the size of the boat and the nature of the cargo. The " flute ", for example, carried a crew of from 120 to 140 men and a food supply sufficient for seven or eight months."
Regarding the time required for a voyage from France to Louisiana, forty-six days was considered a quick trip to Cape Frangais ' and another forty-six days to reach New Orleans.^ It was not uncommon, however, for a passage to take three to four months.* When in Louisiana the vessels remained for a length of time varying anywhere from a few weeks to a year or more.
1 A. N., C, Ser. 0», vol. iii, fols. 287-309.
2 Supra, p. 27.
* A. N., C, Sir. Ci3, vol. xiv, fols. 142-143.
* Ihid., vol, XX, fols. 57-60.
* Ibid., Ser. B, vol. xlix, fol. 119.
* Ibid., Sir. C^^, vol. xiii, fols. 104-105, 204. " Ibid., vol. iv, fol. 847.
'^ A.,B. A. £., Am., vol. i, fol. 84.
CHAPTER VI Highways
When the French entered the Mississippi valley they found two sorts of highways fairly well marked out. One was the g^eat migratory and local routes of the buffalo, the other the Indian trails. When these highways were called into existence by different causes the former were distinct from the latter, but when created by a desire to satisfy similar needs they were sometimes, in whole or in part, identical.^ For example, the buffaloes and Indians entered the Mississippi valley through Cumberland Gap and continued for some distance into the interior over the same road. The highway then divided, the Indian trail leading on to the falls of the Ohio, and the buffalo path to Otter Creek, past the place where later Booneborough was located.' In places where the paths were in no way connected they were at times indifferently used by both the Indians and buffaloes. In 1750, when passing over an Indian thoroughfare, a traveler writes, " we met so impudent a Bull Buffalo that we were obliged to shoot him or he would have been among us ".'
The buffalo paths were the routes the animals took in
* Filson Club Publications, vol. xiii, pp. 44-Si; /w. Rel., vol. lix, p. "5-
'Filson Club Pub., vol. ii, map; vol. xiii. pp. 47, 50; Hulbert, Historic Highways of America, vol. i, p. 113; Boone's Autobiography, in Hartley, Life of Daniel Boone, App.
• Filson Club Pub., vol. xiii, p. 70.
going from one to another of the great prairies, or in going from the pastures to the drinking places or salt-licks. Year after year the herds passed over the same path, which was always an astonishingly direct line between the two places. En route they followed one another mile after mile and at night lay down close together to rest. As would be expected, the paths were worn deep, and the earth was packed so hard that no vegetation ever grew upon them. Even upon the resting places only purslain grew.^ The buffalo "trace", as it was called by the pioneer, was spacious enough for two wagons to go abreast " and where the buffaloes " had thundered over it for a thousand years in their journey to the Salt Licks " it was in places five or six feet deep. Even the cross-country roads made by these animals were wider than ordinary public highways are today.^ The Illinois prairies were covered with a tall, rank grass which made it difficult to go across country without being constantly in danger of losing the way. The multitude of beaten buffalo paths made over it, however, in whole or part, eliminated this danger. Moreover, they took the traveler across the prairies " and through dense forests, impenetrable from heavy canes, pea vines and other undergrowth", over a much more direct route than he could possibly map out for himself.*
The buffalo paths in the eastern part of the Mississippi valley, like the rivers in that area, served as English rather than French roads. Here they not only pointed out to the
* Hennepin, A New Discovery, etc., vol. i, p. 148; Hall, p. no; Hul-bert, vol. i, pp. 101-120.
^ Butler, A History of the Commonwealth of Kentucky, App., p. 462. '* Filson Club Pub., vol. xii, p. 75; vol. xiii, p. 170.
* Ibid., vol. xiii, pp. 184-185; Zeisberger, Diary of David Zeisberger etc., in Hist, and Phil. Soc. of Ohio, New Ser., vol. i, pp. 17-19; Jef-ferys, pt. i, Louisiana, p. 136.
.84 THE COMMERCE OF LOUISIANA [g^
English trader the way over the mountains but also directed his course across the country. One of these men writes: " We traveled to Rocky Ridge (Clinch Mountain). I went up to the top to look for a Pass. . . . To the Eastward were many small Mountains and a Buffalo Road between them and the Ridges ... a large Buffalo Road goes from the Forks to the Creek over the West Ridge, which we took and found the Ascent and Descent tolerably easie ".* In all probability, other passes through the mountains were discovered in similar fashion.* The buffalo roads to the west of the Mississippi, too, aided the pioneer in his advance westward. Thomas Benton at a later date says the " buffalo blazed the way for the railways to the Pacific ".'
Indian trails, though much less well-defined, were far more numerous than the paths of the buffalo. The Indians had paths for trade, hunting and war, and others that led only from the camp down to the river. Marquette and his companions, at sixty leagues from the mouth of the Wisconsin river, saw the footprints of men, and on further search they found a well-beaten path. This they followed and came to a beautiful prairie and an Indian village two leagues inland.* There were still other trails that followed the general course of the streams. When the path lay near the water it often passed through marshes, swamps and thickets where it was almost obliterated by weeds, briars and bushes. In other places, because of the mean-derings of the river, the "trace" near the water's edge was abandoned as is shown in the following quotation: " We kept down the Creek to the River along the Indian Road to
' FilsoH Club Pub., vol. xiii, pp. 44-47.
• Hulbert, vol. i, pp. 133, 138. » Ibid., p. 137.
* Jes. Rei, vol. lix, p. 115.
where it crosses. . . . After riding five miles, ... we left the River, it being very crooked. In riding three miles we came on it again. . . . We left the River but in four miles we came on it again at the Mouth of Licking Creek, which we went up and down another ".^ In flood times the path near the water had to be given up entirely. The trail over the hills lying along, but at some distance from the river, necessitated some hard climbing; an instance is given where a horse " stumbled and rolled down the hill like a wheel ".*
Leading out from the Indian villages and passing around them through the surrounding country there were well-beaten hunting paths.* Where the hunting grounds were remote from the camp the journey thither more frequently was made by the water routes. Many of the shorter trails as well as the longer ones led from one Indian nation to another. The longer were variously used according to the relations existing between the peoples concerned. Trails between the Illinois and Fox in the Illinois country, and the Chickasaw and Choctax in lower Louisiana, were for the most part war paths, and for that reason of use to the French also.*
In the Illinois country, as in other parts of the valley, there were places where, from time to time, the Indians congregated for the purpose of securing food or for trading with one another; the most important of these being at what are now Shawneetown, Peoria and Danville, at Fort St. Louis on the upper Illinois, at the present Rock Island, and at the mouth of the Chicago river. The
* Filson Club Pub., vol. xiii, pp. 50-51; Zeisberger, vol. i, pp. 17-19. 2 Journal of Captain Post, in The Olden Times, vol. i, pp. 150, 152.
* Jes. Rel., vol. Ixiii, p. 169.
* Adair, The History of the American Indians, pp. 295, 298, 302, 305, 310, 326, 338, 356, 357; A. N., C, Sir. C^*, vol. i, fol. 159.
Indians, as they went single file in every direction to and from these centers, wore deep narrow paths that were easily discernible and therefore were utilized by Europeans who, by uniting them, in some cases formed inter-colonial trails. From 1706 onward there was such a path between Kaskaskia and Detroit. It ran almost directly northeast from the former village across the present state of Illinois to Danville, avoiding on the way all the larger streams. On this part of the route the French followed such highways as were available through the high prairie land, while for the remainder of the distance they more frequently made use of the Indian xiver paths. Another of these " traces ", known as the " Old Sauk Trail ", passed from the mouth of the Rock river almost, directly east across Illinois where it turned northeast and finally terminated at Maiden, Canada.^
Other Indian trails passed from the French settlements on the Kaskaskia and Mississippi rivers to other points in the Illinois country. One extended from Kaskaskia by a somewhat indirect route to Fort Massac on the Ohio. This trail, before the end of French control in the Mississippi valley, was converted into a military road and each mile marked on a tree by the side of the path, the numbers being cut in with an iron and then painted red.* Another path went from the same French villages north of east to a point on the Wabash river near the place where Fort Vincennes was afterwards located. Later it was extended to the Falls of the Ohio where it joined the " Wilderness Trail". From Kaskaskia to the Wabash, a
1 Parrish, Historic Illinois, eU., pp. 121, 123; Bossu, vol. i, p. 159; /oi/r. ///. 5"/. Hist. Soc, vol. iv, No. 2, pp. 157-X63, 212-222.
« Traus. III. St. Hist. Soc, No. 8, p. 39.
distance of 105 miles, a horseman could pass in five days. Not during the French period, nor for many years afterward, was it possible to traverse this route with a cart/ Still another of these trails passed from Kaskaskia. This one, by way of Cahokia, led to Peoria and from there to the lead regions near the present city of Galena, Illinois. Along this route pack-horses carried lead from the Fever river mines to Kaskaskia, a distance of " thirty leagues." There was also a road fit for horses and carts from the mines to a small river where the lead could be loaded on pirogues of light draught and sent to Kaskaskia by water.^ The Indians to the south of the Ohio river also had trade, hunting and war paths. Iberville, in 1702, found some good bridle trails, that he said could easily be made into roads fit for carts, between the different Indian villages around Mobile.^ The Creek Indians were provided similarly. Their villages were favorably located for trade with the English, and on this account trails led out from the Creek country both to the Indian villages farther into the interior and to the English at Fort Moore and Augusta. The " High Town Path " began at High Shoals on the Oconee river and passed westward to the Chattahoochee river, which it crossed at Shallow Ford north of the present city of Atlanta. It then turned to the northeast and went to High Town in the Cherokee country, and from there almost west to the Chickasaw villages near the source of the Tombigbee river. Another trail began on the same river near the modern city of Milledgeville, ran southwest to the Chattahoochee, which it crossed near Cussets and from there
* Parrish, p. 124; Early Western Travels, vol. i, pp. 143-153; CoUot, vol. i, p. 337.
2 Parrish, pp. 121, 124; Bossu, vol. i, p. 187; Reps, and Colls. St. Hist. Soc. Wis., vol. xiii, p. 277; A. N., C, Ser. C^^, vol. xxvi, fols. 11-12.
" Margry, vol. iv, p. 514.
gg THE COMMERCE OF LOUISIANA [gg
the path led north of west to the Coosa river. This river it crossed and followed along its left bank to the Coosa Towns. There was also a Creek trail into the interior between these two, and another from the lower Creeks farther to the south.^ This latter path extended south of west to the Alabama and Tombigbee rivers to the Choctaw, with a southern branch which in turn divided, one trail going to Mobile, the other to Pensacola. From Fort Toulouse the path followed the high lands at some distance from the river.' From St. Louis Bay on the Gulf there was an Indian path that zigzagged from one of the Indian villages to another and terminated at the village of the Choctaw chieftain.* The Choctaw also had three trails, western,! middle and eastern, that led to Mobile.* Between the friendly Natchez and Chickasaw there was a well-defined " trace " which was used in 1742 by Deverges, " ingenieur " for the colony of Louisiana, who that year made a journey to the Chickasaw.'
Trips of this sort usually were not made by land because of the danger from Indian attacks and the morasses and thick forests that had to be traveled. There was always more or less difficulty, also, in procuring food. The trail had to be passed over on foot, and even if game were found, it was not of much service when a man could carry only a small supply of ammunition. The Indians, on the other hand, were much better walkers than the French, and
* Winsor, The Miss. Basin, pp. 20-21, 47, 383; Bartram, Travels through North and South Carolina, etc., pp. 346, 374, 419; Trans. Ala. Hist. Soc, vol. ii, pp. 40-46.
• Trans. Ala. Hist. Soc, vol. ii, pp. 40-47; Catholic Death Register, MS., Mobile, Ala.
• D'Anville's Map. 1752, N. Y. P. Ub.
* Adair, p. 298.
» A. N., C, Sir. Ci«, vol. xxvii, fols. 145-146.
thought little of going for a considerable length of lime without food/
During the French control of the Mississippi valley many of the Indian and bufifalo ''traces" became trade trails. Along these paths long trains of pack-horses were driven in regular Indian file, the veterans in the van, the free horses, driven along to relieve the worn-out ones, in the rear. After the order of march for the day was arranged, the chief driver cracked his tough cowhide whip and gave an Indian whoop, both of which were repeated by the other drivers, and at once the train set off at a brisk trot which was not slackened as long as the horses were able to move forward. Each animal wore a bell which, at the start, was muffled by means of a twist of grass or leaves. It soon shook out. Nothing further being done to stop the noise which was increased by the Indian whoops and curses of the drivers, the day was filled with a continuous uproar. When two of the horse-trains met on the trail they saluted each other several times with a general whoop and other shouts of friendship; then they struck camp near each other. Due to their well-known preference for waterways. Frenchmen seldom made use of such pack-trains. They were in the main an English device for carrying on illicit trade in Louisiana east of the Mississippi.*
Many of the Indians carried on their backs over these trails packs of skins to the English or French markets, and, as was the case in most things, the Europeans followed the example set them by the natives. Two or three of such English pack-peddlers at a time would skulk ** Arab like " about an Indian village, while in the winter season they carried their packs of "spirituous liquor and cheating trifles
* The Present State of the Country, 1744, p. 8.
• Bartram, p. 442; Collot, vol. ii, p. 299,
after the Indian hunting camp ".^ The methods of the French pack-peddlers were not different, except that they carried their packs on their backs where they were held in place by a strap resting against the forehead.*
In crossing the streams the travelers attempted, with more or less success, to imitate the methods of the Indians. A tree was cut down so as to fall across a river and thus be used as a bridge; in crossing smaller streams saplings were employed in the same way. An Indian could pass easily and quickly over a " raccoon bridge ", as it was called, with a hundred pounds of skins on his shoulder, while Europeans sometimes found it hard, even without luggage, to shuffle along over it astride.* When possible they forded the streams with horses, but when this could not be done with safety to the packs, the horses were unloaded and driven across. The men then stripped themselves and waded the river, breast deep, carrying on their shoulders their belongings in order to keep them dry. One man says it took four crossings to transfer their baggage to the opposite bank. If the stream was too deep and wide for any of these methods, a bark canoe or raft was hastily constructed for the purpose. If the raft was used, when completed, a strong grape vine the length of the width of*the river was tied to each end of the raft. A man took the end of one of the vines in his mouth and swam to the opposite shore. By means of the vine he then pulled the loaded raft across the river while a man on the other bank steadied it by means of the other vine, and when it was unloaded pulled it back to be reloaded.* Notwith-
' Adair, p. 367.
' Pittman, p. 102; A.. B. N., Fr., vol. 12224, fols. 142-145.
' Bartram, p. 445.
* Ibid., pp. 444-445; Filson Club Pub., vol. xiii, pp. 47, 52. 73.
standing the difficulties to be encountered in traveling, some of these European wayfarers, as early as 1715, were courageous enough to go across country unaided by either paths or Indian guides/
Later when the Mississippi valley fell under the control of the English some of the Indian trails became well-known roads. For example, the trail through Cumberland Gap to the Falls of the Ohio came to be known as the " Wilderness Road ". Over this route and numerous by-paths pack-horses and travelers passed to all parts of the territory along the Ohio, Tennessee and Cumberland rivers.^ To the west of the Mississippi the route followed by the Mallet brothers and their companions (1739-1740) in going from the Illinois country to Santa Fe, although not used as a highway by the French, later became the famous " Santa Fe Trail ".'
In the settled areas of the Mississippi valley the French made some efforts in the direction of road building. At first they worked in accord with a French law of 1669 that regulated such matters in the mother country, and as settlements were made along the Mississippi, levees and roads were built.* For a time each year the Mississippi floods interrupted the communication between the Illinois country and the Gulf settlements. In 1720 the Company of the Indies advised the " ordonnateur " and the commandant to work together to obviate this difficulty. It was proposed, therefore, to establish and keep in good order a series of post-roads between the two areas which would make it possible to forward letters and messages without delay. Two messengers were to leave Biloxi monthly for the Illinois and
^ Year Book, City of Charleston, 1894, PP- 350-35I.
* Speed, The Wilderness Road, in Filson Club Pub., vol. ii, pp. 1-74.
* Margry, vol. vi, pp. 455-492.
* American State Papers, Public Lands, vol. ii, pp. 42-65.
g2 THE COMMERCE OF LOUISIANA [92
vice versa. The proposal was not acted upon and no such route was ever established/ Later in the period of French rule, however, there appears to have been a path without posts, along which the men towing boats traveled up and down the Mississippi.''
In 1732 Governor Perier and the " ordonnateur " issued an ordinance which changed the old road law to make it fit conditions in Louisiana. To this end they decreed that men owing land along the Mississippi river must make a clearing along the river front to the depth of three arpents (sixty-six feet). At eight toise (forty-eight feet) from the water and an arpent apart (twenty-two feet) they were to plant a twelve-foot green oak or cypress post, eight feet under ground, with the part above ground not less than four feet in circumference. These posts were for the convenience of vessels that might make landings there. The owners of the land also were to build and keep in repair a levee six feet wide and not less than two feet high near the water's edge. Upon the levee there was to be a foot and bridle path and on the land side of the levee from the capital to Gentilly and Bayou St. Jean a wagon-road eight toise (forty-eight feet) wide. The men owning land contiguous to the road were to keep it and its bridges in repair. Each was to have his part of the work completed within six months after the publication of the ordinance, or be liable to a fine of fifty livres. The burden to the land owners was not great since only the part referring to the levees was enforced.*
In 1735 an ordinance was enacted making it illegal fbr any one to place obstructions upon these highways.* Nature,
• Margry, vol. v, pp. 624-625.
» Hall, p. 221; Farly Western Travels, vol. xxiv, pp. 60-61.
• A. N., C, Sir. A, vol. xxiii, October 4, 1732.
• Ibid., April 3, 1735.
however, was not included under this ordinance, and during the rainy season all burdens had to be carried over the roads on the heads of negroes.^ In 1743 it again became necessary to pass an ordinance for the building of new and the repairing of old roads. In the main it differed little from those already enacted.^ In 1749 still another ordinance was issued. This bade the colonists keep the levees, bridges and roads throughout the province in repair.^ With the growth of settlements above and below New Orleans the levee was extended and by the end of French control there was a good coach road along the river fifty miles in length, eighteen miles of which was below New Orleans. When the vessels were detained for a considerable length of time at the " English Turn " waiting a change of wind, passengers wishing to hasten their arrival at New Orleans disembarked here and finished the journey by land.* By this time, furthermore, many semi-public roads had been built. These highways ran back from the river and lay between the different allotments of land. They were laid out, constructed and kept up at the expense of the men whose land lay on either side and by such persons who derived benefit from them. They were narrower than the public highways, though built in the same way with a ditch on either side of the road itself."
In the village of New Orleans the streets were laid out in much the same way as the highways outside. On either side there was a ditch two feet wide and one to one and a half feet in depth, so as to render the streets passable for
* Ibid., Ser. C^^, vol. xxii, fols. 11-16.
* Ibid., Ser. A, vol. xxiii, October 13, 1743.
' Ibid., Ser. F^, vol. ccxliii, M. S. S. M., October 13, 1749.
* Pittman, p. 41; Hutchins, p. 412; Le Page du Pratz, vol. ii, p. 259. » A., B. N., Joly Coll., vol. 1726, fol. 230.
carriages or even for foot passengers. Up to 1732 the bridges over these ditches had been made of wood. As they had always entailed a considerable annual expense for repairs, it was proposed that, for the health and convenience of the people, all such bridges within the villages should be built of brick, since no lumber, in contact with the ground and subjected to the damp climate of New Orleans, would last above a year or two at most. Many of the inhabitants were too poor to bear this expense, if it were to be borne by the householders alone; therefore it was planned to secure a part of the money, at least, from a tax of five sols a head on all negroes. One hundred and sixteen bridges, at an expense for two at each corner of 105 livres and nineteen sols, would be needed. If the water were made to run in such a way as to require but one bridge, this could be built at a cost of fifty-eight livres, twelve sols. The commissioner of public works, Dubreuil, offered to furnish the brick necessary, at nine livres a thousand, taking in payment a note payable in three years. ^ The home government seems to have approved the plan, for on July 4, 1735, an ordinance was passed making it obligatory for the inhabitants of New Orleans to build bridges or suffer a penalty of ten livres for disobedience. The ordinance, however, was not faithfully executed.^
Roads were constructed in the Illinois country also. In 1743 Governor Vaudreuil ordered roads at the so-called " square lines " to be built and kept up for carts and cattle to pass over to the " common ". The highways to the Kas-kaskia river and thence to the Mississippi were maintained at the expense of the community, whereas those to the
» A. N., C. Sir. C18, vol. xiv, fol. 136. " Ibid., Sir. A, vol. xxiii, July 4. I73S-
CARTE DES ENVIRONS DE LA NOUVELLE-ORLEANS, I760 '
CARTE DES ENVIRONS DE LA FORTE ROSALIE
Red Lines indicate
Roads
Scjuares size of
Farms
^ Villiers du Terrage, p. 129. * Dumont, vol. ii, p. 96.
" common " were to be looked after by the owners of the land through which they passed/ A road led from Kas-kaskia to the other French settlements of the Illinois country. * It extended over a distance of fourteen leagues to the village of Prairie du Rocher, passed through it and ran twelve miles farther on to Fort Chartres. From here to St. Philippe it was eight miles, and a day's journey to Caho-kia.^ West of the Mississippi, in the St. Genevieve district, pack-horse roads stretched from the mines to the nearest river, or to St. Genevieve. These trails varied in length from six miles to a hundred.^ A much-frequented road led from St. Genevieve to the salt-licks one league from the village.* In the Natchitoches district also there was a road seven leagues in length and extending to the Spanish settlement of Adayes. This highway and a portage around the falls below the village constituted the only roads in this area during the period of French occupation.^
In the Illinois country small native horses drew over the road a two-wheeled " bare-footed" cart (i. e., without tires). To these carts by means of harness neatly made from strong pieces of rawhide, the horses were hitched tandem. Although small, they were strong and willing workers, and consequently pulled fairly large burdens. For the heavier loads oxen, yoked by the horns, were hitched to the carts.^