Baton-Rouge gazette. [volume] (Baton-Rouge, La.) 1819-1856, 1842-04-23
(From he Natches Free 1'rader.)
N~ATCHITOCHES.

Since the pecuniaty reverses and Distress
in Missiseippi, occasinped by the credit, bank.
ing and bonding system, and by the derange.
tnent Of all parties and ~einsees on these sub,
iecta, the owl of N~atei,itoehes has acquired
much notoriety. as the point that most unior.
iunate debtors seek in their fight from home
and freside, to a land Of strangers. If the
story of many that hurry through its streets
could be told, how heays-rending would be the
details! What picissitudes !, What disap.
pointments! What dreams of happiness bro
ken up and by the monster. DEBT. Where
could the philosopher OF novelist find a better
position than in its venerable streets, witness.
ing, day by day, trains Of fugitiyes, az melan-
choly AZ funeral proeessions /! But it ia not
we intend to speak.
Sr. Denis, a follower Of Crosat, passed from
the French colony Of Mobile, TO the Rio
Grande, in l7l2. Ills apparent object was to
open a traffic with the people Of New Spain.
but his real design war TO expioEe the Spap-
ish territories and extend the French doIpin-
ions therein. 81. Denis aettled several
Frenehmen ut the point where Na,ehitoches
now standa, which was then the chief town of
the Natchitoos Indians. In l7l7, the Cover.
nor of Mobile sent a Captain, with a band Of
soldiers, 10 garrison the place. As soon as
the Vlceroy OF Mexico, tho Duke de Linares,
heard of these movements, hs despatched
troops and missionaries into Texas and on
the 2lst May. l7l7, Alonzo de Leon notified
him, that he had constructed a fort called San
MigGel de los Adaes, within five leagues of
the French post. Wherever a Frcnchman
settled, a Spaniard immediately followed.
The jealousy Of the Spanish government is
strongly illustrated by an incident that oc-
cured in l742. The old fort at Natchitoches
stood on the bank Of the river. 1t was mum
dated and endangered by the greatest flood
ever known there, before or since. The
French commandant obtained leave from Don
Manuel de Sandoval. the Spanish Governor
of Adaes, to move it a musket shot farther
back. The Viceroy Of Mexico, disappearing
of this concession, though granted under such
peculiar circumstances, despatched Col. de
Brito to Adaes, to supersede Sandoval, and to
send him under guard to Mexico, where he
was court martialed and dismissed the service.
The Spanish Governor afterwards received
orders to drive the French both from Natchi-
toches and Natchez, and advanced with his
forces to execute the order but the French
co%mmandant at the former place, either by
bribery or by that .adroit diplomacy for which
his nation is distinguished, induced the Go
vernon to suspend his march until the two
courts could be heard from, and in the interim
to consider the Ayroya Kondo, midway be-
tween Natehitoches and Adaes, as the line of
demarcation, and SO it remained until 1862,
when Louisiana was coded to Spain, by whom
it was re-ceded to France some years after
wards, and as our readers know, sola by b.
naparte to the United States.
The mission Of Adaes grew TO be a village
of considerable Importance, having a popula-
ton made up of veterans from old Spain, Mex-
icans, and the mongrel race of Indian and Al
rican blood, which constituted SO peculiar a
featsse of the settlements made by the French
and Spanlards on this continent. In 1906, it
was visited by the Bishop OF the new Kingdom
of Leon, Don Feliciano Mario, who eeiebra-
ted high mass, christsned two hundred chill
dren, and consec -ated a graveyard. But the
has now almost disappeared, and scarce
iy supports. a solitary priest. Three years
ago, however, the struggling village could
still boast some bright-eyed senoras, with Just
enough of Castilian blood 10 give that hauteur
of manner, which on very, rery beautiful wo-
men, sits gracefully en~ough-and few Spanish
ladies are not beautiful