The Montgomery advertiser., 1902-01-26

nao almost as iong been claimed for which had now given the LeMoyne broth. CTS as her best return to the mother country: To the south were older colo Mexico and Peru. the outgrowth of Spanish exploration. and Florida, just opened for Spain. For Columbus had stumbled on new world while trying other than the Mediterranean trade route. which, after creating Venice, Genoa and other ports. was. with the capture of Constantinople, closed by the Ottoman ed. entered on the race for new posses sions, supposed to contain mines, foun- ,, tains of youth and other attractions. The French La Sale. under the patronage of the great Minister Colbert. had from C1nNa discovered the mouth Of the Mississippi River and taken possession of the great interior, naming 1t all Louis- jana; but before it could be settled there had come his tragic end, and the Eu- ropeean wars of ambition which Colbert had vainly tried to prevent. But the peace Of Ryswick between France and Louis XIV. had at last taken up the colonization of the country named for him. France now sent the famous sailor. settling the Mississir,i Valley, a ter ritorv which mieht be hinterland to the Atlantic colonies. or. according to European precedent. become separate
 
 Sale and Iberville planned, Canada fac- ing the Atlantic and Louisiana fronting the gulf united by the lakes and the
 Mississippi should constitute one vast | empire. new France. worthy even of the greatest sovereign of his age. The
 Mississippi banks proved marshy and umnhabitable. tho temporary expedient
 of Biloxi Mississippi City) showed un-
 1berville had on his third voyage from
 a sick bed on ship, sent his younger
 brother. Jean Baptiste Sieur de Bienvile.
 to build the capital of the colony here.
 sixteen leagues from Massacre tour | Dauphine). Island, at the second bluff." | near the great Indian tribes. the Span
 iards and the English of Carolina. If
 1berville was the head. Bienville was the
 hand of the enterprise, and when, later. | the elder came to see how the work progressed, he was fully satisfied. Be- | sides the establishment, he found under construction the first vessel built on our
 coast and himself took back to his road l stead at the island mast from these tall pines
 Time. like distance, lends enchantment | We are apt to remember in the scenes | of our childhood the joys and forget the sorrows which for the time were so keen | We think of the days of the fathers as are apt to imagine Iberville Bienville. | D'Artaguette, Vaudeville and others, | whose names are so familiar in the CO., lonial story, as living harmoniously to- getner even amid scenes of danger, some | times distressed, but always working out a grand future for the colony. But this | Is dream. The settlement here in 17o2 was made of men of like passions with | ourselves. The Governor was often
 changed-sometimes 1t was Bienville
 sometimes Cadillac, and later others; | and when it was not Bienville, his friends | were dissatisfied: when 1t was, his ene- | mics sulked worse. The priests com
 plained of the lax morals of the colo
 nists. and particularly of the numerous .~fN T lAt-a .t.1<. z the Indians in every way. The commits | sary-intendent was almost at odds with
 the Governor. and in fact it was intend-
 cd that one should be check on the
 other. The result was that, instead of
 a responsible head, authority was divid-
 ed and here. just as in Canada, the re- | suit was disastrous The principal unity
 in the long story of dissension is found ! in the fact that one man lived through
 almost the whole time, working for tie
 general good. That man was Bienville
 He was not perfect. He would have be-
 longed in some other place than Mobile
 if he had been. But his great ambition
 was to advance the interest of France.
 He was a. firm ruler. good general and
 diplomat, as willy and implacable as the
 savages with whom he contended. lber-
 vile had founded the colony and his
 influence at court would have done. much
 for it. but he died at Havana In lIO6
 to be thought of as the father of Louis
 iana. The best proof of his success Is
 to look at Louisiana as It was founded,
 and at Louisiana as he left it in 1743,
 remembering that the colony. except for
 a brief few years under John Law, was
 left almost to it's own resources. Louis
 XIV. was forced to let his namesake
 take care of itself. Fort Louis was
 founded at the same time that the war | of the Spanish succession began. and in
 the sad years that soon came. his
 grandson remained King of Spain. but
 the generals of Louis lost battle after l hat fn Mn nrlh oh Yn | til all that was left for France was
 to secure the best peace her foes would l grant. This came in l713 at Utrecht. and | by that time Louisiana had become es- i tablished well enough to justify turning | 1t over to private enterprise first to I Crozat and afterwards to John Law and
 his company; If these circumstances l prevent our blaming the King. they re- | fleet all the more honor on Bienville.
 The Local Annals of This Place
 | cannot be here detailed, and at best they
 were not thrilling. Despite such efforts | as the home government could make.
 agriculture was neglected. We know | that cotton has made this section of | America. Here pass steamboats carrying | hundreds of bales at once, and the very site of Fort Louis was lately a cotton | field The staple had long been known | in Mexico. but 1t never occurred to the | French to introduce it. Living on these | same lands they raised nothing but little | pdlCHSS VI NesetdDleS. mere were few sawmills and brick kilns. also me- l chanics, carpenters, and the like. The | first Creole, born in October, 170i was a | son of the locksmith of the colony One | reason for the neglect of agriculture was | perhaps the lack of laborers The French ] early had Indian slaves. but these made | noor farmers. It was not until 1707 that negro is mentioned, and it was years later under Law. a half century after the English colonies began. to be system- | aucally supplied by royal corporations | that slaves were brought in quantity ! from Africa to Mobile. The colonists who were not in the fort spent their time 1 and exploring for mines. Their very | food was brought from France or pur- chased from the Choctaws. and colonial
 annals record a number of dispersals of | the bulk of the garrison among the | friendly savaRes. A modern poet has | even suggested that the French taste l for frog legs was acquired in the famines
 here at Fort Louis and certain it is the | removal from this site to present Mobile 1 in 111 was due to a flood which ruined
 the maize fields of the Moblians and | Tohomes.
 True the king and later the company, l sent supplies and endorsements from | or store ship Pelican in the summer | of 17O4, the disastrous year of Blenhcim | was memorable. For one thing by her | came the first instalment of women | twe1tv-three in number an unqualified | blessing. For a little while the river l bank and the woods looked like picnic l grounds. There were more couples wan l ing on than ever before or since. Soon | all were married except one unusually i coy and hard to please, who would &C., ] cept no man in the colony. History has