The Montgomery advertiser., 1902-04-06

minlstered to their bodily as well as spir- it,,ai ills, He moved to Fort Louis ao. ufnistercd the first baptism ana was tHe' ,1 to lnstsl the regular pastor, ,-entrfes ol Sa U of which are still in the VenesaolS Sa o,S fort he inspired the living. comforted tne sick, prepared the dying, going his rounas like Father Pelican iE Evangenhe' aeasI. devoted to duty; ne IS ,she nhsd hed |, pc of what the French Church fnrnisheo this country in pioneer days.
 Although young, Louisiana had for eig,l policy. so to speak, and 1t is pleas as,ter nerhaps to trace the growth or us ,sterDal relations than to think or It's domestic mishsps. For noblesse oblige, empire imposes duties. as Americans are even now realizing. The settlement was harbor on the Gulf. in the angle between Massacre (Dauphine) and Pelican Islands and so the object of the colony was two fold. The first, commercial, was 10 De carried out in developing trade with the Indians and Spaniards. and in shipping to France the product of the land whether timber. peltrtes or minerals. Mines were the iEnis fatuus of explorers. The span ish gaIleons from Mexico and Peru had for oyer a century been taking to Europe fhe gold and silver which made Spain the foremost country of the world. Charles ". and Philip II. would have been i'm possibie without the New World behind them. And now the French sought gold where even DeSoto had missed it. No story was too strange, no glib adyenturer Incredible. Mathieu Sageen told of the Kingdom of Acaniba, where gold was snore plentiful than in Peru, and women so numerous that the King changed wives every day. Such romances are laughalolc now, but they were then believed and by snfiamanS the imagination retarded legft- Innate growth. .''.''' '''- '''''
 The second object ;n colonization was bc be found on the military side The i crisinal enrnity to Spain had been checked by the ascent of A French prince | 10 that throne, for Louis could exclaim ir'there are no longer any Pyrenees!' But the hatred to England only grew with time, and one of Iberv1lle's dearest dreams was to ally all the Indian tribes with the object of driving back into the Atlantic the English coaonists.
 Whether it was to be military or com ,nercial. the country must be mapped, and much of the exploration was done from Fort Louis and Dauphine Island Ihe Mississippi, the Missouri the. Red and Arkansas rivers, the Gulf Coasts. the Mobile aud Alabama rivers. were all ex- plored while Mobile was the chief settle snent, and there was placed In Texas the west boundary pillar of Louisiana, as the east ern was towards Pensacola
 The search for mines was not Temuner- ative. but exploration and the founding of posts. made from Mobile on the one side or the other, extended geographical knowledge, increased French infiuencs among tho Indians, and brought a large commerce. Thus arose Natchez and Nat Chitochea to the west, Fort Toulourse, near Wetdmpka, Fort Chartres in the Illinois and greatest of alll daughters of Mobile New Orleans. which intimately succeeded the mother as the metropolis. It was all Canada could do to keep the beaver trade In fact. at first Canada was jealous oi Louisiana. aud there was long rivalry aE to the growth of Detroit and Mobile both founded by the French almost in the same year.
 Towards the northeast the neghbors were different. The English were there and by those wonderful men. the traders were selling goods to the Indians even or the Mississippi. These traders deserve q special place ill history. They were tho advance guard of AngloASaXon ciViliZa- tion. and, though fewer in number thar the French wood rangers. had greater and most lasting influence. Their names and residences are largely lost and only through his book is William Adair ar exception. To them was due the hxeC hostility of the Chickasaws to the French all in time they even weakened th' Choctaw alliance. Cheaper trade mus prevail in the long run whether in colo n!st Am, Ticd in the eight eanth century or the world markets of the twentieth ard to the competition between the trad T.s and the wood rangers was largely dut the settling of the question whether Amer ica should be English or French. The French. in 17l4. built Fort Toulouse in the neck of land between the COosa and Tal lapoosa rivers to threaten the Englisl and control the trade mp to that time fin English hands. They partly succeeded although for d while the British main. 1ained Fort Okfuskee. not lar away. anC Teopened the trade overland through tho rough country of North Alabama. Tn, section in which Auburn lies was in par the seat of this commercial war. and Au hu~n graduates have a thrilling story and an unworked field in Southerp his 1u.N Ii they Nill work up the lives anc works of the early British traders in thu Creek nations. More than is general, appreciated will this throw light on ar obscure part of the history of the lanc we love as Alabama.