The Montgomery advertiser., 1909-02-14

" 4v1tssh4 ctfVnf k&F ueSt41s sum he was to have charge cf the col. Iony. minister fts affaixs. reap its profiti whiie for the sum he paid the Govern.
 ment. France was to maintain an ade.
 quate force of men and arms for tht protection of the colony and its bust. | ness. To better cafry. out hts plans
 Crozat denoted Bisnville to | issssI position and named Cadillac Governor
 of the province. To Mobile with fresh
 supplies and new men. cadiilSc came
 bringing his commission. hts new ideas and the reduction of Bienvflis, who had labored so we'll and faithfully. BIen- vile patiently accepted the new order and that 1t failed was no fault of hi.
 nor was he responsible when Croxat threw up his contract as q bad job,
 and told the Government to take bach the colony out of which he was mak- While crozat was operating the col ony and while Cadillac was It's Gov ernor, Fort Toulouse was founded. Cro- zat wanted trade more than he wanted power. and fort up the liver offered new opportunities for trade. And. SC
 this foct-print of history which we
 are studying. was made.
 We may look upon the old cannon
 tn the Department of Archives and
 History as the largest and best of the
 souvenirs Of Fort Toulouse. 1t was one of the eight that was brought slowly
 up the Alabama River against the cur-
 rent, and we may recall that day late
 In the spring of f7I4, when the band of French soldiers with arms and
 munitions. slowly polisd their boats
 past the bluffs on which the modern
 city Of Montgomery now stands. They
 were near their joprney's end, and there
 was no prophetic soul among whom to
 mark out the site of the future city
 ad Capital Of Alabama, and to fore east that time in which their work
 would be without reward, ther enter
 prise without enduring achievement,
 and the very spot on which they buiit Tor the glory of France become only memory and a repository of tradi-
 I love to think pf Picketts dsserip-
 tion of the landing of the fort build Ing party. the finding of the path from beyond the bluff on the coosa aide, the march Of the Jesuit priest at the head of the party, bearing aloft the cross Of his church, while behind him came the captain and the msn-at-aruns, and we may well believe that on this Alabama bun the priest halted ana dedicated the ground to God. to the church. and 10 the glory of France.
 Authority on the Fore
 But the true authority on the fort fs not Pickett. but . Mobilian of today. Honorable Peter ]. Hamil- ton has in his "CoIoniai Mobile" said the last word not only on the history of Mobile. but on the history of Fort Toulouse and all that pertained to the
 French and their work in the Gulf States Hamilton has shown with more than chapter of his Colonial Mobile how great an endeavor the building Of the fort was, and he has shown, too fram the ancient French records. over which he pored with SO much care and enthusiasm, the inci- dents and the record of the fort in it's fifty years. of existence with the French colony. When we of Alabama come to study the fort more as we shall inevitably do as the interest in our history tightens it's grip upon us. Hamilton will become the recog- nized authority. the start from which all French colonial Investigating ex- petitions must start.
 We may in love for the picturesque and romantic, feel keen sense of re- gret that Hamilton is so iconoclas- tic as to destroy the beautiful love | story of the Russian Duchess, accept 1 sd by Pickett and the early historians. 1 In which the wife of the son of Pe- | ter the Great followed her soldier To- | yer, an officer of the French Army | rom Paris to his duties as Adtutant | 1t Fort Tuiouse. The original story | recounted the romance of the widow | 'f the Grand Duke. who. In Paris. | 'ell in love with an, humble cap | ain and who so loved him that she | followed him when he was ordered to Mobile. And more than that for le was made Adjutant of the ,ort among the AIabamas and went E lar up the river into the forests, this, old story. recouuts. that she pined for Jim until she followed him on a weary journey with Indian boatmen. Welcomed to his arms at the fort they quilt themselves a humble cabin over- ooking the Coosa and there they |, lwelt among the soldiers and the say- Iges as went the story.
 But the unconditional records which Hamilton Studied are remorseless. They show that the only adjutant the ort ever had with a name anything ike fD'Aubant as given in the story, vas J. B. Aubert, whose name is on he Catholic church record In Mobile nd who was married as the record hows to Louise Marguerite Bernoudy, r he member of an old French family l. f that city. But the story was pretty Rough Go endure and more than one has essayed a story on the irand Duchess who never existed on he Coosa. ~ Ff
 Cmptain sfarchand's story. |;
 But there was love and there was ragedy at the old fort. The story f Captain Marchand, commandant at he fort eight years. after it's estab- lshment furnishes both. He , ourted and won. Sehoya, daughter f the Wind family which among the reeks was the nobility of the In- ians. And accepted history names i i'm as the founder of that remarlxa- le chain of Indian leaders which tn- luded Alexander McGillivray and William Weatherford. the Red Eagle poetry, who commanded at Fort Mims nd who has been called "the great st Indian his race ever produced" delightful story of the love of S'e- i oya and Marchand has been written nd published by Mrs. Thomas M. wen. in which the river scenery Of labama is finly portrayed as Q set , ng for the love story.
 Marchand was brutal1y murdered lis own men. the soldiers under him . ut him to death in Q mutiny in lf12. i wiss soldiers made up the garrison. { he men rose suddenly; Marchand { sll before he could defend himself. Illmont his lieutenant and Rogue f Is ensign slipped through a bastion nd escaped death. The mutineers roke open the magazine4-that old Id magazine of which evidences re- s lain today and rihed 1t of it's ammu-