During the war of succession, in the earlier part of the eighteenth century, Spain and France were in alliance, and the Spanish governors,

Brienuilly

Portrait and Signature of Bienville.

both of Mexico and of Florida, rendered one and another service to the infant French colony which D'Iberville, and his brothers Bienville and Serigny, requited as they could in their weakness. The history of the infant State is but little more than that of a small garrison, whose enterprising Commanders were making alliances with the neighboring savages. Communication was constantly kept up with Canada, and in 1700, Le Sœur, an explorer of mines, went so far as Lake Superior, and returned, with what the chronicler says was hundred thousand pounds

two

of copper ore.2 It must be doubted whether any such

quantity was carried across the Portages of Wisconsin or Minnesota, especially as Le Soeur's journal says that it was in three ca

noes.

The pacification of Europe resulting from the Treaty of Utrecht, gave the signal for an enlargement of the little colony. At that time the military force in Louisiana did not exceed one hundred French soldiers, and seventy-five Canadians. There were perhaps three hunvery mouths of the Mississippi, was included in the charter of "Carolana," that is, was north of 31° north latitude. The line of 31° is the northern line of our State of Florida, and the southern of the greater part of Mississippi. Coxe claims the river for England on the ground that his father's ship was the first to enter it from the sea It probably was, but the claim of discovery is absurd. Still, had William the Third lived longer, he might have followed up this claim.

1 Archiv de la Marine. No. 9, No. 458 in Mr. Forstall's list.

2 La Harpe's narrative, preserved in MS. in the Philosophical Society's Library. The text is, "Monsieur Le Sueur arriva avec 2000 quint de terre bleue y verte, venant des Scioux." The narrative, in an English translation, has been published by Mr. Trench in the Louisiana Historical Transactians.

1713.]

CROZAT'S GRANT.

Grant of

to Crozat.

525 dred whites beside, and twenty negroes held as slaves, scattered over the enormous territory known as Louisiana. So soon as the peace came, the King granted the whole territory to Antoine Louisiana Crozat, one of those great financiers who play so curious a part in the French history of those times. The grant says specifically, that in consequence of the war there had been no possibility of reaping the advantages which might have been expected. It says also that Crozat's zeal, and singular knowledge in maritime commerce, encourages hope for as good success as in his former enterprises,

which have procured great quantities of gold and silver to the kingdom in such conjunctures as have rendered them very acceptable."

gov

In the grant, the great rivers are thus named: "The river St. Louis, heretofore called Mississippi, the river St. Philip, heretofore called Missouri, the river St. Jerome, heretofore called Ouabache." But these names have lasted as little as the other special Crozat's privileges granted to Crozat. The grant cedes all territo- ernment. ries watered by the Mississippi. Crozat appointed as his governor, La Mothe Cadillac, a soldier, in place of Le Muys, who had died on his passage home. Le Muys had been the governor-general named by the King.

Beginning of

influence in

Cadillac arrived at the colony in May, 1713, bringing the news of peace, the news of the grant to Crozat, and of his own appointment. With him came several officers of administration. D'Iberville had died, but his influence in the colony was inher-inville's ited by his brother, Bienville, so long celebrated in the the colony. history of Louisiana. Naturally enough altercations grew up between the new officials and Bienville and his friends, which were the basis of parties extending well down into that century. In a colony where there were not a hundred persons resident at any one point, and at this time not more than four hundred persons in all, such altercations were, doubtless, all the more bitter. Crozat's plans were based on the hope of commerce with the Spaniards. But the Spanish government changed its policy, and fell back on a system of exclusion, which had originated with Philip II., and which generally characterized its rule of its colonies, until it brought that rule to an end. Cadillac remained in the country but two years. He made some personal explorations, and ordered an expedition into Texas, which will be best described in our chapter on the early history of that State.

His successor was M. de L'Epinay. Bienville was appointed King's Commandant, while De L'Epinay was Governor-general. There was

no less dissension between these two than between Bienville and Cadillac. But the fortunes of the colony were not dependent on as trivial motives as the discords of local commanders. With the death of "Le grand Monarque" in 1715, and the accession of the Regent Duke of Orleans to the sway of France, a new destiny awaited Louisiana. It came through the spirit which was given to emigration by the enterprise, so disastrous in Europe, of the famous John Law, known in history as the Mississippi Scheme.

CHAPTER XXII.

THE MISSISSIPPI SCHEME.

JOHN LAW. THE REGENT ORLEANS.-LAW'S BANK. THE WESTERN COMPANY. - RENEWED EMIGRATION. THE INDIAN COMPANY. - SPANISH WAR. NEW EsTABLISHMENTS. FAILURE OF LAW'S PLANS. - RUIN OF SPECULATORS. · MisSIONS IN LOUISIANA. THE CITY OF NEW ORLEANS. ESTABLISHMENT AT NATCHEZ.- RELATIONS WITH THE INDIANS. CUSTOMS OF THE NATCHEZ.-CHOPART'S FOLLY.-ITS RESULTS. CAMPAIGNS AGAINST THE NATCHEZ AND CHICKASAWS. BIENVILLE RE-APPOINTED. HIS ILL-SUCCESS AS A MILITARY LEADER. VAUDREUIL AND KERLEREC.

JOHN LAW was born in Edinburgh in April, 1671, the son of a goldsmith of considerable fortune. The goldsmiths of that day John Law. were the bankers of the world, and all the social privileges

of a banker of to-day belonged to this Scotch goldsmith then. John Law was but fourteen years old when his father died. He was educated with care, but did not choose to embrace his father's calling, preferring a life of pleasure

and travel. He left his mother at the age of twenty, and went first to London, where, like many other adventurers, he applied his knowledge of finance and mathematics to the calculations of the gambling table, without more success than is usual. His mother paid his debts and saved his estate. For himself he became popular in London; but the fortune of Louisiana was changed, as it happened, on the 9th of April, 1694, when

John Law.

offence he was tried, convicted, and sentenced to death, but was pardoned by the King. He was, however, thrown into prison on some charge connected with the duel, but he effected his escape and fled to the continent.

About

At Amsterdam he became a clerk of the English Resident, in order to study the system of the celebrated Bank of Amsterdam; and at thirty years of age he returned to Scotland. the year 1700, he presented in print a plan for what we should now call The National Bank of Scotland, far in advance of

His career and financial schemes.

The Regent Orleans.

the financial wisdom of the day, and, indeed, only differing from the systems now in use in the European national banks, so far as it included the system, then universal, of monopolies of commerce and of farming out the revenue. Another plan of his, at this time, that for a land bank, has been often brought forward since, but never really tried.

Neither Scotland nor England was prepared for his financial schemes, and, returning to the continent, he engaged himself in the not uncongenial occupation of gambling, - managing faro banks with profit. This occupation brought him into acquaintance with the Duke of Orleans, an acquaintance which afterwards proved so important. On the close of the war of the succession he urged his financial plans on the French government, which was already bankrupt. But his plans on Louis XIV. rejected them, not so much because the plans nent. were not good, of which nobody in France was a judge, as because the author of them was a Protestant. Law went to offer them to Victor Amadeo at Turin, and to the Emperor of Germany. Both these sovereigns declined to try his experiments. But at their courts and elsewhere, he won two million livres at gambling, and this he carried to Paris, where it became the nucleus of his after fortunes.

Reception of

the conti

Louis XIV. died. His ambition, his selfishness, and in especial, the war of the succession, had brought France to bankruptcy. It is not fair to ascribe this bankruptcy to John Law. The truth is, that he