ment, he established a bank, with a capital of twelve hundred thousand dollars. Soon after, government became largely interested in it, and it assumed the name of the Royal Bank. The original projector continued at the head of its affairs, and, availing himself of the thirst for speculation, which its success excited, formed the scheme of a large commercial company, to which it was intended to transfer all the privileges, possessions and effects of the foreign trading companies, that had been incorporated in France. The royal bank was to be attached to it. The regent gave it letters patent, under the style of the Western Company. From the mighty stream, that traverses Louisiana, Law's undertaking was called the Mississippi scheme. The exclusive trade to China and all the east Indies was afterwards granted to the company now called the India Company. Chancellor d'Aguesseau opposed the plan with so much earnestness, that the regent took the seals from him and exiled him to his estate.

The stockholders flattered themselves, that the vast quantity of land, and the valuable property the company possessed, would enable it to make profits far exceeding those of the most successful adventurers. Accordingly, the directors declared a dividend of two hundred per cent. The delusion was so complete, that the stock rose to sixty times its original cost. The notes of the bank took the place of the paper securities government had issued, and so great was the demand for them, that all the metallic medium was paid into the bank.

Charlevoix.—Laharpe.-Vergennes.—Dupratz.

CHAPTER X.

Duvergier.-Benard de Laharpe.-Bay of St. Bernard.De Masilliere, Dudemaine and Duplesne.-A Guineaman.-Principal establishment ordered to be removed to New Orleans-Survey of the river of the Arkansas.— The Marquis de Gallo.-Chickasaw hostilities.-Father Charlevoix.--Toulouse Island.-Loubois.-Latour.Price of Negroes, Tobacco and Rice fixed.-Copper coinage.-Military, Civil and Religious divisions of the Province.-Larenaudiere-German Coast.-Peace with Spain.-Pensacola restored.-Chickasaw hostilities among the Yazous.-Fort on the Missouri.-Capuchins.—A hurricane.-Hostilities committed by the Natchez.-An unexpected crop of rice.—The directors remove to New Orleans.-A Swiss company deserts to Charleston.-Large grants of land.-Indigo.-St. Joseph abandoned.-Spanish force in the province of Texas.-The Choctaws defeat the Chickasaws.-Alterations in the value of coin.-Jesuits.-The Catholic, the only religion tolerated.-Expulsion of the Jews.-Black Code.-Edict relating to correspondence.-Edict relating to horses and cattle.-De la Chaise and Perrault.— Philip V. abdicates the throne.-Louis ascends it and dies.-Philip resumes the crown.-Superior Council. Treaties with the Jesuits, Capuchins and Ursuline Nuns. Perrier-George II-Girls de la Cassette.-Improvements in New Orleans.-Land regulations.

ON the fifteenth of July, Duvergier, who had lately been appointed Director, Ordonnateur, Commandant of the Marine and President of the Council, landed at Pensacola. He brought crosses of St. Louis for Boisbriant, Chateaugué and St Denys.

The Company, more intent on extending than improving its possessions in Louisiana, had determined, notwithstanding the unanimous representations of Bienville and all the colonial officers, to have an establishment on the gulf to the west of the Mississippi. For this purpose Bernard de la Harpe came over with Duvergier, having been appointed Commandant and inspector of commerce at the bay of St. Bernard. Masilliere, administrator of the grant of the Marquis de Mezieres, Desmarches, Dudemaine and Duplesne, his associates accompanied him.

The arrival of Duvergier with such ample powers gave much uneasiness to Bienville, who, while he remained in command, could not brook to be excluded from the presidency of the council. Chateaugué, who had the rank of a captain in the royal navy, thought himself injured by the command of the navy being given to another, and Delorme imagined his pretentions to the office of Ordonnateur had been overlooked.

Three hundred negroes arrived from Africa on the 15th of August.

The occupation of the bay of St. Bernard, notwithstanding the positive orders of which Laharpe was the bearer, was still viewed in Louisiana as a premature operation, attended with considerable and useless expense, requiring a number of men, who could not well be spared, and promising, if any, none but very precarious and distant advantages. The difficulty of protecting and supplying so distant a post, the extreme barrenness of the soil to the extent that had been explored, the ferocity of the Indians in the neighbourhood,some of whom were said to be anthropophagi, appeared to present unsurmountable obstacles, while no probable advantage could be contemplated, but the preservation of the possession, which La

salle had taken of that part of the country, thirty-six years before, in which his life and that of the greatest part of his followers had been sacrificed. Laharpe was now arrived with a commission, of which he was impatient to avail himself, and Bienville gave his reluctant assent to the measure.

Beranger was directed to carry the new commandant and thirty men to the bay; fifteen barrels of flour and as many of meat were spared for their use.

The weakness of the detachment, and the smallness of the supply (both, in the opinion of Laharpe inadequate) furnished him irrefragable proof that he was starting on an expedition, in which the best wishes of Bienville did not attend him. He weighed anchor on the twenty-sixth of August.

His instructions from the company were to take formal possession of the country, and to set up a post with the arms of France, on some conspicuous part of the shore-to build a fort and secure by treaties the amity and good will of as many of the Indian tribes as he could. If he met any Spanish force, in the country, he was directed to represent to the commandant, that it belonged to the crown of France, by virtue of the possession taken by Lasalle, in 1685, and in case he, or any other stranger, insisted on the right of staying, to remove him by force.

The order of the council for the removal of head quarters to Biloxi was now executed, and Bienville, with his staff removed thither, leaving Marigny in command at Fort Conde.

Since the departure of Law from France, the affairs of the company there, had fallen into great confusion and disorder, and very little attention was given to the supplies that were needed in Louisiana. None being procured by agriculture, provisions became extremely scarce. To provide against the

distress of impending famine, such of the troops, as could be spared from the service of the posts, were sent, in small detachments, to Pearl river, Pascagoula and among the Indians, to procure their subsistence by fishing and hunting. Their unskilfulness, in this mode of seeking sustenance, made it necessary to have recourse to impressment. This measure caused great murmurs among the planters; but the scarcity of provisions was productive of more dreadful consequences among the soldiers. Twenty-six men, who were in garrison at Fort Toulouse, on the river of the Alibamons, exasperated by hunger and distress, mutinied, and rising against Marchand, their commander, marched off with their arms and baggage, in the expectation of finding their way to the back settlements of Carolina. Villemont, the lieutenant, immediately rode to the village and prevailed on the Indians to go and way-lay the deserters; they were overpowered, by the savage assailants, but not without great carnage. Sixteen were killed, and two only escaped. The other eight being made prisoners, were brought to Fort Louis and soon after executed.

In the latter part of September, the colony was, in some measure, relieved by the arrival of a ship from France, with provisions. She brought accounts that the Regent had placed the affairs of the company under the direction of three commissioners. They were Ferrand, Faget and Machinet.

Laharpe returned from the bay of St. Bernard, on the third of October. He reported he had proceeded three hundred miles westerly from the Mississippi. On the 27th of August, he had entered a bay in latitude 29. 5. which he took for the one he was sent to. He found, on the bar, at its entrance, eleven feet of water, and having crossed it he sailed westerly; the sounding gave all along from fifteen to twenty feet.