26

O'REILLY'S INSTRUCTIONS TO COMMANDANTS.

In this way, they will derive more benefit from their trade with us; they will provide themselves with what their wants require, without its being at the expense of the king; and the English will not reap all the profits of a commerce which ought to be in our hands. The advantages of treating the Indians with equity and benevolence have been made apparent in this town, where, since my arrival, on the occasion of the distribution of the annual presents to them, the chiefs of every nation came to compliment me; and now a number of Indians are daily seen here, with their canoes loaded with provisions, hides, and other things, which they offer at public sale for their just value; and then, they themselves buy in the shops what they want, and return home perfectly contented."

These articles of O'Reilly's instructions show that the Spaniards were not disposed to pursue in Louisiana, towards the Indians, the cruel policy which was attributed to them in their other American domains. The rest of

O'Reilly's instructions, on all the subjects which they embrace, are marked with foresight, prudence, liberality, and firmness. They conclude with saying: "The commandants shall have for invariable rules: to keep up the strictest order and economy in all that appertains to the royal treasury, to cultivate the best harmony with the English, to maintain tranquillity and contentment among the inhabitants, to provide for the increase of commerce and its being carried on in good faith, and to take care that the Indians be well treated."

Immediately after his arrival in Louisiana, O'Reilly had taken an enlightened view of the wants of the colony, as appears by a communication of the 17th of October, 1769, which he addressed to the Spanish government, and in which he represents the necessity of favoring commerce, because, without it, the colony could not subsist: "This province," he said, "wants flour, wine, oil, iron instru

O'REILLY'S ENLIGHTENED VIEWS.

27

ments, arms, ammunition, and every sort of manufactured goods for clothing and other domestic purposes. These can only be obtained through the exportation of its productions, which consist of timber, indigo, cotton, furs, and a small quantity of corn and rice. In Spain there would be no market for the timber of the colonists, which is one of the most important sources of their revenues. Of all our colonies, the Havana is the only place where this kind of produce could be disposed of. According to my conceptions, the importation of it into that city would be advantageous both to the king and to the island of Cuba. To the king, because he would preserve for the use of his royal navy the cedars which are now employed to make sugar boxes, and because, with the Cuba timber, he could have the lining of his ships and many other works done at a much cheaper rate; to the island, because its inhabitants could cause their sugar boxes and the other works required by them, to be made in Havana at less cost with the Louisiana planks.

"By granting to this province, as formerly to Florida, the benefit of a free trade with Spain and with Havana, its inhabitants would find in that very city of Havana a market for all their produce, and would provide themselves there with all the articles of which they stand in need. The establishing of sugar mills would be increased, by thus affording to the planters of Cuba an outlet for all the rum manufactured by them, and which is lost for want of consumers. The consumption of this article would be considerable here, and every barrel of it would put two dollars into the king's treasury, through the export duty paid in Havana. But, for the better regulation of this trade, and to make it reciprocally advantageous, it seems to me proper and necessary, that the timber, furs, indigo, cotton, corn and rice of this province should pay no entry duty in Havana, and that no other

28 ON THE COMMERCIAL WANTS OF THE COLONY.

new excise or export tax be imposed on any of the articles which may be exported from Havana to New Orleans.

"It would also be proper, that the vessels belonging to this colony be received in Havana and the ports of Spain on the same condition and footing with Spanish vessels, but with the understanding that no vessels, except they be Spanish, or belong to the colony, shall be admitted in this port, or employed in transporting goods, and that this be recommended to the special care of my

successors.

"From Catalonia there would come ships with red wine; here they would take a cargo of timber and other articles for Havana, and they would load with sugar.

"I found the English in complete possession of the commerce of the colony. They had in this town their merchants and traders with open stores and shops, and I can safely assert that they pocketed nine tenths of the money spent here. The commerce of France used to receive the productions of the colony in payment of the articles imported into it from the mother country; but the English, selling their goods much cheaper, had the gathering of all the money. I drove off all the English traders and the other individuals of that nation whom I found in this town, and I shall admit here none of their vessels."

In a despatch of the 1st of March, 1770, O'Reilly took credit to himself for having reduced the annual expenses of the colony, from $250,000 to $130,000, by the economical retrenchments which he had introduced into the administration of the province, and applied to the salaries of its officers; and he informed the government, that the religious wants of the colony would require the permanent employment of eighteen priests. In the same despatch, he said: "I visited and examined in person the most.

O'REILLY'S LIBERAL POLICY.

29

populous parts of this province, by proceeding from this capital to Pointe Coupée, which is one hundred and fifty miles up the river, and I took care, as I progressed along, to convene the inhabitants in every district, at the most convenient place for them, where I listened to their grievances and provided a remedy thereto, by referring them to the arbitration of their best informed neighbors, without having recourse to the judicial tribunals, and, in this way, I gave those people a very favorable opinion of the government of his majesty, and I succeeded in obtaining that the arbitrators named by the respective parties be acceptable to them, on account of their being chosen among the men enjoying the best reputation; and by these means, I have procured that the new government be grateful to the inhabitants.

"I thought it my duty to acquiesce in the prayer of the inhabitants in almost every district, that a surveyor be appointed to measure the lands and determine their limits, but I reduced the salary of that officer to half of what it was formerly, and I decreed that, for the future, it be paid out of the sale of the crops of the inhabitants, at the price fixed for their commodities at New Orleans.

"So far, the concessions of land in this province had been intrusted by his most Christian Majesty to the Governor and to the ordaining commissary, and the concurrence of both was necessary thereto; but I have thought it advisable, that, for the future, the Governor be the only one authorized by the King to make such concessions; and, for the apportionment of the lands belonging to the royal domain, I have appointed a council of twenty-four persons, known for their practical sense and information, and for their sound judgment."

O'Reilly, with striking liberality, and, no doubt, also from motives of sound policy, appointed almost none but Frenchmen to the command of the several posts, even the

30

RAISING OF THE LOUISIANA REGIMENT.

most distant, and, therefore, all the instructions which he gave them were originally drawn in French. They were afterwards translated into Spanish, and sent to the court of Madrid for its approbation.

In conformity with the orders of the king, a regiment was raised in the colony under the name of "Regiment of Louisiana," and Don J. Estecheria was appointed its Colonel. But this officer having not as yet arrived, Unzaga, who was to succeed O'Reilly as governor of the province, undertook to organize the regiment, and assumed its command provisionally. O'Reilly sent commissions to all those whom Ulloa had, in his despatches, represented. as well affected towards Spain, and those commissions were eagerly accepted. There was no want of a keen desire to gird on the sword of command, under a government which granted so many privileges to the wearers of epaulets. The pay of the Spanish troops being greater than that formerly allowed to the French, a certain number of disbanded French soldiers, who had remained in the colony, were tempted to enlist, and the regiment of Louisiana" was soon complete. It is an admitted fact, that the Creoles of those days were remarkable for their great size, for the stateliness of their bearing, for those peculiarly striking lineaments which constitute the nobility of the face, and for the elegant symmetry of their forms. O'Reilly is said to have been so much struck with this characteristic distinction in the Creole officers of the regiment of Louisiana, that he regretted his inability to take with him some of them to Spain and to Charles III., as a fair specimen of the new subjects acquired by his Catholic Majesty.

66

The arrival of the Spaniards in New Orleans had produced a considerable increase of population, and the provisions which they expected having been unaccountably delayed, the colony was threatened with famine