CHAPTER VII. GAYOSO'S ADMINISTRATION. 1797 to 1799. CASACALVO'S ADMINISTRATION. 1799 to 1801. BRIGADIER-GENERAL GAYOSO DE LEMOS had been installed into office on the 1st of August, 1797, but it was only in the month of January, 1798, that, in conformity to established usage, he published his Bando de Buen Gobierno-a sort of charter, or programme, making known the principles and regulations on which the Governor thought that a good government ought to be established, and by which he was to be guided in his future administration. It contained nothing worthy of any special notice. Shortly after, he addressed to the Commandants at the different posts throughout the colony the following set of instructions, in relation to grants of lands: "1°--Commandants are forbidden* to grant land to a new settler, coming from another spot where he has already obtained a grant. Such a one must either buy land, or obtain a grant from the Governor himself. 66 "2°-If a settler be a foreigner, unmarried, and without either slaves, money, or other property, no grant is * Martin's History of Louisiana, vol. ii., p. 153. GAYOSO'S ADMINISTRATION. 387 to be made to him, until he shall have remained four years in the post, demeaning himself well in some honest and useful occupation. "3°-Mechanics are to be protected, but no land is to be granted to them, until they shall have acquired some property, and a residence of three years, in the exercise of their trade. "4°-No grant of land is to be made to any unmarried emigrant, who has neither trade nor property, until after a residence of four years, during which time he must have been employed in the culture of the ground. "5°-But if, after a residence of two years, such a person should marry the daughter of an honest farmer, with his consent, and be by him recommended, a grant of land may be made to him. "6°-Liberty of conscience is not to be extended beyond the first generation; the children of the emigrant must become Catholics; and emigrants, not agreeing to this, must not be admitted, but expelled, even when they bring property with them. This is to be explained to settlers who do not profess the Catholic faith. 66 "7-In Upper Louisiana, no settler is to be admitted, who is not a farmer or a mechanic. 66 "8°-It is expressly recommended to Commandants, to watch that no preacher of any religion but the Catholic comes into the province. 66 "9°-To every married emigrant of the above description two hundred arpens may be granted, with the addition of fifty for every child he brings. "10°-If he brings negroes, twenty additional arpens are to be granted him for each: but, in no case, are more than eight hundred arpens to be granted to an emigrant. "11°-No land is to be granted to a trader. "12°--Immediately on the arrival of a settler, the 388 GAYOSO'S BANDO DE BUEN GOBIERNO. oath of allegiance is to be administered to him. If he has a wife, proof is to be demanded of their marriage; and, if they bring any property, they are to be required to declare what part belongs to either of them; and they are to be informed that the discovery of any wilful falsehood in this declaration will produce the forfeiture of the land granted them, and of the improvements made thereon. "13°-Without proof of a lawful marriage, or of the absolute ownership of negroes, no grant is to be made for any wife, or negro. แ "14°-The grant is to be forfeited, if a settlement be not made within the year, or one tenth part of the land put in cultivation within two. "15°-No grantee is to be allowed to sell his land, until he has produced three crops on a tenth part of it; but, in case of death, it may pass to an heir in the province, but not to one without, unless he come and settle on it. "16°-If the grantee owes debts in the province, the proceeds of the first four crops are to be applied to their discharge, in preference to that of debts due abroad. If, before the third crop be made, it becomes necessary to evict the grantee, on account of his bad conduct, the land shall be given to the young man and young woman, residing within one mile of it, whose good conduct may show them to be the best deserving of it; and the decision is to be made by an assembly of notable planters, presided over by the Commandant. “17°-Emigrants are to settle contiguous to old establishments, without leaving any vacant lands betweenin order that the people may more easily protect each other, in case of any invasion by the Indians, and that the administration of justice, and a compliance with police regulations, may be facilitated." ILLUSTRIOUS STRANGERS IN 1798. 389 In the beginning of this year, 1798, New Orleans was visited by three illustrious strangers, the Duke of Orleans, with his two brothers, the Duke of Montpensier and the Count of Beaujolais, who were striking examples of those remarkable vicissitudes of fortune with which the annals of history are so replete. The royal fugitives who had thus come to claim the hospitality of the humble town which, under the patronage of their ancestors, had been founded in the wilderness, on the distant bank of the Mississippi, were the descendants of the celebrated regent, Duke of Orleans, and, through him, of Louis XIII., king of France. They were of a race which, without interruption, had given monarchs to that kingdom for centuries; and if there ever was a house that could boast of pretensions to durability, it was theirs, so profoundly and ineradicably laid had seemed to be its foundations in the very depths, not only of the broad kingdom of France, but also of the whole continent of Europe. There was a day, however, when "the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house, and it fell, and great was the fall of it!" Men, who had suddenly been precipitated so low from the heights of a prosperity which seemed destined to be the everlasting and lawful possession of their family by the prescriptive right derived from so many centuries, were certainly fit objects of sympathy in their misfortune, and they met with a generous and warmhearted reception, both from the Spanish authorities and from the inhabitants of Louisiana. Costly entertainments were given to them, and they spent several weeks in New Orleans and its neighborhood. They appeared to take much interest in the destinies of a colony which was the creation of France, and they examined minutely the sugar plantation which had been lately established by Etienne Boré, near the city. When a "mousque 390 DUKE OF ORLEANS AND HIS BROTHERS. taire," or guardsman in the household troops of Louis XV., and watching over the safety of the majesty of France, little did he dream that the day would come when three princes of the blood would be his guests in the wilderness of America! What strange events will not time bring on, and how shifting are the scenes in which it delights! The Count of Beaujolais and the Duke of Montpensier soon slept in the tomb; but the other fugitive exile-the Duke of Orleans--whose father's head had fallen on the scaffold, ascended the throne of France, and the planter's grandson became, in his turn, in the gorgeous halls of royalty, the guest of him who had been the planter's guest. But again "the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon the king's house, and it fell, and great was the fall of it," for it was not strong, and not "built upon a rock." Now are the king's children exiles and wanderers on the face of the earth. Will it be the decree of capricious fortune that one of them shall taste the hospitality which his royal father enjoyed in Louisiana in 1798? But, to return to events having a more direct bearing on the destinies of the colony, it must here be recorded that Colonel Charles Grandpré had been appointed by the Spanish authority to take the command at Natchez, in the place of Brigadier-General Gayoso de Lemos, who had now become Governor of Louisiana. But Grandpré's energy, and the little favor with which he looked upon the Americans, being well known, the " Permanent Committee of Public Safety" declared unanimously that his presence would not be acceptable, and might be the cause of a dangerous outbreak. Under such circumstances, it was thought prudent to leave the command of that post to Captain Minor, who was then acting as civil and military commandant ad interim. Captain Minor, as Gayoso had done before, recognized the powers of the |