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CONCLUDING REMARKS.

Employed again at CherDirectory to the post of

successfully defended himself. bourg, he was called by the Minister of War, which he held only three months, when he was appointed Minister of the Republic at Constantinople, where he closed a life of active service, on the 17th of December, 1797, at the age of thirty-seven.

Etienne Bernard Alexandre Viel, a learned Jesuit, was born in New Orleans, on the 31st of October, 1736, and died on the 16th of December, 1821, at the college of Juilly, in France, where he had been educated, and where, in his turn, he had devoted himself to the education of youth, after having resided many years in Attakapas, where he made himself beloved by all the inhabitants. He is known in the erudite world by a very beautiful translation, in Latin verse, of Fénélon's Telemachus, also by some little poems in Latin verse which he offered to the public, in 1816, under the title of "Miscellanea Latino-Gallica," and by an excellent French translation of the Ars Poetica, and of two of Horace's epistles.

Jean Jacques Audubon, the celebrated naturalist, was born near New Orleans, in 1780, and died in the State of New York, in 1851, bequeathing to posterity those works which have already acquired for him an immortal fame.

Bronier de Clouet, born in Louisiana, about the year 1764, entered the Spanish army in early life, rose to the grade of Brigadier-General, was for some time Governor of the province of Hagua in the island of Cuba, was created Count de la Fernandina de Hagua, and had just been raised to the Senate by Queen Isabella II., when he died in Madrid, lately, in his eighty-fourth year.

Daunoy, or rather D'Aunoy, was born in New Orleans, about the year 1775. Having become a Spanish officer, he rose by degrees to the grade of Lieutenant-General, after having greatly distinguished himself against the

CONCLUDING REMARKS.

627

French in the Peninsular war. He died at an age when he was still capable of rendering more services to the Spanish monarchy.

Joseph Villamil, who was born in New Orleans in 1789, took a part in the war of independence waged by the South American provinces, fought his way to celebrity and to the grade of General, and has lately been appointed Chargé d'Affaires by the Republic of Ecuador near the government of the United States.

Many other Louisianians, although having made themselves less conspicuous, rose to honorable distinction in the service of France, Spain and other powers; and the number of those who thus distinguished themselves becomes remarkable, when taken in connexion with the smallness of the colonial population from which they sprang.

In conclusion, I must call the attention of the reader to a singular anomaly-which is that, with all the foul abuses and tyrannical practices with which it has been so long the general custom to reproach the government of Spain every where, her administration in Louisiana. was as popular as any that ever existed in any part of the world; and I am persuaded that I can rely on the unanimous support of my contemporaries when I declare, that they scarcely ever met in Louisiana an individual, old enough to have lived under the Spanish government in the colony and judged of its bearing on the happiness of the people, who did not speak of it with affectionate respect, and describe those days of colonial rule as the golden age, which, with many, was the object of secret, and with others, of open regrets. Such a government would, of course, have been insupportable to us, but it is not hence to be inferred that it did not suit the tastes and feelings, and deserve the gratitude of our ancestors.

Thus ends the Colonial History of Louisiana. I have attempted to write it faithfully, accurately and impar

628

CONCLUDING REMARKS.

tially, with an unabating love for truth, and with an unselfish desire of serving in this way, if not in any other, the country to which I am bound by so many ties-not only by birth, education and habit, but also by so many endearing recollections of the past, and even so many family associations and traditions, which, for me, clothe with the charm almost of private interest the relation of public events in Louisiana.

THE END.

APPENDIX.

(Page 42.)

CERTIFICAT DU GOUVERNEUR AUBRI.

M.

“Nous, CHARLES AUBRI, chevalier de l'ordre royal et militaire de St. Louis, ancien commandant pour sa Majesté très chrétienne de la province de la Louisiane,-certifions que Monsieur Etienne de Gayarré, contador principal de cette province pour sa Majesté Catholique, arrivé dans cette colonie sous l'expédition commandée par Antoine de Ulloa, qui était venu pour en prendre possession, laquelle a été différée par divers accidents imprévus depuis le cinq mars mil sept cent soixante-six, jusqu'au dixhuit août dernier, qu'elle a été prise par son Excellence Don Alexandre O'Reilly, s'est toujours maintenu, comporté et représenté suivant l'état et la décence dû à sa place honorable, s'acquittant parfaitement de toutes les charges attachées à son emploi, selon l'expérience que j'en ai eue sous les yeux et les sentimens les plus distingués avec lesquels mon dit sieur de Ulloa a toujours traité avec lui, et, particulièrement depuis son absence de la fin d'octobre de l'année dernière jusqu'à ce jour, sur plusieurs affaires délicates concernant les services de leurs Majestés très Chrétienne et Catholique, en sa qualité de Contador, ayant même fait souvent les fonctions d'Intendant dans plusieurs occasions, en l'absence et longue maladie de M. Jean Joseph de Loyola, et aussi après sa mort; accomplissant ponctuellement toutes les obligations du service des rois de France et d'Espagne, avec tout le zèle, l'application, et la conduite la plus régulière, qui lui ont attiré l'estime, l'amitié et l'approbation de tous les honnètes gens; en foi de quoi, je

lui ai donné avec plaisir et toute la satisfaction possible, le présent, pour lui servir et valoir partout où besoin sera. Fait double à la Nouvelle Orléans, le 23 novembre, 1769.

" AUBRI."

[TRANSLATION.]

CERTIFICATE OF GOVERNOR AUBRI.

“I, CHARLES AUBRI, knight of the royal and military order of St. Louis, late Governor of the Province of Louisiana for his most Christian Majesty, certify that M. Etienne de Gayarré, Chief Contador of this province for his Catholic Majesty, who came to this colony in the expedition commanded by M. Antoine de Ulloa, which was sent to take possession of it, but which ceremony had been deferred, owing to sundry unforeseen accidents, from March 5, 1766, to the 18th of August last past, when it was accomplished by his Excellency Don Alexander O'Reilly,—has always conducted himself in accordance with the requirements of his honorable station, faithfully discharging all the duties incumbent upon him,-and this I vouch for from my own personal observation, as well as from the exalted opinion which the said Sieur de Ulloa has always expressed concerning him,―and particularly since his absence from the end of last October to the present time upon various delicate affairs connected with the service of their most Christian and Catholic Majesties, in his office as Contador, having even often discharged the functions of Intendant on several occasions, during the absence and protracted sickness of M. Jean Joseph de Loyola, and also after his decease ; punctually fulfilling all the requirements of the service of the Kings of France and Spain, with a zeal, application, and punctuality which have won for him the esteem, friendship and approbation of all honorable men. In testimony of which, with the greatest pleasure and satisfaction, I have given him these presents, that they may serve him in case of need. Given in duplicate at New Orleans, November 23, 1769.

"AUBRI."