so as to render the slope exceedingly easy and accessible Three feet water are always kept up in the moats, even during the driest season of the year, by means of ditches communicating with the draining canal.

"It cannot be denied that these miniature forts are well kept and trimmed up. But, particularly on account of their ridiculous distribution, and also on account of their want of capaciousness, they look more like playthings intended for babies than military defences. For there is not one which cannot be stormed, and which five hundred determined men would not carry sword in hand. Once master of one of the principal forts, either St. Louis or St. Charles, the enemy would have no need of minding the others, because, by bringing the guns to bear upon the city, it would be forced to capitulate immediately, or be burnt up in less than an hour, and have its inhabitants destroyed, as none of the forts can admit of more than one hundred and fifty men. We believe that M. de Carondelet, when he adopted this bad system of defence, thought more of securing the obedience of the subjects of his Catholic Majesty, than of providing a defence against the attack of a foreign enemy, and, in this point of view, he may be said to have completely succeeded."

General Collot describes also the fort at the Plaquemine Turn; he says that it is provided with twenty pieces of artillery of various calibre, and that it can accommodate three hundred men.

He further gives the following description of the inhabitants of the Illinois District: "On the American side, there are still to be found some Frenchmen, to wit: at Kaskaskias, at Rock's Prairie (prairie du rocher), at Piorias on Red River, at Dog's prairie (prairie du chien), near Wisconsin, at Chicago on Lake Michigan, and at the Post of Vincennes on the Wabash.

"Most of these people are a compound of traders, adventurers, wood runners, rowers and warriorsignorant, superstitious and obstinate-whom no fatigues, no privations, no dangers can stop in their enterprises, which they always carry through. Of the qualities which distinguish the French, they have retained nothing except courage.

"When at home, and in the privacies of their ordinary life, their character is very much like that of the Aborigines, with whom they live. They are therefore indolent, lazy and addicted to drunkenness, cultivating the earth but little or not at all; the French which they speak has become so corrupt, that it has degenerated into a sort of jargon, and they have even forgotten the regular division of the months, and of time itself, according to the calculations of civilization. If you ask them when a particular event happened, they will answer, that it was when the waters were high, when the strawberries were ripe, or in the corn and potato season. Should it be suggested to them to change anything for the better, even in matters which are acknowledged by them as being defective, or should any improvement be recommended to them in agriculture, or in some of the branches of commerce, their only answer is: it is the custom; so it was with our fathers. I get along with it -so, of course, will my children. They love France and speak of it with pride."

General Collot, on his way to New Orleans from the upper country, had stopped to visit Etienne Boré at his sugar plantation, six miles above New Orleans, where he was arrested by order of the Baron de Carondelet, who had sent up fifty dragoons by land and an armed boat by the river. The General was put in the boat, and taken down to New Orleans, where he was imprisoned in Fort St. Charles; on the next day, he was called

upon by the Governor, who proposed to him a house in town, which he might occupy on parole, and with a Spanish soldier at his door. The General, having accepted the proposition, left the fort for his new lodg ings in the Governor's carriage, which had been politely tendered to him. On the 1st of November, the General, from whom some of his maps, drawings and writings had been taken away, was conveyed on board of one of the King's galleys, and, being accompanied by a captain of the regiment of Louisiana, who was not to lose sight of his person, was transported to the Balize, where he was deposited in the house of the chief pilot, Juan Ronquillo, "situated," says he, "in the midst of a vast swamp, and from which there was no issuing except in a boat." He remained at this dismal spot, until the 22d of December, when he embarked on board of the brig Iphigenia for Philadelphia. It is evident from the General's own relation of his visit to New Orleans that he was not permitted to examine the fortifications of that place, and that he must have described them from hearsay.

The Baron de Carondelet wrote to citizen Adet, who was the representative of the French republic near the government of the United States, in order to justify the course which he had pursued towards General Collot. His reasons were:*

1°-The silence of the minister, who had neglected to notify him, the Governor, of the approach of the General.

* In a despatch of the 10th of December, 1796, the Intendant Morales says: No habiendo tenido por conveniente este Gobernador que el general de la Republica Francesa Jorge Victor Collot que se introdujo en esta provincia por el Ohio, accompañado de su ayudante de campo, tenga comunicacion con estos moradores ni que se instruya del Estado de defensa de la ciudad, tomé el partido de enviarle al puesto de la Baliza, a esperar ocasion para embarcarle para cualquiera puesto de los Estados Unidos.

2°-A confidential communication which he, the Baron de Carondelet, had received from Philadelphia, warning him that General Collot was intrusted with a secret mission, against which the Spanish authorities were to be on their guard.

3°-The information given by one of his subaltern officers, that General Collot was reconnoitring the province. 4°—The alarm and excitement which the presence of that superior officer had caused in the colony, and which originated from the rumor mentioned in the American newspapers-that Louisiana was soon to become a French possession.

Etienne Boré was known for his extreme attachment to the French interest, which he was at no pains to conceal, and it is said that the Baron seriously thought of having him arrested and transported to Havana, but that he was deterred by the fear of producing a commotion by inflicting so harsh a treatment on so distinguished a citizen, who, by his personal character, his rank, his family connections, and the benefit he had lately conferred on his country by the introduction of a new branch of industry, commanded universal sympathies and exercised the widest influence.

In the fall of 1797, the Baron de Carondelet departed for Quito, on his having been appointed President of the Royal Audience of the province of that name. The Baron was a short-sized, plump gentleman, somewhat choleric in his disposition, but not destitute of good nature. He was firm and prudent, with a good deal of activity and capacity for business, and he has left in Louisiana a respected and popular memory.

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.

"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.