CHAPTER IV.

MIRO'S ADMINISTRATION.

1785 to 1789.

GALVEZ was succeeded ad interim by Mirò, and Don Pedro Piernas took the place of Mirò as colonel of the regiment of Louisiana.

One of the first measures of Mirò's administration was one of charity. It is remarkable that leprosy, which is now so rare a disease, was then not an uncommon affliction in Louisiana. Those who were attacked with this loathsome infirmity generally congregated about New Orleans, where they obtained more abundant alms than in any other part of the colony. They naturally were objects of disgust and fear, and the unrestrained intercourse which they were permitted to have with the rest of the population was calculated to propagate the distemper. Ulloa had attempted to stop this evil, by confining some of the lepers at the Balize, but this measure had created great discontent and had been abandoned. Mirò now determined to act with more efficacy in this matter, and, on his recommendation, the cabildo, or council, caused a hospital to be erected for the reception of these unfortunate beings, in the rear of the city, on a ridge of land lying between the river Mississippi and bayou St. John. The ground they occupied was long known and designated under the appella tion of La terre des Lépreux, or Lepers' Land. In the course of a few years, the number of these patients

gradually diminished, either by death or transportation, the disease disappeared almost entirely, the hospital went into decay, and Lepers' Land remained for a considerable length of time a wild looking spot, covered with brambles, briers, weeds, and a luxurious growth of palmettoes. It is, in our days, a part of suburb Trémé, and is embellished with houses and all the appliances of civilization.

Hardly had Mirò entered upon the duties of his office, when he was instructed to inquire into the official acts of one of his predecessors, Governor Unzaga, and to report thereon to his government. When an individual is called upon to discharge these functions, he receives the commission of what is termed in Spanish jurisprudence, A Juez de Residencia, or a Judge of Residence. According to the laws of Spain, this inquiry takes place into the official conduct of public functionaries, when they are removed by death or any other cause. It is made at the most important part of the district in which the late officer exercised his jurisdiction; and from the decision of the Judge of Residence there lies an appeal to the Council of the Indies. This law never had the salutary effects which were intended. The object of the legislator was apparent. Power, he thought, is liable to abuse, and great power is vested in all the officers of the Spanish monarchy, within the sphere, high or low, in which each is called to act. Let him know, therefore, that, as soon as he is stript of the power intrusted to his hands, there shall be a thorough investigation of all his acts, private or public; that every one shall have the right and the opportunity to accuse him fearlessly, even from malice, caprice, or envy; let him know that, whilst he is in the discharge of his functions, he is surrounded by the observing vigilance of a whole population, from the ranks of which numerous accusers and witnesses.

when he is rendered powerless, may start up to impugn his motives, to blacken his character, to arraign his acts, to bring into broad daylight every circumstance of his life, and to drag him like a culprit before the seat of Justice. This, no doubt, must be an effectual safeguard against his partiality, his cupidity, and his other passions. So schemed theory; but practice told a very different tale. The Judge of Residence could be bribed, intimidated, or otherwise influenced. If not, he found his inquiries generally baffled by the combined efforts of those who ought to have afforded him assistance. There is a sort of free-masonry and sympathetic alliance between all persons in office, which makes them opposed to seeing any one of them subjected to censure. They may quarrel together, but an esprit de corps will unite them against any censor that will presume to sit in judgment over any one of them. Thus, when a Spanish functionary went out of office, the Judge of Residence soon discovered that he was opposed by a league of all the other officers of the district in which had officiated the late incumbent, against whom no accuser presented himself, from the fear of having to struggle against the friends he had left behind him, or might have at court, from the unwillingness to incur the displeasure, or excite the suspicions of the other functionaries, and from many other considerations. Besides, not unfrequently, the officer, whose conduct was to be investigated, had been promoted to a more important office, and, although he might have been sent away to some distant part of the Spanish dominions, yet who would run the risk, except under extraordinary circumstances, of incurring the hatred and oppression of a man rising in power? Moreover, the Judge of Residence was himself, generally, a man of ambitious aspirations, and had been, or would be in some responsible office sooner or later, and had been,

or would be, on a day to come, subjected, in his turu, to a Judge of Residence. It is natural, therefore, that any one in that position should not have been disposed to give the dangerous example of much scrutiny and severity. Hence the law had become a dead letter, and the appointment of a Judge of Residence was, in most cases, a mere formality. It proved so on this occasion. No complaint was produced against Unzaga, whether there was cause for any or not, and Mirò's decision, as a Judge of Residence, on his predecessor's administration, was all that could be desired by that functionary, or by his friends.

In this year, 1785, a census which was taken of the inhabitants of Louisiana gave the following results:

This enumeration shows that the population had more than doubled since 1769, when it amounted only to 13,538. The number of free colored persons was about 1,100, and that of the slaves and whites was very near being equally divided. The expenses of the colony were between 400,000 and 500,000 dollars. The Governor had a salary of $10,000; that of the Intendant was $4,000, &c., &c.

The province received, this year, a very considerable accession of population, by the arrival of a number of Acadian families, who, at the expense of the King of France, and in consequence of an arrangement between the courts of Versailles and Madrid, came over to join such of their countrymen as had emigrated to Louisiana. They were granted lands, mostly on both sides of the Mississippi river, near Plaquemines. Some went to the settlement already existing on the Terre aux Bœufs; others established themselves on Bayou Lafourche, and the rest were scattered in the districts of Attakapas and Opeloussas.

It will be recollected that, in 1782, a royal schedule had been issued, which relaxed the restrictions imposed on the trade of the colony. The consequence of it had been, that the commerce of New Orleans had greatly revived, and a number of merchants from France had established themselves in that town. "The planters, however," says Judge Martin in his History, "regretted the time when British vessels plied on the Mississippi, stopping before every house, furnishing the farmer with whatever he wanted, accepting in payment whatever the latter had to spare, and granting a credit almost unlimited in extent and duration. A number of agents had arrived from Jamaica, to collect debts due to merchants of that island, the recovery of which had been impeded during the war. As the trade these creditors had carried on