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were unable to make any effectual resistance to the invaders, who proceeded as far as Natchez, laying waste the plantations, destroying the stock, burning the houses, and taking off such slaves as remained,

Although the government and people of Louisiana were well disposed towards the United States, this cruel, wanton, and unprovoked conduct towards a helpless community, was viewed with great indignation and horror, much increased by the circumstance of Willing having been hospitably received and entertained, the preceding year, in several houses which he now committed to the flames!

The province now received a considerable accession of population, by the arrival of a number of families, brought over at the king's expense, from the Canary islands. A part of them formed a new settlement at the Terre-aux-Bœufs, below New-Orleans, under the order of Marigny de Mandeville; a part was located on the banks of the river Amite, behind Baton Rouge, under the order of St. Maxent, and formed the settlement of Galveztown: the rest formed that of Valenzuela, on Bayou Lafourche.

A house was built for each family, and a church in each settlement. They were supplied with cattle, fowls and farming utensils; rations were furnished them for a period of four years out of the king's stores, and considerable pecuniary assistance was also afforded to them.

By a royal schedule of the fourth of May, the indemnity to be paid to owners of slaves condemned to death, perpetual labour, or transportation, or killed in the attempt to arrest them, when runaway, was fixed at two hundred dollars a head; but in the latter case, the indemnity was due, only, to those who had previously consented to pay a proportion of the price of slaves thus killed.

On the twentieth of April, Galvez issued a proclamation, by which, owing to the distresses of the times, and the difficulty of disposing of the produce of the province, he permitted its exportation to any of the ports of France; and by another proclamation, on the seventeenth, the permission was extended to any port of the United States.

The king made, on the eighteenth of October, new regulations for the commerce of his American dominions, and particularly for that of Louisiana. Considering it necessary, to his service, to encourage the trade of that province, and to increase its prosperity, he directed that vessels from New-Orleans should no longer be restricted to sail for one of the six ports to which they had been restricted, but might sail to any of the other ports of the peninsula, to which the commerce of the Indies was permitted. The exportation of furs and peltries from Louisiana was at the same time encouraged, by an exemption from duty during a period of ten years; but in the re-exportation from Spain the ordinary duty was to be paid.

Two royal schedules were this year published in Louisiana. By the first, the introduction or reading of a book written by Mercier, entitled L'an Deux Mille Quatre Cent Quarante, was prohibited; and the governor was ordered to cause every copy of it found in the province to be seized and destroyed. The other schedule was to the same effect, in regard to Robertson's history of America. Mercier's book had been condemned by the Inquisition, and the king said he had just reason to prohibit Robertson's being read in his American dominions.

There were, at this period, a considerable number of individuals from the United States and West and East Florida and Nova Scotia, in New-Orleans.

They were all required to take an oath of fidelity to the king of Spain during their residence in his dominions, or depart. It appears the oath was taken by eighty-three individuals.

Colonel Hamilton, who commanded at the British post at Detroit, came this year to Vincennes, on the Wabash, with about six hundred men, chiefly Indians, with a view to an expedition against Kaskaskia, and up the Ohio as far as Fort Pitt, and the back settlements of Virginia. Colonel Clark heard, from a trader who came down from Vincennes to Kaskaskia, that Hamilton, not intending to take the field until spring, had sent most of his force to block. up the Ohio, or to harass the frontier settlers, keeping at Vincennes sixty soldiers only, with three pieces of cannon and some swivels. The resolution was immediately taken to improve the favourable opportunity for averting the impending danger; and Clark accordingly despatched a small galley, mounting two four pounders and four swivels, on board of which he put a company of soldiers, with orders to pursue her way up the Wabash, and anchor a few miles be low Vincennes, suffering nothing to pass her. He now sat off with one hundred and twenty men, the whole force he could command, and marched towards Vincennes. They were five days in crossing the low lands of the Wabash, in the neighbourhood of Vincennes, after having spent sixty in crossing the wilderness, wading for several nights up to their breasts in water. Appearing suddenly before the town, they surprised and took it. Hamilton for a while defended the fort, but was at last compelled to surrender.

The prospects of the United States had been much

brightened, on the recognition of their independence by France, and the conclusion of a treaty of alliance. and commerce with that power, on the sixth of February.

In the summer, the British evacuated Philadelphia, and marched through the state of Jersey to New-York. A large detachment of it invaded the coast of the state of Georgia, and took possession of Savannah,

The cabildo made choice of Piernas and Duver ger as ordinary alcades, on the first of January, 1779.

Toutant de Beauregard took his seat in that body as a perpetual regidor and principal provincial alcade; and Mazange succeeded Garic as clerk.

Don Juan Dorotheo del Portege succeeded Odoardo in the office of auditor of war and assessor of government.

According to the order made the last year, eighty-seven individuals from the United States, or British provinces, took a temporary oath of fidelity to the Catholic king.

The province, this year, received another accession of population, by the arrival ofa number of families brought over, at the king's expense, from Malaga. They were treated as favourably as those who came, in the preceding year, from the Canary islands. It appears, from documents extant, that some heads of families received, besides a grant of land, in cattle, rations, pecuniary and other aid, between three and four thousand dollars. They were sent to form a settlement on bayou Teche, in the district of the Atakapas, under the order of Bouligny. The place was called New-Iberia. The industry of

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the new comers was at first directed to the culture of flax and hemp; but without success.

At the same time, the king sent a spiritual relief to the province, consisting of six capuchin friars; one of whom, at this day, remains in the exercise of his pastoral functions, as curate of the parish of St. Louis in the city of New-Orleans.

The small pox made great havock in New-Orleans and on the plantations, above and below.

Great Britain had considered the recognition of the independence of the United States by France, the treaty of alliance and commerce which she had coneluded with them, and the succour which she had afforded them, as equivalent to a declaration of war; and hostilities had actually begun, when Spain offered her mediation, and proposed a general peace for a term of years, with a meeting of the ministers of the belligerent powers at Madrid, to which those of the United States were to be admitted, and treated as the representatives of an independent people. Altho' it was not insisted that the king of Great Britain should formally recognise his former subjects as independent, it was understood that they should be so de facto, and absolutely separated from the empire of Great Britain. On the declaration by the cabinet of St. James, that no negociation would be entered into with the United States, even under the modifications proposed, the Catholic king determined on taking a part in the war, and ordered his ambassador at London to deliver a rescript, in which, after reciting several grounds of complaint, he declared his sovereign's determination to use every means in his power to obtain justice. The ambassador left London without taking leave; and letters of marque and reprisals

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