insurgents. But this was anticipating the happening of an event which was not likely to occur, for the Americans would have been very little disposed to avail themselves of the officious proposition of the king of Spain to relieve them from the burden of keeping any of their acquisitions, and they would certainly have been inclined, and would probably have thought themselves able, to retain possession of their conquests, should they have made any.

Some of their incursions in the territory acknowledging the sway of Great Britain, west of the Ohio, and on the banks of the Mississippi, had proved highly successful, and the militia of Virginia had possessed themselves of Kaskaskia, and of some other posts on that river. By an act of the Legislature, the region which Virginia had thus acquired was erected into a county called Illinois, and a regiment of infantry and a troop of horse were raised for its protection, under the command of Colonel Clark. It will be recollected that, by the last treaty of peace between Great Britain and France, the Mississippi had been given to North Carolina as its western limit. But George III. had forbidden any settlement of white people to the west of the mountains of North Carolina. Notwithstanding this prohibition, a considerable number of emigrants from that province had removed to the banks of the Watauga, one of the branches of the Holston. "They had increased to such a degree," says Judge Martin in his History of Louisiana, "that, in 1776, their claim to representation in the convention that framed the constitution was admitted. In 1777, they were formed into a county which had the Mississippi for its western boundary." Thus, at this early period of their history, had the United States extended their dominion and carried their flag and their laws to the banks of that mighty stream over which they were destined to

GALVEZ GIVES ASSISTANCE TO THE AMERICANS. 113

exercise, in the short space of less than forty years, an exclusive jurisdiction.

In the month of January, 1778, Captain Willing returned to New Orleans for the second time, to enter into communication and concert with Oliver Pollock who, with the permission and support of Galvez, had now openly assumed the character of an agent for the insurgents. The Court of Spain had gradually become less timid in its manifestation of hostility towards Great Britain; and Galvez, encouraged by his government, had gone so far as to give assistance to the Americans in arms, ammunition, provisions, &c., to the amount of seventy thousand dollars. By these means, the posts occupied by the militia of Virginia on the Mississippi had been strengthened, and the frontier inhabitants of Pennsylvania had received material aid and comfort. Under such encouraging circumstances, Willing had not hesitated to increase in New Orleans the crew of his boats; and with most of those same companions who had come down with him, and who were about fifty in number, he engaged in foraging and predatory excursions against the British planters on the Mississippi. This troop captured a small vessel which was at anchor near the mouth of Bayou Manchac, and took possession of the fort, which was evacuated by its garrison of about fifty or sixty men, who crossed the Mississippi and sought refuge on the Spanish side. In the very vessel of which they had possessed themselves, the Americans proceeded up the river to Baton Rouge, stopping at the several plantations on the way, burning all the houses and other buildings, and carrying off the negroes.

A good many of the British planters, on hearing of the approach of these unwelcome visitors, crossed the Mississippi with their most valuable effects and slaves, and sheltered themselves under the Spanish flag, which

floated on the right side of the river. The inhabitants on the left bank were scattered about, they were few in number, and therefore could not make any effective resistance. The invaders continued up as far as Natchez their course of devastation, laying waste the plantations, destroying the stock, applying the torch of the incendiary to the edifices, and carrying off such slaves as had not followed their masters in their flight. All the sympathies of the people of Louisiana were in favor of the Americans; "but," says Judge Martin in his history, "this cruel, wanton and unprovoked conduct towards a helpless community was viewed with great indignation and horror, much increased by the circumstance of Willing's having been hospitably received and entertained, the preceding year, in several houses which he now committed to the flames." It must also be added, that most of the sufferers by these acts of vandalism were well known in New Orleans, where they used to resort to supply their wants, or for social intercourse; and that all of them had more or less extensive relations with the Spanish portion of Louisiana, in whose families some of them had married. This contributed to draw from those inhabitants a keener reprobation of the conduct of Captain Willing, who was looked upon as having acted more like an Indian warrior than a civilized enemy.

The Americans, however, did not choose to attempt retaining possession of these posts, or of any portion of the territory they had thus devastated. In connection with these events, Villars and Favre D'Aunoy, the French commissioners at New Orleans, wrote to their government: "The Spaniards here see with regret these conquests, because it cuts off their hope of executing them on their own account, and of thereby securing for themselves the exclusive possession of the Gulf of Mexico. Besides, they feel that the mildness and the other advantages of the

NEW FACILITIES GRANTED TO COMMERCE IN 1778. 115

climate of Louisiana may seduce the Americans, and attract them to a region, from which the communication with the Gulf of Mexico begins to be better and more practically known, presenting but trifling difficulties, &c. Therefore, it is the interest of Spain that France should recover the possession of Louisiana.”

Such was not, however, the opinion of the Spanish government, which, to increase the prosperity of the colony, and to bring relief to the distresses from which it was suffering, was disposed to relax the severity of the commercial restrictions under which it was placed. In accordance with this more judicious policy, which was, at last, forcing itself upon the councils of Spain, Galvez, by a proclamation of the 20th of April, 1778, in order to facilitate the sale of the produce of the colony, permitted its exportation to any of the ports of France. This proclamation had been preceded by one issued on the 17th, which granted a similar privilege of trading with any part of the United States.

By a royal order of the 4th of May, 1778, the indemnity to be paid to owners of slaves sentenced to death, perpetual labor and transportation, or of runaway slaves killed in the attempt made to arrest them, was fixed at two hundred dollars a head; but, in this latter case,* the indemnity was due only to those who had previously consented to pay a proportion of the price of the slaves thus killed, which proportion was to be deducted from the indemnity.

The province was reviving under the healthful influence of the extension of its commercial franchises, when it received a considerable accession to its population by the arrival of a number of families, transported to Louisiana from the Canary Islands, at the king's expense.

* Martin's History of Louisiana, vol. ii., p. 43.

Some of them, under the command of Marigny de Mandeville, settled at Terre aux Bœufs, on a tract of land now included in the parish of St. Bernard; others, under the guidance of St. Maxent, located themselves near Bayou Manchac, at about twenty-four miles from the town of Baton Rouge, where they established a village which they called Galvezton; the rest formed that of Venezuela, on Bayou Lafourche. The government carried its parental solicitude so far as to build a house for each family, and a church for each settlement. These emigrants were very poor, and 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 afforded to them.* Their descendants are now known under the name of Islingues, which is derived from the Spanish word, Isleños, meaning islanders.

It must not be forgotten that, by an ordinance promulgated when Spain took possession of Louisiana, in 1766, vessels from New Orleans were restricted to sail to six Spanish ports only. Persisting in the new and wiser course of policy into which he had lately entered, the king put Louisiana on the same footing with his more favored colonies, and opened to her vessels any of the ports of the Peninsula to which the commerce of the Indies was permitted. Furthermore, the exportation of furs and peltries from Louisiana was, at the same time, encouraged by an exemption from duty for a period of ten years, and it was only on their re-exportation from Spain that the ordinary duty was to be paid.

This was a step towards liberality, but what seemed to the colonists to be a departure from it was the prohibition of the introduction and reading of a French book,

*Martin's History of Louisiana, vol. i., p. 43.