Soon afterwards Bienville himself departed for the Mississippi, where he was engaged until the autumn of 1716. With much sternness and severity he punished the Natchez for the murder of some Frenchmen, and built a fort in their country. But with these events we have little to do. When he came back to Mobile, he was agreeably surprised to find orders directing him to govern the province until a successor to Cadillac should arrive.

Cadillac had been steadily losing favor with the authorities in France. Suspecting plots against himself in Mobile, he had retired to Dauphine Island, from which he issued an order forbidding all persons of low birth to carry weapons in any settlement where there was a regular garrison. Crozat became convinced that the disorders of which Cadillac was complaining were due to the governor himself. The French government decided to recall him; and M. de l'Epinay was named as his successor. Duclos also was recalled. The new officers arrived in March, 1717, bringing with them some soldiers and emigrants. They brought the Cross of St. Louis to Bienville as a mark of royal favor, and he was confirmed royal lieutenant.

But De l'Epinay's stay was destined to be short. Crozat was finding his contract a burden. Nothing had been won from trade with the Spaniards. He now turned his attention to commerce with the Indians on the rivers above Mobile. But De l'Epinay could not make this pay, and Crozat offered to return his charter to the king. The offer was accepted, and the government of the colony was again transferred to Bienville. During the five years under the charter it had not prospered, but the population had increased to seven hundred. Some of the inhabitants had been successful in private dealings with the Indians and in a contraband trade with the Spaniards.

Crozat was born a peasant. After he had grown rich and rendered important services to the French government, the title of Marquis de

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Chetel was conferred upon him, but the older nobility did not recognize him as belonging to their class. He was disappointed in his hope to espouse his daughter to a son of an ancient house, and this is said to have driven him to the Louisiana enterprise. He thought to make himself master of an empire, believing that then the proudest would acknowledge him their equal.

Antoine de la Mothe (or La Motte) Cadillac was born in Gascony, France, about the year 1660, but went early to Canada in the king's service. He laid the foundation of Detroit by building a fort there. He died in France in 1717. A contemporary describes him as "an avaricious, cunning, and obstinate man, who kept to himself everything which the court sent to the savages."

QUESTIONS.

When, why, and whither was Fort Louis removed? Why was Louisiana farmed out to Crozat? Give the principal conditions of the contract. In what state did Crozat's agents find the colony? Tell what you know of Cadillac. What reports did he make to the French government? Why, where, and when was Fort Toulouse built? Tell the story of the expedition to build it. What do you know of Cadillac's western journey? Of Bienville's dealings with the Indians? Why was Cadillac recalled? Who succeeded, and what was his policy? What was the general effect of Crozat's rule on the colony? Tell what you know of the following, pointing out places on the map: The bounds of Louisiana in 1712; Duclos; Ecuncharte; Tuskegee (Taskigi); Mandeville; the trouble with the Natchez.

CHAPTER IV.

LAW AND HIS COMPANY.

JOHN LAW.

ANOTHER experiment was now tried with the colony of Louisiana. It had not prospered when administered directly by the French government, and it had made little progress under the management of Crozat. In September, 1717, it was turned over to a company, called the Company of the West. The leading man in this company was a remarkable individual named John Law.

Law was by birth a Scotchman, and had led

a life of wandering and adventure throughout Europe. He had killed an adversary in a duel and had acquired some notoriety as a gambler when he first attracted the attention of the world as a financier. He had worked out a system of finance, the chief feature of which was the issue of paper money on various sorts of securities. He founded a bank at Paris, and for a time he was very prosperous. Louis XIV. had died, and as his successor, Louis XV., was a child, Philippe, Duke of Orleans, was regent of France. The

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Duke lent a ready ear to Law's schemes. France was heavily in debt, and its ruler was ready to try any plan that would help him to raise money. The Company of the West was formed in the hope that Louisiana might be made the basis of a great system of credit. The powers conveyed by the new charter were various and extensive.

The apparent success of Law's schemes set Paris wild with the spirit of speculation, and all Europe was affected by the craze. Shares in the company's stock went up by leaps and bounds. The directors set to work with enthusiasm, and ship after ship, bearing colonists and supplies, was sent to Mobile. Large tracts of land were given to rich men, who engaged to send out emigrants to make settlements. In April, 1718, the news reached Mobile that Bienville had been made governor with a good salary. He at once began to seek a new location for the principal settlement of the colony, and soon fixed upon the site of New Orleans. A clearing was made at this point and a few houses built.

But his plan met with opposition. By a royal ordinance a supreme council, composed of the governor, the directors of the company who resided in Louisiana, and certain other officers, was entrusted with the management of affairs in the colony. The council, leaning to the view that commerce promised better results than agriculture, and fearing the floods of the Mississippi, voted in favor of a new settlement on the western shore of Biloxi Bay, to be called New Biloxi. Men were accordingly sent to this point to build barracks and houses, and in 1720 the government was established there. But Mobile was still the chief settlement.

Considerable numbers of negro slaves were imported for work on the plantations, and the institution of slavery was thus firmly established. The prices at which slaves should be sold to the colonists were fixed by company regulations, and it was not long before a thousand negroes had been distributed throughout the settlements. With this labor,

which was adapted to the climate, some progress was made in the cultivation of rice, indigo, and tobacco.

But it cannot be said that the methods of the company were as wise as they were vigorous. The regulation of the price of slaves was in keeping with the policy which had prevailed from the beginning of the French settlements. It was a policy in which the liberty and the wishes of the colonists were not considered. The prices of the things they had to sell were fixed by the same outside power which fixed the prices of the things they had to buy. One writer says that they were treated like slaves; but perhaps it would be fairer to say that they were treated like children. Their interests and desires were but little considered. The company and its interests were regarded as more important than anything else. Moreover, the colonists themselves had not been wisely selected. Many of the men were worthless characters who had never accomplished anything at home; and many of the women who were sent over to be their wives had been taken from houses of correction in Paris. Some gentlemen adventurers, however, came to try their fortunes in the new world, and doubtless also some poor people whose poverty was not caused by any faults of their own.

One source of trouble to the colony was not due to the company's mismanagement. This was a curious little warfare with the Spanish settlement at Pensacola which was caused by the outbreak of hostilities between France and Spain at the beginning of the year 1719. The news of the declaration of war reached Mobile in April of that year, and it was at once decided to attack Pensacola. Governor Bienville, with a force of Canadians and Indians, proceeded against the fort by land, while Serigny went by water with three men-of-war and a hundred soldiers. The Spanish commander, Matamora, finding himself invested by sea and land, surrendered at once (May 14). The Spanish garrison was sent to Cuba on board two of the men-of-war, and