LOUISIAIU
381
LOUISIANA
tlie five heroic men were shot by Spanish soldiers on
25 Oet.. 1769. Six others of the insurgents were con-
demned to imprisonment in Morro Castle at Havana.
Among them was Jean Idilhet, the patriotic merchant.
O'Reilly acted with impardonable severity, and his
victims are known as the Martyrs of Louisiana".
Although the Spanish domination began with cruelty,
it was afterwards mild and paternal, and at one time
^orious. Most of the officials married Creole wives,
women of French origin, and the influence of charming
and gentle ladies was most beneficial. Unzaga, who
succeeded O'Reilly in the ^vemment of Louisiana,
acted with great tact in dealmg with the Louisianians.
and Bernardo de Calves gave them prosperity ana
glonr and reconciled them to the rule of Spain. In
1779 the war between the United States and Great
Britain was at its height. France had recognized the
independence of the new republic, and Lafayette had
offered his sword to aid Washington in his great work.
Spain came also to the help of the Americans, and
dedaied war against En^nd on 8 May, 1779. On
8 Julv Charles III authorized his subjects in America
to take part in the war, and Galvez, who had thus far
acted as provisional governor, received his commission
as governor and intmidant. He resolved immediately
to attack the British possessions in West Floricfa, and
refused to accept the advice of a council of war, that he
should not begm his operations before he had received
reinforcements from Havana. He had already aicled
the cause of the Americans by furnishing ammunition
and money to their agent in New Orleans.
He called a meeting of the principal inhabitants in the city and told them that he could not take the oath oi office as governor, unless the people of Louisiana promised to help him in waging war against the Brit- ish. This was assented to with enthusiasm by all the men who were at the meeting, and Galvez made preparations to attack Baton Rouge, which the British nad named New Richmond, and which for a time hod be^i called Dironville by the French from Diron d'Artaguette, an early official in the colony. On 27 Aug., 1779, Galvez marched with an army of 670 men against Baton Rouge, and sent his artillery by boEitB on the river. On 7 September lie took by storm Fort Bute at Manchac, and on 21 Septem- ber, captured Baton Rouge. It was agreed that Fort Panmura at Natchez should capitulate also. The campaign of Galvez was glorious, and the greater part of his army was composed of Louisianian Creoles of French origin, and of Acadians who wished to take vengeance upon the British for their cruelties against them, when they were so ruthlesslv torn from their homes in 1755. The heroism of Galvez and his army in 1779 inspired Julien Poydras to write a short epic poem, La Prise du Mome du Baton Rouge par MoDseigneur de Galvez ", a work which was published in New Orleans in 1779, and was the first effort of French literature in Louisiana. In 1780 Galvez attacked Fort Charlotte at Mobile and captured it, and in 1781 he resolved to make the conquest of Pensacola and to expel the British entirely from the country adjoining New Orleans. He went to Havana and obtained men and a fleet for his expedition. Among the ships was a man-of-war, the San Ramon ", com- manded by Commodore Callx> de Irazabal. When an attempt was made to cross the bar and enter the harbour of Pensacola the ** San Ramon " ran aground. Irasabaly thereupon, refused to allow the frigates of his fleet to cross the bar. Galvez, who understood how important it was that the fleet should enter the port, in order that the army should not l)e left with- out means of subsistence on the island of St. Rosa, resolved to be the first to force entrance into the port. He embarked on board the brig " Galveztown", com- manded by Rousseau, a Louisianian, and which was directly under his orders, and, followed by a schooner and two gunboats, he boldly entered the port. He
had caused his pennant to be raised on the " Galves-
town", that his presence on board might be known,
and acted with'such valour that the Spanish squadron
followed the next day and crossed the bar. After a
siege of several months Fort George and Fort Red
CliBf in the Barrancas were captured, and Pensacola
surrendered on 9 May, 1781. For his exploits against
the British the King of Spain made Galvez a lieuten-
ant-general and captain-general of Louisiana and West
Florida, and allowed him to place as a crest on his
coat of arms the brig " Galveztown" with the motto,
" Yo Solo " (I alone). The campai^ of Galvez gave
the Louisianians the right to claim the honour of
ha\'ing taken part in the war for American independ-
ence, and the help given the Americans by the Spaniards
was acknowledged by Washington in letters to Galvez.
The heroic Governor of Louisiana became Viceroy of
Mexico in 1785 and died in 1786, aged thirty-eight.
During the Spanish domination, besides the ex- ploits of Galvez, we may mention as being of impor- tance in the history of the United States the attempts made by Governor Mir6 of Ix>uisiana in 1788, and Governor Carondelet in 1797, to separate the western country from the United States and join it to the S]:)am6n possessions in the south. The Mississippi River was absolutely necessary to the people in the West for their exports, and the right of deposit of their products at New Orleans was guaranteed to them l)y a treaty between Spain and the United States in 1795. In 1800, however, Louisiana became French again by treaty, and the Americans seemed destined to have much more powerful neighbours than the Spaniards had ever been. France was at the time under the rule of Napoleon Bonaparte. He wished to revive the colonial empire of !• ranee, lost during the wretched reign of Louis XV. He easily obtained that province from Charles IV. By the secret Treaty of St. Ildefonso, 1 Oct., 1800, connrmed by that of Madrid, 21 March, 1801, Louisiana was retroce<led to France, and Bonaparte made great plans for the administration and development of the
Province. He wished it to be a kind of storehouse for anto Domingo, which he mtended to reconquer from the blacks, and he appointed as captain-general of Louisiana one of his most distinguished officers, Victor, who later Ix^came Duke of Bellunc and Marshal of France.
The plans of Bonaparte in regard to Louisiana were fnistrated by the subsequent outbreak of hostilities between France and England. Victor never reached the province he was given to govern, and when Pierre- Clement de Laiissat, the colonial prefect, arrived in New Orleans in March, 1803, Louisiana was on the point of becoming American. The right of deposit in New Orleans had been twice withdrawn by the Span- ish intendant, and the people of the West feared they would lose the natural outlet for their products. There was great agitation on the subject in C'ongress, and President Jefferson sent James Monroe to France in March, 1S03, to co-operate with Rolxirt R. Livings- ton in the negotiations concerning the cession to the United States of New Orleans and of the Island of Orleans. Bonaparte, meanwhile, made up his mind to offer the whole province to the American negotia- tors, and on 30 April, 1803, Monroe, Livingston, and Barb^-Marbois signed the 'treaty of Paris, by which Louisiana was ceded to the United States for about $15,000,000. Bonaparte himself prepared the tliird article of the treaty, which reads as follows: "The inhabitants of the ceded territor>' shall be incorporated in the Union of the United States and admitted as soon as possible, according to the principles of the Federal Constitution, to the enjo^Tnent of all the rights, advantages, and immunities of citizens of the United States, and in the mean time they shall be maintained and protected in the free enjojTnent of their liberty, prosperity, and the religion which they
