YALE UNIVERSITY
LIBRARY

EARLY TEADE AND TRAVEL IN THE LOWER
MISSISSIPPI VALLEY
By William 0. Scko'ggs
To give anything like a full and accurate picture of
the travel and traffic in the lower Mississippi Valley be
fore the nineteenth century is impossible. Traders rarely
made records of their goings and comings, and it is only
occasionally that we catch glimpses of adventurers
threading their way from Virginia through the gaps of
the Alleghanies or pushing out from Carolina around the
southem foot of the Appalachian range in the direction
of the Father of Waters. Mr. Roosevelt in his Winning
of the West states that "at the outbreak of the Revolu
tion they [the Americans] still all dwelt on the seaboard,
either on the coast itself or along the banks of the streams
flowing into the -Atlantic. When the ifight at Lexington
took place they had no settlements beyond the mountain
chain on our western border. It had taken them over a
century and a half to spread from the Atlantic to the
Allieghanies. ' ' ^ He thus intimates that the line of Eng
lish settlements did not pass beyond the mountains until
after the Colonies had achieved their independence. To
this, the traditional view, however, Professor Edward
Channing has recently opposed a flat denial by declaring
that from 1713 to 1754 "the English occupation of the
country from the Gulf to the Ohio and between the Alle
ghanies and the Mississippi is . . . difficult to trace, but it
was none the less eiffective." "
Investigation shows that the Alleghanies did not en
tirely confine the English to the seaboard before the Rev-
* 1 Edition of 1900, Pt. I, p. 37.
2 Channing's History of the United States, Vol. II, p. 550.

olution. Before the middle of the eighteenth century
English explorers and traders in the lower Mississippi
basin were numerous, and a few adventurous pioneers had
even dared to build their homes in this region. The first
exploration from the Virginia coast beyond the Blue
Ridge, of which there is any record, was made in 1671 by
General Abram Wood. Acting under orders from Gov
emor Berkeley to determine whether the westward-flow
ing rivers entered the South Sea, he reached the Alle
ghanies, found a stream which proved to be the largest
tributary of the Kanawha, and retumed home firm in the
belief that he had been very near the Pacific.^
Other Governors of Virginia also displayed a great
amoimt of interest in the westem country. In a letter to
the Lords of Trade, dated December 15, 1710, Govemor
Spotswood urged that the English should move up the
James River, cross the mountains, and separate the
French in Canada from those in Louisiana. In the au
tumn of this year the Govemor sent out a party of ex
plorers, who found the mountains about one hundred
miles from the upper inhabitants and ascended one of the
highest ridges on horseback. On their retum, says the
Govemor, "they assured me that the descent on the other
side seemed to be as easy as that they had passed on this,
and that they could have passed over the whole Ledge
(which is not large) if the season of the year had not been
too far advanced." * Six years later the Govemor him
self and a party of friends crossed the Blue Ridge and
made a reconnaissance of the Shenandoah Valley, halting
on the crest of the ridge to fire a few volleys of musketry
and drink the health of the king and the royal family in
champagne. Burgundy, and claret. It is very interesting
'Johnston's First Explorations of Kentucky, in the Filson Club
Publications, No. 13, p. vii.
* Offimal Letters of Alexander Spotswood, Vol. I, p. 40, published as
Vol. I of the Collections of the Virginia Kistorioal Society.

to note that on descending the western slope of the moun
tain ihey followed trees which had formerly been blazed,
and consequently they were not the first travelers in the
region." There is considerable evidence that by 1750 traders
had for years been crossing the Alleghanies. The explor
er La Salle, as he descended the Mississippi River in
1682, came to the conclusion that the English were even
then crossing the mountains and disposing of their wares
to Indians along the river, for he could account in no
other way for the numerous articles of European make
which he found among the savages. The Frenchman even
thought of closing the mountain passes in order to keep
the English out of the Mississippi Valley.' It was not,
however, until 1748 that any concerted eiffort was made
for actual settlement in this region from Virginia. In
this year Thomas Lee, Lawrence and Augustine Wash
ington, and others from Virginia and Maryland formed
an association known as the Ohio Company and received
a grant of a large tract of land between the Monongahela
and Kanawha rivers, with the object of planting settle
ments and trading with the Indians. In the following
year the company sent out Christopher Gist to explore
the country, and he was occupied with this work until
1752. After completing his explorations. Gist was or
dered to lay off a town and a fort at Shurtee's Creek on
the east of the Ohio, a little below the present Pittsburgh.
Gist then settled in the Monongahela Valley near the pro
posed town and was soon joined by eleven other families.
In the meantime the Ohio Company had built a store
house at Will's Creek (the present Cumberland, Mary
land) and a road had been surveyed from this post to the
mouth of the Monongahela River. Will's Creek was the

B An account of this expedition is contained in the Journal of John
Fontaine. 8 See Winsor 'b Mississippi Basin, p. 48.

centre of a flourishing trade with the westem Indians.'
In 1749 the Loyal Land Company received from the
Virginia assembly a grant of 800,000 acres west of the
mountains in what is now the State of Kentucky. In the
spring of 1750 the company sent Dr. Thomas Walker
across the mountains through the Cumberland Gap to
explore the grant and note the lands suitable for settle
ment. This was not Walker's first trip; he had been as
far as the Holston River in 1748, and mentions his meet
ing in that year with a man named Stalnaker on his way
to the Cherokee Indians.* On his second joumey Walker
also met with evidences of the white man's movement
in this region, in the form of trees blazed and cut with
initialsr' At some point ^n the upper waters of the
Cumberland River Walker built a house, and it is prob
able that he lived there for a number of years, as the
dwelling is indicated on various maps of the period."
Washington in his Journal, compiled during his
tramp with Gist to the Ohio Valley in 1753, speaks of a
Mr. Frazier 's, at the mouth of Turtle Creek, on the
Monongahela River. He also mentions Gist's new settle
ment, which, he says, "is west north-west seventy miles
from Will's Creek", and states that during his journey
he met an Indian trader named Brown and four French
deserters on their way to Philadelphia. The face of the
white man, then, was not such a rare sight in the western
wildemess as has sometimes been supposed. Logan, in
his History of Upper South Carolina, tells us that in
1758 one Anthony Park traveled several hundred miles
7 Gist 'b Journal may be found in Johnston 'a First Explorations of
Kentuo'ky in the Filson CMb FuMications, No. 13. For an account of his
settlement, see Lowdermilk's History of Cumberland, p. 28, and Sparks 's
Life of 'Washvngton, Vol. I, p. 26.
s Johnston 's First Explorations of Kentuo'ky, in the Filson Cluh
Puilieations, No. 13, p. 42.
9 Johnston 's First Explorations of Kentucky, in the Filson- Club
Publications, No. 13, p. 54.
10 Channing's History of the United States, Vol. II, p. 558.

west of the moiijitains and found there several white men
who had lived among the Indians for twenty years, a
few who had been in the region from forty to fifty years,
and one who had been there sixty years. There is also
a story of a Virginia trader named Daugherty who made
his abode among the westem Indians for the purposes
of traffic as early as 1690."
It was in South Carolina, however, that western trade
reached its fullest development. Many of the early Car
olina fortunes were gained through this traffic with the
Indians, and many of the most prominent men in the Col
ony were at one time engaged in this business." From
Charleston westward to the Mississippi there was an al
most level route and a comparatively dense Indian pop
ulation with which to barter.^' A map of North America,
published by Dr. John Mitchell in 1755, and perhaps the
most elaborate and accurate map of the country pub
lished during the colonial period, contains the statement
that "The English have factories and settlements in all
the towns of the Creek Indians of any note, except Al-
bamas; which was usurped by the French in 1715 but
established by the English 28 years before." This of
course means that English traders were on the Alabama
River as early as 1687; that is, within seventeen years
after the founding of Charleston, and fully twelve years
before French settlers had landed on the Gulf coast.
In fact, it was the aggressiveness of the English in
pushing out toward the Southwest that caused Louis
XIV to renew the eifforts at colonizing the lower Missis-

11 Logan's History of Upper South Carolina, p. 168.
12 iMeCrady 'a South Carolina vmder the Proprietary Govemment, pp.
345-347, and South Carolina under the Eoyal Government, p. 270.
13 Descriptions of the traders ' trails to the Southwest may be found
in Logan's History of Upper South Carolina and in a monograph by Peter
J. iHamilton in the Transactions of the Alabama iHistorieal Society, Vol.
II, p. 41. An inteireBting description at first hand of these routes as they
appeared in 1776 is ^ven by William Bartram in his Travels, p. 306.

sippi Valley, which had been so suddenly intermpted by
the death of La Salle." Two years before the sailing of
Iberville, Remonville, in a memoir addressed to Count
de Pontchartrain, called attention to the English designs
on the Mississippi, knowledge of whieh he had obtained
from merchants trading with England." At the very
moment when Iberville was exploring the lower Mississip
pi, Edward Randolph, that much-hated emissary of the
English govemment, while at Charleston wrote to the
Lords of Trade, under the date of March 16, 1699, that
he had talked with a member of the Governor's Council,
a great Indian trader, who had been six hundred miles
west of Charleston, and who was willing to undertake
the exploration of the Mississippi and to "find out the
mouth and the true latitude thereof", "if his Majest/will
please to pay the charge, w** will not be above £400 or
£500 at most"." Six days later, in another letter, he
mentions the fact that Colonel James -Moore had crossed
the "Apalathean" mountains for inland discovery and
the Indian trade. The news that a French expedition
was headed for the Mississippi had already reached
Charleston, he said, and had created much uneasiness
among the Carolinians."
Mitchell's map, referred to above, gives the route of
a certain Colonel Welch to the Mississippi in 1698 and
says that it was afterwards followed by other traders.
This claim, that the English had reached the Mississippi
1* ' ' Seule une prompte intervention de la France pouvait emp§eher
1 'Angleterre de s'approprier tout le fruit des dficouvertes de La SaUe." —
iHeinrich's La Louisiane sous la Compagnie des Indes, p. xxviii.
15 French's Historical Collections of Louisiana and Florida (new
series, 1869), pp. 1-10. Further indication of French anxiety as to the
designs of the English upon the ilMississippi is discovered in a letter of the
iMinister of Marine, Aug. 27, 1698. — See IMargry's Memoires et Docu
ments, Vol. IV, p. 82.
18 iRivers 's South Carolina, App., p. 445.
17 CoUections of the Historical Society of South Carolina, Vol. I,
p. 208.

from Carolina before the French had made their settle
ments on the Gulf, may be verified from French sources.
In May, 1699, Bienville found the natives in a village on
the north shore of Lake Pontchartrain greatly disturbed
because two days before they had been attacked by a
party of Chickasaws led by two white men calling them
selves Englichi.^^ These were evidently Carolina tra
ders. Some months later Bienville reports that ' ' several
Englishmen from Carolina are among the Chickasaws,
where they trade in peltry and slaves". He says that
these traders ascend a river to its headwaters and from
there transport their goods by horses to the Chickasaw
villages. It is his purpose, he says, to capture the traders
by drawing them away from the Chickasaws on the pre
text of commerce, but that he would not dare interfere
with them in the presence of these Indians, who might
thereby lose their friendship for the French."
In this same year Le Sueur and Penicaut went up
the Mississippi prospecting for minerals, and on the Ar
kansas River, eight leagues above its mouth, they found
an English trader, who, says Penicaut, "gave us much
assistance with his provisions, as our supply was nearly
exhausted. " ^^ Le Sueur asked the trader who sent him
there; he replied that he was sent by the Govemor of
Carolina, and showed the Frenchmen a passport from
that official, who, he said, was the master of the river."
French sources, therefore, seem to verify the statement
of John Archdale, Governor of Carolina from 1694 to
1696, that ' ' Charlestown trades near one thousand miles
into the continent." ^^
The fear of the French that the English would reap

18 La iHarpe 's Journal Historique, pp. 14, 15.
isiMargry's Memoires et Documents, Vol. IV, p. 361.
20 French 's Historical Collections of Louisiana and Florida (New
series, 1869), p. 63.
2iiMargry'8 MSmoires et Documents, Vol. V, p. 402.
22 Carroll 's Historical Collections of South Carolina, Vol. II, p. 97.

the fmits of La Salle's discovery was not groundless;
they not only found English traders among the natives,
but in September, 1699, Bienville actually met an Eng
lish frigate in the Mississippi River, twenty-eight
leagues above its mouth, at a point, which, from the fact
that the ship turned back, is called the English Turn,
or Bend, to this day."' According to La Harpe, it was the
enterprise of the English on the Mississippi that led Iber
ville to establish his post on this river in 1700."
It was in the English traders that French Colonial
schemes in the lower Mississippi Valley encountered an
insurmountable obstacle. Sometimes by presents, some
times by threats, and more particularly by the abundance,
quality, and cheapness of their merchandise, adven
turers from Carolina and Virginia kept the greater part
of the savages friendly to themselves and consequently
more or less hostile to the French, and thus accomplished
in the South results similar to those achieved by the
British with the Iroquois in the North. In the Southem
debatable land there were four great tribes or nations.
The northernmost, and the most civilized, were the Chero
kees, occupying mainly the territory included in the
present State of Tennessee ; below them, between the Mis
sissippi and Tombigbee rivers, and as far south as
the Yazoo, lived the Chickasaws, reputed to be unusually
brave and warlike. The Chickasaws had for their neigh
bors the Creeks on the east and the Choctaws on the
south. The French seem to have had no difficulty in
winning the Choctaws over to their side, and for a time
they also counted the Chickasaws among their friends.""*
23Margry's MSmoires et Documents, Vol. IV, p. 361; La iHarpe 's
Journal Historique, pp. 19, 20; iE^ench's Historical Collections of Louisiana
and Florida (New series, 1869), p. 59. These various accounts differ in
details, but all agree that the Englishman tumed back and left the French
in possession of the river. i
24 La iHarpe 's Jowmal Historique, p. 25.
20 La Harpe 's Journal Historique, p. 80.

But if we may believe French accounts it was not long be
fore English traders set these two nations against each
other, with the result that the Chickasaws became favora
ble to the English, while the Choctaws, as a rule, remain
ed the friends of the French as long as the later held the
country. Penicaut and La Harpe tell us that the ill-feel
ing between Choctaws and Chickasaws began in 1705,
when the latter sold to English traders as slaves several
Choctaw families that were visiting them; and if this
statement is correct the traders committed a blunder very
similar in its ultimate results to that committed by
Champlain in the North a century before.^'
Whatever was the real cause of the Choctaw ani
mosity, it is certain that the English could gain admission
into the villages of this nation only at rare intervals,
while at the same time they possessed the friendship of
the Cherokees, Chickasaws, and, to a less degree, of the
Creeks. After 1706 the English seem to have exerted
every effort to gain the good will of the Choctaws, being
lavish in promises and presents, and Bienville had to
work hard to retain their loyalty. The French were es
pecially concemed with regard to the Choctaws during
Queen Ainne's War, when there were rumors of prepara
tions for an English attack on Mobile and of intrigues
with the Choctaws for active aid or at least for permis
sion to pass through their country." These Indians, how
ever, remained true to the French, and Louisiana came
through the war unscathed, although the English could
have taken it at any time. For some time before the close
of this war the aggressiveness of the Carolinians in the
Southwest was checked by a rising of the Tuscaroras and
neighboring tribes; but with the return of peace the
routes to the interior were again clear, and the English

28 French 's Historical Collections of Louisiana and Florida (New
series, 1869), p. 97; La iHarpe 's Journal Historique, pp. 89-95.
27Heinrich's La Louisiane sous la Compagnie des Indes, p. Iiii.

10
traders resumed their efforts to win all the natives. They
set up factories among the Chickasaws, set the Natchez
and the Illinois to fighting against each other, so as to
purchase their captives as slaves, and even entered the
territory of the Alibamons (a portion of the Creek na
tion) , where the French had just erected Fort Toulouse.
Even the Choctaws finally yielded to their blandishments
and admitted the English into some of their villages ; and
the traders, when ordered by Cadillac to leave, sent back
word that they were not afraid of him and his forty or
fifty French knaves. In despair the Govemor declared
that he preferred open war to a peace so full of treach
ery."* The English conquest, which Louisiana had escaped
during the war, seemed now on the point of being accom
plished in time of peace. The acti'vity of the traders was,
indeed, remarkable. In 1714 Penicaut made a trip to the
Natchez country and was greatly astonished to find there
three Englishmen, who, he says, had come to buy slaves."*
La Harpe also says that there were at this time a dozen
Englishmen among the Choctaws.'" In 1715 Bienville
wrote to Pontchartrain that three English officers were
among the Choctaws with a large body of other Indians,
and that they were bent on destroying villages which per
sisted in their loyalty to the French. Later he declared
that there was a rumor upon the upper Mississippi that
the Govemor of Carolina was distributing presents among
the savages to induce them to break French heads at Mo-

28 Heinrich 's La Louisiane sous la Compagnie des Indes, p. Ixix.
29Margry's MSmoires et Documents, Vol. V, p. 505; French's His
torical Collections of Louisiana and Florida (New series, 1869) pp. 123-
126; La Hairpe's Journal Historique, pp. 115-118. These accounts contain
a very interesting story of the pursuit down the Mississippi and the final
capture of one of these Englishmen, whom Penicaut calls "Mylord Master
Tou." 30 La iHarpe 's Journal Historique, p. 115.

11
bile.'^ We are told that in this year Bienville took meas
ures to break up the English trade on the Mississippi, and
that he heard of massacres of English traders ; '" but how
far his actions were responsible for the massacres can
not be determined. It is probable that the massacres
referred to had some connection with the great Indian
revolt known in Carolina as the Yamasee War, which be
gan in April, 1715. English aggressiveness was then at
its height from the Lakes to the Gulf. The traders, intox
icated by their success, began to cheat, seize property for
pretended debts, and charge exorbitant prices. Their
brutality aroused the deepest resentment among the
Creeks, Cherokees, Chickasaws, Yamasees, and other
tribes ; Spanish intrigue in Florida, and perhaps to some
extent French influence in Louisiana also, fanned the
flame. The English traders scattered among these va
rious tribes were put to death, often with great torture ;
Carolina was overrun by savages, and its population took
refuge in Charleston.''
The Indian uprising, coming at so opportune a mo
ment for preventing the English conquest of Louisiana,
served to cast a suspicion tipon the French of having
aided and abetted the movement ; but whatever may have
been their desire, the Louisiana colonists were in no con
dition to give any really effective aid to the savages.'*

31 iHeinrich's La Louisiane sous la Compagnie des Indes, pp. Ixix, Ixx.
32 French's Historical Collections of Louisiana and Florida (New
series, 1869), p. 129.
33MeCrady's South Carolina under the Proprietary Goverrvment, p.
353; iHeinrich's La Louisiane sous la Compagnie des Indes, p. Ixxi.
3* It is a fact worthy of note, however, that the French traders did
not incur the resentment of the savages during these troubles. In one of
the Chickasaw villages, for instance, there were fifteen English traders and
a Frenchman occupying the same cabin. The Indians suddenly rose and
slew the English, but their chief ordered the Frenchman to stand at Ms
side and fear notMng. Shortly afterwards, however, two young warriors
mistook the wMte man for an Englishman and slew him, "to the great
regret of the whole nation." — La iHarpe 's Journal Historique, p. 120.

12
The insurrection had two results. The French, profiting
as much as possible by the troubles of the Carolinians,
sought to clear the Mississippi of the English, and in
1716 built Fort Rosalie at the site of the present Natchez.
The Carolina proprietors, at the same time, perceiving
the necessity of a more effective control over both Indians
and traders, and tempted also by the, enormous profits
of the trade, had an act passed in 1716 giving the propri
etary government the entire control of the traffic, which
thus became a public monopoly. The trade had previous
ly been conducted by private enterprise. In 1719, how
ever, owing to complaints from the London merchants of
the monopolistic nature of the trade, the act was re
pealed." About 1717, with the return of peace and quiet
in Carolina, the western routes were reopened and Louisi
ana was again menaced with English invasion.
L'fipinay, the new Govemor, knowing nothing of the
Indian character, had disappointed the savages by not
distributing the usual presents, and the English were not
slow to take advantage of this blunder. The Indian chiefs
grumbled mightily at L'ifipinay's niggardliness, and called
him such things as an old woman who never went from
home and a mangy dog sent over by the great French
chief because he was dying of hunger in his own village."
At this time Sir Robert Montgomery received a grant
of a portion of Carolina south of the Savannah River, to be
known as Azilia, and had settlements been planted in
this region as contemplated, Louisiana would have been
further endangered. Fortunately for the French, how
ever, Carolina was again disturbed by Indian troubles,
followed by a revolution which overthrew the proprietary
govemment, and the colony was consequently too busily
36 Logan's History of Upper South Carolina, ch. X; MeCrady's
South Carolina under the Proprietary Govemment, p. 629.
38 iHeinrich's La Louisiane sous la Compagnie des Indes, p. 142.

:::^'-;1jS5 :t^^«*„-.h,,..

13
absorbed with domestic affairs to maintain its aggressive
policy toward its westem neighbor.
The fear of the French on the Mississippi was given
as one of the reasons why the people of Carolina desired
to be under the protection of the British Crown; and
whether this fear was real or feigned, the colonists by va
rious means made such an impression upon the Lords of
Trade that they instructed Francis Nicholson, the first
royal Govemor, to make special efforts to regain the
friendship of the Indians. Accordingly, with the estab
lishment of royal government in Carolina, we find the
English more aggressive in the Southwest than ever
before."' Unlicensed persons were prohibited from trad
ing with the Indians." The Cherokees and the Creeks
were each summoned to a great council, at which Govemor
Nicholson made them presents, marked the boundaries of
their lands, regulated weights and measures, appointed an
agent to look after the affairs of each nation, and had
both to choose a head chief to deal directly with the Gov
ernor.'^ In 1730 Sir Alexander Cuming arrived in South
Carolina, and at a great meeting of the Cherokee chiefs
secured an acknowledgment of their allegiance to the
British Crown. Later he carried seven of the chiefs to
London, where a treaty was drawn up stipulating that
the great king had ordered his children in Carolina to
"trade with the Indians, and fumish them with all man
ner of goods they want, and to make haste to build houses
and plant corn from Charlestown, towards the towns of
the Cherokees behind the great mountains." The Cher
okees, on their part, were to "take care to keep the trad
ing path clean, that there be no blood on the path where
the English tread, even though they should be accompa-
37 Heinrich 'b La Louisiane sous la Compagnie des Indes, p. 152.
38 MeCrady 's South Carolina under the Eoyal Govemment, p. 38.
39 Carroll's Historical Collections of South Carolina, Vol. I, pp. 258,
272, 278.

14
nied with other people with whom the Cherokees may be
at war : That the Cherokees shall not suffer their people
to trade with any other nation but the English, nor per
mit white men of any other nation to build any forts or
cabins, or plant any corn among them." The Indians
also agreed to retum the fugitive slaves of the planters,
and for every slave retumed were to receive a reward
in the form of a gun and a watch coat.*"
The renewed activity of the English in the South
west was noted by Charlevoix on his journey down the
Mississippi in 1721. He declares that the Chickasaws are
angered at the French for allying themselves with the
Illinois, and that the English of Carolina are striving to
increase the resentment. Two Frenchmen following
Charlevoix were slain by Chickasaws as soon as they left
the Illinois country.*^ On reaching Biloxi in 1722 he
hears of an English interloper there named Marshall,
who had considerable dealings with the French ; and dur
ing his stay there a Choctaw chief came to Bienville and
declared that the English were making his people great
promises and trying to induce them to have no more trade
with the French."
While the English were thus making headway, the
French were almost idle. In 1712 Crozat had received a
monopoly of the trade of Louisiana; in 1717 practically
the same privileges were conferred upon the Company
of the West, which two years later was transformed into
the Company of the Indies. The trade with the Indians
was entirely in the hands of the company, which fixed
arbitrarily the prices at which its goods were to be sold
and the prices to be paid for the furs of the natives.
Carolina traders, unfettered by such restrictions, could
*o Carroll's Historical Collections of South Carolina, Vol. I, p. 278.
*i Charlevoix 's Journal d'un 'Voyage dans l' Amerique Septentrionale,
Vol. Ill, p. 257.
*2 Charlevoix's Journal d'wn 'Foyage dans I'Ametique Septentrionale,
Vol. Ill, p. 483.

15
easily undersell their competitors. The personal qualities
of the French should undoubtedly have given them an ad
vantage in bartering with the natives ; the savage was as
much attracted by the affability and adaptability of the
Frenchman as he was repelled by the hauteur of the
Briton.*' But in the long run, as a means of gaining the
friendship of the aborigines, French manners proved far
less effective than English merchandise. Under the
regime of the Company of the Indies the French officials
were continually hampered by a dearth of goods, and
much of the stock sent by the company was so old that
the savages did not care for it.** The Lords of Trade in
1721 declared that the French could never compete with
the English in furnishing the Indians with European
commodities at honest and reasonable prices,*^ and Char
levoix himself at the same time stated that the English

*3 The Lords of Trade, in a memorial to the king in 1721, called
attention to the great advantage whieh the iPrench in America possessed
through their intermarriage with the natives, ' ' whereby their new Empire
may be peopled without draining France of its inhabitants", and recom
mended that the British colonial Governors should be instructed to encour
age sueh intermarriage in their provinces ! — See Documents Belating to
the Colonial History of the State of New York, Vol. V, p. 626.
The French seem to have been fully aware of their personal advantage
over the English in dealing with the natives. Charlevoix in his Journal
d'un Voyage dans I 'Amerique Septentrionale, Vol. Ill, p. 80, says: "Les
Anglois AmSriquains ne veulent point de Guerre, pajce qu'ils ont beaucoup
a perdre; iis ne mSnagent point les Sauvages parce qu'ils ne eroyent en
avoir besoin. La Jeunesse Frangoise, par des raisons contraires, deteste la
Paix, et vit bien avec les Naturels du Pays, dont elie s 'attire aisSment
I'estime pendant la Guerre, et I'amitiS en tout tems."
Baudry des LoziSres, in his Second Voyage d la Louisiane, Vol. I,
p. 397, says: "J'ai dit que les sauvages ont un penchant naturel pour
les Frangais, et je le tiens d'eux-mSmes j'ai m§me entendu dire k ceux qui
ont des relations eommerciales avec les North- Americains, qu'ils y tenaient
ainsi aux Anglais, sous le seul point de vue d'interet. "
*< Heinrich 's La Louisiane sous la Compagnie des Indes, p. 208.
^^ Documents Belating to the Colonial History of the State of New-
York, Vol. V, p. 626.

16
were selling the savages goods cheaper than were the
French.*' Govemor Spotswood of Virginia wrote in 1719 that the
Indians ¦vrith whom the English traded "have hitherto
been kept in our interest by being more plentifully sup
plied with goods than the French could afford them",*^
and in the following year we find the Alibamons com
plaining that the French do not pay them as much for
their peltry as they receive from Carolina traders, and
also that French goods are sold to them at an advance
over English prices.*' In the middle of the eighteenth
century Govemor Glen of South Carolina declared that
the tranquillity of his province depended on the retention
of the Indians in the British interest, and that this would
be impossible without a continuation of traffic with them
in the articles for which there was the greatest demand —
"both arms and amunition, as well as Cloaths and other
necessaries." *°
English traders, therefore, gained to their side all
the great tribes of the lower Mississippi Valley except
the Choctaws ; and the latter were frequently so wavering
in their allegiance to the French as to become to them a
source of great anxiety. As their general defection would
have meant ruin to the Colony, BienvUle, in order to
keep them loyal, once or twice found it necessary to fo
ment a war between them and those stanch friends of
the English, the Chickasaws."" Unfortunately, Bienville
was recalled to France just when his services were most

*e Charlevoix's Journal d'un Voyage dans I' Amerique Septentrionale,
Vol. Ill, p. 257.
*7 Official Letters of Alexander Spotswood, Vol. II, p. 331 {Collec
tions of the Virginia Historical Society, Vol. II).
*8 La Harpe 's Journal Historique, p. 228.
*9 CarroU 's Historical Collections of South Carolina, Vol. II, pp.
245, 246. 00 Heinrich 's La Louisiane sous la Compagnie des Indes pp. 152,
163, 164.

17
needed, as he alone of the French officials seemed cap
able of counteracting English influences. The Company
of the Indies pursued a niggardly policy; presents for
the Indians and soldiers for the forts cost money, and
it was cheaper to send missionaries, who were indeed the
keenest rivals of the British trader." While the English
were most aggressive, French depots were empty, and
Perier called in vain for goods. When he asked for
troops to strike a sudden blow and intimidate the English
and their allies, he was accused of seeking to enhance his
own reputation at the expense of the Company.""
Who then, during this period, were the real masters
of the lower Mississippi Valley? According to good mod
ern French authority, the English traders in 1728 had
almost reached the point where with a word they could
have turned nearly the whole Indian population against
the French." In Louisiana, indeed, there were forts and
soldiers and towns, so that technically the Company of
the Indies held possession of the territory for France;
but an examination of the character of these forts, gar
risons, and settlements shows that the Company's hold
upon its vast domain was pitifully weak. All of the forts
were unfinished; the guns were umnounted; and the
pieces were sometimes of one calibre and the balls of
another. The soldiers were fit inmates of such posts.

61 One of these missionaries, the Jesuit De Guyenne, went as far east
in the direction of the English settlements in 1726 as the Chattahoochee
Eiver, and built a cabin in the Indian village of Coweta, within the limits
of the present State of Georgia. Later the EngUsh showed their fear of
his influence by persuading the Indians to bum Ms cabin and drive him
back to Toulouse. — See Hamilton's Colonial Mobile, p. 158.
There is also evidence of French attempts to extend their influence
into Georgia as late as 1750, when one Daniel Clark, a trader, reported
that on reaching "Cowetaw Town" he found the iFrench colors set up
in the square and the whole town "taken up in entertaimng" oflicers
and soldiers from Fort Toulouse. — See Georgia Colonial Eecords, Vol.
VI, p. 341.
B2 Heinrich 's La Louisiane sous la Compagnie des Indes, p. 227.
»3 Heinrich 's La Louisiane sous la Compagnie des Indes, p. 225.

18
Few in numbers, poorly armed, almost naked, usually
fed on scant rations of rice and maize, quartered in miser
able huts covered with bark, sleeping on the damp ground
and thereby becoming afflicted with various distempers,
they soon lost what little capacity for military service
they once might have had. Desertions were frequent,
the Carolina settlements offering a safe retreat." To
cap the climax, the Natchez Indians, always more or less
troublesome, rose in revolt in November, 1729, and wiped
out the settlement at Fort Rosalie, one of the most pros
perous in the Colony. The French planned a summary
vengeance, but were never able fully to carry it out. Most
of the Natchez finally took refuge among the enemies of
France, the Chickasaws; and the failure of the French
to exact fuU reparation lost them the respect of many of
their Indian allies. The Natchez massacre was followed
by a severe drought, which almost destroyed the crops.
The Company was discouraged, and its colonists all
seemed animated with one single desire — to get out of
the country. On the English side at this time there was unusual
prosperity."" In October, 1729, there were said to have
been one hundred and twenty packhorses with English
goods among the Choctaws alone, and in the following
year was negotiated the important treaty of alliance with

B4 In 1721 the entire garrison at Fort Toulouse mutimed on account
of lack of food and with arms and baggage took the road to Carolina.
One of the oflicers escaped to the Indians, and with their aid ambudied the
mutineers and killed or captured the whole party. — La Harpe 's Journal
Historique, pp. 261, 348.
OB The years 1721-1743 were the most prosperous period for the
trade in peltry. In 1748 the value of beaveir and deer-sMns exported from
Charleston amounted to about $300,000 of our present money, and up to
this time only one other Carolina export (rice) had exceeded the value of
the skins sent to Europe. — See Carroll 's Historical Collections of South
Carolina, Vol. II, p. 234; MeCrady's South Carolina under the Proprietary
Govemment, pp. 345, 346; and MeCrady's South Carolina under the Boyal
Government, p. 270.

19
the Cherokees, already described. Between the spiritless
colonists of Louisiana and the traders from Carolina there
was a striking contrast. The latter cleared no fields,
sowed no crops, and built no towns in the lower Missis
sippi Valley; but their supplies of gew-gaws, firearms,
and fire water won them the favor of the savage, and their
physical prowess and expert markmanship inspired his
respect. The trader was often something more than a
mere higgler; frequently he was a man of superior in
telligence. Unlike the English settler, who usually re
garded the Lndian as a pest to be extermined as soon as
possible, and whose advent often filled the savage with
dismay, because it meant the restriction of his hunting-
grounds, the trader was welcomed by the natives ; for
his arrival meant the satisfaction of their primitive
wants. The predominating influence of the English over the
native population in this region before 1755 was due
mainly to the activity of the trader, but it was perhaps
enhanced by the lack of land-hungry Anglo-Saxon pio
neers. It should be borne in mind, however, that the pres
ence of the trader among the aborigines was by no means
an unmixed blessing; in fact, he was everywhere the
source of debauching and demoralizing influence. The
Indian acquired from him all the vices and none of the
virtues of the white man, and suffered as much injury
from the pampering of the trafficker as he did later from
the crowding of the settler.
In January, 1731, the Company of the Indies came to
the conclusion that its policy in Louisiana had been a
failure and surrendered its holdings to the French
Crown. The royal govemment at once set itself to work
to improve matters in the Colony and sent over soldiers
and supplies ; but the Company's policy had given Louisi
ana such a bad name at home that it was for a long time
a difficult matter to induce colonists to emigrate. In the

20
meantime English influence in the Southwest had been
greatly strengthened through the founding of Georgia
and the treaties made by Oglethorpe with the westem
Indians. In July, 1732, to the great joy of the colonists,
Bienville was again made Govemor of Louisiana, and in'
December he sailed with supplies and soldiers, and with
instructions to expel the Chickasaws from French terri
tory, to regain the good will of the Choctaws, and to pre
vent all trade between the Indians and outsiders. He
was instructed to check English encroachments by peace
ful measures, such as the resumption of trade and the
despatching of interpreters to the principal posts."' Bien
ville's slender resources, however, were entirely inade
quate for the great work confronting him. There was
no cessation in the activity of the English; on the con
trary, while the province of Louisiana was languishing,
Virginia and Carolina were receiving constant accessions
of immigrants, who pushed farther and farther into the
westem woods.
The new Governor finally perceived that there could
be no hope of peace in Louisiana until he drove out or
subdued the troublesome Chickasaws, and that a prompt
and decisive blow was needed to regain even the respect
of the copper-hued allies of the French. In 1736, there
fore, he organized an expedition against the Chickasaws,
and advanced beyond Tombecbe, where he found the ene
my strongly fortified in several villages. Over one of
these the English colors were flying, and English trad
ers were also seen preparing the savages to meet the at
tack."'' It requires no wild flight of the imagination to see
in these intrigues and hostilities in the southem forests
the preliminaries of the great struggle for a continent
which began twenty years later. Bien-rille's war on the
Chickasaws was a miserable failure, and though a peace

08 Heinrich 's La Louisiane sous la Compagnie des Indes, pp. 276, 277.
07 Baudry des LoziSres's Voyage d la Louisiane, pp. 60, 61.

21
was patched up with them in 1740 they continued their
depredations. The rivalry for the mastery of the south
ern back country continued until England and France
resolved to decide the question by the wager of battle.
In the long struggle that followed Louisiana re
mained in constant dread of an English attack which
never came. The very weakness of the Colony was to it
perhaps a source of protection; for the energies of the
English were devoted to the reduction of the more men
acing French establishments in the North. Neverthe
less, when the treaty of peace was signed in Paris, in
1763, the region from the Ohio to the Gulf and between
the Alleghanies and the Mississippi came into the posses
sion of that people who had already controlled it in a
commercial way for half a century. But the country was
not to be deifinitely won without a struggle with the na
tives. French intrigue and English blunders during the
war precipitated an uprising of the Creeks and Cherokees
which it required two years to subdue."' Even after the
trea-ty of peace an English officer who spent some time
among the Cherokees declared that he found them still in
sympathy with the French and reconciled to the rule of
the English only through the advantages of their trade."*
In view of the fact that English influence in the low
er Mississippi Valley was for such a long period in the
ascendant, the question naturally arises why the southern
English coloioists did not follow the example of their
brothers in New England and attempt to complete the
conquest of French territory during Queen Anne's and
King George's wars. The answer may be given, I think,
in a few words. The southem Colonies were never men
aced by the feeble settlements in Louisiana as were their
northern neighbors by the feudal military organization
08 MeCrady's South Carolina under the Boyal Government, pp. 302-
304. 09 Winsor 's Mississippi Basin, pp. 411, 412.

22
of New France. It was the Spaniard in Florida rather
than the Frenchman in Louisiana whom the Georgians
and Carolinians dreaded. Again, the Indians with whom
the French in the South intrigued were milder than those
in the North, and their incursions were not so greatly
feared. Lastly, the religious fanaticism — the hatred of
English Puritan for French Catholic — so manifest in
New England, was lacking in the South.
The general feeling of the southem colonists toward
their neighbors in the West seems to have been well ex
pressed by Governor Glen, when he wrote : "If ever the
French settlements on the Mississippi grow great, they
may have pernicious effects upon South Carolina, be
cause they produce the same kind of commodities as are
produced there, viz. : Rice and Indigo ; but hitherto the
only inconvenience that I know of is their attempting to
withdraw our Indians from us, and attacking those who
are most attached to our interest  It is easy for
me at present to divert the French in their own way, and
to find them business for double the number of men they
have in that country.'"" From a military invasion of
Louisiana, even if it had been entirely practicable, the
southem colonists would have had nothing to gain; a com
mercial conquest they had already achieved.
80 Carroll's Historical Collections of Smith Carolina, Vol. II, p. 247.