CHAPTER XVIII.

FRENCH AND SPANISH TERRITORY.

SETTLERS ON THE TOMBIGBEE AND MISSISSIPPI RIVERS—­LA SALLE—­NATCHEZ—­ FAMILY APPORTIONMENT—­THE HILL COUNTRY—­HOSPITALITY—­BENEFIT OF AFRICAN SLAVERY—­CAPACITY OF THE NEGRO—­HIS FUTURE.

About the year 1777, many persons of the then colonies, fearful of the consequences of the war then commencing for the independence of the colonies, removed and sought a home beyond their limits.  Some selected the Tombigbee, and others the Mississippi River, and, braving the horrors of the wilderness, made a home for themselves and posterity, amid the rude inhospitalies of uncultivated nature.

There were, at that time, small settlements of French and Spanish adventurers upon these streams, in different localities.  La Salle descended upon Canada, and, taking possession of Louisiana in the name of the French king, had created among many of the chivalrous and adventurous spirits of France a desire to take possession of the entire country, from the mouth of the Saint Lawrence to that of the Mississippi.  Nova Scotia, called Acadia by its first settlers, and the provinces of Canada, were his already, and France desired to restrict the further expansion of the English colonies, now growing into importance along the Atlantic coast.

The vast extent of the continent and its immense fertility, with its mighty rivers, its peculiar adaptation to settlement, and the yielding of all the necessaries and luxuries of human wants, had aroused the enterprise of Europe.  Spain had possessed herself of South America, Mexico, and Cuba, the pride of the Antilles.  The success of her scheme of colonization stimulated both England and France to push forward their settlements, and to foster and protect them with Governmental care.  After some fruitless attempts, the mouth of the Mississippi had been discovered, and approached from the Gulf.  The expedition under La Salle had failed to find it.  The small colony brought by him for settlement upon the Mississippi, had been landed many leagues west of the river’s mouth, and owing to disputes between that great and enterprising man and the officer commanding the two ships which had transported them across the Atlantic, they were mercilessly left by this officer, without protection, and almost without provisions, upon the coast of what is now Texas.  La Salle had started with a small escort, by land, to find the great river.  These men became dissatisfied, and not sharing in the adventurous and energetic spirit of their leader, remonstrated with him and proposed to return to their companions; but, disregarding them, he pressed on in his new enterprise.  In wading a small stream, one of the men was carried off by an alligator, and a day or so after, another was bitten and killed by a rattle-snake.  Terror seized upon his men, and all their persuasions proving fruitless, they determined to assassinate him and return.