M. de St. Denis did not long solicit the Marquis of Balero for concluding the treaty of commerce; he soon had other business to mind. F. Olivarez, who, on the representation of P. Ydalgo, as a person of a jealous, turbulent, and dangerous disposition, had been excluded from the mission to the Assinaïs, being then at the court of the Viceroy, saw with an evil eye the Person who had settled F. Ydalgo in that mission, and resolved to be avenged on him for the vexation caused by that disappointment. He joined himself to an officer, named Don Martin de Alaron, a person peculiarly protected by the Marquis of Balero: and they succeeded so well with that nobleman that in the time M. de St. Denis least expected, he found himself arrested, and clapt in a dungeon; from which he was not discharged till December 20 of this year, by an order of the Sovereign Council of Mexico, to which he found means to present several petitions. The Viceroy, constrained to enlarge him, allotted the town for his place of confinement.
The business of the treaty of commerce being now at an end, M. de St. Denis's attention was only engaged how to make the most of the goods, of which Don Diego Raymond had sent as large a quantity as he could, to the town of Mexico; where they were seized by D. Martin de Alaron, as contraband; he being one of the emissaries of his protector, appointed to persecute such strangers as did not dearly purchase the permission to sell their goods. M. de St. Denis could make only enough of his pillaged and damaged effects just to defray certain expences of suit, which, in a country that abounds with nothing else but gold and silver, are enormous.
Our prisoner having nothing further to engross his attention in Mexico, but the safety of his person, seriously bethought himself how to secure it; as he had ever just grounds to apprehend some bad treatment at the bands of his three avowed enemies. Having therefore planned the means of his flight, on September 25, 1718, as the night came on, he quitted Mexico, and placing himself in ambush at a certain distance from the town, waited till his good fortune should afford the means of travelling otherwise than on foot. About nine at night, a horseman, well-mounted, cast up. To rush of a sudden upon him, dismount him, mount his horse, turn the bridle, and set up a gallop, was the work of a moment only for St. Denis. He rode on at a good pace till day, then quitted the common road, to repose him: a precaution he observed all along, till he came near to the Presidio of St. John Baptist. From thence he continued his journey on foot; and at length, on April 2, 1719, arrived at the French colony, where he found considerable alterations.
From the departure of M. de St. Denis from Mexico, to his return again, almost three years had elapsed. In that long time, the grant of Louisiana was transferred from M. Crozat to the West India Company; M. de la Motte Cadillac was dead, and M. de Biainville, brother to M. d'Hiberville, succeeded as governor general. The capital place of the colony was no longer at Mobile, nor even at Old Biloxi, whither it had been removed: New Orleans, now begun to be built, was become the capital of the country, whither he repaired to give M. de Biainville an account of his journey; after which he retired to his settlement. The king afterwards conferred upon him the cross of St. Louis, in acknowledgement and recompence of his services.
The West India Company, building great hopes of commerce on Louisiana, made efforts to people that country, sufficient to accomplish their end. Thither, for the first time, they sent, in 1718, a colony of eight hundred: men some of which settled at New Orleans, others formed the settlements of the Natchez. It was with this embarkation I passed over to Louisiana.
Footnotes:
[20] They returned to France. See p. [3].
[CHAPTER III.]
Embarkation of eight hundred Men by the West India Company to Louisiana. Arrival and Stay at Cape François. Arrival at Isle Dauphine. Description of that Island.
The embarkation was made at Rochelle on three different vessels, on one of which I embarked. For the first days of our voyage we had the wind contrary, but no high sea. On the eighth the wind turned more favourable. I observed nothing interesting till we came to the Tropick of Cancer, where the ceremony of baptizing was performed on those who had never been a voyage: after passing the Tropick, the Commodore steered too much to the south, our captain observed. In effect, after several days sailing, we were obliged to bear off to the north: we afterwards discovered the isle of St. Juan de Porto Rico, which belongs to the Spaniards. Losing sight of that, we discovered the island of St. Domingo; and a little after, as we bore on, we saw the Grange, which is a rock, overtopping the steep coast, which is almost perpendicular to the edge of the water. This rock, seen at a distance, seems to have the figure of a grange, or barn. A few hours after we arrived at Cape François, distant from that rock only twelve leagues.