(then looked upon as the "terrestrial paradise,") and the mines of precious ores believed to exist on either side of the great river, the king granted the exclusive privilege in all the trade and commerce of the province to Anthony Crozat, a wealthy and influential merchant of France, "who had prospered in opulence to the astonishment of all the world." His charter embraced sixteen years, from the 26th of September, 1712. Louisiana, as then held by France, embraced the entire Mississippi valley, from the Alleghanies to the Rocky Mountains, and north to the lakes in Canada. At this time there were less than 380 Europeans in the lower half of the district described, yet Crozat entered upon his projects with an energy which exhibited his confidence in his gigantic and hazardous undertaking. Crozat adopted for the government of the country the laws, usages, and customs of Paris, which were the first laws of civilized society that were ever in existence between the Gulf of Mexico and the Falls of St. Anthony, and were principally copied from the Roman civil law.

In 1712 M. de la Motte Cadillac was appointed royal governor of Louisiana by Louis XIV., and arrived in Louisiana in 1713. In order to enlist him in the commerce of the colony Crozat associated him as a partner in his operations. La Motte was a self-important, egotistical, proud man, whose elevation from obscurity in France to the position of "royal governor of Louisiana" rendered him almost unfit for the association of even his superiors. When he was ordered by the ministry to assist the agents of Crozat in establishing trading posts on the Wabash and Illinois, he at once got into bad humor, and had the hardihood to write back to the ministry: "I have seen Crozat's instructions to his agents. I thought they issued from a lunatic asylum, and there appeared to me to be no more sense in them than in the Apocalypse. What! Is it expected that for any commercial or profitable purposes boats will ever be able to run up the Mississippi into the Wabash, the Missouri or the Red River? One might as well try to bite a slice off the moon! Not only are those rivers as rapid as the Rhone, but in their crooked course they imitate to perfection a snake's undulations. Hence, for instance, on every turn of the Mississippi it would be necessary to wait for a change of wind, if wind could be had; because this river is so lined up with thick woods that very little wind has access to its bed."*

M. de la Motte was the first governor under the new grant, and arrived in the Illinois country (comprising Missouri) in 1713, and took possession of his government. Anticipating an astonishing

*Louisiana, by Gayarre, p. 137.

profit from the mines, which they hourly expected to find, no attention was given to agriculture except by a few individuals, and large investments were therefore necessary to purchase provisions, which, with the other expenses of the colony, greatly exceeded the profits of its trade; and, in 1717, after a trial of five years, having failed in all his plans, Crozat resigned his charter and returned to France.

Soon after the relinquishment by Crozat, the colony of Louisiana was granted by a patent, containing similiar privileges and restrictions, to the "Mississippi Company," or "Company of the West," with authority to monopolize all the trade and commerce of Louisiana and New France, to declare and prosecute wars, appoint officers, etc. This company was under the direction of the notorious John Law, and soon established a post in the Illinois country, where they built Fort Chartres, about sixty-five miles below the mouth of the Missouri, in 1720-21, which, at the time of its completion, was one of the strongest fortresses on the continent. Under this company, Philippe Francis Renault, who had been appointed "DirectorGeneral of the mines of Louisiana," with two hundred miners and skillful assayers, arrived in the Illinois country in 1719, and the miners were soon dispatched in different directions to explore the country on both sides of the Mississippi. During the year 1719 and 1720, Sieur de Lochen, M. de la Motte, and a number of others engaged in exploring the country lying between the Missouri and the swamps east of the Ozark hills; and in 1719 the former commenced digging on the Maramec, where he raised several hundred pounds of lead, from which, after tedious experiments, he produced two drachms of silver, and left the lead as worthless. They were in search of gold and silver; hence lead had but slight value in their estimation.

Those who have compiled the History of the Mississippi Valley make no mention of M. de la Motte after he was succeeded by M. de l'Espinay, as governor and chief commander of Louisiana; but we believe he was one of de Bienville's expedition when he discovered the mines in Madison County, which still perpetuate his name. Schoolcraft dates the discovery of these mines by him in 1720; but other circumstances go to prove that that section of country was explored, and lead ore found abundant, as early as 1718.

The miners and assayers sent out by the "Company of the West" were required to carefully observe and report the presence of any rich ores which might be discovered in their explorations, and to mark the localities. These excursion parties were either headed by Renault or M. la Motte, and in one of their earliest excursions, la Motte discovered the lead mines which bear his name, near Fred

ericktown, and soon afterward Renault discovered the mines north of Potosi, which are named in remembrance of him. Failing to find either gold or silver, Renault and his miners turned their attention to working the lead mines, which was continued till 1742, when he returned to France; and from the number of ancient diggings and other indications, it is probable large amounts of ore were taken out and manufactured-principally shipped to France.

For this pur

In 1720 the Spanish determined to take the country from the control of the French, in order to accomplish which they thought it necessary to destroy the nation of the Missouris, then situated on the Missouri River, and who were in alliance with the French, and espoused their interests. Their plan was to excite the Osages to war with the Missouris, and then take part in the contest. pose an expedition was fitted out from Santa Fe for the Missouri in 1720. It was a moving caravan of the desert-armed men, horses, mules, families, women, priests, with herds of cattle and swine to serve for food on the route, and to serve for increase in the new colony. In their march they lost the proper route, the guides became bewildered, and led them to the Missouri tribes instead of the Osages. Unconscious of their mistake, as both tribes spoke the same language, they believed themselves among the Osages instead of their enemies, and without reserve disclosed their designs against the Missouris, and supplied them with arms and ammunition to aid in their extermination. The great chief, concealing his real thoughts and intentions, evinced the greatest joy, and promised, after they should have rested three days from their march, to join the expedition with them, and in the mean time the chief would assemble his warriors and hold a council with the old men of the tribe. Just before the dawn of the day upon which the company had arranged to march, the Missouris fell upon their treacherous enemies and dispatched them with indiscriminate slaughter, sparing only the priest, whose dress convinced them he was a man of peace rather than a warrior. They kept him some time as a prisoner; but he finally made his escape, and was the only messenger to bear to the Spanish authorities the just return upon their own heads of the treachery they had intended to practice upon others.*

To arrest any further attempt of the Spaniards to advance into Upper Louisiana, a French post was designed for the Missouri, and M. Burgmont was dispatched from Mobile to the Missouri River. He took possession of an island in the river, above the mouth of the

* Monette's Hist. Miss. Valley, vol. i. chap. vi.

Osage, upon which he built a fort, which he named "Fort Orleans." The war between the French and Spaniards continued, and the Indians who had been leagued in with the interests of the respective colonies (Louisiana and Florida) carried on their marauding excursions against the enemies of their respective friends. About the same time "Fort Chartres" was constructed on the Mississippi, under the instructions of the king, by M. Boisbriant, and a fort and trading post for the company at the mouth of Blue Earth River, on the St. Peter's, erected by Lesueur, who was accompanied by a detachment of ninety men.

On his arrival at the mouth of the Osage, Burgmont found the different tribes engaged in a sanguinary warfare, which prostrated all trade and rendered all intercourse extremely hazardous; hence his attention was at once turned toward bringing about a reconciliation, which he effected in 1724. In the mean time “Fort Orleans" had been completed and occupied; but soon after the declaration of peace between the contending tribes, "Fort Orleans" was attacked, totally destroyed, and all the French massacred.* Nor is it yet known by whom this bloody work was performed.

During the following sixteen years, the French seemed to be fated to disappointment and disaster. Their troubles with the Indians increased; the Bank of France under John Law, which promised so fairly, had proved worse than a bubble; several of their expeditions had resulted in the loss of large numbers of valiant and learned men, valuable treasure and stock; and the Directory, in view of the disasters they had experienced, determined to surrender the charter into the hands of the crown and retire from the American wilderness. The petition was readily granted, and by proclamation, dated April 10, 1732, the king declared the province of Louisiana free to all his subjects, with equal privileges as to trade and commerce.†

From this time to 1762, when the whole territory west of the Mississippi was ceded to Spain, no events transpired worthy of record in so brief a sketch as our limited space permits us to give.

Up to 1751 there were but six settlements within a hundred miles of the present site of St. Louis, to wit: 1. Kaskaskia, situated upon the Kaskaskia River, upon a peninsula, five miles above the mouth of that stream, and two miles by land from the Mississippi. 2. Fort Chartres, twelve miles above Kaskaskia. 3. Prairie du Rochter, near Fort Chartres. 4. St. Philip, or Little Village, four miles above Fort Chartres. 5. Cahokia, near the mouth of Cahokia Creek, about

five miles below the center of the present City of St. Louis. 6. St. Genevieve, upon Gabouri Creek, west of the Mississippi, and about one mile from its western shore. Kaskaskia was once the capital of the Illinois country, and in its palmy days contained about 3000 inhabitants; but after the country passed under the dominion of the King of Spain the population decreased, and at the time St. Louis was founded, in 1764, contained but about 425 inhabitants.

The territory known as Louisiana was ceded to Spain November 3, 1762, but nothing was known of this cession by the inhabitants for nearly three years afterward; hence the mistake made by La Clede, in February, 1764, in naming St. Louis in honor of Louis XV., whose subject he expected to remain for a number of years, when he was then really a subject of the King of Spain. The territory was not taken possession of by the Spanish until 1770. (See Early History of St. Louis, St. Charles, Howard, St. Genevieve, and Washington Counties.)

In 1762 Louisiana was ceded to Spain by France, and taken possession of by the Spanish in 1770. In 1780 an expedition was fitted out by the British commandant at Michillimackinac, upon his own responsibility, in order to conquer the towns on the right bank of the Mississippi, in consequence of the part the King of Spain had taken in favor of the independence of the United States in the then late war. His expedition consisted of 140 regular British troops and Canadian Frenchmen, and 1400 Indian warriors. After reconnoitering several days from the opposite shore, and by scouts lurking in ambush along the western bank of the river, they made the grand attack upon St. Louis, on the 6th of May, 1780, and were repulsed by Colonel Clark from Kaskaskia, who came to the relief of the St. Louisians, with a company of 500 men.*

During the year (1762) the first village was established upon the Missouri River, and named Village du Cote, now St. Charles. In 1787, New Madrid was laid out under the direction of General Morgan, from New Jersey, who had received a large grant of land. There had been a settlement of hunters and traders at this point for some time previous to his location here.

By the treaty of St. Ildefonso, made in 1800, Spain retroceded Louisiana to France, by whom in 1803 it was ceded to the United States, and taken possession of by American authorities on the 20th of December, 1803. "The settlements upon the Upper Mississippi, including the post at New Madrid, (which was just settled in 1786?)

* Monette.