to the enjoyment of all the rights, advantages, and immunities of citizens of the United States; that, in the meantime, they shall be maintained and protected in the free enjoyment of their liberty, property, and the religion which they profess; that all laws and municipal regulations which were in existence at the cessation of the late government, remain in full force; and all civil officers charged with their execution, except those whose powers have been specially vested in me, and except also such officers as have been intrusted with the collection of the revenue, are continued in their functions during the pleasure of the Governor for the time being, or until provision shall otherwise be made.

"And I hereby exhort and enjoin all the Inhabitants and other persons within the said Province to be faithful and true in their allegiance to the United States, and obedient to the laws and authorities of the same, under full assurance that their just rights will be under the guardianship of the United States and will be maintained free from all force and violence from without or within."

The situation in which Louisiana was, when transferred to the United States, is fully described in a document* communicated by the President to Congress on the 14th of November. When O'Reilly took final possession of the colony in 1769, its population was about 13,000 or 14,000 souls, allowing to New Orleans 3190 souls. In 1803, it was estimated at 49,000 or 50,000 souls for the whole province, putting down New Orleans at 8000 or 10,000 souls,+ and not including the Indians, who, scattered about on that immense territory, were not supposed to number more than 25.000 or 30,000

* American State Papers, vol. i, p. 344. Miscellaneous.

It is believed that the population was underrated, and that, to set it down at 60,000 souls would be a closer approximation to truth. Some contemporaries who are entitled to much credit even think that the population was considerably larger.

SITUATION OF THE COLONY IN 1803.

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souls. The revenues of the city of New Orleans were $19,278, and its expenses hardly amounted to ten thousand dollars. The annual produce of the province was supposed* to consist of 3000 pounds of indigo (rapidly declining)-20,000 bales of cotton of 300 pounds each5000 hogsheads of sugar of 1000 pounds each-5000 casks of molasses of 50 gallons each. The estimate of the produce shipped from New Orleans in the year 1802, including that of the settlements on the Mississippi, Ohio, &c., did not exceed 40,000 tons. The exports were estimated at $2,158,000, and the imports at $2,500,000. The revenues accruing to the King's Treasury hardly went up, on an average, to $120,000 a year, and the expenditures of the government had gradually risen so high as to exceed $800,000 in the year 1802.

When the Spaniards took possession of the colony, there were in it seven millions of paper money issued by the French Government, then losing 75 per cent. On its retrocession to France, the paper issued and to be redeemed by the Spaniards hardly exceeded six hundred thousand dollars. "It consisted of emissions made in the early part of the Spanish administration, and of a debt due by the Government for supplies furnished to the troops and the King's stores, and for salaries of officers and workmen, for which liberanzas, or certificates, were regularly issued, of which there was afloat, at the time of the cession, a sum of from four hundred and fifty to five hundred thousand dollars. They bore no interest, and were commonly to be bought at a discount of from 25 to 50 per cent. At the change of Government the discount was thirty. This depreciation was not the result of a want of confidence, or of any apprehension that the certificates would not be paid, but the

* Martin's History.

Ib., vol. ii., p. 211.

consequence of the increased value of money, produced by the scarcity of it in the market."

As far as I have been able to judge, I think I may safely come to the conclusion that the ordinary and extraordinary expenses incurred by Spain in relation to Louisiana, over and above the small revenue she derived from that colony, may, without exaggeration, be put down at about fifteen millions of dollars, from the 5th of March, 1766, when Ulloa landed at New Orleans, to the 30th of November, 1803, when the retrocession to France took place.

It will be recollected that, as previously related, the Marquis of Grimaldi, who was a member of the Cabinet of Madrid, had written, on the 11th of May, 1767, to the Count of Fuentes, then Ambassador of Spain at Versailles: "The Duke of Praslin (one of the French Ministers) will remember that there were doubts on our part, as to the acceptation of the donation tendered by his most Christian Majesty. But, as the same reasons which had made France believe in the necessity of the cession, prompted Spain to accept it, the King gave it his assent, although it was well known that we were acquiring nothing but an annual incumbrance of two hundred and fifty to three hundred thousand dollars, in consideration of a distant and negative utility-which is-that of possessing a country to prevent its being possessed by another nation."

Thus Spain had assumed an incumbrance, which cost her in the end fifteen millions of dollars, in the vain hope of establishing a barrier between her Mexican Colonies and the danger which she foresaw was to come from the Northern Colonies of England in America. Recent events have proved how futile was the attempt to protect herself against an inevitable evil, and experience has demonstrated that the application of European

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treasure, blood and industry to the creation, the purchase or the conquest of colonies in America, is not destined to be a profitable investment. Spain therefore acted wisely when she at last determined to part with a possession which was a useless and expensive incumbrance to her, and which was on the eve of being wrested from her by her powerful neighbors, who, by so doing, would have obeyed rather the dictates of a stern necessity, than of an ambition yet dormant in the cradle.

Louisiana, when in its colonial state, has the honor of having produced several distinguished men, among whom the following are the most remarkable:

Aubert Dubayet* was born in Louisiana on the 17th of August, 1759. He was the son of Adjutant-Major Aubert, one of those officers who, in 1769, were sent by Governor Aubry, at the request of General O'Reilly, to arrest the French Commissary Foucault. He entered in early life into the French army, and served in America during the war of Independence between Great Britain and the United States. He was in France at the commencement of the Revolution, and soon began to take an active part in public affairs. In 1789, he published a pamphlet against admitting the Jews to the rights of citizenship. But he afterwards became one of the principal advocates for innovation, and, in 1791, was chosen a member of the Legislative Assembly, in which he acted a conspicuous part. In 1793, he resumed his military profession, and was made Governor of Mayence, which, after an obstinate defence, he was obliged to surrender to the King of Prussia. Aubert Dubayet then commanded as General-in-chief in La Vendée, and, being defeated at Clisson, became the object of denunciations against which he

* Gorton's Biographical Dictionary.

Employed again at CherDirectory to the post of

successfully defended himself. bourg, he was called by the Minister of War, which he held only three months, when he was appointed Minister of the Republic at Constantinople, where he closed a life of active service, on the 17th of December, 1797, at the age of thirty-seven.

Etienne Bernard Alexandre Viel, a learned Jesuit, was born in New Orleans, on the 31st of October, 1736, and died on the 16th of December, 1821, at the college of Juilly, in France, where he had been educated, and where, in his turn, he had devoted himself to the education of youth, after having resided many years in Attakapas, where he made himself beloved by all the inhabitants. He is known in the erudite world by a very beautiful translation, in Latin verse, of Fénélon's Telemachus, also by some little poems in Latin verse which he offered to the public, in 1816, under the title of "Miscellanea Latino-Gallica," and by an excellent French translation of the Ars Poetica, and of two of Horace's epistles.

Jean Jacques Audubon, the celebrated naturalist, was born near New Orleans, in 1780, and died in the State of New York, in 1851, bequeathing to posterity those works which have already acquired for him an immortal fame.

Bronier de Clouet, born in Louisiana, about the year 1764, entered the Spanish army in early life, rose to the grade of Brigadier-General, was for some time Governor of the province of Hagua in the island of Cuba, was created Count de la Fernandina de Hagua, and had just been raised to the Senate by Queen Isabella II., when he died in Madrid, lately, in his eighty-fourth year.

Daunoy, or rather D'Aunoy, was born in New Orleans, about the year 1775. Having become a Spanish officer, he rose by degrees to the grade of Lieutenant-General, after having greatly distinguished himself against the