LOUISIANA.
The Mississippi to be occupied.—English Rivalry1.—Iberville.—Bienville.—Huguenots.—Views of Louis XIV.—Wives for the Colony.—Slaves.—La Mothe-Cadillac.—Paternal2 Government.—Crozat's Monopoly.—Factions3.—The Mississippi Company.—New Orleans.—The Bubble bursts.—Indian Wars.—The Colony firmly established.—The two Heads of New France.
[Pg 298]At the beginning of the eighteenth century an event took place that was to have a great influence on the future of French America. This was the occupation by France of the mouth of the Mississippi, and the vindication4 of her claim to the vast and undefined regions which La Salle had called Louisiana. La Salle's schemes had come to nought5, but they were revived, seven years after his death, by his lieutenant6, the gallant7 and faithful Henri de Tonty, who urged the seizure8 of Louisiana for three reasons,—first, as a base of attack upon Mexico; secondly9, as a dép?t for the furs and lead ore of the interior; and thirdly, as the only means of preventing the English from becoming masters of the West.[287]
[Pg 299]Three years later, the Sieur de Rémonville, a friend of La Salle, proposed the formation of a company for the settlement of Louisiana, and called for immediate10 action as indispensable to anticipate the English.[288] The English were, in fact, on the point of taking possession of the mouth of the Mississippi, and were prevented only by the prompt intervention11 of the rival nation.
If they had succeeded, colonies would have grown up on the Gulf12 of Mexico after the type of those already planted along the Atlantic: voluntary immigrants would have brought to a new home their old inheritance of English freedom; would have ruled themselves by laws of their own making, through magistrates13 of their own choice; would have depended on their own efforts, and not on government help, in the invigorating consciousness that their destinies were in their own hands, and that they themselves, and not others, were to gather the fruits of their toils15. Out of conditions like these would have sprung communities, not brilliant, but healthy, orderly, well rooted in the soil, and of hardy16 and vigorous growth.
But the principles of absolutism, and not those of a regulated liberty, were to rule in Louisiana. The new French colony was to be the child of the Crown. Cargoes18 of emigrants19, willing or unwilling20, were to be shipped by authority to the fever-stricken banks[Pg 300] of the Mississippi,—cargoes made up in part of those whom fortune and their own defects had sunk to dependence22; to whom labor23 was strange and odious24, but who dreamed of gold mines and pearl fisheries, and wealth to be won in the New World and spent in the Old; who wore the shackles25 of a paternal despotism which they were told to regard as of divine institution; who were at the mercy of military rulers set over them by the King, and agreeing in nothing except in enforcing the mandates26 of arbitrary power and the withering28 maxim29 that the labor of the colonist30 was due, not to himself, but to his masters. It remains31 to trace briefly32 the results of such conditions.
The before-mentioned scheme of Rémonville for settling the Mississippi country had no result. In the next year the gallant Le Moyne d'Iberville—who has been called the Cid, or, more fitly, the Jean Bart, of Canada—offered to carry out the schemes of La Salle and plant a colony in Louisiana.[289] One thing had become clear,—France must act at once, or lose the Mississippi. Already there was a movement in London to seize upon it, under a grant to two noblemen. Iberville's offer was accepted; he was ordered to build a fort at the mouth of the great river, and leave a garrison33 to hold it.[290] He sailed with two frigates34, the "Badine" and the "Marin,"[Pg 301] and towards the end of January, 1699, reached Pensacola. Here he found two Spanish ships, which would not let him enter the harbor. Spain, no less than England, was bent35 on making good her claim to the Mississippi and the Gulf of Mexico, and the two ships had come from Vera Cruz on this errand. Three hundred men had been landed, and a stockade36 fort was already built. Iberville left the Spaniards undisturbed and unchallenged, and felt his way westward37 along the coasts of Alabama and Mississippi, exploring and sounding as he went. At the beginning of March his boats were caught in a strong muddy current of fresh water, and he saw that he had reached the object of his search, the "fatal river" of the unfortunate La Salle. He entered it, encamped, on the night of the third, twelve leagues above its mouth, climbed a solitary38 tree, and could see nothing but broad flats of bushes and canebrakes.[291]
Still pushing upward against the current, he reached in eleven days a village of the Bayagoula Indians, where he found the chief attired39 in a blue capote, which was probably put on in honor of the white strangers, and which, as the wearer declared, had been given him by Henri de Tonty, on his descent of the Mississippi in search of La Salle, thirteen years before. Young Le Moyne de Bienville, who accompanied his brother Iberville in a canoe, brought him, some time after, a letter from Tonty which the writer had left in the hands of another[Pg 302] chief, to be delivered to La Salle in case of his arrival, and which Bienville had bought for a hatchet40. Iberville welcomed it as convincing proof that the river he had entered was in truth the Mississippi.[292] After pushing up the stream till the twenty-fourth, he returned to the ships by way of lakes Maurepas and Ponchartrain.
Iberville now repaired to the harbor of Biloxi, on the coast of the present State of Mississippi. Here he built a small stockade fort, where he left eighty men, under the Sieur de Sauvolle, to hold the country for Louis XIV.; and this done, he sailed for France. Thus the first foundations of Louisiana were laid in Mississippi.
Bienville, whom his brother had left at Biloxi as second in command, was sent by Sauvolle on an exploring expedition up the Mississippi with five men in two canoes. At the bend of the river now called English Turn,—Tour à l'Anglais,—below the site of New Orleans, he found an English corvette of ten guns, having, as passengers, a number of French Protestant families taken on board from the Carolinas, with the intention of settling on the Mississippi. The commander, Captain Louis Bank,[Pg 303] declared that his vessel41 was one of three sent from London by a company formed jointly42 of Englishmen and Huguenot refugees for the purpose of founding a colony.[293] Though not quite sure that they were upon the Mississippi, they were on their way up the stream to join a party of Englishmen said to be among the Chickasaws, with whom they were trading for Indian slaves. Bienville assured Bank that he was not upon the Mississippi, but on another river belonging to King Louis, who had a strong fort there and several settlements. "The too-credulous Englishman," says a French writer, "believed these inventions and turned back."[294] First, however, a French engineer in the service of Bank contrived43 to have an interview with Bienville, and gave him a petition to the King of France, signed by four hundred Huguenots who had taken refuge in the Carolinas after the revocation44 of the Edict of Nantes. The petitioners45 begged that they might have leave to settle in Louisiana, with liberty of conscience, under the French Crown. In due time they got[Pg 304] their answer. The King replied, through the minister, Ponchartrain, that he had not expelled heretics from France in order that they should set up a republic in America.[295] Thus, by the bigotry46 that had been the bane of Canada and of France herself, Louis XIV. threw away the opportunity of establishing a firm and healthy colony at the mouth of the Mississippi.
So threatening was the danger that England would seize the country, that Iberville had scarcely landed in France when he was sent back with a reinforcement. The colonial views of the King may be gathered from his instructions to his officer. Iberville was told to seek out diligently47 the best places for establishing pearl-fisheries, though it was admitted that the pearls of Louisiana were uncommonly48 bad. He was also to catch bison calves49, make a fenced park to hold them, and tame them for the sake of their wool, which was reputed to be of value for various fabrics50. Above all, he was to look for mines, the finding of which the document declares to be "la grande affaire."[296]
On the eighth of January, Iberville reached Biloxi, and soon after went up the Mississippi to that remarkable51 tribe of sun-worshippers, the Natchez, whose villages were on and near the site of the city that now bears their name. Some thirty miles above he[Pg 305] found a kindred tribe, the Taensas, whose temple took fire during his visit, when, to his horror, he saw five living infants thrown into the flames by their mothers to appease52 the angry spirits.[297]
Retracing53 his course, he built a wooden redoubt near one of the mouths of the Mississippi to keep out the dreaded54 English.
In the next year he made a third voyage, and ordered the feeble establishment at Biloxi to be moved to the bay of Mobile. This drew a protest from the Spaniards, who rested their claims to the country on the famous bull of Pope Alexander VI. The question was referred to the two Crowns. Louis XIV., a stanch55 champion of the papacy when his duties as a Catholic did not clash with his interests as a king, refused submission56 to the bull, insisted that the Louisiana country was his, and declared that he would hold fast to it because he was bound, as a son of Holy Church, to convert the Indians and keep out the English heretics.[298] Spain was then at peace with France, and her new King, the Duc d'Anjou, grandson of Louis XIV., needed the support of his powerful kinsman57; hence his remonstrance58 against French encroachment59 was of the mildest.[299]
[Pg 306]Besides Biloxi and Mobile Bay, the French formed a third establishment at Dauphin Island. The Mississippi itself, which may be called the vital organ of the colony, was thus far neglected, being occupied by no settlement and guarded only by a redoubt near one of its mouths.
Of the emigrants sent out by the court to the new land of promise, the most valuable by far were a number of Canadians who had served under Iberville at Hudson Bay. The rest were largely of the sort who are described by that officer as "beggars sent out to enrich themselves," and who expected the government to feed them while they looked for pearls and gold mines. The paternal providence60 of Versailles, mindful of their needs, sent them, in 1704, a gift of twenty marriageable girls, described as "nurtured61 in virtue62 and piety63, and accustomed to work." Twenty-three more came in the next year from the same benignant source, besides seventy-five soldiers, five priests, and two nuns64. Food, however, was not sent in proportion to the consumers; and as no crops were raised in Louisiana, famine and pestilence65 followed, till the starving colonists66 were forced to live on shell-fish picked up along the shores.
Disorder67 and discord68 filled the land of promise. Nicolas de la Salle, the commissaire ordonnateur, an official answering to the Canadian intendant, wrote to the minister Ponchartrain that Iberville and his[Pg 307] brothers, Bienville and Chateauguay, were "thieves and knaves69."[300] La Vente, curé of Mobile, joined in the cry against Bienville, and stirred soldiers and settlers to disaffection; but the bitterest accuser of that truly valuable officer was the worthy70 matron who held the unenviable post of directress of the "King's girls,"—that is, the young women sent out as wives for the colonists. It seems that she had matrimonial views for herself as well as for her charge; and she wrote to Ponchartrain that Major Boisbriant, commander of the garrison, would certainly have married her if Bienville had not interfered71 and dissuaded72 him. "It is clear," she adds, "that M. de Bienville has not the qualities necessary for governing the colony."[301]
Bienville was now chief in authority. Charges of peculation73 and other offences poured in against him, and at last, though nothing was proved, one De Muys was sent to succeed him, with orders to send him home a prisoner if on examination the accusations74 should prove to be true. De Muys died on the voyage. D'Artaguette, the new intendant, proceeded to make the inquiry76, but refused to tell Bienville the nature of the charges against him, saying that he had orders not to do so. Nevertheless, when he had finished his investigation77 he reported to the minister[Pg 308] that the accused was innocent; on which Nicolas de la Salle, whom he had supplanted78 as intendant, wrote to Ponchartrain that D'Artaguette had deceived him, being no better than Bienville himself. La Salle further declared that Barrot, the surgeon of the colony, was an ignoramus, and that he made money by selling the medicines supplied by the King to cure his Louisianian subjects. Such were the transatlantic workings of the paternalism of Versailles.
Bienville, who had been permitted to resume his authority, paints the state of the colony to his masters, and tells them that the inhabitants are dying of hunger,—not all, however, for he mentions a few exceptional cases of prosperity. These were certain thrifty79 colonists from Rochelle, who, says Bienville, have grown rich by keeping dram-shops, and now want to go back to France; but he has set a watch over them, thinking it just that they should be forced to stay in the colony.[302] This was to add the bars of a prison to the other attractions of the new home.
As the colonists would not work, there was an attempt to make Indian slaves work for them; but as these continually ran off, Bienville proposed to open a barter80 with the French West Indies, giving three red slaves for two black ones,—an exchange which he thought would be mutually advantageous82, since the Indians, being upon islands, could no longer escape. The court disapproved83 the plan, on the ground that the West Indians would give only their[Pg 309] worst negroes in exchange, and that the only way to get good ones was to fetch them from Guinea.
Complaints against Bienville were renewed till the court sent out La Mothe-Cadillac to succeed him, with orders to examine the charges against his predecessor84, whom it was his interest to condemn85, in order to keep the governorship. In his new post, Cadillac displayed all his old faults; began by denouncing the country in unmeasured terms, and wrote in his usual sarcastic86 vein87 to the colonial minister: "I have seen the garden on Dauphin Island, which had been described to me as a terrestrial paradise. I saw there three seedling88 pear-trees, three seedling apple-trees, a little plum-tree about three feet high, with seven bad plums on it, a vine some thirty feet long, with nine bunches of grapes, some of them withered89 or rotten and some partly ripe, about forty plants of French melons, and a few pumpkins90. This is M. d'Artaguette's terrestrial paradise, M. de Rémonville's Pomona, and M. de Mandeville's Fortunate Islands. Their stories are mere91 fables92." Then he slanders93 the soil, which, he declares, will produce neither grain nor vegetables.
D'Artaguette, no longer fancying himself in Eden, draws a dismal94 picture of the state of the colony. There are, he writes, only ten or twelve families who cultivate the soil. The inhabitants, naturally lazy, are ruined by the extravagance of their wives. "It is necessary to send out girls and laboring-men. I am convinced that we shall easily discover mines[Pg 310] when persons are sent us who understand that business."[303]
The colonists felt no confidence in the future of Louisiana. The King was its sole support, and if, as was likely enough, he should tire of it, their case would be deplorable. When Bienville ruled over them, they had used him as their scapegoat95; but that which made the colony languish96 was not he, but the vicious system it was his business to enforce. The royal edicts and arbitrary commands that took the place of law proceeded from masters thousands of miles away, who knew nothing of the country, could not understand its needs, and scarcely tried to do so.
In 1711, though the mischievous97 phantom98 of gold and silver mines still haunted the colony, we find it reported that the people were beginning to work, and were planting tobacco. The King, however, was losing patience with a dependency that cost him endless expense and trouble, and brought little or nothing in return,—and this at a time when he had a costly99 and disastrous100 war on his hands, and was in no mood to bear supernumerary burdens. The plan of giving over a colony to a merchant, or a company of merchants, was not new. It had been tried in other French colonies with disastrous effect. Yet it was now tried again. Louisiana was farmed out for fifteen years to Antoine Crozat, a wealthy man of[Pg 311] business. The countries made over to him extended from the British colonies on the east to New Mexico on the west, and the Rio del Norte on the south, including the entire region watered by the Mississippi, the Missouri, the Ohio, and their tributaries101, as far north as the Illinois. In comparison with this immense domain102, which was all included under the name of Louisiana, the present State so called is but a small patch on the American map.
To Crozat was granted a monopoly of the trade, wholesale103 and retail104, domestic and foreign, of all these countries, besides the product of all mines, after deducting105 one-fourth reserved for the King. He was empowered to send one vessel a year to Guinea for a cargo17 of slaves. The King was to pay the governor and other Crown officers, and during the first nine years the troops also; though after that time Crozat was to maintain them till the end of his term.
In consideration of these and other privileges, the grantee was bound to send to Louisiana a specified106 number of settlers every year. His charter provided that the royal edicts and the Coutume de Paris should be the law of the colony, to be administered by a council appointed by the King.
When Louisiana was thus handed over to a speculator for a term of years, it needed no prophet to foretell107 that he would get all he could out of it, and put as little into it as possible. When Crozat took possession of the colony, the French court had been[Pg 312] thirteen years at work in building it up. The result of its labors108 was a total population, including troops, government officials, and clergy109, of 380 souls, of whom 170 were in the King's pay. Only a few of the colonists were within the limits of the present Louisiana. The rest lived in or around the feeble stockade forts at Mobile, Biloxi, Ship Island, and Dauphin Island. This last station had been partially110 abandoned; but some of the colonists proposed to return to it, in order to live by fishing, and only waited, we are told, for help from the King. This incessant111 dependence on government relaxed the fibres of the colony and sapped its life-blood.
The King was now exchanged for Crozat and his grinding monopoly. The colonists had carried on a modest trade with the Spaniards at Pensacola in skins, fowls112, Indian corn, and a few other articles, bringing back a little money in return. This, their only source of profit, was now cut off; they could sell nothing, even to one another. They were forbidden to hold meetings without permission; but some of them secretly drew up a petition to La Mothe-Cadillac, who was still the official chief of the colony, begging that the agents of Crozat should be restricted to wholesale dealings, and that the inhabitants might be allowed to trade at retail. Cadillac denounced the petition as seditious, threatened to hang the bearer of it, and deigned113 no other answer.
He resumed his sarcasms114 against the colony. "In my opinion this country is not worth a straw (ne vaut[Pg 313] pas un fétu). The inhabitants are eager to be taken out of it. The soldiers are always grumbling115, and with reason." As to the council, which was to be the only court of justice, he says that no such thing is possible, because there are no proper persons to compose it; and though Duclos, the new intendant, has proposed two candidates, the first of these, the Sieur de Lafresnière, learned to sign his name only four months ago, and the other, being chief surgeon of the colony, is too busy to serve.[304]
Between Bienville, the late governor, and La Mothe-Cadillac, who had supplanted him, there was a standing116 quarrel; and the colony was split into hostile factions, led by the two disputants. The minister at Versailles was beset117 by their mutual81 accusations, and Bienville wrote that his refusal to marry Cadillac's daughter was the cause of the spite the governor bore him.[305]
The indefatigable118 curé De la Vente sent to Ponchartrain a memorial, in the preamble119 of which he says that since Monsieur le Ministre wishes to be informed exactly of the state of things in Louisiana, he, La Vente, has the honor, with malice120 to nobody, to make known the pure truth; after which he goes on to say that the inhabitants "are nearly all drunkards, gamblers, blasphemers, and enemies of everything[Pg 314] good;" and he proceeds to illustrate121 the statement with many particulars.[306]
As the inhabitants were expected to work for Crozat, and not for themselves, it naturally followed that they would not work at all; and idleness produced the usual results.
The yearly shipment of girls continued; but there was difficulty in finding husbands for them. The reason was not far to seek. Duclos, the intendant, reports the arrival of an invoice122 of twelve of them, "so ugly that the inhabitants are in no hurry to take them."[307] The Canadians, who formed the most vigorous and valuable part of the population, much preferred Indian squaws. "It seems to me," pursues the intendant, "that in the choice of girls, good looks should be more considered than virtue." This latter requisite123 seems, at the time, to have found no more attention than the other, since the candidates for matrimony were drawn124 from the Parisian hospitals and houses of correction, from the former of which Crozat was authorized125 to take one hundred girls a year, "in order to increase the population." These hospitals were compulsory126 asylums127 for the poor and vagrant128 of both sexes, of whom the great H?pital Général of Paris contained at one time more than six thousand.[308]
[Pg 315]Crozat had built his chief hopes of profit on a trade, contraband129 or otherwise, with the Mexican ports; but the Spanish officials, faithful instruments of the exclusive policy of their government, would not permit it, and were so vigilant130 that he could not elude131 them. At the same time, to his vexation, he found that the King's officers in Louisiana, with more address or better luck, and in contempt of his monopoly, which it was their business to protect, carried on, for their own profit, a small smuggling132 trade with Vera Cruz. He complained that they were always thwarting133 his agents and conspiring134 against his interests. At last, finding no resource left but an unprofitable trade with the Indians, he gave up his charter, which had been a bane to the colony and a loss to himself. Louisiana returned to the Crown, and was soon passed over to the new Mississippi Company, called also the Western Company.[309]
That charlatan135 of genius, the Scotchman John Law, had undertaken, with the eager support of the Regent Duke of Orleans, to deliver France from financial ruin through a prodigious136 system of credit, of which Louisiana, with its imaginary gold mines, was made the basis. The government used every[Pg 316] means to keep up the stock of the Mississippi Company. It was ordered that the notes of the royal bank and all certificates of public debt should be accepted at par21 in payment for its shares. Powers and privileges were lavished137 on it. It was given the monopoly of the French slave-trade, the monopoly of tobacco, the profits of the royal mint, and the farming of the revenues of the kingdom. Ingots of gold, pretending to have come from the new Eldorado of Louisiana, were displayed in the shop-windows of Paris. The fever of speculation138 rose to madness, and the shares of the company were inflated139 to monstrous140 and insane proportions.
When Crozat resigned his charter, Louisiana, by the highest estimates, contained about seven hundred souls, including soldiers, but not blacks or Indians. Crozat's successors, however, say that the whole number of whites, men, women, and children, was not above four hundred.[310] When the Mississippi Company took the colony in charge, it was but a change of despots. Louisiana was a prison. But while no inhabitant could leave it without permission of the authorities, all Jews were expelled, and all Protestants excluded. The colonists could buy nothing except from the agents of the company, and sell nothing except to the same all-powerful masters, always at prices fixed141 by them. Foreign vessels142 were forbidden to enter any port of Louisiana, on pain of confiscation143.
The coin in circulation was nearly all Spanish, and[Pg 317] in less than two years the Company, by a series of decrees, made changes of about eighty per cent in its value. Freedom of conscience, freedom of speech, of trade, and of action, were alike denied. Hence voluntary immigration was not to be expected; "but," says the Duc de Saint-Simon, "the government wished to establish effective settlements in these vast countries, after the example of the English; and therefore, in order to people them, vagabonds and beggars, male and female, including many women of the town, were seized for the purpose both in Paris and throughout France."[311] Saint-Simon approves these proceedings144 in themselves, as tending at once to purge145 France and people Louisiana, but thinks the business was managed in a way to cause needless exasperation146 among the lower classes.
In 1720 it was ordered by royal edict that no more vagabonds or criminals should be sent to Louisiana. The edict, it seems, touched only one sex, for in the next year eighty girls were sent to the colony from the Parisian House of Correction called the Salpêtrière. There had been a more or less constant demand for wives, as appears by letters still preserved in the archives of Paris, the following extract from one of which is remarkable for the freedom with which the writer, a M. de Chassin, takes it upon him to address a minister of State in a court where punctilio reigned147 supreme148. "You see, Monseigneur, that nothing is wanting now to make a solid settlement[Pg 318] in Louisiana but a certain piece of furniture which one often repents149 having got, and with which I shall dispense150, like the rest, till the Company sends us girls who have at least some show of virtue. If there happens to be any young woman of your acquaintance who wants to make the voyage for love of me, I should be much obliged to her, and would do my best to show her my gratitude151."[312]
The Company, which was invested with sovereign powers, began its work by sending to Louisiana three companies of soldiers and sixty-nine colonists. Its wisest act was the removal of the governor, L'épinay, who had supplanted La Mothe-Cadillac, and the reappointment of Bienville in his place. Bienville immediately sought out a spot for establishing a permanent station on the Mississippi. Fifty men were sent to clear the ground, and in spite of an inundation152 which overflowed153 it for a time, the feeble foundations of New Orleans were laid. Louisiana, hitherto diffused154 through various petty cantonments, far and near, had at last a capital, or the germ of one.
It was the sixth of September, 1717, when the charter of the Mississippi Company was entered in the registers of the Parliament of Paris; and from that time forward, before the offices of the Company in the Rue75 Quincampoix, crowds of crazed speculators jostled and fought from morning till night to get their names inscribed155 among the stockholders.[Pg 319] Within five years after, the huge glittering bubble had burst. The shares, each one of which had seemed a fortune, found no more purchasers, and in its fall the Company dragged down with it its ally and chief creditor156, the bank. All was dismay and despair, except in those who had sold out in time, and turned delusive157 paper into solid values. John Law, lately the idol158 and reputed savior of France, fled for his life, amid a howl of execration159.
Yet the interests of the kingdom required that Louisiana should be sustained. The illusions that had given to the Mississippi Company a morbid160 and intoxicated161 vitality162 were gone, but the Company lingered on, and the government still lent it a helping163 hand. A French writer remarks that the few Frenchmen who were famishing on the shores of the Mississippi and the Gulf of Mexico had cost the King, since the colony began, more than 150,000 livres a year. The directors of the Company reported that they had shipped 7,020 persons to the colony, besides four hundred already there when they took possession, and that 5,420 still remained, the rest having died or escaped.[313] Besides this importation of whites, they had also brought six hundred slaves from Guinea. It is reckoned that the King, Crozat, and the Mississippi Company had spent among them[Pg 320] about eight million livres on Louisiana, without any return.[314]
The bursting of the Mississippi bubble did not change the principles of administration in Louisiana. The settlers, always looking to France to supply their needs and protect them against their own improvidence164, were in the habit of butchering for food the livestock165 sent them for propagation. The remedy came in the shape of a royal edict forbidding any colonist to kill, without permission of the authorities, any cow, sheep, or lamb belonging to himself, on pain of a fine of three hundred livres; or to kill any horse, cow, or bull belonging to another, on pain of death.
Authority and order were the watchwords, and disorder was the rule. The agents of power quarrelled among themselves, except when they leagued together to deceive their transatlantic masters and cover their own misdeeds. Each maligned166 the other, and it was scarcely possible for the King or the Company to learn the true state of affairs in their distant colony.
Accusations were renewed against Bienville, till in 1724 he was ordered to France to give account of his conduct, and the Sieur Perier was sent out to take his place. Perier had no easy task. The Natchez Indians, among whom the French had made a settlement and built a fort called Fort Rosalie, suddenly rose on their white neighbors and massacred nearly[Pg 321] all of them.[315] Then followed a long course of Indian wars. The French believed that there was a general conspiracy168 among the southern tribes for their destruction,—though this was evidently an exaggeration of the danger, which, however, was serious. The Chickasaws, a brave and warlike people, living chiefly in what is now western Tennessee and Kentucky, made common cause with the Natchez, while the more numerous Choctaws, most of whose villages were in the present State of Mississippi, took part with the French. More than a thousand soldiers had been sent to Louisiana; but Perier pronounced them "so bad that they seem to have been made on purpose for the colony."[316] There were also about eight hundred militia169. Perier showed little vigor14, and had little success. His chief resource was to set the tribes against one another. He reports that his Indian allies had brought him a number of Natchez prisoners, and that he had caused six of them, four men and two women, to be burned alive, and had sent the rest as slaves to St. Domingo. The Chickasaws, aided by English traders from the Carolinas, proved formidable adversaries170, and when attacked, ensconced themselves in stockade forts so strong that, as the governor complains, there was no dislodging the defenders171 without cannon172 and heavy mortars173.
[Pg 322]In this state of things the directors of the Mississippi Company, whose affairs had gone from bad to worse, declared that they could no longer bear the burden of Louisiana, and begged the King to take it off their hands. The colony was therefore transferred from the mercantile despotism of the Company to the paternal despotism of the Crown, and it profited by the change. Commercial monopoly was abolished. Trade between France and Louisiana was not only permitted, but encouraged by bounties174 and exemption175 from duties; and instead of paying to the Company two hundred per cent of profit on indispensable supplies, the colonists now got them at a reasonable price.
Perier was removed, and again Bienville was made governor. Diron d'Artaguette, who came with him as intendant, reported that the colonists were flying the country to escape starvation, and Bienville adds that during the past year they had subsisted176 for three months on the seed of reeds and wild grasses.[317] The white population had rather diminished than increased during the last twelve years, while the blacks, who had lately conspired177 to massacre167 all the French along the Mississippi, had multiplied to two thousand.[318] A French writer says: "There must have been a worm gnawing178 the root of the tree that had been transplanted into so rich a soil, to make it wither27 instead[Pg 323] of growing. What it needed was the air of liberty." But the air of liberty is malaria179 to those who have not learned to breathe it. The English colonists throve in it because they and their forefathers180 had been trained in a school of self-control and self-dependence; and what would have been intoxication181 for others, was vital force to them.
Bienville found the colony again threatened with a general rising, or, as he calls it, a revolt, of the Indian tribes. The Carolina traders, having no advantage of water-ways, had journeyed by land with pack-horses through a thousand miles of wilderness182, and with the aid of gifts had instigated183 the tribes to attack the French. The Chickasaws especially, friends of the English and arch-enemies of Louisiana, became so threatening that a crushing blow against them was thought indispensable. The forces of the colony were mustered184 to attempt it; the enterprise was mismanaged, and failed completely.[319] Bienville tried to explain the disaster, but his explanation was ill received at court; he was severely185 rebuked186, reproved at the same time for permitting two families to emigrate to St. Domingo, and sharply ordered to suffer nobody to leave Louisiana without express license187 from Versailles. Deeply wounded, he offered his resignation, and it was accepted. Whatever his failings, he had faithfully served the colony, and gained from posterity188 the title of Father of Louisiana.
[Pg 324]With the help of industrious189 nursing,—or, one might almost say, in spite of it,—Louisiana began at last to strike roots into the soil and show signs of growth, though feebly as compared with its sturdy rivals along the Atlantic seaboard, which had cost their King nothing, and had been treated, for the most part, with the coolest neglect. Cavelier de la Salle's dream of planting a firm settlement at the mouth of the Mississippi, and utilizing190, by means of it, the resources of the vast interior, was, after half a century, in some measure realized. New France (using that name in its broadest geographical191 sense) had now two heads,—Canada and Louisiana; one looking upon the Gulf of St. Lawrence, and the other upon the Gulf of Mexico. Canada was not without jealousy192 of her younger and weaker sister, lest she might draw away, as she had begun to do at the first, some of the most active and adventurous193 elements of the Canadian population; lest she might prove a competitor in the fur-trade; and lest she should encroach on the Illinois and other western domains194, which the elder and stronger sister claimed as her own. These fears were not unfounded; yet the vital interests of the two French colonies were the same, and each needed the help of the other in the prime and all-essential task of keeping the British colonies in check. The chiefs of Louisiana looked forward to a time when the great southern tribes,—Creeks, Cherokees, Choctaws, and even the dreaded Chickasaws,—won over by French missionaries195 to the[Pg 325] Church, and therefore to France, should be turned against the encroaching English to stop their westward progress and force them back to the borders of the Atlantic. Meanwhile the chiefs of Canada were maturing the plan—pursued with varying assiduity, but always kept in view—of connecting the two vital extremities196 of New France by a chain of forts to control the passes of the West, keep communications open, and set English invasion at defiance197.
FOOTNOTES:
[287] Henri de Tonty à Cabart de Villermont, 11 Septembre, 1694 (Margry, iv. 3).
[288] Mémoire sur le Projet d'establir une nouvelle Colonie au Mississippi, 1697 (Margry, iv. 21).
[289] Iberville au Ministre, 18 Juin, 1698 (Margry, iv. 51).
[290] Mémoire pour servir d'Instruction au Sieur d'Iberville (Margry, iv. 72).
[291] Journal d'Iberville (Margry, iv. 131).
[292] This letter, which D'Iberville gives in his Journal, is dated "Du Village des Quinipissas, le 20 Avril, 1685." Iberville identifies the Quinipissas with the Bayagoulas. The date of the letter was evidently misread, as Tonty's journey was in 1686. See "La Salle and the Discovery of the Great West," 455, note. Iberville's lieutenant, Sugères, commanding the "Marin," gives the date correctly. Journal de la Frégate le Marin, 1698, 1699 (Margry, iv.).
[293] Journal du Voyage du Chevalier d'Iberville sur le Vaisseau du Roy la Renommée en 1699 (Margry, iv. 395).
[294] Gayarré, Histoire de la Louisiane (1846), i. 69. Bénard de la Harpe, Journal historique (1831), 20. Coxe says, in the preface to his Description of Carolana (1722), that "the present proprietor198 of Carolana, my honour'd Father, ... was the author of this English voyage to the Mississippi, having in the year 1698 equipp'd and fitted out Two Ships for Discovery by Sea, and also for building a Fortification and settling a Colony by land; there being in both vessels, besides Sailors and Common Men, above Thirty English and French Volunteers." Coxe adds that the expedition would have succeeded if one of the commanders had not failed to do his duty.
[295] Gayarré, Histoire de la Louisiane (1846), i. 69.
[296] Mémoire pour servir d'Instruction au Sieur d'Iberville (Margry, iv. 348).
[297] Journal du Voyage du Chevalier d'Iberville sur le Vaisseau du Roy la Renommée, 1699, 1700.
[298] Mémoire de la Junte de Guerre des Indes. Le Ministre de la Marine199 au Duc d'Harcourt (Margry, iv. 553, 568).
[299] Iberville wrote in 1701 a long memorial, in which he tried to convince the Spanish court that it was for the interest of Spain that the French should form a barrier between her colonies and those of England, which, he says, were about to seize the country as far as the Mississippi and beyond it.
[300] Nicolas de la Salle au Ministre, 7 Septembre, 1706.
[301] "Il est clair que M. de Bienville n'a pas les qualités nécessaires pour bien gouverner la colonie." Gayarré found this curious letter in the Archives de la Marine.
[302] Dépêche de Bienville, 12 Octobre, 1708.
[303] D'Artaguette in Gayarré, Histoire de la Louisiane. This valuable work consists of a series of documents, connected by a thread of narrative200.
[304] La Mothe-Cadillac au Ministre, in Gayarré, i. 104, 105.
[305] "Que si M. de Lamothe-Cadillac lui portoit tant d'animositié, c'étoit à cause du refus qu'il avoit fait d'épouser sa fille."—Bienville in Gayarré, i. 116.
[306] Mémoire du Curé de la Vente, 1714.
[307] The earlier cargoes of girls seem to have been better chosen, and there was no difficulty in mating them. Serious disputes sometimes rose from the competition of rival suitors.—Dumont, Mémoires historiques de la Louisiane, chap. v.
[308] Prominent officials of the colony are said to have got wives from these sources. Nicolas de la Salle is reported to have had two in succession, both from the hospitals. Bénard de la Harpe, 107 (ed. 1831).
[309] Lettres patentes en forme d'édit portant établissement de la Compagnie d'Occident, in Le Page du Pratz, Histoire de la Louisiane, i. 47.
[310] Règlement de Régie, 1721.
[311] Saint-Simon, Mémoires (ed. Chéruel), xvii. 461.
[312] De Chassin au Ministre, 1 Juillet, 1722, in Gayarré, i. 190.
[313] A considerable number of the whites brought to Louisiana in the name of the Company had been sent at the charge of persons to whom it had granted lands in various parts of the colony. Among these was John Law himself, who had the grant of large tracts201 on the Arkansas.
[314] Bénard de la Harpe, 371 (ed. 1831).
[315] Lettre du Père le Petit, in Lettres édifiantes; Dumont, Mémoires historiques, chap. xxvii.
[316] "Nos soldats, qui semblent être faits exprès pour la colonie, tants ils sont mauvais."—Dépêche de Perier, 18 Mars, 1730.
[317] Mémoire de Bienville, 1730.
[318] For a curious account of the discovery of this negro plot, see Le Page du Pratz, iii. 304.
[319] Dépêche de Bienville, 6 Mai, 1740. Compare Le Page du Pratz, iii. chap. xxiv.
点击
收听单词发音
收听单词发音 |
1
rivalry
|
|
| n.竞争，竞赛，对抗 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
2
paternal
|
|
| adj.父亲的，像父亲的，父系的，父方的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
3
factions
|
|
| 组织中的小派别，派系( faction的名词复数 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
4
vindication
|
|
| n.洗冤，证实 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
5
nought
|
|
| n.／adj.无，零 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
6
lieutenant
|
|
| n.陆军中尉，海军上尉；代理官员，副职官员 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
7
gallant
|
|
| adj.英勇的，豪侠的；(向女人)献殷勤的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
8
seizure
|
|
| n.没收；占有；抵押 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
9
secondly
|
|
| adv.第二，其次 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
10
immediate
|
|
| adj.立即的；直接的，最接近的；紧靠的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
11
intervention
|
|
| n.介入，干涉，干预 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
12
gulf
|
|
| n.海湾；深渊，鸿沟；分歧，隔阂 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
13
magistrates
|
|
| 地方法官，治安官( magistrate的名词复数 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
14
vigor
|
|
| n.活力，精力，元气 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
15
toils
|
|
| 网 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
16
hardy
|
|
| adj.勇敢的，果断的，吃苦的；耐寒的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
17
cargo
|
|
| n.(一只船或一架飞机运载的)货物 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
18
cargoes
|
|
| n.（船或飞机装载的）货物( cargo的名词复数 )；大量，重负 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
19
emigrants
|
|
| n.（从本国移往他国的）移民( emigrant的名词复数 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
20
unwilling
|
|
| adj.不情愿的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
21
par
|
|
| n.标准，票面价值，平均数量；adj.票面的，平常的，标准的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
22
dependence
|
|
| n.依靠，依赖；信任，信赖；隶属 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
23
labor
|
|
| n.劳动，努力，工作，劳工；分娩；vi.劳动，努力，苦干；vt.详细分析；麻烦 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
24
odious
|
|
| adj.可憎的，讨厌的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
25
shackles
|
|
| 手铐( shackle的名词复数 )； 脚镣； 束缚； 羁绊 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
26
mandates
|
|
| 托管（mandate的第三人称单数形式） | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
27
wither
|
|
| vt.使凋谢，使衰退，(用眼神气势等)使畏缩；vi.枯萎，衰退，消亡 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
28
withering
|
|
| 使人畏缩的，使人害羞的，使人难堪的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
29
maxim
|
|
| n.格言，箴言 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
30
colonist
|
|
| n.殖民者，移民 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
31
remains
|
|
| n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
32
briefly
|
|
| adv.简单地，简短地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
33
garrison
|
|
| n.卫戍部队；驻地，卫戍区；vt.派(兵)驻防 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
34
frigates
|
|
| n.快速军舰( frigate的名词复数 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
35
bent
|
|
| n.爱好，癖好；adj.弯的；决心的，一心的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
36
stockade
|
|
| n.栅栏，围栏；v.用栅栏防护 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
37
westward
|
|
| n.西方，西部；adj.西方的，向西的；adv.向西 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
38
solitary
|
|
| adj.孤独的，独立的，荒凉的；n.隐士 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
39
attired
|
|
| adj.穿着整齐的v.使穿上衣服，使穿上盛装( attire的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
40
hatchet
|
|
| n.短柄小斧；v.扼杀 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
41
vessel
|
|
| n.船舶；容器，器皿；管，导管，血管 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
42
jointly
|
|
| ad.联合地，共同地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
43
contrived
|
|
| adj.不自然的，做作的；虚构的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
44
revocation
|
|
| n.废止，撤回 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
45
petitioners
|
|
| n.请求人，请愿人( petitioner的名词复数 )；离婚案原告 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
46
bigotry
|
|
| n.偏见，偏执，持偏见的行为[态度]等 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
47
diligently
|
|
| ad.industriously;carefully | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
48
uncommonly
|
|
| adv. 稀罕(极，非常) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
49
calves
|
|
| n.(calf的复数)笨拙的男子，腓；腿肚子( calf的名词复数 )；牛犊；腓；小腿肚v.生小牛( calve的第三人称单数 )；（冰川）崩解；生（小牛等），产（犊）；使（冰川）崩解 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
50
fabrics
|
|
| 织物( fabric的名词复数 )； 布； 构造； （建筑物的）结构（如墙、地面、屋顶）：质地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
51
remarkable
|
|
| adj.显著的，异常的，非凡的，值得注意的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
52
appease
|
|
| v.安抚，缓和，平息，满足 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
53
retracing
|
|
| v.折回( retrace的现在分词 )；回忆；回顾；追溯 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
54
dreaded
|
|
| adj.令人畏惧的；害怕的v.害怕，恐惧，担心( dread的过去式和过去分词) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
55
stanch
|
|
| v.止住（血等）；adj.坚固的；坚定的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
56
submission
|
|
| n.服从，投降；温顺，谦虚；提出 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
57
kinsman
|
|
| n.男亲属 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
58
remonstrance
|
|
| n抗议，抱怨 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
59
encroachment
|
|
| n.侵入，蚕食 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
60
providence
|
|
| n.深谋远虑，天道，天意；远见；节约；上帝 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
61
nurtured
|
|
| 养育( nurture的过去式和过去分词 )； 培育； 滋长； 助长 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
62
virtue
|
|
| n.德行，美德；贞操；优点；功效，效力 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
63
piety
|
|
| n.虔诚，虔敬 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
64
nuns
|
|
| n.（通常指基督教的）修女， （佛教的）尼姑( nun的名词复数 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
65
pestilence
|
|
| n.瘟疫 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
66
colonists
|
|
| n.殖民地开拓者，移民，殖民地居民( colonist的名词复数 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
67
disorder
|
|
| n.紊乱，混乱；骚动，骚乱；疾病，失调 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
68
discord
|
|
| n.不和，意见不合，争论，（音乐）不和谐 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
69
knaves
|
|
| n.恶棍，无赖( knave的名词复数 )；（纸牌中的）杰克 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
70
worthy
|
|
| adj.(of)值得的，配得上的；有价值的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
71
interfered
|
|
| v.干预( interfere的过去式和过去分词 )；调停；妨碍；干涉 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
72
dissuaded
|
|
| 劝（某人）勿做某事，劝阻( dissuade的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
73
peculation
|
|
| n.侵吞公款[公物] | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
74
accusations
|
|
| n.指责( accusation的名词复数 )；指控；控告；（被告发、控告的）罪名 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
75
rue
|
|
| n.懊悔，芸香，后悔；v.后悔，悲伤，懊悔 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
76
inquiry
|
|
| n.打听，询问，调查，查问 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
77
investigation
|
|
| n.调查，调查研究 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
78
supplanted
|
|
| 把…排挤掉，取代( supplant的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
79
thrifty
|
|
| adj.节俭的；兴旺的；健壮的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
80
barter
|
|
| n.物物交换，以货易货，实物交易 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
81
mutual
|
|
| adj.相互的，彼此的；共同的，共有的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
82
advantageous
|
|
| adj.有利的；有帮助的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
83
disapproved
|
|
| v.不赞成( disapprove的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
84
predecessor
|
|
| n.前辈，前任 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
85
condemn
|
|
| vt.谴责，指责；宣判(罪犯)，判刑 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
86
sarcastic
|
|
| adj.讥讽的，讽刺的，嘲弄的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
87
vein
|
|
| n.血管，静脉；叶脉，纹理；情绪；vt.使成脉络 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
88
seedling
|
|
| n.秧苗，树苗 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
89
withered
|
|
| adj. 枯萎的，干瘪的，（人身体的部分器官）因病萎缩的或未发育良好的 动词wither的过去式和过去分词形式 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
90
pumpkins
|
|
| n.南瓜( pumpkin的名词复数 )；南瓜的果肉，南瓜囊 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
91
mere
|
|
| adj.纯粹的；仅仅，只不过 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
92
fables
|
|
| n.寓言( fable的名词复数 )；神话，传说 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
93
slanders
|
|
| 诽谤，诋毁( slander的名词复数 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
94
dismal
|
|
| adj.阴沉的，凄凉的，令人忧郁的，差劲的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
95
scapegoat
|
|
| n.替罪的羔羊，替人顶罪者；v.使…成为替罪羊 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
96
languish
|
|
| vi.变得衰弱无力，失去活力，（植物等）凋萎 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
97
mischievous
|
|
| adj.调皮的，恶作剧的，有害的，伤人的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
98
phantom
|
|
| n.幻影，虚位，幽灵；adj.错觉的，幻影的，幽灵的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
99
costly
|
|
| adj.昂贵的，价值高的，豪华的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
100
disastrous
|
|
| adj.灾难性的，造成灾害的；极坏的，很糟的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
101
tributaries
|
|
| n. 支流 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
102
domain
|
|
| n.(活动等)领域，范围；领地，势力范围 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
103
wholesale
|
|
| n.批发；adv.以批发方式；vt.批发，成批出售 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
104
retail
|
|
| v./n.零售；adv.以零售价格 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
105
deducting
|
|
| v.扣除，减去( deduct的现在分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
106
specified
|
|
| adj.特定的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
107
foretell
|
|
| v.预言，预告，预示 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
108
labors
|
|
| v.努力争取(for)( labor的第三人称单数 )；苦干；详细分析；（指引擎）缓慢而困难地运转 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
109
clergy
|
|
| n.[总称]牧师，神职人员 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
110
partially
|
|
| adv.部分地，从某些方面讲 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
111
incessant
|
|
| adj.不停的，连续的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
112
fowls
|
|
| 鸟( fowl的名词复数 )； 禽肉； 既不是这； 非驴非马 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
113
deigned
|
|
| v.屈尊，俯就( deign的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
114
sarcasms
|
|
| n.讥讽，讽刺，挖苦( sarcasm的名词复数 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
115
grumbling
|
|
| adj. 喃喃鸣不平的, 出怨言的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
116
standing
|
|
| n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
117
beset
|
|
| v.镶嵌；困扰，包围 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
118
indefatigable
|
|
| adj.不知疲倦的，不屈不挠的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
119
preamble
|
|
| n.前言；序文 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
120
malice
|
|
| n.恶意，怨恨，蓄意；[律]预谋 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
121
illustrate
|
|
| v.举例说明，阐明；图解，加插图 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
122
invoice
|
|
| vt.开发票；n.发票，装货清单 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
123
requisite
|
|
| adj.需要的，必不可少的；n.必需品 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
124
drawn
|
|
| v.拖，拉，拔出；adj.憔悴的，紧张的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
125
authorized
|
|
| a.委任的，许可的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
126
compulsory
|
|
| n.强制的，必修的；规定的，义务的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
127
asylums
|
|
| n.避难所( asylum的名词复数 )；庇护；政治避难；精神病院 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
128
vagrant
|
|
| n.流浪者，游民；adj.流浪的，漂泊不定的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
129
contraband
|
|
| n.违禁品，走私品 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
130
vigilant
|
|
| adj.警觉的，警戒的，警惕的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
131
elude
|
|
| v.躲避，困惑 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
132
smuggling
|
|
| n.走私 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
133
thwarting
|
|
| 阻挠( thwart的现在分词 )； 使受挫折； 挫败； 横过 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
134
conspiring
|
|
| 密谋( conspire的现在分词 )； 搞阴谋； （事件等）巧合； 共同导致 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
135
charlatan
|
|
| n.骗子；江湖医生；假内行 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
136
prodigious
|
|
| adj.惊人的，奇妙的；异常的；巨大的；庞大的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
137
lavished
|
|
| v.过分给予，滥施( lavish的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
138
speculation
|
|
| n.思索，沉思；猜测；投机 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
139
inflated
|
|
| adj.（价格）飞涨的；（通货）膨胀的；言过其实的；充了气的v.使充气（于轮胎、气球等）( inflate的过去式和过去分词 )；（使）膨胀；（使）通货膨胀；物价上涨 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
140
monstrous
|
|
| adj.巨大的；恐怖的；可耻的，丢脸的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
141
fixed
|
|
| adj.固定的，不变的，准备好的；(计算机)固定的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
142
vessels
|
|
| n.血管( vessel的名词复数 )；船；容器；（具有特殊品质或接受特殊品质的）人 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
143
confiscation
|
|
| n. 没收, 充公, 征收 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
144
proceedings
|
|
| n.进程，过程，议程；诉讼(程序)；公报 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
145
purge
|
|
| n.整肃，清除，泻药，净化；vt.净化，清除，摆脱；vi.清除，通便，腹泻，变得清洁 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
146
exasperation
|
|
| n.愤慨 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
147
reigned
|
|
| vi.当政，统治（reign的过去式形式） | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
148
supreme
|
|
| adj.极度的，最重要的；至高的，最高的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
149
repents
|
|
| 对（自己的所为）感到懊悔或忏悔( repent的第三人称单数 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
150
dispense
|
|
| vt.分配，分发；配(药)，发(药)；实施 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
151
gratitude
|
|
| adj.感激，感谢 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
152
inundation
|
|
| n.the act or fact of overflowing | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
153
overflowed
|
|
| 溢出的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
154
diffused
|
|
| 散布的，普及的，扩散的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
155
inscribed
|
|
| v.写，刻( inscribe的过去式和过去分词 )；内接 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
156
creditor
|
|
| n.债仅人，债主，贷方 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
157
delusive
|
|
| adj.欺骗的，妄想的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
158
idol
|
|
| n.偶像，红人，宠儿 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
159
execration
|
|
| n.诅咒，念咒，憎恶 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
160
morbid
|
|
| adj.病的；致病的；病态的；可怕的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
161
intoxicated
|
|
| 喝醉的，极其兴奋的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
162
vitality
|
|
| n.活力，生命力，效力 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
163
helping
|
|
| n.食物的一份&adj.帮助人的，辅助的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
164
improvidence
|
|
| n.目光短浅 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
165
livestock
|
|
| n.家畜，牲畜 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
166
maligned
|
|
| vt.污蔑，诽谤（malign的过去式与过去分词形式） | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
167
massacre
|
|
| n.残杀，大屠杀；v.残杀，集体屠杀 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
168
conspiracy
|
|
| n.阴谋，密谋，共谋 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
169
militia
|
|
| n.民兵，民兵组织 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
170
adversaries
|
|
| n.对手，敌手( adversary的名词复数 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
171
defenders
|
|
| n.防御者( defender的名词复数 )；守卫者；保护者；辩护者 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
172
cannon
|
|
| n.大炮，火炮；飞机上的机关炮 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
173
mortars
|
|
| n.迫击炮( mortar的名词复数 )；砂浆；房产；研钵 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
174
bounties
|
|
| （由政府提供的）奖金( bounty的名词复数 )； 赏金； 慷慨； 大方 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
175
exemption
|
|
| n.豁免，免税额，免除 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
176
subsisted
|
|
| v.（靠很少的钱或食物）维持生活，生存下去( subsist的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
177
conspired
|
|
| 密谋( conspire的过去式和过去分词 )； 搞阴谋； （事件等）巧合； 共同导致 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
178
gnawing
|
|
| a.痛苦的，折磨人的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
179
malaria
|
|
| n.疟疾 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
180
forefathers
|
|
| n.祖先，先人；祖先，祖宗( forefather的名词复数 )；列祖列宗；前人 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
181
intoxication
|
|
| n.wild excitement;drunkenness；poisoning | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
182
wilderness
|
|
| n.杳无人烟的一片陆地、水等，荒漠 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
183
instigated
|
|
| v.使（某事物）开始或发生，鼓动( instigate的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
184
mustered
|
|
| v.集合，召集，集结（尤指部队）( muster的过去式和过去分词 )；（自他人处）搜集某事物；聚集；激发 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
185
severely
|
|
| adv.严格地；严厉地；非常恶劣地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
186
rebuked
|
|
| 责难或指责( rebuke的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
187
license
|
|
| n.执照，许可证，特许；v.许可，特许 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
188
posterity
|
|
| n.后裔，子孙，后代 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
189
industrious
|
|
| adj.勤劳的，刻苦的，奋发的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
190
utilizing
|
|
| v.利用，使用( utilize的现在分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
191
geographical
|
|
| adj.地理的；地区(性)的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
192
jealousy
|
|
| n.妒忌，嫉妒，猜忌 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
193
adventurous
|
|
| adj.爱冒险的；惊心动魄的，惊险的，刺激的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
194
domains
|
|
| n.范围( domain的名词复数 )；领域；版图；地产 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
195
missionaries
|
|
| n.传教士( missionary的名词复数 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
196
extremities
|
|
| n.端点( extremity的名词复数 )；尽头；手和足；极窘迫的境地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
197
defiance
|
|
| n.挑战，挑衅，蔑视，违抗 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
198
proprietor
|
|
| n.所有人；业主；经营者 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
199
marine
|
|
| adj.海的；海生的；航海的；海事的；n.水兵 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
200
narrative
|
|
| n.叙述，故事；adj.叙事的，故事体的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
201
tracts
|
|
| 大片土地( tract的名词复数 )； 地带； （体内的）道； （尤指宣扬宗教、伦理或政治的）短文 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
| 欢迎访问英文小说网 |