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First Voyage to the Mississippi: The Journal of the Badine
- The University of Alabama Press
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Pierre LeMoyne d'Iberville 11 Biloxi, as well as the unhealthy conditions of these low-lying spots, Iberville had orders to place his new effort twenty-six leagues north of Massacre Island (now Dauphin Island) up Mobile Bay, on the high ground overlooking the Mobile River, at a location on the west bank called Twenty-Seven-Mile Bluff. Bienville, the new commandant at Biloxi, was instructed to move everything from his fort to a way station on the south side ofMassacre Island, where a snug little harbor had been located and a warehouse was to be constructed. Satisfying this command , Bienville proceeded up the Mobile River to the prescribed bluffto deposit four families Iberville had brought from France and to lay the basic construction for a colony. With the project two months underway, Iberville had recovered sufficiently at Pensacola to join the operation. Mter inspecting the completed warehouse at Massacre, he proceeded up the bay to the mouth of a small river, Riviere-aux-Chiens (now Dog River), where he established a second way station. At TwentySeven -Mile Bluff he found the work moving smoothly. Fort Louis de la Louisiane, he announced, would be the name of this settlement; it would be called La Mobile.20 The remainder ofthe expedition-some three months-Iberville devoted to food, lodging, and. Indian relations. Com, he hoped, could be grown easily on fields once used by Indians. Even more com might be found through trading with Indians. The commander tried but failed to find a stream with sufficient power to run a sawmill. Although his Indian operations had the clear strategy of blocking an expansion of British influence in the area, they also demonstrate certain aspects of Indian life along the Mobile and Alabama rivers. On one of the islands in the Mobile River, Iberville gave an Indian a gun in return for directions to a hidden place where gods were supposedly located . The guide did indeed show the way to five figures made of plaster, but would approach them only by walking backwards and, at that, would move no closer than ten feet from the idols. Yet if there were incidents indicating the Indians' cultural isolation, there also were episodes foreshadowing Euro- .OSee Jay Higginbotham, Old Mobile: Fort Louis de la Louisiane (Mobile, 1977). 12 Introduction pean conquest. Chickasaws and Choctaws, whom the British had manipulated into war, were invited through a visit by Tonty to come to La Mobile for a peacemaking conference. Iberville's purpose was to weld these groups into an effective counter to the English. Increasingly knowledgeable on the subject of Indian practices, the commander decided on a long speech delineating the reasons for peace: His main point, delivered through Bienville's translation, was that the English had encouraged Chickasaws to attack Choctaws as a means of weakening Chickasaw power, and when that power was sufficiently reduced, the English would wipe out the Chickasaws or sell them as slaves in the Indies. His plea was eloquent and followed by valuable gifts. It also was futile. The Chickasaws would remain within British hegemony and, in fact, defeat French soldiers on two subsequent occasions. Ignorant of this pending failure, Iberville departed from La Mobile in April 1702 with a certain buoyancy. He had met his charge, he thought, and in returning to Pensacola to prepare for the voyage to France he also managed to acquire for his personal disposal a large load of beaver pelts brought out of the Mississippi Valley by Canadian voyageurs. The soldier of fortune rarely missed an opportunity. Iberville did not return to the Gulfcoast. Mter three years in France, he completed his fascinating career with a Caribbean tour de force. The War of Spanish Succession pitted England against France over the future of the Spanish crown; Iberville was assigned to assault the British island of Nevis, where he made prisoners of the entire population, over seven thousand, and looted ruthlessly.21 That same year, 1706, he died suddenly at Havana after what may have been a bout with malaria.22 His wife, Marie-Therese Pollet, and his five children 2lCrouse, d'Iberville, describes the Nevis assignment, pp. 253-65. 22It is conjecture that Iberville died of malaria or of yellow fever. As Guy Fregault writes, "Une autre question se pose au sujet de ce qui a amene sa mort. L'opinion generale est qu'i1 succomba aune epidemie. Ce n' est pas avec les documents que nous avons que nous pouvons I'affirmer de fa...