after many years' labor, he was entirely disappointed; and met with no better success in his attempt to open a trade with the Spaniards, although he sent to them both by sea and land.

His agent in the land enterprise was the Sieur Juchereau, probably the same that tried with Mermet to colonize and convert the Mascoutens. He, with great labor and hazard, found his way to the Viceroy of Mexico, who dwelt in the city of that name; but, no sooner had he presented himself to the Spanish grandee, than he was seized and cast into prison, where he lay three months. At length, some French officers, who were in the Spanish service, prevailed upon the Viceroy to let him come into free air again; and, as he was thrown into the company of that personage, the Spaniard's heart was touched by the noble and honest character of the Sieur Juchereau, and he took him kindly by the hand, and made him eat at his own table. As they thus came closer in contact, the Spaniard ever found the more to love and admire in his prisoner. He began to try to persuade him to leave the French service, and remain where he was; and the French officers added their persuasions. It was no slight temptation to a man like the Sieur Juchereau, without property or prospect; but he was a true man, and declined all offers. "Well," said the Spaniard, when all other argument failed, "are you not already half Spanish? Do you not love a Spanish maiden at Fort St. Jean? Will not the hope of gaining her hand win you over?" "I cannot deny," answered the gallant Frenchman, "that I love the damsel, though I have no hope of winning her." "But you shall win her," said the Viceroy. "Hearken! for two months you may think of my offer; then join us, and you shall be wedded to the lady of your love, and made an officer in our ranks." The two months slowly pass; and now how is it with our Sieur Juchereau ? "I cannot desert my king," is his constant answer. The Viceroy, more touched than ever, gives him his liberty; places in his hands a purse with a thousand piastres in it, to defray," he said, "his wedding expenses, for he still hoped Doña Maria would persuade him ;" and, with a firm and melancholy face, the Frenchman turns northward.

A few days' travel brings him to the Fort St. Jean, where he finds Don Pedro de Velascas, the father of the damsel, plunged in grief, because certain of the Indian tribes within

L

his jurisdiction had determined to remove elsewhere, which he knew would call down upon him the anger of his superiors, and probably cost him his life. Juchereau, hearing how things stood, offered his services, to go to the savages, and try to persuade them to stay. "But they will kill you!" cries the astonished Don Pedro. "I have no fear," replies the Sieur; and on the morrow, with his friend Jallot, a surgeon, he mounts and seeks the red men, who had already left their old homes. On their swift horses, the fearless Frenchmen make rapid progress, and soon overtake the moving multitude; and, with his white handkerchief held aloft as a flag of friendship, the Sieur asks a conference with the chiefs. Long skilled in Indian ways, and, above all, true as the sun, he soon persuades the wild men that they are acting unwisely; he appeals to their love of their old homes; paints the dangers of the course they are taking; and guaranties them good treatment, if they will but go back. The chiefs consult, hesitate, listen, and consult again; and the next day, Don Pedro, looking anxiously abroad, sees the two Europeans return with all the Indians at their back. And now was Doña Maria won indeed; not by battle, but by peace-making; and soon the little Spanish frontier town was all astir to celebrate the nuptials of the fair daughter of its governor, and her true Christian knight.*

But, happy as the Sieur Juchereau's mission had been for himself, it had done nothing for his employers; for the Viceroy's last words had been, "I can allow no trade between Mexico and Louisiana." Crozat, therefore, being disappointed in his mines and his trade, and having, withal, managed so badly as to diminish the colony, at last, in 1717, resigned his privileges to the King again. Then was formed Law's famous West India Company, who sent out settlers in 1717 and 1718, in one of which years New Orleans was laid out. This company was to have had a monopoly of the commerce of the Mississippi for twenty-five years; but, at the end of fourteen, they were very glad to resign to the King in their turn. During these years, the history of Louisiana is mostly a detail of quarrels with Spaniards, English, Choctaws, and Natchez; all which we have not room to write here,

Charlevoix, Vol. IV. p. 170.

+ Charlevoix, Vol. IV. p. 196, says, 1717; Du Pratz says, 1718

even if we had the inclination. It may be found in the work of Du Pratz, who was an eminent man in the colony, from 1718 to 1734, or in the pages of Charlevoix. Passing by the battles and conspiracies of these times, and of the next nineteen years, we leave our imperfect sketch at the middle of the century, as then began a new era, the struggle of the French and British for the region beyond the Alleghanies.

In 1749, there were no other French settlements in the West, than those upon the Illinois, already referred to; that at New Orleans, including its various dependences, where, according to Vivier, were twelve hundred persons; and some small posts among the Arkansas and Alibamons.

In closing, we cannot but express a hope, that some of our Historical Societies will reprint from Thevenot the original French Journal of Marquette, from the Paris edition of 1683 (if it can be had); Hennepin's Louisiana; Joutel's Journal, (from the French if it can be found, if not, from the English); the most interesting of the Lettres Edifiantes relating to the West; and any other valuable original accounts now extant;-together with lithographic fac-similes of the map of 1656; of that of 1660, in Du Creux's work on Canada (Hist. Canadensis, a P. F. Creuxio ; Paris, 1664); of Marquette's; of Hennepin's, of 1683; of Joutel's; of Coxe's, and Charlevoix's. We would also suggest the appointment of committees to examine and report upon works of doubtful authenticity, such as Hennepin's New Discovery, Tonti's Journal, and La Hontan's Account of the Long River; thus placing, in an accessible and permanent form, what, in our pages, must soon pass out of view, even supposing our researches and hints to be of value to the historical reader.

ART. III.

Coleccion de los Viages y Descubrimientos, que hicieron por Mar los Españoles desde fines de Siglo XV., con varios Documentos inéditos concernientes á la Historia de la Marina Castellana y de los Establecimientos Españoles en Indias, coordinada é ilustrada por Don MARTIN FERNANDEZ DE NAVARRETE, Caballero de la Orden de San Juan, &c. Tom. I. VI. Madrid. 1825-1837. 8vo.

WE rejoice to perceive, that, notwithstanding the disastrous civil war raging in Spain, this great national work is still carried on by its learned author, and we earnestly hope it may not fail of completion.* The fifth and sixth volumes. relate to Spanish voyages in the Pacific, ending with that of Loaysa. We avail ourselves of the occasion to do justice to the character of Spain, in a matter deeply important to the United States.

There is no European government, which, in its relations with other civilized powers, either in Europe or America, is so loud in its professions of disinterestedness and moderation, as that of Great Britain. For twenty years, it persevered in a war of strenuous hostility against Napoleon, because he was a conqueror, and therefore dangerous to the peace and liberty of nations. Even if Napoleon carried his arms into Egypt, and away from the territory and states of Europe, still England relentlessly pursued him thither. Nay, when France had run her race, and had been thoroughly beaten and humbled by the coalesced arms of all Europe; when she had ceased to be an object of dread or suspicion to surrounding powers; and when, at such a period, she proceeded to inflict punishment, well deserved and too long delayed, on the piratical state of Algiers, and that insignificant country fell into her power by the just right of war; - Great Britain undertook to demand of her that she should abstain from holding it, made it cause of sober diplomatic remonstrance, and indulged at home in the most extravagant complaints against her, because she had presumed to make a single petty conquest in Africa. And, whenever Russia has happened to engage in war with Turkey, or any of the lesser

For notices of the first two volumes, see North American Review, Vol. XXIII. pp. 484 et seq., Vol. XXIV. pp. 265 et seq.

states around the Black Sea, the English press and the English Parliament have been thrown into a perfect ecstasy of horror at the ambitious and encroaching spirit, which (they allege) animates the councils of the Czar.

Meanwhile, in the midst of all these professions, what has been the actual conduct of Great Britain? That government has, for more than half a century, pursued a career of conquest by force of arms, on a scale of magnificence unparalleled in the history of modern nations, and scarcely surpassed by the Roman Republic. To be satisfied of this, and without reckoning the colonial establishments she has formed in the new continent of Australia, and which she has scattered all over the globe in other countries considered barbarous, like the coasts of Africa and America, and the islands of the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic seas, without reckoning these, which alone constitute a vast empire in extent and resources,

to be satisfied of the ambitious career of Great Britain, we have only to advert to the fact, that, within the one hundred years last past, she has got possession of Malta and the Ionian Islands in Europe, of the Cape of Good Hope, covering a great part of Southern Africa, and of numerous kingdoms and nations in Asia, containing a population of about one hundred and thirty million inhabitants. That is to say, during the period assumed, she has made conquests at the average rate of a million and a half of souls per annum ; all these conquests, moreover, having been mere moneygetting speculations of trade.

We do not complain of this. We only state the fact. Whether it be right and just for Great Britain, or any other power, to subjugate half the world by unprovoked war; whether it be consistent and honorable to be for ever preaching abstinence, and liberality, and beneficence, and good faith in Europe, and to be for ever practising the reverse of all this in Asia; are questions we leave to the unbiassed judgment of mankind. We do not discuss them here. Nor, though Great Britain should proceed to consummate the enterprise, which it is said she has just now entered upon, of invading and dismembering Persia; though she should make her way into China, as she did into India, by asking space of land for a trading factory, and taking a great empire to supply it, by pretending commerce, and pursuing conquest; and though, by the same combination of proved and confessed fraud and force, by which she has gained one hundred and