Colonial Mobile; an historical study largely from original sources, of the Alabama-Tombigbee basin and the old South West, from the discovery of the Spiritu Santo in 1519 until the demolition of Fort (14589537700)

Identifier: colonialmobilehi01hami (find matches)
Title: Colonial Mobile; an historical study largely from original sources, of the Alabama-Tombigbee basin and the old South West, from the discovery of the Spiritu Santo in 1519 until the demolition of Fort Charlotte in 1821
Year: 1910 (1910s)
Authors: Hamilton, Peter J. (Peter Joseph), 1859-1927
Subjects:
Publisher: Boston, New York, Hougthon Mifflin Co.
Contributing Library: The Library of Congress
Digitizing Sponsor: Sloan Foundation



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he Mississippi valley were pushed forward. Hisreports aroused the interest of science, the zeal of commerce,and encouraged the government to greater exertions. TheMississippi was surely rediscovered, the great valley open toFrench enterprise. Iberville recommended the acquisition ofPensacola from Spain, and the court tried to obtain it. But,despite the fact that a grandson of Louis XIV. had mountedthat throne and the two peoples were struggling against Europefor the right of the peninsula to choose its own sovereign, theSpanish Junta declined to cede the port. There might indeedbe no longer any Pyrenees, but there was still a Mexican Gulf,the sacred gift of Popes to Spain. It was anent this negotiation that we first appreciate thestatesmanlike grasp of Iberville. The Canadian sailor was inthese southern seas and lands beyond local ties and interests.His memorial furnished the material of Pontehartrains diplo- ^ Winsors Basin of the Mississippi, pp. 63, 80 ; Parkmans Great West,p. 416.
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FROM LA SALLE TO IBERVILLE. 49 macy, and in it he read the future as an unsealed book. Theclaim of Spain to monopoly, he showed, was without basis,and, worse than that, would soon be disputed by that Protes-tant country whose rulers recognized no papal gifts, whose pio-neers on the American seaboard were increasing at a rate thatwould soon take them across the mountains to contend for thevalleys of the Mississippi and its tributaries. In less than ahundred years, ^ said this prophet, the English, unless opposedby growth and persistence like their own, would occupy thewhole of America. And so they did. One hundred and oneyears later, this people, as a new nation, were actually to buyfrom France that Louisiana which Iberville was now founding! 1 4 Maxgry, Decouvertes, p. xli. CHAPTER VI. FOUNDING FORT LOUIS. On one or more of his exploring expeditions from Biloxi,Iberville traversed the Mobile country, and seems to haveselected it as the seat of his colony. Penicaut accompaniedhim, and