Page:History of Southeast Missouri 1912 Volume 1.djvu/153

 HISTORY OP SOUTHEAST MISSOURI 93 was all his fault. M. Portell knew his people and disregarded these outcries. In the meautiiue five gallies iiad come up in the course of this year, and had passed all the summer at New Madrid, and they had caused a great consumption of food. M. Por- tell found nothing in the village for their sub- sistence, and drew his supplies for them in part from Illinois and from Kentucky. He did not let pass the opportunity of making it felt b}- those of the inhabitants of long resi- dence, that should have been in a condition to have furnished a part of these supplies, but the blows he struck came too late, and made but little impression — the hot fever which had occasioned the delirium, where every one saw himself a farmer, had now subsided; no one thought any more of it, some of them who had made a trial of their experience at Lake St. Isidor, had so poorly succeeded, that the laugh was not on their side, and it needed but little for hunting, rowing, and smoking the pipe, to resume their ancient authority over nearly all the colony. In 1795 a new fit of the fever struck the inhabitants. The settlement of Ft. St. Fer- nando occasioned a hasty cleaning out of the little corn there was in the colony. Ken- tucky furnished a little, and Ste. Genevieve supplied a great deal, even to New jMadrid, that fell short after having consumed her own supply. This example struck the in- habitants; the.y saw that if they had harvested extensivel.v, they could now well have dis- posed of their surplus — new desires to go on farms to raise stock and to make crops. During these oeeurrances several Ameri- can families came to New Madrid; some of them placed themselves at once on farms, ami like children our Creoles, from a state of jealousy, clamored against the Americans, whom thej- thought too wonderful. Jealousy stimulated them, and they would also place themselves on farms. It is in reality, then, only since the year 1796 that we may regard the inhabitants of this post as having engaged in cultivation, and that it is but yet absolutely in its in- fancy ; a new scarcity they have just experi- enced before the last crops has convinced them of the importance of raising them, not only to provide against such affliction, to en- able them also, with the surplus above their own consumption, they ma.y procure their other indispensable necessaries. The population of the years 1794, 1795 and 1796 is nearly about the same, but the crops have increased from year to year, and all tends to the belief that this increase will be infinitely more perceptible in future years. In the year 1794 the com crop was 6,000 bushels; in 1795, 10,000, and in 1796, 17,000. It was in this condition of things that M. Portell left his command. It was, perhaps, impossible, from the fore- going facts, that the settlement at New Ma- drid could have made greater progress than it has up to this time. It was not husband- men who came and laid the foundation, it was tradesmen, cooks, and others, who would live there with but little expense and la- bor, who, being once fixed there, having their lands and their cattle, the Indians having re- moved tliemselves to a distance, and trade no longer within the reach of all the world, ne- cessity taught them that to procure the means necessary to live, they must resort to tilling the soil. The first attempts were difficult, but the inducement of disposing with ease of their crops determined them to labor. The first steps have been taken ; nothing remains for a wise commandant, but to man- age everything with prudence, according to the views of the government, to firmly repel