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Bienville worked hard to maintain Indian loyalty despite LA's poverty
Source: The Southern Frontier #86
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The defection of the Alabama, and the closer alliance between the Creeks and the English, following closely the conquest of Apalache, marked the second serious defeat for French frontier policy as initiated by Iberville. It was soon followed by another: the renewal of the Choctaw-Chickasaw feud. That the infant colony on the Gulf nevertheless withstood the assaults of the Carolinians and their savage confederates seems to have been due almost entirely to the adroit Indian management of Iberville's brother and successor. Bienville, declared the Jesuit, Father Gravier, knew perfectly how to govern the Indians.33 [Note 33: Arch. Nat., col., C 13 A 1, f. 575. Cf. memoire de Duclos, October 25, 1713] Through the French youths whom he sent to live among them he kept in touch with the rapidly shifting currents of wilderness politics. By flattery, by 'caresses,' he made good in part the meagerness of French presents and the poverty of French trade. Constantly he was receiving Indian embassies at Mobile. Charmed by his remarkable talent for their languages, and by the tact which placed them at his own table in Fort St. Louis, little wonder that his guests were convinced that the French nation was the finest in the world. Bienville believed the Indians naturally loved the French, that only necessity and interest drew them to the English. But sentiment alone is rarely an efficient political motive, even in a state of nature. At times Bienville's skill was severely tested. The poverty of Louisiana played into the hands of its enemies. Funds set aside for Indian presents and trade had to be used to maintain the garrisons. 'Trop cher' was the younger Ponchartrain's marginal comment when Bienville's memoirs urged that his Indians should receive a musket for every scalp they lifted from an English Indian. Nor did the minister welcome the suggestion that a party of chiefs be carried to France to enhance their respect for French power. 34
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