was both capable and learned, once more renewed the claim of the Capuchins to be the sole possessors of the vicar-generalship in New Orleans. Here was the opportunity longed for by the enemies of the Jesuits in the colony. They saw a splendid chance to ruin the Society of Jesus and yet escape censure, for circumstances offered them a scapegoat in the Capuchins. The dominant party in France could not accuse them of being backward in furthering the cause, while to the friends of religion and order these worthies could, washing their hands, answer with Pilate: "We are innocent of this crime; lay the blame on the Capuchins."

It now becomes my duty to speak of the great sacrifices demanded of the Jesuits of colonial Louisiana before it pleased Providence to try their obedience unto death. Only one of the victims, Father Watrin, S. J., has left an account of the expulsion from Louisiana, unless, as some think, the intercepted letters and stolen documents of the others may lie rotting in the archives of the Marine Department at Paris, whither Choiseul had all such documents deposited. The most truthful source of information extant on this subject and the one to which I am largely indebted for this paper is Father Watrin's brochure, originally written in French and published in Paris on the 3d of September, 1764. This brochure was republished by Father Carayon, S. J., in 1865.

And how did the Jesuits act, asks the author of the brochure, when they saw the clouds gather around them? At first they were filled with apprehension, but the encouragement of their well-wishers and their deeprooted confidence in the power of God's protection strengthened them anew and they went on attending to their usual avocations without taking care for the future. Such were the circumstances when a vessel from France arrived on the 29th of June, 1763. On board were Abbadie, the new Governor, and La Frenière, the new Procurator-General of the colony. Abbadie informed Father Baudoin, the Superior of the Jesuits, what steps had been taken against the Society of Jesus in France, and added: "I believe that the Procurator-General is charged with some order that concerns you." This was an

intimation, perhaps friendly, to the members of the Society in Louisiana to prepare the decks for the coming action, but the fathers were so confident that no valid charge could be brought against them, so sure of the backing of the colony, notwithstanding the example of France, that they took no steps to defend themselves. It was, indeed, the wisest course; for all they might have done could not save them, as they were already condemned, and resistance, though ever so justifiable, would only furnish the malice of their enemies with material out of which it could construct a charge of resistance to authority. A war of extermination was now declared against them. The Superior Council of Louisiana, which, be it remembered, some few years before had sustained the Jesuits in their rights against the Capuchins, now seemed anxious to reverse its former judgment, and, as a preliminary measure, ordered the constitutions of the Society of Jesus to be examined. Thus it came to pass in Louisiana, as in the European countries, that these venerable constitutions of Saint Ignatius Loyola, which had been approved by several Popes and by a General Council of the Catholic Church at Trent, were to be passed upon in New Orleans not by theologians or canonists, but by shopkeepers, doctors and military officers. The judges were ignorant of the Latin language in which the constitutions were written, and none of them, except M. Chatillon, Colonel of the Angoumois Regiment, showed themselves any way in favor of the Jesuits. The charges brought against the Fathers in Louisiana were the same trite ones that had been used to advantage by their enemies in various European countries. The principal charges were: (1) That the Jesuits attacked the royal authority, (2) encroached on the rights of Bishops, and (3) endangered the public safety. It was not to be expected, however, that in a sparsely-settled country like Louisiana, where the Jesuits and their heroic labors were seen of all, such sweeping charges would find general credence; hence some local charges were added. These were: (1) That the Jesuits took no care of their missions; (2) that they thought of nothing save how to improve their plantation; (3) that they usurped the office of Vicar-General.

Such were the preposterous accusations brought against men honored and esteemed by Bienville, the founder of New Orleans; by his successor in office, the stern Perrier, who, in the hour of his direst need, found the Jesuits a tower of strength; by the generous Vaudreuil; by Kerlerec, the honest naval captain, doomed afterward to rot in the Bastile, and who, in this supreme crisis, thus wrote to the Jesuit Fathers: "Blessed are ye when they shall revile you and persecute you, and speak all that is evil against you untruly, for my sake; be glad and rejoice;" by Abbadie, the recently appointed Governor, who showed, as far as he dared, that his sympathies leaned toward the Jesuits but who lacked the courage of his convictions.

It would be needless delay to spend time in refuting the general charges which even those who made them knew to be false, and which have been refuted time and again by learned and holy men. As regards the local charges made against the Jesuits of Louisiana, a few words may be said. It was a matter of public knowledge at the time, and therefore could not have escaped the notice of the Superior Council, that not only had the Jesuit missionaries toiled and sweated among the Indian charges, but that they were the only class of missionaries who had taken the trouble to learn the Indian dialects so as thereby all the more readily to gain the poor savages to Christ. It was not inknown to the Superior Council that many Jesuits had shed their blood for the sake of the faith in Louisiana, and that those who were not quite so fortunate as to offer up their life-blood for Christ served Him in labor and weariness in caring for the nomadic Indians, being thereby obliged to forego all intercourse with their fellow white men for months and sometimes years at a time. It was also known to every Frenchman in the colony that the presence of the "Black-Robes" among the savages was a protection far better than weapons or armies. And yet, O ingratitude! these same Black-Robes were accused of taking no care of their missions. To pass on to the second indictment, namely, the Jesuits thought of nothing save how to improve their plantation: The framers of this charge were fully aware that the revenues derived from the plantation were devoted solely to the upkeeping of the various Indian missions throughout the

colony. They were also aware of the good effect produced on the white settlers as well as on the Indians by the industry exhibited on this model Louisiana plantation. They were aware that to the Jesuits Louisiana owed its sugar cane, its orange and fig trees; and that the Jesuits, though they were not the introducers of the indigo plant and wax-myrtle tree, were nevertheless the ones who made the cultivation of both a source of revenue for the entire colony. The plantation of the Jesuits was a shining model for all, and deserved the praise, not the blame, of the colonial as well as of the French government. Referring to what the Jesuits had done for Louisiana, the United States Social Statistics for 1880 uses these words: "Much encouragement was given to agriculture in Louisiana by the example of their [the Jesuits'] industry and enterprise." Lastly, the Jesuits were accused of having usurped the office of Vicar-General. charge needs no refutation, as it was made in direct contradiction of the decision handed down and faithfully registered by the Superior Council itself only a few years before. Besides, even supposing the charge was true, it could not be brought against the whole body of the Jesuits in the colony and could only be laid at the door of an individual member of the Order.

This

On the 9th of July, 1763, the Superior Council of Louisiana condemned the Jesuits throughout the Colony without examination and without a hearing. It declared their religious vows null and void (though where a secular court got jurisdiction over spiritual affairs is not apparent); forbade them for the future to call themselves Jesuits, and ordered that they should lay aside their religious habit and assume that worn by the secular clergy. It decreed, moreover, that all their goods and chattels, with the exception of such books and clothes as each one was permitted to retain, should be sold at auction; that the money accruing from the property in New Orleans should be forwarded to Choiseul to be divided at his discretion among the Fathers of the Louisiana mission, and that all other monies coming from the properties in other parts of the colony should go to the King's treasury. It was further ordered that the church ornaments and sacred vessels should be handed over to the Capuchins; that the chapels should be razed; that the

Fathers should be sent back to France as soon as possible, and that in the meantime they should not be allowed to live in community.

The execution of the decree was a repetition of the indignities common on the part of civil officers in those days. Sheriffs, appraisers and their underlings took possession of the Jesuit residence, feasted on the best the plantation produced, and, by way of adding insult to injury, obliged the aged Superior, Father Boudoin, to be present at their riotous banquets. At length the sale came to an end and the chapel, within whose hallowed walls the famous chief, Chicago, with his Illinois followers, had sung hymns of praise to God, and where they had prayed for the French monarch and their beloved Black-Robes, was leveled to the ground. This, indeed, was an unnecessary and altogether wanton piece of destruction in a country so poor in sacred edifices, but the desecration of the adjoining graveyard was an act of vindictiveness for which the name vandalism is too mild. The destruction at New Orleans was only a part of the general program of the Superior Council; there yet remained a similar destruction of chapels and residences in other parts of the colony and the banishment of the Fathers before the Jesuits could say that their sacrifice was complete. Seeing how ruthlessly the other commands of the Council had been enforced, the Fathers who happened to be residing in New Orleans or its vicinity left before they could be proceeded against. Father Carette embarked for San Domingo and Father Roy hurried off to Pensacola, Florida, where he arrived in time to sail for Mexico with the Spanish officials then retiring in virtue of the cession of West Florida to England. The aged Superior, Father Michael Baudoin, the benefactor of the colony, the man to whom our present State of Louisiana owes so much of its prosperity, alone remained. He had passed thirty-five years in the colony, and was then seventy-two years old and broken down by his labors. The authorities allowed him to remain because, forsooth, "being a Canadian he had no friends or relatives in France.' As a Canadian, Father Baudoin was a British subject and possibly this may in a manner account for the sudden clemency extended to him. Moreover, when it is remembered that the very men who