23. State of the Colony. — In the meantime the



THE COLONIZATION OF LOUISIANA 43

colony at Biloxi was not in a flourishing condition.
When the provisions from France and St. Domingo
were exhausted, there was little to eat except what
game could be killed or what fish could be caught,
and most of the colonists seem to have been too lazy
even to hunt and fish. Sauvolle has left us a journal
of his experiences as governor, and a sad story it tells.
He complains bitterly of the behavior of the colonists,
saying that they often refused to obey his orders, and,
when any serious work was to be done, he had to go
himself, pull them out of their beds, and stand by
them till the work was finished. To add to the general
discontent, heavy rains continued to deluge the coun-
try, and with them there came a terrible malady,
which, it is now believed, was no other than the
dreaded yellow fever of our own day. In a very short
time not only was the colony reduced from two hun-
dred to one hundred and thirty-nine persons, but
Governor Sauvolle himself, after heroic exertions to
make the settlement a success, took the fever and
died.
CHAPTER IV
BIENVILLE GOVERNOR. FIRST TERM, 170I-I713

24. The Transfer of the Capital. — After the death
of Sauvolle, Bienville was placed at the head of the
colonial government. Both he and Iberville saw
that, if the colony was ever to succeed, there must
be cultivation of the soil.
