George Bancroft, History of the United States from the Discovery of the American Continent, Vol. 6, 10th edition.

[296] the twenty-fifth of October, the five martyrs to their

Chap. XLI.} 1769.

love of France and liberty, were brought forth pinioned, and in presence of the troops and the people, for want of an executioner, were shot. ‘At length,’ said O'Reilly, ‘the insult done to the King's dignity and authority in this Province is repaired. The example now given can never be effaced.’¹

Spaniards as well as men of other nations, censured the sanguinary revenge. In the several parishes of Louisiana O'Reilly was received with silence and submission. The King of Spain approved his acts; and the Council for the Indies found in his administration ‘nothing but evidence of the immensity and sublimity of his genius.’² Aubry perished on his voyage to France, in a ship which foundered in the Garonne. The son of Masan, one of those condemned to imprisonment, made his way to Madrid, offering himself as his father's substitute; by the aid of France the six prisoners were set free.

The census of the city of New Orleans showed a population of eighteen hundred and one white persons, thirty-one free blacks, sixty-eight free persons of mixed blood; sixty domiciliated Indians; and twelve hundred and twenty-five slaves; in all three thousand one hundred and ninety souls. The whole population in the valley of the Mississippi, then subject to the Spanish sway, is estimated at thirteen thousand five hundred. The privileges which France had granted, were abolished, and the Colony was organized like other colonial possessions of Spain. But Spain willingly kept New Orleans depressed, that it might