D'Iberville only stayed long enough in France to gather more
colonists and returned at once to Louisiana, where he founded two
more towns along the coast. But the colonists sent out by Louis
were of the lowest. Many of them were little more than rogues and
vagabonds. The mere off-scourings of the towns, they were idle and
extravagant, and the colony did not prosper.
Instead of putting gold into Louis' pockets, as he had hoped, he
had constantly to pour it out to maintain the colony. Of that Louis
soon grew tired. Besides this he wanted all the money he could
gather to carry on the war (Queen Anne's War), which was still
raging. So, in 1712, he handed Louisiana over to a wealthy merchant
named Crozat to make what he could out of it.
Such great power was given to this merchant that he was little less
than a king. He had every monopoly. Nobody in the colony could buy
or sell the smallest thing without his permission, and every one
had to work for him and not for themselves. But the people were
by no means willing workers. They were, said one of their priests,
"nearly all drunkards, gamblers, blasphemers and foes of everything
that was good," and when they found that they are expected to work
merely to put money into the proprietor's pocket they would not
work at all.
So very soon Crozat found he could make nothing out of the colony.
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