Fortunes were made and lost in a day. Some who had
been rich found themselves penniless; others who had always lived
in poverty found themselves suddenly rolling in wealth which they
did not know how to use. And John Law was the wizard whose magic
wand had created all these riches. He was flattered and courted
by every one. The greatest princes in the land came to beg favours
of him. They came to him to beg, and he treated them haughtily as
beggars, and bade them wait.
Day by day, and month by month, the madness increased, and the
gigantic bubble grew larger and larger. Bienville, meanwhile, who
had been deprived of his governorship, was once more made Governor
of Louisiana. With a company of settlers, he returned again to the
colony in 1718, and he at once set about building a capital, which,
in honour of the Regent, he called New Orleans. The place he chose
for a capital was covered with forest. So before any building could
be done fifty men were set to fell the trees and clear a space.
And then the first foundations of the new great city of New Orleans
were laid.
But still the colony did not prosper. For the colonists were for
the most part rogues and vagabonds, sent there by force, and kept
there equally by force. They looked upon Louisiana as a prison,
and tried constantly to escape from it.
Meanwhile no ships laden with gold and gems reached France, for no
gold mines had ever been discovered.
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