Other Europeans
by Russ Johnson
After the departure of De Soto from Chickasaw territory another 132 years would pass before any recorded visit by a white man to this area.
In 1673 Louis Jolliet, a fur trader and Jacques Marquette, a Jesuit priest joined to form a exploratory voyage down the Mississippi. The two men, both from Quebec, represented the French government in it's hope that the very large river they had heard of in the south would prove a navigable route to the Pacific ocean. A total party of seven men commenced the journey and ultimately turned back having become convinced they were heading for the Gulf of Mexico and also having reason to believe the Spanish may be in the area. Their overall intercourse with the natives of the land was genial. Upon their return Joliet gave the first description of the Chickasaw Bluffs which he referred to as the "Mitchisipi Highlands".
Between 1680 and 1689 four different groups of Frenchmen visited the area of the fourth bluff. The most well known of these was the Chevalier de La Salle in 1682. He stayed long enough to build a small cabin to which he assigned the grand name of "Fort Prudhomme". The 1699 visit by M. D'Iberville was the last visit that could not be described as a military attack for many years.
In 1736 Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne de Bienville, founder of New Orleans and co-founder of Louisiana had had enough of the Chickasaw Nation. Now Governor Bienville he planned to invade and defeat the Chickasaws once and for all. He ordered his comrade Pierre d'Artaguette to bring his troops from the north to a rallying point close to the fourth Chickasaw Bluff. D'Artaguette set out as planned and made his arrival by the appointed date. Bienville was delayed however. After some weeks it became clear to D'Artaguette that he did not have enough food to return home. Instead the decision was taken to attack one of the outlying Chickasaw villages, commandeer the provisions then strike a defensive pose until Bienville could arrive.
French ignorance of the Chickasaw led them to believe the natives had not yet even spotted their troops. As a result their "surprise" raid on the outlying village was met with overwhelming force. d'Artaguette's troops were slaughtered. d'Artaguette and thirteen men were taken prisoner, had their wounds tended by the Chickasaw and were then ceremonially burned alive on a wide circle of stakes. One teen-aged French soldier was allowed to leave so he could "tell the tale", but the story did not come in time for Bienville.
As Bienville and his troops prepared to invade a seemingly empty Chickasaw village bullets seemed to fly from under ground. The warriors had dug deep holes inside each dwelling. From the whole they were protected from gunfire but could fire from openings in the bottom of the structure. As the French progressed forward into the hail of bullets the Chickasaw warriors would withdraw to the next row of dwelling. Bienville's losses were heavy and he was quickly forced to beat a retreat, ultimately returning to New Orleans to lick his wounds for three years.
In 1739 after much planning and recruitment Bienville led an overwhelming force of French and native Americans of several tribes. This time the approach was to come up the river from the west side and ultimately cross the Mississippi at or above the fourth bluff. As the massive group congregated on the all seemed well and the bluff's second fort, Fort Assumption was built. Then a curious thing occurred. Bienville delayed. Week after week with no action led his non-French troops to desert. Their numbers dwindling from desertion and the deaths from mosquito-born diseases which thrived in swamps and bayous, Bienville sued for an uneasy peace with the Chickasaws, returned home with his French troops and resigned the Governorship of Louisiana.
After this very little is recorded of the bluff's history for over forty years. European super powers of the day only had so much military strength to throw at potential colonizations as they were quite busy defending themselves from one another. The next and more or less continuous history of Europeans on the bluff occurred in 1783 when Benjamin Foy (also spelled Fooy) was sent to the bluff by General don Manuel Luis Gayoso de Lemos Amorín y Magallanes (Louisiana by now had been peacefully transferred to Spanish rule) to erect fortifications at the mouth of the Wolf (Margot) River. These fortifications were named Fort San Fernando, or in the full flower of the Spanish language, Fort San Fernando de las Barrancas thus becoming the third fort on the bluff.
The Spanish remained in control of the fort until Spain ceded Louisiana to the United States. The Spanish Army then moved directly across the river and established a settlement alternately known first as Foy's Point and ultimately as Hopefield. During the Spanish occupation the Chickasaw roamed freely through the territory of the bluff, but only for hunting and fishing, not for residence. The withdrawal of the Spanish was hastened by the arrival of "American" troops under one Lieutenant Pike. He and his troops dismantled Fort San Fernando then constructed their own fort about a mile away and christened it "Fort Pickering". This was the fourth on the bluff and the beginning of constant occupation of that area by troops and agents of the United States.