by Bob Curran
To the south, Louisiana was developing rapidly as a French colony, and gradually entrepreneurs and speculators began to see the wisdom of developing a trading trail from the Great Lakes to the new French lands. This would mean the growth of the settlements in the Illinois Country and, in 1717, the French king Louis XV accepted the offer of a Scottish economist and financier named John Law to set up a company to manage such a development. Law’s company was given a monopoly on all trade, ownership of all mines, and use of all military posts in the region, and agreed to encourage the settlement of 6,000 white settlers and 3,000 black slaves in the territory. Included in this agreement was the Illinois Country and the Company of the West quickly went about its business, appointing Pierre Dugue de Bois-briand as governor of the area. He set up his headquarters at Fort de Chartres about 18 miles north of Kaskaskia Settlement and began to develop the region, initially through mining. This eventually led to the establishment of Madison, St. Francoise, and Washington Counties.
Despite all of this developmental and economic activity, the old Indian stories did not go away. Miners and engineers throughout the region still heard tales of moving lights that had vampiric properties, and gradually these began to incorporate themselves into local white legend as well. The French explorer, Philip Francois Renault, took mining land in the region in 1719 and brought over five black slaves to work in his own mines—the first black slaves to work in Missouri. The tales, however, frightened the workers, as did hostility among indigenous tribes and bad weather. In 1742, spurred on by hant stories and devil tales, Renault was forced to sell his lands, having made little profit.
Spanish settlers were now entering the Missouri area, and both France and Spain made an agreement against the English, who were also attempting to expand into the midwest. However, Native Americans wars and a war against the British further north were going badly for the French, and they pursued peace. In order to get their Spanish allies to sign a peace treaty, the French now transferred parts of Louisiana and part of Illinois Country into Spanish hands under the Treaty of Fontainebleau in 1762. Under the complicated terms of the Treaty, the Eastern bank of the Mississippi and a part of Louisiana was ceded to the English, and this included part of the country known as “Missouri.” French settlers living in this area were concerned about living under British rule and, as the implementation of the Treaty of Fontainebleau proved slow (its terms were not fully revealed until 1764), many decamped for what is now the state of Missouri, the British portion forming what is now largely the state of Illinois. Indeed, the new Spanish overlords encouraged them to do so in order to limit the influence of British traders who were finding their way into the area.
Large numbers of English Protestants were now arriving in the Northwest Territories (of which neighboring Illinois was a part) and the Catholic inhabitants of Missouri believed to be threatened. They strengthened their fortifications and encouraged more missions into the area. Tensions increased when, in the late 1770s, the Spanish settlers began aiding the American rebels in their war against the British (the War of Independence). Spanish officials in the two major towns in Missouri, St. Genevieve, and St. Louis, actively sent militia forces to aid the revolutionaries in their struggle. In June 1779, England declared war on Spain, and Spanish settlers in Missouri felt an even greater threat. In May 1780, the British attacked St. Louis and, although the town was saved, the loss of life was severe.
Following the American Revolution, a set of completed treaties was drawn up between the European powers to determine the land acquisition. The Spanish managed to retain much of Louisiana and part of Missouri Territory, but were forced to accept a large number of American Protestants crossing the Mississippi River to settle. In order to deal with the Catholics, Spanish authorities asked an American military officer, Colonel George Morgan, to set up a fort from which he could control the new Missouri territory on their behalf. Morgan set up a colony known as New Madrid, but rapidly fell out with the Spanish governor of Louisiana, Esteban Rodriguez Miro, and the colony was quickly abandoned. Nevertheless, the heavy influx of American Protestant settlers continued, and despite Spanish efforts to the contrary, it grew. In the end, the Spanish realized that the new settlers were not interested in converting the Catholic inhabitants, nor were they particularly loyal to Spain—they tolerated them because of their contribution to the area. But the American influx was having a profound effect on the territory, changing both the language and demographic make-up.
And yet underneath the changing social position, there was an undercurrent of superstition and mystery. In Missouri, religion—particularly the Catholic religion—had been a strong element of the early cultural and social life before the arrival of the Protestant settlers. After all, the area had been first mapped by a Jesuit, and French Jesuits had certainly played an important part in the formation of the territory. However, in 1763, the Jesuits were expelled from the region by the French authorities, mainly because of their wealth and power and their willingness to meddle in political and military affairs. With the Jesuits gone, there was a shortage of Catholic priests all through Missouri Territory, as under Church laws, French priests from other administrative Catholic areas were forbidden to preach in the region, so the Spanish served the religious needs there by a succession of priests from Louisiana and from the southwest. It was not until the mid-to-late 1780s that St. Genevieve and St. Louis received permanent clerics. The Church was also alarmed by the number of Protestants who were crossing the Mississippi and, though the civil authorities tolerated them for economic purposes, the Catholic bishops were fearful that they might try to convert the indigenous inhabitants.
The temporary priests saw value in reinvigorating old beliefs and old fears. Coming from the southwestern areas, they had heard stories there of witches and demons that traveled as balls of light and who sometimes carried out evil in that form.
During the late 16th and early 17th centuries, there had been a spate of high-profile exorcisms and other supernatural activities carried on by the Catholic Church in both France and England. Faced with a rise in Protestantism (particularly that of the Huguenots), the French Catholic Church began to resort to miracles and exorcisms in order to reassert its authority. The Devil was everywhere, seeking to subvert God’s people, and the only refuge lay in the offices of the Catholic Church and its priests. And if the Evil One had been active in early modern Europe, he was also powerfully present in the unknown territories of a new continent. Faced with the rising tide of Protestantism flooding into the new area, the Church resurrected old tales of ancient horrors lurking in the Missouri region that could threaten the settlers there.
And they had ready-made demons lurking there. When Father Marquet had first arrived in the area, the natives had told him stories about strange lights that came and went of their own accord, which could sometimes draw the energies from those who witnessed them. These, the Father (and those who came after him) had decided, were the instruments of Satan. Although not exactly describing them as such (because that would have given credence to old Native Americans beliefs), the Church hinted that these lights might be agents of the devil or manifestations of the souls of evil folk. Curiously enough, this perspective was also accepted by many of the incoming Protestant settlers. The Protestant religion also accepted the imminence of the Devil, and anything strange or unexplained was often interpreted as a concrete manifestation of evil and the workings of the Evil One. The idea of evil, flickering lights were gradually incorporated into Missouri folklore by all sides.
The notion of unexplained lights being some form of supernatural manifestation is an old one that appears in many cultures and one that existed long before Father Marquet had heard it from the Native Americans along the banks of the Mississippi River. Stories concerning them had already appeared in European traditions—all of them associated in some way with death—and this perhaps aided the assimilation of the idea into the folklore of both Catholic and Protestant settlers in Missouri.
In parts of Yorkshire, the phenomenon is described as “hobby lights,” and is referred to as such in the Denham Tracts written between 1848 and 1856 by Michael Denham. These are collections of folklore and ghostlore in 54 pamphlets and notes concerning beliefs and superstitions among rural folk. There are several references to the “hobby lights” in the Tracts, each one signifying them as dangerous phenomena.
To approach or try to tamper with these lights was to invite disaster. An old tale from England tells of how a drunken sailor attempted to light his pipe from one of the flickering lights. He was struck by a fearful blow and left with a peculiar black mark on his face, which became poisonous and eventually killed him. According to some traditions, others have approached these lights and have been forcibly struck or something terrible has happened to them. In some cases, interlopers have experienced all the energy being drawn from them, leaving them weak and unable to pursue the light when it moves.
In Eastern Europe, such lights are said to mark a place where great wealth is buried, but can often only be seen on St. George’s Eve (April 22nd) when, at midnight, all the evil things in creation hold sway from midnight until daybreak on the 23rd. To approach such lights at this time is highly dangerous, as they can draw the life from the individual or deliver such a blow as to do harm. The terror and superstition of St. George’s Eve is mentioned, interestingly enough, in the first chapter of Bram Stoker’s classic vampire novel Dracula.
Although these English, Welsh, Irish, and East European encounters are obviously distressing, in South America the flickering light takes on a much more sinister and more deadly dimension. Here, the corpse light also exists, and is sometimes known as fugo fatuo (fake fire) in countries such as Brazil. Regionally, it is called the batata or Mbae-Tata (taking its name from the Old Tupi language of Brazil), and can refer to a large serpent that can form out of light and smoke. It has eyes made from fire, and by day it is almost blind, but at night it can see everything in the world. Legend says that this was one of the creatures that was left after the Great Flood swamped the world, and that it survives by drawing the “goodness” (energy and wholesomeness) from anyone who approaches its lair. It is supposedly a version of the cave anaconda.
Dangerous though this is, it is not considered to be as deadly as the Luz Mala (evil light) of Argentina and parts of Uruguay. This is not a great smoky snake, but a ball of light that travels around the back roads of the country searching for victims. It is greatly feared, and often Argentinean people will take long detours to avoid roads on which it has been seen. The light appears in two colors: white (in which case it represents a soul in great torment; whoever sees it is asked to pray for them and to give an offering at the church), and red (which is the most dangerous, and the person who sees it should run, because red equals the presence of the Devil). The origin of the Luz Mala is unknown, but it is generally thought to be the soul of an evil person or of a person who has not been properly buried according to Christian custom. As such, it will seek to harm the living who it believes are responsible for its condition. It is certainly under the control of the Evil One. In some parts of Argentina, particularly the northeast of the country, such phenomenon is known as Mandinga Lanterns (Mandinga being a regional name denoting the Devil in human form). Tradition says that such lights are especially bright on August 24th—the feast of St. Bartholomew—and when they appear, they will show the position of buried treasure. However, one must be incredibly careful, because St. Bartholomew’s day is the one day of the year when Satan is free from the supervision of the angels and will try to lure greedy mortals to their doom with promises of wealth. The way to drive these demons off is to take a knife with an iron blade (over which the Rosary has been said at least three times), and to strike at the light with it. The evil light will then retreat, but any treasure that it has been “guarding” will also disappear. Similar to a poltergeist, this phenomenon can generate unearthly sounds, like a person screaming or the clanking of chains; similar to a vampire, it can draw off energy from all those who approach it, unprotected by the Church or by holy ritual. Such lights are also usually associated in the popular mind with witches and evil beings, and are certainly under the control of the Devil.
The idea that the lights pertained to something evil also translated itself into the myths of the Native Americans further North. The Makah of Washington State, for example, believed that the lights—especially the Aurora Borealis, which they sometimes saw—were the fires of evil dwarves who captured and ate travelers through their country, cooking them on a spit over a roaring blaze. The Mandan of North Dakota explained these lights as the fires of gigantic wizards and medicine men, who cooked their enemies in great stew pots and then ate them, while the Menominee of Wisconsin believed that these flashes of brilliance, often seen in the dark, were the lights of torches held by unfriendly gigantic cannibal creatures who were hunting for victims. The Fox Indians of Wisconsin took a view that was more in line with early European traditions. For them, the lights were an omen of pestilence and misfortune—they were the souls of dark sorcerers and medicine men who were hostile toward them.
This rich tapestry concerning lights and strange brilliances, both European and Native American, was taken up by the settlers as they came into places such as Missouri, and incorporated into their own folklore. They began to spread out across the new Territory, placing more and more demands on the Spanish administration, largely based in Louisiana. In the late 1790s, the Spanish began to realize that the area was too large and diverse for them to effectively manage, especially with dwindling reserves and, so, in 1800, a treaty was negotiated for the return of Missouri to French jurisdiction. This transfer was codified in the Third Treaty of San Ildefonso, which remained secret for a short time.
After Louisiana became a state in 1812, the remaining area became known as Missouri Territory. By 1810, however, the influx of European settlers of varying religions flooding into the area had more or less overwhelmed the indigenous French-speaking element and had pushed the Native American peoples back further West. The land was of a particularly good quality and farmers were anxious to put down roots and form the foundations of statehood. During the War of 1812, the
territory was a frontier area with an American military base—Fort Bellefontaine—established near St. Louis. From the early years of the 1800s, more and more settlers poured in, changing the demographics of the region, but laying solid social and political foundations. In 1818, the territorial administration submitted a request for statehood to the United States Congress. The application became mired in controversy, as it had submitted the request on the grounds that it become a slave-holding state (perhaps because of the number of southerners who were now living there and who owned slaves). However, in 1820, the Missouri Compromise cleared the way for statehood and, in 1821, Missouri became the 24th state.
During the late 1820s, there was a rush of farmers into Missouri from parts of Kentucky, anxious to avail themselves of the new land. Generally, faiths other than Catholicism were tolerated, if not sometimes encouraged. Apart from the Mormon War of 1838, when Governor Lilburn Boggs issued the Missouri Executive Order 44, calling for the expulsion and extirpation of all Mormons in the northeast of the state, Missouri tended to be fairly lenient toward all creeds.
