The French sent an emissary to the same El Cuartelejo Apache in 1724 that Antonio Valverde had approached in 1719. While the governor of Nuevo México had been seeking intelligence about the French, Etienne de Véniard, sieur de Bourgmont, wanted to eliminate barriers to trade with Santa Fé and learn the location of Mexico’s silver mines.
While the governor’s trek was a dutiful examination of an area the Spanish believed they controlled, Bourgmont followed the tradition of quixotic adventurers like La Salle, who envisioned French power extending along the Mississippi river. Bourgmont wanted nothing less that a Pax Gallica that would suppress inter-tribal wars so he could use the Apache as his intermediaries with the Spanish.
Claude Charles du Tisné had tried to open trade with the Apache in 1718 for Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne, governor of Louisiana, but had been stopped by the Missouri. He tried a different route in 1719 and was delayed by the Osage, who feared the Wichita to the west. When he finally reached the Wichita, they refused to let him contact their Apache enemies.
While Bourgmont was in Paris negotiating a contract with agents of Philippe, the king’s regent, interest in Louisiana was being fueled by the Compagnie des Indies, which held the monopoly on trade in the Caribbean and Nouvelle France. Its director, John Law, issued more notes than the bank’s assets could support. The Mississippi Bubble burst in 1720, leaving colonists stranded en route to the gulf coast and no funds to develop the area.
Pierre-François-Xavier de Charlevoix arrived in New Orleans in early 1722. He later recalled, he "heard only of plots to desert and of settlers and soldiers who had disappeared." Later that year a hurricane struck that destroyed all the buildings and the grain harvest.
Bourgmont arrived seeking help in 1723. Although he managed to leave with 40 soldiers, many deserted as they headed north up the Mississippi. The Missouri met him at Fort de Chartres near Kaskaskia. When he discovered some men in his retinue were selling the natives into slavery and trading the remaining horses, he had them censured.
They appealed to Le Moyne, who asked his cousin, Pierre Dugué, commandant of Illinois country, to refuse aid to Bourgmont. His letter said, "we should drop the idea and push our tribes toward war with them and trade in slaves for the account of the Company." According to Frank Norall, he had become dependent on revenue from the sales of Apaches and Pawnees.
Bourgmont jousted with Dugué at Chartres. He was forced to wait for lead, but otherwise received the trade goods and other supplies he requested. In those forty days, three-quarters of his remaining soldiers died from fever or malnutrition.
He recruited enough additional men from nearby Cahokia to continue. On June 29, Bourgmont sent an advance party to the Kansa by river with trade goods and other bulky or heavy items. The group included 17 Frenchmen, who were probably soldiers, and 5 Canadians, who probably were coureurs or the voyageurs who handled the boats.
Bourgmont left five days later with three soldiers, a drummer, a servant, and four others. They were escorted by 100 Missouri and 64 Osage. The supply group wasn’t at the rendevous on July 8. Bourgmont became ill. Fever spread through his camp. When the others arrived on July 16, most of the crew were sick.
The next day, Bourgmont met with the Kansa, Osage, and Missouri to explain his mission of peace. He told the Kansa they could join him, but if they did, they couldn’t retreat when they entered the territory of their deadly enemies.
While they waited to continue west, more people died. On July 20, the Osage fled camp. Only twenty Missouri were left. A few days later, Bourgmont sent the sickest back to Fort de Chartres by boat.
He set out again on July 24, just as the summer storms were increasing. This time, his escort included more than 1,100 Kansa who were joining him as they headed for their summer hunting grounds. They included 300 warriors, 2 head chiefs, and 14 war chiefs. Most of the 300 women and 500 children carried packs while the 300 dogs dragged travois.
By July 31, Bourgmont was so weak he no longer could sit on a horse. He sent François Gaillard ahead to meet with the Apache. He knew rumors already would be spreading.
For safe conduct, he gave Gaillard two Apache captives he had ransomed from the Kansa along with letters in Spanish and Latin, in case the agent met any Spaniards or their chaplains. The young woman and adolescent boy were to explain his mission to their chiefs. Presumably, they were selected because they had learned enough of the Sioux language spoken by the Kansa to understand what they were told.
Just as he was preparing to return to Chartres, the Oto arrived to say their band was coming to join the expedition. The expedition’s journal keeper, Philippe de la Renaudiére, said their chief "was very vexed to see M. De Bourgmont ill."
Bourgmont left the next day on a litter carried by the Missouri accompanied by "three Kansa chiefs and the chief of the Otos with his escort of four warriors." While Renaudiére treated this as routine, Norall noted the appearance of the Oto was significant because they had been allies with the Sioux who treated the French as enemies.
He regained his strength at the fort while waiting for news that Gaillard had succeeded. When he was told, a few days later, that the Apache Gaillard was bringing to meet the Kansa took fright when they saw the funeral rituals for a prominent woman who had died, he decided he needed to return to the Kansa as quickly as possible.
He left again of September 20 by boat with a doctor, nine soldiers, his secretary, and his son by a Missouri woman. He sent anther man ahead to notify the Oto.
A week later Bourgmont arrived at the Kansa village, where he heard Gaillard had calmed the Apache, and that they were on their way back to meet him. He finally met their leader on October 2. Neither Valverde’s report nor Bourgmont’s log name the chief. He was presumably the same man.
Notes: Pierre Dugué was the sieur de Boisbriand or Boisbriant. Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne, the sieur de Bienville, was the younger brother of the Pierre Le Moyne mentioned in the post for 17 May 2015. Tisné was mentioned in the post for 21 June 2015. Coureurs were fur traders; voyageurs were the men who transported the pelts by canoes. The Missouri, Osage, Kansa and Oto all spoke Siouan languages. The Wichita, like the Pawnee, were Caddo speakers. The Apache were Athabascans.
Charlevoix, Pierre-François-Xavier de. Histoire et Description Générale de la Nouvelle France, 1744; quoted by Norall.
Norall, Frank. Bourgmont, 1988; the other tribe who changed alliances from the Sioux to the French was the Iowa.
Renaudiére, Philippe de la. Journal of the Voyage of Monsieur de Bourgmont, translation in Norall.
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