Bourgmont followed the same mode when he finally reached the Apache. He had first sent a representative with two captives "he bought from the Kansas for the purpose of returning them to their tribe - to advise their kinsmen that they were going to make peace." Before they left, he gave each a blanket and shirt, and sent a "small packet of vermillion, some beads, a kettle, an axe, some awls and some knives" to the chief.
François Gaillard reported the Apache chief had "listened in amazement as slaves praised the French."
The chief and some of his advisors went with Gaillard to the Kansa village where the recovered Bourgmont was waiting. When men from all the bands he had invited arrived, "M. de Bourgmont welcomed them and then ordered a great fire to be made in a beautiful space in front of the entrance to his tent."
Following what must have been known protocols, "on his right, he seated the chief of the Padoucas, then the head chief of the Missouris, and the Oto chiefs, and next the Iowa chiefs and the Kansa chiefs." Each was accompanied by "several warriors." Bourgmont had only two of his men present.
Bourgmont spoke first of peace and trade. His listeners responded by offering "their calumet pipes of peace to each other and to make compliments to one another, according to their fashion."
When the meetings were concluded, the Kansa chief invited Bourgmont, some of his men, and five men from each band "to come and feast at his dwelling." This gave him an opportunity to commit his band to Bourgmont’s mission.
Two days later Bourgmont left with the five Apache to visit their camp. He took seven Missouri, five Kansa, four Oto, three Iowa, and his own half-Missouri son. When they were "about a pistol-shot away from their camp" Bourgmont "ordered his tent put up, and had his Frenchmen stack their arms, with a single sentinel to gaurd them, at the entrance to this tent."
The Apache chief spoke to the warriors who came to investigate. "They spread a bison robe on the ground and placed M. de Bourgmont on it, with his son" along with two of the Frenchmen to take them into the camp. "Then they had us feast with them, with great rejoicing, and as night fell we returned to our camp."
In the days that followed, Bourgmont offered trade goods. They reciprocated with horses. And, "each morning they took the son of M. de Bourgmont into their dwellings and kept him the whole day, and they decided among themselves who would have him on a given day. In the evening they would return him to his father in our camp."
The chief signaled he was ready to pledge his allegiance to the French by coming with the heads of the twelve villages and several warriors. "At once, he gave his hand to M. de Bourgmont and invited him to be seated on his right, and the others after him. Whereupon, M. de Bourgmont invited them all to smoke the great calumet of peace."
The next day, the chief invited him and his two aides "to my dwelling to have a feast." After they had eaten, men from the villages arrived with their women and children. The Apache leader gathered them together to inform them the French were now their allies.
Philippe de la Renaudiére noted, "In a word, one could hardly believe all the attention these people showered upon us during our stay with them." They gave his son the most precious of all gifts, "a dozen blue stones, strung together like a rosary."
They had arrived on October 18. The weather turned bad on the 21st with rain turning to sleet. The French left the next day.
Three years later, the agent of the viceroy concluded the French alliance with the plains Apache constituted no danger to New Spain, "since the purpose of the French have in appearing there is but to trade their goods, muskets and arms with the savages [...] as they are accustomed, especially living among the Pawnees at a distance of two hundred leagues from Santa Fé."
Notes: The French term for Apache was Padouca. A calumet pipe were shared to indicate men from two groups had no hostile intentions to each other. As Marquette learned, it only spanned the time of the meeting, and was no guarantee of permanent peace. The calumet had to be renewed at each meeting. Placing men on the right was made them counter-clockwise in the circle. The blue stones were turquoise.
Marquette, Jacques. Journal included in Claude Dablon’s "Le Premier Voÿage Qu’a Fait Le P. Marquette vers le Nouveau Mexique," translated by Reuben Gold Thwaites in The Jesuit Relations and Allied Documents, volume 59, 1899.
Norall, Frank. Bourgmont, 1988.
Renaudiére, Philippe de la. Journal of the Voyage of Monsieur de Bourgmont, translation in Norall.
Revolledo, Juan de Oliván. Report to the viceroy, Juan de Acuña, 21 November 1727; translation in Alfred B. Thomas, After Coronado, 1935.
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