Villasur Expedition Chronology

The timetable for Pedro de Villasur’s expedition to the Pawnee is difficult to reconstruct. As was mentioned in the last post, only one fragmentary primary source survives with dates. The rest is gleaned from accounts by witnesses who may have been on the periphery. Many statements were taken several years later, after a standardized version may have developed from remembering and forgetting.

In Familiar Territory
Taken from Antonio Valverde’s 1720 report, witnesses’ testimony recorded in 1724, and 1721 hearsay reports to Pierre-François-Xavier de Charlevoix.

June 2
Expedition fully equipped.

Alonso Rael de Aguilar said they took corn, short swords, knives, hats, and a half mule load of tobacco. He added Villasur took "silver platters, cups, spoons, candlestick, ink horn, writing paper, quills, salt cellar" for himself. These were comparable, and probably less bulky than the items Valverde carried on his 1719 campaign.

Jean l’Archevêque "contributed 10 well-laden horses and 6 pack mules, ostensibly for the use of the soldiers of the expedition but, in reality, the animals were loaded with merchandise to be used for trading purposes with the Indians of the Plains." Ralph Emerson Twitchell made that sound sinister, but in fact it was no different than Bourgmont taking coureurs along to trade with the Kansa.

The most important item, according to Charlevoix, was "they drove with them a number of cows and sheep." This was common for the Spaniards, who used horses, but very different from the ways of the French, who traveled by water. Native bands used only to the latter thought the Spanish had come to colonize their land, and became alarmed.

June 15
Antonio Valverde notified the viceroy the expedition was leaving the next day.

The route wasn’t recalled after the massacre. It’s assumed they followed the same route used by Valverde to the Jicarilla and El Cuartelejo Apache. One comment by Villasur suggested they had Apache scouts as they moved farther north and east. On August 5 he wondered "whether the Apaches had deceived us" in taking them so far.

In Unfamiliar Territory
This is the period covered by the salvaged page of the expedition log.

August 5 (the entry is partial and assumed from the next entry)

They arrived at the Platte where the scouts reported evidence people had recently camped there. Villasur called a meeting of his advisors to decide if they "should they await orders from viceroy or should we consider our search among the Pawnee." They decided to proceed beyond the territory of the Apache, and by extension, into that claimed by France.

August 6-7
They crossed the river on rafts and "on the backs of the savages." The river is identified by his comment there were a "large number of islands." He called it the Jesus María.

August 8
Francisco "boasted of his good understanding. He lost his way, however, and returned to camp."

Villasur then sent José López Naranjo with six men to scout the way. Meantime, they continued overland until they reached a tributary they couldn’t cross. They camped and waited for Naranjo to report. Michael Shine believed the tributary was the Loup; they called it the Saint Lawrence.

August 9
A scout reported a band was camped 8 leagues (or 28 miles) downstream, and they were "singing and dancing according to custom of the savages. They seemed to be in great numbers." Villasur crossed the stream, and moved 3 leagues closer to them to camp.

At 11 am he sent Francisco to tell them of their peaceful intentions. He came galloping back at 6 pm to say:

"Having halted on the bank of the said stream, after dismounting, he called to the people who were crossing the river, making signs of friendship and of peace, which are the usual ones, to the savages. As soon as they had seen him, many savages came towards him and among others, four, who walked before the band, with hatchets in their hands, without bows or arrows, uttering cries. Seeing them approach within a stone’s throw, he became frightened. This obliged him to make signs with his hat as if he were calling people behind him. Having mounted his horse he fled as far as the camp [...] without stopping."

August 10
Villasur moved along the tributary until he saw their camp. About thirty men "came to the bank to talk with our people" and Francisco said he recognized the language. They said "he was to come among them," but "made signs towards the sun, which meant they couldn’t confer until the next day."

There ends the page and our written record.

The reports Charlevoix received from the Winnebago conflated this event with at least one other, and possibly altered the band identification. He gathered they had been warned of danger and called upon a neighboring village for support. The fact they were dancing suggested they were anticipating trouble. Their delays may have been intended to give time for help to arrive.

Notes: Bourgmont’s expedition was described in the post for 16 September 2015. The viceroy in 1720 was Baltasar de Zúñiga y Guzman. The Pawnee living in that area of the Platte were the Skidi band of southern Pawnee.

Charlevoix, Pierre-François-Xavier de. Letter, 5 April 1721, extract published in Nebraska History, January-March 1923. He was told there were two priests; Pichardo has identified the second with the one captured by Louis Juchereau de Saint Denis in an attack on the mission of Los Adaes in 1719.

Hackett, Charles Wilson. Pichardo’s Treatise of the Limits of Louisiana and Texas, volume 1, 1931.

Pichardo, José Antonio. Manuscript, 1808-1812, translated and annotated by Hackett.

Rael de Aguilar, Alonso. Deposition, July 1726, in Pichardo.

Shine, Michael A. "In Favor of Loup Site," Nebraska History, July-September 1924

Twitchell, Ralph Emerson. Spanish Archives of New Mexico: Compiled and Chronologically Arranged, volume 1, 1914.

Valverde y Cosío, Antonio. Letter to viceroy, 15 June 1720, in Hackett.

Villiers, Marc de. "Le Massacre de l’Expedition Espagnole du Missouri (11 Aoüt 1720)," Journal de la Société des Americanistes de Paris, 1921; translated and annotated by Addison E. Sheldon for Nebraska History, January-March, 1923.