French Traders

Peace returned in 1748, and with it the French. The treaty ending the War of Austrian Succession was signed on 18 October 1748. The British attacked Havana just days before, on October 12. Their last major naval battle with France occurred January 31 near Brest. During the fighting in New England, the British armed the Iroquois Confederacy and the French used the Wabnaki Confederacy of the Abenaki, Mícmac, Penobscot, Passamaquoddy and Maliseet tribes.

The detritus of combat floated toward Nuevo México. In February of 1748, before the war’s end, seven Comanche went to Taos where they reported 33 Frenchmen had come to their settlement on lands once associated with the Jicarilla. They traded muskets for mules, perhaps war surplus that had seeped west. Most had left but two were still interested in coming to the fair. Herbert Bolton found no record they did.

Names at the top changed. Ferdinand VI became king and Francisco de Güemes became viceroy in 1746. Juan Rodríguez de Albuerne had been entrusted with northern frontier defense strategy in 1742 by the intervening viceroy, Pedro Cebrián. Tomás Vélez Cachupín arrived as governor in 1749.

Soon after, three Frenchmen arrived in Taos who claimed to be deserters from Arkansas Post: Luis Febre, Pedro Saltre, and Joseph Miguel Riballo. They had traded with the Jumano, who took them to the Comanche. There they joined their hunts.

Vélez had them questioned, and send their responses to Albuerne, who thought their answers too vague to be trusted. Vélez proposed keeping them since they were skilled in trades needed in Santa Fé. He had them requestioned in March of 1750, and Febre’s response forwarded to the auditor de guerra. This time they were allowed to stay if they were watched.

Before the case of the deserters was complete, another victim of the wars appeared in Taos. Felipe de Sandoval had been on a Spanish ship captured by the British in 1742, and kept as a prisoner on Jamaica. He escaped on a French vessel to Mobile. There he became a hunter in Louisiana. He eventually made his way to Arkansas Post where he learned the way to Nuevo México from the Mallets who had settled there.

Sandoval was part of a group of six who left there for the Jumano. From there they moved to a Comanche village where again he proved himself with his hunting skills. The Frenchmen joined the Comanche going to Taos to sell captives. The German in the group refused to continue because he feared the Spanish Inquisition.

The Comanche had been attacking the kingdom’s frontiers since 1746. Perhaps because he had his own ideas on how to deal with them, mentioned briefly in the post for 2 March 2016, Vélez didn’t attribute their activities to either the recurring droughts or to Comanche traditions.

He wrote Albuerne, "I regard as most mischievous the permission given to the first Frenchmen to return" and added "They gave an exact account and relation, informing the Governor of Louisiana of their route, and the situation and condition of New Mexico."

Vélez didn’t understand that Mallet had been passed from one band to another with the distribution of gifts. Likewise, the later men, who knew a little more about the location of Santa Fé, also were guided by natives who worked in exchange for goods, often after the Frenchmen proved their worth as hunters.

The governor also didn’t understand the dynamics of the fur trade that was moving farther west with each conflict with the British and with each war with unhappy natives. Bolton mentions at least four fur traders appeared about which nothing more was recorded.

He certainly didn’t understand the repercussions of the captive trade. The Mallets had started up the Missouri, and been directed south by the Arikara. When the finally met the Comanche, they had an Arikara captive who "had been a slave among" the Spaniards and "had been baptized by them." The Mallets ransomed him to use as a guide.

Instead, Vélez blame the nefarious French, and so framed his responses to Albuerne. They agreed all Frenchmen who arrived in the future should be sent to Sonora, as far from Louisiana as possible. Since most were good shots Vélez suggested they be conscripted.

Thus, when Mallet returned in 1750 along the Arkansas, he and his party were arrested. More traders appeared in 1752 with a letter from the commandant of Michilimackinac, and a license from the commandant of Upper Louisiana. They too were arrested, their goods seized and sold to Tomás Ortiz, who, in turn, resold them for a profit.

They had gone to Fort Chartres south of the confluence of the Missouri with the Mississippi, where they met the governor, Jean-Baptiste Benoit. They moved through the Osage and Pawnee on the Missouri, were attacked by the Comanche, guided by an Aa, and brought to Pecos by members of the Jicarilla and Carlana bands of Apache.

The fate of Mallet’s party after they were sent to Sonora is unknown. Since Jean Chapuis and Luis Foissi had official papers from a French governor, they were sent to Spain.

Vélez probably felt his policies were responsible for stopping any more French traders from coming to Nuevo México. More likely, it was the Seven Years War between France and Great Britain that began in 1763.

Notes: Benoit is better known as the Sieur de Saint-Clair. The viceroy in 1750 was Francisco de Güemes. The Jumano were French allies. Arkansas Post was mentioned in the entry for 2 March 2016.

Luis Sánchez de Tagle migrated to Nueva España from Asturias where he amassed great wealth and power. He married María Pérez de Bustamante, and was named Marqués de Altamira. When there were no female heirs, the title passed through the female line. Albuerne became the marquis consort when he married the granddaughter of Luis’s nephew.

Bolton, Herbert Eugene. "French Intrusions into New Mexico 1749-1752," H. Morse Stephens and Herbert E. Bolton, The Pacific Ocean in History, 1917.

Mallet, Pierre. Journal of the expedition, 29 May 1739 to 24 June 1740, summarized by Jean Baptiste Le Moyne and translated by Henri Folmer; included in Donald J. Blakeslee, Along Ancient Trails, 1995.

Vélez Cachupín, Tomás. Report to the viceroy, 8 March 1750; quoted by Bolton.

Wikipedia for details on wars, alliances and Marqués de Altamira.