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Our Catholic Heritage in Texas
and unexpected difficulty. St. Denis, the French commander, realizing the dire need of the Spanish fort and influenced perhaps by the fear that too much of the harvest raised by the French might be sold, vigorously prohibited all French settlers from selling any of their farm products below a set price. This worked a great hardship upon the Spanish gar- rison. As early as March, 1735, Gonzalez informed Sandoval that St. Denis demanded two pesos for each fanega ( equivalent to two bushels) of corn and had prohibited individuals under penalty of confiscation. fine, and imprisonment from selling the Spaniards corn for less. 11 He assured the governor that the French did not dare disobey St. Denis and that it was extremely difficult to get anyone to sell corn or beans privately at one peso a fanega as formerly. A few weeks later he announced that he had succeeded in buying fifty-nine fanegas of corn and six barrels of small red beans in Natchitoches. But the French, he assured Governor Sandoval, were wary of selling to the Spaniards because of severe fines and other penalties imposed upon them. The difficult situation of the Spanish garrison was relieved at this time by the arrival, on February 22, of a train of goods from San Antonio, which had been unduly delayed by high floods. With the goods received, Gonzalez was able to arrange an exchange with Mission Dolores for one hundred_and eight fanegas of corn. The price list of the goods had to be reduced before the exchange was made. The weather was so severe, however, and the horses and mules so poor and weak, that forty / anegas had to be left in the mission until they could be hauled to Los Adaes. He explained that it required eight fanegas a week for the garrison, but that he expected he would be able to get along as soon as the horses, which were being brought from Nacogdoches, arrived. Six mules and eight horses from the governor's herd had died as a result of the severe winter.u St. Denis' attempt to capture contraband fails. The weather continued bad. Unable to secure the corn at the mission, Gonzalez succeeded in getting a Frenchman in Natchitoches to agree to sell him several fanegas of corn and beans. It was arranged that the Spaniards were to bring the necessary mules to the Frenchman's house at night, load them, and make their way back to Los Adaes secretly. Consequently on the appointed 11Gonzalez to Sandoval, March 9, 1735. A. G. M., Historia, vol. 524, pt. 3, pp. 681-682. 12Gonzalez to Governor Sandoval, March 15, 1735. A. G. M., Historia, vol. 524, pt. 3, pp. 394-402.
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