17
French Settlement and Spain's Renewed Interest
Early activities of St. Denis. During this period there rises a figure who seems to dominate the stage of French activity on the Franco-Spanish frontier in America, a man who, for more than forty years, was destined to play an important role, and of whom Governor Boneo y Morales said in 1744: "St. Denis is dead, thank God! Now we can breathe easier." 31 Louis Juchereau de St. Denis was a remarkable man in many respects. Shrewd, resourceful, inured to the hardships of frontier life, acquainted with the psychology of the natives from childhood, and with a gift for languages, he was particularly fitted by nature to be the ambassador par excellence of the French from the Mississippi to the Rio Grande. His father had come to Canada around the year 1675 and by his services to the king, his ability and his courage had risen to the rank of lieutenant general of Montreal. In 1700, he offered the king to colonize the mouth of the Mississippi, confidently affirming "after twenty-five years of experi- ence I should be able to establish a flourishing colony." He received only a concession to establish a tannery in Louisiana, but death, in 1703, while on the way to the Mississippi, prevented him from carrying out his purpose. 39 His son, a young man of twenty-one, preceded him to Louisiana in 1700, 40 coming down the Mississippi, probably with Tonty. Louis Juche- reau de St. Denis immediately became an active and important member of the colony. Iberville recognized at once the natural ability of the young Canadian, and when the new fort on the Mississippi was finished early in 1700, he left his brother Bienville and M. de St. Denis as joint com- manders of this important post." Just when he became commander of the fort of San Juan on the Mis- sissippi, situated forty leagues west of Mobile, is not clear, but he was its commander by 1705, according to his own statement made in Mexico City on June 22, 1715: 12 It is from this declaration that much information is gathered concerning his activities in Texas from 1705 to 1715. At this 3 •H. E. Bolton, Tezas in the Middle Eighteentli Century, 41. 39 Margry, Deco11vertes et Etablissements des Franfais, IV. The data concerning Juchereau de St. Denis, father of Louis, are scattered throughout this volume. 4 °Charmion Shelby, "St. Denis's Declaration Concerning Texas in 171 7," The So11thwestern Historical Qu_arterly, XXVI, 169. At this time St. Denis declared he was 38 years old. That would make him 21 in 1700, the year he arrived at the mouth of the Mississippi. • 1 Margry, op. cit., IV, 399. 42 Declaracion de St. Denis y Medar Jalot sobre su viaje hasta el presidio del Capitan Diego Ramon, in San Francisco el Grande Archive, VIII, 27-32.
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