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Frencle Settlement and Spain's Renewed Interest
portation much cheaper; and that since the population of Louisiana is small and the amount of merchandise far too great for their consumption, it is evident that the goods are intended for introduction into New Spain. He points out that St. Denis himself came to the Rio Grande for no other purpose, as is shown by the letter sent by the Governor of Santa Maria de Galve in 1713; that the trader gave notice of his departure from Mobile with six pirogues loaded with merchandise; that he and his companions must have disposed of these goods is likewise proved by another letter of the Governor of Santa Maria de Galve, who on October 20, 1715, wrote to the viceroy of Mexico that a group of twenty French- men had returned to Mobile and publicly averred they had been to the Nuevo Reyno de Leon and Coahuila from which places they had brought back large numbers of horses and cattle. 58 The Fiscal argues with logic that these two letters of the governor of Santa Maria de Galve explain some of the obscure points in the declaration of St. Denis. He shows that the date of the first letter coincides with that of the departure of St. Denis, while the date of the second would correspond to the time the twenty companions of St. Denis would require to return, as they did, from Texas to Mobile. Now if St. Denis had traveled directly from the Tejas to the Rio Grande, it could not have taken him one year and nine months from Mobile to the presidio. It is clear, thinks the Fiscal, that what actually took place was that St. Denis and his companions did stop among the Tejas for a while and with their aid perhaps reached the Rio Grande and disposed of most of their goods; that St. Denis sent back his com- panions with the horses and cattle obtained in exchange, and presented himself with only two or three companions to the commander of San Juan Bautista after the departure of the rest. 59 "His statement," declares the Fiscal, "that he did not stop among the Tejas or ever lived among them is false, for it has been proved that he was among them at various times and learned their language. The asser- tion that wild horses and cattle are numerous in the province of the Tejas and that these Indians live in pueblos is likewise false, as shown by docu- 58 This deduction of the Fiscal is fully borne out by La Harpe, who says: "Saint Denis, after this expedition [to the Asinai], returned to the Natchez, I I 3 leagues, to the Mississippi, to give an account of his journey to M. de Lamothe. He took in this place the goods of which he had need and, having ascended the Red River with :five Frenchmen, returned to the Natchitoches, and thence to the Asinais." La Harpe, in Margry, Deco1111ertes, VI, I 93. 59 The Fiscal is partly correct in his deductions. As shown in the previous note, St. Denis himself returned to the Natchez before going on to the Rio Grande.
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