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Squadron and taken to Veracruz with one hundred and twenty prisoners on board. 2 It was during the examination of the prisoners that the details of the French settlement on the Texas coast were learned. A certain young man named Denis Thomas, twenty-two years old, who claimed to be a native of Longueville, near Dieppe, and a former page of the Marquis de Greville, declared he had sailed from France a year before on a royal frigate commanded by Captain Bonchiut (Beaujeu). In answer to questions he explained that there were three other vessels in the expedition which carried supplies for the establishment of a settlement at a place called "Micipipi"; that the settlers numbered about two hundred and fifty per- sons, including soldiers, various tradesmen, seven priests, and several women; that they had arrived at Petit Gouave, in Santo Domingo, on October 28, 1684; and that they had been delayed there- for two months in order to secure supplies to replace those . that had been lost, when a small ketch was captured by Spaniards just before reaching the island. During their stay in Santo Domingo, he had decided to abandon the expedition and return to France. After the colonists left the island, he had found himself without money and had joined the corsairs. Upon being questioned more closely, Denis Thomas added that the man who had discovered the Mississippi was named Monsieur de Salas; that after the discovery of its mouth, which he found by sailing down from Canada, La Salle had gone to France; that the king had ennobled him for his services and made him viceroy of the new lands. He further explained that La Salle had left a group of men in a fort on the large river, before returning to France, and that he planned to conquer some rich mines not far from the Mississippi. When asked how he had learned all these facts, the declarant said that these things had been told to him by a servant of La Salle with whom he had become intimate while at sea. In his declarations he described in detail even the faithful Indian hunter of La Salle, Nika, whom he declared, was rather corpulent, with black coarse hair, and wore red clothes after the French fashion. He said 2 Joseph de Muruetta Otalora and Francisc;o de Arroyo to Viceroy, Veracruz, October 29, 1685. In Testimo de los Autos, y diligencias fechas por el gouo. de la Nua. espa . sobre el reconocimto. de poblazon de franceses en la Bahia de! Espiritu Sancto. A. G. /., Auduncia de Mexico, 61-6-20 (Dunn Transcripts, University of Texas).
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