First Clashes with the United States
2 57
officer from Natchitoches pursued a party of deserters beyond the Arroyo Hondo and arrested them in Spanish territory. To the protest made by Spanish officials, Turner replied that the limits of Louisiana were as yet undetermined; whereupon he was told that until the boundary was settled the old line between the two provinces would have to be observed. Salcedo, when he learned of the incident, gave orders to Governor Cordero that in the future any party or individual who trespassed beyond the estab- lished line was to be arrested and held until further instructions. 76 The suspense and indignation of Spanish officials heightened as the year drew to a close. In November, Louis Foutier, formerly of Natchitoches but now residing in Nacogdoches, reported to the governor that American officers had questioned citizens of Natchi- toches to learn whether or not they would take up arms against Spain in the event of war. In October a new road from Natchitoches to the Illinois was ordered built and more than a thousand men were hired at three dollars a day. Foutier also stated that he had been in Natchitoches on October 22, when Felix Trudeaux returned from New Orleans and said that the Marques de Casa Calvo had left on October 20 with thirty dragoons and ninety grenadiers aboard three ships for Orcoquisac. But more alarming still was the fact that the American troops in Natchi- toches publicly boasted that they would soon help to mark the boundaries of Louisiana, which they maintained extended to the Rio Grande. Recently· a. certain James and a Folston, both Americans, had gone hunting with Indian friends to the country of the Orcoquisacs. 17 When the commandant general received the report containing the statements made by Foutier, he was seriously alarmed. He immediately informed Cordero that he had dispatched sixty men under Captain Gregorio Fernandez from Chihuahua to Coahuila so that Cordero might make use of them as he saw fit. At the same time he had sent an urgent request to the viceroy for six hundred mounted troops, one or two good engineers, and fifteen or twenty artillerymen for service in Texas. 78 Growing distrnst. Claslzes in tlte Sabine-Arroyo Hondo area. By the end of the year Spanish forces had reoccupied the abandoned _post of Los Adaes; Bayou Pierre, located a short distance from the former; and La Nana, likewist! 76Cordero to Salcedo, October 14, 1805; Salcedo to Cordero, November 2, 1805. Nacogdoches Archives, X, pp. 41-44. ''Cordero to Salcedo, November 22, 1805. Nacogdocl,e.r Arcl,iv4s 1 X, pp. 48-50. ,&Salcedo to Cordero, December 6, 1805. Nacogdocl,es Arcl,iv1.r, X, pp. 55-56.
Powered by FlippingBook