Plans for tlie Reorganization of tlee Frontier
205
embarrassment that the necessary papers had not been drawn. It was not until April 21, that the documents were completed. 8 It is necessary to keep in mind that the transfer implied serious adminis- trative problems which required time. Spain undertook her responsibilities with characteristic seriousness and thoroughness. Diligent inquiry was made concerning the organization of its government under French rule, of the existing offices and their duties, of the relations with the Indians, of the population, the products, the ecclesiastical organization, and of the administration of justice from the French ministry, former residents of Louisiana, and even former Governor Kerlerec during the latter part of 1763 and through 1764. One of the chief obstacles to the immediate occupation was the difficulty of detaching the necessary number of troops to garrison the new colony. Choiseul gallantly offered to allow such French troops as were in Louisiana to pass under Spanish service, seeing in the arrangement the immediate reduction of expense to the French treasury. 9 Never thinking that the French soldiers in Louisiana might refuse to enter the service of Spain, the officials made final arrangements for the formal occupation late in the summer of 1765. Antonio de Ulloa, one of the most distinguished Spanish men of science of his day, who had had considerable experience in adminis- trative matters in Peru, was appointed governor of the new pro,·ince. He was to be accompanied by a Spanish company of one hundred and four officers, an agent of the royal treasury, an accountant. and two Capuchin friars. The Spanish government appropriated one hundred and fifty thousand pesos for the expedition, and instructions were issued for a frigate to sail from Ferro} in September, 1765, which was to proceed to Havana, where Ulloa was to embark for Louisiana. 10 Regardless of the little ,·alue attached to Louisiana by Louis XV and his advisers, the people of the province were deeply and reverently devoted to France. and c,·en the Indian tribes resented the transfer. The cession was kept secret until after the arrival of the Governor D'Abbadie to succeed Kerlerec. Although the new French governor came in June, 1764. it was not until October uf that year that he received and published the letter of April 2 1. ord1.•rin~ and instructing him to turn over the government and the pro,·incc to T/1e Frenclt. revolt against Spanisli rule. 1 E. Wilson Lyons, Ln11isia11a i11 Fre,,ch Di,Plflmacy, 40-41 . 9 N. i\f. Miller Surrey, Cale11dar of ilfa,mscripts in l'.1ri,· j(lr lhe H istt>ry t1f //,4 Afississipp;. Valle,,, (Washington, 1928) II, 1761. IOE. Wilson Lyons, Louisia11a ;,, Fr1nch Diplomacy. 43-44.
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