Occwpation of tl,e Trinity River, 1746-1772
57
In his report he urged the importance of the formal establishment of a garrison of thirty men at the site where the French traders had been captured, the founding of a civil settlement with settlers from Los Adaes. and the erection of a mission for the Orcoquisacs. The civil settlement would obviate in a few years the need of a garrison. The messenger who carried the dispatches made good time, for on January 11, 1755, the viceroy referred the matter to the Attditor. 18 Effect of incident on viceregal a1,thorities. The news of Blancpain's arrest aroused Spani'sh officials in Mexico to action. Ever since 1739, the Spanish frontier from Texas to New Mexico and beyond had been violated by daring French traders. The persistence of the intruders was beginning to chafe viceregal officials. In 1739, the Mallet brothers with a party of eight or nine men made their way first to Taos by way of the Platte River, and hence to Santa Fe. They had succeeded in breaking through the Comanche country and the vigilance of the Spanish frontier. After a residence of six or seven months in comfortable captivity, most of the members of the party were allowed to return. Four descended the Canadian and the Arkansas rivers to New Orleans, while the others made their way to Canada. They carried back the impression that the people of New Mexico were willing to trade and that the Comanches were not an insur- mountable obstacle. Encouraged by this initial success, Governor Bienville sent a party under Fabre de la Bruyere to open trade with Santa Fe by way of the Arkansas River. Although the little band did not reach its destination, French authorities established a post on the Missouri at the Kansas village shortly aftenvards, and French traders soon entered into a treaty in 1746 or 1747 with the Comanches and the Jumanos, which made the Arkansas trail to New Mexico safe. The effect was immediate. From 1748 to 1750 forty-five Frenchmen were reported among the Comanches near Taos, among them Fabre, Satren, and Raballo. In 1751, four others arrived in New Mexico from New Orleans by way of the Missouri. Finally in 1752 Chapuis and Feuilli from Fort Chartres came to Santa Fe and brazenly proposed to open a regular trade route between Illinois and New Mexico. What was the Spanish reaction to these activities? At first they looked upon the visitors benevolently and permitted the Mallet party to return unimpeded. When Fabre, Satren, and Raballo appeared, the Spaniards 11 Auto of November 20, 1754; Barrios y Jauregui to the Viceroy, November 30, 1754, in A.G. I., Audiencia de Guadalajara, 103-6-23 (Dunn's Transcripts, 1756), pp. 32-38.
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