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THE FRENCH
The explorations of La Salle, Joliet and Marquette, were responsible for the French claims to the Mississippi Valley in the first years of the Eighteenth Cen- tury. Also, the French settlements upon the Gulf Coast were a large force to this same end. Prior to La Salle's voyage down the Mississippi very few claims were made by the French, except in the vicinity of the St. Lawrence River and the Great Lakes.' Afterward, however, they claimed all of the Mississippi Valley, which included fully half of the present State of Colorado. In this claim the French not only found opposition among the Spanish, but among the English upon the eastern seaboard, who believed that their charters gave them possession of the land from sea to sea.
The belief that the western coast of America was adjacent to, or a part of,
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the continent of Asia; the belief of a great waterway leading directly from the Mississippi to the western ocean; and the prevalence of rich and large mines of gold, formed the basis of English and French calculations during the early period. Map-makers confidently arranged their maps of the northwestern terri- tory according to traditions and stories heard from the Indians and explorers. Unscrupulous explorers, such as La Hontan, conceived marvelous stories of great rivers and Indian tribes, which they claimed they had found or traced. Boun- daries were indefinite and neither the French nor the Spanish could have pointed out exactly the territory which they believed to be theirs. Consequently, when the French became the owners of Louisiana, they claimed a vast extent of coun- try without regard to the rights of the Spanish or English.
One of the first attempts of the French to explore the northwest occurred in 1712, when a band of adventurers journeyed for several months. No record of this enterprise exists, but it is known that they reached the plains country and heard of the mountain ranges beyond. At this same time French traders and trappers had begun to navigate the Missouri River and its tributaries. Although it was some time before any of these traders reached the site of Denver, excur- sions of equal distance in other directions were taken. The Crozat Government in Louisiana, which began in 1713, endeavored to open up trade with the Span- ish region to the southwest and in the valley of the Arkansas, basing its hopes on the descriptions furnished by Indians. However, this attempt was abortive.
As an instance of the vague idea then held by the French in regard to their western neighbors, the story of Bourgmont may be mentioned. In 1717, Bourg- mont, an explorer who had become familiar with the lower part of the Missouri River, reported that he had learned of the existence of a race far to the west which traded with the Pawnees. The French accepted this story and, although they knew that the Spanish were in that remote territory and that a large ocean separated China from America, they persisted in the belief that this new race was Chinese.
In 1718 a memorial was prepared in Paris, outlining a plan for the develop- ment of the mines on the Missouri and for making Louisiana the commanding state in the new world. The memorial also stated: "Inasmuch as the Missouri has one branch leading to the South Sea, trade can also be opened with Japan and China." This branch assumed to lead to the South Sea was the River Platte, of which the French had a very hazy idea.
DU TISNE
In the latter part of the year 1719 two French explorers started for the western country, in order to gain some definite knowledge of it and use the same for the benefit of their country. One of these expeditions was under command of Du Tisne. He started from Kaskaskia and eventually arrived at a Pawnee village near the present Fort Riley, Kansas, where he raised the French flag, as customary. He made friends with these Indians, and then proceeded farther to visit the Padu- cahs, after having gained the consent of the Pawnees, who were enemies of that tribe. In November Du Tisne returned to Kaskaskia, without having found the supposed Chinese or the river route to the South Sea.
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LA HARPE
The other expedition of like character was under the leadership of Benard de la Harpe. This expedition also entered the country of the Paducahs, La Harpe started from the French post on the Lower Red River, named Natchitoches. He ascended the Arkansas River and probably came very near, if not into, the . plains of southeastern Colorado. At the point where the Santa Fé trail in later years crossed the river, La Harpe found an immense gathering of Indians who were friendly. They told of how easy it would be to reach the Spanish settle- ments by way of the river, but cautioned La Harpe against doing so, well knowing the hostility shown by the Spanish toward the French intruders. La Harpe re- turned to his starting point without discovering anything of value, other than the feelings of the Spaniards.
The expeditions of Du Tisne and La Harpe greatly alarmed the Spanish and the military expedition described in foregoing paragraphs was despatched to drive out the invaders. The terrible fate of this expedition at the hands of the Missouri Indians has been described.
In 1721 La Harpe was sent upon another expedition, which was no more suc- cessful than the first. The purpose was to learn whether or not the Arkansas would make a satisfactory route for trade with New Mexico, also to obtain cattle from the Spaniards upon the Rio Grande.
BOURGMONT'S SECOND APPEARANCE
In 1722 Bourgmont, whose fifteen years among the Indians of the Missouri country had well qualified him for such work, was employed by the Company of the West Indies, of French origin, and formed for the purpose of extending commerce in Louisiana. He was instructed to devise means to hold the Spanish from the Missouri. Bourgmont's first action was to erect a fort upon an island in the vicinity of the present Jefferson City, called Fort Orleans. In June, 1724, he built another fort up the Kansas River. Later, desiring to make friends with the Indians, he took with him a small force of men and journeyed into the ter- ritory occupied by the Kansas Indians. At a council held with these Indians they promised Bourgmont safe conduct for French traders through their country to the Spanish settlements on the Rio Grande. This was the last formal expedition by the French for a period of fifteen years. Individual traders and adventurers delved into the mysteries of the region during this time, returning each time with bits of information of interest to the French government.
THE MALLET BROTHERS
With the purpose of finding a waterway into New Mexico, or to find the western ocean and its eastern shore, the two Mallet brothers, with a small party of Frenchmen, left the French settlements in Illinois in the spring of 1739 and as- cended the Missouri River as far as the village of the Arickaree Indians. These Indians pointed out to them that they were on the wrong road to the New Mexi- can settlements and redirected them. Then, after descending the Missouri for a distance, the Frenchmen started across country to the Platte, then known as the
MONUMENT TO WINFIELD SCOTT STRATTON, STRATTON PARK, COLORADO SPRINGS
Vol. 1-8
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Riviere des Padoucas. The Mallet brothers, in fact, gave this river the name of Riviere la Plat. They followed this stream to the junction of the North and South Platte, then proceeded up the latter to its meeting with the Lodge-pole Creek, in the vicinity of the present Julesburg. The party then left the river and again struck out across the plains in a southwest direction. They passed the Arkansas, crossed the southern part of the Sangre de Cristo Range, then on to Santa Fé. Here they remained until the following spring, then returned toward the Mississippi. At a point in western Oklahoma the band separated, one cross- ing the plains to the Missouri, and the other, with the Mallets, going down the Canadian and Arkansas rivers to the Mississippi, thence to New Orleans. Thus, it will be seen, the route of the Mallet brothers across Colorado began at the northeast corner and led directly across the state from north to south.
The account of this expedition, when told to Governor Bienville at New Orleans, led all the officials to believe that the Mallets were upon Chinese soil, Eastern Asia, when they were tramping across Colorado. The governor was so excited over the expedition that he immediately made preparations for another, in order to explore more deeply into the West.
FABREE DE LA BRUYERE
For the command of this expedition there was chosen Fabree de la Bruyere, a naval officer. In the party were also the Mallet brothers, who wished to share in the entrance to Asia, which they profoundly believed possible. La Bruyere and his men ascended the Mississippi and the Arkansas in the fall of 1741, but diverted his course into the Canadian, instead of continuing up the Arkansas as originally intended. About one hundred miles from the latter stream's mouth he constructed a small fort, in which the party spent the winter months. During the long hours of this wait, the prospect of finding "Asia" and the Chinese be- came very discouraging and resulted in the decision to return home. Upon the return journey a stop was made at the mouth of the Canadian and all the surrounding region was claimed in the name of the French king.
La Bruyere's journey ended forever the French quest for the western river connection with the ocean and the eastern part of Asia. No more expeditions were made in the direction of Colorado. Whether the French were convinced at last that these things sought for did not exist, or whether the resentment shown by the Spanish caused them to seek trade territory in other parts of Louisiana, is hard to determine. The waterway to the western ocean, proof of which laid only in the Indian reports, and the existence of the City of Quivira, persisted for many years.
GOVERNMENTAL ASPECTS
Reference has been made in the earlier paragraphs of this chapter to Spain's claim over the entire northwest territory. Her claim, naturally, was based upon the "right of discovery," a much abused phrase and one calculated to cover a multitude of governmental sins. Until the closing years of the Seventeenth Century no serious opposition appeared from the Spanish in the Southwest. Then, in 1682, when La Salle took possession of the Mississippi River and all
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its immense valley from the Alleghanies to the Rockies, the period of French government may be said to have begun. In 1762, eighty years after La Salle's voyage down the Mississippi, a secret treaty was consummated between France and Spain, the terms of which allowed the Mississippi to be the eastern boundary of New Spain, or New Mexico.
England declared war upon Spain in 1739 and upon France in 1744. This overseas struggle did not end until 1748 and even then the peace compact was considered nothing more than a truce. The interests of France and England in North America immediately conflicted and in seven years resulted in another war, which lasted seven years more. This Seven Years' War was concluded by the Treaty of Fontainebleau on November 3, 1762, by which France ceded to Great Britain all that part of Louisiana lying east of the Mississippi River "ex- cept the City of New Orleans and the island upon which it is situated." This treaty was ratified by the Treaty of Paris on February 10, 1763, at which time it was announced that, by an agreement previously made in secret, "the city and island of New Orleans, and all that part of Louisiana lying west of the Mis- sissippi, including the whole country to the headwaters of the great river and west to the Rocky Mountains," was ceded to Spain. In this way Colorado again became Spanish territory, and continued so until the beginning of the Nine- teenth Century.
The French Revolution during the closing years of the Eighteenth Century brought into prominence two of the most noted characters in European history -Napoleon and Talleyrand. These two great Frenchmen, feeling deeply the loss of their country's American possessions, soon began to plan for the rebuild- ing of a colonial empire, one of the chief features of which was the recovery of Louisiana. At that time Don Carlos IV was King of Spain, but Channing says : "The actual rulers in Spain were Doña Maria Luisa de Parma, his queen, and Don Manuel Godoy, el Principe de la Paz, which title writers of English habitually translate 'Prince of Peace.'"
Godoy, who had been influential in the formation and adoption of the Treaty of Madrid in 1795, which gave the United States the free navigation of the Mississippi, knew that he was not liked by Napoleon and Talleyrand. There- fore, when they began overtures for the transfer of Louisiana back to France, he resigned from the Spanish ministry, leaving the king without his most efficient advisor. In exchange for Louisiana, Napoleon and Talleyrand offered an Italian kingdom of at least one million inhabitants for the Duke de Parma, prince presumptive, who was at once son-in-law and nephew of the ruling mon- archs. The State of Tuscany was selected and its transfer to Spain was the condition imposed by the secret Treaty of San Ildefonso. This treaty was con- firmed by the Treaty of Madrid on March 21, 1801. So Colorado again became French territory, so to remain until 1803, when by the Louisiana Purchase, her soil came into the possession of the United States. Of this tremendous negotia- tion a description is given in the following chapter.
Perhaps the first governor of the territory now in Colorado was the governor, or commandant, at St. Louis, Captain St. Ange of the French Army, who went to St. Louis in 1765, a short time after the founding of the city by Laclede and Choteau. St. Ange was succeeded in 1770 by the first Spanish commandant, Don Pedro Piernas, who served until May 19, 1775, when he was relieved by
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Don Francisco Crozat. The latter remained in office until June 14, 1778, then gave way to Don Fernando de Leyba. De Leyba died in June, 1780, was succeeded by Lieut. Silvio Francisco Cartabona, who served until Crozat was reappointed. Crozat's second term ended November 25, 1787, and then came Don Manuel Perez. Zenon Trudeau followed in 1793 and stayed until 1799. His successor was Don Carlos Dehault Delassus, a Frenchman who had become a Spanish subject. In 1800, when France again became the controlling power over Louisiana, Delassus yet remained at his post and governed until the acqui- sition of the province by the United States in 1803. In fact, France had very little jurisdiction, other than nominal, during the three years. At this point begins the history of the American development of the Great West, which story follows in the next chapter.
CHAPTER III
THE PERIOD OF AMERICAN EXPLORATION
THE LOUISIANA PURCHASE-LEWIS AND CLARK-ZEBULON M. PIKE-HIS FIRST AND SECOND EXPEDITIONS-FIRST VIEW OF THE MOUNTAINS-MEETING WITH THE SPANISH-PIKE'S SINCERITY-LONG'S EXPLORING EXPEDITION-FIRST ASCENT OF PIKE'S PEAK-JOHN C. FREMONT-THE SECOND EXPEDITION-THE THIRD AND FOURTH EXPEDITIONS OF FREMONT-THE GUNNISON EXPEDITION- FRÉMONT'S LAST EXPEDITION.
THE LOUISIANA PURCHASE
A copy of the secret treaty between France and Spain which was confirmed by the Treaty of Madrid ( March 21, 1801) was sent to President Jefferson by Rufus King, then United States Minister to England. It reached the White House on May 26, 1801. In August following, Robert R. Livingston went to France as United States minister and immediately upon his arrival asked Talleyrand, then the French Prime Minister, if the Province of Louisiana had been receded to France. Talleyrand replied in the negative, and in one sense of the word he was justified in doing so, as the Treaty of Madrid was not signed by the King of Spain until in October, 1802. When President Jefferson received a copy of the treaty sent by Mr. King, he wrote to James Monroe: "There is consid- erable reason to apprehend that Spain cedes Louisiana and the Floridas to France. To my mind this policy is very unwise for both France and Spain, and very ominous to us."
During the next twelve months, President Jefferson and his cabinet officers were kept in a state of suspense as to the status of Louisiana and little progress was made toward a satisfactory adjustment of the navigation matter. On April 18, 1802, the President wrote to Mr. Livingston at Paris, advising him that the American people were anxiously watching France's movements with regard to Louisiana. In concluding his letter he said: "The day that France takes pos- session of New Orleans fixes the sentence which is to restrain her forever within her low water mark. It seals the union of two nations who in conjunction can maintain exclusive (control) of the ocean. From that moment we must marry ourselves to the British fleet and nation. The first cannon which shall be fired in Europe will be the signal for tearing up any settlement she may have made, and for holding the two continents of America in sequestration for the common purpose of the united British and American nations."
Jefferson did not desire an alliance with England, but was firm in the con- viction that French possession of Louisiana would force the United States to
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adopt such a course. In November, 1802, news reached Washington that the Spanish authorities at New Orleans had suddenly and without warning with- drawn the right of deposit at that port. The country-particularly in the new settlements in the Mississippi and Ohio valleys-was ablaze with indignation. The federalists, Jefferson's political opponents, tried to force the administration into some policy that would give them a political advantage, but their efforts were futile. Says Channing: "Never in all his long and varied career did Jef- ferson's foxlike discretion stand him in better stead. Instead of following public clamor, he calmly formulated a policy and carried it through to a most successful termination."
In his message to Congress at the opening of the session in 1802, the Presi- dent merely stated that the change in ownership of Louisiana would necessarily make a change in our foreign relations, but did not intimate what the nature of that change would be. On January 7, 1803, the lower house of Congress, acting upon the President's recommendation, adopted the following resolutions: "Resolved, That it is the unalterable determination of the United States to main- tain the boundaries and rights of navigation and commerce through the Mis- sissippi River, as established by existing treaties."
On the 13th of the same month Mr. Jefferson wrote to James Monroe that the federalists were trying to force the United States into war in order to get into power. About the same time he wrote to Mr. Livingston that if France considered Louisiana indispensable to her interests, she might still be willing to cede to the United States the island of Orleans and the Floridas. Or, if not willing to cede the island, she might be induced to grant the right of deposit at New Orleans and the free navigation of the Mississippi, as it had previously been under the Spanish regime, and directed him to open negotiations with that end in view. A few days after writing this letter, thinking the cession could prob- ably be more easily accomplished by sending an emissary direct from the United States for that purpose, he appointed James Monroe as minister plenipotentiary, to cooperate with Minister Livingston. The Senate promptly confirmed Mr. Monroe's appointment and Congress placed at his disposal the sum of $2,000,000 to be used by him and Mr. Livingston to pay for the island.
In this connection, it may be well to note that the ultimate success of Liv- ingston and Monroe was no doubt furthered by a letter written about this time by Pichon, the French minister to the United States, to Talleyrand, in which he advised the French prime minister that the people of the United States were thoroughly aroused over the suspension of the right of deposit, and that the administration might be forced by public opinion into an alliance with Great Britain. War between England and France had just been renewed and Napoleon, realizing the superior strength of the British Navy, saw that it would be a diffi- cult undertaking to hold Louisiana if an alliance should be made between Eng- land and the United States. He had a force of troops under General Victor ready to send to New Orleans, but learned that an English fleet was lying in wait for Victor's departure and countermanded the order.
In the meantime Livingston had opened negotiations for the cession of the island of Orleans and West Florida, believing the Floridas were included in the Treaty of San Ildefonso. On April 11, 1803, Napoleon placed the entire matter of the cession in the hands of the Marquis de Marbois, minister of the French
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Treasury, and the same day Talleyrand startled Livingston by asking if the United States would not like to own the entire Province of Louisiana. Livingston gave a negative reply, but Talleyrand insisted that Louisiana would be worth nothing to France without the city and island of New Orleans and asked the American minister to make an offer for the whole province. Another conference was held the next morning and that afternoon Mr. Monroe arrived in Paris. That night the two American envoys spent several hours in consultation, the result of which was that Mr. Livingston was selected to conduct the negotiations.
Several days were then spent in discussing the matter, Marbois at first asking 125,000,000 francs ($25,000,000) for the whole province, though it afterward cropped out that Napoleon had directed him to accept 50,000,000 francs, pro- vided that a better price could not be obtained. The price finally agreed upon was 80,000,000 francs, three-fourths of that amount to go directly to the French treasury and the remainder to be used in settling claims of American citizens against the French government. The next step taken was to embody the terms in a formal treaty, called the Treaty of Paris. The treaty bears the date of April 30, 1803, and was signed by Robert R. Livingston, James Monroe and Barbe Marbois.
The original cost of the entire territory thus ceded was about three cents per acre, but McMaster says: "Up to June, 1880, the total cost of Louisiana was $27,267,621." Out of the country acquired by the treaty have been erected the following states: Louisiana, Arkansas, Missouri, Kansas, Nebraska, Iowa, Minnesota, North and South Dakota, one-third of Colorado, nearly all of Mon- tana, three-fourths of Wyoming and Oklahoma. After the treaty was ratified by both houses of Congress, Mr. Jefferson appointed William C. C. Claiborne, gov- ernor of Mississippi, and Gen. James Wilkinson as commissioners to receive the province from Pierre Laussat, the French commissary. The transfer was formally made and the Stars and Stripes were raised at New Orleans on December 20, 1803.
LEWIS AND CLARK
Not long after the cession of Louisiana to the United States, President Jef- ferson began making plans to send an expedition up the Missouri River to dis- cover its sources, and to ascertain whether a water route to the Pacific coast was practicable. As it was late in the year 1803 before the Treaty of Paris was rati- fied, the expedition was postponed until the following spring. The President selected as leaders of this expedition Capts. Meriwether Lewis and William Clark, of the regular army. Both were natives of Virginia and the latter was a brother of Gen. George Rogers Clark. On May 14, 1804, they left the mouth of the Missouri River and ascended that stream. Their company consisted of fourteen regular soldiers, nine young men from Kentucky, two French voy- ageurs or boatmen, an Indian interpreter, a hunter and a negro servant belonging to Captain Clark. Their main vessel was a keel-boat, fifty-five feet long, with twenty-two oars and drawing three feet of water. It had a cabin, in which were kept the most valuable articles, and a large square sail to be used when the wind was favorable. They also had two pirogues, fitted with six and seven oars respectively. Two horses were led along the bank, to be used in hunting game. These explorers continued to the headwaters of the Missouri River, then crossed the Continental Divide and proceeded to the mouth of the Columbia River.
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ZEBULON M. PIKE
The life and efforts of young Lieut. Zebulon M. Pike, a young officer of the regular army, are very closely associated with the early history of Colorado. Pike was a debonair and dashing officer, with individual ideas, and well fitted to conduct the expeditions into the western country. Of his unfortunate asso- ciation with the notorious General Wilkinson, much has been written, some authors giving Pike the benefit of the doubt, while others hesitate not in proclaiming him a leader with traitorous designs.
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