The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 62, July 1958 - April, 1959 Page: 372
617 p. : ill., maps, ports. ; 23 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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Southwestern Historical Quarterly
on a three days journey from the Cadodaquious into the country
to a steam in order to make salt there; they were back June 3
with two hundred livres4s of salt.
The desire that I had for making the discovery of the nomadic
tribes situated to the west of the Nassonites upon the border of
the Red River made me resolve to send there M. Du Rivage,
famous geometrician, whom I had brought with me from France.
I had him accompanied by four soldiers, six of my men, eight
warriors of the Nadsoos nation, to whom I made considerable
presents in order to hire them for this journey. I gave to M. Du
Rivage fifteen hundred livres of merchandise to give to these
nomadic tribes on my part in order to contract an alliance with
them, knowing well that it was to the interest of the Company
to have them as allies because of their proximity to New Mexico.
I charged him to learn about the near-by settlement of the
Spaniards and to learn if they had information about these tribes
established to the northwest of the Nassonites on the border of
a river, in which case he should do his best to bring a guide to me
who might lead me. He departed for this expedition June 4th.
The 6th, Saint-Frangois, corporal of the garrison, whom I had
sent to the Assinais, arrived with the chiefs of the Nadaco nation,
who came to celebrate4" a Calumet with me. He brought two
letters to me, one from Don Martin de Alarc6n, governor of the
province of Texas, and the other from Father Marsillo. Here is
the tenor of these letters.
The governor expressed himself thus:
Sir, I am very sensitive to the courtesies that M. de Bienville and
you do me the honor of showing to me. The orders that I have from
the King, my master, are to maintain a good union with the French of
Louisiana; my inclination impells me equally to render to them all
the services which rest with me; but I can not keep myself from tell-
ing you that your arrival at the Nassonites surprises me very greatly.
It must be that your honored Governor ignored that the post that
you occupy belongs to my Government and that all the lands situated
to the west of the Nassonites are the dependance of New Mexico.
4s8A livre was one pound, 4 ounces, i pennyweight, 13 grains troy.
4oChanter, meaning to sing or to chant, is the word that I am translating as
"celebrate" each time that it occurs with the Calumet ceremony. Chanting was only
a part of the solemn Calumet or pipe smoking ceremony. As La Harpe uses the
term, he seems to mean the entire ceremony in which the Calumet was smoked.372
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Texas State Historical Association. The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 62, July 1958 - April, 1959, periodical, 1959; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth101173/m1/439/?rotate=90: accessed April 26, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.