The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 69, July 1965 - April, 1966 Page: 328
591 p. : ill., maps, ports. ; 23 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
Extracted Text
The following text was automatically extracted from the image on this page using optical character recognition software:
Southwestern Historical Quarterly
delphia on April 2 and, after a long and difficult voyage, arrived
at St. Louis on June 3. With him he carried newspapers, dis-
patches, and copies of secret correspondence between Casa Irujo
and the governor-general, Baron de Carondelet. Lieutenant Colo-
nel Carlos Howard, who was in charge of military activities in
Upper Louisiana, took a dim view of letting deFiniels see the
fortification plans until he had received authorization from Car-
ondelet. He recognized deFiniels' ability but remarked that the
Frenchman was more specialized in artillery. The frustrated de-
Finiels bitterly complained about the attitude of the Spanish
officers and the jealousy of Carondelet's appointed engineer, the
Flemish Luis Vandenbemden. Although he accomplished little
in preparing the defenses of the post, he drew an excellent map
of the course of the Missouri River, showing St. Louis and other
Missouri towns located on the Mississippi.1 His salary of $100oo a
month, which began on June 3, was ordered stopped in May,
1798, and he was ordered out of Upper Louisiana. The new
governor-general, Manuel Gayoso de Lemos, interceded, however,
to restore the salary and to find a suitable job for the unhappy
engineer.'5
Gayoso had found in deFiniels the right man for his purposes,
and the Frenchman soon was very busy drawing fortification speci-
fications for Baton Rouge and New Orleans. The other engineers
of Louisiana, Juan Maria Perchet and Joaquin de la Torre, were
constantly fighting with the governor-general and with each other;
but deFiniels tried to please the Spanish officers with whom he
came into contact. That he succeeded is indicated by Gayoso's
strong letters of recommendation, in which he asked that the
Frenchman be appointed a permanent member of the engineer
"'Howard to Carlos deHault deLassus, June 4, 1797 (Papeles de Cuba, Archivo
General de Indias, Seville), legajo 131-a; Howard to Carondelet, June 7, 1797
(Louisiana Collection, Bancroft Library), translated in Nasatir, "Anglo-Spanish
Rivalry in the Iowa Country, 1797-1798," Iowa Journal of History and Politics,
XXVIII, 35. DeFiniels' dissatisfaction is clearly seen in his letter to Gayoso, January
14, 1798 (Papeles de Cuba, Archivo General de Indias, Seville), legajo 215-a. His
map of the vicinity of St. Louis, including the Mississippi and Missouri rivers,
drawn in 1797-1798, is in the Archives du Service Hydrographique de la Marine,
Paris, and is printed in Nasatir, Before Lewis and Clark, I, opposite 94.
15Although an intensive search for deFiniels' service record in the archives of
Simancas, Segovia, and Seville was not successful, his salary record (asiento) is in
Papeles de Cuba, Archivo General de Indias, Seville, legajo 538-b.328
Upcoming Pages
Here’s what’s next.
Search Inside
This issue can be searched. Note: Results may vary based on the legibility of text within the document.
Tools / Downloads
Get a copy of this page or view the extracted text.
Citing and Sharing
Basic information for referencing this web page. We also provide extended guidance on usage rights, references, copying or embedding.
Reference the current page of this Periodical.
Texas State Historical Association. The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 69, July 1965 - April, 1966, periodical, 1966; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth117144/m1/388/: accessed May 7, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.