The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 38, July 1934 - April, 1935 Page: 124
312 p. : ill., maps ; 23 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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Southwestern Historical Quarterly
Aside from the activities of St. Denis, it will be shown that
there was at least one expedition which set out from Mobile in
1707 for the purpose of establishing trade with the Indians of
Texas, Nuevo Reyno de Leon, and Nueva Vizcaya. This expedition
had a definite relation to the hitherto almost unknown expedition
into Texas of 1709, whose diary was only recently published in
English for the first time by the Texas Catholic Historical Society."
It had puzzled the writer, until the discovery of the French expedi-
tion of 1707 why this little band of Spanish missionaries under
the leadership of Father Espinosa and escort of Captain Aguirre
had come into Texas in 1709, traveled as far as the Colorado River,
and returned to Coahuila. It is thus that we see how one incident
leads to another and how piece by piece the connected story of these
silent years is evolving as the old records are more carefully studied.
If La Salle's incursion was the flash that first lighted the way
and aroused interest in Texas, St. Denis may be said to have been
the long rumble that echoed through the wilderness for years and
kept the Spanish officials in constant fear of the approaching
storm. The biography of this remarkable man has yet to be written.
Considerable confusion exists in the data now available between
Louis de St. Denis and Juchereau de St. Denis, and the coming
publication of a semi-fictional biography will no doubt only add to
the confusion. Juchereau was the father of Louis de St. Denis.
He was lieutenant general of Montreal and in 1700, while in
Paris, offered his services to the king to colonize the mouth of the
Mississippi. "After twenty-five years of experience I should be
able to establish a flourishing colony," he confidently declared to
the aging Sun King. But others more influential in the court
circles of France, however, had won the ear of the king and
Juchereau was only able to get a concession to establish a tannery
on the Mississippi. This grant was made to him on June 4, 1701.
The Compagnie de Canada remonstrated loudly against the con-
cession, but Juchereau ably defended his rights. Soon thereafter
he returned to America, going to Canada again. Little is known
about his activities from this time on, although it seems that after
his arrival he went to the Missouri, probably with a view of con-
tinuing from there to the mouth of the Mississippi. In a letter
'Gabriel Tous, T.O.R., The Espinosa-Olivares-Aguirre Espedition of 1709,
in Preliminary Studics of the Texas Catholic Historical Society, I, No. 3.124
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Texas State Historical Association. The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 38, July 1934 - April, 1935, periodical, 1935; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth117143/m1/138/: accessed April 27, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.