The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 69, July 1965 - April, 1966 Page: 325
591 p. : ill., maps, ports. ; 23 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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The Casa-Calvo-deFiniels Expedition
325
from the efforts of the boundary commissioner and one-time in-
terim governor of Louisiana, Brigadier General SebastiAn Calvo
de la Puerta y O'Farrill, Marqu6s de Casa-Calvo.2 When the
French Prefect Laussat declared, in January, 1804, that the western
boundaries of the Louisiana Purchase extended to the Rio Bravo,
or Rio Grande,3 Spanish cartographers, geographers, historians,
and diplomats from New Orleans to Cadiz rushed to the archives
to find documentary proof to the contrary. Casa-Calvo wrote his
superiors that the true boundary was probably along the Sabine
River, but that it was possible to draw a line between the Cal-
casieu and Mermentau rivers dividing Louisiana and Texas.
Unfortunately, the ministers in Spain had little knowledge of
the true geography of western Louisiana."
'Born in Havana about 1754, Casa-Calvo entered military service as a cadet in
the Company of Nobles on April 1, 1763. He accompanied Alejandro O'Reilly in
the expedition to pacify Louisiana in 1769 and participated in de GAlvez' opera-
tions in West Florida during the American Revolution. Named ad-interim gov-
ernor-general of Louisiana following the death of Manuel Gayoso de Lemos in 1799,
he later served as one of the Spanish commissioners who formally transferred
Louisiana to France in 18o3. A sketch of his military career is in Jack D. L. Holmes
(ed.), Documentos indditos para la historia de la Luisiana, z792-1z8o (Madrid,
1963), 371n.
3Statement of Laussat, January 2o, 18o4 (Papeles de Cuba, Archivo General de
Indias, Seville), legajo 2356.
'Among the studies of the western boundary of Louisiana are E. L. Berthoud,
The Bounds of Louisiana in i8o3 (Golden, Colorado, 1897); J. J. Anderson, Did
the Louisiana Purchase Extend to the Pacific Ocean? (New York, 1881); J. O.
Broadhead, The Louisiana Purchase, Extent of Territory Acquired by said Purchase
(St. Louis, 1897); Binger Hermann, The Louisiana Purchase and our Title West
of the Rocky Mountains (Washington, 1898); Isaac Joslin Cox, "The Significance
of the Louisiana-Texas Frontier," Mississippi Valley Historical Association Pro-
ceedings, III, 198-213; Isaac Joslin Cox, "The Louisiana-Texas Frontier," South-
western Historical Quarterly, XVII, 1-42, 149-187; J. R. Ficklen, "Was Texas
Included in the Louisiana Purchase?" Publications of the Southern Historical
Association, V; Richard Stenberg, "The Western Boundary of Louisiana, 1762-1803,"
Southwestern Historical Quarterly, XXXV, 95-10o8; Richard Stenberg, "The Bound-
aries of the Louisiana Purchase," Hispanic American Historical Review, XIV,
32-64; Charles W. Hackett (ed.), Pichardo's Treatise on the Limits of Louisiana
and Texas (4 vols.; Austin, 1931-1946); Fernando Solano Costa, "Los problemas
diplomiticas de las fronteras de la Luisiana," Cuadernos de Historia Diplomdtica,
III, 51-95, IV, 121-154.
"Manuel de Salcedo to Pedro Cevallos, No. 2, August 2o, 1804 (Papeles de Cuba,
Archivo General de Indias, Seville), legajo 2368, also translated in A. P. Nasatir
(ed.), Before Lewis and Clark (2 vols.; St. Louis, 1952), II, 745-750; Casa-Calvo
to Jose Martinez de Orossa, August 2o, 1804, copies in Museo Naval, Madrid, Tomo
476, folios 2-7, and Archivo de la Biblioteca del Servicio Hist6rico Militar, Madrid,
legajo 5-1-8-1; Francisco Gil y Lemus to Principe de la Paz, July 6, 18o5, with
enclosures, in ibid., legajo 5-1-7-12.
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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/m1/385/: accessed May 1, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.