Étienne de Veniard, Sieur de Bourgmont
Encyclopedia
Étienne de Veniard, Sieur de Bourgmont (April 1679–1734) was a French
explorer who documented his travels on the Missouri
and Platte
rivers in North America
and made the first European maps of these areas. He wrote two accounts of his travels, which included descriptions of the Native American tribes he encountered. In 1723, he established Fort Orleans
, the first European fort on the Missouri River, near the mouth of the Grand River and present-day Brunswick, Missouri
.
. At the age of 19, Bourgmont was found guilty in 1698 of poaching
on the land of the Monastery of Belle-Etoile. He did not pay the 100-livre
s fine. He is believed to have left for New France
settlements in North America
that year to escape imprisonment for failing to pay the fine.
, who were setting up a tannery
for buffalo
hides at the mouth of the Ouabache River (Wabash River
) on the Ohio River
. The tannery closed in 1703 and Bourgmont moved to Quebec
.
In 1705 on orders from Antoine Laumet de La Mothe, sieur de Cadillac
, Bourgmont moved to Fort Pontchartrain
at present-day Detroit, Michigan
, where he assumed command in 1706. In March 1706 a group of Ottawa
attacked a group of Miami outside the fort. Soldiers fired from the fort and killed a French priest and sergeant who had been outside the walls, in addition to 30 Ottawa. Bourgmont was severely criticized for his handling of the incident. When Cadillac visited the fort in August, Bourgmont and other members of the garrison were reported as having deserted their post.
From 1706 to 1709, Bourgmont and other deserters lived as coureurs des bois (illegal traders, literally, "wood runners") around the Grand River
and Lake Erie
. In 1709 one of the deserters, Betellemy Pichon, known as La Roze, was captured. He testified that two of the deserters had drowned, and that one had been shot and eaten by the starving party. La Roze was sentenced to have his "head broken" until he died.
In 1712 Bourgmont returned to Fort Pontchartrain, where he helped the Algonquian
, Missouri, and Osage in the fight against the Fox.
in Missouri. He and two other traders, also living and traveling with Native American women, were seen in 1713 in Illinois. After complaints by Catholic priests about them, French authorities ordered that Bourgmont be arrested at the first convenient opportunity. He stayed with his Missouri common-law wife and had children with her, including a son.
In May 1721, after returning to Paris and gaining honors for his explorations and reports, he married Jacqueline Bouvet des Bordeaux in his home village of Cérisy Belle-Étoile, Normandy
. He left in June to return to New Orleans. In 1725, he accompanied leaders of several North American tribes to Paris; his Missouri wife and son also were part of the expedition. The American Indians (likely including his son) returned to North America, and Bourgmont stayed in France, joining his legal wife Jacqueline in Normandy.
(which he named the Rivière Nebraskier, after the Otoe tribe
name for "flat water"). He wrote The Route to Be Taken to Ascend the Missouri River This account reached the cartographer Guillaume Delisle
, who noted that it was the first documented report of travels that far north on the Missouri.
Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne de Bienville replaced Cadillac as commandant. On September 25, 1718, he recommended that Bourgmont receive the Cross of Saint Louis
for service to France, for the value of his explorations and documentation of river travel. In September 1719, the Council of the Colony of Louisiana also recognized Bourgmont's work with Native Americans with a resolution of praise.
Bourgmont described his knack for dealing with the tribes:
Tribes were said to have valued the products Bourgmont offered, as he traded gunpowder, guns, kettles and blankets. The Spanish were said to trade few horses, knives, and "inferior axes."
Officials sent Bourgmont to bring the chiefs of several tribes to Dauphin Island, a French base in present-day Alabama
, for a meeting. All of the chiefs except one died en route. Bourgmont escorted the surviving chief back to his homeland, and returned to New Orleans, Louisiana
. He was paid 4,279 livres for his work.
In June 1720 he and his mixed-race son traveled to Paris
, where they were greeted as heroes. News had arrived that Native American tribes friendly to Bourgmont had defeated the Spanish Villasur expedition
. In July Bourgmont was commissioned as a captain in the French army. In August 1720 he was named "Commandant of the Missouri River." In exchange for Letters of Nobility, he was commissioned to build a fort on the Missouri River and negotiate with the tribes to allow peaceful French commerce.
in early 1723 as the military headquarters for the Missouri River. From Fort Orleans, near the mouth of the Grand River, he planned to visit the Padouca on the Great Plains
and open a trade route to reach the Spanish
colony in New Mexico
(larger than the current state). Bourgmont sought aid from the Kaw
to facilitate his expedition. He sent 22 Frenchmen and Canadians by boat from Fort Orleans to the Kaw village on the Missouri near Doniphan, Kansas
with supplies and gifts. Accompanied by 10 French colonists, 100 Missouri and 64 Osage, he traveled by land. Bourgmont's visit to the Kaw would be the first official French visit, although many French traders, including he, had visited them during the previous 20 years. Some of the Kaw had also likely journeyed to trade in Kaskaskia
, a French colonial village then on the east side of the Mississippi in present-day Illinois.
Bourgmont's party reached the Kaw village on July 8, 1724. It was large, with at least 1,500 persons. The Kaw greeted him as an old colleague, honoring him with innumerable speeches and feasts. When the talk turned to trade, the Kaw were hard bargainers. Bourgmont wanted to buy horses from them. With only five horses to trade, they extracted a high price. This indicates that horses were still rare on the eastern border of the Plains. The Kaw also traded six slaves (likely American Indians of other tribes captured in battle), food, furs, and skins. On July 24, Bourgmont, his party of French, Missouri, and Osage, and most of the Kaw left on their expedition to visit the Padouca.
Due to the heat, Bourgmont became ill, and the entire party of over 1,000 people returned to the Kaw village. Bourgmont sent an emissary ahead to contact the Padouca and tell them he would soon be coming, and that he would bring two Padouca slaves to be returned to the tribe as an expression of good will. Bourgmont's emissary found the Padouca in western Kansas, most likely in the region of the Quartelejo
in Scott County
. It had become a refuge for Indians fleeing the Spanish in New Mexico. Eight villages with about 600 men in total lived in the area. They agreed to relocate closer to the Kaw village in order to meet Bourgmont when he was able to resume his journey. Five Padouca returned to the Kaw village as guides.
Recovered from his illness, on October 8 Bourgmont resumed his journey to the Padouca. His party was much smaller and more nimble: 15 French and Métis
, including Bourgmont's half-Missouri son; the five Padoucas, seven Missouri, five Kaw, four Otoe
, and three Iowa
. The Osage were not recorded as part of this expedition. Ten horses carried the baggage. The party proceeded southwest and on October 11 at the crossing of the Kansas River
, near present day Rossville
, Bourgmont recorded seeing buffalo
. The expedition passed through innumerable buffalo, a hunter's paradise. They recorded 30 herds in one day, each herd consisting of 400-500 buffalo. Bourgmont wrote, "Our hunters kill as many as they please." Deer were also abundant. In one day they saw more than 200, plus numerous turkeys near the streams.
as Padouca. Most historians and anthropologists have come to agree that Bourgmont’s Padouca were likely the Apache
Indians.
Bourgmont was given an honored welcome. With his son and two other French explorers, he was seated on a buffalo robe; they were carried to the tent (tipi?) of the Padouca chief for a great feast. The next day Bourgmont assembled his trade goods and divided them into lots. The following is the list:
Bourgmont assembled 200 of the Apache chiefs and discussed the need for peace among all tribes. He implored them to allow the French traders to pass through their lands enroute to the Spanish settlements in New Mexico. Next, he invited the chiefs to take what they wanted of the merchandise.
He estimated that the village contained 140 dwellings, about 800 men, more than 1,500 women, and about 2,000 children. The imbalance between men and women indicates that the life of an Apache man was hazardous. The dwellings must have been large for 30 people to live in each. The Apache chief said that he had twelve villages under his control and together four times the number of people as in this village, or about 16,000. The Apache lived in a large territory extending more than 200 leagues (520 miles).
Bourgmont wrote that the Apache maintained permanent villages. They sent out regular hunting parties, in groups of 50-100 households. As one hunting party returned, another would leave, so that the village was occupied at all times. They apparently journeyed up to five or six days from their village to hunt. The Apache sowed a little corn and pumpkins. They obtained tobacco and horses from trade with the Spanish in New Mexico, in exchange for tanned buffalo skins and skins. It is unclear whether the Spanish ventured out on the plains to visit the Apache villages, or whether the Apaches traveled to the Spanish settlements. The latter seems more likely, although Spaniards may have gone out occasionally to meet the Apache who lived relatively near to their settlements. The explorer noticed that the Apache living furthest from the Spanish settlements still used flint knives for skinning buffalo and felling trees, an indicator that not much European trade had reached them.
The Apache were hospitable; they feasted and fêted Bourgmont and his group for three days before the French party turned toward home on October 22. By October 31, Bourgmont had reached the Kaw village again. Traveling down the Missouri in circular "bullboats", made of buffalo hides stretched over a framework of saplings, the party reached Fort Orleans on November 5. Bourgmont thought his expedition had been successful, but little came of it. Within about a decade, the Apache whom he had met in Kansas were gone, pushed south by an aggressive tribe migrating from the Rocky Mountains and sweeping all before them: the Comanche
.
near Lyons, Kansas
--the same location where Francisco Vasquez de Coronado
had found Quivira
173 years earlier while hunting for tribes with gold. But, the Wichita Indians
whom Coronado met in Quivira were no longer there. It appears that they had been pushed south and east by the Apache, who, in their turn, would be pushed south by the Comanche.
, Château de Marly
and Fontainebleau
, hunting in the royal forest with Louis XV, and seeing an opera
. He took with him his Missouri wife (listed officially as a servant) and their mixed-race son.
In late 1725 the tribes' representatives (and his Missouri wife and son) returned to North America. Bourgemont stayed in Normandy with his legal wife, where he had been elevated to écuyer (squire
).
The French did not continue to support Fort Orleans, and it was abandoned in 1726. Bourgmont died in France in 1734.
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
explorer who documented his travels on the Missouri
Missouri River
The Missouri River flows through the central United States, and is a tributary of the Mississippi River. It is the longest river in North America and drains the third largest area, though only the thirteenth largest by discharge. The Missouri's watershed encompasses most of the American Great...
and Platte
Platte River
The Platte River is a major river in the state of Nebraska and is about long. Measured to its farthest source via its tributary the North Platte River, it flows for over . The Platte River is a tributary of the Missouri River, which in turn is a tributary of the Mississippi River which flows to...
rivers in North America
North America
North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...
and made the first European maps of these areas. He wrote two accounts of his travels, which included descriptions of the Native American tribes he encountered. In 1723, he established Fort Orleans
Fort Orleans
Fort Orleans was a French fort in colonial North America, the first fort built by any European forces on the Missouri River. It was built near the mouth of the Grand River near present-day Brunswick. Intended to be the linchpin in the vast New France empire stretching from Montreal to New Mexico,...
, the first European fort on the Missouri River, near the mouth of the Grand River and present-day Brunswick, Missouri
Brunswick, Missouri
Brunswick is a rural city in Carroll County, Missouri, United States. The population was 925 at the 2000 census. The Missouri Farmers Association was founded here in 1914. Today the city is considered the Pecan Capital of Missouri...
.
Early life and education
He was born in Cerisy-Belle-Étoile in central NormandyNormandy
Normandy is a geographical region corresponding to the former Duchy of Normandy. It is in France.The continental territory covers 30,627 km² and forms the preponderant part of Normandy and roughly 5% of the territory of France. It is divided for administrative purposes into two régions:...
. At the age of 19, Bourgmont was found guilty in 1698 of poaching
Poaching
Poaching is the illegal taking of wild plants or animals contrary to local and international conservation and wildlife management laws. Violations of hunting laws and regulations are normally punishable by law and, collectively, such violations are known as poaching.It may be illegal and in...
on the land of the Monastery of Belle-Etoile. He did not pay the 100-livre
French livre
The livre was the currency of France until 1795. Several different livres existed, some concurrently. The livre was the name of both units of account and coins.-Etymology:...
s fine. He is believed to have left for New France
New France
New France was the area colonized by France in North America during a period beginning with the exploration of the Saint Lawrence River by Jacques Cartier in 1534 and ending with the cession of New France to Spain and Great Britain in 1763...
settlements in North America
North America
North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...
that year to escape imprisonment for failing to pay the fine.
Career in North America
In 1702 Bourgmont was reported to be with Charles Juchereau de St. Denys and the Troupes de la marineTroupes de la marine
See also Troupes de Marine for later history of same Corps.The Troupes de la Marine , also known as independent companies of the navy and colonial regulars, were under the authority of the French Minister of Marine, who was also responsible for the French navy, overseas trade, and French...
, who were setting up a tannery
Tanning
Tanning is the making of leather from the skins of animals which does not easily decompose. Traditionally, tanning used tannin, an acidic chemical compound from which the tanning process draws its name . Coloring may occur during tanning...
for buffalo
American Bison
The American bison , also commonly known as the American buffalo, is a North American species of bison that once roamed the grasslands of North America in massive herds...
hides at the mouth of the Ouabache River (Wabash River
Wabash River
The Wabash River is a river in the Midwestern United States that flows southwest from northwest Ohio near Fort Recovery across northern Indiana to southern Illinois, where it forms the Illinois-Indiana border before draining into the Ohio River, of which it is the largest northern tributary...
) on the Ohio River
Ohio River
The Ohio River is the largest tributary, by volume, of the Mississippi River. At the confluence, the Ohio is even bigger than the Mississippi and, thus, is hydrologically the main stream of the whole river system, including the Allegheny River further upstream...
. The tannery closed in 1703 and Bourgmont moved to Quebec
Quebec
Quebec or is a province in east-central Canada. It is the only Canadian province with a predominantly French-speaking population and the only one whose sole official language is French at the provincial level....
.
In 1705 on orders from Antoine Laumet de La Mothe, sieur de Cadillac
Antoine Laumet de La Mothe, sieur de Cadillac
Antoine Laumet de La Mothe, sieur de Cadillac was a French explorer and adventurer in New France, now an area of North America stretching from Eastern Canada in the north to Louisiana in the south. Rising from a modest beginning in Acadia in 1683 as an explorer, trapper, and a trader of alcohol...
, Bourgmont moved to Fort Pontchartrain
Fort Detroit
Fort Pontchartrain du Détroit or Fort Détroit was a fort established by the French officer Antoine de la Mothe Cadillac in 1701. The location of the former fort is now in the city of Detroit in the U.S...
at present-day Detroit, Michigan
Detroit, Michigan
Detroit is the major city among the primary cultural, financial, and transportation centers in the Metro Detroit area, a region of 5.2 million people. As the seat of Wayne County, the city of Detroit is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan and serves as a major port on the Detroit River...
, where he assumed command in 1706. In March 1706 a group of Ottawa
Ottawa (tribe)
The Odawa or Ottawa, said to mean "traders," are a Native American and First Nations people. They are one of the Anishinaabeg, related to but distinct from the Ojibwe nation. Their original homelands are located on Manitoulin Island, near the northern shores of Lake Huron, on the Bruce Peninsula in...
attacked a group of Miami outside the fort. Soldiers fired from the fort and killed a French priest and sergeant who had been outside the walls, in addition to 30 Ottawa. Bourgmont was severely criticized for his handling of the incident. When Cadillac visited the fort in August, Bourgmont and other members of the garrison were reported as having deserted their post.
From 1706 to 1709, Bourgmont and other deserters lived as coureurs des bois (illegal traders, literally, "wood runners") around the Grand River
Grand River (Michigan)
The Grand River is the longest river in the U.S. state of Michigan. It runs through the cities of Jackson, Eaton Rapids, Lansing, Grand Rapids, and Grand Haven.-Description:...
and Lake Erie
Lake Erie
Lake Erie is the fourth largest lake of the five Great Lakes in North America, and the tenth largest globally. It is the southernmost, shallowest, and smallest by volume of the Great Lakes and therefore also has the shortest average water residence time. It is bounded on the north by the...
. In 1709 one of the deserters, Betellemy Pichon, known as La Roze, was captured. He testified that two of the deserters had drowned, and that one had been shot and eaten by the starving party. La Roze was sentenced to have his "head broken" until he died.
In 1712 Bourgmont returned to Fort Pontchartrain, where he helped the Algonquian
Algonquian peoples
The Algonquian are one of the most populous and widespread North American native language groups, with tribes originally numbering in the hundreds. Today hundreds of thousands of individuals identify with various Algonquian peoples...
, Missouri, and Osage in the fight against the Fox.
Marriages and families
Bourgmont in 1712 was traveling with the daughter of the chief of the Missouri tribe, whom he settled with at the mouth of the Grand RiverGrand River (Missouri)
The Grand River is a river that stretches from northernmost tributary origins between Creston and Winterset in Iowa approximately to its mouth on the Missouri River near Brunswick, Missouri....
in Missouri. He and two other traders, also living and traveling with Native American women, were seen in 1713 in Illinois. After complaints by Catholic priests about them, French authorities ordered that Bourgmont be arrested at the first convenient opportunity. He stayed with his Missouri common-law wife and had children with her, including a son.
In May 1721, after returning to Paris and gaining honors for his explorations and reports, he married Jacqueline Bouvet des Bordeaux in his home village of Cérisy Belle-Étoile, Normandy
Normandy
Normandy is a geographical region corresponding to the former Duchy of Normandy. It is in France.The continental territory covers 30,627 km² and forms the preponderant part of Normandy and roughly 5% of the territory of France. It is divided for administrative purposes into two régions:...
. He left in June to return to New Orleans. In 1725, he accompanied leaders of several North American tribes to Paris; his Missouri wife and son also were part of the expedition. The American Indians (likely including his son) returned to North America, and Bourgmont stayed in France, joining his legal wife Jacqueline in Normandy.
Hero of the state
In 1713 Bourgmont began writing Exact Description of Louisiana, of Its Harbors, Lands and Rivers, and Names of the Indian Tribes That Occupy It, and the Commerce and Advantages to Be Derived Therefrom for the Establishment of a Colony. In March 1714 he traveled to the mouth of the present-day Platte RiverPlatte River
The Platte River is a major river in the state of Nebraska and is about long. Measured to its farthest source via its tributary the North Platte River, it flows for over . The Platte River is a tributary of the Missouri River, which in turn is a tributary of the Mississippi River which flows to...
(which he named the Rivière Nebraskier, after the Otoe tribe
Otoe tribe
The Otoe or Oto are a Native American people. The Otoe language, Chiwere, is part of the Siouan family and closely related to that of the related Iowa and Missouri tribes.-History:...
name for "flat water"). He wrote The Route to Be Taken to Ascend the Missouri River This account reached the cartographer Guillaume Delisle
Guillaume Delisle
Guillaume Delisle was a French cartographer who lived in Paris.His father, Claude Delisle studied law and then later settled in Paris as private teacher in geography and history, and afterwards filled the office of royal censor...
, who noted that it was the first documented report of travels that far north on the Missouri.
Jean-Baptiste Le Moyne de Bienville replaced Cadillac as commandant. On September 25, 1718, he recommended that Bourgmont receive the Cross of Saint Louis
Order of Saint Louis
The Royal and Military Order of Saint Louis was a military Order of Chivalry founded on 5 April 1693 by Louis XIV and named after Saint Louis . It was intended as a reward for exceptional officers, and is notable as the first decoration that could be granted to non-nobles...
for service to France, for the value of his explorations and documentation of river travel. In September 1719, the Council of the Colony of Louisiana also recognized Bourgmont's work with Native Americans with a resolution of praise.
Bourgmont described his knack for dealing with the tribes:
- For me with the Indians nothing is impossible. I make them do what they have never done.
Tribes were said to have valued the products Bourgmont offered, as he traded gunpowder, guns, kettles and blankets. The Spanish were said to trade few horses, knives, and "inferior axes."
Officials sent Bourgmont to bring the chiefs of several tribes to Dauphin Island, a French base in present-day Alabama
Alabama
Alabama is a state located in the southeastern region of the United States. It is bordered by Tennessee to the north, Georgia to the east, Florida and the Gulf of Mexico to the south, and Mississippi to the west. Alabama ranks 30th in total land area and ranks second in the size of its inland...
, for a meeting. All of the chiefs except one died en route. Bourgmont escorted the surviving chief back to his homeland, and returned to New Orleans, Louisiana
New Orleans, Louisiana
New Orleans is a major United States port and the largest city and metropolitan area in the state of Louisiana. The New Orleans metropolitan area has a population of 1,235,650 as of 2009, the 46th largest in the USA. The New Orleans – Metairie – Bogalusa combined statistical area has a population...
. He was paid 4,279 livres for his work.
In June 1720 he and his mixed-race son traveled to Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
, where they were greeted as heroes. News had arrived that Native American tribes friendly to Bourgmont had defeated the Spanish Villasur expedition
Villasur expedition
The Villasur expedition of 1720 was a Spanish military expedition intended to check the growing French presence on the Great Plains of central North America...
. In July Bourgmont was commissioned as a captain in the French army. In August 1720 he was named "Commandant of the Missouri River." In exchange for Letters of Nobility, he was commissioned to build a fort on the Missouri River and negotiate with the tribes to allow peaceful French commerce.
Expedition to the Great Plains
Bourgmont established Fort OrleansFort Orleans
Fort Orleans was a French fort in colonial North America, the first fort built by any European forces on the Missouri River. It was built near the mouth of the Grand River near present-day Brunswick. Intended to be the linchpin in the vast New France empire stretching from Montreal to New Mexico,...
in early 1723 as the military headquarters for the Missouri River. From Fort Orleans, near the mouth of the Grand River, he planned to visit the Padouca on the Great Plains
Great Plains
The Great Plains are a broad expanse of flat land, much of it covered in prairie, steppe and grassland, which lies west of the Mississippi River and east of the Rocky Mountains in the United States and Canada. This area covers parts of the U.S...
and open a trade route to reach the Spanish
Spanish Empire
The Spanish Empire comprised territories and colonies administered directly by Spain in Europe, in America, Africa, Asia and Oceania. It originated during the Age of Exploration and was therefore one of the first global empires. At the time of Habsburgs, Spain reached the peak of its world power....
colony in New Mexico
New Mexico
New Mexico is a state located in the southwest and western regions of the United States. New Mexico is also usually considered one of the Mountain States. With a population density of 16 per square mile, New Mexico is the sixth-most sparsely inhabited U.S...
(larger than the current state). Bourgmont sought aid from the Kaw
Kaw (tribe)
The Kaw Nation are an American Indian people of the central Midwestern United States. The tribe known as Kaw have also been known as the "People of the South wind", "People of water", Kansa, Kaza, Kosa, and Kasa. Their tribal language is Kansa, classified as a Siouan language.The toponym "Kansas"...
to facilitate his expedition. He sent 22 Frenchmen and Canadians by boat from Fort Orleans to the Kaw village on the Missouri near Doniphan, Kansas
Doniphan, Kansas
Doniphan is a small unincorporated community in Doniphan County, Kansas, United States. The company that founded the town was organized on November 11, 1854. The post office opened March 3, 1855, and closed August 15, 1943....
with supplies and gifts. Accompanied by 10 French colonists, 100 Missouri and 64 Osage, he traveled by land. Bourgmont's visit to the Kaw would be the first official French visit, although many French traders, including he, had visited them during the previous 20 years. Some of the Kaw had also likely journeyed to trade in Kaskaskia
Kaskaskia, Illinois
Kaskaskia is a village in Randolph County, Illinois, United States. In the 2010 census the population was 14, making it the second-smallest incorporated community in the State of Illinois in terms of population. A major French colonial town of the Illinois Country, its peak population was about...
, a French colonial village then on the east side of the Mississippi in present-day Illinois.
Bourgmont's party reached the Kaw village on July 8, 1724. It was large, with at least 1,500 persons. The Kaw greeted him as an old colleague, honoring him with innumerable speeches and feasts. When the talk turned to trade, the Kaw were hard bargainers. Bourgmont wanted to buy horses from them. With only five horses to trade, they extracted a high price. This indicates that horses were still rare on the eastern border of the Plains. The Kaw also traded six slaves (likely American Indians of other tribes captured in battle), food, furs, and skins. On July 24, Bourgmont, his party of French, Missouri, and Osage, and most of the Kaw left on their expedition to visit the Padouca.
Due to the heat, Bourgmont became ill, and the entire party of over 1,000 people returned to the Kaw village. Bourgmont sent an emissary ahead to contact the Padouca and tell them he would soon be coming, and that he would bring two Padouca slaves to be returned to the tribe as an expression of good will. Bourgmont's emissary found the Padouca in western Kansas, most likely in the region of the Quartelejo
El Quartelejo Ruins
El Quartelejo, or El Cuartelejo is the name given to the archeological remains of the northernmost Indian pueblo and the only known pueblo in Kansas...
in Scott County
Scott County, Kansas
Scott County is a county located in the U.S. state of Kansas. As of the 2010 census, the county population was 4,936...
. It had become a refuge for Indians fleeing the Spanish in New Mexico. Eight villages with about 600 men in total lived in the area. They agreed to relocate closer to the Kaw village in order to meet Bourgmont when he was able to resume his journey. Five Padouca returned to the Kaw village as guides.
Recovered from his illness, on October 8 Bourgmont resumed his journey to the Padouca. His party was much smaller and more nimble: 15 French and Métis
Métis
A Métis is a person born to parents who belong to different groups defined by visible physical differences, regarded as racial, or the descendant of such persons. The term is of French origin, and also is a cognate of mestizo in Spanish, mestiço in Portuguese, and mestee in English...
, including Bourgmont's half-Missouri son; the five Padoucas, seven Missouri, five Kaw, four Otoe
Otoe tribe
The Otoe or Oto are a Native American people. The Otoe language, Chiwere, is part of the Siouan family and closely related to that of the related Iowa and Missouri tribes.-History:...
, and three Iowa
Iowa tribe
The Iowa , also known as the Báxoje, are a Native American Siouan people. Today they are enrolled in either of two federally recognized tribes, the Iowa Tribe of Oklahoma and the Ioway Tribe of Kansas and Nebraska....
. The Osage were not recorded as part of this expedition. Ten horses carried the baggage. The party proceeded southwest and on October 11 at the crossing of the Kansas River
Kansas River
The Kansas River is a river in northeastern Kansas in the United States. It is the southwestern-most part of the Missouri River drainage, which is in turn the northwestern-most portion of the extensive Mississippi River drainage. Its name come from the Kanza people who once inhabited the area...
, near present day Rossville
Rossville, Kansas
Rossville is a city in Shawnee County, Kansas, United States. The population was 1,014 at the 2000 census. It is part of the Topeka, Kansas Metropolitan Statistical Area.-History:...
, Bourgmont recorded seeing buffalo
Bison
Members of the genus Bison are large, even-toed ungulates within the subfamily Bovinae. Two extant and four extinct species are recognized...
. The expedition passed through innumerable buffalo, a hunter's paradise. They recorded 30 herds in one day, each herd consisting of 400-500 buffalo. Bourgmont wrote, "Our hunters kill as many as they please." Deer were also abundant. In one day they saw more than 200, plus numerous turkeys near the streams.
The Padouca
On October 18, Bourgmont encountered the Padouca. Eighty of the Padouca rode out on horses to meet the French and took them back to the camp. The number of horses indicates that the Padouca at this time held more horses than did the Kaw and the other Indians living further east. The identity of the people whom Bourgmont met with has been much debated by historians. The French later referred to the ComancheComanche
The Comanche are a Native American ethnic group whose historic range consisted of present-day eastern New Mexico, southern Colorado, northeastern Arizona, southern Kansas, all of Oklahoma, and most of northwest Texas. Historically, the Comanches were hunter-gatherers, with a typical Plains Indian...
as Padouca. Most historians and anthropologists have come to agree that Bourgmont’s Padouca were likely the Apache
Apache
Apache is the collective term for several culturally related groups of Native Americans in the United States originally from the Southwest United States. These indigenous peoples of North America speak a Southern Athabaskan language, which is related linguistically to the languages of Athabaskan...
Indians.
Bourgmont was given an honored welcome. With his son and two other French explorers, he was seated on a buffalo robe; they were carried to the tent (tipi?) of the Padouca chief for a great feast. The next day Bourgmont assembled his trade goods and divided them into lots. The following is the list:
"one pile of fusils [guns], one of sabers, one of pickaxes, one of axes, one of gunpowder, one of balls, one of red LimbourgThe Padouca (or Apache) had never seen such a variety of European goods. They were frightened of the guns.LimbourgLimbourg is a medieval town located in the province of Liège, Wallonia, Belgium.On 1 January 2008 Limbourg had a total population of 5,680. The total area is 24.63 km² which gives a population density of 231 inhabitants per km²...
cloth, another of blue Limbourg cloth, one of mirrors, one of Flemish knives, two other piles of another kind of knives, one of shirts, one of scissors, one of combs, one of gunflints, one of wadding extractors, six portions of vermillionVermillionVermillion is an alternative spelling for Vermilion, a red pigment and color. It may also refer to:-Locations:*Vermillion, Kansas*Vermillion, Minnesota*Vermillion, South Dakota*Vermillion County, Indiana*Vermillion River...
, one lot of awls, one of large hawk beads, one of beads of mixed sizes, one of small beans, one of fine brass wire, another of heavier brass wire for making necklaces, another of rings, and another of vermillion cases."
Bourgmont assembled 200 of the Apache chiefs and discussed the need for peace among all tribes. He implored them to allow the French traders to pass through their lands enroute to the Spanish settlements in New Mexico. Next, he invited the chiefs to take what they wanted of the merchandise.
He estimated that the village contained 140 dwellings, about 800 men, more than 1,500 women, and about 2,000 children. The imbalance between men and women indicates that the life of an Apache man was hazardous. The dwellings must have been large for 30 people to live in each. The Apache chief said that he had twelve villages under his control and together four times the number of people as in this village, or about 16,000. The Apache lived in a large territory extending more than 200 leagues (520 miles).
Bourgmont wrote that the Apache maintained permanent villages. They sent out regular hunting parties, in groups of 50-100 households. As one hunting party returned, another would leave, so that the village was occupied at all times. They apparently journeyed up to five or six days from their village to hunt. The Apache sowed a little corn and pumpkins. They obtained tobacco and horses from trade with the Spanish in New Mexico, in exchange for tanned buffalo skins and skins. It is unclear whether the Spanish ventured out on the plains to visit the Apache villages, or whether the Apaches traveled to the Spanish settlements. The latter seems more likely, although Spaniards may have gone out occasionally to meet the Apache who lived relatively near to their settlements. The explorer noticed that the Apache living furthest from the Spanish settlements still used flint knives for skinning buffalo and felling trees, an indicator that not much European trade had reached them.
The Apache were hospitable; they feasted and fêted Bourgmont and his group for three days before the French party turned toward home on October 22. By October 31, Bourgmont had reached the Kaw village again. Traveling down the Missouri in circular "bullboats", made of buffalo hides stretched over a framework of saplings, the party reached Fort Orleans on November 5. Bourgmont thought his expedition had been successful, but little came of it. Within about a decade, the Apache whom he had met in Kansas were gone, pushed south by an aggressive tribe migrating from the Rocky Mountains and sweeping all before them: the Comanche
Comanche
The Comanche are a Native American ethnic group whose historic range consisted of present-day eastern New Mexico, southern Colorado, northeastern Arizona, southern Kansas, all of Oklahoma, and most of northwest Texas. Historically, the Comanches were hunter-gatherers, with a typical Plains Indian...
.
Where did Bourgmont meet the Padouca?
Scholars examining documents and geography have determined that the Apache village was probably located on the Little Arkansas RiverLittle Arkansas River
The Little Arkansas River is a river located in south-central Kansas. It rises in northern Rice County just north of Lyons and flows southeast past Buhler and Halstead to meet the Arkansas River in Wichita....
near Lyons, Kansas
Lyons, Kansas
Lyons is a city in and the county seat of Rice County, Kansas, United States. As of the 2010 census, the city population was 3,739.-History:Although Coronado's exact route across the plains is uncertain and has been widely disputed, he and his men are thought to have camped near the present...
--the same location where Francisco Vasquez de Coronado
Francisco Vásquez de Coronado
Francisco Vásquez de Coronado y Luján was a Spanish conquistador, who visited New Mexico and other parts of what are now the southwestern United States between 1540 and 1542...
had found Quivira
Quivira
Quivira may refer to:*Quivira, a place first visited by Francisco Vazquez de Coronado while in search of the mythical Seven Cities of Gold*Quivira National Wildlife Refuge, a salt marsh located in south central Kansas...
173 years earlier while hunting for tribes with gold. But, the Wichita Indians
Wichita (tribe)
The Wichita people are indigenous inhabitants of North America, who traditionally spoke the Wichita language, a Caddoan language. They have lived in Kansas, Oklahoma, and Texas...
whom Coronado met in Quivira were no longer there. It appears that they had been pushed south and east by the Apache, who, in their turn, would be pushed south by the Comanche.
Return to France
In 1725 Bourgmont was authorized to invite and accompany representatives of the tribes to Paris. The chiefs were to be shown the wonders and power of France, including a visit to VersaillesVersailles
Versailles , a city renowned for its château, the Palace of Versailles, was the de facto capital of the kingdom of France for over a century, from 1682 to 1789. It is now a wealthy suburb of Paris and remains an important administrative and judicial centre...
, Château de Marly
Château de Marly
The Château de Marly was a relatively small French royal residence located in what has become Marly-le-Roi, the commune that existed at the edge of the royal park. The town that originally grew up to service the château is now a dormitory community for Paris....
and Fontainebleau
Fontainebleau
Fontainebleau is a commune in the metropolitan area of Paris, France. It is located south-southeast of the centre of Paris. Fontainebleau is a sub-prefecture of the Seine-et-Marne department, and it is the seat of the arrondissement of Fontainebleau...
, hunting in the royal forest with Louis XV, and seeing an opera
Opera
Opera is an art form in which singers and musicians perform a dramatic work combining text and musical score, usually in a theatrical setting. Opera incorporates many of the elements of spoken theatre, such as acting, scenery, and costumes and sometimes includes dance...
. He took with him his Missouri wife (listed officially as a servant) and their mixed-race son.
In late 1725 the tribes' representatives (and his Missouri wife and son) returned to North America. Bourgemont stayed in Normandy with his legal wife, where he had been elevated to écuyer (squire
Squire
The English word squire is a shortened version of the word Esquire, from the Old French , itself derived from the Late Latin , in medieval or Old English a scutifer. The Classical Latin equivalent was , "arms bearer"...
).
The French did not continue to support Fort Orleans, and it was abandoned in 1726. Bourgmont died in France in 1734.