move was none too soon. In January (1699) Iberville's fleet stood off the harbor and demanded admittance. The commander of San Carlos refused courteously but firmly. Iberville rewarded him for his compliments with others from the same mint, withdrew, sailed westward, and built a fort at Biloxi.

But there were to be no battles, at present, between Spaniards and French for Louisiana. The fate of that territory was settled in Europe. The Spanish King, Charles II, died. He left no son; and, forced by the danger that a dismembering war for the succession would follow on his death, he bequeathed the crown to his grandnephew, the Duke of Anjou, grandson of Louis XIV and French in blood, sympathies, and education. The new King, Philip V, harkened readily enough to his French grandfather's suggestion that, in order to protect Spain's Gulf possessions from England, France must be allowed to colonize Louisiana. The Spanish War Council objected, and Philip let the matter drop, but the French settlement was quietly moved from Biloxi to Mobile Bay, nearer to the Spanish border. When in 1702 the War Council heard of it and protested, they were rebuked by Philip. Thus Spain, dominated

by a Bourbon King, was forced to permit the occupation of Louisiana by France.

Iberville's brother, the Sieur de Bienville, a brilliant and vigorous commander, was appointed in 1701 Governor of Louisiana. Bienville concentrated his energies on alliances with the tribes east and west of the Mississippi to prevent them from trafficking with the English and to divert the southern fur trade to the French posts. Bienville was succeeded in 1713 by Cadillac, founder of Detroit, who served for three years, but Bienville continued to be the life of the colony. By 1716 the Mississippi, Mobile, and Red rivers had been explored by Bienville's men, sometimes led by himself. And French traders from Canada and the Illinois had explored the Missouri for several hundred miles and had built posts southward from the Illinois to the lower Ohio. In 1718 Bienville founded New Orleans. France's hold was thus fastened upon Louisiana, and Spain's colonies round the Gulf were split in two.

During the sixteen years of Bienville's activity, disturbing rumors had reached the Spanish border. To New Mexico came reports of Frenchmen trading with the Pawnees and of French voyageurs on the rivers to the northeast. Though

in various Spanish expeditions from Santa Fé against Comanches and Apaches no French were seen, yet the fear of their approach increased. Similar rumors were heard on the Río Grande border. One not slow to take advantage of this general alarm was Father Hidalgo, a Franciscan who had been with Massanet at his mission in Texas. The intervening years had been spent by Hidalgo chiefly in founding and conducting missions in Coahuila, a work which had led the way for the secular powers and thus pushed the frontier of mining and ranching to the south bank of the Río Grande. With heart burning for the welfare of his former ungrateful charges, he had made many earnest appeals to be allowed to return to Texas, but the superiors of his Order would not sanction his plea.' Hidalgo, with genuine political shrewdness, then resolved to turn the French menace to good account. If he could prove that Spain's territory of Texas was in imminent danger, he knew that missions would be founded without delay. So he wrote a letter in 1711 to the French

* A myth has found currency in recent years to the effect that, despite this opposition, Hidalgo returned to Texas, dwelt for a time among the Asinais and there wrote his appeal to the French priests. But his writings preserved in the College of Querétaro in Mexico and examined by the author disprove the story.

priests of Louisiana, begging them to "pacify the tribes hostile to the Asinai nation, who were nearer to their settlements, thereby to give the greatest honor and glory to God." Just why pacification of the Louisiana tribes bordering on the Texas Indians would honor Heaven more than missionary labors in other parts of Louisiana he did not make clear, but it is plain enough that the first result of the pacification would be the establishment of French posts near or among the Asinai. This might or might not honor Heaven, but it would undoubtedly interest Spain.

Father Hidalgo sent an Indian servant with the letter to the Asinai country, where it was confided to a Louisiana Indian who happened to be there. Getting no reply, a year later he sent out another letter, addressed to the Governor of Louisiana. Neither missive appears to have reached its address; but in May, 1713, the first letter after having been handed about among Indians for two years came into Governor Cadillac's possession. It interested Cadillac very much, for he had recently been instructed by Antoine Crozat, to whom Louis XIV had granted a monopoly of all the Louisiana commerce, to attempt to open trade with Mexico despite the rigorous Spanish commercial

regulations. Cadillac had already tried by way of Vera Cruz and failed. Better luck might follow an attempt to open an overland route to the Río Grande border, where Spanish smugglers could be trusted to do the rest, for the stupid commercial systems of European governments at the time made habitual smugglers of all frontier dwellers in America. At any rate Hidalgo's letter inspired the Governor to make the effort, just as Hidalgo had probably surmised it would.

Cadillac chose his cleverest agent. He sent Louis Juchereau de St. Denis, explorer, fur trader, and commander at Biloxi, with instructions to visit Hidalgo, who, so Cadillac inferred from the letter, was among the Asinai, and to build a post on the Red River within easy access of their territory. St. Denis established the post of Natchitoches, put in the winter trading, and by spring was seeking Hidalgo in Texas. There he learned that the friar was on the Coahuila border, so on June 1, 1714, with three French companions and twenty-five Indians he set out on foot for the Rio Grande. Strangely enough, two of his companions were the Talon brothers, survivors of the ill-fated La Salle expedition who had been ransomed from the Indians by León and Terán. On the 18th of July St. Denis