Étienne De Veniard, Sieur De Bourgmont
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Étienne de Veniard, Sieur de Bourgmont (April 1679 – 1734) was a French explorer from an ancient Normand family who was recognized and ennobled by Louis XVI for documenting and making the first European maps of the
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and Platte rivers in
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. He documented his travels and made the first European maps of these areas in the early 18th century. 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. In 1724, he led an expedition to the
Great Plains The Great Plains is a broad expanse of plain, flatland in North America. The region stretches east of the Rocky Mountains, much of it covered in prairie, steppe, and grassland. They are the western part of the Interior Plains, which include th ...
of
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to establish trading relations with the Padouca (
Apache The Apache ( ) are several Southern Athabaskan language-speaking peoples of the Southwestern United States, Southwest, the Southern Plains and Northern Mexico. They are linguistically related to the Navajo. They migrated from the Athabascan ho ...
Indians).


Early life and education

He was born in Cerisy-Belle-Étoile in central
Normandy Normandy (; or ) is a geographical and cultural region in northwestern Europe, roughly coextensive with the historical Duchy of Normandy. Normandy comprises Normandy (administrative region), mainland Normandy (a part of France) and insular N ...
within a very ancient family from the region that gave rise to ''La Veniardière'' and various medieval lordships. In 1698 at the age of 19, Bourgmont was fined with 100
livre Livre may refer to: Currency * French livre, one of a number of obsolete units of currency of France * Livre tournois, one particular obsolete unit of currency of France * Livre parisis, another particular obsolete unit of currency of France * Fre ...
s for
poaching Poaching is the illegal hunting or capturing of wild animals, usually associated with land use rights. Poaching was once performed by impoverished peasants for subsistence purposes and to supplement meager diets. It was set against the huntin ...
on the land of the Monastery of Belle-Etoile, which he did not pay. His own family had donated land in 1216 to build that abbey. He is believed to have left for
New France New France (, ) was the territory colonized by Kingdom of France, France in North America, beginning with the exploration of the Gulf of Saint Lawrence by Jacques Cartier in 1534 and ending with the cession of New France to Kingdom of Great Br ...
settlements in
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that year.


Early career in North America

In 1702 Bourgmont was reported to be with Charles Juchereau de St. Denys and the French Marines in Canada, who were setting up a tannery for buffalo hides at the mouth of the Ouabache River (
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) on the
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. The tannery closed in 1703 and Bourgmont moved to
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. In 1705 on orders from
Antoine Laumet de La Mothe, sieur de Cadillac Antoine de la Mothe, sieur de Cadillac (, ; March 5, 1658October 16, 1730), born Antoine Laumet, was a French explorer and adventurer in New France, which stretched from Eastern Canada to Louisiana on the Gulf of Mexico. He rose from a modest beg ...
, Bourgmont moved to Fort Pontchartrain at present-day
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,
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, where he assumed command in 1706. In March 1706 a group of
Ottawa Ottawa is the capital city of Canada. It is located in the southern Ontario, southern portion of the province of Ontario, at the confluence of the Ottawa River and the Rideau River. Ottawa borders Gatineau, Gatineau, Quebec, and forms the cor ...
attacked a group of
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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.Dan Hechenberger, "Etienne de Véniard sieur de Bourgmont - A timeline"
''The Lewis and Clark Journey of Discovery'', National Park Service
From 1706 to 1709, Bourgmont and other deserters lived as ''
coureurs des bois A coureur des bois (; ) or coureur de bois (; ) were independent entrepreneurial French Canadians, French Canadian traders who travelled in New France and the interior of North America, usually to trade with Indigenous peoples of the Americas, ...
'' (illegal traders, literally, "wood runners") around the Grand River and
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. 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,
Missouria The Missouria or Missouri (in their own language, Niúachi, also spelled Niutachi) are a Native American tribe that originated in the Great Lakes region of what is now the United States before European contact.May, John D"Otoe-Missouria"''Oklah ...
, and Osage peoples in their fight against the Fox. Bourgmont was still an outlaw, subject to arrest. However, he traveled widely on the frontier and little effort was made to arrest him. About 1713, Cadillac apparently pardoned him because his knowledge of Indian tribes and territory were of great utility to the French.


Consorts, Marriages, and Families

Bourgmont had an affair with a married woman, Madame Tichenet, also known as Madame Montour and "La Chenette", at Fort Pontchartrain. After his desertion in 1706, the couple met up and lived among a group of deserters on an island in Lake Erie. La Chenette was the daughter of a French man and an Indian woman. The couple separated and La Chenette turned up at the English town of
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in 1709, where she worked as an interpreter for the governor and lived among the English for 12 years. In 1712, Bourgmont met the daughter of the chief of the
Missouria The Missouria or Missouri (in their own language, Niúachi, also spelled Niutachi) are a Native American tribe that originated in the Great Lakes region of what is now the United States before European contact.May, John D"Otoe-Missouria"''Oklah ...
tribe near Fort Pontchartrain and accompanied her back to the Missouria village at the mouth of the Grand River in Missouri, thus beginning his long-term residence and close relationships with the Missouria. He had children with her, including a son, "le Petit Missouria," born about 1714. In 1713, Bourgmont and two other traders, also traveling with their Indian wives, visited Illinois. "He scandalized the missionaries, rattled the authorities, and even angered certain exalted personages at the court of
Louis XIV LouisXIV (Louis-Dieudonné; 5 September 16381 September 1715), also known as Louis the Great () or the Sun King (), was King of France from 1643 until his death in 1715. His verified reign of 72 years and 110 days is the List of longest-reign ...
." Another order for his arrest came out from
Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...
, but Cadillac ignored it. In May 1721, after returning to Paris and gaining honors for his explorations and reports, Bourgmont married Jacqueline Bouvet des Bordeaux in his home village of Cérisy Belle-Étoile,
Normandy Normandy (; or ) is a geographical and cultural region in northwestern Europe, roughly coextensive with the historical Duchy of Normandy. Normandy comprises Normandy (administrative region), mainland Normandy (a part of France) and insular N ...
. He left in June to return to New Orleans. In 1724, Bourgmont led a group of 56 soldiers from the Carignan-Salières Regiment into Pawnee territory. After establishing a fur trading post on the Niobrara River he engaged in negotiations with the Pawnee. However, the alliance Bourgmont formed with the Pawnee was predicated on Bourgmont promising not to also have an alliance with the Sioux settlements to the region north of the Niobrara River. The Pawnee learned that Bourgmont had lied to them when he told them that France had no relations with the Sioux, and responded by attacking the fur trading post. When Bourgmont returned to the fur trading post on the Niobrara River, he found that the ten French soldiers from the Carignan-Salières Regiment who he had left there were missing and the post had been burned down. An expedition to attempt to rescue them led Bourgmont and his 46 remaining men to a Pawnee village nearby. After a quick shootout two of the captive French soldiers were rescued but the other eight had already been killed. Those who were alive had been severely tortured. The methods of torture included their fingernails being ripped out, three of whom were skinned alive and another had been forced to eat parts of his own flesh. All of those who had been killed had been subjected to genital mutilation as well. Both of the survivors had already had their fingernails ripped out by the time Bourgmont rescued them. After evading the pursuing Pawnee, Bourgmont attempted to return with his men to the
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. After a few days into this part of the journey Bourgmont made camp and sent a group of 16 French troops ahead of the rest as a
reconnaissance In military operations, military reconnaissance () or scouting is the exploration of an area by military forces to obtain information about enemy forces, the terrain, and civil activities in the area of operations. In military jargon, reconnai ...
mission. When this group did not return Bourgmont and the 32 men left under his command set out to look for them, however, after a day and a half of marching they found the mutilated bodies of all 16 men who had been sent as part of the
reconnaissance In military operations, military reconnaissance () or scouting is the exploration of an area by military forces to obtain information about enemy forces, the terrain, and civil activities in the area of operations. In military jargon, reconnai ...
mission around the area that would later be named " Smith Falls." After this Bourgmont and the survivors began ''rapidement'' making their way eastward towards the Missouri river. A few days later they were ambushed by another Pawnee war party, in this ambush almost all of Bourgmont's men were killed, however, Bourgmont and 11 others eventually made it all the way back to Fort Orleans, where they were said to be in "terrible" condition, as well as "''misérable''" and "''affamé.''" Later Bourgmont would return to France. In 1725, he accompanied a delegation of four leaders from the Illinois, Missouria, Osage, and Oto tribes on a visit to France. His Missouria wife was also part of the delegation. While in France, Bourgmont's Missouria wife was baptized and married to Bourgmont's close colleague, Sergeant Dubois, who returned with his new wife and the other Indians to North America. Bourgmont stayed in France, joining his French wife Jacqueline in Normandy. Sergeant Dubois was later killed by Indians and the Missouria woman married a captain of militia. She was still alive, living in Kaskaskia, Illinois in 1752. The fate of Bourgmont's Missouria son is unknown, as the last record of him is in 1724. Bourgmont and his French wife, Jacqueline, had four children, all of whom died young. Another women enters the story during Bourgmont's French marriage. In 1728 Marie Angelique, "the Padouca slave" of Bourgmont, was baptized in Cérisy. Four years later, in 1732, she married. She had a six-week-old son who was legitimized by the wedding ceremony.


Hero of the French 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 River (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:
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
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, a French base in present-day
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, for a meeting. All of the chiefs except one died ''en route''. Bourgmont escorted the surviving chief back to his homeland and then returned to the (new) settlement of
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. He was paid 4,279 livres for his work. In June 1720 he and his
Métis The Métis ( , , , ) are a mixed-race Indigenous people whose historical homelands include Canada's three Prairie Provinces extending into parts of Ontario, British Columbia, the Northwest Territories and the northwest United States. They ha ...
son traveled to
Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...
, 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.


Expedition to the Great Plains

Bourgmont established Fort Orleans 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 southern High Plains and open a trade route to reach the Spanish territory of
Santa Fe de Nuevo México Santa Fe de Nuevo México (; shortened as Nuevo México or Nuevo Méjico, and translated as New Mexico in English) was a province of the Spanish Empire and New Spain, and later a territory of independent Mexico. The first capital was San Juan d ...
. Bourgmont sought aid from the Kaw (Kansa) tribe to facilitate his expedition. The primary source of this expedition is the travel journal kept of the mission; the writer was likely the party's mining engineer Philippe de La Renaudière. Bourgmont sent 22 Frenchmen and Canadians by boat from Fort Orleans to main 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 was the first official French visit, although many French traders, including him, had visited them during the previous 20 years. Some of the Kaw had also likely journeyed to trade in
Kaskaskia The Kaskaskia were a historical Indigenous people of the Northeastern Woodlands. They were one of about a dozen cognate tribes that made up the Illiniwek Confederation, also called the Illinois Confederation. Their longstanding homeland was in ...
, 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 a large settlement, 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 Slavery is the ownership of a person as property, especially in regards to their labour. Slavery typically involves compulsory work, with the slave's location of work and residence dictated by the party that holds them in bondage. Enslavemen ...
(likely members of other tribes captured in battle), food, furs, and skins. As it was time for the Kaw summer buffalo hunt, they insisted on escorting the expedition enforce, carrying the expedition's baggage. The Kaw On July 24, Bourgmont, his party of French, Missouri, and Osage, and most of the Kaw left on their expedition to visit the Padouca. There was sickness within the villages, with Bourgmont giving treatments. Bourgmont contracted fever. After days of travel, he became too ill to ride and on July 31 was carried on stretcher by Indians for return to Fort d'Orleans. Before turning, Bourgmont sent an emissary ahead to contact the Padouca and tell them he would soon be coming, sending with the emissary two Padouca slaves 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
El Cuartelejo El Cuartelejo, or El Quartelejo (from Spanish ''cuartelejo'', meaning ''old building'' or ''barracks''), is a region in eastern Colorado and western Kansas where Plains Apache cohabited with Puebloans. Subject to religious persecution, Puebloan ...
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. With enough horses to carry the baggage, his party was much smaller and more nimble: 15 French and
Métis The Métis ( , , , ) are a mixed-race Indigenous people whose historical homelands include Canada's three Prairie Provinces extending into parts of Ontario, British Columbia, the Northwest Territories and the northwest United States. They ha ...
, including Bourgmont's half-Missouria son; the five Padoucas, seven Missouria, five Kaw, four
Otoe The Otoe ( Chiwere: Jiwére) are a Native American people of the Midwestern United States. The Otoe language, Chiwere, is part of the Siouan family and closely related to that of the related Iowa, Missouria, and Ho-Chunk tribes. Histori ...
, and three
Iowa Iowa ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the upper Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders the Mississippi River to the east and the Missouri River and Big Sioux River to the west; Wisconsin to the northeast, Ill ...
. The Osage were not recorded as part of this smaller expedition. Ten horses carried the baggage. The party proceeded southwest and on October 11 at the crossing of the
Kansas River The Kansas River, also known as the Kaw, is a meandering river in northeastern Kansas in the United States. It is potentially the southwestern most part of the Missouri River drainage, which is sometimes in turn the northwesternmost portion of ...
, 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.


The Padouca

On October 18, Bourgmont encountered the Padouca on the upper Little Arkansas River. 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 ''
Comanche The Comanche (), or Nʉmʉnʉʉ (, 'the people'), are a Tribe (Native American), Native American tribe from the Great Plains, Southern Plains of the present-day United States. Comanche people today belong to the List of federally recognized tri ...
'' as Padouca. Most historians and anthropologists have come to agree that Bourgmont's Padouca were likely the ''
Apache The Apache ( ) are several Southern Athabaskan language-speaking peoples of the Southwestern United States, Southwest, the Southern Plains and Northern Mexico. They are linguistically related to the Navajo. They migrated from the Athabascan ho ...
'' 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 dwelling 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 uns one of sabers, one of pickaxes, one of axes, one of gunpowder, one of balls, one of red
Limbourg Limbourg (; German and Dutch: ''Limburg''; ) or Limbourg-sur-Vesdre is a city and municipality of Wallonia located in the province of Liège, Belgium. On 1 January 2008, Limbourg had a total population of 5,680. The total area is 24.63 k ...
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 Scissors are hand-operated shearing tools. A pair of scissors consists of a pair of blades pivoted so that the sharpened edges slide against each other when the handles (bows) opposite to the pivot are closed. Scissors are used for cutting var ...
, one of combs, one of gunflints, one of wadding extractors, six portions of vermillion, 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.Norall, 151Journal, October 19.
After pronouncements by both Bourgmont and the head Padouca chief, Bourgmont invited the chiefs to freely take what they wanted of the merchandise. The Padouca had never seen such a variety of European goods. They were frightened of the guns when the French handled them. Attended by leaders of Iowas, Otos, Missouris, Kaws, and Skiri Pawnees, Bourgmont addressed an assembly of 200 of the Padouca chiefs, proposing the avdantages of peace among all tribes under their French King. The represented tribes, long hostile to each other, all used and combatted over the same buffalo hunting grounds. As such, the chiefs expressed eagerness for peace as each desired security on the common buffalo hunting grounds.
Here is the great French chief who has brought peace between us and our greatest enemies. Henceforth we shall be able to hunt in peace, and we will be able to visit those who up to now made war on us, and they will visit us.
Bourgmont implored them to allow the French traders to pass through their lands ''en route'' to the Spanish settlements in New Mexico. 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 were large enough to house 30 people to live in each. The Apache chief said that he had twelve villages under his control and commanded four times the number warriors that the French could see in the village. 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 only a little
corn Maize (; ''Zea mays''), also known as corn in North American English, is a tall stout Poaceae, grass that produces cereal grain. It was domesticated by indigenous peoples of Mexico, indigenous peoples in southern Mexico about 9,000 years ago ...
and
pumpkin A pumpkin is a cultivar, cultivated winter squash in the genus ''Cucurbita''. The term is most commonly applied to round, orange-colored squash varieties, but does not possess a scientific definition. It may be used in reference to many dif ...
s compared to the neighoring tribes to the east. They obtained tobacco and horses from trade with the Spanish in New Mexico, in exchange for tanned buffalo 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 the
Comanche The Comanche (), or Nʉmʉnʉʉ (, 'the people'), are a Tribe (Native American), Native American tribe from the Great Plains, Southern Plains of the present-day United States. Comanche people today belong to the List of federally recognized tri ...
.


The location of the Padouca

Scholars examining documents and geography have determined that the Apache village was probably located on the Little Arkansas River near Lyons, Kansas—the same location where
Francisco Vásquez de Coronado Francisco is the Spanish and Portuguese form of the masculine given name ''Franciscus''. Meaning of the name Francisco In Spanish, people with the name Francisco are sometimes nicknamed " Paco". San Francisco de Asís was known as ''Pater Comm ...
had found ''
Quivira Quivira was a province of the ancestral Wichita people, located near the Great Bend of the Arkansas River in central Kansas, The exact site may be near present-day Lyons extending northeast to Salina. The Wichita city of Etzanoa, which flouris ...
'' 173 years earlier while hunting for tribes with gold.Reichart, Milton "Bourgmont's Route to Central Kansas: A Reexamination." ''Kansas History'', Vol 2, Summer 1979, pp. 96-120 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.


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
Versailles The Palace of Versailles ( ; ) is a former royal residence commissioned by King Louis XIV located in Versailles, Yvelines, Versailles, about west of Paris, in the Yvelines, Yvelines Department of ÃŽle-de-France, ÃŽle-de-France region in Franc ...
, Château de Marly and
Fontainebleau Fontainebleau ( , , ) is a Communes of France, commune in the Functional area (France), metropolitan area of Paris, France. It is located south-southeast of the Kilometre zero#France, centre of Paris. Fontainebleau is a Subprefectures in Franc ...
, hunting in the royal forest with
Louis XV Louis XV (15 February 1710 – 10 May 1774), known as Louis the Beloved (), was King of France from 1 September 1715 until his death in 1774. He succeeded his great-grandfather Louis XIV at the age of five. Until he reached maturity (then defi ...
, and seeing an
opera Opera is a form of History of theatre#European theatre, Western theatre in which music is a fundamental component and dramatic roles are taken by Singing, singers. Such a "work" (the literal translation of the Italian word "opera") is typically ...
. His Missouria wife was listed officially as a servant. In late 1725 the tribes' leaders and his Missouria wife returned to North America. Bourgemont stayed in Normandy with his French wife, where he had been elevated to ''écuyer'' (
squire In the Middle Ages, a squire was the shield- or armour-bearer of a knight. Boys served a knight as an attendant, doing simple but important tasks such as saddling a horse or caring for the knight's weapons and armour. Terminology ''Squire'' ...
). The French did not continue to support Fort Orleans, and it was abandoned in 1726. Bourgmont died in France in 1734.


References


External links


''Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture'' - Bourgmont, Etienne Veniard de


Further reading

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Bourgemont, E. French explorers of North America Pre-statehood history of Missouri Missouri River Pre-statehood history of Nebraska French-American history of Nebraska 1679 births 1734 deaths People from Orne Pre-statehood history of Kansas Historians of Native Americans Explorers of the United States