CHAPTER II
1. FRENCH AND SPANISH RELATIONS BEFORE 1762
In order to understand the history of the Caddo Indians it is not only necessary to have a knowledge of their traditions, customs, and location but also to know something about their relations with the Europeans. The Caddo was one of the groups located on the frontier between Louisiana and New Spain.
France and Spain began a contest to control these frontier tribes from the first moment of contact until 1762 when Louisiana was ceded to Spain. The principal weapon used by the French was the trader, and by the Spaniards, the Franciscan missionary, each backed by a small display of military force. One of the reasons for a desire to control the frontier tribes was to secure possession of their territory. Both France and Spain realized that the best way to accomplish this was to establish an influence over the natives of the district desired. Another reason to control the tribes was to foster trade. A third was a desire of the missionaries to bring them to the knowledge of the Christian faith.
From the outset both the French and Spanish governments regarded the Caddo country as a strategic point of great importance. Likewise, both countries began to make a bid for control of the individual tribes before the close of the seventeenth century. The first contact made by the French was with the Cadodacho who were visited by the survivors of the La Salle party in 1687, and the friendly relations established by this visit were never abandoned. In 1689 Tonti, while searching for La Salle's colony, visited the tribe and further strengthened the amicable relations already existing between them and the French.
The first Spanish explorer to reach the Cadodacho country was Domingo Teran. His attempt to explore the region was a complete failure and it was not until 1717 when another unsuccessful attempt was made by Father Margil to establish missions for the Cadodacho and the Yatasi.
In 1718 a large grant of land was made to Bernard de la Harpe, a French colonizer, in the Cadodacho country. In 1719 a garrisoned trading post was established on Red River by La Harpe between the Cadodacho and Nassonite villages. This post was maintained part of the time with a garrison until after the Louisiana cession. It checkmated every attempt made by the Spaniards to penetrate the Cadodacho country. Later, depots were established at the village of the Petit Cados and Yatasi.
Bolton says:
These trading establishments at Natchitoches and in the villages of the Cadodacho, Petit Cado, and Yatasi, together with the influence of the remarkable St. Denis, who in 1722 became commander at Natchitoches, and who till his death in 1744 remained the master genius of the frontier, were the basis of an almost undisputed French domination over the Caddo tribes. More than once the Spanish authorities contemplated driving the French out of the Cadodacho village and erecting there a Spanish post, but each attempt failed.
The first relations with the Natchitoches began in 1690 when Tonti reached these tribes from the Mississippi and made an alliance with them. In 1700 Iberville sent his brother, Bienville, on a visit to their country from the Taensa villages. Bienville as an ambassador must have accomplished his ultimate aim, for, from the date of his visit to the close of the eighteenth century the tribe never broke faith with the French. In 1712 they helped St. Denis establish a post on the Red River at Natchitoches as a protection against the intrusions of the Spanish, and also in the hope of establishing trade relations with Spain.
In 1701 Bienville and St. Denis visited the Yatasi tribes and made an alliance with them. That the friendship formed by this alliance was permanent, was shown by the fact that the Yatasi refused to close the road between the Spanish province and the Red River settlement, after the Spanish had demanded that it be closed.
The French maintained control over all of the Caddo tribes with the exception of the Adai, among whom the Spanish were located from the very beginning. In 1715 Domingo Ramon, a Spanish colonizer, with a company of Franciscans, made settlements in the Adai territory. The mission of San Miguel de Linares was founded among them in 1716.
In 1719, when France and Spain were at war, orders were given to Blondel, the commandant at Natchitoches, to drive the Spaniards from Texas. In carrying out these orders Blondel, with Natchitoches and Caddo allies, took possession of Los Adaes, and the Indians were allowed to destroy the buildings. The Adai tribe because of their allegiance to the Spanish, were removed from their lands by the French and treated as enemies.
In 1721 the Marquis de Aguayo, a Spanish general, was sent with the strongest military force that had ever entered Texas to re-establish the presidios of Texas and the abandoned missions. He established a new presidio in the Adai tribe beside the Mission of San Miguel. This new presidio was located where the present town of Robeline, Louisiana, now stands. About 1735 a military post called Nuestra Senora del Pilar was established, and five years later this garrison became the Presidio de los Adayes. Afterwards, when the country was districted for the jurisdiction of the Indians, the Adai tribe was placed under the division having its official headquarters at Nacogdoches. Although Spain had established the political rule over the Adai, she had not stopped the French trade that had won the hearts of the natives. These Indians and associated tribes along the frontier looked to the French for their weapons, ammunition, and other articles of trade, for which they exchanged their peltry, and often their agricultural products.
As a result of the wars between France and Spain the Adai had suffered severely, one portion of their villages being under French control, the other being under Spanish control. The ancient trail between their villages became the noted "contraband trail" along which traders and travelers journeyed between the French and Spanish provinces. One of their villages was on the road between the French fort at Natchitoches and the Spanish fort at San Antonio. The adverse influences of the whites, together with the conflict between France and Spain, almost exterminated this ancient tribe of Indians.