History & Education

by Maynard Cornett Adams

The first expedition to visit the South Platte Valley

Jean L'Archeveque was born in Bayonne, France, in 1671. In 1684, at the age of 13, L’Archeveque, along with Pierre Meusnier from Paris and Jacques Grollet, born in La Rochelle, France, joined Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle, on his expedition in search of the Mississippi Delta. The party became lost, and the ships landed at Lavaca Bay, Texas. A mutiny occurred on March 18, 1687, and L’Archeveque and Grollet were used by assassins to lure Sieur de La Salle into an ambush, where he was murdered. Knowing they were in danger, L'Archeveque, Grollet, and Meusnier slipped away. Later, they went to live with the Teyas Indians. Two young boys and a girl accompanied them.

In 1689, they were ransomed from the Indians by the Spanish, when a Spanish expedition was sent into Texas by Gov. Alonzo de Leon. Expedition Commandant Monclova found six survivors of the La Salle Expedition living with the Indians. He ransomed five young men and one girl, taking them to Coahuila, Mexico. L’Archeveque, then 19 years old, and Grollet, 24 years old, were then taken to Spain, where they were cleared of taking part in La Salle's death. They returned to Paso del Norte (El Paso, Texas) in 1692, where L'Archeveque and Meusnier joined General Vagas's army and helped reconquer the province. L'Archeveque, who was then known as Captain Juan de Archibeque, was then living in Santa Fe, New Mexico, and still in the military.

In August 1720, Captain Archibeque accompanied Commandant Don Pedro de Villazur on an expedition to the Arkansas River. Governor Valverde had sent Villazur to investigate rumors that the French were settling in today's eastern Colorado and Nebraska. Their destination was El Cuartelejo. El Cuartelejo was a pueblo or fort, built by Kiowa and Jicarilla Apache with the aid of Pueblo Indians on the Arkansas River. Escaped Indian slaves and others trying to disappear or evade justice used it as a sanctuary. This fort was located approximately sixty-five miles east of present-day Pueblo, Colorado. While camped there, they learned that the Frenchmen and Indian slaves, having learned of their coming, had left.

Villazur's expedition of fifty men followed the trail into today's South Platte Valley, near present-day Fort Morgan. He named the river Rio de Jesus Mario. Traveling to the confluence of another large stream, which they called the San Lorenzo (now the North Platte River), the party moved down-river, along a well-used trail that later became known as the South Platte River Trail, and set up camp. Although he was warned by his scouts about the Pawnees and that the group they were seeking was camped nearby, Villazur ignored them.

At dawn on August 16, 1720, all but twelve or thirteen members of the expedition were killed in a surprise attack. Villazur and Archibeque were among the dead. A sergeant, Felipe de Tamaris, who escaped, gave an account of the fatal expedition. Sanchez, Archibeque's personal servant, although bleeding from six wounds, stayed with his master until he ceased to breathe. Then Sanchez saved himself, by catching the horse of Archibeque and riding away.

Ironically, according to Tamaris and Sanchez’s report, Jean L'Archeveque, alias Juan de Archibeque, was killed by Frenchmen who were wanted for questioning by French and Spanish officials concerning their involvement in La Salle's death. On the day before the attack, Archibeque told Sanchez that one of them was a loyal survivor of the La Salle Expedition thirty-three years before.

First French expedition to the South Platte Valley

During the expansion of French exploration and trade in western regions of the Mississippi and Missouri river tributaries, stories circulated about deposits of gold and silver in the territory of Western Louisiana. When these stories were printed in Paris newspapers, French politicians decided this was a good

time to take action. They were glad to use this as a means of getting appropriations for expeditions to Western Louisiana. At that time, the French government was being ridiculed because Louisiana was considered a millstone around France's neck; millions of francs had been lost in efforts to develop the territory.

In 1716, after conferring with Sieur Hubert, an official in Louisiana, the French government sent Sr. Bernard de La Harpe on an expedition to explore present-day Colorado. Traveling from St. Louis up the Missouri River to where it turned northward, the expedition continued westward on today's Kansas River. Traveling a well-used trail (the latter-day Smoky Hill Trail along this river, the expedition turned into a fork coming from the northwest. (This trail actually had three branches. Each followed a stream that flowed into what is now called the Republican River, which emptied into the Kansas River. The streams were the North Fork of the Republican, the Middle Fork or Arikaree River, and the South Fork. In later years, the South Fork became the dominant trail.)

Upon reaching the headwaters of the stream (today's Arikaree River), La Harpe tells of how they continued westward, crossing several dry streambeds and then followed another Indian trail, Deer Trail Creek or Bijou Creek, into a valley where a river flowed northward. This was the South Platte River near Log Lane Village, or present-day Ft. Morgan, Colorado. A short time later, La Harpe’s scouts reported that there was a large camp of Padoucas up ahead. (The early French referred to most of the Indians in Colorado as "Padoucas" (Padokas) or "Laitanes." The Apaches were called "Canies.") As their party descended bluffs near the river, they saw a group of riders leaving the village and heading south, going up the river with carts drawn by oxen.

While trading with the Indians, La Harpe was told that the party they had seen leaving were Espagnol (Spanish) traders from Taos. The Padoucas (Cheyenne or Arapaho Indians) explained that they traded furs, meat, and vegetables for gold and silver earrings, bracelets, and medallions made by the Espagnols. La Harpe learned that the Espagnols mined great quantities of gold and silver in the mountains to the west. The party was also told of Indians being enslaved to work these mines.

Traveling up the Platte River to the location of present-day Denver, the expedition left the river, following today’s Cherry Creek to its headwaters. From there, they traveled southeastward to the Marne or Napesth (Arkansas) River, returning to the Fleur St. Louis River (Mississippi River). (La Harpe wasn’t sure if he was on the Arkansas River. Later, he led another expedition back up this river, which was called Napest by the Kiowa Apache Indians.)

French-Canadian Expedition of 1739

1739-1741 marked the second recorded French expedition into present-day Colorado. Pierre and Paul Mallet, two brothers, led an expedition from Canada to New Mexico. The reported purpose of this venture was to establish trade with New Mexico. (The Mallet Expedition spent nearly a year in Santa Fe. After reading their documents, however, one would suspect they were there to find out about the silver and gold mines reported to exist in New Mexico. The trade mission was used as a guise; while in Santa Fe, the Mallets gave away all their trade goods.)

After traveling through Illinois country, and up the Missouri River past the Kancis (Kansas) River to the mouth of the Panimahas River (today's Niobrara River in Nebraska), the Mallet Expedition was told by Indians that they were going the wrong way to reach New Mexico. On May 27, 1739, they left the mouth of the Panimahas River, traveling southward parallel to the Missouri River. "On June 12, they came upon a river which they named the Platte River -- for its appearance. [It was flat like a plate.] Seeing it did not draw them away from the trail they had forged, they followed it the distance of twenty-eight leagues and in that spot they found that the river met the Padokas River (the Loup River) which emptied into it. Three days later on June 13, [note the dates are wrong], they crossed to the left bank of the river and crossing a strip of land they arrived on June 14, at the shore of the Costes River (the Big Blue) which also empties into the Platte."

At this point the Mallet Expedition left the Platte River Valley, traveling in a southern direction until reaching the Arkansas River. In the document, they call all the Indians of the Plains "Laitanes." There is one reference to an Indian being a Ricaras (Arikara) slave from the Laitanes Nation. They refer to the Spanish as "Espagnols."

Acknowledgments

Juan Archibeque's Family Will and History 1720-1775. New Mexico State Records and Archives. Spanish Exploration in the Southwest, 1542-1706. H. E. Bolton. C. Scribner’s Sons, NY.

Journal de Voyage de la Louisiana. fait parle Sr. Bernard de La

Harpe. 1716-1722. Also, extracts ptd. In Pierre Margry- Decourents et Establissaments de Francois. Frontier History of the Trans-Mississippi West. Reel 201 2070 v.2 thru 2079.

Pierre & Paul Mallet Expedition, 1739-1741. Archives de France. Col. C-13c 4. 228-231v. French Expansion Toward New Mexico in the Eighteenth Century, by Henri Folmer, University of Denver, 1939.

Foundation. Copyright 1952.