No Man's Land: A History of El Camino RealNardini, Louis Raphael
History
No Man's Land: A History of El Camino Real
Nardini, Louis Raphael
El Camino Real de los Tejas National Historic Trail (Tex. and La.); Louisiana -- History
Jean Baptist Der Bonne or Derbonne as the French would write it, was an
officer at the French Post, Jean Baptist Des Natchitoches. The Spanish
Post, Del Presidio Nuestra Senora del Pilar de Los Adais, was roughly 17
miles due west. The dividing boundary was the Arroyo Hondo, a small
stream that ran roughly north and south midway between these two
outposts. True, both nationalities respected this boundary to a certain
extent, that is they visited openly but hid their trading with each
other.
The Spanish had use of the good Doctor Payne (Pain), the post Doctor at
Natchitoches, in return the Spanish Fiesta was open to all. If a
Frenchman visited the Spanish Church for Mass or Confession he was very
welcome.
Father Ignacio Certa admitted in one of his letters that he had spoken
to Gonzales in behalf of Der Bonne. Certainly this priest must have
approved of the Frenchman or he would not have intervened for him.
The foster brother of Gonzales’s wife, Juan de Mora, was a very good
friend of Der Bonne because he helped and was put into prison because of
the incident. Even this imprisonment was a sham, as de Mora could have
gone to the post at Natchitoches a guest of DerBonne. He could have left
immediately after the two eloped and with a fast horse, reached
Natchitoches well ahead of any searchers. I believe de Mora remained at
Los Adais and allowed himself to be imprisoned so that his
brother-in-law, Gonzales, might save face with his superiors in Mexico
and the Tejas country. There are no records revealing a trial or
punishment of Juan de Mora. One thing is certain, there was a food and
clothing shortage at Los Adais and de Mora was one of the Spaniards who
was on very good terms with the French officer, DerBonne. And DerBonne,
being an officer, would have enough influence at the French post at
Natchitoches to assist the Spanish traders in getting more reasonable
bargains when purchasing food and clothing there. Too, DerBonne being a
French officer, as a side line, also was a trader among the Indians and
certainly with the Spanish. Now that the Frenchman had taken a Spanish
wife and she being the daughter of Gonzalez, the Gonzalez family would
certainly profit by this marriage. The deals, however, having been
transacted through DerBonne and de Mora and both men now being of the
Gonzalez family would leave the Lieutenant Governor in the clear as far
as his superiors were concerned.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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