The wealthiest merchant of New Orleans, Jean Milhet, went to Paris as the spokesman of the colony. He met Bienville, the pioneer founder of the city which enjoyed at that time the reputation of being an American Paris, and the octogenarian lent his aid in an attempt to appeal to the French minister, Choiseul. But Choiseul gave them no encouragement. His answer was, briefly: "It cannot be; France cannot bear the charge of supporting the colony's precarious existence." On the tenth of July, 1765, the Brigadier D. Antonio de Ulloa, who was appointed by Governor Buccarelli of Cuba to take possession of the territory ceded to Spain, sent a letter from Havana to the superior council of the colony at New Orleans announcing that he had orders to take possession of that city for the Catholic king. But the French authorities did not remove the flag of France and Acadian exiles continued to pour into the colony from the north. Ulloa finally sailed from Havana and on the fifth of March, 1766, he arrived in the bay. The very elements of nature seem to have conspired to lend gloom to his arrival. A terrible thunderstorm and violent downpour of rain was a feature of the landing. He was accompanied by some civil officers, three Capuchin monks and eighty soldiers. The people, resentful of being forced to submit to foreign rule, received him coldly and sullenly. He had brought with him orders to redeem the seven million livres of French paper money which had been a heavy burden upon a population of not more than six thousand souls. He saw at once that the population was unwilling to give up its nationality and to change its allegiance from France to Spain. He learned that the French garrison peremptorily refused to serve under Spanish commanders. So he was forced to leave the government, which he was supposed to administer with the aid of the Spanish officials that he had brought with him, in the hands of the former French functionaries. When in September of that year an ordinance was introduced by Ulloa forcing French vessels having special permits to accept the paper currency in payment for their cargoes at an unreasonable tariff, the merchants of the colony protested vigorously. They declared stoutly: "The extension and freedom of trade, far from injuring states and colonies, are their strength and support."