Occupation: Apprenticed cooper til the age of 21 with Luke Mizell.Luke Mizell IV Spouse: Chamnay Chamnay was a treaty wife mentioned at the mediations of the Tombigbee recordings where gifting was chronicled as to who gave tribute and in what way.

The translator was Simon Farve, in the interest of Spain. Parent: James King II of the Keskiak. Source: Thurman's book.

Time Is Running Short

, is the primary source for this James King /III Frenchimastvbe'. Source: atDna plus travel journals in Bertie Co records where the Acapolissa were squatters on the King land; charted land wise as going back to the Keskiak' land, to one of the signers of a Powhatan Treaty by James King I. They transferred into Mandeville, heavily tatooed in 1722 so, this was a late wave contingient. Their impact on the Choctaw language of the Western Division is noted in linguistic works which point out long standing Algonquian influence in the dialect of the Choctaw.

Franchimastabé (1778–1801) Apointed Choctaw Chief of Acapolissa and Keskiak Paternal Transfer Community

with Janes King II coming at the same time as the Acapolissa (Baby Powhatan Chiefs) into Mandaville, La area.
https://mississippiencyclopedia.org/entries/franchimastabe/

Major Leader dealing with Choctaw of the Western Division of Choctaw appointed by Gubenitorial Governor François Louis Hector, baron de Carondelet (He was from Ecuador). The record of his life during both war and peace provides insight into the political and economic changes in the Gulf and Lower Mississippi Valley brought about by sustained contact between Native Americans and Euro-Americans in the last half of the century.

The first evidence in the historical record of a Franchimastabé emerges in the 1760s, toward the end of the French and Indian War. The genealogical line is back to the Keskiak (who came to Mandeville area by 1720s with many tatoos and labeled Acalopissa/Baby Powhatan Chiefs, coming in waves first noted by DeSoto as Quinapissa) and chronicled in the Thurman book. In 1763 John Stuart, the British superintendent for Indian affairs in the southern district in North America, sent a letter to his “friend and brother” Franchimastabé to express continued dependence on his friendship. Two years later, the chief led a party of Choctaw up the Mississippi River to assist the British in establishing a post at the mouth of the Missouri River. Continuing a practice begun by the French to create some sort of useful hierarchy among native groups, British officials made him a small-medal chief.

The American Revolution afforded Franchimastabé more opportunities to sustain British confidence and through it to secure goods that would enable him to fulfill the basic expectation that chiefs be generous. By the end of that conflict, he had defined himself in the minds of some as the “English chief.” In 1777 he attended a meeting in Mobile called by Stuart to secure Choctaw approval of boundaries for a Natchez District. He affixed his sign to the treaty document. The next year he led Choctaw to help the British secure Natchez after a raid by American rebel James Willing. In 1781 Franchimastabé led a force to help the British resist the Spanish expedition against Pensacola. In the context of that failed enterprise, Franchimastabé strongly complained about a lack of help from the British and their failure to provide promised presents.

Franchimastabé subsequently employed trade and diplomacy to secure goods. He developed an especially close association with trader Turner Brashears, who had come into the region during the American Revolution. Like so many other traders, Brashears acquired a Native American wife—the daughter of another Choctaw chief, Taboca, and the niece of Franchimastabé. Franchimastabé and Brashears thus established kinship ties that proved useful for both men.

In the closing days of the American Revolution, Franchimastabé and Taboca traveled to Savannah and St. Augustine to secure a continued supply of goods. That journey proved futile, and Franchimastabé and others had to look to both the Spanish and Americans for the goods they wanted. Along with more than two thousand other Choctaw and Chickasaw, Franchimastabé attended a summer 1784 congress held by the Spanish in Mobile and signed a treaty of friendship and commerce. As problems developed with regard to this trade, Franchimastabé hosted a late 1787 meeting in his village of West Yazoo at which he and other chiefs complained of the Spaniards’ failure to abide by the terms of the Mobile treaty. The Spanish governor’s representative assured Franchimastabé that these problems would be remedied, and with the encouragement of Chickasaw chief Taskietoka, Franchimastabé agreed to exchange his English medals for Spanish ones. Taboca and other Choctaw had already agreed to a treaty with the United States to secure American goods.

Three important congresses of the 1790s provided opportunities for Franchimastabé to enhance his chiefly role, but records of those meetings indicate that he did much to alienate other chiefs. In 1791 he and Taboca agreed to a letter in which Brashears protested the Spaniards’ establishment of a military and trading post at the mouth of the Yazoo River. The Spanish governor of Louisiana, Manuel Gayoso, and other Spanish officials had concluded that such a post was needed to deter a projected American settlement, but Brashears saw the initiative more as a way to expand the interests of the other traders on whom the Spanish had come to rely for goods for the Indian trade. That letter began a year of intense diplomatic activity that culminated in a Natchez congress attended by almost one thousand Choctaw and Chickasaw. Other Choctaw and Chickasaw chiefs, including Taskietoka, had decided to support the Spanish initiative, but Franchimastabé resisted until he was assured of ample gifts, receiving a scolding from Taskietoka. Later that year Franchimastabé and others traveled to New Orleans to meet with the Spanish governor-general and agree to an initiative to create a confederation of the major Native American groups of the Gulf region (Choctaw, Chickasaw, Creek, and Cherokee) that would reduce violence among them and deter what all agreed was increasing US pressure for land. The agreement was formalized in late 1793 at the new Spanish post of Nogales, at the mouth of the Yazoo. In what was no more than a symbolic gesture given the nature of Choctaw polity, Gayoso announced that he would regard Franchimastabé as the principal chief of the entire Choctaw nation.

Franchimastabé met a serious challenge to his position and indeed his life after the 1795 Treaty of San Lorenzo provided for the Spanish to withdraw south of what the United States had insisted since 1783 to be its southern boundary. Many Native American leaders felt betrayed and threatened. That feeling, combined with Franchimastabé’s age, envy of his ability to extract goods from outsiders, and younger male warriors’ need to assert themselves resulted in a plot to assassinate him. It failed, and Franchimastabé lived on until early 1801. Expressing regret at his death, the governor of the recently created Mississippi Territory, Winthrop Sargeant, called Franchimastabé “a universal Friend of the White People.”

Written by Charles A. Weeks, Jackson, Mississippi

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A Choctaw Chief and a Spanish Governor: Franchimastabé and Manuel Gayoso de Lemos

Charles A. Weeks
http://www.mshistorynow.mdah.ms.gov/articles/423/a-choctaw-chief-an...

In early 1791, a significant dispute brought together the leaders of two very different cultures, both of whom were seeking a peaceful settlement. The dispute centered on a place that the Spanish called “Nogales” --- a name derived from the Spanish word nogal (walnut tree). Before the Spanish, the British named the area “Walnut Hills” because of the many walnut trees they found growing there. Today, we know the site principally by the name of the city --- Vicksburg, which is located on the Mississippi River immediately south of the point where another river, the Yazoo, flows into it.

In 1791, the Spanish governor of the Natchez District, with the approval of his superior in New Orleans, the governor general of the province of Louisiana and West Florida, made a decision to establish a military post (Fort Nogales) near the mouth of the Yazoo. The Spanish officials believed the land to be Spanish territory according to the terms of the peace settlement that concluded the American Revolution. Their objective was to prevent a projected settlement sponsored by the South Carolina Yazoo Company that also claimed the land in question.

Fort Nogales

After the post’s newly appointed commandant, Elías Beauregard, and the recently appointed governor, Manuel Gayoso de Lemos, visited the Nogales site, they received a letter from two Choctaw chiefs, Franchimastabé and Taboca, protesting the establishment of the fort. The letter was written in English, most likely by trader Turner Brashears from Maryland who migrated to the region sometime during the American Revolution and who, along with other traders, was concerned that Nogales might become another trading post for the expanding operations of another trader, William Panton, whose company had acquired exclusive rights from the Spanish to trade with both the Choctaws and the Chickasaws. Earlier, Brashears created kinship ties and further trading opportunities with the Choctaw leaders by marrying a daughter of Taboca, who may have also been Franchimastabé’s niece. Referring to Gayoso in the letter as “my father,” Franchimastabé and Taboca asked why he had taken “our land,” meaning the land of the Choctaws and the Chickasaws, and stated that they had always regarded Gayoso as their friend.

More than a year of talks and negotiations followed, led by Gayoso for the Spanish and a number of Choctaw and Chickasaw chiefs, including Franchimastabé. A major congress attended by over three hundred Native Americans, mainly Choctaws, assembled in Natchez in the spring of 1792. The meetings lasted for more than a week and concluded with the signing of a treaty allowing the Spanish to establish the proposed post, the distribution of gifts by the Spanish to the Native Americans, and an native ball game that Gayoso described “as one of the most splendid that has ever been seen.” Another major congress met the following year at Nogales and was attended by Choctaws, Chickasaws, and a number of Creeks. The Nogales assembly produced another treaty which created, at least on paper, a confederation of these major Native American groups and the Spanish for the purpose of deterring American expansion into the region.

A Choctaw chief and a Spanish governor

The remainder of this article will focus on two major participants in these meetings, Choctaw chief Franchimastabé and the Spanish governor Gayoso. Franchimastabé emerged in the late eighteenth century as a major chief in the western division of Choctaws. The record of his life as a peace chief provides insight into the political and economic changes in the Gulf South and lower Mississippi River valley brought about by sustained contact among Native American, European, and African cultures in the last half of the eighteenth century. Franchimastabé developed considerable political skill in exploiting rival French, British, Spanish, and American interests in the area in order to advance his own. Other Choctaw chiefs also took advantage of the presence of multiple European and American interests in the region. A French official described the Choctaws in the early 1730s as “many little republics” in which each, with at least one chief, “does as it likes.” As the events of the 1780s and 1790s reveal, Franchimastabé often found himself in competition with and sometimes isolated from other important Choctaw chiefs, who desired European and American goods that they could distribute as a way to enhance their authority as chiefs.

Franchimastabé

The earliest written evidence of Franchimastabé emerged in the 1760s toward the end a conflict between the British and the French known as the Seven-Years War or the French and Indian War, its North American phase. His title, “Franchimastabé,” suggests that he established himself as a model, Choctaw male by committing violence in war, the hunt, or even a ball game. His name, or title, has sometimes been translated as “he who killed a French man.” During the French and Indian War, Franchimastabé became an important ally for the British. John Stuart, the British superintendent of Indian affairs in the region, sent a letter to Franchimastabé, addressing him as a “friend and brother” and expressing continued dependence on his friendship. Two years later, Franchimastabé led a party of Choctaws up the Mississippi River to assist the British in the establishment of a post at the mouth of the Missouri River. Continuing the French practice of creating hierarchy among Native American chiefs, the British awarded Franchimastabé with the title of small medal chief.

The American Revolution afforded Franchimastabé more opportunities to sustain British confidence and to secure trade goods for distribution among his people, thereby fulfilling a major expectation of all chiefs. By the end of that conflict, he defined himself in the minds of some as “the English chief.” In 1777, he attended a major congress in Mobile called by Stuart to secure Choctaw approval of boundaries for a Natchez District. The next year, he recruited about 150 Choctaw warriors to help the British defend Natchez from American attacks following a raid led by former Natchez resident, James Willing. After Spain entered the American Revolution in 1779 on the side of the Americans, Franchimastabé led a force two years later to help the British resist a Spanish expedition against Pensacola.

In the years that followed, Franchimastabé continued to play the role of peace chief. He used trade and diplomacy as a means to secure the goods he needed to meet the expectations and needs of his people. As noted earlier, his kinship ties with Brashears proved important. Following the American Revolution, Spain emerged as the only major European group in the area. This dynamic, within the context of British withdrawal, provided both challenges and opportunities to Franchimastabé and other chiefs as they attempted to play the Spanish against the Americans to secure favorable trade arrangements, a regular supply of gifts, and support to resist encroachment onto their lands by the newly formed United States. In 1784, Franchimastabé, along with over two thousand other Choctaws and Chickasaws, attended a congress held by the Spanish in Mobile where they signed a treaty of friendship and commerce. In 1787, he hosted a meeting in his village of West Yazoo where he and other chiefs complained that the Spanish breached the terms of the trade agreement reached in Mobile. He received assurances from representatives of the Spanish governor that the problems would be remedied. After that meeting, Franchimastabé agreed to exchange his English medals for medals from the Spanish government. In the meantime, Taboca and other Choctaws broke ranks by agreeing to a treaty with the United States to secure American goods.

Manuel Gayoso de Lemos

In 1787, Manuel Gayoso de Lemos was appointed both military commandant and civil governor for the Natchez District. Although populated mainly by people of Anglo-American and African origin, the Natchez area attained, in the view of historian Jay Gitlin, something of a cosmopolitan and Creole character with its population originating from many, varied cultures. Given his background and education, Gayoso proved to be an excellent choice for this position. Born in Oporto, Portugal, where his father served as the Spanish consul, he spent time in England learning classical languages, such as Latin and possibly Greek. Gayoso was fluent in both English and French, a valuable asset for living and working in Natchez, and later New Orleans, another city with a diverse population.

Gayoso’s American biographer, Jack D. L. Holmes, related the following story concerning Gayoso’s linguistic versatility. In 1796, a young Philip Dodridge, the well-educated son of an early Virginia settler, walked up the road from Natchez-under-the Hill toward the town itself without a permit to do so. The Spanish government, according to one report, prohibited strangers or boatmen from entering the town without written permission from the commandant or governor. That prohibition, however, did not extend to substantial, respectable, and desirable visitors such as Dodridge. When he reached the halfway point on the bluff, Dodridge was met by a well-dressed gentleman who addressed him in Spanish. Dodridge did not understand all that was said, but finding Spanish similar to Latin (which he knew well), replied in that language. To his surprise, the Spaniard answered in perfect Latin and introduced himself as the governor, Manuel Gayoso de Lemos.

Before his Natchez assignment, Gayoso served an extensive tour of duty in the Spanish military, impressing Estevan Miró who reported that Gayoso stood out for his conduct and impressive knowledge of languages. Miró later served as governor of Louisiana and West Florida, which contained the Natchez District. In 1787, Gayoso received the dual appointment of military commandant and civil governor of the Natchez District, but he did not arrive in the city until 1789.

Shortly after Gayoso assumed his post, Miró left and was replaced by François Louis Héctor, Baron de Carondelet as governor. Gayoso travelled to New Orleans in January of 1791 to brief Carondelet about the ongoing Nogales dispute and the events of the previous year. Gayoso later prepared a lengthy written essay on Louisiana and the challenges presented by the United States. These efforts helped convince Carondelet of the need for good relations among the native groups and their chiefs and, more specifically, the creation of some sort of confederation of these groups with the Spanish.

Much of Gayoso’s time was spent entertaining visiting native delegations, including some Cherokees, who opted not to attend the Nogales meeting due to perceived American threats. Keeping the royal warehouse well-stocked with goods to distribute to the visiting native dignitaries was a priority for Gayoso. Between 1790 and 1797, a house on the bluff was constructed by Gayoso’s adjutant, Stephen Minor, who came to Natchez from Pennsylvania. Named “Concordia,” this structure served as the Government House.

Treaty of San Lorenzo

The last two years of Gayoso’s time in Natchez (1795-1797) were occupied by securing another Spanish post on the “Chickasaw Bluffs” north of Nogales. The Spanish named that post San Fernando de las Barrancas in honor of the patron saint of Fernando, heir to the Spanish throne at the time. Today, the city of Memphis occupies this site. As a Choctaw, Franchimastabé was not involved in this endeavor. A Chickasaw chief known as Ugulayacabé emerged as a friend of the Spanish among the Chickasaws and worked hard to secure limited Chickasaw approval for the new post. Neither Nogales nor the Chickasaw Bluffs post remained in Spanish hands long. In late 1795, officials in Spain agreed to a treaty with the United States by which Spain accepted the thirty-first parallel as the southern boundary of the United States.

Between 1795 and 1798, posts such as Nogales, Chickasaw Bluffs, Natchez, and others had to be abandoned by the Spanish. The transfer of territory to the United States distressed local chiefs such as Ugulayacabé, who came to San Fernando and delivered a harangue arguing that the Spanish had abandoned the Chickasaws to the Americans like “small animals to the claws of tigers and the jaws of wolves.” Ugulayacabé also compared the behavior of Americans to a rattlesnake that “caresses the squirrel in order to devour it.”

Gayoso’s last major enterprise in Natchez before leaving to replace Carondelet in New Orleans in 1798 consisted of managing the peaceful delivery of Natchez to the Americans. Early that year, Andrew Ellicott and other American representatives arrived to begin a survey of the border. Ellicott soon angered many locals by raising an American flag in Natchez prior to the formal transfer. Choctaws were among those angered by that action and, like many Chickasaws, by the decision of the Spanish to abandon them. Gayoso’s diplomatic and political skills were frequently tested within the climate of this exchange of governmental authority. He moved to his new post in New Orleans where he contracted yellow fever and died in 1799.

Like Gayoso, Franchimastabé suffered a serious challenge to his position and indeed, his life following Spain’s agreement to the 1795 Treaty of San Lorenzo (also known as Pinckney’s Treaty) and withdrawal south of the thirty-first parallel. As expressed by Ugulayacabé, the Chickasaws and Choctaws rightfully felt betrayed and threatened by the transfer of the Natchez District to the United States. That feeling, combined with Franchimastabé’s age, envy of his ability to attract goods from Europeans, and perhaps the need felt by younger male warriors to assert themselves, led to a plot to assassinate him. The plot failed, and Franchimastabé lived until early 1801. In an expression of regret at his death, Winthrop Sargent, the governor of the newly created Mississippi Territory, described Franchimastabé as a “universal friend.”

Charles A. Weeks is an adjunct professor of history at Mississippi College. He received his Ph.D. with specialty in Latin American history from Indiana University, and he is the author of Paths to a Middle Ground: The Diplomacy of Natchez, Boukfouka, Nogales, and San Fernando de las Barrancas, 1791-1795, and The Juárez Myth in Mexico. He is also the co-author of a forthcoming book on the colonial history of Mississippi which is part of the Heritage of Mississippi Series.

Posted April 2018

Sources and suggested readings:

Barnett, James F., Jr. Mississippi’s American Indians. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 2012.

Carson, James Taylor. Searching for the Bright Path: The Mississippi Choctaws from Prehistory to Removal. Lincoln and London: University of Nebraska Press, 1999.

Dumont de Montigny, Jean-Françoise-Benjamin. The Memoir of Lieutenant Dumont, 1715-1747. Translated by Gordon M. Sayre. Edited by Gordon M. Sayre and Carla Zecher. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2012.

Galloway, Patricia K., ed. Native, European, and African Cultures in Mississippi, 1500-1800. Jackson: Mississippi Department of Archives and History, 1991.

Gitlin, Jay. “Crossroads on the Chinaberry Coast: Natchez and the Creole World of the Mississippi Valley.” Journal of Mississippi History 54 (November 1992): 365-84.

Holmes, Jack D. L. Gayoso: The Life of a Spanish Governor in the Mississippi Valley 1789-1799. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1965.

O’Brien, Greg. Choctaws in a Revolutionary Age, 1750-1830. Lincoln and London: University of Nebraska Press, 2002.

Weeks, Charles A. Paths to a Middle Ground: Natchez, Boukfouca, Nogales, and San Fernando de las Barrancas. Tuscaloosa and London: The University of Alabama Press, 2005

Weeks, Charles A. “Of Rattlesnakes, Wolves, and Tigers: A Harangue at the Chickasaw Bluffs 1796.” William and Mary Quarterly 57 (June 2010): 487-518.

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Lawrence Kinnaird, Spain in the Mississippi Valley, 1765-1794, Volume 4. Annual Report of the American Historical Association. 1945 (US Government Printing Office, 1946).

While Pedro Olivier was at work among the Creeks, Gayoso de Lemos, governor of the Natchez district, was attempting to placate the Choctaws who were protesting because of the fort he had constructed at Nogales without their approval. He assured them that the post had been necessary to prevent a threatened occupation of the region by the South Carolina Yazoo Company but the explanation did not satisfy the Indians. In the spring of 1792, Gayoso sent Stephen Minor upon a mission to the Choctaw nation. Minor conferred with Franchimastabe, one of the principal chiefs, and laid the groundwork for treaty negotiations.15 He discovered that some sort of loose alliance already existed among the Choctaws, Chickasaws, Creeks, and Cherokees. Although he did not learn the details, it was probably a defensive alliance against the Americans, nominally headed by the Chickasaw chief Tascaotuca.

The Choctaws and Chickasaws, after great effort, were persuaded to send delegates to Natchez to discuss the Nogales question and related matters. The conference lasted from May 11 to May 14. Governor Gayoso de Lemos entertained the Indians and explained again that a Spanish fort at Nogales was necessary because there was danger that the Americans might occupy the area. For a time Chief Franchimastabe, on the advice of his counselor, Turner Brashears, would not agree to cede the Nogales region. Eventually he yielded and substantial presents were agreed upon for distribution to the Indians. The occasion was considered so important that Father Gregorio White consented to the use of the parish church for the signing of the treaty. The conference terminated with elaborate ceremonies designed to impress the Indians.16

Later in the year Juan Delavillebeuvre took up his residence in the Indian country where he was reasonably successful with the Choctaws; he also made some progress with the Chickasaws. At first he lived with Simon Favre, a trader in the Choctaw nation, and Favre built him a house at a spot located about four leagues from the village of Chief Franchimastabe and two hours' journey from the place where the trader Turner Brashears had his headquarters. Delavillebeuvre was thus centrally located and at the same time free from the inconveniences frequently suffered by agents who lived in Indian villages.17 One of his assignments was to establish better relations with the Chickasaws since it was vital to Carondelet's plan for an Indian confederation that this tribe be brought under Spanish control. The Chickasaw country was strategically situated insofar as the routes to the Gulf both by way of the Mississippi and the Tombigbee rivers were concerned. The tribe controlled much of the Tennessee Valley, the mouth of the Ohio, and the important high lands on the Mississippi below the Ohio. Of all the southern tribes, the Chickasaws were upon the most amicable terms with the Americans. The principal obstacle to Spanish diplomatic efforts was Chief Piomingo whose friendship with General Robertson and other Americans was well-known. Delavillebeuvre focused his attention upon another important chief, Ugulayacabe, and by persuasion and a judicious distribution of presents won him and his followers over to the Spanish interest.18

Notes:

16. Manuel Serrano y Sanz. Espana y loa Indioe Ckerokie y Choctaa en la eegunda mitad del eiglo XVIII (SerUla, 1916). 48-60.

17. See below pp. 76-77.

18. See below pp. 103-106. 166,176-176, 291.

p. 8

To The King Of The Choctaw Nation Franchimastabe, And English Will Of The Choctaws: I beg that you will listen to the following concerning those who are going to talk with you; pay attention; open your ears to what they say. I desire that, if Franchimastabe cannot come to the proposed treaty of Cumberland, he shall send those that he can induce to come. It has been represented to me that the Choctaw nation is displeased with the old chief, and that they have threatened his life in consequence of his conduct with the Spaniards. My advice is that they shall leave Louisiana. Pay attention to my words, and proceed to the present treaty. Franchimastabe and all the chiefs of the Choctaw nation should listen and heed the advice and all, or as many as can, should come to the treaty.

Payeminoo, Chief Of The Long Village, To Franchimastabe, King Of The Choctaws: I have been hearing from you for a long time but I have never had the pleasure of knowing you. I shall not attempt to address myself to you formally; but I beg you to take care of these friends of mine. Pay attention to what they may tell you, and see that they return safely to me. I have not much to say to you but I beg you to send your message by Susconofuy of Boyeckr, in whom I have great confidence.

Payemingo.

p. 74

Delavillebeuvre To Carondelet

    September 5,1792

No. 1.

I have finally arrived at the Choctaw nation after travelling for six days out from Bayou Pierre. I came down with fever on the way, but this, however, did not interrupt my journey, although my illness increased considerably. I was at the point of death upon my arrival at the nation, and without prospects of spiritual or temporal aid. Yet, I pulled myself out of danger with much hot water. There remains nothing but general feebleness, although this has not prevented me from calling an assembly at the Large Part in which I spoke to them on your behalf. I informed them that you had been most surprised to learn that, without having consulted either you or any of your governors and commandants, they should have allowed themselves to be taken by surprise by isolated white men who were seeking only to deceive them and to draw them into a war from which they would not be able to extricate themselves. I told them, that on the contrary, their duty was to join the Chickasaws, the Talapoosas, and the Cherokees in order to prevent these same whites from invading their lands, which they covet, as this demonstration proves, and that, finally, they were to take no steps without consulting you, in accordance with the agreement made at the Mobile Congress. I pointed out that this was something which you hoped they would observe another time.

Franchimastabe spoke after me and said that he thought I had come to the nation on your behalf to inform them that you were going to hold a Congress at Mobile, but that, since this was not the case, he begged me in the name of the entire Large Part to write to you for them. I replied to him that you were too busy at New Orleans, and that besides you had always given goods to the red men who came to see you ever since your arrival in the colony. Taboka spoke also and said many fine things. Then the gathering dispersed. When I arrived at the nation, Franchimastabe had already given the two American medals to Toorner Bichairs for him to send to the governor of Natchez, who in turn was to send them to you. However, the other large one, which had been given to one of our medal-chiefs named Tloupoue Nantla, of the Village of Canlabatia in the Small Part, is still in his possession. He left immediately for Cumberland upon receiving it and has not yet returned. Four people, however, have come from there. I questioned one, and he told me that five hundred fifty Chickasaw people led by Payemingo and Ogoulayacabe, and one hundred and seven Choctaw people along with fourteen captains and one medal-chief went to Cumberland and stayed there eighteen days.

An American officer arrived who informed them that he was coming on behalf of his chiefs to speak to them and give them the presents which had been promised to them at Charleston a long time ago. He said that the Americans considered the Chickasaw and Choctaw nations as their brothers and friends and that they wanted to give them proofs of their friendly feelings, but that the Talapoosas killed their people every day and stole their horses, and that they did not know how it would all turn out. He strongly recommended that the Chickasaws and Choctaws should maintain the peace with all the nations, and told them that the Americans, the French, the Englishi and the Spanish were all united and of a single mind. Thereiore ne hoped that the Spanish would not object to the Americans giving presents to the Indians, as well as double commissions, as a sign of friendship.

The Americans gave four more to various warriors, which make twenty-two commissions they have given, but no medals. They gave to each chief four Limbourg blankets and four white woolen ones, and two of each kind to each one of the warriors, as well as powder and lead ingots, as they had no bullets for them. They did not give them any knives, scissors, vermilion, or kettles, and only three rifles to the principal chiefs. They did not make any suggestion about their waging war, but merely stated that they would attempt once again to destroy the Kickapoos. However, they stated that, if they should be unable to succeed, they would make peace with them next spring.

Taskactoca, king of the Chickasaws, had gone to the Talapoosas. He came back several days ago and sent word to Franchimastabe that he would come to the Choctaws here one of these days, and that he was to wait for him. The latter was getting ready to leave for Mobile with Tornair Bichairs. He says the commandant is expecting him there. He is being spoilt by being asked everywhere; he will think that he is more important than he is and will become more and more troublesome. I made him postpone his trip four or five days, because I believe that the king of the Chickasaws is to come here with Tourneboul who went to that nation with a passport from the commandant of Mobile. Neither he nor the king has come back from the Chickasaws, and Franchimastabe is leaving for Mobile today, the fourth of this month. I have just harangued all the chiefs and warriors of the Small Part. I am sending you a copy of what I said to them, hoping that you will approve what I have done. They told me that they begged you not to believe that any of the other chiefs were in favor of this trip since on the contrary they were opposed to it; but that the red men are not like the white men, for they are not disciplined like them.

These chiefs seemed all to be having our interests at heart, according to their speeches, especially the chief of the Conchak, called Mingopouscouche. They received me gladly and told me that I should witness their actions, and that I should thereby be able to inform you as to who were the good Indians and who the bad. Upon arriving at the nation I went to Yasou, Franchimastabe's village, where Tornair Bichairs was staying. After making my first speech there I went to the Small Part where I am going to reside with Favre, who is employed by the King and who will serve me as interpreter. He is the best one of the province, with a great influence over the minds of the Indians, and he knows how to lead them firmly whenever necessary. When he found out that I was coming as commissioner to this nation, he had a comfortable hut built for me. I shall live there if you will allow me because I find that life there will be simpler. Since it is only four leagues away from Franchimastabe's village, I shall therefore be able to know what is going on in both parts with equal facility.

In Franchimastabe's village there are nothing but drunkards who expose one all the time to the risk of being insulted and molested. I believe that it makes no difference in which part I live since the good of the service does not suffer; besides, Tornair Bichairs, who is trustworthy, will inform me of what is going on in his village, which I can easily get to in two hours. Furthermore, I have to make frequent tours in the various villages of this nation to know what is happening. When I shall have regained a little strength I shall go to the Six Villages to continue my harangues; although not one of those Indians has gone to Cumberland, it is wise to forestall them for fear that they will fall into error. The Indians like presents, and those received by the others might well tempt them.

If you could possibly forbid the introduction of liquor into this nation, you would be doing a great good, because it is coming from everywhere and is making the Indians nasty and insolent. Those who are obliged to live among them suffer from this fact. I called together all the traders of this nation and pointed out their line of duty to them. I obliged them to tell me all that they might learn and to warn me whenever some vagabond would wander in, and to bring him to me if the case necessitated it. I also warned them that, if they had any arguments, they were to complain to me and that I should deal out justice to them. They all seemed sat isfied. There is a considerable mortality of horses in the nation. The traders have lost theirs and there is not one left to carry their furs to Mobile. The Indians are in the same fix, and besides they are going to die of hunger because the drought has caused their corn crop to fail.

God have you in His Holy keeping.

At The Choctaws, September 5,1792.

Jn. Delavillebeijvre (Rubric) To the Babon De Carondelet.

p.82

Delavillebeuvre To Gayoso De Lemos

      September 10,1792

The chief named Soutonche Houmastabe, who behaved in a very commendable manner when the commissioners came to the Choctaw nation, is sending his nephew and two of his relatives to ask you for two barrels of tafia to give to the warriors who are going to build a hut for him, and he begs you to give some to these relatives who are coming to see you. As we are at a time when we must humor those chiefs, especially strong-minded people like him, I hope that you will be kind enough to give them the present. lie had also asked for a pair of pants and a shirt for each of them. I told him that you did not have any for the time being because the boats had not arrived.

The king of the Chickasaws has just come from the Talapoosa nation with a message from the latter for the Choctaw nation, as well as some beads and tobacco, to persuade them to join together in defending their land, their women, and their children against the Americans. They also ask the Spaniards for powder in order to have some with them and to use it in case of need. I feel that this is a delicate situation, but what can be done about it? Some hundred-odd Choctaws went to Cumberland for presents. Each of the sixteen captains received eight Limbourg and white blankets, and each warrior four, which pleased them all immensely. They are praising the Americans to the skies, saying that they did not speak harshly to them and did not ask to buy land of them as they had been told, so that consequently they would establish communications with them.

The Chickasaws, who are even more won over, than the Choctaws went there, 500 strong, led by Payemingo and Ogoulayacabe, and returned with the utmost satisfaction. The Americans proposed to the latter to start trading with them on a bayou called Bear Creek which runs into the Cherokee River, but they prudently replied that this was not possible at present and that the Talapoosas would destroy them and their storehouse, so that it was better to wait a little. This is, therefore, a matter that is almost settled between them, and I fear that the future will bear me out. I talk to them every day about it, but the journey has harmed us considerably, and I think that we can get out of it only by counteracting their conduct somewhat.

I have made harangues in the Large Part and in the Small Part which have had a very good effect, and I had intended to go to the part of the Six Villages, but I have fallen ill again, because my stomach is extremely upset by the bad food. I shall go there, however, as soon as I shall be able. I shall send you a report of my activities since my arrival at Choctaw, but it will be through Batist, a local trader whom Monsieur le Baron is sending you for Nogales, and a copy of the speeches I have made to the Choctaws to have them mend their ways. As there was a safe man leaving for New Orleans, I informed the governor of what is going on and sent him a copy of the speeches I have made.

As the king of the Chickasaws is waiting for the return of Franchimastabe, who left for Mobile seven days ago, before speaking to the nation, I shall inform you of what has happened and of the manner in which the Choctaws have received these messages. I believe they will have a good effect in the present circumstances especially as it is coming from the Talapoosas. I read to the Chickasaw king the letter which you had given me for him. It flattered him a great deal, and he asked me to tell you that he is carrying you in his heart, that he hopes to see you some day and renew his friendship, and that he is quite grateful for the sugar and coffee that you sent him. He has quarrelled with Payemingo and Ogoulayacabe who had proposed that he go to America with them. He did not even reply to them; on the contrary, he left immediately for the Talapoosa nation where he arrived fifteen days ago. After resting there he came to the Choctaws with Mr. Turnbull who has gone to the Chickasaws.

The commandant of Mobile has called eight small and large medal chiefs to speak to them at Fort Tombecbe. I do not know the reason for this, since he wrote to Favre and not to me. They must be there the 12th current, and return immediately afterwards. The king of the Chickasaws is asking you for a lock, a pair of hinges, and a few pounds of nails for a hut he is having built.

God have you in His holy keeping.

Boukfotjca, September 10, 1792.

At the house of Monsieur Favre where I am staying

Jn. DELAviLLEnEtrvRE (Rubric) M. Don Manuel Gallozo De Lemos

p.266

Gayoso De Lemo8 To Carondelet

April 12, 179U 1M No. 454. Answered

Yesterday Turner Brashears, confidant of Franchimastabe, arrived at this place accompanied by two Choctaw Indians on the way to that capital. He brought me a letter from the chief referred to, which I enclose under No. 1 for Your Lordship's information. Its content is confined to expressions of friendship and to requests for some small present. For the present I am giving to the said Brashears a piece of Limbourg which has been here for some time destined for Franchimastabe. If you find it convenient to give him a little salt, coffee, and sugar for the abovementioned chief he will take charge of it.

Brashears delivered to me a copy of the message which the Creek Indians, White Lieutenant of Oakfuskees and Mad Dog, sent to the Choctaw nation directed to Toscapotapo, principal chief of the SmaH Part, and Abecochee, which is the same as Franchimastabe as he is so called by some of the Creeks. It contains nothing more than what Your Lordship already knows, so you may tell Brashears, the bearer of this letter, whatever pleases you.

I do not doubt that this commission proceeds from the intrigues of Seagrove, as Your Lordship has already been pleased to hint to me.

Brashears brings a petition on the part of Franchimastabe begging Your Lordship to be pleased to transfer the enclosed commission of Payehuma., chief of the small medal, to Paquechenabe, his son, of the same village Octafalaya, as the father is very old and desires that his son shall occupy his place, since he is the confidential warrior of Franchimastabe. I believe there is no objection to granting this favor, and it would be very agreeable to the one who solicits it.

God keep Your Lordship many years.

Natchez, April 12, 179U.

p. 307-8

Gayoso De Lemos To Delavillebeuvre

June 23, 1794

The traders of the Choctaw nation and Franchimastabe" write to me to complain that the first named are suffering considerable detriment to their interests because of the trade which is carried on at the post of Nogales and here with the Indians of their nation. Although I do not believe what they say in regard to this is wellfounded, nevertheless I have again given the strictest orders to the commandant of the post of Nogales not to permit, for any reason or pretext, trading there with any Indian, unless it be to buy fresh deer or bear meat. The latter cannot do them any damage, for it is not easy for the Indians to carry it to their nation. I have circulated the same order in this district.

To the traders mentioned I am replying that I have taken these measures; and I tell them that, although I do not doubt that such trade is being carried on, the damage from which they are suffering depends principally on nothing else except the Indians who go wandering around in great numbers in this district without any other means of living than by begging and sometimes stealing. They themselves go to the traders and beg them to trust them, promising to go hunting, but instead of doing so they remain in this district in the way that I say and, when they return to their houses, they excuse themselves by saying that they were cheated and that all their peltries were bought from them. This is the principal cause in my opinion, and for that reason I advise them that what they ought to do is to send some important persons to gather up these vagabonds and take them to their nation.

To Franchimastabe I make the same response, and I am making them all feel that it is painful to me, since you are in that nation, that they do not address their complaint to you, for it is through you that I ought to receive it as you are the only person there to protect them and administer justice to them. So that you may be informed of the contents of the said letters, and in order to make them see that it is through you that they must receive the accompanying reply, I am sending them open, so that after sealing them you may send them to their destinations.

Now is a good time for you to write to Franchimastabe and tell the other headmen of that nation that this evil springs from the Indians who go wandering everywhere, expecially in this district, and that in order to put a stop to it it is indispensable and necessary to send some influential Indians to gather up and take to their nations those who are going about dispersed and without occupation. You should take advantage of all the means that you may judge opportune to induce them to do this as it is very important. If not, I shall be obliged to take violent measures. God keep you many years,

Natchez, June 28,1794..

Manuel Gayoso De Lemos

Senor Don Juan Villebeuvre It is a copy; Gayoso (Rubric)

p. 309

Franchimastabe To Gayoso De Lemos

[June, 1794]

Franchmastabia Grate King of the Choctaw Nation

Old Friend and Brother this is the Secon time that I Beg of his Excelencey to Stop the trade of the Walnut Hills and Reapaleea of the Big Black and Basset of the Boyopier. a Red Man of Coles Creek and Battest at Natches your tike I Beleav in and I don't Think you ever has bin informe of the Smuging trade that Is Carred on in the Destrict of Natches thare for I Beg of your Excelencey to Put a Stop to trade in that Cuntry Trade of Our Nation Rimed by the People of that Plase and Makes our White Peopple that Supploys us with Goods Pore thare four I Beg of My Good Old Friend to Put a Stop To it as tha My People ma Bring thare Skins home in Stead of Hunting for Dier us tha are InCorrage to Kill Barr which is a Grate hirt to us and Stonohomer will take this to you and tell you the truth and Bring me an Swar Back as I can Bein Good hart again I wold com myself But the weather is heavy hot So I Send my Neffew with this

Franchamastabia

Manuel Gayoso Delemous

p. 311

Gayoso De Lemos To Franchimastabe

June 27, 1794

No. 3.

My Dear Friend And Brother, Franchemastaby In a Letter I received from some of your white Traders I found your recommendation to their request and in consequence thereof I have given the most positive orders all over this Government to prevent any Trade being carried on with your red People, for I know very well, that such a Commerce will not only be hurtfull to Mr. Panthon but likewise to all the Traders living in your Nation.

Though I have done the needfull in consideration of you and your white People, yet I am sorry that when you thought of mee, you did not remember my talks by speaking to Mr. Delavillebeuvre on the Subject, you and the white people would have spared yourselves a great deal of trouble and have pleased me more, by giving mc that proof of your Friendship.—however I was glad to see Stonahuma to whom I gave a Small Medal, that I had kept for him, he will tell you several things that I told him about a great many of your People, that are idleing here with great hurt to your nation Mr. Delavillebeuvre will likewise talk to you on the same subject.

In the same Letter there was some writing from my old Friend Payumataha, tell him that I paid attention to it, and that I have done everything that was necessary.

I wish you all well and assure you, that I shall always do every thing in my power for the good of your nation. I hope you will never forget my talks, and put your People in mind of them, and I shall never forget you.

I remain with Esteem Your Sincere friend

Manuel Gayoso De Lemos

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Greg O'Brien, Choctaws in a revolutionary age, 1750-1830. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, c2002.

Contents:

1. Choctaws and Power--
2. The Multiethnic Confederacy-- 3. Warriors, Warfare, and Male Power-- 4. Power Derived from the Outside World-- 5. Trading for Power-- 6. Otherworldly Power and Power in Transition-- Notes-- Selected Bibliography-- Index.

Summary

This innovative study looks closely and evocatively at the lives of the Choctaws during a period of revolutionary change, 1750-1830. The story of the Choctaws is told through the lives of two remarkable leaders - Taboca and Franchimastabe. Both began as noted warriors in the eighteenth century but then followed very different paths of leadership. Taboca was a traditional Choctaw leader, a "prophet-chief" whose authority was deeply rooted in the spiritual realm. The foundation of Franchimastabe's power was more externally driven, resting on trade with Europeans and American colonists and the acquisition of manufactured goods. Franchimastabe responded to shifting circumstances outside the Choctaw nation by pushing the source of authority in novel directions, straddling spiritual and economic power in a way unfathomable to Taboca.The parallel careers of these leaders signal a watershed moment in Choctaw history - the receding of a traditional mystical-oriented world and the dawning of a new market-oriented one. At once engaging and informative, "Choctaws in a Revolutionary Age, 1750-1830" highlights the efforts of a nation to preserve its integrity and reform its strength in an increasingly complicated, multicultural world. Greg O'Brien is an assistant professor of history at the University of Southern Mississippi.

(source: Nielsen Book Data)

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Avatar: Drawing in Ink By Alfred Jones, https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10214592267112237&set=pob.5... and all rights reserved by Rachelle Roby, commissioner of the work.

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See Hancock Historical Society online publication of R. Guerin's book citations from Royal Spain in the Colonies, p. 56, mentioning Pisitiokonay married to the Royal Corondolet Frenchimastvbe, which was James King, and their partnership was during the 1793 Treaty of Natchez and ended with Pushmataha's promotion from 6 Towns Chief to Chief of the MS Band of Choctaw. There were no children from the Chamnay and Frenchimastvbe' Royal Corondolet bonded marriage.