Early East Texas History
Written by:
H. Gordon Pettey, PH.D

A Strange Tale - The Seeds Were Sown for the Founding of New Orleans at Matagorda Bay and East Texas

In 1665 when LaSalle was murdered by his own men while they traveled through East Texas, the remains of this tiny colony on the shore of Matagorda Bay quickly fell apart. He had bravely named it Fort St. Louis. It was to be directly connected by Indian trade to the present St. Louis, Missouri. Some who had strength left in their bodies traveled northeast and joined the Tejas-Hasinai-Caddo in East Texas. A few were led all the way to Montreal Canada by some of these Caddo guides. They were lucky!

Back at Fort St. Louis on the Gulf Coast, the remainder were sick and many lay dead or dying from starvation and disease. Those that were left were either killed or taken prisoner by the Karankawa Indians. These captives included all of the French children, and here lies the story...

These children were kept and raised by the Karankawa's. They learned the geography of this area of Texas, its food sources and the Indian language. This made them very valuable. Eventually learning of their plight, the Spanish officials ransomed them and took them to Mexico City where they were made "pages" of the Spanish. Here they learned the politics, more firsthand geography and another language, Spanish.

It was illegal in Spain to keep chattels, so when the king heard of this they were sent back to Eurpoe where they quickly went to France. The French king, hearing of them, realized their value to his country. The Mississippi River and its territory had not as yet been secured. Amazingly, after all they had been through, some of these young men were sent back to North America as explorers to secure the Mississippi. It was this group from Texas that founded New Orleans.

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