California Indian - Portraits from the North Coast 1890-1925 (15 pages)

PAGE 26 THECALIFORNIANS JAN./FEB.1992 often I suffered from hunger and thirst! How often I lost my road during whole days and ran the risk to die! Your California looks now like Paris, bur then it was often difficult to find a guide, and Indians and above all bears were to be feared. Dati as spy and visionary. The late Abraham Nasatir, in his French Activities in California before Statehood, wrote that “M. Duflot de Mofras was sent in an official capacity to literally spy out the Pacific Coast in the interest of France. His work is the greatest evidence of official French interest in California.” And indeed, Eugéne Duflot can be called an “agent of his government,” and even something of a spy, as is often the case with individuals in the diplomatic services. The French government needed accurate, up-to-date information on which to base its policy vis a vis America. Duflot was commissioned to gather such intelligence and did soina way that merited his subsequent recognition. But while this explains his travels through California, it does not mean that there was any official French purpose to seize the whole of California. Duflot himself apparently believed that France would benefit from at least a minor acquisition in California, as is evident in his “Memoir on the Russian establishment of the Port of Bodega and means of capturing that point, setting up a French establishment, and linking it with the Sandwich group, the Islands of Tahiti and the Marquesas Islands,” which document he presented to the ministries of Foreign Affairs and Navy. Duflot wrote this memoir and sent it to Marshall Soult on July 22, 1842, very soon after his return and two years before the publication of his two-volume Exploration de l’Orégon, des Californies et de la Mer vermeille, exécutée pendant les années 1840, 1841 et 1842. In the earlier piece, he strove to convince the French government that acquisition of the Russian properties at La Bodega was not merely possible but actually easy and safe. His proposal went unanswered. On July 24, 1843, Duflot sent the official result of his research, in 10 manuscript volumes, to Francois Guizot, minister of Foreign Affairs, whom Duflot had served as attaché since June of 1842. Five months later, Guizot wrote Duflor a letter in which he granted permission for him to publish his book, provided he withhold from the narrative “the offer made [to Duflot] by the governor of the Russian establishments of La Bodega to buy them on behalf of France, and the considerations about the ease we would still have to manage such an acquisition, the colonization plans to follow, the reasons to advocate for the occupation of La Bodega, the ways to link the possession to the Sandwich Islands and to our establishments in Tahiti and the Marquesas Islands.” Despite all of Duflot’s work and rosy analysis, the French government was anxious to avoid offending either England or Mexico, so his proposal was rebuffed. Well aware that time was passing and that the potential success of his plan was becoming more and more uncertain, Duflot persisted. He pressed his case and was allowed to address his memoir concerning the Russian property to the ministry of the Navy, which he did on August 9, 1843. He wrote again asking for a reply, on December 11, 1843 and on January 8, 1844, but in vain. Not until April of 1844 did the minister of the Navy give Duflot his opinion. The development of the French possessions in the Pacific Ocean since 1843 had stressed the geostrategic interest of La Bodega, which land was able to provide wood and livestock to supply those Pacific islands destitute of these products, as Duflot had clearly envisioned years in advance of the politicians. But the French authorities never acted to further any plan for acquiring that area. Captain Lecointe was ordered to sail his ship Héroine to Monterey and La Bodega to gather intelligence about the fate of the latter. Though he did stay in Monterey Bay from July 2 to July 10, presumably carrying out part of his mission, he never proceeded to La Bodega because he thought that to do so might cause him to run short on provisions. Besides, he thought he’d already learned enough about La Bodega from Louis Gasquet, the newly arrived French consular agent, as well as from conversations with other Monterey residents. After Lecointe, the rapid pace of political changes in California precluded further such missions by French captains. He stayed in Monterey bay from July 2 to July 10, 1845, but judged that his provisions were too scarce to go further north, and that he already knew enough. A visionary, Eugene Duflot de Mofras dreamed of founding another “NouvelleFrance” around the French-Canadian presence in Oregon and Northern California. His plans found support in some official circles, but Francois Guizot, minister of Foreign Affairs, was content with the conquest of the Islands —already a source of troubles with the French-Tahitian war — and did not want to overextend operations so far from France. No French warship anchored in California ports between 1840 and 1845. In the meantime, the political situation was rapidly changed as the Americans moved ever closer to obtaining Oregon from the English and to waging war with Mexico for the highly-coveted prize, California. From author to reader: The two volumes of the Exploration du territoire de . ’Orégon, des Californies et de la mer Vermeille, exécutée pendant les années 1840, 1841 et 1842 have been translated by Marguerite E. Wilbur under the title Duflot de Mofras’s Travels on the Pacific Coast (Santa Ana, Calif: The Fine Arts Press, 1937, 2 vol.). The Bancroft Library shelters seven volumes of miscellaneous articles and memoirs written by Eugéne Duflot de Mofras, including his “Memoir on La Bodega.” The late Abraham P. Nasatir, in his French activities in Califomia: An Archival Calendar-Guide (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1945), devotes four pages of synthesis to the mission of Duflot de Mofras. But since 1945, nothing new has been written about this fascinating personage and his mission — until now. The new sources I used for this article (a summary of a chapter from my doctoral dissertation) all come from the archives of the ministry of Foreign Affairs, among which are Duflot’s personal file and official correspondence — only recently opened to scholars and never before published. I also used material gleaned from a thorough research of the archives at Toulouse and Paris. — AF In January of 1991, Annick Foucrier defended her thesis on “France, the French and California before the Gold Rush (1786-1848),” and is preparing to publish a book on the French in California during this period. She teaches American civilization at the University of Paris-Nord, and is working on another article based on new research for The Californians. Chronology of the Sojourns of French warships in California (1786-1846) September 14-24, 1786: l’Astrolabe and la Boussole, Count Jean-Francois de Lapérouse October 18-November 14, 1837: la Vénus, Captain Abel Aubert DupetitThouars August 22-September 5, 1839: I'Artémise, Captain Cyrille Pierre Theodore Laplace June 12-July 2, 1840: la Danaide, Captain Joseph de Rosamel July 2-10, 1845: ?Héromne, Captain Victor Lecointe September 23-October 7, 1846: la Brillante, Captain Eugéne du Bouzet te ge: at

PAGE 26 THECALIFORNIANS JAN./FEB.1992 often I suffered from hunger and thirst! How often I lost my road during whole days and ran the risk to die! Your California looks now like Paris, bur then it was often difficult to find a guide, and Indians and above all bears were to be feared. Dati as spy and visionary. The late Abraham Nasatir, in his French Activities in California before Statehood, wrote that “M. Duflot de Mofras was sent in an official capacity to literally spy out the Pacific Coast in the interest of France. His work is the greatest evidence of official French interest in California.” And indeed, Eugéne Duflot can be called an “agent of his government,” and even something of a spy, as is often the case with individuals in the diplomatic services. The French government needed accurate, up-to-date information on which to base its policy vis a vis America. Duflot was commissioned to gather such intelligence and did soina way that merited his subsequent recognition. But while this explains his travels through California, it does not mean that there was any official French purpose to seize the whole of California. Duflot himself apparently believed that France would benefit from at least a minor acquisition in California, as is evident in his “Memoir on the Russian establishment of the Port of Bodega and means of capturing that point, setting up a French establishment, and linking it with the Sandwich group, the Islands of Tahiti and the Marquesas Islands,” which document he presented to the ministries of Foreign Affairs and Navy. Duflot wrote this memoir and sent it to Marshall Soult on July 22, 1842, very soon after his return and two years before the publication of his two-volume Exploration de l’Orégon, des Californies et de la Mer vermeille, exécutée pendant les années 1840, 1841 et 1842. In the earlier piece, he strove to convince the French government that acquisition of the Russian properties at La Bodega was not merely possible but actually easy and safe. His proposal went unanswered. On July 24, 1843, Duflot sent the official result of his research, in 10 manuscript volumes, to Francois Guizot, minister of Foreign Affairs, whom Duflot had served as attaché since June of 1842. Five months later, Guizot wrote Duflor a letter in which he granted permission for him to publish his book, provided he withhold from the narrative “the offer made [to Duflot] by the governor of the Russian establishments of La Bodega to buy them on behalf of France, and the considerations about the ease we would still have to manage such an acquisition, the colonization plans to follow, the reasons to advocate for the occupation of La Bodega, the ways to link the possession to the Sandwich Islands and to our establishments in Tahiti and the Marquesas Islands.” Despite all of Duflot’s work and rosy analysis, the French government was anxious to avoid offending either England or Mexico, so his proposal was rebuffed. Well aware that time was passing and that the potential success of his plan was becoming more and more uncertain, Duflot persisted. He pressed his case and was allowed to address his memoir concerning the Russian property to the ministry of the Navy, which he did on August 9, 1843. He wrote again asking for a reply, on December 11, 1843 and on January 8, 1844, but in vain. Not until April of 1844 did the minister of the Navy give Duflot his opinion. The development of the French possessions in the Pacific Ocean since 1843 had stressed the geostrategic interest of La Bodega, which land was able to provide wood and livestock to supply those Pacific islands destitute of these products, as Duflot had clearly envisioned years in advance of the politicians. But the French authorities never acted to further any plan for acquiring that area. Captain Lecointe was ordered to sail his ship Héroine to Monterey and La Bodega to gather intelligence about the fate of the latter. Though he did stay in

Monterey Bay from July 2 to July 10, presumably carrying out part of his mission, he never proceeded to La Bodega because he thought that to do so might cause him to run short on provisions. Besides, he thought he’d already learned enough about La Bodega from Louis Gasquet, the newly arrived French consular agent, as well as from conversations with other Monterey residents. After Lecointe, the rapid pace of political changes in California precluded further such missions by French captains. He stayed in Monterey bay from July 2 to July 10, 1845, but judged that his provisions were too scarce to go further north, and that he already knew enough. A visionary, Eugene Duflot de Mofras dreamed of founding another “NouvelleFrance” around the French-Canadian presence in Oregon and Northern California. His plans found support in some official circles, but Francois Guizot, minister of Foreign Affairs, was content with the conquest of the Islands —already a source of troubles with the French-Tahitian war — and did not want to overextend operations so far from France. No French warship anchored in California ports between 1840 and 1845. In the meantime, the political situation was rapidly changed as the Americans moved ever closer to obtaining Oregon from the English and to waging war with Mexico for the highly-coveted prize, California. From author to reader: The two volumes of the Exploration du territoire de . ’Orégon, des Californies et de la mer Vermeille, exécutée pendant les années 1840, 1841 et 1842 have been translated by Marguerite E. Wilbur under the title Duflot de Mofras’s Travels on the Pacific Coast (Santa Ana, Calif: The Fine Arts Press, 1937, 2 vol.). The Bancroft Library shelters seven volumes of miscellaneous articles and memoirs written by Eugéne Duflot de Mofras, including his “Memoir on La Bodega.” The late Abraham P. Nasatir, in his French activities in Califomia: An Archival Calendar-Guide (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1945), devotes four pages of synthesis to the mission of Duflot de Mofras. But since 1945, nothing new has been written about this fascinating personage and his mission — until now. The new sources I used for this article (a summary of a chapter from my doctoral dissertation) all come from the archives of the ministry of Foreign Affairs, among which are Duflot’s personal file and official correspondence — only recently opened to scholars and never before published. I also used material gleaned from a thorough research of the archives at Toulouse and Paris. — AF In January of 1991, Annick Foucrier defended her thesis on “France, the French and California before the Gold Rush (1786-1848),” and is preparing to publish a book on the French in California during this period. She teaches American civilization at the University of Paris-Nord, and is working on another article based on new research for The Californians. Chronology of the Sojourns of French warships in California (1786-1846) September 14-24, 1786: l’Astrolabe and la Boussole, Count Jean-Francois de Lapérouse October 18-November 14, 1837: la Vénus, Captain Abel Aubert DupetitThouars August 22-September 5, 1839: I'Artémise, Captain Cyrille Pierre Theodore Laplace June 12-July 2, 1840: la Danaide, Captain Joseph de Rosamel July 2-10, 1845: ?Héromne, Captain Victor Lecointe September 23-October 7, 1846: la Brillante, Captain Eugéne du Bouzet te ge: at