Jean L'Archevêque

. La Belle is on the left, Le Joly is in the middle, and ''L'Aimable'' is grounded on the right. L'Archevêque was born to Claude and Marie (d'Armagnac) L'Archevêque on September 30, 1672 in Bayonne, France. The L'Archevêque family was Catholic while in Bayonne, but the family had been bourgeois Huguenots (French Protestant Calvinists) in Bordeaux prior to the conversion of Pierre L'Archevêque, Jean L'Archevêque's paternal grandfather. The family relocated to Bayonne in the 1650s. In 1684, aged twelve, L'Archevêque joined the expedition of René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle. La Salle returned to France and proposed establishing a French colony at the mouth of the Mississippi, between Spanish Florida and New Spain. The colony would provide a base for promoting Christianity among the native peoples as well as a convenient location for attacking the Spanish province of Nueva Vizcaya and gaining control of its lucrative silver mines. On July 24, 1684, the expedition left La Rochelle for the New World with 300 people aboard 4 ships. The members included 100 soldiers, 6 missionaries, 8 merchants, over a dozen women and children, and artisans and craftsmen. Fifty-eight days later, The Duhauts were then given trading privileges and allowed space for merchandise on La Salle's ships that would have ordinarily been reserved for supplies for the colony. In late November 1684, the three remaining ships continued their search for the Mississippi River delta. A combination of inaccurate maps, La Salle's previous miscalculation of the latitude of the mouth of the Mississippi River, and overcorrecting for the currents led the ships to be unable to find the Mississippi. Instead, they landed at Matagorda Bay in early 1685, west of the Mississippi. On February 20, the colonists finally reached shore, their first feel of land in the three months since leaving Santo Domingo. They set up a temporary camp near the location of the present-day Matagorda Island Lighthouse. While trying to navigate the shallow pass into the bay, one of the ships, ''L'Aimable'', was grounded on a sandbar. The following week, the ship Le Joly, which had been loaned to La Salle by the Louis XIV, returned to France, leaving the colonists with only one ship, La Belle. leaving approximately 180 behind. La Salle searched for a more permanent settlement site and found Garcitas Creek, which had fresh water and fish, with good soil and timber along its banks, and named it Rivière aux Boeufs for the nearby buffalo herds. Fort Saint Louis would be constructed on a bluff overlooking the creek, 1.5 leagues from its mouth. The men found a source of salt nearby and constructed a community oven. By the end of July, over half of the settlers had died, most from a combination of scant rations and overwork. With their permanent camp established, the colonists took several short trips within the next few months to further explore their surroundings. At the end of October La Salle decided to undertake a longer expedition from January until March 1686, La Salle and most of his men searched overland for the Mississippi River, traveling towards the Rio Grande, possibly as far west as modern-day Langtry. It is unknown whether L'Archevêque accompanied La Salle or remained behind. While La Salle was gone, La Belle was wrecked in a storm. The destruction of their last ship left the settlers stranded on the Texas coast, with no hope of gaining assistance from the French colonies in the Caribbean. By early January 1687, fewer than 45 people remained in the colony. La Salle believed that their only hope of survival lay in trekking overland to request assistance from New France, Fewer than 20 people remained at Fort Saint Louis. Two of the surviving members, including L'Archevêque, did return to La Salle's camp and remained for two months, but later joined the Caddo after missing a rendezvous with members of La Salle's expedition that were heading to French Illinois Country. The remaining six men made their way to Illinois Country as quickly as possible and met several of Henri de Tonti's men near the Arkansas River. During their journey through Illinois to Canada, the men did not tell anyone that La Salle was dead. They reached France in summer 1688 and informed King Louis of La Salle's death and the horrible conditions in the colony. Louis did not send aid. ==Rescue==

L'Archevêque quickly tired of his life with the Caddo. In 1689, he and his companion, Jacques Grollet, wrote a note asking for rescue. They gave the note to the Caddo, who passed it on to the Jumano Indians while trading. The Jumano were allied with the Spanish and brought a packet of documents to Spanish authorities in New Mexico. The documents included a parchment painting of the Joly, as well as a written message from L'Archeveque. The message read: "I do not know what sort of people you are. We are French[;] we are among the savages[;] we would like much to be Among the Christians such as we are[.] ... we are solely grieved to be among beasts like these who believe neither in God nor in anything. Gentlemen, if you are willing to take us away, you have only to send a message. ... We will deliver ourselves up to you." Alonso De León rescued L'Archeveque and Grollet. On interrogation, the men maintained that over 100 of the French settlers had died of smallpox, and the others had been killed by the Karankawa. According to the children, the Indians had attacked around Christmas in 1688, killing the remaining settlers. ==Spanish citizen==

L'Archevêque and Grollet were taken first to Mexico City. In the summer of 1689, they sailed with Captain Andrés de Pez as prisoners to Spain, and arrived in Madrid in January 1690. Five months later, they petitioned for a stipend of two Spanish reals per day, which was granted, then they were forgotten in prison for almost two years. L'Archevêque became a soldier then joined a group of colonists led by Diego de Vargas and arrived in Santa Fe on June 22, 1694. In 1697 he married a widow, Antonia Gutiérrez, who bore him two children, Miguel and Maria. In 1714 he became a member of a junta. By the time of L'Archevêque's death he had become known as Captain Juan de Archibeque. He was credited with honorable military service. His trading operations extended as far as Sonora with occasional business in Mexico City, and his notes of credit were accepted and endorsed by those connected to the government. He is the progenitor of the Archibeque family of New Mexico. ==In fiction==

The life of Jean L'Archevêque is recounted in Mike Blakely's novel Comanche Dawn. ==Notes==