II. ARKANSAS POST AND THE REVOLUTIONARY WAR

D. Captain Colbert Raids Arkansas Post

4. The April 17, 1783, Raid

h) Death Interrupts the Colbert-Miró Correspondence

Colbert and his partisans reached Chickasaw Bluffs without again running afoul of Vallière’s convoy. Some weeks after he returned to his home in the Chickasaw Nation, the correspondence from Acting-Governor Miró was handed to him.

This mail had passed through Arkansas Post, and was accompanied by a letter written by Commandant Dubreuil and addressed “to James Colbert, subject of His British Majesty, who resides in the Chicachas Nation.” Dubreuil, besides calling attention to the Miró correspondence, noted that in accordance with Article X of the Preliminary Articles of Peace, he was “authorized to reclaim the prisoners” captured in the April 17 attack, along with the slaves and private property carried off by the raiders He also called Colbert’s attention to the predicament of the “veterinary of the First Regiment whom you lured from duty in Mobile having him now more than three years together with a sergeant and a soldier; the sergeant you sent to Pensacola, and the other to the Illinois Indians.”

The veterinary, however, had been retained a “slave to the Indians.”

Article X, Dubreuil continued, had nullified the obligation under which Colbert had placed Lieutenant de Villars.[112]

Colbert replied on August 3, 1783. He reminded Miró that 3 months and 12 days had passed before news had reached him that peace had been restored between their countries. He insisted that he had released his prisoners as soon as advised of the truce, and had called on the Chickasaws to free any they held. The Chickasaws had answered

that they had sent several the preceding summer by the Kaduké [Cadoucas] and Loups on condition that Cruzat would deliver to them some of their people held by the Kickapoos. Loving their own people as much as Miró loved his fellow-Spaniards, they were surprised and dejected that Cruzat did not live up to his agreement.

Colbert was delighted to learn that Captain Blommart and his companions had been released from the New Orleans calabozo and had been sent to Jamaica. He informed Miró that as he was about to start for St. Augustine “to render account to his superior,” additional negotiations would be held in abeyance pending his return.[113]

Writing Captain Dubreuil, Colbert advised: “I am persuaded by the articles of the peace that I am” not required to make restitution for the public and private property carried off in the raid on Arkansas Post. The prisoners, he added, had been released and sent to Mobile.[114]

Commandant Dubreuil, on August 26, forwarded Colbert’s reply to Acting-Governor Miró. He informed his superior, in a covering letter, that he had entrusted two of his soldiers (Pedro Classin and Antonio Lorginos) with the responsibility of carrying the communications to and from the Chickasaw Nation.[115]

Recently, a party of Chickasaws had arrived at Arkansas Post to make peace with the Spanish. They assured Dubreuil that, with the exception of the Colberts, “all are well contented with the new friendship which they have agreed upon, and they see clearly that all the promises of Colbert have been nothing more than falsehoods.” Colbert, they continued, had sought to convince them that “the war which has been carried on with the Americans is nothing more than a sham, and that the Treaty of Peace which closed it between Spain and Great Britain will last only a short time on the part of the English.”

Dubreuil gave the Chickasaws gifts (a blanket and a shirt for each of the chiefs and a breechclout and knife for each warrior). He hoped these would “destroy the evil impressions which Colbert wishes to give about our Government.”[116]

Colbert did not live to resume negotiations with the Spanish officials. On his way back to the Chickasaw Nation from St. Augustine, 3 days after he left McGillivray’s house, “his horse threw him down and killed him before his servant could assist him.”[117]