Lot 342
An Important Collection of Autograph Letters Signed from Dr. John Sibley to Governor William C.C. Claiborne Concerning the Newly Acquired Louisiana Purchase Territory, full text available, the letters as follows: • letter, 3 pages, to His Excellency Governor Claiborne, dated from Natchitoches 8th Jany. 1805, talking about the Red River District, political opinions of the New York Herald and his personal fears that the Spanish will take his land holdings • letter, 4 pages, to His Excellency Governor Claiborne, dated from Natchitoches 8th March. 1805, relating at length to the public whipping of escaped slaves, a large meeting and War Dance involving numerous tribes in the Caddo Village, and other issues • letter, 1 page, being an affidavit, dated from Natchitoches Sept 16th 1805, relating the fact that a Mary Louis Brevell lived in the "Antient Caddo Village" • letter, 1 page, to His Excellency Governor Claiborne, dating from Natchitoches October 14, 1805, relating troop movements and "Spanish depredations on the Antient French Establishments and Ozage Indians" • 3 affidavits, written in another hand, dated from Natchitoches in Sept. and Oct. 1805, relating to the early inhabitants of the Caddo villages, French forts, attacks from Spanish troops.
- Notes: Note: Dr. John Sibley was a physician from Massachusetts who moved to Natchitoches shortly after the Louisiana Purchase. In 1804 he was appointed by President Thomas Jefferson as an Indian Agent on the border country with a mandate to maintain friendly relations with the local Indians. A Congressional appropriation provided him with several thousand dollars for goods to present to the Indians in order to win over their loyalty from the Spanish. Sibley and William Dunbar were also sent west of Louisiana to gather information about the local geography, as well as the Indian tribes. The account of their travels was included in the work published on behalf of Thomas Jefferson, Message from the President of the United States, Communicating Discoveries Made in Exploring the Missouri, Red River, and Washita, by Captains Lewis and Clark, Doctor Sibley and Mr. Dunbar with A Statistical Account of the Countries Adjacent, 1806
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