Pierre Antoine and Paul Mallet facts for kids

Pierre Antoine and Paul Mallet were brothers from French Canada. They were known as voyageurs, which means they were skilled travelers and traders. They were the first Europeans known to have crossed the vast Great Plains from east to west. Their first big trip was in 1739, when they traveled from Kaskaskia, Illinois all the way to Santa Fe, New Mexico.

First Journey to Santa Fe

Pierre Antoine Mallet was born in 1700, and his brother Paul Mallet died in 1753. They were born in Montreal, Canada. Later, they moved to Detroit and then to Kaskaskia, Illinois.

In 1739, from Kaskaskia, they decided to try and reach Santa Fe, New Mexico. They took six friends and nine horses loaded with things to trade. They followed the Missouri River north into South Dakota. There, they met the Arikara people. At that time, many people thought the Missouri River went all the way to the Spanish lands in New Mexico.

The Arikara told them that New Mexico was actually to the southwest. So, the Mallets turned back. They went to the villages of the Pawnee people on the Loup River in Nebraska. From there, on May 29, 1739, they started their journey toward Santa Fe.

The Difficult Route

The Mallets' own story of their trip to Santa Fe was lost. So, we can only guess their exact path. They followed the Platte River and the South Platte River. They called it the River of the Padoucas, which probably meant the Apache people who lived there before.

They went upstream along the South Platte River, almost to the border between Colorado and Nebraska. Then, they turned south. While crossing a river, probably the Republican River, they lost seven horses and all the goods they were carrying. They finally reached the Arkansas River near the border of Kansas and Colorado and followed it upstream.

Meeting New People

On July 5, probably near a place called La Junta, Colorado today, they met a village of "Laitane" Indians, who were actually Comanche people. Among the Comanche, there was an Arikara person who had been enslaved. The Mallets hired him to guide them to Santa Fe.

He led them, likely following a path similar to the later Santa Fe Trail. They arrived at Picuris Pueblo, New Mexico. Here, they met Spanish people for the first time and were welcomed. They continued to Santa Fe. There, they suggested that the French and Spanish should start trading with each other.

They waited nine months in Santa Fe for an answer from the government in Mexico City. The answer was no; they were told they had to leave. However, officials in New Mexico gave them letters that encouraged future trade.

The Return Journey

On May 1, 1740, the Mallets and their group left Santa Fe to go back east. One of their men married a Spanish woman and stayed in New Mexico. Three other men went back to Illinois using the same route they had taken to New Mexico.

The Mallets and two others took a different path. They followed the Canadian River east from New Mexico, through the Texas Panhandle, and into Oklahoma. Along the way, they met a Comanche village and traded knives and other items for horses. Later, probably in Oklahoma, they met some Padoucas (Apache) who were scared of them. This might have been because of bad experiences with slave traders.

Further downstream, when the Canadian River became wide enough for boats, the Mallets left their horses. They built canoes. On June 24, they reached where the Canadian and Arkansas Rivers meet. There, they found a group of French Canadians who were hunting. They traveled by boat down the river to Arkansas Post and then to New Orleans, Louisiana. They arrived in March 1741.

Second Expedition Attempt

Even though the Mallets' first trip didn't lead to successful trade, the French government wanted to try again. They sent a second, larger trading group to New Mexico. Andre Fabry de la Bruyere, a government official, was chosen to lead this trip. It left New Orleans in September 1741.

The Mallet brothers and several other voyageurs, along with one enslaved person, went with him. Fabry traveled by boat up the Mississippi and Arkansas Rivers to the Canadian River. Then, they moved very slowly up the Canadian River to where the Little River joins it, near what is now Holdenville, Oklahoma. There, they met a group of 35 Osage warriors looking for their enemies, the Mento (Wichita).

The river was too shallow for boats. Fabry tried to buy horses from the Osage and other tribes to continue, but he couldn't. In September 1742, he gave up on the trip. The Mallets, who were unhappy with Fabry's leadership, had already left on foot for Santa Fe. They also didn't succeed and turned back to Arkansas Post. They lived there during the 1740s. Pierre continued to trade and explore along the Canadian River.

Third Expedition

In 1750, the governor of Louisiana sent Pierre Mallet and three helpers to Santa Fe again. Paul Mallet, who had married in 1744 and settled at Arkansas Post, did not go on this trip. Pierre Mallet carried letters from New Orleans merchants offering to trade goods worth a lot of money.

Mallet and his friends traveled by boat up the Red River. They bought horses from the Caddo people. Then, they continued overland to the Canadian River and from there to Santa Fe.

However, things had changed since his last trips. The Comanche people had become unfriendly. They robbed Mallet of his trade goods. When Mallet arrived in New Mexico, the Spanish accused the French of selling guns to the Comanche. Mallet was arrested and put in jail. He was later sent to Mexico City. He may have been sent to prison in Cuba or Spain. After this, he is no longer found in historical records. His brother Paul died in 1753.

Their Impact

Neither the French nor the Spanish governments made much use of the detailed maps and information the Mallet brothers gathered during their journeys. It wasn't until the 1800s that people fully understood the geography of western Oklahoma and the Texas Panhandle. The Canadian River in Oklahoma got its name because of the explorations made there by the Mallets and other French-Canadians.