THE CONSPIRACY OF BARE ERA. 93 



ten soldiers had conspired against M. Riu, and plotted schemes of which he 

 knew nothing, not having been taken into their confidence. As the hour of set- 

 ting out was late in the afternoon the consirators determined to camp for the 

 night below the mouth of the Meramec. On the route Barrera said to his 

 companions: " My friends, we must not separate. If you abandon me I will 

 dash out my brains or drown myself." The soldiers answered that they would 

 not desert him. The storekeeper continued : " We must goto Pensacola. If 

 on the voyage to the city a French detachment sent in pursuit should overtake 

 us and attempt our arrest, we must defend ourselves, and perish rather than 

 be taken ; and further, that he would kill or drown himself sooner than sur- 

 render; that M. Riu wished to ruin them; and it was better to perish as one man 

 or to save themselves altogether." Upon this the soldiers promised to stand by 

 him and by each other to the last extremity. Boyer further learned from their 

 conversation that they had at first intended going up the Beautiful River, but not 

 being acquainted with those parts had changed their destination for Pensacola. 



The conspirators having arrived at St. Genevieve, the storekeeper wished to 

 unload half the flour, but his companions objected. Barrera, the Sergeant'^and 

 two soldiers went ashore to visit Mr. Valle. Presently those who remained in 

 the boat, whether they really intended what they said, or merely wished to get 

 rid of him and afford him aii opportunity to take himself off, ordered Boyer to go 

 up to the top of the hill and keep a lookout for pursuers in case there were any, 

 which he did. Finding himself at some distance from the landing and out of 



sight of his companions, and having been there for some time, Boyer began to 

 turn in his mind the enterprise in which Barrera and the soldiers had embarked, 

 and that they would be lost and probably pay the forfeit of their lives for their re- 

 volt, and concluded he had better get himself out of their company, lest he should 

 share their fate. So, full of these disquieting thoughts, he furtively withdrew further 

 from the river, plunged into the forest, made his way back to St. Louis, reported 

 himself to M. Riu, gave an account of what had occurred while he was on the 

 vessel and how he had escaped, not omitting to mention that he had lost all his 

 little effects which were in a sack in the locker in the bow of the boat. 



What finally became of Barrera and his fellow conspirators still remains 

 among the secrets of the past; but their revolt and flight must have been known 

 in New Orleans very soon after their arrival, as M. Riu had a boat armed, and 

 dispatched immediately to the governor of the province with a full report of 

 what had occurred. 



To complete this hitherto unwritten, and somewhat romantic chapter of lo- 

 cal history, we proceed to tell what happened to M. Riu during the remainder of 

 his stay in Missouri. But that the narrative may be better understood, it will be 

 necessary to go back a few years. In 1763, M. d'Abbadie, then commandant of 

 the province of Louisiana, granted Maxent, Laclede & Co. the exclusive trade 

 of the Upper Mississippi and Missouri rivers. This monopoly caused a great 

 outcry among the New Orleans merchants; and on their remonstrance the 

 French minister annul'ed the grant in 1765. Maxent, who had become a warm 



