Library, despite the cutbacks, was an excellent facility, as long as you knew your way around the hundreds of microfilm drawers, and the special manuscript collections that weren’t listed in the library catalog—and Nick did know his way around. It was still a great place to research French colonial archives, and no slouch either when it came to the vast assemblage of Spanish colonial records collectively known as the
Archivo General de Indias
, the lion’s share of which was housed in Seville, Spain. Of especial interest to Nick was one of the
Archivo
subdivisions holding a wealth of Louisiana materials: the
Papeles Procedentes de Cuba
. Louisiana as a Spanish colony fell within the administrative sphere of the viceroyalty of Cuba, and that’s where great quantities ofLouisiana records of the time were sent and stored, before most of the surviving records were ultimately transferred to Spain.
Unfortunately, the Hichborn lacked an important part of the
Papeles
: the
Legajos de Luisiana
, “bundles” of documents that were themselves a newly rediscovered portion of the famous
Fondos de las Floridas
, which contained material relating to East and West Spanish Florida. The
Legajos de Luisiana
included documentary details even more useful to researchers interested in the colonial history of the area that became central Louisiana.
The
Fondos
and the smaller
Legajos
were left in Havana after most other colonial records had been removed to Spain in the late 19th century as the former superpower gradually lost its New World foothold. In the 1990s the Historic New Orleans Collection created an academic sensation by gaining permission from Cuba and the U.S. government to microfilm the
Fondos
on-site at the National Archives of Cuba, where conservational conditions had always been wanting. THNOC pulled off another major coup more recently by returning to Havana, during a time of renewed diplomatic tension, and capturing on microfilm nearly 20,000 pages of the deteriorating
Legajos de Luisiana
.
Since the
Legajos
microfilm set, much less a digital version of it, had not been released for sale and was expected to be very expensive when it finally was completed, scholars from all over the world were swarming to the Collection’s beautiful complex of landmark buildings in the French Quarter for a crack at this trove of historical information. Nick had lately treated his friend from THNOC, vivacious Veronique, to quite a few expensive, cholesterol-laden dinners, during which he subtly mentioned how grateful he would be if she could use her influence to move him up the waiting list of researchers. Chills ran up and down his spine as he thought about getting his hot hands on THNOC’s
Legajos
.
Was genealogy replacing sex as his primary source of excitement? he asked himself . . .
C’est la vie!
Today Nick was exploring the
Papeles
and the
Fondos
, having first consulted several guides and articles that directed him to productive fishing grounds amid this ocean of information. For hours he slogged through hundreds of microfilmed pages of beautiful script, vowing to himself to brush up on his Spanish and French during his next slack period—the
Papeles
and
Fondos
contained records in both languages, a fact highlighting the peculiar political reality of the colony: the French would be French, no matter whose flag flew over them.
Each page lay projected before him like an insubstantial slice of a core sample drilled down into history itself.
He discovered several references to a devastating intertribal war that nearly wiped out the Katogoula and probably destroyed their ally, the smaller Yaknelousa tribe. The enemy tribe, the Quinahoa, was utterly extinguished, according to the colonial officials who were trying to understand the convoluted power politics of dozens and dozens of tribes. Precisely when this war had been fought—if it had been fought at all outside the mists of legend—Nick was unable to discover.
He did find
Archivo General de Indias
, the lion’s share of which was housed in Seville, Spain. Of especial interest to Nick was one of the
Archivo
subdivisions holding a wealth of Louisiana materials: the
Papeles Procedentes de Cuba
. Louisiana as a Spanish colony fell within the administrative sphere of the viceroyalty of Cuba, and that’s where great quantities ofLouisiana records of the time were sent and stored, before most of the surviving records were ultimately transferred to Spain.
Unfortunately, the Hichborn lacked an important part of the
Papeles
: the
Legajos de Luisiana
, “bundles” of documents that were themselves a newly rediscovered portion of the famous
Fondos de las Floridas
, which contained material relating to East and West Spanish Florida. The
Legajos de Luisiana
included documentary details even more useful to researchers interested in the colonial history of the area that became central Louisiana.
The
Fondos
and the smaller
Legajos
were left in Havana after most other colonial records had been removed to Spain in the late 19th century as the former superpower gradually lost its New World foothold. In the 1990s the Historic New Orleans Collection created an academic sensation by gaining permission from Cuba and the U.S. government to microfilm the
Fondos
on-site at the National Archives of Cuba, where conservational conditions had always been wanting. THNOC pulled off another major coup more recently by returning to Havana, during a time of renewed diplomatic tension, and capturing on microfilm nearly 20,000 pages of the deteriorating
Legajos de Luisiana
.
Since the
Legajos
microfilm set, much less a digital version of it, had not been released for sale and was expected to be very expensive when it finally was completed, scholars from all over the world were swarming to the Collection’s beautiful complex of landmark buildings in the French Quarter for a crack at this trove of historical information. Nick had lately treated his friend from THNOC, vivacious Veronique, to quite a few expensive, cholesterol-laden dinners, during which he subtly mentioned how grateful he would be if she could use her influence to move him up the waiting list of researchers. Chills ran up and down his spine as he thought about getting his hot hands on THNOC’s
Legajos
.
Was genealogy replacing sex as his primary source of excitement? he asked himself . . .
C’est la vie!
Today Nick was exploring the
Papeles
and the
Fondos
, having first consulted several guides and articles that directed him to productive fishing grounds amid this ocean of information. For hours he slogged through hundreds of microfilmed pages of beautiful script, vowing to himself to brush up on his Spanish and French during his next slack period—the
Papeles
and
Fondos
contained records in both languages, a fact highlighting the peculiar political reality of the colony: the French would be French, no matter whose flag flew over them.
Each page lay projected before him like an insubstantial slice of a core sample drilled down into history itself.
He discovered several references to a devastating intertribal war that nearly wiped out the Katogoula and probably destroyed their ally, the smaller Yaknelousa tribe. The enemy tribe, the Quinahoa, was utterly extinguished, according to the colonial officials who were trying to understand the convoluted power politics of dozens and dozens of tribes. Precisely when this war had been fought—if it had been fought at all outside the mists of legend—Nick was unable to discover.
He did find
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