MATULICH SELLING WHISKEY, GUNS AND HORSES TO THE INDIANS, 1774

MATULICH SELLING WHISKEY, GUNS AND HORSES TO THE INDIANS, 1774

In Herbert Eugene Bolton's book "Athanse De Mezieres and the Louisiana-Texas Frontier, 1768-1780 - Spain in the West":

A report was sent to the Governor by De Mezieres:

"Likewise I am informed by courier that the persons

named Jeronimo Matulich and Juan Hamilton continue to

make journeys to the mouth of the Trinity, buying horses

and mules off the Indians who live there and who have

joined recently thirty families of Coxos and Carancaoueys,

Apostates and fugitives from our missions, attracted by

the opportunity to barter; and now they get a small

amount of money, I do not know whether stolen or found

in some shipwreck. These traders go in by land as far

as the Bidais Nation, and try to arouse the interior

tribes."

De Mezieres further reports:

"That a man named Matulich had gone to the mouth of

the Neches River with a boat manned by ten men and there

he was selling liquor to the Indians and maligning the

governor."

On August 8, 1774 the Governor ordered the arrest

of Jeronimo Matulich but no further mention is made if

he was actually caught and jailed.

Matulich was an inhabitant of Mobile and took the Oath of Allegiance and Fidelity to his Britannic Majesty King George III in 1764. Matulich appeared in many court cases in New Orleans in the 1760's and 1770's dealing with piracy, indebtedness and other sundry matters.

Adam S. Eterovich

croatians@aol.com