Fort Orleans

Catholic missionaries urged that he be arrested for indecency because of traveling with his Missouri wife and their children of mixed European and Native American ancestry.

In 1713 de Bourgmont wrote Exact Description of Louisiana, of Its Harbors, Lands and Rivers, and Names of the Indian Tribes That Occupy It, and the Commerce and Advantages to Be Derived Therefrom for the Establishment of a Colony.

Delisle used "Missouri" for the river rather than Pekitanoui, as the explorers Louis Jolliet and Jacques Marquette had named it after they first viewed it in 1673.

His reputation was enhanced as news arrived that the Pawnee (who had been friendly with Bourgmont) had slaughtered the Villasur expedition near modern-day Columbus, Nebraska.

[1] Bourgmont was promised a title of nobility if he could build a fort and strike an alliance with the Native Americans to keep the Spanish out of the Missouri valley.

He argued with his sponsors over whether a fort was necessary; he thought it more important to recruit Native Americans in alliances to unite to fight the Spanish, as he believed his mission had not changed.

[2] In 1724, de Bourgmont traveled up the Missouri River to the Kaw village near Doniphan, Kansas, with the objective of establishing friendly relations among the Indian tribes of the region and seeking a trade route to the Spanish colony of Nuevo México.

[3] In celebration, in 1725 Bourgmont escorted the chiefs of the tribes to Paris to show them the "glory of France", including the palaces at Château de Marly, Fontainebleau and Versailles; and to hunt on the royal preserve with Louis XV.

One story says that when the garrison had been reduced to a contingent of eight soldiers, Native Americans attacked and burned it, killing all the troops.