Pedro Vial
He blazed trails across the Great Plains to connect the Spanish and French settlements in Texas, New Mexico, Missouri, and Louisiana.
"[1] At that time, he had already lived for several years with the Taovaya, a Wichita tribe in their twin villages on the Red River at Spanish Fort, Texas and in Jefferson County, Oklahoma.
After warning the Taovaya that their friendship with the Spanish was in danger, he continued on westward, following the Red River upstream, wintering among the Comanche near Wichita Falls, Texas and continuing on in spring through the Texas Panhandle, reaching Santa Fe, New Mexico on May 26, 1787, thus becoming the first European to cross the Great Plains from San Antonio to Santa Fe.
From Natchitoches, he traveled to San Antonio again, and then returned to Santa Fe, arriving on August 20, 1789 after a journey of more than 2,400 miles (4,000 km).
[7] In 1792, Vial was ordered to cross the Great Plains again, this time to open communications between New Mexico and St. Louis, Missouri.
East of the Pecos River, Vial encountered his former colleague, Francisco Xavier Chavés, who was en route to Santa Fe to visit his parents whom he had not seen since being captured by the Comanche 22 years earlier.
There, Vial was rescued by a French trader and continued his journey by boat down the Missouri River to St. Louis, arriving there on October 3, 1792.
[9] In 1795, Vial, suspected of being disloyal to Spain, was arrested in Santa Fe, but was soon freed and dispatched again to the Pawnee to make peace between them and the Comanche.
Vial and another French frontiersman, Jose Jarvet (Chalvert) led a force of 52 soldiers, Spanish settlers, and Pueblo Indians to find and arrest the Americans.
Leaving Santa Fe on August 1, 1804, Vial reached a Pawnee village in central Nebraska where they heard that Lewis and Clark had already passed that way, and were about 100 miles (160 km) distant and proceeding up the Missouri River.
[11] The next year, departing Santa Fe on October 5, 1805, Vial and Jarvet with 100 men were sent out again to seek an alliance with the Plains Indians tribes to prevent the return of Lewis and Clark, who were by this time on the Columbia River, far to the northwest.
Near present-day Las Animas, Colorado, Vial was attacked by about 100 well-armed and mounted Indians whose persistence caused him to return to New Mexico.
[12] On April 19, 1806, Vial and Jarvet departed Santa Fe northward with yet another force, this time with 300 men, to secure treaties with the plains tribes and thwart the efforts of the Americans.
In June 1806, Lt. Facundo Melgares departed New Mexico with 600 men—105 soldiers, 400 militia, and 100 allied Indians—with the objective of making a peace treaty with the Pawnee and halting American incursions into what the Spanish considered their territory.
On October 2, 1814, Vial signed his will in Santa Fe, stating that he had neither wife nor children, and leaving his meager belongings to Maria Manuela Martin.
