Pierre Antoine and Paul Mallet, brothers and French Canadian voyageurs, were the first Europeans known to have crossed the Great Plains from east to west.
From Kaskaskia, in 1739, they attempted to travel to Santa Fe, New Mexico with six companions and nine horses loaded with trade goods.
Told by the Indians that New Mexico was to the southwest, they backtracked to the Pawnee villages on the Loup River in Nebraska.
On July 5, probably near present-day La Junta, Colorado they encountered a village of “Laitane” Indians (Comanche).
He led them, probably following a route approximating the later Santa Fe Trail to Picuris Pueblo, New Mexico where they first met Spaniards and were “pleasantly received.” They proceeded onward to Santa Fe where they proposed opening trade relations between New Mexico and the French.
After a nine-month wait in Santa Fe, the response from the government in Mexico City was negative and they were told they had to leave.
The river being unnavigable, Fabry attempted unsuccessfully to buy horses from the Osage and other tribes to continue the journey.
The Mallets meanwhile, apparently disgusted with Fabry’s leadership, had departed on foot for Santa Fe.
[4] Pierre Mallet had with him letters from New Orleans merchants offering trade of one-half million pesos.
[7] Neither the French nor the Spanish made much use of the extensive geographic knowledge that the Mallet brothers acquired in their travels.