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380 SPAIN IN THE MISSISSIPPI VALLEY Now the duplicity of this man is remarkable in that he knows how to claim the protection of the laws or ignore them according to his interests. He himself is low enough to admit this fact in his petitions. Therefore, in pursuance of this ordinance, it would seem very equitable that the total debt of over 400 piastres owed by Joseph Tessier and Jaques Mongrin be paid by the said Menard, provided, Sir, that you approve it. This deserved pecuniary penalty would be all the more justified since this man has been several times in opposition to the just orders of my last two predecessors, who in a case such as this one added to many others should have sent him to you with a fine recommendation. It is in this fashion, Sir, that this man has amassed some property and become arrogant, having at all times traded illegally. He has always eluded the vigilance of the commandants by having merchandise brought in surreptitiously by the rivers, by receiving on the quiet payments which were legitimately due to others, or by causing the hunters to get drunk, making them gamble and by this means getting hold of their cargos, or having them do errands for his own profit. Such are the conduct and the character of the man I am complain- ing about and who feels sure that his half-brother Mr. Ruby (who knows him as well as I do), will speak on his behalf to you, Sir. He also trusts to the protection of several other persons, as if anybody's solicitations were capable of causing you to commit an injustice. Such is this man who in one petition states that he has received nothing from the hunters for the last three years. His imposture is proved by the abstract that I have made and which is included in the state- ment I am sending with this, without mentioning the amounts he may have embezzled, although this is his sole occupation. Is there anything more infamous than the advice which he himself has confessed in a petition to have given to the hunters for the purpose of evading the law ? Last year I had paid him about 200 piastres for one Jean Bte. Imbaut who now owes me about 600 piastres. What does Menard, as great a rascal as this other man, do? He has an understanding with him to receive the product of the hunt, unknown to me and to my detriment, and this would have happened had I not been warned. All that I have had the honor of telling you is nothing in comparison to what I have heard, but of which I have no proof. He supports at his house most of the time a band of vagabonds and people of his ilk who protect him by tes- tifying according to his directions. His conversation is always evil and he disregards my orders to such an extreme that last month he went so far as to induce some people who were living with him to refuse to march with a detachment that I had ordered them to join. If I am to be blamed, Sir, it is for not having sent him to you then.