The French and the Spanish competed for western America in the early 1700s. The Spanish were securely in charge in the West and South. The French controlled the Mississippi Valley and, wanting to keep Spanish expansion to a minimum, realized they had to make treaties with the western Indians and establish fortifications along the Missouri River. The man called on to do all of these things was Etienne de Bourgmond, a French army captain who had twice deserted his post to live with the Indians. He also left Detroit once because of a love affair with a married French woman. The diplomacy he doubtless had to use to escape serious punishment for such things
undoubtedly led to his success with the Indians.
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