The Memoire Justificatif of Chevalier Monberaut: Indian Diplomacy in British West Florida, 1763-1765

Presents in greater detail the circumstances and procedure of Indian diplomacy on the Gulf Coast at the beginning of the British period Historians of the Gulf Coast have long delighted in the romance of Spanish discovery and French settlement. The period of British occupation was relatively brief, fruitless, and prosaic, if we are to believe the older authorities. Today the availability of materials which were closed to an earlier generation enables us to re-create the story of British West Florida in terms more precise, with details more personal, and with no less dramatic coloration than has long been given-with less accuracy-to the earlier epochs.

In The Memoire Justificatif of Chevalier Monberaut, the translators have undertaken the resurrection of one of those gallant Frenchmen of the ancien regime who remained be hind to serve the new Anglo-Saxon masters of West Florida. The Chevalier Montault de Monberaut is not unknown to historians of the colonial scene, but he has never enjoyed a full portrayal of his contribution nor a balanced evaluation of his role. By concentrating our attention upon the man as well as his milieu, we have been able to present in greater detail than before the circumstances and procedure of Indian diplomacy on the Gulf Coast at the begin ning of the British period. By placing Monberaut against the back drop of British colonial government and its problems, we have replaced some of the romantic fallacies with historic realities. The resulting clarity adds to the picture’s significance and appeal.