Carondelet, Francisco Luis Hector, baron de [key], c.1748–1807, governor of Louisiana (1791–97) and West Florida (1791–95), b. Noyelles, Flanders. He married into the Las Casas family, prominent in Spanish colonial affairs. He came to New Orleans from the governorship of Salvador and was unfortunately not well informed about Louisiana problems. Ignorant of the English language and local customs, and faced with conflicting rumors of American hostility, he became convinced in 1792 that the Americans were planning to invade Louisiana. With unwarranted aggressiveness, he stirred up the Native Americans of the Southwest, concluding an alliance with four great tribes and establishing Spanish posts in their territory. He revived intrigues with Kentucky frontiersmen looking toward the establishment of an independent state in the West. Relations between Spain and the United States were severely taxed. After Carondelet was replaced by Manuel Gayoso de Lemos, he was made president of the audiencia and governor-general of Quito (1799–1807).
See A. P. Whitaker, The Spanish-American Frontier, 1783–1795 (1927, repr. 1969).
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