married a Spanish woman and remained in New Mexico. Three men split off to return to Illinois via the same route they had followed to New Mexico; the Mallets and two others followed the Canadian River eastwards from New Mexico through the Texas Panhandle and into Oklahoma. En route they encountered a Comanche village and traded knives and other items for horses. Later, probably in Oklahoma, they encountered several Padoucas (Apache) who were frightened of them, possibly because of experience with slavers. Downstream, when the Canadian became navigable, the Mallets abandoned their horses and made canoes and on June 24 they arrived at the junction of the Canadian and Arkansas Rivers and found there a hunting party of French Canadians. By boat they proceeded down the river to Arkansas Post and hence to New Orleans, Louisiana, arriving in March 1741. Second expedition Although the Mallet’s first expedition had been a commercial failure, the French sent out a second, and larger, trade expedition to New Mexico. Andre Fabry de la Bruyere, a government official in New Orleans, was appointed to lead the expedition which left New Orleans in September 1741. The Mallet brothers and several other voyageurs and one Negro slave accompanied him. Fabry proceeded by boat up the Mississippi and Arkansas Rivers to the Canadian and then with agonizing slowness up the Canadian to the junction of the Little River near present-day Holdenville, Oklahoma. There he met a war party of 35 Osage who were in search of their Mento (Wichita) enemies. The river being unnavigable, Fabry attempted unsuccessfully to buy horses from the Osage and other tribes to continue the journey. In September 1742 he abandoned the expedition. The Mallets meanwhile, apparently disgusted with Fabry’s leadership, had departed on foot for Santa Fe. They were also unsuccessful and turned back to Arkansas Post where they lived during the 1740s. Pierre continued to trade and explore along the Canadian River. Third expedition In 1750, the governor of Louisiana dispatched Pierre Mallet and three assistants to Santa Fe again. Paul Mallet, who married in 1744 and settled at Arkansas Post, did not accompany this expedition. Pierre Mallet had with him letters from New Orleans merchants offering trade of one-half million pesos. Mallet and his companions traveled by boat up the Red River, bought horses from the Caddo, continued overland to the Canadian River, and hence to Santa Fe. However, the situation