Francisco Luis Héctor de Carondelet y Bosoist, 5th Baron of Carondelet, (born 1748, Noyelles-sur-Selle, Flanders – died 1807 Quito, Ecuador) was a Spanish administrator of partial Burgundian descent in the employ of the Spanish Empire. He was a Knight of Malta. Biography Youth and military career Carondelet entered the service of the King of Spain in 1762, at age fifteen. By 1781, he commanded the IV Division, which fought at the Siege of Pensacola in 1781. Upon his return to Spain in 1787, he was attached to the Flandres Regimiento, with the rank of Infantry Colonel, and was received in the Order of Malta. During this period he married, against his own family's will, a woman from Aragón whose family was very influential at the royal court, Maria Concepción Castaños y Aragorri. Governor of El Salvador (1789 – 1791) Carondelet was named governor of El Salvador in 1789. Because the local indigenous population working in the indigo industry had declined greatly, Carondolet recruited Spanish laborers. Their descendants are among the blonde and fair-skinned people of today's Chalatenango Department. Governor of Louisiana (1791 – 1797) After his term as governor of El Salvador ended he was appointed governor of the Spanish colonies of Louisiana and West Florida, from 1791 to 1797. As French was his mother tongue, he was well regarded by the French Creole population. He established Louisiana's first newspaper, Le Moniteur. He made many improvements in the infrastructure of New Orleans, including the Carondelet Canal and the city's first street lighting. The street light tenders (attendants) served as watchmen and de facto municipal police. About 1793, he granted land near Cape Girardeau, Missouri, to the Black Bob Band of Hathawekela Shawnee. U.S. expansion Carondelet became concerned about westward U.S. expansion and was involved in the West Florida Controversy, which concerned the border between West Florida and the United States. He wanted to thwart the American policy of trying to secure unchallenged access to the Mississippi River, a goal which made Spanish colonial officials fear for the independence of Louisiana and New Spain. Working through an alliance with Native American tribes, Carondelet succeeded in thwarting westward American expansion for several years. However, the U.S. finally gained ratification (1795) of Pinckney's Treaty, also known as the Treaty of San Lorenzo. It established intentions of friendship between the U.S. and Spain and defined the boundaries between the U.S. and the Spanish colonies.