Thomas Jefferson Papers

Thomas Jefferson to Gideon Granger, 3 August 1805

To Gideon Granger

Monticello Aug. 3. 05.

Dear Sir

On my return yesterday from a journey to New London, I recieved your favor of July 23. and now return Govr. Claiborne’s letter & map. as far as one can judge from these documents I should conclude the best route to be by land to the river Chef menteur, then by water to Bois-doré & thence Northernly along the Indian path; because this reduces the water transportation to about 20. miles of still water where oars may be used, which is very desirable. to go to the place of Favre would be much further & up stream. however I believe it had better be left to the Governor to chuse between these two routes. Accept affectionate salutations.

Th: Jefferson

PoC (DLC); at foot of text: “Mr. Granger.” Enclosures: see Granger to TJ, 23 July.

Bois-doré: possibly the residence of Louis Boisdoré. In 1783, he received a substantial Spanish grant for land between Bay St. Louis and the Pearl River, upon which he established a cattle ranch (Benjamin C. Howard, Reports of Cases Argued and Adjudged in the Supreme Court of the United States. December Term, 1850 [Boston, 1851], 63-5).

place of Favre: probably the Pearl River residence of Simon Favre, a former trader and interpreter, who was an early inhabitant of what would become Hancock County, Mississippi (Dunbar Rowland, Encyclopedia of Mississippi History, 2 vols. [Madison, Wis., 1907], 1:699; Mary Ann Wells, Native Land: Mississippi 1540-1798 [Jackson, Miss., 1994], 164, 177-8).

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