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Letter from Manuel Juan de Salcedo to the Cabildo, informing them of his appointment as civil and military Governor of Louisiana. Salcedo (b. 1743), a native of Bilbao, left his post in the Canary Islands for Louisiana in August 1800, but it was almost a full year before he assumed his new duties in New Orleans. He was the colony's last Spanish governor, but he was certainly not among its great leaders. An old man by the time he became governor, Salcedo constantly quarreled with the Cabildo and has been accused of being grossly incompetent, if not thoroughly corrupt. Charles IV apparently had so little confidence in his abilities that he sent the Marqués de Casa-Calvo back to Louisiana to assist Salcedo in transferring the province to the French.      [Letters, Petitions and Decrees of the Conseil Municipal, #340]

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