Victor Collot

Victor Collot, in full Georges Henri Victor Collot (Châlons-sur-Marne, 21 March 1750, died in Paris, 15 May 1805) was a French military officer who served in the New World in various capacities, among them as Governor of Guadeloupe. He is best known for his expedition down the Ohio and Mississippi rivers in the spring and summer of 1796, through the Illinois and Louisiana territories then held by the Spanish crown, during which he made maps and observed fortifications and the country's military preparedness, almost certainly on a secret mission on behalf of the French Republic. He had been watched during his progress, however, and on arriving in New Orleans he was almost immediately arrested by Carondelet, the Spanish governor, on October 27, and placed in custody at the Balize until he could be sent out of the colony on December 4. Gen. Collot published an account of this expedition under the title "Voyage dans l'Amérique Septentrionale". He also authored a "Mémoire sur les moyens de soumettre les rebelles de St. Dominique", a proposal for subjugating the rebels of San Domingo.