[Brigadier General Victor Collot had been Governor of Guadeloupe at the time of the British capture of the island in 1794 April. He was in Philadelphia in 1796 as a paroled prisoner of war. Adet had arrived in Philadelphia in 1795 June. In his official correspondence he advised the French government to reoccupy and fortify Louisiana as protection against the British threat from Canada and the Gulf and against the westward expansion of the United States. In early 1796 Adet appointed Collot to undertake a reconnaissance of the Ohio and Mississippi Valleys. Ostensibly the study was to be strictly geographical, but secretly Collot was to make political, military, and economic observations as well. Portions of Collot's report were published posthumously in 1826 under the title Voyage dans l'Amérique septentronale.] Collot's memoir was to be presented to the Ministers of Foreign Relations and of the Navy in France. Collot presented arguments in favor of retrocession of Louisiana. France had sustained a great loss by ceding Louisiana, and she should have insisted upon its return when negotiating the last peace treaty with Spain [Treaty of Basel, 1795]. Had the administrators of the colony under the French been more efficient had the Prime Minister in 1762, the Duc de Choiseul, recognized the potential value of Louisiana, it could today be a recompense for the Republic's loss of her land possessions. The cession of Louisiana had been detrimental to both France and Spain. Its return would give France badly needed timber, naval stores, and foodstuffs. It would enable France to guarantee the Spanish possessions to the south and to balance the influence of the English. Louisiana offered French political and naval power, and through New Orleans it could attract a large part of the United States commerce in the territory drained by the Mississippi.
