Francisco Luis Hector de Carondelet, b. July 29, 1747, d. Aug. 10, 1807, was the Spanish governor-general of Louisiana and West Florida in the period following the American Revolution. A Fleming, he was named Spanish governor of San Salvador in 1789. Then, in 1791, he was posted to New Orleans. By military reorganization, the construction of forts, and an alliance (1793) with the Southern Indian tribes, Carondelet kept the American frontiersmen from advancing westward for a decade. He continued the so-called Spanish Conspiracy with the U.S. double-agent James Wilkinson. At the same time, he quelled attempts to overthrow the government in Louisiana and West Florida and made notable economic improvements in these Spanish provinces, particularly in New Orleans and its environs. Leaving Louisiana in 1797, Carondelet was president of Quito from 1799 to 1807.

Bibliography: Holmes, J. D. L., Gayoso: The Life of a Spanish Governor in the Mississippi Valley 1789-1799 (1965); Whitaker, A. P., The Spanish-American Frontier, 1783-1795 (1927; repr. 1969)