 Complications arose when, for instance, Peyroux was arrested by French officials, as a secret agent of Spain; in fact, the arrest had been arranged by French merchants who did not wish the Acadian exiles to depart, without paying off their mounting debts.After numerous financial and bureaucratic setbacks, approximately 1,600 Acadian exiles sailed for Louisiana between May and October 1785.Henri Peyroux also went to Louisiana, where he benefited from his commissions as a captain in the Spanish Army and a commandant of the post at Sainte-Geneviève in Spanish Illinois, now Missouri.