USA > Indiana > Indiana, a redemption from slavery > Part 4
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eaten, its women and children slain or carried captive. And what cared the great people of Europe? Basta ! A few Indians more or less amounted to nothing. There were plenty more of them.
The intervals between wars were the seasons of ad- vance on the frontiers of America. Then settlements were formed, governments were established, trade and production flourished. Such an epoch came with the treaty of Ryswick in 1697. Louis XIV. renewed his exertions to carry into effect the great plan of opening the Mississippi valley which La Salle had begun so bravely. D'Iberville was sent to form a settlement at the mouth of the Mississippi, and founded Biloxi. His plan for concentrating the northwestern tribes on the Ohio was not successful, but it had a permanent effect on the population of the region. The Mascoutins who came to Juchereau's post went away in a few years, but the Kaskaskias, who left their old home on the Illinois in 1700 and went to the site of the present town of Kas- kaskia, held to their new location.1 At the same time the Hurens, Miamis, Ouiatanons, and other tribes, partly because they had become involved in war with the great Illinois nation, but chiefly in compliance with the urging of French officers, began straggling eastward through southern Michigan and northern Indiana. The colony and the great confederation of La Salle were no more. During this period also the French posts along the line of communication between Louisiana and Canada were repaired and strengthened. In 1700 the British Lords of Trade declared that France had fifteen hundred men constantly employed in this work.2
1 Kaskaskia and its Parish Records, p. 5.
2 N. Y. Col. Docs., vol. iv. p. 701.
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THE FRENCH POSTS.
The English watched the movements of the French with jealousy, both because they claimed that their colo- nies included all of the territory south of the great lakes indefinitely to the westward, and because their mer- chants were desirous of obtaining the Indian trade of this region for themselves. In 1700 Robert Livingston, Colonial Secretary of Indian Affairs, urged "that all endeavors be used to obtain a peace between the 5 Nations and the Dowaganhaas [Outagamies or Foxes], Twichtwicks [Miamis ], and other far Nations of Indians, whom the Governour of Canada stirs up to destroy them, not only because the 5 Nations have been mortall ene- mies to the French & true to the English, but because they hinder his trade with the said far Nations, trucking with them themselves and bringing the bevers hither. The best way to effect this is to build a fort at Waw- yachtenoke,1 cal'd by the French De Troett. ... Hither all the far Nations will come and trade, to wit, the Twichtwicks, Kichtages [Illinois ], Wawyachtenokes, and Showonoes, and a multitude of other Nations, some whereof live behind Carolina, Roanoke, Car: luck, &c., leaving the Ottawawes, Dionondadoes [a tribe of Hurons ] and those other Nations that live to the North side of the Ottowawa Lake to the French." 2 On January 16, 1701, the Earl of Bellomont, commanding in Massachu- setts, New York, and New Hampshire, to whom this re- port was addressed, wrote to the Lords of Trade, declar- ing his intention " to ingage the Dowaganhaas, Twicht- wicks, Dienondades and all those numerous nations in a
1 Quiatanon. This name may indicate a former location of the Ouiatanons in the neighborhood of Detroit. On Franquelin's map of 1688, Lake St. Clair is named Oiatinon-chikebo.
2 N. Y. Col. Docs., vol. iv. p. 650.
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trade with us, which the French by their missionaries have at present monopoliz'd." 1 The French, however, anticipated this projected settlement. Sieur de Lamothe Cadillac had been in command of the Mackinaw post for several years, and had become thoroughly acquainted with the northwestern country. In his relation of 1695 he says, after describing the Indian locations to the west of Lake Michigan : "The post of Chicagou comes next. The word signifies the River of Garlic, because a very great quantity of it is produced naturally there without any cultivation. There is here a village of the Miamis, who are well-made men ; they are good warriors and extremely active. . .. We find next the river of St. Joseph. There was here a fort with a French garrison, and there is a village of this same nation of Miamis. This post is the key to all the nations which border the north of Lake Michigan, for to the south there is not any village on account of the incursions of the Iroquois, but in the depths of the north coast country and looking towards the west there are many, as the Mascoutins, Piankeshaws, Peorias, Kickapoos, Iowas, Sioux and Tintons." 2 Seeing this vacant country to the southeast of Lake Michigan, Lamothe Cadillac conceived the idea of securing it by a post at Detroit, and, after obtaining approval of his plan, carried it into effect in 1701.
With this protection guaranteed, the expatriated tribes began moving still farther to the east. In a council at Albany, on July 10, 1702, a Huron chief said : "The greater part of ye Dionondes and many of ye Twictwighs are removed and come to live at- Tjughsaghrondie, hard
1 N. Y. Col. Docs., vol. iv. p. 834.
2 Margry, vol. v. pp. 123, 124.
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THE FRENCH POSTS.
by the Fort which ye French built last summer."1 On La Hontan's map of 1703, a village of Ouiatanons is marked near Detroit ; one of Saukies on Saginaw Bay ; two of Hurons on the lower eastern shore of Lake Huron ; one each of Miamis, Mascoutins, and Ouiata- nons on the St. Joseph's of Lake Michigan.2 The movement towards the east continued for ten or fifteen years. In 1712 the Miamis were on the Wabash and the Maumee, and the other tribes were grouped about Detroit. In that year the Mascoutins, under British influence, tried to capture the fort at that point, but Dubuisson, reinforced by M. de Vincennes with eight men, held them at bay until the friendly Indians arrived, and after twenty-three days of fighting and massacre the living Mascoutins were in hot flight, leaving a thousand dead behind them.8 The little remnant united with the Kickapoos, and in the course of years became wholly lost in that tribe. By 1718 the Miamis, Pepikokias, Piankeshaws, and Ouiatanons had taken substantially the locations they afterwards held in Indiana.4
With the founding of Detroit came the war of the Spanish succession, which diverted the attention of the European powers from their American possessions and stopped the advance of colonization for a season. The
1 N. Y. Col. Docs., vol. iv. p. 979. Tjughsaghrondie was the Iroquois name of Detroit. Ibid. p. 982; Beckwith's Notes on the N. W. p. 129.
2 These of course are locations of 1701, 1702, as the map ap- peared in the Nouveaux Voyages published in Europe in 1703.
3 Dubuisson's "Journal of the Siege of Detroit," in Smith's Wisconsin, vol. ii. p. 315.
4 N. Y. Col. Docs., vol. ix. pp. 885-892. This is partially quoted in Dillon, p. 401, in Beckwith's Hist. Notes, pp. 103, 104, and in other local histories.
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INDIANA.
war closed with the treaty of Utrecht, on April 11, 1713, but France and England had entered into secret negotia- tions in the spring of 1712 which practically insured peace,1 and therefore resumed operations in America before the war formally closed. In September, 1712, the king of France gave to Anthony Crozat the control of the Mississippi valley " from the edge of the sea as far as the Illinois ; together with the river of St. Phillip, heretofore called the Missouri, and of St. Jerome, here- tofore called Ouabache," and the country adjacent. The territory north of the Illinois was made part of New France, or Canada, and the government of Louisi- ana was made dependent on that of New France. Cro- zat's management of his province was energetic, but it was so wholly directed to the lower Mississippi that our territory was left unnoticed, with one slight exception. Coincident with the insurrection of the Chevalier St. George in England, there was a marked activity of the English on the American frontiers which caused alarm- ing reports from the French officers and missionaries.2 On this account Bienville was sent up the Mississippi in 1716 with instructions to establish one post at the Natchez and another at the Ohio. Becoming involved in diffi- culty with the Natchez Indians, he accomplished nothing but the establishment of Fort Rosalie in their vicinity.8 In 1717 Crozat surrendered his charter, and in August of that year the commerce of the Mississippi valley was granted to the Company of the Occident. In September all of the Illinois country was added to Louisiana for
1 Guizot's England, vol. iv. p. 120.
2 N. Y. Col. Docs., vol. ix. p. 931 ; French's Hist. Coll. of La., pt. 3, p. 43; Margry, vol. v. p. 509.
3 French's Hist. Coll. of La., pt. 3, pp. 45, 46, 241-252.
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THE FRENCH POSTS.
governmental purposes,1 and Bienville was put in con- trol of the province. In 1718 he sent his cousin Pierre Dugué de Boisbriant, who had just returned from France with the appointment of Governor of Illinois, with one hundred men, to establish a post in the neigh- borhood of Kaskaskia, for the protection of the upper colony.2 De Boisbriant selected a point about sixteen miles above Kaskaskia and began the erection of the fort. It was completed in 1720 and named Fort Char- tres, in honor of the Duc de Chartres.8
During these same years a peculiar change was in progress on the Wabash on the Canada side, or rather in the portion claimed by Canada, for, although the grants to Crozat and the Company of the Occident in- cluded the entire Wabash, the governors of Canada claimed jurisdiction over the upper half of the river, because the tribes located there were dependent on Detroit ; and though their claim was contested by the Louisiana officials, they exercised exclusive jurisdiction there from the earliest period. Having but a short time before induced the tribes to locate there, they were now equally anxious to induce their return to the west, because venturesome English traders were already com- ing to them, and English officials were soliciting their friendship through the eastern Indians. No one fort could prevent access to them by the English so long as they remained on the Maumee and the Wabash, for they could be reached from the Ohio by the well-known routes of the Muskingum, Scioto, Big Miami,4 and Wa-
1 Margry, vol. v. p. 589.
2 Ibid. vol. v. pp. 553, 554.
3 Old Fort Chartres, in Fergus Hist. Ser., No. 12.
4 The Indian name of this stream was Assereniet, which the
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INDIANA.
bash ; and the Ohio could be reached by any of its southern tributaries. The simplest solution of the mat- ter, therefore, was to move the Indians. The chief band of the Miamis, or Twightwees, was located at the head of the Maumee. The Ouiatanons, who were on the Wa- bash, declined to remove because they were still at war with the Illinois, and for this reason it was determined to frustrate the schemes of the English by establishing a post in their country. The task of inducing the Miamis to remove had been given to Sieur de Vincennes, who had more influence with them than any other French- man. He had almost succeeded in obtaining their con- sent when he was taken sick and died in their village of Kekionga, and thereupon the Miamis refused to leave that place.1 This necessitated a change of plans. On October 28, 1719, De Vaudreuil wrote to the Council of
French merely translated, calling it Rivière Pierreuse, or some- times Rivière à la Roche.
1 Kekionga is the commonly adopted form of the name. It is usually said to mean " blackberry patch," or "blackberry bush," this plant being considered an emblem of antiquity because it sprang up on the sites of old villages. This theory rests on the statement of Barron, an old French trader on the Wabash. It is more probable that Kekionga is a corruption or dialect form of Kiskakon, or Kikakon, which was the original name of the place. 'T'hus, in 1749, M. de Celeron urged the fugitive Miamis to return to Kiskakon, " the place where repose the bones of your ancestors, and those of M. de Vincennes whom you loved so well." Margry, vol. vi. p. 718. The Kiskakons were the principal tribe of the Ottawas or Pierced Noses, - the Nez Percés of the early French chroniclers, - who lived on the Maumee at a very ancient time, for which reason this stream was sometimes called Ottawa River. ( Archeologica Americana, vol. i. p. 278.) The probability is, there- fore, that the Kiskakons or Clipped Scalp-locks (Queues Coupées) lad a village at this point, and that their name attached to the locality. As to the Kiskakons, see Margry, vol. v. p. SO. -
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THE FRENCH POSTS.
Marine : " I learn from the last letters that have arrived from the Miamis, that Sieur de Vincennes having died in their village, these Indians had resolved not to move to the river St. Joseph, and to remain where they are. As this resolution is very dangerous, on account of the facility they will have of communicating with the Eng- lish who are incessantly distributing belts in secret among all the nations, to attract them to themselves, by means of certain Iroquois runners and others in their pay, I had designed Sieur Dubuisson for the command of the post of the Ouyatanons, and that he should, on going thither, employ his credit among the Miamis so as to determine that nation to proceed to the river St. Joseph, or, if not willing to leave, that he should remain at its place of residence in order to counteract the effect of all those belts it was but too frequently receiving, and which, as they caused eight or ten Miami canoes to go this year to trade at Orange [Albany], might finally in- duce all that nation to follow their example." 1
This service of Dubuisson lasted but a short time, for François Morgan, a nephew of the late Sieur de Vin- cennes, who had succeeded to his title, was sent to fill his place with the Miamis, with whom he soon became as influential as his uncle had been.2 The post of Oui-
1 N. Y. Col. Docs., vol. ix. p. 894.
2 The fief of Vincennes was established in 1672. The Sieur de Vincennes who died in 1719 was Jean Baptiste Bissot, the son of the first holder of the fief. Clara Frances Bissot, one of his sisters, was the wife of Louis Joliet. Louise Bissot, another sister, mar- ried Seraphin Morgane, and her son François Morgane (he dropped the e final in writing his name) was the founder of Post Vincennes. The proper orthography of the name is Vincennes, though our founder usually wrote it Vinsenne, and others in divers ways. The fief passed to Joseph Roy in 1749 by judicial decree. Actes
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INDIANA.
atanon was then founded, as had been contemplated, probably in the year 1720. It was the first military post established on the Wabash, and probably the first within the bounds of Indiana. Its location has been universally misstated by historical writers, it being usu- ally confounded with the Indian town of Ouiatanon, which was on the opposite side of the Wabash and two or three miles lower down. Post Quiatanon was located on the north bank of the Wabash, eighteen miles, by the river, below the mouth of the Tippecanoe, and a short distance above Indian Creek, which the French called Rivière de Boisrouge. It was always a trading-post of considerable consequence, but it attained its greatest importance several years after its foundation, when the Wabash became the principal line of communication between Canada and Louisiana. On account of the rapids near it, just below the city of Lafayette, it was the head of navigation for pirogues and large canoes, and consequently there was a transfer at this place of all the merchandise that passed over the Wabaslı, from the small canoes that were used between Quiatanon and Kekionga to the larger vessels used below Ouiatanon. The fort stood about seventy yards from the river, and consisted of a dozen cabins surrounded by a stockade.1
de Foy et Homage, vol. iv. p. 348 (Ottawa copy) ; Tanguay's Dict. Geneal. The Sieurs de Vincennes must not be confounded with the members of the St. Vincents family, of whom there were two or three in the French service in the Northwest. N. Y. Col. Docs., vol. ix. p. 1010; vol. x. pp. 107, 109, 183.
1 Hutchins's Top. Desc., p. 30; Croghan's Journal, in Butler's Ky., App., pp. 371-373; Itinerary of road from Detroit to the Illinois, in Haldimand Coll , Canadian Archives ; Letter of Gov- ernor Hamilton to General Haldimand, dated Oniatanon, Decem- ber 4, 1778, Canadian Archives; also maps of Thos. Hutchins
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THE FRENCH POSTS.
Jealous of this advance of the Canadians, and appre- hensive of the approach of the English, the directors of the Mississippi Company (into which the Company of the Occident had merged), on September 15, 1720, called on the government to establish a post on the Ouabache, and place a company of troops there "to occupy first the entire country, and prevent the English from penetrating it." 1 The government did not act, but the desirability of such a post was continually urged by persons acquainted with the region. In November, 1721, Charlevoix explained its importance in a letter to the Duchess de Lesdiguieres.2 In 1724, La Harpe warned the company of the danger of the English securing a foothold there.3 On February 9, 1725, Dugué de Bois- briant wrote to the company : " It would have been very advantageous to establish a post on the Ouabache, but as until now they [i. e. the government] have not main- tained that of the Illinois, there is little probability that they will undertake to establish this post. Meanwhile it is much to be feared that the English will take pos- session of it, and this would entirely ruin the Upper Colony, because it would be easy for them, with the pro- digious quantities of merchandise which they ordinarily
(1778), John Carey (1783), Brion de la Tour (1784), D'Anville (1772), A. Arrowsmith (1804), Joseph Bouchette (1815), and John Melish (1812). An extended discussion of the location of Ouiatanon, in which nearly all the authorities are quoted, will be found in the Lafayette Call, February 24, March 3, March 7, March 11, March 24, 1887 ; Crawfordsville Journal, March 9, March 16, March 23, 1887; Indianapolis Journal, March 12, March 25, March 26, 1887.
1 Margry, vol. v. p. 624.
2 French's Hist. Coll. of La., pt. 3, p. 123.
3 Ibid., pt. 3, p. 114, note.
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INDIANA.
carry, to win all of the Indians of this region. The company will have the goodness to consider this." 1 On receiving this, the company concluded that it could not with safety to its trade wait longer on the govern- ment, and therefore directed De Boisbriant to establish · the post at the company's expense. On December 22, 1725, they wrote to him : "It would be well for you to write to M. de Vincennes, who is at the Miamis, to ask him to come to an understanding with the commandant of the Ouabache [i. e. the post to be established] in re- gard to the Indian nation where he commands, and to advise him of the enterprises which the English may undertake in that quarter. The company will entreat Monseigneur the Count de Manrepas to be pleased to give orders in Canada by the first vessels that leave for Quebec, in order that the Sieur de Vincennes may be directed to act in conformity, and that all the other officers located with the Indian nations of the govern- ment of Canada, who are within reach of the Ouabache, shall protect in every way they can the post which the company will establish there, and concert with him who shall command there to expel the English who may be able to penetrate towards this river." 2
Soon after this letter was dispatched more alarming information of English encroachments was received from Louisiana, and through the Canadian authorities came the report of Sieur de Longueil, under date of October 31, 1725, that " the English of Carolina had built two houses and some stores on a little river which flows into the Ouabache, where they trade with the Miamis, the Ouyatanons, and other Indians of the. Up-
1 Margry, vol. vi. p. 657.
2 Ibid., vol. vi. p. 658.
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THE FRENCH POSTS.
per Country." 1 In the summer of 1726 the directors learned that their post was not yet established, and on September 30, 1726, wrote to M. Périer, who had just succeeded Bienville as Governor of Louisiana, as fol- lows : "The Company has ordered the establishment of a post on the river Ouabache, and has requested M. the Governor of Canada, on his part, to direct Sieur de Vin- cennes, who commands at the home of the Ouyatanons- Miamis, established towards the head of the Ouabache, to come to an understanding with the commandant of the new post to bring this nation nearer, as much to pro- tect the post as to watch the actions of the English and to expel them in case they approach.
" M. Périer will see by the copies, annexed, of the letter written to M. de Boisbriant and of the memoir delivered to M. the Count de Beauharnois, what the Company has thought proper to be done in this matter. M. de Boisbriant writes in reply that the lack of goods has prevented him from proceeding to the establishment of the said post, and that he thinks it necessary to give command of it to M. de Vincennes, who is already a half- pay lieutenant of the Louisiana infantry, and who can do more with the Miamis than any one else.
"On the other hand, the Company learns from M. Desliettes, commandant at the Illinois,2 that M. de Vin- cennes had come to find him to tell him that he had information that the English had already formed an establishment on the upper part of the river Ohio ; and that he had sent Sieur de Vincennes back with presents
1 N. Y. Col. Docs., vol. ix. p. 953.
2 Desliettes succeeded De Boisbriant when Bienville was dis- placed. In 1733 he was succeeded by Jean St. Ange de Belle Rive, who gave place the next year to Pierre d' Artaguiette.
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INDIANA.
for the Indians, ordering him to ascertain the truth of this report. If it should be confirmed, there will not be a moment to lose in causing the lower part of the river Ohio [i. e. the Ohio above the mouth of the Wabash] to be occupied by the Ouyatanons ; and he should then establish the fort about the mouth of the Casquinam- boux [Tennessee ], placing there as commander an officer who will get along with M. de Vincennes, whom it will not be well to remove from the home of the Ouyatanons if you are to get the usefulness from them that is hoped for. M. Perier will reflect well on this subject, and consider if, by giving eight or ten soldiers to the said Sieur de Vincennes, with the missionary des- tined for the Ouabache, he will not find himself in con- dition to assure, by the Indians, the communication between Louisiana and Canada, and to prevent the English from penetrating into our colony, without oblig- ing the Company to construct a fort on the lower Oua- bache, of which the expense of the establishment and the support of the garrison make an object of conse- quence.
" To induce Sieur de Vincennes to attach himself to the colony of Louisiana, M. Perier will advise him that he has obtained for him from the Company an annuity of three hundred livres, which will be paid to him with his salary as half-pay lieutenant." 1
No direct record of the founding of the post has yet been discovered, but it was unquestionably as outlined in the latter part of these instructions. The report that the English had founded a post on the Ohio was errone- ous ; and Périer had had sufficient experience in Louisi- ana to avoid any unnecessary expense to the company.
1. Margry, vol. vi. pp. 659, 660.
1
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THE FRENCH POSTS.
Vincennes was won over from Canada to Louisiana, and with a few soldiers proceeded to build a little palisade fort at the Indian village lowest on the river and nearest the English, which was the Piankeshaw town of Chippe- coke or Chipkawkay. The exact date of the establish- ment is not known, but it was probably in 1727, for in October of that year the names of " Vinsenne " and " St. Ange fils," his lieutenant, were inscribed on the parish records of Kaskaskia in witness of the marriage of Joseph Lorrin and Marie Phillipe.1 The next known documentary trace of M. de Vincennes is in a deed by him and his wife, dated January 5, 1735, and recorded at Kaskaskia.2 In this he is styled commandant au poste du Quabache. His wife, who was at the post at the time, was the daughter of Philip Longprie, then the wealthiest trader at Kaskaskia. The date of their marriage cannot be given, as there is a gap in the Kas- kaskia marriage record from June 7, 1729, to January 3, 1741, but it was probably in 1733, as in that year is dated the acknowledgment by Vincennes of the receipt of 100 pistoles given by his father-in-law as dowry.ª Possibly it was due to the influence of Madame Morgan that the loneliness of the little post was relieved by the settlement of a number of families about it, for this occurred in 1734-5, and so the first permanent Euro- pean village was established within our borders.4
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