USA > Indiana > Indiana, a redemption from slavery > Part 6
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Indians. The presents which had formerly been so plentiful now became rarities, and a corruption in the management of Indian affairs caused the savages to pay for much that had been sent as gifts for them. Still more exasperating was the total lack of that ceremonious respect which is so soothing to the Indian mind, and which the French had observed with all their national courtliness. The irritation was inflamed by many of the French traders, who still hoped that their king would arouse and win back his American empire. That he would relinquish more of it was not dreamed. Plots for the destruction of the English garrisons were formed by the Indians in 1761 and 1762, but they were discovered and frustrated. In the spring of 1763 another conspir- acy was formed, with Pontiac at its head; and the news of the cession by France, which the Indians understood to be a sale and delivery of their lands to the English, inspired the tribes to a desperate attempt to throw off the European yoke entirely. Evidences of this were dis- covered, but the English had become over-confident and did not heed them. On March 28, 1763, Lieutenant Edward Jenkins, commandant at Quiatanon, wrote that the Canadians were continually lying to the Indians ; that one La Pointe had recently said that the English would all be prisoners in a short time ; that an army was coming from the Mississippi to retake Detroit, Mon- treal, Quebec, and all the small posts.1 Ensign Holmes, commanding at Fort Miamis, had already reported the arrival of "a Bloody Belt " at the Kekionga village. On March 30 he wrote that he had obtained the belt and accompanying message from the Indians " after a long and troublesome spell with them," and that "This
1 Consp. of Pontiac, vol. i. p. 178, n.
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Affair is very timely Stopt."1 Special warning saved Detroit from surprise on May 7, the day appointed for its capture, and two days later Pontiac threw off all pre- tense of friendship and began the siege of the fort, which he maintained with extraordinary ability.
The storm broke on the Indiana posts a little later. On May 27, Holmes, who appears to have been more on his guard than any other commandant, was decoyed from Fort Miamis by his Indian mistress, under pretense of visiting a sick woman, and shot from ambush. The garrison was then summoned to surrender by Godefroy, a Canadian who had left Detroit just before the discov- ery of the conspiracy, and who probably was concerned in it. He told them their lives would be spared if they surrendered, but that they would all be killed if they resisted. They threw open the gates and yielded as prisoners of war without striking a blow.2 The soldiers at Quiatanon were to have been surprised and killed on the night of May 31, but Maisonville and Lorraine, two of the French traders there, induced the Indians to proceed with more moderation. On the next morning Lieutenant Jenkins was requested to come to one of the Indian cabins, and on arriving there was seized and bound. He found several of his soldiers in the same condition, and was induced to command the few remain- ing in the fort to surrender. The Ouiatanons told him that they would not have molested him if they had not been compelled to do so by the other tribes. They treated the captive soldiers kindly, but held them as prisoners for some time.8
1 Consp. of Pontiac, vol. i. p. 189, and note.
2 Ibid., vol. i. p. 278.
3 Ibid., vol. i. pp. 276, 277, and note.
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For the next two years the whole Ohio valley and much of the adjoining territory was under the control of Pontiac and his allies. The English government had no more authority in Indiana and Illinois than it had in China. The French king had agreed to surrender his posts in the District of Illinois, but the English were unable to reach them to take possession. The Shawnees and Delawares barred the eastern entrance to the Ohio. After he had abandoned the siege of Detroit, at the beginning of November, King Pontiac took his stand by the Maumee, and closed "the glorious gate " of the Miamis. The Indians of the upper lakes and the Mississippi were equally vigilant on their side. Con- sequently the French officers were obliged to remain at their posts, awaiting the arrival of the new owners to whom they had been ordered to surrender them. In the spring of 1764 Neyon de Villiers grew weary of this thankless task, and ordered St. Ange to relieve him of the command of Fort Chartres, which our faithful com- mandant at once prepared to do. His last proclamation on our soil, " donné au poste Vincene le 18 de May 1764," gave the command of the post jointly to M. De- roite de Richardville, "acting as captain of militia," and Sieur le Caindre, "a soldier of the troops." He charged them that " their first care ought to be to main- tain a good understanding with the Indians. To pre- vent disorder during the time it rests with them, when- ever complaint shall be made against any one they will take care to call an assembly of the most notable inhabi- tants of the place, where the matter will be decided by the plurality of votes." 1
1 The original of this proclamation was loaned to the Indiana Historical Society, in 1859, by Hon. C. B. Lasselle. It has dis-
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St. Ange made his way across the uninhabited prai- ries of Illinois, and was placed in command at Chartres. Neyon, accompanied by a goodly number of the Illinois people, descended the Mississippi to New Orleans, which was still supposed by them to belong to France, the ces- sion to Spain being yet kept secret. It was a weary business for St. Ange, waiting through the weeks in that grand old fortress -" the most convenient and best built fort in North America " - until the enemy of his country should come to possess and to rule. Surely he could not sit in the cool of the evening on the stone porch above the northern gate, for that looked towards the old settlements that he had known from childhood, - half of their people now gone with La Clede to St. Louis,1 or with Neyon to New Orleans; the other half, sullen and petulant, waiting for the coming of the hated red- coats. Nor was the eastern view pleasing, for in that direction was the old post that he had commanded so long and loved so well. The porch of the south gate looked towards Kaskaskia and the lower settlements, but better thoughts came there, for on that side was the great river that crushed all obstacles and bore its burden to the sea without heed to changing dynasties ; and so must he, as a true soldier, follow his path of duty to the end. Best of all, I think, he loved to stand on the western battle- ments, for when his release should come, there, beyond the stream, was yet French territory where he could begin life anew. There was the land of the Missouri,
appeared. It is not known whether some gentleman stole it or some thrifty janitor sold it for old paper. Fortunately Mr. Las- selle kept a copy, which he has kindly furnished me.
1 At its foundation in 1763. Mag. of West. Hist., vol. ii. pp. 301-321.
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where he had served in the flush of his early manhood, and where many of his old friends now awaited him. Aye, even after the painful news of the cession to Spain came up the river, the happiest prospect was to the west, for the Spaniards were Latins and Catholics at least, and if France must go it were best that Spain should come.
But St. Ange had more substantial trials than the endurance of his own sorrow. The uneasy settlers were to be quieted and consoled, and the Indians were to be kept in as good-humor as possible. This was no light task, for they wished to resist the English and insisted that the French should help them. Neyon de Villiers had notified Pontiac that he could hope for no aid from the French, in the fall of 1763, and thereby induced the abandonment of the siege of Detroit ; but notwith- standing this, the persistent chief had come to Fort Char- tres and demanded the cooperation of Neyon in fighting the English, until that officer, exasperated by his im- portunities, kicked away the proffered wampum belt and told him to be gone. He now sent embassies to St. Ange, and when these were sent away without encourage- ment, and the necessity of immediate action had been made imperative by Bouquet's subjugation of the Dela- wares and Shawnees, he came himself. Still resolute and defiant, he infused courage into the wavering tribes along his route, and brought the Illinois into his alliance by threatening their destruction if they failed him. At Fort Chartres he recounted his friendship to the French, and asked assistance in men and arms. St. Ange firmly refused both, but sought to soothe him by presents and kind words. The chieftain would not be put off so easily. He prepared a great belt and sent it down the
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Mississippi by a delegation of his ablest chiefs. They were received at New Orleans by Governor D'Abadie, who was then so ill that he could scarcely leave his bed, and who died on the night following the first day's council. On the next morning M. Aubry acted for the French, and dismissed the indignant warriors with the assurance that the French Father could do no more, - that the French and English were now one people.
Meanwhile the attempts of Major Loftus and Captain Pittman to reach Fort Chartres from New Orleans, and of Captain Morris to gain the same point by the Mau- mee, had been baffled. In the spring of 1765 Lieu- tenant Fraser was permitted to reach the fort by the Ohio, on a mission of conciliation, but after a very brief stay he was glad to escape down the Mississippi in dis- guise. Croghan followed Fraser down the Ohio in May, but he had barely passed the mouth of the Wabash when he was seized by a party of Kickapoos, who carried him to the Quiatanon towns. The Weas were found to be quite friendly, and Croghan was quickly placed in a state of comparative freedom. A few days later Maison- ville arrived with a message from St. Ange, asking Croghan to come to Fort Chartres ; and this message, backed by Maisonville's counsel, caused the Indians to withdraw all restraint and treat their former captive as a guest. On the next day Croghan started down the Wabash, but was soon met by Pontiac, who was coming to Quiatanon with a large following. He had become convinced by the reports of his ambassadors to New Orleans that the French would fight no longer, and on being assured that the cession was not a sale of the In- dian lands he became reconciled to the exchange of Great Fathers. He and Croghan went up the Wabash
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together to Post Ouiatanon, and there, in council, he announced that the French had deceived him and his people, and that he would war against the English no longer. This pledge, given at our little Wabash post and ratified at Detroit, was kept in good faith. Pontiac threw aside his rank and supported himself by hunting, while the Englishman was left free to come and go as he liked.1
( On October 10, 1765, St. Ange made formal delivery of Fort Chartres to Captain Sterling of the 42d High- landers, - the famous " Black Watch," - and our terri- tory passed under English rule. The yoke of England was not heavy. Captain Sterling at once issued a pro- clamation of General Gage, dated December 30, 1764, granting the inhabitants liberty of conscience and guaranteeing them fully their personal and property rights. ) He gave them complete freedom of emigration, but required them if they remained to take the oath of allegiance to England. Sterling lived but three months after he took command, and after him Major Farmer, Colonel Edward Cole, and Colonel Reed held command for short terms. On September 5, 1768, Lieutenant- Colonel John Wilkins, of the Royal Irish regiment, took command ; and two months later he issued a proclama- tion for the government of the country, and established a court of common law, the first that existed west of the Alleghanies. It consisted of seven judges, and dealt out English justice at monthly terms until the British Parlia- ment restored the civil law to its French-Canadian sub- jects in 1774. It was during his command, on a gloomy spring night in 1772, that the Mississippi made its last
1 Conspiracy of Pontiac ; Old Ft. Chartres ; Kaskaskia and its Parish Records ; N Y. Col. Docs., Index, " Pondiac."
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wild leap at the old fort, and swept away the southern curtain and bastions. The troops vacated the place as speedily as possible, and soon afterwards built Fort Gage, on the bluffs near Kaskaskia, which was head- quarters during the remainder of the British occupation. Fort Chartres was never reoccupied. Its walls formed a convenient quarry for the people of the neighborhood, who carried them off stone by stone until now there re- main only broken mound lines to show its extent. The old magazine alone remains intact, and solitary lifts its bramble-covered arch amid the modern features of the farmyard into which the place has been converted ; but its solid masonry aids one to imagine something of the structure of the ancient capitol of Illinois and Indiana.
There was no fort of any importance besides Chartres to be taken possession of by the English. Says Lieuten- ant Fraser : "The French have had Besides Fort Char- ters a small Fort at Cascaskias and another at Coake [Cahokia ]; there was a third called Assomption on the Bank of the Ohio opposite to the mouth of the Cherakee River,1 besides two Forts on the Ouabach, the one called the great Ouiachtonon was dependent on Canada, & the other at little Ouiachtonon or St. Vincent dependent on Orleans. All those excepting fort Charters are in- tirely in ruins, some of them that you can scarce see any appearance of. They did not seem to me of any great consequence were they even on a better footing as they were situated." 2 Many months passed before the Eng- lish came to take possession of Post Vincennes. On November 15, 1768, Lieutenant Thomas Hutchins wrote
1 The Tennessee. This is evidently a reference to that myste- rious establishment commonly called Old Fort Massac.
2 Report of May 4, 1766, Haldimand Coll., Can. Archives.
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from Fort Chartres : "The Fever and Augue since our arrival has raged with such uncommon violence as to put it out of our power to do scarce anything more than bury some of our Officers and Men who were carried off by those disorders. We expect next spring if the Health of the Garrison permit to take possession of Post St. Vincent on the Ouabache."1 This intention was not accomplished, though in the next year a census of the - Wabash posts and Fort Miamis was taken. The only indication in this census of any government at any of them is the following note concerning M. Nicholas of Vincennes : "Nicholas is the most substantial Inhabitant and has been employed as justice of the Peace there, by some authority from the commanding officer at the Illinois." 2 There seems also to have been some change in the authorities at the post, whatever they may have been, at about this time. From 1770 to 1773 all con- cessions of land were made by Ste. Marie, whose proper name was Jean Baptiste Racine. There were but two concessions between the departure of St. Ange and 1770; one is signed "Chaparlee," and the other "Cha- pard," - apparently the same person, - and both were made in 1768. As to what became of the authority of Deroite de Richardville and Sieur le Caindre, conferred by St. Ange, we have no intimation except so much as may be found in the fact that in the census of 1769 " Mrs. Richardville" is listed as the head of a family.
In 1772, while in this neglected condition, the French at Vincennes received peremptory orders from General Gage to quit the Indian country at once. In September they forwarded a remonstrance to him asserting the
1 Hutchins to Haldimand, Can. Archives.
2 Haldimand Coll., Can. Archives.
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ancient establishment of their village and the legal char- acter of their titles. In the spring of 1773 he replied requiring them to furnish "convincing proofs " of their statements.1 On receipt of this second demand there was a great ransacking of closets and chests at the old post, and doubtless much cursing of this English general who put them to so much trouble to prove something that every one in the settlement knew. Perdition take such an ignoramus! Did he expect a man to keep a little scrap of paper forever ? After all their search, so many deeds were lacking that Ste. Marie had to go to St. Louis with "M. Perthuit " (probably Perthwaite), who had been sent by Gage to investigate the matter, for the purpose of getting the testimony of St. Ange. The old commandant certified his rule from 1736 to 1764, as above given, "and that during the said time I have conceded to many inhabitants divers lands and pieces of ground, by order of my said Srs. the Governors, in the name of His Most Christian Majesty," and further " that faith should be given to the concessions which I have signed and delivered to the said inhabitants ; that in addition to this I have permitted verbally a number of individuals to establish themselves and cultivate the lands of which they have been in possession for many years." " 2 Etienne Phillibert, the village notary, certi-
1 Dillon, pp. 86-88. The remonstrance of the French settlers has not been found. Mr. Dillon makes his abstract of its contents from Gage's reply. The words which General Gage refers to as "insinuating that your settlement is of seventy years' standing," were perhaps misunderstood. The writing and spelling of the French settlers were execrable, and they furnished no proof of the time of settlement except the certificate of St. Ange above mentioned.
2 Certificate in Haldimand Coll., Can. Archives.
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fied, " that many inhabitants of Poste Vincenne, while I performed the duties of notary at said post before the flight of the late Baumer, notary after me, gave to him many contracts of concession belonging to the inhabi- tants, and that the flight of the said Sr. Baumer, as well as the transfer of the record-office of this post to that of the Illinois, have caused to be lost a quantity of conces- sion papers, as well as contracts of sale, in the year one thousand seven hundred and sixty-one, when was this removal of the said papers as also the flight of the said notary."1 In addition to these, Ste. Marie wrote a let- ter explaining that part of the title papers had been carried away and "others eaten by rats &c. ; " and all these papers were bundled together and forwarded to " M. de Gage."
While all this worriment was in progress on the Wa- bash, Gage had gone over to England and found that his policy as to these settlers would not be enforced. Lord North and Lord Dartmouth wanted the Indian country left clear of whites, but they would not oblige the settlers to leave their homes, and in consequence they were in embarrassment concerning the matter.2 The rapidly increasing difficulties of the ministry with the original colonies had begotten a desire to assure the loyalty of the settlers in the territory acquired from France, as well as of the Indians, and when the subject was brought before Parliament, in the spring of 1774, a complete change of procedure was determined on. The whole territory northwest of the Ohio was put within
1 Haldimand Coll., Can. Archives.
2 Gage to Haldimand, London, September 14, 1773, Can. Ar- chives. The papers from Vincennes did not arrive until the next year. Haldimand to Gage, January 5, 1774. Ib.
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the boundaries of the Province of Quebec ; the civil and religious rights of the inhabitants were secured; and their ancient laws and customs were restored and guar- anteed. Notwithstanding these enactments, no actual provision for the government of Vincennes was made for about three years, the attention of the administra- tion being occupied by the proceedings of the original colonies. It was then arranged that the Lieutenant- Governor of Detroit should be "Superintendent of St. Vincennes," and take charge of the post in person.
In April, 1777, Lieutenant-Governor Abbott departed for the post, accompanied by an escort of Canadians.1 He arrived at Vincennes on May 19th. On the 26th he reported : "Since the conquest of Canada, no person bearing His Majesty's Commission has been to take pos- session ; from this your Excellency may easily imagine what anarchy reigns. I must do the inhabitants justice for the respectfull reception I met with, and for their readiness in obeying the orders I thought necessary to issue. The Wabache is perhaps one of the finest rivers in the world, on its banks are several Indian Towns, the most considerable is the Ouija [Wea, Quiatanon], where it is said there are 1000 men capable to bear arms. I found them so numerous, and needy, I could not pass without great expense; The presents though very large, were in a manner despised, saying their antient Father (the french) never spoke to them without a barnfull of goods ; having no Troops and only a handfull of french obliged me to esquiese [acquiesce] in part of their ex- orbitand demands, which has occationed a much greater expense than I could have imagined, but I believe it not thrown away, as I left them seemingly well disposed for
1 Abbott to Carleton, April 15, 1777 : Can. Archives.
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His Majesty's Service. I have drawn .. . for 6428 Livres in favour of Jean Baptiste Racine dit Ste. Marie, who has acted as commandant of this place since it was conceded to His Majesty. The fair character he bears with the certificate annexed to his account makes me think it just." 1
Abbott remained through the year, in active perform- ance of his new duties, but at the opening of the next year he received orders of recall. On January 30, 1778, the inhabitants made him a formal address, certifying their gratitude for his care for their interests, and he departed full of regret " for the poor people " with whom he had soon learned to sympathize.2 With his departure began a new epoch in the history of the Wabash country ; but while we are still in the period of royal government let us turn for a farewell glance at our old friend St. Ange. After the surrender of Fort Chartres he had gone to the infant village of St. Louis; and he appears to have continued his government of that place, as a remnant of the District of Illinois. No other source of his authority there is known; in fact it was made the subject of judicial inquiry many years since, and the decision then reached was that he had no authority at all, so far at least as the granting of lands was con- cerned.8 It is said, however, that he took service under Spain in 1766, and was in command as a Spanish officer at St. Louis until 1770, when he was succeeded by Don Pedro Piernas.4 He certified in 1773 that he was a half- pay captain in the Spanish service ; and in certifying his
1 Abbott to Carleton : Can. Archives.
2 Abbott to Germaine, April 3, 1778 : Can. Archives.
3 Admrs. of Wright v. Thomas, 4 Mo. 577.
4 Mag. of West. Hist., vol. ii. p. 60.
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will, in 1774, Piernas calls him a "captain of infantry in the service of His Catholic Majesty." Whatever may have been the legal power appurtenant to his station, he was in actual authority at St. Louis until the arrival of Piernas, and in command of troops thereafter.
At St. Louis, as at Vincennes and Fort Chartres, his nobility of soul was evident. In 1769 he had a kindly word and friendly counsel for Pontiac, then assuming only the place of a warrior; and when the great bar- barian fell a victim to his Kaskaskian assassin, St. Ange sent across the river for his body and buried it with honors of war near the fort at St. Louis.1 In 1773 we have found him coming to the relief of the people of Vincennes with the strongest confirmations he could give for the protection of their homes. A few months later he passed to his rest. On December 26, 1774, Lieutenant-Governor Piernas was called to the house of Madame Chouteau, " where the said Mr. de St. Ange is abed," to draw and attest his will. In this, "First, As a good Roman Catholic and a true member of the Roman Catholic and Apostolic church, he commends his soul to God, to the Blessed Virgin and all the saints of heaven, praying them to intercede for him before the Almighty that it may please Him to admit his soul on its separa- tion from his body into the kingdom of the blessed." He then recites his debits and credits, and after pro- viding for certain masses, and appropriating the sum of 500 livres "towards the erection of the church projected in this parish," he bequeaths his little property to his nieces and nephews. And here his worthy disposition is manifest in special provision for a blind nephew, and in a provision that the two children of his Indian slave
1 Consp. of Pontiac, vol. ii. p. 311.
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Angelique, who are left to his niece, Madame Belestre, are to be freed on arriving at the age of twenty-one ; the commandant is requested to look specially to this. Pierre Laclede is made sole executor; and finally, whether with cause of apprehension we know not, he solemnly declares that he has never entered into the married state.
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