USA > Wisconsin > Brown County > History of Brown County, Wisconsin, past and present, Volume I > Part 6
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In the morning the prominent Puans gathered, eager to hear what Perrot would say to the Ottawa incendiaries, who encamped about the mission house waited stealthily and suspiciously for the word of Metaminens. Perrot stood with the unlighted calumet in his hand, and at his feet twelve brasses of tobacco while the Ottawas and other Indians who loved to listen to the com- mandant's wealth of allegorical language crowded close about him: "Cin- agots, Ootouaks, and you other warriors: I am astonished that after having promised me last year that you would have no other will than Onontio's you should tarnish his glory by depriving him of the forces that I have with much labor obtained for him. You have forgotten that your ancestors in former days used earthern pots, stone hatchets and knives and bows; and you will be obliged to use them again if Onontio abandons you. * * Cease this hostile advance which he forbids. I do not wash the blackened countenances of your warriors ; I do not take away the war club or the bow
* * but I recommend to you to employ them against the Iroquois. If you transgress his (Onontio's) orders you may be sure that the spirit who made you all,
who is master of life and death *
* will punish your disobedience if you do not agree to my demands." He lighted his calumet and throwing to them the twelve brasses of tobacco continued: "Warriors, let us smoke together." As a result the Ottawas returned to Michilimackinac appeased and resolved to take up arms only against the Iroquois.
In 1689 Perrot was entrusted with still greater responsibility by the French government. In addition to his command at La Baye he was further ordered to take possession for France of the "Bay of Puants, the lake and river of the Outagamies and Maskoutins, the river of the Ouiskonche and that of Mississippi, the country of the Nadouesioux. the Sainte Croix River and that of Saint Peter, and other places farther removed."
This comprehensive order was executed by Perrot with all due ceremonials possible in the midst of the desert. Among the witnesses appear the names of Father Joseph J. Marest, the voyageur Le Sueur, and Boisguillot, commandant under Perrot "of the French in the vicinity of the Ouiskonche on the Missis- sippi." The act of taking possession is in the Archives of the Marine, and is dated at the post of St. Antoine, May 8, 1689. This fort was located on Lake Pepin, on the Wisconsin side, and its remains were plainly visible fifty years ago. Perrot's duties as commandant of the several forts built by him included the order "to keep peace among the diverse Indian tribes to pre- vent brawls and riot among them and the coureurs de bois; to seek out new
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HISTORY OF BROWN COUNTY
countries and attach their inhabitants to France, and in time of war to collect bands of warriors and to act as their leader."
The days had gone by when western tribesmen could be impressed by French pomp and circumstance, yet they still held in regard Nicholas Perrot, and listened to him when they would to no other envoy from the central government. The brave commandant of the west had however many hair- breadth escapes, among others from the Mascoutins in 1692, who holding Perrot responsible for the death of one of their warriors condemned him to be burned with a Pottawatomie chief who was his companion; both, how- ever, escaped through .a ruse of the Frenchman and reached Green Bay in safety. A memento of Perrot at this period is preserved in the Wisconsin Historical Society. "I consent that from the first beaver which M. le Sueur will find at the Ottawas or elsewhere, belonging to us, he pay himself the sum of two thousand and two hundred and eighty-one livres, eight sols, six deniers, in beaver at the rate of the Quebec office, and this for a same amount which he paid to me for my quittance to M. Bertrand Armand, merchant at Montreal. In testimony of which I have signed the present made in duplicate at Montreal this 28th August 1695.
"I will pay the cartage of said beaver.
"N. PERROT."
Perrot's succeeding years were spent in continual efforts to keep peace for the French and secure their good treatment from the hands of the savages. The country was in desperate plight, commerce was almost at a standstill, the English coming boldly into the territory of New France and trading for furs. The fields in Canada remained untilled, the mission outposts were largely deserted, while famine and constant menace from surrounding Indian tribes depleted the French garrisons. Then came the final crushing catastrophe. the surprise of La Chine hamlet on the island of Montreal and in night and tempest the swift and terrible massacre of the entire population.
In this crisis Perrot's lifelong training and loyalty stood his country in good stead. Fearless, depending solely on his personal influence, the brave com- mandant of La Baye went from tribe to tribe calling on them to be faithful to the French, making known the treachery of the Iroquois, smoking innumer- able calumets with disaffected savages, appealing with unfailing sagacity to In- (lian superstition or cowardice. In the end he prevented what would have other- wise occurred, a general massacre of the French throughout the northwest. Cadwallader Colden. English governor of Manhattan, writing fifty years later, gives scant praise to French valor, yet accords high honor to Nicholas Perrot who at this time "with wonderful sagacity and infinite hazard to his own person diverted the savages from their murderous purpose."
In 1695 Perrot was at his quarters at La Baye post, with a command of sixty or eighty men, whom he sent forth to quell a desperate revolt among the Miamis, while at the same time he held with an iron grasp the Outagamies in partial subjection. The imperative recall of the coureurs de bois, by edict of the king was sent forth by the government in 1699. As a commercial ven- ture the western fur trade was no longer profitable, and had brought in its wake all sorts of confusion and misery to New France. The absolute suppression
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HISTORY OF BROWN COUNTY
of trading licenses deprived Nicholas Perrot however of the last possible chance of retrieving his fortune. Harassed by debt, the coureur de bois made one attempt to claim from the King some recognition of the service he had rendered to France. A memorial representing his needs and the important work done by him was forwarded to the home office. "He is very poor and very miserable," wrote Governor De Callières, "large sums are justly due him for what he has expended in the King's service," but in the voluminous correspondence received when a vessel arrived from the Canadian colony there was little chance for the appeal of a bourgeois colonist to be heard.
Although neglected by the government there were many compensations remaining in the old voyager's existence. He still owned his log house in the Seignery de Becancour, Canada, of which in 1710 he was made magistrate. Governor Vaudreuil favored the Perrots in all possible ways, and Perrot's biographer, Father Tailhan remarks naively, that although in the depths of poverty the old coureur de bois found this easier to bear from the fact that the Durantayes, Joliets, and other comrades were in the same condition. Misery loves company, especially such good company, and having a snug house, a well- filled pipe and a congenial gossip with whom to talk over old campaigns harder fates might be imagined for a retired voyageur in the sunset of his days.
In August 1701 a great council was held at Montreal. Once more the St. Lawrence was covered with fleets of canoes as in the palmy days of French supremacy. From the bay country came representatives of all the warlike tribes, Foxes, Sauks, Pottawatomies, their sole reason for seeking Montreal so they told Governor De Callières, being the recall of Nicholas Perrot. When Ounomguisee chief of the Pottawatomies threw down before De Callières a packet of beaver he cried out that for his obedience in attending this council he asked from the governor but one recompense -- that Perrot ( Metaminens ) be returned to his post at Bave des Puans. "Ile is the most esteemed of all' Frenchmen who have come to us and will aid me as no other can in enforcing thy word." Then Noro, grand chief of the refractory Foxes told how his peo- ple had stifled their angry resentment toward the Chippewas and joined the other tribes in their trail to Montreal with the sole hope of procuring the return of Perrot. "We have no head left" he lamented "since he was taken from us."
Their entreaties were met by vague promises: "Perhaps another year" thus his excellency temporized; the Indians were sent back without their old and tried commander, and henceforth the names of Perrot, Vincennes and Dulhut became a memory only among the nomadic bands they had ruled so long. Only once in succeeding years does Sieur Nicholas Perrot emerge for a moment from the shadows closing around him, and then as presenting a petition to the government asking that clemency be shown to the Outagamies, for the cruel and unequal conflict between that tribe and the French, known as the Fox wars had already begun.
The old Sieur Perrot urges, "they will listen to me, I can make peace with them," but the warning was unheeded and after that there is silence, the old voyageur's work is done.
(References for Chapter VI : Tailhan, Nicholas Perrot ; Indian Tribes of the Upper Mississippi, etc. ; Wis. Hist. Colls., Vol. 16: Doc. Hist. of N. Y., Vol. 1, Colden, History of the Five Nations.)
CHAPTER VII
THE FRENCH FORT AT LA BAYE
The early part of the eighteenth century saw La Baye region, of which St. François Xavier mission and trading house on Fox river was the pivotal point deserted save by persistent and wandering coureurs de bois. These free- booters of the wilderness disobeyed the King's orders to quit the upper lake country and continued to carry on illicit beaver commerce with the Indians. Eighty-four out of one hundred and four ignored the royal commands and made their way to the Mississippi, presumably by way of Green Bay, as this was considered the most lucrative post in the western territory.
Father Enjalran and Sieur de Courtemanche, Lieutenant of troops and Captain of Guards were sent in 1700 with a peace treaty to the Indian tribes in the vicinity of Fox river, and also with a general order that all Iroquois prisoners among the western nations should be returned in order to placate the powerful confederacy of "the Five Nations." It was a difficult mission and only partially successful for there was no longer a French commandant in charge of La Baye post to enforce the orders of King Lonis' deputy in New France, Governor de Callières.
In 1701, the "Company of the Colony," an association formed to secure western trade proposed to open up commercial depots at various military posts, with Detroit as the central warehouse. It was not intended by the directors to "make beaver skins more abundant, for they are overstocked with them," but to institute some system in the peltry traffic, and if possible to exercise partial restraint over the coureurs de bois, who as Jesuits and high officials of the government agreed, were ruining alike trade and the only channel through which trade could be sustained-the Indian.
The Jesuit missionary Joseph Marest, in a letter dated at Michillimackinac in October 1701, writes to La Mothe Cadillac at Detroit that "Our canoes left nearly 15 days ago for la baie, Father Chardon embarked with the last ones to proceed also to la baie, to the assistance of Father Nouvel, who is bourne down by the weight of nearly 80 years and by many, ailments." Father Marest proceeds to tell of the arrival of Monsieur Arnauld, a well known trader, who had just returned from La Baye showing that the commerce in peltries continued uninterruptedly despite the disturbed state of the country. Arnaud, so the priest writes, brought no letters ; he merely gave information that Father Nouvel was holding a mission among the unfriendly tribes on Fox river, an old man of eighty years and bowed by infirmities. The loneliness of the place was infinite, "never has it been in greater solitude" so Arnaud reported to Cadillac, and Father Chardon must have found the isolated outpost almost
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HISTORY OF BROWN COUNTY
insupportable after the departure of Father Nouvel, when he was left as sole resident in the one remaining building of St. Francois Xavier.
All proof points to the fact that Father Chardon remained at La Baye and its vicinity continuously for the succeeding thirty years, his death occurring at Quebec in 1743, more than forty years after the letter was written telling of his arrival at Green Bay. When the French garrisoned a fort at this point in 1717, they built it where Fort Howard stood one hundred years later, on the west side of Fox river where it widens ont to the bay. A house was erected at the same time for the resident priest, Father Chardon, who until then must have dwelt in the deserted mission building at the Rapides des Peres. Strange and bloody sights did this solitary follower of Loyola witness; for this period marks the most desperate and sanguinary half century in Wisconsin history, that which witnessed the successive and unjust attempts of the French to exterminate the brave Fox nation.
The Foxes who had come to the shores of River St. Francis so poor and starved that they were repulsive by reason of their emaciation and wretched appearance had grown under favorable conditions fat and sleek, the owners of far stretching cornfields, and a village numbering many warriors. They grew arrogant under prosperity, and lorded it over the other western Indians all but the Sakis, who dwelt at the mouth of the Fox-Wisconsin waterway, thirty miles to the northward of the Fox stronghold, and who had been their allies long before both tribes emigrated to La Baye.
The Indian name of this warlike people was Outagamie, translated by the French, Renard, and by the English, Fox; their armorial device a Fox. AAlthough courageous in resenting injury or defending their rights, the Renards do not appear to have been guilty of flagrant acts of treachery as other tribes, notably the Miamis, "the gentlemen of the prairie" were discovered in, yet other nations, jealous of their power and resenting their haughty demeanor constantly reported them as stirring up strife and being disloyal to the French.
In 1706 the garrisons and commandants had been withdrawn from most of the French posts on the upper lakes, with the belief that by concentrating the entire force in arms and all merchandise at Montreal the tribes from the west would be obliged to seek the home market in disposing of their beaver skins. Father Carheil writes from Michilimackinac of the deplorable state of affairs at these distant posts owing to the "traffic in brandy, permission for which has been obtained from his Majesty only by means of a pretext apparently rea- sonable but known to be false." Carheil asks that as this evil traffic renders useless the labors of the missionaries and as "all the villages of our savages are now only taverns as regards drunkenness," their Superior recall the priests from the western missions.
Where, as at La Baye in 1706, there was no military post the Jesuits found it much easier to manage and teach both savages and coureurs de bois. "Before there were any Commandants here the missionaries were always listened to by the traders," complains one Jesuit brother, and indeed it was only when a garrison was commanded by one, who like Nicholas Perrot was in sympathy with the church and its scheme of civilization that these frontier outposts were productive of any good in the maintenance of discipline or protection of prop- erty.
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HISTORY OF BROWN COUNTY
River St. Francis, so named by Father Allouez in 1670, had forty years later in 1710 completely lost this designation and was spoken of habitually as the "Rivière des Outagamis" or "la Rivière des Renards" the Foxes having preempted entirely this famous waterway. Tales of their treacherous dealing were rife among French and Indians. Nicholas Perrot, twenty years earlier had listened to the warning of the Puant chief that the Foxes meant to join with the other tribes in revolt. and although not placing entire confidence in the report reprimanded those Indians sharply. La Potherie says however that it was the intervention of the Outagamies that saved Nicholas Perrot from being burned at the stake by the Miamis, and in his memorial in regard to the Fox nation delivered at Montreal, Perrot urges the government to consider that other tribes have shown much more treachery in their dealings with the French than have ever the Foxes. He tells of the many times the brave Outagamis interposed in tribal warfare, aiding the weaker combatants and saving them from certain destruction. "It is characteristic of that people not to forget
the benefits that have been conferred npon them * * if I had gone up with Monsieur de Louvigny to ask for peace, even though our allies were not inclined to it, they would have listened" ( Indian Tribes Vol. 1, pp. 268, 272. )
Perrot's plea that the Foxes should be spared was not heeded and in May of the year 1716, Sieur de Louvigny with four hundred and twenty-five French and twelve hundred savage allies was sent to quell rebellion in La Baye and its dependencies. It was reported at headquarters that the Renards were intriguing with the Sioux on the west, and the English-sympathizing six nations on the east, thus linking in one confederacy the Indians dwelling throughout the vast stretch from Lake Ontario to the trans-Mississippi region and threatening by their superior numbers to overwhelm the tribes allied to the French.
In consequence of these constant alarms the Foxes were doomed to destruc- tion, every advance made by them to show their loyalty to the French govern- ment was repulsed, while their treachery was constantly prated of by the other bay tribes. De Louvigny attacked them in their principal village, some thirty- seven miles above the mouth of Fox river, where in a rude fort, surrounded by a triple row of oak stakes, more than five hundred warriors and three thou- sand women and children had fled for protection. To this stronghold De Louvigny laid siege and on the third day while he was preparing to undermine their works the Foxes, failing a reinforcement of three hundred allies hourly expected, finally surrendered.
This expedition resulted merely in the burning of a few Indian lodges, and the agreement by the Foxes to observe certain terms of peace. The official report in the archives of the Ministère des Colonies, Paris, gives, however, a different color to the affair and states impressively that "he (De Louvigny) drove the Renards into their fort, and forced them to sue for peace on onerous conditions, which he believed they would not accept. The chief articles thereof were, that they should by force or by friendly council induce the Kickapous and the Mas- coutens their allies to do the same; that they should give up all the captives of all the nations, etc."
Six hostages were brought away by De Louvigny as a guarantee that the peace contract would be fulfilled, but reading between the lines one recognizes that this was merely a vast trading expedition disguised under a show of war
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IHISTORY OF BROWN COUNTY
in order to deceive the court in France. De Louvigny's contemporaries were not deceived ; Perrot derided the results secured and Charlevoix exposed as a fraud the pretended peace. The De Louvigny canoes left Montreal loaded with mer- chandise, among which were forty casks of brandy. The governor reported that the display of martial force was made without any expense to the King, the terms of peace stipulating that the Foxes were to pay the costs of the expedi- tion by the proceeds of their hunting. The Indians knew that this armistice was bought with the price of their beaver skins, and had no intention of per- manently abiding by the peace treaty.
The early years of "Fort St. Francis" as the fort built in 1717 at the mouth of Fox river was called, continuing the name of Perrot's trading post at St. Fran- çois Xavier, were comparatively peaceful. The commandant was. Etienne Roe- bert, Sieur de la Morandière, who in 1721 was relieved by Jacques Testard, Sieur de Montigny. With this well known French officer came Pierre François Xavier de Charlevoix, a noted Jesuit priest and author. Charlevoix' "Journal Historique" published in Paris some years later gives a pleasant picture of La Baye fort in the glow of a July afternoon ; an eighteenth century scene on Fox river rich in color and interest. In reaching Fort St. Francis the Jesuit and Captain de Montigny voyaged Baye des Puans by night as well as by day, for the weather was fine and the moon at the full. After telling of the islands at the mouth of the bay and the gulf or bay de Noquet, he continued: "We pro- ceeded on our journey during twenty-four consecutive hours, making only a short halt to say Mass and to eat dinner. The sun was so hot, and the Water of the Bay so warm that the pitch of our canoe melted in several places."
Father Charlevoix remarks upon the beauty of the bay shore, "the most charming region in the world. It is even more agreeable to the sight than the Detroit country * * the Puans formerly lived on the Shores of the bay, in a most delightful location ; but they were attacked by the Illinois, who slew great numbers of them; the rest took refuge on the River of the Outagamies which empties into the end of the Bay."
Fully eight days were consumed in the trip from Mackinac but finally Fort St. Francis could be descried in the distance, a palisaded cantonment with a house for the commandant and separate lodgings for the resident missionary, Father Chardon. The Winnebagoes had built their cabins all around the fort. and across the river, was a village of Sakis. In the hot sunshine of a July after- noon the travelers disembarked. The Indians of the two tribes having learned that their new commandant was in the canoe ranged themselves along the shore carrying their weapons; as soon as he came in sight they saluted him with a volley from their guns, accompanied with loud cries of delight. Then four of their principal men waded into the river to their waists, boarded the canoe and placed Montigny upon a large robe composed of deer skins. On this litter slung like a hammock with an Indian at each corner, they bore him to his lodging, "where they paid him compliments, and said very many flattering things to him."
The following day notwithstanding the great heat the Sakis and Winnebagoes entertained their guests with dances on a large esplanade upon which the com- mandant's house fronted. It was a diverting spectacle for an hour or so, but when the Calumet dance, the Scout and Buffalo dances must all be given, the missionary grew unutterably weary; on the whole, however, his visit was inter-
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HISTORY OF BROWN COUNTY
esting and he learned much of the curious customs of our Indians wherewith he later entertained his friends, for Father Charlevoix was a man of the world and prized in Paris as a raconteur. He returned to Mackinac without ascend- ing Fox river, for on it dwelt "the Tribe which for the last twenty years has been more talked about than any other in these western Lands-the Outagamies," so that there was no safety in voyaging on it.
In September of the following year, 1722, the Foxes met in council at the house of Monsieur de Montigny to give an account of their fierce attack upon the Iroquois, but when their Chief Oushala told of the murder of his nephew, Minchilay, who was burned by that dreaded nation, their vengeance appeared to be not without cause. Montigny seems to have given them good advice and friendly warning but his position in this isolated post on Fox river was anything but an easy one. He acquired influence over the Renards to the extent of deter- ring them a number of times from warring on other tribes, and on the whole his administration was successful. He was greatly aided in his pacific policy by Father Chardon. Governor Vaudreuil writes in 1724 that "Father Chardon, a Jesuit who is at La Baye * * is greatly esteemed by the Renards," and through them by the Sioux, their friends.
In August, 1724, Sieur Marchand De Lignery, in concert with Monsieur D'Amariton and the Reverend Fathers St. Pe and Chardon met the Sakis, Renards and Puans in the fort at La Baye. Later in the same year De Lignery, D'Amari- ton and Villedonné, the commandant at Mackinac, held still another council at this point, and after much parley concluded a peace with the Renards. They were censured for their chicken-heartedness; "I am surprised that those Gentle- men at La Baye should have conchided peace so soon," wrote a warlike individual to Governor Vaudreuil.
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