USA > Wisconsin > Brown County > History of Brown County, Wisconsin, past and present, Volume I > Part 7
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The letters wherein the fort at La Baye is mentioned grow more and more discouraging in tone as time goes on. In 1727, the Sieur Duplessis Faber was in command, and his account for services as commandant amounts to two thou- sand, six hundred and one livres, certified by the missionary as correct. The Intendant Dupuy reports that he has allowed the sum of one thousand livres on this financial memorandum, for the Green Bay post with that on the river St. Joseph "have become more onerous" in consequence of the existing state of affairs. Dupuy, however, feels bound to call attention to the fact that if the commandant advances presents to the savages in order to give weight to his words he must receive a return from them in beaver.
In retrospect the conduct of the Foxes does not seem to have warranted the cruel and unremitting warfare waged upon them by the French and allied tribes. Even pacific Father Chardon although not advising extermination writes that "in order to compel the nation of the Renards to keep quiet and in awe of us it would be advisable : first, to deprive them of the refuge they have secured among the Scioux, and to that end prevent their being given any of the goods they procure in the upper country, especially at the post established at La Baye des Puans." This post the priest advises be suppressed, "as trade both in brandy and merchan- dise is notorious, as the commandants have bought these posts."
La Baye continued to be the central point where French officers high in rank and of distinguished family met to consult with each other and to hold council with the warring tribes, and always it was the Foxes who received the blame and
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were held as the principal offenders. In 1727 Father Chardon emerges from the obscurity of his mission station on the banks of Fox river as aiding a party of Frenchmen who were on their way to establish a post in the Sioux country "Sieur Reaume, interpreter of the languages of the Indians at La Baye acted with zeal and devotion to the king's service. Even if my testimony, Monsieur, should not be deemed impartial. I must have the honor of telling you that the Reverend Father Chardon, an old missionary, was of very great service there." The mis- sionary and his companion accompanied the party as far as the village of the Renards smoothing the way everywhere for the stranger's reception, and then "early in the morning of the following Sunday, the 17th of the month of August, Father Chardon departed with Sieur Reaume to return to La Baye."
Sieur de Lignery's letter giving an account of his expedition against the Foxes is dated La Baye, August 30, 1728, and tells first of gathering from the different tribes an army of nearly "twelve hundred savages, and four hundred and fifty French. 1 proceeded to La Baye, where we arrived about midnight. 1 posted a detachment of savages on one side of the river, and one of French on the other. With the help of some Sakis whom I had with me our French captured three Puans and a Renard, whom I gave to the tribes that they might drink of their broth. They put them to death on the following day."
Nothing was accomplished by this campaign save the sacrifice of these four Indians, and the burning of immense fields of Indian corn, peas, beans and gourds, "of which there was so great a quantity that one could not believe it without seeing. Thus, Monsieur, terminated our Expedition, which will be no less advantage to the glory of the king than to the welfare of both Colonies inasmuch as one half of those people will die of hunger.".
Father Crespel, a Recollet Flemish priest accompanied the Lignery expedi- tion as almoner and was a witness to the inhuman tortures inflicted by the invad- ers on the hapless Indian tribesmen. The Fox encampment at the mouth of Fox river adjoining the village of their allies the Sakis, was only temporary, as their permanent habitation at that date was at Lake Butte des Morts. It was a custom, however, with all the Indian nations to migrate at certain seasons for hunting, fishing or the gathering of wild rice, and as August was the month for the garnering of that grain and also for harvesting the large crops of Indian corn, it is probable that the Foxes had encamped at this fertile point for that purpose.
It was impossible for Lignery and his party to successfully execute a plan to surprise the enemy, for no sooner had the Pottowatomies at the mouth of Green Bay sighted the fleet of canoes than a detachment of swift runners was dispatched by those Indians to warn the Sakis and Renards of impending danger. The day following the destruction of the Saki village Sieur de Lignery's band ascended Fox river to where a group of lodges marked the principal habitation of the Renards. One old man and three women were the only inmates, the remainder of the tribe having deserted the camp: an auto da fé of the aged Indian was held and the village and surrounding fields of maize totally destroyed.
The French officer terminated his ruthless work by burning the Winnebago village surrounding Fort St. Francis and later the fort itself. For this un- authorized act he was sharply censured by the government, "as he had people and ammunition and could wait for orders until the next year," but the mutin-
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6 MILES
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MAP OF
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HISTORIC SITES ON GREEN BAY, WISCONSIN 1669 - 1689
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BY ARTHUR C. NEVILLE . 1905
GREEN BAY
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MISSION ST. FRANCIS XAVIER ( 1671-89 )
THE NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY ;
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ous spirit shown by the voyageurs, which he confesses caused him more trouble than he had ever before experienced coupled with Father Chardon's recommenda- tion that La Baye post be abandoned because of its dissolute character, doubtless led De Lignery to destroy it.
An investigation into the expense incurred by the expedition was also made and Lignery accused of wasting and misappropriating the supplies. Not until two years later is there record of his being cleared of the indictment. The court- martial assembled for investigation acquitted and relieved him from the charge of misbehavior both as "regards the expedition under his charge, and the purchases of Provisions that he caused to be effected at Michilimackinac."
That Lignery was highly thought of is certain. He is said to have been the man in power in all the colony. "and French and savages would have marched under his orders with great pleasure," but to his official complaint the significant marginal note is appended, "M. De Lignery allows the Foxes to escape," indi- cating that the government, intent on the destruction of that tribe, considered him dilatory, and too much inclined to clemency in his treatment of the offend- ing Indian. His later war record, however, shows him as serving his country with great credit and bravery.
A commander for still another expedition against the unsubdued Outaga- mies was found in Pierre Paul, Sieur Marin, who in May, 1730, established a post among the Menominees. Marin joined the Folle Avoines in an attack on the Renards, on suspicion that the latter had either captured or killed a neighboring nation,-the Puans; who had "not been seen walking about their villages for some time." The war had indeed been going on for nearly a month and a half between the Puans and Foxes before inquiry was made.
The Puans had built a fort on a small island in little Lake Butte des Morts in the belief that the Foxes had abandoned permanently this part of the country when the latter returned and immediately commenced hostilities. In March, 1731. Marin with a detachment of five Frenchmen headed a band of Menominee warriors to go in aid of the besieged Puans. The campaign ended in the killing of one and wounding of two Frenchmen, ten killed and wounded among the Menominees and twenty-five among the Foxes, of whom the remainder with- drew leaving their villages deserted. The French on the fifth day of combat observed "Ravens alighting in the Fox fort, this left us no doubt that they were no longer there."
On his return from this sortie Marin brought with him all the Puans, whom he left at La Baye where, so the narrative goes, they established themselves in a fort.
The final and crushing blow against the Fox nation was given by Nicholas Coulon, Sieur de Villiers in the month of August, 1730. The tribe had been secretly offered an asylum among the Iroquois and assured a safe passage through the lands of the Ottawas. They had begun the long march eastward, when the Mascoutins, Kickapoos and Illinois descried them on the trail, and at once notified the commandants at the different posts. A war party under De Villiers numbering about fourteen hundred men started in pursuit. The Foxes made a courageous stand, but finding themselves far outnumbered and being on the verge of starvation, tried to withdraw under cover of the night and a violent storm of wind and rain. The crying of the little children betrayed Vol. 1-4
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them, they were pursued, three hundred warriors were killed or captured, six hundred women and children absolutely destroyed.
In 1731 when the Green Bay post was reestablished under command of De Villiers a few poor fugitives of the haughty Renards, came begging for peace and their lives. To this exterminator of his nation came Kiala, a chief of renown and offered his life for the lives of his people. The commandant ordered that the poor savage be taken to Montreal, where Governor Beauharnois condemned him to slavery in Martinique, but chained in a slave gang the proud chief of the untamable Foxes did not long survive this inhuman sentence.
Sieur de Villiers, who had been sent to reestablish the post at the mouth of Fox river wrote that the Sakis had rebuilt their old village just across the river from the fort, and that they were there with their families. Permission had been given to the voyageurs to carry stocks of trading goods to the place and Beauharnois wrote to France that he should continue the post as it was before evacuated.
In a "Memoir of the King" despatched from France, May 12, 1733, Louis XV approves highly of the state of affairs at La Baye garrison; the rebuild- ing of the fort, the blow inflicted by De Villiers, and the placing of that officer in command. His majesty also commends Sieur Marquis de Beauharnois for sending voyageurs with supplies to that post. "Tranquility being no longer disturbed in that quarter, it will be easy for him to send them every year. as His Majesty recommends him to do."
Tranquility might appear to brood over Fort St. Francis and the Fox river valley in the summer of 1733. as viewed from far off Versailles, but there was in reality restless wandering of savage bands hither and thither along the shores of the river and bay, engaged in never ending strife, bloodshed and torture.
On July 1. 1733. Beauharnois, a man ready to carry out the king's pleasure in resorting to extreme measures in the treatment of the Renards wrote at length to the French minister at Paris. After reporting the action of the great chief Kiala, of his intention to banish the savage to Martinique and of De Villiers' efficiency as commandant at La Baye, he pens the fatal words: "I am sending the Sieur de Villiers at once to return to la Baye with orders to bring all the Renards to Montreal or to destroy them. The Sieur de Villiers has also orders if that wretched remnant will not obey to kill them without making a single prisoner, so as not to leave one of the race alive in the upper country, if possible."
Beauharnois, the colonial government and King Louis in distant France counted too confidently on the cruel policy pursued toward the unfortunate Foxes. Hated though they were by other tribesmen, the French administration at La Baye had antagonized the Indians throughout the whole upper country and they no longer joined wholeheartedly in the extermination of that tribe. There was one Algonkin branch that had never mingled in the savage joy that animated French and Indians alike over the final humbling of the unhappy Renards. This was the Sakis, the Renards' long time allies, who when the few survivors came to ask refuge gave them shelter in the Saki village. The fatal tragedy that occurred in consequence of this alliance and Governor Beau- harnois' peremptory orders to Sieur de Villiers, the arrogant commandant at La Baye, is rehearsed minutely in a report sent to France by Beauharnois on
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November II, 1733. "Monsieur de Villiers, the commandant of that post, (La Baye) arrived there on the 16th of September, alone in a canoe. He had left at a distance of half a league from there the Sieur Repentigny, a lieu- tenant who was commandant at Michilimackinac, together with two hundred savages * * * and about sixty French. The Sieur de Villiers had given him orders to be ready to march as soon as he heard the signal of three gun shots. When Monsieur de Villiers arrived at the French fort he at once sent for the Saki chiefs to inform them of their Father's ( Onontio) intentions. The chiefs came to him and he explained to them that their father had granted the remnant of the Renards who were with them their lives ; but on the condi- tion that they should submit to his orders and go to Montreal."
"After a council which lasted some time, as the Saki chiefs gave no positive answer, Monsieur de Villiers sent four of them back to their fort to tell their tribe that if within a certain time they did not send the Renards to him he would go and get them himself. When the specified time had elapsed, without the Renards appearing, and when Monsieur de Villiers, whom the Sieur De Repen- tigny had joined, saw that the Sakis were not coming back he resolved to go to their fort in person, accompanied by two of his children, by the Sieur Douville, the younger, his son-in-law, and by seven or eight French to ask them to deliver up the Renards to him. He had just given orders to the Sieur de Repentigny to guard the approaches to the Sakis fort with the remainder of the French lest the Renards should escape. When Monsieur de Villiers arrived at the door of the fort and asked the Sakis for the Renards, he found there some armed Sakis, who told him to withdraw, and when he tried to enter, a savage approached him with uplifted tomahawk; at the same moment three shots were fired, one of which killed one of the Sieur De Villier's sons at his side. The father and the French discharged their pieces, and this was followed by other volleys from the Sakis, by which Monsieur de Villiers was killed and three French were wounded."
"Monsieur De Repentigny, who guarded the approaches on the side of the woods ran up and was killed a moment afterward in a sortie that the Sakis made against him. The Sieur Duplessis, a cadet in the troops, and six other French met the same fate. Two hundred of our savages who had remained in the French fort went to the assistance of the others, and when the Sakis saw them coming, they withdrew into their fort. Three of them were killed."
This desperate revolt of the Sakis, who hitherto had kept out of the various embroilments in which the Renards had met their fate, took place in the Saki fort which stood on the east side of Fox river on the sandy ridge where Main street, Green Bay city runs today. Three days after this action the Sakis and their allies, the Renards, evacuated the fort and fed up the river. Ensign de Villiers, the son of the commandant had been stationed at "le petit Cacalin," (Little Rapids) with ten Frenchmen and fifty savages previous to the attack made by his father on the Sakis, in order to block the waterway for any escap- ing Renards. Returning from there and learning of the fate of the French gar- rison, he started in pursuit of the escaping Indians, overtaking them about four o'clock in the afternoon, eight leagues from La Baye post.
De Villiers was aided by all the other tribes in the vicinity, Ottawas, Meno- minees and Saulteurs. A fierce and bloody conflict took place lasting until
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nightfall. Both Indians and French met with heavy loss, and the spot where the final stand of the Foxes and Sakis was made is now known as Little Butte des Morts. (Hill of the Dead. )
Duplessis, who was killed was the son of the former commandant at La Baye, of that name; Repentigny, who had left his command at Mackinac, to assist in the enforcement of the fatal order to bring by force the residue of the Foxes to Montreal, where they were to be sent into slavery, was also a well known officer in the colony. The brothers Des Musseaux, Daillebout, Ensign de Villiers' brother "a cadet." and Douville the younger were all prominent in colonial affairs. De Beauharnois, at once gave necessary orders to attack the Sakis and the remainder of the Renards to avenge the blood of the French that had been shed. The ensign Louis de Villiers, called "le grand Villiers" suc- ceeded to his father's command at La Baye post, promotion was suggested for the other survivors, and a pension for the widow, Madame de Villiers, was recommended, and later granted.
The repulse of the French by the Saki garrison took place on September 16, 1733. The desperate courage shown by the Indians astonished both the French and their allies. Nothing was talked of, so Beauharnois reports, but this unexpected and fatal encounter at La Baye, and the best means to avenge French losses. The Sakis meanwhile had established themselves in a fort on an Iowa river in close proximity to that of the Foxes. They were reported as regretting their rash act in protecting at the risk of extermination the doomed Renards. The year following the tragedy at Fort La Baye saw another expedi- tion set forth under command of Sieur de Noyelle. Ninety young men eager to try their hand in the final subduing of the indomitable Foxes and their allies joined in the campaign, but the western tribes whom Nicholas Perrot called "creatures of contradiction" had undergone a change of heart following the bold and generous stand taken by the Sakis.
Far from aiding De Noyelle's advance Indian guides led his band astray and in consequence the French endured a journey of incredible hardships. When they reached the Ottawa country they found that the Indians of Michili- mackinac had completely changed their minds ; that rather than aid in an attack upon the Sakis, the Ottawas begged that the lives of that tribe be spared on condition that the Renards be induced to place themselves at the mercy of their father, as they had promised. De Noyelle, harassed and perplexed by this abso- lute change in the attitude of the savages retreated after a slight skirmish on April 19, 1735, with the promise of the Sakis that they would separate from the Foxes and return to Green Bay.
The fort at La Baye continued to be garrisoned. In 1737 Claude Antoine de Berman, Sieur de la Martinière, captain of troops, was in command, and from 1739-40, Sieur Marin, who, however, acted more as a peace commissioner than commander for La Baye and the Sioux country. During the summer of 1742, Marin, with an immense concourse of savages, went to Montreal, where a general conference of the western tribes was held. The bay Indians pro- fessed that they had "no other will but that of Monsieur Marin," who, indeed, seemed in his treatment of them, just and generous. The Renards made a brief but dignified plea that mercy should be shown them, and defended the attack made by them on the Illinois by proving that it was in revenge for the murder
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of three of their women by that nation. They further promised that they would obey the words of Monsieur Marin, who said: "You Sakis and Renards, do not go to war against the children of your Father Onontio; remain quiet at home."
Joachim Sacquepée, Sieur de Gonincourt, in command at La Baye in 1742, adds still another highsounding name to the long list of French chevaliers, who in the small stockaded fort at the mouth of Fox river, made futile attempts to pacify the warring tribesmen, inhabiting the whole western territory. In the summer of that year, Sacquepée reports that all is quiet along Fox river, and the garrison enjoying peace, but as a large number of the warriors were absent with Marin at Montreal, this brief respite is easily explained.
Notwithstanding the sure element of danger involved, constant communica- tion was carried on between Canada and the western forts, for it was the fur trade rather than military renown that spurred French valor to dangerous deeds. A curious scheme undertaken in 1743, was the farming out by the French government of military posts in the upper country, for the pursuance of trade. These beaver depots were sold at auction to the highest bidder, La Baye being assigned to the Sieur de la Gorgendiére, who rented the same to the Sieur Daillebout and other voyageurs at 20,450 livres.
In October, 1743. Paul Louis Dazenard, Sieur de Lusignan, a distinguished officer of the colonial troops, was placed in command at La Baye, in preference to Sieur Marin, whom Beauharnois had destined for that post. The governor of New France veils his discomfiture over the non-appointment of his favorite in his letter to the French Minister dated at Quebec, October 13, 1743.
"As regards the Sieur Marin, I had anticipated the intentions of His Majesty. in giving to the Sieur de Lusignan the Command of the Post at La Baye, for which I had destined the former, less with a view of having him profit by the advantages which this post might offer, than of having him succeed as he has done, in the mission with which I had charged him, for which he was eminently fitted by his talents and by the Reputation which he has acquired
among the Nations. *
*
* I can not refuse the same testimony to his son, who has succeeded in the details which the Sieur Marin entrusted to him in these Negotiations as completely as could be Hoped" (Vol. 17, p. 440).
The system of farming out the different posts caused dissatisfaction among the Indians because of extortionate prices charged by the French traders for their goods. The English on the other hand brought in better goods at less price, and the hunters naturally sought the most profitable market with their peltries. At La Baye in the following year Monsieur de Lusignan, the com- mandant complains that the farmers exploiting the post are independent of and insubordinate to his orders. He reports that eight or ten coureurs de bois by the payment of 6000 livres in beaver skins have gained possession of this lucrative trade, the farmers agreeing to furnish them goods at the same price as is allowed to the trading posts.
As De Lusignan had no garrison under his command he was unable to control affairs in the Green Bay fort, the traders claiming that as they had paid the price asked for the privilege of carrying on the peltry traffic they were not to be interfered with in any method they might pursue. This mode of
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proceeding by the farmers was a direct infringement of the King's command and Sieur de Angé the chief instigator of trouble to Montreal, and to refuse to have any goods delivered at the fort unless the coureur de bois could be forced to behave respectably.
The stringent measures instituted by government evidently caused disgust among the bidders, for in 1746 no farmer would place a bid for La Baye. The last lease in favor of Monsieur de la Gorgendière had expired, and the high price of goods, the full charge for licenses collected, and the obligation to transport the munitions required for the service at their own expense fright- ened off possible bidders. The commandant at Mackinac "provided for the safety and indifferently for the trade" of La Baye post by allowing two private individuals to fit themselves out with goods, provided the sum of 1000 livres was paid by them.
There is a lease with accompanying agreements preserved in the colonial archives at Paris that was issued in April, 1747, to the Sieurs Cligancourt, Monière and L'Echelle for the exclusive trade at the post of "la Baie des Puans." It is a curious and illuminating document rehearsing as it does the various stipulations necessary to carry on the fur trade at that date. The officer in command of the fort was not to enter into any trade directly or indirectly with the tribes; the holders of the lease agreed to furnish him with fuel and lodging and to provide him with presents in moderation to give the savages in order to keep peace. The commandant must see to his own food, but the farmers, in other words the holders of the lease must convey to him every year provisions and goods to the amount of fifteen hundred pounds weight, from which the officer might purchase any supplies required. The lessees were also to carry "free of charge the commanding officer, his trunk, his money box and utensils required for the journey both in going to the said post and returning therefrom."
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