Krauskopf, Frances
The French in Indiana
232 |
At the Wea post, Michel Gamelin at the direction of La Perière delivered the following goods: February 26, fifteen men of the Rivière St. Joseph, under Chief Wilamek; April 10 to La Teste Blanche and Le Comte, Wea chiefs, for two scalps which they wanted to present to Beauharnois; April 11, to Visage Plat, a Kickapoo chief, for another scalp for the governor; April 23, to twenty converted Iroquois returning from the Chickasaw; May 15, to Le Temps Clair, Mascouten chief, for a scalp; May 31, to thirteen Detroit Huron going south; September 17, to Le Comte and La Teste Blanche to tell them the news of the war; September 25, to L'Enfant, chief of the Vermillion, for the same purpose; September 27, to Mainomba, Kickapoo chief of Terre Haute; and November 12, to two soldiers who had been sent to Terre Haute for the king's service.10
By 1745 the governor complained that because of war conditions much less goods
had been sent to the posts than previously. The Indians were discouraged because
of the small quantity, high prices and low returns from their pelts. In spite
of offering licenses for nothing, especially those at Detroit, only ten went
up, seven of them free in return for carrying up the effects of the garrison
and commandant. Beauharnois feared that the Indians would turn to the English
for their supplies. Similar conditions existed in other posts, for only one
congé was issued for the Wea, to Gouin with thirty engagés, and none at all
for the Miami. Because the
___________
10C11A85:284-285.
Krauskopf, Frances
The French in Indiana
236 |
The Shawnee had at last moved to the prairie of the Mascouten. Furthermore, they had tied and plundered eight English traders on the Ohio, then advised the Detroit commandant to send for them. But when the French detachment arrived, it discovered only one, who was subsequently taken back via the Miami post. The Shawnee announced that the others had been carried to their winter quarters and that they themselves would bring the captives to the governor in the following year. Beauharnois, however, was afraid the prisoners would escape, be liberated, or even form a new alliance. He was alarmed that the scarcity of goods would produce a great change in their attitude.19
Meanwhile, the Illinois commandant had heard from the Miami officer that the Shawnee had come to blows with the English, in which several on both sides were killed. Thereafter the Indians had left their village and were descending the Ohio. According to the story which reached Louisiana, the Shawnee had moved via Lake Erie, where they had met fifteen Englishmen in Sandusky Bay. The redmen had arrested the whites and at the same time had sent notification to Detroit to come get the prisoners. Possibly these were the routes of two different Shawnee bands.
At any rate, if it were true that the Shawnee were coming down the Ohio, Vaudreuil
proposed to stop them on the Wabash, since
___________
19C11A83:104v-105; C11A117:351; WHC, XVII, 448-449; NYCD, X, 20-21. Some of the related expense accounts for goods furnished at Miami are listed in C11A117:370, 371.
Krauskopf, Frances
The French in Indiana
237 |
three years earlier they had promised Beauharnois to move to Terre Haute. If they had decided to take this step, he reasoned that very likely they could come there for their winter hunting. Bertet of the Illinois was counting on engaging them to join the Kickapoo and Mascouten, who had promised to come see him in the autumn for the purpose of establishing in the area of the protected Wabash fort. If all these projects could be managed, the French would be assured that their rivers would be well guarded from the south and east, for these nations would completely protect the region from the incursions of the Cherokee and Chickasaw.20
Vaudreuil also sent plans for a stone fort fifteen leagues from the mouth of
the Wabash, where it would be the key of the colony. In spite of conditions
in Europe, he suggested that the construction should not be delayed any longer.
The advantages to be gained from blocking the two large southern nations plus
the projected move of the Kickapoo and Mascouten, who had at last decided to
leave their former homes at Terre Haute, had persuaded him to attempt the establishment
that very fall, but he was unable to carry out his plans because of finances.
He feared that the delay might discourage the Kickapoo and Mascouten; even more
distressing was the fact that if the Shawnee left the Ohio to come to Terre
Haute they could most probably have been joined to the first two
__________
20C13A29:89v-90v.
Krauskopf, Frances
The French in Indiana
238 |
nations, as their chief had led the French to hope. Vaudreuil again emphasized the importance of preserving the Wabash communications route between Illinois and Canada. The governor begged for permission to proceed with his plans so that at least he could keep the Mascouten and the Kickapoo, who were supposed to hunt in this spot, especially since Bertet had promised them that he would go in the autumn with a detachment to mark the emplacement of the fort and to prepare for them an area to establish their village.21
Vaudreuil submitted a memoir which discussed the boundaries between Louisiana and New France. In the Wabash area he proposed drawing the line fifteen leagues above Terre Haute, where Beauharnois had earlier located it. There it could do no harm to the trade of the Wea post, if the farmers of that place would be free to continue with the nations established along the length of the stream. By this means the Piankashaw post would be exempted from all. The expense to which it was subjected by the proximity of the trade of the different nations which it attracted but the advantage of which returned to the farmers of the grands Ouyas.22
Early in February, 1746, Vaudreuil-whose report was supplemented by Beauharnois-wrote
to the court that according to his latest information the Kickapoo and Mascouten
had again assured
__________
21C13A29:55-59; B83:313-313v.
22C13A29:85-87v.
Krauskopf, Frances
The French in Indiana
239 |
the French that they would come to build their village in the locality of the fort planned for the Wabash. Part of the Shawnee had come down the Ohio and settled three leagues above a point called The Fork, which was the Juncture of that stream with the Wabash. The remnant had tarried in the upper reaches of the Ohio on a little river opposite Sandusky or the Sandusky portage, where they had been stopped on their way to the Wabash by Englishmen with a quantity of presents.
Because of some discontent this nation had rejected the British. When the question of taking sides came up, fourteen traders were with them. The Indians asked the whites to leave; the more prudent did so, but the seven who remained were pillaged and taken prisoner. One was immediately sent to Detroit; two were turned over to the trader Poudret to take to the Piankashaw, but on the way they killed him and escaped; the other four were led by the Shawnee themselves in November, 1745, to Bertet at Fort Chartres. He in turn forwarded them to Louisiana together with a message from the Shawnee which seemed to imply that they wanted to mediate peace between the French and all the nations having access to the river. Bertet however hoped that some of his speeches would bring the two bands together again in the spring, especially since they had sent twelve envoys to the forty Shawnee families who had been living near the Alibamon for ten years for the purpose of inviting the southern members to join them. Beauharnois would have preferred for them to settle on the prairie of the Mascouten where it would have been easier to inspire in them sentiments convenient for the French.
Krauskopf, Frances
The French in Indiana
244 |
ages until times changed. His congé allowed him to take three canoes and fifteen men. Charly was also permitted the same number of men and canoes, but the rôle of engagés numbered only ten.27
At the Miami post Charly's agent, by order of Douville, again issued supplies for various reason.28 On March 10 Louis Edeline delivered to L'Eturgeon and Le Pied Froid supplies for their attack on the Têtes Plates. Two months later, on May 5, Le Pied Froid and Le Cygne were given goods for the same purpose. Early in June the blacksmith, Barthe, did some work for the Piankashaw who had come to look for the Miami. And in August the commandant, Douville, ordered some beads for his post, apparently while he himself was at Detroit.29
A considerable number of supplies were delivered by Michel Gamelin at the Wea
post by order of Perière.30 Gamelin also
___________
27C11A85:17v-19; WHC, XVII, 450-451; "Congés de traite conservés aux archives de la Province de Québec," RAQ, 1922-1923, pp. 223-224.
28C11A89:359-360. The supplies included: May 16, to the Seneca chiefs in the council where the Miami, Wea, and Piankashaw chiefs were assembled; May 24, to these same chiefs for their return home; June 4, to the Miami chiefs at the request of Bertet to attend a council of the Shawnee and all the nations of the area; and September 11, to Memesquias to withdraw a collar given by the Seneca chiefs.
29C11A89:354; C11A117:367-367v, 376.
30C11A85:287-290. January 22, to Indians to engage them to search for La Chaussee, a soldier lost in the woods; February 19, brandy to Le Visage Plat; February 26, brandy to Le Temps Clair; March 7,
Krauskopf, Frances
The French in Indiana
245 |
supplied merchandise for La Pérade, who after his arrival on September 1 called
La Teste Blanche and his band to recount to them news of the war, to encourage
them to maintain their good union with the French, and to anticipate the blows
of the English by the instigation of the Iroquois. Also included were L'Homme;
the Wea Le Comte; Visage Plat, the Kickapoo; Le Temps Clair, the Mascouten.31
___________
to fifteen Kickapoo under Le Couteau, going to attack the Chickasaw; March 8, to twenty-five Wea under La Gauche; March 19, to La Face Noire and his party of twenty-five Kickapoo; March 22, to Le Temps Clair and his party of thirteen Mascouten going to war on the Chickasaw; March 22, to Pacanne and his party of fifteen Mascouten; March 25, to Le Brechu and his party of twenty-five Kickapoo; April 7, brandy and tobacco to La Teste Blanche and Le Comte, Wea chiefs; April 8, presents to these last two to keep their youth in good disposition; April 17, to L'Homme, a Wea chief, and his young men, April 19, gifts in the council held with the Wea, Kickapoo, and Mascouten to tell them the news from the Illinois; April 21, gifts in the council to make them know on the part of Bertet that the Têtes Plates were asking for peace; April 25, delivered to the chiefs of Rivière St. Joseph who had come to speak with the Kickapoo and Mascouten about the death of Le Petit Boeuf; April 30, gifts for a council held with the St. Joseph chiefs and the Wea nations; May 13, paid to M. le Clair for goods that he furnished to Buteau at the Vermillion; May 13, delivered to La Teste Blanche for the young men returning from war; May 25, presented to the band of Le Sourd arriving from the wintering place; May 26, gifts to L'Enfant, chief of the Vermillion; May 28, delivered to fourteen Huron returning from the Chickasaw; May 29, to cover the death of the daughter of Le Temps Clair; June 6, gifts to L'Enfant and his band; June 8, to thirty-five Ottawa of Detroit returning from the south; June 9, to the Wea chiefs to say goodbye; June 12, to say goodbye to the Mascouten chiefs; June 13, supplies to a brave going to Illinois according to the request of Bertet to listen to the words of the Têtes Plates; June 13, to Le Comte and La Teste Blanche to say goodbye to them and to encourage them to continue their journey to the Illinois; several items covered payments to various messengers, including an Indian named Little Wifebeater.
31C11A118:9-11. Other expenditures included gifts to withdraw from
Le Comte a calumet he had received from the Iroquois
for evil pur-
Krauskopf, Frances
The French in Indiana
375 |
savages of the Wea post were reported to have ravaged up and down the frontier; they had even attacked a small fort, although they were unable to capture it.26 In autumn plans were made to bring a force of Indians to the protection of Fort Duquesne, and the Miami and Wea were included in these arrangements.27 And at Detroit preparations were begun to send provisions to the Ohio, but the project had to be discontinued because the supplies were needed for that post itself, as well as for the Miami and Wea.28
In 1758 Kerlérec, governor of Louisiana, sent a memoir to the court which described
conditions in his colony. Included in the document was a discussion of Fort
Massiac, which had a garrison of fifty men. The haste with which it had been
built had permitted only the use of upright stakes. At the Wabash post of St.
Ange were forty men of the garrison with about eighteen or twenty habitants
who raised wheat, tobacco, and corn. This fort was only a simple fencing of
stakes, very old. In the vicinity were eighty Piankashaw warriors, allies of
the Illinois. Farther upstream were the Wea, 150 warriors, who had always been
very much attached to the French. Such tribes as the Miami, the Ottawa of Detroit,
the Grands Ouyas, the Kickapoo, the Mascouten, the Potawatomi and
___________
26C11A103:224.
27C11A103:226.
28C11A105:260v.