Consolidated Docket No. 317, Defendant Exhibits 61-171

Dft. Ex. 80

History and General Description of New France
pp. 1(Title page), 142, and 202.

HISTORY AND GENERAL DESCRIPTION

OF

NEW FRANCE

BY

REV. P. F. X. DE CHARLEVOIX, S. J.

TRANSLATED FROM THE ORIGINAL EDITION
AND EDITED, WITH NOTES, BY

DR. JOHN GILMARY SHEA

WITH A NEW MEMOIR AND BIBLIOGRAPHY OF THE TRANSLATOR
BY
NOAH FARNHAM MORRISON

IN SIX VOLUMES

VOL. V.

LONDON

FRANCIS EDWARDS

FRANCIS P. HARPER, NEW YORK
1902

Charlevoix, Rev. Pierre François Xavier de
History and General Description of New France

1701.     oners, whom they had adopted, and could not bring themselves to give up. He succeeded, however,
          and all promised to come to Montreal at the appointed time.

This done, he started for the Illinois, whom he reached on the 28th; all except the Kaskaskias were on the point of taking the war-path against the Iroquois, and he diverted them by the same means that he had employed to retain the Miamis. The Kaskaskias also thought of marching with the Ottawas against the Cansès, a Louisiana tribe, and he stopped them. Returning them to Chicago, where he found some Weas (Ouyatanons) a Miami tribe, who had sung the war-song against the Sioux and against the Iroquois, he obliged them to lay down their arms and extorted a promise to send deputies to Montreal.

On the 5th of May he reached the Mascoutins, who were making great preparations for war, and he had great difficulty in winning them over, though he at last succeeded. He continued his route towards (Green) Bay, where he arrived on the 14th; there he found Sacs, Otchagras, commonly called Puants, Malhomines, more generally called Folles Avoines, Foxes, Pottowatamies and Kicapoos. He addressed each nation in private, then assembled all, and after much discussion, he stopped three hundred braves, about to take the field to rush upon the Sioux, who had recently made an incursion into the Foxes, and from each of these tribes he obtained deputies for the general peace.

De Courte-    On the 2nd of July he returned to Michilimackinac, after a journey of more than four hundred
 manche's    leagues. There he found all things well arranged by the care of Father Anjelran, who had rescued
 journey.     from the hands of the Ottawas, two Iroquois, quite recently taken on some expedition not
             mentioned. They agreed between them that the missionary should set out for Montreal with the
             two prisoners, and that de Courtemanche should wait at Michilimackinac for the deputies whom
             he had not brought along.

That officer's presence was also necessary at that post, to dissipate the difficulties raised by restless Indians in regard to the restitution of the other Iroquois prisoners,

Charlevoix, Rev. Pierre François Xavier de
History and General Description of New France

1707.       Meanwhile the Miamis could not brook it, that the life of the Ottawa chief who had so injured them
            should be spared, and they incessantly demanded his head from the Commandant at Detroit. These
 New      Indians had their chief settlement on St. Joseph's River, where Father Aveneau, their missionary, by
troubles at   unalterable gentleness, and invincible patience, had succeeded in obtaining the same influence that his
 Detroit.    predecessor, Father Allouez, had gained over them.¹

Misconduct       Mr. de la Motte Cadillac, who wished to govern these Indians after his own fashion, was loth  of the           to permit that any one should have more influence than himself in a town of that nations, more
Commandant.     than a hundred leagues from Detroit, and he forced Father Aveneau to abandon his mission.²
                 He soon had reason to repent it; the Miamis having no longer a missionary to control their
                 impulses, renewed their clamor for vengeance on Le Pesant. He sought to divert them,
                 summoned Le Pesant to Detroit after assuring him that he had nothing to fear, and in fact only
                 required him to settle at Detroit with his family.

The Miamis, desperate on seeing themselves thus trifled with, killed three Frenchmen, and even committed some ravages in the vicinity of Detroit. La Motte Cadillac was even informed that they had plotted killing him and massacring all the French at Detroit; that some Iroquois and Hurons had entered the plot, and that they would have carried out their nefarious design had not a Wea Indian (Ouyatanon) betrayed them. This information, and the insult which he had just received, made him resolve to declare war on those Indians, and to appearance he made serious preparations for it; but all were much astonished to see his whole preparations end in making terms with them, dishonorable alike to himself and the French nation.