Vol. 24, pp. 190.
Vol. 33, pp. 123, 138, 162, 163, 193, 207, 208, 232.
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stationed there ought not only to be sufficient for the defence of the place,
but always to afford a detachment of five or six hundred men, either to
chastize any of the Wabash or other hostile Indians, or to secure any convoys
for Provisions.
The Establishment of said Post is considered as an important object of the Campaign, and is to take place in all events. In case of a previous treaty, the Indians are to be conciliated upon this point if possible, and it is presumed such arguments may be ordered as to induce their acquiescence.
The situation, nature and construction of the works you may direct, will depend upon your own Judgment. Major Ferguson of the artillery will be fully capable of the Execution.
He will be furnished with three 5 1/2 Inch Howitzers, and three Six Pounders & three three pounders, all Brass, with a suitable quantity of shot & shells for the purpose of the Expedition. The appropriation of these pieces will depend upon your orders.
Having commenced your march upon the main Expedition and the Indians continuing hostile, you will use every possible exertion to make them feel the effects of your superiority; and after having arrived at the Miami Village, and put your works in a defensible state, you will seek the enemy with the whole of your remaining force & endeavor by all possible means to strike them with great severity.
It will be left to your discretion whether to employ if attainable, any Indians of the Six Nations & the Chickasaws or other Southern Nations. Most probably the employment of about fifty of each, under the direction of some discreet and able chiefs, would be advantageous. But, these ought not to be assembled before the line of march is taken up, because they are soon tired and will not be detained.
The force contemplated for the Garrisons of the Miami Village, and its communications has been from a thousand to twelve hundred non commissioned officers & privates. This is mentioned as a General Idea to which you will adhere or from which you will deviate as circumstances may require.
The garrisons stationed at the Miami Village and its communications must have in store at least six months good salted meat, and flour in proportion.
It is hardly possible, if the Indians continue hostile, that you will be suffered quietly to establish a Post at the Miami Village; conflicts therefore may be expected, and it is to be presumed that disciplined valor will triumph over the undisciplined Indians. In this Event it is probable that the Indians will sue for Peace. If this should be the case,
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123 |
This 13th letter [is] from Father d'Avenaut, missionary to the Miamis. He
acknowledges having received one from M de Calliere, and [says] that he read it
to the Miamis, having invited them to go and settle at Detroit. M. de Lamothe
knows the contrary from the Frenchmen who were present there, having told the
savages [before] them to remain steady in their village. And this agrees with
what one of the chiefs of the Miamis told M. de Lamothe at the council of the
27th of June, 1702. On the last point, the Father relied on the speech which M.
de Calliere had made to the Miamis at Montreal at the general assembly which
was held there on the 6th of August, 1701, in which he begins in these terms at
para. 6.
As regards what you ask me, Chichikatelo, that the other villages of the Miamis should form one only with us at the St. Joseph river, you may assure all those of your tribe that they will give me pleasure by joining you there, for I am convinced that as soon as peace is concluded they will live much better there than in all the other places where they [now] are.
It is agreed that this speech would have been a reason for dissuading the Miami savages from coming to settle at Detroit, if the letter which the Governor wrote to him to invite them to come there, had not been later.
From the St. Joseph River the 4th of June, 1702.
Thirteenth
Sir,
I no sooner received last summer the letter which the Governor did me the honor
of writing to me as to the settlement of the French at Detroit, in which he
invites the savages including the Miamis to come and settle near the French
at the post of Detroit, than I read it to them in their tongue without concealing
anything of the contents of the aforesaid letter from them. And now, when I
remind them of it, they tell me that it is true that I read it to them, and
that I added that, if they went and settled at Detroit I would not fail to go
there also, not being willing to abandon them; they answered me that, amidst
so great a number of people, they feared to be reduced in a short time to starvation,
although the goods which they are encouraged to hope they will get cheap do
not fail to shake their [resolution] greatly, The news of 100 or 200 Iroquois
who were to come here this summer to speak to them, which St. Michel told me
to tell them for you, has surprised them strangely and has given them occasion
to doubt the truth of the peace, thinking they were not included, especially
when they were told, also from you, that they were to stand upon their guard,
which nevertheless did not prevent a few young men from setting out a few days
ago on the warpath against the Si8s in spite of all that the old men and I could
say to them to make them at least delay their march for some time till they
should learn news of Onontio their father. You know still better than I the
disposition of the savages, I mean their way of acting, they always pursue their
own points, so that if they really wish to go to Detroit, they will go without
fail; if not, they will remain just where they are, or at least they will make
no great stir to change their dwelling place. I pray God that he will give us
and them the grace to do ever and in all things his
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Vol. 1, p. 64.
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ANNUAL MEETING, 1903. |
There is also, on the left of the fort, a village of Oppenago, that is of
Wolves, to whom I have likewise granted lands, on condition, however, of giving
them up to me if I want them afterwards, on granting them others further off;
the spot where they are might be useful for a common land hereafter. These are
the most tractable and most peaceable of the savages. I am convinced that, if
only a little care is taken of them, they will very soon become Christians. They
dress like the French, as far as they can; they are very caressing; they even
make rough attempts at our language as far as they can. They have also made
fine fields of wheat.
Above this village, half a league higher up, there is a village made up of four tribes of the Oütavois, to whom I have likewise granted lands; they have made some very fine fields of Indian corn there. Thus, within the space of one league, there are four forts and four hundred men bearing arms, with their families, besides the garrison.
Before I set out from the fort, eighteen Miamis came, on behalf of their tribe, to ask me for lands and to beg the savages who are there to approve of their coming to settle there and joining them. Thus the settlements could not promise better; these having prepared the way, the others will not be long before they come there, especially as, before I left, we learnt that the corn at Missilimakinak had been killed this year by the frost as it was the preceding [year], a thing which very often happens at that place.
Last year, my wife and Mme. Tonty set out on the 10th of Sept. with our families to come and join us there. Their resolution in undertaking so long and laborious a journey seemed very extraordinary. It is certain that nothing [ever] astonished the Iroquois so greatly as when they saw them. You could not believe how many caresses they offered them, and particularly the Iroquois who kissed their hands and wept for joy, saying that French women had never been seen coming willingly to their country. It was that which made the Iroquois also say that they well knew that the general peace which the Chev. de Calliere had just made was indeed sincere, and that they could no longer doubt it since women of this rank came amongst them with so much confidence. If these ladies gave favorable impressions regarding us to the Iroquois, those our allies received from them were no less so. They received them at Detroit under arms with many discharges of musketry. They looked upon this move as the most important that could be made to prove to them that we wished to settle there in earnest, and that we wished to make it a post to dwell in, and a flourishing settlement.
That is what we have done, having been unwilling to omit anything in this undertaking to make it a success in spite of the fury of the opponents who thwart it in vain, and act only in connection with their own private interests.
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consequence of the arrangement which had been made, that the Company of the
Colony should pay to each missionary of Detroit the sum of eight hundred livres
a year; that it would have the things they would want for their food, and the
clothing necessary for their use, brought for them at its cost and expense; and
that it would get dwellings for them in the villages of the savages until there
was time to build them more conveniently.
I have carried out, for, my part, the arrangements which have been made; the Company has carried them out on its side, having this spring (in accordance with the agreement) sent a boat on purpose for Father Maret, Superior of Missilimakinak, who feigned [to have] important reasons for not coming here. So the Company has incurred that expense in vain, as it had already done regarding Father Vaillant.
You wish me to be friendly with the Jesuits, and not to pain them. Having thought it well over, I have only found three ways of succeeding in that. The first is to let them do as they like; the 2nd, to do everything they wish; the 3rd to say nothing about what they do. By letting them do as they like, the savages would not settle at Detroit and would not be settled there; to do what they wish, it is necessary to cause the downfall of this post; and to say nothing about what they do, it is necessary to do what I am doing; and [yet], in spite of this last essential point, I still cannot induce them to be my friends.
It is for you, My Lord, to consider whether you wish me to continue to get the savages to settle here, and for this post to be preserved and maintained in a flourishing state. If those are your opinions as I believe, I am perhaps fitted to have them carried out; but I venture to tell you that the intentions of the Jesuits of this country are entirely opposed to yours, at least on that point.
All that has not prevented the Sauteurs and Mississaguez from coming this year and forming another village on this river. These two tribes have united and incorporated [themselves] with one another, having followed my advice in that, and done my will. I thought this advisable, considering that their union will be an advantage to them, and to us if any rupture occurred with the enemies of the State and of the Colony.
Thirty Hurons from Missilimakinak arrived here on the 28th of June to incorporate themselves with those who have settled here. Thus only about twenty-five of them remain at that place, where Father de Carheil, their missionary, remains ever resolute. This autumn I hope finally to tear this last feather from his wing; and I am convinced that this obstinate vicar will die in his parish without having a parishoner to bury him.
Several households* and families of the Miamis have also settled here, as well
as some Nepissiriniens; the first have incorporated themselves
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*Literally "huts."
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163 |
with the Hurons and the others with the Outavois, and the Oppenago or Wolves.
The rest of the Sinago Outavois, who are still at Missilimakinak, have secretly sent me a belt to tell me they will come and join their brothers of Detroit after they have gathered their harvest. Six large households* of the Kiskakouns have sent to me to say the same thing. I replied to them by a belt that I was going to mark out the lands where they may make their fields.
This procedure on the part of the savages shows how they are restrained and that they are much intimidated by the fear which is insinuated into their minds that an ill turn will be done them here.
I take the liberty of sending you a copy of the letters which the Jesuits of this country have written to me since I have been at Detroit and, in part, the counsels which have been held within this fort. You will see my observations thereon in the margin. I also send you those I wrote in reply to them, or on business; and after you have considered them all you will know their design as to this post, and especially their good will towards me, from which you may judge whether it is easy for me to make them friends of mine.
When it pleases you that I should complete the mustering [of the savages] at this place, it will be a very easy matter for you. But, to succeed properly in it, a fund must be formed or an assignment out of the special war fund of Canada, of six thousand livres with orders to remit these sums to me to use in matters I think necessary to the success of this undertaking, but I will give an exact account of them to the Chev. de Calliere and M. de Beauharnois, the Intendant.
I have already had the honor to write to you that the presents and belts which are given to the savages, especially when it is a question of any migration, are pledges of the sincerity of the promises made to them, and a title which gives them the right of possessing or leaving, as contracts are among civilized nations.
You know also that, to this day, not a farthing has been sent in to help in
inducing the savages to move. It is quite true that a considerable fund, in
goods, has been put in my hands in order to form this post, without it having
cost the King anything whatever for it. I believe they have had reason to be
satisfied with my action in that matter, by the good order I have kept in this
business; for it is certain that the Company has gained rather than lost, and
that is a thing I am better informed about than anyone. However, if they come
to complain of the expenses which it has been necessary, or is necessary to
incur in order to keep up this post, I willingly pledge myself to indemnify
them and to carry it on as far as Your Highness wishes; and if you are in doubt,
I will give you, when you please, so good an outline of it that I venture to
flatter myself that you
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*Literally huts.
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193 |
Speech of the Hurons of Detroit to the Governor-General on the 7th of August,
1704.
You have told me, my children that you came partly to testify to me of the joy you felt because the great Onontio had appointed me to be your father in this country; for this, I thank you.
You have also informed me, by a belt, that the Oyatauous had slain some of your men; but that remembering the promise you had given to your father at Montreal, you had not attempted to avenge yourselves until you should learn my counsel; and that you begged me to remember that, when the general peace was made, that it was ordered that any tribe which be attacked, should not avenge itself but should carry its complaints to its father; and that, if the one which had attacked it did not make reparation, all the tribes- should band themselves together to devour it.
Reply
I am obliged to you, my children, for having remembered the promise you gave
to your father, and for coming here with your complaint of this instead of avenging
yourselves. I had already learnt from M. de la Mothe that the Oyatauous had
wrongfully slain three of, your men, namely a Huron, an Outavois, and a Poutouatamy;
and I have dispatched the Sr. de Vincenne, whom you must have met, to go and
inform the Oyatauous that it is my will that they should give you satisfaction
and should make amends for this wrongful act, or I will join with my other children
to compel them. M. de Tonty sends me word that the Oyatauous have come to Detroit
and that they have set matters right, and have given satisfaction to the Outavois
and to you; that they have promised to do so also to the Poutouatamy. I rejoice,
my children, to see that the land is united, and that tranquility reigns among
you. I give you this belt to exhort you ever to be of the same mind; and I give
you provisions and powder to make the way of your return easy to you and I enjoin
you to take care of what I commit to your charge for M. de Tonty, to give to
such of your elders as I name to him, because they have obeyed my voice.
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Vol. 5, p.951.
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207 |
me. Give me also a little explanation as to the offence this settlement gives
to the Iroquois.
A. This is a trick of the opponents of this post who, having learnt that the Court wishes peace to be kept between us and the Iroquois, in order to make it waver as to the increase of this settlement, make it believe that the Iroquois are discontented because of it; and yet that is so untrue that there are at this very time at Detroit thirty families of that tribe who are settled there. Before establishing this place, we were given this reason ; you have overcome it, the place is fortified, hence that objection is now out of date and no importance, and as long as Detroit is fortified by the French and by savages, the Iroquois will never make war upon us. The Jesuits know it well although they insinuate the contrary ; but in order to attain their ends, they will cause the Iroquois, who wish for peace, to be attacked by our savages.
Q. Yet in the assembly which was held at Quebec it was agreed that that was the greatest obstacle to keeping up this post. Why did you not set forth your reasons for removing that difficulty?
A. I had no knowledge of that assembly; hence I could not object to what was said or done there; and the letter which you did me the honor to write to me, dated the 20th of June, 1703, was only handed to me in the month of July, 1704; I took action in consequence, having assembled all the people who were in Detroit, and they signed the contrary of all that was done in the assembly of Quebec (where the Governor-General guarded the door and would let no one go out who had not signed against this post.) All the people who were there asked me for permission to settle there, because of the knowledge they had of the goodness of the lands and of the country. You may see it in the resolutions which I take the liberty of sending you, dated the 14th of June of that year.
Q. I can no longer doubt that everything is done in that country by intrigue and cabal; and I understand that, if you had been summoned to that assembly as I wished and ordered, this matter would perhaps have turned out differently. I see clearly that the King's orders are altogether weakened beyond the Great Bank, but I will look to it. What surprised me this summer was that the Governor-General and the Intendant did not positively declare either for the preservation or the destruction of this post. Had they not some private reason for dealing with it thus of which you can inform me?
A. It is simply a counsel of the Jesuits. Neither of them wished to appear nor to declare himself against this settlement, for fear that exposing their prejudice you might have known that those who formed the assembly had given their opinions only to adhere to those of their superiors as they could not act otherwise without risking their wrath. That is why the Governor-General and the Intendant prudently pretended to maintain an apparent neutrality, contenting themselves with making the
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public speak, who were made to sign the crucifixion of that post, making use of
the public voice without allowing it to appear that they had put anything of
theirs in it, in order the better to gild the pill for you.
Q. What you say there might well have been; you ought indeed rather to have warned me of it; [but] yet it may well be that they had some other reason for not declaring themselves openly against that post.
A. I am persuaded that they had other reasons and that they did not show so much discretion except because of the fear they had that, in causing the fall of that post in a high-handed manner, the condition and management of the Colony might be upset by it, and that if it should happen that our savages went over to the English, or rather if the latter came and settled at Detroit, the Court would have reason to reproach them, with justice. That is why they kept silent and apparently neutral, so that in case of an evil result, they could exculpate themselves and cast the blame on the decision of the assembly held at Quebec by the order of the Court. But my opinion is that the savages will not quit that post at all, whatever may be done at Quebec; and that makes me anticipate that the Jesuits, in despair at not being able to succeed, perhaps in league with the Governor and Intendant, will cause war to be got up by our allies against the Iroquois, so as in that case to take the final resolution to abandon Detroit. That is an idea I have; it may be that I am mistaken.
Q. That is vexatious, that you were not present at this assembly which I ordered only in order to inform myself thoroughly as to the necessity of that settlement; nor am I at all pleased at my letter having been delivered to you too late.
A. You might well be still less so at the evil trick that was played upon me, or rather at the insult that was offered to you, for, speaking of letters, I may tell you that they intercepted and opened three which I had the honor to write to you last year; that copies were taken of them which have become public; and this shows how little respect they have in those countries for His Majesty's ministers, besides which it is a violation of the law of nations, and nothing more could be done by the enemies of the State during war.
Q. What is this you tell me? Is it really true that there was anyone audacious enough to open the letters you addressed to me? Do they not know that it is a sacred matter, and that such curiosity as this is a crime, and an atrocious insult to a Minister of State, and that no one is permitted to open the letters which a commanding officer writes to me without holding a permit from me to do so?
A. This is quite certain, and no one ought to be ignorant of it; but it is absolutely beyond doubt that my letters have been opened and that copies of them have been made, I do not even know whether the originals have been sent to you. And it is really the purport of my letters and of this little catechism which has stirred up against me all the difficulties
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The 4th fact is that M. de Vincennes was sent to the Miamis with orders to pass
through Detroit, addressed to M. de Tonty; the said M. de Vincennes having
three boats laden with merchandise and more than four hundred jars of brandy;
under the pretext of going to put an end to the war begun by the Miamis
aouyatanouns against the tribes settled at Detroit and the Iroquois.
OBSERVATIONS ON THE 4TH FACT.
This quarrel had been put to an end, and the Governor-General and the Intendant had been informed of it; besides which it is not natural to send an ensign ad honoree [i. e. honorary-unpaid] to adjust the dispute between the tribes at a post where there was a commandant nominated by the Court. Therefore, having questioned M. de Vincennes about his being sent, he told me that the Governor-General had his share in the merchandise he was taking, which I made known in speaking to him himself, and he answered that he should cashier him because he had allowed him to take only two boats.
The 5th fact is that Father Maret, Superior of Missilimakinak and of all the missions of the Utavois; Tonty the captain at Detroit, and Manthet were together at Quebec. It was there and then that the ruin of Detroit was arranged with the Superior of the Jesuits of Quebec, and with the General in command, and the Intendant, and with the board of directors having planned to re-establish the Congés and the mission of Missilimakinak. And so that this business might not fail, Father Maret went up again with a boat full of merchandise; M. de Manthet with him in two other boats, and M. de Tonty to Detroit; and by the same means they induced the savages to ask for M. Boudor who took the Utavois more than twenty thousand franc's worth of goods and brandy.
The 6th fact is that M. de Louvigny:
Q. Wait a bit, you are passing the 5th fact without making any observation.
A. That is true. My Lord, I thought it was better to leave it to you to make. However, since you wish me to be another St. Jean Bouche d'Or, to say all that I know and all that concerns it, you shall have the satisfaction you ask.
OBSERVATIONS ON THE 5TH FACT.
Father Maret was intended for Detroit by the arrangement made by the late Chevalier de Calliere, to which the Superior of the Jesuits at Quebec had subscribed. And yet the Governor-General and Intendant wrote to me that they could not help letting him go up to Missilimakinak for strong reasons. I find in fact they were not wrong from their point of view, for there was Father Maret who had permission for one boat, Manthet for two, La Decouverte for two also, Vincennes for three, and Bou-