THE OHIO VALLEY-GREAT LAKES ETHNOHISTORY
ARCHIVES: THE MIAMI COLLECTION
It is noted that the following work from the Miami Archives should be read and
considered within the historical context in which it was composed and printed.
The opinions expressed and the language used do not reflect the opinions or
standards of the Glenn A. Black Laboratory of Archaeology, but are, rather,
indicative of thought in that historical moment during which the document was
published.
Memoir Presented by
Albemarle to Rouille
(March 7, 1752)
Albemarle, William Anne Keppel, Earl
of,
in: Affaires Etrangeres, Correspondance
Politique, Angleterre, 434:196
and in Pease, French Series,
II, 1936, pp. 28-36.
M. Clinton, governor of New York, has had repeated advices that persons representing themselves as authorized by a commission of M. de la Jonquiere were constructing a fort on the Niagara River, between Lakes Erie and Ontario near the center of (page 29) the territory of the Five Nations (called Iroquois by the French) which has long been subject to the British crown; and who [sic] by the Treaty of Utrecht were recognized by His Most Christian Majesty to be British subjects.
He has also learned that six Englishmen who were peaceably engaged in licit trade with Indians living in friendship with the king's subjects have been arrested and put in irons in the prison at the fort of Niagara, and accorded hard usage rarely practiced even in war among civilized nations; and that their goods had been seized by persons also claiming the authority of such a commission as aforesaid.
M. Clinton complained to M. de la Jonquiere in a letter of June 12 of last year, with all possible politeness, asking him to make the necessary inquiries into the truth of the facts, and to do justice accordingly, since what had happened had doubtless occurred without his knowledge, and even more so without his approbation.
But he was astonished at M. de la Jonquiere's reply to his complaints, made August 10, in which he positively avowed the settlement in question; he seemed to wish to reverse everything at one sweep, by replying without specifying other objections to M. Clinton, that he was ill-advised, and knew better when he described the Five Nations as British subjects, which, so M. de la Jonquiere said, they never were.
To affirm this is to close one's eyes deliberately on the Treaty of Utrecht and in particular on the fifteenth article, by which the domination of Great Britain over the Five Nations is expressly recognized, thereby destroying all M. de la Jonquiere's reasonings.
As to the six prisoners and their effects, M. de la Jonquiere said they had been taken trading with the Ohio Indians contrary to his ordinance forbidding the English to trade there, and that the Indians had claimed their goods as plunder.
It is to be observed that this country belongs to the Five Nations, and that the Miami and the other Indians who dwell (page 31) there, while not belonging to the Five Nations, have long since been included in the same alliance with them by the governor of New York. And by consequence, M. de la Jonquiere's pretended right to make such an ordinance and to seize these six Englishmen is not recognized and becomes a violence all the more unjust and blamable.
The French in this part of the world have not confined themselves to the practices complained of. A body of about twelve hundred French and two hundred Adirondacks and other Indians have passed by Oswego, intending to cut off the Indian tribes to the westward who are much attached to the English and to prevent the inhabitants of Philadelphia from building at Ohio, or in its neighborhood. Of this Colonel Johnson informed Governor Clinton by his letter of July 17 last, as confirmed to him by a French deserter then actually in his house, who had seen this force set out from Fort Frontenac; Colonel Johnson warned the Five Nations of this, that they might be on their guard, and the (page 32) expressed all possible gratitude.
Lieutenant Lindsay, stationed at Oswego, wrote July 10, 1751, to Colonel Johnson that an envoy returning from the Missisauga, a tribe to which he had been to negotiate an alliance, had reported that all the old chiefs were dead, and had been replaced by young ones who had confirmed the old alliance, and promised to observe and maintain it although they had been solicited by the French to have no dealings with the Five Nations.
M. Stoddert, also stationed at Oswego, confirms by his letter of July 19 to Colonel Johnson, the march of this body of French and Adirondacks, of which he learned by trading canoes. He adds that the corps was commanded by the Sieur Bellestre and the (page 33) Chevalier de Longueuil and that their operations were directed against a Miami village where the English were building a stone house for trade; they were to warn the English to leave peaceably, and on their refusal would force them to it; they intended to build a fort there and establish a garrison of three hundred men; the son of the governor of Montreal was expected at any time to pass by Oswego with fourteen canoes filled with soldiers for that garrison; Indians of the village were much attached to the English, and it was for that that the French called them rebels and were going as they said to make them hear reason; two of their chiefs could expect no mercy; the others would be pardoned if they submitted.
Finally on every side we hear of the continual attempts of the French to alienate the minds of the Indians who are subjects of Great Britain, or are in alliance and amity.
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