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.
Macarty to Vaudreuil
(March 18, 1752)
Macarty in: Huntington Library
Mss., Loudoun Coll., 338 and
in Pease and Jenison,
French Series, III,
pp. 506-536.
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M. Ligneris' letter informs me that the Piankashaw have killed five French at the Vermilion; and that he was assured that they would lie in wait for those passing on the way from the Illinois. They had promised to cut off the French with them. The wife of the man named Leclerc, who has been killed by the Pinakashaw- informed by Le Maringouin, their chief, as she said- told M. de Ligneris what had happened here December 8, and that it was Le Maringoin who induced them to make that ill attack at the Vermilion, and that we were threatened on all sides.
M. de St. Ange's letter repeats to me what the preceding (page 508) ones have said, with the addition that on the eighteenth, eight Piankashaw arrived at the house of Toussaint le Framboise about two in the afternoon to trade. During the night they gave him warning of the evil plan of their tribe, and in particular that a party of ten Miami led by Le Grand Renard had come to attack the post; they said they had already given these Miami all their booty to dissuade them, and that what they came to trade was for that purpose, but that they were afraid they might not succeed. They bade him go away, taking with him his wife who is the sister of Le Maringouin, to whom they recommended her, him, and their children. The same night four young men of the domiciled Indians attacked four engages of the Sieur Delisle who were making pirogues six leagues below. After having supped with them, they let them go to sleep and then fired. They killed two Frenchmen. The two others awoke at the sound of the shots, seized their arms and made the four Indians flee, abandoning their guns, one of whom from the death cry they think dead. On the twenty-first while repairing the fort two slaves bringing meat were killed within sight of it. The Frenchman called Marie who was with them escaped.
The same day La Puce, an Illinois chief, brought me two blankets, one blue, the other black striped with red ribbon, with two strings of wampum, assuring me of the fidelity of his band. They said they had received the blankets from the Miami who had come three times to enlist them in their party, and throw themselves in their arms, as they no longer had a father and almost no one in favor of them. They were a day and a half's journey distant from each other and being fortified, were in little fear of being affronted.
I sent them back telling them that they knew and saw our enemies every day; that their conduct gave me opportunity to estimate their attachment to us; that I expected them and the rest of their tribe in the month of March that I might speak to them all together. I did that to put them in surety for each other as to what might occur between them.
The eighth some Cahokia came and told me that there was no news; they then offered me their service and were ready to march against my enemy. I told them that they knew my enemy and that I would take care to recompense those who gave us proofs of their attachment and that I shortly hoped to see them all assembled.
February 11, Le Petit Boeuf and L'Ours Blanc arrived from the lower river with three Frenchmen, the man named Gervais and two engages, Bodort and Poitous, who had been wrecked in the Wabash January 15, two leagues from the Mississippi as a result of the shifting ice.
They reported to me that only the man named Dequoisne of the four said to have been killed at the mouth of the Cumberland River had been injured; he had received a gunshot in his hand, and he had gone to the English. He said he had met an Englishman hunting deer fifteen leagues below the falls at La Roche in a boat with two Iroquois; he had learned nothing new; La (page 512) Mirande, they said, knew those regions well, having been to the Shawnee to trade, and that he must have gone down to New Orleans with all the hunters on the Wabash, where he will be able to give you an account of those parts. Coming up here they had met the Illinois, who had kept them three days to bring them here with a dozen Indians.
L'Ours Blanc began his speech: My father, I am but the interpreter of the chiefs and warriors of the tribe. 'Go,' they said to me, 'beg our father's pity. Speak to him in favor of those who are in bonds; ask their pardon. We weep all the days. When can we have our hearts satisfied and rejoice because our father has come so far to see us? If he will but once listen to us, we have always obeyed the French. It is known that you always speak to us of them, and that we obey. Go, then speak for us, and see if he will but once hear us. Our flesh is suffering, and we are not quiet on our mats. It only rests with our father to deliver us from our suffering and to give us consolation. We (page 513) in no wise impute our woes to him but to the Miami who has done all the mischief. It is he alone who has made us suffer.'
'Go to our father,' said Thomas and Rouensa to me, 'We are ashamed and we do not cease to weep. You, whose heart is stronger, go beg him to have pity on us and to wipe away our tears.'"
Apana spoke with another calumet. "My father, I come here on behalf of Rouensa and Thomas, and all the praying Indians. Have pity on us, pardon us; they speak to you by my mouth." And addressing Father de Guyenne, their missionary: "We are indebted to you because you have taught us the Word of God. You tell us that God pardons. We come to beg the chief to spare our flesh, and to set him free," speaking of their two prisoners.
My answer: "When I saw Rouensa and Thomas here with the chief men, I told them all I had in my heart. As to the verbal marks they gave me of their repentance and their attachment to the French- to whom they are allied by blood, since (page 514) they have given them wives- I assured them they would find me a good father so long as they held to a conduct that satisfies me. I put it off to the month of March to assemble all the chiefs of the tribe, and to decide the fate of the prisoners, and what I have to do. I have invited all the chiefs to be here, and the relatives of the dead that they may avenge on the Miami the tears they have caused to flow, of which we are not the cause. The two Illinois who are in prison are punished like French scoundrels, whom it is necessary to punish. What assurance will you give me that they have good hearts? Were not these men caught with our enemies? If I gave them to you would you punish them? No. It is, then, only in exchange for our enemies that you may hope to get them. You tell me that God pardons. Yes, but only when one had a contrite heart, and when one gives proofs of repentance. He knows our hearts, but I, I know only actions. Every day you have new proofs of the confidence you should have in the French, who have so often pardoned you in con- (page 515) sideration for the good among you. You weep, you say. And I, who will console me, am I not afflicted, what assurance have I for all that is past, and on what can I count? Go with your families to repose on your mats as quickly as you can. Come to your villages, taste the tranquillity and consolation of a father who pardons from a good heart when he is sure of a sincere repentance; but he wishes to have proofs of it.
February 27 La Puce and seven Illinois came, among them Ousaouikintonga, Ouicouatigana, and Patissier.
Ousaouikintonga smoked with those assembled and said, "My father, I bring you my heart. The king, Onontio, MM. de Bertet and Benoist have told me to have but one heart with them. I have always obeyed them." He said to me, "I know you have an upright heart. I have not changed; I have been slandered; but they are wrong who do it. I am but one flesh with the French. The Miami spoke to me to induce me to go and live with them; I refused; I said I had a father and that I was going to seek him. I quarreled openly with M. the general, who has done all the harm by having the Miami attacked. I said to him, "Why, my father, why do you not strike me myself? Why do you strike a tribe allied to me where all my relatives are? I do not walk underground. I act frankly and without disguise."
The Ouycouetiata took up the word with some strings of wampum, which he laid on the ground: "My father, I bring you my heart; I give you blue wampum. The sky is serene, the land (page 519) fair. I have been slandered, but my heart has not changed. Eskepakingonet, Ouabichagana, chiefs of the Peoria told me, 'Never let go the hand of the French.' I have hearkened to them. Let us die together. My father, take pity on your children. We are mocked by having our flesh and blood devoured. I beg you give it back to us and set free the prisoners." This he repeated several times. Then he said that the Cahokia who were with them in their winter camp had gone to ask a refuge among the Peoria, which Descaris had refused, telling them to go and seek their father.
I told them that the Peoria chiefs had informed me that it was Patissier who had gone to make this request. They denied it and said they had sent messages to the Cahokia to prevent them from doing it, and that but one of them had disobeyed, but that he had returned to his village and that the others would return here with them.
La Puce said that at his return from his winter camp the Miami had left them to go and seek the French and that they (page 520) were all to return to the Vermilion. Some Illinois from Kaskaskia who had been among the Miami for some time had come to seek them at their winter camp, but the Piankashaw had solicited the Kickapoo to come to us to do it; and they had won them over. The Kickapoo had told them that they had brought letters here only to get powder and brandy. The four Kickapoo who had brought me the letters of M. de St. Ange had on their return carried five barrels of brandy, three of which they had drunk at the village. Then they had sent one to the Miami who had used their people to invite the Kickapoo to second them in the enterprise they were undertaking of besieging the French of Ouiatanon. The Kickapoo had replied, "Build your fort, and when it is done we will go thither." Certainly the Miami were there at present, and they would not delay coming in small parties from that side to surprise us.
The twenty-third they strove to justify Le Loup completely. They said Le Gros Bled had tried to induce him to strike the French, but that he had answered that he had given his heart and his hand to M. de Bertet and that he would not change his way of thinking; he was going to war against the Chickasaw, the enemies of the French. Le Gros Bled, to be revenged on Le Loup and to compromise him, had had a considerable party raised by one his people to attack here. The party had passed by the winter villages of the Illinois ten days after Le Loup's party. They had entered the cabin of Abasouachinga, the Illinois who was killed near The Settlement by the young men. That Illinois had made efforts to stop them and told them he had his mother and children with the French. Achicoua, to whose cabin they had next been, had been no more successful in deflecting them from their enterprise. The first named had followed them, and when they had appeared among the French, had spoken to Baptiste, the son-in-law of La Sonde, to Champagnee, and to a negro of St. Philippe. All three told him his mother had been (page 522) at the winter camp. On this he decided to go and rejoin the party of Miami and himself insult the French. The little French boy had killed him without intending to, his gun having slipped from over his arm as he fled. This was reported by another man of the party who had for his part learned from a little negro that all the lead had struck the side of the dead man's face, and that immediately the young man left his gun and ran; the Miami learning of the shot resolved to avenge him next day; but Le Loup had no knowledge of this party which had separated into two, one at St. Philippe, where they killed a negro, the other at Prairie du Rocher, where they had killed a soldier and a slave at Aubuchon's mill. The Miami counted they had lost eight men. The two sons of Ouycouetiata, who escaped, had next day come on a negro belonging to the Jesuit fathers and had offered him no insult; which is true.
On this they were told that in the pouch of the dead man were bullets from the storehouse that had been given to Le Loup, (page 523) and a flint stolen from the house of Dodier, the interpreter. They all cried out that it was not true and was impossible. Then as the same thing was repeated, La Puce said that perhaps he had received something from Le Loup's party but that Le Loup knew nothing of it; it was true they had ill-disposed people in Le Loup's band who had tried several times to attack, and he had always hindered it. On the return of the Miami who had been mistreated December 8 in the French village they had said to Patissier, "Your son is dead, come with us, and we will weep together." He would not do it, telling them he did not despair of getting his son out of his irons, and would return to his village. Then he had wished to persuade the Miami to give some signs of repentance; they replied that their decision was made; they would not cease to strike the French. All the assembled chiefs of the Vermilion, L'Enfant, Le Maringouin, La Mouche Noire, were aroused to make war vigorously and to attack all the villages. They thought there were some war parties in our vicinity now, having (page 524) heard several gunshots in the prairie of the Tamaroa.
The twenty-fifth I told them that I had informed them of my intentions as to the prisoners by La Puce. I had asked all the Illinois chiefs to assemble that I might know their sentiments and tell them mine. Then I would decide the fate of the prisoners. I was very glad they had decided to return each to his village. While they were in winter camps they were open to suspicion, being every day among the Miami, since they assured me the Miami had been to win over the Wea.
I asked La Puce if he wanted to carry a letter to M. de St. Ange and bring me back the news. He decided to do so, and promised to bring me a reply in twenty days. I gave him a small present. He told me the tribes are going back to their villages by easy states where they would arrive the fifteenth of next month.
March 2 a Cahokia named Ninechangoueta came to bring me a blue blanket and a string of wampum, telling me that they were sent by Le Vieux Tamaroa to tell me that he had received that blanket and string of wampum from Descaris and a Peoria chief who invited them to come there to make a village with them at Peoria. They had not wished to decide without knowing my thoughts. M. Mercier had invited them to go back to their villages at Cahokia, and they planned to do so if their father agreed. He asked me for brandy and tobacco.
When questioned about the various parties of Miami who had passed their winter villages, he told me they had separated from the Illinois after the attack that had been made on the Miami here; Le Loup had said on passing there that they were going against the Chickasaw and had induced some Illinois to go with him. The Miami, chagrined at his attachment to the (page 528) French, had taken the resolution of following him to strike the French and had said, "Let us have him killed by the French." One of the sons of Ichinagousya led one of the three mats who were with Le Loup. Another son of the same man had raised another party of thirty men to strike here, as he had done. Since then the same man and two other partisans had come in search of Patissier, who had prevented them from going further. The Miami had spoken to Ouiscoustigana by a blanket, and to Tchinghjcacota by a blanket, wampum, a laced coat, knives, and tobacco. These two men had spoken of all that, and to La Puce, who brought a party here.
The Illinois of Kaskaskia had spoken to the Cahokia by a gun and a blanket before wintering to engage them to follow. La Puce, returning from here with a flag and a barrel of brandy, had said the chief had recommended him to make the Kaskaskia drink first. They had not been asked to drink until they were drunk, which had offended them and had made them wish to (page 529) separate. But the Kaskaskia spoke to them again to induce them not to abandon them, to which they had assented. They would march together. He said they had committed a folly out of complaisance to Patissier. That chief had undertaken to go in search of the Miami chiefs in order to induce them to repent.
I told him I was very glad to see them each at his village again. While they were among the Miami I could not count on their promises since they saw my enemies daily. They should all return as M. Mercier desired.
He [In de St. Ange] also told me that he hoped to induce the Kickapoo of Terre Haute to come to live near him, not counting further on the Pinakashaw; but M. de Ligneris had induced them to come to him. He asks the repair of the fort and buildings which are falling to ruin.
M. de Ligneris indicates the provisions that they need, hoping (page 535) that M. de la Jonquiere would send a party of French this spring to repress the rebel Indians without the assistance of the tribes, which can hardly be, due to the shortage of provisions that there is in Canada. He tells me that from their discourse the Wea appear irritated that the Piankashaw have struck the French, but that privately they belie it. The Kickapoo and Mascoutens appear more attached to us; for all that they will be for whoever gives them most.
The tenth the voyageurs began to arrive from the mouth of the Missouri, where nothing has happened. The Peoria are afraid of the Foxes and Sioux. They have sent a party to the Miami in the hope of striking them treacherously. They will not come down as soon as they promised me.
March 15 three Illinois reported to me that La Puce, on returning from his winter camp, had found La Bich, the Pinakashaw chief, with a French flag, coming from the Miamis with the letters of the commandant for this place and had gone with him (page 536) to Ouiatanon, whence he should be here in some days.
I judge that the Illinois who are on the lower river are delaying that all the four villages may come together, along with the Peoria and Kaskaskia. This causes me to delay the convoys some days both with reference to their arrival and to the low water in the Mississippi. I will give you an account of what shall occur after their arrival.
I have the honor to be with a respectful attachment, Monsieur,
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Your very humble and respectful servant, |
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MACARTY |
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