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.
Bigot to the Minister
(October 26, 1752)
Bigot, Francois in: Archives Nationales,
Ministere des Colonies, C11A 98:269
and in Pease, French Series,
II, 1936, pp. 39-41.
. . .
I see, My Lord, that you in no wise approved the course taken by M. de Longueuil of sending during the summer a detachment of four hundred men to the Miamis to winter there while awaiting a reenforcement of five hundred or six hundred who were to have joined them by the Ohio River in the spring. Lack of provisions for the march prevented their setting off in July, but I had had sent to Detroit in May and June all that was (page 40) necessary, which has cost considerable sums, both for provisions bought at an excessive rate, and for transport.
The policy, in effect, of M. de Longueuil was to subjugate by our own means the rebel Miamis and to leave the Ohio River in peace, since he had veneration and special consideration for the Iroquois who preside there. However when these gentlemen had read in the official papers on the death of M. le Marquis de la Jonquiere a somewhat sharp letter you had written to the general, from which it appeared you much desired the English to be drive off, they said it could be done in due course, but it was first necessary to pacify the upcountry. I had often and uselessly represented to them, before they had read that letter, that the Ohio River was the source of all the disorder that reigned among the Indians; that the English traded as masters over a land which belonged to France, the possession of which was necessary to us for our communication with the Mississippi. The governor replied to (page 41) me very courtly that the English had traded there before we did, and that it was not just to drive them away; moreover that river belonged to the Iroquois, and that we had only to supply their wants as the English did, and the English would go of themselves when they saw they could no longer make a living. I was, I avow to you, My Lord, surprised and piqued at this answer, and I assured him strongly that I regarded the Ohio River as belonging to France, and that the king three years ago had renewed his act of possession.
Fortunately you have sent out a general, for if the government had been another year in the hands of these gentlemen, the Canadian policy would have indeed prevailed and no one would have forgotten it. The Indian war would have taken place so far as possible; for there would have been huge expenditures in the upcountry and each officer would have presented accounts in addition to those for which there was legitimate occasion.
. . .
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