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 Rouille
(February 1, 1752)
Macarty in: Archives Nationales,
Ministere des Colonies, C13A
36:307 and in Pease and
Jenison, French Series,
III, pp. 478-483.
I profit by the first occasion which presents itself to inform you, firstly of my arrival here with four companies. I arrived December 8 last when a party of Indians of the Wabash tribes under pretense of going to war against our enemy the Chickasaw had scattered among the various settlements. On the same day they killed soldier and two slaves and wounded an inhabitant. The inhabitants were warned of the attacks that had been made. Here, one party of Indians, seeing the news arrive, and knowing what was the matter, took to flight. They were pursued; five were killed, four made prisoners, among them the chief of the said Piankashaw. Several more were wounded whom I learned were dead to the number of eighteen before reaching their villages.
This little war was caused by some rebels in the various tribes who put themselves under the English flag on Great Miami River, otherwise the Falls of the Ohio, where they get help from the English, who a little while ago established several trading houses.
I had the honor of informing Monseigneur le Marechal de Noailles when he questioned me on the boundaries of our colonies as to the necessity of a post in these regions which might serve as barrier on that side in order to protect our rivers. The closer we are to our enemy the more we know his movements and the better we can oppose him.
It has been evident that they have a plan of penetrating into the West by all the evil messages which they have been sending around for almost a year. In order to draw the tribes, they have given goods in trade to the Indians at so low a price that it seems as though they gave them away. Several Illinois chiefs have told me it was true that they had been to see the English because (page 480) they were told that the English had much merchandise, but that they had not been there with an ill design. In effect this is what draws the tribes to the English, especially the coureurs. The Indians esteem people only in proportion as people give to them, or as they profit by them. What happened here is only the result of the attack made on the rebels in the month of September last by a party from Canada. I hope this little affair will have no consequence if we can keep our hold on the four Illinois village domiciled with us, from which are our two prisoners. Some ill devices were in operation against us but they were not general so far as can be judged from the talk of the chiefs who are allied to us. I have seen each of them separately.
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