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.
Memorandum Concerning the
Establishment of Detroit
(November 19, 1704)
Cadillac, Lamothe in: Michigan
Historical
Collections, XXXIII, pp. 198-241.
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A. Since you wish to know it, here it is in few words. I agreed with the directors, by the concurrence and consent of the Governor-General and the Intendant, that I should be assigned the third part of the trade which should be done in that post, on which condition the Company should be relieved from [paying] any gratuity to the other officers. The most envious having obtained information of this treaty, made some commotion about it, and thought it burdensome to the company. Hence, another agreement was made by common consent, providing that the Company should pay me each year the sum of two thousand livres and supply me and my family with food; and that it should pay also to M. de Tonty thirteen hundred and thirty-three livres on condition of doing no trade directly or indirectly with the savages, and of preventing- as far as in me lay- anyone from doing any in that place, and of preventing- so far as my knowledge went- [any] frauds and malversations, the directors trusting also to my care and my conduct for their interests. That is the main part of the treaty which I made with the directors.
Q. That is in accordance with what I had written, the King wishing you to be given an increase of salary as it was not reasonable that you should carry on that settlement at your expense and be excluded from the trade of that place which was the only means of indemnifying you. This deed is apparently executed before a notary.
A. That is so; it is agreed to by the Governor-General and the Intendant and signed by all the directors and by me.
Q. You have done well to take all these precautions. Are there many savages at Detroit?
A. There are now more than 2,000 souls. This place becomes peopled and settled visibly; it can reckon four hundred good men bearing arms.
Q. How did you contrive to induce those people to leave their villages, their fields and their crops? That must have cost the King dear,- I am judging by the heave expenditure made at Quebec and at Montreal for the savages there, since they are given the soldiers' ration, and are given it even down to the infants at the breast, besides considerable presents which are made to them every day.
A. I do not know how I did it; what I do know is that I have not spent a farthing, and that the Governor-General and Intendant would not grant me even the value of one pistole to make use of on the occasion; that on the contrary, both of them, and above all the Jesuits, have employed every means and exhausted all their strength and their ingenuity to prevent the savages from coming to settle there. But all their efforts have been fruitless.
Q. But for these hindrances, it looks as if the greater part of the savages would have been mustered in that place.
A. That is beyond doubt for they knew the goodness of the lands and of the climate which gives them abundance of everything.
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 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 . . .
might perhaps have spoken; and are pretending to prosecute, having chosen a subdelegate to go and investigate at Detroit against them, or rather, against me; in order that by this trickery and protection, which it is impossible to resist, they may be able to extricate themselves and their relatives from this affair while laying to my charge atrocious calumnies which they cannot prove.
Q. Who is this [man] who has been sent to Detroit to investigate this matter?
A. It is the [man] called Vincelot whom the Intendant has subdelegated on the proposal of the directors. He is a man who has come of a race steeped in filth, whose father is a bastard and his mother illegitimate, a man of no capacity, and first cousin to M. Pinaud one of the directors, and consequently my adversary, which renders the proceedings void, the said Vincelot being liable to peremptory challenge under the ordinances.
Q. This count of the complaint alone is enough to show me the bad faith of the directors, and it makes me conjecture that their valid right consists in fact of the protection which they find in the authority of the Governor and the Intendant; and it is very easy to distinguish that the seizure you made of the skins [in possession] of their clerks, obtained by dishonest practices, has roused MM. Lofbinieres and Delino to action; and that M. de Vaudreuil, the general of that country, being mixed up with that alliance sets the whole in motion; but they shall not profit by it. It is not right that, having maintained like a good officer the interests of the King's service, and as an honest man the public good, you should be ruined by it. Although the proofs of which you have spoken to me are more than sufficient to clear you, and I am resolved at the same time to punish those who are thus using trickery against you, I should be very glad to know all and to have you tell me whether you have not any paper which shows that you have used no violence towards the clerks, for if that is so I shall perhaps be able to have the directors and their clerks prosecuted.
A. That would be well done. I have still a settlement with the clerks, drawn up by common consent, signed by them, by the almoner of the Fort, by M. de Tonty and by me which completes the proof that I have used no violence.
Q. That is enough, and more than was necessary on this point. I ought not to listen to any others, since the directors make such a bad beginning; I see plainly that there is neither rhyme nor reason in their procedure. Let us pass now to other matters and tell me whether they complain of any other violence on your part.
A. Yes, they impute to me as a capital offence having used abusive language to their clerks under the pretext, they say, that they did not pay me certain marks of respect which I claim to be due to me.
about it hereafter. All the tribes settled at Detroit assert that it was a strange savage who did this deed, or rather- they say- some Frenchman who has been paid for doing this wicked act; God alone knows.
The 8th fact is that the Miamis aoüyatanoüns came and attacked the savages of Detroit; they killed one Outavois, two Hurons, and one Poutoüatanis. This act of hostility set all the tribes of Fort Pontchartrain in arms, but I made them suspend [action in] that matter. I sent to the Aoüyatanoüns, who number four hundred men, to tell them that if they did not come promptly and make atonement for that insult, I was going to set out, myself, to exterminate them; and I sent them a flag to serve as a passport for them during their journey. The tribe submitted; it sent chiefs to Detroit who replaced the dead men by living ones, according to their custom, and made large presents to the relatives of those who had been killed. In this way I put a stop to that war at its origin.
OBSERVATIONS ON THE 8TH FACT.
Father Mermet, a Jesuit, is the missionary of the village of the Aoyatanoüns Miamis. This attack was made after the Miamis of the St. Joseph river had set out from their village to come and settle at Detroit.
The 9th fact is that at the same time that the Aoyatanouns made an attack on Detroit, the Illinois came there on the war path with a party of fifteen warriors, who, having been discovered, were made prisoners. We contented ourselves with whipping them with birch rods when they arrived at the fort, to make them understand that I was treating them like a father, saving their lives which they had deserved to lose, and so that they should not be rash enough to carry war into that place again. After this I sent four of them to the village of the Illinois to tell them to send a deputation of some [men of] importance, to learn from them the reasons they had had for declaring war against the tribes of Detroit; that matter was settled and peace maintained, in consequence. The Illinois said that Eloüaoüssé, one of the chiefs of the Utavois of Missilimakinak, had been amongst them to arrange a war against his own tribe which is at Detroit, and that he had gained over fifteen young men to begin it, who set out unknown to the older men, who were not implicated in that affair.
OBSERVATIONS ON THE 9TH.
Father Gravier, a Jesuit, is the missionary to the Illinois, and M. Deliete a relative of M. de Tonty also resides there. The aims they had in having the tribes of Detroit killed by the Illinois and the Miamis tended to induce all the savages to retire to Missilimakinak so as to avoid war, for the former, who are not boatmen, could not go to Missilimakinak because of the strait which it was necessary to pass through as it forms the separation of Lake Huron from the Lake of the Illinois. Now Eloü- (page 235) aoussez, of whom I have spoken, set out from Missilimakinak for the Illinois some time after the arrival of Father Maret, and of M. de Mauthet at Missilimakinak.
The 10th fact is that the Hurons who had remained at Missilimakinak have quitted that place and have joined those at Detroit, so that the whole of that tribe is now settled there. I had the honor to assure you, in my letter last year, that that would happen also, in spite of the statements to the contrary made by this wonderful Father de Carheil who was the missionary to them. I stated to you also, that I would undertake to reduce this rector to not having the credit of keeping even one of his parishioners to bury him. The Utavois, also, of Missilimakinak have withdrawn to Detroit except sixty or eighty. This migration has surprised the whole body of the Jesuits in this country who were not expecting it any more than the Governor-General and the Intendant who had trusted to MM. de Mauthet, de la Decouverte, and above all to Fathers Maret and de Carheil.
OBSERVATIONS ON THE 10TH FACT.
I had the honor to send you last year copies of the letters of the Jesuit fathers, especially those of Missilimakinak, in which they wrote to me that they would follow the savages if they came to Detroit. They have come; but the rectors have still remained fast in their parish without moving from it. I do not know what you will think of the following fact.
The 11th fact is that the sixty Utavois who remained at Missilimakinak came and took away about forty Iroquois under the curtains of Fort Frontenac, having killed one of them, on whom they placed a Huron tomahawk. This scheme is diabolical; it is to administer an emetic to Fort Pontchartrain, that is to say, to play double or quits.
OBSERVATIONS ON THE 11TH.
These 60 Utavois attacked the Iroquois who were at Fort Frontenac. They could not go into their villages and into the places where they are settled without passing through Detroit; that is a thing which we should not have permitted to the tribes who are there if they were enemies to one another. It was a very cunning trick to put a Huron tomahawk on the body of that Iroquois who was killed, so as to intimate that it is the Huron who kills them (that did not come out of their bag); but it was not he who thought of it. Those who induced the Utavois to make this attack had for their object to absolutely compel the tribes of Detroit to return so as to establish Missilimakinak, for they clearly foresaw that they could not maintain their [position] there without a settlement or a strong French garrison, for the number of the Iroquois is greater even than those settled at Detroit. It is not likely that sixty men would have (page 236) the audacity, of themselves, to declare war against the five tribes of the Iroquois, unless they had been set in motion by giving them hopes, almost certain, of the re-establishment of Missilimakinak. They have even taken these steps during the time I have been detained at Quebec a prisoner; and lastly, after this attack was made M. de Mauthet arrived at Montreal, and M. de la Decouverte came a fortnight after him, both having brought several boats loaded with beaver and [other skins] as a reward for so noble a mission.
The 12th fact is that M. de Vincennes is now at Detroit with four hundred jars of brandy, where he keeps a tavern, having been forerunner of M. de Louvigny, major of Quebec, brother-in-law of Delino the director, of Nolan the dishonest clerk, relative of Chaleleraut another clerk at Detroit, M. de Louvigny having himself been convicted of having contravened the King's orders by a decree of the Council. The said M. de Vincennes has also been the forerunner of M. Vincelot, subdelegated by the Intendant, who has given information against no one but me alone. Brandy has not been spared to bribe the savages; but they have not done what they wished nevertheless. This pretended subdelegate is first cousin to M. Pinaud, who is my adversary, being one of the directors and of a stock of which I have already spoken.
OBSERVATIONS ON THE 12TH FACT.
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M. de Louvigny was paid at four pistoles a day, and Vincelot two pistoles. |
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The directors have paid to M. de Louvigny the sum of two thousand livres of France for making this journey on which he was only fifty-five days; a thing which has never been seen, for until now an officer has never been paid for escorting or conducting a convoy, which shows that the directors and the Governor-General have warmly recommended me to the attention of M. Louvigny. |
M. Vincelot also had the sum of one thousand livres for this journey when he returned with M. de Louvigny. You see the bounties the board of directors are dispensing at a time when the Company is engulfed, and the Colony is in distress and without resources. The interpreter whom the late M. de Calliere and M. de Champigny had appointed at Detroit has been recalled because he is an upright and skilful man; and they have put in his place one Rivart, called the orange-man, who does not understand the Outavois of which he is the interpreter. He is the brother-in-law of M. de Vaudreuil's secretary, son-in-law of Chatelerau the clerk at Detroit, a relative of Nolan the dishonest clerk, of Louvigny the major, of Delino the director; and he [was declared] a perjurer by decree of the supreme Council dated the 2nd of July 1703, for a false oath which he took in the provostship of Quebec, for which sentence was passed on the 3rd of Novr. 1702. It is easy with such fellows to get up an action against an honest man.
The 13th fact is that Denoyer, the principal clerk of the Company and . . .
the brother of Vincelot's mother; and the said [widow] of Xaintes married, the third time, M. de Lofbinieres and the latter is the maternal uncle of M. de Vaudreuil. For M. Jobert de Marson married the sister of Lofbinieres who was of low birth; M. Monseignat who is [their] son, and the brother of a master tailor of Paris, now a Councillor, also married one of the daughters of the said [widow] of Xaintes, wife of M. de Lofbiniere, and consequently stands in the same degree of relationship as M. Arnaud. Delino, Louvigny and Nolan, a clerk I have also convicted of malversation, are three brothers-in-law; for Louvigny and Delino married the two daughters of Nolan senior, who was a tavern keeper in Quebec. And in spite of all this, this relationship, alliance, protection and expenditure, nothing has been proved against me; and if there is anything in the information against me it will surprise me, for all who have come from Detroit have said openly at Quebec that everything possible has been done to intimidate them but they have given no evidence except to clear me.
The 16th fact is that M. Vincelot has made the Utavois take oaths, and has made them swear by the share they claim in Paradise to speak the truth.
OBSERVATIONS ON THE 16TH FACT.
There has never been any precedent for this among the Outavois tribes and I will stake my life on it they cannot produce one. They would have raised their feet [as readily] as their hands, and they would have themselves baptised a hundred times for a hundred drinks of brandy; you can infer from that what their oath is. It is a fact which no one can dispute that there is not a hut but has its own private divinity, as the serpent, the bear, the eagle, and so of the other animals, to which they sacrifice in their need, and especially on occasions of war or sickness. Hence the only result or the only good the missionaries do consists in the baptism of infants who die after receiving it, or by chance that of some old man at the point of death. Where would you find an officer willing to command in that country if the evidence of the savages were received in courts of justice? It would have been more prudent in M. de Vaudreuil to recall me arbitrarily, since he wished to destroy that post and protect his relatives in their acts of injustice, than to allow such a proceeding as that. For the savages hereafter will threaten commanding officers, and will no longer have either respect or fear for them, which are two things essential for governing them well. M. de Vaudreuil has not taken care or foreseen the grievous consequences of that matter and the rude shocks such conduct gives to the King's authority. The late MM. de Frontenac and De Calliere would not have taken so false a step.
The 17th fact is that M. de Lacorne, a lieutenant of the troops, whom the Governor-General sent to command at Fort Frontenac, has given a war-feast to the Iroquois and has set the hatchet in their hands to go and kill and get slaves at Detroit.
OBSERVATIONS ON THE 17TH FACT.
M. de Lacorne, who is a good officer and understands the service, has not caused war to be declared on the savages of Detroit without having an order to do so from the Governor-General either verbally or in writing. This latest attempt against Detroit is a gross one, and proves only too evidently that the war which the Illinois and the Aoyatanoüns began against the savages of Detroit proceeds from the same source; the blow struck by the sixty Utavois of Missilimakinak, in declaring war on the Iroquois who were at Fort Frontenac, comes and also proceeds only from the same quarter. It was only spoken of [before] on the evidence of the savages; but what M. de Lacorne has done on this last occasion completes the revelation and the disclosure of the mystery. This is surprising and you can easily observe, my lord, the tractableness of the tribes of Detroit and their good behavior. They knew as well as M. de Lamothe, that there was a grudge against them and that an attempt was being made to drive them from that post; for two tribes made war against them. They made peace at a time when they were victorious; their relatives of Missilimakinak had made prisoners, and it was they who made them let them go. Now as a reward for having behaved so well, someone has caused war to be declared against them.
The 18th fact is that M. de Vaudreuil has sent to the Utavois, with two boats, the man named Sansouci, formerly a soldier in his company, who was born on the land of Vaudreuil, under the pretext of dismissing a man called Ouendigo who is a savage of Missilimakinak where he took merchandise and brandy to the value of seven or eight hundred livres.
OBSERVATIONS ON THE 18TH FACT.
If pretexts like these are good [enough] to send to the Utavois, it is useless to suppress the 25 congés.* Can it be doubted that the said Sansouci has an interest in this trade together with the Governor-General.
The 19th fact is that M. St. Germain has rented the concession belonging to M. de Vaudreuil, which is the furthest advanced, and he gives him three thousand livres a year for it and has had a house built on it which must remain for M. de Vaudreuil.
OBSERVATIONS ON THE 19TH FACT.
There is not a quarter of an arpent of land cleared on M. de Vaudreuil's
concession; hence his tenant transacts commerce and trade there with the
savages under great penalties. M. de Vaudreuil's tenant has taken his beaver
skins to the English; this is a matter of public notoriety.
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* This probably means men holding permits (congés) to sell brandy to the Indians- "licensed brandy-sellers." E. R. (Translator).
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