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.
Letter from Sieur D'Aigremont
Denouncing Cadillac Methods
(November 14, 1708)
(Due to length divided here into two parts)
D'Aigremont, Sieur de in: Michigan Historical
Collections, XXXIII, pp. 424-452.
pp. 440, 441, 446.
it is a very astonishing thing that more than 400 men, French and savages, did not take such a wretched fort as that of the Miamis, with no more than 60 men in it, and two breaches which, it appears M. de La Mothe had not seen. And if the Miamis had remained some time longer without showing their flag M. de La Mothe would have raised the siege in a disgraceful manner. There were seven Frenchmen wounded on this occasion, four of whom were soldiers; four savages killed and two wounded. He only took care of these wounded men for four or five days although some of them were wounded very severely. He even had the cruelty to sell them bread at 10 sols a livre. They have themselves attended to at their own expense. It will cost the man Richard, the one who had most wounds, more than 100 pistoles, and the rest in proportion to their wounds.
Heretofore he has not taken any more care of the sick soldiers. I have, however, obtained from the almoner a memorandum of what he has supplied for the sick from the month of June, 1706, when he went up to Detroit, to the month of July in the present year, which amounts to 410 livres; and if this were reduced to its true value it would not amount to 30 livres; for brandy is set down at 24 livres a pot, bread at 15 and 20 sols a livre, and the powder which served to pay for a part of what was supplied at one crown a livre.
As the Superior of the Hospitallers of Montreal is in France, I believe he will have the honor of conversing with you, My Lord, as to the request which M. de La Mothe makes for some brothers of his community to take care of the sick at Detroit. When a month had elapsed and M. de La Mothe had heard nothing from the Miamis, he sent a boat to them with four Frenchmen. The said Miamis kept two of them and sent back two Miamis to M. de Lamothe again assuring him that they would do what they had promised him; but there is no ground for believing it for they have withdrawn from their fort and two months have passed by without any news having been received from them. I have no doubt My Lord, that it is the impunity of Le Pesant which has given rise to this war, and that it will be the cause of many others that will occur at Detroit. But the private interest of M. de La Mothe prevailed in that over the justice he ought to have done; for if he had put this savage to death, those of the Outaois who came and settled at Detroit would not have come, and he prefers their furs to those of the Miamis, which are, for the most part, only roe-buck skins, whereas those of the Outaois are almost all beavers.
It is certain, then, that Detroit will some day be the theatre of a war between the savages; for, as many of these tribes have been enemies, they will infallibly, as I have already said, make attacks upon each other. But, My Lord, even if it were possible for these tribes to live at peace, which is not to be expected, another evil would arise, namely, as stated above, that (page 441) the Iroquois would gain over all these tribes to the side of the English by the cheapness of their goods, and would induce them to take all their beaver-skins to them; and the Iroquois themselves would do some of this trade by means of these goods which they would obtain from the English. Moreover that is done now, and to such an extent that Detroit has not supplied 700 livres of beaver-skins to the agency while Missilimakina has supplied more than 40 thousand-weight. M. de La Mothe has sent only four bundles, making about 200 livres. The remainder of the trade he has done must therefore have passed to the English; and this must have been of no small extent even if it had been only that which he has sent men to trade for, outside the limits of Detroit.
The man St. Germain, an armorer, has been to the Bay of Saguinau under the pretext of a permit to hunt, and saw three boat-loads of furs taken. Another armorer, Sarrasin, was with the said St. Germain.
A man named Trudaut confessed to me that he had also been there under the pretext of a hunting license, and had brought back 8 bundles of furs as his share.
The man Langlois also went there, on the pretence of going to look for hidden treasure. He had taken vermilion, powder, bullets, and even Indian corn.
The man Gignières is at Ouabache among the Onyatanous, under the pretext of obtaining from these savages what they owe him. He sent M. de La Mothe six canoes laden with furs, which he brought into the fort during the night.
M. de La Mothe told me that he had been accused of trading with the English, and of employing the Sr. Bourgmont for that purpose; but there is no ground for believing that that is so. He is too clever to put his interests in the hands of a man so dissolute as the Sr. Bourgmont, who deserted from Detroit to go after a woman called La Chenette, referred to above, with whom he is living in the woods like a savage.
In accordance with what has been said above, it is certain that, if the post of Missilimakinac were given up entirely, and all the Outaois there were to go and settle at Detroit, the greater part of the beaver-skins of Canada would go to the English, by the agency of the Iroquois. For the savages, and all others who were settled there, could not be compelled to sell their beaver-skins to us, except by our making our goods as cheap to them as the Iroquois sell those of the English; and this we could never do, whatever measures we might adopt. If any one thought he could compel them by force to do so, he would make the greatest of all possible mistakes.
It is also to be observed, My Lord, that if all the Outaois settled at Detroit, we should lose the trade of the northern part of Lake Superior
that the Miamis and Onyatanous who had taken refuge there, broke open the Company's warehouse and took from it,- 6 guns intended for trading, two carbines, 34 sword-blades, 32 gun cases, and 6 dozen knives [Statines].
The Sr. Bourgmont, fearing that the Outaois might set fire to the houses in the fort, had the chapel, the Recollet's house, and the Company's warehouse, unroofed and covered with the skins of hinds, which skins were much damaged by the rains which followed during almost all the time the said Outaois fired at the fort. I have, however, been assured that this damage was not very great.
M. de La Mothe had these houses roofed again with bark from the trees which he sent soldiers to fetch out of the woods, to whom he paid nothing. He gets almost all his other work done at the same price.
The brother of the secretary to the Marquis de Vaudreuil left Detroit a long time ago, My Lord, and the man whom he relieved, who is called Delorme has returned there. The truth is that the latter is a cleverer man than the other, and bears the reputation of an honest man.
MISSILIMAKINAC.
After I had remained at Detroit 19 days, I left there on the 3rd of August to go to Missilimakinac, which is at a distance of 130 leagues where I did not arrive until the 19th of the said month, on account of contrary winds. I only remained there four days, during which I observed that it was the most important of all the advance posts of Canada, both on account of its advantageous position- because of the difficulty of approaching it without being discovered- and from the trade that can be done there. This post is the resort of all the tribes that come down from Lake Superior, from the Bay des Puants, from the St. Joseph river and from Topicaniche. It is the way for any tribes which might intend making war on each other, so that it is easy for the Outaois to stay their axes and become the mediators in all their quarrels, as they have been in the past. It is inaccessible to the most powerful of their enemies, the Miamis and Onyatanous, as they are not boatmen.
The fishing is very abundant there, and the fish, the most excellent there is in the world; it is called white fish. It is all the better because no seasoning is required with it except salt.
The lands there are not fertile; but as much Indian corn can be grown as is necessary for the savages, and for the French people who may go there. It is certain, My Lord, and everyone is agreed, that the trade with the north of Lake Superior is the only profitable trade there is in Canada, because of the good quality of the furs to be obtained from there. If this post is not established, this trade cannot be carried on, nor any en-
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