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 to Vaudreuil
(July 2, 1712)
Marest, Father Joseph, S. J. in: Michigan
Historical Collections, XXXIII, pp. 557-558.
I do not know whether I am forgetting anything, but my letter is too long already. I will, however, add that Saguina told me to beg of you, if you wish to honor him with any present, to address it to me, so that the savages may not plunder it so easily, to give it to a man called Ountino from Longekam's village or indeed to any Frenchman. I am, with deep respect, Sir, Your most humble and most obedient servant.
|
Joseph J. Marest, of the Company of Jesus. |
_____________
LETTER
FROM FATHER MAREST- COMPLAINTS OF THE
INDIANS.
Endorsed- Annexed to the letter from the Marquis de Vaudreuil of the 6th of July, 1712.
Letter from Father Joseph Marest, missionary at Michillimakinac, to the Marquis de Vaudreuil, dated the 2nd of July, 1712.
Sir,
This morning, before he set out, Koutaouiliboé came and picked a quarrel with me. "What does our father Onontio mean by it?" he said to me; "it is five years already since he promised to send us Monsieur de Louvigny, and he wants to deceive us again this year as he did all the other years. He tells us that the great Onontio, the King, loves his children, the savages of Michillimackinac above all; yet he seems to abandon them entirely. Formerly, before Detroit was established, we who had settled at Michillimakinac were people of importance. All the tribes respected us because they were obliged to come here for what they had need of; there were no unseemly affairs as there now are, when the fiercest and most senseless tribes such as the Foxes, Kikapous, Maskoutins, Miamis, &c. who do not know how to use canoes, are able to go on foot to Detroit in as large numbers as they like, to buy powder there and to disturb all their allies; yet see," he adds, "how they want to make a larger settlement than ever at Detroit. A boat which arrived here yesterday from Detroit brought us news that Monsieur de la Forest had already arrived there with fifty Frenchmen; but Monsieur de la Forest is not coming to remain there, he is only coming in advance to speak to the savages. In a short time from now, another French chief is to come who is a young man who has bought all the property of Monsieur de La Mothe, his silver plate, his oxen and cows &c., and has also bought the land of Detroit, &c. This chief is to go up as soon as possible with four hundred Frenchmen to build a town there in which goods are to be sold for four years at the same price as at Montreal. As for- Michillimakinac, neither command-(page 558) ant nor Frenchman is to go up there; at the most, only two boats will go up, and some men who get away by stealth to come there, &c. Is that then the preference which is shown to the people of Michillimakinac? Is it because Detroit has always been a battle-ground, and always will be, that its settlement alone is thought of? Does our father wish us to leave a place of safety like the one we are in to go with our children to be slain at Detroit? If our Father loves us, why does he not think of establishing this place for us, and of sending us the man that has been promised us for such a long time to give spirit to those who have none, to strengthen us against our enemies if they attack us, and to prevent us from scattering again now we are come together? Does not our father know that all the Outaouas from the great river have returned here, almost all those from Saguinau, and the most important men from Detroit except Jean le Blanc whose wife is also here? Does he not know also that all the Outaouas of Detroit had already tarred their boats for coming here also, with half of the Hurons. The other half would have ( ?) fled to the Iroquois if they had not heard the news of the coming arrival of the French, for they did not think themselves safe at Detroit, nor did the Saulteurs and Missisaghez who all left there after the attack made upon the Fox tribe." In answer to all that, I told him that you would be able to reply to him when he had the honor of seeing you; on which he answered that the only reply for his father to make to him is to grant him the man that has been promised to them for so long, whom he is going to seek: that otherwise he does not know what will happen.
He also told me that the plague was down there, and I refuted it by the last French people who came from there. He added another fine piece of news- that peace was concluded in Europe, and that the great Onontio of the French had given over half of his children to the English, but that he had recommended them not to give them bad medicines as they were accustomed to do; that it was about to be all one, going to Boston or to Montreal; that, moreover, there was nothing at Montreal except powder, that the French themselves went for stuffs to the English, &c.; that at Detroit they were already giving two brasses of tobacco for one beaver-skin, a cloak of scarlet cloth for five or six beaver-skins, and similarly with other goods.
There is, however, one thing which makes all these items of news untrustworthy, viz. that those who have spread them abroad brought no letters. and that makes many people believe that the news is made up with a purpose, either by the French settlers at Detroit or by the savages who have remained there whose numbers are too small, so that they would like to bring the others back for their protection.
Another piece of news, which he told me with surprise, as coming from the same place is that Monsieur de La Mothe had arrived at Que-
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