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.
(September 1, 1722 to September
11, 1723)
D'Artaguiette, Diron in: Newton D.
Mereness,Travels in the American Colonies
(New York, 1916), pp. 17-92.
|
pp. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
. . . Feb. 10 [1723] The rain having ceased, we continued our journey, and, three leagues above, we found seven pirogues loaded with meat which "Canadian traders, established at the Ilinnois, are taking down to New Orleans to sell. They told us that diseases had been very prevalent among the Ilinnois, and that many Canadians had died. Rain having overtaken us in this place, we passed the night here. The Reverend Father Boulanger, the Jesuit, has sold many things, such as clothes and linens, at a profit of 400 per cent. . .
. . . Mar. 25. Fine weather. We departed about 7 o'clock in the morning, after having heard the mass of the Reverend Jesuit Father. We breakfasted on top of the Ecores a Prud'homme, and passed the night in spite of a heavy current three leagues above where we killed [incomplete]. This is the place where Langevin, father and son, were (page 63) captured by the Chicachats. Some of the other Frenchmen who were in the same pirogue killed a buffalo. The past night the water rose a foot. . .
. . . Mar. 31. Fine weather. We set out at day-break and had not gone a league when we met seven pirogues full of traders living among the Ilinnois, who had been hunting in the Riviere de Ouabache. They are loaded with salt meat (page 64) and bear oil, which they are going to sell at New Orleans. They were not able to tell us any news from the Ilinnois as it had been four months since they left there. . .
. . . Apr. 30. Three Miami Indians arrived here yesterday evening. We learned that the Wiatanons Indians, living up toward the head of the Riviere de Wabache, were leaving that place to go to establish themselves at their old village of La Babiche, which is on a little river which emptied into Lake Erie. The same day there arrived a party of 200 Illinois warriors, who were on their way to make war upon the Renards. . .
. . . May 2. An Indian from the Cahoskias arrived here, who told us that four Mysouri Indians had come to them (page 76) and had said that as soon as their planting was finished they were going to come to pay their respects to M. Boisbriant.
May 3. The chiefs of the villages of the Cascakias, namely Kiraoueria, Michel and Mamentouensa, having heard the report that they were going to put to death the man called Perilaud, held in chains for having killed the man called Morin, came today to Fort de Chartres with a band of thirty men from their nation to ask for his pardon. We beg the Commissioners to refer to two sheets of paper joined hereto, where the harangues of these Indians and the responses are given at length.
May 5. We departed from Fort de Chartres for the Cascakias, where we arrived about 2 o'clock in the afternoon.
May 6, 7 and 8. I received visits from the reverend Jesuit fathers, and from all of the inhabitants.
May 9. I called together all the inhabitants of this village to whom I said that I had an order from the King to form a company of militia for the purpose of putting them in a position to defend themselves with greater facility against the incursions which the Indians, our enemies, might attempt, so I formed a company, after having selected four of the most worthy among them to put at the head. This company being under arms, I passed it in review the same day.
May 10. An Ilinnois Indian has informed us that the Renards were going toward the Rocher with the purpose of establishing themselves there.
May 11. We left the Cascakias about noon and arrived about 5 o'clock in the afternoon at Fort de Chartres, where we found a band of Indians from the village of the Choaskias,1 who had come to ask for the pardon of Sr. Perilaud. There will be found on a sheet of paper affixed hereto their harangues and the replies which M. Boisbriant made to them.
May 12. The chief of the Indians from the Cahoskias presented me with a porcelain necklace, at the same time wishing me all sorts of happiness, and a fine journey and one free from enemies.
. . .May 19. About midnight there arrived a party of Ilinnois Indians, who are carrying back with them the head and the scalp of a Chicachat.
May 24. The Mysouri Indians, a nation situated 100 leagues up this river, on the left as you ascend, have arrived here to see M. Boisbriant. . .
. . .May 28. Two Ilinnois Indians arrived here very late yesterday evening. They had set out about fifteen days ago to the number of thirty men to go to war against the Renards. They had not gone forty leagues from here when they were attacked by a part of the latter, who killed eleven of their men. The rest escaped. . .
June, 1723
June I. At noon we perceived in the middle of the river a French canoe, with a man in it who seemed to us not to be rowing. We sent out a pirogue which brought back this canoe in which was a man called Ponpon, a soldier detailed to the Cahoskias. He had received two gun shots, one in the head and the other in the arm, and several other arrow shots and had his scalp torn off to the skull. In the stern of the canoe there was a bundle of skins, upon which there were two pairs of Indian mittens, and the vest of M. St. Ange, the son, in the pocket of which we found some letters from MM. St. Ange, father, and Mercier,2 the priest, which informed us that Renard Indians were coming with 300 men by land and as many by water to attack the village of the Cahoskias. They besought M. Boisbriant to send to their aid both men and provisions. At four o'clock in the afternoon the troops were put under arms for the distribution of powder and balls, and to see if the guns were in good condition. They began to cut down the large bushes and other things which would favor an approach to Fort de Chartres. About 11 o'clock at night there arrived from the Cahoskias two Indians and a Frenchman, who came by land. They told us that two Indians from their village, who were descending with M. St. Ange, the younger,3 in the canoe which had been attacked, had returned to their village about an hour before sunset the day of the fight, one of them wounded in the calf of the leg by a gun shot and that these men had said that M. St. Ange and Ponpon were dead.
June 2. About 9 o'clock in the morning Sr. de St. Ange, the younger, whom the Indians believed to be dead, along with Ponpon, arrived here. He had two slight wounds. This is the account of the affair as he gave it to us: The last of May he had set out from the Cahoskias accompanied by the soldier, Ponpon and two Indians from this village. After he had drifted about a league above the Petite Riviere de Miaramek, they had found themselves attacked by two (page 79) canoes, one manned with twelve men and the other with three, whom they recognized as Renards. These two canoes, giving them the chase and firing all the time, had forced them to attempt the crossing. The man Ponpon had been killed as soon as he had fired his first shot. Fortunately for them they noticed that the large canoe was completely disabled, there appearing in it no more than five men. Having crossed back to the other side of the Riviere de Maramek, a little above, the two Ilinnois Indians becoming angry, or growing tired of fighting, told him to put to shore so that they could fight to greater advantage. This St. Ange having done, the Indians no sooner saw themselves approaching the land than, without waiting for the pirogue to reach the shore, they leaped into the water and fled. M. St. Ange saw that the two Ilinnois Indians were fleeing. Seeing that the two hostile canoes were about to land, he adopted a plan of action and likewise disembarked and concealed himself fifteen paces from the Pirogue behind a large tree, when seven or eight hostile Indians throwing themselves upon the pirogue scalped Ponpon, and returned precipitately to their canoes, giving vent to frightful yells.
The Sr. de St. Ange about midnight crawled to the edge of the water to see if the pirogue was still there, but he could not find it. The first of June he had got down to the entrance of the Miaramek where he had made a raft (cajeu) for the purpose of drifting down, and arrived here, as I have already said.
June 3. There arrived here from the Cahokias two Indians, who brought us some letters from M. St. Ange, the elder, who is in command there, in which he tells us of the scarcity of provisions among them, and they beseech M. de Boisbriant to send them some, together with some reinforcements. I resolved to go there and in fact my departure was set for the next day.
June 4. 5 leagues. We departed about 7 o'clock in the morning, after having heard mass. Our boat was manned with a sergeant and sixteen soldiers. I was accompanied by M. St. Thereze Ensign de Dutisnet my secretary, and Sr. de St. Ange, the younger, who had just been attacked. (page 80)
June 4.4 - 7 leagues. About 4 o'clock in the morning we embarked and encountered strong currents. Having arrived at the island which is the nearest to the entrance of the Miaramek, we landed and found a man dead from a gun shot. His Manitou5 was near him (this is a kind of bird of prey) and a piece of the skin of a little dog, which was also near him. A little further we found the tracks of another Indian, who appeared to be wounded above the left breast. We did not consider it wise to go to look for him. Our purpose was to go to the aid of the Cahokias, whom we believed to be at that very time in close battle with the enemy. This is why we continued our journey. We came to the mouth of the Petite Riviere de Miaramek which in the Ilinnois language means brill, a kind of fish, which is very good. We had dinner there, and, having embarked, we continued our journey. A league higher up, on the same side, that is to say on the left as you ascend, Sr. de St. Ange showed us the place where he had landed and where the Indians had scalped Ponpon. From this place we continued our journey and put in for night three leagues from the Cahokias. We estimated that we had gone seven leagues.
June 6. At day-break we embarked and came to get breakfast at the old village of the Cahokias, which is on the left as you ascend, a league and a half distant from the Cahokias. In this place we perceived a large pirogue, of French make, which was crossing over from the village of the Cahokias. We decided that they were some traders who were going with the Mysouri Indians to their home both to trade in horses and to buy skins. We then continued our journey and arrived about 10 o'clock in the morning at the post where Sr. de St. Ange is in command, with six soldiers. This is a wretched fort of piles where Sr. Mercier, priest of the (page 81) Foreign Missions has a house and a church. An eighth of a league higher up is the village of the Cahokias.
We had no sooner arrived than they told us that the Mysouri Indians in coming up the river from Fort de Charters to this place had found, on the right side opposite the Riviere de Miaramek, a Renard Indian, recently killed, whose head they had carried off and given to the Cahokias. The same day I assembled the Indian chiefs of the Cahokias. They came accompanied by forty of their warriors, who, after they had told me that they were very glad to see me among them, sat down on the ground in a semi-circle and I addressed them as follows, M. Thaumeur, a missionary priest, being the interpreter.
"That I had come with my warriors both to aid them and to bring them provisions. That I thought that all the reports which they had sent to Fort de Chartres were false; that they should send out parties to discover with certainty whether the enemy were coming, and, in case they should have sure news of it, that they, together with their wives and children, should retire to the fort of the French, who would not fail to defend themselves vigorously; that I exhorted them to imitate the French and to defend themselves strongly against the common enemy; that for this purpose I was going to give them a French flag; that they ought, as soon as they were attacked, to send their best runners to Fort de Chartres and that their father, De Boisbriant, would not fail to come with all the French warriors to aid them." They answered me with a shout of joy and after they had given me their thanks, I dismissed them. The Cahokias are in 38 1/2o of latitude, in a plain which is perhaps a league in width and two in length. This plain is bounded on the west by an island, which is a league in length and a half league in width; on the south and north by low woods; inland on the east there is a large marsh abounding in game and in fish.
The Rivire des Ilinnois which empties into the Mississipy eleven leagues from the fort of the Cahokias, on the right side as you ascend, flows from the northeast to the southwest.
The Riviere des Mysourys, which empties also into the Mississippy six leagues above the Cahokias, on the left side as you ascend, comes from the northwest.
In front of the Indian village of the Cahokias flows a little river, which separates the prairie from the island. It flows from the northeast.
June 7. About 7 o'clock in the morning we set out from the Cahokias with two score Indians, both men and women, who were going to see their relatives at the Cascakias. About three leagues from Fort de Chartres we met four Indian Pirogues which were ascending the river. We identified them. They were Cascaskias who were reconnoitering (so they told us) to see if they could find any hostile trails. We arrived the same day about three o'clock in the afternoon at Fort de Chartres. . .
. . .June 18. We careened our boat to give it a coat of tallow. We were informed the same day that the Cahokias had been besieged and that M. Boisbriant had sent three Frenchmen, the best runners, with ten Mekchiquamias Indians.
June 20. Towards evening the French and the Indians, of whom I have just spoken, arrived at Fort de Chartres, with a party of Cahokias, who brought with them two prisoners. They gave one to the Medchiquamias and the other to M. Boisbriant to replace Ponpon, and a third, which they had burned, to the Cahokias. These three Indians (page 83) were the same ones who had attacked M. St. Ange. They admitted that in this attack they had had four men killed and three wounded.
June 22. The prisoner who was given to the Mekchiquamias was burned for four hours at the end of which a Frenchman killed him with a gun shot. The one who had been given to the soldiers has had his head broken. . .
. . .Sept. 9. A pirogue full of Frenchmen
who were coming down from the Ilinnois, has arrived here. They informed us (page 92) that the Renard Indians
had killed, opposite Fort de Chartres, two men named Sueur and Lafond,
Canadians, attacked on their way down, just as they were approaching the Ecore
Prud'homme, by a party of Chicachats. . .
__________________________________
1 Cahokias, near the site of the present city of Saint Louis.
2 (1, p. 78) Franois le Mercier.
3 (2, p. 78) Louis St. Ange de Bellerive.
4 (1, p. 80) June 5.
5 (2, p. 80) This was his spirit. (A note in the margin of the manuscript.)
Return to
TOC, p. 9
Continue
to next part of Miami Collection
[return to Miami
Collection Menu]
[return to Glenn A. Black
Laboratory of Archaeology List of Publications]
[return to Glenn A. Black
Laboratory of Archaeology Home]
Last updated: 3
November 2000
URL: http://www.gbl.indiana.edu/home.html
Comments: webmaster@www.gbl.indiana.edu
Copyright 1996, Glenn Black Laboratory of Archaeology and The Trustees of
Indiana University