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
(February 13, 1731)
In "1731: Rivalry of the English; Conditions at
Upper Posts", in: Wisconsin Historical
Collections, XVII, pp. 131-134.
1731: RIVALRY OF THE ENGLISH;
CONDITIONS AT UPPER
POSTS
[Memorandum, dated Feb. 13, 1731, on projects for checking the English trade with the Indians, submitted to Beauharnois and Hocquart, with their replies thereon. Source, same as preceding document, but vol. 56, c. 11, fol. 294.]
A letter1 was written to Messieurs de
Beauharnois and Hocquart, on May 2, 1730, respecting the importance of breaking
off the Trade relations between the savages and the English, as it was to be
feared that frequent intercourse between them might detach the savages from us
through their taking their furs to the English. [It was suggested] That the
post of Detroit was Established partly with that purpose. That, nevertheless,
the Miamis and Ouyatanons, amongst whom we maintain garrisons,2
take the greater portion of their furs to the English. This is due to the
difficulty experienced by the French Voyageurs in going to those Nations on
account of the various (page 132) portages.3 That therefore it might be advisable not to continue
those two posts, That of Detroit being sufficient, since the savages, to whom
the trouble of transportation costs nothing, could go thither.
________________________________
1 This letter, of which a summary follows, would seem to have been due to the instigation of De Noyan, and his plan for the Detroit post. See ante, p. 107.- ED.
2 The French post among the Miamis was erected about 1712, when these Indians migrated eastward and settled on the river that bears their name (Maumee). The fort was on the right bank, at the site of the present city of Fort Wayne, Ind. In the Indian revolt of 1748, the post was partially burned. After its surrender to the English (1760-61), Fort Miami was garrisoned by a small detachment, whose commander, Ensign Holmes, was massacred at the beginning of Pontiac's Conspiracy (1763), by being decoyed without the walls. The fort was not rebuilt until the Americans placed a garrison here, after the battle of Fallen Timbers (1794), named in honor of the victor, Fort Wayne.
The Ouiatanon post was on the site of an earlier trading-house at the mouth of Wea River. It was established as a military garrison between 1715 and 1718,m being located on the north bank of the Wabash, about four miles below the present city of Lafayette, Ind. No English garrison was maintained here, after its capture by Pontiac's warriors (1763). Relics of the old French fort have been found at this place. See Craig, "Ouiatanon," Indiana Historical Society Publications, ii, No. 8.- ED.
3 (1, p. 132) The route from Detroit followed the shore of Lake Erie to the mouth of the Maumee. On that river was a long portage at the rapids near the entrance of the Au Glaize River. The length of the portage from the headwaters of the Maumee to those of the Wabash depends upon the season; in dry times it was nine miles long, in wet season being sometimes reduced to two miles. See "Journals of George Croghan" in Thwaites, Early Western Travels reprints (Cleveland, 1904), vol. i.- ED.
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