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.
Vaudreuil to Maurepas
(September 19, 1747)
Vaudreuil in: Archives Nationales, Ministere
des Colonies, C13A 31:98 (extract) and in
Illinois Historical Collections, French
Series, vol. III, pp. 31-34.
Monseigneur:
. . .
I learned by the Choctaw who came to bring me a Chickasaw scalp that the western group were opposed to the destruction of these traders and wished to keep them in spite of the eastern group who sent me these deputies to learn my final intention. Since it is to the interest of the colony that this tribe should have no trade with the English, I have remained in the same opinion. I believe, Monseigneur, that I cannot depart from it without running many risks as there is no doubt that the (page 32) English would succeed in alienating all the other tribes from us once they had gained the Choctaw. It is even easy to judge what progress they might make from what they have accomplished since the war among the tribe in the north and those dependent on the Illinois, according to the information which I received in August last. The Chevalier de Bertet then informed me that there was an almost universal conspiracy on the part of the Illinois tries as well as those of the Wabash to destroy the posts of that region at the request of the English and by the intervention of the Hurons and of the Iroquois of the Five Nations. These last, the Chevalier de Longueuil, commandant at Detroit, informs me, have lifted the tomahawk against the French. He adds that the Huron have killed five of our voyageurs at Sandusky and have declared war on us; there was every appearance that they wold repent of it, since they had taken refuge on the Little Lake at Sandusky from which they threatened him with a further attack. He added however that it was a question if they were in a position to make it and if they were not rather (page 33) occupied in guarding themselves; for the rest he would await it and would stand on his guard. He said their plan had been to kill all the French by treachery, even their missionary, and him himself, or to carry him off a prisoner to the English; but the conspiracy had been discovered, which put them in the situation of being able to undertake nothing up to the present. This treason concerned not merely the French but also the Iroquois of Sault St. Louis and the Huron of Lorette who were at Detroit and who appeared disposed to revenge themselves. That officer adds further that this treacherous blow obliged the Miamis and their neighbor tribes who were en route to Montreal to go back to their respective posts, and that it was feared the Iroquois of the Five Nations might have an understanding with the Huron. This might be inferred from an attack by their people returning from Montreal on the inhabitants of the country who were cutting timber between Chambly and Fort St. Frederick.
To go back to the treachery with which the Chevalier de Bertet was threatened, there would have been every reason to (page 34) fear the result if he had not by chance discovered it and had not taken sufficient precautions to insure his safety by assembling all the different villages in one place, and by sending me here the principal chiefs of the Illinois tribes who had received belts for this treachery from the Iroquois which that officer made the chiefs give up. This treachery should have taken place last month, but I am counting on its not having happened all the more from its having been discovered, and from the fact that the convoy which brought the supplies for that post should have reached there at the end of August. . .
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TOC, p. 11
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