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.
La Galissoniere to Rouille
(June 26, 1749)
La Galissoniere in: Archives
Nationales, Ministere
des Colonies, C11A 93:143 and in Illinois
Historical Collections, French
Series,
vol. III, pp. 96-99.
On the side of the lakes I have sent the Sieur de Celoron with a detachment of two hundred Frenchmen and thirty Indians. He has orders to go to the Beautiful River or Ohio River and descend it, both to drive out the Hurons who have assassinated the French and to win back some other Indians who have departed from their duty, as well as to remove the English who come to trade in those regions where they proposed this year to establish a post.
This river which falls into the Wabash and thence into the Mississippi indubitably belongs to France, and if the English were to establish themselves there it would give them entry into all our posts and would open to them the way to Mexico. I have (page 98) given orders to the Sieur de Celoron to take possession anew, and I have charged him to examine the region well and to see what settlements might be made there.
I have given him as chaplain the Reverend Father Bonnecamp,1 Jesuit and mathematician, who will afford us more exact and detailed information than we have hitherto had of those regions as well as those by which the detachment will pass going and coming.
The necessity of having similar information has induced me to send to Detroit the Sieur de Lery, fils, and to Mackinac the Sieur de Lotbiniere. They have no other mission than to observe everything that may be useful to the service and to draw up memoirs. Father Bonnecamp has had made for the Sieur de Lery and for himself instruments to take the elevations and has (page 99) graduated them, but the Sieur de Lotbiniere has graduated his own, and I have much confidence in his workmanship.
To enter into the arrangements which I have taken with respect to Detroit, I sent this last spring some families amounting to about forty-five persons, and I have given to Sieur de Sabrevois, who is there to relieve M. le Chevalier de Longueil, instructions which appear to me proper for augmenting that establishment.
That of the Illinois, which is not less important, has just lost M. le Chevalier de Bertet, who died the ninth of January. He was an excellent officer as I had the honor to indicate to you last year. If you were to choose a successor to him from this colony, I know no one who would be more fit for it than the Sieur de Celoron.
I am with very profound respect, Monsieur,
Your very humble and obedient servant,
|
La Galissoniere |
_______________________
1 Father Joseph Pierre de Bonnecamp, Jesuit, 1707-1790. Professor of hydrography in the Jesuit college at Quebec. He was dispatched to the upcountry in 1753 [Ordonnances des Intendants 3:1791] and was at Chautauqua in 1754. L'Archiviste. . . de Quebec pour 1926-1927, 364.
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