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 Jonquiere to Celoron
(October 1, 1751)
La Jonquiere in: Archives
Nationales, Ministere
des Colonies, C11A 97:165 and in Illinois
Historical Collections, French
Series,
Vol. III, pp. 381-393.
I reply, Monsieur, to the six letters which you have done me the honor to write me on July 1 and 28 and August 3, 7, 10, 14, and 22 last by which I perceive the measures which you first took to carry out my orders, as well as the assurances the tribes gave you of joining the French to go together and destroy the Miami, and other rebels.
I see at the same time that all the fair promises of these tribes, their attachment to the French, their indignation at La Demoiselle, and their courage to attack his fort today and reduce themselves to fears which seem to me to indicate that the French and Indians will remain inactive. On this, your last letter leaves me no doubt.
I cannot express to you, Monsieur, how much pain so sudden a change gives me. I hope that since that date you may have succeeded in bringing these tribes back to their former disposition and in keeping the wrath of the French alive. In this confidence I am going to repeat to you what I had the honor to tell you by my letters of July 5, 15, and 26.
You should have taken proper measures to assemble your forces at Miamis, sending there 120 to 130 soldiers detached from Detroit and other posts with 100 of M. de Longueuil's militiamen, as many of the militia and inhabitants of Detroit as you could muster, and the Ottawa and Potawatomi of Detroit, with the addition of the Kickapoo and Mascoutens, the Potawatomi of St. Joseph River, and the 50 Algonkin and Nipissing. . .
I directed you to take the most favorable time to dispatch your forces from the Miamis to go and attack the fort of La Demoiselle and to make yourself master of it by force of arms. You should have had no difficulty in understanding the necessity of seizing the moment when the tribes of the Ohio River were on their hunts to dispatch your little army from the Miamis fort, which is not feasible under the first freeze.
In your letter of August 10 you say that you have received fresh assurances of fidelity from all the tribes of Detroit, and that their disposition does not appear to change. You believe that these tribes will second you in checking the English, but that as to attacking the Miami, unless the French take part, they will do nothing because they are too near neighbors to them in their hunts to do anything.
However, according to your letter of the fourteenth of the same month, on the arrival of the Sieur de Belestre you assembled all the tribes of Detroit in the presence of the Algonkin and Nipissing to expound my sentiments to them. You gave a red belt to each tribe and sang the war song. The Ottawa and Potawatomi first accepted the tomahawk and sang the war song. They thanked the Nipissing and Algonkin and asked them by strings of wampum to give them time to assemble their warriors that hey might all go together with the French to destroy the common enemy. All the Huron tribe also accepted this belt. You say you are going to take all measures to secure the departure of the Detroit tribes of St. Joseph River, the Mascoutens and the Kickapoo, and to announce to them that they have accepted the tomahawk and that the tribes in question must join the French to attack the Miami of Great Miami River. You have reason to believe that the speeches intrusted to M. de Ligneris on the part of the tribes of Detroit for those of the posts of St. Joseph River and of Ouiatanon will have had a good effect. Finally, you say, my orders for this expedition are so positive that even though all should perish, you will do everything to carry them out.
Everything went for the best. On the fourteenth of August all seemed to correspond to our wishes. You needed to send off immediately the Sieur de Montigny with as many pirogues as possible to carry flour to the post of M. de Villiers. I will not formally disapprove your sending provisions as you have to Kekionga; I will merely remark to you that there was reason to fear that they might be plundered by the Indians. You thought yourself so certain of success in executing my orders that you purchased three thousand pounds of deerskin and had even distributed it to those who were to march.
Between the fourteenth and the twenty-second of August the appearance of things changed very much. You say the tribes of Detroit, informed of how few people came with M. de Longueuil, begin to repent of having accepted the tomahawk. You fear lest (page 388) they decide not to march. You even indicate that Mekinac was to ask that they be excused. The Potawatomi declared that they were going to flee in the direction of Green Bay. You made the chiefs return. You see them in a great uncertainty and as troubled men. Mekinac and Kinousaki appeared always to be of good sentiments, but they find that the few French, who make up the party along with the Indians, are insufficient to make head against the enemy. They fear the result of an enterprise which, sure not to succeed, would occasion a war which would set all that part of the land in a flame. However the idea of these two chiefs being that the tribes of St. Joseph River, the Mascoutens and the Kickapoo, would not take our side, there was reason to hope the tribes of Detroit would recover their first courage if M. de Ligneris, as there was reason to believe, succeeded in inducing the tribes of St. Joseph and Ouiatanon to march.
If you have induced all the tribes to join the French, you will not hesitate when you receive my letter to execute my orders, and if you profit by the time when the tribes of the Ohio River are on their hunt, I do not doubt that your detachment will get possession of La Demoiselle's fort. But if my plan had become known to these nations, if they had assembled their forces to receive you, and if you were informed that they made up a body of almost two thousand men independent of the tribes who have not declared themselves enemies of the French, and that the English had put them in a condition to sustain a hot attack by providing them with arms and munitions of war, you will give over the plan, and in that case you will communicate to me the project that you may form to strike a blow on these tribes, employing the knowledge that you possess of these regions.
I should not leave you ignorant of the fact that I have information by M. de Joncaire that next year an assembly is to be held at La Demoiselle's of the Illinois, Wea, Piankashaw, Miami, (page 390) Delaware, Shawnee, and the Iroquois Five Nations. M. de Joncaire thinks that everything points to a general revolt. The refusal of the tribes of Detroit to join the French is not, you say, what is most annoying. You consider that our weakness will make them see that we are not in a position to take vengeance for their insults. You add that it is even claimed that the conspiracy of four years ago is not altogether extinguished and that all the tribes are only waiting a favorable moment to cause it to burst forth. You say we are assured that there is everything to fear from them.
I hope that Le Cigne may be able to recall the band of Le Pied Froid which has gone off to White River. It is important to neglect nothing to that end. It is annoying that you were not able to discover of what tribe the Indians were who attacked the interpreter at Sandusky.
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