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 Rouille
(October 10, 1751)
Vaudreuil in: Archives
Nationales, Ministere
des Colonies, C13A 35:167 and in Pease
and Jenison, French Series,
Vol. III, pp. 401-413.
pp. 401, 402, 403, 404, 405, 412.
MONSEIGNEUR:
In the account sent me by the Sieur Benoist from the Illinois, he specifically states that he faces a revolution on the part of the Indian tribes who are leagues among themselves to strike the various posts of the region; he was working to guard against their design.
However I do not believe there is so close an understanding between the tribes that we have to fear from them an enterprise of the sort, although their minds have been much corrupted since the settlement of the English and of our refugees on Great Miami River. I am not unaware that these English will spare nothing and will put forth all their efforts to alienate them from us and to induce them to break with us altogether.
This commandant adds that all last winter the English had belts sent about together with presents among all the tribes of the Wabash and the upper Mississippi, among the Osage and the Missouri. Even the Quapaw through the mediation of the Illinois, were not neglected; the Illinois embassy to them did not have the expected success thanks to the pains which the Sieur De Lino has taken to discover the real mission of these deputies; seeing their schemes discovered, they went off with the belts and presents of the English.
As this tribe has not yet encountered the ambitious English traders, I recommend it strongly to their commandant to see that they have no relations with them or with the Illinois; these last had already won over a part of the Quapaw to go to Great Miami River and confer with the English. The emissaries would have (page 403) deserved to be arrested and brought here in irons, which will happen to them if they take it into their heads to make any more such moves, which infallibly would disturb the tranquillity of that tribe which up to now has given the French no cause for discontent.
The Sieur de Villiers, commandant at the Miamis post, informs me specifically that the refugees of Great Miami River have rejected M. le Marquis de la Jonquiere as their father and have altogether taken up with the English. This officer adds that, having gone to summon them back to their tribes, they had answered him that they recognized no father but the English, and that they wished to have nothing to do with the French directly or indirectly; from them they had nothing to fear or to hope, so long as they had on their side all the tribes of the upcountry, as well as the Iroquois.
M. de Celoron in the spring informed M. le Marquis de la Jonquiere of this rebuff; it is asserted that he is to send against (page 404) them this year an army capable of curbing their audacity and driving out the English. This is much to be desired. It is to be feared that if they are allowed to remain longer in that place, it will in the end be more difficult to make them decamp, and afterwards to hold the tribes of the upcountry who are already but too intractable since the English have found means to form this republic on Great Miami River.
It has also come to me that these traders are forming an establishment on White River; for the time being it should not be of importance since according to the account that I shall have the honor to give you by another letter, it is only an entrepot for the convenience of the tribes. But it will infallibly be so in the future if one can judge from the way the English have maneuvered up to now. Accordingly I have put it in the instructions of M. de Macarty, major commandant at the Illinois, to inform himself concerning this alleged entrepot and to prevent in continuing longer.
I have already had the honor to represent to you, Monseigneur, how much it was to our interest not to suffer the republic to be established on this river. In case M. le Marquis de la Jonquiere has not this year taken measures capable of destroying it, I believe I should also observe to you that there is no time to lose, judging by all the disorders. The longer we delay the more the evil will grow, and the more difficult it will be to apply a remedy. The time already spent in making vain attempts to bring these refugees to reason has served only to reassure them in their design and to render them more insolent because they have since rejected the French to adopt the English altogether.
In the confidence in which I am that the general will have taken a decisive course in the affair, I have given orders to the Sieur de Macarty, now enroute to take charge of his command, to second this enterprise with all his power and on his side to oppose the settlements the English may make on the Ohio River.
I am also informed as to what the settlement was which the English had formed on White River forty leagues from Vincennes. It appears if one puts faith in this prisoner that it was nothing but a traders' entrepot for the convenience of the tribes of the lower Wabash and those of the Illinois.
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