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.
DeLigneris to Vaudreuil
(October 25, 1751)
DeLigneris in: Huntington Library
Manuscript,
Loudoun Coll. 318 and in Pease and Jenison,
French Series, III, pp. 414-417.
MONSIEUR:
You have doubtless learned from M. the commandant of the Illinois, to whom I had the honor of writing from this post about the beginning of September last, the plan that M. le Marquis de la Jonquiere had made for the destruction of La Demoiselle and the other rebel Miami who have withdrawn to Great Miami River. I had scarcely arrived at the Miamis fort where M. de Villiers is in command, and where was appointed the general rendezvous of all the forces to be employed in the execution of this plan, when I received a letter from M. de Celoron which informed me that the ill disposition of the tribes of Detroit, who were unwilling to march because of the small number of French arrived from Montreal for the expedition, had halted it for the present, and had made him postpone the affair to next year, in case M. the general then thought fit to send sufficient forces to (page 415) enable us to dispense with the help of the tribes of all these regions. At the same time I received orders to return to my post, where I foresee that matters will go very ill if we remain much longer in inaction. The Wea and Piankashaw, who are effectually of the same tribe with the Miami, appear for the most part very ill-intentioned, and I doubt not that they will soon take the side of the English, in case we defer seizing the posts these last occupy on the Ohio River. But for that it is necessary to incur expenses and to spare nothing.
The Piankashaw who are at the Vermilion River appear entirely in the English interest. When I passed there in September and while I was in council with the chiefs, all the young men of the village went to my pirogue, where I had left four or five soldiers, who like myself suspected nothing, and carried away what there was to take. I reproached the chiefs with this, and told them that I wished them to return everything that had been taken from me. They answered that they had no share in this act and that the young men had done it without their knowledge and at (page 416) the instigation of the Wea who wished to prevent me from going to Terre Haute to seek the Kickapoo. They gave me some strings of wampum to beg me to forget what had been done to my people, and brought back to me what had been taken, except for some trifles which they could not recover. If I had had but twenty men they would never have dared to do this; and I even believe they would not have attempted it if I had been at my pirogue, because I remained a long time at the shore, taking out what I needed in order to speak to them; and they acted only after I had gone into a Frenchman's house and had assembled all the chiefs there. You see, Monsieur, that with such tribes we should be always on our guard; accordingly I will not be wanting in it, until quiet is a little restored in this country.
I have learned since my departure from the Miamis post that a small party of Nipissing, which M. de Celoron could not stop at Detroit, had taken two scalps near the village of La Demoiselle. In that party were a Potawatomi and an Ottawa; and M. de (page 417) Belestre, who had brought the Nipissing from Montreal, was at their head. I believe it would have been better to attempt nothing at all than to do so little, and more advantageous for us to wait until we were in a position to make a decisive stroke.
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