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 Rouille
(September 25, 1751)
La Jonquiere in: Archives
Nationales, Ministere
des Colonies, C11A 97:82 and in Illinois
Historical Collections, French
Series,
Vol. III, pp. 356-368.
A party of Shawnee went to Vincennes to make an attack while the necessary succors were being brought to that post. At the same instant forty Piankashaw appeared who followed the Shawnee, telling them they would pursue them as far as their village and know positively whence they came. They think they are from (page 362) Sonnioto or from Great Miami River. If they are from the latter village the Piankashaw will accidently act in accord with my intentions.
M. de St. Claire reports to me that he is doing everything possible to reconcile the Shawnee with the Illinois and the Wabash tribes but that the French who have fled away from this post to go and hunt on the Ohio River have disarranged all his plans. In effect the Shawnee of Sonnioto who had come down to hunt have had a man killed and a woman with two children captured by the Wea while the French were with them. The Shawnee stopped the French and wished to attack them saying that it was the Illinois who were the children of the French who had made the attack. Happily they changed their minds. They have sent two of these French named La Mirande and Ste. Marie to the Illinois to know who was guilty of the murder, keeping with them the wife of the said La Mirande and the other Frenchmen. To try to get back these French M. de St. Claire was obliged to (page 363) send back two envoys with a peace pipe, two rolls of tobacco, and a letter by which he tells the Shawnee that the Illinois have not budged from their mats, that he has no knowledge as to what tribe had struck the blow, that he intends to leave the roads open in order that they might bring down the French in complete safety, and that he would make their peace with the Illinois.
The Shawnee received this letter at the Ohio River. This is the reply which has been made to M. de St. Claire: "Here we are all Iroquois, masters of this river, Iroquois of Montreal and of Sault St. Louis. We consider the Shawnee as our children. We beg you to try to obtain the prisoners and to send them back to their homes, and we shall be content. The Shawnee chiefs have left to go and show your letter in their village and to consult about going to see you at the end of the winter or in the spring. The person named Joncaire (he is an Indian) is here and hopes to go and see you.
The Shawnee did not go to see M. de St. Claire last spring, and he is afraid lest the French whom they have in their power (page 364) may have been killed, because for some time a rumor has been in circulation that a Frenchman and a French woman have been killed and that the Shawnee have carried to the Chickasaw four women in bonds. This was reported to him by an Illinois who had it of a Miami. M. de Celoron has already advised me of this affair and that the Wea had returned one of their prisoners to the Shawnee.
We should not be annoyed if the Wea have attacked the Shawnee, and I am writing to M. de St. Claire that it would not be a bad thing not to try to compose the quarrel that this affair may occasion between the Shawnee and the Illinois, because it would be to our interest to destroy these Shawnee by having the tribes make war upon them.
With respect to the French who remain in the power of the Shawnee, perhaps the arrival of the Shawnee whom the Wea have sent back may have procured them their liberty. In any case it is not necessary to mourn them since they are runaways who have (page 365) violated the king's ordinances. We ought to pay so little attention to conciliating the Shawnee that they may always seek to annoy the tribes which are allied to us. An Indian of the post of the Piankashaw who was wintering was attacked by three Shawnee. He received a gunshot wound and a blow with a tomahawk and escaped in spite of it. Another Indian of the same tribe was also attacked by the Shawnee within sight of the post. He took to flight and only lost his gun and his blanket.
The English take no less pains to seduce the tribes on the side of the Illinois than they do in all other places. They have sent a speech to the people of the village on the Vermilion. Their chief named Le Maringouin did not wish to receive it. He answered these people that he acknowledged no other father than the French and that he wished to have not other. They threw the speech at him saying, "There, take it, and do what you like with it."
M. de St. Claire has learned by an indirect channel that the English are always acting through La Mouche Noire and La Peau Blanche to corrupt these tribes under the pretext of the fur trade. The Peoria have reported to him that La Peau Blanche had been last winter with them to induce them to go to the English. There are also come of these people who want to go in search of La Mouche Noire. This is what they ordinarily say when they return in the spring from their winter quarters.
The English continue their devices to engage the tribes to strike the French, leading them on through La Mouche Noire and La Demoiselle, chief of the rebel Miami. La Mouche Noire has (page 367) two of his brothers who are chiefs of the domiciled Kaskaskia of Fort de Chartres. He has seduced the older who has gone to Great Miami River to take back three English prisoners. On his return he counts on bringing the English into the neighborhood of M. de St. Claire but to what place is not known.
The English have won the confidence of the Wabash tribes.
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