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.
Rouille to Duquesne
(May 15, 1752)
Vaudreuil in: Archives Nationales,
Ministere des Colonies, B95:
204-205 and in Pease and
Jenison, French Series,
III, pp. 627-635.
MONSIEUR
In the instruction which the king has ordered me to send you as to the various objects of the administration of your government, you will see that there the question is raised as to the very considerable movements among the Indians of the upcountry; and by my answers to the letters which M. le Marquis de la Jonquiere has written me on that subject, you will know what His Majesty's intentions are on what has taken place. To put you more and more in a condition to answer to what he expects of you in that matter, one of the most interesting which you will have to deal with on your arrival in Canada, I am very glad to explain to you more particularly in this letter which is for you along the principles on which His Majesty desires that you conduct yourself.
All the reports agree that the care which the English take and (page 628) the expenses which they incur to win over the Indians have not been without success among several tribes.
Last year we were informed of the progress they had already made among the Indians of the neighborhood of the Ohio River, otherwise called the Beautiful River, where since the peace they have undertaken to settle. M. de la Jonquiere had given an account of a plan which had been formed both to drive the English from that river and to punish the Indians who had let themselves be won over. This project was to march several detachments of French and allied Indians who were to unite at a rendezvous indicated to them and thereafter to act in concert for the object of this expedition. Although several observations might have been made on the details of M. de la Jonquiere's arrangements in that respect, since nevertheless, the basis of the project was good, and since moreover it should have been carried out before the governor could receive these observations, His Majesty judged it proper to give his approval to what had been done. But we have observed from the governor's own letters that all the resulting operations have reduced themselves to the carrying away (page 629) of some English traders with their goods and to the murders of two Indians of the Miami tribe.
The carrying off of the English trader whose goods have been confiscated and even pillaged by our Indians can only have a good effect by discouraging the other traders with the fear of meeting the same fate. But the murders of the two Miami may have annoying results; and in fact it has come to me that it had already caused much ferment among the rebel tribes. M. de La Jonquiere claims that if his expedition has not had the success which he expected from it, it is only because M. Celoron, major commandant at Detroit, which should have been the center of all the operations, has ill executed the orders and instructions given him.
It will be well for you to verify as far as possible what has happened in this regard and for you to give me an account of it. But it would be useless to enter here into an examination of the mistakes which may have been made. It is necessary to start (page 630-631) from where we are and to agree on certain main considerations by which to appraise all the operations which are to be undertaken.
The English may claim that by the Treaty of Utrecht we are obliged to allow the Indians to trade with them. But it is certain that nothing requires us to allow that trade on our lands.
Accordingly by all the alliances or treaties or councils that we have had with the distant Indians, we have never expressly required them to give up going to trade with the English; we have only exhorted them to that end; and we have never opposed that trade by force.
The river Ohio and the rivers which fall into it unquestionably belong to France. It was discovered by M. de la Salle; since then we have always had trading posts there, and our possession of it has been all the more continuous since it is the most used communication between Canada and Louisiana. It is only for a few years past that the English have undertaken to trade there; and today they wish to exclude us from it.
However, up to now they have not claimed that these rivers belong to them. Their claim is that the Iroquois are lords over them and that being sovereign of those Indians, they can exercise there rights. But it is certain the Iroquois have no claim there and that moreover this pretended sovereignty of the English over them is a myth; and I shall have occasion to explain the reasons of this to you in another letter.
However, it is of the greatest importance to check the progress of the claims and enterprises of the English on that side. Were they to succeed there, they would cut the communication of the two colonies of Canada and Louisiana; and it is easy to judge all the inconveniences which would not fail to result for both colonies without counting the advantages which the English at a single stroke would gain for their trade at the expense of ours.
The king decidedly intends to have complaints made at the Court of England about all these innovations and to demand that that court give orders to put an end to them. But whatever desire (page 632) that court may have to answer His Majesty's wishes for the maintenance of peace, his complaints can have no success, at least in the near future; for on one side it is difficult enough to have certain proof of the most serious facts, and on the other the orders given on matters of this kind may be very easily evaded.
It is then necessary to act on the spot; and there should be no question save as to the means most proper to do it with advantage.
We do not know what means M. de la Jonquiere may have employed this year. You will learn of them on your arrival at Quebec. But whatever they are and whatever may have been their success if anything remains for you to do, as there is but too much appearance that there will be, you must have it as your principal object to avoid as far as possible an Indian war on this affair.
Wars of that kind are always, as His Majesty observes to you yourself in his instructions, extremely expensive; and very (page 633) rarely is any real advantage for the service gained from them. You should even be forewarned that most frequently they are caused only by private interests and that on all occasions you should be on guard against the hints that may be given you and the snares which may be laid to entrap you into them.
Accordingly without undertaking, as apparently was the idea of M. de la Jonquiere, to force the withdrawal from the Ohio River of the Indians who for some time have been regarded as rebels or suspects, and without even wishing to destroy their freedom of trade, it is necessary for you to settle on two principal objects.
Firstly, to make all possible efforts to drive the English from our lands in those regions and to prevent them from coming there to trade by seizing their goods and destroying their posts. Secondly, at the same time to make the Indians understand that we have no designs on them, and that they shall have the liberty of going when they wish to trade with the English, but that we will not allow them to receive the English on our lands.
If you attain these two objects you will be sure of the tranquillity of our possessions in this country. And in thus acting, it is certain that provided you keep up warehouses well filled with merchandise and prevent our traders from imposing on the Indians, our trade will soon regain superiority over that of the English; for it is known that the Indians do not like to go to trade in their towns or in their forts.
Such are the intentions of the king as to the conduct which you have to follow in the movements which agitate the upcountry. It remains for me to speak to you on the related article which was treated in a solemn council which M. de la Jonquiere held in the month of July last with the Onondaga of the Five Iroquois Nations in the presence of the chiefs of the domiciled Iroquois, of the Abnaki of St. Francis, and the Ottawa of Mackinac. The Onondaga set forth in their speech that the lands of the river Ohio belonged to them. M. de la Jonquiere answered them in such a way as to admit their claim, making them under- (page 635) stand that the French would not settle upon those lands without their permission. The observations I have already made to you on the claim of the English should make you judge that this reply of M. de la Jonquiere has been in no wise approved. The king in effect desires that you profit by all occasions to destroy the impression it may have made and prevent all the consequences that may result from it by disabusing the minds of the Iroquois in that respect. They have as I have already indicated to you no right on the Ohio River. We discovered it before they frequented it; and we have even frequented it when there were no other Indians there than the Shawnee, with whom they were at war and who have always been our friends.
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