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.
Du Quesne to Maurepas
(October 25, 1752)
Du Quesne in: Wisconsin
Historical Collections,
XVIII, pp. 128-131.
Monseigneur- I have the honor to send you the Journal of the Sieur de Langlade who has won much glory through the blow he struck the Band of la Demoiselle, and who brought me five Englishmen who were in the Miamis' fort. I am sending (page 129) them to Monsieur de L'abbady, Commissioner at la Rochelle so that he may put them in prison pending your orders. I trust that this blow, added to the complete pillage suffered by the English on this occasion, will discourage them from trading on our lands.
It is so rare, Monseigneur, that a war with savages can bring about a very stable peace that I should not be surprised if, at the instigation of the English, the Miamis were to ask their Allies for help. Nevertheless, I have had no news of it, and I hope that my action in the Belle Riviere country will awe all the Nations.
This journal of Langlade is not found with the letter, and appears to have been abstracted from the archives at a comparatively recent date; it is to be hoped that it will sometime be recovered. The document here given seems to be the only French account of this siege of Pickawillany. It is without doubt the authority for Parkman's account in Montcalm and Wolfe (Boston, 1887), i, p. 81. The English sources are more numerous. Among these, the chief is Journal of Captain William Trent, already alluded to (ante, p. 114, note 63). Trent was a trader and interpreter employed by Virginia and the Ohio Company to assist at the treaty of Logstown in June, 1752. Thence he was deputed to carry the goods intended for the Miami, who had not appeared at the conference. Leaving Logstown June 21, the very day of the attack on Pickawillany, he soon heard rumors of this conflict; and when he reached the Scioto, found Thomas Burney and Andrew McBryer, the two traders who had escaped capture. They related to Trent that on the morning. . . For additional details see Penn. Colon. Recs., V, pp. 599, 600; Henry Howe, History of Ohio (Columbus, 1889-1910, Shelby County; and George Bancroft, History of the United States (Boston, 1857), IV, pp. 94, 95. In Draper MSS. 1J1-7 there are transcripts from two contemporaneous newspapers, with additional details.
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