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.
Memorandum on the Settlement of
Mobile and the Mississippi
In: English Translation of Margry,
Vol. 4, pp. 650-657.
pp. 650, 651, 652, 653, 657.
II.
The
necessity for strengthening the country
in order to destroy the English settlements,
Indians to migrate.
Boundaries between Louisiana and Canada.
_______________________
Memorandum
on the settlement of Mobile and
the Mississippi.
It is necessary that the King should send a ship there in the (page 651) month of November to take provisions and other
things necessary.
It is advisable to dismiss most of the Canadians in the garrison, on account of the heavy wages they receive. We shall keep only fifteen to twenty of them, to send to the Indian tribes, which we cannot dispense with doing for a year or two.
It will also be necessary to keep the artisans, such as armourers, cutlers and carpenters, and ten sailors.
To enable us to discharge the Canadians it would be necessary to send two companies of soldiers there, of fifty men, together with their provisions,- flour, bacon and vinegar.
The necessary materials for setting up a mill, and some families of husbandmen.
Twenty or thirty maidens to be married to the Canadians who will be discharged; they should be pretty. To supply these girls with food for one year, in flour, bacon, vinegar, oil and salt.
There is nothing more necessary than to strengthen that country and to gather forces there large enough to form an army and expeditions strong enough to destroy the settlements in Virginia, Maryland and Pennsylvania.
For that purpose, we must induce the Illinois tribe to settle on the Wabash,- the river which will take us to the English colonies and to the Iroquois. In order to compel them to do this, without any heavy expense to the King, no Frenchman must go from Canada to trade there, nor to the posts on the Mississippi nor to La Mobile, nor to the settlement which will be formed on the Wabash; if they do so, they should be threatened with the forfeiture of their goods to the King; and the Illinois should be informed that they must not expect to trade with Canada in future, but must do their trade with the posts on the Mississippi. (page 652) When they see that no one will trade with them unless they come to Wabash, they will come there provided a few presents are made to the chiefs of the various tribes of which the Illinois are made up consisting of a thousand men, armed and warlike.
Bring the Sioux to the River of the Monigona, which is between the Missouri and the Mississippi 40 leagues above the River of the Illinois. These Sioux number 4000 men, all warlike, and most of them armed with guns. We cannot induce the Sioux to make this migration except by employing M. Lesueur, to instruct great influence over them. It will also be necessary to instruct him to negotiate peace between them and the Illinois, the Renards, Kikapous and Maskoutins, and to bring the Mahas and the Octotas to a river which is 20 leagues from Wabash. They number two thousand good men. If the Illinois make a difficulty about coming to Wabash, bring the Mahas and Octotas there. Send definite orders to the commandant at Detroit on no account to permit any Frenchman to go to trade with the Renards or Maskoutins or Kikapous, nor to the Bay des Puants, nor even to Chicago; and to forbid them to make war against any of the Indians on the Missouri. If no one goes to those tribes, they will be obliged to come straight to Detroit or to the posts on the Mississippi; if they do not, we need not trouble, for these Indians cannot go to any other Europeans. By this means we shall have control of them.
MM. de Callieres and de Champigny and the farmers of the beaver trade of Canada have requested, in their memorials of 1701, that the boundary of Canada should be extended to Wabash, and that a settlement should be formed there in order to prevent the Indians from trading in beaver-skins, in that direction, with (page 653) the English that a post should be established at Wisconsin on the Mississippi, and another among the Sioux; and they point out that the trade with these parts has always been done from Canada: (they forgot to say that this was contrary to the King's commands, and therefore it ought not to belong to them). These things they ask, in order that those tribes may always find, when they want them, the goods and the Frenchmen they are so fond of; but, if we are there, it appears to me that we shall not be English; and they ought not to attempt to prevent Lesueur from trading with these tribes, by accusing him of dealing with them in beaver-skins,- at least I never heard of him doing so.
As to the post of the Miamis or Chicago, which they propose, that should not concern the Mississippi, as it is beyond the high land bounding the basin of the Mississippi. Only, if they establish a warehouse there, it is evident that all the Indians of the Illinois river would go there, since it would be only 60 leagues away by water, and less by land, and they would not think of the Mississippi.
If they are allowed to establish that post, we need take no steps to attract the Illinois away from their land, nor hope to obtain from them any assistance except in the direction of Canada and for the beaver trade only.
We shall not be able to induce them to make peace with the Sioux, who are seeking peace and have made advances to obtain it. The Renards, Kikapous and Maskoutins will be captured again. We need not think of going to the country of the Sioux, as we should risk meeting the tribes situated between the Illinois and Lake Superior, on the east of the Mississippi, who would attack us as they have done before.
naturally to form the boundary between these two countries. On all the rivers which fall into the Mississippi there are mines of various metals. When that country is settled, will these gentlemen of Canada come and work them, a distance of six or seven hundred leagues from their settlements, in which a very large number of portages have to be made? If this country is granted to them, as they ask, can they expect to share the trade of the country with those who establish it, to whom it naturally* belongs?
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