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.
Dubuisson to Vaudreuil
(Detroit Pontchartrain, June 15, 1712)
(Due to length divided here into two parts)
Dubuisson, Sieur in: Michigan Historical
Collections, XXXIII, pp. 537-552.
pp. 547, 548, 549,
550, 551.
(page 547) source of expense to me at Quebec. When I had
gained over all the savages in private, I held a general council to which I
summoned all the tribes. I said to them, "How is it, my children, when you
are on the eve of destroying that wicked tribe, that you are thinking of flying
disgracefully, after having begun so well? Would you ever be able to hold up
your heads again? You would always be weighed down with shame. All the other
tribes would say- 'Those are the brave warriors who fled in so cowardly a
manner and deserted the French.' Be not troubled: take courage. We will try and
find a little food yet; the Hurons and the Outtavois, your brethren, offer you
some for me, and I will do my best to relieve you and assist you. Do you not
see that our enemies are only holding on by a thread? Hunger and thirst are
over-powering them; we shall very soon be masters of their lives. Will you not
be greatly pleased after their great overthrow, when you are at Montreal and
receive so many caresses and tokens of friendship from the father of all the
tribes, who will look with favor on you for having risked your lives with me?
For, doubt not that when I send him my report of all this, I will do justice to
each of you individually for all that you have done for me. You must know also
that, in destroying this tribe, you are giving life and peace to your wives and
children who have never yet experienced it."
The young war chiefs whom I had gained over, scarcely gave me time to finish and said to me, "My father, permit us to interrupt you. We think some liar must have come and given you a false report. Know that every one of us loves you too much to desert you, and we are not such cowards as they would represent us. We are determined even if we have to fast still more, not to leave you until your enemies and ours have been destroyed." All the old men and the others applauded this saying, "Come! Let us hasten and take arms, and give the lie to those who have given this false report to our father." The great shout was raised and they sang, and danced the war dance, while a large number fought.
Every day some Sakis came out, who had formerly set up a village among the Outagamis, and returned to their people who were with me, who received them with pleasure. They informed us of the state the enemy's village was in, assuring us that they were in a state of utter ruin; that more than from sixty to eighty women and children had died of hunger and thirst; and that they were infected with disease by their bodies, and those of others that were slain every day, for they did not dare make any move to bury them on account of the heavy fire that I kept up continually.
The enemy, in this condition, asked to parley, which we granted them. There were the two great chiefs, the one the chief of the village and the other a war chief; the former was named Allamyma and the latter Pe- (page 548) moussa. With them were also two great Mascoutin chiefs, one named Kisis and the other Ouabimanitou. The great chief Pemoussa was at the head of three others, and had a crown of porcelain on his head, several necklaces of porcelain hanging round his body, and several others like shoulder-belts; he was painted with green earth. He was supported by seven women slaves who were also painted and bedecked with porcelain; the other three chiefs each had a chichicoy in his hand. In this manner they all marched in order, singing and howling with all their might to the sound of their chichicoys, 1 calling all the demons to their aid, to have compassion on them. They also had small figures of demons hung from their belts. They came into my fort thus bedecked; and, in the midst of all the tribes allied to us, they spoke as follows:
"My father, I speak to you and to all the tribes who are before you. I ask you for life; it is ours no longer, you are the masters of it. All the Manitous have deserted us. I bring you my flesh by the seven slaves that I place at your feet: but do not think that I fear to die, it is the life of the women and children that I ask for. I beg you to make the sun shine that the sky may be fair, so that we may be able to see the light of day, and that we may do nothing but what is good in the future. There are six necklaces which we give you; which hold us attached to you as your true slaves. We beg you to detach them as a sign that you grant us our lives. Remember, all of you, how long you have been of one family with us. Tell us something, I beg of you, that mat give pleasure when we go back to our village."
I left it to our savages to reply to these envoys. They had become so full of anger against them in such a short time that they answered them nothing. They only asked me, to the number of eight or ten chiefs, to speak to me in private. "My father, we come to ask you to kill these four great chiefs. It is they who prevent our enemies from surrendering to us at discretion. When they no longer have them at their head, they will be in a great difficulty and will surrender." I replied that they must be drunk to come to me with such a proposal. "Know that they have come at my promise, and you have given me yours: we must keep faith with them. Could you trust one another in future if we did not? Moreover if I consented to this proposal, the Governor General would never forgive me for it. Drive out this idea therefore from your minds; they must return in peace. You see that they cannot escape us, since you have determined to give them no quarter." They confessed that I was right, and that they had no sense. The envoys were sent back in complete safety, but without any answer being given them as to what they (page 549) had come to ask us. These poor wretches well knew that there was no hope for them. I confess, Sir, that I was touched with compassion for their unhappy lot; but as war and pity do not go together, and more especially as I was well informed that they were paid by the English to destroy us, I abandoned them to their sad fate. On the contrary, I hastened to put an end to this tragedy, so that this example might strike terror into the allies of the English, and the English themselves.
The heavy fire began again worse and worse; the enemy, being at bay, fought constantly in their village, and outside when they wanted to go for water, or to snatch a little grass to relieve their hunger. The only chance they had left was that of a dark night with rain falling, in which to escape. They awaited it with great impatience; it came on the nineteenth day of the siege, and they did not fail to take advantage of it. They fled at midnight and we did not find it out till daybreak. I encouraged our men and they went after them most energetically. Monsieur de Vincennes went, with a few Frenchmen, which pleased our savages greatly.
The enemy, suspecting that they would be pursued, stopped at a peninsula, which was opposite the end of Hog Island, near to Lake St. Clair, four leagues from the fort.2 They cut forked branches and laid them crosswise above, and had stakes set up all along. Our people did not perceive them and fell into their intrenchment, losing more than twenty men there killed and wounded. They had to encamp also, and besiege them a second time. It was a regularly constituted camp: every day a hundred canoes were seen carrying provisions for the Outtavois, Hurons, Saulteurs and Mississagues. The chiefs sent to me to ask for my two pieces ordnance, all the axes and mattocks that I might have, for cutting the woods and penetrating them in order to approach the enemy's intrenchment, and still to supply them with powder and bullets; as for Indian corn, tobacco, and condiments, it was the usual thing, without reckoning all the kettles of the French people which have been lost, and I have had to pay for. The enemy held out for four days longer, fighting with great courage. At the end of that time, being unable to do any more, they surrendered at discretion to our people, who gave them no quarter. All were destroyed except the women and children whose lives were granted them; a hundred and fifty men escaped who were bound. All the tribes allied to us returned to my fort with all their slaves, thinking to infect us, [ ? with their cruelty]. Their amusement was to shoot four or five of them every day; the Hurons did not give quarter to a single one of theirs. That, Sir, was the end of those two wicked tribes, with such evil designs, who disturbed the whole land. Our reverend (page 550) father celebrated a high mass to give thanks to God for having preserved us from this enemy.
The Outtagamis and Mascoutins had, as I said before, constructed a very good fort within a pistol-shot of mine. Our men did not dare to attempt to storm them in it, say what I could to them; there were three hundred men to defend it and we should certainly have lost a large number, but the siege would not have been so long. Our savages lost sixty men killed and wounded, of whom I had indeed about thirty killed in my fort, and a Frenchman named Germain, with five or six others wounded by arrows. The enemy lost a thousand souls, men, women and children.
I must not forget to inform you that there were about twenty-five Iroquois in this fight, who had joined the Hurons from the foot of the lake. These two tribes together distinguished themselves above all the others, and also lost more men. They were made much of by all the savages, more especially by the Poutouatamis who made them reparation for their old ground of complaint, by slaves and calumets. It was I who induced them to make friends as to this matter.
I venture to assure you, Sir, that this general assembly of all the tribes has put them all at peace with one another, and has renewed their former alliance. They all count on large presents, which they say, Sir, you have promised them.
With the consent of his tribe, I have detained the great chief of the Illinois, from the village of Le Roche, to send him down, (his name is Chachagouache, and he is a good man, with much influence) in order that you may compel him, Sir, to make peace with the Miamis. This matter is of very great importance, the Miamis having sent me word that, if it is not made, they are going to abandon their village and form another at the Oyau River at the end of Lake Erie. That is just where the English are to build a fort, according to the belts they have given to the tribes. They have also sent me word that they would feel safe if you sent them back a garrison, and a reverend Jesuit father, with some presents which they say you promised them. Maquisabé, the Poutouatami chief is also going down; he has great influence over the mind of this Illinois chief. The man Joseph who is going down deserves favor at your hands; I had great difficulty in saving his life.
I take the liberty, Sir, of begging you that the savages who go down with Monsr. de Vincennes may return pleased; their going down makes this post safe. Saguina showed me that he was aggrieved that Monsr. Desliettes would not wait for him last spring, as he thought it was out of contempt. Poor Otchipouac died this winter. This is a loss; he was a man of firmness, and his mind was well inclined toward the French.
We have another affair on our hands which is certainly a troublesome one. it is the Kikapoos at the mouth of the River of the Miamis who are going to make war on us now that all our allies have retired; about thirty Mascoutins have joined them. A boat load of the Kikapoos, who (page 551) came to Detroit to speak to the three villages, was destroyed by the Hurons and Outtavois; there was a great chief whose head was brought to me with three others. This attack was made out of revenge, because he had bound some Hurons and an Iroquois last winter; moreover they looked upon him as really an Outagamy. I do not know whether the Kikapoos would not have put the two Hurons and the Iroquois to death, even if Mons. de Vincennes had not been at the mouth of the River of the Miamis; it looked very much like it. Those same people also arrested Langlois, who was on his way back from the Miamis, charged with many letters from the reverend Jesuit fathers in the villages of the Illinois. All these letters were torn up, which annoyed me very much as I felt sure that there were some for you, Sir, coming from Louisiana. They sent back this Langlois, a settler here, keeping all the furs we had, and charged him to go back and learn the news; but he has no great desire to do so, nor have I to let go. The Outtavois however might send there; the Kikapoos have with them one of their wives and her children. I will contrive that the Outtavois shall join with the Hurons in making some arrangement with this tribe, so that we may have peace here.
All the tribes have retired in peace, with
all their slaves. Saguina has abandoned his village, and is going to
Michilimaquina. The Poutouatamis are also abandoning theirs, and are to come
here or go to the Illinois. More than half of the Outtauois of this place are
also withdrawing to Michilimaquina. The Saulteurs and Mississagues are going to
Topicanich; they would on no account hear of making reparation to the Miamis
for the murder of last year when Monsr de Tonty was here; the Miamis loudly
demand justice from me. I am sparing no pains to make them have patience and
understand that I am still working in their interests. I have the honor of
telling you, Sir, that I arranged a matter last autumn which Monsr. de La Mothe
was never able to succeed in doing, during the whole time he was here, viz. to
compel the Outtavois to make a firm peace with the Miamis, and induce them to
go to them which they would never do. I succeeded most happily; the Miamis
could not have received them better, and they made a strong alliance with one
another. I flatter myself, Sir, that you will approve. . . .
___________________
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