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.
Letter to Maurepas
(New Orleans, April 30, 1741)
Bienville, Jean Baptiste Le Moyne,
Sieur de in:
Mississippi Provincial Archives,
vol. 1, pp. 748-750.
. . . In regard to the Cherokees whose raids were interrupting the navigation of the river, I had the honor to write (page 749) to your Lordship five years ago that since their river comes and flows into the Wabash twelve leagues from its mouth in the [Mississippi] River it was my opinion that it would be advisable to place the new fort planned for the Illinois at the mouth of this river of the Cherokees in order to put a stop to the raids of that nation, but that it was necessary for that purpose to induce several allied nations to form villages near the fort. Consequently I sent word to the Kickapoos and Piankashaws and they had promised to come there. Since (p. 85 v. ) that time they have alleged that the lands there were too low and subject to overflows but I suspect with some reason that some traders from Canada have dissuaded these nations from changing their residence because of the trade that they carry on among them, and I think that if the Marquis de Beauharnois ordered the officer who is command at the Weas to solicit the Kickapoos, these solicitations in addition to those that the commandant of the Illinois will renew on my behalf will be enough to be effective. Besides the commandants of the Illinois ought in keeping with the orders that I give them to render an account to the Marquis de Beauharnois when they have an opportunity to do so. Neither Mr. d'Artaguette nor Mr. de La Buissonnire failed to do so, nor I either.
(p. 86) I have received by way of the Illinois some letters from the Marquis
de Beauharnois who informs me of Mr. de Cloron's1
arrival at Montreal with a part of the detachment from Canada that had come to
Fort Assumption. He informs me that the Iroquois have completely defeated a
party of Chickasaws who had gone and placed themselves in ambush along their
way. They Iroquois have imposed upon Mr. de Beauharnois about this alleged
perfidy of the Chickasaws. It is they themselves who betrayed that nation after
the promise that they had given it. At the time that we were in the pace parley
they carried off a young man as a slave and when they departed from Assumption
a band (p. 86 v.) of ninety Iroquois went to the Chickasaws saying that they
were going to the Flat Heads. They surprised two hunting camps which they defeated
and carried off twenty- (page 750) three women
and children as prisoners, and with this booty they passed by our post of the
Wabash on their way back home. The commandant and the officers who saw them
wrote me about it, and I already knew that another Iroquois party had attacked
other Chickasaw camps after the promise had been given and had taken five
scalps and captured twelve women and children with whom they had returned by
way of the river where Mr. Desabrevoix, a lieutenant, had seen them. As they
did not dare (p. 87) to boast of it to the Marquis de Beauharnois they told him
the story about the alleged ambush of the Chickasaws. . .
__________________
1 For de Cloron see Vol. I, page 439.
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TOC, p. 10
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