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.
Extracts from the Diary of Events
for the Year 1747
|
Governor and Intendant of New France, in: "1747:Revolt in the West Spreads," [...sent by the governor and intendant of New France to the French Minister. Reprinted from N. Y. Colon. Docs., x, pp. 137-145.], Wisconsin Historical Collections, XVII, pp. 478-492. |
Miamis
Ensign Douville, who had been sent last spring to invite the Miamis to come down to Montreal, writes to the Marquis (page 482) de la Galissonniere from Detroit 25th of August, that after some delay he had arrived at that post with Coldfoot, the chief1 of the Miamis, the Porc-Epic [hedge hog] and their young men whom he was bringing down to Montreal; he had learnt, by a letter from the Commandant of Niagara, that there was a party of Mohawks at the portage of that fort; moreover, that Chevalier de Longueuil had just learned the derangement of the affairs of Michilimakinac, which has obliged Sieur Douville to send back these Indians who have given him all their messages, as did also the other nations when he was with them, and all have authorised him to inform their father of their sentiments towards the French. These nations are absolutely in want of powder.
Sieur Douville states that he has had news from the Miamis, that everything was quiet since his departure on the 3d of July.
He has had assurances that the Senecas had given an English Belt to La Demoiselle, chief of a portion of the Miamis,2 allies of the English, to procure his, Sieur Douville's assassination, with a reward to whomsoever should carry his head to the English Governor. The same course has been pursued towards Mr de Longueuil.
Ouyatanons
Ensign Chevalier de La Peyrade, commandant at the post of the Ouyatanons, writes from Detroit, on the 24th of August, that he was on his way down to Montreal with the Nations from the Oubache, when he learned, in the Miamis river, the treachery of the Hurons; that this intelligence, conjoined to other circumstances, obliged those Nations to return to their village, where they were pretty quiet when he left them to come to Detroit, where he is waiting for news from Niagara to return to the Ouyatanons to continue his services there.
We are in receipt, also, of news from the River St. Joseph. Sieur Laperrire Marin, commanding at that post, writes us on the 5th and 30th of July last. It appears that the English are endeavoring to debauch the Nations belonging to that post, as well is all the others, by the unfavorable impressions they are trying to insinuate among them by means of the 5 Nations, who continue to embroil all the affairs, and employ every pretext to bring about the destruction of the French of that post. The Pouteouatamies appear always in our interests; they have made many protestations to Sieur La Perriere of the attachment they have long felt, and will continue, to entertain, for their father, the French.
Fifty Ouyatanons came to said post on the River St. Joseph, to express the pain they felt at the treachery of the Hurons at Detroit; that they are ready to attack those who had killed the French; that their father had only to speak. . .
. . . The Miamis, and perhaps also the Ouyatanons, are in disorder. The former allowed themselves to be gained over by the Belts of Nicolas, who represented to them that Detroit bad been razed by the Lake tribes; that consequently they could no longer defer killing the French who were among them. The Miamis have listened to this message. They, first, seized eight Frenchmen who were in the fort of that post, whom, however, they did not injure; they afterwards seized the property and burnt a portion of the buildings. Two of the 8 Frenchmen whom the Miamis had allowed to leave uninjured, arrived at Detroit on the 7th of October.
On the arrival of the convoy, Mr de Longueuil being ignorant of
what was going on at the Miamis, and wishing to be informed (page
485) thereof, before allowing the lessees (of the
Posts) to go there, sent 4 French deputies thither with messages to the Miamis,
to induce them to come to Detroit. The deputies arrived at the Miamis after the
blow had been struck; nevertheless, they prevailed on a good many of the
Indians of that Nation to come to Detroit, to be disabused by their own eyes of
Nicolas' impositions. But discouraged on seeing themselves notified by the
arrival of a second Belt from Nicolas, in confirmation of the first, they went
back to their village, and have merely sent to Detroit two deputies, whom Mr
de Longueuil has immediately sent home with messages to disabuse that Nation of
the evil speeches of Nicolas. Jaret, a Miamis chief, of the village of
Tepicourt,3 was at Detroit during all this
disorder. Mr de Longueuil has thought proper to send him without
delay to try and restore good order, and more particularly to save the six
Frenchmen who are detained prisoners.
_________________________
1 Coldfeet (Froidpied) was a faithful friend of the French; the Miami attack upon the whites occurred In his absence. He endeavored to neutralize the influence of La Demoiselle and his English intrigues (see post), and retained a large number of his tribe at the French post on the Maumee, where Cloron met him in 1749. He died of the smallpox in 1752.-ED.
2 La Demoiselle, called Old Briton by the English, led a band of Miami from the Maumee River and settled (about 1748) on the Great Miami, at the mouth of Loramie Creek, near the present Piqua, Ohio. There he was visited by Cloron and urged to return to his former station. At this village the Indians permitted the English to erect a trading house in 1750, which was known as Pickawillany and was visited by Croghan and Gist as official representatives of Pennsylvania. In 1752 the French Indians, led by Langlade of Wisconsin, attacked this town, captured several traders, and killed and ate the body of the chief La Demoiselle. See Journals of William Trent, pp. 84-88. Also a somewhat imaginative picture in a recent life of Langlade, Bravest of the Brave, by P. V. Lawson, of Menasha, Wis.-ED.
3 (1, p. 485) A Miami tribe, also called Tepicon, possibly upon the Tippecanoe River. See Dunn, Indiana, p. 67, note 1.-ED.
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