THE FOX WARS: A HALF-CENTURY OF CONFLICT
With the dawn of the eighteenth century the character of the annals
of Chicago undergoes a radical change. The period which had just
closed had been marked by great activity on the part of the French
in the adjoining region. For a quarter of a century the Illinois
River had constituted their chief highway from the Great Lakes to the
Mississippi. Upon its placid bosom trader, priest, and warrior alike
had plied their bark canoes. For the time being the Illinois realized
La Salle's design for it of furnishing the connecting link between the
two great river systems of New France. The Chicago River and Portage
thus became an important feature in the geography of New France,
although it shared with the Kankakee the sum total of travel by the
Illinois River route.
But already forces were at work which were to effect a complete
readjustment of the Indian map of Illinois and Wisconsin, to shift the
center of French influence in this region from northern Illinois to
its lower Mississippi border, and to furnish one of the interesting
although much-neglected chapters in the history of the long struggle
between France and England for the supremacy of the continent. An
adequate understanding of the character and operation of these
influences necessitates a brief review of the circumstances of their
origin.
In the year after the founding of Quebec, Champlain, the "Father of
New France," engaged in an enterprise which proved to be fraught with
far-reaching consequences for his countrymen. To gain the favor of the
dusky neighbors of the infant colony he accompanied an Algonquin war
party on a foray against their ancient foes, the Iroquois.[100] The
latter had never seen a firearm, and their warriors fled in terror
before the death-dealing device of the white man. The Algonquins gained
a temporary triumph, and Champlain gave his name to the beautiful lake
which still bears it. But of greater moment was it that New France,
almost at its birth, gained the undying enmity of the Iroquois.
[Footnote 100: For this expedition and its results see Winsor,
_Narrative and Critical History_, IV, 117-21; 167-68.]
Before the death of Champlain, and largely due to his zeal, the French
had extended their explorations and trading-houses to the Great
Lakes. In 1634 Nicolet passed through the Straits of Mackinac to Lake
Michigan, traversed Green Bay, and revealed to his countrymen the
region now known as Wisconsin. But now ensued a lull in the exploring
activities of the French, and soon they were led to abandon their
trading-posts on the lakes. The Iroquois had succeeded in establishing
friendly relations with the Dutch along the Hudson, and by them were
provided with guns and ammunition.[101] Thus armed they turned upon
their enemies. The French had at first refrained from supplying
their red allies with guns, and these now fell an easy prey to the
combination of Iroquois courage and Dutch guns. In the ensuing years
the Hurons were ruined, the Fries were exterminated, the region to the
west, between the Ohio and the Great Lakes, was turned into a desert,
and life was made a burden to the French of Canada.
[Footnote 101: Winsor, _op. cit._, chap, v; Turner, "Character and
Influence of the Indian Trade in Wisconsin," 14.]
The expansion of New France was shortly resumed, but the hostility
of the Iroquois operated powerfully to determine its course. By their
victories the Iroquois secured possession of the upper St. Lawrence
and of Lakes Erie and Ontario. The French were thus prevented from
expanding southward. Their natural entrance to the Great Lakes by way
of the upper St. Lawrence was closed, and they were forced to seek the
upper lakes by the Ottawa River route to Georgian Bay. The alliance
with the Algonquins, begun by Champlain, became general, and the
French control over these tribes in the Great Lakes region was firmly
established. The fur trade of the great interior thus became the chief
financial support of Canada. On the other hand the English succeeded to
the Dutch trade and friendship with the Iroquois, and, working through
them as middlemen, competed actively with the French for the trade of
the Northwest.
The effect of this combination on the execution of La Salle's designs
has already been seen. The desire of the English to share in the fur
trade of the Northwest furnished the principal motive for fomenting
the wars between the French and the Iroquois.[102] Protection of
his Indian allies against the Iroquois war parties was one of the
conditions essential to the maintenance of La Salle's Illinois colony.
The active competition of the English for the fur trade of the interior
shortly produced another result. Before the advent of the white man in
America the Indian had been economically self-sustaining.[103] Contact
with civilization speedily developed in him new wants and tastes
without developing the corresponding ability to satisfy them. In the
fur-bearing animals of his country, however, he possessed a source of
wealth greatly prized by the European peoples. Hence the basis of the
barter which constituted the Indian trade. In this barter the red man
should have occupied a position of equality with the white, since each
possessed articles valuable in the eyes of the other. But, as always in
bargaining, where the parties are unequally matched, the Indian, less
intelligent and less shrewd than the white man, and dependent on the
supplies of the latter for his very existence, got the worst of it. As
long as the French monopolized the trade of the Northwest, so long was
their control over the Indians absolute. The entrance of the English
into competition for this trade, by giving the Indian another market
for his furs and another source of supply of the goods needed, tended
to free him from this control.
[Footnote 102: Turner, "Character and Influence of the Fur Trade in
Wisconsin," in _Wisconsin State Historical Society Proceedings_ for
1889, 69.]
[Footnote 103: _American State Papers, Indian Affairs_, II, 181, 261;
Turner, _Indian Trade in Wisconsin_, 32, 68.]
About the time of La Salle's death the Fox Indians of Wisconsin became
disgruntled over the system of trade carried on by the French, and
in particular over the attempt of the latter to establish commercial
relations with the Sioux, their ancient enemy to the westward.[104] By
means of their strategic position, both geographically with reference
to the Fox-Wisconsin waterway which they controlled, and with respect
to their relations with the various tribes to east and west, they found
it possible to deal with the French on somewhat even terms. In 1687
they threatened to pillage the post at Green Bay, and before the end
of the century they had effectually closed the Fox-Wisconsin highway
to the Mississippi to French travel. St. Cosme's party which visited
Chicago in 1698 desired to follow this route, which would have been
both easier and shorter. They were forced to take the "Chicago road,"
however, because the Foxes would permit no one to pass the northern
route for fear they would go to their enemies.[105]
[Footnote 104: Turner, _op. cit._ There were two reasons for their
opposition to this trade. By supplying the Sioux with firearms and
goods the French enabled them to carry on their contest with the Foxes
on even terms. Furthermore the Foxes desired to play the role of
middlemen in the trade between the French and the Indians farther west.
As early as 1675, according to Marquette (_Jesuit Relations_, LIX,
174), the Illinois Indians were trading in this way between the French
and their own people, and already were acting "like the traders" and
giving them hardly more for their furs than did the French themselves.]
[Footnote 105: Shea, _Early Voyages Up and Down the Mississippi_, 49.]
The story of the wars thus opened presents a dreary succession of
cruel deeds and bloody scenes, broken by intervals of inactivity,
lasting for half a century.[106] The Foxes guarded with grim tenacity
the Fox-Wisconsin highway; they seemed determined to block every avenue
by which the French might reach the Sioux, and for many years no one
might pass between Canada and Louisiana except at imminent risk of
his life. In part owing to ancient relationship, in part because of
the logic of the situation, the Foxes entered into friendly relations
with the Iroquois and were in turn encouraged by them in their contest
with the French. For a like reason they made war upon the Illinois,
the faithful allies of the French, raiding their territory again and
again, sometimes even to the walls of Fort Chartres, the great French
stronghold of the upper Mississippi Valley. The Foxes were fewer but
no less courageous than the terrible Iroquois, and the role they now
played in the West was curiously similar to that so long enacted on
a larger scale by the Iroquois toward the French. Their opposition
became so intolerable to the French that repeated attempts were made to
exterminate them. The Foxes were terribly punished, and for a long time
their power seemed fairly broken, the survivors being driven to abandon
their homes in Wisconsin and seek refuge beyond the Mississippi. But
they were not exterminated, and the French were at last compelled to
give up the attempt. The dominion of France in the Northwest was itself
drawing to a close; and to its downfall the long struggle with the
Foxes, with its consequent drain upon the treasury of Canada and the
disaffection for the French engendered by it among the northwestern
tribes, materially contributed.
[Footnote 106: For a brief summary of the Fox wars and their results
see Turner, _Indian Trade in Wisconsin_, 34-39. Fuller and more
important accounts are given by Parkman, _A Half Century of Conflict_,
and Hebberd, _Wisconsin under the Dominion of France_. The latter
takes issue with Parkman in certain important respects. A large number
of the original documents pertaining to the subject are printed in
O'Callaghan, _New York Colonial Documents_, Vols. IX, X, and in
_Wisconsin Historical Collections_, Vols. XVI, XVII.]
The first great event in the fifty-year contest occurred at Detroit
in 1712. Before this post there appeared in the early summer of that
year a band of a thousand Outagamies or Foxes, three hundred of them
warriors, the remainder women and children. Of the siege, and the
destruction of the Foxes at the hands of the French and their red
allies, which ensued, two accounts differing widely from each other
have come down to us.[107] The official report of Dubuisson, the French
commandant at Detroit, represents that the Foxes came with hostile
intent, which was manifested in their conduct from the moment of their
arrival. This report has been accepted by Parkman, whose account of the
siege is in effect a paraphrase of it.[108] Yet in many respects its
reliability is open to question. The very fact that the Fox warriors
came incumbered with seven hundred women and children suffices to
show that they were not engaged in a hostile expedition. The other
contemporary account of the affair, by DeLery, asserts it was due to a
plot on the part of the French, designed to lure the obnoxious tribe
to its destruction.[109] This account differs from Dubuisson's report
in other respects as well; among other things DeLery represents that
the Foxes evacuated their fort on the eighth day of the siege, while
Dubuisson states that this occurred on the nineteenth day. It seems
impossible at this day, in view of our limited information, to decide
between the two conflicting versions. Concerning the main facts of
the destruction of the Foxes, however, the two accounts agree fairly
well; since Dubuisson's is that of an eye-witness who was at the same
time the commander of the French, and moreover since it is much more
detailed than DeLery's account, the following narrative of the siege is
based upon it.
[Footnote 107: For the documents see _Wisconsin Historical
Collections_, XVI, 267 ff.]
[Footnote 108: Parkman, _Half Century of Conflict_, chap. xii.]
[Footnote 109: _Wisconsin Historical Collections_, XVI, 293-95.]
The Foxes constructed a fort within fifty paces of the French post and
began to conduct themselves with great insolence. Since Dubuisson's
allies were absent upon their hunting expedition, he felt compelled
to submit to their indignities, until a party sought to kill two of
the French within the fort itself. Then the commandant interfered and
cleared the fort, but he was still compelled to temporize until the
arrival of the Ottawa and other bands for whom he had hastily sent.
Six hundred of the allied warriors shortly arrived, burning with zeal
for the destruction of the hated Foxes, whose warfare had been directed
in turn against all the northwestern tribes except the Sacs, Kickapoos,
and Mascoutens, their allies.[110] The French distributed arms and
ammunition to the warriors and the contest was promptly joined. Their
war cries "made the earth tremble," but evidently the Foxes were not
similarly affected, for they replied in kind less than a pistol shot
away, and the firing began. The Foxes were badly outnumbered and in
sore straits for food and water, but their ancient reputation for
bravery was not belied. The French erected towers from which they fired
down into the hostile camp, driving the Foxes to seek refuge in holes
in the ground. In this fashion the siege was pressed for nineteen days,
with alternations of hope and despair on the part of the contestants.
[Footnote 110: The story of an affair which occurred in the vicinity
of Chicago affords a concrete illustration of the misdeeds by which
these tribes incurred the enmity of their neighbors. Three Miami squaws
who had been captured by the Iroquois had effected their escape in
consequence of the defeat administered to the Senecas by Denonville's
expedition in 1687. Returning to their homes, the squaws encountered
at the River "Chikagou" some Mascoutens, who shortly before had
assassinated two Frenchmen. The fear that the women would reveal this
affair led the assassins to "break their heads." To add insult to
injury they carried away the scalps of the women and gave them to the
Miamis to eat, saying that they were scalps of the Iroquois. For thus
causing the Miamis to eat their own flesh the Great Spirit afflicted
the Mascoutens with a malady which caused them and their children to
die. Not satisfied with this divine vengeance, however, a party of
Miamis came to Perrot in 1690 to tell him their story and obtain his
assistance in a war against the Mascoutens. The French were still
engrossed in their struggle with the Iroquois, however, and the Miamis
were compelled to nurse their vengeance until a more opportune time
(_Wisconsin Historical Collections_, XVI, 145-46).]
At one time the Foxes, perishing from thirst, adopted a ruse which
smacks of the Homeric age. Covering their ramparts with scarlet
blankets and erecting twelve red standards to attract attention, they
addressed their opponents with taunting speeches. The great war chief
of the Pottawatomies mounted one of the towers and began an eloquent
reply, in which the character of the English, who were regarded as the
sponsors of the Foxes, was severely handled. Meanwhile under cover of
this oratorical contest the Foxes had crept out to secure a supply of
water; seeing which, Dubuisson cut short the speech with an order to
recommence firing and the chieftain's further opinion of the English
was forever lost to the world.
The Foxes soon made overtures to surrender, but the red foe was
implacable for their destruction and the French commander, reflecting
that they had been set on by the English to destroy him, and that "war
and pity do not well agree together," abandoned them to their fate.
Taking advantage of a stormy night the survivors made their escape and
fled. Dubuisson spurred on the pursuit, however, and they were brought
to bay a few miles away. A second siege ensued, terminating four days
later in an abject surrender. No quarter was granted to the vanquished
warriors; all but a hundred were killed, and these were tied, being
reserved, evidently, for future torture. This pleasure was denied
the victors, however, for all succeeded in making their escape. The
conquerors returned to the fort with the enslaved women and children,
where "their amusement was" to shoot four or five each day. The Hurons
spared not a single one of their captives. "In this manner," concludes
Dubuisson, "came to an end, Sir, these two wicked nations, who so badly
afflicted and troubled all the country. Our Rev. Father chaunted a
grand mass to render thanks to God for having preserved us from the
enemy."
But this pious thanksgiving proved premature. The Foxes had suffered
a great disaster, but only a portion of the tribe had been involved
in it, and of this portion one-third of the warriors had escaped. The
immediate result was that they turned on their foes with redoubled
fury. Father Marest, writing only a week after Dubuisson's report was
made, points out that, with their allies, the Foxes still number five
hundred warriors. The French in this region will always have cause to
fear an attack and travelers will always be in danger; "for the Foxes,
Kickapoos, and Mascoutens are found everywhere, and they are a people
without pity and without reason."[111]
The good Father's fears were amply justified. DeLery tells us that as
soon as the Mascoutens and Kickapoos of the larger villages heard of
the destruction of their allies, they sent out war parties to Green
Bay, Detroit, and to all the routes of travel. Their Indian foes fled
in terror before them, and this went on until Louvigny brought about
peace four years later.[112] These are the statements of an enemy of
Dubuisson, but they are amply corroborated by official sources.[113]
So great was the fear of the Foxes on the part of the other tribes
that they preferred death from starvation in their cabins to the risk
of meeting them on their hunting expeditions. It was this interference
with the prosecution of the fur trade that chiefly excited the anger
of the French. Ramezay, the acting governor of Canada, observes in a
letter of September, 1714, that the merchants will this year have a
gloomy confirmation of these conditions, seeing how little peltry has
come down to Mackinac.
[Footnote 111: _Wisconsin Historical Collections_, XVI, 289.]
[Footnote 112: _Ibid._, 293-95.]
[Footnote 113: See letters of Ramezay and Veudreuil, _ibid._, 300-307.]
In this same year the Foxes fell upon the Illinois and killed or
carried off seventy-seven of them.[114] Veudreuil, the governor, had
decided the preceding year that the Foxes must be destroyed and had
intrusted the task to Louvigny, the former commander at Mackinac.[115]
It was planned to establish peace between the Miamis and the Illinois,
who were enemies in common of the Foxes, and then to lead all the
northwestern tribes friendly to the French against the Foxes and their
allies.[116] This project failed of execution, however, owing to the
illness of Louvigny.[117] De Lignery was therefore substituted as
the leader, and a more elaborate campaign was devised. The Miamis,
Ouiatanons, Illinois, and Detroit Indians were to rendezvous at Chicago
under French leadership in the summer of 1715, while the coureurs de
bois, the Ottawas, and the other northern tribes were to be gathered
at Mackinac under De Lignery. The departure of the forces from these
places was to be so timed that both would arrive at the Fox fort at the
end of August. The detachment which arrived first was to invest the
fort and then await the arrival of the second corps before attempting
its reduction. To complete the plan, agents had been sent to the Sioux
to urge them not only to refuse the Foxes an asylum, but to join the
French in making war upon them.
[Footnote 114: Parkman, _Half Century of Conflict_, chap. xiv.]
[Footnote 115: _Wisconsin Historical Collections_, XVI, 298.]
[Footnote 116: _Ibid._, 303-7; 319-20.]
[Footnote 117: _Ibid._, 312-14.]
The campaign thus elaborately projected utterly miscarried, but
its story deserves a place in the history of early Chicago, none
the less. The choice of Chicago as the place of rendezvous of the
southern tribes was due, aside from the obvious convenience of its
location, to the game of all sorts which abounded here, on which the
savages could easily subsist while awaiting the arrival of the Detroit
contingent.[118] An epidemic of measles assailed the Ouiatanons, and
the fickle savages promptly charged the deaths which resulted to the
French, who had come to lead them to the place of rendezvous.[119] They
were cajoled into promising, however, that such as were able would go
to Chicago, and a half-dozen Frenchmen were left among them to insure
their arrival by the tenth of August. The remainder of the French went
on to rouse the Illinois and lead them to the meeting-place.
[Footnote 118: _Ibid._, 319.]
[Footnote 119: _Wisconsin Historical Collections_, XVI, 322-25.]
Meanwhile the measles continued to afflict the Ouiatanons, the death
rate mounting to fifteen or twenty a day. Instead of the two hundred
warriors that had been promised, the little band of Frenchmen were
forced to depart on the overland march to Chicago with only one-tenth
as many.[120] Their food supply was scanty, and the savages were
restrained from hunting along the way by their fear of the Foxes,
whose war trails leading toward Detroit were encountered. When they
reached Chicago they found the Illinois and Detroit savages had not
yet arrived; nor were there any signs of the canoes which were to have
come from Mackinac to inform them regarding the march against the Foxes
from that point. To add to their troubles two of their party were
attacked by the measles, whereupon the whole band of Indians deserted
the Frenchmen and returned to their homes. The latter, after waiting
four or five days beyond the time set for the arrival of their comrades
with the Illinois contingent, set out to meet them. In this they failed
because of their ignorance of the route, and the little party found
rest for the time being with the Indians at Starved Rock.
[Footnote 120: _Ibid._]
Meanwhile, what had happened to the Illinois Indians ? The Frenchmen
who had gone from the Ouiatanons to rouse the Illinois received a royal
welcome from the Indians of the Rock, and, collecting their warriors,
led a band of four hundred and fifty to Chicago, which was reached
on the seventeenth of August. The leader was much mortified to find
no one there and to get no news from Mackinac. To divert the savages
and if possible to obtain news, scouts were sent out to a distance of
thirty leagues. Their efforts were fruitless, however. On their return
ten days later without any tidings, the Indians could be restrained
no longer. They dispersed and the Frenchmen returned to Starved
Rock, where they found their countrymen whom they had left among the
Ouiatanons.
One further act remains to complete this series of misfortunes. The
coureurs de bois assembled at Mackinac, but the failure of the supplies
which were expected from Montreal to arrive led to the abandonment of
the northern end of the expedition.[121] This explains the non-arrival
of the canoes at Chicago, which had so disappointed the Ouiatanon and
Illinois detachments. In ignorance of these various miscarriages the
Detroit contingent arrived. From Chicago they proceeded to the Illinois
village at the Rock, expecting to find there the French leaders of the
enterprise.[122] They, however, were now at Kaskaskia, overcome with
illness. They could only send a messenger to urge the Illinois to join
the Hurons and others who composed the expedition in a foray against
the Mascoutens and Kickapoos, allies of the Foxes, who were hunting
"along a certain river." This was done, and in November the combined
bands, accompanied by only two Frenchmen, fell upon the Mascoutens.
The report of what followed must be taken with the usual allowance for
statements which have an Indian origin.[123] According to their story
they attacked the Mascoutens, who were stationed on a rock, and after
a sharp battle forced their position, killing one hundred warriors and
taking forty-seven prisoners, without counting the women and children.
To conceal the route of their retreat the party went down the river in
canoes a distance of twenty-five leagues. In spite of this precaution
they were overtaken on the eleventh day by four hundred men, "the elite
of the Reynards." Though they numbered but eighty, and were incumbered
by the prisoners and wounded, they asserted that in a battle lasting
from dawn till three o'clock in the afternoon they defeated the Foxes
with great loss and pursued them for several hours.
[Footnote 121: _Ibid._, 339.]
[Footnote 122: _Ibid._, 341. That they came to Chicago is not directly
stated, but I consider this a fair inference from this and the
preceding documents.]
[Footnote 123: It is true there were two Frenchmen with the party,
as already stated. But these had a direct interest in permitting the
Indian reports to go uncorrected; one of them was, in fact, promoted
for his participation in this expedition, and the other was an outlawed
bushranger among the Illinois, whose "reprobate life" had been the
subject of an indignant letter from the governor to the French ministry
only the year before (_Wisconsin Historical Collections_, XVI, 302-3).
Now, apparently, a virtue was made of necessity, and he was urged to
use his influence over the Illinois to induce them to join the Hurons
in the proposed expedition.]
In the following year, 1716, the delayed project against the Foxes was
executed. Louvigny was again intrusted with the command.[124] He left
Montreal the first of May with two hundred and twenty-five Frenchmen,
and two hundred more were to join him at Mackinac.[125] While en route
they were joined by about four hundred Indian allies, and the whole
party proceeded by way of Mackinac and Green Bay to the country of the
Foxes. The latter had gathered to the number of five hundred warriors
and three thousand women and children in a fort protected by three rows
of oaken palisades and a ditch, located on the Fox River some distance
from Green Bay. This Louvigny besieged in regular European fashion,
with trenches and mining operations. The Foxes fought with spirit,
although, according to Charlevoix, both besiegers and besieged believed
them to be on the brink of destruction. At the end of three days,
however, a surrender was arranged, terms were granted the besieged, and
the invading army marched away.
[Footnote 124: _Wisconsin Historical Collections_, XVI, 328-30.]
[Footnote 125: _Ibid._, 342. For secondary accounts of this expedition
see Hebberd, _Wisconsin under the Dominion of France_, 94 ff.;
Charlevoix, _History of New France_ (Shea transl.), V, 305 ff.]
The reason for this surprising outcome of the great expedition remains
a matter of doubt to the present day. Louvigny asserted that the terms
he imposed were so harsh that no one believed the Foxes would accede
to them; and further, that his allies approved of the arrangement
made.[126] The first of these statements is not worthy of serious
attention, and the last the French Indians themselves indignantly
denied.[127] The Fox chieftain, Ouashala, later asserted that they
could easily have escaped by means of a sortie by night, and that
this had already been resolved upon. Possibly the real truth is that
Louvigny was hampered by his instructions and that he feared to press
the Foxes to the last extremity. It may be also that the reported
approach of three hundred allies of the Foxes influenced his decision.
Whatever the reason, the results from the expedition were meager. The
Foxes did not fulfil the terms of their agreement with Louvigny, and
although they refrained from making war on the French Indians for a
time, the situation in the Northwest continued to be as intolerable to
the French as ever.
[Footnote 126: _Wisconsin Historical Collections_, XVI, 343.]
[Footnote 127: Charlevoix, _History of New France_, V, 306.]
The lull which followed Louvigny's expedition was soon broken, and the
restless feuds between the Illinois and the Foxes and their allies
were renewed. In 1719 the Foxes were again at war with the Illinois,
who seem this time to have been the aggressors.[128] When Charlevoix
passed down the Kankakee and Illinois rivers in 1721, he devoted a
considerable portion of his journal to a description of the dangers
encountered along the way.[129] At Starved Rock he was filled with
horror at the spectacle of the remains of two prisoners who had been
burned recently. At Lake Peoria he was informed by some Canadians
that his party was in the midst of four Fox war parties. A band of
Illinois had recently encountered one of them, and each party had
taken a prisoner. Here as at Starved Rock the priest was horrified by
the spectacle of the wretch whom the Illinois had tortured to death.
Notwithstanding Charlevoix's sturdy escort, commanded by the gallant
St. Ange,[130] it was considered dangerous for the party to proceed. It
was strengthened somewhat and the resolution was formed to press on,
but the horrors he had seen and heard so affected the good Father that
for a week he was unable to sleep soundly.
[Footnote 128: _Wisconsin Historical Collections_, XVIII, 381, 429,
445, 447.]
[Footnote 129: Charlevoix, _Histoire ... de la Nouvelle France_, VI,
letters of September 17 and October 5, 1721.]
[Footnote 130: For an account of St. Ange's career in Illinois see
Mason, "Illinois in the Eighteenth Century," in _Chapters from Illinois
History_.]
The Illinois now captured and burned the nephew of Ouashala, the
principal war chief of the Foxes. The latter avenged this by laying
siege the next year to the Illinois stronghold of Starved Rock. They
starved the defenders into a surrender, and then, to placate the
French, spared their lives.[131] Returning to their own territory the
leaders hastened to Green Bay to justify to the French commandant
their action in going to war. Montigny blustered and assured them that
whenever Onontio[132] wished it they should "indeed die and perish
without resource." To the French minister, however, Veudreuil admitted,
in a report of the following year, that the Illinois directly, and
indirectly the French, through their neglect to secure justice to the
Foxes, were responsible for the hostilities.[133] It is evident from
the reports of the French themselves that the Foxes were frequently
treated unjustly by the French and their Indian allies, and that in
spite of this and their natural ferocity, they at times displayed
admirable patience in enduring the impositions heaped upon them.
[Footnote 131: For the original documents pertaining to this affair see
_Wisconsin Historical Collections_, XVI, 418-22, 428-31.]
[Footnote 132: The Indian designation for the French Governor. It was
later applied also to the French King.]
[Footnote 133: _Wisconsin Historical Collections_, XVI, 429-30. An
inaccurate description of the affray at Starved Rock is given by
Charlevoix (_History of New France_, VI, 71). He states that the
Illinois beat off the Foxes with a loss of one hundred and twenty
men, having themselves lost only twenty. He adds that the attack
determined the Illinois to abandon the Rock and Lake Peoria, and join
their kinsmen who had already sought refuge at Fort Chartres. No check
whatever now existed to the raids of the Foxes along the Illinois
River, and communication between Canada and Louisiana by this route
became more impracticable than ever. It is plain, however, in spite of
Charlevoix's statements, that there were Illinois at the Rock during
the following years. For references to them between 1730 and 1736 see
_Wisconsin Historical Collections_, XVII, no, 183, 251. At the latter
date the Illinois village numbered fifty warriors.]
For several years following 1725 divided counsels prevailed among
the French with respect to the policy to be pursued toward the
Foxes.[134] Some argued that they should be destroyed. Others agreed
as to the desirability of this, but, dubious as to its practicability,
counseled a policy of conciliation. The French king first ordered
their destruction, and then that they be let alone. A fitful peace was
patched up for a time, but the receipt of information that the Foxes
had promised English emissaries to kill all the French decided the
latter to make war in earnest.[135]
[Footnote 134: See Parkman, _Half Century of Conflict_, chap. xiv. For
the original documents see Wisconsin Historical Collections, Vol. XVI.]
[Footnote 135: _Wisconsin Historical Collections_, XVI, 476-77.]
The Foxes resisted desperately the attempt to exterminate them.[136]
De Lignery led an expedition from Montreal in 1728, which on its
arrival in Wisconsin numbered five hundred Frenchmen and over a
thousand Indians. To this invasion of her future sister state Illinois
contributed a force of twenty Frenchmen and five hundred Indians, who
came by way of the Chicago Portage. The results of this great effort,
however, were but slight. The Foxes abandoned their villages and
retired before the French, who succeeded in capturing two squaws and an
old man. The former were enslaved and the latter was roasted at a slow
fire, to the scandal of Father Crespel, who expressed his surprise to
the tormentors at the pleasure they derived from the performance.
[Footnote 136: For the facts about the ensuing period see _Wisconsin
Historical Collections_, Vol. XVII, editorial introduction and
accompanying documents. Father Crespel's report of De Lignery's
expedition is printed in Smith, _History of Wisconsin_, I, 339 ff.]
Having burned the villages and ravaged the cornfields De Lignery
retired, confessing his failure and placing the responsibility for
it on the Illinois contingent, who should have come by way of the
Wisconsin Portage instead of by Chicago, and thus have taken the Foxes
in the rear. The forts upon Lake Pepin and Green Bay were evacuated,
and Wisconsin was temporarily abandoned to the red man. The only
recourse now before the French was to rouse against the Foxes the
neighboring tribes, who by constantly harassing them might gradually
wear them down.[137] This policy proved effective, and in 1729 the
Foxes sued for peace. It was not granted, however, and meanwhile a
chain of circumstances arising from De Lignery's humiliation of 1728
was weaving for them a disaster more terrible than that which had
befallen them at Detroit in 1712.
[Footnote 137: _Wisconsin Historical Collections_, XVIII, xiii.]
When the French evacuated Fort Beauharnois[138] on Lake Pepin in
1728, they attempted to escape down the Mississippi to Fort Chartres,
but were taken captive by the Kickapoos and Mascoutens, hitherto the
allies of the Foxes, who had settled in eastern Iowa.[139] During
the long captivity that ensued Father Guignas, one of the prisoners,
succeeded in inducing their captors to desert the Foxes and sue for
peace with the French.[140] Weakened by this defection the Foxes
sought, by passing around the southern end of Lake Michigan and through
the country of the Ouiatanons, who were well disposed toward them, to
escape to the Iroquois.[141] The Kickapoos and Mascoutens reported this
design to the nearest French posts, but, doubting the fidelity of their
new allies, the settlers around Fort Chartres for a time declined to
take the field.
[Footnote 138: Named for Charles Beauharnois, governor of New France
from 1726 to 1747. He was reputed to be the natural son of Louis XIV,
and it has sometimes been said, though apparently incorrectly, that the
Empress Josephine was descended from him.]
[Footnote 139: Narrative of De Boucherville, _Wisconsin Historical
Collections_, XVII, 36 ff.]
[Footnote 140: _Ibid._, 36 ff., 110.]
[Footnote 141: For the documents pertaining to this affair see
_Wisconsin Historical Collections_, V, 106-7; and XVII, 100-101,
109-30.]
Confirmation shortly arrived in the shape of information that the
Foxes had captured some of the Illinois near Starved Rock and had
burned the son of the great chief of the Cahokias. On this St. Ange,
the commandant of Fort Chartres, conducted an expedition against them.
Parties of French and of savages gathered from all directions. From
Fort St. Joseph came De Villiers and his son, the latter a mere youth,
destined, a quarter of a century later at Fort Necessity, to defeat and
capture the youthful George Washington.
In all some twelve or thirteen hundred French and Indians surrounded
the doomed Foxes. The latter had intrenched themselves in a grove on
the bank of a small river, some distance to the southeast of Starved
Rock.[142] Under the direction of the elder De Villiers the siege was
pressed with vigor. Both forces suffered from lack of food, but the
necessity of the Foxes was naturally the greater. On the twenty-third
day of the siege, under cover of a cold and stormy night they attempted
to make their escape. Their design was revealed by the crying of the
children and the besiegers promptly pursued them. As soon as daylight
made it possible to distinguish friend from foe an indiscriminate
slaughter began. The Fox warriors, weakened by hunger and long exertion
and surrounded by overwhelming numbers, maintained their courage to
the end. The women and children and old men walked in front, and the
warriors stationed themselves in the rear between them and the enemy.
But their line was speedily broken. Two hundred of the warriors were
killed, besides an equal number of women and children. Some four or
five hundred of the latter were taken prisoners and scattered as slaves
among the various tribes. A few of the warriors, by throwing away their
arms and ammunition, succeeded in escaping, but in such a plight that
their fate was little preferable to that of the slain.
[Footnote 142: _Wisconsin Historical Collections_, XVII, in, 115, 129.
J. F. Steward (_Lost Maramech and Earliest Chicago_) locates this fort
on the Fox River, in Kendall County, Illinois. This does not harmonize,
however, with Hocquart's letter to the French minister, January 15,
1731, describing the place and the destruction of the Foxes.]
The triumph of the French over the foe that had defied them for a
generation was, apparently, complete. Even their Indian allies had
been moved to pity by the plight of the Foxes, but no humane sentiment
animated the subjects of the Most Christian King.[143] The extirpation
of the hated race was decreed, and the savage allies were spurred on to
the work of destruction. By drawing in the slaves from the nations to
which they had been distributed,[144] the surviving Foxes managed to
assemble a village of forty-five cabins the year after their overthrow
at the hands of De Villiers. The Hurons of Detroit, ancient enemies of
the Foxes, assumed the task of destroying this remnant of the tribe,
and sent an invitation to the band of Christian Iroquois at the Lake
of the Two Mountains to join them in the work. They accepted, and in
the autumn of 1731 a band of forty-seven appeared at Detroit where they
were joined by seventy-four Hurons and four Ottawas and the whole set
out for Wisconsin.[145]
[Footnote 143: _Wisconsin Historical Collections_, XVII, xiv, 167-69.]
[Footnote 144: The Illinois furnished an exception; their captives had
all been put to death (_ibid._, 163).]
They followed the Indian trail to the mouth of the St. Joseph River
and thence around the southern end of Lake Michigan to the Chicago
Portage, where they built a fort and left in it some sick men with a
guard to protect them. Some chiefs of the St. Joseph Pottawatomies came
to them while here and promised if they would defer their expedition
until spring they would join them. They declined to assent to this,
and pushed on westward to the village of the Mascoutens and Kickapoos
located on Rock River. According to the boastful report of the Indians,
made on their return from the expedition, these were asked to join them
but refused in terror. They were persuaded, however, to furnish guides
to conduct the party to their former allies, but these prudently turned
back before the village of the Foxes was reached.
[Footnote 145: Parkman (_Half Century of Conflict_, chap, xiv) tells
the story of the expedition. For the original documents pertaining to
it see _Wisconsin Historical Collections_, XVII, 148-69.]
Winter had now arrived and the party was suffering from hunger and
the fatigue caused by the deep snow. A council was held and the old
men favored turning back. The young men declined to accede to this,
however, and so the party divided. The old men returned to Chicago,
while the others to the number of forty Hurons and thirty Iroquois
pushed on toward the Wisconsin, where they expected to find their
quarry. After several days they came upon the Foxes, who promptly took
to flight. For the story of what followed we have only the report of
the victors, which is manifestly unreliable. It is repeated, therefore,
rather as furnishing a typical illustration of an Indian report of
such an encounter than because of faith in the trustworthiness of its
details.
[Illustration: THE OLD NORTHWEST
Showing the principal waterways and places of historical interest in
the early period]
The warriors, in hot pursuit of the fleeing quarry, were astonished on
reaching the top of the hill at seeing in the valley before them, on
the bank of the Wisconsin, the main village of the Foxes comprising
forty-six cabins. From these the men streamed forth, arms in hand, to
the number of ninety, to meet them. The chiefs of the attacking party
exhorted their young men, volleys were exchanged, and the assailants
threw aside their guns and with tomahawk and dagger drove the Foxes
back into the village with great slaughter. One hundred and fifty were
killed and an equal number made captive, while but ten escaped; and
these, quite naked, died of cold.
This overwhelming victory is partly accounted for by the explanation
that both parties to the contest fought on snow-shoes, and the Foxes,
being less expert in the use of these than were the Hurons and the
Iroquois, were placed at a great disadvantage. Before the conflict the
heathen Hurons, in spite of the remonstrance of the Christian Iroquois,
"made medicine" to protect them from the hostile bullets and arrows.
At the first volley the chief medicine man and four or five others of
the Hurons were killed, while the Iroquois, who had prayed assiduously
during the whole expedition and had placed all their reliance in the
Master of Life, escaped unscathed.
After the battle the victors released a wounded Fox warrior and
sent him with six of the women to carry the pleasant message to the
remaining villages that their chief village had just been eaten up by
the Hurons and the Iroquois, who would remain there for two days; the
Foxes were welcome to follow them, but as soon as they should see them
they would "break the heads" of their women and children and make a
rampart of their dead bodies, and would endeavor to complete the work
by piling the remainder of the nation on top of them. Strangely enough
it does not appear that this invitation was accepted.
As usual the Fox version of this action was never told. We may well
believe that another serious defeat was dealt them, for the war
party returned to Detroit with one hundred captives and reported
having killed some fifty on the way. Further than this we cannot
safely go. The tribe was not exterminated, however much its power
was broken. After the decisive overthrow of the Foxes in 1730 the
French re-established the post of Green Bay, and hither, in 1733,
came De Villiers, the leader in that conflict. In this same year
Beauharnois, the governor, had again resolved that the Foxes must be
exterminated.[146] De Villiers rashly attempted to seize some who had
taken refuge with the Sacs and in the melee that ensued the commandant,
together with his son and a number of the French, was slain.[147] The
Sacs, retreating, were followed by the French and a drawn battle ensued.
[Footnote 146: _Wisconsin Historical Collections_, XVII, 182.]
[Footnote 147: On this affair see _ibid._, pp. xv, 188-91, 200-204.]
The consequences of this embroilment were far-reaching. The Sacs were
kinsmen of the Foxes, but hitherto they had held aloof from them
and had submitted to French control. Together with the Foxes many
now withdrew from Wisconsin and established themselves west of the
Mississippi within the boundaries of the modern state of Iowa. From
this time, therefore, dates the confederation of the two tribes. This
migration did not end the struggle, however. The French felt that
the affair at Green Bay must be avenged if they would retain their
influence over the tribes of the Northwest. It was recognized that De
Villiers' foolhardiness, rather than misconduct on the part of the
Sacs, had occasioned his death, and it was therefore determined to
pardon them on condition that they abandon the Foxes and return to
their French allegiance. If they refused this reparation they were to
be destroyed.
In August, 1734, sixty Frenchmen under the command of the Sieur De
Noyelles set out from Montreal for a winter expedition against the
distant tribes.[148] The party was to go to Detroit, and from thence
either by way of Mackinac or "in a strait line overland," according
to circumstances. In addition to his sixty Frenchmen De Noyelles was
accompanied by bands of Iroquois from the Lake of the Two Mountains
and Hurons from Detroit, and in case he decided to follow the overland
route from Detroit he was to arrange a rendezvous with Celeron who was
to lead a mixed force of French and Indians from Mackinac.
[Footnote 148: For the documents pertaining to this expedition see
_Wisconsin Historical Collections_, XVII, 206 ff.]
The ultimate failure of the expedition was decreed even before
it started. The chief reliance for the punishment of the Sacs and
Foxes was placed in the friendly Indians, who largely outnumbered
the French. To provide even the small number of the latter which had
been decided upon necessitated stripping Canada of one-tenth of her
armed defenders.[149] The policy which had been determined upon with
respect to the Sacs has already been indicated. In accordance with it
De Noyelles was ordered to grant peace to them on condition that they
give up the Foxes; otherwise he was to destroy both nations and to let
his red allies "eat them up."[150] The expectation of enjoying this
pleasure was the sole inducement for the Huron and Iroquois contingents
to engage in the enterprise; yet they were deceived by De Noyelles
as to the nature of his orders. When the Hurons, in council, stated
that they would not march unless he had orders to destroy the Sacs
as well as the Foxes, he replied, without further explanation, that
he had orders "to Eat up both nations."[151] When this deception was
discovered, the Hurons and Iroquois declined to assist De Noyelles
further, and this, as will be seen, caused not only the failure of the
expedition, but came near resulting in the complete destruction of the
Frenchmen engaged in it.
[Footnote 149: _Ibid._, 208, footnote.]
[Footnote 150: _Ibid._, 209-10.]
[Footnote 151: _Ibid._, 256-57.]
When De Noyelles reached Detroit it was decided to continue overland.
This involved passing around the southern end of Lake Michigan and
through the tribe of the Ouiatanons, located on the upper Wabash.[152]
Here it was learned that six cabins of the Sacs had established
themselves on the St. Joseph River, having taken refuge here, in a
region where the French influence was strongest, in token of their
desire for peace. De Noyelles' Huron and Iroquois allies, however,
having come out in search of Sac and Fox scalps, immediately declared
their intention of going to "eat up" these six cabins. De Noyelles
protested against this, explaining to them, apparently for the first
time, his instructions to spare the Sacs who made their submission to
the French. In spite of all he could do the Hurons persisted in their
design, and departed in a body to execute it. The Iroquois stayed with
De Noyelles, but their disaffection, which in the end was to bring the
expedition to naught, dates from this incident.
[Footnote 152: The French established a fort near the site of the
modern city of Lafayette, Indiana, about the year 1720. For its
location and history see Oscar J. Craig, "Ouiatanon," in _Indiana
Historical Society Publications_, Vol. II, No. 8.]
The documents left us do not permit a detailed statement concerning the
route followed from the country of the Ouiatanons to the Mississippi.
De Noyelles had planned to go by way of the Illinois, but this was
given up because of the long détour it would necessitate. From the
Ouiatanons he proceeded to the Kickapoo tribe, on leaving which five
Sacs en route to the St. Joseph River were captured. Under threat of
torture these were forced to guide the party to the Fox village. It
is clear that the expedition rounded Lake Michigan and traveled in a
general northwesterly direction. It is possible and even probable that
it passed by the site of Chicago, as did the Huron-Iroquois party of
1731; but since the party was traveling overland on snow-shoes, and
was thus not bound to follow the river courses, the route taken by it
cannot be definitely known.
From the prisoners it was learned that the Foxes had left their posts
on the Pomme de Cigne River--the modern Wapsipinicon--where they had
established themselves on retiring from Wisconsin after the death
of the two De Villiers, in 1733, and had withdrawn to the river Des
Moines. On crossing the Mississippi, the supply of provisions having
become low, the party was forced to content itself with one "very
inferior" meal each day. On March 12 the Fox fort was reached; it was
deserted, but the intense cold compelled a halt of two days, during
which the party was entirely without food. Meanwhile reconnoitering
parties had been sent out, and these now returned to report that they
had seen smoke. The little army moved forward by night, crossing
several rivers with the water up to the men's waists. A halt was made
behind a hill and the men, wrapped in their robes, tired, wet through,
and hungry, awaited the dawn. They then advanced again; the Indians,
believing the goal was at hand, and that the hostile village numbered
only four cabins, eager to have the honor of arriving first, proceeded
at a run for four or five leagues, the Frenchmen following as best they
could. The race ended on the bank of a wide and rapid river, full of
floating ice. On the opposite bank stood the village they had come so
far to seek; but in place of four or five cabins it numbered fifty-five.
The river was the Des Moines, the largest western tributary of the
Mississippi above the Missouri; and the point where the village stood
was sixty leagues from its mouth, in the vicinity, probably, of the
modern capital of Iowa. Nontagarouche, the Iroquois war chief, proposed
to De Noyelles that the whole party should swim across. This the latter
declared to be impossible, on account of the cold. He further pointed
out that they had only sixty men at hand, the others having scattered
in search of the village, the tracks of whose occupants they had been
following; and that, even if it were possible, the enemy would kill
them as fast as they landed. He proposed, therefore, to reassemble
the party and, as they were still undiscovered, to go higher up the
river and construct rafts on which to cross over. They would then be
in a position to attack the enemy with arms in their hands, and with
some prospect of success. Nontagarouche replied that De Noyelles "was
no man." At this the brave Frenchman's anger blazed forth. "Dog," he
cried, "if thou art so brave, swim over and let us see what Thou wilt
do."
The chief did not immediately avail himself of this invitation, but
his insubordination destroyed the last hope of a successful issue of
the campaign. The details of the action that followed are not entirely
clear, though its main features may be followed with assurance. The
Iroquois, with some of the French, left the commander, who proceeded
along the river about a league. Meanwhile others of the army, probably
some of those who had spread out in search of the hostile village, had
crossed the river on a jam of driftwood and logs, and joined battle
with the enemy. The advance party, consisting of seven Frenchmen and
twenty-three Indians, thus found itself confronted by two hundred and
fifty Sacs and Foxes. Onorakinguiah, an Iroquois chief from the Sault
St. Louis, cried out: "My French and Indian brothers, we are dead
men, but we must sell our lives very dearly and not let ourselves be
captured." They fought so fiercely that the foe was at first driven
back. On perceiving the small number of their opponents, however, they
pressed forward with the design of surrounding them, seeing which the
French and Iroquois in turn retreated, fighting as best they might. One
of them ran to report the situation to De Noyelles, who had crossed the
river and returned to the village which he found had been deserted.
On receiving the report of the plight of the advance guard he sent
forward all of the men who were with him, with word that he would Join
them with the main body as soon as it should arrive. A half-hour later
he moved forward with such as had joined him in the meantime, and the
combat was continued for several hours.
Toward nightfall the Foxes attempted to scalp the wounded on the other
side. This led De Noyelles to order his force to fall back in search
of a suitable spot to fortify. A detachment of fifty men was made
to continue the fighting and cover the work of the remainder while
constructing the fort. Meanwhile the contingent of Kickapoos observed
the contest from a near-by eminence, debating, as De Noyelles feared,
whether they should join forces with the enemy.
The next day through the instrumentality of the disaffected Iroquois a
council was held with the Sacs. They informed De Noyelles that but for
the fact that the French had attacked them, and for the small number
of Frenchmen, they would have surrendered; but that as the French were
inferior in number to the Iroquois they feared the latter, when they
were at a distance from the Foxes, would "put them in the Kettle."
According to his own story, De Noyelles adopted in reply the tone of a
conqueror. The Sacs were told they might come forth in perfect safety,
and were promised protection from the Iroquois. In truth, De Noyelles
had so little control over his allies that he could not protect his own
soldiers from being beaten by them before his face. This fear removed,
however, the Sacs discovered other obstacles. The weather was too cold
for their women and children to travel; if the Sacs really had any
desire to join the French the project was effectually prevented by the
Foxes. They informed their allies that in case they deserted to the
French they would immediately "eat" their women and children.
For four days longer the French faced their foe. During this time they
were sorely beset by hunger, their menu consisting of twelve dogs and a
horse; this supply being exhausted, they were reduced to eating their
moccasins. The Iroquois now proposed to abandon them, and De Noyelles
was forced to give up the enterprise. He covered his failure as well as
possible by sending a "collar"[153] to the Sacs offering to grant them
their lives on condition that they desert the Foxes and return to their
old homes at Green Bay. This the Sacs promised to do. The French then
retired and made their way to Fort Chartres.[154]
[Footnote 153: A belt to accompany a formal communication of a public
character.]
[Footnote 154: For the narrative of this expedition I have drawn
chiefly upon the report of De Noyelles, printed in _Wisconsin
Historical Collections_, XVII, 221-30. It differs from the report of
Hocquart, the intendant, in some respects, but aside from the fact that
De Noyelles was the leader of the expedition while Hocquart remained
in Canada, the latter had an interest in misrepresenting the facts, in
order to minimize as much as possible the failure which had occurred.]
The expedition had extended over seven months of time during which the
party had traversed hundreds of miles of wilderness in the dead of
winter, exposed to the inclemency of the elements, and much of the time
in immediate peril of starvation. At the end, confronted by two hundred
and fifty Sacs and Foxes, and with disaffection rife among his Indian
allies, De Noyelles had been compelled to give up and retreat. The only
immediate result was the infliction of a slight loss upon the enemy in
the battle, and the promise of the Sacs to abandon the Foxes and return
to Green Bay. Both the governor and the intendant joined in approval
of the conduct of De Noyelles, the intendant expressing his surprise
that Frenchmen should be able to endure the hardships which his party
had surmounted.[155] The governor declared that the savages admitted
the courage of the French to be equal to every obstacle, and that they
would seek the enemy "at the end of the world."[156]
[Footnote 155: _Wisconsin Historical Collections_, XVII, 232.]
[Footnote 156: _Ibid._, 219.]
With the failure of De Noyelles' expedition the French felt constrained
to resort to a policy of conciliation. Grave fears were entertained
for a time lest the failure should have a disastrous effect upon their
authority throughout the Northwest generally. If the dispatches of the
governor and the intendant of Canada are to be credited, however, no
such result manifested itself. But scattered here and there throughout
the dispatches of this period are intimations that all was not going
well with the French, and the truth seems to be that the long contest
with the Foxes, with its attendant consequences, had greatly weakened
their hold upon the northwestern tribes. It is plain from their own
dispatches that the French did not dare to attempt the extermination of
the Sacs; nor, even after all the disasters which they had suffered,
to prosecute further the policy of exterminating the Foxes. The latter
sued for peace, but at the same time succeeded in entering into a
new alliance with the Sioux who promised them an asylum in case of
need.[157] Beauharnois, the governor, sagely concluding that "there Was
danger in driving the Reynards to despair," offered to pardon them on
condition that they disperse among the other tribes and that no mention
ever be made of the name of the Reynards, "who had so often Disturbed
the earth."[158]
[Footnote 157: _Wisconsin Historical Collections_, XVII, 258-59.]
[Footnote 158: _Ibid._, 258, 275-76.]
The French found it impossible, however, to carry out even the new
policy of mildness toward the obnoxious tribe. Their efforts to compel
the Sacs to return to their old home near Green Bay were unsuccessful.
Various excuses were given: the land had lost its fertility on account
of its being stained with the blood of the French and of themselves.
Probably the real reason, however, was the one given by some spokesmen
of the Sacs and Foxes who had settled on Rock River, at a conference
held in the spring of 1739. They stated that they had determined to
return to "LaBaye" as Onontio had desired them, but they had been told
by many French and savages that the French desired their return only in
order that they might the more easily slaughter them, and that an army
of French and their allies was already prepared for this purpose.[159]
[Footnote 159: _Ibid._, 320.]
Whatever truth there may have been in this at the time, the Foxes
could hardly be blamed, in view of what had gone before, for their
suspicions. Their alliance with the Sioux was continued and the tribes
in common made war upon the Chippewas and the Illinois, both allies of
the French.[160] The Foxes took the further precaution of entering into
an understanding with the Iroquois, similar to that already entered
into with the Sioux, which secured them an asylum in time of need.[161]
They were thus prepared, in case of a new French attack, to retreat in
either direction to safety.
[Footnote 160: Hebberd, _Wisconsin Under the Dominion of France_, 147.]
[Footnote 161: _Wisconsin Historical Collections_, XVII, 339.]
That these precautions, and the suspicions of French treachery
toward them, were not without reason, is shown by the dispatches of
Beauharnois. In a speech to the representatives of the Sacs and Foxes
at Montreal in July, 1743, the Governor assured them he had no hostile
disposition toward them, and urged them not to listen to the "evil
words" that came to them from the St. Joseph River.[162] He further
directed that the bands located at Chicago, Milwaukee, and on Rock
River should join those who had returned to their old home near Green
Bay.[163] Yet he had secretly planned an expedition for the year 1742
to destroy them, and the project had been approved by his advisers on
the ground that for several years the French Court had had "nothing so
much at heart" as the destruction of the Foxes.[164]
[Footnote 162: This refers to the French who came from the St. Joseph
to carry on a trade, apparently illicit, with the Foxes at Chicago and
Milwaukee.]
[Footnote 163: _Wisconsin Historical Collections_, XVII, 404-5.]
[Footnote 164: _Ibid._, 338-39.]
That the French did not dare to execute this program is sufficiently
evident. Their power in the Northwest was tottering, and in 1743
Beauharnois confessed that he was powerless to hinder the union of the
Sioux with the Foxes.[165] The tribe whose destruction had so often
been decreed and so many times attempted could at last defy the French
with impunity. A few years later the disaffection among the Indians for
the French culminated in a widespread revolt.[166] Even the Illinois,
with whom allegiance to the French had become proverbial, for a time
inclined to join it. The danger was surmounted for the time being
but the struggle of the French to maintain themselves was shortly
transferred to a far wider field. In the upper Ohio Valley they joined
in deadly combat with the English. The immediate stake was the control
of the Indian trade of the Mississippi Valley, and so, appropriately
enough, the contest was inaugurated by a descent on Pickawillany, the
center of influence of the English traders in the Northwest, by a band
of French Indians led by the young Wisconsin half-breed fur trader,
Charles de Langlade.[167] The larger stake was the commercial and
political supremacy of three continents and all the seas. The struggle
was accordingly waged on a world-wide scale. When it ended the dominion
of France in North America had passed forever. We shall have occasion
still to deal with the French, whose influence long persisted in the
Northwest, but henceforth the shaping of the destiny of Chicago and the
tributary region rested with the Anglo-Saxon.
[Footnote 165: _Ibid._, 435-38.]
[Footnote 166: _Wisconsin Historical Collections_, XVII, 456-69,
478-93.]
[Footnote 167: Turner, _Indian Trade in Wisconsin_, 40-41.]