Houston County, Minnesota - Chapter 8: Events Which Led to Butlding Fort Beauharnois on Lake Pepin, 1882

Chapter 8: Events Which Led to Butlding Fort Beauharnois on Lake Pepin

Re- Establishment of Mackinaw. - Sieur de Louvigny at Mackinaw. - Da Lignery aft Mackinaw. - Louvigny Attacks the Foxes. - Du Luth's Pott Rwoccupied. - Saint Pierre at La Pointe on Lake Superior - Preparation* for a Jesuit Mission among the Sioux. - La Perriere Bouchers Expedition to Lake Pepin. - De Gonor and Outgoes, Jesuit Missionaries. - Visit to Foxes and Winnebagoes. - Wisconsin River Described - Fort Beaaharnois Built. - Fireworks Displayed. - High Water at Lake Pepin. - De Gonor Visit* Mackinaw. - BoucherviUe, Mont* brun and Guiguas Captured by Indians. - Montbrun's Escape. - Boucberrille's -presents to Indians. - Exaggerated Account of Father Guiguas' Capture. - Dispatches Concerning Fort Beauharnoia. - Sieur de la Jemeraye. - Saint Pierre at Fort Beauharnois. - Trouble between Sioux and Foxes - Sioux Visit <fcuebec. - De Lusignan Visits the Sioux Country. - Saint Pierre Noticed in the Travels of Jonathan Carver and Lieutenant Pike.

After the Fox Indians drove away Le Sueur's men, in 1702, from the Makahto, or Blue Earth river, the merchants of Montreal and Quebec did not encourage trade with the tribes beyond Mackinaw.

D'Aigreult, a French officer, sent to inspect that post, in the summer of 1708, reported that he arrived there, on the 19th of August, and found there but fourteen or fifteen Frenchmen. He also wrote: " Since there are now only a few wanderers at Michilimackinack, the greater part of the furs of the savages of the north goes to the English trading posts on Hudson's Bay. The Outawas are unable to make this trade by themselves, because the northern savages are timid, and will not come near them, as they have often been plundered. It is, therefore, necessary that the French be allowed to seek these northern tribes at the mouth of their own river, which empties into Lake Superior."

Louis de la Porte, the Sieur De Louvigny, in 1690, accompanied by Nicholas Perrot, with a detachment of one hundred and seventy Canadians and Indians, came to Mackinaw, and until 1694 was in command, when he was recalled.

In 1712, Father Joseph J. Marest the Jesuit missionary wrote, " If this country ever needs M. Louvigny it is now ; the savages say it is absolutely necessary that he should come for the safety of the country, to unite the tribes and to defend those whom the war has caused to return to MicWlimacinac. ******

I do not know what course the Pottawatomies will take, nor even what course they will pursue who are here, if M. Louvigny does not come, especially if the Foxes were to attack them or us."

The next July, M. Lignery urged upon the authorities the establishment of a garrison of trained soldiers at Mackinaw, and the Intendant of Canada wrote to the King of France :

" MicMlimackinac might be re-established, without expense to his Majesty, either by surrendering the trade of the post to such individuals as will obligate themselves to pay all the expenses of twenty-two soldiers and two officers; to furnish munitions of war for the defense of the fort, and to make presents to the savages.

" Or the expenses of the post might be paid by the sale of permits, if the King should not think proper to grant an exclusive commerce. It is absolutely necessary to know the wishes of the King concerning these two propositions; and as M. Lignery is at Michilimackinac, it will not be any greater injury to the colony to defer the re-estabment of this post, than it has been for eight or ten years past."

The war with England ensued, and in April, 1713, the treaty of Utrecht was ratified. France had now more leisure to attend to the Indian tribes of the West.

Early in 1714, Mackinaw was re-occupied, and on the fourteenth of March, 1716, an expedition under Lieutenant Louvigny, left Quebec. His arrival at Mackinaw, where he had been long expected, gave confidence to the voyageurs, and friendly Indians, and with a force of eight hundred men, he proceeded against the Foxes in Wisconsin. He brought with him two pieces of cannon and a grenade mortar, and besieged the fort of the Foxes, which he stated contained five hundred warriors, and three thousand men, a declaration which can scarcely be credited. After

Desire Fob A N0B1Hebn Bouts 10 The Pacific

The paddles of the birch bark canoes and the gay songs of the voyageurs now began to be heard once more on the waters of Lake Superior and its tributaries. In 1717, the post erected by Du Luth, on Lake Superior near the northern boundary of Minnesota, was re-occupied by Lt. Robe rtel de la Noue.

In view of the troubles among the tribes of the northwest, in the month of September, 1718, Captain St. Pierre, who had great influence with the Indians of Wisconsin and Minnesota, was sent with Ensign Linctot and some soldiers to re-occupy La Pointe on Lake Superior, now Bayfield, in the northwestern part of Wisconsin. The chiefs of the band there, and at Keweenaw, had threatened war against the Foxes, who had killed some of their number.

When the Jesuit Charlevoix returned to France after an examination of the resources of Canada and Louisiana, he urged that an attempt should be made to reach the Pacific Ocean by an inland route, and suggested that an expedition should proceed from the mouth of the Missouri and follow that stream, or that a post should be established among the Sioux which should be the point of departure. The latter was accepted, and in 1722 an allowance was made by the French Government, of twelve hundred livres, for two Jesuit missionaries to accompany those who should establish the new post D'Avagour, Superintendent of Missions, in May, 1723, requested the authorities to grant a separate canoe for the conveyance of the goods of the proposed mission, and as it was necessary to send a commandant to persuade the Indians to receive the missionaries, he recommended Sieur Pachot, an oflicer of experience.

A dispatch from Canada to the French government, dated October 14, 1723, announced that Father de la Chasse, Superior of the Jesuits, expected that, the next spring, Father Guymoneau, and another missionary from Paris, would go to the Sioux, but that they had been hindered by the Sioux a few months before killing seven Frenchmen, on their way to Louisiana. The aged Jesuit, Joseph J. Marest, who had been on Lake Pepin in 1689 with Perrot, and was now in Montreal, said that it was the wandering Sioux who

On the seventh of June, 1726, peace was concluded by De Lignery with the Sauks, Foxes, and Winnebagoes at Green Bay; and Linctot, who had succeeded Saint Pierre in command at La Pointe, was ordered, by presents and the promise of a missionary, to endeavor to detach the Dahkotahs from their alliance with the Foxes. At this time Linctot made arrangements for peace between the Ojibways and Dahkotas, and sent two Frenchmen to dwell in the villages of the latter, with a promise that, if they ceased to fight the Ojibways, they should have regular trade, and a " black robe" reside in their country.

Traders and missionaries now began to prepare for visiting the Sioux, and in the spring of 1727 the Governor of Canada wrote that the fathers, appointed for the Sioux mission, desired a case of mathematical instruments, a universal astronomic dial, a spirit level, chain and stakes, and a telescope of six or seven feet tube.

On the sixteenth of June, 1727, the expedition for the Sioux country left Montreal in charge of the Sieur de la Perriere who was son of the distinguished and respected Canadian, Pierre Boucher, the Governor of Three Rivers.

La Perriere had served in Newfoundland and been associated with Hertel de Rouville in raids into New England, and gained an unenviable notoriety as the leader of the savages, while Rouville led the French in attacks upon towns like Haverhill, Massachusetts, where the Indians exultingly killed the Puritan pastor, scalped his loving wife, and dashed out his infants brains against a rock. He was accompanied by his brother and other relatives. Two Jesuit fathers, De Gonor and Pierre Michel Guignas^ were also of the party.

In Shea's " Early French Voyages" there was printed, for the first time, a letter from Father Guignas, from the Brevoort manuscripts, written on May 29, 1728, at Fort Beauharnois, on Lake Pepin, which contains facts of much interest

He writes: " The Scioux convoy left the end of Montreal Island on the 16th of the month of June last year, at 11 a. m., and reached Michili- mackinac the 22d of the month of July. This post is two hundred and fifty-one leagues from Montreal, almost due west, at 45 degrees 46 minutes north latitude.

" We spent the rest of the month at this post, in the hope of receiving from day to day some news from Montreal, and in the design of strengthening ourselves against the alleged extreme difficulties of getting a free passage through the Foxes. At last, seeing nothing, we set out on our march, the first of the month of August, and. after seventy-three leagues quite pleasant sail along the northerly side of Lake Michigan, running to the southeast, we reached the Bay [Green] on the 8th of the same month, at 5:30 p. m. This post is at 44 degrees 43 minutes north latitude.

" We stopped there two days, and on the 11th in the morning, we embarked, in a very great impatience to reach the Foxes. On the third day after our departure from the bay, quite late in the afternoon, in fact somewhat in the night, the chiefs of the Puans [Winnebagoes] came out three leagues from their village to meet the French, with their peace calumets and some bear meat as a refreshment, and the next day we were received by that small nation, amid several discharges of a few guns, and with great demonstrations.

44 They asked us with so good a grace to do them the honor to stay some time with them that we granted them the rest of the day from noon, and the following day. There may be in all the village, sixty to eighty men, but all the men and women of very tall stature, and well made. They are on the bank of a very pretty little lake, in a most agreeable spot for its situation and the goodness of the soil, nineteen leagues from the bay and eight leagues from the Foxes.

" Early the next morning, the 15th of the month of August, the convoy preferred to continue its route, with quite pleasant weather, but a storm coming on in the afternoon, we arrived quite wet, still in the rain, at the cabins of the Foxes, a nation so much dreaded, and really so little to be dreaded. From all that we could see, it is composed of two hundred men at most, but there is a perfect hive of children, especially boys from ten to fourteen years old, well formed.

*- They are cabined on a little eminence on the bank of a small river that bears their name, extremely tortuous or winding, so that you are constantly boxing the compass. Yet it is apparently quite wide, with a chain of hills on both sides, but there is only one miserable little channel amid this extent of apparent bed, which is a kind of marsh full of rushes and wild rice of almost impenetrable thickness. They have nothing but mere bark cabins, without any kind of palisade or other fortification. As soon as the French canoes touched their shore they ran down with their peace calumets, lighted in spite of the rain, and all smoked.

" We stayed among them the rest of this day, and all the next, to know what were their designs and ideas as to the French post among the Sioux. The Sieur Beaume, interpreter of Indian languages at the Bay, acted efficiently there, and with devotion to the King's service. Even if my testimony, Sir, should be deemed not impartial, I must have the honor to tell you that Rev. Father Chardon, an old missionary, was of very great assistance there, and the presence of three missionaries reassured these cut-throats and assassins of the French more than all the speeches of the best orators could have done.

44 A general council was convened in one of the cabins, they were addressed in decided friendly terms, and they replied in the same way. A small present was made to them. On their side they gave some quite handsome dishes, lined with dry meat.

On the following Sunday, 17th of the month of August, very early in the morning, Father Chardon set out, with Sieur Beaume, to return to the Bay, and the Sioux expedition, greatly rejoiced to have so easily got over this difficulty, which had everywhere been represented as so insurmountable, got under way to endeavor to reach its journey's end.

44 Never was navigation more tedious than what we subsequently made from uncertainty as to our course. No one knew it, and we got astray every moment on water and on land for want of a guide and pilots. We kept on, as it were feeling our way for eight days, for it was only on the ninth, about three o'clock p. m., that we arrived, by accident, believing ourselves still far off, at the portage of the Ouisconsin, which is forty-five leagues from the Foxes, counting all the twists and turns of this abominable river.

Situation And Descbiption Of Fort Be A Uharnois

" The Ouisconsin is quite a handsome river, but far below what we had been told, apparently, as those who gave the description of it in Canada saw it only in the high waters of spring. It is a shallow river on a bed of quicksand, which forms bars almost everywhere, and these often change place. Its shores are either steep, bare mountains or low points with sandy base. Its course is from northeast to southwest. From the portage to its mouth in the Mississippi, I estimated thirty-eight leagues. The portage is at 43 deg. 24 min. north latitude.

" The Mississippi from the mouth of the Ouisconsin ascending, goes northwest. This beautiful river extends between two chains of high, bare and very sterile mountains, constantly a league, three-quarters of a league, or where it is narrowest, half a league apart. Its centre is occupied by a chain of well wooded islands, so that regarding from the heights above, you would think you saw an endless valley watered on the right and left by two large rivers ; sometimes, too, you could discern no river. These islands are overflowed every year, and would be adapted to raising rice. Fifty-eight leagues from the mouth of the Ouisconsin, according to my calculation, ascending the Mississippi, is Lake Pepin, which is nothing else but the river itself, destitute of islands at that point, where it may be half a league wide. This river, in what I traversed of it, is shallow, and has shoals in several places, because its bed is moving sands, like that of the Ouisconsin.

" On the 17th of September, 1727, at noon, we reached this lake, which had been chosen as the bourne of our voyage. We planted ourselves on the shore about the middle of the north side, on a low point, where the soil is excellent. The wood is very dense there, but is already thinned in consequence of the rigor and length of the winter, which has been severe for the climate, for we are here on the parallel of 43 deg. 41 min. It is true that the difference of the winter is great compared to that of Quebec and Montreal, for all that some poor judges say.

"From the day after our landing we put our axes to the wood: on the fourth day following the fort was entirely finished. It is a square plat of one hundred feet, surrounded by pickets twelve feet long, with two good bastions. For so small a space there are large buildings quite distinct and not huddled together, each thirty, thirty-eight, and twenty-five feet long by sixteen feet wide.

" All would go well there if the spot were not inundated, but this year [1728], on the 15th of the month of April, we were obliged to camp out, and the water ascended to the height of two feet and eight inches in the houses, and it is idle to say that it was the quantity of snow that fell this year. The snow in the vicinity had melted long before, and there was only a foot and a half from the 8th of February to the 15th of March; you could not use snow-shoes.

" I have great reason to think that this spot is inundated more or less every year; I have always thonght so, but they were not obliged to believe me, as old people who said that they had lived in this region fifteen or twenty years declared that it was never overflowed. We could not enter our much-devastated houses until the 30th of April, and the disorder is even now scarcely repaired.

" Before the end of October [1727] all the houses were finished and furnished, and each one found himself tranquilly lodged at home. They then thought only of going out to explore the hills and rivers and to see those herds of all kinds of deer of which they tell such stories in Canada. They must have retired, or diminished greatly, since the time the old voyageurs left the country; they are no longer in such great numbers, and are killed with difficulty .

"After beating the field, for some time, all reassembled at the fort, and thought of enjoying a little the fruit of their labors. On the 4th of November we did not forget it was the General's birthday. Mass was said for him [Beauharnois, Governor-General of Canada] in the morning, and they were well disposed to celebrate the day in the evening, but the tardiness of the pyrotechnists and the inconstancy of the weather caused them to postpone the celebration to the 14th of the same month, when they set off some very fine rockets and made the air ring with an hundred shouts of Vive le Boy! and Vive Charles de Beauharnois! It was on this occasion that the wine of the Sioux was broached; it was par ex-

What contributed much to the amusement, was the terror of some cabins of Indians, who were at the time around the fort. When these poor people saw the fireworks in the air, and the stars fall from heaven, the women and children began to take flight, and the most courageous of the men to cry mercy, and implore us very earnestly to stop the surprising play of that wonderful medicine.

" As soon as we arrived among them, they assembled, in a few days, around the French fort to the number of ninety-five cabins, which might make in all one hundred and fifty men; for there are at most two men in their portable cabins of dressed skins, and in many there is only one. This is all we have seen except a band of about sixty men, who came on the 26th of the month of February, who were of those nations called Sioux of the Prairies.

u At the end of November, the Indians set out for their winter quarters. They do not, indeed, go far, and we saw some of them all through the winter; but from the second of the month of April last, when some cabins repassed here to go in search of them, [he] sought them in vain, during a week, for more than sixty leagues of the Mississippi. He [La PerriereV] arrived yesterday without any tidings of them.

" Although I said above, that the Sioux were alarmed at the rockets, which they took for new phenomena, it must not be supposed from that they were less intelligent than other Indians we know. They seem to me more so ; at least they are much gayer and open, apparently, and far more dextrous thieves, great dancers, and great medicine men. The men are almost all large and well made, but the women are very ugly and disgusting, which does not, however, check debauchery among them, and is perhaps an effect of it."

In the summer of 1728 the Jesuit De Gonor left the fort on Lake Pepin, and, by way of Mackinaw, returned to Canada. The Foxes had now become very troublesome, and De Lignery and Beaujeu marched against their stronghold ; to find they had retreated to the Mississippi River.

eleven in all, left Fort Pepin to go to Canada, by way of the Illinois River. They were captured by the Mascoutens and Kickapoos, and detained at the river " Au Bceuf," which stream was probably the one mentioned by Le Sueur as twentytwo leagues above the Illinois River, although the same name was given by Hennepin to the Chippewa River, just below Lake Pepin. They were held as prisoners, with the view of delivering them to the Foxes. The" night before the delivery the Sieur Montbrun and his brother and another Frenchman" escaped. Montbrun, leaving his sick brother in the Illinois country, journeyed to Canada and informed the authorities.

Boucherville and Guignas remained prisoners for several months, and the former did not reach Detroit until June, 1729, The account of expenditures made during his captivity is interesting as showing the value of merchandize at that time. It reads as follows:

" Memorandum of the goods that Monsieur de Boucherville was obliged to furnish in the service of the King, from the time of his detention among the Kickapoos, on the 12th of October, 1728, until his return to Detroit, in the year 1729, in the month of June. On arriving at the Kickapoo village, he made a present to the young men to secure their opposition to some evil minded old warriors -

The Benards having betrayed and killed their brothers, the Kickapoos, I seized the favorable opportunity, and to encourage the latter to avenge themselves, I gave -

In a letter, written by a priest, at New Orleans, on July 12, 1730, is the following exaggerated account of the capture of Father Guignas: " We always felt a distrust of the Fox Indians, although they did not longer dare to undertake anything, since Father Guignas has detached from their alliance the tribes of the Kikapous and Maskoutins. You know, my Reverend Father, that, being in

Canada, he had the courage to penetrate even to the Sioux near the sources of the Mississippi, at the distance of eight hundred leagues from New Orleans and five hundred from Quebec. Obliged to abandon this important mission by the unfortunate result of the enterprise against the Foxes, he descended the river to repair to the Illinois. On the 16th of October in the year 1728 he was arrested when half way by the Kickapous and Maskoutins. For four months he was a captive among the Indians, where he had much to suffer and everything to fear. The time at last came when he was to be burned alive, when he was adopted by an old man whose family saved his life and procured his liberty.

" Our missionaries who are among the Illinois were no sooner acquainted with the situation than they procured him all the alleviation they were able. Everything which he received he employed to conciliate the Indians, and succeeded to the extent of engaging them to conduct him to the Illinois to make peace with the French and Indians of this region. Seven or eight months after this peace was concluded, the Maskoutins and Kikapous returned again to the Illinois country, and took back Father Guignas to spend the winter, from whence, in all probability, he will return to Canada."

In dispatches sent to France, in October, 1729, by the Canadian government, the following reference is made to Fort Beauharnois : 44 They agree that the fort built among the Scioux, on the border of Lake Pepin, appears to be badly situated on account of the freshets, but the Indians assure that the waters rose higher in 1728 than it ever did before. When Sieur de Laperriere located it at that place it was on the assurance of the Indians that the waters did not rise so high." In reference to the absence of Indians, is the following:

" It is very true that these Indians did leave shortly after on a hunting excursion, as they are in the habit of doing, for their own support and that of their families, who have only that means of livelihood, as they do not cultivate the soil at all. M. de Beauharnois has just been informed that their absence was occasioned only by having fallen in while hunting with a number of prairie Scioux, by whom they were invited to occompany them on a war expedition against the Manas,

44 The interests of religion, of the service, and of the colony, are involved in the maintenance of this establishment, which has been the more necessary as there is no doubt but the Foxes, when routed, would have found an asylum among the Scioux had not the French been settled there, and the docility and submission manifested by the Foxes can not be attributed to any cause except the attention entertained by the Scioux for the French, and the offers which the former made the latter, of which the Foxes were fully cognisant.

" It is necessary to retain the Scioux in these favorable dispositions, in order to keep the Foxes in check and counteract the measures they might adopt to gain over the Scioux, who will invariably reject their propositions so long as the French remain in the country, and their trading post shall continue there. But, despite all these advantages and the importance of preserving that establishment, M. de Beauharnois cannot take any steps until he has news of the French who asked his permission this summer to go up there with a canoe load of goods, and until assured that those who wintered there have not dismantled the fort, and that the Scioux continue in the same sentiments. Besides, it does not seem very easy, in the present conjuncture, to maintain that post unless there is a solid peace with the Foxes; on the other hand, the greatest portion of the traders, who applied in 1727 for the establishment of that post, have withdrawn, and will not send thither any more, as the rupture with the Foxes, through whose country it is necessary to pass in order to reach the Scioux in canoe, has led them to abandon the idea. But the one and the other case might be remedied. The Foxes will, in all probability, come or send next year to sue for peace; therefore, if it be granted to them on advantageous conditions, there need be no apprehension when going to the Sioux, and another company could be formed, less numerous than the first, through whom, or some responsible merchants able to afford the outfit, a new treaty could be made, whereby these diftlculties would be soon obviated. One only trouble remains, and that is, to send a commanding and sub-officer, and some soldiers, up there, which are absolutely necessary for the maintenance of good order at that post; the missionaries would not go there without a commandant. This article, which regards the service, and the expense of which must be on his majesty's account, obliges them to apply for orders. They will, as far as lies in their power, induce the traders to meet that expense, which will possibly amount to 1000 livres or 1500 livres a year for the commandant, and in proportion for the officer under him; but, as in the beginning of an establishment the expenses exceed the profits, it is improbable that any company of merchants will assume the outlay, and in this case they demand orders on this point, as well as his majesty's opinion as to the necessity of preserving so useful a post, and a nation which has already afforded proofs of its fidelity and attachment.

44 These orders could be sent them by the way of He Royale, or by the first merchantmen that will sail for Quebec. The time required to receive intelligence of the occurrences in the Scioux country, will admit of their waiting for these orders before doing anything."

Sieur de la Jemeraye, a relative of Sieur de la Peniere Boucher, with a few French, during the troubles remained in the Sioux country. After peace was established with the Foxes, Legardeur Saint Pierre was in command at Fort Beauharnois, and Father Guignas again attempted to establish a Sioux mission. In a communication dated 12th of October, 1736, by the Canadian authorities is the following: 41 In regard to the Scioux, Saint Pierre, who commanded at that post, and Father Guignas, the missionary, have written to Sieur de Beauharnois on the tenth and eleventh of last April, that these Indians appeared well intentioned toward the French, and had no other fear than that of being abandoned by them. Sieur de Beauharnois annexes an extract of these letters, and although the Scioux seem very friendly, the result only can tell whether this fidelity is to be absolutely depended upon, for the unrestrained and inconsistent spirit which composes the Indian character may easily change it. They have not come over this summer as yet, but M. de la St. Pierre is to get them to do so next year, and to have an eye on their proceedings."

De Lu8Iqnan Visits The Sioux Country

XV. dated Versailles, May 10th, 1737, was in these words : " As respects the Scioux, according to what the commandant and missionary at that post have written to Sieur de Beauharnois relative to the disposition of these Indians, nothing appears to be wanting on that point.

" But their delay in coming down to Montreal since the time they have promised to do so, must render their sentiments somewhat suspected, and nothing but facts can determine whether their fidelity can be absolutely relied on. But what must still further increase the uneasiness to be entertained in their regard is the attack on the convoy of M. de Verandrie, especially if this officer has adopted the course he had informed the Marquis de Beauharnois he should take to have revenge therefor."

The particulars of the attack alluded to will be found in the next chapter. Soon after this the Foxes again became troublesome, and the post on Lake Pepin was for a time abandoned by the French. A dispatch in 1741 uses this language : " The Marquis de Beauharnois' opinion respecting the war against the Foxes, has been the more readily approved by the Baron de Longeuil, Messieurs De la Chassaigne, La Come, de Lignery, La None, and Duplessis-Fabert, whom he had assembled at his house, as it appears from all the letters that the Count has writ n for several years, that he has nothing so much at heart as the destruction of that Indian nation, which can not be prevailed on by the presents and the good treatment of the French, to live in peace, notwithstanding all its promises.

" Besides, it is notorious that the Foxes have a secret understanding with the Iroquois, to secure a retreat among the latter, in case they be obliged to abandon their villages. They have one already secured among the Sioux of the prairies, with whom they are allied ; so that, should they be advised beforehand of the design of the French to wage war against them, it would be easy for them to retire to the one or the other before their passage could be intersected or themselves attacked in their villages."

In the summer of 1743, a deputation of the Sioux came down to Quebec, to ask that trade might be resumed. Three years after this, four Sioux chiefs came to Quebec, and asked that a commandant might be sent to Fort Beauharnois ; which was not granted.

During the winter of 1745-6, De Lusignan visited the Sioux country, ordered by the government to hunt up the "coureurs des bois," and withdraw them from the country. They started to return with him, but learning that they would be arrested at Mackinaw, for violation of law, they ran away. While at the villages of the Sioux of the lakes and plains, the chiefs brought to this officer nineteen of their young men, bound with cords, who had killed three Frenchmen, at the Illinois. While he remained with them, they made peace with the Ojibways of La Pointe, with whom they had been at war for some time. , On his return, four chiefs accompanied him to Montreal, to solicit pardon for their young braves.

Beminiscences of St. Pierre's residence at Lake Pepin were long preserved. Carver, in 1 766, "observed the ruins of a French factory, where, it is said, Captain St. Pierre resided, and carried on a great trade with the Nadouessies before the reduction of Canada."

Pike, in 1805, wrote in his journal: " Just below Pt. Le Sable, the French, who had driven the Renards [Foxes] from Wisconsin, and chased them up the Mississippi, built a stockade on this lake, as a barrier against the savages. It became a noted factory for the Sioux."