Washington County, Minnesota - Chapter 8: K Vents Which Led to Building Fout Ueauiiaunois on Lake Pepin, 1881

Chapter 8: K Vents Which Led to Building Fout Ueauiiaunois on Lake Pepin

B*-E*Ubluhiiitul o t Kiiimw - Sieur Je Louvijiiy .1 li.ukuiatr - Dc Lignery *1 Mackinaw.- Louviguy Attacks the Fuses. - Uu Lutli'x Fuel Keoccu|iiol. - Sami Pierre at La Mi on lake Su|«.rior. - Frf|uialiuut for a Jesuit Mission among the Sioux. - La Fcrriere 1 toucher's E*|>c*titiun to Lake Pepin. - Do Conor anil Cuiyuas, Jesuit Missionaries - Visit to Foxes and Wiunebagoes. - Wisconsin Kiier DescriUsl.- Fort Heauharnois Built - Fireworks Displayed - Hull Water at Lake Pepin- De Conor Visits Mackiuaw - Bouchenille, Montbrun ami Uuigua* Captured by Indians.- Montbrun's Kseape - Boucherville's Presents tu Indians. - Fxaegeraled Account of Father Cuiguas' Capture. - Isis* p-ttches Concerning Fort lleauharnois. - Sieur de la Jciueraye. - Saint Fierrc at Fort Biauharnois. - Troutde between Sioux and Foxrs - Sioux Visit tjurbec. - De Lusignau Visits the Sioux Country. - Saint Pierre Noticed In the Travels of Jonathan Carver aud 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 Mack¬ inaw.

D'Aigreult, a French officer, sent to inspect that post, in the summer of 1708, reported that he arrived there, on the 19lh 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 i>osts on Hudson's Bay. The Outawas are unable to make this trade by them¬ selves, 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 Louviguy, in 1090, accompanied by Nicholas Perrot, with a de¬ tachment of one hundred and seventy Canadians and Indians, came to Mackinaw, and until 1094 was in command, when he was recalled.

In 1712, Father Joseph J. Marest the Jesuit missionary wrote, " If this country ever needs M. Louviguy it is now; the savages say it is ab¬ solutely 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 Miehiliinaeinae. ******

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

The next July, M. Lignery urged upon the au¬ thorities the establishment of a garrison of trained soldiers at Mackinaw, and the Intendant of Can¬ ada wrote to the King of France :

" Michilimackinac might be re-established, without expense to his Majesty, either by sur¬ rendering the trade of the i>ost to such individu¬ als as will obligate themselves to pay all the ex¬ penses 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 al>- solutely 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, 1710, an expedition under Lieutenant Louviguy, left Quebec. Ilis arrival at Mackinaw, where he had been long ex¬ pected, gave confidence to the voyageurs, and friendly Indians, and with a force of eight hun¬ dred 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 For A N0R1Hern Route Jo 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 boun¬ dary of Minnesota, was re-occupied by Lt. Robertel de la Noue.

In view of the troubles among the tribes of the northwest, in the month of September, 1718, Cap¬ tain 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 Points on Lake Superior, now Bay Held, 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 nu ml>er.

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 fol¬ low that stream, or that a post should be estab¬ lished among the Sioux which should be the point of departure. The latter was accepted, and in 1722 an allowance was made by the French Gov¬ ernment, of twelve hundred livres, for two Jes¬ uit missionaries to accompany those who should establish the new post. D'Avagour, Superin¬ tendent of Missions, in May, 1723, requested the authorities to grant a separate canoe for the con¬ veyance of the goods of the proposed mission, and as it was necessary to send a commandant to persuade the Indians to receive the mission¬ aries, he recommended Sieur Pachot, an officer of experience.

A dispatch from Canada to the French govern¬ ment, dated October 14, 1723, announced that Father de la Chasse, Superior of the Jesuits, ex¬ pected 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 French¬ men, 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 Mon¬ treal, said that it was the wandering Sioux who

On the seventh of June, 1720, peace was con¬ cluded 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 censed 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 astro¬ nomic 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 dis¬ tinguished and respected Canadian, Pierre Bou¬ cher, the Governor of Three Rivers.

La Perriere had served in Newfoundland and been associated with Ilertel de Rouville in raids into New England, and gained an unenviable no¬ toriety as the leader of the savages, while Rou¬ ville 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 infant's brains against a rock. lie 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 Beaulmmois, 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- mackinnc tlie 22d of the month of July. Tliis l*>st is two hundred and fifty-one leagues from Montreal, almost due west, at 45 degrees 40 min¬ utes 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 ex¬ treme 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 i\ M. This post is at 44 degrees 43 minutes north latitude.

" We stopped there two days, and on the 11th in the morning, we emlmrked, 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.

" 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 nre 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 rein, 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.

tremely tortuous or winding, so that you are con¬ stantly boxing the compass. Y et 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 ca¬ noes touched their shore they ran down with their peace calumets, lighted in spite of the rein, 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 i>ost among the Sioux. The Sieur lteaume, interpreter of Indian lan¬ guages 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 «issistance there, ami the presence of three mission¬ aries reassured these cut-throats and assassins of the French more than all the speeches of the best orators coidd have done.

" 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 lteaume, to return to the Bay, and the Sioux expedition, greatly re¬ joiced to have so easily got over this difficulty, which had everywhere been represented as so in¬ surmountable, got under way to endeavor to reach its journey's end.

" 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 Description Of Fort Beauharnois

" 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 Ouis¬ consin ascending, goes northwest. This beauti¬ ful 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 oc¬ cupied 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 arc 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 l>o half a league wide. This river, in what I traversed of it, is shallow, and has shoals in several places, l»ocause 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 ns 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 tliirty, thirty-eighty and twenty-five feet long by sixteen feet wide.

" All would go well thero if the spot were not inundated, but this year [1728], on the 16tli 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 re¬ paired.

"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 voyage ms' left the country; they arc no longer in such great numbers, and are killed with difficulty.

"After beating the field, for some time, all re¬ assembled at the fort, and thought of enjoying a little the fruit of their labors. On the 4th of No¬ vember wo did not forget it was the General's birthday. Mass was said for him [Beauhamois, Governor-General of Canada] in the morning, and they were well disposed to celebrate the day in the evening, but the tardiness of the pyro¬ technists and the inconstancy of the weather caused them to postjKme 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 I'u-c le Roy I and. Vice Charles de Beauhamois! 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 ssiw 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 earn¬ estly to stop the surprising play of that wonder¬ ful medicine.

" As soon as we arrived among them, they as¬ sembled, 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.

" 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, du¬ ring a week, for more than sixty leagues of the Mississippi. He [La PerriereV] arrived yesterday without any tidings of them.

- " Although 1 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 dis¬ gusting, which does not, however, check debauch¬ ery 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 Mack¬ inaw, 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.

On the 12th of October, Boucherville, his bro¬ ther Montbrun, a young cadet of enterprising spirit, the Jesuit Guignas, and other Frenchmen, 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 prob¬ ably the one mentioned by Le Sueur as twentytwo leagues above the Illinois River, although the same name was given by Hennepin to the Chip¬ pewa River, just below Lake Pepin. They were held as prisoners, with the view of delivering them to the Foxes. The night before the deliv¬ ery the Sieur Montbrun and his brother and an¬ other 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 J une, 1 729, The account of expen¬ ditures 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 ser¬ vice 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 -

After the Kickapoos refused to deliver them to the Renards [Foxes] they wished some favors, and I was obliged to give them the following which would allow them to weep over and cover their

Boucher Villes Presents While In Captivity

The Renanls having betrayed and killed their brothers, the Kickapoos, I seized the favorable opportunity, and to encourage the latter to avenge

In a letter, written by a priest, at New Orleans, on July 12, 1730, is the following exaggerated ac¬ count 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 al¬ liance the trilies 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 unfortunato result of the enterprise against the Foxes, he descended the river to repair to tho Illinois. On the 15th 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 liim all the alleviation they were able. Everything which he received he em¬ ployed 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 coun¬ try, 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 refer¬ ence is made to Fort Beauharnois : " They agree that the fort built among the Scioux, on the bor¬ der 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 In¬ dians that the waters did not rise so high." In reference to the absence of Indians, is the fol¬ lowing :

" 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 snpiwrt 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 M alias,

" The interests of religion, of the service, and of the colony, are involved in the maintenance of this establishment, which has been the more nec¬ essary 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 ex¬ cept 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 invaria¬ bly reject their propositions so long as the French remain in the country, and their trading post shall continue there. But, despite all these ad¬ vantages 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 tra¬ ders, 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 ad¬ vantageous conditions, there need be no appre¬ hension when going to the Sioux, and another company could be formed, less numerous than the first, through whom, or some responsible mer¬ chants able to afford the outfit, a new treaty could be made, whereby these difficulties 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 re¬ gards the sendee, and the expense of which must be on his majesty's account, obliges them to ap¬ ply 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 com¬ pany 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 lias already afforded proofs of its fidelity and at¬ tachment.

" 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 re¬ ceive 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 Perriere 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 Beauhafnois, and Father Guignas again attempted to es¬ tablish a Sioux mission. In a communication dated 12th of October, 1736, by the Canadian au¬ thorities is the following: "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 ap¬ peared well intentioned toward the French, and had no other fear than that of being abandoned by them. Sieur de Beauharnois annexes an ex¬ tract of these letters, and although the Scioux seem very friendly, the resultonly can tell whether this fidelity is to be absolutely depended ui>on, 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 proceed¬ ings."

De Lusignan 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 Hint post have written to Sieur de Beauhamois rela¬ tive to the disposition of these Indians, nothing appears to l»o 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 V erandrie, especially if this officer has adopted the course he had informed the Marquis de Beauhamois 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 Beauhamois' opinion respect¬ ing the war against the Foxes, has been the more readily approved by the Baron de Longeuil, Messieurs De la Chassaigne, La Come, de Ligliery, La None, and Duplessis - Fabert, whom he had assembled at bis house, as it appears from all the letters that the Count has writ.' "t for sev¬ eral 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, not¬ withstanding 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 tho 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 at¬ tacked 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 Beauhamois ; which was not granted.

During the winter of 1745-6, De Lusignan vis¬ ited the Sioux country, ordered by the govern¬ ment to hunt up the "coureurs des hois," 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.

Reminiscences of St. Pierre's residence at Lake Pepin were long preserved. Carver, in 1 766, "ob¬ served 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 re¬ duction of Canada."

Pike, in 1805, wrote in his journal: "Just be¬ low 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."