lieutenant, under Captain {148} John Macnamara. In the month of June 1780, news was brought from the Mississippi, that the Indian traders had deposited their furs at La Prairie des Chiens, or Dogs' Field, (where there is a town of considerable note, built after the Indian manner) under the care of Mons. Longlad, the king's interpreter;[1] and that the Americans were in great force at the Illinois, a town inhabited by different nations, at the back of the Kentuckey State, under the Spanish government, who have a fort on the opposite shore, commanded by an officer and about twelve men, to prevent illicit trade.[2]
The commanding officer at Michillimakinac[3] asked me
to accompany a party of Indians and Canadians to the
Mississippi, which I consented to with the utmost cheerfulness.
We left the post with thirty-six Southern
Indians, of the Ottigaumies and Sioux nations, and
twenty[4] Canadians, in nine large birch canoes, laden
————
- ↑ On the cause of this action of the Indian traders, alarmed at the reprisals
being made by Spanish and Americans for the unsuccessful attack on St. Louis
by the British party from Mackinac, see Wisconsin Historical Collections, vii,
p. 176, note.
For biography of Charles Langlade, first Wisconsin settler, see Tasse's "Memoir," ibid., pp. 123-185.—Ed. - ↑ This is a somewhat confused reference to George Rogers Clark's occupation of the Illinois country, and alliance with the Spaniards who controlled Louisiana. The fort here mentioned is St. Louis, for whose early history see vol. iii of this series, André Michaux's Journal, note 138. Spaniards were incensed at the British traders' methods in Upper Louisiana during this period.―Ed.
- ↑ The commandant at Mackinac was Patrick Sinclair, for whose biography see Wisconsin Historical Collections, xi, p. 141, note. For documents dealing with the Revolution in this region, see ibid., xi, pp. 97-212; and xii, pp. 49-55.—Ed.
- ↑ The Outagamies, or Fox Indians (French, Renards), were first encountered by the French on Fox River, Wisconsin. A proud and warlike nation, they refused to yield to the French yoke. The long series of wars waged by them with the French was a great source of weakness to the colony of Canada, and prepared the way for its downfall. For the documents on these wars, see
